Lehi church, hysterosalpingogram, and McKay's birthday

This week began with trying to find a ward to attend in Lehi. We were still at my parents' house on Sunday morning and did not want to drive 30 minutes to try to make it to our own ward at 9 in the morning. So we decided we'd find a ward in Lehi that was meeting at 11. We drove to the nearest chapel and the parking lot was completely full! We walked in and there was a meeting already started. We thought maybe it was stake conference. So we went to the next closest building (literally kitty-corner from the first building, this is Utah after all). Because it was so close to the first building we were pretty sure they were part of the same stake and would be having stake conference as well. We were right. We had to drive fairly far to find a building that was not in the same stake! But it was worth it. I love attending sacrament meeting and feeling the spirit there. It is so wonderful that within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the gospel is the same wherever you attend church. It is such a blessing!

Just a side note: we got to come back to our own apartment on Sunday night. Before we had gone to stay in Lehi I had made sure to clean our apartment and leave it looking nice. It was a relief to come back to a clean home. Growing up, I never quite understood why my mom refused to go on a vacation without cleaning our house very well. It always stressed me out when I had to clean and pack for the trip. Now that I am the homemaker I completely get it! Thanks Mom.

Sometimes it is easy to almost forget about our struggle with infertility. As we live day to day there are so many good, happy, wonderful things that help us to keep our heads up. This week we were very aware of our desire to have children. We are trying to be more assertive in discovering why we aren't able to have children just yet. This week we had scheduled a hysterosalpingogram. Basically it is a procedure to see if my uterus and fallopian tubes are normal. I could tell you the full experience, but I think its enough to say that it was not a fun procedure. It was physically uncomfortable and the doctor was not very sensitive or gentle. I would tell you his name to make sure you don't go to see him, but he didn't even introduce himself to me before...I just felt like I should know his name before he got so friendly. The results of the procedure were good: everything normal. 

I often feel extremely conflicted when I go in for various tests like this. Part of me wishes we could find something wrong with us so that we can fix it or at least just have a reason for not having children. It would be almost comforting to just know what was wrong. Another part of me wants to keep hearing that everything is normal and we are healthy. Normal results mean that we just need to keep trusting in the Lord's timing and that is something that I can do. Is it difficult? Of course, but I know that Heavenly Father loves us and his timing is truly best. So, whether we find something wrong or everything continues showing up normally we will trust that the Lord has a plan for us. 

We are determined to have children one way or another.

Friday was my hunky husband's birthday. I feel like celebrations always revolve around good food. We started the day with homemade cream cheese danishes. Yum! McKay went to work, but got off an hour early. We went to a delicious Indian restaurant for dinner and stuffed our faces. We were so full that we only shared a small sliver of homemade chocolate cake before going to bed that night. McKay says that it was a really good day. One of the gifts I got for him was an illustrated version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It is pretty neat. McKay likes that the illustrations are quality and detailed like old school books. We'll probably try to get all of the illustrated versions of the Harry Potter series eventually. Hopefully our future kids will be fans. 

I got a new church calling today that is pretty exciting. It is different from all the other callings I've had in the past. *Drumroll*......I was called to be Cub Scout Master! Since I'm a girl, I really have no idea how scouts work. This coming week I will be spending a lot of time on the Scouting website learning. I have a pinewood derby coming up in the middle of March. It should be fun and exciting to learn new things and have fun with the scouts. 

Have a good week! March begins and daylight savings is coming! (I'm really excited for that!) Love you all!

House-watching and dog-sitting

We were living in my parents' house this week. My twin, Larissa, has a baby due any day now and Mom flew out to Texas to be with her. Dad works out of town during the week and so their two dogs are at home alone. So we spent the week at their house and claimed four dogs as ours temporarily. They are big dogs. Growing up with them I never really realized just how big they are. Now, after having a mini schnauzer and a 20 lb puppy, a 75 lb and a 90 lb weimaraner seem huge! It has gone really well; my parents' dogs are such well behaved dogs and they got along with Scout and Swede. I'll just leave off with this: as much as I love dogs, we will not have more than our two small dogs anytime soon. 

FHE on Monday was so fun! Shae brought a breakfast sandwich maker to the house, we gathered ingredients, made sandwiches, and watched an episode of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Breakfast sandwiches are some of my favorite things! Really any combination of eggs, ham/sausage/bacon, and cheese are just my cup o' tea. And with the sandwich maker it was so easy! The Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell episode was fun. I went into it not knowing at all what it was about. Apparently it's based off of a book (maybe books?) about 19th century England and magicians. That's what I got from the episode we watched at least. Pretty entertaining. 

