BY THE WAYNES

Natural Labor and Birth Story - not pretty - read at your own risk!!

2011-04-25T19:37:00.001-06:00

So for "FUN" I am posting this! I love to read other people labor and birth stories. No two are alike and its always interesting to hear how babies come into the world. Read only if you have a strong stomach for this kind of thing though - this one was not pretty - it was kind of horrible actually. But in retrospect I feel stronger for going through it:

So the day of April 5^th seemed like it could be the day – I was 3 days overdue and very tired of being pregnant. I had contractions all day, which was new – they usually had come at night and made me think the baby was getting ready to come at night…hence my 3 calls 3 different nights to the midwives and my doula letting them know we were heading to the hospital, only to have the contractions die out quickly after the call…and call them back saying Nevermind…only to have sleep robbed from me for a couple more hours.

But Aug 5^th was different – when we went on a walk I had to actually stop for the contractions – a good sign. However, I would have to stimulate the contractions for them to keep going, as my midwife had suggested. We had tried everything else – acupuncture, walks, evening primrose oil and lots more – everything we had been told. So finally about 7 I called the midwives and told them contractions were pretty painful – about 3 to 10 minutes apart – what should I do? I felt like my ability to decipher the situation was not quite up to par based on 3 false alarms the past week or so. Karen, the midwife on call, had us come in for an eval to the triage room. I was humming simple songs through the contractions – really just one…”High on a mountain top” and it seemed like a good distraction at the time – much nicer for myself to listen to than noises.

At the triage room they monitored the contractions – there were some good ones – about 8 minutes apart. So Karen said – lets have you stay and do manual nipple stimulation, which DID get the contractions going. I called the doula not sure if she should come since my 5 cm to 10 cm is usually pretty quick and I was already at a 5. I oscillated back and forth – she already had a sitter at the house so I told her to come. I am SOOOOO glad I did. Boy was I wrong in how things would play out.

I progressed about 1 cm every 45 minutes or so – so I was an 8 at 11:45…however , the head was still at a very high station of -3 to -4 even, sometimes -2. It bobbed up and down. So instead of breaking the water, fearing the head could collapse onto the cored, not good, we decided to wait.

The nurse and the midwife seemed amazed I could squat when laboring and pop back up so easily when the contraction abated. They also were amazed that between contractions I was my normal self – laughing and joking. I joked it was “Bipolar laboring.” Although my contractions were getting harder and “High on a Mountain Top” was disappearing. It became low groans instead.

Sarah, the doula was great. It was my first experience with a doula – she would massage my hands with great smelling oil, suggest different positions – especially when I was tensing, she would tell me to relax my shoulders or my face, which was very helpful. She would tell me I was brave and doing a good job. She made sure the lights were down and she was always making sure I was drinking water. And I really think she kept Brian awake – he was ready to crash at 10 – but she kept him going. The nurse also made sure he had food and water – he had also been going all day with soccer games, working on the basement, AND he had not dinner. Not good for a coach of an arduous labor.

At 1:30 I was 90 to 100% effaced and almost complete – 9 ½ with a little lip. Things were painful by that point and I was thinking we were almost done. My mistake! I still hadn’t gotten in the tub that had been filled up for my planned water birth, since they wanted to monitor the baby and give me the antibiotics, given thatI was Strep B positive. I had been walking around, on the birthing ball, standing, squatting with Brian holding me up during the contraction – which was all great. It was just this last part that was weird. The head would NOT come down.

So from 1:45 to 4:30 I was trying to figure out what the heck was going on. At 1:45 Karen was going to break the bag of waters and guide him down. Just was she was about to do this, My bag broke on its own, which was cool. Then I thought it’d be a quick birth after that, but dog gone it – he was still at like -2 or -1 station, rather than the +2 station we wanted!! What was going on!?!?!?!?

Then all of a sudden, Karen had to leave in the middle of all this because another girl who was overdue came in at an 8 and her water broke while sitting on the toilet and her baby was born in 25 minutes. So during this time I was 9 ½ knowing I couldn’t materialize on any of the contractions because Karen was gone and we had to wait. To tell someone with things to numb them they have to wait awhile is one thing, but to tell that to someone so close to the end and with super super horrendous contractions going natural is totally another situation! I felt like I was fraying at the edges always wondering when Karen was coming back. Meanwhile they had me go from every position you could think of – from hands and knees, to squatting, to on the birth stool, to side lying to the other side lying – trying to get the baby’s heart rate to like it and head to fit and try to switch him to the right position to come down.

Karen did come back in 25 minutes and I was grateful another doc was doing the “repair job” on the other lady.

Then another unforeseen curiosity…My contractions started slowing down of all things! I felt like I was getting more and more of a break – very odd. I even fell asleep a couple of times between contractions – getting a 4 minute respite in between. This actually was worrysome. Karen called this “outside the paremeters of a normal birth situation.” What was happening was that all the progress I made with the contraction would go backwards with the lack of continuous contractions to keep the momentum going. That head would pop back on up. She made reference to the fact that my uterus had been going for 3 days non stop and was maybe overly tired and not doing what they wanted it to do. That didn’t sound good. She then added, “I THINK we can still TRY for a vaginal delivery…” And that was really scary.

I was not about to go to all these hours of intense pain AND be SO close – and cervically complete – JUST to have a C section and avoid the very thing that made me want to go natural – a long recovery! It was just heart sickening.

Thankfully, in the next hour,things did speed up with the contractions it seemed to me – they keep switching me – and it felt like I was getting less breaks. The nurse kept telling Karen that there was still “plenty of room up there” – and it just made my efforts of pulling my recti back, pulling my transverse to the spine seem just completely worthless – and the pain and contractioned seemed like they were doing nothing.

I was literally getting to my breaking point. I was holding on to Sarah’s hand and Brian’s hand like my life depended on it. I head myself wimpering and crying after contractions. My low groans had become very load groans, with weird vibrato signaling my approaching complete desperation. At 4:30 am things were starting to look bleak. They felt there was no progression and they wanted to bring in help. Then all of a sudden the baby’s heart rate plummeted to a 60!! VERY VERY LOW! Karen and the nurse looked at each other and quickly wisked in a doctor and several nurses - the doctor with the vacuum in his hand…and if that didn’t work..gulp – C section! I was not bargaining for 8 weeks of recovery,- surgery - after all my preparations to let my body give birth how it had for my last three - and as natural as possible.

Karen was trying to work with the situation and was massaging the perineum to try and get it out of the way for the head. I didn’t know what was going on down there - a lot of fiddling around – so I would call out, ‘Who is that?” “What are you doing down there?” She would say, “Sorry, that’s me” and I knew she was trying to help.

I was praying, Sarah was praying, Brian was praying – I wanted him to give me a blessing but I couldn’t find the energy or the break to ask him. I was holding on to both of their hands to with crushing force. They wanted me to not hold my breath but to take little breaths so the baby could get more oxygen. I was on an oxygen mask to get the baby more air.

I asked Heavenly Father over and over for the head to descend. Then around 4:38 I got a burst and a finally a good sensation of feeling like I needed to push – the sensation I knew and could finally recognize during this birth. I brought my transverse back and pushed and pushed - I heard the word “HEAD” which gave me hope, so I took another breath during the contraction ready to make it work for me. I saw in my minds eye the “ring of fire” and I know I had to go through and toward that ring of fire to get where I needed to go. I was so glad I found it! So I kept going and out the head popped, then the body squirmed out quickly. This was all right before the vacuum was used. So no one brought to the room had to do anything, thank goodness. They came in right when everything finally clicked into place. All I had was a wiff of Pitocin to get that last lip to go back, and afterwards to prevent hemorrhaging.

In retrospect, when the baby’s heart went to 60, it was actually turning the right way finally in the birth canal so it could make that final desent – so it was a good thing.

Brian didn’t even realize what was happening – he looked up and was shocked to see the baby was out! He hadn’t realized what was going on. No one even mentioned “head is coming” or “here it comes” or anything along those lines. It just happened quickly after the finally descent. I felt totally drained of every single reserve my body possessed. I began shaking violently – teeth, legs, head – everything. I couldn’t get warm. I went into shock a little – it had felt so traumatic to me. I wondered why I couldn’t remember it beautifully like I did Kylie’s birth or Brooke’s birth.

Finally after an hour I calmed down enough to where I wanted to see the baby, hold him, and to nurse him. I had to calm myself down enough and get out of the shock mode. Even though it had been 60 minutes – the baby still nursed well and latched on right away. So cute. He had bruising –light spots that looked like freckles all over his face from the trauma as well – we were both a little scarred.

There was also some worry afterwards…they saw lots of liquid blood still coming out – and were worried there was uterine hemorrhaging or deep cervical tear that would have to be repaired. So they had to go in and look and my swollen cervix and see what the heck was going on – it was very painful – and lots of instruments. They concluded, as I was praying, that there was no tearing or hemorrhaging. I don’t think I could have taken it, I was still on the brink of hysteria from the craziness I had just been through. The silver lining is that I only had a slight abrasion only on my perineum, and didn’t need to have any stitches. That was a huge blessing.

He was the biggest of my babies – at 8 lbs 1 oz – and 21 inches long – so I think the longest as well. Glad he didn’t get any bigger. In hindsight, as I felt like we needed to go in tonite – it just wasn’t totally what I bargained for. I had wanted Isabelle because I had bonded with her, but Karen was so great, and so well seasoned – and I really needed someone in this situation with more experience to draw upon. I was so blessed she was on call.

Brian said he didn’t want to go through natural childbirth again. I had said, which Tami and my mom mentioned to me separately, - yes but it could have been a C section had I gone the “normal route” because my choices would have been limited in how I moved around to get him to get into the right position, as well as the limited muscle awareness to do what I needed to do. You never know how things could have played out…

It was amazing how modesty totally left me in this whole situation – that is the crazy thing about births. You just bare it all and deal with it.

I am glad its done – Ironic that I felt like I had my own Garden of Gethsemane on the [real] anniversary of Christ’s birth and resurrection – April 6^th. So glad for a healthy baby finally here!

Birth Announcement and pictures!!

2011-04-16T17:53:00.006-06:00

So one more indulgent post....
FINALLY! Our little boy decided to arrive in this world 3 days late! He was born April 6th, 2011. Labor was O' Natural and had some minor complications, but it turned out well with a couple miraculous turns - both literally and figuratively. I was assissted by a FANTASTIC doula, an AMAZING husband, a great midwife and nurse.

Brayden Michael was 8 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long.

The same photographer SharaleaPhotography who did my maternity shoot also did my newborn shots - and I am drooling just looking at them. They had me leave the room so he could settle down and not smell "mom" and then they were able to take these AMAZING shots!

My Maternity Photo Shoot - brilliant photographer!!

2011-03-23T08:44:00.000-06:00

So its hard to believe I am posting more than once every 6 months - but I had to share these pics!! I just LOVE LOVE LOVE them!! My photographer is this awesome talented girl in our ward - check out her site!
Here is the site http://www.facebook.com/SharaleaPhotography - she does AMAZING work. If she can make my 9 mo. preggo belly look good, she can do anything :)

Its a MIRACLE!! WE ARE ALIVE MY FRIENDS!!

2011-03-13T17:31:00.002-06:00

So as many of you have probably noticed, I fell off the face of the earth for awhile. I am sure no one even checks this forgotten and forsaken blog anymore. So for anyone who still checks to see if we are alive – WE ARE!!

So first of all – 2 weeks and 6 days to go – for #4. I have been so anxious this time around to just have my normal body back. Probably having to deal with 3 other kids and pick up that many toys off the ground and after that many people makes me just want to bend over NORMALLY instead of with a big huge lump to work around. So apart from just wanting my normal body back – its been a pretty darn good pregnancy. I really can’t complain.

Also, I am officially on maternity leave of my own accord TODAY. Yesterday I trained my last 2 people and I am giving myself a glorious 2 months free to take care of my sanity my last 2 ½ weeks of 3 kid-dom, and for 6 weeks afterwards. Although I LOVE what I do (www.beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com) it feels remarkably liberating to give myself a break – very rejuvenating.

Although SOMEHOW, we have one of the busiest weeks EVER this next week. The goal is to get all 5 people visit taught this week, Brooke having gotten baptized 3 weeks ago is now in Activity Day girls – 2 things this week, plus my splits with the missioaries, plus Brian’ Elders Quorum visits, me teaching joy school AGAIN this week, doctors appointments, plus getting shelves built in our pantry and baseboard up in our basement before we get new carpeting – AND of course making sure we have the time to watch the BYU basketball games this week – we are full to the brim!

We still have live-ins in our basement- which has grown to 3 people down there. The short sale Mark and Allison were waiting for fell through, so back to square 1. Meanwhile, we are adding another human on the upper floor. So the population of our house has gone from 5 to 7 to 8 and now to 9 since the summer. We Waynes are getting very numerous, or so it would seem.

The great news is that it gets dark at 7 PM instead of 6, which is such a huge difference from December’s 4:30 sunset – 7 is HEAVEN!!! And SPRING – YAY!! February seems to be one of those bleak months with the blizzard and all, and all the cloudy days. I will take March ANY DAY – it’s the light at the end of the tunnel. I start my seeds too which is another constant reminder that its time to plant things soon – amazing. I might even get sassy and put my lettuce in this week!

Well, enough rambling for now – just wanted to say we are alive and well – and hopefully I will be posting more regularly!

PICS!! Our mostly completed basement, our newly 5 year old son, pics from vacation

2010-09-10T23:24:00.005-06:00

The most beautiful rainbow I personally have ever seen - doesn't even show how it totally fills the sky. It was amazing!

Aunt Allison reading harry potter to the kids looking into the great room - AFTER PIC. By the way - all these pics get unwieldy - so as you read this try not to become too discombobulated in how they jump around. Its 12:30 and I just can't fiddle around with the pics anymore to make the order make sense. Either I can't figure out the best way to do this, or blogger is stupid!


this is a before of the great room wall looking toward the study

AFTER: Brooke and Tyler already at home in the new playroom...how do I know? Its a DISASTER! Reaquainting themselves with out of reach toys that had been in hiding for months during construction

this is part of the great room - the back area for future fooze ball BEFORE


looking into hobby/kids study area from the stairway

in the great room


from the great room looking at kids study/hobby area

from great room looking toward the kids/study hobby area

the temporary home for Mark and Allisons life in boxes - this table will be where a foozeball table will be SOMEDAY

Bedroom #1 in basement - Mark and Allison's current Master Bedroom - no doors yet...we are working on that one

Bedroom #2- now currently a playroom - the kids LOVE it in there...we have some cool car rugs on the floor - no carpeting yet


Here is Brooke annoyed at my picture taking

Kylie is 2 going on 20 and insists on putting together her own very INTERESTING outfits

Although I can't figure out how to get the pics exactly how I want them in this blog - here is the storage pantry when you first come down the steps - VERY handy...especially with my crazy couponing I STILL do

A look at where the bar and bathroom are by the great room

Her is Kylie - 2 - or as we call her "Ko Ko" back from church

In Kentucky in August at Red River Gorge with a break in the rain. These guys were GREAT hikers!

My little guy is FIVE!

This pic cracks me up - from one camping night to another - eating PLAIN oatmeal with no complaints at a gas station parking lot

Brooke is SEVEN and in 2nd grade - what a grown up!


this is a before of the library and study area when you first come down steps - a pantry is to the left

Tyler chose a SANTA birthday cake. Since he still can't have sugar, I used Stevia in this one. We used creme, strawberries, and raspberry coulis for the frosting. He had THIRDS! I had THIRDS!

this is the CURRENT office/ hobby area for the kids - and no flooring or doors YET...or baseboards - that a 2011 project for the most part!


looking at the office/hobby area from different angle


this is the long wall of the great room - now faux painted to look like the inside of the cheesecake factory/italy

AFTER: the bathroom all finished!

this is the wall of the library studye AFTER with the large cubby hole that was debated over and debated oer. It will be finished with dry wall and be sort of hidden away

this is the bar area - AFTER - well mid process. It currently has a microwave!


This is the BEFORE of the big wall of the great room framed out

this is the AFTER of the very first framed pic - looking toward the stairs

Brooke on her first day of 2nd grade - and VERY impatient to get to the bus

Our nomadic summer of craziness

2010-08-04T17:32:00.001-06:00

Last summer it seemed like we had all the time in the world to take it easy. We went frisbee disc golfing 4 nights a week with the kids, we went on lots of walks, and went several nights to the library.

This summer has been a totallly different story!

NAUVOO:

Brian skipped driver's ed teaching to go to Nauvoo with the EXTENDED Wayne Family for a 3 day excursion.
Since I used to live there, it was really like going to my 2nd home. This time the kids appreciated where I used to "Go to Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade (as well as some others, but they can appreciate those grades for now). They also appreciated where I lived when I was "7" and "5" - how old Brooke and Ty are now. "WOOOAHHH!"

We went on the buggy tour which has TOTALLY changed - I liked the change - even the crazy crossing the creek part, feeling like you are totally going to tip over: THINK LEGACY. It is the same area that THAT wagon tipped over, which was not scripted.

We even had a TORNADO WARNING, unbeknownst to us. I used all my feminine wiles to convince Brian to stop at the top of the hill right in front of the temple to take some awesome lightening shots of the gigantic storm coming in. I did get some cool cloud shots. The sky exploded before we got to the hotel, and we were made to sit in the HALLWAY with a ton of EFY and YOUTH CONFERENCE kids in the hotel away from all the windows and wait out the TORNADO warning. I actually quite enjoyed it. But back in the Chicago burbs, our front porch got BLASTED IN...its duck taped for now...

WISCONSIN DELLS:

This is the EXTENDED Wayne Family Excursion #2. We left the SAME DAY Brian finished teaching Driver's Ed for the summer to go stay at a friend's vacation house up there...unfortunately filled with MICE!! Tyler erupted in an asthma outburst, and we hadn't realized why until we saw a CUTE, FURRY, ADORABLE....EEEEEEEEK!.... MOUSE SCURRYING across the kitchen floor. Every trap we put out from there out was filled within just a couple of hours....so that was a fun activity for the kids to watch...

However, it was SO SO SO SO AWESOME to go to the Indoor/Outdoor water park of Chula Vista. I would TOTALLY recommend that to anyone going there. We DID go on a Tuesday, but hardy any lines - I just have gone down 60 different times ALL the various slides, except for the superhigh straight plunge yellow one - no THANKS! Brooke and Tyler LOVED IT, and Brooke has become my new partner in waterslide/ride thrills. We BOTH like to lose our stomachs. Brian's stomach is probably on par with a 3 year olds...or maybe a 63 year old...more delicate.

We also went to the Army Duck boats. I had heard they were cool and a "must" but my experience was LESS THAN STELLER! I was in the very front seat behind the driver, and felt the direct line of heated pipe exhaust blast out at me until I felt TOTALLY nauseous and sick. Then Kylie fell asleep on me, her bare skin totally sweaty and wet against my legs. She was draped across me, making me even more hot and feeling trapped. We went only about 7 miles per hour in the boat in the water, and I just envied the people in the JET BOATS who were going so fast, and having a swift breeze!

We also did mining - very timely because Brooke has been VERY into whose birthstone is whose - and each of the kids, and our, birthstones were all represented. Brooke was SO happy to have an AMETHYST in her mining bucket.

