Carrie's Burden

This Kid Had A Great Birthday

2012-01-29T22:54:00.000-08:00

Ethan turned six this last week. He is growing up so fast! He is my kid that is up at six in the morning, sometimes before Brian and I get up. He's the one that gets ready for school (almost) every morning all on his own, including saying his morning prayers, although he is starting to sneak in some play time in the mornings as well. He loves dinosaur oatmeal; says he loves fish, but doesn't actually eat fish; likes to wash the dishes; and loves to play computer games. The thing he's been saying the most of lately is, "Mom, I want to do something fun," or "I have nothing to do that's fun," and usually that means he wants to watch TV or play computer. Actually, a couple of weeks ago, when he wasn't allowed on the computer, he kept saying, "I just feel like I need to exercise my hands," hoping that I would count moving the computer mouse as hand exercises. He loves to cook, and he's a great help in the kitchen. He's even volunteered to make his favorite dessert, lemon bars, for Family Home Evening tomorrow.

Ethan started his week off by having a combined birthday party with his cousin, Asher. He requested a dinosaur party with a dinosaur cake, but the cake turned into a volcano cake with dinosaurs on it. He watched me decorate it, and if I was a nicer mom, I would have let him pipe more frosting than just a line of lava and a couple of trees. He was happy with how it turned out, though.

On his birthday he took dinosaur oatmeal to school for his birthday treat. These he did help me out with. He cut the cards, while I stapled them to the oatmeal. He was very excited about these!

We had the Activity Day girls over, and they sang him happy birthday before they had cookies.

But he didn't even stick around until the end of the song. He wanted to go play upstairs with the Salisbury boys.

We also went to red Robin for his birthday dinner. He ordered a corn dog, which surprised us, because he's been turning into a cheeseburger person. Before the food came he said he was starving, then once he took a bite of his corn dog, he said he was "stuffed full," but then I told him the waiters wouldn't come sing to him until his food was gone, so he went ahead and ate the whole thing. We got him a ten-games-in-one set that includes checkers and games like that, and the Pairs in Pairs game, by the same people who did Bananagrams. (He likes games and puzzles.)

Ethan had his friend birthday party on Thursday after school. We just included Marcus and invited his cousins, Derek and Asher. We wanted to keep it small, plus I wanted to do it at a time when they wouldn't have a big sister around to take over - I mean - "help." We picked everyone up from school, had lunch, opened presents, and built our very own volcano. I used the moon sand recipe that's been floating around Pinterest (8 cups of flour, 1 cup of baby oil) and loved it. It didn't stay well enough to keep the volcano shape, so we probably should have used play dough, but oh well. It worked well enough, and I found it very therapeutic to play with. We used the elephant toothpaste recipe for the lava, but it didn't erupt right. When I added the "make it explode" ingredient, it just grew a tiny bit. I tried adding more hydrogen peroxide (9% - was that the problem?) but that didn't work, so then we went to plan B and threw in a bunch of baking soda and vinegar.

Then, on Friday we had a stay-cation with Brian's parents at the local La Quinta. We were supposed to go up to the cabin this weekend, but it didn't work out, and Dan and Diane still wanted to do something fun, so they came up with this. We played games, had the pool all to ourselves, ordered pizza, and just visited and had fun in the hotel room. Diane told me today that they had planned on spending the night, but at 1:30 someone having a different sort of party was put into the room next to them, so they decided to spend the rest of the night in their own bed. It was a lot of fun!

Becca looks worried in this picture, but she really did enjoy it.

She looks a little bit happier in this one.

Brian thought he had bubbles on his face, but as you can see, he didn't.

On A Sunday

2012-01-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

Becca fell asleep soon after church today, but I didn't lay her down right, which meant that she woke up about five minutes after I left her room. I heard her make a noise, which I thought was a cry, but when I went to go pick her up, it turned out that she had flipped herself over and was facing the other direction and was making out with one of her teddy bears. She was growling and laughing and having a great time. Honestly, I've never seen a little girl baby that growls as much as she does.

The teddy bear in question is named Tucker. He's the lighter brown bear that she's almost on top of. But it doesn't do a lot of good to point him out, because the darker brown bear behind her - see him back there? - is also named Tucker. We got them when I took her to the emergency room after our car accident last month. I tried to take her to urgent care, but they wouldn't look at her since she's a baby, so we had to take her in to the emergency room. The nice gentleman that walked us to our room gave her and Marcus each a teddy bear, and the name on both tags said, "Tucker," so we went with it. I don't know if they'll remain the Tucker Twins as she gets older, or if she'll someday rename them.

This picture is just to show that cute mole on her left wrist. You can barely see it, but I noticed it when I uploaded the photos, and I wanted to share. I love that mole!

Snow Day

2012-01-19T08:32:00.000-08:00

All weekend long I kept hearing, "It's supposed to snow on Sunday," then "It's supposed to snow on Monday," then "It's supposed to snow on Tuesday," and it finally dumped a good 10 inches or so late Tuesday night. Ethan was the first to tell me that it was supposed to snow, because his Kindergarten teacher told him about it, and he was so excited all weekend. He even spent Sacrament meeting on Sunday having Brian feed him letters so he could write, "It will snow storm on Monday."

Ethan already had school off yesterday, because it was afternoon Kindergarten's turn to go on the short Wednesday, and Alyssa got a two hour delay. She didn't want to go, especially after she heard our neighbors were staying home, but I told her it would probably be just one big party, and it sounds like it was. They watched, "Rio," did some math worksheets, and played "Heads Up 7 Up."

The kids had so much fun playing in the snow. They were ready to go out around 7:30 in the morning, so I sent them to play, then they came in for shortbread cookies and hot cocoa for breakfast. we took Alyssa to school at 11:00, then headed over to my parent's to play their Disneyland Kinex game, then we picked Alyssa up at 1:40, she made some Pillsbury Valentine cookies that Brian's mom gave us, and we had a fun afternoon cleaning the house, playing in the snow some more, and working on projects.

Brian's office even rescheduled people so they could close at 3:00, so he was home early, too. We've been getting office furniture on Craigslist, and we're starting to plan and decorate his den. My instinct is to call it an office, but he refers to it as a den, so that's what I'm going with. "Den," sounds more relaxing, I think, which is probably why he prefers it, too. So Brian's office (work office) is right next store to a JoAnn Fabric store, so he hopped over there at lunch and sent me pictures of fabrics he likes for the curtains. I think he's having fun having something of his own to decorate.

I also set up my Silhouette Cameo last night, and let me tell you I had so much fun. That thing is amazing! I've worked with both my mom's original Silhouette and my Cameo, and I can safely say, 100%, that the Cameo is a thousand times better. When my mom and I would do projects with hers, we would get a great final outcome, but it took so much time arguing with the machine, and re-cutting things that got messed up during the cutting. I cut a whole bunch of vinyl last night and the only problem I ran into was that I accidentally chopped off the tip of Marcus' nose when I was cutting (by hand, with scissors) his sillhouette off of the roll of vinyl.

So here's a little bit of what I did last night:

Alyssa - so beautiful!

Ethan - so serious

Marcus - I couldn't get him to hold still!

Rebecca - absolutely adorable!

Now our entry way is one step closer to being finished. I used a tutorial to make the silhouette shape and another tutorial to cut it with the Cameo. I made the flower for Alyssa's hair by converting Googled shapes into cuttable shapes, and the headband for Becca by just playing with shapes in the Silhouette software. Brian and I are going to take each other's pictures later today, so we'll be added to the wall soon.

The Book

2012-01-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a dream about a magical lion, who was being held prisoner by an evil queen. He turned himself into a man to be able to escape, and he happened to escape at the same time one of the queen's priestesses was also running away. Now, in my dream there was no romantical connection between these two characters, but if I were to write a book about them, there definitely would be, because, well, I like romantical connections, G rated, of course. So these two are running away from the queen's guards and hiding in a tree with a little boy - I don't know how the little boy showed up, but they were protecting him, and Brian had a pretty good idea about who he should be - and then I woke up, and it was a lot cooler in my dream than I've told it, and I thought, "That would be a great book!"

(On a side note, Brian has James Bond type dreams that he wakes up to thinking, "That would be a cool movie!" He's told me about them, and they probably would be very cool movies.)

But after thinking about this great book, and thinking, "I'll write it as soon as I'm done with the one I'm writing now," I then thought, "Oh, shoot! I only have one page of that book written." Yep, one page. But, you know, that's progress. I just need to get going on it.

I've been doing really well with my other goals, mostly because I have a set and serious plan to accomplish them: reading my scriptures aloud to Becca when I put her down for her morning nap (which makes her conk out real fast), setting a very specific task each month for food storage and emergency preparedness, etc. I think I need to come up with a time every day and say, "This is my time to write," otherwise it might be years before this book is finished.

One thing that's helping and inspiring me is a girl I went to church with during all my growing up years. A couple of years ago she announced on her blog that she was going to write a book, and now it's finished and will be debuting in April. Isn't that cool? Every time I read one of her posts on Facebook I think, "Alicia's a mom, and she found the time to write her book, so I can do it, too." By the way, Alicia's book is called Emerald City, and it's set in Seattle. I can't wait to read it. And I'll probably keep a copy on my bedside table to remind me that the goal is attainable.

So to refresh my memory about what I've written and planned so far, I'll give you guys a little bit of information about my book. The heroine is named Maura and the hero is Bowen. Brian came up with Bowen when we were on our way to Great Wolf Lodge. He kept naming cities we were passing when I was trying to come up with names for the different cities and kingdoms for my book, and when he said, "Bowen," I thought, "That's perfect for the prince's name!" The villain is named Kendrick, but in every thing I've written so far, he's referred to as Bad Guy, or B.G.

Here's a little snippet of the Prologue. Don't be too critical of it. When I read through it just now, I found many things just in that paragraph alone that I want to change, but that's just the nature of a rough draft. Anyway:

He quickly descended, holding the precious book carefully with one arm. Sitting on the stone floor, he opened the cover and silently ruffled through the pages. He knew there was a lot of work ahead of him to learn the language that the spells were written in. He also knew through his studies that this work couldn’t begin while he was still in the cave. The only person that was allowed to use magic in the cave was the mage that the books had belonged to long ago. To everyone else it was strictly forbidden. He(name?) knew he should take the book home with him to study and learn from, but the words on the first page caught his attention, and in his excitement he read them, sounding them out slowly, even though he did not know their meanings. He whispered the words as he read, loving the feel of them on his lips. A slight rush of air came swirling from the page and circled twice around him before heading toward the cave entrance. Once this small wind left his skin, he assumed that it had dissipated into the air. He never knew how strong those whispered words were, or how far they traveled.

And Finally, A Christmas Post

2012-01-10T08:44:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation. I loved having the kids home from school. With Christmas being on Sunday, Brian didn't get much actual time off, but he was able to be with us enough to have fun. We did a lot of things with my family and Brian's family, but we also just spent a lot of time at home, enjoying being home.

Because we had church at 9:00 in the morning, we "arranged" for Santa to come while we were gone, instead of during the night. It worked great! Christmas Eve we had everyone over at our house to play games and let the kids run around. Then we went over to my parent's house for Grandma Harris' birthday party and doing the nativity and singing Christmas carols.

On Sunday we got up, and got ready for church, and went to Sacrament meeting, where Alyssa sang a solo in the ward choir (she and Kenzie Salisbury sang the ending: Noel! Noel! Noel! Noel! Born is the king of Israel.) and I played the flute with the choir for a different song. My parents played Santa while we were gone, then came and joined us to hear Alyssa sing. The talks given Christmas Sunday were fabulous.

We went home to find our Santa gifts, and to find that if you leave a note for Santa telling him that his glass of milk is in the fridge, he replies with, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Apparently Santa feels the same way that I do about warm milk: nasty!

Alyssa got a small stuffed animal with an American Girls book full of fun questions to ask friends. Rebecca got a bunch of bibs for when she's ready to start solids. She also was supposed to get a high chair, but the boys saw it come in the mail, so we just went ahead and started using it so she could sit at the table with us during meals.

The boys got a Beyblade stadium to share, and they each got a Beyblade. They love them, and are always battling each other, or as Marcus says, "babbling." When Ethan is at school, Marcus will ask me if I want to have a "Beyblade babble" with him, and we have a great time. Really, though, those things are fun!

Sadie got a freakin' huge bone that she's already devoured, and Callie the Cat got some cat grass that she's ignored (apparently she prefers plastic) and a feather toy thing.

When we were done with our Santa presents, Brian's parents came over, and we opened everything under the tree. This year we drew names for handmade gifts, which was so fun. Alyssa made Rebecca a hooded towel, Ethan made Marcus strips of road that you piece together out of old jeans, Marcus made Brian a picture for his office, and Rebecca made (okay, fine, I did) a little stuffie for Ethan out of an old sock. Ethan had said that he wanted a friend for his zuzu pet, Dowpia, so that's what we did. We made it out of one of the socks that Brian gave me when he proposed. I made Alyssa a scripture bag to match the scripture cover I gave her last Christmas, and Brian made me a printed powerpoint presentation offering an overnight getaway when Becca's older.

Other presents: Alyssa got Twinkle Toe shoes; Ethan and Marcus got walkie talkies to share; Brian got meat thermometers, bear claws, and other cooking paraphernalia; Becca got a bedtime seahorse stuffy; and I got a Silhouette Cameo (I haven't set it up yet, but I can't wait. I have a ton of projects I'd like to do!) One of my favorite quotes from the day was when Marcus carried his walkie takie around for about five minutes, excited to have it, then when we put batteries in it and showed him how to use it, two minutes after talking back and forth with Brian he said, "Oh, it's a walkie talkie!" Brian's mom had books made of the first two years of my blog, which I love! It was such a surprise! My parent's gave us a gingerbread cookie mix from Disneyland, complete with a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter. It's so cute!

We went over to my parent's house in the evening to give them their gift, and we learned that my brother, Phil, had just gotten a counter offer on the house they want to buy. They made an offer, but knew someone else was making one at the same time, so they didn't expect anything, but on Christmas afternoon they got an email with the counter offer. We're so excited for them!

So it was a great Christmas. I didn't take a lot of pictures, and half of what I took are fuzzy, but here's what we did get.

Marcus opened this present without taking the ribbon off. it was really quite amazing.

The picture says, "What is your favorite thing about Dad? I like him silly faces. Marcus, age 4"

They both just conked out

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

I normally don't do new year resolutions. I am the type of person that loves goals and charts and schedules and routines, so when the new year rolls around, I already have goals in place, so I don't really have a need for special resolutions. Right now, though, I've gotten out of habit on things, and there are definitely some goals I need to put into place to get my life back on track.

1. Read the Book of Mormon twice
I have not been doing well with scripture study. I try, but it just doesn't happen. So I'm setting up a pretty big goal. I know, you're probably thinking, "If you're not reading your scriptures now, why don't you just try to read it once instead of twice?" My thinking is that I get more out of the scriptures when I read in larger blocks, so if I have to read two or three chapters each day to finish by a certain time, it at least will be more beneficial than reading just one chapter a day, so hopefully it will be easier to keep up. My plan is to read (maybe even out loud) while I put Rebecca down for her morning nap each day.

Our stake president, President Andelin, gave us all a challenge at church today to read from the Book of Mormon every single day this year. So not only do I have my personal goal for scripture study, but our family has decided to have family scripture study every day as well. We used to be really good at family scripture study, but we've gotten off track lately, and we need to do better. I printed off a chart that has the chapters in the Book of Mormon in it for Alyssa to fill out, a 2012 calendar for Ethan to cross off the days, and I got out a mason jar for Marcus to put marbles, so each of the kids will have a job that keeps track of our progress. Plus, we're going to start having scripture study in the quiet room again, with everyone holding their scriptures.

2. Go to the temple every month
This is one that Brian and I were trying to do last year, but it got messed up with me getting pregnant. Rebecca is now old enough to leave with a grandma for a couple of hours, so we're going to start going more often.

3. Work on emergency preparedness
We have some food storage in the garage, and a couple of tubs with our 72 hour kits, but there is still so much that we need to do. I'd like to do one thing each month to help with our emergency preparedness. This month we're going to set up an emergency station in the garage. We need to go through and update our 72 hour kit, and I'd like to purchase a Costco pack of water bottles for each family member, then stack it all in its own special spot in the garage. For February I think I'd like to get the pantry stocked with canned food. I reorganized our pantry on Saturday, and there's a lot of canned food spots that are empty. After that I guess we'll get going on making sure we have the big things - like buying a bunch of flour one month, wheat another, sugar, etc.

4. Run a 10k
It has been over a year since I've been running. I miss it! The last time I ran was the Turkey Trot last Thanksgiving. That was the first day that I woke up with morning sickness. I faked being healthy pretty well for the run, but I wasn't able to go out after that. When I was running before I was only doing 5k's, but my brother asked me if I wanted to try for a 10k in the fall. Looks like I need to get training. So the small goal for this is to run a 5k each month, starting in March, then switching to a 10k when I think I'm ready.

So there you have it. I was going to put "finish my book" on the list, but I really don't know if that's going to happen. I only have one page written of the rough draft. With Rebecca still being small, and Marcus still at home needing attention, I just don't have time each day to sit down and work on it, and it's something that I don't want to sacrifice being a good mom for. I think about it all the time, and I still want to work on it, but it might take me longer than I originally planned.

Alyssa's Act of Kindness

2011-12-16T07:30:00.000-08:00

Alyssa's class did a project this week called, "Act of Kindness," where they each had to do an act of kindness for someone outside their family, and make a poster with a three paragraph essay about it. Then, all of their families were invited to a social at the school library, where each of the students were able to present their project. They did it "museum" style, where they each stood by their poster in shifts, and the parents walked around, hearing each presentation.

Alyssa's act of kindness was doing service for our neighbors, the Salisbury's. Her original idea was to open doors and hang up coats for people at our ward Christmas party, but the car accident messed that up a little. Then, she said, "I hold Rebecca all the time for you. I can do 'taking care of Rebecca' as my project." I said okay, and the first time we had a moment to make the poster was the afternoon before it was due. Right when Alyssa came home from school we got out our supplies, then I read the assignment paper again and was reminded of the "outside the family" rule. That's when we started scrambling to do some service.

Alyssa wanted to help the Salisbury's, so she called them up to ask what she could do, and she and Ethan rode their scooters over to clean their toy room. I sent the camera with them so Shaylene could take some pictures, then Alyssa came home and got to work on her poster.

Everything in Alyssa's poster is her idea. She wrote and typed the essay by herself, cut out and framed the pictures, and put captions on the pictures by herself. She was the one who wanted to paint it, and she spent all evening adding stars and flowers. See the orange sun up in the corner? Nope - flower. She told me it's a "sunset flower."

I am so proud of Alyssa for doing this project. She was so cute when she was presenting it. All the kids were very professional and grown up during the social. They all did a great job!

It's teachers like the one Alyssa has now that makes me want to keep her in public school. If we were lucky enough to have teachers like Mrs. Halverson all through her school career, I'd keep her in without a second thought. I loved this project. It not only teaches our kids how to write, make a poster, and present their ideas, but it teaches our kids to think of others and be good, caring citizens.

A Christmas Miracle? Crash-Crash? That's the Way the Pie Falls?

2011-12-10T07:38:00.000-08:00

I am really in a slump with my titles.

Yesterday was a little crazy. I made three pies (two pecan and one lemon meringue) for the ward Christmas party. Brian picked up Ethan from school and took him to buy groceries for a couple of Salvation Army boxes and to buy a fan for our fireplace. Brian then installed the fan. The battery died on our van, so we pulled out our battery charger (you can probably tell that this has happened before - who has their own battery charger?) and charged up the van when it was time to pick Alyssa up from school. I picked Alyssa up using Brian's car.

Ethan had a birthday party to go to that I forgot about, so after Alyssa came home we all loaded up in the newly charged van, with Alyssa holding a cookie sheet with the pecan pies and me holding a cookie sheet with the meringue, and with a stack of paper plates for the Christmas party at my feet. We rushed to Walmart and Brian ran in to buy a birthday present. (Can I take a moment to say that I really don't like Walmart? I have many many, multiple reasons like: nothing is where it's supposed to be, even their workers aren't given any information on where everything is supposed to be, so they're not very helpful either, but the reason yesterday is that Brian picked up a toy that said it was on sale for $15. It rang up as $20, but he didn't fight it because we were so late.) Anyway. Moving on.

We rushed from Walmart to the birthday party over at Mid Columbia Gymnastics just off of Gage Blvd. It's right by where Skate West used to be. (Memories.) After dropping Ethan off at his party, we had an hour to kill. So we went to Brian's office to pick up some email paperwork we do at home, went to Target to get some poster board for Alyssa's school project, then we took a drive around the temple before picking Ethan up. And you have to remember that all this was done with pies on our laps.

We picked up Ethan, and started to head over to the church to help get things ready for the ward party. It was just after 6:00. The party started at 6:30. Our original plan included dropping off the pies and plates first, then doing everything else, but we left too late to do that, so by this time we were hoping that people weren't worrying about the plates being missing.

As we sat at a stoplight on Gage Blvd, Brian checked his phone to see if he had missed a text or a call from the bishop, and asked me to plug his phone in to charge. As I was doing so, there was a huge, "BAM!" and we were all shoved forward. I dropped the cell phone, heard Alyssa scream, then we all shifted back into our seats. Luckily, we were at an intersection that turned into a small parking lot, so as Brian pulled in to the lot, I turned around to check on the kids. Alyssa and Rebecca were crying, but other than that, everyone seemed fine.

I hopped out of the car and set the lemon meringue pie on the ground. "I'm so sorry, ma'am," a man was saying to me.

"It's okay. It's okay," I said both to him and myself. Then I remembered that you're not supposed to say anything that might admit fault after an accident and wondered if by saying "It's okay," was telling the man that it was "okay" to run into our car. "These things...happen," I said, which sounded a lot better.

This very short conversation took place as I was pulling the side car door open to check on Rebecca. I looked her over real quick and felt her arms and legs, then quickly unstrapped her and lifted her into my arms, all the while saying, "It's okay, it's okay."

Brian and the man from the other car checked on Alyssa. She said her head and back hurt, and she couldn't stop crying. I went back to my seat and had Alyssa come sit with me. I sat holding Rebecca in one arm, with my other arm around Alyssa while Brian and the man worked out the details. The man was apologetic, and very concerned about the children. Apparently he had just come from putting studded tires on his car, so that slowed his stopping time, plus he got distracted by something - I never heard what.

While I sat in the car, I again asked the kids if they were okay, if they hurt anywhere, and I kept checking Becca to make sure she was alright. After the girls settled down, I told the kids, "If you guys hadn't been wearing your seat belts, and Rebecca hadn't of been in her car seat, this could have been a lot worse." I wondered if I had used words strong enough to get the message through about the importance of seat belts, but apparently the crash had done that for me, because that's all I had to say. I watched Marcus' face just fall when I said the words, "a lot worse." I could see that he understood the seriousness of the situation.

