This is why I'm so lucky

My husband's pretty great. And he never makes that face at me. I'd say that I'm pretty fortunate to be married to this kid for ETERNITY and that makes me pretty dang happy.

Wanna know what else makes me dang happy? He served a full time two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Romania. He always sets such a good example for me and his little brothers and sisters. He's the most kind, patient person I know. I've never heard him say anything mean or negative about anyone. He's pretty great.











This picture is a two parter. I love that Ross reads his scriptures every day. It sets a huge example for me because I really struggle in that area. I also love that he loves his family and always helps them. He's so selfless and really does care about his family. He loves his parents, especially his mom. (And he's not afraid to give her a kiss on the cheek even though he's 22) :]











Wanna know how else he's great? He's the best of friends with his brother. And he's ok with being a little goofy sometimes. The key word is a little. He's sure to give me an age/maturity level check sometimes, but he has fun.







I love that Ross is tall. If you know me, you know I love shoes. Really tall shoes. I can wear my shoes and not have to worry about being too tall. (selfish and bratty, yes) I also love that Ross is active and likes to play. I've had a lot of fun going to different games and being his cheerleader. I love watching him.




Wanna know what else makes me pretty dang happy? Ross always makes time for me every single day. He always does his best to make sure I get at least a little bit of attention, no matter how busy he is. He works really hard at all that he does. Lately, he's been especially busy with school and work. He has NO time but he's always sure to save some for me! He's really great at putting a smile on my face and making me laugh. And he doesn't even get mad when I accidently give him a really bad haircut. He doesn't even care!






This is what makes me the most happy though. Out of the millions of girls, I got to be sealed to this wonderful person. We get to be married for FOREVER. And in a few months he gets to be a dad! How great is that? Yup, I'm one lucky girl and pretty dang happy. I love you husband!

I Just Took On a Midwife

What? Yeah, I just took on a midwife. After talking to a few people and doing some homework, I have decided to go natural. Tuesday I went to my Dr. appt with the OB GYN. I was really grateful to have some questions answered, and even more excited to get to see our baby! The main lab area though, where they check all your vitals, and do tests felt like a kitchen in an apartment or something. When the gal drew my blood, I looked away for the initial poke, but then continued to watch. Blood started spouting from there the needle was and I kind of freaked and the needle fell out. She waits a little, and then goes in again, this time a little higher than before. I decide to not look at all. "Oh no, I think it's going to collapse." A few seconds later... "Yup, I just collapsed your vein." Bless her heart. I hadn't eaten all day and was now spinning and light headed, convinced I'm about to vomit all over this poor girl. I did get a couple granola bars and a bottle of juice though! She decides to just work up a lab order so I can go in whenever I'd like to the outpatient lab area at the hospital. Wonderful. Up until my appointment, I hadn't really made up my mind about how I wanted this whole labor and delivery thing to go down. I've had a lot of time to think and do research and have decided to take on a midwife and do things naturally. I think I would actually love to do it at home, but I wouldn't put the neighbors through that. Maybe someday. Wish us luck!
By the way, this is our REAL sea-monkey. It was 1 inch long, and had a heart rate of 178. We love our little blob and are so glad it is healthy and staying put! It's been quite the adventure so far and we're excited for what's ahead.

Ross is getting the best birthday present EVER!

I probably could have organized this better instead of just throwing random thought on here so we'll try this again. News has been leaking so we figured we'd just come out and clear everything up. Yup, it's true! Ross will be getting the gift that just keeps on giving for his 23rd. Looks like all those hot pregnant mamas from Grandview 2nd and all the cute kids we STARE at during church finally got to us. Our little sea monkey is supposed to be done cooking on November 21st and we couldn't be more excited, aside from the throwing up, becoming the pickiest eater on the planet, and lack of sleep of course. Due to the suddent and constant lack of energy P90X is on hold and will now become my 'body after baby' work out plan. So bring on the chubbs! We do want to have bilingual children so Ross has a little while to brush up on his language skills. He's going to be the Hispanic influence.

Name suggestions are more than welcome. We have a few that we like but we're always entertained by suggestions. Well, at least I am. Among the winners that we've heard is "Rupert".

Epic FAIL.

I kept a surprise a secret for six days. PERSONAL BEST. Usually I just spoil surprises within minutes of planning them. So far in our married career, I have managed to ruin Ross' birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day for both Ross and myself. This last weekend was supposed to be so impressive, it would have made up for every holiday and birthday for the next year and a half.

MONDAY: I texted Ross and told him that I had gotten a phone call saying we had to meet with the Stake President this coming Saturday at 1:30. It was a lie. A couple Sundays ago, while sitting in sacrament meeting the bishopric kept looking over at Ross, so it was believable. Like I said, it was a lie. There's an Italian restaurant in downtown Provo that we sometimes drive past. We have heard great things about it and have always wanted to try it out.

THE PLAN: When it came time to go to the "meeting" I would give him directions to the restaurant. Then I would tell him that there was no meeting with the Stake President and that I just wanted to take him on a surprise date. At lunch, I would tell him that we were going to see a play. Really though, we'd go do a session at the Salt Lake temple. (the Salt Lake temple does live sessions.) BRILLIANT plan! I was so excited and couldn't wait!

Later in the week, Ross gets a call from someone in the ward asking if Ross and I can babysit Saturday at 6:30, he says we'd love to. To make sure we'd be back in time, I decided I'd have to move the meeting time.

