Mission Call for Ryan

My awesome little brother Ryan got his mission call on Friday. He is going to the California Los Angeles Spanish speaking mission. He enters the MTC on New Year's Eve.

Congratulations Ryan!

It was exciting to be able to be there in person when he opened his call. Yet another nice thing about living in Utah.

Baby Gone Wild

Thursday night a couple of my college roommates, Kelsey and Emily Jean, threw me a baby shower. The theme was Baby Gone Wild, which definitely lent itself to some great decorations.

Leopard print balloons

Super cute diaper cake

Zebra print prize bags

Wild treat table

The best part of the night was the guest list. I was able to see my mom and sisters and reunite with good friends from the past. I was looking forward to this night for weeks because of who I would see there: Jennifer from high school, Trish from California, Brittany and Suzanne, who were my favorite college next-door neighbors, and freshman roommates Kelsey, Emily, and Theresa. I loved seeing everyone again.

Another freshman roommate, Stephanie, was planning to be there until she ended up with a complication in her pregnancy and was ordered on bedrest for a couple of days. So, when the shower was over, the rest of us roomies headed over to Steph's house and continued the party there. It was such a blast! We were reminiscing on all our crazy times and laughing so hard we were crying. Thanks for letting us crash your house, Steph.

Theresa, me, Kelsey, EJ

I had such a great night. Thanks for planning the party, Kemily!

28 Weeks

This was me last Friday. I'm borrowing someone else's computer/Internet access so I can get this posted before I'm significantly more huge than that. Enjoy!

For a quick update, Todd is in Central California, and I am in Midway, UT. We've got about 2 1/2 weeks apart, and then we'll both be in Sacramento again for a few weeks, living in hotels once again. Can't wait for October 1st! Miss you, Todd.

Sympathy Dreams

So, the book, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" states that husbands may experience symptoms similar like those of their pregnant wives, sympathy pains, so to speak. I've been checking in periodically with Todd to see if he has a sore back, sore feet, etc. Usually, there has been nothing on his end.

However... last week he dreamed that he was pregnant. He was several months behind me, so we were going to end up with two kids about three months apart in age. He wasn't huge yet, just had the little bump. Sadly, he doesn't remember many more details, but we will take what we can get. He hardly ever remembers his dreams at all, so this was quite the special occasion.

Speaking of bumps, my baby loves to move these days, and her favorite spot is right below my right rib. I think I have internal bruising. Seriously, there's tons more space in there to explore - why does she always poke and prod at this same spot? It's been weeks now!

(I try to complain, but truly I love every single movement. It is my favorite part of being pregnant. I love to feel this little girl inside me.)

Update Since We Moved

Well, guys, Todd and I fell off the side of the Internet world, but now we're climbing back in. We haven't been taking pictures, so I'll try to keep this short and sweet since there are no visuals to hold your attention.

On Wednesday, August 20th, Todd graduated from Flight School as an Honor Graduate, one of the top three in his class of 50 students. What can I say, I'm married to a genius. That afternoon, we hopped in the Penske and said goodbye to Alabama. We drove for two and a half days and rolled into Midway, Utah late Friday night.

We spent last week moving into our new house and hanging out with family. Highlights: watching my brother Ryan be ordained to the Melchezedik Priesthood; floating the Provo River; wakeboarding (just Todd); and just being around our families.

On Labor Day, we got in the car again and drove to Sacramento, California. This is the first stage of Todd's pre-mobilization training, and I came with him for the first week and a half - the last ten days I get to live with Todd other than "visits" for the next 13 months. It's a bittersweet time for us. We're so thankful for every day we are still together, but we definitely feel the clock ticking. It bites to be able to count down how many days we have left until we separate. I feel like crying a lot, but then I tell myself to wait - love these days together, and cry later. I'll have plenty of time for that down the road.

Okay, one picture. Here is where we ate lunch yesterday. We were so excited to be back in California so we could taste this deliciousness!

Am I Too Old to Think This is Funny?

