Happy, Happy

Happy last day of Febuary! Does anyone besides me find 2009 to be moving WAY to fast? We are headed to ward Temple Night. It's the last Saturday of the month. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having a babysitter!

Update #4

So, Jeff now has two job offers. Both are for temp positions. The first is at Wells Fargo and the second at Chase. We are deciding now. Jeff is going into town tomorrow to talk to Chase. He wants to know if taking their temp position would give him the inside track on any of their current permanent positions. Wells doesn't have any permanent positions available at the moment, but they pay more money, so they are still in the running if Chase basically says that their temps get no special considerations. Just trying to keep everyone in the loop!

Update #3

Well, we are over the moon at the moment. Those temp jobs Jeff applied for late this afternoon turn out to be for Wells Fargo. A head hunter called Jeff around 5:00 and they chatted and we found out that the hiring manager for these jobs is Jeff's old boss, Dan who we also know from the singles ward in Las Vegas. The head hunter faxed Jeff's resume into Dan and called him and the bottom line is Jeff now has a job! I don't know exactly when he'll start, but the latest is next Tuesday. We were only out of work for seven hours or so-our record so far by a long shot! We are grateful for everyones thoughts and prayers!

Update #2

Yup, it's official. As of about 9:00 this morning, Jeff is unemployed once again. He gets two weeks severance. That's all for now.

Update

I thought I should let you all know that we expect Jeff to be once again out of work by the end of the week. The bank he is currently working for has decided to shut down their entire mortgage operations. His bosses have already been fired and it is only a matter of time, days at most before the rest of them are let go as well. We have already jumped into the job market. The good news is there is some current contracting positions available that he might be able to be into before his severance is even gone. We are also expecting our tax return, so that will help. Please keep us in your prayers.

mmmmmm.....penicillin

telima,
i'd congratulate you on growing your own penicillin, but seeing how you are allergic to it. Bad luck
love caren

Rubber Duckie you're so fun

Telima,
I have a possible solution to your problem. I only hope it works. Take some Clorox, not full strength but mixed abut half and half with water. After the bath, take the ducks and squeeze out all the water you can and then fill them from a bowl of the Clorox water and then squeeze them out again. Do this two or three times and then rinse them with just plain water a time or two, It will at the least kill any mold. You may have to do it every few baths. If it doesn't work then the only other solution is to throw them out and buy new ones.

My day...huge sigh

Well, I have had a difficult day today. Erica started running a slight temperature on Thursday and I kept her home from school and we had a fairly miserable day...and night. Then this morning she woke up with the entire right side of her jaw swollen to twice it's normal side! We almost immediately called the dentist and managed to get in at 9:40 this morning when they had a cancellation in their schedule. She ended up with getting two teeth pulled. But the dentist was surprised with how well behaved she was and we were thrilled that he didn't have to knock her out at all! But I did lose more then half my day to the endeavor. Add to that the difficult night last night and I am really behind on what I was supposed to get done today. Huge sigh! Oh, well, that's ok, we'll be happier tomorrow.

Telima,

Sorry I have never found anything to help with your situation. I usually end up throwing them away and getting new ones once they reach the icky mold leaking out during the bath time stage. Good luck!

Caren,

Yes, Jeff was included in my little half rant, sort of. He doesn't really read the blog, he just trusts that I will keep him informed of everything that he needs to know about. While he doesn't read. He has stopped trying to steer me towards including glowing crystals and such in the storyline and has listened to me tell him all the various plot twists and he tells me he likes it. So that's about all I am expecting. I can't change who he is, as much as I've spent the last thirteen years trying.

