Thursday, August 2, 2012

Eternity

Spencer and I were sealed in the Manti Temple on June 2, 2012.
It was the best day of my life! We were very lucky to have almost all of our family and friends there to help us celebrate the wonderful day. Its amazing to me the love that I feel for my man. It is also amazing to me how much that love has grown in the last few weeks as we've prepared to go through the temple, gone to a few sessions together, and then finally to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity. Our relationship has improved in areas that I didn't even know we needed, that is the power of the gospel. That is the blessing of having the spirit in your life every day. I love being sealed to my best friend, and knowing that we have eternity to be a family! I love knowing that our little babe will be with us one day, and that the little dear ones who will one day join our family are also ours forever. Eternity is such an amazing concept to me. I feel like I've won the biggest jackpot in the history of ever. To be Spencer's wife, the mother of our children, a family forever, is the greatest blessing I've ever received. I love the temple. I love the feeling I get when I walk through those doors, when I listen to the blessings promised me, when I sit in the Celestial room with my best friend, and one true love. I love that our family and very close friends could be there to share this day with us. Being surounded by everyone you love, the people who mean the world to you, its almost like you're getting a glimpse of what Heaven will be like.
I love to see the temple.
I want to go every day.
To feel the Holy Spirit,
To listen, and to pray.

One Year Supply of Freezer Jam..... Check.

I dont know if you've ever had homemade strawberry jam before, but my mom makes it, and for years I thought she had some complex, super secret, passed down for generations recipe... little did I know she just got it off the box of pectin that you buy at Walmart. HA! It is also the easiest recipe in the world. All of the 3 ingredients can be found at any local grocery store. Strawberries, Sugar, Pectin. So simple. (Recipe found here)
Well, now that I am a responsible, married, adult, and I have another mouth to feed (Spencer's) I have to worry about how many jars of peanut butter(chunky) we have on the shelf, and how many jars of jam we have left in the freezer, you know, the important things. Well, unfortunately our month of June was not one of our better months, not only did we have an unexpected hospital stay, but we also ran out of jam! Spencer had to break out the smuckers for a few weeks... poor guy. So I decided to finally get my butt in gear and turn on the Suzy-Homemaker switch for the weekend.
Obviously a Costco trip was manditory (they have the BEST produce). So after 3 cartons of strawberries, 60 mason jars (random sizes... and yes we go through 2 jars a month), 9 boxes of pectin, and about 36 cups of sugar!!!!! (I didnt say this was a healthy recipe... its just mouthwateringly delicious!)
Now, the recipe says that you can throw everything into your blender/food processor and call it good... however, my mom said that you end up with ruuuuuuuunnyy jam when you do that. So instead, I got stuck with the task of HAND MASHING 3 cartons of strawberries.
Talk about tennis elbow.
But the ending result is fabulous...
(notice the random sized jars? makes it more exciting I think.)

We've made dozens of PBJ's (or just J's for me), Pancakes, Crepes, and coming soon, Scones!
I love me some Strawberry Jam!

Have a great day!!!!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Alex, the Champion

Alex Burton was a friend of mine, he lived two streets away from me and we went to school together. Alex has always been such a nice guy, so kind and accepting of everyone. It didnt matter if you were fat, skinny, white, black, short, tall, crazy, senile, or boring. He'd be your friend. Alex was always good for a laugh, he was the kind of guy who'd be up for anything (like toilet papering the neighbor's house at 2am..) You shouldnt be shocked by this because everyone in the Burton/Loveless Family are wonderful people. I love them all dearly. 
Alex had cancer. He fought it like a champ! Never giving up even when life was giving him hell. He was an example to all of us, and I am so grateful to have known him. I hope that he is climbing taller mountains then we could ever possibly imagine!
His sister Sara has blogged about him a little bit, here is her blog: Life Wells Lived
(grab a box of Kleenex before you read either of these.)
Also, another friend of Alex's posted this in her blog: Marie's Moments
I just wanted to tell her thank you for posting your experiences with Alex! I cried the whole way through. Unfortunately, I was not able to visit Alex in his last few weeks. My life was crazy, and that was my excuse. I had no time. I had surgery and was bedridden for days. My family was in town, excuses excuses. Now all of this seems pointless, selfish. My friend had limited time left here and I blew my chance. I hope that he can forgive me. I want to take this time to send a spiritual hug his way!! Al, I love ya man, and Im so grateful for thr friendship that we had! I know you have more important missions to do on the other side, and thats great. I want you to know that you will be greatly missed, we will think of you often, and miss you always. 
Til we meet again my friend.

