A dose of Kunz a day

Guess Who's Back.

2012-01-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

I honestly thought it would be so much easier to keep up with my blogging than it has been! Work just kicks my butt! At least the rest of my family got to enjoy a winter break. We tried to potty train E during that period of time off, but it was less than successful. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an absolute disaster. He did go potty lots of times in his little toilet, but the little buggar would sit on that thing for 1/2 an hour and as soon as we felt like we'd tortured the kid long enough, we let him up and usually he'd just pee all over the floor. And then instead of enthusiasm about potty-training, it became hate for potty-training. So, instead of force him to pee in the potty, we're letting the idea simmer for a while. I think the source of his resistance comes from how high maintenance it is to pee in a toilet. :) Who would have thought that?

A started school again and he surprises me every day. Daddy M told me that A wants to take a shower every day now. Why? Because some of the kids in his class stank and he doesn't want to be one of those kids. Honestly didn't think a 4 year old was that self aware.

The boys also bore their testimonies in church this last Sunday. I'm sad I didn't get to be there for it, but from what I hear, they did great. A needed a little reminder of what he wanted to say and then once E saw his brother do it, he was all for it! No help whatsoever.

Daddy M is thriving in school! He's doing so well and I love it. I'm just excited that we have another semester behind us! So if this goes the way we plan, he'll be done with his University schooling in 2 years and then we'll be on to getting his doctorate!

I'm still working. Lots and lots of working. And more working. It's a little stressful. Sometimes I don't really feel like my personality is suited for office politics and annoying people. But I'm doing the best I can. Maybe one day I'll just be my own boss and then I won't have to worry about getting fired, because-- I'll be the boss. :) Or I'll just be a dynamite stay at home mom some day. It could happen!

Sorry about no photos. I'll make Daddy M take more pictures while I'm at work.

Family Pictures

2011-12-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

I've shared these pics online already. But heck! Why not put them on here too.

Aren't we cute!!!

We're still here!

2011-12-24T01:30:00.000-08:00

I guess I can give an update on here. Heck why not! I miss not having the time to write posts. I am not sure what I've updated you all on. So forgive me for repeating myself if I do.

Daddy M is just finishing his semester of school! I'm so proud of him and the goals he's achieving. He got all As and only 1 B+ this semester! WHOO! I finally feel like we're well on our way to getting DONE with school. Even though that's still 6-8 years away. Now we just need to get me into school so I'm not finishing when I turn 40.

A just finished school. He's on winter break now. He is truly enjoying pre-school. We're thinking about applying to BYU's Kindergarden program as well. We've been talking to some other parents and they've told us that public kindergarden is a joke. I'm beginning to feel like public school, period, is just a joke... I just wish I had the confidence/desire to home school my kids, or the know-how really.

E has been his usual self. He's a little ornery still. He's very fun. He's getting better at talking. And he's ready to potty train! Daddy M found out a way to make him want to potty train. It was an accident really, but I'm glad he did it. While on Thanksgiving vacation Daddy M was changing his diaper and told him to get "his baby diaper." E freaked out. He started crying that he's a "big boy! and he can't wear baby diapers." So now we've really been milking that until we're ready to potty train him. ie after Daddy M is done with his finals and actually has the time to give attention to training him and now that he is on break, it's been go time for us! He's poo'd maybe twice in the toilet and pees in it all the time. I think he really loves the attention he gets every time we see pee in his little toilet. I hate potty training, but seeing his big, cheesy, accomplished grin seems to make it worth it. It's really a family affair. His big brother even gets into it! A will run around the house cheering for his little brother and announcing it to us like E's just won a gold medal.

As for me. I'm still working two jobs. I love my job at the hospital. I am currently training to do c-sections. I'm a scrub in the OR. It's pretty exciting and terrifying all at the same time. I've never done anything like this before. I've never been previously trained, so it's kind of stressful for me. But overall, the docs have been nice enough, which was my main concern. I'm learning what the instruments' names are, what their nicknames are, and what hand symbols to watch for from the doc. I'm almost done with training and then I'll be on my own!

Christmas is close! It's tomorrow! I can't believe this year has gone by so quickly. I'll have to put our Christmas card on here....ok, honestly, I probably won't have the time. My apologies if I didn't get one to you. I still love you--unless I don't know you or like you, then get off my blog. You're creeping me out.

:)

Quesy stomach's beware. But really- it's not that bad.

2011-10-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

This is my little brother's leg. I talked about him a bit in the post just before this one. He has more of those incisions all over his leg. Pretty neat huh? Or gross. Whatever floats your boat. I'll be adding more awesomely gruesome pictures once I get them uploaded! But for now. This is what you get to see.

This is what strep A does to you people! Strep-freakin-A! And this isn't even the worst of it! My dad almost lost his arm. Little brother- who's not so little really- is anxious to get out of the dang hospital. Who wouldn't be after a few weeks of family only isolation. There's only so much of one's family that one can handle. haha

A little bit about us this time of year

2011-10-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

My apologies for the lack of posts on here. Considering that I'm the only one that posts and my workweek is on average 70 hours, it's hard to find time to get on here. You can feel consoled in the fact that not posting on here means that I'm with my kids, or passed out asleep!

Before I update about my immediate family, here's a little news about my little brother. He was admitted to the hospital about a week or two ago. At first he had a swollen knee, fever of 105, and was vomiting. His b/p went down, wouldn't come back up, so he was turfed to the PICU. Long story short. He has the same thing my dad had a year ago. . . Strep A. (It ate my dad's arm basically.) He's had 4-5 surgeries since on his leg, thigh, and ankle. His skin was so inflamed, the surgeons couldn't close his incisions. Tomorrow, he has his last surgery to close up the rest of his incisions and then he should be able to go home the next day! It's been tough for him to be in the hospital. He missed his homecoming dance, the homecoming game that he was supposed to play in, and he missed the one game they have against their rival high school. We just feel so blessed that he didn't have to lose all his skin on his leg and have grafts like my dad. We're also so grateful that the infection did not spread further up into groin. Let's hope he'll get to go home tomorrow!

On to my oldest little man!

A boy is in school now. He's been for about a month. He loves it! His teacher says he's always happy and so helpful to the other students. I am so proud of him and who he is becoming. He has some pretty weird, crazy, and irrational parents and he still seems to be turning out alright. A's thing to do right now is sing impromptu songs about anything and everything that he sees. We love his songs. I hope that he continues to feel confident about himself, it's fantastic!

And my youngest little man!

E boy is growing so fast! He's a spitfire of energy. He's a tad bit more rough than his brother is. But maybe that's just his age. I can't remember if A was this rough at E's age, until he learned to not be, or if he's always been more laid back. We've been half-heartedly trying to potty train E. And he is just not at all interested. Joy. There's just nothing like changing a poopy diaper from an almost 3 year old. E's thing to do right now tell us "I don' love you," when he's angry with Daddy or I. Good times! I didn't know this kind of attitude began at this age! Can't wait to see what my little bundle has in store for me!

Daddy M has been keeping busy busy! He's going to school full-time and studying full-time too it would seem. Something I think we'll all be glad to be done with some day. Right now we're both just glad to be getting done!

And I am working two full-time jobs at the moment. I just got hired on at the hospital and even though I was hired on as PRN. They train you for 3-months full-time. So, I have been pulling quite a few hours. My ultimate goal is to be full-time at the hospital and part-time at the care center. I am hoping that opportunity will come up sooner rather than later.

For now our family feels like we're being pulling in 7 different directions, but we love being busy! Especially when it's for our future! Keep us in your prayers, we need all the help we can get. If not to finish early, at least not to kill each other on the journey there. :)

Another Great Day

2011-09-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

When I get to be home during the day. I try to take advantage of the outside. Especially now that summer is starting to say goodbye. The boys and I live outside if we can. And to fill our time, because sometimes the fun dirt just doesn't cut it. We take pictures!

And then we take pictures of the people that are still entertained by the dirt. Which is very cute!

And if you're cool like me, you let your son take your camera and let him take some pictures.

I'm holding the camera with him here.

I was the subject of his photography for a bit. Then our car was, and the tree, and the grass. I'll spare you those photos though.

I have to share a moment of insanity with you. I was cleaning my room earlier this year- like deep cleaning- and found a piece of candy that I didn't want to eat. So I pawned it off on our son E. He was glad to take it away for me and eat it. I told him to eat it in the kitchen so he didn't make a mess. For some reason, he felt that my instructions meant, Go hide in the kitchen under the table so no one can see you and eat as fast as you can. Daddy M found him and told me to come downstairs to see what I'd created. As soon as I saw my little boy slowly turning into a leprechaun, I ran and grabbed the camera and stuck him on the counter. His fingers were green for about 4 days.

I found the cutest leprechaun in the world! (This could be a good idea for Halloween one day. He has the hair for it)

Boys and Bugs

2011-09-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

On one of the beautiful summer days that I had off this year, my little boys and I sat outside for hours. What did we do? We played with a bug. Not just any bug. A leaf bug. We loved this leaf bug so much that we were thinking about making it our pet. But.... we decided it might live longer in the wild. It probably got eaten by a bird the minute we went inside though. I just know it!

Here is leaf bug. He hung out with us for a good few hours. He climbed on the boys.

He found spots to just sit and chill. And for some strange reason, never flew away from us.

We were very nice to leaf bug. I made sure of that. There were some close calls in the tiny hands of E, but he made it out alright.

The silliest thing leaf bug did was crawl up E's head. Every time he found his shoulder, he climbed and climbed until he found E's fantastic red hair. And then he did not let go. E would shake his head back and forth as fast as he could and the bug just hung on. We had great fun with this! A got to have the bug on his head too. As soon as the creature got to his neck, A would laugh and laugh and laugh from being tickled by its little legs. I don't know if they'll remember this moment, but it was a good one for me.

Where'd he go? Where'd he go? *THERE he IS!*

Soccer

2011-09-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

I need to make a new goal. Here it is: Post a new blog at least... every two weeks. That might be possible. I am so busy now, that I do not get the chance to get on here. But I still feel it's important to write about my kids' lives and what we are doing.

This fall A started playing soccer. He is one of the youngest on his team, so he does struggle a bit more, but I think now that he's almost done with his season, the coach has found out where he belongs. A is all DEFENDER! He does such a great job at staying back and protecting the goal. Although this year, he has scored a few goals. Some in the wrong net, but he was still absolutely thrilled. :) His favorite part of the games could arguably be the treats he got after the game. There were moments when we caught him doing somersaults on the grass. Picking the flowers. Running behind his team, smiling at us and not paying attention at all to what was going on. He is very fun to watch.

First day of practice

Go A!!

We did have a moment where he had a little melt down. A is very serious about rules. We told him that he had to run --> this way for the goal and when the other team went <--- this way... he kind of lost it and started yelling at the kids on the field. So he got to have a nice little Daddy talk. Apparently, he was very sad as well because he wanted to score a goal so bad.

He finally cheered up, played with his team. AND scored a goal! In the wrong one.... but he was still SOOO happy. :) He's #2 below.

The fan club

Talking strategy

The coach was so nice. A was having a tough time this game and the coach let him do the kick off a few times so he could actually touch the ball. Remember, he's one of the youngest kids out there. The oldest are six. He hung in there with them though and next year he'll be more prepared!

Appendectomy Time

2011-09-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

It was a cool summer evening when I went off to work and left hubby to fend for himself and take care of our kids. I was confident all would be well. And for a time, it was.

But of course, Daddy M likes attention. So around midnight, he called me to tell me he was puking and sleeping on the bathroom floor. I brushed this news off since he does get sick often. A few hours later he calls again and tells me his stomach is on fire. Still not surprised, I gave no real sympathy.

I finished my quiet shift at 6am and came home to sleep. I found Daddy M in our bed sprawled out. Perterbed, I made him move. A few hours later he was moaning in pain again. Still sleepy after working 16 hours, I told him to knock it off. Being the wonderful man that he his, he got up to do his moaning downstairs.

Around 10am, I woke up, came downstairs to get ready to see another client. He sat in our recliner, complaining of his stomach feeling like fire. I still was not concerned. He has liver disease and I attributed it to that or maybe kidney stones. Told him to call the doctor if he reall felt like it.

I came home around 11am. He was going to the instacare to see what was wrong. A few hours later I get a call. "The doctors are 90% positive that I have an appendicitis. We're driving to Am... Hospital now."

Grandma is freaking out.

I stay up with the kids. And scramble like heck to find someone to cover my shift that night so I can be with my husband. The people I work with aren't as nice as I thought they were. No offense, it's just fact, I really feel like if someone asked me to cover their shift because their husband was having an emergency appy. I would do it if I was not working at my other job. I had to scrounge and scrounge for someone to cover only 3 hours of my 8 hour shift. . . joy. It worked out in the end anyway.

I dropped off my kids with Grammie. Went to work. Finished. And drove right to the hospital. He was coming out of surgery as I was arriving.

See-- Things work themselves out very nicely. I didn't need to be there for the time I couldn't get covered.

I visited a while. Brought him his electronic toys. Laughed at his drugged stupor- he's actually very VERY nice when he's snowed. Not in a bad way. He was calling all the nurses and PCTs angels. I left, slept for what seemed like forever. Probably because I had about 3 hours of sleep in the last.... what? 48 hours?

All in all, things worked out. The boys got a weekend vacation with Grammie and Papa. Daddy M got to rest. I got to work and care for him and now we'll never have this issue again.

At least not with him.

Oh, no pictures for you! His belly looks like a yellow creature died on it from the bruises. That's all the visual-ness you're getting. :)

Belated News

2011-09-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a little crazy around here. I've been working more than I ever thought I would in my life. For a while there it was like work was where I lived and home was just a place to sleep. But, I've finally managed to find some time to post a few things!

As birthday-
He turned 4 this year! It was such an exciting birthday. We just had a BBQ outside with friends and family. And it was perfect! Here's just a few photos from the event. It was Cars themed this year.

A has the perfect reactions to receiving gifts! If you want to borrow him for a party, it'll be $20/hour.

E celebrated his big brothers' birthday party by stealing one of his presents- a cool talking sucker- and ate it. He looks like he had a tough fight with it aaaaand eventually won. . . barely.

