To rent or Dubai...

photo source Abu Dhabi

Lame title, I know, but let's move on.

My parents are moving back East... waaay East. The Middle East to be precise. And they'll be there for four years. I know, it's a little crazy.

About three weeks ago, my dad was asked to travel to Abu Dhabi, one of the city-states in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai is another city), for a consultation. He evaluated their current higher education system and wrote a report recommending that a director be hired to oversee the creation of a more structured system. The sheik liked the report and my dad and offered him the job. It is a huge honor- a real career topper- and my parents are very excited for this opportunity.

My dad leaves for UAE on October 9th, a mere 10 days away (my mom will join him in November). Of course everyone in my family will miss my parents, but with my crazy pregnancy hormones, I find myself crying over this at least once daily. Seriously, I am a basket case.

Putting my uncontrollable emotions aside, I am so proud of my dad for achieving this awesome pinnacle of his career. And I admire my parents for going on this incredible adventure. We are planning to take a few trips to visit them and see that part of the world and we're really looking forward to it! They will also be back to visit at least once a year- my mom is already planning on coming when the baby is born in March.

We are going to live in their house until they get back which we are grateful for- it will be nice to have a little more room than just our little apartment for when we become a three-person family. We are busy working on house projects before we move over to the main part of the house from the mother-in-law apartment, so if I have been a flaky friend recently, that is why. It is a giant puzzle to figure out where everything and everyone is going to go (Cat & Richard, and my Aunt Barbara are going to keep living here, too.) My life has been turned upside down in the last month (or three if you count the pregnancy).

I would appreciate any words of wisdom for those of you who have had parents far away, especially when you were having a baby. I feel very supported and loved by my siblings, my ward, my friends, and John's wonderful parents, but I know I will be missing my mom and dad a lot.

Face by Kate

My awesome sister-in-law, Kate Lasson, is an incredible make-up artist. Yesterday, she worked on a photo shoot with none other than photographer and blogger Nicole Hill of A Little Sussy fame. Go here to see the beautiful shoot!


You can contact Kate (facebykate@gmail.com) if you are interested in booking her for a consultation or job.

Me with Kate and Anne (my two sisters-from-another-mister)

Me and Kate at the Police concert this summer

A little bit of baby stuff

Thanks everyone for the well wishes and congratulations!

We are so excited and really glad to have the news out there.

I am a little over 12 weeks and we have known for about 8 weeks.

I am due March 27th, 2009.

I have been feeling sick which led me to drop a lot of my classes.

Morning sickness and my crazy 22 hour load were not compatible.

I am finally beginning to feel better and hopefully I have left my nauseated days behind me.

Everyone has been so supportive and wonderful and happy for us.

John's parents are especially excited- this will be their first grandchild and they are thrilled!

We're excited...

... to share some news-









Sam + Lily are going to be big cousins...













...because we're having a baby!











Due March 2009

Protect Our Children Act

Many of you may have seen Oprah's segments regarding child predators today and last week, where she talks about the horrible EPIDEMIC of crimes against children in our country. I became more familiar with this topic and what my state is doing to combat it earlier this year when I worked at the Legislature- but we can and must do more.

The most horrifying, shocking statistic of all is that our law enforcement officials have the resources to go after only 2% of known internet child pornographers. TWO PERCENT! They know where these monsters are and cannot go arrest them!

I urge all of you to contact your senator TODAY to insist that they bring the bill to the floor and vote yes on Senate Bill 1738, the Protect Our Children Act. It is a non-partisan effort sponsored by Senators Hatch and Biden. This bill will:
* Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
* Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
* Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.

This bill is coming up for vote in the next few days. You MUST act on this now! It will only take a moment of your time to send a letter, write an email or make a phone call. Go to www.senate.gov to find the contact information for your senator. If you don't know what to write, there is a sample letter on Oprah.com that you can use.

Please let your voice be heard for all the children who need us to speak up for them!

I think I just peed my pants a little bit...

Rest in Peace, Grandpa Bailey

John's grandpa passed away two weeks ago, but with all the craziness of John's appendicitis, I'm just now getting to writing a post about this incredible man.

