"Please Bless Us Lord With Another Child".

From the day that Keiffer and I met we have agreed on more things than can be counted, but one of the most important issues was that of how many children we want to have. It started off with both of us being certain that we want three children, but that number somehow turned into a definite 4. I grew up in a large family of 5 and Keiffer in a small one of just his sister and him. My desire to have a large family stems from coming from one, and knowing the joys of having big Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and Fourth of July celebrations! Although having a lot of siblings brings with it rivalries and feuds, now that I am grown I realize that if all of my friends were to abandon me, or I moved across the world where no one knows me, I will always have my parents and siblings who know and love me to be there for me.
Keiffer grew up having one sister and somewhat of a dysfunctional childhood. Don’t we all have some sort of dysfunction when you think about it? He tells me that he wants to be the kind of father his never was, and thinks that children need siblings to teach them many life lessons that are advantageous to their successful development and socialism. A child growing up as an only child obviously gets their parent’s undivided attention. Play dates can help that child to learn how to share, how to be social, and how to take turns, but by no means in the way having a sibling can.
As both of us have had the desire to have a large family of our own, never so has the desire been stronger than after building our faith in what we believe is the true reason why we are on this earth experiencing life. Knowing that we knew God before we came to earth, and there are spirits waiting to receive bodies of flesh to experience life here with us, we can’t help but want to share that blessing with as many children as we are capable of supporting. We have been blessed beyond description with our two daughters Calista and Bridget, and are desirous to give them another sibling as soon as the Lord will grant us.
Keiffer and I are very analytical, type A personalities. We see a task, and we get to work on it. No messing around or beating around the bush! When we first decided to try to get pregnant with Calista I first went off the pill and started taking ovulation predictor tests. I realized a few things in doing this. First, I have a very regular cycle of 30 days and second, I can feel when I am ovulating around day 14 of my cycle. The following month we gave it a go but failed to get pregnant. I really wasn’t expecting to get pregnant since everything I read said it usually takes your body two months after stopping taking the pill that you will start ovulating again. The next month was the third month of “trying”, but our first real month of feeling like we had a good shot of it working since I was out of the two month post-birth control window. To our surprise I was pregnant!
The day that Calista was born I said what most women who have been pregnant will think I’m crazy for saying. I said, “I miss being pregnant”. Mind you, this was within hours of giving birth to Calista! There is just something so comforting about having your baby safe and sound inside of you. Providing nourishment and the perfect environment for your new baby to come into this world is one of the best feelings anyone could have. Right away Keiffer and I started planning getting pregnant again. We agreed that we would wait until Calista was 6 months, and then we would try. As Calista reached 5 months, I was getting anxious to get pregnant again. I know it seems so crazy, but I just had it set in my mind that I wanted to have four kids and I wanted them all close in age. I started weaning Calista off of breast milk in hopes that it would help me to ovulate since breast feeding 100% usually has a better rate of preventing pregnancy than birth control. We were visiting Keiffer’s family in Florida when Calista turned 6 months, and to our surprise, it turns out that I was already pregnant! I conceived just a few weeks prior, so we were astounded that everything worked out in such a timely way!
After giving birth to Bridget, I developed some severe spinal pain in my mid back. I struggled with it going to chiropractors, massage therapists, physical therapists, general practitioners and 3 orthopedic surgeons! All in hopes that someone could help me and tell me what specifically was wrong with me. The result? Nothing! Well, I shouldn’t say nothing. They told me that I have a slight bulging disk, but it isn’t even in the spot that hurts, and the spot where it does hurt is acute pain! The reason I say all of this is that my idea was to wait a little longer to get pregnant to see if my back could start feeling better. Either that or I would get a diagnosis that would tell me I needed surgery or something that I could get and recover from before trying to carry around another huge belly! What was my conclusion after a year of back pain, and little relief? The pain is always going to be there and I am not going to put off my family planning because if it. Yes, any future pregnancy I am sure to have horrific back pain, multiple visits to the chiropractor and massage therapist, and annoying daily complaining. At least it will all be worth it in the end.
