La Famiglia Itri

The Birthday

2012-02-11T14:58:00.001-07:00

I have been emotional for over a week about this. This is the first time one of my kids has had a birthday. I assume I will have many more in the future, for Lila and hopefully a couple more. But this is the first time. My baby is turning 1! What an amazing year we have had with her. I can't believe how much we love her. She has grown so much:

likes chatting away in baby language. seems to learn then forget her words (has said "more" and "all done" in sign language, and has said "bye", "mama" and "dad"). still loves baby cheetos.mostly wants to crawl but sometimes lets mommy and daddy hold her hands while she walks around. is weaned but still won't drink much from her sippy cup and mommy and daddy are worried about her fluids. will eat her applesauce cold now. likes to play with her duplo blocks. still loves to go outside, even when it's cold. likes to hand things to you then have you give it back. over and over and over. likes to feed mommy and daddy her cheese puffs. loves going up the stairs and having mommy or daddy chase after her. laughs and claps with people around her or people on TV. favorite toy is still the dishwasher. likes music and sometimes dances to it. sometimes would rather sit with daddy than with mommy. doesn't cry when mommy leaves for work. hates baths, but likes being wrapped in her towel when it's done. once she sets her mind on something it's hard to get her to forget about it. likes balls does this adorable thing with her lips. sorry, can't explain it, but it's cute. still not much hair. loves her grandma, sometimes prefers grandma over mommy. mommy is starting to get jealous that she likes daddy and grandma better sometimes. luckily mommy is still usually the favorite. usually is ok with being in her carseat, but when she doesn't want it, she really doesn't want it. although her hair isn't growing very fast, she is still growing more beautiful every single day!

Best Friends

2012-02-03T01:37:00.006-07:00

I have a best friend. I suppose I have more than one, but not very many. One of these best friends is skipping town. It is very depressing. She is wonderful and has been there for me even when I didn't deserve her friendship. Truthfully we didn't ever really hang out frequently, but we have been consistent friends and she has meant so much to me over the years. She even surprised me when I was living in Philadelphia and just showed up there one day so we could hang out. That was one of the awesomest weeks ever.

Our daughters are destined to be friends too. Lila was born 2/11/11, and Brooklyn was born 11/2/11. Ha ha! Just a little transposition there. When we went to see Brooklyn in the hospital, we had a little dejavu because these two kids were born in the same room! A few little freaky coincidences if you ask me. Unfortunately, this wonderful friend and her lovely little girl are moving far far away. Really just to Arizona, but a 12 hour drive isn't really something that I think either one of us will make just for the weekend. Lukily her family is here in Utah still so she should come up to visit sometimes. I'll sure miss having her close by.

I love you Puddle! We will always be best friends.

The two turds:

And their pretty mommies:

As a side note for anyone who doesn't know, her name is Puddle. Just to clear up any confusion.

"More"

2012-02-01T13:48:00.003-07:00

Lila's First word!!

Compare her technique Here

Hello?

2012-01-26T16:09:00.001-07:00

Lila did something the other day that made me think of her cousin Reese. What do you think about the comparison?

Compare to Reese here and here

11 Months old!

2012-01-11T19:01:00.003-07:00

Today is a great dAY! LiLA iS 11 MONTHS Old! And she is playing with the caps lock key as I TYPE so YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH iT. Here are some things about her:

mostly happy. likes crawling so much she has no interest in walking. loves to play on the dishwasher and would be giddy if she ever got to actually play in the refrigerator. wears size 3 diapers. wears size 12 month clothes. hair is getting longer, is light brown. still likes to scratch. produces a lot of ear wax. hates having her nose blown. loves the baby cheeto-like snacks. puts small pieces of food in her mouth by herself. likes chunky baby food the best. goes up and down stairs with ease. has 6 baby teeth. still loves mommy best but always smiles when she sees daddy. sleeps in silly positions. takes 2 naps a day. goes to bed at 9. won't take a bottle or a sippy cup. loves both her grandmas. likes books. know's what she wants and whines when she doesn't get it. starting to get attached to blankets. likes going out to new places. doesn't like sitting in restaurant high chairs for very long. keeps getting cuter and cuter and cuter!

First Toilet Incident

2012-01-11T18:58:00.002-07:00

The Fruit of Our Labors

2011-12-28T14:15:00.003-07:00

So since Lila got sick on Christmas she only got worse. Her fever didn't break until early Monday morning. She was ornery all day Monday and again would only breastfeed but wouldn't eat anything. Plus I had work so she only got two feedings in. Yesterday I didn't get much sleep after my shift because she was awful again. Crying most of the day. Last night when it was time for bed, I fed her and she was leaning towards her crib when we got upstairs and she went right to bed. Then this morning it was glorious. A happy, normal Lila awoke from the night! Although we could see the teeth during all this, she wasn't quite so smiley. Here are some pictures for you all to see result of these last three days:

Lila's First Christmas

2011-12-28T13:25:00.004-07:00

Part IV: Endure to the end

By the time we got back to Scott's house Lila was out. She slept a good 2 hours then we woke her up because she was sleeping so long. The rest of the night I held her and we cuddled. Sometimes we could get her interested in some toys, but most of the time she was grumpy. Wouldn't eat anything. But it was ok. She wasn't openly screaming most of the time, just whiny and grumpy. and she still went to bed at her normal time which was good.

For your first Christmas, maybe not the best, but a happy first Christmas anyway!

Lila's First Christmas

2011-12-25T16:01:00.001-07:00

Part III: Pictureless

We left Scott’s house to do some other things, and forgot to bring the camera. So here is simply an account of Lila’s time.

She had refused to eat any food all morning, and I am trying to wean her from breast milk so even if I tried I wouldn’t have had enough milk to fill her little tummy. At 12:00 we drove home, I changed into a skirt, and Todd dropped me off at the church. He went down and put Lila to bed. Kyle was going to skype at 1:00 so we knew Todd would be late to church. Lila ended up sleeping until 1:30, then Todd got her and brought her downstairs and she basically fell asleep in his arms so they didn’t end up coming. After the call Todd cam to pick me up from my “1 hour meeting”. At 2:25 the meeting finally finished. Our Christmas program went way over and I couldn’t go home early since I was directing the choir. I don’t know why we had so many, many songs. I knew it would go at least 15 minutes over the second I saw the program. Oh well.

We drove down to my parents house. Todd had brought the thermometer since Lila had been acting so weird all day. We checked her temp and it was 102.5. Yeah that is not very good. So we gave her some tylenol and I fed her and we gave her a cool bath. She cried the whole time and of course peed in the bathtub. But she was much happier once we had her all wrapped up in a towel and had finished wiping her nose off. I sat rocking her for a few minutes, and her toes were definitely much cooler. When we checked her temp again it was down to 101.9. Not a huge drop but we’ll keep working on it. We just put on her onesie and pants and left her arms and toes bare. (We did keep her covered with a blanket when she was outside but let her skin breathe in the car.) She was out cold again before we even left the driveway. Poor thing. I think it wasn’t just her teeth after all.

Lila 's First Christmas

2011-12-25T10:49:00.008-07:00

Part II: From Her perspective

The drive to my uncles house was nice. I was all cozy in my blankets and I got some poop out which felt good! When we got there I stayed content in my carseat for a little while as everyone ran around like usual. After a while they took me out, and I stretched out on the floor and just enjoyed the moment. I like being around people and I like going places. Then everyone sat around in a circle. Every single adult had a one of those silver things that sometimes burst with light, it was crazy! Then all this red, green, and silver paper started getting torn apart. I mostly ignored it.

My cousins were pretty excited about all the funny colored paper boxes. I'm not sure why. Mommy and Daddy tried to sit me down and stick one in my lap but that didn't make me very happy. And I started remembering that my mouth hurts for some reason. So I decided I wouldn't be happy without my mommy. She sat down on the floor and let me sit on her lap. Then she let me tear some paper! Normally she steals the paper from me and puts it in a plastic bin. I tore it a little, but then I just wanted mommy so I started whining. She tore the rest of the paper off for me and there was a surprise inside! I wanted to play with it but it was stuck to the box so I whined again. Then mommy took it out and I pushed the buttons and looked in the little mirror. I'm so cute! For the next little while the cycle continued. I don't think my mommy knows what I like because she kept stealing away the things I was playing with and making me mad. As soon as I would find another thing to play with, away it went. You would think she'd learn!

My mommy left me for a while with a pile of stuff that she had just put in front of me. I thought that I might be able to play with some of it for a minute, but then I realized my teeth hurt and I wanted my mom. She came to my call and I snuggled with her, only occasionally looking around to make sure I wasn't missing anything too exciting. I love her. She also tried to feed me some food but I didn't want it. She gave me to daddy for a while. I like him too, but I wanted mommy so I squirmed and cried until daddy gave me back to her. Everyone was in the kitchen doing weird things so we watched for a bit. After I had been with mommy for quite a while I started getting tired. Gramma Itri picked me up and I was too tired to fight it. Finally I couldn't stay awake anymore. Gramma bundled me up in a blanket and laid me down to sleep. Maybe sleeping isn't so bad after all.

Lila's First Christmas

2011-12-25T09:15:00.008-07:00

Part I: I love tylenol!

Lila woke up early. My plan had been to get up at 7, get ready, and wake her up at 8 to feed her and get her ready. Lately there have been a few days I’ve had to wake her up at 9 to eat because she has been sleeping in so late. So when she started stirring just after 7, I thought she would go back to sleep. But she didn’t. She kept crying and crying. So finally about 7:20 we got her up to eat. I fed her on one side, then she was too mad to eat on the other. She was crying with tears streaming down her face. She is teething, she’s got three teethers coming in on the top. So Todd got the tylenol and I sat with her in the recliner in her bedroom and rocked her. It was probably about 15 minutes before she was willing to finish eating. But eventually she did, and slowly got more happier through the morning. I told Todd how happy I am to live in the post-tylenol (post any medicine!) invented days.

Her first present she didn’t get to open because it was too hard for Santa to wrap. A big pink ball! You can see how much she loved it!

Then we all got ready for the day, and she puttered around on her hands and knees as usual. She even found an old toy mommy had tried to hide from her.

She also got into some chocolate. Luckily mommy was there to take the chunk away and carefully navigate a small chip into her mouth. Therefore no cute chocolate faced pictures to show. Now we are on our way to Todd’s brother Scott’s house to open the rest of her presents. She is happily cuddled in 2 of her warmest blankets in the back seat! Tune in later for more about Lila’s first Christmas!

A fun toy

2011-12-24T17:00:00.002-07:00

Lila sure likes to make toys out of non-toys.

A good Idea Gone Bad

2011-12-24T16:44:00.003-07:00

The hardest thing to do with Lila is shower. She can't be alone in a room, even a baby safe room because she freaks out when we leave her alone. I have tried leaving her in her high chair or pack-n-play at the bathroom door so I can poke my head out of the curtain at her, but even then as soon as I get back to my shower she is crying again. So we recently finished(ish) remodeling our bathroom, so the floor and the toilet weren't all gross and peed on. So I had this great idea to let her play on the floor in the bathroom since she loves drawers and had already spent some time happily playing on the floor. So I put some extra toys on the floor, closed the door so she couldn't get away, and hopped in the shower. A few minutes into it this is what I saw:

So I kept putting the shower curtain back over her face, she would get mad, crawl back to the end of the shower to get the edge of the curtain again, and slowly move it out of the way so she could get down closer to where I was. It was a terrible cycle. She was sopping wet by the time I was done showering. But to her, when she was rewarded by cuddling with mommy once I was all wrapped up in my towel, it was all worth it.

Lila is 10 months old!

2011-12-11T23:21:00.005-07:00

Wow. As a kid I always went crazy when people told me how fast I was growing/growing up. But as I get older I see the wisdom in those who came before me. Lila is huge! Here are some things about her:

loves blowing raspberries. still pretty bald. has a killer smile, still with just two little teeth. LOVES mommy. likes daddy if mommy isn't around. likes most people as long as mommy is still holding her. only gets antsy at church instead of ornery. pro crawler. flies up stairs. doesn't like to walk (with help) as much now that she gets around so well by herself. wears size 9-12 month clothes. some of her favorite toys-whether we actually let her play with them or not-include: mirrors, spoons, chapstick, keys, cell phones, lotion bottles, outlets, cords, paper, books, and sometimes washcloths. finally has a set bedtime. likes going out. sometimes hates having her diaper changed and sometimes is ok with it. stops what she's doing when mommy says "no no" in a soft but warning tone. sometimes even completely stops what she's doing and doesn't go back to it (but sometimes she just wants to do it too much to leave it alone). still loves being outside even when it's freezing. wears size 3 diapers. always recognizes and loves her grandma Faber. definitely has mommy's eyes. most people thinks she looks like daddy more. has figured out how to open the kitchen cupboards. loves to play on the dishwasher or dryer when it's open.

11.11.11

2011-11-11T22:55:00.005-07:00

Today is a special day. Lila is 9 months old! It is crazy how much we love her every day and the joy she brings to our lives even though she is basically just an inconvenience to the rest of our lives. (Only from a totally objective point of view, of course). In reality she is the most wonderful little responsibility we have ever had. Here are some things about her:

suddenly hates diaper changes. her sparse hair is just a bit thicker. graduating to size 12 month clothes. will laugh every time you throw her in the air. pro crawler. will stand against anything that will hold her weight. loves cups and spoons. learning how to use a sippy cup- currently bites the transitional sippy cup nipple, feels the liquid come out, and pulls the cup away to play with the liquid in her mouth, to later bite the nipple again for another taste. wears size 3 diapers. won't take a bottle or a binky. decided not not like any food except her grain cereals. much of the time is only happy when mommy is holding her. scared of her grandpa Faber. does her sway dance when standing on just about anything. loves mirrors. licks her reflection in the mirror. still scratches like crazy. is learning that when mommy feeds her there are 2 sides. puts her arms through sleeves. has had some mini tantrums. loves holding chapstick, hasn't figured out how to take the lid off yet. loves pulling at mommys jewelry. likes going places and watching new things. loves cords and outlets (we finally got outlet covers, whew!) just gets cuter every day.

