I printed my photos with Fotoworks. It’s a company in California that does professional printing. I highly recommend them. They do great quality work, and they’ll send your prints to you in the mail.

I bought the foam board from Hobby Lobby, the local craft store. I think I paid around $6 for a 36×40″ board. I cut the board with a rotary cutter and self healing mat. I’m pretty sure an exacto knife would work fine however. Just be careful and use a straight edge. You might ask if the store would cut the board for you.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I used a spray adhesive to mount the pictures. But here’s where I’d do something differently. I recommend using an adhesive like 3M’s Photo Mount Spray Adhesive. I didn’t use an adhesive that was specifically for photos, and I had some bubbling. No good. I think using the photo adhesive would have solved the problem.

Also, when you use the spray, use a light, even coat. Too much adhesive will make the photos bubble as well.

Hope these tips help. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Check out these adorable folds and rolls!

I can’t believe how fast she is growing. Again it’s just such a contrast with Link. Lincoln wore newborn clothes until he was 3 months. Claire is fitting perfectly into 3 month clothes already.

Claire has been a real delight the last couple days. We had a few weeks of fussiness, and hope that’s coming to an end. She smiles more and more and has just started cooing. It’s wonderful to hear other baby noises besides crying!

Lincoln now surprises us daily with all the new things he knows and does. His imagination is flourishing. He and I seriously have a blast together! Recently he got up the courage to lay down on his back in the tub. He’s never really liked water, so this was a real accomplishment.

Also, we’ve been working on our monster faces. But somehow I don’t think this cute boy could ever look scary.

I’m doing great. I can honestly say I’ve never enjoyed being a mother more.

I thought it’d be fun to respond to each of your comments in a post.

Thanks for your support, Jessica. It’s nice to know other people have made it through similarly difficult circumstances!

Michelle, you’re right about the fact that we at least have insurance. I could be worse. Your encouragement that it is possible to take care of the kids by yourself was helpful. I am more confident now that Link and I will be okay. For now, staying in California while Miles is in Utah looks like our best option. I can’t believe that the medical bills for Isabelle were so much! That definitely put things into perspective when we were considering just taking a chance and paying out of pocket in Utah. Thanks for your prayers! And no, we don’t have any idea where we’ll be living. We’re looking at a few complexes that are close to Miles’ work, at least within biking distance. That way, he won’t need a car and can leave it for Link and I to use.

Lilly, it was good to talk to you about this in person a little bit the other day. You’re right that making a few phone calls doesn’t hurt. We are planning to talk to HR hopefully Monday or Tuesday after we get all the details of the offer in writing. As for the Kaiser possibilities, from the phone calls I’ve made we really have no possibilities. It stinks.

Jason, it was good and surprising to hear from you! Your advice was definitely comforting and informative. And we’ll possibly hit you up for that dinner when we finally arrive in Riverton! We too feel guided by the Spirit in all of this. Hopefully we’ll be in contact again soon!

Sara, through all of this, the option of delivering in a birthing center was not excluded. I definitely think natural child birth is a good thing and it is cheaper. However, we decided there is still a risk of being transferred and then we could still be stuck with a huge hospital bill. It stinks that making these decisions comes down to money! Good to hear from you! It’s been awhile!

Amber, I appreciated your insider’s view about how the hospitals work. I’d heard similar stories from a couple other people but you helped clarify how this works. Though we don’t have a strong Plan A, working with the Riverton hospital is our Plan B. You’re a very wise women.

Laura, I’m so excited we’ll be living closer! I thought about that the other day and am wondering where you live exactly. Is your condo in South Jordan? I couldn’t remember. I’m not sure how the move-in part is going to go, but we might just take you up of your offer for help. At this point, I think Miles is planning to drive the Uhaul up next week while I camp it out in California.

Monica, unfortunately Kaiser doesn’t have any out-of-network coverage options except for emergency services. Thank you so much for your well wishes!

Abbi, I couldn’t believe how creative your idea was! I brought it up to Miles, be alas, we figured out that we’re not going to have a lapse in employment. Miles will be receiving paychecks from the University through May. And unfortunately living in “poverty” as students here in California doesn’t equate to poverty in Utah. So, we don’t qualify for medicaid even with our current salary.

Bri, like I mentioned to Sara, I thought natural child birth would be a great option, but it doesn’t solve our problem with not having insurance. And yes, I agree that it stinks to make the decision based on money!

Thanks for your kind words Jackie! You’re such a sweetheart!

