Justin Carrie Ryker & Haidyn

We've Moved...

2011-06-06T22:33:00.002-06:00

Check out our new blog at http://GrowingLikeAReed.com All of our old posts and comments have been moved over. Hope you enjoy!

Haidyn Arrived

2011-04-09T09:31:00.000-06:00

On Sunday, April 3rd Haidyn Meri Reed was born at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. Haidyn shares her birthday with her Aunt Candice!
Haidyn is a beautiful little girl and has already brought so much joy to our family. It was a wonderful weekend with alot of the family here and the opportunity to watch General Conference.
Ryker absolutely loves his little sister. He especially likes to show her off to other people.
We are truly blessed to have both of our little babies in our lives. Thank you to the family and friends for all of your love and support!

Birthday Girls

Daddy and Haidyn

Pretty Little Baby

Our Little Family

Mommy and Haidyn

Waiting For Baby

2011-03-28T14:00:00.000-06:00

With Haidyn's impending birth time seems to have come to a stand still. I know this happens often when something as big, life altering, etc as having a baby is about to happen. Heck, it happens when Christmas is right around the corner. But this seems to be worse than normal. I think that is particularly because the whole pregnancy has just FLOWN by! Between moving out of our house, in with my dad, in to the hotel, and then into our home, taking care of Ryker, not going to the doctor till I was 22 weeks along, etc. there has been little time for me to think about the fact that I am pregnant. Before I knew it, I was only a month from my due date! Wow! Where did the time go? But as we draw nearer to the end the time seems to go by so slowly. The doctor originally wanted to induce me late this week but has since decided he wants to check me on Wednesday first. So I guess we will see maybe we will have a baby by the end of the week or maybe we will have another week of waiting...either way I am super excited for Miss Haidyn Meri to get here so we can love her and cuddle her and eventually so she and Ryker can play together!

South Eastern Idaho Shopping SUCKS

2011-03-21T21:25:00.000-06:00

Okay, so my header is a little bit on the harsh side, I know. I would not, by any means, consider myself to be an avid shopper. I shop for things when I need them. I window shop for things when I want them. And I ALWAYS look at the price tag BEFORE I dream about them. Pretty simple. I like to think that most people have a similar shopping style to myself, but maybe I'm just vain?

Prior to moving to Idaho Falls I didn't really think much about the shopping impact this move would have on me. After all, I grew up primarily in Nampa. The big shopping was done in Boise - pre-building boom. So we had the "normal" stuff, but nothing super special. I rarely went to downtown Boise to go shopping. Probably because we didn't want to deal with parking and also because the prices downtown are typically higher since they are specialty shops.

On any given "shopping excursion" depending on what I was looking for or looking at I would hit up the Boise Towne Square Mall, stores around the mall, the Eagle and Fairview district to include Babies R Us, Craft Warehouse, Shopko, Walmart, Marshalls, Ross, etc. You know, the NORMAL stores. If I was desperately looking for something specific, like when we needed to get cloth diapers for Ryker's crazy diaper rash that wouldn't go away, I was able to find several stores that carried what I was looking for. They all had websites, I called, they told me what they had and what the prices were, etc. and I went and purchased the ones that were closest to me at the cheapest price. See, I'm not a crazy shopper.

However, my first real experience at shopping here in Idaho Falls fell far short of my normal routine. It was about 2 weeks before Christmas. Justin and I had decided that we wanted to get Ryker the Little People Click N Fun Barnyard as one of his presents. We had seen them in town and after finishing our list of his other gifts decided that was the last thing on the list.

So I went out searching for Ryker's last present. It was only December 10th at this time, so it's not like I was crazy looking for an item on Christmas Eve or anything like that!

I went to BOTH Walmarts, Toys R Us, Shopko, Target, Sears, JCPenney, and KMart looking for this silly toy. We didn't really want it THAT bad, but I didn't think it would be impossible to find either. All of the stores were out of this particular item, but many of them told me that they were getting new shipments of toys in a couple of days. I decided to look online before going to the stores after a couple of days. Walmart, Toys R Us, and Target all said that the stores here in town not only had the toy but that they had several in stock. Cool, right? NOT! I called the stores where they confirmed exactly what I had seen online. (Yes I called all four stores because I didn't believe them) And then I went out to get our last gift.

Turns out, according to the floor people at ALL FOUR STORES, the computer system was wrong and they didn't have the toy I was looking for and they wouldn't have it until after Christmas. The sales people weren't all rude, in fact I even had one lady who saw what I saw online and began digging through all the new shipment of toy boxes at Target for me. Needless to say, there was no success. Justin and I ended up just changing what we got Ryker. It all turned out great in the end, but COME ON!

Now you be thinking that this is probably just an isolated incident that I happened to get stuck in the middle of. Well, you are wrong. Sorry! I tried to find my dad a four waffle waffle-maker - very specific I know. Anyway, again Walmart said they had it. When I arrived at the store, the sales lady was incredibly rude to me and told me that the ones they showed as available were the two broken ones on the display. When I asked her why those were showing as for sale, since they obviously weren't sellable, she got even ruder!

I know that you have to travel to get anywhere out of Idaho Falls. Heck, that's true for anywhere in Idaho. I used to drive 30 mins one way to work every single day! However, this lady proceeded to tell me that if I was so damn picky (yes her words, not mine) about what kind of waffle maker I wanted then I could drive up to Rexburg or down to Blackfoot to see if they had one. In shock, I politely asked her if she would be able to call either of them to guarantee that if I did drive there I would be able to get this waffle maker. She just huffed at me and told me nope, no one could guarantee that.

Needless to say, I found a different gift for my dad as well.

Here is the lamest thing I think I have seen while shopping here. It's like we live out in the middle of nowhere or something. While we do live out a ways, I think big chain stores like Walmart should be able to keep their inventory stocked. I was doing some grocery shopping and needed to buy some stick butter. Pretty basic grocery store item to have on hand, fully stocked at all times unless there is some sort of stick butter shortage expected in the near future. I kid you not, between the two Walmarts they had ONE BOX OF STICK BUTTER. ONE, not just one of a certain brand or one of salted or not salted, ONE BOX!!! I might be able to let that one go IF there had been like the inventory boxes in the middle of the isles and they were working on them or something. But no, they had simply run out of all their stick butter (at least had let the shelves get completely empty that is)

I am not dissing on just Walmart, that happens to be where I shop most often because, again, I'm just an average every day, cheapo kind of shopper.

Some of the other things that have really irritated me about the shopping over here include the lack of baby supplies. I know this is going to sound wrong, but the area here has a lot of farmers and a lot of LDS people. Both of which tend to have families on the larger side (4+ kids). WHY CAN'T I BUY ANY BABY OR MATERNITY STUFF AROUND HERE???? Every store has a dinky little section if any, but nothing substantial. Even the Toys R Us over here stinks. It's tiny and crowded and lacking largely in the baby department. They have like 2 crib sets to choose from!

I was excited when I saw that Macy's was finally getting a maternity section since Kohl's and Target's sections sucked (3-4 shirts and a few pants - no dresses) but was disappointed again when it was a tiny little section that had the EXACT SAME CLOTHES in it as the Motherhood store just a few stores down in the same mall. HELLO, that is just lame, seriously!

When it's really cold outside, you are 7, 8, 9 months pregnant and you have a 15 month old and want to go for a walk or just get out, I've always found going to the mall or going "shopping" was a good alternative. Maybe I'm crazy, but I like to do that. I have walked the Idaho Falls mall so many times now that I probably could tell you the price of every single item in that place! It's ridiculous. I seriously am to the point where I take Ryker to Lowes or Home Depot because I have paced the mall and all the other stores so many times I am sick of it.

Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying it over here. I miss my family, I miss my friends, I didn't realize I would but I miss my shopping. It is a beautiful place to live and I am sure that being super pregnant, stuck at home with my little guy, and not really having any friends here yet has contributed to my skewed view of the area. However, to any one who is still reading this and especially if you have any kind of power to make things change - BRING MORE SHOPPING OPTIONS TO IDAHO FALLS!!!! They have a TON of chiropractors, dentists, optometrists, insurance agents, realtors, etc. THEY NEED MORE SHOPPING!!!! Don't get me started on the dining around here right now...that'll be a post for later.

Until later, enjoy your wonderful shopping wherever you may be. I know it could be worse, like living in Rupert :-) He he. So I am thankful for the options I have, I'm just not quite so used to the limitations that are set before me!

New Blogging Goals?

2011-03-21T20:48:00.000-06:00

Okay, so here is the deal. I am going to try to expand my blog just a teeny tiny little bit. Up until this point our blog has been about, well us. Nothing more than a digital catalog of our comings and goings. While I've been quite the slacker about it, I want to expand it to be a little bit more than just that. I think I want to start writing more often on things around me, my thoughts, etc. And so I will begin this evening with my first "non-Reed specific" blog but keep in mind everything I post about will be my opinion or information I have gathered about something that does in fact impact my family. If you are curious as to how it impacts my fam, feel free to ask. My brain can be very random and so the connections I see may not be as readily visible to the rest of the world as they are to me!

The Next Few Days...

2011-03-21T17:24:00.001-06:00

Okay, first of all, thank you to everyone for all of your suggestions. We have, mostly permanently, decided on naming the baby Haidyn Meri Reed. Her middle name will be pronounced like Marie, but we used the spelling Meri because she is being named after Justin's mom, Merena so we wanted it to look similar. Also, Merena (or marina) means from the sea and Meri means sea. Who knew? :)

There is always the possibility that we will change our minds on the spelling (we were debating between Meri and Merie) but I think it's going to stick. Then again, my name was set in stone to be Carrie Elizabeth and when my dad went down to call everyone after I was born (this was pre-cell phones of course) my mom filled out the birth certificate and put Carrie Noël on my birth certificate. Surprise! Ha ha! I don't plan on doing anything quite that drastic but I still would like to keep my artistic rights to change her name if we see fit.

In case you didn't know or were never informed/in the know, Haidyn's due date is actually April 7th. However, at our last doctor's appointment we discussed setting an inducement date for April 15th if she isn't born by then. My doctor surprised both me and Justin when he told us that he wouldn't wait until I was past due. He said he thinks the baby is big enough that we should go ahead and induce a week early! He actually made it sound like other than the fact he wants to wait until I am 39 weeks, he thinks she is big enough to be born now!

So at my next appointment, this Thursday, I will be scheduling Haidyn's birthday! We are going to try and have me induced on the afternoon of the 31st. If they can't do that then we are going to shoot for the morning of the 1st. I haven't decided which birthday I would rather she have. If she is born on the 1st, while it is April Fools Day, she and Ryker will be 16 months TO THE DAY apart in age. And honestly having the baby's birthday on the first of the month was really nice! Ha ha!

She could still come early, but I'm just planning on it not being until late next week. HOLY COW, I'm going to have 2 kids come late next week! That's just crazy!!!!

Hope things are fantastic in your neck of the woods!

Name That Baby...

2011-02-08T06:26:00.000-07:00

Okay so Justin thinks that we still have plenty of time to come up with a middle name for Haidyn. However, I want to have all of that decided LONG before we go to the hospital. Unfortunately, every middle name I suggest gets shot down very quickly. But Justin hasn't been able to come up with any he likes either.

So we are enlisting your help! Please send us middle name suggestions for our little girl who is due the beginning of April!

Here is what we have discovered so far as guidelines:
*Since Haidyn is a cross gender name we really want a feminine middle name
*Justin seems to prefer strong consonant names in general (ie, Ryker John, Haidyn, Grayson Charles)
*Number of syllables doesn't matter as long as the name flows
*I tend to call my kids by their first and middle name so it needs to flow well and easily off the tongue
*No middle name is not an option
*Lyn, Noel, Mae, Carrie, Clara, Elizabeth, Clarice, and Lee have all been vetoed already
*I'm not a huge fan of the very common middle names like Ann, Marie, Lynn, etc.

Okay, ready? Go team go and let's find this baby a middle name!!!!

Carrie's New Years Resolutions

2010-12-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

I feel like I really have some things that I would like to work on this year. It's really the first year that I feel that I am actually in control of most aspects of my life so that my resolutions might actually be achievable. In the past I have been too dictated by school, work, or simply the unknown to really set goals for myself - or so I always thought. So here it goes:

WORK DURING WORK HOURS - No more spending time in front of the computer rather than spending time with my family. I hope this doesn't hinder my business too much. In fact, I am hoping that by putting my family first I will be blessed in my business as well. I plan to do this by setting my work hours and being more efficient during that time so I don't have lagging work that needs to be completed last minute.
MAKE DINNER - I know this sounds simple, but I need to be better at planning, preparing, and serving dinner every night. It is way too expensive to go out all the time and isn't nearly as good for you. A side goal of this is to have dinner ready within about 30 mins of Justin getting home from work so our together time isn't spent with me cooking in the kitchen! I plan to do this by preparing a meal plan and shopping 2 weeks at a time, sticking to the meal plan, and starting dinner in plenty of time for it to be ready when Justin gets home.
KEEP AN ORGANIZED HOME - we are still in the process of getting all moved in, but I want everything to have a place in our home and to get in the habit of always putting things back where they belong. Whether it's doing the dishes or laundry, or just keeping the dining room table cleared off, I want my home to be a place that I am proud of no matter when the doorbell rings or who is behind it. I plan to do this by setting a laundry schedule, cleaning up dishes after each meal, and picking up the house during the kids nap times each and every day.
BE MORE SPIRITUAL - this is an area I have always struggled with. I need to do a better job of reading my scriptures, saying my prayers, having family home evening, teaching my children, attending the temple and preparing myself for church services each week. I seem to always be able to find time to check Facebook, work on work, etc. I CAN find time to dedicate to the Lord and to my own personal growth. I plan to do this by waking up before the kids each day so I can have time to read my scriptures and say personal prayer, by dedicating a night for family home evening and preparing the lesson, and by preparing myself for church each week.
READ FOR FUN - I am in the middle of The Work and The Glory series right now. I want to make sure that I continue to take time for myself and read just for fun. I also want to read to the kids for fun each and every day! I plan to do this by reading in my book before I go to sleep each night, by reading to the kids before nap time and bed time, and by taking time to read at random to them during the day. The books are only like 10 mins long each at most, I can do this!
LOSE WEIGHT - ha ha ha, I know what you are thinking. HELLO, I'm pregnant. BUT I will only be pregnant until April and I know what I weighed before I got pregnant and let me tell you - I need to lose weight. SO trying to be realistic and knowing that I will have a worse start than normal, I am setting the goal to be down 20 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight by the end of 2011. No, I'm not going to share with you what that end number is...but I know :-) I plan on doing this by going for daily walks (eventually daily runs would be nice), finding work out videos to do through Netflix, Directv, etc., and hopefully if our finances allow it I would love to get and use the Wii Fit (have the Wii - just need the Fit)

I may add to this as the year goes on but I cannot and WILL NOT delete from it. I may give updates periodically and if you feel so inclined I would LOVE your help and encouragement. Feel free to check up on me and help make me accountable for my resolutions. We all know that it's easier to stick to a task or goal when you have someone to report to.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Reed Family Christmas Cards

2010-12-04T16:41:00.001-07:00

Mod Ornaments Holiday Card

Get custom holiday cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words...

2010-12-03T15:21:00.001-07:00

I know we've all heard that saying many many times throughout our lives. So what if a picture is worth a thousand words? Whoopty Doo! But what does that mean about a personalized greeting card? One that maybe contains a couple of pictures AND words???

I am a huge fan of personalized greeting cards, holiday cards, birthday invitations, etc. You name it, I think there should be a picture of your family on it! The programs that you can buy to create these kinds of personalized memories can cost in the $1000's and then once it's created you still have to try to figure out how and where to get them printed, purchase the envelopes and still address and mail them! Sheesh! No wonder people just opt for the lame standard fill in the blank cards you can pick up at the grocery store!

