5 minute catch-up

Well - I have not had a spare second to post any of our happenings the past month because my last year of school started and I have been consumed with eating, sleeping, reading and homework. I am so thankful that I have the best family in the world who pick up ALL of my slack and never ever complain.


My 6'2" little brother received his mission call to Monterey Mexico. He will leave in November. He has been working for Marshal and drives to Pocatello with us every day. It is has been really comical because he bought some CD's that teach you to speak spanish. So while I try to read, he and Marshal repeat the spanish words along with the CD and I laugh so hard in my head I don't absorb much of my reading.

Oh Baby Baby - -

Yes - as many of you are now speculating Marshal and I will be extending our family by 1. We tried for some time and over the last 8 years it has never happened. Well we decided in June that it absolutely would not be a good idea to get pregnant my last year of school and we would try closer towards graduation. In June I made an appointment for a laproscopic surgery consult to help with the endometriosis and they kindly informed my that no I would not be having the surgery but rather I would be having a BABY!

After such a long wait I thought I would be ecstatic but instead I have been sicker than a dog and have spent the last 4 months telling heavenly father that his timing was all wrong. I knew I was too big of a sissy to finish school and have a baby so my emotions were pretty pesamistic. I couldn't get the guts up to tell anyone I was pregnant except Adrianne of coarse who guessed!! Marshal on the other hand said at least once a day - "I've got to tell someone" We finally agreed on his Birthday we would just tell everyone at once. In our family we do this "POEM" thing were we write funny poems for special occassions - it sounds corny but it gets pretty good laughs - so here is our little ANNOUNCEMENT POEM

Sending A Little Letter Your Way –
To See How You Are Doing Today –

I Must Admit It Has Been Quite Awhile –
But Next Time I See You I Will Be Wearing A Smile –

I Have Been Holding A Hug That Is Only For You –
And Hope When We Meet You’ll Give Me One Too –

I Bet You Are Wondering What This Is About –
So Here Are Some Clues to Help You Out –

I Have Little Fingers And A Little Nose –
And Mom Hopes I Don’t Get My Dad’s Big Toes –

I Don’t Know If I’ll Have Lots Of Hair On My Head –
But I Bet There’s A Good Chance That It Will Be Red –

Mom Of Course Wants Me To Be A Barrel Racing Girl –
Dad Wants A Boy to Throw A Rope and Give B-Ball A Whirl

Little Do They Know I Am Just What I Should Be –
And Can’t Wait To Get There And Meet The Family –

BOY or GIRL – guess you’ll have to wait and see
Since mom and dad thinking not knowing will be fun for everybody

I Still Have Lots of Growing To Do, To Prepare for Life on Earth
The Doctors Say January 20th Is My Expected Day of Birth –

I can’t think of a Family I’d rather come to
Surrounded by people as great as you.

See you all Soon Little Baby M


Finally -- after a few ultrasounds - I have changed my tune to "School Schmool" I suppose I would rather fail school and have fun having a baby and being a mom than anything else so we are now just going to take it day by day. Not only that but shopping for baby clothes... is so fun.

I am 4 months along and they moved the date again - so sometime mid-January we will be having a he or a she - we decided to wait and be surprised on the gender.

I am open to any and all advice. I know nurses should know a lot about taking care of babies but I did avoid pediatrics like the plague because it is so sad when kids are sick.

Suprise

July 22 Marshal turned 30! Everyone pretended like they had forgot his birthday and then we threw a suprise party for him the day after his birthday. I have never seen anyone quite so sad, he sulked all day.

We had some friends and family come for dinner and cake at Sizzler - He was completly suprised grinning from ear to ear.

Adrianne looks so suprised in her picture that you would have thought we were suprising her!!!

Love you guys - thanks for coming.

Quote of the Week

PRESS FORWARD

“Faith in something greater than ourselves enables us to do what we have said we'll do, to press forward when we are tired or hurt or afraid, to keep going when the challenge seems overwhelming and the course is entirely uncertain.”

(Gordon B. Hinkley)

Antibiotics may not always be a good thing!!!

So many times parents come in and insist on getting an antibiotic for their child and many times the providers find giving it to them is easier than explaining why it could actually be more harmful in the long run.

Horses or all animals for that matter basically are treated the same way and with the exact same medications as a human, and I was that loving parent to "Smoke" who thought I had to be doing something to help him get better so even though the vets initially said no antibiotic we treated them any way to speed up the process.

Smoke got "Pigeon Fever" a bacterial infection. The bacteria is often very resistant to antibiotics and no matter how much antibiotic they get it still has to "RUN ITS COARSE" So if the doc says no antibiotic just know there is a very good reason. And an ear nose and throat doc I was working with said sore throats, and especially ear infections are way over treated with antibiotics and if we keep it up he said the only treatment will be to cut the eardrum open - kind of like poor little smokes chest!!

