I'm blogging about a grey blob.

I told Katie she should blog it.  She told me that I should blog it "...from a man's perspective."


Okay.  I will.


Last time we did this, Katie had an ultrasound that showed a gestational sac with nothing inside.  This time it had a grey blob.  And yeah, just one of them (we were worried there might be two).  The blob had a heart rate of a hundred fifty-something and is less than 1 cm.  EDD: April 28.

The original image.
And apparently the blob is already able to form simple sentences, telepathically send them to the radiology tech, and have her write them on the screen for us.  I didn't know Radiology techs got that kind of training...

Enhanced to show detail.
...You know, using that same "enhancement" technology they use on macho hero-man shows when the surveillance camera footage is absurdly blurry, but it magically gets "enhanced" to a crisp, clean image of the perpetrator.

Warning:  Objects in ultrasound arrive sooner than they appear.

The Fish (baby.,, not pinata this time).

So, like Brett said in our last post - yes, we did just find out that we're having a baby. I'm not very far along yet (only 5 weeks and 2 days... yes I'm that meticulous in counting), but we're very hopeful that we'll make it to full term this go around. The baby will be due around April 24th (which is pretty much perfect since there's only 6 weeks left of the school year after that - thank heavens for maternity leave!).

If that's all you want to know... I'd stop reading at this point, because the rest of this post is going to be somewhat wordy and emotional (but I'm pregnant, I'm allowed to be emotional).

There are a couple reasons why I want to document this (although it may seem strange to do it publicly)... I want other people who may be going through or who may go through a similar experience to know that I'm definitely willing to talk to them about it. I'm also just soooo happy that it's hard to explain it without describing the opposite. And because this is our family journal, and this is a big family moment. 

If you're wondering what that "this go around" phrase was all about, that's probably because you didn't know that I miscarried last January. I was super excited because my two sisters, Anne and Sarah, were due in June (a month before me), and we just knew Ali would be getting pregnant soon too (which she did). And Cambrie was pregnant on Brett's side of the family (although that ended tragically as well, about a week after my miscarriage). A week after my first prenatal appointment, I started bleeding and was diagnosed with a blighted ovum. Basically, I was a mess. I'm not sure how Brett could stand to be so patient with me crying all the time. But he was amazing as usual, and not only put up with me, but was a huge support when I needed it most.

I thought I'd get over it pretty quickly, especially because I thought I'd be able to get pregnant again pretty quickly. Every month that passed was a disappointment, and I'd be a crazy, bawling, psycho wife for my poor husband. My sisters had their babies, and my baby's due date came and went without any celebration. I finally went to the Dr. because things just weren't normal, and he put me on Clomid... and apparently it worked! I'm a little nervous about twins though, since Clomid can increase the chances of multiples, but I'm not going to worry about that until the ultrasound.

It's amazing to me how closely our emotions are tied to our spiritual strength. I was feeling absolutely horrible... I was in the "depths of despair" (to quote a movie, but actually mean it...). I felt like my faith was at an all time low (in my little brain it made sense to me that if I had enough faith, I would have gotten the answer to my prayer - a new pregnancy - a long time ago). I figured, I just didn't have enough, therefore, no miracle. But of course, all of those scriptures about how "faith proceeds the miracle," "ye will have no sign until after the trial of your faith," "this will be but a little moment," etc. all came to my mind this last month. My awesome mother-in-law asked our family to fast and pray together this last month because there are individual things each of her children needed (and she knew what my particular trial was). I'm very grateful for my family's collective and individual faith - it truly helped to strengthen my own.

We teach primary, and yesterday the sharing time was about how Faith and Miracles come together (like peanut butter and jelly). And so, I figure... it's a miracle to me that we're having a baby - so maybe I do have enough faith after all.

There is amazing truth to the "opposition in all things" law - perhaps I needed to go through "despair" so that I could fully appreciate how incredibly happy I am right now. I told Brett I'll try not to complain about fatigue, nausea, or any other type of physical discomfort related to having a baby because that's just it - I'm having a baby!

And so - for those of you who wanted to know - that's the whole story. 

I gots me a new job!

Me, you know, in my vinyl-fence hospital
habitat, ready to totally save some life, yo.

For approaching 3 years, I've been working for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on the 7th floor (Medical-Oncology Department).  It's a non-stop usually crazy-busy department, but my coworkers were great to work with, and the department forces you to learn a lot -- quick.  My upcoming grad school applications from what I've been reading will want me to have critical care experience, so I'm switching jobs.  Same hospital, different department.  I'll be on the 2nd floor of UVRMC ("IMC" for those of you who know the place).

It should give me some good ol' critical care experience with some good old-fashioned intubated patients, and fancy gizmos and such.  I'm excited for it.  I've been on the floor for school stuff, and they've got a good group of people down there.

I start on Monday with some training and additional certifications, and then I'll ultimately be doing night shift (again) which Katie isn't particularly keen about.  Oh well.  I do what I need to do to support my wife and child. (Oh yeah, and by the way, we just found out she's prego)

Boren Family Fiesta!!!

