Dedicated to a very special friend. Gus Gus.

I knew it was going to happen soon. I even had a phone call about it with my parents just days ago. Never a happy topic to talk about.


Saturday, my basset hound, Gus, passed away. We have had him for 11 going on 12 years. He was 13 1/2 years old. He was going down hill and fast. He just seemed to get sicker and sicker every day. The last time Marcus and I went out to see my folks, Gus whimpered because he couldn't get on the love seat. He seemed to be always getting sick, and he just looked tired and sad. I knew it was going to be soon that I would have to say goodbye.


I have a lot of memories with Mr. Gus Gus. He was a wonderful friend and companion throughout my childhood. I got him as a gift from my parents in the 7th grade. He was almost three years old. Dark brown face eventually turned grey. He would play hide and seek and even tag in our back yard. He always greeted me at the door when I came home. Even when I moved away from home, he was always happy to see me. He was even one of the first to welcome Marcus into the family. 


As I write this, I keep thinking of more and more memories of Gus. Last night I had a conversation about animals going to heaven. Marcus comforted me with some knowledge he possessed. He told me that one time, a woman lost a close pet and was upset. She went to talk to the prophet Joeseph Smith about it. He informed her that every creature that serves its purpose will live with our Heavenly Father. I know that Gus is up there. Probably just over the "Rainbow Bridge."


Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. 

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....


A friend sent me this poem and it brought me a lot of comfort. Another thing that brought me comfort was Luke 12:6, here it states that of the sparrows are sold. "not one of them is forgotten before the Lord."


Gus was never forgotten. Heavenly Father knows all of his creatures, great or small. For he created them all.


I love you Gus Gus. You were a very special friend and companion. I am still shedding tears as I write this blog. You will never be forgotten old pal. May you rest in peace and I hope you are just as loud and excited when you greet me on the other side of that "Rainbow Bridge." I will be looking forward to seeing you there. 

I will love you forever Gus Gus

Your Friend,

Karin

Lydia's Newborn Pics

30 years and Counting

September 25, 1981 a wonderful thing happened.  My father and my mother's hand, they gave their vows, and were married. My parents were young and very much in love, and 30 years later, they still are. They have been through a lot. They started a farm, raised 3 children, lost the farm to a tornado, rebuilt, started their own business, put three kids through college, and now they are grandparents. Mom and Dad have always set a wonderful example on what marriage should be about. Centered around God and they always gave 100/100 into their marriage. None of this 50/50 crap, they gave their marriage their all, and tomorrow, Sunday, September 25th, 2011, they will be celebrating 30 years of a wonderful marriage. They have been a wonderful example for Marcus and I on what marriage should be about. Both of them are amazing people and would do anything they could to help their children and also their grand-daughter. 

Mom and Dad, Marcus and I love you and are really happy for your 30 years of marriage. We wish you many more!!

Love you!

Marcus and Karin

A Comforting Prayer/Poem

As you have read in my previous post. Life has been stressful. And yesterday wasn't much better. I forgot to pack Lydia a bottle when she was being babysat, so we had to go buy a bottle when we literally have no money from a mistake I made with our finances earlier last week. Go me. And it only got worse. But I did have a wonderful concert playing with the Hastings Symphony Orchestra. 


Anyway, my mother has sent me this poem/prayer for comfort. She always knows what I need to read and hear. I hope I become half of the mother she was. 


Oh give me patience when wee hands,
Tug at me with small demands.
Give me gentle, smiling eyes. Keep my lips from hasty replies.
So in the future when my house is still,
No bitter empties it's rooms may fill.

"There is a reason I know this prayer by heart. Hang in there."


I will never forget the love and support my parents have always showed me. I am not going to lie, we have had our tough times, but yet what parent and child have not had hard times? I mean, seriously? But no matter what, my Mom and Dad have always showed love towards me. I will never forget how wonderful parents they are still, and how blessed I am for God blessing me with such wonderful parents.


Love you Mom and Dad.

Struggles vs. Blessings

Many wonderful things have happened since Lydia has arrived. She has been such a little blessing in our lives, but yet, I find with her as a blessing, I have been having some major struggles with her as well...

Lydia is going to hate me for posting this blog when she is 13. 

Lydia has been a struggle for me since she was born. I don't know if it is just adjusting to being a new mom or being far away from my close friends and family. I just don't know. She seems to be really colicky to me. She would scream constantly from 7-11pm every night for the last few weeks. I took her to her wellness check last week. Turns out the little kiddo was super constipated which caused really bad gas for her. (This is why she will hate me when she is 13.) The doctor said that she has been backed up probably for a couple weeks. Which, explains a few things. Also, she managed to get thrush and then pass it to me, which made feedings uber fun as well. We are both over that now though. Yay. 

I tend to find working with her to be overwhelming. Every time she cries I feel my stress level shoot through the roof. I want to go just hide in a corner when she cries, yet when my husband wants to help me with her, I tend to not let him and not share the load with him. So, even when I am really stressed and overwhelmed, I can't seem to let my husband help. I don't understand. He wants to help, but I won't let him.

