Monster's bump.

I'm 19 weeks today and I'm starting to get a little belly. I can still hide it with proper clothing, and I'm sure people who don't know me just think I'm bloated, but I wanted a picture to compare it to future pregnancies. I'm going to a prenatal yoga class with my friend Natalie and am visiting the chiropractor more regularly. I think I'm finally starting to get my appetite back, I even had a little ice cream last night! So here's the pictures. DJ wanted to take them by our new Subaru.

Girl's Camp

This week my young women are at girl's camp. Well they're supposed to be, but most of my girl's are not interested so we actually only sent an investigator to camp. So sad that she didn't have better examples from our ward, but she's having an awesome time. Last night the YW ward Presidents were asked to come up and do a spirit hike with the young women. I was able to convince two of my Laurel's to come up with us just for the night. We were each assigned a value, and we were to share a testimony building experience we had with that value. Then we were to challenge the YW to commit to building their testimony of that value and to put a pine cone in our fire if they agreed.

I got Virtue. For those of you who do not know yet, Virtue is the new and 8th YW's value. It was introduced in December. The project for Virtue is to read the Book of Mormon. Because of the way the hike was set up, I was only able to hear one other leader's experience. She spoke about Divine Nature and gave the YW an awesome challenge to gain a better understanding of their Divine Nature. She used the song, "What Heaven Sees in You" as her experience.

I shared with the YW my experience with gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I prayed and wrote my answer in my journal. My answer was that the people in the Book of Mormon really lived, that I should live by what they taught, and that the church was true. It happened when I was 14 and had finally finished reading it. It took me 6 years! I told them that this experience is one I rely on when I am tempted to live contray to the gospel teachings, or when it just seems easier to live a different life style then an LDS lifestyle. I told them I couldn't tell them what answer they would receive, because it would be personal between them and Heavenly Father, but that if they took the time to read and study the Book of Mormon, and then take Moroni's challenge and pray to know if it is true, that they would have an experience that will help them.

I wish I could have heard the other challenges, because I want to follow up with my Young Women on them. Hopefully they remember what they are when I see them next week and ask them.

Being with these Young Women and at camp reminded me of how grateful I am so have grown up in Moses Lake where the church members are so strong. We had awesome leaders, all of us did, no matter what ward we were in. But we all had awesome parents who knew the Gospel and also taught it to us. We have a lot of work to do in our ward.

Catch up

So this is a quick post to let you all know we're alive and well. I'll have to do a DC post, one I've been avoiding. I'll get to it another time. Most everyone has figured out that we're expecting a baby in December. Sorry if I didn't tell you myself, but I have good reasons. We found out right before we left for DC in April, and decided not to tell our parents till Mother's day. On our trip our friends figured it out because I was avoiding eating some things I normally would and would get really tired at night. So they knew, but were sworn to secrecy. Then by the time Mother's day came around I was feeling so sick I wasn't excited about being pregnant anymore. So we told our families and I didn't tell anyone else because I was mad at this monster inside of me that took all of my energy away. DJ told our ward and everyone he has come in contact with (waiters, drive thru cashiers, the lady cutting his hair, you get the idea). Well the good news is I'm on Zophran, it works, and I haven't been nauseous for a week. A couple days ago I started getting adventurous and can now eat a little protein and carbs again. But we're going to stick with the nickname Monster until this kid is born.

Today is the day I realized I'm having a baby. I looked on Craigslist for cribs and found a great one for $60, including the mattress. We tested it out, shook it to see if it moved, and felt confident in the purchase. Since I still do not have a completed room to put it in, it has been disassembled and will be taken to our storage unit tomorrow to hang out with all our nice stuff for a few more months while we get this house ready for Monster.

Its been awhile...

I know I haven't posted for a long time. But I'm kinda stressed out. Combine a calling, a very demanding remodel job, and the need to raise at least $20,000 (preferably more) by the end of May, and very little time is left for posting.

So here is my plea. If you want me to post more then fundraise for Easter Seals. You don't actually have to attend a walk, just get me the money :). People with disabilities are left out of life due to ignorance and discrimination. I'm finding out more and more how easy it is to help a person live their fullest life. You want proof? Go to this link and check out Taysha's story. If you're in Moses Lake go to Pioneer Pit Stop and but a few dollars in their fundraising jar. Ask your employer to match your donation. Ask friends and family to donate. $5, $10, and $20 donations quickly add up.

