IF I WERE A GLADIATOR MY NAME WOULD BE...

...Vomitous Maximus.

For real.  This pregnancy was really unexpected.  And it has taken me a while to wrap my head around it.  Especially because I have been more sick than I have ever been.  Like vomiting 5 & 6 times a day EVERY single day, and constantly feeling like you are on day 2 of the 48 hour stomache flu.  Needless to say it has been a big challenge to try and live life and get ANYTHING done, when I feel shaky and exhausted from all the vomiting.  But finally things are getting better, I am only throwing up a few times a week and I have even gained back a few pounds.

I haven't blogged in so long because I have been so sick and have thus gotten SO behind, that the thought of catching up has been WAY too overwhelming.  But this blog also serves as my journal of sorts, so it is time for me to just suck it up and get it done :)

Now I will try to catch you up on the going-ons of the past couple months.  It will be really brief.  Each activity really should have it's own post, but instead we will go for a summed up megablog.

The first weekend in May we went to Thatcher, we saw 2 of my nephews in the play "Jungle Book" which was the youngest age group of EAC children's theater program.  It was so fun.  It was their first play and my nephew Kaleb (the older of the 2 brothers) was Mogli.  It reminded me of doing theater at their age and they were so cute.  That same weekend we went to the Gila Valley Temple open house and Matt's oldest sister Heather and her husband and 4 kids came Friday night and stayed all day Saturday with us.  We all stayed at my mom's house and on saturday we went swimming in roper lake and had a picnic on the mountain.  It was lots of fun.

I didn't take ANY pics on my thatcher trips this summer, since I was feeling pretty nasty and photos weren't a priority so thanks to Heather for emailing me copies of her pics.  Also my Mom is supposed to send me copies of the ones she has taken this summer, but the power is out in Thatcher and I am too impatient, so I will post them once I get them.

If you close the add at the bottom of the slideshow you will be able to read my captions

Also in May, Matt and I took our FIRST EVER vacation alone together.  Even though we are spending a TON of money on school this year, planning on paying off our car by the end of the year (2 years early) and trying to save $ for grad school, I just decided that it was TIME.  Matt has been SO busy with school and in May he got a 5 day break from school and also had those 5 days in a row without work, so I planned a suprise trip to a nice resort in Vail, CO.  He had NO idea and I packed for him and got it all set and ready so that I didn't tell him what was going on until we pulled into the airport.  He was totally suprised and he deserved it!  We had a GREAT time, even though I was puking my brains out.  One of the fun things we did while we were there was to go ziplining.  It was awesome.  I had also planned on us going white water rafting, but I had planned the trip the week before I got pregnant, so there were a few things that got cut out of the original plan due to the baby.

Here I am taking off on the first zip of the day, it was the slowest of the zips, the speeds got faster as the day progressed, they try and ease you in.

And here is Matt on the final zip, it was the lowest down into the canyon by far (it went under the other lines), but it was fast and long.  The zipping noise sounded kind of like a little girl screaming...but its not Matt, I promise :)

We got home and Matt started right back in with school and work and after a couple weeks I went to Thatcher for 2.5 weeks.  It was nice.  Although, I really missed Matt.  It was by far the longest we have ever been apart, but he was SO busy with school, I wouldn't have seen much of him anyway.  And it was SO good to let my mom take care of me and the girls.  My mom COMPLETELY took over full time care of the girls and let me try to relax.  I was still puking all day everday, plus getting up 1-3 times every night to vomit.  So she let me lay around and nap off and on all day.  I didn't do anything or go anywhere while I was there, I was just SO sick.  Although I DID go to the temple with GG, my great aunt and my mom and Hank one day.  It was SO great to be there and especially with them. 

 Part of the reason that I went to thatcher when I did was so that I was there for the one year anniversary of my Grandpa's death.  It was really hard on me to lose my Grandpa and even harder on my GG.  My mom and I wanted to do something special for her so my mom made a special dinner on the actual day for our family and GG and she emailed all of GG & Grandpa's decendants asking them to write out something about Grandpa, then I went through old and new pics and made a scrapbook of Grandpa's life and of his memorial services.  In the memorial section we inserted pics from the luncheon and the letters we had recieved about Grandpa.  I think it turned out nice.  We also bought her a bouquet of flowers in Grandpa's favorite colors.  Last year Grandpa passed away and just a couple days later (the day we held his funeral acutally) was his and GG's 60th wedding anniversary.  So it was that day, their anniversary, that we had planned to all go to the temple and then to lunch.  I really wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it, I was really just SOOO sick.  but I prayed and prayed for days hoping to feel well enough to at least be able to go and not throw up anywhere other than a bathroom.  I thought for sure I would be the first person to ever "not make it" to the bathroom in the new temple.  But it was fine.  I did great, and I was really lucky to get to spend that day with GG.

As soon as I got home I was in full speed mode looking for a new apartment or house to rent.  Where we were was great and cheap and was allowing us to pay for school without having to take out loans each semester (4,500-7,000 bucks a semester just for his tuition btw), but there was NO way were were going to be able to fit a 3rd baby into that place (which was part of the reason that we had not been planning on having anymore babies in the near future), and our lease was up at the end of July.  Anyway, after a couple of weeks of searching without feeling good about anyplace, we decided to pray about the offer that Matt's parents have been making us for a while now.  They have 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a large living room up stairs that they do not use and they have been offering for us to move in for a while now.  We have been too prideful to ever seriously consider the offer, but after I found out I was pregnant in April they have been offering more often (like every week), and the time came where we decided to humble ourselves (easier said than done) and really think about that option.  It would allow us to save some money towards his medical program.  We will apply next year for school and when we (hopefully) leave for school in 1.5 - 2 years it is going to cost us at LEAST a hundred grand.  So the offer of being able to save for a year to 2 years and be able to reduce the amount of debt we will have to get into for school was very tempting.  And we took the offer.

So we have spent the past 3 weeks moving the essentials over and packing up ALL our other stuff to be put into storage.  Matt has been a big help every moment that he isn't busy with school or work (which is not often enough), and I have spent all day everyday packing and organizing and taking loads over. My mom came down and took the girls back home with her for 5 days, which was a HUGE help.  Have you ever tried to organize or pack anything with the help of a 3 year old and a 1 year old?  It is tricky.  So I got A LOT done while they were gone and  now we are FINALLY officially done.  The day the girls came back I headed over to Chandler with them to babysit my sis-in-law Heather's kids.  It was fun and good to be able to spend time with them, and an interesting look into how much parenting changes as your kids get older.  I can't imagine my kids being that old.

Here are the girls upstairs at our new place playing dress up with thier cousin Rory (Barry and Janeal's oldest), who slept over to stay with Nana for a few days last week.

Anyway, so far it has been a vomit-filled, exhausting, HOT and busy summer.  We haven't done much of anything fun with our kids, but they have been great sports.  Next time we move we are hoping it won't be during July, in phoenix, with a sick & pregnant mommy.  Anyway, now that we are done I am looking forward to getting back to normal life...whatever that is!

PS- We should find out on monday, if the baby cooperates, whether it is a boy or girl.  So hopefully I will blog about all things baby on Monday!