Adventures of the Ward Family

First day of school

2010-09-08T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of school. I now have two 5th graders and a kindergartener. Yikes where has the time gone?

(heading out to catch the bus)

(waiting her turn to go into class. She got the same teacher Shan had last year which is great since we loved her.)

Mt. Adams

2010-08-07T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've been so bad with journaling so this is an attempt to catch up a little. This is going to be a long entry so feel free to read on but I won't be offended if you just look at the pictures. :)

There are some advantages to being the YW president. Not only am I able to get to know some great youth, I get to participate in things I normally wouldn't have. The end of June (24-26) was Dance Festival. Along with going to the practices, I volunteered to help at the actual festival. One day I worked a few hours in the girls changing tent during the dress rehearsal. The next day I helped during the lunch time. At that time, Sis. Cook, 1st counselor in the YW General Presidency was there and I was able to get a picture with her and hear her speak. Watching the festival was amazing. There were seven different stakes there with over 2,000 youth and it was fantastic.

July 9-10 I took part in climbing Mt. Adams. There were a total of 11 youth and nine adults. My pack weighed 40 lbs. The water is what made it so heavy. I was carrying 5 liters, 2 liters for the climb up, 2 for the summit and one for coming back down. The climb started out fairly gentle on a dirt path with some melting patches of snow. It was a warm day, the weather was beautiful and it didn't take too long to get hot, sweaty and thirsty. We left as a group around 1:15 and soon after that you could tell who was going to struggle. I had to stop twice at the beginning to apply moleskin to an already forming blister. Not a good sign. We had to rent our boots, cramp-ons and pickax so we all were wearing shoes we weren't used to. But after puting on the moleskin and using duct tape, we were on our way again.

The climb up to the lunch counter(where we were going to be spending the night) was hard. We didn't have very long with the dirt paths before it became all snow. Because of all the snow, we basically went straight up the mountain rather than a gradual accent with switchbacks. I didn't like to stop very often because I didn't like how I felt once I had to get going again, so I tried to rest as little as possible and took it at a gentle pace. There were a few places where I'd take 20 steps and rest for 5 seconds then take 20 more and rest again and only once did I have to take my pack off.

By 7:30 I finally made it to the lunch counter where the first section of our group was already starting to set up camp. I had been in the middle of the pack and the girl I was sharing a tent with was clear at the back. It was another hour before she showed up with someone else carrying her pack.

We put on warmer clothes, it was cooling down very quickly, set up our tents and climbed inside to warm up and get ready for the next day. I hardly slept that night. Soon after putting on my warm pants, I discovered I had forgotten to put sunscreen on the small portion of my exposed legs and I got sunburned. The ground was extremely hard, I had no pillow, my muscles were starting to feel the strain of the climb and the minute I laid down, it was as if I got an instant cold and I couldn't breath out of my nose anymore.

(the view from the lunch counter, looking up to the first summit. The very top summit is beyond that)

Around 7am people were starting to stir and I was feeling restless so I started to get ready for phase two of the climb. It was quickly obvious to me that I might not make it all the way to the top. I had no energy and wasn't feeling very well (two of the youth had gotten altitude sickness the night before). It turned out that four youth stayed behind. We all got our cramp-ons on, pick axes in hand and our small back packs on with only water and a bit of food and we were off. The second part was much harder than the first. Because I was so weak, it was much slower going. There was a time I got real worried that I was going to be sick. I soon caught up with a group that had to stop and re-adjust their cramp-ons and they fell in behind me and offered encouraging words and chatted the rest of the way up. I kept telling myself, just another step, deep breath, sip of water, keep going and eventually we got to the first summit. From there you could glissade back down the mountain or continue up to the top. There was just no way I had enough energy to climb another two hours to the top and then get back down. The Granges, who had been behind me, decided to keep going while I waited for the last two, who were way behind me, to get to where I was.

(At the first summit, just over 11,000 feet)

(Looking down at the climbers from the top of the first summit)

(Mt Hood in the distance)

(Looking up from the first summit to the top of Mt. Adams)

Once Haley and Linda finally reached the first summit where I was, they had a quick rest and then we took our cramp-ons off and prepared to slide down the mountain. I was thinking this was going to be the best part but I was totally wrong. I let Linda go first, then Haley, thinking that Haley could go between the adults in case anything happened to her, one of us could help. So they take off down the hill and I sit down on the slide and start off. Immediatley I notice that it's not going to be as fun as I thought. The pants I was wearing weren't your regular ski pants, they were extremely slippery and I found myself going way too fast and out of control. I was using the pickax and my heels to slow me down but it wasn't much help. One of the times I managed to stop myself I actually got up and walked over to the side to rest and figure out how I was going to get down. My arm was killing my from breaking and I had absolutely no friction to help slow me down. One hiker passing on his way up gave a few suggestions. I could make my own slide that might not be as slippery, I could sit on my back pack and use that as some resistance or I could hike back down. His buddy suggested I take my pants off, which I replied that I might as well, my butt was already frozen. Well, the thought of making my own slide scared me, I couldn't use my pack because we had put all the cramp-ons in it and I could easily maim myself with them, and it would take hours for me to hike back down. So I climbed back onto the slide and eventually made it to the bottom. I did a lot of praying and shed a few tears during that ride. My pants were so slippery that when I got to the bottom where everyone else had stopped and gotten up, I continued sliding another 30 or so feet, extending the slide.

I make it back to the lunch counter where everyone is breaking camp. We get our packs loaded and start heading back down the mountain. The snow was very soft so it didn't hurt the knees coming down. In several spots there were slides that we would go down on. These were much easier to slide down on, they weren't as steep. There was at one point a split in directions; either go down and to the right or go to the right first, then down. I chose to go to the right first because it was the most traveled path There were only two other people in my group who went that direction. As I was walking behind Jay, my foot slipped off the path and I started sliding down the hill, heading right for trees and rocks. There was a little part of a tree sticking out of the snow that my foot caught and stopped me. To the right of me was a slide that I could go down, if I could work my way over there, then all would be well. So I started inching my way over. I would dig my heels into the snow and scoot over. At one point, the snow gave out and I started sliding down again. There were two rocks sticking out of the snow that were able to stop me again. By this time I was so freaked out that I actually said a few choice words. I hear, "Sister Ward, are you ok?" One of my Laurels was standing up above me on the path I had just slipped from. I apologized for my language and she laughed and mentioned that considering my situation, she totally understood. I managed to get my ice-axe detached from my pack and used that to help me get the rest of the way over to the slide. For the remainder of the hike down, we all stuck together more closely.

I wouldn't say it was fun but definitely an experience that I will never forget. I ended up with a huge weeping blister on my heel, despite the moleskin. My boots were so full of water that nothing would have helped prevent blisters. The underside of my nose got so burned it blistered and for days felt like dry crusty boogers were stuck to it because of the scabs it formed. My neck, shoulders and back were so sore that I ended up going in for a massage (darn). I now have the ugliest tan line from the sunburn and hopefully by next summer it will be gone.

2010-01-12T16:16:00.000-08:00

I did manage to get these two pictures of the kids when we went out to get a Christmas tree. My parents live up the street from a tree farm so mom and I walked down while the kids rode with Papa. It got too dark after I took the one of Aiden so that's all I got of us picking out the perfect tree.

This was too funny. The kids had lots of fun playing in the boxes.

Aiden is so funny to watch play video games. He does this everytime he plays.

Happy New Year

2010-01-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

At least we're hoping this year will be happier. Doug's last day with May Trucking was December 23rd. Christmas was nice having him home. He started working for FedEx Ground December 28th. Right now he's still in training, although there's not much training he needs. The guy he's riding around with won't be quitting until the end of this month, something neither Doug or his supervisor new about. We both thought it would be sooner but oh well. Right now Doug's just trying to get a feel for the route. Apparently it's a rather large route and FedEx does things a bit differently. He'll have to go through his truck every morning to memorize and organize all the packages, something he didn't have to do with UPS. The pay isn't the greatest (but more than May) and we don't have benefits but at least he's home every night.

We've rented out our bonus room to a couple in the ward that just got married. We thought long and hard about doing that and had some concerns but so far it's been alright. We've been having fun getting to know them better. With the huge pay cut Doug got we needed to do something and I'm thankful the Lord planted that seed for us.

My camera flash is still broken so I don't have any good pictures to post. Hopefully we can get that issue fixed within the next couple of months.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about shopping. Today feels like a black cloud's been hanging over us. The whole year has been feeling like that but for a moment there, it seemed as if it was starting to clear up. Now, who knows.

It all started this morning. I get up with Doug at 6:30am to take him down to the Jubitz yard where his rig is. I was planning on just dropping him off and hurrying back home but he asked me to stay a minute and when he tried starting truck, it wouldn't turn over. He tried again, nothing. Great, the battery's dead. So for the next half hour, we tried to jump his truck, all the while I'm thinking he's going to blow up my car and there's no way my vehicle is going to give him enough power to charge his three batteries. Just when I'm ready to start crying because I really need to get home and he's really got to get on the road, a lot attendant comes by and Doug asks him to help. I go home and a while later Doug calls to tell me it only took about another 10-15 minutes to get his batteries charged. Mind you, it took an hour just last week to charge his rig when he had it in the shop for some repairs he needed done while he was down in So. Cal. That was a headache.

So I get home and a few hours later I decide I need to call the bank and see where we're at with the paperwork they were suppose to be sending us in hopes of saving our house. This process started back in July. I was told in Sept. that we no longer qualified for the program we were trying for so now we qualified for a different program and that we needed to wait up to 45 days for a packet that was going to be sent to us. During those 45 days, I called numerous times to see if anything had been sent out and everytime we were told we just needed to wait. Finally one guy told us if we hadn't gotten anything by the 18th of Nov to call back. I called back on the 19th and after a lengthy time being on hold, while he was trying to get more info., he comes back on and tells me that they were going to be puting a rush on it and if we didn't get anything by the 25th to call back on the 27th. I was told today that the request was never pushed through to the loan modification department so there is no paperwork being sent out to us. Excuse me!?!?!?!?!? Then what about all those other customer service reps I had talked to? Why wasn't this addressed to me all the other times I've called? They're looking at the same screen, the same information, the same notes! She didn't know but she'd be glad to see if we qualified for one of their programs now. I was so mad I hung up on her. I thought it would be best to give myself the weekend to cool down.

So Doug makes it to his stop, delivers the load, picks up an empty trailer and heads back home. Yay, he'll be home tonight then tomorrow afternoon he'll be off to pick up another load. About an hour later he calls to tell me his truck broke down........AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He's 104 miles away. We've lost count of how many times that dumb truck has been in the shop. After descending a hill, he notices a knocking sound when he tries to accelerate and it is also losing power and he's barely crawling, with an empty trailer. That's not good. He pulls over into a truck stop, checks his oil and notices it smoking. That's really not good. Then his check engine light comes on. He calls breakdown and after waiting an hour it's decided that he'll be towed back to Portland. It's 9:30 pm and we're down in Portland with the kids complaining they're tired and it's cold and "when are we going home?".

So, his truck is in the shop now, for who knows how long, and we still haven't heard anything from FedEx regarding whether or not he got the job. We were suppose to have known Wednesday. Now it's the weekend, he's ready to call May and tell them forget it, I quit but if he does get the new job, he'll have to start on the 7th which is a week from Monday and odds are his rig won't even be looked at until next Wednesday.

And, I've been trying to sell a few things on Craigslist to 1) get rid of some extra stuff we've accumulated and 2) try to earn a little extra $ for Christmas, which is going to be very small this year. I had some chairs posted and have faithfully checked my email to see if anyone was interested. I checked it about 9pm on Wednesday and then this morning, seeing how surely no one would be checking craigslist on Thursday. Well, someone wanted to buy them for Thursday because he was having extra family come in and needed some more chairs. He sent the request at 10:30pm on Wednesday. Ugh. I had tried selling these chairs a few weeks ago with a few nibbles but I still have them. The other thing we're selling in our waveless waterbed. It's still in good condition and I have/had a man wanting to come look at it. He was going to come over Wednesday but traffic was terrible so we scheduled for him to come tonight and he was going to be bringing his girlfriend because he was really interested. Nothing.

On the bright side of things, Doug will be here tomorrow to help with the twins birthday party.

Happy Birthday!

2009-11-18T14:07:00.001-08:00

Today Olivia is 5. Happy birthday cute girl!!

More job update

2009-11-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

We went to court yesterday for Doug's trial and it went well.

