Sweets and Sours

Jennie, regularly does something called "Sweets and Sours" on her blog that I just love reading! It's quick, random, happy and not-so-happy moments from her week. So here I go!

Sweets:

* My mom is completely out of her old house!

* I got to go to the park with my friends and was there something like 4 hours, it was GREAT! Oh, the kids were there too! LOL

* Jakey finished 2nd grade! Onto 3rd again next year - let's hope for an awesome year since 3rd grade is hard!

* We're dogsitting my mom's dog - Rosita. Her and Buddy are great friends!

* My birthday is tomorrow and we're going out with friends to dinner tonight to celebrate!

Sours:

* Moving my mom was HARD, LONG work! And she doesn't get keys to her new house until Monday.

* We're dogsitting my mom's UNHOUSETRAINED dog - Rosita. LOL

* Jayden has a stinky diaper that is ending this blog post...

Exhausted Randomness

My mom's house FINALLY sold and she's moving into our ward, which is a GREAT thing because we need her to be our 3rd hour babysitter as Kevin and I got new callings (RS Secretary and EQ 2nd counselor, for those who wanted to know LOL), and so 3rd hour we need her to watch Jayden since she's not old enough for nursery. Anyhow, I've been helping her pack and move all week. I am SORE all over! In good news, I've managed to find all kinds of pictures and awards and things from my childhood!

I'm too tired to pull together a proper blog post, but wanted to blog while I rest my tired body...so....here are my random thoughts...

Recently Kevin and I switched to T-Mobile for our cellphone service. Have you seen their commercials? The premise of the service is that you choose five people (Five Faves) that you can call unlimited amounts of time, and then have a pool of minutes for everyone else. Sounds good huh? Well...I had to really think - who are the top five people I call?

I dont' really like talking on the phone that much, I prefer IM, so my best friend Yaneth (who also happens to have T-mobile) and I hardly ever speak on the phone, we almost always communicate online, or in short phone calls. So she is not in my top five, nor am I in hers. Strange best friends, aren't we? LOL

My mom, now I talk to her on both her cellphone and her house phone frequently, and when she's at home, she won't answer her cellphone, so I HAVE to call her housephone. So, which should I put in my fave five? Well, I ended up going with both...she's a FAVE FIVE HOG. LOL

Then there is my husband (why is he third on this list of randoms? Well I guess cause he's a given, but he really is #1 on my fave fives in my actual phone)...he got a T-Mobile personal cell, plus his verizon work phone, so now he's one of those super nerds carrying TWO cellphones everywhere.

So, my mom has two spots, Kevin has one, I have two spots left...I look at my caller ID and think - who do I talk to the most/longest on my caller id...well that's a tie between Stephanie and Shannon, so I add them. At the time Stephanie did not have a cellphone, so I put in her house phone and Shannon and I usually talk while she's on her cell so I put that in.

Now, I have Kevin, my mom's house, my mom's cellphone, Shannon, and Stephanie...my FIVE FAVES. I have to keep them locked in their positions for 30 days - then I can change and that gets locked in for 30 days. Soooooooooooooo...my mom moves and her house number changes, Stephanie gets a cell and drops her houseline, Kevin frequently forgets his new cellphone because he hates carrying two, and Shannon goes over her cell minutes and starts watching it more closely and I'm talking to her more on her housephone than ever! LOL Looks like I'll be redoing my FAVE FIVE in 15 more days when my initial 30 days are up! Can you really choose five phone numbers that you call the most? LOL

So, in non-phone related news, my mom has been buying boxes for her move at Goodwill for approximately $2 a box. We pile these beautiful white boxes, filled with everything in her house in the living room and she proclaims: "This is so much easier than all those oddly shaped supermarket boxes you get for free when you move, Dawn." And I say - "If I spent $300 on boxes, and $300 on the truck to move the boxes - I might as well just buy all new stuff when I get there cause our house is decorated in handme down, garage sale, shabby used style!" $2 boxes - Whatever! LOL

And last but not least - my textbook came for my English class. I've been worried about this class a bit but when I opened the book and on the very first page there was a strip of the comic - Zits. In it, the main character tells his friend he should start a blog, his friend asks if he has one and he says he has several. His friend then asks, "What do you have to say that would fill several blogs?" and he replies, "you'd be surprised..." The last frame has him at the computer typing "You'd be surprised," I cooly replied. Any book that has a funny about blogging at the beginning of it can't be that bad, can it?

So there you have it, a blog that didn't make sense...and all for the sake of simply blogging. I will take my Tylenol PM and Diet Pepsi and head to bed now...night all!

