No one else is going to care about this, but I want to remember so I'm going to blog about it. Since getting pregnant, some of my favorite things have tasted so nasty! Costco salsa has been my favorite thing since the first time I tried it. I literally could eat an entire bottle (which is not small) in two days. Now the thought of it makes me queasy. I have had a bottle sitting in my fridge since I was only 8 weeks along, and every time I see it I get grossed out. I know, I should just throw it away! The other thing that makes me sick is meat! I used to love meat, but not right now! We went to Red Robin last weekend and I got the Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Wrap. Oh man, I love that wrap! I usually eat the whole thing and wish I had a little more. I couldn't even eat half of it. Every bite with chicken was so nasty. For the most part, everything I crave is healthy. I love salad, fruits, and even vegetables right now. I do have one major, unhealthy craving lately: Salt and Vinegar potato chips! YUM!

Scary!

So, apparently I have two little creatures growing inside of me right now. And no, I do not mean that I am carrying twins. When I had my first ultrasound at about 10 weeks, the ultrasound tech noticed that I had an abnormal growth on one of my ovaries. Over a year ago, I took clomid which gave me cysts on my ovaries, as I have mentioned before. We figured it was just another cyst since I have had them before. I was worried about it, because that pain I went through when the first one burst was so intense that I never want to experience anything like that again. She assured me it would not affect the baby if it ruptured, so I was at least comforted by that. Well, the next week I met with my doctor, Dr. Jeff Jacobs, and he immediately went into details about the solid mass that appeared in my ultrasound. He was talking so fast that I sat their completely confused. When words like tumor and cancer started coming out of his mouth, I went from confused to panic-stricken. I think Dr. Jacobs realized that he had completely lost me and slowed down to explain what was going on in terms that I could understand.
Dr. Jacobs explained that the growth on my ovary did not appear to be a normal, fluid filled cyst. He described it as a solid mass, which could mean a number of things. He said that most likely it was a type of cyst that would need to be removed through surgery, but that there was a chance that it could be a tumor, and worst case scenario, cancer. He said the growth was about 8 cm. When I told Dr. Jacobs about the cyst that had rupture just a year earlier, and that the CT scan showed that I had another 5 cm cyst on my left ovary, he was certain this was the same thing, and that it had grown a little over the past year. He told me not to worry about it (which was impossible since he had used the term cancer!) because he wasn't worried about it. He did tell me that since his son had cancer as a young boy, he was extremely cautious about anything out of the ordinary. I felt very comforted in his sincerity and thoroughness. Dr. Jacobs has a specialist come up from Utah once a week, so he said they would look over my ultrasounds together, and that he would set me up with an appointment with this other guy for next month. I was so glad that he seemed to care so much. I never felt like my old doctor did.
As I left the doctor's office, I was a complete wreck. I bawled for about an hour! I just wanted everything to be perfect. I am so glad that my baby is fine and growing and healthy, but I wanted everything to be going well. Fortunately, I was able to put it all out of my mind and forgot about it. That is, until Thursday the 12th when I got a call from Dr. Jacobs. He told me that he had consulted with his specialist friend and that he said I have what is called a Dermoid, sometimes called a dermoid cyst. It is a bizarre tumor that develops before birth. So apparently this thing has been living in me my whole life. I don't know all the details of this thing, but what I do know is not fun. It is benign, with a two percent chance of becoming cancer. It grows very slowly, but is develops more fully during the child bearing years. It is like a pocket of cells that didn't go where they were supposed to. This thing inside of me is a thick, mature skin with hair follicles and sweat glands. It can grow hair, teeth, fat, bones, nails, eyes, thyroid tissue, and lots of other things. My doctor actually seemed relieved when he discovered what it is, but I about lost it. I held it together on the phone, but then got sick over the fact that I have this weird tumor thing growing on my ovary. I called Tyler and he comforted me a little bit, but then I looked up pictures. Not a good idea! When my doctor told me we would just have to keep a close eye on it to make sure it didn't grow hair or teeth, I thought he was joking. I thought that was his humorous way of saying he just wanted to make sure it didn't change or worsen. But he literally meant hair and teeth! So I feel like I have a little alien creature growing inside of me. All I want in there is my little baby! Dr. Jacobs said that the risk that comes with surgery right now is greater than the benefit, so we are going to keep an eye on it, then remove it after the baby comes. I pray every night that it doesn't rupture or worsen in any way. I am grateful to my little baby because I don't think we would have found it any time soon if I hadn't gotten pregnant. I know it sounds dramatic, but I can't help but think that maybe this baby saved my life, because I could have never gotten pregnant and the dermoid could have gone malignant before ever knowing it was there. I am grateful for the caring doctor that I found in Pocatello. I'm still a little scared about this whole situation, but I have faith that I will be okay. I do get to see my baby at every appointment because of it!

