10 things in 2010 that were totally terrific by Nicole

Not in any particular order, here are 10 things that were totally awesome in 2010.

1. Ila starts walking

2. Having our own business (it was for a short but very sweet time)

3. Trent's job and Mercer Canyons, and watching my husband finally get to do what he wants to do...FARM!

4. Ila's first birthday

5. Living near (or with!) everyone in our immediate families for a time

6. Seeing my best friend and her husband finally get to adopt a baby!

7. Meeting up with college friends who are now married and have babies too!

8. Starting a "read the bible in a year" thing with Trent and sticking with it

9. Watching Ila fall in love with her daddy and being excited to see him and play with him when he gets home

10. Personal growth and relational growth

Before the holidays update! by Nicole

It was the flu and I think we're finally rid of it! Trent got it along with Ila, and that was not fun, but they both seem to be in much better spirits and Ila is going to enjoy a more normal diet today. The BRAT diet, although effective, is not all that exciting for more then 2 days.

Our sister in Boise sometimes blogs about the menu in their house for the week. It's alwa

ys fun to see the same meals on her menu as ours without us planning it! S

o far this week I've only made 1 meal off our menu since the sickies were not into eating my

delicious and flavorful planned meals. That throws off my fridge & pantry stocking entirely, and we have this silly trip to Winco for milk and maybe 5 other things, but we sure save money!

On the development side of things, Ila is doing great. She now prefers walking to crawling and can stand up without the assistance of household furniture. She has 8 teeth (that are really

cute) and weighs 22 pounds (well, before her latest sickness). We're working on expanding her vocabulary but her latest new vocal sound is "wwah wwah" which is her cat meow and her dog bark. It's really cute. Ila loves animals. The last few days we have watched Youtube videos and animals and she just LOVES them.

Trent is enjoying work and I'm enjoying my work as well. We've decided to save some moolah to purchase a very nice vacuum. We've gone through 3 in our marriage so far, and that only counts the time we've spent state-side. We had a nice vacuum in Korea, but that is not one of the 3 I'm counting. I guess they just don't make vacuums like they used too. It think it's the first time we've ever decided to save up for something so specific, which I find exciting!

I finally got around to ordering our wedding photos. Yes, almost 3 year have gone by with our wedding albums sitting empty. I'm excited to get them and start filling

those albums up!

We are heading to Idaho for Christmas and New Years and I am TOTALLY STOKED to spend the holidays with our families. The snow has pretty much melted here. It's in that ugly stage where there is snow in some places and not in others. I'm hoping for a white Christmas this year, so I hope it keeps snowing in Boise!

But the doctor said so! by Nicole

It's hard having a sick child. especially when they are too young to tell you what hurts, how it hurts and what you can do for them. Yesterday was a rough day but I walked away from it (covered in vomit and poop) thinking very positively of Trent and my team work, and making the best choice for the health of our daughter.

Ila's appetite has been somewhat small the last few days. Trent has noticed a lot of gagging while eating and drinking as well, and extra fake coughs from her. She has also had diarrhea off and on for the last week and a fever here and there. She also cut a tooth 4 days ago. Her diarrhea the last few days had been different from the days previous though. Yesterday morning, after breakfast we loaded up in the car and Ila threw up all over. It was nasty, but we got her out of her car seat, took her inside and changed her, and loaded her back up and went to church. Most parents are probably cringing right now, since we took our child to church and let her play in the nursery with all the other kids, while carrying this bug around with her. I will say though that we honestly did not think (at the time) she threw up because she was sick, we just thought she gaged on something or just had too much to eat.

During church, Ila's number flashed on the little box by the sanctuary. That meant that Ila needed my assistance. When I went into the nursery, she was standing on the changing table (with a 80+ year old woman holding her) crying and looking uncomfortable. They younger woman/mother of 6 was also in there looking frazzled. I went and grabbed Ila and they showed me that there was poo up her back. "Oh yuck!" I said. "Thank you for calling me in, I wouldn't wish this diaper change on anyone but my husband!" We all had a good laugh and I got Ila all cleaned up and changed. It was some nasty diarrhea, whitish in color.

