Kristen Gainey, business owner

So, it is actually done. It's been a crazy week, between setting up the business and substituting at the high school. But Monday I contacted a commercial lawyer to set up all of the actual business work, and so far I think it's well worth the money. He advised me to be an S-corporation instead of an LLC, makes sure the name I want isn't taken, and files all of the stuff for me. Hair people are mostly creative, so the business side is not our favorite. The lawyer was recommended to me by a friend who happens to be getting his masters in taxation. He will be helping me keep my books and file my taxes, which I will have to do quarterly come the new year. Then on Thursday evening I went and signed a 2 year lease. I have to say, I have mostly felt good about it from the start, but all that day I was pretty nervous, It's a big commitment! But, once I got there, I felt completely calm and confident. And I have to say, the company I ended up signing up with is fantastic. They have thought of everything, and make it so easy. They lay out everything you need to so step-by-step. I also met a lot more of the other women in the building, and they all seem very nice. It's very empowering to be in a building completely full of women business owners, and most of them seem to be doing very well!

I officially start on the 20th, give or take. I wanted to give myself time to decorate, move in, and get the word out to my clients. I'm offering 15% off the first visit, and 25% off an entire visit for each referred new client. Next stop, business cards and brochures. I'm very excited.

It's interesting, I've been subbing at Rangeview in the attendance office, and it's not exactly barrels of fun, but the days go by really fast, I'm busy the whole time, and I don't think I've ever had a job like that before! The woman I'm in for is actually leaving, and had I known a week or so earlier, I would have seriously considered taking the job I've practically been offered. Funny how things work out, but I firmly believe they are working out for the best. Starting the company has made me learn a lot very quickly, and I have loved the challenge and adrenaline. It's also helped me get my mind off of the having more children thing, giving me something else to focus on. Now I can go ahead knowing that, while we still really want and will try to have more children somehow, I can be useful another way and if it doesn't work out, I have another "baby" of sorts. Joel has been so supportive and encouraging. He's excited to help me with things like inventory and paperwork. It's been fun embarking on something else together.

Don't despair, and entire entry about Christopher is coming. I have some fun new pics to post, I'll try to get to it this weekend.

100 books...

My friend Jeannie posted this and I thought it was kind of cool. This is what she posted with it:

The Big Read is a NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six. I have highlighted the titles that I have read.

Unlike Jeannie, I was kind of surprised at how many I haven't read, being a pretty big reader. And I was surprised how many of the ones I have that I don't remember that well, mostly because they were assigned in school. I prefer easier reading for the most part now. But some of my all-time favorites are on the list. I'd be curious to see everyone else's list.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Wow, you guys, this stuff is kind of hard....

So, still trying to set up my own business. I've done a lot of research, footwork, praying and decision making; and now maybe all for nothing. Let me back up. I went this week to check out both of the places I was interested in having a salon studio in. Decided on one, which wasn't too hard. It just fits my situation better mostly, and offers some incentives that are very helpful. I talked to a guy who can help me with the taxes, and is also suggesting a lawyer to set everything up for me on the business side. I went through a painstaking process of deciding which product line to carry (hard because I was trained on a couple of different lines, but have some interesting connections to another). All of this while still working Rockies games. I had one day off. And finally, I really sat down and figured out numbers. Whether I have enough clients, how much start-up will really cost, marketing, what I still need equipment-wise, all of that. And I figured by this coming week, to sign paperwork and really get the business side started (I can actually start working without the state licensing, I just have to prove I'm in the process of getting it), I need at least $700. Not too bad.

So, this would have all been totally fine, as we were expecting the surplus from Joel's student loans which would have covered it with no problem. However, Friday we found out that for some reason this time the funds were split differently, and we'll be getting the whole amount in March. Warning: severe whining to follow. We don't NEED all of that in March!!! I just need some of it now!

I'm still hoping that we can scrape it together and everything will work out, but sheesh, can't anything go my way this year??

Topherisms

Thought I would mention a couple of things C does that just crack me up.

