How Old Am I Going To Be?

I was just talking with Justin because he asked whose birthday is next and I realized, MINE IS! My birthday is a month from today. So I ask him, "How old do you think I'm going to be?"

Justin: Four.

Me: But Justin, you're 4, and if I were going to be 4 you'd have been born before ME!

Justin: When you were a baby?

Me: Before then, you'd be older than me! How old do you really think I am?

Justin: 4.

Me: Why do you think that?

Justin: Never ask a girl her age or her weight, it's just rude! I'm just trying to be nice, Mom!

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie...

So we spoke in Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday...

On Tuesday night I get a call from the Relief Society President, that I missed, so I called her back...

...and Wednesday afternoon I'm asked to teach Relief Society on Sunday. As in THIS Sunday.

Dude. This is gonna be hard. It's "Presidency Choice", now, I'm not IN the presidency, I'm on the Enrichment Board.

So I've NEVER taught a class. I've done Sharing Time, that's it. Think I could tape up things around the room for the ladies to find to create a big picture at the front of the room? LOL

Sidenotes:

* I went to Taco Bell and bought dinner - I had Taco Salad = 14 points. I didn't go over my points today either.

* Kev wants me to buy my own domain name and really host a good family blog/website - we're not creative, we are having a hard time thinking of a creative, not used, name for it.

* I'm like holding my eyes open with toothpicks, since when did I get so tired at 10:15 at night???

* I'm gonna go to bed, night all!

Tired=Cranky

There is definitely a direct correlation between how tired I am and how grumpy/cranky I am. I don't really have a reason to be tired, I went to bed last night at about 10:15 and slept until 6:15 without nursing Jayden and then laid in bed and nursed her until 7:00 am but dozing off and on, so like I said, there are women reading this blog who are up all night peeing, breastfeeding, bottlefeeding, soothing toddlers, or just in general not sleeping as well as I do, and yet I'm exhausted!

So today I'm tired and I ask Kev, "What do you want for dinner?" and he says, "I don't care." Well that's a lie. He does care. And he's tired/grumpy/cranky too! LOL So when I tell him I'm making Chicken Helper then because I'm tired, he says, "oh, a BOXED dinner..." supremely disappointed.

So now I'm sitting here, defrosting the chicken, Justin's napping (too late in the day I know, and I'm going to pay for it later, I know, but man I'm exhausted) and Jayden's bouncing in her jumper, and Jakey's playing his Gameboy and I'm thinking, I don't even think I'm ambitious enough for a BOXED dinner! LOL How upset do you think he'd be if I just ordered pizza? LOL

I'm gonna email Rachel this evening when Jayden's down about moving my blog...so stay tuned, I might change my blog addy - blogger is making me a little crazy. We'll see - I like some things about it, but I frequently can't see my posts after I put them up and my connection to it times out ALOT.

Weigh In Day

Gotta go, screaming baby!

Interesting...

I can't see my actual blog today, I keep getting an error, but I can log into blogger and post....but if I push View Blog it all disappears. I always have the strangest things happen to blogger...this is why I've seriously considered taking my blogging business elsewhere. Ugh.

Webkinz

Yeah, I'm addicted! I got Jakey this cute little frog and Justin a little bear and I've been playing it when they go to bed! LOL Only the games because I don't want to mess up their rooms or anything, but wow. What a fun little world! It's totally addicting! Am I the only one addicted to their kids' webkinz?

Where did half a year go????

Today, Jayden is 6 months old! Amazing! My baby girl is so grown up! She says "mama" ALL THE TIME, she loves peaches and green beans, but her favorite food is still plain baby cereal. She thinks about drinking the bottle now when we hand her one, but it takes a long time for her to drink it, but she holds it herself! She LOVES to nurse though, I think sometimes she asks to nurse just to see if I'll let her! LOL She'll take a quick sip and pop right off, smiling and patting my chest, like "thanks Mom". She stares at everyone she meets until they say that she's either "gorgeous" or "beautiful" then she bursts into a huge smile, their reward for complimenting her!

Jayden sits completely unassisted now, playing with her toys on the floor. She can get into a crawling position and army crawls. Since we have hardwood floors this makes her get dirty really quick - so I put a tiny blanket under her that she scoots with her as she goes. She's 17.5 lbs and 26 inches long!

My favorite time of day with her is bedtime. I love to hold her little pajama'ed body in my arms and nurse her to sleep. I love the way she looks at me during this quiet time of the day and smelling the top of her sweet little head, the smell of baby is totally intoxicating. When she starts to drift off I love the dead weight feeling of her body as I snuggle her before setting her in bed. And I love when her eyes are rolling back into her head as she drifts off, the little smile she gives me as she slips into a milk coma. That is the best part!

Happy 1/2 Birthday sweet baby girl! Try not to grow up too fast!

Catching Up...

This weekend was crazy! Friday night Kevin's sister babysat (Jayden too) and Kevin had to work but I went out with my best friend, Yaneth and some of her family for her b-day to a nice restaurant. We waited 2 hours for our table! LOL

Saturday Kevin babysat (Jayden too!) and I went out with my friend Stephanie and Kevin's sister (who had babysat for us the night before) to see Baby Mama. It was HILARIOUS, but it kinda was one of those movies where most of the truly hilarious parts were on the commercials, and having gone through infertility I thought some of it was a little insensitve to those who have gone through it...but it was ok, well pretty good actually. A good time out with the girls.

Today, we gave our talks. I spoke about conversion, and I was actually really ahppy with the way my talk turned out. It was actually a pretty long talk, which I usually have a hard time speaking for the whole 15 minutes, but I took up 20 today! LOL Kevin spoke after I did and he did really great too! I had to leave the stand and go sit with Jayden in the Mother's Lounge because she's entering her LOUD phase. She was yelling "Mama!" through my whole talk! LOL

Tonight, we had my parents over for dinner and then the boys went to Kevin's mom's house for a water balloon fight. It was 90 degrees today and I'm sure it felt great to get nice and wet! They had alot of fun, came home, bathed, and went straight to bed! Tired little boys!

Jayden's been sleeping through the night, until 5 am without nursing the past few nights, I don't know if it's a fluke but I'll take it! I had her weighed and measured on Friday and she weighed 17.5 lbs and was 26 inches long! Can you believe it! She's getting to be a BIG girl! I am going to work on finding a studio for her 6 month pictures, I might add the boys to the pictures too...maybe find somewhere that can have them ready by Mother's Day for the grandmas...hmmm I should work on that!

How To Write a Talk

Yep. 2.5 months in this ward and we have to give a talk this Sunday. Yep.

Anyhow, I'm seeing this as an opportunity for us to tell everyone in the ward who we are and considering this the answer to everyone's prayers about my being uncomfortable in this ward...thanks for all the faith guys! LOL Seriously though. Talk. My old ward had Sacrament Meeting attendance around 80 to 100 on a holiday. This ward is like three times that. Big audience!

So. I also was not given a topic. Yep. I get to chose my own topic! I've prayed and I honestly feel compelled to talk about Conversion, specifically Social Conversion versus True Conversion. What do you think? Any favorite scriptures? Talks? Articles? Words of encouragement? Anything?????

I've started on the talk a bit, my favorite part so far is the Bible Dictionary's definement of conversion:

BIBLE DICTIONARY
Conversion
Denotes changing one’s views, in a conscious acceptance of the will of God (Acts 3: 19). If followed by continued faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism in water for the remission of sins, and the reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, conversion will become complete, and will change a natural man into a sanctified, born again, purified person - a new creature in Christ Jesus (see 2 Cor. 5: 17). Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing (see Luke 22: 32; D&C 112: 12-13). To labor for the conversion of one’s self and others is a noble task, as in Ps. 51: 13; Dan. 12: 3; James 5: 19-20; D&C 18: 15-16. Cf. Alma 26.

Ok, so help, encourage, pray for me, whatever. Please!

Pinewood Derby

So yesterday was Jakey's pack's Pinewood Derby Race. My mom came with us and before she came over we were talking on the phone and she said, "so what kind of wood is his car made out of?" and I said, "hmmm I don't know, Kev what kind of wood is Jakey's car made out of?" He looked at me like I've lost all my marbles and says, "Pine. Wood." LOL Oh yeah.

Anyhow, Jakey had a rockin little car, but it only weighed 2 oz, so at weigh in and registration he had to put a 3 oz weight on it in order to be able to race. Unfortunately it wasn't a very strategically placed weight and it really slowed down the car.



That would be Jakey's car trailing behind. Jakey took it in stride though, he won "Best Paint Job" for some killer flames Kevin's sister painted on for him. So he was pretty happy.

Red Arm and "being haved"

This morning I was getting Justin ready to go to the doctor's to have his TB test read. He asked what we were doing and I said, "we're going to the doctor's, you're going to have your arm read." and he just looked at me funny. When we got to the doctor's office, the nurse came out to get us and Justin screamed, "Please don't make my arm RED!" LOL!

