Life as of Now......

School

This is my fourth semester and it is going pretty well! Classes that I am signed up are:

Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities (by far my fav)

Correction Law

Career Strategies

Witness Testimony

Digital Media

I take all my classes in the evening throughout the week, this is because we just have the one car but happily we are in the process of getting another one. I still love everything that I am learning, the other night I was telling Isaac that there is just so much I want to learn about in different majors like culinary arts, graphic design, interior design, or biology...he just said that after I finish this major to keep on going and learn more after, ha ha yea right! I love that he believes in me!! It looks like if I go to summer school I will be able to finish in December which is very exciting!

Work

Isaac is doing great at work, for awhile now he has been learning about this new system called Foglight and now the whole church is starting to use the program; so a few times now Isaac has been asked to give presentations and is also the Foglight lead for his team.

He is pretty much awesome!!

Dates

Together we haven't really gone out and done any fun things but this weekend we went out and just had dinner at Chipotle (one of our favorite spots) and watched a movie at home; we watched "In Time" and "The Three Musketeers". It was really relaxed and I love watching a movie especially when we put our L couch together and grab all our pillows and blankets and eat cupcakes, this is pretty much how we like to spend our weekends :)

Food

Grilled Beef Ribs

Marinating Sauce

1/2 cup Jack Daniels Original BBQ sauce

1/2 Steak Sauce

1/2 Worcestershire Sauce

1/2 cup (I add a little more) Pepsi or Coke

Mix.

To the meat especially steaks or beef add McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning and garlic salt to both sides and then add marinate the longer the better but it is one of my ultimate marinades!! I got this recipe years ago from a friend Amber and it is delicious!!

Grilled Zucchini

I just cut them up and then in a bowl or plastic bag I add the zucchini's and add olive oil, salt and pepper; grill for 2-3 minutes on each side so simple and so delicious. I sometimes like to add parmesan cheese.

Double Baked Potatoes

These were really yummy and my first time trying to make them!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

The one thing you should add to any asian lettuce wrap is this stuff called Makoto Honey Ginger Dressing you can get in the refrigerator section by the salad bags and it is so good!!!

I also made the crunchy noodles its so simple you just take rice noodles (good kind) and then fry them up and they get puffed up and you can store it in a zip lock for a few weeks.

Spaghetti

I made this with stewed tomatoes, garlic, chili flakes, olive oil and then added grilled zucchini (green and yellow) and it turned out pretty yummy!

So I have pretty much have some free time during the day so I've been making some yummy dinners. I am obsessed with grilled zucchini and lettuce wraps!

Superbowl

Tonight for the Superbowl we went over to Joey's and Cali's to watch it. There was SO MUCH delicious food and we didn't even get a picture!! Ike and I are still stuffed! We were both rooting for the Giants (mostly for Eli Manning) I am not at all a football fan or anything but I was happy that they won.

Sisters

The Hosts

Angie and Q

Henry

It was a good time like always.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

So last week (or longer I can't remember) my parents came home. pretty cool right? They were serving as MTC Presidents in Madrid, Spain. Well, what is crazy about this, is that they have been gone for like 4 years (also served a mission in Peru). What that means to me is that my parents have been gone the entire time I've been married. Luckily we have technology so we've still gotten to talk to them via skype etc. Anyway, heres some pictures of the arrival.

Me, Grace, Linh, Mom and Dad and our sign "Welcome to America"

My family cheering as we see them at the airport... you can only see my mouth, but I look hungry. + Look at Linh she is cute. (cortney took these pictures)

Stampede of children

After the airport we went and hung out at Cali's house and had a great time. I'm really happy they are home! The following Sunday we had pancakes at Jason's and today we all got together for Theo's baby blessing, it's been great being around my family.

Mom, Dad, Debi, Russ, Me, Troy and Kayla

Last week Linh and I invited my bosses plus their wives over to eat dinner at our house! We also invited mom and dad since Dad was Troy Lamoreaux's mission president. Troy originally hired me to work for the church and I worked under him for some time as a Quality Assurance Engineer. Later I moved over to Russ Scadden's Team in PeopleSoft Operations, and crazily enough Troy just became the new manager over PeopleSoft Operations so now he is my manager again! It's of course bitter sweet because Troy is an awesome manager and I look forward to working for him again, but I will miss Russ too because he has taught me alot and has been a great Manager who has really helped me along.