This was our little man's last gift from Mommy and Daddy. He was pretty excited about it, until he realized he had to ride on it. He's a bit scared of the bike, but we'll change that one of these days. His little brother.... absolutely loves it. We actually caught E later that day sitting on the seat leaning against the wall eating food.

After the party, A tried his new bike. He was very excited until it started moving too fast for him.... a slow adult walk.

After the party, both boys crashed on our bed. There's just nothing like walking into a sheet ravaged bed to find the cutest little bed bugs on the planet!

Our first Hogle Zoo Trip-
We've never felt the need to drive 45 minutes to a Zoo, but we had our friend from France visiting us and figured that we could make that a little event with him.

"Enough pictures Mommy." Is what this little face says to me. :)

I'm not sure who really belongs in the zoo. The animals we saw or the little animals I'm raising! They might actually like living in the zoo though. I'd better not give them the idea that they can stay.

This elephant sprayed water out it's trunk. There were too many excited people by it's head to actually get a picture up there, but I don't think my kids minded. A in the picture above, is actually happy. . . I think. I don't remember him being mad. I just think he's trying to copy a dinosaur we saw earlier. Yes, it was real dinosaur, they still exist at the Hogle Zoo!

Daddy looked at this picture and asked us why we had to take a photo next to the creepy gorilla. Looking at the photo now, I'm not really sure why we thought this would be a good place for a photo. I just can't stop staring at that monkey's nipples.

See! I told you they still existed. This one was domestic enough to let us ride on it's back. E and him got along very well actually. :P

We thought this Camel's humps looked sooo strange. It looks to me like he used to have one big hump and then it got split in half. By this time, we were about ready to leave. So Mr. Camel was our last photo of the day.

Moving day!-
We also moved in July. I found some cute photos I took while we were packing the truck.

Here's my little helper boys.

One of my helper boys eventually crashed from exhaustion right on our lawn. It's tough being 2 1/2 and moving boxes.

A little Bit about Death

2011-08-11T23:50:00.000-07:00

A patient of mine died tonight.

I've had other patients die before. I have... but the thing is, I was ready for it. They were ready for it. They came here where I work, to die. Tonight, someone that wasn't waiting for it, was greeted by death. It's taken me a few hours for the realization that he's gone, to sink in. My stomach actually hurts. Everything just happened in a crazy blurred tornado.

Finding him unconscious, calling a nurse, him performing CPR. *my adrenaline spiking* The MA calling 911, me standing in a stupor of idiocy watching this man die and wanting to do more. Grab the vitals cart, grab his chart, call his wife, his daughter, no answer. Frantically search for his DNR record, can't find it, he's a full code. EMT arrive, lots of them, cops, other curious patients. Nothing like death to draw in a crowd.

Questions, running, searching, watching, running, watching, just watching.... so this is what death is like. One minute you're there asking for water because you can't get enough to drink and the next....you're gone. Just. Gone.

Was he watching us there? Trying to revive his lifeless body? I don't know if I'd watch if it were me. I'd be looking for the people I love or visiting the living people I'll miss and saying goodbye however my spirit could.

After the ambulance rushed his body away and the audience left, I went back into his room to clean. I washed, I pushed back tears, and I thought. I thought about a TV show I like. Scrubs. I thought about the first time that the main character encountered death, he said something like, "The one thing I felt, was guilt, about how hard this was for me."

His death was hard for me. It was hard for me to realize that that was it. It was done. It was hard for me to see him like that. They were so rough with his body when they did CPR and eventually intubated him. It is even hard now to realize that somewhere a family has been changed forever.

I can only pray with all my heart that the last few hours of his life under my care were good ones. I hope that somewhere his family is being comforted. I know I am comforted by the knowledge that he lived a long life. I hope it was mostly good for him. I am comforted to know that what he has beyond this life is much better. He went home.

And now I just hope I can recover quickly from losing him, because my heart hurts.

Now that was an experience.

2011-08-11T22:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, are you ready for this? This is a moment I will never forget, especially now that I've typed it down. Sometimes working at elderly care facilities leads to some great stories. Here is a story I had to share with you all. Obviously for the sake of the patients involved and HIPPA, I will be giving them fake names. Also, this happened in like the past 8 months.

So one night while at work there was an incident. I'm honestly not surprised that it happened. I mean, what can someone expect when two dementia patients are put in the same room to sleep where their sun-downing can explode full steam! * Sun-downing: when a patient who has Alzheimers or dementia becomes more agitated, confused, angry, or combative only at night.*

We had Francine in bed, she actually is independent enough to put herself to bed no trouble for us. Side-note, most of my patients walk a bit slumped over if they're actually walking, so it's no surprise to me that Francine also walks a bit slumped over. Tonight she went to bed and then Patty, her roommate went to bed, but first Patty decided to figure out why all these people were in her house.

She marched over to Francine's bed and sat down on it and started to swear and curse at her. Francine, completely asleep, flew out of bed in terror! Streaked across her room, slightly hunched over and then booked it out of her room. By this time, anyone in range had come running.

"There's a woman in my bed!" She yelled. I honestly did not believe her at the time. I mean.... come on, she has dementia. Rude I know. But I appeased her and walked in to see the "woman" on her bed. And lo and behold there she was, Patty, crazy eyes, and all.

This is when I began, with a few other CNAs, to attempt to reason with Patty. She sat on the bed, her brow furrowed in deep anger and ranted, "Look at you! You're young." She points to a CNA and then points to a few others. "You're young! You're young! What are all you kids doing in my house!" she raged, "If your parents were here, would you be here?!"

I calmly replied, "Patty, we'd all be here. You invited us."

She didn't take the bait, "Like hell I did!" I guess letting her live in her reality wasn't going to work this time, but I still pressed on.

"Patty, you told us we could stay here. You told her...." pointing to Francine, "that she could stay here too and you're being rude to your guests."

She didn't care, but at least she got off Francine's bed, yelling once more, "Like hell I did!" She then decided to shoo us rough-ians out of her 'house'. Her little body, quickly shuffled across the floor, her arms flapped in the air at us, eyes bugged out of her incredibly wrinkled head. It was at this moment that I had to try really hard not to laugh as I dodged her frail, swinging arms. Eventually we just ignored Patty, and stayed out of her range. We went back and tried to convince Francine to go back to bed and that we'd do our best to keep Patty out of her side of the room. She listened. . . . although, she probably shouldn't have.

The hype calmed down for about 20 minutes. Francine was back in bed resting and Patty finally went to her bed to what we thought was sleep. We..... were wrong.

It turned out that Patty was not done tormenting her roommate. Francine ran out of her dark room again claiming this time that Patty was standing over her bed staring at her. Creepy!!!

"I don't have a roommate! What the *$%#@ is she doing in here!?" Patty shrieked.

"You had a roommate last night, you idiot, how can you forget that!?" Francine yelled at her. Ironic coming from her, the woman that forgets everything....just like her roommate.

Patty just gave Francine the look of death and starting incoherently yelling again.

"Francine, why don't we find you another room to stay in. That way you can sleep tonight and not be bothered by anyone," the nurse assured her. She put her arm around Francine and walked her down the dark hallway to another room. As we followed her, one of the CNAs turned around, drawing my attention to what he was looking at.

It was Patty, now standing in the dark doorway of her room at the end of the dark hallway. Hunched over. Insanely wrinkled. Crazy bug eyes. And silent. She slowly closed the door, peeking out until it closed entirely.

The CNA who looked back at her started laughing. It was contagious and soon we were all laughing! Mostly from being tired and easily amused. Seeing her close that door was straight out of a horror movie.

Francine was not amused. We tried to get her into another room, but she was not going to sleep with a roommate. After I left they put her in the empty doctors' office and let her sleep there.

Apparently Patty is not very good with roommates because since this incident. She has been moved three times. First time for terrorizing roommates. Second for stealing roommates belongings and hiding their stuff under her bed and the third for just plain being naughty.

oh man.... sometimes I love my job.

Emotional Stump

2011-07-24T12:52:00.000-07:00

I have very few things in my life that are emotionally stirring for me. I just don't find myself responding to some situations correctly. My husband will be irritated at me for something stupid I've done and instead of feeling remorse the desire to talk it out with him, I'll close down. My mind goes blank and I stop feeling. I can sense myself going cold. He'll ask me to share what I am feeling over the issue we're discussing and nothing comes to my mind.

Interestingly enough I have found that watching movies, watching others feel so freely and willingly makes me feel safe. I can share my emotions with them without them making me feel inferior for wanting to cry, laugh, shout or giggle. In a strange way, I can trust the characters on the TV, because they allow me to be me, no strings attached. Is it a ridiculous notion to think that I am safer to truly feel during a stirring movie, than to feel while I am with my husband? We actually joked that while we watched the last Harry Potter movie, I had gotten my emotional quota for the entire month.

After years of being closed off and emotionally unfeeling, I've finally discovered perhaps a little piece of why I do this. Why I shut off. I've been hurt before, everyone has, and this was my way of coping. I showed someone my emotions, I was vulnerable and weak and my feelings were hurt. Trampled on. I learned my lesson and stopped trusting people with my emotions. I learned that emotions are weakness; I learned the being strong, to be better, that I could not let others see how I feel. But I learned the wrong lesson. I really didn't learn anything, I didn't grow from my experience, I hid from it. I hid behind a wall of nothingness and made myself the weak one.

I look at my wonderful, amazing, smart, genuine husband and I envy his ability to feel. He loves to love! He loves to express his feelings, to work through them and grow from them. I am so grateful for his patience with my inability to share with him what I am feeling. He helps draw out my emotions. Hopefully one day I can trust myself to feel confident with my feelings. For now, I'll just have to keep working on it and try to channel my emotions toward my husband and not toward a movie.

Lots of New Happenings!

2011-07-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

You know those people that are addicted to cigarettes and if they don't get their fix they go a little crazy. I am having that with blogging right now. Maybe that's why my eyeball keeps twitching and I can't stop frothing at the mouth. (I hope you're not taking me seriously now, because that would be gross!) Luckily, I have finally found some time to sit down and catch up on what is happening in the Kunz house!

First off! We moved!!! Again.... I know. I've just been telling everyone that we're the local nomads. I have some pictures of the boys helping us pack, BUT I have yet to find where our camera is hiding. I'll post their packing cuteness later.

While we were moving we had a friend of ours come visit us from France. He actually arrived about a week before we moved, so the lucky man traveled from clear across the world to slave away on both our houses. But seriously.... we took him around so he could see some really cool things here in Utah.

Bridal Veil Falls

Timpanogos Caves

lucky E

I love this picture. I'm sad it's blurry. :(

After a grueling hike, it was nice to get inside the 45 degree cave.

E had a nice easy ride up the mountain on Daddy Ms back, walked a bit inside the cave and then decided he wanted to be carried the rest of the way. Lazy lazy little man!

This part of the cave was very pretty. You can kind of see in the background what I was REALLY trying to get a picture of, but A just adds so much more dimension to this photo. I love it!

These photos just cannot do justice to how amazingly beautiful this cave was. The colors were fantastic, the designs and patterns that centuries of drips of water have created are just not appropriated displayed through these photos. If you ever come to Utah, this is a place you need to see!

Salt Lake City

It was actually pretty fun to tour our own State. I've never been to the conference center, or ever had the desire to have a tour of it, but it was pretty amazing!

This jar has the Tree of Life Story carved into it. Cool story behind it if you ever go the Conference Center and get a tour.

This is the Hall of the Prophets and I thought it was cool picture with little E man walking there.

View from the top of the Conference Center.

Las Vegas

This one the boys and I did not go to. This was just for Daddy M and friend T. They went and saw Blue Man Group, Criss Angel, and some jousting tournament. Of course they also managed to find their way to a casino to play for a bit, sadly enough, the statement "The house always wins" rang true for these guys. No big bag of money came back with them.

There you can see the giant M&M factory.

Ocean's 11 anyone??

By the way.... while they were out playing, guess who was unpacking? That right, this girl. I'm not bitter or anything. Mostly because McKay came home with a designer purse for me. REAL one, not a knock off, in case anyone was wondering. I'm honestly not sure why he buys me purses, I'm not really into having a lot of them, but he has a good eye and they're all super pretty! So I still love them!

T was the only one drinking while in Vegas and they all made him order this monster of a drink. The other guys you see in the photo are a few more people Daddy M knows. Each time T messed up on his English, they made him take a drink. Naturally the more he drank the more he messed up. Apparently it was good fun to torture the French guy. :)

Supposedly, when Daddy M and I go to Vegas, this is the hotel we'll be staying. Pretty, no?

Vegas at night. Kind of reminds me of Times Square on a very small scale.

Zion's Park

Such a pretty place to see! I'm sad that we didn't get to go. This was part of their trip after Vegas.

Here's they're hiking the Narrows. Very fun trail to take if you ever want to go to Zions

You can see how soaked they got from how dark his pants are now. Haha. I guess at one point the water was up to their chests. Hopefully it was a warm day!

All in all I think he had a pretty good vacation. He'll have to come back again, because there's just SO much to see in Utah.... AND the West Coast for that matter! We are thinking that in 2013 or 2014, that we just might have to go to France to visit him! We're saving starting now!

Oh and if any of you live in Utah and want to try some cheese from France give us a holler. He brought some pretty crazy cheeses! They have a different cheese for every day of the year I guess. I can't even think of enough cheeses in America to count on one hand! We're sad he's gone, but it's always nice to get back in our routine. I'm sure the same goes for him.

Turning of a New Chapter

2011-06-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

The sun is outside in full force, scorching my kids and their potato bug victims. Our backyard looks beautiful, we've worked on it even though we're moving in a few weeks. The sky is crystal blue. I hear and see singing birds everywhere. I am completely in love with the season summer! A has just started summer preschool and begs to go every day. We are so thrilled for him. I am convinced that he will excel incredibly fast. I went in one day to observe him through the one-way window and he was raising his hand to volunteer for things. Cleaning his station lightning quick and quickly becoming his teachers little buddy. Whether the teacher wanted that or not. :) I think they have to love that kind of stuff if they're a preschool teacher. Here are some fun pictures of Mr. A before his first day of class started. He his such a stud muffin!

