I'm back!

For all of my out of state family and friends I shall work better at posting fun amazing things going on in our lives. Raven I'm sure will be the main subject you all want to hear about. I may even Talk about her parents... What's their names... And maybe even the dog they have.
Pictures, movies, milestones, fun, learning, excitement, edge of your seat entertainment coming soon!!!

More excitement! We are moving!!!

So with the baby news Troy and I knew we would need to look for a bigger apartment. Right now we are in a studio so there really isn't room for baby Miranda. So we thought will look and see what we find to move around January. We wanted to find that golden apartment that had everything we wanted for a dirt cheap price. We then over heard our neighbor was moving out of his two bedroom next door: the great thing about it is we will be just mount next door, it's the minimum size we wanted (would've like a bigger kitchen to fit my table better), and it is a good price, and the land lord let's us have a crazy big dog. AND no extra deposits or first/last kind of thing because we are staying with the same land lord. So it is a great thing. The down side is there isn't a washer and dryer but looking at our neighborhood that luxury cost about $400 more to have. We are going to keep looking for the golden one, but this way we have what is needed and we won't be desperate come babys b-day.

We are having a baby!!!

So our exciting news in life right now is we are expecting our first baby. We are due march 29,2011. Troy and I are very excited for this adventure in life. We are also very grateful. This was a long time coming and several painful tests to help us a long the way. Over all it was close to two years of trying and praying. We grew a lot in the process and we grew closer together. In the end we were not taking the fertility drugs. I had decided to give it a breach for a few months to get the romance back and not be counting every day. I guess that's what my body needed to just relax.
We are so blessed and honored our father in heaven is trusting us with a little human. It will be a lot of fun.
I wanted to tell my parents in a special way since it wasn't going to be in person so I sent them a cookie bouquet with baby block looking cookies that said things like "we're expecting", "due in march", " future 'grandparents" , and "love you!".
Needless to say my mom screamed at the poor delivery man with excitement.
We have our first appointment on sept 1st, I am now 10 weeks along and have not had one day of sickness.
I have gotten a little chesty and I have a big food belly after a good meal. Overall it has been a really easy process for me and I am very grateful fir that.
The lord is truly wonderful to us and has blesses our lives over and over.

More excitement! We are moving!!!

So with the baby news Troy and I knew we would need to look for a bigger apartment. Right now we are in a studio so there really isn't room for baby Miranda. So we thought will look and see what we find to move around January. We wanted to find that golden apartment that had everything we wanted for a dirt cheap price. We then over heard our neighbor was moving out of his two bedroom next door: the great thing about it is we will be just mount next door, it's the minimum size we wanted (would've like a bigger kitchen to fit my table better), and it is a good price, and the land lord let's us have a crazy big dog. AND no extra deposits or first/last kind of thing because we are staying with the same land lord. So it is a great thing. The down side is there isn't a washer and dryer but looking at our neighborhood that luxury cost about $400 more to have. We are going to keep looking for the golden one, but this way we have what is needed and we won't be desperate come baby's b-day.

The other crazy thing is they want us to move by sept 3. Thats a Friday and we both have work duing the day. So it will be a crazy move but we are so blessed to have this come into out lives.

We are having a baby!!!

So our exciting news in life right now is we are expecting our first baby. We are due march 29,2011. Troy and I are very excited for this adventure in life. We are also very grateful. This was a long time coming and several painful tests to help us a long the way. Over all it was close to two years of trying and praying. We grew a lot in the process and we grew closer together. In the end we were not taking the fertility drugs. I had decided to give it a breach for a few months to get the romance back and not be counting every day. I guess that's what my body needed to just relax.

We are so blessed and honored our father in heaven is trusting us with a little human. It will be a lot of fun.

I wanted to tell my parents in a special way since it wasn't going to be in person so I sent them a cookie bouquet with baby block looking cookies that said things like "we're expecting", "due in march", " future 'grandparents" , and "love you!".

Needless to say my mom screamed at the poor delivery man with excitement.

We have our first appointment on sept 1st, I am now 10 weeks along and have not had one day of sickness.

I have gotten a little chesty and I have a big food belly after a good meal. Overall it has been a really easy process for me and I am very grateful fir that.

The lord is truly wonderful to us and has blesses our lives over and over.