We dropped the kids off at our friend's house at 6:30am on Tuesday and headed down to Newport. We got there about 1/2 early so we sat out in the hall, not knowing if we were suppose to go in the court room or not since there were already some people in there. Three more people showed up and five minutes to ten we all filed into the room. The case before us still hadn't been resolved and the judge told them to come back in 45 minutes. I was thinking it was surely going to take longer than that for the four cases but it went rather quickly.

The first lady gets to plead her case after the officer makes his statement. She was ticketed for going 20 over the limit. The judges verdict: guilty. $110 please. The second man also pleads his case for his speeding ticket. Verdict: guilty. Another $110 please. The third victim, ticketed while speeding and with a suspended license. Guilty. $322 Great, it's not looking good for us. It's now Doug's turn. He and the officer are sworn in and the officer (whose last name is Jennings) makes his statement. In it, he explains how suprised Doug was to discover that his license had been suspended. At the end of his speech, he asks that the state dismiss the case. The judge was very suprised and immediately says "why?". The officer then explains that the addresses didn't match up because he had move (thus the reason we never got a notice telling us his license was going to be suspended) and because he went the following day and took care of the problem and filled out the necessary paperwork. She asked for his evidence, looked it over and told Doug, "I was going to find you guilty. It is your job to notify the DMV when you move. Case dismissed." Uhhhhhhhhh.......Thank you very much your Honor! Doug stands up, turns to shake hands with the officer, tells him thank you and we walk out the door.

We walk down the hallway and start talking about what she said, it's our responsibility to notify the DMV. Well yes, we know you have to let them know when you move within the state but moving out of state? We turned around and went back to ask the officer if he knew if we were suppose to do that when we move out of state. He had no clue, and told us to drive safe. I don't know what the judge was thinking with that comment but I'll definitely make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed next time we ever move.

Whew, what a relief. So this morning Doug had an interview for FedEx Ground. He was offered the job but he still needed to go fill out an application. We had been given this man's name through a friend and Doug had only talked with him over the phone. Today they met and he liked what he saw in Doug. It's not the job that he really wanted, working for a contractor, no benefits, no paid holidays, but he'll be home every night, it's better pay and will hopefully get him to an even better job with FedEx, driving the big trucks. It's not final, they still have to do background checks and all that. It was never brought up the reason why he left UPS so we're hoping that won't be a problem. If all goes well, he'll start Dec. 7th.

These past few months have been so stressful but that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Thank you, everyone, for all your prayers! We have been greatly blessed.

From the mouths of babes

2009-11-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

I've been collecting these for a few weeks now.

Bryson: "It smells like he wet his pants" (Referring to Aiden)
Mom: "Did you wet your pants?"
Aiden: "It's almost dry."

Olivia toots
Mom: "Why are you so tooty today?"
Olivia (very seriously): "My body just does that."

Olivia: "Do you know what I dreamed?"

Mom: "What?"

Olivia: "There were these two guys and they were in the toilet and then they flushed it and had their hands up in the air."

Olivia: "I on askident (she can't say accident) swallowed my gum. It went through my throat."

Mom: "What do you want for your birthday dinner?"

Olivia: "Steak.........and jello."

Olivia has been in bed for a while, we heard a noise then she starts crying. Dad goes in to see what happens and she has bonked her nose on the bed. How she did that, I don't know but Doug comes out of the room chuckling. He said she told him she would put water on her nose in the morning so it won't be bruised. Explanation: The last few days she's had smashed fingers and burned her arm so we immediately put her owies in cold water so they won't be very bruised or blistery the next day. Don't worry, by morning she had forgotten all about it and there was no bruise to be seen.

Doug is playing a video game when his phone rings. He turns the game and tv off and answers his phone. In reply to a question asked on the other end he says, "not much just sitting at home doing nothing."

Olivia in the background: "No you're not, you're playing a game."

Aiden: "What are you doing?"

Mom: "Puting Carmex on my lips because they're chapped. Do you want some?"

He nods his head yes.

A few minutes later I see him sitting on the couch touching his lips.

Mom: "What are you doing, Aiden?"

Aiden: "My lips are spicey, that's why I wiped them on my jammies."

The sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful pink.

Olivia: "Mom, you see that over there?" pointing to the sky.

Mom: "Yes, what about it?"

Olivia: "That's Jesus' heart."

Since we've been home

2009-11-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

Shortly after we got home from North Carolina, we went to our local Clark County Fair and enjoyed some time with dad while he was in town.

We let the kids all choose one ride they could each go on. We would have loved to let them ride more but A) it was raining and we were all cold and B) tickets for the rides are expensive and when there are four kids, it adds up quickly.

This is what Shannon chose. She was so excited and once the ride started going higher I thought she was going to throw up. I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face during the ride. Afterwards it took a few minutes for her to get back to her old self.

Aiden and Olivia wanted the bouncy cars.

And Bry wanted the roller coaster, so of course I just had to go on with him. :)

I tried to get a picture of the eagle when he spread his wings but someone walked right in front of me so I had to settle for this one. He's still beautiful.

With Doug being gone I've had to have dad come and do the repairs that I can't. Water was leaking down under the sink and the whole garbage disposal had to be removed and a new seal put in. Dad had lots of "help" from the little ones.

One exhausted girl. She fell asleep waiting for me to tuck her in.

Bry got stuck. It took about 10 minutes to get him out.

Doug was able to make it home for his birthday so we had some good friends over for dinner. His cake was a KrispyKreme doughnut with a scoop of ice cream on top. How do you like his candle? Yup, that's a lighter. Thanks, Cory for lighting it!

For Labor Day we went to Agate beach with our dear friends, the Giffords. It was just gorgeous.

Usually it's pretty windy on the coast but there was hardly a breeze so the kids had a hard time flying their kites.

Wish dad could have been there with us. :(

One evening while Doug was passing through we took a drive down to the temple. We got there just after they closed the gates so we weren't able to go inside the grounds but the kids still had fun smelling the roses and posing for the camera.

On Friday nights, the kids like to camp out in the game room.

Doug's truck was in the shop the week of Halloween so he was able to help us carve pumpkins. I wanted to get a shot of them lit up but the flash quit working on my camera and they just don't look the same in the daylight.

More job stuff

2009-09-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

Many of you have been following what's been going on through my Facebook page but for my personal reasons, I'm blogging the details of what's been happening these past few days. So if you want to read on, please feel free. I promise I'll post pictures soon.

Doug got home last Thursday from a run he had made to New Jersey. It was two weeks from the last time we saw him. On his way home, he gets pulled over in Wyoming for an inspection and is given a warning because of various things the officer found wrong, one of being that there is oil leaking from his rig which is a fire hazard. When he gets home, May has his rig scheduled to go into the shop for work to be done so we figured he would be home for two days or so. He called May after the two days and they still hadn't gotten to his truck and wouldn't until Monday. We're told Monday afternoon that they don't know what's wrong with it or where the leak is coming from so it has to go to a different yard to be looked at. In the meantime, a driver is on vacation for this week, so Doug will need to use this other man's rig while his rig is out of commission. Something he's not too thrilled about but......

Tuesday morning, he goes into work and heads out to Toledo, Oregon (right by Newport on the coast) to pick up a load that's going to southern California. There are certain parts of Hwy 20 that don't allow 53' trailers and he misses the exit he needs to take to get off of hwy 20. So he has to drive a little ways to find a place big enough to turn around. On his way back, he gets pulled over by the police. Doug tells him he knew he wasn't suppose to be driving on that road but he missed his turn and was trying to find a place to turn around, etc. The officer says, "I believe you" and then tells him he's going to do an inspection since he had him there. Doug says no problem and gives him all the info needed. The officer comes back and tells Doug that he's got a suspended license in Oregon due to an uninsured accident that happened way back in August. So now Doug is unable to drive and he's sitting a few miles from where his load is waiting. He calls me and asks me to call the DMV and figure out what's going on since his phone is almost dead because his charger won't work in the rig he's in. I find out that because he didn't fill out and turn in an accident report when he crashed his UPS truck last August, they charged him with an uninsured accident (even though it was insured) and suspended his license. All we needed to do was fill out and turn in the report, pay a $75 reinstatement fee and then he's good to drive again. In the meantime, he's had to call May to get someone to drive down from Salem and pick him up and have someone else drive the rig back up to the yard. Since he can't drive, I have to pack the kids up at 7pm and drive down to Salem, an hour away, to pick Doug up. When I get there, the rig hadn't made it to the yard yet and we didn't know when it was going to get there so we just left, leaving his clothes, refrigerator and keys in the rig.

Wednesday morning we get up and go to Lake Oswego, where the accident happened, and fill out the paperwork, pay $75, and find out why we were never notified that his license was going to be suspended. It ends up that the address they have on file is the last place we lived at there in Oregon, seven years ago! We showed the DMV worker the accident report the police officer filled out and it shows our current address and Doug's current drivers' license number, both in Washington! It's bad enough that we didn't know he had to fill out an accident report, because when it happened, he asked them if there was anything else he needed to do and he was told no, but now he also has a $425 ticket!!!! The worker says, "Hey, I just work here. I can't help you anymore." She says, "If I were you, I'd take all this to the judge and tell him what you're telling me and hopefully he'll take care of it." Thank you very much lady. On our way home, we call our friends dad, who's an officer in Lincoln City, explained the situation and see if there's anything we can do. The biggest problem was that we didn't look on the other side of the accident report and if we had, it clearly states that we had a certain amount of time to get an accident report filled out and filed with the DMV. The thing we have going for us is that a) we went and took care of the accident report and b) the whole address issue. He advised us to go to the courthouse next week and talk to the clerk. The clerk has the right to dismiss the ticket. If he does, then we won't need to worry anymore. If he doesn't, then Doug will have to go back on the 5th of October and plead not guilty then go back at a different time to plead his case.

We find out today that his truck still hasn't been looked at and it was taken to the new yard on Tuesday. It is now Thursday, he's been given the ok to go back to work, he just needs to take his reciept in that we got from the DMV, and he's got a load that's got to be in Northern Washington by noon tomorrow. He'll still be driving the other guys rig until Monday, when the guy is done with vacation and we were told his truck won't be ready until sometime next week. Somewhere in the midst of all this, we need to find six hours out of the day to go to Newport and plead our case to the clerk (three hrs to get there, three to get back, depending on traffic). We're at the mercy of the clerk so please help us pray that the Lord will soften his heart.

Funny

2009-09-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

I've been terrible about posting but it's been non-stop GO since we've been home. I'll eventually get the pictures downloaded off my camera.

Olivia said something funny yesterday that I just had to post it.

We were sitting on the couch and she was looking up at me and says, "Mom, you've got spider webs in your nose!" After I stopped laughing I explained to her that they were nose hairs, not spider webs and everyone has them. She just wrinkles her nose and says, "Oh."

4th of July weekend

2009-07-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

I had to take Bry on base for Cub Scout Camp and everyday we passed these three helicopters. Aiden asked to see them everyday. They wanted to go inside them and were really disappointed when they couldn't but it was still fun to get up close to them.

Doug was able to come and visit for a week. We're so grateful that his company let him drive his truck all the way here. There's a place down the street that lets truckers park their trucks for free so after he was done cleaning out his cab, he took it down there where he had dropped off his trailer earlier.

Kids sitting on the top bunk, Shan is on the bed he sleeps on.

That Friday we went to the beach. As we were finishing lathering the kids up, I noticed some black spots in the distance. WHALES! Hopefully you can see the three specks in the middle.

They got pretty close. That's Shan and Bry and the black speck is another whale.

Doug with Liv playing in the waves. (He had to wear his shirt because the day before he played in the pool/spa with the kids and got totally sunburned. I even smothered him in sunscreen that day)

For the 4th we went on base to watch my sister perform in the band and then to watch the fireworks afterwards. That had to have been the best fireworks display I have ever seen.

Olivia and Riley (it wasn't cold but there was a small breeze that made the kids cold enough to want a blanket)

Bryson, Aiden and Kennedy

I love this picture of Anya. I don't even remember the setting I had on my camera.

Since we watched the fireworks on the 4th, the kids (meaning Doug) didn't get to light off any of his own so the next day we set a few off.

Handing out sparklers

Waiting in the truck to watch the bigger fireworks.

It was a really nice visit. Next time we see Doug will be when we're back at home, in a few more weeks.

Fun times

2009-06-20T14:25:00.001-07:00

Doug and Buddy when he came to visit us in May.

Bryson and I having fun at the beach.

I told Aiden to go and change his clothes after we got home from this trip to the beach. After a while I realized it was too quiet and this was why.

Playing with the rain water after a quick downpour.

Shannon's hair was getting too long for me so I decided to trim it up to the length of her bangs that she had grown out.

