IT'S a BOY!!!!!

As we were walking out of the doctor's office after we had just learned we were having a boy I turned to Dave and asked him if he was happy. His response to me was "Well, I feel kind of bad". I was confused at this point because he had been praying everyday that it would be a boy. Then he said, "Well.... I feel bad - because I WON". And then he did a little happy dance. What a stinker my husband is. I felt a little anxiety going in to find out the sex of our baby. Dave is the oldest of 7 boys (no girls), but my family only has girl grand-daughters. So his family was routing for a girl and my family was routing for a boy. I felt like I had to route for a girl just to make the odds fair. And besides, for some reason I felt like I might be having a girl - but so much for motherly instinct - right. However, when I found it I was having a boy, I was truly happy. I just want him to be healthy and happy. I want to give him the world.
What a happy day!!!

Ahhh... So i guess all I can say is that I am about as good at blogging as I am at writing in my journal. Both typically have monthly gaps in between entries as I fail to update them both on a regular basis. When I do finally decide to update my blog or my journal I usually have so much I need to update it becomes overwhelming. So bare with me as I update you all in my life because ALOT has happened.

First things first... A BABY
Today I am about 20 1/2 weeks along in my first pregnancy. I have just made it through the half-way mark and I am feeling overjoyed. The first part of the pregnancy was difficult as I had to deal with throwing up almost every morning, completely losing my appetite, and feeling extremely tired all the time. However, the last few weeks have been much better. I have stopped throwing up most of the time and food is finally tasting good to me again (so good that I am starting to eat more than my fair share - ahh). The last few weeks I have been able to feel the baby move. It is the most unique and incredible experience I have ever had. To know that I have an actual living being inside of me is overwhelming. Dave and I are so excited to begin our family. We find out what we are having on Tuesday - so 4 more days - I can't wait.

Ultrasound at 10 weeks - hard to see anything but the baby is the white blob inside the black blob

My pregnant belly at 20 weeks

GRADUATION
Dave and I have both finally graduated. Dave graduated with a bachelors degree from the Business Management program at BYU on April 24th and I graduated with a masters degree in Speech Language Pathology from the UofU on May 7th. We will both continue in our current jobs. He will continue working for Sunstone Engineering marketing their spot welders (and traveling a lot). I will continue working as the Speech Therapist for Wilson Elementary school. We are excited to get paid to work and to not have to pay to go to school anymore. Life is good and we both love our jobs!!!

At Disneyland with our graduation hats on. Boo yeah!!!

NEW HOUSE
As most of you know Dave and I have been living in my parent's basement and it has been wonderful. We have been able to spend time with my family while saving money for our own house and saving money to pay for school. Thanks mom and dad - you are the best! We will be sad to leave - but we are excited to start our independent life together. We our building our own house. The house should be completed by the end of July and the move in date has been set for July 31st. Just a few more weeks. The house is located by the Payson high school. Dave loves it because our house is across the street from 2 soccer fields, followed by four baseball fields, followed by an empty lot and then a brand new swimming pool and skate park. It is about a 1 minute drive to both of our jobs and to my parents house. We are so excited and can't wait...

Miracles...

I can't believe in all of my craziness I totally forgot to write anything about my brother's cochlear implant. The experiences that my family went through to get Derek his implant were the most miraculous and life changing experiences I think any of us have ever had. As most of you know my younger brother Derek was born profoundly deaf. For years my parents had fought to try to get him a cochlear implant (the newest technology to help deaf people hear). My parents insurance would not pay for the device, even after years of appeals, they denied any financial help. Since cochlear implants range from $60,000 and up my parents had no way to pay for this on their own. They filled out many applications and did a lot of research on what they could do to get Derek an implant. They found out about a institute that grants families with need a cochlear implant device. Amazingly Derek was awarded the device. However, although we had the implant, my parents still had to pay for surgical, mapping, and therapy fees that totaled approximately $20,000. We had a family meeting and decided to try to raise the money ourselves. We decided on doing a fundraiser yardsale. It was absolutely amazing. The word got out about what we were doing and everyone helped. It was truly incredible. The yardsale consisted of individuals donating enough stuff to fill 6 yards. People brought handmade quilts as well as a lot of other items to auction off (movie tickets, restaurant tickets, etc.). Other people brought food to sell and different services to offer. When I woke up in the morning to start loading stuff onto the lawn at six in the morning it was pitch dark and freezing outside. When I opened our front door there were already like 30 people there working. The whole street was filled and people stayed from six in the morning until 6 at night. People helped sell things and helped clean things up and helped deliver items. It was amazing (do I keep saying that). Other than the time and stuff that people donated, other people donated their money - much more than we ever expected. We thought we may get a small percentage of the total money we needed and have to find other ways to come up with the rest. But when the sale was over we began counting the money. We were all in shock at the amount of money we earned. Most of us couldn't stop crying - it was truly a miracle. The way that everyone came together to help us was something we never expected. We learned more about faith and hope and service that we probably will for the rest of our lives.

During my schooling I have been able to study a lot about cochlear implants and therapy for these devices. I have worked with multiple children with implants, teaching them how to learn to use their devices to their maximum capacities. This whole experience hit so close to home for me and was a very emotional experience.

So what is a cochlear implant??? (I get asked this a lot)

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with electric field stimulated through an electric impulse.

This is a confusing way of saying it is a device that takes the acoustic waves of sound in the air and converts them into an electrical signal that is sent to the brain and interpreted as sound.

The device is implanted directly into the cochlea. The following pictures are of a cochlear implant surgery. I think they are interesting - however, (WARNING) if you don't like blood you probably shouldn't continue looking.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN My beautiful nieces!!!

My dorky husband wearing my niece's helmet

Me and my sister ... rocking our costumes


Chad and his friends

I love how Makell can't even see with her helmet on.

I found these pictures from our summer party with our primary class.

We have a big class - with a lot of good kids. We love you guys!!!

Last week Dave left on a business trip to Galveston Texas. We knew there was a hurricane coming toward that area, but it seemed to be heading more toward Florida instead. On the day that Dave left, the weather channel began saying that the hurricane had taken a shift and was heading straight toward Galveston Texas. We didn't really know what to do because the storm wasn't supposed to hit Texas until Saturday and it was only Wednesday. On Thursday the city Dave was in was evacuated. He had to ride for hours in a bus to the airport and was able to get an early flight home. I was in school and in and out of the clinic with clients the whole day he was being evacuated. When I found out he got a flight home I felt a lot of relief - that was until I was driving home from school. While driving home I was listening to the radio thinking about how glad I was that Dave was getting home safe - and how grateful I was that he was able to get an early flight home. However, on the radio they began playing a mix of music and sound clips dedicated to September 11th. They played clips of phone messages that were recorded from individuals who were being held hostage on the airplanes. They all knew that they were about to die and they were calling their loved ones to tell them goodbye. Knowing that Dave was on an airplane at that moment brought the whole September 11th experience back to me. I felt the loss that people had felt that day and only hoped that Dave would make it back to me safe and sound. I realized how I tend to take my loved ones for granted at times. I realized how much I loved Dave and how much I could not stand to loose him. I realized in the back of my mind that everything would probably be okay - but I also learned an important lesson of being grateful for every day that I have with my loved ones.

Remembering 9/11


This is a newscast that was shot right outside of the hotel that Dave was staying at.

Dave

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