Perfect Timing

I'm sure you've all been waiting on the edge of your seats to hear about what's going on with us! ;) Needless to say, it's been a crazy busy few months but I've finally got some time to update.
As I'm sure I mentioned in the last post, we found the most perfect place to live in Sandy and got jobs together and everything. We WERE working for Nintendo through a call center called Teleperformance. We both liked it ok, but I was expecting to get hired on as a French rep instead of English, which made about $4 more per hour. At the end of our 3 week training, they told me that I probably wouldn't be able to move to French for a while. I decided to look for another job and possibly use the offer as leverage to get moved to French. I have always wanted to work for an airline, so I kept checking the Delta website and finally in early August they were hiring! I applied, and after 2 phone interviews and a face to face, I was one of only 50 applicants out of over 3,000 to get hired! I decided that even though the pay wasn't as much as Nintendo French, the experience and benefits would far outweigh that- after all, this is what I got my degree for!
Meanwhile, Kenz decided that he wasn't liking the phone thing as much as he expected, so he decided to look for another job too and applied at Papa John's since we knew he'd be a shoo-in. He was immediately hired as an Assistant Manager, and started out making more money than at Nintendo. His schedule is pretty lame (he works until 12:30 every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night), but it's a lot more flexible than working at a call center, and he feels a lot more confident. A flexible schedule is a must, because of....
My perks at Delta! Mackenzie, my parents, and I get free unlimited flights anywhere in the world that Delta flies! My second weekend of training I flew home to Minneapolis for 31 hours, and it was awesome! My parents have already flown and we are planning a couple of trips in the next month. We have to fly standby, of course, but it's a lot easier than I expected despite my low, low place on the totem pole. I'm in my 4th week, and so far I am absolutely loving it. They do a great job with giving us all of the information we need, and when I finally know everything I'll love it even more! It's also a huge plus to be working alongside intelligent people, unlike at most call centers. I'm planning on working for Delta as long as I can!
Which brings me to..the future. In August, Kenz and I went and saw a reproductive endocronologist (fertility doctor). He told us that we will most likely not be able to have children without medical help, specifically IVF (petri dish baby). It was pretty hard to hear, especially because of the costs (around $15k just for the procedure, not to mention all of the tests and medications required before that). Luckily, my parents have been so blessed with the success of my dad's dental clinic, and they have offered to cover all of the costs of any fertility-related procedures, medications, tests, etc. (Most insurances don't cover any fertility procedures or testing.) Even though my parents have offered to pay for everything, right now we're taking a break. Of course we will keep TTC (infertility speak for trying to conceive) on our own, but it's tempting to just wait on any procedures until Mackenzie finishes school and we relocate and buy a house and get real money, etc.
I'm really appreciating the Lord's timing right now. Even though we want a child, how about we just travel the world first? We really are in the best position for travel with Kenz being out of school until next Fall and not having kids. The possibilities right now are really easing the pain of not getting pregnant. Even if we never have kids, I can just keep working for Delta and traveling the world. 

Macadamia Nuts

It's really amazing how the Lord makes things happen to accomplish His will. A month ago, I announced that we were moving to Utah in August. Well, we're already down here and have been working for a week! This is how the Big Guy made that happen so quickly:

A week or so after Kenz decided he wanted to transfer, he dislocated his knee at work. We went to the Dr. and they told him not to work for a week, since his job was pretty physical. We went to Oakley, ID the weekend of the 4th for our family reuionS (believe it or not, we have combined reunions with his Mom's side and Dad's side!). We got back Sunday night, and since he didn't have to work we decided to go down to Salt Lake to look for a place to live. We looked at a bunch of places, but the ones in our price range were less than desirable. We were planning on applying for jobs with a call center doing tech support for Nintendo in Lindon (about 45 min south of downtown), so we decided we should just live in Utah county until he started school. If we were going to live down there, we were going to live in Provo for Google Fiber! After looking around Provo for places to live all day long, the last one we looked at was awesome- 3 bedroom, washer/dryer hookups, and it allowed pets! We both sent in our applications that night.

