My Protector

This is a moment I want to remember forever. I can't believe it's taken me this long to write it down!  A few weeks ago Nathan and I and the kids drove to McAllen to stay for the weekend.  We were going to spend time with our niece so that her parents could have a weekend at the beach.  

One afternoon, we were playing around and rough housing with the kids. They were enjoying it and having a great time.  It didn't take long for Nathan to shift his "attack" to me!  In no time, he had me on a chair and was tickling me.  Around this time I noticed the kids just staring at us.  We of course were laughing because we were, after all, just goofing around.  A second later Nathan hoisted me off of the chair I'd been sitting in and was quickly holding me upside down!  At this, my kids made sounds of protest. They had looks of genuine concern on their faces!  I laughingly threatened Nathan that if he didn't put me down, he'd have to contend with his children.

He put me down right away and said, "See kids? Mom is alright!"  Too little too late for CoBe I suppose.  He looked at his father (who was down on the ground as well now) and moved over to him.  With a grunt of warning, he reached up and pulled his dad's hair!  My hero!  Looks like there's another sheriff in town now honey. You better watch out for this kid, because he sure loves (and protects) his mama!

(CoBe pumping some iron to keep dad in line)

Growing up is hard... for parents

So much of my first days (and months... maybe even the whole first year?) as a mom are a total blur. I do have some vivid recollections though and most of them have to do with crying. Me crying, not the kids.

I cried when we left the hospital, already aware that this meant the kids were "old enough" to be allowed out of the confines of the hospital. "Have four days in the hospital already passed??" I wondered.

A few days after that, Nathan and I were watching t.v. If I remember accurately it was a show on PBS about some animals. I think it was supposed to be touching. Nathan got up to get something and when he returned I had tears streaming down my face. His little heart melted just a little bit for his wife who has a soft spot for animals in her heart. "Honey" ,he said, "are you crying because of the show?" A little knowing smile played at the corner of his mouth.
"What?" I said, coming out of my reverie."No, I wasn't even watching really." I still have tears falling down my face at this point. Now honestly perplexed, my husband inquired why I was crying.

"It's already been a whole week since the kids were born. They are a week old. This is going by too fast!" I believe he chuckled before he hugged me.

A couple of weeks later a similar scene unfolded. This time it had to do with putting the kids down in their cribs, all on their own, for the night. Up until this point we hadn't really used their room for anything other than diaper changing.
As we laid them down(each in their own crib) I realized how incredibly small they looked. How could we just leave them in there all night on their own?? We turned on the monitor and walked out.

We stood in the kitchen and, again, I cried. My hubs wondered if I was going to demand a video monitor for the kids. I said I didn't think so. I asked if we were rushing this whole "on their own" thing. He said we would have to do it at some point and we should just "see how it goes".
"Ok" I said. "But maybe we should say a prayer." He agreed and waited for me to start. I got one word out before I got choked up and couldn't continue. I asked him to pray instead, which he of course did.

I'm sure that's the only reason why nothing disastrous happened to my precious little babies on their first night "alone".

Those moments have certainly become more rare than common at this point, but I so wanted for time to just slow down. That was a total 180 from my sentiments as little as a year before we got pregnant. At that point I just wanted to "hurry up" the whole getting pregnant thing (as if I had control of that at all).

When CoBe started his first appointments with the cleft lip team I also wanted to just hurry things up and fast forward to his lip repair surgery. I wanted to skip the weekly exams, the putting in, taking out and cleaning of his "retainer", and the daily application and removal of his face tape. Yet, when the time for that first surgery was near I very badly wanted time to slow down again. While I knew it was necessary and indeed beneficial for him to have the surgery, I wasn't ready to say goodbye to his sweet little split lip that I had loved from the moment I laid eyes on him.

What is nice though, is to be able to look back on those moments of worry and frustration, the moments of "please just hurry" and "please just slow down" and see how everything worked out. I am a better and stronger person because of those experiences, and I wouldn't think of trading them, even if I could.

