Here are a few more

The baby has arrived

Well life has been pretty crazy to us. Today it is snowing like crazy and thank goodness it is Thanksgiving break. I'll let you in on a little bit that is happening in our lives. Chantal finished her student teaching and can now graduate and teach, but she won't be yet because we just had a beautiful baby. I will come back to this later in my blog.
To make life fun about a month and a half ago I was playing football and as I was diving across the goal line I got kneed in the back of the head. I split my head open really wide and spent the night getting stitched up. I'll add a picture for those of you who did not get to see my fun yet. Then two weeks after that I was playing in my intramural soccer game, that was getting a little more rough than usual, and ended up popping my knee out of place. I spent the next month hobbling around but I am happy to say that I am finally to the point that I can walk again and it doesn't hurt. I know I know, accident prone...won't stop me from doing what I like to do.
Now on to our newest news. Our baby was born on Nov 17 at 3:45. Chantal's water decided it was time to break at 11:30 the night before. No sleep at all seeing as those beds at the hospital are painful. We went through about 12 hours of labor before the doctor came and told us we were stuck at 8 cm. They said they would give us two hours and then do a c-section. We decided it was time to pray and in the end everything worked out and we didn't end up having to get one. Chantal was lucky and only pushed for about ten minutes and out came the baby. I thought I was not going to want to help, but when it all started I got to help out the whole time. She came out and was born with an amazingly large amount of brown hair. We did not expect it! She was 7.7 lbs and 20 inches long. Her name is Brynlee Marie Dougal. She is pretty much adorable. The nurses were all obsessed with her and didn't want to bring her back into the room. She has been such a good baby though. She rarely cries except when getting her clothes changed because moscow is freezing cold and snowing. I will add as many pictures as I can. The last picture will be of the head wound so if you are woozy don't look at the last one.so I won't be showing the other picture below because I can't find it. I will and then I'll post it!

Random tidbits

Well, we are under two months until our new little girl shows up. We are pretty excited about it, but sometimes wish it didn't take so long. I guess if it wasn't hard everyone would want to do it and believe me, there are far too many screwed up parents already. I have time to write today because for the last week I have been fighting the flu and yesterday I woke up and could fight no more. It only knocked me out for about a day. Today I have already removed myself from the couch the couch, so that it a plus. It is not fun. I would suggest not getting it, but I can't complain because it wasn't really that bad compared to everyone else up here.
What else is new? Well, I added some new music. There is some pretty good music out right now. We are excited for So You Think You Can Dance again, but hope they don't turn it into a gimmick. I hate when everyone has some random story to get them by the judges. I know some are legit, but really, it's a dance show, not a soap opera. I figure we have enough of that in our lives. It seems that lots of facebook, myspace and blogs these days are only to whine and complain about things we dislike. So I will try to be more optimistic so I won't be one of "The Complainers"! Intramural soccer has started again and so far we are doing really well. We have won two for two. I have the shin bruises to prove it. Ballroom has also started. It looks like it will be the best year we have had so far. I hope it keeps going.
Soon enough I will start looking for jobs and figure where Chantal and I are going. That should be fun! I can't really think of anything else so I will write again another time.

and a little bit more

I'm just writing the post because lately I have been a little more down. It is frustrating. I have been to five doctors and all of them have no clue how to do their jobs. So I came to a new doctor and he did a great job and he had tons of ideas about my ribs and how I tore the cartilage between them! Well life was going well. We finally knew what was going wrong and how to fix it. Then this morning I received a call from the doctor. The radiologist went over the xrays and was kind of confused. He said my chest looked like I had bronchitis. So he asked me how I was feeling and of course I am still terribly sore, but I have not been sick really. They checked my white blood cell count to see if it was a gallbladder problem and it isn't. They checked my blood oxygen levels to see if that was a problem. They checked my liver and everything else and so far have drawn lots of blood, but no conclusions. SO basically what this is coming down to is we could use all the prayers we can get right now. If anyone has any ideas other than that I am very much up for the suggestions! Thanks
Trevor

Baby Baby

This one is crazy that you can see her skin and bones. The doctor said she looks great! We are going to go in and get the 3D pictures in a few weeks so they will be even more clear.

