Ever Had One of Those Days...

...when nothing goes right? I know, never, right?! It wasn't the worst day I've had so I can't really say that, but it wasn't the best day either.

I'm very sore from the two (count them, TWO) workouts I did yesterday, and then running up and down stairs after children hasn't helped the soreness either - note to self...don't do more than ONE workout in a day.

The kids were having a very hard time getting along today for some reason, and it was really wearing on my nerves. I had a jam-packed full schedule today and their arguing was starting to interfere with it a bit (they'd stop in the middle of a parking lot and yell at each other, so we were falling behind "the schedule")!!! I told them they couldn't play any games today - that did it. The world ended right there! Oops...

After I got them calmed down, I had to hurry home and feed them lunch - but this is after getting them up and dressed and then out the door to a Relief Society function (that I couldn't stay for) and then back in the car and home again - all within the space of an hour and a half!

I tried not to feed Tyler much lunch because he eats at school, but he kept getting his own food (he's discovered how to climb, drat!). I got him a small snack and tried to appease him until it was time to go. We then dropped Terra off, and then drove up to Tyler's school and waited for the "short bus" to get there so he could go in with all of them (they don't want me to drag all the kids in to the school building or leave them in the car, so they've offered to meet me out by the buses drop-off spot to take him in. After the bus pulled up, I got Tyler out of the car, the lady ran across the parking lot, took his hand and walked him into the building...I didn't get much of a good-bye, but he seemed ok with it, I think. I drove home and realized that his weighted vest was still in the car, so I drove back up there, had two sleeping children in the car, so just ran in (yes, I'm a bad parent) - they have an outside door, so I just ran up and knocked on that door and handed it to them and ran back to my car.

I drove home, James woke up (just a power nap for him) so I decided to do something special with him so we went to A&W drive in and ordered a treat and watched a movie in the car, in our driveway until Celeste woke up. It was kind of fun!

We only had a half hour until school got out for Terra (early release day) so we played for a minute and then went and picked her up and then came home and played until it was time to go pick up Tyler from school.

We went there and sat until they released school - they were late, so it made me very glad that I have Terra going home with someone else after school on Mondays so she doesn't have to wait for forever and day for me to come get her!

OH! And while I was fixing the kids lunch, I had Terra read me the knobs on the back of the stove (she wanted to help). She read "rear" and "front" I asked her to turn on the "front" knob, so she turns something on and then leaves because "mom, this is boring". I started to smell something funny and turned to look at what was burning, and she had turned on the REAR burner...which my purse was sitting on! My purse is melted and I get to scrub my stove top this week! Lucky me! Another note to self...make sure ALL items are off the stove when kids are helping with the prep work to meal time!

I've been on the emotional side today...I'm not sure if its because Tyler is at school now or what...grrr! Stupid girlie emotions anyway!

Battle Scars

It's amazing how much better his eye looks after a week!

Here's the before pic:
And here's the after pic:


The glue is pealing off, so it looks kind funny, but it still looks a far cry better than it did before!

Mommy, Mommy, Don't Go!

Having my mom here has been WONDERFUL!! I hardly get to see her, so this visit has been just what I needed. I really could have unpacked by myself - granted it would have taken me about 2 months to do so - but just having her company here has been great for me. I keep trying to convince her that she can just stay here forever, but she doesn't seem to go for that. I think I worked her too hard this week, she's got sore muscles!

We attended our new Ward and the people here are so very friendly, I have no doubt in my mind that we'll make friends fast.

Terra's first week at school went very well, the teacher was surprised at how well she adapted. She made the comment today that it "was like she had never NOT been there with the class, she fits right in!" That was good to hear, since I was slightly worried about that.

James has been bored out of his mind and wants to do nothing but play video games, which is not flying by me! We decided to buy him his own notebook so that he could keep up on writing his ABC's and numbers, plus Ms. M. sent home a packet of things that he could work on as well.

Tyler starts school on Wednesday (the 10th). He'll be going Monday and Wednesday in the afternoons. He even gets to eat lunch with the class...how fun for him! We'll be meeting his teacher this Monday so that we can all get better acquainted.

Celeste has been running around here like a crazy person and is now the MASTER at navigating stairs. She's become Grandma's little buddy and loves teasing her (Grandma thinks its funny and cute)!!

