One year anniversary!

Today is the one year anniversary of my back surgery. I can honestly say that it's been much better since I had it operated on! I still have some problems, but the nerve pain is not present most of the time so I'm so glad that I had the surgery. And I'm so grateful I found such a great surgeon who took the time to get the necessary tests done to ensure that I got the proper care and the best result that he could give me.
As you can see by the time I posted this it's pretty late. In fact it's almost 1:00 a.m. Justin has been working on his paper all day. He was almost done at about 9:30 when he started freaking out. I told him it was time for a little break, and when he was done I'd go in with him to see what was going on. Turns out he deleted the entire paper. He has spent hours working on it all week. I had saved an earlier version of it, but it was so different than the current one that he literally had to start from scratch. I feel so bad for him! And I feel bad for me right now because I am pooped! I was out until 2:30 a.m. last night, up at 7 today, and I have an optometrist appointment first thing tomorrow morning. I am not getting enough sleep! I hope he finishes soon! My bed is calling to me!
Both Natalie and Drew had Halloween parties to go to today. Drew wouldn't keep his costume on. I got him dressed in a Superman cape, but I apparently don't know how to do his hair like Superman's so he took his costume off and wouldn't wear it. He was wearing a Spider-Man shirt, though, so I guess that's good enough.

Here's Drew with the Superman cape before he decided he couldn't wear it.

As for Natalie we got out her Hannah Montana wig, microphone headset and feather boa. She had black leggings that have sparkles in the material. The t-shirt was a purplish color with fun designs and had sequins all over it. She looked pretty cute. She didn't want me to go to the party, though. She told me she was "a big girl and I don't need you to come with me anymore!" Little stinker! I went anyway, and she was glad I was there. It was pretty warm outside today so first she took of the boa; then the headset; then the wig. I guess having me there wasn't so bad after all!

Natalie as Hannah. She was so excited to wear makeup and her new sparkling clothes!

Natalie doing crafts. She would do them all day every day if I let her.

Ally and Natalie. This is at the end of the party, and I think I was lucky to catch them with any part of their costumes left. It was pretty hot outside!

Funny for the day- Redistribute the Wealth

From my brother...
My History of Economic Thought teacher sent me this and I found it to be funny yet true…

From a former student:
This is from my co worker's mom who did this last night. A gutsy woman - just my type!!
In a local restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference--just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.
I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient needed the money more.
I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application
-- Amanda Daninger

Election Thoughts

Kent and I submitted our early voting ballots. I always take the time to read up on all of the propositions and candidates before I vote because I want to make an informed decision. Kent trusts me enough to go along with my votes. (I tell him that he can do his own research to come up with something different if he is so inclined, but so far he has voted with me. I guess it's times like this that my Poli Sci studies from ASU come in handy...) I even voted across party lines in a few places this time. I felt a little guilty about that! But I really felt that some of the people from the other party would be better in those positions.
Listening to all of the ads on TV and radio I thought that many of the propositions sounded great. But before I voted I had to do my homework because I didn't want to vote for something that I was misled about by the ads. It's times like this that I really love the Internet. I was able to find several websites that explained what the propositions would really do. Some of them had really good points on both sides, but then they also had some really terrible consequences that they DON'T put in the ads on TV and radio. I was shocked that they got enough valid signatures to get these propositions onto the ballot!
This election is so important! Please don't waste your vote! Do your homework so you can make an informed decision. If you're still unsure how to vote then PRAY!

Family Week update

I apologize for some of the pictures being blurry. Someone switched the settings on the camera, and I didn't realize until I pulled the pictures that many of them were blurry. I cleaned them up as much as I could on Photoshop, but even that has its limits!

Tuesday ended up not working to go to a movie because Kent had to go to Tucson for work that day. When he came home he and Justin went to Blockbuster and got a couple of DVDs for us to watch. I took a couple of pictures. (The blurry pictures aren't quite as bad when they're small!)

Wednesday we had our pizza party courtesy of Little Caesar's, and Kent even brought me some flowers home.

