It's Been A While

Cory and I started up a photo website so we can share pictures of all our adventures with our loved ones. It's been great, but I've been updating that far more often than I've been blogging. We're well into the school semester and it's been going great so far. Cory is finally starting research on people, and that's going great too... after we worked out a few kinks in the system. Olivia still has a few rough days (and I'm sure that will always be the case), but we really couldn't have asked for a better, happier baby. School so far has been fantastic. Only taking 2 classes and actually getting about 20 hours of work a week consistently is wonderful. I've never felt so relaxed at school. Even with a baby. I love my classes. I actually understand the materials. AND, I finally took the GRE. I feel like I did pretty well. We'll see how well I really did once they score everything and give me my percentile grade. That might not be for another week. My new goal, now that I've taken the GRE and don't think I'll have to take it again, is to get my letters of recommendation and letter of intent. I've talked to, and set up appointments with various professors to write letters. What they want me to do, since apparently my 3.6 GPA isn't that great (BYU.... geez), is to write a resume, essentially, of all the experience I've had with anyone who has/had a disability, delay, or any other kind of special need. Well, I started writing a list, and it turns out to be a pretty short list... even though I do have a lot of experience compared to most people. So hopefully I can get that together by Monday when I have my next meeting with a professor. The letters will be the easy part. The hard part is this letter of intent. I have to hook these admissions boards. I need to show them my innermost desires, without being cliche about it. They need to get to know me. But I have to do all that in 500-1000 words. Yikes. My goal is to have that written in the next 2 weeks. My overall goal is to have these applications completed and submitted by November 1st. That's well before finals, well before most applicants will be submitting, and it will give them an opportunity to see that I get things done early, and I mean business. What's plan B? Well, if I can't get into any of the grad programs we're applying for, we'll go where Cory and I feel is best and I'll apply to that school again the next year. Right now our #1 school is in Buffalo, NY. It's far away, but it's a phenomenal program in what I REALLY want to do. And it offers Cory a dual Master's degree in audiology and business. The other draw to Buffalo is that the housing market is actually affordable. For us. We could probably put an offer on a house. A HOUSE! Many of the suburban homes there run in the 50k-100k range. And we're talking 3 and 4-bedroom homes! They're older, and smaller, but still! We would have a yard and I could plant a garden. Olivia could play outside, and we could potentially get a dog (after I graduate)! We would have enough space to have another baby before we graduate. Our #2 school is University of Washington in Seattle. It's a much more expensive program and higher ranked. They also have a program that really appeals to me in what I actually want to do. The drawback there is that there is no way we could get a house. No way. A condo, maybe. The big pull, though, is that it's MUCH closer to family. And we LOVE the Pacific Northwest. LOVE IT! No matter what happens, the Lord will help us go where we need to go. And we're the kind of people that grow where we're planted. We're not particularly fond of Provo, but we have grown here, and we love it for that. On another note, Olivia is growing like a weed! She's roughly 14lbs. now. She's rolling from her front to her back pretty comfortably, she can roll from her back to her front but it's harder for her, she squaks like a little bird all the time, she scoots around on her back by pushing off the ground with her heels (and gets pretty far!) and she is JUST. SO. HAPPY! She is the cutest kid. She loves her Daddy so much. She just lights up every time she sees him. He can make her laugh like crazy with just a look. It kind of makes me want another baby right this minute. I guess we'll have to wait, but I love my little family, and I'm excited to watch it grow through the years. We sure have had some fun, and there's a lot of change coming in the near future. If you want to keep up on the actions and want to see any of our photo site pictures, here's the link: http://oneplusoneequalsthree.shutterfly.com/pictures The password is: trio2012