Chris has been busy with work this week and so it's been great to have an extra set of hands around here to make the transition for me and the kids a lot easier! We're getting schedules set into place (we won't have the hang of those for another couple weeks, I'm sure, but we're getting there) and we've already been invited over to a couple houses for dinner. Chris has already attended Elders basketball and I've been invited to join the play group that happens each week.

We're really enjoying our time here so far and hope and pray that we will find out soon what the Lord has in store for us up here and why He guided us here! We miss our friends back in Strasburg area...and while we're on that subject...a big CONGRATS to Karen and her family for their new little arrival! Can't wait to meet her!

Bad Dreams

Ok, so my hubby goes on business trips all the time, that's nothing new. I have dreams when he goes, but in my dreams, I always seem to know that I'm dreaming, it just scares me slightly. Last night (AFTER he has been back from the latest trip for a few days) I had a TERRIBLE dream. It felt so real, my subconscious didn't even seem to know I was dreaming...I wasn't aware. I woke up crying quietly (although in my dream, I was screaming in emotional agony) and had to snuggle up closer to Chris, completely relieved that he was still alive and lying next to me in bed. I have to say that I really hate having dreams like this. All day today I've been having a hard time shaking that unnerving feeling, and constantly have been checking my phone and have called and texted him a few more times than normal, just to have that reassurance - I even tried to go out shopping with my mom (had a good time, but still was antsy and relieved to get home to him, hugging him just a little tighter when greeting him. I'm not sure if anyone has noticed or not, but I still find myself tearing up typing this, I swear I'm going to start crying and Chris (laying next to me in bed watching Animal Planet) will think I've completely gone nuts (white jackets and padded rooms, here I come).

In my dream, I'm actually asleep and get awakened by the phone ringing. It's the Wyoming Highway Patrol asking if this was the Nelson residence, if I was Sandi and if my husband's name was Chris. I answer yes to each of those questions. The officer on the other line tells me that there has been an accident. I find myself frantically trying to write down directions to where he is, so that I can get there to be with him, then trying to find a babysitter to watch the kids overnight. Then I'm driving down the highway, not being able to pass anyone that is going slower than the speed limit, because there's mega traffic jams going on because of construction. I finally get past all of that and speed to the hospital where he is (I couldn't even tell you the city right now, but I can vividly see everything in my mind). I race in there and they tell me that he's finally stabilized enough for them to load him up in Life Flight and transfer him to Denver. I ask if I can see him before they load him up, which they grant me, but tell me that I'll have to find my way to his room myself because they're way busy, they give me directions and I set off, but in the maze of the hospital, I get lost and can't find him. Then when I finally get someone to help me, I find that LF has already taken off with him. I run to my car and drive and drive and drive for what seems like forever. Then, somehow, I'm in the next hospital and I'm sitting down waiting for the doctors to update me on how he's doing. When they finally come out, they tell me how sorry they are for everything that I've had to go through, but that they don't have any news that will make me feel better. They keep beating around the bush and not telling me what is wrong. I keep asking questions and they just look at each other, almost as if wondering if they should tell me anything in my "fragile state" - I was a hysterical mess by this point, and it was apparently evident by my appearance. They finally told me that they weren't able to save him and that they had tried everything possible, but that my husband was gone. My dear, sweet, loving and compassionate husband, my best friend...the one I could rely on for everything - my rock...my EVERYTHING! I began to hyperventilate and it seemed like I had tunnel vision...people sounded so far away. I was planning out the funeral program...picking out caskets...everything. I would cry at the drop of a hat (for obvious reasons) - it was a nightmare that I couldn't leave. After the funeral, I ran away...ran and ran as fast and as far as I could. I finally was in a field, by myself and I let out a scream of pain, agony and complete insanity for my loss...it was in the middle of this scream that I woke up crying to myself. The kids were just starting to stir...they came in and climbed into bed with us for a bit, then went downstairs to visit my mom. Normally, I'd feel terrible (and still do somewhat) about them waking her up, but this morning, I really needed to just be with my husband, just laying in his arms...just for a few extra minutes. I think I even took a small nap, but not much.

The rest of the day has just been gloomy, I try to laugh, but I'm not sure if it's been whole-hearted or not. I hope no one else has noticed, I've really been trying to hide it, but still can't shake that feeling of "what if". What if this is a fore-warning (I REALLY hope it's not)?! What if, what if, what if?! I can't tell any of you just how grateful I am that he's laying beside me now.

