Friday, December 28, 2012

December


 This December was our first holiday season in our own home. It was nice to be able to buy and decorate for Christmas with the feeling of more permanence. So far it's been a great month. Here are some picture highlights of some of our favorite things:

Flannel shirts! Our new favorite thing to wear. So cozy. And my Mountain Hardwear shirt hides my growing belly, which is a plus since I'm currently just in the fat stage of pregnancy.

Snuggling in bed with our puppies every morning. Porsche and Koda are the best kids ever. We love them and they are absolutely LOVING the snow.

Our first year putting up lights on the outside of the house! Justin did all the work and it looks great. Not quite as spectacular as our neighbors to the south, who are somewhat reminiscent of the Griswolds. But ours looks cute just the same.

This year my neighbor gifts were jars of homemade hazelnut chocolate spread (Nutella). This recipe was a lot more crunchy and rich, but I really like it. My sister Hilary found the recipe on Epicurious. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Better-Than-Nutella-Chocolate-Hazelnut-Spread-51134600?mbid=ipapp


Working with the puppies. While Justin works on the computer from home, the dogs literally hang out next to him all day. It's really adorable. They love being in the same room as us. And the loft is their special place. Most of the day is spent fighting over toys, wrestling, and sleeping. Every time Justin needs a break he cuddles with them.

Cocoa crackle cookies. I made these to spoil my husband and feed the hungry 16-18 year olds I teach in church. I love these cookies because they are my favorite flavor.... chocolate. The best recipe in the history of Earth is actually owned by an out of business shop called "All My Cookies" that my mom used to take us to on 9th and 9th after our semi-annual haircuts from the time I was little until I was about 8 years old. I dream about those ginormous gooey cookies. But alas, they are no more. So the 2nd best recipe in the history of Earth is by Williams-Sonoma. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/chocolate-crinkle-cookies.html

Date night! Our favorite restaurant ever, Red Iguana is a must do every month. I try something new every time, Justin ALWAYS gets 2 carne asada burritos, horchata with 4+ refills and sometimes we splurge for dessert. Last time they had chocolate flan and it was to die for.

Crackling fire and glowing Christmas tree. We finally got our chimney cleaned, tuned up and now we burn fires to save on our gas bill. What's more homey than a warm fire and a glittering Christmas tree? Nothing.

Family time! Unfortunately, I didn't take a ton of pictures of family get togethers this year and I'm kicking myself for it. But last week was Oakley's dance recital (picture above) and Ashton's baptism. This week we had Christmas Eve at the Hendersons with Chinese food, Christmas afternoon again with the Hendersons, and Christmas evening with the McAvoys. Today my brother-in-law, Zach, is moving to Hawaii so we got together for breakfast to say goodbye. Tomorrow is a get together with Justin's cousins. Tis the season for a billion get-togethers!


So that's the month in a brief nutshell.

I also want to copy my sister, Caroline, who is 38 weeks pregnant and has been doing updates like this every few weeks. I thought it would be a good way for me to document the pregnancy since I don't really keep a journal.

How far along: 15 weeks, 1 day
Total weight gain: No weight gain yet. Actually last week my doc said I was down 6 pounds from the first appointment. But I had a dream last night that our dentist told me I was overweight and needed to lose 15 lbs, so I guess I'm subconsciously worried?
Maternity clothes? Not yet, but my pants are pretty snug so a trip to the H&M maternity section is probably in order.
Stretch marks: Not yet. I have been very diligent about putting seaweed lotion and oil on every day, plus a coconut/shea body butter a co-worker made for me for Christmas.
Sleep: Not good. I have to go to the bathroom 3 times/night and I can't breath lately thanks to the dry air.
Best moment this week: Well, it was Christmas this week.... The food all day on Christmas was amazing. And two days ago we saw Les Miserables which I loved.
Movement: Not yet.
Cravings?: Sushi sushi sushi!!! On Christmas Eve I did go to Sushi Blue in Park City and bought a crab roll because it was cooked, not raw, and deep fried so it was served hot. I almost died it was so delicious. Yesterday and today I'm craving mayonnaise on a white roll. Disgusting, right? So I'm thinking it might be a masked craving for fats. I'm going to eat pistachios and see if that fixes it.
Anything making you queasy or sick: I'm feeling sick in general today. I stayed home from work.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Symptoms: Peeing frequently, passing kidney stones every day, cravings for specific foods, random cramps in my pelvis, weird dreams about dentists telling me I'm overweight....
Belly Button in or out? In still. Probably for a while.
Wedding ring on or off? Still on. No swelling.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Moody. Definitely moody. Everything makes me cry or angry.
Looking forward to: Eating more cooked sushi. Haha.


