Birthday Adventures

Don't worry. I'm alive. I just had a blogger vacation of sorts. Well... Not really one that I wanted. The day after my birthday I got sick. I'm pretty sure it was because of something I ate the night before, but it took me out of commission for a good couple days. Thankfully, I'm back to myself again... Minus the ever-increasingly-uncomfortable prego belly. haha. Speaking of which... For the last 4 or 5 days in a row this child had not stopped moving! It's constantly flinching and kicking and doing all sorts of weird things that makes my belly look like there's a legit alien in there. Ray loves it. He's convinced we've got a soccer player on our hands, and I'm convinced we've got a mini version of rambunctious childhood Ray coming along. I'm mentally preparing myself for a handful who I know I'll love beyond anything, but will also be the source of endless stories for the rest of my life. I suppose that's what being a parent is all about though. haha.

So my birthday. It started out at the midnight showing of X-Men Origins. haha. Don't judge me. Remember. I love Marvel comic book movies and this was no exception. It just so happened that the crew we made the Mario Cart video with was there too, so that was a nice surprise. I was pleased with the movie. I was also pleased when I got to finally go to bed when it was all over and by 3:00 AM, I was sound asleep.

In the morning, Ray let me sleep in. He knows me so well. I love my sleep and if there's an opportunity to get more, I'm all for it. So when I eventually got up and got ready, he took me out for lunch at Panera Bread, which is a delicious cafe type place that needs to be in Canada. Ray had some meetings to go to, so he dropped me off at DSW, aka shoe heaven. I found an amazing pair of glittery gold heels that were on sale and so it pretty much took away my agency and I bought them. haha. A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes. There's a poster in the store that'll back me up on that one.

Afterwards, I went to the nearby mall to kill a couple hours until Ray would be done, and I found myself inside a store full of baby things. I realized as I was looking at all the stuff that up until then I hadn't actually ever looked at baby things. It was a strange realization because I feel like I've already been pregnant forever and that looking at cute little things would have already happened. But it didn't, and as I was wandering around I realized how good of a job Ray has done at getting as much stuff as he can for the baby already. Turns out the only things we really need are clothes, a playpen, and diaper changing things. We've already got a bassinet, a crib, a high chair, a dresser, most all of the essential furniture. My husband is the best at getting things second hand. haha. All the power to him. It's saving us a lot of money! So that was an enjoyable experience. I think it made me even more excited to meet our little boy. Like I said before, I feel him in there constantly, so getting to hold him and dress him and learn his personality will be such a joy. And seriously. Newborn clothes are so adorably small!

I also found a place in the mall that sold bubble tea. Now. I LOVE bubble tea, but I have never had a successful experience with it anywhere outside of Canada, so each time I try a new place here I get nervous. This place looked like it had potential. An Asian dude was running the place and there were posters up that I couldn't understand. They even had lychee flavors, so that's what I got. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, I was disappointed. The drink was okay. It definitely had the right flavor, but it just wasn't right. It was too concentrated or something. The bubbles were also a disappointment. They were too big to fit in the straw. It's a problem I've never encountered before, but should have anticipated considering my previous experiences with bubble tea in the US. Oh well.. You live and you learn. Maybe one day I'll find a place that's as amazing as Dream Tea House...

By the time Ray picked me up, it was the middle of the afternoon, and I was beat! I just don't have the same strength I used to, so walking around a mall is far more taxing on me now. So surprise, surprise... I napped. haha.

That evening Ray had some sort of training meeting type thing to go to that he was asked to speak at, so he wanted me there to support him. I enjoy watching him speak in front of people to motivate them and help them do better. He's a natural at that type of stuff and people gravitate towards his enthusiasm. It makes me all proud and stuff to be his wife. haha.