NOT ME!!! I've been using Shutterfly to purchase all sorts of items since Justin and I got married almost 4 years ago. From photo books to enlargements, we have used Shutterfly for numerous occasions. Most recently, with the birth of Ryker, we started using the Cards & Stationary options that Shutterfly offers. The first one we sent out was for Valentine's Day. Ryker was only 2 months old but had just had some really cute pictures taken. Because his birthday was so close to Christmas we had kind of missed sending out Christmas letters so we opted to send Valentine's Day cards to all of his aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins. They were SOOOOO stinking cute that most people still have them hanging on their refrigerators almost a year later! In addition to how adorable they were, they were really easy to put together. It took so little time on my part that I didn't feel like I neglected my little boy one bit to get them done! They arrived earlier than expected with envelopes and all so I just had to address and stamp! It was a great experience! You can check out all their holiday themed cards by clicking here.

We plan on using Shutterfly again this year only in an attempt to actually send out Christmas cards! Because we only have little Ryker man this year, I want to focus the photo on the card on him! We still need to go and take his picture in the snow, but click here to see the photo card I think we are going to send out! I love knowing that even though we are cutting it close on time, Shutterfly always delivers and I'll still be able to get these out before Christmas!!!!

I have used Shutterfly for numerous other projects. One of my favorites that I want to order also for the Christmas cards are the address labels. They are super cute and since we just moved I think it will be a cute way of sharing our new address with everyone in a legible manner rather than me writing it over and over. Here is a page with all of their address labels!

Seriously, if you haven't used Shutterfly before - YOU HAVE GOT TO TRY THEM OUT!!! Now is the perfect time as well since Christmas is coming and I know most of you are like me and haven't even gotten to your Christmas cards yet - they will save you time AND make you look like you were on top of things all along!!!

Let me know if you decide to use them and what your feelings are!!!!

Our little daredevil

2010-11-20T15:51:00.001-07:00

If You're Happy And You Know It...

2010-11-14T08:28:00.001-07:00

Hitting Axle

2010-10-21T14:44:00.001-06:00

Swimming Lessons 3

2010-10-21T14:31:00.001-06:00

Swinging with Daddy

2010-10-21T13:42:00.001-06:00

Day at the park

Slipper slide

Swimming Lessons 1

Swimming Lessons 2

Ryker taking first steps

2010-10-19T20:45:00.001-06:00

10.5 months

Swinging with Daddy

2010-10-19T19:48:00.001-06:00

Day at the park

Slipper slide

2010-10-11T19:26:00.001-06:00

Ryker blowing bubbles on the couch

2010-10-01T14:05:00.001-06:00

He does this all the time over and over

Moving and Waiting and More

2010-09-23T12:00:00.000-06:00

We are super excited! The Smith family from our ward has decided to rent our house!!! Wahoo! We are so glad that we are able to rent it to people we know and trust! And the best part is their girls won't have to switch schools or wards - which is always scary when you have kids in middle school and high school!
They are in the process of painting all the rooms - the girls wanted blue and pink bedrooms. They are also tiling the front entry, both bathrooms and the laundry room because they had tile from their old house they wanted to use! It looks GREAT so far. Because the house definitely needed it and we really like their family we are also recarpeting the entire house. That should be done on Saturday. So in other words, our house is going to look AWESOME now that we won't live there. HA HA!

Anyway, we spent last week moving out of our house and into my dad's house! We have a storage unit here in Nampa that is SO PACKED! Oh my gosh! I don't think we could fit even one more thing in there. Unfortunately, we weren't able to fit either of our TVs in there either. So get this, we are living in one bedroom at my dad's that already had a twin day bed, huge bookcase, piano, wardrobe, and dresser in it. NOW we have added our queen air mattress, Ryker's pack and play, our clothes, Sadie and Copper's kennel, our tv stand and our 52" tv. HA HA HA it is so stinking TIGHT! But hey, I am just glad that I have a dad who is willing to put up with us and let us live here until we can finally move!

So on to the status of Justin's job and the real move to Idaho Falls. The last we heard it will probably be around the middle of October before his clearance goes through but it could be as late as the middle of November! Yikes! That means that we have to try to extend our closing date on the condo and hope that the seller is willing to do that. Really the house is still technically on the market so it won't be any different and we won't be out our $500 earnest money either.

We had a tense moment with our agent late last week.

Just a little background first. We had planned on closing with Bank of America and a lender that we know and trust here - Toni Wood. However, her underwriters require us to have Justin's first pay stubs. This is standard protocol just to assure that the amount he has been told he will make is the amount he actually will make. Anyway, so our agent in Idaho Falls asked if we would be willing to check out a lender she uses that might be able to have us close Justin's first day of work instead of waiting for his first pay stub. OF COURSE we are willing to check it out. However, I also wanted to check with our lender to see if they can do anything similar for us.

In the meantime, Justin got a phone call from our agent where she told him that she was talking with the listing agent and IF we agree to use their lender then the seller will work with us on the closing date. But if we insist of using our lender then there were no guarantees. Of course, that made Justin mad - we all know how well he likes to be told what to do, especially by the person who is supposedly working for us. He called and told me what happened so my hackle was raised. I called the broker at Group One to get her opinion on the matter. She explained that while it was in fact legal, it was not right to corner us like that and if she were her agent they would be having a serious conversation.

I spent the weekend thinking over the situation and decided that I don't think what our agent said was necessarily what she meant. I want to assume the best and as such I assume that she actually meant that the seller would want to close when Justin starts and not wait for pay stubs. So I emailed her, explained how it came across, and also explained what we hope she meant. I also told her that because it was better for us we did decide to go with their lender, but not because they told us to. I do feel better now because our agent called Justin and apologized over and over again for making him feel that way.

So hopefully things start rolling soon. We will need to paint and recarpet the condo before we can move in. Anyone interested in spending all day painting with us so we can get it done in a weekend rather than over the course of a couple weeks?

Kind of funny, I haven't actually been able to go to the doctor about the pregnancy yet because we don't have any insurance or money. (you kind of have to have a job to have either) I was able to go in to get an ultrasound just to make sure that it was a viable pregnancy, there was only one baby, etc. However, because of Justin's delayed security clearance (well it isn't delayed it just isn't in yet) I won't be able to go in to the doctor until after he starts. I am just about 12 weeks along! Wahoo done with the first trimester and hopefully the morning sickness soon as well. But with that being said, I will be 20 weeks on November 20th. Ha ha, I am thinking that my first doctors appointment will be when we find out what we are having! WAHOO! Ha ha! But really, it's all good. It should make the pregnancy go by faster, right? It's already gone by pretty quick.

Group One has asked me to come and work part time until we move. They need help around the office and it is a lot easier to bring me in then to try and train someone! Really good timing because our unemployment just ran out! It's an extra $900 - $1200 each month!

One last thought and then I'll end this rambling post! Because Justin and I are both done with school (finally) we no longer get free tickets to the football games. HOWEVER we do still have student ID cards that don't expire for another year. So we talked to some of our friends who are still in school and they gave us their student tickets to use. THANK YOU! But then when we were driving home from Twin Falls on Tuesday I received a phone call from the Boise State Athletic Department. We were selected as the American Family Insurance Family of the Game for Saturday's game! Cool, right??? So we get 4 tickets to the game. Candice and Chad had originally planned on coming but then the student tickets sold out. But now they get to come! And we gave our student tickets to some friends who are students but hadn't gotten tickets yet. They will be filming us waving at the crowd before the game and then playing it on the big screen. We are going to take Carter and Ryker on the field to wave too but then we will send them home with my mom so we can enjoy the game :)

So yeah, that's what is going on in the Reed house! Hope everything is going well for you!

Update On The Reeds!

2010-08-25T21:39:00.000-06:00

Okay, so we really haven't been that busy this summer, but it has still been a crazy one! It's actually been pretty fun having Justin home full time.

Justin received a job offer late May to work out at the INL! We are still waiting for his security clearance to go through, but it has made this summer much less stressful!!!

We've had the opportunity to do a lot of shopping and really do whatever we want to! Well within reason, money is still pretty tight.

So what have we done with all of our time? Well we built a really cool chest to hold all of our rockband and gaming stuff. It matches our love sac that we made the summer before we got married.

We have been working on getting the house ready to rent out. It's amazing how different our standard for us to live in and for someone else to live in are so different. But I think that is really because we want to be able to get the most rent possible and the rental market is pretty tough right now!

We are working on relandscaping our flower beds some. I think Justin and Adam have pulled the weeds out front like 5 or 6 times this summer already. Justin finally got the weeds pulled and put the weed barrier down so hopefully we can just put the bark in and plant a few cute plants to finish it up.

We got to go camping just about every weekend in July, that was fun. And I got to witness the birth of my niece Cadence, Ariel and Anthony's little one!

Oh and I guess the most important thing that happened this summer is we found out that we are expecting...again. Ha ha ha! Whoops! We are really excited about this new little baby that will be joining us early April!

So here we go again! Our little family is expanding, we are moving, and we are simply loving life and loving being with each other!!!!!

Ryker and a lemon

2010-08-11T09:24:00.002-06:00

Look at that face!!! But he kept at it!

What Is The Plan?

2010-04-22T16:05:00.000-06:00

I'm sure most of you already know this, but even though I am a mostly scattered and random person, I am in fact a control freak! Whoops! I don't think it's the bad over-controlling psycho kind, well maybe it is. But I like to have a plan. I like to know what is going to happen at least somewhat in the future. And while I may seem random to many, I do usually have a plan.

Yet here we are, no plan in sight. It's an interesting and somewhat frightening feeling that I am sure most of you have gone through at some time or another. You may even be experiencing it right now! For the past 19 years I have gone to school full time, I have worked full time since graduating high school, and as long as Justin and I have been married life has really been pretty easy on us.

Next Friday is Justin's last day of work. He had planned on joining the Air Force and going to training the end of June. However, the officer training classes have been canceled until further notice. So he is still looking for a job and really needs one soon.

I graduate from college on the 15th of May and stay home with Ryker. While that in and of itself is a full-time job, it is not something I am used to.

I am very nervous about not having a plan. But I guess we will just take whatever we can get.

Keep praying and know that there is a plan, it just isn't one that I can see right now!

Aaaaah! :-)

Swim Time

2010-04-22T14:42:00.000-06:00

I have been going to Zumba with my mom the last couple of weeks. That has been a lot of fun! In addition to this, we took Ryker swimming for the first time. He loves taking baths in the regular bathtub and floating on his back. However, the colder swimming pool with echoing children screaming was a whole different ball game. Ryker screamed and cried for the first 15 minutes. He finally calmed down and realized he liked it. By then he was getting pretty blue colored so we had to call it quits. But it was a good experience. We are hoping to go back every week so he will be ready for summer swimming!
Here is our little swimming stud :)

Happy Easter

2010-04-12T14:02:00.001-06:00

Our Easter was pretty low key this year. Even though it was Ryker's first Easter, we spent the day watching General Conference and then went to Grandma and Grandpa Hobdey's for a light dinner. It was overall a really great day to just sit back, enjoy the family, and reflect on the true meaning of what Easter represents.

However, once Grandma and Grandpa DeGiulio got home from California, we had a nice big Easter Egg Hunt and Aunt Joe and Uncle Al's house with all the cousins! It was a ton of fun and Ryker was so funny with all the Easter Eggs.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

Gratitude

2010-04-09T16:15:00.002-06:00

For those of you who don't already know, things have been kind of tough for us lately. Mostly financially speaking. With the birth of Ryker, we made the decision that it would be best for me to stay home with him, which meant giving up my wonderful, good paying job. I have still been able to work from home some, but that is taking a bit longer to get up and running than originally expected and of course the job hunt for Justin has been all but exciting. While things are really tight right now, it has made me stop and ponder what it is I am doing. Is it really worth the sacrifice to be able to be home with my baby all day? I have to admit, I am not the best house wife around just yet. I struggle getting the house cleaned and taking care of other household chores on a daily basis. It's something I am working on improving. So does it really matter that I am home with my son all day each and every day when I could, in fact, be out working my full-time job making more than enough money to make ends meet?

YES! It really does matter! And I know that it matters.

Ryker may not know now, and he may not ever know, how much of a sacrifice we really are giving in order for his mommy to be home with him to hold him when he is sad, to feed him when he is hungry, to put him down for naps, to clean his dirty diapers, and to read and play with him. However, it does make a difference.
I can tell by the way that he recognizes us that he knows that we love him.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that mothers who are unable to stay home with their children or who chose not to love their children any less than I love Ryker. However, I am saying that it is worth the sacrifice. It is worth the struggles and some of the humbling that is required in order to be here with him.

I love this quote from The Proclamation to the World about our role as mothers

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

I love my husband and all that he does for us. I love my dear, sweet little boy and the amazing kid he already is. I love my extended family for helping us and supporting us as we struggle to get on with the real world now that college is over.

I am deeply grateful to everyone that has supported us throughout the years. Thank you for everything and for continuing to be there for us.

High Fives

2010-04-02T23:21:00.002-06:00

Ryker is such a fun little guy! I can't believe how much he has already learned and knows at just 4 months old! He just started giving high fives! We had him doing it over and over again, so finally decided it was time to catch it in action. He is best with his right hand and it is super slow motion. But hey, what can you say, he's a little guy!

Food Anyone

2010-04-02T23:19:00.000-06:00

Ryker was so funny. He has this new fascination with adult food. Sometimes we catch him looking back and forth between the food and us. When he sees us looking at him, he smiles and tilts his head, batting his eyes and flirting a little to try to get us to feed him. Occasionally that works, when it doesn't he starts throwing a fit. Here is a video of him crying in between each of my bites.

Ryker and Grandpa Waite

2010-03-14T22:12:00.001-06:00

It's funny how different people have opinions on who Ryker looks the most like. However, I think across the board most people think he looks somewhat like my dad, Charles Waite. This is especially true when they are wearing the same color of shirt. However, I do still think he has a lot of Justin's features as well. I think it's really just his eyes and his coloring right now that make him look so much like his Grandpa Waite.
When we were at Grandma and Grandpa Hobdey's for dinner one Sunday, my dad was holding Ryker and kept growling at him. Poor Ryker kept pouting and crying in response. It was too funny! We tried to get it on camera, but of course once we pulled the camera out he stopped being so funny. At any rate, here is a video of Ryker with his Grandpa Waite.

Silly Baby

2010-03-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Ryker has this new thing where he likes to run his feet under the running water in the tub. He wiggles his little toes around and just smiles ear to ear. Here's a little video of his tiny feet!

Ryker Rolling Over

2010-02-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Our little baby is sure growing up fast! He started rolling over from his tummy to his back and just a few weeks old. Here he is rolling from his back to his tummy just a few days before turning 3 months old.

Grandma and Grandpa Celebrate 50 Years!!!

2010-01-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Waite's 50th weddin anniversary! In celebration, the family all went to McGrath's Fish House. I was a little sad because Great Grandma had originally said that she wanted to surprise them for their anniversary by coming up, but she passed away on December 18th :( Anyway, we took a moment to look at Grandma and Grandpa's family, here is a list of everyone to date:

Laura Kay, Noelani & Josh, Braden, Kalea, Kylee, Kehaulani, Charles & Lynda, Brandon & Julie, Justin & Carrie, Ryker, Ariel & Anthony, (Cadence), Mike & Micaela, Adam, LeAnna & Randy, Elizabeth & James, Abigail, Nathan & Amber, Viola, Katy & Derek, baby boy, Rebecca, Brian & Holly, Dominic, Julian, Josie, Jimmy, Jake, Megan, & Josh. That's 41 kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids! That's almost 1 per year! :) Anyway, I just wany my grandparents to know how much I love them and I am so thankful to have them in my life!!!

3 Years

2010-01-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Justin and I have been married now for 3 years! It's been so much fun already! We have grown up a ton already and I am loving every minute of it! Since we got married, we have: 1) bought a house, 2) purchased 2 new rigs and a motorcycle, 3) graduated from college, 4) had a 3 litters of puppies, 5) visited Taiwan, and 6) had a baby! Okay, so that is really only highlighting a few of the things we have done. It has been a wonderful three years! To celebrate, my parents watched Ryker and we went and saw Avatar at the movies. I truly am in love with Justin and couldn't have asked for a better husband, father, and best friend!!!