Keiffer was scheduled to deploy for 8 months beginning July 23rd, and we did much going back and forth about whether we should try to get pregnant before he left or whether we should wait until he got back in March of 2011. If I got pregnant before he left, he would be gone most of my pregnancy, which would be fine, except that as I got bigger, it may be tough to juggle getting around with Calista and Bridget and doing everyday tasks like giving them baths. He was deployed during my pregnancy with Calista, and I actually preferred it. It was just a little weird having our reunion after not having seen each other in 6 months, and him coming off the airplane to see me 45 pounds heavier! If we waited until he came back from deployment then we would be more financially ready, and he would be around my entire pregnancy to help with the girls. I took everything into consideration, and decided that I wanted to try to get pregnant before he left.
At the end of June, Keiffer had to go to Fallon Nevada for 4 weeks. At this point I hadn’t gotten my first period , but I decided to see if I was ovulating by taking ovulation predictor tests. The very firsts test I took said I was ovulating, so I called up Keiffer and we discussed that this may be our only shot of getting pregnant prior to his deploying the next month, so we should probably meet up somewhere to do the deed! I got a babysitter and drove 4 hours to meet up with Keiffer somewhere in the desert. He had to drive 5 hours to meet up with me, and we stayed at a Best Western for one night. It was pretty exciting and felt like we were having a secret love affair. What is really funny is I forgot my wallet at home, and when I went to check in, Keiffer hadn’t arrived yet, and I told them that he was my husband and they needed to give me a key to the room. I also was not wearing my wedding ring because of a rash I developed under the band that worsened every time I put it on! The women at the desk were very skeptical and it totally appeared that we were secret lovers meeting up for a forbidden romp! After calling Keiffer and verifying that I was in fact his wife, they gave me the key to go to the room before he arrived with his credit card.
Every day the next week my ovulation tests said I was ovulating. I called the consumer help line and they said that I am not supposed to take the tests if I have not yet had a period, and the results will be inaccurate! Next thing you know, Mid July I get my period. It was a bummer, but at least we have our rendezvous to always remember!
Unfortunately, by my getting my period mid July and Keiffer leaving for deployment at the end of the month, there was going to be a very minute chance of my getting pregnant. We tried anyways, but with very little faith that it would happen. It was a good thing we didn’t get our hopes up because I didn’t get pregnant. I got my period the next month. The good news was that Keiffer and I were both surprised when a change of plans for the USS Lincoln arose and they decided to come back home for four weeks before heading over to the Middle East. The timing was going to be perfect for trying to get pregnant. The only hiccup in our plan was that my mom was in town visiting for three weeks of the 4 he would be home, so we were going to have to keep our actions on the down low! Hey, like I said before, we are Type A people who when we get our minds set on something, we make it happen. We didn’t mess around and can honestly say that we gave it more than a good shot!
Keiffer is deployed now and it has been a few weeks since I ovulated. I took a pregnancy test the day before Keiffer left just to see, and it was negative. I knew it would be because it was too early, but thought I’d do it just for the heck of it. I started feeling really queezy everyday after, and hoped that the feelings I was experiencing were those of early pregnancy. Being the ever-so-anxious woman that I am, I decided to take another test on August 15th and it again was negative. I was pretty disappointed because I was expecting my period to come on the 18th, and if what the pregnancy tests say are true, it should be able to detect pregnancy 4 days before my missed period. Yes, it says that only about 54% of pregnant women will see a positive result, but I was hopeful since I wasn’t feeling well. Keiffer and I get to email everyday, so I let him know and he was pretty bummed out. He was really excited about adding to our family, and said that he wasn’t going to rule out my being pregnant until I actually got my period.
I have to digress for a moment and note that while we were trying to get pregnant prior to his deploying, we both were faithfully praying that the Lord would bless us with another child. We prayed together and told the Lord that we are ready to receive another child if it be His will. That we will be amazing and loving parents and that if there is a spirit waiting up there, that we want it. I prayed night and day that this would happen for us, and so did Keiffer. We knew that whatever happened it is His will and He knows if we are ready or not.
The 16th came, then the 17th and no period! I didn’t get too excited because it still wasn’t the 18th, and that was when I was expecting my period. I emailed Keiffer on the evening of the 18th and told him that I still hadn’t gotten my period, but that I didn’t want him to get excited because I really didn’t think I was pregnant. I had been feeling nauseous sure, but for the past two days I was developing pms symptoms including being short, moody and I just had that feeling like at any moment I would start my period.