Three Years in the Making

You know how there are moments that you know from that second on, your life has just changed for the better, and that day is stuck in your memory forever? Here are a few of those days that have been the best days of my life...
June 2, 2007- I received a text message from this cute guy that I had only met for a minute a month and a half early asking me to go see Knocked Up with him.
December 24, 2007- The greatest guy I have ever known asked me to be his wife.
August 9, 2008- I married my best friend.
August 15, 2009- I was sealed in the Bountiful Temple to my husband for all eternity.
February 18, 2012- I peed on a stick and two little pink lines appeared.
Of course there are many more days in my life that I distinctly remember, but none were greater blessings than those listed above. Especially that last one.

After Tyler and I had been married for six months, we decided to stop doing anything that would prohibit us from getting pregnant. We weren't exactly trying to have a baby, but we had just decided that we didn't care to do anything to prevent it either. We planned on really trying after we got sealed, which we planned to do right after our one year wedding anniversary. As the months went by, I was never sad that I hadn't gotten pregnant, because we had only been married a short time, but I also thought it was a little strange that it hadn't happened. Or maybe I thought we were lucky. Either way, I wasn't concerned at all. The day we went through the temple, we were driving through Utah and we decided that we were officially trying to get pregnant. We were both very excited about our decision, and we started buying ovulation and pregnancy tests almost monthly. As the months went by, I started getting a little worried about the fact that it wasn't happening. Everyone else in my family got pregnant so easily that I just thought we would too. January came, and it had been five months of disappointment, but I hadn't lost hope yet. That is, until I got the news of family members and close friends pregnancies. I was very happy for everyone that was having babies, but I was also very jealous. However, I thought that I would definitely be pregnant before they had their babies. But I wasn't. Then I watched as their babies grew, had their first birthdays, their second Christmas', and I still was not pregnant.
After almost two years without any luck, I tried the fertility drug clomid, but it caused very painful cysts on my ovaries, so my doctor said that was not an option anymore. I became so bitter and angry. I could no longer be happy for people that got pregnant. I hated people that complained about pregnancy or their children. I had to stay off facebook because I wanted to freak out every time anybody announced they were having a baby, especially if they were younger than me. I was so angry and my heart was broken. Worst of all, I hated the bitter, angry person I had become. I was in an awful slump, and I just didn't know how to pull myself out of it!
Tyler's grandma is one of the most amazing people I know. I love our Grandma Jean. On Christmas night, Grandma told us that she knew someone that couldn't get pregnant so they had a priesthood blessing, and within three months they found out they were having a baby. She told us that we needed to get a blessing so of course we obeyed Grandma Jean. Tyler asked his brother Toby if he would give us blessings pertaining to our desires to become parents. Toby, and their uncle Keith layed their hands upon our heads, and gave us very kind and sincere blessings. As we left that room, I did know that I would become a mother, someday. I thought I was being told that it would have to be adoption. Tyler said he did not feel the same, but he too knew that someday he would be a father. I officially gave up, then and there. I didn't tell Tyler, or anyone else, but at this point, all hope and faith that I would ever conceive and carry my own child was gone. But I am telling you right now, always listen to and obey your elders- they know best. Just as Grandma Jean knew it, I got pregnant just a month later.