I seem to have a hard time as well with the demands a baby has and what my body has. When she cries I need to nurse. It seems that I don't have my own life anymore I guess. I am at my daughter's beckon call. I always knew that would be the case, but I didn't think it would be so hard to adjust to it. I couldn't imagine how demanding a 5 week old baby is. Along with her demands, I have to comply with demands of my home, my calling at church, my animals, and my husband. I have to keep up with the house, take care and show love to my pets, and of course be a compassionate, patient, and loving wife to my husband. Playing with a symphony, means I have to keep up with the demands of playing my horn at the level I am supposed to be. Also, I do have a new job. It the most stressful job, but I have to meet those demands as well. I am overwhelmed with demands.

I know that I am not that different than many other first time moms, or even moms with more than one child. I know I am not the only one with family far away, and living in a new place. I really miss my family. I miss my friends back home. I miss having church 15 minutes away at most instead an hour drive. I miss the drive out to my folks place. For some reason, I am just having a difficult time dealing with it all. 

Don't get me wrong. I do love my daughter, the town I am living in, and the new ward I am attending. I would do anything for my daughter. Even though I tend to feel stress when she cries, when she is feeding and looking up at me, I see so much innocence in her. So much trust. She is so beautiful. Marcus  doesn't like this, but I love to have her beside me in bed and just snuggle with her all night long. I love protecting her. And my heart aches when she isn't feeling well because of gas, thrush, constipation, or if I don't know what is wrong, but I just know she isn't feeling well. 

Also, the people of this small town are so supportive. Many people know we are new in town and that our families are far away. They have thrown me a baby shower, even if I wasn't exactly sure what their names were. I have had people stop by just to see how I was doing. Also, I mentioned to someone how since Lydia was born in August, I have a lot of warmer weather clothing, but have nothing for these cooler rainy days. She went out and bought some little fleece outfits for her. People in this town have even went out of their way to help us move at the last minute. Even though, it is a small town, and people talk, I have yet to hear someone say a bad word about anyone. People genuinely care about each other in this town. And I love that. 

Honestly, I am really having some struggles right now. Prayers are appreciated. But, even though I am struggling with some things, there are blessings. I just have a hard time finding them sometimes. I am a new mom who is new with infants in general. But I wouldn't trade my little girl for anything. 

Anyway, here is an update with life. Labor day weekend we went back to Lincoln and had our daughter blessed. It was a great day. :) Many family and friends met Lydia for the first time. Also, it was her first Husker game. Also, right after Lydia was born (one week) we had some family pictures taken. Here is a sneak peak and some pictures from the events of Labor Day weekend. 

Lydia's blessing dress was made by Sister Donna Lamont from my new ward. The dress was made out of my wedding dress and was made to resemble it. 

Lydia's blessing day with Grandma Janet and Grandpa Scott. 

Auntie Jenni with Lydia

Auntie Kaylin with Lydia

Grandpa Scott holding his beautiful grand-daugehr and Auntie Kaylin striking a pose. 

Grandma Jeanette and Grandpa David with Lydia

Family Picture on her blessing day

Grandpa Scott with Lydia on Husker Game Day!

Family Picture on Husker Game Day

One of Lydia's newborn pictures

One of our family pictures. I can't wait to see the rest. :)

New home, new school year, and new baby. Life's greatest blessings are life's greatest stresses.

I haven't been able to write in a long while. Life has been chaotic. Really. Not kidding. Two weeks before my due date, my husband and I were informed that our rental house was sold and that we needed to move. Well, there is no where to rent in this little town. We felt trapped. We had no idea what to do. Well, there was a miracle and someone took their house that was for sale off of the market so we can rent it until next summer. Yay! Miracle. So, the week of my due date we pack up our whole house and move. I wanted the kiddo to come, yet not because of the move. It was hectic. 

Here is a picture of me in our new house. (hence the mess in the background.) This was August 7.

Also, while waiting for our little one's arrival, we were steadily approaching school starting. With that, Marcus was not too keen on taking days off from the first day of school, on top of mandatory trainings for new teachers. Well, she held off and he was able to attend the mandatory meetings.

Wednesday, August 10 finally came. My doctor decided to induce, mostly because how large I got. Well, we arrived at the hospital at 7am. They started the induction at 8. Let's just say now, labor=no fun. but I am sure most of you already knew that. For some reason I always figured the delivery part would be the hardest... I am pretty sure labor beats that. I thought I was going to die. Good thing I didn't. It kinda reminded me of Braveheart at the end when his intestines were being ripped out from his body and he yells "FREEDOM!!!" only I didn't yell freedom. I had some choice words instead that would be inappropriate to post on this blog. :P Any who... labor went more interesting than it needed to be. I was not progressing like I was supposed too, the baby wasn't dropping, and every contraction I had made the baby's heart rate drop. Near the end the baby's heart rate dropped below 50 beats per minute.  Also, I had to be put on oxygen and I needed a breathing treatment. My doctor finally decided that it was too dangerous for the baby to keep going. (Which I TOTALLY get...) I mean something HAD to be going on when there are two anesthesiologists, three nurses, and my doctor within 15 feet of me for over an hour watching the monitors. So, we went in for a c-section.

