Oh What Did We Do In The Summer Time?

I know it has been a long time since Stewart or I got on and updated our blog. Truth is we have been having a blast this summer and just have not taken the time to tell you about it. Stewart and I saved our money up last school year so that we could go back to Idaho for the summer. We left West Virginia on June 9th and flew Idaho where we stayed until July 13th! We had such a great time visiting both our families and seeing some good friends in the area.

We had a great time being with our families and learning all about what they have been up to since we moved to WV. We did so much that I think the best way to tell you about our trip back west is best with pictures

We visited the Bruneau Canyon, with Becky's family

Becky's Parents at Bruneau Canyon

Stewart and Becky at Bruneau Canyon

Stewart at the Bruneau Canyon (love this pic)

Becky's family (minus Emily, she is on a mission, and Stewart, he was taking the picture.)

North Family 4 square

More Family 4 square

Stewart's Parents

Stewart and his Dad, they look tough don't they :)

Becky with Blaz (Stewart's and my only nephew)

Us with Stewart's good childhood buddy, Andrew and his wife Kiersi

Stewart's last good deed while in Burneau... he mowed my parents back lawn (I think this was the first time he has ever used a riding lawn mower).

Along with hanging out with family and friends Stewart and I tried to go to the temple as often as we could. Being so close to a temple, is one thing that we miss most about living in West Virginia. To travel to the DC temple takes us 5 hours; it is an all day affair. Those of you who live so close enjoy the temples as much a possible, because if you ever have to move away you will miss it dearly.

Since being back in WV, I have gone back to work and Stewart has been reading a lot of Harry Potter, anything but text books if he can avoid it. Although he has had to study for an EKG test that he has coming up the first week he gets back to school. YUCK!

Everything is going well with the development of our baby, she moves around a lot more now. I enjoy feeling her wiggle around in my belly. It brings a since of comfort knowing she is growing strong daily. One funny thing that Sophie does is that she will not let Stewart feel her kick. She can be carrying on kicking me over and over, but as soon as Stewart puts his hand on my stomach, she stops. I can’t even use his name and call Stewart over to look at my belly bouncing without her stopping. Stewart and I just laugh about it, and joke that Sophie is going to be a mama’s girl. In reality I am sure she and Stewart will be wrapped around each others pinkies not long after she is born.

This coming week, Stewart and I were given tickets, by my boss, to go to the PGA Golf tournament happening here in the area. We also got tickets to go to the Reba McEntire and a Rascal Flats concerts happening Wednesday and Thursday night. We are excited to be around all this excitement, although I am sure our opinion will change after a while of having to deal with the traffic issues caused by all the spectators taking over our town.

Other than that we are both doing well, we feel so blessed to be starting year two of med school. We want to say thanks to our families for all they did for us while we were in Idaho. Thanks to all our friends as well for organizing events so we could say hi to everyone. We had a great time, and love you all!!! Our door is always opened to anyone who would like to visit us… hint hint. LOVES!!!

To Cool Not to Post

Holy Cow!!! I was just going thru my pictures that I took last month and found probably two of the best pictures I will ever be in. I have no idea why I waited so long to post this on our blog. This is completely 100% blog worthy. Enjoy the pictures!!!!

Yep that is me with the Oscar Meyer Weiner-Mobile!!!! It came to Lewisburg about a month ago. Many thanks goes out to my husband, Stewart who took this picture, wondering the whole time what the big deal was. Hello.... do I need to say why this was a BIG deal??? The pictures speak for themselves. Ciao!

Battle of Lewisburg

Last Saturday Becky and I went for a walk. We decided to stroll through downtown Lewisburg. It has a pleasant, small-town feel to it, and we thought it would be a nice way to relax on a Saturday afternoon. Soon after we started our walk we could tell that something was different. Where were all the people? Why weren’t any birds singing? Something unusual was happening. Then we heard the crack of musket fire coming from somewhere up ahead. It was echoed by another shot, and then a scream. What was happening?

We heard footsteps coming quickly from behind. We turned to look and saw some men in dusty, battle-worn uniforms, carrying muskets and running in our direction. I pulled Becky off to the side, out of their path; as they passed one yelled “Y’all best be takin’ cover! Turn ‘round now ya’ hear!” They ran passed us toward the sound of the musket fire.

We knew we should turn around, but curiosity compelled us on. We continued up the street. More musket fire…then a much larger explosion. Was that a canon? As we continued we began to make out other sounds, the clatter of hooves on the road, the clash of sabers and bayonets, and the yelling men.

When we finally reached Court St. we could see the cause of the commotion, but we couldn’t believe our eyes. There, on either end of the street were men in battle uniform, on the South side they were dressed in grey, on the North they were dressed in blue. They were lined up in companies firing at each other! My mind was numb, what could this mean? What was happening? I didn’t know how to react. Fortunately for you all the photographer deep inside me took over and I was able to snap some pictures of the battle.

