HOW COULD I LIVE WITHOUT IKEA?!?!?

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!!!

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!!!!

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!!!

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!!

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

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!

ELIMINATING TYLERS ASTHMA & ALLERGIES

So I have not quite ever felt right about medicating Tyler as much as we do for allergies and asthma. Every day we are pumping him full of medications – steroids with a nebulizer, albuterol when he has symptoms, singulair everyday, occasionally a strong steroid and zyrtec. Our pediatrician even told us that these WILL stunt his growth, but so will not breathing well - a seemingly double edged sword....

YIKES!!!!!

So my cousins were telling me about an actual treatment to ELIMATE allergies and I was very curious. Its call NAET – namburdripads allergy elimination technique.

Apparantly what they do is find out EVERYTHING a person is allergic to, not with scratch tests or other inconclusive methods, but by testing the body on anywhere from 40 to 180 different substances and finding out what substance is adversely affecting what organ of the body. Once they find that out, then they have each subsequent visit be about eliminating just ONE of the allergies. So if Tyler is allergic to cats, then they will do a treatment for cats on one visit, and then there is an avoidance period of 25 to 48 hours and the body will not have the allergy to that substance anymore.

The Dr. my cousins went to had severe milk and peanut allegies so severe she went to the hospital several times by even tiny amounts. She found out about this and was treated and now she can have both milk products And peanuts without any adverse reactions. It totally changed the way she lived – no longer in fear of eating everything. So she decided to do this herself and charged minimal amounts because its she feels it is so important.

So..We went to a doctor certified in all the advanced levels of this technique yesterday and he did a 2 hour rundown on Tyler to see what he eats, and all sorts of questions about poo and fun things. He looked at Tyler’s eyes and saw dark circles and said – These dark circles tell me right now that he has food allergies. He had been tested by an allergist, but only on a handful of things – and I have been wondering about that…I have a hunch there are more things than we realize. The Doctor also looked at his tongue, his eyes, felt his hands for temperature, looked for easy bruising, and looked at his skin.

He asked about what he eats. Tyler is a crazy cereal and sweets fanatic. He eats other things too, but he loooooovvvvvees his cereal and cookies, cheese, butter, and bread. No pop, no juice, no candy, much, and he does eat fruit and most things I make, BUT….

The doctor told me point blank that he can see that Tyler has a lot of yeast in his intestines and stomach. The yeast feeds off of sugar and if you have all this sugar in your diet it can cause your immune system to be compromised, especially in leau of the other things going on. So Tyler has to be off ALL Sugar, White flour, Dairy – milk, cheese, butter, condiments during the treatment period. Its going to be difficult, especially during family outings or other things. But the treatments won’t be effective until we get his immune system on track. We also have to do a poo sample to find out what strains of yeast he has in his gut.

So this Saturday we go to do testing on the actual things – he is going to do tests on roughly 80 different things. The dr said we would be lucky to get through 15 per visit. The kids that young get tested through the PARENTS – its pretty cool.

Also, this Doctor has had TONS of success treating AUTISTIC kids, which have lots of candida needs. He also has had great success using NAET with kids with ADD and ADHD.

Its nice to know there is something out there to help these kids without pumping them full of meds every day…and having them need higher and higher doses as the body becomes used to the meds.

The website is www.naet.com to find out who you can go to that does this and to find out about it. I will let you know how it goes!!

The STRANGEST anniversary of them all...

At least for us. It started out innocently enough. We did our usual - go blueberry picking in the morning at Michigan City. We picked a decent 14 lbs of a very sweet variety.

Then things got interesting - we were pulled over by a cop telling Brian he was going 51 in a 35 mph zone. Well apparently it WAS 45 MPH and Brian missed the sign change. We waited in silence as the cop wrote out the ticket in his car. It was only when the cop came BACK to the car with ticket in hand, did Brian try the sob story “ I’m just a high school teacher, I have 3 kids at home. If anything like this goes on my record, I can’t drive the activity bus for the kids I coach.” All of it, is of course, true. So we do HAVE to get it taken off the record. He has to go to court.

