Elder Oswald...

One of Joseph's cousins out on a mission, Joseph has been able to write him using dearelder.com anyway he recorded this in the MTC. What a stud!

I had a doctors appointment on Jan 24th, I met my new OB/GYN, a meeting that was way over due. I had put myself on the back burner and I was a year late for my "yearly" appointment, if you know what I mean. This doctor came highly recommended by my aunt, he is an infertility specialist, specializing in recurrent miscarriages  (my problem) and bi-cornet uterus' (my aunt's problem, she literally has two)

So the morning of the appointment I went alone, (unusual for me, I like to have Joseph with me- but I figured I'd be there for a long time) I was,  and my i pod was a life saver, I was watching a movie while waiting. Finally my name was called, did all the normal doctor stuff: height, weight, blood pressure- mine was normal by the way! I have what I like to call "white coat syndrome" I DO NOT LIKE DOCTORS, any doctor and when I go into an examining room my blood pressure usually sky rockets, then I'm fine again when I leave.  My guess is that comes from getting bad news a little too often. 

Anyway back to the appointment, after I was in my open back hospital gown and paper blanket I met the man.  He looked over my chart, got down to pregnancy history: 4 pregnancies, no deliveries; surgical history: Laparascopy a couple D&C's etc. To say he was shocked was an understatement. So we talked about what my previous Dr. had done & my current birth control. He wanted to know why I picked an IUD and why we've kept it in so long. So then came the brief (but still long) story of our married life, miscarriages, surgeries, school, moving, adoption, Joseph's blindness and job loss. He asked if I was depressed, I said "not right now", he said that's amazing because he is depressed just listening to our story. Then he returned the favor and shocked me by saying "why don't we remove your IUD today? It will only take like 30 seconds. As your new doctor I am advising you that it's not going to help to wait anymore. I want you to be pregnant, don't you want to be pregnant? Let's take that thing out."  And that's basically verbatim, as it now permanently in my mind. I about fell off the examining table (which would have been a little awkward in a hospital gown). The good Doctor went on to lay out our game plan: " You'll call me the moment you get a positive pregnancy test. You'll come in and we'll do blood work and an ultrasound. Because of your history you'll probably need hormone injections, I will want to see you weekly." He had gone above and beyond my expectations, I had set for myself. And he surpassed my list of demands, so to say of what I wanted in my doctor, (I had a mental list because of some really crappy doctors I had seen previously).  

With adoption out of the picture (temporarily, we hope) pregnancy has crept back into the picture of possibilities. I couldn't make a decision like that without Joseph and definitely not over the phone with him either. So we proceeded with the normal yearly exam & on my way out he had me sign the release forms to get all my old records from Idaho (another reason I hesitated- he needs to see those first) He told me that I am young and healthy and strong- wow. I haven't heard those, at least not in a long while. What a strange day it was, I left the office in a daze, that wasn't what I was expecting at all.. and on my way out he met me in the hall put his hand on my shoulder  and said "Talk to Joe and call me when you decide to pull that thing out."

Cuteness overload!

This is one of my beautiful nieces.
Tori.

"eeeeeee"

"I'm teething, alright!?"

"Tastes sooooo good!"

"MY fish."

Cheese! With a side of drool.

playing with her tongue

Currently I hold the monopoly on title of Favorite Aunt, (Val wasn't here too long, and her other Aunt is off at college.) But still I am the favorite... at least for a little while. We shared: breakfast together a couple times, lots of giggles, loads of  cuddles,  funny faces, discovered the baby in the mirror, played hide and go seek, peek-a-boo,  & follow Shaylee everywhere. She also chased our cat everywhere, and tried to pet and cuddle her. Speckles did really well and didn't hurt her, but there were some warning meows. She accompanied us to Stake Conference (Saturday) while her parents were out on a date. She even said "Shay"... or "Yay". She did say Joe, and "dang it", I about died laughing. She was my little buddy this weekend, at least while I wasn't working. Saturday I got home and lied down on the floor and she came over and lied down next to me and tried to cuddle in, by sliding backwards and head butting me twice, but I felt loved. She walked over to me multiple times wanting up (and for Joe too), and leaned and grabbed for me when she was being held by other people. Man, she made me feel special this weekend, Joseph and Tori are buds too. Aunt-hood is nice... I don't have to change the diapers and if she's really fussy I can hand her back. But Tori is basically an angel baby, really easy going all the time! We'll see if Bready baby #2 is angelic as well, a girl, due in May.

We're Spoiled!

On January 27th I recieved a phone call from Joseph during work.

He usually doesn't interrupt unless he needs something.

Turns out that our Bishop had tickets to Brian Regan,
 and wanted us to go with him, that night!

Fortunately,  my last student had cancelled on me and I was able to go.

Bishop met us at the house,
 and we ended up just hopping in the car with him,

 two of his sons and a daughter-in-law.
What a show! He is hilarious!

 If we weren't laughing at the jokes we were well entertained by the people around us,

 the man next to me was a larger man but he laughs like a girl.

 There were a couple girls behind us laughing so hard they were wheezing

 (in a funny way not an asthmatic way). 

