No longer a secret

I was trying to figure out a cute way to announce it to the world our little secret but this time around is not being so nice on me and the secret has gotten out. We are pregnant.

I started figuring something was up when my face broke out with nasty deep zits that I only seem to get either once in awhile or when I am pregnant. (Currently I only have one on my face but my hair line is totally broken out, each pregnancy a different area gets them.) I was also exhausted. I thought I was pregnant the month before but the test came back negative. It was 4 days before nature would tell me but I was in pain and wanted some Advil. I was taking a bath in the evening and thought that I would take the test when I got out so I would know if I could take some Advil. I took the test and as I was dressing I waited. One line came up right away and so I thought "okay maybe not." With both of the other kids the other line popped up pretty quickly even though the line was faint with one of the others. I looked after 3 minutes and there was a very faint second line. I ran into the living room where my husband was sitting with the kids and said, "Ray, look." I always plan to tell him in a cool way but never can keep it a secret long enough. He looks at the very faint line and says, "Are you pregnant?"

"I think so. I have never had a false positive."

Over the next few minutes the line got darker and darker until about half an hour later there was no doubt about it. But still I was scared it was wrong. I had always waited until nature told me before I took the test. I waited until Sunday and nature told me. We left for our trip to Disney World after that. I was fine all that week and we managed to keep it a secret from my in-laws despite Sheila knowing there was a baby in mommy's tummy.

But then the last 2-3 weeks morning sickness hit me. I haven't thrown up but I have wanted to. I haven't got to my doctor yet or I would post the little ultrasound picture. But the last few days I have been feeling a little better. We are due October 11, 2009. And something must be in the water because 3 of my friends are also expecting, two in September and one also in October (you three know who you are if you are reading this.) So exciting. We were going to keep it a secret until I was showing but didn't work out that way.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. I'm a mother, I'm a wife, I love it.
2. Why do I have a house in Florida and not Utah/Idaho.
3. How does this Life work, anyway?
4. Every morning, I put contacts on my eyes.
5. I consider myself lucky because I have a wonderful caring husband, healthy children, a nice home, and enough to meet our needs and then some.
6. One day we’ll see Jerusalem.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to hopefully some family time, tomorrow my plans include taking my daughter to a birthday party and Sunday, I want to teach sharing time without any major problems!

1993

In 1993 I finished my Junior year. I asked out a guy for the first time. I asked a guy named Adam (different Adam than the one that doubled on my other dates with Lee) to Morp, a girl choice dance. His sister's wedding reception was that evening but he agreed to go and he picked me up after the reception so we were only at the dance for about an hour.

That summer my sister got married. I was her maid of honor. I discovered I had a talent for floral work when I was working on her bouquets and ended up doing most of them myself since the other women thought mine looked better. (My sister is now divorced so that is why I didn't include pictures of everyone else in here.) The picture below is my cousin, Emma, and I. My cousin was another one of Raydon's bridemaids. Raydon had a reception both in Rupert and Salt Lake. The one in Salt Lake first since she got married there. The cake top fell off the cake and shattered on the floor so my aunt made another one out of frosting for her for the reception in Rupert (the next day) and it turned out great.
That summer I went and stayed with my grandma in Tooele, Utah. I worked at my uncle's floral shop. I only worked when they had a lot of work since I wasn't one of their regular employees. My grandma was living alone for the first time in years because my aunt remarried just a month before my sister did and had moved out. I grew close to my grandma that year.

The fall began my senior year. I don't have many good memories about my senior year. My two best friends pretty much dropped out of school. Dinece only had to attend one trimester since she technically would have graduated the year before if she hadn't had to redo the 9th grade for one class. So once she was finished with the one trimester she was gone. Carrie only needed two trimesters (I needed all three because I had taken release time seminary every year) so she was going to come back for the last two. I tried to tell her to come for the first two and then take the last one off. She ended up not coming back to school.

I lockered in the same locker I did when I was a sophomore with my sister. I was a counselor's aid my first trimester and was able to look up people's schedules. I found out my crush, Kody, was in the same literature class as me just a different hour. I rearranged my schedule and then approached my counselor with the changes and he approved it. It was the first class I had with his since he and I both quit band our Sophomore year. We had it together the second or third trimester which I will talk about next blog.

Dinece and Carrie still attended the football games with me that year since Dinece was still in school with me. Our football team really stank. It was hard to watch the guys lose time and time again. Kody was on the football team for the first time since 9th grade. He was a basketball player. One bright spot was that Kody finally slow danced with me at the after game dances that year.

