The Crays

Mallorys shower

2012-02-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

While Mallory was in town a couple weeks ago we held a baby shower for her and baby Tessa!

My mother in law and I made these as the favors!

Mrs. Kellie Welty made her this quilt. ISNT IT SO CUTE

she got such cute stuff!

I am SO excited for Ella and baby Tessa to meet and become best friends! Hurry up and grow Tess!

Ella waking up

2012-01-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

she kills me! :)

now that im a mom...weird

2012-01-26T18:00:00.001-08:00

1.) First off, how was your pregnancy? I am going to be honest, the first 6 months kicked my trash, but after that it wasnt too bad, just uncomfortable.

2.) What week did you deliver? 38 weeks exactly

3.) Describe your labor: Well it was pretty intense. and that is all i am going to say. but honestly everything that i was scared of happening happened, and i survived just fine! I kind of feel like it bring it on when i have my next baby. haha

4.) What was your reaction when you first saw your baby? it was such a surreal moment, i think i said hello a million times, and then i was so happy and content, i loved watching her

5.) How was postpartum? mm i am not going to go into details, but it was healing part was pretty rough and i did get the baby blues at night time for a bit, but besides that it was just fine and this baby girl was so worth it

6.) How is the post baby weight? not a problem, i lost all my muscle from my lack of working out while pregnant, so i think this is the thinnest i have ever been.

7.) Breastfeeding or formula? breastfeeding, but she has had formula and takes it like a champ :)

8.) How were the first couple nights with a newborn? it was pretty hard! just because you are so stinking tired. I think the entire first week i averaged about 3 hours a night, but the hard part was i was so worried! i have this HUGE fear of SIDS so i wouldnt let her sleep in bed with us, which we both didnt like, so she wouldnt sleep and in turn neither would i and then when she would i would stay up and make sure she could breathe. yea i was a little crazy. i have learned to relax a bit though :)

9.) What is one thing you wish you knew that you didn't before having your baby? mm i pretty much was prepared, i have had some great advice from a ton of people. but i would probably just tell myself to relax and not worry so much

10.) Your favorite thing about being a mom? I love how in love i am in with this little girl! I am literally obsessed with her! and all she does is poo, sleep and eat...and looks around. haha but i think she is the greatest thing EVER and the love i have for her is the best feeling in the world.

Ella is one month!

2012-01-26T17:37:00.000-08:00

It is insane how much she has grown already! I am excited for when she can sit up and stuff, but i already miss how small she was when she was born. on top of what is on the picture ella also:

-likes to be naked, but hates being cold, which does not work out in the winter time. I think that is why she likes showers so much
-LOVES sleeping with her daddy
-makes the funniest faces when she poos
-will only calm down for her grandma mary
-wakes up every two hours in the night to eat, but on some lucky nights she will let us have 4 hours straight!
-at night time she has to sleep in our bed with us, or she whimpers the whole night. uh oh. (but i love it)
-is becoming more aware everyday
-we have decided that she is a pretty somber baby, she has smiled but a few times and i have been doing the silliest stuff to get her to smile again, but she is just not into it. hopefully she will like it later on because it is the best thing in the world!
her favorite bands/artists include: red hot chili peppers, the police, queen, the mthds, modest mouse, and etta james.

i pretty much think she is the greatest thing in the entire world and i will try and update this more so you will see how great she is too :)

Ella Jane Cray

2011-12-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Birth Story:

I went to work on December 19th and then came home and (finally) set up our christmas tree, i was having some contractions but nothing regular. After i made our house all holidayish i started hurting pretty bad. Michaels friends were over playing some games and because of this stupid pain in my side i retired to the bedroom, hoping that i was just tired and it would go away when i fell asleep. i was so wrong. After laying in bed until about 4 am i decided to go watch some judge judys and wait it out. unfortunately the pain just got worse and worse on my right flank. i was debating if i should go to the hospital or not, but last time i went it was just because of dehydration so i chugged a bunch of water and waited and waited and nothing. so at about 9:30 michael comes out from our room because my crying woke him up (yea i was pretty much a wreck at this point) so he took me to the hospital and the car ride went something like this (me: drive faster, hurry, oh im gonna puke, michael: ok let me pull over, me: NO DONT SLOW DOWN, JUST HURRY) (i wasnt being very pleasant) so we made it to the hospital and after being asked a million questions from the nurses (who i was also not very pleasant to, sorry ladies) they gave me morphine...ahh sweet relief. pretty much after that it became a total blur because i was straight up on drugs the whole time. I guess they came in and did an ultrasound on me (i was out cold) and they concluded that i had a kidney stone. cool. so they basically just drugged me until they decided what they should do since i was almost 38 weeks. They said that they can either just keep me on drugs until i pass it (but that would be a ton a narcotics for baby cray and my dr thought that wouldnt be best for her) or they can induce me and then figure out what they can do about my kidney stones after the baby was born. so on the 21st of december my dr came in and said they are just going to induce me. (i am still on drugs so i was just happy in general and then i passed out again) i had to tell michael (the hospital made him leave because he had a wicked cold and since we were in the birth center area the nurses told him there were too many babies and he could give it to them.) so after i talked to him he packed our bags (we didnt have ANYTHING together) and came to the hospital to spend our last night together before we were a family of three. i wish i could say that we did something romantic or special, but i was still on morphine for the kidney stone so i dont even remember that night.
7:30 am rolls around on Dec. 22 and my dr comes in and breaks my water, then they gave me an epidural and then they gave me pitocin. I was feeling pretty good, i came in dilated at a 2 1/2 and the contractions werent too bad. and then the epidural decided to stop working on my left side and while they were trying to figure out why it was not working on my left side i went from a 4 to 10 (in about a half hour) which was not fun. and then it was time to push and THANKFULLY the epidural kicked in right when i started to push. oh my heavens if i could give any one person any advise on delivery it is GET AN EPIDURAL. it was totally amazing, i knew when i needed to push and THAT WAS IT! after i delivered i told my anesthesiologist i wanted to kiss her. anyways i pushed for just under an hour and then she came. 5 lbs 13.9 oz. 18 1/4" long and beautiful. We had to stay in the hospital a bit longer than average because little miss ella needed some oxygen and she was borderline dangerous zone with jaundice. but we were able to leave christmas eve and we havent had to be readmitted (thankfully) It is so amazing how much i love this little bean and i am so happy to have her home and healthy. WE ARE SO IN LOVE WITH HER!

