There's an app for that!

I just downloaded a mobile app for blogger! Maybe I'll have shorter, more frequent posts now? We shall see. :)
Just for fun, here's a couple awesome purchases I've made recently ...
We got a chest freezer! I'm way excited! I want to start making freezer meals since I have so much less time now and it's tough to cook. My aunt sent me some freezer recipes, can't wait to try them!

Also, check out my purple shoes! I love purple and these are so fun! (Not to mention a great price!)

Not sure how the pictures work on this app...hope you can see them okay.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

New Plans

Well, I thought I had life all planned out, and, once again, that tanked.  Forget about Plan A, I think I'm on Plan O or something by now.  You'd think I'd learn to stop with the plans... oh well, I haven't.  A couple of months ago I thought that right now I'd be planning for the baby, continuing to spice up the MCSA department at Best Buy alongside my amazing coworkers and maybe even starting to fit in at church with my cute pregnant belly to lure in the curious, chatty women, lol.

Turns out, I'm doing something quite different.  I've actually made friends at church all by myself, no baby lure necessary, lol.  I was called to be the YW Secretary and I'm thrilled about it!  My other big news is that I got another job!  I'm finally using my degree (got a Political Science degree back in May), and I got a job with Arapahoe County as a Program Specialist!  I start November 7th.  Basically I'll be managing case files of welfare recipients and all that entails.  I won't bore you with all the details.  But I do have to say that I'm looking forward to having regular hours with weekends/holidays off!!  Also I'll be in snazzy business dress (except on Fridays because its jean day - woot!) and I'll have my own cubicle, and be making twice what I used to make - can't complain!

Okay now I swear I'm counting my blessings, but I have to add a little more to this post that will have a few less exclamation marks.  Even though I'm really excited about my new job, I'm really really really going to miss my coworkers at Best Buy.  They are so great and I really have loved working with all of them.  It will be really hard to leave my Best Buy family.  I've never worked with such kind, thoughtful, respectful, supportive, hilarious people!  We have a good time and I will miss it.  Customers....not so much :)  There are a few regulars I'll miss seeing, but generally, it will be a relief to be done dealing with a constant stream of issues from rude, inconsiderate people.  Soapbox moment... When you're shopping, please always remember that the person behind the counter and on the other end of the phone is a PERSON.  Thanks. :)

I am trying so hard to be nothing short of excited about the new direction my life is taking, but I admit my grief is holding me back in terms of enthusiasm.  I really am very happy about everything that's happening right now with my job and calling and all, but the pain is still there underneath it all.  So please don't think I'm ungrateful for my blessings, because I am happy and grateful about what's happening, but I'm also still sad about what's not happening.  Hope that makes sense.

So here we go with the next plan whether I like it or not ....
 new career, new calling, expanding social life.

Bring it on.

Coping

It has stunned me to discover how many women have been through what I'm going through now.  It breaks my heart to think that something so traumatizing could be so common and my heart goes out to all those women who feel or have felt what I'm feeling.

One of the most helpful things has been the people who have told me their stories and shared their grief with me during my own dark time.  It's helpful to know I'm not crazy and it's okay to feel this way for however long it takes.  I've thought about sharing the details of what I'm feeling and going through here since it was so helpful to hear the stories of others, but I'm not comfortable posting everything about my experience in this setting.  However, if you or someone you know ever needs to talk, please feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to talk about it. I've found that I actually prefer being open about my experience with others who ask and are understanding, and it can be a very healing experience to share even the deepest pain when it's with someone experiencing the same pain you are.  Especially since it's so painful to talk to people about it who make it obvious that they don't understand.  So if anyone needs an understanding ear, my offer stands indefinitely.  Just wanted to put that out there.

Also, THANK YOU to all those who have reached out to me either through comments, emails, conversations, flowers, or anonymous prayers.  I love you and thank you so much.  No amount of advice counts for much in a situation like this and no one can fix it, but love helps.  So thank you for your love.

I'm still never too far from tears, and this still hurts more than I can express.  I can't believe it's been over a month.  People have said the pain will never go away but that it will get easier to deal with, and so far that has held true.  But life is marching on and I'm dealing with my grief in the quiet moments that I have alone as the rest of my life speeds along as usual.  So I'm functioning just fine, and even moving forward, but I know I'll never be the same.

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The one great thing about trying to escape your problems is that you accomplish projects that have been on the back burner for a long time.  I'm actually really excited about finally finishing these and I think it's cool that I can post them here for my family to see, and anyone else.  Enjoy.

