Baby Emma and Shooting

Well, it's official! Baby Emma is here! She was born on Jan. 18th at 3:53 p.m. weighing in at 8 lbs and 11 oz! Except later that day they found out that that weight was incorrect somehow because she really weighed 7 lbs 3 oz. Which made a lot more sense because Cassi wasn't very big. I didn't go see her the day she was born, I went over to St. Mark's hospital the next day to visit the cute new family. Cassi was still in bed but she was looking great! Riley was doing such a great job, he was cute to watch as a new daddy. They are going to be great parents without a doubt. Emma is so beautiful and is going to be so much fun to watch grow up. I can't believe she is going to be almost 10 months old when JD gets home! It's too bad he had too miss this experience of her birth but I know he's happy where he's at. I cannot wait for the day he will finally get to meet her. :)

 Holding Emma my first time!

Momma with her new baby.

 Emma Crawley! :)

Another part of my week that was super exciting was I went to Robbie Robertson's house to take a look at his collection of guns. I met this guy that started me getting into guns and hunting a little bit, so I've taken an interest in learning about it. My dad owns a few guns himself and just bought a couple more. Robbie was the city council before my dad was and they are pretty close so he set up a time for me to come over so he could show me all he knows. It was so exciting, Robbie is such an amazing guy! He has so many awads and recognitions from some really amazing people. He met President Reagan, did security for President Hinckley, served and fought in the Air Force, recieved a personal handgun from President Ford, was given some golden guns from West Point where his sons graduated from and one of his sons was actually asked to be a professor at now, owns guns that date back to the Civil and Revolutionary Wars, and so many other incredible things. It was such a cool experience and I would love to do it again someday.

Saturday I was actually able to go shooting with my family. I have shot a few other rifles before, but this was my first time shooting a handgun and a shotgun. They both were really cool to shoot! The shotgun has a lot more kick than other guns, but it wasn't too bad. It was pretty sweet. I was so excited to shoot my dad's handgun, which is a Glock .40 caliber, and it was exhilerating! Robbie is going to give me the concealed weapons class for free so I'm hoping one day I will be able to own a gun like that myself. I have a lot, a LOT to learn about guns because you have to always be incredibly safe when it comes to guns, but I am definately willing to take the time to learn. Shooting those guns was a super fun experience and everyone should give it a fair, SAFE try!

The gun Robbie was given personally by President Ford.

One of the golden guns from West Point.

One of my favorite guns Robbie had. It was such a beautiful rifle that had the most amazing engravings on it!

 My first time shoot the Glock .40 caliber

Shooting my dad's new shotgun.

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Babies and Hockey

I had a great week that was filled with babies and hockey. First off, JD's sister Cassi is due to have her baby this week! I can't believe it's already here, it's going to be so much fun to have that little girl here with us finally! We had a baby shower for her last week and it was so exciting to see all the baby clothes and everything else. I deal with baby stuff like this every week with my job in the NICU, but it's so much more exciting when it's someone you know and love who is having the baby. Cassi and I have definately had our differences for sure, but I love her to pieces and I am so excited for her and Riley to have their little girl come into the world soon! It was good to go to the shower also to be able to see all of JD's family that I don't get to see very often. It's not always easy seeing them because it remind's me how hard it is to have JD gone, but I am still amazed everytime to see how highly everyone talks about JD!

 Cassi and Mia at the baby shower while Cassi opens gifts.

                                   

Cassi's cute belly! She is not very big considering it's her first.

Me holding Tobin's super cute little nephew at the shower!

I also was able to go to a lot of hockey this week! I went to the Murray high school hockey game in Bountiful which is always a lot of fun. I don't miss high school at all except for the hockey games. It was so much fun to be able to watch all of my friends play. Now my friend's little brother plays and it's a huge trip down memory lane to watch him play. Hopefully I will be able to watch some of those guys play again when they get back from their missions!

