Sometimes I Love Facebook

Happy Mother's Day!

As a gift to all of the mother's who read my blog, I've decided to update. Also, we just barely got all of our recent pictures onto the computer.

Bullet-point updates:

• Jess went to Utah to meet her adorable nephew, Tavin.
• Mark went camping in Moab with friends.
• Ty (our friend) moved in to stay with us for a short while.
• Jess, Mark, Ty and Harrison (other friend) went camping and climbing in El Rito.
• House hit two major marks: Drywall/paint and cabinets/countertops installed!!!

My trip to Utah was fantastic - it was just the thing I needed. I got to spend a ton of time with family, spend countless hours playing with 2-week-old Tavin, and see many of my most treasured friends. Check out my facebook page for pictures of the beautiful little babe.

Here are some pictures of us climbing in El Rito.

These are the rocks we were climbing on.

While I was in Utah and Mark in Moab our house was filled with drywall and the outside got primed for bricks and stucco!

Finally, most recently, the inside was painted and countertops and cabinets installed. This is the point where they tell us the house will be finished in 45 days. Crazy!!!

Happy Mother's Day, Mother!

Pre-Drywall Update

This house is changing so fast! Here are the latest and greatest.

It's crazy to think that the next picture was taken only 3 days after the first two!

Party on! Until next time...

Home Sweet Home

Now that you've seen the floorplan for our home, it's time to update you on the progress. We try to get there once a week to see how it's coming along. Unfortunately, we didn't take pictures at the beginning. At first it was just dirt. The following week there were holes for plumbing. Then came plumbing. Next up was concrete. That's when I realized I really needed to bring the camera. I didn't expect much to happen for a while, but the next time I went, I got so excited!! Here's why:

It's like, a house!! That was probably the week I was most excited. Here's last week:

This week we forgot the camera, but imagine added windows and doors! I can't believe how fast it's moving.

In other news, Mark and I have been camping a few times recently and have done some fun things. Here's our favorite campsite:

 We had a campfire, played some frisbee, went to the natural hot springs and all in all had a good time.

Thanks for stopping by! Until next time... :)

It's official

Well, I guess it's time to be official. After my last post and the first sentence here, you all probably think I'm pregnant. That's a negative. What's official is that we're buying a house!! Also, we're having it built! We had a meeting this morning with the construction manager, and he estimated that our home will be finished around the 3rd week of June. It's not a guarantee, just an estimate, but he hasn't missed one of his estimates yet (or so we're told). Here is our floorplan:

So, we're pretty darn excited about it. We've picked out colors for tile, carpet, cabinets, countertops, and accent colors that we'll add to each room. We've started drawing on our floorplan all of our furniture and where everything will go. I can't wait!!!

So there. Now it's official for the whole world to see. :)

The One About Infertility

As you may or may not know, Mark and I just celebrated our 5 year anniversary (yay!). When we first got married, we decided that we would start having kids after 5 years of marriage. We got married after only 3 and a half months of knowing each other, so it was a pretty good idea to take some time to get to know each other before we had kids and no time for each other. Around 4 years I started asking, "When we said 5 years, did that mean we'd have a baby at 5 years? Or start trying for a baby at 5 years?" We prayed and decided that it was time to start trying. That was a year and a half ago, and, as you know, we still have no children.

The first 6-8 months of trying it was really easy to have the "when it happens, it happens" attitude. Most women transitioning off of birth control take several months to have their normal bodies back. Apparently, I am not most women. And it's often hard to face that fact. Don't get me wrong, I am truly happy for my friends and family who are able to get pregnant so easily. I adore their children, and look forward to meeting many new little ones. Those lives are so precious and sweet. But sometimes I just get so jealous. I'm not used to being jealous, since I'm pretty much amazing and usually have no need to be jealous of others (haha, also I'm hilarious). And since we're commanded to "multiply and replenish the earth", and we're constantly counseled by our prophets to raise righteous families, and everyone around me is pregnant, then why is it so hard for me?! (insert sob here)

I'm sorry. My point in writing this was not supposed to be my pity party. I just needed to give a little background so I could relate an experience I had while working in the temple yesterday. I was assigned to sit in the celestial room for a while. When there is nobody else there we are allowed to read scriptures, so that's what I was doing. I was reading in 1 Nephi Chapter 17, right before Nephi is commanded to build a ship. Verse 3 taught me something. Before I explain, let me tell you about the inner struggle I have been having. I felt like if I was supposed to have children, then my body would be ready and just work when it was supposed to. Being an emotionally unstable person already, I have been hesitant to try medications that will change my hormones and help me conceive. I've heard horror stories about women turning into monsters (in mood only) due to different drugs in order to have babies, and I didn't want that. "If God wants me to have a baby, He can help put one there," was my attitude. Verse 3 changed this for me: "And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and ^astrengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them;" (italics added). For me, that doesn't say that God will change my body or fix it or anything of the sort. For me, that meant that there are other things that are provided in my day to help people like me fulfill the commandments of God. (insert a little bit of peace here)

I'm still not pregnant, but my heart is changing and I'm starting to feel okay with getting extra help from modern medicine. It may turn me into a grouch, but my Heavenly Father wants me to have children and I am willing to make the sacrifice. Let's just hope Mark and I feel the same way when I'm actually on the medicine...

First Post of 2012!

So far, we are loving the new year. I've had some changes in my life, and lots of updates!

I have a job! I'm teaching a couple of classes at ITT Technical Institute. It was an extremely stressful and crazy start, but I feel like I've got everything under my belt now. I love my students (for the most part). Many of them are returned students, and most are older than me. We have a lot of fun during class, and I think some of them are starting to enjoy math (or at least not hate it anymore). We only have a few weeks left for this quarter, and then I'll be starting 3 classes instead of just 2. This quarter I'm teaching Thursday and Friday nights. Pretty lame schedule, if you ask me, but at least I'm working. Next quarter I'll be teaching Monday and Tuesday nights, and Tuesday morning. It will be a much better schedule! I'm looking forward to it.

I am a volunteer! A couple of weeks ago I started working at the Albuquerque LDS temple. I work the morning shift every Tuesday, and it has been such a blessing in my life! I love the feelings of peace and quiet that I can enjoy all morning. I also love learning more about what goes on in the temple, and how everything is organized and run. I'm so glad that I have the time to take this opportunity without having the stress of a full-time job or children (although I would love either/both of those things).

I make bread! And other things. I've become quite the homemaker since moving here. My mom taught me how to make bread a long time ago, but I rarely ever made it because Utah had such. good. bread. However, Albuquerque bread tastes like sandpaper. So now I make all of our bread. Also, thanks to Pinterest, I've started cooking lots of other things. Pretty much I'm amazing :)

We've started looking at houses! Our lease ends in July, so we've begun exploring different areas and houses to see where we want to live. We are pretty close to making a decision, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Last of all... I've lost 10 pounds! I started Weight Watchers last year, and have had great success. I love how great I feel and I love the way I look. If you are looking for a change in lifestyle and eating habits, I would totally suggest weight watchers. It's awesome!