Churchy stuff

So the excitement of June has been my new calling in Church. I was asked to be the Gospel Principles Teacher at Church. When I was asked I just had a blank face and said "Wow that's big." "That's a big girl calling". I was honored to take such a big assignment and I also am grateful for everything I know I will learn from it. I also teach a small Book of Mormon Study group for the Relief Society. I'm thinking the Lord wants me to get my noes in the books and study more.

Well this is a short post got to run. Happy day to all!

Spencer!

Spencer our beautiful puppy child has been in our lives for two months now and it has been none stop joy for us. He has been such a wonderful and needed addition to our small family. Spencer has taught us wonderful lessons in pre parenting responsibilities. He has tested our patients in one way or another off and on the whole time we have had him.

One of the things we let him get away with is sleeping in our bed with us, but we allow it because he is just so darn great to cuddle with. He mostly stays to his little curve of the bed (remember we have a circle bed) so he goes unnoticed until about 5 am when be has decked he likes to clim on us and cuddle and hen wake us up around 6:30 so he can o to the bathroom. We may make him sleep on his ground pillow latter but for right now we both love him in bed.

His favorite toy is a tie between some old socks he can ripe apart and of course the tennis balls. He plays with them for hours.

Our biggest problem so far has been the few times we have tried to trust him off of his leash and it ended with is trying to catch him for hours! Boxers are classified as clowns so when they get free they like to tease you into thinking that you can get them and then they run off. We have since invested in a long rope so he can run "freely" and we can not deal with that ever again.

Other them that he is a wonderful dog with a great

personality and behaves wonderfully.

We love him so very much.

I am a slacker blogger!

So as you can see I am a slacker when it comes to writing my personal blog for all interested in reading.

I must say that life is good. I will talk about the best moments of march and April to catch you all up and then I will try to post more often.

For march the best thing was going to see Carrie underwood with a great friend. Her mom got her he ticket and we went to providence to see her. Since it is SUch a FAR drive we decide to stay at the local Hilton for a great Girls night out! We got an amazing deal for the hotel it was 50% off. We had a nice dinner at the Hoyle restraint and had a blast at the concert. Carrie put on a great show. The next morning we had yummy Belgian waffles from room service. Then we made our way back to our loved ones. A good time was had by all.

For April our excitement was adding a beautiful 1 1/2 year old Boxer to our family. His name is Spencer and he is a full blooded, energetic dog. We have fallen in love with him and we are grateful to have him in our lives. He is incredible well behaved and is teaching us a thing or two about the joys of parenting. It has been a great thing for T to learn about having someone(some-dog) relying on you to care for them.

It has been great.

I have also officially started work on my book that I have told you all about. My words of wisdom regarding child care. So check out mu other blog for my 2 cents on how to raise happy and well behaved kids.

Enjoy!

Day one of Disneyland!

We had a wonderful time talking late into the night 2/4. I was up at 4:00am (7am boston time) and I could not go back to sleep so after trying for 2 hours I gave up and hoped into the Shower around 6 and prayed that I didn't wake my parents. They woke up around 7 and my Dad and I went to get our Free breakfast from the Hotel... I love free food, it makes me happy inside!

After dinner we headed over to Target for some bottled water since you can buy a case of water for $4 and it is about $5 for one in the park so even if we don't drink them all we saved millions on water.

Anywhos,We finally headed over to the park around 9:30 and it was RAINING!!! Not to bad at first, but then it went slowly to big fat drops as the day went on. We started in Disneyland and we were able to enjoy short lines due to rain. We had such an amazing time together and It is hard to describe all of the joy I felt while I was there with my Family. The park closed at 8:00 because of the rain and we went to meet our some Family Friends at i hope for dinner. It was great fun to meet up with them. I was so tiered that after dinner I just went back and hit the bed. That was a good end to the day.

SURPRISE!!!!!

