Silver Lining

So it all started last weekend with a sudden unbearable sore throat. Chris had the same sickness on his mission, and now it's back again. Some really serious type of flu, with tons of different symptoms, came back to haunt him again. You name the symptom, and he had it.

And in the past, it has always stayed around for two weeks

It pained me to see him like that, especially since he still chose to go to work through all of this. But my respect for him grew, as I realized what lengths he was willing to go through for the welfare of our little family.

I did my best to take care of him, and through serving him, I was amazed at how much our love for each other grew. I loved him more because I was constantly serving and caring for him, and his love for me grew because of my service.

We were also talking about how much of a blessing it was that he got sick on a weekend, and not during the middle of the week. With our insane 15 hour work days, Chris would have had a much more difficult time, because he is too stubborn to not work lol. So Sunday was a day of relaxing for him. Both of us had Sunday off, so I was able to take care of him, and he was able to relax, which turned out to be a very big turning point for the better.

Chris woke up the next morning feeling significantly better, and while he still is battling the rest of the sickness, the worst is definitely behind him, which in years past would take Chris a week to reach that point.

Right now, he's just got this crazy cough, with the occasional sore throat, but nothing compared to what it was. I told him that if he wants to get better, he needs lots and lots of rest. So what is he doing right now while I am creating this post? He is changing the oil and fixing the breaks. The guy never stops. I'm so proud of him. Even in his sickest moments he never slows down. Thanks babe :)

Yeehaw!

Here is a little bit of a visual at what went down at our second family reunion:

There were two herds of horses, one in each pasture on opposite ends of the house. This herd had 7 babies in it, and one of the mares was still pregnant!








On the atv ride up the mountain :)

Photography

So while I was at Arch Cape, I was so taken back at how beautiful everything was, even in the little details that most people don't notice. So I was inspired by that beauty to try and capture what I could in pictures. So even with no photography background/classes AT ALL, here is my attempt at some photography from our first family reunion of the summer...










(above) Chris's dad in the background. This is Chris's terrible hand.
Lunch in town :)

Chris built so many campfires on the beach, and they were great for s'mores!






This star fish is flipping me off, not very nice.

These two are holding hands :)






Chris is talking on the phone with one of his mission buddies and tossing a football in the air.

And Now for the Fun Part

Our motto for the summer has been "Work hard, Play hard". Well we've been working our butts of with two jobs and a lot of crazy schedules. So we finally had our first REAL vacation of the summer early in July: two family reunions back to back... on the in-law side. Some people might cringe at the idea of spending time with the in-laws at 2 different family reunions back to back, but I LOVED it. Not only were the PEOPLE amazing to hang out with, but the PLACES were phenomenal as well.

Reunion #1: The Bateman side: Arch Cape, Oregon
That is just south of Cannon Beach, which I love because it was WAY more secluded and wasn't "touristy". I felt right at home with this family and Chris confirmed how comfy I was by how I was "sandal sockin' it" nearly the whole time, and I didn't care! Our stay at Arch Cape was filled with...

• Boogie boarding
• Book reading
• Popcorn eating
• Beach house lounging
• Card playing
• Movie watching
• Rook playing
• Campfire sitting
• Marshmallow roasting
• Tidal pool exploring
• Long walks on the beach-ing
• Sun tanning
• Picture taking
• Sunset watching
• Good food eating
• Rock climbing
• Cave exploring
• Games in the sand playing
• Crab chasing
• Starfish searching
• Fireworks Watching
• Homemade doughnut devouring
• Lunch in town eating
• Some lucky girl riding her horse on the beach watching
• Football throwing
• Game playing
• 
  

...FUN! I'm so glad we were able to go. Then from there, we all piled in the Bateman family van to:

Reunion #2: The Ivie side: 5 Star Ranch, Spanish Fork Canyon
This was at a HUGE house/ranch way in the Spanish Fork Canyon. There was so much to do, including being with the two herds of horses in the pastures on either side of the estate, with all their cute horse babies! Our stay at the 5 Star Ranch was filled with...

• Horse feeding
• Horse watching
• Horse picture taking
• Horse petting
• Horse bonding
• Baby horse watching
• Horse wishing
• Horse calling
• Horse yearning
• ...ah
• Ping pong playing
• Rook playing
• Poker playing
• Pistol shooting
• Rifle shooting
• Shotgun shooting
• ATV riding
• Lake canoeing
• Horseshoe playing
• Campfire building
• Marshmallow roasting
• Food making
• Food eating
• Family talent show participating
• Picture taking
• Frisbee throwing
• Cell phone service lacking

...FUN! Needless to say, we didn't want to come home, or go to work the next day.

Note to Husbands

I have the best husband in the world, sorry girls. I had such a great day today. Now Chris probably would rather that I not publish this post, because it's mostly about him, but I manage the blog, so it's on.

So while I'm at work, I get a text from Chris, "Hey, wanna go out to lunch with me when you get home?" What girl is gonna pass that up? I was thinking "Sweet, he wants to spend money on me!" So we go to Pita Pit (one of my new favorite places to eat). Chris had never been, but I knew he would love it. I was right. (If you ever eat there, get the Margarita Pita with extra mango sauce... Oh my gosh!)

During our lunch, he kept asking me questions about what I would get if I were to shop online at Bath&Body Works, and how much I like their Shae Socks, and body lotion and stuff. I was trying to figure out why he kept randomly asking me all this stuff, and I had an idea. Finally I beat it out of him (or maybe he was just so excited that he couldn't keep it a secret... probably the latter), but apparently he bought ordered me a ton of stuff from there online! He got me a combination of a whole bunch of Shae Socks, body lotion, and hand lotion. He won't tell me how much he spent (nor do I want to know) but he said that shipping alone was around $20. But what better time to shop than during their Semi-Annual Sale?