So, going to the outlet stores next was a little tainted. Brian and I half heartedly looked around and got some Harry and David’s popcorn as a “thanks for babysitting” for Brian’s mom.

As we ate at Red Lobster, the mood lightened. But heading towards home on the 1 hour drive, Brian got bawled out by a truck driver in this weird Yield area of the freeway under construction. The truck driver literally went off, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON’T YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO GO RIGHT HERE! DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING?!?! And so on…

Yet we pressed on celebrating the day. We went to go to Batman, with Kyli in tow this time. The theatre we ALWAYS go to - kids or no kids – tells us that we CANNOT take any children below the age of 6 to a PG 13 movie.

I said incredulously, “SHE’S…..a …newborn?!?!?” (as if to say, why the HECK would that apply to her, she is JUST going to sleep through the whole thing.)

Brian was adamant that we go to another theatre. WE felt rejected and continued to see a common thread running through the day seeming to say “You have a problem with rules and guidelines and you will PAY.”

So we saw Batman, which I thought was complex and BRILLIANT. Especially Heath Ledger. He was fantastic. I am staking my bet right now that he wins an oscar – let it be known!

So after picking up the kids and getting to bed, the crowning part of my day was nothing less than............... FOOD POISONING. Apparently the pina colada sauce with our coconut shrimp had been in our hot car to long and as I was eating it in the car on the way home I thought – "maybe it HAS been in here too long. NAW !!!!!!"– I shrugged it off.

And then - up EVERYTHING came – lovely. Brian also had food poisoning.

HAPPY 8 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO US!

The REST...of the trip

Soooooo,

The wedding was awesome. My time at the computer has been very sparse, but here is a quick rundown.

Mark’s Wedding was beautiful. We will post some pics. That was my first time in the SLC sealing room. We had a great luncheon at the JS Memorial Building and the reception was in the backyard.

Brian was called on to give a little speech- he talked about how much Mark would text Allison when they first met over their cell phones. We wanted her to send a pic over, but he was embarrassed to ask because “there was no reason.”

They seem like a very well matched couple. Brian thought about texting them every day during the honeymoon…but luckily I talked him out of it!!!!

Brian and I spent our OWN 8 year anniversary doing what we love so much (said in a fecitious tone) DRIVING. We had woken up at Yellowstone and we rushed over with the kids to the 7:30 AM eruption of Old Faithful. As we ran to Old Faithful I yelled over my shoulder at him 12 feet away (carrying Kyli) “Hey Babe, did you remember it was our anniversary?”

“No! I just remembered right now!” He called back.

I could see the tour bus driver looking at him sympathetically like, “You shouldn’t have admitted that! You are IN for it!”

But because of where we were and the circumstances I simply said, “ME TOO!” And the tour bus driver watching us gave me a double take as if to convey, “Wow, the wife always remembers and usually starts out a conversation like THAT when they want to ensnare their spouse!”

I was sorry to disappoint him!

We spent lots of time at friends and family: We LOVED LOVED LOVED seeing Kelsey and Ryan Sorenson, Darcie Boyack, Karen and Trent Halterman, (meeting all their kids) The Barrowes Clan, the Wright Clan, the entire Wayne Clan, the Jolley Clan (Mark’s new inlaws) and my wonderful Granparents on both sides (see Alzheimer's Ward entry).

The whole Wayne Group consisted of Brian and his 5 other siblings, their spouses, the kids and Brian’s parents in a medium sized ranch style house. We had 25 people in the house, so even with the 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms it got to be QUITE crowded. It was both FUN and CHAOTIC.

Some of the siblings stayed up til 1:30 AM each night and chatted and played Guitar Hero. I was so LAME because I had gotten so little sleep the prior nights I just crashed. It was a sacrifice to stay up until 11 or 12 for me. Normally I would have been up their with them chatting – but I just couldn’t do it!

Corin, my sister in law, got all the boy cousins foam swords and they had some crazy sword fights in the small living room.

We all ate together, having gotten the food at Costco and splitting the cost. Most people stood against appliances or walls during mealtimes and ate, while the kids ate at the table.

The bathrooms were constantly occupied. I found I could only get in one without waiting DURING a mealtime.