February 18, 2012

For about five days, Tyler and I were very aware of the fact that I was "late". On Friday night, I brought up this fact to Tyler, but he immediately told me not to talk about it, but he thought I might jinx it. I asked him if I should take a test and told me not yet. On Saturday, we went to Walmart where I snuck a pregnancy test into the cart. We got home, unloaded our groceries, and both went into separate bathrooms. He had no idea what I was about to do. I peed on the stick, and set it far out of sight because I wanted to wait the whole two minutes before I even looked at it. We had had plenty of disappointments before, waiting for that little thing to say yes, so I didn't even want to look at it for a minute. I got on facebook while I waited. I saw that the Harper girls basketball team, the one Tyler had coached for three years previous to this one, had just become champions at districts. Finally, I had nothing left to distract me, so I looked at the stick. There were two pink lines! I blinked twice and looked again, I didn't trust my eyes the first time. I sat their with my mouth hanging open for about a minute, just staring at the two pink lines. Then I started to cry. Tears of utter joy and shock! I ran out of the bathroom, but Tyler was still in the other one. I talked to him through the door and told him about the Harper girls' success and he was pretty excited. When he finally came out of the bathroom. I just said softly "I think I'm pregnant" and held up that little white stick. He did what I first did, stared at the test, mouth hanging open. Then said "why is one line lighter than the other? Where are the instructions?" So I took him in to the box where we read that one line may be lighter than the other. And the cheering and crying commenced. We hugged and cried and said is this real and hugged and cried and laughed. Tyler insisted that I take another test, but I told him I wanted to wait till morning. I don't think either of us slept very well that night. I took another one the next morning, and when those two little appeared again, we hugged and cried all over again! Our dreams had finally come true, and our prayers were answered. This was the best moment of my life.

I am so thankful to all my family and friends for all the prayers over the past three years. I know that my family kept praying and having faith that this would happen for us long after I lost mine. I thank my Heavenly Father day and night for this miracle. 2011 was the hardest, most painful year of my life, physically and emotionally. I know that 2012 will be equally amazing. Heavenly Father has a plan for us, and there has never been another time better than now for this to happen. Tyler and I are so excited and ready to be parents. We are honored to be given this wonderful blessing.

Home Owners!

Buying a house was the scariest thing I have ever done! Wow! But it has been so great! As I said before, we kept finding houses that we liked, putting offers on them, and having things just not work out. And it all happened for the best. When we would spend time driving around American Falls looking at homes, or search through real estate websites, I would always see this adorable house that was just out of our price range. I always thought "I would love to be able to buy a house like that." Well, one day we heard of a house that we had looked at sell for thirty thousand less than the owners were asking. At that time, we were going through all the crap with the house that we were supposed to be buying, that we were trying to get out of. Well, I told Tyler to just call the realtor selling this house we always saw, because at that point, it was like why not give it a shot. Maybe we will get lucky and get it for thirty thousand less than asking too! We looked at it, and fell in love. Then I was mad at myself for looking at something we could never afford. But we put a low offer in, just for the fun of it. We expected the owner to counter offer at least ten thousand more than what we offered and we would have to decline. But she came back with only 5 thousand more, and offered to pay closing costs! We said we would take it, but our realtor thought he could get her down another couple thousand, which he did! We ended up getting it for only three thousand more than our original offer, which was a very low offer to begin with! When we had to back out of the first house, I was so bummed because we were giving up an amazing interest rate, and I had heard the interest rates had gone up. When we called our home loan specialist to get the process of purchasing this home going, she was able to give us an even lower interest rate than the one we had just given up! Everything seriously just worked out so perfectly! We got the house of our dreams! We feel that we have been so blessed, and we know that everything we went through was just leading us to where we are now, and we are so happy to be there!

Our house has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, central a/c, a two car garage, and a huge, fully fenced in backyard. It has everything we wanted in a house. Tyler has lived in about 18 different places in his life, and this is the first time he has ever had a garage. The garage leads into the laundry room, which I love. The house has high, vaulted ceilings, beautiful pine doors throughout, and it came with all the appliances. No other house we looked at had everything we wanted. In every other house we would have either had to buy appliances, install a/c, or fence in the yard. The only thing that has dissappointed me about this house is the master closet. It is the smallest walk-in closet I have ever seen! The door can't even close with clothes hanging on the rack! Behind the door, there are shelves, but we can't even get to them. The closet door is actually in the master bathroom, so we might just take the door off, because you can't see it from in the bedroom anyways. Our master bathroom has two sinks, which is amazing! Our house in Harper had two sinks in the master bathroom, and we got so used to that. The house we rented while we waited to move into our home did not have two sinks, and I hated it! Here are a few pictures of my beautiful new home!

