No Heart Beat = Gender Reveal?

We had a Dr's appt today. I know the secret of getting an ultrasound. If they can't get the heartbeat on the heart doppler, we get to see this beautiful baby. And thinking about that, I just got excited. I'm far enough along to see if we have another hot dog or if we're getting our first little set of hamburger buns. So there I sat, crossing my fingers that we'd get to see this baby and especially the parts. My wish came true, no heart beat. Which is a little scary to think of but luckily, we heard this child move, so all was good. But they must record the heart beats per minute.
Then we waited to be called into the ultrasound room. Got called in, baby on the monitor, legs spread and guess what? Feet all tucked up, shielding the little baby parts that make this baby a boy or girl. AHHH NUTS! Have another week to wait.
Good news, we got a heart rate. It was 145 bpm. Any thoughts? What is your guess? Do you think Marky is getting a baby brother or baby sister?

Hash Brown Emergency!

Don't you love one of those mornings? You know, you wake up puking (or just icky), you try to take care of your family and while making pancakes, your sweet child wants to join in while the pan is sizzling, so you carefully move him away, beg your husband to take him out of the kitchen just to have the glass bowl filled with pancake mix fall from counter and shatter all over? Then you get the honor of cleaning up the mess for the next 25 minutes making sure its ALL cleaned up. So at this point of starving, not wanting anything in the house, I called for a hash brown emergency! I walked out of the house exactly the way I looked waking up, plus a shirt and shorts (no bra, and still with gross breath) with little dude still in his jams. And McDonalds came to my rescue. Some days, you just have to be grateful for the little things...like hash browns.

And the Surprise Photo Winner...

Last night was the youth missionary fireside. So while singing the opening hymn, I was looking around to see where the pictures would pop up...and guess what I found!? SURPRISE! No pictures at all. They didn't have time to get the projection equipment out. Kinda bummed. But whatever, it was really a great night. So glad I was invited to be part of that evening.

I think my top two favorite parts were:
1) President Rudd (2nd counselor in our stake presidency) singing I am a Child of God in Fijian. I had no clue of his musical talent. (Side note: I'm SOOOO excited his family is moving into our ward!)
2) Shaunna Sanders sharing her very sweet testimony of her mission in France and all that experience has meant to her. I didn't even know she served a mission. She touched my heart so much last night. So many missionaries are always concerned with numbers but she spoke of how she never got to teach one person the discussions 1-6. But she did bring souls to Christ. And the most important soul was her own.

Other things I enjoyed:
- Hearing others and their experiences that made their mission so special to them. Positive outlooks, testimonies in the language they spoke, and how we all truly believe our missions were the best...but I know the truth.
- Our Stake President letting the young men know that when they leave, not to worry about their girlfriends...there will be a missionary coming home to take care of her. And the don't worry part comes in because when they return, some other young missionary will leave a great girlfriend behind for him!
- Seeing the youth and so many of my young friends.
- Realizing I was the ONLY former missionary out of about 25-30 to NOT set up a table. Cause then I got to walk around and see everyone's tables. You know; South Africa, France, Guam, Las Vegas, California, Argentina, Netherlands, Brazil (which that one may have been the most festive, he even dressed in a Brazilian get-up), Figi, Texas, Oregon, Las Vegas, Idaho, Mississippi (mayo and all), Florida, Colorado (not me), Utah, Missouri, Montreal, etc. The world was well represented in our stake last night. Most brought treats from their areas to share. And really, what special Colorado food is there? I wasn't going to serve Rocky Mtn oysters. Other than that, I was going to whip up a Texas Sheet cake...but I didn't want to upstage TX with my TX-by-way-of-Colorado sheet cake.

I was most certainly blessed to be in GREAT company last night.