Zane hates blood.
8
Jul 2009
When Zane gets hurt he usually cries. He is not a big fan of pain. Now, when Zane gets hurt and there is ANY amount of blood involved, you would think he lost a limb. There is screaming, flailing around, tears, and he usually ends up in the fetal position gasping for air. It is not pretty.
This morning Zane and I were talking in the living room when, out of complete nowhere, my nose starts GUSHING blood. Like running down my face and chin and dripping onto my clothes. It was actually so much blood that I got a little woozy. Now this same thing happened when I was pregnant with Zane, so I was not overly worried. Zane, however, almost passed out. He just stared at me with this look of complete horror and sat down on the ground. The fact that he was not crying made me more worried than if he had been! I finally got myself all cleaned up and got the situation under control, and I walked back to the livingroom to see Zane laying with his blanket on the floor. He just stared at me before asking, “Mommy are you okay?”. He has been asking me that all morning now. I assured him that I was fine and sometimes people just get bloody noses. I am hoping I have not just traumatized him for life!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Pregnancy Brain Moment #789475438
7
Jul 2009
Waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom for the millionth time that night and realizing that you still have your bathing suit bottoms on….
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Redneck 4th of July
7
Jul 2009
Every year for 4th of July we hang out here in Chico and then head over to the Chico State Campus to watch the fireworks after the Baseball game! This year we had our whole day planned out, Chocolate Chip pancakes for breakfast, hanging out at One Mile in the morning, Lunch at home, Swimming in the afternoon, BBQ for dinner and then staking out our spot for fireworks and playing Yahtzee until it got dark. We have really been trying to save money until I get more daycare kids so this seemed like the perfect combo for a fun and cheap 4th of July! Plus, I was really looking forward to a day of family fun, it feels like we have all been so busy lately that we havn’t had much time to just hang out as a family.
Well on Friday night I was checking out the schedule online for the next days events when I saw that they were not having Fireworks after the Baseball Game this year!! NOOOO! This ruined our whole plan! It does not feel like 4th of July without Fireworks! I started looking for ideas, still trying to keep us in our budget which meant we couldn’t go far. I found out a neighboring town was having its first ever Heritage Days celebration, once I started reading the events, I knew this was right up our alley. There was a Miss Teen competition, Lawn Mower Races and, the final deciding factor that made it impossible for us to not attend, A Strong Man Competition!! And it was only $5! Needless to say we were VERY excited about this change of plans!
Now, I am not sure I am even going to be able to craft into words the EPIC-NESS that this 4th of July was. I am going to try. We arrived at the fairgrounds and found a full blown carnival, complete with rides and carnies. Now, Zane had done some chores to earn some extra money for the day, and of course he immediately wanted to play carnival games. I tried so hard to talk him out of it. In my opinion the games are over priced, the prizes suck and the carnies can be really really pushy. Zane would listen to none of my reasoning and I watched reluctantly as he handed over $5 of his hard earned dollars to try and throw a softball into a tub. I don’t think I need to tell you how that turned out. I did learn a valuable lesson though, sometimes it is best to just let your kids experience something themselves than trying to explain to them why it is going to suck.
Luckily there was no time for Zane to be too disappointed. We had a Miss Teen pageant to get too. Now online the pageant said it started at 4, turns out they were only off by 2 hours. We sat in there waiting for it to start while 3 local girls spent 2 hours taking turns singing every Taylor Swift song ever written! Don’t get me wrong, the girls had great voices, but a person can only take so much broken hearted teen girl music before they start to lose their minds. We decided to check out the rest of the exhibits while we waited for the real Pageant so start.
Now the flier advertising the event boasted 19 total booths. I must say they did not disappoint. I am not sure this counted as a booth, but Zane and Ian thought this Helicopter was pretty awesome. You could even sit inside while it gave a real flight simulation. This simulation involved an older man standing at the back of it and moving the tail up and down. It was pretty sweet.
After that we were able to view a Family Christian Band I can only describe as “Duggar-esque”. They sang about Jesus for 6 hours. I am pretty sure he was pleased! There was also some slip and sliding for the kids:
And Zane learned how to rope a calf made of Hay:
Here is a Pic of Ian and Rachel having a blast while Zane was slip and sliding!!
And them continuing the Party while Zane learned to Rope:
Those Two are Party Animals!!
Here’s one of me and Zane in a Wild Horse Race, it got pretty intense!
My horse was giving me trouble at the end, Zane was just able to squeak by!
