Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Are we only on day 3?

Wednesday morning Nana Paula and Aunt Mo and Dustin met us all at Build-a-Bear where Nana let the kids pick out new clothes for their build a bear's (or monkey or puppy) and spent WAY too much money. Thank you though Mom, they love getting new stuff for their build a bear's. I wish I would have gotten a picture of them with Nana before they left, oh well.
We got to enjoy the crazy weather outside and finally sent off Micah's rocket that the Linford's got him for his birthday at least over a year ago.




Peyton with Maddie Monkey dressed in the new clothes, ready for spring.

Here they are, the whole gang with their new clothes, and yes, guitars for the military attired bears.
Wednesday also brought us Ben's first dentist appt. Yes, his first, my bad. With so many of us I just assumed he was in the mix at some point, I was wrong. He has been very excited to get his teeth cleaned and did a fantastic job. They only had double films left and they let us take home his duplicate x-rays for the scrapbook. I love our dentist's and their entire staff, awesome office, seriously.


He really was more excited than he looks.

They got us back right away and were very quick, as we had a show to catch at the $3 theater, The Spy Next Door with Jackie Chan. It was alright, I almost fell asleep once or twice, but more importantly, the kids really liked it and there was only one part that was slightly inappropriate. The kids had a late lunch of candy at the theater and we picked up 89 cent 5 layer burritos or nachos at Taco Bell for dinner. Aren't I a good mom? When we were eating one of the kids pointed out that we never had lunch..."AHEM?! What did you think all that candy was at the movies? A snack? We never eat that much just for a snack!"

Monday, April 5, 2010

Day 2, bowling, 99 cent, Hometown

I figured bowling would be an acceptable outing after my trauma of the day before and I was determined not to let my kidney stone ruin our vacation.
Ben only used this thing for the first few frames.
Micah's form

I thought I'd actually allow a photo of myself this time, I really was there.

Micah, waiting his turn.



I'm trying to get more creative with my picture taking and trying new angles.




Peyton really loved bowling and was very cute, she got the 2nd highest score next to Tyler.


Jacob I'm sure this is exactly like the pros do it.



All 4 in one picture, all looking, I love it.

Don't think you're getting a nap today P, too much left to do...we went to the 99 cent store and then to Hometown Buffet, yep. Ty actually took us to his least favorite restaurant. I think it was the only meal I kept down all week, ironically.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

My day in the hospital and more fun stuff

Well, to say I'm a bit behind in blogging is an understatment! I lost access to my external hard drive. The connection was broken (I think Miss P knocked it off my bed while I was uploading pics to Costco). Anyhow, I am back in business thanks to my wonderful husband who took apart the hard drive and held the connection long enough to retrieve all of our photos, literally held by his own two fingers while being slightly electrocuted. He later put on a rubber glove that lessened the pain and then he found a c-clamp that Santa gave him last Christmas. So, I'm back in business.

Tyler took all of this week off while the kids are out of school for Spring Break. We had high hopes and dreams of taking them all to Disneyland, but it just wasn't in the stars, or in the budget. So we planned on just doing something fun and inexpensive each day. I had been having some pretty bad low back paing for the last few weeks and then I thought I had a bladder infection, no pain, it just felt like I had to pee ALL the time. I put a call into my Dr a week ago yesterday, Friday. I never heard back. Monday morning I took my sister and her baby to his Dr's appt at 9am. Right after that we were going to kick off our week with something fun. Well, by 9:30 my back pain had gotten so bad I was crying and it quickly escalated to the point where I knew we had to leave Dustin's (my nephew) appt and get me into urgent care. My Dr. said they had nothing until 1pm. I asked my sister if she could drive, that's how bad it hurt, my sister has no license. She declined and I somehow managed to drive us to urgent care. By this point I feel like I am literally dying, a slow painful death. The lady at the window hands me some forms and tells me to fill them out and bring them back to the window with my insurance card. HA HA HA, I don't know exactly what I said, but I handed them to my sister and told her to fill them out, she did what she could and I set them back on the desk. By the hords of people I could tell it was going to be a VERY long wait. I was pretty sure I would be dead by then. Morgan called Tyler to come pick us up, drop her and the kids back at home and get me to the ER. NOTE: if you are in severe pain or need to be seen immediately, don't bother with urgent care.
Ok, so we go wait in the van, I climb into the backseat amid several mismatched shoes, dirty socks, trash, wrappers, a sandwich bag (this is fortunate, I'll be needing that in just a few minutes). I make a mental note that if I live through this we will be cleaning out the van. The pain has actually gotten worse by now and I feel the need to vomit, remember the sandwich bag I saw and use it. You see, although the bag is small, the day before had been fast Sunday, and I wasn't feeling well, so I had hardly any dinner and I hadn't eaten yet this day, so it was plenty big enough to hold the contents of my stomach. After what seems like hours Tyler arrives and we're headed for home. Peyton held my hand all the way home and it really did help, I no longer wanted to just die.
We arrive home and I deposit my baggie in the laundry room sink on my way to my room before escaping inside myself to become one with the pain. Somewhere along the line it was decided that we would call an ambulance and I waited again for what felt like hours. 4 men arrived and questions were asked and answered and I was put onto a gurney and wheeled out right before my kids shocked faces. Peyton was crying a little but I later discovered that the boys were merely entertained. The 2 men that rode in the back with me were very nice and tried to calm me down. They said it sounded like it could be a kidney stone or my appendix. My sister mentioned it could be a kidney stone earlier, so that's what I was leaning towards. I got to the hospital and went straight into emergency (benefit of taking an ambulance). They pretty quickly got me hooked up to an IV after some minor difficulties, asked more questions and then decided it was probably a kidney stone. They gave me morphine to help a little immediately, and then an anti inflammatory to help more but not for another 20-30 minutes, and they gave me something for the nausea. 20 minutes later I was feeling good and feeling a bit embarassed about my dramatics. I must say though, that was way worse than labor pains because it was constant, absolutely no relief. They made me give a urine sample (which I had to go into the ER restroom for BAREFOOT, twice, because they lost the first one) found blood in my urine and determined that I was not pregnant so they could do the CT scan. They did the CT scan and found a stone 4mm around. Any bigger and they woulkd have had to operate. I was a little scared to be sent home, scared that the pain meds would wear off and I would be in severe pain again. They sent me home with Zofran for nausea and Norco for pain and a "hat" to pee in and strainers for my urine. I passed my stone late that night and I definately did not need to starin my urine to see that there was a stone in it! I was going to post more about the rest of our week, but that was pretty long so the rest can wait.

