Hello?

I have to say it's unnerving to be "alone" with 5 kids, especially at night.  I hear things and when I softly call out, no one answers.  What's even more unnerving is when you don't expect anyone to answer back and they do!  Makes me jump every time! LOL It's the kids that answer, I've never had some strange voice answer me before (and praying that won't ever happen!).

Chris made it home last night and it was SO nice having him next to me in bed again.  I sleep easier most of the time.  Last night, however, I had a dream that was rather unsettling.  I'm sure it's just the stress I'm under from all the news we've received this week.  Either way, it was a rather fitful sleep that I had.  I woke up and heard something, so I called out and no one answered.  I just rolled over but couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched still.  I got up and patted down the hallway and looked around the house....nothing.  So I went back to bed.  I still heard noises when I got in bed so I sat up and saw a mouse dart across the floor.  That would explain the noises I heard, but the feeling was still there.  After a quick prayer, I was able to fall back asleep for about an hour and then the kids started to get up for the day.

Parting thought - have you ever wished you had a handy man available, with endless resources/money, 24/7?!  Yeah, me too.  Especially after this last couple of months.  Whenever I need one, mine is off in another state working.  Harumph!

Pinterest Lover

I love Facebook for keeping in touch with people.  I also love blogs.  But, one of my all time favorites is Pinterest.  Although I know I probably won't accomplish a quarter of the items I post on there, it's still fun to day dream.  On days like today, I have friends that post the most hysterical quotes and cartoons, and I need them....oh how I need them!  I was having a hard time finding humor in much today, but, thanks to these wonderful friends, my evening feels a little lighter because I laughed.  It's true what they say - "laughter is the best medicine".  So, I love the dreams that Pinterest gives me to think about, the simplicity of certain things on there and the fact that it makes me smile and go "AHA" more than once in a sitting.

Hold Your Loved Ones

Today we learned another lesson of just how fragile life really is.  I received some news about a favorite person in Chris's life, a previous bishop who is in the Stake President position.  There was an accident and work and this dear sweet man, Mitch Shaw, was killed.  He was young, in his 40's.  Chris's family is having a hard time and I just had to call Chris and tell him so he didn't find out some other way.  I'd rather he heard it from someone he cares about.  Life is short.  Give your loved ones an extra hug, text, email, phone call, etc today and forever.  Hold them close in your heart.  I'm so grateful of the knowledge I have of eternal families and that this man, a virtuous and spiritual leader and a caring and compassionate man, husband and father, lived his life in such a way that he will be with his family again.  I KNOW this to be true.  I testify of it.

Not What I Expected

Today was Aralynn's follow up appointment. We had high hopes that this would be the very last one that we'd have to have at the Children's Hospital Denver with her. I was nervous about it, like I always am for these types of appointments. I helped Chris pack this morning to go on his business trip up to Wisconsin and through Kansas. I never like it when he has to leave, but it's part of the job, I suppose.

I got the other kids ready after he and the older two left for school and work and then we just kind of lounged around the house until it was time to drop Tyler off at school. I then went and got lunch for Celeste and took her to Miss Lori's house and told her that the doctor usually ran late, since he is one of the best orthopedic surgeons and he also usually has students from the University following him around and he has to teach them. The drive down was nice and quiet since Aralynn slept a good portion of the way down there.

I found a parking spot and went to get A out of the car and realized she'd dropped her bottle beside her and left it...the nipple was pointing down so, naturally, her clothes were soaked and since I'm SUCH a great mom...and am TOTALLY on top of things, I didn't pack an extra set of clothing for her. "Well, she'll just have to air dry and let's hope the Dr doesn't pick her up" :/

We got checked in and the called us back pretty quickly, and got us in our room, then to the X-ray room. She had a bit of trouble holding still for the tech, so I had to be the "tech" and just have them tell me how to hold her hand and where to put the tongue depressor stick. X-rays were taken and we were guided back to our room to play until Dr. Scott came by. After a while, he knocked on the door, introduced me to his student and then sat right down beside the bed and put the copies of the x-rays down and covered part of her thumb up.

