The Latest

Here are some random thoughts running through my head right now as I'm waiting for Jared to come home from work. He's been at the hospital for 15 hours already today and he said he'll have to be there a couple more hours. Poor guy. But at least he'll be getting lots of overtime this week!

My 2 new favorite things:

1. Kickboxing! There is a great class here a couple nights a week. The workout consists of 30 minutes of cardio kickboxing, 10 minutes of hula dancing (the instructor grew up in the Philippines and can really do the hula! Great for the abs and legs), 10 minutes of yoga to work on balance and flexibility, plus 5 minutes each for warm up and cool down. Its a lot of fun!

2. A girl needs a new pair of shoes to wear to kickboxing right? Jared picked out these Nike Dual Fusions for me. I'm only telling you I got them because they are the most comfortable pair of kicks I've ever worn. I really needed a new pair but I have a hard time finding some that fit just right. I highly recommend them-they are super light and not that expensive! Thanks Jare!

Let's see what else has been going on? I guess I never posted about branding earlier this month. I didn't take any pictures. Bummer. Here's two I stole from Rachel's blog. It was Jared's first time branding since we've been married. That's because we've been in school the last 4 years and it was impossible to come home during this time of year because BYU doesn't have a Spring break. I think he had a good time. He was naturally good at giving the shots of course and he branded quite a few at the end.

I'm really liking my job as the emergency preparedness contractor at the health department. It is so nice to actually be working in my field. The best part is that I get to do a lot of the work from home. Lately I've been preparing for a community health expo that is coming up at the end of the month. Hopefully people show up.

Tuesday the 19th is our home study for the adoption process. We had to wait 6 weeks for this appointment because the lone Montana adoption caseworker for LDS Family Services is super busy. Needless to say I am very anxious and I hope everything goes ok. We have everything completed for the online profile, we are just waiting for it to be approved. I just have to remember to be patient. Ha.

Heaven on Cornbread

This is a super easy meal to make! The cornbread is so sweet it's like eating cake :) These recipes are from the chef extraordinaire, my sister Jackie.

Cornbread
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Cream together the following:
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup butter
Add:
2 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup milk
Mix well and pour into a greased 9x11 and bake for 30 minutes.

The "Heaven":
In a crockpot place:
2-3 chicken breasts
1 can corn or frozen corn
1 can of black beans (be sure to rinse beans before to reduce the sodium content of the meal)
About 8 oz of salsa
Cook on low for 3-5 hours. If its looking a little dry add some water, and if you want it spicier, a dash of cayenne pepper does the trick. Shred chicken before serving. To eat, dump the "heaven" on top of a piece of cornbread. That's it!

My Silhouette

So this is my new toy. The Silhouette cutting machine. It's like a Cricut but even better because you don't have to buy cartridges. You can just use any font from your computer and it comes with a design software so you can customize any design. It can cut a wide variety of paper, fabric interfacing, vinyl, draw designs with pens, and do glass etching with vinyl. I  just have too much fun with it! Lately I've been using it for scrap booking but here are two vinyl projects I've done:

Our Decision to Adopt

First of all let me thank you all for your input on our pictures. I have put most of them in our photo album on our profile. Our profile is all complete except for the introductory letter to the birth parents. I am really struggling trying to decide what to write. I think we will keep it short and sincere, since they probably view hundreds of profiles at a time. I am hoping everything will be completely approved and ready to go by May. The whole process takes awhile but we can be patient. What's a few more months when we've already waited over three years for a baby, right? :)

So here's the story...its a very personal, spiritual experience for me so I will just put the gist of it down here. And its probably best that I am typing this because if I try to talk about it I just cry because of the overwhelming confirmation of the Spirit that its the right thing to do. We know that there is a special little spirit that is meant to be in our family. We had been thinking about adoption for several months, especially after some very heartbreaking, unsuccessful infertility procedures. And finally on Valentine's Day of this year we both felt very strongly to call LDS Family Services. We called that minute and set up an appointment to meet with a counselor. I was very nervous about the whole thing but after talking for one minute with our counselor I was overwhelmed once again and the flood gates opened! I am such a cry baby when I feel the Spirit! We both knew it was right for us so we immediately completed the first stack of application papers. Pretty much all we have left is the home study where a counselor comes and checks out our home and interviews us individually. That will happen in April. So after we are "approved" the process will go something like this (from my understanding):

• Birth parents will be able to view our profile online. If they are interested they will contact LDS Family Services and might request to meet with us.
• Once we are "picked" (which could take a couple of months to a couple of years) we will discuss with the birth mom what kind of communication she would like to have with us and the baby, which can be flexible and change over time
• Then when the baby is born the birth mom usually likes to have the adoptive parents there at the hospital to be able to immediately hold the baby. How cool is that??
• The birth parents will then sign the release forms (usually about 48 hrs after the birth) and we get to take the baby home with us and it will be ours! 
• Then six months later the adoption will be finalized in court (if we have been found worthy parents through multiple home visits). 
• After that the most important reason for adopting will occur: our baby will be sealed to us for eternity in the temple! Yay!

So I probably over-simplified the whole thing because I know it is going to be a difficult process for all parties involved. But, I'm a little bit in the euphoric stage of things at the possibility of being a mom. I have complete faith that Heavenly Father is in control and He loves us and guides us and has a plan for us. I know that Jared and I will be parents someday. We have always known this, even through the ups and downs of infertility.

Adoption is a miracle. We are so very excited to have this opportunity. We have complete respect and admiration for the mothers who lovingly decide to place their babies for adoption. Such a courageous and selfless act to give their baby to a family to be sealed together forever.

Be sure to check out the article and poem in this month's ensign on faith and infertility and adoption. I really enjoyed it. Also here is the link to LDS Family Services: www.itsaboutlove.org

Family Pictures-I need feedback!

Ok. I need your opinion. We had a friend take some pictures of us this last weekend. I need to know which picture you like best of us. And what are these pictures for?? A lot of you already know this but in case you haven't heard...Jared and I are hoping to adopt! We are so excited! We've been working on the application and legal stuff for a little over a month now. We are getting really close to having everything completed. Right now we are working on our online profile for birth parents to look at. So I'm trying to decide which picture should be our main photo. I'm a little bit anxious about this picture because it will be the first thing they see about us. Let me know what you think-I'd really appreciate it!

I will post more later about our decision to adopt and how everything is going.

These are the six we like the best:

I think this one is my favorite.

Show Up at Showdown

 We enjoyed a perfect day on the slopes yesterday with Jorden and Ariel. As you can see Jared was very excited. We had a blast and I love living a half hour from Showdown!

 Nobody told me I was supposed to do the thumbs up pose.

 Ariel being her silly self

 I was the lone skier.

 The drive up there was so beautiful. It had snowed the day before so the trees were all lightly dusted with snow. I was surprised there was still so much snow up there. All the snow is melted in White Sulphur.

 Ariel demonstrated her dancing skills for me. Its no wonder I beat you every time we play Wii Dance Ariel! LOL Just kidding! Be sure to watch her moves in the video!

Thanks for visiting Ariel and Jorden! Come back soon!

Baby Dylan

We now have 17 nieces and nephews! Baby Dylan Rock was born March 4th, weighing 8 lbs. 15 oz. ---Darcy's smallest yet :) --- Congrats mommy and daddy!