Broadway Bound

I blame it all on my sister, DeLayne, for all the crazy things I do (waking up early to be on TV for a cupcake segment, being an extra in a movie...watch for me in the 12 Dogs of Christmas, okay so I probably won't be in it but it doesn't hurt to try). She always has these wacky ideas that we think are fun and we end up doing them and then ask ourselves why we do them? She can always count on me. I'm always willing to challenge myself, or make a fool of myself. I'm creating memories for my kids, right? So when my sister asked if I wanted to be in a show at the Scera, I jumped at the opportunity. At first she wanted me to sing but I don't have the confidence my sisters do to hold a mic 2 inches away from my face. No way! But I can dance so I tried out for the dancing numbers.

Every year the Scera has a Broadway show where they have musical numbers from Broadway musicals. It's always a good show. This year they were putting on 2 dancing numbers, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins and Seize the Day from Newsies. I love both those shows!! My 2 sisters tried outwith me and we all made it! What fun this will be, except I am sick and pregnant (only 10 weeks along). At first I thought we were only going to dance in 1 number but the choreographer wanted us to dance in both numbers. After learning the first dance (in one night!), I was exhausted and brain dead. Most of the other dancers were in their 20s. They picked it up so fast. My sisters and I had to practice every day to learn it and remember it. It was hard stuff. But come performance day it was all worth it and something to look forward to. It ran for 1 week. My best night was when all the family came. Such energy and fun. So what's my next adventure...Broadway? New York? You'll just have to see...

6 times?!? What are we thinking?

Are you all ready for this....we are expecting our 6th child in August. Hooray! Okay, really I'm not excited yet. Every time we decide to get pregnant again, I think maybe just maybe I will be blessed and not be sick. Okay that has happened twice and both times it ended up in a miscarriage. Or if I do get sick maybe just maybe I can handle it better. I can be tougher and fight the sickeness. But it gets worse with each pregnancy and this one is no different.

Let's start at 5 weeks...my sister announces to all that she is pregnant. She is due a month before me. I'm only 5 weeks along, I don't intend to tell others but due to circumstances it comes out. I'm not sick and so I'm worried (I recently had a miscarriage). My sister tells me that she is on this medication and it will help me so I don't have a miscarriage. I go to my doctor. They don't see a baby yet and only see a sac so I am prescibed this medication which is a progestrone. It helps with the lining of the placenta. This is meds is from the devil. I thought I was going to die! I had major headaches, probably borderline migranes. As soon as I felt it coming on I would have to lie down or I would start throwing up. Have you ever had a headache and throwing up. Not fun, not fun at all. I guess since I couldn't get sick on my own, they were going to make me be sick. I could only last a week on the medication (suppose to be taken until I was 12 weeks along). It debiliatated me. I thought Why am I bringing another child into this world when I can't even take care of my other 5 children.

6 weeks...went to the doctor and saw the heartbeat. Yippie. Not out of the woods yet but I didn't have to take the medication anymore. Not sure if it helped. But I was sure that I was pregnant because here came the morning sickness.

Let me explain to all you wonderful women who do not have morning sickness. First of all, I hope you have a lot of children. You are truly blessed. Second, it should be renamed as ALL DAY LONG sickness. The best way to explain it is being car sick, all day, and you are throwing up which helps for a little while, but then it returns. Now throwing up being pregnant is not the same as when you have the stomach flu or a bug. It's not a churning in the stomach. It's "I don't feel good, run to the bathroom, and then resume your previous activity (which was probably laying on the couch anyway) for the whole day." The hardest part of throwing up is deciding what to throw up. I should write a book because after 6 pregnancies, I am an expert. For example, mashed potatoes are not bad to throw up (or water for that fact) but orange juice or chili is a bear to throw up. It burns! The other problem with throwing up is I don't want to have that food again so I have to have a variety of food. And sometimes even the thought might trigger a gag reflex.

