My Reasons

My Reasons

This Is Where It All Begins

This Is Where It All Begins

Saturday, April 20, 2013

oh, william

The other day, as I was getting ready to clean the house, William asked me if he could watch a show.  So, I bundled him up in a blanket, and turned on a show for him.  I figured he would soon fall asleep, because it was his nap time.

I was cleaning out the guinea pig cage when I heard a loud, sharp knock on the door.

I answered the door and saw a very stern looking lady glaring at me.  She asked me if I had a little blonde boy.  I said yes.

She asked me if I knew where he was.  I began to tell her that he was "right over there watching a show,"  but as I pointed to the couch...it was empty.

The lady then rudly told me that he was way too far down the street, and pointed her finger down the road.  I walked outside and looked around the corner of the house, and there was William off in the distance.

He was happily pushing his toy lawnmower (which he calls his vaccuum) along the sidewalk, out of our cul-de-sac and several houses down, and he did not have a shred of clothing on.

Yup, his chubby, white body was bare as bare can be. He was just humming along without a care in the world.

I, on the other hand, just about died.  I did everything in my power to keep from laughing my head off, but the face of this lady was just glowering over me, and yes, I was extremely shocked myself.

So, I just called for William to come home, thanked the glaring lady and ran after my naked child.

Oh, William.

even if I tried...

there is no way on earth I could blog about this entire week and not make it 10 pages long.  So, here is a bulleted version.

- Spent a few VERY stressful days trying to find a babysitter that could come every day Mon.-Thurs. for 5 hours to watch my two youngest kiddos.  Finally found my sister's roommate, and she was awesome.  Few.

-Spent those 5 hours on those days driving an hour each way to my training, and then having a 3 hour training.  The training was incredibly overwhelming the first day, but ended really well.  I am so happy to have this job. The simple 2-3 hours a day (can be broken up throughout the day) is awesome, and so is the pay.

-realized that even though I missed my kiddos, and that I wouldn't want it to be permanent, I really needed this time away from home to do something for myself.   It was really nice to learn something new, push myself a little, get away for a while, get ready for the day bright and early (I'm talking make-up and hair done before 8am), and just feel productive in a new way.  It was a really good thing for me, and it was very rejuvenating.  Not to mention, that I came away with a new job. It is pretty cool to have something that I can do now, in order to bring in some extra $$ for our hobbies and for some family fun.  I actually really enjoyed the training.

-Soccer started for Sam.  2 clinics, one game rained out, another game played in the rain.  I forgot we had treats until Sam and Ben were literally out the door.  Poor Ben had to figure it all out, but he did, the kids got their treats, and Sam got there in time to play the last 5 minutes of the game. oops.
Missed the parent's meeting.  Just couldn't seem to fit it in.

-driving kids to the bus stop, because the weather was horrible.  Also did homework and the normal school stuff.  Sam stayed home a day and so did Mary...just because.

-battled Luke's ongoing ear infection, pink eye, and cold.

- Luke began taking several steps at once!

-Mary started gymnastics. She was all grins, and very sore.  She had her first three practices this week.  I had to set up a carpool, but in the main time, I drove to and from Park City two of those days...after driving to and from training.  Yup.  At least the carpool is now set up, and the drive to Park City is so beautiful.

-did mountains of laundry, and am still doing it tonight at 11:00pm.

-Ben and I planned out our landscaping.  It is very exciting, and very overwhelming.  Our yard will be so cool...at least we think so anyway.

-got in one day at the gym, and one amazing run outside. It was probably the best run I have had in a few years.  Perfect weather, gorgeous scenery, my body was working right, and I just ran for fun.  No route planned, just took off and came back 8 miles later.  It was awesome. 

-Went on a date with my hubby.  He is so good to me.  I sure love him. (William was a little messed up from the babysitter being here all week, so he ended up coming on the date too.  He was good company.)

-Speaking of William, I cleaned up 3 big poops on the carpet, 4 poop smears on that same carpet, and poop smeared all over the walls (all of this at one time), while bathing three kids and cooking breakfast.  I would not recommend this to anyone.

-Ended the week with banana splits and hanging with some friends.  I love this neighborhood!

