Abby, Apollo, & The Big Move

Hello everyone!
Abby started WALKING on Monday, Columbus Day to be exact. I was talking to my mom on the phone when all of a sudden Abby took about five steps in front of me. I was in shock! It just happened. They say that one day they just start walking and I didn't believe it until I saw it myself. I am so excited for her but sad for me. My baby is growing up too fast for me. :( Pictures will be forthcoming.
Well I have finally decided to keep the dog. Thank you to all of you who shared your advice. It has been a hard one for me being a dog lover and all but unless anything traumatic happens...like the inability to feed our children we have decided to keep Apollo. Yes, his name is Apollo. Appropriate isn't it for living in Houston and all. He also has been a little traveler before he made it to our family. Abby is enjoying him and looks for him every time she wakes up. Although, we do have to keep her out of his food dish. She seems to think that everything within grasp is free reign. :) I would post pictures but Charlie has the camera most of the time for residency and it is out of battery for now so stay tuned and we will get them on here sooner or later.
As for the move things went smoothly to say the least. It was a VERY long day but thanks to the awesome Elders Quorum in our ward it went pretty fast. I had a sweet girl in our ward watch Abby most of the day which is the longest I have EVER been away from her. Needless to say I was anxious to get back to her. When we finally did pick her up she would only come to me and cried when Charlie tried to take her. I loved it...Charlie not so much. :( I digress, so I have done most of the unpacking but now comes the really hard part....decorating! I will be here for a few years so I have time but I am excited to get started. I am on a VERY limited budget so we will see. That is what 6 more years of schooling will do to you. I am looking forward to some stability in my life. For those of you who don't know I have moved and average of three times a year the last two years. I have lived with some inability to really settle in and take root. I felt my life was in constant flux. Throw in the mix getting married, new family, new name, new career, new environments, new friends, a new baby and everything foreign and there is a huge need for stability. I have been looking forward to this for some time now. I took some fun pictures of our home but alas the camera is out of commission until we can find the charger we packed.
One last thing, I am teaching a class for enrichment on how to make earrings. I am excited because I will actually get to use my beads that I have had forever but also to share with the other sisters on how fun it can be. It has been years since I have done my beading. I guess now is as good of time as ever to start up again.
I hope everyone is doing well. Love you all. Meg

I Need Your Input

A girl in my ward is giving away a dog a bichon frise to be exact. They rescued it from their neighbor who just left it in a cage in their garage. She is trying to find a home because she already has a dog and she is about to give birth to her fourth child. I have wanted to get a dog but I was thinking a shih tzu or a yorkie or even a maltese. I have brought him home for a test run to see how it goes.
Here are his details:
* He is free
* He is a year old
* He has not chewed anything
* hypoallergenic
* about 11 pounds
* Needs to be neutered
* Needs his shots
* He needs regular grooming which can get pricey
* He loves kids
* He doesn't bark
* He doesn't lick
* He gets along with other dogs
* His breed is very intelligent
* He sleeps in a kennel :) Charlie likes that.
* He is very submissive.

The only thing is that he is male and I have never had a male dog. I don't like that he has to lift his leg to pee on everything. Also he is having a hard time being house trained. :(

For those of you who have had males or a bichon frise or dogs period let me know what you think about me keeping him or not. Thanks

Abby is ONE!!

We had a great time on Abby's birthday. We headed to the beach. Charlie had the day of which was a miracle. This was Abby's first experience with the beach and she had a blast. Unfortunately I was so worried about Abby wearing sunscreen that I was a little negligent of my own. Charlie and I are beet red on our backs. It is awful but it was worth the fun we had while we were there.
We later took Abby to the "Rainforest Cafe" for dinner and her birthday treat. They came and sang for her which she loved.
My little girl is growing up. It is all downhill from here. I am so thankful to have her. She brings the perspective and hope that I have to be a better person each day. Heavenly Father really knows what he is doing when he makes us parents. There is nothing like it. I have always been a aunt, a sister, a daughter etc. being a parent is a whole new experience. I want to be better because I want what is best for her. She is going to look at me and how I lived my life (some of which I am not so excited about) someday and I hope she will be able to be blessed by it.
Happy Birthday my Angel Girl you are a light in my life.

I hope you enjoy the little slideshow of Abby and our first year together watching her grow. It is amazing how much she has changed over this first year. Forgive me for some of the pictures are quite blurry. You can click on the slideshow it should take you to a place that you can view the pictures larger.