Then later we were at the grocery store, getting the makings for a cake that I'm sending to a luncheon for a funeral tomorrow, and Justin kept kind of bouncing around in the line, I said, "Justin, what do you think you're doing?!" and he said, "I'm being haved!" Apparently I say, "Please behave" alot, LOL.

Ah, it's a good thing he's cute, cause man, some days...LOL

Finally!

I got a calling! Can't tell you yet because I haven't been sustained, but I'll fill ya in tomorrow. I'm so relieved, I just want the opportunity to serve in my ward and bond with those I serve alongside with! I also got to speak with the bishop. It had to be on the phone because of his illness, but it was nice to know he knew who I was and all of that - very relieving. I'll give details tomorrow.

This morning my mom and I went to a local beauty college and had some stuff done. I did one thing at a time, because I knew, since these were students, they would take a long time to do things, which is fine, I wasn't in a hurry, but I didn't want to commit to too much (you pay before they do the work) because of Jayden being at home with Kevin. So I started with a haircut, it took 2.5 hours (wash, cut, dry) but it was totally worth it. I got a lady who was in her 40's and going through beauty school and she was just awesome! She was fun to talk to, polite, sure of herself so I wasn't worried about her doing hair even though she said it's very rare for someone with hair as long as mine to come into the college and so she was so glad to get a chance to cut my hair. We learned together about what works for my hair in styling it and there were some bumps in the road - first of all she moved my head like a mannequin head for half the hair cut, until she finally relaxed enough to stop whipping my head into place instead of moving her body, LOL, but that's ok, she did eventually stop doing that. And it was super cheap! $14 for wash, cut, and blow dry! Then I decided to get my eyebrows done, those were $7, and the girl did REALLY good...the witch hazel made my eyes water a bit, but it always does and since I warned her she didn't get all nervous about it or anything. I tipped the gals and left while my mom was still there, she decided to go all out - manicure, pedicure, hair cut, style, and eyebrows - she was there for 4.5 hours! LOL

Then we went to a birthday party at a friend's house. She's also our dentist, so we got to see how "The other half" lives. BEAUTIFUL home. I really loved her bathroom! She wanted to hold Jayden when we first got there and Jayden jumped out of her arms practically screaming "mama!" (I think she might know what it means!) and crying! Poor thing! Later on she warmed up to her, and went more willingly to her after a few hours. It was good food and lots of fun, she was in our old ward and so alot of people from our old ward were there. She's kind of an inspiration to me because she finished dental school during two pregnancies and while her children were very young.

I also got an awesome nap in today! I slept on my back with no one on my boob, it was AWESOME. I did wake up because Kevin was yelling at someone on the phone at one point. I had slept so long he decided to order pizza for dinner and was on the phone with Pizza Hut, they rezoned the area and none of the restaurants is our delivery zone, we live in an older established neighborhood and 1.2 miles from a Pizza Hut store! CRAZINESS! So he ordered from Dominoes after filing a complaint with Pizza Hut corporate.

Well Jayden's fussing for her nighttime nursing, and I just wanted to share about my busy, busy Saturday - it was an awesome day though. I have my work cut out for me on Monday with this house! LOL Isn't it always like that though?

The Impossible "Group Shot"

When I was the mother of one child, I could easily snap pictures of him and they would always turn out nicely. Jakey would be facing the camera, nothing besides what I was intending to photograph would end up in the picture and it would only take a take or two for closed eyes and whatnot to end up with a good picture. I'm not talking photographer quality, I'm saying, look he can sit on his own! type pictures. Then I had another child.

With two it wasn't too bad, Jakey could listen and would face the camera and Justin was easy to entertain with funny sounds, so he usually turned his head the right way too. When I wanted to take a picture of just Justin, Jakey could stand near me and make sounds and I would end up with a decent shot, again, not photography, just a "look he dan roll over" type shot. Then I had a third child.

Now, I get all three of them together for a group shot and they're all at varying heights in the picture, no one leans in, both boys are trying to make her laugh, no one is looking at me, and they're moving, CONSTANTLY. I can't get a picture of just Jayden (unless I lock the boys in a closet) because both boys make noises and she's confused and looking in all directions, or just as I push the button to take the picture a hand shoots into the picture. I used to get decent shots before Jayden learned how to play with her brothers.

Now that I have three kids, will I ever again have a decent group shot of all of my children again???!!!

Just Your Typical Day at the County Health Department...

Justin needed a physical for pre-Kindergarten for this fall, so I called his pediatrician that I do like, and they couldn't get him in (Kindergarten physical rush and all) and so I called the public health department and they got us an appointment. So I didnt' have high hopes, but Justin just had a 4 year well child check up 2 months ago and so I wasn't worried he had a disease or anything, just need the form filled out, so I went in not thinking this would be the best experience, but I was surprised!

The clinic wasn't in a particularly great neighborhood but I felt totally safe the whole time and the people in the waiting room were awesome. Everyone was super nice and the kids all talked to eachother or watched TV nicely. Interestingly this was my first time seeing Yo Gabba Gabba and WHAT THE HECK is up with that show? Wow, just wow. What kind of drugs do you have to be on to come up with that children's show! Anyhow, it took a LONG time, but it wasn't unpleasant at all.

They did his vision test and agreed, the boy can't see without his glasses. She asked about all of his milestones and those types of things and he's hitting them. He can skip and walk on his tip toes and spoke clearly and nicely to her. Then she asked him to take off his shirt so she could examine him. Oh. My. Goodness. You'd have thought they were trying to murder him. Justin screamed and fought tooth and nail (Kevin even) to keep his shirt on. She finally got to listen to his heart and all of that and gave him back his shirt only to turn around and say "OK I need to check your testicles now" Let's just say I'm no longer afraid to send Justin to the men's room! Wow! He put up quite the fight, he was NOT showing her his privates!

Anyhow, several hours later, three to be exact, he's been cleared for attendance at local public pre-kindergarten and was given a lead test, finger pricked for anemia, and had a tb test, no shots until next spring in preparation for Kindergarten. Big boy!

Uneasiness and Stress

I am usually an "It is what it is" kind of person, coupled with a little bit of worry for things I cannot change, but for the most part while I fret, I completely understand alot of things are out of my control. The past few days I have a general feeling of unrest, as though I'm waiting for the "other shoe to drop". I'm not even sure why. There isn't any one thing in particular that is so out of order it should keep me worried, but I just feel "uneasy".

First, apparently because I was not a full time student this past semester, I'm not eligible to enroll until regular enrollment on May 8th, priority registration began April 15th. I've been frantically watching the class I NEED fill up. Originally there were 45 seats and now there are 37 left, I know there are still plenty of seats but gosh it's like 2.5 more weeks until I can even think about registering. There is a waitlist of 10, but I worry I won't even get on that!

Second, I really dislike Jayden's pediatrician. I know more about breastfeeding and vaccines I think than this woman. Due to our insurance issues I don't have much choice but to take her to see this lady and I don't like it at all, so I paid cash for her to see her old ped at her 4 month check up and now she's days away from 6 months and 6 weeks away from being on a different insurance and I'm thinking of just waiting until the new insurance starts rather than take her back to this pediatrician or pay cash for another visit. We've decided to delay her vaccinations so that's not an issue. So that weighs heavily on my mind.

Third, I am worried about how Jayden is going to do this summer. She's starting to really reach her stranger danger time, even not so strangers are causing her alligator tears. She doesn't want to sit with anyone unless I'm in the room, if I get up at all she FREAKS OUT and screams until I come back into the room. She reaches for me and it's just so pitiful. It's nice to feel wanted, but I don't want her to be miserable this summer.

Fourth, I'm stuck in a diet rut...no change this week. I know I'm messing up here and there and it's my own fault, I need to stiffen up and work harder, it's just hard. I have a food addiction and it's very hard for me to get past.

Fifth, the set up of my living room is making it hard to clean. I really need to move the furniture around, the way it is it doesn't flow nicely and I have a hard time keeping it clean because I don't really like being in there. All the other rooms are clean, just not the living room.

Sixth, I worry about our car breaking down - alot. It's to the point where I'm afraid to drive it while alone. Kevin has replaced so much under the hood and the check engine light is off, but still, it seems like I shouldn't trust that car to run.

Finally, I worry about Jakey and Justin. Do I do enough with them? Have I taught them anything? Do I listen enough to them? Am I a good example to them? Did I remember to have Justin use the toilet before bed to cut down on the nighttime pee?

Well Tylenol PM and I'm off to bed - to stress.

Closing a Chapter of His Life

Kevin came to the realization during a heart to heart we had the other day, that we both, especially him (his words) spend too much time online. He (and I at some points but not since last August) played the game World of Warcraft. Kevin had achieved the highest level of the game (70) with three characters (it doesn't end there, it's just the highest level your character can go). (I have one level 70 character from when I played.) On Saturdays he was committed to raiding for 5-8 hours (during the middle of the day) and on Wednesday nights he was raiding for 2-4 hours, plus other time he was spending on the game.