OHIO AND KENTUCKY:

So since my sister is living in Ohio now, we thought we would visit them and make a trip out of it. What we DIDNT realize, was that the weather was going to be in the 100s and upper 90s, with dangerous heat indexes. So walking around Cincinatti was a scorcher, but during the baseball game we went to it TOTALLY poured and cooled off to our RELIEF. Our attitudes improved incrementally with each degree it dropped.

We camped directly following the game, in a tiny camping spot the size of a toilet paper square, that they charged us TWENTY DOLLARS to camp at!! It rained the whole night, and all I could think about was how hard it was raining, the lightening with all the trees around us...and waking up every 30 minutes to make sure the kids were OK. We got 8 people into a typical FOUR MAN tent - not bad!!

OFF TO KENUCKY - we decided on RED RIVER GORGE - reading about how its like the "ARCHES" in the midwest. We pitched our tent and got a campfire going...with MUCH effort on my sister Tami's part. Just when it was time to put our tinfoil dinners on, it started thundering and the OMINOUS CLOUDS blew in with threat. We cooked away, and during the intermittant downpours we scurried to get the kids in the 4 man tent for shelter, while the rest put covers over the fire and food to make sure it could still cook. It was after all, our meal for the next 3 meals. The rain would stop just in time for the kids to stop killing each other for a few seconds and they could go out and feel the freedom of the outdoors for 3 whole minutes, before the next downpour would start, and we would RUSH the kids back into the tiny tent...there were 5 kids including my neices. After the pattern continued for the next hour, we were actually able to eat with 10 good minutes of no rain. The sun decided to stay out for the next 3 1/2 hours as we got to go on 3 cool hikes - the kids did AWESOME. Even accident prone Tyler did well - and no WHINING! I couldn't believe it! Our good luck didn't TOTALLY hold out though, it rained all night long! Isn't there some rule that says it HAS to rain while you camp in a tent?

There were signs everywhere talking about some crazed maniac bear that closed the park down for a week, just days before we got there. They hadn't caught him yet...so of course I laid awake thinking that every noise was a bear, or a snake. There were several poisenous snakes that just LOVED the area, and so we had to make sure on our way to the outhouse at night we had a flashlight to look for snakes.

We woke up to EXCEEDINGLY GREAT DOWNPOURS, very similar to the the rains Noah experienced while the people of the earth were drowning. That is the weather we had to pack up the tents, sleeping bags, and kids in. And in this totally mangled, nasty,damp, smelly, frizzy-haired condition, we decided to go...where else? THE OUTLET MALL!!!!!! I made the mistake of trying to do an exchange at Aeropostal and they looked at me like "What HOLE did YOU crawl out of, you nasty lady?" Seriously, it was appalling how I looked, and it was also APPALINGLY HOT! Not a good combo - all I could think about was 2 THINGS: Air conditioning...and SHOWER.

The rest of the trip was more relaxing - we went to splash pads, had game night, went to my birthday lunch at BDs Mongolian Grill -YUM, and some Key Lime Cheesecake with Almond sprinkles from CHEESECAKE FACTORY - equally YUM!

CANADA TRIP/ JACKSONVILLE: That brings us to the present. Brian went on a brothers/dad trip out to Canada border - probably more in Minnesota. Haven't heard a thing from the boy...his phone is of course dead. I am at my parents house picking out flowers, decor, and cake pans, for my sister Susan's wedding...trying to relieve my mom's stress a little. I had a hunch a lot of the wedding stuff would fall to me - the cool, crafty, oldest sister with good taste...at least that's how I am choosing to look at it.

TONITE? We are watching HARRY POTTER 1 ( Brooke is JUST getting into them!) while doing Susan's wedding bouquet and the boutineers. I can't think of a BETTER COMBINATION!!

FINISHING THE BASEMENT A BIG PAIN IN THE....STUPID CONTRACTOR!

2010-07-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

The Saga of our basement goes something like this:

A long time ago (March) in a basement far far away, there was a contractor who seemed to shine above the rest in price and availability. He toiled long days with his partner (who is his son) and did a good job with framing, electrical and plumbing. We were loving working with them.

And then something TERRIBLE HAPPENED- SUMMER CAME!!

Yes our beloved contractor who swore the drywall would be in by June 21st, dissappeared on June 11th. Without any call backs, texts, drop-bys...we thought about issuing an AMBER ALERT! We thought that might be a bit overboard, but now that 3 weeks...3 1/2 to be specific...have gone by we really think that might be the way to go. He must have been ABDUCTED or something.

But no...its far worse...ITS DECK SEASON! Those decks pay far more money (apparently) than we do...thus they take precidence. We get it. HOWEVER, when 3 weeks goes by without ANY WORD, when 3 major items were supposed to be done MANY MANY days ago...we knew it was time to play hardball.

So we were given a strategy. Contact other contractors and get a quote, and come back to contractor A and say " If you don't want to have to pay us the $XXX.XX we paid you to do XY and Z to our basement, then you need to contact ASAP because otherwise we have another contractor who will do it for the same amount.

So we carried out the brilliant strategy given to us by a WELL to do HIGH PROFILE contractor himself. he said NO CONTRACTOR wants to pay that money, so they will come back. This high profile contractor referred contractor A to us, incidentally.

Well, I guess our contractor must REALLY be DEAD, PARALYZED, or have AMPUTATED LIMBS. Maybe he is laying in a forest somewhere with a big tree over him, or maybe he contracted the over-hyped SWINE FLU. Whatever it is, NO WORD!

So we have one of our previous-quote-guys from way back in March picking up the slack. THANK GOODNESS! It JUST so happened they could start right away, because two other jobs have hard wood on back order.

So looking down the road a week and a half, Mark and Allison can move in and actually have light switches, some outlets, even a toilet possibly. And FOUR WALLS for privacy. We are not guarenteeing a door yet - maybe some cool beads...but our basement is FINALLY underway.

WHAT CRAZINESS! (PICTURES TO COME!)

Though I am terrible lately about posts, here is what is going on with us!

2010-06-17T11:50:00.003-06:00

OK - here is our rundown.

WE ARE STILL in the middle of finishing our basement. I did just take a bunch of pics of the framing, plumbing, and electrical for before and after pic purposes. We are supposed to get insulation and sheetrock (drywall) this week, but our stupid contractor (I can just hear Brooke in my head saying, "mom, we don't say stupid) was MIA on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and now TODAY! We gave him a timeline of Monday - and lets just say we are RUNNING OUT OF TIME!

WHATS THE RUSH you ask? We are going to Nauvoo on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on a Wayne Family trip. The day we get back (FRIDAY), Mark and Allison (Mark is Brian's brother) are

MOVING IN WITH US

until they find a house, and have everything aligned to do that. That way they could have their own space. So I guess until we get everything straigtened out with the drywall and all that they will live in Tyler's room. I hope they like Lightening McQueen bedsheets!

WE ACTUALLY GOT a pet bird. Brian and I are NOT pet people. So of course, born to us are THREE kids that are CRAZY in love with ALL animals. Dogs, Cats, Turtles, Hamsters, Birds, etc. So a family in our ward - having their 6th child, was trying to give away a cockateil that sings real songs, and dances when we sing, "Scripture Power." You can tell he came from a LDS home!

I GOT RELEASED at Primary Chorister to our 100 kids that fill the gym (130 if they all come) and am now a ward missionary. I had no idea that the missionary program in our ward is SO rocking!! A family of 5 is about to be baptised - they are a family referral. How cool is that!

MY SISTER JUST GOT ENGAGED!! Last night - I am so happy for her :) Brian had made a prediction in JANUARY that both my remaining single sisters would be married this summer. It looks like he is at least 50% right!!

BRIAN MADE THE CRAZY DECISION to do Driver's Ed this summer. He who has the weakest stomach of all time, said he is "JUST FINE" to do "behind the wheel." He kind of hates it. Some of his kids went behind the wheel without EVER practicing with a simulator or parental guidance. He is the sole driving guidance in their life.

I AM GETTING TO THE SATURATION POINT with personal training with Diastasis Rehab (see http://beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com). It is awesome and I LOVE seeing the fantastic results. However, I think I can not take many more new clients for a couple months or my stress level will rise too much. I have to keep an even keel and spend enough time with the fam. BALANCE is a tricky thing, is it not?

I WON A TRIP ON THE RADIO this past March and Brian and I got to go to ALABAMA - BIRMINGHAM of , get this, a GOLF TRIP. Now, had I been planning and paying for everything, I can not say I would EVER pick a golf vacation. But it was FUN, and BEAUTIFUL. I do have some spactacular pics I will try to put up. I have never seen such a beautiful golf course - so hilly, and just amazing! We just had to pay for food, so we got very adventurous and tried some funky places and funky food. As we were eating a medley of fried fish with chopsticks and dipping sauce, Brian remarked that he would NEVER try half the stuff we eat if not for me. He also mentioned we have "slightly different taste" when it comes to food. We went on this giant statue, we visited the Alabama TEENY temple, and saw the movies "Letters to Juliet" which I LOVED, and "Robinhood" which I liked but was historically different than the other version by FAR!

KYLIE is gaining weight FINALLY and has SPIKED in her growth. Her story of recovering from an early version of Crohn's is still just amazing to me. We just have to keep her away from sugar and keep on giving her the FULL SPRECTRUM probiotics and she does fantastic. So, that means, much of it is up to me to keep it up! But she shot up 20% on weight (to 5% - YEAH, she is ON THE CHART AGAIN! and 40% up on height (to 50%). She also turned 2! How did that happen???

AND BEING THE NERD I AM, I am HIGHLY anticipating Twilight ECLIPSE. I am addicted to "www.eclipsemovie.org" to Brian's chagrin. He calls Edward, "My Boyfriend." But I can't take offense, he also called Mitt Romney "My boyfriend" when I was actively keeping tabs on the campaign for '08. At any rate, I am seeing a midnight showing with ALL the SCREAMING teenage girls, and then again 2 days laters. Both with different sets of gals -but I am looking forward to it!

Yeah, I think those are the main things:) Now that I have all that out, and DONT feel like I have to blog about each one, I might be more regular about posting. And I will need a couple of days of look at everyone's blog that I like to follow - I am ~~almost~~ overwhelmed how behind I am in that department!!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T17:50:00.000-06:00

I LOVE Mother's Day! Aside from my thoughtfulness of my family and other's thoughtfulness, I also feel like I get to let some things go and NOT feel guilty about it.

First I got served Breakfast in bed by Brian and Tyler. I asked where Brooke was and I was told she was upset by the choice made by Brian to serve me. He had made toast, eggs, and chocolate mint herbal tea. Brooke had wanted something "SPECIAL" and thought they should have done eggs on TOP of the toast...with cheese on top of that. So I didn't see her for another 30 minutes while she commisserated in her room.

Brian surprised me with a dozen red roses - I TOTALLY was not expecting that, TWO different kinds of dark chocolate (which I can have ONCE MORE and not have CRAZY issues...thanks NAET!), and he also got me a DVD "Baby Mama" which I have only seen once, but had some GREAT laughs.

At the tail end of sacrament meetings, the YM passed out chocolate bars with the "Hersheys" bars with the cover removed and a "Happy Mother's Day" wrapper was printed out and taped on instead. Tyler asked if he could hold it during sharing time, and Brooke asked if she could hold it during her primary class. I conceded...but found some parts of the bar mysteriously MISSING....

During Music Time in Primary with my 100 kids - we sang lots of Mothers Day songs. I had the Junior Primary close their eyes while they sang "Mother I Love You" and pretend that they were singing to their mothers. So I see 60 young kids all closing their eyes an all peaking a little bit as they sang and signed the song. It was SO DANG cute!

After church I redeemed a coupon from Brooke to finish making my bed. Then I felt NOT GUILTY at all as I asked Brian to cut some broccoli and carrots for the stirfry.

Brooke made me two cute cards for me telling me she LOVES the way I color and she loves the food I pack her for her lunches (which I sometimes pack the most RANDOM things...depending on what we're out of). Then she sent me on a scavenger hunt with riddles to come find her. I found her in 5.2 seconds.

After Dinner and a good game of "Ticket to Ride" - along with Brian's brother Ken, we hear Kylie waking up to a HUGE EXPLOSION. Brian dutifully dealt with it. As I hear the bathwater starting to run, I tossed in some wipes and a diaper, and then without ANY GUILT about not taking over the situation (OK, maybe a TEENSY touch of guilt) I left Brian to finish the bath and cleaning off fecal matter to lay down on the bed and CONK OUT! It was DELICIOUS!

I think my last stop I will pull out will be to solicit the kids to reward me with sparkling clean rooms. As it is now, it looks like there is a sea of clothes, with a loan bed in the room.

Now, I will go eat my chocolate, give the boys haircuts, and enjoy the rest of my Mother's Day!! I have the sweetest husband and the sweetest kids. Why can't EVERY Day be Mother's Day :)

Funniest Eclipse "preview" ever!!

2010-04-14T13:03:00.000-06:00

Here is the funniest video EVER of Eclipse - you have to watch it - even if its just to make fun of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHfyad6Jitk&feature=player_embedded

Hands are FULL!

2010-03-26T18:09:00.000-06:00

I have decided I don't understand how little boys think...at ALL!!

Growing up with one brother I understood only the variety that my brother was. But RAISING a little boy has introduced me to a TOTALLY different world. As I type a giant green truck is racing around me and loud "BEEP BEEP"s are echoing in my ears.

Some of the choice reasons I am struggling this week with understanding little boys and their thoughts?
Where to begin?

I go into said little boy's room to find clothes on the floor were wet. We had to leave right then for the doctor's office, but I managed to insert a little confrontation "Why are these clothes wet?" "I dont know" ..I pause to smell the evidence. "Did you go potty on these clothes?" And darn it, the answer was YES and we HAD to leave right then to go to the doctor's office. In his defense I don't think it was done with malintent. I think he was shivering without any clothes trying to decide what to wear...and the cold air just got to him.

I found our new kitchen cabinets had been indented in a massive big line down the drawer with a toy. Thank you, my son!

Brian found a toy bin, WITH toys, that had a very unpleasant odor, and um...liquid. Yes - the toys had been urinated on. Brian carried the bin upstairs and outside. After a 1 1/2 HOUR long time out (I know that may seem alarmingly long to most parents, but since we had confronted this issue months ago and it resurfaced...it was needed) we had ds go outside with a big bucket of soapy water and clean every toy and scrub it, and the bin. He was out there 30 minutes. I don't think *knock on wood* we will be dealing with that one again. But if we do - he knows what he'll have to do!

There is always the milder things - like waking up his baby sister when his friends come over, and pusing sister down occasionally, and opening every tube of toothpaste we own (thanks to couponing, thats a LOT) and using every single one, getting into mom and dad's protein bars, opening up 10 and eating just bites of each one, and dropping them in toy bins - yeah there is stuff like that too. *SIGH* - I don't know how you moms with multiple boys do it! This one keeps me on my toes!!

Brian's Jack Bauer moment

2010-03-05T22:27:00.000-06:00

You would think that life as a high school anatomy teacher and boys bowling coach would render itself to a certain safety zone. However, things can happen when you least expect them to...

Brian was downstate in O'Fallon Illinois at Boy Bowling STATE - yes they made it this year. The boys and most of the parents drove down very excitedly at what could be a highlight in (many of them) their senior year. At the hotel after the big day of the tournament - a full day of game after game after game...the unthinkable happened.

One of the fathers saw a drunk driver ram into their car in the hotel parking lot. He had been inside with Brian and some of the other parents. He ran outside to confront a man who was poised for a nice HIT AND RUN affair. The father came toward the vehicle, and just as the drunk driver was in the process of turning the car to drive off, the father stuck his hand through the window and somehow grabbed the keys.

Well, This guy was getting very riled up in his intoxicated state and tried to POUNCE on the father with a fury. With curse works flying in this agitated state, Brian and two of the fathers pinned him up against the nearby hotel exterior wall. Brian saw a huge knife in his jacket, and grabbed the knife from the man before it could be used against them. After they had the knife and the keys he got out of their grip, and then said to the father,

"Do you have good health insurance?"

The father looked up to see another knife he had extracted from his person, and had it hoisted above his head - ready to throw it right at the father's heart.

Luckily, the police had been called and just as the knife was about to be thrown, the policeman grabbed the knife from the man.

Brian explained what had happened with the two knives and how it was an attempted assault. (He was actually holding the knife in his hand when the policeman drove up, which could have looked bad had there not been other witnesses) The policeman, instead of pursuing that (even though he was now holding the drunk driver's knives in his possession) he began to perform a drunk driving test on him, having him take steps and what not.

Brian and the other dads were incredulous that he wasn't being charged with attempted assault. They watched for a moment, and the drunk driver looked up during his "test" to see the father was looking. He said roughly, "What are you looking at" and then DOVE at the father in the MIDDLE of the test.

Finally, it was at THAT moment, that a 2nd and 3rd set of policeman immediately put him in one of the cars and handcuffed him. The bowling boys, meanwhile, getting everything on camera from the balcony above on their cell phones. This turned out to come in handy as the questioning of witnesses commenced.

So, in the words of Brian's principal - who is a huge black dude - "SO - YOU ARE A HERO." And so he was!!

The MICE Fiasco

2010-02-01T21:58:00.002-06:00

Yes - we have (hopefully now PAST tense) mice in our attic. Yes, you remember correctly - our house is only 8 months old.

So one night I heard scratching and them fumbling around. I FREAKED out. We never had that kind of thing happen EVER since we've been married. So I TRIED to wake the sleeping log (Brian) up. I told him there was something in the attic. I told him several times as the noises became more assaulting to my sanity. It was literally 2 in the morning, and I was still curled in a fetal position, listening intently to the scratching, scurrying, and other noises I dared not envision in my mind. Sleep fled from my mind.

My cute sleeping log, I mean husband, told me it was "JUST MY IMAGINATION" and it was "JUST THE WIND COMING THROUGH THE VENTS- As IF!!

So, several nights later of these crazy noises, I actually was able to time waking up Brian, keeping him awake for 10 seconds, while the noise happened above our heads.

Then as I was cutting Brian's hair in our bathroom, he HEARD IT in full consciousness while I was changing settings on the razor. AH HAH! Now we were on the same page!

Luckily one of our friends who takes care of this stuff - pest control - came over and gave us his full expertise, to which we are eternally grateful. He put some cool peanut butter poison that dehydrates the mouse and causes them to leave the house to look for water. He saw evidence of mouse, tunnels in the blown insulation, droppings, and entry ways into the house. I was glad we had answers and some GREAT POISON down.

I wish that was the end of the story. BUT ITS NOT....

So the next night, Brian was with his HS BOYS BOWLING TEAM at State Finals in St. Louis (crazy story for another post) and then ...

IT BEGAN.....

I heard the strangest animal noises of my LIFE and I began to wonder if a totally different animal was up there than I previously thought. I heard almost human like exertion noises, sounding as if it were pushing something extrememly heavy across the attic...

followed by tapping noise...

Every once in awhile I would hear this strange whinnying noise - I FREAKED OUT! I did not know mice made THAT noise. I thought they only squeaked.

I began to doubt all I ever knew about mice. Or maybe it was a opossum....or a racoon....or a squirrel...

I DIDN'T know. It was a LONG night. I literally prayed I would be able to sleep with freaky animal noises occurring right above my head. I imaged with all the exertion noises I would hear, that it would chew through the ceiling or something.