Before

After

Wearing Aunt Nichole's ugly glasses she had to wear during boot camp.

It was a beautiful evening one night, with a few distant clouds. I went into the house and not even five minutes later I came back outside to this.

Within 5-10 more minutes it was right over the top of us. It was so beautiful watching the clouds build and move.

At one of the local parks. It has been a long time since I've seen one of these. I used to love them. Now all that spinning makes me sick.

There were these old baby swings.

I love this of Olivia. Right when we got there she ran straight out then stopped and stared for a little bit. This was last Saturday.

Aunt Nichole had a cooler delivered the other day and the kids had fun playing in it until someone got hurt.

Happy Anniversary

2009-06-07T14:25:00.001-07:00

Well, at least it would be happy if Doug were here to enjoy the day with me. Right now he's in Texas, on his way to Florida. Twelve years ago we were sealed in the Oakland temple. The time has flown by. I'm so amazed at what we've been through and gotten through together. Here's to many more years. Although you don't read these posts, Doug, I still have to say that I love you and Happy Anniversary!

Sad Day

2009-05-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

My grampa passed away today. He would have been 91 this November. This is the best picture I have of him right now since I'm not at home. He had dimentia, which is kinda like Alzheimer's He and my gramma were married about 65 years (I don't remember exactly when they were married) but have known each other for 70. I'm sad that I couldn't be there right now. There won't be a funeral, instead he's going to be cremated and his ashes will go in the Columbia River since in the whole four years they lived in Vancouver, he didn't believe the Columbia River was there. The day before I left for NC, I went and cut his hair and when I gave him a hug as I was leaving, it felt like it would be for the last time. It's been a long time since anyone close in the family has died. The last time was my other grandpa and I was about 13 or 14 so it's been a while. I'm grateful for the gospel and that I'll be able to see him again someday. I love you grampa.

Marissa, this one's for you (and everyone who has lost a child in a store)

2009-05-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my sister and I loaded up all the kids and ran some errands. One of them was a much needed trip to Sam's Club. For the most part, we were doing well in the store. We'd have the occasional, "Where's so-in-so?" and we'd find them looking at an end cap or standing in front of those demonstrators with the food samples. We finally made it to the register and then the door....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, yup, all kids counted for. We get to the car, get the groceries loaded into the trunk and do a final check for seat belts. Wait, where's Aiden? Not playing in the front seats of the van, not in Nichole's car and he's not walking on the lines that make up the parking spaces, which he loves to do. I go back into Sam's and the woman at the exit asks what I needed and I said, "My son." She tells me to wait right where I was and gets on her radio. Meanwhile, I'm scanning all the check-out lanes and a man getting ready to walk out the door says, "There he is," and points. I see one of the workers holding him, don't even thank the gentleman for pointing Aiden out and start walking towards him. The lady at the door tells me I can go ahead and go on over there. Ummm, thanks lady. The woman holding him had put him down in a chair with a pen and pad of paper. There were about 5 or 6 employees all circled around him, staring at me as I walked up. One woman said she had begun to worry because she had already sent out two pages through the store. I thanked her and said Aiden's name. He turned around and I asked, "What are you doing?" and he said very innocently, "Nothing," giving me this huge smile. Everyone laughed, which broke the tension and all the employees turned around and went back to work. Of course, now I feel like this horrible mom. We are never going shopping with seven kids again.

Sharing some pictures

2009-05-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

One minute it was all sunny and the next minute this is what I saw.

And a few minutes later there's a lake forming in the front yard. I love the rain here when it's warm. It's a nice change from back home.

Playing some Rock Band.

For a few days all Aiden wanted to wear was this kangaroo costume.

Enjoying some ice cream from the ice cream man.

It' very interesting driving around town and finding these random cemeteries.

Buddy, their chocolate lab.

On the way to North Carolina

2009-04-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

I think I've figured out how to post pictures. I don't know how to shrink the size down so if you click on the picture, it might be insanely huge on the screen. Sorry about that. The following are a few from the drive here.

I thought this was cool. This was taken in Price Canyon, Utah.

The wind was blowing so hard I just had to take a picture of the kids having fun. Shannon is in her jammies because shortly after we got on the road after staying with some family in Kaysville, she threw up all over her regular clothes. After that she was fine.

Not a pretty picture of me, I was talking on the phone with Doug at the time but my hair was getting whipped all over the place. I don't think I've ever stood in wind that strong.

The wind was blowing so hard that I watched it rip two bikes and a cartop carrier right off the car in front of us. Thank goodness no one was driving right next to him and I was far enough behind we didn't get hit. I felt terrible for the family. I would have stopped to help if I didn't have a car full of kids. I did not like driving in that.

I wish I had gotten a better picture of this. There is water just to the right and the road going west seemed like it was almost above us, like the double decker bridges. This was taken before we got into Vail, Colorado. It was beautiful driving this.

A view coming into Denver. I love it, mountains then flat.

We woke up to snow in Denver and this was most of the drive heading towards Kansas. It cleared up just before we got to the border. I lost count at 7 cars/semis that had flipped or jackknifed. (We left Kaysville with it snowing but got out of it just before Price Canyon. I think the storm followed us to Denver.)

Someone once told me, "There's a pretty girl behind every tree in Kansas." That was a boring drive.

This was in Kentucky. I love how the trees were bare but every now and then there would be these patches of purple.

The kids did really great with the drive, I was pleasantly surprised. I was able to take a young woman from church with me since Doug needed to stay home in case he was sent out to drive for work. Turns out he could have gone with me. Oh well. I was able to get to know Rachael better and after she gets married in August, another reason why we need to be back then, Shannon is going to be her flower girl, her and her new husband plan on coming out here to nanny for my sister.

I'll get some more blogging done next week.

Just a quicky

2009-04-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't realize it's been a month since I last posted and so much has happened.

It's been non-stop 'go' since we left home for N.C. I have pictures but haven't figured out yet how to download them to the computer (they're MAC's, I'm a PC). We've all been doing lots of adjusting and it's been a roller coaster but I'm so glad we're here.

The weather has been crazy so far, we've had cold windy days and quite a few nice ones, like today, it was 80. We've also had a few thunderstorms. These were definitely not like the ones we get back home. My sister tells me to just wait, we'll get some real doozey ones this summer. Yay!

I'm off to bed now, the mornings seem to come too quickly. I'm so exhausted in the evenings I'm struggling to keep my eyes open at 9pm. That's sad.

The Principle's Office

2009-03-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

Today we get a phone call from Shannon's school teacher telling us she brought a pocket knife to school and was caught showing it to another student. I was shocked! It turns out she was sent to the principle's office because of it and apparently it really shook her up. She was in tears telling Doug about it. I feel terrible because she would NEVER have taken it to school to hurt, scare or threaten anyone. She is so innocent when it comes to things like that. So tonight we had a family home evening lesson about weapons and how things as small as a pocket knife could be used to hurt someone. We've talked in the past about how there are lots of bad people out there, stranger danger and all that but I still don't think she really gets it. She likes to think that everyone is good.

It breaks my heart to see her struggle so much with grasping simple instructions and concepts. For some reason her wiring in her brain is a little screwed up. And I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm just hoping this is something that she'll eventually outgrow. I love my daughter so much and I wish there was something I could do to make life a bit easier for her. I dread the time when she will start getting teased about having to go to special ed classes. She is the most loving girl and tries so hard. I'm so proud of her.

(2 yrs.)

Bring on the Craziness

2009-03-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

As I was getting ready for church this morning, I badly wanted to get on the computer and vent about how I haven't been able to sleep peacefully through the night since Doug has been gone. It seems the two younguns love to play games during the middle of the night, taking turns waking me from my much needed beauty sleep. I went to bed last night just after 11pm only to toss and turn until 12:15am. Next thing I know it is 1:30am, Aiden is pounding his head and humming to himself. This can only mean one of four things, he's uncovered and cold, he is waking up for the morning or from his nap, he's going to sleep or he has to go potty. In this case it was the latter. I get him to go potty and tuck him in nice and snug so he won't wake up cold. I go to bed and at 6:34am I hear Liv yell, "MOM!" I couldn't believe it. My alarm is set to go off at 7am. I go see what she needs and ask if she needs to go potty and she shakes her head no, "I need to blow my nose." I get her some TP and then she decides she needs to go to the bathroom after all. I get her all tucked back in bed and I climb back in my bed and then I hear her start to cough. She coughs and coughs and coughs. I climb back out, get her a glass of water and climb back in. A few minutes later I hear, "Mom." I wait. "MOm." I wait some more, maybe she'll get out of bed and take care of what she needs by herself. My alarm goes off. "MOM!" I go back in, "WHAT?!?!" "I need to blow my nose again." By this time I've lost it and I proceed to chew her out that if she needs something, she can get down and do it herself and I'm not going to get her some tissue for her nose, she can get it. I then go hop in the shower and continue getting ready for church. I wake all the kids up at 8am (yes, Liv has gone back to sleep) and help them get ready but wait, where's Liv? It's 8:20 already. Shan says she's still asleep. "Will you please go and wake her up?" It's now 8:30, "Hurry and go get something to eat, wait, where's Liv?" "She's still asleep, mom." Argh! I'm frantically dressing her and somehow manage to get her hair done but now she's throwing a fit because I had to put her cereal in a baggy so she can eat her breakfast during sacrament meeting but she wants to eat her cereal with milk and doesn't want to go to church. We finally get to church and it has decided to start raining the minute we pull into a parking spot and it's not just a sprinkle. Great, I've straightened my hair and now it's going to get all frizzy because the kids aren't cooperating and I'm standing in the rain trying to get Aiden out of his carseat and Liv doesn't want to go out her side of the car, she wants to come out my side. Now I've gotten Aiden out and I tell him to run to the door and everyone decides to come out my side of the car so I have to wait until everyone unloads so I can shut the door because the previous week one of the doors didn't shut all the way so the car was left unlocked and a few months ago we had a number of car breakins happen during church. I don't see Aiden right away so I have the other kids go in one side of the building and I go in the other. "Do you see him, is he over there?" "No." "Great, go in and get a seat please while I look for him." I go back outside and see him come around the corner in the parking lot with a big ol' smile on his face and all wet. It is now 8:55am.

So that was my morning and the afternoon was littered with a bunch of other small things and now it's 9:40pm and I'm still being riddled with "Mom, I need to blow my nose." "Mom, I need to brush my hair" (because Liv managed to spill grape juice on the floor and proceeded to drink it up off the floor resulting in getting juice in her hair and I forgot to clean it out). Aiden is hollering to Liv, oh wait, now he needs me to wipe his nose.

Ok, so I've been talking with my sister and she's been having some serious nanny problems. I offered to help her out since Bryce (her husband) is in Iraq for a year and Doug will now be gone most of the time. Looks like in two weeks I'll be heading out to the east coast with all the kids to go and live with her for a few months. She has three girls and since she too is in the military she has to work and really needs help around the house. It'll be an interesting and fun adventure for us all. I'm excited to go but also sad because I won't know anyone out there and I've got such wonderful friends here who I'll miss terribly (thanks again Marissa for the fun girls night out). I just have to keep telling myself, it's only a few months, it's only a few months.

So if you've made it all the way through my ramblings, way to go and if not, I don't care, this is more for myself anyways. Oh, Doug should be home this Wednesday! Yay!!!!

Where's Daddy?

2009-03-08T21:57:00.000-07:00

Every night Doug has called to tell us where he's at, have family prayer with us, talk to the kids one by one and tell them goodnight. We go to our big map of the USA that's on our wall in the kitchen and find where dad's at. It's lots of fun for the kids, they love it. The first night was spent down in Salem, Oregon. Then it was Ontario Oregon, Evanston Wyoming, Laramie Wyoming, Grand Island Nebraska, and tonight they were heading to Gary Indiana. By Tuesday evening they are supose to be in Allentown Pennsylvania to deliver their shipment. It can be very confusing, first Mass. then Denver then Atlanta, then back to Mass and now Penn. The drivers are only allowed so many hours on the road each day, so if they don't have enough hours to get them to a certain destination in time, they're rerouted to somewhere else. He seems to be enjoying himself, despite being away from the family.

All's quiet here on the western front. I try to take little notes here and there to tell Doug when he calls. For instance, yesterday morning Liv was dancing around in my bathroom obviously needing to go. I had to tell her to go potty and when she sat down and started going she says, "Ahhhhhh, that's much better." Also, Aiden had way too much to drink last night and managed to wet the bed twice.

