September 28, 2010

Tuesday (September 28, 2010) – Monday night going into Tuesday I did not get very much sleep due to me getting sick, and contractions. I went into work and about half way through the day I had a LPN co-worker tell me that I didn’t look to well. I obviously wasn’t feeling too well due to me being nine months pregnant and sick with a cold, but I asked why she brought it up. She said I looked super swollen and asked if she could check my blood pressure to make sure I was ok. About a hour later she came in and checked my blood pressure, sure enough it was HIGH (144/100). She told me that I should either call my doctor immediately or go to the hospital, since I only had about a hour left of work I decided I’d call my doctor and see what they said. We set up an appt. for about 1 PM and I finished my day of work and off I was to the doctors. Brandon and I met up at my doctors’ office, and they checked my blood pressure, sure enough it had gone down. (ugh). So we went in the back to meet with our doctor. After he checked me and everything was the same from the day before he told me I had two options. They could either do a 24 urine test – where I’d have to collect my urine for 24 hours and then bring it back in for them, or I could go to the hospital and they could check my blood pressure every 10 minutes for an hour or two and run some blood tests. He asked which option we would prefer (duh the hospital), but I turned it back on him and asked which one he would prefer us doing. I was surprised when he told us that we should go to the hospital and that he’d call them to let them know we were on the way. In my head I was thinking ‘Finally we’re going to the hospital!’ but at the same time I had to tell myself they could send us home at anytime. So we went to labor and delivery, where they put me in this HUGE room and got all these lovely computers attached to me. Brandon and I waited there while they ran all these tests for about an hour and half when the attending nurse came back telling us everything looked good. (So close!). They told me to go home and relax, and that they would probably see me soon, but that if I had any other symptoms of preeclampsia that I should come back in (blurry vision, headaches/migraines, more high blood pressure, etc).

September 27, 2010

Connor is here. I cannot express the wonderful spirit he has brought into our lives. But I can write down the story of how he got here. It was kind of a weeks’ worth of events that led to his birth, so I’ll write down what happened within that time.

[It is taking me longer to write down the story, due to the fact that I don't have a lot of time! But I'll post those eventful days as soon as possible :)]

Monday (September 27, 2010) – Every Monday for the last month of the pregnancy I had a doctor’s appointment. They just check over everything and see how far you are to going into labor. Well this Monday I went into the doctors and my blood pressure was a little high, still technically ok, but it was borderline high. Also my ankles/feet had been swollen (for months), but they had started to get worse and worse. My doctor told me to come in later in the week (suggesting Friday) to get my blood pressure checked again to make sure I wasn’t getting preeclampsia. On a brighter note, I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced. That night I also got a head cold. (lovely).

That being said...

Okay, so every now and then I get on this blog and post a few things that I have had on my mind. I have written about the deep thoughts of change, about how cool my wife is, and other things.

I haven't written on this blog for a while, and although I think Tenille has done a great job at keeping people updated generally on what's going on in our little corner of the world, I thought it would be nice to toss a few thoughts on what's been on my mind lately.

Baby Holyoak's name

Our baby boy was originally going to be named Ammon James Holyoak. Ammon is one of my favorite scriptural heroes, and I just plain old like the name. The middle name James comes from my closest cousin, James Cook. I admire him, the way he carries himself, his work ethic, and kind demeanor towards others, especially to children. I have always wanted to establish that link from him to my kids.

One day, however, Tenille and I were talking about other names that sounded good. I brought up the name Connor, and how it had a nice ring to it. Nevertheless, it wasn't long before I circled back to Ammon and suggested that we just leave the name Connor off the table, but Tenille was stuck on the name. So at that point, we were at odds between Ammon James vs. Connor James (the middle name wasn't up for changing).

One morning, I woke up thinking about our baby boy. About how Connor truly did seem like a good fit, but "Connor James" just didn't sound right. I started to think about the middle name, James. James. Who is James? James Alan Cook, my cousin, I answered my own question. James Alan, I thought. Hmm… Alan. Connor Alan? Connor.. Connor Alan! James gets his middle name from Grandpa Holyoak, Alan Holyoak. My stepbrother Casey's middle name is also Alan (Casey Alan Bair). One of my closest friends is Allen Witt. Alan seems pretty fitting, I thought. I said it out loud and I liked it even more.

Later that morning, I asked Tenille to consider the middle name change, and she liked it. A lot. I think initially she was more excited that I had put away the name Ammon, but regardless, I was so overjoyed to have realized what our boy's name would be: Connor Alan Holyoak.

