shocking, I know...

...for me to be posting again so soon after my last blog entry. I just am scheduled to work all this week starting tonight so I figure I had better hurry and wish everyone a happy new year. lol

So this past year in a nutshell was...
...stressful. We moved to Orem, Vern stopped working full-time, I started working for the first time since I left Toronto, Brandon possibly had his identity stolen, Kirsten struggled at first here big time... Yeah - it's been stressful.
...it's been fun too though. Lagoon was fun this summer, Kirsten's Honk! experience was awesome, Brandon built his monster of a PC, and I, uh went kinda blonde again?! lol

Yeah, definitely on the lighter side. I love it! :)

This year has flown by, and changes keep on coming. Hopefully I start doing better at things like blogging & keeping in touch with people than I have been. Hopefully I keep my job past the seasonal stint, and hopefully Brandon gets things figured out so he can start doing some of the things he's been planning on. I miss blogging more, playing more, and keeping up on what's going on in other people's lives. There have been some big adjustments for me though, with even more on the horizon, so yeah. Just looking forward to a new year - hanging on to my monkeys and hoping for the best!

/hugs!!!

Merry Christmas!!

The last 20 days have been a blur of work & sleep and I can't believe it's already Christmas. Santa has been here though so I guess it's time?! I hope that those of you who find this are having the most awesome sort of holiday season. Merry Christmas!
/hugs! :)

Honk!

So yesterday was the final performance of Kirsten's school production of Honk. I can't remember the last time she was home from school before 10:30 pm between practices & tech stuff. She was assistant stage manager, and in several scenes. See if you can pick her out! :) I'm sad that my phone's camera didn't handle the snowflake dance scene better. It was so pretty. Kirsten rocked it as always. :) I paused my phone for scene changes, but got the whole thing with a break at intermission. I'm hoping the videos aren't too big to upload. :p

Okay, so they are. :p Will have to see think of a plan B, because these kids did such an awesome job - it's worth sharing - I'll figure something out.

Gogo youtube!! Aw, what the hey? Too long for youtube? Stinky. :p
Oh, and her and the tech crew built the set & everything. Aren't they awesome?
Enjoy! :)

when little ones are sick

...it breaks my heart.

She had a fever, was  lethargic & her cough had gotten scary so we took her to the instacare. There they took her temp (it was 104.1) and her oxygen saturation was too low/heart rate too high for their liking so they sent us to the ER. At the emergency room she had motrin for her fever & X-rays of her chest. Almost 5 hours later upper respiratory infection/ pneumonia was the diagnosis. She got a shot (the thick one they give you in the butt when you have pneumonia) and a prescription of antibiotics. Follow ups tomorrow & next week.

That was most of my day. :p
Oh, and yeah that's makeup on her right eye. She "got ready" for work with me last night & it won't come off. o.O

Happy Friday!

Thankful

...for the crazy job I'm lovin' so much (I'm headed there, so it comes first. gogo Black Friday!)

...for the very cutest monkeys in the whole world, who give the me the bestest cuddles on a regular basis

...for the people in my life who make me smile :-)

...for naps & bubblebaths

...for my family even though I haven't seen so many of them in so long

...for pudding! Deliciousness. 

...for the most awesome friends, who mostly live way too far away

...for energy drinks & pain meds

...for a happy sort of place to work & fun people to work with

...for the support of the people around me

...for comfy shoes & a cheap gym close by

...for whipped cream in my hot chocolate

...for my babies, even the fully grown ones ;-)

Happy Thanksgiving!!! :-)

one word

An easy kind of meme for a busy, sleepy girl who needs to blog more! :p

You: exhausted o.O
Life: busy!
Feeling: cold
Home: messy (grrrr...)
Enjoying: squishymonkeycuddles (it's one word, I swear :p)
Mood: better :)
Want: chocolate
Need: pudding
Love: pudding!
Like: working
Tunes: random! :p
Clothes: sweats (comfy!)
Comfort: bubbles!

K, so the mood is better because I got to see Kirsten perform tonight at OHS. She's so awesome! I would do anything for some pudding at the moment, but will have to settle for a bubble bath. Been buried in finishing up these pictures (yeah, I'm late yet again - was hoping to be done by Halloween - so sorry - technical difficulties! Almost there!) Tomorrow's going to be a busy day, and I work tomorrow night. So yeah, bubble time! Then more pictures! Then sleep.


'night! :)

Halloween 2011

Ok, so I'm sicker than a dog with the flu, but had to share some pics (and hopefully vids) from today. My monkeys are the bestest!!! :-)

Oh, and I should clarify - being sicker than a dog, I slept half of the day away & it was Vern who took Maiah to the boys' school Halloween parade and got the hilarious footage of my monkey's awesome dance moves. Thanks Vern!
...and while I was out trick-or-treating with them tonight, it was Vern who I asked to get videos then too. (His phone's camera is much nicer than mine.) I did take the photos before we headed to Riverton, but yeah, the vids were all taken by Vern.

And yeah. It's supposed to maybe snow tomorrow.
Happy November?!

