Conference Weekend

What, am I late?

Yeah, I know I have been a major blogging slacker...but I'm pregnant so back off. (Hey, I can only use that excuse for 9 months so I gotta get it in as much as possible.)

We really enjoyed being able to spend conference with my parents this weekend. The no guilt cinnamon rolls were particularly good, even though I questioned my mom's abilities the entire time. I just didn't think it would be possible that the rolls could be good without the required amount of saturated fat and sugar! But boy was I wrong!

Here are some snippets from my favorite talks.

Elder Boyd K. Packer:
There is the natural tendency to look at those who are sustained to presiding positions, to consider them to be higher and of more value in the Church or to their families than an ordinary member. Somehow we feel they are worth more to the Lord than are we. It just does not work that way!

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin:

Brethren and sisters, as you prayerfully consider what you can do to increase harmony, spirituality, and build up the kingdom of God, consider your sacred duty to teach others to love the Lord and their fellowman. This is the central object of our existence. Without charity—or the pure love of Christ—whatever else we accomplish matters little. With it, all else becomes vibrant and alive.

When we inspire and teach others to fill their hearts with love, obedience flows from the inside out in voluntary acts of self-sacrifice and service. (For those of you who saw him give this talk, you know that watching him give this talk was just as important as listening to his words)

Elder Dallin H. Oaks:
Some uses of individual and family time are better, and others are best. We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families.
The First Presidency has called on parents "to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles. . . . The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place . . . in . . . this God-given responsibility." The First Presidency has declared that "however worthy and appropriate other demands or activities may be, they must not be permitted to displace the divinely-appointed duties that only parents and families can adequately perform.

Florida Bar Induction Ceremony

Tonight Tanner's firm held the induction ceremony for the admission to the Florida Bar. Tanner and the rest of the new associates had to stand and repeat the words of the Oath of Attorney as given by The Honorable Judge George Sprinkel IV. I thought the Oath was interesting and thought you all might want to read it so that you know what standard you can expect to hold Tanner to:

Oath of Attorney

I do solemnly swear:

I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Florida.

I will maintain the respect due to the Courts of Justice and Judicial Officers.

I will not counsel or maintain any suit or proceedings which shall appear to me to be unjust, nor any defense except such as I believe to be honestly debatable under the law of the land.

I will employ for the purpose of maintaining the causes confided to me such means only as are consistent with truth and honor, and will never seek to mislead the Judge or Jury by any artifice or false statement of fact or law.

I will maintain the confidence and preserve inviolate the secrets of my clients, and will accept no compensation in connection with their business except from them or with their knowledge and approval.

I will abstain from all offensive personality and advance no fact prejudicial to the honor or reputation of a party or witness, unless required by the justice of the cause with which I am charged.

I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed, or delay anyone's cause for lucre or malice. So help me God.

I especially liked the part about abstaining from all offensive personality :-) Tanner is now officially an attorney! My parents were also able to attend and we celebrated afterward by going out to dinner. We had a great time if you don't count the fact that I wore my nametag halfway through dinner, and then Tanner spilled two glasses of water at the same time and ALMOST doused my mom, although he did get her purse pretty good.

Who's Busy??

I must admit that the last 2 months of my life have been pretty relaxed. I didn't know the meaning of the word busy, and I lived it up as much as possible. I am still getting over the non- busy hangover because I have trouble looking alive before 9am in the morning. However, 'someone' thought it was time for me to stop being lazy and get off my duff and actually do something productive. So, I got called to be a counselor in the Relief Society in our ward at church. The same ward that we moved into less than two months ago, and yes, the same ward that after 3 weeks, I think I could remember maybe 3 names of other women. Thankfully, the other women in the presidency have been in the ward for a long time, and they have been really great in helping me get to know people and the area better. Of course, when it rains, it pours, and Clark, after never needing a sick child visit to the doctor has now had two in 3 weeks and has been on Amoxicillan for almost 20 days straight. This is how last week went:

