We're Having a Baby!

This is the positive home pregnancy test I took on Memorial Day. My period was late by a few days and I kept thinking "what if" so I finally took a test and there was no doubt that I really was. I hid it from Josh for a couple of days so I could do something special to tell him. I ended up buying the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and made him this card.

It was about 2 weeks before Father's Day but I couldn't wait to tell him. I had wrapped up the book and put the card into an envelope. As soon as he opened it and realized what it was he was soo excited! He gave me this huge hug and kept kissing me and had the most handsome smile!
We're been reading the book and keeping track of our baby's progress ever since. We had our first doctor's appointment on July 9th, when I was 10 weeks along. It was really neat because she did an ultrasound to measure the baby and verify how far along I was, and then she turned the monitor so that we could see it and our little one was bouncing all over. We were able to see the heart beating and see "little woody" moving all over. Josh called the baby our "little jumping bean" at that time. Everything was right where it should be and the doctor drew labs which turned out normal.
Then on July 26th we went in for another ultrasound and bloodwork to screen for genetic disorders. Not that it will change anything, but we'd like to be prepared as much as possible before this little one comes into the world. It was so incredible to see the growth that had happened in those two weeks! We were able to see the baby's arms, elbows and hands as well as his (Josh KNOWS it's going to be a boy) legs, knees and feet. Even his little toes! We saw the profile and the little heart again. We were also able to hear the heart. What an awe-inspiring sound! Everything was normal with the ultrasound and the blood work. Yay!! And last Friday, July 30th, I reached the end of the first trimester and we had wanted to wait until then to tell our families. So Saturday we invited both of our moms over for dinner. They just thought it was going to be a nice dinner and visiting, but at their seats were these cards we had made.
We waited until after dinner and then had them both open them at the same time. We told them that they were thank you cards. My mom opened hers first and let out a squeal, but Josh's mom, Kim, was having a hard time. My mom quickly turned the card upside down and became quiet so Kim could get hers open too. As soon as she did, she yelled and jumped up and hugged me and my mom who had gotten up as soon as Kim yelled to hug me. They both held me for such a long time and my mom was crying. They are both soo excited! This is Kim's first grandbaby and she is ecstatic. She's been telling Josh and I for several months that the only thing she wants for her birthday is to be a grandma and we did just what she asked. We also made the cute bags to give to our moms. A few weeks ago we were at Roberts to get paints for Josh and ended up buying a TON more than what we originally had planned, finding these bags and the accessories to go in them. We had a lot of fun making them.

The front says "You're A" and the back has these pins that say "Grandma To Be". Josh and I are both really excited (and nervous) for this new adventure in our lives. I've had a fairly easy pregnancy so far (thank goodness!) For awhile I was pretty nauseated and had no energy, but I never threw up and was able to work through it. Things are getting easier now and I'm excited to be 1/3rd of the way through! I'm due on February 4th.

Remembering Gayle Osborn

On July 8th my Aunt Gayle passed away. It was really hard news because Josh and I were planning to go see her the day we heard the news. She had been struggling with dementia for a couple months but went down hill really quickly that last week. I wasn't able to say goodbye and I wish I would have been able to!

She was an incredible woman. She was always smiling and happy and had a positive attitude no matter what was going on. She was always active in the church and was an incredible example to all who knew her. She was so talented and made beautiful blessing dresses for all of her granddaughters. She always visited us on Christmas and showered us with hugs and kisses. She was so kind to Josh and I because the first doily she made for our wedding present was stolen when our car was broken in to, but a few weeks later she had made us another one. It's so pretty and we have it displayed in our apartment.

I am so grateful to be apart of her family and to have felt her Spirit. She will be dearly missed! I'm also grateful that I was able to take the day off work so Josh and I could attend the funeral. It was a wonderful tribute to her and although it was a sad situation, we were able to see a lot of family that we hadn't seen in a long time. It was a day filled with love. Love you Aunt Gayle! See you soon!