Smile! :)

apologies

I have been told that I am constantly apologizing for everything lately, so I thought I'd get it over with first here. I am sorry that I've been slacking as a blogger. :p
It's been forever since I last tried to put into words my life of late, so lets see what I come up with today. :) lol

Okay, first of all, I have a job! I'll be working at Target, overnight stocking. (Yay!) I was originally going to have my orientation on Nov. 1st, but they want me to come in on Tuesday instead now. I'm nervous & excited all at once! The orientation isn't an overnight shift - the first real overnight shift will be on Wednesday. Go me! 
This past Wednesday I had oral surgery. Pretty much it was just like having wisdom teeth out, except that it was 2 molars & 1 wisdom tooth, and two of them were broken & had to be kind of dug out. :p It's actually hurt more the last 2 days than it did at first. :p I'm hoping to be feeling 100% some time soon. Oh, and I've had the cold my kiddos started passing around this past week too. Swollen glands, a cough & sore throat. Such fun timing. :p lol 
So yeah, I've been in bed a bunch of late. Haven't been able to sleep so much though. Still struggling with headaches on top of the aforementioned stuff I've got going on. I'm one exhausted girl, who unfortunately finds that sleep does not come easily. (I'm even blogging from bed - since today my head is threatening to explode & my jaw is not so happy.) Oooh, I must say that my husky, 2 octaves lower voice has been fun though. lol
Brandon finally got his first paycheck and built himself a computer. it's beastly & awesome. It's fun to see him doing things that make him happy.
Kirsten still votes that we move back to Riverton. There are lots of things about school here that she's not lovin' but there have been some good opportunities mixed in. I say there's hope where her feelings about Orem are concerned. (totally crossing my fingers there)
Alright, I'm sorry but my head is hurting & I think I'm gonna hide under my pillow & close my eyes. I'll try and do better about sitting at my computer and keep people posted. So much is changing here, and I've just been focusing on surviving.


Happy Sunday peoples! keep on smiling!

so yeah

Wow, it's almost been a week again. Time flies when you're hiding your head under a pillow fighting headaches?!     I'm trying to think of something that I personally accomplished since I last wrote. Stuff has happened for sure, but I'm not sure I can claim to have accomplished anything of note myself. There have been monkey cuddles, and I've made cookies, helped with homework, searched job listings & done some laundry but yeah - just the same old stuff, and less of it. :p I do have photoshop open, and plans to get these pics done once and for all, but that's more in-the-works than anything. There's a million things I should be doing, and my guess is that the stress that probably helps cause said explosive-head syndrome is going to go nowhere until I get moving, so yeah.


Hugs!

an easy way

...to break the silence is a meme! I haven't done one in forever. Of course, first I have to find one. Let's see...

Oooh, a simple one. Will make for a short little entry. Five things that you'd say to you right now if you were someone else:

Smile! :p
Trust your own instincts. Pray. Things will get better.
It's not selfish to take care of yourself too. Kiddos need a healthy mom.
Chin-up! If you keep trying someone's bound to hire you!
You have such beautiful children. :)

she blogs?!

It's been pointed out to me by several people that I've been seriously slacking in the blogging department. I am so sorry. Sometimes life gets crazy and you really don't have much to say about it. :p I'll attempt a little bit of catch up for now, and promise to do better.

Okay, so...

Kirsten made it into her school play. They're doing Honk! Should be awesome. She also made it into the Shakespearean Festival competition. She gets to be in a scene, competing against schools across Utah. Go Kirsten go! Overall I think school's sucking a little less for her, though she'll still tell you it sucks. :p
I still have no job. :(
Brandon's been landscaping though. He's saving up to go to Toronto with Keith in January. I have to admit, I'm kind of jealous. I'd love to go to Toronto for 3 weeks!!
Maiah's growing up way too fast. She's so beautiful though! I love my princess monkey. She loves Caillou. :)
I got to take some pictures of Zoey the other day. She's a beautiful baby. :)

It was a good chance to see if I have my photoshop ready to go for bigger things. I was still missing one or 2 important actions, but re-wrote one & re-downloaded the other. Now I just have to replace all of my fonts, figure out how to organize files, create slideshows and batch process finishing touches without acdsee. (Unless I can remember the info for the software - it was a downloaded program purchase :p) It's funny how much I took for granted from all of my software that I've had forever. I found the disk to re-install ps7 and was like "Yay!" Then I opened it up and everything was at a default setting, I had no actions - no anything & I about cried. lol  I think I do have it almost to where it was (except the fonts, a few brushes & such) and now I'm just missing the workflow support programs like acdsee & nero. A big deal, but with ps7 running (almost) properly I can at least start working on Kori's wedding stuff again. Having to work without those other programs will just make me slower. At this point, when their stuff was on hold for sooooooo long, I'm not sure that me being slower is any sort of good news, but at least they'll know they have pictures coming to them. Soon-ish maybe. I'm sorry. :p

So yeah, I'm here. Just praying for a job and excited to finish a project that was put on hold for way too long. The kiddos are good.
I'll try to blog more.
Yeah.

Hugs!

the fair

Well really it's more like the kiddos ...at the fair.

The only camera I took with me when we went last week to the salt lake county fair was my phone & it's crappy little lens. I guess it really doesn't matter what you have in hand when capturing the likenesses of those you love, just that you do it. I can say that because these rare shots of 4 of my 5 monkeys in one frame are new favorites of mine. Coming straight from my little GalaxyS to this little blog.

Are they beautiful or what?! Even if they're making faces at mommy. :p

/squishes to all!

my girlies

Ooh, I have a couple of recent pics of my girlies to share. I actually have taken a bazillion as always, but I'm on day 4 of a migraine that has made me cry & pretty much immobilized me, so I haven't uploaded many.
But...

Like I said - I have a couple. Straight from the camera to the blog. First up, my stunning K. :)

 

 ...Maiah Joy. Love how the light shows off those cheekies here. Beautiful monkey. :)

And because Maiah loves looking at all the baby pictures in my slideshows & the pics of Zoey up there, here's a couple baby-Maiah-monkey pics just for the benefit of her pretty smile. :)

...less than a day old :)

 

...6 days old (took hundreds of shots of my babe that day)

above at 2 weeks, next at 3...