Sunday: Welfare meeting at church 7:45 in the AM...no one should have to get up that early on a Sunday, even though my dad has been doing it for half his life.
Monday: Dr. Appointment where we found out we were having a boy...and then off to a Visiting Teaching appointment and then massive grocery shopping.
Tuesday: Went to the pool with friends from church, made dinner for the missionaries, got ready for missionary correlation meeting, but it ended up being canceled. I ended up making 3 dinners that night, which I won't explain further except that I am lame when it comes to making meals.
Wednesday: It was actually kind of a slow day...so I at least was able to pick up my mess of a house and treat Clark like my actual son instead of a piece of luggage to be carted around.
Thursday: Relief Society Presidency meeting 10am-1pm. Yeah, it was long but there was lots to discuss...Clark begins constant whine. Clark doesn't take a nap which is unheard of for him...and continues the constant whine, even through Elmo, which means there is definitely something wrong. I finally decide something is wrong about 5 minutes after my doctor's office closes and instead I get to go to Urgent Care, where Clark proceeds to run around happily like nothing is wrong. But something is wrong, and after 2 hours, we walk out with a diagnosis of a severe ear infection and a prescription for antibiotics. My mommy comes to stay with us that night so she doesn't have to wake up as early to go pick up my dad from the airport.
Friday: I go with my mom to pick up my dad, and we have a blast at the mall and going to lunch together...definitely a highlight of my week. I had to hurry back to babysit for a friend in the ward for a couple of hours.
Saturday: Prepare a talk for church on Sunday. Make dinner for my other visiting teachee who had a baby this week. Go straight from her house to the church where we set up for social hour before the Relief Society broadcast.
Sunday: Give our talks in sacrament meeting. Thankfully, my parents were there to help with Clark.

It was a busy week and like I said before, definitely the kind that I am not used to, but better start getting used to. I know that there are many of you reading this blog who are probably thinking that this kind of schedule is your life all of the time or worse. Maybe you have more kids to deal with and/or more stuff going on that you have to juggle, and I say kudos to you, because it is not easy! But I have to say that I felt very fulfilled by the end of the week and felt like I had done a lot of good while taking appropriate time for myself and for fun. President Monson said during the Relief Society broadcast that we should "not pray for tasks to equal our abilities, but pray for abilities to equal our tasks." And then he said something about how if we do that, we would be miracles in people's lives. Being lazy isn't all it's cracked up to be...although it IS nice once in while.

It's A.....

I have to preface this by thanking everyone for voting in the poll, and particularly Melanie who found a way to vote 6 times and completely ruin the integrity of it. But I still love you Mel! If you minus her 5 five votes, it ended up being 15 (71%) Girl to 6 (29%) Boy (unless someone else also voted multiple times). Those results still heavily favored us having a girl. For the few of you who voted for a boy you were...

RIGHT!

IT'S A BOY!!

We were pretty shocked ourselves, as we also thought we were having a girl. It was pretty funny because the last picture here was the first thing that came up the second she put the ultrasound on my belly. She had just asked if we wanted to know, and then we saw this, and she said "Well, can you see?" And I said "That looks like a boy!" And she said "Yep! It sure is!" Despite the shock, we are so excited! I did have to apologize to him though for accidentally calling him a girl a few times. We told Clark he is going to have a brother, and he is trying out the word to see if he likes it, and I think he will!

5 Year Anniversary!

Today Tanner and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! For some reason, probably due to lack of funds, we have never really been big celebrators in previous years, but we made up for it this year! My gift for him was labor intensive and of course I only came up with the idea 5 days before our anniversary. Since Tanner now has an office, I decided to go through all of our pictures since we have been married and pick ones out that I could have enlarge and then framed for his office. The ones I chose were mostly landscapes and cityscapes. They included our hiking trip in the "Subway" at Zion's National Park, the Grand Canyon, and a group of pictures from Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, and New York with a U.S. History theme. Because some of the pictures were taken back when we only had a 35mm camera, it was a little tricky. But I actually had all of my negatives, which I was shocked about because I am not Miss Organization. The photo place I went to was great, and they did a wonderful job fixing the quality of those photos. I also enlarged an amazing picture Tanner had taken of a lighthouse in the Outer Banks and paired it with black and white photos of us on the beach and the footprints photo that is the header of my blog. I was really happy with how everything turned out and even more importantly, Tanner loved them all!
Tanner told me earlier in the week that he had made dinner reservations for us at Flemings and that he had bought tickets for us to go see Annie! It just so happened that the Broadway National Tour was in town! I was so excited and assumed that was my anniversary gift.
I went and met him at his office and brought his pictures with me, and just before we left he handed me a bag and said "Happy Anniversary". I was really shocked, but happy! Inside was a beautiful ring that has rubies (my birthstone) in it. I love it! The presents were great, the food was great, the show was great, and the last five years have been the best!

P.S. Thank you to my parents for watching Clark!

Bar Exam Results

So, Tanner studied really really hard, but sometimes studying doesn't payoff quite like you think it will. But ultimately, isn't the most important thing that you tried your hardest even if it means you may be unsuccessful? I remember a couple of weeks ago when Tanner was saying that at first he was worried about the embarrassment he would feel if he didn't pass, but after going through all of the studying and stress, that he couldn't care less about the embarrassment anymore, he just did not want to have to study for that stupid test again. So I guess it's good that he isn't worried about being embarrassed, but I think it is really really good that he doesn't have to study for that stupid test again because he passed the bar!

