Total Chaos

Just Breathe!

2010-05-18T21:26:00.001-07:00

Take a couple seconds to adjust.......I know you are completely shocked, as am I. You mean she isn't dead?

No, not dead, just crazy busy! Let me sum up what I have been doing the past ummm 8 months.

First of all you have to note the last post date, Sept. 30, 2009. What most of you may not know is Seth started with a new company (Part time) the beginning of Sept. and by this time, it was getting pretty busy at our house. I was helping him get things going and that took most of my free time. I'm not complaining, because I am very happy with what we are doing. Yep, I signed up and got licensed as well in October. It has become our business and between that, kids, housework, yard work, callings, etc. we are so busy, I can't find time to sleep, let alone find some free time to blog.

So let me apologize by saying I have no idea what is going on with any of you either because I haven't even taken the time to see what everyone else is up to. I check my email every day and send out only those things that are necessary but other than that, facebook and blogging have been put on the back, back, back, burner. I want to try to keep it up to date but with school being out in a few weeks and the busyness of summer around the corner, that may not go very well.

But thought I would let you know we are alive and well, just busy as ever! Here's a picture to prove it.

Seth and I with my brother Ryan and his wife Keri receiving a promotion!

Conversation with Mitch

2009-09-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

So today as I was sitting at Lunch with Mitchell, he says to me "Mom, can I call Connor to see if he can go on a bike ride with me?" I can't for the life of me think of another Connor but my nephew, who lives 400 miles away. So I tell him "I don't know any Connor." His reply is this "yeah, he's my friend." I ask if he is a friend at church, he says no. I tell him "okay, call him!" thinking he is pretending and will pretend to call his friend Connor. But he says "I don't know his number. Then he says "oh, yeah I do. It's 1......(pause).......5.......6.....7." So I repeat, "His number is 1567?" And he says yes. Then I tell him again that I don't know who he is talking about. Then he says "We went there with Grandma." I finally realize who he is talking about, so I ask him "Can he ride his bike here? or is it too far?" He thinks about that for a minute and says "No, it's too far." Then I say "He is in school right now and cannot ride bikes with you." Then he says "No he is not. He did all his work and his Mom came and picked him up." I say "No! He is still in school. Do you want to call him later when he get's out of school?" He sadly looks at me with his head down and says "Yeah."

We have many funny conversations like this one. Once while driving in the car he says "WHOAH! There is brains under my fingernail." He had smashed his finger in a door the week before and his fingernail was falling off.

We had a fun day yesterday on his 4th Birthday. He is a funny kid and I love being home with him. He is my little buddy.

Kyah's Baptism

2009-09-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

Kyah turned 8 the end of May and was baptized on 6/6/09. What an awesome day. Her cousin is only 5 days older than her and they were baptized on the same day. Here are some pictures we took at the temple that day.

This is the second double baptism we have done together. Porter has a cousin (from the same family) who is 10 days older than he is. They were baptized the same day as well. Last time we joined their stake baptism, so this time they joined ours. Our stake baptism was crazy. There were about 12 kids baptized that night, 6 of which were from our ward alone.

I am grateful for a great husband who keeps himself worthy to hold the priesthood.

My House!

2009-09-23T14:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my house! We put it up for sale in March and at the end of this month, we are taking it off. We'll try again in the spring.

If you haven't seen my house clean (it isn't that often). Here's what it looks like.

I'm Alive!

2009-09-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

What a crazy 4 months it has been. My goal is to get my blog updated with what we have been doing the past 4 months. It may be a few posts but this is what has taken up most of my time lately.

READING!!! Who knew I would love to read and be totally board when I don't have a book to read. Here's my story:

In June we found out we were expecting number 6. Things were going great, in fact a little too great. I wasn't sick, didn't really feel pregnant at all much. A little tired, but I could handle it. I kept thinking, "I feel way too good". The dr. said the uterus was growing and things were fine. About a week later I had the very strong feeling that things were not fine. I was very nervous about it and had Seth give me a blessing. In the blessing, while I was hoping to hear and feel that the baby would be fine, instead, I felt like I would be okay and I would get through this. I knew then that there was no baby. I had a teary couple days and then when I got home from a reunion, I called the dr. and had an ultra sound ASAP. I was right, there was a sac but no baby. It's called a blighted ovum. Then next day I had a D and C.

While I was recovering, I watched so many movies I was sick of it, so when Sunday rolled around and I was staying home, I noticed a set of books my friend Jenn had brought over about 6 months before. She told me I couldn't return them until I read them. I was not a reader. The other reason it had taken me so long to read these books was it was the "Twilight" series.

There was SOOO much talk and excitement about these books and the movie that had come out that I was NOT interested in them AT ALL. I thought that I might like them but didn't want to read them because everyone was telling me I NEEDED to. I am sort of a rebel that way.

But with things sort of calm with Twilight, I thought, "Maybe now I can read them." So that Sunday I started reading. And by the time my family was home from church, I was hooked. I read the first book in two days. Seth was SHOCKED. My kids were saying things like "I have never seen Mom read." Or "Mom is reading AGAIN?!" Needless to say, I finished all 4 books in about 2-3 weeks. Then I read on stepheniemeyer.com her partial draft of "Midnight Sun."

I took a break for a while so my family and my house could recover. But I found myself board again and I wanted to read more. But what? Another friend let me barrow "The Hunger Games".

I read it in two and a half days. I wanted to savor it longer but I still found myself staying up until 4 a.m. reading. I loved it so much I bought it and "Catching Fire". Seth is now reading the first book and I am half way through the second.

I want to go read now but please leave a comment and give me some ideas of what book to read next. I don't want to be board.

Memorial Weekend

2009-05-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend. We spend it with Seth's sister Stephanie and the family in Yakima. The drive was a bit long (Ella screamed the last 1.5 hours) but well worth it. We went to visit Seth's Mom's grave. She died 3.5 years ago and it has been along time since we visited the cemetery. Here are the pictures of our Memorial Day.

While the flowers were being prepared we gathered around and told a few stories of Grandma.

We washed off the headstone and put fresh flowers next to it. For those who don't know my Seth's brother Russ carved her headstone. He did a great job.

Flowers for Grandma King. The kids all said "We love you Grandma!"

The cemetery was filled with flags. It was an awesome sight to see. I thought I would get a picture with the kids standing in front of some. They wouldn't hold still long enough though so this was the best I got.

Aubrey saw the older kids saluting she started doing it also. So cute!

We stopped to visit my Grandma on the way home! Ella wasn't too excited about it all.

What a fun weekend. Thanks Steph and Wade!

Dipping my feet...and getting deeper and deeper!

2009-04-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

I am not talking about swimming, that, I love. No I am talking about couponing.

My good friend, Monica, has been couponing for a while and has put together an awesome website for the rest of us who don't know what we are doing.

With Seth's birthday last week (I'll post pictures later), we wanted to eat out. Well thanks to FabuLESSlyFrugal.com, we were able to find a great deal at Restaruant.com. We got a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant for only $3 - that's 70% off. The one stipulation was we had to spend at least $50 (most restaruants are $35 minimum). We went with my brother and his wife and put it all on one ticket. Then we split the rest between the two of us. We got drinks (which are not included in the $50 minimum) so with tip we each paid about $22. The cool part was we spent about as much as we would have if we didn't have the certificate but we ate what we wanted too and did't have to worry about how much it was going to cost. It was great. Usually when we go out we buy something big enough we can share to save some money. It was so nice to order what I wanted and still know I was saving money.

So check out FabuLesslyFrugal.com for other deals like this one and for 4 DAYS ONLY at Restaurant.com you can get a $25 gift certificate for only $2- that's 80% off. Key word: LUCKY. Offer ends Thursday, April 30, 2009. And the best part is you can purchase the certificate for a restaurant in YOUR city, it's not just the Boise area. Also, you can buy it today and you have a year to use it. For a walk through of how to do this go HERE.

Ready or not, here we go!

2009-04-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

Well I didn't think this day would ever get here. I was trying to get to this point a year ago and when I was working all alone it didn't work. So when Seth finally said, "I think we should get our house ready to sell", I jumped all over that. That was just before Christmas. We set a goal to get it on the "market" in the spring. So after some major cleaning, de-cluttering, and lots of practice and talks with the kids about how this is going to work, I think we are there. We still have a few places to "fix" but ready or not here we go!

As of now, we have no idea where we will be. We have some plans though, assuming these plans coincide with the Lord's plans.

1. We don't want to leave Boise. Seth still has a great job and he has no plans on leaving that job. So we will stay here for now.

2. We love our Stake and we want to stay in the Stake boundaries.

3. My kids are finally in the school I want them to be in. At the beginning of the school year Kyah was accepted into the Magnet School in our boundaries. They only take kids by lottery so it's hard to get into. Once one child gets in, they start the next school year draw with sibling preferences drawn first. (So if you have a child already in the school and you want to put your other children in to say 4th grade and Kindergarten, they fill the classes with those who are already in the school. Then if there are any open seats they put the kids who have siblings already in the school into a hat and draw out the names). If all those are drawn then they take those who have applied (without siblings already in the school) and draw from those names. Last year we were put on a waiting list by number. I don't know if they are doing it that way this year or not. Anyway, long story I know, I got a letter on Friday saying both Porter and Naomi had been accepted to attend that school for next year. The amazing part is we knew of 3 kids (with siblings who got in this year) who were all trying to get into the 4th grade classes. From what I have heard Porter was the only one who got in, of the three. The other thing about this school is it is very small. They only have 2 teachers per grade. (The school they are leaving, though not a bad school at all, had 4-6 teachers per grade. In kindergarten alone there were 8 different classes; 4 A.M. and 4 P.M.) The magnet school offers extra classes as well; art, dance, music, instruments, martial arts, etc. Kyah has a keyboard class as one of her daily classes. She has picked up on some little songs on the keyboard and loves it. Anyway, I finally just got my kids into the school I want so we will be staying in those boundaries as well.

4. We love our ward. We both feel like we need to stay in our callings. This is a little more challenging and narrows our options quite a bit. There are not many places to build (with a private builder and not a cookie-cutter home) in the ward boundaries. And the older homes are not quite big enough for what we are looking for.

For now we have said we are not going to even look until we know weather we can sell our house right now anyway. So if you know of anyone who wants to buy a great 3 BR 2.5 Bath home in a great neighborhood for a great price, send them my way! (When it is actually listed and on the market I'll add a link to the listing.)

We know that whatever works out is what is supposed to be and if it doesn't then that's what is supposed to be too. (I just have to keep reminding myself of that.)

Kickin It Old School

2009-03-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

Our ward had an 80's dance. I borrowed an awesome outfit from my friend Amber. I'm sure I will forever regret posting these pictures but I figure I already embarrassed myself by going out in public this way so what the heck.

We took second place for the best couple costume and our good friends Jenn & Drostan stole the crown from us. I'm not bitter at all, they won two sets of movie tickets that night. No fair!

I thought these two should have won the best. You can't see just how big Nancy's hair is in this picture and Burt's hair, well it speaks for itself. They looked awesome!

Jen and Jason also looked cool with her in neon and the bandanna and sports jacket for him.

Brenda and Andrew were also pretty snazzy with his skinny tie and her tied up button down. And you cannot forget the pegged pants!

There's always fun to be had when you can dress up and look like a fool. Aren't we glad the 80's are over.....or are they?

http://budgetstyle.about.com/od/trendsforless/ss/springfashion_7.htm

Food Storage Without Storage!

2009-03-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

We live in a small house but are trying our best to get our food storage together. With hardly any room for ourselves, we have become creative with where we are putting our food storage. It may not be very fashionable but it is functional. Here is where we have put some. I'm not sure if I'll continue putting more up there but we will see.

What Beats Us Down Only Makes Us Stronger!

2009-03-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

My good friend Anna put this together and I wanted to share it.

The LDS Church issued a press release yesterday regarding an upcoming issue of HBO's Big Love that will "depict what they understand to be sacred temple ceremonies."

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

The Church's official stance on individual members taking action is this:

"Last week some Church members began e-mail chains calling for cancellations of subscriptions to AOL, which, like HBO, is owned by Time Warner. Certainly such a boycott by hundreds of thousands of computer-savvy Latter-day Saints could have an economic impact on the company. Individual Latter-day Saints have the right to take such actions if they choose.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an institution does not call for boycotts. Such a step would simply generate the kind of controversy that the media loves and in the end would increase audiences for the series."

When I read this, I coupled it with a previous statement from Elder M. Russell Ballard in the Oct 2003 General Conference where he stated:

"We need to remember Edmund Burke’s statement: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 6 We need to raise our voices with other concer ned citizens throughout the world in opposition to current trends. We need to tell the sponsors of offensive media that we have had enough. We need to support programs an d products that are positive and uplifting. Joining together with neighbors and friends who share our concerns, we can send a clear message to those responsible. The Internet Web sites and their local affiliates will have their addresses. Letters and e-mails have more effect than most people realize, especially those like one sent by a Relief Society sister that stated, “I represent a group of over a hundred women that meets every week and often talks about the harm your program is doing to our children.”

Of course the most basic way to protest negative-impact media is simply not to watch it, see it, read it, or play it."

With this in mind, you can contact HBO through the following contact information:

HBO is owned by Time Warner:
Time Warner Inc.
One Time Warner Center
New York, NY10019-8016
212.484.8000

http://www.hbo.com/apps/submitinfo/contactus/submit.do?title=GeneralInformation&questiontype=generalInf ormation&questiontype=general

A couple sample ideas from other friends include these:

EXAMPLE A

I understand that you're planning to show an especially controversial episode of Big Love on March 15th containing things are deeply sacred to members of the Mormon church. I hope that you will seriously reconsider this, as I and many of my associates believe that it is simply inexcusable to disrespect the proper wishes of any religion. The ceremonies of the temple are highly sacred to members of the Mormon faith, and to have them broadcast on television is among the most offensive acts that could be done against them. What saddens me most is that with all the research that goes into this show, I'm sure its producers are well aware of this great offense against members of this religion. Because of this I cannot support a station that would air an episode of this nature and will encourage my friends and family to follow my lead. Please do not air the March 15th episode!

EXAMPLE B

So I know that however many emails ya'll are going to receive you will still most likely air your program Big Love on March 15th depicting something so sacred, not secret, to viewers who have no idea what you are talking about.
What is sad is that instead of using your imaginations and creating something out of your own brains you would try to tear down a religion and a people who no matter what you do will still go forward with faith. You cannot tear us down. You can't harm us or make us feel that we are wrong. If you are trying to separate some from their chosen path, then again sad that instead of creating something uplifting and noteworthy, you are not in the business of entertainment, but of attempted demolition.
So to the intern that will most likely read all these emails, examine yourself. Is this really the business you want to be a part of? If so, it is your choice, just as it is mine to write this email.

I'm sure most of you have heard about this but I wanted to post it anyway. When I first heard about this I was really angry and mad. I wanted to reply with attack but then realized that this is exactly what it is intended to do. To cause anger and contention. So I said I will not be a part of that. Instead I replied with this:

I hope by now you have received many emails regarding this episode. But I wouldn't have done my part if I did not voice my disapproval. I too am appalled that you are choosing to air sacred, not secret, temple ceremonies within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I will not support a company who chooses to tear down other religions and I will encourage all family and friends to follow my example. The Mormon faith will not be stopped no matter how much you disrespect our teachings. Instead it will roll forth throughout the world, stronger than before. Please respect us and our religion as our FREEDOM OF RELIGION and do not air the March 15th episode.

I would encourage you to reply to HBO and let them know how you feel. I would again emphasize this quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” 6

Girl Scout cookies!

2009-02-22T20:18:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to let Kyah be in girl scouts. She has been wanting to do something just for her so we said okay. The best part about it for me is the girl scout cookies. Though I have eaten (and will continue to eat) way too many.

She did really well though, her goal was to sell 100 boxes of cookies. I thought that would be a hard goal but with work she could reach it. Well after a week of selling to friends and neighbors she had sold 85 cookies. Seth had also taken the tear off portion with him to work. In the week he had it there there were 99 orders on that sheet. Kyah was so excited to have reached her goal and almost doubled it. Her total order of boxes was 184.

Seth's only complaint was that now we have to deliver all those cookies. I think that's part of the fun. Here is a look of just how many cookies she sold. Way to go Kyah!

Christmas 2008

2009-01-27T15:42:00.001-08:00

Here you go Shelly!
It's still January. It's only been a month since these were taken not two.

Photobucket Album

Not Again! I hate this time of year!

2009-01-20T20:05:00.000-08:00

No I don't mean the new President. I'm talking about RSV. Yep, we have it again at our house. Every year someone at our house has that stupid virus. Last year we had two kids with it. Now we probably have 2-3 with it. The older kids are not bad, just a little wheezy. Ella on the other hand is really bad.

I took her in tonight to our after hours clinic that I wasn't too impressed with. It was one of those get her in, quick check, and get her out. The nurse checked her oxygen levels and they were staying between 86, 87, and 88. Which is not good. They usually admit to the hospital when the levels are below 90. But after she was moving around a little more the Dr. read it again and they were at 94-95. So we are home instead of the hospital. Which I am glad about except that I feel she is really sick and needs to be on oxygen. But the Dr said she didn't think she was in distress. So when Ella can't take go a minute without grunting for breath and her chest is so sunk in she looks like an Ethiopian child, she coughs repeatedly to try to clear her lungs, and falls asleep at random for short naps, that tells me she is in distress. If that's not distress, I'd hate to see what is. Ella has double ear infections on top of the RSV so she did get put on an antibiotic. Hopefully that will help her feel better. It's no wonder I haven't gotten any sleep the past few nights. Poor girl.

The Run Around Part 2

2009-01-12T14:35:00.000-08:00

Now that you know and heard my quilting madness, it's time for the rest of the story.

The night I decided to not kill myself to get the quilts done that I had been working on all day long, was the night of the BSU Poinsettia Bowl game. We don't have cable or dish so I asked my brother here in town if we could watch the game at their house. When Seth got home I was not feeling very good. But in the rush of getting the quilts done I had not eaten well that day. I was a little cold while sewing so I had a large mug of hot chocolate and I didn't eat anything else. I thought I was not feeling well because I needed to eat. When my needle broke trying to finish Ella's stocking, I called my SIL to see if I could use her sewing machine while we watched the game so I could finish the stocking and maybe bind Porter's quilt too (the last one to bind). She said sure so I gathered everything I needed to have to finish those. Then it was off to the game.

When I got there, my brother was gone and we were waiting to eat dinner and watch the game until he got back (I love pausing live TV with the DVR, why again do we not have dish?). By the time he got back I was cold (feverish) and felt like the contents of my stomach were sitting in the base of my throat. I knew I better not try to eat anything. Seth REALLY wanted to watch the game so I didn't say anything to anyone, just tried to ignore the sick feeling I had.