Week 7-12...Still sick, sick, sick. Will this ever end? Why do I have to suffer so? I go into the doctor weekly to check my progress. The heart beat looks and sounds good but I started spotting a little so I have to take it easy. Take it easy?!?...do they know I am a mom? No exercise, lifting, etc. So now they want me to be miserable and get fat. (Side note...word got out in my ward that I was on bed rest and meals were going to come in. I should have milked it but I couldn't and turned them down). I am also put on the "cancer pill" (Zofran). It is suppose to help with the nausea. Maybe it helped because I would have good days but they were few and far between. Lost 3 pounds!! That is probably the only good news. I know it's not normal for a pregnant lady to lose weight but it is for me. I am throwing up everything so all the baby has is my own weight to nibble at. Nibble away.

Week 10-11...My sister convinced me to try out for a dance number at Scera (for another post). During her cancer treatment (which I have heard is similar to morning sickness), she said that being distracted was the best thing. It is true. The more I thought about it, the more miserable I was.

Week 12-13...thought I was on the tail end. For most people, morning sickness only lasts until 12 weeks. Of course, not for me. I have to suffer much longer.

Week 14...probably the worst week so far. Part of it was I was mentally prepared to be done with my morning sickness and frustrated that I was not . On top of it, I got a cold. Pregnant + cold=disaster. And I never threw up so much in one week. I couldn't keep anything down. I couldn't even finish eating my food before I would run into the bathroom. So it wasn't like digested food, it was full on chunks. I asked for a priesthood blessing. Part of me wanted it to be all over but I knew deep down inside it was not going to happen so I was needing the blessing so I could handle it better. I needed more strength from Him.

I'm sure you are wondering how I got everything done while I have been so sick. Well I didn't. My husband did everything. Cooked, cleaned, took care of the kids, chauffeur, everything, and worked at his full time job. He has been amazing. So grateful for a husband who works at home!! I couldn't have done it without him. Also it helps to have older kids who understand why you can't cook or clean. They tend to help out a little bit more.

Week 15-16...I am getting better. Still sick but usually just at night. I end up just going to bed. Lost 1 more pound. It makes throwing up worth it. :)

So that has been my life for the last 4 months. Even though it may not sound like it but I am grateful to be pregnant and really happy to have another child. I know that this too will pass.

My little baby bump. 4 months pregnant

Brittany's wedding

The first grandchild got married in December. The first of many (right now my parents have 46 grandchildren, you can say it's pretty chaotic when we get together but so much fun!!). Hopefully, we can make it to all or most of them. This one was in Georgia. Yeah! I haven't been to Georgia in 6 years. I was excited to see Georgia and see old friends again (Paul and I met in Georgia and lived there after we graduated from BYU for 3 years).

The plan was for Paul and I to fly on Delta on standby. We didn't have any other backup plans (big mistake). When we got to the airport we realized that flying on a different airline we are put at the bottom of the barrel unlike JetBlue which priority seating is when you check in (I love JetBlue). We couldn't get on the first flight so we waited for the next flight which was a few hours later and couldn't get on that one either. We decided to try to fly through Dallas and then go to Atlanta. We almost made it on that flight but didn't. We gave up and came home. I was frustrated. Paul's mom drove down from Idaho to help out with the kids. Big surprise when we came home! We exhausted all our options ways to get out that night or the next day. At this point all my sisters (yep, everyone was going to the wedding) were texting me and wondering when I was coming. I told them I probably wasn't. Of course, they wouldn't hear of it and my sister, Audralyn, called me and told me that she is flying me out on frequent flier miles. I was so emotional wreck. I thought I would be okay to not go but I knew I would be missing out on memories and times with my family. It was one of the nicest things. What would I do without my sisters! Unfortunately Paul couldn't come but it worked out for the best because Grandma could go back home and Paul took care of the kids (big relief, Sterling got strep and glad Grandma didn't have to deal with that). I felt bad for my kids because they were looking forward to spending time with Grandma and felt guilty that she had to turn around and drive back the next day. I wished she could have stayed and helped Paul out but she had to get back home.

