Just for Fun

Before Canon was born, Mark told me that we were not allowed to become boring parents who never go out just because we have a baby. So, for the sake of not suppressing my husband's spontaneity, if it's something that sounds like it won't hurt, I'll go along with it. And so it was the case the last Friday in January. Mark got the urge to go for a drive. We played "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to determine whether we would go north or south. Turns out that I won, so we drove to Maine. After all, we can't expect to live in Boston for 3 years and never having made it to Maine. It was only a couple hours away. So, we got in the car and drove. What was our destination? Well, we didn't really know where to go since most of the fun things we could've seen were closed by the time we arrived. We didn't really want to spend a whole lot of money, but we started to get hungry... so we went to McDonald's. By the time dinner was done, we just decided to go home. So...it was a long trip just to go to McDonald's, but it was fun just to get in the car and drive.

The spontaneous bundling of the baby

Canon and Mark at the McDonald's

Another update from our family is that Mark had an interview at DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) in Washington, D.C. this past Thursday. We were so lucky that he ended up scheduling the interview for Thursday instead of Friday because of that horrible snowstorm in the area. He was able to fly in that morning, have the interview, and return to Boston by 2pm and go to his second class. (phew!) Mark felt like the interview went well, and we should hear from them within about 2-3 weeks or so. This interview was for a 2-year position in their Honors Fellowship Program. He'd be working for their general council, and if he performs well, they'd offer him a long-term position that could send him to live anywhere in the Pacific Rim. It's very likely that he'd be asked to live somewhere in Asia, but after Boston, I think we can handle anything! :) We would really like this opportunity, but now it's all up to the Lord's will at this moment. I finished applying to the University of Utah's Masters Program in Speech Pathology. So, even if Mark doesn't get this job, we'll have a goal in mind to pursue. Now, if we are both accepted into these programs, we will most likely go to D.C. instead of Utah... but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

As of right now, Mark and I are really loving the time we get to spend together. I'm so grateful for every day that I get to stay home with my baby. Mark has liked having dinner at a reasonable time... and I'm getting pretty good at making French bread too. :) I honestly feel like we're the closest we've ever been to living the life we've dreamed of since we got married. Howbeit, we were hoping that the reason I was at home was because Mark had a job and we could afford life on one income...not because we couldn't find affordable childcare. Oh well! So far, life feels grand, and we're happy. We're anxious for a job, but we know that that is mostly out of our hands now. We are just waiting to see that the Lord deals us.

Whole New Year

There have been a few things keeping us busy since the new year started, and I'm finding it difficult to get to the computer often enough to post regular blogs. It's one of my new year's resolutions, so hopefully I can keep up on it all. :)

My maternity leave ended in the beginning of January, and I was going to return to work on the 18th. The week of the 11th I went to an elementary school to observe the speech pathologists there. I took Canon to a couple of the babysitters that we had lined up for when I returned to work. However, one of them realized that it was much more difficult than she expected it to be. She informed me that she wouldn't really be able to handle watching Canon like she anticipated. That actually meant that I was down to only 2 babysitters that could each watch him only once per week. I couldn't honestly expect that Mark would be able to watch Canon 3 whole days each week as a full-time law student, no matter how optimistic Mark was about his workload. So I resigned from my position at HIG Capital. I love being a stay-at-home mom, but I find that I don't get the same Internet time as I did when I sat at a computer all day at work. We will miss the income and the insurance benefits, but I think it will be worth it to stay at home with my son. I'm currently applying for government aid to help with what Mark's loans won't cover.

Mark has returned to school, and he only has classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. So far he seems to be on top of all his schoolwork, and he's still trying to figure out where to apply for jobs for after graduation. He has been offered an in-person interview with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They called and conducted a phone interview before Christmas, but now they are paying to fly him to D.C. Working for the DHS would be really good for us, but it's only for a 2-year fellowship program, so there's no guarantee that he'll actually get a job with them. However, it sounds like the majority of the fellowships get offered full-time positions. As of right now, we're just hoping that he will be able to find something that will be a paid position, like this one...so keep those fingers crossed.