Not what we were expecting.

Well everyone, its time for a story. On Tuesday, May 8, 2012, I found out that I was pregnant! Yay, I was so excited!! I immediately called my Dr to tell him! I told him I was so surprised because I had been spotting for the last week and a half, which was so weird, and that morning I just woke up thinking.. hmm I wonder what would happen if I took a test today. Well obviously it was positive, however my Dr. was concerned about all of the spotting I had had, and he also wanted to make sure that it wasnt a false positive. So he ordered a blood test for the next day, and then one 48hrs after that. They tested my HCG and my progesterone. On Wednesday my HCG was 189 (definitely pregnant.. but probably only a few weeks along!) and my progesterone was 1.5. In case you dont know, a normal, healthy pregnancy should double or triple the HCG level every other day, and have a progesterone level of 10. WHAT?! Yep. So basically my body doesnt produce progesterone by its self. This is a bad thing. For the first few weeks your body produces progesterone so that they baby will stay in and grow. Once the uterus is fully formed, then it takes over producing the progesterone. So basically... no progesterone.. no baby. This is also another reason why I havent been ovulating! Good to know! So my Dr gave me some progesterone pills to take every night. Anyway, back to baby. Friday my HCG was 332 (not quite doubled) and my progesterone was 2.3. Bad. The following Tuesday my HCG was 775 (barely doubled in 4 days) and my progesterone was 3.7. Still bad. We double my progesterone. Hopefully that will help. I get a call from my Dr. and he said that because my HCG levels arent raising high enough fast enough that means that Im probably going to miscarry. Soon. Im crushed. He says that if I dont miscarry (which he thinks I definitely will) by the weekend, then in one week we'll do another blood test to see whats going on. I went home bawling, and asked Spencer for a blessing. He gave me one before he went to class, and then we called my dad and he and Spencer gave me another blessing that night. I was told that my Heavenly Father was aware of what was going on, and that everything would be in His hands. I would recover to full health, and the baby would also recover to full health. On which side of the veil, we're not sure. But it still comforts me a little. Every day I wait and wait for the signs of a miscarriage, they never come. Tuesday I take another blood test. Wednesday morning my Dr. calls me and my HCG is 1375 (it didnt even double in one whole week!) on the plus side, my progesterone is finally at a 10. Not that it matters, because my Dr doesnt think that there is a baby in there. Its most likely just tissue growing, he tells me. They wanted to do an ultrasound the next day to find out how much tissue there is, and where its at, but we were leaving that night for California! I was told that everything should be fine, we'll do the ultrasound the following Tuesday. However, if I start having pain while we're there, then go immediately to the ER because that means it was probably an ectopic pregnancy. The chances of that are very low, but he just wanted to cover all the bases. We go to California, we have a wonderful time (post below). We got back Monday night and Tuesday at 3:00 I went in for my ultrasound. I had to drink 42oz of water one hour before, and hold it! So at about 2:30, I was uncomfortable. By 2:40, Im in pain. By 3:00 Im telling them to go fast before my bladder explodes! They started out with a normal ultrasound, taking pictures, moving around, squeezing more goop onto my belly, calling other tech's to look at the screen. All the while the pain is getting worse, and worse, as they push and move all over the place. Then we take a break, I go pee.. when I come back I realize Im still in pain. It wasnt the full bladder that was making me uncomfortable like I thought it was. Then they do a vaginal ultrasound, take more pictures, move around, call people. I asked them to move the screen a little so that I could see it too, not that I know anything about ultrasounds, or what I would be looking at.. but I just wanted to look. They did, and as Im chanting in my head its almost over, its almost over I see it. The heartbeat. I hear it too, which just confirms what I know to be true. That baby is alive, and growing. It has a heart beat! I cant believe it! When they're finally done they tell me to get dressed and wait in the waiting room for my Dr to call me. (I knew this would happen because ultrasound tech's never tell you what is going on) Finally, I get the call. My Dr tells me he is so sorry, but that tiny small nearly impossible chance of the ectopic pregnancy.. was exactly what I had going on. I was 10 weeks along and the baby was stuck in my left Fallopian tube, not only that but it was already starting to rip. The pain that I started getting at 2:40, was exactly that. My tube starting to tear. He told me that I would have to have immediate surgery, they would take the baby, and my tube, and it was going to happen in a few hours. I frantically called Spencer (who never answers his phone) while waiting for a nurse to take me upstairs. I finally had to call my mom and ask her to pick him up and bring him to the Hospital! (I had our only car!) Spencer, and my parents met me upstairs in my room. Many tears were shed before we were able to talk to the Dr who would be operating on me. He told me that recovery time is 4-6 weeks, and we have to wait 3 months before we start trying again. However, I am very lucky because if we would have waited and scheduled the ultrasound for Wednesday, it would have been too late. My tube would have burst, and if I didnt get to the hospital in time, then I would have died. They took me into surgery around 8ish, the surgery went just as planned, they took the baby, and my left tube. We stayed the night at the hospital and went home the next morning. I was bed ridden for about 3 days, moving slowly and trying to stay entertained. Each day I feel a little bit better than the last, which is good, and although this is a horrible thing that has happened, I know we'll get past it. I have Spencer by my side, and one day we will get to raise this baby in the Millennium. That one thought keeps me going.