The car seems fine. Brian said the back door kind of bumps and makes a funny noise when you open it, and we're getting it looked at on Monday, but the bumper is not even scratched. We were surprised. From the noise and the force that we were hit, we were expecting the bumper to be completely messed up. The kids are fine. The boys don't seem to be physically affected at all, Alyssa started feeling better once she was able to calm down, and Rebecca seems to be her regular happy self. Brian and I are fine. Brian said his neck was a bit sore last night, and my back and neck feel a bit stiff this morning, but over all we are fine. I'm just so thankful that we're all okay.

And the biggest miracle of all: the pies were fine. The filling of the meringue kind of shifted inside the pie crust, and one of the pecans fell to the floor, but all three pie survived the accident enough to be able to be served at the ward Christmas party. Truly a miracle. Plus, we even made it to the church just before the party started, and no one had been concerned about the missing plates.

No Idea What to Call This One

2011-12-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

Three things popped up on my Internet feeds yesterday that made me think. First, after the kids took off for school and Marcus played with blocks, I rocked Becca to sleep and watched "Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women [Trailer]" which talks about the flawlessness of the women in advertising photos. Then, later that afternoon, I read a friend's blog post about Mormon mommies going to "visit relatives" for a few weeks and coming home with tummy tucks, facelifts, and whatnot, and the worst part, really, is that the person who was sharing this information was supposedly sharing LDS women's "secrets to keeping our lives together and perfect." And then I read a news article about one of my friend's art exhibits, titled "Princess Religion." The exhibit is about how the Disney princesses and other princesses shape our young girls' expectations about what they should look like and what they should do with their lives.

And all of this got me thinking throughout the day, which made me fully prepared to respond when we sat in the doctor's office and Alyssa looked at a picture advertising some skin stuff and said, "I just was to be perfect. I want my skin to be flawless like hers." Honestly, she truly said the word, "flawless."

I told her that even the lady in the picture wasn't flawless. The picture had been sent through the computer to make the lady look the way she does in the picture. I hope she listened to me.

Now here's my thoughts on it all. I'll take them one at a time.

Killing Us Softly 4 by Jean Kilbourne

I love that this woman is speaking out against this issue of portraying women as being prefect and skinny, and using women's bodies as objects to sell products. Photoshop wasn't as common when I was young, and I had no idea that the pictures on magazines weren't just taken and simply put on the cover as is. I would look at the pictures on grocery store magazines and think that I was abnormal, because I had faint stretch marks on my outer thighs from growth spurts. I wondered why I still had cellulite, even though I exercised. And, yes, Jean Kilbourne comments that the ladies in pictures have no pores - I thought my pores were huge and wondered what these models used to get their skin to be so perfect.

I remember the first time I saw a before/after picture of a model. The lady in the finished picture looked nothing like the lady coming in to get her picture taken. The computer specialists shaved off fat, smoothed wrinkles, deleted bags under her eyes, even changed the color and brightness of her skin and hair. I discovered this picture a little after Alyssa was born (when my body was baggy and stretch-marked) and I remember how shocked and relieved and empowered I was to have that information.

I have since come across a couple of websites that show real pictures of naked women. I know it sounds bad - "I've looked at websites that show pictures of naked women" - but the purpose of these websites is to show teenage girls what real women look like. I applaud the people who run these websites. I think they need to be used with extreme caution(?) I don't know what word I'm looking for, exactly. They need to be used with sober judgement, but I do think that these websites have their place, and I'm sure they've fulfilled their purpose of helping teens and women feel better about their bodies.

Makeover? from NaDell's Blog

Okay, if you don't have the time to skip over to NaDell's blog to read her post, I'll sum it up for you. She was talking to someone who is not LDS, who used to have LDS friends that let her in on a little secret of how Mormon moms always looks like they "have it together." The secret that was shared is that these moms use plastic surgery to shape their bodies after having babies.

I guess my gripe with the whole thing is not the plastic surgery bit, because, really, it's their body, they can do what they want with it, and it's not my place to judge. And I know that my information is coming from a third party, so who knows how much this lady fudged on details while talking with NaDell or how much of NaDell's opinions that I'm mixing in with the actual story while I'm remembering it. My gripe is that if people actually do this, and go around toting it like it's the Mormon Mommy Secret to Happiness, it makes me mad.

Anyway, here's what I commented on NaDell's post, a little bit edited.

"Wow. Really - wow. I didn't even know we are like this. It makes me very sad that someone took a missionary opportunity to share something so shallow. What about "Mormon moms are happy because they have Family Home Evening" or something like that? That is very sad.

I'm kinda on the fence about plastic surgery. I do agree with Kori that sometimes it can be beneficial, and in some cases even necessary, but obviously that's something that is hard to judge (and not our place to judge). On the other side: my skin does not stretch AT ALL and I have tons of stretch marks and loose skin from being pregnant. I would love the magic that a tummy tuck would do to that. But does that mean I'll ever get a tummy tuck? No. My body is the way it is, because I've had children. My body is the way it is, because of the lifestyle I chose, meaning I CHOSE to be a mom, and the body I've got is just part of the package deal. I want to teach my daughters to love their bodies despite imperfection, and how could I do that if I don't accept the body that I have?

I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to improve your body by eating healthy and exercising, but that should be with focusing on living a healthy lifestyle and having a healthy body, not with how good you look. And definitely not changing your body in a competition to be better than others.

Nice post, NaDell! You really got me thinking."

Right now I'm counting calories and trying to eat healthier and exercising to lose the pregnancy fat that's accumulated over the years. I'm trying to do it in a healthy way, because I want Alyssa to see me making wise choices about what I eat to lose weight and be healthy. I wouldn't want my daughters to see me starving myself to be skinny, and I definitely wouldn't want to teach my daughters that if you're unhappy with the way you look, then a trip to the surgery room will make everything better.

I also realize that my body is never going to look the way it did before having children. I have wider hips, a thicker waist in general, loose skin, and I even have that bump of loose skin hanging over my c-section scar that will no never away, no matter how skinny I ever get. And I'm okay with that.

One of my favorite things about going to the Great wolf Lodge water park last month was that while we were there, the place was mostly filled with families with young children, and all the moms and dads running around cared more about having fun with their kids than looking good in their bathing suits. There was cellulite galore in that place, and nobody cared. We all had the attitude of, "This is my body. I have to put it in a swimsuit to have fun here. I may not look good in a swimsuit, but I'm doing it anyway, because I'm going to have a blast!"

Princess Religion by Emily Fox

I really think Emily is onto something here. From what I've read the art exhibit is focusing on the ideal that princesses create of what it takes to live a successful life, i.e. be beautiful, get the guy, live in a "castle", etc. And I think it also ties in to one of the points that Jean Kilbourne is trying to make about physical appearances being the key to our happiness.

Have you ever noticed that when Ariel sits down, her stomach doesn't scrunch up and get thicker? I used to think that that was normal. I know, me taking a drawn cartoon character and setting her as the epitome of "normal." I don't think the logic center of my brain had kicked in yet. And because I had set that standard as being normal, I thought I was fat. And then a little later I was at a slumber party saying, (and you have to say this in your head with a nerdy voice, 'cause it makes it more fun) "When I sit down, my stomach fat scrunches up. I'm so huge!" and my good friend Bridget responded with something like, "Oh my gosh, Carrie, everyone's does!" (And for those of you who know Bridget, do that in her exasperated, how could you be so silly voice, and it will make it that much better.) So that's when I realized that Ariel was not the body type I should be striving for.

But I don't think Emily is just talking about physical appearances. I think she's also trying to make a point about the ideal that the only way to live a happy life is by finding your prince and living happily ever after. Well, whether that's what she means or not, that's something I took away from her pictures. I know several women who have said, in essence, "I wouldn't change who I married, I wouldn't trade my children for anything, but if I could go back in time and just push that wedding date back a couple of years, I would," and I feel the same way. I wouldn't trade Brian or the kids for anything, but I wish I would have taken better advantage of the opportunities available to me before I got married. I wish I would have gone overseas to teach children English. I wish I would have gone on a mission. I wish I would have concentrated harder on graduating from college. I wish I would have done a lot of things, but the mission is a big one.

Sometimes I envy my friend Katie. She found Prince Charming and told him, "I've always wanted to serve a mission, so you'll have to wait for me." She probably said it a lot nicer than that, though. And that's what happened: she went to Spain, he waited, and after she got home, they got married. And the really cool part is that she continued to go to school, got her Masters, and studied Chinese so that she could teach it to her children.

So even though I'm happy with my life, and I know that just because I'm married with kids it doesn't mean I can't stop learning and growing and experiencing, sometimes I wish I could just go back and change things, just a little. I want to go back and make myself more content with my physical appearance - to be less concerned with what is or isn't normal, and to be happy with my body. I want to go back and really take advantage of being young - trying new things, and learning new things.

But since I can't go back, I want to make sure that I spend the rest of my life not comparing myself to others, being happy with who I am, and pushing myself to try and learn new things. And most importantly, I want my children to know that what they look like on the outside doesn't equal their worth on the inside and that they can be happy with who they are, even if they don't match up to the ideal.

5 Years on December 5th

2011-12-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to Carrie's Burden.
Happy birthday to Carrie's Burden
Happy Birthday to Carrie's Burden.
Happy birthday to you! Cha -cha-cha

Ethan always adds the cha-cha's when we're singing the birthday song. In fact, I don't think he sings any other part of the birthday song. He just waits with a smile on his face for the correct part to insert his cha-cha's into.

I can't believe I've been blogging for five years! It sure doesn't feel like five years, but I guess it has to be, because my archive list on the side bar is getting pretty long. I remember sitting at the computer, reading Brooke's blog (the first blog I had ever seen) and thinking, "I want to do that, but can I do it as cool as Brooke does?" Hopefully somewhere in all my 522 posts, I've at least come a little bit close to Brooke's coolness.

I have to say that even though I was scared to start posting - scared what people would think of what I had to say, scared that people might not even care that I had anything to say - I am so glad that I started this blog. So glad. I love looking back on previous posts to see what we were up to a week or a month or a year ago. It may be vain, but I love reading my own blog! I love looking at the pictures of my kids, reading about my trials, and especially reading about my blessings.

One of my first posts was about singing Christmas carols around the Christmas tree. Ethan was a baby, and he sat on my lap, and Alyssa sat beside us while we sang. Alyssa was still little, so I did most of the singing.

This year, Alyssa sings louder than I do, and I think she knows the words to some of the songs better than I do. Ethan joins in on the chorus - Jingle Bells seems to be his favorite. We've added Marcus to the mix, but he hasn't sat still for very long while we've sung. We've also added Rebecca, who loves every minute of it, and Brian isn't busy studying anymore, so he joins us more often, too. I love it.

I think one of my favorite things about blogging is how it helps me remember all those little snippets of time. If I hadn't written it down, I probably would have forgotten sitting on the wooden floor of our little house on Hawthorne Street, singing carols with my babies. I don't want to forget these moments, and hopefully this blog will help me to remember all the special times that are still ahead of us.

So This is Why the Cashier Gave Me Such a Strange Look

2011-12-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

So last night Becca and I went grocery shopping at Winco while Alyssa was at ballet. We bought chicken, some stocking stuffers, some stuff for having friends over for dinner on Saturday, and pepperoni and sausage for homemade pizzas sometime soon. Rebecca got tired of being in her car seat, so I was holding her while loading the groceries onto the conveyer belt. The cashier lady was very nice, and we talked about babies and Christmas.

Just as I was paying for everything, Brian called. I moved our cart through the lane, answered the phone, and heard Brian say, "Are you going to Target tonight?" This made me remember that I forgot to buy Hershey Kisses for our Kissmas tree, and I gasped, "Oh no! The Hershey Kisses!"

I grabbed the cart, with my cell phone balanced between my shoulder and ear, still holding Rebecca, and maneuvered around and through the next lane over, heading for the candy isle. I crossed the entire store, talking to Brian, looking for Hershey Kisses, when I let out another very loud, "Oh no!"

I had left my groceries back at the checkout stand. This is when I put Becca back in her car seat, hung up with Brian, then dashed back to the checkout stand, where a couple of workers were already bagging my groceries.

"I am so sorry," I said. "I don't even know what I was thinking." The lady bagging her groceries across from me chuckled, and she seemed to be the only one amused by the whole thing. All the workers seemed to be, well, shocked and confused. I really through them for a loop.

edited to add: And I think I left the Hershey Kisses at Winco, because I can't find them anywhere.
edited again to add: I did. I had to go back for them.

Cloth Diapering Carrie's Way

2011-11-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Holy cow - I am such a mom. Using words like "poop" in every day conversations. Reader beware: this is long, probably boring, and discusses poop.

Okay, there's really nothing special about the way I use cloth diapers. I'm sure it's not much different than other moms out there. I mean, most of what I do is from things I learned from other moms on the Internet. But I guess I just want to share how much I love cloth diapering and write down our routines, which will help me know what information to give my little sister when I pass the diapers down to her someday (if she wants them, of course).

First off, we use Bumgenius diapers. I used 3.0's with the boys, and now I have Becca in both 3.0's and 4.0's one-size. I was perfectly happy with the 3.0's for the boys, but now I'm finding that I actually prefer the 4.0's. I like how the stuffing comes out so they dry faster and fluffier. I also like how they come with snaps instead of Velcro. (I removed the Velcro and added my own snaps on the boys' diapers. which was a lot of work.) Once the boys were old enough, it was really easy for them to figure out how to take the Velcro diapers off, plus the Velcro started to fray in the wash after a while.

For newborns, you're supposed to fold a flannel wipe in half to help liquids absorb faster so they don't leak. We did that for a while, but for some reason we stopped. I think it might have been that I didn't make enough wipes to last until wash day, so I would run out too soon. So I haven't found the time to make more wipes, plus I'd like to have a better coverage now that she'll be starting solids in a month or two, so I went ahead and ordered some of the Bumgenius liners, and they're on their way to us now. Liners are also good for collecting poop when the baby is on solids. See, you can put breastfed poop straight in the wash machine without rinsing the diaper, but once you have "real" poop, you need to rinse it in the toilet before putting the diaper in the laundry. When you have a liner, you only need to rinse it instead of the whole diaper, which is much easier.

I never used special laundry detergent on the boys when they were in diapers, which is probably why I had problems. I did look up which "normal" detergents you can use on cloth diapers, but the boys kept getting rashes with whatever I tried, so I ended up just using bleach on them, which, broke down the waterproof layer on the diapers. I had to throw them away and buy a whole new set after about a year of using them. Not the cheapest way to diaper, I can tell you that. So this time I did a little bit smarter research, and we now use Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda for both our diapers and our normal laundry. I buy it from cottonbabies.com, because they ship laundry detergent for free. I love how Nellie's gets things clean, and it doesn't leave a detergent smell on our clothes. Plus, Rebecca doesn't get any rashes from it, and I don't have to use bleach. I do, though, use 1/4 cup of bleach once a month to rinse away any ammonia build-up, which is recommended by Bumgenius.

I wash a load of diapers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, doing the 1/4 cup of bleach on the first Monday of every month, because there's a bigger build-up of dirty diapers over the weekend. Speaking of which, I really don't know how many diapers I do each load. We have 12 of the 4.0's (bought during a buy 5, get one free sale) and about 10 3.0's, and we always have some left on Mondays. I do a hot/cold rinse on the diapers, then add the detergent and do a regular hot/cold cycle. A lot of moms do a rinse cycle after that, but I've found that we're doing just fine without it, so then I put them in the dryer, and then when they're done I turn the 3.0's inside out and hang them to finish drying, and fold the 4.0's and put them away. Okay, to be honest, about 40% of the time the diapers just stay in the laundry basket until they're needed, but I do try to get them hung up or put away most of the time.

Oh, back to the wipes. When we started cloth diapering the boys, I bought all sorts of wipes, trying to get the best and the softest. We tried bamboo wipes, velour wipes, and flannel wipes, and I can honestly say that I like flannel the best. I also prefer to make my own, not just because it's cheaper, but I like to make them nice and big.

And last topic: stuffing. Bumgenius 3.0's are designed extremely similar to a disposable diaper. It has its stuffing sewn in, so you can use it just like a disposable, but it also has a pocket that you can add extra stuffing to for more protection. The 4.0's are just a pocket diaper - basically a shell with a pocket that you stuff the fluff into, which is one of the reasons they dry faster. You pull the fluff out of the diaper before putting it into the wash. Right now for normal diapers, I put in just one stuffing, but for overnight, I add in a newborn insert along with the stuffing.

So there you go. A very long post on cloth diapering stuff you never thought you wanted to know. Congratulations if you made it this far - I know I wouldn't have before I started to use cloth. You know, I never thought I would use cloth, but now that I do, I absolutely love it. I love not having to run to the store when we're getting low on diapers, and I really do love the feel of cloth on my babies.

Please Excuse Me While I Get Caught Up

2011-11-17T09:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, now I need to remember all those things I wanted to blog about. We left off with Halloween...

After Halloween we had a Do Nothing Day on Saturday. With Alyssa in ballet and soccer, and Brian making Elder's Quorum visits on Tuesdays, we had no evenings or Saturdays that weren't completely busy. So back in the beginning of October I looked ahead on our calendar and booked November 5th to be a Do Nothing Day. We promised not to schedule anything on this day, and we didn't, but I had to stop myself sometimes from planning things to do at home. I kept thinking, "Oh, it would be so fun to make this on Do Nothing Day," or "We could starting painting this room on Do Nothing Day," or "The kids would love to do this craft on Do Nothing Day." And then I would have to stop and think about what those three sentences had in common: Do Nothing Day. And that means do nothing. And we did. It was so great! The kids watched Netflix all day. Brian lay in bed and played games on his laptop. I tried to take a nap with Rebecca, but I couldn't fall asleep, so instead I started to tell myself a story.

See, I'm one of those people who hit the pillow at night and is asleep within seconds, but the times I can't go to sleep I start telling myself a story and by the time I have the setting figured out, I'm snoring. But on our do nothing Saturday I could just not get to sleep. So instead I kept going with my story, and then because Rebecca was laying on my chest, I started dictating ideas to Brian so I wouldn't forget them. I'm saving those papers, by the way, because they are hilarious.

example: (Brian's notes)
1. Bad Guy -we'll call him "George" - not a monkey
2. Small Kingdom A. "Special" princess - "great personality"
5. Large Kingdom A. Land dying - needs Captain Planet!

Those are just a couple of little examples. A lot of it is not politically correct, so I'm leaving it out. So anyway. Long story, short - I am now writing a book. I've thought about it many times through the years, but never got serious about it. Now that I have an idea, I'm going with it. And I'm going to be serious about it. My goal is to have it ready to turn in to publishers by 2013. I've got the story line all mapped out, and now I'm just ready to start drafting. Oh, and Alyssa was there when I was telling the story to Brian, and on the next Monday she came home from school with a note card that she had written the "5 Steps to Writing" on to help me out. I'm keeping that, too.

Next thing to talk about: Marcus' birthday. Marcus was excited to have a birthday. He was excited for his birthday, but he didn't want to be four. He wanted to stay three. I don't know why. Now that he is four, he's fine with it, but he did not want it to happen before it happened.

I just put this picture up and asked Marcus, "Who's that?" With no hesitation he answered, "Batman."

His birthday was on a Sunday, which made it perfect to have all the family over for his party. We had a Batman party for him, because he loves everything Batman. He's never seen a movie or an episode, but this boy loves Batman. We had chocolate waffles with ice cream and chocolate syrup, and we had a coloring contest to keep all the cousins busy. We had a picture of Regular Batman for them to color, a picture of Lego Batman, and a picture of Simba from the Lion King, because it went by on Google Search and Marcus liked it. Then we had Marcus judge them and the winners got a piece of Halloween candy from our stash. We were going to have my brother come in his super cool Batman Halloween costume (pictured below) but he said it's coming apart in a couple of places and needs some work before he wears it again. Luckily, Marcus forgot that Batman was invited to his party, and he had a great time.

After Marcus' birthday, we took a short vacation to Great Wolf Lodge Waterpark in Grand Mound, Washington. Brian needed to take some time off, so we used our credit card reward points to get some extra family time together. We headed over on a Wednesday. It was a beautiful drive - about 5 hours. Rebecca slept almost the whole way, Alyssa read and listened to music, the boys also slept, Brian drove, and I worked on my book. (That's when I finished mapping out the story line.)

As close as I could get to a picture with all the kids together.

This is what Rebecca did most of the time. That's Brian's chest hair - not mine.

Sorry it's sideways. Blogger has a mind of it's own.

The Jacks version of Where's Waldo. Find Brian and the boys.

Alyssa and her friend Elizabeth.

We had a great time. Even Rebecca was happy, because at first we put her in a life jacket and she spent a few hours with something constantly by her mouth to chew on. The boys weren't big enough to go on the big slides, but Brian and I took turns going on them with Alyssa. Alyssa made friends with a couple of girls, the boys loved the wave pool and the slides for their size, and I enjoyed my favorite thing about family vacations: watching my kids have fun.

Does everyone else take this many pictures of their babies sleeping? I just think she's so precious! And look at those eye lashes - one of the many reasons I'm glad I married Brian. All of our kids have his beautiful long eyelashes.

Next we headed up Seattle way to visit the Sumsions. While there we went to Fort Worden to walk through an old (built in the 1800's) battle artillery, watched Dual Survival (we're now hooked), ate aebleskivers (guess what kind of pan we're getting for Christmas) and yummy German food at a Europub, and bought Brian a couple of suits at a Veteran's Day sale. We love hanging out with the Sumsions, and we're so glad they let us join them for a couple of days.

Marcus and I enjoyed the echoes.

braving the rain

Oh, Marcus scared Nelsa and I when he climbed up here. It was wet and slippery, and he ran down the slope when we asked him to get down. What you don't see in this picture is just at the bottom of the slope, on the left, it drops off completely. We were sure he'd fall right off.

So far November has been pretty fun. Right now Ethan is home from school, because Kindergartners don't have school during parent-teacher conference week. My mom is over playing Monopoly Junior with the boys as I type. We're going to an Eric Herman concert on Friday with all of the cousins. Then, of course, we have Thanksgiving vacation. I'm looking forward to that!

Becca's Motto: I Can Eat That

2011-11-15T16:29:00.000-08:00

Every time something comes within eight inches of Rebecca's face, she lunges for it with her mouth wide open as if to say, "I can eat that!" And she does. She chews on everything!

See? She came this close to eating the camera.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Carving pumpkins last week

The crew, right before heading out to trick-or-treat

The back side

Remember how Brian and I had this plan for all of us to be Phineas and Ferb characters? Alyssa was totally on board, but the boys were not, and even though we tried, we couldn't convince them to be Ferb and Phineas.

Alyssa started out as an Egyptian girl, then an Egyptian princess, but when she went to a Halloween birthday party, everyone called her "Cleopatra." She came home, looking a little disappointed, told me what happened, and said, "I think I want to change what I want to be for Halloween."

"Oh, no you don't," I thought. "I worked hard on that costume. I'm not making another one."

"I'm going to change my costume to Cleopatra!" she said. Yea! I was happy about that one. It turns out that there was only one other girl at the birthday party, which is why she came home disappointing.