Lila's new thing is to freak out when we try to change her diaper, flip over, and hang over the side of her changing table to try and touch the diaper genie. On her back, screaming bloody murder. Once she flips over, totally quiet. crazy lady!

Something exciting

2011-11-09T20:24:00.003-07:00

We have something exciting brewing. I have been thinking a lot about it, while at the same time not thinking about it because I don't want to get my hopes up. A lot of things have to come together in order for it to work out. But it would be oh, so glorious.

I would be happier, and get to do something I really want to do.

Todd would be happier, and get to try something he really wants to try.

Lila would be happier too.

We would learn new things.

We would make good (even best) friends.

We might be able to make good use of our home.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, that is because either I don't want you to know since it is not official and I'll be crushed if it doesn't happen, or because I just haven't told you yet. Or you just aren't smart enough to figure out that what I told you about is what I am referring to in this post... If you do know, wish us luck!

Halloween

2011-11-05T16:09:00.008-07:00

Aside from the sore lack of trick-or-treaters, Halloween was pretty good. Todd's brother Scott and his wife, Lisa hosted a great Halloween party on Saturday night. There was a lot of good food and costumes and we played some fun games. Lisa even thought of a GREAT idea and made a little wall where we could all take pictures of our families. We played mafia and the mafia won every time. Good thing I won twice! I guess I have an affinity to draw the evil roles. Lila was adorable in her costume.

Usually it is like pulling teeth to get any of the Itri boys to dress up. So Todd assumed this year was the same. I tried to tell him that at a recent Itri wives girls night we all vowed to make our husbands dress up. But he didn't listen. So when he found out I was right and he looked like a goon as the only one not dressed up, he let me take a makeup crayon to his face. He was Star Burns from Community. Oh and I dressed up as a flapper. I also have some pictures of me in my Halloween scrub top before work on Friday night. It's the only festive scrub top I own. I don't even have a Christmas one.

Dance Dance Dance

2011-11-05T16:00:00.002-07:00

Lila has become quite the little dancer. Want a taste? here you go!

Happy Halloween.

2011-10-31T21:11:00.002-07:00

Well. It is now 10:12 p.m. Our door has been graced all of 4 times by masqueraders looking for a sweet treat. I guess it's time to turn out the light, and soak my depression up in the remaining chocolate.

I had high hopes for my new home.

The girl

2011-10-30T20:05:00.003-07:00

Sometimes that's what we call her. Here are some of the latest:

She sucked on her thumb a few times. It hasn't really become a habit though.

She wakes up with bedhead:

She smiles:

And frowns:

Sometimes Husbands are Nice

2011-10-30T20:02:00.003-07:00

Look what Todd bought for me.

Dread Callings

2011-10-16T10:19:00.002-07:00

So remember how I posted a while back about dread callings? Well Todd got out of his. Got a new calling. A little more busy but much more his kind of calling. But me? Well I'm just getting into the thick of it.

I put off my choir directing duties until September. A lot of wards take the summer off so don't judge. Anyway, so far we have had 5 rehearsals. A total of 1 male has come. Luckily he has come every week, but we had to make practice at 9:30 a.m. just to accommodate his meetings. Pretty sad when you have to change your whole choir time for 1 male voice. Besides that we had 4 ladies. 4 gals and 1 guy doesn't make for much of a choir. And then there's the thing where my pianist can't play the piano. I love the woman, I really do. And I am so grateful that she practices the songs. But it is just hard to teach a choir their parts when they can't even hear the piano play it right. So now my dread calling is a little more dreadlier.

However, I have seen a bit of light today. So the first several weeks we were working on "This is the Christ." I am so smart that I thought it was a hymn and we were just singing a different version of it. I thought it wouldn't be too hard because the notes and the print was big. Ha Ha. Shows how much I know! There is a nice little acapella section, we change keys I think 3 or 4 times, and the sopranos end on a high F. I guess I should have looked at it a little closer! So the good news is that we will probably sing it for Easter (yes, I typed that correctly), and we moved on to a hymn from the hymnbook. My pianist is playing that beautifully, and we had 3, yes 3 new ladies join us today. And one of them can comfortably hit that high F in This is the Christ. We sounded so much better. One of them is going to bring her husband next week. And there are 2 members of the bishopric that will sing with us. We might have a choir after all!

Welcome home, Elder Darren

2011-10-13T13:15:00.007-07:00

My little brother came home! He was on a mission in Canada for 2 years. He got back 1 week ago today. It was weird, I wasn't sure what to do since I have never been there for anyone's actual homecoming before. And there is a possibility I might never have another sibling go on a mission, so the pressure was on to get it right!

Here we are anxiously waiting. There was one missionary who came down by himself about 10 minutes before Darren did, so we were all worked up over that for a while.

Then later, we finally saw the group of black suits through the very small area that we could see people walking before they got to the escalator, and then down he came!

So I love this picture because of my dad. I wish you could see his face a little better, but I watched him for a few minutes and it reminded me what a wonderful dad I have. He had tears in his eyes and you could see that while I'm sure he was glad to see his son, that's not why he was so happy. I know my daddy was so proud of his son for completing an honorable mission, and thats where his real happiness was.

Lila Meets her uncle! A little rocky at first, but when mommy got close she warmed up.

Mommy and Lila hangin out while everyone else gets to say hello to Darren.

Lila is 8 months old!

2011-10-11T19:20:00.005-07:00

Here are some things about her:

loves to crawl and roll. stopped taking a bottle. still no hair improvement. still in size 2 diapers (until we run out). likes to swing and slide with mommy at the park. loves her daddy. curious. can't sleep if it's too cold. climbs up on furniture. still loves to pull hair. starting to turn her nose up at any food but grain cereal. stayed in the chapel for a whole sacrament once. is always loud (happy or sad) in sunday school. met her uncle Darren! squeals with glee any time you help her walk. loves other kids and trying to grab their faces. mommy is her favorite. still doesn't sit more than 5 seconds. when she wants to be held she will try to follow mommy around a room, changing directions every few seconds as mommy runs around cleaning or getting ready. probably still hates binkys but we stopped trying. can play with electronics, cords, CDs, paper, or other no-no items forever, but gets bored of her normal toys in less than a minute. wears size 6-9 or 6-12 month clothes. tried a sippy cup- no luck. Won't put small items in her mouth. parents say HALLELUJAH! to that. doesn't like baths but stays quite and mostly holds still during them. we think she is starting to recognize mommy's voice on the phone when she calls from work. still loves the outdoors. brightens every single day in our home.

I worked today, so my pictures are limited to the short time I've been home, but here's what I got. Please take note of her playing with my lunch for tomorrow. A burrito in a baggie. That kept her entertained for at least 10 minutes-we had to take it away from her- while her toy landed on the floor only a few moments after she stuck it in her mouth.

Addendum: after posting about my little lady, I was feeding her some applesauce (not very successfully), and she started clapping! It was so cute. I love her.

Bum Sleeping

2011-10-03T11:38:00.002-07:00

One of the cutest things babies do is sleep with their bum in the air. It is just so dang adorable.

Stressed

2011-09-28T18:39:00.003-07:00

Have you ever been so stressed that your head just starts hurting? Like the long-term kind of stress. As in days long-term (as opposed to hours). It's like my head actually hurts, rather than I have a headache. Impossible to describe. Just so many things. Hard things. Frustrating things. Unfair things. Sad things. I just hope it ends soon.

I have gotten to the point where when people ask me how I am I can't even say I'm fine. I tell them that I'm not doing that well.

But, just so you know, I am aware of how freaking awesomely amazing my life is. Yes, I do know that despite all the day to day stinky stuff, I still have a beautiful and healthy daughter, a husband who loves me and is on track to be able to take care of me the rest of my life, a good job that pays well in the meantime, a wonderful (and true) religion to help guide my life, safety and security in a my community, more than enough food to eat, and loving family close by both on my side and Todd's. So yes, I do understand that in the broad scheme of things I have no room to complain.

But yet, my head still hurts.

I'm crafty!

2011-09-26T14:10:00.002-07:00

I did something crafty. I am not very creative so this is a big thing for me! Here is a picture of our old desk. We weren't really using it anymore, and we were going to give it to DI. But instead I did this:

My niece and nephew have already gone to town on it. It kept them entertained for quite a while. Mission accomplished! Of course it doesn't really erase very well, but I don't think the little kids will care that much.

Teefers!

2011-09-26T08:29:00.001-07:00

I finally caught those little buggers on camera!

Comments

2011-09-20T19:09:00.002-07:00

I love comments! Every time I post I check for the next few days to see if anyone has commented on my fun and witty passages. (haha). So I am making a concerted effort to comment more on the blogs that I read. I love to read them, I love when people update them. And most of the time I thoroughly enjoy all that I read. And now I will try to be better at telling you all. Yes. We'll see how long this lasts.

Root Canal and Fruit for Breakfast

2011-09-16T09:40:00.004-07:00

Yes. I am the unlucky one. I thought I was taking good care of my teeth. I had a cavity filled right before I got married. I had done well since then, no new cavities to be filled. But at my last cleaning in January, I found out it had cracked. My dentist fixed it the same week Lila was born. It was sore for a while, then the pain would wax and wane. It was worst when I would eat. But I just had a new baby, then I started back at work so I ignored it until my new cleaning. Yup. Infected. Root canal. My dentist said some teeth can't handle having too much work done on them. This particular cavity had been difficult, I remember both times, different dentists getting that "hmmm. how should I go at this?" face and the appointments taking extra long.

So yesterday I had my root canal. One of the roots would't stop making pus, so it was hard for my dentist to dry it in order to fill it. Yummy huh? Aren't you glad I'm going in to such detail? Anyway, I am lucky he was eventually able to dry it because if he couldn't he would have had to leave it open to drain and I would have had to come back later to get it filled. So he was able to fill it, but said it would probably hurt a lot as my tooth tried to make more pus and pushed against the filling. Well, he was right. I had Top Ramen for dinner with the noodles all broken into little pieces so I could swallow without chewing. Whenever I accidentally touched my teeth together, it caused sharp, stabbing pain. Some ibuprofen every 6 hours didn't quite take that away.

So this morning I knew I would starve unless I got something to eat that was chew-less. So I loaded Lila into the stroller, and walked to jamba juice. It is only about 8 blocks there, some good exercise, and of course Lila loved it since she got to be outside. Then when we got home I fed her some bananas. And she went for it! I think she finally decided she really liked them. She did eat them one other time in the evening, but this was the 5th attempt, so she is 2 for 5 on bananas. I think she is doing a lot better in general about eating. I think at first maybe she just didn't want anything other than milk. The spoon and the new flavors were a bit much for her. But now she is slowly getting used to it and I think she likes it more and more. So we had a nice morning with fruit for breakfast!

Lila turned 7 months old on Sunday!

2011-09-13T10:32:00.004-07:00

Lila has been growing like crazy. She is more fun every day. Here are some things about her:

ticklish. smiles. usually takes 2 naps a day. wakes up to eat once a night. either doesn't like eating in the morning or doesn't like fruit. crawling. little hair wispys are getting longer. has left scratches all over moms arms, face, chest, and back. doesn't really like baby toys. but loves mobiles. loves peas. hates turkey. likes squash. likes ham until you give her peas. loves mommy. loves sucking on paper. has two little half teeth on the bottom. I only found out about the teeth because I let her suck on my finger. loves the outdoors. walks when you hold her hands for her. still likes pulling hair. gets lots of comments on her pretty eyes. smiles for the camera. won't let me get a picture of those teeth:

Dishes

2011-09-07T21:54:00.003-07:00

Why are dishes so awful? Why do they pile up so high? How come they start to stink so fast? What makes the food stick so much to dishes that even procrastinating a little makes it seem as if they have become one? Why does it seem to take longer to clean up the dishes than cooking and eating combined? How did my mom convince me to use a food net catcher thingy over the drain to protect my garbage disposal? Isn't that why we have garbage disposals? So why do I do it anyway? Did you know I saw on the news once that the kitchen sink has the most germs on it? (compared to toilet flushers, playgrounds, doorknobs, cell phones, and a myriad of other everyday things).

Despite all this, I still feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when that sink is empty, the sink disinfected, and the dishwasher humming. I think I get some kind of pleasure out of doing such an awful task because I do it so well. Yes, I scrub each dish until it looks clean before putting it in the dishwasher, and most of the time I would rathe handwash the items that didn't fit in one load so I can officially empty the sink. I guess I probably go a bit overboard. But gosh dangit my dishes are sparkling and it's all because of me!

My favorite part of the day

2011-09-01T18:57:00.003-07:00

So I have a new thing that has become my favorite thing to do on my days home alone with Lila. In order to understand why this is my favorite part of the day, you have to understand that I do not have a cuddly baby. She is so wiggly and hates to face me tummy to tummy. Any time I hold her that way she twists and fidgets until her back is towards me.