First of all, he lives on very few types of food, tho he'll try lots of stuff on good days. He almost exclusively eats: chicken nuggets, quesadillas, avacados (but not with quesadillas, literally a bowl of avacado cut up), pbj (he must "pour" the jelly), ham and cheese (we actually switch off between ham and turkey, but he calls them all ham),waffles and cereal.

Lately, he cries almost whenever we leave anywhere. If we're leaving home, he wants to stay there and doesn't want to go wherever we're going. And when I drop him off at anyone's to be watched or play, he cries for me. However, when I try to pick him up, or leave whereever we went, he wants to stay there. This is a huge pain, and takes up quite a bit of time. Last night tho, he really broke my heart. I picked him up from my parents' after work, and he cried "I want to stay at Papa's!" He proceeded to wimper this in the car all the way home, and when we got in the door, he stomped his foot and screamed it at me. This was all fine, but then he started to to cry in this pitiful voice: "I don't like you guys" and "I don't love you guys." Now, the logical side of me realizes that he's 3 and has no idea what he's saying, but.....ouch! I found myself trying to reason with him and telling him he gets to go a lot of fun places, but we have to leave them eventually and go home, or somewhere else. I'm not sure how well it worked....

Quite often, C is at my parent's house at 9pm, when they read scriptures. They all take turns, and they give Christopher a turn as well. For some reason, he always gets a verse that says "And the Big Bad Wolf stole the cookies......" Sometimes the Big Bad Wolf blows a house down, but you get the idea. We try to explain to him that the scriptures are about Jesus, but remember, this is the kid who thinks Tinkerbell lives in the Salt Lake Temple. : ) Hopefully he'll get really good Primary teachers.

He is already concocting ways to stay up later, although his bedtime is already pretty dang late. More bedtime stories, I need to go potty, I'm thirsty, I wanna cuddle mommy......etc. Pretty sure I didn't try these tricks til I was at least 5 or 6, but I'll have to check with my mother to be sure!

Stressing out a little, family update, etc.

So, I'm looking into going into business. Kind of. I am trying to get into a salon studio. These are basically malls of individual salons, and it's kind of like boothrenting. You lease the space and basically own your own business. There's the potential to make great money, because you don't have much overhead, but there's still a lot to figure out. Taxes are one thing that are confusing the heck out of me! I want to start off on the right foot, but there's lots of conflicting info out there about it. I think I have someone who's going to help me, thank goodness. The other stuff is start-up cost, having enough clients, deciding which product lines to use, and of course childcare. I think everything will work out, but it's a little daunting to get started!

Not much else is going on. Last homestand for the Rockies, so that's winding down, which is why I'm looking into expanding my hair business at this time. Christopher is still working on potty training. He really is trying, but I'm about to pull my hair out! Joel is plugging along at work and school. That's about it. Anyone with advice on the business thing or potty-training, it would be greatly appreciated!!

Also, I went back and looked at the beginning of the blog, and thought I would do another family update, for anyone who cares.

My parents continue to have their ebay business, and it does pretty darn well. Local Affairs is also still up and running, mostly busy during the summer and holiday seasons.

Denise still teaches 3rd grade in Heber City, UT. She recently moved closer to her work as well. We got to see her a bit this summer. She is also very close to getting her masters degree. I think my mom said it'll be in the Spring. Lots of school, but pretty exciting!

Shauna works at Rangeview High School, running the computer lab and organizing testing. She's Junior class sponsor as well, so lots of planning activities! She also went back to school, with the intention of getting her teaching license to perhaps teach Health classes.

Steven went to BYU for the summer. Now he's back, going to school here, actually taking a film class or two with Jaime; and he just started a new job.

Jaime is working and going to school. She's still dating Andrew. And she's a great aunt to Christopher. Seriously : ).

Mitchell is in his Junior year at Rangeview (yes, he and Shauna see a lot of each other). He still plays football, and this year he is Student Body VP.

I think that's about it, well, a good summery anyway. Any questions?

Pictures

I haven't taken many really recent pics, but there were some old ones from places I had my phone but not a camera:

These 2 are from Coors Field when he was a little over a year old. Not sure why they stayed so small! The second one is of him peeking into my office. So cute.



