New Blog

So I've never been good at blogging, but I'd like to be better so my friends and fam can stay up to date with us. Facebook is to vague for some people :)
I had to make a new blog account so I would actually blog, so try this one from now on:
www.thebrimys.blogspot.com
Can't wait to see you there! :)

Putting in the Miles

Well, I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I ran a half marathon! It all started after we miscarried and I was coming off all the hormones. I wanted to feel like I could do something for myself, something I could control about my health. So after talking to my friend, Jodi, (who was training for a marathon at the time) I decided I would do the one thing I never thought I would ever consider doing... run. At the time I could barely run only two miles.

I was starting to go for walk/runs with my friend, Alisa, (who just had a baby at the time). So I asked her to start training with me and before I knew it we were signing up for a half marathon with only three months to train. I was really proud of Alisa for taking on the challenge, her baby is just six months old now and she has already gotten down to her pre baby weight. She's awesome!!


It's amazing how in just a few months your life can revolve around your running schedule... what you eat, drink, how you sleep, and your social affairs. I used to tell everyone how crazy they were for working so hard on something that makes you hurt in the end... but now I know why.

The race was awesome! It was very small in the small town of Ocean Shores Washington. I think there were less than 100 runners. It was 6 1/2 miles one way to turn around and run back... I think because the town was too small to keep running forward.

There was a good three miles we ran on the ocean shore, and it was so beautiful! The other majority of the run went along beautiful authentic beach homes. It was so much fun to be so occupied by the scenery!

The weather was only 65 degrees and over casted, it felt so nice after being in 90 degree dry heat. There weren't very many volunteers or mile markers, so I tried to keep my enthusiasm by high fiving and cheering on all other runners & bikers who I passed or who passed me. My step dad, Tom, used to run the St. George marathon and I remember how much he enjoyed it because of his positive attitude- so when I started out the race I told myself I wanted to just enjoy it and take in the moment. I'll be honest, I was passed a lot the first half, but I also ended up passing a few people I tried to compare myself with in the end- so I didn't feel too bad about myself! :)

There was a point when I thought I still had probably close to three miles left and I knew I was okay to do it, but ready to see the finish line... that's when a volunteer let me know I only had a mile and a half to go!! WOOOO HOOOO!!! I jumped and screamed and my girlfriend got a picture of me in my enthusiastic moment :)

I felt pretty good throughout the race, and felt like I was keeping a good pace. When all was said and done I ended up running my goal time. It would have been awesome to have run a little faster, but I'm proud of myself for working toward my goals!


So I've discovered a few things through all of this... 1. I do have some competition in me, and it is me! I can win over myself! 2. Gu is my friend, I don't care how "gooey" it is! 3. Guns and Roses and Justin Timberlake can take me through a lot of miles, I don't care what anyone else says!! 4. It's okay to do things for yourself if it's going to help your own image of yourself! I have no desire to run a marathon, but I can certainly say that I'm all about the 13.1 miles... and I'm looking forward for my next and hoping to beat my previous time. I also have to thank my biggest supporters- Alisa, Julie, Heather, Jodi, and of course my Barty! Thanks everyone for pushing me and encouraging me when I didn't think I wanted to do it!
Way to go Alisa!! We rocked our first half marathon together, I can't wait to run another with you!!!

Hangin' in There!

Hi everyone!
I know most if not all of you have been wondering how we are doing since we started IVF (invetro infertilization), so I thought I would update you...
We did the procedure in January and even though my hormone levels were raising slowly, I was still able to get pregnant (which is new for me). Unfortunately I didn't carry past 5 weeks and miscarried. We both know it could have been worse- I could have been further along, but it was devastating for us to find out. If any of you have tried to talk reason with me in the last few weeks and I wasn't friendly or accepting, please forgive me! Not only was I having a hard time emotionally, but I was pumped full of A LOT of hormones. We allowed ourselves 20 days to be sad and upset, but we are now on the mend and ready to make decisions again. We will probably be meeting with the Dr. in a few weeks to discuss our options and what could have possibly went wrong the last time. We are sure we will try again, hopefully sooner rather than later, but money unfortunately is a factor.
I know a lot of you have asked and/or may be wondering why we don't consider adoption. I want you to know we have talked a lot about it, but it all comes down to the answers to our prayers- we just don't feel like that is the answer for us right now. I guess we still have lessons to learn.
I want to thank you all for your prayers. I can't begin to describe how much peace and comfort we have been feeling through these hard times and I know it has a lot to do with the constant prayers and our names being kept in the temple. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
We want to have our own children to raise unto the Lord, but if he has another plan for us we will accept it. We are happy and in love and have so many blessings in our lives. We really can't complain about the good life we live. Until then Major is still our baby and he doesn't mind at all! But I'm always up to just borrow your kids in the mean time! :)
Love you all!