Ethan wanted to be Super Dog, and the best part about it is that he had an absolute idea in his head of what Super Dog looks like, and he told me what he wanted. I thought it would be fun to put a bone and an "S.D." on the back of his cape, but no - Super Dog doesn't have that on his cape. Ethan said Super Dog's cape had stripes - green stripes. I thought it would be fun to make him a collar with an I.D. tag, but Super Dog doesn't have a collar, because, "he doesn't have an owner." Duh! Before I made his costume, I asked Ethan where he learned about Super Dog, and I wasn't getting any straight answers. I had already Googled it, but the Super Dog I was finding wasn't matching up to what Ethan was describing.

"Is he from a movie or cartoon?" I asked.

"No," Ethan said. "He's real."

"Where did you see him?"

"On a cloud," he said. Okay. So I followed his instructions, and he ended up pretty happy with the end product.

Marcus kept going back and forth and all around with what he wanted to be. Batman. A cheetah. Batman. Baby dog. I don't know what else. At first when I showed him the rocket man idea, he liked it, but then he kept changing his mind, so I asked if I could surprise him, and he was excited about that. Rocket man it was, then. He didn't like his costume at first, but once the other two kids started putting theirs on, he put on his jetpack, and ran around the room making rocket noises.

Here's a closeup of his shirt. How could he not like this shirt? The moon has crators! I, myself, am quite proud of this shirt.

Our tribute to Phineas and Ferb

I was talking to my mom on the phone a couple weeks ago, trying to figure out what I could be to go along with Brian's Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Becca's Perry the Platypus. I originally wanted to be Vanessa, Brian wanted me to be Lindonna. I was stuck. Then I thought of my brother Philip. When Philip was in high school he made a huge R2D2 costume that he actually got inside, sat on a tricycle, and rode around the church parking lot for trunk-or-treat. A few weeks ago he was making a Tardis (?) costume out of an old refrigerator box to go along with Erin's Dr. Who costume. I thought of this, gave a loud laugh, and said, "If I was Phil, I would make myself an Inator!" But then I thought, "Why not?" I didn't do my costume nearly as cool as Philip would have - it's just a cheap sweatshirt that says, "-inator" on it, but at least I was something. And the sweatpants I got with it are really comfy.

Another shot of Becca the Platypus, because she's so stinkin' cute!

Our jack-o-lanterns. It's hard to see the kids standing by their pumpkins, but it goes (left to right) Ethan, Alyssa, Marcus. Ethan and Alyssa carved theirs all by themselves. Ethan even wouldn't let us look at his until it was all finished. I love how it turned out! Marcus designed his, and I carved it.

Enjoying our spoils after trick-or-treating while watching Disney's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Dr. Brian Wants Everyone to be Safe this Halloween

2011-10-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

The Baby Says, "What?!?"

2011-10-28T07:45:00.000-07:00

Rebecca and I have been playing a game this morning that we've been calling, "The Baby Says." Basically, I say, "The baby says some crazy random thing" and Rebecca smiles and laughs. It's a fun game. So far the baby has said, among other things, "I've got a bellyfull, I've got a bellyfull, I've got a bellyfull of jelly!"

and

"I've got a bellyfull of milk! Ooh, chocolate milk!"

and

"I love it!"

and when I got my phone camera out...

"Whatchyou doin' Mama?"

I don't tell you these things to demonstrate how incredibly funny I am, especially since now that they're written down, they don't seem funny at all. But they sure are fun to say when you have a sweet little thing sitting on your pillow, just smiling and laughing at you. She really does have a great sense of humor, or at least she thinks she does, because the baby says, "I'm so funny!"

edited to add: I just discovered that the baby loves doing the Macarena.

Who Done It?

2011-10-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Brian and I held a Murder Mystery party, which we've been trying to do since we moved in over a year and a half ago! We finally were able to get enough people together at one time, and it was so fun! We did one called "Way Out West" from Freeform Games. (I think I've mentioned before that they're the absolute best Murder Mystery company we've used.

This is the closest we came to a "group shot." it's just as everyone was arriving and introducing themselves to each other.

The Judge

Willie and Nathan

Andrea's husband, Barlow, won the award for best acting, probably because he was the deputy sheriff and he was doing a great job of arresting and interrogating people, but I think Andrea should have won. There were a couple of times that I would look at her, and she just looked upset, and I thought, "Oh, no! She's not having fun." but then when I would start walking over to her, I would hear that she was complaining about something or someone and was perfectly in character. Andrea won best costume, though. She's in the peach dress.

Poor Jodie got shot, and she's unconscious on the floor.

I think Matt got shot at the most during the night. Everyone seemed to be against him.

Karrie got put in jail, but I'm not sure why. As you can see, we allowed cupcake eating in jail. Those were good cupcakes.

I'm sorry some of the pictures are blurry. I think the settings on our camera have been set funny for quite a while, but I don't know how to fix it. Oh well. We're glad to finally get some people together so we can make more friends in our ward. We had a great time!

Nursery: Complete

2011-10-23T23:13:00.000-07:00

We actually have a room in our house that is done! And we actually have a nursery - yea! I thought briefly while I was pregnant about having Alyssa and Rebecca end up sharing a room, but by the time Rebecca will be ready for that, Alyssa will have a ton of stuff that she will get into, and then Alyssa will get mad, and they'll get into fights, and end up not liking each other... So since we knew Rebecca would need a room eventually, we gave her one right away.

I'm using it more than I thought that I would. Rebecca spent the first third of her life (she's three months, so one month - you get the math) sleeping in either a bassinet by our bed, in a baby hammock that we made, or in bed with us. But I also tried to get her to take naps in the crib in her room sometimes, and now that she's older it's where she always naps, and she also starts the night in her crib, then moves into bed with me halfway through the night.

Anyway, it's nice that I have a place to put her down where I know she won't be trampled on by either Sadie or Marcus, and it's nice to have a definite place to change her diapers. We've done changing-whever-it's-convenient-at-the-time before, and I like this much better. I'm so in love with our house, and I feel so lucky to have been able to find it when we did. Even after living here for a year and a half, I still do little dances sometimes and sing, "Oh, I love my house, I love my house."

So here is Rebecca's room:

This is the picture that greets you at the door. All of the artwork is done by my talented niece, Megan. I told her I wanted cute pictures of girls playing in the woods, and I love how they all turned out. She's been so excited to do these pictures, especially because now she is a professional artist.

This one is my favorite.

Here's the crib we're borrowing from my parents. Did I sleep in this crib, Mom? I know at least my little sister did, and multiple grand kids. I know, it's not to code anymore, but it's sturdy, and I feel that it's safe.

I should have taken a closer picture of the mobile. Here's a cropped close-up from the last picture. Alyssa and I made the mobile together. I sewed the bird, butterfly, and mushroom, and she sewed all the pink hearts. We did it a little before I had Rebecca, and it was so fun to work together on it. And now I love looking at it knowing that Alyssa and I made it together. And actually, looking at the picture, I'm sure that Alyssa will appreciate the fact that the shadow from the hoop looks like a heart; she likes things like that.

I originally planned on painting the mirror ivory to match the dresser, but I never did, because I kind of like it blue.

Here's a close up of Rebecca's blessing dress and one of the pictures.

The rocking chair. Brian gave me this chair for my birthday just after I had Ethan. I needed to have my gall bladder removed, and it was hard for me to nurse Ethan, so Brian went to Goodwill and brought home the chair so I would have a comfortable place to nurse. I don't think the cat realizes that this is my chair. It's one of her favorite places to sleep, and there's white fluff all over the seat.

And here's the diaper changing station, with the pail completely full of diapers. Tomorrow's a diaper laundry day.

I love how Rebecca's room turned out. Before she was born, I told my mom that if the baby ended up surprising us by being a boy, that I would still keep the room pink for a while, because it just makes me happy to be in there. And now it feels good to have it be officially done.

Just Some Rambling

2011-10-17T15:59:00.000-07:00

For some reason I thought that after Alyssa started going to school that I would have gobs of free time. There were so many times when I was homeschooling that I would jealously think of all the moms who sent their children to school each day and how they must have so much time to do whatever they want. Now I know that those moms are busy, too. Just a different busy.

I think I was actually better at keeping up with the household chores when we home schooled, because I had to keep up. Right now I'm jumping from project to project in the house, and I'm neglecting the laundry and dishes. Oooh, especially the dishes. There have been so many nights where we've had to run off somewhere after dinner, and we ended up leaving dirty dishes on the table, the counters, and in the sink. It's been crazy. There have also been a lot of nights that Brian hasn't been able to join us for dinner, because of the activities we have to get Alyssa to in the evenings. Basically, I made dinner for me and the kids, then Brian would come home as Alyssa and I were finishing up and just about to head out the door. When I put Alyssa into ballet and soccer, I made a promise to myself that we would not lose eating dinner as a family, and I didn't like that that's where we were.

Last week I figured out our schedule such that we can have a good dinner together again each night. It does mean that we're eating dinner at 7:30 some nights, but it has been so wonderful to not feel rushed as we eat and to be able to enjoy each other's company. Eating that late is also not a huge deal, because Alyssa get's home from school just after 4:00, and the kids usually get a snack then. Crazy, huh? It's 3:49 pm, and she just barely got out of school.

School is going really well for her, by the way. She's made some good friends, and she's doing a great job of getting her work and home work done.

Okay, so I think it's time to end this post. I didn't really know what to write about when I sat down, anyway. I just know that I need to get in the habit of writing again, so I don't lose all the memories we're creating now. But right now is not the time to do that. I have two little boys who are begging to do this and that, and especially begging to eat, and they're not leaving me alone. But real quick - here is the one thing that I wanted to make sure to put in the post:

Wow, it get's blurry when you make it extra large. Don't worry, I'm just mid-project. I'll make sure to take a picture with the real camera when it's done. I just had to take a picture so that when I take the frames down to paint them, I'll remember what order to put them back up in. And, of course, I'm sharing the picture with you, even with all it's blurriness, because I am excited.

From the Same Cookie Cutter

2011-10-05T07:06:00.000-07:00

Last week I was looking at pictures of Alyssa when she was a baby while Rebecca was asleep on my lap. I found a picture of a sleeping Alyssa when she was about two months old, then looked down, and saw almost the exact same baby in my arms. Alyssa had a bit more "Brian" in her, and they do look a little different, but the face shape and their little noses - you can definitely tell that they're sisters.

Rebecca is a wonderful baby. She's another of our I'm-so-happy-to-be-here babies, especially in the morning. She woke me up around 6:30 this morning and gave me a huge smile. She basically spends the first hour of each day just smiling and laughing, which is a great way to start the day. She's putting herself on a 9:00 and 1:00 nap schedule, with more sleeping in the evening, because she's still little, and when she's not sleeping she's happy to just be with us. She does not like a wet or dirty diaper. That's really the only time she complains - is when she wants to be changed. She is strong! Everyone comments on how strong and alert she is, but all of our babies have been that way. I have trouble holding other people's young babies, because I'm not used to holding the head so much or supporting them against my shoulder. At Rebecca's two month doctor appointment the doctor said that she had the strength and was at the physical level of a four month old.

Yesterday I was on the phone with my younger sister, who is just getting ready to start the pregnancy and kids stage of life. We were talking about Hyperemesis Gravidarum, and how it will be harder for her if she gets sick, because of her diabetes. I looked down at Rebecca, who was looking back up at me and smiling, and I said, "Kim, no matter how hard it ends up getting, just know that it is so worth it." Because she definitely is.

I Love My (Mom's) Silhouette

2011-09-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Last year my mom bought a Silhouette cutting machine, and it's taken us all this long to get enough time to experiment and learn how to use it. She's letting me borrow it for a bit, so the boys and I had fun decorating their walls this afternoon.

The boys have cars (Ethan's bed) and rockets (Marcus's bed) in their room, so my original plan was to put "Oh the Places You'll Go" type of quote on the wall, but I was having trouble picking which part of the book to use, so I asked Marcus what he wanted his wall to say. He replied, "Um, a rocket ship," and that's when I let him take over.

We Googled rocket ship pictures, and that's where we got the rocket ship on the left. The one on the right we designed and created ourselves. When it was time to put things on the wall, Marcus told me where to place them, and we stuck them on together. The only place I deviated from his plan was that wanted the words to say, "Lightning." I thought, "...to infinity and beyond!" went better with the rockets, and I figured that the kids can't read yet, so it shouldn't bother him. If he could read I would have totally put up, "Lightning."

Them when we were walking Ethan home from school we asked what he wanted on his wall and said that he wanted a dinosaur with a "bubble that says, 'Roar!'" Finding a good dinosaur picture was hard! He wanted a T-rex, but none of those were working, so we went with an alisaurus.

We made the volcano and the palm trees on our own. I think the clouds just make the volcano.

It's funny that the little pictures don't look as big in the photos as they do in real life. When you walk in the room, you see a large, cohesive scene - much better than in the pictures. Oh, and Marcus' mattress is on the floor, because he still rolls out of bed. I actually put his big rocket ship pillow beside his bed each night, because he usually rolls to the floor, and at least that helps him to have something soft for his head. Next up, I'd like to do up their names to put at the head of their beds. I'm excited for Alyssa to come home, because I can't wait to see what she comes up with for her wall!

School Bag in Hand, She Leaves Home in the Early Morning

2011-09-26T22:58:00.000-07:00

Last week we made some serious decisions and some big changes. On Monday I took Ethan to school, got Alyssa started on her school work, cleaned up after breakfast, and started laundry. Alyssa wanted me to sit down beside her and walk her through her math work, and she was literally throwing a fit every time I told her to give it a try and ask me for specific help if she needed it. Rebecca wasn't getting rocked to sleep sufficiently to stay asleep when I set her down. Marcus wanted to watch something on Netflix and was upset when I said no. The laundry...well, the laundry needed to be switched to the dryer, then hung up, and a new load needed to be put in, and this needed to happen a couple of times, because it was a big laundry day.

I was upset with Alyssa, because I tried last year to wean her off of having me sit beside her saying, "Okay, what's the next step of the problem? And what do we do now?" I told her that now she's a third grader, and she needed to start doing more work on her own. She knew how to do the work - she just didn't want to do it unless I was sitting beside her. I was frustrated that Rebecca wasn't staying asleep, and I was almost falling asleep myself while trying to rock her. I was also frustrated with Marcus, because he's at that stage where he bursts into wailing sobs when he doesn't get his way, and it's quite bothersome. And the laundry...well, I've never really enjoyed doing the laundry.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the dog. (I always call Sadie "Dog" or reference her as "the dog" when I'm upset with her.) We started the morning being woken up by her throwing up a sock. She likes to eat socks - a lot. I've looked it up, and apparently it's a Labrador thing, because a lot of them do it. We've tried to keep the socks put away, but she always manages to down a few. Mostly the boys'. So she threw up a sock early that morning. Brian and I cleaned it up, and we went back to bed for just a few minutes before we had to get up. Then later I fed her breakfast and put her in her kennel so she could hang out with us while we ate our breakfast, and she threw up both her breakfast and another sock. So washing her bedding was added to the laundry routine for the day.

So I spent about 30 minutes trying to manage all of this while thinking, "There's too much going on in our lives right now. Something has to go." At first I thought it was the dog, but it didn't seem fair to make that decision without Brian, plus she really is a good dog, and she's getting better behaved all the time, and it would be sad to give up on her just as she's starting to settle down. Then I thought, "Homeschool. I don't think I can homeschool right now, and maybe it's not the best thing for Alyssa at the moment." And throughout the morning I prayed and told Heavenly Father that I was going to take the steps to put Alyssa in school, and that if it was a wrong decision, please stop me.

I was sad (very sad) when I signed her out of Mid Columbia Partnership, but then when I went to McGee to register her, it felt right. And when I met her teacher I got so excited. Her teacher is wonderful! After talking with her I was so thankful that Alyssa would be in her class, because if there was ever a teacher that was perfect for Alyssa, it must be Mrs. Halverson. She's a happy, bubbly person, who seems to have just enough fun mixed in with the structure and work to make school enjoyable. She also told me that her students were learning to be completely responsible for their own work, which is one of the reasons I'm sending Alyssa to school anyway.

I came home from registering Alyssa all excited, and I told her how much fun she would have. Alyssa whined and moaned and cried. We went in before school on Tuesday so Alyssa could meet Mrs. Halverson and learn about how the class works, then she had all day at home to get used to the idea. She was so excited when Wednesday morning came, and she had a wonderful first day of third grade.

Here's the kids enjoying some popcorn after Alyssa's first day at McGee Elementary School

Now she's riding her scooter to school each morning with Ethan and a group of neighborhood kids. She's doing all the work that's required of her during the day, and when she comes home she gets out her homework folder and starts on that without me having to ask. She's making friends left and right and having a great time.

Over the last week I've enjoyed having that quiet time in the morning when Alyssa and Ethan are at school and Rebecca's taking a nap. So far I've been catching up on the housework that I got behind on while Marcus watches PBS kids. Then I put Marcus and Rebecca in the stroller and we walk to pick up Ethan before lunch. I haven't been any less busy, but my brain has been able to slow down a lot. There's been a couple of times that I've sat down to nurse Rebecca, and I've realized that I wasn't doing anything except sitting and nursing Rebecca. I wasn't trying to figure out how much school work we had left, or trying to work switching and folding the laundry into our lesson schedule, or trying to think of what we need to accomplish today to be ready for our lessons tomorrow. i was just sitting and snuggling with my baby.

I do miss Alyssa a lot, but I can see that she's growing in new ways and expanding her comfort zones, and I really feel that sending her back to school this year has been a good decision.

And in other news:

Rebecca found her thumb.

And Marcus fell asleep while running errands today. I pulled him out of the car and tried waking him up by bribing him with Oreo cookies and having him stand and walk into the house, but he just collapsed on the driveway and fell back to sleep.

How Could I Have Missed This Gem?

2011-09-12T21:36:00.000-07:00

I've been backing up our pictures and getting them ready to turn into photo books, and I came across the cutest picture of Ethan at his third birthday party. I thought, "How could I have not put this on my blog?" but when I checked, it wasn't included in the post.

Oh, and he loved that dinosaur sweatshirt. It was his absolute favorite, and even today when he saw the pictures of him in it, he said, "I really wish I could get that dinosaur shirt again."

Alyssa's First Day Of School

2011-09-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

Isn't she gorgeous?!? One of our rules this year is that we have to do her hair every day, which is something she has never let me do, even when she was a toddler. But we made it four days in a row last week - a lifetime record! Lately when I look at how beautiful she is or how tall she is getting, or watch her take care of Rebecca I think, "Who allowed her to grow up so fast?"

We've been having home school since Ethan started Kindergarten, but today is Alyssa's first day at MCP (Mid-Columbia Partnership). She has been beyond excited. This year she's taking "Type To Learn," "Greek and Roman Mythology," and "P.E." She's also going to participate in Destination Imagination on Thursday afternoons. We opted for a short schedule at MCP this year, because of the FULL schedule she has at home. On top of her core curriculum classes, she has soccer two nights a week and ballet two nights a week. Add to that what I am doing: taking Ethan to and picking him up from school, taking care of Rebecca, keeping up with the laundry and the dishes, etc., and you end up with a pretty full schedule. We're busy, but at least we're not going crazy...yet.

Just after Ethan started Kindergarten Brian and I thought very seriously about sending Alyssa to public school this year. One big reason is that it would make my life a lot easier, but we were also thinking that she might need a few more opportunities to make friends. We thought long and hard - well, actually short and hard, because we had to decide fast - and we came to the conclusion that between MCP, ballet, and soccer, she'll have some good social interaction, and that because of MCP and K12, she has the opportunity for a better education by keeping her at home. My sister gave me some good advice to just take it year by year. I would love to home school the kids for their whole Kindergarten through High School careers, but there may come a time when sending them to public school will be a better opportunity for them. We'll just have to see each year.

And for those of you wondering, because you probably are...Why are we sending Ethan to Kindergarten? There are many reasons, actually. For one, Kindergarten is fun! Kindergarten teaches social and classroom rules. The students learn how to listen to a teacher, how to respect others, how to take care of a classroom, how to be responsible with their homework. So many things! And the biggest one of all: Ethan loves it! It would make me sad to not have him at home, but we might end up sending him to school indefinitely. I guess that's another thing we'll have to think about each year. His personality was made for school. He loves the structure and the work.

Anyway, things are pretty busy over here, but we're enjoying it all - or maybe everything except the laundry...and the dishes.

"Brian, Can you Rock Rebecca While I Tuck The Kids In?"

2011-09-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

I came back to find them both watching "Phineas and Ferb." Her eyes were glued to the screen. Just for reference, they're watching the episode where Phineas and Ferb make a rest stop for Santa and turn all of Danville into a big thank you card. In this picture, they're watching Dr. Doofenshmirtz sing about how he really doesn't hate Christmas.

And speaking of Phineas and Ferb, guess what we're trying to be for Halloween? The boys are the only ones not on board with the idea. Ethan wants to be a t-rex, like he's been for the last two years, and Marcus keeps changing his mind. But so far we've got Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Candace, Vanessa, and Perry the Platapuss. We've just got to convince the main characters.

And Now back To Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging

2011-09-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

Now that summer is over, I really hope to get back in the groove of posting. The kids had the run of the computer during the last three months, and I hardly ever got on. But such is the way of summer.

So to get caught up on all the happenings since my last post, here is a whole slew of pictures:

Rebecca was blessed on August 7th. My mom made her dress, Grandma Harris did the embroidery, and the buttons on the back are from one of my dad's old work shirts. Rebecca is really a happy baby, but she cried through the whole blessing. Brian said twice, "We bless you to be happy."

When all 6 of us kids were here, we headed to Carmichael Hill to go ice blocking. Everyone brought a picnic dinner, and we had a great time.

We also had a cousin talent show.

Alyssa read an excerpt on Cleopatra from one of her books on Ancient Egypt. She is way into Ancient Egypt right now.

Ethan did cartwheelish things.

And Marcus ran around in circles for a few minutes...literally a few minutes. Other performances were: Tegel dancing to the song, "Dynamite," Analiese singing the song "Dynamite" while dancing, multiple cousins acting out the Harry Potter "Mysterious Ticking Noise" skit, Callie telling a story, Marian drawing a picture while telling a story, Kenna and Emma performing a skit, and there were a lot more that I can't remember.

That night Dad set up the projector so we could watch "Rio" in the back yard. Mom, Kim, and I actually sat behind the screen and watched the mirror image of the movie. It didn't make any difference, but when I watched it the next day on the television, it was weird to see things popping up from the "wrong" side of the screen. When the movie was over, the slugs were out, and I apparently brought one home with me on my diaper bag (how does that happen?) because I found a big brown one in the family room the next morning, and we don't have slugs like that by our house.

I think Rebecca looks like either Tweedledee or Tweedledum from Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" in this picture, or maybe the laughing guy from "Mary Poppins." But maybe that's because I think newborns tend to look like bald old men.

I think babies look so precious when they sleep.