-Now onto Mary's talk and a primary lesson for tomorrow.  whew!

-I fasted and prayed last Sunday for this past week to work out.  I was so nervous for the whole thing. There were just a lot of new things beginning, and I was so worried about leaving my kids for so long every day.  I really feel that the Lord was with all of us, and that he helped everything go as smoothly as it did.  Even though it was busy, I never really felt in over my head or super stressed.  The Lord blessed us through other people during a few moments of crisis, and they just stepped in and helped as if they had planned on it all along.
There was a good feeling of peace in our home, and things worked out just fine.

 This week was a big testimony builder to me, that the Lord does care about all we are doing, even if it is just the small and simple things that may not matter a lot to Him.  I really felt Him with me and my family this week, and I am so grateful for it.



-

Friday, April 12, 2013

bring it

In December, I learned of an amazing stay at home job.  One where you type things into a program for companies.  One that I can do any time of day, as long as I meet my quota of calls. (no, I don't call people, I listen to recorded phone calls, and type them) It usually requires about 2 hours a day.

It sounded like a dream job to me, so I went for it.  The application process was actually a little intense, and I was so nervous.  I had all sorts of ideas of what I would do with the money I would earn, and save, and I was really, really hoping to get the job.

I didn't get it, and I was pretty sad. 

I asked the recruiter what went wrong, and she told me that I was actually one of the top candidates, but that something I said in the phone interview made them think that I could only work certain hours of the day, therefore they didn't hire me. It was just a simple mis-communication.  Drat!

I quickly let the employer know of the mis-communication, and she said that they really did want to hire me and would be hiring again in a few months, and that they would get ahold of me at that time.

And they did!   I found out yesterday that I got the job!  I am extremely excited and very humbled to have this blessing.

The training starts Monday in Salt Lake City, and lasts all week (that was an absolute nightmare to schedule help with the kids, but it finally worked out thanks to lots of prayers and my sister's roommate).  After that, I do the rest at home, when I want to, and when I can, as long as I get my phone calls in. 

That being said, we have decided to put Mary back into gymnastics.  Yup, once again, she is going back.  She has been begging to go back for months now.  I have found her downstairs in her leotard doing her routines over and over again.  She has her medals hung right on her bed and she looks at them every day.  She has cried numerous times when something reminds her of it. It has been heartbreaking to tear her from something that she really did have a passion for. But at her other gym, it just wasn't working anymore.  Too much time and money, not to mention she was going to have to start missing school for it...um, no.

We found a really good gym here that only requires 1/2 the hours as her previous gym, for the same level of training!  She won't have to miss school, and it will only be 6-8 hours a week instead of the previous 16!  Another perk, this gym actually beat her team last year, so we are confident that the less hours is fine, it just prevents burn-out on the girls and their little bodies.

The tuition is good, and it is in Park City.  Also, there are two other girls from Heber that go there, so we can carpool.

Mary starts on Monday, and she is literally counting down the hours.  I am so grateful for the blessing of this job, so that my kids will be able to do the things they love, and I will also be able to pursue a few of my own hobbies as well.  I am nervous for it, but so excited as well. 

Sam also starts soccer this week.  His first game is Tuesday, and he just had a clinic at the High School.  Last year, he was kind of ho-hum, about the whole thing.  This year, so far, he is a whole new kid.  He has been so excited about it, and Ben said that he had a great time at the clinic.  Maybe we have finally found his passion as well.  We will see.

Next week is going to be pretty nuts with the start of soccer, gymnastics, my full week of training, school schedules, Ben working on a HUGE account at work, and everything else family life entails, but it will also be a really fun week of new beginnings for all of us.  We are blessed, and even though I can freak out, cry and get overwhelmed, we are blessed, and it is all ok.  I am nervous, but excited at the same time.  We have done busy before, we can do it again for a week....I think.?

Bring it.

pregnancy of a guinea pig

Meet Marshmallow..Marsha for short.
 
Marsha is one of three guinea pigs we have, and she is the only female.  That being said, do I even need to mention that she is pregnant???

 
Very pregnant.