Lydia Elaine Price arrived into the world at 7:35pm. She ended up having the umbilical cord wrapped around her next. With every contraction it would squeeze the cord causing her heart rate to drop. The doc said if I actually delivered, it would not have gone  or ended up well. Yay for a great doctor! 

Marcus holding Lydia. She was an hour old?

Proud Grandparents. :)

This was me and Lydia the next day. After a shower and such. I will spare you the "first family pic" photo because EVERYONE knows how flattering those pictures are... not. 

Lydia all wide awake. This was the day after we came home from the hospital. All bright eyed! 

This baby girl is truly a blessing in our lives. It is crazy that we are parents now! Honestly, it still hasn't really set in for me. Besides the nursing part, I don't feel like a mother yet. It is just surreal. Maybe it is due to lack of sleep at night. 

Here is a video of her at 9 days old doing Tummy Time. I can't believe how well she is holding her head up! I hope the video works. I am not so good at this whole movie and web stuff yet. If you want you can find it on Facebook too.

Life has been really stressful and hectic the past few weeks. Kinda insane really. But honestly, life's greatest blessings come from the stresses of life. I wouldn't change a thing. And I would do anything for my baby girl. 

Karin 

Blessings are found through Challenges right?!

Even though I am sure there are blessings all over the place, life seems exceptionally difficult right now.

The landlord put our house on the market this summer when they said they weren't going too. They also said it probably won't sell. Well, guess what. It did. We weren't even told an offer was made on it. There for we had 30 days to get out of our already new home. We just got settled. Goodie...

So life was really stressful because of that. EVERY REALTOR around said all the rental houses were full. I also learned that many rentals are through word of mouth. I called around town and again nothing. Even if we had a lead we would call a day too late and just miss it. But, there was a blessing of eventually finding a house. It was for sale and they are friends from school who had to move away. They heard of our situation and told us we can rent it for 9 months. Then they would have to put the house on the market again. But hey, guaranteed home for at least 9 months. Woo!  And rent is cheaper too. I will post pictures of our again new home when we actually move. Which should be this Friday. A week to pack up our house and get going. YIKES!

Along with the whole stress of moving, I am now in my 40th week of pregnancy. My due date is this coming Sunday, August 7. I am wiped out beyond belief. And I can't even afford the time to take a nap because I have to much to do. Sad face. :(  Anyway, Lydia is being stubborn and hasn't even dropped yet. Hopefully she comes soon. Mostly because Marcus starts school on the 9th for teacher in service and  school actually starts on the 15! So Come on Lydia! We need you to come soon!!

Marcus is also uber stressed due to some wonderful things at school. Besides needing to inventory all of his sheet music, his computer was stolen by a student. It was recovered, but most of his work from the last few weeks has been wiped clean off the computer. So he has to redo a lot of his work he has already done this summer, on top of that adding on his sheet music inventory and just getting ready for school in general.

Also, this is more for a vent... but I really think more people should have heard "The Law of Consecration and the Law of Sacrifice" lesson that we taught the Young Women this past Sunday. I am not going to go into much more, but it makes me upset that people are not willing to sacrifice for you when you have sacrificed for them. Especially during an extremely stressful time in life.

Venting Over.

Anyway, I know there are blessings. I mean we were blessed with a new home very quickly. My daughter is still healthy and strong, even though she makes Mommy feel miserable.

Another blessing is that Marcus and I have a great grasp on communication. Stress levels are super high right now. We are both exhausted from lack of sleep (mostly because he is freezing from the thermostat being turned WAY down and his wife tossing and turning all night long because she can't get comfortable). We are both stressed with this moving stuff, and his computer being stolen, and school starting, and blah blah blah. Anyway, the blessing is, is that since we both know we are stressed, if we snap at each other it is forgiven pretty quickly, or not even bothered with at all. We have started asking each other if we are "open" meaning, are we in a mood we can discuss something without getting offended. And if we aren't we say so, and we bring the topic up at another time.

We also needed a washer and dryer for our new place. Which we have no money to do. Well, we were blessed with one. Thank God!!

I am blessed with an amazing doctor. She really knows her stuff. She is amazing. Love her very much.

Also, I am blessed with a great community. Many people have offered their help. Thank you!

I am also blessed with the people of the church. They are willing to drop everything to come and help us move at the last minute.

I am also blessed with a loving family who lets me call and complain to them so I can get things off my chest. They are super supportive.

Blessings usually come from challenges. I kinda just wish they would just come on their own. But I guess then you don't learn either. The best lessons in life are from the challenges we face, which turn into the biggest blessings we can ever receive. Just need to be strong enough to see it and just keep trucking.

Karin Marie