But needless to say it didn't work and pretty soon I was in the bathroom. I won't go into details but I had the flu. After a couple trips to the bathroom and feeling bad that I was now contaminating my brother's house and all their family, we went home. The game was about half over and he found out later the final to the game and the disappointing ending. I went straight to bed and didn't wake up until late the next day. Thankfully while I was sick on the couch my SIL sewed the rest of Ella's stocking for me (Christmas Eve was the next night). Thank you Keri!

Sadly every one of my brother's family got sick, including her parents and sister who were there for the holidays. Porter also got it and Seth got it later. I felt really bad.

Our Christmas and New Years was really good (pictures coming soon). No one was sick Christmas Day. We enjoyed having Seth home for two full weeks. We spent a couple days at the Discovery center (thanks to Seth's sister) and played lots of Wii and games.

The 3rd of Jan. I started with a little sore throat that night before bed. I woke up in the night feeling like a car had ran over me (fever again, aches, and couldn't even stand to swallow my own spit). It being Sunday I didn't go to the doc-in-the-box so we waited until Monday. Let the bacteria grow for another day. Monday finally got some drugs and it took a good couple days to start feeling better after that. Now I just have to remember to keep taking them so it won't come back.

Stake Volleyball has started again and this will be my 3rd year in charge of it all. Every Sat. morning from now until the end of February you will find me at the stake center playing Volleyball. It is so much fun. Our ward this year has so many women that we have two full teams with about 12-14 signed up on each team. The last two weeks we have had 12-14 there total. It is a lot of fun.

That's the rest of the story, and why I have not even been on the computer let alone posting. One thing's for sure, I hope I am done being sick for a very long time.

The next post will hopefully be Christmas Pictures! (No Shelly, I haven't forgotten).

The Run Around! Part 1

2009-01-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am still alive....at least for now (more info to come in a later Run Around Part). Let me explain....

First of all, I know those of you who are reading this are saying, "Wow, she actually posted something!" But for those of you who didn't know, just before Thanksgiving, I got the great idea that I wanted to make my kids quilts for their beds for Christmas. That's right, 4 twin size quilts! That's finding material that matches for 4 different quilts, trying to figure out a pattern and just how much material I will need for each, not to mention that I literally have a panic attack the second I walk into the fabric store (there's just too many to choose from, and what if I don't pick things that match, and how much do I need, and my kids run around and destroy the store, and it's taking way too long, and now one of my kids has to go to the bathroom but they don't have a public restroom which is retarded, and I finally throw and bunch of material rolls in the cart and hope they somehow match. Then get home and find out I didn't buy enough and I have to go back......and the panic attack starts all over again).

So for the next 5-6 weeks I spend measuring and cutting and sewing and cutting and sewing and sewing and sewing and then cutting some more. Then I have to get the material for the back and I spend another entire day looking for XL sheets and end up back at the fabric store (for another panic attack), and they don't have what I am looking for so I go to another fabric store, (yet anther attack), and they don't have enough material. I don't understand I am only buying 6 yards per quilt. Not to mention they are merging stores in March so they are not restocking their shelves and everything is selling out.

It's now almost a week till Christmas and I am just now getting the back done and trying to find batting (I got the last 4). I still have to pin, bind, and tie all 4 quilts. There is no way I can do it. But still I work my tail off trying to get them done.

Now there are only three days before Christmas! I spend them letting my house go and the kids get to do whatever they want as long as they don't burn the house down, while I bind and tie all day long. After day two was spend tying one blanket for 8 hours in one day and still didn't get it finished, I fell apart and knew these were not going to get done in time for Christmas. Once I pulled myself together, I realized it's okay. I was not going to spend my Christmas Eve working on these quilts knowing that even if I worked all day long they were not going to be finished, I relaxed and quit.

I then had to finish making Ella's stocking. So I worked on that and had it almost done when my needle broke on my machine (it had taken a toll also and was done). Thanks to my wonderful SIL, it got finished. (That's a whole story in itself, to be told in a later Run Around Part)

We did some fun things over the Holidays and with all the movies we got for Christmas and the help of my awesome husband we got two quilts completed. But still have two to go. But now I don't have to be so stressed over them.

Here is a picture of the pile where everything is sitting and waiting to be finished. And the two completed quilts. I have told the two that are done that they cannot have theirs until they are ALL finished.

Stay tuned for The Run Around! Part 2 to come later (hopefully sooner than two months from now) ;)

"Insert some catching phrase here"

2008-11-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

I had to record a scene that just played before me. I am always bad about remembering the funny things Mitchell (or any of my kids for that matter) says or does. But this is what happened.

Mitchell had gone poop in the potty (something we are still trying to master). I had told him he could go get a piece of candy for his reward. He quickly ran into the kitchen to get out a candy. When he returned he sat down and carefully opened the snickers bar and as he did so said "Ooooo". Ella, who was playing with toys on the floor had been watching him, unbenounced to him. When he made that sound she laughed at him so he turned around, away from Ella, and then faced her and said it again. Again she laughed. He did it a couple more times and each time she laughed. Then one time she didn't find it that funny anymore. He looked at me and said "Mom, it doden't make her yaf her head." Then before I could reply Michell was off doing something else.

He loves his baby sister, sometimes too much. But just now Ella was kind of upset because she was standing up and then fell to her bottom. Michell came down stairs and said

Mitch: "Mom is she mad?

Mom: "Yes, she fell down a little"

Mitch: Crouched down in front of her, "Ella, are you mad?" Are you mad, Ella? Ella?

By the time he was done talking to her, she wasn't crying or wining any more. Now he is just trying to show her his "fighter fighter truck". What a silly boy.

Election Outcome!

2008-11-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a few days but I wanted to update everyone on our election dinner outcome. (For the original post click the link.)

We had the kids vote on Sunday night for the preliminary vote which narrowed it down to two "parties". Here was what the final ballot looked like.

President (Main Dish)

Sloppy Joe Biden

Obama Lasagna

Senator (Vegetable)

Rammell Salad

Loracco Corn

Congressman (Fruit)

Minnik Pears

Minnik Mix

Judges (Dessert)

Baracolate Milk

Oatmeal Palin (raisin) Cookies

And the final results were:

President - Obama Lasagna by a vote of 5 to 1.

(This is not a picture of my lasagna, but I wanted to have some picture in this post.)

Senator - Split Tie 3 to 3 Rammell Salad and Laracco Corn (so we had both)

Congressman - Minnik Pears by a vote of 5 to 1.

Judge - Split Tie 3 to 3 Baracolate Milk and Oatmeal Palin cookies (so we had both, though never really got to the chocolate milk part, we were all too full)

I had the kids vote right after school so I could get started on the winning meal. I called Seth earlier in the day to get his "absentee ballot".

This was a lot of fun. It has been a long time sice we have had a meal that NOT ONE person complained about. They LOVED the meal and most even had seconds. Maybe I should have them vote for meals every night. Then maybe they would eat their dinner and not complain about it.

Halloween Fun!

2008-11-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

I have had the kit for Frankenstein (make-up, electrodes) for the past 3 years and I was finally able to convince Porter to be Frankenstein. I spent about an hour on his make-up and spraying his hair. I think he looked pretty good. Seth didn't even recognize him when we went down for the trick-or-treating at his work.
Mitchell's had not made up his mind about what he wanted to be until right before we needed to get ready and then I finally just decided. A couple of the other choices were too big and one was too small so this was what he ended up being. It was cute. He kept saying "I'n a dalnation, dog." At out trunk-or-treat one of the adults dressed up as Cruella DeVil. She kept trying to catch him. It was fun. I was amazed he sat still enough for me to paint his face. But he had fun watching Porter's face get painted so he was ok with it.
Poor Ella. She was the first dressed and ready to go but then had to sit patiently (or not) while I painted Porter's face and the rest of the kids. She cried for quite a while. But she still looked so cute!
Naomi's costume was the only one I made this year. I went to www.familyfun.com and looked through the costumes. I let her pick but I had to approve the costume first. Here were the rules. 1. I am not making a costume that cannot be reused, i.e. no cardboard, or foil tape. 2. The costume has to be easy to make and only take an afternoon or evening to make. When I found the skunk, I told her that I could make that one if she wanted to and she was soooooo excited. It was funny when people would ask her what she was going to be and they were expecting some princess or witch or something more girly, but instead she would proudly say "I'm going to be a skunk." Now the question is, does she really look like a skunk?
I should have had her turn around more to see the stripe down her back. Oh, well. By the end of the night the tail was no longer sticking up. The clear thread I had tied from tail to back had broken off by the end.
This was the end of the evening's looting. They had been to trick or treat at Dad's work (which we love because everyone hands out candy bars, some of them full size). Then we went to the chili cook off and the trunk or treat at the ward. Then while Seth was helping clean up at the church we went home and went around the neighborhood. In years past the around the neighborhood part usually ends up being one or two houses to friends and then back home because it is way too FREEZING cold. But this year, I went around without even a jacket. It was SOOO nice.
You can tell it was the end of the day. The make up was smeared off the faces from eating and rubbing the itches. I was in such a hurry taking pictures before we left to go to Seth's work that I spaced taking pictures of Kyah in her costume. I will have to have her dress back up and get some pictures taken. When I do I'll post them. She looked cute and her costume was really easy.
Here's the loot. We always have so much candy. I don't know why we do so many trick or treating except they love each of the different experiences. I have somehow convinced the kids to put all their candy together (except for some of the "special" candy). Then we all share. Seth and I really like it because then we don't have to keep track of which person's candy we keep eating. Plus this way it makes for good bribery with help around the house or potty training. With 4 children getting candy it really piles up after a while. Here is the pile. Notice how high up on the couch it stands. Good grief that's a lot of candy. Our dentist loves us.And that's about it. Yet another successful Halloween. But it didn't come without the usual nervous breakdown of Mom trying to do too much and then stressing out to the point of tears. It wasn't too much really, just getting kids ready in costume (which most were scattered here and there throughout the house and one of which I had to finish making that morning), paint everyone's faces, making the kids clean the house so it wouldn't drive me nuts later, making chili after going to the store to get the rest of the ingredinets (only to taste the chili and hate it.....I guess I really don't like cummin), driving all over town getting to the places we needed in time and without any accidents. No not too much at all. Piece of cake. So now you know and when your loot runs out you know where to go.

Election Tuesday! Don't forget to VOTE!

2008-10-28T21:32:00.001-07:00

This year is such a big year for elections that even the kids have been asking questions and hearing things about the candidates (on the Bus with the "older" kids). It has been good for us to be able to talk about it with them and actually have them somewhat interested.

My good friend Anna sent along a great idea of how to get the kids involved with the election process. I also saw something similar in the LDS Living news letter that I get. The idea is to have an election for the kids, to determine what dinner will be on election night. So we thought hey this is a great idea, they have been interested in what the elections are so let's let them vote. (Then maybe they will eat it if they voted on it.) So for FHE this week we talked about the importance of voting and what the prophets have counseled us to do concerning voting. Then we put down our nominees for President (Main Dish), Senator (Vegetable), Congress (Fruit), and Judge (Dessert, we just threw in any government position we wanted). We changed the names to coincide with actual candidates and this is what we came up with. It was a lot of fun.

President (Main Dish)

1. (Dad) McCain Cheese

2. (Mom) Palin Pizza

3. (Porter) Romney Burgers

4. (Kyah) Sloppy Joe Biden

5. (Naomi) Obama Lasagna

6. (Mitchell) Lemon Clinton Pasta

Senator (Vegetable)

1. (D) Risch Potatoes

2. (M) Rammell Salad

3. (P) LaRocco Broccoli

4. (K) Pro-Life Beans

5. (N) LaRocco Corn

6. (M) Risch Veggies

Congress (Fruit)

1. Minnick Pears

2. Sali Peaches

3. Minnick Oranges

4. Sali Apples

5. Sali Pineapple

6. Minnick Mix

Judge (Dessert)

1. Baracolate Milk

2. Biden Chip Cookies

3. McCain Ice Cream

4. Oatmeal Palin Cookies

5. Johnny Cake

6. Barac Brownies

We will have the preliminary voting in the next few days to narrow it down to the top two which will determine the two "parties". We explained to the kids they needed time to think about their vote, that and it was getting late and we were ready for the activity to be over. We will do our final voting the next MONDAY to make sure I have everything for the meal vote and so that I will have time to make dinner amid Seth and I voting and any other things we have going on that night.

So what would your vote be? Which "candidate" do you like best?

Cast your vote now! FREE!

2008-10-22T19:51:00.001-07:00

We had our family pictures taken a couple weekends ago. You know the weekend it snowed? Yeah, that weekend. It was FREEZING cold. The snow had melted by the time we got them taken but it was somewhere in the 30's that day. BURRRRRR! She took Ella's pictures on another day because she was too cold and done taking pictures by the time we got to the individual pictures!

Here are a few we had taken. Which do you like best?

THANK YOU MISSY! You are amazing! Great job!

Out of the mouth of babes!

2008-10-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

These are some questions I asked each of my kids and below are their answers. Pretty funny!

Porter is 9, Kyah is 7, Naomi is 5, and Mitchell is 3. Just to give you an idea of their answers.

1. What is something your mom always says to you?
Porter-No
Kyah-get back to work
Naomi-clean your room
Mitchell-read a book

2. What makes your mom happy?
Porter-Playing
Kyah-when I clean my room
Naomi-when I do my chores
Mitchell-tackling her

3. What makes your mom sad?
Porter-When someone dies.
Kyah-when I’m mean to my brothers and sisters
Naomi-disobeying her
Mitchell-laughing

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Porter-tickling me
Kyah-when she tickles me
Naomi-tickling me in the arm pit
Mitchell-jumping on the trampoline

5. How old is your mom?
Porter-22 no wait 30
Kyah-30
Naomi-18
Mitchell-2

6. How tall is your mom?
Porter-22 feet
Kyah-8 feet wait 9 feet, no 8 feet
Naomi-10 feet
Mitchell-bigger

7. What is her favorite thing to do?
Porter-spend time with her family
Kyah-write with me
Naomi-do fun stuff
Mitchell-work

8. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Porter-go shopping
Kyah-clean
Naomi-play on the computer
Mitchell-tie him up

9. What is your mom really good at?
Porter-playing football
Kyah-loving
Naomi-writing
Mitchell-scooby doo

10. What is your mom not so good at?
Porter-playing baseball
Kyah-being nice
Naomi-it’s like when you are telling us to do things and we aren’t doing it and you say you can’t do it…..that’s it.
Mitchell-hats

11. What is your mom's job?
Porter-watching the kids
Kyah-help take care of us
Naomi-taking care of kids and fixing dinner
Mitchell-working on the computer

12. What is your mom's favorite food?
Porter-Pizza
Kyah-pizza
Naomi-spaghetti
Mitchell-eating

13. What do you and your mom do together?
Porter-watch movies
Kyah-play board games
Naomi-go on a date
Mitchell-eat

14. How do you know your mom loves you?
Porter-she plans a play day with a friend
Kyah-when she gives me hugs and kisses
Naomi-because she says I love you all the time
Mitchell-love you

4th File, 4th Picture

2008-10-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

I was visiting a friend's blog and she had a fun tag on her blog. I thought I would do it and see what picture I come up with.

Here's how it works. I go to my pictures and click on the 4th file, then upload the 4th picture. Then explain what the picture is of. Here's my picture:

This picture was taken in May of 2005. We were tie-dying t-shirts for Kyah's homeschool preschool graduation. This was before I learned a better way to tie-dye. It was still fun though.

I tag Shelly, Tammy P., Monica, Amber A., Angie, and anyone else who wants to do this tag. Also leave a comment to let me know you are doing this tag so I can check out your picture. This was fun!

I know, I know, two posts in one day! You are shocked.

2008-10-01T22:51:00.001-07:00

But hey it's just another easy one!

When I started reading this I was really upset at what it said beacuse most of it was not true about me. But then towards the end it got to be more true to me. Enjoy and decide for yourself if it's true or not.

What Ranell Means

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
(I would say this is probably true for the most part. I hate being told that I HAVE to do something.)

You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
(I don't think I'm that inense. And I hope people can handle me.??)

You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.
(I'm a handful? Well don't ask Seth that question he would probably agree with that one. As a kid, 2nd-8th grade, I did get into trouble so maybe that one is true also.)

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.
(This one is completely wrong. I am not the best at everything, infact I think it's quite the opposite.)

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.
(FALSE! I may appear to be confident but really I am a chicken. And I am only aggressive when I am driving.)

You have the classic “Type A” personality.
(I am actually a "Type B or C" not A by far. This test doesn't kow me at all.)

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.
(The only part of this that is true to me is that I am an Owl and they say owls are wise. I don't understand this world at all.)

You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.
(I don't really have anything to say to that.)

You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.
(I must admit that I do get jealous easily, and I don't know why. Something I need to work on.)

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
(I completely agree with this one in every way. There are very few people I don't get along with and I have lots of awesome friends.)

You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
(Rocking the boat depends on what boat I am in. Sometimes I am the one that tries to rock the boat. But for the most part this on is true.)

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.
(I do think I can be flaky but mostly because I am so busy that I almost always forget something. So yep this one's true also.)

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.
(I go with the flow for the most part, as long as things are flowing the way I want them to flow. If not I might just rock the boat.)

You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.
(It depends on what we are talking about to get me worked up. If it's something I am passionate about then I will be, but if not, then I am pretty easy going.)

Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.
(My secret is to keep all things in perspective and surround yourself with people that lift you up and make you better. That's what I have done, and I am happy!)

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

I AM Tag

2008-10-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a post for you! It's been a couple weeks. I need to post about Mitchell's birthday and the women's walk, etc. but tags are so much easier. So here's my easy way out.

I am: a daughter, wife, mother, sister, aunt, niece, friend

I think: I need to be better
I know: that Christ is our Savior.
I want: to be organized.
I dislike: rudeness
I miss: my Dad
I fear: my children straying from the gospel
I feel: tired
I hear: my baby jabbering
I smell: homemade bread
I crave: alone time with my husband
I cry: very easily
I search: the scriptures too little
I wonder: if I'll ever get to go somewhere amazing
I regret: not spending more quality time one on one with my kids
I love: my family
I care: for others
I always: stay up way too late
I worry: I will loose my sanity
I am not: a liar
I remember: stories
I believe: in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
I dance: with my husband and kids
I sing: in the car
I don’t always: smile but I try
I argue: not very often unless I really want to get my point across
I write: when I find the time
I win: more than I lose
I lose: my mind
I wish: I could do it all
I listen: to music and friends
I don't understand: German
I can usually be found: in my pajamas
I am scared: of spiders, or someone harming me or my family
I need: good friends in my life
I forget: to eat breakfast sometimes
I am happy: with my family

I tag, Hannah, Amber T., Jenn O., Deborah, and Brenda.

What's up Ella!

2008-09-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Ella has been growing and changing so fast I can't keep up. I have been needing to post for a while now. So here's what is new with her.

