your nuts, mom!

we woke up the other morning to pistachio nuts all over the kids' bedroom floor. when i asked them what the mess was, elizabeth piped up.
"your nuts, mom!"

this is a time, where the correct punctuation was VERY important!

visits

oh, how i love visits from my family! the problem is that they never last as long as i'd like.

my grandparents normally go visit my family every july/august. they are getting on in years, and no longer like making the 20 hour drive (can't say as i blame them. i'm only in my early 30's and I don't like making the drive). this year, they brought my family out here.
mom, dad, benson, and nathan, left home early evening on friday the 20th, and got to my house in sugar city early afternoon on saturday. they stayed with us until monday evening. they had to be in provo to help spencer and molly move tuesday morning. how the rest of their visit went and will go, i don't know.
the problem they run into when they come out, is that they have so many people they should go see. we are the only ones in idaho. grandma and grandpa perry are in the ogden area. grandma brady and spencer are in provo. it's hard when you have to divide your limited time among so many people

neccessity is the mother of invention

we had quite the day yesterday. we had some errands to run in town, and decided to take advantage of the free lunches still going on at the park. while we were there, shannon had to go to the bathroom, so i sent her off. she didn't make it in time.
i didn't have any extra clothes for her. i also didn't have the time or the gas to go back home and get some. so, we took a dish towel that we did have, and made a "skirt" for her. i keep some safety pins in the emergency kit in the car. it kept her covered, and we were able to finish our errands.
when we got home, we put a pair of undies on her, and she continued to wear the dish towel until it was time for bed.

as the day continued to be crazy, unfortunately, i wasn't able to get a picture.

sigh...

so, my get up and go, has busted
my give a darn is broken
my heart is healing, i think

sigh

I thought it was Tuesday. But it sure felt like a Monday this morning.

I was nursing Michael, and Shaun was trying to wake up. The older two were allowed to sleep on the porch again, and the two little girls went out there after they woke up. Everyone was inside for breakfast, except for Ashley. Shaun called out to the older kids to find Ashley. Elizabeth came back in saying that Ashley had blood on her chin, and all the way down to her toes. Shaun went out to investigate. He came back in just after I finished feeding Michael. As Elizabeth had said, she did indeed have blood on her chin, and it had dripped all the way down the front of her to her toes.

Shaun discovered that she had been in or on the back stairwell, and had fallen. There are blood drops in the stairwell.

I got her cleaned up, and decided that she needed to go in and get stitches. I finished feeding Michael, got dressed and took her in.

3 stitches, and 2 x-rays later, we are doing better. We did the x-rays because she was complaining about her arm, but there was nothing obvious. Nothing showed on the x-rays, but she's kept complaining about her arm. The doctor told me to come back in on Thursday if she's still complaining about her arm. I'm a little frustrated that he only put 3 stitches in. after we got home, she started bleeding out of one of the corners. I made a butterfly and put it over the corner. If he had started a little closer to the end of the cut, he could have gotten 4 stitches. I know that the butterfly will hold, so I'm not too concerned.

What?

The kids and I have tried to start reading every night. Our track record is pretty bad with this. I think we've only read one once. I suppose I should start the book over again. We only got one chapter into the book, so it shouldn't be too bad.
We started the Percy Jackson series. One night at dinner, we were talking about it, and the fact that there is a movie came up. I told them that the book came first, and the movie came later.
Elizabeth all of a sudden pipes up and says, "They decided to make the movie, like a head in a cake."

WHAT?!

Funny daddy

Michael, last night, spit up quite a bit.
Shaun, noticing this said, "you'd better be careful, or we'll have to start calling you Barfolomew!"

AH! We laughed SO hard!!!

sad goodbyes part 2

we buried my mother-in-law yesterday. life has been crazy.
we've had so much food brought in, that my fridge is overflowing.
i'm bone tired.
even though i got a decent night's sleep, as decent as the baby will let me get, i'm still exhausted.

one of these days, i will start feeling normal again. whatever normal is.....

sad goodbyes

today my heart hurts again, but for VERY different reasons.

shauns mother passed away on friday. it was very quick, and VERY unexpected.
she'd had brochitis the week before, but didn't seem to be getting any better. she and i talked about it one day, and chalked it up to the fact that she had diabetes, and she was older. never suspecting the truth.
this thursday, she got tired of being cooped up, and des took her out for a drive. when they got back, shaun was helping her out of the car, and she passed out in his arms. des decided to take her up to the hospital, so we put her back in the car.
they did testing, and discovered that she had a massive blood clot in her heart (the entire bottom half, was one big clot). her heart was unable to beat correctly. they tried everything, but were unable to save her. he passed away shortly after midnight on friday.

the days since then have been a blur. on top of mom passing away, i have sick kids.

the funeral is set for tomorrow at 11am.

hand, foot, mouth

we are a sick family. and it's a really bad time to have people sick.

ashley, last wednesday, started running a high fever, near 104. when i took her into the doctor on thursday, he didn't find anything. he told me that they had been seeing some hand, foot, mouth disease, and some strep throat. because the fever had been so high, we decided to do some testing. blood work came back with elevated white counts. urinalysis came back slightly abnormal, but just barely. we decided to go ahead and start on antibiotics, cause you never know.
friday night, she was up half the night. shaun came in and had me look at her feet, cause she had what looked like little bites, all over. because of what the doctor had told me, i looked up hand, foot, mouth disease online. the images, and ashley's feet, looked the same. she now has blisters on her feet, her hands, and her bum.

friday, shannon was running a fever. saturday morning, she ended up with blisters on her feet. she now has blisters on her feet, her bum, around her mouth, and a few on her hands.

