Great News!! and a long winded post...

No, I'm not pregnant. The wonderful news is that my Chinese companion, my soul sister, my long time friend, Wang Xiao Rong, is coming to UTAH for Christmas!! I'm so excited to see her after these 4 long years. She has tried to come to Utah for school and work but with language barriers she is currently in Hawaii doing her undergraduate work. She says he might be able to get a job here and do her masters here. She is such a loving, wonderful woman. I can't wait to have Rick meet her. I talked to her yesterday and she helped translate for me with my neighbor. There is the sweetest Chinese lady that doesn't speak English here in my apartments. Xiao Rong translated and introduced us over the phone. It was wonderful. My companion is so fun. She can see things around her that no one else would have even noticed. She would pick things off trees as we would tract and peel them and it would be some kind of food she would use in cooking our lunch the next day. Or she would plant things in our yard and grow onions, and soy beans, and other things I don't even know what they are. She is so much fun and I am always learning from her. I love you Xiao Rong and I can't wait to see you again!

We had a bunch of Rick's old high school friends over this last weekend and it was a blast to play games with them and laugh and get to know them more. I just love these guys. They are all really good, polite, crazy, and fun young men. We definitely need to do that more often! Left to right, top to bottom: Mitch , his girlfriend Laiken, Dalen, Ben, Josh , Isaac's girlfriend Anglea, Isaac, Rick, Ben's girlfriend Brittney, Emily, Clay, and Me.

Here is Levi playing with toys in the morning while I make breakfast. He is sooo stinkin' cute! Look at that grin! He is in some 9-12 month clothes that are just a little too big.

I am loving the cooler weather but it sure makes working out in the morning hard. I go at 5:30am in the morning over to the Rec Center that is just around the corner. I drive there, but it is still miserable getting out of my warm bed, getting dressed, then going outside to sit in my cold car and drive to the gym, then walk through the large parking lot... all in the cold. Cold. Cold. Cold. Did I say it enough? It is worth it when you finish working out and you feel GREAT!!

On another note: Do you ever have those moments in life when you feel like something terrible is about to happen? That has been Rick and I ever since we got married. We have been so blessed and so happy we feel like there is something around the corner that is about to make our lives miserable. It seems everyone talks about those times where they really struggled with their Faith because of such and such, or a time when they never felt more stressed about finances, etc. We have had tight financial times, we have had worries, and we have had surprises that make us a little stressed, but we have never really been shaken up about anything. I don't know... that is just something I have been thinking about lately.

Rick and I have been trying to be better with our scripture reading. Ever since we got married we have read our scriptures everyday. We started in the Old Testament 2 years ago and right now we are only in Isaiah chapter 11. I love reading with Rick. He always gets so excited about the scriptures. We decided just this last week that we would start reading the scriptures in the morning because we can pay better attention and Levi is up then and he can start being exposed to it. I am liking it a lot more. It makes going to bed less of a hassle. We all struggle with that don't we? So tired... crawl in to bed and lay our head down then realize, "OH NO... SCRIPTURES!" and then force ourselves upright and pull out the scriptures and hurry over the verses then plop back down into bed and fall fast asleep without thinking much about what we just read. Well... no more. We are making the change now! We also are trying to pick up our FHE more! Next step, getting back into our regular temple attendance which has slacked since I was 9 months pregnant.

Last night we were making muffins and we got a knock on our door. It was a real estate agent that was asking us about our plans for buying a home. He got more than he bargained for because we quickly invited him in and started firing all our questions at him. He was really positive and great about being honest with us on our situation and potential home options. We spent some time online last night looking at houses. We are locked into a lease for another 9 months so I we won't be doing anything until after that, but we are looking.

I've been looking at jobs that I can do from home and I have found a few that I think I would like very much. I am really excited about one I applied for yesterday doing general bookkeeping. I would really like to do more to contribute to our savings and also have something more to keep my mind engaged everyday. We'll see if I even hear back from that job.

What else is going on? As of last Friday Levi can officially crawl. He is getting really fast. He loves to get into all the things I clean which makes me nervous because I use bleach and other chemicals that are harmful to him. It is a struggle but I have kept him out of the way so far. I just fear he is going to do something too fast for me. Speaking of, I was not being very careful with him last night and he fell... twice... and hit his head. He has a little bruise above his right eye. It makes me so sad. He is fine, but I still feel terrible.

So I have been wondering why he hasn't been sleeping more than 10 or so hours at night lately. I realized he has grown so much and I haven't increased his formula amount at bedtime. We gave him a couple more ounces of formula the past few nights and he has slept for almost 12 hours straight! It sure helps me get more done. He is such a good child. I just love him so much.