Rubber Duckies

I have a little problem that I thought I would share with all of you, appealing to your wisdom so that maybe one of you will be able to help me. We have several little rubber duckies that my kids love to play with during bathtime. They're the little plastic yellow ones that have the hole in the bottom of them so they squeak when you squish them. That means they can also get water in them if squished underwater, getting water trapped inside. Katy especially loves this, because she loves to watch the water stream out of the little hole when she then squeezes them above water. My problem comes after bathtime is over. I can never get all of the water out of them. I didn't worry too much about it at first, but the other day, as I was bathing my kids, I noticed some yucky greenish stuff floating in the water with them. I watched Katy as she played with the rubber duckie and realized the yucky green stuff was coming from inside the duck. When she squeezed the water out, the green stuff came with it. I think that it was mold. But I can't figure out how to clean the inside of a rubber duckie! And how do you get all the water out so that it dries properly and doesn't mold? I'm so confused. At the moment, they just don't get to play with rubber duckies in the bath. Any suggestions?

jeff was included ......?

Jen ,
so jeff was included in that little chastising that you put on the blog not too long ago, for not giving you feedback on the book.

The book and Jeff

Jeff is not a reader, not by any stretch of the imagination. He has promised to read it when it is finished and as I am currently on the third draft, it's not done yet. He is much more interested in the fact that if I do get it published then I might be able to sell the film rights and he can just watch it in the theater!
His mother is a reader. But I am not asking her to read it either. Her favorite form of the written word is ancient, and I mean ancient, Harlequin romance novels.

about the book

Just out of curiosity. Jen, is Jeff finished reading your book? What does he think?

itsy bitsy, teeny weeny bikini

I remember the first time I saw Samuel in that bikini. It was one of the few times I went to one of his school things; especially when you consider that I was married and had Benjamin by the time he was a senior. It was a hilarious skit though!

the blue and gold dinner

Samuel put our names on the list of people requesting a copy of the video. The bishop's wife had video taped it. I did however let her know that it was not my bikini that Samuel wore but he actually had it long before we married. {the slinky little robe that he wore, now that was mine} I however was the one who jokingly did suggest that Samuel wear his bikini while doing the skit. He then asked if i minded if he wore my little robe or not. He also asked if it wearing that robe would be embarrassing. I said "you are already doing that by wearing the bikini. Besides if you are choosing to embarrass yourself, i plan on taking tons of pictures!"
there's nothing but love here! he, he, he
love caren

School

I remember having all the kids at home...sigh. I remember that I couldn't wait to get Benjamin into school that first year and I only had three at home at a time! But now, looking back, I realize how much simpler my life was back then. Before I had to remember that scouts is every Tuesday, Activity days are every other Wednesday, library books have to be rounded up and returned every Thursday for Heather and Tuesday for Benjamin and Jacob, PE is every other day for Benjamin, Monday and Thursday for Heather and Tuesday and Thursday for Jacob and they have to wear their tennis shoes those days...and on, and on, and on! Life was really so much simpler back then! I will have four kids in full day school next year and one in the preschool, I don't know their exact schedule yet, but we'll figure it all out, eventually.

And one more thing...

(Boy, I'm chatty and irrelevant all of a sudden, aren't I?)

Do you realize that there is a possibility (just a possibility, mind) that I could have THREE children in school next January? And I have none in school this January? Weirdness.

I could enroll Mercy in preschool next fall. Ezra, of course, will be in kindergarten. And come December, Gideon will be getting therapy and services (if he needs them) from the local schools. Which includes preschool.

That, my friends, is truly mind-boggling. Of course, I could choose not to send Gideon to the preschool, I could do Mercy's preschool here at home like I'm (sort of) doing Ezra's right now, and Ezra will only be in kindergarten half-day. So...yeah, it's not the end of my everyone-at-home days. But STILL.

The beginning of summer

Let the record show: February 19, 2009 (44 degrees, feels like spring)--the first time this calendar year I yelled, "SHUT THE DOOR" to the fleeing backs of my children.

Only 12,908 times to go.

This year.

B&G

What, no video? C'mon!

Seriously, it looks hilarious. Sorry I missed it.