That evening I went to bed, and the strangest thing happened. I was in a state of being between sleep and awake and my mind kept telling me that I was pregnant. I started thanking God for blessing me, and started imagining my new baby. Is she a girl, or a boy? What will we name her? Where will we put the crib? Should I make the guest room into a baby room, or should we convert part of our bedroom to a nursery and still keep the spare room for guests? I got an overwhelming feeling that the Lord was telling me, “Laura you are ready and you ARE pregnant”. When I woke up I hopped on the computer and quickly emailed Keiffer telling him about my dreams and how I think I’m pregnant! I went to church and the entire three hours felt the Spirit surrounding me. It was so bizarre! I felt this overwhelming feeling of love and protection. When I got home from church I checked my email and there was one from Keiffer. He told me that last night at about 1am he said a prayer asking for me to be pregnant. He said, ““If it be thy will, Laura and I are ready to have another baby.” This was strange because this was around the time that I was having all of these dreams. Perhaps it was God telling me that He has granted our wish, and wanted to let me know!
That evening I really wanted to go buy a pregnancy test, but I didn’t want to break the Sabbath. I tried to justify it in my mind, but thought that if I do go buy a test and it turns out being negative, I would blame it on breaking the Sabbath  Anyhow, I decided to wait and I emailed Keiffer that I would probably wake up and go straight to the drug store to pick up a test and take it. The next morning, which is today September 20th, 2010, I took two pregnancy tests and they were both instantly positive! I was so excited, but really was just going through the motions without it really sinking in. I emailed Keiffer first thing but didn’t hear back from him until later in the afternoon. Ironically, I had a gynecologist appointment that I had scheduled two months ago today at 1:45pm! How strange is it that the one day that I find out I’m pregnant I already have a gynecologist visit set up?! We scheduled my first obstetrics visit for when I am eight weeks along, but until then, I just hang out, eat good, exercise and take it easy.
I got an email from Keiffer at around 4:00pm saying that he is so excited and we have a LOT of planning to do! He is going to call me later so we can talk about it over the phone, but we both are beyond elated and thank the lord for answering our prayers. Our new prayer is that I will have a healthy and happy pregnancy.

Today I turn 30!

Today I turn 30. A day that as a teenager I couldn’t imagine ever reaching because it was so far away! Now here I sit pondering the past 10 years of my life and excited about the life ahead of me. I must say that if I was 20 again and interviewing myself at 30, I would be impressed at the life and adventures that I experienced in 10 years. It is unimaginable to some the transformations that have taken place in me, but one thing has remained constant throughout the years, and that has been my desire to understand the world around me, live life to the fullest, and not waste time on things that are of no benefit to me.
After High School it was my intention to become an OBGYN, and so I enrolled at Western Washington University. After only 1.5 years, and much soul searching, I decided that becoming a doctor was not the right career path for me. I just couldn’t see myself sitting in school for upwards of 11 years and eventually having a career that would disable me from spending the amount of time I would like with my future children. I dropped out of college, moved back home, and began going to Beauty School. Ever since I was little I had a natural talent and interest in cosmetology, and thought it a good idea to officially learn the trade as I tried to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. I attended beauty school for 2 years and got my diploma.
After completing Beauty School, I still had no clue as to what I wanted to be. Strangely, after going through the 1800 hours of school I decided not to utilize my skills as a cosmetologist, and decided to start going to real estate school. I attended the Rockwell Institute and graduated, then got hired on as a realtor with Windermere Real Estate as their youngest real estate agent at the Redmond office. At that time I think I was 24. After working for Windermere for only 3 months I knew that real estate was not the industry for me, and I quit.
I know what you’re thinking… but wait it gets better! Amidst all of this school I was an exotic dancer, aka. stripper, adult entertainer, it had many names. My stage name was Angel, and I took that name because no one including myself would have ever guessed that this is a career that I would have partaken of. I was the good girl growing up. The straight A student. The brainiac who was going to be a doctor! What was I doing taking my clothes off in front of thousands of strange men? Well, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to use my assets to fund my lifestyle and to save up for my future. I was not shy about being nude, and I took my career very seriously. In my first year dancing at age 20, I competed in my local club for the title of Showgirl of the Year and won! I then went to regionals which included girls from Washington State, California, Oregon, Idaho and Montana and won that as well. My official title was “2000 West Coast Show Girl of the Year”. I then went to Nationals where I placed 6th. As a newbee to the industry, this title helped boost my confidence as well as my interest in the industry, and I worked extremely hard to be the best entertainer I could be and make as much money as possible. I must say, it was a lot of money!
