California Adventures

This summer Dance Element took a group of dancers to dance in California Adventures. As my last big hurrah with them before we moved, I was able to go as a chaperon. Molly and Jarom had planned on going over to California with me, but were going to spend the day with some family that lives in that area. Last minute though, they decided to come into the park with me! I was excited to say the least! But Jarom and I agreed that we would only do things in the park that we could all do together. No riding big rides where one of us would have to wait with Molly and then switch and do it again. Being the Disney fanatic that I am though, I did insist that we get to the park as soon as it opens because that is the best time to ride rides. In the first hour at the park we rode the carousel, ferris wheel, Little Mermaid, Monster's Inc., and met Mickey Mouse! 

The rest of the day included riding Toy Story Mania, meeting Anna and Elsa, going to the Playhouse Disney Live show, watching the parade, watching the Aladdin Show, going to Bugs Land, playing in the wood play area, visiting Crush at Turtle Talk, learning how to draw Mickey Mouse. It was such a fun day. Molly loved the rides and watching the shows. She waved to Anna and Elsa. She waved to Jasmine and Aladdin while they were singing "A Whole New World." And it totally melted my heart.

I'm so glad we decided to to do the day the way that we did. The only line we waited in was for Toy Story (about 30 minutes) but that ride is worth waiting for. We were able to spend the whole day together as a family and we created so many fun memories. I know Molly will never remember any of it, but we will. And I think those memories might help convince Jarom to go again at some point in the future! Ha!

We headed home the next day, but stopped in San Diego first for some breakfast at Kono's. That line is always worth the wait. Then we took Molly down to the ocean because it was killing me just a little bit that she had never visited the Pacific Ocean. She hated the cold water. Oh well.

This was our first family vacation (meaning not house hunting in Tucson) as just our little family of 3 and it was so much fun. I love this family of mine and am so grateful for these opportunities that we have to spend together and just relax. Yay for summer and vacations!

New Orleans

This summer we went to New Orleans with Jarom's family. His sister is really into volleyball and her national tournament was in New Orleans this year. So we made a big trip out of it with the family and some friends. There was a total of 10 adults plus Molly that was in New Orleans so instead of getting 4 hotel rooms, we rented out a house for the week. It was a huge, beautiful home in the Garden District and it was nice to have so much space while we were there. This trip also marked Molly's first flying experience and we were both a little nervous about how she would do on the plane. But she did really well! She slept most of the flights and when she was awake, I was able to let her play on the ground at my feet. We really are lucky with how happy she is (most of the time).

The first morning we went and watched a game or two of Justine's tournament, then we headed out to the French Quarter. We walked through a bunch of stores, tried on Mardi Gras masks, ate beignets, took a walk down Bourbon Street, and dipped Molly's toes in the Mississippi River. It was a long day and Molly only slept for about 30-45 minutes the entire day. But she did really awesome! She was happy and just went along for the ride!

The next day we left Molly home with Grandma and Grandpa while we went with Jentrie and some of the friends that came on a Kayak Swamp Tour! I'll admit that I was pretty nervous to do this, but it turned out to be a blast! We didn't see any gators, which I was partly relieved and partly disappointed about. But the kayaking trip was great!

The following day we went to the last of Justine's tournament, then packed up and headed off! We drove with Jarom's parents and two sisters and went to Florida, Alabama, and Georgia (with an hour drive through Mississippi). In Florida, we spent a morning at the beach (in Pensacola). In Alabama we went to the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery along with some other historical sites - including Martin Luther King Jr's home. We also went to a Civil Rights Museum and the LDS Temple in Birmingham. In Georgia, we stopped at the Temple and then we tried to go to the CNN Headquarters but all of the tours were booked so we went over to the College Football Hall of Fame. The last 3 days of the trip included a lot of driving, but we got to do most everything that we wanted to! And we got a lot of states checked off our bucket list!

It was such a fun trip! I'm so glad we were able to go!

The Little Miss

I haven't journaled or blogged in forever. According to my journal right now I'm still having some fling with a guy from college and according to my blog I just got married. But that is all a couple of years in the past. I want to be better about journaling and when I look back at the last couple of years, a lot has happened! So I am going to take a step back and document a couple of those big events. But definitely not in the order they happened. Sorry if it's confusing.