After eating we played Yahtzee (Natalie's choice) until 8:30. Everyone was having fun for about 10 minutes. Then Drew decided that it wasn't so fun, and left to play X-Box. The rest of us played for quite a while.
Thursday Kent had to go to Flagstaff for work (I really hate these day trips...) so I took the kids to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua by myself. I was not looking forward to it, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was pretty funny.
Tonight we had plans to go to the farm, but I had to have Kent bring me home before we got there. I've been at his mom's house for the last 2 days (she's recovering from surgery), and she has cats. I am very allergic to cats. Even though I'm on Astelin, Claritin and Singulair the cats made me sick. Plus I think I caught a stomach bug... I really want them to have a ton of fun tonight so I thought it best to come home so they don't have to leave early because of me. Kent is supposed to take a ton of pictures. He's meeting my sister Katie, her dd Melia, bf John, and his dd Sydney. It should be fun.

UPDATE:

Kent and the kids met Katie, John, Melia and Sydney at the farm. They had a bunch of fun until I got a call from Kent about 1 1/2 hours after they got there. He was checking to see how I was when I realized that one of my children was screaming/crying in agony in the background. Natalie's tummy was hurting again, to the point that Kent (!) felt that she needed to go to the ER. He brought her home, and I was feeling okay by then so I took her. They had to give her an IV with fluids and medication, take some x-rays and draw some blood. Poor girl. She was in absolute agony. they recommended that we take her to another specialist to see if he could pinpoint the cause of some of these other issues that have been plaguing her since she was 3 1/2.

Anyway, the boys had a lot of fun, and I have several pictures. Because of Natalie's trip to the ER and early departure she's only in a few of the pictures. Again, I apologize for the blurry pictures!

Oh, braces!

I almost forgot! Justin had his 3 month check up with the orthodontist yesterday, and he's finally got enough teeth to get his braces! Hee, hee! I get mine off 2 weeks from yesterday, and Justin gets his on on November 19. Because of this we're going to strategically plan our family Christmas pictures so that this year no one will have braces in the picture! My teeth will be straight, I'll be thinner than last year, and I won't have the glazed over look from last year's picture. (I was about 3 1/2 weeks post-op from my back surgery when we took our family pictures last year, so I was still on pain medication, and wearing those darn compression stockings. Yuck! IMHO I looked terrible, but I didn't even realize it.) This year will be different, I'm sure!!!

Family Week

My sister Amy reminded me in a Facebook post this morning that I haven't updated in a while. I guess it has been a while- 10 days. Whoops!
This week is our stake's family togetherness week. The idea came from our stake presidency to remind us that families are central to the Creator's plan, and so that we can make our families stronger by building on experiences that we share together.
Last night we didn't do anything spectaculat because Natalie had dance and the boys had gymnastics. By the time we ate dinner we only had enough time to finish a couple of jobs, read and get ready for bed.
Oh, we did manage to have a quick planning meeting. We had each child give 2 suggestions of things they would like to do together as a family, and then we took a vote.
Tonight we're having a pizza party and game night.
Tomorrow we're going to see a movie at the theater.
Thursday night we're going to watch a movie together at home.
Friday we're planning on making our annual excursion to the farm.
Saturday we're going to try to clean out the garage and maybe hit the zoo in the morning. Then we have the Primary Program practice (I'm subbing on the piano for the practice so I'll be there too), Trevor is going to a Halloween party, and Kent and I are going to dinner then to watch the UFC fight with another couple.
We'll see how everything goes! I'll try to post pictures of the things we did, and hopefully by the end of the week I'll have some really neat experiences to share.

It's Halloweentime!

Katie, Melia and John came over this afternoon so Katie and I could do our Halloween crafts, and the kids could decorate sugar cookies. Katie, Natalie and I painted Halloween decorations... Natalie painted a wooden pumpkin and cat, Katie painted a fake pumpkin and I painted a haunted house. John, Kent and Drew played the Wii. They started with my Mortal Kombat Game, then moved on to Mario Cart. It was pretty entertaining to listen to them play.

Before they came over I made sugar cookies... a big thing in my house. I bake all the time, but I hate making sugar cookies because it takes FOREVER! I usually only make them for Valentine's Day, Easter and sometimes Christmas. I made cream cheese frosting and left part of it white then dyed part orange and part black. After we finished painting I let Natalie, Melia and Drew choose out 3 cookies each and decorate them. They had a ton of fun. I think Melia and Natalie have more candy than actual cookies, but they liked the cookies! I finished decorating the remainder of the cookies.

