These are a few of my favorite things...

I am currently sitting at our computer listening to Jared read Ronin a bedtime story and I'm loving it. I keep thinking about how wonderful life is and thought I would write a post of a few of my favorite things.

• As I mentioned above, listening to Jared read to Ronin. I love hearing him take the time to sit down and read to him. Jared has been really busy lately with the Edison program and so it really is a sacrifice for him to take that time. I also love the random pauses I hear him make and I know he is readjusting how Ronin is sitting on his lap. Ronin is really wiggly and will start to slide off your lap if you aren't careful.
• The stillness after Ronin has gone to sleep at night. He usually falls asleep at about 8:00 each night and we have about an hour before we go to bed. The house is very still and peaceful. 
• Ronin jabbering.  He loves to jabber, especially in the mornings. He will look at you and just go at it. 
• Dancing in the kitchen. I don't know why, but I love dancing with Jared in the kitchen to country music. We used to do it all the time when we were engaged. It doesn't happen as often now, but it does happen. Country music is the one type of music Jared knows the words to so he'll usually sing along.  
• Cuddling with Ronin. Ronin is a touchy feely little boy. I love laying down on the bed with him. He will roll over and cuddle right up to me. Sometimes I worry when he burrows that he can't breathe, but I adjust some and he's just fine.
• Bearing testimony.  Lately I feel I have had quite a few opportunities to bear my testimony to people. I love the spirit that comes from bearing testimony and the strength that also comes from it. 
• Going for walks. It is very refreshing to go outside and just go for a walk. There's not really many places to go around our place, but it still feels good. I also love when we go for a walk for date night. During those times Jared and I really get to talk about everything. It's great!
• Fall leaves. I love seeing the leaves turn! They are so pretty. They also remind me of my mission in Cleveland. I first arrived in Cleveland this time of year and think about it every time fall comes around. 
• Talking with family.  It's been wonderful to talk to our family while we've been out here. Technology has really played a large role in that. Each week we are able to video chat with our parents and whoever else is at their homes. It's great to talk and catch up on life. 
• When Jared does funny things with Ronin. 

Like I said these are just a few of my favorite things as there are many many more! I better get going though. The dishes are calling my name.

What a wonderful world

The other day I was scrolling through my news feed on Facebook. I soon realized I had gone past a lot of postings that started with "This is awful", "Don't you hate it when", "The worst", etc. and I realized how very negative my news feed was getting. Yes, I understand there are some very sad things happening in the world right now. There are also very hard things going on in everyone's lives. However, there are also a ton of amazing people and wonderful things happening. Consequently, I would like to ask everyone to thank at least 5 people this week for something specific they have done. When I express specific gratitude I am able to see a lot more joy in life. I also become more forgiving of others and myself because I am focused on what amazing people they are. 

For example: I would like to thank Sister Shuck. The other day there was a Young Women's activity she invited me to so I could do some public affairs stuff for our ward. It was so awesome to go! These days I don't really socialize much so it was very refreshing! The girls in our ward are great and a ton of fun. Yes, Sister Shuck invited me to help me with my calling, but it was a ton of fun just to be there and I am very grateful for her.

Have a great day everyone!

Ronin Johnny Iverson

Once upon a time (Sunday, June 15, Father's Day), I woke up and didn't feel good. I was thinking I might be having contractions, but they didn't feel like what people said contractions feel like. Everyone always said it will be your whole uterus contracting and it will wrap around from your back. Well, these just felt like bad menstrual cramps so I just ignored it. As we were getting ready for church they started to get worse and I told Jared we may end up at the hospital that day. I wanted to at least go to my meeting and take the sacrament though.

By the end of Sacrament Meeting we decided to go home. I took a long hot shower (it felt really good) and then we started timing the contractions for an hour, ate some lunch (bad idea seeing how I threw it all back up later), called the doctor, and went to the hospital at about 1:30. Once there, they said we were staying.

They told us to be ready for a really long night because I would be in labor for a few hours and then, since it was our first baby, probably push for 2-3 hours. Well by about 5 or so I got an epidural (blessed things) and this was me...




I'm very glad there were no pictures taken before this. It probably wasn't pretty! Shortly after that they broke my water, and things got moving really fast! They weren't really expecting that. Next thing we knew the baby was on the way with less than 10 minutes of pushing (3 contractions). Ronin was born at 7:06.



Ronin Johnny Iverson weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 21 inches.

Happy Father's Day Jared!

Saratoga...So Far

Hello,

It has been a while since we have posted and we wanted to update you on life and our different adventures in life!  We will try to tell you of events in somewhat chronological order.