This year for my Birthday I decided to give myself (Yes the selfish person I am gave myself a gift) a trip to Disneyland in Californian. I also decided with my Dad to Surprise my Mom with this trip by not telling her. My Dada and I planed everything and my Mom had no idea that her trip to Disneyland for my Birthday was really going to be celebrated with me. The amazing part about all of this was my Dad is the worst at keeping secrets and lying if someone asks about a surprise... So I was really nervous about telling him but I had to tell someone so I had a place to stay and a ride to the airport. I try to surprise my Mom about 3 years ago for Mothers day and My Dad let the cat out of the bag by saying "You know Shawnnee will want to go to 'White Fence Farms' for dinner when we get there. My Mom knew that I was coming after that so My Dad didn't talk to my Mom about Disneyland much, they go all the time so it was okay to not talk about every detail. I got my tickets Dec. 27th and he was able to keep it a secret, my Mom had no idea! It was the best. My Dada and I e-mailed every day asking each other Disneyland questions and ended asking around 150 questions. It was a lot of fun. Since I was the Lier of the group about a week before I left I started setting up lies to tell my Mom so that she didn't think anything of my phone being off when she tried to call me when she left the airport and landed in Long Beach. (My Mom ALWAYS Calls me when she takes off and lands, because I want to know when she is in the air) So I started writing stuff on Facebook about my boss asking me to work on my birthday weekend and how 'Dare she' ask that. So I write that I was working late on Thursday 2/4 (The day I was flying out). So as planed my Mom asked me about working that night and how 'Dare she' and I told her they were going to R.I to celebrate a friends birthday so I would most likely be working really late but she still needed to call me.

So on the day of my flight I went about my normal post on FB and when I got to the airport I sent my Mom a text that my Phone was almost dead because I forgot to plug it in the night before so If I didn't reply thats why but she still needed to try to call/text when she left and landed. So I took off and when I landed I had my two texts from my Mom saying she had landed and they were going out with friends. I knew this because Dad and I had planed that I was going to take a Shuttle to the hotel and I was going to text him when I got there. So all went as planed. I sent him my text when I got there and he left the room to get "Ice" which was true and false... So he met me at the front and I took the ice to my Mom. I opened the door and said "I heard you needed ice" My Mom was SPEECHLESS! If you know my mom you know that is a near impossible thing that happens less then the Blue Moon. She let out a little scream and then came over and gave me a great big hug. It was great! It was 10pm when I got there and we didn't go to bed until around 1am because we were all talking and surprised. It was the best Surprise I have ever pulled off. My Dad did a good job keeping it a secret.

I will right more about my trip soon.

Marriage and the Gospel

I know three couples that are all going through a bit of Marital growing pains and as I talk with all of them I have put them into three bubbles.  They all have a bout the same problem and there is only one big difference in the handling of there pains and there success.

Couple 1 has been married for 5 years and have 2 children.  They both work middim jobs and they seem happy on the outside.  They are members of the Church but they are nonactive.  They were married in the Temple but now have expired Recommends.  They have a couple problems,  One is respect and the other is trust. 

Couple 2 has been married for 2 years and they are trying for children, but have not yet succeeded.  They both have good jobs and they one has a side hobby that brings in some extra money.  They look to be a strong successful happy couple.  They are Active members of the Church and attend the Temple regularly.  They were married in the Temple and are avid service people in there ward.   They also have a couple of problem, One Respect and the other Communication.

Couple three has been married for 4 years, no children and no real plans for kids anytime soon.  The one has a high power job and the other has a good job and going to school to get a better job.  They are not members of the LDS Church but go to a small Congregational Church every so often.  They are over all good people.  They have a couple problems, Respect and stubbornness.

All of these couple have at least one problem that is the same.  Respect or lake there of.  

Couple 1 they don’t appreciate each other and there for don’t really show one another the respect they deserve.  Their second problem is a lake of trust, because they do not  respect each other enough to all ways be honest they now do not trust one another.  

Couple 2 They so their lake of respect by not communicating enough or over communicating.  This is their way of disrespect.

Couple 3 because they let their Egos get in the way they are like two bulls standing horn to horn and this is their way of not respecting the other.

The biggest difference is their level in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  As I have talked to all 3 couples personally I know which couple is doing what I feel is the best to Grow together and learn to Respect one another.  Couple 2 is on the right path.  They saw that they had a problem and the thought themselves into the Gospel.  They do a lot to have a Christ centered home.  They try to read and pray together and to attend the Temple together.  They are moving forward nicely and no longer bring up the word devoice.  Couple 1 isn’t to far behind but in the world of marriage if you mention Devoice it’s not on a good path.  They have not started going back to church yet but they are trying to work things out and I hear they are going to talk with their Bishop which is a good First start.  Couple 3 didn’t really have all of the advantages the other two do because they are not in the Gospel yet.  They are trying but they are not on the path toward God so they are having to learn the hard was.