Anyway the show was great,
Brian Regan is a funny man, and he keeps it clean, 

which I really appreciate.

Here are a couple of pictures I was able to take that weren't blurry, he moves around A LOT!

We had such a great night, and laughed so hard 

(got quite an ab workout). 

We were feeling incredibly lucky.

And all thanks to our awesome Bishop.

We love that guy.

Take Luck.

Feelin' the Love

One day last week I woke up feeling quite loved! 

Joseph and I were spooning,

 and our kitty was cuddled up with us,

 laying across both of us purring loudly!

It was a great way to wake up.

It has happened a few times.

I can't complain.

A Tale of a Tail...or two or three

Parties Involved: Joseph, Valerie, Speckles the cat, Spot the snake, a mysterious noise under the fridge & myself of course.

Our silly cat has been stalking the fridge for a couple weeks, which isn't out of the ordinary she has the habit of stalking the dishwasher while it's running. But a few days ago both Joseph & I heard a mysterious noise coming form under the fridge. With Valerie's help we cleared off the fridge and pulled it out . it was dirty back there so we grabbed the broom and mop, I swept across the back of the  fridge and out popped a little brown mouse! Within seconds Speckles had the mouse & ran down stairs with it, and released it! Right into Mom's sewing/ craft area! So we immediately started tearing apart the whole area. Val wearing gardening gloves (to get the mouse from the cat) and I was armed with a flashlight to see into the many areas the mouse could be. That's about when Mom and Dad got home.. to a path of wreckage from the kitchen to downstairs. The cat was going crazy in the confusion. Eventually it came down to one box we lifted it and before any of us could blink the cat had the mouse again, Val grabbed it from her and dashed upstairs to feed it to spot the snake.

The End...

P.S. Mom has now completely reorganized and cleaned her sewing/ craft area. The cat was rewarded with treats and the mouse was eaten by Spot (the next day). Mystery of the noise under the fridge? Solved and Resolved.

You may have noticed...

We are not a private blog any more! Yay. Feel free to follow us and comment at you leisure. Our blog was fast approaching it's allotted amount of readers (blogger limits you to 100) and our blog wasn't as accessible  to read because of being private... anyway we just didn't feel the need to be a private blog anymore.

:)

Enjoy

Stuff

Work: I  now have 30 students! Holy Cow! We celebrated with ice cream cake. (that was the deal we made when I hit 20 students).

One new little student "I" (6 yrs old) on her first day sat on the piano bench, looked me straight in the eye and says " I have something to tell you.. Why did the music teacher need a ladder?"

Me:"Why?" I: " so she could reach the high notes!" So cute huh? It totally made my day! I am so glad that I had my notebook on hand to record it. Oh and another funny, "L" my 4 year old student (yes, 4 but that kid is a freakin' genius). He got really excited and told me that he heard a Beethoven Bear song at preschool and he wanted to sing it to me (Beethoven Bear is a character that we use in his lessons) "Beethoven's wig, is REALLY BIG!" sung to Beethoven's 5th. What is awesome is that I know exactly what he sung, its from Beethoven's Wig or Sing along symphonies, a neat collection of classical songs with hysterical lyrics, some that deal with the real facts about the composer. Apparently "L" had been singing it all day so he couldn't forget. Adorable!

Church: A new year, a new batch of sunbeams- fresh out of nursery. 11 am church may be good for some but not great in junior primary, it's definitely nap time and lunchtime for most of them. Which makes it a little rowdy- and being in the presidency and not having a child in sunbeams makes me the official sunbeam-wrangler- and I'm good at it. Sure there are some tears and boogers but they also cuddle. One kid "T" had a hard time at first then she was really happy the rest of the time- after I wiped the sad away I got some serious cuddles then she was fine. I even ended up taking her to the bathroom and it was an adventure, I'll spare you the details. Another sunbeam "A" was having a full blown meltdown we spent a lot of time together- until class time when he totally passed out asleep. LOL. Speaking of bathrooms, while I was out in the hall tacking up letters on our bulletin board CTR4/5 class was taking a potty break, soon out came 4 screaming little girls- there was a dead fish in the toilet! True Story. It was hilarious, but luckily it was girls not boys since I am pretty sure we would have heard what one of them did on time of it. Primary is so fun- yet so exhausting- at least until the sunbeams adjust. Then I may get bored!

Joseph is team teaching Valient 10/11 boys with two other teachers one is Bro. Stites who is pretty awesome, but I think that he and Joseph get along a little too well sometimes! And Joseph is subbing in seminary tomorrow for Bro. Moses, and again next week for Sis Wright, I am so glad that he gets to do that!

2010 wrap-up

November: Thanksgiving, Forgotten Carols, Black Friday shopping, Reception.

Thanksgiving was awesome we were lucky enough to spend it in Spokane, staying with family, and being able to spend it with our Idaho family. There was soooo much food! As all way too good. Spokane was beautiful and snowy.