Northeastern Woodworkers Association Convention

It has been interesting to see how many events happen in Saratoga Springs. We were looking on the events page of the Saratoga website, saw that the Northeastern Woodworkers Association was going to be holding their annual convention at the convention center downtown, and decided to go! It was a lot of fun! It was at first interesting to get in though. We looked around to see if there was a fee, but couldn't find any information on it. Consequently, we went with it in mind that there probably was, but that's fine. When we arrived we tried to go into an exhibit and were asked for our tickets. We said we didn't have any and asked where to go to get some. Once we finally found where to go we got up to the window and found they only took cash. The man helping us wasn't sure where to get cash, but he thought the hotel at the front of the building would be able to help. We kind of wandered around and asked many events people how to get to the ATM. When we finally got to the front of the hotel we asked the front desk people where it was. They informed us it was broken and we would have to go across the street to the gas station. Well, we eventually got cash, got back to the convention, and were able to get tickets! We were able to see lots of vendors selling tools, a booth to make your own wooden pen, boats, toys, award winning pieces, furniture, random stuff, and the main exhibit of musical instruments. The instruments were really cool! They had some people showing how to make guitars and others demonstrating their instruments. We sat down and listened to some of them play their instruments for little bit and they were really good. One of the vendors there was raffling off a banjo. It was really pretty and we just about bought a raffle ticket, but then knew we would have to learn to play it if we won. 

Baby and Toddler Expo

Once again, we were on the Saratoga events website. There was listed a Baby and Toddler Expo and we decided to go. They mentioned pediatricians being there and we really wanted to check them out. We got there early and started to walk around. Most of the vendors there ended up being stuff we weren't necessarily interested in, but we took their stuff and talked to them anyway. We were very disappointed that there were no pediatricians there too. However, the Pottery Barn Kids was there and they were having a raffle for a crib with a mattress and bedding. If you won the raffle then you had to opportunity to buy the stuff at a really good price. Guess what! We won! We're guessing that really we were the only ones there that entered. From looking around basically everyone else had small children so they wouldn't really want to enter it when they still had to pay for the stuff and not just get it free.

Random Trail Discovery

It was finally starting to warm up and we wanted to explore some of the area. I knew I had seen a trail head off the side of the mall parking lot. It was really random though and I wasn't sure if I could find it again, but that's where we wanted to go. We ended up taking a different road that went behind the mall and drove for a while till we did discover a trail head. It was great! It was one big circle and we were able to find the other entrance that I had seen from the mall parking lot. We also came to find that when people here talk about going for a hike they really mean going for a walk and there might be a small hill or two along the way.  None the less it was really nice to get out and explore some.

Saratoga Spa State Park

Shortly after we got here we found a random restaurant online and decided to go for dinner. When we found it we realized it was in a hotel at the Saratoga Spa State Park. It looked like a really fun place with different springs and little geysers and such.  Unfortunately, there was still snow on the ground. We went to dinner and afterwards there was a whole lot of fog also so we couldn't really explore. Although, outside the front door of the hotel was a whole rack of snowshoes you could check out. We ended up not going, but decided we needed to come back. Which we did! We went and found out all kinds of things about the park. The springs there are mineral springs and it used to be used for it's medicinal properties. The different springs had different uses and it wasn't unusual for doctors to send patients to spend time at the springs. There were also quite a few bath houses (one of which houses the farmers market in the winter time). It was fun to walk around and see the different springs. However, Jared did learn that most of the springs don't taste too good. They may say to drink them, but you will probably be spitting out the water afterward! He did this and later we learned that spring was used as a laxative. Good thing he didn't chug it down! 

Easter

The Easter Bunny found us! Hurray! We got Easter bowls instead of Easter baskets, and the bowls look oddly just like our cereal bowls. Oh well! For Easter we were able to go to dinner at Some peoples house in our ward. It was fun to meet more people and get out. 

Trip to Utah

It was so nice to visit Utah for Jared's graduation! Thank you everyone who came to the ceremony, to dinner, picnics, hangouts, and whatever else. It was great to see family and friends again. We both really miss family, Utah, the mountains, and functional roads (roads are not really taken care of out here. They are really broken up and need help in quite a few places). It was interesting that one of our concerns for flying out there and back was the actual flight. Southwest had no issues with Kim being pregnant, but we weren't sure how everything would go. It ended up being just fine and on the way home we found out that if you ask real nice they will give pregnant people pre boarding, which is the awesomest thing ever! 

Ticks

Last week we decided to go discover more trails. There's an old Scout camp that closed a few years ago that has lot of trails so that's where we headed. We walked around, watched some little kids fish from a bench, and Jared got ticks. Hurray! Neither of us had any experience with ticks before this point, but we pulled them out (they weren't in too far) and it looks like he'll survive just fine. 