a few of my favorite things

2011-11-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

well since i cant start decorating the nursery until we move back to california in 2 weeks, i have been collecting ideas and doing all of that mentally. here are some ideas!

here are the paint colors:

i love the gray and white stripes :) (i dont really love the other stuff in the nursery though, mainly just the paint)

i love the idea of doing one big letter like this, not to mention i think this color is adorable:

Here is the bedding that we chose, well that my mom is making. It came in the wrong colors so i am having my mom make it :) the colors we are doing are light pink, light yellow, robin egg blue, and gray and we are nixing the owl. I am so excited to see what it looks like when its done!

and i have found THE greatest diaper bag. its only $59 but its made in paris so the shipping is like $30 :( i dont know if i want to spend that much. my goal is to find something exactly like this or make it :)

and here is a painting i did, i thought it would be cute to frame it but i dont know if i like it enough, or if it will match the colors. i guess we will see!

or maybe this one

i also like this:

and this:

and this:

and this!

ok well these probably wont look good all together, but this is where im headed and as soon as i have pictures of the nursery i will post them. but i am so excited!

even though i am 32 weeks i havent taken that picture yet, so here i am at 30 weeks!

2011-11-07T20:31:00.000-08:00

if you do not go on pinterest then please stop reading my blog right now and go to it. now. do it. they have the GREATEST ideas.

exhibit A:
Halloween costume
Michaels:

Mine/baby:

family photo:

cute right! and i would have never thought of that! but thanks to pinterest i copied a totally cute costume!

exhibit B:
Thank you/favors for my baby shower

i saw these birds on a thank you card and decided that it would be cute to pair it with cookies for my work baby shower tonight. CUTE RIGHT!

anyways i probably go on it everyday and am so excited to try some other craft ideas that are on there. and its not just crafts! there are recipes and work out routines, home style ideas, workout ideas, outfit ideas, just about everything! i. love. it.

i also love this picture of harvey

the 3rd trimester!!!

2011-10-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

I am 28 weeks on thursday and I am so excited to be in my last trimester! even though it is going by quick now, it feels like i have been pregnant forever. i really cant remember what my body looked like before(i consider this a good thing, i might be a little depressed if i remember how small my waist was)
well looking back on pregnancy so far i have decided that i was surprised by a lot of things that i didn't know happened while you are pregnant so i decided to list my good and bad experiences

THE BAD
. i have never been so tired in my life
. throwing up is still not out of the ordinary, and during the first trimester i averaged about 5-10 times a day.
. you have to eat all the time to avoid the nausea , so at this point i am so tired of food. this has never happened to me before in my life and it saddens me a little
. constipation (this one i didnt know about) it is terrible and my anti nausea medication i take makes it worse. there have been many embarrassing situations. ones i will not discuss on here because it involves bowel movements. but i could have done without that humiliation.
. you will get pimply looking bumps on your nips. this is normal and dont try to pop them.
. your body COMPLETELY changes. from the inside out. it literally is like getting an entirely new body. i cant really describe it better than that, but trust me you will know what i mean when you go through it.
. my nips got this weird yellow crusty stuff on them, dont worry if this happens to you, it is totally normal. and your welcome because i just saved you from a google search if this happens to you too
.there are some people who will judge you when they see that you are pregnant. especially if you look like your sixteen (like i do) "your pregnant? oh." "is this your first? GOOD"....awwwkward
. trying to fit into clothes. whenever i have to get dressed in the morning there is a sense of dread that washes over me. my old clothes are so tight but maternity clothes(especially the bottoms) are way frumpy fitting and to be honest they dont fit me very well either.
. big boobs. when this first happened i considered it a good thing, but to be honest i hate having to worry about cleavage and falling out of my shirt. i am SO ready to go back to my nearly A
. your belly. not only does it hurt to have your skin stretch but your insides are so squished that i take about 3 bites of any meal and i am out of room!
. your lower back pain, it makes it impossible to do anything comfortably. even sleep

THE GOOD
. seeing that plus sign on the pregnancy test, in one quick second you completely change your way of thinking and priorities. how often does that happen in life?
. finding out what it is. it's so fun to know that you are having a son or daughter, you can start really preparing, and its so fun to refer to the baby as a "her" or "him" instead of "the baby"
. the special treatment. example: i went to a wedding and was starving and they weren't serving food yet, but they let me get my plate before it was time to eat (even before the bride and groom) because i was pregnant. awesome.
. the smiles strangers will give you when they ask when the due date is
. the advice that all woman who have had children feel the need to give. most people find it annoying but i love it. i think its great they care enough to tell me about their experiences, not to mention i can bond with this total stranger that i otherwise wouldn't have
. you get a free pass to get out of just about anything...since i have been pregnant i have not done one full load of laundry, vacuumed, and can count on one hand how many times i have done the dishes. i am just one of the lucky ladies who has a husband that steps up and does everything just so i can rest and then offers to give me a foot rub when he is done cleaning. i picked a good one. i know this wont last forever and have every intention of doing my share of the work after she comes out, but for now i am going to enjoy the break.
. feeling the baby move. words cant even describe.
. seeing my husbands face light up when he first felt her (he still gets excited to feel her kick, she isnt even out yet and she already has him wrapped around her finger)
. the daydreaming. pretty much whenever i have a second to myself i try and guess what she is going to look like, what stories she will like to read, what christmas is going to be like, how fun bath time is going to be...i can go on and on
. guessing what kind of parents michael and i are going to be. We observe other parents in public situations and talk to each other about how we will handle that situation, or what we would have done differently. it is so fun and i think it brings us closer together :)

all in all this is that hardest thing i have ever had to do but i already feel like it is worth it. i also know that some people don't really have symptoms and pregnancy is a breeze, i dont really like to acknowledge or talk to those people (juuuuust kidding) but if i scared you just remember you might be one of the rare ones that has a great experience. either way you are going to be darn lucky because in the end you will get this tiny bundle that is going to mean the world to you.