I think the first trimester ended around October and that is when it got hard for me. I no longer had any close friends at school. I still had friends that I ate lunch with (mostly juniors and sophomores), went to basketball games with (seniors), and joined up with at the church and school dances (seniors, juniors, and sophomores.) But I didn't have anyone to share secrets with or talk about boys or anything like that. I would come home crying most days and my mom would sit in my room and cry with me.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Give me yarn and I'll make a blanket out of it.
2. Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself I think of how many blessings I have and how many people are far worse off than I am.
3. I wish I never have to take acid reflux medicine again.
4. Fresh strawberries was the last thing I ate that was utterly delicious.
5. To live in this world is sometimes hard but well worth it.
6. Other than this one, my friends' are the last blogs I commented on. (I have not commented on my own blog for awhile. The other day I read everyones blog and can't remember what order I commented on them.)
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to sleep, tomorrow my plans include sleeping and Sunday, I want to go to church and then sleep when I get home! (Can you tell I am exhausted?)

1992

Being super shy I didn't sell any oranges for our band fund raiser and therefore did not have any money to go to the big trip that year. There was a handful of us that didn't go so during that week we watched movies during band. I had been in band all three trimesters when most other people were in it for one or two. I should have gotten a letter for band but when he awarded them at the end of the year I was left off the list. My sister confronted him because I was too shy and he couldn't come up with a reason why I didn't get one when my sister pointed out I met all the requirements and then some. I never received the letter. I think he withheld it because he had told my mom I needed private lessons to get better and he would be glad to do that for a certain price. I knew my parents couldn't afford that so I told my mom to forget it and I wouldn't be in band the next year. It wasn't really a hard decision since the band director was never really nice to me. He favored other band members and was obvious about who he favored.

My older brother had graduated the year before and had gone off to the Army and so I had gotten my own room. That gave me a lot of privacy. I also got a hamster, which I named Jordan, after my favorite New Kid. My room was of course decorated in their posters. I didn't get much money of my own. I saved most of my money for school events but then I would also buy the teen magazines.

I got asked out on my first date a few months after I turned 16. My friend Lee (from way back in Kindergarden) asked me out to Prom. I didn't have a dress so my sister who had bought a dress told me I could wear it if she didn't get asked and she didn't so I got to wear her dress. It was a group all day date. We went with 3 other couples. My friend Leslie was in the group going with Lee's older brother, Jay. Then there was Adam and Becky and Michael and Jennifer.

We had a picnic out at the dam and did some hiking around out there during the day. Then went to our homes to get dressed. My sister helped me do my hair. Then we went over to Adam's house where his parents and little sister cooked and served us a steak dinner. I felt like a princess. The prom was held at the Elks Lodge, which I wasn't impressed with because it was in a bunch of different small rooms and smelled of stale cigarette smoke but still probably the best first date a young girl could have since I didn't have too many dates at that age.

My sister graduated from high school that year and my mom from college. I played at my sister's graduation with the band and that is the last time I played in a band.

That fall I began my junior year. Carrie and I lockered upstairs in the high school which wasn't too bad because our locker was at the very top of the stairs and also I had two different classes up there. Since I didn't have band that year I joined debate with Dinece but she already had a debate partner and no one needed a partner so I ended up just doing speeches that year. I was only in it for one trimester. I went to a speech competition and took second place....out of two contestants but I got a nice plaque.

I also took psychology. I loved that class. I learned I was a blue personality, same as my hero Abraham Lincoln. I also enjoyed History and was in the advanced class. Our history teacher spoke in a monotone voice and had a bad habit of blinking all the time. Once some one counted all the times he blinked in one minute and passed it around the class room.

Lee asked me out on my second date as well. He asked me to Homecoming. I needed a new dress since he had already taken me out in the one prom dress in the family. My mom and I went looking and we found an off shoulder dress for 75% off the already clearance price. I got that and wore the jacket from the other dress with it to keep it modest. This time it was a double date with Adam and Michelle. Another all day date. We drove up to Sunvalley stopping at the ice caves on the way there. Michelle's uncle was an architect in Sunvalley and had built Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's home there. They weren't home but we were able to see the outside and that is the closest I have ever gotten to a "celebrity" in that sense.

