Milestones: 16 Months Old

At 16 Months, Austin:

- Jabbers all day long and mimics every word we say. I know I am his Mom and therefore inclined to think he is a genius but I have never seen a kid say as many words as Austin can say at this age! Just the other night he said his own name! I was rocking him to sleep and we were playing a little mimicking game. I said, "Where's Momma?" and he then pointed to my chest and said, "Momma!" I then said, "Where's Austin?" and he pointed to his head and said, "Stau-stin!" I was so proud!!! We started adding up all the words he can say and came up with about 25-30 and the list grows each day...... I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. My Mom told me that by the time I was 18 months old I could count to 10 in Spanish AND English. Not to brag or anything, but I think he takes after me hehe! ;)

- Not only is he mimicking our words, but he is also mimicking our actions. We have to be really careful what we do around him because he tries to do it too! For example, I can't load the dishwasher in front of him or he will try to "help" me. I actually enjoy his help with unloading because he runs over and begins handing me all the dishes and waits for me to say "thank you" in between each dish, but loading is dirty and gets to be too much. Whenever Josh kisses me, Austin has to run over and hug/kiss us both. We are working on him helping clean up his toys. He will grab a few toys and put them in the basket, or pick up a few cheerios and put them in the cup, but that's about it.... we will work on it. 

- Has started calling us by our first names! It all comes back to the mimicking thing. He started with saying "Josh" or "Ash" whenever we would say it to each other, or yell for the other person up the stairs. Then he figured out we actually answer to those names and started using them on his own! It's so cute, you can't help but smile :).

- Started climbing out of his crib (grrrrr.....). We were so shocked the day he was supposed to be sleeping and we found him at the top of the stairs staring back at us! We tried the putting him back in his bed and hoping he'd learn routine but it wasn't working. He would climb right back out before we could even walk out of the room! I have to admit, I was impressed with his agility and escape artist skills! So, while Josh was giving him a bath one night, I took the crib apart and put the mattress on the floor where it would be too far down for him to pull himself out. It has worked for now, but I'm sure we will be right back where we were when he grows a bit taller.

- LOVES our bed! The second he is free upstairs he runs into our bedroom and climbs up on our bed to jump and roll around. It's so cute! He enjoys the challenge of getting off the bed as much as he does getting on it, so he climbs up and down over and over and over..... We are just happy to watch him entertain himself with an activity that isn't destructive!

- Enjoys playing in the toilet (again, grrrrr....). Whenever it's too quiet I run into the nearest bathroom because I know what he is up to! It's so disgusting!

- Throws tantrums regularly now. It really gets on my nerves but I try to ignore him. If we tell him "NO!" and he doesn't think that is fair, he throws himself on the floor and begins kicking and crying. Then he will stop for a second and peak up at us to make sure we are watching. I can't help but laugh sometimes even though I know I shouldn't. 

- Doesn't walk, HE RUNS!!! It is so cute watching his little legs go as fast as they can, and he is fast! If we don't pay close attention, he is halfway down the block before we can catch up with him!

- Struggles with eating. This has been a challenge for him since day 1 of trying solids. He is a HUGE milk drinker and would honestly live off of milk if we allowed it. His doctor told me I need to cut down on the milk and basically starve him until he feels hungry for actual food but it has been harder than you'd think due to the tantrums :(. I can't figure out if it is textures or tastes that he struggles with because what he loves one day, he refuses to ever eat again. Some things he chews around for a while and then spits out, while others he spits out the second it hits his tongue. This led me to think that it might be a gag reflex problem? His Dad has a similar problem where he can't always swallow so he basically pouches the food in his cheek like a chipmunk until he can swallow it. So whatever it is, it must be hereditary.... hmmmm.

Some Fun Moments Over the Past Month:

Austin LOVES bath time!

And we LOVE that smile!

We had bought him winter clothes months ago and it is finally cold enough to wear them!

He doesn't quite fit into 18 month clothing yet so we have to roll up the sleeves and pants but he still looks adorable nonetheless :).