Friday, December 14, 2012

The dog ate my phone and I had kidney stones

The title of this post says it all. I always knew dogs could eat homework, but a phone??? You've got to be kidding me. It all happened one day while I was outside raking the millions of leaves scattered across our front lawn. I had only been gone maybe 30 minutes before I came inside for gloves. There on the floor was little miss Porsche chewing on my cell phone. Yep. Bits of phone everywhere and parts were missing, which I can only assume she swallowed. She is, afterall, a garbage disposal who is infamous for eating my earplugs (which are essential for me for a good night's sleep given my light sleeping condition), earrings, garbage, paper, etc. My phone was trashed.

Everyone teases me because I hadn't jumped on the smart phone bandwagon yet and so I used this opportunity to justify getting a smartphone. Justin found an iphone 4 on KSL, 32 GB, for $210. Deal.

The next day was Saturday, which was my first and only Saturday off of the whole year. I wanted to take advantage so I went Christmas decoration shopping, ate a waffle from the waffle truck, set up the tree, decorated, etc. That night I was going to a meeting with an instructor I would be co-teaching with at Healing Mountain Massage School. More about that later. Then I would be meeting Justin at his family's favorite restaurant, Five Alls, for dinner with the adults. As soon as I hopped in the shower the McAvoy family menace started rearing its ugly head. Back pain, really bad, right over my right kidney. I immediately drank straight lemon juice, a liter of water, and took 4 tylenol. I hoped it would get better before my meeting.

I took off for the meeting, had a great time and talked about some really interesting stuff for the class. The pain grew steadily worse. As soon as I left for the restaurant, the pain grew more intense and I considered running home for my stash of Lortab... until I realized I was out of my nausea medication, which would mean the Lortab would be coming right back up. I got the to the restaurant, told Justin the problem, and said that going to the ER was probably the best course of action. No chicken kiev for Justin. And no baked halibut for me. :(

As soon as we got to the ER they only had me waiting 10 minutes before rushing me in, taking my vitals and hooking me up to morphine. Glorious morphine. And Zofran for the nausea. Well, after the nurse insisted on inserting the IV into a vein that I told him over and over would collapse. It did collapse, by the way, and having him dig around my arm and cause a 4 inch hematoma in my forearm which I use EVERYDAY to massage people with was super fun. But at least it took my mind off the kidney pain.

We were there 5 hours. Apparently the conversation was pretty funny. I didn't realize it at the time. I asked Justin if a handle on the overhead light was a penis. I also told him, after appearing dead asleep, that when Elmer Fudd tried to poison Bugs Bunny with carrots he was doing the impossible. Obviously carrots are too small. I also listed for a 2-3 minutes all the people that loved Justin, including his parents, bishop, hairdresser, teachers, etc.

After an ultrasound that revealed no stones, but a blocked ureter, the doctor told me he couldn't diagnose me with anything but back pain and sent me home. My new nurse forgot about me for an hour after the doctor had signed the discharge papers, I had to call the station to ask them for more medication after the pain started to return. Then he tried to give me medication without the nausea medication. I had to remind him of the doctor's orders. Sometimes our medical system scares me. Good thing I actually pay attention to what they do.

The next morning I passed 5 stones. The next day two more. But, officially, I only had "back pain." Jerks.




Anyway! Yes, I have a new part time job. I was offered a job after teaching a class of students about our hydrotherapy techniques at Spa Montage. I am a new Hydrotherapy and Advanced Massage Techniques instructor at a very cool, mostly hippie, school calling Healing Mountain Massage. I think my big plan is to cut back at the Spa over the next year, and get more full time into teaching massage and having private clients that I provide in-home massage to. Why? Well, thanks for asking. It's just that working at the Spa is not a very supportive environment for new mommies. And by the end of June I will be a new mommy. So that's that. I would like to transition my career into a more part-time piece of my life so my full-time commitment can be to our new little baby and my wonderful husband. Yay! (And that, apparently, is why I am getting a crazy amount of kidney stones. My OB said they would be increasing for my pregnancy. But on the upside, I haven't had morning sickness. So I traded throwing up constantly with crazy pain ending in peeing little pebbles everyday. But at least we get a reward for it all in 6 months!)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

4 years and counting!