First up: The Little Miss. She is pretty dang awesome. And she came into our lives on November 5, 2014. Remember, remember the 5th of November. I know some people really don't care to read other people's birth experiences, but I never did write this down anywhere. I really want to have it recorded though. So even though she turns 9 months old tomorrow (!) I'm going to try and write out as much as my mind will let me remember about actually giving birth to her.

I remember waking up on November 4th feeling different. Nothing was actually different from the day before (I was still extremely large and ready to pop) but I just felt different. It's hard to explain much more than that. I went to work teaching Kindergarten. We got through the day. I had after school tutoring with some of my kiddos. I remember as I was leaving school joking with some other teachers that they wouldn't see me the next day. That night for dinner I made a spicy corn chowder soup that was delicious. I made it a little extra spicy hoping that it might get some labor going or something. Jarom had a class at ASU that night and to save money on parking I would drop him off and then go hang out at my grandparent's house and then go back to pick him up. While I was at my grandparent's house I started having contractions. Nothing too intense, but definitely consistent contractions that were about 7-9 minutes apart. This was at about 6:30pm. When I picked Jarom up from class at about 7:30pm I made him drive the rest of the way home because it was starting to get uncomfortable during the contractions. I didn't feel like it was time to go to the hospital though. So we headed home to wait.

Jarom started doing some homework to keep himself busy and I sat on the couch watching House while timing the contractions. They were definitely getting stronger and a little closer together. So finally at about 11pm I told Jarom that we could go to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital I texted my coworkers and let them know that I am headed to the hospital. I wasn't sure if this was it, but I knew it would be a late night and would want a substitute the next day. We got all checked in and I was dilated to about a 3 which is what I had been at my doctor's appointment earlier in the week. They told me to walk the halls for an hour and then they would check me again. So we started walking. Pretty soon we found a stairwell. I went up and down those stairs more times than I could count. But I could still walk through my contractions and I knew that wasn't a good sign. Our hour was up and I went back to get checked again. Still a 3. They told me the contractions were close enough together, just not strong enough. At this point though I thought the contractions were pretty dang strong. I also knew there was no way in heck I would be able to get any sleep with this going on. Thankfully (but apparently also surprisingly) they gave me a sleeping pill before sending us on our way.

We got home at about 2am and I was able to sleep for about 2 hours. I woke up at about 4am having pretty intense contractions. I tried soaking in the tub, laying in different positions, having Jarom rub my back (I had pretty bad back labor) but every 5-7 minutes I was in near tears. Jarom suggested a couple of times to maybe go back to the hospital, but I had this huge fear that they were going to send me home again and say that the contractions still weren't intense enough. And at this point the contractions were so intense that I didn't think I could take them getting any worse so I didn't want anyone telling me that they needed to get worse (super rational pregnancy brain right there).

At about 9:30am I told Jarom that I wanted to go on a walk to get the labor going (I was still in denial that I was actually in labor). This time I had to stop every time a contraction hit so our walk was pretty slow going. When we got to the end of the street my mom called to see how things were progressing (I had texted her earlier that morning). I couldn't even talk through the contractions and I was like crying at this point. She suggested that I go to the hospital. But I still had this irrational fear. But my doctor had said that if I ever thought I might have something going on but wasn't sure, I could go to the office and just get checked out. So I agreed to go to the doctor's office.

Jarom and I headed over there and when I told the lady why I was at the office without an appointment, she said that they would be able to squeeze me in in about 45 minutes. I said okay, then walked over by Jarom and then a contraction hit. I started crying through the contraction and the receptionist said, "Why don't you just head back right now." Ha! I think she realized I was in actual labor. So I go back to the room to get checked and I am at a 5-6! And the doctor asks if my water broke because she feels hair! That was the main thing I heard because I had been convinced that I would never give birth to a child with hair! If you've seen any pictures of me before the age of 5, you would understand why.

This is it! We are having a baby! The doctor sent us to the hospital and called ahead so they would be ready for me. On our way there I think Jarom hit about 90mph on the freeway! When we got to the hospital there was of course no parking. So Jarom dropped me at the Labor and Delivery entrance while he found a parking spot. I went in and gave them my name and had to wait just a minute to go back to triage. In the minute I was waiting, Jarom comes flying down the hall and says that he did valet parking because he had no patience to find a parking spot. He was a little excited :) So as soon as they take me back to triage they pretty much get a room for me because I am at a 7 now! We headed to the room, they got me all hooked up and almost immediately I got the epidural. Although not before having a 6 minute long contraction that I thought was going to kill me.

