Glimples of the Future

Family, home, food, clothes, love, and of course...smiles.

These are a few of the things, that swarm my thoughts like locusts. At first you might think that I am being a bit shallow because of some of those things listed above, and that these things are relatively tertiary.

 I agree.

But allow me to paint the colors of perspective, and together we can reach an understanding that will take us from tertiary, to necessary.

I am a son, brother, uncle, cousin, friend, employee, confidant, teacher, husband, and soon to be, father. I am known to many by certain titles; Tiave, Chavez, Brown guy, Coach, baby, Shad, J, and as before that soon will come, Dad.

My family is necessary. For when the world of "friends" has gone out, who is left but those who are truly called family? And when I refer to family, understand that I speak of more than those who share blood, but also those who have, or who may yet, give blood in the name of Family.

Home is where the heart is. At current, I live with my beautiful wife, Renae. We reside in the home of her Father and Mother, Edward and Lynda; a place that at first, left me uncomfortable when without my wife. In my time there, I have found the sounds of endearing efforts, heartfelt prayer, tears of confidence, and words of comfort. I am taken to the time when as a young man, I was raised within the walls of the similar sounds. It is a house one may say, and to that I agree, but what is it that changes four walls of containment, into a hall of harmony, transforming a structure into a home?

Food you may say, is the source that fills our belly's. But I say food, is also the source  that feeds our souls the feast of happiness. It doesn't have to be the cheese burger from Mcdonalds, or the steak from the outback. It can be the family, and the friends, and the home the provide for our comforts.

Clothes - the tunics of metaphor. Why shouldn't they cloud my thoughts with concern? I am to be a Father, and what father would not want the means to clothe his family? Clothe them in the threads of warmth, the cloak of protection,  in shield of honor, and the strength of his love? Of the two men I now call Father, I speak of them both when I say, the mantle of my Father is the bond of his love, and how honored I am to bear that mantle. In the sound lyrics of a song I love, "I hope I'm at least half the dad, that *they* didn't have to be".

Love. The infinite, and ever present power of love. It brings pride to its knees, conflict to resolution, lies to truth, and war to peace. How do we ever presume to gather and build all that is necessary in our lives, and in our homes, and families, without this seemingly intangible force that governs our existence? We can't. It's impossible. Without this power, we simply roam without destination, linger without purpose, and exist without fiber. For what greater fiber is there to be woven throughout the tapestries of our lives, then the colors of perspective, beautifully enhanced by the threads of love?

My love grows deep, and is rooted in my heart. It grows like daylight breaking the night, radiant and powerful. It is witnessed in the life I live and threads I weave. My love is real. And so is my need to make clear the confusion in my thoughts. It is the love that leaves me with a smile each day.

Smiles are the charm that produce an effect that cannot be explained by science. They contain the ability to turn a cold season warm, and hard day easy, and a sad moment a memory. It is a sword of such power, it can be wielded by the wisest of men and women, or the youngest of children. So to all I implore, wield it well!

Thus is the work I am left with, to labor and to understand...
...and so I work to see the understanding...tertiary to necessary.

God speed...

My Next Project...

So... I have a bunch of boring wooden spoons like these...

They live on my counter in a holder kind of like this one... except mine is handmade and porclain and it's way more pretty... but you get the idea...

 As pretty as my little utinsil cup is... Being full of wooden spoons it's not as cute as I'd like it to be. But, as I'm sure you already figured out, I have a solution. I just got a new toy. It's called a dremel tool and it has about a zillion different attachements. And it gives me the ability to turn those boring wooden spoons into something cute. Like this. Only not burnt, just slightly carved out.

I'll let you know how they turn out. I'm very excited :)

Discount Sharing Time!

I couldn't figure out how to rotate these or make them better quality...

Here's what you need to know.

I got it at work. It's a special to get the employee discount at proflowers.com

Step 1: Go to www.proflowers.com/career

Step 2: Select your arrangement

-The "all the frills" bouquet is 60% off of $49.99 making it $19.99 + s/h

-Take 20% off all other products over $29.00

-Expires 05/12/12

-PERFECT for Mother's day coming up on May 13th.