Hook in the Hand

Last night my brother Allan had Justin and Trevor over to spend the night. They got up this morning at 6 a.m. to go fishing. Before we dropped them off, Kent explained the need to be careful with the hooks because of the barbs. The boys seemed to understand, so we left them and came home. I couldn't sleep last night so when I finally did get to sleep Kent let me sleep in and answered the door when they got here. I woke up about 2 hours later. I went in to see the boys and ask if they had a good time. They said that they did, Justin caught a fish, and Trevor had fun but instead of a fish he caught a hook in the hand. Ouch! He told Kent, but Kent wasn't feeling worried about it I guess, because he didn't say anything to me. Anyway, because it had been in the water I took him to Urgent Care to have it removed. Here's Trevor's hand before we went to Urgent Care.

Trevor was really brave and didn't cry at all until the doctor injected his hand with lidocaine. I think every single person in the whole building heard him screaming. I held his arm down with both hands, and the doctor held his hand steady with one hand while injecting it with the other hand.
Here's a photo of his hand after it got injected with the lido.
The doctor let his hand numb up for a few minutes, then came in and cut the hook. Then he had to push it out through a new hole to get it out. It took several minutes, and I was worried that he was going to have to cut a hole with a scalpel and that Trevor would have to get stitches. It finally broke through the skin and he was able to pull the hook out. Now Trevor has 2 little puncture holes. He has to have antibiotics for a week to kill off any infection because the hook had already been in the lake. He just needs to keep a bandage on it until it scabs over, but he's good to go. He's at a birthday party now, and I'm sure the story's gotten better with each telling of it.

Funny Drew and Natalie

Natalie got into the spirit of Halloween by making her "scary" face.
Drew decided to channel a little Austin Powers for his silly picture.
Back to business. Drew loves to be in charge of the remote. He already knows how to do almost everything with it. Yikes! I guess that's why we have a lot more cartoons recorded lately.

Sunday at Mom's house

Natalie let me do her hair so she would look so cute at my mom's house. I curled it into ringlets using the curling iron, but by the time we got the picture it had already started to come out. We visited with my Uncle Wayne, his wife Nilva and her son Felipe. I didn't get any pictures of the adults because no one was ready at the same time I had my camera. Oh well.
Natalie's ringlets. Trevor, Allan and Justin
Melia, Natalie and Sydney

Halloween Decorations

Here are my indoor Halloween decorations. I made my Halloween advent calender 2 years ago based on the Pottery Barn calender that was way too expensive. I made my BOO letters based on some similar letters I saw at Recollections. I made the ghost and pumpkin at an Enrichment several years ago. All of the other things are little decorations that I've either bought or been given over the years.

Almost done!

I had the boys help me finish cleaning the walls, baseboards and walls today. I did the blinds myself so they could play. They worked pretty hard so I thought they deserved a little break. Then I had them watch the kids so I could paint and touch up all the doors, doorjambs, and baseboards in the house. I still need to finish the baseboards in our bedroom, but I touched up every door and most of the baseboards and doorjambs in the house. I had to completely repaint 4 doors downstairs so it took awhile! They look almost brand new!I realized last night that Kent had done his usual job on Justin's ceiling. He really hates taping off to paint so he paints up to the corner, and if it gets part of the ceiling or baseboards he waits until the paint is dried THEN tapes off and repaints the baseboard or ceiling. I don't understand why he does this, but it's what he does. As I was cleaning with the boys I realized that Justin's ceiling still needs to be fixed, and all of the baseboards in our bedroom are sage green. I painted our room shortly after Natalie was born, and i can't believe I didn't realize how bad it was until now. I did one coat on the baseboards in 1/3 of the room, but there is still a lot to fix. I can paint a pretty straight line, but it takes a while so Kent gets to pick up some painter's tape tomorrow so we can finish.
Amy, I even posted some after pictures for you. Tomorrow I'm getting my deep tissue massage so that will help my back recover from all of the strain, and then I'm going to Julie's house so she can train me to work in the office while she's recovering from her surgery. I plan on taking it pretty easy tomorrow! Let's hope all goes according to plan...