I asked Brian, Doug's trainer, what's one of the craziest things he's seen (he's been driving for 22 years). It was hard for him to decide since there's LOTS that goes on. He said one time he watched a driver for UPS that was pulling three trailers, crash. The back trailer started swaying and it pulled all the trailers down. I wonder if they fired the driver. Hee-hee. He said that was scary. Brian also witnessed a driver being arrested for not wearing any clothes while pulling into a weigh station. Just this morning Doug said a driver got on and gave everyone a sermon. Ahhh, the life of a truck driver.

Bitter Sweet

2009-03-04T13:50:00.001-08:00

Doug has now rejoined the land of employment. He got a job working for May Trucking. Last week he went down for orientation and to see if he could pass their drive test. They asked when he would like to start and he told them Monday. They said if he didn't hear from them by 11am Monday morning to call them. He spent a lot of Saturday purchasing things he needed and packing. He ended up having to call them Monday and they told him they weren't able to find a trainer at the moment. He was to then wait until Wednesday afternoon and call in if they hadn't contacted him before then. Late yesterday (Tuesday) morning he gets a call from May saying they've got a trainer coming in later that evening and he needed to call him so they could meet up. Doug left last night around 6pm and was told they had a few stops on Oregon to make then after that it was off to Massachusetts. It was hard on everyone when he left knowing he'll be gone for 2 weeks. I know that's not very long but when you're used to having him home 24/7 for the past six months, two weeks sounds like an eternity. He called me this morning telling me that they were still in Salem! (where May Trucking is located) He said something about his trainer and hours and that they weren't going to the east coast but more likely to Denver. They were going to be heading out this afternoon.

We're not exactly pleased with the long-haul driving but it's what he needs to get the experience and we know with the experience, he'll get a better job. Hopefully something that lets him come home each night. We're hoping he won't have to do long-haul for more than a year.

I'm really thankful I have my parents here and even if they didn't live so close, my ward is wonderful. I'm so greatful for the love and support from all my friends and family. Thank you.

I'm seeing red

2009-03-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

For the longest time I've wanted a red kitchen but have been too afraid to paint it. About a year ago we were given six gallons of paint from a neighbor who was moving. We finally decided to do something with that paint.

First we had to prime the walls and since two out of the six gallons of paint were pink, we used that. (sorry for the messy kitchen)

Then we put the first coat of red on. I went around with the roller while Doug used the trimmer. It looked like Valentine's Day.

We then added another coat of red and then another. Altogether, four coats of paint and four days later. We love the end result!

(Above: Notice the line on the ceiling next to the lights? That's water damage from our washing machine, somehow the hose worked itself out of the drain and was draining water onto the floor in the laundry room. Our next project, once Doug gets a job.)

We had a day of rest then it was on to painting the living room. Just a boring Vanilla Custard color so you can't really tell the difference.

25 Random Facts

2009-02-18T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was tagged a few times on facebook to do this so I thought I'd post it at both places.

1. I love the smell of coffee and cigars (but I don't drink coffee or smoke)
2. I still have 3 grandparents alive. Two will be 91 this year.
3. I hate ear wax. I love to clean my kids ears out.
4. I bite my nails. I've tried to stop, it's hopeless.
5. Love makeup and jewlery but don't wear hardly any of either.
6. If it were legal in my state, I'd be a surrogate.
7. My initials growing up were JJJ.
8. One of my jobs as a teenager was working at a kennel.
9. I hate it when wipers are going and it's stopped raining.
10. I also hate when people drive with their blinker on and they don't turn.
11. I started out as an architect major, couldn't handle the math, then changed to dance and finally generals. My associates says "Arts and Sciences".
12. While in Hawaii, I took a 15 minute crash course on scuba diving from my brother-in-law and then went diving. It was AMAZING and I absolutely LOVED it!
13. I was in a triathlon in 2007 and completed it while I had the flu (thank goodness for priesthood blessings).
14. I've been to Germany, Rome and Venice Italy. I was on a dance team in college and left for three weeks, three weeks after I was married. Hubby had to stay behind.
15. I started getting gray hair in junior high school and now I have tons.
16. Love eating raw chocolate chip cookie dough.
17. I catch on to things pretty quickly. Teach me something and it won't take long til I've got it. Hence #12.
18. I love anything tropical. Someday when I'm rich I'll travel all over the tropics.
19. I sometimes wish for another tattoo but I know I'll never get one.
20. I was engaged twice before I met my husband (something I'm not proud of).
21. I love to sew but never have time.
22. I've always wanted to be a professional ballroom dancer.
23. Yuck onions, yum onion rings.
24. I love to swim and was on the swim team 10-12 grade (I was in track my freshman year but wish I had started swimming earlier).
25. I've been to a strip club. I saw worse on the pool deck.

Tidbits

2009-02-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

The beginning of this month was the cub scouts Blue and Gold Banquet. This year Bry wanted to make a bear for his cake. Of course we waited until the last minute so instead of both Doug and Bry working on it, I did it myself seeing as we were out of time. When it was time to eat the desserts, the first to go were the ears then the mouth, nose and eyes.

Last night as I went to check on the kids before I went to bed, this was how I found Aiden. I'm amazed at how much they move around when they're little.

Finally, for my birthday Doug got me Mama Mia. When I was real little, my dad would play his records Saturday night as we'd get ready for church the next day. Mom would do my hair and dad would be sitting in front of his stereo playing record after record. ABBA was won of my favorite groups he played. So when I went and saw the movie in the theater, I knew I just had to have the DVD. My kids love the songs and they're constantly singing them.

Woohoo!!!

2009-02-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

I am so happy right now. Doug took his driving test for his CDL and PASSED! This is such a relief because he's been really stressed these past 4 1/2 weeks, not sleeping well, studying everynight the five pages he had to memorize and really struggling with backing the truck up from a 45 degree angle. Next step: finding a job.

Way to go honey, I knew you could do it!

"Wake me up!"

2009-01-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

Last night as Liv was getting into bed she said she wanted me to wake her up in the morning. I said I would if she didn't wake up when it was time to get up. This morning as I was reading, waiting for her and Aiden to wake up, she started calling for me. "Mom.....mom...," I waited for her to get out of bed. About a minute later I hear, "Mom......mom......wake me up!" I again waited to see if she would get out of bed by herself. Then I hear, "Moooooooooooom, come (pause) wake (pause) me (pause) uuuuuuuup!" I then went into her room and she was just sitting there. She looks at me and says, "I was telling you to come wake me up." I aked her, "How can I wake you up if you're already awake?" She looked at me with this scrunched up face like she didn't know how to answer then got out of bed. It's nice to start the day with a laugh.

Can't think of anything for a title

2009-01-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't really been wanting to blog lately, that's why nothings been posted until now.

After, or should I say during, our winter storm, we decided to go to Idaho Falls and visit Doug's family since all the siblings were going to be there. We wanted to be there for Christmas but I-84 was closed so we waited until that weekend after Christmas to go and spend New Year's with them instead. There was a break in the weather, no snow just rain so we headed out on Saturday. We should have gone the day before because when we got to Pendelton, the pass was closed. It took us 3 hours to decide to try and drive around it and the only roads that were open was up through WallaWalla, Lewiston, Missoula and on down to I.F. The drive up to Wallawalla and Lewiston was clear. We did get lost in Lewiston and spent about an hour trying to get back on the right road (thank goodness we came across a LDS church that someone was having a wedding reception at. The woman we met had us follow her to where we needed to be). Just after Lewiston, it started snowing, HARD. We drove about 30-40 mph the whole pass and through about 50 miles of 6 in. of powder that the snowplows didn't get. I think we saw about 10 cars, including a few snowplows. By the time we got to Missoula it was 1am and my nerves were shot! We got a hotel and stayed the night there and were back on the road around 9:30am. So instead of taking 11 hours to get to I.F. it took us about 16, if you subtract our little rest in Montana. We're so glad we went though, we had a blast visiting family. We had no problems getting home and were glad we left when we did because the next day another storm hit and the pass was closed again. I hate traveling in the winter.

This week we've had two new students in the family. Olivia started pre-school. I wasn't going to put her in but she's been crying that she wants to go to school and my friend opened up a pre-school so I said why not? She loves it! Not sure how long we'll keep this up, right now we're bartering for payment so we'll see. Doug also started school. He's going to truck driving school, working on getting his CDL (commercial drivers license). It's an intense course, 4 1/2 weeks, 6am-4:30pm, Mon-Thurs. We're not sure where this will lead us but sometimes you just have to hold your breath and jump.

SNOW!

2008-12-23T23:25:00.000-08:00

The "Artic Blast" the news is calling the unusual amount of snow we're getting. It's been fun having it around but now I'm ready for it to start raining again.

When it first started sticking

It stopped snowing for a bit.

It didn't snow all day today so Doug finished scraping the snow off the driveway and about an hour later it started snowing again.

Liv wanted to play so she came out dressed like this: skirt and crocs. She didn't stay outside very long.

Playing on our driveway.

We woke up Sunday morning and we had had freezing rain during the night. Church was canceled. Here's our tree in the front yard.

That's ice, not snow.

Later Sunday it started snowing again so Monday we went out to my parents and played.

Doug and Papa making trails for us to play tag.

We didn't last very long, the yard was too big so we tired quickly.

Angel Food Cake anyone? This was their table out on the back porch.

The news just said we're expected to have another 3" or so of snow tonight, then freezing rain tomorrow and a bit more snow on Christmas. By Friday it's back to normal with regular rain.

"I'm not feeling so well"

2008-12-09T20:54:00.000-08:00

I'm so glad she goes to the bathroom on her own now instead of getting sick all over the place. She wasn't feeling too great the other day.

Vermont

2008-11-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago my sister called and said she had an all expense paid vacation to Vermont for Doug and I. All we needed to do was find someone to watch the kids for us. The only time we have been away from our kids in the 11 1/2 years we've been married was when the twins were 2 or 3 and my friend watched them overnight. We so desperately needed a break. We were able to get childcare (thank you mom and Rachael) and by that Sunday we were on a plane to Philadelphia where my sister and her husband picked us up and we headed on up to Smugglers Notch, Vermont. *We had to fly standby and the best flights getting out there were in to Penn.

Sunday we were up bright and early to catch a 6am flight. We had what was suppose to be a 20-30 min rest in Denver that turned into 1 1/2 hour delay. We learned later that there was an inoperable plane stuck on the runway in Philly. As we were arriving at our destination, the pilot announces that we needed to make a 50 mile loop due to high traffic. After a big wide turn and many 'S' shaped patterns in the sky, we FINALLY land. So instead of arriving around 4pm, it is now 6pm, puting our arrival time in Vermont at roughly 1:30am. After a while of driving, we get on the New Jersey turnpike and if anyone has been on there, the exits are few and far between. Somehow (and by somehow I mean the driver was distracted) we missed the exit we needed. After a few illegal maneuvers from one freeway to the next we end up stuck in bumper to bumper traffic heading across the George Washington Bridge into New York. For the record, GPS doesn't work that great when all the roads are crammed together and on top of each other. After that little side trip we are now looking at a 2am arrival.

We get to our destination just after 2am, quickly survey our home for the next couple of days, and crash.

(The kitchen, dining room, living room and view from the back porch.)

The morning comes all too quickly with a 10am "welcome and information presentation". The rest of the day we spend planning and shopping for our meals, deciding on our activities for the next few days, swimming in the indoor pool and watching movies. We go to bed with it snowing outside.

(The view from the front in the morning)

Tuesday we are awake more refreshed and headed on out for sightseeing in the town of Stowe. Our first stop, the Van Trapp Family Lodge. Unbeknownst to us, the lodge is a resort/hotel, so no tour for us, just a quick picture.

Next stop, the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Again, expecting a tour we find it's a self guided tour with not much to look at, just the apple press but that's the most important part I suppose. The free samples of cider were yummy! The workers there were very nice and let us into the room to take pictures since the big glass separating the viewers from the work room was very dirty. They even let my sister and I take a turn with the apple dispenser.

(Sorry I cut some of the words off. It was hard to get all of it but there's enough to get the idea)

(The actual press)

After the Cider Mill we went to the Cabot Cheese Outlet and tasted all the yummy cheeses. The actual factory was in another town with no other tourist attractions to see so we settled for the outlet and were pleasantly satisfied.

We then headed down the street to Ben & Jerry's. The tour was simple, just the way I like it, and we got yet another sample. I love their ice cream.

We were told we needed to see/drive over one of Vermont's many covered bridges. Emily's Bridge is the one we went to which happens to be one of the oldest ones and suposedly it's haunted. You can go to this link to read more about it. http://www.hauntedhamilton.com/gotw_emilysbridge.html

We headed back into town to get something substantial to eat and you think we could find a restaraunt open? No. Every place we tried were closed and there were no fast food joints around so we ended up heading back to our "apartment" 45 minutes away, to make dinner. When you're in a little town and during the off season, not much is available.