Finally it was time for the Pageant to begin! Now we had already scoped out the competition and with help from the Event Program we each picked the girl we thought would take the crown. Now, this was a serious competition. There were 5 judges and the show opened with a song and dance number involving all the girls and patriotic hats. There was immediately a stand out girl, the only one smiling. Now I have never been in a pageant, but from the movies and TLC documentaries I have seen, I do believe the girls are supposed to look like they actually want to be there. Apparently only one of the girls was aware of that fact. Each girl gave a short speech on what being Miss Teen would mean to them. For some of the girls, it really did not mean much. The girls left the stage to change for the Talent Portion. This is when we met Mr. Ambassador 2009 ( We had already met Mr. Ambassador 2002 when he awkwardly grabbed the mic from one of the girls earlier and told us that even though it had been SIX YEARS since he was on that stage, the moment was still clear in his mind as one of his greatest moments EVER…..). Mr. Ambassador was introduced and we were told he would be gracing us with his AWARD WINNING Michael Jackson Montage Tribute Dance. Now, this guy knew he was the Shit. The only way I can describe his tribute was Napoleon Dynamite meets Middle School Talent Show. It was amazing, especially at the end when he dramatically jumped off the stage and landed in a sort of half kneeling pose. I really think he should of won the whole pageant.
The girls performed the usual pageant line-up of talents: A Cheerleading Routing, Sign Language to a Disney Song, Ballet Dance, Singing Over the Rainbow and Reciting a Poem. Yes, Reciting a Poem. Sadly, at this point we had to make the hardest decision of our lives. The Strong Man Competition was starting, which meant we had to leave the pageant early. Missing the Question and Answer portion, or Extemporaneous as it is called in the pageant world, was one of the hardest moments of my life, But I could not miss ridiculously muscly men moving tires. NO WAY.
The Strong Man competition was only part of the show, there was also Lawn Mower races. These were amazing! We saw lawn mowers doing wheelies, which is never a bad thing. The announcer was hilarious, constantly comparing the weight of the lifts the Strong Men were doing to the weight of his Ex-wives. When they reached 700 pounds, he stopped out of respect of course. Here is a picture of Zane after the underdog was able to carry something like 200 pounds 50 feet:
I think his expression pretty much sums up the entire day!
After the Competitions ended the fireworks show started and it was THE best fireworks show I have ever seen. The grand finale went on so long that I couldn’t even clap through the whole thing and had to take a break. The entire day was exactly what we needed. As I sat there snuggled in Ian’s arms and holding Zane’s hand watching the beautiful fireworks while Rocky kicked around my Uterus I was overcome with a feeling of gratitude for my growing little family and all the Love and Joy that they bring to me. I am grateful to live in a country that allows me to be Free to express my views and opinions. I am a very blessed woman.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
I am a Robot that does the Robot
2
Jul 2009
Rachel and Zane made this video a while ago and it still makes me laugh every time!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Knocked Up- Week 21
2
Jul 2009
Me celebrating the fact that I finally look pregnant! Go Rocky!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Don’t Cry over spilt Crispy Rice Cereal
2
Jul 2009
Zane this morning after he spilt Crispy Rice Cereal (Don’t judge me because I buy generic cereal!) all over the carpet because I was still tired in bed and told him to try and pour himself another bowl. Parenting Fail.
Zane happy again after he found his Metronome. The kid is weird like his Dad.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
GYAP 2009!
1
Jul 2009
Let me first start off by saying that I married into a Wonderful Large Family! When I first started dating Ian I knew he had one sister, we had Tae Bo together in PE (Cheech), I also knew he had a brother (Robert) that he had played in a band with. I had also seen Robert and his wife (Becca) once at a party while we were in High School. Ian always talked about his other sister, and it was not until we had been dating over 6 months that I realized he did not have one other sister, he had THREE other sisters (Elizabeth, Sarah, and Rebekah). That makes 5 siblings, not too mention Ian’s Parents, who are the absolute kindest, most loving and generous people I know. They are all absolutely wonderful people that I love dearly! Every year the whole family gets together for a weekend to celebrate the amazing story of Rebekah surviving being hit by a drunk driver. It is called the Glad Your Alive Party, or GYAP. It is a wonderful celebration of Life and Faith and Family that I am honored to be able to be a part of.
This years GYAP celebration took place in Shaver Lake in a Gigantic Cabin (think less cabin, more Awesome large house..). It had two stories, a humongous kitchen, game room with an air hockey table, two living rooms, 5 bedrooms and a million comfortable couches and beds all over! The weekend was filled with yummy food, a great day at the water, EPIC game of Loaded Questions, and one outstanding Talent Show!
Here are some pics from the weekend:
Super Sweet Sadie
Super Sweet Sadie with her Biggest Fan (Proof that we can NEVER have a girl, Ian just thinks they are too cute!!)
Zane with Grandma Graham
Just a Small Sampling of all of Zane’s Crazy Cousins!
My Boys!
My Favorite Pic! Cannot wait for next year!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
An Experiment.
