This One Goes Out To The One I Love

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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

 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

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!

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

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

 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

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

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!

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!

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!