The Ugly

So I have been wanting to post this but felt queasy about it. I have been losing a lot of sleep lately. Not because I am not tired but because of anxiety issues. You see I was bit by this bug about a week ago. I know you are saying sick but it gets worse. You see this type of insect is called a "Kissing Bug." For those of you like myself until a week ago don't know what this bug does let me enlighten you. This bug sucks blood but first it injects a paralyzing poison into its prey. It feeds on insects and mammals (wild and domesticated animals) and yes humans on occasion. They hide during the day and then come out to feed at night. They crawl into bed with you...Yes you read it right they actually crawl into bed with you and bite "kiss" you. They generally like to bite on or near the lips or the eyes! Sick!! They will bite whatever is exposed. They feed for about 8-15 minutes and then defecate on you. Inside their deification is a parasite which causes all kinds of problems. So what happens when you wake up is you scratch it and the parasites infect the opening of the bite and you have what is called "Chagas Disease." If this goes untreated it can cause heart and intestine failure...you DIE! Okay, so back to me and my situation.
I was sleeping and minding my own business and "Ouch" I felt something bite my arm in my sleep at about 2:30 in the AM. I brush whatever it is off. Mind you I am half awake at this point but the pain that follows the initial bite is going to fully wake me up. I wake Charlie because of my complaining. He thinks I have been dreaming because I tend to have nightmares, but unfortunately I am not. My arm begins to swell where the bite mark is. I also feel a numb pain-like feeling spreading to my hand. It eventually travels up my arm to my shoulder. I am freaking out at this point. Charlie starts to check the bed and surrounding areas. We found one insect called a "SilverFish" but when we looked it up online it said it should not hurt if it ever bites humans. I knew that could not be the bug that bit me. By now I am almost hysterical.
What makes matters worse is that I have been begging the management of our apartments for the last month and a half to spray inside my home. I had seen other insects and was worried about Abby. To no avail. I would call every week and no one would come. I was very upset the last week I called and they promised me they would come out. Well now I had this bite and they still had not come.
Charlie broke out some of the home pest control that we had brought from Pittsburgh and started spraying the apartment..all but Abby's room (She was sleeping). He then went outside to spray around the house. While he was out there a thought came to me that I needed to check the bedding one more time. Maybe I could find whatever it was. As I walked into my room, there as big as life was this guy on the floor at the bottom of my bed. Holy Crap! He was a lot more yellow and black than he is in the picture. I grabbed Charlie's shoe and held it there until Charlie had come back inside. He caught it because I was shaking at this point. We put him in a baggie to try and discover what he was. Neither of us knew. I was disgusted.
I made Charlie help me change the sheets and other OCD things. Nevertheless I was unable to sleep again. To make matters worse Charlie was on call that next night so I was going to have to sleep alone. It didn't happen. I spent the sleepless night researching my bloodsucker. I found him and his disgusting details.
I have to let any and all of you know that I am an OCD house cleaner. I happen to be on the main floor and I had no pest control help. I live in Houston, Texas!!! I knew there were bugs here but I had no idea!! Since the incident I have been even more anal about the cleanliness of my home. My husband really thinks I have started to lose it with my obsessive cleaning.
After I found all the details of this bug I was sick. I went to the ER which is a story for another time but I went in to see if I had the parasite. After 4 hours I was able to go home. The blood work came back negative parasites, which was a huge relief but I am not out of the woods yet. I have to have follow up blood tests done. The Chagas Disease is extremely rare in the United States but better safe than sorry. I can't give it to anyone unless they get my blood for a blood transfusion. I could also pass it to my unborn child if I were pregnant and it would cause a stillbirth.
Sickening as this story is it could have been much worse. This is a time in my life when I am thankful I am so sensitive. Some people don't feel the bite. I felt it right away and brushed it off. I was also able to find the insect so I don't necessarily need to worry about him crawling back in my bed and biting me again. (I probably shouldn't worry but I do). They generally are singular insects there are not many of them around. My blood work so far is negative. I think it is because I brushed him off so quickly after he bit me.
Since the bite I raised a little Cain with the pest control company. They finally did come out and spray. I have put all kinds of traps around and I have washed everything...everything in my house. Even though all this was done I still struggle with all kinds of anxiety at night. I wake up at least half a dozen times or more. I feel like things are crawling on me or I dream about it. Thus this early morning post. I can't sleep. I am hoping this pattern of anxiety does not last but we will see. I worry mostly for my baby. I check on her constantly worried about something biting her.
We move into our house the end of Sept. I may be half crazed by then. We will see. Who knew I would take it so hard.

Rambling

WARNING! If you read this post please know that it is full of run on sentences and a paragraph with no end. I don't want to edit it. Also I have a bad case of rambling in this post so know that if you continue to read this you have been forewarned. :)