I flew out the next day and met my family with open arms and tearing eyes. Let the party begin!

When I arrived, we put together the center pieces, went to a dinner hosted by the grooms family and stayed up late talking. The place we stayed was Cindy's (my sister in law) brothers house right on the lake. It was AMAZING and so much fun. It fit all of us, 6 sisters, 2 brother in laws, 1 brother and his wife and kids, and 2 babies. So fun for all of us to be together (my parents stayed at Greg's, my brother, house).

The next day was the wedding. My dad was the sealer which was made it personal. It got pretty emotional when he spoke about Grandpa Cronquist's (Cindy's dad) who passed away many years ago. He was a great man. Then pictures and some down time before the reception. We all decided to go to Slopes which is a famous BBQ restaurant. Delicious. We then headed to the reception center to help with the set up. Lots to do but with many helping hands we got it all done. Great reception and it was fun to see people I haven't seen in years. By the end of the day, I was exhausted! No late night just nighty night.

(Sidenote, we saw Santa Claus driving by in his red (sleigh) car, it was so much fun. He looked perfect. We had to all take a picture and sent it to our kids saying we saw Santa in Atlanta!)

The next day was Sunday which was my favorite day. Of course, it was only the right thing to do as a Bluth is sing in their ward (roll of the eyes). I love singing not just all the attention I get. We sang Mary's Lullaby in 4 part harmony and it sounded beautiful. We headed back to cabin and ate (leftovers from the reception) and sat around and talked. It was so enjoyable. We talked and laughed for hours. Then Greg made us sing again because his mother in law didn't hear the song. We sang acapella. Again, it was beautiful. Love making these memories.

Monday we went to downtown Atlanta. We walked around Martin Luthur King Jr Museum,

drove by Centennial Park where the Olympics were held and ate at Chicken and Pancakes owned by Gladys Knight.

That night DeLayne, Audralyn and I went shopping at the outlets. We were the 3 musketeers. None of us had our husbands and we had so much fun together. Good times.

Tuesday was travel day. I actually flew with Audralyn to Houston and then home to Salt Lake.

LASIK!

Because of all my eye problems, we (I) decided to push up the urgency of getting LASIK. As soon as my doctor cleared me, I set the appt. for December 7th. I thought I would be nervous but I was so excited. It took about 10 minutes for both eyes and I have a video of it. It's pretty cool and disgusting at the same time. I have an astigmatism so I actually got PRK which is more painful and a longer healing process than LASIK but I said Bring it On! And guess what? It was not painful at all. That's what I was most nervous about was the pain. I was waiting for it and wondering when it was going to hit. I got all the meds just in case it happened in the middle of the night. Nothing, not even discomfort. I was pleasantly surprised. I even went to dinner that night with friends, which the docs said I wouldn't feel up to it. I couldn't read the menu and everyone was blurry but other than that, it was fun. The next night we went up to Salt Lake, our annual trip with the Daytons at the Kimball. I still felt great but my vision got worse. Nothing like a lot of little Christmas lights blurry. Sunday we went to the broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I have lived in Utah my whole life and never been to it. It was so amazing to be there in person. So beautiful. The spirit is so strong as they sing their testimonies to everyone. My eyes are blurry so I pretty much just sat there with my eyes closed and listened.

The blurryness lasted about a week. I couldn't read or watch anything. Even when it was close up. It was pretty frustrating. Now I can see well and am thrilled about it. No more glasses or contacts. I can't wait to go swimming and not have to worry if my contact fell out. And no more worrying about taking out and putting in contacts when I go camping. My lucky husband got to have LASIK done a month after me. Now we both can really see each other's flaws, before they were covered with (rose-colored) glasses. :)