What I have learned from these three couples and can apply to my marriage is that if we plant or feet in the Gospel of the True Church we will have a better chance to succeed.  A better chance to be happy and a better chance to truly enjoy our Marriages forever.  May we all look toward God to be our consoler.

I hope this makes cents and came out as I intended it to .  My hands don’t type as fast as my mind thinks.  

A Christmas Story

What a wonderful day Christmas is.  It gives us a time to think about our Saviour Jesus Christ Birth and to give unto others our bounty.  We had a wonderful Christmas day.  I will start with Christmas Eve.

We went over to my Sis-in-law 'R' for dinner and also her Fiances Mothers Birthday dinner.  I made a Cake for her and it was a big hit (Because my Cakes are amazing  =)).  We had a good Ham dinner, and then we headed over to my Other Sis-in law 'J's Church that has a very nice Christmas program.  This year wasn't as good as years past but it was still nice none the less.  It is nice to hear Spiritual word for Christmas.  After that we headed back to R's for dessert and then Troy and I headed home.  We ended up going to Midnight Mass in our town of Natick.  We are able to walk to the Church so that was nice.  I have never done a Midnight Mass.  I have only been to  Mass a few times in my life.  It was a very lovely service and I appreciate filling my Spiritual cup a little more.  I do look forward to going to my Church on Sunday to Really fill my cup to the Max.  

Christmas Morning Troy and I had our little humble Christmas gift exchange.  We only had a few gifts under the tree to one another.  I gave Troy a pice of paper letting him decide between a trip to NYC w/ Hotel or an i Phone.  He of coarse chose the i Phone. We have to go back and get it to work out changing from t-moblie to AT&T.  I received tickets to the Boston Opera House for the Lion King.  I'm super excited about that.  And I will be getting an i Phone also with various money gifts we received.  We're excited for the i Phones.  =)

 We then headed over to J's house for a late breakfast and then off to a movie.  Troy and his brother J.H.  went and saw Avatar and the rest of us saw Sherlock Holmes.  It was a great movie for us and Troy enjoyed his.  Then it was back to J's house for Dinner.  Like all dinners and activities involving my in=laws it was late.  We were told we would eat at 6:30 and we finally eat at 7:30... again not to bad for them.  After dinner we got to open presents and that was a lot of fun.  I always leave Christmas filling very well dressed for the year to come.  All of the Girls give me wonderful cloths and have great taste.  We also got a few new games.  Troy is being a good sport and trying to play more games with me.

Troy hasn't been feeling to well we left shortly after gifts.  We cuddled on our bed and put in a Christmas Story.  A Classic!  Troy has fallen asleep and I am not to far from that also.

I hope you all had a Marry Christmas and may we keep Christ in our Hearts Always and remember the Spirit of giving Year round.

 

Marry Christmas Everyone!

Ikea, Christmas Party, Hanukkah, and Snow! Take 2.

Yesterday was  a fun day for many of reasons one was that I was asleep until 12:30pm.  Sleeping is one pf my most charished activities.  I love to sleep in my big comfy round bed and snuggle under my covers.  It is just wonderful fun.   After dragging myself out of bed I found out my loving Husband wanted to take us to Ikea with his Mother and Sister.  I was cool with that, I have been wanting to go back to Ikea for our kitchen table.  But like all things with my In-laws it is alsways later not sooner.  We got to pick them up around 2:30, then we had to make the 45 minute drive down there and eat.  We didn't start looking around until after 4:00 and we had to leave by 5:00 if we were going to make it to CJ's Party somewhat one time.... I still hadn't showered and that is a must before a party.  After pushing the In-law's through the store We made it back to the car around 5:5, not to bad for them.  However the drive back was much longer then the previous 45 minutes because we decided to take the back roads in lou of the crowded interstate.  It wasn't any faster. After dropping off the in-laws we headed back to our Shoe box to get ready.  I took the worlds fastest shower and did a lovely job on my make-up (if I do say myself), but we were now running a hour behind.  