I love this quote and this printable by my friend

Courtney. You really need to go here and check out

her other free amazing printables!

The next day we went to what we thought was an open interview job fair for Teleperformance (the Nintendo job). They told us that the Nintendo account was actually NOT having the open interviews that day. I called them and they said they didn't have any scheduled, but they'd call me when they did.

After we got home, Mackenzie had another Dr. appointment for his knee. It wasn't improving much, so they scheduled an MRI for the next day. There were 3 possible outcomes: a. he had a torn meniscus and would need minimally invasive surgery; b. he had a torn ligament and would just need tons of therapy; or c. it was just sprained and would heal on its own, but he'd need to take it easy. I'll admit, I had a small freak out thinking about him not being able to work for a month or more! He got a blessing from our awesome friends Jesse and Travis that night saying that he would be able to provide for our family no matter what the outcome was. The next morning he had the MRI and we found out that it was just a sprain! The Dr still wanted him to stay off of it for the weekend, and then it was up to him whether he went back to work or not.

While I was at the hospital with Kenz, I received a call from Teleperformance. They were holding Nintendo open interviews the following Tuesday, and they couldn't do phone interviews. We then had to decide if it was worth it for Kenz to just quit his job that was ending 3 weeks later anyway, or ask for the day off even though he just had almost 2 weeks off because of his injury. We decided it would be best if we could just drive down there and back the next day. We called back and made appointments for our interviews. They also informed us that the building would actually be in SANDY (a suburb of Salt Lake), not Lindon...so living in Provo was out of the question. They also said that the next training class started a week from the following Monday!  I immediately looked online for a place, and found something AMAZING that we'd be able to afford if we were hired! I called the landlords and set up a time to go see it while we were down there. Everything was riding on getting the jobs!

We left Rexburg at 7am, had our interviews, got hired(!), saw the apartment (WHICH WAS PERFECT), and were home by 8! It was crazy, but so relieving to have solid plans! We didn't find out until the next day that we got the apartment, so that was an extremely nerve wracking 24 hours! The only thing we had to do was pack the apartment in a week and move down there!

We absolutely LOVE our place, and the job won't be too bad! One of the biggest blessings is that we will be able to enroll in benefits after only 30 days of employment, so we can finally go to the fertility center that is not far from our house! I'm excited to see what the next year will bring.

Big Changes!

So, exactly five days ago Mackenzie told me that he no longer wanted to pursue a career in Physical Therapy. The next day he decided he wanted to study Petroleum Engineering. The day after that we decided that instead of going to school in Butte, Montana to study PE, he would transfer to either the University of Utah or University of Minnesota to study Chemical Engineering, which he could use in a career as a Petroleum Engineer. We prayed about it, he got a blessing from our home teachers, and today we went to the temple to make sure we'd received our answer.

 We're moving to Salt Lake City in August!

 The plan right now is for Kenz to work for a year so that we can get residency for instate tuition, which is about $13k less than out of state so that's nice! There are tons of jobs available for both of us down there, and lots of sweet housing options! We are really excited, but will miss our friends here in Rexburg as well as the rugged beauty of Idaho. Good thing we'll only be a few hours away!

 Needless to say, I'm pretty excited to be living so close to Anthropologie, Trader Joe's, World Market, H&M, and don't even talk about all the great restaurants! The only thing I'm NOT excited for is packing up! 

We're both looking forward to this next chapter in our lives. Cheers to the future!

Fighting Biology (or, the Secret Thoughts of Infertile Women)

I hesitate in sharing this blog out of fear that some will think that they, specifically, have hurt me. Let me assure you that this is not the case! Secretly, every pregnant woman hurts me…and I secretly pity each and every one of them. This juxtaposition of emotions comes with the territory of infertility, at least for me and few other women I know.

