David's New Toy

David had been working his butt of for a couple of weeks in February, doing some extra dives, and fixing some stuff for a farm around here. Since he charges $150/hour to do these extra dives, I knew we were in for a little extra money. And I knew EXACTLY which loan we would pay off. Then that all changed....

David's brother invited him to go to Juniper with them and ride dirt bikes. Since Kaden hasn't gotten much of a chance to try his new bike out, David decided that would be a ton of fun. So he took off with Kaden, Kylie and Eli for the afternoon.

When they got back that night the kids came running in to tell me all about how they got to ride on dad's new bike! David came in a little slower and looking very sheepish.

This is what he got...

Eddie turns 2!!

Eddie's birthday was on February 15. And since we had just recently been out of town, I was NOT ready for it. SO being the great mom that I am, we skipped right over it.

Until the next Sunday.

After church, I made him a cake and we wrapped presents while Eddie was taking a nap. Then, that evening after dinner I made David take him on an "errand". Mostly just driving around in the car so that he could get Eddie out of the house.

When he got back, we had streamers and balloons every where. Then we turned out the lights and waited for him to come through the door, when we flipped on the lights and yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!"

He didn't like it. In fact, I think we scared him pretty good. He almost started crying. But after a minute or two to compose himself, he was VERY excited. He ripped open his presents and showed great enthusiasm for all of them.

I think his favorite was his new bedding. He is now in a "big boy" bed with "ighing eqeen" bedding. (Lightning McQueen). He was very excited to crawl into bed that night.

Cozumel

David and I went to Cozumel for a week at the beginning of February.

We flew out of Seattle at 11:55 pm on Friday, January 30. After a layover in Houston, we arrived in Cozumel around 10:30 am Saturday morning. As soon as we got there, even before we got our room, David had to jump in the water. I was so tired, that as soon as we got our room, I went to bed. David, being David, had to go do a dive.

And that is pretty much how our week went. I slept and read, and David dove. He got 18 dives in during the week (I got 1). But I did read 5 books!

Sunday was my favorite day there, I think. I got up and ate breakfast with David. He got on the dive boat. I went back to bed, until 10:30, when I heard the cleaning lady next door. I got up, and it was SUNNY!!!!! Hooray! After laying in the sun (and reading) for a couple of hours, David got back from his morning dives, we at lunch, and he went to play in the water some more, while I, yet again, read in the sun. After a little while the sun started to disappear, so I read while swinging in a hammock listening to the sounds of the ocean, (and David, Larry and David I. screaming and jumping into the ocean.) That evening after dinner, we walked into town, to find that everything in Cozumel closes early on Sundays. So went went back to our rooms and went to bed. There were no kids screaming, and yelling and fighting with each other (which there is RIGHT now), there was no dirty dishes or laundry that I had to do. There were no lunches that needed made. Just me, my book and the sun.

The rest of the week was a lot more windy and chilly than I would have liked, but it was a lot warmer than here. Which was nice. The novelty of being able to sit down with a book and read without interruption started to wear off though, and I got pretty sick of David diving ALL day. He was coming back from the morning dives, and then going out for more RIGHT after lunch. So by Wednesday, I was ready for him to give ME a little bit of attention. We decided to hop a ferry with Larry, Kim and David I. and go over to Playa del Carmen. The ride over was...less then enjoyable. We were all feeling pretty sea-sick by the time we arrived. (It didn't help that there were other people throwing up. But, I guess, what do you expect when they start handing out baggies BEFORE the ride even starts!)

After walking around town, and getting a couple of henna tattoos, we decided to head back to the Island. When we got on the ferry we noticed that there were some musical instruments bungeed to the boat. and unfortunately we got the seats right next to them. So for the ride back we got to listen to some very LOAD music. At first I was getting a little annoyed but then I looked up at the people a couple of rows in front of us, and I found myself laughing for the rest of the trip. Apparently the guy in front REALLY enjoyed the music. At first we thought something was wrong with him, b/c of the way his whole body was jerking around. Then we realized that his whole body was jerking around b/c his feet were moving SO fast. When he decided to sing random lines of songs (not the songs that were being sung by the group) and his arms started flying around. I couldn't handle it anymore. I was in tears I was laughing so hard. I think it made the musicians a little nervous. They couldn't figure out why we were laughing at their songs. Then They looked behind them....I think the kicker was that after the ride, the guy actually told the musicians that he was a very popular singer back in the US and....Cuba...!!!???

After that day, time seemed to FLY by. David's birthday was that Friday, the 6th. So we went to Senior Frogs for a fun night out. We had a ton of fun.