(Bonus: A little snippet of that cute face)

Little Helper

Recently I was in my hometown visiting family. The kids and I stayed at my sister in law's place which was great since she has a daughter that is just 3 months younger than Obzy (my daughter) and CoBe (my son). [Author's note: I have been deliberating whether to use my kids' real names or not. I have decided NOT to do so on the blog so anyone commenting, please keep this in mind and use the nicknames if need be].

One of the best things about the trip was seeing all 3 interact with one another. They have come a long way in terms of sharing and cooperating with one another. One little moment that stuck in my mind that I wanted to make sure to remember, deals with Obzy.

I had just finished giving the kids lunch and all were playing in the living room. I picked up Obzy so that she could finish the milk in her sippy cup. I took the pacifier out of her mouth and put the sippy cup in. She finished most of it, but still had some left over. I put her back down to play.

Once I did that, Obzy walked over to her cousin M (who was minding her own business), took out M's pacifier and then shoved her sippy cup into M's mouth. The shoving was due to a lack of coordination, no mal intent. I guess she sees herself as second in command! I very much look forward to more of these "mommy's little helper" moments!

The Worst Day

I've said the phrase above hundreds of times as a hyperbole regarding days that just stunk. Today's tale is about the literal worst day of my life so, it's pretty heavy subject matter.

The day was about one week after we found out that one of our twins (our son) was going to be born with a cleft lip. We had received that news at the 20 week ultrasound and handled it really well (in my humble opinion). We knew it was something that wasn't life threatening and was fixable, so while we may have had some worry, overall we were ok with this surprise.

We were referred to a Neonatologist and made an appointment to meet with him. On that day, we did an ultra sound and got all the regular stats from the babies. The doctor came in after he got the ultra sound report to chat with us. I don't recall the exact conversation leading up to the moment that made this the worst day of my life, but I'll do my best to recreate it.

The doctor mentioned that we were there to see him so that he could keep a close eye on our little guy. He mentioned that sometimes a cleft lip is an isolated birth defect but that other times it occurs as a result of a larger problem- a chromosomal abnormality. I asked what that meant. He continued and explained that a chromosomal abnormality meant that there were 3 of one chromosome instead of 2. Trisomy 21, for example, is more commonly known as Down Syndrome. But then there was also the possibility of Trisomy 13;a condition that most often results in a baby's "failure to thrive"... by this he meant failing to live.

I asked "how many fail to thrive?"
Reply: All of them...

At that moment I remember that the ultrasound image was still on the tv screen. I looked at the little being that was my son and all of a sudden I felt terrified that I would lose him.

As the doctor passed me a tissue, he let us know that we could find out for sure if our son had one of these conditions by doing an amnio centisis which he could do right then and there if we chose to do so.

We asked for some time to discuss and as soon as the door closed I crumpled onto my husband and sobbed. The possibility of losing our son, our little baby, who we had wanted for so long was too much. But that wasn't the only thing. I had a recollection of an experience that I'd had long ago. One that I had forgotten over the years of our trying to get pregnant, but in this moment it sprung to mind and took my breath away. I had to tell Nathan... had to tell him that this situation may be my fault.

Years before, as I was praying one night I prayed that we would PLEASE get pregnant. Even if it was a baby,whose time on Earth were to be short, I would accept that and just be grateful for the chance to be a mom.

Is this what was happening now? Did our son have this condition? This death sentence? There was only one way to find out and so we went ahead and did the amnio.

The ensuing week was torture as we waited to hear back. We wondered what we would do if he did have Trisomy 13. We prayed for everything to turn out to be fine but IF NOT and our son did have a condition could it please be Trisomy 21?

After what seemed like an eternity (just over a week) we got the good news that the cleft was an isolated condition, unattached to more serious circumstances. We celebrated- by finally- BREATHING.

*Note: After proofreading this I realize there are still a lot of missing details but I suppose I cannot really go back to the place I was in just yet. Maybe one day I'll feel the need to flesh out a few more details, but at this time, I think that's as much as I need to say. :)

I'm what???

Getting pregnant didn't just happen for Nathan and I, though we tried our darndest (wink,wink)... gross. Sorry for all that information. Hahaha.