Great Blessings and Revelation

Cory and I have been feverishly trying to find him a job the past several weeks. After interviews, and not hearing back from them, I started to panic. I knew he would find a job...eventually. It was the timing I was worried about. Last Friday was supposed to be his last day working on campus, so he needed a job by then. Let me just say, we have been incredibly blessed. Cory's boss on campus got the dean to approve an extended employment as a non-student. Once that happened, I panicked much less. A day or two after that, Cory was offered a job for Ancestry.com (a genealogy research company), then a few days after that, he was offered another job at a local grocery store. So now Cory has 3 jobs for the next month until he is finished working on campus. He'll be working at Ancestry in the mornings before I go to class, and working at the store after I come home. So, essentially, we won't be seeing each other for a little while. But, it's only temporary. Once I'm finished with classes in December, we'll get to see each other again. Hooray! The next two weeks are going to be extra busy as he's training and we're getting into the new schedule. This past Wednesday I got a call from the ward executive secretary to meet with the bishop. Cory and I walked over to the church (since it's a block away now) and the bishop called me to be the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society. Oh boy. As timid as I may feel about this calling, I had a sweet reaffirmation that this calling is for me and is from God. I also got to teach RS today (they called me to sub about 3 weeks ago). It was one of those moments where I prepared, and as I stood up to teach, felt prompted to just throw all my preparation to the wind and go with the Spirit. It ended up being a wonderful experience. I'm so grateful for those tender mercies. As it turns out, The RS president originally wanted to call me to be a teacher. When she went to pray about who to call for the 2nd counselor, she wasn't even thinking of me, but felt very distinctly that I was supposed to be that counselor. I just think it's amazing. I'm grateful, excited, and am definitely going to have to rely on the Lord for this one.

Olivia's Blessing Weekend!

What a busy and beautiful weekend! Saturday, all the family drove in. Cory's family (including his sister from Missouri) and my parents (and Aunt Sue came too!) all came and set up for the weekend. I got to spend a little time with my mom and Sue. Cory and I were busy getting all sorts of food ready for the luncheon for after church. Luckily, it didn't take too long to get Olivia to sleep that night. We had to let her cry just a little bit, but she fell asleep within 10 minutes. Sunday morning, Cory and I woke up nice and early so we could get out the door by 7. We wanted to make sure we had time to get Olivia fed and dressed as well as talk to someone in the bishopric and make sure any needed paperwork was filled out. Things got a little hectic right as church was starting, mostly because when you put the address of the church into a GPS or googlemaps, it brings you straight into a peach orchard. If I had realized that ahead of time, I would have sent out directions with the baby announcements and invitations. At least mostly everyone we were expecting was there on time, and everyone turned up eventually.

The blessing was simple and beautiful. I wrote down a little of it for Olivia's baby book so she'll have some record of it. Of course, I got a little teary-eyed. It was such a tender moment.

After Sacrament meeting, Cory and I went back to grandma and grandpa's to get the luncheon set up so people would be able to eat once they arrived. The luncheon went well. We took lots of pictures and I ended up with about twice as much food as I really needed, which is great so Cory's family will have some left-overs for a meal or two. I'm so grateful for all the friends and family that came, and to the Parkers for letting us use their yard (not to mention borrowing chairs from their neighbors).

Once we got everything cleaned up (really, Cory and his brothers cleaned up most of it since I was in feeding and taking care of Olivia), we started gearing up for Aubrey's baptism. Since so much family was already there, Cory's parents just decided to have her baptism there and then, which was perfect. I'm glad we got to be there for it. Cory played an arrangement I sang to, Grandma Parker wrote a song about baptism that she sang, Joshua and Jacob gave talks, and countless others held exhausted babies. Everyone helped out and made it wonderful. Aubrey and Jared (who baptized her) changed in record time. Aubrey really wanted to be there as everyone sang Primary songs so she could sing too. She really loves to sing and wants to be in the spotlight. It's a little funny, but mostly sweet. With some lessons, I think she'll be a really good singer! After the baptism, we went back to the Parker's and hung out for a while. Cory, Joshua, Dad, and I played Rook and watched the Olympics. Olivia started to get pretty fussy, and it was late, so we headed home. Joshua and Jared came down with us so Jared could buy Cory's car from him. Since Olivia was so tired, she cried the whole way down. Jared and Joshua tried so hard to sing her to sleep. It mostly worked until they started to sing a song about Star Wars. Apparently she's not a fan. Luckily, we were 5 minutes from home by that time. It was a wonderful weekend and I feel so incredibly blessed. We have so many friends and so much family who love this little girl. That really is the best feeling in the world.