September 23

Looks like my new job didn't work out.
Our little one has gone back to heaven.

My doctors seemed to be wrong at every turn.  "You have next to no chance of getting pregnant."  Got pregnant.  "Clearly everything is good and healthy and we're not really concerned about anything going wrong at this point."  Something went wrong.

On Sept 23 they couldn't see a heartbeat, but said it could be a number of things and sent me home.  A few hours later, and for the next few days, there was a lot of blood and a lot of pain.
And a lot of tears.

Aaron said that this paragraph from my book, The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy, really helped him understand my situation better, so maybe it's worth including here:  "The mourning that a mother does when she loses that baby is of the most profound and inconsolable kind.  It's primitive and indescribable.  And to those who are not the mother, it's baffling and bigger than what they would have expected. " 

I won't attempt to even begin to convey my emotions about this traumatic experience here in this blog.  But those of you who have shared in this brief journey with us should know how it ended, and so now you know.

As an unimportant side note, in case you're curious,... I don't regret telling people early on, in fact I'm very glad that I did.  I'm grateful that I had that time to be excited and share in that excitement with others while I had the chance.

Thank you all for reading about my very brief but beautiful experience with the miracle of pregnancy.  Maybe it will work out better for us someday.  For now we're handling the grief as best we can and feeling very grateful that we still have each other.

I'm so thankful that I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I'm so glad I have the gospel in my life to help me better understand Heavenly Father's eternal plan for me and my family.  The gospel of Jesus Christ helps me keep my priorities in order, and helps me remember why I wake up every day.
For those of you who don't know, twice a year the women of the church gather together to receive counsel from our church leaders.  By the grace of God, one of those gatherings was the day after I lost my baby.  I could not get myself to leave the house, but I watched the conference streaming online.  There was a quote that I very much needed to hear as I sat grief-stricken in my home feeling completely forgotten and unloved by the Lord.  Nothing else said could have been more important for me to hear right then.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to hear this at just the right time in my life.  Despite all the pain and heartache, I know my Heavenly Father has a better plan for me and I know now that I'm not forgotten.

"As an Apostle of our Master, Jesus Christ, I proclaim with all the certainty and conviction of my heart and soul—You are not forgotten.  Sisters, wherever you are, whatever the circumstances may be, you are not forgotten. No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you, with an infinite love."

—President Dieter F. Uchtdorf"

http://lds.org/pages/general-rs-meeting-2011?lang=eng

Six weeks!

As of Tuesday I’m six weeks along!  Apparently I know nothing about being pregnant.  All of my preconceptions have been wrong!  I thought at only six weeks I wouldn’t even notice I was pregnant and my body would be just the same.  Yaaaaah…. Not even close.  For the last two weeks I’ve only had 1-2 hours a day when I haven’t felt completely miserable.  I’m so light-headed, I have to use to restroom ALL the time, I can smell EVERYTHING, and I feel like I’m just dragging all the time.  I think the worst part is feeling so darn fragile.  I can’t help Aaron lift things, or push myself physically and that is so not me.  That said, I have random moments throughout every day when I can’t stop smiling and feeling SO excited about this blessing! 

To be honest, I feel a little guilty that I don’t love every second of being pregnant, but it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I still feel extremely blessed every second of the day, but physically I feel awful. 

Something else that I was absolutely wrong about is I did not think I’d have any semblance of a belly this early!  Aaron and I had planned to take “belly pictures” at the six week mark so we could have kind of a ‘before’ picture in the series of belly pictures.  Yah…I guess we should have taken a five week picture because ever since I woke up last Sunday, I’ve got a little belly going on.  Never thought that would happen so early!!  And in case you’re wondering, no I’m not just getting fat, lol.  I know my body and this is not how I look when I gain weight.  Plus I can’t suck it in!  I tried…which made Aaron freak out and say I was squishing the baby, haha!  

Oh and I had my first moment of those mood swings everyone talks about today.  I was driving to work, rocking out to a great country song, when I just burst into tears!  Nothing was wrong, I didn’t feel upset or anything, but there I was, bawling like a baby in my car for a couple of minutes.  It was so weird!  I just laughed at myself, dabbed my eyes and moved on.  It was kind of fun to tell the story when I got to work.

