We went camping last weekend. We had a mother daughter campout for activity days and yw. We didn't get that great of a turn out. Partly because it's May and partly because mom's don't love to camp. Maybe next year we'll open it up to all the women of the ward. We also had a hard time getting priesthood to come. So Bob and the kids came and one of the other leaders' families came and they slept in the next campsite over. It worked out well. It was nice I didn't have to spend more time away from my family. The temperature was good, but it was super windy. I think it helped that last time we camped it was like that. So this time it didn't bother me as much.
The kids are so busy with all their activities. Somehow most of the kids are double booked this season. Danny is just doing one basketball team, but somehow they have several games most saturdays and they're doing lots of tournaments. But they haven't had a gym to practice in, so that's been a little nice. Aaron is doing basketball and the school track team. Rachel is doing dance and track. Seth goes several times a week to karate. And Ruby is in dance. We didn't plan on track happening. But it's worked out well and has been good for Aaron and Rachel.
This weekend I go to Arizona with Amanda and Wendy. I'm so excited!
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Thursday, May 7, 2015
May 3, 2015
Our trip was fabulous! We had good weather. It only rained one day even though it was forecast to rain a lot more than that. But most days were windy and that made if feel colder than I was prepared for. But it was probably better to be a little too cold for all the walking we did than if it was too hot and we got all sweaty.
So Bob picked up my mom from the airport on Wednesday at 7. He brought her home; I had about 30 minutes to tell her about the schedule and everything and then she drove us back to the airport. We had a 5 hour flight to New York that night. It worked out perfect because we got into New York about 6 and we went straight to the statue of Liberty. We got the second boat out there and we had no crowds at all. We had a great time walking around and then visiting ellis island too. By the time we were done it was starting to get crowded. Then we did a super walking tour of southern Manhattan. We saw Wall Street and the Bull statue and the new world trade center and the 9-11 memorial. That was really cool. And we went to Little Italy and Chinatown. We ate pizza at Lombardi's. That was really good. We sat for a bit at a public library, where we got in trouble for sitting in the children's section and then I got in trouble for sleeping at a table. It was a lot of walking that day. But it was just the start for our trip. Then we headed back to the airport for our second red eye.
We flew 8ish hours to Milan the second night (Friday). Bob was amazing at setting up all our transportation for the trip. He had trains and buses and metros all mapped out and tickets ordered and everything went so smoothly. We walked through downtown Milan to our hotel that morning in the rain. It turned out that it was fashion week in Milan while we were there and they were setting up to host the world's expo in a few weeks so things were busier and more expensive that usual. I was impressed with how thin and pretty most people were there. We got our hotel and walked to a market and had some great pizza that day.
It was hard to sleep at the right times that night. It took me several days to get over my jet lag. Bob did better than I did. I was ok if we were doing things, but whenever we sat on a metro or train or anything, I fell asleep. The second day in Milan (Saturday), Bob booked a 3 hour bus and walking tour. We went to the cathedral where the Last Supper is painted, and the Scala opera house, Scorza Castle and the Galleria shopping center where the first Prada was.
After that we took a bus to Bergamo. It's a city on a hill about an hour from Milan. It's a really cute little Italian city. We rode a funicular up the hill. They had lots of shops and a cathedral and cobblestone roads. That night we took a flight to Paris. We got to our hotel about 1:00 in the morning. We stayed at a nice hotel in a great area. It was called Hotel Demeure in les gobelins. We had a couple grocery stores, a bakery, creperie, kebab place and Metro stop on our road.
Sunday was really cold and windy in the morning. We went to sacrament meeting where we sat behind a woman from Utah and a woman from Norway. They had earphones for us in English. Then we went to Notre Dame. We waited in line to go to the top of the towers. That view was awesome. We had our first french crepes across the street from Notre Dame. They weren't as amazing as I had hoped they'd be. We went to the Pantheon and Pompidou Center.
Monday, we went to the Louvre. We spent about 4 hours there. It was amazing. I loved all the super decorated rooms near the Mona Lisa. We walked through the whole museum, but about hour 3, we hit fast forward and breezed through a few of the rooms. Then we walked through the jardin tuileries right outside of the Louvre. We walked to the Paris Opera House. We walked around the outside and then decided it was too expensive and wasn't included in our Paris Museum Pass and we'd already seen an opera house in Milan so we didn't go inside. Then we went to Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It was beautiful and so was the view. And then we went to the arc de triomphe.
