CALIFORNIA!

So, back in the day, as in the last week of August before school started, Kirby and I took a road trip to California with our friends Mark and Amy. It was a blast. We took Mark and Amy's car (Mazda 3) as opposed to our older and less-comfy-for-the-back-seat-sitters Mazda Protege. The highlight of the trip was probably this:



But the whole trip was amazing--that oughta tell you just how good Wicked was! :) But let's get back to the beginning, shall we? And I should warn you--there were many favorites (as in... over 100, I think) and so I combined many into one image. If you want a better view, click on the image and it will enlarge nicely for you.

We began our adventure, well, in Utah. But the first place we stopped was in St. George for the night. Since we only had five or six hours left to drive, we went to Zions with our beautiful host--Amy's sister-in-law Ashley. It was gorgeous.


We had to be selective in the lookout spots we went to since we didn't have all day, but one of the spots we chose was the Weeping Rock. You can't tell from this picture, but there is water constantly dripping out of the top. And there are Ashley, Amy, Mark, and Kirby walking away!


We also saw this: A million-year-old nutcracker! Preserved in stone! :)


Two of these pictures weren't actually from Zions. Can you tell which ones?? The one of Mark on the stairs is when he reenacted a scene from The Princess Bride. Impressive, really.


This rock was on the trail to the Weeping Rock. It was split in half by a tree root! (Just in case you can't tell exactly what it is...) I personally think it looks like PacMan.


Warning signs can actually bring more danger...


These pictures are from the hotel. TMNT, and the reaction from a piece of fudge. One is from Disneyland (the giant ball--the highlight for Marka and Kirby) and one is from Zions. It wouldn't fit in the pictures above. :) Kirby is demonstrating his ninja skills. A.K.A. doing the water thing from The Count of Monte Cristo.


FOOOA! :) This one is worth looking at big-style. Even if it is just to see the "F". Mark is in that one--can you see?


In line for Space Mountain, trail mix, cupcakes, laughing, and a soggy foot. Priceless.


We met Wayne Szalinski (yeah. I had to look that one up) in 3-D fashion!


After a bit of confusion on the part of our husbands, we finally got this photo op sorted out.


The magical road that never ends! :)


This is the "Rocks" montage. I figured they all went together, right? Kirby and Mark had to go through an exhiliarating rock climb to survive. We found out how tough it is to be a bug (barely survived that one!), got yelled at for sitting on a rock wall (FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY, PLEASE GET OFF THE ROCKS!!!), and were refreshed by plummeting walls of water. Ah, glorious mist.


Yeah. I cheated a little. But they're really bad quality, and we bought the Splash Mountain one. Couldn't resist. Amy is trying to PRY her eyes open. :) And see the fake water? How it looks like it's splashing AWAY from us? Well, think again. That all went on Amy. Please also take note of the Buzz Lightyear scores. It was a sad day.


Did we enjoy the gift shops? What makes you ask that?


This was taken right after splash mountain--mostly to document the fact that Amy's only dry parts are her crotch region and the backs of her knees. Oops! Sorry Amy. (She was the smallest, so naturally she had to sit in front!) :)


We only spent two days in the parks, which ended up being perfect. The next day we relaxed the whole day at the hotel--bought Kirby a new wallet (he made sure I put that in there)--and then we drove over to L.A. for dinner and WICKED!! We parked in the underground parking for a mall, and then went up to see what they had in terms of food. It turns out 10 Years Younger (TLC) was being filmed at that very mall and we became part of it! Okay, so we just stood there for 15 minutes waiting for the "unveiling" of the lady, after which we cheered. But by that time we were hungry enough that there was no way we would be waiting around to guess how old she was. So if any of you watch that show (because I don't) let me know if you ever see me and Kirby at the reveal. I doubt we will actually be on camera, but you never know! We took off the the California Pizza Kitchen pronto.

Ironically, right around the corner (on the same block!) was the Chinese theater with all the handprints of Hollywood's best! AWESOME. We also met two batmans, two jokers, Robin, Jack Sparrow (who we saw having a smoke with the Terminator), Shrek, etc. etc. etc. The joker was really nice.


Then--WICKED. Oh man. So cool. I knew most of the music (okay, so all of the music they put on the soundtrack) but it was so amazing to actually be there and hear it in person. On the soundtrack you think, "Wow. Really good voice." But when you see an actual person pumping it out live--indescribable. If any of you ever have the chance--GO. It is worth every penny!


Friday was our last day. We spend the morning at the Newport Temple. We got there a little early, so naturally we took some pictures. :)


And some more pictures...


Lots and lots of pictures...


And that night we finished up in the hotel pool. Classic moments in here, lemme tellya.


Saturday morning we ventured home--no stop halfway in St. George this time! There was a lot of this happening...


But meanwhile... Kirby was rockin'. That's my man.

Ugh

I'm not exactly what you would consider a "girly-girl." Or maybe I am. But lets just pretend for a bit that I'm not. :) Occasionally, though, I get the urge to jump up and down on my tippy toes squealing "Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!" (I have actually done this in my sleep--ask Kirby about it!) I had one of these momentary lapses just a few moments ago.

So, an hour or two ago I felt something funny in my left ear and thought in a panic,

"ACK! I'm being invaded!!!"

There wasn't really anything exciting after that so i forgot about it. But then I stuck my finger in my ear a minute ago to scratch an itch and there was something big in there! Not huge, but bigger than your usual crusty earwax blob. I wanted to scream, but didn't. I flicked a bit, and it fell onto my desk. It was a strange little thing. Kind of reddish in color. I'm actually not even sure if it was a bug. But if it was, it is definitely dead now, which testifies to the incredible bug-killing capacity of our earwax!