After a lovely 45 minute drive up to Lowell we arrived at the Beautiful home of CJ and JC.  They have a lovely home and I use the word Home instead of house because it was very warm and welcoming to everyone.  I was able to steal CJ away to talk with her and play with her cute puppy.... She's lucky I didn't steal the puppy.  I just wanted to take her home she was so cute!  After realizing I has stolen CJ from her party for nearly an hour I allowed her back down to be a good Host.  JC did a great job keeping Troy entertained and I was able to try some home made Apple Cider... I think it was Cider maybe she called it something else.  There was great conversation and I loved every minute of it.  CJ and I were very excited that our Guys hit it off so well and even said they would like to double sometime.  Maybe you'll hear about that another day.  ;)    

Unfortunately we had to leave earlier then I would have wanted because we had another Party to go to over at the Loft with 'Wismen' a good friend from our dating days.  (He was in our wedding party.)   That was another 40 minute drive over to Boston and that was fun... A different kind of fun for us, we mostly talked with the guys as they all had various drinks, and played a little pool.  Once it started snowing around 1:00am we decided we better head for home.  It was good we left when we did because the drive was far worse toward the end.  We ended up with 15 inches buy the time morning came.  We did make it home safely and we are grateful for that.

All in all it was a very wonderful day full of friends and love.

Ikea, Christmas Party, Hanukkah, and Snow!

Yesterday was  a fun day for many of reasons one was that I was asleep until 12:30pm.  Sleeping is one pf my most charished activities.  I love to sleep in my big comfy round bed and snuggle under my covers.  It is just wonderful fun.   After dragging myself out of bed I found out my loving Husband wanted to take us to Ikea with his Mother and Sister.  I was cool with that, I have been wanting to go back to Ikea for our kitchen table.  But like all things with my In-laws it is alsways later not sooner.  We got to pick them up around 2:30, then we had to make the 45 minute drive down there and eat.  

Temple Ice Cream Trips!

It seems to me that most times I got to the Temple my trip ends at the Friendlies Ice Cream.  It is a great way to end a great night.  Tonight was much the same.  I went to the Temple to see a friend from Church receive her Endowment and be sealed to her parents and had a wonderful time.  Other then the nauseating headache I had for the first hour of it.  It was great to see this older woman going to the Temple for her first time.  She is in her 70's, I believe.  After we finished at the Temple I went with a wonderful friend J. to the Friendlies and had a light dinner and Ice Cream!  It is always nice to go out with J.  She is great to be with and a lot of fun to talk to.  I am now back home and ready for bed.  With help from my friend Tylenol PM.  I say be asleep soon!

Boring tonight but I wanted to share something more positive to counter last nights out pour of suckyness.  =)  Good night!

The Adult World I am in

Life has always been on big bowl of fun for me... until I moved away from the comforts of my parents home and found the big bowl of responsibility.  Yah for being a grown up.  Did they forget to teach us about how crapy adulthood is sometimes?  We spend all of our school days preparing for this great job we're going to have and they never tell us " By they way you will hate getting up every morning to go to this job you have spent 4 years learning".  

I have not yet finished said schooling but I am about to embark on the journey of such great joy this January...keeping my fingers crossed it happens.  

I am currently a nanny of twin toddler Devil boys.  They are a bowl full of trouble.  They like to copy what the other is doing but never the good things the other is doing... Why is that?

Anyway back to being an Adult.  I find myself to be a very responsible person.  I pay everything on time and even pay ahead and over they amount to be ahead of the game.  But I still find myself in the Rat Race of life.  I'm still looking for my Cheese to get at the end of this race.  

My Dream adult life would be to have a home, and children and a Dog.

I would love to be able to go to the Temple as much as I would like and take a lot of Vacations, most of which would be to Disneyland in California.  

But like all Dreams they are just that, a figment of my imagination, that disappears when I am awakened by my blackberry alarm reminding me that my Real life 'Adult' world is expecting me by 9:30... and you need to shower.

My bowl of fun is limited to the money I have left over from my bills and essentials of food and clothing... and the $2.70/gal gas in the car. 

 I enjoy going to various groups to knit and talk and do service projects, but my real joy is found in the Temple.  I love the Temple.  I could go there every day and enjoy it just as much as the day before.  I try to go once a week and some weeks I make it twice!  I love those weeks.  The weeks I miss my trip, it hits me very hard, like I didn't get oxygen for the week, I feel deprived and under nourished and I am grateful when I get to make up for it. 

Adult life is hard, but it is worth the rewards we receive in the end.  A warm home, a cool car,  My Temple trips and a package of Oreo's with a cold glass of milk.

Life is good, never forget that even when you have a bowl for of Pain in you a@s.