We had pastries from the bakery nearby for most breakfasts. We also had Macarons there. They were awesome. Tuesday we went to musee d'orsay. We loved that one. But we also really liked that we went to the Louvre before the Orsay because we still took over 2 hours there, but if we had to do the Louvre after the smaller one, it would have felt more overwhelming. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We only took the stairs to the 2nd floor. But it was still a great view. That evening we took a river cruise on the Seine. That was cool to see all the locals come hang out by the river. We were hoping to see everything lit up, but we were just a little too early. So then we walked over to the Eiffel tower again to see it lit up. We got there just in time to see it sparkle at 10:00. That was awesome.
Wednesday, we rented a car in downtown Paris and Bob drove through those crazy streets. We drove out to Versailles. We stayed there for half the day. It was beautiful, but so super crowded. We didn't even see all of the main castle because it was so crowded. It was nice the grounds were so big. We enjoyed those and saw all of the lower houses and Marie antoinette's house. Then we drove another hour to Fresneux, France. I thought that was funny, like Fresno. We stayed at a Chateau there. Bob did an awesome job finding the place. The actual castle had mostly fallen down, but they'd restored all the side buildings and we stayed in one of those. It was beautiful and peaceful. We ate dinner there. We had pheasant and salmon and it was all delicious and french.
Thursday we drove to the airport and flew to Venice. We stayed in a great little flat outside of the main tourist area, which I loved. The tourist areas were so crowded. It was a little overwhelming. The owner of the flat met us with the keys. She talked with us for about an hour about all the politics and history of Italy. Bob was very impressive with how much he knows while he talked to her. We went out that night and walked around and had gelato and I had lasagna. It didn't have any cheese sauce in it. I don't know if that's an Italian thing or just that restaurant, but I think I like american lasagna better. We also went to St. Marks square. Being out at night I was impressed how much the sky with the ocean clouds looks like the ceiling they painted in the Venetian hotel.
Friday we took a walking tour of Venice and then rode on a gondola. There's only a limited number of actual gondoliers so to ride a gondola by yourself costs $80 for 30 minutes. We shared it with 2 other couples.
Saturday we took the water taxis to Murrano and Burano and Torcello islands. The glass and lace islands. Those were super fun. They were less crowded and fun to see. Especially Burano because the houses were so colorful.
Sunday we got up early and took a train to Milan and then flew to NYC. It was so nice to be heading back to America and closer to our kids. We got in around 7 to New York. I was so tired. It felt like 3 a.m. Bob got us a great hotel. We stayed at the Hilton on Times Square. That worked out great so we could see Times Square at night. We walked around for a while and Bob got some dinner and we went to bed.
Monday morning we got up and Bob found a place that was supposed to have good donuts that was about a 20 minute walk. That turned out to be one of my favorite things about New York. We went out about 8:30, right when everyone was walking to work. It was fun to see what that's really like for people who live there and not just all the touristy stuff we were doing. On the way back we saw a foot locker and decided to stop in because Danny had been trying so hard to get these red shoes he'd ordered for his birthday. They were backordered and then they sent the wrong ones and then they were backordered again. So we just thought we'd check it out. And they had them! It was so fun to surprise Danny with them. The rest of the morning we walked around Central Park. It was a great day for it. All the tulips were out and the trees were blooming. When we'd been in NY 12 days before, the trees all still looked dead. So it was nice to catch some Spring. We also ran into Line, from Norway while we were walking in the Park. It was such a blessing. She's a nanny there and we just happened to walk by her in this enormous park. It was fun to chat with her for a while. She also mentioned Norwegian air has cheap flights sometimes. So now we have all these grand ideas of taking our kids to Norway. Then we ate lunch at a great deli and flew home.
It was so wonderful to be home to our kids. They did great while we were gone. My mom stayed for 9 days and then Erica Kelly, a college girl in our ward, stayed the last 4 days.
