5 blessings for today

1. Jen, who went and got lunch AGAIN today! She is a rockstar.

2. Gummi worms, they have kept me a little bit happier today.

3. Excedrin migrain; COULD NOT have transcribed today without the double dose I took this morning before work.

4. A night off; nowhere to go, nothing to do but be home with my hubby and all the kids. It's been awhile since we've just been HOME.

5. Amber, Ariel, Chandra, Jen and Kristy; thanks for listening to me vent and making me realize there's not a thing wrong with me :D I love you guys!

Have a good weekend, everybody! And remember, it takes two seconds to put someone down, but it's worth the two minutes to build someone up!

Blessings for today

1. My mom and sisters. Thanks for a fabulous girls night! Can't wait to do it again :D I love you guys!

2. My boys. You are such good kids! I love you so much!

3. Excellent medical care. I know, I work for the company, but Intermountain Healthcare is AMAZING, especially IMC and Primary Children's. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking good care of our Kati.

4. Chandra and Bill. You guys aren't just co-workers, you are friends and I appreciate you both so much!

5. Scrapbooks stores. My own guilty pleasure! I went to JoAnn's last night and they were having a great sale (50% off!!!) on DCWV scrap pads (my fav). I bought 3 and I'm completely unapologetic!

Have a good day my friends. I love you!

TEN things for this weekend

I know, I know; I tried to start a new thing and I've totally slacked since Tuesday. So, to make up for it, we'll do 10 blessings for this weekend. We camped, we vegged, we enjoyed. :D

1. The 1/2 of Ten. Thank goodness Gramps was smart enough 28 ( yes 28!) years ago to invest in 5 acres in Holiday Oaks. It's been the best playplace we've ever had.

2. Grams and Gramps, without whom the 1/2 of Ten would be pointless; indeed, without whom I would not be, along with 14 other fabulous people I know.

3. Green bags; I know, I'm turning into a geeky environmentalist, but these bags are GREAT! I use them for everything!

4. My sweet husband, he puts up with so much and just keeps coming back for more! I love you sweetheart!

5. Aunt Niesa; thanks for bringing over my I spy quilt! It turned out fantastic and the kids played with it all weekend long!

6. Dominoes; again cheap entertainment for the masses!

7. My camera; I am a HUGE believer in capturing memories, no matter how strange! Can't wait to see how all my feet pictures turn out after I'm done tweaking them.

8. A DVD player in the van; smartest thing we ever bought! Makes those "long" trips to Nephi bearable!

9. Jake's portable swing; could not have camped without it!

10. My sweet house; it was so great to pull in the driveway and know that we were home :D

Good night my good friends; God bless you all!

A new old thing

Hello friends! Today I felt ambitious and did something I've wanted to do for a while now. I decided it was time to delete my MySpace account. Does this make me a grown-up? Anyways...I never use it, I don't like it, I'm totally addicted to Facebook and I like blogging here better! But, being not quite as tech-tricky-savvy as I'd like to be, I couldn't figure out how to import the MySpace blog into here! Is there a way? Anyway, doesn't matter as I just printed it off and then deleted my account. I read through it and remembered something that I used to do that I'm gonna start doing again. I used to blog about 5 blessings or things I was grateful for about every day or every other day. There were gaps, of course, but reading those old "Blessing Blogs" reminded me that there are lots of little things in my life I'm grateful for every day. And it's not always the big stuff! Sometimes it as simple as comfy shoes, a yummy Slurpee or a great joke. I don't always have the time or inclination to BLOG every day, but I usually have 5 or 10 minutes to jot a quick note. Sooooooo, that's my goal. I'll still blog when I can and want to, but I'm going to try to post a "Blessing Blog" every day.

So for today, I'm grateful for:

1. Amy--who brought me a yummy Slurpee for no reason! It made my whole afternoon.

2. My job-I can never say this too often, but I work with some of the best, nicest, coolest people on this planet and I LOVE MY JOB.

3. Corn on the cob--it's just not summertime without it!

4. T-ball--the best, cheapest entertainment you can ask for.

5. Facebook--I know, some of you are thinking, "blessing? really?" but I adore Facebook. I've been able to reconnect with old friends, keep up with friends and family and turn acquaintances into friends. Never underestimate the positive power of friendship--no matter how far away you are from a friend, being connected through any means can only make things better :D

Good night my friends, sleep well, be safe.

Jake's Blessing Day!

Okay, I know I'm horribly biased, but how cute is that face?!?! We had Jake's blessing today and he was so good all day! He knew it was all about him and he is a little attention hog! All those grandmas and aunts fawning over him?? Forget it! He's 3 months old and already knows how to work the ladies! After church, everybody came over to the house and we had yummy waffles (thanks Mom and Nichole!) and yummy fruit (thanks Grandma Karen!) and ham (thanks Grandma Phyllis!) and everyone got to visit and watch the kids run around and it was so wonderful! My Grandma Ann (Dad's mom) had never been to my house before and so it was nice to show her around and then her, Dad and Marci took the "Memory Lane" tour over past their old houses in Kearns and the little league field where my Dad spent almost all his free time as a young lad. But the most random thing happened in Sacrament! Today our ward was doing a program of music and stories to celebrate our pioneer heritage (which was absolutely wondeful!). They had gathered pioneer stories from people in the ward to share, which I thought was awesome. The very last story told was shared by our friend Brother Steve Bingham and after the meeting ended, Gram asked me to point him out, so I did and she shocked me to my shoes by saying that the story was about one of our relatives! She has a copy of it in her personal history books and Brother Bingham is actually my relative! How and where and why I'm not sure just yet, but how's that for random? But I'm so glad that we chose to bless Jake today so that Grandma Ann was with us, otherwise, I would never have known about this connection in my ward. Isn't it amazing how things work?

