***
"So Frequently we mistakenly believe that our children need more things, when in reality their silent pleadings are simply for more of our time."
***President Thomas S. Monson (Ensign May 1994)
During one of the few hours that I was feeling good last week, we went out to play. Friday night, we went to see Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. 
It was so much fun. We told the kids that we were going to take them to the circus and they didn't seem all that thrilled. I think they had some rinky dink circus in mind, especially Myshel and Vance. 
This was no rinky dink circus, though. It was a show! It was a great show! I think they all loved it and had a good time. I know Chad and I did. 
The sway poles freaked Myshel out a little, the high stuff scared Noah a little, but they still loved it. My pictures all turned out dark and some aren't so clear, but you get the idea.
The boy flipping up to the top was all of about 10 years old, maybe..........
The clowns were lots of fun, too. This was their "Bello-bration". Bello the Clown was awesome and funny and we all loved that part, too. There was usually so much going on that you couldn't watch everything. We also had great seats. We were only about 4 rows off the floor!
This was probably my favorite picture of the night! The elephants were cool and they were in a lot of the show.
If you get the chance, GO, because
Everybody loves a circus!!!
Nutmeg's getting bigger, but still very cute.
Because that's what's it's been at our house this last week.......................Ridiculous!
The Sunday after all the kids were sick, I ended up with strep, too. Of course it was the weekend and I couldn't get to my regular doctor until Tuesday, so it was off to the emergency room again. At least this time it was only 1 1/2 hours instead of 3. Tuesday started with me throwing up and all over miserable, this lasted alllllllllllll day, by Tuesday night, Noah was throwing up, which lasted alllllllllllllllll night! Fun stuff, huh. Wednesday Noah and I managed to get the kids off to school and then we went back to bed, for the entire day. By Wednesday night I was feeling better, not great, but better. I had hope...............Thursday Chad started throwing up and I woke up with a migraine that progessively got worse and worse. There were a few hours of relief here and there, but overall, it's lasted 4 days. Today I feel like I'm at about 85%. I guess I'll take what I can get for now.
Case #1: The week started with Noah telling me that his thumb hurt. He had infected hangnail. It was pretty bad. I considered taking him to the doctor, but decided I'd wait a day or two and see if I could get it to clear up at home. Yesterday morning, I decided we'd waited long enough, it wasn't getting any better, so, we went to the doctor. He has a staff infection. (oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!! that is not good!!!!!!!!!!) It's not terrible, but he definitely needed to come in to the doctor. After waiting 1 1/2 hours at the pharmacy we have antibiotics, ointment and 10 days that we have to fight Noah to take his medicine (twice a day)
Case #2: Vance has been up in the middle of the night almost every night this week. He complains about being stuffed up and he can't sleep. I believe one night he told me he thought his head was going to explode. This morning I woke up to him laying on my floor moaning that he was going to die (and I thought Myshel was dramatic) He's home sick with a terrible cold.
Case #3: Myshel also has been complaining of cold symptoms all week. There were a couple of days that she almost went to the nurse at school and asked to call me. It got the best of her yesterday when she came home from school completely wiped out. This morning we took her to the doctor, she has strep..............again! This is the 3rd time in 5 months. The doctor told us that is she gets it again in the next couple of months that they'll recommend that she have her tonsils taken out and refer us to an ENT. (apparently one tonsillectomy in the family per year isn't enough!) She's home sick fighting strep.
Case #4: McKaylie has felt great all week. She has complained about nothing. She has had no symptoms of any kind. Last night we woke to her telling us she didn't feel well. She's been throwing up ever since. She's home sick, laying in bed, trying not to think about her tummy.
Summary: I have 3 children home sick from school today, one with strep, one throwing up, and one with a bad cold and another child on medication for staff, 1 husband at work, completley unavailable to me.
I think I need to file a complaint!
A couple of days ago, Myshel and I were talking about Valentine's Day. She told me that she didn't like it.
I said, "what's not to like? You have one day that you get to tell and show everyone that you love them and appreciate them."
Myshel's answer: "aren't you suppose to do that every day?"
Touche
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
As of today, it's official! We have orders in hand. Chad will detach from the USS Enterprise around June 8th and we will report NLT July 16th to Newport, Rhode Island. Which means, that we could leave here as soon as June 15! Better get to work.....................
Friends of ours, Joey and Matt, just had a baby and I was showing Chad the pictures on her blog and oooo-ing and ahhhh-ing over her new baby daughter. (Congrats again by the way!) So, of course, we started remembered having our own babies and all the little things that we enjoyed and appreciated when they were so little and miss now that they're not.