So Bob picked up my mom from the airport on Wednesday at 7. He brought her home; I had about 30 minutes to tell her about the schedule and everything and then she drove us back to the airport. We had a 5 hour flight to New York that night. It worked out perfect because we got into New York about 6 and we went straight to the statue of Liberty. We got the second boat out there and we had no crowds at all. We had a great time walking around and then visiting ellis island too. By the time we were done it was starting to get crowded. Then we did a super walking tour of southern Manhattan. We saw Wall Street and the Bull statue and the new world trade center and the 9-11 memorial. That was really cool. And we went to Little Italy and Chinatown. We ate pizza at Lombardi's. That was really good. We sat for a bit at a public library, where we got in trouble for sitting in the children's section and then I got in trouble for sleeping at a table. It was a lot of walking that day. But it was just the start for our trip. Then we headed back to the airport for our second red eye.
We flew 8ish hours to Milan the second night (Friday). Bob was amazing at setting up all our transportation for the trip. He had trains and buses and metros all mapped out and tickets ordered and everything went so smoothly. We walked through downtown Milan to our hotel that morning in the rain. It turned out that it was fashion week in Milan while we were there and they were setting up to host the world's expo in a few weeks so things were busier and more expensive that usual. I was impressed with how thin and pretty most people were there. We got our hotel and walked to a market and had some great pizza that day.
It was hard to sleep at the right times that night. It took me several days to get over my jet lag. Bob did better than I did. I was ok if we were doing things, but whenever we sat on a metro or train or anything, I fell asleep. The second day in Milan (Saturday), Bob booked a 3 hour bus and walking tour. We went to the cathedral where the Last Supper is painted, and the Scala opera house, Scorza Castle and the Galleria shopping center where the first Prada was.
After that we took a bus to Bergamo. It's a city on a hill about an hour from Milan. It's a really cute little Italian city. We rode a funicular up the hill. They had lots of shops and a cathedral and cobblestone roads. That night we took a flight to Paris. We got to our hotel about 1:00 in the morning. We stayed at a nice hotel in a great area. It was called Hotel Demeure in les gobelins. We had a couple grocery stores, a bakery, creperie, kebab place and Metro stop on our road.
Sunday was really cold and windy in the morning. We went to sacrament meeting where we sat behind a woman from Utah and a woman from Norway. They had earphones for us in English. Then we went to Notre Dame. We waited in line to go to the top of the towers. That view was awesome. We had our first french crepes across the street from Notre Dame. They weren't as amazing as I had hoped they'd be. We went to the Pantheon and Pompidou Center.
Monday, we went to the Louvre. We spent about 4 hours there. It was amazing. I loved all the super decorated rooms near the Mona Lisa. We walked through the whole museum, but about hour 3, we hit fast forward and breezed through a few of the rooms. Then we walked through the jardin tuileries right outside of the Louvre. We walked to the Paris Opera House. We walked around the outside and then decided it was too expensive and wasn't included in our Paris Museum Pass and we'd already seen an opera house in Milan so we didn't go inside. Then we went to Sacre Coeur Cathedral. It was beautiful and so was the view. And then we went to the arc de triomphe.
We had pastries from the bakery nearby for most breakfasts. We also had Macarons there. They were awesome. Tuesday we went to musee d'orsay. We loved that one. But we also really liked that we went to the Louvre before the Orsay because we still took over 2 hours there, but if we had to do the Louvre after the smaller one, it would have felt more overwhelming. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We only took the stairs to the 2nd floor. But it was still a great view. That evening we took a river cruise on the Seine. That was cool to see all the locals come hang out by the river. We were hoping to see everything lit up, but we were just a little too early. So then we walked over to the Eiffel tower again to see it lit up. We got there just in time to see it sparkle at 10:00. That was awesome.
Wednesday, we rented a car in downtown Paris and Bob drove through those crazy streets. We drove out to Versailles. We stayed there for half the day. It was beautiful, but so super crowded. We didn't even see all of the main castle because it was so crowded. It was nice the grounds were so big. We enjoyed those and saw all of the lower houses and Marie antoinette's house. Then we drove another hour to Fresneux, France. I thought that was funny, like Fresno. We stayed at a Chateau there. Bob did an awesome job finding the place. The actual castle had mostly fallen down, but they'd restored all the side buildings and we stayed in one of those. It was beautiful and peaceful. We ate dinner there. We had pheasant and salmon and it was all delicious and french.