Livin the California Dream

Spencer and I went to California over Memorial Day weekend with some friends, and it was probably the best/worst vacation ever. We started out on Wednesday night driving to Vegas to meet up with Ty, Jess, and Levi. We were staying at the Paris hotel, so we parked in the garage, left our luggage in the car and ran to meet up for dinner. Well two hours later we decided to take our belongings to our room.. Much to our surprise, when we got to the car my purse was sitting underneath the front driver's side tire. Spencer looked at me like, what the crap did you put your purse under the tire for?! And although I often do random crazy things that make absolutely no sense whatsoever... this was not of my doing. Shocked I started rummaging through my purse to see if anything had been taken... fortunately for us they didnt take any credit cards, birth certificates, social security cards, or even gift cards that I had in my wallet.. all they took was the cash.. which happened to be our tithing money that I'd just pulled out of the atm. darn. Well, I guess its only money, so we hauled our junk in and got ready for bed. The next morning Jess was looking for a knife to cut some muffins we brought. I told her she could use mine! Then I went to my PURSE for my handy dandy pocket knife that I always take on vacations... gone. Yup. Gonzo. they took my knife! Freaking lame. I was so ticked! Well I tried to get over it, we left Vegas, hit Einsteins (for the first of 5 times during that trip), and headed to Cali! We got in around 3, so we decided to hit the pool before we went to dinner. I immediately went for my camera, because I wanted to take loads of pictures during this trip. Well, my camera was also in my PURSE, and it was also gone. ARG! I couldnt believe it! I was fine about the cash, I was fine about the knife! But my camera!! I am not fine about that! All of our pictures were on there!! What was I going to do with out a camera on this trip!? Not okay. Not okay. Not okay. Luckily, I have an awesome husband, and he lifted my spirits with the promise of a new camera when we got home. He is awesome. So we paddled around in the pool, went to dinner at BJ's, and hit the hay so we'd be ready for an early morning trip to the beach! 
As many of you know, my dear husband is incredibly athletic.. He is also incredibly in shape. He loves to go running, and work out.... I do not. So, while he was running along the sandy Huntington Beach area at 7am, I was reading my book and burying my toes in the sand here.
Lovely isnt it?
I ate my bagel and read my book with the sound of the ocean just a few feet away. Aaahhhhhhh.. so relaxing. If only I had a bajillion dollars so that I could buy one of those cute condos right across the street from HB, then Spencer and I would stay at the beach all day long with our kiddos and never have to work again ever. Oh, if only. Friday was our day of just us, because Ty, Jess, and Levi went to Disneyland! Well I dont like Disneyland, I know I know, dream crusher. Whatever. Its just that I would rather wait for 45 min in a line for a roller coaster that I actually enjoyed, then for Its A Small World. (That is actually one of my favorite rides at Disney. haha go figure) Im sure it will be more fun when we have kids, but until then, I'll stick with the big kid rides. Anyway, we started our morning off by going to the Newport Beach Temple.
 Oh my word that is a beautiful place! I absolutely love the temple!! There is such a great feeling there, and it definitely makes your day better! I wish I could start every morning by going to the temple! I cant wait for next weekend when we get to be sealed in the Manti Temple!!! Its going to be so great!!! After the temple we went to breakfast, at Einsteins of course. And then Spencer had an online test to take while we were there, so he studied at the Library for a bit and then took it on their computers. After we grabbed a bit to eat and headed to the theaters!! Spencer FINALLY took me to see 
