Late Twenties already?

This past week brought with it many adventures and even some mourning on Tyler's part.  Turning 26 was not something he had been looking forward to.  Ty is under the impression that once you hit 26, you're in your LATE TWENTIES!! shudder. 

Tyler's birthday was a lot of fun this past week and we have loved all the celebrations!  We had a Grange family birthday dinner on Monday, followed by Tuesday which was full of activities of his own choosing (playing soccer, ordering pizza, and watching a US soccer game), followed by a birthday dinner trip to Tucanos with our friends Steve, Jordan, and their adorable and entertaining son Deacon on Wednesday.  We still have one more birthday dinner coming up with my side of the family and then our extended celebratory fun will come to an end. 

This year we tinted our car windows and bought Tyler a KX 250 (dirt bike) for his birthday.  The bike is currently under construction, which is okay by me since I can't ride with him while I'm prego anyway.  I have to confess though-- I'm a little nervous for the bike.  It's probably not what you're thinking though.  I'm just suspicious that Tyler is going to beat me out on the woops now that he has a big, strong bike and an entire season to practice without me :(  sad day!  So if you wouldn't mind, say a little prayer that come next spring, I'll still have the magic touch and will be able to make Tyler eat my dust on my little 85.

I'm including one of my favorite pictures of the man of the week with this post because let's face it, he is pretty dang handsome.  I am one lucky girl to be married to such an incredible guy.

It takes a pretty special person to put up with a stubborn, unpredictable, and oftentimes crazy redhead and Tyler does a great job!  Between his patience, love of laughter, appreciation of naps, and willingness to embark on new adventures, I'm pretty sure he was created especially for me.
----Happy Birthday Tyler!!

P.S.  I'm taking advantage of his absence this weekend by posting this picture.  I'm pretty sure that if he had a say in the matter, this picture would not be up so... enjoy it while you can and let's hope that he lets me leave it up after he sees it next week :)

Oh baby!

Well we finally went in for our targeted ultrasound yesterday and it was amazing so I just had to blog about it.  We had the sweetest ultrasound specialist who was just as enthusiastic as we were about all the discoveries we were able to make about our little girl during the appointment.  That's right!  GIRL!!!  We finally know for sure!  She gave us a great view yesterday that put all my doubts at ease and now I'm ready to go all out on girly bedroom decorations.  Woohoo!

Sorry my last post was such a downer.  Life has many ups and downs, and experiences like that make me even more thankful for the ups.  There is some great news for us though; can you even think of a better pick-me-upper than this:

I know I can't.  During our ultrasound, we were able to watch this darling little girl suck on her fingers, roll around, drink, and wave hello to us as pictured above.  Wow!  It was easily my favorite appointment so far.  These are actually pictures of the ultrasound that I took with my phone so hopefully they show up okay.  I have no desire to scan them all in at the moment (I'm home sick from work today), so hopefully they'll do.

I was absolutely blown away at the detail that ultrasounds pick up on now!  Judging by what we saw, this poor little girl has my bulky legs/butt.  One of the first things the technician (I don't know what her proper term is) said to us in the appointment was, "WOW!  Look at that thigh!" and just like that, I knew it.  It also appears that she has inherited some of Tyler's Japanese facial structure.  If you look close, can't you just see Ty's sharp cheek bones and jaw line?

Seeing each little finger and toe on our baby yesterday was incredible! Technology rocks!  So far everything is looking good; her vitals all checked out properly, her heart, lungs, and brain are looking beautiful, and the doctor confirmed what I've been saying for months now- this baby is extremely active.

Now we just need to get some baby bump pictures posted, don't we?  I'm sure this comes as no surprise to y'all but we haven't been terribly good at taking them.  We do have a couple though, so I will try to get them posted soonly.  Hopefully you're all doing well and loving this gorgeous warm weather.

Until next time,
Shaela

Why am I thinking this deeply on a Saturday?