We discussed what we want for our children and for us, and decided to both really back off the computer so much, so I've been scarce. Kevin has been helping with homework and chores around the house during his free time and I've been spending more time finding ways to keep up the houes and organizing a household binder with all of the important information in it that Kevin would need to do something like pay a bill or decide what groceries we need to buy or call a pediatrician for one of the kids.

Tonight Kevin sold the creativity of his password (since you can't buy or sell WoW accounts or the time you spent leveling a character) we sold the creativity of a super cool password. You'd be surprised how much three level 70 characters go for, REALLY surprised. He truly is done with the game. I'm so proud of him! I've felt for a while that it was coming between us, but didn't want to be the wife who says "quit the game!"

We're planning some fun stuff for this weekend with the kids, the agenda for tomorrow is:

* have his employer fix his check, they left off a bundle!
* go to the bank
* take the boys for hair cuts
* walmart
* costco

Well time to sneak into bed and cuddle my sweet little baby. Night all!

Time Out For Women - Review & the rest of the trip!

Yesterday we managed to get on the road by 12:00 to head to Fresno for Time Out For Women. I rode in my mom's van with two ladies from my new ward and a non-member friend of theirs. My mom's best friend, from my ward, her daughter met us there. She and I shared a room together with our little babies. She had a little boy who is four months named Luke. Jayden wasn't a huge fan of Luke. LOL She held his hand and flirted with him but got insanely jealous when people cooed and talked to him and not her. LOL

Anyhow, we found the convention center and then realized that we hadn't mapquested directions to our hotel or anything and my mom was being stubborn and wouldn't let me program the navigation system, so we drove around - the convention center is in a BAD part of town. Our hotel, even WORSE part of town. We got there and the front desk told us we couldn't check in yet because they were still steam cleaning the carpets in the rooms. So we went to Denny's to wait it out. Finally we could check in, they got us in three rooms in a row. The floors were still squishy and wet. Yuck. More on the Horrible Room and The Very Long Night in a bit.

By the time we got our stuff in and I nursed Jayden, it was time to head back to the Convention Center, we had gotten our bearings on Fresno and knew how to get back so that only took a minute. We happened to just "fall" into the right parking structure that was offering FREE parking, and it was literally STEPS from the conference.

Inside very nice ladies stopped everyone of us with a baby and showed us the "Mother's Lounge" and where we could sit inside the auditorium. We had the back right side of the auditorium to ourselves. They didn't really seem to want our groups sitting with us, but there were less people on Friday night so our whole group sat together.

First up was Mercy River, three women with AMAZING voices, who are also HILARIOUS. We sang along with them, it had a very Young Women's Camp feel to it. (Little did I know we would soon be "roughing it" in our MOTEL.) My favorite song we all sang was Come Thou Fount, it's such a beautiful song anyways, but hearing I don't know over a thousand women singing it together, you could very much feel the Spirit.

Next came Ardeth Kapp, unfortunately her microphone wasn't working right and since I cannot hear very well anyway, I did not really hear any of her talk. I wish I had, plus this was my first time using the Mother's Lounge - only to change Jayden, I just nursed her in the auditorium, but the hallway it was in was echo-y and her voices carried and bounced and plus wasn't very loud and it sounded like the Peanut's teacher rather than her voice. So I really didn't get to hear much of what she said. I'm sure it was great and I could have been truly inspired by her words, but I didn't hear them.

Next up was Jason Deere, Dan Truman, and "Friends" they performed from their CD, Joseph A Nashville Tribute. It was AMAZING. I bought the CD, there is a song about Emma Smith, just so very touching. I cannot possibly do it justice by describing it, it's definitely worth buying on iTunes though - the actual song is just called Emma - I'm pretty sure it's on iTunes.

That ended the night and we headed back to the MOTEL. Notice my lack of referring to this as a HOTEL, yeah, MOTEL for sure. So 1/2 of us decided to go back to Denny's to eat again because we were hungry (it was 10 pm now) and the other 1/2 went back to the Motel. After a nice dinner my group headed back and my roomie (whom I had never met before yesterday) and I went to our room with our babies. We talked to our husbands and got our babies to sleep and then sat up talking until 4 AM! Around 2 PM, after walking around on the still-squishy-carpet, we were sitting on our beds facing eachother and Crystal notices there is a HUGE blood stain, yes blood stain, on the showing part of my box spring. We couldn't bring ourselves to pull back the sheet and look...we couldn't do much, it was the middle of the night and the room was in one of our mother's names and they were asleep, so we just sat up giggling and grossed out. We survived it though.

In the morning, after getting only 2 hours sleep (our babies woke up at 6:00) we got up and everyone got dressed and ready and we left the MOTEL (checked out too, YUCK) and headed to the Convention Center again. We grabbed some McDonald's along the way. Again we got FREE parking, yay!

Inside the Convention Center we got awesome tote bags and again were referred to the cordoned off area for nursing moms. This time there was not enough room for whole parties to accompany nursing mothers so Crystal and I sat together and our moms would come visit us now and then to let us go to the bathroom or get us bottles of water or stand to rock our babies, but really - the way the program is set up - speaker, music, speaker, music, with lots of breaks, our babies behaved AWESOME. We only ever took them out for diaper changes. They slept during speakers and danced and Jayden learned how to clap during singing.

First up Saturday morning was again Mercy River, we sang Come Thou Fount again, and then all the speakers for the day gave us "teasers" of their talks later on. The first speaker was Mary Ellen Edmunds. The woman is ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. Seriously. I laughed SO hard I cried...alot. We were seated pretty far back but there was a big screen they were projecting her closeup and her facial expressions, oh man. She is just so funny. I woke up Jayden I was laughing so hard. The theme was "Joyful Life" and all of the speakers spoke about having a Joyful Life.

Next Kenneth Cope came out and he sang, beautifully, and Jayden danced and clapped and thoroughly enjoyed it. He spoke a bit between songs, it was really beautiful!

After he spoke we heard from S. Michael Wilcox, he gave a wonderful talk from what I heard of it but honestly, I stayed up until 4 in the morning, Jayden fell back asleep and I dozed off a bit, sorry, bad reviewer here!

We had a lunch, then we heard more from Kenneth Cope and then Emily Watts spoke. Oh my goodness, she is hilarious! She talked alot about Mom Guilt, boy do I do this! Something she said that I thought was particularly hilarious was the back when she was having kids she was nursing one of them and they seemed extra gassy, so she thought what have I eaten, what have I done, and felt guilty for eating chocolate when it might have upset her baby's tummy...she said we have it so much worse now, people are so judgemental and we're supposed to be doing so much to ensure bright futures for our kids that if they come out a little behind the curve then we're thought to have not played enough Mozart for the baby in the womb, and it's a whole lot earlier for Mom Guilt now, LOL.

After Emily Watts spoke we heard from Dean Hughes. He was also totally hilarious but again, I got snuggled in and dozed off for a little bit of his talk, but I really did hear most of it. He talked alot about being patient and not letting the little things get you down, just let that stuff slide. That is something I definately need to work on! During one of the breaks my mom bought every single book in the Children of the Promise series. LOL

The final speaker was Sharon Larsen, she spoke of her struggle through infertility and having a rebellious child. She spoke about how adversity makes us stronger, a very important message!

Then the conference ended and we left, we bought books at the makeshift Deseret Book they set up and loaded up the car and left. Jayden had apparently had enough of "being good" and FREAKED OUT and screamed most of the way home. It was a great two hours. LOL But really, she did very good. Well I'm so exhausted I'm nearly crosseyed, so I'm going to bed now. I didn't get a single picture because I accidentally left my camera on at one point and it was dead when I went to use it which thoroughly disappointed me because they did allow flash photography in the auditorium (just no recording). We bought the box lunch - it was very yummy and way better than hunting down food somewhere else, so if anyone who reads this goes, just do the lunch, it's easy and good.

Overall, it was a very Spiritual, rejouvenating, experience and I'm SO GLAD I got the chance to go! If Time Out For Women comes within a few hours of you - make every attempt to go, it's SO totally worth it!

Justin's Near Death Experience

Every day (well almost every day, sometimes Kevin is home and we drive, sometimes Kevin's grandma is around and she drives us) we walk to and from Jakey's school to drop him off in the morning and pick him up in the afternoon. There are ALOT of parents that seem to feel comfortable with their 6-9 year olds walking alone, I'm not one of them. We walk about 0.75 miles each way, so it ends up being about 3 miles per day when we go both ways. At one point there is a busier intersection that has a four way stop sign with a crossing guard provided by the school.