The next day, I texted Brian a series of FREAKED OUT TEXTS about the horrible night it was. And I was STILL hearing the noise. At one point it even seemed like the noise was coming from the computer in our room..but then I looked above the computer at the ceiling and then realized it was coming from the area right ABOVE the computer. GREAT - it was only 5 feet away from me. PERFECT.

I took a bath listening to the exertion noises, the tapping, and the occasional freaky whinnying. It was a very NOT relaxing bath. I again pictured crazy scenarios with these noises. If that mice wouldn't eat those peanut butter things, or didn't DIE, maybe it was WAY bigger than previously thought!

Then the most EMBARRASING MOMENT OF MY LAST 12 MONTHS CAME: I went to the computer to turn it on, and there before me was....

My daughter's BELLA SARA HORSE website was on the computer. ONLY THE MONITOR HAD BEEN OFF AND THE VOLUME WAS UP , so I had been listening to BELLA SARA HORSE WEBSITE noises for the past 12 hours.

I was SOOOOO relieved, and also felt SO UTTERLY STUPID....but then relieved again...and the SO UTTERLY STUPID AGAIN...and then SOOOO relieved.

Happy ending - I have not heard a "mouse" since that night! (OR A REAL MOUSE!)

UPDATE: NO CELIAC?!?!??! Pediatric Enterologist confirms....

2010-01-19T13:50:00.001-06:00

So this debacle has taken more twists and turns than chutes and ladders! After we thought we finally knew what was wrong with Kylie - fitting the description PERFECTLY for Celiac Disease, we got the lab results back. NO celiac disease.

Meanwhile, we had her on the nutritional regimen - Heavy Duty Probiotics, Digestive Enzymes, Vit D3 - she was doing fantastic. I monitored her very carefully. She was putting on weight fantastically. She gained 1 1/2 lbs in 6 weeks -which is VERY fast for her, being as active as she is, and considering it has taken her 4 -5 months to put on EACH lb for the past year. I began to see her cheeks getting actually CHUBBY - it felt so rewarding...

THEN, something happened. On the same day three things occurred. I took her in for the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella immunization), I put her on almond milk for variety, and she ran out of probiotics. We have had on her an alternate immunization schedule, where you get the M,the other M, and the R totally separate from each other - waiting a few weeks in between. I wasn't even thinking about that ....but....

That night and for the next 5 days were ABSOLUTEY AWFUL. After her digestive system was performing beautifully - everything normal - she suddenly had a very adverse digestive reaction. Everything was pure liquid. She would wake up totally covered from head to toe - she went through 10 outfits a day - everything smelled like rotting flesh. She would have BM after BM - all pure liquid. I was sick to my stomach. I felt that everything she had gained was being lost. I felt totally helpless. Luckily after 3 days of this, one of my friends who goes to the same dr. was able to get the probiotics for me. After one day, she became normal again. Her appetite not quite what it was, but at least, she became normalized again.

Meanwhile we were referred to a pediatic enterologist. I was nervous they would slap her with a steroid PX or some kind of meaningless PX - but I was wrong. After explaining the situation, and after he looked at her, and the celiac lab results...he concluded she had a digestive bacterial infection and that the probiotics have been taking care of her.

What I DIDNT mention was that after getting treated through NAET, she can actually have wheat, dairy, yeast, gluten WITHOUT having crazy BMs. She actually had the labwork done after being treated for those. So, all I cared about NOW was the pediatric enterologist opinion of things as it NOW stands.

So the prognosis - she is doing fine and looks healthy. Keep her on the probiotics, feed her a LOT (which I always have -the other day she had 4 hotdogs in 2 minutes!), give her plenty of fats - avacados, good oils (which I HAVE been), and if she has another "episode" then I will go back, otherwards, no need.

The bad news? She had lost 1 lb 2 ounces after the crazy post-immunization debacle. She undid most of her gaining, so it will be an uphill battle again to pack the lbs on her. BUT, after technically a 4th opinion on her, and with her NAET progress, I feel like we are moving forward. She has been doing beautifully the past 2 weeks, and had been the prior 7 weeks before that. So she had a little set back - but NOW - let the weight GAIN begin!

the MONIQUE factor...its not pretty

2010-01-05T16:49:00.002-06:00

Yes, we are a disturbed lot. That is what too much Christmas vacation does to someone! The white haired lady is my mom's mom - Grandma Wright. LOVE HER TO PIECES. She looks so Carol Channing in this picture of her. One of my sisters, Susan, is in one of the shots. And Tyler and His Cousin Abby are the boy and girl in these MONIQUE FACTOR shots. Yes, too much time, so little to do....

I have NO more excuses now!! Here are some ACTUAL pics from Christmas - don't go into shock!

2009-12-27T21:00:00.005-06:00

Yes! I am SO excited! I bought a Canon Rebel XT from one of my photographer friends since she is upgrading. Ironically, its the same camera my dad bought 3 years ago - the same in EVERY WAY! So we had fun talking shop, and he taught us everything he knows. Some of it is STILL over my head, but I have been reading the camera manual - something I usually try to avoid because it seems boring - upon my friend's suggestion.

And I have learned alot - but I can tell I have a LOT LOT LOT left to learn. I didn't get a lens CAP in the deal...or a camera CASE, or a UV filter thing....and the viewfinder is cracked...but I got a STINKING good deal so I don't mind those things. I have been admiring pics on my friends' blogs forever LUSTING after their technique and know how. Hopefully I will be able to join the ranks! Here is Christmas at my parents house :)

DIAGNOSED: Celiac Disease for our cute Kylie

2009-12-02T15:13:00.003-06:00

So, this is a BIG contributer to the reason I feel like I am sort of drowning in my own life! BIG BREATH:

Kylie has Celiac Disease. We took her in for her 18 month appointment to a new Pediatrician. SO MUCH BETTER than the last pediatrician who made me feel that the reason Kylie wasn't gaining weight was because I was feeding her a "low fat diet" - and I needed to put butter and oil on everything she ate.

So THIS pediatrician was great - he listened to her history, what she was allergic to, symptoms, health concerns and told me it was CELIAC DISEASE.

What is CELIAC DISEASE? I was sort of familiar with it. When I got my AMA nutritional credits, they did have a VERY DRY speaker who addressed this. Sad to say, he was so dry I tended to nod off during his presentation.

But here is what it is:

Celiac disease is a digestive condition triggered by consumption of the protein gluten, which is found in bread, pasta, cookies, pizza crust and many other foods containing wheat, barley or rye. If you have celiac disease and eat foods containing gluten, an immune reaction occurs in your small intestine, causing damage to the surface of your small intestine and an inability to absorb certain nutrients.

Eventually, the decreased absorption of nutrients (malabsorption) that occurs with celiac disease can cause vitamin deficiencies that deprive your brain, peripheral nervous system, bones, liver and other organs of vital nourishment. This can lead to other illnesses and stunted growth in children.

So this is why Kylie is 18 months old and only 19 lbs. And get the runs whever she has wheat, gluten, or dairy.

She also has to get her thyroid checked.

So if you have been reading my blog in the past year you will know that I took Tyler to an NAET specialist (allergy elimination technique) to get rid of his allergy induced asthma. He is totally better, just can't have sugar yet.

At any rate, we took Kylie the next day to the NAET doctor who is FANTASTIC. She came up positive with neuroscensory muscle testing with CELIAC DISEASE, COLITIS and that the body was rejecting the process of producing GROWTH HORMONES.

So since this thing can lead to stunted development - physically, neurologically, physiologically, it is VERY good we are finding this out now.

She is on a VERY strict No gluten, yeast, wheat, dairy diet, and no canned foods. And she has to get on very concentrated probiotics, a digestive enzyme to eat away the mucus lining in her intestinal track/stomach, and D3 vitamin to start absorbing nutrients, and a growth hormone JUMP starter. If it sounds expensive, it IS.

But I am looking through the long range lens and getting my little cutie pie better. So far she is not affected mentally or with her motor skills. She is just VERY small in stature - still below "0" on the child tracking chart for weight. For height - she is like 10%.

So I feel lucky that we have the tools to reverse this thing - to treat the components creating the antibodies in her body through NAET, and then jumpstart her immune system, digestive track, and her growth hormones.

So while it seems like a pain, I really feel like I was prepared to handle this one, especially after Tyler.

RESURFACING FOR NEW MOON

2009-11-20T15:22:00.002-06:00

Ok, I am resurfacing in my seemingly insanely busy life (I knew it would get this way once September hit!) to blog about going to see NEW MOON tonite.

Yes, I wanted to do the whole MIDNIGHT showing thing, but it did not work out with the other girls I am going with. We have been planning to go together for ONE YEAR!! Yes - and we also plan to go NEXT YEAR to Eclipse, which just got done filming 2 weeks ago.

And I did hear officially that the NEW MOON midnight showing ALONE brought in a little over 26 million, which is a record.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being a TWI-MOM as they call us. When I teach my fitness classes, at least 2 or 3 of the classes, we will work out to the twilight or New Moon soundtracks - then I have an excuse to see who the other twi-moms are!

I am a nerd, I know, but its FUN!! CANT WAIT TO SEE THE MOVIE - 10 o clock showing BABY!!

I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF...

2009-10-21T13:08:00.003-06:00

...I know, that is not something you admit about yourself. But as you can see from my last post, I have gotten into the whole coupon thing. AND, you might surmise that one of the reasons I have been poor to post is because I am going through what they call the "Coupon honeymoon."

Did you know there was such a thing? Well, it is true. This is what I did at MEIJER (like SuperTarget) the past two days:

14 Loaves of 100% Whole Wheat PEPPERIDGE FARMS Bread
75 Cans of soup: Cream of Chicken and Mushroom, Tomato and Chicken Noodle
12 AVACADOS
8 LBS of Honey Crisp Apples
1 Imitation Vanilla
1 Lindt Candy bar
1 container LIME JUICE

GRAND TOTAL: $11.65

Yes - I am pretty darn proud of that because its the ONLY way for me to do food storage. So w are set on bread for at least 2 months, Soup for the winter, Avacados for a week - GUACAMOLE anyone? And apples for 2 weeks - HONEY CRISP at that! YUM!

Anyway - if you break up my time into an hourly rate of what I had to do - it still was pretty darn good. If you go to Meier today - they still have the bread and soup deal :) Buy 5 cans of soup + PF bread and get $5 off next order. It rolls FOREVER. Pair it with a coupon - you will be under everytime and have to make up for the difference with some other food. LOVE IT!

I have entered the world of...CRAZY couponing!

2009-09-28T12:18:00.004-06:00

I did not think I would. Yes, I learned from the "Grocery Guru" in Utah where he would get entire Thanksgiving dinners for $3.45 for $70 worth of food. But it seemed to confusing to try and figure out what was on sale and what I had coupons for, etc. So, I decided I didn't buy the stuff he talked about ANYWAY so why even put energy forth.

I heard the ladies in my ward (church) talking about getting ketchup for $.15 and toothbrushes for $.10 and thought - thats nice. Good for them.

But, I was totally WON over when they did a coupon event this Thursday at R.S. mtg. The girl talked about how she would never pay for soup, toothbrushes, deoderant, razors, feminine products, toothpaste, shampoo, granola bars, cereal AGAIN. She talked about how it was like a game and it was fun. It took her 2 hours a week to organize and check up on a couple website a couple times a day.

She showed how she organizes everything in a binder with baseball card holders, and every coupon in its correct section. Well, that didn't sound bad.
She talked about on some of her purchases, she actually had a NEGATIVE amount she owed and had to buy more things just to get it to a positive amount.

Well, since we just moved and have to REBUILD our food storage and replenish 72 kits, I thought - this is the PERFECT way to build a 2 year supply. I don't mind putting 2-3 hours in a week to beef up on 2 year supply of not just food, but also toiletries, toilet paper, etc, for FREE or for VERY LITTLE.

So, I DID IT. I started and had my first Walgreens experience taking advantage of the Register Rewards. I spent $25, got $23 in register rewards, plus another $5 off purchase of $30 good tomorrow and Wed, where I will get the same products I got today to get another $23 in register rewards and stock up on the sale items. What did I get - a REALLY good razor Brian needed, 2 bags Halls sugar free cough drops - (I usually need 1-2 bags in the winter) toothbrush, floss, raw almonds - 4 canisters). So tomorrow when I make this purchase, it should cost me $23 (which I get for FREE after register Rewards (RR), plus the $5 off, and I get $23 more RR, and I will stock up on chicken broth, tomato sauce and halloween goodies $7 worth for $2.

I also got free Panda express meal on Friday, and free Redbox code on Friday.

I was SO excited when I handed the guy at the register 12 coupons, although he didn't look at happy as me to initial all of them. I saved $10 on top of it all in coupons.

Here are the website I learned about - they are ADDICTIVE - but I love them. Some of them are Chicago based, but can give you an idea:

www.hip2save.com
www.mashupmom.com
www.hotcouponworld.com

I know there are others -but those guys tell you HOW to actually MAKE money by buying things you would get anyway.

I'm committed at least for a year to build up food storage. After that, we'll see :)

Anyone else do these CRAZY coupon deals?

Muscle woman...at the age of 6?!?

2009-09-24T13:34:00.003-06:00

So, Brian's dad has been saying for the past two years that Brooke must have GREAT upper body strength because she literally "gallops" on all fours several times a day, and at breathtaking speeds - for a human. Of course, she completes her gallops across the yard with occasional jumps over an obstacle and at the end of her run, she whinnies and neighs with such accuracy, she has actually called live horses to her from across the pasture (I am not kidding!)

In fact, Brian's dad commented that he would put Brooke up against any kid her age in upper body strength - and she would beat them hands down.

Its not that I didn't BELIEVE that or think it might be true, but I just laughed at her galloping and let the comment wash off like water off a duck's back. I thought grandpa was exaggerating to make a point, and possibly biased because she is posterity.

Well, to my suprise, at gym class ALL the first graders had to do as many push ups and sit ups as they could in 1 minute. Many of the kids couldn't get any push ups, some girls got up to 5. A couple boys even got in the upper teens. One boy reached 20. And then Brooke comes and did 31 PUSH UPS, which beat out every class in the 1st grade. So I became a believer that galloping really DOES build great upper body strength.

Then the next day, was sit ups. Several kids did 10, some even 15. One boy got all the way up to 31. And Brooke came and did 34 SIT UPS! Well, apparently galloping also produces a very strong "core" so to speak. Who knew! ?!?!

I can feel a horse galloping movement coming on - Galloping is the new Yoga... or Galloping is the new Soccer...Galloping is the new karate - take your pick.
That Brooke is a Real Horse of a Girl!

It only took 9 years, but we FINALLY....

2009-09-17T15:26:00.004-06:00

It only took 9 years, but we FINALLY....

GOT CABLE!! Well, U verse to be precise.

What crossed us over that dark line, you ask? Well, our TV converters (for analogue TVs) were no good in our new house and location unless we got a HUGE antennae. How did we know we needed a HUGE antennae for this? There is actually an antennae information website you go to that will tell you based on how far you live from a tower. We, my friends, are quite far it turns out.

The other thing? Based on my below post this should not surprise you, but I am SO excited about the BYU football team...that yes, it carried me over. Yes,watching ONLINE was plan B...but we got a FAB DEAL...we will get a DVR for FREE, and our whole entire phone + internet + cable bill will only be 14 dollars more than it is now which INCLUDES a DVR and INCLUDES all the ESPN (and other ones I think I will care about) channels. After 6 months, I told Brian it will go up $14 and we might have to be prepared to lower our channel status, or cancel, but at LEAST we will have 6 months. (I know, I feel SOOO cheap admitting that, but HEY...that is who we have to be right now!)

I am convinced we are the only people currently in our entire SUBDIVISION (fairly good sized) that does not have ANY SINGLE SOLITAIRY FORM of TV. Not channels, NADA, ZIP. We only watch movies...occasionally.

As I broke the news to Brian, I could literally FEEL him smiling on the other side of the phone, from EAR to EAR. He told me that was the last thing he expected me to say in a MILLION years when I said, "I have news." The only other thing he said that would have suprised him more..or as much...is if I said, " I am making cookies." If you know me relatively well, you would understand that. If you are still left wondering, go to my fitness blog "www.beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com".

ANYWAY, I feel like I am about to entire a whole new world...although I am lamenting a little teensy tiny bit that the house will be less "peaceful." At least I don't have to watch the dancing shows online with all their pixalated and fragmented frustrations!

09-09-09: It WAS golden!

2009-09-12T15:53:00.003-06:00

A Golden BIRTHDAY, that is, for Tyler. Our little man is FOUR years old.

The day of his birthday, Brooke and I were rushing to leave the house to go to the bus stop, which is down the street. I asked if he wanted to come.

"No," he said, "I want to stay here with KoKo" (Kylianne).

So we left out the door, and OF COURSE, like always, Tyler changed his mind in 3 seconds and with fervent PASSION decided he MUST go with us to the bus stop.

We were already walking down the sidewalk, but I said, "OK, where's your shoes?"

I see him dissappear behind the front door, and then just as quickly he runs out the door again with something in his hand. He keeps running and then comes to a dead STOP on the driveway.

Well, time was of the essence because we have to walk for 2 minutes to get to the stop, and the bus was going to come ANY MINUTE.

I called loudly 40 feet away " Ok, put on your shoes!" And he continued to look distraught. I walked over to him and then I see he had only one single solitary shoe in his hand. I said distractedly, "Go get your other shoe, we HAVE to go!"

He started WAILING. I could see my neighbor 10 feet away washing his truck shaking his head to himself. I said, "Fine, I'll carry you!" So I started to carry him. I made it TWO feet and said, " There's NO way. You are too heavy. Tyler, you will just have to stay here."

I booked it with Brooke to catch the bus while I head LOUD WAILING filling up the neighborhood from where he was perched on the driveway. Other neighboors poked their heads our of their door to see the commotion.

Well, I decided I would walk with Brooke just until the road curves and then go back. But then Brooke and all the other kids (11 at her stop) all looked over at a little red figure running like FOREST GUMP down the road. He looked like a little red fire ant with little legs that went at lightening speed. Brooke shouted, "Mama, it's Tyler! He's running."

I just started giggling in spite of myself. The little goober ran all the way around the curb and down the rest of the road to the bus stop. He ran to Brooke and gave her hugs and signed "I LOVE YOU" which is our little tradition. I looked down at his feet and I noticed he had two matching shoes on his feet. He somehow in record time went back inside, found shoes, and rammed his feet inside them and took off.

What a kid! He wears his little heart on his sleeve - he's a very tender guy, even while ramming the play school bus into walls occasionally. We LOVE OUR GUY!!

BYU COUGARS DONE ME PROUD!

2009-09-08T12:53:00.003-06:00

Did anyone watch that AWESOME game on Saturday night - BYU against Oklahoma?!?!?

Can I just say two words - NAILBITER and WOW.

I was in Cougar Heaven - well afterwards - and I was so "On pins and needles" DURING that I really literally almost couldn't take it.

So I was HOPING that we would get ranked 13 because not many teams below us - our ranking of 20 - lost. I checked the BCS ranking like....well, like a boy...checking Sunday night, Monday several times, early this morning, and finally at noon and I saw the BEAUTIFUL ranking of

(said with reverence) NINE!! (Brian is telling me me how turned on he is by me wanting to listen to the highlights and commentary as much as him - Yeah, TMI)

Yes - in the top 10. Since I am SO rusty with my sports rooting (BYU is the only team I get excited about...although while the Bulls were good back in the day, I rooted for them since I am from Chicago) my husband reminded me that we need to root for Oklahoma from here on out to make our win against them (number three ranked preseason) really MEANS something.