Saturday we flew back to Seattle. And I got very anxious to get home to see my kids. Unfortunately we were staying the night in Seattle and driving home on Sunday. We got home at about noon, so the older 3 kids were still at church. Johnny was asleep, but Eddie sure was happy to see us. He wasn't mad at me at all! I was very afraid of that. The kids got home, and they had gotten a little birthday party ready for David while we were gone, so we hung out and had some fun.

Meeting the Firemen

Tonight my dad and mom, Dan and Stacey, my grandpa and his wife, and David and I went to the temple and then out to dinner. A nice-relaxing-kid free-night.

After dinner we were going to go to the grocery store (I was supposed to go last Saturday, but didn't make it, and then I had my surgery and meals were brought in....) But Dan and Stacey mentioned that they were thinking of going to the movies. So we decided to tag along.

After running by Target to grab an RX for me, we headed to the theatre. David and I got our tickets, popcorn and pop and then sat down at a table to wait for Dan and Stacey. I asked David if he had his phone on him. He said no. So I told him he needed to get it just in case the babysitter called. He ran out to the car to get his phone and noticed that he had a message. So he listened to it and it was from Dale, our babysitters dad, asking David to call him back. David couldn't hear the number very well, so he called our house to ask Tnaya what her dad's cell was. Molly answered the phone. Molly is our primary president for our ward. She is also one of our other babysitters mom, and she lives a couple of house down behind our house. (Tnaya lives in the house RIGHT behind us).

A MILLION things started running through my head. WHY ON EARTH IS MOLLY ANSWERING OUR PHONE!?!?!?!? David said a lot of, "oh really" "uh huh" "okay" and "yeah's". And then a "I guess I will come home. I will be there in a minute". WHAT IS GOING ON!??!?!?

All he said to me was "Stay here, and watch the movie with Dan and Stacey, they can bring you home. The kids turned on the fireplace (we have a little electric fireplace in our living room) and it started puffing out smoke. The firemen are on their way to the house." Then he got in the car and drove off. I tried to say that I would go with him. My house was burning down and he expected me to stay at the movies? He didn't listen. (I think he was mostly glad that he got out of going to that movie.)

So I waited in the theatre for Dan and Stacey-who seemed to take FOREVER to get there, and then I called David on Dan's phone. Everything was okay. Tnaya smelled smoke and saw the fireplace smoking and soot landing everywhere, so she called her dad. Her dad told her to get the kids out of the house, and he was on his way. He and his fam were out so they called Molly to see if she could get over there faster. She hurried to my house and then loaded all my kids into her van so they could keep warm. When David got home, there was an ambulance and a firetruck. The men tested our walls to make sure that nothing was hot, and all they needed was David's birthday before they left (Dale had given them all the other info I guess).

Here is a picture of our fireplace...
Here is some pictures of what burnt...














Here is a picture of the only "fire" this fireplace will see again...

1st weekend in 2009: emergency partial hysterectomy
2nd weekend in 2009: house tries to burn down

I think I am done....

The Unexpected

The plan was to go to Mcd's Saturday night so that the kids could play and get some ice cream. As kind of an "end of winter break" thing. But when Kaden started throwing up around 5 that evening, we knew that plan was out. Then Eddie started throwing up. They continued on through the night. We were supposed to have our monthly family dinner at our house that Sunday night but we had to call and cancel, and it is a good thing we did b/c....

Sunday I got up and got Kylie and Eli ready for church. David was staying home with our 2 sick boys and Johnny. I skipped Sacrament meeting b/c I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before with 2 sick boys, and I would have skipped all of church except that I have to teach Sunbeams. So I was getting Kylie ready, doing her hair and everything, when my side started hurting-BAD. My first thought was "great, just what I need, another kidney infection." I hoped that I was wrong and that this pain would just go away. Maybe I slept wrong? It didn't. I went to church and tried sitting with my new class. When I started having hot flashes, and feeling nauseous and like I was going to pass out, I decided I probably should go home, instead of traumatizing these poor 3 year olds. So I had someone take Kylie and I home. (Eli was NOT going to miss his first day in primary, so he stayed behind, and someone else brought him home after church).

As soon as I got inside I went to the couch to lay down. I could NOT get comfortable. It hurt SO bad. But B/c I have had kidney infections in the past, I had decided that I was not going to go to the hospital and waste a bunch of money for them to tell me what I already knew. I could wait this out. I was wrong. I really didn't remember it hurting this bad before. So around 1 pm I talked David into taking me to the ER. To make a long story short-after 1 1/2 hours in a waiting room, (another 45 min after that to get the pain meds started), a CT scan, an ultra sound, and a LOT of pain meds they figured out that I had something called Ovarian torsion. Apparently it is not a common thing to have happen. I am one of the lucky ones to get to experience such a thing. For those of you who don't know what it is-it is the twisting of the ovary due to the influence of another condition or disease. Nice huh.

