This is what living like this does

Craft group

2012-01-23T13:44:00.003-07:00

My sister in law decided to start a craft group. Which is awesome I think! We've made 3 crafts so far-- We met on Saturday for our third activity. It's so nice to know I have at least 1 time a month where I'll get to socialize with other people, and make something I wouldn't make on my own.

The first time we met, we made these cute fall picture frames. We used a 4 matte picture frame, and painted wooden letters. There's no glass on the frame, so you can take full advantage of the 3D effect.

And then we made these fun Christmas Trees from 2x4's and modpodged paper onto them. I love it!

This was the craft we made Saturday, and it's already hanging on my front door. Took the place of my Christmas wreath! (yes, I'm still working on putting Christmas stuff away. Don't ask about the tree) This one was fun! We took a foam wreath, wrapped it in ribbon, and then took 2 bath sponges--you know those soft netting ones that are like a ball? Loofa's I think they're called? Anyway, when you cut the rope handle off, it's a REALLY long netting tube that you cut up and wrap around the wreath. Then we added flowers (you can't really see them in mine, unfortunately. . .)

And here's what we're doing in February. Fabric covered pots! If you're local to me (like the same county) and want to join our group, let me know! We only have 4-5 people right now, so the more the merrier! :)

Some new sewing projects

2012-01-21T19:12:00.001-07:00

I'm in the middle of 2 quilts, but my quilt group had a retreat this weekend. By retreat I mean we met friday night and sewed together for a few hours and had dinner, and on Saturday morning we had breakfast and sewed all morning.

I feel like I've posted this before. . .but this is my fall table runner. My table is square, so I love being able to have square table runner! It looks really nice when I put my fall candles in the middle.

This was one of the projects we did last night. It's called a skinny scrap or something like that. Usually the center is a bunch of random strips of fabric from your stash, sewn together and then cut into the shape. For this project we were using some stuff called Texture Magic. You sew it on the back of your fabric (I just stitched lines and then crossed them) and then heat it up with your iron. You don't TOUCH it with your iron, just the heat from it hovering and some steam. And it shrinks up and gives it some texture!

You can kind of see the texture a bit in this photo.

And we made these flowers. This one was super easy. We traced the pattern onto heat'n'bond interfacing stuff, stitched it onto the fabric and turned it right side out. Ironed it onto the background fabric and then zig-zag stitched it into place. I love it! I think I'm going to turn it into a pillow.

Now here's hoping I can finish my other projects quickly, before I accrue more!

Christmas Surprise(s)

2011-12-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago, we had one of those weeks where it seemed like everything was falling apart around us. We just had Indy diagnosed with diabetes and cataracts. It broke my heart to realize she was blind. We were hoping she just had an infection that was causing problems. Turns out she had a double ear infection though, and we had to start giving her antibiotics to clear her ears up. All the stuff being put in her ear has made it very hard for her to hear, so we've been dealing with a deaf and blind dog lately. And having to start giving her shots twice a day of insulin.

And then there's Katryn, who has been having serious tooth pain lately. We could see her tooth just decaying before our eyes. But we didn't have dental insurance and have been putting it off, unsure of what her medicaid would cover. Finally took her to our friend Steve's dad, who's a pediatric dentist. He determined she needed 7 caps on her molars, and 3 baby root canals to get her teeth under control. We were shocked! This is the girl who LOVES to brush her teeth!

I'm grateful we're able to use programs offered to help families in our situation, and Matt picks up extra hours at the movie site doing security when he can to help us make it. He had actually been toying with the idea of taking permanent hours over there to help us become more self-reliant, and able to get off the government programs, and make ends meet a little better (but you know, right when you think you got it figured out how to make ends meet, they move the ends!). Instead he asked his company for a much-deserved raise, since we already hardly see him when his commute is 45 minutes one way.

They gave it to him!! Surprise number 1

We came home one evening, after taking Indy to the Vet for a glucose curve test. This helps determine how much insulin she'll need, and how often. We also took Katryn to the dentist again, where they knocked her out, and did all the work. The poor girl. She was miserable for the first few hours after waking up. But now she's so proud of her 'new teeth!"

We came home that night and found a message on our machine, telling us that some friends stopped by and wanted to give us some gifts. They left them in our car, so we needed to go get them out. I went out to my car, and found this:

My car was FULL of presents for all of us, food, gift cards, cash. So many things. It just melted my heart, that someone would think of us and give us so much. There was a card in there, telling us it was from the empty nesters in town who like to give gifts to a family each year, and this year it was us. And yes, those pillows were included. Something we desperately needed, but was one of those luxury items we were never going to buy!

That was surprise number 2.

I'm so amazed by those who give so willingly. I dream of being able to do that. Someday we WILL be in a position to be able to do that, and I can't wait!! Right now we do the little bit we can. So here I want to say publicly to those who give with no thought of receiving anything in return: THANK YOU. You have no idea how much your little gift or donation will help someone, and they will forever remember someone who thought of them.

Santa Run

2011-12-16T13:47:00.000-07:00

Well I did it. I ran a 5k and I didn't die. I also completely stopped doing my workout plan. Who was I kidding that I would wake up early and run 3 times a week AND work out 5 times a week?! After doing not much for the past, oh well, um forever? I pushed through the first few weeks, and then it got cold. And dark. and I thought I was going to get hit by a car running in the dark. So I stopped. 'Nuff said. Although Heather and Amber kindly bestowed out of their totes of running clothes (notice the plural usage, they have more than one!) some brightly colored clothes for me, so I don't die.

But I still did this 5k with two of my sisters. Heather did a really nice recap of it, so I won't bother with the whole thing. You can read it all there. It really made a huge difference to have someone else to run with. I also use the term 'run' loosely. I think my running pace is just as fast as my walking pace. . .It's ok, I'm getting there.

Katryn stole my santa hat, so I had to improvise with a hat from my parents Christmas decorations. It fit a lot better!

I was pretty nervous. I mean, a 5k is long! Especially when the longest I've ran is 3 minutes. Yes, you read that right. three whole minutes. Then I walked for 3 minutes. Ran again, rinse, repeat. . .That was my prerace jitter face.

The aid stations had milk and cookies! so Santa-Tryn got hooked up!

And there we are, in the crowd of santas taking off from the starting line. I bet it was pretty cool to be a spectator and see all those santa's running by.

We ran the whole first lap (just over a mile). The first mile in 11 minutes. WOW. For a girl who's only ran 3 minutes at a time. I was pretty proud of myself.

And slightly worried about dying still. My lungs are NOT up to par. Or anywhere close to par. For the record, I don't know how Heather and Amber can talk while running. I'm using all my lung power to keep from passing out (or puking, both of which I thought might happen). They would ask me questions and I would gasp out 1 word answers.

We walked 1/2 of the next lap, ran a bit, and walked a bit more, and then ran the entire last lap. Over all, I ran WAY more than I walked! I know, when I don't wear the Santa beard, it looks like I have chest hair. I'm ok with that, I was struggling enough to breathe as it was.

And the Grinch came and freaked Katryn out. He was a very lifelike Grinch, so I can understand that. (That's Amber's boyfriend holding her, since Matt was holding Martin)

Time/pace breakdown and mile splits:
Total Time-41:54
Average Pace-13:02/mile
Mile 1-11:20/mile (all running)
Mile 2-14:24/mile (half walking/half running)
Mile 3-13:19 (mostly running)
Mile 0.22 (yes the course measured long with Heather's Garmin)-13:09/mile pace (time-2:49)
227th woman across the line (out of 294)
45th in my age group (out of 55, ages 25-29)

Thanks to Amber and Heather for running with me!! and letting me slow you done (both of them probably would have been in the top 3 of their age group, or even overall, if they hadn't ran with me!)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T11:55:00.002-07:00

Halloween Season was pretty busy here. We went up to go see the witches at a local outdoor 'mall'. It has a lot of little shops in their own houses, and it was lots of fun. A lot of the stores have nice decor, and there was a fun little Christmas store, with a lot of Christmas decor. Really gets me in the mood for Christmas!

Katryn liked running around with her cousins, Bryce and Kyla, although the witches kind of bothered her a bit. And it was cold and WINDY that day! Of course. . .

I thought these pumpkins were cute, makes me want to go through the wood I have for our fireplace and see if I can make some for us!

The ducks were a HUGE hit, and they were not sky at all. Katryn resorted to holding the bread above her head and throwing pieces to them, since they stole out of her hand.

And we had a Halloween Party at Grandparent B's house. The kids dressed up and went on a little scavenger hunt for a bag of Halloween goodies Grandma put together for them. We have Katryn as a dragon, Bryce as a dinosaur, and Kyla as Jessie from Toy Story.

And Martin the penguin!

Grandma and Kiera came with a fun idea instead of a pinata. They put some candy in balloons and blew them up. Then the kids popped them! Since Kyla was the oldest at the party (missed our other cousins!! Wish they could have come!) at almost 4, a pinata is just a little much. This was perfect though, and the kids loved it, once they figured it out.

Katryn would try to pop it, holding the push pin, but would let go of both the balloon and pin when she'd try to pop it. She eventually got it.

Martin got in on the action a bit, picking up the spilled candy and gnawing on it. So a fair amount of the caramel came with bite marks.

And here's everyone in their costume! Little Claire was a bit sick, and therefore got to stay in her jammies, although her costume was a bat.

Katryn and Kyla love hanging out with each other, and have a blast everytime.

Then we had Grandma W's Pumpkin Party! Complete with Mummy Dogs (They had eyes at one point, I'm not sure what happened to them. . .)

And Jack-o-Lantern Chili.

We carved pumpkins, which was lots of fun, and it was super fast! I remember it used to take FOREVER to carve when we used the patterns you can print out. This year we free-handed with my mom's awesome wax pencil and it worked perfect!

And yes. . .I'm wearing a beanie for BOTH parties. Fall is here, you'll be luck to see me withOUT a beanie in the next few months.

And the final verdict of our pumpkins. Katryn wanted a scary one, so I carved a happy one for Martin.

We had some fun Ghost Bowling,

And some serious tantrums. Lack of sleep and all that good stuff.

And here's the crew! Katryn as a dragon, with a baby dragon, Hannah has another dragon (maybe a dinosaur. . .) Aunt AnnaJune as Princess Buttercup (her husband was The Dread Pirate Roberts), and she's holding Ben the Lion, Chloe the Ballarina (with such a cute costume) Sam the Ninja, Michelle as Rapunzel (complete with toy frying pan) and Martin the Penguin. And Indy in the background, trying to find the perfect sunny spot.

We went Trunk-Or-Treating, which was lots of fun! We live in a small town, with some houses spread out pretty far. And no street-lights. And a major highway runs straight through town. So to keep people safe (at least that's why I assume they do it. . .) the town hosts a Trunk-Or-Treat. We all park at the school parking lot, the kids line up on the sidewalk, the fire engine shuts down the road to traffic, and we go to town! We walk down the sidewalk trick-or-treating from the trunks. Lot of people dress up and sit at their trunks, with decorations. It was lots of fun, and so nice to be done within 20 minutes, while it was still daylight. And no one to come bug us late at night, that was awesome.

Here we go go go go! On an adventure

2011-10-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

(in case you didn't know, that's from The Cat in The Hat tv show. . one of Katryn's favorites!)

Recently, my sisters Amber and Heather contacted me about running a race with them. I've been wanting to start running, I've been wanting to get into shape, but I lack the motivation to do it. And think I lack the time as well, but I'm fairly certain that's not precisely true. I just value my sleep. I even bought a pair of running shoes for my birthday to get me started.

Anyway, this race isn't just any race. It's a marathon relay race! They got it all figured out where I only have to run about 6 miles total, in increments of about 1.5 miles at a time. That's doable. . .right? Right?! I hope so. . .

So now I have my motivation to run. I'm going to be doing the Couch To 5K program since I haven't ran in about, oh 15 years? give or take? I'm not counting the 'run' I went on a few weeks ago, that was the length of 1 street. I thought I was going to die. . . .

Anyway, so the Couch To 5K program. It has a 9-week set schedule for you to follow that slowly lets you build up your running endurance by running for X amount of time, then walking for X amount of time. Over the course of nine weeks it sets you up to be able to run for 30 minutes straight or a 5K, depending on how fast you are at running I suppose.

Not only have I decided to do this running program, I decided to try this fitness program out as well (thank you Pinterest!)

Source: downtownn.tumblr.com via Krystal on Pinterest

Only I don't think I get the benefit of getting all those Saturday discounts from Seventeen.com

Here's the day breakdown, if you'd like to join me on this CrAzY idea.

Source: downtownn.tumblr.com via Krystal on Pinterest

On monday I'll also be doing whatever the C25K program says--so for week one, I'll have a 5 minute brisk warm-up walk, then alternate 60 seconds jogging, with 90 seconds walking for a total of 20 minutes. I'll probably break this up and do the C25K in the morning, while Matt's still home (unless I invest in a double jogging stroller) and this 5-Week Workout in the evening after the kids are in bed.

Source: downtownn.tumblr.com via Krystal on Pinterest

Tuesday is my rest day on C25K

Source: downtownn.tumblr.com via Krystal on Pinterest

Wednesday for C25K-week 1 is the same as Monday's--5 minute warmup walk, then alternate 60seconds jogging with 90seconds walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Source: downtownn.tumblr.com via Krystal on Pinterest

Thursday is a rest day on C25K

Source: downtownn.tumblr.com via Krystal on Pinterest

Friday for C25K-week 1 in the same as Monday and Tuesday.

So there you have it. I've written it on the blog, therefore it is set in stone, right? I'm being held accountable somewhere. And I'm starting on Monday, Oct. 10.

Who's with me on this? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

This Is Me Challenge #23

2011-09-20T11:28:00.000-07:00

My friend April recently posted on her facebook that she's a new team member of a website called "This is Me Challenge". Having never heard of the blog, I checked it out. What fun! And what an awesome way for someone to get their life story/history written down--especially those of us who don't use their journal or blog as often as they wish. . .{ahem. ..me. . .}

Here's the challenge: What Are Your Top Fears or Phobias? This was my first challenge, and it was fun!! I think it's something I'm going to try doing with Katryn. And maybe make Matt do it too :)

They post a new challenge every Tuesday. Hopefully I'll keep up my steam, and post every week with them. That's the plan at least.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-09-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

it's been a while, glad I had the safety line!

Starting School

2011-08-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

School starts on MONDAY!! Here's what our school room looks like:

We got the family room empty of boxes and crap and laid down some old carpet a neighbor gave us a while ago, when they replaced their carpet. It's VERY old, however, not the oldest thing in our old old house. And it works just fine until we get around to finishing the basement (aka--when we have money to do more than just survive).

This is our daily wall, or the calender wall. I bought these nice pocket charts at Target in their dollar section! It's perfect for our calender. I just created the days/months/numbers in microsoft publisher.

Next to the calender, I have our 'theme pack' song, which we'll sing every morning. Underneath is our school bus, with a letter on it to show you how it works. Each week we're focusing on one theme pack, and one letter. So the song is to the tune "The Wheels on The Bus" and we'll sing it "The letter on the bus says __ __ __"

Then we have our "What's the weather like outside today?" chart, and she can add a little label telling us what it's like. Underneath it we'll show what day is today/tomorrow/yesterday. (both printables from confessions of a homeschooler)

Next to that is 2 thermometers that we'll mark off what the temperature inside and outside is. I need to get thermometers still. . .

And a little foam clock to practice reading the time. We probably won't use that much yet. I'm keeping the calender nice and simple right now, while we get used to how school is going to work for us. As we get into a routine, I have a lot more ideas I want to add!

This is our workbox station. There's a lot of ideas of how workboxes should work, (seriously, google 'workboxes' and look at the images) but the basic idea is a system for your child to work through the things they need to do. I bought the file folders from the dollar section at Target, and I'm working on dividing them in half with a piece of cardboard (like the first 2 boxes are divided). Each day I'll fill these up and Katryn can work through at her own pace. I have a hanging tag next to it, that when she's done with a box she can take the number off and put it on the tag. I can also add different labels, like 'snack time', 'ask mom' etc.

Here's some examples of how other workboxes work: Confessions of a Homeschooler, Homeschool Creations, 1+1+1=1

And this is our work station/desk area. I have a pocket chart above, which has our letter caterpiller on it. Each time we finish a letter we'll take it off the bus, and add it to the caterpiller! I have a LARGE (12"x12") clipboard if katryn is feeling antsy, and needs to come sit on the couch to work on something, or the floor or whatever. However, we won't get much use out of it for a while, because we're doing a lot of hands-on stuff, not much sit down and write stuff. A little of it, but not too much yet.