I had to tell him to give me at least ONE regular picture and that is all I got. One. :)

Here he is in his classroom. He's sitting next to the teacher's aid getting ready to play with some play dough.

He is so proud of the school work he does. We're making a scrapbook of all the things he brings home. So far he's brought us paintings. He's quite the Picasso.

On another note. We found a little birdie outside our house a few days back. We're not sure where it's home is, but the boys and I hope it's going to be ok. I caught it (yeah I know, gross.... no one died.) and showed it to the boys. They didn't get to touch the birdie, because unlike me, they don't have the presence of mind not to touch it and then touch their mouth. Both of them were very loving to it though. E is the big hat in one of the photos. Every time I scooted back to get more space. E would lead his brother, A closer to me until I decided that it was pointless and let them get a good look.

Both boys were completely in love with the birdie and very sad when we had to let it go again.

Home Away From Home

2011-06-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to really take time off for myself in a while with all the work I've been doing. Which I love! But I did get a chance to go home to Oregon to play for a while with my family. My little bro. graduated and everyone came to celebrate!

My first experience with this trip was, of course, the plane ride. Can I honestly say that I loved how UN-eventful it was! Aside from the standard bickering, it was an easy trip. We got there about 10 minutes before they boarded us. There was only about 40-50 passengers total. I had an entire row to myself... kind of had to now that both my kids need their own seats. We had our lunch-ables, our circus peanuts, some books and yummy sprite! They only fought part of the time. We switched seats several times- not sure what the attraction to this was- but the kiddies loved it. As we were coming in to land, A noticed that our plane was parallel to a rather large Columbia river and it seemed from his window that a disaster was about to ensue and screamed, "WE'RE GONNA LAND IN THE RIVER!!!"

Other than that, no serious scares came from the plane ride occurred. We landed in Portland and the pilot tells us that it's a bit chilly and overcast. Surprise. Surprise.

While we were here, we kept ourselves busy. We bought A some birthday presents, went to imagination station, had a BBQ celebration, went to graduation, went swimming at the aquatic park, ate at Olive Garden and generally had a good time!

We smiled and cuddled a lot!

Hid in really scary spots that kept all the adults on their toes.

Played at parks! Especially on the swings!

Made silly faces and made new friends.

Lots of silly faces actually, some straight-up creepy!

We got in each others' way and gorged ourselves on junk food.

We celebrated change and a new chapter about to begin.

We were mischievous.

We loved, laughed, ate, and slept!

And now we're excited to go home and see Daddy!

No Particular Purpose to this Post

2011-05-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Life is crazy busy around here! I've been working quite a bit. I actually just got another job. I'm pretty excited about it! But I know we're only going to get more busy because of it! My kidos and I are going to my hometown next month for my brothers graduation and I'm pretty excited! I haven't seen my grandparents (both sides) in at least 2 years. They hardly know little E! Plus it's nice to get away and have a little vacation. It's too bad my hubby can't go with us. Darn his schooling! At least we know we won't be in school forever, even though it does seem like that sometimes.

There hasn't been a lot of new things going on lately as far as the kids go. A is going to pre-school this summer and fall! We didn't know that until just a few weeks ago. I think he's going to love it! His poor brother thinks he's going too. We'll have to do something special for E since he'll be home with us.

A's birthday is coming up and he's even more excited about now than he's been this WHOLE last year. I'm not even sure what we're going to do yet. But I do know we're going to have a pink cake for him.... because A that is your favorite color right now. :) And a big watermelon. Sounds like a real party right??

Here's our pictures of the week since we really haven't gotten to take many photos.

Daddy take my picture when I stick this in my mouth!

They are both excited for the party! I think once we leave in June for the airport though, they'll forget all about the birthday. My kids have been on airplanes since they were little little. Now that they're bigger, they'll be more excited to pull their own suitcases. We have Tigger and Buzz Lightyear suitcases for them. :)

Cross your fingers for a silly experience to put on here. :) I love good stories!

Here Comes the Sun

2011-05-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since we've seen the sun that when it came out a few days ago we started to froth at the mouth and hide in the dark corners of our house! Then after the few seconds of crazed insanity, we crawled out of our holes, wiped our foaming mouths off and went outside to bask in the light of our old "new" friend!

First we had to eat something to keep up our energy. We spent a lot of it inside panicking at the new sun. Once we ate. . .

. . . we felt ready to take on the sun!

We turned on the sprinklers and bravely stepped out onto the grass to play. It was a terrifying feat at first. So much uncertainty about the grass we thought we'd never see again. It was strange under our un-socked toes! Luckily though, we had E, my brave 2 1/2 year old.

He stalked the water like it was defenseless little bunny. It never stood a chance once his primal instincts kicked back in and he romped freely through the sprinklers!

A as always is the more cautious one. He didn't really get into the sprinklers until Mommy came, picked him up and swooped him through the very middle of the spray. At first it was a shock to his very white little body! He screamed in protest and hate at myself and the evil water. BUT once the sun, who we finally decided was a friend, dried him up quickly, he was ready for more sprinkler fun.

So long as Mommy was the one running him through it like Superman.

This didn't last me long. I was not all that interested in getting soaked by the ice sprinkler. So I improvised and took some pictures with A to distract him. It worked for a bit. But then it attracted another little white monster.

E!!! He was not about to be left out of a photo op.

All in all it was a WONDERFUL day. We laughed, we cried- the water was cold!, we basked in the sun, read books, ate, and rolled around in Tonka Trucks. I really love the sun!

For those of you wondering. E was babysat a few days before this lovely sunny day and his Auntie and Uncle decided that to go along with his rambunctious personality, he gets a rambunctious haircut! And Daddy M rather enjoys the cut.... so we still have it. :) I have to admit, I don't mind it much either. But we'll see how long it lasts.

Where We're At

2011-05-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking to myself today as I was reading another blog, that I haven't really updated what my little munch-kins are like right now.... developmentally of course. A will be 4 in June! That used to be SUCH a long time ago, but now, that's like 2 months!! Yes people, I know it's May and that the next month is June so technically only one month away, but when you're born at the end of the month of June and it's the beginning of May-- that makes it 2 months. He is still very excited about this and wants everyone to come. Not exaggerating. If you have known A in any way, shape or form, he wants you there to celebrate with him. He keeps telling me that he wants, "lots and lots of people, Mom! And a watermelon for my birfday too!!" A's favorite food currently is: pantakes, tuptakes, and muffins! He would be the happiest boy alive if that is all he ate. He is still the bossiest one of this house. We are learning how to deal with it... I personally am not learning very well, because I like to be the boss. A reminds me daily now, aside from when his birthday is, that he is also going to be going to school on the school bus--- which is going to be Mommy and Daddy, but he doesn't know this yet. This may prove to be a big disappointment to him in the coming months.

E is almost 2 1/2 now! That is just crazy to me! He is my little ornery little man. Yesterday I put him in a shower. He decided halfway through that he didn't want a shower, so he switched it to a tub. Later during his bathing session I walked out to do something else, a few minutes later I hear someone breathing behind me. It was E, all done with his bath and butt naked behind me! He was very proud of this too. I wrapped him in a blankie and took him downstairs to drain the tub and dress him, but to my surprise, he'd already drained the tub for me. :) This morning he took his diaper off for me. . . that was scary, with all the poo begging to fall off his naked bum onto my floor. He got another shower for that. E essentially likes everything his brother likes. The things he particularly stands out though and claims as his own loves are: hot cereal- unless it bakes his tongue off, bananas, and any food item that is placed in front of him when he is hungry. He's not too picky; we hope it stays like this or he might starve a little bit, kind of like his brother does some nights.

Daddy M and I are doing well. We're working out how to afford sending Daddy to school, pay for bills, keep a place to live, and feed our children. Currently I am the only one working; Daddy teaches tennis, but only temporarily. I have two jobs, so once both of them start to really get going we should be fine. We would really like to keep building our savings instead of slowly siphoning money out of it. I also think once I become a more experienced CNA, which only comes with time- that I'll be able to get paid more and find places that will be more willing to negotiate with me. That could just be wishful thinking too. haha

All in all, we are surviving and loving our new warm weather! I swear, if it snows again, I'm going have to go kill someone's puppy. :P

Hiding Game I Didn't Know I was Playing

2011-05-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

On our way home from.... somewhere. The place escapes me right now. We, like always, started to walk into our house. After about 1 minute, we noticed that E was not inside with us. He will sometimes dawdle around the yard first and then come in. Instead of coming in though, he decided to hide from us.

Imagine seeing this about 30 feet back. Just laying as still as he can in our long grass. hahaha! The cuteness of this just slays me!!!!

"I'm coming for you E! and all your cute little toddler-ness glory!" p.s he's still trying to hide right now.

But not for loooong....

You've been spotted in your bright red shirt against the green grass. We'll have to teach him how to camouflage himself better. He might need his hunting grammpa for that!

Bad Mood Alert!!!!

2011-04-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

I am having a moment. Not a good one either. But oh how I wish it were a good moment! I am having a moment of utter loathing for my children. I would rather be out of my house, away anywhere that my children aren't. I loath myself for hating to be around them right now. But I really don't think it's entirely my fault. My son A has formed this new habit where he likes to tell me that he does not want to obey. Or he'll just flat out say no over and over again and when I threaten him with a spanked bum or a timeout in his room, he freaks out. He starts to cry/scream NO and hearing that is like NAILS on a CHALKBOARD to me. It is, not even kidding you, the most annoying sound I have EVER heard! Adding to the fact that he doesn't only just scream in protest, he runs to his room and stomps his feet as fast as he can once he's passed his door; all the while escalating his shreaking and distorting his face into this disgusting hateful mass of red. It is the most AWFUL thing on the face of the planet. He does this for EVERY little issue that comes up. So can you imagine why I really don't like being around him? . . . it truly is a mystery to the more dense people on the planet. (My bad mood might be leaking a bit onto the pages. Sorry)

E, at least is more tolerable. His only annoying thing right now is the fact that he likes to antagonize the demon screamer. Sometimes, just Es mere existence causes his older brother to confront him and fight with him....... SooOOOooooOOOOOO aggravating!

I am trying to do things to get them and myself out of the house, because without fail, that always helps. I get to get out of the house and read a book while they get to go play somewhere and get their annoying energy out.

A actually has the nerve to ask for a little brother or sister. Like I'm going to give him one since he clearly is so good to the one that he already has. I love my kids, I have no doubt of that. But I do doubt my temper. And I doubt my talent for patience.... which I don't have. Thank gosh I'm the one working two jobs now and Daddy M can be at home with them and deal with their annoyances.

Oh man, it had better NOT be his FAULT that A is acting like this.

Sleepy Little Boy

2011-04-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

E likes to do his own thing. He will go to bed when he wants to go to bed and even though I think I actually have control over that.... I really don't. And neither does Daddy. A few nights ago while I was at work, Daddy put little E to bed and about a half hour later he went to check on him. He walks into the room and doesn't see E anywhere, but he can hear the snoring coming from his little mouth. He checked under the bed, up on A's top bunk and then he heard the snoring again. It was coming from behind the closed closet door. Daddy opened the door and found this cute little bugger.

Completely passed out in our ghetto little toy box. Apparently he wasn't ready to go to bed, so he went into the closet, climbed in and played..... and then of course passed out.

Playing in a toy box can really wear you out when you're a two-year-old little boy.

Easter Easter!

2011-04-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend I'll be working. Sad day for me, BUT I was not about to be left out of the egg dying experience. So the boys and I dyed our eggs a few days ago!

First we prepared our area. Lots and lots of newspapers!

And then Mommy prepared the kiddies. Aprons up to their necks just in case.

The dyes came out, all lined up for perfect use, inducing a little boy frenzie!

E could barely contain himself! This was his first dying experience that he could be more involved in. If I left him alone for a few seconds, he'd grab his eggs and toss them in the dye. I think if I allowed it, all of the eggs would have been stuck in ALL of the colors, resulting in some nasty looking eggs.

Egg dying at it's best!

Praise the eggs!

After we finished our dying massacre- which A thought meant that we were going to kill the eggs. dye- die. I can see where is confusion comes from. :) We ate some peeps!

Awe cute little peeps. We love you so much, you're so precious and sweet.

DIE PeEpS!! Suffer my toddler wrath!

And have a Happy Easter everyone!

Cute Giveaway

2011-04-20T16:51:00.001-07:00

No no no. Not my own giveaway! I'm not cool enough for that. But I thought I might as well share a link for those of you new mothers out there for this cute little thing!

http://www.theidearoom.net/2011/04/woombie-giveaway.html#comment-42189

Excited for good weather!

2011-04-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

We are so anxious for spring around here! Whenever it gets warm outside, we come out of our winter cave to play! The boys decided to help me with my garden and showered themselves in dirt. I guess there's always a special way to cultivate dirt. They decided to take their dirt through a rigorous cleansing process. It was first removed from it's hiding spot. Lifted toward the sky. Dropped on their heads. Shaken out only to land in their lap and then rubbed back in their head. It's a grueling process.

The dirt never stood a chance. Or maybe E never had a fighting chance. haha

A found a little spot to hide for a bit in the shade. We very much enjoyed our gardening prep experience.

Daddy M has been getting used to being a stay-at-home parent. I hope he likes it. He's had some fun with the boys inside I think!

I found these pictures that M took while I was at work.

They are pretty cute aren't they! The boys have really enjoyed cooking with Daddio. I think he cooks more than me.... correct. I know he cooks more than me. I'm glad Daddy is teaching our boys the joys of cooking and the benefits of cooking.... you know.... like eating the leftovers from cookies!

The Pathway is Clear

2011-03-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like sometimes Heavenly Father has your life entirely in His hands? I know I should probably feel like that all the time, but I unfortunately don't think like that a lot. Today though, I really can feel his influence in my life. M was laid off about a month or so ago, which was really hard for us. I was looking for a job and could NOT find one anywhere. I'd applied to at least 50 places. And then out of the blue I got a job at a rehab facility that never hires new CNA's. M kept looking for another job because we couldn't really keep living with just this job. And then, I got another call and was hired on as a home health aid. I feel so blessed and so grateful to my Heavenly Father.

