Ben & Melissa's Grand Adventures!

2011-12-11T08:29:00.001-08:00

I cannot say how excited I am to be going home for Christmas! I have been very blessed to have friends that are more like family here in Oregon, and I do not want for anything. But every once in awhile, and especially around the Christmas, one wants for family!

And home doesn't seem very Christmasy this year. We are moving the week before to a house, and, while it will be nice to have more space, I didn't get decorations up before we started packing. No Christmas tree, no lights, no nativities. But we will have a week back home, to enjoy it. Besides, how can it be Christmas, without snow?

Fall is in the air!

2011-10-25T22:24:00.003-07:00

I never realized how much I LOVED fall until this year! Maybe it's the extended time of fall, the time to enjoy the colors, and savor the smells of it! Maybe being in the country helps too! I don't know, but fall is definitely grow in popularity in my book!

We have started solid foods here in the Pistorius household. So far Jacob has tried cereal, which he liked as long as there's applesauce in it, sweet potatoes, bananas, peaches, plums, and peas, which he'll only eat if I mix applesauce in it. I guess that means he likes applesauce, too, but he's never had it by itself. So far, I'm not so impressed with store bought canned baby food, I want to make my own baby food. Anyone have any suggestions about or experience with that?

SUPER BABY! Check out my bib/cape!

Every year, our ward has a "Harvest Party" that takes place of a trunk-or-treat or any other "evil" Halloween parties. Anyways, it's usually a chili cook off, and they had pumpkins to decorate, and people brought some of the produce they grew to share with others. They also had a pie eating contest. The elders had signed up to do it (they took our sisters out and gave us elders a few months back, not yet impressed) and they backed out at the last minute, and Ben got do do it! I had to feed him and we took second place! Crazy part: Ben continued to eat his chili after having eaten an entire cream pie.

Some of our friends invited us to go to this farm. We had a lot of fun! I loved it! They had this awesome barn! and a HUGE pick your own pumpkin patch, and a corn maze, and chickens! Everything a farm should have. Jacob enjoyed riding around on Daddy's shoulders.We bought pumpkins, and came home and carved them! It was a lot of fun!

Changes!

2011-09-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyday, someone asks me, "What's new in your family?" so, here is what has been going on in the last few months in our home!

Ben is finally registered to start classes the end of September! He will be doing mostly online classes this term, and then next term will go full term on campus. He is taking Intro to Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, and a writing class online, and Tai Chi Chuan on campus. He is really excited to be getting back to school!

We joined this group called Gleaners. As traditionally understood, gleaners would go to harvest extra food from fields. So far we've got Blackberries, apples, potatoes and corn. Another thing we do in this group is picking up near expiration day, but still good, food from local grocery stores. Milk is among them, and we've had to buy very little milk to feed Ben's mild addiction!

We are also training to run the Turkey Stuffer, a 5K on Thanksgiving Day. Ben, being the great runner, doesn't need much training to be able to run it. Me, on the other hand, I do not have the stamina to make it that far. As such, I am currently in week 5 of the workout program, Couch to 5K! Still getting used to running, and on top of it in toe shoes!

Starting tomorrow I will be babysitting two boys from our ward, Zack (3) and Taylor(7). They are both rather quiet boys, but it will be nice to get some experience with more than one kiddo, and Jacob will grow up, at least for a little while, with other kids to play with.

Mmmm. This is a tasty swing!

The biggest changes in our family though, have been in Jacob! He is now 5 months old! When we went to his 4 month checkup, he weighed 15lb. 3 oz and was 26 in. long! That's 75th Percentile for height and 30th for weight! He's just long and skinny, like his daddy! He loves cooing and "talking" to us! His tongue is constantly hanging out of his mouth, and he almost always has a smile on his face, though it seems to disappear with the appearance of a camera! He has started chewing on just about anything! Fingers, toys, stuffed animals, blankets! anything and everything he can get to, gets into his mouth!

We put shoes on him for the first time, for church this Sunday. He did NOT like them! And neither did Ben! But he looked so cute in his church outfit! It's been to warm most of the summer to put a sweater and long pants on him, now tis starting to get cooler.

And to end Jacob LOVES to be tickled! He's all sorts of smiles and giggles when we "get him"! He's growing up big and strong!

Jacob Payson Pistorius!

2011-05-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

I guess I should blog about what happened a month ago! In my defense, our computer cord broke while we were in the hospital, and the replacement came in the mail two days ago!