**26 weeks**

24 weeks

2011-09-17T10:42:00.001-07:00

Even though this picture says 5 months i would like everybody to know that i am actually 6 months thank you very much and i love it:)...well love that i am almost done (pregnancy is A LOT harder than i would have ever imagined) at this point in the pregnancy there arent any exciting new developments besides my growing belly! but at 28 weeks we are going to have a 3d ultrasound so that will be fun and i cant wait.
so far baby girl cray:

- not even close to a name..we actually just stopped talking about it for a while, and hopefully one will just POP out at us

- she kicks me ALL the time :) i love it when she does a big strong one and it makes my whole belly move

- i did break 120 lbs but that is far from the first time in my life. haha

- taking baths have been my saving grace for this backpain. baby cray likes them too :) i put on some jams and just soak and sing to her, she digs it :)

- a stranger rubbed my belly for the first time. haha i was not upset and it didnt bother me but when she first did it i just looked at her hand like "uh why is your hand all over my belly?"
the really funny thing was she was rubbing my belly as she was asking if i was pregnant. how awkward would that have been if i wasnt!?

- my belly button used to look like "o" but now it looks like "-" (michael finds this hilarious)

and that is about it!
**23 weeks**

**24 weeks**

20 weeks!

2011-08-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

20 weeks!
i am so excited that I am half way done! so i stole this from lisa's blog!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 1 whole lbs. well technically i lost about 8 and gained back 9.

How Big is the Baby: a cantaloupe! she is so big! i remember when she was a raspberry and i was so excited that she was that big, now she is a whole cantaloupe!

Gender: baby girrrrrl!

Maternity Clothes: I have purchased them, because i'm sure they are more comfortable than my super tight pants, but they are still too big. so I am down to one pair of pants that i rubberband.

Best Moment of the Week: feeling her move for the first time! it was so amazing and now i feel her all the time!

Stretch Marks: none yet, but i have decided it is better to just accept the inevitable. i will just look like a tiger. roar.

Movement: yes! i was worried because i didnt feel her until after 20 weeks, but now i feel her all the time! especially in the mornings and early afternoons, hopefully this schedule will continue until she is born so she will sleep at night!

Sleep: it is getting harder to get comfortable with this growing belly, but the body pillow helps A TON!

What I miss: sushi, over-easy eggs, and being able to wear whatever i want! my wardrobe is dwindling.

What I am looking forward to: meeting this beautiful baby girl, deciding on a name, and decorating her nursery!

Symptoms: mm still nauseous and throwing up, my belly is growing, and i am still an emotional roller coaster!

Food Cravings: anything and everything! except steak, blegh.

Belly Button: Still an inny! but barely!

Signs of Labor: nope, and hopefully i wont have any until its time.

i am loving this little girl more and more!!

**20 weeks!!**

18.5 weeks

2011-08-08T15:19:00.000-07:00

well little ms. baby cray is now about the size of this weird looking thing and i must admit that time is going by quick! I remember when I was only 8 weeks and thinking how sloooow its going, but now the weeks are flying by! We had another ultrasound and got to get another look at our baby girl. we got to see her spine and brain and hands and feet and her face! the ultrasound tech said she was smiling at us haha! she wasnt moving around too much, just like the last ultrasound but maybe we are just catching her during her rest time. I have been putting off writing this blog, hoping that I could write about how I felt her move for the first time, but she just isnt ready yet. every night before i go to sleep i first lay on my back, really still for about 10 min and after that i try my side for about 10 minutes, hoping to get a little feeling or something, but i guess she will give me a kick when she is ready. besides that, nothing much has happened. I am slowly getting my energy back, but i still have days where i just crash for hours at a time. My nausea is definitely getting better, but i still am throwing up a few days a week. hopefully that will go away soon! I am starting to get a baby bump finally! and my belly button is already starting to poke out! I cant wait until I have that kind of big belly where you know right when you look at me that im pregnant, but at the same time im grateful i dont, my lower back is already struggling with this weird belly. well that is about all, its still surreal that theres a tiny person inside me and in about 5 months she will be apart of my life forever! I just cant wait until i can start feeling her move, then maybe it will seem more real!
**18 weeks**

its a girl!

2011-07-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

I am 14 weeks and 4 days pregnant and we found out that i am having a GIRL!!!
We weren't going to go to the fetal studio place until this friday, when i would be just over 15 weeks, but michael didnt want to wait that long, so we called today and they said they have an opening so we left right then and found out! I knew it was going to be a girl though, even before michael and I got married I just knew that when we have kids we were going to have a girl first. She was being difficult, she had her legs crossed and was sitting on her little bum so the ultrasound guy asked me to move around and lay on my side to get a different angle. It was so amazing to see her in there and it made it so much more real! She wasnt moving around too much and the ultrasound guy even called her lazy haha (just like her mom) but after i coughed and poked a bit we got to see her stretch out and yawn and swallow. it was so surreal to see her! when she made the tinniest bit of movement michael and i freaked out each time saying how cute she was! hah it was probably so annoying but we just couldnt believe that this tiny tiny person was inside me!
baby cray :)

this was her stretching :)

we still dont have a name picked, and honestly we arent even close to one because michael and i cannot agree on any of them! haha but we have plenty of time to find the perfect name for her :)
so far the second trimester is better than the first, i am not as tired and not as sick, but i still need to take my prescription to not get nauseous. now i am just so excited to go buy tons a baby clothes and bows and tutus and all that fun stuff! so far this is my favorite nursery that i have seen

I just love that its not heavily themed and i love the wall color paint and the simple white crib. I probably would not have that green chair or those curtains but i LOVE that rug. and look how cute this diaper bag is!
but its $350 and that is just not going to happen, but i can still look at it :) well that is about it! here are some baby bump pictures:
***13 weeks***

***14 weeks***

baby update

2011-06-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

Well baby cray is 10 weeks and 3 days today!!! It is starting to go by fast which is great because I just cant wait to find out what it is! then the real fun starts and i can start buying stuff :) well symptons so far:

1. NAUSEA: holy moly. starting at week 6 I could not keep anything down. For about 2 weeks I was throwing up about 5-10 times a day. Finally I ended up having to go to the emergency room and getting 2 IVs because i was so dehydrated! which was actually a blessing because the doctor there prescribed me a couple medications which have been heavenly. Now I only get sick about 3 days a week instead of 24/7 which I never would have thought would be good news, but trust me IT IS! so far i have lost about 8 pounds but i gained back 2 since i have been on the prescriptions :)

2. fatigue: let me tell you what, i, sarah lorraine cray, have never been more tired in my life. even when i was playing soccer at byuh and we were doing 3-a-days, that was a piece of cake compared to this! getting ready in the morning is the worst part, i usually have to sit in the shower because im too tired to stand for more than 10 minutes at a time! usually i come home from work and take a nap til michael gets home (about 10:30) and then i eat a quick snack and go to bed. i get about 12-14 hours of sleep but it still isn't enough! i hope what they say is true, and that i will get my energy back after the first trimester! especially for michaels sake, who has picked up ALL of the cleaning and cooking duties (he is going to be such a good dad :)

3. my boobs are huge. HUGE.

