The Waiting Game

Since the middle of last month Oley and I have both kept our schedules fairly flexible.  For Heaven's Sake I was even upset a little with him when he told me he wasn't changing his scout camp out at the end of April becuase I was worried Allison may go into labor while he was gone.  Well thankfully that didn't happen but on Thursday after work we got a text from Allison saying she was headed to the hospital, her contractions had started.  I got home and let Oley know and he was nervous/freaked out to say the least (how cute he is when he is nervous - haha!).  Until we knew it was the "real deal" we weren't going to drive down to Idaho Falls.  She called later around 10 and said that the contractions had slowed but they were keeping her to observe her through the night.  Since we had both been up since 4 am we thought it would be wise if we just slept here and go in the morning.  As we headed up to say our family prayer before bed we both felt like it was probably best that we begin on our journey to Idaho Falls, we would just take turns driving. 

This is our leaving as a family of two and returning as a family of 3 look before we got in the car!   We drove all night, Oley even snuggled up in his favorite ninja turtle snuggie.  

 

As soon as we got about 45 minutes outside of Boise Allison texted and said they were sending her home.  Since we were already this far and her due date was on the 20th we opted to just get to Idaho Falls and take a nap and hope the baby came soon.   Well the napping didn't happen becuase Oley was starving so we met Allison and Kim for Chinese lunch.  It was really good to meet Kim and get to know a little bit more about Allison's family.  

That night was Dougie's father and son camp out.  This has always been a big thing for Oley and his Dad so he decided he wanted to go.  This made me nervous since Allison was so close to delivery, but away he went!  

The next morning I went and ran a 5k with Kim.  Surprisingly the elevation didn't kill me as much as I had anticipated, so that was good news!  I then went bird watching with Kim and some of the grand kids and her mom and stepfather.  What a great thing that was to get to know them all a little better!

Sunday we spent the day hanging out with little Oden and got to celebrate Matt's birthday.   

  

I went to the doctor with Allison and they will be inducing her on Tuesday.  We spent the rest of the day with Allison and her mom - shopping, enjoying Red Robin and watching Iron Man 3.  Tuesday is the day! 

Single Digits

Lets start this post off by saying that Holly has been slacking.

I have been thinking a lot today. For along time now I have been trying to wrap my head around the concept of somebody trusting me to raise a child. Something hit me today though. I have been through all the normal emotions an expectant father should, I think. Fear being on the top of that list, at least for me. Something new happened today something that I feel like I should share.

I went to sleep last night knowing full well that the 10 days left on my countdown until Adelé arrives would decrease by yet another day to single digits. Back when the countdown was 78 days it felt like just another day. Then there was day 30 when the idea of someone relying on me for the rest of their life hit me hard. This morning when I awoke everything was completely different.

I ran through the normal emotions upon waking up, but I have managed to be attached to one feeling more than the others today. I feel peace and comfort today more than any other day thus far. I have a recurring feeling of emotional attachment to a beautiful little daughter that I have yet to meet. It's weird but all day long I have felt a second heartbeat within my mind and soul. I know that this is baby Adelé's because it is fast. I can't explain how much calmer and prepared I feel today, more so than other days. I have spent the better part of the day focusing and listening to the quick little heartbeat. It calms me and I know that soon enough I will be holding the little child I have dreamed of for years now.

This being my first foray into putting my feelings to digital ink and paper for the world to see I would like to thank Allison for restoring my faith in humanity. I would like to thank Holly for being my foundation and strengthening me when I am weak. And God for our free agency to do his will or follow our own hearts. I know that this next week or two will test our fortitude as emotional human beings. I heard one time that in life adversity will happen, our test is to bear adversity well. These words strengthen me in hard times, I hope my simple testimony will help bolster anyone who is struggling at the present time.

Dinky's Autoimmune Disease

So recall how I said Dinky's paw was really bothering him at the beach.  Well we took the little guy in and the vet we saw said he just had a bacterial infection and gave us some antibiotic and stuff to clean the paw with. 