Love you all. We’re so so so grateful for your kindness!

So about this time last year, Miles and I found ourselves sitting in bed talking about the possibility of Miles not continuing his PhD in biology. He had come to the realization that he just wasn’t passionate about/ obsessed enough over it. In case you didn’t know, a person has to be absolutely in love with something to devote 6+ years of their life to it. Two years into the program and Miles found himself already dreading going into the lab each day.

So what now? Well if you’ve spent more than 20 minutes in a conversation with Miles, you’re sure to know what he is passionate about. Computers. Apple. Programming. Problem solving. There was just one problem. He didn’t have any formal training in computers whatsoever. He was self-taught. He’d done a few websites here and there. And he sure spent a lot of time on the internet learning about different programming languages etc. But really in the end, he didn’t have much to show for it. So yeah, I was scared. I let Miles know my insecurities, but in the end, I knew he was not happy and that this career change needed to happen. So we started praying. A lot. And we went forward.

Miles dedicated the next few months to strengthening his resume. He checked out books from the library and continued learning. It reminded me a lot of my dad who built two homes by basically reading how-to manuals.

Then the tedious job search began. Applications, cover letters, resumes. Yuck! And it took awhile for Miles to nail down exactly what jobs he should apply for. But then a miracle happened. He got a phone interview! This was before Thanksgiving. They liked him and gave him a project which he worked on until 2:00am every morning for a couple weeks. To make a very long and drawn-out story a little shorter, after a couple more interviews, in March they flew Miles out to North Carolina for and in-person interview. I paid my own way and went along too. I devoted the couple days to looking at the area and checking out places to live. We thought for sure we’d leave with an offer on the table.

Well, we flew home, still confident, but without an offer. A few days after getting home they emailed us a less-than desirable offer. The bummer was that they weren’t offering benefits. But after some thought, we decided we could make it work. We prayed about it and felt good about accepting the offer. Actually how we felt was that it was a good offer but that there would be others. But since we didn’t have any other offers in the works, we’d be crazy not to take this one. But instead of receiving a updated offer letter, we received a two-lined email stating that they decided not to renew the offer. That there’d been a question about Miles’ commitment to the company. What the?! We had no idea what they were talking about! This was such a blow. It hurt a lot. Miles sent a very lengthy letter the the owner of the company trying to clear up any miscommunication. After they reviewed his letter, they responded by saying they just didn’t think Miles was a good fit.

So after months of being in the interview process with this company, and applying to many others, we were back at square one. We started again, only this time we were looking to be much closer to home. North Carolina was really far, and it put some things into perspective. So more applications, resumes, interviews. This time though, three separate companies asked to interview Miles: one local company; one in Littleton, CO; and one in Riverton, UT.

It seemed we’d struck gold. Miles had three interviews with the company here in Irvine. And we actually got an offer from the company in Littleton. When we got the offer, however, we were in Utah where Miles was interviewing for a Database Engineer position for the LDS Church.

He’d applied for the job with the Church thinking he was very under qualified. Which he was. In fact, during the phone interview he was told so. But they still wanted to meet him. They said they saw potential.

The interview went well. And we were very hopeful! This would be a great opportunity for growth. And there’s no doubt that Miles indeed does have the potential to do very well. We wanted this position. My family wanted us to get this position because we’d only be a few hours away. We were so grateful when my mom told us my family would be fasting and praying for Miles to get the job. Well, God heard our prayers. The next day, Miles got a phone call informing him that they’d like to hire him with a start date of May 17th. Nothing short of a miracle!

We are so thrilled! But as we learned from our experience with the NC peeps, it’s not official until it’s official. So just today we heard the details of the offer. Great salary and benefits! Who could ask for more?

Only one problem. Remember how I’m supposed to have a baby mid-June? Well the benefits don’t kick in until July 1. Now this complicates things beyond belief!

I currently have a private plan through Kaiser Permanente. Utah doesn’t have Kaiser. I cannot buy into an other individual plan because pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition. Blah. We do not qualify for medicaid assistance even though here in California we are living in poverty. So that leaves us paying out of pocket. Maybe not too big of a deal if everything goes perfectly. But that’s a big risk. We could be paying tens of thousands of dollars if I need a c-section, not to mention all the other possible complications.

So where does that leave us? In a very hard situation. We’ve come up with two “solutions.”