This crossing guard and Justin have become really good friends. He is approximately 70 years old and just a really, really nice guy. Justin runs ahead a little to play with him while waiting for me to catch up, the crossing guard gives Justin his stop sign to use as a bat and throws these little acorn things that fall off the trees on that street as balls and they play baseball while I finish walking the last house or so to the corner. (I walk slowly for both of their benefit, they both really enjoy this.) Justin goes on and on about the crossing guard at home and really likes him, he even made him a Valentine's Day card. He asks me every day "Can I run ahead to play with my friend?" Loves the guy. And he really is a sweet, grandfatherly, man to Justin and the other kids, he dotes on Jayden as well.

Today, as usual, we went to pick up Jakey and Justin ran ahead to the corner and played some baseball with his friend until I caught up, then we crossed one way, then the other. The crossing guard went out 1/2 way across the street and whistled for us to come, Justin ran to the other side like usual so that he could gather more of the acorn thingies to throw to his friend, the crossing guard. So Justin's 3/4 of the way across the street, the crossing guard is 1/2 across the street, and I'm about 1/4 across the street when this lady just started coming across the intersection in her car, headed STRAIGHT FOR JUSTIN. The crossing guard started blowing his whistle and yelling for her to stop, I was screaming for Justin to come back, everyone was honking their horns to get her attention, the whole intersection just freaked out for a moment there. The lady stopped literally INCHES from Justin. He could have easily reached over and touched the grill of her car. The crossing guard and I had both lunged for him and I dragged him across the rest of the street and was having a little breakdown while the crossing guard and other drivers were chewing out the lady for being so careless. After a few minutes the crossing guard says, "Your older son is about to get out of school, you have to go or call someone or something." So we headed towards Jakey's school.

Once we got Jakey we headed back the way we had come. When we got to the intersection Justin was so upset he wouldn't cross, at all. Jakey had to push Jayden and I had to carry Justin across the intersection. Right as we got onto the corner the way we needed to be facing the crossing guard says to Justin, "I'm sorry about what happened back there, are you ok buddy?" and Justin said, "Don't talk to me, I'm not your friend anymore!" I told the crossing guard how sorry I was for what Justin said, and thanked him for everything he did to help and told Justin, "He did everything he could, this wasn't his fault, it was that woman's fault for not paying attention." and he said, "No it's his fault, crossing guards are supposed to keep you safe and he didn't keep me safe." The poor crossing guard just looked so sad and hurt by Justin's words, he had to go though because more kids needed to cross so we left.

I feel awful, I've been talking with Justin about this all night, he still firmly believes the crossing guard failed to keep him safe and that it's his fault Justin was almost hit today. I feel so bad for Justin, but I feel awful for the crossing guard! We're making some blueberry muffins to take to him in the morning, hopefully I can convince Justin to not say anything rude or mean to the crossing guard, the poor guy really did his best, it wasn't his fault!

Jakey's School Issues - Updated

I talked to the principal of Jakey's school this morning and while I found conversating with him on the phone aggrevating - he talks over you with "uh huh, uh huh, ok, got it" all. the. time. - he did seem to understand my frustrations with the summer school/tutoring stuff and how scared I am that Jakey will fall behind again when retention isn't an option for him again. Anyhow, he's going to look into Jakey's test scores a bit more and talk with his teacher, tutoring isn't an option because it's over for the year now and summer school isn't open but we discussed summer school and decided that we wouldn't enroll him because he needs to go to things like Cub Scout Day Camp just as much as he needs tutoring and help over the summer, and the principal did agree with that. So he's going to get test scores and talk with Jakey's teacher and try to come up with a plan to prevent Jakey from starting 3rd grade behind, again. He's also going to have a reading coach (helps with writing too) sit with him and come up with a summer plan for us and a math coach as well. Then they will provide us with some summer teaching materials to work with him on our own this summer.

I think this is the best plan for Jakey. I think that things like daycamps and cabin and beach trips are just as important as learning in a traditional setting, so I'm not terribly disappointed in him not being in summer school. And it seems like they're willing to work with him to be sure he doesn't fall behind. The principal did mention that he too has a child with a late b-day and they chose to hold the child back before starting K, so I think that he understands moreso what we've been through as parents.

So everyone asks me, will we start Jayden (since her b-day is the same day as Jakey's) at 4.5 or wait a year and the answer is - I don't know. I don't know if the laws will be the same when she's older and I don't know what she'll know or how she'll be...so I'm not sure - I'd love to say that I'd never put another 4 year old in school, but I'm more ready to say I'd never put another 4 year old BOY in school again, that I'm pretty sure about! LOL But who knows about Jayden. What amazes me is the Justin is nearing the age when we sent Jakey to Kindergarten and I just think Justin's still such a baby - he's definitely not ready - good thing he's going to Pre-Kindergarten next year!

I am going to Time Out for Women this weekend in Fresno! I'm so excited! I'm driving up with I think 6 Sisters from my ward (new ward) and my mom's ward (and of course my mom) on Friday afternoon. Friday night Ardeth Kapp will be speaking and then there will be some kind of musical presentation - from what I hear it'll be a concert! Then Saturday the scheduled line up is: Kenneth Cope, Mary Ellen Edmunds, Dean Hughes (I LOVED Children of the Promise and Hearts of the Children!), Emily Watts, and many, many more including more musical talent! I'm so excited! We're staying in a hotel overnight too!

Jayden's coming because she's a nursing baby so I'm a little worried about not getting anything out of the experience because she'll distract me, but I think overall it'll be ok. She's a woman - just smaller! :) Hopefully she behaves, they do have nursing and crying areas set aside for nursing babies, hopefully we won't be spending all of our time in there! LOL

Babysitting for Jakey and Justin until Kevin gets off work is all set up, I'm SO excited to get to go. Tonight Kevin gave me spending money for my trip as an anniversary present - what a great guy! He's known how excited I am about this for months now. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

8 Years Ago Today...

We got married!

This is my favorite pic of Kevin and Jakey - over the years it's been saved really small, but I have the original and I just love this pic.



Here's a bigger version of the pic in my header - how many of our bridesmaids/maid of honor/best man/groomsmen do we have regular frequent contact with today - none. How weird is that?!



Jakey right before the ceremony - during the ceremony Kev's best man held him and he threw up ALL OVER him while we were saying our vows, I wanted to stop and clean him up but someone tossed a receiving blanket up and since the best man was a father of a boy the same age as Jakey he waved to us to just keep going, that he was fine. LOL



Us during our first toast...don't worry - it's sparkling cider! No alcohol at our wedding, we didn't want to pay for the permit. LOL Anyhow, you can see the mole I mentioned having and being self concious of all these years til I had it removed 4 years ago...I HATE this picture for that reason. Some day I'll get good at photo editing and I'll make it better! LOL



Us during our first dance. We danced to "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" by Mark Chestnut (not Aerosmith!) and you can see Jakey's exersaucer in the background. While everyone danced Jakey and his friend (the best man's son) partied in their saucers on the dance floor.



A shot of the back of my dress - it was bustled, this dress was like 15 feet behind me unbustled and it was HOT and weighed like 30 lbs by itself without petticoats...what a monstrosity in early April, it was HOT that day! LOL



This is us through the years - the first picture is of our first date - it's a button in black and white that we had done at the mall when we were Christmas shopping on our first date. The second picture was taken while I was pregnant with Jakey, the 3rd when Jakey was about a year old. The others are all about a year apart the last one being from 2006.



This was taken this last fall - you can't tell but the kids are between us, just down low out of the picture, that's why there is so much space, LOL.



In total we've been together 10.5 years, married for 8 of them. In November of 2005 we went to the Manti temple and had this "for time" marriage made eternal, a 2nd wedding day! We don't really celebrate our anniversary on April 7th anymore because our eternal marriage seems more important to us now, but it's still nice to remember the day we were married civilly.

Happy Anniversary, Kevin!

Paying Attention

I was just filling out a health questionaire to bring to Justin's physical for Pre-K on the 17th and it lists the normal health questions like, Does your child have Heart Problems? Lung Problems? Heart Disease? Asthma? Diabetes? And so on all down this list in a row but grouped by body part. I'm answering away "no, no, no, no, no, no" cause Justin's a really healthy kid, I finish and look at the list and realize, there is a longer question in the middle of all those questions, so I read that question more carefully (after I've already answered "no" to everything) and it says, "Have you been carefully filling out this form?" OOPS! I marked NO. LOL! They got me! I wasn't paying much attention!

"Man Chores"

We have cleaning time on Saturdays in order to keep our house under control. These consist of "Man Chores", "Woman Chores", and "Child Chores".

"Man Chores" are things like cleaning out trashcans, mowing the grass, edging, washing the car, cleaning out the garage, changing light bulbs around the house, hanging pictures, those types of things.

"Child Chores" are a deeper cleaning version of Jakey's regular chores - like actually sweeping and mopping his bedroom floor (hardwood) and taking off his sheets for washing and then remaking the beds, that kind of stuff in addition to really getting his room clean. He then rotates between helping Kevin with "man chores" and me with "woman chores".