Big Change

There has been a pretty big change in our lives over the last couple of weeks. If you're on Facebook, you probably already know that Josh lost his job at Midvale last week. It happened really fast and we're still not exactly sure why. He'd been doing well in training but over the last week he worked, his sergeant said that he was having a hard time dealing with stress and if something didn't change within the next couple of weeks, he would be let go. It was a hard time, but Josh took it in stride and started thinking of ways he could make those changes. Needless to say he never got the chance to implement these strategies.

His boss called last Monday and told him not to come to work the next two days. Then he was to come in on Wednesday morning and meet with his boss's boss in plain clothes. That was a pretty big blow and Josh called his boss again on Tuesday wondering how bad it really was. His boss told him to bring all of his gear so he wouldn't have to make two trips. That night, he packed up everything. When I saw this and saw the finality of my husband's dream being taken away, I started to cry. It was like he was given a glimpse of his future and then it was taken away and I was heartbroken for him. Josh was pretty calm about it though and kept reassuring me that everything would be okay.

Wednesday morning came even though we were both wishing it wouldn't, and I waited anxiously at work to hear from him. I got a phone call about mid-morning and found that what we had feared did actually happen. Josh was let go and had to turn in everything. The only explanation given was that he wasn't able to pass their training program. The odd thing is that he didn't even get a chance to finish their training program-he still had a couple weeks left and then was to be evaluated to see if he has passed.

As I write this, I'm still shaking my head in astonishment. Josh gave 110% every day of his training and learned so much. I know he improved since starting as a brand new rookie and it was sad that he wasn't given a chance to become a police officer.

Josh's optimism has remained intact in the week that has passed. He's kept busy doing things around the apartment and working on the car and truck. He's been applying for jobs and continues to be the wonderful husband that he always has been. Right now he's looking for any job, but he'd still like to be a police officer and I know he would be an incredible asset to any squad. I'm so proud of my husband for the way he's handling this trial! He has no ill-feelings towards anyone at Midvale and is constantly looking towards a brighter future.

I'm sure the next little while will be tough, but we're determined to come through it with flying colors. And Heavenly Father is already watching out for us. I've been able to think of many blessings since this has happened:

1-We weren't able to buy a house. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but I think this would be a lot harder financially if we had to worry about a mortgage and property taxes and everything that comes with owning a home.

2-We've been able to spend more time together as a couple. My favorite thing to do is be with Josh-it doesn't matter what we're doing-and it's been really nice to have more time to be with him. :)

3- We've been able to spend more time with our families.

4-We've been able to ride the motorcycle more. It saves time, gas and money and is soo fun to ride!

5- We're learning to rely more on each other and our Heavenly Father.

6-We're learning to use our food storage more wisely.

7-We're discovering a lot of free and inexpensive things to do around Salt Lake.

Anniversary Inn

A few weeks ago I surprised Josh with a trip to The Anniversary Inn. Neither of us had been there before and I felt like we needed a little getaway. Work had been really stressful for Josh and we haven't taken a vacation in a long time so I reserved a room for us one Friday night. It was so fun looking online at all the types of rooms available and how much detail and effort are put into each one. During my search I found that they were having a special so I was able to get a more expensive room than I had originally planned. Once I had reserved the room the website offered many other things I could buy to make the night perfect. There were a TON of things available, but I chose a few of the not so expensive things. I had rose petals spread around the room and a little, rubber ducky put in the bathtub. I also ordered a movie pack with popcorn and treats.

It's a good thing I only did this two nights before because I wouldn't have been able to keep it a secret from Josh any longer than that! I packed a suitcase that morning and after Josh picked me up from work he asked what I wanted to do that night. I told him we should probably get dinner before going on our getaway. He was completely surprised and after we picked up our things, we grabbed dinner at a drive-through and headed to The Inn.