We are ready!! I've spent a LOT of time the past few months figuring out how to make preschool work for us, planning our schedule, printing off everything (we've gone through a LOT of ink lately!) cutting, laminating, cutting again. . . .but we're ready!!

If you want to follow along, hop on over to Katryn's Blog, where I'll be giving a week by week of everything, with the links of all the wonderful people out there who have created awesome things!

New hair-do

2011-08-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

I got my hair cut a while back. . .like in May. . .

Didn't change too much, added a few layers, and some bangs, which I actually like! I'm normally a bang-hater, because I don't want my hair to require effort. I'm a lazy beast, it's true.

Easter

2011-04-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

We had a crazy Easter weekend. Shocker, I know. Every weekend seems to be crazy. We're actually looking forward to NOT going ANYWHERE this weekend. It's going to be nice!

We did our Egg hunt and Easter Baskets on Saturday, since Sunday was going to be crazy busy. It was lots of fun! Tryn was so helpful with the easter eggs.

She would pick one for her basket, then go find one for Martin's basket, and then one for Daddy. All the green ones were for Dad.

And she filled her basket up FULL!

Martin just liked holding the eggs. And the dropping them. In buckets of water.

But he was sure happy!

On Sunday morning, we got up early and drove up north for the blessing of Seth and Kiera's new baby girl. And of course, didn't get any pictures of her. She's super cute though, with lots of dark curly hair!

They had a yummy brunch for us, and then a huge easter egg hunt for the kids. I say huge, because 1/2 the kids left before it happened, so it was mainly Katryn, Kyla, and Bryce doing the hunting. Katryn loves to do everything Kyla does, and is like her shadow when they're together!

She actually had so many eggs in her bag, that she was dragging it behind her!

And it was windy, so Martin and I were making faces to keep the wind out of our eyes.

Then we went to Grandma W's house and had ANOTHER easter egg hunt!! Katryn was the only one hunting for eggs, and she had fun!

Even found a pinecone (or two, or three. . .) to put in her basket.

And THEN we went had an dinner with Matt's parents, and had a birthday party for him, with his favorite cake--wacky cake. (recipe will be on my recipe blog soon! or if you have the World Wide Ward Cookbook--mom's best, it's in there!)

Worldwide Ward Cookbook

2011-04-24T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last Mother Days, I gave my mother, and my mother in law a copy of The Worldwide Ward cookbook because I had 3 recipes published in it. Each recipe was special--1 for my mother in law, about Matt's favorite recipe, 1 for my mother, with one of my favorite recipe of hers, and 1 for my mother in law from her grandkids, with her famous wacky cake recipe.

I have almost all those cookbooks, and I love flipping through them, and reading stories about members of the LDS church throughout the world, reading about how much this recipe means to them, seeing a little glimpse into others lives.

(side-note: the only thing I DON'T like about the Mom's Best cookbook, is they spelled my name wrong. My first recipes in print, and my last name is spelled wrong! Although matt says that's what I get for marrying him, my last name will never be spelled or pronounced correctly)

ANYWAY, their blog is having a GIVEAWAY!! I really want the new cookbook, Family Secrets, but i can't justify the expense, so I'm hoping to win a copy! This post is my 'official' entry. Go check out their blog, or facebook page for the details if you want to enter too!

Gardens and Homeschool

2011-04-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

Spring is supposed to be coming. The snow coming down outside is NOT convincing me. However, I'm getting my garden started. I've built my first box, and I've got it filled up (lots of manure! woot!). It's going to be my herb box. I also ordered some seeds for the herb box, and the garden/veggie box (that hasn't been built yet!) that will hopefully be here soon as well.

Katryn helped me pick what was going in the garden, and she's very excited about everything. When we see something that we have planned for our garden, I tell her and she get so excited about it, it's going to be an awesome gardening year!

In anticipation, and hope that she'll continue to love the garden all year, I picked some garden things for her easter basket. The little shovel and trowel are from hobby lobby (99cents!!) and the mini garden from Bed Bath And Beyond.

Now we'll just wait for our seeds to show up, so we can plant them!!

While blog-hopping yesterday, looking for preschool ideas to teach katryn, I stumbled upon this site: Homeschool Creations (I found it through Confessions Of A Homeschooler), and I found their preschool packs. This is what I've been looking for! They're already colored in, and cover an entire topic with learning activities and skills! It's awesome!

I went crazy printing.

After I printed the Garden Pack, the Transportation Pack, and the Medical Pack, I thought to myself "Man, these would last a LOT longer if I had read the instructions and printed them on cardstock." So i decided to make as many of these into file folder games as i can. And then they are harder for me to loose as well.

I'll be laminated them all anyway, and then we can use them for Martin and any other kids in our family.

It's funny to me, out 1 little thing can get me so excited to start teaching Katryn. I've played around with the idea of homeschool for about 2 years now, and it's still something I'm seriously considering. Matt always talked about how he didn't learn anything in school, that he hadn't already learned at home from his parents. If our kids do go to school, I want them to feel like that too.

So we're starting home preschool. We'll loosely be basing it on the Letter Of Week concept (google it, it's everywhere!!) where we cover 1 letter/theme a week. For example: Week #1 will be A, for Ants. We'll talk about the letter A, find things that start with that letter, trace that letter, talk about ants, color and count ants. Etc, and etc.

I think I'll break it up every once in a while with these preschool packs, and see what else I can find similar to them.

(Linking this up to HomeSchool Village Garden Challenge)

As of late

2011-03-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't done anything lately. Which is completely not true. What I have been doing doesn't involve many pictures though.

I've been working on a new budget like a mad-woman. Matt started a new job this morning, and while it is a small paycut (hey, when you make hardly anything, a little cut doesn't make a difference!) we will now be offered health insurance!! Huge thing when you have a medically needy child. It also gives him the opportunity for advancement, since it's in the industry he wants a career in! We could finally be on our way to a 'forever job'. Which makes us both VERY happy. Especially Matt. He couldn't be more thrilled about starting this new job.

I've also been doing a lot of research on Martin's behalf. He turns one in just a few days, which actually is shocking to me. But perhaps that's more of looking back at where we were a year ago that's shocking. We've had a rather eventful year. But with Martin turning one, his formula will most likely be changing as well, to a more complete toddler formula. I don't know what it will be yet, or how we'll get it, but since he's not eating orally, he needs a formula that will give him the nutrients he needs.

So my research has been around the concept of a blenderized diet for him. Basically giving him what we eat, liquefied. I don't see why what he digests should have to be any different from what we digest, just because he has a tube. There is no MEDICAL reason. Of course we'll still work on the oral feedings, it will just be a very slow process with him. There's a lot of trust issues involved in that. I read the best description of the trust involved HERE(see question #3): "Maybe it’s crude, but the best way I know how to explain it is to think of it like a woman who’s been sexually abused. Eating and sex, whether you realize it or not, are both very personal, emotional, and sensitive experiences. When trust is violated in that area, it take lots and lots of time, re-building of trust, and mental healing." Martin spent months of people just shoving things in his mouth, down his throat--tubes, suctions, more tubes, pacifiers. And yes, it kept him alive, but it also mentally injured him, to the point where he is just starting to trust ME to put things near his mouth. But mostly, if he doesn't have control over it, it's not going to happen. So we're building up that trust, and teaching him that I'm not going to do anything that he doesn't want. Somedays that means I don't touch the spoons, I just let him sit in his chair, and we play. Other days, the spoon doesn't touch his mouth, but just his cheeks. It's up to him, and that's how it's going to have to be.

But he's learning, and while he learns, I will be preparing his body to handle real food. There's not much research on blenderized diets, and we don't have a nutritionist we can talk to. I know how many calories Martin currently gets, and how many mls per day he gets. Until I can find a nutritionist who can help me calculate how many fat calories, carb calories, protien calories, etc Martin needs a day to grow, I'll be moving very slowly on this.

We started yesterday by adding a tablespoon of baby food to a feeding. Just like when you start feeding an orally fed baby--1 food at a time, watch for a reaction. I'm not concerned about how many calories, because I'm not changing how much formula he gets per feeding. I'm just adding a little bit extra. I'll go more into that on his blog later.

We rearranged our living room. It's much nicer now, gives us a lot more space, I like it. I don't feel so cornered when katryn and moya go crazy in there. I need spring to come, so I can ship them outside to get their energy out!!

I started working out a few weeks ago. Currently I'm doing Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred. It's giving me more cardio then I've had in a long time. It's nice to see my stamina come up, and my endurance last a little bit longer each time. And I just mapped out a few routes in town to start walking, maybe running. A 1.5 mile route, 2mile route, and a 3.1mile(5K) route. I have dreams of running a 5K someday. My sister Heather (who is a track/cross country coach/marathoner/super woman/talking about running a 50 miler) told me she would run with me at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar this summer. I think she just wants an excuse for me to visit!

And just for kicks:

Our friend Levi came down and brought us this deck. It's nothing fancy, but now Matt has no excuse for us not to get a grill. He said we couldn't get one since we'd have to keep it on our front porch. I said that I didn't care, because I just wanted to be able to grill this summer! And now we have a place to put it. yay for freecycling!

A shameless plug

2011-02-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

My sweet sister has nominated me to win a free family photo session, and I have been picked as one of the finalists! So I'm asking if you could take a quick moment and go VOTE for me. Currently (according to the comments on the blog) I'm WINNING!!

After the past year, our family could really use this, and I'm so grateful my sister thought of us and nominated us!

Thank you!!

VOTE HERE

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Living room this morning (view from kitchen)

(view from next to the computer)

and right now! woot!

I love a nice clean house. and no bets on how it'll look by tomorrow :)

Holland

2011-02-06T22:00:00.001-07:00

I've had a lot of things going through my mind lately, and lot that I'm struggling to deal with, and put behind me instead of suppressing. A year ago, today, I was told that I was in labor, and life-flight was coming to pick me up and transport me to a hospital that could handle the prematurity of a little 24week baby. At the time I don't think I could have even comprehended that severity of my situation. Hind-sight is 20-20 though, right? If I had given birth at that time, my boy wouldn't be here today. I honestly believe that. And I struggle with that.
Everything was completely out of my hands, I had no control over my situation, or my baby boy. I was lucky enough to be stabilized, and this became my new home for 5 weeks.

and ok, yeah it was awesome getting to eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and try to fatten my baby up, but really? It was the longest 5 weeks of my life, that i wish would have gone on for 5 more weeks. Sometimes I wonder how Martin would have been if I was able to keep him cookin' longer, if he had been born later.

(and I could have lived without all of these:)

And i realize I can't change what happened, and that the wondering of "what-if?" will do me no good. I'm working on overcoming that. But I still feel overwhelming empathy every time I see Life-Flight fly by, land, or take off. I actually couldn't drive by the hospital I was life-flighted from for a while after I saw discharged, it brought up a lot of emotions that I didn't want to deal with, and probably couldn't, at that time. I feel so much emotion and heart-ache for the person being life-flighted, and say a prayer for them every time.

And I struggle with seeing others and their 'perfect' babies, who don't struggle like my baby, who are skipping from milestone to milestone, while my baby is painstakingly working on reaching each milestone--right now, the sitting up, and putting weight on his feet. It's hard for me to see babies so much younger than mine doing this things that my baby can't. And I know, I shouldn't compare him to others, but it's so difficult not to compare, and wonder when, or if my baby will ever get there. I'm struggling with that right now.

And watching other moms feed their babies, and have them willing take it, to suck on a bottle, accept a spoon in their mouth without a hysterical meltdown. It makes it even harder, to the point that I want to avoid anyone with a baby.

And to those who say they know what I'm going through? I want to scream at them that they have no idea! The time you spent in the NICU is dwarfed by the time he spent there. I even spent more time in the NICU than your baby did. And because your baby doesn't like to eat veggies? You don't understand what it's like having a baby who will eat NOTHING, and would rather starve than eat.

But I'm learning to deal with all the things that have dumped upon us this past year, and accept things, and learn to love them. I'm realizing that I shouldn't hope and wish for what is 'normal', because our life is perfect. My baby is beautiful and perfect with his oxygen tube on his face, and stickers on his cheeks. With a cord coming off his foot recording his stats, and a tube pumping food in his belly. I'm a long way from loving all of it, but I'm learning to accept it, and learning to not wish for changes.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND--By Emily Pearl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

And that's where I'm at right now. Only my flight took off before I was ready, and landed before I was ready, with a lot of turbulence. I still reel from it all.

Welcome to Holland (Part 2)" by Anonymous

I have been in Holland for over a decade now. It has become home. I have had time to catch my breath, to settle and adjust, to accept something different than I'd planned.

I reflect back on those years of past when I had first landed in Holland. I remember clearly my shock, my fear, my anger—the pain and uncertainty. In those first few years, I tried to get back to Italy as planned, but Holland was where I was to stay.

Today, I can say how far I have come on this unexpected journey. I have learned so much more. But, this too has been a journey of time. I worked hard. I bought new guidebooks. I learned a new language and I slowly found my way around this new land.

I have met others whose plans had changed like mine, and who could share my experience. We supported one another and some have become very special friends. Some of these fellow travelers had been in Holland longer than I and were seasoned guides, assisting me along the way. Many have encouraged me. Many have taught me to open my eyes to the wonder and gifts to behold in this new land. I have discovered a community of caring. Holland wasn't so bad.

I think that Holland is used to wayward travelers like me and grew to become a land of hospitality, reaching out to welcome, to assist and to support newcomers like me in this new land. Over the years, I've wondered what life would have been like if I'd landed in Italy as planned. Would life have been easier? Would it have been as rewarding? Would I have learned some of the important lessons I hold today?

Sure, this journey has been more challenging and at times I would (and still do) stomp my feet and cry out in frustration and protest. And, yes, Holland is slower paced than Italy and less flashy than Italy, but this too has been an unexpected gift.

I have learned to slow down in ways too and look closer at things, with a new appreciation for the remarkable beauty of Holland with its' tulips, windmills and Rembrandts.

I have come to love Holland and call it Home.

I have become a world traveler and discovered that it doesn't matter where you land. What's more important is what you make of your journey and how you see and enjoy the very special, the very lovely, things that Holland, or any land, has to offer.Yes, over a decade ago I landed in a place I hadn't planned. Yet I am thankful, for this destination has been richer than I could have imagined!

I'm not there yet. I'm still getting used to being where we are, and our situation. But hopefully, I'll get there soon. And someday I'll look back, and be so grateful for the experiences. But not yet, right now they still hurt, I still struggle, and they're not behind me.

This is what living like this does.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

Love these kids.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-26T09:38:00.000-07:00

My first quilt--Finished just in time to give it away!

Garden plan--long term

2011-01-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

For about the past 2 weeks, ever since reading about the my brother in law planned for their garden, I've been dreaming about our garden. I still have snow where it's going to go!

It's a long term plan. We're planning on boxes made out of 2"x12"s cut to the appropriate size. We have 4 4'x4' boxes, with one box going to be dedicated to strawberries, and the other boxes will be rotated through whatever we feel like for that year. We also have two 2'x6' boxes planned for raspberries and some other berries--probably blackberries. And then we have two 'L' shaped boxes on each side.

In case you can't read what I've written on our plan, I'll share it with you. The left (south-west) corner boxes are currently planned to have peas, trellised upwards. Then we'll have carrots, lettuce, spinach, and assorted herbs (chives, oregano, parsley, basil). The other corner 'L' box will have beans, trellised up, and corn.

Our rotating 4'x4' boxes will have peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, pumpkins, and melons.

I'm still doing the research on the best way to grow the vine plants upwards, so I can take advantage of the space and grow other things. There's a lot of information out there! I'm loosely following the square foot garden method. I say loosely, because it's practically a religion to some people! I'm doing a 'live and learn' method, that should work well with us.

Our plan in to build one box a year, unless we get lucky and can build more than 1 a year. Our long, long, term goal, is to have a walk-way around the yard, that will go on the bottom of the garden--the east side. and inside the garden area, we'd love to get some paving stones that surround the area, or bark or gravel or something. We're not sure what yet. But we do know we want to have a swing set there in the middle of the garden!

Wordless Wednesday. . .On Thursday

2011-01-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a page out of the Lozon Book today. . .being a day late with my post. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-01-05T16:09:00.001-07:00

On another blog, I noticed they did what was called "wordless wednesday". Instead of writing a post, they posted a picture. Sometimes they had captions, or a little blurb to it, but the focus of the post was the picture.