March 31, 2011 came and went without a baby. Not that we were expecting him to come on his due date, but he continued to not come for the next week and a half, and we, along with the doctor, decided it was time for this little boy, who seemed very content in his watery apartment, to be evicted and come into the world! April 10 we went in to the hospital for an induction. Jacob was a stubborn little boy! He didn't budge! They tried a couple things, and finally, with not even pitosin causing regular contractions, we decided to break my own water at about 11 am on April 11. Man, was that a bad idea! contractions started in earnest! 7 hours later, Jacob finally made it into this world!

On April 11, 2011(4/11/11) Jacob Payson Pistorius made his beautiful entry into into this world at 6:18 pm(18:18)! He weighed 8 lbs. 14 oz an was 22 inches long! At one point we thought the due date was off, but when he came out, he had no vernix, and his skin was all wrinkly and peeling! He was very much ready to come out!

We ended up staying an extra day in the hospital for a little bit of jaundice, Jacob got to spend some time in the wonderful blue billyruben lights, and be our little glowworm for a night, but we are happy to say he is 100% healthy now!

Now, a month later, he is 10 lbs 1 oz, 15.6 in long, and very cute! We love playing with him! Since birth he's been holding his head up! He would just stare at us for the first hour or so, after he was born! He loves staring out the window in our apartment, and will concentrate on things, as if he's trying to understand them!

We love our little Jacob, and are very happy to have him!

I finally did it!

2011-03-28T14:56:00.001-07:00

So, every time I think about needing to post on our blog, I think, oh, I'll do it... On Saturday, because Saturday I don't have work. But it never got done. Then, as work drew to a close, I said, I'll do it when I'm not working, then I'll have time. Well, I quit my job almost a month ago, and today, with my nesting instinct setting in, I decided to do some things I might not get to any time soon, like cleaning the house and updating the blog! I hope to be better at writing when Jacob gets here!

I guess I should start with that. We did find out we are having a BOY, and his name is Jacob Payson Pistorius. As you can see, I am getting VERY pregnant! And Ben is still as skinny as ever! He is due on Thursday (yes, 3 days from today) and we are ~~patiently~~ anxiously awaiting his arrival. About a week ago I started having more contractions, rather frequent, and close together. I thought it was the real thing. But it wasn't, but he will be here soon enough (if his parents don't go crazy before then)! We are getting things ready for his arrival. I won't say we're almost ready, but its getting there! Not having done this before, I have no idea what I'm forgetting. But we are definitely ready to love this little boy!

Funny how life sneaks up on you. You're going along, being a kid, and suddenly, being an adult sneaks up on you, and you realize, "I've been married to the most amazing man for a year now, and any day there will be a completely helpless child entirely dependent on me for EVERYTHING! This is a crazy idea to me! Didn't I just grow up myself? Now I'm going to help someone else grow up? WOW! This is going to be our BIGGEST adventure yet!

In other news, Ben is still working for Arby's as the Assistant Manager. But he is looking for a different job, one with better hours, and more opportunity to advance. He is the Assistant ward mission leader in our ward, and would like to have more time to spend on his church calling. I have been called as the Secretary in our Primary. Life is super busy here!

Two weeks ago my sister, Amanda, came to visit us. She attempted to induce labor, but no such luck. But we were able to have some fun, we went out to the coast, and silly girls that we are, decided to walk on the beach barefoot! It was a bit chilly! But the sun came out! That was the only time it did while she was here, but we still had fun!

This week Ben's SIL Brooke came to help me get ready! She's been a super help! I am sure glad she came!

Getting ready for baby

2010-10-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

So, as many of you know, we are expecting our first baby on the 1st of April! We are very excited! I am almost 18 weeks pregnant, and, because someone asked me to, I am posting a few pictures.

This is my baby bump. Not much really going on there yet. I look more chubby than pregnant, I think, though Ben is quick to correct me on that.

Today we went to the doctor's office. We had an ultra sound, and everything is going well with our little baby. Two arms, two legs, developing normally, and right on track for April 1st! Here are a couple of the pictures we liked.

Baby in profile. About 7 ounces now, we got to watch him kick his legs a bit. So Cute!

And here's a baby footprint! This one is my favorite!

Unfortunately, we couldn't get a positive Boy or Girl, this kiddo must be shy( though I don't know where that would have come from) though the tech said she thought it is a BOY! We will be going back in 4 weeks, right before Thanksgiving, and then, baby permitting we will be sure that this baby is a boy and we can call him Jacob without any doubt!