Let’s see what else is going on at the six week mark… just learning more and more about this pregnancy thing.  It’s interesting to shop for vitamins rather than calories.  It’s a whole different perspective on food!  Aaron has been awesome about keeping me on the ball with what I can and can't eat.  It was fun going to grocery shopping with him for all the "pregnancy super-foods!"  It's funny what I can't eat.  No hot dogs??  C'mon... dumb.  Oh well, lol.  It’s also super shocking to me that I have to use the restroom so often.  I didn’t think that happened until the baby was big enough to push on your bladder, but my doctor explained to me that your kidneys go into overdrive when you’re pregnant.  Plus you have to drink more water.  So between those two factors, I get to see a lot more of my bathroom!  I can’t imagine what it will be like when the baby IS big enough to push on my bladder in addition to everything else!

Work is going pretty well.  It’s tough because I have to take frequent bathroom breaks, and be constantly munching on pretzels or something, so I feel like I look like a slacker half the time, when I really feel like I’m working a lot harder since everything seems to require more energy now.  Luckily I’m in a position where I can sit a lot, because those few times when I do have to stand at a register or run around the store are very taxing and I could never do it regularly.  Especially with feeling as light-headed as I do…I’ve already nearly fallen four times in the last week.  I’ve caught myself every time, thankfully.  I also used to intervene anytime a coworker had a difficult, rude customer, but now I avoid them like the plague.  I just can’t handle the stress, plus I have a much harder time empathizing with people when I’m feeling like I’m about to pass out.  Just sayin’.

I know I already said this a few times, but it really is so shocking to me how many changes my body is experiencing already.  I had no idea how much of a total change I’d experience physically, mentally and emotionally, and definitely didn’t think the change would be right away.  I guess I just always thought anything difficult about being pregnant was all related to being huge and uncomfortable once you had a big belly - I was extremely naïve!  I joined a discussion group online called Due in May (self-explanatory...) and it’s really fun to be able to see what other women are going through and realize that I’m not the only one, and also that everyone is different.  I think that collectively pregnancy is a unique experience for everyone, but there are always lots of other women you can relate to in various elements of your experience.  It’s really fun to find those similarities and not feel crazy or alone!  For example, there are a few other women on the board who are reporting little bellies showing up.  Yay!  I’m not the only one showing super early!  My coworkers noticed it already and were starting to wonder if I was wrong about how far along I was!  But no, I’m definitely six weeks, just showing early and feeling a lot sicker than I thought I would.  And feeling a lot more blessed that I ever thought I’d be. 

I can’t believe I got so lucky.

The First Five Weeks

Thought I’d give a little background before getting into updates…

My doctor called me mid-August with some test results and told me that our chances of getting pregnant were extremely small and it most likely wasn’t going to happen.  We’d just finished a round of taking fertility medication (again) so we figured we’d see it through, but all the hope was gone from it.  There was a small shred of hope that came back when I got my first positive ovulation test ever!  But it didn’t keep me hopeful very long.  By the time the date that I could reasonably take an accurate pregnancy test came around, Aaron and I had already accepted what the doctor had said.  Instead of rushing off to a fertility clinic, we decided to shelve the whole thing for at least a year and just save money for when we had to face the expensive options like IVF or adoption.  So on September 6^th when I knew I could take a pregnancy test, it felt more like I was just getting the bad news over with so we could move on with our new plan.  Needless to say, I was STUNNED when I read the test results!!  

I told Aaron that evening when he came home, but it wasn’t a big surprise for him because he said he could already read it all over my face.  That man knows me too well.  :)  The way I told him was fun though because I gave him this:

Within 24 hours of telling Aaron, my entire immediate family knew.  They were all SO excited!  My dad just said “I TOLD you not to believe doctors!!!”  (Did I mention my dad is a doctor? lol)  I didn’t have a cute way for telling my brothers other than just calling them and saying I was pregnant, but they were THRILLED!  It was so much fun.  I told my mom, Jacob and Macy and my dad through skype.  I showed my dad this over the webcam:

The day I found out was a Tuesday and on Friday I started having some really bad cramps at work.  I called my doctor and described the pain and she told me to go to the ER immediately.  I decided not to go because I thought it was an over-reaction.  I didn’t feel like anything was truly wrong.  I talked to my general manager, Rachael, and she told me firmly to always over-react when it’s pregnancy-related.  She said to leave and get to the hospital immediately.  I guess my GM has more authority in my mind than my doctor, because I went.  I couldn’t get a hold of Aaron which was a little nerve-racking.  Once I was in the ER, he finally called and I told him to come right away.  He showed up sooner than I expected (I suspect speeding was involved…).  I surprisingly stayed very calm throughout the whole thing.  A doctor came in and said that based on the pain they suspected it might be an ectopic pregnancy.  I started getting nervous at that point because my mom had been through that and they’d suspected me of having one before (when it was actually an ovarian cyst rupturing), so the emotions were familiar.  