So the season is new, and I am SO jealous of people with SEASON TICKETS - MAn I miss those days!!! I will have to settle for watching on the laptop!

Anyone else getting Revved up for the season???????

ONLINE HOUSEWARMING!!

2009-08-27T12:03:00.004-06:00

Welcome to our online housewarming. Since many of you can't come in person, we are bringing it to you. The only thing that prolonged this as long as it has was my procrastination in downloading pictures. But come have a look around!

This is the patio that Brian and I put in - stone pavers - I love it!
This is the square foot garden - the bare one you see is the newest addition. The other ones were so easy to maintain I built another one. The netting backs it up. There are 80 squares.
Note the Zuchinni is growing vertically - this is about 1 1/2 months ago.
This is the kids bathroom - I have since added white candlesticks but you get the basic idea.
This is our bathroom/closet - I love having it - it makes me feel like I live in a hotel.
We decided to still have the computer in our room - every place we lived we have done it. I guess old habits die hard...that and it looked better in here.
A more long range view of the room.
This is the view from the kitchen into the living room. Its nice and open - the way I like living rooms.
This is the island/thing that looks into the kitchen, dining room, and entryway.
Here is our kitchen - I love the cherry cabinets. Its the favorite color of cabinets we have ever had. I have since added other decor on the bar part - but thats the basic.
So, since we don't have a dining room table and wouldn't use it that much if we HAD one, we did a music room/library in the dining room. It makes everything seem so much more open. I will be adding more ikea components to the bookshelf - and upper area...someday...
Here is the entryway - I love the ikea bench by the door that rolls open and can hold about 50 pairs of shoes - lOVE IT!
Here is a view by the piano facing the living room and kitchen.

The kids were asleep while I took these, so I didn't get their rooms, I will post them later. I LOVE the way the color of paint for Brooke and Kylie's room turned out. And I found some great sports decor for Ty's room at Hobby Lobby at 90% off - I LOVE those sales.

And that concludes the tour. To fully appreciate - think of everything being stark white. Thanks to Brian's dad for painting, and to Brian for the many house projects you have helped me do (and for everyone that helped me unpack)! Took awhile for me to post - but I hope you liked how it turned out.

POOR KYLIANNE!!!

2009-08-12T13:11:00.000-06:00

Our cute Kylianne has been in a pickle lately. She has not been able to gain weight or really grow much. Now that she is walking people think she must be like 8 months…rather than the 14 months that she is.

So what to do? The pediatrician’s advice? Put OIL and BUTTER on everything. The other problem? Constant diarrhea. What was the pediatrician’s solution – the brat diet: banana, applesauce, toast, and…whatever the r is (brain freeze).

No improvement. The girl has been BELOW “THE CHART” , like -10 or so for awhile. Her height is a decent 20%.

So, luckily we have the BEST doctor ever – that is super knowledgable about nutrition, and does allergy/sensitivity testing and TREATMENT (NAET).

So we had her tested – I was the surrogate tester. (so far) She is allergic to Milk/Dairy, Wheat, Gluten, Yeast, Vinegar, Cold, Candida, and something called “Mylocin” or something like that. That one is the corker. The other ones – no PROBLEM, since I went through all that with tyler.

The Mylocin one means that she can’t have any RAW fruits or veggies (which she loves), nothing from a can, even if I canned it (tomato sauce, beans) and nothing that was frozen (veggies, fruits, meats). So FOR NOW, until we get her treated for that, Cooking is going to be CREATIVE. I will essentially have to cook things special for her (2 separate meals 3 times a day). I usually cook her veggies and then give her egg, at this point, and rice, rice cakes, and rice crackers.

Also, since she can’t have anything “cold” because of her allergy (which I just read about in the Chicago trib in January), she has to drink everything warm, and her food needs to be room temp or warm. She is also on lactobacillus (all strains) and bifodobacterium (all strains) probiotics.

The goal? Solid stools with less frequency (now they are 4 to 5 times/day – not at ALL solid)

So, while all that seems a little overwhelming for the time being, I am SOOOOO glad to know what is going one. And if she has results with NAET like her Brother TYLER (was on 7 meds for asthma, now needs NO MEDS and RARELY has any problems.)

I really really thank everyday that my cousin Angelle told me about NAET!!! Thanks Angelle!

JULY WAS BLISSFUL!!

2009-08-03T20:11:00.007-06:00

The one really really great thing about having a husband who is a teacher is the month of JULY!!

Even though I hardly ever see him, it feels like during the school year because of
*doing a 2nd Master's degree
*Bowling Coach
*(now) Elder's Quorum Presidency (church thing for those who are wondering...)
*working 2nd Job at T.R.
*Never ending staff and coaching meetings
*Me working on his "off" nights

So this month I feel like the we, the fam, had him all to ourselves, for ONCE!! It was Lovely!
So how did we choose to take advantage of this rarity?

*We went frisbee disc golfing about 2 or 3 times every week during the evening
*We watched Harry Potter, twice
*We went to Chinatown, Greektown, and the Cheesecake Factory in Downtown Chicago on
National Cheesecake Day (all cheesecakes 1/2 off!)
*We hung out with Brian's siblings who came to Chicago to visit - Mike and Corin and fam, and
Beth and Shawn and family
*We went to Navy Pier
*We went blueberry picking at Michigan City, IN (30 lbs this year at $1.50 /lb)
*We went to the beach MANY times
*We had TWO of our traditional "TEXAS ROADHOUSE STYLE FAMILY BBQs" and made THE
recipe of TO DIE FOR ribs
*We went to Brian's Grandma's funeral (she was an impressive 96!)
*We went miniature golfing - which I unfortunately BOMBED
*We spend many late nights playing Carcassone (like settler's of Catan). We realized playing too
many nights in a row is bad for our marriage
*We checked out movies from the library - ( "Out of Africa "to me seemed like the better version of "Australia", and I can't believe how different Meryl Streep looked!)
*We went to the neighborhood pool several times with the kids
*We went to IKEA as a family (ya gotta have ONE of those a year, I tell you!)
*We welcomed my youngest sister Sarah to stay with us for a few weeks, home from BYU-I.

So, July is gone, but MAN did I enjoy it. It felt like a party everyday.

What will August bring? My younger sister SUSIE is coming home from her NY NY-SOUTH
mission. We are on pins and needles!! GO SUSIE!

Now I see all the back to school sales, and I have to adjust my mind BACK to reality!!!!

9 YEARS OF...

2009-07-14T12:24:00.006-06:00

So, these past 9 years have been AWESOME being married to Brian. He TRULY is the BEST most THOUGHTFUL husband...and Dad. He was so cute this morning. He let me sleep in and he got up with the kids. And when I woke up he walked into our room with a BIG GRIN on his face.

I should have suspected something, but sometimes he just does stuff like that, so I didn't think anything of it. After he GRINNED at me without blinking for about 60 seconds (I was doing some exercises on the ground) then he finally said, "I have somehthing for you..."

I was just expecting a card (handwritten), so I was SHOCKED when he gave me 15 ROSES. They were all red, and of course, beautiful, and TOTALLY UNEXPECTED.

Then he paused and said, "That's not all." He then gave me some of my favorite chocolate - 85% dark "Green and Black" chocolate (its VERY creamy!)

Then he paused again and said, "That's not all." He then gave me a VERY sweet card - he just gets better and better at them each year - I almost started crying.

Then he paused again and said, "That's not all." (STILL GRINNING) and he gives me the dvd of "Sense and Sensibility." which I had remarked to him like 7 months ago that I would really like to own that one. I have ALL the other Jane Austin movies - but not that one. And he remembered that little comment 7 months ago.

WHAT A MAN!! NINE years of marriage to him has DONE ME GOOD!!

How does it feel to lose 5 teeth in two weeks?

2009-07-09T15:46:00.004-06:00

wa

Well, I have to hand it to her, Brooke has had quite the two weeks with losing her FIVE teeth. She REALLY did not want us NEAR her mouth. She would inform us that we could pull her 5 loose teeth "TOMORROW."

Well, of course, her whole mouth of lose teeth made her two front teeth cross over each other and look REALLY odd. The teeth would all bleed on a regular basis.

So, I pulled four of them when she thought I was going to give her hugs for a bump she got...and as MEAN as it sounds....

As I went to give her hugs better, since she was crying ANYWAY, and since she was not expecting it.... I took those opportunities to tug them. IS THAT TRULY DECEITFUL????

Then we clapped for her and made her try to feel really good about what just happened. It worked, especially when we got out the container for the tooth fairy. Luckily we had enough quarters laying around for FIVE teeth. She gets six quarters per tooth. I am sure that is REALLY cheap as far as tooth fairies are concerned...but she doesn't mind.

AND NOW??? We LOVE THE TOOTHLESS GRIN!!

I decided to do it = a SFG garden!

2009-06-17T09:51:00.003-06:00

I admit, I haven’t done a REAL blog post in awhile. So I made myself sit down and post…with PICTURES even. So, here is one of the MANY and seemingly never ending project we have undertaken. Before Tami moved she came over and helped me build my first Square Foot Garden.

I have been literally SO excited to do a square foot garden ever since I read “The All New Square foot Gardening Book” which our garden group in the ward I moved away from were discussing. After reading the book I was so convinced that it was the WAY to go – no tilling, no weeding, big yield in small spaces, growing vertically, no bugs, rotation all built into it…SO I gave it a GO.

I felt like an Amazon women as I drilled into the 2 X 6 wood frames with deck screws (doesn’t take much does it?!) I put the frames on top of my grass, nailed on the weed cloth, and filled it with compost, vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. And then I spray painted electrical conduit and put that over rebar to create the vertical frames. Here it is:

My first grids I did were made of aluminum blinds and fell apart right away. So I bit the bullet and made wooden grids - I am really glad I did! Much more sturdy.

I will say, compared to previous gardening I have done I have been bored because there is literally almost nothing to do after the initial assembling and planting. Just some major pruning to the tomatoes to make them grow up the netting, and some tying of the zucchini plants to stakes to make them grow up netting.

I also made a garbage can compost bin to which I drilled about 120 holes. I put newspaper and kitchen scraps and roll the garbage can once a day (I am sure my neighbors think I am crazy) and whallah! I have compost in 5 weeks. Do I sound like a total gardening nerd?

Has anyone else tried this? Have you heard about it? What are your experiences with it?

LLAAA!!! (sung with vibrato) NEW MOON TRAILER!!

2009-06-03T15:33:00.004-06:00

Hello people - I am REALLY living up my adolesence here, but here is the trailer link on Stephenie Meyer's website to the New Moon Trailer.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=58185785

It looks REALLY good.

Check out the eyes this time on the vampires - much more enhanced don't you think?

Rosalie looks MUCH better too.

What are your thoughts?!?!?!?

Kylie is 1! How did that happen?

2009-05-22T09:10:00.006-06:00

The first month she was born seemed like it was pleasantly long. Now, all of a sudden she is ONE!!

I am a little wistful, but of course happy she is thriving. In Korea, they don't even have a baby shower til the baby is one because the mortality rate is so high. So the first birthday is a HUGE deal. As it should be.

Some cutities (yes I made that word up) about Kylie:

*She giggles and giggles with Tyler and Brooke, especially when its time to go to sleep at night.

*She can sign - and does so VERY proficiently - the words "all done" "milk" "yes" "bye, hi" "so big" "i love you"

*She can say "all done" "bye" "tyler" "button" "airplane" "grandma" "grandpa" "chicken(that was a new one today)" "car" "ball" "mama" "dada" "boouh(Brooke)" "no"

*She is an intensly fast crawler and a proficient stander, and does not see any reason to make any steps, since she can crawl at 10 mph.

*She sleeps 12 hours in a row at night - bless her soul!

*Kylie is only a bully to one person - her 10 1/2 mo. cousin Kaiya, who she insists on taking all of her possessions (toys, pacifier, etc).

*Kylie has a VERY TOOTHY grin. Probably more teeth at this age than my other kids had.

*She is ticklish in every muscle on her body, including her little buns, her back, her facial cheeks, right below her shoulders, her arms, her jaw, her feet, her legs - all over, her tummy.

*She does NOT care for sweet things, not even fruit that much. She LOVES veggies. One time Grandma Wayne gave her cake. She took a bite and looked very dissapointed. Then she reached for her carrot stick. She LOVE tomatoes, beans, lettuce (I know - I am surprised at that one), cucumbers, zucchini - literally EVERY vegetable. Meats she like just ok. Bananas - she prefers the peel to the fruit. Orange - she also prefers the peel to the fruit (which Ironically DO have the most Vit. C)

*Her favorite toy right now is a pirate ship.

*She loves to eat rocks out of our large living room plant pot.

*She reminds me of a faithful puppy, always innocently and obediently following me around without question and without whining, just faithfully and cheerfully. ..unless I change rooms more than 10 times in 1 minute, then she gets irritated.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our little girl and feel SOOO lucky to have her in our family!

Brookes first day at her NEW school

2009-05-12T22:07:00.004-06:00

Brooke was so excited to go to "Mrs. G's" class.

The wrong bus ended up picking her up ONE hour early, so she sat in the office and COLORED for 45 minutes. To her it was all part of the plan. She loved every minute of it and whipped through 18 pictures - most of them horses, of course.

The office called me to let me know of the error and commented to me that she is the most happy and cheerful girl they have ever met.

She LOVED her teacher, which is not surprising. She usually idolizes all her teachers and thinks they are the most brilliant and interesting and beautiful people on the earth.

Brian asked her tonite who her best friends so far are in her class.

She gave a very candid and (for me) kind of a heart wrenching reply:

"I don't have any of those... I will have to make some tomorrow."

TRICKS on getting GOOD DEALS...

2009-05-08T22:19:00.008-06:00

So, since we had absolutely NO appliances in our house we had to REALLY be smart about getting our appliances. And, last minute, the free washer and dryer we had lined up FELL THROUGH.

So after LOTS of work I learned a few tricks along the way.

The house actually DID come with a black oven range, but Brian and I both really wanted Stainless Steel appliances. I didn't know if that would work out because I was only budgeting $900 on a fridge, $200 on an over the range microwave, and $100 (after selling the black one on craigs list) on a oven range.

SO pretty tight. I also did TONS of research about IF Stainless Steel WAS the way to go - I read complaint after complaint that FINGERPRINTS are a big problem.

Well, after taking several trips to HOME DEPOT I found a SS steel fridge, oven and microwave that were all pretty good deals and were CLEAN STEEL by GE - which apparently totally cuts down on the fingerprint thing.

METHOD

*I wrote down the model numbers of all three things.

*I did reviews online - retrevo.com - to see how they rated. They rate them by model #.

*I also typed the model # into google to see who was listing it and for how much

*In my case BEST BUY had the fridge and stove on sale for $150 off. I printed out the sale.

*I brought in the Best Buy sale printouts to HOME DEPOT. They MATCH and take off and additional 10%, which brought BOTH my fridge and oven to exactly my budget.

*I had BEST BUY POINTS which I redeemed into $110 in gift certificates for the microwave. I found it on bestbuy.com and printed it out. They don't carry it in the store, but because I had the model number and the sale print out, they ordered it in the store for me - NO ADDITIONAL charge. AND I only ended up paying $98 because of my gift card points.

TOTALLY ON BUDGET. SAVINGS: $550

BUT, we found out today NO washer and dryer.

*I went on Craigs List this morning and replied to about 10 different W & D postings. I called and left messages.

*I scrolled to the bottom and looked at the bottom ones first. Those people are probably more in a hurry to sell because they listing has been there for a week already.

*I offered either $50 or $100 below what they posted for.

*I heard answers back within 30 minutes, asked the appropriate questions, and we got a 2 year old washer and dryer for $375.

ANY amount on the washer and dryer was OVER BUDGET because we were told we could have these ones for free, but not BAD compared to paying over $900 for new.
SAVINGS: $600

We have our black oven on craigs list now.

*I typed in the model number and found out what everyone was selling the model for (BRAND NEW) and posted it for $30 less. That will pay for the new oven.

And THATS the RECESSION way to buy appliances!!

WE DID IT - PHEW!!!

2009-05-02T18:51:00.004-06:00

So - short post, but WE CLOSED (after another 4 excructiating hours in the title office with one problem surfacing after another!)

BUT - WE ARE IN! We started painting. Brian's dad is a MASTER PAINTER and he would cut the walls in, while I would cover the walls. We BUSTED IT OUT!!

We got everything painted except the bathrooms.

AND, today everything was moved in. Boxes everywhere. Chaos everywhere. Dust everywhere. Strangers everywhere.

BUT ALSO the exciting unknown - everywhere, possibilities everywhere, new people everywhere, EVEN a different culture (its STILL Chicago - but different parts of Chicago are different culturally)

We won't actually SLEEP in the house until Tuesday night - too FUMEY, too DUSTY...AND I could not get Brooke signed up for school yet, so she has 3 more Days at her old school.

Still I am in Denial, and I get sad if I THINK too much (about what I am leaving behind).

FRENZIED DAY - THE HOUSE CLOSING SAGA CONTINUES....

2009-04-29T20:47:00.002-06:00

The KHH (builder) rep was MAD, My attorney was CALM but MAD, my realtor was CALM AND COLLECTED, my lender was AT HER WITS END.

So, the only way to get around WELLS FARGO's mistake on DROPPING the BALL for our house closing, was to suggest a CRAZY SOLUTION....or our closing would be in TWO WEEKS!!

So, what WAS the solution? Find someone that had 33K lying around for the past 30 days in an account and have them "give us" that amount, to which we would return to them immediately with our "rejected" down payment. IS THAT NOT INSANE?

OTHERWISE we go to a "FULL DOCUMENTATION" loan which takes TWO WEEKS.

So I made 97 calls today. I thought at first we would be closing FRIDAY. Then I thought we would be moving in 1 WEEK at one point today, then I thought we were closing TOMORROW. So to change dates with all involved....

I called each of the utility companies THREE TIMES today (15 calls) to change start dates every time I called (I think they know me by voice now),
I talked with my lender girl 24 times today,
the ATTORNEY 3 times,
I talked to Uhaul THREE TIMES to change dates,
I called BROOKE'S SCHOOL to change last day,
I called my PARENTS 3 times,
my REALTOR 5 times,
the GARAGE DOOR guy 2 times,
the APPLIANCE people,
My sister 3 times, the new WARD people....

My mother in law is BRILLIANT. She suggested that they take out a "home equity loan" of 33K for 3 days essentially, that we would repay with the TRUE downpayment money. The bank accepted. So THEY were at the bank for 1 hour - BLESS THEIR SOULS!!!!

Kimball Hill our builder, was LIVID with Wells Fargo. The manager for KH was called WELLS FARGO VICE PRES and many HIGH UP people and I can just IMAGINE what words were exchanged. Wells Fargo has screwed them over TOO many times. We are the LAST CLOSING for them EVER (they went bankrupt 6 months ago) - and for OUR closing to be delayed is VERY COSTLY to Kimball Hill.

Also - I must have faxed about 60 documents today to our lender - in about 5 trips as they kept asking for MORE STUFF.

So - CROSS YOUR FINGERS - lets hope they don't want me to fax over DENTAL RECORDS, GENEOLOGY BACK TO ADAM, REPORT CARDS from Kindergarten, Immunization records, or Passport information?!?!??!?!??!

NIGHTMARE HOUSE CLOSING - WHAT THE HECK?!?!?