Anyway that whole journey took us down many paths. Adoption (which we did not go through with), fertility doctor, hormone specialist, voodoo doctor as I lovingly refer to her as and eventually back to a fertility doctor, (though different from the first one).

Once we arrived at that last fertility doctor that was a process as well. Eventually we arrived at in-vitro. That whole saga would best be left to its own post. At any rate, we were able to implant 2 embryos. After doing so I had a reaction called Ovarian Hyper-Stimulation Syndrome. It was a severe enough case that I wound up in the hospital on 2 separate occasions. The second stay was about a week long.

The thing about going through the in vitro process is that everything is very scheduled and very calculated. From the time you give yourself shots, egg retrieval, implantation, pregnancy test... it is all planned out. I had given up my idea of surprising Nathan with the news we were pregnant. Back in the early days, I imagined him coming home and somehow cleverly revealing to him that he was going to be a dad.

After having given up several notions of how things are "supposed to be" (or not supposed to be) throughout this time in my life, I was blessed to have the ability to still surprise my husband with this news. A little "tender mercy" if you will.

My doctor came to check on me throughout my stay in the hospital. During my second stay he increasingly came to suspect that I was pregnant. I of course held that hope at bay. A coping mechanism to be sure. The fact that my OHSS had not abated was the first clue he had. But on top of that, there were occasions when he came that I was eating only pickles. :)

Now, according to the calendar, I was to have the pregnancy test on a Friday. Exactly two weeks after implanting the embryos. My doctor though, being highly suspicious of a positive result, asked me if I would like to bump up that test by a day. I of course said that I would and he put in the order for the blood work for Thursday morning.

I didn't tell Nathan about the change in plans.

During my week in the hospital I became accustomed to the morning lab work and eventually just slept through it. Not Thursday morning though. I was excited and nervous. Hopeful yet scared. How many countless tests had I taken in the years leading up to this day that all had said "NOPE! Not this month lady"? I'm not sure how I endured the hours until my doctor came in. I think I was on the phone with someone so I had to quickly hang up.

Doctor K:"I got the results from your test and YOU'RE PREGNANT"
Me: (immediately crying) I'm what?!

We continued to talk and celebrate. After he left I wanted to jump out of my skin. I wanted to shout it from the rooftops or at the very least call up my honey at work and tell him. I calmed myself down though and decided that after waiting several years, I could wait until he came to the hospital after work.

Easier said than done. I believe I called my husband asking if he could come over early. I made up a bogus story about having a rough day. He said he'd try his best but most likely he couldn't leave the office until 5. That was 5 hours away at that point.

By the time he walked in to my hospital room at 6:00 (traffic had been awful) he had about a minute to say hello and then needed to be on a conference call. That call lasted an hour. Probably the longest hour of my life. Finally(FINALLY!!) the call ended. It was time to tell him.

He asked how my day was. I said I think I needed a hug.
He hugged me.
I asked him if it felt different. He asked "if what feels different?"
"Hugging a pregnant lady" I replied. He asked if I was serious. I assured him I was.

We laughed and cried and hugged and cried. And then we began making some phone calls.

Re-Dedicated

How I wish that I had been a better journal writer in the time leading up to and since the birth of my twins. I have thought about this quite a bit over the last year or so. I kept going back and forth about which venue I wanted to use as a journal. (pen/paper, blog, private diary website, etc).

In the end the blog won. I find it easier to just open up my computer and type away instead of spending a long time hand writing my entries. I also feel accountable to the blog in some way. Perhaps the thought of an audience. Whatever it is, I'm back.

(little) Things that make me happy

The title, translated, should also read "Things that make me happy, so you should try them too or else your a shmoe"

-Plums, nectarines and peaches. I've been way into fruit for a long time now. It became my go to when I decided to cut down on sugary snacks such as brownies and Nutella. Yummy

-Massages and pedicures. I find it is important NOT to over do either of these to avoid taking their wonderfulness for granted, and becoming spoiled.

-Loving a dog at some point in life. I was going to say pet, but I really don't think other pets are as cool as dogs. I mean, can you really compare a reptile, fish or cat to a cuddly, playful, loyal dog? I think not.