This is from this summer, right around his 3rd birthday. He rode an elephant at the Renaissance Festival, we went with Joel's parents.

Baseball Babble

Well, I'm fairly certain at this point that the Rox won't be having a postseason in 2008. I'm not sure if they're mathematically out of it yet, but they just got swept by a team that has been out for sometime, and if they have a chance, it's very slim. The walk-off balk to end the game on Tuesday in extra innings really killed me. I mean, seriously. I've seen a lot of baseball, and that's the first time I've seen that happen. And lately the team just doesn't seem to care. I think they need a new manager who'll pump 'em up. Or at least give them a swift kick in the pants once in a while! Suffice it to say, I'm not counting on any extra paychecks this October. There's always next year....but this year it wouldn't have taken much to win the suddenly crappy NL West division, a fact that adds to the disappointment.

The 2008 baseball season wasn't a total loss for us. Christopher joined Rockies Rookies this year and got to run the bases. He's played on the field a couple other times, but he really loved running those bases this year! He wanted to go again, but it was mass chaos and we did not want to wait around to see if they'd let him. And he's gotten lots of practice in the free T-ball cage. I think we're going to put him in some kind of baseball or T-ball team next summer. He's getting pretty good. He also logged a few hours at the playground, and in mommy's office, as I've talked about before. Whenever I stop working there, it will be weird to go back, because C probably thinks he owns the place at this point!

As the season draws to a close, I'm looking into business opportunities in hair. Specifically, getting into some type of room or booth renting situation. I'll keep ya posted!

Friendship

So, it's literally the middle of the night, and I am nowhere near sleep. I thought since I'm up, I would write about something that's been on my mind lately. A few things have kept me thinking about the subject as a whole. I'll try to organize my thoughts, but I make no promises!

First of all, I recently started keeping in better touch and hanging out more with the girl I would have always called my best friend growing up. I realized the last time we got together that we really have very little in common. We're actually probably polar opposites when it comes to religion, politics, moral standards, you name it. But I still really enjoyed my time with her. And even though for years we haven't been very close, we still had so many inside jokes and laughs together. I still want the best for her and think she's fun and admire her for many different reasons, and know that tho we may not always be close, and time may go by that we don't talk at all, we'll always mean a lot to each other because we were always good friends to each other.

Then, an old friend that I have rarely seen in many years reached out to me. I was really glad that he felt he could do that, and that I ever meant enough to him to share this situation with me the way he did.

I also had my 10 year high school reunion last year. An interesting experience to say the least. And of course, I've been getting in touch with many old friends and co-workers through social networking sites, and it's so cool to see what everyone is up to.

I don't know that I would have thought of all of this, but something happened that made me think about what friendship really means. Someone I love very much told me they felt like they didn't have any real friends, and these examples came to mind. I came to the conclusion that there are many levels of friendship, and friends will come and go from our lives, and that's OK.

This has all made me really grateful for some things in my life:

1) My family. Because family is family, and you have to (well, really should), love and forgive each other. And even though we all end up taking out more on family than anyone else, I think in the end it makes us closer despite the hard times.
I'm also glad I was raised to be close to my extended family. At times, my cousins have seen more of me than my sisters, and have had to live with me and know more about me than just about anyone, and now I'm really grateful for that. They put me in check every once in a while and say things that make me realize something about myself I may not have been aware of before.

2) The Gospel. More specifically, the knowledge that spiritually we're all brothers and sisters and in the same boat. At least, in a way. Sometime in my teens, this principle really started sticking with me, and at this point I think I'm pretty good at staying aware of this fact. It really does help with things like road rage, or when the politics of modern-day church life really get to me. I wish everyone was aware of this truth and acted accordingly. I'm not saying I'm perfect at it, not even close. But just think what it would be like if everyone regarded people the way I'm sure they would if they walked around aware that we're all family, all here for the same basic reason, all going through our own problems and trials. We would all be more tolerant, forgiving, and loving. I know I am when I keep this in the forefront for myself.
My husband is really good at this. Anyone who'd been to a public place with him knows this. It's almost embarassing at times how easily he talks to complete strangers, but generally I think it's a great trait. I'm pretty sure he got it from his Dad. I've witnessed him doing those things a lot too.