There was an after party type thing at the big boss-man's house that we went to as well. This guy is living it up too. His house is huge, and we were only in the "basement". Complete with a pool table, ping pong table, bar, flat screen TV, and oh yeah... a theater room with two rows of reclining chairs. Yeesh. There was an x-box kinect hooked up to it too, so the boys were having lots of fun with that. I pretty much just chatted with other women that were there, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I think the tacos I ate at Chipotle right before the after party were what made me sick though. I'm just glad to be better again.

The day after my birthday was also the 17th anniversary of my own baptism. I had to triple count to make sure that number was correct because I still don't think I'm old enough to have a 17th anniversary for anything. But alas... I'm 25 now and it's definitely a real thing.

Sunday was Stake Conference here. I still wasn't feeling super great, but I really wanted to go. Elder Neal Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve was there to speak to us. It was definitely an opportunity I didn't wanna pass on. It was too hot for me to sit in the main area with all the people and it just made me feel even more sick, so I ended up sitting in the foyer on the couch for pretty much the entirety of the conference. After I didn't come back to sit next to Ray for a while, he came out to check on me and sat with me for the rest of it. I have the best husband ever. He shows his love for me so often and in such wonderful ways. I hope I show him as much appreciation as he deserves.

Since I was mostly just concentrating on not throwing up at conference, I didn't really get much out of it... I think I just need to be thankful that I was in the presence of an Apostle of the Lord, and I'm sure the spirit he has with him helped me more than I realize.

Afterwards, Ray took me on a drive up through the nearby mountains, which on any other day I would have loved. I appreciate the thought behind the gesture though. He knows how much I love mountains, and he even took me to a waterfall, which I love even more than mountains. But I wasn't feeling my best, so the drive was kind of painful since it was bumpy and it was stupid hot outside, and having the windows down offered no relief. A for effort though for Ray.

After a lengthy nap, I felt semi normal, and I knew that as long as I didn't push myself to do anything major I'd be fine. Good thing, because we'd been invited to dinner at the home Ray was staying at before he got his apartment here. The family is huge, but they're amazing. I guess the family is like a yours, mine, ours, and theirs type situation. It's a mixed family in every sense of the word, but they all seem to get along well and understand their place in that household. I was impressed. We stayed for a long time afterwards chatting and playing, and I think I needed that. Having something to take my mind off of feeling like crap is always a welcome event.

So now things are pretty much back to normal. Ray and I have to buckle down and get some paperwork finished up this week which will help the immigration process to move forward, and we'll go from there. Yeah... So things continue to be happy. I think this has been a relatively decent start to my 25th year. A quarter century as my loving husband constantly reminds me now. haha...

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

So I'm totally still in bed, but I'm looking forward to this day. Mostly because I get to spend it with my husband instead of being stuck back in Canada and all alone. That would be depressing...

Not sure what's on the agenda for today, but I plan to enjoy this day.

Happy quarter century birthday to me!!!

Today's An Important Day

I've been expanding my definition of happiness lately. Mostly due to awesome experiences and awesome people. Today I have a couple more things that I already knew brought me happiness, but it's been reiterated to me about how much happiness they actually bring me.

1. The Book of Mormon. I admit. My diligence in studying the scriptures has wavered recently. It's not that my testimony of it has lessened, I've just simply become lazy. These past few days, Ray has been a huge inspiration to me in his decision to be more spiritually minded. His actions directly affect mine, so seeing him reading every morning and reminding me that we have to pray every day has helped me get over myself and just pick the scriptures up and read.

So this morning I made sure to read the Book of Mormon. It was wonderful to feel the sense of fulfilment that comes from doing something you know you need to do and have been putting it off for a while. It was also fulfilling because I got new scriptures after I got married, so they're the equivalent to a blank canvas. I've already figured out how I wanted to mark them this time, so as I read, I'm able to mark them up, highlighting the things that are important and relevant to me at this stage of life I'm in right now as a wife and a soon-to-be mother.

