back home

well after getting behind on all my bills unbeknownst to me cause my wife does all the bills i decided it wasn't going to work being in sacramento. business was to slow to be profitable for me. as i was driving home from sac i called on a job that i had been aiming for and let him know that i was going to be back in susytown. that was friday he told me to come in next week and talk to him. i went in tuesday mon. was holiday and talked he didn't want to offer me the position that was open cause he felt he would be insulting me and i wouldn't be able to pay my bills. just wanting to get my foot in the door at a dealership i was anxious to know what the position was and accepted a porter job doing everything training as a service advisor at the dealership. i started the next day when i went in and filled out all the paperwork my timing was perfect.

It's summer time!!!

Though I don't have anything mind-boggling or life-altering to share with you, I figured an update was well overdue. Things are great here. Spring semester ended last week, and I'm enjoying all this newfound freedom. I never realized how much time I spent sitting at home doing homework...or even going out with friends, but feeling guilty that I wasn't at home studying. This past week has been great. I've gone to all the church activities and even stayed afterward to play volleyball or go out for a fruit slush at Sonic. Every time I would start to feel guilty, I remembered, "Oh yeah! I don't have any homework!" It feels great!

The countdown for Spain is definitely in full swing. I simply can't wait for July! I got Martha and Iker's wedding announcement in the mail earlier this week, and it was beautiful. I'm so excited to see them again and be with them as they go through the temple for the first time. I feel so blessed that I get to go. :)

Speaking of weddings, my best friend Amy is getting married on Saturday. Tonight she's having a family BBQ so her family can meet Tim's family for the first time. I'm one of two non-family members that has been invited. I feel so special! :) Tomorrow we are decorating for the reception and hopefully taking Amy out for a night on the town...Mormon style. We're still not sure what to do. We'll probably just go play around downtown and take pictures. We won't stay out late -- who wants to have bags under their eyes on their wedding day? Plus, I'm getting to the stage that I don't enjoy staying out late anymore. I guess it's a sign I'm getting old. Sigh! Amy asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and I just barely found my outfit. She chose out of season colors (plum and silver), and I had the most difficult time finding a top. I bought two things online but had to send them back (didn't look at all the same) and finally had to resort to Goodwill since they separate all their clothes by color. So...tacky as it may seem, I will be wearing a used, Goodwill shirt to Amy and Tim's wedding (Carly and Kyle had to do the same thing -- funny, right?). Good times!

Below are some recent pictures.

This is Carly and me at a party

Here I am with Kyle. We went camping and got rained out while cooking our foil dinners. We decided to wait it out in the truck. What's camping without a good thunderstorm? :)

The morning after. Kyle and Amy didn't have such a great time (all of our bedding got soaked), but I had Great-Grandma Barton's wool quilt to keep me warm. I slept great!

Happy Mother's Day!

Ahhh! The joys of early motherhood... Can't wait to go through that again...




Looking into the eyes of my newborn baby girl squeezes the most tender part of a mother's heart...



Not only is a mother there for the good times, but also in time of trials, sorrow, and suffering to console and love the miracle they aided into this world...



I change the diapers.... wet and stinky ones too... ewww!!!



Feed her till she is nice and stuffed to her content...



But all this I enjoy and take great pride in. This is the vocation I chose and agreed to and I would never change that in all the world.

quick

Quick post to contribute something. Kyana signed me up for myspace and there is a picture there of me diving with sharks. It was thrilling. Now I am hoping to book a trip at some point cage diving with great whites which is 1 of maybe 3 sharks i would not get in the water with outside a cage. Work is going very well. I am constantly humbled by the respect people pay me. They keep inviting me into roundtables for corporate intiatives and my input seems most valuable. I am now hoping they send me to a USC program next year to continue my education. I'll get a regular paycheck to go to school with executives from other fortune 50 companies. Our division president is a graduate of the program.
On the family front all is well. It looks like Reannon will be a store manager within a year. Matt plays soccer and usually scores all the goals. Kyana just went to prom as i saw noted already. Sierra is dating her longterm boyfriend scott once more.