...then a month.

I love my beautiful girlies. Maiah's already diggin' her baby pics. Of course, she thought it was Zoey at first but now she's telling me about baby Maiah. :) She's always been a sweet little thing. Hope she gets feeling better. (Day one of a little cold - fun! we shall cuddle and watch tv.)

Happy Friday peoples! Have fun. :)

Zoey

She's beautiful, huh? :)

 
Congratulations Lauren & Ty. She's so sweet.

<---slacker

I'm sorry I haven't been posting of late. I keep meaning to, but yeah - I have failed. Apologies!


I do have plans to take pics of the new abode to share here, and of my refinishing project for Kirsten last weekend. (It turned out awesome!) And, and... Yeah there's stuff I've been meaning to blog about. I'll get on it - I promise. :)


But first, I have to get ready for the day, because it sounds like I will get to be part of a welcoming party before the day is over. Lauren's water broke this morning! I know Zoey's going to be beautiful like her mommy, but it'll be fun to go hold her & take a pic or 2. :)


Happy Friday!
/squishes! :)

one week

...and I haven't taken any pics yet.
...and there's still a few boxes.
...and I decided to blog even though I have no clue what I'm going to say.

I'm still here.
The kiddos are (hopefully) adjusting.
Brandon has a job prospect. (Cross your fingers for him please.)
I think I really like Orem.

Yeah, that's all I've got, and I need to get going again. I promise there will be pics soon. And I hope there will be jobs soon. And blogging will become a more regular thing again. Soon. :p

Hugs!

not there yet

Ok, so we're still cleaning carpets at the old place and still unpacking here. When the rooms there were all full of stuff I underestimated the amount of carpets we had needing cleaning over there. And of course, all of that same stuff is taking awhile to get unpacked, put away & organized here.We're all working on it though. 
This place is so much prettier, I really like our new landlord and Kirsten Brandon & I found a great walking/biking/running neighborhood close by. 
We're still looking for jobs, so please keep us in your prayers.
The kiddos started school yesterday. The little boys had fun & Kirsten cried a bunch. (She didn't have the best day. Hopefully B days will be better/have nicer classmates.) No new friends yet for any of them, but hopefully that'll change. 
K, time to get back to work. Not loving the clutter of boxes needing unpacking. :p


/squishes!!

boxes everywhere

Well, I think we're mostly moved at this point.  Most of our stuff is at the new place & we slept here last night. I have to go back tomorrow to the old place and clean the carpets & take care of the last of the odds & ends. I want that place as sparkly as possible. :p
Here we're still surrounded by boxes. I'll have that fixed before the end of the day. I'm loving this place so far. Everything works (2.5 baths and central air - woohoo!) & it's prettier imho. 
I will take pics today as I unpack & organize, then figure out how to get 'em uploaded. I'm just on the laptop, using Vern's blackberry as a modem, and my phone's camera might be what I end up using, but there will be pictures! No internet until Thursday. Less than a week - I think we'll survive. :p


So yeah, I really just wanted to check in here and say we survived 90% of the move. We'll finish up & by the end of the week life should start settling down & we'll discover the new normal. Exciting stuff!


If you're a praying type please pray that I'll be able to find a job quick. Brandon too. 



Have a great day!

still eating cake

It's been the worst kind of yucky headache-y day for me so far, but...
Today is my Kirstie Leigh's 14th birthday! And yes, we really are still eating yummy chocolate birthday cake. Mmmmm...

We're headed to Kirsten's new school to pick up her schedule, and to Vern's school to get his financial aid stuff updated. Very exciting stuff. :p Here's  hoping that somewhere in there I'll be able to make Kirsten feel special & loved. She so is. She's so very beautiful and talented. I'm proud of my chicka and who she is and where she's headed. Like lots of monkeys her age, she just bursting with potential & I'm so excited to see where she goes with it. I love you Kirsten. Be awesome! I love you!

birthday cake for breakfast

Okay, so it freaks me out just a little that my oldest child is 20 years old. But he is. Today! Happy birthday Brandon!

My B is such an awesome young man with so much going for him. I'm totally excited to see him finally getting the chance to do something for himself - to move forward with his life. He just wants a job for now, and has some travel plans - but he's hoping to land in AZ and go to school there. I think it's a great choice and am so proud of him.

 I love you Brandon! Hope you have an awesome birthday, and an even more fabulous year ahead. I'm so totally cheering you on. :-)

I have to dig out an old picture or two for his post - sorry no ps yet. :p

 

I love you! Happy birthday!

a day late

...for my own birthday post. :p
...and I don't even have a picture.
But yeah - happy birthday to me!!! There will be the annual picture coming as soon as I can.

Sorry I've been slacking when it comes to posting here of late in general. It's just that, as I was saying the last time I posted, things are totally cRazy around here. We are moving on the weekend of the 20th! To Orem. Practically right next to Vern's school. It's super-convenient to everything retail. Like, yeah - everything. :p
So, as you can imagine, I am really busy trying to get things done - cleaning, packing, looking for a job... yeah. Fun stuff! :) But we'll have our high speed internet up quick, the dust will settle from this crazy whirlwind and I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis. I really do need to get some form of PS up and running asap, first of all for Kori & Ryan, who have been patient while their pictures have been held hostage by my horrible working-computer-luck, as well as for the ability to be picture happy here again. Just like old times. Blogging just isn't the same without pictures. Life isn't the same without me taking pictures. :p I'll have some catching up to do. :)

Meanwhile, a big thank you to those of you who remembered I turned another year older today, and a great big squishy hug to all of you people out there who I love and miss so much when life gets going all tornado-like on me.