LAME-O

2010-01-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

We did absolutely NOTHING for New Years Eve. And guess what, it was WONDERFUL!!! Just the five of us at home watching movies - Justin, Ryker, Sadie, Copper, and me :) This is a short post, but I just wanted to let you know that sometimes it is the simplest things in life that are the most satisfying! I love my family!

First Family Christmas!

2009-12-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well this was our first year as a family with a kidlet for Christmas! I know that I was way more excited for it than either Justin or Ryker. Oh well! Ryker got presents from everyone and gave some too! We went to Rupert for Christmas Even and Christmas morning. Ryker wore his adorable red butt-flab Cabela's jammies! Then after opening presents and eating breakfast we came back to Nampa to do Christmas with my parents. It was great because everyone was there, even Mike and Micaela! I slacked off, again, and didn't take a lot of pictures. I think Merena and Candice might have more so I'll try to steal them. But here are the ones we did take!

Ryker Meets Santa

2009-12-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Ryker got to meet Santa for the first time on December 23, 2009. The line was FOREVER long at the Boise Towne Square Mall, but we made it! Ryker even gave a half smirk and didn't fuss! Not too bad for a three-week-old!

Guess What...

2009-12-21T16:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I know that I look exhausted in this picture...I am. This was just 18 days after Ryker was born and happened to be the same day as Justin's graduation. I know I'm a nerd for loving my birthday, but I do! Ha ha, so year 24...bring it :)

Graduation

2009-12-20T12:36:00.015-07:00

Wahoo! We made it! Justin is finally done with his Bachelor's Degree! I am so proud of him and all of his hard work. He ended up with a 3.12 GPA - which I think is pretty dang good especially with a job and a family for most of it!

Justin graduated with his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering on December 18th. We are now anxiously looking for a job and hopefully one here in the valley. Although, we are willing to move wherever he can get a job especially with the economy being the way it is!

We had lots of friends and family come to help celebrate his graduation. Thank you all for that and for your love and support throughout our lives!

Slideshow of Ryker's Pictures

2009-12-19T23:38:00.002-07:00

He is SOOOOOOO beautiful!!! I love my little guy! And the photos that Bonnie and G with Once Remembered Photography took are AMAZING! Here is a slideshow of our beautiful little guy!

Just a Recommendation

2009-12-18T15:21:00.003-07:00

Don't have a baby two weeks before finals your last semester in college! We made it through and passed all of our classes, thank goodness. But really, I don't recommend it!
We had Ryker's newborn pics taken on December 5th. Here are just a few!

Ryker John Reed

2009-12-03T15:11:00.002-07:00

He is finally here! Ryker John Reed was born on Tuesday, December 1st at 8:05pm in St. Luke's Hospital, Meridian, Idaho. He weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz. and was 21 3/4 inches long.

We went to the hospital at 6:30 Tuesday morning for a scheduled labor inducement. I was actually happy about scheduling his birthday. No offense to everyone with a November birthday, but I think December's birthstone is a lot prettier...but I am bias and I know it! Everything was all setup and ready to go when we got there, it really was nice! The room they had me in was HUGE!

Getting Ready to go to the Hospital

After they got the pitocin going to induce labor I started having really regular contractions. The funny part though was that I couldn't feel them...not even a little bit! At about 9:30 my water broke on its own and that is when the pain really started pretty heavily! By 10:30 they had my epidural in and the pain was gone...nothing can explain how wonderful an epidural is!

Ryker was born later in the evening, though I didn't get to hold him right away. There was merconium in the amniotic fluid so they had to check him and make sure he didn't swallow or breathe any before I was given him. Poor little guy came out face up with his head to the left so his head was all sorts of deformed. The swelling went down pretty quickly though.

Being Weighed

My first thought when I saw Ryker was that I couldn't believe how much he looked like MY DAD only with Justin's nose! Ha ha ha! Then it set in, I'm a MOM!!! I remember asking Ryker, "Okay Kid, now what???"

We had quite a few visitors come see us in the hospital and actually ended up staying in the hospital Tuesday and Wednesday night and came home around 2 on Thursday afternoon. Justin's mom, Merena, was there to greet us and had made the cutest little gingerbread men/women to welcome Ryker.

"Welcome Home Ryker!"

Merena stayed with us through Saturday, which was so awesome! It was great to have her here to help!

I am so excited our little man is here...Let's get this party started! :)

Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-28T14:34:00.001-07:00

Where to begin? I am so thankful for so many things this year.
I have the most amazing husband in the entire world and I love him so much. He is always there for me and puts up with a lot! I am thankful to have him in my life.
I am thankful for our families and the opportunity we have to be so close to all of them. We both come from very strong families and extended families. That, I feel, is truly a blessing in and of itself.
I am thankful for the gosepl in my life and the knowledge that I have about the Savior. I am so grateful to be able to attend church each Sunday and to know what God's plan for me is.
I am thankful for my home and the things that I have that make my life more comfortable. I know that many of these things are simply for my enjoyment, and I am thankful to be able to have them.

This Thanksgiving we stayed in the Treasure Valley since I was due on Monday. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Waite's for dinner and had a good time with everyone. No baby yet, but that's okay. It was a fun day/weekend.

Justin surprised me on Friday when he woke up at 4 am to go Black Friday shopping for one specific gift for me! We'll see what it is come Christmas :)

Me Thanksgiving Day!

Last Doctor Visit Before Ryker's Arrival!

2009-11-25T09:43:00.005-07:00

I went to the doctor for the last time on Wednesday, November 25th. I had an appointment on Tuesday the 24th. However, my doctor was off delivering a baby, how dare he! He had a different doctor do the check up - bad idea. The subbing doctor was so rude! He told me that I wasn't even close to having the baby and when I asked about being induced he informed me that there was no way he would authorize that and that I just needed to come back in two weeks to be checked. Keep in mind, this visit was already the day AFTER my due date. Needless to say, I broke down and bawled right there in the doctor's office. I totally lost it! I called Justin and then called my mom. She suggested seeing if I could get in to see my doctor the next day. Fortunately, he was able to squeeze me in. Ryker was very sleepy and non-responsive to their attempts at poking and prodding. I had an ultrasound performed just to make sure I wasn't losing any amniotic fluid and that he was okay. Everything checked out just fine and Dr. Agrusa scheduled me to be induced on the following Tuesday, December 1st, if I hadn't had him by then! I am so glad I went in again rather than just waiting two weeks. Mama's really do know best :)

Maternity Leave Begins

2009-11-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

YAY! I am officially on maternity leave! My last day at work was Friday, November 13th. Granted I have still been working about 3 hours a day this week just doing this and that stuff as requested since Ryker hasn't made his debut yet.

I really need to get on a daily schedule though. I find myself wasting the entire day doing pretty much nothing or going out and wasting the whole day shopping with my sister. I'm sure that everthing will change once the baby gets here. But seriously, I need a routine, flexible yes, but a routine nonetheless. That way I will make sure to accomplish a set of things each and every day and I won't be looking around at 7pm realizing that I made a bigger mess in the house than I cleaned up!

Ha ha ha! At any rate, I am super excited to have the opportunity to work from home and to be able to spend time with my baby and just simply to be Mommy! Now if he would just hold up his end of the bargain and come join me we could really have some fun :)

Stupid Hospital Nurse....

2009-11-19T18:55:00.004-07:00

Okay, so I go to the doctor every week now...

On November 4th, my doctor measured me and told me that I was 2 cm dilated and half-way effaced. I guess this is incredibly unusual for first time mamas to be that dilated that early.

SO, when I went in on November 9th, my doctor measured again and said that I was almost 3 cm dilated this time. He also went ahead and stripped my membranes in an attempt to get labor started a little earlier. Justin went with me to this appointment and Dr. Agrusa told us that the baby's head was sitting real low and that the water sac was bulging and about ready to burst. He doubted that we would make it through the weekend. I know that I have never been in labor before, but our doctor told us that if I have contractions 3-5 minutes apart consistantly for 2 hours that I need to go in to the hospital.

Thursday night, November 12th, guess what. Contractions every 4 minutes for more than 2 hours. They weren't keel over and stop breathing contractions, but they were consistant and continued whether I was standing, sitting, laying, walking, etc. So we followed orders and went ahead and went in to the hospital.

It happened that Dr Agrusa was the doctor on call for my office that night.

When the nurse checked us in, she did her thing and then asked if I had been dilated at the last office visit. I told her yes and repeated what Agrusa had told us. She went ahead and measured me to see if I had changed since then. As she finished her exam, she proceeded to tell me that she didn't know where Agrusa got that measurement and that I was only a 1, maybe 1.5, but definitely not almost a 3. You never go backward on dilation, so we just stuck to what Agrusa had told us and she told us she was going to go give him a call.

She was gone for a period of time and then came back in to the office. She informed us that she didn't know where I had gotten that because Agrusa just told her that he had written down that I was barely a 1.5 and not effaced at all. She then told us that he told her to just tell me to go home and wait until the contractions were so strong that I can't breathe, talk or walk through them.

So we left...I mean what are we going to do call her names?

My next doctors appointment was on Tuesday, November 17th. When I went in I had Dr Agrusa measure me again because I was really confused as to what had happened. I explained the whole situation and you should have seen the look on his face!

First of all, when he measured me again he said I was still about a 3 and everything was pretty much the same except that the baby was sitting even lower now. He explained that nurses don't always measure correctly and that she was just stupid to say I was even close to a 1, because I was way more dilated than that.

Second, I guess the nurse NEVER CALLED HIM!!! He said that if he had received a phone call about me on Thursday he would have come in, popped my water, and we would have had a baby because of how close I am and the fact that my body is already so prepared. He was livid that she sent us home and even more mad that she didn't call him.

Anyway, so we are back to square one as far as this little guy coming to join us. My body hasn't really had any contractions since then - a few strong ones but nothing consistant. I can't complain too much though, my due date isn't even until Monday...so we have a few days still!

Oh and if you happen to be in the market looking for an OB/GYN, Dr. Phillip Agrusa at OB/GYN Associates is AWESOME!!! He's got such a great personality and isn't creepy at all (yes even Justin likes him) The office number is 888-0909

Nursery All Setup

2009-11-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would say this, but I think that the nursery is completely setup and just waiting for a new little occupant! Yes, I am a dork and as you look through the photos you will notice that I have picture frames up with no pictures in them. This is because pictures of Ryker and us as a family will be going in them :) Oh I guess there is one last thing that I would like to get accomplished. My mom is just about finished with Ryker's quilt and I plan on making a matching valance to go on the window. That's not done, but that's okay. I can't get started on it until the quilt is done because my mom has my sewing machine :)

Halloween Baby Shower!

2009-10-24T18:31:00.000-06:00

Justin's Aunt Jo and her girls offered to throw me a baby shower for his side of the family in Idaho Falls. Aunt Jo was so funny. She wanted to know if it could be a Halloween themed baby shower because she really wanted to have a Halloween costume party. Ha ha ha! Of course I agreed!
The party was wonderful, the food was wonderful, the company was wonderful, and the games were wondeful! It was a lot of fun and I truly appreciate all the hardwork that everyone put into making the day so great for me!
Here are some pics from the evening:

I'm Allergic to the Baby?!?!?!

2009-10-20T18:18:00.000-06:00

Who ever heard of such a thing?

At any rate, I am definitely allergic to our little guy. I have a somewhat rare rash all across my stomach that has spread down my legs and up my arms. It is INCREDIBLY itchy and super uncomfortable - similar to having poison ivy. The worse part is that nothing will relieve the itch except having the baby.

It's called pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy symptom or PUPPPS. It is actually an allergic reaction to male fetal DNA.

Ha ha ha. I guess if I have to have some sort of pregnancy complications, this is one I am willing to have since it does not affect the baby or me, other than irritating the heck out of me.

I do have to take Zyrtec to help with the reaction, but it just minimizes the itching, it doesn't get rid of it. Oh well!!!

Group One Baby Shower

2009-10-16T17:44:00.000-06:00

Do you ever leave a situation and realize how blessed, loved, etc you really are?

My company threw us a baby shower and the result was just that. It was so apparent how much love and support we truly have from those who I work with! The agents and staff members at Group One really made me feel wonderful. They pooled together and almost completely bought out everything that was on our baby registries. In addition to this, they gave us some cash to spend and threw the party itself.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! Thank you to everyone who helped contribute to such a wonderful day and for making my feel so loved!

Maternity Photos!!!!

2009-10-11T17:30:00.000-06:00

Okay, so one thing that I have really wanted to do is get maternity photos professionally taken. I know that there is a lot of controversy over these photos. My opinion is that motherhood and pregnancy is a very intimate and beautiful thing. Because of my love for photography, I feel that this is a time that I really want to capture for myself and for my family of the beauty of this moment, but it has to be done just right.

I seriously must have looked at every single maternity photographer in Southern Idaho looking for the right look and style that was within our budget. We were incredibly fortunate to be able to find a photographer that we can afford to do both the maternity photos and Ryker's newborn photos!

So here they are, some of our maternity photos! If you don't like them, I'm sorry....I guess you don't have to look at them :)

Baby Shower!!!

2009-10-10T17:28:00.000-06:00

Mom and Ariel threw me my first baby shower! It was a lot of fun! We had it at Grandma Waite's house and ate yummy pumpkin pie and cream puffs...mmm!!! Several people showed up and it was just great to feel so loved. Ryker has no idea how lucky he is to be coming in to this family!

I have some pics that I will have to post a little later (Justin has them on his laptop)

Thank you EVERYONE for coming and making me feel so special!

Surprise Jason Mraz Concert

2009-09-26T17:22:00.000-06:00

So a little while ago I mentioned to Justin that I would LOVE to go to the Jason Mraz concert since he was coming to the Idaho Center. After looking at ticket prices though, Justin and I both agreed that we couldn't really afford to go to the concert. So even though I was bummed, I moved on.

Well, on Friday night, Justin took me to the movies and we went to see something he wanted to see...not something I was really wanting to see (that's how it usually is even though he'll say the opposite) Anyway, it was all good. As we were sitting in the theater he laughed and said that I really do love him for being so willing to go see his shows. That's when he pulled out the tickets to the concert!

I was stoked! Granted, we probably really didn't have the money to go, it was a wonderful surprise!

The conert was great! Jason Mraz is a great performer and really comes across as being pretty down to earth and with the audience...not stuck up like some performers. I had a blast and Ryker really liked the music too. He was sure moving around during some of the more fun songs.

Ha ha, that was Ryker's second concert already! (I was about 10 weeks along when we went to the Dragonforce concert for Justin's birthday)

This kid better come out loving all kinds of music, cuz Dragonforce and Jason Mraz are on pretty opposite sides of the music spectrum!

Anyway, I love my husband and all that he does for me! I truly feel blessed to have been paired with such an amazing man who still knows how to be a kid :)

Time to Upgrade

2009-09-19T17:18:00.000-06:00

With the baby on the way, we decided that we really wanted a 4 door car, rather than our awesome 2 door Accent. The stipulation in finding one was that it had to get as good if not better gas mileage and our monthly payments had to be the same or less.

We found our car! It was located in Walla Walla, Washington, but it was worth the drive. Justin and my dad drove up one Saturday to pick it up. Our new 2003 VW Jetta TDI gets about 55 mpg and our monthly payments are about $50/month cheaper than what we were paying!

On top of all that, Tony and Monse bought the accent for what we owed on it. Great timing for everyone!

The trunk and back sit are a little tighter than the Accent, but it's all good. I'm excited to be getting about 700 miles per tank and super excited that I won't have to try to put a car seat in a 2 door rig!

Sick Mama :(

2009-09-16T15:40:00.000-06:00

My Grandma Hobdey has had an incredibly irritation cough for the past 6 weeks or so. It is so bad that it is literally wearing her out! As I was driving to work this morning, I decided to call my mom to see if maybe she thought the symptoms were similar to whooping cough, as I know that it has made a comeback in recent years.

