gone fishin'

Saturday evening we decided to go do some fishing with a guy that Hubs works with and his wife and then we ran into a guy from our ward who was fishing too. I actually didn't do any fishing because I feel like I take the fun out of it for Hubs because he is always having to help me instead of fishing, so I decided to just take pictures. Hubs actually thinks this kind of fishing is really boring, he prefers to fly fish on the rivers. Needless to say, nobody caught anything but seaweed.

I really like these pictures of Hubs, I think he is HOT!

in my boredom...

I don't really like taking pictures of things or scenery, I much rather be taking pictures of people. But I have been trying to branch out, I figure I should, living in such a beautiful place as Montana.

"Tisters"

After all of my seriousness I thought I would post something funny. I have been promising my sister that I was going to post a picture that I new she would get a kick out of. This is me and my sister Candis, I think I must have been a freshman in highschool, we used to always go to this store in Eugene that we called the "hippie purse store". I have no clue what the real name of it was, but it was across from the 5th Street Market. You can sure tell that this is the 90s, with my sister's denim vest and oh if you could see what was on the back of my shirt (a giant picture of a hightop converse shoe). Anyway, my sister always has loved this picture because of the goofy face I am making in it. So, go ahead and laugh at me, it's OK!

And as for the title "Tister"...this is what we as sister's call ourselves instead of sisters. When we greet each other on the phone or are saying goodbye we always end up talking in what sounds like intelligent baby talk.

THANK YOU!

Hubs and I would really like to say thank you to all of those who commented or emailed us with their love, support and encouragement for our journey towards adoption.

Very soon we will also be mailing and emailing a formal letter out to all those that we know. Which is also going to be very hard and a very big step for us, but our social worker thought that we needed to take an extra step towards being advocates for ourselves even if it may be uncomfortable for us. So we feel like these steps are the uncomfortable ones that are needed to help make us parents.

Lately, I feel as though I have had a lag in my hope and faith for this trial to come to an end. (That will happen after 6 years of hoping and praying for a baby.) But telling you all has rejuvenated my faith, and all though we were actually approved to adopt back in February, for the first time since then, I actually feel like it may happen sooner than I could or would imagine. I feel like I need to prepare myself for a baby now instead of waiting for that hopeful day when we find out a birthmother would like to meet us. Every time I think of this moment I get choked up with excitement, and usually end up in tears of shear joy wanting that day to come very soon.

A friend of my good friend Emily left a very sweet comment with a very cool link to one of her friends who had talked about adoption in one of her posts. It is very sweet and loving towards the subject of adoption. I encourage all of you to check it our here. Also I have added some other links on the side bar that have to do with adoption, please check those out also.

hoping to adopt

It is nearly six years that Hubs and I have been trying to have children. After many, many doctors appointments, tests, painful surgery's, IUIs and more than a few thousand dollars, we have still been unsuccessful in trying to get pregnant. So at the beginning of this year we turned in our adoption paperwork, did our home study and paid another thousand dollars, and we have now been approved to adopt through LDS Family Services.


Our hope now is that by telling as many people as possible, that one of you may be able to help us. If any of you know or know someone that knows someone who is pregnant and thinking of placing their child for adoption, we hope that you will consider referring them to us. If you can't do that then maybe if you are comfortable with it, keeping us in your prayers that adopting a baby may happen soon for us.

Our adoption information is on the side bar. It has our Adoption Profile, our Adoption Agency and the information to contact our Social Worker.

***

Disclaimer: Wow, this is something that is really hard for me to announce to so many people. I don't like the thought of people feeling sorry for us, or thinking that they are sooo lucky that they were able to have children, or thinking "I don't think I could love someone else's child". But I also hate what people are thinking when they ask me if I have any children, then they immediately follow it with asking how long I have been married, and I tell them six years, and then I know the first thought in their heads is "how selfish of them to wait so long", and then maybe the next thought is "I wonder if they can't have children, oh that's sad". And then some days I am just numb to the whole thing. But I know that it is important to share this with all of you.

This has been a very painful, and heartbreaking journey for us, but we also know that we have become better people, and that we will be better parents than we would have not having this trial.

MY MANLY-MAN!

So this is my manly-man watching baseball while he is sewing!

Hubs and I have been trying to get this quilt done for Mylisa for months now. With her birthday coming up in a few weeks, we thought that it was time to finish it. I have made several baby quilts and Hubs always wants to help a little bit, which I love. He decided today that he was going to work on it while he is watching the OSU baseball team play in the College World Series (Which he has been really excited about watching all day.)

