serving with love

My mom was here taking care of me, my kids, and my house for 15 days after I had Makenzie. As I was sitting around a lot letting things heal, I read out of one of my church's magazines where the messages shared were ones that I needed to hear again.

Joe just finished his second year of pharmacy school. I guess I didn't have a realistic idea of how much work Pharmacy school was going to be and how little time me and my kids would have to see him. Let me tell you, pharmacy school is hard and time consuming and we hardly ever see Joe.

There are three articles that especially touched me and made me realize the changes I need to make in order to make the next two years of pharmacy school better for me and my three kids.

The first article talked about Jesus Christ's atonement for each one of us. Not only did He die for each one of us, but he wants to enliven us and enable us to do good and become better in ways that stretch us far beyond our mortal capacities.

"We also will pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept 

our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances 

according to our will."

The next talk was about gratitude. Instead of being grateful for things, we can be grateful in our circumstances, whatever they may be; we can choose to be grateful, no matter what.

These are three of my favorite talks so far. These are just clips. You can watch these talks and more at www.lds.org.

Makenzie

My original due date was May 19 but because of Joe's schedule--he had finals the week before and was starting the VALOR program the following week--May 16 was really the only day that Joe could be at the birth so that's the day I was induced. 

My mom flew in from Utah to spend the next 15 days with us. Joe and I packed up our things on May 16 and went to the hospital. I was hooked up to my Pitocin and fluids around 11:00 a.m. and I had Makenzie at 3:58 p.m. 

Being induced sucks. They are monster contractions that start hard and fast and don't let up. My doc broke my water right after I got my epidural.  There was SO much fluid that they had to get three additional towels! My epidural made it up to my knees before quitting. The anesthesiologist tried again and this time it went to my waist except for a window on my left side! After pushing more meds and rearranging myself, the epidural finally worked and I was ready to push. 

I reacted to one of the meds they gave me and my blood pressure plummeted to 70. Oxygen fixed that and 30 minutes later Miss Makenzie was born!

Makenzie was really alert. Her eyes were open and she just kind of took everything in without crying very much. Don't worry though, her apgar scores were high and she was healthy. 

Corban instantly loved Makenzie and wants to constantly kiss and touch and talk to her. Jovi could care less, but she is soft and mostly observant (she almost walked on top of Makenzie while watching a show today). 

book review: Silenced

PG-13

There isn't a lot of language, but there are graphic scenes. Over all the book was really good. I liked the characters (this is an additional book in a series that I haven't read) even though some of the back-stories were lost on me. However, the book did drag on a bit and could have been shorter. I was surprised at the ending of who the real killer was. 

baby beck #3

Joe and I packed up the family one weekend and went to The Price is Right for a special baby shower show. We had gone to our five month appointment and had the results sealed, which we revealed on stage at the show. We weren't contestants, but we did get to go on stage, meet Drew, and find out that we are having another girl! 

Joe's face makes it look like he's disappointed and I'm excited. Watch this video to find out if this picture is accurate: 

(We come on stage right after this couple around 1:17).

visiting Utah part II

In my last post, I mentioned we went to Utah for the month of March. I was 7 months pregnant and drove the entire 18 hours by myself with two kids. Crazy? Yes. Desperate for adult company. Yes. Worth it? YES!

Three miracles happened on this particular trip.

1. When we travel to see family we usually go through Las Vegas where Joe has a brother who lives there. The plan was for me and the kids to drive there, take a day to recuperate and then drive the rest of the way to Logan. Right as I am pulling into Las Vegas, my check engine light came on. Yikes. I got it checked out at Auto Zone (did you know they do FREE diagnostics?!) and it was only a little part replacement problem that my fantastic BIL, Alyn, fixed for me that night.

2. We were about two hours away from Las Vegas when my cruise control went out. Seriously?! This baby of mine is sitting so low there is an incredible amount of pressure and pain in my pelvis and back region. Having to use my foot to actually push the pedal was a little torturous. I would periodically check the cruise control to see if it would work occasionally and it never turned back on. I still had 8 hours to go! When I left Las Vegas I remembered the story of the lepers that Jesus Christ healed by telling them to wash seven times. They did, and they were healed. I thought, if seven times is a good number for them, it's a good number for me. I pushed the cruise control button seven times AND IT TURNED BACK ON!

3. My kids are busy. They love to move. And they love to pick on each other. I put Corban in the third row of our car and Jovi in the second row and they were kiddy-corner to each other so they still couldn't touch each other. I had movies, books, treats, and we stopped every two hours to stretch our legs and use the bathroom (remember, I was seven months pregnant). They were absolute GEMS on the ride to Utah. There were some minor fights and arguments, but it was AMAZING at how well they did.

I had a great trip, but am so glad to be home!

visiting Utah

Joe is in the worst and hardest year of pharmacy school (I've also heard rumors that the first semester of the third year isn't all that great either. Hooray!) so the kids and I packed up the car and we headed to Utah.

I got to see my new niece for the first time and she got blessed too! Too bad she won't really let anyone else beside her mom hold her. We played outside and Jovi did NOT like it! She was always complaining about it being too cold. It was in the 40s and 50s. Heaven! My parents recently returned home from their 18 month mission so they and my kids got reacquainted for the three weeks we were there. We also got some library story time in at the local library.

I celebrated my 32 birthday! Jovi had to sample the cake before we sang Happy Birthday. Chris and Vickie and their families came over. We went to The Jump Zone where the kids jumped, swung, and played on tramps and foam pits. Having Uncle Eric and Uncle Chris and grandpa throw them in the foam pit was heaven for my kids. We've been in Arizona for about two years now and I have been going through some withdrawals with some local companies in Cache Valley. I went to The Pepperidge Farm outlet store and stocked up on toffee covered milanos and gold fish crackers. We've already ate through 2 bags!

It was good to be around other adults, see family, and have help. Did I mention I was seven months pregnant?

book review: Caught in the Middle

PG

I was really surprised at how much I really really really liked this book! I loved the writing, I loved the story, I loved characters, I loved that the heroine made a really tough choice at the end that I 100% agreed with and cried and cheered because she made it and followed through.