the pilgrim's journey home

Happy Thanksgiving! In order to celebrate the holiday fully, I recommend that you all watch BYU choir's recent show "The Pilgrim's Journey Home." You can watch it online here:

http://www.byutv.org/watch/480-403

Or, if you have BYUTV, it will be broadcast on there on Thanksgiving day at 9 A.M. and also at 8:30 P.M. Keep an eye out for my handsome husband- he's in the Men's Chorus. This was the performance that they filmed for many hours over four evenings in spring of 2009.

My favorite is "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" and also "Going Home."

happy 24th!

John turned 24 on Sunday! We had a fun little party for him that night with friends and lots of pie.

Amanda and I took a trip up to Midvale near Salt Lake on Saturday to get him a chocolate silk pie form Marie Callenders- his favorite- and I also got a peach pie and razzleberry because those are amazing. John's cousins Kristi and Kingston, and Jenny and Stevie came over to celebrate, as well as Lauren, Amanda, Sean and Jennie, and Gabi and Jordan. Gabi made some delicious birthday candies that are popular in Brazil (where she's from) to share with us, and Kristi made some awesome refrigerator magnets out of Rook cards. We ate pie, ice cream, and cupcakes, visited, and played some Beatles Rock Band. It was a lot of fun!




He got a gun safe from his parents so he can put the pistol in it next to the bed, and some Boise State paraphernalia to wear to the Boise vs. Nevada game next month. And I got him a bottle of Acqua Di Gio cologne. John said it was more a present for me than for him, but I hope he liked it anyway.

I can't believe I woke up to a fine layer of snow on everything. I'm not ready for this! It's almost November and I'm ready for spring already. I'm going to go turn on the heater.

muddy

One day this last week Suki ran outside around 8:00 when John and I were returning home from doing something. A few hours later she still hadn't come home. John and I both went out with a flashlight for a while looking for her. It had just rained that day, so everything was wet and muddy.

I started getting really nervous that she got stuck somewhere, or got hit by a car or something, so I kept going out on the balcony calling for her. She always comes when I call for her. Well, around 11:00 I hear a small cry outside the door. I opened it, and there she was! And she was covered in mud.

We have no idea where she was or what she did to cake herself in mud, but I was just glad she came home. It was starting to get really cold out and I don't think she would have survived the night soaking wet if she had stayed outside.



We threw her in a bath (she didn't like it) and shampooed her up (she didn't really mind that) until she was all clean again. She was shivering after her bath, so I turned the oven on warm, left the door open, and put a towel on it so she could sit next to the heat. She must have been cold all night because she curled up under the covers next to me while she slept! Now that was cute.

post script

I've had a bunch of people ask how I am after the accident, so I just want to reassure everyone that I'm okay. The whole next day I had awful whiplash, but John was very nice and gave me neck massages and brought me Advil. It didn't feel like the Advil helped very much, but the pain probably would've been worse without it.

I'm a little scared to drive, but I'm okay. I'm glad I had my seat belt on and that the airbags didn't go off- I'd rather have my nose in one piece. John explained that the hood of the car was supposed to crumple like that or else it would've gone through the windshield. And also very, very glad that didn't happen.

up and down

I've had a very, very, very up and down week.

First of all, I got in a car accident on Tuesday. I feel so dumb! I was on University Ave in the Impala (my mom's car, not mine, so I felt sick when it got smasho-ed). There was an accident on the side of the road, out of the way, might I add, but everyone still decided to slow down to look. A Jeep Cherokee in front of me came to a sudden stop, I tried to come to a sudden stop, but didn't. The Impala's breaks aren't the best ones in the world... So I hit him.






Luckily just his bumper was damaged, and my car got most of it. There isn't any damage to the functional parts of the car, just body damage, so I was really lucky for that. The 85 year old man I hit was very nice to me. I apologized profusely and he said, "It's just a bumper. You can always use a new bumper." I was so worried that he'd be furious with me and that would've just been worse.

I called 911 to report the accident and an officer came to see us- the same one that was at the previous accident. We gave him our licenses, insurance, and registrations and wrote up statements about what happened. After our info was taken down he dismissed the older man and stayed to talk with me. He asked, "What happened?" I was perfectly calm about the whole incident when I explained. "There was another accident on the road so everyone slowed down. I tried to slow down, too, but I didn't in time so I hit him. And I feel so awful because I tried to slow down and was being so careful but it's still my fault. I have to take responsibility for it and I know that it was all because of me."

At that point I started bawling, which made me feel even dumber. But the officer was so nice. He said, "Allison, accidents happen and sometimes, even when it's considered your fault, you can't stop them and they aren't even really your fault." At that point he said that by law he has to issue a citation, so I just nodded and said I'd take one. Then he debated with himself for a while and said that he hates giving them out sometimes. Then he decided that he didn't want to give me one. I said I didn't want him to get in trouble and that I would take it, but he didn't give it to me. I was SO relieved! I don't know how much it would have cost me or what it would've done to my driving record.

