Memorial Day Weekend

It was a jammed packed weekend, but it was so nice to see family and friends and eat at our favorite places. We arrived in Provo on friday afternoon and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

On Saturday Aaron and i woke up early so he could go play a round of golf and i headed over to Magleby's with my brother for some amazing French toast.
I didn't want to ask anyone to take our picture so we attempted one ourselves... it was semi successful.Later on Saturday we had the Baby shower that my Mother-in-law threw for me.
These ladies stayed after the shower and we spent some much needed time catching up, it was fabulous.My sister-in-law Rachel had Senior ball later that night so i got to see her off. It reminded me of the good old days of high school dances. It was a masquerade ball (thus the masks). Don't they look awesome? That was a much cooler theme than we ever had in high school (which i think was something about Paris Nights... lame)On Sunday we celebrated my 23rd birthday. My parents sent me a package full of birthday goods and they had these little gems stored inside. My favorite candy plus a personal message, that pretty much equals an awesome gift.The cakeMy first bite of dessert in a year! Aaron's face says it all.Matt and I being awesome, as per usual.On monday we dined on our favorite cuisine of cafe rio. I miss it already.Saying goodbye. (i hate when people say things like this, but i have to say it so i apologize in advance. I have no idea what is going on in this picture but i look HUGE. I don't know if its my sweater or the angle but i promise i don't look like that normally... and if i do look like that normally pretend that i don't)We left Provo on monday afternoon and made it home to San Jose at about 3:30am, which was definitely not the smartest decision we ever made.

It was a fantastic weekend.

I Spoke too Soon

Well, i thought that the next time i went to the hospital i would be having the baby. I spoke too soon. Apparently the kidney infection i had last time either came back, or a new infection came into the mix. It wasn't as bad this time and i figured i just needed antibiotics and could avoid the hospital, my doctor had a different plan in mind. I was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and released on Thursday at 11:30am. Let's take a gander at the scoreboard: Kara- 0 Kidneys- 2. I seem to not be winning this battle...
(I do not actually support the Kidney foundation of canada, this was the only picture of a kidney that seemed to not have pictures of blood vessels attached.)

Thankfully my doctor released me this morning so that i can try to pack and get ready for our road trip to utah (which we leave for tonight). I have my heavy duty anitbiotics in tow, about 1,000 ounces of cranberry juice to drink (gotta love visiting teachers!), and the beautiful (note the sarcasm) barren abyss of the northern Nevada landscape to help me recover. I'm going to show these kidneys who is boss!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Our friends Ryan and Shannon are moving to LA next weekend for Ryan's job, so on sunday we had a small get together to say goodbye before they left. Shannon was one of the first people that i met in San Jose and i must say she is one of my favorite people ever. I'm so sad to see her go (and Ryan too of course). I'm going to definitely miss our lunches together and our long chats. Kristen made a lovely goodbye cake for them. And we took lots of pictures, of course.
Good luck in LA Shannon and Ryan!! You will definitely be missed!

10 Days

355 days down... 10 more to go!

Ten days from now is my year mark for not eating dessert. Which means that ten days from now i can eat whatever dessert my heart desires. I can practically taste all the sugary goodness. I can't wait. I'm thinking that breakfast, lunch, and dinner should be broken down into the three most important food groups:

M&Ms
Chocolate chip cookiesAnd Chocolate cake.I might go into cardiac arrest, but it will be SO worth it.

A Few Gray Hairs

I've decided that the minute i looked at the pregnancy test i took and it said "Pregnant" (thank you ClearBlue digital), something changed. I don't know if some innate "mom" gene kicked in after 22 years of hibernation or if peeing on a stick altered my brain waves, but things became different. I became a worrier.

The first trimester was filled with worry about miscarrying. I've never knocked-on-wood so many times or included that statement at the end of my sentences so much. I used to look at the ultra sound picture and say "just hold on tight baby." I'm pretty sure that Aaron thought i had lost it (and to be honest, i thought i had lost it too). I worried about what i ate, i stopped running at the gym, i avoided the bath tub. I'm pretty sure that i thought if i missed taking my prenatal vitamins the baby would come out with 3 arms.