My two out-of-town sisters came home for about a week a little while ago, and we decided to have a family fiesta! We usually have a BBQ with hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese bread, chips, etc. But I thought it would be fun to do something a little different - and amazingly enough, Mom said, "Yeah, that would be fun." And so instead of the normal BBQ food, we had Cafe Rio burritos like we had at Brett sister, Christa's house a few weeks ago. We made sweet shredded pork, had some black beans, cheese, lettuce, etc. and had the cilantro lime rice (recipe by Brett's other sister, Cambrie), on the side, along with classic chips and salsa.

We made coffee filter flowers with the kids that we put up on the deck, and saved a few for our hair.

Boren ladies with flowers in their hair.

But my favorite part was the pinata. You've got to understand... when I take on a project like a pinata, I go all out. I had a blast making it and then watching it be destroyed. I was pretty proud of how well it held up to the beating. All the grandkids got a few swings at it (all besides the babies, of course). My nephew, Spencer, ended up being the one to completely bust it in the end.

El alma de la fiesta - the life and soul of the party...yup, that's us!!!

I really did love that fish...

Ben was hilarious - he did a lot of serious overhand swipes at the poor fish, but didn't do much damage.

Part of the line-up... hoping it doesn't break before their turn.

Spencer, with the killing stroke.

The aftermath...

I think this is Jordan - I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want a pinata on my head - sounds dangerous to me.

Moab Canyoneering Trip

The advice we've been getting as a non-childrened married couple is:  Play.  More.

So that's what we did earlier this week.  We went with the biggest advocates of the "Play, more" ideology, my sister and brother-in-law, Christa and Brigham, and spent Monday-Wednesday playing.

We took the inaugural trip of their newly purchased car to Moab, and into Arches.

Monday:  We hiked.  Pictures do a better job of it, so I won't try to explain it.  We hit the movies for "Salt" Monday night.

Here's Christa's online photo album of the trip.

Tuesday:  We woke up, left, and showed up to our tour company place to go "Canyoneering" where we discovered that we were very un-prepared for the trip.  To our credit, we did show up the day before to verify that we had all we needed.  We thought we were ready -- she told us we'd be fine.  We weren't.  Luckily, our tour guide was awesome, and went home to get us rain jackets, and the company owner brought in a rain jacket for us.  Secondly, we found out from our tour guide that all of his previous groups he had taken were experienced climbers, and, well, we essentially had no experience at all in the group.  He assured us he could get us through it safely, and we were pretty excited to do it, so... we did.  We got fitted in thermals (yes, thermals in August in Moab -- and yes, we were glad to have them), wet-suits, helmets, gloves, and our borrowed rain jackets.

We drove up a mountain, parked the van, and started on a trail.  When we got to the river, we sort of just found a tree to hide behind as we got rid of the normal clothes and put on a wet-suit and gear.  As we were hiking the trail toward the river, our guide said "wow... you can hear the water already..."  It had been raining previous to our coming, and, well, he said he's never seen the water that high.  Or that cold.  And as if that wasn't enough, again, he was with a group of 4 completely inexperienced climbers on a tour where he had only been guiding experienced climbers. 
The beginnings were a touch rough for a minute as he had to teach us all how to rappel and we clumsily made our way down.  The rest of the way was spectacular.  We were practically inside of a water-carved cave going down the side of, and sometimes, the middle of waterfalls.  We descended 7 rappels in all.  The water was very cold, and sometimes our feet would slip out from under us and we'd end up right in the waterfall as we quickly tried to let the rappel loose to drop as fast as we could.  It was too loud in this near-water-cave place to talk to the guide, so it was, well, exciting to go over an edge, not knowing what we were about to do.  There was a lot of "Figure it out as you go" and I'm sure a lot of "What in the world am I doing bringing these people here..." from the tour guide.  Our guide was great, and very nice to work with.  While the pictures of course can't capture it all as we were trying to protect the camera from the water, it'll give you some idea of what it was like.


Afterward, we did another 5-mile round trip hike on the negro bill canyon trail.  We then ate unhealthy food and hit the movies again for Inception.  We were pressed for time, so Katie didn't have time to finish her frosty.  Feeling sympathy for her, I successfully smuggled the frosty into the theater in my pocket, where she got to finish enjoying it.

Wednesday, we slept in, and hit a few more spots in arches before we left for home again.

Lots of fun trip.  Glad we went!  Thanks for inviting us Christa and Brigham!

A post, not for the queasy. Ali Ward, do not click on this! You are warned.

For the record, I would like to take a moment to post about our roommates. Don't get me wrong -- I'm extremely grateful to live where we do. It works out great for us. We just have some uninvited visitors, for which there are 13 traps (that I can think of) to catch them in. A few weeks ago, I was typing away at my homework, when I saw a nice black spider crawl along the corner of the floor, right into a trap, turn around, and walk right back out of it. I decided it was time to lay out a few new ones. We've already caught a few spiders in them. I've smashed 4 spiders in the past 2 days. That's what happens when you live in a basement apartment on Earth. Click on the picture for a good portrait of our friends.