About a week after I posted (that she could roll from her back to her front (but only one direction), she started sitting up on her own. Labor Day weekend was a big weekend for her to get the sitting up down. Now she is a pro.

On August 26th she cut her first tooth. Then a week later she cut her second tooth. I hope this isn't a pattern or the next few months are going to be tough. She has been so cranky.

The same weekend (Labor Day weekend) she started coughing and wheezing. I had taken her to the dr. the day before (before we left on our trip) and they said she just had a cold, probably from teething. But now she was wheezing so I pulled out the nebulizer and started breathing treatments on her every 4 hours until we got home and took her in. I was really hoping for pneumonia (it's not very often you hear a mother hope their child has pneumonia). But if it was I knew we could treat it and it would go away. But the chest x-rays said it was not (dang it). The dr. said it was probably just the start of asthma issues. Great, that makes 4 out of 5 now. But at least I know what I'm doing with it. In fact I was a little nervous to give her breathing treatments without a dr. telling me I could. But when I told them that I had been giving them to her all weekend they said "Good, that's exactly what you should have been doing. You know what you're doing so that's fine."

The last thing she has really gotten down is eating baby food. We started trying to give it to her just before 6 months old and she REALLY didn't like it. But now she wants to eat any time we are eating.

She has been trying really hard to crawl already. She walks her hands out as far as she can and then falls on her tummy or face. But she is determined enough it will not take her long. I cannot believe she is moving around so quickly. I just want her to sit there for a really long time. She is just too busy. I will never be able to keep up with her once she starts crawling.

That's about it for her. Sorry no pictures. I was just tying to get a quick post in. I hope to get a minute to blog later when I can post some pictures.

10 Years And 5 Kids Later

2008-08-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it's been 10 years! But it has been 10 AMAZING years! We got married and waited a whole 4 months before starting our family. I almost don't remember what it was like without our kids. We sacrificed time for us in the beginning of our marriage so that we will still be young and have time for us in our golden years. I look forward for the time we can spend with each other doing what we want. We want to serve a mission together, travel together, and live together.

I have to say that I married the "perfect" person for me. He is not perfect but neither am I. We grow together in our differences. It always seems that when one of us is down, the other is there to lift them up, cheer them on, and wipe away tears. We have been through hard times together and happy times together. He completes me.

Seth is such a great help to me. He has no problems with cooking dinner when I have had a bad day, or I'm too sick or tired (or pregnant) to do it. He helps clean up around the house, he will jump in and do laundry. He will readily fold and put away the clothes (I hate doing that). He loves to play with the kids. He rubs my feet when I have a headache, my back when it aches, and holds me when I cry. He is the best husband I could have ever imagined.

Here are some of the accomplishments we have had in the last 10 years:

1. Five beautiful, fun, wonderful children. Porter, Kyah, Naomi, Mitchell, & Ella
2. Lived in 1 house, 4 apartments, 2 states (Idaho & Colorado), 3 cities (Rexburg, Denver, Boise)
3. Been in 7 LDS Wards and 6 LDS Stakes
4. Had 10 jobs (I only contributed to 2 of those jobs until I stayed home after having kids).
5. Had 5 vehicles.
6. Lost 2 parents and 3 grandparents.
7. Made hundreds of friends.
8. Had 1 Bachelor's Degree and 2 Associate Degrees.
9. Have taken 1 trip just the two of us (besides our honeymoon).
10. But the biggest thing we have done is made millions of memories. All of which I wouldn't trade for the world.

I love you Seth, more than I can describe. You mean the world to me. I am so happy to call you my husband. I will do what I can to make you happy the next 10, 20, 70 years. I will love you for eternity. Thanks for the last 10 awesome years of my life.

I LOVE YOU! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Here are a few pictures from the past 10 years! Though after looking through all our pictures. We really don't have very many pictures of us together. One of us is usually behind the camera. We need to do better at that. Enjoy!

The First Milestone!

2008-08-19T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have to document this while I am thinking about it. I am always bad at remembering these dates with my kids unless I write them down.

ELLA ROLLED OVER FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!

She rolled from back to front. She is 5 1/2 months. My kids usually roll from front to back because they hate being on their tummy. She did it a few times today but hates it once she gets there.

I took some really cute pictures but I have been having a hard time uploading pictures the past few days. Not sure if it's my computer or the net. So we don't have any pictures to post today. :( Bummer.

The worst date EVER!

2008-08-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

THIS IS A GOOD ONE! YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS IT!

I have had a few requests to hear the story of my worst date ever. It is so bad that it deserves to be told. If only my Dad were alive to help me tell the story. But alas here goes:

I was a Junior in high school (I think), it was 1996. My BFF Meridith was going to her brother's house in I.F. and her brother's brother-in-law was going to set her up with his friend. She didn't want to go alone so she asked if I would go with her and her brother's brother-in-law would be my date. Being the good friend I was, and wanting to get out of the house, I said sure. So we drove to I.F. to her brother's house.

Meredith and I had already eaten dinner before we left so we were not hungry. But they were so they took us out to dinner. We went to Perkins or Denny's or something like that. I ordered a small appetizer plate of chicken strips because I wasn't really hungry and they both insisted we order something. Meredith ordered a huge plate of pasta that she tried to choke down.

Then they kept asking what we wanted to do. Their choices were either pool or a movie. Neither one of us was even remotly attracted to the boys. My date was a chubby kid who's voice hadn't finished changing. Her date was short and would not keep his hands off her. She squirmed all night long. We didn't want to try to make small talk, dinner had been hard enough. So we opted for the movie. Though for Meredith's "handy" date that was not the best idea. On top of that we went and saw Bio-Dome (rated one of the worst movies of all time). It was horrible. Poor Meredith was trying hard to keep her date off her and to keep from throwing up because she had eaten too much.

When it was over they said ok now we will take you home. We were thrilled. The theater was on the East side of town but they took us to the out skirts of the West side of town before heading home. I kept saying "You could turn here to take us home. (there were a few different times they could have turned to take us home)" Hint, hint, please turn. But not he didn't. But before we did that, they asked us if we wanted some ice cream. NO WAY we were stuffed. We told them no we didn't want any but they ordered some for us anyway. These guys were idiots. I slowly licked my ice cream cone only so it wouldn't drip on my clothes. I was so sick. Then they finally decided to take us home on the back roads none the less. Why I have no idea.

If you thought the date was going bad, it gets worse. We got almost to Shelley on the back roads when his car ran out of gas. We pulled in to a house just outside the town. Knocked on the door no answer. So we walked to the next house, about a 1/3 of a mile away. It was late (11:50 p.m.), I was supposed to be home in 10 minutes or I was going to be in trouble, it was cold outside but we didn't want to admit that because we didn't want them to offer to keep us warm. My date was trying to put the moves on me and Meredith was still trying to stay away from hers so we were kind of dancing and moving around alot while we were walking to the next house to keep from standing too close to our dates. That house had newspapers all over the front porch, they were not home. So we went to the next house across the street and down the road a bit more. As we walked up we said "Watch it's some old couple's house and we will wake them up." Sure enough this little old man came to the door. I called my Dad to tell him we were out of gas and needed him to come get us. I told him we were just outside Shelley parked at a house that ran a day care out of it. I thought I told him the road but maybe not. He got in the car, mad as can be to come find us.

We walked back to the car to wait for my Dad to come. Sitting in the car was not a good idea because the guys were trying to put the moves on more and kept scooting closer to me. I was hugging the door. The house we were at had a trampoline in front of us and I was trying to escape my date so I asked Meredith if she wanted to jump on the tramp with me....afterall they were not home, remember we tried to use their phone first. After a few minutes our dates came out to join us. We stayed a little while longer and then got back in the car again trying to avoid them. But they joined us there too. All this took quite a while and we still had not seen my Dad. We lived only about 10 minutes away so it shouldn't have taken him that long to get to us. While we were waiting a boy who lived at that house got home from basketball or wrestling or some sport. It looked bad for us because the windows of the car were all fogged up because we couldn't turn on any air and we were all sitting inside...off and on. Then a little while later his Dad came out and told us it was time for us to leave and go home. We explained to him that we had run out of gas and we were waiting for my Dad to come get us. He was mad and told us to come in to call again. We said we had knocked on the door to use their phone to begin with but there was no answer. (All this time, we had been jumping on their trampoline and they were home the entire time. Oops!) I called home again and my Mom answered and said "WHERE ARE YOU!!! Your Dad's been out looking for you for the past hour." I explained again where I was and gave the road this time. She radioed my Dad to tell him where I was. (My Dad was a fireman, so all the fireman had radios in their trucks and hand held ones too. Mom had the hand held and Dad had the one in his truck.) We stayed in the house while we were waiting for my Dad, yet again. The father turned to my date and asked him if he had fun on their trampoline. We said we thought they were gone, and had he known that we were just trying to stay away from the attack of our dates, he would have understood but we couldn't really explain that to him in front of our dates. I was so embarrassed.

When my Dad got there he was MAD!!!!! He had Meredith and I get in the truck while he gave my date a little gas to get him home. My date kept asking my Dad where the nearest open gas station was. The one in Shelley was closed so he said I.F. He said well do we have enough gas to take the girls home and then get to a gas station. My Dad said "You are not taking these girls home, you are going to get in your car and go home." He was lucky my Dad didn't punch him at the very thought of trying to take us home still. I think they wanted some good night kisses....or at least wanted to try for one anyway. I was very glad my Dad came to rescue me. We went home and Meredith's Dad was there waiting to take her home too.

Come to find out later that my Dad was on the wrong road looking for us. He was trying to drive slow so he could find us and because of that was pulled over by the police 4 different times for poralling the neighborhood. Each time he got madder and madder. He finally had radioed home to my Mom to see if she had heard from me again or not. While doing that though it also radioed to every member of the fire department. The entire town, including my seminary teacher, knew I was stuck somewhere on a date and that my Dad was out looking for me. The next day my seminary teacher teased me unmercifully. That was absolutely the worst date I have ever been on.

So now that you have heard my worst date I want to hear yours. I am going to make this a tag. If you read my blog TAG, YOU ARE IT. If you have had a bad date you want to tell about post your worst date on your blog and leave me a comment to let me know you are playing along.

I am 30!

2008-08-14T23:12:00.000-07:00

So I have been so busy lately (I haven't really done much but instead of neglecting my kids I have chosen to just read blogs when I am on the computer and not contribute to my own blog) that I haven't been able to blog about me being old and now 30! I have been trying to think of something really entertaining and fun thinking that maybe I gained some of that creativity with age. I really wanted to entertain my readers. But I just couldn't think of anything that great so to heck with all of you, this is all about me.

100 things about ME!

1. I have had 5 children in the last 10 years. It is a lot of work and I am VERY busy all the time but it's worth it. I just keep saying to myself "I am doing this while I am still young and have the energy to keep up with them, and when the 5th is out of the house, I will be almost 48 years young."
2. I would much rather do yard work than house work. Though I love having a clean house. I just hate that it doesn't stay clean. Five kids will do that to a house.
3. I have broken my nose twice. Both times was while playing basketball in high school. The second time I had to wear a mask to play. Needless to say, when my senior year was over I don't play basketball anymore.
4. I love to look at the stars. While driving at night in the middle of nowhere is when the stars shine the brightest.
5. I can always find satellites in the sky while looking at the stars.
6. I took an astronomy class in college. My older brother was in the same class and we did not plan it that way.
7. I at one time knew where every constellation was, it's name, and the name of one star in that constellation. I got a 100% on the constellation test in the planetarium. I remember studying with my brother over Thanksgiving break. We taped the papers to the bottom of the kitchen table and laid underneath to identify the constellations. We spent a lot of the time laughing at what we were doing.
8. I am an only girl of 6 children. I have 4 older brothers and 1 younger. I am the shortest of all my siblings.
9. I love to have parties: Girl's night out, Murder Mystery Parties, Game night parties, etc.
10. I love to play games, of any kind: board games, yard games, group games, night games.
11. I have always thought my feet were pretty because they are so curvy. I have really high arches and really high instep. My toenails though are not pretty, unless they are painted.
12. Growing up loved to play football with my brothers and cousins. I was pretty good at tackling. (no pads, or helmets, we had many injuries, but that's part of the fun, right?)
13. We were always making up new games to play, i.e. Sockie (part soccer, part hockey). We played this one in the winter on the frozen water that was still in the canal. It was played by putting two big rocks at one end and two at the other a good distance apart as the field. Then a small rock was used as our hockey puck but we kicked it like a soccer ball instead of using sticks. There were ALWAYS injuries with this game, when the rock would catch air and hit someone, or you would slide and knock someone's feet out from under them, or just falling down on the slick ice. We always came home with bruises and laughing till our sides hurt.
14. I LOVE cold cereal. I could eat it any time of day.
15. I love to stay up late. I am a night OWL.
16. I have been to Wood Badge and I loved it.
17. I have always loved medical stuff. I have no problem seeing blood, watching surgeries. I love to doctor my kids injuries. I would love to be a nurse.
18. I make my own bread and I have since I was 8 years old.
19. I consider myself a good cook but nothing fancy.
20. I am horrible at making cookies. I can never get them to turn out right. Brownies are my thing.
21. I don't care for cake unless it's gooey (better than almost anything cake). I'd rather have a good pie, or brownies, or lemon bars, than a birthday cake.
22. I would rather have a good soft ice cream cone than a bowl of ice cream from the carton.
23. I love to laugh.
24. I love to sing along with songs while driving in the car.
25. I hate seafood of any kind. The smell of fish makes me sick.
26. I love camping and hiking. With a baby it's not as fun but it doesn't stop me.
27. I like to play in the water. As kids we floated the canal as much as we could.
28. I like to snow ski and water ski though I have done both only once.
29. I hate fixing my hair, I always have. My brothers had it easy, all they had to do was get it wet and they were done or put on a hat. I do better now than I did before.
30. I have a very small head. I have to get child size hats to fit my head. Right now my 8 year old has the same size head as me, if not a little bigger than mine.
31. I would rather be cold than hot. You can always put more on but you can only take so much off.
32. My hands and feet are rarely cold. But when they are I LOVE it.
33. I love, love, love, love Italian food. Chinese food is second but I don't ooh and ahhh over Chinese food like I do Italian food. It is just soooo good.
34. I don't like authentic Mexican food. But I do like American Mexican food (i.e. Taco Bell, Del Taco, Taco Del Mar etc.)
35. Seth was my first kiss.
36. I lOVE chocolate but all 5 of my brothers hate it.
37. I have been to 20 of the 50 states.
38. I have lived in Idaho my entire life (Colorado for only 4 months ) but I have never been to California. California is the only western state I have not been to.
39. I love thrill rides.
40. I have moved only 6 times in my life.
41. I used to be able to do the splits (6th -8th grade).
42. I live to play Volleyball. Without it I am not a very nice Mommy. With my 5th baby I played up until 7 weeks before she was born, and was ready to play again 3 weeks after she was born.
43. I really do hate shopping for things for myself. I am just too picky.
44. I love going to the movies. Or watching them at home.
45. My favorite place of drink is Jamba Juice. Mmmmm, Jamba.
46. I really truly love my job as a SAHM. It's like other jobs in that there are days it is completely frustrating and I hate it. But the rewards that come from what I do every day are sweet. All in all I really do love my job.
47. I am really ticklish. Though it's not really fun to be tickled anymore.
48. I have been on two blind dates in my life. One I dated the guy for 18 months after(and yes I never kissed him. That's a whole other story too). The other was the worst date I have ever been on in my entire life.....ask me about it sometime, I'll tell you all about it.
49. I like being on the computer and typing things up or making fliers.
50. I like to digital scrapbook though I have a lot to learn still and I never have any time to do it.
51. I have not read the Twilight series. I would like to someday but right now it's way too popular and I don't want to be doing it to just follow the crowd. So I'll wait until that craze is over.
52. I really am not much of a reader. I would rather do other things with my spare time. Which is usually blogging or other stuff.
53. I have been in 4 community musicals: Oliver, Wizard of Oz (twice), and Fiddler on the Roof. My parents were the leading rolls in Fiddler and I also had 3 of my 5 brothers in that play with me.
54. Growing up I lived next door to a cemetery. It was really fun to play games in.
55. I absolutely hate spiders. They creep me out but I am not too scared of killing them. I have to get it before it gets me.
56. I love making friends. Ever since I was a little girl I have been able to make friends easily.
57. I was not popular in high school. But had good friends.
58. I have been to 3 concerts in my entire life....and they were all after I was married and had kids. Coldplay, I was pregnant with Naomi, Carbon Leaf, and Augustana. They were all so much fun.
59. I have never been inside the Salt Lake Temple.
60. I got my ears pierced when I was 18.
61. I traveled on a train from Idaho to Illinois. I was 5 years old.
62. I have had stitches (not counting my c-sections, they do staples anyway) 4 times.
63. I HATE folding laundry.
64. I always make sure to have my pantry stocked up. I have friends who call me their mini store because most of the time when they call to barrow something I usually have it.
65. As far as I can remember, I have never been in a car accident. I did have a large rock hit the windshield above me and scatter glass all over me when I was a kid.
66. I can think of 3 specific times (there are probably more) that I should have been badly hurt or killed but was not.
67. If I could sleep until 10 every day I would.
68. I love to yard sale. My rule is if you don't LOVE it, it's not worth it. I haven't been in a really long time.
69. I love spending time with my husband.
70. I have a great relationship with my Mom. Growing up it was not like this. That gives me hope that my girls will someday like spending time with Mom. They do now but I fear those teenage years.
71. I love having my toenails painted. That makes me feel girlie.
72. I am not a good decorator. I hope to someday learn that skill.
73. I love strawberry jam. Homemade is the best.
74. I am not a big fan of peanut butter stuff unless it's peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I don't like peanut butter cookies or candies.
75. I enjoy singing in groups but never a solo.
76. I cannot read music or notes. I sing only by ear.
78. When I watch t.v. I have to be holding the remote.
79. When we go out to run errands, I like to be the one to drive. Unless we are on a date, then Seth drives. When I am pregnant, I almost always drive.
80. I could eat Pizza every day of the week.
81. I like to mow the lawn.
82. I love spending time with family.
83. I love to talk on the phone.
84. I have some of my best ideas in the shower.
85. I love the Book of Mormon.
86. I love kisses from my kids.
87. I love living in Boise.
88. I hate the smell of coffee.
89. I have been in a girl fight, all out punching and hitting.
90. My first job was moving pipe. I was 8 years old.
91. I love the smell of newborn babies.
92. I once made my younger brother stand in an ant pile and then I ran away. My older brother ended up with stitches in his hand trying to rescue him.
93. I have never met anyone with my name.
94. I always wanted to be a twin growing up and I wanted to have twins. (key word "wanted")
95. I was really good at Math growing up.
96. I am not crafty or creative in any way.
97. I miss my Dad. He passed away Nov. 11th, 2006.
98. I have flown in an airplane 3 times in my life.
99. I have bought a car on Ebay.
100. I love my life and everything and everyone who has been apart of it. THANK YOU! I wouldn't be who I am without knowing each of you.