Things didn't work out like we thought they would. We figured I would work part time. M would find another job at another business and keep going to school. But now he gets to go to school more while I work! What a blessing and clear example of how Heavenly Father takes care of us. He watches out for us and is aware of our needs, even if we aren't.

Yay for two jobs and a more clear path for M to finish school with!

Good News

2011-03-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

I don't normally like posting on here unless I have photos. So... since I did not have a photo that I took, I scoured the internet to give you this doozy!

Ready for the good news? After searching for nearly two months, I have found a job!!! I get to work at a local rehab and comfort care facility. My patients are all short term and generally on the younger side of old age.... if that makes sense. haha. I am thrilled to be working! I am excited to put my skills to new use and become a better CNA! M is very excited to have me working since he does not have a job yet and if things go the way they need to for our family, I'll have a second job by tomorrow working as a home health aid for hospice patients. I'll be the sugar mamma! I'm getting on my way to becoming a CNA in the hospitals

All in all though, we are doing good here in Utah. The weather is finally improving. We're figuring out how to restructure our lives that were kind of thrown into a blender when we found out that M was being laid off due to company restructuring. I sometimes think that he has not been able to get a job because the Lord needs me to be the one working for now so that he can go to school more and get our little family through his education more quickly! Time will tell what He has in store for us though. This place that I am working at never hires CNAs. I was told at least 3-4 times by different people that they never hire new CNAs. Divine intervention on my behalf? Maybe.

I kept thinking about my little old lady picture up there and decided I wanted to peruse my pictures and see if I had any I hadn't shared yet. And guess what! I found some! I have such cute kids. They are so fun and growing so wonderfully and having lots of fun with their Daddy, who has now temporarily become Mr. Mom.

Ninja turtles E!

He wanted to wear a red headband like me. He does a good job pulling it off doesn't he!

My cute ~~little~~ big, A. He reminds me often that he is not little.

How to Catch a Leprechaun

2011-03-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

This year for St. Patrick's Day, we set a trap in the hopes of catching a Leprechaun!

We put some gold on a green plate to lure him into our trap! But he was too sneaky for us and escaped!

He left a trail through our house. It looks like one of his pockets has a hole in it. He's dropped gold all over our floor!

Jumped all over our couches and forgot to take his balloons with him!

He even turned our drinks green.

And left us a nice treat to find.

A couple of treats actually. We really like leprechauns around here. They can be so much fun! I know you wish one came to your house! You must not have set the right trap. They like chocolate gold. That is the key.

Who Gave You the Right

2011-03-16T11:48:00.000-07:00

I have learned a few things about myself during my 23 years of life on this earth. One of which is my inability to watch movies based on historical events. Really really bad events. Especially WWII. Even if the movie is fiction, it still breaks my heart and tears up my insides.

I just watched a movie called Charlotte Grey. (I seem to be moved greatly by many movies I watch.) It's about a woman who, during WWII, decides to join the resistance in France so she can find her lover who was shot down. *spoiler alert* During her journey she bombs trains, loses six friends in a massacre and-the part that hurts me the most- she loses two little boys, who she has grown to love, to the Nazi's because they're Jewish. I'm especially sensitive since.... well, I have two little boys of my own.

There is a part in the movie after the little boys have been taken away where Charlotte is in despair and a one of the men she knows comes to her and says this: *or something close to this*

"Why are you trying to die? You do not get to stop living, because their fate is to die. You did everything you could. You do not choose who gets to live and who gets to die."

I am wondering, who the hell gave the Nazi's the idea that they had that right? How much of your soul do you have to sell to the devil to allow little children to die because of something they cannot help. Do you know what my greatest fear is? That our awful, terrible, crippled and idiotic human race has not learned it's lesson. How many innocent people have to suffer because of wicked and corrupt people? How many more times are sick and twisted men going to come into power and destroy delicate lives? How many more children are going to be robbed a a childhood, either from death or from living in a world of constant fear. How many more times are good people going to stand by and do nothing because it's easier? I know that I will not stand by if something like this comes to my front door. I will fight against the real monsters in this world, especially the one's who hide behind politics and religion.

I wonder what happens to the souls who thought they had the right to decide who gets to live and who gets to die based off their religion or race. I am not perfect and in my imperfect state, I take pleasure in knowing that cruel and evil men will get theirs too.

All of those children, mothers, fathers and grandparents who were killed were at least freed from their pain and fear. I know they get to see their Heavenly Father and they get to be embraced in his arms, safe. Safe from pain, hurt, and fear. I know that every person robbed of their life here is welcomed by a loving Heavenly Father and brother, Jesus Christ. This knowledge, comforts my aching soul and keeps me smiling and loving my life. This knowledge calms me down after I watch a movie that manipulates my emotions so severely that I have to write about it, through tears, stuffy nose, and a headache from so much crying.

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad.

2011-03-11T00:08:00.000-08:00

I feel that it is only appropriate to tell you about the good in my life after you have gotten to read all about the not so good in my last post. So tonight at midnight, because I cannot fall asleep after eating 3 rolls and a handful of candy, I am going to share with you, in pictures, the good in my life and not all of the typical good you get from most people. You know like, God, husband, children and family in general. No. I am going to share this:

Bubbles

Green Fields

Sunny Skies

Cloud Gazing

My warm cozy bed

The art of masters and my own skill.

My popcorn!

And cucumbers.

A good laugh.

My nice legs. I look slamming in high heels. And no those aren't my legs, I'm actually not conceited enough to take a picture of my own legs and post them on here.

And wildflowers. Because I get to plant some soon. Just look how beautiful they are.

My life is good, my life is bad. It sometimes feels like the bad shows up more than I want it to, but I am learning how to push it back and away. It is so much easier to be happy than to be sad all the time. I have faith that someday things will fall into place in my life. I am lucky enough now to have a few things that have finally fallen into place, now I'm just waiting for those milestones to get there. :) I hope that some of you can draw comfort from my imperfections and sometimes temporary overwhelming obstacles. I hope this can make you feel like it is alright to feel sad for things, alone some days, overwhelmed by small things, uninspired, angry at life, or angry just for the sake of being angry. It's ok to feel. Just don't let the blue feelings take over the other feelings. Yesterday I was blue, but today I am red, yellow, and orange! I am ok with where my life is, I am ok with my kids, my home, my decorations and my personality. Today I am glad to be me. Hopefully I can hold that thought close to my heart and keep reminding myself that I am glad to be me, because I have a lot to offer to myself.

The Bottom of the Roller Coaster

2011-03-08T22:48:00.000-08:00

Life is kind of sucking it up right now. I could have put that more eloquently, but I think I deserve a pass just for using the word eloquent. You know when people tell you that life is like a roller coaster. By the way, I think it's annoying when people say things like that. Life is like blah blah blah. . . yeah, you could almost use ANYTHING to compare life to. Life is like a knife; it's useful, it's hurtful, it's sharp, dull, scary, and pretty. See. . . ANYTHING! But, I'm still calling my life right now, like a roller coaster. Specifically a bottoming out portion of a roller-coaster.... on a rainy day.... with a nasty wind chill... and a sick person sitting next to you.

I mean look at the list of things I feel like I have working against me! Either by no fault of my own, or in most of these cases, by me putting them there:

M and I both don't have jobs right now.
We can't seem to find ANY jobs ANYWHERE.
We can't apply for loans or grants because of a certain status McKay needs to achieve, so we have to pay for school one class at a time.
He's no where near graduating. . . sooo depressing.
And neither am I.
I still have no friends. (That's my own personal pity party and my own fault for being a recluse)
We can't really afford where we live, but we're still living here.
Our tempers are shorter than a human tail. *In case you were confused.... humans don't have tails, I know, big shocker! :)*
M and I can't seem to get along right now. Marriage is hard people. So don't go and believe people that are all lovey to each other all the time. They're either newly weds, lying, or way too submissive for their own good. (This might be because of the job thing. We're both edgy.)
A and E are being pills. A has taken to lying and E has decided it is no longer worth it for him to listen to us, unless we're REALLY loud.
I'm doubting my parenting skills. When they fight, my first instinct is to yell back and then dropkick one of them into their room. I'm really frustrated that I just can't seem to get it. I really don't like playing with them because I don't like wrestling and that's all we do together. They don't get hurt, I do. And we can't afford to go and buy crafty things to make because life sucks.
I'm also coming to realize that I am an annoying person. I don't like to be sociable if I don't have to. I saw 7 people at the grocery store tonight that go to my church, and instead of just saying hi, I look the other way like I didn't see them there. Or at the checkout stand, I just stare off into space or at the ground. I would really like it if I liked to say hi to people.
We have to get rid of our dog because we can't afford to keep her, but I don't have the heart to take her to the pound where she could be put down. So she stays, and unknowingly sucks money from us that we don't have.

SooooOOoo.... my life is bottomed out right now. If this were one of my drawings, I would throw it out and start over again. Maybe this gloomy weather and small, uninhabitable house are making me crazy, but I really feel like I have my tire so far stuck in the mud that I'm never going to get out of it. I really feel like this is just the way life is going to be. A flatline. A dud. A pile of broken dreams and hopes shattered by a cruel world. (melodrama!) I just need something to turn this frown, upside-down.

I'll just go back to watching Grey's Anatomy and crocheting a hat. It's the perfect way to just forget.

Blood in the Urine

2011-02-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

So, I don't really want to talk about what is going on with me usually because my children are already SO interesting. But I know I'd be sad if I didn't talk about my experience today. About 3 weeks ago I went to the doctor to have a regular physical, and as you all know, that's a sucky experience in itself. But for me, it was a little different. The doctor told me I had excess blood in my urine. This was news to me! I've been peeing fine recently thank you and did not see ANY blood. He said it could be a number of things and to come in for another UA (urinalysis) to see if the bleeding was gone. 10 days later I came in again.... aaand there was still excess blood in my urine (hematuria). They scheduled me to see a urologist and after another week I went to my pee doctor. Peed in a cup again and was told yet again I had hematuria. He ordered a CT.

And I had a date with this guy.

After lots of paperwork, waiting/napping in the waiting room, I was finally called back. They made me dress in this crap.

oooh good times. I mean who doesn't love walking around a hospital with no bra on and an open back gown.

They brought me into the room. Had me lie down and then just told me to listen to the machine. They put this really warm blanket on me and I have to admit it was rather nice. I was pulled through the CT about 3 times as it told me to "breath in" and "hold your breath". Inside the donut you can see dark band in the photo. Inside there they have something that spins around. It makes you feel like you're in a dryer, either that or you're going to be transported to the dinosaur era in nothing but some hospital garb and no bra!

The first round of this was to check for kidney stones. I had none that were apparent. She told me that meant I get to have the contrast dye injected into my veins to look at my organs.

This is the best most basic picture I could find.

She started me on a IV and then told me she would pump the first half into my arm and then after 10 minutes she'd pump the 2nd half so that my entire insides would be lit up. No- this is not something you can just obviously see. But I could feel it. First I could feel my vein pulsing as the dye was being inserted, then my entire body got really warm. It felt like I had to pee. Very odd. And then came the nasty taste in my mouth that I couldn't really taste for long. For whatever reason, my insertion site hurt like crazy. The catheter inside was causing all sorts of hell. I just dealt with it rather than get another IV inserted. IVs feel like a bee sting to me, except once the bee sting feeling is gone, it feel like the bee has lodged itself under my skin at the IV site. I suck at getting poked with needles.

After the second round with the CT machine I was able to get up, get dressed, and wait for the results. And it was nothing.... they couldn't find anything. All scans were negative. Don't get me wrong! I'm glad for this, but this also means I just went through all that crap for NOTHING. Oh and of course this means I have to have a cystoscopy on Thursday. I'm looking less forward to this than I was for the CT.

What they're basically going to do is feed a little camera up my urethra. . . ew. So, thank you excessice hematuria- you suck.

My kids at weddings

2011-02-22T00:22:00.000-08:00

Sad news. It looks like I've finally filled up my quota of picture space on here. So until I rectify this annoying issue. There won't be pictures. Which hopefully won't last long, because I like pictures! Luckily, what I wanted to share this time didn't have any pictures to go with it anyway.

Aunt C just got married this last Thursday and it was a beautiful wedding. I love going to other couples' weddings and sealings. It reminds me of my own sealing and how special it was. For those of you wondering what a sealing is, it's a bond that as Latter Day Saints, we believe goes beyond this life. We believe that when we are married, that we are sealed to each other for time and all eternity and we get to do this in the temple. Of course, if you have more questions, please find your local LDS missionaries and I know they will love to explain it further to you! LDS.org is also useful for questions!

We had a very long day with the family and loved every minute of it. My kids of course were little studs. Everyone was raving about how cute they were and of course since they're my children, they just ate all the attention up!

After the sealing, the pictures, the little break in between and the luncheon, we finally made it to the reception! A couple things happened here that I won't and don't want to forget:

As Aunt C and new Uncle J began their first dance of the night as the new married couple, my kids decided to get a bit of attention. E began by dancing along with them at the corner of the dance floor so no one really saw him. He wasn't exactly dancing properly to Beauty and the Beast- he was really breaking it down. As soon as he got tired, he flopped on the ground like a starfish and started to roll himself out closer to Aunt C and Uncle J. By this time people are beginning to notice the 2 year old splayed out on the floor at the happy couples feet. Luckily no one seemed too annoyed except of course Es brother. Are you even surprised? haha. A took his brotherly duties very seriously and went out to retrieve his starfish brother off the floor. A bent down, grabbed Es arm- E didn't move a muscle- and A proceeded to drag his little brother off the floor. I could hear people everywhere laughing at the spectacle my kids were making. Way to ruin the moment guys! You two are just lucky that C and J are good sports and didn't get ticked off at you! I mean, in reality, there's no way you could be mad. It was just too cute!
Second thing I won't forget was E breaking it down after the slow dances were done and everyone was allowed to dance. He ran his two year old bum out there and started hopping around, throwing his arms everywhere and kicking his feet as fast as he could. The people who actually wanted to dance were so thrilled with their little dance partner that a circle actually formed around him and everyone clapped as he got his groove on! E was so encouraged by this that he maintained his awesomeness for the entire song. A was not to be beat though, he found the circle too and decided to break dance for us. I am not even kidding when I say break dance. He must have seen someone from other wedding busting some moves and he tried to copy them. He was better than me! .... which really isn't saying much.... but still!