THE AVENGERS!!!
And it was AMAZING. if you havent seen it yet, go. Now. Stop reading this, drop everything you are doing, and just go. Its that good.
After the movie we ran to Target for this sun hat that I am absolutely in love with! It also SAVED my face/neck from being fried! On Saturday Spencer and I decided that we were going to be terrible travel buddies, and not do anything but stay at the beach... all. day. long. It was heavenly! There was beach volleyball, frisbee tossing, laying out, and homemade sandwiches. (we brought a cooler).  We also did the same thing on Sunday! However, Saturday night we went to Ruby's for dinner, and while waiting for our table, we watched a nice gentleman cast out his fishing line off of the back side of the pier.. 5 minutes later, his line goes tight, he's caught something! Well not only did he catch something, but he caught a SHARK! A real, live Shark! It was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. 
This is him. This is the exact shark that we watched get caught, and reeled up to the pier. It was thrashing like you wouldnt believe, but they got him!!! I've never seen a shark caught before, so this was cool!
Definitely a memorable way to end the vacation!!! 
(at least it was for me! Spencer still had 10 more hours of driving... I slept for probably 9 of those hours.. poor guy.)

6 Months Later...

Well its official, Im a slacker. I know I know. Anyway, I thought I'd get up to speed with the blog that no one reads. A lot has happened since I last posted, but I'll give the very quick rundown because I have a few more posts to create after this one. The Holidays were fabulous! We had the infamous Dew White Elephant party, where Barry Manilow made his reoccurring appearance, and the Beibs was fought over by children, teens, adults... and even a grandpa! We had the 2nd Christmas Eve Ihop dinner with the Eaquintos (its now a tradition.) where we discovered that Cole is probably one of the funniest nephews that we have.. he even made Sam laugh in public! A feat which is not easily conquered. We then spent the rest of the vacation time with friends and family! It was fabulous!
sorry for the fuzzy picture below..
The picture below was taken right after Cole yelled at our waitress because his Hot Chocolate (which he thought was chocolate milk) didnt have any milk in it!!! His exact words, 
"This is the worst chocolate milk in the world!!!!"
Awesome.
The New Year was rung in with laughter, friends, music, and TONS of martinelli's.
Trevor and Stephanie got engaged! YAY!! (wedding in August)
Dani and I waited in line with a billion other crazy people for the midnight showing of the 
HUNGER GAMES!
I might have been a little bit obsessed with these books.. Maybe.
I made Spencer the coolest birthday present ever! Milk cans with tractor seats on them. They are currently sitting on our front porch, next to my giant barrel of Mothers Day flowers. Spencer loves them. (just so you know, I did not randomly come up with this gift.. its sentimental from his childhood.. whatever makes the man happy.) ;)
Then the B-Day party at... where else? Goodwood, of course!
(the servers know us by name now... pathetic.. or totally awesome? I'll let you be the judge.)
Grandpa Dew got really sick and had to be life-flighted to Utah so that we could help him with his Myasthenia gravis. We are so glad that he his here where he can get some much needed help. And also, we got to celebrate his 80th Birthday with him!!!! I sure do love that crazy old man!
Spencer and I got to go to the Sunday Morning session of General Conference, and it was such a blessing to be there! I absolutely love conference!!! (It probably helps that I get to sit next to, and hold hands with, this hottie the whole time! I just love him to death!)
We celebrated at a Hair School Bestie's Bridal Shower....
And then we celebrated at her wedding reception!
And last but not least, my dear sweet Breezy Graduated from UVU! Cap's off to you my love!


