Yin and Yang

This is huge because I haven't posted on our blog for about 2 years.   Hopefully I will start to get in the habit.

Why the Yin and Yang?  Well, I will tell you that in a bit.  What does Ying and Yang mean?  In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin-yang (simplified Chinese: 阴阳; traditional Chinese: 陰陽; pinyin:yīnyáng), which is often called "yin and yang", is used to describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world; and, how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. (Wikepedia).

Striving to have balance is important. We have to know the bitter to know the sweet.  If you can combine the two opposites like lemons and sugar and add water you have a perfect balance of tangy and sweet lemonade.  Sometimes we have to go through periods of lows to experience the highs.  Sometimes the answers we want come at times when we least expect. Sometimes what we need is more patience. 

Life has been an incredible journey. Instant gratification is not a reality. Patience and sustaining happiness is. 

After many years of waiting(but being very busy along the way) Dave and I found each other. We feel that we compliment each other very well in a way that no one else could. We are sooo happy to be together. 

After a few years of being married and having lived in 3 different states (Utah, Washington and California) we were stunned and excited to find out that we would become parents. The JOY that we feel has been amazing. Not ONLY did we find out that we would soon be parents, but that we would be having IDENTICAL TWINS.  Then we found out that they would be GIRLS!!!!!

My work gave me a baby shower and these plastic shoes were on top of the cake. 

There is no real explanation for the indentical splitting.  Identical twins are spontaneous and occur in 1 in 1,000 live births and happen to couples with or without any fertility assistance and are non-genetic.

5 mos pregnant in photo on birthday

I am  one week shy of being 6 months pregnant. The little girls are active and sweet. In an ultrasound about 4 weeks ago the gender of our little girls was determined. Dave and I  did not find out until 2 days later what the gender would be.  Dave was not with me at this ultrasound and I couldn't see anything to give the secret away.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1geLcJy--4

 We opened up an envelope in front of our family  via "Google Hangouts".   The little girls were facing each other and kicking each other in the legs. It made me laugh and smile.  Dave had joked previously about the little girls just playing around and kicking each other.  It was the sweetest thing to see their body parts(spine, heart, brain, kidneys, etc) and see all of the movement going on.  It was hard to wait to find out the genders, but it was fun and worth it to wait a couple of days. 

I joined Dave up in Ashland, Oregon last week where is he running a nursing home.   Dave's mom, Kathy and I drove up from California. We drove our new mini van (getting ready for the babies).  We had a wonderful time. We stopped in Sacramento and saw Dave's sister, Leah and her little family. It was very fun and nice.  I also ran into one of my former roommates, Camille from my Salt Lake days. She was the roommate that I had when Dave and I started dating. She was a great cheerleader for our developing relationship.  It was fun to catch up with her. She is also an identical twin herself.  Dave was "Worker Man" while Kathy was here in Ashland so we got to hang out a lot together.  We went to the Medford Temple (only took us 20 min :)), shopping, hiking, Shakepearean play and out to dinner.  Dave was able to sneak away on Saturday and they were able to go on a more adventurous hike together. They are great hiking buddies.  We are both so blessed to have great parents.

Lithia Park- Ashalnd, OR ( This is were Kathy and I picnicked and Dave and her hiked)

Oct. 17, 2013

Dave and I went to our new OBGYN. This is first appt that Dave could go to in 2 mos.  Dr. Binette is wonderful. He is a happy man, always wearing a bow-tie.  He has been practicing for 31 years.  He is also another answer to our prayers. This is another Yin and Yang experience. I felt like my previous OBGYN  was like going to a fastfood joint (you need to hurry in and get the heck out of there). Not a lot of personal touch.  Dr. Binette was the opposite.  He treated us like we were at a 5-Star restuarant.  

We told him we like the names, "Gracie and Lacey" for the twins.  For the record we are 80% sure these will be their names).  For all the doubters  out there it was confirmed  and we saw with our own eyes that they are definitely two little girls.  No chance at all they could be boys. :)  I pointed where Grace Katherine (Charm, Graceful, Blessing, and Pure) and Lacey Lyn (Cheerful and Beautiful)were in my tummy.

