. . . . A day in the life

Falling off the grid

2011-12-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't posted since before school started!! Where does the time go? Well, I guess I know the answer to that, I've been extremely busy!

First up, *I* started school! I took the first semester of Anatomy and Physiology and I got an A. It took a LOT of work. It was a little more stressful than I thought it would be, but worth every minute studying when I got my final grade. :) Add to that shuffling around 5 kids to the places they need to be, cleaning, laundry, my flower business, and working part time as a medical assistant, and I think you can begin to understand why I haven't updated very frequently. I also started running and that has helped to keep me a bit sane. Life is a bit stressful, very busy, but a lot of fun mixed in. :)

Second up, Goose started middle school and honestly its been a huge adjustment for all of us. Waking up earlier and keeping track of 6 different classes/homework/papers has been rough. After a mid semester crisis, the teachers stepped in and have been giving him better support and we've made some changes at home to encourage him as well... Here's hoping the rest of the year goes a bit smoother. He is still an amazing reader and very smart. He LOVES his baby sister and is a huge help with her. Twister wants to be just like him and Goose is good about trying to include him when he can.

Sweetie is in fourth and doing really well. She is a good student and doesn't need a lot of monitoring to get her work done (and done well at that!) She is a great helper with her siblings and really just fun to be around. She was thrilled to have a girl close to her age move into the house next door this past summer. They have had a lot of fun together, and jump on the trampoline and play outside frequently.

Tank is in first grade and also a big help and fun to be around. She has so much spunk in her! I love to go plays or other events with her because she is so animated about how much she loves it. :) She is getting pretty good at reading and is doing great in school.

Twister started preschool this year and is really at a super fun age. When I was talking to him just the other day he said..." Mom, did you know when it gets dark outside, that I can see lots of Christmas lights??! Its kind of like magic." He is very charming and very cute. Anyone else think that spells trouble? :)

Cinderelly is another charming, and cute little one. She is talking up a storm and thinks everyone ought to be able to understand her. She smiles and waves at everyone, but is wary of anyone wanting to pick her up... she is much too independent for that. I recently caught her practicing faces in the mirror. Let me tell you, she doesn't NEED any practice! LOL!

Benson . . . I could write a novel about him. He is wonderful and amazing and my best friend. In addition, he has really been struggling with a variety of health issues for a year and a half now, and every test seems to come back mostly "normal". We are in the middle of some more testing, so we will see what that shows. It seems like each specialist is able to find something worth treating, but no one has answers as to what is causing the symptoms and how they are related. Despite the frustrations of pain, fatigue and other issues, he is working hard and pressing on. He is very valued at his work and seems to get more responsibilities as they realize how much he is capable of.

So, there is a quick recap of our last few months. We haven't completely fallen off the grid, just took a small break. :) Here's hoping to a 2012 full of more fun, more busy-ness and maybe a few answers.

Last day of Summer

2011-08-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Many of my friends had their kids start school today, so you may have been expecting the traditional start of school pictures. However, today was actually our last day of summer. My awesome dad offered to help me take the kids to Morton Arboretum. They had a blast!

Hanging out in a TINY doghouse. LOL!

So grown up. *sigh*

Just after this picture was snapped, Twister fell into the pond behind us. Opps. At least he was in good company, Goose fell in too.

Goose was insistant that Cinderelly be involved in the spider web. He would carefully step over a few chains, then pick her up and place her in another hole. She thought it was funny.

My cute little spider.

He insisted on wearing his sunglasses all day. He looked so darn cute in them. Though, he would correct me and tell me he looked cool, not cute. Cute is for girls.

This much fun is exhausting.

My favorite picture of the day. My kids LOVE their Papa! And he is SO good about letting them know he loves them too.

It's been a good summer. Tomorrow starts the craziness. Goose will start middle school. Sweetie starts 4th, Tank starts 1st, and I start an Anatomy class to work towards my nursing degree. AGH!!!

My Mini Me

2011-08-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

During the past couple weeks, I've had so many comments on how much our little Cinderelly looks like me. This is all very new to me despite her being my 5th. :) What do you think?

Some things never change

2011-07-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

Some things never change, isn't that great!! This weekend I got to meet up with my old college roommate and her family. It had been about 8 years since we last saw each other, but before we moved apart, we we nearly inseparable. :) Its amazing to me how so much time can pass, and it doesn't seem to matter. We stayed up much too late catching up and reminiscing. I think that must be what heaven will be like. Good friends sharing their joys and trials and what they've learned. Here's a few pictures from our adventures in Nauvoo, IL where we met up.

Our families have expanded quite a bit in the last few years. The kids got along great, which made the whole weekend that much more fun. It was rewarding to see the kids bond the way we had years before. :)

And Nauvoo was just as fun as it has been every time we have gone. The kids love the pioneer pastimes area.

The group went on a wagon ride without me, since I've developed an allergy to horses that has only ever manifested itself on that same wagon ride in the past. Call me a party pooper if you will, but I prefer breathing to a wagon ride anyday.

We were afraid the pageant was going to be rained out. I teased Benson that it looked like the Heavens were not as happy with this new pageant. We came to expect miracles there, the sky's always seemed to clear in time for the show. Well, it may not be the City of Joseph pageant, but I suppose the Lord is happy with this new pageant as well because the sky cleared just in time for the show to go on.

We also visited many of the pioneer homes. We stopped by the blacksmith's shop and got our prairie diamonds and the brick yard to get our Nauvoo brick. I always enjoy hearing the history the missionaries share. Those pioneers went through so much during that time.

On Tuesday we went to Carthage.

There is always such a special spirit there. My kids are blessed to claim both survivors of that day as ancestors. Willard Richards saved John Taylor's life... and it is through their lineage that we are here today. Pretty cool.

So Nauvoo was cool and spending time with my good friend was priceless. Hoping its not another 8 years before we can align the stars and meet up again. Thanks for a great weekend Mer!!

Catching up a bit

2011-07-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

So, I didn't post about our family gathering last month. My brother came to visit us with his 4 girls... So we had 17 of my parents 24 grandkids in town. :) So much fun. So, one of our big adventures was to take everyone downtown to the Museum of Science and Industry. It was so much fun.

They had a few areas like this where you actually interact with the image they are projecting. In the picture above, if you hold your hand still enough, one of the butterfly's will actually land on your hand. In another one, some balls would either gather into your arms, or fall to the ground below based on what you were doing. Very cool.

Twister was completely intrigued by the ball suction thingy. He went back and forth grabbing the balls and watching the vacuum suck them up up and away. :)

Cinderelly was pretty entranced by the floating ball. No barriers were going to stop her!!

The baby chicks hatching were pretty amazing to watch. They know the exact gestation of the eggs, so they put the eggs in the public incubator on the day they are scheduled to hatch. Could've spent all day there watching them, truly miraculous. :)

The weather science area was really fascinating as well. They have this neat vortex thing that looks like a giant tornado. At one point, a few of the kids were invited to stand in it! Very cool.

There were a lot of other really neat random things as well. The raining fog here made a really neat effect. Eventually all good things must come to an end. And there was no exception here:

We pushed the kids to their limit and it was time to head home. They slept beautifully through the huge traffic jam as we headed home. I feel so blessed to have the family that I do. The kids LOVE their cousins, they are really best friends. I can't wait to see how they interact as they head off to college and stuff in the future. :)

Anyway, since they left, its been back to the summer grind. We play outside in the heat, and hide inside when we can't take it anymore. We've made forts, camped in the backyard, caught lightning bugs, played at the park and more. Life is never dull with 5 kids. :) And since I can't leave this post with such an unhappy picture, I'll leave you with this:

Chicken Pox

2011-06-28T08:09:00.000-07:00

A quick story to lighten the mood today. We saw some turkeys in our yard this morning. I pointed them out to Sweetie and Tank who were sitting in the kitchen. The conversation went like this:

Sweetie: Oh look, there they are!!

Tank: Cool!

Sweetie: You have to be careful if you are outside with them because they bite.

Tank: I know!! Mom even got a bite on her forehead once.

Mom: No I didn't.

Tank: Yes you did, you showed me that mark! The one on your forehead.

Mom: You mean the scar that I have from chicken pox??

Tank: No it wasn't chicken, it was from the turkeys.

Mom: I think you're confused... my scar is from chicken pox, which is not actually from a chicken (or a turkey), its a type of rash.

Well, it made me laugh anyway. :)

Summer has been crazy around here. Crazy weather, and lots of restless kids. Its hard finding things to keep them all occupied. They like to play outside but the mosquitos are horrendous this year, so we have to be relentless on the bug spray. Especially since Twister has such an allergy to them. Have I shown you this picture before??

He swells up like crazy with a single bite. The picture was from last year, but we've had some doozies this year as well. It helps when I get some hydrocortisone on it immediately.

Anyway, this summer is going well despite our crazies. :) We're excited for next month when we are going on a small vacation and meeting up with my old college bestie and her family. :) It will be a blast!!

Just a pic for today

2011-06-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Migraine blessing

2011-05-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

As background, I am a migraine sufferer. Before kids, I would get them a couple times per month. During pregnancy and breastfeeding, I usually got a reprieve and got them far less often. I was telling my BFF last week how it had been almost 2 years since I'd had a migraine. Huge blessing. :) However, somewhat ironically, last Friday I got a migraine.
I'm the Teachings for our Times teacher in our Relief Society (our church's women's group). I was scheduled to teach on Sunday. For me, the best way to "treat" my migraines is to take medicine when I get the aura, then get to sleep. So, that is what I did. Unfortunately, it didn't kick the migraine this time. I woke up on Saturday still with an awful headache. I rested, I napped... I took medicine, but I could not focus at all.
I knew I needed to finish preparing my lesson, but I was feeling completely useless. I could see the words on the page, and I thought I was reading them, but I could not seem to retain them or make any sort of coherent thought about them. I wanted to pass off the lesson to someone else, but my "backup" teacher was out of town and I didn't feel right about passing it off so late to anyone else. So, Saturday night, I sat down at the computer and forced myself to create an outline. I really don't even remember any of it making sense STILL at that point, but I got some questions ready to ask and made some handouts with quotes from the talk I was supposed to be teaching.
I went to bed early hoping to kick the migraine and wake up with some clarity of thought so that I could fix the lesson plan I started. No such luck. Still foggy and hurting Sunday morning. Begin super praying. lol. really though, I was not feeling capable of teaching, so I prayed as hard as I could muster that the Spirit would teach the lesson that day.
As I got up to teach, I hoped that the migraine would melt away for at least the time I had to stand up there. It didn't. But something else happened. Despite my feeling as though I couldn't make a coherent thought, and could hardly read the words on my paper, I WAS able to teach. It was as though my spiritual self took over for those 45 minutes. I had people tell me that they never would have known I had a migraine unless I had told them. My body was weak at that moment, but the Spirit was strong. I honestly don't remember a lot of the lesson, but I know there was good discussion and a feeling of peace and hope in the room.
The Lord doesn't always remove our physical challenges, but He DOES strenthen us when we are striving to do His will.

Debating

2011-05-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

So, here it has been almost a month... again... since I last wrote. Somehow, life is super busy with 5 kids. :) Who knew? Lots of laundry, lots of dishes, cooking dinner, sweeping floors, picking up toys. I could go on, but I know you all know.

So, I've made the decision to go back to school. I'm starting in the fall at the local community college. I have a handful of pre-requisites I need to take, then I'll apply for the nursing program there for Fall of 2013. I'm really excited, but also really nervous. I took all but 1 of the pre-req's to get into the nursing program at BYU. I tried to take the last one twice, but withdrew before I failed. To be clear, I have always been a good student. I got good grades in HS, and got into BYU. At BYU, I got mostly A's and B's. However, when I tried to take the anatomy class there, I failed every quiz for the first few weeks before I withdrew. Granted, I was newly married and didn't want to spend every waking hour in the lab studying cadavers... but I DID study and I was failing. So, as I mentioned, this makes me nervous to go back. Especially to start with Anatomy as my first class. But, I have to believe I'm at a more mature place in my life, and I know I can do it!!! I worked for years as a medical assistant doing most of the things the nurses did, but getting paid a fraction of what they do. No longer!!! I will get those magical letters to add on to the end of my name and I will LOVE IT. :)

As for my business, I've not been doing much with it. Every once in a while, I'll get an order off of my website or Etsy, but not very frequently. I don't feel much push to promote it myself. Its really a hard thing to do online. I usually got the most sales during the craft shows I would do each fall, but with me starting school this fall, I don't think I can manage juggling shows as well. So, I'm a bit in limbo about what to do with my business. I suppose I can just put it on hold and see what happens with life. It would be nice if I could figure out a way to sell my art without putting all the work into a show where I may or may not sell anything. I'd also like to branch out a bit and try some new crafty things. Anyway, I suppose this is just ramblings. I'm not likely to close up business to the point of refusing a new order if I got one. So, I guess I'll just see how things roll.

The kids are all doing well. They are anxious for summer to show up here. Although, weather wise, we've hardly had spring! We had 2 days last week when it was in the upper 80's, then 2 days later the high was 45!! I would love to have more than a fleeting 70 degree day. Just a week or two in that range is all I'm asking. *sigh*

I'll leave you with a few pictures from the last few weeks. I feel very blessed, life is good.

Being three is exhausting

The trampoline is "hair-raising" fun.

Fun for the boys at Papa's house

Tank's phonic spelling. Someone is not allowed to touch the remote every day. LOL.

Digital Scrapbooking

2011-04-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

So, I'm way way way behind on scrapbooking in the sense of putting pictures together to make cute photo books. I think the last page did was for when Tank was born. She's 6. Where does the time go??! Anyway, I'm thinking about digital scrapbooking as an alternative to get it actually done. I found the shabby princess site that has a handful of free designs available to download and this is what I did today.

I think I could get into this. :) Any of you have any great sites you want to share for getting more templates?

Guess who is . . .

2011-03-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

taking steps!!! Just in time for her upcoming birthday! I'd say she is walking, but its still not her preferred method of getting around. Though, she does LOVE the attention she gets for it. :)

Funny story, she was taking a couple steps between my Mom and I. As she got close to either of us she would sort of lunge forward and fall into our arms. Adorable right? :)

Twister could not handle the amount of love and praise she was getting for this. So, he says, "Look Mom, I know how to fall too!" He walked from behind my mom over to me and fell into my arms. :) Hilarious. He could NOT understand why we thought this was so funny. It was charming and amazing when Cinderelly did it. Why not him?