Smile!

10 days later

...and I'm sitting here with some fresh cut pineapple and nothing much to say. Been busy looking for employment, a home and everything that comes with the fact that Vern registered himself for fall classes at UVU and is going P/T at his job on August 4th.

Yeah, still slightly panicked and all at the moment, but still breathing, enjoying pineapple even, and trying to smile.

Hugs!

crazy stuff

I'm sorry it's been so quiet around here. Life has been a little on the crazy side, and when it does that I'm not always sure what to say. :p

First of all - we went to see Kirsten in Bye Bye Birdie on Saturday & she was awesome. The whole cast did a good job - I laughed. I'm so especially proud of my girlie though. :)

The major craziness around here is centered around the fact that it looks like we're moving to Provo. Next month! Yeah. Brandon & Kirsten are not huge fans of this idea, and I'm completely freaked out, but Vern has decided he wants to go to school there. I've told him for the last 15 years that if he knows what he wants to do and just needs the schooling, he should just do it. He finally is. Crazy timing, but yeah. I'm hoping that if I work full-time nights & he at least works part-time we can maybe almost make about a third of what he's been making at the job he's quit. Not that we have jobs lined up yet, but yeah. Hopefully we will?! o.O

There's so much more I could say, and I might just come back & do it, but I promised Elijah he could have his turn on here so I need to stop typing. Just know I'm alive and all, life is just crazy right now.

/hugs!!!

rain rain go away

It was a rainy kind of day, which resulted in the very-tired-April accidentally sleeping half of the day away. :p It was probably a good thing - I've been so exhausted of late, but yeah. I woke up in time to make some yummy dinner!

Hope everyone else had a fabulous kind of Thursday.
Hugs!

surprise!

This holiday weekend snuck up on me. Seriously. It was a normal, kind of crazy type of week, then BAM! Yesterday was the parade, which Kirsten walked in with the arts council/cast of Bye Bye Birdie. Today is the fair & fireworks already?! Yeah - July totally snuck up on me. But hey, I was able to grab a shot of Brandon yesterday at the parade, so I'm excited! :)

Happy Canada Day! Happy 4th of July! Happy whatever you may be celebrating! Have fun! :)

observations

...spending a Summer day with my kiddos where we ran through sprinklers, laid on a blanket in the sun, had popsicles and went to the park was awesome. It was totally weird when I realized the boys have school tomorrow. They only have one more week though! :p
...it's not all that helpful for Kirsten to do her (hilarious) interpretive dancing while I'm supposed to be playing guitar in rockband. It's pretty hard to hit the notes when you're laughing. :p
...it doesn't feel like a compliment when people say "Hey, you've lost weight..." Of course, when the scale says the same thing it's totally cool. :p
...days go by fast when you're playing.
     ...and tongue slides are cool. :)
...my kiddos are so awesome! Just sayin' :)

Yeah, I'm trying my best to kick a headache, holding a sleepy monkey princess & taking a break from rockband with Kirsten so I thought I'd poke my head in here to say hi. I don't really have anything much going on - just thought I'd send hugs to those who check in here. Squishy ones! :)

catch-up

It's almost been a week again?! 


Let's see... Well, Summer finally arrived! Yay. :) 
And, um I've been going to the gym a lot. 
The boys have just one week left of school. 
Brandon's been trying to get all of his school stuff done. Gym class being 2 hrs of working out at Golds Gym a day is going much better than his bowling packet did. lol 
Kirsten has had play practices every day this week. The play is July 8-18th. Can't wait to see it. :)
And um, yeah. It's Friday! 


Yay!

more monkeys

I was supposed to be chopping broccoli & cauliflower this morning for a side dish for today's bbq, but first I decided to get more monkey pics up. It's been so long, and even though it's a jerry-rigged solution, I'm just happy to be able to add pics to a post for once! lol

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
Ooh, and I found a shot that shows the blondness better. Just please don't tell me I look sad. It's already been said. :p

Hooray for monkeys!
Happy Father's Day!

monkeyness

Okay, so this takes effort, and I'm way tired, but I have to share some cute monkeyness with all of you. Maiah was adorable today at Glen's wedding in her "tutu dress". I even got her to share her knock know joke with a few people.

It goes...
her cuteness: knock knock
mommy: who's there
her cuteness: banana
Mommy: banana who?
her cuteness: nummy tummy!!!

Nobody has a clue where she learned to tell knock knock jokes, or how she came up with hers, but it's unchanging, adorable & if I catch her in the right mood I can get her to share it with random people. lol

I love my monkeys. :)

There will be more when I'm not falling asleep at my keyboard. :)

just a quickie - pic added :)

I have got to figure out how to get a picture of my new mucho-blonder hair on here. Ashley did an awesome job - it makes me smile. :)


Been kinda feeling down of late though. :(   
I think the get-happy plan for today is to walk to the gym and sweat, move & lift til it hurts, walk home, make my kiddos dinner & play some WoW. It's been way too long since I last played. :p
...and I need to take a picture of the blondness. And figure out how to upload it to a computer without my camera software & how to size it without photoshop so that I can share here. 


Yeah, that's all I've got. I'll attach above-mentioned-yet-to-be-taken-pic to this post when I figure out all of the hows. :)


Wish me luck! And  a fantabulous gym session!
/squishes!!!