He's also applying for the Navy, Army, and maybe even the Air Force JAG Corps. Any one of those would be good, but the idea of certain deployment is not so appealing. Hopefully something will turn up soon. All we know is that he's planning on taking the Utah Bar Exam this summer, and it looks like it will be pretty difficult for him to attend the Bar Prep Classes that begin a week before graduation IN UTAH!!

I just finished applying for the University of Utah's Speech-Language Pathology Master's Program. Now that we're thinking we could end up in DC, I'm half wishing that I applied to schools there too. Oh well! We can't afford schools in the DC area right now. We'll just have to wait and see how things turn out.

As of right now, we both have high hopes for 2010, and we look forward to what the Lord has in store for us... we have no idea what that really is right now, but this is bound to be one interesting year!

Christmas Vacation

Mark and I flew to Utah to visit with family for Christmas and New Year's this year. This was our first time traveling with a child, and I was nervous about the infant on the airplane. Honestly, he was surprisingly great on both flights. The flight to Utah, Canon had a bit of a break-down because he was hungry, but he wouldn't nurse. Once we put a bottle of formula in his mouth, he calmed right down and did wonderfully the rest of the flight. On the return plane, he slept the entire time except for a bit to eat and then at the very end...you know, when your ears start to hurt. He cried for a few minutes, but there was really nothing that I could do for him, so I just hoped that it didn't bother the other passengers on the plane. He did really well though, and I was so grateful for that.

Even though it was a trip where we stayed with family and didn't really do much other than just hang out with family, I felt like it was a true vacation. There were so many people who were willing to help out with Canon that Mark and I actually got to eat together... at the same time!! It was so nice. Several relatives were so excited to meet Canon that I was able to have fun on the trip without worrying about the baby too much. There were many pairs of hands who wanted to help out. Now that Mark and I have come back to Boston, I'm reminded of how much I really need to do on my own, or give Mark to do, in order to take care of our newborn. At least I appreciated the help that I was able to get... it was so great!!

Our trip to Utah held many fun events for us. We arrived late on December 23rd and planned to not leave until January 3rd. We spent several hours at Grandma and Grandpa Dahl's house, playing games and eating great food with the family. We opened presents at Mark's parents' house with siblings and their families, then later more presents with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa Dahl's house. We attended a birthday party in Provo for my brother's son Joseph. We blessed our baby boy, but I'll speak more of that a little later because it is a story in and of itself! We visited with some of our best friends, Mikey and Breanne. We also went with Mark's family to have family pictures taken. (When we actually get the cd of pictures, I'll be able to post some of those shots...but I still need to wait a couple more weeks.) I went shopping with my mother-in-law and new sister-in-law with money given us for Christmas. We also had the chance to visit with my brother's family and meet for lunch as a surprise for my father's birthday. All in all, it was a very fun trip, and I almost dreaded going back home to Boston. This was the first time in my life that I remember truly feeling homesick. Mark and I would really like to move back to Utah after he graduates.

Now, about Canon's blessing, we planned to bless Canon at Church on Sunday the 27th, but my parents (who were driving out from Illinois) got stuck in a snow storm in Omaha, NE. So, we postponed the blessing to Monday night. We had invited several friends and my two brothers who live in Utah to attend Church with us for the event, but we had to call everyone to inform them of the change. My parents had to stay overnight in Nebraska, not nearly as far as they hoped to get that day, because the road was closed. Once it finally opened again, they continued on their way, but they were still not able to make it by Sunday night (easily). So, instead of tentatively planning for Sunday night in case they made it, we just changed our plans to Monday night. Since Monday is supposed to be reserved for family night, the church building is generally not to be made available for events. However, considering the circumstances, my father-in-law (who is also the ward clerk and already has a key to the building) was able to convince the bishop to authorize us to use the building. What better family night can you think of than the ordinance of blessing a new baby? The bishop was hesitant because he didn't want to get in trouble by the Stake President, but we did it anyway. As we had finished the short "ceremony" and were starting into our family pot-luck, a member of the Stake Presidency approached us and asked who authorized it, and then proceeded to tell us to never do it again. Apparently if the general authority who lives in our stake noticed a light on, the Stake President could get a call from the First Presidency. Yeah, it sounded like they could get in trouble, but I stand by the thought that it was a worthy cause to be there and I don't feel guilty about it at all.