We went to the one that used to be the Salt City Jail. The outside isn't much to look at because they've kept the original building, but the inside has been remodeled and it's incredible. We stayed in the 49er Suite which was like a log cabin. The bed frame was made of logs and across from the bed was a fireplace with a pretty mantle and the TV above that.

When we walked in the room there was a bottle of apple cider chilling in an ice bucket. Two pieces of cheesecake were in the fridge and the flower petals were spread throughout the bedroom and into the bathroom. The bathroom was incredible! It was designed as a gold mine. The walls were rock and there were three steps that led to a huge Jacuzzi tub with a mine shaft above that was a waterfall and the shower. The sink was on a mine car and they had the softest, biggest towels and robes. The toilet was in an area that looked like an outhouse complete with a moon carved into the door.

We had a great night just being together and away from the world for a few hours. The staff was really nice and provided us with anything we needed or wanted. Saturday morning we got breakfast in bed which was soo nummy! It was served on a nice tray with flowers and we each got 2 drinks of our choice, yogurt parfaits, a cinnamon roll and ham/cheese croissant. I totally recommend this hotel for anyone celebrating an anniversary or just wanting to get away for awhile. We had a blast and the atmosphere was incredible.

May Happenings

Hi everyone! I hope May has been going well for you! We've been busy working and having fun. Last Thursday, the 6th, we went to an awards banquet for the Midvale City Police Department. All of those working in the police department were there along with their spouses/significant others. Neighboring police departments took their calls for a few hours so everyone could attend. All of the officers were in uniform and the spouses in dresses or suits. It was held at a reception center called The Woods and was really elegant. There were several tables set up with pretty linen and the finest glasses, plates and silverware. We started off the night by watching as the color guard brought in the flag and then everyone said The Pledge of Allegiance. It was a stirring sight to see the respect given for our country. Dinner was incredible and it was nice meeting the people Josh works with. The mayor and city council members were there and the mayor came and introduced herself to us. During dinner Stephen Covey spoke and then the awards were presented by Scott McKane from Fox 13 News. It was such a neat night and I was so proud of Josh and of being his wife!

That Saturday, May 8th, we participated in Race for the Cure. Josh and I walked the 5k with our friend, Tami. I couldn't believe how many people were there! They said about 20,000 people attended and we were in the middle of those doing the 5k. The throng of people probably stretched for 2 miles. Along the route were cheerleaders and bands from several different high schools cheering us on. It was so neat to see that many people participating in such a worthy cause! We saw several funny shirts including "Save Second Base" and "Of Course These are Fake-The Real Ones Tried to Kill Me!"

That night we went on a double date with our friends, Matt and Christy. We went to their house in Springville and made pizza and watched the Jazz game. What a hard fought game! And soo sad! I wanted to cry after it was over! It was great to see them and I'm glad that Josh and I still date even though we're married!

Time to Catch Up

Our life has been pretty eventful the last few weeks and I finally have time to blog about it. Josh is at work right now and I have a long night ahead of me, so I'm going to update our blog and let y'all know what's been going on with The Woodlands.

Josh loves his job as a police officer! He's been training for three weeks now. They have been hard, long weeks, but he loves learning and being out on the street. His first week was physically draining because he had to experience what he will be doing to criminals; he had to be tased and sprayed with OC spray (basically pepper spray). I felt so bad that he had to go through those things! He says the spray is the worst and he would rather be tased any day.

He's been out on the road with his training officer a few times and he's also gone through EVO (emergency vehicle operations). During that week he learned how to clear an intersection when he's rushing to the scene and how to chase a criminal along with several other driving techniques. He will be with his training officer for about 3 months. Once he passes all of the things he needs to, which is scheduled for July, then he'll be out on his own. He has a rotating schedule, so he'll never work every weekend (yay!) and he does work crappy shifts, but we expected that since he's the rookie.

It's been hard having him gone so much, but I've tried to fill that time with various activities so I don't get lonely. I truly treasure the time we do get together since that has decreased considerably! One good thing, though, is that Josh was able to test out of his online math class. He was worried about how he'd do training and school, so he took the placement test and passed with flying colors. He'll go back to school but only when he knows his set work schedule.