I really hate nightmares - really really bad! GO AWAY NIGHTMARES AND LEAVE ME ALONE!

Life Is A Grand Adventure...

...most of the time, anyway! The rest of the time goes something like this:

We finished packing and cleaning the other house and made it up here in one piece. I completely expected to be able to just unpack everything when we got here...the house was supposed to be clean. Our landlord had made his wife seem like a very anal person when it came to cleaning. First thing I noticed was that all the fans were dusty...very dusty. "Not a problem," I thought. I'll just wipe them off, no biggie. Then downstairs, there are dusty cobwebs everywhere. I was a little bit miffed, but still thought that was ok, I could do that, a broom works wonders! This morning, I woke up and got ready for the day, fed the kids and sent them downstairs (thank goodness for cable being set up already...it's a lifesaver) so I could start unpacking without "helping hands". The kids were fighting over toys and teasing and pestering each other like crazy, I kept telling them to stop it, to TRY to get along today, just for a little while. I started opening kitchen cabinets to put stuff away and noticed....they were NOT clean. This really, REALLY ticked me off. I mean, really, I just got done cleaning one house, didn't really want to clean another...it wasn't on the top of my list of "happy things" to do. I got to work opening up boxes to find my cleaning stuff to get busy. I started on one end of the kitchen and thought I'd work my way around - couldn't open the cupboard because of the grease build-up. Oh boy.

I finally got ONE set of cupboards washed and scrubbed out and heard the kids fighting in Terra's room and then heard a big thud...boom....bang - then some crying ensued. I asked what was wrong and James came from Terra's room and this is the conversation that followed:

"Terra didn't push me or hit me, I just fell." (through sobs)
"Well, you'll feel better in a minute."
"But, mommy..."
"Walk it off, James, you'll be fine."
(sob, sniff, CRY, sob)
"But...but..."

I glanced at him at this point (yup, that's right, I'd been ignoring him completely up to this point) and realized that he was bleeding (gushing, by the way) down the side of his face...it was coming from his eye. I screeched and jumped from the counter top, grabbed a clean rag, got it wet and then started pressing it to his head as I walked him to a chair. He was screaming, telling me I was hurting him, and trying to bat my hands away from his face. The gash was about an inch long and a quarter of an inch deep (I honestly didn't know that a cut could go that deep without cutting into the eye). I immediately grabbed my purse, ran out, started the car, threw kids into the car, told Terra to make sure that rag did NOT come off his face, ran back in, grabbed shoes, diaper bag (only glancing in to make sure there was more than one diaper in there...not even checking the sizes) and then ran out the door, calling Chris along the way, and then calling a friend to ask where the nearest ER or Urgent Care Center was...Chris didn't know and my friend wasn't available at the time. I dashed to a local family practice around here and asked if they did stitches and they said no and then gave me (what turned out to be faulty) directions to get to an Urgent Care. I drove and drove, following the directions and not finding anything. Ran in to a Walgreens and asked for directions and they gave me more faulty directions...I finally called 411 on my cell, the operator came on and asked if I needed an ambulance, I said...well, more like screamed..."no" and she immediately connected me and I finally got directions and wound up in the parking lot of the right place. By this point in time, my "mommy brain" is screaming at these people for giving me the WRONG directions because MY SON IS BLEEDING TO DEATH. He wasn't really, in fact, most of the bleeding had stopped by then. I got in to the building and my friend called me back and offered to come get the kids, which was a VERY wonderful thing. We were in the waiting room for about 2 hours (after being told we might have to go to the actual ER...it was determined that we didn't need to) and then when they called us back, it was another 45 minutes before we were out of there. They didn't do stitches, but just glued him together with DermaBond. I could have done that at home! LOL, oh well!

This wasn't exactly the "welcoming committee" I had expected. They asked me for his regular pediatrician and when I mentioned that he was down in Parker, they seemed flabbergasted that I would drive that far just for a pediatric doctor. I would then mention that we had just moved in yesterday and their response (each time) was, "Oh! Well, WELCOME to the area!" Gee thanks!