In other news, I did finally get a job! I will be teaching preschool, about 25 hours a week, and hopefully we'll be able to save some money/pay of some debts before this baby makes his debut into the world!

Exploring our new home!

2010-09-28T18:17:00.001-07:00

So, we are settled and enjoying this new city of Springfield. Ben has a good job managing an Arby's over in Eugene, and enjoys the work he does. I have settled into a fun life of going out with the sister missionaries, crochetting, and reading good books. I'm still thinking about finding a job, but don't really know what to do.

Last saturday Ben and I decided we wanted to start exploring this area, seeing what we had close at hand. We spent the day Saturday visiting the Visitors center in Springfield, the Library (of course with two bibliophiles, that would be one of our first stops, right?) and the Saturday Market, which is much like the farmer's market in SLC, only more psychedelic. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and, in visiting the visitors center we found, not only a fellow Latter Day Saint, but also a large array of things to do in and around Springfield. We decided that we definately needed a visit to the coast, it being only an hour away, so bright and early Monday morning we were off on another adventure!

The drive proved to be very beautiful, passing through more trees than I think I've ever seen in my life. Some of the leaves were just starting to change color, and it was a spectacular sight. Trees curved over the road, creating a tunnel for us to pass through. It was a sunny fall day, very warm, and very much PERFECT for our adventure!

The city of Florence, Oregon is 65 miles from Springfield. We stopped there first, to enjoy the small "old town part" with it's little shops, and river shore restaurants. It is very much a quaint little town, and we found good eats, and beautiful scenes all around us. My favorite part was the bridge, I have pictures, just can't find the camera, but will post soon.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Mo's which has fabulous clam chowder! And then decided to get out of town to see the OCEAN! As we left town we stopped back at one of the first gift shops to get a wind chime I had spotted that I wanted to get, and we then we were on the road again.

11 miles north of Florence is the world's largest sea lion cave in the world. It houses a herd of over 400 Steller sea lions, and we were excited to see them. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that they are not in their cave much during September, and will be back in the winter. Fortunately, we watched hundreds of sea lions play in the waves and scurry up the rocks to sun themselves. It was a great adventure, and we look forward to returning sometime in the winter to see them more up close in the cave.

Less than a mile north of the caves is the Heceta Head Lighthouse, with its neighboring beach. We decided to take a break from walking and play on the beach for a little while, enjoy the cold water soak our feet in before we hiked up to the light house. Mother Nature, being crafty and sly, decided to hit us with a huge wave, that soaked us both! Before heading up to the lighthouse we had to dry off and by the time we got there, they had closed for tours, but we were able to take pictures, and enjoy the view from the lighthouse.

From there we decided it was dinner time and almost watched the sun sink into the ocean, instead it sunk into a bank of clouds, and then into a dike, maybe next time we will have better luck! We did get to see some spectacular stars as we drove home, too!

All it all it was an amazing day! We thoroughly enjoyed or excursion, and hope to continue exploring as long as weather permits.

HOME!

2010-09-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

We finally made it! After much packing, driving, and unpacking we are finally in our new home! We found this apartment when we came up here to visit a few months ago, and were lucky enough to get it! It has just about everything we wanted! And for the right price! who could ask for anything more?

This is the view as you come in from the parking area, on the left is a storage shed, which is rather large. It is two story, the kitchen, pantry, laundry room with half bath, dining room, and living room.

View from the front door, Office, Dining room, and Living room!

My Kitchen! Big enough for two+ people to be in, without
crowding each other!

Reading nook! Complete with LoveSac and 6 boxes of books!

Backyard! Not quite as spacey as before, but it is shaded most
of the day, and we have a hammock, even if we need to figure
out how to make it not drag on the ground when occupied!

Then we venture upstairs, two bedrooms and a full bathroom await us!

Wall of pictures! WE have to have some way to see family, right?

Not quite so glamorous, but great bathroom!

Bedroom! Is kind of glamorous, and enjoyable! We definitely like it!

Spare bedroom/craft room/storage room. It is a room of many hats,
and we like it!

We are very excited for our new home! it is definitely a change from Utah. We went to our new ward yesterday, and were very warmly welcomed in! It is a rather diverse ward, and we are very excited to be there! There was a baptism not long ago, and will be two more this weekend. To say the least, the work is moving forward, and we are excited to be a part of it!

We miss all of you, our dear family! and hope we will be able to keep in touch!

Some BIG changes

2010-07-19T09:45:00.001-07:00

Wow, its crazy how time flies! Tomorrow will be two months of this great adventure! I can't believe it! And we are headed for some ENORMOUS changes!