We closed on Wednesday, October 12. We could not wait to get out of the rental! We hoped that after we signed papers, we could move enough stuff in so that we wouldn't have to spend another night in that place. Our realtor wasn't able to get the keys to us till late that night, we couldn't get anything moved until the next day. The guy we were renting from wanted us out by the 14th, which meant we had one day to move! Tyler and I did as much as we could by ourselves, with what we could fit in our two cars. My parents came out around 6:30 Thursday night with their truck to help. Montana and Emilee weren't able to come, so we panicked a little. Tyler called the Elder's Quorum President from our new ward, and we are so grateful to him for showing up last minute, with a truck, to help. Everyone was amazing. Within only a couple of hours, we were completely moved out of the rental and into our new home! We love it!

Moving Sucks!

I know, such a negative title, but moving really sucks!

Goodbye House!

In one weeks time, We "lived" in three different houses, and had to move twice. Can you say stressful! We moved out of our summer home (the pink trailer) on August 11. We were renting someones home, so I definitely wanted to leave it cleaner than when we got there, to make it look like we were never there. They were so kind to let us stay in their house, with our dog, so I cleaned that place till it shined! We packed up all our stuff and drove back to Harper for our last few nights in our house there. I totally underestimated how hard it would be to leave my home and my life in Oregon!
The night we got back to Harper, the Harper School staff threw us a going away party. I was so touched by all the people that showed up to say goodbye. It reminded me how many wonderful people I got to know in my short three years in Harper, and just how great it is to live in a small town. Some of the best people I have ever known, I met in Harper, Oregon. The school has a tradition that they do with their seniors at graduation. They make shirts for each student that have something personal for them, usually an inside joke, or poking fun at them. They presented Tyler and I with shirts that they had made just for us. Mine said "Kelsey finally has class," referring to my first time having a full time teaching job! I love it! Years ago, Tyler made a bet with one of the students, and lost. He had to wear a dress to school because of it. The shirt he was given had a picture of a man in a dress and the words "I shouldn't have made that bet." My closest friend, Alicia Anderson, gave me a bag of ranch Doritos and cottage cheese! She knows that is my favorite snack! I was blown away by the thoughtfulness. I didn't think saying goodbye would be so difficult and so emotional. I cried myself to sleep that night...
The next six days were a whirlwind. We packed and cleaned, and cleaned and packed! I could not believe how much stuff we had. I felt like the packing would never end. We were able to squeeze in some family time for more goodbyes, though. Even though I am so excited to be close to my family again, it is going to be so hard not being by Tyler's family anymore. Saying goodbye was not easy.
Then came the big day. On August 17, we loaded up, left our home, and headed to American Falls, Idaho. On the morning of the 17th, my in-laws, Matt, Linda, Stephanie, Lane, and Trace came over and loaded us up. Matt and Linda borrowed a horse trailer from someone so we wouldn't have to rent a U-Haul. I am so grateful to them for everything they did for us! Linda sprayed and scrubbed all the horse crap out of the trailer so we could use it. Tyler, Matt, and Stephanie loaded up the trailer while Linda and I mopped, vacuumed, and cleaned the carpets. I really did not think all our stuff would fit in that trailer, but Stephanie was amazing! She found a way to fit everything in, with a little room to spare! It all took much longer than we expected, but went off much more smoothly than I expected. The biggest problem we had while loading up was with our desk. Tyler had a huge, really nice desk that we had in one of the spare rooms. We could not figure out how to get the thing out of the room! It got so beat up in attempts to move it out. We couldn't get it apart at first, but Matt finally got enough parts off to fit it out the door. We tried to put it back together in the trailer, because that would be the easiest way to fit it in, but then we couldn't figure that out. We never got it so the drawers fit back in. I don't know what we will do with it now. I wanted to post a couple of pictures to remember what the house looked like with almost all our belongings in one room. It doesn't seem like much in the pictures, but it sure seemed like a lot while packing and loading.