Breastfeeding

I read this article earlier tonight about a Chinese Policewoman who is breastfeeding infants left without access to food due to the earthquake in China. What an amazing story!

From the article:

Officer Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, the mother of a 6-month-old boy, responded to the call of duty and the instincts of motherhood when the magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12.

"I am breast-feeding, so I can feed babies. I didn't think of it much," she said. "It is a mother's reaction and a basic duty as a police officer to help."

The death toll in the earthquake jumped Thursday to more than 51,000, and more than 29,000 are missing, according to government figures. Thousands of children have been orphaned; many others have mothers who simply can't feed them.

At one point, Jiang was feeding nine babies.

"Some of the moms were injured; their fathers were dead ... five of them were orphans. They've gone away to an orphanage now," she said.

As a breastfeeding mom, I cannot imagine actually doing this, but I think it's an AMAZING and WONDERFUL thing this woman is doing! Some of the pictures I've seen of her show her breastfeeding a little bit older nursling (probably about Jayden's age) and let me tell you what nursing ONE almost-7 month old baby is like...

She jumps, alot. She bounces and kicks me, ALOT. She bites, ALOT. It absolutely tests my patience at times because it's almost like being back in the days of breastfeeding being difficult and mostly just because sometimes at the end of the day I feel "touched out", I just can't handle one more person kneading their fingers on me for the day.

And this woman is doing this for up to NINE babies!?! Absolutely amazing!

Not to mention how much safer it is for these babies to be receiving breastmilk, rather than formula. There isn't anything wrong with formula, in AMERICA...in earthquake-striken China, the water source has been compromised, bottles might not be sanitary, and who knows where they'd get formula from, I'm sure relief agencies are bringing it in now to those they can reach, but it truly isn't as safe as breastmilk from a healthy woman. And there is the fact that honestly, it really is nutritionally superior, there is nothing wrong with formula, it's just not the superior product, and in China right now, it's truly not the safest product.

I'm also highly impressed with the news venues that have displayed these pictures with the story:





In a day and age where Facebook won't even allow you to display breastfeeding pictures calling them "obscene", it's so wonderful to see pictures of a woman nursing a baby (babies) since in my experience, I show MUCH less skin than half of the patrons of my local mall when I nurse Jayden, it's nice to have that recognized, breastfeeding is NOT obscene.

Now, I don't really breastfeed because it's nutritionally superior, or safer, or better...I do it mostly because it's cheaper and easier (most of the time) than formula feeding. I LOVE my breastfeeding relationship with my daughter, there are times when she is suckling that I am overcome with a powerful feeling of love, and knowing that I am using my body the way that Heavenly Father created it, to provide proper nourishment to my child, and what a miracle the human body is. Hearing this Chinese woman's story is a testament to that - Heavenly Father designed our bodies perfectly, to provide perfectly for our babies (and in her case others' babies as well.)

This Week In Review - Pictures!

So, we started out this week needing to get pretty for Stake Conference. Jayden and I took a nice bubble bath together and then it was time to paint our toes!







Then later this week we went to the cabin for Memorial Day Weekend. Since we live in "Sunny Southern California" you'd think our Memorial Day would include alot of swimming and tanning and volleyball and other fun, outdoor, warm activities? Not so! It HAILED during our vacation! Almost the whole time.

At one point there was a break in the rain so my mom and I walked a few streets over to see if some friends from our ward had showed up yet. Once we reached the street we needed we heard the crack of lightening and then the billowing of thunder and thought, "uh oh! We better get back!" We started back and then WOOSH! The heavens opened!



Unfortunately, Kevin couldn't make this trip with us...he was putting up a Verizon Wireless Cellphone Tower...that's important stuff man, making the world a more clear place for cellphones! Anyhow, so here is the Parnell Family that DID go on vacation...



We had to come back on Saturday though because Kevin and I are both being sustained in new callings today at church and wanted to be here for that...so...more to come, after church!

I'm Outta Here!

We're heading to the cabin tomorrow for a few days. Kevin, unfortunately, has to work. (That's a whole other vent.) So it's gonna be me and the kids and my parents....should be fun! Talk to you all in a few days! Prepare yourselves and your internet connection for my photo posts when I get back!

I think alot of times in parenting you have to walk this really fine line between "I'll never do that to my child..." and what will actually happen when you have children and the skills you've been equipped with to handle the circumstances that arise when parenting your own real, not hypothetical children. Hypothetical children are much better behaved than real children.