Today I accidentally tried to flush my shirt down the toilet. One second I was using the bathroom and the next I was removing my shirt, throwing it into the toilet, and pulling down on the flusher.  It wasn't until I saw the shirt going around in circles in the toilet that I came to my senses and realized what I had done.    Go ahead, get your giggles out because it's completely true and quite hilarious.   But when you get down to the nitty-gritties, it's downright terrifying. Why?  Because it's a perfect indication of my current mental state.

Drat.  There goes the funny part to this post.  I wish I could say that my brief lapse in mental capacity was due to a simple case of the pregnancy crazies but this time it's just not.  I'm not one to post about personal things for everyone to see, but the past couple of months have downright sucked and sometimes writing just makes me feel better.  So here goes...

I'm not even slightly familiar with the normal curriculum that is required as part of the journey to parenthood.  For all I know, the past few months are something that every parent goes through as a sort of preparation for the trials that lay in wait for them.  At least that's what I keep telling myself because otherwise, I am leaps and bounds behind every parent out there and someone is giving me the crash course in parental prep so I'll be at the normal parent level.  Either way, I've feel like I've been taken through the wringer.

Case in point: I have felt varying degrees of heartbreak multiple times in the past few months.  Not just ouches  that come around all the time-- actual heart break.  Today I finally discovered the pattern.  From what I can tell, slowly but surely, every perception of everything I've ever been completely sure of, has been warped and twisted beyond recognition.

Today I watched (and I sincerely hope I'm exaggerating when I say this), a beautiful, wonderful, nearly perfect friendship die.  In the most technical of terms, it wasn't really mine.  But I've always taken a lot of joy from this particular friendship and to me it exemplified everything that a friendship could ever hope to be.  Even now I don't fully understand what happened; it sort of feels like a stranger at the grocery store just came up and gut-punched me out of nowhere.  But one thing that keeps going through my mind is something I heard from a wise mother over and over again throughout the years: there's two sides to every story. Anyway, the point is that you can't watch something like that unfold and not feel at least a little piece of your heart break.  Because if a friendship like that could break so easily and needlessly, is anything really safe?

Each time I have felt this type of heartache, I've found solace by focusing on one thing that I am absolutely sure of no matter what happens.  Today it was my husband.  So today I want to thank my husband for reminding me that no matter what happens in life, everything will be okay as long as we have each other.  It might be a hard, long storm to brave but if we can just hold on tight to one another, everything will be okay.  And today that was exactly what I needed.

Anyway, the point is that I've finally caught on.  For some reason, and I can only assume it's to prepare us for parenthood, the foundation I'm standing on that has held me up so wonderfully for so long, is breaking and I'm scared to death to find out which piece is going to break next.

Thank goodness for those few things in life that are ever-present and always reliable.

Drum Roll Please....

Well we finally had our appointment this morning and for now we are...

Yahoo!!  I'm so excited!  This poor child is going to be my doll.  I think baby girls are so fun to dress up and dance around with and doll-up and play dress up with and... need I continue? 

However, I have to offer a disclaimer here because today's appointment has left me feeling as confused as ever.  Last month it looked like a boy and this month it looks like a girl.  Now that I've heard one of each, I'm afraid to make any real plans.  Don't they know my nerves can't handle this???? 

We go in next month for our "big" ultrasound where they check all the vitals and fluids and all that and I can't get over the fact that they could be telling me then that it is a boy again (which would also be awesome).  Ugh.  And I can't tell you how many dozens of people have now told me all about their pregnancies and how they thought they were having one and then found out they were having the other.  Oh the anticipation!

Anyway, for now it is a girl and we are absolutely thrilled with the idea!!  Hopefully next month we'll be able to get a firm confirmation that will put my anxieties to rest.