I was thrilled when I found this deal and thought I would spread the savings around!

Happy Anniversary!

Oh was it, indeed!
Reason #1:

 We were able to be sealed in the temple exactly 1 year after our civil marriage. It was a stunning and beautiful experience and I am so happy that our family gets to be together for all eternity. Such a blessing.

Reason #2:

We got to go on a second honeymoon of sorts to the truly Fabulous Las Vegas! My parents were there for a few days and we were luck enough to be able to stay with his siblings while we were there! We have such amazing family! Along with spending time with family, we were able to do and see lots of different things! Like....

M&M's World. So Cute!

Coke Store! Lots of fun stuff in here! Even found a little hoodie for the baby when he/she gets here! Thanks Grandma Lynda!

1st time at the Hard Rock Cafe for me! It was delicious!

Excalibur Dinner show "The Tournament of the Kings" Amazing show, awesome food, great company :)

Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil. Stunning. Enchanting. Mind boggling. Awesome. Trippy. Cool.

And Reason #3 why this was a happy anniversary:

I got to spend it with my amazing husband. Lucky me :)

Coming Soon...

Our little baby is 11cm from bum to head. That's about 4.5 inches.
It's feet and hands are crossed over it's little gummi bear-like body.
It's little heart is thumping away at 174 bpm.
It’s still too early to know if we’ll be having a girl or a boy, but I’ll start taking guesses if anyone’s interested.

We have been pretty lucky in our first trimester. I was really sick for about 5 days, but we seem to be past that yuckiness and we haven’t come across any other issues.

We learned so much at our first Doctor’s appt yesterday! Our awesome OB/GYN Dr. Judd busted and verified some of the big pregnancy dos and don’ts and really made me feel comfortable with everything. With all the craziness, it’s hard to know what is true, and what is paranoia. Here are just a few things we found helpful/interesting.

“You can’t lift anything more than a gallon of milk” –BUSTED. You use your abdominal muscles, your lower back muscles and your biceps to lift and carry. In no way is your uterus in use at this time and the baby can’t even feel what you’re doing. If you have the muscle strength for it, you can lift/carry it.
 “You can’t eat fish” – BUSTED. You can’t eat MERCURY! Mercury is found in things like swordfish and shark. Who eats swordfish or shark? You can still have sushi and tuna fish. But just like EVERYTHING else in this world, do so in moderation.
“You can’t hot tub or take hot baths, because you’ll cook your baby” –BUSTED. In order for your baby to be affected at all by the heat from a bath tub or hot tub, you would have to have major burns on your body first.
 “You can’t take most medications.” –TRUE. Any medicine you may need should be discussed with your Dr. Things like ibuprofen and aspirin thin your stomach lining and could be really harmful to your pregnancy. Most medicines, even OTC, have the possibility of having an adverse affect on you and your baby.
“Now you’re eating for 2”-FALSE. When pregnant you only need to eat about 300 extra calories per day for your growing baby, and you only need about 30 fat grams in the same time. FYI, 30 fat grams is about 1 scoop of Baskin Robin’s ice cream.
“You’ll want to sleep ALL the time” –TRUE. With no effort, the baby takes up 25% of your energy every day. Most people operate on about 80% energy on a daily basis anyway. Take 25% away from that and you’re stuck trying to work full time, and take care of yourself and your family on 55% energy levels. The sad part is, it doesn’t matter what you eat or how much you sleep, the tiredness doesn’t go away. And it won’t until after 22ish weeks.

2 sayings to live by to have a fun and happy pregnancy…
“I can do anything I want as long as it’s not harmful to me. I can’t harm this baby without harming myself first”
“Now is the time to play, go out with my husband, and do the things we love, because in a year, I’ll have to find someone dumb enough to babysit if I want to go out.”

We are so excited for this chapter in our lives and are so thankful for the support of our friends and family!