I moved to Las Vegas Nevada at age 24 after quitting Windermere to do my last stint as an entertainer. By this time I had been dancing since I was 18 and was getting pretty irritated with the industry. I had a certain financial goal set and a timeline of finishing up this chapter in my life by age 25. I achieved this goal and at age 25 moved back to Washington and quit dancing. Taking the step to end my career was far more difficult than I could have ever imagined, but one morning after work I had received revelation while watching a sermon about pornography on the Christian channel and it gave me the will to go in to work the next night and quit.
I got a job working for Macy’s as a Bridal Registry consultant because I had always been interested in special events, particularly weddings. I also enrolled in George Washington University online to get my Event Management certificate. While studying this program, I realized two things. One, I could have written the course myself since everything seemed so common sense to me and two, this is the industry that I was truly made to be in. Little did I know that this dream would be placed on the back burner when a rare opportunity or twist of fate if you will presented itself to me.
Working at Macy’s was fun, but it was only a temporary gig while I figured out what my next move would be. My mom called me one day while I was at work telling me that she saw a sign in downtown Monroe advertising for a manager for a new salon opening up called Sports Cuts. Although I never worked in a salon, I knew that I could easily manage one, and also thought it a great opportunity to finally utilize my Cosmetology license by also doing hair. I called the owners up and scheduled an interview. The salon wasn’t set up yet, and the owners were just investors with no knowledge of the industry. They hired me on the spot and I started telling them what the salon needed to run. Long story short, 3 weeks later the owners literally skipped town, and the building owner who had a vested interest in the salon sold it to me. It all happened rather quickly, and before I knew it I was a salon owner working diligently to make my business a success. I kept the name Sports Cuts and I also kept it a salon for only men and boys since I really didn’t like doing women’s hair, and it was a great niche.
I started out as the only stylist in my salon only cutting between 1 and 3 haircuts a day as I built my clientele. To keep my overhead low, I built my salon up as the months passed and I could afford to add more and more. It wasn’t rare to find me up on a ladder painting the walls, or directing contractors during remodels in between haircuts. The clients didn’t seem to mind, and in fact thought I was a very smart business owner by doing most of the labor myself and keeping my overhead low in the beginning.
While starting up the salon, I attended a financial seminar by a stock and options trading company called Investools, and decided to enroll in their school. My dad and I decided to go in on it together, and I was really excited about becoming a day-trader!
As the salon’s reputation expanded, I began hiring on girls to lease space in the salon. I was meeting a lot of men, but none that were the type I was looking for in a husband. I formed a list of about 100 qualities my future husband must have and I decided to be proactive about finding this unlikely dream man. I started online dating through Match.com and found that most of the guys were just looking for a good time, and nothing serious. I decided to invest in my future by hiring a professional match-maker through a company called, “It’s Just Lunch: Dating for Business professionals”. After meeting with my matchmaker and giving her my list of 100 criteria, she began sending me on dates with all types of men. She was spot on with the matchmaking, but it was the chemistry that was the key. For my 7th date, I was set up with a man named Keith Marino, and when we met it was love at first sight. A day later he said “I love you”, a month later we were engaged, and 4 months later, on 07-07-07, we were married!
I always dreamed of having a grandiose wedding, but as it turned out for financial reasons, we decided to just get married “city hall” style, only in my dad’s backyard with no one but our photographers who also doubled as our witnesses. The whole idea was to make our marriage official and then later when we could afford it have a large wedding that all of our family and friends could attend. For this reason as well, I opted out of getting a wedding dress, and we decided to wear golf attire for our wedding and go to the driving range after our nuptials! Crazy I know, but wonderful!
