Phoenix

So we've been in Phoenix, AZ now for about two months and I never thought we'd be as far along with life as we are. It has been a crazy trial so far and I'm sure more is yet to come. Let's see... So we moved here so that Jadell could find work, which he has done and is doing great! He works in receiving for Wal-Mart, which I'm sure is not his ideal job, but being out of work for 3 months you find yourself being grateful for just about anything. He works from 10 pm- 8 am, which is proving to be a lot harder on me, for my own selfish reasons, than it is on him. He's doing so well, he goes to work right when I get home at about 9:30 pm, comes home and wakes me up before he goes to sleep at about 8:30 am, and then I'm off to work at 12 pm. Our only real day together is Saturday if I'm off and just long enough on Sunday to go to church before he goes to bed and then goes back to work.
We've also been on a quest to improve our finances, which I will say is a whole heck of a lot easier when we are both working! We've got money in savings for the first time since we got married, which is huge! We've been staying with my dad and his wife so we've been able to save on food and rent so we will have enough in savings by August that we will be able to move into our own apartment and I'll actually be able to take some time off when I have the baby.
We're in a good ward right now too which is going to prove very helpful here very soon with the due date coming closer with alarming speed. Jadell is already making his way through the ward crowd and making himself known. Not to say that we've established any real friendships but we've only known it was our ward for two weeks now.
Life has been pretty exciting for me so far, or scary depending on how you look at it. So far the armoured car at my work was robbed right as I was walking into the building one day, I was standing outside work getting some air when there was a full blown gun battle between 6 men in our parking lot at work, and I got stung by a scorpion on my foot. That has to be the worse thing ever! At first it just felt like a bee sting, but we saw it running around after I stepped on it so my dad killed it. We called poison control who said that it wouldn't do any harm to the baby and told me what I'd experience within the next couple of hours: spreading pain, numbness of my mouth and throat without any difficulty breathing, tingling in my limbs, headache, blurred vision, dizziness, being tired, , then burning at the sight of the sting. Well they were pretty dead on. Within minutes my foot felt like it was on fire, then as the toxins hit my blood stream the fire spread all the way up my leg. I would have gladly cut off my leg from the waist down because of the pain of it. Within an hour I had numbness in my back, my throat, my tongue and cheeks, and even my nose. In another hour I couldn't feel my hands, I couldn't see strait, and I couldn't stand upright. I felt like my arms had fallen asleep, and my leg was still on fire, but at the same time it felt like there were a hundred needles stabbing into my foot. You know when your foot falls asleep and then when it's starting to wake up it gets this terrible tingling feeling that's more painful than anything every time you move it? That's exactly how my foot felt... for three weeks! The first night was so bad I didn't sleep all night.
Things are going okay though. Jadell and I are doing well as a couple, our first wedding anniversary is coming up quick. The baby is healthy and growing. I'm now having to wear maternity pants and my husbands sweats because nothing that I own fits me any more. I'm not having any problems with my morning sickness/nausea any more so that's great. And, we're going to be moving into our own place in just over a month. All in all this is turning out to be a huge blessing for us and everything is falling into place.

moving : (

i'm sad to say that we are moving from our wonderful life in nampa to... (drumroll please)... phoenix, az. this is probably the last thing i want to do right now, next only to throwing up for the rest of my pregnancy. i have to move for work and with jadell being out of work for... however long it's been we need to go somewhere where there are still jobs. we tried everywhere in oregon to try to stay close to home but there was no work available for either of us anywhere, and i still have some contacts in phoenix. now all we have to do is find a place to live. wish us luck and keep us in your prayers.

side note: we had to get rid of my puppy today and that was the start of me crying all day(pregnant emotions run amuck.) between getting rid of him and the fear of moving away from family right before the baby comes i was an emotional wreck all day!

Baby?...