Come to think of it... My spirituality is the most important thing I have to offer my son... Yeesh... The responsibility seems so overwhelming. I know that I need to take every opportunity that I can to strengthen my own testimony so that I can be better prepared to follow the Spirit to raise my child. Heaven knows how insufficiently equipped I am to raise a child properly without any Divine guidance. That leaves it up to me to qualify for that Divine guidance. No pressure right???... Ugh... I guess I just need to focus on doing what I can, and knowing that it'll all work out in the end.

I actually read something today on a friends blog that totally inspires me and gives me hope.

"Doing something is better than nothing... And while it wasn't much, it wasn't nothing."

I think this needs to become my new life's motto. Women have a ridiculous talent at coming up with a higher standard of "best" than they're able to accomplish, resulting in a never ending feeling of self-disappointment and regret. Feeling like that sucks, and I'm not exempt. So the trick is realizing that I am doing SOMETHING and that's better than nothing, so I'm good as long as I don't stop. In my heart, I know I'll be a good mother. But sometimes my head doesn't believe that.

The point of all that was that the Book of Mormon makes me happy.

2. Legit Mexican food also brings me happiness. Like a lot of happiness. haha. Today Ray took me to this amazing 24 hour Mexican restaurant where I had a carne asada burrito and a huge thing of horchata. Oh my gosh it was delicious and it's been over a year since I was able to have such happiness fill my belly. I've been incredibly thankful that I'm no longer sick because of my pregnancy, and today that gratitude was amplified ten fold. You think I'm exaggerating but I'm not. I am legitimately joyful as a result of that food. haha.

Anywho... Those are a couple things that reminded me of how happy they make me. Awesome.

Oh and PS.... I got home from my mission two years ago today... Holy cow.... Looking at these pictures of my last night in Arkansas and coming home at the airport is kind of crazy. A lot has happened since then.

And Ray's brother, Donny, got his mission call today to the Washington Spokane Mission and he's reporting in mid September.

Also it's my big brother's 5th anniversary today. Congrats to them!!!

This has sure been an eventful day. I just realized it right now. haha. Awesome.

Excitement! Adventure!!

Well the past two days have been full of adventure! Yesterday morning, Ray and I went with a bunch of his friends to a little town nearby to recreate our own live action Mario Cart video! This is what my husband's friends do with their spare time, and I'm totally okay with it.

We got hooked up with a go-cart place that said as long as we promote their facility on the video (because it'll be posted on YouTube) and they can post it on their Facebook Page, then we got to use the place for free. Pretty sweet eh! Well all those involved were way excited and on top of that, the owners pretty much just let us do our own thing. I could see how excited everyone was to be able to go around a go-cart track and not have any rules they had to follow. haha.

I, being pregnant and all, wasn't involved in the actual driving of the go-carts, but I was definitely given my own role to fulfil. I was given the necessary job of being the Cloud Guy. The one that holds the stop/go lights on the end of his fishing pole and saves the carts when they drive off the edge of the track. haha! It was perfect. Our costumes were all amazing too.

As you can see, we had everyone covered. I'm at the far left as Cloud Guy, and Ray is beside me as Yoshi, there's Donkey Kong, Toadstool, Mario (complete with an authentic mustache which was painted black with mascara), Princess Peach, Luigi and Bowzer. The kids belong to the person that was running the go-cart place. They were fascinated by us all. I don't blame them. Clearly we're awesome.

We were there for a good three hours or so. It was ridiculously windy and super sunny. If it wasn't for the wind, I'm pretty sure I would have melted. Instead I got a slight sunburn on my forearms. My face was saved by my daily moisturizer! haha! Take that sun!!!

I was wiped afterwards though. Pretty sure that was due to the 4 hours of sleep the night before, being pregnant, and being in the crazy Colorado sun for an extended length of time. But the day wasn't over yet. Ray's family was having a little Memorial Day family barbecue, so we headed right off to that when we were done with the go-carting.

The barbecue was... awkward... I didn't know the extended family at all, which is to be expected, but I think I just felt out of place or something. I dunno... Maybe that was because there was some obvious tension in the air between people which I just didn't understand and wasn't in the loop about either. But that's a whole other train of thought for later.