I see learning opportunities when trying to teach a valuable life lesson during a crisis point with my kids and then I lie in bed, awake at night, thinking "I should have done it this way" or "I should have said this instead of that" and vow to do better the next time an issue like that comes up. But the next time something comes up I think again, aw man, I could have handled it by doing this and it would have been so much better!

Tonight, on the way to Jakey's cub scout pack meeting my mom missed the turn to the park we were meeting at and went up to the next light. Justin overheard my mom say, "It's ok, I'll just make a u-turn." and he said, "Did you mess up Grandma?" and when she said, "yeah I meant to turn back there but missed it a little bit." Justin told her, "it's ok, cause U-turns are allowed here, so it'll be just fine."

It's ok, u-turns are allowed here, it'll be just fine. That's pretty good parenting advice too.

Things I'm Looking Forward To...

* School starting - I'm ready to just get on with it, now the decision's been made, the tuition has been paid, the books ordered, I'm ready to just learn and move on with it!

* Women's Retreat - my former stake is having a Women's Retreat for all the RS sisters and I'm an "honorary member" of that very small stake, and so I'm GOING! Jayden and I are riding up with a good friend of mine and we're going to enjoy a nice overnight camping trip with the girls!

* Justin starting Pre-Kindergarten on August 19th. I think that Justin's been needing something to funnel his little energy and on-the-go mind into and I think Pre-Kindergarten is just the answer. I can't wait to watch him learn! He can read a bit already, so I can't wait to watch him develop more in his math.

* Jacob going to scout day camp. He LOVES it and I LOVE hearing about it everynight at dinner!

* Jayden sleeping through the night...no date's been set yet though. LOL!

Preparing the Nursery...

Yeah, I know she's six months old....

So, cosleeping isn't really working so much anymore. Jayden's not nursing at night anymore, only around 5 am or so, and she keeps waking up at night crying because we're waking her up with our moving. She's just not a very good sleeper because of us I think, for this reason I think it's time to give up cosleeping.

I'm not a fan of Cry It Out, I will put my baby down if I've reached my absolute limit, for just a second to go take care of whatever physical thing is causing me to be irritable (like I have to pee and she won't just quit crying and fall asleep, or I am thirsty, or hungry so I'll grab a quick granola bar and go back to her, those types of situations I'll let her cry in. Or if I need to do something very important, but for the most part I think that little babies can't be spoiled and they're not trying to manipulate you or anything, so I don't let my babies cry. I've managed to get two older children past this phase of their lives and they sleep in their own beds, don't have seperation anxiety issues, and are fairly well rounded so I think my "method" works pretty well.

So today Kevin and I spent the morning cleaning out Jayden's room (aka the crib holder with all of our laundry in it) and it's DONE. We darkened the room and are currently washing her crib bedding. We had been putting her in there some a few months ago but it seemed futile so we stopped, we're more motivated this time. For one thing her naps have gone to crud, no one can even walk through the house without waking her and she's not getting enough daytime sleep and I am a FIRM believer in "sleep begets sleep".

Tonight, Missy J will be spending her first night, all night, in her crib. If she wakes to nurse I'm going to do it in there, and put her back in her bed, and all of her naps are going to be in there too from now on. I really think she'll like her room better than ours once she gets used to it. She really likes that my room is blackened (we have rockin window treatments) and so I think that's why she likes it so much, but we did the same for her room so now it's time for her to sleep in there.

Wish me luck! She needs to start going to bed at a normal time every night and take better naps, for all of our sakes.

Relaxing!

For the first time, in forever, possibly ever, I got Justin and Jayden to nap at the same time. Justin has been struggling all day, he woke up alot last night because he's going through some kind of self-imposed need to wake himself to pee rather than using his Pullup. While I'm super happy about this, on the other hand, Pullups are $10 a month (one a night) and sleep is invaluable. See, rather than wake up, go pee, and get back in bed it goes something more like: wake up, scream hysterically until someone comes in, cry because he doesn't really WANT to be awake, go in and pee while crying about how tired he is, then back into his bed, with multiple checks to make sure you're not sneaking away back to your bed or closing your eyes, thus allowing the boogeyman to get him. Needless to say, I'm tired, and today when Justin started showing signs of wear and tear from his multiple nights of night wakings, I took the opportunity to give the kid a nap!

It's SUPER hot here today (103), and Jayden has a fever (the jury is still out on if it's a true cold, or one of those colds that can come with teething) so Kevin's grandma offered to pick Jakey up from school. Luckily, he'll be hanging out over there until later, and so peace is going to ring throughout my house for at least an hour...possibly more. Pray for long naps from both of them, they need it...or I do, either way.

