So much has happened, and I have been putting off working on my ancient blog. I just didn't see much point to it before, but I have decided to give it another try, since I don't regularly keep a journal either.
Alright, so 2011 was a fun year with our little boy, James (he was a surprise, as anyone could tell from my last blog, we thought we were were having a girl). I went a full six days over due and on Jan. 28, at noon, James Gideon was born. James's birth was perfect. My whole family flew over and when I went into labor my mother and Kelli rushed over and prepared the tub. I spent the rest of the time playing in the water, being fed homemade granola, water through a straw and a plethora of fresh fruits, all while listening to Enya surrounded by candlelight.
Learning to be a parent for the first time had a great many more ups than downs, but it was still a hard learning experience and it made the whole year an interesting one. The Disney college program was unforgettable. We lived for three months in a one bedroom condo with extremely few of our own possessions. We knew no one in Florida so most days I just cared for James and waited for Raymond to get home from his wacky Magic Kingdom hours. I didn't even have a license then, so I didn't go anywhere without Ray and most of the time we would go to the parks and walk around.
I remember a great tender mercy was having Ray's parents living in Georgia which resulted in them visiting often and often by surprise. Mury and Terry's visits were precious to me because with my social nature I would have otherwise gone crazy those three months with no friends and only my husband and newborn infant to talk to.
Oh Man, I can barely remember now, but in April, I think, we moved back to Rexburg to go to school for the Spring and Fall Semesters. We had a nice apartment in Subsidized Housing and I made a couple of good friends, while Ray and I traded off hours at school and hours at home watching our growing child. We were happy and blessed and we were so excited to return to Florida in January for Raymond's Professional Internship with Walt Disney World's Logistics team. We had a wonderful Christmas with my family in Oregon and then we headed to our first apartment in Clermont, Florida.
2012 was an exciting year. We were so glad to be back in sunny Florida and Raymond really began to love his work and love his co-workers and he was so good at it. I got my license in Rexburg the year before, so I was able to get to know the area really well and I did all the shopping on my own and explored with my now one-year-old boy. Mury and Terry visited and we celebrated James' and Mury's birthdays and our second wedding anniversary with them. We bought a new computer and enjoyed life and our own income.
A couple of months later James learned to walk and then disaster struck. For Ray's birthday I bought him a set of Bucky Balls, which were these tiny round magnets that were really fun to connect and disconnect and build shapes with. In March, Ray brought them home from work to show his parents on their next visit and we found out that James was really fascinated by them. We tried to keep them out of his reach, but on the morning of March 5 we were talking on the bed together and suddenly realized how quiet James was being. We found him sitting on the floor with the Bucky Balls in his palms next to his mouth.
Not knowing how many he swallowed Ray desperately counted the 100 or so balls out while I searched the web for evidence of there being any danger to our sweet boy. I found out that the magnetic balls had a bad reputation of causing great harm to the intestines because they were strong enough individually to connect within the body, across walls and to tear holes in organs. I panicked and called 911. The ambulance came and drove us to the hospital only for the doctor to take an x-ray and tell us to go home and see if the balls would pass through on their own, but to return the next morning for another x-ray. He had swallowed 18 balls in total and they connected to make a little ring in his baby tummy.
The next day, which was a Sunday, we returned to the hospital only to find out that the magnets hadn't moved at all which resulted in the doctor declaring that James had to get an endoscopy, a surgery in which they put James to sleep and the doctor inserted a probe through his esophagus to his tummy and pulled out the magnets through his throat. We were transported to Florida Hospital for this procedure and after we had to spend the night at the hospital and I can honestly say that it was one of the worst and longest nights of my entire life. Holding my baby boy while he was in so much pain from his throat and all connected to IVs and not allowed to breastfeed him at all was so hard for me. That was my first time spending a night at the hospital since I was born, I guess, and I now know why women choose to have home births. Don't get me wrong though, Florida's hospital was beautiful and comfortable as far as hospitals go, but I wouldn't go if I had any other choice or if it wasn't an emergency.
Anyway, after that incident, we didn't have much spending money because were unfortunately uninsured and we had to pay all our hospital bills out of pocket. It took us almost a whole year to pay off all the hospital debt. However, the Lord watched over us and we have not had any more major accidents. The remaining time we spent in Florida was filled with memories of sunny days, Mury and Terry's visits, wonderful Sundays with a ward we loved, and a lot of fun spent at the Disney parks during the Flower and Garden Festival and Star Wars Weekends.
In late July we said good-bye to Florida and drove to Georgia, spending a week with Mury and Terry and then flying to Oregon and from there to Hawaii for a month-long vacation with the Gallardo Family, a truly memorable experience. August was full of swimming, relaxing, family craziness, traveling, exploring, boating, snorkeling, and all the things you could enjoy at the islands.