Growing Pains... and Joys

Olivia has been growing SO MUCH! It's amazing to me. She seems so much older than she is. The hard part about growing so much so fast is that it's a little painful. For both of us. Olivia has been hungry all the time, and so tired that she cries until we can get her to fall asleep. It makes me so sad when she doesn't feel well and whimpers. Also, a nurse came to visit last week and Olivia was 10lbs exactly!!! The fun part of growing is that she's doing so much more and is so interactive now. Everyone has been amazed at how aware she has been pretty much since she was born. But now she's smiling a lot and starting to play with her voice, so occasionally we get giggles, but we also get a lot of squeals. I love it! It just warms my heart. This is why people have kids.She is also figuring out that when she's awake, she doesn't have to be eating constantly. What a relief to me! Sometimes she's just content wiggling around. I love my baby girl so much.

My Baby Story

This is full disclosure for anyone who wants to know Olivia's birth story. So if you don't want to read about anything birth-related, stop now and look at the super cute pictures of my baby on facebook. Let me also say that there is a good portion of this experience that I probably don't remember, or remember properly. Thankfully, during all of his down time in labor & deliver, and our time in mother/baby waiting for tests and peds visits, my darling husband took the time to write in his journal about it. Did I ever mention how awesome my husband is? Because he really is. And to follow his example, I need to write about it too. (I think some day I'm going to get this blog printed and bound into a journal... it seems like a good thing to do.) This story starts on Thursday (June 21st). Prior to Thursday, I was having some Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing crazy and nothing consistent. Thursday afternoon, it seemed like I was having real contractions. They hurt, they were consistent, and I was uncomfortable. I started timing them and they started hitting 5 minutes apart and lasting a minute later that night. Cory and I watched a movie and hung out with our neighbors to pass the time and keep ourselves distracted. Finally, we decided to head about 1am to the hospital and hopefully start this baby-having process. We got to the hospital, they check us in, check to see how dilated I was, and we were disappointed that nothing had changed in a week. I was still at a tight 1cm. Since I wasn't really dilated, they hooked me up to monitor my contractions for an hour, then they checked back to see if any progress had been made in that hour. Ideally you would dilated a cm for each hour you're in active labor... ideally. My progress in that hour: absolutely none! We were disappointed and they sent us home. At least we didn't bring up all our bags and bunker down. That was the up side. Friday was a little depressing and I was pretty determined to not let that happen again. I spent my work day on Friday counting contractions since my office was essentially dead (Fridays are like that usually). They were definitely stronger. At my doctor's appointment that morning, there was a little progress, but really not much. At this rate, I wasn't expecting to see Baby Girl for another week. In fact, I had a scheduled induction for Friday the 29th. Saturday, Cory made a point to keep the day moving for me. He's so sweet like that. I think we were both equally disappointed, so it was probably a little bit for him too. At this point, too, my contractions were even stronger and making it hard to walk through them. We got up that morning and decided to go see a movie. The new Disney-Pixar movie, Brave, came out in theaters the day before. We intended on seeing the 10am showing, but it sold out by the time we got there. Fortunately there was another showing at 11am. To pass the time, we walked around the mall a little bit. Walking is supposed to help labor progress, right? The movie was a great idea, and we loved it! After the movie we tried out this new sandwich place next to the theater. Like I said, Cory really went out of his way to keep the day going for me. I know it doesn't sound like much (movie and lunch), but we don't have money to go out all the time. So when we do a meal AND something else (or something AND a meal) it feels like a special occasion. I can't remember what we did the rest of the afternoon. I probably sat around counting contractions again... I hurt for sure. That night, we waited as long as possible, but ended up at the hospital again. This time it was about 6pm. At least we knew if they were going to send us home, we'd be home early enough that we wouldn't lose sleep. We were so hopeful that we wouldn't be going home this time we even brought all our bags with us. So we got into the room, checked out (I was at a 3!!! and VERY hopeful), and hooked up. Then we sat and waited. Well, I was laying on my back. The hour went by quickly because of our anticipation. The nurse checked me again, and NOTHING. She asked the doctor if they should have me hang out for a while and walk around to see if things would get moving, but they ended up sending me home again. I took some Tylenol PM to help me sleep, since it did a beautiful job the night before, and since my contractions were killing me. They just radiated in my hips and back. I tried my best to sleep, but with each contraction closer and closer together, I didn't get a wink. Finally about 4:30 in the morning, I woke Cory up (though I'm sure he wasn't in a deep sleep since I spent the entire night tossing and moaning through contractions), and sobbed to him that I was in so much pain and didn't know what to do. I didn't want to go straight back to the hospital just to be sent home again. After all, this is my first baby and have no idea what I'm doing and what I'm in for. We called the hospital, told them