Saratoga Chase HOA

A few months ago, the neighborhood got together to determine who would serve on the board of the HOA. I personally was getting frustrated with the lack of information we had, and how seemingly nothing was getting done at the time. I volunteered to serve on the board, and without much further conversation, I wound up serving as the HOA president (It sounds more powerful than you think; it's really just a formality).

I have had to learn pretty quickly what it means to serve on an HOA board. I work jointly with good people who are smart, honest, and forthright. The responsibilities of running an HOA are a lot more complex than I ever thought, and sometimes politics does wiggle its way into it all, which is frustrating, yet interesting at the same time. It's been quite a learning experience for me, and one of the main things I have learned is to be not so quick to judge, but rather to get as much information and options in front of you as possible, and then methodically make your way to the best decision.

Immigration and Gay Marriage

Speaking of not being so quick to judge, here's one for you. Most of you out there in the cyber-world have at least read or heard about Arizona's law, prop 8, etc. I personally have been pretty decided on these issues:

1. From a principled standpoint, I believe that if you are to come to the United States of America, you should do so through honest channels. The primary reason America offers such a grand opportunity is because of the freedom we have secured for ourselves. We bow to no one, because of the blood of our forefathers. Freedom comes with a cost, and a free ride to liberty is not only unfair, it cheats one’s soul of what true and honest freedom really feels like. Those among us (some estimate the tally to around 11 million) who are undocumented immigrants do not feel truly free, and are therefore stuck in a cycle of self-deception, that collectively cheats the nation’s spirit as a whole.

THAT BEING SAID:

The solution to illegal immigration is not going to be a black and white, this-or-that resolution. Deporting 11 million people because they don’t have their papers is by all accounts an improbable, exponentially expensive, and simply an impractical solution. Nevertheless, at the same time, I believe that those people who use lies and deceit to cross our borders, and then continue to do so once they are here, should be dealt with according to the laws of justice, and if necessary, sent swiftly back to where they came from. We have been taught to be merciful; however, mercy cannot rob justice. Also, I believe that the Arizona law is a good one – but for reasons others may not agree with. I believe the state law is a subtle and clever way to force the Federal hand, whose responsibility it truly is to resolve the issue. After all, a national border is defined by a nation, not just one state. Stay strong AZ!

2. I believe that gay marriage is wrong; that it is a mockery of the original institution. I believe marriage is intended to be one man and one woman, who love each other as equal partners, who can reproduce and raise children in a loving home. I understand that some homosexual couples have been able to adopt children, but I believe that the best opportunity for young children tends to lie with a mother and father presiding in the home, as nature intended.

THAT BEING SAID:

I believe that this country guarantees certain human and civil rights to all people. That includes the right to follow one's own conscious, even if it is considered “unnatural” or if others detest your actions as heinous. I am starting to believe that even though gay marriage is against nearly everything I hold dear, I can still raise my family just as well in this world, regardless. The only inconvenience for my family will be that it's one more issue on which to guide and teach our children about. This is one of the reasons we are parents. Part of being a parent involves navigating your children through untested, untraveled waters. This subject will be one all parents will have to tackle in the years ahead.

Just as our parents had to deal with things they had never before encountered, so too shall we - the parents of the rising generation - have to deal with things as parents that we didn't experience as kids. Our parents, for example, did not have to deal with texting while driving, or the internet. Who knows what we will have to have to instruct our children on in the coming years? The sacred institution of traditional marriage is likely to be one of them.

Healthy Choices

Last week I had one of my monthly doctors appointments. We went in like any other time, and the doctor starts talking about my weight. (YIKES!) He told me that I've gained quite a bit of weight, and that I should watch my portions and exercise more. To say the least, I took it hard! (What woman wouldn't?!) The next morning I told Brandon I wanted to change a few habits (some were just for me, some he couldn't avoid). Here are the changes we made last week:

*No Soda (This is mostly for me, but he has joined along as well. Granted he did drink some rootbeer last night, but reassured me that it was very flat, so it didn't count. Haha)

*Eating Dinner before 8 PM (The first few days it was hard, but I started to realize how much better I was feeling! It is harder than I thought since it's light till 9:30!)

*More Walking (Quite hard when your ankles are the size of baseballs, sorry for those that have noticed!)

*Switching from 2% Milk to 1% (Gasp! Brandon was a little hesitant on this one, but I told him he wouldn't be able to tell to much.)

I know that they aren't a lot of changes, but I feel small and steady wins the race. :) I'm hoping in doing these things it will balance our diets a bit more (and my weight!)

Today Brandon was talking to his co-worker about his weight loss goals and asking him for advance on what changes to make. Guess what he said...First and foremost eat dinner before 8 PM (I'm a genius), and switch to 1% or skim milk (Again!). I was a little surprised when Brandon told me this, because I am not a healthy person, (chocolate is definately a weakness, and Jill's cupcakes...YUM) but I think we're starting to make good changes for us.