4. constipation: ummm am i the only pregnant woman who has this? haha maybe im the only one who would blog about it. first of all i had no idea that this was a common symptom, but you definitely learn a lot of interesting facts about your body when you become pregnant. all i have to say is i took going number 2 for granted, now it is like a full out war. and that is all i am going to say about that. sorry if i grossed you out.

5. emotional: EVERYTHING makes me cry. a commercial, a pretty song that comes on the radio, anything. today i watched top chef (my favorite show) and i was bawling because a woman said she was expecting her second baby. that was it. she just said she was pregnant and i lost it. why? i have no idea. i just cry at everything.

well that is about it, my tummy is definitely getting bigger and harder, but it is probably more from bloating than anything else, i just cant wait til i have a baby bump so people know im pregnant, instead of just having a food baby!!

***9 weeks***

***5 weeks***

i will be better at posting baby bump pictures soon :)

the BIG news

2011-05-24T20:51:00.001-07:00

well if you are reading this you are probably already my friend on facebook and know that i am pregnant, but i am going to announce it again anyways and explain how it happened!

Ever since my friend karlie had her adorable twins i was seriously considering trying for a baby (yes call me crazy, but i had baby fever like no other) but i knew that my life would be a billion times easier if i just finished school first. i only have like 2 years left and i am only 21 so i have pleeenty of time for babies. so for a month or so michael and i were going back and forth trying to decide what we want to do and what our goals are. well we finally decided to wait to try at least a few years because michael is thinking of getting his PhD or some sort of higher education so we have a long road of schooling a head of us. thus the decision was made to go in that week and get an iud (which will last like 5 year.) one day i got home from work and i had to go to the bathroom and i started to go, and i stopped myself because i remembered i had a random pregnancy test that i should take to make sure i am not pregnant before i make the dr. appt. so i finished piddling on the stick and set it on the counter. i was a couple weeks late but my cycle is WAY random and i am usually always sporadic so i wasnt too concerned. well i went out into the living room and totally forgot that i took the pregnancy test! i ate dinner, watched a movie, cleaned up, etc and about 4 hours after i took the test i got a call from michael. so while i was talking to him about his day and what we wanted to do that night i was walking aimlessly around our apartment and i went into my bathroom and i spotted the stick. i TOTALLY forgot i took it, so i took a look, not even worried (i really did not think i was pregnant) and there was a plus. a faint little plus. and michael was in the middle of saying something and i said "michael i took a pregnancy test a few hours ago and i just saw it and its saying its positive, im seriously not messing with you there is a plus sign" well we both started freaking out and i had to run to walmart to buy some more pregnancy tests to make sure!! so i got dressed super quick (i broke the zipper on my favorite pair of jeans :/ ) and i ran across the street to walmart with michael on the phone. so i bought one, ran into the walmart bathroom and took a little wiz. within a minute a big YES popped into the screen. so i went out to my car, called michael and we just sat on the phone crying with happiness and complete shock. I then called my sister and continued to sit in the walmart parking lot in my car, crying. it was such an exciting moment and i just couldnt believe it was real!
well after a couple of scary dr.s appointments where we weren't sure if i was going to miscarry or if i just wasnt as far along as i thought i was, we finally figured out that my due date is January 5th, 2012 and i will be 8 weeks on thursday! so far our little bean is developing perfectly and our next appointment is in two weeks! i cant wait and i hope that everything goes ok.
so far pregnancy is SO much harder than i thought it would be. i am tired ALL the time, even though i get at least 10-12 hours of sleep a night i still want to take naps all the time! that is all i think about when im at work! not to mention i am not holding anything down and am running to the bathroom at least 3 times a day. i have no idea how woman do this, especially if its not their first and they have to take care of other little kiddies! i dont know how i am going to do that when that time comes. but i have heard that by the second trimester i should be feeling back to normal and i am crossing my fingers that its true! i will definately keep this updated and start posting picture of my baby bump! (not that i have one yet, but i will!) michael has been SO amazing. he does all the laundry, all the cleaning, all the cooking...basically everything. so all i have to do is go to sleep and go to work. i am very lucky :)

running

2011-04-01T16:51:00.000-07:00

this last saturday (march 26, 2011) a few co-workers and I ran the antelope island buffalo run, which is a 25 k. which is 15.5 miles. yes, 15.5 miles. first of all this whole thing was not my idea, i caved into peer pressure. i have never liked running, ever, even though i have played soccer all of my life it was not the same as just running for miles at a time. but i have some crazy fit people at my work that sign up for this kind of thing allll the time, so when they did, they asked if i wanted to do it. i hesitated (i could barely run 3 miles at the time) and then brandon (co-workers) some something along of lines of dont be a pansie. I, Sarah Lorraine Cray, am a lot of things, but not a pansie. So i accepted this challenge with full confidence that i would kick this runs butt and at the same time show how hardcore i am to my fellow friends. If for future reference you decided to do a race/run of any kind let me give you a little advice:
1. train and train hard. i did have a training schedule, but i would take weeks off at a time, and when it came down to it i only ran 6 miles at a time before the 25k. Thats not even half! needless to say i was not prepared.
2. make sure you check out an elevation map, and that you understand what it is saying. Here is the map of my race:

now when i saw this before my race the irrational part of my brain thought "ah there is no way it is that steep, it has to be really gradual, i got it." wrong. it was exactly how it is pictured. it was that steep, in one word: death.
3. have someone to run with. and make sure they dont flake out on you (cough michael cough)
So i know that i should probably say "oh it wasnt that bad" and "it was fun" no that would straight up be a lie. I am going to be honest here, when i was doing it i was so pissed that i signed up for it. i told myself that i would never ever ever do something like this again, and i have never been in so much physical pain in my life. ever. half way through i wasnt even concerned about running the whole time (which i didnt) or my time, i was just focusing on not passing out and putting one foot in front of the other.
Now here comes the crazy part. Even after all of that, and all the things i told myself, 2 days later i signed up for 2 more half marathons. After i finished, the next day all i could think about was going running again! i am now addicted. and i dont get it. but i have a feeling that this new terrible thing is going to now be apart of my life.