They did an ultrasound and saw some fluid in my uterus that they said could either be normal, or it could indicate that it was an ectopic pregnancy about to rupture.  She said she wanted to keep me overnight because if it did rupture I could bleed to death within minutes.  I thought the doctor looked really nervous, which freaked me out, so I had my two minute emotional meltdown at that point.  Then I got over it and went back to the “stay calm until knowing anything for sure” attitude.  They admitted me and I had to sit there for 24 hours waiting for intense pain that could indicate the end of everything I was so excited for.  So much fun…

Oh and Aaron’s mom and brother were coming back through town that evening to pick up their puppies and spend the night.  So we had to call them and re-route them to the hospital instead of our house.  So that was a really unusual way for them to find out the good news!  It went something like, “Well the good news is that Janae is pregnant, and the bad news is we’re not sure if this is going to stay good news…”.  

The next morning they ran more tests and said everything looked completely normal and they no longer suspected an ectopic pregnancy.  False alarm - whew!!!  They also said that all my levels were really high which made them very comfortable and everything was most likely fine.  Yay!  I went back for follow-up testing the next week and they said my levels were fantastic and they weren’t worried about any risks at all at that point.  My progesterone was over TWICE what's considered a good/safe level and my HCG levels are doubling normally and then some.  It's nice to know my intuition was correct and the baby is safe and healthy right now.

So with that overwhelming reassurance from the doctors, we determined it was safe to tell everyone our good news, since now we know it will remain good news :)  Plus, I'm way too excited to keep it a secret!!  

New Job!!

I am thrilled to announce that I have a new job!!  This is a job that I’ve been trying to get on and off for about two years, but I’ve really had my heart set on it for the last six months.  At one point I was told that I would never be able to have the job, which was devastating.  But I’m happy to report that I got the job anyway, despite all of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  I start in May of 2012 and I can’t wait! 

My new job is… being a momma!! 

Yes, you read that right, I’m pregnant!!!  I'm going to have the best and most important job in the world!  :)

I can’t even express how thrilled we are that this finally worked out for us, especially after doctors telling us that it most likely wouldn’t.  It has been a very difficult journey but the timing is perfect and we feel so blessed.  Heavenly Father is so mindful of us and so loving.  Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us.  It’s hard to explain, but we really felt those prayers and are so grateful for them. 

Due date is May 15, 2012!  I will be updating our blog with all the pregnancy-related news, so feel free to check in from time to time to see how things are going.  I probably won’t be posting much on Facebook, so this is where the info is at!  :)  We’re finding ourselves more grateful than ever for friends and family and we’d love to hear from you!  Feel free to leave comments and advice. 

We are SO EXCITED for this new adventure!!!

Update, Family Visit, and Puppies

The last couple of months have kept us busy with trying to unpack in-between our busy work schedules.  We’re almost there!  Just a few boxes left in the basement.  We’re really loving our new home.  It’s funny because our décor actually fits into our new house better than it fit our old house!  It was meant to be, lol.  It was also really fun buying new furniture for our house because we’ve never bought furniture together.  Aaron had a lot of nice furniture when we got married so we just used his bachelor pad stuff up until now.  We got a nice dining set, a couch for the family room, and a guest bedroom set!  I love having a guest bedroom!  It’s great to have a place for people when they visit.

The guest bedroom was recently broken in by Aaron’s family when they came to visit in August!  His sister needed to get out to BYUI, so his family made it into a fun road trip, and stopped to see us for a couple of days!  It was a wonderful visit, I loved having everyone here!  We went hiking in the Rocky Mountains (took some great pictures there!), walked around Pearl Street in Boulder, and spent time playing games and talking.  I posted a lot of pictures of their visit on Facebook if you’re curious.  It was a great time. 