THURSDAY: We were supposed to get a dishwasher. The guy called and said he'd come between 11 and 1. Well, I'd be at work and Ross would still be in class. So, I had Ross give him a call and reschedule, thinking he'd just come at a later time. I get home from work and Ross says he'd be coming sometime on Saturday, and he'd call Friday night to set up a time. GREAT.

FRIDAY: I'VE KEPT A SECRET FOR FIVE DAYS!!! I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF AND SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

SATURDAY: THE BIG DAY! Ross has a basketball game at 9. I am so excited. Before we left for his game, Ross said our family prayer and prayed that the meeting with the Stake President would go well. He was convinced! Dishwasher guy STILL hasn't called, so everything will work out. While Ross is playing, I pretend to be talking on my phone. During half-time, I tell Ross that the Stake President called and said his wife was in the hospital last night. He asked if we could have the meeting at 11 at his house. Ross was convinced. SCORE.

While Ross was in the shower, I took our temple clothes and hid them in the car. I covered up the shelf where they usually are with a towel so he wouldn't notice something was missing. I got my bag together with a camera and everything so when I'd update our family blog, I'd have pictures and evidence that it really happened.

11:45 Rolled around. Ross was about to put on his tie so we could leave. Then Ross' phone rang.

Ross: "Hello? Yes, this is Ross Loveland. 11:15? Well, my wife and I won't be home, but we should be back about 11:30. Yeah, 11:30. Ok, Sounds great! Thanks so much!"

CRAP!!!!!

So Ross had told the dishwasher guy that he could come at 11:30. I had kept this secret for six DAYS and everything was down the toilet. Ross was all ready to go when I just looked at him, frantically trying to decide if we'd have time to do lunch and make it back before 11:30. Disappointed, I finally just decided to tell him. I looked at him, and said, "Don't bother putting on your tie. There's no Stake President meeting." All week we had been talking about this meeting and how nervous we were and wondering what it could be. Ross just stared and said, "Are you serious?!"

I then told him about my plan. I had kept that secret for SIX DAYS. Needles to say, Ross was impressed and felt special for my efforts.

Dishwasher guy came. e pulled out our dishwasher and told Ross he'd give us time to clean it up. The floor under the dishwasher was revolting. We took out the bucket and Pine-sol and cleaned it. I chose to dump our basket of nasty down the sink. Dishwasher friend didn't tell us he had disconnected the drain. The bucket of nasty was now all under the sink and flooding out from the cupboard. GREAT start to the surprise day alternative.

After the dishwasher was installed and bucket of nasty cleaned, Ross said we could still do lunch. We drove to the restaurant and tried to open the doors. CLOSED till 3 on Saturdays. Whoops.

So then we decided to just walk around downtown. We ate some Mexican and went to a bookstore. It was a HUGE bookstore with a ton of really cool stuff. (like a $1,200 burnt Book of Mormon) There were TONS of super old books and a whole room of just books in other languages. We spent hours there and decided it was our favorite store in Provo.

It turned out to be one of the greatest weekends ever even though absolutely NOTHING went how I had planned. It was fun just walking around, though the salsa at the Mexican place wasn't nearly spicy enough. We would have never discovered that bookstore. I was pretty proud of myself for keeping it a surprise for six days. Though, later I didn't really see the point in keeping it a surprise if nothing worked out. It will be a while before I can out do my personal best. Ross said ti still made up for his Birthday. And Christmas. And Valentine's Day. It was an EPIC FAIL (especially with the Italian place being CLOSED anyway!!), but a really great weekend .

Pumped up and RIPPED.

Well, for the past two weeks Ross and I have been working out. Ross has been doing P90X. Since I'm such a wussy when it comes to working out, I was sticking with the treadmill and Taebo. This week though, I decided to man up and take on the full challenge with P90X. Because clearly waking up at 5:30 in the morning isn't hard enough. After two weeks of treadmills, my pants no longer fit. But we wanted to maximize our results. So according to our fitness goals, we should be looking like this in just a couple months!! The program comes with a nutrition guide, but a girl's gotta eat. I tried it for a day, but after lunch I was starving. We'll have to see if I can actually stick to it. BUT I have found a protein drink that I actually like and that's a start! The ward basketball finally made it to regionals. I guess in previous years, the ward basketball team hasn't been very good. Usually when Ross plays, he gets made fun of for his shoes because they aren't high tops. Someone always warns him he's going to roll his ankle. This week, it finally happened. We thought about skipping church the next day in fear of "I told you so". Kidding. Ross was a trooper, but is now looking at shoes for next year.

Updates

I figured our little family could keep everyone posted on what's going on. Ya know, since we're poor married people and have SO MANY exciting things going on. Ross is now going with Computer Science and still studying languages. Right now he's interviewing for the International Language Program to go to Ukraine and teach English to kids for almost five months next year. I've been working full time at a title insurance company while trying to figure out what to do with my life. In the meantime, I have become a KSL master. We have acquired a piano, treadmill, aerobic rider, P90X, and Jazz tickets. After the Blazers/Jazz game last night, we have decided to potentially become Jazz fans. They were so fun to watch. Especially from out incredible seats in the corner near the top. Ross is playing on two basketball teams this year. (Church ball and IM) So far both teams have a perfect record! One of the rooms in our house is turning into a home gym equiped with weights and pull up bar supposedly to help us with our fitness goals. Ross is much more consistant than I am, but I have decided to go without chocolate for a year and have been flawless thus far. Ross is very supportive and makes sure to enjoy brownies and cake for me.