On Monday January 25th...

I went to the store. I bought:

One of these. To which the cashier said, "Wow, that's a nice caddy."
Me: Yeah

One of these. To which the cashier said, "Can't make it in Utah without one of these!"
Me: That's true.

A bottle of these. To which the cashier said, "Mmm, peaches sound so good! I think I'll do that for my lunch break instead of the candy I usually eat."
To which I said nothing, and just wondered what was with all the commentary...

And one of these.To which (thankfully) the cashier said nothing. She bagged the items. I payed. She handed me my bag. And then, she said, "I hope the First Response is what you want it to be!"

Tears welled up in my eyes, and I said, "I don't really know what I want it to be." I left the store in tears.

I was 2 weeks late when I bought the test, but missing a month had happened to me before. Usually due to stress. And in January I had doubled my hours at work, plus taken on a lot more responsibility. And I was in the middle of moving. We had a lot going on and I was feeling a bit stressed. So I didn't think much about it. I decided on my drive home that I would take the test on February 13th. The would be the day that my next period should start, and if I missed that one, then I would start to wonder. Good plan. Didn't think about it the rest of the night. And on Tuesday January 26th I woke up at 7:00 am and had to pee really bad. I lay in bed for about 10 more minutes thinking about the test. I finally jumped up and grabbed the test and ran to the bathroom. I'd done this before because we had a little scare in month one of marriage, and it was negative. But during that test I stood and looked at the stupid little results window for 3 minutes and hated every minute of it. I knew in my mind I wasn't pregnant this time either, so I decided I'd waste my pee on the $10.00 stick for no reason, put the thing down, brush my teeth for 2 minutes and wash my face for 1 minute, and then check the results window, which I was sure would only have one pink line. I peed, put the stick down, grabbed my tooth brush, reached for the tooth paste (which was right by the test!) and I glanced at the window. I'd made it about 14 seconds. And guess what? I saw 2 pink lines.

My jaw dropped to the floor. Which made it really easy to brush my teeth. Which I did, for about 10 minutes, while staring at my shocked face in the mirror. I also checked the test every few seconds to see if line number 2 faded. It didn't fade.

I pulled myself together and ran to the living room, flipped on all the lights, and yelled at Paul. He was sleeping on the couch because we got in a fight the night before. (I'm just being real about it.) Also, this almost never happens because we have a near perfect marriage. But this night, it happened. He woke up looking really confused, and I said, "I'm pregnant."

Stay tuned for more fear, joy, and ups and downs...

three oh

It's not that bad so far. I got spoiled for my birthday big time this year.

A Cricut, an embellishment center for my craft room, a book, gift cards, flowers. And an awesome vacation that I can't mention yet because someone who reads this might be coming with us and her husband may not have told her about it yet. Needless to say I'll be gone for 10 days in April and I get to do something so cool that I've always wanted to do. Thanks Paulie!!

My in-laws were here and were a big part of the spoiling.

Side note- Over New Years we were in California and I was at Paul's Grandpa's house (Poppy) and I was helping him with a scrapbook of his wife's life. He is so great and I just love him. Anyway he asked me if I'd ever heard of a cricut and we got to talking about them and how much I wanted one. He new more about them than anyone I've ever met. Really. So he had this surprise plan for the past 2 months and he talked to Paul's parents about it and made it all happen. He knew exactly what to get and had all these packages delivered to me. From extra cartridges, to the replacement blades, all the way down to this little metal spatula to get the letters and shapes off the cutting mat. He's a good one. It was a total surprise that he and Paul's family pulled off and I loved it! I used it last night and I'm hooked.

It was such a great weekend. We went out to eat several times, went and heard my mom sing at an awesome concert. And Sunday night my whole family, grandparents and Aunt Barbara came over to our new house for dinner. Paul's parents and sister were here and helped make the dinner and Annie made me a birthday cake. It was a perfect night. I loved having everyone there all together.

Here's some pictures of the family, the cake, the games, oh and the quilt my mother in law has been working on for us. A late wedding present. It's amazing! All hand made. She's very talented.
We also got more controllers and games so we can have 4 wii-ers at a time. It was a party!

To My Amazing Husband...the celebration of love!

Paul and I had a great Valentine's day weekend. It started Friday night with a wonderful dinner at Michelangelo. Delicious. Saturday we both had to work and Paul was on call all night, so we had Chinese food delivered. I gave him a Wii, which finding a Wii was a testament of my love in and of itself. My surprise was a little ruined, but then I created a little lie and he was re-surprised. He gave me a Wii controller so we can play together, true love. And roses, and Mario Party 8 for the Wii. Then on the real Valentine's day which was Sunday I cooked dinner and we had two couple friends over for dinner and dessert. Great weekend!

And then yesterday was the day that marked Paul and I meeting 2 years ago. Our "Met-iversary" if you will. We celebrated by getting 3 for 99 cent tacos from Del Taco. I know, right?