As for the actual blessing, I think Mark gave a very beautiful blessing. If I hadn't been writing frantically, trying to keep up with him, I would've been crying. Canon was so good through the whole thing too, no crying at all. I think he squawked a couple times, but he was well behaved. We took several pictures of those who participated and some of the family who attended. It was so great to have so much family support, and we didn't even invite all the aunts and uncles and cousins that live in the area. If we had done that, we couldn't have been able to fit into the Relief Society Room... the chapel would've been the only room big enough to hold that many people, and the circle was already 12 people big. I love having so many priesthood holders in my family. That is such a wonderful blessing that we receive through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here are a few pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

End of Blogging Hiatus??

So I haven't been able to blog for quite some time because of one teeny tiny thing...

We had a baby on November 1!!

It's been very difficult for me to find any time to sit down and get a blog entry written. There are a couple entries I wanted to write on the baby blog too, but I just haven't been able to get there. In fact, I haven't really been able to get much of anything done at all since he was born. I seriously wonder how any mother of a newborn ever gets anything done!

These are some highlights of things that have been happening in the past month and a half that I wanted to blog about but never found the time to do so. If you're the kind who wants to know more details, then you'll just have to call me to ask about them.

• Halloween- water broke and went into labor
• Nov. 1- ended up having a c-section and baby Canon Michael Dahl was born
• Canon was brought into the NICU for breathing problems and given an antibiotic
• Nov. 2- my OB/GYN and a nurse came to visit me in the hospital and told me that they didn't know that I had delivered until I didn't show up for my appointment that day and they called to find out what happened. (YEAH! That was a shocker to me too!!! My OB didn't even know that I was in labor...no wonder I didn't see her the whole time!!)
• While getting ready to be discharged from the hospital, I couldn't find my ring that I left on the sink. (Don't worry, it wasn't my wedding ring. However, it was special to me. It was the ring my brother and his wife gave me for my birthday when I was in high school!!)
• Canon was discharged from the hospital 2 days after I was, and that made for a happy Nana because she was finally able to hold him.
• Nana Brown (aka Mom Brown) stayed with us for one more week to help out with the baby. The day she left, Grandma Dahl (aka Mom Dahl) came for a week.
• I went to church 2 weeks after he was born, and every week since. The other ladies there tell me that I'm crazy for having come to church so soon! :)
• Mark has been working like a dog to finish up the semester. He doesn't have many finals, but there are a lot of projects for him and he was really worried that he wouldn't be able to get everything done in time.
• Prof. Sloan FINALLY certified Mark's paper. This is an upper-classman writing assignment that needed to be certified before graduation. He's been working on that paper for over a year, and Prof. Sloan just never thought it was good enough. It's finally there and Mark can let that one burden off his shoulders. YAY!!!
• Mark makes such a cute daddy when he's playing with Canon and lets him fall asleep in his arms.
• We had Thanksgiving at a friend's house, and it was so nice to not have to worry about getting everything all put together this year. I love throwing Thanksgiving like I did the past 2 years, but I was so not up for it 3 weeks after having a c-section.
• Canon has had 2 appointments with the Dr. Tuli, the pediatrician. He's growing beautifully and is perfectly healthy.
• I brought Canon with me to attend my office's holiday party, and they all wanted to see him. Even the senior managing director wanted to hold him...which made me feel good. He's so ga-ga over babies. That night we had friends babysit while Mark and I attended the office's dinner party.
• Mommyhood is going smoothly....ok ok....so it's rough not getting much sleep, but I love being with my little boy and to see him smile in his sleep. I love that he's so cute and likes to cuddle.