Getting loves from Momma! This is an almost every 10 minutes occurrence. If I'm not the one to pick him up and squeeze the guts out of him, he finds me and latches onto my leg, whining until I do!

Trying to undress himself.... It has been hard keeping him warm this winter when he has a hatred for long clothing! He won't even sleep with a blanket on top of him because it is too restrictive!

I gave him apples and peanut butter.... all he ate was the peanut butter ;).

He wants to be a big boy so badly! He likes eating his food at the table now. We are fine with this if it is food that doesn't leave a big mess. But if it does, it's back to the high chair for him!

Always so busy and finding new ways to entertain himself! No object is too high and no space is too small apparently..... hahaha

Little UNC stud muffin :).

Helping Dada download music. He loves technology!

Veterans Day!

Austin and I went to Logandale to spend Veterans Day with my family this year since Josh was working and we both really needed to get out of the house! We had so much fun at the Veterans Day Parade my home town puts on every year. Austin was a big fan of the people waving at him and all the candy they were throwing his way! He would race onto the road to grab it along with all the other little kids around us and then bring it back, totally proud of himself :).

At the parade, waiting for the candy!

Having fun with Grandma :).

Stealing Grandma's chair and feeling pretty proud of it!

Where's the candy, guys?

Oh how I love this stud!

Waiting for the next chance to run out into the street and grab some loot!

Auntie Bri was in the parade, handing out candy for her work (she works at the Inside Scoop Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop), so we ran out to wave to her as she went by! In return, she gave us lots of candy!

Austin loved all the attention :).

You can't help but squeeze those cheeks!

He loved those chairs! He sat there thinking he was so big!

After the parade, my Mom took us and Briana to breakfast at Sugar's. Austin kept us entertained while we waited for our food with his lemon eating skills and funny faces. If only he could have remained entertained when our food actually came. That was the moment when he chose to be over it and we ended up eating our food at home...

Waiting for our food!

Austin and his lemons...

the "bitter beer face."

Taking a drink and then tackling the next lemon! Such a crazy kid....

We hung out at my parent's house, talking and watching a movie while Austin took his nap. Once he woke up, Nathan came home from work and we headed to the park. We had a lot of fun talking and watching Austin run around until it started getting dark. Then we headed home to make dinner before my Mom, Austin, and I went to a Relief Society activity! Austin was quite a handful during that and enjoyed being the entertainment while we were all trying to pay attention. He ran around saying "hi" to all the ladies and giving kisses to my old young women's leader. It was definitely time for bed by the end of that night!

Playing at the park with Grandma and Grandpa!

He loves his Auntie Bri :).

It is rare to snap a picture with Grandpa because he is always working, so this is a special one!

The next day my Mom had to work and Briana had school. So Nathan took me and Austin out to breakfast and then we drove back to Henderson. We were very glad to see Daddy that night and wished he could have gone on our little trip with us.

I am so thankful for the Veterans whom we honored that day and for the freedom we have because of their sacrifice.

Like Old Times

New best buds.

 
My brother, Kyhle, came into town (he lives in Indiana) for a work conference! He spent the first part of the week at the conference and the last half visiting all of our family! We haven't seen him in years....and years. There is family drama and the long distance to blame for that :(.

It was so much fun to have him back! Each of my three brothers have their own unique personalities, but they are all big kids at heart and I love it! Kyhle spent Saturday and part of Sunday at our house before his flight left Sunday afternoon. It was short and sweet, and I was sad that we were sick because it made going out and doing fun things impossible, but we had fun anyway :).

My Mom, Grandma Wiegel, and Briana (plus her friend) came over to our house Saturday to hang out with Kyhle when he arrived. He didn't show up until that afternoon so us girls decided to get Starbucks, mani/pedis, and have some fun girl time while we waited. Then, once Grandpa Porter dropped Kyhle off, we ordered Buffalo Wild Wings take-out and had a yummy lunch while we got to know our brother again! We talked a lot.... basically most of the time. Then we went to the park, my family went home, Austin went to bed, and Kyhle talked me into running to the closest gas station and loading up on Junk food and Slurpees so we could pig out while we watched the UTAH football game! It was so much fun and reminded me of our childhood. We grew up in Logandale where nothing happens and there is nothing to do. So we used to save up our allowance, beg our parents to drive us down to the gas station, load up on junk food, and watch movies all night!

