Long Time No Post...

Once upon a time I was amazing at recording memories via my personal journal. Sadly I have become terrible at it-HORRIBLE. I admit I feel like life keeps happening faster and faster but that is not excuse. One day some one is going to ask and I will have to say-" I wish I would have wrote this down." 

So here is the skinny on the last 7 months.

October-the beautiful trees change color, Keaton had a Jake and the Never land Pirate Birthday Party.

November-Thanksgiving. 2 turkey dinners

December-Christmas. I got a pearl ring and I LOVE it!!!

January-Moved into our first home. I fell broke my leg, in McCall too. It was horrible. The drive back to Boise was the WORST car ride of my life. I went from being a roll your ankle kind of gal to a broken ankle kind of gal. One surgery later I am the proud owner of 5 screws, a metal plate, and a 5 inch scar.

February-Spent the month on one leg. Huge shout out to all our family who helped. My mom extended her stay (she was here when I fell) was here for the first half of the month and Cody's mom helped pick up  and watch Keaton. For Valentine's Day Cody bought me (us) Wicked tickets!!!!

March-I started walking, went back to work and turned 30. Along with talking in our new ward we also got callings-I am the Primary Chorister and Cody is the Assistant Scout Master. 

April-Continued to learn to walk again. Had surgery again to take 2 of the screws out. This turned into a mess because the screws came out as 5 pieces instead of 2. Went to Wicked!!!! Row M. It was AMAZING!

May-So far I am continuing to heal. Tomorrow I have my stitches out!  Hopefully it is the end of doctor appointment, or at least these types of appointment and we can start the fertility appointment in the next month or two.

Summer Goals/Plans:
Grow an AMAZING vegetable garden. 
Keep all of my flowers alive. 
Can, pickle, paste, and jam produce from the garden
Start an official side photography business.
Get pregnant!!!!

So that is it for us. Happy it is almost half way through 2014!!!

Story Trail and Camel's Back Park-March

Keaton wanted to climb the hill. Cody told him they could do it but Keaton had to walk up the whole way by himself. He did it. In the last picture they are at the top of the hi waving.

Deer Flat Wildlife Refuge-March 10th

Progress

2013 has been a year of progress, trying something new, disappointments and hope.

After 4 months of Clomid, a month of nervousness and a month waiting I am a few days away from my appointment with Dr. Slater, the Reproductive Endocrinologist. I am excited and anxious but ready for some answers. Ready to have a firm plan, hopefully progress that can be monitored with the future of a baby. 

Thank you for all the love, support and encouragement. It has been an emotional and hormonal journey. The most enlightening part of the journey has been the stories that I have heard from others struggling. Many friends have sent private messages sharing there successes and failures.

I know that whatever happens there is a plan. I struggling trying to understand the plan but know that I can't always see the big picture, the eternal view.

I have always loved these words from Elder Oaks.

The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith means trust—trust in God’s will, trust in His way of doing things, and trust in His timetable. We should not try to impose our timetable on His. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said:

“The issue for us is trusting God enough to trust also His timing. If we can truly believe He has our welfare at heart, may we not let His plans unfold as He thinks best? The same is true with the second coming and with all those matters wherein our faith needs to include faith in the Lord’s timing for us personally, not just in His overall plans and purposes.” ¹

Commit yourself to put the Lord first in your life, keep His commandments, and do what the Lord’s servants ask you to do. Then your feet are on the pathway to eternal life.

Working on Faith...Trusting!!!

Stranded on a River Beach for Four Hours at Night

It is amazing the situation that we find ourselves in and the steps we do to remove ourselves from these situation.  Looking back on our lives gives us a great opportunity to learn and become a better person.  Whether it is the best or worse situation in our lives, we can always learn something.  We would be fools not to.  The situation that I found myself yesterday night and this morning has taught me a few great survival lessons on what to do and what not to do. 

                Living in Idaho I have a great many opportunities to be on streams, rivers and lakes.  Last year I went down the Banks run on the Payette River at midnight with no lights or moon… and it was amazing.  Growing up in Boy Scouts I was costumed to expanding my comfort zone in the wild and going above and beyond what I would normally do.  With this ever expanding adventure attitude I have prepared myself or so I thought, to survive in the wild if needs be.

                On August 6, 2013 our family friends, their friends from out of town and my family decided to go tubing the Main Payette River in Emmett Idaho.  The estimate time to tube the Main Payette River is anywhere between one and half to three hours.  Sunset for that day was 9:00 pm; we launched our tubes and raft around 7:30 giving us only exactly an hour and half for tubing the river.  This would work perfectly if there were no incidents, accidents or lollygagging around but a strait shot down the river.  Although I am not afraid of being on a river after dark it is not the best idea because of water hazards.

                Experience is a great, but when your experience of tubing is going about one or two miles per hour down a river with what would be consider a class zero rapid, you don’t have much compare too.  Add the elements of dark night, a river you’re not familiar with, rapids that you consider dangerous and you have a perfect equation for fear.  Fear stops people from acting and puts them at danger.  We encountered fear on our rafting trip and this lead us to spending four hours on a beach, stranded and waiting for relief. 

                9:00pm. “We’re done.”  This statement stopped three adults and a child from finishing our tubing trip.  After wading up to the beach through a rough current I informed the other two that our common friend would be back to get us.  Instantaneously I had thoughts cascading through my brain on survival such as: how long would that be?  How much would the temperature drop that night?  Are there any poisonous snakes, bugs or plants on this beach?  How are we to get protection? Can I build a fire?  Are there any animals that can harm us out here?  Are the other children ok?  Did everyone else make it out ok?  Can I walk back to civilization?