I just love this MAN!!!

a good mail day...

This is a card that Hubs and I received in the mail today, from our sweet little eight yr.old niece, Hallie. It is the sweetest thing ever!!!

She will be getting baptised next week and we are very sad to miss it, but her grandma and grandpa (Hubs's parents) are taking her and our other niece McKenna and nephew Cole on a rode trip and they are going to come and visit us at the end of July. We are very excited to get to see all of them very soon!

Translation (everything is exactly how she wrote it):

Dear B &B, How is it in Montana? And thanks for the message! I'm so glad I'm eight! How's your (the) New House? What part of Montana do you live in? Are they're alot of restraunt's they're? in Sherwood we only have 4 1/2 days of school left! (at Middleton) All see you in about a month so I won't say goodbye! Please write back, love, Hallie

I almost forgot! My babtizom is on June 30, 2007! It's getting so close! Love you lot's love Hallie (again)

P.S. We do not know the time of my babtizom yet!

How's Montanna?

It's gr8 2 b 8!

hail storm

Saturday was beautiful until the late afternoon when all of a sudden our house sounded like it was being attacked, I looked out side to see this.

We have metal awnings over all of the windows so when the hail was coming down it was super loud.
The hail was at least the size of a peanut M&M as you can see.

camping: just a trial run

Well we decided that we would do a one night trial run of camping on Friday, and boy was it a definite trial run. We just wanted to see what we didn't have or what worked so that we can do some more camping this summer. I spent the day getting the house cleaned up and didn't have time to get all of our camping gear together, so we didn't leave until about 7pm. The camp ground we were planning on was full when we got there so we just started driving anywhere because we didn't want to go home. We ended up in the middle of Helena National Forest on a rugged dirt road that luckily ended up taking us to a place that we had heard of. So we ended up at this really pretty campground at the base of a dam right along the Missouri River, our tent was about 10 feet from the bank. And there were these huge, beautiful pelicans just floating in the river next to the camp ground (see picture). When the pelicans would fly away, their wing span looked to be at least 4 or 5 feet wide, huge! We did a little fishing, I caught nothing of course and Hubs did catch one fish but it got away before he could get it all the way in, of course. I wanted to take more pictues but my battery was just about dead, aargh!! When it got dark we realized we had forgotten to get firewood, so that really took the fun out of camping. So we ended up putting our propane lamp on the grill of the fire pit to pretend, but then the bugs were swarming around it, so we just went to bed. We usually sleep on an air mattress because I just cant sleep on the hard ground, but I broke the pump last year and we haven't replaced it. So neither of us slept very good, although we didn't get cold (which was a relief). We both woke up at about 4:30am and couldn't go back to sleep , Hubs got up to fish and I tried to go back to sleep. I got up at about 5:15am and we decided instead of making a mess with making breakfast we would pack up, go home, take a shower, then go out to breakfast. We were home by 7am (Pretty wimpy huh?) Sleeping on the ground gave me a nice crook in my neck and shoulder and I could hardly move all day Saturday, it was no fun.

What we need for our next camping trip:

*firewood

*hatchet/ax

*camping air mattress

*charged camera battery

*and some friends

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Hubs isn't a father yet, but I know what a wonderful one he will be someday if he gets the chance. I got to see how wonderful he was with Mylisa, and how much he loves that little girl, and it makes me excited for the day he actually becomes a real father and dad. I love this picture because of the way he is holding Mylisa, protecting her, and keeping her safe, I can't wait until he can do that with our own children.

I just wanted to wish all the Father's in my life a Happy Father's Day!

*My husband, Hubs

*My dad, Richard

*Hubs's dad, Greg

*Grandpa Curt

*Grandpa Rolland

*My three brothers, Rick, Ryan and Chris

*All my brothers-in-law, Jared, Zak, Spencer(someday), Matt and Scott

this week's craft...

So here is my craft for the week. I found the idea on the Internet somewhere and really liked the idea, I just changed a few things. It is in one of those frames that doesn't have a back to it and the letters are those fancy cardboard letters used for scrapbooking. I didn't really like the frame being black, but it is hard to find a nice frame that isn't black.

Bryce's New TOY

Hubs got a new toy to keep him busy...a Table Saw!

(I am also trying to be more creative with my photography.)