Children's museum

2011-03-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures of our family trip to the children's museum. You tell me who you think was having the most fun. :)

So much to do

2011-03-01T13:22:00.000-08:00

... and all I want to do is procrastinate it. About a week ago, Benson and I decided to do some major re-organization in our house. We have a 3 bedroom house and 5 kids. And girls have a LOT of stuff, :) so having all 3 girls in a 10x12 room was getting a bit overwhelming.

That was our inspiration. I offered (though somewhat reluctantly) to give up my craft room for a bedroom. We put the boys downstairs and split up the girls in the 2 rooms upstairs.

A while back we were given 2 loft beds, so we put them to use in our efforts. Goose now has his own play space up above the floor in his room.

And Sweetie is sleeping in the other loft bed leaving the room below available to double as a playroom.

My craft stuff has been split throughout the house, but so far it hasn't been a problem. Of course, I also haven't had a major project yet either. We'll see how this goes when I have my flower stuff out for my next piece of art. :)

Anyway, I wanted to share some of the pictures. We're still working on getting everything put away, but we are making progress.

I missed writing about a few things, so here are a few more pictures of stuff we've been up to this past month.

playing in the snow

daddy daughter dance

Tank turned 6!!!

Goose earned his arrow of light scouting award

Twister learned to use the toilet!

And lots of other random fun too. :) Life is good.

Snow day!

2011-02-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

I only got one "during" picture... I took this last night before it really got bad. There wasn't a huge amount of snow all at once, but the WIND!!! It was absolutely crazy. I think you would have to hear the storm to really understand how intense it was. I had a hard time falling asleep.

And this morning... Pictures just never do snow full justice. This is trying to look out our sliding glass door. That drift "wave" as the kids called it must have been 5 feet tall.

Looking out into the yard. You can sort of see a bit of our fire pit there. Well, if you compare to the before picture you can anyway.

This is looking out or front window. If you enlarge it you can see how deep the line is that the guy across the street was snowblowing out of his driveway.

Cinderelly looking out the back window. This gives a little better perspective on how tall the drift was. The door goes out and has two steps down to get to the patio level...

Goose actually climbed out our front window and went around to the back to try to help shovel out that drift. It was pretty comical actually. He didn't get very far before Benson pulled out the snowblower. That persuaded him that shovelling was futile and he came in. :)

After the snowblower. Thank heaven for that piece of machinery!!! I have a feeling Benson is going to be helping a lot of people find their way out of their homes today. He is currently at my parents house helping them to find the driveway. Anyone who has seen my parent's house will have recollection of how LONG the driveway is. My dad usually plows it with an attachment on his lawnmower. Not this much snow! Benson might be over there for a while. Not to mention our neighbors who I don't think even own a shovel.

Haha, look at the snow drift on the roof. :)

Yea, so check out the walkway to the house. Looks like 2 feet of snow there to me! It was a crazy storm. I'm just grateful we kept power!!! Oh, and also for the snowblower. :) Yes, VERY grateful for the snowblower.

Blogging rut

2011-02-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

So, I seem to be in a blogging rut... I can't seem to figure out how to make ANYTHING in my life seem exciting enough to write about! So, instead of trying to make it interesting, I'm just going to put some of this stuff out there.

First of all, I've been working part time for the past month. I used to work as a medical assistant up until I had Twister. With child #4, I figured I needed to stay home with my kids. I've never regretted that decision. However, when the doctor I worked for called me and asked if I could fill in for him while his nurse was on maternity leave, I was thrilled at the idea. The first day back I got to draw blood, give shots, get an EKG.... it was awesome!! Yea, I know that's a little creepy. I'm ok with that. Someday, when I grow up, I want to be an RN, so I really oughta love doing this stuff, right?? So, I've continued filling in twice a week for the past month. I think I'll miss it again when I am done.

As for the kids, Goose just got over being REALLY sick. I think the doctor wanted to put him in the hospital when we brought him in. I think the only reason she didn't is that she knows I have medical experience and wouldn't let him get too bad before doing it myself. He had a really high fever and didn't want to eat or drink anything. He's so skinny, it wouldn't take much for him to be dangerously dehydrated. It took him about 5 days to not have a fever, and one extra day to re-coop his strength. I think the bug started with Sweetie, who then passed it to Twister, then to Goose and Benson. Goose was the sickest though. Benson is finally feeling better, but can't seem to shake an eye infection that he got with it. Just praying now that we are done with it and that it completely by-passes little Cinderelly. (I think I spoke too soon, Tank seems to be a little warm, UGH!)

Speaking of Cinderelly... she's small. The official diagnosis is failure to thrive, but I don't like how that sounds. She started life around the 25 percentiles and around 6 months went down to the 8th, then at 9 months she was in the 1 percentile. Now she's off the chart. :/ I'm hoping that it is only because she is VERY active and a bit picky about what she eats. Hopefully we will find out soon, we have to see a specialist next week. She is NOT behind in any milestones though. This week she started standing on her own for a few seconds at a time.

Anyone have children with phobias? Sweetie I think may have passed the point of being a bit timid about being alone, into having it be a phobia. She won't go to the restroom at school alone, she won't go outside alone, in fact, there's oftentimes she won't go upstairs in our own house alone. I'm not sure what to do to help her.

On a totally different note, we pulled the plug on our TV service. We actually did this last August, but at the time we told them to put it on "hold". After not really missing TV for several months, we finally cut the cord. We watch our netflix instant streaming shows, dvd's, and play on our wii. We have an antenna for the TV if we want to watch news, but we haven't used it much. We've had a lot of fun playing Just Dance. Goose is champion. I need to start practicing when he's not around. :) Tank is pretty good herself.

Last sidenote, we think we are prepared for the blizzard set to arrive this afternoon. I have friends who are super-excited about it. I don't have that sort of mindset. I don't hate the snow, but I'm plenty happy with 3-4 inches. This 2 foot possibility is NOT exciting to me. I'd like to be able to leave my home, and not have to get that much snow off of the driveway. Thank heaven for our snowblower. lol! here's our before pictures taken this morning.

Wish us luck!

Family Picture

2011-01-20T19:23:00.000-08:00

For you Mom W. :)

Our Happy New Year Greetings

2010-12-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

Merry belated Christmas and happy new year to all our friends and family. Every year, I think I'll put together a cute Christmas card and mail it out, but I haven't followed through for I think 4 years now. So, once again, here is the online greeting from dear little old us.

Benson started the year off working crazy awful hours as a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant manager while he looked for a new job in his field. The new job finally came through and he started with Compliance 11 shortly after the birth of our 5th child. And as if being the provider for 5 children wasn't enough, he managed to tear out and install a new kitchen for us over the course of about 3 months. He is amazing, absolutely amazing. (And so is my new kitchen if I do say so myself)

Cheryl started the year pregnant. Managing the lives of 4 little ones and being pregnant was a lot to handle, but managing 5 little ones has proved to be even more crazy. Just to add to all the craziness, Cheryl decided to do several craft shows in the fall. Her art keeps her sane and any money it brings in is a nice bonus. One of the highlights of this year for her was her family reunion in the summer. It was spectacular chaos. :) We loved it.

Goose started 5th grade this fall and is doing very well. He manages to juggle all the work he has, and is a huge help to me with the littler kids as well. He refers to Cinderelly as his "minor challenge" and Twister as his "major challenge". He loves Wizard 101, reading, Legos, and computer games. He has started playing the trumpet but hasn't decided if he wants to stick with it or switch to another instrument yet...

Sweetie is in 3rd grade and is also a major help to me. She likes to pretend she has her own restaurant and makes the family lunch whenever she is home. She is also majorly into art and likes to draw, paint, and color whenever she has free time. Since she turned 8 this summer, she chose to be baptized. We had a wonderful event with her and her cousin's baptisms and blessing Cinderelly at the same time.

Tank started Kindergarten this fall and she LOVES it. She has also started getting the art/creativity bug and has some beautiful art to show for it. This may have started because she wants to do everything her sister does. They are great friends and I love watching them grow together. She loves to help out and is a great shopping companion.

Twister is 2 1/2 now and fits the stereotype perfectly. He wants to do everything by himself and his way. He is obsessed with electronics and throws a spectacular tantrum when he has to get off of them. This too shall pass, right??!! I just have to figure out how to mold that independence into wanting to be potty trained. Eventually...

Our little princess Cinderelly joined our family on March 24th. We really can't imagine life without her anymore. She has spectacular BLUE eyes that sparkle when she smiles at you. She has a strong personality that we love to see more of everyday.

We loved receiving so many of your Christmas cards, we love hearing what is going on with you. I hope you'll forgive us for sending ours out this way. :) Health and a happy new years to each of you.

Love,

Us.

Weekend projects

2010-11-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving last week! My parents went out of town to visit some of my siblings, so those of us left here decided to have a "Pie Night" on Wednesday. We had pizza "pie" and a bunch of pies for dessert. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, and the adults had fun catching up and doing a bit of crafting.

I had some visions of grandeur during the week. I decided I wanted to use the flooring we took out of the kitchen to replace some of the really gross carpet in the girls room. Lucky for me, I have a husband who can make my strange requests into reality. It looks great and hopefully it will help with Sweetie's allergies as well.

I also had an inspiration to organize our entry. Shoes, hats, gloves, snowpants, coats, and boots for 7 people take up a lot of room. A lot more than I was giving them space for, so it always looked awful. This solution opens up the front room and gives space for so much more stuff! I love it!

I've also been playing with a super cute baby and some yarn. :) I have some super cute scarves to show for it. I'm hoping to sell some at my next craft show.

Oh yea, one more organization project. My mom in law got me this awesome drawer organizer. I switched around the placement of some of our stuff to use it to a better extent. Also... LOVING IT!

So, this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for organization. LOL! Oh, and my amazing husband, my sweet children, our home, and sooo much more. Life is good.

a little funny for you

2010-11-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

I never know if things that I find hilarious will be as funny to other people, but we're going to try this one. We were in the car yesterday and Goose asked me if I had the gift of charm speak. Apparently, its a concept in "The Last Hero" which he is reading right now.

Me: "What is charm speak?"

G: "It is a gift that some people have that makes other people do just about anything they say".

Me: "hmm... I don't have that. It sounds sort of like people speaking in the book "Goose Girl".

G: "Yep, its just like that."

Me: "Do you think anyone in our family has that?"

G: "I don't know. I don't have it."

Tank, from the backseat: "I think I have that!"

Maybe it wouldn't be so funny if it wasn't partially true??

We had a fun halloween around here. We had a doctor, 2 ballerinas, Buzz Lightyear and a bulls cheerleader. :) What a bunch of cuties. Everyone was glad to be feeling better finally. We recently went through a round of stomach flu. Twister brought it home and everyone took a turn feeling awful. My turn made me super empathetic to everyone else. I haven't been that sick in a very long time. SO glad to be done with that. On top of just feeling awful, I feel like a lost a full week. My birthday snuck up on me so fast that I didn't even realize it WAS my birthday until late morning when I got on facebook and saw it posted on my wall. Sad, I know. It wasn't much of a celebrating type of day, but Benson made it special with flowers and the perfect card. Cake came late in the week with the off tune singing of happy birthday from my family. :) I love that. Anyway, one year older and wiser, yahoo!

Now, you'll have to excuse me so I can get back to work... I have another craft show coming up on Saturday. I think a few more like this are in the works this week...

Of course, I have to fit that around my crazy week of teacher conferences, doctor appointments and shuffling 5 kids around. :) I love my life.

Some new stuff from Designs in Floral

2010-10-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

I've been getting ready for some craft shows and wanted to share some of my new designs. :)

Dainty decorated tree.

This one was created from original artwork by my grandfather. Guess art does run in the family. :)

This is supposed to be a covered bridge. I'm not sure if it "reads" right. What do you think?

Another one to join my Christmas card collection.

Feel free to share any ideas you may have... I can always use new inspiration. :)

Hello Blue Eyes!

2010-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

I think the eye color might actually stick this time. :)

ps Goose wants credit for taking this gem of a picture.

Home Sweet Home

2010-10-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

Is official. The kitchen is done and we are moved back in. Now to organize all the STUFF we came back with. I think it multiplied. So many bags to go through. Sigh. At least the kitchen is clean. :)

so close... yet . . .

2010-09-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

not quite done. This is what my kitchen looks like today.

I changed my mind about the backsplash. I love this!! You can also see the new window installed.

My new chandelier. :) Isn't it pretty?!!

In more exciting news, Cinderelly has decided she wants to be mobile. She's been rolling around whereever she wants to go for weeks. This week, she officially started army crawling. *sigh* She's so darn cute, but growing up too fast!!

More news... Sweetie got glasses. Its not a very strong prescription so she isn't wearing them all the time, but I think she'd like too, just because she thinks they are cute!

Lastly, (sorry no picture yet) Goose started band this week at school. He decided he wanted to learn the trumpet. Ei-ya-Ey! He's been "Plllbbtt"-ing all week. Wish ME luck with that! :)

Pictures of the kitchen progress

2010-09-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

We've spent the last month enjoying the generosity of my awesome parents by staying at their house while we work on the kitchen. Everything seems to just be taking a little longer than expected... however, we are making good progress and we're planning on getting back home really soon. Look how much ~~we've~~ Benson has done!!!

My beautiful granite tile countertop.

Our current thought for the backsplash along side my "new to me" sink. My sister kept this one in her garage for almost a year because she loved it. They got a new one that was the same except for being undermount. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the beautiful granite tiles were thanks to her too. They were going to use them in their own kitchen, then decided on something else. I am SOOO lucky!

The removal of the soffit. Note the pipes that had to be moved...

..because you'd never know they were there when he got done with the drywall.

Aren't they gorgeous!! :)

All new storage. This was all wasted space before. The microwave will go straight ahead and the stove goes underneath. We got a steal of a deal on a floor model stove, we are really excited about it, because we didn't think it would fit into the budget.

So, that's where we are at. Yet to come are a new window, the backsplash and all the finishing/trim work. I'm so thrilled with how it is turning out. Benson is absolutely amazing! I am constantly amazed at how capable he is with this stuff. I am one lucky girl! :)

slight update

2010-09-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

I need to bring my camera back to my house so you can see how things are coming, but until then, you'll have to endure my descriptions.

The base cabinets are set and the counter is done except for a trim piece. My BEAUTIFUL sink is installed and the plumbing is all hooked up! The next huge undertaking is fixing the electrical wiring. As Benson was testing some of the electrical systems, he found out that we have about 60% of our house sitting on a single circuit. Since the ceilings are open from taking out the soffits, now is the time to pull the needed wiring to spread them out. Once that is done, he will patch up the walls... THEN my upper cabinets can go in. Slowly, but surely, we are getting there! WOOHOO!