 
About a week ago, I checked in on our guinea pigs after Mary told me that "Marsha was getting huge!"   Mary wasn't kidding.  Marsha looked like a marshmallow after being in the mircowave for a little while.
 
I took note of the nasty cage, the two other guinea pigs drinking all of the water and eating all of the food, and the poor female being subject to two very "excited" males.  And then I remembered how I feel when I am nine months pregnant.  My heart took pity on poor Marsha, and I took action.  Call it womanly instincts, but I knew that she needed to be alone, well fed, and comfortable. Good grief.
I was proud of myself when I researched and read that that is exactly what you should do for a pregnant guinea pig.  10 points for me. 
 
So, I put her in her own cage, stuck my tounge out at her overly excited male cage mates, brought her upstairs, gave her her own food and water, washed and cleaned her bedding, and made her as comfortable as possible.  The poor thing deserves at least that much.
 
We can feel the little babies wiggling around inside of her, and we know it is only a matter of days before the mini marshmallows make their debut.  We are all actually really excited for the big day.  Baby guinea pigs are one of the cutest things I have ever seen before.  They are just little poof balls.
 
I don't know how many are in there, but I do know that we cannot keep any more guinea pigs.  We will probably give away one of the male adults and a baby...we will see. They will be fun while we have them though.
 
Anyone want a new pet???

the bike show

Yesterday afternoon, I found this taped to our front widow.  (not the door, because it would take the paint off....my kids have learned well)   :)

 
I absolutely love it when my kids do things like this.  Play in the dirt, get creative, try new things, and play outside.  You know..the things we all used to do back before the days of the wii, kindle fire, x box, facebook, and all that fun stuff.
 
The neighbor kids, Blake and Bailey (quickly becoming part of the family), also participated in the show.
 
It was very impressive I must say. The jump was pretty big for these little kids, and they would crash, get up, and try again.  They would get so excited if they successfully cleared the jump.
go mary go

 Of course, Ben had to get in on the action as well. Silly daddy.

sammy watching his superman dad



sammy going as fast as he can

 
And William did his own show for us, complete with "revving up" his scooter before he blasted off.
 
 It was a great show that was topped of with a visit from some neighbors with a plate of cookies for us, and the sun FINALLY peeking through over the gorgeous mountains, after a nasty, cold, gray week. 

It was a good ending to a not so good day.  I am so thankful for my children who can show me that the simple things can make life good, even when those "no good very bad days" tend to creep in now and then.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

luke-isms

I haven't been very great at doing a monthly post about Luke for his first year, but I have done enough about him to feel ok about it.  This week however, there have been a few memorable things with Luke that I don't want to forget.

Today Luke crawled up the stairs all by himself.  I was looking all over for him, and soon found him about 6 stairs up, laughing all the way.  He was so proud.

He has been standing without help for over a month now.  He will just stand up in the middle of the room and hang out.  It is really cute, and for my kids, extremely early.

Today, at 10 months, Luke took his first few steps!  Again, it is much earlier that what we are used to, but because he has been standing so much, it seems natural.

Luke has his first ear infection (both ears) going on since he had tubes put in a month ago.  The tubes make it so that the infection just drains out.  It is great for Luke, because he doesn't have much pain, and good for us, because I know for sure it is an infection, but that nasty brown thick goo that is constantly oozing out of his ears is sooooo nasty!  I gag every time I clean it out.  So gross!  Hopefully the antibiotic kicks in soon, and stops the ooze. And hopefully the infections stop.  The doctor said that this one is pretty nasty.

We discovered that Luke loves water.  I put him in the tub with the other boys a few weeks ago, and Luke went nuts!  It was hilarious!  He splashed and laughed and wiggled so much that the other two boys wanted out because they were getting splashed too much.

We went to the swimming pool in Kamas today, which was awesome, and Luke had his first swimming pool experience.  We put him in a floaty thing and I just pushed him around and around and around the lazy river.  He couldn't get enough of it.  We also let him sit in the shallow end and splash and splash and splash. 

Luke weighed in at about 18 lbs yesterday at the doctor, which is more that what we thought.  He is a short little guy, but his has just enough chub to keep us squeezing and kissing on him all day.