The epidural was great. That happened at about 11:30am-12pm. Then all we had to do was wait. The epidural majorly slowed down the progress of the labor. But that was okay. We watched a couple of movies together and just kind of chilled. I was extremely grateful for our nurse though. Molly's heart rate was dropping during contractions so they put me on oxygen. The nurse never made me feel nervous or scared about this though. She just had me keep trying to lay in different positions to help Molly out. At about 6:15pm, I was ready to start pushing. My doctor came in and at 6:32pm, our healthy 8lb 12 oz, 21 inches long little girl was born! The cord was around her neck and instead of being face down, she was turned side ways. It was because of these things that her heart rate was dropping and that I was having such terrible back labor. But seeing her for the first time just made it all worth it! And to be perfectly honest, labor wasn't too bad. That night when all of our family came to see her, some of them asked if I would ever do it again and I could totally do it again! I definitely got lucky with my first birth experience.

Wow, that was long. But I am happy to have this written down. Hopefully it wasn't too detailed. I tried not to be gross. But that is the overall story of how Molly was born.

Also a side note about her name: Molly is Morgan and Holly (my mom) put together. And Kay is both mine and Valarie's (my mother in law) middle name. So Molly Kay is named after both her grandmas and her mom!

Full Speed Ahead

We have found that when something happens in life, 100 other things seem to happen at the exact same time. At the beginning of the summer, we were excited for a relaxing summer. I was beginning my career as a stay at home mom, Jarom had just graduated from ASU (aka: no more homework!), and we had a couple of fun trips planned. Well, that all happened. Plus a few other things. With Jarom having graduated from ASU, he started looking into possible career options. He had a good job where he was, so we weren't feeling rushed into finding a new job. But we had just spent a good chunk of money on this fancy piece of paper saying that he had a college degree and he was a little anxious to use that degree. After a visit to the temple to help us figure out what to do, Jarom sent an email to a guy that he had interviewed with a year ago at a company that does exactly what he wants to do. The next day, Jarom received a response that they did not have any openings here in Phoenix, but there was an opening down in Tucson and he could send Jarom's information to the people down there. Jarom said that would be great and the next day Jarom received a phone call that basically said if he wanted the job, it was his! We were excited, but our summer just got a whole lot crazier!

Before Jarom even interviewed for the job, we found a realtor to sell our house for us and we got lined up with a realtor down in Tucson. We put our house on the market almost immediately after Jarom was offered the job and it sold within 12 hours! Thankfully, the people buying our house were doing some sort of crazy loan that needed a minimum of 45 days to close. That gave us a little extra time to find a house down in Tucson and get that process started down there. While all of this was going on though, we managed to go to New Orleans, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and California. And we did lots of weekend and day trips down to Tucson. It has been a little nuts!

There have been several big blessings in all of this though to help us out. First of all, Jarom started the new job at the beginning of July. But he works from home about 3-4 days out of the week! So he has only had to go to Tucson a couple of different times. The other blessing is the people that we already know down in Tucson. We have several family members and friends down there and Jarom has been able to bum a bed or couch of each of them only about one time. These friends and family members even have connections to our new ward and have let them know that we are coming.

I have a lot of mixed emotions about moving. I think it will be really good for our little family to be a little more independent and on our own. We have spent some time down in Tucson this summer and I am genuinely excited to live down there. I am extremely sad though to be leaving our family. We are so lucky to have so much family living so close to us here in Mesa. It will be hard to not see them as often. And I am sad that Molly won't get to see her grandparents and aunts and uncles as often as I did when I was growing up. The good thing is that we are less than 2 hours away. And I know that we will come up to the valley quite a bit (possibly even once a month to go to the temple). Right now though I am just so over the whole moving process and just want to be in our new house. I'm tired of packing. I don't even want to think about cleaning. And the worst part is that we don't even have an official move date because our buyer is taking forever! Hopefully in the next week we will be down in the new house. Until then, full speed ahead.

Blink

Life can change so fast. 6 months ago I would have never guessed that I would be where I am today. I want to have the story written out that lead me to this point, so I guess this is where it is going to be.