As for our other happenings, the kids started school last week. Goose is in 5th, Sweetie is in 3rd and Tank started Kindergarten. Tank was SOOO ready to start school. She has been happy to go every day. Although, we had a near meltdown when she got two warnings for talking and had to move her discipline stoplight to yellow. It was a very sad day, but I think she has recovered. She was even more thrilled the next day to tell me she stayed on green. :) I guess that means the lesson was learned. I'm enjoying the structure and homework isn't in FULL swing yet, so I'm enjoying that while it lasts. Ha! I do find I have to give more individualized attention to Twister as he is used to having buddies to play with all the time. Cinderelly is growing like a weed!! She is rolling herself all over the place! She even has this inch-worm-ish move to scoot forward. I'm SO not ready for her to be moving around! I guess I can't prevent it though. :)

So, that's a tidbit of what's going on. I've been keeping busy just with the kids and trying to do my own projects in between. So, I guess that means life is good. :)

Pictures!!!

2010-08-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

I have the most beautiful family! Love these kids!!! (and love these pictures of them!)

Thanks to Erin B. Photography!!

More in the kitchen

2010-08-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

So, we are moving along in the kitchen. Benson got the sink and counter out. We were unpleasantly surprised to find this steel pipe sticking out of the wall. The previous owner went as far as to build his own cabinets around the pipe! Why he didn't move it is a mystery. Anyway, Benson decided to move it.

Thank heaven for handy husbands! The only downfall is that a small leak in the crawlspace became a big leak while the water was turned off. Benson had an explanation for why this happened, but it was over my head. Ha! So, now we have to have a plumber come in anwyay to fix this leak in our water main. Once that is done, we can install the cabinets and keep this party moving!

Since the water has been off for several days, and we removed the sink etc... we moved out of our house and are house sitting for my parents while they are out of town. We should be back in there in a few days, but it sure has been nice to hang out here with a fully functioning kitchen in the mean time!

I also took on a craft project to pass some time. I took a girls size 7 dress and converted it to a Cinderelly sized dress. I think it turned out pretty good.

Then I was inspired to use the leftover fabric to make some doll clothes.

Kitchen progress

2010-08-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

So we FINALLY got our flooring! It seemed to be lost in transit for a while there, so we were thrilled when it finally arrived. We didn't waste any time starting to put it in! But before you see pictures of that, you have to endure the pictures of what we've been doing to pass the time.

Removing the old uneven and water damaged subflooring.

Sanding down the high spot in the subfloor.

Removing soffits...

And getting REALLY excited to see some progress!!

We LOVE the new flooring and can't wait to pull out the old cabinets in the rest of the kitchen! WOOHOO!

And just to keep things interesting... here's a recent picture of Cinderelly and me. :)

She is getting so big. Already 4 months old! How does that happen?

Reunion 2010!

2010-07-21T12:26:00.000-07:00

My family got together last week for a family reunion. When you consider that I have 7 siblings, all of whom are married, and many of whom have at least a few kids... the numbers multiply quickly. :) There were 42 of us in total, and we had a BLAST! Here's a few pictures of what our week looked like.

A friendly game of Kubb.

Our giant waterslide. So much fun, but the water was COLD!

Benson's project, a super ginormously fun tire swing. I don't think I saw it empty the whole week.

A few of the girls by the temple sunstone in Nauvoo.

The oxcart. The oxen were not in any hurry. lol!

A few of the boys in the statue garden in Nauvoo.

Silly string fight!! We had a birthday party for everyone.

We also had professional pictures taken of the whole group. It will be a while until I get those, so for now you can only see the preview on the photographers blog. Go there now. We had an amazing week. It was over too quickly.

Now all I have to look forward to is my new kitchen. :) Not to mention all the work that entails. LOL! Pictures of that progress coming soon.

hole in the floor

2010-07-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

For Kelli. :) Another "picture is worth a thousand words" Benson had to saw through the flooring to get to the leaky pipe under it. It probably would look better without the tape, but the basic problem of a hole cut out of the flooring would still be there. When we did this, we thought we could buy a couple extra pieces of flooring material and just replace the pieces we cut. Unfortunately, every flooring company in the world makes their flooring fit together in different ways. :( Since we have to replace it anyway, we're also going to try to level out the floor. Right now it drops by about an inch from where the stove is to the wall by the kitchen table. If you look closely, I've blackened where the bubble is on the level. Not even close to between the lines. I suppose this explains why I always have balls, toys and spills sitting right up against that wall.

(By the way we're saving the good pieces of flooring to use in our pantry or maybe a bedroom)

So, here we go!

What are we thinking??

2010-07-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess the pictures probably are worth a thousand words, but I'll give a little narration anyway. First, below we have the "hole in the floor" where we had to cut through the flooring to get to a leaky pipe below it. We tried in vain to match the type of flooring that was put down. Everybody makes their flooring fit together in different ways. :(

Our children have been a little hard on our drawers. Ok, "little" might be an understatement. After repairing and rebuilding the drawers a dozen times, we finally gave up and left the fronts off.

The previous owners made optimal use of counter space. Including mounting extra counter over the stove to put the microwave on. Functional, but not very pretty. Plus a lot of wasted space there.

SO! What we were thinking was that we really wanted to fix some of these issues. I hope we're not in over our heads, but we've committed to doing a kitchen makeover. We ordered the cabinets, but we are going to do all the work ourselves. Wish us luck!!!

Happy Independence Day

2010-07-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

Just before things got started.

Watching the fireworks. Notice Twisters hands over his ears... LOL!

He kept telling me the lights were loud. :) My favorite moment was when he uncovered his ears and tried to cover mine. He is a sweet boy. As loud as they were, he was ready for more after the finale...

I think Goose enjoyed the show too. Sweetie loved watching them with her cousins. Tank always tells us its too loud. She liked the fireworks we could see in the distance that were tiny and silent. Sorry honey, not exciting enough for us.

Cinderelly did very well for her first fireworks. She was sitting with my Mom who tried to keep her ears covered. She didn't cry until it was nearly over. By the way... loving the pants. I won't divulge your identity here, but you know who you are. :) You can thank Twister for the picture.

The finale was the best I've ever seen. And that is saying alot. They always put on a spectacular show, but the finale just kept going and going! It was so loud you could feel it in your chest. I love that!

GOD BLESS THE USA !!!!!

Please remember only two defining forces have ever

offered to die for you... JESUS CHRIST

and the AMERICAN SOLIDER. One died for your soul, the other for

your freedom... My heartfelt thanks and deep gratitude to ALL those

who have fought for my FREEDOM!

Happy BirthAnniversaBlessBaptiFathers Day to you!

2010-06-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

To say we had a busy weekend here *might* be an understatement. We chose Friday to celebrate Goose's birthday since we knew we had a lot of fun to come. I took him and a friend to see "How to Train Your Dragon". What a great movie! It was a lot of fun. He got a few gifts that I think he liked. So, we started the weekend on a good note.

That night, Heidi, Opa and Gma arrived to attend Sweetie's baptism and Cinderelly's blessing. We thorougly enjoyed having them come to help us celebrate.

Sweetie was baptised at the same time as her cousin. She loves having her cousins live so close. They are her best friends.

To add to the celebration, Opa and Gma were celebrating 51 years of wedded bliss. I asked a friend of mine to make us a cake in honor of all of our celebrating. The detail on this cake is astounding! There are balloons around the bottom for the birthday... waves for the baptism . . . wedding rings for the anniversary... a tiny baby in a cradle for the blessing and ties on the top for Father's Day.

http://trishacakes.blogspot.com/

Oh yea, did I mention it was Father's day too? I am so grateful to have a husband who was worthy and willing to bless his daughter, baptise another daughter and confirm her. We had the best weekend! We were so glad to share it with family and friends.

Memories for a lifetime.

Oh dear...

2010-06-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

First of all, no we are not done with school yet. Next monday is our last day. With that said, Goose had his first school instruction on human development today. That's a nice way of saying they watched a puberty video. :) When he came home we had a conversation about it. The first thing he said was that they talked about urine and sperm and he didn't know what urine was. Negative points for me for always calling it pee. Ugh. I asked him if they explained what it was in the video. He said no, but he had asked in class. I clarified... "Urine is another word for pee, and sperm is what a male contributes to make a baby. Girls have eggs, boys have sperm.. . when they meet, a baby can grow." He paused...then said half under his breath:

"I still don't know how the egg and sperm get together."

This is where the "oh dear" comes in. I knew I had to hold back my giggle and answer him seriously, but I would have preferred to dodge the bullet or change the subject. LOL! About a week ago he told me that he knew what sex was... (imagine this all in a hushed tone like he was in on a secret.) I asked him to explain it to me (so I could see what he had heard). He said, "its mating." I held in my giggle, smiled and said that, yes, yes it was. Anyway, with that as background, I told him that sex (or mating) was how they got together. He had a slightly horrified look on his face for half a second, then looked deep in thought. I was afraid that he might ask more clarification, but instead he then asked me why his hands might grow before the rest of him. :)

He had a few other questions that we talked about, and we had a great conversation. I've been stressed about this video and "the talk" for months. And that was it! I'm sure this won't be the last "the talk", but I'm glad he felt comfortable enough to talk to me and ask as much as he wanted to know. As a kid, I was always too embarrassed to ask *any* questions. I wish I has been confident enough to just ask, it sure seems silly now!

Anyway, that was a highlight of my day. :) In other news, we have a nickname for our sweet girl! The voting was unanimous in favor of Cinderelly. So, at least in blog world, that will be her nickname. :) Thanks for voting.

Nicknames

2010-05-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our newest little princess needs a blogging alias. She's earned 2 nicknames so far... Bluey (because of her striking blue eyes) and Cinder-elly (because she's a princess)... SO.... vote for your favorite... I can't decide!

Isn't it beautiful?!

2010-05-11T14:27:00.000-07:00

This was part of my Mother's day gift from Benson this year. Isn't it the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen?! He mulched the flower garden I've been working on in front. He also got me a beautiful hydrangea plant to add to the garden. He said he was looking for a perennial plant that had smooshable flowers. I love that man. He knows me all too well.

We had an awesome Mother's Day celebration with my AWESOME mom as well. The men all cooked and we had a glorious feast of grilled salmon, burgers, salad, potatoes, fruit and more. It was delicious and tasted even more sweet because I didn't lift a finger for it! :) I felt very loved. I must say, though, that the best gift for Mother's day I already had...

I feel very blessed to have the kids I have. I would not feel complete without them. They are my life.

I do not feel bad that my life revolves around my kids. I wouldn't have it any other way.

They make my life meaningful.

And as if I wasn't lucky enough, I get to share my children, my life and my eternity with the most wonderful man I have ever met.

Benson, I LOVE YOU!

It may be difficult to juggle the schedules of 5 kids, but it is so worth it. Anyone who doesn't think motherhood is worth the sacrifices doesn't know what they are missing.

'til next time. . .

Proof!

2010-04-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

She's 2 days shy of being a month old! Where does the time go? I'm fairly certain that she's going through a growth spurt at the moment too. Our 3 hour stretches of sleep at night were sadly shortened to every hour and a half last night. *yawn*. The only thing that seems to make that ok is that she started smiling at me yesterday. Not just the adorable little gas smiles that keep you hoping for more, but the eye contact GRINS that just melt your heart. We love this little sweetie!

Look who is TWO! and Pretty in Pink

2010-04-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it either! My sweet little Twister has turned 2!!!

With all the craziness of life with a newborn, I nearly forgot his birthday. I hate to admit that, but since I came through in the end, I *think* its ok. 2 years ago, this little boy decided to make his grand entrance into this world 6 weeks before his due date.

After a 9 day stay in the NICU, he came home to a very happy family. We love him to pieces. Even if he is a bit of a twister. :) We celebrated with brownies and presents with just our little family. I think he enjoyed himself.

He has jumped into the role of big brother like a pro. He LOVES his baby sister. He wants to hold her and kiss her all the time. He is fascinated by the way she eats (insert mother's eye roll here) and is a big help getting diapers and wipes when they are needed. He is very gentle with her to my huge relief. :)

Twister, we love you! and happy belated birthday. :)

We also took a few pictures on Sunday of all the girls. Twister was taking a nap at the time or I would've tried to get a family shot in. Oh well, enjoy these!!

Better late than never, she's here!!

2010-03-29T15:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in posting! Our precious daughter joined our family on March 24, 2010. She was 6lbs 12 oz and 19 inches long. I made it to 38 weeks plus 4 days gestation, by far a new record. :) Most importantly, she is healthy and beautiful!

The latest news

2010-03-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we got the biopsy results and the good news is that it is not the auto-immune disease the doctor suspected. The bad news is that we still don't know what it IS. He said there was evidence of damage to the capillaries in the kidneys, whatever that means. Benson will be following up in a few weeks.

In much much much more exciting news, Benson got a job offer!!!! It couldn't have come at a better time. The restaurant job hours were making every symptom that he had even worse. He has had his last day at Buffalo Wild Wings, and is anticipating the baby coming sooner rather than later so that he can start on March 29th at the new job. He will be working for a company that has an online compliance product that is highly adaptable for any HR need for a company. He will be dealing with the financial tracking of employees stock deals, in monitoring and entering the relevant data so that the company can keep its SEC compliance. (Those were his words, I'm still not completely sure what all that means!) Anyway, he will be working downtown Chicago, regular working hours, and even has the potential to work from home eventually. Money will still be tight, but there is potential for growth as well. We are both very excited.

As for baby, still no news. I'm extremely sick of being pregnant at this point. I can't sleep because I'm huge and uncomfortable, AND because I've had contractions EVERY night. Its beginning to really wear down my patience. The contractions seem to always be about 10 minutes apart, and just strong enough to keep me awake. They last for 2-4 hours, then peter out. I like to think it will go fast once it actually starts, but in the mean time... I'm tired.

Thanks for the prayers

2010-03-11T20:31:00.000-08:00

but....

you can ease up on the one for keeping this baby in. :) Just kidding. I really am grateful for all prayers uttered in our behalf.