I wrapped it so he wouldn't chew at it.  HAHA!  Oley didn't think it was going to be a good idea.

Well his paw healed but a couple weeks later we noticed that the "cold sore" looking thing on his face was getting worse.  I thought it was just from him licking at his paw and maybe the infection had spread.  But thank goodness for the nationally known vet we have living in our ward that as soon as she saw this picture of his lips told me to bring him in because it looked like autoimmune disease.  He doesn't have a severe case, just one in which his skin cells are attacking one another and pulling apart, so she is confident she can treat it. 

Much like you probably just were I was confused and worried we would have to put him on pills the rest of his life.  But come to find out if you mix an antibiotic with a vitamin it resets their immune systems and they usually don't have a problem again with it.  Since I know we will be adding a new baby to our family soon I made sure that this wasn't contagious to humans or other dogs.  It isn't so we went and got the medicine and now have to give him it twice a day for 60 days.  I would complain, but I really can't.  We really have been blessed by living in this area and having the relationships with the people that we do.  As for Dinky he is starting to look better, I am sure it will all work out! 

Half Marathons and Baby Nurseries

What a crazy productive weekend it has been.  I wanted to get the baby's nursery put together but I also had my half marathon in Wenatchee that I have been training for.  Friday I had the worst diarrhea but I knew that I needed to remain hydrated so that I could run well the next morning.  I bought Gatorade and tried to get my electrolytes back up and was feeling a little more hydrated by the time I got home from work, so I went to town getting Adelé's nursery put together.  

I unfortunately didn't get everything put up on the walls, but the majority of the room is put together.  Hoping to get everything else finished before she decides to grace us with her presence!

Rather than paying to get a hotel room in Wenatchee, that I would probably not sleep well at anyway, we opted to just drive there on Saturday morning.  The race started at 8 and so we left our house at 3:30 AM.  Oley, the greatest husband ever by the way, drove while I tried to sleep.  My diarrhea still had not subsided and so we had to make several stops to get that under control.  By the time we made it to Wenatchee and I had checked in for the run there was no backing out.  The first 6 miles were good!  But come mile 7 my mouth was so dry, I thought one of those gel packets would help.  At the very next aid station I picked one up, that may have been a bad idea, rather than gliding down my throat like they did when I ran the CDA marathon it was as if I was chewing this gel and trying to swallow it - and it wasn't going down.  By mile 9 I was hurting, I had not had side cramps during any of my training runs and so all I could do was pray that I could make it.  I made it to mile 11 and my calves started to get a horrible cramp in them.  But I pushed through and got to the last quarter of a mile.  I usually would sprint out the rest of the run, but every time I tried to sprint my calf got the worst charlie horses and it felt as though I wouldn't be able to step down.  So I continued at my pace and finished.  Was I satisfied with my results, no.  Did I finish under my goal, yes.  I suppose that being said I can't ask for anything else, but I will do another when I am not dehydrated and can smash my new time.  

Oley had bought me a bag of mini eggs to have once my half marathon was over.  They were so good!  I finished in 1:53.48 which put me at 15th for my age group, in the top 20% overall and top 11% for women.  I am glad that I had Allison's mom, Kim, pushing me along during my training and prepping me for the run - otherwise I probably wouldn't have met my goal! 

Life's a Beach

Since our weeks are typically full of work, working out, church assignments, and preparing to expand our little family we don't spend a lot of time just relaxing.  Realizing that this would probably have been the last weekend that we could just relax for a very long time we wanted to have a little get away.  Shawnie was kind enough to let us escape up to her beach house - we are so glad we did!  We stopped at the outlet malls on the way to Westport and did a little shopping, which is always fun!
Saturday the weather was absolutely beautiful!  We had invited a family from the ward to join us and so Oley and the boys spent the majority of Saturday crabbing.

