CHRISTMAS DECOR!!

Tonight was a fun night of decorating the house and Christmas Tree. I did not think I wanted to decorate this year but when you work at a store that has Christmas decorations everywhere and plays Christmas music all day I can't help but get excited. I love Christmas sooooooo much, not the presents or food, but just how happy everybody is, the Christmas lights and decorations and the Music oh man the Music. I think I could listen to Christmas music all year round if Mark would let me. Our Christmas decor has become quite the collection from when we were first married, still the same tree only more decorations and lights than a string with popcorn and fruit loops.


Our First tree, the Holland children helped us string the popcorn and fruit loops.



The Same Tree only much more Decorations to brighten it up

Even some outdoor lights have finally made it up, I have always wanted outdoor lights and finally I get them. We have even some more to put up this year to go around all the trim on the outside.

Even Molly is ready for Christmas

FHE FUN!!!

I have been craving cake like substance for quite a while now so we decided for FHE to make up some cupcakes, however I definitely do not need 24 cupcakes all for myself to eat, so we thought it would be fun to decorate them with lots of fun candy and chocolate and deliver to all the wonderful friends that helped us through these past two weeks, plus a couple in our ward that Mark Home Teaches. What a fun night, I am finally starting to feel back to being my old self again, I am thinking even trying a little work out tomorrow night, but we will see, definitely not going to push myself.

HAPPY THEN SAD

So at 6:00 in the morning on Oct 6th I woke up went to the bathroom peed on a pregnancy stick and two minutes later found out I was pregnant for the first time in my life. YAY! best news ever, right. Sadly though two weeks ago I had my first ultrasound I was 8 weeks pregnant and the Doctor told me the baby was only 6 weeks. I had to wait until monday to here from my OBGYN what was going on. She told me there was a tare in the placenta and the baby probably stopped growing, she ordered blood work and another Ultrasound just to confirm it 100% but we pretty much knew what the outcome was. We took each day one at a time still holding on to any ounce of hope we had. Finally thought this Wednesday morning I started spotting and knew the inevitable had finally happened. Later that night the bleeding got so heavy I had to go to emergency, we checked in at 9:30 pm on wednesday and at 9:00 am on Thursday we finally saw the OBGYN she ordered an ultrasound to see if all the tissue had passed or not. She said probably not because I was still bleeding so heavily. We waited and waited and waited and finally at 3:00 pm on Thursday my OBGYN came up and said not all the tissue has passed and we need to do a D&C. My face was as pail as a ghost and she asked the nurses if I had still been bleeding heavily throughout the day, they said yes, and she got very upset asking why she was not informed of this ( I would hate to be those Nurses after everything is all said and done I am sure they got a pretty good lecture). They sent me away for the surgery and an hour later I was awake and told I could go home once I started feeling up to it. I lost so much blood that if the doctor had not finally come up when she did they would have probably had to do a blood transfusion. So bed rest for 48 hours and lots of fluids and hopefully by tomorrow I will be back to feeling physically like my old self. I know emotionally though this will take some time for Mark and I to heal but we are optimistic that if we have finally gotten pregnant it can happen again and hopefully everything will go well next time. Thanks again to all the support and prayers from family and friends and we again are optimistic that in a year or two we will be able to welcome our first child into this world.
love
kalinda

A TRUE FRIEND!!!

There are no words of thanks that you can say to a friend when they go out of there way to help you at a time of lose and tragedy. But how do you even begin to thank numerous friends that come together to make you feel better, again there are no words. I have often wondered what it takes to be a true friend to somebody, well know I now. You are there for them no matter what, you take time out of your busy schedule to send them flowers or a meal or a gift or a phone call or a night out on the town just so they can stop thinking about what is going on in there life. You put your life on hold for hours, days because you know your friend is hurting and you want to do everything you can to make that hurt go away. You hold onto there deepest secrets that they had to tell you because they trusted you and only you, and mostly you love them unconditionally no matter what. I am so grateful and blessed that I have so many TRUE FRIENDS in my life, more then I thought, that love me and will do anything for me. This world is becoming so corrupt and evil and I began to think that friendship isn't even a real word anymore, as we see friends cheat with friends spouses, even sisters and brothers with spouses, share secrets that were asked to be kept secrets, I have even heard of friends stealing money from friends, or worse killing one another over money or relationship. I guess the term friend is being used to losely. From now on when I call someone my friend I am going to think is this person really my friend or are they just an acquaintance, would I do anything for this person, do I hope only good things for this person, or are they someone I just say hello to when I see them. I think it is healthy to separate your friends from your acquaintances that was one reason I got rid of my facebook account to many people I did not even know that knew everything about me, it is also a reason I am making my blog private. The whole world does not need to know what is going on in my life just my friends and family (which are also my friends). This post is starting to get to long but I just wanted to say to all of my friends who got me through this week thank you, and to those friends that do not know what is happening I will let you know in my next post and I know you would have done the same thing even if you are far away I know a letter, e-mail or flowers would have been sent to me, and I thank you all for your love and support.

