Bear Lake

I love going to Bear Lake in August. Its so pretty and the water is warm with the most amazing turquoises color. It was the Nelson reunion (minus a few people) and it was lots of fun. The best part of all was that Lucy had TONS of people to play with and give her all the attention she demands. Again, more pics...

Wise River

Over the 24th of July we had the opportunity to go to Wise River, Montana. Ever heard of it? I didnt think so. Thats probably because the population is about 5. Our cabin was literally in the middle of nowhere, a few miles outside of the booming metropolis that it was said to be located. But it was AWESOME! Not only did we have the river right out our back yard but there was a private stocked fishing pond and all the fresh air you could handle. It was gorgeous. We played a lot of Skip-Bo, ate lots and lots of yummy food and just relaxed! Here are some pictures that I know you are dying to see ;)

So apparently Wise River and the surrounding areas has a "wolf problem" as well as bears and other animals that can eat you for a mid-morning snack. But this is the extent of our widelife encounters.

 

Lots of elk

Lots of Bald Eagles

 Reenacting The River Runs Through It

 Isnt my little snookie GORGEOUS! These turned out great!

Ama King and my Ty Bear

The big "I" and speech therapy

Since we have been home we have been on a voyage to solve a few mysteries that have been plaguing us for a while. We decided that enough was enough and when we got home from St. George we decided to make a few phone calls to see if we could get any closer to solving these mysterious mysteries that are somewhat concerning. I bet you are eagerly anticipating my great reveal as to what these mysteries just might entail. Well wonder no further my friends.

First things first. I am infertile. There it is. This isn't something that is super secret and it isn't something that I dread talking about. Many people don't know this little fact about me because the topic never comes up and what am I supposed to say "Hey whats up? How are you? Hey did you know Im infertile?! Crazy right?!" Awkward. This also isn't something that is super devastating for me either. I know people who have gone years and years and have a lot of serious problems and have very little hope for a little nugget to call their own. But since I have gotten pregnant before and have a little cutie (who unfortunately is sick right now) I feel that it can happen again. However; Even when I got pregnant with Lucy I had to get a little boost from the OBGYN to help out with the process. But lucky for us one month of Clomid did the trick and bada-bing bada-boom next thing you know I have a little baby in my arms. This time however, this was not the case...

This all started a year ago in May. Lucy was 15 mo. old and that same nagging feeling was creeping up on us again that maybe we should get going on #2. Since I was still traumatized from Lucy's birth, to say the least I was not thrilled nor excited to start the process again. But since I ignored that feeling the first time (with Lucy) for a couple of months and it turned out that we really DID need to get a move on if we were going to have children before we retire. So I sighed and headed to the Dr. Needless to say it has been 14 mo, 7 rounds of Clomid, 7 months of getting blood drawn, one HSG procedure, Tyler's "analysis", about 452 ovulation tests and about that many pregnancy tests and still no baby. Don't get me wrong about the whole "this isn't something that devastates me" business that I talked about earlier. I have had a few days throughout this process that I have been frustrated and bummed out, especially when my Dr said there was nothing more he could do and I would have to see a specialist. At that point I was really nervous. Mostly I was nervous about our bank account, or lack there of, and what it would take finically to get the job done. Insurance doesn't cover squat with infertility, don't EVEN get me started on THAT, and the costs really add up quick, especially when you have no idea how long it will take and what exactly needs to be done. Plus you hear of those horror stories of the people who had to get extremely expensive procedures done and it didn't even work. We were at a cross roads. We even looked into adoption. Really heavily actually. I even talked to a few agencies and at one point we had decided this was the way to go. But a little while later, we just didn't feel right about it and this isn't the route for us right now. I just felt that Im not done having babies and we need to see a specialist. So I made an appt and went to a seminar. That seminar was completely eye opening to me. I found out that infertility was in fact a disease, who knew right?! Also not only was it a disease but it was completely CURABLE! I learned that if you or your partner are not sterile, you can have a baby, point blank. And most of the time, you don't have to have those super expensive and invasive procedures. At that point I was completely confident and super excited.

Currently this is the first month after seeing a specialist (whom i HIGHLY recommend) and we are in the process of getting things done! I found out (it was speculated before) that I do in fact have PCOS, luck for me it isn't severe and my Dr is very confident that she can get us a baby, quickly. I feel really confident too, but realize it still can take a few months.  My current treatment includes a medication called Femara, lots of ultrasounds, HCG injections (that i have to give myself, yikes) and progesterone supplements. So... super exciting right?!