saturday, taylor was running a fever. so far, i've not seen any blisters. but, only time will tell.

the other two, seem to be fine so far. but, again, only time will tell.

heartache

today, my heart aches.
i've waited a long 11 years for the news i got the other day. because it means that all parties have been able to move on.
and although i am SO very excited and happy, i am still sad.
although i am resigned in how things have and continue to happen, i am still sad.
and with the last part of the news today, i am truly sad. my heart aches, but i love that someone has done it right.
someday, perhaps, this heartache will heal, and things will be infinitely brighter. until then, i will continue to be happy for those who follow that path.

to garden

i FINALLY got the garden in. my wonderful nephew, talon, came down and helped me out. i have pumpkins, corn, beans, onions, peppers, carrots, and tomatoes.
the onions, peppers, and tomatoes are for making salsa!
i'm SO excited!!!

updates

most of the kids just had doctors appointments today.

taylor, as usual, is great, with no problems. he weighs 56 pounds, and is 51 inches (4 ft, 3 inches) tall. no major problems or complaints with him.

elizabeth is also doing great. she's 60 pounds, and 50 inches (4 ft, 2 inches) tall. we have started getting concerned with her consistent bed wetting. i buy night diapers for her, but it's gotten to the point that she soaks one every night. she had been going through one every 3 or 4 nights, then it got worse. we are putting her on a medicine that should stop the night wetting. we'll give it a few months, and see if it kick-starts her system. if not, we'll probably put her back on it for a few more months.

ashley has been better. turns out she has an ear infection. which accounts for some of the crabbiness. the rest is just her attitude (she IS 2). she currently weighs 25 pounds, and is almost 33 inches tall.

michael is also doing great. he weighs just over 12 pounds, and is 26 inches long. WIC has been concerned with his "lack" of weight gain. they say he isn't gaining enough every month (i wasn't aware there was a minimum amount!). i had them print off their charts so i could show them to the doctor. he's not concerned about it yet. we had had some concerns about his forehead. his frontal bone had shifted, and it looked wrong. i just noticed that his front soft spot was quite small as well. his forehead doesn't look quite as distorted, and the doctor said his soft spot isn't small enough to be overly concerned about. if it gets much smaller though, we'll need to take him back in.

shannon has an appointment on monday for a physical for head start. once we get that and her dental appointment done in 3 weeks, we can turn the paperwork in.

art camp day 3

day 3 was mosaics. this was the day that i was excited for. i've always wanted to do mosaics, and i got a chance today!
it took about 7 suggestions for shannon to finally pick something to design for hers. it's a girl in a purple outfit.

elizabeth almost didn't get her tiles in before the cement solidified.

taylors is supposed to be a cat.

i did a rainbow for ashley.

crazy week

this week, has been insane.
tuesday, started our 3-day art camp in town. the free lunches start at 11:30, and camp started at 1.
wednesday, we went to the library. we got signed up for the summer reading program. ran to the park for the free lunch, and ran to art camp. then we went to the eye doctors office to get taylors new frames. we left the house around 10:30, and didn't get back until 2:30.
today, shannon had an ear appointment at 11, lunch started at 11:30, and art camp again at 1.
tomorrow, 4 of the 5 kids have doctor appointments in the morning. after that though, we can come home and relax.

taylor has scout day camp in 2 weeks. the week after that we all have dentist appointments. the rest of the summer should be a cakewalk compared.

crabs

i have crabby kids.
ashley no longer wants to take a nap, but she still needs one. she throws a fit when she doesn't get what she thinks she wants.
shannon makes ME crabby. she sneaks downstairs and gets into the ice creams. she climbs on top of the fridge to get to snacks that are mine. she ignores us when we call her, she climbs into the car and turns things on, then when we go to use the car, it's dead.
micheal is at a stage where he wants to be held all the time, and he wants to eat all the time.

art camp day 2

day 2 was dip art.
you fill a bucket or barrel up with water. you take paint (in this case it was spray paint) and put it on top of the water. then you dip your paper into the water. the paint sticks, and the water rolls back off. you're left with a way cool piece of art.

shaun scanned in both sides of the papers, and laid them side-by-side.

this is ashleys. they let us do one for her.

these two are elizabeths.

these are shannons.

and these are taylors.

art camp day 1

the rexburg art guild, was holding a free 3 day art camp this summer. since the magic word was used, we signed the older 3 kids up for it.

tuesday was the first day, and the station for our kids was basic drawing. they had items out on top of the tables, and they had to pick one to draw. when the bell was rung, they had to pick another item. they ended up drawing about 5 things. after the drawing was over, they colored them.

taylor had a blast, elizabeth complained it was too hard, and shannon just wanted to scribble.

to garden, or not to garden

i have tried for the last three years to get a garden in. i have been unsuccessful.

the first year, i had a newborn, like days old, when it was time to plant.
the second year, last year, we were moving, and i didn't want to plant it, and have someone else benefit from my hard work.
this year, i broke my finger. can't really dig in the dirt when you have a brace on your finger.

i was so excited to put in a garden this year. i was going to have tomatoes, peppers, and onions to make into salsa. i was going to have corn. i was going to have pumpkins, cause it really is a waste of money to buy them for halloween when you can grow your own for a fraction of the cost. i was going to have beans to can. and carrots to just eat.

fingers again

when you open the back door in the kitchen, it comes VERY close to hitting the island in the kitchen (so close, that you're lucky to get a piece of paper between them). last night i got my finger caught between them. smashed the second knuckle on my left ring finger. pretty sure i broke it. no serious bruising yet, but it aches, and it's sore.
it's also hard to do things when you have a broken finger.