If you tilt your head to left you can see that kids like to make sure that Becca is taken care of. Sparkles (the pink dog) belongs to Alyssa, Tally-Dog (the brown) is Ethan's, and Pluto is Marcus's. They're all sharing their toys.

Here is blurry attempt of trying to capture the cuteness of Rebecca in the baby carrier. See how her little hands are balled up? So cute! She does that when she nurses, too. She balls her hands into fists and rests them on her cheeks.

Last weekend this pile of wood...

...turned...

...into...

...a bunch of race cars...

...and a beautiful pergola. We're almost done filling it in with wood putty, then we'll paint it.

Ethan's First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is Ethan, all excited and ready to head to Kindergarten. Please don't ask me why he's sideways. I don't know. Blogger just wants to put him in that way. Ethan was very excited for his first day of kindergarten. He was up and ready at 7:00, asking when it was time to leave. School doesn't start until 9:00! Every time Alyssa would try to give him advice - watch out for bullies, shut the bathroom door when you go, etc. - he would respond with, "I am all about school. My favorite subjects are math and recess." All morning long.

This is Rebecca, all ready to go in the baby carrier. It's really hard to take pictures of her when she's in the baby carrier, but she always looks so cute when I look down at her, so I try. She fell asleep on the walk to school. When we got there, I showed Ethan where his classroom door was, then took him to the playground and had him take me back to the door. He then gave me his backpack and asked if he could go play. He did fine finding his way back then, but apparently on his second day he ended up lining up with a first grade class.

After three days of school, Ethan is still excited to go each day. His teacher seems awesome, and it looks like he's having a great time!

Best Birthday Ever!

2011-08-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Alyssa turned nine yesterday, and boy did we celebrate. German pancake for breakfast, french toast sticks from Jack in the Box for lunch (Really, this was mostly because we ran out of time getting ready for Rebecca's doctors appointment.) , and a barbecue at my parent's for dinner. All of my brothers and sisters are in town this week, so we decided to splurge and rent a bounce house for Alyssa's and Eliza's birthday party. (Cousin Eliza was born on Alyssa's fifth birthday.)

I dropped the kids off at my parent's before going to the doctor, and by the time Becca and I came back the bounce house was set up and the kids were already playing on it. My mom said the guy who brought it said that blowing it up is his favorite part of the job, because the kids are so excited, and he hates having to take it down, because they get so sad.

Everyone had a great time at the party - going back and forth from the swimming pool to the bounce house, eating hot dogs and hamburgers and Grandma's secret stash of cookies kept in the pump house, and laying out in the sun. Before we went to bed last night, Alyssa said it was the best birthday she ever had.

Alyssa is growing up so fast! I can't believe she's already nine. She's still as busy as she's always been - I don't think that's ever going to change. She loves learning about history, especially Egypt and mummies. (She's looking over my shoulder and told me to add the mummy part.) Last week she got out a huge poster board and made a map of an Egyptian pyramid, complete with crocodile pits and other traps. She loves taking care of Rebecca. She holds her any chance she gets. She's not very happy about being in ballet in the Fall, but I like her in ballet, and it counts as a fine arts credit for school. She is excited, though, to continue soccer in the Fall. I think she scored three goals in five games this last season, and she loved playing. One of her favorite things to do is to go out in the backyard and swing and sing while listening to her ipod. It's one of my favorite things to watch, too. She's so cute!

And now, pictures:

After Brian came home from work, he had just as much fun as the kids.

Yes, Callie is mid-bounce.

Eliza chewed out Derek for blowing out one of her candles.

Meet Me At The Levy

2011-08-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went out to Levy Landing with Brian's parents for a picnic. It was Water Follies weekend in the Tri-Cities, so the park was nearly empty. We had yummy brisket sandwiches that Brian's parents brought, but we couldn't eat the jell-o salad and peach pie that we brought, because "someone" forgot to bring plates. It was a lot of fun, though, and I think we all ate our fill...except maybe Ethan, who was too busy playing to eat his sandwich. We brought Sadie, and she loved playing in the water.

Action Shots

2011-08-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Alyssa started soccer through the YMCA this summer, and she loved it. She loved it so much that we've already signed her up for both Fall and Spring sessions through the Tri-Cities Youth Soccer Association. Her team was called the Blue Sharks, and she loved their shirts, because turquoise is her favorite color. It was also fun for her, because all the Pasco teams were full, so we put her on a Richland team, and one of her friends from our old ward was on the team, too. They had a great time!

(Alyssa's the one on the ground.)

This is what the boys thought of Alyssa's soccer games. During the practices I let them play on the playground, but during the games we sat on the sidelines. They both are laying there, moaning, "It's so hot!"

Just Some Pictures

2011-08-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

Becca with Great Grandma Harris (my mom's mom)

Becca with Marcus

Becca with Alyssa

Becca with Ethan

The kids put her balloons by her rocker so she could look at them.

Becca with Great Grandma Orton (Brian's mom's mom)

Becca with Great Aunt Linda (Brian's Dad's sister)

T.M.I.

2011-07-28T20:40:00.000-07:00

I feel I should warn you...but really, isn't every birth story too much information? When you're pregnant, and especially when you're giving birth, all sense of modesty flies out the window. It's almost like your body has become a science experiment for people to study and comment on, and when the time comes for the baby to enter the world, you don't really care who sees what and what they think about it. Then, after things settle down, and you're sitting down to write about this amazing experience of bringing a child into the world, you want to remember everything - even the disgusting details, but it doesn't feel proper to write them down and share them with the world. I apologize. I'm writing them anyway.

Once I hit thirty-seven weeks, I was ready to have the baby. I felt I had done my job, and I was done. I had spent the better part since Thanksgiving feeling like I had the flu. I was still throwing up every morning, and even then, around thirty-eight weeks I tried to go off my anti-nausea medication (because I had run out, and I didn't want to go to the pharmacy) and I ended up throwing up all the time again until I got back on it. I was so tired of feeling sick. I started to go to each doctors appointment hoping that things would be wrong - that my blood pressure would be too high, or that they discovered I had gestational diabetes - anything that would cause the doctor to say, "Let's get you to the hospital and induce you." But instead, he kept saying, "I'd really like you to go into labor naturally." I knew this was best for the baby, which made it a little easier to wait. Plus, the closer I got to my due date, the easier the wait became, because I knew that I was closer to being done. Still, I did all that I could to get labor going.

I spent those last three weeks of my pregnancy cleaning like a mad woman. Partly because I wanted things to be clean for when the baby came, but mostly because I hoped it would put me into labor. I cleaned the house thoroughly, multiple times. I spent a day with Brian cleaning and organizing the garage. I cleaned out the car. I mowed the lawn. When I went to church on my due date, the seventeenth, the bishop's wife said that I could come mow her lawn, but by that time I told her I was done trying to make things happen. Nothing had worked so far, so I was going to wait it out.

On Thursday, the fourteenth, I went in for an exam, and the doctor did a membrane sweep. My mom was watching the kids, so I went back to her house, had dinner, went for a walk, and timed my contractions at six and three minutes apart, back and forth for about an hour. Things felt like they were picking up, so I told my mom that Brian and I would go home and put the kids to bed, then we would most likely give her a call and head to the hospital. We loaded the kids in the car, headed home, and everything stopped.

Friday. Brian had Friday off from work, so we all slept in. Brian's sister was in town visiting from Indiana, and everyone was planning to spend the afternoon at Ice Harbor Dam. I thought walking around the dam and playing in the park would be a perfect way to get contractions going again, and I was excited to go. Brian's mom agreed with my theory, and she was concerned about me going into labor forty-five minutes away from the hospital, so Brian's parents volunteered to take the kids without us. Brian played Star Craft while I took a nap on the living room floor. I contemplated mowing the lawn again, but Brian said not to worry about it. He would do it later. Nothing was happening anyway, and mowing the lawn would probably do nothing to help, so I decided to leave the lawn to him. Instead we went out to lunch, which was nice. We hadn't gone on a date for a while, and it was great having some quiet time as just the two of us. When we made it back home, just as Brian's mom was dropping off the kids, I discovered that I was losing my mucus plug. I came running out of the bathroom exclaiming, "Things are starting to happen. I'm going to mow the lawn!"

Well, it didn't work. This is when I really gave up and decided that the baby was coming when she was ready, and I just needed to be patient. On Saturday I did some laundry and some extra straightening up around the house, and we bought a couch and love seat off of Craigslist for the family room. On Sunday we went to church, and I came home after sacrament meeting to rest. On Monday, things still weren't happening, and I had another doctors appointment. My doctor is in Richland, and Alyssa's soccer practice is in Richland, so I called Brian's mom to see if they could watch the kids, and if we could stay for dinner to be able to get to soccer practice easier. I even finished packing the hospital bag and a bag of clothes for the kids, just in case the doctor finally decided to induce me.

So I went to my appointment, the doctor did another membrane sweep, and said, "That should do it. Hopefully we'll see you tonight." This was at 3:00 in the afternoon. With the first membrane sweep on Thursday, I felt cramps and contractions immediately after. This time, I felt nothing. I headed to Brian's parent's, walked on their treadmill for fifteen minutes. Nothing. I walked around the back yard. Nothing. I thought, "Yeah, right, doctor. I'm not going anywhere tonight."

At just before 4:00 I started feeling cramps that started coming and going. I looked up "how to use a birthing ball" on Google and sat on an exercise ball for a while. This is when things started to hurt. I called my sister, wondering how to tell if I was really having contractions, or if I was just having cramps from the membrane sweep, and if I went to the hospital a day past my due date with just cramps, would they send me home? "Yes," she said, "They probably would." So I got off the phone, bounced and did circles on the exercise ball, and started timing these cramps. They quickly went from eight minutes apart at 4:30 to six minutes apart until 5:00, then five and four until 5:30. Diane fed the kids dinner, and got them all ready to go to Alyssa's soccer practice. At this point, the plan changed from "possibly going to the hospital" to "definitely going to the hospital." At first, Brian was going to stop at home to change out of his work clothes, but I was hurting bad enough that I called him and said, "Come straight here. Things are happening pretty fast, and they hurt!" Brian wondered who would take the dog to her obedience class the next day, and I told him I didn't even care about that and that he needed to get here right now and get me to the hospital!

Brian pulled up shortly after his mom left with the kids. He and his dad gave me a priesthood blessing. I was silly enough to ask Brian if he wanted to eat dinner before we left, and thankfully, he declined. We made the short drive to the hospital, made it to the birthing center, and I was admitted to have the baby. They weren't just cramps after all! From 5:30 to 6:30 they quickly moved from four minutes apart, to three, to two, to one and a half. Brian had my phone and was still timing these contractions while we were waiting for a nurse to come, and once they said I was really in labor, we stopped timing things and asked for an epidural.

Things were happening a lot faster than they did when I had Marcus, and they were also hurting a lot worse. I thought a lot about the pioneer women while we walked to my room, pausing for my contractions, and when I leaned against Brian, hurting like crazy. Those women were amazing! After the nurse hooked me up to the I.V. to get the right fluids in me before I could get the epidural, I lay in the bed and had Brian squeeze my hand. He tried talking to me at first, but I told him that when I start breathing really slow and close my eyes, he needed to not say a thing. I even resorted to saying, "Honey, hush!" a few times. I would honestly love to hear Brian's side of the story, because I'm sure I said some other crazy things during this time that I don't remember.

And then that blessed man came with the epidural. It went in quick and easy, and I seriously contemplated sending the anesthesiologist a gift basket. This is when things settled down. Brian ran to Zips to get himself some dinner, he came back, the doctor broke my water, the nurse had me lay on my right side, then my left side, then I told my nurse that it felt like I had pooped (seriously, it's what it felt like!) and she said it was actually the bloody show. She checked me, claimed I was at a ten, and said that I could start pushing whenever the doctor and I were ready.

So this is the cool part. With Marcus, the epidural had worn off enough that I could feel the contractions just enough to know when to push, but that's all that I felt. This time, I could feel the contractions and know when to push, but I also felt the baby move down through the birth canal and make her way out. After all was said and done, I told the doctor that I felt everything as she was coming out, and he apologized. "No," I said, "It was so cool!" The other really cool thing is that I didn't tear or get an episiotomy. Right in the middle of everything I told my doctor that I really didn't want to be cut, and he said he wouldn't. He said, "That's the point of a non-surgical birth - to not cut."

When Rebecca was born, they pulled her away for a moment to make sure she was doing well, then they immediately put her on my chest. They wanted skin-to-skin contact, so they unsnapped my gown before laying her on me. (See? That whole modesty thing was gone.) Brian was disappointed, because he wanted to take pictures of her, but because of this immodesty, anything he took would be unfit to send to his parents. I held her, and was able to nurse her right away, then after a little while I gave her to Brian so he could meet her. It wasn't until after a couple of hours that they took her to be cleaned up, weighed, and measured.

After everything was calm, we settled down for the night and got what little sleep you can get in a hospital. They were actually going to keep us a second night, because Rebecca was born at 11:30, and she needed certain tests done when she was twenty-four hours old, but both she and I were doing so well that we convinced them to let us go home after these tests were done. So we checked out of the hospital at 11:45 on Tuesday night, headed home to a quiet house, because the kids were still at Brian's parents, and we were able to sleep in our own bed. It was nice to have that little bit of extra time alone (but at home) the next morning to cuddle and get to know Rebecca before the kids came home. It was also nice to be able to get some good rest after an exciting couple of days.

The Newest Little Jacks

2011-07-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Rebecca Lynn Jacks was born at 11:33 pm on Monday, July 18, 2011. Stats were taken when she was a couple hours old, after she cuddled with us for a while. She was 7 pounds, 13 ounces and 20 inches.

Here's a whole ton of pictures from her first day in the outside world. We had a lot of visitors at the hospital. I tried to get pictures of Rebecca with everyone, but I missed getting one with Eric and Philip.

resting with Daddy

Grandpa Jacks

Aunt Claire

Brian's mom and the kids brought us some flowers and balloons. Diane said that Marcus was adamant about putting a blue balloon in the bouquet. I love that blue balloon!

Alyssa - she loves holding Rebecca!

Ethan - he's very curious about everything having to do with Rebecca and asks a lot of questions.

Marcus - he's very concerned with Rebecca's entertainment. He tied the balloons to her car seat so she would have something to look at and he's asked a few times about giving her baby toys.

Grandma Jacks

Brian with all FOUR of our children

Papa Lewis

Me!

cousins Marian, Megan, and Emma

Grandma Roses

big yawn - she's not crying

They're both sleeping

Great Grandma Orton, with Brian's aunt and uncle, Karen and Tracy

She's so pretty!

All ready to go home

June

2011-07-06T09:12:00.000-07:00

There is one person who keeps checking my blog, noticing the lack of updates, and then pestering me endlessly about posting again. This person is my husband. Going to bed at night: "Let's see, has the blog been updated yet? Nope. Still the same..." Yes, it does make me feel a little guilty, especially since I didn't intend to go a month without posting. So here's a summary of the month of June:

Alyssa had her Spring ballet recital. She did fabulous!

The stereo was stolen from our van one night, and the kids and I discovered it when we were headed to the spray park the next afternoon. I called in to report it, and the kids decided to patrol and guard our driveway while we waited for the police to come.

We went to Brian's parent's cabin to go mushrooming. It was wet and rainy, but we had a lot of fun. It was Sadie's first trip to the woods, and she loved it. Everyone found mushrooms, even the boys. Brian seemed to find the most, and the hardest ones to find. I enjoyed mushrooming, but my favorite parts of the trip were the two glorious naps I was able to take. It was wonderful!

[camping pictures go here - soon]

The next weekend we went camping at Mt. Rainier. In past years we've been to Ohanapecosh on the East side of the mountain, but this year we needed a group site, so we went to Cougar Rock on the West side. It's been a cold Spring, so as we drove to our campsite, we passed ten to fifteen foot walls of snow on each side of the road. Brian had the GPS and kept saying that we were getting closer, and I kept thinking, "What did I get ourselves into?!?" Luckily, after driving up the mountain, we drove back down for a bit and the snow disappeared. It wasn't the warmest camping trip we've done, but it was still a lot of fun. And boy, did it rain. It was mostly sunny in the mornings, but from afternoon on, it was like buckets and buckets of rain.

We went with my parents, my two sisters (so the Johnsons and the McCanns), and the Baughs. Our group site was set back away from everyone else, so it was nice and private, and the kids enjoyed running around together. We hiked up to Carter Falls, went to a visitors center and museum, and spent lots of time sitting around the fire.

I haven't taken any pictures since camping. Nothing of the 4th of July - sorry. Brian's sister came in to town last week, and we've been having fun visiting with them, but we're also trying to give everyone in Brian's family a little space, because Brian's dad also had his gall bladder removed last week. I've been spending most of my time cleaning the house and getting everything ready for the baby to come. Eleven more days until my due date! The nausea got pretty bad a couple weeks ago, right about thirty seven weeks, and I was ready to demand an induction, but of course, it was too soon. Now that I'm closer to my due date, the nausea isn't as bad, and I'm trying to wait patiently. Right now I'm just to the point where I'm so dang excited to meet this little one. Not too much longer, though.

The 4th of July was fun. We had a family dinner at Brian's parent's house on the third, then a barbecue at my parent's house on the fourth. We walked down to Gesa Stadium to watch the fireworks. We got there at 9:55, found the perfect spot (don't know why people haven't caught on to it yet), fireworks started at 10:00, and Marcus was asleep by 10:07ish. He did warn us, though. He kept trying to bring his pillow, saying, "I'm going to sleep there." He was right - he must have been one tired kid.

Chef De Cuisine

2011-06-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

Alyssa has recently taken a fancy to cooking. Today for lunch she made soup following her own recipe. The picture isn't a fabulous quality - I snuck up on her and had to take it real fast before she realized what I was doing. I took the picture just after she tested the soup - apparently we need to have a talk about double dipping. Oh, and the huge bag of dog food on the counter...that didn't make it into the soup. A big plastic tub to put dog food in is on our shopping list for today so I can stop pulling it out of the pantry every time we need to feed Sadie.

Alyssa's Secrit Reseipy

1. Creem of chicken.
Croumble Ritz.
Str it. Add Milk and cheese.

What Did Your Amazing Husband Do This Weekend?

2011-05-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

My amazing husband put in the edging stones around the flower bed, added some sprinklers, and laid down a path from the porch to the kids' playground. I keep going to the backyard just to see what a great job he did. See how level and perfect that path is? I love it, and I can't wait until the filler between the stones sets up enough that we can walk on it. I might look for excuses to walk to the playground. Up next: putting down the ground cover, planting a snowball bush, some lavender, and tomatoes, then covering it all with mulch.

Progress Report

2011-05-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Fence - Done! It is absolutely finished! It's so nice to let Sadie outside without worrying about her running off, and to let the kids play, knowing they're contained as well. We still have some clean up to do: resetting the sprinklers, filling in the gaps by the mow strip, etc., but it is just so wonderful to finally have a fence.

Homeschool - Alyssa is done with Math, Science, and History. We have a lot of Language Arts lessons left, so we'll be focusing on those for the next few weeks, then once those are done, we'll go into summer school mode. Summer school will just be practicing math facts, along with regrouping and borrowing, reading books and doing story maps and book reports, and working on the spelling words we'll be missing in the next couple of weeks from doing language Arts so fast. Once the baby comes, summer school will be over, and we'll enjoy our official summer vacation.

Nursery - We haven't done anything in the nursery lately. The fence has taken top priority. We need to set up the crib, put up the curtains, put in the changing table, etc. I did get some cute outfits on Clearance at target last week, so I think this little girl only needs a few more pajamas and some cute summer time onesies, and she'll be taken care of clothes-wise for a while.

Pregnancy - Only eight weeks left! Sometimes that feels so close, and other times it feels forever away. Today marks 55 days until my due date, and I can't wait. For a while I was doing really well with trying not to throw up in the mornings, but now it's getting harder. Oh, I just can't wait until this is all over. I have a huge list of things I want to eat after the baby comes, because once I'm not pregnant anymore, I'll actually be able to enjoy eating. But don't ask me what's on the list, because I won't be able to pinpoint something - it's basically comprised of everything.

Sadie - We've discovered that Sadie likes to bite. I know, all puppies like to bite, but she really likes to play rough. She's a smart dog, and she's doing really well with her training. The only problem is that she sees the kids as large, loud chew toys, and she doesn't back down once she starts playing rough. We had someone come from Pawsitive Effects Dog Training, and she worked with us for an hour or so on how to get Sadie to back down. It's helping a lot, and I'm glad we had her come. I've been working with Sadie on "Leave it" and "Drop it," and responding always to having her name called, and she's catching on. She's getting better on a leash now, too. Our walks started out just going around the back yard, then around the cul-de-sac, and this morning, we went a full mile around the neighborhood. She still likes to cuddle before bed time, and she definitely likes to be with us when we're working outside.

Yard - Now that the fence is complete, we have tons of ideas for the yard. A pergola in the back corner, flower beds and vegetables all along the fence, Ethan wants a trampoline but that ain't gonna happen, etc. The main problem is that we ran out of project money building the fence, and the next couple months of our Usable Savings needs to be stockpiled to pay to have the baby. I've already paid the doctor for the whole pregnancy, but we have no idea what the hospital bill is going to be, and that scares me. We've got the enthusiasm and momentum from getting that fence up, though, so whatever project that doesn't take a lot of money will at least be started. We have one flower bed that we've already bought the edging stones for, so that's going to be put together first. Mostly I'm just excited to have a place to turn some sprinklers on and let the kids play this summer. It's going to be wonderful.

Wonderful Weekend

2011-05-16T09:26:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Brian and I went in for my ultrasound. We're 100% sure now that our baby is a girl, and of course, she's very cute. I wish the picture I took of the picture turned out better, but, well, that's what happens when you take a picture of a picture. This must be why I can look at other 4D ultrasound pictures online and think the babies look like blobby aliens, but I stare and stare at the original copy the doctors office gave me and think, "She's so beautiful!"

Friday we got up early to (finally!) pour the cement for the mow strip for our fence. It was exciting to watch it go in, but it was stressful to try to get it all in and smooth before our time with the truck ran out and the concrete dried. John (the guy in the yellow shirt) was amazing! First of all, he's a contractor, so he's the one that arranged to have the cement truck come on such short notice. We were going to borrow a truck from Brian's dad and just get a rental cement trailer from Pasco Rentals, but we were having a hard time getting the truck at the same time we could get help to pour the cement. So John said, "No, you don't want to do that," and called to get a truck to come to us, and he came over to help. He was the one that took the time to smooth the patio where we're going to put a pergola. Watching him, Brian and I realized that we didn't have a clue as to what to do for that, and if it was left up to us, the patio would have looked horrible. As it is with John's help, it's beautiful!

Once we were done with the concrete, Brian loaded up the boys in the van and drove to Spokane. Our friend, Will, was running a half marathon, and he had to bring his son with him, so Brian went to keep an eye on Grant while Will was running. The boys had a blast! They swam in the hotel pool, played in the park, rode a carousel, and just had a great time relaxing. Brian said the best part of the trip was not having any responsibilities - they could just do what they wanted without worrying about being anywhere at certain times and things like that.

