A Year Without Social Media: April

In June Jon and I will be married for 5 years. Man, I love that guy! I have been trying to think about what to do as an anniversary gift to him. I feel like 5 years is a milestone, so I wanted to do something special.

Jon and I have different views of what a "good" present is, he leans more towards something you really want or need, usually, the more expensive the better (not in a vain way, but growing up without lots of money, big presents on holidays were a highlight) but I was one of those kids that always made presents. (give me some paper and tape and i could make anything!) homemade, or thoughtful/meaningful, was my forte. So both of those mentalities have always kind of stayed with us. It always ends up in a good laugh though, giving each other presents (still working on speaking each other's love languages) So glad we love each other.
ANYWAY- where i'm going with this, i've been trying to think of a good gift for Jon.
He has never been a huge fan of social media. Facebook used to even cause frequent arguments in our household because he disliked it so much and I spent large amounts of time on it. Eventually I gave it up and that was a huge blessing in our marriage. If you follow me on instagram you may remember this post-
 
With the caption: Today has been one of those really deep reevaluate-your-life-and-ponder-your-existence-and-purpose-while-staring-at-the-sky-and-trying-to-comprehend-eternity kind of days, you know, the usual. Anyway while I was trying to finish a poem I started in 2013 I of course got distracted and long story short got brought back to this quote and all I could think of was facebook. I kept ignoring it trying to think of something else because fb isn't a sin, I mean the prophet has one. But I  have never once been completely uplifted after looking at fb yet for some reason I have been defending it. (It's kinda a touchy subject at our house-Jon is very anti social media) but I would always argue (or defend) that there is nothing wrong with seeing cute pictures of your friend's baby or reconnecting with old friends. There are plenty of good things to see or read but from my experience- I cannot get on without seeing some inappropriate picture, or 10 selfies that look exactly the same with a slightly different facial expression and filter and silently judge them wondering why aren't doing something better with their time, yet here I am wasting mine. There are memes with bad language or sexual innuendos that are "bad but funny" outrageous rants about a certain political view or candidate, funny video clips that often lead to more which equals wasted time and the possibility of seeing an inappropriate one, and the worst, in my opinion, the condescending,  often vicious comments and banter that go on anything that the church comes out with. A while ago I unfollowed everyone so I didn't have a newsfeed which helped a ton- but I still found myself going to people's pages- scrolling through classifieds, news articles and blog posts. But now aside from my photography and sign language page I am done with looking at fb and defending it not because I feel like it is a sin, but because it is destructive to me. I am not saying everyone should feel this way, if you are able to have an uplifting experience on fb I think that is wonderful, but for me- i'm out. #peace #theend #sundaythoughts #lds

Although when we moved I created a new facebook page where I didn't have any friends or follow anyone, I just used it for classifieds, which helped us buy and sell a lot of things for our move. Buttt eventually I went back to aimless scrolling and looking people up. I was wasting time again.
That got me thinking, what if for my gift to him I took a break from ALL social media for 1 whole year. So my "gift" would essentially be paying more attention to him rather than wasting time on my phone for 1 year. Not that I neglect my husband, or that i'm addicted or anything because I really wouldn't say that I am. But I do waste a lot of time on Instagram, Facebook classifieds, Pinterest and browsing Youtube videos.
Then General Conference came. And there were multiple talks given that I felt like were for me. There was a specific talk about overcoming the world. [Read or listen to it Here.]. And I thought well, what is more worldly than social media? I have been trying to be a better disciple of Christ [Read or listen to a talk on that topic Here.] and I felt like that was my answer. Less wasting time mindlessly scrolling, less looking at photos of other people and being silently judgmental (admit it, was all do it) less watching pointless youtube videos that just lead to more pointless youtube videos, and less random vulgarity popping up on my newsfeeds. I'm not saying that Social media is the worst thing ever and everyone should just get off it..(actually I kind of really do feel that way, but I know that would never happen) but I think it's safe to say most people could tone it down, and considering I don't use any social media as any kind of business income, I really don't NEED it in my life. Sure it's fun, sure it helps you connect with people, but so do phone conversations. Giving up social media for a year may not be for everyone, but I felt like it was for me. So I decided that's what I would do.

