Vegas Weekend

Off to vegas today to spend conference with Nick's parents.  Hopefully Tristan is a good baby for the car ride.  Baby travel is bulky!  Carseat, stroller, pack'n'play, baby bag with diapies, wipies, clothes, blakets, burp rags…..pump bag, diaper bag, travel bag with nick and sara clothes, trash bags full of toiletries, church shoes and baby quilt.  Wow, we moving again??

Anyhoo, should be a blast!  We're staying in a giant hotel with an aquarium, haha, the first thing Nick pointed out to me.

Hopefully Suki won't get too lonely, she will have Will here.  Sadly after much deliberation, we decided a friend for her wasn't necessary.  Especially since her friend pottied in front of her litter box instead of it in.  What is wrong with these cats?  It's like Suki excretes a pheromone that makes them potty on the floor.  And since Rajah moved to Ogden, Suki has been at our door every minute of every day…."meooooow, meeooooow, meeeeeeeeeeeooooooow!!!" "Shut up Suki!"

Yeay for a fun weekend!

Baby Picture Update

Half asleep

Why not be a little pooper? (poor constipated baby)

Feet!

They are more fun than toys!

Especially when they make it to the mouth

Challah, Nick says the best bread I've ever made!

AlaskaUSA teddy bear

So exciting to play with!

I'm growing up so fast mom

Slipshod job

I just spent the last 6 hours without power.

Why?

Because the electric company is stupid.  Let's see…..when you ask to start service for a certain address, wouldn't it stand to reason that the bills be sent to that serviced address?

Apparently not.  Silly me.

We hooked up gas and electric on the same day.  The gas bill made it to us last week, so we kept waiting for the electric bill.  Provo city is always about a month  behind, so we figured the bill would be along shortly.  Nope.  So this morning, out goes the power.  What the heck???  We called, talked to a lady and asked what was going on.  She then told us we were delinquent in payment (really?) and said that our bills were being sent to an address in Orem.  Hmmm, address in Orem.  You guys don't even service Orem!  Then she told us that they had tried to contact us by phone.  Nope, no one had.  So after a lengthy conversation with Nick, she said she would expedite the matter to get our power back on.

I wasn't satisfied.  I called back and asked to speak to a supervisor.  After explaining the situation, that we aren't lazy nonpaying people, he admitted openly it was their fault for sending the billing statements to Orem, and apologized again and told me that they hadn't even tried to contact us other than bills.  Oh, so your employee lied to us?  Yes, I'm not sure where she got her information.  Nice.

5 and a half hours later.  "Hello?  My power still hasn't been turned back on, what am I supposed to do?"  "Well, you should pay your bills."  "Um, you are obviously not the person I spoke to this morning, so you have no idea what's going on."  Pause.  "Let me check on that for you."  Hold……..another supervisor.  "Hello?  My fishies are going to suffocate, my food is moldering in the fridge and I can't blend my food to eat and I'm breast feeding."  "Your food will be fine, just don't open the fridge.  And the most important thing is to drink water."  Um hello, I didn't call for breast feeding advice, I called to get my power turned back on.  So after explaining the situation, YET AGAIN (and that I'm an MA, i know all about breastfeeding basics), she told me AGAIN it was impossible to get in contact with people in the field.  "Really?  They don't have cell phones?  I find that hard to believe." Pause.  "They are servicing in the order they are recieved."  "So they are turning power on and off for people probably moving in and out, empty apartments, I'd say mine is more important because we have things depending on power and it wasn't our fault.  We were given no notice, and were not even warned about our power being turned off.  That is very unprofessional."  Pause.  "Let me see what I can do."  Hold………"The best I can do is an hour and a half."  Oh!  So you can get in contact with your field people!  ………   "I guess that will have to be fine."

Really?  Bunch of smarties you got working for ya, Provo City.  First of all, what the heck??  They were sending our bills to our address from a YEAR ago in Orem.  Second of all, they lied about trying to contact us.  Thirdly, they gave us absolutely no warning about power being cut.  And fourth!  They had it under my name….my maiden name.  Hmmm, considering that Nick set it up this time, and gave them the address (they must have had it on file because they knew where to turn on and cut power….), I'd say they are a bunch of idiots.  We're not bad people who don't pay our bills!  If it had been a matter of money, we would have called for an extension.  And since the gas company had no problem sending us the bills last week, we figured the electric wasn't far behind.  And why the heck were they billing to an Orem address?  I still don't get it.

Oh well, no matter, the power is back on now, obviously, I'm blogging….but I'm still mad.  Almost as bad as us being send to collections because IHC doesn't know how to bill.  It took 6 months and 10 calls to get that one straightened out.  And every time, "we'll take care of it, we'll take care of it….oh by the way we sent you to collections." Um?  No!  I had coverage, I have the card, here is the number, call the insurance and see for yourself.  Finally got taken care of when they actually called.  Imagine that.

Man, if you are going to do a job, do it right!  Take pride in your work,  do it right the first time!