She Shall Overcome!

Jayden doesn't like our hardwood floors because they hurt her knees. This slows her down alot. In houses with carpet, Jayden crawls, but at home she cries because it hurts too much to crawl. So, Jayden has created another way for her to get around on our hardwood floors....

Screech!!!!!!!!!

When I was pregnant and people would find out I was having a girl, people would tell me all the time "girls are so different than boys" and "girls are louder than boys" and "girls are more fun than boys" (which I don't believe is true, boys are so fun!) and other "advice" on raising a little girl. Now she's here and I realize, for me, which of these generalizations are true. For Jayden, MY girl is:

LOUDER than my boys. Like alot, this girl SCREECHES at the top of her lungs ALL. DAY. LONG.

BUSIER than my boys. She is always into something. Both of my boys were content to sit and play with me. Jayden arches her back to be put down and scrambles around to get her feet to the ground everytime I pick her up. She is so busy all the time!

Getting her ready for the day takes more time. Doing her hair is getting to be challenging because she HATES it when I put it up. She'll tolerate one pony, when I go for two she FREAKS out. She knows too when I'm going to do her hair because she gets soooooo mad and really tries to get me to set her down. Then when I go to put a bow in her hair she turns her head from side to side, laughing at me for trying to get a bow in her hair! LOL

But mostly, she's LOUDER than the boys. During Sacrament Meeting seems to be a perfect time for screeching, "mama!" or just a random "ARGGGGGHHHHHH!" When I'm on the phone she does it too, she'll screech really loud until the person on the other end asks what is wrong with her, "oh nothing, she's completely happy - just talking!" Crazy baby!

Mommy Guilt

So, I have alot of guilt over leaving my little babies and going back to school and eventually to work, even though I'm doing this FOR them, to make a better life FOR them because Kevin is simply unable to continue to do such physical work beyond maybe five more years. I lay awake at night thinking of all the things I'll miss out on and feeling insanely guilty about missing them. But I'm working past that, I mean, what other options do I have? We're simply not independantly wealthy, our money tree didn't grow in the backyard, and this is just how it is. I'm fortunate enough to have the family support I need to return to school first, and go into a field I LOVE, rather than having to get a regular job that doesn't fulfill me at all.

Today, I'm sitting at Kevin's grandma's house and his uncle's wife comes in on her lunch break and at some point Nancy (Kevin's grandma) mentions something about my going back to school. Becky (Kevin's aunt) looks down at Jayden and says "what about her? What about your house? What about your older kids and your husband?" like I'm commiting some kind of sin by going back to school. I was so shocked I stumbled over my words and I said, "I'm working on finding childcare, I'm sure something will work out, I'm not going to throw them all in a closet or anything. And Kevin can help around the house." and she just looked shocked that I am about to do such a thing to my family as GO TO SCHOOL.

I'm getting mixed reactions on my plan, most everyone who is close to us and realizes I'm not doing this so we can have nicer things, go on more vacations, or live a more expensive lifestyle. Most people recognize that I'm doing this so that Kevin can have the opportunity to go back to school some day and get out of his backbreaking line of work. Alot of people are encouraging, but some people are shocked by my going back. What's funny is those who are shocked by my going back, are working mothers usually. Either way, trust me, I have enough guilt without any comments about my going back to school.

Cute Pictures and The Bad Sleeper

This weekend we went to a birthday party for our friend's little boy, Ethan, who turned 2! It was great hanging out and having tons of food. Jakey held Jayden for a little bit while I was taking pictures of the pinata.



Justin, after he hit the pinata!



Our friends, David and Yaneth, and their two kids, Cynthia and Ethan, right when it was time to blow out the candles.



It's a good thing that little girl pictured up above is so darn cute because her sleep is quickly becoming a hot issue around our house. She used to be this fabulous sleeper - waking for two hours, then sleeping for two hours, and so on, all day until she went to bed for the night, barely waking to nurse. Now she's catnapping 30-45 minutes per nap, here and there, and thinking she doesn't have to go to bed until 10 PM or later. And if one of the boys makes even the SLIGHTEST noise, that's it for sleep. Not to mention that nursing her has become almost impossible because if anyone in the room is even remotely interesting she'll pop off to look at them and stop nursing.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me get that rant off my chest. I'm currently listening to the sounds of Jayden waking up, 39 minutes after I put her to bed, because Jakey and Justin are playing and giggling in their room, close to hers. ARGH.