SO... I haven't really been posting about all our medical issues lately. I'm not sure why, probably because we don't really have any answers yet. Everything started about a month and a half ago with Twister and Benson both getting pretty sick. This was around the same time as I had my false labor event, and Goose beat up a pole with his foot. Oh yeah, we like to do things big. LOL. Anyway, Benson missed a week of work and still wasn't feeling good after that. Twister ended up with pneumonia, but recovered fairly easily after getting the right meds. Benson went back to work at that point, but was just not feeling back to himself. He was REALLY easily fatigued.

About a week later, he developed a sharp pain in his kidney area that took him back to the doctor. He had lab tests and a CT scan done that were basically normal. Great, right? But what is the pain? A few days after that the kidney pain got so intense that we went to the ER. They did another CT scan with contrast this time, and since it was normal again, he was sent home with pain meds. I should mention that although various doctors had told us his labs were normal, his kidney function tests kept coming back on the high side of normal, or just slightly high. The ER doctor told us they were fine and that Benson was probably just a bit dehydrated. Anyway, fatigue was becoming a SERIOUS issue for Benson as well as the flank pain.

Then a new symptom developed, right upper abdominal pain. I took Benson back to our primary care doctor. He was awesome. He sat down with us for a good 20 minutes trying to go through every step of the past few weeks. He suggested another set of blood tests, testing for gallbladder issues, a visit to a nephrologist, rheumatologist, and gastroenterologist. It may sound like overkill when listed all at once, but if you know Benson, you know he is not one to lay around sick for a month "just for fun". SOMETHING was wrong. Anyway, the gallbladder ultrasound came back normal, so he then went on to do a HIDA scan. Our primary care doc had suggested that he thought Benson may have a chronic gallbladder issue, rather than something acute like gallbladder stones. Anyway, because he thought that, when the HIDA came back normal, he still suggested a consult with a surgeon.

In the mean time, Benson had finally gotten in to see the rheumatologist and nephrologist (kidney specialist). The nephrologist visit was probably the most helpful visit Benson had. After going over the labs and tests, he said that someone as healthy as Benson (never smoked, drank, young etc...) has absolutely no reason to have slightly high kidney function levels. Combined with his other symptoms, he was really worried about Benson. SO much so, that he scheduled a kidney biopsy to check for an auto-immune problem that he suspects. Benson had THAT test done earlier this week and should get results in 2-3 weeks.

Most recently, Benson had a consult with the surgeon about his gallbladder. THAT appointment was a joke. The doctor completely dismissed all of his symptoms and said that the tests were normal and taking out his gallbladder would be ridiculous. She can have her surgical opinion... that was fine. However, she went on to say that Benson looked perfectly healthy and really was doing overkill by doing all these tests. That was uncalled for. We aren't doing these tests for fun. Thanks anyway.

SO, that is where we stand. We are waiting for the biopsy results and a few more blood test results. Hopefully they will give some answers. He also has the appointment with the gastroenterologist in a couple weeks. That one is more of a follow up on some chronic stomach issues than anything else though. If the gallbladder pain doesn't ease up in the next few weeks while we wait for other answers, we will get a second opinion on that. Joy, joy joy. . . . gotta love medical issues. I'm just glad that we haven't added a premature baby to our list of medical issues. So far, she seems very content to stay right where she is. I had all those contractions for weeks, and this past week, they've been few and far between. Guess she found her "happy place". :) I'll be 37 weeks on Saturday and she is welcome to join the family ANYDAY. In fact, tonight would be fine. :)

My new calling

2010-03-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

So I was called as the "Teachings For Our Times" RS teacher and last Sunday was my first day to teach. On top of the stress of being 35 weeks pregnant; I was SOOOOOO nervous. I was just sure the nerves were going to put me into labor before I ever got up there. That or my water was going to break during the lesson. I just had a feeling about it. LOL. SOOOO, I didn't go into labor beforehand. Next, I just had to get through the lesson without labor actually starting. I stood up, put my papers in front of me, then proceeded to apologize for being really nervous and really pregnant.

Then I got a MAJOR contraction. Couldn't talk through it, except just as it was starting to apologize that being nervous gives me contractions.

awesome. I was just sure this was it. LOL! I was going into labor in front of EVERYONE.

Amazingly, I was able to get through that first contraction and the rest of them were not strong enough that I couldn't speak. Somewhere amidst some great comments, I wasn't quite as nervous and the contractions actually stopped! And my water didn't break! WOOHOO! Best part about it was I think I gave the whole lesson. Its all a bit hazy now, but people told me I did a great job. Go me! LOL!

no news is good news

2010-02-26T13:02:00.000-08:00

Another milestone

2010-02-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

I've made it to 34 weeks! Lets keep it going! :)

In other news, Tank has made it past her own big milestone, she turned 5!! She asked about going to her new school (kindergarten) the very next day. LOL. A few more months for that milestone. :)

Now the question is whose birthday will come next... Benson or the new baby... :)

I'm SHOUTING OUT!

2010-02-18T13:40:00.000-08:00

I wanted to throw a SHOUT OUT for my amazing sister, Kelli. She has been making me and others the MOST amazing jewelry over the past several years. My absolute favorite necklaces and earrings were all designed and created by her. She also has started making ADORABLE hair accessories too! The best part is, she's finally consented to share her talent with the rest of you!! I'm a little jealous that I have to share her talent with other people now... :) but I'm sure I'll get over it. Here are a few pictures of her amazing stuff and a link to her Etsy shop. PLEASE GO CHECK IT OUT!!

Can't take it any longer, and MUST SEE MORE? Click here to go to her shop! :)

Beware of the pool noodles...

2010-02-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, actually, its probably more accurate to say beware of the support poles in the basement. They aren't very forgiving.

So, we had another trip to the hospital. Benson and I FINALLY got to go out on a date yesterday! We tend to not be very original when we go out... our typical date is to go out to dinner then walk around and talk. With my experience the night before, I had to take it easy, so we went out to dinner, then drove around and talked. :) We drove to the video store and picked up a movie for later, and drove all around town. It was an awesome night and it felt so good to reconnect with Benson. Its amazing to me how hard it can be to have a "deep" conversation with the kids around. Constant distraction is an enemy to good communication. Anyway! It was a good and relaxing night. When we went to pick up the kids from the babysitter (thanks Deb!!!!) Goose was sitting on the couch icing his foot. When I asked what happened, he broke down into hysterical tears! Deb said he had been fine and icing it since it happened, but the tears were new! Poor guy! Anyway, the story is that a bunch of the kids were all having a sword fight with pool noodles in their basement. Goose was attempting to block away someone's noodle when one of those pesky support poles got in the way of his foot. Ouch!

There was no obvious sign of the injury, just a small bit of swelling and the large amount of pain. He wouldn't walk on it though, and every movement and touch caused some hysterics, so, I figured we better make sure there was no fracture. Off to the ER we went. I think the fear of the unknown played a big factor for Goose. He had a hard time pinpointing the pain and he just seemed to be ultra sensitive everywhere. After they got the x-rays and told him there was no broken bone, he was finally able to calm down. They wrapped it up for him and we went home to try to sleep.

He still won't walk on it today, but the pain is more localized and his foot is a little bruised... so I assume it IS a bad bruise and will heal over the next few days. Since Benson has work again today and my parents are still out of town, we are spending another day doing lots of nothing. I'm sad to miss church since I was released from nursery and have missed going to the Relief Society meetings, but I guess it will have to wait another week.

By the way, the contractions have slowed to a minimum again. HORRAY! I don't know what causes them to start up for me, it doesn't seem to be related to dehydration or completely due to a lot of activity either. I DO wonder if stress plays a part, but that is much harder to control than drinking a glass of water and not walking too much. I guess I'll just be grateful they have subsided for now. :)

Here we go again.

2010-02-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

I'm still in a bit of a daze today. I'm absolutely exhausted, but glad to be home. Last night was a small bit terrifying. I started having contractions at about 10pm. They were about 10 minutes apart, but strong enough that I couldn't sleep through them. I'm 32 weeks along as of today. Way too early for consistent contractions. So, I've done this before as you may remember. So why was it so bad this time? Well, Benson was at work. He was closing the restaurant which meant he couldn't leave until he was done, and he wasn't going to be done until about 3am. Lucky for me, I have my parents near by... right???? Well, my parents are on a weekend trip to see my brother. So, I was home with my 4 kids with no way to leave unless I woke someone who would've been COMPLETELY unprepared to help me. I have a few good friends I could've called, but more than anything, I just wanted the contractions to STOP! With my last pregnancy, they told me I was having contractions because I was dehydrated... so all night long I was drinking water. It didn't help. When Benson finally got home, I took off to be evaluated at the hospital. They gave me an IV and did what's called a fetal fibrinectin test. It tests for a hormone that appears before labor. Apparently a positive result is not a good indicator that labor is absolutely coming, but a negative has been shown to mean labor is at least 2 weeks away (in like 98% of cases). Luckily, mine came back negative. That was a relief. However, I was a little irked that they got the test back and I was immediately released to go home. I guess they don't care that I'm still having contractions if they're not impending labor. The nurse suggested I take some tylenol and/or benadryl to help me sleep through the contractions at night. I'm following up with my doctor on Monday.

Anyway, I truly am glad to have this little one still inside. I've done lots of nothing today, and will continue to do as much nothing as my crazy life permits. :P

Our Chore chart

2010-02-04T11:47:00.000-08:00

So, we've been through a few editions of chore charts with my kids. Some have worked better than others. My last attempt was a huge failure, so I was feeling the need to do something new again. My kids are very visual learners and the younger kids can't read yet, so I wanted to do
something with pictures.

I decided to use pictures of the finished chores as the visual reminder. We have pictures of each of the kids rooms all cleaned up, their laundry baskets in the laundry room, each of the rooms downstairs, the dishwasher all emptied out, and another of it filled up. We have one of the table all cleared off and one with the table set for dinner. You get the idea.... I collected pictures for a few days to get them all. I have pictures of their daily chores as well as chores that are done once a week. I then printed them out, laminated them, and put velcro on the back of each. What I'm having the kids do is take down the picture when they have finished that chore, and put it on the kitchen table. They then also take a silk flower and put it in the container on the table.

The idea is that everyone can see what has been accomplished that day and it makes our home beautiful! In addition, if they do all their chores, they can have dessert after dinner. So far the chart is working great, and I'm so glad to have the kids help around the house. Its getting harder to pick things up off the floor with this baby in my way. :) Oh, one last note, I used to try and mix up the chores so that no one had a "bad" chore for more than a week. That was part of my great failure with the last system. So for this round, I've told the kids they have the same list of daily chores everyday for the next year. Goose HATES touching dirty dishes, so I gave him the chore of emptying the dishwasher when its clean. Tank is easily distracted, so I have her doing 2 small areas in the house instead of one of the bigger ones. Like I said, so far so good, they are learning how to keep their specific zones clean and I don't have to worry about teaching them a new zone for a good long time. :)

One last picture of a to-do list that has been helpful... I don't know about your house, but my house can turn quickly into a chaos zone in the mornings as we get the kids ready for school. I decided I needed another list of what the kids need to have ready before they go out to the bus. I put the list in one of those frameless glass frames... It has a back, and glass, and just little clips to hold it together. Anyway, it works great as a dry erase board!

The kids like to use the dry erase markers and they can see their progress as they get ready for school. No more walking out the door without a snack or without the hair being combed. :)

Anyway, I hope you don't mind my bragging/sharing. :) I've been happy with the improvement in our system and wanted to share. Maybe it will help some of you in some way.

Whew...

2010-02-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

What a CRAZY week! It is now Monday, but a week ago on Saturday life threw us a sickness curveball. Twister came down with a fever and just felt miserable. On Sunday, Benson joined him in misery. Different symptoms, but they both were NOT feeling good AT ALL. On Monday, I took Benson to the convenient care here to see if he had strep... but the test came back negative. They gave him an antibiotic, but told him to wait and see if he got better before starting. Being the good nurse that I am, I had him start about 12 hours before the doc called to check on him and told him to start. LOL. Whatever that bug was really wiped him out though. He compared it to the horrendous fatigue he had when he had pneumonia. We're still waiting for some test results on him for a different issue, but he finally went back to work yesterday after taking an entire week off. I'm SO glad he is feeling better.

Anyway... on to Twister. He was feeling cruddy, but his symptoms were not severe. He had a cough, but not too bad... he had a fever, but not too high... he lost some appetite, but was still drinking... The only really "serious" symptom was his complete lack of energy. Anyway, I finally decided I needed a doctors opinion on Wednesday. What pushed me over the edge was that Tank was complaining of it hurting when she used the bathroom. Since I had to take her to the doc for that anyway, I brought Twister too. The conclusion from that visit was that Twister had pneumonia, and Tank was just fine! SERIOUSLY? ACK! Anyway, we started Twister on his antibiotic and he seemed to be acting much better the next day. Tank on the other hand, still had pain, so I took her back to the doc on Thursday. They started her on antibiotic and gave us a referral to see a urologist. Joy... more doctors. At some point on Thursday, I noticed that Twister's lips seemed to be more purplish/blue than they should be. I mentioned this when the doctor called on Friday to check up on him, and guess what? They wanted to see him again. SO! BACK TO THE DOC on friday for Twister. Are you feeling tired yet? I sure was. The doc determined that his o2 levels were not back up where they should be yet and that I needed to start a nebulizer for him. That was fun. By the end of the weekend, he finally was allowing us to give him the treatment without a massive fit. For us the trick was a Little People video and his binky. Whatever works!! Anyway, I had a follow up for him at the doctor again today and he is in the clear. I have to give him a nebulizer treatment just once a day for the rest of the week.

So, now we wait for Benson's results, and Tank's urologist appt. Oh, and of course I'm at the point in pregnancy where I get to go see my OB every 2 weeks. And I have an appt for Sweetie to finally get her allergies evaluated. I sure hope this is JUST a cluster of doctors visits and not a trend getting started. I had nearly forgotten how exhausting it is to have someone get so sick! I'm just really (REALLY) glad that I somehow avoided that nasty bug. I had just 1 or 2 days where I felt a little run down, but who can complain about that with what Benson and Twister were dealing with?

So, on to calm, quiet, not so rushed days ahead. Here's hopin' anyway. And if you feel like throwing a few extra prayers our direction, we'll gladly accept them. We've had some good leads for jobs recently, so we are praying for something to materialize out of those! I'm also about 31 weeks along now, and with Twister, I started having some contractions and other issues beginning at 32 weeks. Its makes me nervous! I really don't want this baby to have to spend time in the NICU. Its just SO stressful, I'd love to have a healthy full term baby to take home, pamper and love. :) 6 more weeks, that's all I'm asking for!

An uneventful life...