A few weeks ago something terrible happend. My friend Parker's dad passed away. He was at the Murray hockey game of course, he was the hockey dad, and the Zamboni got stuck on the ice before the game. Dave (Parker's father) went out on the ice to help push the Zamboni off when he slipped on the ice and hit his head. He was in a coma for two weeks with brain swelling and then passed away due to a stroke. It was such an unexpected accident and it is scary to think how quickly life can change. Parker is serving a mission in the Dominican Republic right now and he has been so strong through all of it. He is staying out on his mission which I think takes so much courage and I'm so proud of him for it. His whole family has been really great at dealing with this tragedy and they are being blessed greatly for it!

The Grizzly hockey game last night was having a fundraiser for the Brown family so a lot of us along with the Murray hockey team went to the game. They let Dakota (Parker's little brother who is currently on the hockey team) drop the puck at the begining of the game. They also highlighted the family throughout the game and it was really nice. As far as the game goes, the Grizzlys lost. BUT. It was such a super fun game! In the first five seconds of the game, every single player was in a fight. That is not an exaggeration, every single player on the ice was fighting with someone. It was crazy! Then, every player was put in the penalty box. Imagine that. Better yet, look it up on YouTube, they played the Stockton Thunder. There were so many fights throughout the entire game, more than usual for a Grizzly game. And at the end of the game the Grizzly coach was so frustrated that he threw all of the team's hockey sticks out onto the ice. It was so awesome. I love that you can go to a hockey game and even if they are losing, you can have so much fun waching the game! I think it's safe for me to say that hockey is the best sport ever. And that's all. It's been a great week. :)

 Poster that was made in memory of Dave Brown that later the whole Murray hockey team signed.

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Why I Want To Be a Nurse

Okay, I warned you. I'm addicted to My Sister's Keeper. Sometimes I wonder why I chose to go into nursing, and if that's really what I want to do. But then there are little things every now and then that remind you of exactly why you are doing what you are. This quote from the book is one of those reasons. If this doesn't make you want to be a nurse, then I don't know what does.

Quote by Sara (mother of Anna and Kate, who has AML)

"An oncology ward is a battlefield, and there are definate hierarchies of command. The patients, they're the ones doing the tour of duty. The doctors breeze in and out like conquering heros, but they need to read your child's chart to remember where they've left off from the previous visit. It is the nurses who are the seasoned sergeants-the ones who are there when your baby is shaking with such a high fever she needs to be bathed in ice, the ones who can teach you how to flush a central venous catheter, or suggest which patient floor kitchens might still have Popsicles left to be stolen, or tell you which dry cleaners know how to remove the stains of blood or chemotherapies from clothing. The nurses know the name of your daughter's stuffed walrus and show her how to make tissue paper flowers to twine around her IV stand. The doctors may be mapping out the war games, but it is the nurses who make the conflict bearable."

Wow, it doesn't get better than that.

All quotes from My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

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My Sister's Keeper

I love books. I tend to like reading the less known books instead of the Harry Potter/Twilight fascinations, but I'll admit I've read those too. The ones I rant and rave about though are different. My new love is My Sister's Keeper. Most people have heard of it due to the movie made about it, but let me tell you..IT IS NOT THE SAME. The book is completely different and passes the movie in greatness by light years!! Everyone should read this book. There are some things in the book that I have to quote and put in here because I love it so much and the author has a REALLY great way of saying things. So, here are my obsessive parts of the book that I've read probably a million times.

Quote #1.. Said by Anna (Sister of the girl in the story who has Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia) Anna isn't sure what religion she is and where people come from or how they get here. This isn't the happiest quote on her opinion of how we got here but the author is amazing at describing this!! Also makes me so grateful to have the gospel in my life and to know the truth, especially in hard situaions like Anna is put in.