Weekend Away

Tanner emailed me at work on Wednesday and asked if I was interested in spending the weekend at the Firm's condo at New Smyrna. Yeah, I had to think about that for about .2 seconds. The firm has a schedule in which they allow the attorney's to sign up to spend time at the condo throughout the year. The person who had it scheduled for this week wasn't able to go in the end. One of my most favorite people at the firm is Carmen who is the recruiting coordinator. We've been buddies ever since we started the whole process of coming to the firm almost two years ago, and I think she may have had something to do with her assistant calling Tanner and asking if we were interested. I can't be sure, but she gets the credit in my book. We headed up there on Friday night and spent all day Saturday on the beach. The picture was taken just after sunrise from the balcony on Saturday morning. It was absolutely beautiful. We have decided that anyone who comes to visit should go to New Smyrna beach before going to Cocoa Beach. The best part of the day was when we took Clark out in the ocean on a boogie board and went up and down over the waves with him. He LOVED it! Every time he would see a new wave coming toward us, he would shout "GO!!!! WAVE!!!" He just loved sitting upright and going over wave after wave. Tanner got some of his own boogie boarding in and had the chest rash to prove it. I just enjoyed soaking up the sun and having fun with my boys. What a relaxing weekend...one to remember for sure.

It's Official: I'm Pregnant!

And I am already 4 months! For those of you who missed the subtle and not so subtle references from my family in both my mom's blog and also the comments in my Fort Lauderdale Beach blog, I am pregnant! I didn't plan on waiting this long to see a doctor, but due to moving and lots of other annoyances, this was the first time I could get in. I heard the heartbeat for the first time today and the doctor said that everything looks A-OK. Stay tuned, my ultrasound is scheduled for September 24th! Check out the new poll that will run for the next 10 days until we find out the gender.

Also, because I know you all have nothing better to do, you can go back and re-read all my blogs from May 17th on knowing now that I was pregnant at the time AND if you really want to feel sorry for me, I was throwing up on a daily basis from the end of June on.

I am starting to feel a lot better now and the energy is finally coming back. It has been wonderful having my husband home during this last month to help me with taking care of Clark and moving in while I mostly laid around. We are excited for another little one to join our family soon! Whenever we ask Clark if it is going to be a boy or a girl, he says girl. Then, we ask him if it is going to be a girl or a boy, and he still says girl. But, I think it might be just because he likes saying the word girl more than boy. But, we'll see. Tonight he started snickering during the prayer when we asked Heavenly Father to bless the baby. He said "baby" and then kept laughing. I can hardly wait to see how he reacts when he sees the "baby" in real life!

Tazmanian Devil

So, I had to take Clark to the doctor this week. He has seemed constipated for about two weeks, but after talking through everything with the doctor, he examined Clark and determined he wasn't constipated but actually has a Strep skin infection on his little bum (I just thought it was diaper rash). I felt really stupid, and definitely felt the need to redeem myself. I always feel the need to prove to the Pediatrician that my child is great and therefore I am great. I kept starting to tell the doctor that this is the first time I have ever brought Clark in for a sick child visit which is pretty remarkable considering he is almost two. But he kept cutting me off with questions like "Is he allergic to any medicine?" I say no and I actually wouldn't know because he has never taken anything but Motrin and Benadryll. I tell him that thinking he would then think I am a great mom because my child is not overmedicated, but he is already on to the next question and doesn't hear anything after the word no. In the meantime my child has turned into the Tazmanian Devil and is opening every cupboard in the room and scooting the metal step across the room making that ear piercing chalkboard-screeching noise. He is mad too because the doctor is sitting on the small wheely stool and now he can't roll the stool across the floor. He turns the lights on and off while we are trying to talk, and I wonder what would possess them to place the light switches low enough for a toddler to reach them. And all that was just in the first five minutes. Forget trying to look good in front of the doctor...Clark ruined that, and now I am just trying to stop him from destroying anything of value. It was the first time that I wanted to say "whose child ARE you?!" When we left, we stopped at the receptionist who wanted to make an appointment for his 2 year old well child visit. She asked if we wanted to go ahead and continue seeing Dr. Hayne, and I said "Sure, although he probably doesn't want to see us again after that display". She started cracking up laughing, which actually made me laugh. I decided on the way home that I really deserved everything since I went for 2+ weeks with a child who was in pain, but who did his darndest to act like the best little boy he almost always is, and I was completely clueless. So, I should give him a break. Clearly, he gives me one all the time.

First Day of Work

Tanner started work today with Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor, and Reed. I just had to get a picture with Clark and his daddy before he left. I thought Clark would have a difficult time letting him go to work since he has been home for over a month. He cried the first couple of days until I would distract him with food or Little Einsteins. Now he is really cute and waves bye to him every morning and is ridiculously excited when Tanner walks in the door every night. Tanner is enjoying work so far and is glad to be back with the other Associates he started with last summer.