These were the things I won't forget about my kids, I know I also won't forget how beautiful Aunt C looked. There's just something about being a bride that makes you glow and she absolutely had that glow. She was stunning in her wedding dress, she was stunning in her luncheon dress- because I mean seriously, who wants to eat in their wedding dress and chance getting it dirty. Uncle J looked pretty happy too; these two were meant for each other and I don't say things like that lightly.

It was a beautiful day, full of beautiful happy people, and it was wonderfully perfect! We'll just forget that my feet were crying by the end of the night, because genius here didn't bring flats and had to wear high heels from 9am-9pm.

p.s. You'll have to forgive me for the crappy writing. It's 1am, I can't sleep and my writing skills are sub par this late or early in the day, whichever way you look at it. Oh yeah- one last thing! I can't forget that I had lots of compliments on how nice I looked too! I love getting compliments since believe it or not, I actually do have a fragile ego.

It's Going Around

2011-02-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

I finally have something to share! Unfortunately it's kind of sad news. A has been sick since last Thursday. We finally took him to the doctor's this morning and found out that both of his ears are infected. That was a shocker since he hasn't been complaining at all about his ear! He has a fever of 100 still. I'm just glad that it's not 103 like it was a few days ago!

There's been a lot of sleeping, crying, cool baths, medicine, pediasure, pedialyte, coughing and loooong nights for everyone.

Pediasure Goatee!

E has felt a bit left out since A has been sick. He's made up for this in extra teasing of his brother who can't defend himself properly.

E stalking his prey.... a.k.a his sick brother.

Going for the kill!

A was clearly not impressed with this.

So E and Mommy decided to go out and play for a while so A could rest. We decided to go to Kangaroo Zoo!

First, E had to get his sexy on.

And then we went to have some fun!

Jumping!

Running!

Yelling at the camera like a celebrity yells at the paparazzi!

Scaling Mount Everest!

And sliding down her at rocket speed!

And then of course, pretending to be a half a caterpillar!

Needless to say, once we got home it was time to sleep. . . Or maybe not.

Slowing down does not exist yet in Es vocabulary. At least we gave the sick boy some time to rest. Hopefully he'll be better soon. It's not fun to have your kid get sick, especially when they cough in your face and then try to kiss you with slobbery little lips.

Stubborn!

2011-01-26T15:42:00.000-08:00

Please! Anyone!! Tell me how to deal with a 3 1/2 year old who thinks he is the boss! HelP me! I cannot stand watching him try to take matters into his own hands any longer! It's making me crazy! Within the last 5 minutes I've had to send A to his room for taking cereal from his little brother and telling him he's, "Not allowed to eat this, E. You hafta eat your dinner!" And then after his first incarceration and a few minutes of freedom, he decides to take some garbage from his brother because he's, "Not allowed to play with trash! Put it in the garbage." Where he once again puts the item above his head and runs around with it, so his brother can follow behind him screaming in protest. AND he doesn't even put this trash in the GARBAGE himself. Bah!

It's soooo annoying. What a simple concept. Don't tell your brother what to do, quite bossing him around and your life will be easier. The weight of trying to be mommy will be lifted off your 3 1/2 year old shoulders and you can go back to being a kid. I'll stop putting you in timeout and I'll stop imprisoning you in your room.... oh, and I'll stop stealing your toys as punishment as well.

Seriously, does anyone out there have tactics that work with a bossy know it all child? No, I don't want to know about books I can read. Lets be honest here, I'll have the good intention to read it, but between all the kiddy fights I have to stop and my own things getting in the way, I'll not read a book.

E versus the butt cream. Part II

2011-01-23T19:40:00.000-08:00

Do you remember this?? yeah? Well... it happened again. I'm not sure what E's obsession is with butt cream, but he just can't seem to get enough of it!

I mean, really?! REALLY???? Uuuuuuughhh!

Do any of you have ANY idea how long it takes for this stuff to get out of their hair! I'd rather he had lice! Or bubble gum in his hair over this stuff!

I made a video that I can't put on here (not by choice. It just won't let me), but he has the cutest most mournful 'sorry' face you've EVER seen! On a positive note, for all of you hair gel obsessed out there. This is by far, the most fantastical stuff you could use to keep your hair in literally any position you wished. Your head will look white, it will take days and days of showering to get it out and you'll smell like a baby's bum! BUT hehe, that might be worth it to you.

I couldn't decide if Daddy M was going to put me in the picture or not. So I just smiled and leaned away. :)

A wanted to get in on some of the fun. He'll never pass up a moment to smile for the camera.

They're lucky they're so cute sometimes! Because if anyone else did this. I would not be thrilled in the least. I mean, I wasn't in this situation, but it made it a lot less horrible when I had E's cute little sad face looking up at me. Just check out the first picture and tell me how you can be angry with that.

Goodnight everyone! I hope your evening was a lot less cream filled than ours was... unless it's edible cream.... like from a donut!

*Get your mind out of the gutter!*

They are smarter than we think they are

2011-01-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I had the spectacular chance to actually get out of the house! I know, it's a miracle. The boys and I went to. . . wait for it. . . the Karl's Junior play place! It's right by our house and whaddaya know, it's free!! Being the great person that I am though, I did buy some fries to pay for their services. I learned something new that day about E.

He's devious in ways I did not even know. He's come to new levels of deviousness! He's the master at teasing and quite frankly, with the parent's he has, I'm not all that surprised.

We came in to the restaurant. Ordered some fries and a milkshake and proceeded to the play place. I have this creeping feeling that half you mothers reading this are grimacing at the fact that I even let my kids play on such a dirty thing. BUT I really don't care. I played on them as a child. I loved it. I was happy. I do not have any negative life altering moments that regard play places. And I don't see the point of sheltering my kids from germs to protect them, call me evil, but I feel like building their immune system and having fun while doing it, is a productive day! oh yeah.... if you're grossed out by the fact that I let them play in a play place, you might not want to read on, because its gets nastier.

A ran in and started to play first! E was more interested in the food that had just been delivered to us. He sat and ate with me for a little while until he saw his brother playing with some new friends he made and decided he wanted to join. E is just a bit too small to actually climb up the play set "stairs" that they have, so he had a bit of help from me. I had chosen the best seat in the area- or the only seats really. It gave me the perfect view of my kids while they were up there playing. After about 20 minutes of play time, I look up to see E sitting contentedly above my head drinking something. . . Shocked I stood up and like a good mother I looked up and yelled at him. "E! Put that down!! What are you doing!? Put it down, that's yucky! Gross!" He looks down at me with the curious expression on his face, pulls the straw out of his mouth and then slowly raises it back up while staring me down. "E! Right now! Put it down! Gross!!" He stops again, looks at 'his' drink and then back at me, tilting his head slightly to the side he replies in his high pitched innocent tone, "No. Nooooo, " while slowly shaking his head back and forth.

I tried to keep my composure, but it was just too funny! I had to look down and then try to act serious again. I looked up at him again, trying my best to look stern, and again told him, "Put it down." Before I even started to say the words I was laughing. *Not a good idea if you're really trying to get your child to stop drinking some mysterious liquid in someone else's cup and you really don't want to climb up to retrieve him.*

Encouraged by my stifled laughter, E repeats his little "No. Nooo." charade for me again and starts guzzling--through a straw-- the rest of the drink. By now I am so grossed out and aware that he knows I am not going to climb up there to get him, that I just sit down and watch him drink the rest of it while he stares at me in evil two year old triumph. And of course to rub it in a little, he takes the lid off the drink and eats the ice chips! WHICH I am fairly certain some slipped out of his hands a few times before they made it to his mouth.

I am going to blame this personality trait on his Dad. Because I was an obedient child and would never have done something so heinous! That was my sister, M.

"Your Blackberry or Your Wife"

2011-01-13T08:10:00.000-08:00

This is something I am fairly certain that every family has to deal with in our world, er, America today; technology. It's is literally everywhere! Unless of course you live in the backwoods of Oregon in a shanty hut and use candles for light. Ironically, I am using my technology to remind some of you that we need to take a breather. We need to step back and get away from all of our gadgets. I found an article this morning that I found intriguing. Especially this part.

10 Signs Your Devices Are Hurting Your Relationships:

1. You can't get through a meal without emailing, texting or talking on the phone.

2. You look at more than one screen at a time, checking email while watching television, for example. *I do that... usually a little game while I watch a show*

3. You regularly email or text, other than for something urgent, while your partner or another family member is with you.

4. You sleep with your phone near you, and you check your email or texts while in bed.

5. You log onto your computer while in bed. *guilty yet again.*

6. You have had an argument with a loved one about your use of technology. *oh boy...*

7. You text or email while driving. I don't do this, it's against the law...

8. You no longer go outside for fun.

9. You never turn off your phone.

10. When you spend time with your family -- a meal, a drive, hanging out -- each person is looking at a different screen.

well it looks like I need to make some technology changes. What about you?

And now, onto the more fun part of blog posts. The pictures!

Sorry, I don't have cooler pictures. We're not up to much around here. We all have cabin fever and are going a bit crazy. I really do hate the snow sometimes. I don't mind it in small doses. Or maybe I wouldn't mind it, if it didn't make me feel trapped in my own home- that could also be because of the one car that we have and my NON desire to WALK to get to places. Either way, life is going on. A is in primary now, which is SO exciting! For those of you completely confused by what primary is: it's a church program for children 3-12. Each Sunday A will now go to primary, while poor E stays in nursery (18mo-3) class. Actually, I'm not feeling all that bad for E, seeing as he gets to play for two hours during church!

Daddy M has started school, he's taking one class this semester while I am home, studying for my CNA state exams! And then it's job hunting for me. I am so thrilled to be working again, but some days I am struck with this panicked feeling of worry about doing my job right, worrying about the hours, and worrying about how my mood might change by working again. I need to stop over thinking things!

Now, you, whoever you are. Turn off your computer, your TV, give me your iPod, and go read a book!

My New Love

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

I never believed in love at first sight....

until I met you.

You came in a box. Covered in Styrofoam. Tucked under my Christmas Tree. It was destiny!

*AAAAHHHHAAA aaaAAAHHH* (angelic singing)

Maybe it was that glowing white porcelain mixer. Or your shimmering chrome bowl figure. Or maybe it was just meant to be. All I know is, I was hooked.

We are clearly made for each other. A match made in kitchen heaven! We are Ren and Stimpy, Bert and Ernie, Hot milk and Chocolate, Peanut butter and Jelly! No one can separate us!

We took our first journey together and made something beautiful.

Fluffy, sexy, brownie mix!

I can tell already that we'll be friends forever. Hug, hug. Kiss, kiss. Big huge, big kiss, little kiss.

My Vacation in Pictures!

2011-01-03T18:20:00.000-08:00

Plus of course, a few extras! Most of you have seen at least some of our Christmas pictures. But it would be against my nature not to share them with everyone who reads this blog!

The day before I went to Oregon, it snowed about 14 inches outside.

Ava still played in the snow with her frisbees. :)

The Children's Museum!

Happy not wordy blog post! Happy New Year and Happy life to everyone! It's good to be alive!

Miracles

2010-12-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've written anything on here. I feel like during the Christmas season I should have SO much to say. But I've been so busy that I don't really have much to say, and then I went to church and was so moved by part of our lesson on Sunday.

Naturally, we talked about gifts. Not tangible things, but other more spiritual gifts. One of the gifts we mentioned, was actually something I never considered a spiritual gift, (yeah I know, I'm saying that word waay too much.) it was the gift of miracles. Recognizing them and accepting them in our lives. I began to think of miracles in my life, that at the time, I didn't really consider them miracles, since they weren't grand scale occurrences. Or, at least at the time, they didn't seem so.

When I was a child, just about to turn 8, my head had a run in with a hard floor. As a result of this.... sudden meeting, I had a concussion. My memory is probably much more dramatic than my parents' memory was, because lets face it. Kids are all drama queens- it's not just me! I remember going to school every day feeling fine and coming home very sick. I had no energy to do anything. I would just lie in bed and sleep. I remember my mother waking me up from time to time. Since I am LDS, I had made the decision to get baptized when I turned 8, which just so happened to be very soon. A day or so before my baptism, my mother took all of us kids to the airport to pick grandma up. I was so sick that she had to put me in a stroller and wheel me through the airport. I must have looked so retarded. I was so weak that I could not walk. The night of my baptism came and I could not get out of bed. I had no strength... and then I received a blessing from my father and a few other men. I remember getting up out of bed on my own, getting to the car and making it to my baptism. I did not feel sick at all during this time. I was able to go down into the waters of baptism without any trouble and when I was taken back into the changing room, I once again became very ill. I know my Heavenly Father blessed me that night and kept me strong for as long as I needed to be strong. I will never forget my baptism and how special it was to me.

I'll try to keep these others short. Not long ago, my sister was in a head on collision going about 30-40 mph. I did not witness the aftermath of the accident, but my parents did. They explained to me that the two cars were smashed together like accordions. She came home from the hospital a day after the accident with only a broken nose and severely cut up lip. Which, was still devastating to see, but it could have been so much worse. It was a miracle that she only sustained minor injuries. As well as only a minor injury to the other driver.

This last year, my dad was rushed to the ICU in septic shock. He almost died a few times before they stabilized him. He was put into a coma for I think about a week, he was hooked up to chest tubes, he was given a feeding tube and had multiple surgeries performed on him. It was a miracle that good people were able to take over his practice, while he recovered. It was a miracle that even during the middle of my semester I was able to fly home. It was a miracle that he survived. It was and is a miracle that my dad is not angry or bitter about his current condition.

I have a testimony of the gift of miracles. I have a testimony that our Lord and Savior has an active hand in our lives. We just have to open our eyes and allow ourselves to see it. I have a testimony that there is no event out there that is too small, to be considered a miracle.

Recently, a beloved building to the LDS church and the Provo community burned down.

This 4 alarm fire destroyed this building and left a community in shock, but even through so much devastation and sadness, there was left something beautiful.

The image of Christ, spared from the flames.