Oh, and a side note - I think I need to have a serious talk with Terra about the inappropriateness of making comments to an already histerical little one! The whole way to the Urgent Care, she kept telling James he was going to have to get shots...that's what he was crying about mostly because he didn't want a shot. THEN, she whispered something to him and it made him scream. I couldn't get anyone to tell me what she had said, so I dropped it, but after my friend took the kids, James crawled on my lap, started crying again and said, "Mommy, I don't want my eyeball to fall out!" I had to reassure him that his poor eyeball wasn't going anywhere! KIDS!

If you cut your hair at school...

...and mommy finds out -

...you may or may not be happy with the outcome of her "wrath"! I warned her that next time she cut her own hair, it'd be short like daddy's and the boys' hair is! That seemed to do the trick (one could hope anyway). If it looks uneven, I blame the fact that she wasn't really holding still...that and the fact that I'm not a hair stylist!

Tiny Toons and other Crazies

So, since we're moving, we decided it was time to downsize our "farm". The people that gave us the goat took him back along with 2 turkeys. Their neighbors (some other friends of ours) bought 5 chickens (although at the time, it was an undisclosed amount of chickens they'd be taking...more on this later in the post). A while back, we brought home a cat that needed a home...he was going to be Tyler's kitty. Our existing cats did not appreciate his presence here. After a while, they tolerated each other. Soon, we sent the girls off to get spayed...while they were gone, Junior roamed the house and thoroughly enjoyed not being bullied by the girls. When they came home, however, he was now ruler of the roost and they didn't like it one bit...all fights were back on and truces were called off. We decided it was time to send him back to where we got him (she said to bring him back if it didn't work out). I felt bad because he was such a loving kitty and would have been perfect for Tyler (too fat for him to pick up and maul!) I jokingly asked Chris if we should get him a hamster or something and let it run around the house in one of those little balls. Instantly an old commercial came to mind. Do you remember the anti-drug campaign that was going on in the 90's?

"This is your brain." (they show an uncooked egg in a jar)
"This is your brain on drugs." (they shake the bottle violently, causing the egg to break open and scramble instantly)
"Any questions?" (they would then set the jar down and flash some information on the screen...I never did really take the time to read that)

Now, think of the cartoon Tiny Toons...imagine that little character named Elmira. She would LOVE those animals until they all went insane and tried to escape her overly loving antics. This is how almost all our animals are with Tyler. I feel rather bad for him watching this but can't help but think of how they must feel. Now let's go back to the hamster in a ball. Now that I've told you of these two specific things (the commercial and Elmira), I can't see that the hamster would last too long in Tyler's care. It'd probably end up like that egg on the commercials...we'd have a majorly handicapped hamster by the end of the day, I'm sure! So, we decided against getting him a pet anytime soon!

This morning, I got woken up by kids coming in, coughing, complaining about ears hurting, sniffles, the whole works. Didn't we just go through this a couple weeks ago? I'm fairly certain we did...but maybe I'm just losing it here! I started practicing my "witch-doctory" on them and I'm hoping this all works so we don't need to go to the doctor this time. I also had to call the Girl Scouts and tell them Terra wouldn't be participating in today's activity. We got up and got kids breakfast and got ourselves dressed.

Chris went out to feed and water the animals and noticed feathers ALL over the yard and chicken coop. He then noticed a couple of carcasses in the outer pen. Then he started to explore and count how many were missing...keeping in mind that the friends I'd mentioned above were coming by today to pick out which chickens and how many of them they wanted. He counted 10 left, which means that around 5 were gone. There is one in particular that I was rather sad was missing. We'd nicknamed him "Midget". He was one of our hatch-lings that we hatched in our incubator. There are others that are the same age as he is...and he's a quarter of their size (actually, its a "she" but we can't seem to stop calling it "he"). We wanted to keep her and see what kind of eggs she'd lay (if any) and how big she'd get. She's one of the ones missing. While surveying the damage, our friends showed up so we gave them 5 hens and kept the remaining 5 chickens (1 rooster and 4 hens). Miraculously, the ducks and geese were untouched. Stupid foxes. We found paw prints all over out there and there's a hole in the fence they made bigger. The hole was patched up and repaired and the outer pen was closed off to the animals. We herded them to the coop area and closed the gates. We're kind of hoping that a couple of the chickens are just bunked down somewhere and will come out of hiding, but we're not holding our breath.

All this and the day isn't even halfway over yet!! But, on a positive note...that chicken feed we bought yesterday...it'll last a LOT longer than we'd anticipated at first!