Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday was the first time anyone has ever wished ME a Happy Mother's Day. My brother sat next to me (as if in disbelief that I'm married and on my own now) and tried to tell everyone that they didn't need to do that because "Shaina doesn't count...yet." Well As far as my sweet husband was concerned I did. I woke up to breakfast in bed (all of my favorite breakfast foods), with the most thoughtful and creative card on my "tray". It was the kind of card that reminds me why i fell in love with him in the first place! I say "tray" because since we aren't prepared to have ever done breakfast in bed, we are not equipped with the fancy get up that you would USUALLY provide with breakfast in bed. My tray looked a LOT like a cookie sheet, but whatever. I didn't care. He wanted to do something special and I appreciated it. We spent Mother's Day first in sacrament meeting with MY mother (and my sister and her kids) and then shot over to join HIS mother in her ward's sacrament meeting. After church, we went home and he began to prepare our dish for the potluck at my Mom's. The rules were that the father had to make the food to bring, and he had to make something that the mother loved. If you know my husband, you know that when it comes to meal times, 1 of 3 things happens. Either I cook, we eat out, or he starves. As we got closer and closer to Mother's Day, he kept asking "what's your favorite thing to eat?" I would laugh each time because I told him that in order to save face and have something to contribute to the dinner, just make whatever you know how to. THAT would become my favorite thing. He procrastinated and by Saturday night, he still had NO idea what to make. Sunday rolled around and while he was busy preparing beautiful things for me for Mother's Day, he seemed to forget that we had no groceries for him to use to prepare a dish to share with 50 people. He INSISTED on not going to the store and as he opened the pantry, I realized what he COULD make that actually WAS one of my favorites. CANNED CORNED BEEF AND ONIONS. :) As he cooked, I relaxed and before I knew it, it was time to head over to Mom's. We had an AMAZING time with my siblings and cousins. I'd say that for my first Mother's Day as a mother, it was DEFINITELY one to remember. :)

...4 Months Later...

So after about 4 months of "wedded bliss" (or so they call it), I am FINALLY here to update the happenings.  The past 4 months have had their share of days that felt like they were dragging and would never end, as well as the busy days that seem to never have enough hours to finish all that needs to be done!  Jeremy is always grumbling that for a newly married couple we are WAYYYY too busy...and there I am grumbling about sitting at home with NOTHING to do.  :)  Ahhh the joys of realizing that they were NOT kidding when they said the beginning would be FULL of learning moments.  It seems Jeremy and I are "learning" all the time!


I guess I thought that once we were married, I'd have LOTS of time to update our blog.  What I DIDN'T expect, was that we WOULDN'T have much to update, and we WOULDN'T have a computer to do it from.  :P  Well here it is.  The last 4 months in a nutshell:

• Most of January saw us just enjoying our new life together and discovering the joys and difficulties of combining our needs and bringing our separate lives together to actually become 1 life.  That took some getting used to!
• At the end of January, Jeremy quit his job at Foodland to start classes to become a State Adult Corrections Officer.  (I wasn't a huge fan of allllll the time that took away from me, but oh well. haha.)
• February was relatively quiet for us.  There was Valentine's Day (that Jeremy pulled off very well) and a couple of my family gatherings to go to.
• February also saw Jeremy in the early stages of his 10-week class.  He was working out every day, and eating better all the time so he could be sure to make his times.  He was doing a lot of studying too.  All that hard work to make a better living for us.
• February was when we really started getting comfortable in Kaneohe 4th Ward.  (Having grown up there, I already was...I should just say JEREMY was getting used to it).  I got a couple of callings right off the bat, and it was settled.  I would be in Primary as SOON as I got back into the ward.  :P
• March was pretty much more of the same.  Work for me, class for Jeremy and family gatherings whenever there were any.
• Around the middle of March, I was beginning to make frequent visits to the doctor (which happened a few times in February too) for a HORRIBLE cold.  I took about 6 pregnancy tests in March (at Jeremy's request) between home and the doctor's office, and each one said NEGATIVE.  It was just that I was sick.  I just wanted meds and everyone wanted to tell me I MIGHT be pregnant.  All the tests showed that I WASN'T and I was beginning to become pretty annoyed with everyone who would rather speculate a pregnancy than get me the meds I was asking for!  haha.  :)
• The last week of March, I had 2 appointments within 5 days of each other.  That did not make for a very happy me!  March 28th, I had a job interview in the morning and my second dr's appointment in 5 days.  I walked into the doctor's office with every intention of getting my prescription and heading back to work.  Literally 3 hours later, I walked out with my arms full of reading material and my meds!  yesss.
• I checked into my appointment as usual.  They handed me the cup and I went to the restroom.  When I got back, the doctor began asking for my symptoms and as I explained my symptoms to (what felt like) the 15th person in the last week, the nurse popped in and handed the doctor the results of my pee test.  They had NEVER done that before so I got a little worried that there was something wrong with me.  As I wrapped up, the doctor mentioned that there was actually a GOOD reason that I was feeling all the things that I was...then she handed me the little ziploc bag the nurse brought in.  As I saw the 2 solid lines, I heard the words, "There's nothing wrong with you...You're pregnant." 

• Needless to say we are overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude to our Heavenly Father for blessing us with this opportunity.  Jeremy has been great as I go through this new process for my body, complete with mood swings, food aversions, cravings and the worst kind of nausea I can imagine!
• With all that news, it's hard to believe that ANYTHING happened in April.  April passed us so quickly because our sole focus has been on Operation: Prepare (EVERYTHING) for baby!
• The first week of April, Jeremy graduated from his ACO class and became a full-fledged State ACO.  In order to graduate, he had to pass his written tests and mile-and-a-half.  He didn't think he was going to make his mile-and-a-half, but all he could think of was our baby and the fact that his baby could see him and would be SO proud.  That we were...April 5th, we got to celebrate his graduation.
• Other than graduation, April wasn't filled with too much excitement until our first ultrasound (to determine how far along I was) on April 23rd.  Daddy was so excited and I played it cool...until i SAW it on the screen.  It wasn't a definite shape or anything (because it was determined that I was 8 weeks and 4 days at the point) but the heart was beating and I could see it move.  Everything got very real for me in that moment and I got excited for our baby all over again.  :)

I guess I was wrong when I assumed I could sum up 4 months in "a nutshell"...more like a novel.  Oh well, until the NEXT 4 month mark, or until another boring day at work, have a good one!  I PROMISE to try harder to update (as I was reminded by a very SWEET someone in a "loving" way that I "am the worst blogger...EVER.")!

Welcome to the Neighborhood!

 

Friday, December 30th 2011 came faster than we could even take a breath, but despite all the naysayers and pessimists, the weather was beautiful and just PERFECT for a wedding. We haven't gotten any pictures yet, but I wanted to open up shop. Welcome to our Blog. I had my own blog and considered just changing the name of it, but I wanted to start fresh. It's hard to just GUESS which Ava family this is (since there are about 5 already), but the Kaneohe Ava's are officially up and running. We are finally moved and settled into our little home in Kaneohe. We both took the week before and after the wedding off so that we could prepare for the wedding and then relax after. We both had to return to work this morning, and as we continue to adjust, I will try to keep posting the happenings of our little forever family. Once the pictures arrive, I will post them, but for now, I'll just welcome you to our blog and into our lives. :) we can't WAIT to have stuff to post here. :)