3) Visiting Teaching. This is another Mormon thing, for any who might think it's a foreign language. I'll be honest, at times in my life, VT has been a pain, and I've taken a negative attitude to being assigned to care about someone, or have them care about me. But I know overall it's a blessing for so many people. And just this year I realized how important it is for me, because when I had what was probably the hardest time of my life, I had the perfect Visiting Teachers for my situation. Over the years I've made a lot of good friends this way, and been made aware of situations and people that I would not have been otherwise.

Anyway, I have realized that we just don't have time to give every relationship our all. We're so darn busy nowadays! We end up closer to some people than others, perhaps because of circumstance more than anything else. I personally love to catch up with everyone, love to see people I used to know and see where they're at now. Sometimes it's a little awkward, but I still think it's great overall. I think that most of these relationships, or lack thereof, happen for a reason. And I really believe we can learn something from anyone who crosses our path, sometimes we just have to look for it a little harder. And sometimes we won't know how or why we needed them until much later. I'm grateful for everyone in my life, whether they've been related, "assigned", or chosen to be my friend!

K, enough late-night rambling. It's now almost 3am and I am going to bed! Love everyone, Seriously!

more Disneyland

It was bound to happen, I suppose. But I always thought maybe Jaime would be the one to get him in real trouble.... : )



This pic is included because Shauna and I may or may not have spent quite a bit of time browsing Princess merchandise. But because we did, C got to hang out with Peter Pan looking for Tinkerbell!



This is an inside joke for our extended family. Years ago (like 10), we took a trip with my dad's whole side of the family to Disneyland. We made plans several times to meet up at the castle benches, but my family ended up waiting (more than 1 time) hours and the others never showed up. We actually ran into them accidentally once at Haunted Mansion, but otherwise they stood us up. This is a reenactment by the beautiful Shauna.

Disneyland

MY castle : ) Though I admit, Cinderella castle at WDW is my favorite, especially now with the Dream Suite.
Shauna and Christopher speeding along at, oh, 5 miles an hour : ). C begged to drive, but then he wouldn't~
We got Dream Fastpasses! Well, Joel got 2 of them, and we switched off, but it was cool to get anything.

We went all the way to Disneyland so C could go on a slide! This is actually at California Adventure.
C on the "C" from California at the entrance to both parks.

Back in Alameda and SoCal

Loard's, where mom insisted we had to get ice cream. You all know how I hate ice cream, but we went anyway ; P. It was really good! Mom's sad because they just closed the attached Mervyn's, tho : (.
Shauna attempting to minimize the amount of ice cream all over C's clothes.
Our room at the Marriott, Anaheim. I've never seen anything like the traffic in LA! It took us so much longer to drive down because of it!
The front of the hotel, where we caught the trolley shuttle everyday.

Santa Cruz and Oakland

This one is self-explanatory
The Boardwalk at Santa Cruz. The rides were expensive, so we skipped them, but we did play a game where I won a stuffed dragon for C. We also played miniature golf, which C was totally into- for about two holes. After that, he would just carry his ball over to the hole!
The beach.
The Oakland Temple, where my parents were sealed.
The gorgeous view from the Oakland Temple.

The Bay Area

The kitchen at my Grandpa Esposo's in Alameda. Anyone who's had his cooking knows it's the most important room in the house!
My new favorite place to get clam chowder in a sourdough bowl!
The required pic of Alcatraz. Don't know that I've ever actually made the trip over to the island, but maybe when I was very young.....
The also seemingly required pic of the Golden Gate Bridge. To the very left is the ferry we rode in and out on.

The main rooms of Grandpa's house. It's changed a bit over the years, but I have many great memories growing up visiting here.