2009-04-28T20:15:00.003-06:00

So, today WAS the big exciting day to close on our house. I was so nervous (I know that seems like a weird emotion per se..) that I could barely eat. I was a ball of energy.

So we get there at 3 PM, and get the word that our Lender - I might add a MAJOR BANK - did not wire the money on time and it was past the magical time of 3:30 and nothing more could be wired.

Well, a hassle, but no big deal. We just wouldn't be able to get in tonite. We would have to fax some stuff, meet someone tomorrow, and get the keys after the wired money was taken care of. So we did what we could - sign ALL the papers.

It took 2 hours.

I called our lender girl as I drove away if she knew what happened. She had told me everything was ALL GOOD TO GO, and yet here we were, our downpayment in hand, and the bank did not WIRE THE MONEY. I asked in my message if she could help speed things along for the next day.

So I get a voice message as I was picking up my kids from the babysitters - THERE IS A BIG PROBLEM.

Because we did NET anything on the house we sold in November, THERE IS A BIG PROBLEM. The COMPUTER shows that we are 13 K short because we didn't net that on the house, EVEN THOUGH we had the entire down payment in hand.

We are no longer a "straight to close" loan - we are now a "need tons of documentation" close. So we find this out, a 7 PM TONITE, instead of BEFORE or AT THE TABLE at closing. Or better yet - DURING THE 7 MONTHS WE HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH OUR LENDER, or THE 5 1/2 months ago that we actually SOLD our house!

That this was even a TERM in the contract was never conveyed to us. No one VERIFIED that we actually did or did NOT net that. And to ambiguously think that we DID net that amount is a little preposterous. We were told that EVERYTHING WAS GOOD TO GO - BUT NO.

I asked her what the bottom line was - she said she didn't guarentee we would close tomorrow.

*This may not SEEM like a big deal, but when we have
*MOVING TRUCKS,
*HELPERS IN TWO CITIES TO MOVE ON SAT.,
* APPLIANCES BEING DELIVERED on Thursday,
*A GARAGE DOOR PERSON COMING in 2 days,
*People coming to help PAINT tomorrow,
*People coming to INSTALL appliances on Thursday,
*Brian getting SUB PLANS for the next THREE days all ready,
*SITTERS for the next FIVE days (not easy to get all those ducks in a row - let me tell you!), *UTILITIES being turned on tomorrow

... I mean we really planned ahead to make everything work.

So I am TOTALLY emotionally exhausted and drained of ALL energy.

I just keep telling myself - it will work out!!!

Moving Day approaches....

2009-04-22T13:00:00.003-06:00

Am I ready? We won't have a fridge, oven, microwave, washer OR dryer in our new place. All the walls are STARK white (can we say revisiting student housing wall whiteness nightmares) and the lawn is currently all dirt. The clothes closets all need shelving units in them. There is not even a pegboard in the garage to hand up a rake.

Am I ready to take this on? Do I have the energy? Do I have the stamina? Do I have the ability to remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day? Do I have the patience to deal with my kids surrounded, ONCE AGAIN, by totally and utter chaos????

Do I have the heart to throw out our couches that got invaded by mice? The couches that I love?

Will we have money to put in air conditioning for the summer?

Will we have money, someday, to buy ourselves a place to sit our behinds in our living room?

Should we invest in some camping chairs for our living room?

How am I going to organize the kitchen? Do I really lack an intuition for kitchen organizing?

Can I bear to look in box after box and see the never-ending randomness that is inside them?

CAN I DO IT????? I must take a deep breathe, and just TRY to convince myself I can do it!!

BABY SIGN LANGUAGE

2009-04-16T12:18:00.004-06:00

So, I have to say, BABY SIGN LANGUAGE is very exciting. Its actually ASL (American Sign Language) using the most important words for babies.

I have done it with all 3 of my kids, and it is a LIFESAVER.

So far Kylianne has signed the soonest. She started signing "All Done" at 10 1/2 months.

This has been the BEST tool, because she can tell me if she is grunting because she wants "MORE" (she still hasn't done this one yet) or if she is "ALL DONE" from eating.

And last night, to my exploding heart's delight, she put her hand up to my I-love-you-signed hand and signed back "I Love you" (not perfect form of course) back at me as she said,

"Luh-buh!"

For being just shy of 11 months, is close enough for ME to understand what she means.

Brooke's first sign came at 13 months and is was "MORE" and shortly thereafter it was "PLEASE."

Tyler signed "PLEASE" about that same age.

Kylie's other developments, for anyone that cares, is she has 8 TEETH NOW! I think that is the biggest mouthful of teeth at that age of all my kids.

AND she does not take after her mom, who was bald until she was 2, she has got some great CRAZY BABY EINSTEIN hair that is only tamed in pig-tails.

Has anyone else had good exeriences with Baby Signing? Which signs did your kids do first? Do you continue to use signing with your kids in church or anything?

HILARIOUS TWILIGHT ONE MINUTE SPOOF - ESPECIALLY THE PART WITH ALICE PITCHING!!

2009-04-14T13:13:00.006-06:00

I LAUGHED SO HARD AT THIS. Brian and I both love it when "Alice" says

"ITS TIME!" And then pitches the baseball - so horribly - and so hilariously!!!!!

I am just going to put the link because this video part is giving me a hard time -but it is so worth the FOUR MINUTES. You will be laughing to yourself all day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goix7jFXD9Q

NEW MOON MADNESS?????

2009-04-02T17:22:00.006-06:00

SO, maybe I am regressing back to my teenage years, but I have become an somewhat AVID follower of TWILGHT'S sequel movie - NEW MOON- and their website.

http://www.newmoonmovie.org/

I like checking out what they filmed that day, casting developments, and so forth.

Here are the new movie posters - FUN!!

Me and THE GIRLS here have a plan in place already for November to see NEW MOON at the local

IMAX THEATER.

OH YEAH!!!

Which poster do you NEW MOON fans like better?

FINAL WALK THROUGH

2009-03-30T11:35:00.002-06:00

Well, it was very surreal, but we had our final walk-through of our cute house. Its ALL done - totally. The only things left to do are pour the driveway, and sod the house - which are the builder's job.

The weird part? We still don't move in for another...um...5 weeks. We take possession of the house on April 28th.

So, its all still surreal.

Meanwhile, we are still enjoying living with Brian's parents.

Its fun in lots of ways - always someone to converse ADULT conversations with. It usually tends to be about politics - and its lots of fun.

There is always someone to watch the kids if I have to run a quick errand.

There's always someone to watch a movie with if Brian has to work.

There is always someone to play a game with. Last night we played Scrabble with Brian's parents until 9:30.

I only cook the meals THREE nights a week. Brian's mom cooks FOUR nights a week - and she is a FABULOUS cook.

We always eat on time.

There is someone to back me up on discipline issues when Brian isn't home (which is MOST of the time - the boy is gone A LOT!)

There is always a "PAL" for the kids - Grandma and Grandpa - to give them extra hugs, or take them out to fly a kite or for a ride on the bike.

The cleaning chores are divided - its amazing how much less it feels like there is to do when I am not the ONLY one cleaning.

So, yes we are excited to move on and be on our own, BUT we sure do like the perks of living with Brian's parents and we will miss it. Do I sound crazy? We really LOVE living here!

UPDATE ON TYLER'S ASTHMA; NAET?

2009-03-23T21:01:00.005-06:00

So, its been awhile since I have posted on Tyler's asthma and his treatments we have been undergoing with NAET - and allergy elimination technique.

So, NOW EIGHT months later, Tyler is still off ALL SEVEN MEDICATIONS. It is GLORIOUS.

EXCEPT when we would go visit my parents house, wherein lives 2 cats. Well, we actually had to take fur samples from both cats, as well as saliva samples, and treat Tyler for them.

Also, Tyler was allergic to the dust at my parents house and other dust in general, so we had to accumulate samples of each of the rooms there.

He has "passed" the treatments and is doing very well.

He only has 5 of like 20 things, to go. He is now NO LONGER ALLERGIC to the following:

Eggs, Wheat, Corn, Shellfish, Vinegar, Cats, Dust, Pollen, Sugars, Food Additaves and Preseveratives, Feathers and a few others.

He still has to be treated for Mold, Trees, phenyls in plastics, Nitrates/nitrites and Radiation (I know - crazy)

But he showed before he got treated for each individual allergen that his histamine levels for all of the above were affected, as well as (SURPRISE) his lungs reacted to EVERYTHING.

I ran into another cute mom at the clinic today, and she told me that her 2 year old little boy has asthma and through NAET (allergy elimiation technique - http://www.naet.com/) was off of ALL of his meds as well.

It has made the HUGEST difference in our lives - and also in the health AND demeanor of our cute Tyler.

EVER PLAYED QUELF????

2009-03-20T08:50:00.012-06:00

So, My new FAVORITE FAVORITE Game is called "Quelf." Have you ever played it? It is SO hilarious. I mean REALLY REALLY zany.

This is my brother in law Kevin. In this picture, during the game QUELF, he had to go run and construct SNORKELING gear with whatever materials he could find. But he couldn't tell anyone what he was doing. So all we see is him running, rustling in the kitchen, and he comes back with snorkeling gear made of SARAN WRAP and a SPOON.

He had to wear it for the rest of the game.

Also around his neck you will see TOILET PAPER. He had to, without telling us, go and put a pick of toilet paper around his neck, and also wear THAT the whole game.

That is just part of it. I picked a card that told me I could only communicate in GRUNTS and MOANS - it was called "the FRANKENSTEIN RULE."

If you cannot fulfil your requirements or you mess up, then you have to go back a set number of spaces on the board.

When somebody laughed, my father in law had to say to each person, "I COMMAND YOU TO BE SILENT!!" Which of course made us laugh MORE!

My brother in law Chris, had to find an object to be his MASCOT and give it a cute name, and keep by him the entire game. He chose a BOTTLE OF GLUE and named it "RENDY."

I mean, it is SOOOOO random, but sooo hilarious. You end up just LAUGHING HISTERICALLY THE ENTIRE GAME!!!

New Interior Pics from our house being built - almost done!!

2009-03-13T16:05:00.005-06:00

Tyler is covered in construction dust as he pours out his love to his imprisoned Kylianne.

Kylie is bored - no question. But she does want you to keep on scrolling down and check out the pics.

Brian standing in the Master Bedroom - with the laundry room behind him. He rescues Kylie from her little carseat prison.

Our Master Bedroom Bathroom. We cannot believe we will ACTUALLY have drawers and cupboards, and TWO sinks. There is a separate toilet room, which we are tickled about. No more getting trapped in the bathtub while somebody's nature is calling them. I know TMI - but REALLY - this will be SO MUCH MORE apropoe to a relaxing bath.

This is from the entryway looking at the living room and part of the bar area.

So....there is no door to the Master Bathroom. Is that weird? Should we add a door or curtain or anything? I love the pillar things. The closet is at the end of the bathroom area. That could be interesting.

We sense that our kids are excited....except for Kylie, who is going with the flow.

How LONG has it been since we have lived not in our own house? 4 months and 5 days.

This is the kids bathroom - formerly the same size as our ONLY household bathroom.

Homebuilders too can mess up apparently. Here is the botched kitchen countertop sitting on the living room floor. They cut it WRONG - whoops!

This is the island ish station with bar on the other side looking over the living room.

This is from the living room looking into the kitchen area.

Our cute painter was there one Saturday when we came to check things out. Tyler was mesmerized. We love the lighting fixture in here - but we are using this as a music room and not a dining room. Any suggestions? Keep the cute light?

Brooke and Tyler checking out the kitchen just put in. The botched countertop is sitting on the cabinets. Look closely - can you see what is wrong???

Looking from the eat in kitchen area at the living room/entryway. This is the propane heater phase - before the furnace was hooked up.

You may have noticed everything is VERY WHITE. If you can remember, PRETTY PLEASE tell me what your FAVORITE paint color is - name and brand - and what hue it is. I am totally open to suggestions!!!!!!!!!!!

So there is the VIP tour!!!!

Little Boys ARE DIRTY!!

2009-03-09T14:26:00.004-06:00

My adorable, cute, sweet loving 3 1/2 year old is more CURIOUS than a CAT, and DIRTIER than a ......well, you get the picture.

As my little sweetheart wakes up "stinky" he stealthily gets himself dressed and changed and comes downstairs. Perplexed by his efficiency, I go upstairs to find not just the stinky diaper on the floor, but ALSO poo on the floor. I THEN find the scarves and gloves that we currently keep in his closet each have some poo on them. HE HAS BEEN WIPING HIS BUM WITH OUR WINTER GEAR!!!

GAG ME!!

As I go about my day, I find two cars in his little potty - sitting in urine. Seriously, what is it with him and his excrements?

I go upstairs before getting Brooke off the bus to make sure he is in his bed for his nap. I find a willowly, flowly, snakelike SEA OF TOILET PAPER cascading down the hallway and in big fluffy PILES in the bathroom. I have precisely 4 minutes until I have to meet Brooke on the corner. I am rerolling the toilet paper at blister-producing speed to get it wound back on the roll, adreneline pumping and sweat beading up on my furrowed brow.

Tyler gets a nice firm SPANK. Yes, I DO occasionally spank my children - and THIS is one of those times.

When he is safely in his nap I go check on the downstairs bathroom and find a big pile of CEREAL on the bathroom floor right by Tyler's little potty. HUH? I then notice a little cereal trail through the bathroom, on through the dining room, and into the pantry when cereal is found strewn about in little piles resting on each shelf until I find the UPTURNED cereal box.

Its like I am on some sort of sadistical Easter Egg Hunt just waiting to see what other horrible presents Tyler has left me.

I go up to my room to relax for a minute and go on the computer. But I cannot rest because all my good SCRAPBOOKING MARKERS AND SCISSORS are all strewn about, the CAPS are all off (SOUND THE MONEY ALARM, there is NO way I am buying new ones!) as well as some UNMENTIONABLES taken out of drawers. AHHH!

Then I go to put the mail on the desk and step on something sharp. I step backwards - OUCH!! THUMBTACKS EVERYWHERE on the ground. Then I see good ART chalk on the ground, then Markers, then GLUESTICKS....and a dislodged DRAWER of the desk upturned.

STEAM BILLOWS A HIGH SPEEDS OUT MY EARS.

I go to retrieve some of the rechargeable batteries that we use for our wireless keyboard and, OF COURSE, they are ALL MISSING. CRAP!! But my 2nd child, Tyler, WHOM I LOVE, is sleeping LIKE AN ANGEL. How is this possible, when he has been so good at creating CHAOS?

I think to myself on days like these - I just can't deal with any more poo, or accidents, or spilled food, or missing batteries, and I KNOW, I just KNOW, that I will LAUGH about this tomorrow!!!

Obama is RUINING the Economy - WSJ

2009-03-06T13:11:00.002-06:00

So, each day to me is PROOF how horrible Obama is for the country with his leftist policies and financial INSANITY!

Our debt currently - not even INCLUDING the other stimulus plan coming AND the Universal Health Care thing he wants to do (another 1.2 trillion) EXCEEDS the WORLD'S GDP!!

Um, Yikes.

According to Wall Street Journal, Obama's Radicalism is a festering culprit:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html

And yet, here in Chicago - Obama's media playground - we have TV broadcaster and newspaper journalists, and radio talk heads saying, "Wall Street just doesn't seem to be responding to Obama's policies."

UM - try that he is single handedly DESTROYING it. Anytime anyone from Washington speaks, the Stock Market plummets.

HAD TO VENT SOMEWHERE!!!!!

THE BACHELOR - FOR ONCE DARN GOOD TV

2009-03-03T19:05:00.005-06:00

So, I have not watched "The Bachelor" since my Wyview Days at BYU. But somehow last night's Finale attracted my attention. Maybe its because the guy had this really cute little boy. Maybe its because the girls didn't seem like total ditzes. Maybe I needed a good Romantic Fix. Whatever it was, I was compelled to watch ALL THREE HOURS, to Brian's Dismay.

So I was TOTALLY FLABBERGASTED that after the cutest rose ceremony, where I convinced and rooting for Melissa and very satisfied with the result, I was equally stunned to see the taped Break up. I don't think the guy is a flake. I can respect the fact that the real world brought them to see sides of each other that were not infused in the circumstances of the taping of the show. I have to respect the guy for not just letting it slowly drift, or leading her on, or whatever.

BUT - totally brutal to do this in front of everyone, allthought it made for some DARN GOOD TV, I have to say. It doesn't get too much better than that.

Equally as interesting to me was the previously rejected girl, brought back on to infuse their previously nixed relationship with life, Molly's reaction. I had to laugh when this guy was pouring his heart out to her. She kept looking to Chris Harrison, the host, to see if this was some kind of joke, or to get some guidance. She didn't believe it, and was so totally stunned. It was so funny to me HOW speechless this girl was. She had this look of shock on her face and just kind of giggled nervously when asked a question, without actually saying anything. It was FABULOUS!!!

I am going to book club tonite to discuss "PAVILLION OF WOMEN" by Pearl Buck. But I know I will be DYING to know what happens on Part 2. DARN OUR LACK OF DVR OR TIVO!!!

This is SO Awesome!

2009-02-21T23:22:00.005-06:00

Brooke has been VERY concerned about her BIG BIRTHDAY #6 this year.
It is a unicorn and pony theme, of course.
She picked out her perfect pony idea from off the internet – which we duplicated – and it was quite involved – we cut out a template, got pink cake spray to spray over the template and the decorate over it.

Some recent conversations about this process

“Mom that paper your drawing on has two lines. (I was eyeballing an enlargement of a coloring book picture and had to do it in two steps)

" It just doesn’t look very good. "

ME: “We are just going to spray the part we cut out, no one will see it. I am putting this piece of paper over the cake to spray (as I show her).

Brooke says dubiously, “I don’t think anyone will want to eat paper, “

Me, “No one will eat paper, we spray where the hole is.”

Brooke: Do you stay in the lines when you color?”

“Yes”

“Well, Mandy and Evie’s mom doesn’t.”

As I am cutting the template out, “Are you a good cutter?”

Me, “I would hope so, I have had 31 years to get it right.”

“I am too,”

(As I am taping parts of the template that need reinforcing) “Why are you taping that?”

“So this will be sturdy.”

“Sturdy? That wouldn’t be very good.”

Me: “I said STURDY not DIRTY.”

Brooke with a nervous giggle, “Oh, sometimes I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

It was Brooke’s turn for family prayers, “ Thank you that we can make my cake tomorrow”

“Thank you that we can spray the cake pink,”

“Thank you that I can help my mom do the cake tomorrow.”

So as we made and frosted the pony masterpiece today she said at least 9 times like a 13 year old, "This is SO awesome!"

Building a house - pics

2009-02-18T22:46:00.009-06:00

Here it is. I finally got myself organized enough to compile and combine my pictures to post on the progress of our house.

We are finally LETTING ourselves get excited. We were always EXCITED* (with an asterisk) because of the uncertainty of selling our other house, the impact and uncertainty of the bankruptcy of our builder, the craziness of the housing market and economy, living with Brian's parents for 6 months.

So even though most of the time it still seems like some far away idea since we don't get to see it much (70 minutes away) the pictures prove to us that it is actually a reality. I will post some inside ones soon.

You know this economy is tight when...

2009-02-18T18:24:00.003-06:00

When ARIANNA HUFFINGTON buys your "cheapest price" book listed on amazon.

What book did she buy? A book on Godesses of all things.