Film that turned out

Well, for the most part, only one Tristan picture turned out….sad

Plaster head

Grrrr

So either I have issues, or something is wrong with my camera.  The only thing I can think of is that silly aperture setting my dad told me to use.  It appears that with that setting, none of the pictures turn out.  There's not even anything on the negative.  But I'm confused, because when I was taking the pictures, I noticed it halfway through the roll and changed it to 125.  But that would mean the first picture was taken under A, and it turned out just fine.

So confused.

At any rate, I called Allen's photo to see if they had any idea what had happened, because I thought maybe something had gone wrong in the development process.  The guy there said it was probably something wrong with my shutter, and to check the settings or take it to a Nikon specialist.  Eh, maybe this whole film thing isn't really worth it.  I'm super disappointed though, I want to take more film pictures, but not pay to have only 1 or 2 turn out.  That's really stupid.

On another note, Tristan got fitted, well plastered, for his helmet today.  Poor dear, haha he screamed the whole way through.  First the doctor took a pantyhoes kinda thing, cut out a hole  for his face and put it around his head and neck.  Tristan wasn't too excited about that, but did ok.  Then he put another one on. Then rolled plaster coated gauze around his head…..Tristan hated that!  Then we had to let it harden before cutting it off.  Poor baby.  He fell right to sleep afterwards though!  We get to go back in two weeks, by then the doctor will have built the helmet and we'll get to have it fitted perfectly to Tristan's head. He probably won't like that either.

waiting for the doctor

and eating a ring, yum!

little bank robber

or skier, whichever

yeah, he's mad, plaster is hard to get off…..

exhausted and ready to go home

Premie Stuff

As most of you know, Nick and I met and dated before his mission.  It wasn't conventional, he was in Provo, I was in Rexburg.  So everytime we got together, I would write a novel about it….seriously, I think one was about 30 pages long.  I wanted to document everything, so I would have something to read and remember while he was gone from me.  One time, I asked him to write what he thought about our weekend together, and he did.  It wasn't nearly as long as what I would write by any means, but it still touched me.  I have been going through our old files, and found it, so I thought I would share it.

"This weekend started off with me and Chris waiting for Amy to get to the car so that we could leave for Idaho. She finally go to the car a few minutes late which to me seemed like a lifetime because I hadn’t seen her for two weeks and as far as I’m concerned that’s much too long for this romantic’s heart. So we headed up and out of Provo with one minor stop at a Korean food market. They had all sorts of crazy foods in there including a juvenile Wahoo which is a really, really cool fish that I hope to catch one day. We took off from the market around 3 or so and were on our way down the long, straight, and rather desolate highway to Rexburg. Along the way we saw huge herds of antelope returning to the far north from their winter migrations. We also saw a few small packs of mule deer which is always fun to see, well because I’m a nature loving freak, but that’s beside the point. We finally made it to Rexburg around 7ish, I can’t really remember. And, as we were entering north campus our headlights went out scaring the crap out of me. The then came back on but only in flickers. It was a blessing that we were so close to our destination. We pulled up outside Sara’s dorm and I hurried Amy out of the car and even carried a lot of her stuff to make things quicker. I knocked and heard a “come in”, so I did and to much of my surprise Sara wasn’t hiding, she was right in the living room waiting for me, I assume. I threw my stuff down and gave her a huge hug. I missed her so much, which is probably why as we neared Rexburg I couldn’t sit still in my seat or stop saying how excited I was. I was so glad to have her back in my arms. I love that girl. Anyways, Daniela was making food from Bulgaria for dinner which was absolutely delicious. And as we waited for dinner we clung together and she was elusive with her lips for like 15 minutes but promptly broke down and gave me “a good one”. We grabbed a piece of the Bulgarian pie thingy and sat down on the floor together. I love relaxing and eating with her, it makes it feel so…grown up and meaningful in a way, it’s hard to explain... now due to time constraints I’m going to just describe some of the best of the already best weekend ever.
…Friday night was like Christmas morning… it was like coming down the stairs and seeing what you’ve waited a whole year to get from Santa. Only with me… it was coming through a front door of an apartment and seeing the love of my life standing in front of me and our Father in Heaven the one to thank for bringing us together… I hugged her and took it all in, and was in all actuality anticipated before I knew of her… so having her back in my arms Friday night was definitely a highlight.
…I loved Saturday morning with Sara… we walked to Walmart hand in hand… just as any young married college couple would… we got there and looked at shirts for her and walked around… it was nice… almost like a foreshadowing of a sort… I can’t wait until this becomes common place…
…Friday night is something that is probably outlined in the BYU Idaho honor code as a violation… but its worth a detailed account… or at least a certain tree deserves mentioning… it was rather cold out… and we had been wandering around after being kicked out of a building because time grew too late… and as we were wandering I mentioned that I hadn’t seen many benches to sit on at her campus and just as I said this we found a set of 5 or 6 of them on this tiny hill thing next to a building. In the middle of this arrangement was a single tree that didn’t remain lonely for long… she wanted to stand and as I leaned on the tree the best kissing I have ever experienced or heard of took place… it was deep and loving as well as passionate… I love her… and as I rubbed the back of her neck and held her tight… I knew it… and I’ll never stop knowing it."