I have to say, I did take some decorating notes at this place because it had the CUTEST decore!

It was TOTALLY fun even at its craziest. As a kid I would have loved it because all the cousins got to sleep more or less in one big family room with two big sleeper sofas, with kids wedged in between. What a PARTY!

We saw BYU and MAN has it changed since 2004! More buildings, some additions, and just lots of changes. We took a pic of our old Wyview Apt. and it was very déjà vu ish. The entire building we lived in is currently vacant.

On our trip home, which went MUCH faster, we stopped at Independence at the Visitor’s center, Liberty Jail, and Adam Ondi Ahmen (or however your spell it!)

Why is it on the tail end of the trip, all I can think about is everything I have to do waiting for me at home. I started thinking of all the bills I have to pay, all the things that need to be done, hoping my flowers and garden are still alive (Thanks Kami and Tami and Kevin) and I have to remind myself, “JUST ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

AN ALZHEIMER'S SACRAMENT MEETING

SACRAMENT MEETING IN AN ALHEIMERS WARD:

So, this has got to be one of the weirdest parts of our trip:

The meeting “begins” at 10:15. We sit listening to prelude music for 20 minutes as the wheelchairs are brought in one by one. They all reside at the Alzheimers home, and the meeting takes place in a center room in the middle of this Alzheimer’s home. There are about 20 wheelchairs in there and we are the only family. There are two spouses of those in the home. The bishopric gets out of its meeting in a small room in the corner and takes their seats.

After the opening hymn and sacrament hymn the Sacrament begins

There is Obviously no ward business to attend to.

THEN, it seemed like all heck started to break loose...

As the bread is being passed, a lady in a wheelchair 3 seats away is LOUDLY giving a full on DISCOURSE on PRIDE and the SINS OF THE WORLD. People occasionally try to shush her as she continues giving what seemed like a very well prepared talk. She went on and on, talking to her imagionary congregation.

After she closed her talk, I think she thought that she was also in charge of the special musical number in her own little world. She loudly began humming “Come Come Ye Saints” about the time they started passing the water around. The faculty had to actually wheel her away at that point, and it struck me as interesting that in this sacrament meeting, none of the kids present had to be taken out, just the adults!

Another lady was loudly reading the newspaper during the sacrament – rustling the ads about, and loudly turning the pages.

There was immediately a hymn after the Sacrament, and then a short 4 minute talk, and then they CLOSED THE MEETING!!!! We couldn’t believe it – it was all of 20 minutes long!

Then for the closing song, a man in back of us sweetly sang a SOLO during the INTRODUCTION. I suppressed my giggle – and I thought it was very sweet.

After the closing prayer, an Alzheimer’s pateient named Arlene that is in LOVE with my Grandpa (in front of my still mentally sharp Grandma) came over with a vengeance and said to my GRANDMA

“Tell him (Grandpa) he needs a LECTURE! If we are going to get married in the TEMPLE, He needs to go to church MORE OFTEN!!”

Brian said to her, “Well, he is already SPOKEN for.”

Arlene said defensively,” Yeah he’s spoken for - by ME!!!”

Grandma said patiently, “Arlene, we’ve talked about this, I’M the wife.”

Arlene said in a puzzled tone, “You’re the…..Wi-….”

Then she said with decided certainty,” No,no, I like... THIS ONE....(pointing to Grandpa) and YOU like ....(pointing AWAY from Grandpa)…….That….OTHER ONE!”

Grandma said patiently, ‘Ok, lets take you to your room now, Arlene.”

“First,”Arelene declares, “I have to give him a KISS!”

Arlene proceeds to give him a sloppy kiss while my Grandma issued an annoyed “UUUUUHHHHHHHHHHH” to herself.

Brian and I looked at each other like, “THIS IS MADNESS!!!!” no pun intended!

WE ARE IN....

Here we are in Utah! Mark, Brian's youngest brother, is getting married tommorow. So here we are - although a little crazy getting here.

We have driven pretty much 10 - 11 hours each day, starting Friday morning - complete with camping items.