HELP!

2008-08-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

The planner in me has gotten tired. Our 10 year anniversary is in 3 weeks and we have no idea what we are doing. Seth is not the best at planning things (remember my birthday?). And I am at a loss on this one. I can think of a lot of things to do but most of them cost lots of money (Anniversary Inn, Tamarac Resort, Trip to Hawaii, Caribbean Cruise, just a few ideas). We are on a strict budget while working on getting out of debt (thanks to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover). The challenge now is trying to figure out what to do (with a nursing baby in tow) on very little money.

So please, please leave me a comment with some ideas of things we can do. Our anniversary is on Monday, August 25th, and he has taken off work for that day and the Friday before in case we decide to go somewhere. The kids also start school on our anniversary.

I know you all have great ideas and are very creative so please help me out. Thanks!

What's your favorite memory of ME tag?

2008-07-17T16:19:00.000-07:00

Thanks Jenn for the fun idea! :-)

Here's how it works:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember, good or bad but be nice please! ;)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. I hope all of you faithful readers have some good memories of me.

It's almost here!

2008-07-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that my family reunion (the one I am in charge of) is finally here. We leave bright and early Thursday morning for the Stanley area. I will not be posting again until at least the middle of next week or later. But there will be lots of pictures when I do. I plan to have the camera permanently attached to my wrist (right next to the baby). I am so excited. It will be loads of fun.

4th of July FUN!!!!

2008-07-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

Pictures!

2008-07-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

I emptied my camera the other day and these are the pictures that were on it. Enjoy!

Ryan and Keri came over the other day with their new baby Brooklyn Kay. She is about 3 weeks old here and Ella is 1 week away from 4 months here. These two are exactly 3 months and 1 day apart. But their size difference is quite different as you can see. We just had to take some pictures of them together.

One of the hotter days (we were still having some cold days) we went to Eagle Days Parade. We have never been before but had always heard how much fun it is. This is pretty much a huge water fight parade. As the parade goes by, they spray the crowd and the crowd sprays back.

The kids were so good to watch out for each other. Notice they are all holding hands.

When the fire trucks came through, it was crazy. They were drenching the crowd. We saw them coming and moved back off the curb. Mitchell was saying he didn't want to get wet so we pulled him back with us.....notice he isn't there by my other kids.

Kyah being a good big sister and consoling Naomi after she got more wet than she wanted.

Mitchell and I were standing right next to Seth and Ella but when the trucks went by they stopped the hose right in my direction. It totally missed Seth and all landed on me and Mitchell. I didn't realize Mitch was standing next to me until I heard him crying. I was completely soaked. The funny thing was I packed extra clothes for the kids but didn't even think about any for me. You can't tell how wet I was from this picture. There was not a dry spot on the other side of me. But it was hot that day so it felt good. It was a fun parade.

FATHER'S DAY

Each of the kids wanted to get Dad something this year. So Dad made a list of things he wanted and they chose (later) which things they wanted to be from them.

He opened the first present before our 8:30 a.m. church. Notice how tired Kyah looks. It was about 7 a.m. when this picture was taken.

My weird husband! He is rarely serious. And tired kids wanting to be held.

The tie was what Naomi wanted to get him.

Porter's Card
Porter had made Dad a card before school got out. He had been hiding it under his pillow until Father's Day.

This is what the card said " The most important thing about my dad, Seth, is that he is really funny. He is the best Dad in the world and he loves me very much. He loves to go golfing with me and makes all the money. I love him very much but the most important thing about my Dad is that he is really funny. love, Porter"

The present from Mitchell. (Seth playing heavy, heavy, hang over)

Mitchell got Daddy pants. Just what he needed.

Because Seth had found out about his biggest present of all, the week before Father's Day, (I was soooooo mad. I had kept it from him, very well I might say, for a month and then he finds out a week before.) we made him go on a scavenger hunt to find the rest of his presents. His first clue was in the pocket of the pants from Mitchell. Then it sent him to a friend of ours where his next present from Kyah was.

He got a Dutch oven from her. You can see his next clue on the box.

Then off to Jenn's place.
Porter has really been into books lately which is really cool. So he wanted the present from him to be a book. When we went to get it he said "I wonder what books Dad is into.....mystery? or adventure?" It was really cute. He wasn't totally thrilled when I told him Dad was into books about money.
By the way we really like this book "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.
Another weird face shot from my too crazy boys. I rarely get a picture that isn't a "quick pull a funny face" shot from those two.

And then off to Brenda's.
This was where his last and biggest present was, the one he had already found out about. So we made him search through their house on more scavenger hunts. He loved that (not really). But oh well. ;)

The kids helped him find it by telling him if he was hot or cold. We haven't played that game enough because they really needed some help with it.When he finally found it, this is what it was. Yes we finally got a gaming console. We have a Wii. He was so excited.

Naomi and Mitchell doing a little boxing. We all have a lot of fun with Dad's new present.

A little Patriotic!

2008-06-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

I thought I would change my look and be a little patriotic for the holiday. I cannot believe it is already July! This year is half over. The days seem to go by faster and faster. I hope you enjoy it.

Another one!

2008-06-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Yep, another quiz. I think they are fun! If you don't like them then just skip it but you might learn something about me you never knew before.

I got this one in an email and I hate forwarding things on but I thought I would share this one on my blog.

All the things marked with an X I have done at some point in my life.
( x) Gone on a blind date (a few actually some good some terrible)

( x) Skipped school (in elementary school, got caught, I was a wild child)

( X) Watched someone die (two separate people actually, I wouldn't wish it on anyone)

(X ) Been to Canada

( ) Been to Mexico

( X ) Been to Florida

( x ) Been on a plane

( x ) Been lost

( x) Been on the opposite side of the country

( ) Gone to Washington, DC

( x ) Swam in the ocean (Atlantic Ocean is way better than the Pacific Ocean)

( x ) Cried yourself to sleep (too many times)

(X) Played cops and robber

(x ) Recently colored with crayons (not recent enough)

( x ) Sang Karaoke (yes but not in a bar)

( x) Paid for a meal with coins only?

( x ) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? (what Mom hasn't?)

(X ) Made prank phone calls (remember I was a wild child)

( x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your
nose (I have done that soooo many times, some of you may have been there when that happened)

( x ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

(x) Danced in the rain

(X) Written a letter to Santa Clause

( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe

(X) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about (we did while driving across the country in our ebay van)

(x) Blown bubbles

( x ) Gone ice-skating

(X) Been skinny dipping outdoors ( on my 18th birthday, and sometimes floating the canal we would take off our suits to be daring)

1. Any nickname? growing up my dad called me "Sis"

2. Mother's name? Valeta

3. Favorite Drink? Jamba

4. Tattoos? Nope

5. Body Piercing? my ears

6. How much do you love your job? It's hard but worth it. About a 6 right now.

7. Birthplace? Blackfoot, Idaho

8. Favorite vacation spot? Warm sandy beaches, someday! Actually been there, Oregon Coast, though not so warm.

9. Ever been to Africa ? no but I would love to.

10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner? yep

11. Ever been on TV? yes, stupid interview in down town

12. Ever been in a car accident? no but came close

13. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? 4

14. Favorite salad dressing. Poppyseed

15. Favorite Pie? coconut cream

16. Favorite number? 25

17. Favorite movies? I have a lot but I love the Bourne series

18. Favorite holiday? Christmas

19. Favorite dessert? donuts

20. Favorite food? pizza (some things never change)

21. Favorite day of the week? Friday! Hello weekend. More time with my hubby.

22. Favorite brand of body wash? I'm not a body wash kind of girl.

23. Favorite toothpaste? Baking Soda & peroxide (leaves my mouth feeling clean)

24. Favorite smell? the air after it rains, homemade bread, newborn babies

25. What do you do to relax? watch a favorite tv show

26. How do you see yourself in 10 years? In the best shape of my life.

Tag to anyone who wants to do this quiz!

School's Out For Summer

2008-06-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Now how many of you have that song stuck in your head?

Really though, I don't know if I will survive. The first day the kids were driving me crazy. I had a chiropractor's apt and he was saying his kids were driving his wife nuts and she was in contact with some friends and their kids were driving their moms nuts too. It must have been the day. The kids were all excited and us Mom's haven't figured out a routine yet.

I must say now that it has been a week with them home, it is getting better. They are understanding (most of them) that what Mom says goes and that they can't just sit and watch t.v. all day long. Every morning they clean their rooms and do their two major chores. When those are done they can play but if they want to go do something fun they have to have those things done first. The first couple days this week was tough.....I was grouchy because I hadn't been able to go out like I wanted and they were grouchy because they had sat in their rooms all day to clean. Well maybe had they just picked up the 10 things in their room and got it done instead of sitting in there they would have been able to do something fun. Kyah has had the hardest time actually doing her jobs.

But yesterday and today have been much better. They are starting to get it.....finally. At least until they throw some other test at me.

I did an exercise video yesterday and the kids were doing it with me....it was pretty funny to see them trying to do it. I also played volleyball last night and was going to take today off from working out but the kids wanted to do it anyway. If they do it tomorrow I'll try to get some pictures of them to post.

Another fun Quiz!

2008-06-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Another fun Quiz!

I guess I like that it is an easy post!

63 words

Speed test

Fun quiz!

2008-06-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

I didn't know I was a prankster! Sometimes I learn some interesting things about myself in these quiz things. But hey, they are fun!

We are staying put......

2008-06-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

for now anyway.

In the midst of cleaning the house like crazy and trying to get this house ready to sell, the gas prices were continuing to climb and prices of major storage items (flour, sugar, rice....etc.) were also climbing and Seth was starting to think maybe moving wasn't such a good idea right now. Me I was looking around and seeing how small our house was getting and really wanted to do something RIGHT NOW....(I can be kind of picky like that sometimes). Well I guess the Lord agreed with Seth because the lot we were looking at buying sold before we could even get our house on the market. So we are staying here and trying to make things work out for now. Though it drives me nuts at times.

The frustrating part is that the people who bought the lot are completely wasting it. It is perfect for a walk-out-basement (it slopes gradually to the back of the lot). The lot had dirt brought in to make the road so it could easily be dug out to be level in the back......but no the people who have bought it can't make up their minds. They are spending so much time and effort trying to make it a lot that can have a house built on top rather than the easy and obvious walk out. If you can't tell I am a little upset about the whole thing.

So sadly, I have to stay here for who knows how much longer. But I am trying to make the best of it and I'm getting pretty creative about how to store things. However, I need to do more moving around so I can get Ella out of my room. When I finally figure that out, I'll post some pictures.

I needed a change!

2008-06-10T15:06:00.001-07:00

The blog needed a makeover. I love this layout. It was the easiest blog makeover I have ever done. I got it from www.thecutestblogontheblock.com

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. By the way, who even reads my blog anyway. If you frequent my blog, drop me a comment so I know who is stocking me ;) I would love to know if anyone really looks or if this is all just for me.

Catch Up!

2008-05-23T15:10:00.000-07:00

Since it's been over a month since my last post, I thought I would catch you up on our family. I have been taking pictures of things I "want" to blog about. But then never have the time to sit down and actually do it.

Easter! Every year we go to the Kuna Easter Egg Hunt. It is one of the best egg hunts I have ever been too. There are all kinds of prizes in the eggs. From a bicycle for 1st place to candy bars. There are tons of prizes. Mitchell this year had 10 different prizes. Two of which were the same prize but the coolest was his little bowling set he got. The pins are little bunnies and chicks. He loved it. We met up there with my SIL Keri and the kids got to do the hunt with their cousins. My Mom was up to help out with Ella so she was able to help with the hunt too. She took Naomi and waited with her. Seth had the older kids (thus no pictures of them....too far away). It was a fun day and weekend.

Porter had his first Pine Wood Derby. Seth always wants to be creative with stuff like that. Halloween costumes are always an argument because he wants to make a really elaborate costume for each of the kids but then I end up doing it and hating every minute of it. This time I let him be as elaborate as he wanted because he would be the one working on it with Porter not me.......or so I thought. So Porter chose to make his car the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo! I was fine with that. A week before the derby, Seth helped him by cutting out the general shape and had Porter sand down the edges. Then it sat for the next week just as he had left it before. Two days before the derby I mixed some paint to get the right color and had Porter paint it. That was easy....except the paint wasn't quite the right color. The derby was the next night so we had to have it done by then. So the next day I mixed up some more paint this time the color was right. Porter was home sick that day with strep throat but felt good enough to paint the car again. You have to remember the derby is that night and we are just now getting it painted. Then I had to mix more paint to get the right color green for the bottom and windows of the van. Since it was such a small area, Porter couldn't really do it by himself. So I painfully painted the car while he laid on the couch. We don't have any really small brushes so in order to paint on the words and the flowers, I had to dip a small nail into the paint and draw it on the van. Now that it's almost 3 pm and we finally have the paint done it's time to figure out how to put on weights....but wait we don't have any yet and I need to buy a clear spray paint so the paint will stay on the car. So I head to the store. I have no idea where to find weights so I pick some up at the Scout office and pay an arm and a leg for them. Then to Wal-Mart to get the spray paint. By this time it's getting to be close to rush hour and traffic is getting bad. Seth calls and says he is on his way home and when I tell him what I am doing (in a not so nice way because I am so frustrated and fet up with trying to do this dumb car) he tells me to stop at shucks to pick up different weights to put in the holes he drilled. I waited 10 minutes for someone to tell me they don't have any of those. So I was done, it was painted and it looked like a car. Who cares how much it weights. It weighed in at 3.5 ounces that's not that far off the regular 5 ounces max. It wouldn't make that much of a difference? would it? Well that night was sadly a disaster. Porter's car was the slowest car of the bunch. It looked good but just was not very fast. Sorry we don't have any close-up pictures. Next year, he is doing the entire car by himself. I refuse to do what I did this year.

ELLA RANELL KING We had her blessed on May 4th, 2008. It was a wonderful blessing. We didn't have a lot of family here but we were happy with those who were able to make it. Here are some of the pictures we took after the blessing. (There are so many babies being born in our ward there were 2 other babies blessed that day. Also our ward is growing so much they read 6 different families records into the ward also that day.)

I caught wind of a couple really good cereal sales at Albertson's. The first time I got each box for around $.57 each. The second sale was a General Mills sale so I got cake mixes and frosting, chips, snacks for travel & hikes this summer, granola bars etc. The second trip I spent about $98 and saved about $167. We have so much cereal now in food storage it is crazy.

It was time for a change! I have been wanting to chop and highlight my hair for a while but was waiting until after I had the baby. Thought maybe it would help me feel lighter and maybe a little sexier. I really like the way it turned out. Thanks Val.

These are just a few of the pictures I was able to post today. There will be more to come. Until next time!

Oh, and by the way I want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to by big brother RYAN! I love you!

Bursting at the seams!

2008-04-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

We are now feeling very cramped in this little house of ours. With 5 kids and only 3 bedrooms, I feel we are bursting at the seams. It's time for a change. I have been patient now for the past year and I cannot take it any longer.

My activities now consist (when Ella will let me; a half an hour here and there) of washing walls, blinds, windows, etc. trying to get this house ready to sell. The goal is to have it on the market by the end of the month. I have lots to do still so I better get busy.

I just thought I would let you know what I have been up to besides my latest post. Which by the way was a very bad day the day I posted. It's not that bad every day but some days it's pretty bad. That was one of those days. She is doing a little better....today anyway.

So if you know of anyone in the Boise area looking for a nice starter home, send them my way ;)

No Time, No Sleep! Reflux!

2008-04-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

I don't have too much time to explain, so I'll make it quick. Sorry in advance for mistakes!

Here's what my day consists of:

Wake up sometime between 6 am and 9 am, just depending on how long she will let me sleep till.

Once she is awake, I am either feeding, changing, holding, dancing, rocking, burping, etc.

I can't forget to give her the medicine (for Reflux) or the rest of the day will be a nightmare!

Try to somehow get a shower (rarely happens).

Mitchell hasn't been in any clothes other than his PJ's for the last month. He is lucky to get a diaper change. Poor kid. He still tells me "I wuv oo! Mom!"

I beg a friend to drop off and pick up Naomi for preschool, since going anywhere she just screams, not to mention I most likely have not showered (see above).

The kids are lucky to get anything to eat for lunch, usually it's me grabbing a box of cereal out of the pantry and setting it on the floor for them to devour. (no it's not that bad usually but thought it sounded pathetic, since that's what I'm going for.)

Feeding myself is another story. If I am really hungry I'll lay her down and let her scream while I try to shove something in my face as fast as I can.

Housework, well that's funny! My house looks like a tornado went through it. Oh wait, it did and his name is Mitch. It is constantly a mess. Thankfully the kids have been mostly helpful with that and it hasn't gotten out of control too badly.

She is a great sleeper during the day, as long as I hold her. The second I put her down she wakes up screaming.

Kids come home from school, then it's instantly nagging to get rooms clean and homework done. That's usually when she starts her fussy time. Well one of them anyway. She has many.

Getting dinner going is impossible. She doesn't like the front pack. Somehow she can tell I am cheating.

Once Seth get's home one of us can usually get dinner done. But it's usually done by passing her between us when we are tired and need a break.

Then after dinner it's nagging kids to get dishes done and help out around the house. It's harder to not snap at the kids when she is screaming in your ear. Then they don't respond well to what we are asking of them.

After we read scriptures and get kids into bed, then we have time together, right? No way. It then becomes major fussy time for her. We pass her between each other so we don't go completely insane. This we do until she completely falls asleep sometime around 2 a.m.

That's pretty much my days. I don't get out or go anywhere! She is beautiful and we love her very much but I am learning a lot of patience with her.

I can't put her down after feeding her because she will reflux and scream. She wants to be held constantly! The worst positions are sitting position; the car seat and swing position are bad. She can't be laid down flat.....unless on her tummy (SIDS, no thank you). The only way she will go to sleep is up on a shoulder. But then at that it is still restless. She will (even while up on the shoulder) quit breathing to avoid the acid going into her lungs. Then gasps for breath, can't get any sleep that way. It usually takes a good hour or more to get her into a deep sleep.

Well that's pretty much all the time she will let me. She is screaming again.

A Child's perspective!

2008-04-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

Our family has a fun tradition on the weekends. We have dinner and a movie. Dinner varies each time though it's usually something you can eat with your hands and doesn't make much mess, pizza or pigs in a blanket! The kids love to lay out the neat sheet out and eat in the family room. It is fun to pick old movies they haven't seen or get the latest cartoon just out. It is a lot of fun.

