Kent and Mary Ann's 15th Wedding Anniversary

We did it! We reached the 15 year anniversary of our wedding, and are still as happy with each other than the day we married... more, actually. We were so young when we got married, me especially. I was still a teenager, so I tell Kent that he robbed the cradle. We are definitely going to encourage our children to wait until they're a bit older to get married. Our plan was to finish school, get "real" jobs and then buy a house. A few years after that we'd start having kids. 2 or 3, probably. Kent really wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom, and I couldn't imagine doing that. That difference of opinion was probably our first real argument.Obviously our plans changed when I got pregnant. I was taking multiple precautions to prevent pregnancy, but that didn't stop Justin from coming along when I was the ripe old age of 20. He's almost 14 (less than 5 weeks now, I think), and every time I look at him I just imagine him in 5 years, getting ready to leave on his mission. Then I think of myself at that age, never once imagining that I'd be one of those "foolish young women" who would get married, much less pregnant, until she was done or nearly done with school.
My pregnancy with Justin was fraught with problems. I developed pre-eclampsia within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, started spotting at work so had a miscarriage scare, then I started swelling up like a blimp when my blood pressure spiked. And the horrible 24/7 heartburn. At the time my OB told me to chew Tums or Rolaids. Let me tell you Rolaids does NOT spell relief. False advertising! I couldn't sleep if I lay down so I had to sleep in a sitting position for several months. During that pregnancy I first started having severe back pain, that my OB wrote off as pregnancy related. (After Justin was born and the problems only got worse we found out that L4 and L5 were herniated and disintegrating... not pregnancy related.) Then at about 28 weeks I started having preterm labor so I had to stop working and go on bed rest. I seriously thought I would die of boredom. It wasn't like I could even go window shopping unless I wanted to use a wheelchair. Then when I came off bed rest, my BP went up even higher, and I was not feeling well at all. Then my preterm labor stopped, and I ended up having to be induced when I was overdue. My August baby came in September.
Kent went on to finish his school as I adjusted to life as a new mother. I didn't return to work or school because we couldn't afford to have Justin in day care. We eventually got the new house 2 months before Justin turned 1. I had a miscarriage 6 weeks after Justin's 1st birthday. Then Trevor joined our family when Justin was 2 1/2.
When Trevor was 3, and Justin was 5 we moved to our current home. Natalie joined our family 1 year later, and Drew came along 19 months after that. Life has had its ups and downs, but we've always managed to work through our issues with relatively calm heads. Kent's parents were divorcing when we were dating so I never knew them when they were married, and my parents split up when I was pregnant with Drew. Both of those divorces were incredibly difficult for us even though we were adults, and thought that we'd be immune to the emotional roller coaster rides that those things turned out to be. Kent decided when his parents were divorcing that divorce would not be an option for him unless the circumstances were extreme. I empathized and understood that. When my parents divorced, though, I started to gain the insight that he'd probably gained during that time for him. (Add pregnancy hormones to that, and I'm sure it was a great few months for Kent. Sorry, babe!) Having been through that, and not wanting our children to have to go through it either, has really solidified the need for us to be diligent in caring for and loving each other. We want to respect each other, help each other grow and accomplish our goals. We want to be good parents, who listen to their children and help them learn to grow in faith and righteousness. We want to do all the good things our parents did, teach them the lessons our parents taught us and help them reach their full potential. We want that for each other.Okay... that's gotten a bit heavy so... for our anniversary we went to see Salt. (Girls kicking butt is always a good theme for me!) Then we went to dinner at Cantina Laredo. I think that's one of Kent's favorite restaurants. I was going to get fresh made guacamole until I saw that it was $10.For one small bowl of guac! I'm still my father's daughter. I couldn't bring myself to do it, even on our anniversary. Kent got soft tacos. One flour and one corn tortilla with choice of beef fajita meat. He said it was very good.I got Tampico. It was grilled chicken breast topped with sautéed artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, red bell peppers with sour cream-poblano sauce and monterey jack cheese. I can't eat rice due to the swallowing issue so I took it home for the kids. They loved it. And since we didn't get the appetizer we got dessert. It was hot apple pie served on a hot skillet, topped with cinnamon ice cream (sounded disgusting to me, but was delicious with the cinnamon from the pie). They poured a brandy-butter sauce on top of that, and it sizzled and popped for several minutes while we ate. Seriously so good. I'm going to have to try to try to duplicate it for Thanksgiving. (BTW, that dessert was about40% cheaper than the guac. Seriously?! I'm going to have to make some because now I'm stuck on that. Anyone want to come help me eat it?)I ordered Kent a smoker. For Memorial Day we went to our friends' house for dinner. The husband had smoked ribs in his smoker all day. They were so good. They were so tender the meat was falling off the bone with the slightest touch. I think Justin and Trevor ate at least half of them by themselves. That smoker has been discussed at length since that day. I told Kent that's what I'd ordered for him, but then he had ordered one too so I canceled mine. So he says that's his gift from me. I asked for a couple of different things. I'm not sure what I'm getting yet. He gave me beautiful white and red roses when he came home from work. He also brought home a box of See's chocolates. Since I'm still trying to lose weight I suppose I'll share. (Either that or every time I open the box I'll find that my dear, sweet, innocent children have helped themselves to a sample or 2.)