I'm married to the most incredible man in the world, really. It's hard for me to put into words how much I love that man. He is so patient with me. He never yells. He's a great communicator. I feel how much he loves me, and it's a wonderful feeling. When I look back at the past 2 years of my life I'm amazed at how great it's been and that it just keeps getting better. He is a wonderful provider. I've dropped back to part time at work and I love it. I don't worry about money, and that's a great feeling. (not sayin' we have a lot, just sayin' we have enough) I love that I could quit my job if I wanted to, because I married such a hard working, determined man. We love doing everything together. And it doesn't matter if its something huge and amazing or something small, when we're together we laugh and have fun. No matter what. We make a great team. I absolutely cannot imagine spending my life with anyone else. He is simply the best of the best. I love him more than he'll ever know, and I can't wait for the next 80 years with my best friend and the love of my life.

Nate the Great

Friday night Paul and I went on a date with a guy I work with. His name is Nathan. You can call him Nathan or Nate, but he prefers Nate the Great. He's an amazing kid. He's the son of the owner of Wood Co. He's 31 years old, has one of the biggest hearts in the world, and an amazing sense of humor. He is also autistic and has been through a lot of tough things in his life, but it doesn't hold him back. He's totally independent. He gets around on his own using trax, he is very involved in Special Needs groups, he has 2 jobs, and he loves and cares about everyone he meets. He's a total sweetheart.

We had a super fun night. We went to Nate's favorite restaurant, Eat-a-Burger. (Eat-a-burger was closing down the next day and Nate really wanted to go there one last time.)Then we went bowling, which was so much fun. Paul won both games, and Nate and I each came in second once, so he decided that overall he and I tied for second place but that we were all good bowlers.After bowling we went back to Eat-a-Burger for shakes. That was Nates last minute plan, just in case we were still hungry after bowling.
They were letting people sign the walls because they were closing down. Nate told me exactly what to write and then we got a picture of it. He was so excited about it. We had some really good talks and I learned a lot about Nate that night. I really appreciated the time we had with him and I look forward to doing it again sometime.

January CatchUp

This has been a crazy month! It's gone by fast and kinda slow. We went to California and moved to Sugarhouse. And a lot of other little things... Here were a couple fun times in the middle of all the packing, cleaning, moving. Oh and remind me to never move in the winter again. I don't know why I keep doing that.

Kristin, who lives in Vegas came so SLC for a couple days. She brought her "friend" that she's dating exclusively, or not dating, or something, and me and Diz wanted to meet him. We all met for dinner at the gateway. It was tons of fun. Always is. These 2 girls are the best roommates I ever had. I miss those days sometimes. We're glad our men hung in there with us for a couple hours and let us talk and laugh and catch up.Sheila, a lady I work with (and love) invited us to go shooting/4 wheeling/dutch oven cooking/freezing with them a couple weeks ago. There ended up being about 8 trucks, 5 four-wheelers, 6 dogs, 3 pots of chili, 100 hot dogs, 2 firepits, 25 rednecks, 20 guns, and a satalite dish. Good times!

Not the way we typically spend our winter weekend afternoons, but really fun!

Moving Day slash Week(s)

Paul and I moved. (Not to California)...(Yet)...

We moved to Sugarhouse. We had no plans of moving. We were all happy and settled in the Avenues. But then, back in December just before Christmas my boss told me about this cute little 3 bedroom house that his mom owns. The couple living there at the time were moving and my boss was looking for new renters. They like to rent it to people they know, and if they do know the people they lower the rent. In this area, this house could easily rent for at least a $1000, but because we're "family" we get it for $750. So 50 bucks less than the Aves apartment, a yard, washer and dryer, storage shed, closer to work for both of us, a cool landlord, no lease, no deposit, and quite a bit more space. Oh and no high heels on the tile floor above us at midnight. Nothing above us or below us actually. It was easy to decide. About the lease, my boss actually said Paul can move whenever he wants, but I'll be tied in for 10 years. He's really not in to the whole California plan. He's even jokingly offered to start building wooded caskets at our store to try and entice Paul. I like that my boss likes us. His wife and son work there too and they really are like family.

Anyway, for about 2 weeks we've been taking small loads over almost everyday. They gave us January for free which has been really nice. By Friday night I felt like we were so close to being done, but there was so much little stuff laying around. What I thought we could do in about 4 car/truck loads on Saturday ended up being 12 loads and 2 DI runs. And then cleaning the old place. Needless to say, I'm beat! I questioned a couple times if it was really worth it. But I'm sitting in our new house (surrounded by boxes), and I love it! We're all moved out of the old place, FINALLY. It was spotless from top to bottom and we left the keys on the kitchen counter. It felt so good. I did have a little sad goodbye moment. It really is a great little place.

I'm writing all this to say that I've had a couple fun days in the middle of all the moving, and as soon and I find my camera cord I'll post some pictures of dinner with old roommates and shooting with rednecks. I'll also eventually get this house put together and take some pictures. I need to schedule a party or something here. I work well if I have a deadline.