Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Until We Meet Again

Grandpa Bill you will be sorely missed. We love you.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Pregnant in a Singles' Ward ~ Goodbye 195th Ward

So Mark threatened to put in the Sacrament program that I was pregnant. Instead I go up and bear my testimony and talk about getting pregnant. The Stake President was there that day. Bad move! Yesterday Mark got released from the Bishopric. Granted we've been there longer than we're supposed to be, and they're doing this to help us more than anything else, but I'm still so sad about this whole thing! We're not in the ward, so it's not like we're still going to see everyone like in a normal situation. We're gone! I cried all day because I love these people so much and we're no longer going to be with them.

Just know 195th ward, you're always welcomed to our home and we're always available to help you with anything you need. Thank you for the past 18 months. We love you.

Friday, August 20, 2010

To the Sea

Mark convinced me to get Jack Johnson tickets. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like Jack Johnson because I LOVE Jack Johnson, but I just didn't want to stand up all night and seats are expensive. He explained that it's at the USANA amphitheatre and they have grass seats. Well great! I'll sit next to the pot smokers and it'll be all good. We went with Taylor and Math and we get our tickets at Will Call. We all have our jackets and blankets bundled up and we look at the tickets--"PIT" Wha... Mark and Taylor are ecstatic at this point. Me? I'm 10 weeks preggers and I'm supposed to be in the Pit? yeah... Where are my grass seats?!

Mark and Taylor take everything back to the car and me and Math hold our places in line. We're there so early to get good grass spots, but now we end up sitting on the cement in front of the stage waiting for hours. We buy t-shirts, and I'm starving so I get a huge plate of Nachos. We make friends with the guard wearing a Steelers lanyard. We hear screaming coming from the side of the stage. What's going on? The screaming goes on for about an hour before Taylor and Mark go and see what's going on. Jack is having a concert on the side just for fun! We take turns going to see him while everyone else is sitting lamely in front of the stage holding their spots. Suckers!

The concert was amazing. There were huge tv screens behind him showing artistic camera shots of him. He sounds AMAZING live, and we all sang along the whole time. A few hooker faces showed up and forced their way in front of us and were disgusting and hookerish the whole time. They were there for probably half an hour before we harassed them enough that they moved on. It was so much better when they left.

Mark sang Angel in my ear when Jack sang it which was beautiful and touching, and Jack even gave us 2 encores. It was so much fun and even though I had to go to the back of the Pit and just sit a few times, it was worth it to be so close to the stage. What an amazing night!! (Minus the hour (literally) it took to get out of the parking lot, but why talk about that?) It was my first concert and Baby's first concert, yes I'm counting it. That's my choice.



Before the concert started. Look how close we are! I tried really hard to pretend like the sun wasn't blinding me. My retinas are still feeling it.




He was literally having a side concert. It was so cool!




We were so close!




The screens were a piece of artistic genius.




We're so lucky to have so many great experiences!


Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Ultrasound!

We went to our first doctor's appointment today and we got to get an ultrasound! I don't think either of us thought that we'd get one this soon, but low and behold here we are!

Apparently our baby is already "cute" says the ultrasound tech. I'm not sure what she sees that I don't, but if "cute" is what it is, then cute is what it is. Currently the little tyke is the size of a gummy bear. I guess "cute" as in gummy bear makes sense.. I mean how cute is a gummy bear right? Anyway. Our experience was interesting.

The actual appointment with the doctor was great! The nurses and staff were super happy and everyone just kept saying "Congratulations!" and stuff. It's all so positive and uplifiting! Then we went to get our ultrasound. We had to wait for someone else to get out which was fine, we just sat and waited. They were in there for a while, so I thought that we'd be in there for a while too! Well no.

The lady got pretty upset with me. I asked the doc if I could film it with my camera and he said Of course. So I go in there and think that I'll be able to film it. She tell me no, that the doc has no idea what he's talking about and it's against the law.. well ok then. I still wanted to record something so I turn my camera from film to sound record. I start recording the heart beat and she catches me and throws me this look. So I stop it. Then it's over, she says it's cute and she walks out leaving me lying there with jelly on my belly. "Do you think she's coming back Mark?" "Nope." So I clean myself up and we leave. Nice bedside manners huh? Oh well, Baby's fine and that's all I can ask for.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Carrie UnderWho?