Phew! And thats it, in a nutshell. December - April.
Time for a new post.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Trees are cool.

We had a moment a few weeks ago... it was the, "Holy crap, we're adults" moment. This happened when we drove to a lot, bought our very own tree, hurled it on top of the car, lugged it inside, wrapped tiny lights around it, and hung glittery balls from its branches. This shouldnt be anything new, being as this is our second Christmas together as a married couple... However, last year, living on the top floor of our apartment complex, and being ridiculously busy with multiple jobs, and school..... we didnt get a tree. We did have a nice tree scented candle though. So that helped. But THIS YEAR! We did not wimp out. No, no, no. In fact, Spencer was so thrilled with his "Im a man" moment, that he insisted I document it. This is rarely done. So I am very excited to share with out our Adult Evening.
This is our Tree, its a miracle it fit on top of our car! But we were prepared with blankets, and tie downs.
Once we brought it inside and filled the tree stand with sugar water, which the hubs is convinced that makes the tree stay alive for a really really long time, it looked like this:
YAY!! how exciting! Now from here on out was my favorite part. I was brainwashed by my mother in thinking that having 5-8 light strands on one tree is perfectly fine.. in fact, its normal. Ha. Well I was wrong. Spencer only let us have 3.... and he still thinks thats a lot. (he'll come around eventually) So this is our finished tree. All lit up and decorated!! With the stockings made by my dear mama-in-law!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Birthday Bash!

Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
I had a WONDERFUL birthday weekend!!!! Spencer is such a great husband, and I just love him so much!! I spent the day lounging and relaxing, my wonderful mother took me out to lunch (girl time! ) And then Spencer and I headed up to Salt Lake to meet up with some friends. We did a little shopping, then went to dinner at Tucanos! Yum, hu? I mean, who doesnt like endless meat, and grilled pineapple?! I know I sure do. 




After dinner we headed over to Temple Square to see the lights! I absolutely LOVE this time of year, and especially all the Christmas lights found everywhere... but I must admit, Temple Square does it best. They definitely know what they're doing, and as usual, it was gorgeous! We went on a Saturday night, so unfortunately, we were totally eaten alive. The gobs of people there.. it was unbelievable! I now have a glimpse of what Joseph Smith felt like when he was in the middle of a mob. I swear if Spencer wasnt standing directly behind me as a shield, I would have been trampled, and left for dead. Note to self: never go on a Saturday night. I dont even know if I'll be brave enough for Friday night!! Im thinking Tuesday. That should be a calm mild evening. We'll shoot for Tuesday night next time. However, we did have fun, and I always love seeing the Temple all lit up at night. The phrase "Look and Live" would definitely apply here as well. Sometimes I wish I could live on Temple Square. Now, obviously that is not possible, because then I'd be a bum.... and Im not. At least not on a normal occasion. But back to my original comment, its just so beautiful!
Seriously, who WOULDNT want to live in a castle?
I saw someone comment on a picture of the Salt Lake Temple one time and this is what they said, "Wow, that is BEAUTIFUL!! Is that a castle or a church?!"
Is that a castle or a church? Well, sweetie, its kind of both. Its a Temple. 
And this is what it looks like in December, with Christmas lights.
Isnt that beautiful?!
We had a blast walking around with our friends Chad and Kristin. Chad had NEVER been to see the lights, so this was a new experience for him!! And of course, we were all laughing our heads off, because when with the Roschers, thats all you can do!