The rest of the afternoon while shopping, Ila was acting fussy. She did not want to have anything to do with Daddy and was barely tolerating me. I fed her and she took a nap. Woke up from the nap and spewed all over herself & car seat. Okay, something is wrong with her. Trent and I discussed that we though there must be something in her throat causing her to gag. So we tried looking, and that caused her to throw up a lot more. So, off to the doctor we went. We had limited choices as it was 4pm on Sunday. We went into the waiting room and waited for an hour. Ila didn't really like that, and fussed for most of it.

The not so friendly, very shaky and ready for retirement aged nurse came and got us and did they whole nurse thing. My favorite par twas when she left the room she said, "The doctor will be in." Not, "the doctor will be in shortly." And good thing she didn't! We are estimating it was about another 20 minutes till the doctor came round. He did his thing and didn't find anything wrong with her. Then he said, "well, we'll get a urine sample to test for a kidney infection." Then walked out of the room.

the next 20 minutes Trent and I discussed how exactly they would go about getting a urine sample. I said "with a catheter" and Trent said, "we could just ring her diaper out!" Well, they couldn't ring out her diaper (and they probably wouldn't if they could), since she hadn't peed in a few hours, or kept anything down. Well, we expected the doctor to come in with a catheter, but the nurse and some other lady (probably another nurse) came in instead. We did not have any idea why they needed a urine sample, what signs she was showing that could lead the doctor to thinking she had a kidney infection etc. We were NOT about to let them give Ila a catheter without having a few things explained to us. We asked them what they were planning on doing, and why. Then I asked what the side effects/ risks were, "is there a chance of infection?" I asked. Unfriendly nurse rolls her eyes and snapped of course there is a chance of infection! There is anytime you insert something into the body!" I give her the look, and Trent says sternly but kindly "we're going to need to talk to the doctor again before you do that." They grumble and walk out.

Now I'm mad and ready to just leave. Trent, my awesome and wise husband suggests we talk to the doctor before leaving. We discuss together, while we wait, how we don't see a reason for the catheter and urine sample. Then we call Trent's mom, a nurse of 20+ years and she tells us why the doctor wants the sample, and discusses it with Trent etc. The doctor comes back in 15 minutes later) and we have a little chat. He says "well, it's most likely a flu. You can tell by how she is acting, they she is not in much pain and she doesn't have a fever. I can't tell 100% for certain without testing for other things that it is the flu, but I'm sure it probably is." We discussed signs to watch for in the next couple of days that would tell us if it's something more serious. We decided NOT to get a urine sample as it seemed quite unnecessary for something that is probably a flu. Other possibilities are a kidney infection, an obstruction (which is what Trent and I are thinking it is, if it's not the flu) or some sort of liver problem. The main concern at this point is dehydration, but she seems to be doing pretty well in that camp and the white stools. Don't google "white stools" because it is all doom and gloom. It is something to watch closely for sure, but it could also just be a symptom of the flu, according to the doctor.

As we made our 1 hour drive home I was so pleased that we didn't put Ila through something as traumatic and painful as a catheter for something that probably the flu. I was really pleased with the unity Trent and I had in making good choices for the health of our daughter. I was NOT pleased with the ease the doctor and staff had about getting a urine sample from Ila. I cannot believe that the doctor didn't have conversation #2 with us BEFORE sending in the catheter team. We could have saved all of us 30-45 minutes, and a whole lot of patience and warm fuzzy feelings. The only real good thing about the experience was when they told us they would not charge us for the visit. That was a total blessing from God, as we are 2 months away from our insurance with Trent's work starting up, therefore uninsured!

To sum up, we are thankful for doctors and their wisdom, but parents need to make wise and informed decisions about the health care their children are getting. We should not make medical decision just because "the doctor said so!" We are still a bit concerned about Ila, but she seems to be happily playing and drinking and eating. Please pray that it really is only the flu and that she is healthy again soon!

I forgot to tell you my favorite part about the whole thing. Since we live an hour outside of town I have to have super prepared and stocked diaper bag. By the time we got to the doctor, Ila was wearing her ONLY unsoiled piece of clothing (other then her diaper of course), a sweatshirt. She had no pants left so we wrapped her up in a blanket. It was kind of embarrassing.

Hearing Myself by Nicole

It seems I have more time to think out here. Maybe I'm thinking the same amount, but I certainly hear myself more nowadays. Lately I've been quite reflective and thinking about how our life has changed so much, and how it could be different.