We didn't get pictures but my wife made one of my very favorite meals.. at my request of course! I'll start with appetizers... she made Cocunut shrimp and Pot Stickers :). For the main course she made combination noodle bowl, which includes marinated pork and chicken with rice noodles and vietnamese fish sauce. Thanks honey for making it for me :). I almost forgot she made crazy good fried bananas + ice cream for dessert. Needless to say we all got pretty full...

Our Little Peanut

I have been going back and forth for awhile now deciding if I wanted to write this post and decided that I wanted to so that I wouldn't forget and I feel better writing my feelings out then talking about it.

When I was in Denver in October I was a few days late for my "monthly present" and it was quite normal for me so it wasn't a big deal. On October 22 I took a pregnancy test at my sisters house but it came out negative, so I figured that my period was coming soon. I set a new date to take a pregnancy test for the 1st of November, still a week later nothing (October 29) and so Ike went to the store to get some dollar pregnancy tests just in case I wanted to take them. But I was trying to be patient just in case it was negative and I would be disappointed....but having the test right at my finger tips I had to take a test ;) while I was watching it I saw a dark pink line appear in the spot I have never seen it appear before and I just couldn't believe it "am I really pregnant?" A few seconds later it for sure said I was. Now I was thinking how am I going to tell Isaac, I have been wanting to tell him in a cutesy way and thought of different ideas if the occasion ever came up; but it just didn't happen I walked over to him and started crying and said, "I think I'm pregnant." We were both so so happy! Our dreams were coming true...we were finally going to be parents! Still in denial I decided to take another dollar test (Isaac bought 4) and still it came out positive, so to be reassured Ike went to the store to buy an 'expensive' test because he didn't think the dollar ones were for real. So he left, came back with one of the digital test and the screen said "yes".

Now, it was time to go see a doctor. All my sisters in Utah go to a doctor at Orem Community and so I thought it would be the best choice. We had to wait until I was 8 weeks to go. About a week before I started spotting and on the left side cramping a lot so I decided to go to the ER just to get it checked out. They did an ultrasound and said that they couldn't see anything in my uterus so they did some blood testing to test my HCG levels and told me to come back in a few days to do it again. When we went back they took my blood again and did an ultrasound and this time they said that there was a possible gestational sac growing and my HCG level were tripling so the conclusion was I was for sure pregnant but not as far along as I had thought.

A week later (November 15) we go in to see Dr and did an ultrasound and we found out that we were just only 6 weeks along. Our little peanut had a heartbeat of 126 so it was a sigh of relief! They gave us a printout our little one and we left happy knowing everything was okay.

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We made an appointment for five weeks later for a follow up. So December 19th came and we went in for our appointment and it was our worst nightmare. The doctor took us into a room and had me lift my shirt up to use a machine to hear the heartbeat and he said by how far along I was you should be able to hear it, so when he couldn't he sent me over to the ultrasound person to get it checked out. When we went into the room she checked; on the screen we saw our little bean look like a little person and after 1 minute said she was sorry but the baby doesn't have a heartbeat and left and got the doctor. I was confused and didn't know what was happening. The doctor came in to tell us that it looks like I am going to miscarry and started rambling about reasons of why this could be happening, I didn't hear a single thing coming out of his mouth...he told us to come in a week later to do a follow up ultrasound.

When we left it was devastating. Isaac started to cry almost immediately but I was still in shock and denial that this was even happening. I hated that whole appointment we were in and out in what seem to be 6 minutes total. I was mad that they didn't try looking harder or do a vaginal ultrasound to make sure, and why didn't the doctor try looking at the ultrasound screen. That office was way too busy and we felt like they have seen this plenty of times so it wasn't a big deal and treated us terribly....I hated them.

A week later we come in for a follow up ultrasound and I did not want the same tech so I was happy to have this guy do it. He tried longer, was sympathetic and explained everything to us which made it so much better. After this whole long process it is confirmed to us that our baby passed on at 9 weeks and a few days.

