H2O+Cat= PAIN

JOKES
I am please to announce that I am scratch free!!!
Today Cobalt jumped upon my lap and was trying to be all cute, But all I could smell was nastiness.
So I decided that it was time after 6 years to have a bath.
I did not know how she would react, and to my surprise she handled it quite well. She did do some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, which noise caused molly to come check in on us, but I was very impressed with our cat..

The picture of the hand is some random picture on the internet, but the one below is kind of funny and now she smells so much better.

SECOND TRIMESTER!!!

As I am nearing the end of my second trimester just wanted to make some quick notes and reminders of all the things I loved and disliked about the second trimester.

Loves/Likes:

-Feeling Baby kick everyday
-Mark Feeling the baby kick
-Being able to exercise.
-Finding out we are having a girl
-Starting to buy stuff (I got all of my Etsy purchases in finally and can't wait to put them up)
-Feeling great about 95% of the time, I get a little icky her and there but can't complain so far this pregnancy has been pretty easy, a little stressful but pretty easy.
- Watching my belly grow.
-Being able to eat what I want no more aversions to fruit and vegetables.
- Having my first real craving today of pizza pretzels (did not get to have it but will probably go buy one tomorrow to satisfy that craving)
-Deciding on a name for baby (Macie Ryan Hunsperger)
-Loving people telling me how cute I look, even though I don't feel very cute and I think I look huge, I truly love it and get a huge smile on my face when someone says oh Kalinda look at how cute you are.
- Being at the stage of viability if I went in to early labor, she would be tiny but has a 90% chance of making it.
- knowing that in 3 months and 4 days I am done work for a whole entire year
- My complexion
-My hair

dislike:
-watching my legs, face and but grow
-still being scared of something going wrong
-wishing I got those huge cravings that pregnant women talk about where they have to have a certain thing right then and there, just want to know what that feels like.
-back pain, has not been to bad but every now and then it acts up on me.
-deciding how much money do I really need to spent on baby, what is to much and what is not enough.

BRANCH CAMP OUT!!!!

This weekend we had our 3rd annual branch camp out. It was a very small turn out but an absolute blast. We headed out Friday evening to Dilberry Lake and arrived around 7:30 getting our tent and supplies set up then mixed and mingled with friends. Around 9:30 we had a fireside that Mark prepared and did a fabulous job talking on how we need to soar like Eagles instead of perch like Parrots. Then Brother Jensen got a fabulous game of Big Booty going and was the event of the evening with Micah Jensen coming in as the victor. After visiting and some smores eating we headed off to bed. Mark and I got to try out our brand new sleeping bags we got for our future camping trips with our kids, and I must say they were worth every penny. So warm and pretty cozy. Mark was sweet enough to let his prego wife sleep on the cot well he slept on this tiny air mattress. I think I got the best sleep I have ever gotten when camping. We woke up Saturday morning and had a joint pancake breakfast with everybody there, with sausages and eggs. So yummy. It was so nice out Saturday morning that we decided to head down to the lake at 10:00 and stayed until lunch time. Mark missed out on the morning beach activities as he brought the Quad and headed to Ribstone to tear it up. He got back at lunch time for some delicious sandwiches, veggies and cherries. The afternoon was planned for a baseball game but it was so gloriously hot everybody voted on going to the beach again and playing ultimate frisbee in the water. When we got there it ended up turning into the funnest game of pig in the middle frisbee ever. I played for a good 20 minutes but once people started jumping on others and dunking them to try and get the frisbee I knew it was time for me to opt out and let everybody have there fun. They probably played for another good hour and had a blast. We had to be out of our campsites by 2:00 so after the game we headed back to camp and left for our short 1 1/2 hour ride home. Mark and I decided to make a pit stop in Chauvin for some junk food and to get pictures of the world's largest softball. We got home around 4:00 and by 5:00 our heads hit the pillows and had a three hour nap. This was probably one of my funnest weekends of my summer and so glad we went, we got to know some new couples in our branch better and had a blast every minute.

MARK'S FIRST TIME!!!!

So last night we were lying in bed and Macie was kicking me like crazy so I thought maybe just maybe Mark would finally be able to feel her kick for the first time, so I grabbed his hand put it on my belly and all of a sudden she kicked and I asked Mark if he felt that, he said yes I did was that it. Yes it was, then she kicked again and he felt it again. It kind of freaks Mark out a bit that there is a human being in my stomach, I am guessing most men feel this way, as for us women it is just so natural. I love feeling her kick me all day long it brings me such peace and comfort and feels cool and weird all at the same time.

