Trippin'

Today, as I was going to and from Burley for a library conference planning meeting, I spazzed out a little on the road. You see, it's been almost 4 months to the day (April 24, 2009) that I had my little accident, and by little, I mean, flipping my car. It was kinda traumatizing at the time (as one could imagine; hopefully you've never experienced it).

Earlier that month, I had my appendix out (it's an entertaining story -- well, except for the surgery part, which I'LL BE PAYING FOR UNTIL THE DAY I DIE -- but there are some funny things too. I'll blog about it later) and earlier in the week, I had another emergency stay for an abcess that developed (that was a pretty horrific night). Anyway, on that day, April 24, I was giving a presentation with my coworker in Pocatello. Stupidly I thought I was well enough to go. Well, on the way back, I fell asleep at the wheel (I'm blaming it on the good painkillers I had). Fortunately I only flipped my car once. I was wearing my seat belt (thankfully) and I only walked away with one small scratch on my arm and a bruise on my shin. Oh, and a completely totalled car (I busted out the passenger side windows and the back window, crunched the top of the car, and lost a wheel or two. Oh, and my rear view mirror came off too).

As I was traveling to Burley and getting closer to the accident site, the following thoughts began rambling in my head, over and over and over again: "I could have hit a pole." "I could have gone over that bridge, had I crashed just 30 seconds later." "I could have gone into the other lane of traffic." And so on and etc. Of course, that freaked me out a little bit, especially since I had a hard time ignoring the thoughts.

But here was one of the final thoughts I had: "You are so lucky to be alive." And I am. I don't know why I lived through it, but I sure am glad I did (as is Jared; the accident was a week before our wedding and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have liked being a widower before he was a husband). For whatever reason, God let me live that day, and for that, I will always be thankful.

Though I still wish I had my car Lucas.

An Interesting Prayer

So yesterday, Jared and I were fulfilling our calling as Sunbeam teachers. Some Sundays it's a little tiring, as we can have up to 8 rambunctious 3-4 year-olds. I've got to tell you, this is probably one of the best forms of birth control out there; at least it will dissuade us for having multiple children all the same age. Anyway, yesterday was SO nice as we only had 4 kids, and they were mostly our mellow ones. We did have Jane, who is a sweet and cute kid, but has a tendency to run around and be more vocal than the others. Unfortunately for her (but fortunately for us), she broke her femur while jumping on the couch and is now in a wheelchair. While I do feel bad for the kid (I do! I really do! That can't be fun, especially in summer!), it's nice not having to worry where Jane is and what she's into.

Anyway, so we were getting ready for closing prayer. We asked for a volunteer and Ellie, this cute little blonde girl, said she would say it. Jared asked if she needed any help and she said that no, she can do it. This is kind of how the prayer went:

"Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, please bless Mommy and Daddy that they may get home, please bless that we may be able to get up and get dressed for church, please bless this food..." And then she opened her eyes and loudly whispered, "Okay, I need some help!" Jared had to help her as I was trying to control my giggles. It's was pretty much the funniest thing I'd seen this week.

Photos!

And now, for everyone's favorite time: PICTURES!!

These are the professional pictures taken at my wedding by Corey King (check out his blog). He did such a fantastic job!

My parents, us, Jared's parents. I really love this photo! It's so cute.

The title say is all... most days. :P

Bethred the Destroyer!

So I woke up early this morning (and by early I mean before noon) and thought, Hey, I need to do a blog. Why? Because everyone else is doing it. Plus, I feel a little bad for not keeping in touch as much as I should. I'm horrible with letter writing and emails, and I don't really like to talk on the phone. Yeah, I know. I like to make things difficult for friends and family. So anyway, I woke up and started thinking about my first post. When I was finally free from my husband's grasp (he can be quite the octopus in the morning, especially if we don't have to work), I wandered to the computer.

I feel if I have to explain something here: Jared loves his computer more than life. It's true. When he gets up in the morning, it's the first thing he goes to, and it's the last thing he's doing before going to bed. I really don't mind too much, but we only have internet on one computer, so you can imagine how hard it is for me to get on it.

So I got to the computer first (the joys of waking up early on Saturdays) and started typing, only to be attacked by our kitten Primal Fury Destroyer of Worlds. Yes, that's her name. Jared named her. Apparently she missed us in the few hours we were sleeping (how dare we!) and she needed some attention RIGHT NOW. It's very hard to blog and distract a cat at the same time, just in case you're wondering. Fortunately for you, I have learned the great art of typing one handed. I finally got her calmed down and realized...

I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY. Well, that's not entirely true. I've already babbled on about nothing for the last few minutes, so apparently I can talk about just anything. But I've got nothing entertaining or pertinent to say about anything.... Oh wait. I can totally explain the "Bethred the Destroyer" thing.

OK, so here's the thing: When Jared and I started to get serious, his family decided that we needed a nickname. Jared's brother Jacob and his wife Emma have a nickname -- Jemma -- so they needed something for us, as "Beth and Jared" and "Jared and Beth" are too long to say. So we had too choices: Jarbeth, which sounded like some character off of Star Wars, or Bethred. We opted for the later. And then Jared added "the Destroyer" after Bethred, just because it flowed really well. I think he just likes to add "the Destroyer" to names (see our cat's name). With my luck, I'll probably end up with a son named Samuel the Destroyer Swenson. Don't worry. I'll talk him out of it. I hope. But just in case, someone needs to be there when I give birth to make sure Jared fills out the birth certificate right. You never know what condition I'll be in, what with all those drugs and all.

So there we go. My first post on this blog. Woo hoo! I'll try to do something every couple of days, and I apologize if I don't. I'll just blame it on the husband or the cat (who thankfully is now asleep, but that means I can't move as she's asleep on my lap).