I had a miscarriage several months ago. I've been thinking about it quit a bit lately, probably because if I hadn't had the miscarriage I would be about 8.5 months pregnant. It's strange to think that we would be welcoming a new member into our family in the next few weeks if I hadn't had the miscarriage.

It's interesting where my heart is at with the matter. I am not sad about it (now), and not glad. I guess what I am is aware that God really knows what is best for us. I'm not saying that God causes miscarriages or anything like that, but what I am saying is that God knew that having a newborn around this time was not right for our family. I can only imagine that I would be really stressed and worried about how I was going to manage 2 children while Trent is still adjusting to his new job. How would I cope with being in a new place, way out here in nowhere land, barely knowing anyone? I don't think it would have been very pretty.

It's not that I don't think I'm capable of dealing with all of those things, I'm sure I would do alright if it were the case, but I think it's better that it's not the case.

This isn't the most concise blog, its just me spitting out thoughts that needed to come out. We didn't tell the world about the miscarriage when it happened, because it seemed really personal, even borderline embarrassing. See, a lot of people are very open in sharing there thoughts on the "proper" spacing of kids. Trent and I had decided long before Ila was conceived that we wanted to have our kids close together in age, which we have now discovered is not as socially pleasing as kids spaced 2+ years apart. After we had Ila, we started hearing people warn us to make sure not to get pregnant too soon and all that jazz. The worst was after we found out I was pregnant and people kept saying things like"don't get pregnant too soon!" and "make sure you are being careful, you don't want to have your kids too close together!" Trent and I usually snickered in secret to one another, but I felt concerned that when we told people we were pregnant they would judge us, or think we were foolish. I am easily hurt by people saying negative things about something I'm excited about. For example: "I'm pregnant!" I would say. "Wow, so soon? You are really going to have your hands full." Maybe I'm a little over sensitive, but that kind of reaction would have hurt my feelings.

It was a breath of fresh air when I ran into one of my sisters at the Obstetricians office and our secret was outed to her. She was nothing but happy for us, and encouraged us that we would do great with kids 13 months apart! It was so nice to have someone say "good for you!"

I say the miscarriage was borderline embarrassing because I thought people would think that it happened because my body wasn't ready yet and that it was too soon after having Ila. I suppose I felt like people would have an "I told you so" remark going off in their head as they would tell me how sorry they were. I also felt like something was wrong with me for sure. I had a successful pregnancy with Ila, so why didn't this one take? It's taken some time for us to come to terms with the whole situation, and to understand it fully. I think I'm finally past the "something must be wrong with me" stage. We know that there was nothing wrong with me, making me unable to carry a baby, but that it was just not meant to be. I didn't understand why at the time, but now that I'm so close to the due date I understand that with complete confidence.

To wrap up I'll say that there are so many questions with early miscarriages that will not be answered this side of heaven. Sometimes that bothers me and other times I'm at peace with it. I am totally at peace with what happened though, and I am in awe that God knows us so intimately and knew that this time was not right for us to have another baby. I've also learned that telling people how to go about spacing their kids out is not my place. I don't know if I ever did that anyway, but if I did, I sure won't now!

Also, miscarriage is hard, scary and heartbreaking, but nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of. There is always a reason, but I don't need to know why in order to accept and heal. God knows, and He is in control, and that's good enough for me.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Weaned, Walking, One & Washington by Nicole

Ila is now a weaned, walking, one year old who lives in Washington. It's pretty exciting to say the least. She is the cutest little walker! She is also a waver and pretty wild and her parents are weird. She has 6 teeth and will probably have 7 by the end of this week at the latest. She seems to be able to eat everything without problems, although we have yet to introduce peanut butter and honey. Washington is the 3rd state Ila has lived in since she was born. We live in her 4th

house and if you consider that she was conceived in Korea and spent 7 months in utero there, it's technically her 2nd country and 5th house

she's ever lived in.

Happy 1st birthday to our little girl! Being one sure is fun! We had an awesome birthday celebration for Ila on Friday night. My parents got to come celebrate with us and Trent's parents joined us via skype! We ate lasagna and had tasty butterfly cinnamon rolls that I made just for my girl. We opened lots of presents and played. We also measured Ila and compared them to her newborn measurements. Boy howdy has she grown a lot! Trent and I got her a drum with fun shakers and other musical instruments. She loves it, but mostly chews on the drumsticks.