Lacey Lyn Bence

 Dr. Binette  identified them by name as we did the ultrasound.  Lacey is always up kicking and showing us more of herself while lying on her back(she is the one that we have seen more of in the ultrasounds)and Gracie is always facing down on her tummy as not to be bothered.  I have always felt bad we can't ever see Gracie's face, but she is moving and rotating around and with her sister there with her she doesn't have as much room to move around. Hopefully,with time we can get a good ultrasound picture of her. We do know that she looks just like Lacey.  :) Dr. Binette said that the girls were in the Yin and Yang position yesterday. Gracie's head was down low and Lacey's feet were kicking her head. Lacey was lying the opposite way while Gracie was kicking her head.  Although these little girls are identical we feel like they will be a perfect balance for each other.

Dr. Binette answered all of my questions and was very patient.  Afterward he gave me a hug and said. "We are going to become good friends." I will start going to see him now every 2 weeks.  I will also be seeing a Perinatologist(Maternal-Fetal Medicine ) doctor who works with Dr. Binette, every few weeks to measure the fluids in the babies' amniotic sacs and make sure they are developing at the same rate and should get really good ultrasound pics of the babies.  The crazy thing that Dr. Binette said is that our babies are viable in 10 days.  In other words if they were to be born in 10 days they would be able to survive outside the womb, but don't worry we have no plans of them coming out for a few more months. 

Road to Selah Part 1

Dave and I were on the job hunt this last year. Right close to Memorial Week-end we left with faith and 4+1 job interviews to venture out to the NorthWest, hoping we could call the NorthWest our home. In about a week's time we put about 2,000 miles on our car. We drove from Salt Lake City, UT up to Kennewick and then Tacoma, WA. We passed through Yakima, Selah and Ellensberg on the route. In Tacoma, Dave interviewed with 2 companies for jobs in Salem and Selah (these were with the companies we were most excited about). After leaving Tacoma we drove down the I-5 Corridor to Portland for interview #3 and stayed in Washoughal with Brett and Amanda and family. We drove to EXTRA rainy city of Astoria, OR where Dave had his 4th interview and drove along the Oregon Coastline. We visited Salem and saw where Dave served his mission. We then drove back to Washougal where we spent a couple of more days. We left the West side and headed back home and stopped in La Grande, OR for the final interview. We were fortunate to stay in Payette for the evening before we headed back to Salt Lake. To sum up the trip I was Driver Woman and Dave was Mr. Interviewee. We had a great adventure, but anticipated the results of our hardwork soon after. June came and just about left when we received hope from one of top picks that "YES Dave, we want to bring you on?" We were told that a job was awaiting for us and that we would be starting this job within 2-4 weeks. And that's when the adventure/stress began. More details to follow in Part 2.

We have a blog now!

Wow, we have a blog! :) We are the Bences, David and Shana. We are "newly weds"(if you can still count a little over a year.) Before David and I got married I had many amazing and exciting life changing experiences such as living in Washington, D.C., Argentina and Ecuador. ¡Sí, Hablo Español!:) I would have to say as amazing and wonderful life was before Dave came along things are now much better having my best friend and most attractive man in the world by my side. Now everything I do is all the more exciting. Dave definitely brings adventure into life. I LOVE his red hair and he loves my curls. If people don't know our names they still have a way of indentifying us. :) I am naturally a happy person, but when Dave came into my life I began to smile even more. As Dave is very adventurous and easy going he has helped me to deal with stress and has helped me to develop my talents and live my dreams. Some may say I am a lucky gal, but I'd like to say, a blessed gal. He was definitely worth the long wait. :) Okay so I could talk about him all day. :)

I have been inspired by others who have blogs, but have never created a "personal" blog. Life is definitely exciting there is alway something to talk about, but sitting down and taking the time to write about it can be a bit of a struggle at times. I also like things to be perfect especially when going out to the public, but this blog is more from my mind and heart. Since this is a personal blog I can't promise my grammar will be remarkable. Sorry!

What are we up to?

Dave is a recent, Licensed Nursing Home Administrator. He will be placed in a building very soon. Dave does a fantastic job with the older people and loves management. I do own my own company called, Shana's Wedding Flowers. You probably can't guess what I specialize in. ;) It has been an exciting year for me as I have continuously grown and developed more of a presence in the floral and wedding community. When I moved down to Salt Lake from Idaho back in the Winter of 2008 I made the decision to start my own wedding flowers business. It started out as a side business while working for Alpine Home Medical as the Executive Assistant and then turned into a full-time gig back in October. I was so excited to FINALLY do this!

So will there be more posts or is this just an idea? Absolutely!