B W., CPA

Hubs got his CPA certificate in the mail this week. I was really excited that he wasn't home when it came because I was able to keep it a secret for a few days while I got it matted and framed for him. I was really excited how it turned out, and Hubs really liked it.

I am so proud of my husband. He is such a hard worker, and so ambitious. And all at the same time he is so amazing at balancing family, church and work. What a hard job our husbands have in this world to support their families. I am so glad that I get the job of wife, mother and homemaker.

You are How Old?!?!

We had the Elders over for dinner today, and I was in the kitchen getting dinner on the table when something that came out of one of the Elder's mouth made me realize how much older we really are than them. I guess I tend to forget that we are a lot older than them, I am not sure why, it might be that I don't feel as grown up because we don't have any children, but what ever the reason, I don't think I will forget the age difference anymore.

The Elder's were asking Hubs about his mission, and one of them asked how long ago that was and Hubs answered "seven years ago" and the Elder said "So your like 30?!?!" OK, I guess you had to hear how he said it, but basically it sounded like a 12 year old responding to someone say that they are 20 years old, and basically thinking that that person is super old. I was cracking up!

Lost and Redone!

Well, I finally got my craft/scrapbooking stuff unpacked. I was looking through the scrapbook I did for Mylisa last year and just wanted to share her cuteness.

And there is a story that goes with making this scrapbook... After I had done most of these pages, I went and had color copies made for Mylisa's mother and for my cousin who was her foster mother (and for those who don't know the story about Mylisa, Hubs and I were her respite care providers every weekend for 7 months). Then I took the book to show some of my family. We were outside when I was showing everyone and I went to go put it away and the car was locked, so hesitantly I put it on top of the car (I know, not very smart!). So then we left and we got down the road a little ways and I couldn't remember if I put the scrapbook in the car or not, but I sure couldn't find it in the car. So I was in hysterics for a while. We should have gone back to look on the road for it, but we decided to keep driving down the road to the festival that we were going to. We were at the festival for maybe a half-an-hour before I couldn't take being stressed out anymore so we decided to go back and look for it. We couldn't find it anywhere. We retraced everywhere we had driven and it was just gone. I was devastated, because I had worked so hard on it. Well we never found it, but I was sure glad that I made copies of every page, and I was able to redo every page almost exactly. So almost every page has double the sweat and tears into it that usually go into a scrapbook page, so it really means a lot to me, especially since we have moved away and don't get to see Mylisa on a regular basis anymore.

Boy, do we love that little girl, like she was our own!!

Temple Trip

We were able to make a trip to the Billings Montana Temple on Saturday. It was beautiful and a very needed trip there. When we got there the temple grounds were covered in dirty youth, planting and gardening. It was a very cool thing to see. Growing up we never lived close enough to the temple to be able to have an activity like that, I would have loved it.

It will be a big adjustment going from living 5 minutes from the temple to now living 3 1/2 hours from the temple. Our trips now need to entirely be planned out. Which we found out this weekend isnt too bad. Our only problem was that I didnt sleep very good the night before (and we left at 6am) so I wasnt any help in the driving department and Hubs had to drive the entire way. We got some shopping in at the mall and Old Navy (of course) and we ate at the Cracker Barrell for a late lunch. By the time we got home we were exhausted and not very hungry so we had a not so good dinner of root beer floats (not kidding), and I zonked on the couch at 8pm.

And we look very forward to our Temple trip next month.

ONE MILE..........

I have very vivid memories of my middle school PE teacher, Mr. Sullivan, making us run a mile. Oh how I dreaded those days. In the heat, in the pouring down rain, what ever the weather and no matter how out of shape we were, we had to finish the entire 4 laps around the track, or he would fail us, and it would always take me the entire period to finish it. I would always get those jabbing side pains that make it so you can't move, I would feel like I was going to puke, and I would choke on my thickened saliva (sorry, that's gross!).

I have never been a runner and really have never had any desire to run, until my sweet husband wanted me to start running with him. So we started taking brisk walks every evening when he gets home from work. And then two weeks ago I said OK, lets see how running goes for me, well it didn't go so bad, until we made the mistake of running two days in a row. I couldn't move the next day, but that didn't discourage me. So the point of the story is I have worked my way up to running a full mile without stopping, without the jabbing side pains, and without the whole saliva thing. I made it, and it felt good (besides the feeling like I was going to puke part, but that went away a minute or so after I finished). So now I feel like calling Mr. Sullivan and telling him, hey it only took about 15 years, but I finally finished that ONE MILE!!!