This year we didn't have a family connection for free Stadium of Fire tickets, but we scored some good free ones from work! The star of the night? Carrie Underwood! She was awesome! Although Mark and I don't know her music very well, I was so surprised how awesome she sounded live! It was truly wonderful!

Sadly the highlight of the night was someone caught on fire to the left of us.... On the field they had fireworks set up on different stands around the arena. The one to our left misfired and instead of firing straight up into the air it shanked and went straight into the stands. A girl's hair caught on fire, and a man's pants caught on fire and he had to roll around on the ground to put it out. The weird thing was that the response of the helpers on the field were so slow. Either no one saw it right away or they were all just in awe that something that horrible was happening. They were able to put him out, but someone must have gotten fired for that.. it was awful.

Besides that horrible horrible mess, the fireworks were amazing! We weren't as close to the stage this year as we were last year, but that ended up being a good thing because we weren't covered in ash at the end of it all.



Beautiful and talented!




The fireworks were absolutely gorgeous!




The stadium was literally on fire!




I was surprised at how low the fireworks came. Especially after the guy caught fire, it made me pretty apprehensive.



We're so adorable. We had been tanning all summer. I think you can tell with me.. maybe not Mark. :)

Monday, June 28, 2010

I'm not Raggu! I'M PREGGO!!!

YUP!

So.. I had an inkling that I was before we went to California, but I took a test and it was negative. It was too soon before my missed period for the test to really take effect. This is how I knew.

Mark and I were at work and we ate lunch together. They served pork chops. Generally I'm a pork fan, but that day after I ate it I felt absolutely horrible! I went straight to the bathroom and felt like I was going to puke! Oh Oh! Straight after work I went to the store and bought a 2-pack pregnancy test. With my hand shaking I peed on the stick (Too graphic? Then you can stop reading! It's my story!) "YES"! Well that's not an ambiguous line now is it? What to do now?! Mark wasn't home and I'm home alone in an emotional wreck! I always joked with him that I would just post it on our blog and wait for him to find out :) but now that I'm actually in the situation what to do?

I ended up calling him and telling him on the phone. I couldn't wait for him to get home so I had to call! Conversation went a little something like this "Honey, I just took a pregnancy test and it was positive." "Really?" "Yeah." "Oh, ok." "Um... yeah." "Ok, well I'll see you at home in a little bit.... How do you feel?" "I'm freakin' out right now!" "Really?" "Yeah." "Oh, ok, well I love you." "Love you too." Then I started crying. Why? I have no idea!

So that's how I told him. Not as imaginative as how I thought I'd do it, but there it is. Although I did imagine how wonderful it would be to see his surprised face when he walked in and me just holding this pink little stick... oh well. When he got home he told me to take another. HAH! I love his practicality. Not like we were preventing this from happening or anything, it just happened really really soon after we decided we would stop preventing it.. you know? Anyway.. I took another one just for him and made him watch so he knew I wasn't kidding :) (I may of may not have joked in the past that I would get a pregnant woman to take a test for me and take it home...) Well now he knows!



My first test.




The fist and second.

I'll say it for you-- Congratulations! Hey, thanks!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Another Fathers' Day in California

We're so lucky Mark's family lives so close! We got to go to California for Fathers' Day and spend a weekend with them. On the way down we picked up Grandpa Bill and we took our merry journey. While we were there we went on a fishing trip. I had only gone deep sea fishing one other time before, but this used to be a Fathers' Day tradition for the Shinoda family.

While we were on the boat there were hundreds of dolphins all over! I'm not exaggerating. They kept coming up to the boat and swimming along side us. We would keep going and find another pod of dolphins after another pod after another. We have some great pictures of the dolphins.



They were literally everywhere you looked around in the ocean.




I don't know if we just smelt really good with all the sardines on board, but the dolphins kept coming up to us! It was like a sightseeing boat ride instead of a fishing trip.




That white corner of the picture is the boat, so they were literally swimming with us!




The sardines.




So.. I got a bit sick all morning on the boat, so I have no pictures of people actually fishing.. yeah I know.. Anyway, at the end of the morning we had so much sardines left! There were birds that kept flying around the boat so I told Mark's little cousin Ally to throw they up at them.




Mark actually threw one perfectly and the fish ate it before it hit the water. The boat crew were pretty upset with us actually... something about us having to pay for all the extra bait.. but it was a once in a lifetime experience! (and we weren't paying anyway :) )