Utah and California

This, of course, is the Salt Lake Temple. While we were there (we stopped in Utah for one night to visit my sister, and Joel's paternal side of the family, my parents happened to be out there too), Joel asked Christopher who's house the temple is, hoping he would say Heavenly Father or Jesus. His reply was "Tinkerbell!" This is the point when we realized we may have exposed our son to too much Disney, but that doesn't mean we're stopping!


So, we went from snowy mountains....
To desert hills...... to green California mountains.



I had to include this one because Fairfield is where I was born! Shauna had us stop at In N Out in Vegas for lunch, because she wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Just Chillin'

I just got done with a week of work for the Rockies, and now I have 4 days off, so C and I really are just chillin'. We're also trying to keep the house in decent shape, since we just worked so hard to get it there. And of course, I'm doing a bit of hair. I'm never really idle, I've realized. But I did get to take a nice bath, read an entire novel, and get to relax a little today, so it's all good. C and I also made runs to beauty supply stores (speaking of which, if anyone ever wants me to get them anything, let me know!). We had to go to 2 because Peel's is being remodeled, and I just didn't want to deal with trying to find what I needed, it's a mess! I think they should just close til it's done. But since no one asked me as usual..... : P

I thought that since I skipped a whole bunch of our vacation from March picture-wise, I would post a few of them today. And since I haven't yet figured out how to post pictures and have them end up where I want them in relation to the text, I'm gonna do it seperately, so there will be several posts from today.

Joely-Poly

I'm not sure if I've ever titled a post "Joel," but just in case, I used the nickname given to him by one of my "Disney Princess" friends from back when we were just dating. I still refer to him this way occasionally. But as usual, I digress. I thought since I had recently done a Christopher update, and goodness knows you've all heard enough about me lately, I would do a quick update on Joel too. So, here goes:

Work doesn't change much for our dear head of household, so that's about the same. He still runs a branch of the bank inside a King Soopers grocery store. He's doing great in school online. He just got to the point, with this new block of classes, where he gets to choose his classes. He's excited about that, but they are quite a bit more difficult and steadily more demanding as well. He's currently taking an accounting class and a world religion class, and he's doing very well in both, although to me he seems to be struggling a little more than usual. I don't know if struggling is the right word, but the assignments seem to be harder and he is telling me more about them as he tries to work through it. At church, he recently got released from one of his callings, so he's back to just having his precious primary class, and he truly loves those boys and loves being in Primary.

Other than that, he's just been putting up with me, which is no small feat : ). But really, he's helped me do tons of stuff around the house lately, we've totally cleaned out as we've been going and he's probably done more than me! And he almost always does the dishes for me because, well, I just hate them. Christopher loves to do dishes, but so far only at my parents', so we're going to have to figure out how to carry that over to home! Anyway, now I think you know whats up with all of us, and hopefully I'll be better about the blogs and just log day to day stuff (I'll try not to bore you!). Love everyone!

Update...

I realized I never updated on the whole tubal pregnancy thing. Following is what I posted to my extended family after I knew everything. It still seems appropriate for most of you, so I just cut and pasted to make it easier on myself! However, this was a little over a month ago now, so below it I updated a little more.

"Just thought I'd update, since most of you know at least part of the situation. Pregnant; miscarriage; not a miscarriage, but an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy I ended up having removed-along with part of me- in emergency surgery. This has been the last month or so of my life. Physically, I feel fine and am basically back to normal, with a couple more scars. But this week, following up with my doctor, we found out my chances of ever conceiving naturally again are very bleak. The tube I have left is to a polycystic ovary (different than what I thought). BUT..... miracles can happen, and I've been told our bodies can do some pretty amazing things. For now we're waiting it out and seeing what happens, and looking into other (mostly very expensive) options. I don't feel hopeless; just discouraged, frustrated, a little sad.... It's hard when your life is not what you thought/tried to plan, I guess. But Joel has been great, and so have all of you (I'd especially like to thank Becky Jo for answering my endless phone calls and just letting me talk to someone!), and I guess Heavenly Father has a different plan than we thought. We're going to roll with it and what is supposed to happen will happen! Sorry if any of this was an overshare for anyone."