During our short engagement Keith, who likes to be called Keiffer, and I bought a townhome in Sedro Woolley Washington. It was a neutral location allowing both of us an equal commute of about an hour but travelling in opposite directions. I was not in the least bit excited to live in this small town, since I considered myself a city girl, and it was a far cry from downtown Seattle and Las Vegas! It was cozy though and both of our first home. I brought along my boxer Aneylah age 6 and my cat Mocha age 11. Shortly after we moved in, my dog developed cancer in her spinal cord and I had to put her to sleep. It was the hardest decision that I have ever had to make. We immediately purchased two more dogs named Trump and Tully, a Hungarian Vizsla and a Weimaraner. We didn’t waste any time getting pregnant and shortly after we found out, Keiffer deployed to Japan for 6 months. There I was stuck in the boonies with two puppies chewing up our house, a big pregnant belly, and no husband! He was home for the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy and on 07-17-08, our daughter Calista was born. I had just turned 28.
On the first day we met, Keiffer and I discussed raising children, and agreed that we would raise our children in a faith-based home, but we disagreed on the type of church we would attend. Since I was a little girl, I always had a faith in Jesus Christ and after quitting dancing I began going to a non-denominational church. Keiffer was an inactive member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and tried to convince me to check it out. The first Sunday after Calista was born, Keiffer was back in church and ready to get his life back on track spiritually. I watched him go by himself for about 3 weeks and on the 4th Sunday I went with him to check it out and to get our daughter a blessing. I wasn’t too impressed by the look of the building since it was old and quiet. The church I was used to going to was loud, energetic and brand new. I was intrigued though with notion of the restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ and decided it would be the right thing to at least learn what the church believed and see if it made sense to me. I had the missionaries over and studied the church doctrine daily. After 3 months of investigating the church I knew that it was the true church of Christ and I decided to get baptized in October of 2008.
Keiffer and I both agreed that we wanted to have our children close together and have either 3 or 4, so we planned my second pregnancy when Calista was 5.5 months old and on 09-14-09 our second daughter Bridget was born.
During the two years of being pregnant and having my two daughters, I quit working in the salon, and just managed it. I built the salon up to having 4 stylists and a massage therapist. Our client base went from zero to over a couple thousand in less than 4 years! Although the economy took a big hit, my salon was able to stay afloat and business remained decent. Amidst all of the business of running the salon and having two babies, Investools got placed on the back-burner, and I vowed to one day pick it back up.
Keiffer was stationed in Washington for 3 years, so we were due to transfer to another state in February of 2010. Keiffer was selected to be commissioned, which offered a huge raise and a change of rank in the military making him an officer! We decided to celebrate his commissioning as well as our wedding before leaving Washington. The week prior to our commissioning ceremony/wedding reception, Keiffer and I along with our two daughters, went to the Mormon temple in Seattle and were sealed as a family.
San Diego California is where we were being transferred for 3 years and the time came in November to pack up our home in Sedro Woolley and rent it out. Keiffer had to attend officer training school on the east coast for 3 months, so the girls and I moved in with my sister and her two kids in Marysville Washington. I turned the salon over to my mom to manage and in February 2010, at age 29, I moved with my husband and two daughters to sunny San Diego California!
We were on cloud 9 when we got to San Diego! The city is so beautiful and our house is in a gated master-planned community surrounded by a private golf course. Everything is within 25 minutes from our home and we have spent more time together out doing fun things in 4 months than we have done in 3 years of being together! Keiffer joined a squadron scheduled to deploy for 7-8 months in July and since we moved has already left for a total of 5 weeks to do some pre-deployment exercises.
My 30th year is going to be a tough one since Keiffer will be deployed on the USS Lincoln for a greater part of the year. Calista is turning two in a month and Bridget will be turning one in September. I think that we will be alright though since we have made many new friends in our church’s ward, and we have all of the amazing attractions to go to here in sunny San Diego! I can’t think of a better place to be raising two kids alone while my husband is deployed!
My plans for my 30’s are to have two more kids, keep building my salon up, and start up my own event planning business which will specialize in picnics. I would like to finish my Investools training and have some investments in the stock market. I am going to work to expand my knowledge and faith in the gospel, and I want to take up some hobbies like sailing, surfing and crafting. I wasn’t to spend more time on the golf course too! I am going to make sure that I stay active and strengthen my body to be the most fit it has ever been. I am going to be an amazing, supportive and appreciative wife to my husband Keiffer and I am going to be the best mother that a child could ask for! My 20’s were all about discovery and experimentation. I am excited for the joys and blessings that will come from my 30’s as a wife, mother and woman. Life is good!