Well, anyway, it hurts. BAD. They were going to send me home saying it was probably a kidney infection (funny), b/c they had ruled out kidney stones. But NONE of the meds they were giving me were helping, so they decided to look into it a little more. Thank goodness they did. Unfortunately that means that I had to have an emergency surgery. The Dr was going to try and save what he could, but once he got in there, he saw that my ovary had to go. But he thought he might be able to leave the fallopian tube, then he saw some blood clots and decided that had to go to. So I ended up having a partial hysterectomy.

Now I get to sit at home and feel sorry for myself. I hate it when I can't do things on my own. I got to come home on Monday, and all I could do was sleep. Then on Tuesday David went into work for a little bit, and I tried to do a load of dishes and sweep the floor. Not a good idea. I got the worst headache, and my stomach felt like it was on fire after that. And I still had to deal with my kids. (Who have not been taking this thing all that well either). Wednesday my WONDERFUL visiting teachers took care of my kids. They had it all arranged. Kylie went to a friends house after preschool and stayed there till 4:30, Kaden and Johnny went to another friends house. and Eli and Eddie went some where else. So I spent the day sleeping and feeling sorry for myself.

It is mostly guilt that I am feeling though. I feel like a pretty crappy mom when I can't take care of my kids b/c of some dumb surgery. Or I can't carry a basket of laundry upstairs to put it away with out feeling exhausted. I just want to scream sometimes b/c of the lack of energy I have.

I will stop complaining though. (For now). I am very lucky that it wasn't something worse. And that it was only a partial hysterectomy. So if David and I choose, we could still try for another kid. I have 5 beautiful children who love me and worry about me, and that is why they are having such a difficult time through all of this. I have a husband who slept on a stupid roll away bed at the hospital b/c he was worried and wanted to make sure that I was okay, even though I told him to go home and get a good nights sleep in his own bed. There was no point in him staying at the hospital. I have such loving friends and family who have shown so much support through this with phone calls and meals and babysitting. (My dad slept on my couch at my house while David slept in his roll away at the hospital). I love and appreciate all of you who have been there for me. And I am sorry that I am so grumpy about all of this. I will get over my self pity. I just need a few more days....

Until then, enjoy some gross pictures of my insides! (I wasn't going to post these, but David said I should-sorry!) David will have to explain what they are...

This is Linda's left Ovary, all bloated with blood. You can see the twist in the top picture and the line between the healthy tissue and dying tissue. Evidently the arteries have enough pressure to push blood past the twist, but the veins don't, so the blood built up. When they untwisted it, it started puting out clots like nobody's business, so they had to remove it.

Back in time...

Since this is supposed to be my journal, I feel like I need to add a little here. I can't believe how little I have written lately. So I am going to go back in time a little bit here. And maybe I can remember everything about the last 2 months...

October. Wow. Busy. That is what I have to say about that. I was working out at Realife for most of the month. Anytime they needed me to work-I found a way. I enjoy working out there-most of the time. The getting home at 3 or 4 in the morning gets a little old! But it mixes up my life, and lets me get out of the house, and it pays for most of Christmas. Can't complain about that!

David took the month off of teaching. Which was nice. He was a little burnt out b/c in September he was gone a couple of the weekends, AND he was teaching EVERY night. Unfortunately, even though he took off teaching at night for the month, he was gone for the first 3 weekends b/c he had to go to the coast and get all the checkouts done for all the classes he taught in September. Oh well, at least he was home at night. It is nice to have him come home from work, and then actually BE there for the evening, instead of choking down some food and running out the door.

Eli turned 3! Hooray for him!!! There was no school on his birthday, so I got a babysitter and took him to Red Robin for lunch. He LOVED it! Then we had his party that night. David always complains that I go overboard with my kids' parties (he is right), so I put him in charge for this one. Bad idea. I was stressed out the whole time. David isn't very good at planning ahead. And I knew that Eli wanted a Buzz Lightyear party, which you have to order on line b/c the stores don't stock Buzz anymore. Which I did tell David that a month before Eli's party. Guess what David did?!?! Nothing! A few days before the party David came and asked me where he could find some Buzz Lightyear stuff. Are you kidding me!?!?! He ordered some stuff and got VERY lucky. It arrived AS I was loading the kids in the car to go to Chuck-E-Cheese. David decided that it would be easier to have a party there, where he could just run around with his cousins and we wouldn't have to clean up afterward. He was right. Eli had a blast. But being the crappy mom that I am-I forgot the camera! SORRY!!!!