I’m calling this post “Fighting Biology” because I am fighting against my body and its stubbornness as well as fighting my natural desire for children. They’re messy and demanding and expensive and sometimes in my head I am secretly glad I don’t have any yet nor will I in the next 9 months. So why does my heart break every time one of my friends announces that they’re expecting? My heart was made to care for children. My hands long to caress a soft, round cheek and my shoulder yearns for a tiny head to rest upon it. Tears fill my eyes when I think about it, but then I stop yearning and am relieved to be sitting on my couch uninterruptedly watching TV for 3 hours or looking at literally every item at Target or staying out late with our friends. My head and my heart are at war here! And then there’s this biological clock thing along with LDS cultural expectations vs. the world’s expectations and I’m even more confused. I need to be happy about it or I need to be sad. Pick one, body!

These mixed emotions always come about 2 seconds apart. It goes something like this: see announcement on Facebook about newly expecting friend, pain in my chest. Think about how their social life will be dead soon and their bank account drained, instant relief. I don’t know why! It must be some kind of coping mechanism. Like my body’s saying, “this environment is too hostile for a child, but I’ll help you to not feel bad about it! Do what you want!” So confusing!

You want to hear an infertile woman’s dirty little secret? When I meet a couple who has been married for “a while” who isn’t pregnant, I feel GOOD knowing they might possibly have infertility issues too! Who does that? Who wishes one of the very worst things on someone who is undeserving of it?

You want to know an even dirtier secret? As one of my good friends put it, “that secret moment when you’re glad you’re infertile…”

Whether it’s a natural coping mechanism or a product of the screwed up hormones (or lack thereof) inside of me, I’m glad it’s there. I’m so grateful for silver linings on dark clouds and for prayers that are answered by me not getting what I want. I’m grateful for the empathy I have for other women sharing this trial, and especially for the fervor and gratitude with which I will love the little miracles who will one day be my children.

Je ne peux plus parler anglais!

This is the most depressing time of year- the time between Christmas and New Year's! Our first Christmas alone together was actually not bad! On Christmas Eve we went to Idaho Falls and saw Anchorman 2, which was funnier than I expected. After that we swung over to Target to see what was on sale! Lucky for me, the owl salt and pepper shakers that I'd seen on Black Friday were there! Kenzie tried to buy them for me for 12 days of Christmas but they were sold out. I'm so excited about them! Pics to follow because I'm at work now. After Target we went to dinner at Jakers, where I ate so many snow crab legs that I was sick! It was awesome. And they had delicious scones. I'd go there again for the scones :) When we got home from dinner, we opened all of our presents. We were so spoiled/blessed! Some of the things I got were an owl lamp, a cute shirt from anthro, a chevron neck pillow, sequined leopard moccasins, and the big surprise from kenzie was a SILHOUETTE CAMEO! FYI that's a cutting machine that is WAY better than a Cricut :) You don't have to buy cartridges, and you can transport any image that you find online! So awesome. I can't wait to make some awesome creations with it! So thoughtful and sweet of him. He did good this year. Christmas morning I wasn't feeling well, so I called in sick to work. If I would have known, we could've opened our presents on Christmas morning like regular people! But it's ok, we slept in and everything was way chill. We spent the day lounging, and cooking! Harry and Katie Ethington came over for dinner and we ate a delicious turkey with all the fixins and pumpkin pie. After that we played a couple games of Dominion. It was a great Christmas night! Thursday (the 26th) I went to work from 10-6 and it was so busy, it went by SUPER fast AND I can speak French again! It was hard for me to switch back to English when I went home, and I kept "franglais-ing." Luckily Kenz still understood me! Yesterday we had another fun day and went to Idaho Falls to scour the sales. I got a dress from Downeast for Christmas that was too short, so I returned it for store credit and got a super cute blouse and 3 pairs of earrings! I also hit up Michael's and BBW, where I got some body wash from my favorite scent this year, Rome Honeysuckle Amore. They should totally bring it back! Then we scored at Porter's with some black and white Silhouette brand vinyl for only $5 per role (9" x 10ft). We ate lunch at Red Robin with some gift cards from mom and dad, AND dinner at Cafe Rio for free with our vouchers because we didn't know we'd be there so long! We rounded out the night back at Target, of course, where I scored some great stuff like a cute jar with chalkboard label and gold lid, a lamp shade for my new lamp, and a cute bone-shaped red with white polka dotted mat on which to put Brucey's food bowls. And I only spent $30! Sales are amazing. I am totally loving my little life right now. Mackenzie and Bruce are the greatest little family I could ever hope for. Even though we don't have a baby yet, I am learning to be happy with things the way they are and to live in the moment. There are so many things we can do that we couldn't otherwise if we had kids. I love my Heavenly Father and I'm so grateful for all He has blessed me with and continues to bless me with. Life is beautiful!