Justin rotates between everyone picking up things off the floor or running to get a drink for you or bringing the phone when it rings so you can answer it or just in general staying out of the way since "Child Chores" don't start in full force until Kindergarten in our house - he has to pick up after himself, but not make his own bed with sheets (he does fix his bed in the mornings but not like after a sheet washing) or any of that until Kindergarten. Jakey had the same reprieve.

I do the "Woman Chores" that would be whatever is left over from "Man Chores" and "Child Chores" - pretty much everything. Today I am focusing on floors - ours need some love - I am out of the habit of caring for hardwood floors.

Luckily everyone's chores includes putting away their own laundry! Better get at it!

"Them's fighting words!"

Back when Jakey started at this elementary school in February, when we moved him back to 2nd grade from 3rd, his teacher thought he might still benefit from some tutoring. I asked her for the tutoring information a few times and Kevin asked her a few times and each time her response was, "Let's see how he progresses for a bit."

Time goes by and now he got his report card last Friday. He got all 3's and 4's (the equivalent of B's and C's really) and his teacher checked the boxes for her recommendations for Jakey - tutoring and summer school. So I wrote on the part I return, "Please send me some information about tutoring so we can get him started, I don't want him to fall behind again since we have already retained him." and sent it back. I waited all week, nothing. So yesterday I asked Jakey to remind his teacher one more time about the tutoring information, afterschool I asked him - "what did your teacher say about the tutoring information?" and he said, "She said it's not worth her time." Now those words, out of context, will make me see red, what does she mean it's not worth her time????? So infuriated, I called the school. Come to find out, this is the last week of tutoring because of state testing and the end of the year coming up.

So, I'm annoyed, she should have gotten him in tutoring sooner! Let the tutors decide if he doesn't need it if she's not sure, something! So I was talking to a lady in the office on the phone and told her that she also checked the box for Summer School, so what about that? The lady told me, I'll give you the number for the district's summer school program, but I'm pretty sure the invitations have been sent out? INVITATIONS??????

I called the District's Summer School phone number and got the world's least helpful person on the phone. Our conversation went like this:

Me: I need to find out if my son was considered for Summer School.

LHP: Did you get an invitation?

Me: No.

LHP: Then no, he's not invited to summer school.

Me: What would have gotten him an invitation?

LHP: If he failed a certain test the teachers performed, the lowest performing students were saved Summer School spots.

Me: When was this test given?

LHP: I don't know.

Me: We just enrolled him two months ago, did he even TAKE this test?

LHP: I don't know.

Me: What if he didn't even take the test, but is low performing and no one thought to test him and now he doesn't get summer school just because he wasn't tested?

LHP: I don't know.

Me: What can I do about this?

LHP: I don't know.

Me: Is there a waiting list I can get him on, in case I can find out if he can take the test, fail it presumably, and then qualify?

LHP: I don't know.

Me: Who would I talk to about this test?

LHP: I don't know.

As you can see, she didn't know a whole lot. I was exasperated with the whole situation by the end of the call. My end of the conversation went something like, "Well what helpful information DO YOU KNOW since the school sent me to YOU for information????" "I don't know." ARGH.

I have a call into the principal. I'm super frustrated with the whole thing, but REALLY frustrated with Jakey's teacher using the words, "It's not worth my time." to my child - excuse me? Everything my child needs is worth your time. And boy is this principal going to hear about that! Thank goodness there are only 2 months left of school and left of Jakey's term in this teacher's care...I would move him but he likes his classmates, so I'll leave it alone since it's almost over. But I'm not happy of it, and if I have anything to say about it, "it's not worth my time" will NOT be a part of this teacher's vocabulary anymore.

She Speaks!

Don't mind the pile of clean laundry I needed to fold during American Idol, I couldn't put down my gorgey girl when she was literally, talking TO ME! LOL I love it! OF all my children, she's the only one to ever say "mama" before "dada" even in the nonsensical way that they do when they don't really even know what they are saying. But I think she knows, I think she's saying "mama" TO me. :)

Random pics!

Can't Say

I didn't want to title my blog for those who use blog readers - if I said I was doing a Meme, Beth would shun me! LOL I was tagged by Christine.

I'm not posting the rules, a la Beth's rebellion a few weeks ago, but you all know and love - the 7 Random Facts Meme!

1. I didn't try on or buy a pair of pants that I'm pretty sure were on sale today at Old Navy because I didn't want to figure out the price because the tag had been ripped off.

2. I used to have a big mole on my forehead - I had it removed during my gallbladder surgery 4 years ago.

3. I watched almost a whole season of America's Next Top Model today after never having seen the show before - and I liked it, ALOT. And I am SOOOOOOOO not super into fashion or anything - I just thought it was really cool.

4. Yesterday I wore a dress to my friend's funeral just because I could. I am getting tired of skirts and nursing friendly clothes, LOL.

5. I defrosted and broke apart and fried a hamburger patty for hamburger meat for Kevin's tacos for dinner tonight. I ran out of beef!

6. I opened a new bank account online tonight, gosh I was a busy woman!

7. I played an April Fool's joke on my BIL. He left his lunch at his grandma's and she was going to run it to him so she handed it to SIL to have her write his name on it so that it could be identified as his lunch by the office staff when she took it in. I told SIL, write "Love, Grandma" on it and put hearts and "We Heart U" all over it and then on the other side write "April Fools!", well the office staff was laughing hysterically and sent a student iwth the lunch to his classroom and they set it on his desk so the "love you" side was facing the rest of the class (and PJ didn't see it) and all hte kids were kind of laughing a little and PJ had no idea why. Well then he picked up the lunch and took it to the lunchroom, still facing away from him, everyone in the cafeteria was kind of laughing but he couldn't figure out why. He was kind of afraid to eat his lunch because he thought we had put toothpaste in his sandwich or something since the bag said "April Fools" - eventually he gave up being cautious about his lunch and threw it in his backpack. After school he asked what we did to his lunch and we said, just the bag, and he was confused and so we told him to turn the bag over, then he saw the words and hearts all over it, LOL, it was HILARIOUS, he was like "THAT'S why everyone was laughing at me!" LOL

I tag whoever has 7 random things to write - I think that if you did any April Fool's jokes you should do this for sure!

Enduring To The End

I went to the funeral today of one of my visiting teachers from my old ward. This lady had lived to be 86 years old. Her husband had passed away a year before and she hadn't been in good health for a long time, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. Her funeral was wonderful. She had written her own personal history and her family used excerpts from it in her eulogy, it was truly amazing! I had known her but I came away from her funeral knowing so much more about her, it was awesome! She grew up in the town I live in and her descriptions of what certain areas of town looked like in the 1940's and 50's were just amazing!

The thing I think of the most when an elderly person passes away is - Will my children/family say wonderful things about me? I think truly wonderful people don't know how wonderful they are. This Sister did our ward newsletter (on the computer) up until the week she passed away, I had Jayden on October 28th in the middle of the night (the 27th into the 28th) she had Jayden's birth information in her version of our November newsletter that was passed out less than 9 hours after I gave birth! She was literally, THAT amazing. Her children had stories they remembered from growing up put into the eulogy and it made me think of all the things I ought to be doing with my own children so that they can remember me in such a kind light.

Overall, I want that kind of laughter at my funeral (in like a century from now, LOL) there were moments in her eulogy where stories were relayed that were absolutely hilarious, and really the passing of someone who led such a full life isn't so sad, they are painfree, able bodied again, and in the presence of the Lord.

Understanding Jacob

Nope, not MY Jacob, Jacob as in The Brother of Nephi, in the Book of Mormon, yes THAT Jacob. Today in Gospel Doctrine we went over the 5th chapter of Jacob - the allegory of the olive trees. Now, I am not a gardener...I cannot keep ANYTHING alive, I have a black thumb, so this is a particularly difficult concept for me to understand because when I look at my failing plants my only thought is to toss them, not to "spare it a little longer". My seminary memories of trying to learn this allegory involve alot of me trying not to sleep.

Today it struck me though when we were going through essentially what this is, I have been taken from a wonderful ward, and put in a different ward, grafted (or drafted LOL) into this ward and this is where the Lord needs me to be. We fought this move, we kept coming back to needing to move into THIS ward's boundaries, there has to be a reason. We've been grafted and now it seems as though we're having a pile of manure poured over us (tons of cruddy trials! LOL) to ensure that we grow healthy and strong. There is something I'm supposed to bring to this ward, and something they are supposed to teach me. Right now, I think it's patience.

News about our bishop is that he started Chemo and is doing well, he has no pain whereas he had been in pain, so that is good. Today our ward fasted for him and for some other sick members of the ward, and his wife taught the lesson in Relief Society (he was at a doctor's office getting an IV during church) about Joy, about knowing Joy because of having suffered, it was a beautiful lesson.