the situation, and left it up to them. Do you want us to come in, or should we wait longer?... because I feel like I'm dying. (I'm sure most of it was because of all the previous disappointment and complete lack of sleep.) They told us to go ahead and come in. (The worst they could do is send us back home...) So the nurse checked me out. 5cm! Wow! They didn't bother to hook me up right away and said we were staying to have a baby! Oh the elation! We were there and I was hooked up for about an hour when Dr. Jacob came in to talk to me. We decide that he would come back in a while and break my water to get things really moving. Well, when he broke my water, I went from about a 5 to a 7 in no time! I was excited because I was thinking that this labor thing might not go on forever and that we would be meeting our little girl soon. When the nurse came back to check on me, I was still at a 7. No progress. Bummer. So we talked about Pitocin. (I know... the "p" word.) We mentioned that if it were necessary, we would like to start of on a low dose and have small increments as we increased the dose. She seemed to understand. A while later, she checked me again (still a 7) and hooked me up on the Pitocin. Somehow, starting on a low dose in her book meant 4. I could feel the effects very quickly. And it was painful. But I seemed to manage just fine. A short time later (what felt like a short time) she came back, still no progress, so she increased the Pitocin. How much? Oh... only to an 8. Yeah... apparently the little chat we had about the Pitocin before it was administered went in one ear and out the other. She doubled my dose! And oh, boy was I in agony. (let me tell you... your body doesn't double... so you shouldn't force it to.) I was in tears. There was nothing we could do. Cory even tried to turn it down himself, but apparently there is some kind of code on the machine. We called the nurse to have her turn it down, but in the time it took her to get there, I was begging for an epidural. Of course the anesthesiologist got there in no time. By that time, I was in complete shock. My whole body shut down. My contractions were no longer functional. I was shaking uncontrollably. Cory had to help move me around just to get the epidural in. During this whole process, the nurse came back in and mentioned that a couple was there administering the Sacrament and asked if we would like them to come to our room. Immediately I said yes. I definitely needed it that day. I needed that reminder of the Savior. The cute elderly couple came in right after I got my epidural. The sweet sister shared a message with us, then Cory blessed the bread. He got a little choked up and I started to sob. The spirit was so strong in that room as my husband blessed the tiny piece of bread. It was a moment where you knew Heavenly Father was VERY aware of what was happening and He was watching over us. I ate the piece of bread and said a little prayer of gratitude for this tender mercy. The water was blessed, I drank, and the couple, after wishing us well, left. The spirit didn't leave with them. It stayed as we sat in amazement. I felt nothing at all but that wonderful spirit. A short time later, the nurse came back in and I hadn't made any progress yet. She started playing with the Pitocin, trying to find a level where my contractions would be productive again. Apparently jumping to an 8 didn't work. (duh!) After some time of this, they started to worry about Olivia since her heart rate started dropping down a little low. Cory called our neighbors who are good friends and asked Emmett if he would help Cory give me a blessing. Church was starting in about 30 minutes, but they came right over to help. Another tender mercy. Again, you could feel a rush of the spirit. Immediately after the blessing, my contractions began being productive, and soon after I was dilating again. It was a miracle for sure. Heavenly Father truly was aware and wanted to help us. All we needed to do was ask. About 2pm we were ready to push. I had never been more uncomfortable in my life. But I wanted to meet this little girl. We pushed for a while and the doctor came back in. Olivia was in a good position, but she wasn't moving much more and her head was turned slightly. Her heart rate started to drop again and we were worried, especially since there was a lot of meconium in the amniotic fluid. Dr. Jacob talked to me about our options. We would try the forceps, but because of the slight tilt in her head, he didn't know if he'd be able to get a good fit on her. The other option was a vacuum, but we only had 2 shots with that until there was a real risk of hemorrhage. If the forceps and vacuum didn't work, we would have no other option than a c-section. (Because that's what every mom wants to hear.) I felt incredibly blessed because on the first try, Dr. Jacob was able to get a good fit with the forceps and I started pushing with everything I had... which was not much since I had already been pushing for and hour, been up since 4:30am with really no sleep prior, and was starving. Finally, at 4:04pm, Olivia June Scott was born at 8lbs. 12oz. and 21 inches long. They whisked her away to clear her lungs since she didn't really start breathing and they were pretty certain she had swallowed meconium. A few minutes later, I got to hold my little angel. She had so much hair! And cute chubby cheeks. Holding her filled me with such joy. I hardly even noticed Dr. Jacob starting to stitch me up from how badly I had torn. I got 30 minutes with her before they took her to get her cleaned up. Then they moved me into a new room and shortly brought my baby back to me. She was perfect and so precious. I am so blessed and grateful for the opportunity to carry this sweet angel for almost 10 months and to finally hold her in my arms. I now firmly believe that true love is a love you share as an eternal family... with parents and children.