It was funny because on Sunday I had watched a young mother giving her baby a bottle and watched the baby make little fists and hold his arms close to him and his eyes were half closed. He was so content being held by his mother and I thought, "I always loved those moments when kids were tiny". I told Chad about it and he said that he was watching a guy in his meeting on Sunday who had his baby daughter with him. He said she was about 5-6 months old and the dad was playing with her and making her laugh and Chad said he thought to himself, "I loved that with my own kids at that age". We talked awhile longer and Chad asked the question I knew was coming, "does all that make you want to have another baby?" and I thought for a moment and said, "no, no, it doesn't. What about you?" His answer, "no, I like where we're at." I completely agreed.
I loved having my little babies and I loved all those tender moments and even some of the frustrating ones. I loved watching them getting older and learning and growing. I still do love that. But I know and feel in my heart that that part of our lives is done for now and we're on to the next stage. I am so at peace with that, too, and I've very grateful that I don't have have a nagging wonder in the back of my head, "should there be more????????" I know that our family is right as it should be. Do I miss those tender sweet moments with a newborn, absolutely! But that's not where I am in my life, anymore, and I'm good with that!
Myshel, Vance, McKaylie, Noah
All around 1 year old
Yep, it's my birthday today. So far I've done dishes, laundry, picked up the house and am babysitting............sounds like a celebration to me! Actually, one of my wonderful friends had a birthday get together for me last night. It was fun and there was several families there. We ate good food, the cake and ice cream was great, we visited, and laughed A LOT! It was a good time!
This is a card from Marie, love ya!
My cake was beautiful except for the candles! NOT FUNNY! They said they were the only ones they had, so why couldn't they have put 16 instead????
All the kids seem to disappear after we ate dinner, but suddenly reappeared out of nowhere when they brought the cake out!
I had to Marie, I just had to!
It was a very full house, which means lots of fun!
I've had my old table for almost 12 years, which isn't that long really considering it was a good table and there wasn't really anything wrong with it, but I was sooooo glad to get rid of it and buy a new one. I never really wanted "that" table. (It's a long story that I won't get into here) It was pretty and worked well. We even refinished it, but it still wasn't "me". I told Chad that I'd like to look at new tables and he was ok with that. I'm not sure if he thought I was totally serisous until we went window shopping for furniture for one of our dates! We saw this table and I fell in love with it.............Chad did, too! We went back about a week or so later and bought it. It is 60" with the leaf out and can seat 8 people! I love that we could have guests and all sit at the table! It's also taller than traditional tables. It's counter height, which I also love! The strange thing about this table is that it's dark wood. It's the only thing in my house that I've bought that is dark wood, but I love that, too. There was actually 3 finishes to choose from and the dark was my favorite! This table is "me" and I am so excited to have it! Thank you, Chad!
The sniffles and coughs have hit our house with a vengence! It started with Chad and is now trickling down through the rest of us. I listened to McKaylie coughing in her bed this morning, Myshel complaining that she had a runny nose, Vance complaining that he didn't sleep very well and I laid in my own bed feeling all that and more! And what is the little "carrier monkey" suffering with? NOTHING! He was sick for, oh, maybe, 2 days, growled and grumped at everyone and everything, whined that we never just let him sleep when he doesn't feel well, left he's icky used kleenex all over my house and now that he's infected everyone, he's back at work feeling no pain! It's a good thing we love him!
I ordered prints of all my digital pictures that I have on the computer and once I got them, I saved them to my flashdrive and then deleted them off the computer. That way, I still have them, but they aren't taking up so much space on the computer (especially since my camera automatically saves them to two places and there was 2500+) and I also know for sure what pictures I've ordered and which ones I haven't. After doing all that, I left the computer room and went and did some other things around the house. I came back to the computer room to put some things away and glanced at the computer. It seemed strange, not quite right and then I realized that the screensaver wasn't on. I thought that seemed weird because I knew I hadn't changed it. I glanced over again and noticed there was a line of words that kept coming up every so often. I was thinking how odd this was until I read the words on the screen. It said "There are no images found in <my pictures> folder" uhhhhh, duh! My screensaver was set as a slide show of my pictures that I had saved on the computer and since I deleted them all, there was nothing for the screensaver. I changed the screensaver and thought about what an airhead I can be............
This is sooooo blog-worthy! I babysit a little boy during the day. He just turned 3 and within the last several weeks he's been potty-trained and started to wear big boy underwear. His mom dropped him off last Monday and told me that over the weekend he came to her and told her that he has a pocket. She looked at his pants and there were no pockets, so she asked where his pocket was. It was in his new underwear, of course! Right there in the front! I laughed and she said, of that's not the best part, he had fruit snacks in his pocket!!! She said that she very adamantly, but nicely, explained that we do not put fruit snacks in that pocket!
I used to be so good about writing on my blog everyday and since Chad's come back and the holidays, I just can't seem to get back into my "groove". In fact, I just can't seem to get back into any sense of a routine since then. I seem to be busy, busy, busy, but I'm not sure that I'm accomplishing much, most of the time. Time just seems to be getting away from me and it's frustrating. I'm hoping that I'll be able to at least make peace with "time" and we'll learn to get along again............