Family Scripture Study

Me: "And after they had been cast into prison many days without food, behold---"

Kirby: "You're gonna be pop-uuuuu-lar..." (from the musical Wicked)

Naturally, I waited until he was finished.

Me: "And after they had been cast into prison many d---"

Kirby: "It's not about aptitude! It's the way you're viewed! So it's very shrewd to be..."

Again, I waited until he finished.

Me: "And after they had been cast into p---"

Kirby: "Very very pop-uuuuu-lar... like me! LAAAA LAAAA... LaaaaAAAAaaaah Laaaah..."

Small pause...

Kirby: "I have musical Terets." :)

Earwax

I learned something new and amazing tonight as I continued my medical transcription course. I learned what the purpose of earwax is...

It serves as an insect repellent!

Which, really, makes sense! THANK YOU, Heavenly Father, for thinking of the little things--namely bugs and spiders--that would love to crawl inside my warm, vasculated ears to lay their precious little eggs. THANK YOU for my brilliant body that produces its own bug repellent to keep that from happening!

I have heard the spider statistic many times--you know, the one about how many drowned spiders we end up ingesting by sleeping with our mouths open? Yuck. But still--that's just eating them. They wind up in your stomach and are digested by hydrochloric acid. Woohoo!

But the thought of a spider crawling into my ear and laying its eggs----AAAAAGH! I shudder to think of it! It is still weirding me out. And yes, thanks to my new knowledge I know that will never happen, thanks to my earwax--and yet.... the thought still makes me want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Uuuugghuuugh... (that is the sound of a shudder...)

Invested.

So, Kirby and I have finally gotten the guts up to invest. Sort of. Well, it is investing, just the baby step, though. We have invested in Vanguard's 500 Index Fund. And we've opened a Prime Money Market account. So... yeah. I feel all grown up and stuff. :)

A New Kind of Roller Coaster

So yeah, basically I have been slacking. I was going to continue with the trend today, when I read Natasha's post about having freakout moments just because of life. And I thought to myself:

Yeah. That's pretty much where I'm at right now.

Luckily, my current moment is on its way out (they tend to do that after a couple of days,) and I wonder, "Why was I so worried?"

I'm graduated.

That translates into a lot more time at home for me, which wasn't supposed to be a problem, as I was originally planning on having a little 2 1/2-month-old scooting around about this time. That (obviously) is no longer the case. Thanks to my second and third miscarriages, the roller coaster hasn't quite come to a complete stop. Emotionally, yes, but I'm doing great there. I've found that after the first one, it's not so much emotionally devastating as it is just disappointing and frustrating. The roller coaster analogy refers more to the "planning for the future" part of my life. I have to keep switching gears from "Prepare to be a mom" mode to "Maybe I should help provide for our family" mode.

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have given up my pursuit of a nursing major. At this point, I probably could have been out of the program by the time we have a successful pregnancy. And then I wouldn't have to brace myself every time I tell someone what I graduated in. Don't get me wrong--I loved majoring in Home and Family Living. I felt uplifted and fulfilled as I took and completed all (okay, so maybe MOST) of my classes. However, a lot of people have preconceived notions about HFL or MFHD majors. And I hate even the possibility of being stuck mindlessly into someone's stereotype. I hate feeling like I have to somehow validate my major by explaining the life events and changes that landed me in HFL, in addition to explaining how awesome my plans are with medical transcription, and how well my photography business is working out for me.

Maybe this is simply a personal insecurity. Maybe I feel this way because I used to hold a stereotype for people who graduated with a degree in Home and Family Living, and now--having completed the courses--realize how completely wrong and idiotic I was.

The other part of the roller coaster involved health insurance. As of the middle of August, I was pregnant (again.) And since I was currently with DMBA (BYU health plan,) and already pregnant, I couldn't get any kind of private insurance. So I assumed I would have to use the "extended coverage" option--it would cost about the same amount as being a dependant on Kirby's plan, but would give us the flexibility of being able to stop mid-semester when I had my baby in March. But get this--$560/month. So basically, all the money we were supposed to be saving from free rent would be going to my health insurance. Blah.

But wait! A financial ray of hope! If you take at least 2.0 credit hours as a postbaccalaureate student at BYU, you get the student pricing on insurance. $350/semester as opposed to $560/month. So I applied, was accepted, and planned to take a 3.0 credit class with Kirby--one that I had already taken, and thoroughly enjoyed. It was supposed to be nice and easy.

But then, I miscarried again. That in and of itself was a crazy situation. Maybe I will blog about it later. But that meant that I could now get private insurance. I wound up talking to this girl who was studying in the same part of the JFSB as me about her insurance, and she hooked me up with her agent. Everything looked great. For just over $100/month I could get awesome coverage, and it was, of course, month to month. Perfect.

Too good to be true? Yup. Back and forth, back and forth. I feel like I'm on a perpetual see-saw. It turns out that my three miscarriages basically mean that no one will insure me until I have a successful pregnancy. (Basically until I can prove that I am somehow not broken.)

Frustrating, isn't it? How being honest can come back and bite you in the butt?

So, back to square one. Sort of. I was already enrolled for my class, so it was back to square two. :) Since I am already covered by DMBA, they can't kick me out.

I emailed that agent back, though, to ask another question. What if the doctors know what the problem is, which means they will have it taken care of next time? He said he would check on it, along with a little extra blurb about some agency that would insure me for an 25% increase to the price.

And that's where I am now. You know what I know. And I am sick of it. I will probably end up taking this class, and crossing my fingers that maybe--just MAYBE--we will actually have a baby before my cheaper insurance options run out. I am trying my best to keep my hands, arms, feet and legs inside the cart at all times. I am clutching my restraining bar, and am hanging on for dear life. But honestly? Couldn't we try a new ride?