Mother's Day in Pictures!

My parents came over this morning for Mother's Day brunch before we had 1 PM church. We had a HUGE spread, Kevin really out did himself (especially since I'm SUPPOSED to be on a diet, LOL) making fried potatoes, pancakes with strawberry and berry toppings, whipped cream, and bacon for breakfast. It was DELICIOUS. After breakfast I was able to get ready because my mom watched Jayden (and dressed her for church) it was so nice! After we were all ready for church we went out front and took some pictures -

Glitter Graphics & Comments

Happy Day and Happy Mother's Day!

I got an email from the college to say that I am not on the waiting list anymore for the class I wanted - I GOT IN THE CLASS!! I'm so super excited because working as a CNA (while it is the crappiest of all health jobs) will allow me to get letters of recommendation to turn in with my application for the RN program next year and the income will help with Jayden's care costs and tuition so I don't come out of school a slave to my student loan debt! I'm SOOOOOOOO SUPER EXCITED!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone tomorrow!! My parents are coming over for brunch before church and then after church Kevin's family is coming over for a BBQ. Lots of pics to follow!

What Letters Do You Know?

I have been trying to work with Justin on his letters this whole school year. He does ok with some letters, and others he knows their sounds and forgets their names (thank you Fridge Phonics!) and overall, he's actually ahead of where Jakey was at his age, even for the fact that he can't see very well.

Last night when I was at Target I came across a clearance rack of furniture, and on this rack there was a DESK, a WHOLE computer desk for $14.98! Can you say, SCORE!?!? So I bought the desk and brought it home and while I was at my Pearl of Great Price class Kevin put the desk together.

This morning the desk was sitting, put together, in the living room, with no computer on it because Kevin hadn't had time for that yet (and we're kind of fighting over who gets the cool new desk). On each part of the desk there are little stickers with letters to help put the desk together. Justin pointed some of them out, "That's an A, that's an E." There was a "G" and I asked Justin, "What letter is that?" and he looked at it for several minutes, got really close to it, squinted a little, and then sat down on the couch next to me and said, "Gosh Mom, I don't know...I don't think I've seen that episode of Super Why." Oops, too much tv?! LOL

Gettin' Educated!

Web Registration opened at 7:30 this morning, so I sat at the computer hitting refresh on the screen to register for my classes, at 7:29 and 50 seconds I hit refresh and then.....
..
...
....
.....
......NOTHING HAPPENED. The website went down. At 7:35 I was Wait List #1 for the class I want. For fall. So no Certified Nurses Assistant course this summer, hopefully I get off the waitlist for fall. So I registered for more pre-req's for the nursing program.

This summer I'm taking Introductory Composition and Pre-Algebra, 7 units, FULL TIME. Intro Comp is at the school Monday - Thursday 8-11 am, and Prealgebra is online, 11.5 hours a week.

For fall I'm taking Algebra (which I'll drop if I manage to get into the CNA course), Expository Composition, and Health Careers Education (a required look at all careers in the medical field before applying for the RN course.) All of those are online, so unless I get off the waitlist for the CNA course I will be going to school full time, at home.

In about 10 days I should have a better idea if I'm going to get the CNA Class this fall or not because payment for courses is due within 10 days of registration, so if someone doesn't pay I'll get it! So, not that I'd wish hardtimes on anyone, but let's hope someone is irresponsible and forgets to pay, you wouldn't want them as your CNA anyway, would you? LOL

And now I begin stressing about, am I REALLY smart enough for this? I'm nervous!

I won! I won!

Kevin's been off work the past few days as they're gearing up for another rig move next week (meaning they'll have to work 15-20 hour days). We were sitting around bored this afternoon, discussing the next DVDs in our Netflix cue. I had gotten the email saying they had been sent out yesterday and we were betting if all 3 or just 1 or quite possibly NONE of the DVDs would arrive today (1 day after mailing). We were really bored so we bet on it, I bet making dinner on all three showing up today, and I won! So I not only got to watch Juno, I also got to have potatoes, pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream on top, and a slice of bacon for dinner, and I didn't have to cook it, and it was GOOD. Yay for Netflix!

"Look Mom!"

Today I was cleaning the kitchen while Jayden and Justin played on the floor of the living room when Justin called out, "Look Mom! Jayden and I are playing hair cuts!" I about dropped the plate in my hands to rush into the other room while simultaneously feeling the need to throw up! I made it to the living room to find Justin using his fingers to pretend to cut Jayden's ponytail off. WHEW!

She is going through an weird hair phase right now though...