So in the mornings we get up and hang out for a while. Then I feed her and we go for a walk. We walk not too far to the park and swing on the swings. At first she sits on my lap. Then after a while I flip her around and she rests her head on my shoulder. For some reason the whole time we are swinging she doesn't wiggle at all. By the time I finally decide it's time to go home my bum is pretty much numb because I don't want to shift my weight on the swing and bother her stillness. Sometimes when we walk home I even wrestle with the stroller with one hand so I can keep her still against my chest. And if you have ever pushed my stroller you even with 2 hands it can be hard to keep it on course. But it is so worth it for the little while I get to have her so close to me.

Yup. Definitely my favorite part of the day.

Anniversary

2011-08-22T10:47:00.004-07:00

So I started writing a post about our anniversary as we drove home from Colorodo. It turned out to be about 5 pages single spaced in my word processor, so I decided to use that for my journal and not bore you or post something so long that no one would read it. Instead here are some things about our trip.

1. We went to Denver

2. We saw the Phillies kill the Rockies. 3 times.

3. Lila hated it.

4. We ate good indian food.

5. We went shopping!

6. Everyone in the ballpark LOVED Lila in her Phillies onesies.

7. Once she didn't wear her onsie because she pooped for the first time in 5 days on the way to the park.

8. The extra onsie we had was Rockies colors. oops.

9. We left something one night and were able to retrieve it from the lost-and-found vault.

10. Our hotel room had a closet that fit the pack 'n play.

11. Lila didn't sleep well in it anyway.

12. We ate hot dogs at the ballpark!

13. We didn't get to see Cliff Lee pitch.

14. Megan likes live baseball! (saying that is about as shocking as when she announced she would be a nurse. I make this comparison to point out that I am NOT joking.)

15. Lila likes live baseball.

16. About half the fans there were Phillies fans.

17. Since we have a baby we got to park right across the park one night without a pass.

18. The rest of the time we were able to find free parking not too far.

19. People are a lot nicer to opposing fans if they have a baby.

20. I love you Todd. Happy anniversary.

Baby Advertisement

2011-08-22T10:33:00.006-07:00

My little sister told me that I was just like my other sisters- once I started having kids my blog turned into a baby advertisement. Well, I guess that is mostly because once you have kids your life becomes all about them. I used to think it was kind of sad, like I would somehow loose myself and be deprived of things I like. But actually it is happy. I still do things I like and I have something new that I like the most.

Despite the fact that yes, Lila and Todd are the most important ever and hello, why take pictures of me and Todd when that little lady is so dang cute, I will try to take more pictures of NOT Lila. But, in the meantime, I will try to post about me using pictures that yes, are of Lila, but I am still in them. Take what you can get.

Change

So although most people don't like change, I do. It is nice to have differences in life and I am able to adapt well. For instance, whenever I move I don't accidentally start to drive to my old place or even think about going toward it. It is second nature to go toward my new place the moment I move in. Changing jobs turned out to be the same. I graduated from nursing school and have adapted well to non-school life even after 16+ years of being in it. So my latest change I have been thinking about doing for a long time. I was planning on doing it sometime last year, but then I got pregnant and didn't want people to think I was lazy. So I waited until Lila was 6 months. Here are the results.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Proof she won't take a binky

2011-08-13T20:05:00.004-07:00

Lila is 6 months old!

2011-08-11T18:47:00.003-07:00

Happy 1/2 birthday Lila! Here is a little bit about her:

loves to grin. gets around by rolling. can put herself to sleep without crying. loves being outside. no longer likes the carseat. still won't take a binky. drools more than a bulldog. NOT teething. pulls mommy's hair. wears size 2 diapers. everyone notices she has mommy's eyes. went swimming first time. wants anything you're holding. gets up on all fours. mastered the pouty lip. pulls daddy's hair. likes mommy best. lets others hold her. can't sit up. picky. could crawl if she would just move her hands. reaches to be picked up. grabs anything in reach. wears size 6-9 month clothes. went to first Phillies game. pulls her own hair. gets more adorable every day.

Lila is 5 months old

2011-07-17T16:00:00.004-07:00

Lila turned 5 months old last Monday. I know we are a few days late, but here are some things about her:

rolls both directions from back to tummy. sucks on her whole fist. sometimes sucks just on her forefinger (like her mommy did). slowly getting better at sleeping in her crib without her carseat. smiles and laughs. has the cutest pouty lip. knows and loves her mommy. knows and loves her daddy. can hold her own bottle when she wants to. still won't take the binky again. plays with toys. has rolled from tummy to back at least 2 times. sometimes wears size 2 diapers. spent her first whole day babysat. didn't do very well. rarely sleeps through the night. likes to have her fingers and toes nibbled. ticklish. grabs things and puts them in her mouth. scratches like a cat. gets more beautiful every day!

A trick up her sleeve

2011-06-26T16:26:00.006-07:00

When Todd talks to his mom on the phone she often asks if Lila has any new tricks. basically as a newborn she hasn't really done anything. True she has grown stronger so can lift her head up and hold things when you pry her little fist apart and stick something inside those little fingers. ut besides the whole eat-sleep-poop deal there isn't much else. This last week she hit a baby trick growth spurt. She started taking things we put in her hands and moving them to her mouth. Then she started reaching for things and grabbing them herself. Then, yesterday, her biggest accomplishment so far! I laid her on the floor across the hall from me on the carpet while I was getting ready in the bathroom. She was happily entertaining herself, so I just periodically looked over to make sure she was still ok. And I almost missed it..... She went from back to tummy all by herself! She has flopped on her side before, but this time when I saw her on her side I could tell she was aiming to go all the way. I ran and grabbed the camera to capure her proud face after her accomplishment.

The rest of the day she kept flipping over. Then today something even more exciting (but just for us as parents). She was fussy because she was tired, and we laid her in her crib. She rolled over and fell asleep in less than 10 minutes. Usually this little tyke takes a lot more than that to get some shut eye. I just hope she keeps it up!

Work at our house

2011-06-16T22:24:00.002-07:00

We don't have a lot of pictures of the work we've done because, well, we were working. But here are a couple of Todd showing off his new house skills.

mowing our 50 square foot lawn

With the evidence on his face

Some Smiles

2011-06-16T22:19:00.002-07:00

We don't catch her smiles very often because she seems to be intelligent and gets weary at the sight of the camera because we have flashed it in her face so many times. I wonder if that is why she has such wide eyes in most of her pictures. The bright light freaks her out a bit.

Lila at 4 Months

2011-06-16T22:04:00.004-07:00

So my grandma Faber loves to read the blogs of her grandkids. If you talk to her and it's been a while since your last post, she will certainly point that out to you. And if it has been a really long time, she will sometimes even send you a little email telling you that it is time to get yourself together and post something for her to read.

I love that she is so excited to learn about our lives. It is fun to know that there is someone who checks just about every single day to see if you have anything new for her to look at. I feel lucky that I am able to see her fairly often, but it is nice that she can catch up with things in between our get-togethers.

So the last time we talked she wanted me to give montly updates about Lila. So I will basically (meaning exactly) copy cat my sister Anna, and I believe Jasmine did this too for her kids until they were 1. Wish me luck in keeping up with this every month.

At four months Lila: laughs. cries less. rolls to her side. likes arching her back whether happy or sad. stopped taking her binky. holds things. starting to put things in her mouth. loves sucking on her fingers. spoiled rotten. pretty blue eyes. scratches whether or not her nails are long. likes having her diaper or clothes changed. fidgety. no longer screams during baths (sometimes is even quiet!) still likes driving, but not as much. loves being outside. occasionally sleeps through the night. Finally sleeping in her own room. wearing size 1-2 diapers. starting to grow out of size 3-6 month clothes. drools like a bulldog. blows bubbles.

Sold!

2011-05-29T20:44:00.003-07:00

In case you didn't know, we bought a house!!! Surprise! We moved to Orem on the east side of State Street. We bought a nice condo in a great neighborhood with a great ward full of great people. We live across the street from an elementary school and city park, and are equidistant from 3 different grocery stores! Our place is great and will allow us to grow while we are still here in Utah. We expect to be here probably anywhere between 3 and 6 more years. Todd has 5 more semesters of school, then he has to get some experience working as a nurse in the ICU before he can apply to CRNA schools. Since it can be hard to get a job in the ICU as a brand new nurse, it might take a while to get the required experience. And since I want to keep our kids pretty close together, we might have a few more before we leave! So while our 4 bedroom home currently has 2 unused bedrooms, I am pretty sure that it won't stay that way!

We love the new place. As we finish up our decorating we'll post some before and after pictures. We have made a few updates that have really helped us to love our new home and feel like it really is ours. Another plus is that our mortgage, insurance, HOA, and taxes is less then we probably would be paying for rent on a much smaller place and our "rent" can't get raised!

While there are many wonderful things about our beautiful abode, we have already experienced some of the pains of homeownership. We found a nice puddle of water about 4 days after we moved in, and it took more than 2 weeks to get the leak found and fixed. We figured out that the spot got wet when we used the kitchen sink, so we weren't able to do dishes for that entire time. Our kitchen was dirty and smelly and we couldn't do anything about it. We were glad that our home warranty covered all the work for a $60 project charge, but the plumber we were working with was terrible. He was rude, he wasn't prompt, he didn't call to let us know why he was late, he didn't ring the doorbell and then just left after 2 knocks, didn't bring everything with him to get the job done and had to come a total of 3 times to do everything. Then he left our dishwasher in pieces the last day and left without even saying anything to us. He also cut out holes in our wall downstairs for no reason as the leak was upstairs behind the dishwasher. Sorry if none of that was coherent but I am not happy and now face calling his company to see if I can complain about him and get someone different out here to help us put our dishwasher back together. And I am so bad at being confrontational and demanding things, but man this guy was ridiculous. Ok my soap box is done!

We still love our new house and look forward to sharing pictures!

Dread callings

2011-05-29T20:28:00.003-07:00

So in the church we have a wonderful system. Everyone gets assigned a job, and they do it as a volunteer. No one is in the same job their whole life, we get to switch it up and do things that are more or less demanding, involve different people, and are more or less visible to those around us. I think most people in the church have callings that they dream of and ones that they dread. My parents both happen to currently have the opportunity to fulfill their dream callings. My mom in the library and my dad as gospel doctrine teacher. While it was very demanding, Todd and I very much enjoyed his role as 2nd counselor in the bishopric. So we were excited when we moved into our new ward to find out what we would get to do. So Wednesday night we went over to the church and found out...... dread callings. For both of us.

I never imagined that it would happen to us at the same time. Completely separate callings, and we would gladly trade with each other. Todd was called as Weblos leader. When he first heard it he didn't even know what it was. He was raised as a city boy, and was never a boy scout. And there are only 2 boys (we aren't sure what age group this is for....) He says he can't even tie a knot, let alone teach a couple of boys about boy scout stuff.

And for me? Choir director. Even sitting in relief society while they make assignments I am terrified that they will ask me to lead the music. There have even been a few times that I have gotten out of it by offering to say a prayer instead. I am AWFUL. I love to sing, I can follow notes pretty well, but I cannot keep the beat when I try and lead. I find myself leading 3/4 halfway through a 4/4 song, and sometimes don't even keep the beat. And how in the world am I supposed to figure out who needs help just by listening to the people singing? I don't know how to make a bunch of people sound good? I am pretty sure we will have a very sad sounding choir. And it's even worse because the ward hasn't had a choir in about 2 1/2 years. Of course I now have all these visions of them canceling the old choir because it was so bad and no one came and now I am pretty sure people will still not want to come.

Well, another day another challenge! At least I can feel lucky that my challenge is both me and my husband facing weaknesses, rather than something more terrible like Lila getting really sick or one of us losing our job. In reality I suppose our dread callings are blessings in that sense. They won't actually cause our lives any physical, financial or terribly emotional pain. Wish us luck!

Gramma and Grampa Itri

2011-04-28T08:40:00.007-07:00

Sidenote- this is my 100th post! I think that is special or something.

So after a long tax season, Todd's dad (the accountant) had a break to come out to Utah to finally meet baby Lila. We always love it when Todd's parents come to town, surprise to the world they are great in-laws! Since they were finally able to make it out here we did Lila's baby blessing. Although Todd was released from the singles ward earlier this year, we haven't really gotten to know anyone in our new ward because we have mostly been taking turns going to church and staying home with Lila. Plus we are moving next week so the ward we are in now doesn't really feel like our ward. So we asked the bishop of the singles ward if we could bless her there, and he said yes! We were so excited to go back and visit and introduce everyone to our new little baby.

She looked so pretty!

Todd gave her a beautiful blessing. She did so good, crying until the meeting started, sleeping through until the blessing was over, then waking up to be difficult as soon as Todd sat down. And no poop or throw up on the dress even though she wore it for a few hours after church.

As an additional note, it was also special for us to be able to do something so sacred on Easter. While for a short moment I felt a bit guilty that we were taking a day about Christ and essentially making Him share it with our little girl, I later realized that by celebrating our baby and creating a membership record for her in His church, we were honoring everything He did for us. He died and was resurrected so that we could all live together as forever families. Without Him and His sacrifice, our little family would all be for naught. Because I know that Christ atoned for my sins and Todd's and Lila's and whoever else we might bring into this world, I know we can all be cleansed. And because he was resurrected, we will all one day have perfect bodies to dwell with each other in. We just have to make sure that we all make the right choices to achieve eternal life. What a special day.

Most of the rest of the time we just hung out with Todd's whole family (that is in Utah of course) so everyone could be with his parents. We really missed Rob, Stephanie and Reagan who are in Philadelphia with Brian, and Kyle on his mission. And as usual I was a poor picture taker but I did get a few.