Big Baby Bash

This past weekend sure was eventful! My sister, Kristy, flew in Thursday night, so Friday, I swapped for the morning shift and spent all afternoon and evening with my sisters (...well, Kristy and Kelli since Korrie wasn't in town yet). We didn't do anything crazy. For the most part, we just sat around and talked. It's so rare for us to be able to get together and just chat, so it was really fun. For dinner that evening, Kristy and Kelli had already picked up some pizzas, and we ate dinner at a park. Again, it was really nice to just sit and relax with my sisters (and their kids). Kristy was in a little bit of shock at how big I am. Well, I guess that happens when you're a month from giving birth. :) Kelli sees me far more frequently, so there's no real shock factor for her. That night, my mom and Korrie drove in. Mom and the girls stayed at our apartment, and Korrie drove up to Kelli's to stay there with Kristy. Mom and I put the girls to bed right away (on our living room floor) and Mom and I stayed up a little too late chatting... like we often do when we haven't seen each other for a while. Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early and all of us girls (me, Chloe, Cailee, Kristy, Kelli, Korrie, and their babies) too Mom to breakfast at Kneader's for a belated Mother's Day. Can I just tell you how delicious their breakfast is? I even brought home a pastry or two to share with Cory. How nice am I? After breakfast, Mom, Kelli, and Kristy went to the mall to get the twins' 1 year pictures done. It's kind of traditional. They ended up getting Kristy a new phone too, since her old phone's ringer would ring. She got no alerts at all until after the fact. While they were out, Korrie and I went back to my apartment, picked up Cory, and went to take some maternity pictures. They turned out really cute and didn't take very long at all, which was really nice considering our time constraints. Kristy and Mom weren't quite finished with the phone thing, so Korrie and I decided to just head over to Costco and pick up what we needed to pick up for the baby shower, then go start setting everything up. Fortunately, we were using the church across the street from Cory's grandma and aunt (and her family). They came over and sure helped a TON! We really would not have finished everything if not for the Harrisons. The baby shower was fantastic! So many people came... I was a little surprised. Mostly because I don't know a ton of people. But family from both my side and Cory's made up about half of us. The rest were friends from high school, work, and church. It made me so happy to have so much support from friends and family. Oh, and did I mention that the food was awesome too?! Here are some pictures:

One Year Ago

I thought one year ago was the happiest day of my life. I married my eternal companion in a holy temple of the Lord for time and all eternity. We are sealed together by a bond that can only be broken if sacred covenants are broken. While I truly adore my husband, and one year ago today was such an amazing day, it was only the first day of the happiest days of my life. I have had many, many since and will surely have many, many more with him by my side, and as our little family continues to grow. Cory has been patient and kind in every way. He exemplifies manhood and fatherhood. He takes such good care of us and treats me as an equal. He never expects me to do or be anything or anyone in particular. He wants me to be me... and the most amazing thing of all is that he loves me for me - post-baby dough belly and all. He has never made me feel sub-standard, even when I don't wash the dishes or forget to pull the laundry out of the dryer to fold and put it away. Even if I feel I do, he has never made me feel like I should lose weight, wear more makeup, or dress up more. He still holds my hand every chance he gets. He kisses me good-night and every morning at the very least, but usually more often than that. He is worthy of the Priesthood and never hesitates to use that power to bless me or those around him. He works hard and tries his very best all the time. I love him with an eternal love and look forward to the next 100 years with him. Happy Anniversary.