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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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.