"The joint up here is lined up perfectly, it's the best we could have hoped for! Great job!"
*rotating his thumb slightly to show me the other joint*
"This joint is great too. Lines up perfectly. We weren't really worried about that one, but it still looks great."
*taking his thumb off the picture and pointing*
"This is a problem. She's got a bone deformity that we didn't catch before, but her bones were too small to really see it and since she's grown a bit since we saw her last, it's showing up more. She'll need another surgery, I'm 99% sure of that and I'd like it to be done before she enters school, but it could be before that. I'd like to see you again in 1 year. This will give her time to grow more and we can see if this part *points to the picture* is either not growing or just growing slower than this side *points to the other side of the picture*."

I asked about her mobility between now and then and if it would effect it greatly or if she'd just adapt until it was fixed. He said that she'd be fine, but if it wasn't growing (which he thinks is the case) that the deformity in her thumb would just get worse and would render her thumb pretty much useless.

This was NOT the news I had expected or wanted to hear. At. All. The perk was that he told me to throw away the braces we'd been using because it's not the joints we have to worry about anymore and that they (the braces) wouldn't help a bone deformity in the least.

I held it together until after I got off the phone with Chris. I called my mom and she didn't answer but I fell apart while leaving a message. I called my mother-in-law and cried to her for a bit and then started home. I called one of my sisters and cried to her, then my mom called me back and I started it all over again. I've come to the conclusion that I'm a blubbering boob.

I got back and picked the kids up from the sitter and came home and got them all situated. I fell apart again...trying to hide it from the kids. I fixed dinner and Terra came running in "MOM! I left my home folder at school...it has all my homework in it!" I explained that she was going to have to stay in from recess again and that she'd just have to work extra hard tomorrow to get it all done in time to turn it in.

When I called everyone to the table, Tyler was being hesitant and hiding. He'd messed himself and was throwing a tantrum when I tried to clean him off. Into the shower he went...he could do it himself then.

I came to sit down and hide the tears again and heard a commotion in the living room, then a scream, some pounding and the older two kids yelling at Celeste to open the door from the inside. James had grabbed her and pushed her into the closet and closed the door, and the handle fell off. Apparently she wasn't minding him about something he'd told her to do, so he was going to punish her. Not sure where he learned that punishment from since we've never done that to them! He got sent to bed...without finishing his dinner. I rescued Celeste and had everyone sit at the table to finish dinner. Tyler was still cleaning up, so I got him out of the shower and sent him to go get dressed. He came up claiming he had no clean clothes. This is false because the majority of the laundry got done AND folded this weekend, thanks to the help of my mother-in-law! I told him to go look again. He came back up, flustered and frustrated and wanted to look in my room...there weren't ANY baskets of clothes awaiting folding there. I went downstairs and asked James where the clothes were that he had put away...he'd dumped them out and divided them between under the beds and in the closet....not in the drawers like he was supposed to do.

I finally found a shirt for Tyler to wear and sent him upstairs to eat. By this time, the other kids were done with their dinner and had left the table. James was told to put all the clothes away unless they smelled...in which case they needed to go to the laundry room. This will be interesting to see what he accomplishes. I can already hear he's not doing what he's supposed to do. Terra also just came up to inform me that Celeste let one of the kittens out of her room and she can't find it. The back door is open, but kitty is scared of dogs, so...I highly doubt it got too far. I need to go help her find it, I suppose. Is it bedtime yet?!