Ila is a very social baby. She is always trying to strike up conversations with strangers at the store. She doesn't mind being held by unfamiliar people and she has a smile for anyone. She says "hi dada" to pretty much everyone, which can make me a little uncomfortable, and also the person she is calling "dada." She does however call her daddy "dada" and it soun

ds different then regular "dada." The words I clearly understand her saying are: Hi, dada, fish & that. She likes to point to things and say "that."

Ila's personality has sure blossomed a lot in the last

year as well. I remember wondering what kind of girl she would be when I was pregnant. Most people call her an "easy baby." Well, I'd have to agree that she seems to be a pretty easy baby in comparison to some I've been around. These days she keeps me on my toes 24/7. The days of "easy baby" left when Ila became

mobile, and now even more since she is walking and tumbling a lot more! She is very passionate about eating/drinking, playing and sleeping. Most of her crying is in direct relation to one of those things. She doesn't really cry much though, and she is getting so much better at communicating in other ways. For example just 2 days ago she was getting a little tetchy and got into something she shouldn't have. I said "Ila, no!" and she protested. It seemed to be a bigger protest then usual so I said "Whats

wrong Ila? Do you need something?" She signed drink & eat. So I got her some

food and drink and she was as happy as could be. It was a pretty big moment for us! Anyway, she is strong willed (which is no surprise with Trent and me as her parents) but she seems to listen pretty well. She is getting more and more mischievous though, and reminds me of her daddy lots more. She is a quick learner, but likes to see how far she can push the boundaries in the house of rules. She often knows when she is doing something she shouldn't be, because she usually looks at me first and smiles, then goes ahead and does it until

I say "Ila..." in my special tone. She has lots of freedom to roam and explore the house and loves the tupperware cupboard in the kitchen. She can play in it all she wants, a

s long as she stays out of the glassware cupboard!

Ila mimics her daddy more then anyone. She

is fascinated by his sounds, movements & facial

expression. She even favors her left hand. She is also built like him, with broad shoulders and a small waist. I'm very thankful for that. Oh, and she pretty much has a 6-pack like her daddy too! When he comes home from work, she races to the door and they say "hi' back and forth while Trent takes his boots off. They are pretty inseparable until bedtime after that!

Ila has blessed us and taught us so much in the last year and we look forward to more years to come! Thanks for the great times Ila, we love you!

Rat-a-tat-tat by Nicole

We live in the middle of nowhere and I actually mean that! The closet towns are Prosser and Mabton which are about 30 miles north of our little place. We live on a ranch, 8.5 miles away from Mercer Canyons farm, where Trent works, A LOT since harvest is coming to a close. I can see our neighbor's (the ranch owners) trees, which surround their house about 1 mile away. That's the only house I can see from ours.

It's really nice out here, peaceful & beautiful, a wonderful place to raise kids. The obvious downside is of course having to drive 45-60 minutes to get back into "civilization." It hasn't bothered me one little bit though, the drive is quite beautiful, mostly along the Columbia river and it goes pretty quickly. There are other downsides though, not nearly so noticeable, but downsides nonetheless....

Trent noticed it right away, strange droppings on our front deck. Not your run of the mill mouse droppings, quite common on ranches and farms, but no, much bigger then mouse droppings. "It's must be a gopher" he convinced himself of one day, "but I don't see any gopher holes." This went on for days, he would ponder what on earth was living under our deck, and pooping on our front step. I pretended not to notice, and always stepped over the little droppings on my way in and out. Mostly I stayed inside though. See, I'm not much of a bug, insect, rodent, small wild animal fan. I pretty much despise those sorts of things and avoid them at all cost. But my curiosity got the best of me.

One afternoon the ranch owner, Doris, called me to check how things were going. I updated her then I started explaining the droppings on the deck and telling her that Trent thinks it's a gopher and what not. She listened, and then when I finally stopped babbaling she said "I think it's a rat. We get them in the barn sometimes and I saw the droppings the other day and it looks just like a rat to me."

"A rat? Like a rat, rat?" I asked, very unhappy and disgusted to be receiving such terrible news.

"Yeah, so make sure you get some poison out right away, because they can get in your car and cause a lot of damage."

"In my car? like inside?!?!"

"No, not inside, but under the hood."