Taxes

2011-04-18T14:44:00.002-07:00

I hate taxes. I don't even have to do hardly anything with them because my father-in-law is an accountant so we get reliable, professional tax-doing absolutely free! However, it doesn't come completely problemless. We finally got all our information to Todd's poor dad about April 9th. (Just so you know, we have to rely on some other people to get everything together, so it wasn't because we are lazy!) He mailed everything completed to us April 11th. It is now the 18th, taxes are due, and we have gotten- NOTHING!!! My mom is speculating that our taxes were mis-delivered to someone elses house (this is a common problem in our neighborhood and our neighbors name is Megan Farmer, which is very close to Megan Faber. We get a lot of her mail.) So now we have to file extensions. This is so annoying. Everything is done, we should only have to mail our taxes in one time if we were good enough to get it all done on time! I am sad.

Actors

2011-04-15T15:47:00.004-07:00

So I discovered some neat things recently. First, I watched a few episodes of Glee.

Then one night we were watching the office:

Totally crazy. Same guy. Whodda thunk?

We also like to watch community. Our favorite character? Well Abed of course!

But our very favorite show of all time is Gilmore Girls. We own all 7 seasons. And recently when watching them, we noticed that our good friend Abed had a few lines in an episode!

A Pretty Lady

2011-04-03T15:07:00.005-07:00

The Final Four

2011-04-02T20:06:00.001-07:00

As Todd was getting ready for the Priesthood session of conference today, he made the comment that it is a good thing that BYU isn't in the final four. I wonder if all those stake centers would have needed to set up all the extra chairs if BYU was playing tonight... boys.

Sick

2011-03-29T10:46:00.002-07:00

Lila is sick for the first time. She started coughing yesterday so we took her to the doctor to make sure she is ok. He said she has a viral common cold, so there is no medicine she can take or anything. It isn't too bad, she doesn't cough a lot, but it still is no fun for her parents. She sneezes a lot more and sometimes sounds really congested. Despite all this she has not been any more fussy than usual which is lucky. We sure love her and hope she gets better soon!

Mommy Neck

2011-03-23T17:08:00.002-07:00

I have learned that being a mommy comes with new aches and pains. One of them is that I don't really have anything to lean against when I feed Lila in the middle of the night so sometimes my back hurts. But lately I have noticed my neck is getting pretty sore. I guess that's what happens when all you do is look down at the beautiful little baby in your arms. I sometimes have to pry my eyes away just so my head doesn't fall off my neck. She's just so pretty and changing so fast I don't want to miss anything. I love her!

1 Month

2011-03-15T19:27:00.006-07:00

Lila has already grown so much. By her 3 day appointment she had already gained enough weight to get back to her birthweight, and by 2 weeks she had gained over a pound. She is wearing size 1 diapers. They are a bit big but we had so many blowouts with the newborn size we decided to upgrade her. We have taken pictures most days, but unfortunately missed her actual 1 month birthday. So here are a bunch of pictures, starting with the oldest and ending with the most recent. She is still beautiful!

Rainbow Chip

2011-03-07T22:28:00.001-07:00

So for my birthday my mom asked what dessert I wanted when celebrating with my family. I wanted confetti cake with rainbow chip frosting. On Saturday night I got a text from my mom-- "They have discontinued rainbow chip frosting. :( What do you want instead?" WHAT?!?! I don't understand how a company would ever want to stop making the best frosting in the whole world. that rainbow chip texture just adds the perfect soft crunch to any cake. It's WOW. My mom was actually lucky enough to find a few cans left in Harmon's (after being unsuccessful at 3 other grocery stores), so I now have my own can to eat on whatever I want (my cake was frosted with regular vanilla and I got to add some additional frosting to my individual piece).

This could be my last tastings of rainbow chip frosting ever. Does anyone know what I can do to make Betty Crocker change her mind?

A moment Long Awaited For

2011-02-23T19:20:00.002-07:00

In the many months waiting for Lila to arrive, I had a dress hanging for her in the closet. It was given to me by my good friend Lauren, who brought it over shortly after we found out we were having a girl. I saw it so many times in the closet and every time it made me so excited. And so on Sunday I dressed my little girl up in her pretty little dress, even though we didn't take her to church. She was our little precious.

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-23T19:13:00.004-07:00

This was a special Valentines day, as it was Lila's due date. We couldn't help but buy this cute little number for her. She is so adorable in it. We basically just shared the day together as a family. How much more love can you get than that?

Lila!

2011-02-18T21:51:00.002-07:00

Here are some pictures that my little sister Lauren took of Lila for us with her nice camera. We think they are pretty nice, but she hasn't even shown them all to us because she hasn't finished editing them yet. Pretty mean (hint hint Lauren!!!!!)

Lila pictures

Backtracking

2011-02-18T21:20:00.006-07:00

So, I know this probably isn't as exciting now, but here are some more prego pics from before little Lila's entrance!

36 weeks:

The night before Lila was born. We had gotten dressed up to go to Todd's friend's wedding reception, so we had my little sister Nikenzie take some pictures for us in one of the rare moments we both actually got ready!

One of the last days I worked I made a comment to Todd via text about how I wanted pistachios but didn't want to buy any because they were so stinking expensive, especially at the hospital. I came home to find this:

And this:

Todd said he was sick of me saying that I wanted things but wouldn't let him buy them for me, so he decided to go out and just get basically everything I had "craved" but abstained from. Notice the M&M's are already opened, it is because I couldn't resist opening something before I could grab my camera, it wasn't a previously opened gift from Todd (don't worry). If anyone ever wants to buy me a treat, take a tip from Todd because he hit the nail on the head with this one!

More Pictures of Lila!

2011-02-13T10:42:00.003-07:00

We sure love our little girl Lila. She's eating, sleeping, pooping, and screaming just great! We finally get to go home today, and we can't wait to finally get Lila home and into her own things. Oh and we are excited to leave the hospital as well.

2011-02-12T10:36:00.005-07:00

Lila Glenna Itri born at 5:44 PM, on February 11th, 2011. She is 6 pounds 14 ounces, and is 19 inches long. She is our new beautiful and healthy girl!!

Baby Shower

2011-01-16T22:30:00.006-07:00

My very good friend Aubrey from work was SO nice and threw me a baby shower! Some friends from work all came and we had a good time. The decorations were so cute! Thanks so much to Aubrey of course, and Debbie who helped plan the games and brought some treats.

We had a photographer change. Can you spot the difference in these 2 pictures?

So Debbie called it a "shopping problem," but that's actually not what she has. She is so sweet and selfless. She went to Walmart and went crazy. 2 big bags of gifts including a Boppy, a baby medical kit, clothes, toys, bottles, AND....... a gift card enough to cover the crib on our registry. Most of the stuff in this picture was from her. I pretty much don't even have words to say about our appreciation

Debbie's cute baby shower chocolate molds made these cute treats:

This one we dubbed "the creepy baby"

The table full of delicious treats, including Aubrey's amazing cupcakes (some of the best frosting I have ever had), and Wendy's out-0f-this world punch. The trick she says, is 43 melted marshmallows.

Some gifts turned into decor

Debbie winning the "take the string and guess how big Megan's tummy is" game

Thank you so much to Aubrey, Debbie, and everyone who came!!!

Two more bellies

2011-01-16T22:23:00.004-07:00

33 weeks:

34 weeks:

Congratulations to Jill

2011-01-16T22:08:00.006-07:00

Todd's aunt, a widow of 10+ years, got married the Wednesday after Christmas. It was nice because Todd's parents came out for the wedding and so we got to do a few things with them while they were here. The wedding was at the Joseph Smith Memorial building and I got to play the harp for the processional and part of the evening background music. Sadly because of the snow not all of Todd's brothers were able to make it, but we still had a good time.

Someone really smart decided to put little candles on the tables. There were definitely multiple napkins who met this same fate:

Bowling later with the fam:

Merry Christmas!

2011-01-16T14:01:00.002-07:00

For Christmas this year we actually didn't take a whole lot of pictures. We recorded all the present opening for future watching. We went to my parents' to watch my siblings open their presents and our own gift from our sibling christmas gift exchange. (which by the way Jessica and Matt had us this year and got us an adorable frog humidifier. We love it.) Then we came home and opened the rest of our presents together.

After that we mostly just hung out and relaxed for the holiday. Todd had done a bunch of cooking the day before, and finished up our 2 course meal of pasta and cornish game hen (if you remember, it seems the cornish game hen is becoming a Christmas tradition!)

Then back at my parents' we had the opportunity to hang out with some of my extended family and play some games. It was a very nice Christmas!

Consumed

2011-01-09T14:51:00.003-07:00

So I have found the past few days that all I can think about is Lila. I was laying on the couch the other day, daydreaming about the day I will get to see her, and I literally started crying with joy just at the thought of it. I know that a lot of that is hormones, but still it is just a small example of how excited I am. It is weird, sometimes after thinking about her I will tell Todd that I feel like I miss her, rather than feel anticipation to meet her. While I do feel some of the discomfort of pregnancy, I must admit I am extremely lucky. I am small for how far along I am and haven't had too many awful pregnancy symptoms. For some reason I think it hasn't affected me as much as it does most women. I was even able to get my contact prescription renewed which was almost exactly the same as 2.5 years ago (apparently most pregnant women have a different prescription than their non-pregnant state). So while I must admit I am getting mighty impatient for her to come, it isn't because of how uncomfortable I am. I could handle this a bit longer, I just want to start raising my little girl!

Belly

2010-12-25T17:47:00.009-07:00

So at first I was pretty good about taking weekly pictures. Then as I got bigger and the pictures got more exciting, I became more lazy. And more self conscious- I don't like to take pictures of my fat-ness unless I look good which doesn't happen all that often, plus I don't have the camera out every time I feel good enough for a picture. Sorry guys. Even posting some of these makes me a little uncomfortable, so please don't judge!

15 weeks:

16 weeks:

18 weeks:

19 weeks:

20 weeks:

22 Weeks:

23 Weeks:

Almost 28 weeks:

Work Christmas Party

2010-12-25T17:09:00.004-07:00

Well, we were popular this year on December 3rd. We were invited to our married ward Christmas party, and both of our work christmas parties. We chose to attend Todd's work party. Not only is it my alma mater of 5 years employment, but they were going bowling. No brainer. Here are a few pictures of us in our amazingness. Sorry they are dark. It was that cool black light kind of bowling.

You should know a bit about my talented husband. His first game I think he bowled 162 or something outta control like that. He scored well all day, I think we got 4 games in because Todd and I were lucky enough that our bowling partners didn't show up until the very end. All the other lanes had 4 or 5 bowlers while we just had us 2. I even did pretty well, scored over 100 every time! At the end the top prize went to the team with the most cumulative strikes. A team consisted of 2 lanes, so Shelly my sister also was doing pretty well and helped us to tie another team in strikes. Well, Todd and some other guy happened to be the two top scorers of the whole night. So they did a bowl off. Whoever bowled the best frame (one chance!) would win the grand prize for their team.

With tension high, Todd bowled a 9 and a spare. His competitor hit only 8 but got the spare. So Todd bowls again- strike. I thought we had it for sure. But no! STRIKE from the opponent. Then Todd gets only 8, so I thought it was over. But then we see a split- and the second ball goes in-between the 2 pins. Still a tie! Goodness this could go on all night! Todd then hit 9 and missed the spare, and the other guy got 9- but hit the last pin down. It was a pretty awesome showdown.

Little did we know, the grand prize was some box of chocolates (good, but come on. People get plenty of chocolates during Christmas and usually you only like a few of the flavors anyway). Second place each got a piece of Cheescake Factory cheesecake! So not only did Todd represent our team well, he also won us the better prize by losing! He must have known. What a smart guy.

O Christmas Tree

2010-12-25T17:01:00.004-07:00

Last year we were scrooges and didn't even get our own tree. Not this year! We went to Lowe's. (Yes, this phrase should mean to you what "He went to Jared" is portrayed to mean in the commercials. It means that we did the best, most awesomest thing ever in regards to Christmas trees). We picked out a tree that was on sale for $20- it was over 6 feet tall. I think we came out pretty much on top.

You'll have to wait to see the fully trimmed tree. I had work the next day so we couldn't decorated it yet. You'll see it when we talk about Christmas day!

Pasta Pig Out

2010-12-25T16:55:00.003-07:00

For the past few years, we have had a very fun tradition of getting together with Todd's family the night before Thanksgiving. Everyone brings a pasta dish to share. This year everything was especially yummy. Most of Todd's cousins were able to come too. I especially was excited to have Jon and Dani there, who have lived in Idaho as long as I've known Todd and just moved down here in September with their little boy, Linkin. It has been a lot of fun to have them around for family get togethers. Also J. Dee, who was visiting from Philadelphia. I sure like it when everyone can come! Unfortunately, I only came out with two mediocre pictures of the food. But know this, you are definitely jealous.

Turkey Bowl

2010-12-25T16:46:00.005-07:00

Todd played some flag football with our singles ward the Saturday before Thanksgiving. He was so excited! I wore green in honor of his team color so I could cheer from the sidelines. I think he really enjoyed it, even though it made him feel a bit out of shape. I would have played, but we have a very sporty ward and I didn't want to embarrass myself too much. Plus Todd yells at me if I even jump up and down because I might hurt Lila (true story.)

In this first picture, I capture Todd looking for me. It literally took him about 8 minutes to realize I was just sitting on the ground instead of standing up. Silly boy.

Making a game plan

Break!

Todd Makes the catch!

Next time they aren't so lucky!

Happy Birthday Todd!