When I called my mom, she seemed distant, like something was wrong. I asked her if everything was okay. She proceeded to tell me that she didn't feel good and was going to take herself in to the Emergency Room...My mom NEVER goes to the doctor, let alone the Emergency Room! She told me that she thought she might be having a heart attack.

Of course, I panicked and told her not to leave the school, Justin would be there shortly to pick her up and take her to the ER. I called Justin and he headed right over. I then called my Dad and Grandpa Hobdey so that they could meet her at the hospital to give her a blessing.

Mom was obviously not listening as she went ahead and left the school and drove herself to the ER. She was in no condition to drive...she could barely even walk. So when Justin got to the school she was already gone.

It turns out Mom had pancreatitis, which is normally deadly. They said it was caused by a gall stone that got stuck between her gall bladder and pancreas...I guess. At any rate, the only way to prevent it from happening again is for her to have her gallbladder removed. She has scheduled this surgery for November 24, the day after my due date. Baby needs to come early!!!

Fire at Baumgartner!!!

2009-08-24T23:57:00.001-06:00

We decided to go camping to our favorite camp spot the last weekend before school started up again. We invited our good friends, Krystalyn and Neil Bird and their little 3 year old, Tyler.

Bird's couldn't get up there until Friday afternoon so Justin and I got to spend most of the day together just chilling out and really doing nothing...it felt great! Friday afternoon rolled around and they showed up. The weather was beautiful outside, not a cloud in sight and a perfect 90 degrees for awesome swimming!

That night as we sat around the campfire talking there was a sudden flash of lightening. As we looked up we realized that even though there had been no wind, the sky was now covered with dark clouds. We hurried to get everything under the tarp before it started raining.

Just as we were finishing there was another bright bolt of lightening with an incredibly loud thunder accompanying it simultaneously. The rain POURED for about 5 minutes and then stopped just as abrubtly as it began.

As we walked out from the tarp and looked up at the sky, we could see the millions of stars again and not a cloud in sight. Our eyes traveled from the sky down the mountain where we noticed that the whole hillside was on fire!

The lightening had struck a tree on the mountain very near our campsite. We were evacuated along with all the other families that were camping near us. This basically involved throwing all of our belongings into the back of both rigs and hoping that nothing got ruined. It was about 1 in the morning at this point.

We drove across the river and down the road about a mile or two, figuring that if the fire spread that far we would be notified again.

Because it was so late we didn't really want to set up camp again. So we just cleared out the back of our Land Cruiser and the back of their Suburban and each slept in the back of our respective rigs. I highly discourage anyone from doing this unless absolutely necessary...especially when you are pregnant!

I hurt SOOOO bad the next morning. There just wasn't quite enough room to spread out lengthwise or width wise. It was super uncomfortable. Our poor dogs had to try to figure out how to sleep on the front seats with all our crap. I will say, though, that I am happy that we had the rig and we didn't have to try to sleep in bucket seats in a car! That would have been way worse!

The next morning, we went back to the campsite. They had completely evacuated from our loop clear to the swimming hole. They had about 3 spaces left in the first loop that was not evacuated. We set up camp in one of those for the remaining of our little trip.

Unfortunately, although we got to stay there, the hot tub that makes the campsite so wonderful was closed because the fire was directly above it and they were still putting it out for the next 24 hours. Also, we couldn't get to the swimming hole from the camp side of the river. We had to drive clear out and around to the other side for the same reason.

Oh well, it is always an adventure and as long as everyone is safe it just makes it that much more enjoyable!

Last First Day of Undergrad Classes

2009-08-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

Well, today officially marks the last first day of undergraduate classes for both Justin and me! Who knows what the future will entail, but we are definitely looking forward to this semester and the years to come. Hopefully all the hard work, long hours, and money will pay off!

Jason & Jeremy Ni

2009-08-11T15:34:00.000-06:00

We had the opportunity to have Jason and Jeremy Ni from Taiwan come and stay with us for just about a week this summer! They are the 15 year-old twins of a lady that Justin taught the gospel to while on his mission. We stayed one night with their family when we were in Taiwan earlier this summer.

Sister Ni wanted the boys to come and learn the gospel in English for a while. It was really nice having them here. Their English is awesome and they are just outstanding boys. I am sure that they were on their best behavior for their mother, but seriously, I have NEVER seen 15 year old boys do housework WITHOUT being asked!

I hope that they had fun while they were with us. They went to Roaring Springs with Adam and Chase. We also took them to a rodeo in Rupert that Adam was riding at. We feed them deer, elk, and bear too. Ha ha ha! It was great!

They did get to experience an American LDS wedding as well. Lots of work from everyone as they helped out with Tony and Monserrat's wedding and reception.

We would love to have them come and stay again anytime!

Tony & Monserrat's Wedding

2009-08-10T23:27:00.000-06:00

What a crazy weekend!!!!

Tony and Monserrat were married on August 8th in the Twin Falls Temple! It was absolutely beautiful! I got to watch Carter on the temple grounds and hang out with Mary, Jake, and Joe (Justin's cousins). Justin, his brothers, and the Ni boys, who were staying with us, went to help Grandpa DeGiulio and Aunt Cindy with the lasagna and then set up the tables and chairs for the luncheon.

Unfortunately, just before everyone came out of the temple Justin called me with bad news. Grandpa had somehow ended up on the stage in the gym with the lights out and didn't realize it. Walking toward where he had seen the boys go out the door on the other side of the gym, Grandpa walked right off the stage and landed on his side. Justin rushed Grandpa to the hospital where they learned that he had broken 5 ribs!!!

I had to break the news to John without letting anyone else know that I knew what was going on because Grandpa specifically wanted John to tell Merena, Serena, and especially Grandma.

The luncheon turned out great, even though the rain started to pick up. Justin and Grandpa didn't make it to the luncheon (Justin opted to stay with Grandpa in the ER).

The reception the next day went really well! Candice and I had the funniest task to put together a display with a bunch of seemingly mismatched this and that items that Merena had picked up along the way. Ha ha ha! It was quite the challenge, but it was fun and I think it turned out just fine.

Carter started walking on his own at the reception! That was super cute to watch and great to have the whole family there to be able to witness.

Grandpa was able to come to the reception. We just had the boys bring one of John and Merena's recliners from the house down to the church and he got to sit it in it the whole evening. I'm sure it wasn't the most comfortable way, but he was mostly concerned with being there.

Of course, Justin and the boys took it upon themselves to decorate Tony's truck. The funniest thing was Tony parked a ways away from the church in hopes that no body would find the truck. Ha ha ha! BIG mistake. Jordan spent about 20 minutes driving around Rupert looking for the truck and successfully found it.

Monse's grandparents thought that the decorating was really funny!

They seem to be really happy and we are really happy for them!

Here are some pics from the wedding...

Baumgartner with the Reeds

2009-07-24T15:28:00.000-06:00

We were super bummed out because we didn't think that we would be able to make it up to the annual Reed Family Camping trip at Baumgartner this year. Luckily I discovered that I have a whole week of vacation time that I didn't know about! YAY! We were able to go up Friday night and at least spend Saturday with the family. It was a good trip. Little Carter learned how to clap, thanks to Uncle Jordan. That was super cute! Monserrat got to experience camping with the family for the first time. Too bad Tony had to work, so she was kind of flying solo. But that's okay! It was a good retreat for everyone!

4th of July in Peck/Orofino

2009-07-06T22:59:00.001-06:00

First, let me start by saying that it is a VERY BAD idea to try to travel to Northern Idaho the morning of the 4th of July! You WILL be stopped in every single little town along the way as their parade passes by. Ha ha ha!

I swear we waited in Council for over an hour as their little tiny parade made it's way down the main street which happens to also be the highway that goes to Northern Idaho!

Oh well I guess!

Anyway, Justin, Mom, Grandma and Grandpa Hobdey, and I were all traveling up north to watch Adam and his buddy, Chase, ride in a couple of rodeos. The first one we went to was in a tiny little town in Washington...I think. Ha ha, we just ran in, watched Adam and Chase ride, and then left because they had to drive 2 hours back to Grangeville for another rodeo.

Adam rode first in Grangeville. Chase was just a few riders behind him. While Adam did okay, Chase had a much tougher ride. Right at the blow of the whistle, Chase came off the back of his horse and was kicked in the head. This instantly knocked him out.

Of course we try not to panic when this happens, but when the cowboys call the EMTs in immediately...you know it's bad.

They rushed Chase to the hospital where we learned that he had crushed his cheek bone and cracked his brow bone. He also had a major concusion and they refused to release him that night.

Adam got yelled at by the doctor. When they were in the room while Chase was being examined, the doctor asked if this was the first time he had had a concusion. Adam started laughing as Chase described getting kicked in the head a few weeks earlier in Eagle and then also in Sun Valley. The doctor did not think it was appropriate for Adam to be giggling at such a serious matter...which of course just made Adam laugh even more.

We all decided it was Chase's fault for being so short. If it were Adam, the horses would have just kicked him in the chest or the shoulder, not the head.

We were a little selfish and refused to spend the 4th of July in Grangeville. So we went up to Peck and spent the evening at the fireworks show in Orofino with a bunch of my mom's cousins. The next morning we went to Aunt Betty and Uncle Pink's to say hi and hang out until Chase was ready to be released.

Aunt Betty made Grandpa (her baby brother) a nice big chocolate cake like she always does when he comes to visit. She also gave us some AMAZING elk jerky! It was SOOO good!

Dad, Adam, and Chase had picked up Brandon's car from Seattle a little earlier in the week (it had broken down there). So Justin and I got to drive it home for Brandon...yay. Ha ha. It was good though because we had Chase ride with us so he had room to lay down on the back seat.

At any rate, we are all very happy that Chase is just fine and is able to ride in the High School National Finals later this summer!

We're Having A.....

2009-07-02T23:19:00.000-06:00

BOY!!!!

Ryker John Reed will be joining our family sometime mid-late November. His due date is November 23rd, but we'll see when he decides to actually join us.

The baby looked amazing in all the ultrasound pictures! You never get that thoroughly investigated again in your entire life! We were pretty excited that they actually gave us the entire ultrasound on DVD to watch later. That is definitely going in his baby book!

Here are some pics from the ultrasound...it is very obvious that he is in fact a boy :)

Easiest Degree....Ever!

2009-06-24T15:24:00.000-06:00

Ha ha ha! Okay, so I just received my Associate of Arts degree from Boise State in the mail today. Kind of funny! I got the degree because Justin and I weren't sure what we were going to do in the future (which is now). There was a time we thought we might be moving before I could finish my degree. SO we decided to have me get my associates so that if we did move I wouldn't have to retake any generals at the new college. When I looked into it, I realized that I had already completed all of the degree requirements to receive an Associate of Arts...all I had to do was hit the "Apply for Graduation" button and then pay the application fee. So I did and here I am, an official Associate of Arts. HA HA HA HA!

Free TV

2009-06-23T15:20:00.000-06:00

I love it when I happen to be in the right place at the right time!

One of the agents at work, who happens to be our Realtor, just purchased her husband a new flat screen tv for Father's Day. As a result, they needed to get rid of their existing 8 year old 60" tv. I happened to be sitting in front of my email right when her email went out offering the tv...FOR FREE!

Of course I responded right away saying we would take it! I was the first to respond, so Justin took Adam and Chase to go pick it up.

The tv works great! It's got a slight "Days of our Lives" glow on everything because of some algae that was shaken up in transportation. Justin is going to try to replace that coolant to see if it will get rid of the haze, but you can't go wrong with a free tv!

I will say, however, that a 60" tv in an 1100 sqft homes' living room does look quite large and slightly out of place! Ha ha ha! Oh well!

Taiwan - Travel through Monday, June 8th

2009-06-08T18:36:00.005-06:00

Ni Hao!

We're going to try to update this as often as possible while we're in Taiwan. Unfortunately, the internet connections aren't the greatest and can't really be relied upon. But hey, we're here and we're having fun.

Just an update on our travels to even get here. We arrived at the Boise Airport at 7:30am Friday morning, thanks Tony for dropping us off. Once we got all checked in we had some time to kill before our plane left at 9am. We arrived in Salt Lake around 10am and then caught our next flight to Los Angeles at 11am. This flight was also relatively short as we arrived in LA around 12:30pm. We ate lunch before going through security at the LA international airport.

FYI - don't eat Mexican food right before a 14 hour flight :)

And so we got on the plane to Taipei, Taiwan at approximately 3:30pm LA time. THAT WAS THE LONGEST FLIGHT EVER!!! Ha ha ha! I watched four movies, played a video game, and slept. We were fortunate that our row had three seats and Justin and I were the only ones in the row so we were able to stretch out and get some decent sleep.

The flight itself wasn't too terribly bumpy and we only encountered minor turbulence along the way (nothing like the Spokane trip - Mom and Ariel).

The absolute worse part about the flight, besides being prego and gassy, was the food. OH MY GOSH!!! That food was horrible. Seriously! And no, it's not just because my reality of food is skewed right now. It was bad enough that Justin didn't dare touch the second meal. I can't even describe how bad it was.

Our first meal was some sort of space monkey beef stew mix with strange rolls, nasty veggies, and some weird salad thing on the side. The second meal I opted for the "scrambled eggs and sausage" and Justin got "chicken and rice." I put these in quotes because that is what they called them but that is NOT what they served us. Seriously, I would have rather eaten a month of MRE's or even elementary school lunch before touching that stuff. I think we are going to bring along some food for the flight home...cuz that was BAD!!!

So yeah, we went practically 14 hours without eating anything but Gushers, granola bars, and water - I'll get back to the whole eating thing soon.

After arriving in Taiwan, at approximately 8:30pm Saturday night, we had to go through customs in order to get in to the country. They wanted to know what hotel we were staying at. Justin had a friend here set up our hotel room and we didn't know the name of it or where it was. We had to have security call Justin Lin to get the information for the hotel. Luckily he answered and gave a satisfactory answer so we were admitted into the country.

From customs, we went to grab our luggage at the baggage claim. By this time all the other baggage from our flight had been claimed and about 4 pieces of luggage sat next to the conveyor belt waiting for their owners. The problem - only one of those pieces was ours and we had checked 2. I didn't panic too much because we had all of our money and toiletries and things like that in our carry on items, but I still wanted my bag. So we had to go over to the customer service center.

I AM SO GLAD that Justin speaks Chinese :)

We sat there for a few minutes and finally one of the gentlemen helping us informed us that someone else had accidentally grabbed my bag and left but that he was waiting at the front desk with my bag. Everything appeared to be in tact when we met the guy out front and he was really nice. Off to the last leg of our entry trip we went.

Justin Lin, Justin's friend who had arranged our hotel, was meeting us at the bus station in Taichung, about two hours from the airport. So we got to the bus station at the airport and got our tickets for the bus.

The buses here are really funny. The seats sit extra high, like on a second level, because of the storage space under the bus. Also, they have like living room curtains in all the windows. They kind of remind me of Austin Powers style buses. HA HA HA.

Anyway, I crashed on the bus ride in and didn't really see anything but boy did the humidity hit me. By the time we arrived at the bus station in Taichung, it was about midnight and I was already sticky and sweaty.

Justin Lin and his friend Richie picked us up on the corner and took us to our hotel. We stayed in one hotel the first night and then moved to the hotel next door for the remainder of the week because it was cheaper. Granted the more expensive of the two only cost $34 per night. Ha ha.

After getting all checked in to the first hotel, we thanked Justin for his time and then he went home to crash. Keep in mind we hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours. SO, we went for a walk and found some food.

NOTE - prego hungry ladies and stinky tofu BAD MIX.

They have this tofu that seriously smells like crap. Serious. And people eat it. I think the garbage trucks that we have encountered smell better than that stuff.

I was starving but so hungry that nothing sounded good. So we just got some simple fried rice and drinks.