30
Jun 2009
So, Zane is a wonderful kid. I seriously could not ask for a better child. There are a thousand things that I love about him. However, he does have one vice. Video Games. Now, I am not saying this is entirely his fault. I love video games as well. I am the one who introduced him to Mario Bros. Now, it is not so much that Zane loves video games that is the problem. It is more the fact that he asks to play ALL THE TIME! It is the first thing he asks me when he wakes up in the morning. He asks all day. He would seriously rather play video games than do anything else. The thing is, I tell him No waaaay more than I tell him Yes. You would think he would give up and stop asking so much, but no.
The Final Straw was this weekend at GYAP (blog post to come about this soon). Zane has 13 (or is it 14….) cousins. All staying the weekend in a beautiful cabin, they even had an air hockey table. But what does Zane keep asking for? His DS. Of course, this is after I lectured him on the ride down that the DS was only for the car ride and would be locked inside the glove compartment all weekend. Apparently Zane does not take me seriously.
When we got home I let him know that the DS was gone. He is on a break from all video games, the DS, the computer, the Wii, the Nintendo… (okay maybe that is part of the problem..we apparently have way too many video game playing options..) For a minimum of one week. I also let him know that asking to play the DS would result in an immediate trip to his room. Of course, he was upset at first, and Monday was kind of hard. I got the “I am so bored, there is nothing to do!” for most of the day. Today has been much better. He has played a bunch of board games, done some reading, listened to some joke cd’s and just been generally more creative and able to amuse himself. I am excited to see what the rest of the week holds!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Prominent Bilateral Renal Pelves?! UPDATE
30
Jun 2009
Today I had my regular monthly doctors appt and the first thing the midwife asked me was if they had called me about my ultrasound (had it almost 5 weeks ago) I said no. She then tells me that when the Ultrasound Tech looked at the babies kidneys, the Renal Pelves (?) were really enlarged. She drew me a diagram and I guess the Renal Pelves are the sacks inside each kidney that hold the urine. They are having me go back in for another ultrasound, and the midwife said it can be a sign that the kidneys are not functioning properly. She said usually one kidney will be much larger than the other, and then they are able to tell for sure what is wrong, and if one kidney is not able to function the other will take over and the child usually has no other problems.
They scheduled me for another ultrasound, and then made me an early appt so the midwife can see me as soon as she gets the report back. She said if they are still enlarged I will have to travel to the nearest University Hospital (almost 2 hours away) to be seen further.
From the reading I have been doing, it sounds like if both the babies Renal Pelves are enlarged it could be a sign of something much worse, and it would mean that both kidneys would be unable to function causing the baby to not survive.
I am trying really really hard not to freak out, but I am failing. I hate this. We have no idea if everything is fine, but part of me feels like if everything was fine they would not be making me get another ultrasound. Also, when I asked the Midwife what it would mean if something was wrong, she was very vague and avoided answering my question. I know she doesn’t want to worry me to badly yet, but it is too late. I am freaking out and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
***UPDATE- After reading some message boards online, I am starting to feel better. It sounds like 20% of people can get similar results at their ultrasound, and that in most cases the kidneys correct themselves and everything is fine. I am going to be optimistic and not allow myself to freak out. They also said that enlarged kidneys are most common in boys. All I can do is wait for the next ultrasound and hope and pray that everything is fine!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
I will not freak out..I will not freak out…
24
Jun 2009
Okay, so I just lost another daycare girl. (Clarification-I did not LOSE her, I know where she is, she is just not coming to my daycare anymore) I am not going to freak out. It is going to be okay.
Okay I lied. What the heck am I going to do?! That leaves only one child that comes 3 days a week, and two children that come only every other week. How did I go from 8 full time kids to this?! How are we going to survive? I am not even going to lie, I have been pacing back and forth in the kitchen for the last hour eating cheese puffs and freaking out. I really don’t know what else I can cut from our budget. Now, if this had happened a few months ago I would of simply began looking for a job. I am very skillful for the job market, and even though I would rather be home with Zane and soon to be Rocky, I would gladly get a full-time job to help the family. Who is going to hire a pregnant lady!?! Especially in this job market?!? DEEP BREATHS!
Freak out over. Sorry about that. I need to go back to Yoga Class. We are going to be okay. I am allowed to freak out a little, but I know we will be fine. It is going to be tough, but I will keep advertising and I WILL find more kids. Positive thinking. I will go back through the budget with a fine tooth comb and make some cuts.
Now, because I need them, 5 Things that make me Happy.
1. Amish People. I love them.
2. The Duggars. I love them as well. ( I have a thing for simple living and big families, see also #1)
3. The new pack of Starbursts that have only RED flavors. About Time!
4. Playing Board Games with Ian, Rachel and Zane. I love them all so much, they always make me smile!
5. Hugs from Ian. I could really use one right now. That boy has a way of melting every care in my entire world away with one Hug.