This trend has followed me into the second trimester as well. The miscarriage thoughts have passed, although now there are other new ways that things could go wrong. Don't even get me started on the fender bender and the kidney infection because i was a blubbering mess. After all that, i thought i had finally gotten a hold of myself thinking that if the baby could survive two trips to the hospital then she was in it for the long haul. Then friday happened. I was blind sighted and my i've-got-it-under-control attitude completely failed.

Towards the end of work on Friday i realized that i hadn't felt the baby move at all. Normally she "wakes up" when i'm getting ready for the day, but she hadn't on friday and i couldn't recall anytime that i had felt her move. I tried not to jump to conclusions and concentrated on my belly as i finished up at work and drove home. Nothing, not a kick or punch or anything. Trying to keep my cool i called aaron and told him. Some time went by and still nothing. I called my mom and completely lost my cool. She told me not to worry and to lay day and move my belly around to see if that would get the baby to move or poke me back. My mom talked to my sister and she said to drink something sugary to get the baby to be more active and to lay down and continue prodding my belly. I ran to my fridge and found this gem sitting there:

I poured a glass and downed it. I laid on the couch and poked, prodded, and moved positions a thousand times. Aaron called to check up on me every couple of minutes, and give me advice for things that i could do (that he had looked up on the internet). I cried and thought the worst (OF COURSE). About 30 minutes went by with a few movements that i couldn't tell if they were gas bubbles or the baby, and then the mango nectar hit. That girl went NUTS. i have never loved getting kicked so much in my life. But boy was that dramatic. I was dramatic. Looking back i'm kind of embarrassed for myself. Aaron told me later that day that this little girl was giving him gray hairs already and she's just a fetus.

Is this what parenthood is? Is pregnancy your worrying initiation? I hope it lets up a bit or i might be going gray in my twenties.

Mother's Day

Poor Aaron, the 3 major holidays that involve getting gifts for your wife all fall in the same month. Our anniversary, Mother's Day, and my birthday are all in May and are just a few weeks from each other. He has been awesome though and succeeded at the challenge so far.

We celebrated Mother's day this year even though i'm not really a mom quite yet. But we figured if there is a bun in the oven, why not celebrate? Right? Aaron got me the Scrubbing Bubbles automatic shower cleaner (by request) and i'm in love. Just the idea that something else is cleaning and keeping my shower sanitary gives me a lot of joy. It also makes our bathroom smell like i just cleaned it, which is always a plus.Aaron also made crepes for brunch and curry for dinner. What a great guy. Now i need to start planning for father's day to make sure he gets the same stellar treatment.

I'd also like to give a shout out to my mom and aaron's mom and wish them a Happy Mother's Day. You two are the best moms that we could have asked for. Thanks for everything!!

BBQ at the Beach

In all of the months that we have lived in California we have never ventured to the beach, which is odd because the beach is one of my favorite places to go. The other day we drove the 45 minutes to Santa Cruz for a little dinner by the beach. It was wonderful.

The drive down (I love Howie sitting co-pilot)
The men being manly by the grillMe and Mel, nowhere near the grill. I'm pretty sure that we just chatted and ate graham crackers while the boys got dinner ready.After our burgers were cooked and consumed, the boys went back to the grill and melted marshmallows for s'mores. Our View. Isn't it lovely? It was WAY too cold by the time that we got there to go any where near the water, but it was nice to look at. Next time we'll go down earlier in the day and bust out the swim suits.

Did You Know?

That baked potatoes can explode in the microwave. Interesting.I baked them in the oven and thought they were a little hard still so i popped them in the microwave to solve the problem before we sat down to dinner. Apparently a minute and a half was a little too much for these guys to handle... You learn something new everyday.