Lots going on - as usual...

i'm just being silly, again...
Sleeping Beauty...
what's happenin', mama...
more, daddy, more...
man, i'm stuffed...



Wow! It is too long since we added our updates... Goodness, what was the last one? Well, whatever it was it probably didn't mention any of Dana's surgeries.
We found out that Dana was born with Hydrocephylus (water on the brain) and that she was in need of a permanent shunt. On March 13th, 2008, we drove her up to Children's Hospital in Seattle where the operation was conducted. The next day she was discharged home. We thought all was well, however, we were worried about the swelling. Turns out the swelling was the first sign that an infection was soon to rage throughout that entire shunt and cause a shunt obstruction. Two weeks later, on March 29th, 2008, Dana had an Emergency Surgery during which the internal shunt was taken out and an external shunt temporarly was installed to replace it. After 5 days of high fevers and raging infection, Dana finally returned to her normal temp and the infection was finally almost over. During her stay, we all enjoyed Mom and Dave's visit to our neck of the woods. I must say it was a nice break from the constant worries and drama that we had been dealing with. I believe Dave was exceptionally happy to meet his grand-daughter - finally! Finally, after approximately a 2-week stay at Children's Hospital in Seattle, Dana had her final Surgery on April 10th, during which the internal permanent shunt was re-installed. You can see an amazing change in her now. Her eyes shine with a new brightness and her development has caught up to where it should be.
Back to Mom and Dave's visit... They started off their stay with a Tour of Underground Seattle. That was indeed amazing and thriling. Saturday, instead of watching General Conference, we decided to go up to Mt. Vernon and see the Tulip Festival. I don't know where the Global Warming is happening but I can tell you, not around here, because the tulips were late this year. However, it was still amazing for the imagination to comprehend what the fields would look like when all the tulips were in bloom at once. Wow! That's quite the mental painting!!! Sunday, Mom and Dave went to spend some time with Derek and his kids, so I can't tell you much about that day. But I can tell you alot about Monday and what we had to eat. Did you know how good a cook Dave is? He makes the most amazing steak!!! I had more than my fair share of it. Oh and Mom, we still have a piece of that 7-lb chocolate cake. LOL I don't think we are going to eat it now! LOL Oh and Josh ate all the cake that there was when you left except that one piece. LOL!
Now for those of you who may have heard. Back when Jason, Mary, and the kids were here visiting, we found out that we were expecting again and we were really happy and kinda nervous. We spent some time worrying quite a bit, wondering if this one too would end in miscarriage like the one right before it. However, I passed my miscarriage danger zone and we started getting excited and scheduled a doctor's appointment. At the appointment I asked to have an ultrasound done to see exactly how far along I was and figure out an exact due date. So I was so excited thinking I was going to see one, possibly maybe two babies in there. Much to my shock and dismay, we could not find a baby at all. Everything else looked normal and fine excepting no baby. The doctor wished to do a D&C the next day. Fortunately, the next day was completely booked and we scheduled for a couple days later. Then I started wondering and asked the doctor to wait and do another ultrasound and know for sure before we jumped to conclusions. Two weeks went by, by this time I would be about 10 weeks. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, I went in for the ultrasound. Once again, my heart sank as we still couldn't find the baby. We decided that this time we would pull through with the D&C so as to minimize the risk of infection. Friday, May 2, 2008, the D&C was done and now we look forward to hearing from pathology on why this (miscarriages) keeps happening and what we could possibly do to prevent it / lower the risk of it happening again. For one we will wait at least til August to try again to give my body and emotions time to heal. If something happens between now and then, it's only because the Lord would have separate plans! Keep us in your prayers. Joshua is having a really tough time with this one.
Dana is doing well. She definitely has rubberband wrists now. She is just over 16 lb. and generally speaking she will sleep 11 hours through the night. Yay!!! Well, I gotta go feed the munchkin.... So I will catch up again hopefully soon....