This is my favorite. It's the I love you picture!

So people keep asking for the ultrasound pictures so here are a few so those of you who don't live out in the middle of nowhere moscow can see. We were finally able to scan them on the computer. Happy Days!

Today

So, if you ever wondered what people do without jobs I will show you. Chantal and I decided it was time to go outside and do some sidewalk chalk art. It was fun. If you can't already tell I was the creator of the Tide art. Beautiful!


This picture below is Chantal at 22 weeks. In all reality she is kind of pushing out so she looks pregnant. The baby just hasn't yet decided to jump out yet. That is completely fine with us.
This last video is moscow water. We cleaned out our water heater and boy did it look delicious.


What else to add. We won our first two softball games. We knocked off the number one team. It was 24-11 and we 12 runned them in the 5th inning. Now I am just picking out music for next years ballroom team so I should probably get going.

The incident

So, my mother says I should be blogging every day and because I have nothing to blog about Chantal and I decided it would be best to find things. So....we parked our car in a nice little spot and someone ran in to it. It was our 2005 Mitsubishi Galant. It was chillin out on the corner when I worker from Auto Hills Apartments was backing out. For months they had told the company the power steering was going out on the big steel truck. Fortunately nothing was ever taken care of. As he backed out somehow he got going pretty fast and the steering went out and boom he smashed into the front and side of the car. We are not sure yet what the total damage is, but it is going to be quite a lot. We actually thought it was pretty funny. I mean, you can't go back and change time anyway, so why be mad. Hopefully soon we will find out the entire outcome of this wonderful event.

My Mistake

Ok, babies only stay in there for like 40 weeks. So in the lower post when I said 17 months I would only be saying that if we were a herd of elephants, because they take two years. On the other hand, we do not take two years to have a baby, thank goodness, so I meant 17 and 19 weeks. Thanks Roxy, I know at least one person actually reads our blog :)!

Life

Life has been crazy lately. Chantal started babysitting for this family on Thursday and loves it. She said their house is amazing and is getting ideas for when we can possibly have one. One year and counting! I have a big interview with a company called Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories on Wednesday and I am hoping to get the job because I would be working in the HR department. I have already done the first interviews and now it is down to the four or five of us. It started out with a much bigger group, but I have made it this far. So everyone wish me luck and pray for me :)! We got baby pictures which I will put up. She is a beautiful little girl. She kicks very hard. Chantal could feel her kicking when Chantal was only 17 months along and I could feel her at 19.

Softball isn't going quite as well. Our team is in third place this year. I am happily batting about .900 or more though. I was on a batting streak of 19 with no outs until I choked :)! I have also caught some sweet dives this year.

We have been to many yard sales and bought a 75 dollar brand new grain mill for three dollars. It had never been used. We also got tons of baby clothes and items. I have finished choreographing a lot of ballroom dances for next year and have started putting things together for when we start our studio next year. I am pretty excited about that! Well, for now, I say goodbye!

I don't have a job yet

Well, I don't have a job yet so I figure I can write a little more. A couple of weeks ago we took the entire ballroom teams to Seattle. It was a great trip. I will have to tell you that it is a lot harder to run a team than to just go on the trip and be the problem. It was a lot of fun and most everything went smoothly! We got to spend an entire day in downtown. It was a blast and from what I hear the rest of the ballroom team enjoyed it pretty well. I have now finished my junior year of college and I am excited to finally be in my senior year. Only one year left :)! If it goes as fast as this last semester I will be super excited.
Chantal and I are expecting our first baby! WE DON'T KNOW THE GENDER YET! We will find out in about a month or so what the gender is though. I always say I am hoping for a boy, but really I'll be super excited with whatever I get. Chantal is finally passed the sick stage, but still lives on B6 and Unisom.
Our next exciting news is we bought the entire set of ballroom costumes from the Bsu Del Sol's old team. It is four carloads of ballroom costumes. We are so excited to sort them out and figure out what we will be using this next year.
We also went on a great picnic with our friends Kierstin and Dustin. It was supposed to be a bike ride, but for some reason we locked our bikes up last year and have no idea what the password is. We aren't sure if actually the lock just rusted over because we are both pretty certain of what it was and now it won't work any more. So, they biked and we drove. that's about all that is going on right now. I'll write more soon seeing as I have nothing else to really do! Here are some pictures from the picnic. Ya gotta love Dustin's face on the last pic!