2010-01-15T16:11:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty boring around my house lately. Not much blog material, and not much exciting for us at all really, just our day to day insanity. So, a few updates on our family.
Tank has the month off from preschool, so I've enjoyed having her home with all her crazy comments and silliness. Today she told me that she really missed her blue eyes. Have you seen this girls eyes? She was never blue eyed. LOL. She also got really upset at Benson for not taking her to the store "to buy mom some Smooth Away, so she doesn't have to shave anymore". Maybe she's on the right track on that one; shaving is getting more difficult with the baby belly getting in my way. In case you missed it in the previous picture, here she is with her baby in her belly. :)

On the flip side, Twister is also home with me all day, and he hasn't been quite so cute. :P Well, of course he is still adorable, but his latest joy in life is helping himself to whatever he wants in the fridge. Today he spilled a pitcher of juice, helped himself to a handful of cheese sticks which he chewed on the wrapper, but didn't actually want to eat, and opened 2 yogurts which he also refused to eat. Time for a fridge lock!!! But, despite his antics, he is so darn cute. He is talking up a storm and LOVES to sing. My favorite thing to do with him is to sing nursery songs with him and listen to him attempt all the words. He also does all the actions. SO FUN! He also loves to play with balls and is quite entertaining to watch with them. Yesterday he entertained himself for an hour with a bat which he was using like a golf club, and a ball which he hit all around the room... then giggled uncontrollably. He's a ham, and we love him. :)Goose is back in the swing of things at school. He's actually been doing really well lately. Homework is not as difficult a battle as it has been sometimes, and he has really been a big help at home. He has chores that he has been fairly responsible with and he is ALWAYS a great help with Twister. Don't know where I would be without him.

Benson has been really really busy lately. He is trying shift up a gear in his job search. He's really feeling the need to find something with a regular schedule and in his field. Keep up the prayers on his behalf please! :) We still need them.

Sweetie is also back into the swing of things at school. One of her favorite things to do when she is home is to be the owner of her own restaurant. :) She will take everyone's lunch orders and actually make them for us! She is still very into her art and craft projects as well, and is very talented.

As for me, I'm hangin' in there. Most days that's about all I can do. I recently failed my 1 hour glucose tolerance test and had to go for the 3 hour. The same thing happened last pregnancy and I was a lot more bitter about it. LOL. This time I just decided to get it over with quickly. I did the test on Monday and they didn't call with results, so I can only assume I passed. I hate doctors offices that only call with bad results, but that is the way it goes with the office I'm at. Overall, I'm actually feeling better this month than last, even though I'm now in the 3rd trimester and according to the books, the 2nd trimester should be the "best". I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts, because its only a matter of time before I get really uncomfortable. My doctors have decided to watch me very closely for preterm labor with this pregnancy. When I was watched closely when I was pregnant with Tank, I delivered at 38 weeks. With Twister they didn't watch me closely at all because I'd gone "full term" the previous pregnancy. Go figure, I delivered at 34 weeks. So hopefully, I will go to at least 37 weeks with this one. Actually I don't really care how far along I go, as long as I don't have to leave the baby in the NICU. That is my goal.

Well, that's all for today!

A little miracle

2010-01-08T06:59:00.000-08:00

We've had a LOT of snow lately here. Last fall, we didn't get our trampoline taken down, so it was being weighed down by the snow. Yesterday Benson decided to take the net down in hopes that we don't ruin it by leaving it in this weather. Tank joined him outside and enjoyed playing in the snow.

Later in the day, Benson needed to leave for work, but couldn't find his keys. He looked all over the house, in his coat pocket, in his pants pocket.... they were not to be found. He finally asked Tank if she knew where they were.

"Yes Dad, they are under the trampoline."

Apparently they fell out of his pocket while working on the tramp. They surely would have been lost until Spring if our little Tank hadn't kept her eyes open. It may be a little miracle, but I'm sure glad for it!!!

Quick Tank-ism

2010-01-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

Benson and I got the kids to bed on time last night for the first time in at least 2 weeks. LOL. I guess that is part of Christmas vacation, right? Anyway, all the kids know that they should not come downstairs after Mom & Dad have given hugs and kisses and said prayers with them...

However, last night Tank came down anyway. She quickly began to explain herself:

"Mom, I know I need to go to bed, but we had a little candy situation."

Where does she come up with these sayings? a candy situation? Sure enough, she had found some candy in her bed, and *needed* to put it away immediately.

Funny girl.

Christmas Letter 2009

2009-12-25T07:14:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!

We've had a crazy but blessed year. We were blessed with a "for sure" job opportunity falling through, a car biting the dust and a shocking surprise of a pregnancy, plus a few other "blessings", but nothing that we couldn't handle. I never thought I'd be grateful for some of the trials that we have had, but I think I'm getting there. Despite our worries, we have been able to pay our bills every month, we have a safe and warm roof over our heads, and we've been blessed with good health. For that, I am truly grateful.

I have to start with a quick shout out to all the Santa's out there. I was worried about this holiday season disappointing the kids because I knew we couldn't add gifts to our budget. Through the help of many, many Santa's, we were blessed with an abundance! One of the biggest blessings came in the form of boxes of clothes for our new little girl, from a couple different sources. I mentioned this pregnancy was a surprise, well, it was so much of a surprise that we had gotten rid of all of our baby girl clothes a LONG time ago, and baby boy clothes right up until I found out I was pregnant. Buying new clothes is not exactly part of our budget right now either, but now I have clothes to outfit my baby for at least the first year!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all the Santa's out there, those who helped us knowingly and those who hardly know us at all, and yet were still extremely generous. Words just don't seem like enough.

One of our years highlights included visiting St. Louis for Benson's parents 50th wedding anniversary in June. We were blessed to see the majority of Benson's family at that event and it was a good time for everyone. It may not have been a tropical getaway, but we were glad to be able to take a few days to remember how awesome it is to have good family surrounding us. I sort of wish we had some other vacations or events to brag about, but most of our year has been spent at home.

Well, on to the more traditional Christmas letter ~~bragging~~ updates on the kids.

Goose is doing just amazing in school. He is in fourth grade this year. This past month he seems to have gotten into the schedule of school and is doing great keeping up with the workload and getting a little bit better organized. He still loves his legos, Star Wars, a computer game called Wizard 101 and reading. He has been a huge help to me lately with his little brother Twister. He will play games on the computer with him, build towers for him to knock down or just sit with him, and Twister couldn't be happier about the attention. :)

Sweetie is in second grade this year. She is also very smart and doing great in school. Her true loves lie in arts and crafts. She always seems to be making a card, or project for someone. She has a talent for it, and I love to do crafts with her by my side. She and her sister have a very close relationship and I love watching the two of them play together.

Tank is in preschool, and ready to turn 5 and start Kindergarten next year. She talks about it quite often. She is very social and loves to hold a conversation with anyone who will listen to her. She is very loving and super sweet with her little brother, but still insists on picking him up and moving him where she thinks he wants to go... thus still earning her nickname Tank. :) She is super girly and loves her skirts, dresses, and purses.

Twister is growing up much too quickly. He is now 20 months old and his language is suddenly exploding. Some of his favorite words include "andy" for candy, "at" for cat, and "up" for cup/milk... he also loves his family. He has words to name everyone including "Mommy", "Addy" for Daddy, "Tin" for Goose, "Aa" for Sweetie, "Ette" for Tank, "Papa", and "Nana". We love to quiz him on these names because they just sound so darn sweet coming out of his mouth. :) Some of his favorite things to do are knock down towers, read books, and watch "Ora" aka Dora.

Our April 3 Expected beauty seems to be growing well. She is slowing me down greatly, but I'm not too uncomfortable yet. We look forward to meeting her in a few months.

Benson is still working awful hours at Buffalo Wild Wings, but we are grateful for the income. He is trying to fit a job search into his schedule, which has proven difficult. Hopefully it won't be too long before something he finds actually comes through. Thank you for all the prayers we know are being given in this search!

As for me, most of the time I'd say I'm doing well. The house isn't clean, and dinner is often frozen pizza, but we always seem to have enough entertainment, enough toilet paper, enough food, and enough love... so I'd say we're doing well. I was able to make a bunch of the Christmas gifts that we gave this year, which was a lot of work, but so much more rewarding to me than going out to the stores. The gifts included a family memory game (using family photos), a block photo puzzle, rice bag Monster Warmers, pretend make-up and a photo slideshow DVD. Here's a small sampling of the DVD for your enjoyment:

I love receiving all of your Christmas cards, so I really would love to send one too... However for this year, consider this your official "card" from us... perhaps next year we will have the energy and resources to get out a snail mail card.

Again, Merry Christmas to all of you, and a happy new year.

White Elephant gift. . . .

2009-12-14T06:18:00.000-08:00

So....... This story starts many decades ago with my grandparents. I believe it was in the 1970's that my grandfather was called to serve as the mission president in the Phillipines. The people there were very generous and loving and gave my grandparents many gifts when it was time for them to come home. Several of the gifts were handcarved wood sculptures of amazing quality. My dad has a really cool water buffalo in his house, and there were others including some little pigs and other miscellaneous things. There was also one, somewhat disturbing sculpture. The sculpture was about 2 feet tall, and was of a naked warrior. He wore a loin cloth, that was actually cloth. I don't think I ever looked underneath but I assume it was carved underneath the fabric too... The most disturbing part of this naked warrior was that he had a a head hanging off of his waist and another head in his other hand. I remember this guy being in my grandpa's office, and thinking it was, well, scary! LOL! As I mentioned, my dad has several beautiful philippine sculptures, but this guy was kept in the basement. :) Well, several years ago, we went to a Christmas party with a white elephant gift exchange. I was at my Dad's house telling him I didn't know what we were going to bring, and he suggested that the sculpture might be quite the hit. Since I had no better ideas, the sculpture was wrapped up and brought along. The poor couple who got it were such good sports, but really, the sculpture is somewhat hideous... what would you do with it??? (The ribbon was to "dress him up" from the last exchange)

Well, that was at least 2-3 years ago, maybe more. I had lost track of him the moment he was in someone else's possession. I was nearly in tears today when I found out that our bishops wife has ended up with the infamous sculpture in another white elephant gift exchange. Apparantly the little man has been around the block a few times. It has even begun to collect signatures from those lucky enough to inherit him. Who knew what we were starting? :)
I did a little research and found that in years past, in the Philippines, headhunting was considered noble, and now symbolizes bravery among men. Nice symbol of bravery, right? Who's brave enough to display this guy until the next gift exchange?

Shhh!!!! It's a secret!

2009-12-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

I'm dying to share these cute little guys... but they are for a secret santa gift exchange, so if you know any of my kids cousins MUM'S THE WORD.

In my searches for fun, creative, handmade but not "HAND" made (as in yuck) gifts, I found *this link* to make rice pillows... I thought they were a good idea, but I was looking for gifts for the under 8 years old crowd, so I almost dismissed them. Then I had an epiphany. :) If they were cute and cuddly, maybe they could be exciting and functional. So, I began scrounging through my fabric scraps to see what I could come up with. For this project, Sweetie was my right hand girl... she "designed" a perfect little monster warm hugger.

Sweetie was ready to carry it around as her own little baby so I thought that was a good indicator that it might be cute enough. Now for the functional test. I put our little hugger into the microwave for a minute and pulled her out. The reactions were priceless. :) Sweetie didn't want to stop hugging it, and when I suggested that it could keep feet warm in a cold bed, she thought that would be awesome. :) That was good enough for me, so I started on the next one...

I let Goose and Twister check this guy out. After it was warmed up, I let Goose check it out first... he immediately asked if he could have one too! He said he needed one for after he comes in from playing in the snow. Good idea buddy!! Need to add that to my instructions card. :) Twister gave it a big hug and walked off with it, so I think he liked it too. I just hope the actual recipients are as excited about them as my kids are. I'm hoping that since my kids have helped design and have tested them out, that they will share their excitement with the cousins they are giving to... :) Now I have to see if I have enough rice to make 4 more for my kids too!! LOL!

Santa

2009-12-07T06:09:00.000-08:00

Twister didn't even cry at Santa this year! Progress, right?

We had a good time at our ward's Christmas breakfast this year. Good food, good company and good times.

So far, I've got about 4 1/2 gifts ready. Still more to go. I'm really hoping what my kids remember is the time, thought and effort we've put into gift giving this year. And obviously that time and effort is not at the stores. I've been trying to spend time *with* the kids making the gifts for others so that they are involved and creating memories. In this commercial world, that is a challenge, but I know it will be worth it.

Crafty websites

2009-11-28T13:08:00.000-08:00

So, I'm doing my own Christmas presents this year. Making them that is. I've been scouring the web for ideas and came across some awesome blogs/websites that have totally inspired me. I thought I would share some of these websites (and record them all in one place for myself).

#1 Opps, I craft my pants

#2 Someday Crafts

#3 Blog party link for christmas craft ideas

#4 Somewhat Simple

#5 Not so idle hands

I'd share what I'm making, but some of you awesome people may be recipients of my stolen creativity, so you'll just have to wait. :) In the mean time, here are a few crafts I've done recently to decorate my house with...

This next one is an advent calendar. I made 25 different magnets for each day. They store on the back of the cookie sheet.

By Christmas our calendar should look like this!

And a few close ups of the magnets just for fun.

Lots more crafting to go, and less than a month to get it all done!!

Our littlest princess

2009-11-18T15:08:00.001-08:00

Ultrasound results

2009-11-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

You'll have to forgive me for being a day late. Goose has been sick with an ear infection and I was absolutely exhausted last night. So much so that I fell asleep at 8pm! Then this morning I went to get the pictures to scan them and Benson had taken them to work with him. So... no pics for now. They were really fuzzy anyway, but its always fun to try to make things out.

Anyway, the ultrasound went well. I felt like the tech was going really fast, but I suppose he does these a lot. He kept saying the baby was really active and moving a lot, but staying face down which made getting a view for gender difficult. There was actually one point where we could see the baby opening and closing the mouth, then moving the hand up by the face. The baby actually even had enough room in there to stretch its legs out straight! I guess that's the advantage of being the fifth... the womb has been well stretched out by now. Anyway, the tech of course can't tell us much of anything, but he said he didn't see anything that he thought was concerning. The peanut is right on target for size... the heart was beating away like crazy, and as I mentioned, there was good movement. The doctor should call early next week with official results.

I wasn't sure the peanut was going to let the tech get any view at all to tell us the gender, but in the end, the tech won the battle.

Its a girl!!!

