Close Call

Yesterday did not start out to be the best day in the world.  I had woken up from a very disturbing dream about someone kidnapping Tali and to make it worse, I never found her.  I guess it made me very edgy and I felt like I just had to get out of the house.  

I went to visit a friend of mine I rarely see mainly because she lives about an hour away.  On my way there, I noticed something different about the way the van was driving.  The front driver's side wheel was making a thudding sound as I was getting closer to my friend's house.  I didn't think much of it because I figured I would just check it when I got there (which I forgot to do).

On my way home, I had gotten onto the freeway and noticed the thudding again.  I couldn't figure out what it was, but it was getting worse so I pulled off at the first exit I saw and decided to buy a tire gauge to check the PSI in the tire.  Well, the tire pressure was good but I still could not figure out what was wrong.  I said many many prayers and got back onto the freeway.  About 10 minutes later Brian calls me on my cell so to be safe, I decide to put him on hold until I got off on the next exit.  As I was getting off the exit, my van starts to shake.  Now I KNOW something is terribly wrong.  So I pull into a 7-11 parking lot and try to explain to Brian what is happening.  He tells me to check a few things and I didn't see anything wrong.....at first.  He tells me then to check the weights in the tire and that's when I noticed it.  Two of the five lug nuts on the front driver's side tire were gone.  It looked like they had been snapped clean off. 

I had been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get home.  With some comfort and help from family and ward members I was able to pull myself together and start thinking clearly enough to know what I needed to do.  I had called one of my ward members (who has been like the protective older brother to me) and he reminded me that I had roadside assistance through my insurance.  Thank goodness we had a DVD player in the van!  It came in handy and was able to help calm both Tali and myself down while waiting for the roadside assistance people.

The roadside assistance people came about half an hour later.  They tightened the lug nuts and gave me some pretty scary news.  Apparently not only was it the driver's side front tires lug nuts that were loose, but the lug nuts were loose on BOTH front tires.  The guy told me that had I kept driving on the freeway, I would have lost one if not both tires.  I remember having this awful (probably not realistic) thought of my tire falling off on the freeway, the van rolling over and us getting in a horrible accident.  I wasn't about to put my daughter or my unborn son through that.  I'm just glad I listened to the prompting (and my husband) to get off of the freeway when I did.  One thing is for sure, God works in mysterious ways and I am just SO grateful he was looking out for me along with other people.  I ended up having my van towed home and I am just glad that we are home safe and sound!

Pergola Pains

Today started off as any other day.  Brian and went and bought some things to finish building the pergola and I got things to clean the interior of our van.  While I was doing the cleaning, Brian was trying to finish the pergola before Father's Day.  As I was cleaning the windshield, I hear Brian come outside from the front door as he yells to me "Ames?  Could you come look at my head?  I think I might have to go to the doctors."  Of course that alarmed me so I ran to see if he was okay.

Apparently, he had set the hammer on top of the ladder, forgot about it, moved the ladder and the hammer fell right on top of his head.  There was a lot of bleeding (which happens with any head wound) so I took him inside and grabbed a paper towel and rinsed it in cold water and tried to clean it up the best I could.  It didn't seem bad enough to get stitches, but I wasn't sure.  He started looking pale and feeling dizzy so we took him to the ER.  I wanted to make sure he didn't have a concussion or anything like that.

When we arrived at the ER, they took him back to lay down while I parked the van and filled out paperwork.  He also had some things he had to sign also.

What a good sport!

This is a picture of his damaged melon.

It wasn't too bad though.  I was a lot better than we thought.  He only needed 3 staples in his head.

See?  Not too bad.  Although they did end up giving him a tetanus shot.  We have to go back in a week to get the staples out.  My poor honey!  The doctors did say that he was okay to go to work so I guess he's okay.  I'm just glad it wasn't worse!

Blessings in Disguise

I don't normally post things like this mainly because it's personal.  I don't really like to have stuff like this put out there for everyone to read.  Mainly because I don't want people to worry about us and because I don't like discussing our financial situation with everyone.

The last few days we have been super stressed with all the unexpected expenses of buying another vehicle.  I wasn't sure exactly how we would be able to afford the repairs that needed to be done on the van as well as paying the registration fees, taxes, etc. along with our regular bills and things.  I was so worried with how much everything was beginning to cost, I was doubting that buying the van was actually a good thing.  

Luckily, Brian had been working a lot of mandatory overtime lately but I had no idea just how much that would amount to on our paycheck.  I had complained quite a bit about all the overtime Brian had to do because Tali as well as myself missed spending time with him.  On top of that he was getting very minimal sleep before he had to get up the next morning for school.  Apparently it was all a blessing in disguise.  First, Brian had somehow passed one of his tests that he barely had any time to study for.  Then, as I went to pay our bills recently, I was quite shocked to see that we had just enough money for all the van repairs, registration, etc as well as our regular bills and money for our necessities.  I cannot tell you how incredibly grateful I am!  I was so incredibly relieved that we have been so blessed!  I don't even know really how it happened.  I'm just glad that we are being watched over.  I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father for blessing us so abundantly.  I know that he loves us and that he hears and answers our prayers.  We have been doing our best to follow the prophet's counsel about living providently.  I can honestly say without any doubt that that is why we had been blessed with what we needed.

We were recently thumbing through the June issue of the Ensign magazine and there was a section on Joyfully Living within Our Means (on page 63).  It really gave us some great ideas and helped us be more aware of just how important living providently really is.  

