Blog design

I've been trying to learn how to make our blog unique and fun. So, there will probably be a lot of changing going on over the next few weeks. Sorry if it gets confusing but hopefully I'll find a style I like. If any of you have tips on how to customize a blog I would love some ideas and feedback. I've looked at some free templates and things but I can't find one I like and I want to do my own thing but I'm not sure how to. Any help would be much appreciated.

Sister Weekend

Four years ago I did this:


















This weekend I did this:

Okay that's a gross picture and it's hard to see but that piece of hair is now purple.

Nicole's is way cooler:

Needless to say we had a fun weekend. Cory was at scout camp so I spent Friday and Saturday with Nicoley at her apartment. We went out for lunch and rented Megamind and took the bus to the mall and got cupcakes. It was way too much fun.

What the heck!

I've decided I need to start taking pictures more often. It would probably make this blog more interesting and then I could work on those digital scrapbooks I've been wanting to make. If I'm gonna do that I'm gonna need pictures first, right.

I've also decided that I need some sort of creative outlet. I'm gonna give songwriting a shot (Shh, don't tell my band). I need to have something that I can occupy my time with other than movies and facebook. Can I just tell you how much I hate the internet. It sucks me in and won't let go.

Along with deciding some things I've also realized another. This blog says Cory and Kristen in the title but really it's just me (Kristen...obviously). Cory doesn't really get into it. Not that I do either. But I feel kinda weird having a "family blog" when all I ever do is talk about myself. Well, I guess I do talk about him also but it is mostly me and what I'm thinking and feeling. I guess I just haven't quite figured out how to write about both of us without it turning into, "we did this and then we did this and it was fun." I don't know about you but, for me, that can get really old really fast. Let's just call this blog a work in progress and one of these days I'll figure out what it is I'm actually wanting to talk about.

And now for the what the heck. I have had a couple weeks full of epic fails. I scraped up the side of our car real bad trying to park in our garage. I got the starting time of the 5k I was supposed to run completely wrong and missed it. I've been misreading and forgetting things left and right. I've been having some weird sort of depression that I just can't get out of (and not being able to leave the house sure doesn't help at all). If five pregnancy tests hadn't already told me otherwise I would say I'm suffering from my pregnant brain. Gahhhhh! I wish I could think straight.

Hooray!

I wish I would've taken a picture of that mole. It was pretty scary and black and shaped really weird. BUT, it wasn't cancer. The doctor's office called today and said it was a benign lesion, which is just a fancy way of saying it was a mole. Oh well. It was worrying me and now it's gone and I will have a beautiful new scar on my back once the stitches get taken out.

Hello Dear Friends

Life is truckin' right along. It took me about a month to get used to the no school/unemployed thing but I think it's going really well.

Cory and I went to Oregon for a few weeks. He has to be in the state for at least 30 days every year to keep his residency status for veterinary school. It was a great trip. We got to spend lots of time with my family and help my parents with their new house. We got to go to a family reunion of my mom's side which was tons of fun. I got to see relatives that I hadn't seen in years and it was great. I even got to be with my cousin Liz when she bought her wedding dress. Actually, I bought her wedding dress but that's a long story and I got paid back. I just think it's funny. We also got to spend time with Cory's family and got to go to his brother Brice's graduation. He'll be coming to BYU in the fall and we're super excited to have him here.

I recently started my own freelance editing business and have been doing really really well. I've had jobs from people who want help with books they're writing and also from larger companies like Melaleuca and the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association. I'm still pretty smalltime but tell your friends.

Yesterday, I had a scary-looking mole removed from my back. It's being tested right now to see if it was cancerous. I should know in a week or so and I'll let you know the results. My Aunt Karen posted a really moving youtube video about melanoma awareness on facebook and I thought I would share it with you since skin cancer has kinda been on my mind lately.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4jgUcxMezM

I'm trying to be better about posting so hopefully these will come more regularly.

Until next time, I love you.

I'm gradumacating

I can't tell you how stinking excited I am! This has been a tough semester in many ways and I'm glad that it's over and that I get to take a little break from school. Or a big break. I haven't quite decided about grad school yet but I think I will take the GRE at least. Especially since it's going to get harder this August.
My family is coming into town tomorrow night and will be here for the festivities and I already have my shoes and dress picked out :) It's going to be a good couple days.
I have lots of projects and goals that I'm going to work on once school is over and I can't wait to get started.
How many of you are also graduating? Any big plans afterwards?

I have a confession to make

Cory and I found out that we were pregnant on March 2nd. It was the greatest birthday present.
We tried to keep it to ourselves but I'm afraid we (mostly I) told the news to way too many people. And now we have to deal with the pain of telling those people that we miscarried. I had been experiencing some spotting since the 3rd and went to the doctor on the 7th. They did some blood tests to check my hCG levels which went from 580 to 763 between the 7th, a Monday, and the 8th which is definitely good. On Wednesday, though, the spotting turned into bleeding and I was having some really bad cramps that afternoon and evening. The doctor we saw on Thursday thought that it was just too early in my pregnancy to be able to see anything on the ultrasound and that everything would be fine but with the amount of bleeding going on I knew I had miscarried. He ordered another blood test for this last Monday, the 14th, and unfortunately my levels had dropped to 71 which is a pretty good indication of a lost pregnancy.
This is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to endure. I wanted this baby so badly and to lose it so soon is completely heartbreaking. Cory tries to reassure me with, "at least now we know that it is possible for us to get pregnant" and "the baby wasn't developing properly, don't we want to have a healthy baby" and other such things, all of which I understand and which are very comforting but it's still hard for me to distance myself emotionally from what was to be the next eight months.
I'm the kind of person who removes completely from a painful situation once I've been hurt and I kind of worry that I won't be able to bond with our next pregnancy. I'm not sure I want to. I'm not sure if I could stand it again. The thought of miscarrying again is the scariest thing to me right now. I don't think my heart or my faith would be able to handle the pain. Cory says that I feel things way too strongly and sometimes I wish that weren't so.
I wanted to write this for two reasons. First, so that all of you who may have known about the pregnancy can know, without me having to say it directly, that I am no longer pregnant. And, second, so I could get my feelings about it down. It's hard for me to speak these things and I know people will want to ask questions so these are my answers.