The next morning we were off to Burlington, Vermont. First stop, indoor rock climbing. Before we got there we made a quick pit stop at a childrens learning store and picked up a few things for the kids for Christmas. It had been a long time since I had last been rock climbing, like before I had children, so I'll admit I was a little nervous. After a quick refresher, we were left to climb....climb on. By the time we left, we had sore fingertips and shakey arms. Ahhh, what fun.

Next stop, The Vermont Bear Factory (a lot like Build-a-Bear). We planned on going on a tour but when we got there, it wasn't quite what we expected and since the prices of everything were so expensive, we decided not to stay but we got a few fun pictures.

It was getting late when we left the factory so we decided to forgo the Echo Center (a hands-on science type museum). Instead, we made a quick stop to the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. It was too late to take a tour so we just looked and drooled and bought some yummy hot chocolate.

Thursday came all too quickly. We loaded our goods and ourselves into the car and headed to Manchester, New Hampshire to fly home. When we got there we had some time to kill before we needed to be at the airport so we went to the mall and had a yummy lunch. It was sad to say goodbye but I was also excited to see the kids. We got home late but it was wonderful to see all the kids tucked into bed asleep.

Thank you so much Nichole and Bryce for the wonderful time! Doug and I definitely needed that.

Gum

2008-11-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

Last night just before bed Olivia comes in and makes a comment about her eye while rubbing it. This is what we found.

It took about45 minutes to get it out. I tried mayo, ice and finally peanut butter. I still don't know how gum ended up in her eyelashes. That was a pain.

A few days ago she had gotten into some gum that Shannon had thrown in the garbage and had managed to get it all over her pj's and in her hair. No more gum for Liv for a while.

Texas

2008-10-29T20:27:00.001-07:00

Before all this nonsense happened with Doug's work, he had scheduled vacation time in October. We decided to go and see our friends who live in San Antonio and whom we hadn't seen in years. So we bought and paid for the plane tickets and rental car months ago. I'm so glad we couldn't get a refund because we had so much fun on our visit.

Our flight left at 6am. It was still dark outside but the kids were able to still see the men working down by the airplane.

The first flight was to Denver and went pretty well. Then we went on to San Antonio and when we were descending, Shannon started having pressure in her head (she was a little stuffed up) and was crying a bit. Five minutes before we landed, Olivia and Aiden thought it was time for naps so they tried to go to sleep but I wouldn't let them. I know, mean mommy.

It took a while to get our rental. They told us a few times that we wouldn't fit in the crossover that we had chosen and kept trying to get us to take a minivan but after much assurance that we would be alright, we finally got our Buick Enclave. That was a fun car to drive, and we all fit just nicely, thank you very much. (For those of you who don't know, we've had a minivan for the past 8 years and we wanted to try something different.)

We arrived at Leslie and Josh's in the late afternoon. It was nice to relax and catch up on old times. Next day was Sunday and Shannon wasn't feeling too great. We went to church and then lounged around the rest of the day. Monday we woke up to rain! I thought we were going to be leaving it behind for a while. Our plans for Monday were canceled so we worked on getting Shannon better. She had an awful headache that wasn't going away and was all stuffed up.

Tuesday morning it wasn't raining and Shannon was feeling better so we decided to go to a friend of Leslie's and play. The pool had gotten yucky from the rain so we could only go in the hot tub, which had been cooled down. It was nice and refreshing and the kids had lots of fun playing on the swing set.

Wednesday we woke up to more rain! That's okay because we were off to Pump It Up, an indoor blow-up play area. On the way there, we came across several areas of flooding. This was just down the street from the house. I just found it interesting how different states handle the rain.

Here are the kids having fun.

Shannon trying to put a flag on the velcro. Olivia starting through the obstacle course.

And the winner is......Josh! Nice try Doug.

We did not plan the matching shirts, honest!

That night, the kids were out playing in the backyard and Aiden ended up standing on a fire ant hill. I couldn't understand why he was just standing there, crying. I felt so bad for him. They didn't like him and he wasn't too thrilled about them either.

Thursday morning was beautiful outside but it was Olivia's turn to be sick. She ended up throwing up in the morning and Aiden wasn't feeling that good either. By the afternoon, the kids were feeling better so we went to a place where the kids get to do all different types of art. And the best part is I don't have to clean up afterwards.

Bryson and Joshua.

Friday was another beautiful day and we headed to downtown San Antonio to see the Riverwalk and the Alamo. We first saw the Riverwalk. We took the boat tour and it was very nice.

Lunchtime at one of the Mexican restaurants on the Riverwalk. Yum.

Then on to the Alamo.

The Walker Family: Aurelia, Josh, Hatty, Leslie, Grant and Joshua

Cute Girls

Handsome Boys

Our final day came around all too quickly. We headed on out to the home of a co-worker of Josh's. She has 150 acres, dogs, cats, chickens, rooster, goose, horses, donkeys, goat, a pet deer and three pet squirrels (I think that was all). Oh, and cows.

Aiden wasn't too fond of the deer.

Everyone lined up looking at the horses.

The whole gang (plus one who had to be a part of the fun, between Olivia and Jami's heads)

We were able to take all the kids out for rides on the horses. (Sorry I didn't get any pictures with my camera. I'll get some from Leslie.)

That night we had a waterballoon fight and just relaxed.

It was sad to leave, lots of tears, but we had so much fun and look forward to the next time we get to see them.

Our flight left at 6:35am so we're all tuckered out. I forgot to add that both Hatty and Grant were sick as well. I'm so glad that none of it lasted very long.

Job Update 3

2008-10-03T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Doug was offered a job and today he had two interviews. I'm glad things are finally happening but here's the thing. The job that was offered (and he said yes) requires him to be gone for three weeks and then home for one week. With this job, he will be selling home security systems. The money can be great but we're not too thrilled having him gone for such long periods of time. Today he interviewed for a different sales position, which we both didn't feel was what he should do. The other job was for a driving position. We like that it's close to home and it's similar to UPS and there are benefits but the pay isn't good. He'd have to get a second job and we did that for seven years, we really don't want to do it again. Ugh! I'm really hating this roller coaster ride right now.

Job Update 2

2008-09-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Doug flew out this past weekend to go in front of the grievence panel to plead for his job back. No such luck. They called today to say they won't give it back. So now he's back to looking for a job but it's proving to be very difficult finding a driving job since everyone wants at least 2 years clean driving record. Up until now I've been pretty cool about the whole thing, the only reason being is there was still hope that he would get it back. But since we found out, I've been a basket case. I thought it was very cute, however, after I had gotten off the phone with my mom, Olivia saw how upset I was and she comes over to me, puts her arm around my shoulders, pushes my head onto her shoulder and tells me it'll be okay. She then goes and gets me a glass of water and says that a drink of water will make me feel better. If only it was that easy.

You've Been Tagged!

2008-09-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

I tag Leslie, Marissa, and Michelle

Here is what you need to do: Once you've been tagged you have to take a picture of all these things exactly as they are! No cleaning, or fixing in any way! Have fun.

1.Self Portrait
2.What your kids or house mates are doing at the moment
3.Kitchen sink exactly as it is at the moment
4.Laundry room
5. Fridge
6. Your bathroom
7. Your closet
8. Favorite pair of shoes
9. Favorite room in the house
10. Dream Vacation

1.Self Portrait:

(Gosh I look old)

2.What your kids or house mates are doing at the moment
Shan playing with neighbor girl, Bry emptying dishwasher (hence #3)

Liv playing in the gameroom, Aid watching TV

3.Kitchen sink exactly as it is at the moment

(Waiting for Bry)

4.Laundry room

5. Fridge

6. Your bathroom

7. Your closet

(Hubby's side is behind the door)

8. Favorite pair of shoes

9. Favorite room in the house

Our always messy family room.

10. Dream Vacation

Tahiti is just one place.

Job update

2008-09-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

I had to delete the picture so we don't get into more trouble with Doug's work.

It looks like he'll be going to "court" to beg for his job back. That'll be in 1 1/2 weeks. That means he'll have to travel to go there but we figured that if they don't give it back to him, then we did EVERYTHING we could and Heavenly Father must have something better for us.

You know, it's always easy to say to someone, "It'll work out, things will be okay." But then when you yourself are in that position, it feels a lot different. I know it'll work out, it's just the unkown that has me scared. How can there possibly be something better than the wage he was getting, the insurance, vacation time, overtime, M-F, with weekends and holidays, plus more? What makes me the most mad is that he has worked so hard to get to be a driver, 7 years, working two jobs, driving for 3 years, finally reaching top pay this February and then have it taken from us so quickly. I'm trying to stay positive but deep down in my gut I feel they won't give him his job back. My gut has been known to be wrong so I'm hoping it's just fear that has me feeling this way.

I know we're not the only ones who are jobless. The same day we got word that he was being let go, my good friends' husband was laid off from his job and she has a few other friends who are jobless as well. It really stinks!

I'm done venting and feeling sorry for myself now. The church is still true and there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

Ouch and Double Ouch

2008-09-03T13:36:00.000-07:00

So this is what happens when you're not paying attention while turning the corner.

(picture removed)

The end result: No more job and a $421.00 ticket.

Please keep us in your prayers as the hubby starts the gruelsome task of fighting for his job back.

(No one was hurt, except for his pride.)

TAGGED!!

2008-08-31T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well it looks like I've been tagged (thanks Michelle!). :) I'm going to be lame though and not tag anyone but any of you who want to, feel free to do this as well.

10 years ago....
1.) I was working for Predator Software
2.) Still adjusting to being married
3.) Had recently moved to Oregon from Idaho
4.) Stressing over rent being more than our house payment in Idaho
5.) Trying to start a family

Tomorrow's to do....
1.)Get the kids fed
2.)Clean up the downstairs
3.)Fold at least one load of laundry that's sitting at the end of my bed.
4.)Go to my parents for a BBQ
5.)Play games with the kids

Places I have lived....(that I have memories of)
1.) Roseburg, Oregon
2.) Fremont, California
3.) Aloha, Oregon
4.) Vancouver, Washington
5.) Idaho Falls, Idaho
6.) Suisun City, California
7.) Rexburg, Idaho

If I were a millionaire....
1.) Sell our house and move out into the country
2.) Travel (there are MANY places I want to go to)
3.) Get better vehicles
4.) Update my wardrobe
5.) Send money annonymously to family and friends

My favorite snacks.... (these are just a few)
1.) Chocolate chip cookie dough
2.) Dr. Pepper (right now it's diet though)
3.) Chips and dip
4.) Fresh fruit
5.) Grape tomatoes (fresh from the garden)
6.) Mixed nuts

Masterpiece

2008-08-25T20:26:00.001-07:00

Last month I was going through a magazine that had some cake recipes in them. I saw this one and thought it looked easy enough to make, not to mention fun so I decided to give it a try.

The end result (with a few changes):

Even though it wasn't the prettiest thing, it sure was good tasting!

Camping

2008-08-22T16:29:00.000-07:00

This year we stayed close to home for our yearly camping trip. About 20 minutes away is a nice lake with camping. The lake is surrounded by trees so it's like you're miles away from civilization. Besides not wanting to travel far, there were flushing toilets (I hate taking little kids to use the poopshoots, which were up by our site), showers if needed, a playground for the kids and not to mention the lake itself. Children under 4 were not allowed to play in the water, ecoli and other bacteria, so we got a little raft and life jackets to go out onto the lake with. Because we were late to reserve a campsite, we were stuck with one of the primitive sites. That means we had to wheelbarrow everything to our site. That part wasn't fun, pushing ALL our stuff uphill (and we have a lot of stuff) but it was away from the cars and we didn't have to worry about the kids running out into the road. Pretty sure we won't ever do a primitive site again, at least not until everyone is old enough to help.