Now to tell about fun things we've done that I haven't blogged about yet. On March 6th, we saw The Zac Brown Band in concert. It was at The Rail Event Center in Salt Lake. It's not the best venue-in fact it looks like a converted warehouse-but we had a really great time. They are such an amazing band! If you get the chance, you definitely need to see them live! We got their about an hour-and-a-half early because there were no assigned seats; it was all general seating. The doors weren't even open when we got there and there was a huge line waiting to get in.
After waiting for about 45 minutes, they finally opened the doors, and then made us stand in 2 lines-girls in one, guys in another. They did this because they searched us before we could go in. They looked through purses and bags but also patted us down. I couldn't believe they did that! Here's the lady who searched me.
Once we were in, we found there were no seats-it was standing room only. There were a TON of people packed into the space and we ended up standing in place for about 3 hours. It was totally worth it, though! All of those who weren't drinking alcohol stayed on the ground floor while those who were drinking had to go on top. Here's the line on just one side of everyone trying to get to the top.
Because we were there so early, we were really close to the stage. We were able to see the band and their opening act really clearly. The show started about an hour late because the band had just gotten here from Colorado. There was a huge snowstorm the day before and the road was closed so they had to leave their van, which held all their instruments and gear, and fly in so they could make it. The van arrived sometime during the show because it was parked outside when we left. The band had to use borrowed instruments and sound equipment, and still did a fantastic job.
We had some pretty funny entertainment while we waited for the concert to start. We watched a drunk woman who was holding two beers and leaning over the railing. She kept swaying back and forth and we were betting with the people around us that she would spill on the people below. She never did end up spilling on anyone, but there were a lot of close calls. Here's a picture of her. It's not very clear, but you can totally tell how drunk she is.


We also took a "staycation" for a few days in March. We had taken a few days off the week of spring break to go to the Grand Canyon, but it ended up being the same time that Josh was finding out about Midvale, so we didn't go. We still had a great time being able to spend that time together, though! And we were able to go do things around Salt Lake that we usually don't have the time to do.

On Thursday, March 18th, we went to the State Capitol. Neither of us had been there since they remodeled it and Josh wanted to see the Fallen Officer Memorial that is on the grounds. The first thing that we did was take a free tour. It was so neat to see the inside of that amazing building. It is so beautiful and the architecture is incredible!
The memorial was really neat! We were both pretty solemn as we read the names of those officers who had been killed in the line of duty. I think we were both silently praying that Josh would never end up there.


We also went to the Utah Museum of Natural History that day. I never realized how many neat (and pretty inexpensive) things there are to do so close to home.

The next day we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. It is the biggest museum I've ever seen. It was so neat to learn about all the different dinosaurs and when and where they lived. There are also a ton of hands-on exhibits so it's a great place to take kids.

After seeing the museum we went to the farm that is also at Thanksgiving Point. There are a lot of animals in outside enclosures that you can pet and feed. We had a great time seeing horses, cows, alpacas and others. The goats were my favorite though. As soon as they saw Josh coming with food they all rushed the fence and started bleating at him to give it to them as quickly as possible.

Introducing Officer Joshua John Woodland

On Monday morning, March 29th, I was able to watch as my amazing husband was sworn in as a Midvale City Police Officer. What an exciting time! I have been beaming ever since-I am so proud of him! A long-awaited dream of his has been realized and how happy I am to have been able to share it with him!
Even since before his graduation from the police academy (pictured above) Josh has been searching for a job. It's been well over a year and has been a difficult journey. Many resume's and applications have been completed without much success until Josh received a call from Midvale back in November. He had actually applied with them back in January. They have an open recruitment hiring process which means anyone can apply and then when they have an opening, they go through those applicants. A panel interview was set up for the first part of December and Josh was given a score based on his application and several aspects of the interview. About a week later, we received a letter stating that he had passed and they would be contacting him with further information, but for the time being, he needed to fill-out a background packet.