What's going on in life

We have finally had something worth writing about. Chantal finishes her first half of student teaching this next week. The weather has been fabulous and life is good. Now for the stories. This last week I learned a valuable lesson. I was teaching early morning seminary and thought the lesson was going great. everyone was involved, but a few of the boys from class kept smirking and I had no idea why. We finished class and one of them came up to me and said, "Brother Dougal, your farm door is open." I immediately knew he was ever so nicely letting me know that I taught the entire lesson with my pants unzipped. Now that's classy!
Our next story for the week was our wonderful muddy buddy incident. I was making muddy buddies and Chantal told me to go get the final ingredient off the counter. She told me to get the powdered sugar off the counter and to start pouring it into the bowl. I poured a whole lot of it because who doesn't enjoy sugar? I reached in and pulled out a huge handful and dropped it into my mouth only to realize it didn't taste the same as usually. In fact it made me want to puke. I ran to the trash and spit it out. Unfortunately we did not realize the "powdered sugar" on the counter was actually corn starch in a winco style bag. That is a taste I really don't want to remember any more.
Sorry, the image quality is not amazing, but that is our favorite treat all dumped out :(

New Post

So everyone is always like..."add a new post"...so I will because I am a nice guy and for no other reason. Well, that and I just cleaned the entire house and really have nothing else to do. What's going on in life? Well for spring break we went to Utah to watch the ballroom nationals with our friends Luke and Piper. It was a lot of fun, but I am glad to be home. We rented a van because Luke forgot his license. Unfortunately the breaks went out on it and they didn't help us much until we turned it in. They took a large chunk off the final cost. We were happy about that.

Something to write about

I am not the best writer or the most philosophical person, but tonight I watched an amazing movie called August Rush with my beautiful wife and then I decided it was time to come ponder life. I know a marveling thought knowing that my life is that of sports, ballroom and school! I have been thinking about a quote by Aldous Huxley which states,
"Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities." It really made me think of where my priorities are in life and what should really be important to me. This life really is the time to focus on God and do our best, but what an amazing thing to know that after we have done all that we can, He will make up the rest. What hope and peace this brings about in my life.

I also started in a round about way to think of other quotes and I thought about one that goes, "Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results." I have been taking a class called interpersonal communication and it has been quite edifying. It has made me think everyday about how I act...or in actuality how I react to life. Do I give a grumble every time something "bad" happens or do I say I am lucky enough I am capable of handling this little trial? It really is something to think about. If you are not sure if you are a well rounded happy person I suggest you take some coins and put them in your pocket and every time during the day you have a bad thought about yourself or someone else you take a coin out. It is just a visual way of seeing how we are doing. I don't think we yet understand the life changing effects our attitude can have on people around us. This last week my life was forever changed by a small chat I had with someone. It will be something that for years to come I will remember. Go out and make someone's day happy. Don't let the little things bother you or some day you will wake up to a real problem and you will not be able to cope with it. Those are my thoughts for the day!

Lately

Lately life has been great. Chantal and I hit our two year anniversary and I don't really remember what life was like before her, nor do I care to. I surprised her big time for our anniversary. We were on our way back up from caldwell and I tricked her by booking a room at the Riggins Holiday Inn on the river. It had an amazing view and a swimming pool. The two things I love. It was great.

After getting home Chantal and I relaxed for a while until it was time for her to start student teaching. She really loves the kindergartners. She always comes home with stories of booger pickers and oh so many other things. It has been great. They haven't needed me at work, so I stayed home and cleaned. I have also spent a lot of time preparing my ballroom medleys. Let's cross our fingers that they work out.