Oh...now he's awake. Gotta go!

Gratitude Overdue

I haven't really spent much time online over the past week, so I didn't post this yet, but I really wanted to show how grateful I am for friends in my life. I've received quite a bit of service last week, and it was just really wonderful.

You know, so many of the pregnancy tips out there talk about accepting help when people offer, and every single month as we visit teach each other we give opportunities to serve, but rarely do we actually accept the offer of such service. I think that's because we LDS women as a whole tend to feel like we have everything under control (or at least look like it), and that there really isn't anything that others can do for us. Well, when my visiting teacher asked if there was something that she could do, all I could think was that I wish there was someone who would come help me clean up my apartment a bit. I didn't need them to do a full-out spring cleaning type of job, but just to help me get on track. I was starting to worry about the baby coming before my mom arrived, and I still wanted to have a clean apartment before she got here...added to the facts that I was still working full-time and I was so tired at nights... cleaning was such a stress for me at the time. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Well, last week on Tuesday my visiting teacher came over with her husband to help clean my apartment. She cleaned the bathroom while he did the dishes. Mark and I were folding and putting away laundry. She swept and mopped both the bathroom and the kitchen while he helped vacuum the living room. By the time they left, I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. It was really a special gift of service that made all the difference in the world. Thank you so much, guys!!!

Then, last Thursday a couple friends wanted to take me out to dinner. Neither one of them was able to make it to my baby shower in September, but they really wanted to celebrate with me. Since Cassie was moving to Chicago, we needed to do something pretty soon. Crystal, Cassie and I all met up after I got off of work in the Back Bay. We decided on going to The Cheesecake Factory in the Prudential Center. It was just so much fun to hang out as friends, just a night on the town with the girls. We really did have fun, even though we didn't do much other than the restaurant. Thanks for a great time ladies!

The following day was my last day at work before going on maternity leave, so the office took me out to lunch. I got to choose wherever I wanted to eat. I originally wanted to go to Uno's, but they don't really have enough room to seat a party of 15 or so. We ended up going to The Cheesecake Factory. I know, I know, I was just there the night before. It's not like I go there often, nor that I've been craving their food this pregnancy. It was just a convenience thing and I like their food. So it was fine for me. It was really nice for the office to be so congratulatory, wishing me well...and Tanya let me go home a little early. I don't really think that I could've asked for a better last day! After all the griping I've done about my job on this blog, I do have to say that I really do appreciate the job I have/had at HIG Capital. There's always the possibility that I won't be able to go back to work after my maternity leave ends, but as for now I'm planning on returning for the sake of our finances. Now, if only we can get all the stars to align to make that happen!

Life really is good. So far, I'm still pregnant, but I'm having a good time with my mom in town. Just getting ready for the show to get going!!

Random Pieces of an Update

So, there are a few things going on, but not many are worthy of an entire post on their own.

I've got only one more week of work left before I go on maternity leave (unless the baby comes sooner than that). I know that the office is planning on hiring a temp for while I'm on leave, but I'm not sure when they intend to bring one in. I think they were going to wait a little while, until Tanya feels like she really needed the help to get one, but I have no idea, really. Also, my mom is coming for a visit next Saturday. Mark and I have been working to figure out how to arrange our baby's room (to keep the guest bed or not to keep the guest bed?) and get everything purchased that we're going to need for little Canon. I think we're in a place where I feel like I'm just about prepared for his arrival. YAY! I discussed all that on my baby blog, so I don't really need to go into too much detail about it here.