So Close I Can Taste It!

Christmas is SO CLOSE!

Right now I am at work helping Quebecois fix their Playstations. Today I was scheduled for a 10.5 hour shift, but one of my coworkers switched with me and now I only have to work 8! Sweet. Yesterday was the first day that I worked as part of the French team, and I was expecting to start taking calls in French but it turns out that we were actually scheduled to take English calls for one more week. Well today I got to work and there were a ton of people calling and so they needed me and Daniel (other kid from my training class) to start taking French calls! I was going to listen a little bit more to calls that other people took, but I got thrown in and that's how I like it actually. I'm understanding about 60-80% of what people are saying, which is good because they do NOT speak the French that I learned! Freaking Canadians. But things are going well and I only have 2.5 more hours left in my shift and then Christmas will commence! I have Monday and Tuesday off and then I have to work Wednesday from 7-3:30, so Kenz and I are celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve.

I haven't decided yet if we'll open presents Tuesday morning or afternoon. We are going to go to this really awesome fancyish restaurant in Idaho Falls called Jakers, where we will feast upon all you can eat snow crab legs, mmmm. Then we will probably go see a movie because what else are we going to do? And look at Christmas lights. Christmas night we will hang out with our good friends the Ethingtons, eat a huge turkey and play games. I can't wait! I also don't work until 10am the next week so we can stay up late. Christmas this year is going to be different, but I'm pretty excited to have a chill holiday with just Kenzie et moi. (and I get to open all my presents a day earlier!)

I have this thing where I hate it when people tell me what to do or where my choice to do something is taken away. Thus, I will always hate having a job. I don't hate WORKING, I just hate having a job I need to go to and really don't have any choice to attend or not. I enjoy WORK when it involves cooking, cleaning, folding laundry, etc. I am so blessed that Mackenzie will have a career which will allow me to stay home and do those things! Although if we aren't able to have any children, I hope that I'll be able to get a career that I enjoy. The point of this is, being at work and working on Sundays and on Christmas is stupid! But necessary. I will work for the next year or two while Kenz goes to school, and then he can work for the rest of our lives while I stay home!

Anyway, I wish I could put some pictures on here but I can't use my phone here to email any to me. I'll be sure to post some of Christmas :)

Blessed

I have to admit, I didn't really care to post what I'm thankful for every day in November. I think it's great that people did it, and it's definitely a great way to focus on the season, but it just wasn't for me. I even made a super cute garland with pumpkin and leaf di-cuts on it for Kenz and I to write what we're thankful for each day. By the 9th we still hadn't done it yet, so I decided it was too late and it would just be a cute decoration. Maybe next year?

Even though it's no longer November or Thanksgiving, I just wanted to take the time to point out some huge blessings in our life right now. At least for me, it's easy to notice what we lack and what we want. Not necessarily material things, but it's always hard to long for blessings that are good and righteous and you're not getting (obviously I'm talking about a baby here!) But we really do have so much for which to thank our Heavenly Father, so I just want to talk about these things in case I ever have kids and they ever read this blog.

First and foremost, our cars! We have two cars in excellent condition that get amazing gas mileage, and we've been blessed to be able to give other people from our ward rides to work, the grocery store, etc. Not only do we have one really sweet nice car (2009 Honda Accord- thanks Mom and Dad!), but my old 2005 Toyota Corolla had NO RECOMMENDATIONS when I got my oil changed this week! That's amazing. They always at least tell you to change the air filter!

I'm also grateful for all of the material blessings we have. iPods, iPhones, iPad, XBOX 360, Wii, Wii U, 2 laptops, a desktop, more craft supplies than I'd ever know what to do with, nice furniture, the ability to decorate our apartment how I'd like, etc.

We are so blessed!