Now, I'm not photographer, by ANY stretch of the imagination. I'm just a girl with an expensive camera, who usually forgets to take pictures. That's why I can't join in on the 365 project, and post a picture a day, because I can't guarantee that life won't get in the way of me taking one picture a day! Major props to those of you that can though!

So I'll be posting a picture on my blog, Katryn's blog, and Martin's blog, every wednesday. . .at some point in the day. :)

Here's how today's been going so far.

This is what my washer is doing on the cold cycle (I wash everything in cold). Two little trickles that take ALL day to fill my washer up.

This is what is SHOULD be doing:

This is on the hot cycle. A normal stream of water! I don't understand, and it's driving me a bit crazy. . .

How Preemie Moms are Chosen by Irma Bombeck

2010-11-17T08:00:00.003-07:00

Did you ever wonder how the mothers of premature babies are chosen? Somehow, I visualize God hovering over Earth, selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As he observes, he instructs his angels to take notes in a giant ledger. “Beth Armstrong, son. Patron Saint, Matthew. Marjorie Forrest, daughter. Patron Saint, Celia. Carrie Rutledge, twins. Patron Saint … give her Gerard. He’s used to profanity.” Finally, he passes a name to an angel and smiles. “Give her a preemie.”

The angel is curious. “Why this one, God? She’s so happy.”

“Exactly,” smiles God. “Could I give a premature baby a mother who knows no laughter? That would be cruel.”

“But does she have the patience?” asks the angel.

“I don’t want her to have too much patience, or she’ll drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she’ll handle it. I watched her today. She has that sense of self and independence so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I’m going to give her has a world of its own. She has to make it live in her world, and that’s not going to be easy.”

“But Lord, I don’t think she even believes in you.”

God smiles. “No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect. She has just the right amount of selfishness.”

The angel gasps, “Selfishness?! Is that a virtue?”

God nods. “If she can’t separate herself from the child occasionally, she will never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn’t know it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a spoken word. She will never consider a step ordinary. When her child says ‘mama’ for the first time, she will be witness to a miracle and know it. I will permit her to see clearly the things I see – ignorance, cruelty, prejudice – and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side.”

“And what about her Patron Saint?” asks the angel, his pen poised in the air. God smiles.

Today is Prematurity Awareness Day. Fight for Preemies, because they shouldn't have to.

Our crazy life

2010-11-09T08:42:00.000-07:00

Every week, we have an occupational/physical therapist come and work with Martin. She gives us oral tips to help him tolerate things in his mouth. Currently he doesn't take anything in orally. He's a 100% tubie baby! one week, she brought him and katryn their own slinkies. It's one of his favorite toys, because it's light enough he can move it with no problem. And when he smacks himself in the face, it doesn't hurt as much as the other toys he plays with. We're working on the arm control, but it's coming along nicely!

Heather (my older sister) and Jonathan got married the first part of October, so we got to spend lots of time with our family! Katryn loved playing with all her cousins on that side of the family (although she kept asking for her Kyla cousin). Here's a picture of all my parents grandkids (and me and Frank the Tank, I wasn't trusting any of the kids with Martin). It's been over a year since we've all been together, so we made sure to get a picture!

Heather and Jonathan had an open house in my parents backyard, the week before they got married. It was freezing cold, and so we made hot chocolate! Loved that! Matt and Martin spent most of the time inside the house, playing the xbox. :) The boys came out for a few minutes right before they left, and I got some snuggle time with Martin. My little burrito baby!

And Katryn couldn't get enough running around the yard with her cousins. This is the only picture of us, because she didn't want to hold still if her cousins didn't have to!

my blogs

2010-09-14T20:44:00.004-07:00

I know I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again.

if you have my blog, Martin's blog, or Katryn's blog in your side bar, please make sure there are no references to our last name. I would appreciate it! I've gone through all our posts, in all the blogs, and cleaned up last names, and references to where we live. :) a mamma's got to do, what a mamma's got to do!

And on that note, I've opened up Katryn's blog and made it public. Which means I had to change her blog name. It can no longer be found where it used to be found. Her new blogspot is now called: storiesofkatryn.blogspot.com and I've got some great pictures to post on there soon!

And while I'm plugging Katryn's blog, I better plug Martin's blog too: martins-journey.blogspot.com which I will soon have up to date, since it shows he's still in the NICU. :)

Aaannnddd. . . .here's a plug for my recipe blog as well, for all who don't have that :) recipesofacheapskate.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading, following, commenting, and understanding!

Before and After

2010-08-15T09:52:00.004-07:00

We recently decided we were sick of weeds and dirt for a front yard. And the goats and horses that happen to wander through and leave presents I don't want to pick up.

That and with 2 kids and 2 dogs, I needed someplace I could stick them all when I needed a break. Katryn loves to be outside, and I didn't want her in our own yard!! We would have loved to do it ourselves, but with Matt going to school and work, and Martin in the hospital and the traveling I'm doing to see him everyday, it just wasn't feasible for us.

So we recruited Matt's brother Seth, and his Father-in-Law's landscaping company. That's Seth in the above picture, busy killing off everything in the yard. We may need him to come do that to our backyard next.

Then his crew got to work!!

They took out all the plants, including the tree I hated in the front corner. The leveled the yard out and put a sprinkler system in.

A beautiful fence, big enough no one can get out, but small enough that our house still looks welcoming.

and GRASS!!! I forgot how wonderful this is.

The left flowerbeds all around the grass and fence for me to plant whatever I want there. Still not sure WHAT I want, but it's nice to know it's there.

And there you have it. We actually have a YARD now, and I love it!!

First cloth

2010-06-17T09:22:00.003-07:00

Martin in his first cloth diaper. He seemed to like it, and I can't blame him, because who wants chemicals on their bum all day? Not me. . .

The nurses were also amazed by it. When I asked if I could put him in a cloth diaper, she said "sure, but he might poop in it. . ." I laughed, and then pulled out this diaper and said "well, that's kind of the point of diapers!" She thought I was going to put him in the gerber prefolds with pins and plastic pants.

I love it!!

Feeling Crafty

2010-04-17T12:02:00.004-07:00

I've been feeling crafty lately. Actually, my dad calls it "domestic". He used to always make fun of us when we'd ('we' being myself and my 4 sisters) want to do little projects like sewing or cooking and say we were being domestic. I think he did it because we'd always moan and groan whenever an activity like that came up in Young Womens.

However, now that I have grown up (I can't really say 'matured' because I'm not sure that I have. . .) I have the desire to cook, and sew, and be domestic. Shoot, remember my post about how much I love my swiffer??

One of my best friends from high school is having a baby girl, and since I'm poor, and have been feeling crafty, I decided to make a few things for her. Although, if you're reading this Nicky, a few of my favorite can't-live-without baby things are a bumbo and swaddle. love them both!!

Anyway, I bought some gerber prefold diapers. (ps--if you're going to cloth diaper, there are better options out there) I washed them up a few times, because they shrink. Then I cute my flannel to fit, sewed some ribbon to it, and voila! Burp cloths!

And I made some for myself too. :) Everything I own baby-wise is girly!

And then I got really ambitious for Nicky. I made a carseat cover!! I had seen these all over Etsy, and I thought "I can totally do that!!" These run $40 on there. Do you hear me?? for fabric, sewn together, and ribbons holding it to the carseat. FORTY DOLLARS.

I'm in the wrong business. I need to set me up an Etsy store.

and I made mine first, since my mother and I kind of created a pattern after googling a bunch of things. So it's custom, exactly how I wanted it. The real reason I made mine first, is because I didn't want to screw up on the one I was giving away.

Don't worry, I screwed up anyway.

and what's best about these carseat covers (besides the fact that I made them) is that they are reversible AND they have elastic on them, so they won't blow off. You can't tell in the picture, because I can't find the canopy for my carseat. But with the canopy on the carseat, they fit much better.

And here's my ongoing project. I feel like I'm NEVER going to get these done. It's been over a YEAR that I've been working on these. Now that Martin is here, I've really got to get the xsmall and small diapers made. Actually, I just need to get them finished up, so they're out of my way and I can work on other things I want to make.

Like crayon wallets. or something equally cool.

Linking this up to: the girl creative

(insert title here)

2010-03-15T18:56:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I don't know what to title things. I've always had a hard time with that, even with a creative writing degree, I struggled with titling everything I wrote.

Obviously, I still have that problem.

anyway, I just wanted to post a few pictures of Martin. He is doing so great, and so many things have already happened since he was born, that I don't even know where to start half the time. So I did what I'm prone to do: start another blog (like I need ANOTHER blog. . . .)

martins-journey.blogspot.com

I'm keeping track of everything there, day by day, his progress and setbacks, the things that change, and of course, posting LOTS of pictures. It's pretty much going to turn into a journal for his time spent and the NICU, and as he's growing up.

And on that note, yes, I'll be posting to Katryn's blog soon too. :) (ps-that one is private, so if you want an invite leave your email address in the comments)

One of the huge things that's happened that I didn't think would happen for a while is they let us touch him. I couldn't believe it when they asked if we wanted to stick our hands in there and touch him! Of course we did!! What kind of question is that?! It was completely surreal to be able to touch our little boy. They taught us the right way to touch him. We can't stroke or caress his skin, like one would want to with such a fragile little thing. We have to apply pressure and keep our hands still. It's hard to do that the first time, and not feel like I'm' going to hurt him.

They also taught us when he's cranky to kind of push his legs up in our hand, and apply some pressure on his head to mimic the position he was when he was in the womb. It was amazing to see how fast that worked!! he calmed down right away.

They also let us hold him on sunday!! I about fell over when they pulled him out to hand to me. He's so small my two hands can support his body completely. But it was wonderful to just hold him. They wrapped us up in warm blankets, to help keep his temperature up. He was cranky, and it was hard not to be able to find a way to comfort him. But it was still nice to hold my baby boy. I wasn't expecting this moment to come for a few more weeks.

onto a new adventure

2010-03-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep. I laid in bed for about 2hours, just thinking and decided perhaps if I get my thinking out of my head and written down I can sleep.

We weren't expecting a day like today (well, yesterday now, as I'm slow in getting it posted). it started out like every other day, I woke up at 7am, with my stomach growling. Breakfast wasn't coming for another hour, hour and 1/2. so I played around online and watched TV. My CNA came in and checked vitals at 8am, right on cue, and then breakfast showed up. Raspberry pancakes, bacon, fruit, and juice. Awesome. I love almost all the breakfasts they serve here. Almost.

at about 9:15 I was called for my daily NST--Non Stress Test. They hook me up to 2 monitors, to check for contractions, and 1 to monitor baby's heart-rate. This kid, being the stinker that he is already, right when they had almost enough tracking for him to pass had a large deceleration in his heart-rate. he has decels fairly regularly actually, and they just keep me on the monitors for about another 45 minutes.

But then he kept dropping. The nurse showed it to the doctor and they decided to send me to labor and delivery for some extending monitoring. Not a big deal, last time they sent me, I was back in my room 8hours later.

This time I was back in my room 10 hours later, with a baby in NICU, and my left leg numb from an epidural that only worked on one side.

We weren't expecting that at all, we had just reached our half-way point goal of 36 days in the hospital and 36 more until I was 34 weeks. I didn't think I would make it to 34 weeks, just one of those feelings I had. Although I did expect to go farther than 29weeks, that's for sure.

After I had been in the labor and delivery room for about an hour and 1/2, I realized the pressure I was having on my side (that I have been having on and off for a while) was coming at regular 7-8 minute intervals. But the monitor wasn't picking it up. I told the nurse about them, and she repositioned the tracers and voila! Steady contractions started showing up. they weren't really bothersome for about the first 2-3 hours. Then they started to get painful and closer together. I opted for some IV pain medication, to take the edge off. Didn't really take much of an edge off, and at that point, I think I was about 1cm dilated. That's pretty much nothing, I was disappointed.

a little while later (2-3 hours? I'm not sure) I felt some pressure and they checked me. I was about 4cm dilated. Good grief, at that point I already HAD Katryn. I had a feeling it was going to be a long labor, and I had no prep for a natural birth like I had with Tryn, and I had been in bed for 5 weeks. I had no energy for a long labor. Shot, I hadn't walked more that 5 feet at any given time. Sitting in a wheelchair for more than 30 minutes made me tired!! I was very very weak, and will be for a while I reckon.

I opted for an epidural. I was in tears everytime I had a contraction. I had tingly sensations all over my body, and I think I was freaking myself out a little bit that this labor was going to be long and hard.

At about 6:15pm, they came and gave me the epi. My left side went numb, and my right toes and part of my calf went slightly numb. It was rather frustrating, because all my contractions have been mainly on my right side, so I was still feeling everything pretty strong. as soon as he was done, the doctor (and like 5 residents) came and checked me and told me I was at a 10 and the head was on it's way out.

Things went really fast after that point. to me it feels like it was 5 minutes. Matt says it was longer. I'm not sure if I believe him. We were rushed into the operating room, which has windows to the NICU that they pass the baby through. I pushed twice and he came right out. It was an easy birth, I required nothing after, no stitches or anything, which was wonderful. The hardest part was I got to see one little body part before he was taken away.

Emotions kind of took over me at point. I started crying, and I don't know why. I was shaking uncontrollably. I think was just overwhelmed by everything that was happening, and not quite as prepared as I thought I was. research just doesn't cut it when you actually end up in the situation. The real thing is completely different.

Matt was able to go in after a little while to see him. As soon as they had him stable, he went in and took a few pictures for me, since I had to wait about 2 hours. Then they had to kick him out to do some more things.

When I finally got in to see him, he was doing so great. He's so small. We weren't able to touch him, and I actually wasn't able to get out of the wheelchair. but he looked good and strong. He has to be a strong boy after all that has happened with this pregnancy, he couldn't be anything BUT a fighter. He has an IV in his had, and a few tubes in his belly button, and a few down his throat. They're helping him stay hydrated, keep his stomach inflated a little bit, and his lungs as well so they don't collapse from the pressure of his ribs.

it's just such a miracle that he's here already. We weren't expecting him yet, but we're so grateful that he's doing good. There are still so many thoughts going through my head, which is why I couldn't sleep, my mind just wouldn't shut down. I'm still overwhelmed by it all and it hasn't quite kicked in that I have my second baby here.

So here he is: Martin David B
Date: Friday March 12 , 2010 @ 29 weeks gestation
Time: 7:00pm (and 56 seconds according to matt)
Weight: 2lbs 15oz
Height: 16inches

And now we get to start a new adventure, because after all, this is what living like this does.

A small request

2010-02-20T11:50:00.003-07:00

Dear friends and family, and everyone out there who has my blog linked on their blog:

I like to keep my blog somewhat anonymous. I purposely try to not post things like what city I live in, my last name, other's last names, or information that could make it easy to figure out exactly who I am, and where I'm at. I'm not perfect at it, but I do try so I can protect my family a little bit from the wonderful world of their lives being on public display online.

If you could please check my listing on your blog roll, and if you are using my last name, will you please edit it out? You could post it as "Krystal B" or the title of my blog, but I ask that you please don't use my last name, and support me in my choice to not publicly use my last name online. I love that you have me linked to your blog! and I love finding more blogs from blog hopping that way!

Thank you!
-Krystal

ps-I am in no way calling anyone out, and am not trying to offend, but just keep my anonymity.

The 'real' adventure

2010-02-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

I just wrote about the start of this wonderful bedrest I'm on. Now I'm going to write about day 2, because it was something else. Although the first day was pretty intense, this day was too!

At about 5:30am, the night nurse came into my room and asked me "are you feeling your contractions?" I told her no, because I wasn't it. But apparently I was contracting pretty good. The doctor on call from my office, the same one as the day before, came into my room and started talking with me. I was still pretty out of it, I was on magnisum sulfate, had taken a sleeping pill, and my mind was still trying to wrap around the entire situation.

The doctor told me that they weren't comfortable with my contractions, and they were going to transfer me to another hospital. But the hospital is their 'chain' didn't want me, because I was only 24 weeks! so the doctor told me another hospital would take me. This hospital HAS the means to take care of a 24weeker, and is connected (not next too, but CONNECTED) to probably the BEST children's hospital is the west.

