God's Love

This morning as I was eating my bowl of cheerios (totally healthy for the baby, right?) I decided I'd do a little "prep myself for church" and stumbled across this video. This seeming coincidence that I found something I needed so much today is obviously a tender mercy from a loving Heavenly Father.

I'm getting a lot of those these days - His love is being shown in more ways than I ever could have imagined, mostly through friends and family (that's you!) as we deal with the fact that our unborn baby has a tumor.  Yet through it all I remain calm - uplifted and sustained by prayers of so many. The road ahead might be more than a bit scary, but we've got each other, and most importantly we've got the Lord.

"Therefore, let your hearts be comforted . . . for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God."

Prego Brain

My brain hasn't worked in years. I've always felt I had something to blame it on - Break-up Brain, Teacher Brain, Second-hand Chemo Brain, Bride Brain, Prego Brain -  but I think it's time I stopped making excuses about the fact that I am forgetful and sometimes do crazy things (like try to put the clean blender away in the fridge).

Since I have the BHE (Best.Husband.Ever) he nicely created this list for me so I would stop forgetting things when I leave for work. (Can't tell you how many times I've forgotten one or more of the things on this list). He posted it right next to the door. And don't think I didn't notice which one has the most exclamation points. :)

Speaking of the BHE - as of this last weekend, we have finally known each other for a year. Whenever people ask when we met, we strategically avoid answering the question. Now we can say "last May" and not feel so weird. Yay for love!

My Girls

This was taken the last time the 3 of us were together in this life. I was blessed with an amazing year at home with my mom, but I guess I had to share her with Lindsey. Grateful for the times I feel them around and can't wait for eternity to come!

Never Fear, Our Fetus is Here!

Isn't Louie cute? (FYI - in my family we always give the baby funny names when they're in the womb. This one is Louie after St. Louis, but we usually just shorten it to Lou. Makes it seem more human and less alien.) Lou MUST be related to his dad because he would NOT stop moving (which was super fun to watch).

And for all of you who have requested, here is a picture of my belly. I won't tell you how long ago this was taken so you can just think it's what I look like now. (I'm holding Lou's first onesie. Appropriately BYU Cougars themed from my favorite Aunt Lisa (thanks Lisa!!)).

It's a Twister! (well, not quite)

Last night we had our 2nd tornado warning since we've lived here. Dan was studying and I was getting ready for our evening out at a bar with some friends from law school (don't worry, we stayed sober) when the alarms started going off.  Things outside changed SO fast - one minute it was a typical cloudy-thunder-and-lightning-stormy-sky and the next it was pitch black (literally). We opened the back door and all I can say is it was CRAZY out there. Between the wind and the rain and the hail, it looked like something I've only ever seen in movies. At that point we headed down to our "shelter" (hereafter known as the dungeon).

A little description of our dungeon (which we're grateful to have): The floor is made of dirt, the ceiling is too low to stand up straight, the lights rarely work, and if I start telling you about the spiders you'll have nightmares for a week (really, you would). But we figured it was safer than getting blown to smithereens by a giant tornado.

So we grabbed a couple flashlights and headed down. We found a couple of boxes to sit on and Dan promised to keep all spiders off me, so we were doing well, although we could still hear the storm raging it's fury on the world. About 5 minutes into our dungeon stay, water started coming out of the wall. I'm not talking about a relaxing little trickle that gradually makes its way down the wall and onto the floor, we're talking a full-on fire hose amount of water. One second there was nothing, the next second the water was flowing like Niagra and our little dungeon was filling up fast (of course I didn't have a camera to get a picture of the water coming out. Lame.)

Luckily the worst of the storm ended not too long after the lake started forming in our basement. And luckily there was no damage to property or car (except for the fire hose in the dungeon). We went on to have a great night with friends, and even had an adventurous and very late-night drive BACK to the bar after getting home and realizing that Dan's phone had fallen out in the parking lot (in the middle of a monsoon rain shower of course). It sort of works. Say a little prayer for Dan's phone to fully recover.

Change. How I Love Thee.

Let's have a recap of the last 9 months of my life, shall we? (Beware . . . lots of pictures. But make sure you get to the end - it will be worth it!)

Last May I met Dan on a blind date (thank you Tiff & Llyr)

We spent the summer traveling the world . . . or maybe just the U.S. of A. (This is THE famous Pepperjack.)

We skyped. A lot.

We got engaged!!!!

I planned a wedding while my fiance lived over 1,300 miles away and was more than a bit busy with Blaw school (I mean, Law school).

Left my 7-year career as a teacher - Adios Skyline!

MARRIAGE! Best day ever. Best decision ever.

Moved half-way across the country.

Got a new job in a new career. Say hello to Save-A-Lot's newest Administrative Assistant. (This pic has nothing to do with my job and everything to do with me FINALLY meeting Dan's brother who is on a mission here. The Pres let us do a session in the temple together. Yay for families!)

Speaking of families . . . sometime around October 30th ish, we'll have our own family of THREE! SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How to Host a Guest (or 2)

Let them give you a pedicure.

Make them put together nerdy puzzles.

Have them take a picture of just you in front of your house. (We reside in the upstairs of this establishment - the arrow is pointing to where Dan spends his days studying. Blah.)

I'm so sneaky! I got them to do ALL the interior decorating in my house. They even hung my pictures . . . suckers!

Have really cold weather when they come - it makes for unpleasant walks in the park.

All kidding aside, it was SO great to have some of "the roommates" here to visit. Pretty much one of the best weekends ever.
 On to our next guest . . .

Make green pancakes and make the guests eat them, even if they look like ... well .. . gross. (In my defense it WAS St. Patrick's day, which is a highly-important holiday in the Ditto fam.)

Bore them with talk of politics. :)

Take them somewhere with "Poos" in the name. How embarrassing.

Nothing funny on this one - aren't these 2 so cute! Congrats to my hubby who accepted a call to serve on the Stake High Council (we're so OLD!) And special thanks to Papa Ditto for coming out for it.