Halloween....I always look forward to Halloween. I like thinking of fun and cute costumes for my kids. But then all of the sudden Halloween is here, and I have NO idea what I am actually going to dress my kids in. Somehow it worked out this year. When David got home from work, we went to Larry's house and my dad's house. (this kids HAD to go see David's friend Larry). Then we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat. David borrowed Dan's gorilla costume and he scared ALL of the kids to death!There were a couple of kids that ran up touched the gorilla, and then ran off as FAST as they could. It was funny how many people couldn't figure out how David got in the costume, and how the gorilla was walking. After the Trunk-Or-Treating we took our babysitter home with us, and left her with some very sugared up kids and David and I headed to a party that Nancie was having. I don't think that I have worn a costume for Halloween since I was in middle school. We looked like dorks, but we had a lot of fun!

November. I can't believe how fast it went by! On the 1st, we went to Walla Walla to visit Mike and Misti and fam. They had a haunted house in their basement, and they were turning it on for one more night. David really wanted to go through it so we went to visit. I was surprised to see which of my kids actually went through it. Kaden wouldn't. He was too scared. He did after the sound was off and then lights were on, but not when it was dark and loud. Kylie went through it-A LOT!!! She loved it. She even took Eddie with her a few times. He didn't mind most of it. What bothered him the most was the pictures that they had hanging that looked 3-d. He didn't care about all the spiders, and skeletons or anything. Just the pictures. Eli finally went through it when there was no sound and he had a flashlight. It was pretty cute watching them come up to tell me that they had gone through it again and again!

We went to Port Angeles for a wedding. And before you ask-NO we didn't go to Forks. I know, I should be hung. BUT in my defense, we just didn't have the time. We considered staying another night, but we decided it would be better to leave at 9 pm right after the reception so that the kids would sleep the whole way home (which they did!). The trip was a lot of fun though. We got to David's aunt Judy's Friday night and stayed way too late talking. Then Saturday morning we went to see the ocean, and there was a small little aquarium thing that the kids had fun looking at fish and even touching a few. (YUCK!) Then we went to Judy's house again until it was time to head to the church for the wedding. Kylie was the flower girl and Kaden was the bible boy. I was really worried b/c my kids are pretty shy. But I promised that I would take them to Toys-R-Us and let them pick a toy if they did what they were supposed to. They agreed. Kylie had NO idea what she was supposed to do. And unfortunately we didn't have time to practice before people started to arrive. So I quickly explained that she was supposed to take the petals and throw them in front of her as she walked.

I don't think that she understood. I was sitting near the front (so that the kids could come sit by me during the ceremony) and I couldn't see when she came in. BUT I could hear the laughter. I didn't have a clue what my kids were doing, but I knew it wasn't good. My face turned bright red as I slid over to try and see what was going on. Kaden gave up on waiting for Kylie and he walked up to the front gave the guy the bible, and then turned to walk to sit next to me. When I finally saw Kylie she was facing the wrong way, kneeling down on the floor fixing the flower petals. When I told her to "throw the petals in front as she walked" she took that as " arrange them neatly in a straight line about 4-5 inches apart." She took SO long. We sent Kaden to go get her, and when he tried to grab her hand, as instructed, she jerked away from him and scowled in his direction before continuing on with her job. SORRY JUDY AND JONQUILLE!

Twilight came out! Stacey and some of her friends reserved the theater for Friday morning at 10 am. There were around 85 or so women-NO kids or husbands. It was lot of fun. They had prizes for a quiz that they, I mean Bella Swan, sent out the week before. And they had the theatre decorated. Thank you Stacey and friends for doing all that work and making it a lot of fun!

For Thanksgiving we went to my parents house. We ate too much food, and then we played games and the kids rode bikes. Unfortunately we started another project that we shouldn't have that weekend. We decided to build another flower bed in our back yard. Which doesn't sound all that bad except that to build it where we want it means building a 3 foot retaining wall first! Sorry David!!

Well, that was October and November. I will try to get back soon to write about December. Enjoy some pictures!!!

Favorites

Okay, so I have never really had a FAVORITE niece or nephew, (okay, that might not be true, when Alaina was born-NO one was cuter or smarter than she.) But, since having my own kids, mine are always the closest in my heart.

Tonight that changed. I now have a favorite nephew. I may just love him more than my own children at this time.

We were in Walla Walla tonight, visiting with Mike and Misti, when I got a phone call from Jannelle. She said that she had a story to tell me about a conversation she had with Zachary. Here is what happened...

Jannelle: (after seeing Zachary dressed up as a Knight) "Oh Zachary, do you want to kiss the beautiful maiden?"

Zachary: "Mom, you aren't beautiful."

Jannelle: "I'm not? Well then who is?"

Zachary: " Kaden's Mom."

Okay, so that isn't the EXACT translation, but that is the gist of it. Isn't he a sweet heart? I may need to re-think his Christmas present....