And then he gave me the kicker: "Because your last labor was so fast, and if this baby decided to come now, it would be even fast because you don't have to dilate as much since the baby is so much smaller, we can't risk sending you by ambulance because the baby could come during the ride. We're life-flighting you to the hospital." He checked me one more time, and I was still completely closed, so whatever contractions they were picking up they weren't causing me to dilate. But you don't risk anything when it comes to a preemie, I understand that.

if I hadn't been so out from the cursed mag, I think my jaw would have hit the floor. He told me they would be there in about 1/2 hour. I called matt at his parents house, and told him, and called my parents and told them since Katryn would need to be dropped off at their house for the day, and then I just prepared myself.

They were fast when they got there. Very fast. I was put on a gurney (I think) and strapped down. The had monitors all over me still to keep track of everything, and they wheeled me out at around 6:30am. Matt had shown up right before I left, just enough to give me a kiss and climb back in his car to drive up to the hospital.

I don't remember much about the flight, except that I wanted to look out the window, and I sure couldn't see anything. The ob nurse on the flight was amazing. She was one of those nurses that I want to have every day (after having some bad nurses, like the one who didn't get me ANYTHING after giving birth to Katryn) I've come to know what I like and don't like about a nurse. I liked this one, and I wanted her to stay with me.

It was a very surreal experience, I think I had emotionally detached myself from everything. Which is probably a good thing, because there was a lot going on.

They got me settled into a room fast and hooked back up to more monitors. there were probably 4 nurses doing different things, hooking up different IV's,getting my information, getting me settled in, and i think there were 2 OB doctors, doing an ultrasound and going through my records. They checked the baby's position, so they would know where he was in case of an emergency csection. They also had some anesthesiologists come in and take a look at me. They determined that I'm not made for general anesthetics. My throat, and checks just don't cut it, it would be pretty painful, and hard work to get the tube down my throat. They thought I'd be better off with a spinal if the case arose.

I might have cursed then. I do NOT like getting poked, and I do NOT like being contained by wires/cords. That was a large reason in my choice of a natural birth for Katryn. and I'm freaked out about the idea of knowing they're slicing me open. why would I want to be awake during that?!

anyway, the day finally slowed down. I probably met about 20 people, resident after resident kept coming in and introducing themselves, listening to my heart and lungs, taking my pulse, checking my reflexes, all that stuff. And I was still confined to the bed so I was calling the nurse every hour because I had to pee. At one point they did give me a catheter, not because I needed it, but they needed a urine sample and at that point, it was the easiest way to get a sample. I didn't care too much for that, and I'd be happy to never have one again. They described it as having a UTI, which I've had before, but I'd rather have a UTI than a catheter.

One of the things I remember about the room was there was a window in it. But the window didn't go outside. it was a window to the NICU, so if the baby came, they would open the window and everything they need was RIGHT THERE. i thought that was so awesome. Very reassuring for a mother.

after about 12 hours of monitoring, another steroid shot, more IV's, more residents, and other things I don't remember, they decided I was stable enough to be transferred to the other side, with the bedrest moms! yay!! so they got me a wheelchair, and some warm blankets to wrap up in. I couldn't stand, I could hardly move, I needed all the help they gave me to get into the wheelchair.

The mag I was on had a lot of side effects. Luckily I didn't get sick, which is apparently the most common one. But I couldn't focus my eyes, I had NO energy (that might have been from lack of food for about 24 hours though) and I just had that general fuzzy feeling going on. Matt said it was pretty bad, I was really out of it. Similar to when I take nyquil! I can't remember anything, and I can't focus on anything. He said it was worse than when I take nyquil though.

My mother came to visit, and brought some stuff. I think. like I said, I was pretty out of it. I remember being wheeled to the room and having them bring me a sandwich, which was the best sandwich I ever ate. at least it felt like it.

I remember a lady from the therapy coming and talking with me. She ended up bringing me a basket of things, like books, crosswords, little paint projects. They have a lot of things for the moms to do, to keep from going crazy I think.

And now I'm here, everyday, until the baby comes. And even then, after he comes I'll probably be here every day, just on the NICU side. The nurses have all been wonderful, and there's a nice window in the room that looks into another building. :) Matt has been able to take sick/vacation time, and go on Family Medical Leave so he's able to stay here with me. I'm so luck to be able to have him here, I don't know how the other moms do it without someone here. My parents and Matt's parents are taking turns watching Katryn and the dogs. My parents watch Katryn and Moya during the day, and they stay at Matt's parents for the weekends and nights.

and that was just day TWO. As of now, I've been on bedrest for 17 days, and I'm hoping to make it 55 more days. That will put me at 34 weeks, which usually at that point, it's better for the baby to be in the NICU than in me any longer.

My new Home

2010-02-13T12:15:00.002-07:00

I have a new home, for hopefully at least 62 more days. The hospital. Yup, it happened! and they're not letting me go anyway. Here's the story, and as an FYI, like all things involving pregnancy and the 'perks' of pregnancy, there may be some details that you as a reader will think "wow, I really didn't want to know that. . ." since I will be mentioning the area the baby is growing, and where the baby will be coming out of, but this is for my records anyway, since I don't have a journal here with me to write it down.

You have been fairly warned. :)

the last thursday in January, I thought my water had started leaking, but after a little while, determined that it was just my SCH bleeding AGAIN. so I disregarded it. actually I called the midwife on call and she told me it was probably just extra discharge, because being pregnant does funny things like that to you. But the reason I determined it was my SCH was because it was the color of old blood, and the Peri had told me I had a lot of old blood hanging around. And I passed a clot, which I assumed was my SCH, so I was actually pretty excited. Except I kept leaking for a week. Finally I decided that I really AM leaking fluid that I shouldn't be leaking and called my midwives to set up an appointment.

They got me in right away and Abby checked me out. I like when she's the midwife I see, because she delivered Katryn and was so helpful it letting me have the natural birth I wanted. anyway, I explained to her what had been happening for the past week, she measured my belly, which was right on, listened to the heartbeat, which was perfect and checked my cervix, which was completely closed still (thank heavens!) She also took a few tests that can determine if it is amniotic fluid leaking out. Another one of the tests checks to see if you're going to go into labor in the next two weeks. That test checks for the presence of the 'glue' keeping the placenta attached. The first test was positive, but I never found out the results of the second test.

She also sent me in for an ultrasound, where they checked the fluid level, and measured a few other things, like the tummy, brain, and an arm or leg, just to see how things were growing. After I get back to the room, Matt showed up. He had dropped me off, and then went and dropped the dogs and Katryn off at my parents. I'm so glad he made it when he did!

Abby came back with the head OB. a lot of what he said did go over my head, but I have been doing enough research because of all my complications that I knew what was going to happen. He told me that what we had was a VERY serious problem. I was one day shy of 24 weeks and I had basically no amniotic fluid left.

24 weeks is a very important landmark in pregnancy. That's considered viability, the point at which doctors will activity try to save your baby if you deliver. Before then, there really isn't much they can do. Even at 24 weeks there's not a lot they can do, but they work a lot harder.

The doctor said some more things, but the gist of it was "You are now our patient, and you need to go straight to labor and delivery".

and we walked out the door. It was about this point that I lost it. This pregnancy has been such a trial for me, and it seems like every other day there's some other concern about the baby. I just want a healthy pregnancy, like I had with Katryn. Starts with me thinking I'm miscarrying when I started spotting at like 7 weeks, to the first gush of blood at 10 weeks and going to the ER, to being diagnosed with a probable miscarriage coming, then the SCH, and spontaneously gushing blood and the most akward times, just to rush to the doctors and hear that reasurring heartbeat. To be told I was most likely pregnant with twins, but for some reason one didn't develop, that the baby's cord is probably implanted in the wrong spot and the baby isn't getting a lot of nutrients and will be a small baby, that there might be genetic defeats, and now that this baby might be coming anyday and come have very serious long term problems from being born too early. It was just too much to take, I had finally reached my emotional limit. Everything had been out of my hands the entire time. I knew that, and that's what made it even harder. There was nothing I could have done about any of it anyway!!

We stopped by my parents house before going to the hospital where my dad and matt gave me a blessing of comfort. It was much needed, and calmed me down. I didn't have the fear that had been so prevalent. I was and still am concerned about everything, but not scared. Which was good considering what was going to come.

We headed to the hospital, where they quickly checked me in and had me change into a gown. of course, right then I had a little leak which made everyone jump into action. I was given an IV with fluids, started on magnesium sulfate and given a steroid shot in my butt. yeah, I felt like I was a little kid again. The mag is supposed to stop labor (which I wasn't having) as well as help the baby's brain develop. The steroid shot helps the baby's lungs develop. They also started antibiotics to make sure neither me OR the baby would get an infection. Once the water breaks, the risk of infection gets higher. And they wanted to make sure that in case it was an infection that CAUSED the water the break they took care of it. They hooked up the heart monitor for the baby, and the contraction monitor for me on my belly. They also gave me a blood pressure cuff that checked my B/P about every 5-10 minutes, a pulse monitor on my finger, and leg cuffs that inflate and deflate so I don't get clots in my legs. They wouldn't let me leave the bed for anything. I mean ANYTHING. I had to call the nurse when I needed to use the bathroom, and she helped me get into a bedpan. Yeah, once you're pregnant at the hospital, modesty kind of goes out the window. . . .

The OB on call for my doctors office came and talked with me a for little. mostly told me the same thing the OB at the office told me, but told me the statistics. Statistics have never been on my side, so I didn't really want to hear them. Once the water breaks, 30% of people deliver within 24 hours, 30% within 2 weeks, and everyone else goes indefinitely. I was still in that 2 week period. He also explained that if they had to do an emergency c-section, it would be different than your standard c-section. They have to cut the opposite way, and I would ALWAYS have to have c-section for other pregnancies. He then told me though, that the hospital I was at is not equipped to handle a 24-weeker, and if I did have the baby, they would stabilize him, and life-flight him to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. And then they let me be for a while.

matt left for the night, went to his parents to put Katryn to bed and they gave me a sleeping pill. They still come to check on me every few hours, plus with the IV I was on, I needed the nurse to help me with a bedpan all the time too. And I was still leaking fluid. It was a LONG day, and LONG night. But the sleeping pill worked!

And that was Thursday, Feb 4th. Friday will come later.

Coming Soon!

2010-01-28T10:22:00.002-07:00

I've got lots to post, it's been a while since I've posted much. 1st-Katryn turned 2! we had a wonderful birthday party, even though I wasn't able to make the cake or really do much at all, like I had wanted too.

She still loved it, and had lots of fun! I'll post more later, I've got a lot of great pictures of her!.

Now, a quick update on my pregnancy. Thanks for the wellwishes and prayers from everyone, they have been much appreciated and needed at this time.

At our 20 week ultrasound, they found a few things of concern and sent me to see the perinatologist (aka-ultrasound expert) at the hospital. They didn't tell me WHY they were sending me, just that the midwives and OBs saw some things that they wanted the peri to check out. I assumed it was the cord placement, which my midwife had mentioned it looked like it was implanted on the side of the placenta, instead of the top. She said, it's very rare, but not usually life-threatening for the baby (it's the other things that usually go along with it that are bad--don't google these things!! it freaked me out). Or it was my Subchorionic hemorrhage.

so the peri was very nice and explained that he wanted to look at the cord placement, and the baby's bowel. I said "uh, ok" so he started looking and explaining what he saw, and why the Doctors office was concerned. I don't do any of the optional testing when I'm pregnant. Things that test for your chance of having genetic defects like Trisomy18, or Downs, or anything like that. You can't prevent it, and it's usually not 100% anyway, and I don't want the stress that comes from knowing the 'chance'. 1st he checked the cord, and determined that it looks like it's in the right place (thank heavens!) but it's looped down below the baby (who is still breech) and is inbetween the baby and the cervix. This is only problematic if the cord doesn't move and my water breaks. At which point I am rushed in for an emergency csection because the baby is putting pressure on the cord and pretty much dying. Very very scary, but very possible right now if the cord doesn't move.

The other thing he checked was the baby's bowel. The office was concerned because the bowel looked "bright" on the ultrasound, and that's not normal. usually if it looks like that, it's because of a genetic defect of the baby. Since I don't get tested for those, he wanted to look closer at it. Thankfully, he determined that it's not bright enough. He said he was taught to look if it's as bright, or brighter than the bone images (which are white on an ultrasound). The baby's bowel wasn't. he said because I have a lot of old blood due to my hemorrage, just hanging out still, the baby probably swallowed some of it, which gave it a solid meal, which it was not used it, obviously!

He put me on restricted activity/modified bedrest. I'm not supposed to lift anything heavy (aka-katryn, laundry, groceries) or do anything for a long time (like walking, standing, cleaning etc). It's really put a damper on things around here, because I really can't do much of anything!! He also wants me to come back at 24 weeks to check on everything. That'll probably be sometime next week, or the week after.

The peri said our biggest concern right now is preterm labor, or premature rupture of the membranes (my water breaking early). so taking it easy is important right now! Katryn was born 3 weeks early, so I was expecting this little one to come early as well! but hopefully not TOO early, since the hospital is 30 minutes away. If for whatever reason the cord hasn't moved by the end of april I'm moving to my parents, who live across the street from the hospital, so to be on the safe side of things!

anyway, so we would appreciate all the prayers you can send our way! We could use them right now!

Oh yeah, and we found out what we're having--this kid was NOT shy. Even if we hadn't wanted to find out, there was no way to miss that we're having a little BOY!!

My pups

2010-01-20T15:07:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to take a minute to show off my pups, because I got some good pictures of them. Plus, I haven't posted any pictures of our NEW Christmas present. That's the second picture

Indy: doing what she does best, stealing a blanket, and trying to sleep.

And our Christmas present, Moya, a purebred siberian husky. She likes to lay in the computer desk. I think she thinks its a cave or something. . . .She won't fit there much longer though!

She's all mine

2010-01-15T15:36:00.002-07:00

Yup, that mouth full of food, crazy 'sleeping bag' hair, BabyLegs on the arms AND legs. . .neither of which match the cute flower dress, thinking about dancing on the table, happy little girl is mine.

I think I'll keep her around for a while longer.

Christmas Card

2009-12-19T09:28:00.003-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone in the blogging world! I wanted to share with you our Christmas card that I spent so much time making for this year. Actually, I didn't spend that much time, and I'm not even mailing to anyone. :)

Here's a quick run-down of us this year:

Matt's still working at full-time, and going to school part time. In his 'spare' time (what's that?), he teases katryn and wears her out before bedtime
Katryn turned one, and turns two next month! she's everywhere, into everything and talks about everything. She loves to sing, and talk on her phone to cousin Kyla. She also loves to go see the horses behind our house.
I'm doing the awesome mom-at-home thing, and love it! I spend time trying new recipes and blogging about them on my recipe blog. I spent some time making recipe cards like scrapbook pages, and now have a LOT of recipe cards to try! I'm hoping to get back into my writing mode.
We bought our own house! it's in a tiny town, in the middle of no where, but we love it so far!
We're also expecting baby#2 in May of 2010, which we're very excited about.

Here's our plans for next year, and hopefully I'll keep up on blogging about them!

katryn's pretty close to being potty trained, so we're hoping to get that taken care of before the baby comes in May
I'm also starting to homeschool Katryn, using an altered program called Letter Of The Day.
Matt should be in his last year of school next year. I think he's estimated to graduate in 2011! We're also hoping for that promotion we've be waiting for, or a new job :)
My sister is getting married in October!! although they'll be getting married in this state, we'll be flying out to Indiana the next week for a reception in Jonathan's home state. We're also planning on taking a side trip up to Jersey to visit matt's grandma! We haven't seen her since Katryn was about 6 months old, when she came out her.
We're also hoping to finish our basement, and perhaps remodel our kitchen. If nothing else, we'll get a fence up around the yard and some grass in! :)

Hope you all had an awesome 2009 like we did, and can have a great 2010 as well!!

Gingerbread houses and a Pirate

2009-12-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

I know, they have nothing to do with each other, except that I haven't blogged about halloween yet, and I needed to take pictures of our gingerbread house we made on sunday before it got eaten. They don't last long around here.

It's a family tradition on matt's side to make gingerbread houses at Christmas time. I remember when we were dating (quick side story--8 years ago TODAY, December 15, 2001 was our senior dinner dance, and that was when matt and I 'offically' started dating. can't believe we've been together that long already!!) and we made these house for the first time. It was awesome!! I don't think I've ever seen so much candy in one room.

