Recover Restart Japan Benefit Concert

I don't know how many of you know, but I have family in Japan. My uncle served a mission for the LDS Church in Japan back in the day, ended up moving back after college and getting married, and raised his six kids there. Since then, three of his kids also served missions for the Church there in Tokyo and Sendai. I currently have one cousin who lives in Tokyo with his wife and two kids.

My cousin L was working in Tokyo when the earthquake hit. He said that while looking out the window of his office, he could literally see the building next to his swaying. His wife (who was pregnant) was at home with A. With all of the constant aftershocks that were going on, phones and transportation were down, and L ended up walking home in 3 hours.

A few days later, with aftershocks still hitting and after the devastation caused by the tsunami, L decided to fly B and A back to the states. B was having major contractions and baby C was majorly stressing in the womb. Not only that, there was no food or water. I talked with B when they got here to Utah and she was in tears going grocery shopping and seeing the full shelves here. The baby calmed down and she came a few days after their arrival. They now have a beautiful baby girl.

After growing up in Japan and having tons of friends there, my other cousin, David, decided to put on a benefit concert with his amazingly talented band and other equally talented people. Eli and I went last night and it was awesome! All of the donations made are going straight to Civic Force in Japan and it will directly be used to help over there. I just wanted to show some highlights and share their talents and if you feel so inclined to help Japan out a little bit, David is still accepting donations at Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief.

You can also check out my cousins band. They're pretty good and play a TON of local shows. You can check out the other guys too. Not too shabby.Blind Actuaries (my cousin is the guy in the back)
Fun fact: The 3 white guys grew up in Japan and attended ASIJ together. The Asian did not.

Caleb Blood

Nik Day

Our little Coconut is...

For those of you who don't know what I mean by coconut, I mean brown on the outside and white on the inside. Of course I am assuming that my darker coloring will be dominant, but in all reality, we could have a blonde hair, blue-eyed little GIRL!!

I was so surprised and shocked! This whole time I've really felt like we were having a boy. We had a name picked out, I had chosen the bedding that I wanted for the nursery, and I was so excited for my sister to make me a little onesie with a vest and tie.

About 2 seconds after the initial shock wore off, we were ecstatic! We're having a little girl. Maci, my niece who is due in June, will have another little girl to play with. My dad is going to go out and get the play kitchen he wanted for the playroom. My mom is overjoyed! And my nieces are excited for us to continue with the tradition of having girls first.

She is healthy, strong, and ACTIVE! We got all her pictures taken before we found out what she was because she kept turning and flipping and crossing her legs. Right now her heartbeat is 156 bpm, 15.2cm (if I'm reading her chart right), and she weighs 11 oz. I've been able to feel her a lot more lately. I think it's more her just moving around than kicking. Oh, and she LOVES music! I'll put some tunes on my phone and lay it on my belly and she grooves. Love it! We can't wait to meet her! We're halfway there!

profile (see her nose, lips, and chin?)

5 perfect little fingers

I don't see her legs...

There is her little foot at the top!

She is super bendy! There is her profile on the left and her leg by her nose & eyes!

Tough Decisions

After we found out we were pregnant, we had a tough decision to make. We needed to figure out what we were going to do with our three “kids.” Eli and I have had Lima and Chorizo almost as long as we’ve been married. We were their first family after they were born. We’ve had Bruja since the day she was born. These puppies are our babies.

Unfortunately, as of lately, they’ve spend most of their time cooped up in their kennel while Eli and I are at work. Not to mention, we were worrying that they wouldn’t get enough attention when the baby gets here. AND, we’d like our family members to be able to visit us after the baby is born (some of them have bad allergies). So, we made the decision to find them new homes.

Lima and Chorizo are now with other families. Because they’ve meant so much to us, we were pretty picky about where they went. Chorizo ended up with a childhood friend and her son. He was trying to earn a puppy for having good behavior. He now gets to have Chorizo curl up with him on his toes. Lima went to one of Eli’s friend’s family in Wyoming. They LOVE her!

Now, If only we could find a home for Bruja. Interested...?

Student Involvement

If you have ever taught, then you know that your students try to get themselves involved in every aspect of your life. Before Eli and I got married, they were always asking questions about my dating life. When Eli and I got engaged, the majority of my class asked to be invited. I even had a student come back the following year asking why I didn't send her an invitation.

Naturally, after marriage comes the baby carriage, right? Every year my students ask me if I have kids or if I am ever going to have them or why I don't have any yet. This year's class is no different. I had one girl make me pinky promise to tell her first if I got pregnant.

It was super easy to keep it from them for the first 6 weeks because I didn't know the first month and I had virtually no symptoms. However, I hit week 8 and I was dealing with major morning sickness and I was tired all the time. I had to come up with excuses to run out of the room. I finally had to tell the VP because I was leaving my class so much. He would go in and check up on them or send in an aide to be with them.

The kids started freaking out because I would come back to class red faced and red eyed. I told them I had food poisoning, I ate a pickle from a jar that I didn't refrigerate after opening, and that I thought I was coming down with the flu. The same girl who made me pinky promise her advised me to start paying attention to what I was eating because I was getting sick too much.

On top of all of that, I fell asleep at school. I know. I had taken my students to the library and the librarian took them to the kiva for a book preview. The lights were low and she had such a soothing voice and it was the end of the day. I closed my eyes and next thing I knew I was sitting in the dark alone. I freaked. I went back to class because my students weren't in the library. Turns out the librarian sent them back to class and they were starting on their work (I have them trained well). The next day I had a student say, "I told my mom how you've been sick and how you fell asleep. She says you're pregnant." Ack! I denied it all.

The following week I had my appointment with my doctor. We were having our first ultrasound and were getting to the safe zone of pregnancy. I wasn't just going to tell them,

So much fun! The first girl who solved the puzzle nearly hyperventilated. I have to give her credit though, she didn't blurt out the message. She just asked to go to the restroom because she was so hot and needed to get out of the room! The students were so excited and several of them shouted out that they totally knew the whole time. Ha ha!

Before my 20 week ultrasound, the students wanted to weigh in. Before they cast their votes they made sure they had all the background information. How many brothers and sisters did I have? How many did Mr. Adams have? What about our nieces and nephews?

Out of the 27 students who voted, 81% said the coconut was going to be a boy. I think what did most of them in was the fact that Eli is the youngest of 4 boys and the majority of my nieces and nephews are girls. It was time to add another boy to the mix.