Our first night camping was pretty much a NIGHTMARE for me. I like camping - I am a fan....BUT when the temperature (near Mt. Rushmore) gets down to 35 degrees at night in the middle of July, I have only so much love for the place.

NOT TO MENTION, camping with an 8 week old can be a little tricky. Kylianne was congested and all night I was thinking " Do I need to suction out her nose" or "Is she breathing?" " Do I use the aspirator and have her cry bloody murder and wake up all the campers around us?"

Needless to say, I got about 45 minutes of unsettled sleep. Brian, who is a FANTASTIC sleeper couldn't get any sleep either.

So at 4:30 AM we looked at each other in the pitch black tent and said, "LETS GET OUTTA HERE!!!" So we loaded everything up before anyone else in the campground was up and vanished from that place - Custer State Park - as soon as the tent was down. The kids had no idea what hit them or where they were - they just knew they woke up at the crack of dawn in the car.

Mount Rushmore was great - the entire 5 minutes that we were there.

Yellowstone was by far our favorite. We were GOING to camp there too, but after that horrible night we had, we quickly acted and made hotel reservations at Old Faithful Inn which I LOVED LOVED LOVED. Old Faithful was literally like 40 feet away - it was amazing. And there were like 50 other geysers along pathway that we could walk around outside of the hotel. I LOVED it.

Also - in our room - it was supposed to be the feel of the hotel as it was 100 years ago. So there was no phone, no clock, no TV and no bathroom in our room. There was a lonely sink and two queen beds. But after camping it was luxery beyond compare for me. The lobby was amazing and whimsical - like something you would see at Disney World - larger than life. I was sad to leave - I really think we could have been entertained there for days.

Brian and I BOTH wanted to see a bear, but sadly, we didn't. We did see buffalo, moose, bison, and a goat - VERY close by.

We were a little disconcerted when having a picnic there because as we were cooking eggs bacon and stir fried veggies on a kerosene stove and we read a sign nailed on the picnic bench which read, "EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK. BEARS ARE ATTRACTED TO THE SCENT OF FOOD AND MAY APPROACH YOU." So every 30 seconds as I was cooking I would glance nervously over my shoulder at the surrounding woods and turned the heat up as high as it would go to make everything go a little faster.

The only way we could drive 10 hours a day was the Medela pump I had that has a car adapter. I would pump a bottle and then contort my body so I could feed the bottle to Kylianne in the seat behind us. The only bad part - since I couldn't burp her - I would take her our at the rest areas and she would projectile vomit and drench everything and everyone in site. POOR GIRL!! But she was an ANGEL and never EVER cried in the car...AND she still slept through the night despite her being sick. What a dream baby! AND thank goodness for a laptop to play videos for Brooke and Tyler. And I didn't even MIND that "CARS" is 2 hours long, which I generally hate.

And now we are here in Salt Lake for Mark's wedding.........!

Do you dare to try it?

Every year around this time – late June/early July we go Mulberry Picking.

IT is one of the many pickings we do during the year.

We picked strawberries for .80/lb. We picked as long as we could STAND it for a whopping 40 lbs this year.

We pick mulberries for FREE ...if we can find a tree that hasn’t already been picked

We pick blueberries for $1.50/lb (it WAS .95/lb 2 yrs ago!) We try to pick 50 lbs each year!

We pick apples for $1.25/lb in September. We picked $100 worth of apples last year!

We pick raspberries in the fall as well – they are NO deal to pick. We pick 2 pints only.

To my dismay, right after we picked 4 lbs of hard to reach mulberries, the Homewood Village services came by and CHOPPED ALL BRANCHES within reach. We have been picking them on the outskirts of a VERY near by golf course. SO, we have been forced to find ourselves a new tree(s) to patronize!

Before the trees were BUTCHERED 3 days ago, we had enough to fill a gallon size zip lock freezer bag.

So with Mulberries I made Mulberry Ice Cream for Recipe club.

I found it too sweet so I changed the recipe and added ½ cup LESS sugar. WAY better and I probably could have lowered the sugar even more. And I make it in the Vitamix- so it takes like 2 minutes.