I went to the post office today and the mail clerk Bob looked at the address and name and said, "Mailing to the rich and famous are we?"

I even checked out her profile on amazon - "just launched."
I guess thats what you have to resort to when your rich and famous on a financial diet.

So who is she exactly, my cute husband asks?

Here is Wikipedia's answer:

Arianna Huffington (born Arianna Stassinopoulos, 15 July 1950) is an American author and syndicated columnist. She is perhaps best known as founder of The Huffington Post.
In 2003 she ran as an independent candidate in the California recall election.

Godess books indeed!!

LAUNCHING OF NEW BLOG

2009-02-13T13:26:00.004-06:00

So I am launching a blog based on being fit, trim, healthy, beautiful, etc - focused on moms. It will be based on the exercises and techniques and tips I teach with supreme emphasis on moms.

I will also address questions I get asked by the women I teach, coach and train.

It will address questions on posture, pelvic floor, nutrition, back aches, myths, books, exercises specific for moms. We have to take care of ourselves so we have the strength to keep giving to others.

The blog address is listed on my blog and called

BEAUTIFUL AFTER THE BELLY

http://www.beautifulafterthebelly.blogspot.com/

My sister has encouraged me to do this for awhile because I eat breathe and drink this stuff, as well as teach and train 4 times a week. I am a certified Personal Trainer, certified Maternal Fitness trainer, and am A.M.A. accredited in Nutrition.

So it is my passion and I will love to explore all sorts of topics and discussions.

I would love for you to follow along and post your comments along the way!
(Lets hope it goes better than my one-post "Lost" blog, which no one as far as I know ever visited.)

Babies Battle Bumblingly over Box

2009-02-12T22:51:00.003-06:00

Kylie and her cousin Kaiya (Tami and Kevin's daughter) are destined to be great friends. But whose to say great friends can't have a bit of competition now and then.....

WE WON A TRIP...BUT....

2009-02-11T21:06:00.002-06:00

What a time to win a free trip through Funjet Vacations on the radio to Puerto Vallarta Mexico!!

All expense paid, air travel, meals, hotel, etc.....BUT

since we are scrimping and saving for our downpayment, we can't afford the $197 per person taxes and surcharges to go.

So sadness.

We won a trip to Cancun on the same radio station 3 years ago from the same radio station. I am starting to wonder if I am the only one who enters these things. I go online to http://www.wlsam.com/ and enter all their contests. It is the only way we get to go to concerts and vacations and stuff since our budget is tight.

So alas, Puerto Vallarta, another year perhaps!

Presenting Kylie's Top Ten

2009-02-04T22:22:00.005-06:00

Kyli is now 8 1/ 2 months. I FINALLY have done the whole picture editing and flash drive to the laptop thing to get these up.

She has some definite quirks that we find adorable.

Top 10 QUIRKS that we love:

10) She crawls straight for the fireplace and chows down when really sneaky, on the ashes and wood chips. We find her mouth, lips and teeth BLACK frequently when the SAFETY pillows blocking her way are removed.

9) She can babble, but chooses instead to sound like a dog in heat, or an injured defensive raccoon….we can’t decide which is more accurate. It resembles a growling grunting sound, that if it came out of another species, would frighten the living daylights out of any human.

8)Kyli is BELOW the charts on weight, since she has been crawling, so we are on "PLAN 21" – the goal to triple the birthweight (7 lbs) before she turns 1. She has been loving the generous helpings of baby appropriate food we put in front of her as finger food.

7) When she crawls, she goes pretty fast. However, if you tell her to go find “Grandma or Grandpa” she gets a burst and crawls at her baby lightening speed to go find them.

6) Kylie is a full fledged stalker, as her Grandpa calls her. She will follow the person of her choice for up to 30 minutes. She is like a faithful little puppy who wouldn’t dream of being parted from her master.

5) She has other puppy-like traits. She will put a shirt of toy in her mouth, and crawl quickly in the direction of the person she is stalking. Its like she is playing a one sided game of “catch.” We love this about her and think it is crazy and adorable. Oddly enough, her sister Brooke did the same thing.

4) Kylie sounds just like the "AFLAC duck" in the commercials. It sounds like “Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh” but in a quacking tone and timbre. Brian’s mom thinks we would make a fortune if we would get her dressed up cute and submit this into AFLAC as a marketing campaign.

3) Kylie is extremely flirtatious and laugh and smiles and flutters her big long black eyelashes and everyone with whom she wants attention. We are in trouble in about 12 years…

2)Kylie’s favorite toy, oddly, is a set of kids binoculars that fold up into a circle and are bright yellow with a bee on them. There is a long string around them which can be worn as a necklace by the child. She loves to carefully study it and analyze it and then suddenly, without warning, SHOVE it into her mouth with great intensity.

1) Kylie HATES her baths. Its almost the only time we see her cry. And she’s always #1 in our book!!

I'm the Cussedest Woman I Know

2009-01-26T23:22:00.003-06:00

In honor of the book I just read for book club, that I LOVED ("These is My Words" )I had to start out by saying my new favorite quote, because I feel like I am the only parent in Brooke's kindergarten class that doesn't regularly come, as she informs me a couple of times each week.

So I am feeling the guilt everytime she looks at me with those sad eyes and asks "All the other moms come to my kindergarten class, why don't you come?

In my mind I have had good reasons, but really it comes down to I just have to make time for it.

Now that I am released as Primary President (as of this week) I really do feel like I have a little more time to do stuff like that.

And now that Brian's bowling season is over - cut short at the very end with an AMAZING AWESOME 13-1 season, just to come up short for sectionals and not make it to state - Brian will be home sooner than 8:00 each night and ALL DAY every Saturday.

(Although I DID have to peel him off the couch Saturday from his post sucky sectionals blues, as he was in his depths of despair depression, coupled with the fact that we were stuck watching TWELVE kids for our babysitting co-op and watching some horribly happy "How to Be a Ballerina" show. He showed restraint but let out his frustration while burying his head in a pillow and hitting it now and again.)

So, being the CUSSEDEST (isn't that the BEST word?) woman I know, I will have to make a more valiant effort to be present at the IN place to be - Brooke's kindergarten class!

The WORST VACATION EVER?!?!?!

2009-01-03T22:34:00.013-06:00

Well, if you determined the best and worst vacation by how many things go right or wrong, we would be in BIG TROUBLE for this vacation!!!

It started out innocently enough - I left with the kids Sunday Afternoon (to be joined by Brian later) to drive the 3 1/2 hours down to my parents house.

Tyler had a MAJOR and SERIOUS asthma attack the 2nd night there. His immune system was down from being sick, and then he came in contact with lots of DUST and CATS - both of which he is allergic to at my parents house - does not end well. (He has not been treated yet for cats and dust through NAET.) After giving him the albuteral emergency stash for 2 hours straight - burning fever, rapid shallow breathing - at 5 AM I was TOTALLY freaking out. I was told if it was like that to call 911. Finally he improved enough where I was comfortable NOT to have to call them. That DARN CATS - they will never get any love from me!

Tyler's sickness got passed to Brooke, Kylianne, and I. Thoughout the whole house ALL WEEK all you could hear was hacking, barking coughs.

AND my best and only BRA with me - BREAKS! Safety pins are a PAINFULLY sharp replacement.

I had a HORRIBLE eye infection - but STUPID ME - I forgot my back-up glasses. And with a Perscription of -9 (yes, thats right NEGATIVE 9) that is DEBILITATING. I couldn't just not see anything all day, so I kept wearing my contacts - my eye got more and more red, and bloodshot, and weepy so I gave up. By the 3rd day my mom gave me a pair of my dads glasses - they looked really cute I'm sure - but they were just a DROP in the bucket. I could still see nothing. Joking - as an option - I put on my brother's glasses ON TOP of my dads glasses - and it was the perfect perscription. My dad is -5 and my brother is -4.

But then....I had to go everything looking like a mad raving TOTAL lunatic. My dad was doing his annual Christmas vacation cleaning on my teeth and his receptionist walks in and sees me - wearing TWO pairs of glasses, one on top of the other, no makeup because of the eye infection, a RED PUFFY eye, uncoiffed hair (I couldn't really see it to COIF it - I felt like I was seeing life through a fish tank). I could just HEAR her thoughts - " What has HAPPENED to that girl the last year - YIKES?!?!?!?

When we went to go see "Valkerie" I thought to myself that it was awfully cold in the theatre. I wore a winter coat and furry hood the whole movie. I keep the teeth chattering shivering all night - even with EIGHT blankets - until I woke up drenched in sweat and with a NEW PRESENT - a STYE on my eye!!! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS WRONG WITH ME.

So the vision is gone, the well being is gone, and then the VOICE completely disappeared. LARYNGITIS my wintertime friend latched onto me BIGTIME.

No biggy - I just had to go to be at 10 pm New Years.

But then on the way home from my parents (yes we DID forget to say a prayer before we left) Brian noticed something awry. The car was making weird noises. Luckily we were right by an exit - a good 2 3/4 hours into the trip. We made it onto the offramp BARELY before our TIRE BLEW. IT WAS VERY DARK ...and...Well - we had no flashlight so Brian used his cell phone for a light. My cell phone was dead because I refuse to take my cell phone charger our of the charging station at home. Well, he got the jack on the car, and took the tire off, and then....

THE JACK COLLASPED. There was this FREAKY CRUNCHING and LURCHING noise, and then the minivan shifted its weight in an eery way. My first thought was that it crushed Brian. I rushed out of the minivan in the blustery cold night and found Brian throwing out Mormon curse words (FETCH) - PHEW he was not crushed and he was alive. The minivan did fall on his cell phone and CRUSHED it, so we could not call a tow truck or the police. And of course no one stopped.

So Brian ran to a gas station as we sat in a freakishly lopsided car right next to a huge ravine. We said lots of prayers - especially for what seemed like would be an expensive axle repair with no way to get home before Monday.

It seemed like forever before Brian came back. He said we needed to get out of the car right away. We ran with the kids all the way down the off ramp into the city and into a McDonalds gas station. They had refused to let Brian used the phone even after explaining the situation but a GOOD SAMARITAN eating there let him use the phone. The kids cried as we ran in the dark, windy, cold night, but we got there as Brian raced back to the car to meet the tow truck. Brian's dad was also on his way to come get us.

The kids, especially Kylie, were hungry. We bunkered down in a handicap stall while I pumped to get some milk for Kylie, as here crying filled the bathroom. She has been in here carseat for 9 hours straight by that point - and she was NO HAPPY camper.

LUCKILY our prayer for the axle worked - it was fine. Brian and the tower got the donut on the car and Brians dad followed him in the van.

Its a good thing we didn't stay for one more day (LOVE YA MOM AND DAD) because who know what the HECK else would have happened!?!

Welcome 2009!

2009-01-02T13:13:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been an interesting year. We had a great Christmas.

Brian and I did our "12 days of Christmas" for each other again. We just gave each other random stocking stuffer type of things. Brian got me the CD of Twilight which I LOVE. I got him the "Perfect Push-Up" things. I love them. Brian thinks we need to revamp the format for next year and have the items in a stocking and the other person can pick which one. Whereas now we just give each other whatever we want anytime during the day.

We went to our annual "Do it Yourself Messiah" at the Civic Opera House in Chicago. Its a volunteer orchestra and paid conductor, concertmaster, and soloists. It is so fun. Everyone sits in sections when they come in - Sop, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. I sat in the Sop/alto section and just happened to be in an area with no other sops which made things more challenging. We went with my sister Tami and her husband Kevin.

We are vacationing here at my parents house where somehow everyone in the family is suddenly sick. Its the worst to be SICK during vacation. After taking IBProfen I have been taking advantage of watching the "Wasted Spaces" marathon on DIY Network while Brian has been reading "New Moon." He was not looking forward, in his words, of reading about how much Bella misses Edward so when he saw those BLANK PAGES he was relieved.

We did our annual gingerbread houses last night with my parents, my brother Brent, and our kids. At Brooke's request we made a HORSE STABLE out of graham crackers and candy. At Tyler's request, Brian and he made a train and tracks out of graham crackers and candy. My dad got ambitious and did the Saint Louis Arch with wire, foil, graham crackers and candy.

We all as a family decided NOT to go bowling here in the small-town bowling alley, which Brian claims is the worst lanes he has ever seen. There was also bottles and cans of beer in every nook, cranny and counterspace, and a fresh crew of motorcycle Harley Davidson Posse looking to shake things up. So as much as we loved that atmosphere, we decided to leave and went to the theatre and saw Valkerie. Very interesting story.

Welcome in 2009!

OUR BUILDER GOES BANKRUPT

2008-12-04T15:28:00.003-06:00

So, our house got this far and we get a fun call from our builders saying that they got word that morning they are going under.

They wanted to let us know before we heard it on the news and read it in the paper.

Kimball Hill Homes is pretty big in Chicago with Communites all over the burbs.

They assured us that they will still build our home since they ground has broken. Any contracts with UNBROKEN ground will not get a house. They are delivering our home 5 months pretty much from today - so we made their 6 month delivery projection.

However, there are still question marks - they have like 11 disclaimers - in the event that they can't get time from their creditors, their builders don't walk out early, their staff stays in tact, they prices negotiated on building materials, and the manufacturing companies they have contracts with don't fall through...then it will get done.

So - everything we do seems like one big leap of faith after another. Will we sell our house in this HORRIFIC housing marker? (we got REALLY lucky) Will we have enough for a downpayment ?(by the skin of our teeth we think) Will the house get done as projected? It looks like now - its a yes - keep your fingers crossed for us!

So long term - we will have LOTS of empty lots near our house, including right next door and across the street.

Kimball Hill Homes is waiting for someone to buy them out, or to buy their assets. I guess we will hold on to our seats for this roller coaster ride which is our lives! The trick is, as P. Hinckley would say, to enjoy the ride.

6 months ALREADY!!!!!

2008-11-25T12:22:00.002-06:00

Kylianne Angel, very properly named, just turned 6 MONTHS. It feels like it should be 6 WEEKS, though. It has gone, of course, too fast already.

She is the only of our children that looks like one of her parents, in my opinion. She is the spitting image of Brian's baby pics.

She has BEAUTIFUL eyes and LONG LUSCIOUS eyelashes. (I am always glad when girls can inhereit an eyelash advantage).

She sleeps from 9:30 P.M. to 7 A.M. at night. I take it for granted sometimes, but I am LOVING this!

She is extremely good natured with all the pokings, prodings, teasings, hoverings, emotional smotherings she gets from her two other siblings. She takes it in stride and pretty much basks in the attention.

She really shows impatience if we take too long to feed her the oatmeal, greenbeans, rice, or milk. She squeals as if to say, "CHOP CHOP and get that spoon in my MOUTH!"

She is not sitting, doesn't seem interested. She does crawl. She is not superfast, but she can get across the room in about 7 minutes. Less if there is something dangerously intriguing lurking a few feet away.

We managed to break her of her finger-sucking habit, which I was worried about. We switched her over to a pacifier, which is more familiar territory for me.

She still nurses, but I pump for 5/6 of her feeding and give it to her with a bottle. Its MUCH fast for both of us, AND she likes to look around. I would much rather her look around with a BOTTLE than totally EXPOSE me in front of people!

She laughs and coos at everything we say or do.

She is extremely ticklish and loves to be tickled and lifted in the air. I do upward push ups with her for strength training. She loves it, and seeing her face is MUCH more rewarding than looking at the floor.

Tyler calls her "COWEE", Brooke calls her "Keeli" , I call her "Kyli" normally and "Kylianne" in those rare moments when she is crying, Brian calls her "Kyli" Grandpa calls her "Boo Boo."

WE feel so lucky that such a cute little soul is part of our family!

Potty Training Fiascoes

2008-11-25T12:13:00.002-06:00

Ok, not really FIASCOES per se,
more like...things that make me laugh.

Tyler first of all has been doing awesome - and he SHOULD as I have waited so darn LONG to potty train the kid. He is 3+ - and my motivation is that he has to start preschool soon.

So, after he has some urinating vicotories, he goes to the kitchen to find Grandma Wayne (we are living with Brian's parents currently).

"Look, Grandma, its ORANGE" he ventured as he showed her his anatomy.

He pauses for a minute and adds matter of factly as he looks at his anatomy closer, "Its SMALL!!!"

Grandma and I just chuckled about the cute observations of a "potty-goer in training."

Hopefully he will keep these verbal comparison observations to a very, VERY small elite group of kin (as I share it with the blogosphere.)

FACE BOOK FAUX PAUS!

2008-11-13T11:19:00.004-06:00

OK - so I consider myself fairly computer savvy - so how could this happen???? First of all, upon joining face book, I accidentally invited my whole address book like 4 times.

But that is not the embarrassing part…

Included in my contacts were:

Harrison Powley - my BYU 304 semi-crusty Music History teacher (probably in his mid 60s). - That probably looks REALLY bad…. (not to mention I graduated 6 years ago!)

A really creepy guy named Vic who was one of my business contacts 4 years ago. I REALLY don’t want to give any impression of RECONNECTING - YIKES!

The T.A. from my music history class from BYU- I probably have only talked with her in person about 3 times...about assignments no less. She must think I am REALLY desperate for friends!! HELLLOOOO!!!

Good Things Utah (the TV show about 1400 miles from me)

Somebody I met on a Baby Center Bulletin about 6 years ago - somehow she ended up on my contact list and I never deleted her. I probably exchanged online comments with her 3 times about diapers or something. She must ALSO think I am very hard pressed for FRIENDS! (because I am PRETTY DARN sure I made a such a big impression on her that she put me in HER contact list!)

The former Primary Chorister from my parents ward in Jacksonville, IL that no longer lives there. I probably have only talked with her about 2 times. I really have NO idea why she is on my CONTACT list…but she is probably confused as to why I invited her to face book… maybe she'll give me a highly anticipated PITY reply.

My current MORTAGE LENDER named Carol is on my CONTACT list and was invited to be friends with me 4 times on fact book. WHOOPS! I mean, she is nice and all….but I didn’t want to send her a FACEBOOK invite! Can you see how DESPERATE this might seem if you didn’t know??????

The REALTOR that we had for 4 weeks and CANCELLED our contract with because she wasn’t getting the job done got no less than FOUR INVITATIONS from me to be a friend on face book.

Some girl named Jessica that is a RECEPTIONIST at a Storage Unit Facility that we decided NOT to go with ALSO got FOUR INVITATIONS to be friends with me on my face book page - I mean REALLY!!!!

And LAST but not least, the JEWLER that we bought our wedding ring from in PROVO named Renee (male) also received the FOUR HIGHLY SOUGHT AFTER INVITATIONS from me to be a friend on face book.

If ANY of these people said YES - I think I will just DIE OF HUMILIATION!!!!!

FROM THE MOUTH OF MY BABES

2008-11-12T13:01:00.001-06:00

Tyler: Mom, I’m a smart guy. (couldn’t say it any better myself.)
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Tyler: Every day, coming out of his nap, he opens the door, hold our both hands and puts his legs in a wide stance and proclaims, “I’M AWAKE!!!!!”
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Tyler: Approaches mom while table is being set for dinner and starts crying, “What’s wrong?” says mom. “I’M HUNGRY!” (HELLLLOOOOOO! - this happens almost every single night)
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Tyler: says to mom while his sister is at school., “Where’s my Brookie?”
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Tyler: (the following happens every night) Hearing Kylianne cry at night, I come to check on her and hear Tyler tell me, “Mom, Kyli want the TOYS!” I look in the crib at the CRYING Kylianne, and see FOUR (sometimes more) different animals on her chest.
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Tyler: Today as Kyli woke from her nap I came in to find Tyler’s very special blanket that he puts over his face at night (weird I know) alarmingly on top of Kyli’s face during her nap. Tyler had heard her crying and gave her his most prized possession in just the way HE likes it. So while it was an adorable gesture, it was also not a very safe gesture. Note to self: Handle this one carefully.