I know my Savior lives. And I know he loves each and every one of us. He has an active hand in our lives. We just need to open our arms and let him him.

My New and Special Experiences

2010-12-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

As many of you may know, I have been taking a CNA class this semester instead of courses at BYU. I am not coming to the end of my class, and frankly, in my opinion, the BEST part of my class! I started clinicals this last Tuesday and I have actually really enjoyed it. I say it like that, because, yes, I wasn't so sure if I would have fun taking care of the elderly. This does not mean I wouldn't enjoy their company, but there are some dirtier things involved with residents that are in care facilities. I mean, they are there because they need help, not because they are completely capable of taking care of themselves.

During my first clinical I worked in the dementia wing. And I cannot say this enough- serving these people has filled my heart with love and happiness. Service does people good. It truly does. To those receiving the service as well as those giving it. I have to say that when people talk about that in church or just in general, that I would kind of smile and nod, because I really didn't believe it. I knew it made me feel good, but I didn't know how much it could make someone feel good.

I'll just share a few experiences on here. Tonight I met a 93 and 104 year old women. And it looks to me like they could truck along for a while more.

I came in contact with a resident with MRSA. I would tell you to google it, but I highly suggest you stay away from any images. It's basically a super bad bug. It's resistant to anything with -icillin at the end of it. penicillin is one we're most familiar with. But I guess modern medicine today uses a lot of drugs with -icillin in it. I know I'm not properly explaining that- sorry all you nurses out there. But basically all you have to know is when you have MRSA, it's nasty. It's highly communicable and you get it by contact. Thank gosh it's not air borne. Which means for me, that I get to wear gloves (which we always do anyway), a mask (even though it's not airborne, I'm not risking it) and then a yellow suit to keep me safe.

I was able to listen to a story by a dementia patient every time I crossed his path. I know all about the Colorado River now and how much fun it is to fish and hunt along those waters. I will have to admit, it makes me very sad to see these residents. The dementia patients are like little children. And I'm not talking about your ornery little 3-4 year olds. They're like your 1 year old. That obviously depends on how far into the disease they are. It was really hard for me to see them like that. Because it's this adult person, that is a shell of the human they used to be. I had a man I helped feed that could only really say 'yes' and 'no'. I was telling him about how Christmas is my favorite all time holiday and his face just lit up. He started to say "yes! yes! yes!" as he pointed to himself. He started to laugh and hug me. It was a special little moment for me, even to just get that man to smile. And I'm sure he'll never remember it. But I know I will.

I have been really scared lately that I wouldn't be a good CNA, but I feel like I might love this job more than I ever hoped I would.

Hit a Deer

2010-12-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

There are a couple of things in this life that I can honestly say I never thought I would do or would care to do: sky diving- definitely a NEVER in this life, becoming a pro athlete, getting overweight- yup, that's really on my list of nevers, pregnancy doesn't count, hitting a deer aaand working with the elderly.

A few days ago, on Saturday, I fulfilled one of my nevers; I hit a deer. Or rather, I was a passenger in a car that hit a deer! At the time it was pretty scary, but looking back, it really wasn't that bad. Daddy M, my sister-in-law and I were driving back from a work Christmas party out of the canyon. On the way back I counted 4 dead deer off the side of the road. I was surprised that there were so many! But, I didn't think we would hit one. It wasn't actually until we got out of the canyon that he ran into our deer.

Daddy M was driving and all of the sudden on the corner of my side of the car there was a deer. It was dangerously close to the road. When we came closer to it, it tried to run away, by going across our path! Daddy M couldn't swerve out of the way thanks to the ONE car in the other lane that just so happened to be right in our way at just the most inconvenient time! He couldn't swerve the other way because there was a pole there. The only option was to break and hit the deer....

All I remember is my sis-in-law, very calmly I might add, say "deer." That's when Daddy M slammed on the breaks, the deer hit our car, there was a nasty thumping noise from impact, the car stopped instantly, I screeched and covered my face- I was NOT about to see deer blood all over my windshield, and we all sat there in shock. The eyes came uncovered and I saw the deer disappear under our car and then it rolled about 30 feet in front of us. I was just waiting for the thing to roll over dead, but it stood up! Looked around, dazed, and zig zagged off the road into the field. It wasn't limping and we didn't see any blood, so we were all hoping that we just stunned it and didn't just contribute to an early death.

Our car on the other hand..... did have some damage. Not a lot, but we are all wondering if there's a deer walking around somewhere with half our headlight sticking out of its back.

Dear Daddy MK

2010-11-30T23:14:00.000-08:00

Your boys have missed you! Still miss you. And they want to tell you what we've been up to. No pictures though. :( Which is sad, because you know me. I LOVE pictures! Sorry everyone.

Sunday night we cried because you were gone. There were lots of little tears and between the tears were the words, "I want my Daddy back." Of course.... part of that may have also been because we got into trouble. We left you a message so you could call us. But we're pretty little, so we fell asleep.

Monday we saw some family we don't normally see! We ate at Burger Supreme. Mommy had to return our hamburgers, because the paper thin meat was pink in the middle. Thank goodness the only one that ate some of the pink hamburger was me, the littlest one. Although Mommy thinks that my bites were so small that I was only eating the crust, so hopefully no pink meat was eaten.

That night we had hot chocolate. That was our treat after a busy day with cousins! It was hot so we had to blow on our drinks to cool them down. I tried mine first and it was SO hot that I made a silly face. When I saw big brother try to take a drink I was very concerned. Mommy listened to me say brothers name with my heavy baby accent and then with eyebrows raised and eyes the size of saucers, I said " Isss haw! Caaaafuul!" I watched big brother intently as he slowly brought his drink to his lips, "Caaaafuul!! Iss haw! Isss haw!!"(translation- It's hot! Careful!) I was a good helper and made sure my brother didn't get the surprise I did.

Tuesday we stayed home for most of the day, but in the afternoon we went shopping for a gift! We both had fun riding in the bottom of the shopping cart. Big brother scared a lady on accident. She didn't know he was down there and all of the sudden he crawled out! We had a lot of fun riding in the bottom of the cart. Mommy was scared that we'd get our fingers pinched, so she watched us most of the time while we were down there. We also got to see our friends B and M and their little girl. We were of course anxious to get mom out of there so that we could play!

We miss you Daddy, we're keeping ourselves busy while you're gone and we're very excited for the big huge chocolate you said you'd get us. Because of course anyone who's been to the south knows that chocolate is what they're famous for. . . :)

Holiday Season

2010-11-27T15:22:00.000-08:00

Ok Christmas! Bring it on! I have my decorations up. I have my Christmas countdown calendars out. I have most of the presents purchased. And I have the winter clothes out!

Now I'm just ready for the light displays, the Christmas music and the family moments!

I love Christmas. I can't get enough of the spirit of Christmas. I actually could do without the snow some of the time. Just saying. But I mean look at these pictures. Who DOESN'T love this?!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Physical Therapy

2010-11-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

Today I had my second physical therapy session/meeting thing. I'm not exactly sure what you call it. Anyway, I am SO thrilled to finally get my ankle back to full functionality. I was already told that it will take up to a year for it to fully recover, but we're not going to talk about that part. We're going to talk about the fact that I am making progress on squats.

This is what a squat is supposed to look like. Fantastic right!

ok.... well here is what my squats look like right now.

It's just really not the same thing. Seriously, if I try to push further down than that, my right leg feels excruciatingly awful! But! Here is the thing! It's getting better. I used to only squat that far, but now I can squat about an inch or two lower than that. haha.

And thanks to this fantastic wrap job, I am able to squat that extra inch, inch and a half. This stuff is supposed to last me at least two days. The way the physical therapist has taped it actually pulls and repositions something on my leg that alleviates the pain a bit! I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but it works!

Which means! I LOVE my physical therapist.

Memory

2010-11-16T21:21:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling a little nostalgic tonight. A little reminiscent. And quite at peace with my life. I found a few more leaf pictures. I just can't get enough of my little boys playing in the leaves. My son, A especially loves the leaves. The piles I have been able to make in my own backyard are massive. They're so big that they remind me of leaf piles I played in as a child.

I used to live in Nebraska while my Dad went to school and there were two massive trees out front. And for a 5 year old, they seemed especially huge! I remember running around in these piles with a bunch of other kids while a parent would be raking up the leaves as fast as they could go. My Dad and sometimes my mom, would throw me into the pile. What a fantastic feeling it was to get tossed into a pile of leaves, sink down into it, and watch leaves poof up from the sides of you and then float back down on your head!

I just love leaves. And tonight I feel very content. I think I might cuddle up in my bed and read my book while eating something delicious.

By the way, I passed my CPR training. I am now once again officially CPR certified. I'm not sure when I'll actually receive the card. But I'm glad I can do that now!! I think that's one of the most useful things I've learned in my CNA class so far!

This is what it means to double task!

2010-11-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

Today, E was having some trouble. He really wanted some affection and attention and for whatever reason, Daddy couldn't supply him with this and so I did... while making dinner. It took me a bit to decide what would be the best way to give E what he needed and still continue to feed my family. But I finally came up with the solution!

Now we're all happy! Or at least most of us. My job just became barely manageable, but at least my little guy is happy and feeling a part of things.

Just look at us! You know you want to be a part of this. You just KNOW you want a 30 lb baby sitting on your shoulders!

Rough Night

2010-11-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

That's what E and I had tonight.

Putting someone to bed. Sounds simple enough, right? Well.... it's really not. As I write, I can hear my 3 year old blatantly disobeying me and sneaking around downstairs in the kitchen. You might be thinking... awwww, that's so cute. If you are.... stop it now! It's not cute. It's aggravating. (But I still love you if you thought that! Ü) Especially when the only real time you have to yourself is after they go to bed. And then, because they're too little, they don't understand that you need your time too. So... they get out of bed and when they hear you coming- unaware that you're fuming mad- they run back to their own bed, giggling. Yes, yes, yes... I know I deserve this. I am sure my parents had many frustrating nights when I couldn't seem to just listen and go to bed so they could sit in quiet and read or watch their show or finally take that shower they've been waiting for all day.

Believe it or not, the giggling and running back to bed, while I think of a new way to get through to them that they need to go to bed when I put them to bed... is not what this post is about. It's about E and what he found.

Desitin, bloody... DESITIN! Oh my gosh, I am sure the look on my face when I walked into the room to make sure he was in bed, must have been priceless. I walked in, saw him climbing back into bed- which was annoying in of itself- but then when he turned around and looked like someone had punched his eye and instead of a black eye; he got a white eye, I did a fancy little double take. And then the flashbacks began. Vaseline. (said whimsically) From another son, not much older than E is now. It is sad to say I did not learn my lesson.

I even had the chance to get it out of the room before the real disaster hit! Only 1/2 hour earlier I saw him playing with the Desitin and instead of vigilantly looking for it, I just put him to bed, assuming it was lost. Little did I know, that HE had it! The little bugger had hidden it somewhere! And now I bring you.

The Desitin Disaster.

Sorry for those of you that didn't get to view the video. The boys' names were in them and I wanted to remove them asap. :)

My night with him after I had him show me where the cream was, it was hidden in his bed, which you can actually see in the video, was eventful. It was full of multiple hair washes. Lots of crying. Lots of fighting with the slippery little boy. Trying to keep the dog out of the tub while I washed his hair. And then of course locating and eliminating any other Desitin effected areas in the room. Which meant the floor and some of his bedframe.

One cool thing about Desitin is that it works as an excellent hair gel! Which is probably what he thought it was to be honest. He likes to watch me use my hair stuff and sometimes I'll put it on him and the boys. Maybe he just thought it was his own personal hair cream. I tried to ask him what his thought process was and why he had to rub the cream all over his head, and the only response I got was some sad little staring eyes at me as I held him tight in his bath towel. This little boy, even when he's in the biggest trouble, can just make my heart melt.

Perfection. It's a myth

2010-11-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie, sometimes reading other people's blogs just depresses me. And here's why. They're always SO happy and SO perfect! I see pictures of the mother that made her kids' TinkerBell costume,the mother that bakes the most EPIC birthday cake EVER, the mother that makes homemade chocolate suckers and lets her kids paint them, the mother that instead of getting annoyed with her kid traipsing around her feet imagining that they're on a mountain- just plays along, and the mother that for whatever reason is fantastically fashionable and can dress their kid like a runway model. It's depressing. I get it into my head that I can never be like that. Sure I post fun, cute stuff on here and I can some days write a good story to go along with the pictures, but if my kids were running around my ankles pretending to be up on a mountain or on a beach, I'd get annoyed after a while. I can't keep my boys clean enough to stay in one outfit all day and I'm an awful cook, so homemade chocolate treats just doesn't happen. I can barely keep up with myself, let alone everyone else and their perfect blog lives. It makes me really want to fast forward my life to a time when McKay and I are done with school and we have money so I CAN do some things that all these other parents seem to be able to do.

I'm going to learn a good lesson here though. I'm going to learn that life is not perfect. Even these people on these blogs have issues. They fight with their kids, they lose their temper, they feel inadequate as parents, and they probably go to bed after a complete day of wastefulness and nothingness. Life is not perfect. Money does not make life better. Memories do. Scraping together whatever you have out of your rented kitchen to make chocolate/caramel/butterscotch blobs is ok. They don't have to look like perfectly molded chocolate hearts and angels and stars. Blobs are good. I don't need money to have fun with my kids. I can learn that someday can be today. Someday I'll do that with my kids.... well why does it have to be someday? We're going to do to that today and if we utterly fail, we'll at least have that dreadful memory to keep us smiling until we feel brave enough to potentially utterly fail again.

Today we will live, we will fail and we will succeed. But at least we were doing it and not focusing on those friends that have perfect blogs with 'obviously' perfect lives.

I think this picture was taken by my son A while I was asleep downstairs "neglecting" my kids and feeding my desire to sleep. E makes quite a handsome little doctor.