This packet ended up being a TON of work for both of us. When it was all said and done, it had been an entire week of work, and it was 39 pages long. They wanted to know so much, I was surprised that they didn't require a sample of his blood! Needless to say, neither of us want to do that again, so Josh has put several copies of it in our fire-proof safe.

The packet was turned in just before Christmas and we didn't hear anything again until the middle of January when he was called to do a P.T. test. This he passed with flying colors; he completed each part of it without problem and he tied for completing it the fastest. Again Josh was told they would contact him, and the next we heard was actually from his friend, who had also applied. She had received a letter stating that they didn't want her for the job, and for several days we waited with bated breath for the same letter to come. It never did (thank goodness!) and soon we heard from our neighbor that they were working on his background check. She had left us a note saying that an officer had stopped by, asking her about Josh and what he was like. She said that he was always nice and respectful with her (thanks, Kelly!) and a few days later, Josh was called to do a drug test. He had passed the background check and was continuing on the path to being hired. This was about the middle of February. After the drug test was a voice stress analysis test-which is pretty much a lie detector test except they analyze the pitch of your voice. And last, but not least, was the psychological eval. This was a grueling, 4 hour test in which Josh had to answer over 1300 questions using the infamous bubble sheet.

10 days later, on March 15th, the results were back and we found out that Josh is not crazy. Always a good thing to know about your husband! He was asked to meet with the chief and an appt was set up for the next day at 2pm. That entire day I was a nervous wreck. In fact, I think I was more nervous than Josh was! Josh had said he would call me the second it was done, so when 3 o'clock came around, I was starting to worry. At that same time, our receptionist came back to my desk, saying that there was a package for me. With a questioning look, I grabbed my cell phone (just in case Josh called) and went up to the front. There was Josh still in his suit, holding this beautiful calla lily.

I let him back and everyone asked how it went. All of my friends at work have been waiting along with us for him to get a job. His first answer was that he didn't know yet. Okay, I was prepared for more waiting. We had already been waiting for 3 1/2 months from that first interview. My friends kept asking him what had happened and he finally said that he had good news and bad news. Good news: he was offered the job! Yahoo!! Bad news: he's getting paid less than he does now. The last part didn't make any difference to me-I was so happy that he had gotten a job! I actually squealed when I heard that and people came out of rooms, looking to see what had happened.

The next day he was fitted for uniforms and a bullet-proof vest and he bought other things that he would need as an officer. It was so exciting to get the process started! He also turned in his notice at American Express.

Fast forward a week-and-a-half and that brings our story to Monday morning. At eight o'clock we were sitting in the police station along with his mom, Kim, awaiting the moment that he would be sworn in. We were introduced to the chief and some fellow officers (who were really nice!) and then we headed to the courthouse. Once there, Josh had to raise his right hand and repeat after the person doing the swearing in (I don't know who she was) and promise that he would uphold the constitution of Utah and the United States and abide by the police code of ethics. After this, the chief was going to pin his badge on, but then he offered to let me do it. I was so excited! It was harder than it looks, but I finally got it on, and then he had to sign some papers to make everything official. What an amazing morning! I know Josh will be a wonderful police officer!

We never could have made it through this trying time without the prayers and faith of all of our family and friends. I know all of you have been sending us your love and support and prayers and we are eternally grateful! Thank you for showing us so much love!! We love you all!! And are so glad to have such wonderful people supporting us!

We also know without a doubt that this couldn't have happened without the blessings of our Heavenly Father. We've been praying with each step of this hiring process and He has been there all the time. He has looked out for Josh and although there were many times that we were frustrated, sad and wondering if this was the right road to go down, Heavenly Father has answered our prayers and Josh has realized a dream. What a wonderful Father! He knows what is the best path for our lives, and He has truly been looking out for us!