Two Items of Business

I have two exciting items of business to cover today:

#1. 
Last weekend we had the pleasure of enjoying another first together and boy oh boy was it a fun one.  Last Saturday we were able to attend the Monster AMA  SUPERCROSS!!!  While there, we got to see

James Stewart

Ryan Dungey

Ryan Villopoto

Eli Tomac

Oh!  And helllloo Broc Tickle!

... among other amazing riders.

It was incredible!  I have always wanted to see James Stewart race live, so this was a dream come true.  He was easily the fastest guy on the track but due to a couple of unfortunate nose dives, ended up losing.  Even still, it was soooo cool to watch him out there!  We still love you James!

And we even saw a fight between two of the riders!  Seriously.  Two guys (competing for a low place ironically) ran into each other during the race.  Instead of picking up their bikes and continuing, one of the guys jumped off his bike and threw himself onto the other guy.  The fight continued for a few seconds until they realized, "Oh yeah!  We're in the middle of a race", hopped back on their bikes, and finished the course.  Wow!  I have never seen that happen before. 

Anyway, here we are having a grand old time together:

I am so thankful that I married a guy who is perfectly willing to not only let me pursue my motocross interests, but who sticks along with me for the ride and enjoys the experience himself.   Furthermore, he was totally fine with me constantly leading him away from all of the hot monster girls while we used our pit pass.  Well done Tyler!

And now onto Item of Business #2. 

Tomorrow is the big day!  Early in the morning, we'll be going to the doctor to find out what gender this darling little baby of ours is going to be and we CANNOT WAIT!  I can barely stand the anticipation while I wait to decorate the room and purchase baby clothing.  Whew.  Almost there. 

Do y'all have any guesses??

A fun story and some fabulous news

Story Time:
It's finally time for me to tell you about our fun story!  Keep in mind, this is for my own documentation purposes so feel free to skip to the bottom if you don't want to read about the whole thing.  

Our story started two days before we left for our cruise.
I had an appointment with the chiropractor scheduled for that afternoon and sometimes he takes hip x-rays so I started the morning off with a precaution just in case he decided to take more.  I've taken  at-home pregnancy tests several times and even though I have no expectations of it reflecting a positive result for at least another year, it's still slightly disappointing to see the single line in my "window" every time-- I guess it just gets old after a while.
Anyway, there I was going about my morning routine when I remembered that I needed to throw my test away for the umpteenth time.  Just as I went to do so, I saw not one, but two lines.  What the?  I had just recently opened a new kind of pregnancy test kit and I sat there for a while thinking about how confusing it was that they all displayed results so differently.  They should really all collaborate and make things look the same so they don't throw me for a loop like that!
So... I pulled the box out to reread the results portion and it stated clearly that two lines indicated a positive result.  Then I stared at my test for a very long time.  It was early in the morning so chances were pretty high that I was misreading something.
I reread the box, then my test, the box, then my test, multiple times until I finally came to the conclusion that I had just received my first positive result from a pregnancy test!
Instead of coming up with a clever, cute way of telling Tyler, I bounded into the bedroom and jumped on the bed without even thinking about it.  I woke Tyler up to tell him the news and asked him how this was possible.  Tyler responded with a somewhat cheeky explanation of the birds and the bees and just like that it started.
Tyler immediately purchased 3 more tests at Dollar Tree so we could be sure that the positive test result wasn't just a fluke.
3 tests later, the answer was still a resounding yes.  And I'd like to add in a little note here about how differently the Dollar Tree tests work.  First they display a negative result, then the coloring sweeps back to display a positive.  It scared the daylights out of us the first time I took one.
Thank goodness we found out before the cruise because I had plans to soak in hot tubs and eat seafood to my heart's content.  That could have been scary.
This discovery did make the cruise very interesting though since I woke up sick every morning.  And whoever came up with the term "morning sickness" deserves a swift kick in the pants because it is misleading to a first-timer who expects the nausea to simply disappear into the afternoon.  Don't get me wrong, it's totally worth it.  And considering the fact that I never get sick, I feel like this is only fair, but still... it needs a more accurate name.
As you can imagine, I had some serious issues with all of the constant supplies of food on our cruise ship.  Bleck!  Even writing about it makes me feel ill.