Head in the Sand

2010-11-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

Cute little story for you guys. Yesterday was yard work day and let Mommy stay inside and clean the bedrooms day. Daddy was outside with the boys raking up the leaves. We were finally able to get into our shed- we kind of lost our keys and had to borrow them from the downstairs tenant- and so that meant we could get our yard work supplies out! At one point in the cleaning experience I heard my husband say, "J come outside and bring the camera!" I ran out of the bedroom, looked for the camera, all the while listening to some children giggling outside. Once I grabbed the camera I hurried outside to see E lying, half buried in a pile of leaves, staying as quiet and still as a 20 month old can be. And then I look up to find the other one a little way off with his head in his leaves and his bum in the air!

Daddy's memory of this moment of me coming outside was a little different. He told me the story a little something like this. He gets both the boys nice and hidden and then calls for me to come out. In the excitement E sticks his head up to see what is going on and A just completely jumps out of his pile. I come outside and start going down the stairs. Daddy shouts, "Hurry guys hide!"

E then flattens himself again onto the leaves and sits still, while A runs one direction to hide, changes his mind and runs the other way and then decides to run back into the leaf pile to hide. But since he can't get his entire body hidden, he just desperately buries his head in the pile!

hahahahahahaa!

Oh, and here are pictures of the boys 'hiding' in the leaves. :)

The Sweetness of my Life

2010-11-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Some people feel that children are burdens, restraints, more energy than they have the patience for, or a nuisance. Some days.... I do feel those things. But every day I am blessed by my children. They remind me how precious they are and that they are gifts to me. I would be devastated if I did not have my boys in my life.

A few nights ago, around 3 am, I was roused awake by a door creaking. I could here little footsteps near my door. At first I thought A just had to use the restroom. We leave the bathroom light on for him, because he gets scared in the middle of the night when he does have to go potty. But then I hear another door slowly creaking open and I see a sliver of light widen across my wall. Too tired to get up or say anything, I just waited. I could hear shuffling, little grunts and feel the bed moving slightly as he climbed up. Then came a little whisper, "Hi mommy, I.... uh.... doe'nt feel well.... I dunna sleep wif you duys." (translation: Hi, mommy, I don't feel well. I'm going to sleep with you guys.)

Considering that it was 3 in the morning, I was not as impressed with his invasion of my sleep, but I am sucker for his quiet, pleading voice. I rolled over and whispered back, "Ok, come here." I patted the center of the bed and waited for him to wiggle under the covers. I pulled out one of my second pillows and placed it under his head. As soon as I got myself situated again- now scrunched in the corner of the bed, trying not to fall off- A tucks his body up against mine. He put his arm over my head, his sweet attempt at trying to wrap his arm around me like his Daddy does, and seconds later he was asleep.

When morning came, Daddy was surprised to feel a little rugrat in bed. You know that time of morning when you're half awake and half asleep. That time of unconsciousness where you can control your dreams? That's about the time that Daddy had a foot on his chest, and on his head, and occasionally on his back- kicking him. A was nice enough to just cuddle with me, but Daddy was not as lucky. And lucky for A, Daddy loves him enough to tolerate a little competitive sleeping.

* * * * *

A couple days ago, I decided I was sick of looking at the inside of my home. So I took A and E outside to play. The air was crisp and clean. There was no breeze and the sun was shining. It was beautiful! I could see all the leaves everywhere changing colors. And then, I saw all the leaves on the ground. One of my fondest memories as a child was playing in leaf piles in Nebraska. So my little boys and I made a pile. After about 10 minutes of collecting the leaves, I lost my little helpers and they ecstatically plopped themselves down in the leaves and asked me to bury them! We played outside together for at least another 1/2 hour. It was so much fun. Even the dog joined in the fun, she lost her chew toy in the pile and was frantically searching for it, while the boys screeched in delight watching her.

These are the little moments that I live for. That I love. That I crave.

I get to have my little son cuddle up against me in bed and feel how much he loves me. How much he wants to be so close to me. I get to be a child again and play with them in the leaves. I get to be reminded of the beauty around me as I am embraced by their enthusiasm for all things new!

I am glad I have my little boys and that I get to experience parenthood.

Advice to you parents to be some day:

2010-11-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

Do not leave your kids alone for more than 5 minutes. Catastrophe is sure to ensue!

Especially if you leave them with something that can be messy.

Last of October

2010-11-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen something like this? Ok- before you answer, let me tell you what you're actually looking at. This is a pumpkin seed that's sprouted. The interesting thing is, we found this seed, INSIDE one of our pumpkins!!! So cool! I'm pretty sad that we didn't get a second pumpkin out of this. That would have been amazing. To open up the pumpkin and see another pumpkin inside!!

And of course I just cannot get enough of my little Things! So I have a few more pictures of them. Sorry for those of you sick of seeing them all dressed up.

They're just too cute! And I know that some of these pictures are fun for grandparents to see since they're own kiddies are in them as well!

A was too focused on getting candy, which is why no photos of him with girls were taken. :) By the end of our trunk or treating party, we had some very tired boys.

Oh! And proof that at least one of us parent's dressed up for Halloween.

Can you guess who I am? Probably not that hard. HERMOINE!!! And lucky for me- I can re-use almost my entire costume for other events.

Halloween was lots of fun this year. I promise this is the last post of Halloween business.

Whew! We can move onto some other events in our lives!!

Carvings Part II

2010-10-31T19:22:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin carving is serious business. It's SO serious, in fact, that it deserves a whole second post... and possibly a 3rd, once I actually take a picture of our other "stair-ee!" pumpkin. Fall has to be one of my favorite seasons purely for the fact that we have SO many holidays that follow Halloween! We get Thanksgiving! Christmas! and New Years!! It's great!

The pumpkin you see her is Aunt Ms and As pumpkin.... and yes, he actually did choose that pattern. Although, I'm pretty sure that he didn't know what he was picking out at the time.

The last two photos are my favorites. The one with As dorky smile in it had a conversation that went a little something like this, "Smile normal A".... "No! A not like that! Just smile normal for now." ..."A we can do a silly picture next, cummon!" . . . after a few minutes of frustration from Aunt M and I as we try to make the 3 year old smile like everyone else, I came up to him with my fingers in 'flick' pose to see if the idea of getting him in trouble would make him listen.... it didn't.... it actually produced the next picture. That would be As. "I've just been threatened" face and by the looks of it, he thinks I may have blackmailed him, cut off his teddy's thumb and mailed it to him with a note saying, "you're next if you don't send the money!" Aunt M is just going with the flow and following As lead. :) ....or maybe she's his body guard and that's the "I'm going to shank you if you come closer" look.

We have a lot of looks in this family. It can get confusing to translate sometimes.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2010-10-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

So I've been feeling a bit bloggy today. It's an orgy of new news! And I love that I have so much to share! If I had self control I would chill and post this in a few days, but lucky for you, I have no self control... .so for your happiness, here is the 3rd post of the day.

We went trick or treating at Ms work today and the boys enjoyed dressing up quite a bit!

We are epic. You don't even know!

Their favorite part of getting dressed was putting on the makeup. They watch me put mine on every day, so when they got to put theirs on, it was a special treat!

Once we arrived at Daddy's company, we had to wait outside because some genius decided to pull a fire alarm. *face smack!* But we managed to get some choice photos of the boys. :)

They're supermodels, you know it!

Quick run through- We have our lovely Aunt RIN who was E's carrying buddy. He was only interested in being carried, because supposedly he's 'scared' of all the stations. In his defense though, some of them were pretty terrifying- for an 18 month old at least.

scared face!

We're trying to get him to smile here. Little stinker wouldn't do it. But you can see the hint of a smile there!

I was asked several times where I got my costumes from. And I was able to tell them that I am so epic, that I made their costumes. I have to admit, they didn't take that long and they weren't that hard. But still, I am epic.

It's Carving Time

2010-10-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of Halloween is carving pumpkins!!! If I had the most awesome tools and all the $$ in the world. I would carve a pumpkin village for my front yard and lay in the middle of the town in pure happiness! Unfortunately reality brings me to only buying 3 carving pumpkins and the most elementary tools. BUUT each year we seem to manage! This will have been A's 3rd? or 4th Halloween and every year he has NOT wanted to touch anything. A usually informs me that the inside of the pumpkin is 'Dross!' and 'Yutkee!' (gross and yucky) This year though! We actually convinced him it was fun!!

Here A was quite impressed with Aunt M's gut scooping skills! The only thing I was thinking while he had his mouth wide open was, "Don't touch my couch with your nasty hands!"

Aunt M was helping A with his pumpkin. She helped him choose a pattern, which when she was done carving it, actually scared him. And his brother! haha

While we were carving our pumpkins, E was eating his dinner, so he joined us a bit later. He did not even hesitate to stick his hand in a gooey, slimy pumpkin hole! I think E will be a master pumpkin lover in his later years. For now though... he's the de-gutter and the seed spreader. Yes. That's what he did. Found a spoon and scooped up all the seeds we were saving, so we could roast them, and he stuck them all over the place. Mostly back inside the pumpkins.

Such a serious little stare. He was really focusing on his pumpkin task and smiling for me was just too much. He obliged by looking up and then quickly going back to work. :)

Once A's pumpkin was done, he quickly jumped in and helped me with mine. He is a very good helper now that he's not so focused on staying clean!

At some point in the process it looks like A may have lost his pants. The picture above... they're there. And then now... gone! What're ya gonna do? When a man wants to be half nakey, they're going to get half nakey.

We have a recording of our pumpkins and their finished product, but for some reason they won't upload. So, tonight I'll take some more pictures so you can see our fantastic patterns!

First Snow

2010-10-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

This morning, we had snow! And it was SO exciting that a little certain someone couldn't even wait to get his clothes on. As a matter of fact, I remember putting him to bed in clothes and then waking up to him.... not, it clothes. I'm not sure when this transition took place. BUT it did. :)

The boys and I rushed to get our breakfast eaten, so we could go play in the snow! We couldn't go in the backyard because there were doggy poo poo bombs back there. But the front yard was perfect! Poor E was not well equipped. He had the boots, the hat and the gloves, but no real water resistant snow coat or pants. Luckily, we had the time to go and do that today. So the next time you see the handsome little man, he'll be decked out in his new gear!

We bought the boys this sled last year, but A was deathly afraid of sledding down hills, so the poor thing just sat sadly last year in our closet. BUT it appears that it will have a more useful season in the months to come! This is the photo were you can see that they are the lucky bums that get to ride in the thing, while I on the other hand get to be their work horse. I pulled them in circles for at least 20 rounds and let me tell you.... my kids are NOT lightweights!

We got to play with doggy A today as well. We weren't sure how much she'd actually appreciate snow, but she did a really good job! She ran around trying to eat it and chomped on more fall leaves than I'm sure she appreciated. There was a ball involved for a while. But poor doggy A is not so bright. I would throw the tennis ball and then it would bounce in the snow at her feet and she would step all over it, desperately trying to find it. We'll forgive her for her "not smart-ness" (A won't let me call her the stu**p word, I get in trouble if I do) though, her good looks will get her further than her tiny brain!

At the end of our morning play, both kidos got to go inside and complete the snow experience with some yummy HOT CHOCOLATE!!!! I LOVE hot chocolate.... aaaand rightly so; my kids do as well!

Stitt-er Nipples!

2010-10-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

Caution: partial nudity ahead. If you have a weak stomach... DO NOT scroll down! There are things posted on here that might make people involuntarily pee their pants out of horror. Some may have nightmares. Others may never speak again. But.... you have been warned!

AAAUUUUUGGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!

WHERE ARE tHeIr nipples!!!!

The horror!!!!

They've been infected by stickeroma!!

There's no hope left for them.
SAVE yourselves!!!

.... and please, change your nasty pee pants.

Hee Haw

2010-10-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we went to Hee Haw Farms! I went last year with the boys and it was loads of fun despite the rain and penetrating cold, so we decided to go again this year! It was nice and sunny and perfect this time around at least. . . and we had more friends that came with. :)

We first posed by steroid mutant pumpkins! The one's they'll drop on a car from a huge crane and crush it to death! We didn't go on the date that that happened. Maybe next year.

Then we all headed over to the trick or treat hay ride. E was not sure what was going on, but he was excited to be with everyone.

Aunt M was just as excited as A was about the flying candy!

After that we found the slides! Everyone had to give it a try.

I should have gotten a picture of it, but about halfway down this slide, there's a gaping hole in the ground, one false move off the side and you'd be under the slide in a hole that was an unknown depth. That didn't really stop anyone though.

They have this homemade 'train' ride for the kids and we decided to all hop in and ride since no other children were there but mine! A was not interested in going on the train- probably because just before this we forced him into a 'terrifying' blow up maze that he had to run through... and now, he's trying to be mad at us.

So if you look hard enough you can see Aunt M at the front, then my cousin KD and little E, then myself, A and my cousin's hubby, CD.

Even after we were finished bouncing the crap out of our bodies over the dusty, rocky path, A still did not want to smile. Look how hard he's trying to stay serious! He definitely is my stubborn, cute little 3 year old.

I'm going to have to say that my favorite part, besides watching my kids play, was the petting 'zoo' area.

I could tell some elaborate story about how I chased this chicken down and corned it and the heroically caught it for my kids, but honestly, the fat thing just stood there and let me pick it up; that story goes with the other chicken that I could never catch- I DID corner it, but then it ran away with it's freaky fast chicken legs! :) Either way, my kidos got to enjoy petting the "duckeee!" as E called it.

There's rabbits in there. They both just stood there staring at them until Daddy M could trick the rabbits to getting close to the door so we could grab one.

See! I'm not the only one that tried to corner the animals! They were smarter than me and teamed up though. This is my cousin and... cousin-in-law? Is that even a thing?? cousin-in-law. hm.

Aaaand here's the rabbit, I managed to pull out for A to hold after his Daddy pushed them toward the door. He was so excited to hold it, until it tried to squirm out of his arms and scratched him a little. Rabbit time was done after that. If McKay and I ever get some property, maybe we'll buy some rabbits for the boys. They are pretty cute!

Aunt M found a piggy laying in a mud hole one of the animals dug out. It didn't really want to be bothered, but he... or she tolerated us long enough to get a picture and a few pets in.

After we finished with the petting area, we found a few more things to play on and wiped out the kids... and the adults a little more.

ridiculously slow slide that E loved.

Another slide that A loved!