Thursday we drove to the airport and flew to Venice. We stayed in a great little flat outside of the main tourist area, which I loved. The tourist areas were so crowded. It was a little overwhelming. The owner of the flat met us with the keys. She talked with us for about an hour about all the politics and history of Italy. Bob was very impressive with how much he knows while he talked to her. We went out that night and walked around and had gelato and I had lasagna. It didn't have any cheese sauce in it. I don't know if that's an Italian thing or just that restaurant, but I think I like american lasagna better. We also went to St. Marks square. Being out at night I was impressed how much the sky with the ocean clouds looks like the ceiling they painted in the Venetian hotel.
Friday we took a walking tour of Venice and then rode on a gondola. There's only a limited number of actual gondoliers so to ride a gondola by yourself costs $80 for 30 minutes. We shared it with 2 other couples.
Saturday we took the water taxis to Murrano and Burano and Torcello islands. The glass and lace islands. Those were super fun. They were less crowded and fun to see. Especially Burano because the houses were so colorful.
Sunday we got up early and took a train to Milan and then flew to NYC. It was so nice to be heading back to America and closer to our kids. We got in around 7 to New York. I was so tired. It felt like 3 a.m. Bob got us a great hotel. We stayed at the Hilton on Times Square. That worked out great so we could see Times Square at night. We walked around for a while and Bob got some dinner and we went to bed.
Monday morning we got up and Bob found a place that was supposed to have good donuts that was about a 20 minute walk. That turned out to be one of my favorite things about New York. We went out about 8:30, right when everyone was walking to work. It was fun to see what that's really like for people who live there and not just all the touristy stuff we were doing. On the way back we saw a foot locker and decided to stop in because Danny had been trying so hard to get these red shoes he'd ordered for his birthday. They were backordered and then they sent the wrong ones and then they were backordered again. So we just thought we'd check it out. And they had them! It was so fun to surprise Danny with them. The rest of the morning we walked around Central Park. It was a great day for it. All the tulips were out and the trees were blooming. When we'd been in NY 12 days before, the trees all still looked dead. So it was nice to catch some Spring. We also ran into Line, from Norway while we were walking in the Park. It was such a blessing. She's a nanny there and we just happened to walk by her in this enormous park. It was fun to chat with her for a while. She also mentioned Norwegian air has cheap flights sometimes. So now we have all these grand ideas of taking our kids to Norway. Then we ate lunch at a great deli and flew home.
It was so wonderful to be home to our kids. They did great while we were gone. My mom stayed for 9 days and then Erica Kelly, a college girl in our ward, stayed the last 4 days.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
April 14, 2015
Bob and I go to Europe tomorrow. Bob put in hours and hours over the last few months planning things. Now my work has been in the last few days arranging all the things for the kids. I wish I was a little more excited, but right now I just feel sad about missing my kids. Hopefully we keep busy enough that it won't get too bad. And it'll be nice that our phones will have service a lot better than on our cruise. I've been praying and fasting that the trip will go well for all of us and I'll come home to things just as we left it. So that feels good that I think we'll be taken care of, but I miss my kids already.
At the end of March I hurt my elbow. I was sleeping one night and woke up and when I bent my arm I felt hot, stabbing nerve pain in my elbow. For 2 days I couldn't bend my elbow past 45 degrees. I could still do most of the important things like making food and driving kids, but I couldn't do anything for me like my hair and makeup or get dress. It was frustrating. Then it started to get better, but I probably still should have been more easy on it. It was still a little achey but I could bend it. So I just stated doing everything with it. By about a week later I was getting tingling in my hand and fingers from it. So I really took it easy for several days and went to a doctor and he gave me an anti-inflammatory and that's helping a lot. Hopefully it'll be all the way better by the end of our trip.
For Spring Break we went to Cowabunga Bay one day. We got passes there for the summer. We had a great time. Ruby is just barely under the height requirement for all the good rides. Hopefully she'll grow a little this summer. Then one day we all went to the temple. My mom had sent Danny some names to do baptisms for and we're trying to get him to the temple at least every other month. So we all drove over one morning. I went in with Danny to make sure he got where he was supposed to be and then I left him and grabbed some cinnamon rolls from the cafeteria. Then the rest of us walked around the grounds and ate. Everyone loved it. Especially Ruby.
