Christmas Decorations

Here is this year's Christmas tree. I left the bottom third pretty bare because of Andrew. He was trying to pull down the ornaments from my sister's tree, so I decided to avoid that as much as possible.

Weekly Update

So, it's been a while since I last updated, I know... I've been getting calls about it. So I have a little time today to sit down and type so I'm updating now. It's good to know that people care enough to ask about it!
Let's see. New changes? Well, last week was Thanksgiving. It was a nice day. However, the days leading up to it weren't so good. I started having problems with my asthma the week before, and on Sunday right after church I came home so exhausted that I could hardly make it upstairs to sleep. I made it upstairs and slept for several hours. When I woke up I felt so much worse than I had before. I was coughing a lot more than I had been, and ached everywhere. I went to the doctor the next day and he confirmed that I had bronchitis. So last Monday and Tuesday were supposed to be restful days so I could get better. Supposed to be... only they weren't. Natalie started barfing on Monday, Justin started in on Tuesday, Wednesday was all clear for the kids, and then on Thursday Drew got me and several places on Amy's floor right after dinner. Nice... So Kent took Drew home after we cleaned that up, and I went home to change. Almost everyone else went to see the movies. I took Justin, Trevor and Natalie and saw Happy Feet with Amy, Mikaya and Taylor. Trevor laughed so hard. It's always nice when he's in a good mood. It really makes my day. On Friday I made my annual early morning pilgrimage to do my Christmas shopping. I got some great deals and got just about everything taken care of.
I didn't get the tree up until last night. I am missing a few Christmas decorations that I put on the railing leading up the stairs, the stockings and my big wreath. Hopefully I'll be able to find them today. I want to be able to put all of the boxes away today and not have to think about them again until it's time for everything to come down.
On a final note, this morning I had to go to my spine doctor for a follow-up. I was unable to complete physical therapy at the recommendation of my therapist- and also the fact that after the last appointment I could hardly sit, stand or walk. She wanted me to meet with my doctor and get another round of cortisone shots before coming back to her. I am going to go in again tomorrow afternoon to have my second round. After the experience the last time, I am not totally sold on them being all that effective. However, the pain is bad enough and the duration has been long enough that I need to do something. A girl in my ward has had 2 back surgeries and done just about every other treatment as well. She highly recommended that I give the shots one more try, so I am. If I have another bad reaction I will at least be able to say that I gave that treatment a fair shot... no pun intended. If this doesn't work I'm not sure what we'll do. My doctor doesn't feel that my problem is serious enough for surgery but he's not sure what to do if this doesn't work. That will be something we discuss in the future if this doesn't work. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
Allright. It's time to go. The kiddos want to have an early lunch.

Natalie and her thumb!

Natalie loves to suck her thumb. She didn't discover her thumb until she was a few months old, but ever since she did, she has loved it. She really has no interest in stopping anytime soon. She sucks her thumb when she's sad, sick or bored. She sucks her thumb when she sleeps, when she's awake or whenever. There is even a permanent indentation that is discolored on the top of her thumb from her teeth but she doesn't mind. What's a girl to do without her thumb? The doctor and dentist both want her to stop sucking her thumb, but she doesn't care for any of the incentives that they offer. So... what I have done lately is hold her, but only if she doesn't suck her thumb. She looks at me to see if I'm being serious. When she decides that I am, she puts the thumb away and decieds that she can leave it alone for a few minutes. HOWEVER, as soon as she needs to suck her thumb, she slides off of my lap and sucks it- sometimes for just a few seconds- and then she returns. I told her that I am going to get a marker and paint it black, but she doesn't like that idea. What do you do when bribery doesn't work?! 

Drew

Drew just cracks me up. He has this "cheese" smile. Whenever the camera comes out, he starts saying, "Cheese! Cheese! Cheese, Mama, cheese!" He does this all while smiling with the big, cheesy smile and the squinted eyes... because it's just not complete without that, right? Here are a few of my favorite recent "cheese" pictures.