When we got there, the parking lot was completely full. The camp director said we could park and unload by the entrance but that we'd have to park down at the lower parking lot until something opened up. Great. We had discovered one of the reasons why it was so crowded, besides being a beautiful day, there was a wedding happening. So we backed in and made a wheelbarrow run up. When we came back down, I saw someone loading their fishing gear into the back of their truck so I asked if they were leaving, which they were, and stood there so no one else could park there while Doug got in the truck and moved it. One vehicle down. Did I mention we have a lot of camping stuff? We have so much that we have to take out the back seats in the van and use the pickup. So after the truck is parked, we take another load up. On the way up, Shan, Bry and Aid want to play at the park. I tell the older ones to keep an eye on Aid, they have to be very careful because there are a lot of people around and really emphasized that they have GOT to watch him. Yes, mom, yes, mom, we will. After we got up to the site we decided to put the tent up over the table since that was a pain to put up and we didn't need extra hands trying to "help". When we had just gotten it set up, here comes a park ranger, Shan and Aid in tow, Bry got there just before them. Apparently Aid had wandered off while the other two played and other adults were getting concerned because no one was around claiming him. Another Great. He asked if all these kids were ours and yes, they were and then he said something about it being too much of a responsiblilty for the older ones to watch him, to which Doug's response was, "Apparently." Now, both of us are embarrassed since he just made us feel like irresponsible adults that shouldn't have four children and we still have two vehicles to unload. What a way to start a vacation, but at least it wasn't raining! We got the rest of our stuff unloaded and was even able to park the van right next to the truck. By this time the kids were tired, hungry, whining and crying. We ate late and put the kids to bed early.

Enjoying hot chocolate.

This was too funny. I watched her as she scooted her chair away from the fire and when she did, her hot chocolate dumped over without her realizing it. When she sat down and looked in her cup, this was the result. Glad I had the camera for this one.

The rest of the time was fairly nice. We took a hike around the lake, it was beautiful and did some exploring. The kids played a lot down at the playground. My parents came up for a while one day and we went out on the lake with the raft. I think Papa had fun. The nights for me were not fun. I'm a light sleeper so that combined with an unfamiliar place, bed, and children (I cannot sleep with kids near me) make for a long night. The last two nights Liv woke up right around two am coughing and would cough for a good 1/2 hour. The coyotes would wake me up along with the kids wiggling themselves out of their sleeping bags. We were constantly covering the two younger ones up. But despite all that, we love to camp and the memories we get from it are priceless.

They were watching the bubbles come up from someone scuba diving in the lake.

On our hike.

It didn't take long for someone to poop out. By the end Doug and I were both carrying the younger ones on our backs.

Picture time! It was just so pretty, couldn't help myself.

That's an inch worm on the end of her nose. She had that thing crawling all over her. Ew!

How do they do it?

2008-07-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

I do not see how people in the medical field, I think they are called residents, can go 24 hours working a shift.

As a lot of you already know, I'm a doula, helping moms physically, emotionally, mentally through the labor and delivery of their baby's. I'm also a volunteer doula (meaning I'm do not get paid for services) for a program called Operation Special Delivery. It's a wonderful program for military expecting mom's to get free labor support while their husbands are deployed. Another doula and I have been working together with this mom who was expecting their first baby (dad is currently on the east coast). Her due date was the 17th so we've just been playing the waiting game. Saturday morning just before 7am I get a call from my partner saying the mom's water had broken a few hours earlier and that they were going to be heading into the hospital within the next hour or so. Of course, I had things planned for that day so my partner, Patty, was so kind to go in first and let me get some things done since the mom wasn't really having regular contractions yet. So I went and worked out with my friends Marissa and Kellie, came home and showered then went to the movies with my mom, Marissa and her mom. We went and saw Mama Mia. LOVED IT!!!! My parents used to play all the ABBA records so I knew all the songs, sorry Marissa if I annoyed you with my humming along. After the movie I called to see how things were going and it was still real slow so I was able to go clean my grandparents half of the house (mom and dad take care of their side while I clean for my grandparents). I checked in with Patty again and we decided I'd go to the hospital to relieve her about 7pm.

When I get there, Patty fills me in with the details. Not much progress. The contractions are only about 5-7 minutes apart, mom is handling them well. So, we walk the halls, sit on the birth ball, sit on the toilet, taking one contraction at a time. During each and every contraction, all night, mom needed her back rubbed (by me) while either her mom or cousin held her hand. She was finally checked around midnight and she was only dialated to 1cm and baby was still really high. It was decided to give her some morophine/phenergan to help her get some rest. It didn't work. She was given pit. to help speed up the contractions which made it harder for her to cope with the pain. In the end, she got an epidural (all of which she was really hoping to avoid). Two hours after the epi they checked her and she was at 4cm. About three hours after that she was fully dialated. By this time Patty had arrived back at the hospital with a good nights sleep. I didn't go home since I knew it wasn't going to be too much longer. Just after 11:30am the baby was born.

I had my phone on vibrate during the time I was there and about a half hour after all the excitement, I heard my phone vibrate. It's my other client, she had called twice in the past hour and a half. Oh boy, I thought. I gave her a call and she tells me that she thinks her water broke. We talked for a few minutes and it was decided that she should talk to her care provider since it was around 2 in the morning when it broke and it was now 12:30 in the afternoon. She really didn't want to go to the hospital since she wasn't really having that strong of contractions so she said she'd call me after she talked to her doctor. I go back to Patty and the mom and tell them I need to get home, congratulated mom and headed home. Of course the dr. told my new mom she needed to get to the hospital right away because of the risk of infection, yada,yada but she told me they were going to take their time, walk the dog and get there when they get there. That's great, it gives me some time to get home, eat something, take a shower and hopefully get a nap in. I do end up getting a four hour, albeit interrupted, nap. It was decided to meet this mom at the hospital at 7pm, the first mom delivered at SWWMC, and this new one was up at the Salmon Creek one. We get there at the same time and her brother and sister-in-law are already there in the waiting room. Mom gets a room, is given a swab of her cervix to check and see if her water actually broke and then is strapped to the monitors. After getting all her vitals, medical history and the rest of that stuff, the results are in. Mom's water did not break but she's having regular contractions about 2-4 minutes apart. They decided to check her. Only 1cm, 70% effaced and baby it -3 station, which means way up there still. They tell her to walk the halls for an hour and come back for another check, if there is no progress, she'll get to go home. During this time, nine more members of her family show up, making that a total of 14 people out walking the halls with her including dad and I. We get back to the room, she's checked again, no progress. They monitor her about 20 more minutes and tell her to go home. Mom is frustrated, and I think a little embarassed, but I'm actually very greatful since I'm so exhausted. I get home around 10:30 and go right to bed. I'm still not fully rested but at least if I'm called in tonight I'll be able to think more clearly.

So, as to my first statement, I don't see how anyone in the medical field can function working such long hours. I love what I do and I can understand the adrenaline rush you get from the excitement that helps keep you awake but still, that rush doesn't last long and the brain stops functioning properly. Okay I'm babbling now so off to bed I go. Wow, this was longer than I thought. Kudos to you if you stuck to reading this.

Just a few things

2008-07-13T17:52:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy past few weeks. This will be a huge post if I give all the details so I'll just summarize.

We finally got my parents (and grandparents) moved into their new home. It was a long, slow, and tiring process but it's finally done. We've ALL been enjoying it out there; bbq's, baseball, sprinklers, lawn mowing, especially the lawn mowing! It's the first time my parents have ever had any land (and a brand new home) so it's been lots of fun.

Aiden and Olivia tired from moving.

Playing in the water. BBQing old school style. We don't need no stinkin propane!

Birthday dinner for Gramma.

Fun on the mower.

Even 90 year old Great-gramma took a turn!

On July 2nd, we came home from swimming at a friends house to find my sister and her family parked in our driveway. What a fabulous surprise!!! They had driven all the way from North Carolina, with a few stops in between. We had so much fun play the wii, PS3, 4th of July, Kids club, trampoline, more sprinklers. Thanks guys for coming to see us!!

Aiden, cousin Anya, Olivia. Bryson with cousin Kennedy.

Anya, Kennedy, Olivia, Riley and Bryson all playing around.

Waiting for the fieworks to start and the stash, all $230 worth.

Uncle Bryce and Papa goofing off.

Pooped!

Gosh, that doesn't seem like much but when it's sandwiched in between our everyday activities, it was actually really busy. The only two things set in stone for the rest of the summer is that 1) I'm on call for a client who is due to have her baby any day now and 2) we'll be going camping next month. Oh, and I can't forget our trip to Texas in October, yay!

Medford visit Part 2

2008-06-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

We left Moday after Doug got home from work and got down to Medford around 1:30am. After getting a quick tour of the house, Nat had gotten there earlier in the day, and having picked out our rooms, we settled in for the night (morning). Shannon and Olivia were up at about 7:30, which is a little early for them, so I climb out of bed and find Natalie awake as well. I had mentioned to her that "I could swear I heard the sound of little feet running around last night." She said that was because Aiden had woken up and was crying so she took care of him. Thank you Nat. Because of where our room was located in the house, we couldn't hear anything in the main part of it.

Okay, on with the day. After a quick internet search of what there was to do around Medford, we decided to go to a museum for the kids. When we got there, it was closed for renovations. Great, plan B. We remembered seeing an ad for a miniature golf/arcade place online and went to a gas station to look up where it might be. We end up driving to this hole in the wall of a place that has a slick track (no golfing) and arcades. We decide to give it a try. Shannon was just tall enough to drive a car by herself but Bryson had to ride with Dad. Aiden, Olivia and I just watched and they weren't too happy about that. Shannon had this look of fear the whole time. I couldn't really get a good picture of it but I thought it was so funny.

We played a little arcade then went to a park we saw down the street and played a while there.

That night we had pizza and played cards. After the kids went to bed, the three adults got into the hot tub and had a great visit. Natalie also works for UPS so there were quite a few stories exchanged.

Wednesday was checkout day so we packed our things and cleaned up. We went to another park to kill some time before our tour of the Harry and David factory. If you're ever in Medford, I recommend going on the tour, it was "very nice."

After our tour and some shopping, mmmmm chocolate covered cherries, we headed over to the local TacoBell for lunch and then time to say goodbye.

It was a short but fun trip. Thanks Natalie for meeting us halfway!

Medford visit

2008-06-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

Last week we drove down to Medford to meet up with a dear friend of mine, Natalie and her two boys. We hadn't seen each other in 13 years so it was a great reunion (she lives in Alaska so it was a real treat to have her visit down this way). While we were there, we rented a vacation home. It was so much fun.

(sorry it's a bit crooked, I was in a moving car)

our room on the left and our bathroom

Bry & Aiden's room (left) Shan & Liv's room (right)

Each room had their own bathroom.

Standing at the front door.

Kitchen and TV room.

I'll post more of our Medford trip later.

Owwie

2008-05-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

This is a hitch exactly like the one she ran in to.

Here's the broken bike, and yes, that's blood.

The following day.

Swollen lip.

It's looking better.

ER Trip #3

2008-05-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Friday was an eventful day. After the two younger kids woke up from their naps, we went to a local park with our neighbor from across the street. The kids had fun playing in the water, it was in the 90's that day, but it quickly ended when we saw people starting to run to a certain area of the park. The family next to where we were sitting started acting crazy, screaming, crying, running. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. I thought it was a fight but it turned out that someone had found a little girl floating in the water. It didn't take long for the paramedics to get there and then leave with her. I still didn't know if they had revived her but we were all a bit shaken up so we packed our stuff up and went home. (I found out on the news tonight that they did revive her but she had severe organ damage and she passed away this morning. She was only three. I'll be praying for the family.)

We weren't even home for 1/2 hour when the neighbor came pounding on our door saying our daughter was hurt. Sure enough, Olivia was being carried into the house with blood all over her mouth, clothes, legs, shoes. Doug went outside to find out what happened and I cleaned her up to assess the damage. She had a cut on her lip, a cut on the side of her chin and another cut on the other side of her chin. None of these cuts were bleeding too bad, so where was all the blood coming from? I had her spit and looked in her mouth and found that it was mostly coming from inside. I thought for sure her teeth had gone all the way through her lip so I checked to make sure her teeth were all there, they were, and it looked like maybe her teeth had gone through. The cuts to her face were big enough that we felt we should take her to the ER so off we went while across the street watched the other three kids.

On the ride there Doug told me what had happened. She had been riding her bike (not really a bike but not sure what else it's called. I'll post a picture later) down our street and couldn't stop so she did a face plant into our neighbors car. The back end of it has a trailer hitch on it. Thank goodness the actual hitch wasn't fastened to it so she just hit the part where it attaches. Sorry, I'm at a loss for technical words right now. So we get to the hospital and sit down in the waiting area, it's 7:45pm. We finally leave at 12:10am and six stitches later. Good news, her teeth didn't go through her lip and the teeth seem to be fine. All the bleeding was from her gums, which got pretty banged up and hopefully didn't damage her permanant teeth. She's doing fine now and I thought maybe this will stop her from sucking her thumb........nope. Just wishful thinking. I'm am just so thankful that she is okay and that she's still here.

2008-05-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

We went to Shannon's Dr. Wednesday and he confirmed it, yup, it's broken and she'll need a cast (she was in a splint). So today we went back into Portland and she got to choose the color she wanted. What do you think?