The OTHER mystery that is currently under investigation is with my little darling. We have been concerned about Lucy's speech since about 18 mo. Finally I bit the bullet and called an Early Intervention clinic. We had a few people come to our house and ask lots and lot of questions and evaluate her. Well it turns out that she has to be below 16 %ile to qualify to get help. Everything was GREAT, except her speech, she was exactly at 16th %ile! So she doesn't qualify... Which is great, however kind of frustrating that she is RIGHT on the line but we can't do anything about it. But something cool has come out of this. They asked us if she has a normal diet and she eats well or if we have any concerns about her diet. DING DING DING! Uh, how many posts or Facebook status's have I written about Lucy's eating habits! This has been my #1 concern about Lucy since the day she was born! They even told us that sometimes a babies speech and their eating habits correlate with each other. Again, who knew! So today they sent a feeding consultant over and again asked a ton of questions about her eating and diet. Well she said there were a couple of red flags that makes her think that Lucy isn't stubborn and difficult and it just might be a GI health concern and she highly suggests that we send lucy to a GI specialist. When Lucy was born she had TERRIBLE reflux and she said that most of the time kids grow out of it, but sometimes they don't. Even though she doesn't throw up constantly anymore and we aren't giving her medicine for reflux and there aren't "obvious" signs of it, she may still have it, or have something that is making her scared to eat, because she doesn't trust food that she isn't familiar with because it might hurt her stomach. But it makes total since. The ONLY foods she eats are the ones that are super basic (opposite of acidic) like bread, and cereal, and pb sandwiches. This TOTALLY makes sense to me. However now I feel really bad about those nights that I got so fed up and frustrated with her and screaming and tears for hours and hours, all because I thought she was just insanely stubborn. She was probably trying to tell me that she is scared to eat the food because it will make her feel yucky. SORRY LUCE!! So yet again, another specialist is in our forecast but they can't get her in til SEPT 11!!! Holy smokes! Hopefully they will quickly and accurately diagnose her problem and it WONT be severe. However I feel like we will still have a long road ahead of us because even if we do get the problem solved, how are we supposed to convince her that its ok to eat now, and get to her try new foods... I guess I just eat the elephant one bite at a time right!?

Half way through Summer

    As I wrote the title for this post I realized it probably wasn't the best title to choose because for some reason my wife gets really freaked out by the passage of time, especially summer. I've tried to figure it out and the best answer I get is that the faster the summer goes the closer school is. But Jody hasn't been in school for over four years so I'm not sure why she has so much anxiety about this subject!  But anyway it is pretty crazy to think that the summer is half way over, its weird to think that 2012 is half way over.
    Its been about a month since our last post so I thought it was time to catch everyone up on what we are doing. So for the past month I have been apply for jobs, mostly on campus because they have the most variety and they understand students needs better than your average employer. I applied to everything, research assistant, secretary, janitor, you name it I applied to it. One of the most painful things about looking for a job besides not earning any money is how long it takes for a job to open, interview, close and for the powers at be to decide. I always tell Jody if some day I am in charge of the interview process I'm going to let them know the second they out or the running or give them a firm date when they will know. The waiting is the hardest part of and I had to call some of the jobs to ask if they were still considering me and they had hired the job over a week earlier! Towards the end of the month I was getting desperate so I decided to go apply to the Marriott Center. I've had quite a few friends work there and the best things about them is that higher anyone, so I felt pretty good about my chances. But whats funny is the day i decided to go apply for the Marriott Center a new job popped up on the BYU board. The job was BYU Visual Communications to be the Social Media Coordinator for the BYU Center. I quickly applied because between my previous job experience I felt I had a pretty good chance. Finally after a week of waiting and two interviews I got the job. So now I am in charge of the Social Media Advertising campaigns for the BYU Salt Lake Center and I helped a little bit with EFY's Social Media. It's a lot of fun and everyone I work with is great, the main challenge is helping some of the older generation realize that social media isn't a fad and BYU needs to do a better job of creating an online social media community. I started this past Monday and now I've created  Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube, Instagram, and Google + accounts. I think I have all of my bases covered if anyone knows any more let me know! I will work here through the summer and when school starts and do this along with my Research Assistant job. Its going to be a busy fall but the best part is I only have two classes!!  I'll probably have to write two 30 page papers but that really isn't too bad anymore.
    We have a crazy July and August so we will do our best to take pictures and blog about it as we go. This week we have a bunch of different 4th of July acitivities and I'm really bummed we didn't get Stadium of Fire tickets because were both huge Beach Boy fans!  Our ward is having a "Street of Fire" on the 3rd. We will try to not start any new forest fires but your lawns may not be safe. The following week were headed up to Logan to visit my family and to ride in the first annual Grand Fondo, a 50 mile bike race that goes around Cache Valley. When I say we I mean me and my mom and dad. Jody and Lucy will be the cheerleaders at the finish line. I've been biking about a hundred miles a week to get ready but never 50 all at once. I need to get my biked fixed though, after i got home from my ride my front tire went completely flat!  After the Grand Fondo we are off to Dillon Montana, random I know but my parents know a guy who is a massive cabin that we are going to stay at, Jody is already on bear watch. Then the week after we get back we are off to Bear Lake for my dad's side of the family's reunion. In August we are headed back to St. George to see Aladdin and then school starts! 