On Thursday we went to Visalia for Easter. We got there a day before everyone else. Grandma took Danny shopping for his birthday and we went to see a movie. Once everyone got there, we had a birthday party for all the April birthdays. My mom did a fishing and sports theme since that's what Danny and Ryan like. We played frisbee golf in the backyard and had a fish race by squirting goldfish in a rain gutter. We also watched conference and went to the park.
Ballet is over. It was fun. But it was a basic barre that didn't really ever change and it was kind of expensive for that.
Seth is still loving karate. And the girls are doing great in dance. Aaron and Rachel just signed up for Track at somerset. I'm excited for them to do that. Aaron and Danny are also doing basketball.
At the end of March I hurt my elbow. I was sleeping one night and woke up and when I bent my arm I felt hot, stabbing nerve pain in my elbow. For 2 days I couldn't bend my elbow past 45 degrees. I could still do most of the important things like making food and driving kids, but I couldn't do anything for me like my hair and makeup or get dress. It was frustrating. Then it started to get better, but I probably still should have been more easy on it. It was still a little achey but I could bend it. So I just stated doing everything with it. By about a week later I was getting tingling in my hand and fingers from it. So I really took it easy for several days and went to a doctor and he gave me an anti-inflammatory and that's helping a lot. Hopefully it'll be all the way better by the end of our trip.
For Spring Break we went to Cowabunga Bay one day. We got passes there for the summer. We had a great time. Ruby is just barely under the height requirement for all the good rides. Hopefully she'll grow a little this summer. Then one day we all went to the temple. My mom had sent Danny some names to do baptisms for and we're trying to get him to the temple at least every other month. So we all drove over one morning. I went in with Danny to make sure he got where he was supposed to be and then I left him and grabbed some cinnamon rolls from the cafeteria. Then the rest of us walked around the grounds and ate. Everyone loved it. Especially Ruby.
On Thursday we went to Visalia for Easter. We got there a day before everyone else. Grandma took Danny shopping for his birthday and we went to see a movie. Once everyone got there, we had a birthday party for all the April birthdays. My mom did a fishing and sports theme since that's what Danny and Ryan like. We played frisbee golf in the backyard and had a fish race by squirting goldfish in a rain gutter. We also watched conference and went to the park.
Ballet is over. It was fun. But it was a basic barre that didn't really ever change and it was kind of expensive for that.
Seth is still loving karate. And the girls are doing great in dance. Aaron and Rachel just signed up for Track at somerset. I'm excited for them to do that. Aaron and Danny are also doing basketball.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
March 8, 2015
I got my tear duct plugs removed. They were just so watery. But it was so nice. I got the 3 month ones put in. They don't seem to be that great though. I feel really dry. They don't seem any different than the 2 week ones I already tried. But those did make a marginal difference at least. I almost think it was better to have to wipe my eyes all day. It was annoying, but at least it never hurt.
We signed Seth up for karate. I can't believe how excited he is about it. His first class is tomorrow. They gave him a book about karate and told him to memorize 5 animals and 5 character traits. He's worked so hard on it. And memorizing is really hard for him. I'm so excited to watch him do this. It seems like it might really give him some confidence in this.
I keep thinking he might have some kind of learning disability or something. He seems to process and remember differently than any of my other kids. I'm trying to figure out what I can to do figure out how to help him. He's definitely smart, but he has to try so much harder than the other kids. There must be things I can do to help him, but it's so hard to find out what those things are.
We signed Seth up for karate. I can't believe how excited he is about it. His first class is tomorrow. They gave him a book about karate and told him to memorize 5 animals and 5 character traits. He's worked so hard on it. And memorizing is really hard for him. I'm so excited to watch him do this. It seems like it might really give him some confidence in this.
I keep thinking he might have some kind of learning disability or something. He seems to process and remember differently than any of my other kids. I'm trying to figure out what I can to do figure out how to help him. He's definitely smart, but he has to try so much harder than the other kids. There must be things I can do to help him, but it's so hard to find out what those things are.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
February 22, 2015
Seth is sick AGAIN. This is his 5th cold since Christmas. I guess his body is having a hard time getting adjusted to public school.