9 fun facts

2011-03-10T21:38:00.000-08:00

1. I don't like the number four. I just feel like its too perfect. its just too even, its too easy to divide, add, and multiply. the idea of having four kids makes me cringe for some reason, irrational? completely. coincidentally michaels favorite number is four, because its so perfect.

2. Im not sure if you are supposed to tear toilet seat covers to make the hole. I used to do it, and then one day i realized that i usually really have to go to the bathroom if i am going in a public place, and i don't have time to individually rip each one. so i just lay it down and go for it. I, of course, thought it was weird that i didn't rip it anymore so i brought it up to my sister and apparently she doesn't rip the thing either, and that it wasn't that uncommon. Maybe the slits are there so it does tear easier when you poo, instead of tearing it before. I don't know what one is socially acceptable. and i dont know if i will ever know.

3. it makes me uncomfortable when there are a group of people out to dinner and multiple people order the same thing. If i am out to dinner and have picked what i want to eat, then hear that someone else is ordering the same thing, i will change it. even if i want that other dish so much more, i change it. my brother is the same way. i have no idea where this came from.

4. i always brush my teeth right before i leave the house. it doesnt matter if i just brushed my teeth an hour before, or if i am just going out to eat. doesnt matter. i always brush my teeth right before i leave.

5. i always have the same routine when i take a shower. i get in, wet my hair, shampoo it, rinse the shampoo, then i squeeze most of the water out of my hair, then i put in conditioner. while the conditioner is still in i wash my body and shave whatever i feel like shaving, (but i do shave my arm pits every shower) then i rinse most my hair and last but not least i wash my face. every single shower.

6. when i am in my car and i have this huge booger in my nose that i have to get i always go through the same dilemma. what am i going to do with the booger after i get it? harvey isnt around so i cant feed it to him... by this point it is too late and the booger is on my finger, so then i wipe it under my seat. and then i feel bad for whoever will own my car in the future because one day they are going to reach under to adjust the seat or feel for the cell phone they just dropped and they will just get a handful of a bunch of crusties. and then i always think that i will clean it all up before i get rid of this car. and i then i laugh at how ridiculous that is. clean my car? me? no thanks. maybe the future driver wont think its my old boogers when they feel it? im a glass half full kind of person

7. whenever i go to the bathroom in a public restroom that is mostly empty i always have the same flashback
...im little (not sure my age) and my parents are watching a movie and on the screen is this woman going in the stall to go to the bathroom, and she sits down to do her business. then you see this creepy ginger guy peek over the edge of the stall with a wire cord, lowers its, and somehow wraps it around her neck and starts to choke her right then and there! that is the only part i remember from the movie, i have no idea what movie this is and i have yet to see it since.
so whenever i go into a stall to do my business i always wonder if there is a creepy ginger guy in the stall next to me, waiting with a cord.

8. i think it is unfair for me to make michael put the toilet seat down after he uses the bathroom. i mean to be fair we both use the bathroom the same amount. couldnt he get mad at me for not leaving it up? not to mention i am completely capable of putting the seat down myself when i have to go, i am in my 20's. frankly i find it selfish when girls get mad about it.

9. when my co workers go to pick up lunch for us and i give them my card to pay for it, i have this irrational fear that it will be declined. even if 2 seconds before i check my account and see that i have plenty of money,even if i know i was paid that day, even if its only a $4 meal, i still have this dark feeling inside. so i choose to hand them my whole wallet, and i then point out which cards they can use just in case it wont go through. i would rather avoid that embarrassment, so i take precautions.

the end

9 things i could live without

2011-01-31T15:52:00.001-08:00

1. girls who wear backless/sleeveless shirts with regular bras.

2. girls who wear backpacks AND purses to school...is it necessary? can you not fit your phone and wallet in your backpack also? are you really trying to make a fashion statement with a huge a backpack? I DONT GET IT!! someone please explain it to me

3. chubby girls with belly button rings. I am not a fan of belly button rings in general, but if you have a hardcore stomach i can let it pass....but if are all flab, just say no.

4. wedge or platform flipflops. im irritated that these thing were ever invented and that girls are dumb enough to wear them.

5. people that have a MILLION profile pictures on facebook or albums that are dedicated to just pictures of them....uh are you kidding me?

... no picture because i didnt want to point some of my friends on facebook out...but they are out there!

6.when people crop themselves out of an original image and post BOTH pictures...just choose one! if you just like you in that picture that is totally cool, crop the shiz out of it! just dont put both pictures..i feel like you are saying f you to whoever didnt make the cut in the second picture! i made one as an example :)

7. everything on this list
http://funnycrave.com/the-5-worst-possible-facebook-status-updates/8117/

8. duck lip pics as profile pictures...

confession: i had to go through my profile pictures to make sure i didnt have any...so no harsh judgment if you do...

9. this woman

...alright that is all for now...feel free to add your own!!!