The projects

Here are the projects so far...
BOO was for Halloween
THANKS is for Thanksgiving
HO HO HO is for Christmas. Those are not done yet. I am finishing them on Tuesday with my friends. It's gonna be a blast, and they will look so cute when I'm done!

Halloween and more...

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post. Things around here have been crazy as usual. It seems that just when I think I have a handle on my life, something else comes my way that I'm not always ready for.
The back is still an issue. My doctor has me going to physical therapy 3 times a week. I'm not entirely sure that I really want to go back. I went on Thursday, and on Friday night I felt so sore. I couldn't figure out what was going on. So when I got home I looked in the mirror. My lower back and left hip have large bruises. Who knew? I wasn't expecting that. Hopefully they'll be more gentle when I return on Monday. I'm really trying to be a trooper, but some days it's not as easy as others.
Justin is done with piano for now. He has been getting a lot more homework that he wants, so we've had to modify his schedule a bit. He will take at least November and December off, and then we'll see how he's doing come January. He seems to be enjoying the break so far.
Trevor is Trevor. What can I say? The boy is his own person. He likes to wax philisophical with a myriad of subjects. His latest has been how he's going to make movies with dinosaurs (pronounced dinoswars by Trev), and all the battles that they'll face. He's going to star in it, and so am I. The dinosaurs are going to chase us and try to eat us. (FYI- I'll survive because he'll protect me. I also get to move into his mansion when he's rich.)
Natalie gets to be VIP at preschool this week. She thinks it will be so neat. She can hardly wait. She keeps telling me that she wants to take crackers and brownies to share with everyone in her class (3 other kids). I told her I'll have to see how she behaves. She has been feeling a little sick all weekend. She caught a cough from Drew, but she decided to jump on the trampoline yesterday afternoon. She started caughing and then she threw up. It was very dramatic, and she needed lots of attention. She's been fine today, but she has wanted me to hold her. I have had such a hard time holding her because she wants to sit on my left leg, and I just can't let her do that because it hurts too much. So now she will sit thisclose to me and eventually end up almost underneath me. I have been trying to show her extra attention this weekend, so hopefully she'll feel better soon.
Drew Dog has had a cough for almost 2 weeks. Last night while in his bed he coughed and coughed and coughed until he threw up. It was everywhere. Kent got him out of bed, cleaned up and brought him to me. He hasn't coughed since last night, so the gunk got out of his lungs. All day today, though, he has been really sleepy and quiet- which, as you know, is quite unlike him. Tonight he went to bed without a problem, but he's a little feverish. I hope he sleeps realliy well tonight and wakes up feeling better in the morning. He's my baby, so I can't stand for him to feel sick or sad.
Kent is still busy with work. He's got a big test coming up with Cisco. He studies all the time, and I can't wait until he passes it so that he can have some free time. I would love for him to be able to get back to working in the garage on his projects. He seems a lot happier when he has accomplished one of those tasks. He makes every effort to teach the kids a good work ethic, and then how to have fun afterwards. The boys aren't digging the learning of a good work ethic so much, but they love to have fun. This will be an ongoing lesson for many years, so I'm glad we have some time.
I have all my usual stuff. I have had workshops, taught classes, worked on home decor projects with my friends, visited with family and friends, gone to my doctors way too many times, gone shopping, cooked, cleaned, played, carpooled, been a taxi service and still had many other things going on... So things are pretty much status quo for me. I keep hearing that it's not always like this, but for now, I'm going to try to enjoy the business of being a wife, mother, sister, daughter and friend and try to make life easier for those around me.
Okay... on to other stuff. On Halloween Justin and Trevor thought I was too slow, so they went with my mom and 2 friends and hit all the houses that they could. I think they had a lot of fun. Drew fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving the house so I took him home to Kent, who was passing out candy, and put Natalie in the stroller. I went with my friends and their kids and had a blast. The pictures below are the kids in their Halloween costumes. Drew was Dracula; Natalie was Cinderella; Trevor was Harry Potter; Justin was a punk rocker. He was determined not to crack a smile for his picture because "punks are tough." (Hopefully this is just a stage that he'll pass through quickly.)