Matt's mother makes the gingerbread, cuts it all out in house shapes and his dad builds them. It's quite the process. They also go ALL OUT on the candy to decorate these things. As in candy spilling over the counter tops, dozens of bulk food bags full of candy.

Needless to say, Katryn had enough candy to last her until next year. She wouldn't even eat the chili, which she LOVES!!

Part of their tradition is to also give the house they make away to another family, usually a family perhaps in more need this time of year, or one that has a lot of kids that would just get a kick out of having an awesome house.

So the point is really to just put AS MUCH candy on as possible, because that's just more you get to eat later, right?

And if you're matt's brother, you create something so amazing that our little houses are put to shame! This year he created a chapel. It was pretty awesome. Hopefully they'll put pictures up.

and now we can officially eat this house, since I have taken the time to record the memories. :)

This was our pirate on halloween. She was so darn cute! Cutest pirate ever! and she'd go around saying "arr!!!"

Here's all the grandkids on the B side of the family, with grandma at our halloween party. In case you can't tell, we've got a football player, a pirate, a wizard, an indian holding a bat, and a witch.

and here's half the cousins on the W side of the family. That camo thing is a volcano. Pretty impressive I've got to say! Then we've got a flower, pirate-Tryn, and a biking ladybug.

We went trick-or-treating in my parents neighborhood. Tryn got a kick out of it. I'm not dressed up, unless you count the "I spent 4 hours in the ER the day before, and I'm exhausted from lack of blood and sleep" costume. Then I've got that covered. Matt's dressed up as Sam Fisher from one of his games. I can't remember which one. . . .

Tryn did awesome, she'd go up by herself, usually get distracted by the pumpkins, then bang on the door. Everyone thought she was adorable, because well, she was! :)

Preview

2009-11-19T08:57:00.003-07:00

About a month ago, we moved into our NEW home!! it was awesome. Kind of stressful, and we're still not completely unpacked (actually, we're still not even completely moved, we still have plenty of things at matt's parent's house)

Our first morning there, this is what we woke up to find:

Yes, sheep, grazing in our front yard. We don't have much grass as it is, so it was sad to see these sheep eating it. and it was weird. We really did move to the middle of nowhere.

Here's our little house. We don't have picture taken of the inside yet, because I've been a little busy with other things. You'll see in a minute.

This is part of our backyard. The grassy part. ACtually, it's where our washer drains, so it's always nice and green. It's also our dryer, if you look higher in the picture, you can see the line. and that board? just left of the green patch? that's our sump hole. (aka-septic tank) yeah, it's awesome! and no, it doesn't stink, and no Katryn has not fallen in yet.

This is one of the ways we get to heat our house in the winter time. It's expensive to fill it up front, but then we don't have to worry about higher heating bills in the winter time! We also have a wood stove in our basement.

and yes, you can see by our garbage can, we live in the country. (we actually saw move dogs than people the first week or so--a LOT of dogs)

and this is what has been keeping me busy:

Yes, there is a creature growing inside of me right now, and well, it's a little exhausting to grow a kid!! it's expected to arrive in May, and we're crossing our fingers that it decides May is a good month to come, and doesn't try to come too much before then. (this picture is about 11 weeks, so the baby is about 1 inch)

You see, I was diagnosed with subchrionic hemorrhage. that basically means there is a pool of blood just hanging out between my uterus and placenta. (the placenta is what holds the baby in) usually the placenta and the uterus create an awesome seal, but sometime the seal can seperate a little bit, or just never attach properly, and therefore blood tends to pool there.

Because of that, I have random gushes of blood that cause me to freak out (and the first time, run to the ER on advice of my midwife) and think I'm miscarrying. I've had about 5 of them in the last 3 weeks. When they happen, I go on bedrest until the bleeding stops, and drink water until it's coming out of my ears.

I was also diagnosed with a blighted ovum, also commonly called the vanishing twin syndrome. When they gave me an ultrasound to determine that yes, my baby is still healthy and growing right on track, and yes I do indeed have a SCH (subchrionic hemorrhage) they saw the blighted ovum. It's basically just a second, empty sac where a baby should have been. for whatever reason it didn't develop, or it wasn't developing properly and died. We won't ever know.

Anyway, this baby is still growing, and although it's a hard pregnancy so far, it should get better! We're excited for may to come so we can add to our family!

Wedding Cake

2009-10-26T12:51:00.003-07:00

This is my first wedding cake. I made it for Natalie's dad, who got remarried about a month ago. It's an interesting cake. The bottom is 1/2 rice krispie treat, and 1/2 wedding cake. The middle tier is all rice krispie treat, and the top tier is all wedding cake. Chocolate with raspberry filling. Mmm, it was good.

The ribbons coming out from the top layer are part of a Peruvian wedding tradition (the bride is Peruvian). Each ribbon has a small charm of some sort attached to it. All the single ladies pull a ribbon out, and who ever gets the charm shaped like a wedding ring, is the next to get married!

It was a lot of work, but as an amateur decorator, it's amazing to do a wedding cake, and so worth it.

The phone

2009-10-25T15:29:00.002-07:00

I hate the phone. I really do. I avoid calling anyone, and half the time I avoid answering my phone. I get extremely nervous when I have to call someone, and I often don't. I can't call and set up visiting teaching appointments, I can't call to order pizza, I can't call a neighbor to see if they could watch Katryn. I even have a hard time calling family members sometime.

Sometimes I wonder how I got this way. I wonder if I got yelled at by one too many customer while I was working in customer service. it takes a lot out of a person to get yelled at on a regular basis. I know plenty of people are able to brush it off and move on without any problem, but I wasn't that lucky. I think a little bit of every angry customer, blaming me personally, expecting me to fix unfixable things, to do exactly what they want kind of built up some sort of barrier or something between me and the telephone.

I never answer a call that I don't recognize the number. They can leave a message, and if I get my courage up enough I'll call them back.

I go into a small panic attack when I have to call someplace, like the insurance company, the utilities, or even pizza hut. (I order online. Actually, we now live too far away from anything to have deliveries, so I don't order at all anymore)

Most people don't understand it. Matt doesn't really understand it, he just puts up with it. I don't quite understand it sometimes either, perhaps it's a little OCD on my part as well. I'm not sure.

all I know, is that I don't care much for the phone, I'd prefer emails anyday.

on another note:

We've moved into our new home! yay! we bought a house in a small country town, and like it so far. I love seeing horses trotted down the main street, and dogs just running around happily. They're all so well behaved, and usually stay within one house of their home.

I'll post some pictures of our awesome home soon!

Family Pictures

2009-08-31T11:48:00.006-07:00

It was that time of year again, and we got our family pictures taken. My goal since we got married was to have family pictures taken every summer. Preferably May, our anniversary month. 2007 it was in May, last year, i think we took them in september. This year, it was august! perhaps next year will be july, then june, and finally back to May. Or we'll just just to may next year. We'll see how busy we are that time of year.

Thanks so much to Calista, for doing an awesome job, and hiking up to our location, dealing with the construction, and working with our wiggly girl, and crazy dog. And especially thanks to Glenn for coming to hold Indy so we could focus.

Here's a few of our favorites:

A (above)B (above)C (above)

Glenn was having Katryn do yoga for this one: "Reach up tall tall tall tall tall! and touch the ground" she loves it!

Totally typical, if you know Katryn.

I set this one as the backdrop on our computer, because of how close it was of our faces.

Uncle Glenn's sunglasses, one of her favorite 'toys'

Flashing the camera! too bad it's not mardi gras. . . :)

This one melts my heart. I think I'm going to give it to Matt's mom for Christmas.

Anyway, we need to pick one to blow up and hang on our wall. Which one? I numbered the ones in the running as A, B, C. Or if there's another one you like you can vote for that one too. :) I picked those 3 because Indy's part of our family, and so it's not a family picture unless she's in it too.

And I"ll be posting more of just Katryn on her blog later this week. Let me know if you need an invite to read it!

ZOO!

2009-08-18T12:11:00.004-07:00

Sorry for the picture overload. There were probably about 300 pictures from the zoo. . .and I love them all!! We had such a fun time, the weather was perfect! Well, it started out cold, but then it got better, and it was really nice! Katryn loved it, and promptly passed out on the car ride home.

Amber, Heather and Jonathan under an awesome umbrella!

All the girls at the sign.
Amber and Tryn on the huge spider. By this point in the day, she was a bit overwhelmed with everything I think, and just ready to go to sleep.

Climbing over the alligator
She enjoyed playing in this egg!

And climbed right through the turtle shell.

Whenever she got out of the stroller, she just ran behind it and started pushing it.

This picture is specifically for Grandma B, the archeologist

Her enthusiasm for the penguins was almost as much as mine. She was gabbing away to this girl next to her about them.

She loved the creatures in this room the best, because she could get right up to the glass and peer in.

I think these cats kind of freaked her out a little bit. . .

We were making monkey noises, that's why we have funny faces :)

The randomness that is us

2009-08-12T21:06:00.002-07:00

I recently purchased a new camera. A NICE one. and I've been enjoying playing with it, and being able to actually have the shutter click when I WANT the picture taken, instead of missing all these great shots of Katryn.

Recently her cousin Kyla and family moved to a nearby city, and we stopped by and visited. The girls had a great time playing with each other--sharing waterbottles, riding the horse, playing with Roxy. It was fun.

Here's Katryn and Roxy. EVERY dog she sees, she has to go up to. My parents would say "hmmm, who does that sound like???" While giving me a look. I confess, she got her love for animals from me.

On sunday afternoons, we get together with my brother and his wife and have sunday dinner. It's so nice in the evenings that we just let Katryn run wild. She loves throwing the ball at (yes, at, not to or for) Indy.

And Aunt Natalie's phone. One of her favorite things to pull out of her purse. The other favorite is her lotion.

This is how she looked before we decided to strip her down. Thus saving her white dress from the red juice. I'm so glad too!!

And there you have it. The randomness that is our life, because you know. . ."this is what living like this does" :)

Cedar Trip

2009-07-17T17:44:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago, we went down to Cedar to watch Jonathan's bike race. I've never seen a bike race before, and boy howdy they are FAST. They go about 20-25 miles an hour!!

Katryn was being extremely silly in her carseat. Which was a lot better than the screaming before she fell asleep.

That's Jonathan there on the outside left. You can't tell, but he totally wiped out on one lap and had a huge road rash going up his leg. Read about it here. It's rough, because it's like a 3/4 of a mile loop they race on for about 45-50 minutes, and whoever gets the most laps wins (I think) and they take those corners so fast!

And no, I didn't clean that before I let her chew on it. If I did that, I would have to clean EVERYTHING, because everything goes into her mouth. Still. I thought we passed that stage a few months ago?

She loves when both her and daddy wear their hats. She'll bring his to him to wear saying "hat? Hat? hat? hat?"

And her new favorite obsession. The camelbak!! Couldn't get her to stop drinking from it. Which is a good thing, except for that backwash we got.

While we were down in Cedar, we were able to watch two of Jonathan's races (one was 60 miles!! good grief!) make dinner for Heather and Jonathan, and the Elliss clan (and of course, one certain little boy took one look at my meal, and said "I am definitely NOT eating that") and see Heather's awesome house. It's really a neat house, right by the DI in Cedar, and near the high school she teaches and works at.

Driving around really made me miss being down there. It's still a rather small city, and I know it pretty well. Drove past my old houses I lived in, past the Outpost (long since gone out of business) and I had a WHOLE LOTTA nostalgia going on! it would be awesome if matt could work at the Cedar gamestop, I wouldn't mind living back in that city.

My gamers

2009-06-26T20:12:00.003-07:00

This reminds me of when I came home from work one time and found this going on.

My girl's going to be a gamer. . .I can feel it. She already knows that if she pushes the button in the middle (aka--the power button) the xbox starts making noises and the lights on the controller start blinking.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Matt manages a game store, and he's going to school to become a video game developer. I suppose I just thought it would wait a few more years is all.

Memorial Day

2009-05-28T08:11:00.002-07:00

We had a wonderful Memorial day. Matt had to work, but that's normal when you work retail.

Here's my pathetic spinach plant. I don't know what happened! It's just not growing. I planted it probably over a month ago. . .and there's about 3 little plants. I planted a whole row!! I'm so glad I planted some at my house too (this is at mom and dad's)

And my out of control peas! they're so big, they're falling over. I have to go stake them up today. They're probably about 2 feet high, no joke. I'll put Katryn next to them for comparison. But they yet to have any blossoms, so we'll see if I'll get any peas off of them, or if it'll just be a good learning experience for me. :)

I've been working on my cake skills as well. This was the cake I made for memorial day. It's german chocolate with strawberry filling. I know, it's a watermelon, not a strawberry, but hey, it's completely dairy free which means that Katryn can eat it! It took a long time, but it's good practice for when i get around to starting my own business. :)

2009-05-25T11:56:00.003-07:00

This is Katryn's favorite activity these days. She likes to get a different perspective of the world sometimes. And then we grab her legs and summersalt her over. She loves that!

I haven't been blogging on here much, but I have been posting rather regularly on Recipes Of A Cheapskate, so go check out all the food I've been making! We're still working on our plans to move to Georgia, but we're open to other options as well. Like Washington is another plan. . .or Ogden. . .or we'll stay here. . .we really don't know WHAT we're doing, we're just going along.

My garden is growing great! I think the peas are going to blossom soon, and my strawberries are starting to turn pink. It's wonderful. The spinach I planted over at my parent's house kind of bit the dust I think. . .but I planted a little planter box here, and it's growing great. My herbs are also starting to look good! It is pretty satisfying to see the fruits of my labor. :)

Huntin' for Eggs

2009-04-20T13:15:00.002-07:00

We had lots of fun on easter. Katryn loved looking for the eggs, and then trying to feed them to Indy. The weather was actually nice too! better than the snow we had a few days before.

Coloring Eggs

2009-04-20T13:06:00.001-07:00

We had such fun coloring eggs for Easter. Katryn loved it, and we only lost two eggs to tragic deaths off the high chair. They made a good egg salad for me the next day, so all was not lost. :)

My garden!

2009-04-20T12:44:00.003-07:00

Last year, my garden totally failed. Mostly because I forgot to water it. It was totally my fault. It also didn't help that Katryn was only about 6 months old, couldn't crawl yet, and was only napping for 30 minutes at a time. It didn't give me much room to do much of anything!

So far I have 2 rows of peas planted, and 1 row of spinach. Look at my peas growing! yay! I kind of took over my parents garden a little bit, since they'll be gone all summer and I don't have the space for one here.

In the next few weeks I'll plant my tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and squash. Maybe a melon too. . .we'll see if Matt gets transferred. If that's the case, I'll give my garden up to Glenn. He was planning on taking full advantage of it anyway.

Yup, since we didn't get the promotion we were expecting, we're looking to move.

To Georgia. (!!!!)

In which case, we'll be visiting you Ashley :)

Why Georgia you ask? Well, the housing market is fantastic. We could move, without Matt getting a promotion and be able to buy a house on our income. Here? There's NO WAY we could afford a house on this income. Shoot, we can't even afford rent here! We live with his parents so I can stay home with Katryn.

Second, there's about a gamestop on every corner. Within a 20 mile radius of a house we're looking at, there's over 30 gamestops. Here? Within 20 miles there's 4. That means there's a HUGE chance he would get promoted faster.

Until we know for sure though, we're growing our garden! We're teaching Katryn to pull weeds. Well, she likes to pick up the sticks. But our garden will work this year!!

My new toy

2009-04-11T12:49:00.002-07:00

I finally bought it. I've been eyeing this wheat grinder for a while now, and I sucked it up and bought it today. The tax return sure helped! It's the Wonder Mill grinder, and I'm got BIG plans for this thing!

Our goal is to become better at using our food storage. The LONG-TERM food storage that is. We always eat out of the panty, mostly because I hate grocery shopping. Thank goodness for the food co-op and giving me a fair share of fruits and veggies.

One of the things I liked about this mill, as opposed to other mills was the two parts. The mill, and the flour container. I can grind 12 cups of flour, and then store the mill in the storage room. The flour can stay in my kitchen in it's own container! Space is limited in our little basement apartment, so size was important.

I've got bread going right now, and I have a few other things I want to try, like this cream'o'chicken soup recipe that uses bean flour (and therefore makes it dairy free so Katryn can eat it!)

