Front Runner

Front Runner opened on Saturday and we decided that we might as well take advantage of the free days while we can, so we headed up there on Monday night for Family Night. Unfortunately, I think the whole rest of the world had the same idea, because every train was packed! Because of that, we decided to make it quick - head up to Ogden and come right back home - just to say we did it and satisfy the kids' obsession with these trains (since they run to the window anytime they hear their horns).

Well, on the way up there, we had the luck of having to stand holding both kids, about to fall over anytime the train sped up or slowed down! It was lovely. And to make matters worse, I couldn't see out a window so I started getting pretty sick. Fortunately, once we got up to Ogden, we were able to find a table to sit at. Unfortunately, at that point, my motion sickness was beyond horrible. It was only through a lot of pleading with the Lord that I made it back to Roy with my lunch still intact! :)

The kids had a blast though, and that's what counts (and when I say "kids," I'm including Greg!) They all thought it was pretty cool. Greg was making friends with everybody around us, and I think he's pretty excited to start riding it to work in a few weeks (when he starts his new job). After my not so pleasant experience, I can definitely say I am glad it will be him riding it everyday and not me! :) -Ash (P.S. Because of my motion sickness incident, I only got a few pictures and they're nothing special, so sorry there aren't any posted!)

Finally! (Be Forewarned, Long Post Ahead...)

Finally, after more than three months of intensive job-searching, Greg has a new job! Yes! Honestly, when we first started this whole process, I thought for sure we would be out of Greg's job and into a new one well before now, especially with how good the Utah job market is supposed to be right now. But obviously, the Lord had other plans for it. For those of you guys who don't know what happened a few months back, here's the short version (it really is shortened, I promise!)...

Back in the fall, Greg was feeling really anxious to get out of T-Mobile because of some policy changes they were making. So he posted his resume online and a headhunter called him in December about a store manager position at a place called A World of Tile down in Salt Lake. We were thrilled because it got us out of T-Mobile, plus the company was projecting his salary to be six-figures (between salary and comission) and who wouldn't be thrilled about that?! So he ended up getting the job and started the second week in January. The weird thing was that I just felt sick about it the weekend before he started, and he got the exact same feeling when he walked in to work that first day. Well, come to find out, his manager and the CEO had been extremely deceptive with him about pay and benefits up until that point. According to them, the pay had the potential of being six-figures, but only in about 5 years after the store had gone through a major overhaul. So until then, we would be living off of an income that didn't even pay all of our bills. They also told us we would have full benefits for $250 a month, so we were thinking that means health, dental, vision - everything! But we were wrong (or should I say, they were wrong) - it's actually $550 a month just for health. Lovely! Extra expenses we hadn't even budgeted for... And on top of it all, they expected him to work no less than 55 hours a week over the span of 6 days. Maybe we are crazy, but 6 days a week of work is a lot (unless you're a doctor, I guess), especially when he is going to school full-time too! And just recently, they have actually been wanting him to work 60 hours, which to me is just a little out of control. Not that I'm bitter or anything... :)

Anyway, needless to say, we have been looking for a new job since the day Greg started this one, and honestly, I never knew how hard it would be to find a new one! We applied for so many jobs, I can't even count the number. Yet it was impossible to even get a call-back, and if we did and were lucky enough to get an interview (which only happened twice), Greg still didn't get the job. It was really grating, and after time, Greg and I got extremely frustrated. Eventually, we decided it was time to do a fast just so we could have some direction since we felt like we were getting nowhere. The day we did that, Greg felt like he needed to talk to a guy in our ward who works for Qwest in Salt Lake and see if they are hiring. We had applied for a job there before, but as usual, couldn't even get a call-back. Fortunately, he said they were hiring in his department, and he felt that Greg would be a great candidate for it.

So, after a lot of help from him (and the Lord, I'm sure), here we are with a new job at Qwest! Greg will be an account manager down there, and he is thrilled that he will no longer have people under him to manage. :) According to him, he's sick of dealing with other people's problems! The best part about the job is that it's Monday-Friday 8-5!!! I know I may sound really stupid, but Greg has been in retail ever since we got married and having him working Saturdays is getting really old! The only concern we had initially with this job is that he will still be commuting (which we were trying to avoid when we were looking for new jobs), but fortunately, we live two blocks away from a commuter rail stop (which starts tomorrow), and as a Weber State student, he can ride anything UTA for free! So once commuter rail gets into downtown, he can just hook up with Trax and be at work.