He says mama  and ba (bottle)

Luke has a very sweet countenance.  We have been able to predict pretty accurately, the personalities of our children from when they were babies.  We knew Mary would be quick, determined, fun loving and a go getter.  We knew Sam would be soft hearted, playful and eager to please.  We knew William would be extremely fun loving, playful, a tease, active, and full of energy and life. 
We feel that Luke will be very sweet, playful, and more calm.  Not necessarily quiet and shy, but just more gentle and sweet.  He has a very precious spirit in him.

So there you have it.  Some little Luke-isms. 


Thursday, April 4, 2013

new leaf

To say that Easter Sunday was a little rough, would be putting it lightly.  The only big highlight of that day happened to be getting successful pictures.  That cracks me up, because honestly, I thought that would be the hardest part of the day. Funny how things turn out.

Anyway, after that day, I figured I was doomed.  Why you ask?  Because this week is spring break, and we had absolutely no plans.  With the move, and the excitement of the new house, I completely forgot to plan anything.  Actually, I completely forgot it was spring break at all.  oops

I was sure that the happenings of Easter Sunday would only get worse this week.  I was very wrong, and I am thrilled!  We have had a great spring break so far.

I think we have turnrd a new leaf.

The kids are so excited about the new house, and so are Ben and I, that each morning, it brings a smile to all of our faces just to realize that we are finally here!  I am still giddy over every little part of the house, and am constantly saying, "this is my favorite spot." 

An added bonus, there are friends everywhere!  The kids have constant entertainment all day long.  It is so awesome.  We are loving this neighborhood.  That has helped a lot this week, with all of the kids home.

To add to the good news, WILLIAM IS FINALLY AND OFFICIALLY POTTY TRAINED!!  After months of him pooping all over the floor, he is finally going in the toilet, all by himself, without us asking.  I never thought I would be so happy to see a big poop in the toilet.  But I shout for joy every time I see it.  Yeah, I'm a little weird now.

Yesterday, we decided to go to the Hogle Zoo with some friends.  It was a gorgeous day!  Everyone else in the entire state of Utah must have had the same idea though.  This was the line to get our tickets.
 
The parking was nuts, but somehow we lucked out and found two spots next to each other.  Miracle!
 
The zoo was extremely packed,  but somehow we were able to still see everything we wanted to see.  We were there for approx. 5 hours!  The kids did really well until the end, and then they were tired, hot and starving.  Bad combo!
 
So we caved in and let them ride the carousel.  That brought smiles back to everyone.  I was on the ride with William, so I didn't get any pictures.
 
All in all, it was a fun day at the zoo.  I was exhausted by the end, but I am glad we went.
 
William wore this mask almost the whole time.  It was hilarious!
Sam and his friend Blake (our next door neighbor)
Mary and Bailey...quickly becoming inseparable!
William became his own exhibit.  He would stand in the trees with his mask on, and people literally took pictures of him!
 
Between clearing rocks.  Yup, we get to clear half an acre of this. (the kids get one cent for each rock they clear)
 
 
working out at the gym and doing insanity at home,
 
taking the kids to greaseville, um, I mean McDonald's,
 
 
 
 
and hanging pictures, putting up blinds, setting up stuff, and making our house a home... 

family room
 
 
 
my happy spot

my other happy spot

my other other happy spot


my favorite yellow table!

my other other other happy spot

entry way
 
 
We are keeping ourselves happily busy this week, with lots more fun to come the next few days. Swimming at a pool in Kamas, friends coming over, a heart appointment for Sam (post for another day), a trip to Target (yup, that's a trip now) and General Conference.
 
Thank goodness spring break is turning out to be a good one!

Monday, April 1, 2013

the inside scoop

I just read the quote from my planner for this week...here it is.

"The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused." Shirley Maclaine

I read this, and well, I had to laugh.  I have had some "amusing" moments the past few days, well ok, my life is full of them, but recently I have had a few of them, and I guess since they are now over, I can laugh...at least a little.

First moment is this.

No, not the nasty leg, but the big nasty cut and horrid blue and yellow bruise going up and down my shin.  Oh, if only the camera could have really shown the damage.  It is pretty amazing.