Our new bed

2009-04-01T18:31:00.002-07:00

When I worked at the willey, I had a pretty darn good discount. Which I miss. Right now, we're in the market for a chest freezer to help us build our food storage. I thought, hey, let's check out the outlet and see if they have a freezer someone returned because it had a dent in the side or something. (I worked in customer service, and I know people return things because of cosmetic reasons ALL THE TIME)

They had some freezers, but we'd seen cheaper ones elsewhere, so we were wandering the store, letting Katryn toddle everywhere (which she loved) and then we saw it. . .

The bed frame to our set. We have the table and all 8 chairs,we have the nightstands, and now, we have the bed frame!! And the price. . . oh the price. . .it was cheaper than I would have gotten it with my discount after working there for almost 2 years. WOOHOO!!!

Yup. And even though it was in the clearance section, and chances are there was something wrong with it. We couldn't find anything. everything fit together just fine when we put it together last night. We looked all over it and found nothing so we are HAPPY!!! Just a few more pieces to go and we'll have it all!! :)

I did it!

2009-03-29T08:32:00.003-07:00

quick update: Indy is doing great. The staples came out on tuesday, and the Vet said it looked like she healed perfectly. It's nice to be able to play rough with her again (which she LOVES) and take her on walks. We're so happy!

This is my first attempt at canning. I found this recipe for crockpot apple butter, and I thought to myself. Hmmm, I have a whole slew of apples from my co-op box that I need to use, this would be great!

So I did it, I made crockpot apple butter, and I canned it (steam canned) and everything sealed. Well, after I sent them through a second time. I wasn't aware I had to put the rings on them while they steamed, since the cans in my mom's storage don't have rings on them. Oops. Either way it worked, and it gave me hope for my garden this summer!

Yup, I'm trying a garden again. Last year didn't go too well. . .I kind of forgot to water it like I should have, and Indy ate all my strawberries. I have more ambitous goals this year, because it's VERY important to me to have a large amount of food in storage. . .just in case.

I planted my peas already, and then it snowed. Luckily, they should be ok. I hope. I'll keep you updated.

My Poor Puppy

2009-03-15T11:59:00.002-07:00

We had a bit of an incident yesterday. We went on a family walk that morning, down to the soccer fields by the local high school, and played around for a while. It was such a nice morning! we passed a few people, walking, or running. But 10am is a little late in the morning for those who like to run I think. I'm not sure, I don't like to run!

Anyway, on our way home, we were walking up the HUGE hill to our house and saw our neighbor's dog in their yard. This dog is about 3 times Indy's size. But I said to matt "That dog'll be fine, it's _____'s dog, and I've heard that she just hangs all over him and he's gentle" ( ____ is my neighbor's handicapped daughter). We walk up to the house, and the dog trots over to sniff Indy I assume. Instead, he just chomps down on her side and leg and won't let go. Indy is crying and crying, the worst cries I've ever heard come from her mouth. So full of pain and shock. We were all in shock that this dog just attacked her while we were just walking down th street!! What if that had been a kid?! Matt's yelling at the dog and trying to get a hold of Indy, I'm yelling at the dog, and holding on to the stroller so it doesn't roll down the hill, and Katryn is so startled by all the noise, she starts crying.

Finally we get the dog off and Matt is holding Indy, who is still crying, and whimpering. We yell at the dog to go home a few more times as we start to hurry home, because he tries following us. Another neighbor, a few houses up, is walking towards us, to make sure everything is ok. He thought it was his dogs being attacked, because that dog has attacked his dogs before!! I'm just in shock over this, trying not to cry because Indy's my baby, I got her while matt and I weren't dating, and she is 100% my puppy.

We figure she's ok, so we put her down on the sidewalk, 2 houses before ours and we notice she had a HUGE chunk bit out of her side, and is bleeding pretty bad.

So we rush to our vet's office, and they don't have a doctor in. They send us to another animal hospital, but gave us the wrong address. Finally, abut 45 minutes to an hour after the attack we get her in the hospital, and the doctor tells us what's going on.

Luckily, her vitals were all good, she hadn't gone into shock or anything. That dog had bit her soo hard and deep, that it got down into her muscle and fat and tissues and tore them. The doctor said she might have 'crushing injuries', which is basically when there is a great amount of pressure for an extended period on the tissues, it kind of kills of them off. Blood can't get to them because they're crushed, and they are useless. We won't know about those for a while. So he sedeated her, stitched the tissues back together inside (with hopefully healthy and not crushed tissue, otherwise he has to do it again) and th stapled the skin back together on the outside.

She has a few small puncture wounds they didn't do anything about, probably because they couldn't. And we've got to keep her quiet and have her rest. The staples will be removed in about 10 days, and she should be fine.

She was pretty out of it yesterday, thankfully Matt stayed home from work to help take care of her. She could hardly walk, and he had to take her outside to use the bathroom a lot, and we had to keep her from licking her wound. They gave her a cone to help stop that, but we don't have the heart to have her wear it. We just watch her and stop her when she tries to lick the staples. She sleeps in our bed, so we camped out on the floor with her, so she wouldn't have to move, or try to move to be with us.

She's doing lots better today, walking around and eating. Poor Katryn just wants to play with her, but Katryn doesn't know how to play softly. She likes to collapse on Indy and have her lick her face.

We have pain medication, which is helping. She was whimpering a lot last night, and you can't blame her!

It's just hard for me to see her like this, and still so shocking that my neighbor's dog did it to her! My brother-in-law just put his dog down for attacking people. Not that I want her dog put down, I just worry about what happens the next time he's out and what if it's a kid playing outside. This was a completely unprovoked incident!! We were just walking by, and we've walked by a lot with Indy.

Anyway, hopefully in the next week or so, we'll see Indy back to her normal, playful self. Until then. . . .no balls, no walks, no games, no jumping onto the bed. . . .it's going to be hard to keep this ranbuncious dog down!!

Late Valentine's Day

2009-03-04T12:15:00.002-07:00

I had plans for us for Valentine's Day, but Matt ended up working that night, and we've all been kind of sick for like the past month--we just keep passing it back and forth to each other! It's driving me crazy, and I have big plans to sanitize the whole house today. . . .after I blog of course!

Oreo Bouquet

I made Matt an oreo bouquet and got him fresca. Fresca and lucky charms, I think that's all that boy needs to survive!

When we were dating, I had a small tradition of giving him hershey kiss roses, but those were so much work I stopped doing it. These though, were super easy, and I think tastier. So while he was at work, I cleaned the table off (a major feat, I tell you what!) and decorated it!

Ta-da!

Food Co-Op

2009-02-24T11:55:00.002-07:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago about the local food co-op I was joining. Well, on Saturday I picked up my order! I'm very pleased with what I received and how quick and easy it was. What I like the best is how I'm supporting the local Utah farms. Everything I got (except for maybe the rice and perhaps the kiwi) was made or grown here locally in Utah.

Here's a picture of what came in the harvest share, which was $14. I haven't yet priced it out at the grocery store, to see if I'm saving money or not. I'm betting it'll be pretty close to the same at the store, if not a tiny bit higher.

HARVEST SHARE

1 5lb bag of red potatoes
6 oranges
6 apples
2 bunches green onions (I gave one to my mom)
1 bunch red leaf lettuce
4 artichokes
1 carton mushooms
1 bunch asparagus
8 kiwi
1 loaf wheat bread
1 lb rice

This is what I received in the Standard Share ($23). Basically it's the same, but with meat included.

STANDARD SHARE

1 pkg chicken breasts (2lbs I think)
1 1lb pkg beef stew meat
1 1lb pkg pork spare ribs
1 1 lb pkg lean ground beef
1 5lb bag red potatoes
6 oranges
6 apples
1 bunch green onions
1 bunch red leaf lettuce
3 artichokes
1 pkg mushrooms
8 kiwi
1 loaf wheat bread
1 lb rice

It was really easy to do. I went to the pick up site closest to me, gave them my name, went down an assembly line and loaded everything I got into my bags! (I filled 5 grocery bags--lots of people had boxes, and I learned that 1 person can't quite carry it all themselves. Next time Matt's coming with me)

now that I've had my first experience, I'm anxious for next month! and I have TONS of fresh produce, we'll be eating salads for weeks to come!

I'm on the odd side

2009-02-16T10:55:00.002-07:00

I realize I'm a little odd, and I'm ok with that.

I'm just so darn proud of this storage!!

Matt loves his Lucky Charms, and could live off of them. At least now we have our years supply of cereal! (yeah, that's 35 boxes of cereal)

Snow Day

2009-02-13T21:46:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago we got some good snow here. We took advantage of it, and took Katryn out in it. She LOVED it. So I invested in some snow pants for her, and we haven't been able to go out since. They probably don't even fit her anymore. *sigh* she's growing too darn fast!!

It took her a bit to figure out what was going on, since we haven't spent too much time outside since she became mobile. It's been too cold!

Indy sure enjoyed having everyone out to play with her too. Chasing the snowballs and diving through the snow. It was great to watch her have so much fun as well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2009-02-01T09:54:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was my sister is law Natalie's birthday. She was kind enough to allow me to practice my cake decorating skills on her. Isn't that nice of her?

I made marshmallow fondant, which is a whole lot tasty that regular fondant. Still not great, but it's edible at least!! The cake was cookies and cream (basicly a white cake mix with crushed oreos inside) and a strawberry cream cheese filling. YUM!! It was delish! :)
Happy birthday Natalie! thanks for letting me practice my cake skills on you! :)

Ta-da!!

2009-01-28T20:26:00.002-07:00

I'm proud of myself. One: I'm not very computer savvy. As in, when I want to make changes to my blog (make it a 3-column instead of two) I don't know how to edit html code. And the crazy thing is, my dear husband, who built my computer for me, doesn't know how to do it either!!

But I kinda figured it out. Actually, the website tips for new bloggers helped me out a lot. BUT, I know how to adjust the width to what I want. :) so I'm proud of that.

And so happy to have a new layout and a new nifty three column blog. Yup, it rocks. Leelou blogs (see the button on the right) has fun free layouts. I like hers because the layout actually moves with you as you scroll down the page. I get frustrated when the page has elements that DON'T MOVE with everything else. Makes it hard for me to read the post, so I usually don't. Sorry. . .thank heavens most everyone's in my google reader so I actually don't see the layouts anyway. But I love this fun layout! I also changed up Recipes of a Cheapskate, if you want to go check that out, I won't mind. :)

Utah Food Co-op

2009-01-27T11:03:00.003-07:00

A few months ago, I was watching the news, like I'm prone to do, and saw a segment on the Urban Crossroads Food Co-op here in Utah. and I thought to myself, "wow, that's something I need to get on!"

And the months passed as I didn't do anything about it. I've heard about the Angel Food Minestries, through my cousin's blog (and ok, she's really matt's cousin, but hey, I talk to her more than he does!!) but unfortunately the closest one is in Montezuma Utah. That's not ANYWHERE near me. Maybe someday I'll get one started here. Maybe I'll get myself organized before I do something like that. . . .

Basicly both these organizations are community run groups that order food at a bulk discount (because of the people who ordered the food) and distribute it. They're non-profit, and ask for your vollunteer time to help them OR to help the community. Just to give back basicly. And their prices are low too.

Urban Crossroads describes themselves: "We are a volunteer-powered, nonprofit food buying network, bringing people together for food, community & savings of up to 50% on high-quality fresh foods"

Angel Food describes themselves: "a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing food relief and contributing to benevolent outreaches in communities throughout the United States."

See? They're a bunch of good organizations.

This month I decided to give Urban Crossroads a try. This month (Feb) their menu is as follows:

I know it's not very easy to read. Click on the above link to see it on their webpage. Basically, for $23 you can get 5 lbs of different meats, 3 kinds of fruit, 5 kinds of vegetables, 16 oz rice, and a loaf of bread.

I just mailed my letter today, and I'm going to start finding some recipes that will use the foods provided in their box. So after the pick-up on Feb 21st, go check out my Recipe Blog for the recipes you can use with this stuff. And I'd love to hear what other community co-ops you have in your area and love!

Showing off

2009-01-25T22:58:00.003-07:00

Ok, so maybe I'm posting this just to show off a little bit. But darn it, I'm proud of it!!

It took me a long time, and two failed cakes to make this, and it was worth it. Not that Katryn really ate any of it. . .but someday she'll look back and say "that was the first cake my mamma made me. Boy she rocks" or something along those lines I'm sure.

one year ago today. . .

2009-01-18T20:38:00.005-07:00

. . .I was sitting in the hospital after giving birth to my sweet baby girl. She came three weeks early, as a surprise. It snowed that day, beautiful white flecks of snow. I don't think I slept that whole day, no matter how tired I was. I just wanted to hold her and stare at her perfect features. I couldn't believe that she was here, she was part of our family, and I couldn't believe we lived without her as part of it.

one year ago today, I started worrying about every little detail that occured. If she was too warm, too cold, hungry, or tired. I created crazy, out of this world scenarios that wouldn't ever really occur, but I worried about those too. I had this new little baby, who depended solely on me for survival, and I was afraid I would fail her.

one year ago today, I never knew the amount of sleep i would lose and still be able to function just fine. I knew she'd get up during the night, but i thought I could take naps when she napped all the time. I never knew that losing sleep was perfect because I could comfort her when she needed it. Although I would still like to be able to sleep through the night someday. . . .

one year ago today, I envisioned how she would never wear pink, but I would keep cute bows and head-bands in her hair. I thought greens and yellows and purples would be great, because all the other girls wear pink, and MY girl was not like 'all the other girls'. She is special. She is different. She is unique, and she stands out in a crowd.

Today, she wears the pinks, and doesn't keep the cute bows and head-bands in her hair. She wears the greens and yellows and purples too though, and she is special. She is not like 'all the other girls'. She is unique.

One year ago today, I was imagining her future. I was imagining what type of little girl she'd be, what her favorite color would be, whether or not she'd like dogs. I imagined where she'd go to school, what her favorite subject would be. I imagined that she'd be a confident young lady, sure of herself and her abilities. She'd be a young woman who wouldn't allow others to dictate her life and her choices. I imagined her getting married, having a family of her own to raise, and coming to me to help her in the hard parenting decisions.

One year ago today, I wanted nothing more than to give my baby girl everything she could ever want in life. To be the greatest mother she could ever imagine having. To be her best friend, and sole confidante. To be the one she wanted to be with when the world ganged up against her, or when she would just fall over and skin her knees. The one she'd call her best friend. I wanted to raise her in a home that she'd rather spend time at instead of a mall. To give her a safe haven from the world. She's one year old today, and I don't know how this year went by so fast. look at how she's grown already with the comparison of matt's hand! As she grows I can only hope I can be the mom she needs me to be!

Happy birthday Katryn Llewellyn. Your mamma loves you.

Late Christmas

2009-01-04T15:40:00.005-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas here in our home. It was Katryn's first, and she had a grand ol' time. Pretty much mastered the art of ripping the paper off of everything. Like most babies do to things anyway.

and although my side of the family came down with the plague* we still managed to have fun over there, as long as no one mentioned any type of food to my dad. Poor guy, he probably would have loved my coconut shrimp I made!

Indy had the time of her life with her stocking. New toys, and treats. Can't go wrong there!

Katryn didn't quite grasp the concept of her stocking, I ended up dumping it out for her. She still loved it though. and no, that xbox game in the picture was NOT for her, no matter what it looks like in the picture.

*Plague is any sort of illness anyone has in my family. This time it happened to be some sort of stomach flu---I got it that night.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2008-12-31T10:20:00.004-07:00

Today is my punk sister's birthday. She's 16, and terrorizing the roads. So if you see a little blonde girl in a Subaru--that's her, and I'm sorry that she almost hit you. if you see a punk boy in a Subaru, that would be my brother, (the other punk in the picture) and I'm also sorry that he blinded you with the 20 lights on his car.

We're making cupcakes and having a big ol' bash for her today. Just like every year. Not many people get have parties all night long on their birthday's every year! We always make calzones, and this year I'm teaching her some of the cake decorating tips I've learned, and we're making the cupcakes into caterpillars.

Happy birthday!

The 12 days of Christmas

2008-12-27T22:13:00.005-07:00

Growing up, my family had a tradition of doing the 12 days of Christmas to a family in the neighborhood. We loved it! it was something we all enjoyed. The secrecy, the anticipation of being caught at the front door. It was fantastic, and taught us how important it is to serve others, and we don't need the recognition from it!

We decided to start that tradition in our family, and this year we picked a family with 4 little kids. The only had part is all the street lights the city has installed all over. Its not dark like it used to be when I was a kid!! If you looked out your window, you could easily see anyone walking down the street in the middle of the night. Kind of makes it hard to be secretive.