Anyway, sorry this was a long post, but we are just thrilled and glad to finally be working for a good, reputable company again! This current company has been a joke and we are looking forward to putting it all behind us. :) -Ash

Blog Backgrounds!

Everybody needs to check out this website! http://www.shelsscraps.blogspot.com/ It is a blog that my longtime friend Shelly created to share her own blog backgrounds! They are all really cute (my new one is from there), and I thought I should let everybody know since there are only a few other sites out there that I know of. So check it out if you get a chance. She's done a great job! -Ash

Exciting News!

So, we have exciting news, and I bet you can't guess what it is! But hey, I'll throw it out there anyway - so, any guesses as to what my news is? I'm sure my picture is kind of giving it away, but don't worry, I didn't use that one! So, drumroll please... My exciting news is that I'm not pregnant! YES!!! (Gotcha!) :) And no, we didn't have a scare! It's just that ever since 2004, I have always found out I was pregnant in the middle of April in an even year. And here we are in the middle of April in 2008 and I am NOT pregnant! Hallelujah! I still want more kids, of course, but just not right now, and ESPECIALLY not in the month of December. So happy day, I am thrilled!

And while I'm on the subject of me and pregnancy tests, I thought I would tell our funny story about when we found out I was pregnant with Gavin. I hope the words "late" and "started" do not offend my male readers! :) I was over a week late, so I took a pregnancy test and after 5 minutes, it said negative. So I threw it in the garbage and didn't think much about it. Five days later though, I still hadn't started so I decided to go back to the garbage and get out my pregnancy test, and just make sure it really said negative. Funny enough, it now said positive! I was freaking out (Greg was at work at the time), so I ran to the store and bought a new one. And sure enough, it was positive. We were thrilled of course, since we had been trying for 6 months, but it was just really bizarre the way it all happened.

In other exciting news, Greg and I have new callings! I am now a Beehive advisor (which I am thrilled about and loving!), and Greg is 1st Counselor in the Elder's Quorom Presidency. So now, instead of us seeing him a little bit, we rarely seem him! :) But he is enjoying it so far and will do a good job, so I can't complain too much. It's just sad that between everything he has going on right now (60 hours/week at work, school, and his calling), the kids never see him, and Gavin is constantly asking when he gets to see Daddy next. They both cry when he leaves because they just want more time with him... :( Oh well, mommy will have to do for now! And hopefully he will be around more soon.

So there's all of our exciting news! I hope I didn't offend anybody that is currently pregnant, because pregnancy is great. But at this point in my life, it just wouldn't be! I'm loving having my body to myself! :) -Ash

Goodbye, Michael...

So after tonight's A.I. results show, I had an epiphany - I (along with all of you) NEED TO START VOTING! In the past, I've only voted for the finale (with the exception of two weeks ago when I voted twice for David Cook - go me!). But seriously, America got it all wrong tonight and I am ticked. It was like re-living the night Chris Daughtry got voted off two years ago (If you didn't believe me when I said I am obsessed with the show, now you know!). I didn't think Michael Johns would win it all, but he definitely didn't deserve to be kicked off tonight (like Syesha did - hint, hint...). So, goodbye Michael Johns. It's really too bad that your fabulous voice and hot Australian accent weren't enough. :) -Ash

Poor Kids...

My poor kids have had numerous accidents within the past week. In fact, I've even decided that I'm not taking the kids out in public for the next few days out of fear that DCFS will see them and take them away, thinking I abuse them when I don't! :) Here are just a couple things we've dealt with lately...

Last Friday, we headed down to my parents' house for Conference weekend. We had only been there for about 30 minutes when Tyler faceplanted on my parents' wood floor. Needless to say, a huge black and blue goose egg formed on his forehead (just what we need, a bump that makes his head look even bigger than it already is!). :) It still hasn't gone down completely and is a lovely green now. Hopefully you can see it in that picture - it's up on the top right side of his forehead. (I couldn't get a better picture with how active Ty is these days.)