Before we left, we stopped off at the school in Harper so I could say my final goodbye to my dear friends Alicia and Janette. I should not have done that! I was an emotional wreck! I could not believe I was leaving the home Tyler and I began our lives together in, and I had to leave these people that mean so much to me.
The trip was very slow moving, but eventually we got to our rental in American Falls. Tyler had to leave for football practice as soon as we got there, so he didn't have to help us unload the trailer! Our good friend Blake came over to help, and we really appreciated that. Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly with the move as it seemed... The first thing we saw when we opened the trailer was that my TV stand was completely crushed. It had snapped in half then buckled under all the weight that had been stacked on it. I was bummed, but I wasn't going to get to worked up about it. However, the next thing we pulled out was my big, brand new, beautiful bookshelf. It had huge dings in a couple of the shelves and a huge scratch down the side. I tried so hard to keep my cool, but tears just started coming. Then I noticed that one of the rails to our headboard had slid out of place. It had slid into another beautiful, short bookshelf we had, and the metal part of it had apparently been rubbing against it the whole ride. It rubbed off the finish on a big section and wore a hole into the wood. That really got me going. I was flat out crying at this point. I thought that was all the damage that had been done. All my decorations got there in one piece, and everything else looked fine. Me and Linda wanted to be done and leave the rest for Tyler when he got home from practice, so we left for a little drive and to buy some drinks. When we got back, Matt and Blake had unloaded everything else! It wasn't until the next day that I noticed my kitchen table also did not make it unscathed. It got a huge chunk taken out of the edge of it! All my furniture looks like crap!
That week was an emotional roller coaster for me. I hope to eventually, some time down the road, make it back to the Vale area, but I also never want to move again! I am so grateful to all the people that helped us get to where we are now. Moving sucked, but I am glad we had Matt and Linda there to help me through it. I don't know what we would have done without them. Now, once we get into our new home, my family will get to help us move again! Can't wait... NOT!