Four years and one day ago we were here! Getting married in the Salt Lake Temple. 
For our anniversary, it was Justin's year to plan. He always does an amazing job planning romantic dates. 
After taking a particularly rough exam in micropathology, he came home.
We both took the day off from work so we had lunch together at home and watched a movie together.
That may sound boring, but to us it's a total luxury. It was awesome. 
Afterward he took me the best place on earth, the temple. We went back to the place our marriage started 4 years ago to remember the promises and covenants we made with each other and the Lord. It was very special and spiritually uplifting.
Afterwards, I was STARVING and he took me to Fleming's steakhouse. We don't eat at expensive restaurants often, but when we do, I definitely don't hold back.
It was delicious! We both ate WAY too much. Not judging me yet? Well listen to this.
I ate jumbo crabcakes, a wedge salad, shrimp scampi, zuccini vermicelli, sauteed corn, mashed potatoes, and some of our chocolate lava cake. Plus 5 or 6 house made lemonades.... I lost count.
Justin had chipotle mac and cheese, a filet mignon salad, corn, potatoes, about 10 cokes (of course!), and most of the chocolate lava cake with ice cream. Yes, I am a food snob. So eating like that was a real treat.
One that the scale won't let me forget. 
Oh well. 
All in all, it was a fantastic anniversary. I love my husband and I am looking forward to the next bazillion years together. (If I make it to heaven, of course. I'm convinced Justin's already got in. He's so much better than me.)


Thursday, November 8, 2012

The House We Bought...

So we bought a house in April.

Unfortunately, I have a lack of pictures to show. But I thought I would share our journey of home buying and what we have gotten ourselves into.

After 1 1/2 years of living over the worst kind of people (pot smoking, loud, obnoxious, one night stand and loud about it - kinda people) we decided that we had had enough of renting. We needed our own place. And how convenient, as the housing market was near rock bottom and interest rates were continually declining.

We asked Justin's former bishop, the most WONDERFUL realtor on the planet, Tom Swallow (if you're looking to buy, please let us know so we can give you his number) to help us buy a home.

The process was rough. We had a few criteria we had to stay in. One, our home needed to be a certain price (which was certainly not very high) and two, it needed to be in a great location. Yes, I realize those two criteria can often conflict with one another. We looked for a few weeks and saw either houses that would need SO much work it would cost us a fortune just to make them liveable, or we saw very nice houses right next to the freeway or on the west side of the valley.

One day our realtor took us to a house on the upper east side a block south of Skyline high school. We read about it in the car before going in. 2,400 sq. feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 0.20 acres, built int 1953. Not bad. From the outside it looked like a gothic 1970 flat roofed scary house. We were both raising our eyebrows like, "umm.... are you sure?" But don't judge a book by its cover! The minute we walked inside we both gasped. The front room had huge vaulted 15-20 foot ceilings with big brand new bay windows. There was so much natural light. (A MUST for me.) Next to the living area was a wood burning stove. There was a small winding staircase that led to an upstairs open loft with a front and back balcony. The loft had a gas fireplace. The kitchen (though it came with floor and ceiling water damage) was a beautiful galley layout with brand new appliances and 5 range gas stove. The two upstairs bedrooms were small and the bathroom definitely needed updating, but this was the best house we'd ever seen. The downstairs was 80% finished with a big family room, big bedroom, tiny bathroom, unfinished laundry room, a small man-cave type room and huge unfinished storage room. The backyard definitely made us laugh. The owners used to have a pool and filled it in, leaving a kidney shaped curbing that was the only area with grass. They must have started to build a poolhouse or sunroom and stopped, because there was a half finished structure that looked oddly out of place. To top it off, they built garden boxes right between the back and side yard, creating an obstructed path that wasn't going to get sunlight anyway. On top of that, there were to cedar trees they let grow into the telephone/power lines that virtually poisoned the soil with  acid from the sap. It makes me laugh how little some people know about gardening.

