Health Scare

(By Aubree)

Don't worry the baby's fine. But I had a weird thing happen this last week. It all started last week some time when I found that I had lost the use of some of my taste buds. There was an odd sensation where it felt a little tingly and cool like I had just brushed my tongue with toothpaste. I didn't know what to think because I had gone to the orthodontist to have my retainer removed from my bottom teeth because it had become detatched from some of my teeth, and he scraped off the cement and they did an impression for a new retainer. They didn't inject me with anything, but I thought either something got on my tongue, or my toothpaste had something in it that I was reacting to, so I changed my toothpaste.

Then on Wednesday night for some reason I couldn't make a puckering face. The right side of my lips were droopy, kind of like when you get numb at the dentist, but I didn't feel numb. When I had thought about it, the night before I realized that my lips felt a little weird, but didn't put much thought into it. Then I put my warm hand on the right side of my face and I could tell that it was a little warm, but then I put my hand on the left side and it felt a lot warmer. So my right side of my face was losing sensation a little bit.

Okay, who wouldn't freak out just a little bit? Of course I started to think that I had had a stroke or something had happened with my brain. Nevertheless I slept that night and called my Doctors nurse in the morning and she wanted me to come in to see my doctor. I was trying my best to stay calm, but still was freaking out. I called the pharmacist I was working with that day and told him I had to get into the doctor and when I explained what was going on, he said that it sounded like a type of herpes virus that attacks the nerves in your face. Okay, that sounds kind of horrible, but it sounds a lot better than a stroke or something. It's so great to constantly get free medical advise from the smart people that I work with!

I went in to see my doctor and explained everything. I showed him my puckering face, and he had me do other exercises like squint my eyes. When I did this my right eye didn't close as much as my left eye. He had me raise my eyebrows, but that looked fine. He had come to the same conclusion that my pharmacist had. It was a virus attacking the nerves in my face. The good news is in minor cases, such as mine, the damage isn't permanant. I am now on Prednisone which is a steroidal anti-inflammatory that will decrease the inflammation which will hopefully resolve this whole thing. The bad thing about taking this is my pharmacist said it could make my baby big. The good thing is that it's what they inject unborn babies with when doctors want to deliver the baby early due to health problems with the mom to develop the babies lungs.

Later at work my pharmacist and I came to the conclusion that it was brought on by stress like other herpes virus' such as shingles and cold sores. It has been beyond stressful at work, and I couldn't do anything after work because I was so tired. Then of course my housework got neglected so I would stress out more. When Jeff would cook or clean it would stress me out even more because I know he has stressful, long days at work too and I would feel guilty. And on top of all of that, my baby is coming in 2 months and I don't have the nursery even started, and we have a bunch of stuff we still need to get!! Ahhhhhh!! I cut back on my hours a little bit this week and finally had a day off after working for 8 straight days, so this week has improved a little bit. It's still a little stressful at work, because we have mostly new people who I have to train, but I only have about five more weeks of work before I quit!! yay!!

Funny Quirks

(By Aubree)

I've been tagged...Quirks!

Here are the rules: list 6 quirks about yourself. Tag 6 more people, tell who tagged you!! Heidi tagged me! So, here are my quirks...

1. These first 2 are going to make everyone think I am absolutely nuts! Oh well, I guess I kind of am. If I step on a crack in the side walk with one foot, then I can't go very long without stepping on a crack with the other. It's not like I have to step on all the cracks or anything, but if I do happen to step on one, I have to repeat with my other foot. Weird, I know.

2. So I might be a little OCD. When I'm riding in a car, I have to either flinch my foot towards something on the side of the road like a sign or road marker, or move my finger or or knee or elbow when I pass something on the side of the road. It used to bother me, but I hardly even notice anymore.

3. Now for the not so crazy quirks. I shave my left leg first. I used to have a problem with only shaving one of my legs, and forgetting the other, or maybe I shaved one of them twice. I am not one of those girls who can go 3 or 4 or more days without shaving either, I have to shave everyday. Now I know if I am done shaving my right leg, I am done.

4. I have an absolute fear of spiders. I become paralyzed if I see one, then I scream bloody murder. Jeff really hates this. He tells me I have no right to scream like that unless I've cut of a finger or have some kind of bodily harm. He sometimes even refuses to kill it for me, because he wants to make me stronger by making me kill them myself. I blame my father who would chase my sisters, mom, and me around the house with cat-face spiders.