Things are just going on like usual. Basketball season is almost over and we're trying to figure out what the 2 younger boys are going to do for the next season.
I got tear duct plugs in my upper ducts. I've had them in my lower ducts for years. At that time the doctor thought I'd get lots of eye infections if I got the upper ones plugged too. But I go to a new dry eye specialist and he said that isn't much of an issue in Las Vegas. I got 2 week plugs and loved them. They dissolved and I got permanent ones put in on Friday. I have so much tears! My eyes never feel like this. I can wear my contacts as long as I want. But there are a little too much tears. Sometimes if I bend over the tears just fall out. I'm going to wait and see if my eyes will adjust and if not the doctor said there are 3 month dissolving plugs that are not quite as tight of seal as the permanent ones so I might try that.
Valentines day was nice. I gave Bob pictures of places we'll go on our trip every day with things I love about him on the back. And on Valentines day we did things we did when we were dating like ate at cafe rio and watched mission impossible 2 like we did on our first date.
Things are just going on like usual. Basketball season is almost over and we're trying to figure out what the 2 younger boys are going to do for the next season.
I got tear duct plugs in my upper ducts. I've had them in my lower ducts for years. At that time the doctor thought I'd get lots of eye infections if I got the upper ones plugged too. But I go to a new dry eye specialist and he said that isn't much of an issue in Las Vegas. I got 2 week plugs and loved them. They dissolved and I got permanent ones put in on Friday. I have so much tears! My eyes never feel like this. I can wear my contacts as long as I want. But there are a little too much tears. Sometimes if I bend over the tears just fall out. I'm going to wait and see if my eyes will adjust and if not the doctor said there are 3 month dissolving plugs that are not quite as tight of seal as the permanent ones so I might try that.
Valentines day was nice. I gave Bob pictures of places we'll go on our trip every day with things I love about him on the back. And on Valentines day we did things we did when we were dating like ate at cafe rio and watched mission impossible 2 like we did on our first date.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
February 8, 2015
I started a ballet class at the new dance studio the girls go to. Stephanie and Suzanne are doing it with me. So we switched from doing yoga tuesday and thursday mornings to doing ballet on the same days. It was really fun to do it again. That dance studio has been great for all of us.
All 7 of us went to church today. It's been a long time since all of us were healthy at the same time to do that.
Mom school is going well. One of the biggest successes so far is that Danny is liking reading again. He used to be pretty good at it, but last year he decided it wasn't cool. But now he's reading without me really pushing him and he's reading the books I pick for him just fine. Rachel and I are going to start studying art in preparation for my trip to Paris. I think we'll both enjoy that. Aaron is still a little hard to motivate. But he really wants to be homeschooled because his good friend Tyson just started it and he wants to play with him more. So at least I have that to hold over his head. I don't think I'd really consider homeschool, but I told Aaron I really won't consider it unless he can show me he'll do well at mom school. Ruby has not wanted to say her own prayers. But I finally put a chart together with a reward and she's doing awesome at it now.
I've been listening to a ton of audio books. I'm loving it. I've found that I have a lot of mindless cleaning jobs that are great for listening to books at the same time. And I've gotten good at listening at double speed, so I can finish books pretty fast that way.
Ruby is so sweet. Here are a few things she's said to me lately. "Mom, you're a miracle." "You're the best in the west", "You're so cute, I could keep you," "You're such adorable."
All 7 of us went to church today. It's been a long time since all of us were healthy at the same time to do that.
Mom school is going well. One of the biggest successes so far is that Danny is liking reading again. He used to be pretty good at it, but last year he decided it wasn't cool. But now he's reading without me really pushing him and he's reading the books I pick for him just fine. Rachel and I are going to start studying art in preparation for my trip to Paris. I think we'll both enjoy that. Aaron is still a little hard to motivate. But he really wants to be homeschooled because his good friend Tyson just started it and he wants to play with him more. So at least I have that to hold over his head. I don't think I'd really consider homeschool, but I told Aaron I really won't consider it unless he can show me he'll do well at mom school. Ruby has not wanted to say her own prayers. But I finally put a chart together with a reward and she's doing awesome at it now.