The first time he came to visit me in Idaho, I was so terrified, I hid in the bathroom when he got there and wouldn't come out for like 15 minutes.  Haha, I was so silly.  But I'd only met him once at that point!   So that's why he made that comment about me waiting for him in the living room.  Another thing, our first weekend together, we walked into town and passed a creek, and he showed me all the ideal places to cast your line.  I should have seen it coming then (his obsession with fishing…) haha but I sure didn't.  We used to talk about what life would be like, what our kids would look like…..things like that.  So it's funny to me that 6years later, we are married and have a little boy, and trips to walmart are definitely common place.

And then something funny I found in my journal from 4 months before he left on his mission:

"Cambrie’s older brother told him something very disheartening yesterday.  He said that I would stay interested and intent only about a year, and then it was gonna be over.  And I was all, Nick, I’m going to wait for you.  And he was all, you’d better wait for me.  Actually he said it sadder than that.  It was like he believed I wouldn’t wait.  But I’m going to.  I love him, and I’ll never stop loving him.  I mean I get people all the time who tell me I’m not going to wait, or that when he gets back he’s not going to be interested in me anymore.  And that’s just as discouraging to me as people telling him I’m not going to wait.  And he told me not to worry, because he knows what he wants.  And I was all good, because I know what I want.  And I want him.  No, we’re going to be fine.  I told him that we shouldn’t listen to anyone, that we can do it.  I mean we used to wonder what it would be like to sit together, and we used to look forward to holding hands and stuff like that.   Why not look forward to marriage and have the same result?  I think we’ll be fine.  Besides, I want my babies to look like him."

You know that song from Oklahoma?  The one Ado Annie sings with what's his butt?  And he talks about building a home big enough for two but not for three?  Then she sings "supposing that we should have a third one…." "he'd better look a lot like me" "the spittin' image!" "he'd better look a lot like me!"  Nick used to sing that to me when I was pregnant, haha.  Before he left on his mission, I had a dream we had a little blond boy with Nick's ears.  Good to know everything came true!

It could be better if...

Nick and I were talking about this the other day, and at first, I was scared to write about it because I thought it would be too offensive.  But he said I should, so here goes.

One of our favorite shows to watch is The Biggest Loser.  I love watching the transformations in people, seeing them succeed at losing weight and becoming healthier and more empowered.  I love the examples they set and the motivation they give other individuals with the same problem.  It makes me happy to see them accomplish something they thought was impossible.  Having never been there myself, I guess I don't really understand how these people got to be obese.

But it's like the trainer Bob says, it's a disease, it's an addiction, and these people need help.  It's a little sad how their obesity is almost glorified, not in the sense that it's good to be fat.  But they get on this show, are idealized for losing weight, and win money for it.

But then I was thinking about something else.  How many obese people are there in America?  How many people are there who eat for recreation, for boredom, for fun, for depression, or just to feel full?  I remember watching another program on the discovery health channel when I was growing up.  This 600 lb woman entered a rehab center to help get her weight under control.  She said the second day she was there, she started having horrible pains in her stomach, and what she didn't realize is they were hunger pains.  She had never felt hungry before in her life.  She recognized how horrible that was, thinking of third world countries, children who's parents had lost jobs and were now wondering when their next meal would be.  And she said that was motivation enough to get her to lose the weight.

Imagine this:  what if people stopped gorging themselves and gave what they would overeat to those who didn't have any?  How can you eat cheese burger after cheese burger, when somewhere there is a little girl licking her chapped lips, wondering if she will ever eat again.  When there is a little boy digging through the trash to find something edible?  When a father looks at his starving family and wonders how he will feed them?  What if American's stopped being so gluttonous, focusing on their own comfort, and helped those in need?  If we all gave of our excess, there would be no world hunger.  If we all helped each other out, children wouldn't starve.

How can we in good conscious overeat, usually things that are bad for us anyways, and not share our abundance with those in need?  I think people should focus on eating healthily, eating less and exercising more, and realizing how truly blessed they are to live in a nation and time where they have the opportunity to help those around them.

Yes, food addiction is a real thing.  But like I said, how much better would the world be if we stopped becoming obese and helped those in need?  That's why I love fast offerings, and organizations like Red Cross, and Peace Corps, and the LDS church welfare and service programs.  Let's all try to give a little more, and take a little less.

And like I said, I have never been overweight, I don't understand the emotional aspects of how people get there.  So I apologize if this did seem offensive to anyone.  But I really do believe that it's unfair how we live sometimes here in the US, having so much, when there are people in less privileged countries, who would never dream of having something so silly as a food fight.  If people remembered that, I think it would be easier.

I love going through old pictures…hehe, weren't we cute?  

Tennis Morning

I played too, but no one took any pretty pictures of me….

probably because I don't look as good playing, ah well