Then, last night we had what I would consider to be our scariest moment with Gavin yet. In retrospect, I realize it wasn't all that bad, but it was pretty terrifying when it was happening. While I was putting away groceries last night, Gavin was sitting at our bar eating. I turned to put something away in the fridge when I heard a loud crash behind me. I turned around to see that the barstool Gavin was sitting on was now on the floor, and he was screaming. I picked him up, only to see his mouth filled with blood. And when I say filled with blood, I mean a lot of blood. Greg rushed him upstairs to the bathroom with me not far behind. At first, we weren't sure what to think because there was just so much blood that it was hard to see anything. But once we got his mouth rinsed out enough and were able to get a closer look, we realized that he had bitten almost completely through his lower lip. He had a huge gash on the inside of his bottom lip, and two small cuts on his chin just below his lower lip where the teeth had almost gone completely through. We called Greg's brother who is a doctor, and he said that as long as the cut inside his mouth wasn't gaping open and bleeding profusely, we wouldn't have to take him to the doctor. Fortunately, the bleeding stopped about 15 minutes later, but it definitely scared us. The picture above is from today and you can see where his teeth almost came through (the inside of his mouth looks much worse, but still better than it did last night).

Once we got Gavin settled down and to bed last night, Greg commented that even though this incident was scary for us, it will probably pale in comparison to others our kids will eventually put us through. Oh joy! I can't wait! :) -Ash

The Future Death of Me...

"Ashlee Swenson, age 24, died recently of unknown causes. However, authorities suspect that her young children were the cause of her death after sending her into frequent anxiety attacks with their mischievious ways."

This is what I suspect the beginning of my future obituary will look like. With two kids pulling crazy stunts everyday now, I'm convinced they will be the death of me. Here's the most recent stunt Gavin pulled that about sent me into cardiac arrest...

A few days ago, I was on the phone with Greg up in my room. Tyler was asleep at the time, and Gavin was down in the kitchen playing with his new obsession - Playdoh (and what a fun obsession it is, let me tell you... I keep finding dried up Playdoh all over the house). About ten minutes into our conversation, I heard the kitchen faucet turn on. I was completely surprised because Gavin has never gotten up to the sink by himself before, let alone turned it on. So I quickly ran downstairs only to find my "artistic" son holding my wedding ring by two fingers under the running faucet, trying to wash off the green Playdoh he had smushed into it. With my heart pounding, I ran and grabbed it out of his hands before one of my worst nightmares came true - seeing my wedding ring go down the drain.

In retrospect, I realize this was probably more my fault than Gavin's since I leave my wedding ring on the kitcher counter way too often, but seriously?! Sometimes I wonder how much more of these boys I can take before my heart stops beating and I just keel over. Unfortunately, I'm afraid the heart-attack inducing incidents won't stop anytime soon, especially considering the fact that my beloved husband set his parents' carpet on fire, as well as the garage when he was young... Oh joy! :) -Ash

A Bizarre Book Tag...

So, my cousin's wife Heidi and my sister Lindsay both tagged me to do this, and I have to admit, I think it's really weird! :) And I'm even an English major! But hey, it gives me something to write about so I guess I'll do it. Here goes...

Pick up the nearest book.

Turn to page 123.

Post the fifth sentence.

Tag 5 friends.

I have kind of foregone reading since November when I finished the Twilight series, because I just knew no other book could ever live up to them! But after continuing to struggle with potty-training Gavin, I thought it was time I took somebody else's advice and not just my own. So I am currently reading The Everything Potty Training Book by Dr. Linda Sonna. Honestly, I am only about twenty pages into it because I became extremely frustrated after she shared a testimonial, so I just stopped reading! (The testimonial was about a girl who kept pushing her little boy to get potty trained when he didn't want to (just like Gavin), and he became so resentful about it that he wasn't potty trained until 5 1/2! Plus, he had constipation issues like Gavin, which scared me even more. It's just had me terrified that I will be in the same situation with Gavin.) So I'm sure you can guess that I'm nowhere near page 123, but here's what it says (it's talking about the method where you potty-train your toddler in one day):

"Given that your child is doing in a day what many toddlers take months to accomplish, be sure your child has the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social skills to succeed before you try it."

So there you go, don't potty train your child in one day unless they are 20! ;) (At the rate we're going, Gavin will probably be 20. We'll be sending him to school with a diaper bag!)

Well, I don't know if I am the only one who found this tag to be a bit bizarre, but hey, I'll tag people anyway... Amanda Sherwood, Kyla Stevens, Lara Bagby, Cassi Young, Tara Campbell. Do it if you want, no pressure. -Ash