The market we went to was interesting. It reminded me of the fair at night. Lots of little stands with people frying food and trying to get you to come to their stand. I wasn't too impressed with some of the foods they were displaying to eat. They had goose heads and chicken feet just hanging out. Several also had frogs that reminded me of Sophomore biology. Ha ha ha, made me laugh but definitely didn't make me go "yum, let's eat here, they have frogs!" Ha ha!

They also have 7-Elevens on almost every corner that are open 24 hours (isn't 7-Eleven named that because those are their hours?) But the funny thing about these stores is that they are just convenience stores, no gas station.

On the way back to the hotel I noticed some guys working on what appeared to be food of some sort. I noticed that none of them were wearing shirts and they didn't exactly look sanitary. I was a little disgusted by this but just kept telling myself to get over it and that I can't think about sanitation too much while we are here or else I will starve. As we rounded the corner I was able to see what the guys were working on. They were preparing the food for the next day's meat market. And I no longer cared about the fact that they weren't wearing shirts. They were throwing the meat cuts on the ground. Not on a nice clean tarp on the ground even, but directly onto the nasty sidewalk where who knows how many people, animals, etc have ventured recently. THAT WAS SO GROSS!!!

Justin said that that was nothing, during the day time the meat will be covered with all sorts of bugs and smells rotten as it sits out in the sun.

We took our little night adventure home and then crashed for the night since we were planning on going to church at 10:30 the next morning. So Sunday morning came and we took a taxi to church - not sure how that fits in with keeping the Sabbath day holy - but we got to church. We attended the Taichung 1st ward which was part of Justin's second area he served in over here.

I always think its cool when you can go clear across the world and the service is still the same. It was fast Sunday, so of course several members got up to bear their testimonies. I had no idea what exactly they were saying, but I could still feel the spirit. That was pretty cool.

After sacrament, Justin met up with one of the members who used to come to their English classes. Colin was this kid's name. He was really nice and remembered Justin. They talked for quite some time and then Colin gave us a whole bag of Lychee fruit - one of the fruits Justin has been craving since going home 5 years ago. Colin is a travel agent here in Taiwan now. He told us he could get us flights over to Hong Kong, but that they are around $250 each. I think we're probably going to pass on that. Even though it would be fun, I don't think it's worth the money when we have so much to see and do here.

I got pretty sick during church. I think the heat was really starting to get to me at this point. We were invited to a "break the fast" with the English branch right after our sacrament meeting let out. It was fun to go and talk to the members down there and the older couple missionaries, Elder and Sister Dowes, were really nice.

The food was okay, but my tummy was really upset. Justin and I laughed because guess what they served - spaghetti. HA HA HA! I come all the way across the world and people still try to feed me the one thing on my list that I just don't like. Oh well, such is life I guess.

After the potluck, we went outside to wait for Justin Lin to pick us up as he was going to help us get moved into the other hotel. I don't think we really waited that long, but in the heat and with an already upset stomach it was long enough. I ended up throwing up outside, yuck!

Justin and I decided after switching hotels that we were just going to rest the whole rest of the day and try to get our bodies back in line. I went to sleep at 3pm and woke up at 11pm. Around 2am Justin went and got some dinner and some drinks for us. We went back to sleep and slept until about 9am Monday morning. This helped a ton getting our systems in sync with the time zone here.

Monday morning, Justin wanted me to try some traditional Taiwanese breakfasts. I'm game to try anything so I agreed! We went down and had some Dan Bing - it's like a crepe almost with some sort of egg and flavored ham inside. My tummy still wasn't sure what was going on so it took a lot of effort for me to take the first bite. It tasted REALLY good, but that didn't last too long. Justin finished my portion and as we were leaving the little shop I threw up everything into the gutter. :( I was so sad!

We walked and walked and walked looking for place to rent a scooter for the day. When we finally found what we were looking for, Justin tried to rent a scooter.

The first place we went wouldn't rent us one because her boss was not there and she didn't have permission to rent the scooters out.

The second place shocked the heck out of me. They wouldn't rent us a scooter because we were foreigners. The lady told Justin that she didn't trust that he would bring it back. I couldn't believe that they were allowed to do that!

Oh well, we went to another place but they didn't do scooter rentals, just sales.

Finally, we came to a place that agreed to rent us a scooter but he made Justin call Justin Lin and talked to him. We had to put Justin Lin on the list of contacts in case we didn't bring the scooter back. Ha ha, what the heck were we going to do with a 125 cc scooter? Oh well, we got the bike and we were off.

You want to know a very scary experience? Try riding a scooter in downtown Taichung in the middle of the day! It is NUTS! I swear that there are almost no laws. Cars, buses, scooters, etc no one follows any kind of laws.

Did you know that if you put your hazard lights on you can stop your car anywhere in the road and it's okay parking for any amount of time? All of the scooters drive in between the cars and buses because if they don't they'll get squished.

There were only 3 rules that I saw the majority of people following (majority, not all). 1 - red light means stop (if someone else has already stopped), 2 - green light means go (or if you think the light is about to turn green), 3 - if you're on a scooter and want to turn left you go straight across the intersection and then park in front of the cross traffic lane to then go left with traffic (or just ride on the sidewalks all the way around).

I am really glad that we are used to riding a bike and that I trust Justin. There were several times that we came close to getting into a wreck. The funniest part about it is even when it is a REALLY close call everyone just looks around with blank stares like, "what?" Ha ha ha. Riding the bike made the day quite a bit cooler, but when we stopped and walked around I almost instantly overheated.

With a mostly queasy stomach still, I did what any other 23 year old American-Idaho girl would do - I found McDonald's and had some french fries! Guess what, they stayed down and I started to feel better. Ha ha ha, I might not be able to handle some of the funky food they have here but boy I can handle my potatoes :) I felt like such the American stereotype, but oh well.

We also discovered that I can't get hot. If I start to get a little hot I need to get something icy in my hands ASAP otherwise it will take forever for me to cool off. But if we catch it before I get hot, then I feel great.

Did you know that 7-Eleven still has slurpees over here? Nothing cools hands off better than a 7-Eleven Mango slurpee!

Because we just wanted to go and explore, we went to this huge 14 story mall that is near the church house and mission home. The malls here are really strange. The whole thing felt like one giant department store. But really each type of clothing/center was its own separate store but there were no walls dividing them.

We spent a good chunk of time exploring this mall and laughing at the high end, expensive shirts that had horrible English phrases on them. We took a picture of a few, things that you really would NEVER see worn in the states because well, it's just too blatantly inappropriate. Keep in mind, these were the expensive shirts. We haven't even looked at the knock-off stands on the side of the road. It was at the mall that I got my french fries.

Justin also had me try this cool dessert like thing. It it chopped ice with what looked and tasted like liquid brown sugar and topped with Mangos and sweetened condensed milk. It was good, but a bit much on the sugary stuff. I think the mangos and lightly sweetened ice would have been good as well.

After we were done with the mall, we went for a ride over to one of Justin's other areas. He took me to this destination shopping district. We were laughing because it was all imported American stuff. Just knick-knacks and other totally American style collectibles like Mary Moos and things like that. While we were in this area, Justin took me down this street that one of his new members used to live on. We got clear outside her apartment complex and he couldn't remember which one she lived in. He was so upset. I hope we can find her for him as he would really like to see her while we are here.

When we left this little area, we went down by the college. There was this little side street that Justin said he used to eat on almost every meal of every day when he lived down there. He had me try these little funky pancake things that were filled with some sort of custard. They were good, but kind of odd. I'm still not quite sure what to think of them.

We went to college campus which was right around the corner. Justin wanted to show me the funky shaped church that is famous on the island. It really is odd shaped but it's also famous because it is one of the first Christian churches on the island.

Christian Church on College Campus Beautiful Tree on College Campus Trunk of the Same Tree

We tried to go to the National Science Museum on Monday, but that is the one day out of the week that they are closed. We were still able to walk around the botanical gardens and that was beautiful. The grass over here is funky. It's like really think bladed short weedy type grass but it covers the whole lawn and looks beautiful. Not our lush golf course type grass though.

Giant Butterfly outside Natural Science Rainforest

Rainforest Greenhouse at Natural Science Museum

Big Tree at Botanical Gardens

After chilling at the botanical gardens for a good bit we decided that it was time to eat. By this time, my tummy was still doing fine since the french fries so we decided to go to an all-you-can-eat hot pot place. I didn't eat much, but it was really good and for the first time since being in Taiwan, IT STAYED DOWN! Wahoo!

For those of you who don't know, a hot pot is kind of like fondue. You have two types of broth boiling in the center of the table. Then you pick and choose the things you want to cook in it. Let them cook to your preference and then pull them out and eat them. They had really cool glass coke bottles at the restaurant - Justin confiscated one of them to take home. Ha ha.

After dinner we decided to go to the A.Mart to get some milk and cereal for me for the morning so I would have a shot at keeping the food down. When we got there we saw some Elders talking to some people on the side of the street. We went over and chatted with them for a bit, they are both from Utah. The people they were talking to are some of the members of one of their wards.

Anyway, after we chatted with them, we went into the store and got some Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and some milk for me and some mangos and guava for Justin. We went back to the hotel, parked the scooter for the night, and called it a day. Both Justin and I passed out well before 10pm last night, but woke up around 6 this morning. Our bodies still aren't quite used to the time change. We'll probably get used to it by about Saturday and we come home on Sunday.

This morning I had my Frosted Flakes, they're grrrrreat! And Justin and I split a guava. He also went and got another Dan Bing. I had a bite this morning and it was better than yesterday and managed to stay down this time as well!

Right now, Justin is returning our scooter and should be back momentarily. We are planning on going down to Gao Xiong and Kenting Beach. Justin Lin is taking us as he was planning on going that way anyway.

Till the next update I wish you all well!

Are We Done Yet?

2009-05-07T09:51:00.008-06:00

Just nearing the end of dead week, one more week to go and then we're into summer break! FINALLY!!! This summer isn't going to be near as crazy as some of our past summers have been. With our trip to Taiwan in June and the baby coming in November, we don't have much vacation time or money left over to do much.

Just 28 Days Till We Go To Taiwan!!!

Unexpected Results

2009-04-27T20:12:00.007-06:00

Have you ever dreamed of something happening in the future but then when it finally happens you react completely opposite from what you thought you would? Welcome to my world!

On Thursday, March 26th I realized that I was two weeks late. I had been a week late in the past and then got back on schedule. Justin and I talked about how late I would have to be in order to get a pregnancy test. His response - 3 months. Ha ha ha, yeah right. So on my way home from work I had to stop and get some other items at the store and grabbed a two-pack pregnancy test while I was at it.

As soon as I got home, I went into the bathroom, took the test and then left it for a little while. When I came back to it a few minutes later the result was light but very apparent....

I am pregnant!

My response? "Oh crap!" and with that I threw the test away...into our big dumpster in the garage.

After processing what had just happened and realizing that it didn't matter if I threw the test away or not, I came to understand that I was going to have to somehow break the news to Justin. I called him to find out how long it was going to be before he came home. About 10 minutes. So in that time I drank 4 large glasses of water hoping to build up my bladder enough to use the second test in the pack once he came home.

Too eager to just wait until I had to urge to go, I called Jus into the bathroom right when he walked through the front doors. I pulled out the test and he responded with "Are you serious? This is just a waste of time and money." I, of course knowing the results, demanding that we take the test anyway and proceeded to attempt to do just that...my body didn't cooperate.

Justin starts making fun of me for not even being able to wait until I had to go to the bathroom and thus, I broke the news, "I'm pregnant..." I then had to tell him the rest of what happened and we had to go dumpster diving for the first test I had thrown away.

Excited, of course, we went to a new restaurant in town, Tucanos, that night to celebrate our new phase in life. The food was good, but probably will sit better once I am through with this first trimester.

At Tucanos celebrating the news

We then had to decide when and how to break the news to our families. We told Tony the next night because we decided it wouldn't be fun trying to sneak around our own house for the next couple of weeks.

On Sunday, March 29th, I was able to coordinate for all of my family to get together for dinner at my mom and dad's place. This was a rare occurance in and of itself. Granted the telling didn't exactly go as planned, we were able to get the point across by presenting my parents with two big chocolate chip cookies. One was blue with Boy? written in blue frosting while the other was pink with Girl? written in pink frosting on it.

Cookies for the Waite Grandparents

While my family was really excited for us, my dad is still insisting the baby call him Uncle Charlie until he turns 50...we all know how that is going to turn out though. He's such a softy for babies!

Next we got to break the news to the Reed family. It was a little harder to keep the secret from them because I developed the dreaded morning sickness...and a quite severe case too.

For John and Merena we put together two Easter baskets. Each contained a baby doll, sugar babies, baby ruths, sour patch kids, baby booties and a card to grandma and grandpa from Baby Reed (one basket was was blue with blue items and the other was pink). We told them on Easter with all the extended family around. It was a lot of fun to see their reactions as they realized what we were saying.

Baskets for the Reed Grandparents

Once the family all knew it was just a matter of waiting until our doctors appointment. We had a few hiccups getting to see the doctor, dang those other ladies for having their babies during my appointment time. Finally I was able to get in and see the actual doctor. Given how sick I had been, losing 20 lbs, and how prevelant twins are in our families, the doctor decided to go ahead and do an ultrasound. The result....one very healthy and squirmy baby.

Baby Reed - 9 weeks and 3 days along

Our official due date, based on the ultrasound, is November 23rd, the Monday before Thanksgiving.

I truly believe I am pregnant now that I have seen the baby, what a neat experience.

All in all, we are very thankful to have such supporting family and look forward to becoming parents.

...and then there were three :)

Fondue Dinner Update

2009-03-18T21:10:00.002-06:00

Okay, so again, I am lame and forgot to take pictures of our dinner, which was WONDERFUL!!!
We went for a simple 3 cups veggie oil in one pot for cooking meat and then mixed 1/2 a block of Velveeta with about 1.5 cups milk for a dipping sauce. We had shrimp, crab, chicken, pork, beef, veggies, bread and apples for dipping. It was fun deep frying different things and then dipping them in cheese! We had a great time and I strongly suggest this kind of meal to anyone!!!!

Fondue for Dinner???

2009-03-13T09:23:00.000-06:00

Okay so Justin and I received two awesome fondue sets for our wedding. We were really excited about getting them, but still haven't used them yet.

We decided to have another couple friend come over for dinner tomorrow and we're going to try to do a full fondue dinner.

PROBLEM -we don't know any good relable fondue recipes. If you have some or even a hot pot recipe, we're game to hear it all!!!

I'll let you k know how it goes and will try to take pics too.

Weekend Celebrations

2009-03-09T17:10:00.000-06:00

We had the opportunity to go to Rupert this weekend for Jordan's Eagle Scout Court 0f Honor. Justin and I are both really proud of Jordan for pushing through and getting this award. He has no idea how much this will help him in the future!
We also celebrated John's 51st birthday as well as Carter's 6 month birthday :) I DID manage to take pictures...but they were taken with Merena's camera so I don't have those with me.
At any rate, congratulations and happy birthdays!

Communication Technology Class - HELP

2009-03-02T21:46:00.002-07:00

Okay, so I have a big project for my communication technology class. Basically, I am supposed to come up with a new and innovative product. I am supposed to either pretend that I own a company OR I can design something that can be used right away.

I have NO IDEA on what to do. Some of the other people in my class are doing things like creating a blog for gardeners or designing an Apple iPhone App for their line of business, etc.

So I guess here is where I need your help...WHAT SHOULD I DO? What kinds of things are you interested in or wish you could access via phone/internet more readily? Would you like something specific regarding real estate or would tips and tricks for raising kids be more useful? Would you like to see a website with educational games for kids? How about loads of 15 min or less meals (including prep time)? WHAT DO YOU WANT???

Please help me out and respond either by posting here or you can email me directly at carriereed1@hotmail.com I am open to any and ALL ideas or suggestions!

Thanks a TON!

