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.)

... And the calling is....

...And the calling is... 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency. Wow! It's a big one! I have a lot to learn, and I'm excited. I think I'll be good at this once I figure out what all of my responsibilities are. We have Stake Conference next week so I'll have an extra week to absorb and learn all the information that I will need to have to fulfill this calling. I will be over the Nursery, Sunbeams, baptisms and the music for nursery. I think this is going to be so much work, but *I hope* very fulfilling!

Here's what was in the basket

I had no idea there was so much stuff in the basket. It's going to be so much fun trying to figure out how to use these things.

Newsprint Uppercase iron-on transfers- jet fuzzy
Newsprint Lowercase iron-on transfers- jet fuzzy
Sugar Sweet Ribbon
Winter rub-on corners
Scrapbook Sandpaper
“She” chipboard alphabet in lime
Center of Attention chipboard alphabet in pumpkin
Floral Spray theme tapes
Pink & Brown solid tapes
Covered Spiral 9x9 album in cotton candy
Travel silhouette words
Pink & White large block alphabet
Rectangles chipboard kit in white
Bats Mask
Daisy Mask
Love fuzzy rub-ons in white
Family fuzzy rub-ons in white
Fat Cat Plastic Alphabet in sea
Family Chipboard themes
Travel Frame kit
Pink lowercase chipboard letters
Expressions Chipboard words
Dark Pink florals
Yellow florals
Reason lower ghost alphabet
Reason upper ghost alphabet
Sassy Sweet Photo corners
Watermelon Delight Photo corners
Cargo Photo corners
Born Free Photo corners
Sassy Sweet Index Tabs
Born Free Index Tabs
Icee Chipboard Shapes
Boy (Tough) rub-on corners
Martha Jewels
Pink Small Flower Jewels
Icee Large Flower Jewels
Raw Chipboard letters- lowercase

Wahoo!!!!

I had a great thing happen tonight! (I wish I could say that I was pain free, but I'm not there yet...) Anyway, I went to the local scrapbook store, and they had Heidi Swapp there demonstrating her product line. I used to be her visiting teacher, and Kent was their home teacher, so it was fun to see her again. She had her new baby there, and she was cute. (My left side was on fire, so I had my ice pack on my lower back during the entire presentation... I'm sure it looked lovely!)
Anyway, she demonstrated how to use her products, and when she was done they raffled off some prizes. They had 4 small books that she wrote, several lip glosses (the kind we had growing up that rolled on), and then 4 page carry-alls full of larger accessories. They had a rule where if you won something small you could trade it up to something big if your name was called again, but with as many people as were there, I didn't really expect to win anything. I thought that if I did, I thought it would be a lip gloss. Imagine my surprise when I won one of those carry-alls full of accessories. It was awesome. So after they drew my name, I went to look around for some accessories for my Christmas cards. I didn't want to trade up because I had already won the big prize, so I didn't really pay attention to what was going on. Apparently they drew and drew until everyone had something, so that was really nice. Then Heidi had the 4 of us who brought pictures choose a number so that she could scrapbook a 2 page layout for the winner. I didn't win, but the woman who did was SOOO excited. It was fun to see her win something that she was so excited about.
A little while later they had everyone put a new ticket into the basket to raffle off the grand prize... same thing... you could trade up if you wanted to. First they did a mini grand prize, and if I won that I was going to keep what I had so that someone else could have something big. Another lady won, and was totally excited. She had won a lip gloss, and she was more than happy to trade that in. So the next number they drew was mine. I didn't know that it was for the big grand prize, so I looked to see what it was, and lo and behold I was happy to trade it in! So here's a picture of the grand prize. How exciting!!!

P.S.

I met with the bishop tonight. I was released from the position of back-up Primary pianist. He extended me a new calling, which I will post on Sunday after I have been sustained by our ward. I am still going to remain the ward organist and a member of the Activities Committee for now. He is trying to find people to fill those spots. This new calling will require a lot of time and effort so I don't think it will take long before I am back down to one calling. I gained one, and lost one, so I still hold a personal best record of 3 callings at once. I think there are going to be some people who will fall out of their chairs when it's announced. Makes me laugh just thinking about it. Of course it could just be the time... I need to get to bed now. I just needed to make sure that I had everything taken care of before I went in for the procedure tomorrow. I don't know how long I'll be down, so I like to plan ahead.