2010-12-25T15:57:00.010-07:00

Todd's birthday in November was fun. As is our tradition, I had put a few things together for us to do that Todd would like and were a total surprise to him. Todd had school in the morning, so as soon as he got home we set off toward Salt Lake. Unfortunately, we had to turn around at about American Fork because Todd forgot his cell phone. I would have just told him to go without it ntil we got home, but we wouldn't be home at all for quite a while and I wanted him to be able to get his birthday phone calls. Lunch was at Tucano's, for which of course we used his birthday coupon making it a 2-for-1 deal. Still expensive, but at least manageable.

Then we walked around the Gateway mall since we didn't have time for my next activity. We were going to go bowling at the U of U, that would have cost $2 for parking $1 for Todd's shoe rental (I have my own!) and then only $1.50 per game. That's only $6 for our first game and $3 for each after that! Pretty good deal. But we didn't have anymore since it took us about an hour just to go back for the phone. So after some fruitless shopping for shoes for Todd (I had saved some birthday money so he could pick out his own), we headed for Sandy.

We went to Jordan Commons, where we walked up to the movie theater. I hadn't heard Todd talking about any movies he really wanted to see, and as early as I was planning and finalizing everything my only movie option was Harry Potter 7 (since it came out on the same day as Todd's birthday), so that's what we saw. I was afraid Todd wouldn't think it was so great, but it turned out he had actually wanted to see it! I was so happy. It wasn't as exciting as either of us thought it might be, so we are looking forward to part 2 with a little more action.

Todd blinded by the camera in the dark movie theater. (Don't worry, it was before the movie. we didn't disturb actual movie time)
After the movie we went to an indian restaurant for dinner. It is pretty much Todd's favorite way to eat out. It was a good place, we liked it. But we still think our favorite indian place is the India Palace in Center Street in Provo. Yum!

After that was the ultimate surprise! We drove just down to the next exit off I-15, and pulled into the Jim's Family Restaurant parking lot. Actually, we were pulling into the parking lot of the Hampton Inn, but for some reason all Todd noticed was Jim's. It made me laugh how long it took Todd to figure out where we were going. I had picked a hotel that had a pool so we could go swimming if we still had some energy, but we were both pooped. My wonderful and fantastic grandma Faber had done me a favor in delivering a pumpkin pie and whipped cream to the room earlier in the day so we could have some birthday dessert. We opened up the trunk where Todd found all his presents and our stuff for the night stay, and settled in. Then we opened presents! I think he liked most of them, I tried to make sure he would like them all.

The pictures are a bit hard to see, but he got some nice smelling candles, turkey jerky, some scrubs for school with the patch already sewn on the sleeve (Congratulations nurse Todd!) a tie rack (desparately needed, as shown by picture below), Glenn Beck's latest book, some socks (a gag gift, they were free since they were hand-me-down's from my little brother. Styles he doesn't like anymore. However, they are all in much better shape than the ones Todd was wearing!) and a knock off of rosetta stone for Italian. Todd considered using both his Christmas and Birthday money to get the Italian Rosetta Stone, but I found this awesome version at costco for about 30.00! We took a look at some of the features and I think it will be just about as great.

Just as a side note, Todd loves his ties and normally would never let this happen. However, since our church changed to 9:00 at the end of September and his meetings changed to 7:00 am, our hanger that had been just fine for 3 years just didn't cut it anymore. Now it was early and dark and Todd had much less motivation and time to make sure his ties all stayed on the hanger as he pulled off the one he wanted. The tie hanger I got him has proved to fix the problem!

After we opened presents Todd played with his rosetta stone knock-off for a while and looked at his Glenn Beck book a bit. Then we had pie!

Yummy! (Thanks again Grandma!) We both basically passed out after that. We must have had a long week. We enjoyed a hot continental breakfast in the hotel in the morning, then drove down to Orem in the morning for a ward Turkey Bowl. Ironically enough, I left my cell phone under the bed and we had to turn around and go back for it, making us late for the football fun. At least we found it!

Happy Birthday Todd, I love you!!!!!! (even though you are so old!)

People

2010-11-25T14:57:00.003-07:00

The thing I am most thankful for this year is people. There are way too many that have helped me with so many things in the last 12 months, and those that have been there for much longer. I don't know what I would do without so many wonderful people in my life.

My Mom. How can I not start with my own mother? There were, of course, times in my teenage years that I thought I "hated" her and wished she were any other kind of mother. But she loves me and all my siblings and wants the best for us. She has a lot of quirks and specifications that I don't understand and sometimes don't agree with, but as a mom she sure was the best kind for me. Always believed in me and knew I could do a good job but didn't let me slack off. She is the hardest worker I know, and I admire her for that.

My Dad. I feel like when I was younger I didn't really know my dad all that well. He was gone a lot and when he was home he was often tired. However, for the last several years (I think about 10 years now), he has become such an important part of my life. He is so gospel oriented and honest and I have learned so much from him. He is the other hardest worker I know.

My Grandparents. I have two sets of grandparents that happen to be around still. I am so grateful for them. They are always willing to help me out when I ask and happy to see me when the family gets together. I love them all!

My sisters. Well, bear with me as I have many. Jasmine: wonderful mother and role model as such. I love that no matter how long it has been since I talked to her or saw her, she is always so happy to catch up and find out what has gone on. I have even considered moving to Oklahoma just because she is there. Jessica: is unafraid to do what she thinks is best. I love her laugh and humor, and love how she expresses her own opinions while respecting others'. Anna: is so enthusiastic and so creative. I love when she cooks or sews or orchestrates anything- I always know it will be good. Shelly: a lot like me. Sarcastic but always willing to help out those she loves. Also extremely unafraid to show who she really is and never wavers in her self-identity. Lauren: I have loved hanging out with her lately. She is a complex teenager and I love to sit and talk to her and hear how her life is going. I know she will do great things in life. Nikenzie: smart and grounded. She is just starting to really grow up (13 in January!) but so far has still shown a great desire for anything that is good and right. I admire her for wanting to be good in such an evil world.

My brother. I guess he gets his own paragraph! I am so proud of him right now in the mission field. He is probably the most loving of us all. I always appreciate when he is excited for me over stupid little things that no one else cares about.

Todd's Family. The good ol' Itri's. It has been quite the adjustment getting to know the customs and habits of the Itri family, occasionally even shocking. But they are a wonderful family and I am so grateful for the things I learn from them and good people they are. Especially I am grateful for my mother-in-law, who sheltered me and took good care of my like my own mom before I was even engaged to Todd. I still am able to call her up out of the blue for any advise or anything else I need. I am also grateful for my sisters-in-law. Stephanie, who I wish I could see more often is an amazing mom, beautiful, and always makes me feel like she considers me part of her family. Lisa and Kelsey are both very different from me, but I have enjoyed getting to know them and learning a bit about their families as well. While it has taken some time, I hope that all of us are able to continue to become better friends and be a buffer for each other against the Itri testosterone.

Puddle. She has been a best friend since high school. I have learned so much from her. She is so strong and beautiful. While I don't get to see her nearly enough, I love every time we get together. I feel lucky to know her and her wonderful husband, Ryan.

Lauren Francis. That is not really her name anymore, but since I always called her that growing up to differentiate between her and my little sister, it is hard to make the switch to Lauren Billings. She was my first best friend in Provo, and has always meant a lot to me. We had a thoroughly bipolar relationship for about the first 8 years we knew each other, ranging from the bestest friends to short-term bitter enemies. But the last few years I have just appreciated her as a friend. She has been there for me and helped me stay young by playing Zelda with me like we used to. I am so glad we have ended our bipolarness and plateaued our relationship in a friends zone.

Christy. Best friend since 2nd grade. I can still call her any time for any thing, and I am so glad that her husband Jason and Todd get along so great. It has made for some really fun evenings and vacations. Christy and I are opposite in a lot of ways, and there are times when I wonder how in the world we ever stayed friends through the years. But I am so glad to have her in my life and for the person that I am because of her.

Miriam. She is in our singles ward and got me my job by giving me an amazing reference when she knew nothing about me. Since then we have become good friends and I love it when I get to see her and work with her. She is even nice enough to have picked me up and taken me home from work a few times. This is very helpful since Todd would have to do it otherwise.

Debbie and Aubrey and Chris. three amazing ladies that I also work with. They are all night shift workers, and I recently switched to working days due to being sick with child. I miss them all a lot, they became very good friends. Chris even got me a souvenir from her vacation, Debbie invited me to a party at her house (not to mention the millions of times she has helped me in nursing or started an IV on someone who had no veins), and Aubrey and I have been out shopping together plus she bought me Chik-fil-A because she knows I love it! One of the reasons I love my job so much is the great people I get to associate with.

Lila and her feet. I am so thankful for my baby girl. She is less than 3 months from officially being part of our family, and she is rambunctious. I say I am thankful for her feet because of all the sad stories I have heard since becoming pregnant about miscarriages and severe birth defects and even having to go to Puddle's son's funeral after a stillbirth. I don't know how any of those mothers are so strong, I don't know if I could handle anything going wrong with Lila. Every time she moves or kicks or does a full on dance recital for me I am so glad to know she is there. Because of her I get to be a mom- and there isn't a whole lot that I could be more thankful for.

Now that my novel is over, I just want to say thanks to all the other people who have been there for me. Even if I don't sit here and mention you by name, you have certainly had an impact on my life and I am very grateful for it. Todd doesn't get his own paragraph because I have already gone on and on about him a few times lately, but he is my other half and has become an appendage I can't live without.

Oh, and by the way, I think Lila is on a growth spurt right now which is the perfect time because I can eat more food now than I have been able to since I was dancing 25 hours a week! Go Thanksgiving food!

Some Fun Stuff

2010-11-06T14:47:00.008-07:00

Happy Homecoming!

I helped Lauren do her hair for her first ever school date-dance! I love being able to help my little sisters with fun stuff like this. However, it has made me realize that I am getting old. No, not elderly, just old. My older sisters used to come over and tell me that I was so cute and had such stylish clothes and that I should show them how to be so up-to-date. Well, at the time I thought this was extremely odd as all I did was go to the stores and buy clothes and apparently that made me "cute." All you have to do is look at other people to see what the trends are. Well, I pretty much have become frumpy. My favorite way to get dressed is out of Lauren's closet. I have been very good at washing and returning items and ask almost all the time so she will still let me do it. But now I see- she is cute and I am not and I now know how you can lose it. I would say the number one reason is that I have a husband who values clothes as basically nothing. He won't even let me buy him new socks even though his have holes in them! (Did I already mention this once? Can you tell it really bothers me?) When I was in high school I would go to the mall every few months and spend $100-$250 easily, now I am lucky if I spend $100 in a year! All my cute clothes are lost, worn out, or no longer cute. Ha ha maybe after Lila comes I'll try to be better at shopping sales so I can feel pretty again!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year was awesome. Trick-or-treating of course was on Saturday night since we live in Utah. I got to work Friday night, then again Saturday night, then a third on Sunday. So basically I got to stay out all night long every night over the holiday weekend! Too bad I didn't get to go to any parties, give away any candy, or dress up as someone else. Pretty sure that would have been even awesomer. Oh well. At least there was a night earlier in the week that Todd made some cookies while I carved a pumpkin! That was fun on our very small kitchen table.

Happy History!

So I couldn't really think of how else to say "vote" that started with an H. But I contributed to history on November 2, 2010!! I have had 2 chances to vote for national elections before this year, last of which was a presidential election. Each time I wanted to vote, knew it was good, but just didn't do it. So this time Todd and I actually looked at our little Utah voting pamphlet and went out to the polls! Hopefully this becomes a trend and we are good at voting in future years, plus even better at studying the candidates to vote for the best ones. We stuck our stickers on a door frame to remind ourselves that we did something good!

Money Woes

2010-10-24T18:27:00.002-07:00

So Todd and I set a pretty lofty goal for ourselves this year. We set an amount of money we wanted to save by the end of 2010. Well, if you don't know Todd, I will tell you that he gets very excited about things and often thinks he can do/things will turn out/we can end up with more than is reasonable. I think I was able to talk him down a bit, mostly by showing him how many more expenses we actually have than he thought we did. But he is so cute in wanting to save for the future. So we finally settled on a goal, though lofty, possibly attainable. Now we are nearing the end of the year. We have done fairly well I think. There have a been a few months that we didn't review our budget, but we revamped it when we paid off our car in August, albeit we did have to then add a new expense we dubbed "baby stuff," plus the new baby medical bills.

And as we strive to meet budget each month, we have done very well in the categories we have made. But things always come up. We need new tires. When we last got the oil changed, Jiffy Lube wouldn't even rotate them because then it would be a liability to them if one the smooth surfaces did something wrong (I don't know anything about tires, does that mean they are afraid it will pop? or just not drive well?) Anyway, with winter coming we are now facing a decision on how much we can spend, how many tires to buy (the front are completely bald and the back just close to it), and we aren't very much of tire experts. I just don't want to die in the snow. We also just changed our cell phone plan. We will actually end up saving a significant amount of money in the long run, but now we will have to pay cancellation fees on our old plan. I wouldn't mind so much if it was January, but we have just over 2 months to save up to our goal! I don't even want to talk about maternity clothes. Right now I basically just stretch out my normal ones. I don't want to buy a whole new wardrobe for 3 months of wear! And none of my sisters have ever been pregnant through the winter so I can't even really ask to borrow anything. Come on, 7 kids between the 3 of them and the latest was November, but he came out in Florida so not much need for a maternity coat or long sleeved shirt!