Tonight's movie was "The Parent Trap" the old version. The kids have been wanting to see that one again. If you'll remember the part where the Dad, "Mitch" goes up to take a shower and finds his x-wife's bra hanging on the shower door (not knowing she is there) and he thinks it's Susan's. At about that point Naomi says to Seth "She left her boob cover in there". After a good long laugh, Seth says "honey, that's called a bra." She didn't know what it was called but she did know what it covered.

Naomi has been tagged!

2008-03-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

Eight things about Naomi! Here we go:

1. Naomi was born August 3, 2003, in Boise, ID. We had just moved into our current home two months before she was born.

2. Naomi is such a happy little girl. No matter what time she has to get up she wakes up with a smile. She will always just come stand in front of me and smile from head to toe. She is a sweetheart!3. I think in every family there is the one child who has a really hard time going to bed. The one who can think of a million excuses of why they need to be out of their bed. In our family that child is Naomi. If you have ever been at our house during bed time you have witnessed first hand just how many times she comes downstairs to "tell us something".

4. Naomi is a very sweet little girl. She is always making new friends and wants to please everyone. She is our peacemaker. If someone is upset about something she is always the first person to try to cheer them up. Once while suctioning out Mitchell's nose (which he screamed and hated), Naomi was trying to explain that everyone ("I had to do that when I was little, Mommy had to have that when she was little.....etc.) had to do that before when they were sick. She always wants to make people happy.

5. Naomi is BEAUTIFUL! She has the prettiest big brown eyes and long dark lashes. She easily melts your heart when she looks at you with those big brown eyes. Sometimes it's just so hard to say no. People have told me she could be a little model.6. Of all my kids, Naomi is probably my biggest helper. She is usually one of the first ones to jump up to help. She loves to do anything: taking diapers to the trash, washing windows, washing walls, helping with dinner, setting the table, etc. Sh has a hard time cleaning her room but if it's a job we don't do "all" the time she loves to help.7. Naomi can ride a two wheel bike with out her training wheels. She just learned to ride this spring. She does great and with some cold spring weather she doesn't get much time to practice.

8. Naomi is a very picky eater. It doesn't matter what we have on the table, the first thing out of her mouth is "I don't like this". We have a rule that they have to at least try it. Most of the time they all like it but not Naomi. She hates meat, chicken, ham, meatballs, etc. She is proof that man (or child) CAN live by bread alone.

Naomi is getting a little more difiant reciently so I needed the time to think of some good qualities she has. So thanks Jenn I needed that tag.

Now Naomi tags Keagan. Have fun Brenda!

Which City Do You Belong In?

2008-03-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

This was fun. I was really curious to which city it would pick for me.

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart

Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome

Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand

And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

I would only add that it would be hot coco in my hand not the cappuccino. I have always wanted to go to Rome.

Ella RaNell

2008-03-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Introducing Ella RaNell King

Ella was born this morning at 8:10 AM Mountain Time. She weighed in at 8 lbs 6 oz and 21.5 inches long. She's got the vocal cords of an American Idol superstar and more chins than noses (which really is a good thing when you think about it).

Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more pleased with their little bundle of joy. Mommy is quite smitten with her. Daddy is as well, though it didn't really hit him until he attempted to take this picture how much of a handful he now has!

Disclaimer: This was written by the infamous DH (not sure what "designated hitter" has to do with this blogging thing but I know I'm referred to as such)

What would you have done?

2008-02-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the last day for Stake Volleyball (I was in charge of the whole thing so I had to be there early every weekend to set up and make sure everything went well). I was also glad to cheer and watch my ward play (though it was very painful to watch sometimes, I wanted to play so badly). I am happy to say that our ward took 2nd place in the tournament (though we so could have beat them). After the tournament we did a pot luck lunch for all the teams. It was lots of fun.

The men have also been playing basketball in the afternoons on Saturday right after volleyball is over. This week Seth had two games (normally he only has one game). On top of that they were back to back. Which is nice we don't have to spend our time going back and forth but they were going to be really tired for the second game. Our ward has so many players they have two teams.

Seth's games were right after volleyball was over so I just stayed at the church to watch his games. I had already been there for 5 hours what was two more hours. The first team we played was the other team from our ward. It was not long into that game that the Elder's Quorum President dislocated his pinky and between the Chiropractor and the physical therapist (on Seth's team) they couldn't get it into place. So he and his wife went off to the hospital to have it put back in. That game finished without any other major injuries.

The next game was another story. I was sitting with the other wives talking about what was going on with LOST and giving our own theories and just enjoying having girl talk. None of us were really paying much attention to the game. We would peak up when they would come down to our end of the court and we were watching here and there but not real intently. When suddenly one of our players was rolling on the floor screaming in pain. Ankles are the usual injuries during basketball so my attention went straight to his foot and ankle. They were on the other end of the gym and even from that distance I could tell his foot was not where it was supposed to be. Then I immediately tried to figure out who it was. It was a good friend of ours and I was sitting next to his wife on the stage. I instantly started tapping her on the leg and saying her name for her to go down there. She then realized it was her husband who was screaming in pain. She handed the baby off to someone (I had Mitchell on my lap so he would stay off the court). My next thought was where are her other 3 children. They did not need to see or hear this. Thankfully they were in the nursery room playing with my children. Within a matter of minutes, the ambulance had been called and some oil had been found and a blessing given. With that many priesthood holders around someone had to have some oil somewhere.

After the blessing I went down to talk to my friend (Jenn). I told her I was going to take their kids home with me so they wouldn't have to worry about them while going to the hospital. It took a bit to gather them all up and sneak out a side door so they didn't see their Dad laying on the floor but mostly so they didn't see that his foot was laying sideways at a right angle towards his other foot. From up by his head we couldn't see exactly what had happened. All we knew is it looked awful. Their baby was still nursing but old enough to eat regular food too. After a small debate with her about her taking the baby with them, I refused to let her take him. It would have been way to stressful to be thinking about what to do about her husband while trying to entertain a mobile baby too. So we took their 4 kids along with our 4 kids home. It was quite the crew at our house. They all played well together and we didn't have any problems with kids wanting Mom and Dad or worried about why they were at the hospital. We just told them that Dad hurt his foot and he needed to get it looked at by a doctor. They were fine with that.

WARNING!!!! THE FOLLOWING DETAILS MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME READERS!!!!!! YOU MAY SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO THESE KINDS OF THINGS!!!!

We found out after talking with Jenn that it was actually a compound dislocation of his ankle. His tibia had actually broken through the skin and was sticking out of his leg about 2 inches. His foot had basically been torn off that side of his leg. None of the bones were broken. They were able to go in and find all the tendons (muscles that allow movement of the toes) and reattach them to his leg (except for the one to his little toe). That one was torn too badly and they were not able to reattach it. So he will not be able to move his little toe. Which for me I can't really move my little toe now. He doesn't really need it. The also were able to reattach his ligaments as well. Thank goodness for priesthood blessings. Warning! Warning! This is very disturbing! Not for the faint of stomach! If you would like to see a picture of what his ankle looked like at the time of the injury click on this link. If you want to read more of this account you may visit their blog.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO SKIP THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH, YOU MAY CONTINUE READING THE REST OF THE BLOG!

Our plans for that day had changed a bit (not much we were going to spend it cleaning the house and getting things ready for the baby but we still have one more Saturday) but we were doing what we needed to be doing. We had them here until about 9:30 p.m. That's when he went into surgery to put everything back together. Some people thought I was nuts for being a week away from having a baby and taking on 4 more kids. I just did what I had to do. What would you have done?

RSV......again!

2008-02-28T23:59:00.000-08:00

Yep, that's right we have RSV ( Respiratory syncytial virus) again. Mitchell had been sick all last week so on Friday I took he and Naomi in to the dr. Of course when the dr. listens to Mitch he sounds fine. (That always seems to happen with me). So he didn't give any steroids for the wheezing and no antibiotics because he can't find anything wrong. I didn't push to have him tested for RSV (I have already done that twice this year). Plus this was a new dr. we decided to change because of issues with the company our last dr. was with. We loved her but had way too many problems with who she was contracted with. We had heard of great things about this other place so decided to switch to them. The day I took them in was their first visit to him and he was trying to get a history and figure out which of the 4 kids had asthma and if they were male or female. It was kind of a lot that visit so I didn't push to have Mitch tested for the RSV.

Saturday morning Porter was acting pretty sick too. He couldn't breathe and was asking for a neb (breathing treatment via nebulizer). Mitchell was also worse that day. Sunday Porter was really bad. He stayed home from church and we took Mitchell to Sacrament meeting only. I took him home (during Sunday School) and let him hang out with Porter for an hour while I went back for relief society.

By Monday morning, Porter was really sick. He was asking for nebs about every hour. The usual dosage is every 4-6 hours. I have had drs tell me that I can give them at home every 2-4 hours if they need them that often but that they usually need steroids at that point. So first thing in the morning I call the dr. Of course I cannot get in until 3:20. My OB apt was at 3:30 so that wouldn't work. Plus he was really struggling to breathe, I was very close to taking him to the ER. But I thought no I'll try the Asthma specialist to see if I could get anything earlier. Thankfully after much trying I did get them in at 11:15. Porter at the time sounded wheezy but not too bad (he had just had a treatment about 15 minutes before that). Mitchell was working really hard to breathe but didn't sound that bad (he was too tight to hear it very well). There were no apparent infections to have caused anything. He put them both on steroids to help keep them from needing nebs so often. And just as a precaution put them both on zithromax (love that stuff). I voiced my concern about RSV (it was going through our ward and the area so I wanted to check). He sent us to be tested for RSV and Influenza. I was grateful. While waiting for the test, Porter starts asking for another neb (it had been an hour). I then remembered that he had not checked his oxygen level. (Why not? This was the asthma dr. Shouldn't that be a standard check?) I was too busy making sure they got tested to think about the oxygen levels. Plus Porter at the time was acting fine instead of panicking that he couldn't breathe like he had been at home and was now doing.) So after they tortured them with the RSV test. We went back to the dr. just in time for them to be closed for lunch. Now what? Not much we can do. So we went to get the kids meds. We filled 7 prescriptions that day between the two kids. It only came to $110.

We talked to the dr later that day and Mitchell's test came back positive for RSV but Porter's was negative. He thought that was weird since they both had the same symptoms. And he said those tests don't usually have a false positive. So Porter probably had the same thing. My personal theory is that it doesn't show up in older children. He also said that once we get the steroids in them, they should be doing much better and not need to have their oxygen levels tested.

I kept Porter home from school for 3 days. Today was his first day back all week. He is doing much better now. Mitchell too. It is aggravated more if they are running around. Porter is good to lay down or calm down when he is getting a little too crazy (the steroids really hyper them up) but Mitchell is really hard to calm down. There have been a few times where he will throw up because he is coughing too much and because he cannot breathe. At that point we have to make him do a neb which forces him to sit still for a while. So much fun!

So now our big worry is bringing home a newborn with this horrible virus in the family. Seth and I both have it now (in adults it will show up as a normal cold.......no cough). We both have cold symptoms right now. Though maybe it will help my body build up antibodies to help fight it off which will also help prevent her from getting it. Could that really happen? Or is that just some old wives tale? I like to think it would work. We shall see.

PS-It is almost midnight and I am very tired, I don't want to take the time to proof read this so if there are spelling mistakes or something doesn't make sense, sorry!

Contractions.......

2008-02-28T22:15:00.000-08:00

So last week (of course right after scouts) I was having contractions that were between 7-10 minutes apart for 3 hours straight. I would have been excited to go in and see, but I knew my Dr. was out of town and I did NOT want to be in labor without him. That didn't go so well last time that happened. So I threatened her and told her she had to wait until at least Monday.

Monday I had my apt. and he did check me to see if I had progressed any. I was at most a 1 cm. So we said she can wait one more week. I have been contracting this week as well but they haven't been regular enough to time them. As of right now I have 3 days, 9 hours, and 15 minutes. Not that I am counting. ;)

It's time for a new look!

2008-02-28T22:12:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to do something like this for a long time. I am not totally in love with it but I can see and read everything. I need to play around with it more but I have been trying to figure it out for the last two hours. This is good enough for now. Seth would have had it figured out in a matter of minutes but sadly he is asleep. Oh, well it's a good learning experience for me right? I just get completely frustrated with this sort of stuff, that I know could be really easy if someone just showed me how.

Enjoy!

Is this a teaser?

2008-02-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

I am talking about the weather. I have really enjoyed all the snow we have gotten this year. I love that it feels so much like winter instead of just looking really dead and ugly outside. In past winters it has snowed maybe a hand full of times and it's always gone by the next day. But this year has been white and beautiful. The roads haven't been real great, that's the one downfall of the beauty of snow. But even those cleared off pretty good the next day or two after a big storm. But the temperatures were staying cold so the snow wasn't melting on the ground. Until this week. :(

Our yard used to look like this....
Now it looks like this.....
I am not saying that this is a bad thing, I love spring. But what I don't like is when we have a week or two of sunshine, and then it gets cold and snowy again. If it's going to be winter, I want it to stay winter. None of this some times nice (just to get my hopes up) and then it gets yucky and cold again. None of this teasing thing. Just make up your mind for Pete's sake!

The Talk!

2008-02-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

...yep, that's right, that's the talk you are thinking of. We have officially had our first experience with "The Talk". I have heard from friends with older kids that age 8 is about the age that we should be having the talk with our kids. That is if we want to teach our kids what it's really about before they hear things from friends at school, on the bus, or wherever.

I have always been scared of giving this talk to my kids. I wanted it to be the right time and really explain things to them so they were not confused at all and could do it in a way that they didn't feel rushed so they could talk to us any time about anything. I didn't like the way I was given the talk growing up and by the time I had some sort of talk I kind of new more than I should have by then. I want my kids experiences be better than mine.

When I first heard 8 I was shocked that it was so young. But then I realized that maybe it wasn't too young after all. I watch another second grader before and after school on a regular basis. This family is in our previous ward and he is a very young second grader. His birthday is in August so he is almost a year younger than Porter. He, however, has much older siblings. There is about 10-12 years between him and his closest sibling. He has an older sister and an older brother. We can tell he has seen and heard more than we allow Porter to see or hear.

The other day Porter and he were playing upstairs and I faintly heard something about "taking of our clothes and the girls take of their clothes". I couldn't see them and didn't know what they were talking about but thought maybe it was time for us to explain things to Porter. First of all I put a stop to what they were playing and had them come down where they could be supervised closer. Later that night I talked with Porter more about not talking or playing that kind of pretend. He said he knew it was wrong but that it was hard for him to tell his friend that he didn't want to play that way.

A friend of mine had a great idea of how to give the talk to their kids (all girls so this was a little different for us). She would make it a BIG deal, fun, exciting date for just her and the child. She would rent a hotel room for just them and take all the medical books she needed to help explain things. Then she would have the "talk" there at the hotel where there were no interruptions or distractions. Then she would spend the rest of the evening doing whatever they wanted, movie, ice cream, bowling, etc. She would explain not to tell her sisters so that they could have their special date with Mom when they were old enough for this important talk.

So we reserved a hotel for Porter and Seth. I went to the library to find a good medical book (which was a lot more scary than I thought). With Porter, I have had a lot of the little talks with him already, Seth has had a few with him as well but Porter always seems to come to me with certain questions so I wanted to be there during the talk to know what he had been told so that if he came to me later with a question, I could answer his question without repeating something or giving too much information he didn't really need. So that night he and Porter left and went and had dinner just the two of them and then I took the kids to a friend's house for a while and met them at the hotel. We had our discussion (which kind of embarrassed him a bit) but we found the book really helped him open up a bit and ask questions. We could tell he understood things better with the book. Then when we were done I left and they got the rest of the night to do guy things. I thought it went pretty good.

So now we have 1 down and only 5 or so more to go! Although, there will be more small talks and other things to talk about as he gets older, but the big talk is out of the way.

NO Preeclampsia!

2008-02-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

My BP was normal today, and everything else looked good. He is going to do more research on the rash and figure out more of what it is and what he can do for me. So far we are down to weekly appointments and still scheduled for induction on March 3rd.

PUPPPs

2008-02-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

.....which stands for pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy (PUPPP).

Or in other words, an extremely annoying rash that covers my entire body, and itches so bad I scratch uncontrollably. There really isn't any way of getting rid of it, other than having the baby. The dermatologist gave me a super strong corticosteroid cream that he told me I cannot use on my entire body all at once. Only 4 hand size areas at a time and for only 1-3 days at a time (at most).

Here are a few pictures I took this morning. It looks awe full, just a warning for those that may be squeamish.

Mitchell wanted me to take a picture of his oweeee so he pulled up his pj's too.

If you didn't notice (though I don't know how you could not notice) that my legs are very swollen. I thought that had to do with the rash because they are more swollen where the rash is the worst. But it is not part of the PUPPPs. While at the dermatologist yesterday he called my OB and talked to the nurse about what he noticed. My OB nurse had someone take my blood pressure (BP) and it was high. So now I have a dr. apt with my OB today to check and see if I have Preeclampsia. It is also called hypertension, and toxemia. The options for care on that one are take the baby early, hospitalized on bed rest, or sent home on bed rest (at least for what I have read anyway. I could be lucky.).

I'll post later what the dr. says. So long as I am allowed.

Sad Accident! PLEASE WEAR YOUR SEATBELT!

2008-01-31T12:14:00.000-08:00

We have had snow every day this week. It has made the roads really slick in the mornings. They usually get slushy during the day and then by evening it freezes again. So there has been black ice a lot this week.

Tuesday night was especially bad because after the roads froze with black ice it snowed again. There was a really bad crash about 2 miles from my house and in our Ward and Stake boundaries. This accident really shook me hard because of the circumstances. Let me explain:

Here is what the title of the news report said "Pregnant woman killed in Boise crash". She was less than a 1/4 of a mile from her home. The roads were so slick that when cars in front of her started to slide she veered into on coming traffic and hit head on with a semi-truck. She was 35 weeks pregnant (I am currently at 34). She was not wearing her seatbelt but was still alive when medics arrived. They rushed her to the hospital and did an emergency c-section and she died shortly after the baby was delivered. The baby is in NICU and doing well. This was her 5th pregnancy but she left behind now 7 children. She was 30 years old. (I will be 30 this year)

I was really emotional about the whole thing (hormones are partly to blame). It hit just a little too close to home for me. I am only a week different in my pregnancy from where she was at, I will also be 30 this year and this is also my 5th pregnancy. Not to mention is was very near my house.

I think of the times we have just jumped into the car and headed to the Stake Center (that we can see from our back yard) and have not buckled kids or myself. Mostly when roads are normal but I don't think I will be doing that anymore.

Members of our ward are neighbors to this family and our Relief Society has organized meals for them through the week. I am taking dinner to them on Saturday.

Keep them in your prayers, and please WEAR YOUR SEATBELT!

Snow Day

2008-01-31T11:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first snow day for the school district in the last 7 years. The roads were really slick from the night before so they decided to cancel school. There was school out all over. The kids loved it. The weather was good as well, it was breezy but not bad at all.