About to embark into our sugar coma!

Josh and I are lame adults now and haven't stayed up until midnight in years. It kicked our butts and the next morning we were all lagging. I wasn't in the mood to cook breakfast so Kyhle and I made a plan to drive to McDonald's to pick up breakfast and then made a pit stop at Krispy Kreme Donuts as well because Kyhle got really excited and claimed they don't have Krispy Kremes in Indiana. We ate yet another junk food meal, and then Josh and Kyhle played video games for a while. Josh never plays because I hate them so he normally has nobody to play with, along with the fact that it is hard to find the time to do anything you enjoy when Austin is around. Austin wanted to play too and wouldn't leave them alone so we gave him his own controller to play with to help him feel like he was a part of it. He was so cute to watch! He held his controller the same way they did and mimicked all of their moves :).

Learning how to win at Madden. Just kidding, Dad won! But it was a close second!

It's hard to see but Austin is standing in front of the other guys, holding his controller and mimicking all of their moves :).

Then we went for a walk around the neighborhood and ended up at the park. Kyhle was so cute with Austin and Austin had fun with his new playmate! Austin isn't used to serious rough housing which is something my brothers love to do, so he had to get used to that part. At first he was scared but once he figured out Kyhle was just playing, he followed Kyhle all around the house calling him "Dada" and wanted to play with him constantly! I wish my brothers lived closer because I know Austin would have so much fun with them....

These park pictures were taken the night before when we all took a stroll to the park before my family drove home. We didn't take any more pictures the second day. This is everyone playing the giant piano :).

Kyhle helping Austin tap the lights he couldn't reach. Our new park has some very modern toys and games... it's not your typical slide and swings. At first I thought it was ridiculous, but Austin likes it!

Teaching Austin how to play the piano.

We were sad to drop Kyhle off at the airport after his extremely short visit and hope he will be back soon! Maybe he will even bring his wife along next time?..... we can only hope!

Halloween 2014

Our Halloween was rough. It wasn't supposed to be that way though. In fact, we had Josh's Mom and Step-Dad over for a week and all sorts of Halloween plans were made! Sadly, illness struck and there was nothing we could do about it. We did get a few fun things in though before the disease fairy stopped by....

We went to the Outlet Mall to do a little window shopping, and then headed over to the Bass Pro Shop to see the fish!

The aquarium there is amazing!

We carved pumpkins. Austin just liked coloring with the pen...

Grandma and Grandpa with their pumpkin!

Austin stuck his hand inside the pumpkin once and refused to do it again (haha).

Hence why he made himself the honorary pen holder ;).

Scooping out the pumpkin guts! We had a scary moment when Janis stuck her hand inside her pumpkin and out came a bunch of cockroaches!! We women started screaming, Austin started crying, and the men started scrambling to catch the disgusting bugs! We threw our pumpkins away after that (haha).

Wearing Grandpa's hat!

Besides going out to eat a lot, that was basically all we did during their week long vacation here with us :(. On Halloween day, Austin woke up with a nasty cough. Janis and I went grocery shopping to prepare for the Halloween party I had planned later that night and left him home with the men. My Mom and sisters were coming over that night for trick-or-treating and we had our pumpkin bisque soup bowls and ham planned for dinner to carry on the tradition! When we got back from the store, Austin was a totally different kid. It was so scary! He had Croup and it had hit him HARD! Our baby could barely breathe and the coughing was terrible! It got to the point where his throat started closing off and he could barely get air through so we rushed him to the hospital. Well, I rushed him by myself and Janis/Steve met me there a while later. Josh suddenly wasn't feeling so good himself so he had to go lay down during the scary hospital drama! I was so so glad to have Janis and Steve there with me because it was so hard trying to keep it together by myself!