The future Mary Cray

2011-01-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

So a word to the wise. Don't volunteer to do anything, unless you have done it before. Let me explain. My friend, Karlie Jean Cornell, is pregnant with twins. TWINS! (a boy and a girl) and i was trying to think of something I could do that would be fun and special for her baby shower. Well michael's mom is straight up jesus christ at making/decorating sugar cookies, and i always thought it would be fun to do something like that. So silly little me told karlie that i would be making pink and blue giraffe sugar cookies for her shower (please note that i have NEVER tried decorating sugar cookies before, but i guess that didn't matter to me at the time) so i was getting all excited about these cookies because, in my head, they were super cute and so i was telling everybody! so then karlies mom (who is also my boss) asked if i could make them for the work baby shower as part of the shower decorations/food (sure! no prob)...and later in the week she asked if i could make them for a separate shower that their family was doing (uhh maybe i should try to make these things before i say yes to all this)
so that weekend before the shower i tried to make them. two words. EPIC FAIL. they were awful, i mean truly atrocious. i tried decorating five of them and i was getting so frusterated with them being ugly that i ate them all (hence no pictures)

So i went into work the next day and i was just like...uhh i cant make these cookies, like seriously i suck at this. but i was comforted by very nice co-workers that had some faith in me. so i took the day before the shower off so i had all day to try and make these suckers. it took over 18 hours, but i did it.

this was try number 1:

this was try number 2:

ok so obviously neither of these looked good...so i made a decisions...no backround frosting, just outlining

ok this is not too bad:

hey this might work!

so almost 100 cookies later...and a very messy kitchen

Voila!

maybe one day i will be ask good as my mother in law...one can dream anyway :)

little quirks

2011-01-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

although michael and I have known each other for a very long time, there are little quirks about him that i had no idea, and im sure the same was for him. I thought i would share that with you:

Me:
-i leave bobby pins and q tips EVERYWHERE
- i have no problem using michaels toothbrush
-i sometimes forget to flush the toilet
- if i eat a piece of chocolate in a foil wrapper i always ball it up and throw it somewhere. this drives michael crazy haha whenever he see's it he makes me track down my wrapper and properly throw it away.
-i pick my boogers, i used to flick them but i have learned that dogs will eat anything. win win.

Michaels:
-he will not let me be in the bathroom with him while he is brushing his teeth... i know.
-he will not let me go to bed without him and he wont go to bed without me. almost everynight this is our conversation:
me "baby i need to go to bed"
michael "its only 11:40"
me"i know but i am tired"
michael "please, just one more (insert tv episode here)"
me "fine"
-after he buys something new at the store, he CANNOT wait to go home to open it. He is literally opening things in the car (even though we live across the street from target, which is where we get most of his new toys)
-he spends real money on fake world of warcraft money. I will never win this battle.
-he likes to undress in the living room instead of the bedroom
-whenever he calls for me at my work he 95% of the time pretends he is a customer and tries to trick me. it never works :)

oh the things you learn while married :)

One mans trash is another man's treasure...

2011-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

Dear fellow blog readers,
are you ready to meet the cutest, coolest, most adorable, best decision michael and i have ever made puppy?!
ready or not here she is!
Olive
we also call her:
olivia
olivia newton john
olive penderghast
lily
lilypusian
precious
daisy
olive oil
my love
baby

now you may be confused by the blog title...let me explain.
2 days before michael and i are going to california for christmas we were a bit hungry and going to go get some dinner. My parking spot is right next to the dumpster area thing (cinderblock fort with 2 dumpsters inside it.) So we are walking to the car and its freezing outside and lightly snowing and we pass the dumpsters...and we hear something whining. and we stop for a second and then we hear it again. so we decided to investigate, and follow the sound. that sound leads us to inside of the cinderblock fort and inside right next to the dumpster is a cardboard box where the whining is coming from. and we look inside it and there are 2 puppies. PUPPIES!!!! and they were freezing :( so michael and i grabbed one each and we were trying to warm them up. We waited around for a second, hoping that someone would come claim them (because we like to think that no one with a soul would throw away puppies.) Nobody came by, so then we went walking around with them, asking random strangers walking around if they knew who these puppies belonged to or where they came from. no luck. no one knew. so michael and i were forced to accept that some heartless pathetic person threw away these babies. we were disgusted...but we were in love. but there were 2! and we already had a dog, we couldn't have 3 dogs, 2 people, and 1 snake living in our 600 sq foot apartment. So we set off trying to find homes for these lovelies. Again we walked around my complex telling people what happened and if they were interested. One was, she said she was willing to take one and couldnt believe someone would throw them out! so she took the smaller one. By that time michael and i were freezing (and still hungry) so we decided to take the chubby one home and she can stay with us for a while, maybe until we found a home for her. BUT we were leaving for california and had a ton of stuff do to and we knew we didnt have time to look for someone for her before we left. So we decided she would just come to california with us. but on that trip we fell in love with her, i mean sure we loved her before, but now we were really head overs heals for her. EVERONE was. even my older sister mal, who HATES animals, ESPECIALLY dogs because she is allergic to them, loved her. Olive slept with mal the whole way to california. She has never peed on anyone, she sleeps with harvey in his kennel, if there is a pee pad set out, she will go on it. she plays hard for about 5 minutes and then just stops and falls dead asleep. she was the best decision we made and now she is ours. and even though it is so sad what happened to her, we are so grateful that it did because we have her now. and everyone who has met her is jealous that we do, she is that great:)

just fyi

2010-12-19T00:45:00.000-08:00

OOOOOK so i decided i am going to make a second blog for all the pictures i take, that way i wont annoy anybody who doesnt care...soooo that blog is

http://sarahsmakingpictures.blogspot.com

ok bye!

Gardner Village

2010-12-06T14:04:00.000-08:00

I thought i would go out and take some pictures on my day off!

new camera!!!

2010-12-03T18:12:00.001-08:00

So this year i got my christmas present early :) Michael has been saving up since August and as soon as he had enough he bought it and gave it to me! It's a camera!!! and i have been taking photos ever since!

i love my husband:)

Marraige Survey

2010-11-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

1. When is your "engagement" anniversary: April 2009 (I dont know the exact date, haha sad)

2. When is your "marriage" anniversary: August 1, 2009

3. How long have you known your spouse: 8 years

4. How long did you date/court before you were engaged: About 1 1/2 years. but have been best friends for yeeears!!

5. Where did you meet your spouse for the first time: Camping...at a family reunion. Seriously

6. What is your spouse's full name: Michael William Cray

Oh wait...