-The smell of sunscreen and chlorine. Not necessarily together either. Individually they are wonderful as well. I've recently gone back to swim workouts. I almost don't want to shower after I get home because then the chlorine smell goes away. (I do shower though,just so we're clear)

-My label maker. Anyone who has known me prior to the last couple of years may be surprised by this. Organization has been something I've had to work on. It took about 3 years of having my own classroom before giving in to going the label maker route, and I haven't looked back since. Since I'm not working full time this year, I've had several projects around the house that have greatly benefited from my use of labels; organizing the garage, pantry, Tupperware drawer and art supplies to name a few.

-My husband's bed head. It is hilarious. I hope he doesn't go bald just for the reason that that would be the end of his crazy just woke up hair.

-Smoothies. Closely related to my fruit addiction listed above.

-Mail/Packages. Of course, by mail I mean the good kind like a letter from a friend, an invitation to something fun, a check or things of that nature. It has been great the last couple of weeks getting unexpected mail and packages from friends and family in preparation for the new members of our family.
There was a time when getting email was also really exciting, but that has died down some since the days of "you've got mail" on AOL. That's because back in those days, when that man's voice told me that I had mail it was from a friend or boy I had a crush on (we're back in jr. high and high school) and those emails are so much better than the SPAM that comes my way these days.

That is all for now. :)

What the future holds?

Many of you have probably already seen this, but if not you may get a kick out of it. There are several other versions of this same video that have added captions to "translate" what the kids are saying to each other. There was one that was soooo funny (laughed so hard I cried), but it used pretty foul language so I thought better to post the clean one here!

Faith, Hope and Luggage

Nathan and I were married in the summer of 2005. Despite all of our best efforts not to have it be a stressful day, some things you just can't help. The plan was to get married in the San Antonio temple, take pictures, drive to McAllen for our ring ceremony and reception, and the following day head out for the honeymoon.

Everything went along fabulously. Up until, that is, we got back to McAllen. While I made it down (which I guess is more important) my suitcase did not. Since we were leaving for our honeymoon the very next day, all of my things were packed and ready to go. Every car that made the drive from San Antonio was checked, every household scoured and the hotel we had stayed in was called. It was nowhere to be found.

There was essentially nothing I could do about it other than pray that somehow my luggage would be found. I had more important things to put my mind on so we went ahead with the rest of our wedding celebration as planned.

About an hour or so into our reception, a good friend of ours said he had a cousin that lived in San Antonio and that perhaps he could drive to the hotel and personally inquire about a missing bag. In short, his cousin went to the hotel and found my bag in the lobby which was sitting between a chair and a potted plant (right where I had left it, naturally). After finding said bag, his cousin drove the 3 1/2 hours down to McAllen to deliver it to me. My gratitude for our friend and his cousin, a person I'd never even met, knew no bounds.

A few years later, it was one of my best friends' turn to get married. This time the location was Utah. Nathan and I and my friend's family traveled up there for the celebration. The evening of the groom's dinner, we were told that her mother had lost a bag. She remembered carrying it on the plane. Her son said he never saw her carry it on. So essentially the bag was either in Texas or perhaps still in an overhead bin.

Of course all of the avenues were investigated- a call to the airline, a call to the airport etc. What was so devastating about this particular bag was that one of the bridesmaid's dresses and her own mother of the bride dress was in this bag (I believe she had sewed both dresses herself).

As the dinner wore on, despite her best efforts to conceal it, I could tell that she was truly saddened by her lost bag. I spoke with Nathan and we decided that since we weren't directly related, it would be best for us to drive to the airport (approx. 45 mins away) and do some investigating on our own. I'm not sure about Nathan, but I know I was saying a silent prayer that we'd find it!

There wasn't much activity going on when we arrived. We did locate the missing baggage office of the particular airline. We explained the situation to them, gave our phone numbers and so on. Just as we were wrapping it up, Nathan looked down on the ground next to the wall. There were a few small bags there. The tag of one caught his eye, which was a good thing because the name on the tag was the name of my friend's mother! The pile of bags Nathan was looking at were bags that weren't claimed from the baggage claim.