We waited in the Emergency Room for what felt like ages and meanwhile my child struggled with all his might to breathe. Once they finally admitted us to a room, he was given an Epi-treatment through a vaporizer and some oral steroids and then we sat in the hospital bed and waited. We waited and waited until his breathing finally started calming down and he fell asleep in my arms. I can't even describe the horror I was feeling. I laid there in that bed with my baby in my arms, praying that everything would be okay and that was basically all I could do! I hadn't eaten, drank, or gone to the bathroom all day and not even the pain in my bladder or the pregnancy nausea that was overpowering my stomach could get me to put that little boy down.

Our poor baby. Worst day of my life :(.

Steve told me to smile for the camera but I was sooooo beyond smiling! I was more on the verge of crying....

Later that evening we were cleared by the doctor to go home. His breathing still wasn't perfect but he wasn't gasping and shaking anymore so the doctor said he should be okay the rest of the night. We went home and the steroids seemed to really improve Austin's health. He was now just a sick kid with a bad cough. I went to work preparing dinner and My Mom and Sadie came over (Briana decided to hang with her friends). We had quite the feast with Sadie's homemade pumpkin bread and veggie platters, the cute pumpkin shaped bread bowls my Mom had brought, the huge ham Janis had bought, and my super yummy pumpkin bisque!

We didn't go trick-or-treating because we wanted to keep Austin warm and not overdo it, but we had some adorable trick-or-treaters come over to our house! The rest of our night consisted of eating A TON, handing out candy, and snacking on candy while we watched Beetlejuice (Josh's Halloween request).

That night was rough for Austin and possibly just as rough for Josh and I! Austin couldn't breathe whenever he laid down so sleeping was almost impossible and Josh ended up holding him all night long in our bed. Josh and I were both so worried he would stop breathing that we barely slept a wink.

Sleeping with Daddy.

We spent the next few days basically doing nothing while Austin was miserable. I had no desire whatsoever to cook with how exhausted I was, so we ate out or ordered take-out almost every meal. Each day Austin got worse and worse until Sunday night when he scared us out of our minds and we were headed back to the Emergency Room. The poor baby's throat closed off again and he couldn't breathe! His little chest was sucking in as hard as his muscles could work to get some air in but it wasn't adequate enough. He was pale, shaking, and when he coughed his breathing became non-existant. Then something strange happened! As we were on our way to the hospital, his breathing suddenly became better and he fell asleep in his car-seat! We pulled over on the side of the road and debated on what to do. Should we trust this and head back home? Or should we play it safe and get this kid some more hospital attention? He was sleeping so peacefully, so we turned the car around and came back home. Later on I realized that was probably the wrong decision because the struggle to breathe came back and we spent most of the night holding him outside in the cold air to keep his airway open. As soon as morning light came that next morning, we went over to the local Urgent Care and waited outside until it opened so we could be the first ones in line! The outside air did Austin a lot of good and he actually sounded a lot better that morning. The doctor didn't take any chances though and gave him another nebulizer treatment, along with a steroid shot and oral steroids to take home.

Although this was a horrible experience, it brought Josh and Austin even closer together. Normally, whenever Austin is sick, he wants his Momma and nothing to do with his Dad. This time, however, was a very different experience. He wanted his Daddy and nobody else! He would let me hold him if Josh wasn't in the room but that was it! He cried and cried for his Dad and would follow him around everywhere. Poor Janis and Steve didn't get to hold him at all because he wanted his Dad and only his Dad..... It was good for Josh because he got to experience my life for a little while and how demanding his son can actually be. He didn't get to eat, he didn't get to sleep without Austin laying on top of him, and he got the joy of trying to go to the bathroom with a screaming baby on the other side of the door, pounding for his attention. I'm not going to lie, I kinda liked it ;).