Blue and Gold

You don't by any chance have it on video, Samuel? I saw the video on You Tube and it was hillarious! I would love to see your version of it!

I'm sure that the banquet was a success. It looks like it went over well. I have been enjoying my short break from Cub Scouts since Benjamin aged out just over a year ago and Jacob doesn't start until August. Then we will once again be headed to the once a month Pack Meeting that I remember so vividly from before! At least this time we won't have toddlers or infants. Lillian will be nearly four by then and should be able to sit reasonably still for the meetings.

Love ya all!

More pictures

Can you guess which one I am? I'm wearing the flippers.

Blue and Gold Banquet Skit

So the Blue and Gold was tonight and the leaders, along with the Bishop, did a skit. This skit was inspired by the much publisized Synchronized swimming by men on stage. Here are a few pictures to give you the idea of our performance.

Snow

We are sooooooooooooooo not snow people around here! I have never lived anywhere where it has snowed even on an irregular basis, and Jeff, while Wisconsin qualifies in the snow department, prefers the heat, just like me. While we might eventually move somewhere with snow, we are enjoying living in places without. We really don't even go and visit!

Snow can be fun when its not always

I have come to the realization, possibly again, that I love the heat and the warmer climates of Las Vegas and Queen Creek (Phoenix). Yesterday being a school holiday for the boys and I, we decided to go up to Flagstaff and play in the snow. We also saw Kristi Bliss (formerly Pulsiver) as she got us in contact with someone who showed us a great sledding hill and let us borrow some sleds to go down it. The drive is a little over 3 hours each way but the joy we had was well worth it. Adam and I made a little snowman, little as in it was only 3-4 feet tall. Kip kept wanting us to carry him back up the hill and Adam raced us back to the top. All in all we spent a little over an hour there and had a complete blast.

I enjoyed myself being able to drive to a place with snow and enjoy the snow with my family. I realize that I really didn't enjoy the snow when it was a part of where I lived. Maybe because my own boys were too young to enjoy it, I don't know. As it stands, when the time comes, we will most likely be looking for a place where snow comes each winter for job opportunities. I've lived in snow before and I am very willing to do it again if this is where my little family needs to be. Love you all. SKT

Funny!

These are funny videos I was sent by a friend,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK2OakMoW_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLJutYDZH4M&feature=related

Enjoy!

total exhaustion

Telima, I'm so sorry that I haven't responded to your posts earlier. I have no real excuse, I can only plead total exhaustion! It has been a very long week! I have been trying to get all of my spring cleaning done. I've cleaned my closet, headboard, armoir, and linen closets so far and come up with about a dozen bags full of DI stuff. I love it when everything is clean, but it won't last. It never does. Anyway, I am glad that everything seems ok on the pregnancy front, we'll keep you in or prayers.

This weekend is going to be hectic. For those of you who don't know, we have a set of conjoined twins in our stake. They share a heart and liver and are two years old and their parents are having to now explore some painful options since a second heart has not yet been available. They are having a massive fund raiser on Saturday from 7 to 2 and we are involved in a few ways. And then we have an adult only dinner on Saturday night, so the day is pretty much shot to pieces.

We will be hosting two of the cutest nephews on the planet at our house Friday night. We are all looking forward to that!

Well, I still have two loads of laundry to finish off for the day. I've only folded five so far!

Talk to you all later!

Jenafer

Jen, I'm reading your book right now. I'm making comments on it as I go. How would you like it back? Do you want to just send you my copy of it with the comments or do you want me to go over it with you personally (on the phone)? Let me know and I'll do whatever. But don't expect to get it all for another week at least. I'm doing the best I can, but I find I don't have as much time to actually sit and read it as I would like. The good news is, I really like it! =) Love you!