As it happened, she had actually checked the bag. Since she didn't remember doing that she would have had no reason to wait by the luggage carousel for it. A confirmation of the contents of the bag was conducted and we were on our way back to the group- with great news.

If it weren't for my stressful lost bag experience at my wedding, I really don't think I would have insisted that we drive to the airport ourselves. What I'm trying to say is... sometimes sucky things happen for a reason. You don't always get to find out what the reason is, but it is important to direct your faith (and prayers) to the right person and trust in Him.

Finally...

I get to add the baby tracker thingy to my sidebar. Hooray!

Puppy Play Day!

Since we were going to be celebrating our New Year's eve in Dallas, and not taking the dogs with us, we decided to take them to our favorite dog park in Austin before leaving them. By the way, it was December 30th. While I had a bit of a bad attitude about the unseasonably warm weather this winter, you can't complain about a day like this!

Morale Booster

Today I substituted for a friend of mine. Just half a day. She informed me that when she told her class that she would be leaving at 11 o'clock and that I would be subbing for them, the class cheered.

Awesome.

Flipping Out

I'm 18 weeks pregnant right about now. I have no idea if I have felt these kids move, or not. I have experienced what could possibly be baby movement or maybe not. At any rate, last week there were about 3-4 consecutive evenings where, as I laid (layed? Perhaps my friend Emily could help me on this grammatical quandary) in bed I felt these "movements". Although out loud I was telling Nathan, "Well who knows what it is, but it could be the kids" inside, I felt sure that it was.

Around Friday night I expectantly waited to feel any such thing but without any luck. It was obvious to me what was going on. Something terrible had happened to my babies! I told Nathan that I didn't have a good feeling about this new development. He assured me everything was fine. Ya, like that was going to change my mind. I persisted. I suggested that the following day I could go to one of those independent ultra sound imaging places just to make sure. I think Nathan figured that either way, I'd have to sleep on that decision so he said, "If that's what you think you need to do, then go ahead."

The next morning, (after dreaming all night about ultrasounds and babies) I went to my most trusted source of information- Google. Google told me that at this stage of pregnancy fetal heartbeats can be heard through a stethoscope! Clearly, I spent the next hour or so investigating local businesses that sold stethoscopes.

I didn't have too much luck. Most places that showed up in my search were only internet companies that shipped medical equipment/supplies from Austin. One of my friends, who used to be a nurse in Austin, informed me of a place that could work. However by the time I looked them up online, it was after their closing time, 2 p.m.

In the end I did without ultrasound or stethoscope. I'd like to say that I've calmed down a bit but in reality I think I'm just hiding it a bit better. How on earth can you not worry though?? My plan is to just stay busy until our next scheduled doctor's visit... just 16 days away. But who's counting?

Rounding out the year

Perhaps it HAS been over two months since my last post. Big deal. It has been quite a busy two months. Rather than spelling out details of every event that has taken place since October, I'll give you a quick rundown of the happenings. Maybe then you'll agree to be my friend again. :)

Parents moved into my house
I was put on a 72 hour bed rest after a medical procedure (incidentally, the same weekend as my parents moved in)
Developed a complication to said procedure
Went to ER
Admitted to hospital for 3 days
Bed rest continued
Readmitted to hospital for 5 days
Entire family came to Texas
Brother got married
Learned I was pregnant
Parents moved to Panama
Had a paracentesis a total of FOUR times. Ick.
Learned I was pregnant with twins
Had quite a few ultra sounds... babies growing right before our eyes!
Drove to our hometown for Thanksgiving
Got sick quite a bit (thanks babies)
Decorated house for Christmas
Christmas shopping

And that about brings us to now. We are very much looking forward to our holiday time with our family. As it happens, this will be my first Christmas in 27 years that I won't be spending with my parents... I feel a little odd about that, but what can I say? Life is ever changing, certainly that past two months have proved that. A friend of mine has a favorite quote (from Helen Keller I believe) that I think sums up the attitude I've had to adopt as of late. "Life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all."