Two years ago, my mom and Wyatt called me up in Provo one Sunday evening and told me that this guy spoke in their ward and I needed to go out with him. His name was Jarom Walker. I recognized his name from high school, but that was it. And I was living in Provo at the time, so I told them it wasn't going to happen and I don't think it was ever brought up again.

Fast forward to this past January. I was living at home in Gilbert and going to the singles ward. I had been asked to give a talk on missionary work. After I gave the talk, a guy told me that I had given a good talk, I said thanks and kept right on walking. I wasn't very social at church. That evening my parents asked how my talk had gone. Kaitlyn piped up and informed my family that Jarom Walker had commented on it. My mom and Wyatt jumped right on that one and said that was the guy they had wanted me to go out with when I lived in Provo. Again, I didn't do anything about it.

Well the next night was FHE and it was salsa dancing. Now, I was not an FHE goer. But dancing?? Salsa dancing?? Do you know me? How could I say no?! So I went! It wasn't too long before Jarom had asked me to dance. And after that, every time the instructors said to switch partners Jarom would respond with a "It's ok. We can stay together." By the end of the night, he had gotten my number!

That Wednesday he called me. I was dressed and getting ready to head out the door to a Zumba class. But we got to talking and it came up that he was going to institute and it just so happened to be the class I went to the previous semester, so he invited me to go with him. I accepted and he said he would be there in 5 minutes. I had 5 minutes to get dressed, do my hair, and put makeup on! And I did it. 

After institute that night, he asked me out for Friday night. Of course I accepted. So our first date was on February 1, 2013. And we have been together ever since. He kissed me the next night. By the next week I was invited on his family trip to Colorado. I went with them the first weekend in March, where his Grandma told me we could stay at her house in Montana for our honeymoon! We were engaged March 29, 2013 and sealed for eternity on May 24, 2013. 

We own a house and have been oh so happily married for two months. Life throws you for a loop sometimes, but I love roller coasters and this has been the best ride ever! 

Neither of us ever wanted to be the typical Mormon couple that is manufactured out of the singles ward. But we are as stereotypical as they come and we have never been happier!

Laughing in My Face

Sometimes I can't help but think someone really gets a kick out of messing with my plans. I have learned that the minute I make a decision to lead my life one direction, I get a big kick in the pants to go a complete opposite direction. As someone once told me, I tend to get "the mother of all wrenches thrown into my engine of life". So I have slowly stopped being a planner. I don't look too far into the future because I have learned how quickly things can change.

 But sometimes I get stuck in a rut and I NEED to plan. I need some big goals in my life.

Well take that into consideration with my previous post. And the fact that I said I was accepting applications for a boyfriend.

Life likes to throw me for a loop. But I am far from complaining!

Life Lately

This past weekend I played mom for 5 days for 2 little girls (3 and 18 months). New respect for working moms. And single moms. And moms in general. Go all of you. I need another couple years. And a husband. Maybe a boyfriend would be a good start. Guess I should start accepting applications.

Speaking of applications, I didn't get accepted with Teach For America. But I seem to have a very promising possibility with one of my MBA schools. And I am enrolled in a class to get my teaching certificate to just teach in the fall if I decide to hold off on grad school. Unfortunately that just adds choices to my future and choices are not my forte. Sometimes I secretly wish that our world was like The Giver and we were just assigned our job/family/life and told exactly what to do. But then I remember that I voted against that a long time ago and the whole reason I am here is to make choices. I just don't like making them.

One thing I do like doing is teaching dance. Especially my super awesome 6-7 year old class that is dancing to My Boyfriend's Back and they look freakin' adorable doing it. Oh my word. I love it. One of these days I may just have to record their dance and put it on here because I am slightly obsessed with how awesome they are.

The other day one of my dancers was driving me up a wall. Actually two of them were. And there were only two girls in the class. It was one of those days. Anywho. I was about two seconds from losing it - which has never happened before contrary to what my family may think - when she so sweetly looked up at me and told me that when she grows up she wants to be a dance teacher at Dance Element with me. I melted a little and never lost it that day. 

In case you couldn't tell, I am procrastinating right now. Rambling on about the little things in life so I can avoid writing my talk for church on Sunday. I have to speak on missionary work. And I have no clue what to say. Speaking of missions, Wyatt leaves in less than 2 months!! I'm gonna miss that kid. But when he leaves I get his room. My own room! For the first time EVER. His departure will be a bittersweet day.