"Yeah, You Stink"

I remembered at 1 am that Celeste had a dental appointment at 9:30 this morning. O.O I had no idea where her insurance card was, nor had I filled out the pre-registration paperwork they needed (which is 4 pages long). I also rolled my ankle as I was getting kids out of the car yesterday, so it wasn't like I could just jump up and run around looking for this stuff. I decided to just get up early this morning to do it. The alarm went off at 7 am, I hit snooze...twice. Finally I decided I probably better drag my sorry bum out of bed and accomplish what needed to be done. I found everything relatively easily and got all the paperwork filled out. I got Chris and the kids out the door to school and appointments (he takes the kids to the dentist so I don't have to, bless his heart). I got Aralynn busy eating her breakfast and Tyler busy with a video game, just so I could have some peace and quiet in the shower. I let him know where I was going to be.

"Tyler, I'm going to go shower. Tyler?"
"What? Oh, yeah mom, you stink and need a baff."
o.O "Ok then."

I didn't think it was THAT bad! C'mon, I just showered yesterday! *sigh* Kids!

Most people know that we're looking for a house. What most people DON'T know is we've found one. We put an offer in and they accepted. This is a very long drawn out process because there were some things in the house that needed fixing before the loan would be approved. They accepted the responsibility of fixing them and we set a closing date of 60 days after they had fixed them and gave them 30 days to do so. That was almost 2 weeks ago. We got word they had accomplished a few of these things last night. We also had some tragic news from our broker that there was, yet another, issue on Chris's report that was there one week, but gone the next. Because it was there and there is paper documentation of it, we're having to scramble to fix it...even though there isn't really anything there to fix...or we'll have to submit the 30-day fix-it paperwork to the credit agencies and wait...and lose the house in the process. I'm beginning to really wonder if we're looking in the right place...or if this IS the right place and the Lord is just testing us. Either way...I can't say I'm all that happy about it. But, I do know this is all in the Lord's hands! Patience is not my best virtue, that's for sure! LOL

Glass of Water, Crust of Bread

You know those mornings when you wake up dreamily, sigh contentedly and think...."aaaaahhhh, Saturday, how I've missed you." And then you hear the kids talking about school that day and you realize..."IT'S THURSDAY!!!!!! WE'RE LATE!" It's been one of those mornings around here.

Last night, I had every intention of going to sleep as soon as I went to bed. Chris asked if I wanted to watch a movie, so I said yes, why not. After the movie, we stayed up and talked. I LOVE those nights with Chris. We make extravagant plans that will never happen because they're just plain ridiculous to start with. We talk about the kids, our worries about them, they're best assets, funny stories. We talk about our serious future plans and how people will react to them, then we fall asleep in each others arms. Sounds pretty awesome, right?! Well, it is.

My husband has a habit of either turning off the alarm after the first beep and going back to sleep, or forgetting to turn the alarm off on weekends and keep hitting the snooze button. This morning, he just kept hitting the snooze button, so you see the dilemma at the beginning of this post. Well, as we were rushing about trying to get kids ready for school, I kept offering breakfast items to my kids to eat.

"Cereal?"
No.
"Poptarts?"
No.
"Cream of wheat?!"
No.
"Well, you have to eat something, what do you want?!"
Two slices of bread.

Really?! Bread?! Ok, so they grabbed their two slices and headed out the door (since it was something they could eat on the go). I can just imagine what their teachers thought when they walked in eating bread.

"This is what my mom gave me for breakfast." (holding up the remaining crust)
"....." O.O

Yes, I just give my kids a glass of water and a crust of bread for breakfast, because I'm SUPER mean like that! *nods* (the sad thing is, I've had teachers call for clarification on what exactly it is I DO when the kids say some things....awesome)

I've Decided

I've decided...

...That if I don't blog everyday, I'm not a failure.
...That if I get upset with my kids for dumb things, I'm not a failure.
...That if I cry from being homesick, I'm not a failure.
...That if I don't brace my baby's thumb every. single. night. I'm not a failure.
...That if I don't keep up on the latest book, I'm not a failure.

I simply have room for improvement. And I don't have to work on them all at once. I just need to learn to prioritize and work on one thing at a time.

I'm doing alright, I've decided.

My kids are still happy.
My family loves me!
I'm needed by a few people around here (at least I think I am. They keep calling on me so that must mean something, right?!).