The Case of the Disappearing Dishes

To most of you, this probably just looks like a pile of clean dishes drying on a towel.  Sure, we all love to have clean dishes at the end of the day, but this picture means much much more to me.

This picture means that my husband loves me unconditionally, in every situation and will do absolutely anything for me...I truly mean anything.

Almost every night in our home, you will hear a conversation like this:

Matt: Why are you up so late doing the dishes?  Go to bed!

Me: I need to finish them really quick, don't worry about it.

Matt: You go to bed, I'll finish them when I need to take a break from studying tonight.  It will help keep me awake.

Me: Thanks, but you offer every night and every night the dishes never actually get done because you fall asleep.  Plus I know you have plenty of your own stuff to do, so don't worry about it, I'll finish them.

Matt: You need to trust me.  If I say I will do them tonight, I will do them.

Me: But you never actually do them when you say that because you are just too busy!

Matt: Seriously, trust me.  I WILL do the dishes.

I end up going to bed and figuring that he will exhaust himself (for those who don't know, he is working about 25 hours a week on top of 12 credit hours on his summer semester, which is definitley harder than a regular semester) and I will finish them up the next day.

Last night we had the same conversation and I went to bed.  I woke up at 4 am to get a drink and saw the dishes in the sink...no surprise to me.  I woke up again at 7 and Matt was in the shower.  The dishes were still in the sink.  I fell asleep for a few more minutes, and in that time Matt got ready and left for his 7:30 class.  When I went into the kitchen at 7:30, the dishes were gone and not only that, they were not even drying on the towel where we normally put them.  I thought, "how sweet!  He actually washed and dried them and put them away!"  I started looking for the clean dishes and couldn't find them anywhere.  I opened every closet, looked under the bed, in the oven, even in the trunk of the car...nothing.  I was really confused.

I asked Matt about it later and he told me I just must have missed them, because they were on the drying towel.  He tried to convince me that I was just really sleepy and got confused...nice try buster.  Finally, he admits that he hid them.  Yes, he actually HID the dishes.  Where?  In the baby's closet!  I had actually looked there, but not hard enough I guess.  I told everyone at work and we were all practically rolling on the floor laughing.  Matt's explanation was that he didn't want me to feel let down.

Personally, I think it is not only the most hilarious thing I've ever heard, but definitely the sweetest.  Matt is always willing to go out of his way to take care of me and make me feel special. As silly as it sounds, I love him even more today because he was willing to hide the dishes so I would feel like he was keeping any promise he made to me.  Am I not the luckiest girl in the world??  I love you Matt, thanks for being the husband of my dreams.

The Pie Champion and the SCC

At work I got nominated to be in a pie eating contest for our July 1st barbeque.  Don't ask me why anybody would nominate me, but they did.  Well, I successfully snarfed my oreo cheesecake pie, and surprise of all surprise, I came in 2nd place, in front of about 6 grown men!  Ha!  Take that!  For my efforts, I won a giant bottle of pepto bismol.  

On Thursday Matt and I met with my good friends from highschool.  Back then we called ourselves the SCC.  Now many of us are married, have children, or have children on the way, are in or have finished college, etc etc.  It is so fun to get together and catch up and see where everybody is these days.  Thanks to all of you for being wonderful friends.  I love you girls!

A New Baby and a Birthday

Megan and Justin welcomed Stockton Ray Goodrich into their family on the evening of June 25^th.  Matt and I got to go visit on Friday and he is soooo cute.  It made us so excited for our very own in less than 3 months!

My birthday was yesterday, and since Matt knew he would be at school/work and I would be at work, he sweetly gave me an entire weekend of birthday fun. 
 

On Friday after visiting Megan and Justin, we went to see Angels and Demons, which we both thought was spectacular.  I also was able to get some maternity clothes at Ross (finally!). 

On Saturday we got the car inspected, and for the first time in a long time, it passed with no additional repairs needed…wahoo!!  After we headed to an Elder’s Quorum activity and then helped Brett move into Rachelle and Aaron’s place.  Lizzy set up a cute tea party while we were moving and insisted we all come, so we took a break for some water, string cheese, crackers and taffy.  Thanks Lizzy! 

After moving we went to dinner at the Blue Iguana which was delicious and then went over to Memory Grove and just enjoyed the nice weather by taking a walk.  Matt was in a photo shoot mood, so that is why the only pictures are of me. 

On my actual birthday, I woke up to a gift in the living room.  My parents, Matt and his parents all went in together to get me a Bosch mixer!  I am so excited to start using it!  That night my sister had my parents, and my brother over to her house for a little party.  We had a delicious dinner, an excellent cheesecake made by Brett and a lot of fun.  Isn’t it fun to have your birthday last more than one day?  Thanks everybody for a spectacular birthday. 