Life has been crazy since May. We finally sold our home in Pittsburgh (through much trial and tribulation from our buyers). I was ecstatic to leave Pittsburgh although, I miss the people terribly. :) We made our way to Houston with a few stops along the way. One day before we arrived we found out that we had a place to stay. I spent the next few days unpacking like crazy. I flew to Utah the next weekend to attend my first year teaching 6th grade class graduation from high school. Abby and I flew back home and unpacked some more. Then Charlie, Abby and I all flew to Utah on June 9th, a week earlier than planned because of Charlie's orientation schedule. We spent the first three days car shopping. We ended up buying a GMC Yukon from Dad. We were happy that we could help him out in some way. The car business as you know has been awful lately especially GM car sales. We then drove to Manti to see Charlie's dad and then to Idaho to see his Sister and her family. I dropped Charlie off at the airport on the way back to Utah and began to get ready for my 15 year high school reunion that I was in charge of. Charlie found an amazing deal on flights and was able to fly back out to help me with the reunion and Father's Day weekend. Charlie then went back to Houston and I my real work began. I helped clean and paint three apartments that came vacant in the month of July for my parents. I went to Beaver and weeded one of the homes my parents have there. Afterward we went to a family reunion in Cedar City. I then cleaned out my Mom's shed....it took me three days!! All the while she complained but she knew it had to be done. She was happier when it was all finished. The list goes on and on of little projects we accomplished while in Utah. It was my goal to help my parents as much as I could because of their failing health they needed it. While in Utah Abby learned how to crawl, wave, click her tongue, eat table food and sit up. She has the funniest crawl too she crawls with one knee and one foot. She gets around great and it is funny to watch. :)
When we (Abby my friend Romina...who is not a US citizen..you will see later why this is important and I ) finally started on our journey back to Houston the Yukon we just bought would die as we were cruising along and I would have to pull over start it again and away we would go. We were never stranded but a bit unnerving still the same. We stayed with my sister Ashley in Albuquerque the first night and took the truck in to get fixed. They told us it was fixed and so we got back on the road. Well, it happened again they didn't seem to fix it. We spent the next night in El Paso and started the long drive the next day. About 20 miles outside of El Paso there was a Border Patrol checkpoint. (It actually brought back a lot of memories from the mission having taught so many Border Patrol Agents). They were checking all vehicles. When it was my turn they asked if everyone in the car was a US citizen I said...no! My friend Romina who is getting her PHD at BYU was kind enough to drive down with me so I wouldn't be by myself is not a US citizen and she didn't bring her visa or passport with her sooooo we had to pull over and Romina was interrogated. It was actually funny. 5 border patrol agents in the their uniforms, sunglasses and black gloves came strolling over to us. We really should have had theme music playing :) (I really wanted to take their picture but it probably would not have been appropriate). Anyway, they were going to search the car but Romina had her Utah driver's license. It all worked out and we were able to get on our way but it was an experience.
I have been back in Houston for about two weeks now. Last weekend my friend Sarah came to visit with her family. This last Thursday I was walking away from my visiting teaching visit at a park with Abby in her car seat thankfully strapped and I twisted my ankle on the curb and fell. I dropped Abby and had she not been in her car seat she would have hit face first on the cement!! We were so lucky!!! She was terrified but I was in so much pain I couldn't do much. My companion and teachee heard and came running. (Mind you this is the first time I have met either one of these ladies, totally embarrassing)!! One of them consoled Abby who thankful was just shaken up and not hurt at all. I on the other hand couldn't move for about 5 minutes. I thought I might have broken my ankle it hurt so bad. Needless to say I eventually got up and went home. Charlie was on call that day so he ran home during his lunch break to check on me and baby proof the front room and left. I didn't see him again until the next day after 5 pm. It was a long two days. I have been nursing my ankle ever since. It is such a bummer. I have never had a injury like that before. I have never even had a broken a bone. I had started training for a half marathon for only a week and a half and then this happened. I am back at square one. My ankle is doing much better now for that I am grateful. At church on Sunday several people knew who I was because they had heard what had happened and saw me limping around. What a way to make a first impression. I have now officially attended my ward 4 times since the move.
We just found out that we should be approved for a home loan so we are going to start looking as soon as Charlie is home. We hope to move by the end of September. I will keep you posted.
TMI I know but I just wanted to let you know what is going on. I am bored with my foot elevated and so I am using this time to ramble.

Family Reunion and more Family

These guys sang for the family reunion and it was amazing! You can listen to them at the end of the post. They truly have a gift. I am grateful to be related to them.
This was a restaurant we ate at in Beaver. It was yummy! Some of the best mexican I have had. Funny to find it in little old Beaver, Utah.


Family Reunion in Cedar City.
My Dad finally conquered the bush. I was helping him until I was too tired. I went inside to take a break and the next thing I know there he is. Was a total Dad move. When he puts his mind to something he does it, whether it kills him or not.
Sarah and I after a brisk walk up the canyon. As you can see both of our babies were ready to go home.
YUM! Abby loved this orange as you can tell.
Playing in the old playhouse my dad built for our family growing up. She loved it.
Idaho trip to visit Mary, Jeff and the fam. We had such a great time.
What a cute pair.
Charlie and the Manti Temple.
Charlie and his dad in Manti.

Lunch with the girls

We have had a lot of lunch dates with our girlfriends and family while in Utah. It has been so much fun!Charami, Mom, baby girl and me. Charami is expecting as you can see. My sister-in-law is 39 weeks and is really feeling it. I pray that she has he baby sooner than later for the mama's sake. :)
Me, Baby, Krista, and Christina (old roommates). Man I miss these girls. They have been such wonderful friends at such a critical time in life. I love ya.
Candace, Me and Brooke (chicka-fuh-huhs). My sweet girl friends from high school. I am so thankful that we keep in touch. It is funny you really can tell how good a friend is if you can talk to them like you have never missed a beat.
My sweet Angel!!