So, after this I moved fairly quickly into kind of an angry stage for a while. A lot of frustration because it just seems like there's so much in the news and around about people neglecting their kids to death, or getting pregnant so young or in a bad situation and having no problems. As a good friend of mine with similar issues says "It just seems like crackwhores and teenagers can get pregnant with no problem, and those of us who have loving homes to offer have all the trouble!" I paraphrase, but it's been my favorite quote for a while now. But more than that, in some ways I feel like I'm being punished. And when I think about what we're going to have to go through no matter which way we get more children- which I still believe we're supposed to do- it's very daunting. I mean, considering making payments on our own children, like they're a loan or something, ugh. I still have yet to go to church without breaking into tears at some point......HOWEVER, I don't want everyone to think I'm down all the time. Most days I'm just fine. And I realize that most of these feelings are because I'm just more sensitive to these things right now. I'm sure the news has always had these examples and I just haven't paid as much attention. Same with church talks and lessons. And don't even get me started on that video going around the net about how Obama voted for infanticide! Anyway, I really do have a positive attitude about the whole thing. Like I stated before, I really do think that somehow we are supposed to and will raise more children. And tho it's going to be quite the process no matter which way we get them, imagine how grateful we will be! And how much more we already appreciate Christopher! Just wanted to make sure I'm not just bringing everyone down, but I did want a realistic record, in case at some point my experience can ever help someone else out. Thanks to everyone for caring!

Most recent pics of Christopher

So, most of you have seen these, and/or gotten some copies (if you didn't, and you would like one, let me know, I have lots!). I thought I would post them, cuz they're way cute. I've always been afraid to make an appointment for professional pics, cuz what if it's just a bad day or something, you know? But Lorae always takes her kids around their birthdays and special occasions, so she took all the kids together around C's birthday this time. It was the best present I'VE ever gotten, and it wasn't even my birthday! I was totally surprised (she kind of kidnapped him while my mom was babysitting for me. I was at work and didn't see them until about a week later), and very grateful. Thanks again, RaeRae, you rock!!

Autumn is coming...

I thought I'd write more about Christopher. I'm sure that's what most people want to know about, anyway ; P



I really adore my son. Maybe too much. Joel has been getting a little jealous. I'm trying to maintain more of a balance. Everything I've been through trying to have other children doesn't help. But he's a great kid, and I'm amazed at being a mom and watching him grow and learn; both of which go so fast!



Anyway, C is doing great. Potty training isn't going quite as quickly as I would like, but it is progressing, and I'm sure he'll be fine by the time we take our cruise, which is our only real deadline. He almost always goes in the morning, and if we're home he'll go by himself all day. But he's rather scared of "big potties," the #2 thing is elusive for now, and someday I would like to get his little potty out of my living room, but for now I'm just glad he's making progress, so I'm gonna deal with it!



He loves to go swimming. I think I'll put him in lessons sometime in the coming year. We went quite a bit this summer, and with his little floaties on he just paddles himself all over with his little feet. He still goes to plenty of baseball games, but he drives Joel crazy because he won't sit and watch at all. He wants to play T-ball, go to the playground, see Dinger, and hang out in the command center with mommy, so he keeps Joel running around the whole game. He had a blast while Joel's parents were here. We went to the Renaissance Festival, where he got to ride an elephant and got his first "real" sword. I should have some pictures somewhere....


I just took him for his 3-year well-care checkup, and he's doing great. He's way ahead of the mark in skills (with the exception of fine motor, where he's just a little ahead. Most of those things we just don't do very often, so I'm working on that), and he's right at the 25th percentile for height and weight. They checked his vision and blood pressure for the first time, and they were both in good shape. He had to get one shot, but the nurse made it really quick and he barely even noticed. All in all, he's the picture of good health.

I guess that's about it for now. We're really looking forward to our trip at Christmastime. We'll be taking a roadtrip to Florida, visiting Joel's family and Disney World, and taking a short cruise, all with my family. C is really looking forward to "the Big Mickey Boat," and I'm excited to see him have fun. Until then, we're just working away. I'll try to post more often and get some more pics up!