But we managed. We didn't get caught! We also didn't ring the doorbell half the time, since the family spent a lot of time in the front room.

Day one

For day one, we gave them the Christmas Star of Service. Basically you do secret service for someone in the family, and them leave the star for them. Then they do secret service for someone else and leave the star.

I think it's something important to teach kids, and we have our own too!
Day two

Homemade fudge! My first time making fudge, and I was quite, quite, impressed. I'll post about it later on my recipe blog.
Day Three

A little foam nativity kit that they could build with the kids.

Day Four

A reindeer craft you make out of popsicle sticks, googly eyes, red poofs, and brown pipecleaners. Super easy, even for kids! they look good on the tree as well.

Day Five

Christmas bingo!! I printed the cards off of this webpage, and gave them marshmallows for markers. THose are the best kinds of markers I think.

Day Six

Luminaries to set outside on CHristmas eve. This was also something my family has always done. YOu fill the bag with sand, and line your sidewalks and walkways with them. Then you light the tealights inside. It looks really pretty.

Too bad we got hit with a massive snowstorm and there was no place to put on luminaries this year.

Day Seven

A box of candy canes and a cut little story about how the candy cane came to be.

Day Eight

Reindeer dust!! I had never heard of this, until I read the book The 12 Days of Christmas. It was great! and gave me such good ideas too! Basicly it's oatmeal mixed with glitter that you sprinkle outside. There's a little poem about how the oatmeal helps the reindeer be strong, and the glitter helps them fly fast.

I used glitter, and then realized it would have been so much easier to use the colored sugar!! Next year. . .

Day Nine

Some cookies and a little story to read.

Day Ten

Popcorn balls! Also my first time making them. Lots of fun, really easy, and I'll post about it as well on my recipe blog.

Day Eleven

Stamped candles and a story. I stamped the candles myself, and it was really easy! They look so nice too, if I can say so.

Day twelve, I can't find my picture for. What I did was take an empty, unused paintcan (that you buy at the craft store) and mod podged paper around it. Then I had some cute 3D felt stickers that said "Let it snow!" that I placed on there. I called it their Christmas Can, and filled it was hot chocolate mix, cidar mix, popcorn, candy canes, and a cookie mix.

I loved doing the 12 days, it's such a good way to help feel the true spirit of Christmas in our house. We're usually pretty busy since Matt works retail, he's gone a lot, and gets to see the ugly side of people when they can't get what they want (a wii).

We'll be doing this every year, and I hope you do too!!

Stories of Katryn

2008-12-22T15:44:00.002-07:00

Due to privacy issues, I'm making Katryn's blog a private blog. Not that I post much there anyway. Not that I post that much anywhere for that matter. I just decided I don't want just ANYONE to be able to read about my baby.

If you want to read it, leave me a comment with your email, and I'll add you, or send me an email at:

littlerockflower (at) gmail (dot) com

thanks!

Christmas Countdown

2008-12-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

I created this pretty little advent calendar for us this year, since I never got around to doing one last year. Very, very easy to make as well! It's on a large canvas, and the tins I bought at Michael's in their wedding section. The chipboard letters came from walmart, and I used stickles to make them all sparkly. Man, I love those stickles.

The tins are secured with velco, and inside each one I have a little piece of candy and an activity for us to do that day. Things like "Read a Christmas Story" or "Make cookies" or "Build a snowman" (That one had the luck of coming on a day when there was no snow! it should have been today's! it's a whiteout out there!!) Then I can take the tin off, eat the candy (actually, they mainly went into a bowl on the table) and keep the activity in the tin for next year!

To tide you over. . .

2008-12-21T22:38:00.002-07:00

Here's a few pictures of Katryn, just to tide you all over while I get a few posts ready. I have a lot of Christmas stuff to show off!! :)

Katryn's 11 months old now, and crawling everywhere!! my sisters have big plans to get her walking over Christmas time, which won't help us in our baby-proofing (or lack of. . .anyone want to come baby proof our house?).

come back tomorrow to see our wonderful Christmas things!

Who needs toys when I can play with the cup daddy waters the Christmas tree with?

Bedtime attire: 1 pink hat, and green jammies with flowers. better check the pots and pans and make sure I didn't leave any of my toys in there!!

Peeking at the presents? No way mom!

Cake Decorating

2008-12-05T22:12:00.003-07:00

Last month I took a cake decorating class. I made and decorated three cakes, and learned a lot. I got most of the techniques down, but the rose. Good grief is that hard!!

anyway, here's my first cake. I love how it turned out, I was very happy with myself.

and I liked the second cake even more! I more of less just took the things we learned and put them all over my cake in no sort of pattern. As you can tell we learned how to make some flowers.

oh yeah, and the shell boarder. that one's pretty neat.

my pretty flowers around the edge.

this one actually had some sort of pattern to it, I was just kind of going flower crazy I think!! That's ok, the kids liked them!

and this was one of the flowers I kind of made up. I really liked how it turned out! I may have to do something like this for Katryn's birthday next month.

Next month?!? my baby can't be turning one already!!!

and this was the last cake. I did not like it. I couldn't get that darn rose figured out, but I still put it on the cake anyway. the other flowers are sweet peas. . . I think.

anyway, I like the way those turned out! Except for the bright yellow with the blue leaves. at least I used up the frosting I had. I really didn't want to make a new batch of frosting.

see those darn crinkly roses? Ug, they're annoyingly frustrating.

But I love the bows! those were fun, and fairly easy as well.

Anyway, this is what I learned in class one. It was way cool, and I'm excited to experiment on my own, now that I have a base to build up from!

Tis the Season

2008-11-03T09:37:00.002-07:00

To give.

Local food banks have empty shelves. In our part of the country, the boy scouts are having an emergency food drive to help provide food for the banks. With the economy in a slight slump, a lot of families are relying on the food banks to feed their family. And if the shelves are empty? There are kids who aren't eating. I imagine everyone could at least donate 1 can of tuna, or a package of ramen noodles. They're also in need of hygiene items, like shampoo and toothpaste. Every little bit helps someone in need. Count your blessings that you're in the postion to give, and not in the postion to recieve, then give with a big heart.

Pack a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. What a wonderful way to teach children to think of others and serve them in this season of normal greed. And for not much, you can give a child a Christmas they wouldn't have otherwise.

There's lot you can do to help those in need. These are two causes that have touched my heart lately, and I thought them important enough to share with you all. For me, I'm lucky enough to have all that I have (which isn't much) but others aren't so lucky, and I feel the need to help them out. I hope you all can find that place in your heart that will give a little bit this season!

Time for a change

2008-11-01T09:15:00.002-07:00

Sometimes I need a change. Like this past week.

I don't know what it is about this week, but I needed a change.

I went and bought this new comforter. We've actually never had a comforter. We have piles of blankets we kept on the bed. I've wanted to get a comforter since we got married, but it just hasn't happened. Until Target put these on clearance, and we both agreed that they would be perfect in our room.

That's probably the biggest problem we have. Agreeing on something when it comes to decor/furnishings. We have similar tastes, but they're different enough that it can take quite some time to find something we both like.

Then I chopped off 10 inches of my hair and donated it to science.

and ok, it wasn't science, it was Locks of Love. Science makes it sound cooler though.

Sometimes a girl just needs some change in her life!!

Happy halloween!

2008-10-31T11:59:00.002-07:00

Go enjoy this Pumpkin Carving, and then, if you're like me, you can bemoan your artistic skills.

happy halloween! I'll post pictures of our penguin girl later :)

Shameless plug for my new 'toy'

2008-10-30T09:11:00.002-07:00

It's kinda sad that this is my new favorite thing. Besides my new comforter. I'll talk about that later.

But wow, I love it! Our entire house (aka--our basement apartment) has hardwood floors except for the three bedrooms. That's a lot of floor to clean!! and I hated doing it. Granted, we were lucky enough, that when the cleaners came to clean upstairs, they came and did the floor and bathroom downstairs as well (have I mentioned before that I hate cleaning bathrooms? I HATE it).

once a month is not enough for this floor though. once a week is not enough for this floor. Indy's constantly tracking things into the house--sticks, leaves, dirt. That and she sheds something fierce. it just gets really bad, really quick. but I hated getting down on my knees and mopping the whole floor!

Katryn's almost crawling now. She gets everywhere she wants to--backwards--but she gets there. and is finding all sorts of 'goodies' to try to eat on the floor. Gross, I know. Way too many things I don't want her to find!

I finally broke down and bought a starter kit at costco the other day. I can't believe what I've been missing! Granted, it takes two wet clothes to clean the whole floor it's so big, but it gets clean. And it doesn't take me an hour!!

I love my Swiffer. Does this mean I'm officially a house-wife?

My dog Indy

2008-10-19T19:41:00.003-07:00

When I was a teenager, I would go to church camp every summer for about a week. And I was an angel child too--just wanted to make a record of that. Ok, so angel's probably not quite the right term. But that's a post for another day and time.

Anyway. . .there was a song we'd sing around the campfire. I don't know the title, but here are the words.

(first thing you'd do is pick a bean--I'll do jelly for this version)

My dog jelly likes to roam,
my dog jelly he left home
he came back,
quite unclean,
where oh where has jelly been?

Jelly bean, jelly bean,
where oh where has jelly bean?

Then we'd pick another bean and sing the song again and again.

This is how I sing it now:

My dog Indy likes to roam,
my dog Indy, she left home
she came back,
quite unclean,
where oh where has indy been?

The little stinker runs whenever she can!! If she can make it out the door, she's off like a bullet, with a huge grin on her face. A few day ago, she made it into the neighbors backyard. Which she loves because their entire backyard is pretty much a garden. She loves all the smells.

Normally she doesn't get out. We have a fenced in backyard, so she can roam around there, dig all the holes she wants, and cause trouble back there.

But if she'd have her way, she'd be roaming the streets for a few days. unless it was raining, then you couldn't get her to even stick her nose outside.

Yup. that's my dog. gotta love her.

Family Pictures

2008-10-19T18:56:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago, we made our way up the canyon with my sister and her camera. We wanted to get some family pictures taken before the leaves dropped. Ok, I wanted to get some pictures taken. Matt, Katryn, and Indy could really care less whether or not it happened. This is why I rule the house.

The leaves were just starting to change. Now though, as I look at the mountain it's full of colors. I guess the snow last week helped things move along.

wow! even the puppy's looking at the camera!

We got lots of good shots. Jenni has an awesome fast camera, that takes pictures like the the speed of light. I'm dreaming of one still. . . maybe santa will bring me one for Christmas.

Katryn was so good while we were up there, laughing at Michael (big surprise there!) and smiling for most of the pictures.

Yup, daddy's wrapped around my finger!

Waving to Aunt Jenni

Now we have to decide between the 75 pictures Jenni took for which one will be the family picture we give out for Christmas, as well as hang on the wall.

But hey, we got the taken!! that's really quite a feat in itself I thought. Indy was VERY distracted by all the exciting smells up there. Can't say I blame her though, she's a crazy dog!

Halloween

2008-10-03T17:52:00.004-07:00

After reading Emily's post about how she's decorated for halloween, I thought I would break out my halloween/fall items. All three of them. they looked a little meager, so I went to the store and purchased a few things. Not a lot, because we don't have a lot of space to decorate. Here's my little attempt for the halloween spirit.

Thank you Target for having these great blocks!

Most of these came from the Willey. . .except for the candy dish, that came from Target.

But this came from the willey

These came from Target. Maybe I'll get ambitious and put little tea lights in them. Probably not.

And this isn't even mine! I found it in my mother-in-laws storage room while I was looking for my fall box.

I am excited about halloween this year. I've found a puppy dog costume for Katryn that looks very similar to Indy. We may even try to dress her up this year! That's not an easy task. We'll be able to go to family members homes that are close and show her off. Hopefully, we'll be able to hit Walt and Kristy's home, because I KNOW she goes ALL out for Halloween, and I really, really want to see it. Maybe it'll give me some inspiriation for next year!

My nephew Michael

2008-09-30T10:18:00.002-07:00

He's a funny kid, this boy. He refers to himself as 'me', like "me want. . . ""me going outside" He's three and half years old, the one child of my sister that could use football the most, but because of health problems (ie-only one kidney) he probably won't be able to. When he was born he was in NICU for about 10 days because of the health problems. Not that any of that stops him now.

He takes the toyboxes, dumps them out onto the floor, stands on the back of the couch, yells "cannonball!" and jumps into the toys. He's an odd child, that Michael-Man.

Jenni tells me a story about how her oldest boy, and Michael were discussing their friends the other day. Michael says "I have 5 friends!" and starts to list them. "Brandon (the boy across the street). . . .Adam (his little brother). . . . .Katryn. . . . .Mom, is Krystal my friend?" Jenni: "Yes" Michael: "Krystal. . . .Indy (my dog)"

Today when Jenni was talking to me, and telling me this story, he added on Matt as his friend. My whole family makes his list of 5 friends!

My Inspiration to Blog

2008-09-23T12:12:00.002-07:00

I used to be a rather avid blogger. I'd blog daily, or at least weekly, back when I first started blogging. That was years ago. . .ok, only about 3 and 1/2 years ago. I blame Asmond. It's really all his fault that I started blogging. (don't worry, it's not a bad thing!) I was spending a lot of time with him at the time, in an effort to find a new social group so I could cut myself off from the other one, who had too many ties with my ex-boyfriend (who is now my husband. . .funny how those work out eh?)

At the time though, the blog was just what I needed, it was just for me, to vent and get my feelings out. and it worked splendidly! It started as an annonymous blog, but through time, it's become more open. Although I try to respect those who still prefer their blog to be annonymous. . .speaking of which I should go update my blog roll for those who are annonymous.

My blog also had a purpose at the time I started it, besides to get my vent. The title of my blog "this is what living like this does" came from a song, and every blog post I tried to title after a song. sometimes it was the title of the song, more often it was a line from the song that hit me, and I loved. Yeah, I kind of deteored from that as well. maybe eventually I'll get around to doing that again. Since I started that blog, I've started other blogs as well. I have a blog for my writing, which I hardly do any more. I have a blog about stories of my daughter. I've also recently started an annonymous blog for my recipes, and a blog linking to it about how I'm a cheapskate, and how I like to save money, prepare for the future in different ways. And how I don't do very well most of the time. But I'm trying! and that's what counts.

I've pretty much become a blog junkie---all because of asmond.

'Camping' With Grandma and Grandpa

2008-09-22T14:05:00.002-07:00

a while ago my grandparents went camping up the canyon to try out their new (to them) pop-up trailer. They got it from my parents, and I remember many a night sleeping in that trailer. I think I was even lucky enough to have a sleepover or two with some friends in it.

Anyway, my grandpa, being the handy-man that he is (seriously, he can fix anything!) altered the trailer so it's now a solar-powered trailer. Pretty impressive eh? it was the middle of the week, and they just went up the canyon near our home (a 10 minute drive) to camp in one of the campgrounds. They called my sister and invited her and her family to come have a BBQ with them. And us being us, invited ourselves. We of course brought our own food, and even marshmellows for everyone! Yup, we pretty much rock. We even convinced Glenn to come with us (and gave him dinner!) since Natalie was working.

Since it was the middle of the week, there was hardly anyone up there! it was great!

The boys took care of building the fire for us. Practicing all those boy scout skills they haven't used in years. It was entertaining to watch! Michael especially likes to be involved in things like this.

Matt cooked our chicken for us, with the use of just a few forks that I packed up for us to eat with. Unfortunately, he didn't cook his long enough. he didn't mind, because we brought pineapple to grill and he LOVES that stuff!

Glenn being lord of the flames
Bekah and michael enjoying their marshmellows

thanks for letting us come up with you Grandma and Grandpa! it was tons of fun!

what's new here

2008-09-05T12:39:00.003-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged! I keep reading everyone's blog though (thank heavens for google reader!! I love it!)

Currently there's not much exciting in our lives. Matt's computer crashed, so he had to rebuild it. and while he was at it, he built a computer for me and his parents as well! Yup, he's a nerd, and I love it. *grins* my laptop has been shorting out on me (again) so it's nice to have a 'real' computer to use.

Katryn has cut her two bottom teeth, within a week of each other!! and now she loves chomping on anything she can get into her mouth. She's not anywhere close to crawling. Has no interest in it whatsoever. Which is ok with me, because I'm not ready to baby proof our house.