I've been listening to a ton of audio books. I'm loving it. I've found that I have a lot of mindless cleaning jobs that are great for listening to books at the same time. And I've gotten good at listening at double speed, so I can finish books pretty fast that way.
Ruby is so sweet. Here are a few things she's said to me lately. "Mom, you're a miracle." "You're the best in the west", "You're so cute, I could keep you," "You're such adorable."
Sunday, February 1, 2015
February 1, 2014
We've had a horrible long cold going around our family lately. Seth got it first, then Ruby and now Rachel. This year has been bad for sicknesses for us. Seth's turned into an ear infection and then his ear drum burst. The night it burst he started saying his ear hurt at 5:00 pm. Then he said it again at 7:30. At that point his jaw on that side was a little swollen and I just new his eardrum would rupture. It was too late to get into any semi-convenient urgent cares so I just decided to wait to go to his pediatrician the next mourning. It ruptured in the middle of the night and when he got up we could see all the fluid that had come out. I was feeling so bad because I knew it was a prompting that would happen. And I thought it was telling me I should have made the effort to take him to urgent care. But the Doctor said it was fine and doesn't cause problems if it is treated with antibiotics. That made me feel so much better and I realized the prompting was just a tender mercy to let me know what would happen. It wouldn't have made much difference to take him in that night, but it was nice to be ready for what would happen.
I started going to the main dry eye specialist in Las Vegas. He recommended I get tear duct plugs in my upper tear ducts. So I just had some temporary ones put in this week to try it out. It doesn't completely solve the problem, but it does seem to help. So that means I'll go have permanent ones put in in a few weeks. He also has me coming back in 3 months because my eye pressures are going up, which is a sign of glaucoma. That worries me because I've seen a lot of eye doctors and they've never said I had this issue, so it must have come up recently. He said my cupping percentage or something was 55% and 60%. And that makes it worse that they aren't the same. He has me on Lotomax drops that he says would never cause it even though the package says it is a risk. And I've been having lots of muscle tension around and behind my eyes related to my squinting problem from dry eyes and from stress. I really pray they can figure this out and catch or fix whatever they need to.
Here's a snapshot of what life is like right now.
Danny- He is on 3 basketball teams right now. We didn't mean for that to happen, but he's loving it. He is also loving basketball shoes. He checks shoe websites daily to see new styles and colors. And everyone in the family knows all about the brands, colors and release dates. He's bought himself a few pairs of shoes this winter and has plans for many more. He's also recognized his need to work since his allowance was cut off when he turned 12. He cleans the bathrooms for me a few times a month and is always looking for more ways to make money. He also loves to spend his money at 711 or circle K whenever he can.
Rachel- She just started a hip hop dance class at a studio that just opened close to us. She's still taking piano. She loves to draw and is getting quite good. She's doing great in Middle School. She stays right on top of her homework and gets excellent grades. I never have to remind her to do anything for school. She started shaving her legs and wearing mascara this year. She loves hugs whenever she can get them.
Aaron- He started on a club basketball team too this season. He's doing really well. He's picking up a lot of new skills. He does great at school. The kids at school just adore him. He comes home most days with some new food from a trade or deal he worked at school. He has amazing negotiating skills. He's taking piano lessons and doing well. He loves to go play with Tyson whenever he gets his work done. He's also a great friend with Rachel and he plays sports with Danny whenever Danny talks him into it. He loves to read Calvin and Hobbs, Big Nate and the Guiness Book of World Records.
Seth- He's doing well in kindergarten. Even tough, if you ask him he says he never has a good time at school and counts the days until the weekend. He's starting to read. He has lots of friends at school. He plays great with Ruby and she misses him when he's at school. He loves to have friends over as often as he can. He likes video games too much. He learned to ride a two-wheeler this year and he loves it. He's our best eater by far. We've been eating more healthy this year and he eats it all. He loves to talk and will tell anyone a story.
Ruby- She thinks turning 4 was the best thing ever and loves to try more and more things by herself. She loves to homeschool with me. And she'll work in her workbooks for hours. She's so sweet and fun and loves to play with Seth. She has a couple of girlfriends she loves to play with. She started ballet recently too and she loves it. She likes to draw. She loves to play with toys and asks me to play with her all the time. She loves juice boxes and fruit snacks. She loves to sit with BJ LeCates at church every sunday.
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