"If there was a religion of Annaism, and I had to tell you how humans made their way to Earth, it would go like this: in the begining, there was nothing at all but the moon and the sun. And the moon wanted to come out during the day, but there was something so much brighter that seemed to fill up all those hours. The moon grew hungry, thinner and thinner, until she was just a slice of herself, and her tips were as sharp as a knife. By accident, because that is the way most things happen, she poked a hole in the night and out spilled a million stars, like a fountain of tears.

Horrified, the moon tried to swallow them up. And sometimes this worked, because she got fatter and rounder. But mostly it didn't, because there were just so many. The stars kept coming, until they made the sky so bright that the sun got jealous. He invited the stars to his side of the world, where it was always bright. What he didn't tell them, though, was that in the daytime, they'd never be seen. So the stupid ones leaped from the sky to the ground, and the froze under the weight of their own foolishness.

The moon did her best. She carved each of these blocks of sorrow into a man or a woman. She spent the rest of her time holding on to whatever scraps she had left."

Quote #2 Also by Anna... Love that girl Anna!

"When you are a kid you have your own language, and unlike French or Spanish or whatever you start learning in fourth grade, this one you're born with, and eventually lose. Everyone under the age of seven is fluent in Ifspeak; go hang around with someone under three feet tall and you'll see. What if a giant funnelweb spider crawled out of a hole over your head and bit you on the neck? What if the only antidote for venom was locked up in a vault on the top of a mountain? What if you lived through the bite, but could only move your eyelids and blink out an alphabet? It doesn't really matter how far you go; the point is that it's a world of possibility. Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut."

:)

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I'm back!

Hm. Well it's been a long while since I've even glanced at this thing. I'm so back and forth on whether I want to take the time to do this blog or not. So don't be suprised if I take off for a while again, but I'll work on it. So, SO much has changed. I'm no longer living at home with my parents.. I live in a basement apartment with one other roommate. It's very different but in a good way. I'm being forced to learn to keep things clean and do the things that at home I hated doing the most, mostly because my roommate doesn't like doing them herself. Haha, it's okay, it's a good learning experience for me.

I am still writing my Elder Durrant of course. Things are different with that also, a lot more relaxed I guess than it was before. We have had our MAJOR ups and downs this whole run, but I believe it has helped me learn a lot about myself and has helped JD learn a lot also.  He has been gone for 14 months now, so he has 10 months left. He comes home on November 9, 2011. This year! Crazy. Time can fly, it is possible.I still love JD with all of my heart and that will never change. It's not easy having him gone, especially for so long.. I don't even remember what it is like being able to talk to him, what his voice really sounds like. But he is so happy out there on his mission and is doing what he know, and I know is the right thing for him right now and that is all I can ask for. I will see him soon enough.

As for another difference, I am dating now. Scary right? Ya. It can definately be scary. I have met some AMAZING people. People I can picture my life with in the future which is scary because I always imagined that I would just be with JD and no one else. I am trying.. trying to be careful of course. No matter what happens, I want to be here for JD when he comes home. That doesn't mean I don't think there are some really great other people out there that I could be happy with, there totally are. But I'm just going to take things one step at a time! No rush. No need. Love is a scary subject that I would prefer to go in super slow motion mode. That missionary will always be on my mind no matter what I do.

Well, this is me. It's been a while, my life has changed, and I have grown. I will try to post more here because this is a great outlet for my feelings, which are always a lot. There's always a lot on my mind. Love you all. :)

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New Post, New Life

I have been bugged by an amount of people because I haven't posted anything on here for a while. But I guess I just feel weird sometimes knowing people are reading about my life. Really though, I like posting on here for JD. And knowing someday he will read this, and get to see everything I went through while he was gone.

This week for me has brought many changes. I don't know if those changes are permanent or not, but because of such a big difference it feels like this week really was an entire year. I have a friend that I have known for a bit that I have hung out with constantly all week. And she introduced me to some people that we have hung out with.. all week. And when I say some people I mean mainly guys. I when I say guys, I mean mainly RM's. Returned Missionaries. The danger zone for waiters like me.