By the time Janis and Steve left that Tuesday, we were beyond exhausted. Neither Josh nor I had slept in days and the stress/anxiety of what we had gone through had put us through the ringer. Of course, with me being pregnant and going through all of this, I caught Austin's sickness. The ER doctor had warned me that it was an extremely contagious virus and there was a good chance I would catch it if I got too close to my son but nothing was going to stop me from holding him and giving him every ounce of attention he needed to survive. This sickness has been the worst I've gone through in a long, long time. I was weak, shaking with fever, coughing that horrible Croup cough, experiencing the painful sore throat that comes from the coughing and constant mucous drainage.... basically I've been miserable. Since I am pregnant, I haven't been able to take any medicine besides Tylenol. I've used Essential Oils and Vapor rub along with a vaporizer by the bed, but that was it. We have had so many wonderful friends in the ward bring by meals which was a major help since my cooking skills were out of commission. I was so grateful Josh hadn't started his new job yet so he could take care of both of us while we were ill.

On a lighter note, Halloween wasn't a total failure this year because we had gone trunk-or-treating the previous Saturday at the church! So Austin got to be an adorable little tiger and he was so good about holding my hand to each trunk and holding out his bag for candy! He tried eating every piece that went into his bag which was challenging but it was a good challenge :). We had invited Jura and Juliette to come with us (Adrien was working) which was a lot of fun! In our opinion, our little tiger and ladybug were the cutest baby costumes in the entire Ward! We are a little partial though ;) .....

Little tiger getting his whiskers on!

Mom getting the tiger ready to go!

We kept trying to take pictures and all Austin wanted to do was go play with the other kiddos....

The adorable tiger and ladybug!! They were so cute while we were taking pictures because she kept smiling at him and he kept holding her hand!

Come on guys, lets go!

Family photo! It suddenly got super windy that night so pictures were hard to take...

Our Ward is amazing and the night was a total success! We ate homemade chili and rolls, got lots of candy, and had a great time with friends :). I'm so glad we got an opportunity to at least have that memory so Halloween 2014 wasn't a complete downer!

Our INSANE October! It's long, but how many insane stories are short?

You know that feeling when life just seems to be too good? That irking thought in the back of your mind that something bad must be looming around the corner because the perfect life just isn't what you're used to? Well, we were both feeling it. Josh felt like someone must be about to die or he must be about to lose his job. My thoughts weren't quite as dramatic, but I was still feeling pretty uneasy nonetheless.

One morning I got a phone call. It was a Fresenius Clinic Manager (the company I previously worked for) who I was pretty good friends with and she wanted to offer me a job. I was shocked because I wasn't really wanting a job, but I was willing to listen to her offer. She literally went on for a good hour about what an amazing nurse I am and how she has been a nurse for over 20 years and has never seen anyone with the skills and insight that I have. Yes, I'll admit it, my peacock feathers were all puffed up at that point and I was even more willing to listen to her proposal. She wanted me to come back to work for Fresenius and help run one of their clinics. I told her I was flattered, but I would only go back to work if it was part time and had a set schedule so I could plan out babysitting. I explained to her the reasons why I had quit working and told her I didn't want to find myself in that situation ever again..... so she upped her offer. She told me she couldn't do part time, but she COULD give me 30 hours which could be split into two 16 hour shifts (they subtract an hour/day for breaks). She also said she could give me the set schedule I wanted which included a Saturday so I would only have to find babysitting ONE DAY A WEEK! I told her she had me at thirty hours and I would get back to her as soon as I worked it out with my husband.

Josh thought it was a great idea! He figured it would help ease the financial load since we have another baby on the way and he reminded me of how restless I've been getting being at home 24/7. I had to admit it, this staying at home all the time with no money to do anything fun or interesting is hard!! I would love to be crafty but have you checked the price tags at Michael's lately? I would also love to go to the gym every day but my son and growing baby are not so inclined.... so I have been struggling with finding happiness in the simple life. I love every minute of being at home with my son and seeing his beautiful face every day. Yet, at the same time, I don't feel like I have much of a personal identity and nothing to help me grow socially and intellectually. Does that make sense? So we decided to take a few weeks and think about it. You don't just make these kinds of decisions lightly!