I thought since everyone loved the pigs feet so much - you would really appreciate a gapping wound.

PIGS feet

You know the story about the little piggies that went to market - well I found out what happened to them. They gave all their feet to Nurse Practitioner students to practice suturing. We spent the last 1/2 of our semester learning to sew up lacerations - which is my most favorite thing to do. They didn't oink - but they did have a little blood in them still not to mention they were so rubbery. Ham Hawk and Beans anyone??

Men's Only Barrel Race - Funniest thing you'll ever see

We recently traveled to southern utah for a 3 day barrel race. For entertainment purposes they have a MENS ONLY race. Well Marshal will not have anything to do with the Barrels since it is a "Girls" event. After a great deal of prodding he finally agreed that since we were far enough away from home that no one would ever know he would do it for a good laugh - well I got it on film and if you want a good laugh you better take a peak. He was pretty big talk until they called his name and his face went green - and of coarse instead of making a fool of himself he did an awesome job and the crowd was cheering him on like crazy. The picture is how he slept for the first 6 hours after we finally got home. He is such a good sport - love you bud!

Cannery

Over the past year we have been trying to be dedicated to working on our food storage. Chalyce and I went to the Pocatello Cannery and we laughed ourselves silly -however the church workers didn't think we were that funny. It was really fun to go and spend a couple of hours canning food. Whatever food you want you can yourself. They have potatoes, dried applies, beans, noodles, flour, sugar, anything dry! I have been several times but if anyone wants to go let me know and I will go with you. You should also note it is much cheaper than the grocery store!!

Tagged -

How To Play This Game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

3 Joys

1. My primary class. They are so dang honest and funny, they make my week. So parents be careful because your children really do tell all in primary:0

2. Being a nurse. I am grateful that I can work where my whole job focuses on helping patients and their families. I just learned to suture wounds and it is literally my most favorite thing to do at work.

3. My family. We are kind of a weird family because all of us work together and play together all the time. We always have fun activities planned and everyone goes the extra mile to be supportive of one another.

3 Fears

1. Chad leaving on his mission. We spend every night hanging out when he gets off of work and T-Market, we will be really lonely when he leaves.

2. Failing School

3. Being outside alone in the dark

3 Goals

1. Making it to the NFR

2. Getting through school.

3. Having and adopting our children.

3 current obssessions

1. Keeping in touch with fam/friends through blogging. Every night Marshal says "are you blogging"

2. Barrel Racing - we go to competitions 2-3 days a week.

3. Lifting weights - I started way back at Rick's college with Adrianne and have done it ever since.

3 Random Surprising Facts.

1. I have 1 brother, 1 sister, 3 step-sisters, and 2 step brothers. That I will claim. 6 Nieces and nephews and 2 on the way!

2. I only married marshal so our children would not have to be short. (kidding)

3. We try to have monthly group dates with our friends and spouses where we play games, cook-out, and just hang-out. It always seems so inconvenient but always end up having a blast and I think it makes married life more fun.

I am tagging the following 5 people: Adrianne, Heidi, Nicole, Cat, Jillene.

A few of my favorite things:)

I so love living in the county, my family, all the animals on our funny farm, and Big M. Here are a few pictures of life on the ranch. We have lots of horses so when you decide you want to go for a ride you know who to call.

The pictures are of our newest baby horse, Marshal and Lance hangin out, Lizzie our blue healer (1 of 6 dogs), Tes my very first horse, and finally a picture of the whole gang at the roadhouse (Nicole's favorite place to work)

Favorite Quote

Here is one of my favorite quotes, it is from a talk by Vaughan J Featherstone:

YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU MUST DO:
If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it,
If only desire of it makes your aim strong enough
Never to tire of it,
If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it
If gladly you'll sweat for it,
Fret for it,
Plan for it,
Pray with all your strength for it,
If you simply go after the thing that you want
With all you capacity,
strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope, confidence, and stern pertinacity,
If neither cold or poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness, nor pain,
Of body or brain,
Can turn you away from the aim that you want,
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
YOU'LL GET IT,

Dear Lord, in the battle that goes on through life,
All I ask is a field that is fair,
A chance to be equal to all in the strife,
A courage to strive and to dare,
If I should win, let it be by the code,
With my head and my honor held high.
If I should lose, let me stand by the road
And cheer as the winners go by.

Tig and Misty @ Golden Spike Arena

Finally,

I have promised for awhile now that I would post some videos of the horses and I barrel racing. I have finally made some time to get it done. Ron and Karen I am way excited for you to see how far Tig has come in such a short amount of time. The other horses are are right behind him. We started running them this week!

We have been training and conditioning in the snow, freezing temperatures, mud, sleepless nights, you name it; but 99% of the credit goes to my dad and Marshal. Without your talent, ability to work with horses, and your hours and hours of help we never could have made it this far.