Finally after that, I was completely exhausted and Ray was too, so we just spent the rest of the night watching a movie together and we ended up going to bed at 8:00. haha. It felt really good, and I even got out of bed this morning at a decent hour as a result! I've actually been waking up at a decent time the whole time I've been here. I'm proud of myself.

Today the incredible sunshine continued with a less severe wind and a perfect temperature, so obviously we had to take advantage of it.

But first I got my nails done. haha. We literally live across the street from a nail salon, so I took advantage of that too. I got my toes painted a nice bright pink for summer, and I got my fingernails done all pretty with french tips. Not fake ones. Fake nails are too high maintenance for me. I like them and all, but I don't have the funds to maintain them right now. haha.

When I was done with that, Ray and I went and picked up Ray's little twin sisters, Katie and Dharma, and off we went to this beautiful canyon. There was a creek that we went to where Ray and his sisters started building a dam. It was pretty fun to watch them. Stuff like that is totally Ray's thing, so he was happy as a clam. The girls ended up accidentally getting their feet wet and took the "when in Rome" mentality and just ran with it, totally walking up and down the creek in their shoes helping get rocks for the little dam they were building. Ray was able to keep his feet dry though. Good for him eh? They all had a good time.

Dharma

Katie

 The longer we were there, I guess the more adventure the girls wanted. So Dharma decided that she wanted to sit in the creek instead of just wading in it, but Ray told her that it was an all or nothing deal. Either she went all in the water, head and everything, or she just kept her feet in only. It took her a while, but she definitely ended up doing it. Here's the video. It's 5 minutes long, but it's also hilarious.

So that was that. Ray had some business stuff to do tonight, so I spent the evening watching So You Think You Can Dance online, and writing this out. Pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Again. Life in Colorado is amazing and I feel like I'm home. Bliss!!!

Road Trip!

I totally forgot about our road trip last week! Ray had to go to a small town in the middle of the Colorado mountains to pick up a car his friend bought at a police auction... haha. Random, yes, but that's just how Ray is sometimes.

Right outside of Colorado Springs is NORAD. I don't really follow military stuff too much, so I was only vaguely familiar with what it actually was. Ray filled me in though and helped me understand that it's basically where they focus on aerospace control/defence/security. Oh and it's also inside a mountain. Plus, if you take one of the NORAD exits off the highway, then a scary guy with a big gun will interrogate you and make you turn around. And if the scary dude feels you're a threat at any point, he totally has the right to shoot you... Ick.... But I basically concluded myself that if this place is so elite and top secret enough to have to be built INSIDE a mountain with ridiculously heavy surrounding security, they MUST be hiding something cool in there. Decepticons. That's what they're hiding in there. Transformers really DO exist!!

On the way there, we drove along the Arkansas River, which was sweet because it's the closest I've come to Arkansas since I left it. haha. It was kinda comforting to think that it flows all the way back there to the South, so I felt slightly connected again and we took a picture. haha.

We stayed the night at Ray's aunt and uncle's place and left early in the morning with the car in tow. The drive was beautiful! Any drive you take through the mountains is totally worth it. This one was no exception. We drove alongside two different rivers, and since one was on one side of the Continental Divide and the other river was on the other side of the Divide, they both flowed different directions. That  always fascinates me.

Driving through Monarch Pass was kinda scary though. The roads were all curvy, on the edge of a cliff with either a rushing body of water at the bottom, or just a whole lot of rocks... There wasn't always a guard rail along the edge either. Slightly unsettling... I couldn't get over how high the elevation climb was though! 11000 feet!!!!! That's a third of the way up to where a plane flies!!

