First Day of School...

So my embarrassing story for the first day of school... I messed up the times and missed class!!  So embarrassing!  What a flaky retard I am today!

Happy Birthday Mom!

So today is my mom's birthday, and my uncle Kesley's too :) So I thought I would spend a few minutes and list some of the things I love and admire most about my mom...
1. She has always put her children first. She didn't work outside of our home until all of us were grown up. She was always there to help with homework or to come to our rehearsals or performances. She was supportive of everything that we did. She withdrew from a semester of school after Jay's accident so she could stay home with her "grown up son" and reteach him to walk and how to function on his own. She would not let him give up.
2. She understood that all of us are different and treated us as so. Growing up, I was always the most needy, but she never favored any of us, just knew what we needed.
3. She faithfully attended the temple on a regular basis. I never realized how important this was to our family until I went through myself. I admire my mother for this sacrifice and obedience.
4. She always stood up for what she believed in. She does not let other people walk all over her. She is a strong woman and taught me and my sister that it is ok to be a strong woman and still be a mother and a wife. There is room for it all.
5. My education has become a priority in her life. She has refused to let me "take a break from school" again. She knows how important education is and has made many sacrifices to make sure I finish and I finish well. Along with my dad, she has spent thousands of dollars in the past year and a half to make sure I am where I need to be and able to finish my education. Money has not been an issue in this quest for them.
6. My mother has taught us kids that it is ok for us kids to not succeed as number one, but quitting is never an option. I have never seen my mom quit when times got hard. She has stuck through everything that she has started. Because of her example, none of her children are quitters, we're strong headed and we're fighters.
7. My mother taught me how important it is to save money. She has recently been able to show me that it is ok to splurge on occasion, but savings is also important. It is because of her example that Kyle and I have any money in the bank at this time.
8. She doesn't dwell on materialistic things. Yeah, she lives in a nice home and drives a nice car, but that is not her focus in life... for her, it's not about "competing with the Jones'" She has those things because her and my dad work hard and after all these years, she deserves them. She doesn't have to show off the biggest and the best, and because of her, I also don't dwell on materialistic things.
9. My mom taught us to work hard. Since I have joined the "real working world" I am amazed at how many people have little or no work ethic at all. My mom taught us from a super young age that it is important to be dependable and to be honest. Stealing time is stealing, period.
10. My mom is my best friend. Ever since I was in high school, I have looked to my mom for advice and to be a friend. She gave up many hours to accompany me to dr's appointments, walk in the blazing sun when I needed to get out of the house and to this day, talk to me almost daily on the phone. She is the kind of mom I want to be.


These are only a few of the things I most admire about my mom... I could list for days, but who wants to read that??



So to an amazing mom and now an amaing Grandma... Happy Birthday Mom! I love you! Make 2-9 a great year :)

Changes

So I have been really bummed lately... it has been a rough summer with a lot of changes for me and kyle... Kyle let me go and get my hair done today and look how I came home! I absolutely love it. It is so much different than everything I have ever done before. It's fun and Kyle loves it.

Doesn't help that I'm not wearing any make up... or my contacts... or that I have already slept on it... but you get the idea...

Just lost...

So I never blog this much... but I have more free time on my hands now and I'm bored.  Our dr appointment got moved to Monday, so there will be no info about that until then.  I have been thinking a lot lately... lots of free time equals lots of thinking...

1.  I graduate in May, it's still a long ways away, but I'm on my final haul, and I'm excited about that.  I am excited to go out into the world with a degree in something that is actually interesting and that I can use to help people, which is ultimately what I want to do.

2.  Kyle and I have been researching law schools a lot lately!  Unfortunately not too many of them are near home.  UNLV would be a great choice for me... it is close to home and has an amazing reputation.  However, is it where I want to be forever?  I lived in Vegas my whole life and never actually did any personal growning until I left.  It would be great to be around our families, especially with the crazy schedule and mass amounts of studying I will be required to do, but is it worth going home and risking never leaving Vegas again?  I guess we will just see when I start applying.  I'm really interested in a few schools, no where near Vegas, but who knows.  I am not super involved in "extra curricular" activities in school.  Nothing really grabs my attention, and unfortunately I like to work, so that will definitely hurt me.

3.  With school ending and deciding whether or not I want to pursue my education further into law school, and a few other things that were going on... I sorta put the whole "baby" thing on hold.  Yeah, we're pregnant, but I refused to let myself get excited.  It was so overwhelming and I was super stressed.  I finally decided that it is ok for me to be excited, and I am.  I am really excited!  I can't wait for little baby to come!  

This is not a super exciting thing to blog about, but I'm in a mood today.  It's not a good mood and it's not a bad mood... it's just a mood.  I really need to get out of it!!

Oops...

Oh man... Krista took of her hat for this... I loved the hat!

That's her hat!  The bright pink one... I loved it!

I had some other pictures that somehow didn't make it onto my computer... but I didn't want to not post them :)  So here they are!  Sorry Krista... I knew I got a picture of you... 

Fun Times

It's been awhile since I have posted and since I am starting to feel better on a regular basis, I figured this is a great way to remind myself years from now what we have been up to.  Kyle and I went to the Bulloch reunion a few weeks ago out in Panaca.  There were so many people.  It was like an Andersen reunion, except everyone stayed in the same house and shared 2 bathrooms.  It was quite an adventure.  We took a few pictures... 

Getting ready to leave Cedar... that's our new car that I mentioned but never posted pictures of.