Have any of you passed a kidney stone before?

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Braces

Poor Micah got his mom's huge teeth. Poor Mom and Dad get the ortho bill. At the end of February Micah entered Phase one of his orthodonture and was fitted with a bottom retainer (that I crank wider 2 times a week) to help widen his bottom teeth. Next month he will get something similar on the top.
He has a great orthodontist who is close to home. Ironically, he is someone that my Older sister dated in high school. I had thought he looked really familiar and then he told me where he grew up and what high school he went to and then it clicked. Small world.
Here Micah is getting the details on how to wear and care for his retainer. I am glad that Micah is a very responsible kid and we should not ever have to purchase another one of these!
Here is is wearing the retainer, you can't even see it. I'm sure there will be more posts to follow on Micah's orthodonture!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Her Funny Faces

Sometimes nothing I do will get her to pose, and sometimes, she says, "Mommy, get the camera!"



This last one is my favorite.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

They really love each other

When I was going through m pictures trying to decide on what post to do next and I came across all of the following I instantly thought about my Aunt Jan and how she would always do things with me and make me feel so special. I know without a doubt that my sister and Peyton share something much like that, maybe even more so because my sister is around so much. Morgan is like a second mother to Peyton and I'm glad she has someone like that.
My parents are coming home from China today where they have spent the last 10 days. Morgan is not one who likes to be alone, ever, so she has spent most of her time here, sleeping in P's room with her.

Lucky girl, getting a mani-pedi, why does she never sit so still for mommy?!
Out on the tramp, with very clean hair, which Aunt Mo did for her, after giving her a bath.
Peyton loves jumping on the trampoline, especially when she's not alone.

Whenever Peyton can get out the front door this is the corner of the yard she likes to occupy, and back by our side gate and along the edge of our neighbors yard. I'll ask her to come in or what she's doing and she tells me, "Go inside mommy!" I guess she likes a little alone time like her mother.
Aunt Mo straigtened her hair while I was gone and I came home to a completely different child! I thought it looked adorable, but disturbing, she looked older without all the little ringlets I'm so used to seeing.





Thursday, March 4, 2010

VERY cute apron (in my humble opinion)

Well, it is most definately time for another post. I haven't felt like taking the time to blog lately and was thinking I didn't really have much to blog about, until tonight. I took a picture wearing the apron I just made for a prize for my friends baby shower on Saturday. I thought, hey, I can blog this! So I uploaded my pictures from my camera and was a little amazed at how much I actually have to blog about. I thought that not much more was going on than some deep cleaning and decluttering around my house, but we've been up to more than I realized, so, if I can get my act together, I'll blog more often the next few weeks.

On a sad note, and before you get to see the cute apron, my Grandpa Frank passed away on Saturday. We knew it was coming, he had a stroke just before Christmas and then in February found he had a quick growing cancerous tumor in his lungs. My grandma is now living alone and that makes me sad, so I will try to visit her with my kids often, hopefully not so often we bug her! His funeral will be this Saturday morning.
And here is the apron. My friend Stefanie Adams brought me all the fabric and trim and I wasn't very excited to make a 5th apron. I ended up really enjoying it though, funny how some beautiful fabric can make sewing somthing so much better.