Introducing. . .

Dashall Dean Harden

Born: April 2, 2011

Adopted: May 30, 2011

Here is the newest member of our family. DASH
We spent most of our day today driving to Green River WY to pick him up. I KNOW!!!
He is (much to my dismay) a puppy of only 8 weeks old.
We have been talking about getting a second dog for quite sometime but it's always been the same conversation.
Brandon: "I want a puppy."
Michelle: "We're not getting a puppy."
This has been the conversation for about 2 years now, and finally last night I was . . . swayed (if you want to call it that).
We talked about getting a second dog before Tiara gets too old (she just tuned 10), in hopes that she'd be able to teach the new dog how a "Harden Canine" is supposed to act!
Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us, and it's going to be a little tricky for a while with work schedules and everything, but we are excited for our new little adventure, and as you can see . . . he is just so stinkin' cute.
Natalie actually suggested the name Dash, and we all thought it was really cute. I'm so glad it was pretty easy to decide, or else we'd still be going over the many names that Sam was suggesting-which included Hot Shot, Buzz, Woody and anything he could see out of the car window, like Mountain.
The breeders had called him Dean because they said he would stare at a James Dean picture that hung on their wall (of course you all know I LOVED that).
The name Dashall came out by accident. That's what I've been calling him when he's getting into mischief, which as you can probably imagine, has been most of the day!

I'm nervous and shaking my head at myself, but also glad that we finally did it! I think Dash is going to make a great addition to our family and in time I'll be glad that I was . . . swayed into getting him.

Mother's Day Eve

I didn't get to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom this year, since she is in Europe. But I did get to celebrate it with some of the funniest moms I know.

Natalie, Mandy, Sydney, Michelle, Lonny, Linda, Kathy

Every year, the Poplar Grove Ward that I grew up in, puts on a Mothers and Daughters Banquet. It has been going on for more than 50 years, and is always a fun-filled evening of catching up, "oh-my-goodnessing" and giggling.
This year my kidred spirit and bosom friend Mandy drove down from Logan with her daughter Sydney and picked Natalie and I up for the banquet. Mandy and I had fun laughing and reminiscing while Sydney and Natalie hit it off like they've known each other forever! At the banquet we sat with Mandy's Mom Linda and sisters Kathy and Lonny and had WAY to much fun! I've known these ladies my whole life, and they are like my second family. I'm glad I got to spend Mother's Day Eve with them.

Better late than never, right?

Here are some pictures from our Easter. We had a pretty fun day. Church, Oma and Papa's, Grammy's, then Grandma & Grandpa Hardens. Lots of fun but WAY too much candy!

Update!

Okay, so when I said Sam is fine (below), I meant, it's not Kawasaki's fine. The doctor thought his sickness may have been pneumonia, but it turns out, that its strep. Yikes! Everyone whom we were around last week, I'm very sorry!

Just what the DR. ordered!

This week has been a little nutty . . . to say the least.

Sam had a fever for 3 days and as most of you know, fevers at our house are NOT GOOD. They turn me into a crazed, anxious person. But I have some incredible neighbors who know EXACTLY what I need.

On Wednesday my neighbor and friend Nikki brought me a 32 oz Dr. Pepper from the Farmington Top Stop (woot, woot) and this morning my next door neighbor Ashli dropped off the cutest thing.

A 2 liter prescription of Dr. Pepper-how cute is that!

I really don't need my friends to feed my bad habits, but nonetheless it was nice to know that my bi-polarity hasn't scared people away! I really have awesome friends who will listen to my worries and complaints and never say, what they are probably thinking, which is that I'm overreacting. I know I was overreacting this week. Sam is fine, whatever the sickness was just needed to run it's course.

Ever since Sam got Kawasaki's, I've had to deal with the re-occuring emotions that spring up every time he is sick. Some times it's really hard, like this week. Other times it's not so bad. Maybe it's Heavenly Father's way of saying, "Hey, it's been a while since I've REALLY heard from you." I don't know, but certainly it makes me stronger by the end . . . and perhaps a little hyper too!

I'm dying here! Oh wait no. . .my camera is!

Once again, another camera is dead! I suspect a heart attack. I don't know for sure what happened, but one day about 3 weeks ago I was up in the light and sound booth doing some stuff for "Millie" and I heard the camera make a beep that I've never heard before. After that it didn't work. Sheesh, I seem to have bad luck with cameras. First my SLR and now my little point and shoot. I'm a camera serial killer.

So since I haven't been able to take a single picture for 3 weeks (Ahhhh) I thought I'd post a picture that I took about a month ago.

I bought a bag of gum balls for a project, but I didn't need all of them so I decided to put them into apothecary jars. Don't you think it's adorable? I love all the fun colors, and the best part is . . . it was so easy.

We've had them out for a month and my kids have finally stopped asking for gum balls.

Things happen for a reason...

Doesn't that phrase just bug you sometimes? GRRRR!

*Pretty flower to make you happy*

So. . . in January we found out we were pregnant. It was so exciting for us since we haven't prevented getting preggo since Sam was 9 months old. Well anyway, on Thursday January 28th I started bleeding but that night we were getting on a plane for Florida so there was little I could do about it.

Now, I tend to be a little on the pessimistic side (that is my defense mechanism), so I wasn't very hopeful, until I talked with Kristie-who came with us on the trip. She said she bled with all of her pregnancies and everything was fine. I was a little more hopeful after that, but still worried. Anyway, I made the most of our vacation and when we got back I went in to the doctors office for an ultrasound.

There was nothing in there! Not even a sign that a little spirit had even tried to make it's way into this world. It was hard and frustrating, and I 'll be honest. . .I cursed myself for getting my hopes up--even a little.

That being said-There had been a lot of questions going on between Brandon and I. The main one being "Should I get another Laparoscopic Surgery to see if I have endometriosis?" We have gone back and forth on this for quite some time because Intermountain Medical Center is not in our preferred network of hospitals for our insurance. BLAH!

Well, getting pregnant has kind of ruled out endometriosis, and the Doctor said "Insurance issues or not, getting preggo is a great sign and I don't think you need the surgery." Whew! He also said that nothing I did caused the miscarriage, it was what they call a Blighted Ovum-(a fertilized egg that attaches itself to the uterine wall, but the embryo does not develop).

Anyway, you might be wondering why am I telling you all of this. Because as much as we hate that phrase "Things happen for a reason" they really do. At this exact moment I haven't figured out what those reasons are (besides knowing I don't need the surgery), but I know in time it'll come, and I'll know why we had to go through this (just like the last two).

I LOVE hearing when women are pregnant because I have come to realize what a miracle it really is. I have two amazing kids who are the lights of my life, and if they are the only two I ever have then I consider myself lucky! So many women out there have to go through worse heartache than what I just did, and my thoughts turn to them when I'm throwing myself a pity party!

To all you Mamas out there who I stalk or vis/versa, I hope you know that I love sharing with you, reading about the adventures you're having, and yes . . . even the heartache you are going through. It's nice to have friends to talk too, or in this case write to. Thanks for letting me get out my crazy rantings and ravings and for just being around to listen, or read.