Panaca is great for 4 wheeling

Jill didn't get there until Friday night, so I attempted to take pictures for her until she got there, but got preoccupied and busy, sorry Jill, but here is one of Rob putting gas in the 4 wheeler, sorry he is not looking and completely oblivious that I'm even taking a picture.

Kurt and Quinton waiting to put gas in their "rides"

Our self portrait while on our ride... we totally match that day, which was NOT planned, but really funny!

At the softball game, Kyle hit a home-run on his first time up to bat... that's my man!

Our "family portrait" before coming home...

Getting ready to leave... this is how I helped to load the car...

After coming home from Panaca, Kyle and I each worked for a day and then left for Salt Lake.  My old roommate was getting married and Jake and Mel live up there, so we went up for a visit.  I was completely slacking with my camera while we were there but it was SO much fun!  It was fun to get to hang out with them and their kids.  We went to Seven Peaks one day and had so much fun.  I felt so bad because about 2 1/2 hours after we were there, we wanted to just relax in the wavepool... who would have known that I wouldn't be able to handle the up and down motion.  The day of the wedding, we got up super early and started running errands.  We walked around the Gateway mall, Kyle bouht me a new outfit, which I LOVE!  Ate lots of junk food and had a great day with Mel.  We even got to stop at the Salt Lake Temple.  We came home and I thought I had time for a nap... it's been awhile since I could go all day with no nap, and didn't wake up until past 7.  The wedding was from 6-8 and it was still an hour north of where we were!  Sorry Katie... but congratulations.  The next day we came home.  Poor Kyle!  He barely got any sleep, and aside from me throwing up the first hour of the ride, I know it was a long drive for him.  He is so great to me while I'm pregnant.  I love him for it!  

So it has been a fun few weeks with the "Avance" family!  Unfortunately, we don't know when we will be able to get back down to Vegas, which sucks, but we have been having fun with our family up here!  We have had a great couple of weeks.  My next dr appointment is on Wednesday, so we'll post exactly what is going on.  I have the first ultra sound, I will get it posted around Wednesday, and since I am starting to show... we'll post some more pictures!  So until then...

Recently

It has been quite the past few weeks for me and Kyle.  I have been super tired all of the time and I wasn't feeling good.  One night while both me and Kyle were getting ready to work a grave shift, I thought, what harm would it be if I just tested to make sure I wasn't pregnant, just to ease our minds.  Well sure enough that damn test came out positive.  I became instantly freaked out and Kyle was instantly excited!  Then I got the best idea ever... test more, incase the first one was wrong... considering that all 5 stated that we were infact pregnant, we stopped testing and set up an appointment with the dr.  We saw the dr on Monday July 6 and I am infact 7 weeks pregnant.  How did this even happen to me?  I spent the past 11 years of my life purposely harming my body, and having dr's tell me I will never be able to have kids and i'll be lucky if I'm alive in a few short years, and here I am and pregnant.  Doesn't really reassure my faith in the practice of medicine or the competence of a few of the dr's I have seen in the past.  I am sure they were jst trying to scare me!  Those bastards!  I was completely wreckless and not the least bit careful about getting pregnant because I believed them... my bad!  The thing I'm the most afraid of is that because I am so hooked on my weight and staying the same size, and I know every trick in the book to make sure I stay the size I am comfortable with, that I will resort back to those habits when the weight starts coming on.  So far, I have been really good, but throwing up has been "involuntary" for the past few weeks.  I don't even have to try or want to... yeah it sucks being queezy all the time though!  But we are officially pregnant.  Our dr let us hear "little baby's" heart beat, which was really cool.  There is only one in there.... thank goodness... considering both Kyle and my mom are twins!  But we are only having one.  We have picked out boy names we like and girl names that we like.  We are excited now.  We have already purchased the crib (we got an AWESOME deal on the crib) and I absolutely fell in love with a diaper bag yesterday, so Kyle let me get it!  It is so adorable!  That is our big news of the past few weeks.  Our families are super excited, I think!  

I quit one of my jobs... Kyle said we didn't need the extra money and it was making me so mean.  I wasn't sleeping enough, and being pregnant makes me so tired as it is.  I am still working at Horizon House, which is a drug rehab house, and I love that job.  It is really chill which makes it easy for me!  I don't work 40 hours a week, but I usually get pretty close, and kyle is working 40 hours, so we are doing just fine.

  We went out to Panaca the other day, just to get away.  It was so relaxing.  Just me and kyle and we had such a good time!  We just laid around all day in our pajamas!  Couldn't ask for anything better!  We wanted to go up to the cabin, but the roads are bumpy and twisty and I get really bad motion sickness right now and we didn't want to risk it!  So we decided Pananca would be a fun alternative.

Yesterday, Kyle and I went down to St George to do a little shopping.  I have been eating more than normal, I'm hungry all of the time and I have put on a few pounds and it has been bothering me.  So Kyle let me do some shopping.  It was such a fun day.  We did a lot of shopping, got a lot of good stuff and we used some gift cards we had from our wedding to Red Lobster!  I LOVE Red Lobster... they have the best shrimp!  And we treated ourselves to dessert as well.  I will totally recommend their cheesecake to anyone who enjoys cheesecake!  It was absolutely delicious!  Kyle is still talking about it!  After dinner, we went over to see Jill.  Everytime we go down to St George, we see Robbie, but Jill is never home.  It was a lot of fun to see her.  I think we sat around and talked for about 2 1/2 hours... it was a good time.  

We don't have a lot of pictures from lately... I feel like I have ballooned and refuse to really take any... but we have a few, so I will post them :)