Alyssa and I also enjoyed our time alone. We went to my sister's house for a cousin play of "Sleeping Beauty," went out to dinner at Teriyaki Grill, got our hair cut, picked up some goodies and a movie, watched Megamind while eating those goodies, went to ballet with my niece Marian, and went out shopping for some Spring and Summer clothes for Alyssa, which she was badly in need of. Before we went to sleep on Friday, Alyssa said that it was the best day ever and that she loved spending special time with me. I loved it too!

While we were out at Red Robin after shopping at Target, Brian sent me this picture and said, "We're having fun."

So I sent him this picture back, saying, "So are we."

It really was a great weekend.

Yeah, I Guess It's Not A Good Idea To Hide The Candy In My Closet

2011-05-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Marcus can get into everything. I have to lock the pantry and the fridge, and even that doesn't stop him sometimes. Last week, after I told him he couldn't have an yogurt (or yo-yug, as he calls it), I found him hiding behind a chair in the quiet room, happily downing a tub of vanilla yogurt - his favorite. I called my parents house to rant for a minute, and my sister-in-law, Erin, answered. She suggested putting the refrigerator on top of the roof. My mom says that it probably wouldn't do any good.

These are all my maternity clothes. My real clothes are folded on the shelf for the time being.

So we hide the candy on the top shelf of our closet. It's not exactly hidden, but there's no way for the kids (i.e. Marcus) to reach them. Although there was one time that he drug a chair in from the school room to try. As you might be able to see, Brian buys his candy in bulk. Red Vines from Costco, large boxes of Cadbury eggs (He brought home regular for me and caramel for him. His are gone.), and hidden behind the vitamins and under the licorice are boxes of chocolate covered cherries he got me for Christmas. There's also a box of Phineas and Ferb candy I got for Easter, but Marcus found it before the Easter Bunny could distribute it, so it just became family candy.

The point to all of this is what is missing from the picture. There used to be a semi-full bag of Kit Kats sitting on those two folded sweaters. It wasn't bulk, though - not that big. Anyway, I got out of the shower this morning, and I was feeling pretty sick. I knew I had to eat something right away, or I would throw up. So I grabbed a Kit Kat from the top of the closet, ate it, and thought, "This is so good." And then I finished the bag off while I got dressed.

I guess the real question here is: Who's going to hide the candy from me?

30 Weeks on Mother's Day

2011-05-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on Mother's Day, I officially completed thirty weeks of this pregnancy. Thirty weeks, with seventy days on the count down until my due date. We're getting there! I've been trying really hard lately to not throw up in the morning, so I'm down to throwing up just once every few days. I've discovered that sitting in the passenger seat in the car makes me really sick, so yesterday I started driving even when Brian is with me. (I guess I knew that it made me sick a long time ago, but yesterday was the first time I decided to do something about it. It helped a lot.) It takes me five minutes to roll over in bed now, and even longer to get out of bed. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but it feels like five minutes. I waddle more often than I walk. The baby is big enough and strong enough for us to be able to watch my tummy bounce and stretch from her movements. I suppose this all means that this pregnancy is well under way. I have a 3D ultra sound scheduled for Thursday, and I'm so excited. Our insurance doesn't cover ultra sounds, so we were thinking of canceling it, but I've never had a 3D one before, and this is our last baby, so last night Brian and I decided to go ahead and do it.

So this is the first belly shot I took when I was around six weeks along. This was back when I was so excited to be pregnant and I just knew that this pregnancy was going to be different. I wasn't sick yet, I was still running three miles every day, and at this point I decided that I was going to write in a pregnancy journal and take a belly picture every week. Other than yesterday and today, though, this is the only belly picture I've taken. But having such a large gap in between pictures sure shows that difference!

This next picture I took this morning. I took a couple yesterday, but I forgot to turn the flash off my camera, so they didn't turn out so well. Please ignore my scuzzy hair and such. I ran out of clean underwear, so I'm waiting until my clothes are out of the dryer to take a shower.

Anyway, I am so excited to have gotten this far. Every day I go to bed thinking, "One more day done. I made it through another day." On days when it's warm and sunny outside, and it feels like summer is coming, it feels like it's so close to when we'll get our baby. Also, with the dog and home school keeping me busy, each week is flying by, so I know we'll be at the end soon.

When You Have A Puppy...

2011-05-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

...you wash loads and loads of laundry (especially towels from cleaning up puddles) but never get around to folding those clothes.

...you trip over a fluffy black mess of energy while preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because that fluffy black mess of energy loves you a whole lot, even after you step on her tail.

...you find yourself saying, "Sadie, don't bite!" ten thousand times a day, and as you pry a dirty sock from her mouth you find yourself wondering why you spent big bucks on chew toys and rope toys and kong toys when for the most part, they're ignored.

...you watch from your dining room window as your kids build a boat out of the playground set and the dogs follows them around the yard, wagging her little tail.

...you end up with a huge dog crate in your bedroom and another dog crate in the school room and still search Craigslist for another one to go in the family room. You look at the family room, which doesn't have a couch, but has a a large, circular dog pillow from Costco, and wonder why the dog has more furniture in the house than you do.

and of course

...you never blog, because you have a brand new baby to take care of, and unlike human babies, puppies can walk and bite and chew and need constant - CONSTANT - supervision when they're not in their kennel to keep them from piddling on the floor.

* * *

So we've learned a lot since getting Sadie two weeks ago. Puppies are a lot of work! Between Sadie and the kids and home school and household chores and being in charge of Activity Days at church, I don't have a minute to spare. I'm currently writing this blog post while the kids are having read-aloud time, and now they're actually done and I need to do Phonics with the boys while Alyssa reads silently.

Having a puppy is not all bad, though. Sadie is down to waking up just once or twice a night to go potty, and Brian takes one shift and I take the other, so I'm not as tired as I was last week. As you can tell from our multiple dog crates, we've gotten more serious about kennel training in the last week or so, and it's cut down on the amount of accidents in the house, and it's also helped Sadie to be a part of the family when we need to concentrate on things other than her (like breakfast, lunch, dinner, and school) while keeping her from wandering around the room, chewing on things she's not supposed to chew on. The last couple of days, she's slept happily in her crate while we do a little bit of school, then she and the kids take a recess in the back yard, then we're back to school for a while, then another recess, etc. The kids are enjoying it, of course, because they never got so many recesses before Sadie came along.

I love watching Sadie play in the back yard with the kids. I love cuddling up to her when she's sleepy before bed time. Even though I trip over her, I love that she follows me around the kitchen, because it means she likes me. Overall, we're really enjoying the new addition to our family, even though she is a lot of work.

Let's Back Up A Bit

2011-04-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

Brian and I have always known that we would eventually get a dog. Brian grew up with a wonderful labrador retriever, and I'm not picky, so we've basically always known that we would end up with a labrador. It definitely helps that they're a great family dog. So in talking about putting up a fence and planning for a future dog, we decided that if we wait until after the baby comes, we'll most likely wait until she is two or three years old, because we didn't want to bring home a boisterous puppy with a baby in the house. We decided that if we were going to get a dog soon, we should get it soon, so we can get through the puppy stage before the baby comes. We didn't really discuss it much further than that. We knew we needed to get the fence up, and then I guess we figured we would work it out after that.

Fast forward to last week, when I was randomly surfing the internet while waiting for Alyssa to finish some school work. I found an ad on Craigslist for a six month old labrador mix that the owner couldn't keep, because his daughter was allergic. I thought it looked like a great dog, and asked Brian if we wanted to surprise the kids with a dog for Easter. Brian took a look at the pictures, wondered what the "mix" part of the dog was, and said, "Look at the size of his feet! He's going to be a monster! See? He's eating that chair!" But considering that dog - or not considering that dog led us to looking at other options.

We called about a litter of seven-week-old puppies in Othello and about a seven-week-old puppy just above Spokane. We skipped a Saturday of working on the fence to go check them all out. We liked one of the chocolate labs in Othello, and we took a couple of pictures of him with the kids and decided to keep him in mind. Then we made the long drive to Spokane. We stopped in Spokane for lunch at a place called The Onion, which had really good and really HUGE onion rings. I felt bad, because I'm to the point in my pregnancy when my stomach is small, and I could only eat half of my hamburger. It was yummy, though!

We then headed North to a place out in the middle of nowhere, to meet Sadie. The man brought her out front, instead of us going back to the kennels, since we had looked at other puppies that day, and he was afraid of spreading Parvo. When he set her on the ground, Brian picked her up, and she calmly sat on his lap for the majority of the time we were there. I wanted a calm dog, so that made up my mind. What we've discovered in the last few days, though, is that the afternoon is her calm time, and she likes to run around and go crazy when she wakes up in the morning. Compared to other puppies, though, she is still a calm dog, and we're happy for that.

House training is going well. She's doing great at it, but it is exhausting. The first two nights it was worse than having a newborn - we were up every two hours to take her outside. After last night I stopped watching the clock as much and started to pay attention to her, and I think it's going to get easier. We were up every three hours last night, and I honestly think she could go a bit longer. Plus, she's starting to wake Brian and I up when she has to go at night time, which is nice.

We ended up putting her kennel with a bed in it in our bedroom for now. She's doing really well with the kennel training as well. We put a ticking clock in there with her, and she likes to cuddle up to it while she sleeps. She doesn't like being in the kennel if the kids are around, because she knows she's missing out on play time, but after the kids go to bed, we put her to bed, and for the most part, she goes right to sleep.

Callie also started handling Sadie's arrival better yesterday. She's avoiding her less, and she seems to have forgiven Brian. I think she's just accepted the fact the dog is here to stay and has decided to deal with it. Or maybe she listened to me when I told her that she needed to make friends with Sadie before Sadie was three times her size, but honestly I don't think cats listen to anybody.

Sadie seems to be more comfortable with her collar than she was at first, so the kids and I are going to start leash training her today. At first that basically consists of putting the leash on her and letting her get used to it being there. That part shouldn't be too hard.

Anyway, we're really happy to have Sadie in our family. We're learning that it's a lot of work to have a puppy, but she is a smart dog, and she's already learning (and growing!) and it's been a lot of fun having her around the last few days.

Our New Baby Before The Baby Comes

2011-04-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to find the kids' Easter baskets sitting in the upstairs hallway. Everyone was excited, and we went downstairs for an Easter egg hunt and a candy breakfast.

Then we straightened up the house a bit (not as much as I would have liked, because that's how it always goes) and headed up to Othello to meet a litter of really cute chocolate labradors. We sat in the grass with them, and loved them, and the kids ran around the yard with them. We did not, however, take one home with us.

Instead, we decided to drive for two and a half hours over to Spokane to meet a sweet little black lab, which we did take home. We named her Sadie, and we just love her. See? She and Brian already have a kissing relationship. (Sorry about the quality of the pictures. I didn't realize they were so fuzzy until I put them on the computer.)

Sadie slept on my lap the whole way home, which was a long drive, because the GPS took us on the back roads back to Pasco. Alyssa, Marcus, and I headed to Petco to buy a collar, leash, kennel, bed, poop scoop, etc. while Brian and Ethan introduced Sadie to our house and the cat. Callie, by the way, is not thrilled with Sadie's arrival, but she's taking it pretty well. She's interested in Sadie (like smelling her, and watching her) but for the most part, she's just keeping her distance and giving Brian the cold shoulder. I say Brian, and not me, because she's sitting on my lap right now, licking my arm. Brian is her favorite, and I think she feels completely betrayed by him.

Sorry to cut this short. I'll give more information in another post. I've got to take Sadie on a potty break before we take Alyssa to school for P.E.

Weekend Projects

2011-04-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

On Friday after school Brian and I finished painting the baby's room. I had to climb on a chair to get to the high areas, so after a while I just let Brian paint while I sat in said chair and typed up his talk for Sunday. He dictated what he wanted to say while I typed, and when he woke up the next morning, his laptop had restarted and didn't auto-save the file, so he had to start fresh. On Sunday morning he was left with twenty five minutes to speak, and he did an awesome job.

On Saturday we went outside to plant a lilac bush and ended up tearing up a good chunk of yard. Brian's mom is famous in their family for her Saturday morning projects, which this was very much like. She would apparently say, "If we all work together, we'll be done in an hour or two," and then, several hours later, they would still be working.

So we went outside, pulled a few weeds - okay, a lot of weeds - and dug a hole for the lilac bush. Brian found the sprinkler pipe, and he didn't want the roots to damage the pipe, so we decided to move the sprinkler line over a few feet. With the help of Brian's brother, Eric, and the bishop's teenage sons, Justin and Jeff, we were able to get the sprinkler line moved, the lilac planted, and the stone edging for the flower bed started. It's obviously a project that we didn't anticipate doing on Saturday. It's still not finished, but we'll work on it some more after we put in the mow strip for the fence. I'll post pictures when it's more done.

Eric

Marcus

Ethan with Jeff and Justin, and Alyssa's in the background. Our boys absolutely loved having the "big boys" working with us.

The nursery walls turned out great, but they looked just a little bit too much like Neapolitan ice cream. I still loved it, but I kept feeling the temptation to cover the walls in chocolate syrup and whipped cream every time I walked in the room to admire our work, which I do a lot, because I love a freshly painted room. I also was a little hesitant to put up some molding in between the colors (even though that was the original plan all along) because our line was perfect. I didn't want to cover it up. But it really did need some distinction between the strawberry and chocolate scoops, so I experimented with some dark pink ribbon and ended up starching it to the wall. It doesn't look uber fabulous in the picture, but in person, it does. I love it.

Nursery-wise, I've got the crib bumpers almost finished, the curtains planned in my head, and really cute woodland pictures being drawn by my super talented niece, Megan. It's all coming together with plenty of time to spare. Since I haven't put any decorations up in the room yet, my favorite piece in the nursery is the tiny pink "little sister" outfit I got on sale at Carter's that's hanging in the closet. We'll see if it stays at the top of the list when I move some furniture in and put things on the walls. It's going to be hard to beat!

Igneous, Sedimentary, Or Metamorphic?

2011-04-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

We finished our unit on rocks today, and Brian brought his rock collection up from the garage to show the kids. He knows a lot more about rocks than I do! One of the rocks in his collection is still at his parents house. (His mom winds her garden hose around it.) It's very round, but flat on one side and basically the size of a basketball. Brian found it on a hike-in camping trip, and his parents told him that if he wanted to bring it home, he had to carry it himself. It took him two camping trips over two years to bring it home. He carried it half way down the mountain the first year, then carried it the rest of the way on their trip the next year. I guess it was worth it - it's a pretty cool rock.


sandstone with a fish fossil - Brian said, "This fish is even older than Mom!"

Marcus found a green marble in Brian's rock collection, and he keeps bringing it to me with the magnifying glass, saying, "Look at this rock," and "What kind of rock is this?" Every time I say that it's a marble, he says, "No-oh."

I can not say enough about how much I love home schooling. Yes, there are many days that I want to pull my hair out in frustration, and my sister can confirm that there are many days that I call her and scream, "What am I going to do with my children?!?" But overall, when it comes down to it, I love having Alyssa at home during the days. I love watching her learn, and especially when it comes to math, I love watching how fast she catches on to things. I also love that it's 12:16 on a Friday, and we're all done with school, and we can spend the rest of the day as a family.

Now That's My Kind Of Volcano

2011-03-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that we don't always do the science experiments that K12 wants us to do in their lessons. In fact, since I've been pregnant, a lot of the time I just read through the experiment with Alyssa. "Okay, pretend we did this...and what do you think would happen?...Yeah, this and this would happen and we would learn..."

But today, we were learning how igneous rocks are formed, and when we went to the experiment page of the lesson, and I read ,"Melt 1/2 cup of chocolate chips..." I looked at Alyssa and said, "Meet me in the kitchen."

It was actually a pretty cool experiment. Very simple and very cool. We built our mountain out of a cup and some foil, melted our lava chocolate chips*, and then poured the lava down the mountain, now a volcano. The point of the experiment was to illustrate that when it's in the earth, the lava is called "magma," then it's lava when it breaks through the crust, and when the lava cools, it hardens into igneous rock. Right now our igneous rock is still hardening, and we're anxiously waiting to eat it.

*If you want to try this, the recipe for the lava is 1/2 c. melted chocolate chips mixed with 1 tsp. canola oil. It made it the perfect consistency to flow down the mountain. We doubled it so we can eat more chocolate.

I Guess 2 Nephi Is Boring For Kids

2011-03-21T09:24:00.000-07:00

Alyssa fell asleep during scripture study last night, too, but she woke up when we were done and said, "I'm going to bed and I'm going to tuck myself in," and got up and left.

And I couldn't help but get a picture of the kids during Read Aloud Time a few minutes ago. I love having Alyssa home with us during the day!

I Love My Daddy

2011-03-15T11:09:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to write about this for a while, but I haven't really gotten a chance to yet. Over the weekend I decided that since it's been exactly a month since it happened, it's as good a time as any.

On Valentine's Day last month Will, Nelsa, Brian, and I hopped off of Toy Story Mania in California Adventure and headed to a churro stand to get a snack. While Brian was ordering, my phone rang. I answered it and stepped to the side of the churro stand, to be out of the way. It was my sister. She began by saying that they were in the hospital, but every time she said, "because..." a roller coaster would go by, making it impossible for me to hear. I honestly thought that one of her kids had broken an arm or a leg or something, and she was just calling me as an FYI sort of thing. I covered my free ear with my hand, and tried to get away from the noise.

"Dad had a stroke this morning," I finally heard, and immediately I started crying. Christina kept telling me not to cry, that everything was okay, and that he was doing well. She didn't have much else that she could tell me, so we hung up, and I waited until we got back to our hotel to call my mom.

He had the stroke that Monday morning, a little while after getting to work. It manifested itself by making him dizzy, lightheaded, and nauseated. He later said that the room was spinning and he felt so sick, so he just lay down on the floor. One of his co-workers walked by his room, asked if he was okay, and he said, "No," so they called an ambulance. At first they thought it was just an extremely severe attack of the flu, but once he got to the hospital, they found out if was a stroke.

While I talked with my mom that night, we thought of all the things that we were thankful for: that it didn't happen while he was driving to work, that someone walked by his door at just the right moment to get him help, that my mom wasn't staying with my kids (which was the original plan) and she was able to head to the hospital right away without figuring out what to do with them. I felt bad that I wasn't home with everyone, but Mom said that Dad was doing okay, and that Brian and I should finish out our vacation. I also realized that all six of us kids couldn't be hanging around the hospital at the same time, and that even if I was in the Tri-Cities, most of my time would be spent at home, waiting for news anyway. So Brian and I sent some flowers to Dad's room, called multiple times a day to see how things were going, then we visited him in the hospital as soon as we arrived home.

Dad's recovery has been great. He has full use of his mind - he remembers everything, and has even gone back to work part time, because he's the only one who knows how to do his job correctly. He's been using a cane to steady him when he walks, and he goes to physical therapy a few times a week. The stroke has been a huge wake up call for him to get his life in order health-wise, and I've heard he's lost thirty pounds since the end of January.

We are all so glad that Dad is still with us, both physically and mentally. When I first heard the news, I was so scared of losing him, and I'm so happy he's still here. I can't imagine what life would be like without my Dad.

This Is How Cool My Brothers Are

2011-03-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

Phil, Mike, Nathan, and Chris Baugh got together a while back to put together a rifftrax of them making fun of the movie, "10,000 BC." They started planning the whole thing last summer, and they've been working furiously to get it done ever since. If you remember the MST3K show on Comedy Central, it will give you a clue as to what a rifftrax is. Basically, it's a bunch of funny guys watching a horribly boring movie and making fun of it. Phil and Nate did a bit of the editing at our house, so I've seen bits and pieces of what they've done, and what I've seen is pretty darn funny.

So if you're interested in a cheap, at-home date night: pop some popcorn, grab a pack of root beer, and settle down with Ominous Project's version of "10,000 BC."

Info: In ages past the world was a hostile place where mankind eked out an existence in constant fear of giant birds and monstrous shag-carpet elephants. But among these troglodytes arose a man whose destiny would lead him to unite the various tribes, tame the hordes of furry beasts, and establish a new way of life among his people. That man was Jim Henson, and this unfortunately is not his story. Instead, Ominous Projects invites you to join us for a commentary that makes watching 10,000 BC marginally less painful.

Edited to add: Brian just informed me that because of copyright laws you need to have a copy of the movie in order to watch it with the rifftrax. So if you want to watch it (and you know you all do) you will need to either buy it (not worth it) or rent it (my suggestion) or if you're in the Tri-Cities, my brother has a copy you could borrow. Have fun!

Edited, yet again, to add: I watched it a couple of night ago, and it was great! I actually thought the movie itself was pretty interesting, but it was so long and drawn out that I wouldn't have made it through the whole thing without the funny comments. The second to last comment is my absolute favorite.

30 Already?!?

2011-03-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

Brian says I'm getting old, but he has four years on me, so I'll never be as old as him!

Yesterday was a wonderful day. To start, Brooke sent me Facebook wishes that I wouldn't feel sick, and I didn't throw up yesterday morning. Yea! I didn't even dry heave or gag, which is unusual for non-throwing up mornings.

The kids and I spent the morning doing school, laundry, and cleaning, then we had some friends and cousins over after lunch for a play group. The day started out rainy, but the sun came out periodically and the kids were able to play outside the whole afternoon.

Our friends stayed until just a little before Brian was expected home. When everyone was gone I lay in bed for a bit (which Alyssa says I do all the time) and then Brian came home with flowers and a birthday cake. We went out to dinner at Three Flames Mongolian Barbecue, which was a lot of fun. I love Mongolian barbecue, but we weren't sure what the kids would think of it. They liked it, but the boys were having so much fun playing with their noodles and watching the cooks at the oven that they barely ate their food. That means leftovers for lunch today!

We were going to have the cake for dessert, but by the time we got home we were tired and already full, so we're saving it for tonight. We put the kids to bed, watched a couple of episodes of Phineas and Ferb, got a fun Happy Birthday Phone Call from Katie, where she made fun of us for watching Phineas and Ferb, then I fell asleep while Dr. Doofenshmirtz was laying out one of his diabolical plans.

See? It was a good day.

We actually had my family birthday party on Monday for Family Home Evening, because we thought it was the best time to get everyone together. Brian's parents offered to bring over dinner before the party, and they brought Alice Spring Chicken with jell-o salad and baked potatoes. So yummy! You know the Alice Spring Chicken at Outback? Brian's dad got the copy cat recipe, and he makes it at home on his fancy schmancy barbecue - only better. We had a great time having everyone over. My parents gave me a cupcake decorating book with a lot of fun ideas, and Brian's parents gave me a whoopie pie pan and a heart-shaped cupcake pan. I guess the secret is out that I like to bake. My dad also gave me a gift certificate for a one-hour massage. Apparently he won it at a company dinner, and everyone at their table (Mom, Dad, Erin, and Phil) agreed that I would enjoy it. I'm excited!