Ben and I have always wanted to live, for at least some part of our married life, outside of Utah. Utah is a great place, and we love it dearly, we just want a change of scenery! And they say the best time to do that is in the younger years, when you're not so worried about children and house payments and all of that fun stuff.

So, after much deliberation, prayer, and long talks, we have decided to move to Eugene, Oregon! There is a great University that Ben and I will attend starting next fall (2011). Ben will be working on his Bachelors in Math and Chinese so he can teach in high school, and and college one day, and I will be working on my Masters in Marriage and Family Counseling.

We are scheduled to move the end of August, and are very excited about it! But before we do, we have a lot of fun little trips planned: off to Oregon for a family reunion, and job-searching/apartment searching; family camping trip; family cabin trip, going to Idaho for a cousin's homecoming and to say goodbye to all my siblings and nephews. Super busy!

YIPPEE!

2010-03-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the happiest, most wonderful day of my life! Ben and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple! I could not have asked for a more perfect, amazing day! It started out with a bit of a hiccup, but everything turned out!

Instead of waking up at 4:45 am to the sound of my alarm, I woke up at 5:15 am to a text message from my wonderful sister-in-law, Brooke, making sure we were on our way! I was not, but, with the help of my loving twin sister, Amanda, we made it to Brooke's house with everything we needed, and in plenty of time for us to get ready! As we pre-viewed the slideshow Ashley, my super talented cousin-in-law made for us, tears of joy came to my eyes, just thinking that today I would begin my life with my amazing Ben!

The morning was super cold, but the sky was clear and blue! The perfect day to marry my best friend! We arrived at the temple at almost the same time and I could not express the feelings I had. We were really about to do this!

The ceremony was attended by all of the people we love dearly! No one was missing! It passed so quickly! It amazes me how much one half hour can change a person's life, for the better!

After being sealed for time and all eternity to my wonderful husband, the day was a blur. Our luncheon was, to say the least, chaotic, but it was a fun time to be with family.

I am so blessed to have so many family members who were so willing to help out at the reception! It would not have worked without them! Thank you all so much!

Everything turned out perfect! The decorations, the food, the cake! It all came together perfectly! Dancing was a blast! I could not ask for a more perfect day!

We were slightly impeded in leaving by the decoration of our car! Thank you my brothers and sisters, cousins, and friends! It made me smile!

It's still hard to fathom that I am married! But I have the bestest (yes, bestest) husband in the world! I cannot imagine being happier with anyone else! Now we are just beginning the Grandest Adventure ever!

Melissa

In the end I wanna be standing At the beginning with you

What is a Wedding?

2010-01-27T15:57:00.006-08:00

Well, this is my first post here. There are about a million things that I could post about, ranging from the positive, "How wonderful my fiancée is," to the negative, "What I hate about planning a wedding," and on through the completely absurd, "Why did aliens abduct my dog?" But what do I actually want to write about? Only one of those sound appealing to me—and despite what you think, it is not the "aliens abducting my dog" post. The problem is that I could include that in a post, but a post dedicated to "how wonderful my fiancée is," would just come out mushy and somewhat annoying for those not involved. Finally though, I reached a decision on what to write about. I want to talk about "Weddings." I'm sure some of you may be tired of this topic, but please just stick around a little while, and I hope that I can make it worth your while.

So, what is a wedding? Well it's an occasion where two people get married, merge, join, "tie the knot," or "get hitched." The "all-knowing" Wikipedia says, "A wedding is the ceremony in which two people are united in marriage[ . . . ]." As one famous movie says, "Mawage is wot bwings us togeder [that day]."

So a wedding=marriage? Wait a second. I have been planning a wedding for the last five months. I have had little chance to talk about the marriage that begins on that day. Sure my fiancée and I have talked about it. But it is rarely connected with the wedding. Here's what I have connected with the wedding: hard work; vendors cancelling on you; you cancelling on vendors; questions like "Where'd the money go?" and several other unpleasant experiences. Why is that? I know nearly every girl grows up dreaming of how wonderful her wedding will be. How everything will work out just right, and the day will be absolutely beautiful. And then they grow up, and many of them find weddings to be "stressful." They become the infamous "bridezilla," a bride or groom gets cold feet, the wrong color flowers gets delivered, the wrong type of flowers get delivered, a nephew puts chocolate all over your brand new $100 to $2,000 dress or any number of other problems. I look at these two views and think, "Where did this huge contrast come from?!?"