100 Years!!!

This past weekend was Kitscoty's centennial days celebration. There was so much going on it was crazy. Mark worked which kind of sucked because Saturday was full of everything. Pancake breakfast, parade, car show, petting zoo, 3 on 3 basketball tournament, firefighter challenge. We did get out that night though when Mark got home from work and went to a dinner and a show that some members of the town put on (we did leave early as it was really lame). Then Mark and Matt Harker headed to the golf course for some glow golf while me, Passey's, and Holland's stayed behind to do some hot tubing. The night ended with a fireworks show that I must say for a small town of 900 people was pretty darn impressive. I must say I am starting to fall in love with this small town we live in. So many wonderful things about living in a small town, and it is not to far from Lloydminster. There is no question there is a reason we were sent to live here, I do hate being so far away from our families but the blessings have been non stop and know we have grown in every part of our life from living here. I see us staying here for many many years and being more then okay with it.

BBQing fun!!!

Tonight was perfect, BBQing, bounce housing, hot tubing, visiting, and laughing. We had a bunch of awesome friends out for all of these fun events. I forgot to take pictures of course I hate when I do that but wanted to make a quick remark for memory sake. We invited as many people as possible secretly hoping not everybody could make it as there would have been over 40 people in our home, but wanted to keep the invite open to all of our friends, and about half made it. The Swendson's, Harkers, Isackson's, Faith, Richard and Chelsey Bennett, Marc and Graziella Bennett, and the Passey's arriving fashionably late. We did get one picture at the end of the two pregnant ladies, which I love as both us and the Bennetts moved into this branch around the same time we were both struggling to get pregnant and about 6 weeks after our little miracle happened there ever more amazing miracle happened. Love it and will cherish this picture forever. Great fun night and am so grateful for all of our wonderful friends we have made and our making here in Lloydminster.

Kayakology

About 4 weeks ago I had the opportunity to go and help one day at the young womans camp, I helped unload kayaks for the girls to go out on Cold Lake. I watched the girls rip around the lake and I was inspired and wanted to try out kayaking with our young men on a camp.

I was driving the long journey home from Cold Lake and thought how fun it would be to take a few days and go down the North Saskatchewan river this summer to see some potential campsites and what the river had to offer for a next summer camp with the boys.

I called Richard Bennett and the 2 of us were going if our wives would permitt.

We planed to do a Wednesday to a Saturday trip from Edmonton to Marwayne. We got time off work and planned to be in Edmonton, Tuesday night to get a few final items for our camp. We rented 2 kayaks and a hotel room for the one night. We had 3 weeks to prepare our gear and our body's for the just over 300km journey.

We built kayak racks for our trucks to haul the boats. You see we had to build one rack for Richards truck and one for mine.
So August 9th we left our families and journeyed into Edmonton with Richards truck and all our gear. we made it into Edmonton around 830pm just in time to hit whole sale sports and get some freeze dry food and some dry sacks for our gear.

we got to our hotel and then went to walmart for some other last minute stuff. We had to fill up his truck at that walmart and found President Christiansen of the Stake President who was filling up his car. We talked of our impending challange and he was excited for us and wished he could come. I have really grown to love that man as I have got to know him through helamans encampment. He was a designated prophet and I spent time getting beads from him to complete my necklace.

Wednesday morning we got up and went to Totem outfitters and picked up our Kayaks and all the gear that comes with them. We headed to the Capalano park boat launch and got ready for our trek. we unloaded the kayaks and filled them with our supplies. There was a Canadian Military exercise going on so we got one of the Privates to take a picture of us before we died.

Floating down the river through the Edmonton River Valley was very beautiful. The Kayaks glided through the water like a knife through margarine. The weather was majestic the river water was like looking down on a mirror. That meant we had to do a lot of the work to move. The average speed of the river was 2-3 km/hour. With our paddling we averaged 9km/hour.

We left not knowing what to expect or where we would camp. That first day we started around 11am and went to 5pm. We floated around 55km. At this point it started to rain and cloud over so we started looking for the best spot. Well we pulled out on the north side of the river in a tall grass, bushy area, as most of the banks were like that. as we got out we got swarmed by mosquitoes. After a 1/2 can of bug spray we ate our dinner and were thinking of setting up our tarps but the weather cleared and we decided to move on. Good thing as right across the river a few meters down was a picnic table and a place with less grass and bush. We ripped across and were glad we decided to leave. less mosquitoes and flatter ground to set up camp.
We both received nice sun burns this day.

Thursday we were on the river by 745 and went 60km. At this point Marwayne was out of reach.
So if we paddled hard we could maybe make Elkpoint.
Another amazing day, weather was nice and we still had some energy. Our shoulders were feeling the pain of the sun burn as well as the muscle burn.
We saw many deer, eagles, hawks, ducks, and even found lots of clams and small lobsters.
Just before lunch a helicopter flew over us and did 2 full circles around us before leaving, I had never seen that before.
By the end of the day we were both getting tired and sore. We were going to stop early and camp on an island as it had a tone of wood to get a fire started, but we decided to continue on. Thank Heaven we did, not 2 km later we saw a yellow boat on the north side of the river and I wanted to check it out. As we were floating over to it, Richard noticed the grass above was short. We docked and climbed up and found a great little camp site.
We found the owner of the campsite and ask if we could spend the night. He said that it was O.K.