You can submit donations online at www.walkwithme.org/spokane.

Thanks.

Jade inspired me

Ok so Jade Janes Stellmon inspired this post...

Many of you know that Jade has MS. A lot of people in the Northwest have MS and we're still trying to figure that one out (research cost money).

Many of you know that my sister Michele has Down's syndrome. As we all know, people with Down's syndrome are the coolest (Clark Perrins, Tom Shanks, the Sainsbury twins, Juniper (she's one of my Ambassadors), and the rest are all really cool people). I honestly believe that people with Down's syndrome are better then all of us and that the luckiest people get to have one of these angels in their family. But like all disabilities, Down's sydrome causes health problems, mobility issues, and requires extra help to teach independence (that all costs money).

Many of you know a person with a developmental disability who would like a chance to pursue their education and become independent, but lack the resources (specialiazed computer software, needing an aid, and any other form of extra help cost money and the costs add up quick).

Let's all learn from Jade and get involved in something this year. Do you want to lose a couple pounds? feel good? meet new people? get a T-shirt that proves you are active in your community? be one of those people at the gym who are training for something? or simply want something to look forward to? I'm interested in all of the above, so this is what I'm doing about it.

April 4th at 8:15a.m. in Spokane is the Second Annual CommUNITY Fun Run (5K) supporting a scholarship to help people with Development Disabilities meet their goals. This event is hosted by the Arc of Spokane and sponsored by Easter Seals Washington (I work for Easter Seals). The T-shirts for this run are awesome. They have COMMUNITY printed on the front. Its only $14 to register. I just need to know by March 18th so you get a T-shirt.

April 11th in Clarkston, WA is the Multiple Sclerosis Walk. Go here to sign up to join Jade's team or simply make a donation to her. I'm sure their T-shirts are really cool too so you might want to raise the $75 to get one.

On May 30th at 11 am is the Second Annual Spokane Walk With Me. Walk With Me is a fun, family, community event to honor people with disabilities and those who support them. It is a 5K (or you can do the 1 mile route) walk through Riverfront Park. I organize this walk, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me when the people I know are at the walk. Like the MS walk, you don't have to fundraise to come, but if you want a T-shirt you need to raise at least $50. Our T-shirts are awesome and totally worth it. Click here to join or donate to my team.

Ok so I've just given you 3 reasons to look forward to Spring, to feel really good about yourself, to lose a few pounds, to enjoy three beautiful parks, to get new T-shirts, to meet new people, to brag about how involved you are.

If you want some fundraising tips check this out. You can literally raise $250 in a week without asking anyone for more then $25. I'm pretty sure that'd cover all three walks.

Get to it and let the fundraising begin.

p.s. DJ has been doing wonderfully with the basement and we are so close to being down there. The plumbing is getting finished today then its just sheet rock!

We are so grateful for our many blessings.

Many of you know that DJ has been consistently working out of town since July 14th, 2008. Since then, progress on our house has been slow and inconvenient. Who wants to work 5 12 hr days to come home and work on a house all day Saturday, then turn around and leave Sunday right after church. I know I wouldn't want to, and neither did DJ. So we've been waiting (sometimes not very patiently :)) for an opportunity to spend more time on our house. I think our needs have been pretty great. We bought the house knowing that it needed a total face lift. The house had been a rental for over 30 years, and not maintained. The kitchen was covered in grease stains, the bathroom was covered in mildew and hair (totally gross), the basement featured a toilet in the middle sitting on a 3 x 3 x 1 ft. throne (that's means it was on a wood box about a foot off the ground), and our personal favorite - the death stairs. With a lot of help from both of our families we cleared out the basement, put in a new stairway, put up new walls in the basement, put in a drain system for a basement bathroom, and re-wired the basement. So its been almost a year and this is all we've accomplished. So last month we made a effort to ask for a specific blessing.