Loile Julius Bailey was always a gentle, sweet man, even when his mind was slipping away towards the end of his life. I felt close to him, even though I have only known him for a few years, and I thought of him as my Grandpa, too. Now that he has passed away, John and I no longer have any living grandparents. It was so special to be with all of Grandma and Grandpa Bailey's children and grandchildren to celebrate his life and his legacy. President Eyring came to the funeral (his brother is married to John's aunt) and spoke wonderfully comforting words about life after this one, where Grandma and Grandpa are enjoying a happy reunion.

One of the most touching moments of the whole day was watching all the grandsons serve as pallbearers.

NieNie auction- update

Thanks again to all the bidders- your prizes will be going in the mail today.

Tan and the girls-- I still need to hear from you regarding the pearl button necklace. If I haven't heard back by tomorrow, I will contact the second runner up to see if she's interested in donating in exchange for the necklace.

August re-cap

We had a lot of fun during August, and it's been a long time coming to write about it.


We went to the new location of Red Robin A LOT when it first opened. We're always excited when somewhere different to eat opens near us (in this case, literally down the street). One night, we had a cousin date night with Cat, Richard, Christine and Ben.




Our annual ward party was at Sugarhouse park and it was so fun to hang out with our friends and especially to see all the new babies.



We took advantage of Amy and Blake actually living on this continent and Andrea being on break from nursing school and went bowling at the Union. It was like going back in time to our (early) college days.





Our extended family has been growing exponentially in the last few years. It seems like almost all the cousins are in the baby-making mode. Suddenly, infants and toddlers are everywhere you look! I am one of twenty Spencer cousins and it's beginning to be difficult for me to remember all of the great-grandchildren's names! They are really cute, though, and I love seeing all my aunts and uncles surrounded by babies!

My nephew, Sam (at age 4, he's one of the "older" great-grandchildren)



My cousin-in-law, John Wirthlin, and his youngest daughter (they have 3!) Claire



My cousin-in-law, Annie, holding her niece, Sarah.



Jack, with his dad, Joe.



My Uncle Stan, holding Grayson, and my Aunt Yvonne, holding Stone. They have had three new grandbabies in the last year, including their first granddaughter.



Jacob, age 4



Preston, age 3 (his mom is expecting his little brother in January)



Baby Grayson



Baby Stone

Dr. Feel Good

I've decided to take my almost 8 years of college schooling and my self-bestowed honorary doctorate and extend my 'expertise' to the field of medicine. Johnny started having abdominal pain early Monday morning and I encouraged him to go to the emergency room just 18 hours after his symptoms began. Oh, wait, maybe that wasn't a good thing.

Anyway, the emergency room visit turned out to be quite productive. After several hours of tests extending into the wee, dark, cold hours of the morning, the diagnosis was in: APPENDICITIS!!

Long story short, John went into surgery at 8:00 this morning and emerged 90 minutes later minus one swollen and infected appendix.

The nurses, CNAs, and doctors were incredibly nice and helpful and we couldn't have been happier about how the whole experience went except for one problem. The University hospital has two patients per room and John's roommate was a crazy, LOUD, conversational kook! He really was insane! He was totally looped out on medications and wanted to rip off his bandages to show us his 6 inch incision. EW! I felt so bad for his poor nurses- he called them every 10 minutes with irate demands to talk to the doctors, concerns that he wasn't hospitalized (to which his poor nurse replied, "You are already IN THE HOSPITAL), and freaking out on the poor nutritionist who came for his dinner order who happened to have an East Indian accent.

Nutritionist: What would you like for dinner?

Crazy guy: Stay right there, I want to talk to you about something. [Dials nutrition department] I have one of your guys here, hey, what's your name?

Nutritionist: Sunny

Crazy guy: I've got Funny up here and he's totally screwed up my meal.

Nutritionist named Sunny: My name is Sunny.

Crazy guy: Funny? Finny?

Nutritionist: SUNNY!

Then the phone conversation awkwardly ended and Crazy Guy pretended like he hadn't harangued Sunny for the last 15 minutes and asked him to read him the dinner menu again.


After all the drama with Crazy Roomie, we were very happy when the doctor decided to release John early instead of keeping him overnight.