Anyway, the bottom line is we have been so blessed with what we have been able to accomplish this year. We have sacrificed a lot to get what we have, and we are oh so close to that elusive number! I think if we don't make it we can just blame it on Lila, and in my mind that is a pretty good excuse. Definitely a good reason to not quite make it. Plus we have already saved more than I thought we might be able to. Whether we meet our goal or not, I am so grateful to have had a job this whole year so we could actually put away towards it. So really, this blog should be titled "Blessings".

Diapers and Rain

2010-10-06T15:19:00.003-07:00

So we bought some diapers today. First diapers ever, but most certainly not the last. Today we spent $89 at Costco on diapers and baby wipes (using, of course, coupons for both). We have budgeted $100 per month until Lila comes to stock up on the goods. I guess we should probably use some of that money for carseats and such. We haven't spend Septembers $$$ yet and I think that's what it will go toward (a carseat I mean) if we can just make a decision. Sheesh how to you pick from 100,000 options! But we also want Lila to have a clean bum! It just feels weird to actually make that purchase....

It has been raining off and on the last couple of days. And I just thought you should know that I love it!!!!! The other night when I was making dinner I opened the big kitchen window because of the downpour and even with the feet of roof over the porch I still got a bit sprayed but the pouring water being pushed by the wind. It felt wonderful. I hope we have a few more days left in a desert rainy season.

It's A Girl!

2010-09-28T13:23:00.004-07:00

Currently, we know about our daughter:

Her name is Lila

Due Valentines Day 2011

She has 2 hands, 2 feet, 2 kidneys

a pumping 4 chamber heart

a brain!

a stomach

a face

likes to kick

Has a daddy who loves her so much he is worried about going to jail for killing some boy in about 16 years (not seriously killing, of course. But he's already protective of his princess)

Has a mommy who is thrilled and loves her like a mother loves her children :)

Is a precious daughter of God

Three

2010-09-09T21:58:00.013-07:00

August 1st. A beautiful day this year as it has been the last several. Todd and I started our anniversary the usual way, although we did actually have to celebrate on July 31st since the 1st was a Sunday. We got up in the morning and put on our Sunday best. The temple grounds were as beautiful as they were three years ago. I know a lot of people choose any temple except the Provo temple, citing the reason "It's ugly." However, I disagree. I think our wedding pictures turned out beautiful- though I must admit the grounds are much prettier now than they were before they were reconstructed. The flowers are brightly colored and the fountains add a serene atmosphere. Plus the symbolism of the building adds to the spiritual nature of whole experience. I admit it is a simple design, but I don't think it needs to be fancy. Anyway, enough of my soap box. It was wonderful to kneel across the altar from Todd and remember the promises we made together three years ago. It is one of my favorite traditions.

If you look in this picture (unless it's too small), you can see our reflection in the windows of the Temple:

Anyway, I wish you could see the pictures bigger, the colors are so vibrant. I think our pictures turned out wonderfully. I just thought I would prove how pretty my temple can be.

For lunch we ate at Mimi's, which is where our wedding luncheon was held. We also went there on our first date and always seem to enjoy ourselves when we go there.

We came home and relaxed for a while, then drove up to Park City, stopping along the way to catch the view of the lake. We drove around for a while, then ate at Jean Louis Restaurant. We were very impressed with the food. I was smart enough to order one of the specials that wasn't listed on the menu, but being a special I assumed it would be cheaper or at least within the same price range as the other dishes, so I didn't ask the price. Instead I spent $10 more than I would have on my second choice of a meal. Todd comforted me by telling me it was ok, I deserved something nice, and that we hadn't spent money on anything else so a few extra dollars was no big deal. He is so sweet. He got some "Les Escargots Classiques" which I of course did not taste. How do people eat snails anyway? However, Todd thoroughly enjoyed them so I was ok to watch.

My expensive steak:

Todd eating his tuna, which is the main reason we chose this restaurant. He wasn't disappointed.

I know I recently gloated about my husband, but what better time to throw out a few nice words than when talking about our anniversary. He isn't perfect. Sometimes he still drives me crazy with his procrastination or his seeming inability to keep anything picked up. But he tries. He works hard, and any time I tell him something I am worried about or struggling with, he does little things to make my life just a bit easier. I recently taught a lesson in my "Marriage and Family Relations" class about the role of mothers. I only teach every other week, and the week before was the class on Father's roles taught by a high council member. While I listened I was thinking about my upcoming lesson on Mothers. I almost started tearing up as I realized how much Todd had taught me about the role of being a woman and a mother.

I have struggled my whole life with wondering how important I really am as a girl, clouded by the millennia of the world's treatment of women as less than men. Even today with all of the women's rights stuff I still had a hard time appreciating my part as a woman. But that day I realized that I haven't really wondered about that stuff lately. For quite a while actually. And then I realized that the reason it hasn't been bothering me, is because Todd does understand the value and the role of women. One day he came home, so excited to tell me about a scripture about how "a virtuous woman is worth far above rubies" or something like that, implying that to him, I am worth much more than any precious stone. He gets somber and reverent when he tells me what a good mom he thinks I'll be, and how that is one of the things that attracted him to me most. His grades have gone from basically worthless before his mission to almost all A's, and he spends a lot of time and energy studying so that he will be able to provide for me- not because he thinks it's a woman's place to stay home as some might, but because he understands the eternal nature and importance of a mother's role in the home with her children.

In church we often hear about how women need to support the priesthood holders, and how while only men hold the priesthood, it couldn't have it's full power without the women's support. But what I realized more and more as I prepared my lesson, is how much we need the support of men to be able to fulfill our potential. I feel so lucky to have such a great guy that understands my responsibilities as a woman and helps me to see them myself. Who could ask for more than a husband who makes her feel not only worthwhile, but priceless.

Welcome Liam!

2010-09-09T21:48:00.001-07:00

We were able to welcome our newest nephew on July 14. Anna, the amazing woman, went all the way through labor without any intervention for pain. All I can say is how much I admire that kind of strength, seeing as I basically cry and almost pass out if I just have to get my blood drawn. Todd and I were fortunate enough to come visit the day he was born. He's adorable!

Fun Stuff

2010-09-01T04:29:00.001-07:00

Well, there has been some fun stuff going on in our families!

It is getting closer and closer to the time when Kyle (Itri brother #6) actually gets to leave for his mission. I bet it is hard to have to wait so long from the time you get the call and find out where you are going until you actually get to go. But now it is September he is officially leaving this month!

Shelly (Faber sister #5) has moved out and is on her own! As with all the Faber kids, she was forced to move into the dorms at college. I think she is happy with it though. Well, she isn't too excited about still having to go to school, but glad to get to start a new chapter in her life.

Lauren (Faber sister #6) turned 16! She has been talking about it and counting down for at least 56 days.... I think that was the first day she told me how long it was. Todd and I already almost crashed into her in my parent's driveway as she drove around all fancylike in her very own car! (which conveniently belonged to Shelly who moved out and lost that privelige only the day before). Happy Birthday Lauren!

Todd's cousin Jonny and his wife Dani have welcomed their first child into the world! Little baby Linkin is adorable from a picture standpoint, but I bet he is even cuter in person! I hope we get to meet him soon!

Anna (Faber sister #3) and Will moved back to Logan for Will's last semester of school! It must be so nice to be so close to finishing, and when he does he will have 2 (TWO) master's degrees! Go Will! And I suppose I should mention since I haven't had a chance to upload the pictures yet, but Anna also had her baby, Liam. That was a while ago and I still hope to post some more about it since we got to be there right after, but I don't want it to seem unimportant either!

Rob (Itri brother #1) got a new job at a really great place. He is assistant coach for the baseball team at.... A school in Pennsylvania? I forget which one it is. But the last several people who have held that position have moved on to bigger and better things, and that is certainly what we hope for in Rob's case. Yay Rob and Stephanie!

Dan (Itri brother #4) got into buisness school at BYU! So did Jason (Todd's cousin)! Congratulations to you both and good luck.

Jasmine (Faber sister #1) and Taylor recently bought a home that they think they can be in for several years. They got some help in moving from Shelly and I think they love it!

My cousin Heather just got married in the St. George temple. I am so proud of her. She has faced some tough times in her life but was able to ultimately come out with a great man (who is already a physical therapist) and the best possible start to a marriage. Congrats!

Well, I hope no one has been too sicekned by all the !!!!!!!!!'s. But there have been some pretty happy things going on around here lately. I hope I didn't forget anything else that is really big and exciting for our relatives. If so I'm sorry! Notice it is 4:30 in the morning and my brain just might not be working to hot right now. Adios!

Stuck

2010-08-07T01:13:00.002-07:00

So I need some advise from all you LDS lovin pals. I have mentioned before my friend, Maria from Philadelphia. Well, she actually passed away last year while we were there. Long and unlucky story, she went to the ER the day she came home from visiting me in Utah, and I didn't find out until I was in Philly after our cruise, and she passed away about an hour later so I didn't even have a chance to visit her. It was a really sad time for me.

Her funeral was very different than anything I had ever experienced. It was not quiet, and not very focused on Maria. It was actually a little difficult for me to sit through the whole thing.

Anyway, now it has been over a year since she passed away. On the 1 year anniversary of her passing, I called her mom to see how she was doing. After talking for a while, I told her a little bit about what I believe about baptism as a member of the LDS church, and wanted to know if I could have permission to do ordinaces for Maria in the temple. Her mom said she was confused about what I believe, and had let the missionaries come over a few times after Maria passed but didn't want them to come back right now to teach her more about it. I don't know what to do or how to explain to her why this is so important to me. Is there a good article or anything out there that explains why it is so important for us? Maria was baptized when she was 12, so her mom doesn't understand why and/or how I could do it again for her. I have been wondering and worrying about this for a while now, and I know the longer I wait the harder it will be. She sounds like she just doesn't understand why I would want to do it. Maybe if she could then she would let me.....

The Faber's Come to Town

2010-07-26T11:06:00.009-07:00

At the end of June all my sisters and their families came out and we were able to spend some time together. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of most of the things we did. We mostly catered to all the little chillens. Activities were planned around naps and bedtimes, and we did a lot of things that they would enjoy like the Children's Museum in Salt Lake, Toy Story , the Princess Festival for the little girls, and lots of swimming in the parent's new pool that was built especially for little kids (about 4 feet deep at the deepest spot). It was a lot of fun to see how much fun the kids were having.

One of my favorite parts was getting together with the adults to play some games. It is always fun to remember how much I enjoy being with my big and little sisters. To bad "brotha" wasn't able to be with us, we missed him. There was one night we did more of an adult night, some of us went to play on a ropes course and go canoeing. I was very impressed because Todd actually participated! He had sworn to me a few years ago that he would never go on a zipline for his fear of heights. He has made leaps and bounds since then! Although he was hesitant, he even climbed the pole to get up to the place where you get to zip down. We hadn't realized before that you would have to do the climbing on your own, instead of walking or hiking to some platform. He even tried out the climbing wall without any encouragement. He sure is impressive!

Brayden getting all harnessed up!

Todd at the top ready to zip

Jessica gets her feet in the air

Taylor was the first to make it to the top

Todd and his bravery

After the ropes we put our cameras away to protect them from water in case our canoes tipped. Our guide took us halfway to the river and pointed the rest of the way. He told us to replace the canoes the way we found them when we were done, that we could go about 1.5 miles uprivier or 1 mile downriver. However, if we were to go downriver we shouldn't go into the lake because it is too shallow and can be dangerous. In fact, someone died by doing that only 3 days before. Then he told us to have fun and took off! He didn't even walk us to the canoes! We were a little bit shocked, and decided to head upriver.

We also spent a day at Trafalga. The kids loved all the arcade games and mini golf. A bunch of us also raced around on the go carts, and Todd and I did some batting practice. We seemed to gravitate mostly around the "Deal or No Deal" game, where we won 100 or 200 tickets a couple of times. It was pretty fun.

I'm glad everyone had such a good time. Of course there were times that it was hard to agree on what to do with so many people and schedules and opinions, but I quite enjoyed my time. I am never sad when I get to see the ones I love the most!

One night when Playing Yahtzee, both Matt and Will accidentally dropped their remaining dice in the cup- which ended up being their drinking cups!

Grandma with Great-granddaughters Mikayla and Kylee

Hi Reese!

Ellie playing mini golf

Adam with his aunt Lauren and Grandpa Faber

Oh Boy

2010-07-20T23:51:00.002-07:00

So when Todd and I were not even engaged, but very close to it, we were already talking about baby names. We picked out a name for our first girl- Lila. It is the name of my grandmother, whom I love and adore and admire. Plus it is a beautiful name. I can just picture this little girl with her hands behind her back, twisting back and forth, with her head down but her eyes peeking up at you answering "Lila Itri" when someone asks her name. A cute little shy gal with the perfect name.

Unfortunately, with boys we aren't so lucky. Although yes, we have been married 1 week shy of 3 years and have no kids to actually have to worry about this, we have discussed many, many times boy names. We cannot agree. EVER!!! It is awful. Todd really likes traditional names like James or John or Nick (after his dad). I personally don't have specific favorites, but I would like to choose a name that is a little less traditional. It is made additionally hard by the fact I can't even give you an example- I guess I don't really like boy names in general, so who knows what will happen when we actually have to pick one.

However, Todd has recently set his heart on Joe. He has also decided that Lila's middle name is Glenna. You see, Lila is my grandmother and Glenna was Todd's. They both have similar life-stories and were wonderful role-models as far as faithfulness in church goes. I wouldn't mind it so much if it didn't cause alliteration, but the two "uh"s so close together are not so pretty in my opinion. But back to Joe. Glenna's husband (and therefore Todd's grandfather)was Joe. And Lila's husband was Dorian. So we played around with the idea of Lila Glenna and Joe Dorian, after our grandparents. (My other set of grandparents already have grandchildren named after them, and Todd's other grandparents- well, while we love them we aren't so hot on their names. I know, I apologize if that seems extremely rude.....) But to make up for it, I am not totally sold on Joe, either. In general I would never consider it. But as a family name.... maybe.