On one occasion I lost my wedding ring in the ocean. It just slipped off and was instantly buried in the sand! That was a frightening moment. I was so scared I would never find it again and Ray could see that I was really distraught. A man on the beach approached us and told us about men who you can pay to search for lost treasures with waterproof metal detectors. I desperately searched the internet for a credible guy and found and hired him to look for it the next morning. He found it in three hours and we paid him $200. That was such a relief! My wedding ring is extremely unique and I would have been devastated if I had lost it for good. I definitely learned my lesson about wearing my ring in cool water. Other than that, Hawaii was fantastic! My mom is so amazing and generous to have taken our whole family several times already (I think that was Ray's third time and my fourth).
After Hawaii we flew to Salt Lake where our car awaited us (thanks to Mury and Terry), and then we drove back up to Rexburg for a chilly fall at school. It being our final semester, we rented a small apartment close to campus and I took as many credits as I could afford with Ray going full time so he could graduate. James went to daycare two days a week while I was on campus and the rest of the time I spent with my freshly weaned little boy.
Oh yes! I forgot to mention that at this time I was pregnant with my second child. I can't remember exactly when I got pregnant, only it was before August. It must have been early-July. That was my main purpose for weaning James because I simply couldn't support my own body's health being pregnant, nursing, and going to school. James was so hard to nurse at this time that it was pretty easy to say good bye, but I am really looking forward to nursing a tiny baby again.
Classes were fun. I will miss being a student. I took this wonderful figure drawing class that I loved. Ray and I were able to figure out the rest of my schedule so that I could graduate online. It got colder and colder of course and eventually it was much too cold for me to want to take James out to the park and I felt so bad keeping him cooped up in the tiny apartment all day. For Halloween Ray was Peter Pan, I was Tiger Lily, and James was Toodles in an adorable skunk costume that everyone loved. James and I trick-or-treated a few doors and he had fun doing that.
Finally, Thanksgiving rolled around and we flew to Oregon to spend the holiday with my parents. We had a lot of fun with everyone and James had a lot of kids to play with and I got a perm. Thankfully nothing as eventful as crashing our car on the interstate or missing the birth of Ashlen happened this year.
Our last few weeks in Rexburg flew by and we drove out of that snowy state as soon as school got out. We met Terry in Denver and James and I flew to Georgia, while she and Ray drove the car. I stayed at the Georgia house with Robyn and Mury while we waited for James' daddy and grandma to get there. Christmas was a blast! Everyone got really sick of course, except me, but we still had bunches of fun. Ronnie and Phil and their two children, Ivy (5) and Dean (3), joined us in the joy of the holiday. I had great fun baking and decorating a ton of sugar cookies with Ivy. James had fun playing with the hundreds of toys there while avoiding Dean (he and Dean didn't get along so well). Christmas arrived and Ray got his long awaited smart phone from his parents and a pair of really nice earphones from mine. I got beautiful jewelry and an awesome culinary torch which we have used several times to make homemade creme brulee.
After Christmas, we departed once more for our beloved Florida and for Ray's second Professional Internship. We rented a bottom-floor, three-bedroom apartment in Clermont and did a lot of organizing and unpacking to finish up our year. Mury and Terry visited a number of times in January and once again we celebrated James and Mury's birthday and our anniversary together. We were back where we wanted to be and we love our new home. The weather has been unbelievable... and a bit unpredictable. It has gotten up to 90 degrees some days and it could go down to 50 during the night. Nevertheless, it is always beautiful and sunny or every once in a while it will get humid and stormy (which I find kind of exciting).
For Ray's birthday in Feburary the five of us (Mury, Terry, Ray, James, and I) went to Texas de Brazil for dinner. I got a seasonal pass to the parks so we have been going there lots to take James to play on their fantastic playgrounds. And every week I got bigger and bigger. March finally rolled around and even passed pretty quickly. Robyn came down for a visit with her best friend, Rachel. My birthday came and I made myself a chocolate fudge chocolate cake (that I am still working on) and Ray and I made Mole for my birthday dinner.
It is now the 28th of March and my pass is blocked off for Spring Vacation, but I'm pretty immobile anyway because my due date is three days. I feel a little bad for James because he is stuck inside all day when I can tell he really wants to get out and play in the sun. Thankfully, my mom arrives today with Tristan (10), Elian (7), Arwyn (4), and Ashlen (2) and James will be preoccupied playing with his uncles and aunts. They'll be here until April 13th along with Ray's parents arriving sometime after the birth of the baby too. Ray and I are so excited to meet our new baby! Life has been so good to us.