Yellowstone and such

July 17, 2010 – Departure & Bear Lake

The original plan:  End up in Jenny Lake by the end of the day.  School happened instead.  We left late and spontaneously decided to stop at Bear Lake and camp there.  Driving through the tourist traps, I remembered coming there as a kid, and going to some cave around there.  The Garmin gave us directions and we set up camp in a campground on the way to the cave.  Katie managed use her feminine charm to persuade the teenage boys employed there to let us jump in on the last, and already filled to capacity tour of the day.  Pictures pretty much tell the rest of the story, other than the awkward teenage tour guide, who at the furthest point in the cave of course turned off the lights for us to get a sense of the darkness we were in, and then proceeded to tell us “Even thought you don't have the use of your eyes, you can still feel and hear and taste the walls and air around because those senses have been heightened.”  Idunno – Personally, I'd rather rely on my eyes to get me back to the cave entrance, rather than sniffing my way.


We read calvin and hobbes and the bathroom reader before going to bed.  A bird very unexpectedly bombed our table, narrowly missing the camera, and partially hitting the calvin-and-hobbes book.  There's a missing chunk out of one of the pages.  Than you, mystery bird, for not having better aim than you did.  So Katie couldn't sleep at our first campground.  I slept intermittently, and at 1am, we got up.  We stood outside of the tent and watched a pretty spectacular view of the stars, shooting and otherwise.  As we talked, I kept hearing noises and sticks breaking.  Not wanting to freak Katie out about noises in the woods and keep her awake longer, I just ignored them – until I couldn't any more.  I grabbed Katie's flashlight and turned it on.  There were two big eyes reflecting the light back at me, and to sum it up, it kinda freaked me out.  Katie and I spent the next little while in the car, looking for a beast to implicate.  No luck.  In the process, the inside handle of the car door fell subject to a door opening attempt while the door was locked.  We currently can't open the door from the inside any more unless we roll down the window.  We went back to bed, not knowing if we were going to get torn by a she-bear, or if we were just being watched by by a deer.  To justify our little 1am episode, I like to think it was a bear.  Yes, we narrowly escaped death by a bear.  Or it decided we weren't tasty enough.  Or that I'm too tough to mess with.  Yeah. That one.

July 18, 2010 – Grand Tetons, Jenny Lake

Okay, okay, we didn't get to actually camp at Jenny Lake, but we drove there from our spot.  We took the hike recommended by my mom and dad along the south side of the lake and into the canyon.  I'd tell you that it's pretty, and the pictures don't do it justice – but you already know that.  Check out the pictures anyway.  They describe it better.

July 19, 2010 – Yellowstone

We grabbed some wi-fi in the grand tetons before we left for yellowstone so I could turn in my last assignment for the semester.  We went to yellowstone.  Oh, you know: mud pots, hot water springs. Standing in the crater of one of the world's largest volcanos, with active smelly things all around us.  We actually got a shower in the Grand Tetons, so we weren't part of the active smelly things.  We went to “the grand canyon of the yellowstone.”  We got some ice cream because I won a bet (Okay, we just wanted ice cream).  We saw a bear and a couple of cubs on the way back to camp.  We saw a big elk buck right on the side of the road pretty close to camp.  The camp itself, well, lets just say that we had it reserved for 3 nights, but canceled the last two of them.  Sadly, it was more like sleeping in a no-tree parking lot, with car alarms going off through the night and everything.  Oh, and lots of campfire smoke from the densely populated campfires.  We did go to a ranger presentation there about the bears of the park.  Then we slept there, and not much else. 

July 20, 2010 – Yellowstone and Montana

We woke up, packed up, went West to Old Faithful, stopping on the way for little side-trips.  At this point, we were homeless, not knowing where we were going to sleep that night.  We headed out to West Yellowstone and into Montana for a play there called “Foreigner.”  Pretty funny.  A nice bit of entertainment.  We decided we had seen what we wanted to see in the park, and it was okay to go home.  So we started driving toward home from Montana.  Ug.  The Garmin said we'd be home at 2am.  I didn't like that plan.  In an effort to get a shower and a better sleep for Katie, we made calls for hotels along our route home.  There was one suite available and a couple of smoking rooms in Rexburg.  Instead, we just drove south into Idaho, and found a government campsite in a national forest somewhere along the road.  Among the campsites, it was probably the best one on the trip.  Nobody was around us, it was warm enough to be okay with shorts as we sat around the fire, there weren't many bugs, and there was no wind, so we didn't have to keep switching spots around the campfire to avoid smoke.  We cooked hot-dogs and s'mores, and I had two avocados!

July 21, 2010 – Home

We woke up, and because we cut our trip a little short, we had extra food fixin's.  We cooked “hobo dinners” for breakfast Tastey.  We then cooked rolls on a stick and filled them with cream cheese and jam. Tastey again!  We stopped by BYU-Idaho for a tour of my old dorms, which is now some instructor's office.  And yeah, it's strange to think that I'm actually a current student of that school, but I haven't seen it for, oh, 8 years or so. On the way home, we sang to classic rock, and I typed this on the laptop on which I turned in homework previously on the trip.  We're stinky, but still eating home-made oatmeal cookies.  Life is good.