Girls Night Out!

2010-07-17T21:08:00.002-07:00

Last night the single's ward had a Relief Society sleepover. All the ladies got together, made home-made Cafe Rio style salads, played games, watched a chick flick, went to bed, and made breakfast together. I felt a little shy about going but ended up having a really fun time. Todd made pasta for dinner, so I ate at home and went a little late (I pretty much LOVE pasta). I got there just as they were finishing up volleyball. We then played a game that is really similar to Mafia. It is an actual game that you buy, so each game the card you drew was totally random. The setting was a little town with warewolves eating all the people. I actually quite enjoyed it, although in about 6 or 7 games I was never a warewolf but I got accused almost every time, and killed a few times for it. I did get a chance to be a few other cool characters, including a witch 3 times. When I got that card I was able to either save the person the warewolves attacked, or kill someone else of my choice. I could only do each once per game, so it was hard because you don't want to waste your powers, but you want to use them before you die too!

We then hung out and played some other games, then watched Leap Year (is that what it's called?), which I liked until I thought about what a bad idea it was for the two main characters to get together. They had only known each other for a few days, and they had been a very hard few days with a lot of trials to go through. OF COURSE you are attracted to someone you have gone through that kind of stuff with! But will they actually like each other in real life? Probably not! Get real! Anyway, there are plenty of movies where that happens, but for some reason it stuck out to me in this one. Oh well!

I decided not to stay the night because I already spend at least 3 nights a week away from home, but I quite enjoyed my time hangin out with the ladies!

Happy

2010-07-13T20:54:00.002-07:00

So, life is good. Here are a few bits and pieces of my life that have been going on that are too little to be their own post, but maybe will be more interesting all together.

Work is great. For some reason lately when I think about going, I dread it, but once I get here and get going, I always remember why I love being a nurse. Sometimes the nights are hard, and it is especially difficult when my patients are grumpy, but usually I am able to at least make them a bit more comfortable so they are ok. I also am getting better at calling the big MDs. I used to get so nervous I would say way to much or not enough and was yelled at a few times. While I still get pretty anxious when I call, I have much improved in my approach-which has made the docs and me a lot happier!

I pretty much think Todd is the greatest. Of course he has always been great, but for some reason the last few months he has just been absolutely amazing. He is so sweet and thoughtful and really helpful with all the housework that needs to be done. I know a lot of other people brag about their husbands, so I want to put in a a nice little plug for my sweetheart.

I have a new calling in the singles ward. Ready for this? I am the marriage and family relations sunday school teacher. It is a bit nerve racking. The first week I tried to just get people to be more open to hearing about marriage. The bishopric asked a few specific people to attend the class, so I am not so sure that everyone wanted to be there. I was hoping to get across that the class is not about pushing everyone to get married right away, but to help them keep an open mind so they are prepared when it eventually happens. I hope I do an ok job. This week the topic was keeping love alive in marriage, of which intimacy was part of the topic. I was extremely nervous for the lesson, but decided to simply talk about it in a straightforward way instead of treating them like babies that weren't mature enough. I think a lot of the people appreciated the lesson, and I only noticed giggling once the whole time. I hope people keep coming to the class!

The End

Hypocracy

2010-07-07T01:52:00.003-07:00

Did I spell that right? Anyway, many nights I am at work and all my patients want to do is sleep. Come on, doesn't anyone need anything at 3:00 in the morning? Well, sometimes the answer is yes, but sometimes I just have to sit around and twiddle my thumbs. I often check out all the blogs of my friends and family, only to be disappointed that no one has updated since my shift the night before. So I whine and complain to myself that no one posts enough. I have several post titles memorized from clicking on people's blogs and seeing the same line over and over and over. Come on people I need something to read in these wee hours!!

But then again, how much do I share? Sometimes I get a sharply written email from my grandmother pointing out that I haven't posted anything for quite some time. I just don't ever know what to write unless I am telling a story around or describing a picture. I don't know if I have any general thoughts worth sharing- I usually just post about things that we have done, which often isn't that much or isn't really interesting enough to write about. So I just whine and complain about how OTHER people don't bother to share enough.

I am trying to be slightly less hypocritical tonight, so I decided to share the thoughts on my mind. I hope no one thinks less of me for my hypocritialness.

Familglia Itri

2010-07-01T09:32:00.009-07:00

At the end of May Todd's whole family came out to Utah to visit. It is always fun to see everyone together. We are pretty bad at taking lots of pictures, but managed to get a few. The trip has been planned for a while because Todd's youngest brother, Kyle, is going on a Mission soon. His birthday was yesterday, but we planned the trip before so that we could make sure we caught him before his MTC date. As it turns out, he now isn't leaving until September, but there was no way we could have known that. He is going to the Quito Ecuador mission.

We all had the opportunity to go through the temple with Kyle for his first time. What a blessing it is to see a family together for such an occasion. I love times like this that you can really see the hand of the Lord in blessing the lives of those who live according to his example and strive to be like Him, especially in keeping families close. Todd has one brother, Brian, who is down syndrome and not able to go through the temple with us. However, the officiator in our session was "Brian Geoffrey", which happens to be Brian's EXACT name. Such a tender mercy from the Lord.

The rest of the time we spent visiting extended family, eating lots of food, taking family pictures, and of course playing volleyball and softball on memorial day. The ladies even spent some time AWAY from all that testosterone, which was a nice little break.

The fancy feast for ladies only:

Brian in his new hat:

Grandma Johnson with Crystal:

Todd playing with Reagan:

This is Seth at Kyle's mission call opening a few weeks earlier:

Don't we have such cute nieces and nephews?

The whole family:

Look Unto Christ in Every Thought... Doubt Not, Fear Not!

2010-06-03T12:49:00.002-07:00

This was the mantra of one of my favorite seminary teachers. One of the nice things about living in Utah was being able to take seminary during school instead of early in the morning, and having lots of great teachers. While I know there are a lot of great teachers that are called in other places to teach early morning seminary, it was nice to have teachers that were able to dedicate most of their time to teaching and planning their lessons. This particular teacher was very creative and effective in teaching, and I still remember some of the things we did in his class. One of them was the above phrase. Every single day at the end of class as we were all leaving, he would shout (depending on how loud we were as we were getting up to leave) "Look unto Christ in every thought!" and the class would respond with "Doubt not, fear not!" (reference Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). I also remember taking a challenge to do baptisms for the dead on a specific week, I went with my friend Kate Griffiths who was in the class with me.
Why do I bring up such a random, specific thing? I got a letter in the mail today. My own handwriting had written the address, and the return address was for "Bro. Mortensen." We called him Morty for short. Anyway, here is what was inside. There are a few errors, but hey, I was a kid! Try double clicking to make the images bigger:

"Youth Conference 2002"

"Me & My dance team in Cali!"

"In the car on the way to Cali"

"School picture 2002-2003"

Evil MOLD! oh, and Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-23T03:59:00.001-07:00

So this year for Mother's Day Todd and I decided to do something special for both my mom and for us (sounds selfish, I know). but how many people make some really nice improvements on a rental property, eh? Not that many. So on Monday morning we drove to Lowes to check out some laminate flooring. We picked out this really pretty oak laminate that has glueless installation, which of course was also the best price except for maybe the stick on kind. It was on sale. (For those of you who know my mom, you should know that she always likes her presents more if they were on sale). So we got home and Todd got right to ripping up the old, VERY ugly linoleum that has probably been in that kitchen for 60 years.

Well, at first all went well. The linoleum was only attached on the sides where it went up the wall a little bit, so the bottom was a cinch to pick off. But then we saw it. Mold. I didn't act too worried, but really inside I was freaking out a bit. I was worried that we would have to tell my mom so she could pay a professional to clean it up, then she would get mad since she just spent a bunch of money refinishing her hardwood floor and getting tile laid in the kitchen. I had work that night so I spent my extra time while patients slept looking up mold cleanup and when to call a specialist. We really wanted to get this done by Sunday.

Later in the evening I called Todd to tell him of my concerns and my research. Well, he let me go on for a bit, then told me I didn't have to worry about it. He had gone to the Home Depot and bought mold cleaner/remover, and had cleaned the whole floor already. I told him I was still a little mad because I was worried about his health being so close to it, only to be told he also wore a mask, gloves, and goggles. Wow. Sometimes the amazingness of my amazingly amazing husband just amazes me. :) I was shocked. Tuesday he went back over the whole floor with bleach just to make sure all was well. Then I did it again on Wednesday just for good measure.

Notice the linoleum that was there before- just so you know, it looks dirty in the picture, but that is how it looked right after mopping. Yuck!

So once we had all of that mess taken care of, we laid down the underlayment for the floor. It is anti-mold and keeps moisture from coming up from below. It was sometimes a bit frustrating to try to get all the wrinkles out of it, but I think we did a pretty good job.

Once we had all that down, it was time to start laying the laminate wood. The first piece we did was around a doorway, and took us about 2 hours to complete. That was a little discouraging, as we had hoped to lay down the whole floor in one day. Luckily the first piece that we cut really bad ended up being usable in another section of the floor that we had to cut the pieces lengthwise, so at least we had that goin' for us.

We suckered Nikenzie into helping us cut some wood when my parents left her to us to watch while they were at Lauren's ballroom concert. All she had to do was help the clamp keep the wood in place and hold a flashlight. As a 12 year old, she complained a lot while we attempted to break child labor laws, but didn't fail to take credit later during the big reveal.

Some of our fine handywork:

Things were plugging along really well, but went exponentially better when Anna and Will came to town. Will had helped place laminate flooring before, and having three people along the length of the room to "click" in each row made the goings much, much easier. The room came together quite well.

Nope, we are not smart enough to get pictures of my mom seeing the new floor for the first time. Sorry.

So at our awesome ward, the Elders quorum has some sort of reward for the guy who has the coolest moment of the week. It is sort of a trumped up version of a "good news moment." Todd said that he had been trying to win the reward, a trophy the man gets to take home for the week, since it was introduced a few months ago. He said he had to do some persuading, but ended up winning the award for laying the floor down for my mom.

Change

2010-05-11T00:39:00.007-07:00

So on Sunday Todd was sustained as part of the new bishopric of our singles ward. We have been waiting long months to find out if we would be released with the new bishop or if we would get to stay our full year assignment. We are pretty much distraught that we don't get to stay longer. We absolutely love it. No offense to the married student ward, but I am not very excited to go back in October. It is just too much fun to be where we're at.

I thought a lot about how crazy life is and how things work out. Way back last April Todd and I found out we had to move out from our amazing apartment because it was being sold. I was really excited to look for a new place. Not long after we found out we had to move, we found out that the people living in the "little house" at my parent's were moving out sometime in the fall/winter. My parents sort of have 2 houses on their lot and they let people stay there in exchange for doing chores as "part of the family." Todd and I really felt we had to consider this as an option, and eventually felt very strongly that we needed to make the move. We ended up moving in mid-August.

The first month of church in our ward we missed 2/4 Sundays. We were called as Sunday school teachers, and I taught 1 class while Todd was out of town. The next week we were transferred down to the singles ward.

About a month after got there, a girl that I didn't even know yet heard I was looking for a job as a nurse. The next day she called me and gave me her managers phone number at UVRMC, and when I called him he said he was just about to call me. In my interview he told me he was going to offer me the job, and I had been very highly recommended (mind you, the only thing I had ever said to this girl was "yes, I am looking for a job as a nurse"). Now I am in the best starter job I could ever imagine and Miriam and I are great friends.

These are only a few of the things that we have noticed that have allowed us to have this opportunity and that have been blessings because of it. Todd was released and re-called under the new bishop, so he got to be set apart again. I love to hear him being blessed to be able to improve in his calling and at home. My favorite part of the blessing was when the stake president said that Todd would be a "good boy." What a simple yet wonderful blessing. He is, of course, already a good boy, but what a blessing to watch an unseen hand change our lives and ourselves so much.

For me, I am mostly in the background. But I just love to watch Todd interact with the ward members. They all love him. One time he looked at me from the stand during a talk in sacrament meeting, and mouthed to me "Wake up!" I was extremely offended (jokingly so), as I was not sleepig nor had I even been closing my eyes. He justified himself later by saying no one saw, but oh was he wrong. I had to assure a few people that I do NOT sleep during sacrament meeting.

I have read a few of the articles the stake has had bishoprics read and been able to see him integrate the counsel and goals of the stake presidency in teaching and example for the ward. I love to hear his testimony so often and see how willing he is to come to meetings at 7:00 a.m., stay for meetings all the way until church at 1:30, then offer to count tithing to allow the 1st counselor to go home, even when it is not Todd's turn. I think his only complaint is that he can rarely eat the food at munch and mingle because it is too unhealthy or the spagetti is overcooked or it is just something he doesn't eat like red meat. Other than that (I feel bad stuffing my face while he sits there hungry since he hasn't eaten ALL day), we would both be happy to stay in the ward as long as we live in Utah.

Writer's Block

2010-04-29T01:48:00.002-07:00

So I have been trying to think of something cool to write about. I suppose my life is pretty boring. I don't really have anything to say, and no picture to speak of. I suppose I could chat about how Nikenzie and I finished Donkey Kong Country II on Tuesday, with a 102% completion rate. It was awesome. We just had time to turn on DKC III and Nikenzie just about cried at how "ugly" the new Kong character is. She basically begged me to never make her play him. I told her to bad! We will switch off to make it fair.