Sorry, I don't mean to be on this soapbox, but I was just so thrilled and grateful that things turned out in our favor.  I know that we were being blessed by our Heavenly Father.  I know there is no other way could we have been able to make it work.

Minivan Momma

It's official.  I have now joined the ranks with many of you other mommys out there.  I am now the owner of a minivan.  I'm a minivan momma!  Today we bought our very first Chrysler Town & Country minivan.  I have to admit it does need some work but Brian says it's really easy to fix.  We had a mechanic run a diagnostic on it before we decided to buy it.  There were some very minor things that need to be fixed from ordinary wear and tear.  The price was well worth it! 

Here is our new/used vehicle.  It was a little bit of an adjustment going from our little Cavalier to the minivan.  It is a very nice change though!  It drives great!  I especially love how much more room it has than our little car!

SOS!

Last night for some crazy reason, I could not sleep.  I don't know I think it might be pregnancy related :)   Tali kept waking up, I kept getting heartburn (which taking an antacid helped a little), coughing up a lung, got up a few times to go to the bathroom, and on top of all that it was so incredibly HOT even with fans going.  LOVELY!  Then, Tali had woken up again around 6:30 ish this morning just screaming.  I go into her room and try to comfort her, change her bum and put her back in bed.  I really needed to get more sleep but she wouldn't stay in bed so finally I just brought her into bed with us.  Around 9am Brian's alarm went off and Tali was still sleeping!  She didn't wake up until 9:30 or 10 am!  That was actually kind of nice until I was informed of a problem. 

 

So for anyone who knows me, knows I HATE bugs, ants and really any kind of creepy crawly thing.  Lately, we have been finding ant hills EVERYWHERE.  I was pulling some morning glory weeds by my front porch and found a whole ton of them.  It was DISGUSTING!  Then Brian had also shown me a patch of grass near our garden that was infested with ants.  GREAT!  So this morning when he informed me that we had some underneath our kitchen sink, I had had enough!  Since we don't have any pesticides (because of Tali and me being prego) I had to improvise.  I first vacuumed them up along with the little crumbs that were there and emptied the vacuum.  They still kept coming in, so I decided to kill them by spraying 409 on them and near the area they were coming in.  It worked, but it probably isn't the best idea spraying cleaner.  I was so frustrated because they just kept coming in!  I had called my mother-in-law to see if she had any ideas on how to get rid of them and gave me this website with a bunch of tips and tricks that have worked for people.  I am hoping that some of these suggestions work.

The other day, Brian also informed me that not only do we have ant problems, but we also have a mosquito problem too.  I guess when he gets home from work, he has to come in our back door because mosquitoes are all over our front door.  FANTASTIC!  We're a little squeamish about spraying poisons and fog sprayers for obvious reasons but if anyone has any other suggestions of how to get rid of ants or mosquitoes without poison I am all ears!

8 Months!

Yesterday I thought I should take my eighth month prego pics before I get too into the month and don't end up doing it.  I only wish Brian was able to take a few with me, but he had to work :(

Here are some of the photos I took.

I call these my pregnancy survival kit: an almond Snickers (or really just any chocolate), chewable Rolaids, Tums, and Pepcid.....for after eating the Snickers bar.  

 Yes, the Snickers bar was definitely worth having to take the antacids!  Mmmmm!

 Ahhhh.  The joys of having a baby.  I completely forgot I'd have to use one of these again.  SO NOT FUN!  Talk about feeling like a cow!  Literally!  Oh well, it's a little too late to be thinking about that now.

  Tali was so adorable!  She actually wanted to take pictures with me!  I had so much fun taking them with her too.

What a sweet girl I have!

Yep.  There is my belly!  I feel a lot bigger with this pregnancy than I did with Tali.  In fact, at my doctor's appointment yesterday, my doctor told me she thinks that little Jairus will be around 7 lbs.  Tali was only 6 lbs 3 oz. so we'll see.  I've already gained more weight with this pregnancy, but was told that my weight gain is average.

Tali of course had to pull her funny face, so I had to join in.

Only 8....almost 7 more weeks!  WHOO HOO!

Memorial Day

This year for Memorial Day, Brian and I wanted to do something different and go to some of the local programs that were going on and experience the true meaning of Memorial Day.  We both have friends and family who serve or have served in the military and we wanted to honor those people (eventhough they are still living) as well as those whom we don't know who have given their lives for this country.

We decided to go up to Hill Air Force Base.  I had never been there sad to say, but it was a really neat experience.  We went to a service up there to honor the fallen Utah soldiers.  Former Senator Bob Bennett had spoken and had honored a woman by giving her a purple heart medal for her brother's service.

After the service, we went outside for a military gun salute...

and a fly over which was really neat!

We then decided to go and check out all the planes and the museum.

 Brian's dad had served in the military years ago and was a Paratrooper in the Special Forces.  He had jumped out one of these planes among others.

Check out my hubby trying to "fix" the jet engine.  What a handyman he is! :)

I of course had to get a family photo...

or two.  This one was taken inside (obviously) the Aerospace Museum.  The museum was really cool I thought.  

This is a full scale model of the first atomic bomb that was detonated at the Trinity Test Site in New Mexico on July 16th, 1945.

 

We didn't get to see everything there because Tali was getting really hungry and tired.  I guess that means we'll just have to plan another trip up there to check everything out.

After we left, we decided to go to IHOP for lunch.

It turned out to be a really nice Memorial Day.

Thank you to all our wonderful military friends and family who risk their lives to protect us every day!  We love you!