K - I'm back with a pic. Hooray! It doesn't even show the blonde all that well - we had some crazy wind gusts, but yeah. (It's the only shot where I don't look pissed or like I'm about to cry, and I'm getting tired of being told how sad I look of late. Yeah, not feeling awesome can do that sometimes. :p) It is pretty awesome however, to show a "hair" pic showcasing a totally bad hair moment. lol There's a LOT of light blonde highlights in there somewhere, I swear. You can tell in person. o.O

Now to go through the same crap I did to share that shot so that I can show off the cutest little monkeys in the world. It's only been forever.
My cute monkeys. ...coming soon to a blog near you! :) 


disclaimer: Sorry for the less than stellar quality image. I miss my PS, and all of the tools that I constantly used without realizing how integral they were in how I did just about everything online. I'll get it all back someday. 
...soon I hope. :p


Hugs!

smile!

Maiah and Eljah always make me awesome artwork in Paint. I added the background to this one - it makes me smile! I hope you readers are smiling today!

Hugs!

!!!

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in so long. It's been gogogo and I haven't sat at a computer in about a week.


So, our interviews yesterday went really well! 
Brandon & I will have our green cards in a week or so. :) We're permanent residents! I'm sure if I weren't completely tired & sore I'd sound more excited. It really is a big deal, it's just been a totally crazy week or so leading up to this. I'm pretty much exhausted. :p 


There's other things I could catch up on, but we'll save 'em for now. I'm hungry and Maiah is looking awfully cuddly. :)


Have a great day!

so crazy

So today we went to get our state IDs that we're supposed to have at our interviews on the 7th, and the state wouldn't issue them without either social security numbers or a letter from the social security office stating that we're ineligible for SSNs. Okay... so we ran over there to find out that the office is only open from 10-4. Dangit. No letters for us today. We need to try again another day. Really soon. Like tomorrow if Vern can swing it. A little frustrating that this particular hoop seems to be one that wouldn't be an issue if we were Mexican. (Apparantly for them the ITIN  would suffice.) Anyhow, really it just means that the craziness of today was fruitless & we get to do it again. Yay! :p This is looking like it's going to be a crazy week.

I did have an awesome workout tonight though! 6 miles followed by a killer leg session. Hope I can walk tomorrow. lol
And it was 70 degrees today. And it's supposed to be 80 tomorrow. Followed by rain on Thursday. lol
Oooh, and it looks like I might really have a computer again soon. For reals! Yay! There will be pictures once again. I so can't wait. :)
Firework (Katy Perry) played at the gym tonight and I had the worst miss you pang for my Dissension friends. I haven't even been able to play WoW for almost a week, but the thought that most of them aren't there anymore is just the saddest thing. :( I prefer life when I get to /squish those awesome people on a daily basis. Even when I wouldn't be able to anyway. :p (What's really funny is that most of those guys would find the idea of Katy Perry being "our song" worse than completely mortifying, but hey. lol Blame Craig. :))
Kirsten is almost off for the summer (1.5 days), and Brandon does his placement testing for school on the 13th, followed by registration on the 14th. He'll finally get his diploma! Yay!! :)


So yeah, things are a little crazy/busy around here right now, but we're gearing up for good things. If I'm a little absent most places it's just that life is insane. My plan to combat the stress is to work out like the crazy person that I am. (Besides, something has to be done about the winter chunk. lol) So yeah, while I'm not blogging I'm either running/lifting my butt off or passed out with exhaustion, cuddled somewhere with my babes. 


Hugs!

holiday weekend

     I miss blogging when life gets going like it has been!  /humungosquishes to those I've been missing! You all know who you are. :)    
     Hooray for long weekends! Even the rainy, still feeling icky ones. :p I felt a little better tonight and decided to use my energy to get some cleaning done. Our house is in serious need. :p
     Kirsten's still working on her room as I type. Go girlie go! :D
     Tomorrow we're headed to Vern's sister Jill's house  for a bbq. Might be a wet one, but yeah we'll see.
     I've logged some decent miles at the gym this past week in spite of feeling cruddy. (Yeah, I'm stubborn like that. :p) Go me!
     I'm dying to figure out a way to share pics of my cute monkeys on here again. It's been so long. :p Being without a computer of my own for this long is severely suckish. I feel so bad for Kori & Ryan that their wedding shots are all (safely) stuck in limbo like that. Seriously not cool.
     Ooh, and the way things have been going I've had like zero time to play WoW. It seems like I'm always sleeping off sickies or people are using their computers or something. So sad. :(
     In spite of the chilly, damp weather I'm ready for some pretty polish on my toes, some cute shorts & sandals and dates at the park with my kiddos that include sunshine. And maybe slurpees. Yeah. :D
     We found a new pediatrician for Elijah (who needed some catching up with immunizations) and I'm so impressed with the staff there. The doc was completely awesome with Ej, and I became a fan when he did the double-take after asking how many siblings Elijah has/what ages & I said I had a 19 year old. I always love it when people do the "how young were you when you started having kids? You don't look old enough..." thing. Yeah, makes my day when that stuff happens. 
     My kiddos & I  have been putting my library card to good use. Kirsten devours books like I do, and B and Vernie read a bunch too. Maiah & Elijah just love borrowing dvds. There's been a lot of Scooby-Doo-ing here of late. :p
     Oh, I wanted to try to describe how I've been feeling in case anyone out there has any good ideas about what might be up with me. :p I've been kind of out of it, woozy & lightheaded and feel like I'm going to pass out way too many times a day. The best way I can think of to describe it when it's at its worst is like I'm on a heavy narcotic or something. (Which I'm not. :p) It might be my anemia acting up - the passing out was an issue for me when I was younger & it was more of a pronounced thing. Or my blood pressure - but it's reading fine; or my bp meds, except they haven't changed. Yeah. Not sure what's going on, but the headache-y-ness that happens after the near-pass-out moments is getting old. As is the feeling of not being totally with it. Any ideas? *crosses fingers*
     Alrighty, time to find my pillow. And some warmth. Can't believe I'm saying this when it's almost June, but brrrrrrrrrr.