Fletcher Family Reunion

We had a great time at the family reunion for my Mom’s side of the family.  We went up to the beautiful Heber Valley Camp and stayed in some nice cabins and had so much fun.  It was nice to catch up with cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course, Grandma Fletcher. 

Here is Andrew having a nice chat with a deer that wandered through camp. 

Yummy Café Rio style salads and burritos for dinner. 

We celebrated Luke’s first birthday up there.  Here he is enjoying his new toy from Grandma and Grandpa.
My family, all 16 of us, were put in one cabin together.  I think it was one of the most sleepless nights many of us have experienced.  We had a great time together before bed with a lot of good laughs, but as soon as we laid down to sleep, all we could hear was snoring, shushing, creaking beds and mattresses, talking, etc.  We were all exhausted the next day, but we did have a lot of fun laughing about it. 

The next morning we went canoeing and paddle boating out on the lake and had a good time.  Lizzy came in the boat with Matt and me directed us where to go. 



Afterwards we played volleyball for awhile and then the adults *ahem* I mean the kids played in the sandbox.  Eric buried some coins for the kids to find, which they found some of, but we lost the rest…bummer. 
That afternoon we hung out by the fire as it rained, and then it started to POUR.  We all ran for cover.  Check out these cute kiddos. 
We ate lunch at the pavilion and played a game to see who knows Grandma Fletcher the best.  When it got too cold, everybody retreated to their cabins to warm up. 


Finally it stopped raining and we were able to go to the ropes course.  Here are a few family members on the giant swing.  I was sad that I couldn’t participate…nobody who was pregnant or post surgery was allowed…double rejectionL 



Next came the rope walk challenge (I don’t know what else to call it). 
Next we all had to get from point a to point b using only these little wooden platforms.  We had rules about how many people had to be on each platform at once and it got pretty cozy at times, but we made by only cheating a little bit… 

A couple of other games entailed having to pick up a bucket of water without touching the ground, and running around like maniacs with blindfolds on. 

All in all we had a great weekend.  We grateful to have such a fun, awesome family!

Moving, and More Family Fun

We had been arranging with our landlord for awhile to move upstairs to a 2 bedroom apartment before the baby came.  Well, we got our chance, it was just a lot more sudden than we had planned.  We found out on Wednesday night we would need to be out of our apartment by Saturday.  It was a little overwhelming at the time, but thanks to the help of our family, especially my brother Brett who spent all of Friday night helping us, we got it done pretty quickly.  We didn’t have a chance to get many pictures, but here is a glimpse of our new and very messy kitchen. 

Here is a fun picture of me, my sister, and my sister-in-law all pregnant.  Megan, furthest to the right, is no longer pregnant since she had the baby last week.  Rachelle and I will still have to stick it out through the summer!
Here is cute baby Luke again.

Happy Birthday Daddy and 2nd Anniversary

For Dad’s birthday this year we got together for a delicious barbeque.

Here is Lucas enjoying a nice massage and trying to pull the tablecloth out from under us—isn’t he adorable?
Our 2^nd anniversary was on June 2^nd.  We didn’t do much as I was still at home recovering and Matt was swamped with school, but we managed to sneak in a little bit of fun together.  We went to breakfast in the morning and then walked for awhile in Liberty Park.  Finally Matt took me for a ride on the ferris wheel there and we ate some good old fashioned snow cones.  It was a nice day.

Pre-Hospital Fun

I planted herbs this summer, which we have been enjoying when I have had the chance or been able to cook.  Fresh herbs, yum!

We had a fun evening with the sensational 6 playing Mario Kart.

When we found out we were having a boy, Matt and I took the day off to do some shopping for baby stuff.  Mostly we ate a lot and just had fun together.  In fact, I don’t think we actually came home with anything for the baby….? 

Here we are eating Swedish meatballs and Ikea-they are delish! 

As a joke for mother’s day, we bought my Mom some mop slippers, since she is always mopping the floor.  I thought she would just laugh, but she actually liked them!  Matt chose them, so he gets all the credit.
This picture is about 20 weeks. 
One weekend was spent doing some car repairs and car washing.  Check out this sexy mechanic in the floods!



This picture was right before I went into the hospital, so probably just about 22 weeks. 

Finally, after everything here we are leaving the hospital.  I know I don’t look too excited, but trust me…I was.  Please disregard the puffy face.  I guess 4 days on an i.v. will do that to you.