And some tire-horse swings that both my boys did not want to get off of. Especially E, he was perfectly satisfied just sitting there chilling. Eventually A did find another place to play. I kind of wanted to join him. If only I wasn't such a germ-a-phob!

The corn box! With the kids eating the corn and throwing it everywhere.... great fun.... and kind of disgusting. But we didn't care!

We were happy, tired and had a great sunny day!!!!

Apples

2010-10-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

E and I were eating apples for lunch today..... actually, HE was eating the apples I sliced for him and I wanted a few. So, very politely I asked him if I could have a slice. He looks at his apples slices, looks up at me and says, "Yus!" (yes) He then proceeds to dig through his apple slices and find the SMALLEST one, looks up at me grinning proudly and says, "Here'a doe!" (Here you go.) . . .Thank you E you're so generous, I don't know what I would do without you and your offering that would barely sustain a mouse, the world is a better place with your generous little heart in it.

I think he felt quite proud of his clever little move. In fact, he was SO proud of it, that he went on to break off little chunks of his slices and feed them to me... or sometimes, tease me! I would open my mouth ready to take my meager piece and he'd pull away, giggling at me. I have never been tormented by an 18 month old before and I'm sure it won't be the last time as he gets older!

New Methods

2010-10-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

A decided he didn't want to eat his dinner a few nights ago. To remedy this issue, he went and found his own 'spoon' to eat with.

I wasn't about to fight with him... because, well.... he was actually EATING his dinner! It was fun to watch him try to pick up all of his food, but he managed to do it. It did take him a while, but you'll hear no complaining from me!

It took some serious concentrating to get his food into the.... the uh... what the heck is that thing called!?! Whatever it is, it took him some time to get his food clamped and placed in his mouth.

Chocolate Goatees

2010-10-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

Nothing goes better with Monday morning than chocolate! Especially chocolate cake!!!

Pretty in Purple

2010-10-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm in a pretty peachy mood this morning despite the fact that the weather outside is chilly, the sky is full of grey and black clouds and it's been drizzling on and off outside since I woke up! Still feeling peachy!! Maybe it's because the holidays are just around the corner!! The leaves are changing colors. I get to dress my kids up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 for Halloween. I get to gather my fall decorations and finally put them out again! I. am. thrilled!

Not much has really been going on in our home, we've just been going on with our same old routine, but luckily for me, along that regular routine are some fun moments.

A few weeks ago, E decided he did not want to eat on the counter, he wanted to eat on the floor in the kitchen on our rug. Being the wonderful mother that I am, I just put his lunch on the rug and let him have at it. I went about my business not paying much attention to what he was doing... until I realized it was quiet, too quiet. Any parent- and almost any non parent knows that if a child is being quiet, then they're most likely doing something naughty or they've fallen asleep. Lucky for me! E had just fallen asleep mid-meal! Nothing sinister was going on here!

If you look in the background here you can see my crutches, which meant that I couldn't lift him up and carry him to bed. So.... being the fantabulous Mother that I am, I just collected one of his blankets and wrapped him up like a caterpillar in a cocoon and left him on the floor. :)

* * *

Buzz lightyear is a favorite toy around here. He will often go with A and E everywhere. About a week ago, Buzz was left alone. I stumbled upon him laying on my rug, looking quite provocative.

I am still wondering why my children made him pose like that...

* * *

A likes to watch me paint my fingernails. Sometimes I will paint one of his nails and he just loves it! One night, one of those nights where things are too quiet- and no one was asleep this time!- M and I stumbled upon A sitting on our bed with my purple sparkly fingernail polish going to town on his hands!! AHHHHHH! OUR COMFORTER!!! M swooped over grabbed the polish that was THANKFULLY not tipped over and handed it to me. A was quickly collected and taken out of the room. He was quite proud of the work he had done on his nails and enthusiastically showed us.

Lucky for us, only a little bit of polish got onto our comforter and it only looks like glitter. Not polish. WHEW!!

A sure loves his purple glittery nails/fingers. :)

Dying cats

2010-09-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

M and I consider ourselves excellent parents. We are the best. And we give the BEST advice. . . For example.

Today the water heater thingy-ma-bobber downstairs crapped out on us. We didn't know this since we live UPstairs and another tenant lives downstairs and since she got home from work at 5pm, we knew nothing until we chose to cut the boys' hair and give them a bath. I proceeded to start up the bath, unawares. About 30 seconds later our neighbor was knocking frantically on our door, explaining the situation.

Advice #1: Quickly turn off your bathtub water and proceed with the hair cuts as planned even though you have no indoor plumbing to use. It is the logical and sensible thing to do anyway.

E was the first voluntary victim of the haircut and he left quite satisfied with a nice new 'do. Of course, to get him to the satisfied feeling, we had to bribe him with candy, trick him into looking for my computer, and give him a Popsicle. Hair cuts just aren't what they used to be.

A was next. He was also a happy volunteer, until M made him look down, to the side, and to the other side. I could hear him informing M that, 'you are choting (choking) me!' or ' stop dat, you're hurting me!' In the end there were no casualties from the hair cuts. Although my son would probably disagree.
While M was buzzing A's hair I turned on the hose, getting ready to wash them off outside.

Advice #2: Turn on your hose outside so you can spray you kids down after the sun has set and the water has gotten cold. Very. Very. Cold.

At first our kids were excited! A was in his undies doing a happy dance and E was just butt naked running around. The anxiety of what I was going to do next to my child was killing me. I held the hose in my hands feeling the cool breeze outside as well as the ice water streaming from the hose. I shivered a little myself and I was dry!

Advice #3: If you're going to hose them down with ice water, do it fast!

A went first. I asked him to come close; so, unaware of what was going to happen, he trotted up to me. *anxiety!* I looked at M and then back at A, shuddering inside because of what I was about to do. I took a deep breath and soaked him with the hose.

At first there was no sound. The shock of being soaked with ice water had momentarily killed his reaction time. He took in a staggered deep breath, his body shuddered, and a scream I've only heard come out of a dying cat, exploded from A's mouth! And of course because I liked the noise so much and because he was still not fully cleansed of his free floating hairs, I sprayed him again! He danced across the lawn, bellowing like a bull who's just been branded, or a dying cat, which ever imagery you prefer.

Advice #4: If you're the towel holder, like Daddy M was; make sure you stand there in shock long enough for the water to really penetrate the victim before you swoop them up in a bundle of warmness.

Finally, A was wrapped up, mostly dry and a bit shell shocked. He was taken over to the hammock for some special treatment. That was our recovery unit for the severely "frozen" 3 year olds.

While all of this was happening. Little E just stood there and enjoyed the show in all his naked glory. He had no clue what was going on, or what was going to be happening to him next. Mwua ha. I did not want to be the bestower (is that even a real word?) of torture twice, so M took the hose and terrorized E. He screeched in circles across the sidewalk as M chased him down with the hose and washed him up as well. I could see his little belly suck in as he evaded the hose, screaming like an even nastier dying cat/ crazy bull! His bellow was in the range of a high C. Dogs were howling everywhere! (slight exaggeration)

These are the noise to be proud of these days if you're a parent. If you can create that screech, then you've done your job right..!? *cough*. And we managed to create it twice! We. Are. so good.

*big cheesy gloating grin*

I happened to be a better towel holder than M and little E was quickly wrapped up and warmed. He snuggled close to my body, curled up into a little ball. His eyes as large as a rodent being squeezed.

Advice #5: After you have sprayed your kids down, be sure to laugh extra hard, because it is splendid entertainment to watch them jump out of their skin in horror. Howling in protest.

We finally finished. The cops weren't called on us. *whew!* And our children seemed to be ok. As a matter of fact, as Daddy M was carrying A into the house, he looked at the hose again and then up at M. He brightly asked, 'Spray me uh-den! (again)'. I think they'll be ok. :)

*No children were harmed while in the participation of this act. Only tremendously surprised and extremely cold for about 15 seconds.

The rug

2010-09-27T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, the rug. It was love at first sight. I wandered around the store hunting for the perfect rug. And there she was- glowing! She lay there all beautiful and green and perfectly stitched. I just had to have her. 20 some-odd dollars later she was mine. I proudly carried her home, ready to place her on our bathroom floor, knowing our relationship would be splendid. How could it not be with that beautiful green color!

Our relationship started out wonderfully. She kept the floor warm, she added such flavor to the bathroom, she kept my kids from slipping when they were wet.... but then it happened. I'm not sure what provoked it, but A and the green rug fought. Maybe she made him slip, I don't know, but he decided to poo on her. Just a teensy bit! But enough that she had to be removed from our bathroom and sat outside and waited for someone to wash her.

At first I was eager to keep her clean! As soon as she went outside she was hosed down, washed and quickly dried; which is when she was lovingly brought back inside to grace our bathroom floor. But A was relentless! A few days later, there was more POO on the rug. Then pee. More poo. More pee. A bit of puke. Some blood. My beautiful rug spent more time outside than in! Every time we clean her and bring her back inside she gets defiled!

Some weeks, the rug will be outside for a few weeks before we clean it. And during those weeks there will be no accidents, no messes, nothing! And as soon as we bring her back in, she gets messed up again! I tell you, my beautiful rug is cursed! I don't know what happened, but our relationship has turned sour. I hate the green rug! I hate the mess! I hate that she cannot stay clean for more than one day! And I am sure, that for the rest of her existence in our house, she will rain down poo, pee, puke and blood. Curse the rug!

Professional Photos!!

2010-09-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

A turned three June 24th and we just barely got is three year photos and we're ecstatic at how wonderful they are!!!

Well there you have it! A very photogenic three year old. We're so glad Dan was able to take these pictures for us!

http://www.danhixsonphotography.com/index2.php

Music warms the soul

2010-09-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a story will just have to do. I have no pictures of what transpired last night, but hopefully my story will make you feel like you can see what went down. :)

A and E were put to bed at their usual time. E was having a particularly troubling time getting to sleep because he hadn't seem Daddy M all day and he wanted to be with him. We put the gate up in front of their door to keep them from coming out. So what they like to do it stand at the gate.E you can barely see. It's just these two little hands hanging onto the gate and two little eyes straining to poke over the top. And then A just a head taller than him, smiling his infectious grin, with the hopes that it'll attain him freedom. After about 5 minutes of being ignored the whining and crying begins. Daddy M was much more patient with them last night since he'd been gone the majority of the day and went back into their room. When they both saw him coming their direction they giggled ecstatically, turned, and ran onto their beds. Daddy M sang them some more songs and then told A to sing some songs to E so he could leave. Daddy M, left the room with E screeching behind his ankles and running over to the gate again, expressing his feelings of ultimate betrayal as Daddy M stepped over the gate. A did not seem to noticed the displeased crowd and could be heard quietly singing in the background. When the crying didn't cease from E, Daddy M went back to the bedroom and collected E, who instantly curled into a ball in Daddy M's arms and rested his head on his shoulder.

It was then that A realized his audience had left and began to cry. Daddy M asked him what was wrong, and through the sad little tears A explains that, "I wan' to seeng Twintle Twintle Wittle Star to Ees**." Daddy M with a great big smile on his face told A that he could sing to E in a second.
M and I went back to talking with E still cuddled on his shoulder. It was quiet for a moment in the boys' room for about 10 seconds and then we both heard A begin singing quietly and our hearts melted:

"Twintle Twintle Wittle Star. 'ow I wunder what you are. Up a above da worrld so high. Lite a diamon' in da sty. Twintle Twintle wittle star. 'ow I wunder what you are."

I peeked around the corner and saw A kneeling on the floor by his dresser his little hands curled in his lap and his sad little head pointing down. Daddy M decided to bring E back to his own bed for A's sake and when A saw that he was coming back he started to sing more vigorously for his little brother, excitedly getting up and hopping into his bed. Both boys ended up falling asleep quite contentedly after that.

Life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments

2010-09-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

There are things that seem to come into my life that move me beyond words. My emotions overflow, often in my case, into tears. Today I watched a movie that did just that to me. Filled my heart with happiness, sadness, and thoughts I haven't nourished in a long while. I just watched the movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and found myself here, thinking. What am I? What was I born to do? There was the dancer, the artist, the mother, the musician, the swimmer. If life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments, then what moments have made my life? What has made me who I am? From the day I was born, I began to paint my masterpiece, I began to create moments that defined me. The little girl twirling in the dresses and chasing bullfrogs. The young adolescent playing soccer and leading her team. That teenager that loved so much and then lost it all. The mother of two little boys and the wife of a good man. My moments have only just begun. My masterpiece is only beginning to take form.

I look at those I love around me and can now see so many beautiful tapestries of lives. My father, a tapestry of adventure, excitement, solace in the woods, great love and great sadness; his painting, like many of ours is beginning to change in a way he did not expect. I can see his life and I can feel how much character and life he's put into it. He's bright reds, bright oranges and yellows that intertwine with blues and greens. There's a new color there, an unfamiliar color as he takes the next journey in his life and learns what the Lord has in store for him. I can see my mother, her painting is just as glorious as my father's, but also so very different. There's gentle hands, and a gentle voice, there's great love and sadness as well, there's energy- like an ocean wave that pulls the water out to sea, it's impossible not to get caught up in her energy. She shines like a sunset over the ocean. It's so gentle, the colors are so soft, but the light from the sun is still stunning. My mother's life is vibrant blues, deep purples, and sparkling with yellows and reds.

It is my time to see what colors I've painted my life with. It is my time to find what moments I want, to define me.

I am full of eagerness at what my life has in store for me. Maybe I will be the dancer, the musician, the mother, or the lover.

Sleepy

2010-09-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

Kids crack me up. Today the boys ran around with me doing errands for a good portion of the morning. We made it home around 2:30 pm with M in the car. He was sick and asked if we could come pick him up. M collected A and E for their naps. E went willingly, mostly because he was already passed out, but A woke up as soon as the car stopped running. M came out to get him and told him it was time for nap time. Immediately he beings to cry and scream and throw a fit, all the while telling M that "I'm NOT tired! I'm NOT tired! I'm SPOSED to be AWAKE!!" M and I are just chuckling to ourselves because even though he's saying he's not tired, he's clearly putting on a show that says to us, "PLEASE put me to bed! For the love of ...something... PUT me to bed!!!"

Which we gladly did.