A glimpse at the crazy lady

2009-11-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

So, I finally went and got a haircut. The last time I had a haircut was in January. Since then, I've just trimmed it myself, and I was beyond hating it by now. I'm loving the new cut, but wondering if I should've gone a little shorter... especially with my tendency to wait too long between cuts. What do you think?

Next up... the big ultrasound is coming up. I'm 19 weeks today, and my ultrasound is next Friday. I'm sort of hoping for a particular gender, but more out of rational convenience than really wishing for one or the other. :) I'll let you know.

Last up, just a fun photo I created in photoshop today. The very front picture was me at 8 weeks. I felt like I was showing at that point (well bloating, but still, I was beginning to LOOK different). The final bit of belly you see is my belly today. Baby seems to be getting big, and I'm finally beginning to feel little kicks.

I'm trying to enjoy the flutters and the relative easiness of the second trimester... especially since I intend for this to be our last pregnancy. LOL. Its nice to have a bit of energy back, but I wish there was a break from the insane pregnancy hormones too! I still feel like I'm struggling a bit much with those. For example, my birthday was about a week ago. We had family in town and they surprised me with a new closet shelving system for my workspace. Benson spent most of the day installing it, then we all went out to dinner at a restaurant. Overall, it was really a good day. I had even gone on a date with Benson earlier in the month to a "They Might Be Giants" concert. So, I really had no reason to complain. However, ON my birthday, there was no birthday cake, and no singing. I thought I was totally fine with it... until 2 days later. I totally bawled like a baby to my husband about poor me and my lack of cake. My good husband caught my ridiculous pregnant "hint" and bought a cake and sang to me with the kids the next night. What a good man. :) I instantly felt a hundred times better. If it isn't obvious, I tend to just blow everything out of proportion lately. A birthday cake was an easy fix, but worrying about the future is a whole different ball game. I won't go there today... then you'd see what a real nutcase of a pregnant lady I can be! Just enjoy your little laugh at my expense, and I'll hopefully be back on Friday with some news! (Pray for uncrossed legs! LOL!)

For a little giggle...

2009-11-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

So... last night my mom invited me and the kids over for dinner. She made sour cream enchiladas (YUMMM!!!!). With the leftover tortillas she decided to put some cheese on them and melt them and let the kids have those too. Well, the tortillas my mom bought were fat free, omega 3 enriched tortillas. Great in theory, however, when those quesidillas came out of the microwave, all my kids were asking "WHAT is that SMELL!!??" After sniffing around and trying to figure it out, our best guess was that the omega 3 in the tortillas didn't agree with the microwave. Anyway, they tasted just fine if you plugged your nose. LOL! The enchiladas came out of the oven and tasted amazing (as always). As dinner was wrapping up, I think it was Tank who asked "Where did that awful smell go?"

Sweetie answered: "We ate it."

Oh the simple wisdom of children. I haven't laughed that hard in weeks.

Trunk or Treat 2009

2009-11-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

We had a COLD but fun Halloween around here. We did a trunk or treat with the members of our ward at church. The kids had a great time and were loaded up with TONS of candy as usual. I let them pick out 20 pieces to eat whenever they felt the need and the rest were put into a community pot. :) They will be our dessert for lunches etc for a good long time. The kids were disappointed that we didn't take them around the neighborhood this year. I guess I don't blame them, but we were freezing!! They tried to be happy with handing out candy to the handful of people who came to our house and eating some of the candy they got.

A few more pictures

2009-10-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

I decided to skip school pictures. Of course I sent them to school on picture day dressed nicely so that the class photos will hopefully have a good remembrance of my kids. However, as far as buying them ourselves, the cost just seemed too outrageous for this year. SO! Today I took their annual fall photos. I don't have the traditional blue watery looking background, but I kind of like how the black turned out.

Why I'm wiped out today.

2009-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

I hope that means the kids are wiped out too and they will sleep soundly tonight. :)

Update

2009-10-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

So.... we are well into the swing of fall here. School is in full routine, homework is a daily (might I add awful) battle and the days are getting crisp and beautiful.

Goose is doing great in school. My only complaint is the aforementioned homework battle. He often forgets to bring things home that are required for his homework. He has 3 different teachers through the day because of his gifted classes and I am beginning to feel like they don't coordinate homework very well. There are nights when he has social studies, spelling, reading and math. Those nights he can easily spend from the time he gets home until 7pm (with a break for dinner) doing only homework. Then he need to usually read for 20 minutes as well, which he does at bedtime. After spending ALL day doing school work, it seems like it shouldn't take sooo long for homework. Part of his problem is that he doesn't focus and just get it done, but still!!!

Ok, that rant is over. didn't mean for it to come out like that, but tonight was another battle, and hes' still not done at 6:30pm. I guess I should be grateful that I haven't had any calls from his teachers. I can only assume he is working acceptably in class...

Sweetie is also succeeding in second grade. Homework is much more manageable. Usually just one worksheet and reading for 20 minutes. She is very neat and exact about getting her homework done. Her latest accomplishment is keeping her room clean for the past 2 weeks! I've been very proud of her diligence in keeping it up. The special treats from Nana haven't hurt her willingness either. :)

Tank... in preschool and ready for high school. She loves the attention she gets in class and craves it that much more from me the moment she gets home. She's made some beautiful projects already and we are excited to see what new creativity she brings home next.

Twister is gaining more personality every day. He makes me laugh ALL the time. Its not usually what he's doing that is funny, so much as its the way he looks at me as he's doing it. For example, today he was eating his lunch and climbed down off his chair. I was watching him do this, so he continued walking all the way around the table, without taking his eyes off me. It was like he was just waiting for me to pounce on him and put him back in his chair. It was all I could do to laugh at him. He's such a character, I love this age for that. I don't so much love the enormous messes he is capable of making, but that is a post for another day. :)

The Peanut is growing well I'm told. I'm nearly 15 weeks now and had my doctor's appointment today. The doctor actually really scared me by not finding the heartbeat for several minutes, however once the little peanut stopped moving around, the heartbeat was strong at 150 beats per minute. I feel like I may have FINALLY *really* gotten out of the first trimester yuckies. I hope. Last time I posted that I was feeling better and taking control of the house... then my headaches came back to haunt me full force. NO FUN. They were not typical migraines for me, but they were very persisitant and still painful. Anyway, I've had 2 days headache free, so I'm really hoping I'm on to better days. In general, I do have more energy. My only bad times seem to be around 5pm when I'm trying to juggle making dinner, really needing to eat, and kids that haven't finished their homework yet. ugh!

Benson and I are going on a REAL date this weekend. I can hardly wait! Its been a long time. Between his horrible schedule and not having extra moola for going out, its been months at least since we've been out on a date. We're going to a "They Might Be Giants" Flood Concert. Its somewhat sentimental for us because we went to one of their concerts when we were first dating. :) It will be fun.

So... that's our life in a nutshell. :)

The difference between the first and the fifth pregnancy.

2009-09-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

Right around 3 months with Goose and the peanut. You'll never guess which is which. LOL!

More of the same

2009-09-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

BORING! Ever feel that way? I just don't feel like I have much to contribute to the lovely world of blogging lately. Life hasn't changed much except for the big things I showed you pictures of. I guess I *could* elaborate a little on those.

First up... our little peanut. A happy little surprise (or massively big shock, whatever wording works for you.) LOL. Despite the surprise, we are really excited. Sometimes the best things in life are not planned and I'm completely anticipating that to be the case for us. I'm about 3 months along. I calculated my due date to be at the end of March, but an early ultrasound put the peanut a week and a half behind where I thought I was. So, the due date is April 3rd. I really tried to convince the doctor to stick with my first due date so that it can "look" like I go further along, but he said no. :P (My longest pregnancy was 38 weeks in case you didn't remember, the shortest was 34.) We are praying that Benson is able to get back into a finance job before this little one arrives.

A few funny stories related to the pregnancy. During the week before I found out, I happened to be at the grocery store. As I walked down the aisle, I saw pickles. I like pickles, but I never buy them because Benson and the kids don't touch them. However, on this particular day, I decided I didn't care if they didn't eat them, I wanted them! They looked good! So, I put them in the cart. A few aisles down, ice cream called my name. I usually try to avoid buying sweets, so this was also unusal. Here I was pregnant, not knowing it, not even remotely suspecting it, and buying pickles and ice cream.

Another quick story, I was about 6-7 weeks along and really surprised at how bloated I was. My pants were already not fitting! Anyway, Sweetie came up to me and asked me if I had a baby in my tummy! I was not ready to tell the kids, so I simply asked her why she would ask me that. Her response was just that she really wanted another brother or sister. Although, she WAS looking at my stomach the whole time she said it. LOL. She asked me about 6 various times before I finally spilled the beans to her and the other kids. When she asked that final time, I responded the same way I had before, "Why are you asking that?" This time she said because it looks like I have a baby in there. Well, I couldn't tell her I was just getting fat could I? So I called in the other kids and told them all. Immediately I had "I want a boy" and "I want a girl" being blurted out. Love kids. So glad I don't have any control over that!

I think that's it on the prego front. I'm finally starting to get over the morning sickness. I've even started to get a handle on the inside of my house again. Its hard anyway when you have 4 kids and your husband is gone 60-65 hours every week. Add feeling completely exhausted and nauseous to the mix and its easy to let the house slide out of control. One room at a time, I'm taking back control!

The second topic of interest, the house project! It has been a LOOOONNNNG time coming as you know. The project is officially finished. The only thing left is for the contractor to pick up his tools and us to clean out the garage so that we can start parking in there again. Its only been 11 months since we've been able to do that!!! So glad to have that over with, but SO happy with the results. We've planted grass seed and are hoping for a beautiful green lawn in the spring.

School is going well for the kids. Tank started preschool on Wednesday, so I actually have a couple hours in the morning with just Twister and me. He doesn't let me get much done during that time, but we enjoy playing. Tank is usually better about letting me get a few things accomplished when Twister is taking his nap, so it all works out.

Well, I think that is it! Until next time....

Holy cow!

2009-09-16T11:07:00.000-07:00

My latest excuse

2009-09-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Progress... we might just finish this!

2009-09-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Excuses. . .

2009-08-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

for my lack of blogging.

Excuse #1: Work has begun on the house again. We're pushing a year since we started, but the end is in sight! Most recently, WE GOT NEW WINDOWS!!! Finally! Siding, gutters, and a bit of landscaping, and we'll be done!

Excuse #2: Preparing for the inevitable

The kids started school again on Tuesday. I feel blessed that they were excited to go. Tank would've jumped right on that bus if I would let her, but she has one more year of preschool.

Excuse #3: Troub, I mean Twister!

Love that smile. :) But he is getting into a lot of mischief and making lots of messes. Always keeping me on my toes.

So, those are my excuses for today. I have more, but I'm afraid I'll sound really lame if I just keep going. Just know that I am thinking of all you, my blogging buddies) and hope to get into some kind of routine sooner rather than later.

Our trip to Nauvoo

2009-08-15T06:11:00.000-07:00

This past week, we decided at somewhat of the last minute, to go to Nauvoo. I wasn't sure how Tank would be feeling after her surgery, but she made a miraculously quick recovery, so off we went. We left Wednesday morning as early as we could get out the door.
And whoa-la! 4 1/2 hours later, we were in small town Nauvoo. In case the fields and fields of corn weren't enough to prove that this is a different sort of place, the lawnmower at the gas station made its point. LOL!

Our first stop was the LDS visitors center. We walked through the amazing statue gardens and showed the kids where we used to practice our dances in the field behind the place. I was pleasantly surprised at how interested the kids were in "our" history in Nauvoo as well as the church history.

One of the things I think the kids enjoyed the most was a carraige ride around Nauvoo. They pointed out all the homes, we went by the river, and really got a good feel for the city as a whole. I learned on this ride, that I am severely allergic to horses. Luckily I had benadryl along, but it was a bit scary there for a while.
Sweetie took this beatiful shot with the temple in the background. :)

After our tour, a swim, and a yummy dinner, we went to a show called Sunset on the Mississippi. I didn't take any photos, but it was pretty entertaining. It had the feeling of camp skits... mostly cheesy stuff, but still thorougly entertaining with some amazing talent mixed in. We pushed the kids limits by staying after the show for a performance by BYU's Vocal Point (a very talented acapella group). The kids were seriously tired, but I think they enjoyed it as much as we did.

On Thursday we started out by going to Carthage jail. Any mention of John Taylor or Willard Richards got the attention of my kids pretty thoroughly. They let everyone know that they were related.

After Carthage we visited the Community of Christ owned portions of Nauvoo. We went on their tour and I was thoroughly impressed. The tour guide really emphasized what we had in common with them. In addition, he let us go behind some of the gates to see interesting things like a hidden ladder in a closet that Joseph may have used to hide from unfriendly mobs. The kids thought that was REALLY cool. Every house should have some hidden passages. :)
Twister had a hard time on the trip just because we didn't take time out for his naps. I think this picture captures how he "really" felt. LOL!
Here we are at the brick yard collecting our traditional Nauvoo brick. Goose REALLY wanted to keep it for himself, but I think he is resigned to sharing now.
Another favorite thing was a play spot called pioneer past-times. They had clothes for the kids to dress up in and all sorts of games and toys that were traditional in pioneer times.

Inside one of the little play cabins they had for the kids there. Tank was busy cooking for her baby. :)

Benson and I tried out the stilts... they are much harder than they look just for the record. :) You can ignore the picture of Benson, he makes it look easy. Apparantly he became a pro at stilts one year at scout camp.

So, we had a great time. Really, my only complaint would be that it was such a quick trip. I would have loved to have spent more time reminiscing and visiting Benson and my old favorite places. We met and fell in love in Nauvoo. It will always be a very special place for us. It was really great to share some of that with our kids.