I love him :)

7. Do you have any children yet: Not yet!

He was a cute baby:)

8. How many: None, yet! :)

This was our baby cat, we loved her

9. Do you have any house pets: our rat dog, Harvey Danger :)and michaels snake Mogley and we used to have a cat named Colby (different cat from baby)

10. Do you own a house or rent: Rent

11. Do you live in the country or town/city: The Ghetto

12. What is one of your favorite activities together: Playing games, eating, watching tv and movies, talking, cuddling

13. Do you have a favorite vacation spot: Fort Bragg

14. How many siblings (including in-laws): 7 on my side, 2 on his side

15. What church do you attend: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

16. Is this the church you were married in: Yep, the Sacramento temple :)

17. What town is your current address: West Jordan

18. Do you work or stay at home: woooork, hopefully i can stay at home with the kiddos whenever they come :)

19. Where did you honeymoon: Dillons Beach

20. Leave a piece of marriage advice: Like each other!!!

I LOVE BEING MARRIED TO HIM!!!

snow love

2010-10-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

I love the snow. It is probably because I grew up in a place where it never snowed. So whenever I see snow to this day it is still a magical wondrous thing. I am sure that after my full winter here in Utah where i have to drive and walk and be around the snow all the time, i will not love it as much. So i decided to show as much love to this weather while it lasts. And some time last week it snowed a lot at my apartment and i loved it!

Well i am going to be honest. I loved it until i got to work. Even though i sell lights in a comfy lit up light store, once a week i help out in the back and go in the warehouse to count inventory. which is outside, with no heating. At that moment, in the cold warehouse, my numb toes and fingers did not appreciate the snow. But it was still pretty to look at!

i love to read

2010-10-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

I have always loved to read, but since i have gotten my iphone 4 (which is totally amazing and i will never go back to a regular phone) i have been reading book like nobody's business.There is this app on it called i book, so you can read on it. amazing. This is what i have ready since july (when i got my phone.) so i decided to rate the ones i have read.

1. Sh*t my dad says:

3.5/5
It was pretty enjoyable, but it is just what the title is. Stuff his dad says, so there isn't really a story line, but it was pretty funny

2. World Without End

4/5
I didnt think it was as good as Pillars of the earth, but still good

3. The Help

4.5/5
Loved it but i wished they did an epilogue or something, i kinda felt like it just ended

4. The Hunger Games

5/5
i

5. Catching Fire

5/5
love

6. Mockingjay

5/5
these

7.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

3.5/5
I dont know what the big deal is with the book. it was good, yea, but the beginning was slow and honestly i only cared about the murder mystery and that is it. so when they kept on talking about the journalist and the magazine and all that jazz, i did not care. So i didnt enjoy the whole book.. and some parts were disturbing

8. The Anatomy of Peace

5/5
everyone should read this book

9. The Giver

4/5
looooved it, but same thing with the ending, there should have been like an epilogue or something

10. The Time Travelers Wife

3.75/5
I enjoyed it, but its not really a must read

11. Dear John

4/5
Way better than the movie

12. Marley & Me

5/5
Made me love my dog 10x more!

13. A Thousand Splendid Suns

4/5
I liked it more than kite runner

14. The Last Song

3.5/5
The book wasnt bad, but i kept on picturing miley cyrus as the main girl, and i hate her, so i couldnt enjoy the book!

15. Ender's Game

4.5/5
loved it

16. Freedom

3/5
I do not understand why its on oprahs bookclub list

And i am currently reading:

Fall of Giants

Im only about a quarter of the way through but so far it is pretty good and i will keep you updated!

FOR OTHER BOOKWORMS:
My sister told me about this website that is like a virtual bookcase. You go on it and make a profile and on your book case you put books that you have read, are reading, and are going to read. Then you can rate the book and review them yourself and then you can find your friends on the website and look on their shelf and see what books they have read and if they thought they were good and then you can read them yourself. Anyways i love it and its a good way to keep track of the books you have read and how you felt about them. You can even put it on your blog (which i have) anyways its call shelfari.com and i hope that if you get one you become my friend!

babies.

2010-10-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

Since moving to utah i have noticed one distinct change in me. i LOVE babies. I LOVE THEM! everytime i see one, i just stare at it, hoping that the mother wont notice that i am a total freak but at the same time offer her baby for me to hold. Weird, i know, but i cant help it. It especially doesnt help that EVERYONE is pregnant. especially my friend from work, karlie, who is pregnant with TWINS! So we go baby shopping together and i want to buy all these baby clothes to save up for when i have a baby, but michael says that irrational or something, so i can't. So instead i have saved pictures of baby stuff i want. Just to be clear i am still very young, i know that a baby is a BIG deal, and no michael and i are not trying and we will not until we finish college. but a girl can dream, right? This is what i found that i totally love right now:
Bedspread

and i especially love the matching picture frames

AND these CUTE BASKETS!!!!

This is all i have so far, and trust me, i will keep posting adorable stuff until this phase is over (if it ever is) haha

update

2010-10-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

So i have decided to be better at updating this. Haha it has almost been a year since i have put something up, so i thought it was in need of a major update. So lets start from the beginning.

1. We moved to Utah in Dec of 2009 and have been there ever since. We were at first sharing a house with michaels cousin and his new wife, but after a few months we all decided to get our own place, so since April we have been living in Southwillow Apartments (a special little place that causes a lot of stress which i am sure i will blog about in the future)

Our little basement while we shared a house with michaels cousin

2. I work full time at lighting design selling lights. Yep, lights, chandeliers, sconces, pendants, exterior, flushmounts, anything you can think of. I never in my life would have guessed that i would know the average blade pitch of a ceiling fan (which is 14 degrees) or the million different types of light bulbs there are (i dont even want to bore you with that knowledge.) So that is my job, telling people what lights go good together, and trying to find the one fixture they are picturing in their head out of hundreds of catalogs. Although working with vein rich woman and pompous contractors is most of the time frustrating, it's not too bad and most of the time the good outweighs the bad.