                Despite my fear of being laughed at I started trying to make a fire by the Bow Drill and Fire Plow methods, neither worked despite my constant struggle and prayers.   Realizing that was getting colder and the mother and child would only be in their swimming suits for who knows how long; we tore a hole in a floatation tube and dried it by rubbing dirt, sand and grass all over until it became dry and warm.  Placing the mother and child parallel to each other for warmth and against a dirt wall for reflecting body heat, we placed the deflated tube on top of them and started breaking off branches with leaves to place on top of the tube, mother, child and wall to create a natural enclosure.  Once they were covered to their shoulders we packed dirt, sand and grass underneath the tube to fill in the gaps.  This natural enclosure helped capture their body heat and trap it.  We also eventually took the remaining inflatable tubes and build a “wall” between them and the river stopping the cold breeze from the rapids hitting them.  The child eventually said that he was warm and had stopped shivering.

                After I started shivering I rubbed dirt onto by body to help trap in body heat.  We saw flash lights (same ones in the My Survival in a Bottle) shortly afterwards across the river looking around and trying to see across to the other side.  The flash lights were bright enough that we were able to see the light a couple hundred yards away.  We got up and started waving and yelling to get their attention.  We knew they had seen us because they pointed their lights at us and flashed them multiple times. 

Staying next to the rapids the entire time while we waited was a good and bad decision.  The good part was that is where we got out of the river and didn't move.  Allowing our friend to know where we were to entire time.  The bad part about staying by the rapids was that it is loud and we couldn't hear very well.

An hour later a rescue party came up behind us following our friend’s flashlights from across the river.  They had followed our friend’s flashlight from the across the valley where they started to get to us.  Using signals flashlights signals our friend and rescue party were able to communicate to where we were. 

After walking through a couple fields, bogs and ditches we were sore footed, blistered, scratched and poked from trees, barbwire, goat heads, thicker plants and rocks.  We arrived at a dirt road that led us through a thicket of tree, over another part of the river and up a hill.  If we had walked without the rescue party we would never have made it.  Between the plants, bogs and rocks there were also water wells, sticks, barbwire along the ground, cow manure, logs, pipes and other obstacle that could have caused us to fall and injure ourselves. 

2:30am. “Are you ready?”  The statement said between my wife and I that stated I was done with our tubing, camping and hiking trip with the other family and ready to get home after we had arrived at the cars the rescue party had brought.

The total time out in the elements was seven hours.  This may not seem like a lot of time and it really isn’t if you are used to Idaho and all that comes with this beautiful state.  Having been studying wilderness survival, boy scouts and starting My Survival prepared me immensely for this trip in the way of knowledge and know how.  Although we were only a couple miles from civilization on a river that is well traveled we were not prepared and not safe.  The worse issues that could have happened would have been hypothermia, poisonous plants and animals, broken body parts, slept all night on a beach, and dehydration.  Do you know how to combat these?

I would like to consider the negative things we did to lead us to this situation:

·         Not enough daylight if anything happened along the way

·         Did not stay together as a group

·         No plan on “what if”

·         Expectations for what was ahead not clearly stated

·         People did not stay calm

·         Ego got in the way of safety with being warm

·         Improper gear for traveling over ground

·         No survival kit

I would like to touch upon the things done correctly:

·         Knew how to create a shelter to trap body heat & barrier against cold front

·         Rescuers had flashlight codes for signaling

·         Rescuers had a rescue plan

How My Survival in a Bottle would have help:

·         Build a fire quickly with matches and fire starters

·         Build a shelter out of blanket and trash bag

·         Been able to use a flashlight to signal and/or walk to civilization

·         Use a whistle to sound location

·         Use water powder to make water drinkable

·         There are more ideas but there were the most important things My Survival in a Bottle could have helped accomplish

I will never leave home, go on a trip or do anything again without My Survival in a Bottle.

Fertility Struggles...the next step

Warning this includes personal information and girly content. If you are troubled by this subject matter stop reading now.

After 4 months on Clomid. I am still not ovulating. The next step is seeing Dr. Slater, the Reproductive Endocrinologist. Good news is that I have heard and met many great babies that she assisted on their journey to their families. Bad news insurance will no longer covering anything...All Cash from here on out.

I am really nervous to set up my appointment with her. I am thinking that I will set it up for the first of September? She is booked out until the 1st of August....I'm nervous just thinking about it right now.

I am still having a hard time understanding timing but believe that I need to do all I can... I am trying to move forward with complete faith, "nothing wavering." Sometimes it is so hard to completely let go to trust in the plan that the Lord has for me.

While I wait I pray for understanding and guidance. I know that all things will work out in their correct time. For now I will wait.

Natural Light Week 4

I'm so sad this is the last week. Sadly I wont be able to take the next class for a while...I need to save up some money. :)

This week we studied tricks with light. Silhouette, Star bursts and and white balance tricks. It is fun to combined a few in one.

So glad I have such a great husband and son.

f/29     1/1250 sec   ISO 640  Tungsten

f/29     1/1250 sec   ISO 640

The original. I liked the light pole but felt the image was better cropped...Maybe not. I like it both ways.

These classes have been great personally and have help my skills as a photographer immensely. Brooke and Sarah have been great. Thank you!!!