Thankfully, because of Ray's awesome driving skills, we made it back safely. Not before we got pulled over by the State Trooper though. It's not a road trip with Ray unless we get pulled over. I'm baffled at the amount of times he's gotten pulled over. What's more impressive is that most of the time he doesn't even get a ticket!! This particular time he was pulled over because the car dolly that was being used to tow the car didn't have proper tags or plates or whatever. The State Trooper was really nice about it though, since we didn't know that it was necessary. He didn't even give us a warning. It was like he just wanted to pull him over to educate him or something. Whatever the case may be, I'm way glad there wasn't a ticket to be paid as a result.

Finally we made it back to the Springs, and we were both really grateful we took the time to do this drive together. It gave us some quality husband/wife time together.

Life Is Awesome

So being in Colorado has basically been the best thing ever, and it's not even half way till I have to go back to Canada! So much more fun is in store.

This past week the Air Force Academy had their graduation and I guess Ray's family has a tradition to go watch the Air Force Thunderbirds do their mini air show as part of the graduation celebrations. Ray's mom came and picked me up so that I could be part of the celebrations this year. Stunt flyers are amazing. I don't understand how they have the stomach to do what they do, but I'm glad they do because it's really fun to watch.

This weekend has already been amazing. My good friend from my mission, Michelle Page, got married yesterday! She's from Colorado Springs, so my being with Ray has given Michelle and I opportunities to hang out before and it's been good times. Since it's her wedding and all, some other friends from our mission came in to town to celebrate too! Woot!! So for the first time in over a year I got to see Costley (now Ashley Bird) and her husband, Jeremy (our Zone Leader) and Sister Campbell (Cheri)! It was awesome to see them! They all drove in together from Salt Lake City.

Michelle had a pre-wedding dinner the night before and so all of us mission buddies were there. It was awesome to catch up with them. After the dinner, they all came over to our apartment and we chatted for a long time. It was a late night. haha.

The next day was the actual wedding in the Denver Temple which Ashley and her husband and Cheri were going to. Ray and I were planning on going to the temple anyways, so we just planned to be finished in time to see Michelle and her new husband come out of the temple as a married couple. It worked out pretty well. Ray and I laughed because we ended up in their group pictures. We kinda felt like we just kind of appeared out of nowhere, but we were entertained.

We took a few pictures for ourselves. This one is my absolute favorite!

I think Ray enjoys me being pregnant. He gets excited whenever he feels our little one kicking. I was pretty excited to be able to go back to the Denver Temple though, because I haven't been there since we were actually married. So it was kind of a neat experience to go there a year later and pregnant.

Ashley also wanted to take some pictures to send to our beloved Betty Pyper in Hot Springs, AR. She's a long time member of the Church and we visited her every week when Ashley and I were serving together there. Betty is originally from Wales, in her 80's and a total character. You can't help but love her. So we got some pictures together to send to her.

Michelle's wedding reception was beautiful. It was totally traditional and awesome. I love seeing newlyweds. It's always so apparent how ridiculously happy they are. This was no exception.

CONGRATS MICHELLE!!!!!!!!

Here's our Arkansas group. Minus Michelle. She was obviously otherwise occupied... haha.

I look so pregnant....

The send off of the couple was pretty cute too. We were all given bubbles and were blowing them as they ran off together... into a minivan... haha! Classy eh?? Too bad nobody did anything to the van though.

Afterwards the five of us went back to the hotel Ashley, Jeremy and Cheri were staying at and had tons of fun in the swimming pool there. It was awesome. I love swimming! Ray doesn't love swimming so much, but I was so proud of him for embracing the moment and in the end he really had a lot of fun too.

The past couple days have really been amazing. I love seeing friends that I don't get a chance to see so often. I really look forward to living here and being able to find friends that we can do things with and really feel like my life is settled again. This time here in Colorado has been an amazing foreshadow of my upcoming permanency here.

I'm so excited to find out what else this month in Colorado has in store! I'm so happy here!!

Home Sweet Home

After an extensive cleaning, our apartment is finally presentable. Well... All except the second bedroom... But we've still got time to work on that. haha. So here's what it looks like!

So awesome. I love it here!