July 26- Time and All Eternity

Tristan had been crying and eventually fell asleep- so this was the best family picture we could come up with.


Jonathan and I were sealed in the temple this past weekend. There are many thoughts both happy and sad that I think about with this event, but more than anything Im so grateful and blessed to be where we are. It was a crazy week leading up to the event, and those that came, we so appreciated the effort. I didnt want too much more time to pass before I marked this day on the blog, but as I sit down to write I am at a loss. There are things I want to write here regarding Tristan and Elijiah but dont feel this is the best outlet. I want both my boys to know they mean everything to me, and I know this to be true: There is a season for all things.

Jonathan- you are the man that captured my heart and has kept it safe. For that alone I will be eternally grateful to you. But for that, and the MILLION of other reasons I am so grateful to be yours forever. I love you.

Bechtold Family Picture

Jonathans Dad wanted to capture a family picture. Having all his kids together doesnt happen often, and he wanted to take advantage of it. Well here we are. Jonathan is terribly disappointed. He thinks this is the worst picture EVER of himself, but believes that the rest of us look good.

July 26th

Today was an incredible day. I will post some photos and blog about it later. First of all I want to thank Sarah who came out for this weekend. She left her sister and three kids who were visiting her in Oregon from NY, her hubby and 3 kids to be here for me. She rocks. This is the girl who I met at church when I was 12 and instantly became one of my best friends. We were inseparable growing up( except on a few occassions!) and what can I say. Almost all of my teenage years were spent with her and Im so grateful we are close. She lives far away and we see eachother very rarely. Im overwhelemed with gratitude for her being here. She brought her youngest...Bryce who is a year old, and we had lots of fun. Shopping, swiming and lots of eating. I will miss her tons and hope she has a safe flight home -Love ya Sarah! Thanks again.....for everything.

This is the blanket that Sarah made for Tristan! I had no idea she was so blessed with sewing capabilities! All I have to say is- LOVE IT!!!

Sign of the times

Here is a picture of my niece Sylah and Elijiah. I was watching her so my sister and her hubby could have a night out and friday nights are MOVIE night. However these two decided playing on their leapsters was far more fascinating than watching the flick. Its a picture capturing this generation dont ya think?!

Tired and need some advice!!!

I want to mention that I went to kickboxing last night. The first time since I was 8months prego. I thought that my running was getting me back in shape...not so much. I could barely walk OUT of class afterwards. Man if I could do that class more often, the lovely weight that is NOT coming off surely would!

I wanted to post about our night with Tristan. Im terribly frustrated. As many know, I love this kid. So so much. But when you have a colicky baby, life is hard. He has gotten 100X better believe me. He is generally happy but in my previous post I mentioned he is very demanding. I didnt want to post my complaints as I thought it was just a fluke but we are getting up more and more at night with him now and I need advice!!! Since he was about 8 weeks old he was more or less consistent with getting up once a night to feed. Then there was a several week stretch of not getting up at all. So he would go down at 7pm and up at 5-6am. Blissful. Over the last week instead of waking up once its now all during the night. One night at 12,1 then 5 am. The next night 2am and 5 am. And so forth. Now I think he has gotten in the habit of waking up to wake up because he knows we will feed him etc. It cant be because he is hungry. He doesnt NEED to eat. He takes forever eating so I know hes not starving.

Heres what I did last night. It was Jonathans turn, so he was up at midnight then 1am. When Tristan woke at 5 I decided that even though it wasnt my night I would get up because I was sure Jonathan was exhausted. So at 5am, I went in got Tristan fed and put back to bed. He was asleep. The minute I laid down in bed I heard him start talking. This prompted me to go back to his room. I look down and as usual he rolled over to his back and as soon as he saw me he smiles a big ol smile and starts his flapping. Well Im not happy. Im not falling for his sweetness yet. I pick him up to turn him back over on his stomach and start the patting process. Hes screaming now, crying, this last for 10 minutes till I stop patting his bum and he rolls on his back, sees me and again- big ol smile and the limb flapping begins. So the process starts over...me putting him on his stomach hoping he will fall back asleep( I know he was tired his little eye lids kept creeping down) and the screaming, wailing and crying begins. An hour and half people this cycle continues. I knew he was fed, dry, burped, tired. But he refused to go to sleep! Towards the end I would stand far enough away from the crib to see him but not have him see me and at 6:30am he finally conks out. I fall back to bed and 45 minutes later guess what??!!! TRISTAN IS AWAKE! I know there is no more sleep so I get up and what do I see? My beautiful smiley boy happy and oh so ready for the day!

Any ideas? Tricks of the trade? Do I just let him cry it out- not get him- so he knows that he will just have to self sooth and get back to sleep? Do I give in to his 2-3x a night waking and eating? ( I personally think its creating some terrible sleep patterns and habits) Am I wrong?