In the after noon I took the kids to the park to sled down the small hill there. They had fun but we were pretty cold when we got home two hours later. The hot chocolate was very nice, but I wanted to soak my backside in it for a while. I got pretty cold being out side because I don't even have a coat that fits me anymore. I had on just a couple sweatshirts and a stocking hat. Sadly I forgot to take the camera with me (that would have helped me not be quite so bored) but I was too tired to walk back home and get it. So I didn't get any pictures. Today though is much colder and more of a blizzard outside. There have been roads closed all over the place and they are telling people to stay home. Though the kids still had school today. They think maybe they should have canceled school today too.

Here are a couple pictures of what it looks like outside my house right now. It doesn't look like there is very much snow out right now because the wind is blowing it all away. This is the most snow we have ever had (since we have been here). We don't even own a "snow" shovel. We have been shoveling the snow off the driveway with a regular shovel. We haven't ever bought one because the snow usually doesn't stay around long enough to need a shovel. If it ever did snow it was melted by the end of the day. This year has been quite different. People are saying they haven't seen snow like this since 1995 or earlier. To me this is the "normal" weather for Idaho.

Christmas Eve!

2008-01-18T16:54:00.000-08:00

I am doing this a little out of order but oh well!

One of our Christmas Eve activities included sledding. We were lucky this year to have gotten some early snow before Christmas. There was not enough snow to sled at home or a local park so we had to drive to find some. But thankfully we didn't have to drive very far. This was literally right next to the highway. My brother stayed at the bottom of the hill to make sure the kids didn't get going too fast and end up on the road. Most were not going fast enough to get that far, but better to be safe than run over.

I was very much not prepared for snow. I do not even own any snow pants (not that they would have fit me now anyway). My coat wouldn't zip up anymore either. And my pants were very thin material. I had my boots on but only one pair of socks and the boots are not very good. I have had them for the past 15 years. But this was not the year for me to get new snow gear. That will have to wait until next year when I am not large with child.

These were all the pictures I took before I was completely frozen and had to jump in the car to feel my hands and face again. It took a while before I could feel my legs. The frigid wind blew right threw the pants I had on. Burrrrrrrrr!

My niece Danielle and Naomi were one of the first ones to go. Naomi was a little nervous. He kept her hands over her eyes the whole time.

Seth was helping Jaedyn and Naomi up the hill, while pulling a sled. Jaedyn was slipping off his back so he had to stop but it was at the steepest part of the hill.

My brother forgot their sleds so there were only the two we have. There was a lot of waiting but they all had fun.

Kyah took a nose dive into the snow. She was laughing really hard afterward although from this picture she looks like she is mad. She is really saying "Mom hurry and take the picture my face is freezing."

Mitchell had so much fun! He didn't want to go home when it was time, even though he was freezing to death!

Another tradition! Each Christmas Eve they get to open one present. Every year they get the same thing. This year Porter was even asking when they were going to get this specific item. It was late because we had spent the evening at my brother's house. Mitchell was asleep when we got hom so he wasn't too excited about the whole thing until.........

WOW! Christmas PJ's! Don't they all look so cute? "Now that you have just opened a present and you are all excited hurry and get in bed so Santa can come."

I also just noticed this picture could be on a cell phone commercial 4 bars.(minus one bar)

Christmas Morning

2008-01-11T13:50:00.001-08:00

The kids were really good to sleep in on Christmas morning. They were up at 8:30. It was very nice to just take it slow. They each got a small container of cereal in their stocking so they chose to eat breakfast before we opened presents. That allowed enough time for my Mom who was at my brother's house across town to get here in time to spend Christmas morning with us after they were done. It was perfect timing and it wasn't even planned that way.Tradition! Tradition! Seth's family should enjoy this picture. When he was a kid all the kids would sleep in the same room in the basement on Christmas Eve. When they woke up Santa had decorated the stars with garland and signs (from my understanding). They had to eat breakfast first before they could come upstairs. Mom and Dad would torture them by saying things like "Wow! Look at that. Oh, man Seth is going to love that!" Then when mom and Dad said they could, they would break through the decorations Santa left. Seth really wanted to carry on this tradition and I was fine with that. The only compromise we had to deal with is the fact that we were both trapped upstairs with the kids and wouldn't be able to take pictures as they came down the stairs. Before we let them break through, Seth slithered down the stairs under the decorations with the camera. There was no way I could slither anywhere.

Naomi was so excited that she got TWO candy canes in her stocking.

Stocking Tradition! I have to tell you about a funny tradition that was started (I believe) by my Grandma and Grandpa Merkley. Santa, at their house, used to put a raw hotdog in their stocking so that they would have something "healthy" with all the candy. When my parents were starting their traditions, my father refused to carry that one on. So they altered it a little bit. Santa at our house would put a long beef jerky stick in our stockings. I have continued that tradition because : 1-I like beef jerky sticks and 2-I want to carry on that story.

So each of the kids got a small bag of mini beef jerky sticks this year. Kyah LOVED them. The other kids, not so much.
Porter was really excited about the movies.
Naomi was so excited to get more baby stuff. It is hard to tell from the picture what she got but her face says she loved it. Though as soon as Mitchell figured out what it was he was so excited to play with the babies as well. Seth just rolled his eyes.

The girls have never had matching dresses. They really liked having the same clothes.
I hate pictures of myself, especially now being 8 months pregnant, but I had to share my Christmas gift from Seth. He got me a 7 piece comforter set, chocolate brown. I have never had a bedding set with pillows and bed skirt. I really liked the one he picked out but it was Dry Clean Only so we took it back. We got a down alternative comforter with a chocolate brown duvet cover and maroon red sheets with a paisley print. Our bed is so comfortable it is really hard to get out of bed in the morning. I LOVE IT.

This little car starts it's engine and then drives after you shake it. Porter gave this to Mitchell and he loved playing with it in the store. Every time the present was bumped it would turn on and Mitch knew what it was. We had Porter hide it behind the tree so it wouldn't turn on so much. When Porter picked it for Mitch to open, the engine roared again. Mitchell stood up and was looking all around the room for this car. When he finally figured out it was coming from his present he tore it open and was so excited. Though I am not sure who was more excited, Mitchell or Porter. I love it when the kids feel the sp

After my Dad died, my awesome SIL put together some scrapbook pages for his funeral. Last year for Christmas Seth bought me some software to do my own digital scrapbook pages. I love it. I never have the time to play around with it and to get many pages done. But I did 6 more and gave them to my Mom for Christmas!

What a goof ball! I have NEVER been able to get a natural smile picture from Seth. Gotta love him! If you can't tell I gave him a new coat.

Mitch was so much fun to watch open presents this year. He couldn't wait to open and play with every present. Oh, the beauty of being at our own home this year.Kyah and Naomi were so excited to get their FurReal Pets!

All around this was a very fun, relaxing, enjoyable Christmas for us. We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well. We love you all!

Home for Christmas!

2008-01-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

This had different meaning for us this year. For the past 9 Christmases (our entire marriage) we have always split the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays between our parents and families. We have never been at our own home for Christmas. It became a process: pack up everything, keep it hidden, not let the kids open the stuff with too many pieces (so things don't get lost) and then have to pack it all back up plus other gifts from family and go home. It was becoming way too much work. The sad part is we have been trying to do this on our own for the past two years.

We had finally said, let's stay home this year (2005) but Seth's mom who was really sick with ALS (Lou Gerigh's disease) had passed away in August of that year. We knew we couldn't leave his Dad alone for Christmas so up we went. We vowed the next year we would stay home. But in April that became apparent that wasn't going to happen as my Dad was diagnosed with a very aggressive terminal cancer. It was very aggressive and it took his live on Nov. 11th, 2006. So we knew last year we needed to spend Christmas with my Mom.

This year, thankfully no death (well none that would affect where we were at for Christmas, sadly my Dad's sister did pass away on my Dad's birthday after battling breast cancer for 6 years). We were able to stay home this year. It was so nice to be able to wrap presents and put them under the tree and know they were going to stay there. I didn't have to worry about packing or what the weather was going to be like. It was so much fun.

To add to that my Mom decided she was going to come to Boise to spend Christmas with us and my brother who lives here in town as well. It was great! She spent Christmas morning with my brother, and when they were done she called and came over to our house to watch us open presents. Another thing that made staying home SOOO nice was that my kids were able to sleep in for as long as they wanted without having cousins wake them up early (which is what usually happened and then they were complete grouches for Christmas day). My brother's kids were up early and done quickly and my kids were up at 8:30 am and chose to eat breakfast (which they got in their stockings) before they started opening presents. That gave just enough time for my Mom to come over and see us open presents too. Each of the kids had only opened one present by the time my Mom got here. It was perfect timing. I really enjoyed it. We did very much miss seeing Seth's family this year though. We will have to make more trips up to see them. (those we can drive to in a day anyway) We REALLY miss those who are across the country and we haven't seen in a couple years. They need to move closer. :)

Pictures will have to come later. Blogger is having issues uploading them today.

Baby #5

2007-12-12T22:13:00.000-08:00

because we still are unsure of the name. I have gone back to Ella because I can't find anything I like and that is the one that kind of sticks for me. Bridget was cute but just didn't feel right. Seth is no longer able to even help me decide. Every time I mention even thinking about names, he says "Bob". The other day I thought "whatever name Mitchell can say better (Ella or Bridget) that's what we'll name her." He says Ella really well and it is even with an L sound and not a W sound. Bridget was a little harder to say. So when I told that to Seth he got Mitch to say "baby Bob". He thinks it is so funny to call her Bob. It has become a bit of a fight between us. He just laughs when he kids call her that and I want to cry. I can't stand that name (sorry to all Bobs in the world). For now we are testing the name Ella to see if it fits. So far we are still unsure.

Stuff and pictures

2007-12-02T21:47:00.000-08:00

Stuff I have been up to:

Oh and pictures too. I have decided my blogs are too boring for the two people who read. So I am going to throw in some pictures even though I haven't taken any since my last blog. Pictures just make it more interesting.
While making the kids Halloween costumes, I looked up and this is what I saw. He was just sitting there all calm, watching me. It was too cute! I had to find the camera.

Mitchell is still sleeping in the crib, even though he climbs out every night. He would come downstairs so we started locking the door (he couldn't figure that out yet). He would climb out of bed and end up somewhere on the floor or in Porter's bed. This is where he ended up one night. He was under Porter's bed. We had a good laugh and put him back in the crib. What a funny kid.

Now for the boring stuff (mostly for journal purposes):
I was on a city volleyball league that ended just before Thanksgiving. There are 7 of us on the team and 2 of us are pregnant. One due the end of January and me due beginning of March. When we first started playing it wasn't too bad. But each game got a little bit harder and way more exhausting to play. But hey, with Mitchell, I played up until two months before I delivered so I thought as long as I can make it at least that far, that's pretty good. Though that time was playing with a pick up group at the church every Wednesday night. City league was way more intense and a lot faster pace (at least for those who could move fast). I had so much fun even though there were many nights I could hardly walk or move afterwards. We even made it to the tournament (farther than we have ever gotten in city league). We even had a shot at taking the tournament but we didn't quite make it. We lost the game before the final game. So close yet so far away. Oh well there's always next season. So for now it is back to the pick up group on Wednesday nights. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do that because the city league was so hard on me but I went this week and I was really surprised how well my body handled it. So for now I am not giving that up yet, as long as I can convince Seth to let me go. My goal is to make it to January, hopefully the end of January. We shall see.

Thanksgiving this year we went to my Mom's house. She worked really hard this summer to get the basement finished. Yeah, no more sheets as walls and no more being able to hear my brother's in the next room whispering with their wives. No more having to walk on concrete floor and run a heater constantly. It was really nice, quieter, warmer, and private. It was a great Thanksgiving.

Now it's on to Christmas decorating, shopping, school parties, school concerts, etc. I always do Black Friday shopping. Why you ask? Mostly for the road rage, fist fights, no sleep, endless lines, and happy friendly people. Actually it is the fun of going without the kids, going with SILs (or family members), and getting most of my Christmas shopping done in one day. This year I made Seth go with me because I knew there was no way I was going to be able to do it on my own. I was right. The first store we went to we both had our arms full and the lady behind us let us pile things in her cart so we didn't have to carry them the whole time. He HATES shopping, let alone the craziest shopping day of the year. He gets grouchy easily so I had to make sure he was not going to be a total pain before we left. He promised he would not get to upset over everyone and everything. He did really good. He had a minor freak out moment (now I know where Kyah get's it) when we drove by Target as they were opening and the line of cars to get in the parking lot was backed up to lights both ways. He started repeating "I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this." But through a little breathing and encouragement he calmed down. Later he even told me he had fun going with me.

Baptism-My First!

2007-11-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

Saturday was Porter's baptism. It is crazy to think that I have a child old enough to be accountable. My niece and Porter are only 10 days apart and now that we do stake baptisms they landed the same day. They are really strict here on doing them on your own and going to other stakes to do it. We were nervous this was going to be a stressful mess. But the times of the two were conflicting (Dye's stake was at 4 pm and ours was at 4:30 pm) so we were given permission to do it together at their stake. That way family only had to go to one place.

It was an awesome experience. Seth did a great job. He fumbled a bit and had to start over to get the wording right but his confirmation blessing was really good.

My brother's stake center is in the same parking lot as the Boise temple so we walked over to the temple grounds to take pictures afterwards. They turned out really nice.

Afterwards, we went to my brother's house for dinner and dessert. It was good to spend time all together.

Halloween Costume Success

2007-11-01T11:27:00.000-07:00

This was how the kids costumes turned out. I liked Kyah's and Mitchell's because they will be reusable. Porter's was cool even though it will not be. Next time (if there is a next time) I will only be making costumes that can be passed down from child to child. It was way too much work to just throw away and not use again.

Porter's Robot: (though we got a lot of comments on the tin man) You can tell this is after the trick or treating. The front pan is a little smashed in and is that chocolate on his face?

Kyah's Bat: She couldn't walk with her arms out all night so her true costume couldn't show much. I think the comments about Porter's costume got Kyah down a bit.

Naomi's Witch: What a cute witch she was. That is until all the hot chocolate was gone and it was time to come home. Then the crying and fits began.

Mitchell's Batman: He was so hilarious. I was really worried he would not wear the costume. I had spent so much time on it and every time I would try to put it on him at home he would run away crying and yelling "NO! NO! NO!" But yesterday I put the whole thing on him and he was fine to run around with it on. He didn't want to wear the hat or mask (I figured that from the beginning though).

When we went to Seth's work to trick or treat (the best because they all get mostly candy bars), Mitchell was crouching around and sneaking with his hands up by his face. He didn't do it for very long so I missed getting pictures of it. But he posed quite nicely for me later.

Family photo-Halloween at Seth's work. I wish she would have zoomed in but this is all we have.

I couldn't post more pictures the internet was having issues. You can kind of tell Mitchell is wearing a cape and there is a batman emblem on the back of the cape as well. At Seth's work he didn't wear the hat or mask but for trunk-n-treat it was too cold to not wear the hat so he at least kept that on.

Late Halloween Fun

2007-11-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Your Unique Costume is a Chicken with its Head Cut Off

An excuse to run around like you're crazy :-)

What Totally Unique Halloween Costume Should You Wear?

You Are a Witch (or Warlock)

You are deviously brilliant and a perfect manipulator.
You somehow always end up getting what you want - without anyone knowing you're working behind the scenes.
Crafty and cunning, you can work your way out of any jam.
And it's easy for you to get people to do what you want, whether you're working for good or evil.

Your greatest power: Mind control

Your greatest weakness: Making people your puppets

You play well with: Ghosts

What Kind of Monster Are You?

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

How Scary Are You?

You Could Be a Vampire... If You Had To

Like most people, the thought of being a vampire has crossed your mind. But you're not sure if you'd do it, even if you could.
Living forever doesn't sound half bad, if you could live forever with the people you love the most.
But do vampires even love? And would the vampire version of you even be you?
It's all too much to contemplate. Luckily, the chances of you ever becoming a vampire are astronomically low.

What you would like best about being a vampire: Living forever

What you would like least about being a vampire: Blood stained teeth

Could You Be a Vampire?

Your Vampire Name Is...

Antionette of the Crypt

What's Your Vampire Name?

What was I thinking?

2007-10-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Ever since we have had kids (so the past 8 years now), my husband has always wanted to "make" the kids Halloween costumes. For some reason, this year, I thought "Yeah, I could probably do that." What was I thinking? Now I am scrambling to finish making the kids costumes. The funny part was I was thinking I would have Seth's help with this.....funny the past 2-3 weeks just happens that he has been putting in around 50+ hours a week. So not only am I too dead to work on said costumes after being an only parent all day every day, but I don't have his help either. After all, he helped Porter pick what he wanted to be, and the one that will be the most work. I have been busy sewing on wings and making a cape. I know it doesn't sound like it should be that hard but you have to know I don't make things from scratch.....EVER! Seth has been very impressed but next year may be a different story. I am a firm believer in costume hand-me-downs.

Porter is going to be a robot:

Kyah will be a bat (or a similar version of this):

Naomi will be a witch (a costume hand me down with slight variations): This is a picture of Kyah two years ago.

Mitchell will be batman. We were going to use this costume for Mitchell but it doesn't matter what superhero he plays with or sees, he calls them all "matman" so we just decided to make him batman so he will at least have the right superhero.

Now if I can only remember to take pictures of the kids this year. We were running around so much last year I didn't get a single picture of the kids in their costumes. I felt terrible. Hopefully this year will be different.

So if I can't get the costumes done in time we will be pulling out the hand-me-downs so the actual pictures may very.

And the results are in.....

2007-10-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

I had my ultrasound on Tuesday. It has taken me a few days to get off the phone and get some things done around the house. The past couple weeks I have been an only parent while Seth finishes up a project at work that he has been in charge of and working on for the past year and a half. Hopefully now my days will not be so long.

So now that I have kept you all waiting long enough, we are having...................NOT twins (thank goodness for that) and we thought we would stick to our current pattern of: Boy, Girl, Girl, Boy, GIRL! So it looks like we will be having a few more emotions in the house come Feb/March. Let's just hope this one stays healthy and avoids the Asthma.

So now on names. No we still have not figured out what to name her. But at least we only have to figure out one name and not two. Although, we had kind of agreed on a boys name more than a girls. Go figure.

Here are some names we have on our list. Which do you like the most?

Ella-we both like it but I have a hard time with how popular it is.

Elizabeth-Naomi is sure this is the baby's name. I have 3 nieces who have this as their middle name. But it isn't completely out yet so it will stay on the list.

Bridget-This is a very close second if not first right now. We both like it but I am not completely sold on it yet.

Jenna or Erica-Both on our list but not sure they really fit.

That's about all we have on our list right now. It is pretty short. So what do you like best? Do you have other suggestions for us?