Mawaige. Mawaige is what bwings us togebah today.

On November 19, 2011
Britni Smith, my dear sweet sister, joined forces with the one and only Timoteo Guillermo Ponce.
(its his true name. look it up.)
In the Salt Lake Temple they were sealed for time and all eternity! Mr. and Mrs Ponce looked ravishingly beautiful, as any newly married couple should. The day was full of smiles, and laughter. (and a few tears... but only the happy kind)
We began the day by waking up at 7:30ish to do everyone's hair...(poor girls at the Smith home didnt get to bed until after 2am.) Unfortunately some of the babies decided to spread some weird sickness about and we also woke up to a crying 2yr old who had just barfed in the crib. Perfect way to start a wedding day. So after much gagging and more aerosol spray than I could possibly begin to describe, we were all fresh and clean and ready to go!
While in the process of doing the Bride's hair, I was introduced to garlic scrambled eggs.. now, that look that you have on your face right now, I had the same one. However, my motto is Dont Knock It Til You Try It! So, I had a teeny tiny itsy bitsy little bite, and VAVOOM! I was hooked. These eggs are to DIE for! They totally changed my world when it comes to breakfast foods. Garlic eggs and toast with a tomato avocado spread? mmmmm. Im salivating at the mouth as I type. But really though, you should try them.
Once the Bride was all glammed up she took off with her mother dearest while I stayed to do two more heads of hair before running off to do two more! I guess thats one good thing about having a beautification lady in the family, you never have to go to a salon again. (my niece calls me "the beautification lady")
The Temple was gorgeous as it always is, and the couple was stunning. Pictures were freezing, but we all froze a smile to our faces and giggled at how loud our chattering knees were. Its always fun to have a family member getting married because it seems like during the family pictures there is always some child running amok. This case was no different, we had children running through dirt and splashing in water. Thankfully there were no flowers to destroy because they were preparing for the snow that we still havent received. After pictures were all over we parted ways to grab food and meet at the reception. Everyone in Brit's family except for Spencer and I went to the Lion House for Lunch/Dinner. We had to drive around to find gas first before we puttered to a pitiful end on the freeway towards Thanksgiving Point. In this way, we totally lucked out! For two reasons,
1. All but one who ate at Lion House recieved food poisoning!
2. Britni's sister Jen actually DID putter to a pitiful end RIGHT on the freeway. poor thing.
There are always a few mishaps at weddings, nothing to serious, just things to laugh about after the occasion is over. The reception was held at the Thanksgiving Point Garden Room. It was BEAUTIFUL!  There were more photos, and a line, of course. There was also an ice cream bar, which I have to admit, was one of the highlights of the night. Throughout the course of the evening, we realized that no one had been dubbed the "get-away car destroyer". There was pandemonium for a few brief seconds until we asked the staff if they had any cool whip, saran wrap, and weird candies we could throw on their car. They said yes, and we went off to destroy...... however. we were not aware that in freezing cold temperatures, cool whip... melts. You read that right. It M.E.L.T.S. One would think the effect would be just the opposite, right? Well, you're wrong. And Im glad to be the one to educate you on this, even though I wish someone would have educated me, and then we would have used lip stick instead. BUT it didnt happen that way, so in the middle of our decorating we noticed that all of our "work" was sliding down the windows!! We thought fast, and secured the whole thing with saran wrap. In the end, it looked pretty bad, but it was fun.
I am so very very happy for my little sister!! Married life rocks! And Im also glad to now have Tim in the family, he's funny and witty and they're absolutely perfect together!
Happy Wedding Day Mr. and Mrs. Ponce!

Friday, November 11, 2011

New Etsy account = a WINNER!!

I dont know who even looks at this blog, but if you have seen my blog then you might know that I sometimes make little designs on baby onesies. I recently made a Harry Potter halloween costume out of two baby onesies for my dear friend Kayla. And in return, she helped me set up an etsy account! However, I am very new at this whole etsy selling thing, so she's helping me. 
(depending on what gender they would like, I have some boy onesies, and some girl onesies)


Good luck everyone!!!