A Gift to the Bonners, love Alabama

Last night we left a friends' house at 11:30 and couldn't believe how cool it was outside. Where was the muggy, hot weather we've come to expect? Instead, it was dreamy. We drove home with the car windows rolled down and opened all the windows in the house to let in the fresh air overnight. When I walked downstairs this morning, I couldn't believe the difference. It. Felt. Awesome!

All day we waited for the heat and humidity to come back, but it's been "like the Bay Area," as Todd put it. So beautiful and pleasant. I can't believe it. It was only 88 degrees when we left church at noon - normally it's in the mid-nineties and feels like death.

So we celebrated. We soaked it up. We played bocce ball, something I've been dying to do for weeks, but not badly enough to endure the humidity. I didn't even break a sweat out there. It was so nice.
We had Baja citrus chicken, grilled on the BBQ, for dinner, and ate it oN tHe DeCk!!! I've been missing that place! After dinner, we lounged in our camp chairs and chatted for a good 45 minutes, and then cleaned up dinner and went for a nice long walk.

I am loving it!

Thank you, Alabama, for this beautiful parting gift.

23 Weeks

Well, there's no more denying that there's a baby in there. I'm way more huge than I was a month ago when I posted the last pic. Four more months for The Bean and me to grow!

I'm Bugged

That's it. I'm not stepping outside one more time for three weeks, until the day we move away from this infernal state.

I'm washing floors today. Todd sometimes uses the same bucket for car washing with his Boy Scouts. There was some residual car wash soap, as well as a dead bug, in the bottom of the bucket when I took it off the shelf half an hour ago. I took the bucket outside to spray it out with our water spigot.

Apparently, when I turned on the water, I disturbed a hill of fire ants.
Before you could count to three, my entire foot was stinging. I looked down, and fire ants were swarming all over the driveway and up both my legs. I immediately dumped the water from the bucket on my legs and then picked the rest of the ants off with my fingers as fast as I could. Too late to avoid bites.

Look how red my second toe is. And do you see the big white bite in the middle? I hate these guys! They are so vicious.
And then, as I was hurrying inside to get the anti-itch cream I badly needed, I was bit TWICE on the arm by an airborne insect. I batted it away quickly and am not sure if it was a wasp or a spider or what. So there's a huge welt on my arm, too. Todd thinks it was a muddigger wasp, coming back for revenge since we knocked their nest down the other day.

I'm so ticked. I hate Alabama bugs. August 20th couldn't come any sooner...

Additional Note: Two and a half hours later, I broke my oath and cut Todd's hair out on the back patio, because I didn't want the hair clippings all over my freshly washed floor. I wore shoes: Todd did not. Todd got NINE bites on his feet, possibly from spiders, because they are huge and itchy and fire ant bites usually don't bother him like they do me. The insects are planning a complete take-over!

More News!!!

We have another piece of rather large news to divulge. However, this news is not so exciting, quite the opposite. We finish up flight school here in Alabama in about a month, after which we were planning on returning to California. Well, we're not; at least not for another year. Looks like I'll be heading to Afghanistan and Angie will be moving to Utah coming this August. I'll be doing some training in Oklahoma from October-December; so hopefully I'll be able to come home for the baby's birth around 1 December. Then December to October-ish overseas. We're looking forward to having a baby, but not so much this time apart. I'm sure Angie will get lots of help from family and friends as she learns to take care of a new baby, so thanks in advance.

I'm sure that everyone has varying opinions about the war, but I for one believe that all men (not just Americans) "are created equal" and are "endowed by their creator with certain unailiable rights." I am proud to be able to stand up for the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of others, irregardless of nationality. Proud to stand up against those that champion fear and anarchy.

The war hasn't gone as well as planned. War never does. It's easy to sit back and second guess other's decisions; they should've done this or that, etc. However, all too often this criticism comes from those unwilling to DO anything but offer criticism, and suggest inaction was and is the best course of action , that "someone else" should take care of the problem.

Looks like that someone else is me, and I'll be proud to do it.