California Trip July 2010

Last week we got to go to California for our family trip.We drove to CA on Thursday. My sister Amy and her kids came to our hotel and went swimming. We had a blast letting the kids play while the adults caught up with each other. On Friday Natalie got to dance with her dance company at Disneyland. After she danced we got to ride the rides in Disneyland and California Adventure. The kids had a blast going from park to park. Natalie, Drew and I were the only ones brave enough to go on the Tower of Terror Ride. Trevor is not such a fan of that ride, and bailed before the ride started. Kent and Justin never even came inside. Trevor redeemed himself a little later when he went on the California Screamer with me two times in a row.
The next day we met up with Amy and her family, and we went to Huntington Beach. Amy's husband, Gavin, was able to join us this time. Kent, Justin and Trevor all tried body surfing. I read and worked on my tan. At the end of the afternoon, we went back to our hotel to clean up then went back to Amy's house. Justin and Trevor got to babysit the kids while the adults went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I just need to say that Amy really loves the Navajo Sandwich. Ha ha. Kent forgot that his birthday so I was able to surreptitiously talk to our waitress and have her come with a piece of cheesecake and a group of people to sing happy birthday to him. When we were done eating Amy and I went to Barnes and Noble while the boys got the car. We found a couple of books that had us laughing out loud. Kent and Gavin got a little irritated that we were taking so long to come out to the car, I think.
The next day we met up with Kent's sister, Rebecca, and went to Knott's Berry Farm. Being a HUGE roller coaster and scary ride fan I had a blast there. I finally got to ride the Xellerator. The last time we were there the ride had just opened, and the wait time was over 3 hours. This time I was the only one who would go on it. I went into the regular line because I didn't want to ride in the front car alone. A girl who was waiting in the line for the front car started talking to me, and she ended up ditching her boyfriend to ride with me when she decided that she didn't want to ride in the front car either. Ha ha. Kent surprised me by riding the Silver Bullet (with 6 1/2 turns upside down) twice. He hates roller coasters, but he actually liked this one. BTW, if anyone wants to make a trip to CA for amusement parks I'll be happy to join you!
The following day we went back to HB to the Brandon's house. We let the kids play, Amy and I talked while Kent worked, and then I made the girls headbands with some really cute fabric Amy got. That night we went down by the beach to eat at a restaurant. We were going to go to the pier afterward, but it was so cold (okay, not really, but it was in the high 60's- so our winter weather) that we had to leave.
On the ride home we stopped at the outlet malls in Cabazon and did a little shopping. I'm still doing 6 days' worth of laundry, but we all had a great time, and can't wait to go back!

Quick update

Well, I am getting worse and worse at keeping up with the blog. I used to be so good at it. Then I started getting busier and busier, and expecting a break, I thought I'd start posting again in June. Well, I'm still waiting for that break to come. It seems that whenever I have a little extra time it gets filled up quickly with tasks and errands that got pushed to the wayside while everything else was happening. Since I last posted Natalie turned 7 (will do a separate post with pictures), Kent had his birthday, Trevor and Natalie participated in their dance recital (it will need to be a separate post too), we got to visit with friends from out of town (will post with pictures), got to go to CA to visit family (yet another post), had to go to the ER once (I'll update about this after I meet with yet another specialist) and Kent went to Vegas for work for several days.
Our 15th wedding anniversary is in a week and a half, which seems completely crazy to me. I can't believe it's already been that long. This is kind of a bittersweet day. Sweet because we get to celebrate another year of being happily married, and bitter because it means that Justin's turning a year older just a month and a week after that... meaning he'll be 14 in less than 2 months. Yikes.
I also started physical therapy again for my back. My back was not great, but after my spill at pack meeting I was in as much pain as I was before. Since things didn't get any better after several months I had to decide to take my chances with PT and *hopefully* avoid surgery, or go straight to the neurosurgeon. I decided to roll the dice with PT, and so far things have been steadily progressing for the good. The guy I'm going to now has been recommended by people in my ward who have back problems, and they couldn't say enough good about him. It was truly an answer to my prayers when a good friend of mine texted me in information several minutes after I prayed for someone or something to give me some relief. He started me out relearning to breathe correctly. I've been breathing from my chest only to help protect my back. (You're supposed to use your diaphragm- so your belly expands, not your chest... who knew?) This small change has actually helped a lot. After I had done that he's been working with me to build up my core strength. This is usually not too hard, but some of the stuff makes me want to cuss... a lot. I generally manage to only do it in my head, but I may have mumbled a few things under my breath in frustration and in extreme pain, but I know that sometimes you need to have a little pain before things get better. One such exercise that I particularly despise is the IT-Band rolling. This is done on a hard foam roll. It may not sound like much, but I am almost in tears because of the pain from this STILL, and I've been doing it for weeks. It helps when I do it anyway, but I'm a little bitter about it. I realize that all this may not do enough to help me avoid another back surgery, but if I do have to go in again, I will go in stronger, having already learned some things to help me recover more quickly.
Well, I am the only one awake so I'm going to bed. I was outside for almost 11 hours today in the sweltering heat and humidity and I should go to bed so that I can do the same thing tomorrow!