We also got to dog-sit for Aaron’s parents’ puppies while they finished their road trip for a couple of weeks.  They have two super adorable Maltese puppies, Winnie and Dottie, and they were SO much fun!  Granted, they were also yippy and not really potty-trained… but I think that’s why puppies come so cute, so you can look past all of that when you see their little faces!  We had tons of fun with them and Sugar and Sampson enjoyed having a larger pack for a while too.  Winnie and Sugar both have very dominant personalities and wanted nothing to do with each other, but Sugar and Dottie loved to play together!  And Winnie couldn’t get enough of Sampson.  Also, Winnie was Aaron’s favorite and Dottie was mine, so we had two teams in our house!  Aaron, Winnie and Sampson vs Janae, Dottie and Sugar!  :)  We had lots of fun with it and it was sad to see them go when Aaron’s mom and Tanner came back through to pick them up last week. 

House Hunting, House Selling and House Buying

Whew! Our lives have been in a real estate whirlwind lately! After seven months of house hunting and having our house on the market, we have finally sold our house in O’Fallon, IL and have purchased a new home here in Colorado! We close this Friday and we’re SO excited! I will be so relieved to be out of this tiny apartment and back in a home!

I think the three best things will be:

1. Having counter space again in the kitchen

2. Sleeping on a real bed! (We left our furniture in our house in O’Fallon so we’ve been on an air mattress for seven months!!)

3. Having a yard for our dogs. We’ve actually never had a fenced yard for the dogs before and we are both so thrilled to have that! Especially after having to walk them out on the leash every time they need to go out in the apartment.

We really found a wonderful home to move into and feel that in many ways it was meant to be! The short version of the story is... Aaron is the one who found the home when it had only been on the market for four days and he and I were very on the ball about seeing it right away. We were only the 2^nd people to see it and the people who saw it just before us were putting an offer in as we were looking at it. We had a great realtor who kept us well informed and we were able to offer just a little higher than the other people and get our offer in right at the end of the business day with a midnight deadline, so we barely got the offer in and it was accepted! Our realtor actually brought the offer to my work for me to sign in order to get it in on time! It was very well priced and we feel very blessed to have found this home after looking for so long. This is the second home we made an offer on, but the fifth home we wanted. After so much disappointment in our house hunting experience, we felt quite beaten and frustrated, so it was interesting how it all worked out so well. Our home in IL also sold only a couple of weeks before we officially purchased this new one, so the timing was perfect too. Heavenly Father must laugh at us so often for getting frustrated and discouraged at things not going according to our plans when He knows He has a better plan in mind for us the whole time.

The woman we’re buying the home from is extremely nice and has had us over to show us how everything works and introduced us to the neighbors and everything. We’re very excited for our new adventure to start next weekend in our new home and in a new ward!

Here is a picture of our new home! (Don't worry, I'll post more pictures once we're settled)

Family Reunions

This summer both my Mom and Dad’s families decided to have family reunions – a week apart from each other! We haven’t had a reunion on either side in 5+ years so it was funny how the timing worked out! So two weeks ago we had the DeLaMare family reunion. Thankfully it was here in Colorado so we didn’t have to go far! We had a luau at my Aunt Tanya’s house where we roasted a pig, rode ATVs, sat in the hot tubs, played Volleyball, horseshoes, bean bag toss and Rock Band and just had a great time together! The day before, most of the grandkids went to Elitchs together and it was a ton of fun to spend time together and ride the rides. I particularly enjoyed catching up with Stacia (my closest cousin who recently returned from her mission), talking with Phil and Jacob, and running around with Macy.

Last weekend we flew to the Portland Airport to attend the Andrus family reunion in Battle Ground, WA. We enjoyed time sitting by the river one day and by the lake the next talking and enjoying each other’s company. I got to hold my cousin, Jamie’s, baby, Sadie, (who has the same birthday as me!) for hours by the lake and that was a real treat for me. The only downside was that it presented lots of opportunity for comments about my lack of children…lol, but it was actually all pretty funny. My top three favorites parts of the river and lake activities were talking with my Uncle Mark and also my Uncle Danny about politics and public education, holding Sadie, and playing Frisbee with my cousins. We actually got a game of Ultimate Frisbee going and it was a BLAST! It was really fun to spend more time with Jamie’s husband, Patrick. He and Aaron have some fun business ideas going now after chatting for while. It was also fun to see Jamie being a mom and to see Camille as a beautiful teenager! It’s weird how time changes people’s roles from what you’re used to. The last night we had 50^th Anniversary party for my grandparents and it was a fiesta! It was actually a very special night and my grandparents shared some great insights as they spoke to us. The best part was that my grandma gave each granddaughter a piece of handpainted china from her mother’s collection, and my grandpa gave us each a copy of his published life history! I’ve been wanting to read it, but Aaron read over my shoulder as I read the first two chapters on the plane, and he got hooked and hasn’t given it back since! Haha, I’ll get my turn soon.

