Merry Christmas!

I know this is a few days late, but I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you had as wonderful a day as we had. My cute sister-in-law left me a message suggesting that a do a new post now that I've decided to go private, so this is for you Jesse. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my Mom and Dad's 31st wedding anniversary. I just wanted to wish them a Happy Anniversary and I hope they have many, many more wonderful years together. Thanks Mom and Dad for all you have done for me. I appreciate your examples. You mean so much to me and I miss you so much. I love you so much and hope you enjoy spending time together today. Dad, I hope you get feeling better soon. Love you!

A Christmas Carol

Friday evening, Dec. 5th, Jon and I went on our Christmas date. We decided that instead of giving each other a bunch of presents this year, we would go on a fun date. A sister in our stake told me how much fun it is to see the play A Christmas Carol at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, so we decided we'd do that for our date. We headed up to the cities around 3:30, so we could go out to dinner before the show. We stopped at PF Changs for dinner and we had an excellent meal. Don't you just love their lettuce wraps? Anyway, I went to use the restroom after dinner and when I came back, Jon informed me that he didn't have his wallet. He went out to the car to see if it had fallen out of his pocket, but unfortunately, it wasn't there. The only thing we could think, is that he was so busy getting other things, most importantly our tickets, that he forgot to grab his wallet. I didn't have my purse with me, because I had asked him before we left if I needed to take it with me and he said "No". Here we were sitting in PF Changs having enjoyed a wonderful meal and no way to pay for it. I've seen this happen in the movies, but I wasn't sure what would happen in real life. I finally decided to call my dad and ask him if he wanted to pay for our dinner. Luckily the manager was okay with that and thanks to my dad, we didn't have to spend our evening doing dishes. Thanks Dad! I had to chuckle, I thought it was quite hilarious. Jon didn't find it as funny, until we got home and he saw his wallet safe where he had left it. Anyway, we went to the play and again realized we didn't have any money to pay for parking. We figured we could park on the street, but of course they only have metered parking and they meter until 10pm. We didn't have any change or any other options, so we parked at a meter and took our chances. Lucky for us, it snowed all evening and no one was out metering, so we didn't get a ticket. Someone was looking out for us that night. On the way home, we laughed about our fun adventure, saying it will be a date we will always remember and always be able to laugh about. We need those kind of moments in our lives to remind us to laugh. We had a very enjoyable evening together. Thanks for the fun date, babe!

Merry Christmas

Usually I am very good about making sure we get our picture taken for our Christmas cards each year, but this year has been a little crazy. Between school, work, trips and illness, we just didn't get around to getting our pictures taken. I planned to have someone take pictures of us in the fall when the leaves were all different colors, but the few times I thought we could do it, it was too windy. We just had our first snow fall that has stayed and I am sick with a cold, so the last thing I want to do is go outside in the 16 degree weather and have someone take pictures of us for a Christmas card. Anyway, my family had pictures taken this summer and I didn't like any of the pictures of just Jon and I, so I decided to post a picture of my whole family. I hope you will all forgive me for not sending out Christmas cards this year, but know that we are thinking of each of you this holiday season.

We have had a pretty good year. Jon finished one full year of teaching here at Minnesota State University and is almost done with the fall semester of his second year. He is really enjoying teaching, though it can be frustrating at times. I decided I didn't have enough excitement in my life, so I thought it would be fun to take some classes. I loved school during the first few weeks of class, and then the assignments started. It has been a decent semester, not quite what I was hoping for, but it never is when you still have to take Gen. Ed. classes. I would like to try and get my bachelors degree in Psychology. No, I'm not planning on a career change, I've always enjoyed Psych classes and thought this would be a great time to take advantage of taking classes with free tuition. Jon and I have really enjoyed our first year in Mankato. It is a beautiful place to live, but way too cold for me in the winter. I told Jon, after last winter, when we move again, because we aren't planning to stay here forever, we are moving somewhere warmer. He told me the only place colder than here would be Alaska. I told him if he ever gets a job in Alaska I'm moving to Utah, to be close to family, without him. I hate the cold and here in Mankato it gets really windy, and it blows right through you. I just hate it! Even though I don't like the winters here, there are many positive aspects to living in Mankato. We have made many wonderful friends and we have a great ward. I am primary worker and Jon is the 1st or 2nd counselor in the Elder's Quorum presidency. We really enjoyed our first spring and summer here. The weather was beautiful and almost made up for the cold winter. We are happy and enjoying our time together. We are anxious to start our family, but we are taking advantage of the time we have together. We are hopeful that 2009 will be a promising year for us. We haven't made any decisions about what we are going to do next, but we know we will be guided by the Lord. We appreciate all of your prayers on our behalf, they mean so much to us. We know most of you are as hopeful for us as we are for ourselves. We love and appreciate all of you and all that you do for us. We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love, Jon and Tara

It's Christmas time!