I just had to show you this. Last night I had a meeting and while I was gone, the kids picked up all the dirty laundry and this is what I came home to.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a laundry room like this!

Another trip to the ER

2008-04-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening we spent three hours in the ER. This time it was for our other daughter (funny how neither one of the boys has had to go...YET). Here's what happened. We had dinner over at a friends. After we ate, the kids were out playing in the backyard. They had a rope tied to a tree, with knots at the bottom to hang on to, that the kids were taking turns swinging on. Shannon, the daredevil that she is, kept going higher each time. The last time was pretty high and her hands slipped and down she went. We think it was about ten feet in the air, if not higher, because the ground sloped down. We thought maybe it was just a sprain but sure enough, she broke her arm. It wasn't a big break, but enough to have a splint put on. We go tomorrow for a follow-up to see what her Dr. says.

I Can SEE!!!

2008-03-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

Well I did it. I went and had lasik eye surgery this past Thursday. Let me tell you, that is money worth spending! For 20 years I've had bad eyes. My last exam was 20/400, which isn't too bad compared to lots of people but now I'm seeing 20/20 and that was the morning after the surgery. I was very nervous about having the procedure, after all, these are my eyes we're dealing with. I was in and out of the surgery (if you want to call it that) in ten maybe 15 minutes at the most. The longest part was waiting which was about 1 1/2 hours. When they were finally ready for me, I had to put on some booties over my shoes and a net for my hair. When I got in the room, they had me lay down on what looked like a flat dentist's chair minus the arm rests and it swung from side to side. They numbed my eyes with drops, put a patch over my left eye, "propped" open my right eye and swung me to the machine on the left. They told me I'd feel some pressure, which I did, andI think this is where they produced the flap in my cornea. They released the pressure and I'm sure this is where the Dr. opened the flap because I could see him using some kind of tool that reminded me of what the dentist uses to scrape plaque off your teeth. Then I was swung to the right where I was told to look straight ahead at the red dot and be very still. This was the actual laser part which reminded me of a mini sand blaster that went in quick, short bursts for about 15 seconds. They brought me back to center, rinsed my eye out, used some other weird instrument to smooth my cornea flap back down and the process was repeated for the left eye. When my eyes were done, I remember looking at the clock on the wall thinking, wow, I can see the numbers where just a few minutes earlier I could barely tell there was a clock. Of course, it looked like I was seeing things under water but at least it wasn't blurry. They had me go into another room where the dr looked at my eyes, said they looked great, here are your sunglasses, make sure you take your eye drops, and we'll see you back here in the morning, have a nice day. My mom had come with me (there was no way I was going to be driving, I couldn't keep my eyes open) and by the time we had stopped to get dinner and then home, the numbing drops had worn off and my eyes felt like they were on fire. I quickly had something to eat, thank you mom for feeding me, took my Vicodin (I had taken a valium there to calm my nerves) and went to bed. The following is a lovely shot of the beautiful glasses they give you to sleep with so you don't scratch at your eyes while you're asleep. They don't seem to work for me because I caught myself twice last night lifting the goggles up to scratch my eyes. Thank goodness I woke up enough to stop myself. I get to wear them for a whole week though. My eyes were watering so bad my nose was runny and I was so stuffed up. The other picture is the wonderful bruises I got from the suction machine. I know, flattering pictures. Despite the three different types of eye drops I constantly have to take for the next few days and the irritation the first day, I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out. If I had to do it again, I definitely would!

Family Reunion

2008-03-07T20:12:00.000-08:00

The last week of February, we drove back to I.F. for the Ward Family reunion. A family reunion in February, you ask??? Because vacation times are based on seniority with Doug's work, we're so lucky to get whatever's left, which ultimately leaves October, November, February, March, and April left for picking our vacation days. So we make the best of it and Doug's sister (who was in charge of the reunion this year) was so kind to accommadate us (and another brother), which we were very greatful. As always, it was wonderful to visit with family, we had a great time and the kids had so much fun with their cousins.

Off to Grandma and Grandpa's...

Where's Aiden?

There he is!

They loved playing in the snow. Below is Shannon, Olivia and their cousin Riley. It was funny watching Liv trying to walk in it.

Even at Grandma's Aiden and Olivia managed to get into mischief. They got into a box of oranges that were left out and stashed their mess behind the curtains.

We were able to go through a session at the new Rexburg temple. Ken (our brother-in-law) was the foreman for the outside crew that worked on the temple and he was able to give every one of the sibling's, and mom & dad, a piece of the granite used in the temple.

The grandkids (minus three) all having a slumber party at aunt Julie's.

Once the kids are down, it's party time for the parents. The first night we stayed up until almost 4am. There were some pretty tired adults the next day but that didn't stop us from staying up the following night. Now I have to tell a funny story. The first night we stayed up, us ladies made a KJ's run. Meaning, we went down to the local gas station and filled up the 44 oz. cups with fountain drinks since it was only 50 cents or so to fill them. There are five of us women with a box (really, we brought a box with us to hold all the drinks in) filled with nine fountain drinks and a few Sobe's and Vitamin waters, plus some goodies. The following night it was the men's turn. When they took the stuff up to the counter, one of my brother-in-laws said something like, "I bet you don't see something like this very often." The woman behind the counter said, "Actually, there was a group that came in last night." His reply, "Yeah, that was us too."

Saturday was game day with everyone. We were going to go sledding after breakfast but it was raining and all week the snow has slowly been melting so it wasn't good weather to play in. Julie had reserved the cultural hall at the church and had games planned for the kids. Below: the kids having a leap frog relay.

One of the other games was to build a snowman using whatever supplies they had available. Everything was piled in the middle of the gym; boxes, sticks, clothing, buttons, balloons, etc. We had two minutes to plan what items we wanted, after the two minutes, one person from each family ran into the center and grabbed whatever they could and brought it back to their team. We then had 10 minutes to build our snowman. Ours is the one on the left. We used chewing gum to hold the eyes and nose on. We won the "most life-like" award. The one on the right belongs to Julie and Ken (Doug's sister). They won the "most anatomically correct" award.

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home"

2008-02-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

The kids love it when Doug gets home from work. The minute he tries to lay down on the floor for a little relaxation, they take it as an open invitation and watch out, here they come. Of course, in this picture they're posing. I couldn't get a non blurry picture of them wrestling and teasing dad.

Catching Up

2008-02-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago was Bryson's Blue and Gold Banquet for Scouts. He was required to make and decorate a cake with his dad's help. He decided he wanted a green Lego. (the toothpicks are to keep the seran wrap from messing with the frosting. It didn't work, I still had to do touchups when we got there.)

Last Tuesday we went to the zoo for a field trip. Every 2nd Tuesday of the month, the zoo only charges $2 for admission. I figured in February the zoo wouldn't be very crowded, which it wasn't but it was definitely cold.

This Lorikeet had the hots for Shannon. He kept coming back to her and we didn't even have the nectar to feed them with.

I love the colors of this Lorikeet.

Taking a break before going in to see the crocodiles.

Just outside the elephant habitat, right before we headed home. It was starting to sprinkle and it was way past nap time for the two younger ones. (the kid in the middle is not ours, he just wouldn't get out of the picture no matter how much coaxing his father did)

Now on to Valentine's day. Normally Doug and I don't do anything for each other but my neighbor talked me into doing a nice dinner for him. So I did and here's how it looked.

We had RedLobster for dinner (take-out) and I rented a video for the kids to watch upstairs while we ate. It turned out to be a nice evening and I had fun decorating and being secretive.

My Britches Are Burning

2008-02-05T20:11:00.000-08:00

The other day Shannon comes to me and says, "Mom, your bedroom smells funny." Olivia had just been in there because I told her to go potty so I'm thinking maybe she did a stinky. I walked into my room and immediately smelled something that clearly was burning. I quickly looked around and when I looked down, there was the clothes iron, plugged in and on, laying on my favorite pajama bottoms. Instead of going to the bathroom like I had asked her to, Olivia had pugged in the iron and decided to iron my jammies instead. I wasn't a very happy person.

Let's add some excitement!

2008-01-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so there's been a bit of excitement around here.
First: This past Thursday we had a tornado hit about a 1/2 mile-1 mile from our house. Around lunchtime I heard some thunder and looked out the window to see some really dark clouds. A few minutes later it started raining, then hailing and the hail got bigger and started coming down harder, then came the wind and sheets of rain. I've never seen it rain that hard in my life. We watched upstairs as the rain was washing the hail out of the gutters (you'd have to see how our house is built to fully understand that). I thought, "Hmmm, what an interesting storm." Then it was done. It wasn't until I got a phone call from a friend a few hours later, wondering if we survived the tornado, that I found out. Amazingly no one was seriously hurt although it did quite a bit of damage to several businesses. It came very close to Bryson's school but everyone was hustled into the building (they were outside for recess) and I don't think most of them even knew what was going on. It's at times like this that I count my many blessings.

Second: Today at church I was walking down the hallway and past a gentleman who looked very familiar. I knew he wasn't in our ward but couldn't quite remember where I had seen him, so I just smiled and kept going. A few minutes later as I was sitting in the foyer doing some work for my church calling, I look up and see him standing off to the side sort of in the coat hanging area. A woman goes over to talk to him and I eaves drop a little and I hear only a few words like "taxi", "hotel", "Portland airport", and "only here for sacrament". Then it hits me. Standing right there is Benji Schwimmer, the winner of "So you think you can dance"! The lady walks away and I look up at him, he smiles and I say, "Now I recognize you, I really enjoyed watching you dance." He says thanks and then heads into the chapel for sacrament. I really wish I had gone over and shook his hand and talked to him a little more, especially to find out why he was all the way up in Vancouver when there are many church houses closer to the airport. Oh well. I felt like a little kids, all giddy inside and I couldn't even concentrate during the rest of my meetings. If only it wasn't church then I would have gotten a picture.

That's the third time in my life that I have ever talked with, shaken hands with or been up close to someone who's famous or close to. The first time was just after I was married I got to shake Pres. Hinckley's hand, the second time was last year at my brother-in-law's pre-wedding dinnner and one of our server's was a guy who had tried out for American Idol and had gotten to Hollywood (sorry I forgot his name) but I had remembered watching him get kicked off and thinking he totally should have stayed, and then Benji. Just goes to show it definitely is a small world.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays Everyone!

It seems each year gets busier and busier, especially as the children get older. So, for those of you whom I haven’t chatted with in a while, I’ll give a little summary of some things that happened this year.

In March, we took a 2 ½ week vacation down to southern California for a family wedding. We were able to go to Disneyland, California Adventure, the beach, and the San Diego temple. It was a great visit with family.

In June, Doug and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. What did we do, you ask? Absolutely nothing! That’s okay, someday when we’re incredibly wealthy we’ll make up for it. Also, in June, I competed in my first ever Triathlon. It was a great experience, despite the fact that I had gotten the flu the day before. I’m planning on doing it again next year, just to see what it’s like racing without being sick. Who knows, this might become yearly event. (see below in June's blog for pictures)

In August it was another quick trip to northern California for another family wedding (see below in August's blog for pictures)

September was back to school. Shannon and Bryson started the second grade. My parents sold their house in California and moved up here to be closer to my grandparents and us.

In October, for various reasons, I decided to start home schooling Shannon. It hasn’t been easy but I have noticed a big change. There is an excellent program here for home schooling so she’s not spending all her time with me, some days she is in an actual classroom setting where there are about 8 students in the class. I love it. I’ll home school Bryson but it probably won’t be until they start the third grade. He’s doing so well in the public school, I really don’t see a hurry to pull him out right now.

On one of our last beautiful sunny days in October, Olivia slipped in the front yard and smacked her forehead on some rebar. So it was off to the emergency room for stitches, two to be exact. She still tells every new person she meets that she hit her head on a bar.

November was a pretty big month. Olivia turned three and the twins turned eight. Shannon is now going to Activity days with our church and Bryson started Scouts. We had family come visit for their birthday and baptism.

And so it brings us to December where we come together to celebrate the birth of our Savior, and Aiden, who will be two. I always love this time of year, not because of the stress but because it makes me think more of our Savior and all the reasons why we have Christmas.

He always has a messy face. His new thing is climbing the fridge.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

PS One of my new year's resolutions, keeping up-to-date with my blogging :)

Aiden and the stairs

2007-09-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Below is how Aiden loves to go down the stairs. He can even go faster than this but of course he won't do it on camera. I think it's so funny because sometimes you can hear his breath going out of him when he's going down.