Cinco de Mayo

This will always be a special day to me (and people from Mexico). Today Aaron and I celebrate our 3rd Anniversary.I can remember the first time i talked to Aaron on the phone. He had gotten my phone number from our friend Nicole and called me up one night. I was 15 and he was 18 so to me it was a really big deal. I was surprised at how easy it was to talk to him, especially since i wasn't good at talking to boys. He made sense to me. Through the many phone calls, stake dances, and that one time we did the Thriller dance in Aaron's laundry room he became one of my favorite people. I never thought that at 15 i would have met my husband, probably because all i cared about was dating at 16 and getting my drivers license, but i'm so glad i did.

I might have been 19 and immature at the time, but marrying Aaron was the best thing that i have ever done.

Here's to three years babe, and an eternity more

Pyelonephritis- Kidney Infection

This week has been an interesting one, I'll spare you the complete details and just give you a run down of what happened.

Monday
-Woke up in the middle of the night with back pain- chalked it up to a pulled muscle due to the fender bender the night before, or sitting funny in the hospital bed.
-Throughout the day my back feels just like I had pulled it, no cause for concern

Tuesday
-Back pain is gone!
-Get a fever while at work (achy/chills), roaring lower back pain
-Call doctor, talk to nurse who says that there is a 24 hour bug going around and to take tylenol, rest, and stay hydrated.
-From 2:30 to 6:30 temperature rises from 100.1 to 101.7. Call doctor again, she says that with the back pain and fever she thinks it might be a UTI (urinary tract infection).
-Side note: Last time we were at the hospital my urine was tested for a UTI and it came back negative.
-We didn't want to jump to conclusions and run to the hospital so we waited to see if we could get my fever to come down. Which it did (101.2). We also called our mom's and asked how bad fevers were for pregnant women.
-A friend in the ward came over to help Aaron give me a blessing
-At 8:30pm my fever spikes at 103.2
-8:31pm we leave for the hospital
-Admitted to the hospital: catheter test for UTI (which was so wonderful...), IV, tests for swine flu, and monitoring of the baby (who's heart was racing because mine was.. poor thing)
-The labs eventually come back- i have a kidney infection.

Wednesday
-2am receive antibiotics-- have an allergic reaction
-3:30am receive new antibiotics, and pain medication, sleep!
-5:30am wake up, throw up
-7:30am get moved out of Labor and Delivery.
-Fever
-Medication
-throw up
-monitor the baby (a lot)
-Aaron took this picture. I'm terribly swollen from the IV and antibiotics. -8:30pm my fever FINALLY breaks
-I felt funny and felt like i couldn't catch my breath
-Nurse semi freaks out contacts doctor (thinking the infection got into my lungs)
-8 different hospital staff members show up within 15 minutes
-Chest xray, more labs, EKG, oxygen nose thingy
-10pm things calm down Aaron and I get moved to a room with 2 beds so that Aaron can spend the night
-fever comes back

Thursday
-2am IV busts and start to make my arm swell up. IV is switched to my other arm
-attempt to sleep-Going through cycles of fevers, getting medications, having my fevers break etc.
-More monitoring of the baby.
-Kidney Ultrasound -Getting an awesome surprise from my parents (thanks again!) -4pm My fever breaks FOR GOOD!!!
-More antibiotics, more baby monitoring
-We get to walk around the hospital

Friday
-More antibiotics, IV fluids
-Monitoring the baby
-More walking
-Really, really wanting to leave (we thought we were going to be able to leave on Thursday morning, boy were we wrong)
-The doctors come in and see how things are going and say i can be released on Saturday.

Saturday
-More antibiotics and IVs
-Getting excited to go home
-Pack up our stuff
-Wait
-Take a 20 minute nap
-11:30am The doctor comes and RELEASES me with a prescription!!!!

I never thought that a fever would turn into 4 days at hospital. Thank you to everyone for your calls and concerns! I have felt really blessed throughout this whole experience especially with the baby doing so well through it all. I don't think i'll ever treat a back ache the same way again : ) I'm excited to get back into the swing of things and so is Aaron! That was quite the experience.