It was such a wonderful day! I wish my brother and his fam could've made it, but beyond that, the day was almost perfect! And so ends another busy weekend and begins another busy week.

Have fun and be safe out there my friends! Love to you all!

Let the summer madness begin....

Hello friends! It's Sunday night; July 5th, and I am enjoying the last piece of my 4th of July divinity from the "Country Store." It's been a very eventful week and it's only the beginning.

First, I went back to work on Monday. I was so worried! I knew I would be okay once I got there, but after being away for 9 weeks, it was strange to think about going back. I worried about leaving the baby boys at daycare, especially Hayden. He's already a mommy's boy and being home with my every day for 9 weeks wasn't going to help that! But he did great and now he loves daycare. Jake doesn't really notice a difference, but the ladies at daycare just love him! He's the youngest and they all love to cuddle him and rock him. But the boys did great and once I got to work, I knew it was the right place for me to be. I LOVE MY JOB! It's so wonderful to be back in the land of the grown-ups! I missed everybody so much and I missed working. Things have changed some, but it's going to get better and better. It'll be a busy week at work, but I'm excited for it.

This weekend marked the beginning of what I'll affectionately call "the madness." We went to the carnival in Nephi for 4th of July and it was so fun! Even though it rained and they cancelled the fireworks, we still had a great time hangin' with the Nephi bunch. We got there and my mom asked if Jax could stay with her this week. And I thought, "what a BRILLIANT idea!" Ute Stampede is coming this week and we'll be there Friday night, so it seemed very logical. I think we'll make this a yearly tradition....as long as Grandma and Grandpa are okay with it! Jax LOVES to stay at Grandma's! And then as the boys get older, they can stay too! But after Stampede, we're blessing Jake on July 19th, the next weekend is Pioneer Day and Hayden's birthday. Not sure yet what we're going to do, but I'd like to go camping. I think that might be the only weekend we have to camp. The next weekend is Shane's family reunion, which is August 1st, then the Memphis RedBirds are here to play the Bees and we have tickets for at least one of the games, then it's my work party at Boondocks, Saturday is Salem City days, Saturday night is the Demolition Derby for the Juab county fair and I think that's the end! How crazy is that? Every weekend there's something!

At least I work during the week so that I can rest up........JUST KIDDING BILL!

Good night friends, love to you all!

Kaitlyn Update

An update on Kaitlyn for everyone.

Two weeks ago, Shane took Kati to her monthly visit in Maryland for the drug study she is a part of. She had many tests done and at the end of that first day, the doctors and case workers met with Shane and Kaitlyn to give them the bad news. Since joining the study in February, Kati has had a 40% overall growth of the cancer in her lungs and in her brain. The doctors in charge of the study determined it best to remove Kati from the study given her lack of progress and the fact that we live so far from the hospital back there. They will continue to track her case from the oncologists at Primary Children's, but she won't have to go to Maryland any more.

Kati was understandably upset (we all were) but we all realize that this will be for the best. The day after Kati came home from Maryland she went to an overnight drill team retreat in Midway. I picked her up after the retreat and she said she really didn't feel good. Her coach told me that she hardly slept the night before and she had coughed most of the night. When I got her home, she talked to her mom and had her mom take her to the doctor...where she was diagnosed with H1N1 flu (swine flu). She had to immediatlely be quarantined at her mom's and we had to make a flurry of calls. For a few days she was really very sick and both Shane and I were terrified. Finally, the fevers stopped and she started to feel better around Friday. She came home to our house last night and spent the day with us today.

She feels a lot better (flu-wise) but she's still having a really hard time with her cough. The week before she went to Maryland, the oncologists found a mass in her right lung about the size of a golf ball that is pushing against the lung wall and causes her a lot of pain. That coupled with a bout of swine flu has taken its toll on her, physically and emotionally. She's tired a lot and sleeps a lot when she can. The position of this newest mass makes it difficult to lay down and her cough keeps her awake a lot.

Today she was in good spirits. We had a talk today about taking things slow for a while and she understands that it's going to take a while before she can get back to normal. She's not always patient, but she's willing to try. We took the kids to the park and took pictures just for fun and then went to Shane's parents' for dinner. His brother Kevan was here and he and Shane gave Kati a blessing, which was great. Kaitlyn felt a lot better afterward and then we loaded up and took the girls back to their mom's.

It's been a scary couple of weeks, but things are getting a lot better. Just, keep her in your prayers, won't you? We know that we're going to lose her, and that it will probably happen sooner rather than later, we just want her last days, months to be peaceful and happy.