Mark seems to be enjoying school this semester, but it's not really what he was expecting. He's doing a clinic that requires certain classes and additional weekly projects (which is basically unheard of in law school). He only has classes Mon-Wed, and they don't start until the afternoon, but he is constantly busy with all the work he has to do. He's also still spending time applying for jobs. He's had a couple of interviews in the past weeks, and both of them were more informational- requiring him to continue his application with more documents if he's still interested. Right now, anything looks better than nothing. The law market is so horrible right now, and it looks like a good option (if it happens to pull through) is for him to join the Army JAG Corps. It would be a great (wide-range of) experience with good benefits, with the chance of being deployed for months...but there's no guarantee that would happen. In fact, there's no guarantee that he would get a job with them either. We're just still praying and searching for places to apply. It would sure be nice if Mark could have a job when he graduates!

Work for me has been a little out of the ordinary, not crazy, but busier than normal. My manager Tanya's mother passed away last week, so the duties that she usually would've performed I had to take over...including expenses. I know how to do expenses because I do a couple myself, but I don't handle nearly as many as she does on a regular basis. That required some overtime hours to complete, but I was able to get it done without too many mistakes. The mistakes I did make, caught by the accounting dept., were easy to remedy and they were understanding in that they know I don't normally do those reports. Tanya has been in and out of the office, but since it's often quite slow, it really hasn't been a big deal. I know it's a hard time for her, so I'm glad that I'm still around to be able to hold down the fort while she takes the time off that she needs. (Admittedly, it does get more difficult to go to work everyday, and I'm forbidden from climbing ladders, so I'm constantly interrupting people to ask them to help me get things off high shelves.) So far, the office hasn't burned down, so I think we're in good shape.

Oh, and one more thing... Mark is so excited for the Utah Jazz season to be starting up. Last year he really wanted to go see the game where they came to play the Boston Celtics, but it was during finals...so there was no way that he could make it. This time they're coming on Nov. 11th, and Mark just couldn't pass up the chance to see them at an away game. When he told me he bought the tickets, I told him, "Well, it's a good thing my mom will still be in town to watch Canon. That's only 10 days after my due date!" To which Mark replied, "Oh yeah! I forgot we were having a baby!" Now, I'm sure he didn't actually forget, but I'm pretty sure he forgot that the baby would play a factor in our evening plans...silly hubby! So, just in case I'm really not up for a night on the town that shortly after giving birth- I'm hoping that I will have given birth by then- are there any Jazz fans here in Boston that might like to go with Mark to the game? :)

September Catch-Up

I'm sorry to have taken a whole month to update this blog, but there have been a few things taking up my time this September.

On Sept 3rd, a couple for friends from the ward threw me a baby shower, which I discussed more fully on my baby blog. It was really nice to have so much loving support from the sisters in my ward and other friends in the area.


For Labor Day weekend, Mark and I held a party to watch the BYU football game against OU, the first BYU game of the season. We were utterly surprised to see that they really did beat OU, and it was a really exciting night. We had a large crowd, maybe about 15 people, and we served Philly Steak Sandwiches- a Dahl Family tradition for the BYU vs U of U game, but we don't even know if we will actually get that game on our cable this year. There were only a few games that we could watch, so we had to make the best of what we could get. There were also 2 other BYU games that we got on our cable TV stations out here in Boston, but I think we won 't get anymore of them. (Only if we had a satellite dish could we watch them, and we're not allowed to get a dish in our apartment building.) We can hope to see more BYU games, but it probably just won't happen.