Todd finished up his finals today (as in Wednesday), but he still isn't feeling relief because we have to see what his final grades end up being. I'm sure he did great, he has worked really hard and had a really tough semester.

The peas in our garden have sprouted! I wish spring would stick around for more than a day at a time.

We FINALLY got internet working on our new computer in our house. We have been able to hook up our really old, really slow computer to the cable, but for some reason our new computer we bought last September never worked. My amazing (yet tardy) daddy came and gave us WIRELESS!!!!! We thought even when it worked we would have to plug it in, but we don't. I'm thrilled.

Pickles eat chocolate!

Random

2010-04-09T12:22:00.008-07:00

Shelly in her gray hitler stach:

(p.s. my mom paid a whopping $0.25 for this, and wanted to return it when she found out it wasn't black or barbell. However, it is difficult to return items to a quarter machine)

I defrosted my mom's freezer:

For Spinal Interventions (my old and Todd's current workplace) Christmas Party (I know, WAY long ago), we went to the Jazz Game and got box seats. At the beginning of the game we went down, split into 2 groups, and hi-fived the players as they ran onto the court. Unfortunately, the boss, owner, and entire reason the rest of us were there got stuck hi-fiving the OTHER team, while Todd and I got lucky with the Jazz. See his disappointment:

Well, I suppose you can better see his disappointment in the attitude of his 3 daughters who got dragged to the wrong team with him

Photo shoot

2010-04-09T12:14:00.003-07:00

So my good friend Lauren Billings is starting a new awesome hobby of picture taking. She even has a way nice camera and one of those huge fold up light reflector/light blocker circle thingies. To practice, she took pictures of her little sister and some of her friends, including Nikenzie. I went along to hold that big circle. I also got a few shots myself. Note that I am not the master poser, Lauren is the one who came up with all the locations and stances for the girls.

The pro stance:

West Side Story:

I like shoes? This one was mine....

Nikenzies new apology card cover:

Sacrificing for the shot:

Old Birthday

2010-04-09T12:03:00.005-07:00

So, Nikenzie turned 12 this January. She had a late birthday party that Todd and I helped chaperone with my Dad. She went lazer tagging and before the session she and her friends were able to play glow-in-the-dark mini golf. Even though this was a few months ago, I really liked the pictures so I thought I would share a few. Although they are a bit dark, if you look at them you can see some of the neat stuff.

The Birthday girl:

Nikenzie and her classmates playing with a whale:

Megan running away from the shark:

I got away, but Nikenzie wasn't so lucky. Good thing she has such a good friend (Maranda) to try and save her:

Notice the frightening clown playing lazer tag with the kids:

Girls and Gardens

2010-03-27T22:11:00.004-07:00

So basically the last 3 weeks have been catching up even more on life. I have had a pile of stuff in the living room that needed to be taken care of- and miraculously has gotten smaller faster than it has grown! Todd and I tried to get rid of one of the small annoying ones- I coupong to get new windshield wipers that we desparately need, but showed up 10 minutes after closing time. We'll have to try again next week. I have also kept up on the dishes and picking up junk pretty well too.

But the funnest was that Anna and Reese came and stayed with Mom and Dad for about a week. It was grand. And they would even come over in the mornings and play Donkey Kong with us. And by the way, I think Anna is better than both of us. That made it even better. And of course Reese had some turns as well (she would hold one controller, and whenever the other person died we would tell her it was her turn and she would trade us for the now useless one. She loved it.)

Todd and I started the garden today! We spend the morning in bed watching TV since I am at work tonight and we aren't able to do anything together. When we got up and were eating lunch at my parents', my dad asked if we would plant some peas and beans. And we were thrilled to do it! we went and got some seeds, raked the garden a bit (the soil there is already pretty good) and dropped in the peas and beans! Todd is really looking forward to beans in his salad and I want to crunch on those sugar snap peas. Once we harvest them we will plant a million tomatoes, including many cherry tomatoes. Then we will make a bunch of pasta sauce and bottle it, so my mom can stop buying the gross store kind and we can eat Todd's amazing kind all winter long, without as much work. Sounds great to me!

Progress

2010-03-03T00:41:00.007-07:00

So after working the night shift for a bit, I started to get kind of lazy. Even if I hadn't worked for a few days I would still sleep in until 11:00 or later sometimes. I was having a hard time motivating myself to to much besides sleep, eat, and watch TV. So I have done two things to motivate myself.

#1: I have started making myself a "6 most important things to do" list. I learned about this in Mary Kay. Make a list of the 6 things you absolutely must get done in a day. Then make a list of other things you can do if you have time. I has really helped motivate me, and I have made a lot of progress in cleaning and organizing my house and my ever mounting stack(s) of paper!

#2: Playing Donkey Kong Country II. Yes, that's right. Playing Nintendo has made me a lot more productive. How? I knew you would ask. Well, I have this awesome little sister named Nikenzie. She is a morning person, and she also likes Nintendo. So on mornings that I didn't just get home from work, she comes over around 7:00 a.m. and we play Donkey Kong for about an hour before she goes to school. It gets me up and then I can start my day. I know, I'm genious!

Nurse Megan!!!

2010-02-20T02:25:00.003-07:00

Wondering where I have been? I have been saving lives as a brand new nurse! I got a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on the Medical, Renal, Progressive Care Unit (long names, I know). Our top three diagnoses that we take care of are renal failure, stroke, and drug overdose. However, as a medical floor we pretty much take anything. I work three times a week, 6pm to 6am. Many people have asked me how in the world I am able to work throught the night. Well, when I get home I try to sleep 8 hours as much as possible. And the day before I work I try to take a 2 hour nap. And I just have had to get used to it. It really isn't so bad only 3 days a week.

And the number one reason I am able to work at night is because I LOVE BEING A NURSE. I don't care what time of day it is, if I am nursing I am happy. Plus if my night is busy (which most are), I don't have time to be tired. Here are some patient quotes that might help you see why I like this so much:

"I'm so glad you got me instead of some other little old lady"
"{long, dramatic, depressed sigh}" (after telling the pt I wasn't coming back the next night)
"I'm not sure if I feel better because my meds are working, or if it is because you are being so nice"
"We can tell you got in to nursing for the right reasons"
"I know I need to call you if I need something" (as opposed to "I'm so sorry to bother you"
"I'm starting to feel happy"

How can you not like a job when you hear things like that every time you come to work? I even saw in the break room today my name showed up on the first thank-you card from a patient. What an honor. I just feel so lucky to be able to come here and make people's horrible experiences in the hospital a little less horrible. And more than that, I am lucky that I even like what I do. If anyone knows me, the last option on my list of careers was anything in healthcare, and I didn't even know what was included in a nurses job description until I was over halfway done with the program. How I ended up diving blindly into something that turned out to be so perfect for me I don't know. For those who don't know, a brief synopsis of my desicion:

After my first year of college I figured I was pretty close to getting an associated degree in something, so I visited a college counselor. He told me all I needed was a health class to get an AS in general studies. He looked at my transcript, scolded me for having no focus in my classes, and told me I should go into healthcare, specifically nursing because I had good grades. I was extremely offended by this, as I had fainted several times just looking at needles, and went queasy if anyone even said the word "blood." I came home and whined to my dad about this incompetent counselor. He asked me why it was so outlandish to consider such a career. I said "Dad, you know me! I couldn't handle it!" He calmly, simply said, "you would get used to it." I remembered a story he told me about when he passed out in medical school. So within the next minute, I decide I would apply for nursing school at UVU, as I had heard it was a good program.

I spent a year on my prereqs, got in my first try, and here I am. Nurse Megan. I am by no means highly competent in my clinical knowledge. That will come with time. I have to ask multiple questions every shift, and stumble on the phone when I talk to doctors (especially the mean ones). I still have to look up all my meds before I give them because I hardly recognize any of them, and don't even know what all the procedures are for. Doesn't matter. I look things up, I ask, and I will learn.

Gosh I love being a nurse.

Back to High School

2009-11-14T17:46:00.004-07:00

I have to say, my life just keeps going backwards. First I revert to before I was married, and now I've reverted all the way back to High School!

My little sister, Lauren, is in Africa with my dad. She will be missing a few weeks of school. She went to school on Thursday, then she and my dad left for Kenya on Friday morning. She happens to have Chemistry with my old teacher, that I loved. She also had homework that needed to be turned in. So, I decided to do my little sister a favor. On Friday morning I got dressed out of Lauren's closet. I wore her shirt, her jeans, and her shoes. Then I parted my hair on the side she parts it on (we normally part it on different sides). Then I got her homework and her backpack. I went to work for a little while, then left in time to get to Lauren's school before chemistry started at 10:25. I met up with her friend Mayson in the hallway, and walked with her between classes. Lauren had drawn me a picture of where she sits in Chemistry, so I just went in, sat down, and pulled out Lauren's homework.

Class started, and it was just the same as it was 7 years ago. Different kids made announcements, then Mr. Shelton asked if anyone had a funny joke to share "I recall that 'laffy taffy' jokes are not acceptable". When he announced, however, that he was out of candy, no one volunteered. He then answered some questions about the homework. They had just learned to balance equations. Then it was time for the quiz. I folded Lauren's homework so I couldn't cheat (the class all was doing the same thing), and wrote "THIS QUIZ WAS NOT ACTUALLY TAKEN BY LAUREN FABER" at the top. Then I proceeded to balance the 4-5 equations. I turned in the quiz with the homework.

Then the lecture started. I just sat there for a minute, not sure what I should do. Then I decided that I better take notes. So I got out Lauren's notebook and a pencil. I noticed a boy in the front row looking back at me, and mouthing to the girl I was sitting next to "Is that really Lauren?" I gave him a funny look. A minute later he whispered "Lauren!" to which I looked up at him. He asked if I had cut my hair or something. I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. Then I went back to my notes.

The girl I sat next to was really nice. Her name was Aubrey. We chatted a little, and I told her where Lauren really was. I was just enjoying my time there, and wishing I could take Chemistry from Shelton again. We were talking about combustion reactions, and how they always produce carbon dioxide and water. Then Shelton called on me. "Faber. If combustion reactions are always occurring within our bodies, why do we need to drink water?" From the front row I heard a quiet "it really IS Lauren!!!!" from a bewildered classmate (that was my favorite part). So I answered "Because we need more?" And Shelton continued with the lecture "Because we need water for a LOT of things." Awesome, I got it right.

I did notice during the class that a lot of people were looking at me funny. Another kid from the back row also called out "Lauren" to see if I would look. Which I did, and I waved back at him. It was great.

After the lecture, everyone was doing their homework out of the textbook. Shelton was passing out some paper to go with their next lab. I raised my hand when he was by my row and asked if I could go to the bathroom. Shelton asked what happened to me, and I told him I got plastic surgery. Then I told him I really just wanted to say hi and turn in Lauren's homework for her. He asked if I remembered anything, and I said I was excited that I did. He then said "well, this is really easy stuff." Ah yes, the most cynical and demeaning teacher I ever had. Somehow he was also the most encouraging one. Somehow the subliminal message behind his coarse words really shines through. I then told him that he should probably not actually give Lauren points for the quiz and he said "Why not? She was here, I saw her take the quiz." Again, one of my favorite teachers. At that point I decided the game was over and I needed to go back to work. Pretty much everyone was staring and talking as I got up to leave. Everyone was wondering who the heck I was. I said goodbye, and "I'm off to Africa!" and left behind a confused group of kids.

Single Again

2009-10-18T16:45:00.004-07:00

That's right. I'm single again. Shocking, I know, it was very sudden. I even went back to my old single's ward today. Todd and I just weren't meant to sit next to each other I guess. I must admit, I was a little heartbroken when he left me. Just got right up and walked away, didn't even look back.

And now I'm home alone. Who knows what Todd is doing. Counting money I guess. He's off learning new and exciting things, probably forgotten all about me.

Luckily, I won't be single forever. Todd will come home later tonight, and we'll kiss and make up. I guess this is how it will be for at least the next 6 months, maybe even a year. He was called to be the second counselor in the bishopric of my old singles ward. We got the call on Wednesday. Todd had set up an appointment with the Stake Executive Secretary, so we went in to talk to our Stake Presidency. Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, our Stake doesn't have Singles Wards, so we were at the wrong place. They were kind enough to research where to go to find President Norby, the one we actually had an appointment with. So we sped down to our new destination, confused.

Afterwards I was really, really excited. All week just flying on cloud 9, what a fun calling! I was excited too because I always thought I got married a little too young, and this would be a chance to mingle with singles again, and NOT have to worry about the whole men thing. However, today I realized that you really do get a little awkward after being married a little while. I wasn't sure what to say or how to talk or where to go................ Todd get's training on what he is supposed to do, but what do I do?

Well, hopefully it will all work itself out in the end. I suspect it won't be too long before we just can't imagine ourselves anywhere else.

Cruising

2009-10-04T15:34:00.005-07:00

Well, the major highlight of our summer was a cruise to the Caribbean with my family. It was so much fun. We enjoyed warm weather, free and infinite food, beautiful water/beaches, and just fun hanging with the family. We loved every minute of it. Here are some fun pictures:

And a few more:

PASSED

2009-09-15T13:55:00.002-07:00

Today is a special day. It is the day that I found out I am a licensed Registered Nurse. I did it!! It took a lot longer than I was hoping because of several different events this summer (including a 3 1/2 week vacation), but it's done. Hooray!