My voice is back- sort of

I lost my voice again this week. It all started Sunday morning right after I played the prelude in Sacrament Meeting. For those of you who have asthma, you can probably relate... The tickle at the back of the throat followed by the constricting of the lungs... Followed soon after by the hacking coughs that cannot be controlled, merely stifled for a short time... Well, that's how it started. I thought I would do a breathing treatment when I got home, and then I thought maybe I should go to the ER after the sacrament hymn, and let someone else play the closing hymn. I managed to get thru it, but it wasn't easy. I was actually more worried about losing my place on the song or, worse yet, passing out...
That reminded me of a time, about 14 years ago, when I played the piano for opening exercises in the chapel immediately after sacrament meeting before dismissing to classes. I don't know who moved the grand piano or HOW they managed to move it, but it was right near the edge of the ledge. I pushed with all my might, and it did not budge even an inch for me. I quickly realized that I would have to make it work. How bad could it be? We only had one opening song followed by the prayer, and then a practice song. However, we had to run thru that song a few times before we went on to actually sing it, so maybe I should have asked for help in moving the piano.
There was no room for the piano bench, so I had to try to balance it. I was balancing on 3 legs the entire time, praying that I wouldn't lose my balance. I almost hoped that the bench would fall over so that my legs would stop burning! My mom assured me later that it would have been much worse, and much more embarrassing if that bench had actually fallen, but I wasn't entirely sure I agreed. I was sufficiently embarrassed, and dripping with sweat by the time we were done.
Back to the present... I was able to avoid going to the hospital, but I have had a heck of a time with the whole breathing thing. I finally got that under control, but I have been without a voice until this morning. My boys kept saying, "Mom, just go uh,uh,uh (clear my throat), and then your voice will be back." I did that several times to appease them, and they just couldn't understand why I still didn't have a voice after doing that several times. They were pleased today when they realized that my voice had returned to about 85%.
Drew is being a little stinker today, and is going down for a nap in a minute. He wouldn't get into my car for me earlier, but did it with no problem for Amy. Why do our kids do that to us? Is it to humble us? To make us question our abilities as a parent? Or is it something entirely different? I don't know that there is any right or wrong answer to that... it might just depend on the day.
Well, my time here is done for now. Mothering duties abound all day for me. Natalie wants me to hold her, and Drew needs me to put him down for his nap. I still have a full schedule for the rest of the day, but I won't have time to stop and think about it for a while. Such is life... I need to find one of those days where there is nothing to do...

Friday

I have decided that I need to add one more thing to my schedule! I have wanted to help out at the boys' school, so I finally went to the front desk a couple of weeks ago to see what they needed help with. They couldn't come up with anything, but my friend, Michelle, called me a few days later and asked if I wanted to help her. She wanted to volunteer, and she showed up on Fridays to help stuff the Friday Folders. (The school passes out announcements each Friday. Each child has their own folder, and we collect those folders then stuff them.) I started that last Friday and I plan on doing that every week. I can take Natalie and Drew with me so that solved my babysitting issue. I have a couple of other friends who also go in, so they all get to play together.

I went in for acupuncture this afternoon. I had a bad experience last week when I went, so I was a hesitant to try it again. I clearly responded to the treatment, but it was a bad response, so I was not really anxious to try it again. However, I got my MRI results back saying that I had 2 bulging discs, and because I am not anxious for surgery- but anxious for some pain relief- I decided to take another look. I did more research and found a new acupuncturist. I talked to him for about 20 minutes, and felt comfortable with him so I decided that I could try it again. If it helps my back pain it would be awesome. It's been several hours, and I have already experienced a tremendous amount of back pain relief. I can hardly wait to go next week to see if he can help me more.

My pretty baby girl!

Here is my beautiful baby girl, Natalie. Do you think she has attitude? Does it show? She has to have some moxie, though, to be the only girl with 3 brothers. I don't think I could have done it! When she is happy and gets her way she is a delightful little girl. When she's unhappy and/or doesn't get her way (which would then cause her to be unhappy) she's not so much that delightful little girl. She loves to have a younger brother to boss around. She loves to (s)mother him and get after him as much as she can. Come to think of it, she likes to do that with her older brothers as well! She loves to play with her cousins and friends, loves the girlie things that I didn't get with the boys, and loves to dress up and have her nails painted. She generally loves going to preschool and she loves do be very independent- most of the time. Right now she is sitting on my lap, looking into my eyes and trying to be my baby. I can't say that she's a baby anymore, though, because she is "not a baby! (She's) a big girl!"

My 3 Sons

My 3 sons. I love them all so much. If you would have told me when I was growing up that I would have 3 sons I think I would have croaked. I come from a family of 5 girls and 1 boy. I was the first child, and my brother was the fifth. I didn't really get to see what it was like to be around boys in the home, so when I found out that I was having a boy for my first baby, I bawled. What do boys do? Get dirty? Eat a ton of food? Fight and boss everyone around? How was I supposed to learn to do all of that?? And why would I want to learn how to do all of that?
Of course now I don't know what I would do without my 3 sons. Justin (on the left) is my oldest. He just turned 10 which means that I have fewer years with him at home than he has already lived. How did that happen? He's such a responsible, hard-working and caring person. He always helps me with the kids, helps with jobs, and does whatever he can to make sure that everyone is taken care of. I feel so grateful that he is a part of our family.
Drew is the baby of the family. He fully embraces that calling and loves to provide comic relief, funny faces, outbursts and general mayhem. He loves me, and we truly share a special bond. He does what we call "Poker Face." When he does this you will NOT get him to smile, laugh, talk or even acknowledge your existence. It is not until he is fully ready to look at you that you will get him to do anything. I think he could be a professional poker player as an adult if he keeps this up!
Trevor is the 2nd child, and he is a very special boy. He is very intelligent, and loves to let you know it. He can talk with just about anyone about almost anything for almost any length of time. He has also decided to be a missionary. He will talk to anyone about the Gospel and he will let you know if you are doing something that is no inline with Gospel teachings. One of his friends has a mother who smokes. Trevor gives her a lecture every time about smoking and how we're not supposed to do it, how bad it is for you, etc... She is a good sport about it, and laughs that he has no fear about letting her know how it is! 

I love the Denver Broncos!

This is Kent and I at the Broncos game in Glendale, AZ. We waited so long for the tickets to go on sale, and almost couldn't get any! There are a lot of newfound Cardinal fans now that they have their own stadium, so tickets were not easy to come by. We finally found some tickets, and we were lucky enough to get 4 seats together. My sister Amy and her husband Gavin went with us. It was a great game! (Because we- meaning the Broncos- won!)