Our Life as of Lately... and the Past year!

Well Hello Blogger World!!! I think that it has been way too long since I have made a visit :-) I have so much that I have to catch up on.

This past year has gone by in a blur! My last blog post was announcing my first pregnancy,well that pregnancy was very short lived. I miscarried at 7 weeks. I know that I wasn't that far along, but it was a very rough time. For those of you that have had the unfortunate experience of a miscarriage you know that you feel the biggest feeling of loss and disappointment.

Shortly after my miscarriage, Jake and I moved to Ketchikan, AK. We drove the car on a 17 hour drive to Bellingham, WA, where we boarded the Ferry. It was a 3 day ferry trip from there to Ketchikan.

These are just a few of the pictures that we have from our ferry ride. We had alot of fun on the ship. It was like a mini cruise. We didn't want to pay $250 plus a night for a mini sized room to sleep in, so we slept in the theater room. They had cushions on the seats that came off and we used them as pads. I unfortunately, get motion sickness really easily and had to live on Dramamine. We met alot of neat people on the ferry ride, alot of them were retired people that we just traveling.

We arrived in Ketchikan on August 29, 2010. We were greeted by a very welcoming Ron and Vicki. It was so good to see them. I immediately started working the next day and The Gateway Center for Human Services as a Behavior Health Associate. That was an experience that I will forever be grateful for. I learned to be very appreciative of my health. I worked with many people that were struggling with mental, substance and physical abuse, and ages that ranged from preschool to adults. There were some clients that would come into our office so sad, and after having just an hour of therapy from any of our therapists, they would leave with a huge load removed from their shoulders. It was great to be part of such an amazing team of people.

We were welcomed into a great LDS ward, and we enjoyed every Sunday that we had there. They were all so great. I was called to be a primary teacher for the 7-8 year olds, and I loved it. Those kids taught me more about the Gospel than I did them.

Since I had had my miscarriage, we had been trying again to conceive, and in October of 2010, I had a positive pregnancy test. I was soooo excited. I was really nervous though, I didnt want to get myself excited and have the disappointment that followed if I were to miscarry again. I didnt tell anyone that I was pregnant until about 12 weeks along. That was a very hard secret to keep. I scheduled my first appointment and was very relieved to see a strong heartbeat. Our baby was real! That first ultrasound just looked like a little lima bean, but it was still sooo dang cute!

Soon after finding out that I was pregnant, I came down with a severe case of bronchitis. I was coughing non-stop day and night. And then I got another round of kidney stones... or so I thought! Jake had me go the ER for my coughing and pain from "kidney stones," after a quick urine test, I was told that I was only experiencing tendon stretching from being pregnant. Boy was I embarrassed. :-) They sent me home with an inhaler for my bronchitis and said to stick out with the back pain. I had spent the last week sleeping on the hardwood floor because it relieved my "kidney stone" pain. Ha ha!

I had the idea that i was going to try and do a natural birth with no drugs, but I was soon faced with reality when I found out that there would not be an option for an epidural if I stayed in Alaska. We made the decision to move back to Utah, not only because of the epidural, but that did play a HUGE part in the decision. We purchased plane tickets for me and ferry tickets for Jake and the car. The family flew Brian out to Alaska for Thanksgiving so that he could ferry back with Jake. We enjoyed a very good Thanksgiving holiday with Ron and Vicki, it was a nice send off for us. We thoroughly enjoyed spending the time that we did with them. It was great to get to know them, since I hadnt really gotten the chance before that.

The flight home was miserable, I was in the middle of my bronchitis which meant I had lots of nasal plugging. Taking off and landing made my ears pop and snap, which was very painful. The trip couldnt have gone faster. I was very relieved when I landed in Salt Lake.

Soon after moving back to Utah, my grandparents offered their basement apartment to us. That was such a great thing for us at the time, we were struggling to find Jake or myself employment. Little did we know, that was going to be nearly a 7 month battle.

In January we had to experience the loss of our niece, Arianna Lane. She had been fighting a nearly two year battle with LCH, and she lost that struggle in January. We were able to spend many hours with Ari and her family at Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake. We were able to get to know Ari's sweet spirit, which is why we asked Travis and Haley's permission to name our baby after theirs.

For Valentines Day, my mom and Jake took me to Fetal Studios in South Towne Mall. We were there to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. It didnt take long for the technician to see that we were having a girl!! My mom had been telling me throughout the pregnancy that I would be having a girl, so all she could say was I told you so. Jake and I were both excited, it just took Jake a little longer to realize it!!

The next few months went by really quick and fairly smoothly. I made the decision to go back to Kroger in May and I was planning on working up until I had the baby, which was supposed to be nearly 8 weeks. But our little Ashtyn had other plans.