When I started asking too many questions about why he would spend so much money on that kind of stuff, he just kept saying that it was for his Father's Day present, (he's so clever) He even got help from a girl at work to make sure he got the good stuff :)

I still had a couple hours before I had to be at my other job, so we decided to go to the mall. (Of course, we had to stop by PetsMart to get some things for the fish). I still had a Victoria's Secret gift card from my Bridal Shower, and what better time to spend it than during their Semi-Annual Sale? Among some of the things bought was the new Dream Angel "Halo" (love it already!) and some good smelling massage oil. Yay!


** I feel like one of those Telemercial guys by saying the next part: "But wait! There's More!" After that we went to another store in the mall and got me 2 nice lookin pair of shoes! I can't wait to get off work tonight to look at everything I got! On the way home, I asked Chris why he all of a sudden went and decided to spend so much money on me in one day. He said that he realized today that while he may be done spending money on himself, he came to the realization today that girls are different and that it's nice every now and then to spend money on your wife so she doesn't feel forgotten about :) Cute or what? But to end the whole experience, one of my favorite parts was his mom's response after I told her what he did: "Was he trying to get out of the dog house?"

An Old Familiar Leaf

Well, after today there is no turning back. Our office was transformed into a workout room today. Chris's latest hobby is getting fit and staying fit. I decided I'd be along for the ride. Let me tell ya, he is going all out for this hobby, (but what else is new?) Our computer desk has been taken apart and put away in our closet (as we really have no need for it while we're not in school). So, Chris moved all of his workout items into the office, making it a workout room for the next two months. Before the mish, he was quite the all-star athlete. (when he reads this, he will say, "Now Julene, I wasn't an all-star"). I know that. But it sounds cool, and I think he is an all-star. And just because he wasn't an all-star doesn't mean that he wasn't good. This man tore it up on the track and soccer fields! He misses his old ways, so he is gettin back in the groove! I also use to be a little more physically fit once upon a time, so I decided that I'd also eat a little more healthy, and get back in my own groove of toning and what-not. To help Chris get back to his old leaf, he purchased off of KSL a rowing machine, weights and a bench to lift them with, and a punching bag thing that is weighted down with a water base (on a side note, we picked this thing up at K-mart... it was originally priced at $100, then marked down to $65, then marked down to $40. So we got it! And it comes with punching gloves!) . That is probably a horrible explanation, but it's for Chris, not me, so I'm allowed to not know what it's called. But the nice thing about it, is that I can practice my strike and kick moves that I learned in my RAD self-defense class, so I won't get all rusty! So at the end of the summer, you should expect to see a new pair of Batemans!

Grandparents, Again!

By now you must know about our fish, but what you don't know is our latest addition to our lovely tank. Our fish had babies!! Again!! This probably the third time that Chris and I have been grandparents via fish babies. The lucky parents are King Louie and Jasmine (all the fish in our tank are named after Disney characters). King Louie is a beautiful Blue Cobalt fish, but he is actually light purple with dark purple stripes and he is gorgeous! Jasmine is one of our lovely Red Zebras (we have another one who is male named Alladin, but apparently Jasmine found King Louie more attractive). She is actually a beautiful bright yellow. I call them our "jeweled fish" because they have pretty sparkly circles on the side of their heads that look like earrings, and pretty yellow polka-dots on their anal fins. The funny part is King Louie, Jasmine, and Alladin and all brothers a sister! But their babies seems to be functioning just fine.

I meantioned that this is our third time being grandparents. What happened to the other babies? Well, they more than likely got eaten. Ya, that seems harsh, but here's why they didn't last:

• Our tank is huge. It's a 55 gallon tank, and there's lots and lots of plants. The baby fish start out smaller than the size of your pinky nail. And they're quick. So, netting them and putting them in a separated part of the tank is pretty much impossible.
• It's a real treat for our other fish to be able to eat small fish. They rarely do because we don't want to buy small gold-fish at the pet store for fear of disease spreading to our fish (very common in pet-store fish). So we knew our other fish would enjoy the thrill of the hunt.
• Those babies are actually pretty smart. They know to hide close to the ground and in the safety of the plants. So we figured we'd give them a fighting chance, and the smartest fish would survive and be able to produce other smart fish.
  

Another cool thing is these babies are born live from their mother's mouth! We can tell when Jasmine is pregnant because her mouth is very full, it looks like she has a double chin. She carries them in her mouth until they are ready to come out, then they book it immediately for the plants!

We are always surprised and excited when we see new babies hiding in the plants! We are rooting for these guys to make it!

Life As We Know It

It's summer, and we're taking a different stride than we do in the fall and winter. Class is over for us for now, and will pick up again at the end of August. For now we are simply working, although I think simply might be an understatement. We both have two jobs, each working one full time and one part time job. It seems like we are constantly on the go. Luckily we have some much needed vacations planned aside, a huge Bateman family reunion on the beautiful Oregon coast, and some other random trips to Vegas and Seattle. We are so pumped to have fun this summer! So for now, whenever we run into an old friend and they ask us what is up in our lives, this is our response everytime "Not much, just workin a ton." Luckily we have some play time set aside later this summer or we would burn out!

Just Married!

Tombstones

So while walking home one day from school, we got on the subject of what would be posted on our tombstones if we were to die. The saying on the tombstone had to be one that would sum us up perfectly, which could also be a common saying that we use. So when I chose one for Chris, i didn't have to think long at all. Chris's tombstone would say : "Christopher R. Bateman; 1986-2009; That Doesn't Even Make Any Sense". Haha! Anyone that knows him will agree with me on this. Chris thought of one for me and it was "You know what I mean!" So we decided that those tombstones are perfect for each other!