The BEST surprise I have ever had...Disneyland!

2 weeks ago, during one of my sadness and crying sessions, I mentioned to Jack how I just wanted to get away. I needed something to look forward to, but I knew we couldn't afford it. (That made me cry more) Jack did his best to make me feel better, knowing that that very day he had started plotting a surprise with his mission buddy Dave to take me to Disneyland. Of course when I heard that Dave had helped Jack put this all together with a few hook ups and suggestions for Jack I cried more. It was the nicest thing for him to be so mindful of us.

When we got there Jack saw how excited I was, and happy that he arranged for a two day visit with the help of his Grandparents. They were so mindful and sent us a little something for our anniversary. In the end we were SO glad that we had the chance to do that. Needless to say, I didn't have the energy to play hard in the park. Jack spent most of the time running around while I rested so we could eat or get a fast pass. I felt so lame, but so happy at the same time.
We got Just Married buttons because we were counting this as the honeymoon we missed out on a year ago. It was the best decision we've ever made! Everyone was so nice to us. The attention was great, we felt extra special. Jack had never been to Disneyland so feeling extra special was just that much more exciting. We got to ride in the front of rides, the cut off for character pictures was just behind us. The cast members refused to let us take individual pictures, and would go out of their way to take extras.

Jack will say that the California Screamin' and Space Mountain were is favs. But he also said he was really impressed with the Sorin over California ride. I have all kinds of favorites, but my favorite this time was being able to go INSIDE the castle. It's just a walk through of the Sleeping Beauty story. I still get butterflies from this because I have been bugging the poor customer service people on the phone for years about the castle. I can really say my dreams have come true in Disneyland every time I have been.

Good afternoon, My name is Russel and I am a wilderness explorer in tribe 54.....

I have watched a lot of movies. Crazy enough, not a ton. Currently I am watching UP. Today I spent some time with Brittany. She helped me get some shopping done. Then I went to drop off some paperwork at the hospital. Then Jack came home. I have spent most of my time around people today which has been pleasant. What I am trying to say is, I have only watched 2 movies today. Up and Ice Age 3.

I have had a lot of help, and I have really appreciated it. People have brought me food, I have had wonderful gifts and notes in the mail/email. I am an extremely loved person. I

I feel alright, just generally uncomfortable, tired, and out of breath. I have developed some terrible headaches.But the good thing is there is no immediate danger says the doctor. My six inch bruise from my blown vein IV attempt is starting to fade, but hurts pretty bad. The actual area of the IV is starting to develop a large bump. Again the doctor says "no problem unless it gets hot and you get a fever." so no death in the near future.

I want to go back to where I said people have brought me dinner. I have met several people from my ward and one in particular I have to talk about.

She told us the amazing story of the birth of her daughter. I think she came 2 months early. The girl said she fell and about a week later she had some bleeding and cramping. Being worried they went to the emergency room. There they found her baby at the bottom of her pant leg, still in the sac. They rushed her to the labor and delivery floor where they got the baby out of her pants but unfortunately they thought it may be too late because it had fallen our of her body a while before they got to the hospital. Well one nurse didn't want to give up, so 101 dalmatians style she rubbed the baby's back and after a few min. a breath and a cry! The baby had to be flown to Ogden where she spent the rest of her time until being able to come home. On her records at the hospital it says "baby found in mom's pants."

Tomorrow Tessa is going to take me on a carriage ride. I also have my first meeting with the Share Parents that came and helped me take pictures of the twins in the hospital. They have speakers once a month. It's like a little support group. I feel like my blog was a little choppy today, and no pictures. I can try and take some tomorrow, oh and this weekend when we go to Provo/Highland/Springville/Salt Lake and Eagle Mountain.

Our First Anniversary!

We are so excited that we have reached our first year! Jack and I both agree that we have grown a lot. Here are a few stats since one year ago:

We've had 4 different apartments

We have set foot in 11 states

1000 meals cooked, 800 by Jack

Fish owned: 4

wanted to get a dog 103 times

We doubled our movie collection

one calling in church

nights we procrastinated the dishes, 50

58 memorable experiences

We are still so happy and very much in love. It's been wonderful year. We wouldn't take anything back, it was ALL something worth experiencing.

*numbers and stats are purely for entertainment purposed. They may be exaggerated, altered or completely untrue. *

A week after we found out our news, we had another ultra sound with my Doctor. The picture was so sad this time. There weren't heartbeats anymore. It was impossible to really tell what happened, so our Doctor encouraged us to keep our appointment with the Perinatologist to see if he had something to say. Unfortunately by the time we got there, things were changing so much there wasn't going to be anything to see. He said that he agreed that what we were seeing was the bladder, but he was confused at the idea that it would have caused a problem so fatal for the both of them. He has never seen that before. He suggested that the best way to try and find any answers was to see them from the outside and run a few tests. That's when we decided that being induced was going to be our best option.