Both reunions were wonderful experiences, it’s always very special to me to have time with family. I’m extremely frustrated with myself for forgetting to bring my camera to the Andrus family reunion! We didn’t hear our alarms and nearly missed our plane, so it got forgotten in the hustle. Oh well, I’ll get pictures from everyone else soon. Also, I got to see one of my best friends, Caylene, while we were in Washington! It was a short visit but so awesome! I always love spending time with her. It was as if we’d never been apart! She’s like a sister to me and so it was fitting that I saw her on the weekend of a family reunion J

Sorry there are no pictures in this post, if you want to see my family reunion pictures, feel free to check out facebook.

College Graduation!

Well I am officially a college graduate! I guess I was already when I graduated with my associates degree from BYUI…but I guess I didn’t count that since I was still working on my bachelors. So anyway, now I officially have my Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Administration and a minor in Social Science. It feels SO GOOD to be done! I was attending Troy University for the last two years of my degree since it was affordable and I could complete it online to work around my work schedule. I never got to walk in my high school graduation because I graduated early and by the time my class was walking across the stage, I was in the middle of a semester as a sophomore in college, so I didn’t go back to be part of the ceremony. Not wanting to completely miss the chance to have that experience in my lifetime, I flew out to Florida to attend the graduation ceremony there! My parents, youngest brother, baby sister, and of course, Aaron, were all there with me for the special event (and not without sacrifice!). It was so worth it to be there and have that moment. The best part for me was moving over the tassel. That moment made the entire trip worth it for some reason. It felt good to celebrate my accomplishment with the people I love most! And of course, we enjoyed time at Florida’s beautiful beaches!

Celeste and Nathan's Visit!

In May we were super excited to get a call from Aaron’s sister, Celeste, saying that she and her new husband would be driving through Colorado and wanted to stay the night on their way. We were SO excited to have them over and to spend time with them! Especially because we hadn’t gotten a chance to spend time with Nathan yet and we were very excited to get to know him better. When they arrived we enjoyed time to talk and catch up, and then sat in the hot tub at our apartment complex pool for an hour or so. We had pancakes, eggs and muffins in the morning and helped them get back on the road. We were sad to see them go so soon but we absolutely loved getting that unexpected special time to spend with them. And we really enjoyed Nathan and think he’s a fantastic addition to the family. I like not being the only in-law anymore! J

(Pretty sure everyone in this picture would like for you to know that this was taken early in the morning before we were ready for the day and we normally look much better) :)

Promotion!

In April we had an employee move away and when her position became open, my manager encouraged me to apply for it, so I did and I got it! So instead of being a part time Sales Associate in Portable Electronics, I’m now a full time Front End Lead in Operations! Basically what that means is I coach and train the cashiers and customer service associates and deal with all the customer issues that arise in those areas of the store (which are not lacking unfortunately!). It’s great to have more responsibilities but it’s not without its share of negative features. I’m enjoying the position overall though and think it’s a great experience.

One other work update that happened right around the same time is that I was accepted into the Harvest program! It’s basically a management training program run by the current managers for those who want to move forward in the company and show potential. About 30+ people applied and they only accepted about a third so I feel very privileged to have this opportunity and hope to learn a lot of valuable things from it.

Janae's Birthday

I really didn’t want my birthday to come this year because for some reason I did not want to turn 23 (Aaron and I felt the same way about our birthdays this year). But, as always, time didn’t conform to my wishes and April 17^th came and went without my permission, lol. My birthday was on a Sunday this year so we celebrated on Saturday and Sunday! J

On Saturday Aaron put together a great day for me! We went bowling, shopping at a fabric store, then out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Bowling was SO MUCH FUN!!! Aaron made the mistake of walking away and letting me create the bowling names, haha! So we were "Birthday Girl" and "Handsome Guy". J We had two of the closest games we’ve had, it was some intense competition! There was an old man in the lane next to us who was watching our game and he got pretty caught up in the intensity of our close scores, it was fun! And of course we had awesome bowling shoes, lol.