Aiden and the stairs

2007-09-20T21:53:00.000-07:00

Chicken Salad Recipe

2007-09-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is my yummy Chicken salad recipe (NOTE: preparation time is 2 1/2 hours)

Bake chicken in oven
Start preparing lettuce
Make sure kids are including Olivia on the trampoline
Put lettuce in bowl
Let Aiden outside
Wash and start adding spinach
Let Aiden in
Continue adding spinach
Let Aiden back outside
Boil eggs
Let Aiden back in
Cut up radishes and add to lettuce and spinach
Clean up big puddle of pee Olivia has just made and Aiden is now playing in
Wash hands and remove chicken from oven
Go get Aiden who has now escaped out the front door because someone left it unlocked
Prepare carrots
Referee Shannon and neighbor girl fighting
Finish cutting carrots and add to salad
Let Bryson in since the door was locked
Peel and cut up cucumber, add to salad
Put in movie for Olivia and clean up the mess of videos now on the floor
Change Aiden's diaper since it is almost touching the ground and I'm on the floor anyway
Wash hands
Cut up chicken and add to salad
Peel the eggs
Answer the phone
Slice the eggs and add them to salad
Enjoy

Whew!

Camping

2007-08-24T18:21:00.001-07:00

We try to go camping at least once a year, so the 18th, we packed up both vehicles and headed for the mountains. We were a little concerned because the forcast said rain was coming but we had already made the reservations and couldn't back out. Besides, here in the northwest, you can never rely on the weatherman. When we left Saturday afternoon, there were some clouds in the sky but lots of blue and it was warm. It was perfect when we got there. We set up camp and had a nice dinner of roasted hotdogs. As we were getting ready for bed, I started feeling a few drops of rain, hoping it wouldn't get any worse. Shortly after everyone was tucked into bed, it started raining. We woke up to sprinkles but around 11am it had stopped and we were able to enjoy our first real day camping. And what did we do? NOTHING! It was great. The kids went exploring a bit around the camp area but that was about it. I went to bed that night thinking, hoping, praying that it would be a nice day Monday, but alas, I was awakened by a sudden downpour of rain in the middle of the night. It was coming down harder then the previous night and it was still coming down good when everyone woke up that morning.

Doug did a great job getting the fire started and keeping it going all day. And it rained all day. We were greatful to have the tent over the picinic table but the sides still got wet so we were only able to sit on one side of the table and the boxes to the right, just over Bryson's head in the picture above were wet as well. The food stayed pretty dry, thank goodness.

Where's Aiden?

There he is! He sure had fun playing in the tarp.

I wanted to be able to enjoy the fire but we couldn't because of the rain so we hung a tarp over the tent that was over the table. It was perfect. The tarp was far enough away from the flame but close enough for us to still feel the warmth. The only complaint, sometimes it caught the smoke and funneled it into where we were preparing the food. We also had to put a tarp over the edge of the tent because water was dripping in through the zipper, soaking the kids' bed. We went for a drive after breakfast, hoping the rain would let up a little by the afternoon.

We did get a little break, for about 1/2 hour. Shannon, Bryson and I went for a walk, down by the creek while Doug put the two little ones down for naps. They showed me all the trails they found from the day before and Bryson even caught a salamandar. Wish I had gotten a picture of it but the whole way back to camp to show dad, they fought over who was going to hold it and I was at my witts end. So after showing daddy, they had to take him back. Ahhhhh, peace at last, at least for a little while.

We played games, read books, sang songs and roasted marshmallows in the rain. Thank goodness it wasn't really that cold.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm, marshmallows.

It rains all night and wouldn't you know it, when we get up in the morning..........SUN! Figures, the day we have to go home. Oh well, there's always next year, right?

One last pose before we all head back home. Yes, Olivia is not wearing any pants. She was good the whole time until just before we left and of course everything is packed. I was able to find some underwear but no more extra pants because she had fun playing in the puddles. On a side note, we had brought the little potty used for training and had it in the tent for during the night. She still gets up at least once to go. It actually came in very handy. On the night it was raining really hard, I woke up to Bryson dancing in front of the door, whimpering and there was no way I was getting out of my warm cozy bed to take him to the "poop shoot". Boy was that thing full by morning. Sounds gross but it wasn't too bad, I had it lined with a garbage bag and feminine pad to soak things up.

All, in all, it was a good trip and something we'll always remember.

California Trip

2007-08-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went down to California for a family wedding. Mom and I drove down Thursday (she flew up here to help me). Doug flew down there on Friday and he and I drove back home on Sunday. It was a crazy trip but so fun to see family.

Cousins Jeremy and Jack.

Bryson on Jeremy's mo-mo with "cousin" Andrew. Shannon with my brother, Seth, on his mo-mo. The kids had lots of fun riding around the court.

The photo with ALL of us got deleted by accident so this is the only closest family picture we got. (Sorry Doug)

The kids climbing in the trees at one of the many restroom stops we made.

2007-06-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sure it sounds like Olivia is a holy terror but she really is a sweet girl. There will be times when we're driving in the car or sitting at the dinner table and she'll pipe up, "There's Jesus." And we ask, "Where?" and she'll point out the window or somewhere else in the room and say, "Right there." Then she'll say, "All gone Jesus, bye-bye." None of my other kids have done anything like that so it makes me wonder and hope that she keeps that special connection with Him. It's also a constant reminder to me that we're not alone, even though we can't see Him, He's still there.

2007-06-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

This morning, as I was cleaning up the mess Olivia made with the banana's downstairs, she was making another mess upstairs.

That is craft paint and she did manage to get some on the carpet. Thank goodness it all came up (thank you Leslie for the carpet cleaner, it has saved us many times).

Triathlon

2007-06-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

For the past three months I've been training for a triathlon. As my Gramma says, "Why would you want to do that?" I don't know, it just sounded like fun, not to mention a good way to get myself into better shape. Friday, the day before the race, I wake up with the flu (I hadn't been feeling well the week before but I only had a cold, but the flu...come on!). I call Doug crying, "What am I going to do? I feel terrible!" Later that afternoon we get a call regarding our sleeping arrangements and the plans fell through for that. It was also questionable whether Doug was going to be able to get off work early since we were going to be traveling up to Seattle. I was devistated. All this hard work and the money that was put into this was all going down the drain. I called my friend who was going to watch the kids for us to tell her it wasn't going to happen and explained all that had gone wrong. She then tells me, "Well, I can get you a room at Best Western for free. Give me a few minutes." Doug calls shortly after that and says they found someone to do his last pickup so he'd be home early. Things were starting to look better, all except I still felt like death warmed over (I'm not even going to complain about all the things the two younger ones got into). Things ended up working out, we got to Seattle around midnight, I hardly slept at all due to my achey body, and was up at 6:30am to get ready for the race. I still didn't know how I was going to do it. We arrived with about 15 minutes before the race started. My friend, who was also racing, helped me get ready since I had no idea what I was doing. The race started at 8am with four waves going every 5 minutes, depending on the age. I was in the last wave (us youngsters going last). Once I put my wetsuit on, I didn't feel sick anymore and I was able to complete the race. The race was 1/4 mile swim, 14 mile bike ride and 3.2 mile run. I did the whole thing without stopping or walking and finished 109 out of 130 and with a time of 1hr 39min. After I crossed the finish line, that was it. My body shut down, I felt terrible again and slept from 6pm that night until 9am the next morning.

Waiting for my turn in the water. Each age group had their own color of swim caps.

The water was freezing! We were told it was about 60-65 degrees but it felt a lot colder than that. The girl behind me was the only one without some type of wet suit. I'm so glad I had one.

Me in the transition area heading off for the biking part. We couldn't get on our bikes until we got to a designated place.

Olivia's latest masterpiece

2007-06-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Thursday morning I had been upstairs for only 5 minutes and when I went back down, Olivia had opened the fridge and all my eggs and half a bottle of soy sauce were on the floor. Her hands and arms were covered in them and Aiden couldn't even stand up because the floor was so slippery. If you look hard enough you will see foot prints next to Olivia, which led right to the carpet and she even has egg shell in her hair.

The Adventures of Olivia Scene 3

2007-05-24T15:13:00.001-07:00

As you recall, scene one took place in mom and dad's bedroom involving markers, a bed, and a 2 year old. Scene 2 was also in mom and dad's room with mascara, a 1 year old, and a 2 year old.

Scene 3

Mom is upstairs sorting the knee deep laundry since everyone is now resorting to the sniffing of clothes to determine whether they are wearable or not. The two little ones are no longer "helping" mom with the laundry and have managed to make their way downstairs. So far, no sounds of the pantry doors, a good sign. After a few minutes it gets awfully quiet. "Oh boy," mom thinks but suddenly hears laughter and the children running around. "Whew, they must not be into anything." Deep into her own thoughts mom realizes again, it has gotten way too quiet. She makes her way over the smelly piles of clothes and down the stairs. Where have they gone too? She sees one of the dining room chairs has been pushed over to the island, not a good sign. (Olivia has mastered moving the chairs quietly because she knows once mom hears the scraping of the chair, it's all over.) Mom rounds the corner and out pops Liv from behind the couch, half a bottle of bubbles in her hand. The bottle was full to begin with. "Great," mom thinks, "I really didn't want to clean the carpets right now." "Look mom, bubbles! Phlst," exclaims Olivia as she is trying hard to blow into the wand. Aiden has now picked himself up off the floor and comes staggering towards mom, rubbing his eyes. "Wonderful, Liv," mom tells her, picking up Aiden whose head and face is saturated with soapy bubbles. Mom quickly scans the carpet for the puddle she's anticipating. No puddles found, odd. Aiden has really begun to fuss now so she rinses him off in the sink, trying to get as much of it out of his eyes as possible. While rinsing him off, mom asks, "Livy, where's the lid to the bubbles?" "Right there," she says. "Where? Show mommy." "Right there," she says again, running into the kitchen. Mom sees the lid just as Olivia's feet go sliding out from under her. Whack! She smacks her head on the floor and is now covered from head to toe in bubbles. Aiden is quickly dried off and mom rushes to comfort a now hysterical Olivia. Once she is calmed down, the bubbles get cleaned up off the floor (so there won't be anymore acrobatics) and then it's off to the bath for Liv.

Stay tuned for more Adventures of Olivia.......

The picture is from after he was cleaned up. He couldn't open his eyes all the way and they were pretty weepy for a while. And yes, the cat is in the tub.

This is My Life!

2007-05-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this mostly so I can put it in my journal but I thought you all would get a laugh out of it and possibly even relate.

Last night Shannon comes running in as I'm cleaning up dinner and says the next door lady needs me, her dog just got hit by a car. Doug hasn't gotten home from work yet so I tell Shannon to stay inside the house while I go see what's going on. Sure enough, the neighbors dog has gotten hurt and is bleeding a little bit and she wants to know if I know of any animal hospitals around here. I don't but she ends of getting a hold of someone who does and while she's making some calls, her son is upset so I sit down and try to comfort him and calm him down. Meanwhile, Olivia has escaped because Shannon is now outside wanting to know what's going on. I tell her again to go back inside and take Olivia with her. She leaves and comes back a minute later and I again tell her to go in the house, I'll be there in a minute. She goes back to the house again and I have to sit with the dog because the neighbor kids don't want to get blood on themselves while the mom goes inside to change out of her nice work clothes. I ask Bryson to please go and check on Shannon and the babies and he quickly comes back and tells me Shannon is in the driveway and both the inside garage and front doors are locked, meaning no one is watching Aiden and Olivia. I help get the dog loaded into the car, just imagining the mess the kids have gotten into. I wasn't worried about getting into the house because 1. the back slider door was unlocked and 2. we have a spare key hidden in the backyard. When I got inside, there was Olivia, shoving the last of the jelly beans into her mouth (she had climbed the pantry shelves and gotten the candy off the top shelf) and Aiden was sitting on the carpet with his diaper off, jelly bean remnants on his mouth. Wouldn't have been that bad but yup, he had a poopy butt. The messy diaper was by the pantry and poop was smeared all over the kitchen floor. I get them upstairs and into the bath just as Doug is getting home. The phone rings and it's my doula partner needing to talk about last minute details about a client of ours. So while I'm talking to her I'm trying to get ready to leave because Thursdays are my swim nights and my ride is going to be here any minute. Before Doug can even eat his dinner, I need him to finish bathing the kids because they're screaming and I can't hear Karen. Just as I'm getting off the phone, I see Lisa pull up. I tell Doug "thanks, I have to go, oh and if you hadn't noticed, there's a mess on the floor."

Please tell me I'm not the only one that has these kinds of days. Oh yes, Shannon couldn't play today as a result of yesterday's disobedience. And today was a better day.