I can't imagine I'll be posting before January, so Merry Christmas friends, and a happy new year!

PBS got me here

So I was just perusing through facebook,like I do, and saw a great video starring some of my Sesame Street favorites and Will I Am. I haven't had occasion to watch Sesame Street for years but it brought all the love I have for that show right back.

I grew up on Sesame Street, among the other PBS shows. We didn't have cable growing up so as far as kids' shows go that's all we had... and that's all we needed. From Sesame Street I learned how to count with The Count as well as the stressed out bellhop who always had to take people's luggage to like the 32nd floor. (Remember him?) I also learned the importance of conserving water and to this day, I call my husband a "wasteroo" if he leaves the water running needlessly. I learned that it is good to try new things ("I said I'll taste it, I'll give it a whirl, and now I am a cereal girl!) So many good lessons and memories! Below are a few smatterings for your pleasure. Incidentally, after watching these clips I realized something else I learned from the muppets, my dance moves.
(this is my new favorite song)

A Warning

Below is a news clip you may have seen. It starts out like any local news story but the interviewees make it news making gold!


After you watch the real thing, enjoy this remix.

Is it tacky?

First of all, is this how you spell tacky?? It looks odd. Anyway for the last couple or so years I have gotten so fed up with the fact that Nathan and I do not have any great photos of us other than our wedding pictures. It's been five years, honestly, I think it's time for an update!

So my plan is to commandeer the photographer at my brother's wedding. Oh sure he and his wife will still have their time in the sun, but I think Nathan and I could just get a little half hour session in somewhere at no cost to us. It's the perfect plan! ;)

Craziness

On Saturday I had the opportunity to do something that I hadn't ever done before. It was fun and pretty much awesome. I'm not going to tell you what it was though because it was a bit on the wild side.
But it got me thinking about some of the "crazy" things that I've done in my life. Some were strokes of genius, others were stupid moments, but they all ended up being good times (or at the very least good stories). I will share some of these HOWEVER I would ask that you don't leave me out in the cold. Please comment and tell me at least one of your "crazy" moments. It's not fair for me to be the only one sharing my appalling secrets.

1. Streaking at some midnight hour in my parent's backyard during a rainstorm. It lasted all of five seconds... but it was great. Luckily no one caught me!

2. Trespassing into an abandoned "insane asylum"

3. The DJ at my 8th grade dance asked for my number and I gave it to him. Why? Because I didn't want to be rude. Girls at that age are STUPID! I think I may have call blocked once I got home though. What a gross guy!

4. Sledding down a very steep hill in a five man pyramid formation.

5. Nearly setting my kitchen on fire in college

6. Bridge jumping as well as cliff jumping. Those days are definitely over on account of my back issues.

7. I kissed a boy I didn't really know at a church dance out of the state. I have been questioned about this and I have DENIED IT,until now. BUT I must say that, again, I was young and inexperienced with scheming boys! I will only take 50% of the blame at the very most but that is pushing it.

8. Oh here's a good one. Mom, don't get mad :)
Senior year me and 3 friends were hanging out and we got the urge to go to the beach. By the time we had decided to do this, it was about 9 and I believe I had an 11 or 11:30 curfew (it takes 1hr 15mins to get to Padre Island). I was already out of my house so I just chose not to update my parents on the sudden change of plans.
Basically we drove there, ran around the sand dunes for about a half hour and then headed back. Really it was very harmless. I was, however, WAY past curfew. Luckily my parents were already in bed. I had scarcely tip toed back into my room when I heard my parent's bed room door open. I quickly turned out my lights and jumped into bed. My mom came in and asked how long I'd been back. I don't remember my answer, but I'm pretty sure I was vague.

9. In 7th grade someone dared me to spray perfume in my mouth, and I did. My tongue was numb the whole class period.

10. I married Nathan. ;)

*Note: All of these are way in the past and so I think the statute of limitations for any repercussions has been reached.