Baby news

I want to start by saying everything is fine. This is just for your information. Some of you got in on this whole emotional roller coaster of the last 24 hours, but for those of you who didn't, here's what happened. About 8:30 last night I felt a rush a fluid that I shouldn't have felt. When I went to the bathroom to check it out, it turned out to be blood. I was concerned, but not too much because I remembered doing this almost exact same thing when I was about 10 weeks pregnant with Katy. It turned out then to just be a tear that needed to heal and everything was fine. I panicked a little more this time when after an hour I had soaked through a pad and was still bleeding. I talked to mom in panic mode and almost went to the ER, but was persuaded to call first by Keryn. (Tyler was a calming force through this whole thing, taking care of the kids, getting them ready for bed, and willing to do whatever it took to calm me down.) They told me when I called that there wasn't anything they could do, so to just wait until morning and make an appointment with my doctor. Which is what I did, mostly because the bleeding slowed way down.

So, after a restless night in which neither Tyler or I slept very much, this morning I called my doctor's office and got the earliest appointment available for today: 2:20 pm. I spent the day at Keryn's, where she did not let me get up hardly at all. Being the wonderful sister that she is, she took care of my kids all day and I basically laid down and played computer games until my appointment. Tyler came home early so he could go with me and we went to the appointment. After waiting for more than an hour (first in the waiting room and then in the ultrasound room), we finally saw the doctor. Dr. Warner (the same doctor I had seen less than a week ago) came in and asked a few questions. He looked a little concerned, but said he didn't want to jump to any conclusions, he just wanted to see what was going on. He explained as he got the ultrasound machine ready that as long as the baby has a heartbeat and is whole and the placenta hasn't detached, then we'll be fine. And that's exactly what we saw. Everything is fine. I couldn't tell what exactly he was seeing, but apparently, I have another tear. So, everything is fine. I asked about what I need to do to make sure that everything stays that way and he said to just take it easy for a while. I told him I have two little kids at home and asked if I should be avoiding picking him up. He said not to worry too much about it, just don't over-do it. I just have to make sure that everything can heal and doesn't get jostled around too much. But baby Bruiser is still a healthy baby and still kicking away (although I told him/her to cut it out for a little while so that mommy can heal...we'll see). Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know. I love you all and I hope you're having a great day!

New Calling

Well, we've known about this for a few weeks, but as it became officially offical on Sunday, I thought I would post it. Jeff got a new calling. He is now an Assistant Stake Clerk. He is in charge of the finance portion of the office. He will have to be at the stake office one to two nights a week.

LaDale, Jenafer, Keryn

I got this off of Marchelle's website.

Odds and Ends

Telima- congratulations on NOT having twins. I know that that was one of my biggest fears? maybe not the right word but is was always heavily on my mind until that first ultrasound. I'm not sure that they wouldn't have been the death of me. I had enough trouble carrying them one at a time.

On another note...
It's been two weeks since I sent my book to everyone and have basically gotten nothing much from everyone. I've heard from almost everyone that they got it and a few have started it and then nothing. I'm starting to get paranoid here. Is it really that bad? Cause that is what it is feeling like. Like everyone is trying not to hurt my feeling so I'm not hearing anything.

So, people, speak up please!

Thanks!

Baby!

So, I've already told many of you, but for those of you I haven't, I'm switching doctors. I'm switching for a couple of reasons. I was planning on switching already because I've moved to Spanish Fork and I really didn't want to go clear to Provo for every doctor's appointment. Also, the only place that I could deliver if I stayed there was in Orem and that's just too far for how fast I go. Also, I was informed by a friend who used the same OB that he had recently passed away. I was really sad to hear that, since he wasn't that old and he was a phenomenol doctor. However, it made my decision to switch not only doctors but practices that much easier. So, I'm going with Dr. Ludlow and Dr. Warner, Keryn's doctors, now.