A day at the hospital

2009-08-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

This morning, bright and early, I took Tank to the hospital for an outpatient surgery. A little over a month ago, she had some strange urinary symptoms accompanied by some swelling. I took her to the doctor and the urinary symptoms were dismissed since there was no infection, however the swelling was confirmed to be a hernia. We explained the procedure as much as we thought she could understand. We even got to do a tour of the surgery wing, where they showed her everything they would be doing, including taking her blood pressure, changing into pajamas, picking a prize, and using a mask to fall asleep to. She wanted watermelon scent in her mask. She was actually really excited for her surgery. This is her in the waiting room.
Still cheerful and excited in the prep room. They *tried* to give her blue pajamas to change into. Are you kidding? Not this girly girl. She asked if they had any others, this yellow dress was much more appropriate for her. (even though it was all open in the back, lol). Before they took her back for the surgery, she was given a medicine to help her relax and forget everything. She complained when we got home that she didn't get to use the mask with the watermelon scent. She was really looking forward to it, but I guess the first medicine blocked the memory. Oh well.
I skipped any "after pictures" at the hospital. It wasn't a pretty picture. She was pretty miserable for a while there. Finally, some Tylenol with codeine and an hour nap helped her feel a little better. The doctor fixed the hernia on the right side, then checked the left side to find another hernia almost as big as the first. He fixed them both. When I mentioned her urinary symptoms again, he noted that before the surgery, they had to empty her bladder. She woke up in the morning and went pee, then went pee *right* before they took her back. And of course, she hadn't had anything to eat or drink since yesterday. Anyway, he suggested getting that evaluated by her pediatrician. So unfortunately, this surgery may not be the end of medical stuff for her. I guess we'll wait and see for sure though. Anyway, when she woke up, she just wanted to go home. The staff obliged her.
Note the forced smile. She's such a trooper, but she's not walking around just yet. I'm sure she'll be her "Tank"-like self in no time, but for today she's watching movies and letting us wait on her hand and foot. She's such a grateful little patient. Always saying thank you and being so very polite. I don't think I'm such a happy camper when I'm in pain. I should take lessons.

Wildlife preserve

2009-07-31T09:25:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to a local wildlife preserve this week. They take in injured animals and nurse them back to health. If the animals heal completely, they release them back into the wild. Some with serious injuries that would impair thier ability to survive in the wild are kept there. We walked around reading about all the animals. It was a fun little retreat.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

2009-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

We said goodbye to the Nissan today. May he be happy resting in pieces as he is sold for parts.

PS: the cash for clunkers program sounds great, but it is somewhat picky about what a clunker is. The car must get horrible gas mileage in order to qualify. Our Nissan guzzled as much oil as it did gas, but still got 40 mpg to its last days... so it didn't qualify.

all is well

2009-07-27T10:04:00.001-07:00

We got the van back today. It was a belt and the water pump. It could've been much worse. Luckily I stopped fast enough that there is no engine damage from it overheating. Go me. lol!

Now to find someone to haul off the nissan...

The saga continues

2009-07-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

So, as you know, our Nissan has been retired from service. We still have to get it out of the driveway, but we're working on that. With our very strict budget we went searching for a new car. In one day, Benson drove about 10 different cars, trying to narrow the playing field for what we wanted. He really liked one of the cars he drove, a Mercury Milan, but it was out of the budget, so we moved on. Well, sort of. What really happened was I got ambitious. I was certain that we should be able to find the car we want in the budget we had. We just had to get creative and start really looking hard. I scoured the web for hours trying to find a good deal. Most of the cars I was finding were listed for between 12 and 16K. Just plain too much. Anyway, I was thrilled to find one listed in our budget, so Benson went to check it out.
It passed his test, and he got a great deal. In fact, the window sticker price said 15,900. There was another couple who came to buy that same car after Benson had already committed to it. They had already negotiated a price of 12,900 for it. Lets just say we didn't pay anywhere NEAR that. Its a beauty. Anyway, the day he paid for it, he couldn't drive it home since he had driven there by himself afterwork. So, we went to pick it up yesterday. We packed the kids up in the minivan and off we went.

Benson looked like a little kid in a candy store. He was just thrilled with the new car. I wasn't at all familiar with the area the dealership was in, so I asked Benson to drive right with me home.

As we were driving home, I noticed a squealing sound that was new. Not so great. Not too long after and the battery light came on the dashboard. I called Benson and told him to watch me closely, because the car wasn't acting right. I then said a quick prayer that we would get home safely. About 5 minutes later, the engine temperature started rising. I tried to grab the phone, but couldn't dial because I was freaking out too much, so I just put on my blinker and pulled over. I'm SOOO glad Benson was paying attention. He pulled over too. We had nothing to cool the car down and we were at a bad spot on the highway, but we were close to an exit. So, we slowly drove the car the short distance to get off the highway. When we opened it up again, Benson was able to grab the broken belt and pull it out. At that point it was obvious we couldn't drive the car ANYWHERE even if it cooled down, so we called for a tow truck. Unfortunately, 6 people don't fit in the fancy shmancy new car. So we packed the kids in and I left Benson to ride along with the tow truck.

So, I *could* whine about my bad luck and the cost of repairs ... but instead I choose to be SOO GRATEFUL that Benson was right there with me when the car broke down. If the belt had broken when I was by myself with all the kids, it could've been really dangerous, and much harder to get home. The Lord did answer my prayer: we all got home safe.

Bully's

2009-07-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

I just don't get it. At all. Yesterday I got to go participate as a parent leader at Goose's cub scout day camp. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but what I got was certainly NOT it. The first hour was a bit chaotic and felt somewhat unorganized. The project the boys were supposed to make was a compass. With a glass of water, a needle and a piece of styrofoam. First of all, what boy scout would NOT have a compass, but would have those supplies. Exactly. Anyway, it was fine, good concept lesson for the boys, learn the reason a compass works... The problem was that the activity took about 15-20 minutes less than the time that was allotted for it. One of the Mom's took action and got the boys started in a game of duck duck goose. However, lets be real, these boys are ages 8-10. Duck duck goose isn't quite as fun for them as it was when they were 3. A few of the boys started to get restless. And therefore the mischief began.

It was a group of 2 boys to begin with, then another joined a bit later. They were just insistant that they must be getting into some sort of trouble. First they were picking on susceptible boys. Tripping them "on accident" and the like. Later in the day, they moved on to name calling, and when that got boring, they just started trying to sneak away. All of the parent leaders spent the entire day watching these 3 boys like hawks to make sure that they didn't do anything irresponsible. They were consistantly put into time outs and taken out of activities, but it was obvious they just didn't care. Not so ironically they were all little angels during the archery and bb gun shooting. No one wanted to be pulled out of THAT activity.

In hindsight, one of the boys in particular should have been sent home. He seemed to be the ringleader and instigator of the problems. The other 2 boys were happy and willing to go along and take part.... and they were all very proficient at explaining away their actions and acting very innocent. I hope the leaders today had better luck with them than we did yesterday. Scouts should behave better than that.

Please help me understand. What in the world makes kids act like that? What is fun about being mean? What is fun about being taken out of activities constantly. I realize they were probably bored, but what goes on in their brains that makes them think that making fun of and hurting other people would be good entertainment? It really bothered me. Goose's personality is such that he often prefers to hang out by himself. I've worried all day yesterday and again today about these "bullies" picking him out as a fun target. So far so good... I hope it lasts.

Both days, Goose has had a great time, so I guess that is what really matters.

11 years

2009-07-16T06:34:00.000-07:00

Happy anniversary Benson! You are the love of my life. Thanks for taking the leap of faith and following your heart.

I have good news . . .

2009-07-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

. . . and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?

Lets start with the bad. My darling little Tank isn't quite indestructible. She has developed a hernia and has to have it surgically repaired. It will be an outpatient procedure, but she will be under anesthesia. We've scheduled it for early August. Ugg.

The good news is that Benson doesn't need surgery! He injured his thumb about a month ago at work. He doesn't know exactly what the injury is, but the thumb was pulled backwards and he heard a loud audible pop. The x-ray showed no breaks. He's been wearing an immobilizing brace since then, but is still in constant pain. The specialist told him yesterday that it should heal on its own, with physical therapy to help. We are tempted to seek a second opinion based on the level of pain this far out... but I guess we'll see about that. In the mean time I'm just grateful to be only planning on one surgery in the near future.

Decisions, decisions

2009-07-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

So, our latest bit of news is that Benson's reliable little car is ready to retire.

It began life in 1994 and in 1997, it became part of our family.
Benson drove that car from Seattle to visit me in Utah on numerous occasions when we were dating, but living long distance from each other.

We drove that car from Utah to Chicago the summer when we were going to get married.

It brought us home from the temple on that life changing day when we got married, and drove us to our honeymoon as well!

It was this car that I nearly got a ticket in just days after delivering Sweetie.

It was this car that I drove like a maniac for my very first mothers trip to the ER. (without a carseat... screaming child ready to jump over the seat... that's another story I should tell sometime.)

It was this car that had the radio stolen out of it while Benson was at work one day. It still has no radio!
It was this car that Benson did get a ticket in without proof of insurance, expired registration and expired license.

We've put 120,000 miles on this baby. In addition to the trips across the country, it has faithfully taken Benson to and from work for years. This includes the bank job he had that was an hour and a half away (on a good day), and the current restaurant job that is an hour away. Its been a very reliable car, getting, to this day, 40 miles per gallon on the highway!

Unfortunately, this car also needs a quart of oil with just about every fill up. The driver side door hardly latches shut anymore. The oil , seat belt and brake lights never go off. This car has no air conditioning (never has). It has no power steering. What put the poor car over the edge was that it is in need of a new muffler, and a complete brake job... We've got metal on metal braking now. We got an estimate for getting the car in running order again and just the absolute necessities were going to cost over $2000, doing everything they recommended was over $4000. The blue book value of the car is a pathetic $150. We just couldn't justify the cost of the repairs, especially since it doesn't even address the oil leaking issue or the door able to fly open at any moment issue.

So we say goodbye to the faithful Sentra and hope to find a new used car as reliable as it was. We've driven about a dozen different cars and its SO hard to decide! So far, at the top of our list are

2006 Ford Fusion approx 27K miles
2006 Mercury Milan approx 41K miles
2000 Honda Accord approx 75 K miles

I hate decisions. URG. Wish us luck! (and opinions welcome)

All Life's Blessings

2009-07-10T11:23:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

I've decided I really want to start a multi-authored blog where we could all add just a line or two when we recognize a mini-miracle in our lives.

If you hadn't noticed, we've had a lot of trials in our life lately, and I would love to have a place to go to read short glimpses of heaven. Where everything is positive and can help me recognize the blessings I have in my daily life.

For example:

Yesterday while I was outside with my kids, I saw a beautiful white butterfly. It made me feel as though I had an angel watching out for me. The butterfly may not have been a miracle, but the feeling was!

I found myself starting a chat conversation with someone I generally don't chat with, but she didn't answer right away. A while later, I was feeling frustrated and overwhelmed when she happened to see my IM and wrote me back. I was so grateful to have someone to talk to at that moment who could REALLY understand what was going on.

When life is hard, it is really easy to not notice the mini-miracles that occur daily. Let's not let them be overlooked! Lets share and uplift each other.

If you would like to be an author for this blog, let me know. (please please please consider it! It won't be nearly as successful without several people contributing. And a line or two won't take much effort! Plus it will help YOU to tune into the blessings in your life too!)

Visit the new blog here: All Life's Blessings

Footprints

2009-07-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

Footprints in the Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”

FYI

2009-07-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

I had someone ask if the picture posted below with my flashback post was real. It is! No photoshop there! Just an amazing moment caught on accident with an old film camera.

Home of the free, thanks to the Brave

2009-07-05T06:11:00.000-07:00

We went to the Glen Ellyn fireworks last night, and they were AWESOME. We were able to have dinner with friends to start the evening, then we played a mean game of Farkle. :) It was a great time. The fireworks topped it all off. Thanks for a great evening Janelle!

(PS I really thought Twister was going to scream through the fireworks. He hates loud noises like the vacuum and the lawn mower... You can see his reaction in the video.)

Flashback approximately 1990

2009-07-04T10:04:00.001-07:00

Our family decided to go to Wisconsin for the fourth of July that year to visit my grandma, aunts and uncles. I was about 12, and the whole clan decided to brave the crowds downtown Milwaukee to see the big fireworks. There are 8 kids in my family, and with our cousins and everyone, we probably had 20 people. We carried our blankets, snacks and games to play until the fireworks actually began.

Somehow, amidst the group of our 20 family members, and the millions of strangers in Milwaukee, I suddenly found myself walking along the sidewalk alone. We were together a second ago, I turned around and thought I must have gotten ahead. Nope. Maybe I was behind, I looked ahead and saw millions and millions of people, but not my family.

I was so scared. I walked along that sidewalk scanning the crowds for what felt like an eternity. I was searching for a policeman too, but only saw strangers. It was horrifying. I prayed like I'd never prayed before. I wasn't even sure what I would tell a police officer, I knew my grandma's name, but not her address or phone number. I remember the smell too... beer.

I got really scared as it started to get darker. The firework show started and I still couldn't find ANYONE. I really don't know how long I was lost, but I imagine it was at least an hour or so. I cannot even begin to describe my feelings when as I walked, I FINALLY recognized my Mom. They were sitting right by the sidewalk. I probably passed them a dozen times without noticing. I sat down next to my mom and started bawling. She looked at me slightly puzzled and asked what was wrong. She had thought I had sat down by my sister, and hadn't realized I was missing yet. I remember the finale starting about that time.

I've never really fully gotten over my fear of crowds. I have a hard time going places that I am unfamiliar with, and am extremely paranoid of losing my kids.

The good news is that I still LOVE the fourth of July fireworks displays. I have NO desire to see them downtown Chicago, but the local ones are better anyway in my opinion. I'm hoping the weather holds out so we can go see some good ones tonight.

Happy Independence day everyone.

Reunion 2009

2009-07-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

I sort of hate to post again, because I was really enjoying re-reading about my adventure when I logged on. It was sort of like it would be a good place to end. However, I still have to record about our family reunion! Another good stopping place, but don't count on it.

So all of Benson's family made the trek from their various home bases across the country to meet in St. Louis. We couldn't complain about our 5 hour drive when Benson's brother drove all the way from San Diego! Others travelled from Minnesota and Washington! Our reunion was centered around a reception type celebration for Benson's parents 50th wedding anniversary. Yes, FIFTY!

On Friday we spent most of the day visiting while we set up the church for the celebration. I was so impressed at how everyone came together to make it a success. The food was amazing, the "entertainment" (a slideshow and wedding cake recreation) was beautifully done, and the decorations were great! I think everyone enjoyed themselves at the party. Best of all, my kids behaved themselves. (whew!) The only damper on the night for me, was that Tank was in the bathroom a ridiculous number of times. I was worried she might have an infection, so I took her to the local urgent care. Luckily it wasn't an infection, but we are following up with our doctors about some other problems that were related.