Story: I had just busted out a graceful six mile run, followed by 20 minutes on the elliptical.  I was feeling great and full of endorphins.  Ben's mom had the kids, so Ben and I were going to go out to lunch and enjoy an afternoon kid free.  As I was walking out of the gym with Ben, I SLAMMED my leg into a tree trunk.

Yup, you read right, a stinkin' tree trunk in our gym.  BOO!  There is a rock climbing section by the entrance, and they have a couch there, with a nice, shin high, rock hard, pointed edged, heavy as sin, block of tree stump, that they use for a magazine table.  So not cool.

I had walked directly into it, full momentum, right into my shin.  It absolutely leveled me.  I am talking slamming my fist onto the couch, gritting my teeth, taking short breaths kind of pain.  It was horrible! And it only seemed to hurt worse as the seconds drug on.  I even debated crying. Pain was shooting up and down my leg with no mercy.

It took a long time before I could put any weight on it, and hobble out of the gym. Dang tree stump!  That thing needs to be turned into the very paper it was holding.  Shame on it, and everyone who ever thought to put it there.

My leg throbbed all day and all night, and finally started to feel better on Saturday.

Reason to laugh:  I walked into a tree stump at the gym.  Enough said. 

Moment #2

I have no pictures for this one, because it wasn't really a moment, more like a day.  The day just happened to be Easter Sunday.  Yesterday.  Allow me..

Story:  Easter morning started out all kicks and giggles with the egg hunt and happy, excited kids.  It was a fun morning. 

And then Ben had to go to the townhome to clean it before our inspection later that day.

Ben left, and William bawled and bawled and bawled for his daddy.  While I was helping him, Luke snuck into an easter basked and had a mouth full of chokable (is that even a word?) chocolate candy.  So, as I was cleaning Luke up, William decided to poop on the toiled (which I was THRILLED about) and then he wiped himself with is fingers (not so thrilled about).

William hates having dirty hands, so he wiped his fingers all over our brand new, freshly painted walls.  Upstairs AND down.

So, I began scrubbing walls, while Luke was wailing because he was hungry.  Mary and Sam were fighting over some trampoline game. 

After cleaning the walls, I began feeding Luke, who swatted the food, and it flew all over him, me and the floor.

As I was scrubbing that mess, I glanced over at William, who was sitting on our couches, with poop all over his bum.  Rock on.

I told him to get off the couch, and he SLID down the cushion to get off the couch and then plopped down on the new carpet.

I set a screaming Luke down, and began to scrub the couch and carpets.  Mary and Sam were now asking for food.

At this point I threw everyone in the tub.  After the bath, I got Luke fed and asleep, and was finally thinking calm was coming.  WRONG!

Sam had a talk to prepare for that very day, and the kids wanted breakfast.  So, I proceeded to do both of the above.  Two bowls of cereal were spilled, and William ate three separate breakfasts. I then started getting everyone dressed in their new Easter clothes for pictures. Getting four children dressed in their Sunday best is a huge undertaking for any one parent, but especially when one child hates Sunday clothes, and the other is a hungry baby. Shoes, pants, clothes, combs, hairspray, and shirts were everywhere!

William tore off his clothes the second I put them on, Sam ran out into the dirt with his new clothes, and Mary wanted to "accessorize" above and beyond.  Luke was also awake at this time.

I wrestled Williams clothes back on him, let the kids gorge on sugar and candy as bribery, and did a very exhausting but somehow somewhat successful photo shoot of the kids.

After the picture, I had to get myself ready.  While I was getting ready, William ran into our room and peed all over the carpet and then ran upstairs and pooped again, all over the carpet, and Luke also messed his diaper.

Another carpet cleaning, another diaper change, another tantrum to put church clothes back on. This tantrum resulted in a swift kick from William's flailing leg, right into my bruised, swollen shin.  We both ended up howling.

We were running late by this point, so I threw everything together, threw my hair into a ponytail,  and told the kids to get into the car. To which they replied.." what car?"

