appendix

We really have had an eventful past couple of weeks, but this one is the most urgent on my mind. After spending 11 hours of airplane madness coming home from Utah yesterday, we went to the hospital and discovered that Brandon had appendicitis. Luckily we caught it early enough that it wasn't as dangerous as it could have been, but Brandon had surgery this morning to remove it. The surgery went well, and so far, he's doing okay. He's in a bit of pain and really out-of-it. :( It's sure not very fun to watch the one you love hurt and not be able to do much about it. They say he can come home as early as tonight, but he will have to stay home from work for about a week.

I am physically and mentally tired and worn out, but I am glad to know that Heavenly Father is watching over us. Both we and all of our parents felt that it was something more serious than a stomach ache (and even thought it might be appendicitis), even though his pain wasn't always horrible, and I am glad that we went and got it checked out. I'm grateful for the comfort that the gospel and priesthood blessings can bring. Please say a little prayer for Brandon that he might have a quick recovery!

Our Dads

Here's to the best dads ever. We love you guys!

And here's to an awesome future-dad!

Out with the old...

And in with the new?

Our 74 Beetle was officially totaled. So this post is an ode to the bug....
My first experience in the bug was a happy one. Brandon picked me up in it and told me that we could get back together and date again after all (we broke up for about a month and a half when we were dating, and after I told him I wanted to get back together, he made me wait a whole day before telling me he wanted to too). And we might have kissed while sitting on the bumper. Now look where we ended up! He actually bought the car to try to make himself feel better because he missed me. He said it really didn't work, though. Pretty romantic, huh?

We spent quite a bit of time working on it TOGETHER (I know, me working on cars? weird) that following spring and summer. We cleaned it, put down sound deadener and carpet, and got it running better. Then we decided to test in on the open road.

We decided to take it on a road trip to Portland and Seattle. It only made it to Burley, Idaho.

So then we spent more time working on it when we got home.

Even though I really didn't like driving it (I'm no good with sticks), I have lots of great memories in it.

• It became our Date car. We would take it for dates as often as possible
• Brandon would get some awesome gestures and comments while driving it (like people sticking their bodies out of their windows and looking back while driving).
• I especially liked going to the Cache Valley gardener's market in it while wearing Chacos and pretending we were hippies. I actually didn't know hippies still existed until fairly recently, so I was quite enchanted by the idea. I'm not sure if Brandon knew I was pretending we were hippies, come to think of it...
• The heater was pretty awesome. Burning hot air would come out of this little hole to the side of my feet when we drove fast.
• Getting stuck in a the cruise-in parade while driving by myself because the car kept stalling. No, I didn't mean to be in the parade.
• Following it all the way to Texas as it was pulled behind the Penske truck.
• Secretly putting hearts all over it for Valentines day. It looked very sweet.
• Hearing that distinctive bug sound from about a block away and knowing Brandon was almost home.
• Brandon always telling me he thought he had figured out how to get rid of the gas smell. It never really worked out.

It turns out we only have one picture of us with the bug. This is when we were about to move away. We will miss it. It has been a fun little car. But I guess it is maybe time to get something more practical and safe, so maybe this has been a blessing in disguise. We decided that in memory of the bug, we had to get a little model bug to display (that's the one at the top)

In other news, we were able to finally get a new couch and loveseat (we have been wanting leather couches ever since we've been married, and finally we got them!)

We are pretty excited about them. They look more reddish in the picture than they really are. They are actually quite brown. We even got to go on a factory tour at the place where they make them. Brandon was happy about that.