I wanted to post to say hi and that I hope to blog again a bit more.
A few quick things about us right now in our lives:
-Kari is working
-Mike is becoming a plumber, although was just recently laid off
-Graham starts kindergarten in September!
-Graham just finished playing baseball. It was pretty adorable.
-We continue to pray that our family will grow
-We are loving summer so far. We went camping for fathers day. We built a 32' garden box and love seeing our veggies and fruit grow!
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Here, here
Well, we are here. By here I mean Calgary.
I gotta say, I never wanted to live in Calgary but here we are and it is pretty good. I love having my sister Natalie close and friends from back in the day here to reconnect with.
I transfered with work which worked out well although it has been more of an adjustment than I expected, but good overall thanks to great new friends at the office.
Mike is working and G is in day care, we have friends and family close, and a new-to-us home so life is pretty good. We have already had some friends visit us and we miss them already.
I know this isn't too thrilling of a post but I check your blogs all of the time so I figured it was time that I updated mine.
Ciao for now.
I gotta say, I never wanted to live in Calgary but here we are and it is pretty good. I love having my sister Natalie close and friends from back in the day here to reconnect with.
I transfered with work which worked out well although it has been more of an adjustment than I expected, but good overall thanks to great new friends at the office.
Mike is working and G is in day care, we have friends and family close, and a new-to-us home so life is pretty good. We have already had some friends visit us and we miss them already.
I know this isn't too thrilling of a post but I check your blogs all of the time so I figured it was time that I updated mine.
Ciao for now.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Italia
Twelve years ago yesterday I returned from Italy. I can hardly believe it has been that long.
What a great experience it was and one I will never forget. I regret not learning the language but I hope to rectify that soon.
I have grown and matured a lot since then. I continue to think back to those wonderful days and of the wonderful people I met there. Friends for life, they will be.
Here's to you mia bella Italia.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Religion in politics
Just a thought on the Presidential campaign in the United States...
Mitt Romney believes in God...
Barack Obama believes in God, or at least generally speaking 'a supreme being'...
...what is the difference?!
Just because Mitt is Mormon some people will not vote for him. It frustrates me because I am sure some people haven't done their research to find out what mormonism is all about and if they have, they have possibly gone to the wrong sources.
People, if you want to find out what Mormons believe, talk to a Mormon. Or go here. The site is legit, which is the type of site you should be reading.
As the documentary The Religious Test film (thanks NieNie) states, if race isn't an issue in an election, why should religion be?
Your thoughts?
Mitt Romney believes in God...
Barack Obama believes in God, or at least generally speaking 'a supreme being'...
...what is the difference?!
Just because Mitt is Mormon some people will not vote for him. It frustrates me because I am sure some people haven't done their research to find out what mormonism is all about and if they have, they have possibly gone to the wrong sources.
People, if you want to find out what Mormons believe, talk to a Mormon. Or go here. The site is legit, which is the type of site you should be reading.
As the documentary The Religious Test film (thanks NieNie) states, if race isn't an issue in an election, why should religion be?
Your thoughts?
Monday, July 25, 2011
My Plan A
So, at Time Out For Women this year in Calgary Laurel talked about living our Plan A. She said something to the effect of "we are all living our Plan A, we just didn't know this was our Plan A".
I have been thinking a lot lately about my life....where I am, where I am not, where I thought I would be and what I thought I would be doing....and who with. I'm sorry if you are all sick of my "baby talk" but I'm sorry...I am going to keep going with it. And who else to better talk about it with than the "void". (any of my #6 girls know where that word is from?!!)
Anyway, I wanted to be married by the time I was 21. That wasn't a must plan, just an age I thought would be good. Well, I have to say I am glad I didn't get married at 21 but at 24. I learned a lot about life in those few extra years and had great experiences. So marriage came and we didn't really want to start having kids right away, but after six months of marriage we changed our minds. We wanted our family to grow. I usually say that we wanted to start a family, but we already had-by us being married. Sometimes I feel that we aren't considered a family or aren't as important because we don't have kids.
Our fertility (I say fertility journey not infertility in hopes it will still happen for us) started with me getting pain in my right side. I had an ultrasound and found out that I had two cysts, one on each ovary, that were an inch in size. They told me the only thing I could do was to take Tylenol for the pain and come back in three to six months to check. I wouldn't have that so I went back the next month to check and they were gone! But, that didn't fix our situation. We have done I think seven artificial inseminations, one of those being done because I didn't react to the medication for IVF and so they couldn't/wouldn't attempt to take any eggs. To add to that, I have been told my ovaries are shrinking and are smaller than they should be for a woman my age. Nice, eh? So it looks like my body is shutting down....and way sooner than I want it to. We did get pregnant in 2009 but miscarried at six weeks. It is so hard not to have "what ifs" and "I shouldn't have done this or that" because it would have allowed things to end differently but I have to remind myself that I am not to blame. It is amazing how hard it is to not blame myself, but it happened and I can't do anything about it now. So we know we have one little soul waiting for us, which is the sun to our sky.