4A State Champions - Columbia Wildcats

2009-03-01T23:44:00.004-07:00

As many of you already know, Justin is an assistant coach for the Columbia High School wrestling team in Nampa. He got hooked up with the job last year when he volunteered to come help my little brother out with wrestling. Adam went to Columbia and so that is where Justin landed. Adam graduated last year, but Justin enjoyed it so much that when he was asked to come back as an official assistant coach, he couldn't say no.

This weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to cheer the Wildcats on as they wrestled at the state tournament in Pocatello. They missed winning first place as a team last year by merely 11 points to Blackfoot. This year, they were aimed to finish the job.

We took 17 boys to the state tournament, including all 13 of our varsity kids. The team won ever tournament and dual they attended with the exception of the Reno Tournament of Champions in which they placed 16th out of 90+!

With 10 boys remaining to the medaling rounds, and the team sitting in first, they knew they had to finish strong. We ended up with one 6th place, one 5th place, three 3rd place, and five 2nd place medals. The last round was disappointing as we watched each of our five finalists fall in their final matches, but the end was not there.

We had done the math, we had purchased the infamous shirts, and our team was slotted to win the 4A team title.

The boys of the 2009 Columbia Wildcat Wrestling Team did a stellar job all year and deserved this award!

Congrats boys!!!

The Economy SUCKS

2009-02-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I have an AWESOME job at a local real estate agency. Up to now, it has been fabulous. I love my boss, I love the people I work with most of the time, they work around my school and family schedules as much as possible, and the pay is great! In fact, because of my job we have been able to live a little better than most college students, and we've LOVED it :)

However, the economy sucks!

I know most of you already know that, but it is finally hitting home for us. Prior to this all that has effected us has really been the drop in gas prices...and we weren't complaining on bit on that. Just on Monday, our boss announced that she was going to have to cut all of our hours by 25% because we just aren't making enough money right now. It's way better than losing my job, but that sucks!!!!

I try really hard to be an optimist...as many of you know. So here is my list of pluses regarding the change in my hours:

I work 8:30-2:30
More time for homework and shouldn't be late to class
Don't have to deal with afternoon traffic
Can leave earlier on weekend vacations
More daylight hours :)
Day goes by faster
No lunch hour, so I will spend less $$$ on lunch (can eat at home)
More time with my dogs
More time with my hubby
More time to clean my house

Another definite plus regarding this whole situation is that Justin and I have made it a priority to 1) pay tithing, 2) pay off our debts, and 3) be current on all bills. On Monday, we were able to pay off our Land Cruiser, laptop, one credit card, and get our only other credit card down to half (we plan on keeping this one open to improve our credit and for emergencies). In doing all of this, when we got the news on Tuesday, we discovered that amount we were paying on those bills was greater than the amount of money I am no longer meaning.

What does that mean? We are still making more money than what our budget requires.

It'll be tight, but we are so thankful that we have been given the guidence and direction to get out of debt and more importantly that we are striving to follow this direction.

We'll make it through this...good luck to everyone in these tough time!

New iPhones

2009-02-18T23:30:00.001-07:00

Hey we just got our new phones. Wahoo!!! FYI - we switched from Verizon to AT&T but kept our numbers.

Valentine's Day

2009-02-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Our Valentine's Day this year was kind of fun :) Usually we are so worn out between my birthday, Christmas, and our anniversary, Valentine's Day gets little attention. However, we had the opportunity to go to Preston to see one of our best friend's at her wedding reception. Randi Roberts married Matthew Thomas...which cracks me up because my uncle's name is Randy Thomas. He he he. Anyway, the reception was absolutely beautiful and Randi was even more so. We went on in to Logan and spent the night at a Super 8 (we blew all our money on our anniversary) but the room was great. It snowed like crazy and was just beautiful. Again, no pictures. I figure the more I blog the more I'll feel guilty about forgetting pictures so I will start to remember to take some...is that how it works?

At any rate, I just wante everyone in the world to know that

I LOVE JUSTIN REED!

New Year, New Semester

2009-01-20T21:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen the movie, Groundhogs Day with Bill Murray? That's exactly how I feel about school! I just keep going and going and even though the seasons change and the classes change, it all feels like the exact same thing every single day. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying what I am learning, for the most part, but still I've been in school non-stop for EIGHTEEN of my 23 years! That's a bit much. The worse part is I still have at least 3 years to go! Anyway, Justin will be graduating in December with his bachelor's degree and then he'll role right into his Master's program. He actually will be taking half undergrad and have grad classes next semester. I haven't quite decided what my schedule will be for graduation. I think it would be hilarious to graduate in December, because I would technically graduate BEFORE Justin since his name starts with a J and mine starts with a C :) But that would require going to school this summer and I'm not sure I want to do that...I need a break once in a while. But then again, that would mean completing my program a whole semester earlier...which would be nice...regardless of what I do there, I too am getting my Master's so I will have 2 years on top of whatever I end up doing...no light at the end of this tunnel yet...but the lanes for employment are sure getting wider :)

RoomMate

2009-01-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Tony, Justin's little brother, just got home from his mission and we invited him to stay with us since he is going to Boise State this spring. He just moved in with us! It's gonna be fun... :)

Two Years

2009-01-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

Again, I am THE BIGGEST SLACKER at taking pictures. I really need to get better about that. Well we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! It was my year to pick the plans so we stayed the night at the AmeriTel Inn, by Edwards in Boise. We got a two story room with a personal jacuzzi on the top floor. It was a ton of fun! We also went to Murphy's steakhouse and saw the movie 7 Pounds with Will Smith. We just had a blast goofing off and pretending like we were miles away from home and reality. I can't believe that we've been together for 3 years already and married for 2! It's crazy how fast time flies when you are having fun :)

Christmas 2008

2008-12-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

So Justin and I have officially been together for four Christmases. We were just friends the first Christmas, engaged the second, and married for the past two. I had a lot of fun picking out Justin's Christmas presents this year. I was excited because I actually had everything ordered, to the house, and wrapped before Thanksgiving! Hopefully that isn't the only time I am ahead of the game :) Anyway, after just getting back from Disneyland, we drove straight to Grandma and Grandpa Waite's house for Christmas Eve (literally, we didn't even change clothes or go to our house!) After the festivities there, we went home, then woke up early the Christmas morning (6am) opened our presents to each other, ran to my parent's place, opened presents there, ate breakfast and by 10am were back on the road to Rupert. We hit one of the worst storms of the season on our way to Rupert. In fact, we were fortunate enough to help several people who were stuck in snow drifts. Thank goodness for being prepared and having our big Land Cruiser. We tried to go to Blackfoot to see Justin's grandparents, but the roads were all closed due to the storm. SO on Friday, we headed back to Nampa and spent the rest of the weekend with my family.

Disneyland

2008-12-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

We went on an awesome vacation to Disneyland with Justin's family between my brithday and Christmas. It was so much fun! Granted it rained the one and only day we went to Disneyland and was gorgeous the other days, oh well. Of course I am the biggest slacker in the world and didn't remember to take a single picture the whole trip. I need to get better about that. Anyway, we did have a great time!!!!

Carrie Turns 23

2008-12-18T20:45:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that I am actually 23. I know you are all going, man that isn't old at all. But here is what is so hard to believe, I turned 18, FIVE YEARS AGO!!! That was such a shocker to me. Anyway, so it's true, I'm definitely NOT a teenager anymore. Oh well, I guess, it happens to even the best of us.

Wild West Christmas

2008-12-15T21:18:00.003-07:00

So every year my office throws a HUGE Christmas party. In the past we used to have it all fancy and catered at Crane Creek Country Club. Well, in addition to the fact that the economy sucks right now, our office decided that it would be much wiser to have the party at our office instead of paying to do it somewhere else.

I am always in charge of helping put the party on. This year our theme was a Wild West Christmas. We had a full saloon with a bar, texas hold'em, black jack, craps, roulette, and even rock band :). Because I was running around all crazy like, I didn't make it into any of the photos. But here are a few pics of Justin playing! (and no, we were not drinking :))

Mike's Home

2008-12-15T21:16:00.000-07:00

Wow! That went really really fast! At any rate, Mike is back from basic training and is almost a real live Marine :) We went to the airport as a surprise party for him. Torri's mom was there to pick Mike and Torri up but she didn't realize we were Mike's family. It was pretty funny once she put two and two together!

I am so happy he is home and that he will be home for a little while!

Here Comes The Bride

2008-12-01T20:36:00.000-07:00

YAY! They tied the knot and my sister is now married! Ariel and Anthony got married on Saturday, November 29th! The reception was beautiful and a lot of fun! Not too much went too wrong. We did get to Costco to pick up the serving cakes and realized that they only had 2 of the 4 cakes ready on accident. Luckily, they had some in the freezer we were able to take. My dress was way too big, but Ruth was able to adjust it enough before the reception. Most of all, Ariel and Anthony looked like they were thouroughly enjoying themselves and are definitely in love!

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

WOW! I love having a crazy, hectic, always on the go kind of life. It just makes things more interesting. I'm pretty sure my mom taught me to love it because that is just how it is for some people! I can't imagine what it would be like to go to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and, well, just have Thanksgiving. Ha ha ha, so here is our story...

We left Nampa on Wednesday afternoon, leaving in a hurry because I had told Merena that I would make potato soup and bread bowls for dinner for everyone since she was making the entire meal for the next day. We're driving on the freeway with Justin in the driver's seat, me in the passenger seat, Copper in his self-designated co-pilot stance (between Justin and me), and Sadie on the floor behind Justin's seat.

About 10 miles west of Wendell, Justin announces that he thinks Sadie is having contractions. So I jump into the back seat, put Copper up front, grab a flashlight and check out the situation. Sure enough, Sadie is huffing and puffing. Just before we reach Wendell, out pops puppy #1. Justin has to pull off the next exit so we can try to clean Sadie and the puppy up, Make sure the pup is breathing alright, and discard the placenta - yuck!

Luckily, Sadie didn't have another pup before we reached Justin's parents' place. Once at The Reed's home, we tried to set Sadie up in the laundry room where the lights were low and there were fewer people. (This is what MOST dogs would prefer) Does Sadie like her setup? No! Insead, Sadie takes of walking around the house checking every nook and cranny for the perfect birthing spot. She walks into the living room where the whole family, all ten of us, are sitting, plops down in the middle of the room and makes herself at home. Ha ha ha! We did finally convince her to at least go under the computer desk so she wouldn't be right in the walkway.

5 hours later, we have 3 more pups and 2 more to go! So we sit and wait...

and we wait....

and we wait...

since there still was no puppy #5 and we had already given Sadie her shots to induce labor once she was tired, we are forced to call our vet back in Nampa. It is now 5 am and it's been 2.5 hours since her last puppy. John Calhoun, our vet, suggested we start calling other vets because she is probably going to need to have this one pulled or have a C-Section.

Justin starts calling random vets out of the phone book. Several don't answer, one finally answers but refuses to get on the phone and just translates through his wife. FINALLY, we get ahold of a vet who says to meet him at his office in an hour. It has now been 7 hours since her last puppy was born - a very risky amount of time!

At 9am Thanksgiving morning, we took Sadie and all four puppies to the vet. After several blood tests, and an ultra sound, the vets determine that Sadie needs a C-Section. Based on the ultra sound, they were guessing that we had at least 2 puppies for sure left, 1 with a nice strong heart beat and 1 with a very weak 40 beats per minute heart.

We asked the vets to go ahead and fix Sadie while they were performing the surgery since we were already planning on getting this done once the pups were weaned. We decided we'd rather have her deal with one surgery instead of two.

At about 11am, the vet finally appears with our VERY sad looking, doped up Sadie. I should have taken a picture of her, it was so sad! She was completely out of it, but awake. Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth to one side and she really looked dead. Skinny, but dead.

We asked the vet how many puppies she had and what their statuses were. The vet looked at us with wide eyes and held up his entire hand...FIVE more puppies! Sadie had been pregnant with NINE puppies!!!!!!!! Her poor little body should really only be having four at most, six has been a very large litter. The seven she had last time was just nuts and now NINE!

One of the puppies was born still, not the one with the slow heart beat. So we ended up with eight healthy pups. We have to watch the little spotted boy because he is the one who was stuck and his poor little head was ramming up against Sadie's pelvis for 7 hours straight.

All in all, they are doing just fine. You should watch their pictures - we post them every week! http://reedpuggles.blogspot.com

Family Pictures

2008-11-22T20:48:00.001-07:00

The one thing that most attracted me to Justin's family was how similar they were to my own! Kind of crazy, but crazy felt normal! The last family picture Justin's family had was shortly after Jordan's birth...he is 17 now and Adam, who is 14, wasn't even born! My family wasn't much better. Our last one was taken when I was 14 and before that, I think I was 3! However, with all the family additions on both sides we had the opportunity to have family pictures taken this fall!!! They look blurry on here, but here they are!

Welcome Home

2008-11-19T16:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was an exciting day for all of Justin's family. Tony, the middle child :), came home from his mission! It was an eventful day and there were many tears shed. Justin is so happy to have his little brother home.

In The Face Of Hatred

2008-11-14T12:23:00.021-07:00

In the Face of Hatred

By Paul Bishop

Courtesy of Meridian Magazine

Editor's Note: As some of you know, Meridian was hacked into last week, apparently by Prop 8 opponents, and in the place of our content was placed a homosexual pornographic film. For free email updates from Family Leader on issues that affect family and religious freedom, click here.

To send this article a friend, click here.
To sign up for a free email subscription to Meridian, click here.
It has been an interesting week.
The Chinese homily, “May you live in interesting times,” has its roots in a curse, not a blessing.
As I said, it has been an interesting week.
The controversy in California regarding Proposition 8 (the proposed amendment to the California constitution defining marriage to be strictly between a man and a woman) built to a frenzy in the days leading up to Tuesday's election and then exploded into anger and violence in the aftermath of Prop 8's slim passage into law.

I am a Los Angeles Police Department detective supervisor running a sex crimes unit covering the western quarter of the city, which also includes the area where the Los Angeles temple is located. I have a fantastic crew of 20 detectives who are an amazing mixture of races and sexes. I have several detectives who are openly gay or lesbian. This orientation has nothing to do with their efficiency as investigators. I deeply respect and like these individuals. I enjoy working with them. My life is often in their hands when we serve high risk search or arrest warrants. I trust them implicitly.
Obviously, the types of crimes we investigate bring us into regular contact with victims who are of an alternative lifestyle orientation. It is incumbent upon us that our compassion for these victims be no less than for victims who are heterosexual.
Hard Choices

Working in such an environment, I found taking a position on Proposition 8 to be difficult. Even though I chose to follow the direction of our Church leaders in my voting decision, it was extremely hard for me to place myself on the line when it came to actively working to ensure the passage of Proposition 8.

Still, I watched in amazement as my fellow ward and stake members worked tirelessly, committing themselves full-heartedly to the cause – not out of homophobic hatred, but out of a love of Christ and a belief in the sanctity of traditional marriage. Their faith strengthened mine, and I committed to participate in a sign waving public rally sponsored by our stake to be held at a local intersection.
By following through on this commitment, I found I had a greater stake in the battle than I had ever thought. I learned a number of hard and harsh lessons. And in the events following the election and passage of Proposition 8, I felt great anguish forcing me to drop to my knees in prayer – eventually coming to a more personal understanding of the Love of Christ and what he expects from me.
During the Proposition 8 rally, as I stood with my wife and friends waving Yes On 8 signs and waving to the passing rush hour traffic, I learned several things. I learned supporters of both Yes On 8 and No On 8 liked to honk their horns. I learned the way to tell the difference is the No On 8 supporters usually accompanied their horn honking with an obscene gesture or a string of obscenities. They also liked to swerve their cars toward the children on the curb.

I learned when we didn't engage in argument with the No On 8 supporters who intermingled with us in the intersection, they became enraged, red faced, and fit to burst.
I have no doubt Yes On 8 supporters both from our church and other churches engaged at some point in the shouting matches during the numerous rallies and demonstrations across the state. However, on the evening of my participation, I was amazed by the cool and non-confrontational way the Yes On 8 supporters conducted themselves.
I learned at the rally several of our ward members had received hate mail after their names, religious affiliation, contribution amounts, and addresses were published on a website inciting No On 8 supporters to target the listed individuals. Their houses and cars had been vandalized, their campaign support signs stolen, and opposition signs planted in their place.

