Car Accident

On August 7th we were headed north on I-15 to go to a birthday party for one of Suzy's friend's daughter. We were getting ready to exit the freeway on 72nd South when about 1/2 mile before the exit the car in the lane next to us began to merge into our lane. To make a long story short, our front passenger tire blew out when we had to move onto the shoulder to avoid hitting the car that changed lanes into us and we wound up hitting the cement barrier quite hard, bouncing back out into traffic where we miraculously avoid colliding with anyone else and drifted to a stop back on the shoulder.

Our poor Avalon took quite a bit of damage during the accident. Fortunately, though we all were ok. Very, very shook up, but okay.

Here are images of the poor thing afterwards...

The Avalon was determined to be totaled. So we were prematurely thrust into the market for a new car to replace a car which we dearly loved. As a quick side note, we have nothing but good to say about how our insurance company (Geico) has helped and treated us through the process. By the Friday after the accident we had a check in our hands for the car and the replacement car seats.

So for the past month we've been looking at replacement cars. We have loved our Avalon for the past 2 years, but knew that we would eventually replace it with a 7 or 8 seat vehicle. So we started our search for that type of vehicle. We test drove:

• Toyota Sienna
• Honda Oddyssey
• Chevrolet Traverse
• Ford Flex
• Ford Explorer

All of these had their positives and negatives, but none seemed like a good fit, plus we were not sure we wanted to get a car loan, even a small one. About 3 weeks ago we test drove an Acura MDX and liked it a lot. It had a ride more similar to the Avalon, had a lot of desirable options, and fit our needs. So for the past 3 weeks we have driven all over Utah looking at different MDXs for sale. Eventually we found the one. It was the right exterior and interior color, had the right options, and most importantly for a good price. We bought our "new" 2005 MDX on Monday, and so far we like it... a lot. Here she is...

What We've Been Up To...

I uploaded our pictures from the last month or so, and realized how much we've been up to. We've been trying to stay busy and spend a lot of time outside since I LOVE summer and Claire hates staying in our apartment.

We started out with a visit from my brother and sister-in-law. Claire loves her cousins and talks about them all the time. Its too bad they live in Arizona and we don't get to see them much.
All the grandkids together.
We got to go on a fun train ride.
This train ride was a little bit scary.
Trying to fit in one hole. This was the best shot and they weren't pushing each other.
Quinn has been doing a lot of this... He's finally starting to get on a schedule though. He's a pretty mellow guy, although he is still waking up every 2-3 hours at night which is starting to wear on me.
We went hiking up Rock Canyon.

Getting used to having two kids in a small apartment.
We went to the rodeo and Claire loved the "aminals".


Hiking Stewart Falls with my parents.
Claire even got a snowball.
Quinn has been doing this a lot...although as I mentioned above, I wish he would do it a little more at night.
Claire at the stake picnic. More please.
We had a fun picnic with my old roommates.
My old roommate has an irrigation river in her backyard. The kids had so much fun.

Claire and her buddy Caleb. She's going to miss him when his family moves.
Don't we look the same as we did in college? Minus the kids of course.

Its been a great month of walks and playing at parks almost every night. I can't wait for the rest of the summer!

More Changes

So along with all the other changes in our life, we decided to move down to Provo as Casey has been working here for the last 5 months and the commute was getting really unmanageable. We are living in girl's student housing. They rent it to married couples in the summer. Although its not the most glamorous of accommodations, it works well for our needs as it is furnished, temporary, and cheap. Casey's job is still a little unsure, so we didn't want to be tied into a year lease.
I stole this picture from the internet.

For those of you that know Provo, its a little condo complex near Smiths and the RC Willey outlet. Its only about 10 years old, so its nicer than a lot of student housing. We're excited to spend more time together with our little family.

Free Change Anything Membership

Since January I have been working for Change Anything, a great start-up company here in Utah. The idea behind the company is to take a scientifically proven methodology for behavior change and apply it to a social online platform.

Basically, we’ve built a website that helps people and groups tackle difficult changes. The method applies to any type of behavior change, from relationships, to bad habits, to addictions.

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Anyway, we’ve been running a promotion for a free one year premium membership to the site. I’d like to invite all of you to come to the site, create an account (with a coupon code that I will give you), and provide us with any feedback you might have. If you like the site, please share it with your friends.

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Sign up instructions:

1. Go to www.changeanything.com
   
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NOTE: This coupon code expires tomorrow, Friday, May 27th at 5 pm MDT. So make sure to redeem it before then.

Here are a couple of videos that help explain the philosophy behind the site.

Quinn William

Quinn William Sullivan was born May 11. He is such a beautiful little baby and we're so happy to have him in our family.

If you're not into details, just skip down to the pictures. Quinn was born 10 days early. At my checkup the week before he was born, my doctor told me that my platelets were low. I had issues with this between my two pregnancies, but they were okay earlier in my pregnancy with Quinn. The doctor wanted to retest them, but told me I might have to deliver early if they were still low. At the next appointment, he told me they were still low and that the baby and I were both ready to go and there was no need to wait and that my platelets would likely just get lower as the pregnancy continued and it could lead to having to have a c-section if they got too low.

The doctor told us to show up at the hospital two and a half hours later and they would start inducing me. I was already at 4 cm and 90% effaced and labor went fairly quickly with Claire, so I was anticipating that it would go fairly quickly with this one. They started the pitocian about 2:30 and contractions started slow as they had it on a slow drip. They kept turning it up slowly, but it was pretty uneventful. They were waiting for the doctor to show up. He had been called to another hospital with a natural labor. We waited until he got there about 8:10 and broke my water. After that the contractions came on really fast and strong. I was ready for my epidural then. Because of my low platelets, the epidural was more risky. The anesthesiologist wanted to do a spinal instead of an epidural because the needles are smaller and there is less risk of bleeding. However, they only last two hours and then its over. He wanted me to wait as long as possible before getting it. When the doctor broke my water I was at a 6, and by 9:00 I was at an 8 and progressing fast. They called the anesthesiologist back in to give me the spinal. About 20 minutes later I was at a 10 and ready to push. It only took about 4 pushes and he was out with very little effort.

After the birth, my blood pressure went really low and I almost fainted lying in bed. I was shaking really bad and felt awful. They gave me some medicine to help, but it took about 3 hours for me to feel normal and good enough to hold the baby. We made it though, and he is such a great baby. We're so happy to have him as part of our family!

Claire loves being a big sister.

She loves to hold "baby brother's" hand and give him kisses and rock him.
Quinn came home on Friday. Even in the hospital he was not a good nurser, but when we got home, he got even worse. He would just scream and not latch on, or he would be calm and just not interested. He was only eating about every 4 hours on average. When we took him to the doctor on Monday morning, we found out he had lost 17% of his body weight. The doctor was very concerned. She said we could do some blood tests, but she was fairly certain he would need to be admitted to the hospital and recommended we just take him straight to the ER at Primary Children's. We found out he was really dehydrated and was slightly jaundiced. We ended up staying over 2 nights while he got IV fluids and got the jaundice lights. Once he got rehydrated and healthy, he became a totally new baby. He is so mellow now and actually eats when he is hungry with no fuss. He is wonderful. Now we are just working on getting him off of formula since he had it after every feeding in the hospital to keep him hydrated and get his weight up. We're so glad to have everybody home happy and healthy.