I forgot that Ben had taken the pathfinder with the carseats, and his car was full of stuff from the townhome.  We had no choice.  All 5 of us had to cram into one 1/2 seats in the car.  Yup.

Once in the car, I realized the William had taken all of his clothes off, and I had no shoes on! So I had to hobble back into the house with him, and put his clothes back on as he screamed, slapped, and fought me. I also grabbed shoes for myself.  :)

As we were pulling out, I noticed that the people who are building a home in our cul-de-sac were here looking at their house.  We hadn't met them yet, so I decided to say a quick hello.  I pulled up next to them and hopped out of the car to say hello.  As I was chatting with them, I noticed them glancing at the car full of stuff, and my four children smashed in the front seat, two of them bawling.  I gave a very flustered excuse for the kids smashed in the car and the frantic comings and goings from our house that morning, and they just smiled and nodded.  ugh.

And then their cute kids came up to me to show me what they had found in our front yard.  It was a bin full of snakes.  I have a true blue phobia of snakes.  So I tried to act like it was cool as I choked down the vomit threatening to burst from me, and control the urge to run away screaming and bawling and then curling up into a bawl, rocking and sucking my thumb.  I slowly limped my way away from the snakes, and back to my clown car full of screaming children, trying to smile and kindly wave bye to the new neighbors, and tell them that its a great place to live full of good people. I can't wait for a few years from now, when I can ask them what their first impression of me was like.  The crazy, limping lady, turning green at the sight of snakes, with no shoes on, with the car crammed full of crying kids on Easter Sunday.  That should be good. :)

We made it to church on time, but William had no shoes or socks, I couldn't find the bottle, and I had left the bag with Sam's talk in it, and treats for our primary class at home. Yes, the bag that I put right by the door so I wouldn't forget it.  gggrrrr!

We made it through the sacrament with complete chaos of kids too high on sugar, to low on sleep and a frazzled mom holding a squirmy baby with no car seat and calming a screaming 2 year old.  I then left Mary and Sam at church while I ran home with Will and Luke to get Sam's talk and the bottle.  Don't judge, I trusted the family in front of us to not let Sam and Mary do anything too drastic, and we live close to the church. The family of 5 boys who were sitting revently and calmly while their mom handles them alone because her husband is on the stand.  What gives!  I need some serious pointers from them! Amazing!    Anyway, so I decided to go back home to get the talk,  one problem though, I couldn't find the keys.

After 10 minutes of me very loudly going through bags, holding a squirming baby, and shushing kids, I figured they were in the car, so I grabbed William and Luke and went to the  car, where the keys were still in it.  Go me. William decided to run off at this point, and I spent 5 minutes chasing him through the parking lot.

I drove home with both boys on my lap, grabbed the talk, still couldn't find the bottle, and rushed back to church, where I could hear Mary and Sam fighting from the foyer.

I went back in, with a sad shoeless William, a squirming baby, and a primary talk in a bag.  Sacrament meeting was nothing short of chaos with me trying to manage everyone, and no bottle for Luke.  Finally Ben showed up as it ended.  He grabbed Luke while I went to join Sam for his primary talk. 

Right before he got up to give his talk, we couldn't find it..anywhere!!!  It was gone.  I had driven back home amidst the chaos, only to lose it again.  Sam got up to give his talk, he held up an easter egg, and I literally made up a poem for him to say as he was saying it.  It worked.

I then sat down with our primary class, only to realize that we had no lesson planned.  CRAP!  Our binder and lesson manual were lost in the move, and we had completely forgotten to prepare anything.

Ben and I ended up pulling together a great Easter lesson regardless, and I was very frazzled, but very proud of us.

Right after church, Ben had to go back to the townhome for the inspection, and thankfully he took Luke with him and got him a new bottle.

I made dinner in complete exhaustion, we ate, Ben took the kids on a walk, I cleaned the tornado left behind in the mad dash for church, and then I crashed.

Reason to laugh:  Because the laugh in one of complete insanity.  The shrill, out of my mind, what the heck was I thinking,  kind of laugh.  I guess this day needs a bit more time to truly laugh at, but I will get there....tomorrow maybe.


Needless to say, I am a VERY amused person.