When I returned home after the rally, I had a huge headache and my stomach was in knots. I am not a fan of confrontation, and the noise of the horn honking, both pro and con, and the divisive atmosphere inherent in the volatile situation had taken its toll. Still, after praying with my wife, I felt calmer and was pleased we had chosen to participate. While our efforts were miniscule compared to the hours of service to the cause provided by others, we had at least jumped down from the fence and done something.
Then I saw the latest No On 8 television commercial.

Tolerance?
Supposedly produced by an independent group not affiliated with the official No On 8 campaign, the thirty second commercial spot shows two scruffy male white actors portraying Mormon missionaries who force their way into the well-kept home of a married lesbian couple.
“Hi, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” one says.
“We're here to take away your rights,” says his companion.
The missionaries then rip the wedding rings from the women's fingers and ransack the house until they find the women's marriage license, which they destroy.
“Hey, we have rights,” one of the women says.
“Not if we can help it,” answers a missionary.
Moving outside the residence, one of the missionaries smugly says, “That was easy.”
Flexing his muscles, his companion asks, “What do we want to ban next?”

While I was appalled by the commercial, I was even more appalled both MSNBC and The Comedy Channel happily took money to broadcast this overtly hate filled vignette. I cannot imagine a similar commercial, targeted at any other religious or racial group, not being considered a hate crime with a civic outcry for prosecution.
My hackles were beginning to rise in a distinctly unchristian way. However, the fun was just beginning.
Election Day And Aftermath
Election day in California saw numerous No On 8 activists distributing literature and vocalizing at polling sites in clear violation of election laws. Police were called, 100 yard distances from the polling places were paced off, yet the agitation continued.

Despite these efforts, Proposition 8 obtained a slim majority (52.5% to 47.5%). Exit polls showed the proposition was supported by 7 of 10 Black voters, a majority of Latino voters, and by people with children under the age of 18 still at home. Clearly, it was supported by all people who believed marriage is a special and protected institution.
The day after the election, spontaneous protests sprung up in West Hollywood – a small residential community, with a large gay and lesbian population, located within Los Angeles County , but just outside Los Angeles city borders. The protests did not have a particular focus or target other than outrage as they strayed outside the confines of West Hollywood and into Beverly Hills , Hollywood , and West Los Angeles . Several arrests were made, but the seething anger at the passage of Proposition 8 was not dampened.
On Thursday, however, two days after the election, rumors began to be picked up by LAPD of a large protest organized by gay and lesbian activists and their supporters to be staged outside the Los Angeles LDS temple on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Los Angeles.

LAPD has 22 geographic Areas divided between 4 administrative Bureaus . My investigative unit is attached to Operations-West Bureau – which has responsibility for the area where the Los Angeles temple grounds are located. We operate out of a squadroom across from the Bureau's administrative offices. In such proximity, I was in a position to observe the command post set up in the Bureau offices to monitor the actions of the field command post charged with keeping the already illegal (no permits) protest peaceful.
What I learned by watching and listening shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. During my 30+ year tenure, the LAPD as an organization has made great professional strides in the internal battle against sexual harassment, sexual orientation harassment, and racism. While there are still those in civil liberty organizations who contest we are still guilty of racially profiling on the streets (difficult to imagine when our department is so thoroughly integrated at this point in time), organizationally there is little or no tension remaining in these areas.
In the Bureau command post there was a large screen television displaying scenes from the protest outside the Los Angeles temple. Imagine my surprise, when angry protestors began rushing the closed temple gates, and I heard an officer in the command post say, “I hope they burn that place to the ground.”

Imagine my even stronger surprise when another officer replied, “They better hope they don't get through the gates, because the Mormons have an army in a bunker under the temple that will come out and kill them all.”
Really? My temple recommend must not be of a high enough clearance to get me into that part of the temple.

I'm now doing a slow burn. Not only am I watching a sacred building under siege from 2,500 angry people shouting, “ SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE,” and carrying signs proclaiming MORMON HATERS and LOVE NOT HATE, I'm listening to other police officers who agree with the protestors or have the most imaginative fantasies about blood atonement armies hidden under the temple (exactly how do we feed them, drill them, get them in and out without anybody seeing, or are they all in a state of suspended animation until needed?).
I want to emphasize these were not officers or detectives from my own unit – who are all aware of my Mormon faith. Those in my unit who disagree with me over this issue are respectfully tolerant, as I am respectfully tolerant of their opposite beliefs. Tolerance, as Orson Scott Card recently pointed out, is indicative of disagreement. It is not a battle we choose to fight amongst ourselves. Most of us have known each other for a long time and are either embracing of, or oblivious to, our differences – divisiveness has no place in the types of investigations we conduct.

The Mob
The worst, however, was yet to come. The temple presidency made a decision to close the temple for the evening. The right decision, but since when do we as Americans stand by – no matter what our religion – while access to a place of worship is forced to close down because of aggressive outside influences?

The late local news showed scenes of several Hispanic females in tears outside the temple trying to remove the signs desecrating the walls and fences surrounding the temple. As these individuals – who according to a temple spokesperson were not church members – removed the hate-filled signs, the mob exploded and began beating the individuals to the ground. Police intervened and arrests were made, but the fact this was allowed to happen at all was appalling.
Other supporters of Yes On 8 drove slowly by the protestors with Yes On 8 signs attached to their cars and pickups sparking other violent confrontations.

A friend of mine, watching the same scenes play out on the television, called and said he felt like he wanted to go down to the temple with a baseball bat and begin swinging at the demonstrators. I must admit, the natural man in me agreed.
In actuality, the scenes on the television, literally drove me to my knees in prayer for the safety of the temple, the members, and our church. A lesson I have learned several times before, caused me to expand my prayers to include those who were opposing us for they are not our enemies – they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Appropriate Response
In the face of hatred, how are we to feel about this focused attack upon our church? An attack launched not because we are the only supporters of Proposition 8, but because we have been the most visible and financially supportive entity in the battle. We are an easy target.
In a recent article on Christian Courage , Elder Robert D. Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote, “I would say that one of mortality's great tests comes when our beliefs are questioned or criticized. In such moments, we may want to respond aggressively – to put up our dukes . But these are important opportunities to step back, pray, and follow the Savior's example. Remember, Jesus Himself was despised and rejected by the world. And in Lehi's dream, those coming to the Savior also endured ‘mocking and pointing … fingers' (1 Nephi 8:27). ‘The world hath hated [my disciples],' Jesus said, ‘because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world' (John 17:14). But when we respond to our accusers as the Savior did, we not only become more Christlike, we invite others to feel His love and follow Him as well.

“To respond in a Christlike way cannot be scripted or based on a formula. The Savior responded differently in every situation. When He was confronted by wicked King Herod, He remained silent. When He stood before Pilate, He bore a simple and powerful testimony of His divinity and purpose. Facing the moneychangers who were defiling the temple, He exercised His divine responsibility to preserve and protect that which was sacred. Lifted up upon a cross, He uttered the incomparable Christian response: ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34).”
We have often been instructed to love our enemies, and despite the current horror of our trials, this is no time to do differently.

As I write this (Friday, November 7, 2008), plans are being made by the LAPD to respond to another larger protest/demonstration being planned by No On 8 supporters to be staged in front of the Los Angeles temple on Saturday.
This is interesting since Saturday is my stake's day in the temple. For some weeks now, we have been encouraging families to come together to the temple on Saturday to participate in ordinances.

How do we respond to hatred disguised by the adversary as tolerance? Our stake president has talked to the temple presidency who has assured him the temple will be open for business as usual. There are eight weddings scheduled on the grounds. Will we be able to get to the temple without being molested or our vehicles vandalized? We must place our faith in the Lord and proceed.

Challenges to our faith are not new. Nor are they likely to go away anytime soon. But, as Elder Hales reminds us, “True disciples of Christ see opportunity in the midst of opposition. We can take advantage of such opportunities in many ways: a kind letter to the editor, a conversation with a friend, a comment on a blog, or a reassuring word to one who has made a disparaging comment. We can answer with love those who have been influenced by misinformation and prejudice – who are ‘kept from the truth because they know not where to find it' (D&C 123:12). I assure you that to answer our accusers in this way is never weakness. It is Christian courage in action.”

Lessons Learned
Clearly there are lessons to be learned from the current unrest:
Tolerance is not agreement and should not be a one way street. However, we must still remain tolerant of those who are intolerant of us.
Recognize the adversary at work here – making good seem bad and evil seem good.
We can only be disciples of Christ when we respond to adversity in a Christlike manner. To do less opens our actions to the influence of the adversary and hurts us even more.
We should never take for granted the opportunities we have to gather together in worship. We should never put off the opportunity to attend the temple. For these valuable things can be disrupted and possibly even closed to us – if not permanently, then at least on a temporary basis.
Pray. Often. Don't forget to include those who are set against you.
And finally, have no doubt President Monson knows where all of this is leading. He will surely reveal the knowledge to us on the Lord's timetable. Meanwhile, we must support and trust him, his inspired councilors, and our inspired local leaders in our actions. Their actions of Christian courage will be our examples.

Bridal Showers

2008-11-14T09:52:00.004-07:00

I have decided that it's a good thing my parents only had two girls. The day of my bridal shower (almost two years ago, WOW) Grandpa Hobdey was coming over to my folks' place to help with something. He slipped on the ice and ended up breaking his hip. We had to call the ambulance and he had to undergo emergency surgery since the ball was completely broken off. Needless to say, Grandpa is great and my shower went well.

Ariel's shower is tomorrow!!! Sadly, our Great Uncle Arlo passed away earlier this week and his funeral is also tomorrow in Utah. This is making it so many of our family who would like to attend the shower can't as well as many who would like to attend the funeral can't.

At any rate, I think we are about 95% ready for the shower tomorrow. We won't be 100% ready...not even after the shower is over. Ha ha ha. I'm looking forward to the wonderful lunch and the game my mom and I prepared is going to be SO much fun!

Love ya sis!

Crazy Season

2008-11-11T09:52:00.003-07:00

For starters, Minico won the football game last week against Middleton. Sadly, Jordan was injured in the first half and had to sit out for the rest of the game. We're hoping that he is back 110% for Friday's game against Jerome. (Kickoff is at 7pm at Minico if anyone wants to join us)

That brings me to my topic of discussion. Justin and I were looking at our travel plans through the first of the year. I am SO glad that gas prices have finally started to dwindle. This is what our schedule looks like:

November 14th - Minico football - kickoff 7pm
November 15th - 11am - Ariel Bridal Shower in Nampa
November 18th - 12pm - Pick up Tony from airport in Twin Falls (WELCOME HOME)
November 21st - 7pm - Football game...hopefully, destination unknown
November 22nd - Family photos in Rigby (tenative)
November 23rd - 9am - Carter's baby blessing and Tony's homecoming report in Rupert
November 26th - Travel to Rupert for Thanksgiving
November 27th - Thanksgiving in Rupert
November 28th - Travel home to setup for the wedding
November 29th - Ariel & Anthony Wedding and Reception in Nampa
December 19th - 23rd - Reed Family Vacation in California
December 24th - 25th - Christmas Eve & Christmas in Nampa
December 25th - Christmas in Rupert

And that's just the stuff that involves some sort of travel! It's gonna be a crazy season for sure!!! Hopefully we'll see some of you during this time!

Football

2008-11-07T01:40:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know that posting lots in one day doesn't really make up for missed time. But hey, I do what I can :)

Jordan and the Minico Spartan's are in the state football playoffs. They play at Minico tonight against Middleton at 7pm.

Good Luck!!!!

More Dogs!!!

2008-11-07T01:37:00.002-07:00

Aye yi yi! Due to an accidental association Sadie and Copper had during her last heat cycle, we are now expecting puppies....again! We did plan on having one more litter, but we were intending on waiting until September of NEXT year before we bred them again.

This will be our very last litter as we will be getting Sadie fixed as soon as possible. PLEASE if you know anyone who is interested give them our contact information. We want to get rid of these little buggers quicker than the last litter.

Sadie is due the week of Thanksgiving...three weeks to plan!

School Update

2008-11-07T01:31:00.002-07:00

Ha ha ha, I love how every time we make a decision regarding school....it changes.

We have made the decision for Justin to go ahead and stay at Boise State for two more years following graduation in order for him to get his Master's Degree. We are super excited about that. As a result, though, I have to stay in school as well because we cannot start paying on our student loans until he has graduated.

I have switched majors to Communication. I will be receiving my Bachelor's Degree in May 2010. I will then go on to receive my Master's Degree also. I will be getting this in Educational Technology. I'm not sure if I will be getting that from Boise State or Western Governors University. Both have the program available entirely online.

The best part about all of this is that we think that we have figured out how to afford both of us in school full time without me working.

Granted, this will probably change at some point, I hope this is how things remain!

School

2008-09-16T13:42:00.002-06:00

So I've been asked this several times :) YES, I am indeed still in school. I know, 5 years full-time college and not a single degree to show it off. I am kind of at a stalling point right now though.

Justin only has 3 semesters left including the one we are currently in (YAY). He should be graduating in December 2009 - go ahead and mark your calendars!

Because I have to work full-time in order to pay for the beautiful house we just purchased, I am going to have to put finishing school on the back burner until Justin graduates. Right now, I have been fortunate enough to be able to take some classes toward my degree through night or online classes. Unfortunately, each semester it is a gamble as to whether or not they will offer enough classes that I need in order for me to continue full-time.

I have taken this as an opportunity to take classes that don't necessarily work toward my degree, but do interest me. I am currently taking a history class on America in the 1960's. WOW! This class is amazing!

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish someday. :)

Uncle Justin and Aunt Carrie

2008-09-16T13:21:00.004-06:00

BABY CARTER IS HERE!!!!!! He arrived on Monday, September 8th at 12:02 am weighing 6 lbs 11 oz and he was 21 inches long. He is such a cute little baby. Candice and Chad are, of course, loving him dearly. Carter seems to be a very quiet baby so far, which is great for new mommy! Here are some pics of the little bugger!

Carter Monroe Hymas

Free At Last

2008-09-16T13:18:00.003-06:00

Okay, so maybe that header is a little over the top. We did sell our last puppy this weekend! YAY! I feel confident that he is in a great home where he is going to be loved dearly. Of course having this little guy for 17 weeks rather than the normal 8, we grew very close to him and were a little bit more picky as to who he ended up with.

All Settled In

2008-06-03T15:04:00.002-06:00

Whew! We are just about done unpacking boxes. We only have about 3 left...but it's been that way for over a week now. Woops. At any rate, the dogs have finally gotten used to their doggy door. The puppies are opening their eyes and starting to stand. We have just about gotten the commute times down and we are absolutely loving our new house. In case you missed the memo, our new address is:
3521 Sunnyridge Rd
Nampa, ID 83686

We plan on being here for a while. At least until Justin and I have both graduated from college.

Hope all is going well!

YAY! Puppies!

2008-05-20T09:21:00.003-06:00

I am exhausted! Justin got home last night around 5:30 to find Sadie had already delivered her first pup of the litter. We are guessing that she had a very strenuous labor with him due to her exhaustion. Sadly, the little white and brown male had been dead for well over an hour by the time Justin got there. We aren't exactly sure what happened, but we are assuming that he was either still-born or suffocated during birth or shortly thereafter. Sadie was taking good care of her dead baby when Justin got home, which only made it more sad.

I arrived home shortly after 6. Sadie appeared to go into labor again not too long after I got home. Justin and I watched and waited, hoping everything would go okay. The baby's head came out but before it was all the way out, Sadie started licking and cleaning the sac. It broke, as it's supposed to. However, because the baby wasn't completely out yet, it sucked back up inside of Sadie. We called the vet hoping to be able to get some instruction. After reaching in and feeling around, we concluded that we could not reach the baby and it was probably a goner since it could no longer breathe.