Out crabbing on the docks

The weather was Beautiful!

Sharon taught us the art of making it less stinky when cooking crab, by cracking them apart and only cooking the legs. 

The puppies loved it as usual!  Dinky has something terribly wrong with his back paw so he wasn't as enthusiastic as usual but we still couldn't hold him back from his pure bliss!

Oley & the boys starting a fire

It was such a nice weekend we didn't want to come back to reality!  We couldn't feel more blessed, we live in the ideal location - at the beginning of the month we were on top of Mt. Rainier snow-shoeing and by the end of the month we were at the beach soaking up the sun, both a couple hours from our house.
As I reflect back on what we were doing last year on Easter we were flying to Wisconsin to evaluate whether I wanted to take an amazing job offer.  I am so glad we have the gospel in our lives, a husband who honors his priesthood and is able to provide blessings in time of need, and that even though the decision seemed stupid in the mind of many others we went with what the Spirit was telling us and declined the offer.  The blessings that have come from that decision are more than we could ever comprehend. 
Through the atonement of Jesus Christ I know that I have someone to go to when I don't know what path to take and when I feel as though I can't go any further, it is through the love of our Godhead I feel  as though my life could not be any more complete.  I hope that when the day comes they can look me in the eye and know that I did not take their sacrifice for granted.   As I reflect on the Savior and the tremendous amount of love He had for me I realize the shortcomings I have when following the first and greatest commandment - As I have loved you, Love one Another.  It is my goal this year to truly love those around me - it's easy to put up with others, but I want to truly have compassion and hope for the best for them.

Dog Park Fun

The weather is finally starting to get nice and so we wanted to get the dogs out to a park, unfortunately Oley got off work late Friday and so we didn't make it.  On Saturday morning I attended an amazing women's conference - it was exactly what I was needing and a little extra!  The little extra was in the session on the 5 Love Languages, if you haven't done this as a family I would highly recommend taking the quiz for Family Home Evening.  I will just stick it in here so you have no excuses not to check it out: Love Language Quiz.    There is also a book, but check out the survey and do it for Family Home Evening - you'll learn something new about your spouse and children.  Oley is probably the best husband ever, when I got home he had all the Saturday chores done and so we headed out to the dog park in Lakewood.  The dogs loved being at a little dog park that there were actually little dogs at to play with. 
What we didn't know was that this park was located by the old western state hospital that Oley has been wanting to go to - he heard it was haunted.  It was actually really creepy!  We walked up and there was a labyrinth that some women was walking around chanting, and there were a bunch of teenagers making a movie - you know one of those places where you can tell the Spirit does not want to be, this was the place.  We didn't spend much time there becuase we both felt a little uneasy.  But we can now say that we went and it was interesting. 

 

Snow Shoeing = Awesome

Last week while out with Oley's Aunt she told us that Rainer National Park does a guided snow shoe hike and asked if we wanted to go with her.  Since we still have yet to make it up to the mountain we were super excited to go.  Throughout the week we had invited others to join us but one by one they all chickened out, except my cousin Trae - yay! 
Saturday morning I got up and went for a quick run and as soon as Trae arrived we were on our way.  Mapquest had estimated it should take around 2 hours from our place to get to Paradise. . . in all reality it took an hour, so we were able to browse the museum a bit before the hike started (no Oley didn't speed, it's only 60 miles away max.).    Since moving from Idaho we haven't really had any real snow, so it was a nice reminder of why we moved away from the snow and cold while playing in the 13 foot snow banks.  We had a blast, and when I say "we" I really mean we this time - Oley is still talking about it today! 

We had the choice between "modern" or old fashioned snow shoes, we all went with the modern ones!

That behind me was how much snow they had. . 13 ft in fact.

We learned a lot about Mt. Rainier and the wildlife/history of the park.

This was a blast!  If you have never been snow shoeing before I highly recommend you add it to your bucket list!