Kalinda

MY PARENTS ARE BETTER THAN YOUR PARENTS!!

I remember when I was little I heard a song that went a little like this "My Dad is better than your Dad, so much better then your Dad, my Dad, my Dad." Anytime my Dad did something awesome I would always sing it in my head, or when I heard a Fire Trucks Sirens go by, that song would immediately pop into my head. This weekend that song came into my head again, however I was singing a little different tune. "My parents are better then your Parents so much better then your Parents, my Parents, my Parents." Obviously everybody thinks this about there parents, but I truly am blessed to have the Mom and Dad I have. When I was little, they supported me in anything I did. They were at every Basketball game, Volleyball game, Track and Field Days, awards ceremony, piano recital, Young Women in Excellence Nights, Band Concerts. They were a shoulder to cry on, words of advice, someone to look up to and admire, and most of all someone to Love me unconditionally no matter how many stupid mistakes I made. Now as I am older and have my own family they are still the same loving parents I have always loved and cared for. They are still my shoulder to cry on after a long sad weekend, my cheerleaders at my race events, advice givers over big life decisions, and someone who loves me unconditionally no matter what. I am glad I also have a husband know that does the same thing. I hope one day I get to love a child as much as my parents have loved me.


"My Dad the Firefighter, he saved this little girls life and put his own life at risk to do it, what a hero"




"My Gorgeous Mother, I wish I had the beauty she radiates on the inside and out"

"Visiting my Parents at Christmas on there mission for our Church, one of there greatest qualities have been the service they have given to others"

WEDNESDAY NIGHTS!!!!

Wednesday nights have started to become my favorite night of the week. Myself, and two other friends of mine get together and go swim laps at the swimming pool. In January Mark and I started to go swimming about 2 nights a week, but it kind of stopped after two months because it became to demanding on our busy schedules. Since I have decided I am going to try my first triathaon this coming August, I decided I better get at it again. I loved going swimming with my husband but I must say there is something about getting together with your girlfriends and spending quality time together, it just feels so good, and I love that I get to do it once a week. Even if we are spending most of the time swimming, and not chatting it is still a feel good night.

FOOD!!!

Another fun day with our awesome fun friends. Every time we go to the Harkers (Our Best Friends we have made in Lloydminster) We are treated to a new meal we have never had before and it always turns out delicious. I am a very picky eater and have a hard time trying new things, but because I liked these guys so much I did not have the guts to not try all the cool different meals they have made for us. Well I am so glad that I did not have the guts to say no because once again I devoured a delicious meal from the Harkers. Let's see they have introduced us to Sushi, Curry, Tempura, Rice wraps ( I don't remember there real name but man were they good), the best funeral potatoes ever, and tonight Cheese fondu. I can't wait to see and taste what other delicious meals they are going to introduce us to.


Here is a picture of the night we made Sushi and Tempura for the first time

CARVING FUN!!!!!

Every year I anticipate the master piece my husband is going to carve out of a big orange round pumpkin. Once again he has amazed me with his amazing pumpkin carving skills. I have attempted twice in the past and have failed miserably every time so I have decided to take on the roll of cleaning the pumpkin seeds and getting them ready for our tradition of watching a scary movie and chowing down on Halloween candy and Pumpkin Seeds. Here are some fun picks of our fun night.

WHAT A GAME!!!!!

Who knew that the Lakeland College Rustlers Men's basketball team could put on a show good enough for the NBA. This year they have a team full of men that can jump. In the first half they scored 58 points and made I would have to say about 12 to 15 dunks. 2 which were the most amazing alley ops I have ever seen. I think are date night calender is already full this year as we plan to hit all of there home games. Seriously anyone living in Lloyd that read's my blog (Royall, Jen, Lara) even if you don't love Basketball you will want to go it was that amazing.

BACK TO LIFE, BACK TO REALITY!!!

That is truly what I must do with my life. These past two weeks have been very strange. First week I was recovering from my 5 KM race, which considering that fact that I was running about 5 km's every other night you would not think it would take a whole week to recover. We'll when you run 958 more stairs then you are use to guess again. Then this week of work I made up the excuse to be lazy at home and in life because work was exhausting all of my energy, getting ready for the big sale. Well no more racing recovery, no more crazy 13 hours work days so I guess back to the grind. Eating Healthy, working out, reading, praying morning and night with real intent not just 2 minute prayers like I feel they have been lately to get them out of the way for the night. I can't believe what a difference two weeks makes in our lives though. I feel fat and flubby all around my stomach, I swear I have twenty more zits then usual from the unhealthy take out food I have been eating almost everyday this week and my hubby commented today that I seem grumpy lately. That would come from a lake of everything in my life these past two weeks. Conference was a great pick me up today, interesting how you feel everything the Prophet and Apostles talk about pertains to yourself. So calling Kalinda's old self, time to get back at it. I bet not even three days at it will make me feel 100 times better.