Summer

We are officially back from St. George. It was a short lived moment we had there, but great non the less. But we are sure glad to be back to Provo. I honestly didn't think I would miss it. I mean we were only gone 6 weeks, but I have to admit, I kinda missed the ol' Utah county. I guess it just feels like home to me, and its always good to be home. I am glad for the pretty mountains and provo river. I am glad for the more mild temp (compared to St. George) and how much more humid it is here. Don't get me wrong, Provo is dryer than a bone compared to most of the country, but St. George is dryer than dryer than a bone! We are glad to be by our friends and closer to family. I think the thing we will miss from St George is the fact that there are TONS of bike trails right outside our door. We got really into biking and its just so convenient there and we don't have to worry about the wretched traffic and driving on the street with Lucy towing behind in the trailer. Also, lets not lie, we will definitely miss the home we stayed in. We were spoiled beyond belief with all the space and high tech amenities that I don't have (like a Kitchenaid, and Ninja, bikes, yard, King sized bed, and the list could go on for pages). We are just super grateful to Ty's parents for letting us stay there and bum off of them for the time being.

I love summertime. I just love it. To me, there is nothing better. It just seems like life is a little more laid back and everyone is more loose and fancy free. I love how pretty it is and how good it smells outside with all the flowers and grass. I love that I can go outside without a coat, and we can go swimming, have bbq's, outdoor parties. I just love it all.

Weekly Ramblings

    It's crazy to think that we have been in St. George for over a month!  Its funny how when you move to a new place time seams to speed up and then after a while get back to normal. I think we are all settling in to a routine here in sunny St. George but Lucy has been the best at making new friends. For the past couple of weeks our neighbor's daughter has been knocking on our door, she can't talk or anything she just rings the doorbell and stares at us when we answer the door. At first we didn't know what was going on until one day Lucy got to the door before me and before I knew it they were both heading over to our neighbors house to play which goes to show that Lucy already thinks were not very cool and is looking for someone else to hangout with!  She's been sick the last couple of days at first we thought it was allergies but now we are thinking she may be finally cutting her last few teeth, I swear that child could be from the south with the lack of teeth she has. I feel bad for her because she won't drink her medicine so she has been miserable the last couple of days. Though I think Jody doesn't mind because the only time Lucy will cuddle is when she doesn't feel good. We tried everything to get her to take the medicine, I even put it in ice cream but that only worked for a few bites until she figured it out. But other than that Lucy is having a great time here but I'm afraid she is going to be in for a shock when we have to go back to provo in July!

     Jody is doing great, she has started a sewing club with our sister-in-law Stacey and family friend Nicole. I have no idea what they are making or doing but there having fun so I guess thats all that matters. Both Jody and I have really gotten into biking over the last month. My parents have a bunch of bikes here and even a little kid trailer for Lucy to ride in. Though she is getting a little spoiled because now she has to have her own water bottle, books, and my iPod for her to come with us on our rides.  There are a ton of trails near our house so its been a lot of fun to go out together and explore St. George. I think what we both like about it is that afterwards you don't feel like your bones are going to fall off like they do after you run and its actually fun. We want to get some bikes when we get back to Provo but were not sure where we would put them. 

    I'm still going on strong with my internship with Dixie State, its not as structured as I thought it would be, for the last three weeks I've been on my own but I've been able to keep my self busy researching adverting and social media campaigns other universities use to increase attendance and community involvement, so now I have to put it all together so that it makes sense and see what things we can do here at Dixie State. This weeks main adventure was taking down all of the signs on the fences that surround the baseball field. At first I didn't think it would be a big deal there was only about 8 left but then I found about thirty more and three and half hours laters in the 100 degree sun I was done. And I have to admit for the first time in my life I broke into and trespassed but I rationalized it because I needed to get into the actual stadium to get all of the signs, I just didn't have a key!!