We decided that given the location and awesome price, we would put in an offer. Our realtor warned us that this was a short sale, so it might be months before we heard back from the bank. To top it off, the seller's contract stipulated that we couldn't put any other offers in until we were either accepted or rejected by the bank. So that meant we would have to sit and wait. Possibly for months.

After discussing and praying, we decided it was worth it and went forward. There were three other offers submitted with ours. However, ours was accepted by the seller and submitted to the bank! This all went down exactly a year ago in November.

Weeks went by and we heard nothing. We both just sat around, waiting patiently feeling like the time was going so slowly. Especially since looking at other properties was out of the question until we heard from the bank.

It wasn't until the end of February that we heard back from the bank. They came back with a counter offer. For $35,000 more than our offer. We were both stunned and realized that was definitely out of our price range since the asking price was already at the upper limits of our budget. After discussing, we decided to just come back with another counter offer at our very max. We came back and said we could only spend an additional $15,000. We knew that at this point, it was out of our hands. Within a few days we heard back from our realtor very late at night with a text, "Congrats! You guys are home owners!"

We had two weeks to get a lender, our down payment, home inspection, etc. in order. It was all very intense and we both felt more grown up than ever before. It was very scary to see most of our savings disappear into our downpayment. However, we realized that we were just turning a liquid asset into the investment of a home. Our interest rate was phenomenally low, at 3.5%. We went with the 30 year mortgage just for the safety of it, but decided to pay above the monthly cost so we could hopefully pay it off within 15-20 years. Closing on our house was a smooth process that our realtor, Tom, made so stress free. We were all upset to find out the selling realtor, who works for Keller Williams, conned our realtor out of a few thousand dollars. To this day we hate that realty company because of their dishonesty. But cheaters never prosper, so hopefully they'll get their fair share of dishonesty as well.

After moving in, we of course found things that needed fixing right away. Fortunately we had enough savings to cushion the expenses. Justin has done most of the work himself. (You can learn anything from YouTube.) We have decided that while fixing and updating things, we are fine with spending more money to get the good stuff that will last a long time rather than trying to do quick fixes that ultimately fall apart in a few years (like the previous owner). Everytime we find things that obviously need fixing or that were repaired so haphazardly we call it a "Devan" because that was the name of the guy who owned our house before us.

 Besides the backyard, bathroom, and water damage, I love the house. Even with all its quirks. It has been a great house. More importantly, we have the best neighbors on the planet, live in such on a such a great street, have had the most warm welcome from our new ward, our kids will go to some of the best schools in all of Utah and we live literally 1/4 mile from the canyon and a few blocks from freeway entrances. It has been great! Our bathroom is almost completely remodeled. (Pictures to come.) Next spring we will be turning our backyard into a great space with lots of grass, garden boxes (on the south side of course, where they will be actually getting sunlight), raspberry and blackberry bushes, a few peach trees, and the cedars are coming out. Yay! Pictures soon to come.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Cyclocross!

The Saturday before Halloween Justin last minute entered his first Cyclocross race. He was excited because he just bought a new Cyclocross bike (this makes like 6 bikes in our house now) mostly for commuting in the winter so he thought he would try it out for its intended purpose. He dressed as Cookie Monster for Halloween.

Anyway! The race was going really well. Towards the very end he was in 2nd place and got ready to sprint ahead to finish first, but slipped in the mud and fell over. Another rider passed him so he grabbed his bike and ran (instead of biked) to finish 3rd!

Not too bad for his first race ever! So proud of my very athletic husband for his success!

Snow Day!

A couple of weeks ago it snowed in Utah. Not unsual for October, but it was Porsche's first snow. Owning Huskies is so much more fun when it snows because they are truly in their element. Porsche ran around as fast as she could in the backyard round and round, stopping occasionally to eat snow.

Koda was pretty happy too, though his enthusiasm isn't as visible as our little girl's. (Typical boy.) Here is a cute video of them exploring the snow in our backyard.

Our family is a snow loving family. We love skiing/snowboarding and snowshoeing. Snow also means busy times for me at work, which means we instantly have more income. Basically December-March we save our pennies for the rest of the year so we can travel and remodel our house. This year we are enjoying every minute of sunshine and warm weather, but we are equally looking forward to the snow. We plan to transition from taking the dogs bikejoring to snowshoeing and possibly skijoring.