Jared Making Whole Wheat Noodles for Pasta

Having a Picnic Right Outside our Place

Baby

Baby is doing just grand and is due June 12. The doctor was concerned about his size so we had an ultrasound this week. He's about 5 lbs 7 oz, which is on the smaller end, but just fine. No, he does not have a name yet. As of right now, the possibilities are as follows: Ronin, Sven, Flynn, or Broderick. We aren't really planning on figuring it out until he gets here (this is our excuse to procrastinate deciding). Then we can look at him and have revelation sprung on us as to what his name should be! Ta-Da! It will be magic! As for a middle name we aren't sure yet. If you have any suggestions let us know. Because of how awesome we are not about blogging consistently, next time we're on here we'll probably have pictures and he just might have a name. 

We love you all! Have a happy day!

Work at GE

Well, seeing as Kim and I are on the other side of the country we're blogging to keep the world up to date. I've never blogged before so I'm just gonna ramble a bit and call it good.

I've been working at GE Global Research now for 2 weeks...the first week was kinda rough. The second was too, but not as much y'all know how starting out a new job is. I've been working on learning new CFD programs and in house heat transfer codes for my new projects...plus getting all the file permissions to run the said programs ...it's been a mess but that's how it goes right? Right.

So my projects. My first is a CFD tools project. I guess the industry/acedamia have been focusing on LES CFD...that's new to me because I have yet to run an LES simulation. Anyway, our goal is to improve the heat transfer capabilities of RANS simulations. My second project is working on the high pressure side of a turbine to improve the heat transfer inside the turbine blades. Can't get into details, but that's the gist.

A funny note about my new job, specifically my boss and his attitude about my office. It seems that he expected me to show up the first day with at least a box full of personals to put in my office. After my first week, and I had yet to bring anything in, he gave me a picture from his office to put in mine until I brought something. ;) it was weird, but Kim and I got some of our favorite pics together in our spare frames for me to take to work.

Ta Ta for now.

Moving to New York

We decided that since we have now moved across the country we should keep a blog to help us stay in contact with family and friends. Hopefully, we will be good at keeping it up to date!

Our trip out here was quite an adventure. Saturday morning we headed out through the canyon to Bear Lake area. About half way through the canyon we started debating turning around and taking highway 70 instead of 80. It was snowing, a lot. We finally made it through to Garden City, but most of Wyoming proved to be about the same. Luckily, Jared did really well with driving and we were perfectly safe! Hurray!

Our first stop was in Kearney, Nebraska. We slept well, had a good breakfast, and when we went to start the car in the morning the battery was dead. We had known our battery wasn't the best, but the negative degree weather that night proved to be too much. Luckily, one of the hotel workers had some jumper cables and came to our rescue. 

We were then able to find a sacrament meeting to attend in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was about 2 hours away from where we stayed the night and was a really good break and opportunity for us. 

That night we stopped in Joliet, Illinois and it was already negative degree weather when we got there. Consequently, we decided we needed to get some jumper cables. When looking at them we decided to go with a power on board type thing so we could jump our car ourselves. We had a feeling this was going to be a reoccurring issue and we were right! Since we left there have been two mornings that we have not had to jump the battery. We were very blessed to be able to be able to jump it ourselves. 

We decided to spend the next night in Buffalo, New York the next night. It was my birthday and Jared wanted us to be able to relax so we didn't go quite as far. We had a nice dinner and relaxed. 

The next day we arrived in Saratoga Springs, New York. We came to our apartment, unloaded some stuff, and then went and found a hotel. The moving truck wasn't here yet and we decided we would like to sleep in a real bed and get free breakfast.

We spent the next couple days exploring the area, cleaning the apartment, looking at furniture, and all kinds of other things. It's been interesting to see how much the little things with moving add up financially. GE is paying for the actual move, hotels, and food; but we are paying for everything with the apartment. It is a really nice apartment and there is more room than we have ever had in an apartment, including a second bathroom. We now need to figure out how to lay everything out and what other furniture and bathroom supplied we will be needing. The other day we also realized there are no ceiling lights in the living room or bedrooms so we will be buying lamps. Also, while we were driving here we noticed one of our tires was kind of wobbly. We took it in yesterday and had to get a new tire, an oil change, and should have gotten our battery changed. Slowly, but surely we will have the stuff we need and plenty that we don't need, I'm sure. 

After staying in the hotel for a few days, last night we found out the moving truck has been delayed. It will be here sometime between Monday and Wednesday next week. We decided we wanted to go ahead and go to our new place instead of the hotel anyway. We have an air mattress we can sleep on and we can buy a cheap pot to cook in for now. 

Correction! We HAD an air mattress to sleep on. We came to the apartment, unloaded the rest of our stuff, went to fill up the air mattress, and there is a huge hole that we probably can't patch. Consequently, we are sitting on our awesome new carpet in our awesome new apartment while Jared looks at sporting stores that sell air mattresses on his awesome new iPad, and I am writing this on our awesome laptop!