     We haven't had too many adventures this week but we did try to find some ducks to feed but every pond is on a Golf Course and I really didn't feel like getting chased by rent a cops on golf carts because if Duck Dynasty has taught me anything its that when the lights start flashing its every man for himself. (Duck Dynasty if you don't know is one of the greatest show on television today, check it out at 8pm on A&E, you'll thank me later!!)

    I think that about sums up our week, here are some fun pictures!!!

          This is what i found when I got Lucy one morning, yea not sure if we are ready to move her to a           big kids bed!!

                              These are the cinnamon rolls that I "made" for Jody for Mothers Day.

                        I actually did make this dinner, but don't worry Jody was there to supervise!

                                                                   My cheesy girls!! 

The Kings of St. George

We keep saying we need to update our blog but it seems like life always gets in the way and before we knew it two months have passed by!  I guess the best place to start is with the end of school. I have completed my first year of grad school at BYU, man it was tough last couple of weeks. I don’t know what its like for other grad programs but for communications at BYU we didn’t have any finals just three twenty page papers. I already miss they days when I thought a long paper was 8 pages, now a short paper is 15!!  But we survived. Jody and Lucy were awesome those last couple of weeks they sacrificed a lot for me to be at school full time so I could get all of my papers finished. I have to admit I was a little nervous starting grad school in a subject I had only taken a few classes during my undergrad but I had great professors and class mates who really helped me catch up and didn’t look at me like I was a complete idiot when I didn’t know what spiral of silence theory was or how to use SPSS. 

So here is the game plan going forward. I have my committee all set up and this summer I start writing my thesis. My thesis topic is about advertising recall and brand loyalty which means I’m going to have a group of people at every home football game and after the game I’m going to have them complete a survey that asks them what ads did they remember, what about those ads that made them remember and finally did their opinion of the company who owns the ad change because they advertise with BYU? My thesis has to be a hundred pages long and a large chunk of that is my literature review, which is were I basically find everything written about this subjects already and give a history of it.  This Fall I collect my data and then winter semester I’ll crunch the numbers and defend my thesis and hopefully graduate in April.  But before all of that takes place I needed to get some more real life job experience so on April 19 we moved to St. George Utah to work as an intern for the Dixie State Athletic Department.

We love St. George so we jumped at the chance to live and work down here. Both Jody and I love being warm and Lucy can’t get enough of playing outside, it’s a daily battle to get her to come in for dinner! My parents have their retirement home here so they have kindly let us stay here, which is awesome. The house is in Santa Clara which is a small town connected to the western part of St. George. It’s really nice to be able to go to the store and not have tens of thousands of college kids running around. Santa Clara has some amazing bike trails, which we have already taken advantage of and Lucy loves to ride in her bike trailer.  Our first week here we went to Las Vegas just for the heck of it. I had never been so I wanted to see it for my self and I can safely say my Vegas canteen is full and I don’t ever really have a desire to go back. I mean if we got tickets to a cool show then I would go but besides that I can’t really think what we would do there. But it was cool to see all of the casinos and sites in Vegas. I was tempted to play the slots but I refrained but it would have been hilarious if I had won.  We even swung by the Pawn Stars shop on the strip but the line was out the door so we just drove by.

We also hiked Snow Canyon, which is just by Tuacahan in Ivins. Snow Canyon was awesome and it was Lucy’s first official hike. To say I was worried would be an understatement, not that she wouldn’t have fun because she did but because my daughter loves to explore and the last thing I wanted was for her to start chasing some lizard and run in to a cactus. Luckily she avoided all of the cactus’s and she had a great time. Though it was pretty funny to see as we were walking about to the car, she just was so worn out she collapsed into my arms and slept as we walked back. For those of you who know Lucy you know this never happens!! But Snow Canyon is awesome and we need to go back and explore more of the trails and canyons.

Lets see what else, we celebrated our 4 year anniversary with a trip to one of our favorite places in Utah, Anasazi. They grill your steak on a rock right in front of you and they have the best chocolate fondue I have ever had and it was just fun to be on a date together. We also stopped by the Ironman finish yesterday, Jody and Lucy saw the first runner come in but I missed it because I had to get to a the last Dixie State baseball game. It was pretty incredible to see these people compete in the race, they just looked like they were in pain the whole time. For those who don’t know and iron man race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and to finish it off a full marathon. Yea I would like to do a sprint triathlon but not an Ironman I don’t think my body could handle it!  I think that about sums up our last couple of months, we will be here in St. George until the end of July and then its back up to Provo. The other day Jody and I were talking about if there was anything we missed about living in Provo and they only thing we could think of is all of our friends who we left behind so here is just a big thank you to all of the amazing friends we made in Provo over the last four years and if anyone wants to come hang out in St. George they have a place to stay!!