Just so you know here are the sibling names and cousin names: Porter, Kyah, Naomi, Mitchell, Aspen, Macy, Payton, Rudy, Bowen, Colin, Conner, Malea, Chase, Shaye, Danielle, Lauren, Jaedyn, Brennen, Kobae, Abby, Aisha, Hannah, Addie (Ada), Ethan, Grace, Aubrey, Brooke, Grant, Jon, Alex.

How Embarrassing

2007-10-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last week I was watching a little boy for a friend of mine. When she came to pick him up I stepped outside to talk with her for a minute. While I was out Seth called and left a message to call him. I sat down to call him and while dialing the phone someone or something upset Naomi and she was crying and screaming while I was waiting to talk to Seth. I heard him pick up but at that moment I was yelling at Naomi to go away so I could talk on the phone. Then apologized and went into a long story about why I had missed his phone call. Sometime in the middle of this long conversation I hear "I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number." I quickly hung up and felt so embarrassed. I had just yelled at my daughter and went on and on with this story. Poor guy couldn't get a word in edgewise with me blabbering my life story to him.

If you thought that was funny I have more. I play volleyball on a city league with some friends. One game landed the day after one of the player's birthday, so we went out after our game to celebrate. My embarrassing phone moment had happened a day or two before so I was telling them how awful it was. Then "A" mentioned that it wasn't as bad as her ripped pants story. None of us had heard it so she told it to us. This is her story: Her and her husband we going on a date to a movie. She was large pregnant at the time and they had gotten there early so they decided to sit outside on a bench and talk for a bit. Then they went and got in line for tickets. As she was standing there, she felt a tap on her shoulder. There were two women standing there and one says to her "We can see you are LDS....." She was thinking to herself, how can you tell I am LDS? The woman continued, "...we just think you should know..." know what? "...your pants are ripped." She grabbed her husband and had him check her pants. This was not just a small rip. This rip went from the top of her butt to just above the knee. She grabbed her pants and they hurried into the theater and sat down. She couldn't figure out how she had ripped her pants so much and not heard it rip. After the movie (with her husband following very closely behind) they went back to the bench to find a thread from her pants had gotten caught on a bolt on the bench and as she walked away it completely unraveled the seam. She was so embarrassed.

After "A" telling that story, "H" had one too. This is her story: A couple years ago her family had gone to Red Fish Lake camping with some friends. The guy friend was always teasing her and has for years. One day while at the lake he drug her into the lake fully clothed. She decided she needed to get him back so she went up on the bank and grabbed his dry pants, emptied out the pockets, taking out his cell phone and wallet. Then she took the pants and stuck them into the water and began filling them with sand, while laughing the whole time. Then she got a tap on her shoulder. Then the man said "Ummm, those are my pants!" She immediately started rinsing them out (while totally apologizing) a bit and handed them to the guy. She was so embarrassed.

If you can't guess by now there was yet another story. This story was by the only single girl there and it was not about her but her aunt instead. This is her story: She said that her aunt and uncle were always goofing off around each other. Her husband would randomly grab her and pull her into a small room and pass gas to stink her out. He did it so much she was determined to get him back. One day while walking in a department store (being large with child) she could feel a big one coming on. She thought "Now is my chance to get him good." So she reached behind her grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her then let it rip on his lap. She started laughing and said "Ha, I knew I would get you some day!" Then turned to find that it was not her husband. She was horrified and quickly ran out of the store to the car.

Needless to say no one else could top that one. Can you? How embarrassing.

Response.....

2007-10-03T15:18:00.000-07:00

to the comments from my last post. I have responded on the names people have suggested. To view my thoughts please go to this link. Thanks again to those who have given suggestions and keep them coming. I will be posting a list we are thinking about to have you vote for what you like and don't like and why.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

I NEED YOUR HELP!

2007-09-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

We are having a hard time deciding on baby names for this next baby. You may be thinking that I still have a lot of time. But this is driving us both crazy and my DH has an idea to let you who visit my blog (though you are few), help us decide what names to pick.

We have two weeks until the ultrasound but there is a chance (although it could be just in my head) we are having twins. My thoughts have been that if it is twins it is one of each, I have no idea why. Also that way if it is only one we will have ideas for either a girl or a boy.

So please leave some feedback on a baby name you like for both a girl and a boy. Thanks! We will let you know what we are having and how many when we have our ultrasound on Oct. 16th.

P.S. Sketchy-I promise to make a personal phone call to you before we post anything here. ;)

Who is your 80's Hunk?

2007-09-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

How Funny!

Your 80s Hunk Is

Michael J. Fox

Who's Your 80s Hunk?

Thanks for the fun quiz Julie!

Interesting Quiz!

2007-09-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is interesting to see where my views and the candidates views match or not. The candidate that it says my views match is not the candidate I thought would match. The candidate I have been looking at was actually second closest to my views. But they were only off by one point anyway, so I'd say it's pretty close. This brings up more thoughts and maybe a second look, but I have not yet decided who I will vote for. Just an interesting quiz I thought I would share.


	Duncan Hunter Score: 35	Agree Iraq Taxes Abortion Line-Item Veto Energy Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Immigration Stem-Cell Research Health Care Social Security
-- Take the Quiz! --

Women's Fitness Celebration

2007-09-26T12:33:00.000-07:00

Every year in September, Boise has a women's 5k run, walk, stroll. Last year I participated in it for the second time and had a blast, so when time came again this year I signed up. They said last year that it was the second largest women's celebration in the nation. I heard someone say that this year it was the largest. I don't know that for sure but it is amazing just how many women were there that day. It was crazy. At the end we heard the stage guy for the "celebration party" say that there were 15,000 participants. People come from all over to participate in the competitive wave. I however, was just there to walk and have fun. I went with my SIL and a friend of mine. Afterwards they provide a fruit, yogurt, and granola mix. They have water bottles, bagels, milk, apples, and a cookie. It was a very filling breakfast and the walk felt great. Being 4 months pregnant, I was tired afterwards but I felt good. The two games of volleyball that I played that night in a tournament, was another story. I was so dead. I had a fun Saturday. I thought you might like to see some pictures from it.
The start of Tuxedo Row! This is where guys (old and young) stand along the sides of the road giving high fives and cheering for all the women just before they cross the finish line.Notice the walker behind this man. He was so frail. After I took this picture I ran up and gave him high five. As I did he grabbed my hand and I gave a sweet little squeeze, I thought I was going to knock him down. Cute little old man.Last year we scouted out the oldest looking guy and stopped to get our picture taken with him (my friend had her camera last year which reminded me to bring mine this year). This is the guy we got our picture taken with last year.
More guys on Tuxedo Row. I couldn't get a good shot of all of them lined up.....there were just too many people.

Just look at all those women. When Seth came down to pick me up (the shuttle line back to the car was way too long) Kyah saw a bunch of women walking on the sidewalk and she said "Woah, that's a whole lot of woman!"

One of the many balloon arches over the road. I liked the shot of the old train depot behind the arch. They also had different musical groups along the way. One was a percussion band that were using garbage bins and lids as their instruments. Another group was bagpipes, and another was a womens quartet. There were also different radio stations playing music along the way. It really was a lot of fun.

This is a terrible shot but it was supposed to be of Jared (the Subway Jared). I was too far away to get a good picture. Then when I did take it, someone stepped in front of him. Oh, well! He really was there. We had a better view of him last year but I didn't have my camera with me then. Obviously, Subway was one of the sponsors.This is a before the race shot of our little group. It rained on us a little that morning. But by the end my jacket was around my waist.
The finish line time was from the start of the first wave of people. We were in the 5th of 6 waves. It really only took us about 40-45 minutes.

I can't wait until next year.

A Sad Goodbye!

2007-09-20T14:30:00.001-07:00

Some of you will remember a previous post about adding another family member? Well since we are adding another actual child to the family in Feb/March, I have been talking to the family about finding a new home for the dog, Chewbaca. They all love him so much and he really is a good dog so we hadn't done anything for a while. Well the past couple weeks he has been digging out and running away every night, and some during the day. We have filled the hole with rocks and then dirt, that didn't work. Then filled it with rocks, dirt, and put a cement block behind the fence. He still was getting out. My DH also buried our old tomato plant wire, with rocks, and dirt, and he was still getting out. So we had to pull out the chain and keep him tied up all day and all night long. He would always come home, usually either sitting or wandering around our front yard or the neighbors yard so it wasn't like we had to look hard for him. But this was becoming a problem and we didn't want him sent to the pound. We wondered why all of a sudden he was wanting to leave all the time. Then we remembered he has not been fixed yet. We think he has been getting out because of a female dog near by somewhere. So rather than spending the money to get him fixed (since we have been talking about finding him a new home), we thought it must be time to let him go. So we posted him on craig'slist.com and he has found a new home.

Everyone was very sad to see him go.....yes even me (though not as sad as everyone else). Kyah just cried every time she would think about it. We made sure we took pictures with him and the kids so that they will remember him. The night the new owner came to meet Chewbaca, I had a volleyball game that night and was gone most of the night. My DH said it was a good thing I was gone because he was quite sad and upset about the whole thing. But as usual we hadn't taken him on a walk in a long time and the kids no longer wanted to play with him, he was just a sad dog that needed a better home. I think he will be happy with his new owners. They wanted him to be an inside dog (which he wasn't here) and the girl is an only child who lives with her Dad.

In other news, I scheduled my ultrasound today for Oct. 16th. I am excited to see what we are having.

Fun Look-a-Like

2007-09-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

I was visiting my usual blogs today and my SIL Sketchy, had this fun look-a-like meter on her blog so I thought "I wonder who my kids look most like?" So I thought I would give it a try and here are the results.

This is all based on what pictures you use. I used a more up to date one before and it said she looks equally like Mom and Dad. Plus I think she looks more like my husband anyway.

Naomi I was really surprised by. You look at her and my pictures at her age and they are almost identical. She is my mini-Me. I think she looks like me the most out of all our kids.

I have always wondered just how much like my mom I really am. So I thought I would do one with me and my parents.

Pictures! Milk and Orange Juice

2007-09-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

Our Labor Day was pretty dull here. I spent most of the day at the picture place trying to get my 4 year olds picture taken. This is usually a nightmare because the place is ALWAYS busy and the other kids go nuts waiting and waiting. Pretty soon I am nuts too from waiting, cranky kids, and wasting my entire day. After an hour and a half of waiting to have her pictures taken they finally get us in and she did great. Then they say have a seat and you can wait to view and purchase your pictures until a sales associate can take you to one of our 6 open computers. A few minutes later they come over to inform me that it will be another hour wait to look at the pictures and decide what we want. We have walked the mall a couple times over now trying to stay close enough that we don't have to walk for miles at a time. The kids at this point have had enough, as well as myself. I am very tempted to leave and come back another time to look at the pictures but then that means I'll have to endure this nightmare of waiting with cranky kids yet another day. I opt to just finish wasting this day and not waste two days. I finally got in and I can now see why it takes so long for one person to look at their pictures. You have to realize that whenever we go here I always get and do the same thing. So I know exactly how many pictures I want and what sizes, all I have to do is decide which pose I like the best and tell them. But no, I can't just do that, the sales associate spends 15 minutes designing a page she likes best. Me being too nice, cannot tell her she is wasting her time and mine, I sit and wait patiently for her to finish. Then I finally decide what I want to do, get it all done, and then I see the bill. Usually they charge extra for choosing a boarder. If you pick different boarder then you are charged again for that boarder. So I have learned to stick with one boarder for all the different shots. Well they realized that is what people were doing so now they charge per boarder per pose. I had $15 extra just for boarders. I wasn't going to pay that. So I took the boarders off the ones we will give to Grandma and Grandpa (they don't need a boarder on theirs). Which took off about $10. Also I try to do it as cheaply as possible. We never buy any packages which start out at $65-$70 and I don't get the sizes I want anyway. But still what I end up spending is about the same price as the basic package but I get what I want but not as many sheets. I am never good at sending out pictures to siblings, aunts & uncles, cousins, friends, pets, etc. When I do buy wallets and package deals, they sit on my counter for months until I finally put them in a book. So sorry to those family members who loose out because I am too cheap and slow to send them pictures. If you would like to view the pictures that were taken and purchase any on your own you may do that and have them sent to you. Just let me know and I'll send you an invite.

We did get invited for dessert at a friends house latter that night which was a lot of fun. There were 4-5 other families there too and it was nice to just sit and hang out. The boys all put a football game together with the kids that soon turned into keep-a-way from the kids. One of my friends there recently had a baby (actually he is a week old today) and her 4 year old and my 4 year old are both in the same preschool class and we started talking about that for a bit. She was nursing her baby the other day when her 4 year old said "Naomi says one side is milk and the other side is juice." I have no idea where she would have gotten that. I had to blog about that one.

And then there were.......

2007-08-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

You see I really want the weather to start cooling off a bit. We had 15 days of 100+ temperatures in July and August has started cooling off a bit. So far we haven't hit 100 all month. We have even had some 80's. The nights are cooling down to the 60's (which for Boise is lucky in the summer). The mornings are cool with a slight hint of fall in the air. I am ready for the kids to be too occupied to fight all day. And to have only 1-2 kids home all day (Naomi will be in Preschool 3 days a week for half day). I keep thinking off all this time I will have on my hands but then I remember all the volunteering there will be, but even that I am a little excited for.

So here we are down to 13 days, 20 hours, and 37 minutes (not that I am counting). It is strange to me that I want it to come so badly yet I still feel stuck in July. To think that August is half over blows my mind. We haven't gone swimming to the place we have been wanting to go ALL SUMMER, we still have one last camping trip to go on, and we have not done the dreaded clothes shopping yet either.

But the biggest reason I thought to blog today was to say that we are soon going to be a family of seven. Yes that is right we are going to have another baby, I am pregnant. So now you know why I have been lacking in my posts. My energy is extremely gone and I have been busy trying to entertain my 4 children. But hey I thought I would let you know the news. Baby is expected to arrive around March 10th, but after my last baby I have to have another c-section so it could be the end of February or beginning of March. I am currently 10 weeks or 2.5 months. My first Dr. apt. is tomorrow.

And then there were.....five.

One More Medical Bill

2007-07-24T14:54:00.000-07:00

With swimming lessons done, this week has been relaxing. Mitchell thought I needed something to do. I didn't see what happened just heard the fall and cry. When I got to him there was blood all over his mouth. I thought it was a repeat of Porter and his teeth through his lip. When I washed it out I could tell the blood was coming from further up in his mouth. I couldn't get him to show me so it took me a while to see it. Then I saw the hole in his tongue. I also got a quick look at the underneath side and there were puncture marks there too. I didn't know if they would do anything for his tongue so I called my Mom. She has seen and dealt with pretty much any medical injury possible with 5 boys and myself. I knew she would know. Sure enough, my brother Lyle had done the same thing when he was a baby. She told me that they had given him stitches as well. The hole in Mitchell's tongue was big enough I thought he needed to go in.

The first thing the Dr. said to me was "They caught me just as I was heading out the door." He took a quick look and then lectured me on not doing anything with the tongue unless it is hanging off. Then he game me some papers and sent me on my way. "That will be one arm payment please." Good grief, one more medical bill.

Swimming lessons, Misquito Bites, I think I'm going to melt

2007-07-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

I thought after being gone for 5 weeks in a row I would have some time to relax this summer but I have yet to find that time to relax. It could be that I am too busy trying to entertain my 4 kids while simultaneously keeping my sanity. But it seems I am just as busy as ever.

For the last two weeks we have spent an hour and a half every day at the kids swimming lessons. The kids have been doing well although it really makes me want to go swimming. But as of yet I still haven't gone yet. Here are some pictures of the kids during lessons.

Another fun thing I was reminded about which I love is the free lunch in the park every day for kids age 1-18 (and only $1 for adults). And on certain days the story lady comes and reads stories to the kids. We usually hit the lunch at the park first then rush off to swimming lessons. It's so nice not to worry about what to fix the kids for lunch or buy the stuff to make it or clean up after it. All around a great idea. I love it.

These next pictures are of the kids after the King family reunion in Cascade. (It is only after because I could not find the camera as we were leaving to go camping but thankfully found it when we got home) We had a lot of fun or at least we tried to make fun out of miserable situations. It was really hot that week we were there. The yurts were no where close to any water. We could see the lake but it was way too far to actually play in. We had to drive to another campground to play in the lake. Then once it cooled down enough to enjoy it outside the mosquitoes ate us alive. We emptied probably 6-8 containers of bug spray on us and the kids and still we left with numerous bites. The poor kids couldn't tell how much they were getting bit. Until they all started itching. Here are some pictures of them. Naomi had the most. Around 20 just on her forehead, and about 10 on each foot. Mitchell also had them bad on his face. He wouldn't hold still long enough for me to count. Porter had them on his back really bad. And Kyah had the least although she had so many in one spot on her forehead it swelled up really bad and she looked like she had a goose egg between her eyes. The swelling has gone down quite a bit in the pictures.

Today we got a bit of relief after having 7 days in a row of 100+ temperatures. From the looks of it tomorrow it starts all over again. IT IS HOT HOT HOT! Usually after sweltering in the room where the kids do swimming lessons I just come home to cool off in the air conditioning while Mitchell takes a nap. There are so many days I think I am sure I am going to melt.

"I was just having fun, Mom"

2007-06-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

FUNNY FUNNY STORY! It reminds me of a "Christmas Story".

The other day Porter came into the kitchen, where I was, crying and saying owe owe owe! He had his tongue sticking out to show that it was bleeding on the side. I asked him if he bit his tongue and he said no. I kept asking him and asking him what happened but he would say nothing but cry. Finally I told him that he would not be in trouble for something but we needed to know what had happened.

He took me by the hand and lead me to the garage. Then over to the freezer. He opened it and pointed to what looked like strange shaped defrost. He said he got his tongue stuck on the rack inside the freezer and then pulled really hard to get it off. I was trying hard not to laugh but asked why he had done that. I asked if he was trying to lick frost off the rack, and his reply was:

"No, I was just having fun, Mom."

Dye Family Reunion Hike May 26, 2007

2007-06-25T15:49:00.000-07:00

Jumping into summer!

2007-06-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

We have been going non stop since the kids school got out on June 6th. I had the car packed and ready to go and when the bell rang they were in the car and we left town. We drove to Rexburg to my brother's house so that I could attend Wood Badge (scout leadership training). I attended WB from June 7th - 9th and June 14th - 16th. It was so much fun. For those of you who know what WB is, you know you receive a totem at WB. My father was a Fox as well as one of my brothers. I also have a brother who is a Bear and another who is a Buffalo. I am an Owl. It fits me so well. I am a night owl for sure. I will share some photos of that when I get them.

I got home on Sunday morning (3 AM). With sick kids, what normally takes about 4-5 hours to get home, it took me 6 hours. I was running on about 4-5 hours of sleep so when I got home Seth had to take over for me. I was exhausted. Happy Father's Day you get to take care of all our sick kids. We are going to pretend that Father's Day is this weekend instead of last weekend.