SO, because Jon and I are TERRIBLE at keeping gifts from each other (we opened all our Christmas presents to each other like 5 days before Christmas lolol) I ended up telling him my idea for his gift.
Now of course he was kind, because he always is, and told me that was a great idea for a present, but when I explained to him my reasoning behind it (he was of course all for the "giving him more attention" part) he made the comment that this gift sounded like it was more for me, rather than him. After giving that some thought, i realized he was right.
He then came up with a great idea. What if we BOTH gave up some time on our phones. Now, as mentioned before, Jon does not do social media, but he does LOVE the Utah Jazz. So he is constantly reading Jazz stats, and really any basketball stats, articles, and watching basketball clips. He also likes to occasionally play little games on his phone. We talked about how we could both cut back.

So, back to his idea, what if we both gave up some phone time as a gift to the Savior this Easter, instead of a gift from me to him for our anniversary. Taking a break from our phones would give us more time for each other (yay eternal marriages!) and more time to serve others. (Pretty much a great gift to the Savior if I do say so myself)

So here is the game plan:
Beginning Easter 2017 through Easter 2018 I will not use Instagram. I will remove Facebook from my phone, and only use it on my computer for classifieds, strictly for the purpose of buying and selling farm/home equipment. (no scrolling or looking people up). I will take Pinterest off my phone, and only use it on my computer if i need to look up a recipe (it's pretty much my cookbook) but no aimless scrolling. I will remove YouTube off my phone and not watch any videos unless they are gospel related. I MAY still post YouTube videos but I haven't decided on that yet. Normally when i post a video i will do an Instagram post with a link to the video, but since I won't be on Instagram, be sure to go to my YouTube Channel and click the red "subscribe" button, that way if i do post any videos, you will get an email and be notified of it:)
 As for Jon, he will just cut back.  He has much better self control than me, and isn't quite as OCD. Not needing to list and chart everything out lol (who doesn't love a good list?!)
I'm not on twitter, snapchat, or any other forms of social media, and i'm not a game player. So that was my complete list^^

After this discussion, Jon said he would like me to still keep my blog because he knows how much my family, and his, enjoys reading it. Plus it's like a journal, and Journals are good. I enjoy going back and reading my old posts. So I decided I will do one post each month where I just go over our month. (I like that idea too, i don't want to feel totally disconnected) Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you can be notified when I do a new post.
So here we go!

April started off great! We had Jon's family up for General Conference. And enjoyed that spiritual boost! If you don't know what general conference is, it's where the leader of our church get together twice a year and give uplifting talks (or sermons, if you will) where they teach us and give us direction and comfort. You can learn more HERE.

We also added to the #LaRueFarm !!!
Our Mare (appropriately named Maren) had a baby! Thanks to Jon's stud Jack. We really have yet to figure out if it's a male or female but we are thinking it's a Philly (female) so obviously her name is Phillys. She is ADORABLE. I have never had a baby horse before, or really even seen one, so this has been a fun new experience for me.




I loveeee her! She is so soft and gentle.

I also added to the #LaRueFarm with some baby chicks!
I heard the the Tractor Supply store was getting rid of all their chicks to bring in new shipments so all the chicks were discounted to $.25 cents each!! So i bought 2. They are so adorable. The 1st day I had them home they would come when i called haha they are a little more fiesty now but I love playing with them. They do not have names yet. I asked my 5yr old neighbor, Mary, what we should name them, and she suggested Tina, and Fluff. Tina is her go-to name i'm pretty sure, considering when I got fish, she wanted to name them all Tina. We will see if that stays or not haha. I was told they were both female, but we are pretty sure the brown one is a rooster. We will see when it gets older though. They are growing so fast!!