And the rest of the week has just been so crazy- I can't even talk about everything. But the BYU game against SDSU was amazing tonight! The first quarter was just incredible! It was so fun watching it with John and Amber. We had a great time!

In a blast from the past moment, I found this picture of me from sophomore year. I didn't know I was so sexy :)

miscarriage

I hadn't made my pregnancy public yet because I feared something like this would happen. We were going to announce it to everyone once I hit the second trimester. I was seven weeks along with my little Bean, and was due April 26.

Yesterday afternoon I had some bad cramps and didn't think too much about it. I had read that cramps were normal in early pregnancy because the uterus is stretching. But when I went to the bathroom and saw that I was bleeding, I started panicking. After the cramps started getting worse, I asked John to take me to the emergency room where I had an ultrasound and blood work done. Sure enough, our worst fears were confirmed when the doctor came in and said that I was having a miscarriage.

Apparently the fetus had stopped growing about a week or two earlier and my body was finally shedding it. It made me feel better knowing that I didn't do anything to accidentally abort the baby. The body just wasn't perfect, so nature got rid of it so I can give my baby a perfect body later.

It was just shocking to be fine and then be at the hospital six hours later and find out that I was having a miscarriage. I have many mixed feelings. I'm so glad that I have Jennie who can help me out now. I'm not glad that she experienced something similar, but I'm so glad to have an empathetic friend to comfort me and help me out. And so many of my friends have been so supportive and helpful. I'm so grateful for all of the love that John and I have seen in the last 24 hours. And my mom is flying up tomorrow to stay with us for the weekend and help out. That will be so nice because I don't have the motivation to do anything right now. I fluctuate between feeling devastated and being okay, but my heart still aches and I don't know when that will stop.

I just wanted to write this because writing my feelings down and sharing them always makes me feel better. I didn't do this for sympathy or to make people feel bad for me.


To my little Bean,

I want you to know that your father I and love you so much, and we can't wait for you to join our family. I'm sorry that this body didn't work out for you, but we'll do all we can to make sure you come to us soon. We already have fallen in love with you and I feel like I've bonded with you quite a bit. I know you're up there waiting to come down and I bet you're impatient, and just as disappointed as we are! But the time will come when you can be a Jeppson with us and come to this world. Again, we love you so much and I hope to meet you soon.

Love,
Mommy

just one of those things

I didn't get the job :( I guess it wasn't meant to be.

John started back to school this week. So far he loves his classes and is even going to be taking a trip to Yellowstone weekend after next. He's going to collect samples from the pools there and examine microorganisms and such. He's super excited about it. I will miss him, but I'm sure Suki can keep me company.

job

I applied for a job this last week, and I had an interview! It's with Backstage Library Works, a company here in Provo that converts library's catalogs to computerized versions. They send copies of information to BSLW, and they type it into a computerized catalog. I took a test this last week as my application (and I didn't feel like I did very well at all) but the next day they called me and asked for an interview! The test had a few parts. First was spelling, where they have a sentence with a blank, give you the first three letters of the word that goes in the blank, and you have to fill it in and spell the word correctly.
I am __________ for my actions. (acc)

Next was a grammar/proofreading section. Super easy, no prob.

Then some general knowledge. And by general, they meant geography questions.
Nova Scotia (a)city (b)state (c)country (d)none of these

Ann Arbor (a)England (b)US (c)Australia (d)Canada

It really brought me back to my middle school geography class, and helped me know that I don't remember anything from it.

One part was simple. We had to say if a person was real or fictional. I wish there had been more of those, because I knew them better than the geography ones.

I also took a typing test, to see how many words per minute I can type and with what accuracy. They were looking for 45 WPM with 98% accuracy, and I scored 83 WPM with 98.3% accuracy.

Regardless of my score they still interviewed me, and I was really excited. It went well, and I even had a chance to do some of the work that I would actually be doing. I think they wanted to see how quickly I could learn. It was more complicated than I expected, but not hard. I think I would enjoy it.

I really, really, really hope that I get this job!

tired!

Man, the last week-ish, all I've been able to do is make myself get up, go work at the dental office for a few hours, come home, nap, wake up and do a few things while wishing I could go back to bed, and go to bed. Why am I so tired?! It's annoying.

I'm not sleeping too much. I've been getting about 9 hours every night. And I've been getting enough exercise. I'm just tired.

writing

I can't tell you how often I have a dream and wake up thinking, "I have to turn this into a book!" and then, after I wake up completely, I realize that the whole idea is nonsensical, boring, or just plain weird. And I mean worse than David Bowie randomly appearing in a Labyrinth-esque way.