We got to go to the Forgotten Carols performance while in Spokane, a performance in which Mom & Dad Mecham, Jessica, Sam & Kaelee, Landon, Ashton & Raelyn Toth participated in. The rest of us were up high in the balcony watching. It had been almost 6 years since Joseph and I saw it together (that was also my first time) It was amazing as always, and fun to know so many people in it.

Black Friday, umm well I hadn't really planned on going out shopping in Spokane. But John really really wanted to go shopping, especially becuase no one else is really into Black Friday Shopping. We left just before 6 am, we felt a little like we were sneaking out, since everyone was still sleeping! We had a lot of fun, and were quite successful too. We got back to the house and Joseph asked about one item, and we had forgotten to get it, it was still early. John was wired and we didn't want him to wake anyone up, so we all got dressed again and went to get the special item and breakfast. The special item was a gift idea for Sam and Kaelee (we hadn't given them a wedding present, and Kaelee expressed  interest in ....a garden gnome!)

here is Nacho the Gnome!

 Reception. There was tons of snow the day of the reception and when everyone went to decorate we were left behind, something about too many "helpers". So we decided to shovel the driveway and stairs etc, but when we had finished there was already another couple inches covering up our work. so we went to the backyard where Joseph made a snow man (which was later wrecked by boys jumping into it from the balcony, lol) and I took pictures. The reception was beautiful, we had fun. We even created a little sibling mischief  (J&S, Jessica, John Aston and Landon) which I don't think Sam and Kaelee know about yet. We took bets on when they would find it, but we all agreed it would be a LONG time. And no I am not telling, lets just say it is payback. We all ate too many desserts but they were amazing! And visited with some great people. 

self portrait of us at the reception, please notice Joseph's bow tie.

 He LOVES doing that!

December: Random stuff leading up to Christmas....

Igloo! Joseph had started making an igloo, he didn't finish before we went over to a friends house for dinner. We had an awesome time and stayed up wayyy too late. When we arrived home (after 2 am) we found that Mom and Dad had finished it for him! 

Here is T-Bone inside it, to show the massive size.

yes, he insisted on having his ear up, in all the pictures!

Christmas was spent at Ensign Ranch (Cle Elum Washington, about 2 1/2 hours away) Our Family, Dad's side had rented out the main lodge for a few days. It is the second time I have been able to go, the best time to be sure (I was really sick the first time and quarantined to a room. And there wasn't any snow last time)

Here are some trees in Cle Elum that Mom and I found while exploring!

And here is the view right out our bedroom window during the stay.

A view outside toward the pasture with an awesome snowman. 

This picture just looks like Christmas to me.

Christmas morning was eventful. After stockings were opened my uncle Ron opened his hand with his knife. So after some quick First Aid and Preisthood blessing, the men were off to Ellensburg for the Hospital, he needed 5 stitches.( his 20th set of stitches) so the main present opening was put off until the men came back so we did breakfast, of custom omlettes (our family was in charge + Bentley filling in for Dad) We wore aprons and chef hats, it was a lot of fun. We did our best keeping the kids occupied while waiting for our Dads to come back. Once they were back we fed them and Christmas continued. Other things we did: sang Christmas carols, children 1/2 pound gift exchange, adult 1 pound gift exchange, lots of card games, sledding, snow ball fights etc.  And to finish this post... the Swanger family nativity!

There were shepherds in the fields, herding pillow pets!

And wise men who saw the star!

and followed it riding camels (or ripsticks!) to see the baby Jesus

and the whole cast

shepherds, wise men, angel , mary Joseph and the Donkey resting.
minus the narrator in the rafters.
sorry there aren't more pictures, we didn't have the most reverent nativity and there was much laughter. Considering that the gifts from the wise men included a slinky, chocolate and a guinea pig. The angel was shy, the donkey past out after the long journey, the  shepherds had animals of all kinds, Joseph had a headache and Mary has an attitude.... lol.


Goodbye 2010.
I missed a lot of things I know,
but that's what happens when you wait soo long to post.

A letter...

So Long 2010,
We're sorry to tell you that we did  not like you very much. Don't feel bad, it's not all your fault, your predecessor  left us in a state of shock & disbelief- a direct result of Joseph's being diagnosed as legally blind. Not to worry you, we were very quick to act, even before you came around. Our time with you tested the very limit of what we could endure, in a very different way than ever before. No, you are not the worst year we have had, but you are still not looking too good. Please don't think that we hated you, our time together wasn't all bad. We've had some great adventures too: working with DSB, amazing DSB counselors, braille classes, computer classes, flying to Idaho, 1st TL Mecham family reunion,  camping at Mt. Rainier, getting two nieces, Sam and Kaelee getting married, working in Primary, Joseph subbing for seminary, Thanksgiving with the Mechams & Toths, among other things....ending with the Swanger family (extended too) gathering at Ensign Ranch for Christmas. There are some things about you we'd like to forget but also good memories that we will hold onto. We rang in 2011 (early) with our family at Diana and Matt's log cabin, with giant bonfire. During our year together we learned that we are both stronger and braver that we thought possible and plan on rising from the ashes o 2010 with renewed hope for good things to come in 2011. No hard feelings.

Sincerely,
Joseph & Shaylee