That night when Trent got home, I had him put out poison right away. The next morning it was pretty much gone. Trent and I were shocked to say the least and put out more. Apparently to kill a rat, it needs to eat poison for about a week straight. But we were committed to getting rid of this thing.

One day I was out in the van with Ila, coming home from a shopping trip, and I though I heard something near the hood of the van. I was pretty freakout, and will admit that i jumped back into the van and slammed the door. I had a terrible feeling that that rat was scoping out the van or something, or worse, in it. I kept telling myself I was hearing things, but the sounds didn't stop. Trent said he had heard something out there too one night, but didn't think too much of it.

On Tuesday Doris (and her 4 dogs, 2 or which are skilled rat hunters) came over with her son and his friend to get some stuff out of the spare room they had stored here. She asked how the rat hunt was going after seeing the droppings on the deck. I told her we had been poisoning it for about 5 days and her son said it takes at least a week and to keep on it. A few minutes later, one of the dogs went missing and Doris went around the side of the house to find him. On her way back, she passed by the van, and one of her rat hunting dogs was pacing back and forth in front of the van. "Um, Nicole, the rat is in your van!" she said.

"What?! It's in the van?!" I yelled.

Then the son (I can't remember his name) and Patrick (the friend) came over. "If you pop the hood we can check and see if it's really in there." her son said. So, I popped the hood. He opened it as the three of them stood over it, and all at once they jumped back! "Huuooo! I saw it! Did you see it? Where did he go?" Doris cried. "It's down in there, I can see his tail!" said Patrick excitedly! Meanwhile, the son reached his hand into the engine area and pulled out a huge (the size of a deflated basketball) rats nest.

I ran inside with Ila and called Trent "It's in the van, the rat is in the van! It's in the van! there was a nest in there and everything!"

"What?!" Trent said. "It's in the van?!"

"Yes, Doris' son and friend are over here and they are going to try and kill it and get it out, I'll call you back later!"

I'll skip the yucky and lengthy details here and tell you that they did kill the rat, and got him out. It was a big rat, with big teeth. It was pretty nasty, but I did manage to snap a picture of him with my phone so Trent could see it. They disposed of it somewhere for me.

So, our grounds and our van's engine are rat free now, and we'll do everything in our power to keep it that way! I have a lot to learn about farm like, but one thing I will NOT learn to do is put up with rodents! If they want to eat poison and die they can come on over, but hopefully they'll just keep away! Also, we finally found the perfect name for our van! Remy. Some of you may know where we got that name, and others, you'll just have to brush up on your Pixar.

Mercer Canyons by Nicole

When we moved to Idaho from Baton Rough back in March Trent began the job search of a lifetime. As every one knows, it was about the worst time imaginable to be looking for a job in our lifetime. Again and again we seems to strike out and we realized that getting a job where Trent could use his farm life experience and agriculture education was not in the cards for us. He interviewed for a job in Prosser Washington that was basically his dream job and when he didn't get it we found that the Lord was pulling us in another direction.

Becker Bros. LLC was established and Trent and his father started a business doing tree work and home repairs/renovations. Trent and Daniel have been enjoying spending their days together working hard and making a living. Self employment is hard, rewarding and a bit nerve racking all at the same time. Never sure of exactly how much you'll bring home and the end of the month has grown us in our faith and reliance on God. I seem to be constantly reminded of God's love for us and have enjoyed watching Him provide again and again business and finances to pay the bills every month!

Last week Trent received a call from his dream job interview place I mentioned above. Mercer Canyon Inc. is a VERY large farm (about 10000 acres) in Prosser Washington. The call Trent received was a job offer, and a good one at that! He came home and told me he was offered a job and I was in SHOCK! We discussed it together and with our business partners and we all agreed that it seemed like a great opportunity and that if all the things were right (job description, salary, insurance, housing etc) we should take the job and move out to the farm. The next day before Trent even had the chance to figure out the logistics Mercer Canyons called and offered Trent ANOTHER job. So now we had 2 job offers in 24 hours!

We went to Prosser last Friday and got all the logistics worked out and all our questions answered and Trent decided to be a farmer (his other choice was a logistics person, more like desk work and what not)!

So, sometime this month we'll be relocating to Prosser Washington, moving onto the farm and starting Trent's life long dream of being a farmer. We couldn't be more shocked & excited for this new development in our lives and are looking forward to starting this new, and hopefully long chapter of our lives.