Now we come to the reason that I posted about this today. I think that the wedding can, should and—at least ours—will be that wonderful day that little girls grow up dreaming about. It's much like any other portion of life. Sometimes there's hard work involved, and sometimes it's not perfect. But if we can remember what we're really there for, it becomes something meaningful, wonderful and—I dare say—perfect, even with all of the mishaps, foibles and troubles that are thrown our way.

So that's it. That's why I believe there is such a huge contrast in the way weddings are seen. I myself am excited to get married, merge, join, "tie the knot," and "get hitched" to my best friend Melissa. She is so wonderful, and I love her so much. I love that she can stay positive and keep going in planning this wedding even when so many things go wrong. And soon I will get to marry her, and celebrate that day with our friends and family. And however it turns out, it will be perfect.

Wedding Plans...

2010-01-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

So, I think every engaged person planning a wedding, at some point says, "Do I really have to do all of this?" Social norms dictates yes. So ahead we plunge, knowing it will all be worth it, and sometime in the near future it will be all over, and life with that special someone can begin. This is about where I am now, but, LUCKILY, most of the wedding things are done! Just some loose ends to tie up and all will be well!

The best thing for me, though, is the AMAZING man I am about to marry. He is constantly asking what he can do to help, and doing all sorts of things for me. I am the luckiest girl in the world! The other night, we had just booked a caterer, and decided on a location for the reception. Then all of the other things I had to do came to mind. The cake, the dresses, the favors... the list went on and on. But, being the WONDERFUL man he is, Ben spent the night calming me down, and reassuring me that everything was going to be alright. No matter what happened, our wedding was going to be the best, and it would be a perfect way to kick off our new life together.

How it all began!

2009-12-22T13:21:00.002-08:00

Our story begins, quite un-presumptuously at a Stake Family Home Evening Game Night. My roommate, who planned the activity, likes to take credit for us meeting. I think it was serendipity.

As we talked, we found we had many things in common, hiking being one of them. At the time I was partly in charge of a hiking group, and I invited Ben, and his roommate David to come along, the next saturday, and Ben did. We have sort of been inseparable since then.

We spent the summer together doing anything and everything we could together: dancing, barbecuing, talking, partying, you name it, we did it! And had a blast doing it.

     About the time of my birthday, Ben went on a vacation to Oregon to see his family there, and we both decided, independently, that we didn't want to be that far away from each other again.

     For my birthday he took me out to La Caille ( the most amazing French restaurant in Salt Lake) and then for a surprise... To see the Scarlet Pimpernel at Hale Center Theater.

      A few weeks later, after going to the temple, Ben turns to me, and says, " This isn't a formal proposal, because you deserve one, but, Will you marry me?" Of course I said YES, I wouldn't be writing this blog if I hadn't! We spent the night grinning, and laughing, and crazy. I think my roommates thought we were high, or something. But pure joy, as we felt it, will cause you to literally EXPLODE if it doesn't have a way of getting out!

       So, we had decided we were going to get married, but when? where? how would he "really" propose. I admit I was more worried about the later, as I'm sure you are.

      The day was Thursday the 10th of September. We had ward temple night. Ben had called early to say he might not make it...the power had gone out at work. Somehow I felt something was up, but didn't say anything. Session went smoothly. As we were leaving, I asked Ben where he parked. He mumbled off that he wasn't exactly sure, but steered me off to the right as we were leaving the temple, toward the grounds, asking if I wanted to go for a walk.

     Then I knew something was REALLY up, and asked but he said nothing, and I just let it slide. We walked around the reflecting pool, and over to where the carriage rides are, and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. Of course I did! so off we went!

      It was a beautiful night for a carriage ride. He got down on one knee, there, in the middle of the carriage, in his suit, and asked if I would marry him. I must admit, I was mean to him, I hit him for not telling me what was going on( I LOVE and HATE surprises). And then I laughed hysterically for a bit. and THEN I said YES!

     Life is crazy, it always is! but I am SO EXCITED that starting the March 20, 2010 (03-20-10, get it, 3-2-1 blastoff!) I get to spend the rest of my life, and all of eternity with my best friend, Ben!

      This is OUR story as told by ME, Melissa. I'm sure at some point Ben will put his two cents in here, too!

First post

2009-12-19T07:28:00.000-08:00

So, it seems we are trying to create this new blog, and it isn't working so well. I thought maybe if we have a post in here that it might make things a little bit better. We will see if this happens