That's when all the fears and panic set in. I was a complete stress case that entire time! I couldn't think about anything else! I couldn't talk about anything else! This major decision was the only thing occupying my brain at all times! I would wake up at 3am every morning in a complete panic! Where was all this coming from, you ask? Well, basically it was my emotional self who thought it wasn't right, fighting with my logical self, who thought it was the perfect opportunity! It didn't matter how hard I prayed, how long I pondered, how many scriptures I read, or what I felt in the temple.... I was one confused lady!

Then, Josh lost his job. His company was doing budget cuts and he was one of the lucky ones to be chosen for lay offs. As I sat on the phone, listening to him tell me that he was on his way home at 7:30am, I suddenly felt grateful for the job offer I had been given! Maybe this was a gift from God because he knew what was coming? For a brief minute it all seemed to make sense. Once Josh got home, we had a good two hours of depressed sitting, talking, and feeling like this can't possibly be happening to us again! I couldn't help but blame this on the pregnancy. After all, the last time I was twelve weeks pregnant, Josh lost his job too! Apparently there's something about the number twelve that is very bad luck for us. Then, Josh got a phone call! It was a company who has been trying to get Josh to work for them for months now but he just couldn't see taking a job that made less money than his current job. They were calling to see if by some chance he had changed his mind! He informed them that he was now unemployed and would love to hear what they had to offer, so they took him out for lunch and basically gave him a job! He still had to go in for an official interview and they wanted him to job shadow for a day, just to make sure it was something he would be truly interested in. So basically Josh had a 2.5 week vacation! The job sounded perfect for him, but like I previously mentioned, the pay wasn't as good. They increased their offer by $3,000 which was very generous but still didn't get me out of the need for a job.

It took me over a week before I could finally get a hold of the nurse manager who had offered me a position and sadly, once I talked to her, she had gone back on everything she had previously offered. It  was like she was a totally different person! She told me she would no longer give me 30 hours and that 40+ was the best she could do. She also said she wouldn't give me a set schedule and I would have to take turns working Saturdays with the other nurses. I was so mad but I couldn't show it because there was a good possibility that I would be desperately needing this job! So I politely reminded her that she was going back on everything she had promised me and I told her I was going to talk to another dialysis company and see if they could give me a better offer. Suddenly her tune changed and she begged me not to transfer to a different company! She told me to give her a few days and she would talk to her superiors and then get back to me. I waited, but I applied for those other jobs anyway! I wasn't about to just sit around and wait for her to decide my fate for me. Literally, the next day I got a call from DaVita which is the arch enemy of Fresenius. They told me they would be willing to hire me part time AND would give me the schedule I needed!!! Was I hearing this right? Could it be possible that I might actually get a shot at having the perfect job rather than taking the job that obviously wasn't going to make me happy?! I told DaVita that I had another job offer on the table and I needed them to move fast if they wanted to have me. They took me seriously and scheduled the interview for the next day! I forgot I had an OB appointment that day so I had to reschedule it for the day after that, which is today.

I went in today for my interview and it went really well, despite the fact that I am super sick and have laryngitis so I could barely talk and they could barely understand a word I was saying. I must have said something right though because they literally called me three hours later and hired me! So I now work part time as a dialysis nurse for DaVita in their float pool! I will do two twelve hour shifts a week and basically I get to choose whatever days I want those to be! To top it all off, because it's the float pool and there will be travel involved, they are going to pay me $6 more an hour than my previous job plus mileage reimbursement! Do you see how insane this is?! I just hope it's not too good to be true.... Oh and Fresenius called back and they are not willing to give into any of my needs so I basically thanked her for making this decision easy for me!