First day I got them-

One week later-

2 weeks later-

Tis the season for babies! On April 9th we had our first calf born! When Jon and I sold our home, we were able to invest in some cattle with the profit we made. We decided to buy some Lowline Angus heifers, 7 of which were pregnant. Lowlines are similar to mini cows- so their babies are much smaller than regular calves, and boy are they cute! The first one was a bull calf and i'm in love! Stay tuned for our Lowline website that will be coming up where we will feature all our cows and the ones that are for sale.





Things were nice and calm and good. Then life got crazy as it always does.
Jon had been complaining of a stomach ache for over a week. At first we just thought constipation, or something like that, his stomach usually isn't 100% anyway. But this ache wasn't seeming to go away, and on and off every few days he kept thinking he had a fever. On Tuesday night April 4th Jon called me on his way home from work saying he really wasn't feeling well. Around 7:30pm he was moaning and groaning quite a bit and I suggested we go to the doctor. (I work at a doctors office so visits for me and Jon are free) But they closed at 8:00pm and we live about 35 minutes away so I suggested we could go to the ER because he really wasn't doing well. He kept saying we could just wait until morning and we could go to my clinic. A. because he NEVER goes to the doctor anyway, so there was no way he was going to the ER for a stomach ache (assuming he just "needed to toughen up") and B. because it would be free at the clinic and we are all about free! ;)
So anyway he persisted we just wait until morning. As it got later I started doing some research based off his symptoms and presumed he has appendicitis. Telling him that made him a little more open to the idea of going into the ER but he still wanted to wait until morning. (he's stubborn) I tried to tell him that if he DID in fact have appendicitis that they would send him to the hospital anyway, but he insisted we just go in the morning so we went to bed.
Then at 1:50AM Wednesday morning I abruptly woke up to "Lauren! go get a bowl, i'm going to throw up!" I so I flew out of bed and ran upstairs to get a bowl, heart pounding of course (no one likes to be woken up that quickly haha) but luckily he didn't throw up. Anyway, at this point he is not doing well, and after about 20 minutes of negotiating, I convince him we need to go to the ER. So away we go. We arrived around 2:45AM and were in surgery by 5:30. Based off the initial evaluation, before the CT, we figured if he needed surgery it wouldn't be until around 8 or 9am, so we texted our neighbor to see if he could come up and give Jon a blessing. Of course he didn't reply because that was at like 4am, but we figured we would have time. After his CT scan, the surgeon told us that his intestines were so inflamed that they couldn't even see his appendix, but assumed it was most likely perforated. (based off the image, and the symptoms.) So the anesthesiologist came in and told us we had 15 min before surgery. We were kind of stressed because Jon really wanted a blessing before surgery so we asked the anesthesiologist if we could wait just a little bit until our neighbor responded, but they wanted to get us in asap. BUT because Heavenly Father loves his children, we had the tender mercy of the anestesiologist being LDS! After we told him we wanted to wait, he offered to give the blessing and went and found another Priesthood holder (who happened to be Jon's PA) and they gave him a blessing right there in the room. We were so grateful for that experience! Besides Utah, Idaho is probably the only other place that would've been possible. We will remember that experience forever.
Anyway, long story short Jon had appendicitis, he had a stone in his appendix, and it had gotten so bad it began to rot, and then perforate. (which is bad news bears!) luckily his colon and intestine sort of corralled whatever yuckiness was coming out of his appendix so it didn't spread too much (because hello, apparently that can kill you!?) So he had to get flushed out and stapled all back up.
Due to the extremeness of his case (that's what waiting 2 weeks to go to the Dr. will do to you!) we ended up staying in the hospital until saturday afternoon. He had to get his white blood cell count down, and pain under control.

We are grateful to be home now.
During these few days at the hospital, I was still going to work, and just sleeping at the hospital with Jon. My friend from work showed me this picture and it gave me goosebumps!

Such a powerful picture, what perfect timing to see a picture like this, and what a comfort. I am so grateful for the Savior.
And that's why i'm taking a break from social media..

Now what the heck am I going to get Jon?!