Valentine's Day was kinda funny. McKay had a half day at work so he got to come home for lunch. He brought me a beautiful bouquet of white, yellow, and purple daisies (I LOVE daisies!). He also told me that he got us a couple massage...but it wasn't scheduled yet. Apparently when he called to schedule the massage the man that answered the phone was very short with McKay and quickly told him that they were booked through the week and could not schedule us yet. So, anywho...we'll call again on Monday and get on their schedule. It will be lovely. The rest of our day was spent relaxing, going to the park to play frisbee (yes, in Utah during Februrary. It was actually warm enough!), exploring near Utah Lake, eating at Moochie's, and eating pie with Jessica and Cody. It was a fantastic Valentine's day. 

We've been playing "what-if?" recently. People will think we're a little loco when they hear what idea we've been playing with so let me preface it with this: it probably won't happen, it would be a huge adjustment, I think we could do it and love it. What is the idea? Tiny houses. We're talking the houses that are built on utility trailers that are usually less than 400 sq. ft. Pretty crazy! When people hear about tiny homes they often think about hippies and extreme minimalists. We are neither. Our purpose would be to focus more on what we need, getting us out of the house more, and just loving being close and creative with each other. Anyway, like I said, we're just playing around with the idea. It's been fun. McKay and I love thinking about where our future will take us, what our family will be like (when kids come), where we will live, etc. 

And tiny homes has been a fun idea to play with.

This week I've been digging through Mom's closets and finding old pictures. It has been a blast! If I can find a way to get the pictures on my computer I'll try to get some on here. McKay was so nice to look through soooo many pictures with me and listen to me talk about that trip, that person, that place, etc. I had so much fun! 

Things I've  enjoyed this week:

Nutella on buttered toast

This is Us

Lots of windows

Driving a Prius

Snuggling with Swede

Getting a surprise book in the mail from Shae

Old pictures

Daisies

Buying gifts for McKay's birthday

Reading in Ether

Getting a call from Vicky

Love you all!!!

Slightly Uneventful Week

Another week, another tale. But not really. This week was uneventful.

McKay and I started a program called Paleo Restart. It has great reviews and we were excited. The Paleo diet has you eat a lot of whole, unprocessed foods. We've really loved how we've felt in the past while we've been eating paleo. So we started this program to help us get into it so we could make it a lifestyle, and not just a "for now" diet. It's been really good. Yummy food, easy recipes. It is expensive though. I mentioned to Shae that my grocery shopping trip was expensive and she told me an interesting fact. Shae said that in the US we spend less on food than any other country in the world. We don't buy quality food. We eat McDonald's. I think I just need to get use to just spending more on higher quality food. One of the most interesting meals we had this week was Saturday's breakfast. It was an egg and smoked salmon open-faced sandwich on a slice of apple. So, from bottom to top: slice of granny smith apple, slice of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs with chives. It was an interesting combination. Better than I thought it would be though. We probably will have to pause our Paleo Restart though...

I worked on taxes this week. 

It always feels like such a surprise as you work on taxes and watch numbers add up. In our case this year, we were given a tax penalty because neither of us had qualifying health insurance for a good chunk of the year. It's a bummer, but we have a possible consult with an accountant that might help us figure things out a little. The penalty could be worse, and if the accountant can't figure anything out for us we will be fine financially. It's just a little stressful when we have been trying really hard to stick to our budget and then a bill pops out when we were not expecting it. We are so grateful for McKay's job that allows us to pay for those surprise costs. 

I also feel like we have definitely been blessed throughout our marriage because we pay tithing. I am amazed when I realize how much we have been blessed because of the law of tithing. The blessings always come through and are always there waiting for just the time when we need them. God is good.

Good new! I recently got some blood work results back. My thyroid is currently at a normal range. This is exciting for us. Bad news: we're pretty sure the medication I am on to fix my thyroid level has caused me to be a crazy lady! I feel bad for McKay because it's like I am constantly PMSing. I've never suffered from very bad PMS, but man, this medication is making up for that! I often feel angry and mean. Back to good news: since realizing the probable cause I've been able to be more myself. I don't know how that works, but I am grateful to feel like myself again. 

The last week or two have been a little difficult emotionally. For those who don't know, we are dealing with infertility. We have now been trying to get pregnant for three years. No luck. But, I do get to count so many blessings when I'm feeling down about this. 

1. My thyroid level is normal
2. I'm feeling more like me
3. I have two really cute puppies
4. My hubby is hott
5. I'm losing weight
6. Despite the weight I'm at, my body can do hard things
7. Most of my family lives nearby
8. I will be blessed with a new nephew in the next week or two
9. McKay has a great job that he enjoys
10. I have some great friends who send me cards and postcards just when I need them
11. McKay thinks I am beautiful
12. We get to have a sorta vacation for Valentine's Day
13. God loves me

There are so many more blessings, those are just a few I'm thinking about today. 