I went into the hospital the next day. I can't give you any specific names of the drugs they used, mostly because I don't know how to spell them. They didn't use the regular drugs to induce labor because I was at a different stage in my pregnancy and my body wouldn't have responded. I had pills that would dissolve and enter my blood stream. We started by keeping them in my mouth. This got my body going pretty speedy and with in six hours, my water had broken. On the down side over the next 12 hours the pills did not dissolve, thus the labor stopped. By the time they figured that out and tried again, it was like having to start over. Because my water broke really early on, they had to watch me very carefully, and after a while were very concerned because it was coming to the point of danger because I wasn't progressing and I can't just let my body sit in that state forever. I have never prayed so hard in my life for something to happen so I would be able to see and hold my babies.

After 36 long hours of labor, the Lord blessed me and I gave birth to my twin boys at 6:30 Monday morning. They came seconds apart. However my placenta didn't because my cervix closed and pinched the placenta in half causing me to bleed almost uncontrollably. They rushed me back for a DNC to clean me out and in an hour I came back to my two beautiful children. Some volunteers came from the hospital with group called Share Parents and took tender pictures for me to keep and gave me a few things to keep in a box to hold as a memory. I got to hold them for several hours.. I ache to hold my children again. I now understand what that is when people say it. It's imaginable but no one will understand fully unless it has happened to them. Oddly I am not bitter about anything having to do with babies, not having them and such. I am sad and at peace that everything is as it was intended. I am forever humbled. I hope this change of heart is helpful in some way of making me worthy of another of Heavenly Father's children. We are lucky, and the Lord must see something special in Jack and I to have assigned us two special spirits right off the bat. I am in awe. We are still waiting to find any results, but until then I am up for questions. Please email them to me, as responding to comments is not something I am comfortable with.

GUESS WHAT WORLD......

WE ARE HAVING TWINS!

It was such a surprise! I wasn't feeling very good last week, and I was concerned. I went into the doctor before our scheduled ultrasound with my doctor. My doctor has been in Hawaii with his family, so another friendly Doctor saw me. Before we started the ultra sound, the Doc checked me out and said "You sure are big, how far along are you? 11 weeks?" So when we saw two on the screen he was just giggling to himself that he thought so. Both babies are measuring at 12 weeks and a couple days, so they are a good size and show a lot of promise.
One little buddy they think has a bladder issue. It was kicking and moving a lot, and there was plenty of fluid above him to suggest that it hasn't been a problem the whole time. Never the less, we will be seeing a specialist next friday to make sure that he is ok. I was told that this isn't an uncommon issue and they have ways of fixing it. For now, we just try to focus on how excited we are.

2 tales of cars

We have a little parking lot for our fourplex. Our neighbor, as sweet as he is drives a GIANT extended cab full sized old truck. It's the longest truck I have ever seen. The issue is he doesn't pull all the way up in the parking spot. The truck is generally 6 to 10 feet back from where it could be/should be. Today, it was at least 15 feet back, literally in the very middle of the lot. If we had two cars this would be a big deal. But we don't, so I can't be mad, but I am going to justify being a little annoyed that I can't back into our spot.

Another story, last week I drove out to Cornish (about 30 min out in the country) to watch the Miss America pageant with my friend Coleen. I had a wonderful time and she and her daughter are so fun. The story is on my way home. So it's dark, and I am a chicken. My first move is to get the ipod out and plug it in so I can listen to some music on my way home. I turned on the dome light to make sure nobody was hiding in my back seat. Well, i was starting down the road and the music wasn't working. I pressed all kinds of buttons, nothing. so I pick up the ipod and I hear a bang/thud in the truck. I just about peed my pants; somebody had to be in the trunk. So I am thinking a million miles a min about how I am going to get to a safe place before the creep in the trunk makes it to the inside of the car with me. In my panic my first thought is "turn up the bass and the music in the back so blast out his ears so I can call Jack and find a place to pull into." so I flipped all the appropriate dials and picked the ipod back up to find something loud. Thats when I noticed the adapter wasn't plugged in all the way. Obviously I pushed it in all the way and I heard (loud because of the bass and setting switched) another crack/thud. It was then I realized there was no psycho killer in my trunk, it was my cheap audio set up in my car making that noise. I feel so silly.

My new invention

I have a terrible cold so last night I made a tent over the top of our bed so I could turn on the humidifier with some Vicks in it.

I took a fitted sheet and hung it from an edge of the long side. I then tucked the lower elastic edges on the mattress like it was designed for. So now I had to flaps of elastics up top.

I then took a small spring loaded skinny curtain rod and stretched it straight out from the window into the elastic cuff flap, and then pulled the other side over the top of the same rod. Then the obvious thing, I tucked the humidifier inside the tent on the side of the bed resting on my nightstand to hold it up.
I went to the doctor and things are looking up, but slowly. Perhaps now with my new drugs I can get some sleep at night.

Something else I wrote on my other blog, I got invited to be the friend of a girl named amy on facebook. I didn't know her, but quickly deduced that she was only adding people named Amanda to her list of friends, and one guy named adama. I figured there was something wrong with that, a serial killer perhaps, stalker, Not actually a girl named Amy. None of these things were looking good.

The neighbors downstairs have been smoking up a storm lately. Well neighbor and other neighbor's kid's and/or friends. That has been lovely. Now we just have to figure out if the dad knows. We'll keep you updated.