We went to dinner and the waitress dropped Lee's food. The dance was held at the high school in the gym. I liked it a lot better than prom because the room was huge and the balcany had tables set up for refreshments so we could sit and watch people dancing if we wanted. I really had a good time but Lee never asked me out again. We remained friends but he later told one of my friends that he didn't ask me out again because I was too shy.

1991

I finished 9th grade in 1991. I have a few memories from that time that sticks out. The first and saddest is the death of my granddad Dudley. He died on Valentine's Day. I was at a volleyball game at the church when my sister and I found out. That's also the last time I have seen some of my cousins. Sad that we don't get together for any other event.

In Science class we took a photography section. That is when I really got interested in taking pictures. We also got to develop our own pictures.

My friends Carrie, Dinece, and I went to a big science thing that year. I think two buses full of 9th graders went. It was on a Saturday. My crush Kody also went and he sat with my friend Jean, who was his neighbor, and my friends and I sat in front of them. It was really a lot of fun. I went to a class about bubbles and got my picture taken by a robot.

That summer we went camping and met up with Kirk again. I spent the week riding on the back of his dirt bike as we rode all over that mountain. The day we parted he gave me my first kiss, a chicken peck.

That fall I started high school as a sophomore. The sophomores lockered in the English building and since Carrie and Dinece went together to register they got to locker together and I was put with a stranger who let all her friends use our locker. We had trimesters (3 trimesters instead of 2 semesters with 5 classes each time.) I only had English two of those trimesters and so one trimester I didn't have any classes out in the English building (also held foreign language classes) and then only one the other two trimesters so I ended up lockering in the senior hall with my sister.

I still was in band that year and we had a marching band for the football games. I was sick the day they handed out uniforms so when I got to choose I had either a really large pair of pants or one that I barely could button up (and I was very skinny in high school) and then a very large top.

I also met another boy who came from the other junior high school named Shawn. I liked him and I think at first he liked me because he ended up holding my hand during a game to "warm them up." But later he chose another one of my friends over me.

I also "went out" with my first boyfriend. Since I wasn't 16 we couldn't date but we wrote notes to each other and held hands at school. It only lasted a few weeks.

It's all in the name

This is just for fun. Erase my answers, put what yours would be and then tag away. No pressure to play.
1. YOUR REAL NAME: Melynda D W*
2. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother and father's middle names) J Gaylen
3 NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad) Donald Ray
4. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Walme
5. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Yellow Dolphin
6. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, town where you were born) D Burley
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning) The Green Chocolate Milk
8. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Meen
9. STREET NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Cookie Dough Samoas
11. PORN NAME: (1st pet name, street you grew up on) Key 400 North
12. YOUR GANSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of your real name plus- izzle) Melizzle
13. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets) Black Abinadi
14. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy) Sexy Red Vine

I got this off of Tiffany's facebook and just thought it was too funny.

The temple

Ray and I do not get the opportunity to go to the temple as often as we would like since we live almost 6 hours away from both the Atlanta and the Orlando temples. While we were down in Orlando at the beginning of the month Ray and I were able to go to the last session on Thursday night after his parents got there and they watched the kids while we went. It was so nice to be able to go again. I really miss living so close and hope some day we will either have a temple closer or we will move closer to a temple so we can go more often.

1990

Finally back is my years of life blogs. Hopefully I can catch the good flow I was at remembering before my break.

I finished 8th grade in 1990. After a hectic 7th grade year, 8th grade was much quieter. Most of my memories come from band. I was in advanced band and that was 8th and 9th graders. I still had a crush on the sax player. His name was Kody. Anyway, I had many embarrassing moments with him in band.

My friend Joann (who was a 9th grader) and I were practicing for our duet at the state competition in the band director's office. When I came out I witnessed Kody running back and forth with a chalkboard eraser in his hand and Rachel, another 9th grader and sax player who also was in my ward, standing by the chalkboard. You know how in the movies when something important is happening and they slow down the movie. That is how it felt that everything slowed down. Kody stopped and looked in horror as I slowly turned towards the chalkboard and really big it said "Kody loves Melynda." I felt my face flood with color. I was pretty sure this girl in my ward didn't know about my crush on him but this had to be a joke.

That night at YW I asked Rachel why she wrote that on the board and she never really gave me a straight answer. My friends thought it would be a great idea to call Kody and ask him. He said he didn't know either. Nothing ever came of it but I still wonder if she was just being mean to me or teasing him.