So now we both have jobs and they are actually turning out to be pretty awesome jobs! Not just jobs that we have to take because we are desperate. Oh and here's the really great part! My Mom put in her two weeks notice at the preschool she works at and is going to come back to babysitting for us! This makes me feel so much better about things because I hated the thought of having to send Austin off to someone else's house while his mother abandons him for work. I know that's probably not exactly how he would see it but that's how I felt whenever I thought about it! Hence the panic attacks that have been happening all month! Plus there's the fact that we will have a new baby joining us in April and I hated the thought of having to send my brand new baby to someone else's house, hoping they would give him/her the proper care a newborn needs. Thanks Mom! You're a life saver!!

I would love to say that this was the only craziness going on during the month, but sadly that just wouldn't be true.... It was like every time I answered the door, or picked up the phone I was getting some horrible news or something horrible was happening to my family! To spare the pages of writing it would take to give details, I'll make a list:

1) My Mother in law found out she might have breast cancer.... We are praying it's not true and are trying to stay optimistic until she finds out for sure.

2) My sister's boyfriend also found out he might have breast cancer and had a large lump surgically removed. I actually kinda hate him though so I wasn't really as devastated as I acted when she told me.

3) My step-brother and his wife lost their baby. This one hit too close to home and actually made me more depressed than it should have. I still feel the pain of losing my baby in July and it kills me that they have to experience that kind of sadness. They have struggled to have a child for years and thought that through IVF their dreams might have actually come true! To quote my step-dad, "Life is a bitch."

4) Josh's friend from high school committed suicide

5)  My mom and I got into a major fight and I dis-invited her to Halloween. We made up later and now I look back on it and see the stupidity in the situation, but for the week it lasted, it was dramatic!

6) Our next door neighbors have been INSANE! We have had to call the cops on them almost every single night and I finally called Child Protective Services as well! It didn't help either of our anxieties and made my 3am panic attacks a million times worse!

7) There have also been multiple phone calls from friends telling me they found out their spouse has been cheating on them and one of them (actually my sister's friend) is getting divorced! Talk about anxiety causer! I am the type of person who takes on people's feelings and personal struggles as if they were my own, so hearing all of these crazy stories literally made my heart drop and I couldn't think about anything else for days!

So, imagine all of that rolled up into one, long, horrendous month. Then, just when it felt like things couldn't get any worse, our baby caught a severe case of Croup and ended up in the hospital on Halloween day! We had an entire week of no sleep, complete fear that he was going to stop breathing any second, and LOTS of steroids. Then, because I am pregnant and my stress level was on overdrive, PLUS I didn't sleep for days, I caught the adult version of Croup. The ER doctor warned us that it is extremely contagious and even adults can catch it. I wasn't about to quarantine my 15month old though because of a few germs. So Austin and I have BOTH been sick and it has been awful. There's the fever, aching body, chills, extreme lethargy, horrible cough, even worse sore throat, constant mucous flow, and of course the wonderful loss of voice. Hence why I struggled during my job interview....

Oh, and then I got a flat tire.....

It was at that point when I watched all the air quickly hissing out of my tire that I felt like I had lost it. I was finally to the point of saying, "Why God, have you forsaken me?" It seemed like the bad karma was steaming off of us and I literally started warning people to not come near our house or they would catch the curse too! My best friend didn't listen, bless her heart, and she learned the hard way. She came over to drop off soup and essential oils for our illness and the poor thing suffered through a flat tire of her own, along with somehow breaking her front door, and a lovely visit from Aunt Flow gone horribly wrong. Yes, that was all in one night as she was trying to come to my aid. She couldn't believe that I might be right about the bad karma, but after that night, she became a believer!

Now then. Here we are, hopefully on the brink of a fresh start. I would like to think that the no good, very bad month has come to an end and we can now move on with our new lives and our new jobs and hope for the best! Fingers crossed....

I also have to put in a positive plug for the women in our ward. They have been so good to us during this extremely hard month with thoughtful texts, dinners, and the positive affirmation that this too shall pass! We have felt like the ward charity case lately because of how much attention we have been getting, but it has made life so much easier to deal with so I guess I am okay with that ;).