We also went up to New Hampshire for Sunday night to visit with 2 of Mark's uncles and their wives. They came out on a trip to visit places in New England for the week, and since I had the Monday off of work, we decided that it would probably be easier for us to come visit them that time than to try to meet up for dinner on the 1 day that they decided to visit Boston...in the middle of a work week and a school night where Mark had homework. We had a lovely visit with Brad & Laura (who is also pregnant and due right around the time I'm due) and Doug & Sherri (who just had their first grandchild earlier this year). We arrived early enough on Sunday to have a dinner with them, then play a game of Quibbler (is that what it's called?) and a nice chat before bed. Then, Monday morning we went out for breakfast and Mark and I headed back home to Boston. It was supposed to be a drive just over 2 hours. It turned into about 3 hours of a drive with traffic back-ups caused by closed lanes that weren't even being worked on!!!! It bothers me when they close down a lane (especially when it brings a multi-lane road down to a one-lane one) for construction purposes that are not even being done. It seriously added about 45 minutes to our drive. Mark had homework to do, so it was a good thing that we didn't stick around too long and have to drive back through all of that during the heavy traffic hour. Sheesh!!

On Sept 19th, I took the GRE as part of my grad school application process. That is the main reason that I haven't been blogging as much over the past few weeks. I figured that if I had time to blog, then I ought to use that time to study for the GRE. Sometimes that meant that I ended not doing either, but I couldn't justify the time it took to blog and NOT study. By the end of the day, it was ok if I didn't study because I was busy doing things at work, but if I spent that time blogging, then it meant that I really wasn't doing something more pressing... Anyway, so I think I was the last person in that session to finish the test, but I didn't mind. The registration process didn't take very long, but the test being administered before mine started late, so the waiting room full of test-takers had to wait and go in one by one as the previous group finished up. I probably didn't start my test until about an hour after the time I registered to start. So, in taking my time with the instructions and tutorials, I wanted to make sure that I used the time that was allotted to me and not somehow miss something important because I was being impatient. I didn't get out of the test until about 4:35 pm.

I took the test knowing that the one school I'm applying for this year stated that admitted student's average on the GRE is about 1000 when you add the Verbal and Quantitative sections. So I was really hoping that I would be able to get about a 550 on the Verbal and something a bit higher on the Quantitative. I ended up getting only a 510 on the Verbal, but I got a 630 on the Quantitative, so I was alright with the lower score on the Verbal. Overall, I think I did just fine on the GRE. It may not be the best score that I possibly could've gotten, and I could've studied harder and longer to get a better score. However, for this year, I am satisfied and will not take it again. The only reason I will end up retaking the GRE is if I somehow will not be able to go to grad school for another 5 years, in which case the GRE score is no longer valid, or if I just don't get into a grad program at all over the next couple years and that is the only thing that I can improve to increase my chances of getting in.

Sept 26th was a busy day for me. Dershin and I are new Visiting Teaching companions, so we tried to visit 2 of our girls that morning. Then, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law threw a baby shower for me via webcams. I was not able to travel to Utah, but the family still wanted to do something for me and the baby, so they hooked up a laptop to a large tv. I will fill in with more details about that on the baby blog within the next couple of days, so if you're interested, please check over there. :0) After the shower was the General Relief Society Broadcast, and our Stake had a social with pumpkin and apple pies and apple cider. It was pretty delicious!! Int he half hour I had before the broadcast started, I called my sister-in-law Mary to talk about how she was feeling. She had just had her baby the previous day and I didn't yet get the chance to really get the details from her. (You know how sometimes people are just too tired and worn out after a baby, so I didn't want her to feel like it was a burden to talk to me if she wanted to sleep or nurse or something, but she seemed to appreciate the phone call, so I'm glad I got to talk to her briefly.) Then I went into the chapel for the broadcast.

And now, here I am at the end of September, gliding on my new chair that I got as a group gift from the Dahl Family Baby Shower, thinking about how much I time I have left before my life will be changed forever. I only have 5 weeks left of this pregnancy (according to my due date), with only 4 weeks left of work and then my mother comes into town to stay with me for 3 weeks. I know that my entire routine and schedule is going to change dramatically once the baby arrives, but I am so excited to just have a change of scene and to feel like I will be moving on into the stage of life. It will never be easy for us as things seem to be right now, but such is life. It's not meant to be easy... life is meant to challenge us so that we can grow. So...here's to the upcoming growth-spurt!! :0)