Wicked was OH SO WICKED

We went to Broomfield CO, in October 2009 to surprise Boyd, my father-in-law, for his birthday.... And since Wicked was playing in downtown Denver, Zane and I got tickets for the show. Oh my goodness, how I loved it! I even wore my green high-heels for the occasion. The pictures are in my in-laws camera, so maybe someday I will post those. If you still haven't seen the show, please GO!

...more weddings.

You can tell that we went to BYU, live in Utah, and are LDS, just by the amount of weddings we seem to attend every year. In the summer/fall of 2009, three of Zane's good friends (and mine by adoption) got hitched! Billy got married to the fantastic Jana, Luke got hitched to the great Kat , and Johnny B. married cute Christine. They all had lovely sealings/receptions, and we were so grateful to be a part of their special days. We were so happy to see them happily married! Here are some pictures!

Ectopic pregnancy - Summer/Fall 2009

Here is the story of our 1st pregnancy:

Oh how happy we were when we found out that we were pregnant!! We were so thrilled that we immediately called our parents and siblings. These were exciting times! I had never been so happy to pee on a stick! (...had I ever peed on a stick before?). However, a few days later I started bleeding - not a good sign. We made a Dr. appointment and to my sadness, she thought that I was having a miscarriage, but asked me to call her if I started feeling any pain (which I hadn't). That same night, I got a little bit of pain and went to bed at 9pm after taking an extra strength Tylenol. At 2am I woke up with unbearable pain on my left side. We called the Dr. and she sent us to the ER. LONG STORY SHORT. No one knew for a fact what was going on (because I was "pregnant" all they could do was an ultrasound and blood/urine tests. They thought I had a miscarriage and a cyst on my left tube, but at this point, they think an ectopic pregnancy is a possibility. Ectopic means "out of place" which in this case, it is a pregnancy that develops outside of the womb - uterus - in other words, it is a pregnancy that is non viable, the fetus will eventually die, and so will the mother if left untreated. Fast forward to a couple of weeks later. I am back at the ER with horrible pain for an entire night with mild pain medications, more ultrasounds, and more exams. They sent me to an OBG-YN. He checked my HCG levels every other day to see if they were doubling - which is a sign of a healthy and normal pregnancy, and they were not. In fact, after a few days they were decreasing. In the meantime, my pains come and go, and I am bracing for the worst. Although the Dr. thought it was a miscarriage, he could not rule out an ectopic pregnancy, so he had me get a shot of Methatrexate. This is a drug that is is used in cancer patients that kills all growing cells in your body. I have to admit I felt horrible doing this. Although I knew an ectopic pregnancy was NOT a viable pregnancy and I could die if I didn't do anything, I felt so sad about the whole ordeal. Zane was such a HUGE support for me. He is an amazing husband.
We got the shot and I headed home. I was told I could have pain within the next days. Two days later I was at work (Thursday before October Conference), when all of a sudden I got an unbearable pain on my side. I could not walk or even stand. I called Zane and asked him to come get me. I threw up on some flower beds after coming down the elevator (I know, gross!). Then I threw up again. LONG STORY SHORT. I had yet another ultrasound. Another Dr. came to see it and decided that I had a large ectopic pregnancy and that he had to perform emergency surgery. I had NEVER had ANY surgery before. I was freaking out! I had no clue if I was allergic to any anesthetic or if the surgery would be a success. The Dr. told me that he would try to save my left fallopian tube, but that the ectopic pregnancy looked so large that he doubted he could do so. He said the pain I was feeling was from the "blood and debris" falling off into my abdomen. Oh boy that was painful, let me tell you! As I am signing away my life and as I am being told what would happen during surgery, I turned to Zane and told him: "Zane, you can remarry!" Hahaha I honestly had NO CLUE whether it was "my time" or not! He just looked at me, and said: You will be just fine, I promise. I have to say that his words gave me a great deal of confidence. 2 hours later I was coming out of surgery, when I woke up I felt like I hadn't slept in 1,000 years! And I felt funny, in fact I was told I said some very funny things, and I couldn't stop laughing. What I can remember is asking the doctor: do I still have 2 tubes or did you have to take one?? And he said: I'm sorry, the ectopic pregnancy was so large and the tube was so damaged that I had to remove it, but you still have 1 tube!

Recovery went fine. Zane was by my side all the time and he was an immense emotional, spiritual, and physical support (oh boy how my man can handle puke and other gross stuff....). I love him and I am eternally grateful for him. I was also grateful for the assertive Dr. that we got the last time at the ER, and for all the medical care I received. That weekend was an amazing spiritual Conference weekend. A friend's mom spoke in General Conference and I almost felt like she was talking to me! I was so blessed with so many phone calls, cards, emails, meals, and visits from family and friends. Although Sunday night after the October Conference I had a little breakdown (thinking will this happen again, and stuff like that..), I felt so close to God, and knew that He would help me get through it.

We were told that we could start trying to conceive again in 6 weeks....so guess what happened 6 weeks later...

We will tell you in the next post! :)

Hanzon (and Fails) girls night out

My wonderful mother-in-law invited us Hanzon (and Fails) girls to a girls night out. She took us to the delicious steak house Madeline for dinner, and then to see the play Hello Dolly at the Hale Theatre. She even made a purse/bag for each one of us that she brought from Colorado! I love my mother-in-law!

24 of July weekend

We spent the 24th of July with my aunts family in Mapleton. Zane ran the Aloha Run 5K that my uncle and aunt put together as a fundraiser for BYU-Hawaii international students. After that, I sang and played the piano as part of the show. It was a blast! We had to light up some fireworks, so we did at Christoph and Laly's place.

During that weekend we also went to Mona Lake where Christoph taught Zane how to windsurf. Zane picked it up pretty quickly, but said that it was no easy task!

On a side note, that was the weekend we found out that we were pregnant, but it turned out to be an ectopic - tubal - pregnancy.

Jackson Hole!

What a great time we had in Jackson Hole over the 4th of July weekend in 2009. Zane's parents invited all the kids to go camping to the place where they met...many years ago. I fell in love with it the moment we arrived. Jackson is AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL!!!

We kayaked, canoed, hiked, shopped, watch the 4th of July fireworks and watched a show, ate a ton, took lots of pictures, and just had a blast! Zane, Luke, and Reagan almost DIED swimming on a freezing lake to get to a little island. They did awesome though...but I was very glad when they made it back!

We would LOVE to go back again!