Anyway, one of the top, ok, lets be honest, THE TOP priority for while we were in St Louis was to go to Ted Drewes. This is a custard ice cream shop that is truly to die for! Most of the family went one night around 11pm and the place was PACKED! There is no place to sit, you just walk up to the window and sit at your car to enjoy. There is no explanation for the place's success except for the AMAZING ice cream. If you are ever in St Louis... TOP PRIORITY!

Anyway, on Saturday, the ENTIRE family went to Six Flags St Louis. It has a water park and amusement park in the same location. I have some issues with crowds (have I ever told that story here? 4th of July when I was about 12?) ... so anyway, I had a hard time relaxing while we were there. The kids had a blast for the first half of the day hanging out in the water park area. Twister LOVED the water! He was sooo entertaining to watch. He would walk under the water mushroom type things, he would have this surprised face everytime... you know the one where they look like they could burst into tears at any second... but instead he would walk out and just laugh! It was hard to keep track of the other kids, but the place was somewhat contained, so we just let them wander around with their cousins, checking in every so often.

The second half of the day, I was lucky enough to get Twister to fall asleep with Opa, so the rest of us were able to go to the amusement park. Goose was happy to go on any rollercoaster that was not fast, or have any big falls or upsidedowns, or twisting. *sigh* In other words, not very many rollercoasters looked fun for him. He ended up enjoying the kiddie type rides with his sisters. Benson and I were able to leave them with cousins and family a couple times so that we could go on bigger rides. I think my favorite was "The Boss". Good times. The kids favorite thing ended up being a turn on a trampoline while hooked up to a safety belt. The spotters helped them jump ridiculously high and if they wanted they could've done flips etc. I think my kids just jumped. :) Overall, it was a good day, but it was hard to spend quality time really enjoying all the extended family.

You should've seen us at church on Sunday. We took up 3 full rows, and that was a bit squished. :) You couldn't imagine a prouder OPA on Father's day. :) It was a really awesome sight. We were even able to take a family photo with all of us. We were only missing one of the cousins who wasn't able to get leave to come.
I think my only complaint about this reunion was that it seemed to end too soon. I enjoyed the times where we were just able to sit around and chat. What can I say, I have some awesome in-laws! Looking forward to the next time we can get together!

The most crazy awesome weekend ever

2009-06-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

I apologize ahead of time as this is sure to be a novel, and I still haven't posted about our family reunion so another novel is to come.

Anyway, I had the most amazing last few days. Amazing, stupendous, fabulous… Yeah. It started a few weeks ago when Matt sent me a message on facebook asking if I wanted to fly out as a surprise birthday present for Teri. I immediately hit reply and typed "YES YES YES!" then realized I really needed to stop and see if it was feasible first. My amazing, awesome, generous husband said he was fine with it if I could work out arrangements for the kids when he needed to work. SO! Next I called my super stupendous parents who were also willing to help me out. Next step? press send! Next thing I know, I have an itinerary being sent to me for flights from ORD to SLC. Crazy.

I really didn't have a lot of time to sit and stew over everything because we had Benson's family reunion to prepare for. I got back from that and had 3 days to "reset" before I was flying out.

Matt was wonderfully deceptive and devious and managed to actually come pick me up at the airport under the premise that he was taking his son to get his haircut. I walked in their front door and the surprise was, well, astounding. Teri, obviously, had NO clue. Very fun surprise. I think their kids were nearly as excited as Teri, although, the excitement dropped a level when they found out my kids were still in Chicago. One of my favorite moments was when 2 year old Kate seemed to recognize me and said "Lucky's mommy!" (They call Tank "Lucky"… maybe I should adopt that nickname, it’s a bit nicer…)

Anyway, we stayed up ridiculously late just talking. It was awesome.

On Friday, Matt had, once again, "slightly altered the truth" to make Teri think that she and him were going out to dinner and I was there to babysit. About 10 minutes before he had told her they were going to leave, he started barking orders for her to go pack a bag because they would be staying overnight. Then, all Teri's good friend started to arrive at the door, one by one. Teri just kept asking WHAT was going on?! Finally, Matt spilled the beans… just us girls would be taking the transportation outside for a night away. What was outside you ask? OH YEAH.

We packed up our bags and headed out. Matt had hinted to the rest of us ahead of time that we would be heading to park city, utah. But that was all we really knew. The limo did, indeed, take us to park city. We talked along the way and got to know each other a little bit better. Our first stop was the outlet mall. Teri got a few fun things and the rest of us found a few things too. Shopping without kids, and WITH a bunch of ladies with good taste… awesome.

Next, the limo took us to our accommodations for the night. Ever heard of the Sky lodge in park city? It was ASTOUNDING. From the moment we walked in the door, we were treated like royalty. The manager came and showed us around the room, highlighting some of the perks of the place.

We didn't have too much time to gawk at everything since we had to change for dinner. We were able to walk to the restaurant just up the hill a short way from the hotel. Again, treated like royalty. There was a talented guitar player singing to the restaurant, and the food was FABULOUS.

We were then told we had tickets waiting for us next door at the Egyptian theatre for the "dueling pianos". I'm running out of words to describe all these awesome things, but the dueling pianos was probably my favorite thing of the night. They took requests for whatever song we could come up with, and they were SOO talented.

I could've stayed there all night, but alas… the show came to an end. We walked back to the hotel and decided it was a MUST to try out the hot tubs on our deck. They were obviously sized to be used by couples, but we made do.

After relaxing in the hot tub we all vegged out on the couch, talked and watched a special on Michael Jackson. About 1:30am, I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and excused myself to the luxurious bed.

The next morning we were able to get up at our own pace, enjoy the crazy awesome showers and baths, and get ready for brunch. It was a beautiful thing to wake up when my body wanted to wake up without kids or a schedule.

The brunch was, once again, amazing. The food was spectacular. SOOO good! We then were directed to a salon in town to receive manicures and pedicures. The chairs had built in massaging, and the mani-pedi's were awesome. The cute little ladies working there were happy to pamper all of us. Second time in my life getting a pedicure. Not to be the last! So relaxing and fun.

The rest of our time we spent wandering Park City's eclectic shops and the art center. It was a most relaxing and beautiful day. Perfect weather just topped it all off.

Close to 3pm another limo showed up to bring us back to reality.

To the women out there, Sorry Matt is happily taken. To the men out there, sorry he's set the bar so high. We had the most wonderful time, THANKS MATT!

My awesome weekend didn't end there though. I got to spend the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning playing with my good friends. Saturday night we stayed up playing Rock Band. My first experience with it was… well… addicting. Someday, that will be our next Wii purchase. I was really nervous at first, but it was lots of fun. Although, the company certainly helped that too.

Sunday I went to church there, then took off early to go to the airport. The whole weekend was somewhat surreal. I kept wanting to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. It was such a relaxing getaway. I had fun with Teri and made a bunch of new friends I plan to keep in touch with as well. What a weekend...I plan to hold on to those memories FOREVER.

A lesson in economics

2009-06-14T15:50:00.001-07:00

Ok, so ignore the *still* unfinished house in the background and take a look at these adorable little kids. :) They decided to open a lemonade stand earlier this week. They made the lemonade themselves and made their sign:

Lemonade for sale: $.50.

The funny thing was that they had nearly finished it amongst themselves when a "customer" came driving up. Luckily, they had just enough for one cup full. They earned their money, gave the lemonade, and hurriedly went inside to make another pitcher full. Goose saw the commotion, but felt a little excluded since it was mainly girls heading it up.

So...

whats a boy to do? He made up his own gallon of lemonade, brought cups from the cupboard and made his own sign:

"Lemonade, $.10! Buy one get one free!"

I tried to discourage him from competing with the girls, but he was determined.

Apparently our dead end street has more traffic than I thought. The girls made a couple dollars, and so did Goose. (Although I heard later that some nice people donated some extra money to the cause). Anyway, everyone was happy, so I didn't pay too close of attention until it was time to clean up.

The girls sign changed when Goose opened up shop next door:

"Lemonade $.50, buy one, get one or two free!"

I'm sure there is some official economic name for what happened... something about monopoly's or supply and demand. . . but whatever you want to call it, it was sure funny to see it in action with a bunch of elementary school kids. :)

Sweetie turns 7

2009-06-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm a couple days late getting this posted, but we had an awesome celebration for Sweetie's 7th birthday. We went to the morton arboretum and played in the Children's garden. They had a BLAST.

After that, we had a gourmet meal at Red Robin. They had a human sized red robin roaming the restaurant that scared the bejeebers out of poor Twister. I think every eye in the restaurant must have turned to see what happened. All I could do was laugh. And poor Red Robin went into hiding for the next 20 minutes. :)

All in all, a successful birthday.

Website update

2009-06-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Maybe you haven't noticed, but my business website has been down for about a month. In the past week, I finally got it up and running again.

I'm also working on another makeover for my site. I got new software a while back and its taking a while to learn it... (dreamweaver and fireworks) BUT, I think the final result is going to be amazing. Here is my prototype:

It will still take me a while to get it up and running. There are a million little things involved in creating a website. BUT, I wanted to share how far I have gotten. (If you want to see the website as it is now, click the Designs in Floral Online Store icon in the right sidebar)

life goes on

2009-05-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

as it always does. We are getting along.

One more week of school, then I get to try to keep them all entertained all day long. Lets hope for lots of good weather so they can be outside.

To post or not to post...

2009-05-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

...that is the question. I'm SO angry right now. Shocked, disappointed, and astounded. It doesn't make sense. I was SO sure about this.

Back in December, Benson applied for a job with the federal reserve board. The job description was a perfect fit for his skill set. In fact, this is copy/pasted from the job description:

Qualifications

Individuals interested in a career as an analyst should have a degree in business administration with concentration in accounting or finance, and experience in financial analysis as it relates to banking. Knowledge of the laws and regulations governing banks and bank holding companies is preferred. A master’s degree is required for most higher-level positions.

check, check and check. He was applying for an entry level job, so the masters degree isn't really applicable. He had a former co-worker, and a good friend (2 people) who both work there vouching for him. He has such high integrity and is seriously the hardest worker I've ever met. That says alot. When he decides to do something, he gives it 150%. His co-worker and friend knew this, and recommended him to everyone they knew there.

The interview went perfectly. Perfect. No, "well, I wish I'd had a better answer to..." Everything was great. Conversations came easy, his past experience was a perfect fit to the questions they were asking about how he would fit in. No regrets. None.

So, to them I say:

where did things go wrong?! There were 15 positions and 30 candidates. How could you possibly give all those positions away? You had great references for him, he has exactly the experience you want, he's been on the bank side of these exams for 3 years! COME ON!! TWO of your employees have verified that he would be a good fit! What was so horrible that you could disregard that?

ITS NOT FAIR!!!!!!!! You read him a form letter about how his qualifications were not a good match. Thats bull. If anything, he is over-qualified, and if that is the case, you should tell him so. Not belittle him by saying it was a hard decision, but other candidates were better qualified. You've got it wrong. You made the wrong choice. You need to call him back.

%#$@#$.

dance in the "rain"

2009-05-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

I laughed at myself for 10 minutes

2009-05-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

after I saw this picture. Whew... laughter is good for the soul. Enjoy at my expense.

Creative inspiration

2009-05-21T13:14:00.001-07:00

Check out these awesome ideas for decorating your walls! The creative juices are totally flowing! I'm thinking cut out vinyl for the girls shades... maybe with butterflys or swirl designs... hmm... maybe starched fabric to make fun fabric designs on the walls. The possibilities are endless.

... and we need a new giraffe made with vinyl or maybe fabric for my son's room. He does NOT want to give up the giraffe's but I don't want to paint them again only to paint over them in a few years when they are totally not cool anymore. (We have to paint the walls when the new windows go in...) Something that is semi-permanent is just what we need! I'm so excited! Now to save up some $.

Anyone want to buy a sandwich wrap or some cards? :) How about a print or two?

Its official

2009-05-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

I know I said he was up on two a few months ago, but the boy is far too fast on all fours. He's been *able* to take several steps for at least 2 months, but just in the past 2 days, he has decided it is his preferred mode of transportation. Its so cute to see him walking around. He is SO proud of himself. :)

The uneventful ER trip.

2009-05-13T18:50:00.001-07:00

Very strange evening around our home tonight. Around 7 pm, I was reading email... Benson was watching TV, Sweetie was playing the piano, Goose was doing homework and in all the quiet, I didn't notice Tank and Twister were playing on the stairs. I heard a thud and a scream and immediately ran to the scene.

The very creepy thing was that Twister fell silent after that initial scream. He sort of melted into the floor and his eyes rolled up. Horrifying scene. Never want to see that again. I screamed for Benson, and a few seconds later, he sort of came to... though a bit disoriented. Then he started crying again.

I turned my evil eye on Tank and sternly asked "WHAT HAPPENED!?" Apparantly, Twister was on the second or third stair up and was playing with Tank who was sitting a step above him. The game was try to get Tank's toes. When he "got" her toe, he bit down. She instinctively shoved him off of her toe, and straight back onto the ground 2 stairs below. Well, can't really be mad at her for that, can I?

Anyway, Twister came to just fine, and seemed to be acting just fine too, but I put a call into the doctor to see if "watching him" was appropriate under these circumstances. I explained that he was fine now, laughing, playing, no lethargy... eyes not dilated, no vomiting. The doc thought he still needed to be evaluated since he lost consciousness. I have no problems erring on the side of caution, so we packed up and went to the ER.

The ER here has a separate pediatric ER, and they were able to get him in immediately. The nurse came in within 5 minutes and got the history. The doctor came in about 2 minutes after that. She checked him out, got the history again... said he seemed to be acting ok. Yea, I know that... She didn't think a CT or x-ray was necessary, they'd just keep an eye on him for alittle bit. Well, she wasn't kidding about it being for "a little bit". It was less than 10 minutes later that the nurse came in with discharge instructions. Check on him through the night, and watch him for strange behavior, continuous vomiting, or obvious lethargy . Hmm.. sounds familiar.

From the time I left to the time I got home was about an hour. I'm glad I'm somewhat medically inclined and feel confident in my ability to watch him. It seemed a little pre-mature to send him home that quickly, but I'm glad to have the opinion of a doctor behind me in thinking he is ok. I get to check on him every 2-4 hours tonight, but I'm not worried. I'm sure he is just fine.

What a night.

hair cut

2009-05-11T15:20:00.001-07:00

The before

(before devouring his birthday cake last month)
playing wii boxing with his brother last week. (It was HILARIOUS, he was bouncing up and down and doing decently. Soo funny!) oh, but notice the hair!

And after...It still stands up completely straight, but at least its not 3 inches long anymore. :)