Summer backpacking

I forgot to mention the one and only backpacking trip Justin and I went on this summer! We went in September to the Uintahs to Granddaddy Lake with some of good friends, Evelyn and Richard Creighton. Evelyn and I were super close in High School and never get to see each other anymore so we had a blast! We went over Labor Day weekend. Richard brought a blow dart gun, a machete, a guitar, flute and tambourine. These guys know how to have fun. Campfire time was great because we had our own little band to entertain us. We tried fishing for the 2 1/2 days, but no one caught a single fish or got a single bite. Good thing we brought enough food.
Justin and I brought our puppies which was as challenging as it was fun. Porsche was a champ and didn't even need to be on a leash the whole trip! She loved the cold, loved to explore and didn't even blink an eye when it started to hail our first night and day. She just curled up in the tent and passed out. Koda, on the other hand, is a bit more of a fancy pants. We let him off the leash a few times and disaster struck so we kept him on the rest of the of time. He got cold so decided in the middle of the night to sleep on top of me in my sleeping bag (which I didn't mind since it was FREEZING!).  Justin and I had a blast and so did the Creightons.
Evelyn took some great family photos while Richard put their chew stick on his fishing pole to keep them looking at the camera.
We love our dogs and we love our friends. Thanks Rich and Ev for making it so fun!








Tuesday, October 2, 2012

It's been a while....

Woah... where did the last year and a half go??? Holy smokes.

Things finally settled down so now it looks like I am going to get back into that favorite female Mormon ritual of advertising my life to the public through blogging.

This post could probably be a million pages long if I got into the details. But let's just do the quickie recap:

May 2011: Went to Mexico with J to decompress from school and spend 10 days in the Riviera Maya. Saw some cool ruins. Oh yeah, and we graduated with a BS in Biology and minor in Chemistry for J and a BS in Exercise Physiology for me.

June 2011: Went to India. By myself. How about that? I went with the study abroad Public Health program through the U of Utah to study environmental health by participating in research in rural northern India. (Chandigarh to be exact.) Trip was supposed to be 3 weeks, but ended 1 week early because I got so sick from the water/food.

July 2011: Silver lining from my India trip.... the day after I returned to the motherland we found out my Mother in law needed a double bypass. Boy was I glad to be in town for that to support my husband and his family.

September 2011: Lotoja! Supported J on his 4th ride. Fun fun fun!

October 2011: Went on a FANTASTIC trip to the East Coast with J. He had never been East of Colorado so I thought it was time. We flew in to DC, drove to my grandparents house in Southern Va. (Seriously, their house is in the middle of NO WHERE. No cell service, no grocery store for miles.... it's awesome.) We went to a Bluegrass Festival called The Festy and ran a corresponding 10k trail run in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Then we drove up to Palmyra, NY. Saw some church sites. Went to Hershey World on the way. Then drove to NYC for a day. Yep, just 1 day. That's all it takes, apparently, for my husband to officially hate NYC. Then we drove to Philly to stay with our friends and see the city. Best water ice ever in Philly! Then drove to DC and spent our last day seeing museums and government buildings.
The last part of October, Montage sent me to Laguna Beach to train for work with some co-workers. I felt very grown up being paid to stay at the Montage Laguna Beach and train for 3 days.

Winter 2011-2012: Worked a lot. That's all.

April 2012: We bought a house. Yes. That's right. More about that later....
Went to Newport Beach with my family and visited Trader Joe's about 17934789 times.
Got our first dog, Koda! A 6 month old Sib. Husky

July 2012: Went to Oahu with Justin's family to celebrate our niece's first birthday with a traditional Hawaiian luau.
Got our 2nd dog, Porsche! A 3 month old Sib. Husky rescue from a puppy mill in Minnesota

August 2012: Went to Seattle to visit my cute sister and her family. Was my first time to Seattle!

September 2012: Went back to the East Coast by myself for a super fun girls trip with my old partner in crime, Evelyn, and my newest partner in crime, Elizabeth. Went to NYC for 3 days and Philly for 2 days to visit our friend Charise and her family. Saw my first Broadway, Wicked, and then on a whim saw my 2nd Broadway, Mary Poppins!! So fun


So that brings us to today! Here are some picture highlights of the last year and half of my life. Enjoy.