P.S. Can you believe it's almost August!? WOW has time flown by!

An Afternoon at Temple Square

This last weekend Brandon and I decided that we should take a little break and do something fun, we thought to ourselves, let's go to Temple Square. So we hopped into our car and drove up to SLC. We decided we were going to park under the Conference Center, because it was shaded, so we headed on our way down to the underground parking. When we got to the bottom we found that the gates were opened on both sides, so Brandon asked what was going on. Apparently there had been a funeral that day and so they were letting anyone park there for FREE Saturday only. Wahoo!

Anyway, we start walking across the street to Temple Square and decide that we're going to go see the Christus first. As we're walking up to the Christus I realize that we hadn't been there since we first dated (2 1/2 years ago)! It was neat to sit down together and just feel the spirit in that room. As we were there we got to hear his words in Korean, Spanish and English. The best part was watching Brandon during the Spanish words, it brought him back to when he was on his mission and he got a bit teary eyed. (I love him so much, so cute!). After the English words we asked a lovely person to take our picture pretty close to where we had one of our first pictures taken.

December 2007

July 2010

After the Christus, we started to walk around the grounds and had a lovely missionary sister took our picture. (I'm really trying to be better of taking more pictures of Brandon and I, I've been slacking on this aspect, so I'm sorry!)

After the picture, we went to the South Visitor's Center and saw the new model of the SLC temple. Wow! That thing is amazing!! It was neat to look at it and think "I've been there!" I love the temple, it's the best feeling to do temple work.

After we saw the model we walked around the Joseph Smith Memorial building and made our way across the street to the new Deseret Book store. I love looking at all the artwork and the new books. We then started to get a bit thirsty so we went across the way to Blue Lemon to get a smoothie. When we walked in Brandon immediately noticed a worker there and called him by his name, psychic? More like stalker. (Just kidding). Come to find out Brandon knew the manager from High School! As the caught up on life I downed half of the tropical smoothie they made. YUM! I'm definately a fan of their smoothies, Brandon and I plan on going back to try their food sometime.

As we left Blue Lemon, we thought that we could attempt to figure out Trax. I had heard before that in downtown SLC there was a "free zone." Well, we decided to take it to the Gateway. We traveled safe and sound, and mostly just walked around, it was nice to get out on a beautiful day though!

I do have to say, we missed being with the Witt's and Tobler's going down the river! But next year we'll be back to enjoy Riggins with them again!

Lauren

My sister in law, Lauren is gorgeous. We went up to Logan, this past Thursday afternoon to take her Bridals. I was a little nervous with the weather because it was raining on the way up, but in Logan it was just either cloudy or sunny. She was absolutely stunning and I just had to put a preview up!

Love you Lauren and congrats!

Scum

Have you ever played Scum? If you like card games this is definately one I would suggest, it's such a great party game.

This weekend we had the opportunity to be with family and play Scum into the weee hours of the morning! Normally I'm not the best at playing games, don't get me wrong I love to play games...I'm just very competitive and it can be a bad thing if I'm losing (I'm a horrible poor sport - ask Brandon). One of the great things about Scum is you can move around from being "king" to "bottom scum" at the end of each round! I'm slowly starting to learn how to play my cards better, and I'm so grateful for the help the Cook's and Brandon offered to give me when I got down to a few cards :) I'm so grateful for good times and laughter...We got to a point in the early hours of the morning when everyone was laughing so hard I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up or keep laughing. There was also a time that if someone said anything that would pertain to a phrase in a song Mari, Aly and I would just burst into that song and sing about half of it! Oh it was so wonderful. Great people, fantastic game, cookies and singing are definately a wonderful thing to be thankful for!

I hope everyone else had a great Memorial Day weekend. I'm grateful for those that have fought (and do fight) for the freedoms of this country. I'm grateful we had the opportunities to visit family members graves and reflect on how they have helped each of us become stronger better people. (I'm also grateful for the stories that everyone remembers of these people, that I have not met. I know I don't truely know them, but I definately have felt their love this weekend and it will be a great day when I will get introduced to them).

I am so grateful for the gospel and I have the knowledge that we are an eternal family. I am forever grateful that I have been sealed to my sweetheart and know that our family will always be together. I am grateful for the priesthood, and the comfort it is in our home, and I am grateful we make each other laugh and get to become a stronger unit each day.

This is us on our 2 year anniverary dinner. We went to Brick Oven, it was delicious!

This is how we really act after two years! Just kidding, I love you Brandon!