pounding

I know I often talk about my love of sleeping in on this little blog of mine, but the migraine I battled today had me in bed with a pillow over my head popping medicine the moment I could again all day until after 4:30 pm. Yes folks, I  slept all day. o.O (Well, I guess it's more like I tried to but with my head threatening to explode & pain to the point of nausea it was more like lay very still & do not open your eyes and you might just survive this. :p) The tactic eventually worked, and I even logged 6+ miles at the gym tonight.
...while watching American Idol & Glee. Yeah I'm awesome like that. lol

Here's hoping for a functioning me tomorrow! And for more sunshine. (Yeah we finally had a decent day while I hid under my pillow.) Go figure. :p

'night folks!

blue

   ...is the color of the new cast on Elijah's arm. His first cast was loose enough (your arm shrinks from non-use etc.) this morning at his follow-up appointment that the doctor re-cast it to keep it from moving. One of the bones didn't really go back into place but is starting to heal, so at this point he wants to keep it in the position it's in so it can continue to progress. (Beats re-breaking & resetting it, right? :p) His teacher had just signed the green cast this morning too. Now he has an almost blank canvas again. (He and I did the initiating again. Gogo smiley faces & a big orange dot. lol :D)


   I'm kinda blue too. Have not been feeling so great these last few days and am totally sick of the damp, cold weather. I realize there are people way worse off than me thanks to the crazy weather going on in this country alone and am grateful for the roof over my head tonight. I truly am. I just would love a little warmth & sunshine. It is almost June and all... :p
   Oh yeah, our water heater is on the fritz & I'm learning that warm showers are something to appreciate as well.
   ...And I appreciate Maiah's fantabulous cuddles 'n kisses. And the case of Diet Vanilla Pepsi I have going thanks to Brian & his congratulatory thoughtfulness. (Thank you! Was so good to see you guys!)


   Now I just need a hot tub for my sore back, some dark quietness for my headache & to grab me one of those DVPs I just mentioned. :p 


   Hugs all around! I miss people. I feel like it's been days since I last got to be social. 
Smile! :)

I cried

...and then I yelled for the kids to wake Brandon up.
...then I made him open his. :)
...then we spent the rest of the evening/afternoon looking at local job openings.


Hooray for our employment authorization cards! They came before we expected & were a very welcome shock. lol (The way we understood it they would arrive some time after this coming interview. I knew that changing our status to residents was different/seperate from being permitted to work, I just remembered our lawyer's office saying that we'd receive our employment authorization shortly after our interviews.) I like this *before* plan much better! 


Now to find something that fits. For each of us. (B can finally finish up the last of his high school credits, and I'd love to find some form of employment that works with mommyhood. A late night shift or something. Something. We're finally allowed to do something. Go us!) :)


I celebrated by getting a library card. Because I could. 


Rawr.

1 week

A whole week with no blogging?! Let's see if I can catch us up. :)

Kenyon & Jeannette blessed little Berick on Sunday, and afterward we had a big family dinner. I say big because with all of Vern's siblings & all of their children there are 33+. o.O
My boys have been enjoying being off track. There's been a lot of gaming going on (of course) and some good old-fashioned playing too. It's been fun. :)
I've been loving going to the gym lately. After a few months with no membership it feels so good to be sweating daily again. :)
It's been lonely playing WoW of late. (Well, when I actually get to play, which isn't all that much.) Our raiding team fell apart. Sadness. Gogo dailies! And levelling my little toons. I love and am gonna miss seeing those friends on a regular basis though. :(
I'm watching Dinner for Schmucks while blogging. Strange but kind of funny movie. I think I like it... not really sure what to think?! lol K, it ended. Wow. Just ...wow.
We're meeting with our lawyer on Thursday to prep for our interviews June 7th. Progress! Yay!!
Elijah went back to the doctor today for a follow-up x-ray. He's healing pretty well! His cast is quite the weapon though. He almost broke my nose with his broken arm while cuddling the other day. Owie. :p
Cross your fingers/say a prayer for my girlie this week! Dance Company tryouts for next year have begun. Go Kirsten go!!! :)
Alrighty, I'm pretty sleepy tonight. Killed it in my chest/back session & ran five miles. Time to find my pillow.

'night!

sunshine?!

Rain, snow, cold, floods, hail, more rain, more snow, brrrrrr...
This has been one crazy Spring. Our poor flowers in this part of the world have been struggling a bit what with the cold temps, hail, wind and such. My tulips are very sad indeed.

Elijah's cast is very green though! And my tulips partly survived! And Maiah's like a little burst of sunshine. And, and... yeah. :)

Have a happy, cold, wet & gray May day!

I love you Mom!