5. I have to have a plan. I'm not exactly the most organized person in the world, but I am a planner. I think I can blame, or thank my mom for this. She always made sure we had a plan when we were going somewhere with our friends, which is a good thing. If I don't have a plan I panic a little. It can be anything from planning what to eat for dinner, to planning a vacation, to when we will set up the baby's room.

6. I have t-shirts that I wear to bed that I got in high school. I can't seem to throw away some of them, if I just wear it to bed I don't see why not. I can't really see a point in buying new t-shirts to wear to bed unless I will be wearing it at someone elses house.

I tag... Amelia, April, Lyndzi, Anna, Nicole, and Emily.

3rd Trimester

(By Aubree)

It's here! I'm officially in my 3rd trimester. I would say finally here, but it's gone so fast, and I'm not ready for it to be done. I have very few complaints this far. I guess that's easy to say since the morning sickness happened so long ago, but lately it's been pretty great. I love that I can feel her more than ever. Every night I play with her (i.e. poke her and try to tickle her feet!) to see if she will respond to me, and I like to think that she does. It's my favorite past time to just lay there and feel her move.

Lyndzi this picture is mostly for you! You keep asking me to post a picture, and here it is finally!

Snow and Soup

(By Aubree)


As a lot of you know, we had our first snow storm of the season! I don't necessary love or hate snow, but there's just something about the first snowfall that is just so exciting. This is what we woke up to on Sunday morning. These pictures were taken at about 12:30, so a little bit had melted, but we still have a little bit on the ground today.


And it just so happened that we were planning on making garbanzo soup. Every year, we get together with Jeff's Basque missionary friends and their wives. As part of the yearly get-together, we make a big Spanish meal, which always includes a big pot of garbanzo soup. Because we didn't get together this year, we haven't had our yearly "fix" of garbanzo soup, so we decided to make our own. The main ingredients are Spanish chorizo, garbonzo beans, and potatoes. It was delicious, and it just happened to be perfect for our snow day.

Thanks Brad for the recipe! It just wasn't the same without you guys! You know who you are. There's always next year.

Calling all Moms!!!

(by Aubree)

The majority of our readers are parents, and I need your help. Even if you're not a parent, if you have any advice please give it.

I am trying to find a stroller for our forthcoming baby. Wow, is it a marketing scheme or are there really that many different kind of strollers? I was looking at a jogging stroller. I don't really jog all that much, but I plan on taking a lot of walks come spring, and I thought maybe a jogging stroller would maneuver better than a one with four wheels. But then I thought maybe for regular use it might not be as stable.

I don't want to spend too much, but I want it to be safe and a good ride for baby. I'm sure some of you have been in my situation and have a preference. I need to hear from all of you experts out there what stroller you like and why. Thanks in advance.

Our cruise to Alaska

(by Jeff)

Last week we spent a wonderful and relaxing week in Alaska. Below are short posts and some pictures from each day of our cruise. We took hundreds of pictures during our cruise, but unfortunately we can't put all of them on here. We tried to pick out a few that we liked, but the pictures don't do justice to the beauty and majesty of Alaska.

Our cruise was with Princess cruiselines. We cruised with Princess on our honeymoon to the Caribbean and we had a great experience, so we went with Princess again. This time, we were on the Golden Princess. The boat is huge! It weighs 109,000 tons and carries 2,600 passengers and 1,100 crew members. It was built in 2001 and cost $450 million.

We had a lot of fun visiting the different cities, viewing wildlife, hiking, and seeing glaciers. We also had a lot of fun on the boat. There were lots of activities, great entertainment, and good food--lots and lots of food.

Overall, it was a great week, and we were sad that it had to come to an end.

The Golden Princess

This is another Princess ship that we passed during our cruise, but it looks exactly like the ship that we were on.

Inside the Golden Princess

Day 1: Seattle

(by Jeff)

Although our cruise didn't leave until Saturday, we went up to Seattle a day early to spend some time with our friend John and Emily Burnette. (John was one of my mission companions in Spain.) For dinner, John and Emily took us to a Vietnamese restaurant for pho, which is a Vietnamese soup. Aubree really enjoyed pho--in fact, one of the first things she did when we got home was to look up pho restaurants in Utah.

We enjoyed spending time with the Burnettes, and we are especially grateful for John picking us up at the airport and dropping us off at our boat.

Day 2: Leaving Seattle

(by Jeff)

On day 2, we boarded our boat in Seattle and headed out to sea.