We got to play tourist on Saturday with Chan and Shae. We all visited the Springville Art Museum. It was a ton bigger than I thought it would be. And pretty darn fun! I'm sure we all got completely different levels of enjoyment from it. I know next to nothing about art and Shae is an amazing artist. I think we had a pretty good range haha. 

Things I'm working on right now:
30 days of no makeup (currently on day 7)
Losing 20 more pounds
Getting ready to hike the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim in May
Using less social media
Growing my hair out
Reading a ton
Learning about Doulas

I've had a request to include an update of our dogs. We have a spunky mini schnauzer named Scout and a cute goldendoodle named Swede. They are best buds. Scout will be two years old in June and Swede is five months old now. Scout is so smart! She reads us and I swear she understands every word we say. Swede is just the sweetest thing ever, such a great companion dog. She always is up for a snuggle unless she is running after Scout.

Until next week!<3

Circus, seven peaks, doulas, and posset

Well, well, well, here is week number two! It's been a fun one! 

We have a weekly Family Home Evening with McKay's siblings, Chandler and Shae. This week on Monday we got to go see the Jordan World Circus in Orem. It was so exciting and fun! They had a lot of different acts, from clowns and performing dogs, to pachyderms and a human cannon ball. The best act of the night was called the wheel. It was a huge spinning contraption with a wheel on top. A man would run inside the wheel and use the gravity as it spun to do neat tricks as he fell. It's kinda hard to explain, but the pictures explain all. The elephants were another one of my favorite parts. There were two Asian elephants and they were ridden by cowgirls...a little weird for elephants. They had one of the elephants lie down on her side and the other elephant "jumped" over it. It was as close to a jump as you can imagine an elephant doing. It was so cute and funny. The circus was definitely worth the $10 tickets we found on group-on.

It's a little tough being an animal lover and really enjoying the circus without thinking about how the animals are taken care of. All of the animals looked fat and happy, but I can't help thinking that they would be so much happier in a larger enclosure. I know animals born in captivity would never make it in the wild, but I feel like they should be given the best we can give them. Anyway, enough of my animal loving/animal rights stuff...haha.

This week we also were able to spend a day with my siblings and their spouses on a "sibling date". My siblings that have kids dropped them off at Grandma and Grandpa's house and we headed to Seven Peaks. I'd never heard of Seven Peaks, but apparently it is a company that has a handful of water parks all over Utah. They have one facility in Lehi that they call a "fun center". It has a water park, and so much more. Our GPS took us to the parking lot, and it looked a little sketchy. We parked in a parking garage that had an assortment of spray painted pieces of art...I took a picture of one of the pieces and I'll include it. They had zombies, paintballers, dragons, a creepy monkey, a tank etc., lots of weird stuff. When we found the entrance the fun started. There was laser tag, rock climbing, arcade games, mini golf, pizza, and dip'n dots. We had a really fun time.

Part of our current situation is that I am at home. I'm not working, going to school, or taking care of kids. It's just kinda how it turned out. It may change in the future, but this is where we are at this point in time. It can be really enjoyable spending the day at home with our dogs and not needing to ask for time off when I want to spend the day doing something. However, it can also be really dull and difficult to spend the day at home. I spent a chunk of time this week pondering why I have been given this time with few responsibilities. What does my Heavenly Father need me to accomplish during this time? What should my purpose be? One possibility I've been contemplating recently is taking the time to become a doula. For those of you that don't know what a doula is, a doula is a lot of things. She is a birth coach, she interprets medical speak for the family, she helps the family (mom, dad, any kids involved) know and process what happens during labor and birth, she helps ease and speed up the labor and birth. A doula is not a midwife; a doula does not deliver a baby. She doesn't do anything medical. The closest a doula might do to medicine is helping the mother get into different position to help the birth along or giving counter pressure during contractions. With what I've heard about doulas, I've been thinking about moving forward with learning and training to become a certified doula. So my first step is to read a lot of books. I have two that I'm currently working on and have a long list of others to get through. After I read a handful of them I can go to a three day training to start the certification process. So that is getting me a little excited.

I found a delicious and really simple dessert this week. It is called a posset. Apparently it is an old British dessert that originated as a hot drink. Today it ends up more of a custard or mousse. But oh my, it is so simple to make and so tasty to eat! The recipe I used is from a blog called "The Adventure Bite". So yummy! Please try it and love it and make it for everyone you know!

That's all from me for this week. Have a fantastic week!! Love you all!!!