I have been so happy lately that I just know this next year of life is going to be wonderful. We'll get a brand new beautiful baby, I won't be pregnant anymore, and things will just keep going as wonderfully as they have been. I get on pregnancy forums sometimes, and I see so many women complaining about their husbands, their parents, their in-laws, their children, and I'm so thankful to have a husband who loves me and works hard for our family, three fun children who make life exciting, a family close by to hang out with, great in-laws that have become my own family, and a soft and fluffy cat who sits around all day being soft and fluffy. I really am blessed. Life is great!

I Think Things Are Getting Back To Normal

2011-02-25T19:35:00.000-08:00

I haven't thrown up since Monday! I still feel sick all the time, but I'm not throwing up in the morning anymore. I think this is the longest I've gone without throwing up while being pregnant. On Monday I went to a doctor appointment, and when I told him that I was down to just throwing up every morning, he literally jumped out of his chair and exclaimed, "That's wonderful!" I really, really like my doctor.

So without throwing up each morning, my nausea has decreased a notch throughout the day, and I find that I'm functioning almost like a normal person. I made a meal plan for the week and went grocery shopping, and then I've actually made those meals I planned. We're back to cleaning up and running the dishwasher after dinner each evening, which leaves me with a clean kitchen to start the morning with the next day. I love it! Plus, I've done the most genius thing I've ever done and gave Alyssa the job of cleaning out the dishwasher each morning and Ethan the job of setting the table each evening, and it's funny how not worrying about those two little things takes so much stress off my shoulders.

We've also started to do "Two-Minute Tidy" each evening in the family room and the kids' bedrooms where we set the timer for two-minutes and clean like crazy. It's actually kept the family room clean and the kids' rooms under control.

We've gone back to having family scripture study in the quiet room instead of on Brian's and my bed. It used to be that I'd feel so sick in the evenings that I laid down on the couch right after dinner, barely supervised the kids getting ready for bed, then I laid down in my bed and we'd have scripture study just before bedtime. With it being on my bed, Ethan and Marcus would climb up and down, and run to their rooms for stuffed animals, and cause quite a ruckus. Now that we're back to reading in the quiet room, the kids are all sitting on the couch with their scriptures, and it's so much better. Just FYI, we call our living room the quiet room, because I decorated it with just gospel related things: pictures of Jesus, pictures of the temple, etc. We keep all our religious books in there, and we also put some of Brian's German religious books on display. We have glass votives with eggs in them that I set out for Easter and left out because I liked that they symbolize the resurrection. We have antique keys that Brian got from Germany out, to represent the keys of the priesthood. We have Alyssa's baptism picture on the shelf, next to her baptism certificate. Anyway, when I first decorated the room, we sat the kids down and had them look around. We told them that this is the room that we want to keep special to most feel the spirit in our home. We're Home taught in that room, we have scripture study there, and we sometimes have Family Home Evening there. We said that it is a quiet room, and the name kind of stuck.

Moving on.

Now that I'm feeling better, I'm also ready to take on all of our projects. We had two contractors come to give us estimates on concrete brick fences today - too expensive. We'll be doing a wood fence ourselves. It's much better on the budget. I went to JoAnn Fabrics today and bought material for crib bedding for the nursery. (We actually have room for a nursery this time!) I'm planning a woodland theme with pinks and greens and creams. If the nursery turns out anything like I'm imagining it in my head, it will be gorgeous. There's other projects running around in my head right now: putting a mantel on the fireplace, decorating our bedroom, decorating the downstairs bathroom, etc., but those things are going to have to wait until we have the time and the money to do them.

I don't consider myself to be an overly emotional person, even as a pregnant lady, but today the kids were watching Phineas and Ferb - the episode where it's their mom's birthday - and I actually caught myself crying when Candace sang the "Mom It's Your Birthday" song. Sad, I know.

The kids are all about babies right now. Alyssa, who is not and never really was a "toy person" has been carrying around a baby doll and taking care of it. She even had the boys guard the baby while it was taking a nap while Alyssa was playing outside, and the boys paced in front of it, saying, "Hup, two three four," for about five minutes, until they got bored and ran off. The boys have been wrapping up their zhu zhu pets in blankets much too big for the little rodents and carrying them around as well. It's fun. Ethan named his Dowpia, which I love. It's so cute.

Oh, I think that's about it. School is going well. We did a whole unit of Science yesterday, so we took today off to get started on our house projects. We learned about the digestive system and grossed Alyssa out. She actually said, "Mom, do we have to learn about this? It makes my stomach sick." We kept going, though. We learned about all of it, all the way to the excretory system, much to Alyssa's dismay.

So, yeah, things are getting to be pretty normal around here. I'm twenty weeks pregnant now, and the baby will be here in about four and a half months. I'm getting pretty excited to be half way there and starting the countdown. When our little one makes her debut in July, I'm sure things will get pretty shaken up again, but for now I'm going to enjoy the peace of a reasonably clean house and mostly followed schedule.

Edited to add: Is there any way to knock on wood on the internet? Both times I've posted about feeling better, I've had a relapse. Last night I woke up at one in the morning, feeling absolutely sick, and I lost my dinner. Then I threw up again when I woke up this morning. Craziness. Brian brought me a bowl of granola in bed, and I just took my medication, so I'm feeling better now. I hope it lasts. Maybe I'll knock on the monitor.

Maybe This Will Help

2011-02-18T09:02:00.000-08:00

Would Everyone Who Ever Needs To Inspect Noodles Forget Or Remember About Noodles Under Low Trees? Really, After Sharing Our Umbrella Noodles, Don't Tell Others. Different Amounts Yell, "Ahoy!" Nobody Deferred For Other Umbrella Noodles, Despite Others Under Trees Telling How Attempts To Win Every Awesome Rally Escaped. However, After Viewing Informal Noodles, Go Ahead. Lastly, I Told Them Loudly, "Everyone, Go In Really Low And Noodles, Don't Waver." Except After Rehashing Everything, To Honestly, Really Inspect, Lay Low Enough Down.*

We got back from California yesterday, and we're excited to be back together as a family again. It was fun to have Ethan come snuggle in bed with us when he got up this morning. But you know what? We had SO MUCH FUN! I admit that Disneyland without kids is missing that little bit of magic you feel watching your children experience the magic of Disneyland, but even though I missed our kids sometimes, I never regretted going on a special trip without them. Running around Disneyland with Will and Nelsa (and Will's sister and her husband sometimes - we were surprised that they were there too!) without kids had a magic all it's own, and we had a blast.

We went on ride after ride, wandered around the shops, ate yummy yummy food (the Monte Crisco sandwiches in New Orleans Square are just as good as everyone says they are), watched the fireworks show (my favorite!) and the World of Color show (Brian's favorite), watched the Aladdin show, slept in as late as possible, and just had a fabulous time.

*2-25-11 Edited to add: We went in for an ultrasound today and found out that we are having a little girl and we are thrilled!

Letter/Word Puzzle

2011-02-11T19:40:00.000-08:00

Would everyone who ever needs to inspect noodles forget or remember about noodles under low trees? Really, after sharing our umbrella noodles, don't tell others. Different amounts yell, "Ahoy!" Nobody deferred for other umbrella noodles, despite others under trees telling how attempts to win every awesome rally escaped. However, after viewing informal noodles, go ahead. Lastly, I told them loudly, "Everyone, go in really low and noodles, don't waver." Except after rehashing everything, to honestly, really inspect, lay low enough down.

Feeling Alive!

2011-02-02T10:20:00.000-08:00

See the clean floors and counters?

The groundhog said Spring is coming! Yea Spring! I can't wait! I'm tired of being cold, especially since I can't button my coat all the way 'cause my belly is too big, and I can't wait until we can play outside all the time and work in our yard and put up our fence and all those other wonderful things that Spring brings.

The sun is shining outside our window right now, and it just makes me happy.

I started feeling better yesterday, too. I'm back to a low grade constant nausea that is pretty easy to handle. Yesterday I felt good enough to clean the kitchen and family room, which really really needed it. I even cleaned out the microwave - it was nasty! And while I was cleaning I tossed out our old yucky dish scrubber and started a list (a list!) of things we need to buy at Target. I am a huge list person, and you know things haven't been right by the fact that this is the first list I've made since before Thanksgiving. I even called my mom and said, "I'm making a list!"

I'm excited to decorate for Valentine's Day, too. I think our house might end up being more decorated for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day and Easter than it was for Christmas. We have very few V-Day decorations, but I cut the word "love" out of construction paper and taped it to the old window hanging in our family room, and I set out our little hugging monkey stuffies on a candle holder by the kitchen. i do have a TON of paper hearts that we can hang in the windows and from the ceiling, and I think we'll head to Hobby Lobby and Craft Warehouse in the next few days and see what they have for cheap.

Also, 11 days until Brian and I leave for Disneyland. Woo hoo!

my dad and me and my mom!

2011-01-28T11:10:00.000-08:00

Last night I found a sealed envelope under my pillow, and inside it was a picture and a letter from Alyssa. It took me a few minutes to notice my pregnant tummy, and when I did I laughed out loud. At least my legs are skinny - if only they looked that great in real life!

The letter says, "Dear Mom, I want you to know that when you're sick it makes me sorry for you. It just makes me feel so icky inside. I want to be the best helper I can! So, if there's anything I can do, please let me know! Love, Alyssa P.S. Thank you for the crayons"

I had a relapse of some bad sickness this last week, because I missed my medication on Monday afternoon and did pretty well and thought, "Hey, maybe I'm far enough along I don't need medication anymore," and skipped Tuesday morning. By Tuesday at lunch I was throwing up and dry heaving a lot, and it lasted through Wednesday until I could get the medication in my system again. Yeah, you'd think that at 15 weeks I'd be far enough along to at least have the morning sickness under control - nope!

Brian's mom came over on Wednesday to help out, and while she was cleaning and asking the kids for help, they were complaining about everything they had to do. On Wednesday evening I just heated up some leftovers and tossed a salad for dinner, and when I asked Alyssa to set the table, she started complaining again. I explained to her that my body is sick because it's making a baby, and because of that I need to rest and take care of my body so the baby can be healthy, and whatever she and the boys do to help me out while I'm pregnant, it will help them to love the baby more when it comes. She gave me a sweet hug and has been helping out ever since. Yesterday she cleaned out the dishwasher and filled it back up again with the breakfast dishes AND ran it through a cycle with just a few dishes in it to surprise me. It was so sweet! She's a wonderful girl!

Getting Terribly Excited

2011-01-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

I think everyone knows by now that we're Disneyland freaks. Okay, I'm the Disneyland freak, and Brian is quickly becoming converted. It took us forever to go, because Brian didn't want to spend the money on it, but once we went, we just keep going back.

Last Spring, I finally decided that it had been long enough since Marcus had been born, and I was ready to endure another pregnancy. Fast forward to late September...still not pregnant. I didn't want to have to battle morning sickness while trying to teach Alyssa, so we decided to put off being pregnant until next Spring. At this point I said, "Since I'm not pregnant, and our tenth anniversary is coming up, let's plan something incredible for it." Brian agreed, and his first suggestion was Disneyland. Whether he suggested it because he now loves Disneyland as much as I do, or because he just knew it would make me happy - bless him. I love that man.

We decided to invite some friends, and the first people who came to mind were Will and Nelsa Sumsion, because when we mention Disneyland they get as excited talking about it as I do. We called them up and left a message inviting them, and they called us the next day saying they had already lined up a babysitter and were excited to go. Yea!

Getting back to the pregnant thing: When I want to get pregnant, I chart my cycles and find out exactly when I ovulate and all that, so by September I knew I was pretty consistent with my ovulation dates, and I knew that if we planned it right I would not get pregnant in October. Heavenly Father had different plans. I figure that either Heavenly Father really wants us to have a baby right now, or he really wants us to go to Disneyland - maybe both. Anyway, when we went in for an early ultra sound we discovered that I had ovulated a week late, and I said, out loud, "So that's how we got pregnant!"

Anyway, now that the morning sickness is under control and I'm only miserable part of the time instead of all of the time, I'm feeling much better about this pregnancy, and I'm getting very excited to meet this baby in the Summer. But we're also getting very excited for our Disneyland trip with the Sumsions. A few weeks ago, when I was laying on the couch, Brian asked, "If you are feeling like you are now in February, do you still want to go to Disneyland?" I thought, "Go to Disneyland?!? I don't even want to move!" and said, "No," but now that things are better, we're lining up our plans and counting down the days. 38 as of today, by the way.

This is the first time that we'll be going without our kids, and even though the pregnancy changes our plans of riding every roller coaster 'til we drop, I still look forward to going through the shops on Main Street without keeping tiny hands off of everything, and walking places without worrying about losing anyone. We won't have to carry anyone who's tired of walking, or push around a stroller. We can eat out at the fancy restaurants (We've got reservations for the Blue Bayou on both Valentine's Day and our anniversary, but we'll only pick one to go to) and walk through the stores that have breakable collectibles. We're going to see the new water show, World of Color, and we're headed one night to watch knights battle at Medieval Times. It's going to be so much fun!

Edited to add: I just realized I'm not going to have to help anyone get dressed in the morning! I'll still probably be telling Brian, "Eat your breakfast, quick! Let's get going!" though, like I have to do with the kids.

This One Goes Out To The One I Love

2010-12-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the kissy picture. Brian and I took pictures of ourselves while waiting for the kids to wake up on Christmas morning. I wanted to use one of those, and this is the only one where Brian isn't making a horribly ugly face.

Any R.E.M. fans out there? I grew up listening to R.E.M. because my brother loved them - great band. So if you continue singing this song: "This one goes out to the one I love(d?)," the next line goes, "This one goes out to the one I left behind."

I love Brian, but he is the one leaving me behind every morning, which is one of the reasons why I love him. Before I was pregnant, I would get up in the morning to exercise, usually getting up before his alarm even thought about sounding. Now, it's a different story. I do wake up around 5:00 each day to take my thyroid medication, because I'm supposed to take it on an empty stomach, with lots of water, and not eat anything for at least an hour afterward. Plus, I usually throw up first thing upon getting out of bed each day, and I need to have time for that pill to get absorbed so it doesn't come right back up again. But I don't even get out of bed to take said pill. The bottle is sitting on my side dresser with a cup of water, and I go right back to sleep after taking it.

A while later Brian's alarm goes off and he pushes snooze, which happens a few times, 'cause that's how he does things, but then he gets out of bed to shower, and I roll over and go back to sleep. He comes back in the room to get dressed, and I roll to the other side. He says good-bye, I tell him I love him, and then roll over, again, and go back to sleep.

I love this man. He hasn't complained at all. He hasn't rubbed it in my face that he gets up way before I do, like I used to kind of do to him when I went running at crazy-5-in-the-morning. He hasn't called me lazy or anything like it. The closest he's even come to complaining is that he said he was tired last night and headed to bed around 7:30. He is amazing, and I am so thankful for all the hard work he does for our family.

The Festivities

2010-12-28T11:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve we woke up bright and early to join a bunch of other families in our ward to go clean the church. Brian and I were put in charge of cleaning the bathrooms, which is a good things, because I threw up in the toilets a few times while we were cleaning them. Even though I was feeling crummy, it was fun to get out as a family. We stopped at Yokes on the way home for a some doughnuts, and then enjoyed those once we got home.

At noon we went to the church for our family get-together, which was also my Grandma Harris' birthday party. We had a ton of fun eating, watching the dads play with remote control helicopters, watching the kids perform the nativity, singing Christmas carols, and eating Grandma's cake. There was a tiny little pregnant kitty freezing outside the church. My brother went home and brought back some cat food and milk to feed it outside, while we all debated what to do. It seemed as if she was dropped off by someone who didn't want a pregnant cat or that she got lost when her family moved in, but we thought it was most likely the former, because the houses around the church are so close that if a family moved in, it would be hard for her to get lost. My brother ended up taking her home, and the plan was to call the shelter or vet on Monday. They named her Mary, because, like Tallia said, "She was pregnant on Christmas Eve with no where to go. What else were we supposed to call her?"

Brian and Mike pulled a couch from the foyer into the gym for me, and I took a nap while everyone played. We took off while everyone was singing Christmas carols to head to Brian's parent's house for Christmas Eve dinner. We stayed there until bedtime, so we would be able to put the kids to bed right when we got home. It worked for the boys. They were both asleep by the time we pulled into the drive way. We had to wait a little while for Alyssa to go to sleep for Santa to come, which was hard for both Brian and I. I didn't feel well at all, and he was dead tired.

Christmas morning was perfect. For starters, Christmas was the first day I felt better in a long time. (Just to update you on that: the other day when I posted when I felt better, I ended up puking my guts out quite violently, and when we went to the doctor a few days later, we told him about the Zofran issues, and he put me on something new, which is helping a lot. I started feeling better on Christmas, and things have been sufficiently better ever since. I still feel nauseated all the time, but it's low enough that I can ignore it for the most part. Things are better.)

So back to Christmas morning. The kids slept in until almost eight o'clock. Ethan woke us up at seven by yelling, "Is it morning...yet..." and then he went back to sleep, so Brian and I laid in bed, waiting for the kids to get up, until finally we started checking on them to see if that would wake them, which didn't work until Ethan woke up close to eight. We got the camera out and had him wake Alyssa and Marcus, then we all went downstairs.

Santa outdid himself this year. Everyone loved their present. Alyssa got a friendship bracelet making kit, Ethan got a Fisher Price Trio blocks helicopter and airport tower set, and Marcus got a Fisher Price Trio blocks Batmobile. I got an eye medication that's the equivalent of Latisse that makes your eyelashes grow long, because Brian said the pharmacy was out of Latisse. I've used Latisse before, because Brian didn't want to recommend it to patients without knowing if it was good or not, and I loved the results. Brian got a crepe cook book in his stocking, and he looked through it real quick and learned that it's best to have the batter sit for an hour or two before making up the crepes, so he declared that we should make up the batter and then open our other presents.

Everyone was happy with their family presents as well. We got scriptures for each of the kids - a quad for Alyssa, with a beautiful cover I made for her during one of my better moments these past few weeks, and the cheap hard cover Book of Mormons for the boys. Brian got a lava lamp for Alyssa, and cars for the boys. One time while I was at Walgreens getting a prescription filled, I looked around their toy section and found some labled, "Buy two for $12.99 and get one free," so I picked up a matching game for Ethan, Disney princess figurines for Alyssa, and a Toy Story 3 backpack for Marcus, which was his absolute favorite. Brian opened up a crepe maker, which we're both thrilled with, and his parents came over for a crepe breakfast.

We spent the rest of the day visiting Brian's grandma, then going to Mike and Tallia's for Christmas dinner. It was a wonderful Christmas, a beautiful day. I loved watching my kids get excited for the holiday and play with their presents all day long. We just had a happy, relaxed feeling in our home all day long, and it was wonderful.

We Can Do This, Baby

2010-12-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

"We can do this, Baby," is the mantra I would chant to myself when things got bad. "We can do this," when I'd have to breathe slowly to keep myself from throwing up. "We can do this," after throwing up and having a few blessed minutes of feeling a little bit better. But today I said "We can do this, Baby," with enthusiasm, because today has been a good day.

Things have gotten a lot better since my last post. I went to the hospital again, added two new drugs to my list, which helped with the nausea but also made me feel really wierd, ran out of Zofran and found that it had been making me feel worse, and today I've just been taking medication as needed instead of around the clock like I've been doing. It kind of makes me mad that the Zofran was making me sick - not mad at the doctors, because they wouldn't know. I've heard of Zofran working for so many people. But it makes me mad at the Zofran. It was supposed to be helping, but it wasn't doing it's job, or maybe it was doing it's job, and maybe now that I'm further along I don't need it. I don't know. I'm taking any good days I can get with a smile. I hope this lasts and things just keep getting better from here.

Brian wants me to tell everyone that we didn't send Christmas cards, so if you didn't get one from us, don't feel bad - no one did. I haven't even emailed a few people back who asked for our address so they could send us a Christmas card, because the medications I've been on have made focusing on the computer difficult. So I will get to that, and next year everyone will get a fabulous Christmas card from us, but for now, just know that we appreciate you all and we hope that everyone has a very wonderful Christmas!

Gathering Strength

2010-12-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

I haven't had the energy to post, but I've been wondering the past couple of days if I should. I took my Zofran and Phenegren at 9:00, then I spit in the sink, checked on the boys, and went to bed, and I ended up just laying there with words running through my mind, and I knew I needed to post if I was going to get any sleep tonight. I have to post, because I've had some horrible thoughts the last few days, and if Alyssa ever has those thoughts, or if this baby is a girl and she ends up having those thoughts, I want them to know that I've been there, that they're not alone. I have to post because I started this blog not to show off what a perfect life I have or how incredibly cool I am, but to truly chronicle my life, and that means not just including the fluffy, happy thoughts, but the ugly ones as well.

Life is not easy right now. Really, I shouldn't complain. Brian is able to help more than he has during any of my other pregnancies, both of our families have jumped on board to offer any help that is needed, and I have a good doctor that believed me when I said I get sick and is working with me to fix things. But still, life is hard. The Zofran keeps me from throwing up, but it doesn't keep me from feeling nauseated all of the time or from gagging and dry heaving when I move too fast or stand up. It's gotten so bad that I've taken to yelling at my body when it happens, too keep whatever is in my stomach, down. "Stop," I'll yell, or "NO!" really loud. I probably look like a crazy person. My mouth is full of saliva, and it makes me just pukey to swallow it, so I spit into a garbage can all day, and when I move that garbage can it makes me sick just feeling how heavy it's gotten.

I'm tired of laying on the couch, or in bed, but it's about all that I'm able to do each day. Today my accomplishments were taking a shower and washing Alyssa's bedding. Even then, my mom was there to watch the boys for me, and she was the one who made Alyssa's bed once the sheets were clean. Oh, and showering is hard. I try to shower when I'm feeling my best, and I also try to shower quickly so I can get out of there fast, but I'm not able to move fast, so the shower drags on. Most days I just shampoo and condition my hair and get out of there, but even then I have to lay on my bed for a while to recover afterward.

Needles to say, as thrilled as I am to have this new life growing inside me, I hate being pregnant. Brian and I knew we wanted another child, so we tried to get pregnant over the summer so the worst of it would be over when school started, but when I wasn't pregnant in September, we decided to stop trying until the spring, and of course, this is when I got pregnant. And I am happy. I really am. I'm glad that we get to welcome one more baby into our family, and I'm excited to meet this little person, and I know that once we get through the worst of this, eventually I will feel well enough to function normally.

Yesterday was a bad day. It's the day I need to post about. I spent the day on the couch, being loved (i.e. crawled on) by Ethan and Marcus, and I just didn't feel well. So when Marcus decided to help himself to the bag of Cheez-Its on the counter, and decided to help himself by dumping the whole bag on the kitchen table, and I had to jump up and say, "No, that it not what we do," and try to get the Cheez-Its into a bowl while running to the sink multiple times to gag and dry heave and scream "No!" at myself and not at Marcus, I just lost it. I stood at the sink and started to cry. I then composed myself long enough to make sure the Cheez-Its were contained, and I went up to my room and locked the door, went to my bathroom and locked the door, and went to my closet to cry where my children couldn't hear me.