My recipe:

1 cup soy milk

¼ cup or less sugar

2 lbs Mulberries

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup ice cubes optional

blend it on HIGH for 30 seconds and WHALAA!!! (That is at Vitamix speed, NOT Kitchen Aid high speed, if you know what I mean!)

YUM!! And as you can tell, this ice cream is no WIMPY PASTEL color - it has MAJOR teeth staining, clothes staining, face staining qualities. But man is it worth it!

THE SLEEP DEPRIVED GET LUCKY

I have to say I feel REALLY lucky.

I am not a person that does well on low sleep. I mean, I REALLY do not do well. Anyone that sat next to me in a college class (even during 1 or 2 discussions…sadly and to the enragement of my companions…on my mission) can attest that I fall asleep WAY too easily WHEN I AM NOT SUPPOSED to. I am usually NOT blessed to fall asleep as quickly at night.

When Brooke was a newborn, Brian and I were BOTH sleep deprived. Everything was new – we switched off very evenly so we were both pooped at all times.

We were also delusional. Once I woke up at 2 AM and found Brian looking frantically between the wall and our bed where we stashed pillows at night. He was crazily tossing them and looking underneath them like a madman.

I said, “WHAT’S WRONG?”

“I just dropped Brooke down here!!” he said in a panicked voice. He kept frantically searching while he talked.

“You did WHAT?!!?” I asked now panicked myself.

Brian said shakily as he kept searching, “I was holding her and I dropped her!”

I rapidly joined him on the side of the bed and began frantically searching myself, the panic and alarm rising with my now rapid heartbeat.

What a site to see – two very tired 24-year-olds at one side of the bed, lifting up pillows in a FRENETIC fashion and trying to find a 7 lb little baby in a 1 foot gap between the bed and wall.

After about 5 minutes of feelings of SHEER TERROR and PANIC in the Wayne household, we hear a little TINY BABY NOISE coming from the cradle. We both turned around and see Brooke quietly sleeping in her cradle.

We looked at each other blankly.

Then, as the situation VERY SLOWLY registered in our brains, we turned the lights off breathing a sigh of relief and zapped into a deep sleep.

With Brooke, these delusional happenings were, embarassingly, normal. We can laugh about them now, but it got a little much! She started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks, and these episodes disappeared.

With Tyler, I was a very merciful wife, and NEVER woke Brian up. I had come to realize that waking up Brian was actually MUCH harder that just picking up the Tyler and feeding him. I would be trying for about 2 minutes – once in a while – to wake up Brian.

For those who don’t know, he is the world FASTEST and DEEPEST sleeper. Stories about him growing up are LEGENDARY. So I digressed and kept the sleep deprivation to myself.

Tyler started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks and my sanity returned.

With Kylianne, I don’t bother to wake up Brian either. Again, - the effort is PARMOUNT to even TRY to wake up Brian. Who can really exert that much effort at 3 AM successfully????? (although sometimes I make him sweat a little by telling him, he gets to do all the middle of the night feeding the next week, now that he is in Summer Vacation).

Well, cute Kylianne was my record breaker – started sleeping through the night at 4 ½ weeks!!!! PRAISES TO HEAVEN!!! She sleeps about 6/12 to 7 hours starting at 11 PM – and she does it 4 out of 5 nights now. And I must say, it SURE makes me a better mom to have a little more sleep!!!!

Now if I could just get Brooke not to confuse our bedroom with the bathroom at 2:00 AM when she gets up to use the bathroom....

HELP!!! NEED TOOTH FAIRY IDEAS???????

Brooke just lost her first tooth -yeah!
BUT HELP - what to do for the tooth fairy???

Brian and I growing up got like 35 to 50 cents per tooth...and we were happy with that....

But I am wondering should we implement at this time a cool tradition? One of the moms in our ward gives her kids a special silver dollar as part of a collection. Then they have a nice collection of these coins when they are done losing their teeth.

That might be pretty cool.... She can't really tell a penny from a quarter yet as far as receiving money.

PLEASE ADVISE: What other ideas are there? What did you get from the tooth fairy. What you did get - did you like it? Was it a special memory???????? What do you do for your kids?

As the month goes by....