News about us - we're seeing that things are totally falling into place for my return to school/work this summer. Jakey's school sent home a note about State Funded Pre-Kindergarten and I called and to my shock and amazement we qualify! We never qualify for anything - not free lunches, or reduced, NOTHING, so this was amazing to me, I almost didn't call but couldn't quiet the little voice saying, "just try" - amazingly we qualify! So Justin will be able to attend, FOR FREE, Jakey's school next year for Pre-Kindergarten. What a relief that is!

Well, blogger has been unfriendly to me all weekend, so now I must run around blogs and catch up, I've missed y'all, I'm coming to comment! :)

Pics and Videos

I have still resisted those dang donuts.

However. I weighed myself the day after Easter to see how much damage I had done and I had gained 2 lbs so I set out to lose those lbs before my *official* weigh in today...well I lost those 2 lbs but nothing else...so I'm still only down 10 lbs with ZERO weight loss for this week. :( Super sad.

In good news, I am enrolled in the Certified Nurses Assistant Training course at our local community college starting June 9th and running through July 17th. My mom is going to watch the kids, I have to go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 8-11 and Thursdays and Fridays are my externships at local nursing facilities (hospitals, long term care centers, etc.) from 8-5 both days. Then I start work the week following but take my state licensing test the first week of August. I'm hoping to get the shift that's up for new CNA's Friday, Saturday, Sundays nights 7 pm to 7:30 am. Then Kevin will watch the kids and while I sleep, and we'll only need his sister for Friday afternoons so I can get some sleep and until Kevin gets off work and Monday during the day while I sleep. I'll be taking 1/2 load of courses towards my degree this fall semester online so I am going to use her probably one other day so I can study and do my school work, just while Jakey's in school though. I'm applying for the LVN program next fall. I decided that a nurse is what I really want to be when I grow up...unfortunately the BSN program is REALLY hard to get into, you HAVE to be an LVN to get accepted pretty much, so I'm just going to do it this way.

Anyhow I'm happy and sad. Happy because Kevin HAS to be able to go back to school at some point because his job is VERY physical and he can't do it forever and that I'll get to fulfill a dream of mine, but SAD that I'm going to miss some of Jayden's firsts. So here's a video of Jayden's first cereal feeding...she LOVED it.



And some pics of her first Easter:





I know she'll be fine with my mom and Kevin's sister (when I start work) but I just worry. I'm going to miss the boys like crazy too, but we NEED this for our family - we're not getting any younger and Kevin has to have the opportunity to go back to school relatively soon (we're thinking 5-7 years). I'm nervous though! LOL I have lost alot of brain cells to Curious George and too many daytime court shows! LOL

What an evil, horrible thing to do!

Kevin took Jakey to school this morning. We only had enough milk for Jakey's bowl of cereal so he was going to pick up some milk on his way home from Jakey's school. He just got back - with the milk...AND WITH CHOCOLATE DONETTES. Chocolate donettes, with their waxy chocolate, drenched in milk, are my WEAKNESS. I calculated the WW points - 5 points for THREE donettes...

Nothing tastes as good as being thin wlll feel...

Nothing tastes as good as being thin will feel...

Nothing tastes as good as being thin will feel...

they are literally sitting one foot from me...being dipped in Kevin's and Justin's milk...

Oh my gosh, this is the WORST tempatation I have had thus far.

What kind of annoys me about this situation is my severe addiction to food and Kevin's insensitivity to that...Hmph.

Kevin's b-day party

We invited two couples over for dinner and games tonight to celebrate Kevin's b-day. Bryan and Stephanie and David and Yaneth came over and we had BBQed chicken (I made it and it was AWESOME) and Kevin's famous Creole Seasoned Potatoes. We also had salad and corn - no corn for me, what a waste of points! LOL Anyhow, dinner was great, we laughed so hard sometimes that we cried.

A few weeks back the next door neighbors had told us they were having a wedding at their house tonight and it would be very loud so we had made arrangements for the boys to stay at Kevin's mom's house because we knew they wouldn't be able to sleep through the music (loud Spanish music) but were ok with that because they had warned us, even invited us to join them. Anyhow, they did this for all the neighbors and STILL someone called the police on their party - I felt bad for them - I hope they don't think I did it! It was annoying, there were strobe lights coming through my kitchen windows, but I was fine with it.

Anyhow, we decided to play Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader...boys versus girls. Here we are getting ready to play...


That is Bryan, David, and Kevin


This is Yaneth (who is married to David), me, and Stephanie (married to Bryan)

Apparently we girls are NOT smarter than a 5th grader! Our questions were insanely difficult "What's the tallest mountain in the U.S.?" How would I know it's Mt. McKinley???? HUH? Their questions were easy like "What type of cat does Alice meet in Alice in Wonderland?" Um, Cheshire cat anyone?? Argh. So we lost.

We had set out The Newlywed Game but the boys refused to play, calling it the "Soon To Be Divorced Game" and pretended to be us saying, "Why don't you know my favorite way to have steak is medium? What you never listen to me when I order? We've been to dinner about 5 million times! That's stupid!" When that would NEVER happen - LOL!

Kevin got I Am Legend from David and Yaneth so after Bryan and Stephanie left to take their sitter home we watched the movie with David and Yaneth - it was pretty good...I'm still muddling through the book - not a great book, at all.

Anyhow, the Easter Bunny needs to come to our house so I can get to bed. The boys are coming home first thing in the morning. Happy Easter everyone!

Oh and don't mind that giant knot on my forehead in my pic - I pulled a curtain rod down on myself and gashed my head pretty bad and got a bad goose egg going on up there! OUCH!

Fitness On Friday

Natalie is hosting a Fitness on Friday thing at her Bye Bye Fat Mom Blog. This Fat Mom must become a healthier mom, a thinner one, so I've joined her!

The point is to blog about something you've learned or need to work on, to be accountable for your fitness/weightloss each week.

I think my eating overall is really good - I use Weight Watchers so I really see what I'm eating and I feel like I'm making smart decisions about food. I am choosing foods I know will stick with me for snacks and not having easy, cheap, processed foods that aren't going to hold me over.

My find of the last few weeks has been the Sara Lee 45 Calorie bread - it's taste isn't so great plain, but toasted it's really good - so I make all my sandwiches toasted and I'm good.

I'm working on drinking straight water - but I do drink Crystal Light which counts as water on WW - so that's something! I just don't like plain tap water or bottled water.

My exercise has been seriously lacking - Jakey's on spring break so no walking to/from his school, just an occassional trip over to Kevin's grandma's house - so next week I'll be back at that.

Even though I drink a decent amount of water - I could still do better, so that's my goal this week along with more exercise. I'd like to see at least a 2 lb loss on Wednesday. I lost 5 lbs this past week, for a total of 10 lbs in the last 3 weeks.

The First Day of Spring!

My baby girl was looking particularly spring-y the other day when I snapped this pic of her complete ability to sit unassisted - not even tripodding anymore! Let me tell ya about Jayden as an almost-5 month old.

She is pretty serious, she smiles, but rarely laughs, if she laughs it's because something was HILARIOUS - you really have to work for a laugh. To get her to smile though - all you have to do is call her "gorgeous", I think she might be a little vain! Eek!

She is still dabbling in the art of thumb sucking. Pacifier=teething toy, thumb=soothing. She does sometimes put both fists in her mouth and gnaw because the poor girl is tormented by her teeth. She's also quite the drool monster - her clothes are always drenched from the neck to the waist!

She talks ALOT. She babbles all day long and involves herself in everyone's conversations - she has ALOT to say and wants to be heard over everyone. When I'm on the phone she grabs it from my ear and does her "talking" into the phone, she wants to be the center of attention - no more phone time for mommy!

She feels the same way about the keyboard - I can't sign into anything anymore because she bangs on the keyboard and messes up my passwords! LOL She loves to watch the computer screen - especially if I'm looking at pictures - LOVES to look at pictures of kids and pets, especially dogs!

Jayden is a big kisser - she grabs your face and holds it still and then growls at you and lunges towards your face with her mouth wide open! She covers your mouth with hers and goes "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and then pulls back and smiles - these are her wonderful slobbery kisses - sometimes she tries to slip the tounge, we're going to have to talk to her about that!

Jayden's favorite outfit is her birthday suit! Another thing we're going to have to discuss with her is modesty! She would be naked all the time if we'd let her! Her favorite time of the day is bathtime just because she gets to be undressed for a while. She bathes 1/2 of the time in the kitchen sink and the other 1/2 the time in the bath with Justin. Justin has taught her to splash and so she sits in the tub and joins in the splashing fun - this is one of the things that make her laugh - splashing water is great!

Well, happy first day of Spring, I can't wait to see what all Jayden learns how to do by the first day of Summer!

Wednesday Weigh In

I lost 5 lbs this week! I was really stressing that I wouldnt' lose any weight because I had gone out with my friends on Saturday night and totally over ate. So I'm at a total loss of 10 lbs, in just 3 weeks! Moving along, slowly but surely!