I would love to say at this point that I prayed, but I don't think you could call it praying. Flat out murmuring is how I remember it. I was mad at Heavenly Father - really mad. I was mad that I get sick, that other women get so sick while they're pregnant. I was mad that I'm given this trial, when I want children so badly. This is our last pregnancy. Brian and I decided even before we started trying that we were only going through this one more time, and I can tell you now, it will not be happening again. But I wouldn't feel this hostile to adding children to our family if my pregnancies weren't so miserable. So, yeah, I was mad, and I just sobbed over and over, "I can't do this. I'm not strong enough," and "It's not fair!"

Then I called my mom, and when she heard the hysteria in my voice, that I couldn't even stop crying enough to let her know what was going on, she said she was coming over right away. My sister, who was at my parent's house, called me back after I hung up, so I wouldn't be alone while I waited. And this is when I said horrible things. I said that if Heavenly Father wants me to have this baby, then I will hang on to the very end, but that even though I will love this baby, I don't feel close to it yet - all I feel is sick. I said that if Heavenly Father wanted me to have a miscarriage that I would be sad, but that I would also be a little bit happy to feel like a normal person again. I know that is a horrible thing to say. I know it is. I cringe just thinking about this baby growing up and reading this, and feeling like it wasn't wanted. It is wanted - wanted so badly. But I have to write this for my myself, for my daughter who might someday be sick and have a moment when she feels the same way, for the many women out there who suffer as I do, for the people who don't understand - who need to understand just how consuming and debilitating hyperemesis gravidarum can be.

I have to write this to give myself strength to carry on. To remember that I want this baby, that I love this baby, and that I can make it to the end of this horrible pregnancy. To remember that soon I'll be able to feel the baby move, and that is one of the greatest parts of pregnancy. To remember that someday, sooner than it feels right now, I will hold this baby in my arms and think, "It was so worth it. You were so worth it, and I would do it again, a thousand times if I had to, if it meant getting you."

So there you have it. Carrie, in all her horribleness. I'll leave you with that, partly because I've run out of things to say, but mostly because I'm tired of running to the bathroom sink to spit and to gag, and I know I need to lay down soon or I will definitely throw up. Don't worry about me, though. Brian's mom is scheduled to come over tomorrow to help. I have an ultra sound scheduled fro Thursday, which the doctor wants me to do each week until the end of the first trimester, since I have a history of late first trimester miscarriages. I've had two ultra sounds so far, and every time I see that tiny little heart beating, it gives me purpose. I'm really okay, and I'm going to make it through this.

Guess Where I've Been

2010-12-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

Note: the computer is down, and I used my phone to post this. I wasn't going to tell, but it's just awful. This will be edited soon.

We were going to wait until Christmas to tell anyone. We weren't going to tell our parents, and we weren't going to tell the kids until Christmas day. But I am lousy at keeping secrets. I had it all planned out, too. Just imagine a cute little post on Christmas morning saying that Santa brought a friendship bracelet kit for Alyssa, a airport block set for Ethan, a Batman block set for Marcus, and a bassinet for the new baby. See? Wouldn't that be a great way to tell everyone?

Instead it was, "Mom, I'm so sick. I need a bean burrito," and "Diane, I'm so sick. Can you cook up some chicken and hamburger at your house so I don't have to smell it?" and "Kids, Daddy and I wanted to tell you special on Chrismtas morning, but the reason I've been so sick is because we're getting a new baby, and we're really going to need your help," and finally, "Mom, I'm really sick. Brian is on the phone with the doctor and they want me to come in right now. Can you come watch the kids?"

Did you notice a theme to all that? Yes, I'm pregnant, and like always I am sick as a dog. Not fun. Brian took me in last night and they sent me straight to the hospital. The doctor gave me the option Of waiting a couple of days to go in, but we decided that the sooner the better, and we just hopped across the street to the hospital. They filled me full of fluid and drugs, and I left feeling pretty good. The doctor also put in an order for a Zofran pump to see if that helps me feel better. (I've been taking Zofran tablets for about a week now, and they're helping, but not as good as we'd like.) He also told us to come back to the hospital as often as we need to until we get things under control. So hopefully we'll get this thing kicked before it kicks me. We found out that I have thyroid problems, which may be contributing to the sickness. I left the hospital felog like a normal person, then I started feeling like I had what I would assume to be normal morning sickness, and now it's gotten a little worse. I'm excited to take my Phenegren tonight, because I think that combined with the Zofran will help a lot, and of course, once my Zofran pump comes and I'm getting a continuous supply , things will get better.

BriN got me a really ute charm bracelet thatwas wrapped up and sitting under the Christmas tree when I came home today. It's a pregnancy bracelet, and you add a new charm each month until the baby comes. I love it! I put it on this afternoon, and when feel my two little charms dangling, imreminded that there's a very exciting reason for all of this, and that in July we'll have a sweet little baby.

Cold Turkey

2010-11-25T13:48:00.000-08:00

We ran the Turkey Trot this morning. The pies are all filled and baked. Pumpkin cookies are placed on plates. The broccoli salad has been sitting in the fridge since yesterday. The kids are bathed and dressed. All that's left to do is wait for a phone call from my parents that the turkey is done, and we'll head to the church for some Thanksgiving fun.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Just Keep Running, Just Keep Running, Running, Running, What Do We Do? We Run, Run

2010-11-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

I did it! Last night I went out running, and my goal was to run a 5k without walking, and you know what? I did it! I'm on a super high right now, even though it's already the next morning, just because I actually did it.

My brother told me about a site with free music mixes, where you choose music based on how many beats per minute it has. Last night I listened to "World Cruise" at 155 BPM, and I really liked it. My time isn't as good running the whole things as apposed to when I do intervals, so I'm going to pick a song with a higher BPM on Saturday to see what that does.

A lot of people in my family are signing up for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Mike, Tallia, Kim, Short Brian, me, Alyssa, Ethan, possibly Megan and Michael...It's going to be great!

Switch-Up

2010-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

So I was just sitting here, minding my own business, pouring over a fashion blog, wondering how people can have the time, money, and energy to put into dressing themselves spectacularly each day - when I heard an excited voice behind me, "Mom, look at us!" It was Alyssa. I turned around, and this is what I saw:

Yes, Alyssa and Marcus had switched clothes. First off, look how thin little skinny-minny is in her pajama turned capri pants.

And let's take a closer, fuzzy look at Marcus in Alyssa's glasses. Check the kid out, he's adorable! If Brian checks his eyes and says he needs glasses, I will not be sad. He'd be an intellectual three year old hunk! It's better in person. I couldn't stop laughing at the cuteness; the pictures are not even close to it.

When Marcus looked at this picture he said, "Dat me in Arilla dress!"

Happy Birthday, Dear Marcus!

2010-11-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday was Marcus' birthday. I started singing to him the minute he opened his eyes in the morning, and before they were all the way open, he had a huge grin on his face. We had a pretty busy day: Brian's great uncle's funeral, visiting our newest nephew in the hospital (Erin and Phil's little boy, Calvin), and then his birthday party.

The funeral was actually a good experience. I love LDS funerals! Yes, there are tears shed, but they're not really sad, because we know we'll be able to be with each other again. We enjoyed seeing a lot of Brian's relatives, and the kids especially enjoyed running around the gym afterward with distant cousins. Marcus even hug-tackled a little boy his age. We've got to do something about that. He's a tough lover!

I was visiting with Erin while Marcus was inspecting Calvin in Brian's arms,so I didn't get to witness it, but Brian said he was very interested in the newborn. Calvin had a few small cuts on his head from the delivery, and Marcus was very concerned about those.

And then came the birthday party. We spent most of the day at the funeral, then rushed to the hospital, then rushed to Costco to pick up a cake to supplement the cupcakes and to Michael's Craft Store to replace my cupcake frosting tip I lost, then really rushed back home to straighten up the house and get things ready for the party. We had just barely enough time. I was just finishing placing the cupcakes on plates as Mike and Tallia rang the doorbell.

The party was great. We had a full house with all the grand children running around. Marcus was excited to eat his cupcakes, and he even sat at the table once everyone started arriving and told us he was ready to eat. He got a lot of fun presents from everyone - present opening is chaos with fifteen kids crowded around, but it's also very exciting.

Marcus is quite the guy. He's like a 33 year-old stuck in a 3 year-old body. He thinks he has the same rights, privilages, and kitchen pantry access that adults have. He loves rocket ships, pirates, blocks, books, and cars. He loves to wrestle, but he is also a very good cuddle-er, and he loves to give hugs and kisses. He loves to bake! Any time I go to the kitchen to make something, whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or whatever, he'll be right beside me measuring ingredients and stirring things. He's also started to get a great sense of humor and he likes to crack jokes or say funny things and wait for us to laugh. He is such a sweet little boy, a real joy to have in our family!

Journal Entry

2010-11-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

It is 8:03 and my kids are still asleep. What's with that? Don't worry; I'm taking full advantage of it. I've frosted cookies we made yesterday that we're going to take to Brian's grandpa tonight, I've sent an email to someone on our activities committee, I've checked a few blogs, and now I'm doing a post of my own.

I used to not post to my blog unless I had an absolute definite topic to write about. Now I find that a lot of my posts are just a conglomeration of everything that's happening in my life. I guess my blog is turning into more of a journal, which is a good thing.

8:07 - kids still sleeping.

I've cut back on my running. I've had a sore back for I-don't-know-how-long and last week I finally decided to do something about it. One day while running last week, my back would just pinch and scream at me with each step I took, so I went home and called the chiropractor the minute their office opened. It's helping, but I'm not quite fixed yet. So with my back hurting, my mom offered to let us use their elliptical for a while, and Brian picked it up for me on Monday. I'm doing that in the mornings, but I still have a run to prepare for (Thanksgiving Turkey Trot) so I'm planning on going running on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Alyssa and Ethan want to run the one-miler, so they'll be coming with me. I'm excited for that.

8:12 - kids still sleeping. Crazy!

Brian and I were called two Sundays ago to be the Activity Committee Chairmen. I'm super excited for that. I'm a little sad to not be teaching Gospel Doctrine anymore (Never thought I'd say that!), but I'm glad to not have to prepare a lesson for this Sunday. Last night we had our first meeting to plan the ward Christmas party, and it's going to be awesome.

Alyssa's favorite song right now is Ray Steven's "The Mississippi Squirrel Revival." Brian won an ipod nano at GWCO. He put a bunch of songs on it and gave it to Alyssa. She listens to it every chance she gets, and she discovered that song a couple of days ago. Alyssa has been playing in the afternoons with Camilla, who lives across the street. They're becoming great friends, and I'm glad of it.

8:19 - I took a bathroom break and discovered that Ethan's actually been awake for a little while. He's just quiet. Alyssa and Marcus are still down.

Ethan is just cute. He goes to cousin preschool once a week. (My sisters and I are taking turns hosting and teaching.) He loves it! Yesterday at Tallia's they learned about the post office and mail. They took turns sorting letters and made their own postcards. Ethan has been building lots of things out of blocks. Last night he made spiders while Brian and I were busy with our meeting.

Marcus is almost three! His birthday is on Saturday, and I've got to get cracking on that. I got some rocket ship cupcake wrappers and toppers at Williams and Sonoma (huge splurge!) while we were in Portland, and I'm so excited to see what he thinks of them. He loves rocket ships! His favorite shows right now are "Superwhy" and the cartoon "Iron Man." He's taken a saying from Ethan, and I think it's so cute when he says it. After he tells me something, he always asks, "Did ooh no dat?" which is obviously, "Did you know that?"

8:28 - I don't know what Ethan is doing downstairs, but he's the kid that I basically trust, so I'm not worried. Alyssa and Marcus: I haven't heard a sound from them. They're still breathing, though. I checked. I think it's time to get them up and moving. For kids who are usually awake before 7:00, they are sure sleeping in. Why can't they do this on a Saturday? Oh well. I think I'm going to listen to the squirrel song really loud. That should do the trick. Plus, they'll wake up happy!

Edited to Add: Now she's discovered, "The Pirate Song." We have got to get school started or we're not going to get anything done today!

All Hallows Eve

2010-10-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

our ghostbuster, Medusa, and a pirate

We spent the weekend dressing up for parties and trunk-or-treating. We had a fabulous time.

We planned on not accepting trick-or-treaters this year, with today being Sunday and all, but because of a hot cocoa spill that kept Brian and I pretty busy at the ward Halloween party, we didn't hand out any of our candy. So we are accepting tricksters. I think my favorite part of the whole weekend is that our kids haven't complained at all about not being able to trick-or-treat on Sunday. They understood when we told them why, and they've just been having a blast answering the door and giving out candy. We haven't heard a single, "Why can't we go trick-or-treating?" and I love it!

Cousin Preschool Halloween Party

2010-10-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Participants: Eliza as Belle, Ethan as a dinosaur, Asher as Mario, Marcus as a ghostbuster, Derek as a knight, and Cecily as a knight

We traced our hands on black paper and made bats our of them and put letter pumpkins in alphabetical order.

We ate Halloween cookies at 10:00 in the morning.

We danced to the Monster Mash, played Pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern, and watched Disney's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was a great time!

Tombstone Tales Weekend

2010-10-26T08:03:00.000-07:00

Life is slowing down just a tad. This weekend was insane, and we're still recovering and trying to keep up with the things that are still coming our way. Friday I had Tombstone Tales in the morning and evening, and just after that Brian and I raced over to the stake adult Halloween party. We used our Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter costumes, and we danced and ate yummy brownies.

On Saturday I ran the Halloween Scream and Scram 5K. I don't know how I did time-wise. I had Runkeeper going the whole time, and according to that the race was a little bit longer than a 5K, plus I forgot to stop the timer for a minute after I stopped running. Even if I might not have gotten a great time, I felt like I kept up a good pace. I did 5 and 1 minute intervals, and I really tried to push myself while running. My next race is on Thanksgiving morning, and I'm switching my training to try to run for at least 10 minute intervals. I don't know - Logically, it feels like I need to try to get to where I run the whole thing without stopping, but I really enjoy the intervals. I like running just a bit harder for a while, because I know I'll be able to rest soon, and I feel like I'm losing more weight this way than the times I would just run...and run and run and run.

While I was running on Saturday, Brian took the kids to the Primary Program Practice at the church, and then I raced over to join them as soon as I was done. Our family sang "A Child's Prayer" in the program, and just before we got up to practice it, Brian's brother called and said that Great Grandpa Jacks had fallen and they were assessing whether or not to take him to the hospital. He's in the hospital now, and we went to visit him last night for Family Home Evening. He's a trooper!

I thought I would have time to shower before Tombstone Tales started, but with the phone calls and confusion of plans, I had just enough time to run home and grab my costume. Megan and I were even late. We arrived at the cemetery about three minutes before the first group was supposed to start. I grabbed my costume and threw it on, grabbed the van key from the key ring to stuff in my boot, then ran across the street. It was then I remembered that I had left my family's tickets in the car. I ran back across the street, and pulled the van key out of my boot to unlock the car, only to realize that I was driving Brian's car, not the van. So I ran back across the street, and in my stressful state botched the first round. Then I gave myself a good talking to and did better the rest of the time.

This year for tombstone tales, I portrayed Eunice Freeman, who was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She fought against alcohol and prostitution. She rallied to get women the right to vote, which worked pretty well. Women gained the right in Washington State ten years before the rest of the country, besides Wisconsin, I think. Eunice ended up going to the prison system to help reform recently released convicts and help them ease back into society by finding them housing and jobs. In 1919 she was visiting her home in Portland when Clarence Johnson, one of those recently released convicts, broke into her house to steal things and beat her to death with a lead gas pipe. Quite sad, actually. My station in the cemetery was right after a bootlegger, so we started things with me in his station just as the tour group was arriving, and I would yell at him for corrupting our community, and he would tell me to leave him alone and such, then I would stomp off, yelling, "You haven't heard the last of me, Mr. Clark!" He would then have something incredibly witty to say about those crazy temperance ladies to start his spiel, and I kept waiting for him to say something like, "Yeah, she'll be back again in about twenty minutes."

So Tombstone Tales was very fun. It wasn't nearly as cold as it was last year, and it only rained a little bit. We did have the sprinklers turn on on us once, which was pretty exciting. Brian forgot the camera when he came through, so I had my sister record me. I'll put up a picture and the video when I get a hold of it.

Holy Cow, Life, Slow Down!

2010-10-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

Wow. We have been busy. Busy, busy, busy. We've been jumping from one activity to another, mostly with no time to catch our breath in between. Starting with last week, when we went on a home school field trip to the West Pasco water plant, life is just tumbling together and making things, well, incredibly busy.

Here's a couple of pictures from the field trip.

This is the part of the plant that collects all the sludge after it's cleaned from the water. Usually it's more watery than muddy, but things were temporarily shut down for maintenance while we were there, so all the extra water had drained out. The tracks across the mud are from a frog that lives there that the workers call Fred. Looking for Fred was one of the kids' favorite part.

While the kids and I had school and mowed the lawn and went on the field trip, Brian spent most of his Saturday at the bishop's house, cooking half a pig for the ward luau.

Brian and Bishop Christensen both agreed that they should have cooked the pig for longer, but they didn't have a huge amount of time to work with. It was still yummy!

I don't remember what we did Saturday. Oh, no, I remember. Saturday was not a busy day. Brian played something on the computer, I watched a couple episodes of "Castle" on the laptop, and the kids watched a whole ton of things on the TV downstairs. A while back we went back to our rule of not watching TV on weekdays, and our kids just live it up on Saturdays. That afternoon we went to Brian's grandma's birthday party at Granny's Buffet, then we went to her house to visit with everyone until way late that night. Overall, it was a pretty laid back day.

But don't let that non-busy day fool you. We really have been busy. Monday we had school, then hurried to have lunch in time to get Alyssa to P.E. The boys and I went grocery shopping, then picked Alyssa up. Just after getting home and putting the groceries away, we headed to the Empey's farm for Brian's brother's birthday party. (Eric married Claire Empey, and her family has acres and acres of apple trees and other things, and they make Sheffield Cider, which is fabulous.) We had a bonfire and barbecue out there, and the kids loved every minute of it.

Tuesday Alyssa went to MCP, the boys went to Cousin Preschool at my sister's house, and I went visiting teaching, and running. I did some laundry after picking up the boys, then we picked up Alyssa, we all played in the front yard with the neighbor kids, then we had a quick dinner, and I went to Relief Society.

Today the kids and I spent the entire day cleaning the house. Yes, it was that bad. It took the entire day to clean it. We've been focused on home school, and we've also been running to and fro and back and forth so much that the house has definitely suffered. It feels so good to have everything clean!

So now that I've bored you all to death with the travel logue of our week (I didn't mean to, I promise) I'll try to sum things up pretty quick. Maybe we haven't been as busy as it feels, but in between everything I've been working on memorizing my part for this year's Tombstone Tales. This year I am playing a suffragette, and I get to shout things like, "Votes for women!" and "All alcohol created the same ill efffect. It is from the devil!"

Tombstone Tales starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and it will consume a huge chunk of my time until Saturday night. We're also throwing in the Fall Ball, put on by the Pasco Stake, on Friday night, running a 5K race on Saturday morning, and then driving straight to a practice for the Primary program. This is where life gets really busy. I found a substitute to teach Gospel Doctrine on Sunday so I don't have to have that going through my head while I'm shouting in a cemetery.

Even though it's going to be crazy, I'm looking forward to this weekend. It's going to be great!

Check Me Out

2010-10-12T10:30:00.000-07:00

No, seriously. Check me out.

Hhhmm...

What is that from? Is it Strongbad? "Check me out. No, seriously, check me out." It's running through my head now in Strongbad's voice, and it seems to fit. Ha! We haven't watched Homestar Runner in years, and I'm still quoting it.

So this post was intended to give me an opportunity to brag about how proud I am of myself for keeping some goals I set while watching Conference last week, but now that I'm sitting at the computer, I can think of a whole bucket of things I'd like to brag about, so here I go:

1. Marcus's Ghostbuster Halloween costume is turning out to be so cool. (And you have to say that the way he does, "Ztho Cool!!" Notice the tiny little "L" at the end. It doesn't get represented as much as it should.) Brian found the perfect hand held vacuum attachment set at Value Village last week to fix to his backpack for a proton pack, and I'm having a blast hooking it all together. Plus, the blue sweatsuit that Marcus picked out is way awesome now that it has the Ghostbuster symbol on the sleeve and "JACKS" on the front.

2. On Sunday night I checked the race results from the Indian Summer Run. I was just randomly checking and thinking, "Maybe I'll stop running for a while. It's getting cold in the mornings. I don't know if I want to do it anymore." And then I saw the results. I placed 19th out of 65 women, and 3rd out of 8 in my age group. Pretty cool, huh? That's enough to keep me running every morning. I'm really working on improving my time, and it's fun to race against my previous times each day.

3.I have the coolest husband! This morning when I got home from running, Brian was just getting out of the shower, and he told me to set out two plates and two cups of milk on the table. So I went downstairs and got everything out, being careful not to wake the kids while doing so. It took him longer to get dressed than for me to set the table, so I went back upstairs and he said that there were two brownies on the top of the fridge for our breakfast. They were not just brownies, though. They were yummy caramel brownies. When Brian came downstairs he even played our song on my phone to serenade our unhealthy breakfast. It was fun!

4. So the whole point of this post was to talk about how proud I am of myself for keeping the goals I set while watching General Conference last week. I was only able to watch a couple of sessions, and Brian was only able to listen to parts of sessions on his phone during some of his boring classes, and we both felt sad that we weren't able to watch it together as a family, so we're watching it bit by bit with the kids before bedtime to catch up. But last weekend, even though there weren't any talks that I listened to that were directly about this, I really felt that I need to clean up my TV watching. For the past couple of years I've faithfully watched Grey's Anatomy, and last year I joined the world in watching Glee when it came out. These are both shows that I should not be watching. I finally realized how bad it really was when someone posted something about Glee on Facebook, and I thought, "She watches Glee?!? But she's such a good person!" And then it dawned on me, that I'm trying to be a good person, and I was watching Glee. Then during Conference, I knew that it was time to shape up. I made a promise to myself that I was done, and I told Brian so I could be held responsible.

So here I am, over a week later, and I didn't give in. Honestly, I wasn't even really tempted to watch either show. I think the draw for me in Glee was the music, and I can listen to that on Pandora, and really the draw for me with Grey's Anatomy was the cool medical stories that would tie in with the trials the characters were facing at the time. It was quite clever, and the writers really aren't doing that anymore, so it's not as fun to watch. I think I need to find a new medical show to watch, though, because I think they're fun. Maybe I'll watch Reuben's "Which Doctor TV Shows Are Fake" again for a recommendation.

Anyway, I think I'm done. I can't brag about my kitchen floor, which badly needs to be mopped, and I can't brag about my bed, which needs to be made, and I can't brag about our school room, which looks like a tornado hit it. Oh, wait, it did - Tornado Marcus. So I'm going to go clean now. Just know that today I am feeling pretty darn good.