Then Sadie just stopped. She completely gave up and quit having contractions. Per our vets instruction, we rushed her in to the Pet Emergency Room. Three shots, two pulled pups, one x-ray, and 7.5 hours later we were heading home with 6 beautiful healthy little pups and an extremely tired mama Sadie.

I am so glad we went in to the ER. They had to do some fancy foot work to get the pups to come. The one who went back inside was almost too big to pass through the birth canal. She was the fourth puppy born at the vets and is breathing just fine.

Now I'm tired and can't wait for a great night's sleep tonight!

Weekend Update

2008-04-06T19:07:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to share. We went to Rupert this weekend to celebrate Candice's, 23rd birthday! We had a ton of fun and were able to enjoy listening to General Conference together.

That was a neat experience. President Gordon B Hinckley passed away January 25th so the first session of General Conference was a Solemn Assembly in which we recognized the new Prophet and President of The Church, Thomas S Monson. That was pretty cool. Not that often you can experience that kind of a meeting.

While the boys went to the Priesthood session Saturday night, Candice, Merena, Jordan's girlfriend, Tiffany, and I put together our 72-hour kit lists and shopped for the food. That was a fun. The best thing I got from the whole experience was that Justin and I had been forgetting to plan for our dogs! Oooops! So we now have 72-hour kits for Sadie and Copper. Not like it takes much for them, but at least now we have a food supply, extra water, extra leashes, and some extra treats for them if we ever were in a situation that we needed them.

Candice sure looks pregnant :) It's cute though. She and Sadie had a special bond this weekend I think. They are about the same into their gestation period right now. Even though Sadie will only be prego for about 2 months, she's 3 weeks along and Candice is 4 months along. They were funny together.

We had a great time and can't wait for the family to come up in a couple weeks to help us move! Candice and Chad will be finding out what they are having on the 25th, so they'll be bringing good news that weekend!

Why Use A Realtor????

2008-04-03T15:20:00.008-06:00

So yeah, I work at a real estate company. I know many of you think that Realtors are just like car salesman. While some, maybe even many of them are, I want to share my personal experiences with you.

I feel strongly, and not just because of my line of business, that everyone should always use a Realtor. Especially when buying a home. Here are some of the benefits I have found in using a Realtor:

1. Your Realtor can help you determine your buying power -- that is, your financial reserves plus your borrowing capacity. If you give a Realtor some basic information about your available savings, income and current debt, he or she can refer you to lenders best qualified to help you. Most lenders -- banks and mortgage companies -- offer limited choices.

2. Your Realtor has many resources to assist you in your home search. Sometimes the property you are seeking is available but not actively advertised in the market, and it will take some investigation by your agent to find all available properties.

3. Your Realtor can assist you in the selection process by providing objective information about each property. Agents who are Realtors have access to a variety of informational resources. Realtors can provide local community information on utilities, zoning. Schools, etc. There are two things you'll want to know. First, will the property provide the environment i want for a home or investment? Second, will the property have resale value when i am ready to sell?

4. Your Realtor can help you negotiate. There are myriad negotiating factors, including but not limited to price, financing, terms, date of possession and often the inclusion or exclusion of repairs and furnishings or equipment. The purchase agreement should provide a period of time for you to complete appropriate inspections and investigations of the property before you are bound to complete the purchase. Your agent can advise you as to which investigations and inspections are recommended or required.

5. Your Realtor provides due diligence during the evaluation of the property. Depending on the area and property, this could include inspections for termites, dry rot, asbestos, faulty structure, roof condition, septic tank and well tests, just to name a few. Your Realtor can assist you in finding qualified responsible professionals to do most of these investigations and provide you with written reports. You will also want to see a preliminary report on the title of the property. Title indicates ownership of property and can be mired in confusing status of past owners or rights of access. The title to most properties will have some limitations; for example, easements (access rights) for utilities. Your Realtor, title company or attorney can help you resolve issues that might cause problems at a later date.

6. Your Realtor can help you in understanding different financing options and in identifying qualified lenders.

7. Your Realtor can guide you through the closing process and make sure everything flows together smoothly.

8. When selling your home, your Realtor can give you up-to-date information on what is happening in the marketplace and the price, financing, terms and condition of competing properties. These are key factors in getting your property sold at the best price, quickly and with minimum hassle.

9. Your Realtor markets your property to other real estate agents and the public. Often, your Realtor can recommend repairs or cosmetic work that will significantly enhance the salability of your property. Your Realtor markets your property to other real estate agents and the public. In many markets across the country, over 50% of real estate sales are cooperative sales; that is, a real estate agent other than yours brings in the buyer. Your Realtor acts as the marketing coordinator, disbursing information about your property to other real estate agents through a multiple listing service or other cooperative marketing networks, open houses for agents, etc. The Realtor code of ethics requires Realtors to utilize these cooperative relationships when they benefit their clients.

10. Your Realtor will know when, where and how to advertise your property. There is a misconception that advertising sells real estate. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS studies show that 82% of real estate sales are the result of agent contacts through previous clients, referrals, friends, family and personal contacts. When a property is marketed with the help of your REALTOR, you do not have to allow strangers into your home. Your REALTOR will generally prescreen and accompany qualified prospects through your property.

11. Your Realtor can help you objectively evaluate every buyer's proposal without compromising your marketing position. This initial agreement is only the beginning of a process of appraisals, inspections and financing -- a lot of possible pitfalls. Your Realtor can help you write a legally binding, win-win agreement that will be more likely to make it through the process.

12. Your Realtor can help close the sale of your home. Between the initial sales agreement and closing (or settlement), questions may arise. For example, unexpected repairs are required to obtain financing or a cloud in the title is discovered. The required paperwork alone is overwhelming for most sellers. Your Realtor is the best person to objectively help you resolve these issues and move the transaction to closing (or settlement).

So now that you know the "fact" side of using a Realtor, let me tell you about Justin and my most recent experience in purchasing our home:

Justin and I decided to start looking at purchasing a home shortly after I received my promotion at work - yay! Keep in mind that I work at a real estate office and have full access to every single home that is in the system here in the Treasure Valley as well as some in other parts of the state. As we began looking, I found several homes in our price range. Justin and I did all of the research. We did our own comps, started the loan approval process, pulled all the houses we wanted to see. We felt pretty good, like we had a hang on what was going to happen. The only thing we needed was a Realtor to open the homes so we could peak inside and make our final decision. Boy, were we wrong!

As it turns out, most of the homes we'd pulled were short sales. We'd heard that you could get a pretty good deal on short sale homes since the owner doesn't have a say in the sales price - the bank that holds the loan does. What we didn't know was while that is true, it can take up to 3 months to hear back from the bank whether your offer was accepted or not. That means if you submit an offer, you could wait months and then find out that your offer wasn't accepted and you'd have to start the process all over. Loan rates would be different, the homes you had previously viewed would no longer be on the market, the housing costs may jump during that time, etc. Way too many variables for us. PLUS, we needed to be moving out of our rental before July 1.

So our Realtors, Barbara Dawson and Kim Davis, helped us understand a lot of that information. We found a really cute home on Queens Drive, about 1/4 mile north of my parent's place. It was wonderful. It had RV parking, a storage shed, 2 car garage, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms. It was only 950 sqft, but it was great and the price seemed right. The home had been on the market for 70 days without any activity, it seemed perfect! Kim helped us write up an offer and submit it to the other agency who took it to their sellers. Lo and behold, another offer came in on the same day offering more than asking price and we lost the house.

Luckily, we had seen another home about 3 miles east of the first one. It was on Bonneville. It too seemed really cute. It was further from the freeway than we had hoped and not quite on the right kind of road, but we liked it. We loved the fact that the back door was off the linoleum covered dining room instead of the light carpet like the Queens house. However, we didn't get the chance to go in the home as the tenants were not exactly cooperating. We went ahead and wrote up an offer on this home for full asking price with a contingency upon seeing the inside of the home. Since Justin and I both work during the day and Justin had school, the earliest we could get out to Nampa to see the home was after 6 - much too dark to really check out a home.

Our offer was accepted and the next day the tenants called Barb and Kim letting them know that we could see the home that day between 1-2:30pm. YA RIGHT! Like we could make it out there during that time frame. Barb and Kim surprised both Justin and me, they drove clear out to Nampa during that time frame to check out the house. They also viewed several other homes in the area that were in our price range! At this point, Justin and I were more than impressed with Barb and Kim, but the story doesn't stop here.

As it turns out, the home on Bonneville was NASTY inside. The carpet that appeared light tan/white in the pictures was almost black everywhere the furniture wasn't. The walls were gross and needed repainting, it smelled like cigarette smoke and dog urine. Barb called me while they were still in Nampa and told me that she wouldn't sell us that home because of the horrible condition it was in. So, we were able to back out of that deal 100% without losing anything. We would have been in a sad state if our Realtors hadn't told us to include the contingency upon seeing the inside of the home.

The hunt continued.

We found a better, bigger home than the first two we had made offers on. It was in a great subdivision about 1 mile south of my parents. It was actually right next to East Valley Middle School, across the street from the Stake Center we had our wedding reception at. It wasn't on the main road, had good looking neighbors, easy access to the freeway, it was great. One of the bedrooms needed repainting - it was green and blue, the backyard was...well...there wasn't a backyard really. We also weren't real excited that the backdoor went right in to the light carpet. But we loved the location and the overall condition of the home. So we went ahead and made an offer.

It took a whole week to hear back from the bank who owned this property. When we finally heard from them, they informed us that they had received two other offers over the weekend that were higher priced. Because of the creditability and reputation of our Realtors they went ahead and accepted our offer and agreed to pay our closing costs. This was great! We were due to close March 28. All we had left to do was wait the time and have the home inspection done.

Our home inspection kept getting put off because the bank couldn't get the home dewinterized. So we waited and waited. Finally, we were able to get the inspection done the Friday before our estimated closing date. Lo and behold the inspector found 1" of water in the crawl space which meant the water table was too high and the drainage system wasn't properly installed for the water table levels.

We also found out that day that the home loan we had been pre-approved for wasn't going to work because we didn't actually qualify for it! WHAT?!?! We were so upset. We had been working with the pre-approval for almost two months now and couldn't figure out why our lender had pre-approved us for a loan we didn't qualify for. The loan was a 100% IHFA loan. Which meant no money down. But we didn't qualify because for the debt to income ratios, IHFA requires you to include student loan payments even if you won't be paying on them for several years. By including these in our debt to income ratio, we didn't qualify. Luckily, our lender came up with a solution to switch to an FHA loan which is only 97% financing and requires 3% down but we were able to raise the sales price 3% and include it all in our loan so we really got 100% financing.

Once we realized all these issues, Barb and Kim immediately had a drainage system guy go out to the property the same day, Barb went with the guy. They got an estimate on the water issue. We sent an addendum asking the bank to pay for the new drainage system ($5000) increase the sales price $3597 to pay for our 3% down and extend the closing date to allow adequate time to get the new drains in place. Barb and Kim ALSO went and spoke with our lender, they were able to voice our emotions and get some things set in place.

We submitted the addendum on Friday, the same day everything else went down. On Wednesday we still hadn't heard anything and Justin and I started getting really hesitant about the water issue. So we decided to go look at some more houses...just in case. While we were out, Barb showed us 7 homes we hadn't seen prior. Some were okay, some not so much, but we kept looking. We found a really cute one on Sunflower, which was in my parents ward...but it wasn't quite right. Then we went and found THE ONE.

The new house is located at 3521 Sunnyridge Road. It's gorgeous. The whole home is perfect. It has the cutest kitchen, best layout, biggest lot of all the homes we have seen. It already has concreted RV parking next the garage pad. The yard is .20 acres with a gorgeous well manicured lawn. Beautiful landscaping both in front and back. The back door enters into the linoleum dining room, there is a place to put a doggie gate to keep the dogs in the kitchen area during the days. It's a split bedroom design with a nice sized master. A separate laundry room that ISN'T the entrance to the home from the garage. The best part is that the home is NOT in a subdivision, but it has a lot of the same perks. It's backyard is adjacent to the backyards of the homes in the subdivision, but we don't have any Home Owner Association dues nor can anyone tell us what we can and can't do on our property. It's wonderful!

Barb and Kim also found us an amazing loan opportunity that our lender didn't even know about. The home on Sunnyridge is owned by HUD and therefore was qualified for a special $100 down payment FHA loan rather than the 3% down loan. Our lender said she had never heard of the program and so Wells Fargo probably didn't offer it. Barb and Kim made some phone calls and found out that Wells Fargo does in fact offer the loan. They informed our lender that she either needed to do her research and offer us the loan or they were going to take us somewhere that does offer it. Our lender was amazingly able to locate how to offer the loan.

I wish I could say that this was the end of our chaotic story. Ha ha ha, but I can't.

As I said before, the home was owned by HUD. The way HUD works is they submit homes on the market for one week. After the designated time frame all offers that are submitted are then reviewed and the offer that nets HUD the most money wins the home. While Barb and Kim were eagerly putting together our offer before the Sunday midnight deadline, they discovered that because of the lack in HUD homes recently, Group One had accidentally let their HUD license expire back in 2005. We couldn't submit an offer on the home without having a licensed HUD broker represent us. It was going to take 2-3 months to get relicensed. SO Barb called every broker in the Treasure Valley asking if someone would submit our offer for us. Barb was able to get a broker at a Boise office to represent us and still pay the 3% commission to Barb and Kim for all their hardwork. She told Barb that only for her would she do this. Again, our agents' reputation paid off for us. We were able to get the offer submitted on time and we won the bid!

We were able to write a termination of contract on the home with the water issues and received our Earnest Money back.

Sadly....the story continues. Somehow, communication between HUD and the broker who was sub-representing us got derailed. Our good friend, Chris, was on the HUD website and sent me an email asking how close the attached listing was to the home we were buying. I nearly fainted. The home he sent was supposed to be our home! I quickly called Kim and Barb and they got right on it. Apparently HUD never received a copy of our Earnest Money check that the other broker says she sent them. Because of their rules they were forced to put the home back on the market for the weekend. We had to resubmit our offer and hope and pray that no one else out bid us.

WE WON THE BID...AGAIN!

We are signing docs on Tuesday, May 20th and will be moving in on Friday, May 23rd.

If anyone wants to come and help us move, we'll need your help the weekend of May 23rd.

In conclusion, I must say that while I felt like I had a hang on this whole real estate thing and I thought that I was going to be able to do most of the work, just needing a Realtor to open the door for me. I WAS WRONG!!!! The whole process is a lot more than just making an offer on a home. It's more than finding a place and checking it out. Without our Realtors, I think I would have completely given up on trying to buy a home. And who knows, maybe we would have ended up in a home that had problems we couldn't afford to fix.

The best part about using a Realtor when buying a home is that the seller actual is the one who pays your Realtor...it's a no risk relationship that can bring you unbelievable comfort and advise.

A Big Girl....

2008-04-03T10:54:00.000-06:00

I always knew that someday I'd have to grow up and start being a big girl. I really thought that would happen right when I moved out and went to college...but I think I digressed once I got to Rexburg! So then, I thought maybe when I transferred to Boise State and wasn't living in the "college town" setting I would be forced to grow up...it didn't happen then either.

I started a "real job" working "real hours" with people who had already done the college thing, the parent thing, and are well into the grandparent thing. All I've learned about being a big girl from that is when you are 10-60+ years younger than all your co-workers...you can't really be a big girl!

So as life kept rolling, I finally found the love of my life. Justin and I were married in January, 2007. I thought for sure, I was now going to be a big girl. Ha ha ha ha, yeah right! We've been married over a year now and I am still far from being that big girl my mom always told me I was going to become.

We are now less than 20 days from purchasing our first home. I have started my first garden inside already so once we move in I'll be ready to plant my seedlings. And as I sit here, thinking about my past stepping stones, I am really thinking that this might be the move towards being a big girl...but I am starting to think this whole big girl thing is a lie and that really, we're all little girls forever :)