3. Michael and I bought a dog a while ago (in march i believe) his name his Harvey Danger. We were out driving and decided to stop at this random pet store, just to see what they had. We went inside and we saw him and we were done. We had no plans of getting a dog, we certainly couldnt afford one, nor did we have the space to raise one. But once we asked to hold this itty bitty calm little guy, we fell in love. Now for those of you who have not purchased a dog yet, let me give you a bit of a warning. While you are looking out of a group of pups you might think you would want to go for the calmest and most relaxed of the bunch, but let me tell you NO! Even if he is cuddling with you and lightly licking your hands and you dont even hear a whimper out of him, he is playing you, straight up playing you. Because that is what our Harvey did, he cuddled, he licked, he didnt even whine and we were thinking we would have this tiny little calm cuddley dog to come home to. Oh how wrong we were. Even though we absolutely love this little guy, he is the cute dog version of satan on speed. Yep i said it, the devil himself is in our cute little creature and i am convinced he he has a secret stash of illegal substances which give him so much energy. But we still love him all the same and he is part of our little family.

4. Michael did work at a used car dealership, but he hated it and he wasnt getting paid anything. Seriously he worked 50 hour weeks and his paychecks (which were bimonthly) were barely over $400! So he met a nice pakistani family while working at the car dealership that owns it own little trinket shop and they needed a cashier. Michael took the job without hesitation and now he loves his job and makes a decent amount. His boss is great, and we feel so lucky to have met them and for the opportunity they have given michael.

5. We have not gone back to school yet(i know, i know) but we are in the process of applying everywhere for the spring semester, and i am pushing michael for us to start in jan and just get it done!

We have met some really great friends here and i love being close to mallory and mitch who we play with every so often. I love have my own little life with michael and harvey and our own little home. All in all i am so much happier then i ever dreamed i would be and i hope it stays that way!

we are GROWING up!

2009-11-01T20:54:00.000-08:00

So it is final, michael and i are moving to UTAH in DECEMBER!!!!! we are SO excited and scared cuz now we are like on our own, i mean we are going to have rent and utilities and have to get jobs and everything!!! we have been pretty lucky being able to live with my parents and not pay for anything, but i figure we are married, so we ought to take on responsibilities and such. And with just our luck we have finally met a couple who dont have lives either, so we can hang out together! its alex and sherrie schaub, alex used to be my neighbor YEARS ago and we were pretty close friends and then he moved away and got married and all that jazz but now he lives in granite bay with his wonderful wife sherrie! so we thought that we should all go on a double date miniature golfing (i totally kicked everybodys butts) and it was so much fun so now we hang out them all the time and it is fun to have a couple to do stuff with :) I just cant wait to go to utah and be on our own, i want to make breakfast for michael in OUR kitchen and make him lunches and cook him dinner (sorry just read chantells blog and now i feel bad for not waking up early to make my husband breakfast, thanks chantell!) haha anyways, im excited and i thought i should all update you! if anybody in utah out there knows some good places to rent from let us know!

Change of Plans!!!!

2009-10-16T23:47:00.000-07:00

So a week or so ago michael and i were driving back to our house, i think from leaving our friends marks house and we started talking about our future and careers and all that jazz and i was straight up with him "im sorry babe, i just dont see you as a high school teacher not to insult myself (cuz thats what im going to be) but you have so much more potential" haha yea that sounds messed up, but he got what i meant. and so we just started talking about different careers that i feel he would be great at and we landed on computer engineering. he said he got a warm fuzzy feeling and me too cuz i just want him to do something he loves, he'll be more pleasant to be around that way :). Then we started talking about what i really wanted to do and we settled on therapist/counselor/psychologist. even though that is way exciting and something i would love i thought about my future kids and how busy i would be if i had that profession and how i would have to hold off having kids for years more so i decided against it. i am still going to have fun being an art teacher and that why i can be with my kids more, which is way more important than my job. So here we are, we just sent in our application to byuh hawaii and wouldnt ya know it, they dont offer computer engineering! so we sent in a late application to byu and we are crossing our fingers! if we dont get in right away, we can move out there in december anyway and share a house (its kinds like 2 houses) with his cousin brad who is just getting married. i hope we do that! i just think we would find more lds couples that we can hang out with, and who would WANT to hang out with us. and i love moving to new places and trying new things! so it all depends how things play out, but my vote is for utah. odds are, hawaii is just going to be a vacation spot from now on and i am ok with that :)

and i just love this pic, so i thought i would share it with the world
farewell for now!

Lil bit o' entertainment

2009-10-07T00:30:00.000-07:00

So we dont have really anything to update, hah but i figure that i might as well put something up, so this is a video i made for our wedding :) ENJOY!

newbie

2009-09-24T23:04:00.000-07:00

Alright so we are new to this whole blogging thing, but all of my married friends have this so i figured why not? Michael and I were married on August 1, 2009 and are living at home with my parents in good old Elverta. Which is surprisingly a really good decision. we dont have to pay for rent, food, internet, ect. and my parents basically leave us alone and let us do whatever we want (which is good, cuz we ARE married!) we are trying to transfer back to BYUH and if everything goes well we will be there in january in the married housing :) Michael and i met at a family reunion....yea i know...but we arent directly related so it wasnt against law. just kidding....but seriously. I was 13 years old and he was 14 and i was just crazy about this kid. I was just sitting all by myself at this camp and him and his friend just came up to me, didnt say one word, and he just started singing me a song. we stayed up talking all night and the next morning he left back home (placerville) My friends probably remember getting mad at me for talking about him so much when i got back from camping, but i just couldnt help it. exactly one year later we met back up at the camp (and we didnt see/talk that whole year) and i was even more crazy about him! We spent the whole time together and the night before we left for home he gave me my first kiss. I remember telling lisa stever all about it in the girls locker room when i got back and she was SO excited for me! this time we exchange emails and phone numbers and stayed friends. Through the past 5 years we have had our ups and downs but when i got a soccer scholarship to hawaii that is when he decided to grow a brain and realize that im the girl he was supposed to marry (im pretty sure i knew that since i was like 14.) so the next semester he moved out to hawaii and we started dating and it was the best decision i have ever made :) it was hard making the decision to get married, a lot of my family and some of his was against it. and i know we are young, but he is my best friend in the entire world, i know EVERYTHING about him, and i cannot imagine marrying somebody else. honestly. We are happy in our own little world, we got to school at ARC, and in our free time we play video games together and right now we started a new project of painting guitars (ill post some pics when its done) we are together 24/7 honestly (we have all our classes together and we dont work) hah but it doesnt even bother me, cuz its not like im with another person its like im with another side of me. ok im getting all gay now, but anyways...i hope through this i can keep in touch with my friends that are married and maybe schedule some double dates!