1. Link and I stay in California and Miles moves up to Utah to start his job. This would mean me taking care of Link by myself for a month, risking Miles not being here for the birth of the baby (would probably ask the doctor about induction to decrease this risk), paying double rent, and trying to move with a newborn by myself since Miles will have to be back at work.

2. We move together up to Utah as planned. I stay in Riverton and get things settled for a couple weeks. Drive down to St. George to stay with family for a week (it’s 4 hours closer to the Kaiser Hospital), then the final week I’d stay in a friend’s apartment while they are out of town. This would mean I’d pay for prenatal visits out of pocket, we’d still be risking Miles not being there for the birth, and I’d have to travel back up to Utah with a 2-day old.

So neither option is a good option. I hate to say it but our current health care system here in America sucks!

As my grandma said, we’re going to need to talk to the Lord about this one. Indeed!

I welcome any thoughts/ advice. Maybe there’s something we haven’t thought of?

We didn’t have much time to set things up beforehand so I was a bit nervous we’d have technical difficulties. It’s inevitable, right? So as I was sitting listening to Sister Getz begin her lesson I said a simple, silent prayer. “Father in Heaven, please help me figure out how to get the DVD player to work so that thy Spirit will not be disrupted.”

My prayer was answered. While setting up the system, there were complications, but my mind was able to work through them. The DVD worked and the Spirit was unrestrained. I am grateful the Lord hears all of our prayers, even the simple ones.

Lately I’ve been asking myself, “where have all the good posts gone?” My blog has turned into a photo gallery. Not that I don’t like showing off how adorable my little man is, but I know I’ve bored you to tears. I’ve fallen into a trap of telling myself that as long as I get the pictures up, thats good enough. The thing is, I’ve noticed other bloggers slacking lately too (obviously not you). My question is, has blogging become outdated already? Has the world of blog posts been replaced by Facebook and Twitter?

Before the kid, I was basically addicted to blogging. I loved leaving comments, and people actually commented on my blog too.  But the fact is, I’ve become lazy. It’s just easier to read and move on without giving feedback. And I don’t blame you for not commenting on my posts, I’ve given you nothing of interest to comment about. I mean, how many times can you  say, “oh Link sure is growing up.” BORING! So I apologize.

I miss the days of blog conversation. I feel this is being lost as I use my blog more and more as a scrapbook. So I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m gonna try to write more thoughtful posts in addition to posting endearing pictures of Link.  And if you felt like doing the same, I wouldn’t argue.

I feel cursed lately. I’m having some bad, bad, luck. It’s just little things, but they’re adding up.

Last week I visited my family. And of course, just like last time, Lincoln was really sick. Great! It’s no fun to take care of a sick baby by yourself. He literally started feeling better the day we were supposed to fly out. I came down with it a couple days before we left.

When we arrived at the airport to fly home, I was told I didn’t have a reservation. What?! I paid for it! What happened was I had bought a round-trip ticket, but didn’t take the flight there beacause I needed to be there a day earlier. I called United to ask about cancellation and refunds, and all they told me was it would cost $150 to cancel the first leg of my trip. Well, that wasn’t worth it. The whole ticket was only $200. Anyway, I just didn’t show. So when I arrived at the St. George airport to fly home, they said I no longer had a reservation. Because I didn’t fly to St. George they cancelled my entire reservation. But nobody told me anything about that! Now they were telling me I had to buy another $140 one-way ticket to get home. Anyway, after a lot of frantic phone calls with United, we were only charged a $60 fine. Blah blah blah.So in the end I paid $280 for a one-way ticket when it only takes 6 hours to drive! Ahhhh. Never again.

Yesterday I spent the day working on renewal applications for insurances. And we all know that sort of stuff is just a pain in the butt! Then yesterday afternoon I drove 30 minutes to Link’s doctor’s appointment. We left an hour early and ended up being 15 minutes late. We had never been to this doctor before and it was located within a huge medical complex consisting of two parking garages, two hospitals, and multiple office buildings. When we finally made it there, we had to wait for an hour and a half just to be seen.

Yesterday I also found out that my job training (which I cannot take Link to) started THIS Monday, not next week like I thought. So that took some scrambling.

Oh did I mention I’ve been sick through all this. Yeah.

This morning I really, really, really wanted to go workout. I was feeling better, and it had been so long. Anyway, this morning I was DETERMINED to go. So I got up this morning and realized I left my sports bras in Utah. Ok, running was out. So I decided to go swimming instead. No big deal. I got all ready and it turns out the POOL IS CLOSED June 15–21! Arrrg!

What luck!