One of our traditions, is to put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Jon and I bought a new tree this year, so it was a lot of fun to put it up. It didn't look to big at the store, but we got it put up and realized it's a little bit bigger than we had thought. Oh well, it still looks great. We need to buy a new tree skirt for it, because we threw our old one away last year, it was just a piece of red felt. We also put Christmas lights on our house, for the first time and I was the lucky one who got to get on the roof to put them up. I was a little scared at first, but once I realized I wasn't going to slip right off I was okay, especially if I didn't look directly at the ground. Here are some pictures of our Christmas decorating. We hope all of you have as much fun decorating your homes for the Christmas holiday, as we did. Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm so grateful for a loving husband.

I'm especially grateful for his patience and understanding.

Thanks for all you do for me.

I just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope all of you had a wonderful day. We spent our Thanksgiving with friends from our ward. Our friends the Jeffreys were kind enough to host us and three other families for the yummy feast. We had excellent food and great company. It was quite a relaxing day for all. I also wanted to mention a few of the things that I am most grateful for. There are many, but here are some of the important ones: a loving Savior, the gospel, my wonderful husband Jon, my family and Jon's family, good friends who have blessed our lives so much, good health, good jobs, and a beautiful comfortable home. I have so much to be thankful for and I know that it all comes from the Lord. I am so grateful that we have this wonderful holiday to give our thanks to our Heavenly Father for all that He has blessed us with.

News Update!

I wasn't sure what to call this post. I thought of calling it baby update, but then everyone would think that I'm pregnant, when in fact it's just the opposite. I am writing this entry for myself and to let all of you know what has been going on with us in the "trying to get pregnant" world. We tried IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) four different times this year, with no success. The last month we tried, was September, after our fun summer trip to Utah. I went in for an ultrasound the end of September and found out that I had a large cyst on my right ovary, so IUI wouldn't be possible for the month of October. I have had a few medical issues that I've wanted to have checked out so I dedicated October as the month to get all those appointments done. First I ended up getting laryngitis and found out that it was caused by reflux, which I had no idea I had. I ended up having a CT of my sinuses to find that my cheek sinuses are a little small and my nasal septum is crooked, nothing serious. I also saw a Gastrointestinal doctor for a check up. The end of September, I ended up having a partial or full bowel obstruction and ended up in the ER. I haven't had a GI doctor for several years, and I haven't had any tests to make sure that things are okay, so I made an appointment. I ended up having an endoscopy scope and found out that everything is just fine. When I went in for my appointment last Friday to discuss the results of the scope, my doctor gave me an article about infertility in women who have had the same surgery that I had when I was 15, due to ulcerative colitis. As I read it, I learned that women who have had this sugery have a higher rate of infertility, about 38% to 44%. You would think that after reading this, I would be even more discouraged, but I wasn't. I was actually quite relieved. Jon and I have been trying for several years to have children and have been unsuccessful. The doctors always tell us that our reports come back normal, so it's been quite frustrating not to know why, until now. We met with Sue, the nurse practitioner we've been working with and the decision was made to completely stop trying IUI. I am at peace with this decision. Jon and I have been praying for guidance and we've definitely been guided. Jon told me yesterday, it's apparent that there is a Master planner who has a specific plan for us. I can attest to that. We have been blessed so much. The Lord has guided us these past several years, and at times, the next step has just fallen in place. We feel that has happened again recently. We have the opportunity to put some money aside pre-tax that could be used for IVF, if that is the decision we choose. Receiving all this information that has lead us to the realization that we probably will never be able to have kids on our own has been a blessing. My mom related a personal story to me yesterday that was another confirmation that our situation is all part of the Lord's plan. He has always known the plan and has been guiding and blessing us along the way. Just recently I have been able to truly accept the idea of adoption or IVF. I feel good about either and I'm finally ready to go which ever route the Lord knows we should take. A year ago I wasn't ready to accept this, I had to go through all the experiences that we've had this year, and the past four years to get to this point. So many things and people have prepared both of us for this day. This weekend, Jon and I are going to fast and take a trip to the temple, to receive some guidance on the next step to take. Both of us feel very good about IVF or adoption. Jon has recently been thinking about adoption a lot. I have thought about both equally, although twice this week I've had experiences that have reassured me about adoption. I know I could be happy with either decision. I truly feel that our turn to have a baby is getting closer. I told my mom, I feel it so close, almost like I could reach out and grab it. I am full of hope and joy! I know the Lord will bless us and guide us until we are blessed to have a baby. Jon has been so strong and has never doubted that we'd ever have children. It took me a while to get to that point too, but I know we will have kids someday, and hopefully that day is coming soon.