One Last Hurrah

2010-10-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

My original plan was to celebrate Brian's birthday with the kids for Family Home Evening on Monday night, but with Brian and I eating so much crazy food last weekend, we decided to wait a few days until the party. Yesterday afternoon the boys and I baked and decorated a red velvet cake and hid it in the fridge, and I called a few people to set up a surprise party for Brian. We didn't decide to invite others or to have the party be a surprise until after the cake was done, so I told Alyssa of the plan, hoping that she would keep it a secret. I didn't tell the boys anything, because I hoped they wouldn't have the time to let the secret slip. My plan was to send Brian to ballet with Alyssa and have everyone show up while they were gone. We just invited Brian's side of the family, because I figured that having ten thousand cousins running around wouldn't be as relaxing for him.

So Brian walked in the door a little earlier than usual, when I was just putting the cake pans in the dishwasher, and Marcus said, "Happy birthday!" Then a few minutes later Ethan said, "We made a cake for you." Luckily, these didn't tip him off to the party, because Brian knew we were going to have cake eventually.

Brian and Alyssa went to ballet, and Brian's parents, Grandma Orton, and Eric showed up at 7:00, just as Alyssa's ballet class was ending. Everyone parked down the street, and we waited excitedly in the family room, because he would be there, "any minute."

That minute came and went, and then some. Eric and I kept sneaking to the quiet room (which is what we call our living room) to peak out the front window. 7:20, no car coming up the driveway. 7:25, still no sign of them.

It was just after 7:30 that they finally pulled in to the garage, and we turned out the lights and yelled "Surprise!" as they came in.

Apparently, Alyssa told Brian that they needed to drive around for a little while to give time for everyone to show up. Show up for what? "Nothing," she answered. They ended up stopping at FroYo to get a small serving of frozen yogurt with - wait for it - red velvet cake.

Here's all the party attendees, watching Brian open a present from his parents,

which was a beautiful German something that I can't remember the name of. It's a wooden nativity scene with an arch above it to hold candles. Brian's mom found it locally, but was thrilled that it was authentic, complete with the box and certificate of authenticity. When Brian was reading the certificate to find out where it was made, she said, "Remember going there?" Well, it's going to fit in nicely with the other German decorations Brian brought home from his mission. It's beautiful!

This is Brian pretending to blow out the candle that he just extinguished, because the picture of the actual event was incredibly blurry. With the cake, we sacrificed beauty for taste quality, because we substituted the crisco for butter. The frosting slid down the sides of the cake and lumped at the bottom, spreading the brown trim. It not might have looked like much, but it was sooooo yummy.

Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things

2010-10-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Seriously, we only missed one official day of school, and our vacation only lasted Friday plus the weekend, but yesterday I had such a hard time wanting to clean and home school. One problem was that we needed to stick our hotel key into the thermostat for it to work and it kept timing out every two hours and letting the room get hot, so I didn't get any better sleep than I do at home. So I was very tired yesterday morning. The other problem was that we had so much fun having celebratory birthday meals for Brian and his dad that I felt like a huge loaf from eating too much. The birthday meals were fun, though. Every where we went they were sung to and brought dessert. Plus, we had to get cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory, (because how can you not?) and the huge slice of chocolate cake to share at Claim Jumpers, and after all that I didn't want to eat anything yesterday.

But let me just say that we had a super-ly terrifically wonderful weekend. Brian and I actually talked on the drive over to Portland. We talked without kids interrupting us or us interrupting ourselves to talk to the kids. It was fabulous! We checked into the hotel, then went immediately to the Ringside Steakhouse for an office doctors meeting, where everyone was in love with their meat of choice, and I had the absolute best asparagus in my entire life.

On Friday Brian went to classes pretty early, and I slept in a bit, then met up with Brian's mom to explore Portland. Then we had lunch at Red Robin and headed to the conference center for the exposition fair. I walked around with Brian while he talked with equipment companies, pharmaceutical reps, software people, etc. We saw Justin Heintz (He's married now! Yea!) and Trent Cluny (They finally invited me to their exclusive private blog! Yea!) and it was fun talking to them. After that we went to ToDai's for the official office birthday party for Brian's dad, Brian, and Amy. ToDai's is sushi and sea food, so that was one meal that I didn't eat very much of, but what I did eat (chicken) was yummy. Friday night we stayed up late in Brian's parents room playing Pedro. Brian and I won the first and second hands, and lost the third. Right? Am I remembering correctly? We were way tired, but it was fun.

Saturday I watched the morning session of General Conference with Brian's mom, did some shopping at Ikea (That place is amazing!), then met up with Brian and his dad at Cheesecake Factory. Then on Sunday morning Diane and I watched Sunday's morning session of Conference while Brian and his dad went to their last class, then we went to Claim Jumpers for that amazing chocolate cake, and headed home.

I guess this is a "just documenting" post. It doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it was to experience it. I think the best parts for me were not having to count little blond and brunette heads every time we went somewhere, and not having to tell people not to climb or run in buildings, and not having to tell people to sit down at dinner. It was great!

The kids had their own fun with cousins while we were away. They didn't miss us a bit.

Everybody's Working For The Weekend

2010-09-29T12:45:00.000-07:00

We're just finishing school for the day, and we have a huge list of things we need to do before Brian and I leave tomorrow. I usually do a load of laundry every day, but I'm combining days this week to make up for us being gone, and yesterday I watched Running Wilde while folding the boys clothes, and it was so funny. And while posting the link, I noticed episode 2 is up; it's a good thing I've got more clothes to fold.

Oh, I'm so excited for this weekend. I know I went to Seattle with Brian in March, but that was the same week of our move, and even though it was fabulous to sleep in the hotel room while he went to his classes, I didn't know that I was going until just a few hours before we left, so I didn't get the chance to be excited for it. But this time, I've had a few weeks to count down the days until I would have a child-free weekend. And every time I hear Ethan say, "Mom, I have bad news," which happens quite frequently throughout the day, I just sigh and think, "Just two more days...just two more days."

Brian's birthday is on Friday. He's been planning where he wants to eat his birthday dinner for the last month. "Planning" is the key word here, because I don't think he's decided yet. It sounds like it's a toss-up between all of his favorite Portland restaurants, of which there are many. Brazil Grill, Todai's, Cheesecake Factory, I don't know which he'll pick, or how many others are in the running. See? He's excited, too.

The kids are thrilled to have Grandma Roses staying with them, and Alyssa and Ethan are super excited for their slumber party with cousins after that. My parents are going to Spokane on Sunday to walk with my sister in Step Out*, a walk to fight diabetes, and they'll take Marcus with them, while leaving Alyssa and Ethan with Mike and Tallia.

So now that school is over, I need to get the kids lunch and get started on our to do list, so we'll be all ready to go. We need to pick up pull-ups for Marcus, a prescription for Alyssa, finish all that laundry, change the litter box, pack all of our clothes, turn in our library books that were due yesterday, dye my hair 'cause I'm so tired of the gray sneaking in**, figure out the easiest way for the kids to have school with my mom on Friday, find someone to take Alyssa to her bird watching field trip on Saturday, and everything else that comes up.

Did I mention we're excited?

*My sister was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 5 years ago. If you'd like to sponsor her team for the walk, go here.
**I think Ethan's, "Mom, I have bad news"es are a big factor in graying my hair, along with the "Mom! Marcus just-"s, the "Marcus has been-"s, etc.

We Did It!

2010-09-27T12:16:00.000-07:00

So Brian and I ran the Indian Summer 5K on Saturday. I discovered that I prefer running in the dark at 5:30 in the morning to running in the bright sunshine at 8:00. I think I'll wear a hat for the next run, which will be the Howl n' Scream Scram on October 23rd.

On Thursday I ran for five minute blocks with 2 minute intervals of walking between, and it was actually pretty easy. So I decided to cut my walking time down to blocks of a minute and 30 seconds for the actual race, and it was tough! I beat my Thursday time, which was my goal, but it was definitely hard to do. On Thursday I kept thinking, "Maybe I'll try to do the 10K in October instead of the 5K," but after Saturday I've decided that I should improve my 5k time and increase the time I actually spend running before I attempt a 10K.

Brian and I were walking and running at different times throughout the race, so we kept passing each other and saying, "Hello," which was fun. Brian was about ten paces behind me at the end, so he caught up to me and grabbed my hand, and we crossed the finish line together at 32 minutes and 8 seconds. At the beginning of last week I was praying that I would finish under 40 minutes, so I am quite proud of myself.

My favorite part of the whole thing was running beside two teenage girls, whose conversation went like this:

Girl 1: Are you sweaty?

Girl 2: Yeah, are you sweaty?

Girl 1: (slight pause) No.

Liar! How can you not be at least a tiny bit sweaty after running two miles in the sunshine? My goodness - I almost laughed out loud, but I'm glad I didn't. When I told Brian about it later, he said she must have been "glistening" instead of sweating.

This Week Is Going By Way Too Fast!

2010-09-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Thursday! Wasn't it just Monday? Wasn't it just Sunday?

Ah, Sunday. Sunday I both gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting and did the lesson for Gospel Doctrine. It was crazy! I woke up Sunday morning and put the finishing touches on both, and I had facts and quotes and comments from both the talk and the lesson floating around in my mind all morning, and I was afraid that I would start to talk about Amos and prophets during my talk on prayer. My talk went better than I expected, but I don't think I prepared for my lesson as well as I should have, because I kept getting lost from going between my notes and the lesson manual. It felt so good when they were both over, though. It was so wonderful to sit in relief Society and think, "I'm done!"

Monday was a great day. Alyssa did wonderful at school, and after lunch we took her to MCP for P.E. Alyssa has the best P.E. teacher, and she loves that class! She was also so excited to see her new friend, Sara. The best part of Monday was that I was able to drop Ethan off with my sister when we picked up her daughter (Emma) to take with us to MCP. Marcus and I went grocery shopping (shopping with only one child!) and then we ran our groceries home and then hurried to the orthopedic surgeon's to have him check Marcus' broken collar bone, which is healing very well.

We practiced "A Child's Prayer" for Family Home Evening, because our family is singing it for the Primary Program. Alyssa's extremely excited for that!

Tuesday is Alyssa's full day at MCP, which also makes it my day to mop the kitchen and dining room and catch up on other chores. I let the boys just run and play and watch tv on Tuesdays, to give them a break from our daily school routine. Nothing significant happened on Tuesday, but it was a good day.

Wednesday (yesterday) I ran my first practice run four our 5K on Saturday. Going back and forth from running 5 minutes and walking 3 minutes, I did it in 36 minutes. I was shooting for 40, so yea! And this morning I shortened the walking from 3 minutes to 2, and I did it in 33 minutes. I'm taking tomorrow off to rest. I'm so stoked for the race on Saturday. It's my first ever, and I really feel like I've prepared well. Brian hasn't had time to go running, and he keeps saying that I'll beat him. Wouldn't that be cool? I highly doubt that I will, because Brian will most likely push himself hard and kill himself in the process, but it would be a huge ego boost to run faster than my long-legged husband.

Alyssa also had ballet yesterday, and I'm so proud that she's doing a better job of listening to the teacher and following directions without complaining. Last night they had old tu-tu's for sale for $2, and Alyssa bought a bright yellow one with some of her birthday money. She's working very hard on being able to do the splits. She's such a cute little ballerina!

Tonight Ethan has gymnastics. We started him in the Parks and Rec program, and he is loving it. He's doing a lot of jumping on the trampoline and walking on the balance beam. On our way into the building on his first night, when he had no idea what gymnastics was, he walked all along the curb like a balance beam, and I thought, "This is the perfect class for him!" I think that he also likes to have his own special thing to do by himself.

Home school is going splendidly. We still have our moments, of course, but for the most part we have our routine down, and the kids know what is expected of them. Marcus is our difficult one right now. He is just so busy, and he's constantly getting into things. I've started to strap him down in a booster chair to keep him from bothering Alyssa while she's working, but he likes to push the table over onto Ethan, which is just one of the crazy things he does throughout the day. I've been looking on Craigslist, and I found two desks that are similar to Alyssa's that we're probably going to buy this weekend, so each kid has a space of their own, and a place to keep their school supplies. I'm excited for that! I know Ethan's ready to start doing more school-type work, and he will love having his own desk, just like his big sister.

Speaking of home school, I started this post during one of our five minute breaks, and the break has lasted just a bit longer than that. I'm not even sure exactly how long, but the kids have been happily playing on the purple couch for quite some time now. We only have Math left to do, then we can have lunch, and I'm hungry!

Have a great day, everyone!

Badger Mountain

2010-09-20T09:18:00.000-07:00

the view from the top

On Saturday we hiked up Badger Mountain with my brother and his family. It was raining just before we set out, and it sprinkled a little bit while we were out. The rain made it nice and cool, and we had a great time.

When Brian and I were looking for directions to the trail head in case we got seperated from Mike and Tallia, we found this review of Badger Mountain on Yelp, which I thought was hilarious. "In southern California, we live by the mantra: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

It doesnt matter how much you spend on clothes or who designed them, if you are overweight, you are not going to look good. Piercings and tattoos cant make you look better in a bathing suit.

Remember, the only person who prevents you from staying in shape is you. Not a professor, parent or law enforcement officer. You dont need consent and there isnt a minimum score on an entrance exam. Nope. Just YOU vs. YOU. Its sad how many people value 45 minutes of eating over hours of being healthy and looking their best. Life is simply more enjoyable when you feel and look good.

There are four flaws in my argument, however. That mantra is almost true. Guinness, bacon, ice cream and cheese are known exceptions to this.

After moments of weakness (and/or weekend binges) there is a way to recover from your debauchery. Badger Mountain.

This may be the easiest way to burn 700+ calories and tone your core, butt and leg muscles. A one hour investment is all you need.

The cost to transform your body is nothing. Start at Badger Mountain today. Who knows, by summer time, you could be catching the attention of someone you thought was out of your league."

All of the reviews talked about how hiking the mountain made you use muscles in your legs that you didn't know you had, and I can tell you that it's true. I even got a bit of an extra workout carrying Marcus for part of the time.

Most of the group...and my finger

Brian, helping Marcus along when he didn't want to walk

Pronounced "Gecko," With A "W"

2010-09-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

When Brian first started optometry school, and he first started attending the weekend event put on by the Great Western Councel of Optometry, I jokingly called it "Opticon." You know, "opti" for "optical" and "con" to make it sound like a crazy science-fiction convention. Yeah, I know...he didn't think it was funny either.

GWCO is every fall in Portland, and it is a huge event. It's the first big conference and Continuing Education opportunity that optometry students at Pacific University College of Optometry are exposed to, and I remember Brian getting excited for it each year. The students were allowed to enroll in the classes for free (they even needed C.E. credit while they were still in school), and they were also encouraged to volunteer as helpers for the conference. GWCO, for us, also meant that Brian's parents would be coming into town, and Brian would go spend the night in Portland with his dad so they could go to their classes together. Poor Brian usually had to sleep on the floor, but he still had a great time, probably because they would go out for sushi and other nasty stuff that his wife doesn't feed him.

I think it was Brian's first or second year of school that we went to one of the conference's dinners with his parents. I loved seeing all of the doctors who were done with school (it meant there really was an end in sight!) and it was fun to have a night out in Portland.

Now Brian's graduated, and he really wanted me to go to GWCO with him last year, but it was the same weekend that I was in Tombstone Tales. I missed GWCO, and Brian missed Tombstone Tales, and I promised Brian last year that I would go with him this year. Luckily, the two events don't cross over this year, and we'll be able to do both!

Marcus has started a stage where he does the scream/cry when he doesn't get his way, and I've spent the last couple of days continually saying, "This is a tantrum and tantrums are unacceptable" while putting him in his room and telling him to come out when he's happy. That strategy has been working pretty good, because he's quick to figure out that screaming isn't getting him anywhere, but with the whole scenario I've been having daily headaches that last for hours, and by the time the day is over, I am ready for bed. I've also been cleaning up poop and potty, because Marcus is officially potty training (and doing really good the last two days!) and Ethan, who is usually our best behaved child just needs to learn to stand up for himself instead of whining, "Mah-hawm! Marcus fill in the blank with any unbelievable this you could think of. Wahhh!" That's not too much fun either. My mom and sister-in-law have wonderfully accepted to watch the kids for the weekend, and I am so looking forward to having the time off.

So the whole point to this post is this: We're going to GWCO. Is anyone else going?

A Beautiful Baptism

2010-09-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Alyssa's baptism a couple of weeks ago was just wonderful. She was so excited all day long, and it was fun to do her hair and get her into her pretty white dress. She was baptized with her cousin Marian and her friend from church, Ashley.

Ashley chose the prayers and songs, and Alyssa and Marian each chose a speaker. Marian chose her mom and Alyssa chose Grandpa Jacks. We sang, "Keep the Commandments," and "I Know That the Savior Loves Me," and all three girls and their brothers and sisters and cousins sang, "When I Am Baptized" for a special musical number.

I loved being a part of the baptisms as a mom. It was so fun to help the girls change into their white jumpsuits, and I loved being able to stand with them as they watched each other be baptized, and I especially loved the behind-the-scenes view from the side of the font as I watched Brian baptize Alyssa. I know that she was making a good choice to follow the Savior's example to be baptized, and I felt the Holy Ghost testify of the truthfulness of the ordinance of baptism and the love Heavenly Father feels for these girls.

While Alyssa and Marian were changing out of their wet clothes together they were exclaiming, "I want to do that again!" and "That was so much fun!" My sister and I enjoyed watching them talk with each other about how they felt and how excited they were. They are such sweet girls, and I know they're trying to make good choices to be closer to Heavenly Father. I'm so proud of them!

A Brand New Day

2010-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you, everyone, for all those wonderful comments yesterday. It helped me so much to feel that support and to know that I'm not the only one who feels as I did.

Today is going to be so much better. Brian and I were both asleep by 9:00 last night, and when my alarm went off this morning, it was so much easier to get out of bed. I went running with my sister again. We're doing the Couch to 5K program, and we completed Week 3, Day 1 this morning. At the end of every run we say, "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." We'll see if we're still saying that in a few weeks. Brian and I have signed up for a 5K on the 25th, so we're preparing for that. I'm excited!

Anyway, Ethan must have woken up while I was gone, because he was asleep in our bed when I came home, and all of the kids slept long enough for me to have enough time to decently get ready for the day. And, yes, I'm wearing makeup today, and I do feel better about myself.

We have our September progress meeting with our adviser at MCP this afternoon, mostly to talk about our weekly schedule and plans for home school, then Alyssa has her first ever Achievement Days activity. I am so excited about that! I can't believe she's old enough to go to Acheivement Days.

It's funny, because the things that have been weighing on my mind lately are still there, but they're not weighing me down as they did yesterday. It's amazing how much a good night's sleep can change your perspective on life.

Blech

2010-09-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

I know, I'm a horrible blogger. Probably not such a thoughtful mother, either. Alyssa was baptized on Saturday, and I haven't blogged about it. She deserves a beautiful post to go along with her beautiful baptism, but I don't think it's going to happen today. Instead, I am selfishly posting about myself.

I don't feel up to posting a happy-go-lucky, life-is-wonderful post today. Believe me, life is wonderful - isn't it? - I'm just not having a very good day. It started out okay, though. I woke up at 5:20 to go running with my sister, and we talked and laughed and were out of breath the whole time, and we even stood in her driveway and talked for ten minutes when we were done. But then as I walked in the door, I heard Marcus coming down the stairs, and I wasn't ready for him to be awake. It was only 6:15.

I guess it didn't help that Brian went fishing last night, and didn't get home until way late, and I couldn't get to sleep until just a bit before he came home. I am seriously cranky.

So Brian was getting ready for work, and Marcus was so happy that he was awake early enough to see Dad in the morning, and it was really cute to watch. But then Ethan woke up, too, and Brian left for work, and when I told the boys I needed to shower, they both wanted to join me, so I gave them my phone and told them to sit on my bed and play Angry Birds while I attempted to shower as fast as I could while praying that they wouldn't find the Emergency Call button and dial 911. But Marcus didn't want to share the phone, so Ethan kept coming in and whining that Marcus wasn't sharing, so I stopped hurrying and just let the hot water rinse over me for a while. I would have locked the door to begin with, but I wanted to be able to listen to the boys to monitor them and their game-on-the-phone use.

It got quiet after a minute, and after I got dressed, I found all three kids at the computer watching some penguin show, and they all complained when I turned it off and told them to get ready for the day, and I went to brush my teeth, but I didn't put any makeup on. I've been trying to wear makeup every day for the past year or so in order to: 1) not feel like a twelve year old trying to look grown up when I do my makeup for church each Sunday, and 2) to feel pretty every day, even if it's just my kids (mostly my kids) and my husband seeing me, so I can feel good about myself and not feel like a frumpy mom, which happens sometimes, although it doesn't happen as often as it used to. But I just didn't want to bother with it today.

The kids did reasonably well at breakfast, although Marcus emptied the entire kids cup drawer after I filled it, and even though it was cute that he was building rocket ships out of them, it was also a bit frustrating, too.

I gave up on having school this morning, because I know that I need a nap. I know that just a little bit more sleep is going to change my entire outlook on life. I just hope the kids don't burn the house down while I'm sleeping. Alyssa is downstairs watching Jim Henson's, "The Storyteller," and Ethan keeps coming upstairs and asking when I'm going to be done with the computer, because he doesn't like what Alyssa is watching.

I probably look like such a whiner. My mom and sister probably think I'm such a whiner, because I already called them this morning, and both times they helped me feel better, but also after both times something happened which made my mood plummet again. But does anyone else have days like this? Days where you feel like no matter how hard you try, you're always behind, or days where you don't feel connected to anyone and you just get lonely for no reason at all, or days where things aren't going right and the part that just kicks you in the pants is that you sit down to write a cheerful post about your daughter's baptism and instead you look at everyone's blogs and get jealous of all the crafts and activities and home improvement projects that you wish you had the time and money and energy to do?

And now the post is over, and I'm realizing just how therapeutic it is to write all of your feelings down. I really do feel better already. I'm also realizing that when I write therapeutically, I use very long, drawn out sentences with very little grammar.

So I'm going to secure the children as well as possible, put a load of laundry in the wash, and go to bed, and when I wake up in an hour or so, we're going to start over. We'll have school, lunch, probably some more school, then go meet the bookmobile at the park (I'm really excited about that!), and come home for dinner. I know today will get better.

Isn't She Gorgeous?

2010-08-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

We got word on the final time for Alyssa's baptism next week, so I got up this morning and worked on the invitation. (School kind of happened on Monday, and it hasn't happened since. Next week will be much easier, because everyone else will be in school, too.) I copied the idea from someone's blog - just someone I found by googling "lds baptism invitation," and I love how it turned out.It helps that I had such gorgeous pictures to work with. We took them in Brian's parent's yard last week, and it was so much fun. Alyssa was coming up with all sorts of poses, and there were a bunch of times I had to say, "Just look at me and smile." And then once I felt I had enough decent "baptism invitation" shots, I told her to just go around the yard acting like a princess. Which, of course, she did perfectly. The "ball pose" she came up with all by herself. She planned it that morning, and even asked Marcus in advance if she could borrow it.