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Brooke: (referencing her teacher) “Mrs Worman is SO BEAUTIFUL?

“What makes you say that?”

Thinks for a minute, and says matter of factly, “Mmm, because she has nice clothes.”

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Brooke: Commenting while the school bus is pulling away and a little girl is waving goodbye at her, Brooke says happily, “ I sat by Grace today. She is my BEST FRIEND.”

Knowing she has a cousin in the same grade on the same bus at the very least I say, “How many best friends do you HAVE?"

Matter of Factly Brooke says, “Mmmm, about 20.”

TIRED OF FEELING POOR!!

2008-11-02T16:01:00.003-06:00

VENT:
Sometimes I feel like we are the only ones,

but sometimes I feel SO POOR!!!

We are as middle class as they come, so why is it we have no extra money?

I feel totally strapped for money sometimes, but we are not the what the world would see as needy.

Case and point: After being thrashed by the extremely low price sale of our current house, we have to live with our beloved in laws for 6 months (bless their hearts) to save enough money for a downpayment on the house we are building. We are required to leave our washer and dryer in our current house, which means we will have NADA in our new house. Since every spare cent will go towards downpayment we will not have money to buy a washer and dryer. *SIGH OF STRESS* (Also , we are still college STUDENTS believe it or not. Brian is getting a 2nd Masters right now to work toward education administration).

A new family in our ward have a spare washer and dryer and offered them to anyone in the ward that needs it. It was seriously an answer to a prayer.

However, she tells us, " I was expecting to give it to a needier family."

We were a little stunned - at this point we cant even afford to go on a real date. Our date night was going on a walk last night for 1 1/2 hours. So this comment smarted a little.

What constitutes "needy" anyway? Do we HAVE to live in the ghetto to qualify????? SHEESH!

SAYING GOODBYE!!!

2008-10-29T20:46:00.008-06:00

So – the deal is done. Our house is sold. It did not happen the way we expected…at all.

If someone had told me during the first 4 weeks our house was on the market without any showings that we would have 11 showings in 1 week, I would have thought it IMPOSSIBLE!

We thought me met the buyers for our house at park – the couple we called “the miracle couple.” I still think they are, but not because they are the ones that bought our house.

We were offered 7K below our asking price by a (totally different)“dream couple” according to our realtor. They are Iraq war vets (we found out later) and had their financing all ready and wanted an immediate move in date because their last deal fell through on the sellor’s fault. Which means of course, there was no contingency. We did not want them to by the house we wanted our miracle couple to by the house.

So we played hardball and informed our realtor “NOPE, we are not taking anything less than full asking price. It is what it is – we just can’t, financially.”

Our realtor laughs nervously and approaches the reply with, “ I REALLY don’t think that’s your best strategy.”

Since we didn’t care if they bought it or not, our replay again was, “It is what it is.”

Little did we know he would call back in no less than 20 minutes to say they accepted the bid…IF we cleaned the gutters, left the washer and dryer, trimmed a gigantic tree limb, and fixed a portion of the roof professionally.

WHATEVER!! Well, we did concede on the first two, but again, we didn’t care if they bought our house because we really wanted that other couple to buy the house. We said absolutely not on the other two. We were actually trying to unhinge them to back off. Well, again in 20 minutes they accepted the offer.

Well, we had this perfectly good offer, albeit the VERY HIGH realtor’s commission, or we had this cuter than cute couple that we found at the park who were waiting to hear if she got a job to make their decision final, even though their financing was totally in order without it. They wanted to cover their bases.

So what else could we do? We gave the “park miracle couple” until 10 AM the next morning to tell us one way or the other. They sent a cute email saying they couldn’t decide that quickly and wished us the best of luck. Here is part of the miracle - If it had not been for them, we would NEVER have had the nerve to ask for full price, or to negotiate NOT doing a couple of pricey things to the house.

So that is that – we move out of here QUICK. November 8^th – for a closing date of November 15^th. The house we are building hasn’t even broken ground yet. But that is JUST fine because we will be essentially broke after selling this cute house of ours (because of the horrible housing market.) Brian’s parents have graciously offered to let us live there and save some money.

Still I see the miracle in it all – In a buyers market we sold the house in 1 ½ months – and out of the house 2 weeks later. That is 2 months exactly from the date we bought our “house to be built.” AND we got full asking price…before the end of October – no contingency. This was exactly my prayer!!! I am SOOOOO grateful I must say!

TOP 10 realities about selling a house with 3 small kids

2008-10-22T21:14:00.003-06:00

You learn quickly how far back you have to stuff things under the couch for them not to be seen (in our house – we keep diapers and wipes under the couch for convenience)
You learn that with 3 kids you must literally RUN while cleaning the house to get everything done in time – running shoes and exercise outfit a MUST!
You browse the Weekly Mortgage Analysis like the Weekly Target Ads
You stop making regular dinners because people always want to see the house during dinnertime. Snacks in the car can suffice if they have to.
When the kids get home from school, you put their backpack right in the minivan, along with all the other things that don’t exactly have a PLACE for.
If you run out of time and realize that the kids bedding is soiled, you spray a bunch of febreeze, grit your teeth, make the bed as is, and vow to change it as soon as you get home.
Sweeping outside actually becomes a regular chore
If someone makes an appointment and doesn’t show, after all that effort, you begin thinking of very colorful names to call those people.
After constantly removing Shampoo and soap from sight in the bathroom for showings, you find yourself bathing frequently with soap and shampoo stashed away in a far off closet – and you grit your teeth and bathe soapless and shampooless….or you have with a very wet floor..
If you run out of time to clean and the prospective buyers are on there way, you find that hampers and washers and dryers can hide just about anything.

8

2008-10-20T14:03:00.001-06:00

8 TV Shows I love to watch:
Well, these are shows I WATCH, not that I really LOVE all of them. I put them in order of what's on right now. I got through Thursday, I think.

Dancing with the Stars
The Office
Heroes
Desperate Housewives (I know, I got hooked)
Extreme Home Makeover
Brothers and Sisters
SNL (only now that they are doing political satire do I think it worthy of being watched. It wasn’t funny before)
I will put one I stopped watching – Oprah. It wasn’t doing it for me anymore.

8 Favorite Restaurants:

Any Brazillian Grill (if we happen to have hundreds of dollars to burn)
Cafe Rio (sniff . . . alas, only on trips to Utah)
Red Lobster – Can we say COCONUT SHRIMP?!?
Texas Roadhouse – the BEST ribs – YUM!
The Melting Pot – REALLY expensive – but 3 straight hours of good eating!
Cheesecake Factory (man, salads there are good times)
This really good Mexican place in Saint George Utah right up on the side of the mini-mountain. Hermitas? Man that place is good!
Emerals restaurant – I would love to go when I am not full.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
(not very exciting since it was Sunday, but hey – this is what went down)

Cleaned the house like a maniac after church to get ready for two showings
Went to Brian’s brother’s house and family with parents to spend the day – keep the kids away from the house while we had the showings.
I showed the miracle family (see previous post) the house at 5 – was so nervous I was shaking.
We – at my bro in laws - did the Sunday Crossword Puzzle “Dan in Real Life” Style (almost)
Practiced the Primary Program with the Primary Kids
Took a disappointingly cold bath
Watched my Sunday shows while I read the paper
Ate some really good white chili soup that my sister in law made

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

The Day AFTER the Ward Halloween Party the Primary is in charge of.
Getting a house contract signed with the miracle family
The digging of the foundation of our new house
Thanksgiving
Twilight the movie to come out
Getting negotiations with Julie Tupler finished to an agreement we are happy with.
Our cruise to the Bahamas in March or April (going to those time share things DO pay off!)
Saving some money as we live with my in-laws.

8 Things On My WishList:

A really good Camera
Hardwood floors
Some good regular shoes to wear this winter
Some Chocolate fudge protein bars and Omega 3’s
Getting rest of my allergies treated with NAET – I have to wait til next calendar year with insurance
A big container of Cashews – HEAVEN!
Some REALLY good chocolate
Finished Basement

8 People I'm tagging:

TOO PERSONAL? WHO CARES?!?!?

2008-10-17T18:45:00.003-06:00

READ AT YOUR OWN RISK:

So some people may think this is too personal to share on a blog. Well, if you can’t put what you want to share on a blog, what freedom DO you have?

So I think what happened today was a miracle. Plain and Simple.

Let me say first of all – the housing market SUCKS more than you can ever know unless you have your house up on the market. We have already switched realtor’s after 4 weeks with ZILCH. We have already lowered the price 20K – OUCH!! Now it is lower than we paid – OUCH AGAIN!! So before today – only 1 person had come to look at our house, and the realtor of those people won’t call our realtor for feedback. Like I said – SUCKS!!

The stats are in - for Northern IL you can expect your house to be on the market 10 - 12 months AVERAGE - NO CAN DO!!!!!

So after working my hand and heart to the bones with my calling (can I say that? Oh well) – preparing for the Primary turned Ward Halloween Party, and "doing what we should" type of thing - I felt fully confident that my specific prayer pleading "CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE BY THE END OF THE MONTH" (seemingly impossible) would be filled. I just had no idea how that heck that would happen.

Do we have a contract – NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But here is what happened:

After taking Kyli for shots, voting early, and doing visiting teaching, I went to the park with the kids. A girl was there with her mom, and her son. She was asking about apartments. I asked, “Are you looking to rent or to buy?” One question led to another and soon we exchanged phone numbers and information.

They have no realtor but were just driving around and after NO LUCK the mom suggested, “Why don’t we go to the park. People always know about stuff at the park.” So there they were waiting for divine intervention, and there was I waiting for the same. She ended the conversation by telling me she thought this was Destiny that she met me. It sounds so HOKEY when I type it. But it was a cool moment.

When do you want to move in? “Nov. 1^st” She says. UM – can we say answer to the “CONTRACT BY THE END OF THE MONTH” Prayer? Can we get ANY CLOSER???

She and her husband are living with her parents while they look for a house – can we say “NO CONTINGENCY!!!”

Can we say – SAVING MONEY WITHOUT GOING THROUGH A REALTOR? Let’s put it this way – we were going to have to PAY out of pocket to leave this place – all our equity – SE VA! NO MORE! - that is if we go through a realtor….after having the price butchered.

So they are coming Sunday. Keep fingers crossed. We may walk out of here with a smidgeon left for part of a teensy weensy down payment on the house we’re building (along with money saved by living at our beloved in-laws…again)

SO DO MIRACLES HAPPEN? UM – to ME after no sign of ANY life in the housing market – and to go to GOLDEN CONTACT – YEAH, they do!!!!!! Even amidst economic turnmoil everywhere you look!

The hurricane spews forth TOOTHPASTE!?!

2008-10-16T13:27:00.006-06:00

The Hurricanes continues unabounded. Onlookers ask – will this Category 5 ever decrease in intensity??

TODAY –

Cute little guy this morning starts my day out on one of those notes – DIAPER SUPER SATURATED. I curse myself for not potty training the kid yet. PJs wet, bed wet.

No biggie. After getting cute little boy dressed, he refuses to eat what I make for breakfast and wants his own version. Whatever.

Then I happen to catch a glance of a red marker in his hand. That’s nice – I think to myself. He wanted to color. I ask him what he is drawing on. “NOTHING!” which sounds like “NOSSING!” I see BRIGHT RED MARKER STREAKS all over the CARPET – ALL THE WAY DOWN THE HALLWAY. The cute little blessing gets a time out – a VERY EXTENDED time out as I clean up the marker for about 25 minutes.

I come to get him out of the bathroom where he served his time out – knowing I might find something since I had heard some interesting noises.

TOOTHPASTE EVERYWHERE!!!

“MOMMY, I brushed my teeth!!” Oh little hurricane! Toothpaste is on the toilet, the bathtub ledge, on the floor, all over the toothbrush handle, and all over the bathtub boat. We are out of toilet paper, so I suggest he use a Kleenex and help me clean up the mess.

We go to get more toilet paper, diapers, and wipes – which we are totally out of. As I go to strap in the kids in the mini-van, I smell THE NASTY.

OH NO – CAN WE NEVER get out of the house?!?!

I luckily find a stray diaper in one of the diaper bags – SAVED!!!

I then send him out to the car while I lock up the house. I come to the car and while I am strapping him a quick motion catches the corner of my eye. I see water GUSHING out the back of my seat. I understand while Tyler is telling me we need a “newspaper” – to clean up the water bottle that Tyler had opened and then dropped on my seat. Sorry Kyli - we need to borrow that baby blanket!

As we unload the items we bought, I hear....NOTHING.........Something is TERRIBLY WRONG!!! I go to find Tyler quietly unwrapping my sacred freshly bought dark chocolate Ferrero Rochers!! OUT OF THE KITCHEN!! CASTIGADO!!!

UGH!!!! I AM EXHAUSTED and its only 12:30 P.M.!!!!

We MUST have 3 heads?!?!?!??!

2008-10-07T17:38:00.003-06:00

So as we are in the process of building our house, the question from my mouth that issues forth is

"Are these TV hook ups going to be compatible with ANALOGUE TVs with a DIGITAL CONVERTER?"

I see about 10 pairs of eyes staring blankly at me. TOTAL silence. I thought maybe I sprouted another eye , three heads, or that my skin had turned some shade of neon orange.

"....You mean like...Dish? Yeah that will be compatible" says our realtor.

"No," say I, "I mean like just REGULAR TV. Nothing fancy - just the normal channels."

Again 10 pairs of eyes staring blankly at me. I felt like I was in one of those Super Mario Brothers Warp Zones.

"...Oh, you mean like Comcast!" Says the building manager with a look of relief she had figured out my question.

Brian and I say in unison, "No, we mean like channel 2,5,7,9,and 32. The basic channels."

SILENCE continues. 10 pairs of eyes with the deer in the headlights look. Finally after about 30 seconds of agony - they because they couldn't figure out what I was talking about, and us because we thought it was so ridiculous that no one knows what NO FRILLS TV is and that no one had apparently ever asked them that question that was building in the neighborhood.

Are we the last people on earth to know no HGTV, Food Network, Biography channel, TLC, History Channel and the like? Are we the ONLY people left that do not have cable? How is it that when I talked with the electrical supervisor on the construction crew that even HE did not know the answer. He asked me as well, "You mean like Comcast right?"

HONESTLY!!!!

HURRICANE WAYNE - a one house hurricane

2008-10-02T18:15:00.001-06:00

That’s right – we have storm surges over here on the Wayne shores.

Lets call this Hurricane T. Wayne….no, no….Hurricane Tyler W….

Gusts of destruction everywhere I look.

5:00 PM The hurricane wakes from his nap, gets attention from his progenitors

5:05 PM The hurricane dumps out the box of toys all over the living room

5:06 PM The hurricane takes lids off all the markets and paints his toe nails, fingernails, his arm, the tip of his nose, and my personal favorite – his corduroy covered rear end.

5:07 PM Hurricane needs some gulf stream-like nourishment to enhance his power – tries to pour grapenuts into his bowl, somehow missed totally the bowl and grapenuts scatter quickly all over the kitchen and living room floor, all the kitchen chairs, and of course, the table. Can we say WALKING HAZARD – the grapenuts, that is..

5:10 PM Hurricane finds his way into progenitors quarters – gets the computer mouse, and takes out the batteries. His new favorite game. Puts them in his pocket…and he’s OFF!

5:11 PM Hurricane Wayne spews forth much waste – diaper needs to be changed.

5:14 PM Hurricane Wayne plays car by baby sister and accidentally crashes into her – leaving chaos and crying in his wake. Gets a time out.

5:17 Hurricane Wayne goes into room looking for a book, dumps out the ENTIRE 3 shelf books case full of at least 150 books in pursuit. We will never know if he found what he was looking for, the there is a 3 foot storm surge of books in that area of the room.

5:20 Hurricane Wayne decides he wants to watch a show – takes out a large portion of the kids DVDs and VHS (yes, we STILL use those sometimes). Carries around the one he wants and holds it incorrectly – leaving a nice filmy coating all over the DVD.

5:24 After being told NO for a show, Hurricane T. Wayne goes into the family room and dumps out the cars. Who can keep up with this?

5:25 Mom goes to the computer to check something and DARN IT – where are those batteries for the mouse.

5:26 The enraging pursuit begins to find the batteries and STOP THE INSANITY!!!!

If anyone wants to ever know what we moms do in a day – is it really hard to see how just ONE child can be time consuming. Multiply that by the number of kids you have – you can see why we need a brake. We are on RED ALERT status from the moment our beloved hurricanes make landfall from their peaceful slumber!!

FINALLY – the OFFICE!!!!!

2008-09-24T22:03:00.003-06:00

I am so sick of NOT funny humor lately on certain shows…ahem….

*cough while saying SNL in their horrible skit last week about Scott Palin*

That I am ready for some well WRITTEN humor. And if Dwight Shrewt, among other can’t fix that, I don’t know what can.

My latest giggles to myself when I think of the office – are of that new girl they brought in that thinks that Kevin is mentally handicapped.

I specifically giggle to myself when I think of how Kevin told the new girl that he went to the grocery store and she remarked in a lively way, “You HAVE had a big day, haven’t you?!?!” And of course, he takes this attention to mean that she is VERY interested in him. What a funny dynamic – I love it!!! I can’t wait to see what they will do with that.

BRING IT ON!!!!!!

Is there such a thing as a PERFECT BABY?!?

2008-09-24T21:48:00.002-06:00

Some people ask me “Is she always this good?” “Is she always so quiet?” “Does she always nap this well.”

YES – it is apparently possible to have a PERFECT BABY!!!!!

Literally – I could have a few more if they are like this. The girl sleeps 12 hours a night – TOTALLY uninterrupted.

She falls asleep on her own - be it in the crib, car seat, blanket with toys – even in the midst of her siblings very loud version of love.

And what a sweetheart – she smiles so lovingly – at anything and everything!

NOW the whole “be like a child” thing in the scriptures make sense to me....

ASTHMA GONE?!?!?!?!

2008-09-24T21:47:00.000-06:00

NAET – has it continued to work to eradicate Tyler’s Asthma??????????????

The answer so far is an astounding YES!! I really could not have even imagined it was possible. Tyler was having symptoms every 3 days with 7 different meds – runny nose, water eyes, labored breathing, fever – he was not a happy camper. I was totally a stressed out mom.

So now it is 2 months later and it is NIGHT AND DAY!! Tyler is off ALL of his meds – which is unbelievable. He has no symptoms.

His allergies to wheat, yeast, gluten, eggs, sugars, some compenents of Vitamin C, and corn are all totally gone. He can have those just fine and he no longer shows any allergic reactions.

This has totally changed the way we live. In fact last week we went apple picking at a cute little orchard. Normally I would have had to find a sitter for Tyler because his asthma would normally TOTALLY flare up in that kind of environment. Now his immune system is so much stronger after finding and eliminating just SOME of his allergies – and we had absolutely no problems. Not even a fever – which was usually how it would start.