I will be leaving again Friday morning to go to my 10 year high school reunion. I will be leaving the rest of my family home. With the kids being sick they wouldn't be able to go to any of my reunion anyway. It will be a short trip and I will be back home Saturday night.

We will be around during the week but headed to WA for the weekend to help Seth's Dad move (that's the plan right now). If the kids are still contagious we may not be going.

Then we will be ready for the 4th of July and the next family reunion. I am very excited to go camping in Cascade. We will be staying in yurts(they will be something like the ones at this link but probably not that nice). This is a first for us and I am very excited about it. I have heard how cool yurts are and I can't wait.

After that reunion, we will be done traveling for a while. Maybe sometime in between all of that I will have time to post some pictures and catch up on the tags I have gotten.

Until then.....

This, That, One & the Other

2007-05-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

What I have been up to is this...

Landscaping my front yard has taken the most of my time....at least it did until I threw my back out doing it.

You see we live on what used to be farmland, so naturally you would think our yard has really great soil to grow plants in. Well not really. Now days when a developer starts a subdivision they want to make the most money they can so they take off the first 6-12 inches of "good" soil and sell it to nurseries. Then they leave us left with the horrible rock-like clay to try to grow things. And we found out that grass has a hard time growing when it is laid directly over the top of the clay (which actually looks and feels more like rock). This is what our front yard looked like before we started this project, well sort of. You get the idea. We decided to take our grass out and put in a flower bed but to make it look even more cool, we were going to dig it down level with the sidewalk (because our yard is on a slope), and put up a rock wall and flower bed in front of it. Then I found the clay and it has become a much bigger project than before.

Seth borrowed a pick-ax from a guy he works with to break up the clay so we could actually put plants in it. We worked on the clay for 2-3 days but the very bottom layer was so compacted it wouldn't budge. Seth gave up saying we would just pick through the clay where we are going to put the plants and make a "pot" out of the clay. I argued it wouldn't work because we still wouldn't be able to get through that last layer. So after not coming to an agreement and me being stubborn enough to not quit, I worked on digging up the clay all day long. After working on that spot for 2+ hours with the pick-ax, I was so sore and I couldn't breathe or move without my back me. But I was able to break off a portion of the bottom layer of clay. There was hope for it. Seth came home, took about 5 whacks on it, and said "I'm going to rent a jack hammer to break it up." I sat there totally and in major pain and thought "why couldn't you have said that last night?" But I agreed and was very glad. This is where we have gotten to so far. We are so close to being done! If I could just quit hurting my back, it would be done by now. You can kind of see from the picture that we are also extending a flower bed off our tree.

Because of that.....
I hurt my back and spent one week doing nothing but lying on my back and going to the chiropractor every day. I had thrown a rib out of place so any time I coughed or sneezed I just about died. The first couple days it would pop back out after I sneezed. Now that I am feeling a little better, I am having a hard time not working on it. I keep hurting myself because I can't leave it the way it is. Hopefully after this weekend it will be done.

The one.....thing I am way excited about is my week early Mother's Day present. We have been needing a new dinning room table for quite a while. Ours was a hand-me-down and I don't think they bought it new either. The varnish and stain was coming off so bad on the table it was hard to tell if it was clean or dirty. It just never looked very good. We were not really looking for a table at the time. Seth was asked to help a friend move a piece of furniture from the store to his house in his truck. While at the store he thought, "We should come back and see if they have any good deals for us." The next day we went on a date and had decided not to go look because we really can't afford anything right now. With the yard project we are doing we needed the money to finish that. But Seth decided to go "see" what they had anyway. We found the table but it didn't have a price on it yet. They marked it at $277. It didn't come with chairs so we thought we'll just save up for them and order them later. But we still needed to think about it and pray about it. We went on the rest of our date (which was grocery shopping) and budgeted how much money our yard project was going to cost, plus vacations, birthdays, etc. After sitting in the temple parking lot to think and pray, we came to the conclusion that we could afford this table. I was so excited, that after the first store we went back to get it. They told us if we bought 4 chairs now they would give us the table for $100. So of course we did. The chairs are on back order so we don't have them yet but we hope to have them by the end of May. I'll post more pictures when we have the chairs. Anyway, here it is. It seats eight, two on each side. For now we are using our folding chairs and two bar stools we already had. I put our old dinning room set on craigslist and it sold in 3 days.

The other...thing I have been busy doing is going on field trips with my kids. Porter's first grade class went to The Botanical Gardens and the MK Nature Center. It was a lot of fun to spend time with him. I love that he still wants to hold "mom's" hand when it is just he and I. Our one on one times together are so much fun. I hope it stays that way for a long time.

Kyah's kindergarten class went to the Botanical Gardens as well. Their tours were different though (I was glad because Porter's tour was the same tour that Kyah did last year in preschool). If Kyah's class next year goes back to the Botanical Gardens I think I will take her out with me that day instead. Maybe get our nails done or something fun. We did have fun together. I couldn't ride the bus because Mitchell was sick and I had to take him with us and he was not allowed on the bus. It was a fun day and she got to come home early.

Yesterday was Naomi's home school preschool field trip to the zoo. That was a lot of fun as well. It has been a while since we have been there and she had a lot of fun. It has been nice to spend the days that are so nice outside doing fun things with the kids. I am also excited to be done with Naomi's preschool. It has been really rough this time. I was in a co-op group with some friends when Kyah was Naomi's age. That group was lots of fun and they were great kids. It should have been a hint that it was not going to be a good group this time when we met for the first time. Two of the boys got into an all out rolling on the ground throwing punches at each other fight. Those same two boys were such a handful all year long. One listened pretty well and we had ways to "encourage" good behavior that worked well for him. But the other flat out would not listen to a word I said and would do anything he wanted. Which of course riles up all the other kids. The only two s fight like they are teenage friends. One of which is my own. Anyway, just glad to be done. I will have to think twice about doing it again with Mitch.

Now you know the this, that, one, & the other that I have been up to.

Pioneer Situations Bring Creativity

2007-04-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Spring Break for the kids was March 26-30. The weekend before was warm and nice, but this week was rainy and cold. So we spent most of the time inside watching favorite movies, and playing together.

Tuesday was a different day though. The power went out at 9:30 a.m. The kids were instantly board. "What are we going to do now?" Then all I heard was, "Does the tv work? Does the microwave work? Does the toaster work?" and so on. It was so cold outside that the family room was really starting to get cold. We have a small thermometer on our refrigerator and it was now reading 61 degrees. So we all went upstairs where it was warmer.

We made a big bed on the floor in the boys room and we gathered some books to read. Before we could even get out the first book to read they were complaining. So I told Porter to tell a story. When he was done we went on to Kyah to tell a story. Then Naomi. When she was done, it was my turn. But before I tell you the story I told, I need to preface first.

When I was younger I was in a lot of plays (mostly because my parents were great actors and had amazing musical voices). Two of the plays were "The Wizard of OZ" and "Oliver". Both of these plays had a lot of young kids in them. In order to keep us all entertained but quiet during the scenes we were not in, they brought in a lady to tell us stories. She was a really good story teller. She could make up a story like she was reading it. She was so good to include us in the story. There were magical places, magical powers, and mysterious people. It was so fun to sit and listen to her story and what was going to happen next. That was what I was attempting to do now with my kids. It wasn't near as awesome as her story but they loved it anyway.

I want to remember this story and the kids have been asking me to write it down so they can remember it too. Here is close to what I told them:

Porter and Kyah came home from school to find Naomi and Mitchell home alone. Naomi was crying because neither Mom nor Dad were anywhere to be found. They knew they had to set out to find them. Into the closet they went and when they came out they were dressed as superheroes. Each in a different design, and they all had a different name. There was Mighty Mitch, Nifty Naomi, Kaleidoscope Kyah (of course because of her colorful costume), and Powerful Porter.

When they opened the front door, their waiting for them was a train. They climbed aboard and found they each had a special room just for them with their superhero name above the door. Inside the rooms they found special weapons and things to help them.

Powerful Porter had a sword of magnificent brightness. He would never have to stab anyone because Porter was so powerful that when he hit it against something it vibrated so much the bad guys would fall to the ground and beg Porter to let them do something nice for him and everyone they came in contact with from then on. They would never need a flashlight or lantern with this sword. I glows in the dark. It also has a two way radio with Mom's watch. If they get close enough to Mom's watch they can communicate with her through the sword.

In Kaleidoscope Kyah's room she found a bow and arrow. This was no ordinary bow and arrow this was a transporter. The arrows had long leather strips attached to the end of them. When she thought of a place to shoot the arrow and shot it, they would grab the end of the strips of leather and the arrow would fly them to where she wanted.

Nifty Naomi found a special black bag of magic dust. She could make anything she wanted appear with the magic dust. If they needed a ladder, she could make one appear.

Mighty Mitch found his blanket would fly him next to his brother and sisters when they traveled because he was too little to hold onto the leather. It also acted as a special cloak and they could hide under it where no one could find them.

After discovering their special gifts, they met together on the train to figure out what to do. Suddenly Powerful Porter realized the train was still moving and wondered if those who took Mom and Dad, were trying to steal them. Kaleidoscope Kyah quickly grabbed her bow and arrow and shot it to the mall. While they were flying, Nifty Naomi sprinkled her magic dust over them all and changed them into regular clothes. They couldn't go to the mall dressed like superheroes. Then Powerful Porter knew they needed to have an adult with them at the mall so they didn't get in trouble. Nifty Naomi sprinkled the magic dust over Mighty Mitch and he became big like an adult. Powerful Porter was still in charge but Mighty Mitch held Powerful Porter's hand and it looked as though he were their parent.

Once inside the mall, they were looking around for a clue. When they walked by the Disney store, they noticed something they have never noticed before. Next to the entrance to the Disney store was a small door which was glowing just like Powerful Porter's sword. No one else could see it but them. When they went to open it it was locked but the key hole was the exact shape of Powerful Porter's sword. He used his sword to unlock the door.

As the door opened, it was not a small room. It was huge, with large staircases on both sides of the room, leading up to a balcony. In the middle of the room was a large water fountain. As they walked around the room they found a piece of paper. It read "Porter and Kyah, we are...." but the rest of the note was missing. Kaleidoscope Kyah said we should look for more clues at home. With a quick shot of the arrow, they were flying home.

When they got there, Dad's truck was sitting in front of the house. They ran inside but still no one was there. They checked the garage but the van was gone. They sat down disappointed and sad. Then Kaleidoscope Kyah had a great idea. She could go straight to the van with her bow and arrow. So off they went.

Surprisingly they found the van at the temple. Inside the van they found the rest of the note. When they put the two pieces together it read," Porter and Kyah, we are....at the temple. Take Naomi and Mitchell with you to the neighbors house. They will watch you until we get back. Love Mom" When they got done reading the note Mighty Mitch noticed Mom and Dad coming out of the temple. Mom and Dad were on a Date and everything was fine. Powerful Porter asked, "But why didn't the radio in the sword work with Mom's watch?" It was silent because they were in the temple and they had to be quiet in the temple. Dad was so excited to have superhero kids that they all went and got ice cream.

THE END

By the time I got done telling this story it was lunch time. We hurried and ate sandwiches for lunch and then it was time for Mitchell to take a nap. So we moved from the boys room to my room and all climbed into my bed. It was really starting to get cold so we were under a lot of blankets to keep warm. With Mitchell in bed we could play some games and he couldn't get into them. They chose to play Life. It was a long enough game that by the time we were almost done, the power was back on. I was glad I wasn't sure I was going to be able to entertain much longer. It's one thing to have them stuck in the house all day but when the power goes out it is a little more challenging. It was about 2:30 p.m. when the power came back on. It was so much fun to hang out with them and doing something we don't normally do. The kids often talk about how much fun it was to tell stories. I need to have them draw some pictures to go along with the stories. At least now the story is down and we can retell it over and over to them. Maybe someday there will be another adventure for the superhero kids.

Long time no post

2007-03-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yes I know it has been a while since I last posted. Sorry to the few of you who actually check my blog on a regular basis. I am sure you have completely given up on me. I have almost given up on myself. But a recent phone call from my wonderful SIL inspired me that there are some out there who are wondering how I am doing.

The past three weeks have been up and down for us and very busy. I could write a different post about a few changes, accidents, illnesses, stuff like but why not just include it all here?

We got to spend the first weekend with my Mom celebrating her birthday. It's now been 4 months since my father passed away. She needed to have some company around. She was enjoying her brand new, right off the lot with only 2 miles on it, Honda Pilot. She said that was her birthday present from Dad. I must say that was a pretty cool and very needed birthday present. I am so happy for her. It was fun to spend some time with her.

We have had the flu off and on again this month. It has hit just about everyone in our family but it always seems to laps a day or two before the next person is sick. So instead of getting through it quickly (although it only lasts about 12-24 hours) it spans a week to two weeks. So far we broke that pattern today. We can only hope it isn't just skipping more than one day this time.

In July of 2005, our ward was growing so fast and so much that they took our ward and another ward and split them into three wards, creating a new ward for the stake. We (our subdivision, along with many other subdivisions) got moved into another ward. But our ward was still really big. The ward they split us from was now very small. Every Sunday the bishopric would welcome a new family (if not more than one) into our ward. The Relief Society president had also mentioned recently that the number of sisters in the ward when we first split was around 100 and since then ( in February 2007) it had grown to around 220 sisters. Our ward had pretty much doubled in a year and a half. So it was no surprise when they announced a meeting between our ward of around 800 members and another ward of around 1000 members. We knew exactly what was coming. You have to realize that our ward boundaries don't cover a lot of area. Our ward covers a little over 2 square miles. We look our our back windows and you can see the Stake Center where we attend church, or at least we used to. Two weeks ago we split again and yet again our subdivision along with a few others have been put into the other existing ward. Then most of the other ward was cut off and made into a new ward for the stake. We have not met together in the new ward yet and so far have not been called to any new callings. But for sure they will be coming soon. We are excited and sad all at the same time. Even though no one has moved, it will be harder to keep in touch, we know that from the last split. I am sure (I hope) I'll post again when we get new callings.

Last Thursday was as normal day as any. Kyah was sick with the flu so I knew I wasn't going anywhere that day. Her room was a disaster (again normal) so we were going to try to help them organize it (I was fed up with it). I was in the girls room and Mitchell was playing back and forth from the girls room and the boys room. While in his room, I heard him trip and fall. I could tell it wasn't off something, too quiet. I didn't hear any other sound, so not sure if he hit something, but he was crying really hard. He had not been awake for very long so I thought he was just tired. A little later I went in to change his diaper and get him dressed for the day. After I was done I grabbed both arms to help him up and he screamed and cried really hard and pulled his arms out of my hands. I could tell I had hurt him but it seemed weird that I had. This is where Dr. Mom stepped in and took over. Squeezed his right hand, no reaction. Squeezed his left hand, no reaction. Squeezed his right arm, nothing. Barely touched his left arm and he cried hard and jerked away. Now it was time to compare arms. Sure enough, the left arm looked a little fatter than his right. So Dr. Mom asked me how this could have happened. I was stumped. I was thinking of a time he fell off the table or the trampoline. He hadn't done either of those things at all. Not even off a bed or the couch. The only thing I could think of was when he cried so hard when he fell earlier that morning. But for that I think he just tripped. Dr. Mom then tested to see if he would use his arm. Set him down and handed him a bean bag. He easily grabbed it and threw it across the room. Seems to use it just fine. But later saw when he fell he cried really hard again and couldn't push himself back up. He really didn't want to use it. Well I couldn't get a sitter to stay with sick Kyah and I couldn't take her with me so I had to wait. Once Seth got home I took him in. They took an x-ray and sure enough a buckle fracture of the radius. Set it in a splint and sent us home. Poor kid. He looks so little to have a broken arm.
As you can see I finally got PhotoShop 5.0. It is quite different than what I had been using so I have a lot to learn about it. I hadn't even used the 2.0 to it's full capacity so I really have a lot to learn on this one. The feature changes that I have noticed I really love though. It's so much better.

I found a new band that I really like as well. Augustana. I heard them first on the Today Show. The best part is that "I" found them not Seth. And he really likes them too.

That's basically what's been going on around here. Until next time.....

Did I curse myself?

2007-03-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

If you recall a moth or so ago I created a post renaming January, February, and March. Well so far the new names I have given them, (Sickuary, Flubruary, and RSVarch) have hit our household. In January, we had sickness all the time mostly ear infections. Most of my family got the flu sometime in February. Now that we are into March, I sure hope we don't get RSV as well. I can only hope.

Although we didn't have as many visits to the Dr. in February as we did in January, we did have another ER visit. This time, I hate to say it, it was me. I was sick with the flu on Tuesday, thankfully never throwing up. That night felt a little better so I ate a small grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup. The combination of the two help settle my stomach. I felt fine when I went to bed. Woke up around 2 am in horrible pain. Tossed and turned for a half an hour before waking Seth up. I tried taking an antacid but that did nothing, it was not a bathroom issue either. Finally around 3 am after no relief of this tremendous pain, we decided I needed to go in. Seth called a neighbor friend to have him come stay here with the kids. The pain was so severe I felt like I was in labor, only with that you know why you are in that much pain. They quickly got an IV in me and gave me Morphine. It did nothing for the pain. So they gave me another dose. Again it did nothing. I was still in horrific pain. Then they gave me Phentanol which did finally work. I had been writhing in pain for the past 3 hours with very little break in pain. I was exhausted. They took X-rays to see why I was in so much pain. They looked fine. The Dr. thought that from the look of the pain I was in, what caused it was my large intestine had either kinked or twisted. Once they gave me the IV fluids and the pain meds to help me relax, then it fixed itself. I was home by 6:45 am. Very tired but feeling a thousand times better. Poor Seth had to go straight to work with only 4 hours of sleep.

I was pretty nervous to eat anything yesterday for fear the pain would come back. Thankfully, the pain is gone and didn't come back. Now we see what March will bring. Hopefully a little bit of spring.

Out with the old....

2007-03-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes getting something new isn't always fun and easy. Our tax return finds us getting a new computer. Ours was going to die soon so we thought "hey why not get a new one while we have some extra money instead of waiting for it to die when we don't have any extra money." So we went to "look" and now we have a new computer.

Sadly, it doesn't come without some technical problems. We were still using Windows 2000 on our last computer. Now using Vista, our $15 DI scanner, and our printer no longer work. :( Thankfully Seth just got me a photo printer for Christmas so that will be our all around printer. A new scanner will have to wait. But what I am most sad about is my new found hobby (digital scrap booking) is not compatible with Vista. In order for it to work, I will have to buy the newest version of Photoshop Elements. Sadly that may have to wait too. :( Anyone know where I can get a great deal on Photoshop Elements 5.0?