GEEX Expo!!!

K, all you geeky gamers...the GEEX expo is going on in Salt Lake over the next few days....being HR for two video game studios, I went today and had a bit of fun cant you tell?? Hey honey, want to play Guitar Hero w/ me??!!!!

Likes and Dislikes

As I posted the other day about the FEW things that I liked about Utah I started to think about that statement. When I first moved here in January 1996 with my great friend Mariann, I said and I have maintained since then, that I HATED Utah. Oh I was questioned many times about that statement, asked to defend it which I could with the joys of California living. Over the years many of the things I once listed off about my dislike of Utah has changed…no good restaurants, shopping, nightlife, conservative views from locals… With The Gateway Mall many stores have come to Salt Lake, I remember when Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware came to Utah and now we have an Ikea….anyway the restaurants have improved and to be honest nightlife is such a rarity I don’t care much about that anymore. The religious overtones and conservative values will never go away--so when I realized that a lot of what I disliked about Utah when I was 20 isnt an issue anymore, I thought WHY do I STILL not want to live here? After all, Im here now forever, our families are here, most of my siblings, I’ve been in Utah now for close to 14 years pretty soon that number will outweigh my California living and here is what I came up with:
TRAFFIC- now don’t get me wrong Utah traffic isn’t anything to compared to California. But what is different now is the construction.
CONSTRUCTION- every road, every day, year round.
With the construction- DETOURS- my route to work has been altered 3x in the last 6 months due to construction and its wearing very thin, when my normal 10 minute commute to work has increased to 30-45 minutes depending on the day with two children in the car with me is hellish.
POLLUTION – Im from Northern California- an hour outside of Lake Tahoe, in the foothills…pollution was a non issue. I went to the “City” Sacramento or San Fran a lot but being on the coast you don’t get a lot of pollution there either. So when I look out my window and see the hovering yellow haze for days, weeks on end year round…notice a significant increase in the amount of headaches when this occurs, wake up with a sore throat, my kids are coughing, and wheezing- one has to wonder. I just read a report on lung cancer increasing in the Salt Lake Valley with Non smokers and the thought is our pollution is contributing…GREAT!!!!
CONSERVATIVE THINKERS- okay do I dare say it????? The pervasive Mormon culture. I personally don’t know how its possible with the huge amount of out of state influx, and outside Utah population, but I have to say one thing. Utah County SCARES me( lived there for a year so I can attest ) the stories you hear about neighbors not talking to non members, not letting their kids play with another kid that isn’t Mormon, and on and on….DOES HAPPEN( EVERYWHERE in Utah). Oh “they” say it doesn’t, but it does. And it’s really hard when I live this religion – totally believe in it, and come across the most narrow minded, bubble living, extremists…I want to throttle them and tell them to leave Utah even for a weekend to experience what tolerance, acceptance and “loving your neighbor” really means.
HOUSING-finding affordable housing where I want to live- NO I don’t want to live on the west side, south end of the valley, or 40 minutes north or south of Salt Lake. I work downtown, love downtown, love the diversity, community events, cool shops etc. I want to find a house bigger than the brick bungalows that we live in currently and not have to commute. That is the whole reason I don’t want to move anywhere else, but now feel like I have to enter Suburbia. To live in a house that will accommodate a growing family that has closet space. No I don’t need the 3 car garage or the 6 bedrooms. But a house that is larger than 918 Sq feet with a matching basement with two small bedrooms up and two small bedrooms down, with more than one bathroom that we can use would be great.
“CLOSED SUNDAY”- I understand why things are closed on Sunday I do…but man its nice when you have a crazy Saturday and need to get stuff done on Sunday to have the option.
WEATHER- I don’t like the seasons. The winters are too long, and very cold. Summers are blistering. I know this is all relative to where you live, but where is spring and fall anymore?? It seems more often than not our winters linger way past the time they are welcome, spring is a few days during the week where I cant get out anyway to enjoy then we are blasted with 90+ to 100+ days for two months where my lawn dies no matter that I am spending 300$ a month in my water bills to keep it alive, then fall comes with weekends to pick up all the leaves, and the snow comes again with long dark days. Im sorry but Id much rather have a more temperate climate to enjoy some of the things I DO LOVE ABOUT UTAH……:

MOUTAINS! Oh how I love to snow ski, to hike, to camp, to play. Brings goodness to my soul to have them so close and enjoy these activities.

MY FAMILY! Where would I be with out you all? I love that my kids will grow up with cousins around, and that they will know their grandparents…priceless.
TEMPLES/CHURCH! It is pretty cool that so many Temples are here- going to conference and having resources to readily available to us…cant beat it.
In all reality Utah is my home now. I do enjoy it. I may dream of coastal living, but being close to our families far outweigh any thought of leaving.