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Kevin turns 29 today! So here are 29 things I love about him:

1. He is so hardworking.
2. He always puts us first.
3. He gets excited about things very easily.
4. He's always willing to try new things.
5. He talks to children in public, he always notices them and says "hi!"
6. He loves to play with the kids, it's hard for him when they're too small to really play back, but once they can it's his favorite thing to do.
7. He is excellent at grilling!
8. He has an incredible work ethic, he will work sick, half dead even!
9. He's open about everything.
10. He values my opinion and usually deferrs to me to gather information about things and listens as I explain my side.
11. He is funny, he's always cracking jokes or playing pranks.
12. He gets up with the kids every Saturday morning so I can sleep in.
13. He protects us at all costs.
14. He is humble.
15. He is forgiving, I mean of major things, the way he has forgiven some awful things done to him in the past is amazing.
16. He doesn't let little things bug him.
17. He changes dirty diapers when he's home.
18. He compliments me, especially when I'm really feeling down.
19. He's always willing to let me go out while he stays home with the kids so I can get a break.
20. He's respectful of other people, always calling them "sir and ma'am"
21. He's strong - he always lifts the heavy stuff.
22. He's very secure, he doesn't worry about much.
23. He fixes everything - our car, sinks, etc.
24. He's smart in practical ways - he knows how things work and how the world works.
25. He's got the most gorgeous blue eyes!
26. He's aging well, I like his darker hair better than the more blonde hair he had when we were teenagers.
27. He's an open book, there are no secrets, no guessing, nothing I do not know about him.
28. He's an excellent father despite not having any father in his life at all.
29. He supports me in everything.

He's awesome! We've been together for coming up on 11 years this fall, married for coming up on 8 years next month. We've *grown up* together, our late teens, finishing up his 20's, and next year we'll move into his 30's - together.

And in true Kevin fashion, rather than try to take a day of rest for his big day - he's working a 16 hour shift today to support us. He's such a hardworker!

Happy Birthday, Kevipoo!

This week in pictures!

It was a long week with Jayden being sick most of it. She was so sick I didn't even do her hair some of the days! I know! You can hardly recognize her without hairbows, huh?



On Friday, I chose not to go to the park because the weather was pretty cold and Jayden was still sick, so I spent about an hour on the phone with one of my friends while Justin was supposed to be watching Caillou...



My friend Amber, from Kentucky, who I haven't seen in FOR.EV.ER. was in town this weekend and we (including her sister) went out to eat alot!



And so now I'm resting at home. We came home early from church today because Jayden's still not 100%. We just had a yummy dinner and I'm ready to slip into my jammies and read until bedtime. Night all!

They grow up so fast!

Yesterday I had to take Jakey to Cub Scouts and we realized we were running a few minutes early so we decided to stop by Albertsons to get some wipes for Jayden while we were out. It was just the two of us, Jayden is still sick and I didn't want to take her out, and Justin seems to have it a bit too. As we head into the store, I reach out and grab Jakey's hand as we cross the parking lot. He looked at me, and at our hands, and said, "Are you holding my hand because I need help crossing the parking lot, or because you forgot how to cross a parking lot without holding hands?" LOL! I haven't been able to hold Jakey's hand while we cross a parking lot in like 3 years or so, and he's pretty capable of crossing the parking lot by himself, it's just a habit for me - I HAVE forgotten how to cross a parking lot without holding someone's hand! LOL

Wednesday Weigh In

Down another 2 pounds! I think I'd be down more but I have this baby who is not eating much and my pump is not being very helpful, plus I don't have time to pump I have to hold my clingy baby, so I think my boobs weigh like 30 lbs each. Ouch.

Anyhow, there we have it, 2 more lbs gone! I also lost a WW point for going down into the next bracket of numbers - so only 42 points a day, LOL!

So. Incredibly. Tired.

If it weren't for cosleeping and nursing I would have been tired all along, but I have been spoiled. Typically, I have a little girl who will wake at night, find me in her (and my) sleep and we blissfully sleep all night long, with very little actual effort being put into baby-caretaking in the middle of the night. It's HEAVEN.

Then she got sick. She HATES to lay down, I don't blame her, I hate to lay down when I'm sick too, so I understand that. Anyhow, so she can't lay down to sleep, or to eat. At 2:00 AM she woke up crying so I took her in the living room so Kevin could sleep and I changed her diaper and took her temp, the thermometer was at 103 and still going when (DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH!) she threw up EVERYWHERE, which jolted her body enough to dislodge the thermometer...oh well 103 was good enough for me. I got her in a cool bath (and me, the victim of her aim) and got her some Motrin and patted her to sleep at 4:00 AM she finally drifted off. I stayed in the rocking chair with her until 5:00 AM when she woke up again and we repeated the experience from earlier, another cool bath, another clothing change, and we settled down and fell asleep at 6:30 - just in time to wake up to get Jakey to school. Luckily Kevin had woken up, his work had called and he didn't have to be in until 10:00 AM, and so he got Jakey ready and took care of getting him to school, and I got to take a nap until 9:00 AM.

So, I'm going on very little sleep. I'm EXHAUSTED. My mom is bringing over hamburger buns and potato salad and grilling hamburgers on our George Foreman grill for dinner for me and the kids when she gets off work, and I get to take a nap! Thank goodness! Jayden is dozing in the swing right now, but it's not true sleep and if I move at all she wakes up, so I have to sit right here where she can see me. Poor thing, she's so sick!

Justin's having a great time though, my no TV rule is totally relaxed today and he's enjoying massive amounts of television time, LOL!

Someone's Sick!

I sure hope this isn't going to be round 2 with RSV. Poor thing is just SO sick. Better head to bed, it's going to be a LONG night.

Repentance

Yesterday, during Gospel Doctrine, I sat in the hallway feeding Jayden with Kevin because there was standing room only in Gospel Doctrine and I wanted to tank her up to send her off to Elder's Quorum with Kevin. I have been in Primary for over two years, and every Sunday since I got released and we moved, had Jayden in the hallways during RS for the most part because she fusses a bit and I don't want to disturb anyone. So I had told Kevin last week, you must take her to Elder's Quorum! And he did!

I haven't actually sat there 100% paying attention to a RS Lesson in 2.5 years! It was awesome! The lesson (as all of you who are in RS know) was on Repentance, it was awesome! I never realized what all was going on in Joseph Smith's life at the time of the losing of the 118 pages of manuscript! His son dying and his wife so ill, and Martin Harris bugging him to continue to petition the Lord for the pages, what a ton of stress to be under. Then, as a testament to what an amazing person he was, he immediately was broken hearted and had a contrite spirit, and immediately began to repent. I am much slower to repent, I let myself keep the broken heart and contrite spirit for a good long time too before repentance and allowing those feelings to be turned from shame and sorrow into love and forgiveness.

Then we sang, "Come Unto Jesus" for our closing hymn and during the second verse is when I felt it, the Spirit, so strongly about the importance and love that is in repentance...

Come unto Jesus, he'll ever heed you. Though in the darkness you've gone astray. His love will find you and gently lead you. From darkest night, into day.

I am so glad that I was able to sit through an entire lesson! I asked Kevin if Jayden had been good for him and he said he didn't get to hear much of the lesson and then said, "It's Repentance, what all could there have been to the lesson? Do it. You need to do it. Period, that's all." and I had to tell him, there was so much more to the lesson!

Even losing an hour!

Today seems forever long! Sundays are hard for me because we don't have church now until 1:00 pm. The kids still wake up plenty early, especially the baby, and we have HOURS to fill before church! I didn't get up to make breakfast until 8:30, and I made a truly spectacular form of pancakes for the boys! Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes! I almost didn't let them put syrup on them but then thought, I've come this far with the sugar train, I might as well let it go all the way, and dumped it on their pancakes. These pancakes are not a part of Weight Watchers, so I had one plain regular pancake with one tablespoon of syrup for like 5 points, LOL. Oh well, it was yummy too!

So, even though playing outside isn't high on my list of things I'd like my children to do on the Sabbath, I had to let them run off some of that sugar, right? So I shipped the boys outside which will ensure that they will need baths before church, and to waste some more time. Jayden Face (we've taken to calling her that since Justin started it) needs a bath, some nursing, and then put down for a nap, I think I'm going to make her sit through getting two piggy-tails today just for waking up so early and then getting to nap! BWhahahahahaha!

I should be doing something spiritually productive, like reading my scriptures, studying for Relief Society, reading the lesson for Gospel Doctrine, or even reading up for my Pearl of Great Price Study Group. Oh have I mentioned this? Wow, I never knew how awesome the POGP is! I joined a study group, every Wednesday night, since January, and we're only in Moses 2...there's a lot of info in this book! We have a study guide from a BYU Religion Course, and the instructor is AWESOME. She has tons of commentaries on the POGP, it's amazing.