We set up a little tent like structure that only looked good in a picture. Once I climbed into it to sleep it collapsed and we had to build a different structure.

Friday morning we were up and at it early. Take down and pack up, eat and on the river by 745am. We were both worn out but started the morning with a good pace.
There was a few more rapids this day. Around lunch we noticed something red on the side of the river bank. we decided to go check it out and eat our lunch. As we got closer to the shore we could tell that the red was tuck tape that was wrapped around a black tarp. When we floated by we could see flies all around the object. It was around 3 feet long and 1 foot wide. I believed that was a body. So we ate our lunch first and discussed what we should do. We though we should call the cops right away, but what if it was just an animal. So we decided to cut open the bag and look inside. We walked over to the mystery package and saw some bear tracks near the bag. I took my knife and cut through the tape and the black tarp and ther was baler twine and tarp straps and more layers of tarp. I continued cutting and I could tell that this bag was heavy, and that I was at the last layer to cut through. I pierced the layer and the smell was overwhelming. I kept cutting and pulled it open and it had hair and the skull looked K9 ish. No human body and so we got the heck out of there ASAP before the bear came back.

The afternoon was hot and we went 65 Km and pulled out our kayaks at hwy36 around 7pm. To our supprise there was a hotel/restaurant and so we went and got appies and Pizza.

we enjoyed a hot meal and slept under the stars and watched the asteroids.

We got Kalinda to pick us up on Saturday and ended the wonderful, hard trip !!!!!!!

NEW TOY!!!

Yesterday I picked up Mark from his kayaking trip around Two Hills, then we headed into Edmonton to drop the Kayak's off at Totem Outfitters. After that we thought it would be a good idea to start stocking up on baby supplies. We were planning on getting the stroller, car seat, dresser, play pen and high chair. Of course though Mark saw an Atmosphere store and just had to go in and look at camping gear. When he was in there he found a stroller for the back of our bike to hold Macie when riding in Kitscoty and Lloydminster, supplies when going on long bike trips and the puppies for the fun of it yesterday. We love it and can't wait to use it, and the extra added bonus I can use it as a running stroller when Mark isn't around and I want to go for a run outside with Macie.

3RD ANNUAL H&H MINI GOLF CHALLENGE!!

Well today was our 3rd annual Hunsperger and Harker Mini Golf Challenge. We started it about 3 years ago when we went mini golfing for F.H.E. I think it was half way through the game when we were both playing decent and we decided to put ice cream from the scoop on the line. Which ever couple had the best score at the end of the match the other couple had to buy them ice cream. The first year we were defeated by the Harkers. Last year we decided to put Dairy Queen on the line and we came out victorious. This year we decided to up the stakes and put desert from Boston Pizza on the line. I was feeling a lose as we went mini golfing about a month earlier with some other friends and both Mark and I stunk it up. However Mark played the game of his life, getting a hole in one about 6 birdies, 5 pars, then the 3 holes he stunk on I pulled it through and putted really well. So for a 2nd year in a row we were the Victors. Weather we win or lose though I am loving this cute tradition with our friends.

p.s. Thanks Harkers for the delicious chocolate explosion

HARRY POTTER PARTY!!!

So this post should have been done over a month ago, but have kept forgetting so seeing as I have some time I wanted to make sure I got this on my blog. Our wonderful friends the Harkers put together this amazing Harry Potter Party. And when I say amazing I mean amazing. They had delicious food, amazingly fun games that were all centered around Harry Potter, prizes for the winners and delicious cupcakes for desert. Mark and I were huge novices at all of the games seeing as we have never seen or read anything Harry Potter and skipped out on the movie as we were both exhausted from a long day of work and still had 10 million things on our plate to get done. It was a blast though and need to give a shout out to Matt and Royall for doing an amazing job. It is making me have a desire to host a huge theme party cause it was so much fun.

NURSERY

I had the whole day off yesterday and to myself as Mark was at work and I spent pretty much all day on line looking at ideas for the nursery. I have fallen in love with these items on etsy and think I have almost pretty much figured out what I want the nursery to look like. Just need to start buying stuff now. Everything is pretty good price wise except the toy chest but I am not buying that one, just love the idea. I want to buy one myself and paint and decorate it myself in the colors of the nursery. Also the chair may or may not be painted I kind of like the authentic look of just the wood showing, especially with the theme of the room but painting it to match the toy chest would look adorable too.