So, we're having a baby. Jadell and I found out in November that I was pregnant so that has been quite the adventure. I've been throwing up now for 6 months, lost 15 pounds, and I'm always tired but can't quite sleep. They say that the whole morning sickness thing should only last for the first 4 months at the most, but this doesn't seem to be panning out normal. As far as being tired, I'm starting to get better now, I can function on a normal day but I find that when I eat in the middle of the day I instantly want a nap. I get to bed at a decent hour most days but I don't seem to be able to sleep through a full night. Jadell gets kind of a kick out of the baby thing though, it's finally real to him that there's something growing in my stomach. He's been able to feel it move and now I'm far enough along that you can see it moving. I guess now that we know it's a girl, calling it an it really isn't correct or nice, but I really think a part of me is still hoping it turns out to be a boy. I'm due Aug. 20th, which means we will be just shy of the 1 year anniversary. They baby's name is going to be Kymber Leigh Sharp, if it's a girl after all, and I can't wait to get to know this wonderful little human. If she is as active after birth as she is in the womb we are sure to have our hands full, but as much is to be expected with here parentage. She is already awake for 3 hours at a time every 2-4 hours. It seems I always have my hands on my stomach just enjoying the motion of this tiny miracle. My tiny little miracle... Kymber.

reading...

I'm actually perfectly content with the fact that all I did today was read and do laundry. Okay, so I could have done without the laundry, but to be able to finish the last book of the four I've been working on was no small accomplishment. It took a lot of tears and laughter to get where I am today. Anitta Stansfield is an amazingly talented writer, and if you won't take my words for it you really need to look into reading her books, starting with A Timeless Waltze. It takes you in and out of the joys and struggles of an LDS family as they come to learn and accept that being a member of the Church doesn't make you any less a victime of the struggles of this world, but it gives you some pretty incredible tools to overcome them, namely the Atonement. I found myself sobbing as I tried to get to the end of this last book, but I've never felt so accomplished in such a simple task before this. It's good to read fictional words, well aware of the struggles facing many friends and loved ones, and learn the simple but true principles to help put trials into perspective. I'm not really sure where that leaves me, but many thoughts now buzz around in my head... Thanks Anitta Stansfield.

...and reality sets in

So we've been married for one month now, and although our marriage didn't exactly start out in that dreamy "honeymoon" faze, it's starting to get tough now... for realy. My schedule at Wal-Mart (the pharmacy, not the store) is anything but great. I have the most random shifts and right now I seem to be getting an abundance of the one I hate most: 12pm-9pm. Yeah it can be great, I get to sleep in, I eat lunch before work, and it's typically pretty slow. Downside: Jadell works 4:30am-1pm. He's up and gone right when I'm getting to deep sleep and he's asleep before I get home.
Today was only the first day of this and I'm already not a fan. When I got home he was already asleep, and when I tried to cuddle up next to him to compensate for the open window and my temp of 100* he not only pushed my arm off him and pushed me away, but in the process he elbowed me in the face and gave me a pretty nice goose egg under my eye. It wasn't intentional, he wasn't even awake, but when he's in deep sleep he kinda panics when you touch him if he didn't already know you were there. He says to wake him up when I get home so we can chat for a bit before heading back to bed... you'd have better luck trying to pet a hybernating grizzly. I know we're just settling into this whole being married thing, but I think I'm going to sleep on the air mattress for tonight to avoid further punishment to my body for this crazy life we're trying to live.

testing, testing, one, two, three

Here it goes. Our first blog attempt. For those of you who don't know and would care Jadell and I got married on August 23rd, 2008. That's right, we're still in the "newly-wed" stage. So far things are going really good. The real world is a kick, sometimes a kick in the pants, but it's good to have someone to go through it with. We're never alone I guess, we always have an "Eternal Someone" that shares in our experiences, but now I have a "here and now someone" to share with me in my joys and my sorrows, my successes and my failures... Indeed we are never alone. So here it is, for everyone to see, our first blog... hopefully of many.

Dani

There's more pics. Just ask and I'll finish getting them posted.