Now that I've been random, it's time to torture, I mean prepare my daughter for church. :) I wouldn't be tired either and would wake up bright and sunny first thing in the AM if I took a two hour nap, every two hours, during the day! Oh no, she's smiling at me, and melting my crankiness at her away. She's a gorgeous girlie! Later all!

Cruiser Bruisers and Slug Bugs

So, Kevin's grandma and sister play the old "Slug Bug" game and they've added in PT Cruisers in this version. We'll be driving around town and all of a sudden they'll go mad trying to get eachother. It's not painful or anything, just a light tap usually, but they enjoy it. So my boys have seen them playing alot since we've moved just around the corner, and this has led to us playing PT Cruiser Bruiser and Slug Bug.

The first few days Jakey really got into the game any car that even slightly resembled a PT cruiser, hatchbacks, station wagons, etc. would warrant Jakey tracking me down and tapping me on the shoulder. Justin is so short that when he goes to get you for one of these cars he hits you below the belt, LITERALLY. So it's been an um, interesting, game.

Our new house is situated on a culdasac and the only street past ours is also a culdasac, so basically anyone that lives past us MUST drive past our house everytime they leave. Around the corner on that culdasac is a PT Cruiser, and the owners of that Cruiser go places, ALOT. I'll be in the shower and one of the boys will come running into the bathroom screaming, "Cruiser Bruiser" and hit me through the shower curtain, or int he pantry choosing ingredients for dinner and they'll rush at me to get me for the car. I think we're going to have to ban THAT particular cruiser, I'm starting to bruise!

My baby is growing up too fast!

Her newest trick:



My name is Dawn, and I'm a bow-addict. Here is the victim of my obsession:

What People Will Do For Money!

Ok, I know I shouldn't be watching, but I just can't help myself, but I just got done watching The Moment Of Truth. I watched last week's episode and sat there horrified at what that lady did to her husband, the fact that she had been unfaithful, that she thought she should have married her ex, I mean wow.

Tonight, while it was another trainwreck, it wasn't *as* bad. This girl didn't get greedy, she walked away at $100,000 after only doing minimal damage to her marriage and relationship with her mother. And I thought that her explanations for some of her answers made sense and that she "explained away" alot of the bad answers. For instance she was asked, "Do you think you are a better mother to your children, than your mother was to you?" she said something along the lines of "I am but only because I took what she gave me and expanded on that, trying to do better for my kids, and I hope they grow up and do the same." Very good answer! She was also asked if there were any secrets she was keeping that could end her marriage, and her truthful answer was "yes, there are." Yikes.

The woman from last week lost because after admitting to stealing, lying, cheating, etc. she was asked the simple question, "Do you think you're a good person?" and she said, "yes, I do." well she really thinks she is not because her answer was a lie, and she got NOTHING. How sad, to go through all of that and walk away with nothing!

How far would you go for money? Would you ever do a show like this? I don't know, I mean it seems easy enough, but is my relationship worth even just $10,000? I don't think I could chance my relationship with anyone I care about, especially not for only $10,000. I think it's amazing what some people will do for money!

Weigh In Day!

I think I did pretty well for Week 1. 3 lbs! I lost the most out of our little group, but I have almost the most to lose. I've found that if I have a 12 oz bottle of water with every meal I get most of my water in that way - then I just drink 12 oz bottles with my morning and afternoon snacks and I get in my 8 glasses a day.

Onto next week!

What does Ford stand for?

Fix Or Repair Daily?

Found on Road Dead?

Backwards... Driver Returns On Foot

Another funny:

Ashes to ashes,
dust to dust.
If it wasn't for Fords,
our tools would rust.

Buy a Ford and you buy the best. Drive the first mile and walk the rest.

That's not a leak, my Ford's just marking its territory!

Yep, this post would mean...our Ford has bitten the dust. It is currently holding Kevin hostage downtown. Argh.

Overall, it has been a decent car. I wouldn't say I'd *never* own another Ford, nor am I in a hurry to run to our local Ford Dealer. We've known this was coming for a while. The cost to repair the thing is just more than it's worth outright, therefore making repairing it not a great option. And now that becoming a minivan mom is more in my imminent future, I really don't want one!!!

And wouldn't ya know - the stinking thing dies just as we pay the last few payments. Argh. Lovely.

My kids make a liar out of me...

Every time I've ever said those famous last words..."I'll never..." I am proved wrong in parenting.

"I'll never cosleep!" Uh huh. Then it's 3 am, and cold, and my bed is so nice and warm and who wouldn't want to be in it?

"I'll never spank my kids!" And then my 3 year old tries to dart into the parking lot of a grocery store when I am 5 days post c-section and nothing I do is preventing him from thinking this is a good idea as he lays on the ground screaming, kicking, and crying...the only thing that will bring him back to reality is a swift smack on the bottom and being pulled to standing.

"I'll never have one of those babies, whose schedule can't be broken." Jayden's sure making a liar out of me! She is so set in her ways that the slightest deviation from her schedule makes her an awful baby. You can't really take her out to eat because that's the time that she sleeps. At home she naps while we have dinner. She isn't the kind of baby who naps in her carseat either...no HER bed (well MY bed really) is the ONLY place that child will sleep.

So while I'm trying to calm Miss Fussypants who is overtired because we tried, yet again, to go out to eat during her nap time, I'm wracking my brain to think, is there anything else I said I'd never do? Because if there is I need to prepare! She's breaking all my "rules"!

Must. Clean.

Kevin was off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and technically he's off today but he's out running errands and stuff that he has to take care of, so he's not actually home. All of this means - I slack on cleaning. I tend to let things slip, don't do as much laundry, don't fold it, etc. when he's home and then I have my work cut out for me on Mondays. I don't know why I do that because it makes me crazy on Mondays! LOL

This is my last week truly "at home" all day anyhow. I am supposed to start a "job" as a caretaker for an elderly lady next week. I have to go to her house 3 days a week for four hours and do some light cleaning, keep her company, and make her lunch. She's actually excited that I'm bringing Justin and Jayden, so they're just coming with me. Unless one of them is sick, then I have to find a sitter because she can't be exposed, but that's ok, Kevin's sister volunteered to back up babysit for me. Sounds like a pretty good arrangement.

Anyhow, so I want to get more organized, so I'm deep cleaning all week. So here's my "to do" list...I'll be back to update!

* Laundry (fold/put away and start some more!)
* Clean kitchen & mop the floor
* pick up living room & sweep and mop the floor
* pick u bathroom (I just scrubbed this room)
* pick up my bedroom, wash bedding
* Organize Jayden's room and put together her crib

Be back later!

Hungry Day

I'm having a "hungry day" I'm just hungry and nothing really fills me up. I haven't gone over in points or anything but I've been awful about drinking water today and I just feel "hungry" even though I'm really not.

It was a slow, relaxed day that started too early! Justin peed through his pullup at 3:30 in the morning which resulted in him and Jakey screaming, fighting at that hour of the morning. I asked Kevin (I was nursing Jayden) to go tell them to stop yelling, change clothes and beds (They were both in Jakey's bed when it happened, meaning Justin's was dry) and turn back off all the lights. Well he chose to yell that down the hall...um thanks, I'd have never figured that out. So that woke Jayden up all the way. So until 5;30 this morning she talked and kicked me and pulled my hair and bit me and so on until she finally fell back asleep. I couldn't go back to sleep so I just got up.

I deep cleaned the kitchen and then made pancakes for breakfast and had those ready when everyone woke up at 7:30. Then we leisurely sat around and waited to get ready for 1:00 pm church. We have the rule of no TV before church...we listened to BYU radio online, a few talks online, read scriptures, put together a model, cleaned a little bit, bathed slowly, did laundry, I mean we REALLY moved like 90 year old women...still...we were some of the first people to church...we got there at 12:45.

It was better than last week for sure though. The bishop introduced himself to us, they promised to have our records to read in next Sunday (they had forgotten to ask for Kevin's b-day before) and more people introduced themselves to us. Kevin even went to Elder's Quorum. The kids went to Primary perfectly. Jayden fussed alot in RS and I ended up taking her into the nursery and rocking her for a bit. It was a little crazy in there! They have like 20 kids in nursery! Crazy! But Jayden loved it. Found out all the info for Jakey for scouts and he'll be starting with his new pack on Wednesday. Overall it was a better Sunday than last.

We came home and Kevin grilled us some GREAT steaks and made an awesome salad. He made a pasta too but for 2/3 a cup of it the stuff was 7 points! So I had a tablespoon of it to satisfy my family requirement of eating SOME of everything, it was DELICIOUS...tasted like more, but I didn't have more. I did calculate out Girl Scout cookies points, and shortbread cookies are 3 points for 5, so I had 10 of those for dessert (just because I had lots of points left still) and now I'm thinking that hit the spot and I can stop snacking! LOL

So there is my long, boring Sunday, are you still awake? :) Hopefully I'm not as hungry tomorrow! Waking up at 3:30 am has made me very tired though, so goodnight!