Fall Break 2008

My kids just LOVE this time of year. I have them home for a week and a half, so we get to do the big jobs that I don't want to do all by myself. This year the jobs are: cleaning the walls, baseboards, doors and then touching up the paint where needed; clean the wood blinds, windows and window sills inside; organizing all of my storage boxes in the garage; reorganizing the pantry; cleaning out their closets; and purging the toys in the game room.
On Sunday after the kids went to bed I decided to reorganize the pantry. I couldn't find anything so it had to be done- again. I did it about 2 weeks ago, but apparently a tornado hit our pantry so you couldn't tell that I had worked in there. I also deep cleaned their bedrooms and removed clothes and toys they don't use anymore. I filled half of the trash can and half of the recycling can with all the things I found.
Yesterday we started downstairs. We cleaned all the walls, baseboards and doors. I love Mr. Clean Erasers!!! They get crayon, pencil, pen and marker off easily. I don't let my kids use them because they disappear... my kids don't move them or lose them! (Heh, heh, yeah right!) Justin and Trevor followed me and we scrubbed the walls, doors, door handles and baseboards to near perfection in less than an hour. Then they wiped around the windows, I vacuumed up dust and cobwebs, then I vacuumed the blinds. Can I just say how much I love my vacuum!
After that I let them take a break for a few hours. Before dinner I decided that we could knock out the garage too so I got the ladder and started getting the storage containers down. The storage boxes weren't a problem initially. I labeled everything well before we moved. HOWEVER, I made the mistake of letting Kent put some stuff away, and it became next to impossible to find anything quickly. We took down all of the boxes, the black trash bags full of stuff (Kent's idea) and various items that were just lying about in the garage. We brought it all in, and I got to work. I got out my handy-dandy label maker, and started sorting. By the time I was done everything had a place to go, and I was able to get 2 of those huge black trash bags full of clothes and shoes to donate.
This morning my back hated me... well, it hated me last night too so I took some pain meds for that... so I decided that we could wait until tomorrow to do the upstairs. Today the boys helped me take the boxes back to the garage so I could put it away. Aah! (Angels singing.) Now I can actually find the things that I need quickly, and I won't have any more problems finding what I'm seeking!
Tomorrow we'll clean the walls, baseboards, doors and blinds upstairs. Then we can start with the paint touch-ups. I am so excited! My kids, regretfully, are not. But that's okay. They're learning to work and getting to see how happy it makes their mother when things are clean. They'll even (grudgingly) admit that they love how they feel when the house is clean. They're learning to work together to get their jobs done. And when we're all done with everything they'll enjoy the reward- take-out dinner and a movie. (Please, please, please don't let it be Beverly Hills Chihuahua! Please!!!)
I think I'll have to purge the toys by myself. It's amazing how attached they become upon seeing toys they've ignored for over a year when they learn that I'm giving them away. This will probably be a good job for Friday night when the boys spend the night at Uncle Allan's house and Natalie is at dance... Hmm... Better get the supplies ready!
If I wasn't embarrassed to let the world see how how big of the dust bunny colonies had grown I would totally post pictures! But I am, so you'll have to use your imagination! I might post a picture of the garage, though. I'm happy that it's looking so much better. Now, if I could just figure out how to get Kent to clean his portion of the garage..... And his office... total fire hazard... Any suggestions?

Busy, busy

I have been so busy lately! I have had to help plan and organize, and now teach, at enrichment... That's tomorrow night. I'll be teaching about 90 day supplies. Lots to do! I'm eager for that to be over so I can focus on the other things I need to work on.
So far today I had to take Justin to the podiatrist, dropped him back at school, went to the gym with Drew, back home to bathe, picked Natalie up, then went to my doctor for a check-up on my thyroid and to get my flu shot. I'll probably take at least the 2 boys we suspect have asthma to get their shots too. And, I have lost 18 pounds since July so yea me!
After that we went to Target to fill my prescriptions, and ate lunch while we were there. I only had time for a half of a blueberry muffin this morning, and after having my blood drawn I really needed to eat something. Now we're home and leave again in a few minutes to get the boys and take them to get eye exams. Then we'll go get them new shoes. Trevor needs shoes for church, and Justin has always worn out his shoes so fast. The podiatrist thinks that the new shoes will give more support, which will help until he gets new splints. He has to wear them to bed to help stretch out the ligaments in his feet and leg. It doesn't sound like too much fun to me!
I think I'll get to come home after that. I'll have time to make dinner, clean up and then go to an activities committee meeting tonight.
Today is my "easy" day so I'll have to do a lot of work tonight to be ready for tomorrow's enrichment. I hope that I can get enough sleep tonight! I'll need it!