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The next step was how I wanted to deal with this miscarriage: natural or D&C. I decided that I wanted to do it naturally but it just was taking longer than I anticipated and so I decided to do a D&C. I found a new doctor at the Riverton Hospital they were amazing. He really took his time to explain everything to us and what we can be expecting. So I made an appointment for January 5th and got the procedure done it took a total of 4 hours from start to finish, they put me to sleep and all is well. I have a follow up appointment this Friday to make sure everything is okay.

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This past month or so has been such a blur. I cried all day when we found out and Isaac didn't go to work that day. I had hopes that they made a mistake and that everything was going to turn out for the best. I spent weeks pondering if I had done something "wrong" and finally a few days ago it has just hit me really hard, I realize that I am no longer pregnant. Everyone tells me that it will be okay and I know it will but my heart aches everyday. I miss looking at baby room ideas, I miss thinking of names we want to use, I miss day dreaming what our baby going to look like, I miss being pregnant......I miss my baby.

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I know Isaac and I will be amazing parents one day. I know we will get through this. I know we have strong testimonies of the Gospel. I know that we will meet our little one again.

New Years and A 2011 Recap

New Years 2012

For New Years Ike and I went downtown to temple square with Brandon and his girlfriend Kelsie. We weren't going to do anything really to celebrate, but they were nice to invite us out. I haven't got dressed up in awhile, so it was nice to get ready and go out and go on a nice date with Ike. We had dinner in the Joseph Smith building at The Garden, then we walked around the temple grounds to look at the lights, then we went into the tabernacle and listened to some bands that included the Truman Band and the Nashville Tribute Band and then walked over and saw the fireworks go off at midnight. When we got home we made hot dogs with j-dawg sauce, a great way to end a great night!

2011 Recap

We really blessed this year, we had lots of ups and some downs but all in all it was a wonderful year and we are excited what 2012 will bring for us!

*Isaac got a few raises and a few promotions

*I finished one full year at UVU

*I got my braces off

*Isaac achieved masters league in SC2 (this means he's one of the top 2%)

*We traveled to Biloxi, MS; New Orleans, LA; Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Moses Lake, WA

*Linh went to Denver and Isaac went to Anaheim, CA and San Francisco, CA

*Lieu and Alex came to visit us

*My uncle got married

*We celebrated our fourth year of marriage

*We celebrated our 26th and 25th birthdays

*We went to a Jason Derulo concert

*A few people got married

*Mike and Allie, Kyle and Rachel, Kevin and Jessica

*We got a few new family members

*Marion, Stella, and Theo

*Got another sister (Allie)

*I attended my first Earl Girl Cousin Reunion

*We got a scooter

*I started couponing

*We went on a hike and learned that we will never again!

*I met Frank Abagnale

*Tyler and Allisa came a visited us (texas); so did Chris (maine)

*Went on a lot of dates

*Watched a lot of shows and movies

*Found some of our favorite places to eat

*won won wok, sammy's, chubby's, costa vida, pho bein hoa, sam hawk, zupas, chipotle, mcgraths, cheesecake factory, thai basil, little caesars, burger king and j-dawgs

*Had a few game nights at our house

*Worked on little house projects

*Enjoyed teaching our primary kids

Life is wonderful and we are just happy to start another year!!

Christmas

This year we stayed in Utah once again and had a very quiet Christmas. We just relaxed and ate lots. On Christmas day I made a feast for just the two of us that included: steak, mashed potatoes, cucumber/tomato salad, macaroni and cheese, rolls, steamed broccoli, roasted carrots, and lemon sugar cookies. We didn't do gifts really either but we were really okay about it! We did have some visitors from out of town stop by that included: Tyler, Allisa and Molly; Chris Owens; and Brandon Earl.

I told Ike that I feel we have been (stuck) in Utah for awhile and haven't gone anywhere so we are planning some kind of vacation either around my spring break or after my spring semester. It will be nice to get away for a little bit :)

Oh PS I got a haircut and cut off 12 inches! So instead of 35 inches of hair I now have 23 inches :) it feels good!!!