Another embarrassing moment happened to me that year with a ninth grade boy. One day Dinece and I were eating our lunch alone (Carrie was gone that day) and two 9th grade boys came over and sat down with us. They were popular boys, Jeff and Lance. Anyway, I had a crush on Jeff and Dinece on Lance. They flirted with us and we were shocked. Well, a little later in the year I was walking by their group of friends with my very heavy and full over the shoulder book bag on one side. My friend Carrie thought it would be funny to push me into him. Well, gravity played its lovely little part and the books acted like an anchor and I fell right into the middle of that group. They just stood there staring down at me. No one helped me up. My friends were giggling in the background. I had to struggle and get up on my own.
That summer I got on a work program for kids and was assigned with the school district. I worked with a couple of other kids and the head basketball coach at the high school was our boss. We went to the different schools cleaning different things. I worked with a guy named Angel that was my age and then the other kids were older. It was my first real job.

I rode my bike the 4 miles to work every morning where we met and then take a van to the location we would be working that day. We met at the maintenance shop for the school district. My great uncle was the head maintenance guy at the school district so I saw him almost every day. One day my boss dropped me off at the shop to get my bike and took off before I went in. The door was locked and I couldn't get my bike. I walked the half mile or so to my friend Carrie's house and called my mom. She called my uncle and then drove in to get me at Carrie's and then my uncle met us at the shop so I could get my bike.

That fall I started 9th grade, Freshman. Dinece did not pass one class and since they didn't offer it out at the high school she had to stay out in the Junior High with Carrie and I. We all ended up lockering together in one locker and our locker was right in the middle of all the popular boys.

I also started seminary that year. We had release time and met in a little building across the street. Seminary was taught the first three periods of the day. I believe mine was the 2nd period. My friend Amoretta was in my class and that was the first class she and I had had together, I think, through junior high.


As you can see my sister cut my hair my 9th grade year. (Yes, and I did have a tail but only for a few months before I cut it off since it drove me nuts.) I hated my hair short. As soon as it grew out enough I got a perm in it (last perm I have ever received.)

"Believe" the Shamu show

The other show we went to was the "Shampoo" show as Sheila called it. We sat in the soak zone, meaning that you can get wet if you sit there but we were at the top of the soak zone and we have sat in that section almost everytime we come and never got wet before.

Here is one of the whales waving at us.

Timmy loved the Shamu show. He climbed on my lap so he could see better. I told Ray to get a picture of us watching the show and this what he got. Glad he cut me out of it since we get so many pictures of me anyway. (Dripping with sarcasm.)

There were probably about 10 total whales in the show. Here are six with their trainers. (I think there was one more during this time not in the picture.) At the beginning a baby came out with his mother and also did some jumps. I wish Ray had gotten a picture of that. I did with the 35 mm.

Here is one of Shamu's splashes. He is the biggest whale there. The far right lower corner you can see the spray hitting everyone. Of course we didn't get wet. But the people on the lower benches below us got absolutely soaked. He can cause some major splashes. They also changed the Shamu show. It doesn't have the audience participation as much (glad I got to do that before they changed it, a few years back I was chosen to go on the platform in front and pet Shamu and then give him a command to do a jump.) It's not as theatrical as the dolphin one but the jumps the whales do is very impressive. Especially when 5 or more are jumping together.

This is an awesome picture that Ray got of Shamu feeling the whole screen. What a beautiful creature. Despite not being able to swim I think I should have been born a mermaid because I love the ocean and the ocean creatures.

Dolphin Show

Here we are the kids with their grandparents waiting for the dolphin show to start. Our digital camera started to die during the show so we didn't get as many pictures as we had hoped afraid it would completely die before we were done with the day. Ray took the following pictures as I took pictures with my 35 mm. I haven't got those developed yet.

This is one of the splashes the dolphins caused. People in the front rows got wet.

The show is really nice. They changed it about 3 years ago. It use to be called Key West and the trainers told about each dolphin and the dolphins did more tricks (like with a ball and jumping over a rope) but now they just do jumps and flips and it is more theatrical. It is called Blue Horizon and they tell a story of a girl (one of the trainers) that dreams of a place where you can swim with the dolphins and they have exotic birds fly around and divers in bright costumes. I wish we could have gotten a few more pictures of it.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. It seems like time goes slowly when you want it to pass quickly and goes quickly when you want it to slow down.
2. Call me when you're done, please?
3. If I thought you would come I'd clean the house!
4. Love and friendship is what I think of most when I think of you.
5. To me, Valentine's Day means sadness. My grandfather died on Valentine's day when I was 15 years old. When I was younger he was the only one that ever gave me a valentine. Before I married my sweet husband only one other guy had given me for Valentine's Day and that was some carnations.
6. The gospel gives me strength.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting some rest, tomorrow my plans include dinner with my husband and Sunday, I want to finally go back to church!