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you. 
You probably won't see this, but I'm thinking of you regardless. :)


...my day so far has consisted of sleeping in & Maiah cuddles. (Uh yeah, it wouldn't be me if my day started any other way, right? :p) Oh, and I made me some frozen pizza for brunch. Also very me. :)
I have a little cold (from the day at the park in the cold wind with my little kiddos when we were without power) and am fighting a bit of a headache. Awesomeness?!
I've been itching to play WoW - haven't played since early Friday. (Pre-broken-arm-adventure. O.o) I doubt we'll have a raid or anything tonight though since gamer-type people have mommies too. :p And I kinda feel like we should go to the bring-your-own-meat-&-a-side-to-share bbq at Nina's so that Vern can see his mom today. It's supposed to rain though, I'm still in my jammies & really really wanna play. We shall see! I should at least check in & /squish my friends. And I should shower & put some clothes on so Vern can go hug his mom. I doubt he'd go without me, so yeah. That's the plan. :)


That's my day. I hope that all of the mommy types out there are having themselves an awesome day and are feeling loved & appreciated.

today (...1 monkey, 2 breaks)

Today Elijah had a field trip to Wheeler Farm & the Living Planet Aquarium. He wasn't sure if he was going to have his usual drive home, so Maiah and I went to pick him up.
I got there and saw some of his classmates but no sign of him or any of the people he rides with. I tried to get his teacher's attention to ask if he'd gone home already but she was busy shepherding straggling kindergarteners so I assumed I'd missed him & walked home quickly. When I got home Elijah wasn't there, so in a panic I left Maiah with Brandon & ran back to the school. When I arrived there was no sign of anyone from his class outside, so I went in to their classroom to check. No luck.
Figuring I'd somehow crossed paths with the awesome lady who drives him home every day I started back home. As I turned onto the street from the school's driveway, his class aide Mrs. Lambert pulled up and told me he was at home, Miss Karen was with him and that he'd broken his arm. She offered me a ride, but I figured we live close enough that it was sixes for time & started jogging. Once there, I found a worried-looking Karen, a pale Elijah holding his arm laying in the front passenger seat of her car & the two kiddos he drives home with playing in my front yard. Lauren, Tyler, Nina & Vern were on their way. I splinted Ej's arm with an umbrella from Karen's car, Brandon carried him out so I could hold him, Lauren & Nina showed up and away we went to the kid's instacare over at the hospital.

K, here's Elijah's side of this story thus far.
Today after school I was playing on the monkeybars. I can't go all the way across, so I dropped and fell on the woodchips on my arm. I saw my arm at the bottom there was a big white spot on my skin and I saw my bone stick up. They carried me into the office and miss Karen laid me down in the car and took me home. My mom and Grandma took me to the doctors, and they took 2 pictures. Then I found out I broke my arm. 
(From what all the teachers/helpers said he was in shock, bluish-white and obviously in pain. He scared 'em good. :p)

Yeah, so he broke both bones in his left forearm & will get a cast on Monday. For right now he's splinted, medicated & being such a good sport. The doctor & nurses were amazed by how brave, sweet & good he was for them. He's awesome like that. :) They gave him lots of extra stickers & lollipops for being such a trooper. He would have loved to keep the wheelchair, but yeah. lol
Actually,  the guy at in & out, where we grabbed lunch on the way home (complete with a vanilla-milkshake-brave-reward) gave him oodles of stickers too. lol Gogo cuteness factor. :)

It's been a very long day thus far. :p
Oh, but his fieldtrip was awesome & now he's off-track for the next 3 weeks.

Sorry for the bad scan of the photocopied x-ray. You can see the 2 breaks though.
Yeah.

I do believe it's naptime!

Huggishness!

maybe later

I don't want to jinx this nice weather, but it's actually all Spring-like and pretty outside. It's about time! :p I'm feelin' way overdue for a nice dose of sunshine.
I miss my sister. And her Canadian chocolate. lol
We survived our day and a half without power. Barely. I hope to never experience that again.o.O 
I finally get to renew my gym membership tomorrow. Yay!! I'm so excited to get going again. 
I've been getting headaches a lot lately. So not my favorite. 
Maiah's so cute over there, watching Carebears & Strawberry Shortcake online. I blame Kirsten.
Yeah I know this is all random useless info. I'd been wanting to blog, and when I finally got to sit down here I totally forgot whatever it was I wanted to say. :p
Yeah, all I can think right now is that it's about naptime. Maybe I'll remember what I have to say later. :)


Hugs!

powerless

...yeah.
Our power will be turned back on some time tomorrow. Makes for a long day today, that's for sure. We came to Nina's house to borrow her kitchen to make dinner, bathed Maiah & I'm blogging from Vern's laptop while it's charging here. Fun stuff. o.O

I have to admit that I'm still laughing at my nephew Chris' comment on my last entry. lol I was ready to huck that camera something fierce after walking along the strip trying to figure out how to turn that damn menu off. Figures it was user-uselessness. lol I still say it's another reason to switch to Canon. :p

My kiddos send hugs Robin! And Brandon loved the chocolate fix. Thank you. :)

Okay, hopefully life will be normal tomorrow. Being without electricity is not so fabulous, though I'm grateful it's only for one day.

'night peoples!

Happy May!

I loved being able to see my big sister over the weekend and hug her happy birthday in person! 

Thanks again Lauren & Ty for helping to make it possible, Judy for taking Robin to Vegas for her birthday, Vern for driving 14-ish hours total so I could spend half a day with my sister, and Brandon for keeping the monkeys safe in my absence. 

We have our letters of appointment with the immigration officers on the morning of June 7th. Hooray for progress! I just hope everything goes smoothly at this point. We've had enough glitches & such. :p

Lauren & Tyler found out today that they're having a girl! I'm so excited for them! Hooray! :)

Maiah's been the cuddliest, sweetest baby girl tonight. I think maybe she missed me, even though she did so awesome for Brandon. I love my beautiful monkeys!