Okay, maybe my description of what happened up above wasn’t entirely accurate. During the Civil War there was a battle fought here on the streets of Lewisburg. Many of the buildings that survived the battle are still standing today in the downtown area. Every year they re-enact the battle to remember their heritage. It is a 3-day long “festival.” Lots of people dress up in period costumes, there are demonstrations on period surgeries, cooking, living, etc (I think they use manikins to demonstrate the surgeries). It is a great opportunity to learn about the past. Friday evening Becky and I went on a tour of local haunted sites…apparently there are several local ghosts and we got to learn their stories. Saturday afternoon was the skirmish on Court St. that I described above. We went, and got some neat pictures. We hope you enjoy them.

May Adventures and Updates

Blue Bend, WV

Last Thursday was such a beautiful day here in West Virginia. Stewart has a hard time staying focused when the weather is so tempting outside. So instead of him wasting his time trying to study he asked me to go with him on a hike. We decided to go to Blue Bend, a swimming/camping recreational area, which is only a half an hour from us, to enjoy the great outdoors.

When we got there we decided to hike the one mile trail to the scenic overlook… I should have known that the only way to find a scenic overlook was to hike up a hill! The hike was well worth it though. It was a beautiful trail lined with rows and rows of Rhododendrons, West Virginia’s state flower. When we got to the top we took a few pictures and then headed back down the hill. We had a great time, enjoying more of West Virginia's great outdoors.


On the Swinging Bridge

We Made it to the Top

BABY GENDER CAKE TEST

So Stewart and I are having a baby in October. As of right now we are 20 weeks along. Before we learned the baby’s gender we (ok mostly me) decided to do the “Baby Gender Cake Test” to determine our baby’s gender before the official ultrasound. What is the Baby Gender Cake Test you ask? I will tell you, you take a cake mix and dye half the cake mix blue and the other pink, then you pour both the blue and pink batters into a round cake pan doing your best to make it equal. And then you bake the cake as directed. When the cake comes out you should have a half blue, half pink cake… next you frost the cake as you wish and decorate it to you liking. Afterwards you spin your cake around until you decided to stop. Cut into the cake…what ever color the peace of cake is that you cut out is supposedly the gender of your baby.

Just before we took the test

The Result

Our cake test came out Pink… now here is the real question, was it right? In all honesty the cake test has a 50% chance of being right. I know lots of you who read this blog would love to know if we are having a boy or a girl, but you will just have to wait until we tell our families…. Suspense, don’t you hate it?

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Ok so the word is out now… I might as well tell the rest of you what Baby North’s gender is. We are having a GIRL!!!! This is the fourth time I have seen the cake test in action and every time it has been right. Stewart and I could not be more excited, we feel so blessed and happy with this little blessing growing in my tummy. As for those on the Hegerhorst side of the family, who have asked if Grandma spilled the beans… nope, she was okay to tell you all, we were only trying to hide the news from Stewart’s family to whom we had sent a letter with a pink slip of paper in it… they got the letter today which leaves me free to tell the world. We are having a girl and her name shall be Sophie Lucille North.

Happy Mother's Day and Gardening

Becky and I want to say Happy Mother's Day to our own wonderful mothers and to all the mothers who read this blog. You give us life and you show us how to live it well. We thank you for all you do! I'm also happy about wishing Becky a happy Mother's Day today. This is her first Mother's Day as a mom. I surprised her with some flowers yesterday.

Speaking of flowers...about a month ago, when the weather started to warm up a bit, Becky and I went to Lowe's and picked out some flowers and pots. We wanted to decorate our porch a little bit. We each picked out some plants we wanted to grow. Becky picked out some pretty flowers and I picked out plants that I can eat like basil and cilantro. There's probably some deep lesson about the difference between men and women there, but I'll let you pull it out. As you can see from the picture below her plants are doing a little bit better than mine.

Becky's plants are on the right and mine are on the left. I don't know what difference is. I give my plants lots of attention, I water them a couple of times per week, I make sure they get plenty of sunlight, and every morning I let them listen to 1 hour of music as the sun is rising. I let them listen to may favorite band "Death Spit Venom Grunge Loud Yelling Angry Men Rebellion Anarchy." I can't figure out why they aren't growing...maybe it's the soil, or maybe the seeds I bought were bad. If you have any suggestions let me know. :)

Everything else is going well for us. I just passed a difficult class in school. Now I have only 1 test left this year. I feel a little bit like Peter walking on the water. There are so many things that could have gone wrong, so many "close calls," but we've made it, or almost made it through. We've been blessed.

Blessed

A while ago, I recorded some thoughts that I had concerning our experience with infertility. I am eternally grateful for the lessons that I personally have learned facing that experience and for the opportunity to look back over my life and realize just how much I have grown as a person since I recorded my thoughts. Life is a learning experience, and what a blessing it is.

With that, Stewart and I have an announcement to make…

WE ARE PREGNANT!!!

Baby North will be born around October 5th, 2010. We feel so blessed; words can not express the gratitude in our hearts, to a loving Father in Heaven who has heard the many pleading prayers petitioning for this miracle. We are grateful to be closing the chapter of our life revolving around infertility, knowing all is in God's hands.

Much Love, and many thanks to those who kept us in their thoughts