Pooped!

Wow the whole month of November is already gone! We weren't too busy last month, but these last few weeks have been exhausting for us. I have mad finals and projects that I need to take care of and I feel like there isn't enough time in the day!

A few things to catch up on...

Ike has been super busy lately, this week he has yet ANOTHER training opportunity (his resume keeps building, love it)! It's day two but he is catching some kind of cold so he is pretty wiped out too! He just had a review and I would just like to quote his boss Russ, "he is working miracles"; it is like music to my ears! I would just like to say that he is so amazing and impresses me daily with the things he is doing to support our family! We have been truly blessed! :)

I turned 25 in November on the 8th and we didn't really celebrate because I was not feeling well and I had tons of school work to do! But a week later we went up to Park City to hang out at the Westgate penthouse and had a relaxing weekend! Thanks for everyone who came! And thank you to everyone who called, texted, sent cards, emails! Love you guys!

For Thanksgiving Kelsey and Jon were so kind to host a dinner at their home; it was so awesome, and I have never seen Corbin eat as much as he did, especially the pomegranate salad. It was quite impressive! We had a lot to be thankful for this year! It's been so awesome!

I got to visit our new family member Theo in the hospital and he is just the cutest! We are so happy that he is here!

We put up our Christmas tree a few days after Thanksgiving and I love it! It has what I call "willy wonka" colors. I am really starting to love my white christmas tree! pictures to come...

I washed all my sheets and blankets with the Victoria Secret detergent and I am in love with the smell! <3 Go get some, totally worth it!

We went to Cheesecake Factory over the weekend and we were on the list right after Michelle Money (the bachelor, bachelor pad) and she is just gorgeous in person! I secretly hope she is still with Graham!

I really need a haircut or a new hairstyle! Either bangs, perm or highlights...just something!

Okay, I needed to take break and now I need to get back to my assignments! I didn't take lots of pictures last month so sorry it just words.

Pictures to come!

Catching Up

Work

Work of course for Isaac is going great! He recently just got his 6-month review, Russ had so many nice things to say about him! I know he is working really hard for our family and because of that we are so blessed!! Ike has been working on a upgrade with his team and so they were nice to give us a $25 gift card to chili's, I love free dinner date nights!

Watching Jason and Kaelynn Kiddos

After my weekend in Park City, the following week I spent a few days watching Kaelynn kids while her and Jason were celebrating her parents 50th anniversary in SLC! It was a great time, their kids are totally awesome and they all play with each other. I especially had a great time with Brooklyn, we would just talk with each other a lot and I also got to wax her eyebrows (don't worry she still looks like a 12 year old) she loved it and she didn't think it hurt at all! And then the next day, Brooklyn and Eliza had to do a photo shoot so I just helped put on some makeup for them, it was some fun girly time! Some other fun things we did was bake some halloween cookies and rented a redbox movie.

Trip to Denver

For my fall break I flew into Denver because my uncle was having his wedding reception and I was happy to visit my sister. While I was there I got to babysit my little cousin for a few days while her parents were at work. We went downtown to try out Stuebans (i saw it on the food network channel) I thought it was good, nothing too special; my girlfriend Caitlin came along and it was just a nice afternoon being downtown!

My uncle Brandon and his wife got married in Germany (that is where she is from) and had a reception in Colorado. The night before my sister and I started on the wedding cake they had asked us to make... it was a lot of work since Netty wanted a three tier cake, three different flavors and three different fillings!! ayayay! But we did it, we started at 7:30 and did not finish until 4am and still had to assemble it the next morning. The problem was that we only had one baking sheet pan! It turned out great and everyone was pleased with it! :) Ike wasn't able to make it because he was put in charge for a new system to be put into production (whatever that means :)) The reception was modern and nice, the food was delicious because they had it catered from Carrabbas; I had a great time there and happy that my uncle found someone that makes him happy!

School

I have a little more than a month left of school and it will be my third semester finished! woohoo! I love all my classes and I am always learning something new! I have a few papers due in a few weeks that I need to get to asap. I have signed up for next semester so far 14 credits but we will see it might change :)

Life is good!