I really really really need to get my gym membership back up and running. Especially after 2 days of eating out &  driving. Seriously feeling extra-pudgy today. lol Gotta get moving. :p

K, so I'm still tired from the weekend whirlwind & Maiah's not liking this blogging thing. Sounds like cuddle-to-sleep time to me. 

'night!

a pink cowboy hat & half-naked men

...that seems to be the gist of how my big sister is planning to celebrate her 40th birthday in Vegas today.  lol
Happy birthday Robin! 
I'd say be good but yeah... we'll go with have fun & be safe! :) 
I love you!
Can't wait to see you Sunday. Hooray!


Oh, and Simple Plan is coming out with a new album! Yay! Sounds like old school SP, and Pierre is looking more like his old-school self these days too. Yum. 
The first new single makes me smile.

Happy Friday peoples!!

so yeah

It has been a crazy kind of week. In order to fill you all in I'm going to do the random catch-up thing. 

Kirsten's figured out how to style her hair so that she doesn't hate it so much. She's lookin cute as ever! Yay! 

Vern & I are headed to St. George on Saturday so I can ninja some of my big sister's Sunday. She'll be in Vegas for her (39+1) birthday with her friend Judy. I can't wait to go hug her! Special thanks to Lauren & Tyler for allowing us to stay with them Saturday night in St. George so that we can pull off the last minute trip. :o) 

Maiah is running around the house in her tutu. I love my little monkey princess. 

Dissension is looking for 2 raiders! (I wish I was joking. My favorite group of WoW friends has shrunk & we need replacements before we lose more people.) Good friends leaving the game and the thought of Dissension raids being at an end makes for one sad April.

My dad is doing ok with recovery so far. I love you dad! Please take care.
I'm so excited for this movie!

brb I need to go stop 2 little boys from killing eachother. The yelling happening in the other room is so not cool.

...K! No bloodshed, just some grumpy kiddos on the verge of beditme.

Alrighty, I'm hungry, still need to run to the store and have some monkeys who need to be tucked in. 

'night!

oh no she didn't...

I am so tired this morning, but I'm gonna blog anyway. So there.
I just might have a nap when I'm done. :p

I made the mistake of taking Kirsten to one of those walk-in places for her haircut yesterday. (In my defense, she'd had very good luck the last 3 times she went there.) This was not the case yesterday. At all. In fact, Kirsten had the unfortunate opportunity of receiving the worst hack-job I've ever seen. Ever. Seriously. Not only did the girl not do what we asked (I helped Kirsten explain that she did NOT want to lose length, just get some wispy long layers worked in & cute, choppy-like bangs.) The picture we brought in was of a totally cute haircut that Kirsten's hair was finally long enough to do. The girl obviously had zero clue what she was doing, and she didn't seem to care. She kind of tried. She failed. Horribly.
She made my girlio cry. :( 
I tried to help her fix it. We died it brown. She was trying to match her natural haircolor ...it went darker than I expected. Cute, but yeah - it's dark. And short. Again. Poor girl.
It's a good thing she's so cute no matter what. :)


Yeah. Oh, and I cut myself twice while trying to help fix it. Two different fingers. Damn those sharp hair scissors... :p

I love you dad

My dad had some serious surgery on Thursday. I'm so grateful that it went well & that so far he's ok.
Prayers please!


I loved holding my newest nephew Berick on Friday. He's so soft, sweet & beautiful. Kenyon & Jeannette will be such cute parents.


The kiddos had a blast at the easter egg hunt today, then coloring eggs with aunt Lauren & Kori. Fun times. 


In case you can't tell, I'm totally exhausted.
Time for me to find my pillow. 
nighty night!

babies

Congratulations Kenyon & Jeannette! Berick is so cute! Can't wait to hold him. :)

Sorry I've been quiet.
Had a scare last night when we couldn't find Maiah, who'd gone outside in the dark, wet & cold wearing only a t-shirt & diaper and walked 1/2 a mile, headed apparently to the store. She was supposed to be upstairs looking for pajama pants with Vernie while we were downstairs where the tv & computers are. 5 minutes after he came back down we asked where Maiah was & he went to look. He didn't find her so we all started looking. I ran outside to the corner, but decided it was way too cold & dark for her to be out there, besides there was no sign of her. After scouring the house and immediately outside Vern called Kirsten, who was sleeping over at her friends, to ask if she'd left the door open or seen Maiah upstairs before she left. Kirsten told him "I have her." Apparantly her & Kiana were walking to the store when the police stopped them & asked if they were looking for someone. Kirsten said no and they asked if she knew any 18 month-2 year olds in the area. Kirsten responded "Maiah...?" Thankfully Maiah says her name clearly, and Kirsten's as well. The police let Kirsten claim her & they were headed home with their escort when we found them. Vern had been gone to meet Kirsten for far too long so I went running tear-streaked & barefoot down the street and around the corner to find a calm but cold baby who was holding a teddy bear & wrapped in Kirsten's hoody, and a very distraught big sister holding her. All told the police say Maiah had been outside for half an hour. They made me promise it wouldn't happen again. Uh, yeah.
We were so lucky that Kirsten & Kiana headed to Peterson's and stumbled across the police & my baby. I'm grateful it didn't take us longer (though it was obviously too long) to check where Maiah had wandered off to. We all seemed to think someone else was with her. Not good. I still can't believe that she decided to sneak out in the cold & dark and made it so far before being stopped. I'm grateful all she got was cold.

...and I'm happy to report that I knew exactly where my babe was every minute of the last 24 hours.
That was the scariest thing. Kiss your babies and keep them safe.

'night.