I had my first appointment yesterday and the good news is I'm not having twins! Yay! I never actually thought I was. I understand you get really big, really fast when you're pregnant with twins and I'm still in my regular clothes 3 months into this pregnancy. My doctor's appointment went really well. I really like my new doctor (although, actually, I haven't met him yet. I met his partner. But I really like him!). He sat and talked with me in his office for fifteen minutes before we went into an exam room and he really listened to my concerns. He made notes in my chart about how fast I deliver and what the options are. Unfortunately, unless I make it to 39 weeks, my options are severely limited. They can only induce if I make it that far. Since I haven't made it that far with either of my others, I'm a little nervous. So when I'm 8 months pregnant and complaining about how I just want the baby out of me, I want everyone to remind me that I want to make it to 39 weeks. That way they can induce me in a controlled environment. Okay? That's your job. And in an exciting side note, they've changed the way they do things now and do an ultrasound at the first appointment. So I have a picture of the little one. I also have a better understanding of why I've been so sick. He got the picture up on the screen and within the first thirty seconds of watching the baby, it kicked me about 10 times. It was relentless and the picture we have is actually of it kicking me. So, there you go. I have a future soccer star growing in me right now. (If the baby turns out to be a boy, we've decided to call him Bruiser as a womb name, since we have no clue about boys names.) It also turns out that the baby is measuring a full ten days bigger than the projected due date, so they moved my due date. I was due Aug. 27 and now I'm due Aug. 16. Definitely preferable than the other way around. =) So that was my doctor's appointment! Everything is good, normal, and as Dr. Warner said "Boringly healthy."

Cutie pie

Keryn, that Gid Kid is one huge cutie pie! You can really tell that he just loves being able to get around! Also, I loved seeing your other kids in the background. This was shot at one of your play groups at the church, right? And it was so sweet to hear him coming up to you, babbling, "Mama? Mama...Maaaama!"

Thanks for the post. I hope that you will all feel better soon.

And (not unlike the pioneer children) walks and walks...

He walks!

Tired

I should plead guilty, Jenafer. I sure haven't been posting much to the blog, although (as ever) I check it several times a day.

I'm just TIRED. I get this way every late January/early February, and thought I was going to beat it this winter; bought a sun lamp and all. But it turns out that just buying a light box doesn't do the trick, you have to actually sit down and USE it. I know. The nerve.

I got off my schedule of sitting in front of the light for an hour every morning, and before I knew it, a couple of weeks had gone by. I spent most of that time feeling fabulous--no, really. Finally feeling better, getting good sleep despite frequent 3am feedings, making dinner EVERY night (this is something of a record for us. And, oh, remind me to tell you about the delicious dinners I am making. Yum yum yum!), keeping the upstairs of my house vacuumed and picked up. But then two things hit: Mercy got a bad ear infection, and stayed up ALL night Sunday night crying; and the rest of us got her cold a day later. So between that and the fact that Bradley and I have been able to spend exactly one hour awake together since Sunday (and won't get to spend any time together until Friday night)...well, the wintertime blues hit, and bad.

So today I got myself in gear and sat by my light for an hour. And hopefully that will help. I'm very much looking forward to going to Vegas at the end of this month--hopefully the sun will be shining just for me. Mema, be ready to spend a lot of time outside!

I'll leave you all with this (because it can't help but make you smile):

Hello?

Is it my imagination, or have posts to this blog dropped waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy off recently? I know I am feeling like I should be tapping my finger on an open mike and asking, "Hello? Is anyone out there?"

Phil

"IT'S GROUNDHOG DAY!!!"

And Phil has officially predicted 6 more weeks of winter.

Benjamin asked me what that meant to us, as we haven't even hit real winter yet. (Yesterday was 75 degrees. I actually took a walk around the church building to warm up. They had the air conditioning on and the organ is right under a vent.) I told him that the only thing it meant to us, down here in the desert, was that we might wait until May to hit 100 degrees outside. Maybe. We'll see!

#52

You're right!

My mistake!

I could see it in my head, I just couldn't quite place it. Didn't the machine go running through a hotel or someplace basically yelling, "Number 5 is alive. Number 5 is alive." ?