Well, these guys are lots of fun to hang out with. They really are. They aren't quite the RM's that would come to mind.. to me it doesn't seem like they just came home from missions. But they are still good guys. One guy in particular has shown his... interest for me. And I have shown him my interest for my missionary. So this really is an extremely long story condensed a lot, but he knows we are just friends and that's all.

Ever since JD left, the majority of my nights were spent at home with family. Which is great, don't get me wrong.. but at my age, also lonely in the friend department. Which makes me sound totally pathetic, but it's true. You spend all your time with a boyfriend, and he leaves, then your stuck with a lot of time for yourself. So this week has been a lot of fun for me because it has made me feel like I finally have stuff to look forward to. And I have had a blast with my girl friend I've been with constantly. But this week has also had another side to it for me. It feels like my life is moving forward.. or moving on. I met new people since JD left, that he doesn't know. New guys, new girls, new everything. A new part of my life. And it scares me a little to think that my life is going on without him. Which I know has to happen.. but I still don't like it. The worst part about the week (other than this is the first week of his entire mission that I didn't get a letter) is that when I think about him, he is hard to imagine. Meaning, I feel like I'm forgetting what it feels like to have him around. Not holding my hand or anything like that, but just around. Just in the room, just present. And it's the scariest feeling ever! I have so many reminders of him around me all the time, so many pictures. But when I look at them, I can't remember what that felt like to have him right next to me. It's like I don't remember if that really happened, if he really existed.

I hate that feeling, more than anything in the world. But still, I know I love him. And he loves me. But waiting for a missionary sucks like no one would ever believe. I wish we could just take the easy route. I wish I could fast forward the next year or so of my life. I wish this could all just be over now.

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Mother's Day and the BEST Letter So Far!

New Pictures of JD!!

JD burning a tie because he has been out for SIX MONTHS!!

Bittersweet. The best word I can use to describe waiting for a missionary is bittersweet. I say this because Mother's Day was the bitter side. I didn't get to talk to JD on the phone when he called. And I though I was doing okay with the whole idea since I got to email with him, but it was harder to deal with than I was expecting. His mom texted me after he had called because I wanted to take her some flowers and see what JD had said. And it was not easy to listen to. Oh, and of course.. this time when he called he had an UNLIMITED time limit! He called his mom four times that day or something like that. BAH! Good thing I love his family, and that even though I didn't get to talk to him, it was so exciting to see how happy talking to him it made his mother. :)


Okay. Now for the sweet! The super, wonderful, AMAZING SWEET!! JD is not a very mushy, lovey writer. And I know that. And I don't want him to always be lovey dovey when he writes, because I know that's not how he is.. but I do want to be reminded that he still feels the same way about me. Well, let me tell you. He showed me! This letter was..perfect. Let me give you a little sneak peak.

"I have the best girlfriend who constantly supports me! I love it! I LOVE YOU!! And I do miss YOU!!"

"My mom told me that she really loves you and you have grown on her! And I agree. I LOVE YOU and you ave grown onme a little... okay A LOT!"

"Something I want to do that will be just between us is take like 30 minutes once a week (once I'm home) and just talk about how we feel about each other. I know it will probably go longer but that is perfect! Communication will keep us strong! I LOVE YOU HEATHER! Seriously, the more I think about you, the more I love you! I would go out of this world not to lose you! I could not do it! I want you to think that everytime you feel love for me, I am feeling it too. I promise you that! I might not write all this emotion stuff down but I am feeling what you are! I LOVE YOU!!"

BAH!! This was all in one letter too!! Those MG's whose missionaries write like this every week, shush your faces. No sinking my boat.. for JD, this is amazing! Those of you that know JD personally, you know that this is really stepping outside of his emotional box. He can say it all in person easily, but he has never been much of a writer. But this letter he wrote, is basically the bestEST!! Aw, I love him so much! :) Can't wait until he is home!! Only a million years left now!

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