2006

It's not all that often that you get to see your "past" self through your "present" lenses. I just had that opportunity though. I was in my email account and for some reason I decided to look through old emails between Nathan and myself. It was so funny to read what was going on in the first year of our marriage. It made me laugh. I think I may share a few examples. But you should note that at that time we were not refined and apparently we were not into proper spelling and/or punctuation. Also you should know that Nathan and I can be quite silly in our dialogues. That's on purpose.
_____________________________________
1/26/06 Me to N
oh hello honey,

I just got off the phone with you and I just wanted to make sure that you know that I don't really think you are a growdo or a weirdo because your toothbrush is funky or because you bleed from weird orifices of your body.

When I married you , I married all of you and I love the whole package :) So don't get down, YOU ARE GREAT!

I love you honey and I can't wait to get home and see you!

love,
me
________________________________________
REPLY N to me
I know I'm not a growdo. I do know that your the
best. and my nose isn't a wierd orifice. It's way
cool.

Stay cool

Nathan

p.s. I LOVE YOU!!!!!!
_________________________________________
REPLY me to N
"stay cool" ?!
what, are we back on your mission?? :) You're a geek

Regards,
Janae

P.S- I LOVE YOU TOO
_________________________________________
2/17/06 Me To N on the matter of getting a dog

Well so far this is what I have come to decide. I really cannot get excited about getting a dog in July just because we don't know what our situation will be at that time. Will you have a job? Will we be moving, if we are were are we living, do they allow dogs etc.

I know you want a dog very badly so if you want you can go ahead and prepare to get on in July. Just know that at this time I don't feel happy or excited about that. I may change my mind, I may not. I would just feel better if we waited. That's just how I feel. In December you would have my blessing and enthusiasm, I can't promise that to be the case in July.

Those are my thoughts, I'm leaving the final decision to you. I don't think any further discussion between us is going to change my mind. I love you honey

Janae
_____________________________
REPLY N to me
Honey,

I thank you for your e-mail honey. And I thank you
for taking the time to think about this issue. As far
as a descion goes, I will not make one now. I do want
to talk to you further about it, wether or nor it will
change your mind. This is not something that should
hurt our marriage, and if I did something without your
"blessing" then that is exactly what it will do.
We'll figure it out. I love you.

Nathan
_________________________________
5/8/06 Me to N- Apparently Nathan was very persuasive about getting a dog

List of things WE need to get done

1. make appt w/ vet for Saturday the 13th
2. get Kya's supplies food and water bowls, food, chew toy, ID tag
3. get boxes from Jesse
4. decide if we are getting a Uhaul
5. if so, reserve the Uhal
6. Make sure that our svcs are transfered to new apt as well as call gas company
7. Call Houston temple to see if we can go on Friday
8. Prepare a Puppy Training Plan (aka the PTP )
___________________________________
REPLY N to me
You're fun. I think it is great we are married, so I
can have fun with you all the time.

Stay cool.

Nathan
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7/18/06 N to me- We were considering N taking a job with Ferguson. They did end up offering him a job... in Alaska

Ok, here are the choices for Ferguson. I found them
on the website. Austin, TX. Salt Lake City, UT. and
Medford, OR. Now remember that more than likely we
will only be at whichever place for about 9 months or
so. Check out Medford's web site and links. Like the
visitors center and stuff. We could treat it like a
nine month vacation where we have to work every once
in awhile.

:)
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8/4/06 Me to N- We were considering N taking a job at a startup company in UT with a guy named Vince or a job with Volkswagon Credit

Dear Nathan,

I want to know what the surprise is...now now now. but also, I think I am ready for a change. Why doesn't vince need us to move up there in Sept? What about VW? where are they? Are you my mother?

But also, Matt Tingey may be calling you so you should know about that. Let him know we are debating when to get up to Arlington b/c we just don't know. but i'm going to call Erin after work and see what she thinks- and he's married to her so maybe he will know what we should do.

hola

janae

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12/28/06 me to N- After living in UT for a few months

can't we move back to austin??? :)
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And that concludes 2006!

My gift to you

I just had to share this gem. Don't say I never do anything for you. I have a few photos in mind that would fit right in on this site.

Hint: Click on the word site. I have a feeling my mother would be wondering what do do here. :)