When do we say enough is enough and stop going through procedures and accepting life as it is? Right now though I feel like I have finally accepted that this is how our life is and I feel content that we have done everything we can do to have children....I can talk about it and not cry my face off but it is still hard. Our wounds are still raw. Now I don't want people to be afraid or nervous to tell me they are pregnant because I am very happy for you and want to share in your good news. I will confess though that I may cry after you tell me, when I am alone of course and say "I wish I had news to share too".
One thing that I hate to say about all of this is that I came very close to losing my testimony. Why when we are commanded to have children would we not be blessed with them? Why us? I didn't expect my life to be perfect but really? Why did this have to be my struggle? I am happy that I haven't had to deal with a lot of death, other than grandparents that were old and had lived good long lives. But not having children...and especially not really being able to do anything about my body shutting down WAY too early is HARD. Hard, hard, hard. If I would have been able to look at a crystal ball and known this was down the path would I have taken it? Maybe not but this is my lot and I have to make the most of it. I trully love Mike and the time we have had together to become closer and to experience great things in life. I love all of my nieces and nephews, which is creeping up on 25, if you can believe it.
Okay, I might add to this but I want to post it, so there might be a Part B to my Plan A!
NOTE: I have read some blogs recently about peoples success with IVF and adoption and I wanted to share my side of things. Everyone's story/journey is different and I wanted people to know what we are going through. We are open to adoption and are so grateful that it can be an option if it happens to come our way.
I have been thinking a lot lately about my life....where I am, where I am not, where I thought I would be and what I thought I would be doing....and who with. I'm sorry if you are all sick of my "baby talk" but I'm sorry...I am going to keep going with it. And who else to better talk about it with than the "void". (any of my #6 girls know where that word is from?!!)
Anyway, I wanted to be married by the time I was 21. That wasn't a must plan, just an age I thought would be good. Well, I have to say I am glad I didn't get married at 21 but at 24. I learned a lot about life in those few extra years and had great experiences. So marriage came and we didn't really want to start having kids right away, but after six months of marriage we changed our minds. We wanted our family to grow. I usually say that we wanted to start a family, but we already had-by us being married. Sometimes I feel that we aren't considered a family or aren't as important because we don't have kids.
Our fertility (I say fertility journey not infertility in hopes it will still happen for us) started with me getting pain in my right side. I had an ultrasound and found out that I had two cysts, one on each ovary, that were an inch in size. They told me the only thing I could do was to take Tylenol for the pain and come back in three to six months to check. I wouldn't have that so I went back the next month to check and they were gone! But, that didn't fix our situation. We have done I think seven artificial inseminations, one of those being done because I didn't react to the medication for IVF and so they couldn't/wouldn't attempt to take any eggs. To add to that, I have been told my ovaries are shrinking and are smaller than they should be for a woman my age. Nice, eh? So it looks like my body is shutting down....and way sooner than I want it to. We did get pregnant in 2009 but miscarried at six weeks. It is so hard not to have "what ifs" and "I shouldn't have done this or that" because it would have allowed things to end differently but I have to remind myself that I am not to blame. It is amazing how hard it is to not blame myself, but it happened and I can't do anything about it now. So we know we have one little soul waiting for us, which is the sun to our sky.
When do we say enough is enough and stop going through procedures and accepting life as it is? Right now though I feel like I have finally accepted that this is how our life is and I feel content that we have done everything we can do to have children....I can talk about it and not cry my face off but it is still hard. Our wounds are still raw. Now I don't want people to be afraid or nervous to tell me they are pregnant because I am very happy for you and want to share in your good news. I will confess though that I may cry after you tell me, when I am alone of course and say "I wish I had news to share too".
One thing that I hate to say about all of this is that I came very close to losing my testimony. Why when we are commanded to have children would we not be blessed with them? Why us? I didn't expect my life to be perfect but really? Why did this have to be my struggle? I am happy that I haven't had to deal with a lot of death, other than grandparents that were old and had lived good long lives. But not having children...and especially not really being able to do anything about my body shutting down WAY too early is HARD. Hard, hard, hard. If I would have been able to look at a crystal ball and known this was down the path would I have taken it? Maybe not but this is my lot and I have to make the most of it. I trully love Mike and the time we have had together to become closer and to experience great things in life. I love all of my nieces and nephews, which is creeping up on 25, if you can believe it.
Okay, I might add to this but I want to post it, so there might be a Part B to my Plan A!
NOTE: I have read some blogs recently about peoples success with IVF and adoption and I wanted to share my side of things. Everyone's story/journey is different and I wanted people to know what we are going through. We are open to adoption and are so grateful that it can be an option if it happens to come our way.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
1 Nephi 7:12
"Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him."
This really stood out to me yesterday. Not that I had completely forgotten it, but I needed to be reminded I guess.
This really stood out to me yesterday. Not that I had completely forgotten it, but I needed to be reminded I guess.
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