The BAHAMAS!

HAPPY 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US!
We decided now would be the best time to take a little Vacation to celebrate our 10 years of marriage- since there's no kiddos to worry about and Bart is actually home and not off to a deployment or training of some sorts!
We enjoyed hanging out together and doing something we've never done before... the highlight was definately scuba diving!
This is Bart filming me swimming along the coral towards a shipwreck, and he added his two cents in with a big smile for you!

Bart was really good at it- a natural! No surprise there. I had a little bit of a hard time at first figuring it out, but the second dive we went on I did much better. We saw turtles, schools of fish, lots of neat coral, and a shipwreck! It was amazing! Now that we've done it, Bart is set on getting gear and becoming certified to continue... I've done it twice and that's all I need to do! :)


The rest of our time there we laid by the pool/ocean, ate yummy food that was available to us all the time, and we got to do a little sailing and island jumping as well. We had a great time and wished we could have shared it with all of you!

New Year's was a pretty crazy night, and a lot of fun! They had a parade they call the "Junkanoo", live bands and dancing. They had a seafood buffet like I've never seen before- all the grilled lobster and jumbo shrimp we could stuff ourselves with! It was fun being crazy and dancing the new year in with my sweetie!
Happy New year everyone! We hope yours is a promising one!

What's new?

It's been a little while since I've updated our post, so I thought this might be a good time to let you all know what's going on...
First of all, we moved in to our new home in Olympia Washington a few months ago and live has been a little bit of a whirlwind since.
We celebrated our TEN year anniversary on Nov. 20th, and we are going to the Bahama's in Dec. to really celebrate! We can't wait to have a real vacation and relax!!
We (and be we I mean I) had a week to unpack before we left for CA for a week to visit family. It was a great time and we really enjoyed just getting to hang out and spend a little one on one with everyone. But the day after we got home we had guests showing up for Thanksgiving week. My mom came and helped me get a few things put together so the house looked a little more presentable and comfortable... she's had a little practice so she was a good help. Then Kevin came so he could take Whit back home. And then my sister Chris and her Ian came to spend the holiday. It was really fun having everyone here and we had some good laughs! And I loved having everyone fit comfortably in my new home, and it was my first time making Thanksgiving dinner for family. It actually turned out to be a good dinner! If only we had more time to spend together!
Bart was getting ready to deploy with his unit when they started to make some changes that would affect his work, so he asked to be transfered to another unit. This new unit was scheduled to leave for Iraq the first of February, but got cancelled just as they started their pre deployment training. This was such amazing news to us... it's still almost too unbelievable! Especially since we will be doing invetro ifertilization (IVF) real soon. It's inevitable that he will deploy in the future, but for right now we are enjoying the time we have together.
As far as making babies- well, we are now in the process! We had a family fast and prayer day, in which many of you participated in, and we have had only peaceful and hopeful feelings! It will take a few months before we know for sure if it works so stay tuned!! :) We feel like we're in a good place right now, and we know the Lord has a plan for us either way.
Well, I hope this helps getting my post updated a little... I better go pack for the big Vacation!
Love you all!

Home Updates

Well, here it is, in the making! After months of looking for a home to buy when we got out here we finally found the one. It wasn't our dream house, but it is nice and will be good for resale (we hope) in 5 or so years from now when we move again. Bart and I hadn't been able to pay our tithing in a few months when we first got here, and after a month of not finding a home we could agree on we both realized we needed to pay our tithing and give to the Lord to receive this blessing. It wasn't 24 hours later after fast Sunday when we paid our tithing that we found this house. Everything has gone pretty good so far with the building, choosing colors together, deciding on upgrades and not, and we still really like each other which is a bonus!!
We have already met with the loan officer and we close the end of Oct. We are super excited to be moving in to our own home and to hopefully be starting our family here. Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers, we have felt very blessed these last few weeks. Nothing new or exciting as far as doing any IVF (invetro fertilization), but we have begun the testing and will be meeting with our Dr. again next month to discuss "the game plan". We love you all & hope you'll come to visit... we will have plenty of room!

THE HOUSE

Well, we're picking out colors and upgrades and stuff for the house, and everything seems to be working out so far. We're really excited to finally have something that belongs to us that we can make our own! We don't close until November (our choice) since we're locked in a rental agreement, but it should be done before then...
It's been stressful, but we're trying to enjoy every bit of it since we are so blessed to be in a position to even be buying a home during these hard times.