Okay I am starting to feel better. Deep Breaths.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Exchange with daycare girl..
24
Jun 2009
Me- “I like your painting Lila*”
2 year old Lila- “Yeah you DO like it.”
Well alrighty then.
*Name has been changed to protect the adorable (and extremely confident) daycare girl*
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Ugh.
24
Jun 2009
Why do people all of a sudden need daycare for the ONE weekend I am out of town?! 3 kids, all day, that is a nice amount of money for a Saturday. Just trying to keep my spirits high, I know I will find more kids soon.
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
I bought cheese puffs today.
23
Jun 2009
Yes, that is correct. I bought cheese puffs. I am pretty sure that is what I am going to eat for dinner. Today has been a HARD day. I have already consumed the following: half a breakfast burrito (threw the rest out,tasted yucky), one yummy asian salad from Great Harvest, Snickers bar, Cracker Jacks, 2 bowls Apple Jacks (I was going for a theme..foods with “Jacks” somewhere in the name..), and hopefully soon I can add cheese puffs to the list. I am in super stressed eating mode, and seeing how I am supposed to be gaining weight, I am not even feeling bad about my seemingly poor food choices.
There are only 4 kids (all part-time) left in my daycare. I have two children that are older, school aged, and they are so much harder than the smaller kids! I am not sure if it is because older kids already have developed such bad habits by the time I get them, or if older kids just complain more, but these two are wearing me down. There is constant drama, lots of fighting, lots of inappropriate subjects being mentioned, and lots of disrespect. I have tried talking to the mother, and she has spoken to the kids, but honestly there is not much more that can be done. I know I should probably let them go, but sadly I am not independently wealthy and I don’t run this daycare because I just LOVE dealing with other peoples kids. My income has been cut more than half this Summer, so I cannot afford to lose anymore kids.
There is also the added stress that My Sister Rachel has gotten another job (which honestly is great news!!) but that also means I don’t have an Assistant anymore. I am trying to figure out how I am going to get Zane to gymnastics tomorrow while watching 3 kids. I am also trying to schedule doctors appointments, errands and figure out what the heck I am going to do when Rocky gets here! At this rate, I am not going to be able to take any maternity leave! DEEP BREATHS!!! My Wonderful, Amazing, Loving, HOT husband is doing everything he can to make me feel better, and I really do appreciate it. He works so hard, and I am so lucky to have him. I just need to focus on the positives-I bought cheese puffs today!
Tags: daycare
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
WTH?!
23
Jun 2009
So, this morning I am straightening up the house while the kids play and I see this GIANT, beautiful long haired dog in front of our house. Now, I know nothing about dog breeds, usually I refer to specific types of dogs by whatever movie I have seen a similar looking dog in, there are Lassie dogs, Beethoven dogs, Beverly Hills Chihuahua dogs…etc. This particular type of dog has not had a movie made about it yet, at least not as far as I know. As I am watching the glorious dog, and for once actually thinking maybe I don’t dislike all dogs after all, I call the kids over to show them how beautiful this creature is. As we are all staring out the window, the dog squats down and does a GIANT poop right on our lawn. I gasp and look up at the owner who is just standing there smiling. We make eye contact and she sheepishly looks down and starts walking the dog away. I was too in shock to respond! HELLO! We live on a cul-de-sac!! There is no reason to bring your dog on our street to poop on our lawns! How hard is it to bring a little baggie?!? We live maybe 100 yards from a river, there is plenty of land to take care of business!
Now, I have spoken to many dog owners, I understand where they are coming from. I may not share the sentiment, but I do realize that a lot of dog owners consider their pets like children. Well, I don’t take my children over to their house to poop in their yard! Although right now that is sounding like a really good idea….
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
Book Review: A Good Woman by Danielle Steel
22
Jun 2009
Okay, do not laugh!! When I was younger my Mom must of read EVERY Danielle Steel book, and I of course, being the wonderful daughter I am would tease her relentlessly! When I was in the library trying to find some easy reading for before bed I saw the newest Danielle Steel book and curiosity got the best of me! Well now I have to call my Mother and apologize because the book was great! It was the story of a Woman who experiences a family tragedy, ends up getting married and experiencing a whole string of unfortunate events! The story begins with the sinking of the Titanic, so there is a little bit of historical fiction which sets a really nice tone! Seriously, this woman’s bad luck is astounding! It definitely made me feel better about my own life! The book ended up being a really great read, and pretty inspiring with a really great message about overcoming adversity and finding your own happiness. I must say I was impressed! Before this, I pretty much placed Danielle Steel books in the same category as paperback romance novels with Fabio on the cover, which I am sure are fine books, just not my style. I give the book 4 suprised stars!
Posted in The Kitchen Sink
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