So on a weird side note, at the dr.s office, I saw a picture of Will Smith autographed “Thanks for putting me back together again” - I was dying of curiosity so I asked if Will Smith was really his patient. After he said yes – I asked if he went for NAET. He said yes and some other issues. I asked what his allergies and issues were. And, of course, he didn’t tell me, DARN IT!

My heart is melted!!

2008-09-22T12:07:00.001-06:00

So Tyler has been so loving and cute lately. He has probably told me about 12 times in the past 24 hours out of the blue while one a walk, on the way home from church, right before his nap, when I was repainting the white trim on the walls, when we were reading a story, while making breakfast, " Mommy, you're my sweetheart.

"My heart is so melted! How do kids just know how to say the sweetest things?

Building A HOUSE....

2008-09-17T17:18:00.010-06:00

So we have been on an emotional roller coaster ride the past week.

We had been feeling for an unknown reason that we needed to move soon. I have not wanted to because I really do love it here. I have lived in this town many different times in my life and its a part of me.

I have family here - my in laws are here - Brian's parents. They are the BEST In Laws imaginable. We walk there about once a week.

My sister Tami and her husband are here - well within a 20 minute drive.

Brian's brother Chris and his wife Kami are a few blocks west inside our subdivision.

We all go to the same ward.

I love "the girls" in the ward. We are all tight.

I love love love my neighbors;

I teach classes here;

The schools are in the top 1% of the nation, the Park District is #1 in the nation....

So why the heck would we move?!?!?!?!? We MUST be crazy!!!!!

The answer is I don't know - but we found an opportunity we couldn't pass up that pushed us to seal the deal, so to speak.

A home builder about an hour west of here in a smaller town - an ex-burb if you will - MAJORLY plummeted their prices in 1 week (60K) because September is the end of their fiscal year. To show they bank and stockholders etc that they were meeting their needed volume they flushed prices to rock bottom so they weren't making money on the sale - but they DID move volume.

Here is the house: When you get there - click on "B" - or just look at the picture I posted.
http://www.kimballhillhomes.com/plandetails.aspx?PageID=10&Region=Chicago/Milwaukee&Division=955&CommunityCode=366-1&PlanCode=1632

Since we purchased the house 4 days ago - they already re raised the prices 20K. It should go back up 3X that amount by October where their new fiscal year begins. That coupled with other events, AND interest rates going down below 5.75% (and our builder buys 2 points to be .5 below that) - we JUST couldn't pass it up.

I sound like I am trying to convince myself. We really LOVE it here now. We have fixed up our house with the help of Brian's dad - who knows everything about everything about fixing up houses - so that I just think its so cute and quaint.(BUT having 3 kids in a small bedroom does help make the decision slightly easier).

AND, there is a catch - we have to sell our house. We have 7 1/2 months - given the market - I think we will need ALL of it. We can even push it to 8 months if we need to. We have luncheons scheduled, ads, and we have the option to put a tenant worst case scenario which our realator will find as part of our contract. What if we sell too early??? Brian's parents have kindly offered for us to live with them - again!

Our ward will be so mad at us - Brian and I are both presidents of two different auxiliaries - and believe me there is a reason for that. Our ward is on the brink of branch-hood.

So while I am SOOOOO excited - I also have MAJOR mixed emotions. I guess part of it is that leap of faith!

The smartest of them all - I especially like the 2nd one:

2008-09-08T22:17:00.005-06:00

Political axioms

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed." -Mark Twain

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself. -Mark Twain

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. - George Bernard Shaw

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -G Gordon Liddy

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't make jokes I just watch the government and report the facts. -Will Rogers

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -P.J. O'Rourke

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -Voltaire (1764)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -Pericles (430 B.C.)

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -Mark Twain (1866 )

Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. -Unknown

The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -Ronald Reagan

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -Mark Twain

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress. -Mark Twain

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson

Kousins Kylianne and Kaiya

2008-09-03T19:34:00.003-06:00

This is my sister Tami's baby and Kylianne - they are 8 weeks apart. Kyli is fascinated with her cousin.

Sun dried tomatoes baby!

2008-09-03T18:53:00.003-06:00

Since I have this abundant garden of mine, I decided it was time to grow up and create something with the extras instead of dumping my glut on all my neighbors and ward members.

So *GASP* I actually canned enchilada sauce, bruschetta, and beans.

Here is my latest with tomatoes - SUN DRIED TOMATOES.

!) set oven at 195 degrees - slice tomatoes in half and salt - put in for 6 1/2 hours

2) take out of oven, pour boiling water over to rehydrate

3) put in a jar (I use a jar garlic has previously been in) and drizzle with olive oil.

YUM!!!!!

First day of school

2008-09-03T14:25:00.003-06:00

e

Well - somehow Brooke is in kindergarten. I am more excited than melancholy about the transition. I can't wait til she gets home to ask her if she got a green card ( good job) that day, look in her little lunch box and see what she ate (they have extended day kindergarten) and to see what activities they did.

She always tells me who got the blue card (call your parents) or a yellow card (stop) or as red card (time out). I think its so fun to relive kindergarten.

I am one of those people who loved the first day of school - the colors, the textures, the smell of new notebooks, seeing who is in the class, the new teachers, the new school clothes, the sound of the school bus, the shavings of pencils, the smell of the school desks - I love it all. I guess this is the start of reliving that for the next who knows how many years!

COMPLETELY BRILLIANT!!

2008-08-30T18:03:00.002-06:00

So in the midst of enjoying immensely the political developments for VP, we had a little incident.

I got up at 7AM to check intrade - I woke up to Romney being at 70% - a good sign. I put in my contacts and checked again - he had plummeted to 5. I looked at Pawlenty - he was also at 5. I thought - who the heck stole the thunder? It was Palin.

I was not excited....at first.

At 9 my sister TAmi and I left to go on the 4 hour drive down to my parents house in Jacksonville, IL with the 5 kids between the two of us.

I was very intrigued with the situation and the more I thought about Sarah Palin the more I REALLY saw the brilliance of the move.

*Timing - right after Obamas big speech/democrat convention = minimal bump for "JOBAMA"
*Gender factor - either way you vote - your vote is still making history
*No place to go - any argument Obama could make against her, would be shooting himself in the foot.
*Son in the military
*Conservative - she is
*Drilling factor - she is FOR it - in her state "Alaska"
*Big family - had a 5th baby a few months ago - incidentally with downs
*Small town feel - parents were school teachers, husband a fisherman
*Babe factor - she was a beauty queen - strong women do not HAVE to be nasty looking
*Religous - she is
*Nickname strength - you can't beat "BARACUDA" as a nickname

So much was I enjoying the speech by VP Palin, with side commentary by Rush Limbaugh, I found that I was seeing towns I never knew existed. One was an Amish town, one was called Niaga - all these places that I never noticed...or was it that I had somehow not merged onto the other freeway?

Well, it was the latter - I had driven 59 miles too far on the wrong freeway...WHOOPS.
I tried to get my GPS to cooperate with me to find a new route. Our 3 1/2 - 4 hour ride turned into a 6 1/2 hour drive with TWO nursing babies - and 3 hungry and thirsty kids.

So as long as they make Romney chief of staff ( a rumor I have heard floating around) or a cabinet member (finance, energy - whatever) then I will be a truly happy political follower.

CHECK IT OUT!!!!

2008-08-28T08:14:00.002-06:00

The market predicts as of right now, a 75% chance of it happening:

www.intrade.com

Lots of action going on. Tomorrow we will find out vp - Romney's stock is WAY WAY WAY up. Crossing my fingers!

borderline IBS at age TWO???

2008-08-26T14:35:00.002-06:00

Well, Tyler’s lab results came back. He was borderline IBD /IBS – irritable bowel disorder/Irritable bowel syndrome….at the age of 2!!!!

How did this happen - well apparently just eating like most kids – lots of cereal, bread, hot dogs, fruit, treats, and some occasional good whole food that I make (we don’t have any sugar in our house – but the kid find lots of ways of getting stuff) was not cutting it for him. Out of the four strains of good bacteria you are supposed to have in your body, TWO of them did not even EXIST in his body. When a good strain is absent from the body, a bad strain takes its place…and the downward spiral perpetuates itself.

So he is on customized probiotics. He does not complain now when we tell him he cannot have something. He understands “that will hurt your tummy” and accepts it.

So far, he has gotten rid of his egg, vitamin C mix (ascorbic acid, citric acid, etc.), yeast, and (hopefully) corn allergies with NAET (www.naet.com). He has more to go.

But here is the absolutely AWESOME part – he has been off ALL of his asthma and allergy meds for 4 weeks WITHOUT ANY SYMPTOMS!! This coming from the kid who would have symptoms every THREE days with the entire GAMUT of all his meds (adult dosage, many of them).

I can’t even express the RELIEF I feel everyday seeing him without any symptoms that were disturbingly common – shortness of breath, wheezing, fever, runny nose, fatigue. And to have those completely disappear is totally amazing…not to mention I have been told he is a TOTALLY different little boy in nursery – much longer attention span, much happier, participates more. This is great news – I feel like he is becoming whole again.

I feel like I have my little Tyler back.

Veep-stakes - looking interesting...

2008-08-25T22:10:00.003-06:00

So I really didn't think I was going to post about the whole political-sphere since McCain became the presumptive Repub nominee.

Well, I was wrong.

Since Obama picked Biden for VP - who is strong the the national security/foreign policy area (where Obama is extremely weak), the feeling is that McCain likewise should pick someone in his abysmally weak area - the ECONOMY.

I did not realize how high Romney's stock is rising. One of the best predictor's of who wins elections, states, etc. has been http://www.intrade.com/.

Intrade is basically the stock market for the politcosphere. They are right about 99% of the time. Right now Romney is trading at $65 a share to be the likely VP, whereas the next likely candidate is Tim Pawlenty at about $25 a share. The trend is similar - Romney's stock keeps on rising.

So while I thought I was going to be forced to vote for someone I did NOT believe in, and in whose politics I cared little for to avoid someone in whose politics I despise, I am blissfully mistaken...or so it seems.

While a McCain/Romney ticket has some weaknesses of its own, it will definitely patch up the bitterness toward McCain from many of the conservatives - ME for one.

Fingers are crossed. For some real action check back on intrade throughout the week and see what happens. These people who trade there get the really good inside info.

Is it worth it????

2008-08-23T14:55:00.005-06:00

So - I ALWAYS seem to spend more on picture than I intend to. THIS TIME - I think I really went overboard. WE did family pictures and I spent *gulp* $250 WITH the coupons and the specials!!! I am trying to convince myself that this is money well spent.

HERE THEY ARE:

HERE THEY ARE:

:

HOW COULD I LIVE WITHOUT IKEA?!?!?

2008-08-22T07:42:00.007-06:00

I COULDN'T!!!

You can't totally appreciate how UTTERLY and PUTRIDLY UGLY this space was initially - the entrance to our laundry room which leads into our family room.....Or maybe you can and I actually did it justice by these photos.

Try to also imagine a dark ugly dinged up door leading to this space...where the recycle bin falls on y ou everytime you open the door...or something falls on you...like a broom. Yeah - it was straight from your HGTV nightmare!

So we turned our project into a massive work day that lasted seemingly forever. WE got started on one thing and thought, " Well , while we're at it, we might as well do ______" Fill in the blank with any possible house project and you would be right.

My youngest sister Sarah is the one cleaning out the fridge - you rock!

Then the last 3 pictures are where you gasp delightedly at the "AFTER."

(The first picture I must explain - there is now NO DOOR from the kitchen to the laundry room, and it is looking INTO the laundry room which was formerly impossible and impassable as well.)

I SERIOUSLY LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!

Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Yellowstone, Utah, BYU, Wyveiw, Mark and Allisons Wedding, Independance, Adam Ondi Ahman: Pics from the past month!!!

2008-08-14T20:02:00.014-06:00

These pics include: right before trip to Utah (here in Chicago)
Trip to Utah: Yellowstone, Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Mark Allison's Wedding, BYU visiting friends and family, Adam Ohndi Ahman, Independence MO

BYE BYE FOR GOOD!!!!

2008-08-13T20:07:00.003-06:00

So it is TOTALLY gone. Tyler is not allergic to eggs anymore. The Naet (www.naet.com) allergy elimination thing is AWESOME!! Tyler got treated for 3 allergies at the 1^st treatment – because they are all in the same family: Eggs, Down feathers, and Mayonaise. Eggs really ARE in everything too (cookies, breads, crackers, cakes, pastries, noodles, shampoo)

With those items, they tested Tyler for the different antibodies that he had with these substances. One antibody determines an immediate reaction to the allergen, one antibody determines a delayed (1 to 2 hour) reaction, one antibody determines an immediate reaction if too much of that item is ingested, one antibody determines if there are histamine reactions involved, one determines if the allergen makes the body produce too many white blood cells and so on. Depending which antibodies the body creates with the allergen, the body is treated WITH those antibodies. It is so interesting.

So we wondered – why the heck does Tyler have 12 food allergies and 8 or so different environmental/chemical allergies? Well, part of that we found in genetics, but had NO idea.

Brian got tested. He is allergic to many of the same things as Tyler with a few differences:

Yeast,

Vitamin C mix (ascorbic acid, citric acid, etc)

Vinegar

Wheat

Gluten

Sugars

Artifical sugars

Food coloring

Food preservatives

Stomach Acid (his body is rejecting his stomach acid leading to digestion issues)

Caffeine (not the same as Tyler)

Chocolate(not the same as Tyler

Milk and Dairy (not the same as Tyler)

(...and Tyler has a few others Brian doesn’t have)

For Brian these things weren’t totally obvious. He would notice digestion issues after eating many things. But because most of what he was eating was something he has an allergic response too, it just became a way of life. The abnormal was normal for him. He just dealt with feeling not the greatest, feeling fatigued, upset stomach, other digestive (ahem) items.

So we are all happy to have options to get the boys taken care of. We are also happy our insurance pays for this (well, 10 visits per year)

AND It IS a commitment –avoiding that item for 25 hours, massaging the acupressure points (there are 8 in this case) for about 1 hour every night following the treatment. This may inconvenience many people not to do it, or to have to avoid that substance for the avoidance period. But for us it is a small sacrifice to pay for the boys to feel normal. Tyler for his asthma and allergies (no more DAILY nebulizer treatments and adult meds(!), and Brian for his many digestive issues. A big thanks to my cousins for telling me about this!! Thanks Angelle and Ruston!

BRIAN - YOU DID IT!!!

2008-08-13T18:33:00.003-06:00

So Brian graduates in 1 week from Governor’s State University with his Masters Degree in Education Administration (with a 3.97 I might add). I am SO proud of him. He is amazingly adept at keeping his life in balance and not stressed. He has a lot on his plate. He did his Master’s in 2 years while coaching, teaching full time, working a 2^nd job, AND now being Elder’s Quorum President (and of course the best dad and husband of all time!)

So what’s next? Brian starts a SECOND Master’s program in a couple of weeks – this time in Curriculum. This will max him out on the pay scale. THEN his plan is to do administration (like Principal, Asst Principal or Dean) in a couple of years. He is qualified now, but wants to wait until this 2^nd masters. He will be amazing at whichever route he decides to do. The students all LOVE him and the other teachers and administration all respect him so much - he is so level-headed and sincere.

I am SO proud of you Brian!!!!!!

INUNDATED AND INFATUATED WITH TWILIGHT!!

2008-08-08T21:50:00.003-06:00

SO I was given the book "Twilight" for my birthday by my sister in law Kami. Apparently I am the very LAST person to jump on the bandwagon of fans. I looked at the book and said questioningly, "It's a VAMPIRE book????"

It sort of sounded like the last thing on earth, well not totally since I did read Dracula as a kid - that I would pick out for myself to read.

But hello- I have read the first 3 books in like 10 days. Perfect timing since I can now read the 4th one. Apparently Stephanie Meyer came to Chicago on Tuesday to the appearance/concert/question and answer/book signing and Kami and another girl in my ward went and totally loved it. Kami even made these cute Mullen baseball shirts - LOVED THEM.

But essentially yes, I am spending every second of free time, and even not so FREE time reading the series. Now I must get my hands on that fourth one...

And the results are............(NAET ) ALLERGY ELIMINATION testing for Tyler

2008-08-03T23:08:00.005-06:00

So watching Tyler get tested yesterday with the NAET allergy testing was FASCINATING!! After removing all items of distraction - no blanket for Tyler, no metal, and no cell phones, Tyler and Brian went towards the back and sat on the special chair. They both laid down.

Brian had to have body contact with Tyler during the testing. So he held onto Tyler's foot. Then he put an ankle band around tyler - like a thick sock material. He has these charged vials of many different allergens. WE got through 76 on the first day - which was REALLY good. He tested Tyler for things we were never have thought of - like cilantro, cinnamon, basil, cashews, pine nuts, etc.

When an allergen was placed against Tyler's skin (with Brian maintaining body contact) Brian had no strength when the doctor pulled his arm from being above his head to all the way down by his side. It was startling. Brian said it was the strangest feeling that he would have no resistance with certain allergens against Tyler's body. To make sure, he would take out the allergen and retest Brian (still holding on to Tyler) and he would have all the strength in the world against the doctor bringing his arm down. He would REput the allergen against Tyler's skin (with Brian maintaining contact with Tyler) and AGAIN, no strength in Brian's arm to resist any longer. It was FASCINATING!!

So here is what kills me - Several months ago went to a typical allergist specialist. Aside from testing the environmental things, he tested Tyler on only 2 foods - milk and peanuts - because he said they were the most common. That allergist specialist found that Tyler had no allergies to these. SO DID THIS DOCTOR - he found also that Tyler had no allergies to any of the dairy or peanuts...........

BUT HE FOUND 11 OTHER FOODS TYLER WAS ALLERGIC TO!!!!!!!!!!

(said sarcastically) Good thing we went to that "allergist specialist." (who said our only hope was medicating the poor kid for most of his peak growing and formative years).

In terms of what he IS allergic to, here is what we found:

*Eggs
*Wheat
*Gluten
*Vinegar
*Vitamin C
*Sugars (even sugars found in fruit)
*Food preservatives
*Food coloring
*Corn
*Yeast
*Artificial Sweetners
*Shellfish

AND WE ARE NOT EVEN DONE TESTING FOODS YET!!! AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND CHEMICAL allergy testing!!!!

Everyone has asked us - what can he EAT?? Chicken, fish, meat, vegetables, nuts, some dairy (still limited), rice, quinoa, spelt, soy, herbs and spices.

I noticed the circles started going away from under his eyes, until he took the sacrament bread today. Then they came back very fast. It took about 6 hours for the circles to go away from under his eyes after that. I wondered to myself - if THAT is all it took for his body to have a reaction - and basically his whole diet WAS all of his allergies - no WONDER he had several onsets of his asthma!! No wonder I saw his nose running more than it should. No wonder I saw him get tired often. No wonder I would see whininess when he wasn't tired or hungry and the situation shouldn't have merited it. The puzzle pieces are starting to fall into place.

So today, we alerted the nursery that Tyler is allergic to every snack in there. We bring our own for. For our babysitting co-op, we again bring his own snacks and let everyone know. We called all of our family members and let them know. WE have covered our bases.

We will keep posting on our experience with this. I am looking forward to the results. He can get treated for 1 allergen per week - and after the avoidance period of 24 to 48 hours the allergy is eliminated (and it IS covered by insurance - which is awesome). We are fastening our seatbelts for this interesting ride!