Sea World

These pictures aren't in order but I will explain them as they come. We went to Sea World on Saturday, February 7. It was a really nice day. This is a performance group that was performing in the children's Sea Harbor area. The three in front were on different kind of stilts so they could jump and dance. Sheila really enjoyed it, Timmy was napping since it was late afternoon when we were over there.

Underneath a gigantic jungle gym for the older kids they had huge sandboxes for the younger kids. Timmy played in it for almost an hour. Sheila joined him after she was done with the jungle gym.

This rope cargo net was huge. There was three of them plus tons of tunnels to climb through. I had to climb to the top and then Ray gave me Timmy since his feet kept getting stuck. That is when I took him down to the sandbox.

In the jewels of the sea aquarium they had some beautiful fish and also an underfloor aquarium that Timmy loved to lay down on and look at the fish that way.

The dolphins of course one of our favorites to see. The changed the tank a little. The first two pictures are from the underwater viewing. It was a lot easier to see them this way.

The outside viewing area, you use to be able to get completely surround the area and try to pet the dolphins. They are usually pretty friendly. However, they have now sectioned it off and so only half is available to everyone, the far end. The other end where the dolpins stay the most is now only for those paying extra to feed the dolpins. Maybe it is not that way all the time, only during feeding time, but we happened to be there during feeding time.

Here is Ray's dad feeding the stingrays.

I have more pictures of the shows we attended and that will be one of my next posts.

Sheila's birthday

After we left the Magic Kingdom and had dinner we headed back over to the condo to have Sheila's birthday party.

She got clothes, twin baby dolls, a sleeping beauty doll, a barbie and ken, an outfit for each of them, playdoh, a game, a puzzle, a room for her big doll house, and a truck and horse set that goes with her small doll house.

We had picked up her cake the day before but we got it done at Publix. It was the Princess light up cake. It came with Cinderella, Aurora, and Belle.

Sheila had some difficulty blowing out the candles. She hasn't gotten down blowing out rather than blowing up (she curls her bottom lip out so the air goes straight up her face.) Daddy finally helped her blow out her four candles.

She had a good birthday and a lot of fun. Hopefully one she won't forget.

Second Day at Magic Kingdom

We originally were going to go to Animal Kingdom on Friday but then Uncle Jonathan and his girlfriend Alexis didn't make it down and Grandma really wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom with the kids so we went back there for Sheila's birthday.

We took the train first over to the first part of the park we planned to visit. Then took a ferry over to Tom Sawyer Island.

Daddy took us down a mine while we were there and it scared Sheila so she refused to go up the towers in the fort or through the other tunnels on the island so we ended up leaving the island not exploring it really.

We then went over to the Tiki room and watched the birds sing. Sheila was not having much fun in this part of the park so we headed back over to fantasy land.

We rode the carousel, Dumbo, and the teacups again.
Grandma, Ray, Sheila, Timmy, and I squeezed into one teacup. They said the five of us would fit but with Daddy's long legs it was very uncomfortable. But the kids had fun and Timmy spun us rapidly.

We spent from about 1 p.m. until about 6 p.m. there. The kids were just very tired and it was so crowded that it was hard to do too many things. We would have stayed if they had the night parade that night but found out they didn't and we decided to go.

Sheila picked out a Cinderella doll and Timmy a stuffed Nemo. Sheila got a Disney fun card (gift card) since we bought her a ticket instead of getting her in free. We plan on going back for the three days left on our cards later this year and this time go to the Animal Kingdom. There is enough left on her fun card that she will be able to pick something out next time as well.

First Day at Magic Kingdom part 2

After the parade we did a few more things before we called it a day. We took a ride on the riverboat around Tom Sawyer's Island.

Then we explored the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. The kids enjoyed climbing all the stairs, and Timmy had to climb and go down everyone by himself.

Then we got on the railroad and rode it around the park until we got back to the entrance. It was after 5 p.m. and we had been there over 7 hours and mommy, daddy, and the kids were all exhausted. In fact Sheila and Timmy slept on the way back to the condo. We had tons of fun.