Oh and I got to listen to whatever I wanted on the radio which I abused terribly and poor Aaron was stuck listening to all kinds of 90s “girl power” music, haha. He was also a great sport at the fabric store while he waited patiently for almost an hour while I picked out a dress pattern. Then that night we had the adult session of stake conference. I’ve had at least some part of stake conference fall on my birthday for the last three years somehow… what’s up with that?? Oh well J Oh and Aaron got me Sims 2 Open for Business for my birthday, haha! It’s a fun game, and Aaron actually got a little addicted to it too once I showed him how to open a robot-making shop, lol.

On Sunday morning I had a delicious fruit tart for breakfast and skyped with my family for a while. Then I got to go to my Grammy and Papa’s house after church and have tacos and birthday cake with my extended family! I picked out a delicious Boston Creme Cake for my birthday cake. So yummy! The best part of Sunday was getting Grammy and Papa’s rendition of “Happy Birthday” in person! J

Aaron's 29th Birthday

This year we celebrated Aaron’s 29^th birthday! My man is getting old! Leading up to his birthday he kept saying that it didn’t feel like his birthday so I went overboard with decorating the apartment for his special day so that he would feel like it was his birthday! Lol, it was fun to see his reaction! My favorite gift that I got him was a Superbowl Packers Champions Tshirt. It seems that every time I’ve gotten Aaron a Tshirt, it’s always too small, so I was thrilled that this one fit! And he wears it a lot J

For his birthday dinner, we had chicken enchiladas and Mexican rice. As a special surprise, I also got him Sangria to drink with his meal. He fell in love with the drink on his mission and every time we have Mexican food he comments that it needs Sangria, so I found some to go with his Mexican birthday dinner!

I also made Aaron a birthday cake and I was really excited to surprise him with a circle layer cake that he prefers (but it’s a little more work so we usually just do sheet cake). Unfortunately, the cake making did not go well! It completely fell apart! I couldn’t stand letting that ugly cake be Aaron’s birthday cake, and I had about 45 minutes before Aaron was supposed to get home, so I ran out the door to the grocery store to get a bakery cake. The grocery store cake saved the day! And actually my ugly cake still tasted pretty good, so we had two yummy cakes to eat!

Valentine's Day 2011

2011 was by far the best Valentine’s Day Aaron and I have spent together yet! Since it was on a Monday it kind of turned into a Valentine’s Day weekend. On Saturday we had a fabulous night of dinner and dancing! We went out to TGI Fridays for dinner and had a really delicious meal. I think their new cheesecake is AMAZING and Aaron really loved his first wedge salad.

Then we went to the Stake Valentine’s Day Dance. The dance was SO much fun! I was very impressed by how beautiful they were able to make the cultural hall. It definitely rivaled most wedding receptions done in church buildings. The theme was "A Love Story" and they had couples submit their love stories beforehand with a picture. Then they displayed the pictures as a slideshow throughout the night and they had each love story on posters around the room. At the end of the night we got to take our poster home. They had some of the pictures in frames as the table centerpieces and our pictures was one of them so we got to take that home too.

It was really creative and fun! Also, the strawberries were huge and delicious! Aaron and I danced a lot and just had tons of fun talking, laughing and goofing off. There were only two other couples from our ward there so we got to socialize a little, but for the most part we were able to just focus on each other since we didn't know anyone else, which was perfect. I got some pictures of the evening off the event website. They took a picture to show the slideshow when it was our picture on there! And there was even had a picture of me and Aaron dancing! :) Also as part of the event they took everyone's couple picture. I didn't really like ours, but I posted it here anyway. It's the black and white one at the top of the post.

On Monday night we exchanged gifts with each other and played games. Aaron’s gift to me was an amazing meal of stuffed chicken breasts – yum! He also got me roses and a stuffed lion that is SO cute! Sugar thinks Mufee (the lion) is her cub or something and she carries him around the apartment and cuddles with him under the couch. But...she also chews on his tail so I constantly have to take him away from her, lol.

And I spoiled Aaron with tons of gifts! (everything in the picture is from me to him, lol) I also put together a very poorly done photoshopped picture for him. It didn't quite go as planned... I wanted to do a collage of words that would look like his silhouette, and that project got stuck half way through (I'll post a picture of that partial project) so I tried putting words over his face and that just looked odd. As a back up (since I knew this was failing), I also threw together a picture of both of us with lyrics from our songs in the background. By the way, the words I used on Aaron's picture were adjectives that I got his friends and family to send me that they thought described Aaron. Also the last picture is the gift from the dogs to Aaron, lol.