Our News:
Just in case you skimmed ahead or were left feeling confused about my story, here is our news:

The Grange household is going to become a family of 3!!  We are expecting our first baby on October 14, 2011 and we are absolutely thrilled!

We are still in shock that things did not take longer but are so thankful for the opportunity.  It has been a truly awesome experience so far and we already feel so blessed.  It has been amazing to see the way things have just sort of worked out so far, what an awesome testament to the fact that this child is meant to be!

P.S.  My advice to all of you who may have reason to announce births in the future: DON'T TELL ANYONE AHEAD OF TIME!  Just pick one day and tell the world.  Otherwise, the beans are inevitably spilled.  Trust me, on our next go-round, we're going to do things much differently :)  Thank you to all those who kept their lips sealed!

General Conference Weekend

I hope you're all okay with a pictureless post because I stuck to my habits and took zero pictures this past weekend. In my defense, I thought we were without a camera all weekend (it was actually packed away in our trunk). However, the fact remains that I am terrible at this documenting stuff.


Nevertheless, we had a great weekend so I wanted to share some quick thoughts.

1- Was conference this year INCREDIBLE or what?! Seriously! I absolutely loved it!
I had an awesome ah-ha moment on Sunday when my little sister turned to me during one particular talk and asked,

"Doesn't it seem like every talk was written for Jake [my brother]?" My response was something along the lines of, "I was just thinking that every talk was written for me."

Ah ha! Isn't it interesting that if you listen to conference with the right spirit, you'll find something in every single talk that seems as if it was tailored to you personally? I just love it.
Talk about some awesome, inspired men and women who unbeknownst to themselves, deliver exactly the right message for each member of the congregation! You can't tell me that's not a miracle.

2- For conference weekend this spring, we decided to take a much-needed camping trip down to Little Sahara/Cherry Creek/Jericho or as I prefer to call it, the desert.
What an awesome experience! As far as I'm concerned, dirt bikes are the best form of therapy in existence. We were of course able to visit Porter Rockwell's cabin again and that never gets old for me.

The desert may not have the most beautiful scenery in the world, but the terrain is out of this world! Seriously- I don't think you can find anything better.

So... here's our fun story for the weekend:
Saturday night was our last night in the desert (sniff) and it had it out for us. There I was sleeping peacefully, completely oblivious to the world around me, when Tyler pokes me with his elbow.

"We have to get out Sha," he says.
"Why?" I respond.
"Because I'm holding up the tent with my shoulder."

What the?! What the crap is going on? I've become a light sleeper as of late. If something was wrong, I would have woken up, right? Evidently, wrong.

"WHERE AM I?" I shout.
"You're camping in a tent in the desert. Are you okay?"
"I KNOW that! What's going on? Where is the door?"

Apparently it takes a while for me to come to my senses when I am woken up in an enclosed heap of material.

Long story short, after some struggling, we safely made it out of the tent in time for me to nearly collapse into a ball of laughing hysterics. Our tent was piled so high in heavy snow that I couldn't even recognize it! It was hysterical. Together we were able to shovel off the snow with our hands just in time for more to accumulate. We tried multiple times to pop the tent back up, but to no avail. It seems that one of our poles actually split down the middle lengthwise. Great.  Additionally, we were both standing in a snow storm in nothing but sweats, which basically means we became sopping wet in a matter of seconds.

Thankfully my parents had arrived at about midnight that morning so we were able to convince them to make room for us in their trailer after we disassembled the tent and removed several of our soaked belongings.

I've been camping many times before, but never like this. What an adventure!

I hope all of your weekends were filled with wonderfulness as well! 

Until Next Time,
Shaela