Thank you all for your good thoughts, prayers, offers of help and the hugs and comforting words.

I love you all.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the fathers in my life.

Shane, I love you with all my heart and am so grateful for every day we have together. You are a good man and a good father and I'm so glad we have each other.

Dad, I love you and I'm so glad I got to see you this weekend! You are my hero and I love watching you with your grandkids. No one could be a better "Poppa" than you!

Bob, I love you and thank you for giving me your son. You are a good man, thank you for letting me into your family.

Ryan and Chad, you are great dads and I love seeing you both with your children and my own.

Grandpa, I love you always. You are the best man I know and I wouldn't be the person I am today without your influence, love and support.

To the other fathers I know, never take this task of fatherhood lightly. You are responsible for raising the next generation and they need their dads. Love them, play with them, teach them.

A quickie...

Hello friends! I know it's been a bit since I've blogged, there's just too much happening right now.....

The boys are good! Jax and Hayden are taking swim lessons and loving it. Hayden's always a little hesitant at first, but by the end he doesn't want to get out! Jax is a little fishy already and becoming really comfortable in the water. Jake is growing and growing! He smiled his first REAL smile! It was for Grandma Julie (of course) on Monday the 8th. I can't get him to smile quite as big yet, but I have gotten some little smiles. As soon as I get good pix I'll post them.

Shannon has been an absolute doll lately! She's been such a big help around the house and with helping to keep an eye on Jax and Hayden. She's been great and it's been so great to have her here this weekend.

With Kaitlyn, there's just too much to go into.....She's sick and getting sicker and there's a lot going on with her right now...keep her in your prayers, won't you?

Anyways, I'll try to blog more frequently and I'll let you all know what happens with Kati.
Love you all.....

Slight mental breakdown....

Hello my friends! So, today was an okay day until about 3:30pm and then there was a slight mental breakdown. It's mostly my fault, but that didn't stop me from calling my husband and yelling at him.

Let me preface by saying, I love my husband, I love my children, but I just don't think I'm cut out to be a stay-at-home mom. It's been wonderful to be home, but I can definitely tell that I am ready to go back to work. This has been my hardest maternity leave and I think there are a lot of factors; first, Hayden is still in diapers and running headlong into his "terrible twos." He's darling and so sweet, but if he's unhappy, he will let you know it. He always wants to do things himself, which generally involves a bigger mess and three times as long to complete a task than it would normally take; he definitely gets a little jealous of Jake and lately I have to watch really close because if I'm holding Jake to feed him or whatever and Hayden wants to sit with me, he will throw things (toys, cell phones, sippy cups) at Jake until I pick him up and hold him too. Jax is bigger, but wants a lot of attention too. He's also 5 going on 20 and thinks he can do whatever he wants, so sometimes we argue. Mostly he's a big help, but just like typical brothers they fight and just like a typical big brother, Jax LOVES to torment Hayden. Lastly, some of you may know, some of you may not but Kaitlyn is getting worse. She's on oxygen at night now and yesterday she had scans done and they've discovered a large mass pushing against the wall of her right lung which is very painful for her and makes it even harder for her to breathe. It's a lot going on and after being home all day, Shane gets home and it just seems like there's even more activity and noise and before I know it, it's midnight and I'm putting Jake down and we're going to bed and morning comes too fast and Shane leaves for work and I'm home by myself again. Luckily for me, Shane realizes that I need a break when he gets home so I usually have at least a half hour to myself that I can lock myself in our room or take a shower or go to the store or whatever. We talked about it a little more tonight and agreed that we need to do better about that so I'm going to find a class of some sort at Robert's to take once a week and then on Saturdays I'm going to take a swim class with Hayden for a few weeks.
Okay, long preface I know; longer than the story!

Story goes like this: Occasionally I'm naughty and leave my keys in the van. Usually just when I know I'm going to be back in the van shortly. Yesterday was one such a day, only I didn't leave again when I thought I would. So Shane ended up taking the van to run an errand last night and he took his keys. When he got home, he naturally locked the van......and by doing so locked my keys in.
I had decided today that after I picked Shannon up from school, I was going to go over to work and visit all my friends and introduce them to Baby Jake. I got all of us ready, put the baby in the carseat, made sure everybody had shoes on and shepherded them towards the door. With Baby in one hand, I started to look around for my keys......and they were no where to be found! Needless to say, I was manic, then realizing what had happened, I called Shane, yelled at him, made him call his mother to go pick up Shannon and then sat in the chair rocking Jake, quietly seething until Shane got home. By then, I had calmed down, we fixed dinner, talked and ate with the kids. Immediately following dinner I went to Lowes to have extra keys made!!

But the lesson learned (other than take your keys out of the car EVERY TIME) was, I am not SuperWoman, I am just a mom and occasionally I need a break and that's okay. The important part is to remember to take the breaks regularly so I don't have these slight mental breakdowns........

Goodnight my friends, and remember: no one is perfect, no one can do it all. Take care of yourself, because if you don't, how can you take care of anyone else??
Love you all!