For a long time we prayed that DJ's job would place him on a job in town, but since he chose the first out of town job, the company transferred him to another out of town job. With winter coming up, we knew his job would slow down. So we started praying that DJ would get laid off for the winter season. He finished a job last week and on the way home he was asking the foreman where the next job was. The foreman was telling him about a bunch of jobs they have contracted, but that they weren't starting till the weather warms up a bit. So he warned DJ that he was going to be laid off for a month till the jobs started. He immediately texted me letting me know. What a blessing this is for us. My job is sufficient for our needs, what we have been lacking is time. As I type this, he's at home putting up a wall. My dad has the next few weeks off so my parents are going to come over for a couple of days and help. So by March 1st, we should have a finished basement and a part of our home finished! I'll post up pictures as the work progresses for you all to see.

We know we were supposed to move into the ward we moved into, that we were supposed to buy this house, and that we would be blessed.

A good snow day

Well we've had some good snow coming down the past two days. Wednesday's record of 17 inches in 24 hours was short lived when Thursday loaded us with 19 inches. Wednesday night we were going to go caroling, but I decided to cancel after it took me an hour to drive 2 miles. I decided to leave work at 3:30 to avoid rush hour. I guess everyone had the same idea. I was driving DJ's subara (Bo) and had no problems starting, stopping, or braking. But a lot of people couldn't make it up the hill on Division and were blocking all three lanes of traffic. Once I finally got to them I was able to manever around them and finally got home. I stayed in for the rest of the night.

DJ came home from Ellensburg (where he is roofing a new stake center) Thursday morning. They had to help 3 stuck cars on their way up Division taking him home. We decided we needed to go out and get some snow shovels and try to find the rest of our winter gear in storage. DJ bought me some snow boarding boots and a pair of really nice gloves and he had an extra set of snow pants, so we both geared up and headed out. It took half an hour to dig Bo out. We park in our yard until we get out driveway poured, so when he backed out, he didn't "clear the driveway", he just plowed out. It was so cool. This was a day we wished we had a crew videotaping our life because we had a lot of cool moments. Our friend stopped by on his snowmobile. There were a lot out yesterday.

One of our duties while we were out was to shovel the driveway of a family DJ home teaches. They are a bit older and both have had health problems recently. The snow was up to my mid thighs by the time we started. Here are the before and after pictures. The garbage can gives you a good idea of how much snow we had so far.

This is my car buried under all that snow. It will probably stay like that till all this snow melts.



This is our sweet little home. Our tree looks so cool right now. DJ and I are going to take a walk later today and get some more good shots.

When we got home from shoveling we noticed all our neighbors we outside digging each other out and pushing the crazy drivers who tried to come down our street. It was awesome. We met all of our neighbors as we served each other. The lady who lives right across from us had been out since 6am digging out her neighbors. She was able to tell us some strange stories about our house. She was happy to find out we bought it and that we're planning on fixing it up. It was the "bad" house in the neighborhood.

After dinner we decided to venture out and look and Christmas lights. The Spokesman Review online has a list of "must see" homes. We only made it to two because of all the people stuck. While on the South hill we pulled a mazda out with Bo. Once we got downtown we went to Safeway to get some treats for DJ's work party today, but they were closed. We noticed this woman with a bicycle starting to leave. I knew she had a long ways to go and she wasn't going to get there with how deep the snow is, so we asked if she needed a ride. She lives in Medical Lake but was stranded in town because the buses stopped running. So we drove her to a couple of shelters, (Salvation Army was closed! I couldn't believe they were closed). After we got her to a safe place we saw another car stuck trying to get out of a parking lot. So Bo went to the rescue. The snow plows pile up the snow in the middle of Division, making it a two lane road, but we needed to cross Division to get to this car so DJ sped up and we plowed through the pile. We hit hard on the other side, but I think the point to be made is we made it! So we got them pushed back into the parking lot and saw two more cars stuck. One had stopped to helped a cute old man and now they both were stuck. So with the help of a 4X4 truck we were able to pull the two cars out (I'm pretty sure he cracked one of them though). The guy in the truck was not good in the snow. He's one of those people that thought because he had a 4X4 he was invincible. Well he wasn't and he got stuck. So we pulled him out with Bo. HAHA! It was so great. Had to help one more person as we came up Division but then we were home! We almost felt guilty knowing that there we many more stuck because they didn't realize that their car couldn't make it. But we were tired. It was around 11pm. We had rented Enchanted but both of us feel asleep before Amy Adams met James Marsden. After DJ's work party today, we're looking forward to doing it all over again.

I used to be a sceptic, but now I completely believe in the abilities of Bo.