The Frustrations of Trying to Buy a House

So, Tyler and I started looking for a house in American Falls in early July. We knew that we didn't have a whole lot of time to buy one before we had to be in American Falls for Tyler to start coaching, but school didn't start till September 6, so we thought we had enough time before then. Obviously, we had no idea how frustrating buying a house could be! We went to American Falls with our realtor and looked at about six houses. We looked at this little twin home and actually loved it. We weren't sure if it would be the smartest idea to buy a twin home, but the house came with all the appliances, including washer and dryer, a/c, and a fully fenced in yard; all things that we were hoping for. The owner of the twin home also offered to sell us her bedroom set in her guest room, and a couch and love seat for a really good deal. We have no couches and this room had a living room and a family room we would need to furnish, so that would really help us out a ton! We were so excited about this place. We took my parents to look at it, and they seemed to think it was a pretty good place for our first home, but that the price was a little too high. We gave the lady an offer, which was lower than her asking price, but still very reasonable. She came back with a counter offer $5,000 over her asking price! Who does that!?! We countered again, still not at her asking price, but what we thought was top dollar for what the place was worth. Well, she got really sick and decided to take her house off the market. So we moved on...
One day, Tyler and I decided to just drive around American Falls on our own, looking for For Sale signs. It is a small enough place that we saw just about every single house for sale in town. We called our realtor and gave him a list of ten or so houses we wanted to see. We did not like any of them! At this point, we were actually really happy that the twin home didn't work out, because we decided we would so much rather have our very own home, not a house attached to someone elses. The houses we looked at the second time around all had horrible basements that felt more like dungeons than living spaces. On the way out of town, I told the realtor about a house I had seen on line that I forgot to list for him to show us. He said we could just drive by it and see if we could take a look at it. The owners weren't home, and their realtor said we could just go on in. It was a really nice, new, big house, in the best neighborhood! We loved it. It was for sale for much cheaper than it was worth, but we found out that was because the owners were losing it. They were just hoping they could sell it for what they had left on the loan, before it got foreclosed on them. We hurried and put in an offer, and within minutes of them recieving the offer, they got the call that the house was being foreclosed on immediately. So, that didn't work out. I was really bummed about that one.
The searched started again. This time, I got on craigslist to see if there was anything on there that we hadn't seen yet, and we found two homes that looked very promising. One was a cute, blue, cottage-like-home right across from my school. Well, the outside was cute. The inside was awful with a dugeon basement. The other house was way out of town, out in the country. When we pulled up to it, we weren't too impressed at first. It sat on an acre lot, but the yard hadn't really been taken care of. The house itself looked good, but the yard was very unappealing. But then we walked inside. It was beautiful! It was a two story home, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms. It was a very old home, but had been completely remodeled, down to the studs. The owners told us all about the house and everything they had done with it in the remodel. We had found our house! It was a great price, especially for how big it and the lot was. They told us the house had appraised for $25,000 more than the asking price, but that they weren't really trying to make money off of it. So we put in an offer, they accepted, and we started getting everything ready. We could not have been more excited! The only down side was that the home had renters in it and the owners wanted to give them sixty days to move out. That put our closing date on October 1st. Since we had to be in American Falls by the middle of August, we did not know what we were going to do. We called around to every apartment complex between American Falls and Pocatello, but nobody would let us rent month to month, with a pet. I got on craigslist again, since it had helped us find our home, and looked up rentals. One of the houses we had looked at the first time around was now up for rent. We called the owners, and they hadn't had anybody interested in renting or buying the place at all. So he agreed to let us rent his house for a month and a half, with our pet, but for a steep price. We really didn't have any other choice though. But at least we had a place to stay and everything finally felt like it was working out!
We sort of drug our feet with moving the process of buying the home along, since we couldn't get in till October 1st. After a couple weeks, we finally got the inspection. That changed everything! I knew a man from my home ward growing up that did home inspections. I am so grateful to him! He did us the biggest favor of our lives! After he did the inspection, we went through the house with him and he showed us everything he had found. And boy, did he find a lot! He saw that the foundation was just stacked lava rock and would not have passed inspection for a loan. He found so many things that proved that the remodel was obviously not inspected or approved by the proper authorities. There is just too much to even mention that he found wrong with the place! The renters were there and they told us their power bills got up to $600 in the winter, and $300 in the summer and there isn't even a/c in the house! There was no access to the attic, so we couldn't even see if the house was insulated at all! They told us that in the winter they would catch about five mice a day, that the toilets were plumbed with hot water, and that one bedroom didn't have any heat. Then we learned that all the bathroom fixtures were the renters and they planned on taking all of them with them, so we would not have had mirrors, towel racks, or toilet paper holders in both bathrooms! We were so glad the renters were there to tell us these things!
As we were leaving the house after the inspection, we knew that we needed to get out of buying that house. It has not been an easy process. The owners, who seemed so honest and respectable, have turned out to be pretty shady characters! They are now fighting us for the earnest money. They are millionare farmers, with a million dollar home, and we are poor teachers barely able to scrape by, but they want our $300! I have never been more frustrated than I am with trying to buy a stupid house!
After all this, we checked back into the forecloser home that we liked, but it isn't going to be back on the market for quite a while. We found out that a house we had looked at was sold for $30,000 less than asking price, so it gave us hope and we expanded our search. Last week, we looked at a home that I saw online many times, but it was out of our price range so I never considered it. We decided to just walk through it, and it was our favorite house of all that we looked at, by far! We are currently in the process of negotiation with the owners, but I don't want to jinx our chances, so I'm not going to say any more about that now. All I can say is wwish us luck!!

Our Nieces and Nephews

I love love love being an aunt! I am a very proud one! Since Tyler and I don't have any children of our own, we love to be with our nieces and nephews. We have 14 of them, with another one on the way, and are pretty sure we have the cutest ones in the world! Even the big teenage boys are stinkin cute! I just wanted to show them off...

We had a family dinner with Tyler's family our last Sunday in Oregon and we were so glad we were able to see everyone (well, almost everyone)! We missed having Braxton there with us!