I was born in North Dakota, the second daughter of Peter and Paulette, and as time progressed I became the second child of six. I grew up in Minnesota, and attended the University of Minnesota, Morris. After four years I finished my first bachelors degree in Biology and Chemistry. At that point I served a mission for the LDS Church in Fresno, California. This mission changed my life. I am not just talking in the spiritual sense of "it helped me find who I was", but it really did change the course of my life. I met the Blackburn Family and through them my life took direction.
I was able to live with Keith and Jennifer as an adopted sister, during this time Keith convinced me to double major at Utah State University. I had already planned to pursue a Master's degree, so I just added on a second bachelor's degree in Secondary Education. After finishing up at USU, I again met up with the Blackburns, but this time it was in Hawaii.
During the time that I was serving a mission and subsequently living in Utah, Jack was living in California. He was working at a tow yard for family. Unfortunately in early 2008 he suffered a back injury and needed to fly back to Hawaii to be at home for time to recover. This is when his life changed for the better!
Although we didn't know it at first, our lives were already becoming entangled. His niece attended the school I taught at, and she was in my Sunday School class at church. I had seen him at church a few times, and was caught off guard when he came to our school's May Day celebration.Our first day was the 4th of July and happened because I called him and told him what a good idea it would be for him to come and get me and take me out. We went and saw a movie and that was the beginning of the end.
After a year of dating, we were engaged, and a year later we were married. Just a few short months after tying the knot we found out we were expecting. It really wasn't much of a surprise to me. I had calculated when the best time to be pregnant was for my school schedule and told him that the end of September was the time to get pregnant so the baby would come at the beginning of summer. Like all good husbands, he complied with my wishes.
The pregnancy was without complications until midway through the last trimester. Phoenix was breech and every time she tried to turn around it caused contractions. I was hospitalized for a day and put on medications to stop the contractions. I was prescribed a modified bed rest schedule. At 35 weeks they took me off the medication and told me to "proceed as usual".
When I was nearly 36 weeks pregnant I had the urge to finish preparing all things. This meant a 2.5 hour trip to Costco, over the mountains on a rocky, windy road. It was the winding that did me in. My water broke as Jack slept in the passenger seat. He swapped with me and drove like a maniac while I talked to the nurses and my sister. I was told to finish the drive to Kona. Phoenix was born Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 4:46 pm. We stayed in the hospital until Sunday and then went home.
Summer passed much too quickly and before I knew it I was back at school, Jack was back at work, and Phoenix was in day care. While we are still running on less sleep than we would like, we have found a pattern of life that works for our little family.
I look forward to all the future brings and expanding on our story.