I've been scrapbooking like crazy, and having tons of fun doing it!

that's really it in our lives. But here's some pictures to make up for a lame post :)

How am I supposed to use this thing? Like this?

Happy baby in her high chair!

I'd rather watch Mom than rock!

Camping up with Great-Grandma and Grandpa

I have a nalgene addiction.. . .it runs in the family!

memory. . .all alone in the moonlight. . .

2008-07-24T19:49:00.002-07:00

if you can name that movie---you rock!!

and this picture has nothing to do with the post, but it's a cute picture of 'tryn on her 6th month birthday--go visit her blog to see more picture goodness!!

Here is a fun little game... leave a comment on my blog of a memory you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time or a long time; anything that you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memeory about you. It is pretty funny to read the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you are playing and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. On your mark... get set... blog those memories!

My 6th annual 19th birthday

2008-07-22T17:04:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was my 6th annual 19th birthday. A few years ago (6 to be exact) I decided i wanted to stay 19 forever. I didn't want to turn 20, because then i was no longer a teen! So matt and I joke every year that it's my ____ annual 19th birthday. It's entertaining.

It started off with Matt getting Katryn when she woke up at 7:30am. That's always nice. He took her for a while, until she was ready to eat and sick of him. Sometimes all she wants is her mamma. They came in to wake me up with presents and and a card Katryn was trying to eat. Sometimes I never know what to expect from Matt. He complains that he doesn't know what to get me. Does the same thing around Christmas time. so I've started just giving him a list of things that I wouldn't mind receiving. Sometimes it works, other times it's still a pretty good surprise. He did good this year.

I've been scrapbooking a lot lately, so he got me a clear ruler, that has opening in it so I can create journaling lines, and dots in it so I can place things evenly on a page. I have a problem with that. He also got me a gift card to my favorite scrapbook store. Can't go wrong there! And like usual, a nice statue.

The picture might be a little blurry. Sorry 'bout that. As I've mentioned before, I collect these statues, so I love receiving them.

We took Katryn in for her 6 month check up, but since she's been sick this weekend, we didn't give her the shots. Although she still cried when the Doctor came in. And she's a really nice grandmotherly type doctor! Oh well. It happens. And towards the evening, i got sick as well, so I'm glad i didn't have to try to take care of a cranky sore baby as well!

We also thought my sister was going to have her baby yesterday. We were hoping! but no such luck. . .her labor completely stalled on her. Oh well!

scrapping away

2008-07-19T21:07:00.005-07:00

I've been busy scrapbooking lately. a few months ago, I joined an online scrapbook/stamping community, and they have a swapping forum. Basically, someone creates a group, say a veggie recipe swap group. People who are interested sign up and create usually 5-6 small recipe cards (6"x6" usually) of the same recipe. but they're not just recipe cards. They're scrapbooked, with stamps, and ribbon, etc. Then they mail them to the hostess of the swap, and she sends them back 5 different cards! I've become addicted I fear. It's been fun though! I've really enjoyed making recipe cards. Scrapbooking recipes cards! it's like it was made for me! It's super easy too! I haven't taken any pictures of the cards I've created yet, but here's some of the pages I've created.

This one is for my sister, of three of her four kids having the time of their lives playing on the slip'n'slide on the 4th of july. they were so funny! They wouldn't slide until the very end. it was more of a run'n'fall.

This one is just showing off katryn's love of plants already. She loves being outdoors, and it always calms her down to take her outside for a while. Matt takes her to pick flowers and bring back to me. . .and does his best to make sure they don't get squished or eaten. It's hard to prevent that though!

Bryce Trip

2008-06-29T22:05:00.002-07:00

Pictures from our trip down to Bryce! Enjoy! make sure you turn your song on, the song for the pictures is great!

yoga kicked my butt

2008-06-20T20:40:00.002-07:00

our stake has a yoga class every Wednesday morning form 9:30-11am. I had Matt make sure he closed on that day so i could go. I used to do yoga all the time! I could go through all sorts of sequences. Although I had no flexibility.

In my Eastern World Lit class, I wrote my final paper on yoga in the eastern world, and the ancient Sanskrit language. I barely passed the class, but not because of my paper. That teacher was HARD. All his classes were extremely difficult. it probably didn't help either that i wrote the time for the final down wrong and missed most of it.

In my last semester I took a yoga class and a rock climbing class. They were both wonderful. It was one of the best semesters of college ever! Except for the spanish class. Never did care much for it.

I also took a few classes of prenatal yoga when I was pregnant with Katryn. I've been anxious to get back into it again, so I was excited to finally be able to go. Wait, I mean I finally forced myself to get dressed and actually go.

It kicked my butt.

Seriously.

I knew was wasn't in very good shape. I haven't done much since Katryn was born. I go walking every once in a while and run around with my nieces and nephews (and indy). Since this class has been going on for at least a year, there was no easing into it. we jumped right in! We did Side Crow pose, and some other balance pose that was forward (someone fell forward trying to balance and hit their head) and other difficult poses for someone who hasn't done yoga in a l-o-n-g time.

I needed it though. I can't do yoga on my own. I just don't push myself like a class pushes me. And I get too distracted. I need a yoga class that really calms me down and centers everything for me. i don't like distractions, I don't like other people besides the instructor talking, and I like the instructor to be soft-spoken and mellow.

I didn't really get too much from this class. the teacher was a bit hyper so I couldn't focus very much. But it's free. yoga classes are expensive! Someday when we're rich from all the cool video games Matt's going to design, I'd love to become a yoga teacher. All the classes and the time though isn't something I'm able to afford though.

When I came home, I could barely walk down the stairs. my legs were all rubbery, and I couldn't support myself. My triceps were really sore too from tricep pushups and the chaturanga pose. It was hard having to hold Katryn all day.

I'm still sore today. and I'll probably still be sore tomorrow. Next week I won't be here to go (I'm kinda glad!) but hopefully the week after won't be as bad.

Teddy Bear picnic

2008-06-13T07:53:00.002-07:00

I've been trying to to get story time at the local library for a few weeks now. But Katryn usually is still asleep, so by the time she's fed and ready to go, it's too late.

Not yesterday though! We left about 10 minutes to 10am, when it starts. That gave us enough time to be detoured by all the construction near our house and be on time.

Turns out that story time was 'canceled' for the day, in place of the Teddy Bear picnic! I wasn't too disappointed. I have such fond memories of the Teddy Bear picnic when I was growing up, I was actually kind of excited. But it didn't start until 10:30, so we had some time to wander the library.

Katryn wasn't too interested in anything but eating her dress. I thought she might like the stain glass windows there, but she was a bit distracted by the other kids walking around. She's such a people watcher! if there's anyone near by, she'll completely ignore me and just stare at them.

We lasted about 15 minutes into the Teddy Bear Picnic (enough for an intro, and 2 songs, and into the first story) before she got the hiccups and got mad so we left. She fell asleep on the car ride over to see my sister and stayed asleep for half an hour after! that was impressive.

Although she didn't seem too interested in the Teddy Bear Picnic, I'm sure by the time next year rolls around, she'll be a bit more excited. Until then, we're going to try to get to at least one story time a week.

Rainy day

2008-06-07T11:21:00.002-07:00

We woke up this morning to a whole lot of rain. I guess it rained all night. Either way, the lack of sun helped Katryn sleep until 8am! that was rather nice I thought.

It was also good that it rained since I haven't watered my plants in a few days. . .my tomato plants are thriving though! They've already surpassed the stakes I stuck in with them. I'll have to get some cages now. My cucumber plant is dead. . .or on the verge of dying.

It's been a busy week for us. My sister was moving, and had to pack up her whole house and put it a storage unit. We went over a few times to take loads of things they need for the next few months and take it to my parents house. Since my parents are gone for the summer, Glenn and his wife Natalie have moved in there, and my sister, her husband, and there four kids have moved in as well! It's a house full! but it's not anymore than when I was going up. Six kids in that house is not too bad.

Needless to say, I'll be spending a lot of time over there this summer!

Recipe Exchange

2008-05-30T19:01:00.003-07:00

I have a new task. I'm now in charge of the Relief Society's recipes swap/exchange group. Yay! I'm actually very excited for this project. It's not quite a calling, at least I don't think so. . .

A few months ago, I mentioned to my Relief Society president that I thought it would be fun to get together a recipe group, much like the book group. She said she liked that idea, but then I never heard anything else from her. Until last night. She called me, and asked if I would be in charge of it, and I said 'yes' because it was my idea after all. So it's going to be starting in the next month or so!

Here's how we're going to do it (I think). We're going to meet once or twice a month, I haven't figured that out yet. After I talk to the RS president, I'll know more. But if we meet once a month, it's going to be during the day, at my house. If we meet twice a month, one will be during the day at my house, the other will be in the evening, maybe at the church, or someone else's house. The reason I don't want it at my house is because Katryn has such a delicate bedtime. The window is very small to be able to put her to bed without screaming for a while, and if we miss that window, it'll take her a while to go to bed. I don't want to mess with that!

the first time we'll meet, we'll all pick something to cook: like breakfast, or pasta, or drinks. something like that, and we'll put it in a hat. Then we'll draw for each month so we can know ahead of time what the category will be!

If per chance someone can't come, but still wants to participate, they can email me their recipe and I'll gather the recipes for them, and exchange theirs. Then at the end of the year, I'll compile all the recipes and everyone can have them! This way, I can incorporate all the ladies in my ward, and people won't feel left out.

I'm also thinking that if everyone brought a small sample of their recipe for us to try, that would be fun. Then we can decide right there if we would want a copy of the recipe or not (and we don't have to worry about lunch for the day!)

I was also thinking about depending on the theme of doing some health research about it. Then I can give a little blurb about why it's important for us to eat this type of food. . .or something like that. And as we're trying everything we can go through and talk about how we made the recipe, what we liked about that recipe or whatnot.

anyway, I'm really excited for this! it will give me the chance to get to know the ladies in my ward better, I've been here for a year and 1/2 and i still feel like I don't know most of the people! Food just brings everyone together.

My garden

2008-05-16T14:53:00.004-07:00

I'm trying to become more self-sufficient. With how prices on everything going up, it's getting harder to make ends meet. Groceries and gas are rough on everyone, and I imagine they're only going to get worse. The problem is, paychecks aren't going up with everything else. There is a small amount of wiggle room in our budget, so I'm trying to get a food storage set up for us. Eventually we hope to have a years worth (then the earthquake can hit here!) but for now, we'll settle for three months worth.

Back to my garden.

I planted a small (VERY small) garden for us. and it's all in pots.

This is my cucumber! I fear it may get too big for this pot. . .in which case I'll have to transplant it to my parents garden.

These are my three strawberry plants. if I remember from my childhood, these will come back on their own every year. I love fresh strawberries!
And my two tomato plants! these are the ones I'm most excited about!

My sister and her family, as well as my brother and his wife, will be living in my parents house this summer while they're in new mexico and we've decided to take advantage of their VERY large garden. My mom has already planted her plants by the shed (don't worry, I'll include pictures later!) which she'll just let grow while she's gone. Shh, we haven't let her know about our plans yet!

We're planning on planting watermelon, pumpkin, and whatever else sounds good. Probably some more tomatoes, maybe some lettuce, then we'll have the startings of a salad!

I hope my plants don't die. . .

Facelift

2008-05-15T14:45:00.002-07:00

After a long time, my blogs have all gotten a face lift. I'm not so computer techie, and haven't been able to figure out how to make my own templates. I've found a few webpages that have free templates, but haven't been able to figure out how they work.

Tip Junkie posted a whole lot of different blog designers. I actually only saw the first one, which is who I went with. Leelou blogs made it so easy for me! simple steps, and cute designs. She also has cool link tags you can put on you sidebar about the LDS church, which is really neat.

Yay for blog facelifts!

All about scouting

2008-05-15T09:48:00.005-07:00

As many of you know, scouting is HUGE in my family. some might even go as far to say that it rules our lives. Recently, on my baby center boards, someone posted a thread complaining about the scouting program and that super long week her husband has to take off to go on a 50 miler, instead of going on a family vacation, and how much she hates the scouting program because of the time it takes her husband away from her family.

It really bothered me that she had so much anger towards the scouting program and he husband's church calling in their ward with scouts. And lots of other people voiced similar opinions about it. I had to jump in. . .although I shouldn't have.

For those who aren't LDS, let me explain how our church works. Everything is based on church members serving in all the aspects. No one is paid. but because the church asks for tithing donations (10% of your income) church members are able to be reimbursed for things they provide for the church. Like gas from driving somewhere for an activity. Money for the food you paid for an overnighter. Awards you bought for the eagle scout banquet.

Anyway, because everything is based on members serving in callings, like scoutmaster, youth leader/teacher, etc, it's hard for me to understand how someone can blame scouting, when it's something they were asked if they'd be willing to contribute their time and service to, and then AGREED to do it.

They made the choice to serve it. Or, their husband made the choice to serve. but it's the scouting programs fault? Nope. I don't think so.

Here's what I posted to these people:

"wow, I probably shouldn't jump into this, but here I go! I come from a family of scouters. I have 4 sisters and 1 brother. My father has been involved in scouting as long as I've known. and not just on a church level. He works with big-wigs with the National BSA, Developing new programs for the Venturing Program. He's done woodbadge sessions tons of times, our family vacations were to go to a week long scout camp in NM (Philmont) while he was getting more training.

He's out of town about every other weekend currently for something scouting. Sometimes it for work, most of the time it's for scouts. Currently, it's just my mom and youngest sister (15 year old) living at home. Is it a sacrifice for them? You bet. And this isn't even a calling for him.

His calling actually comes from the Young Men's General Presidency. he's the LDS Chaplin at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico all summer long. He's had this calling since 2002, the year I graduated from High School. My family has gone there for the entire summer while he serves this calling. At the time, it was just myself, younger brother, younger sister, and mom. One of my older sisters has been working there every summer as well though.

That's their family vacation. My sister has never gone to girls camp with her ward. She doesn't get to go to any summer camps, or EFY or anything like that because of Dad's calling. He's missed baby births/blessings of grandkids, birthdays, his dog dying. i had to plan my wedding a month earlier because of it.

It's a sacrifice the church asks of you. You have a choice EVERY time a calling is extended to you, your DH's have a choice. What if your DH was called to the bishopric? He'd be gone a lot more, you'd hardly see him on sundays, he'd go to every youth activity, have meetings in the evening after work. . etc. . .but would you blame the church? I hope not.

Don't blame the scouting program. it's not the scouting program asking him to do these things, it's a church calling. and like all calling, It's blessed more lives and family's than it's hurt. and could bless your lives as well if you tried to support the leaders. others have mentioned that when it's run properly it's great. That's the problem though. People aren't willing to take the time to get the training to help make the program run properly, and so it doesn't work like it should, some people end up sacrificing more time. . etc.

Anyway, my point it. The scouting program is a good thing, of anyone, it should have screwed up my life, but I love it, and can't wait to get my daughter involved in a venturing program.

and I don't think the church is getting 'rid' of it any time soon. if ever.

ok, i'm done *jumps off soapbox* "

It really bothers me that people just want to pass the blame. And not just on this, on everything in life! People have a hard time stepping up and taking responsibility for their choices.

*update-5-16-08 @2:30pm*
I had to stop reading that thread because people were pulling my comments out of context as well as commenting how how awful my father must be to choose his calling over others (which is NOT what he's doing). And they also followed me to my blog. Which is why you can no longer post anonymous comments on my blog. Sorry! guess ya'll have to leave names now! :)

Mother's day!

2008-05-12T08:30:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was my first mothers day as a mom. Although 2 years ago, on our honeymoon, my little brother called me and wished me a happy mothers day. . .because I'd be one someday. He's great like that!

On saturday we spent the day at my parents, so my sisters could come down. It works better for them, instead of a sunday. It was great! I always love spending time with my family, they're very entertaining.

Katryn got a little bit of sun. . .nothing bad though, her cheeks and arms a just a little on the rosy side. The weather was beautiful! Such a nice day, all the kids played outside, and Indy had the time of her life running around with them. And eating the food out of their hands. She's tricky like that.

For mothers day though, matt took Katryn after I fed her when she woke up, and let me go back to sleep. That is a great gift to me. I'm a sleeper, and get very cranky when I haven't had enough sleep. Then he made me breakfast while I fed katryn again. I talked him into making french toast, which he claimed he didn't know how to do, but I've watched him make it before. It was great!

On Saturday, when he came home from work, he cleaned the house as well. I had started worrying a little bit, because it was 7pm and he hadn't shown up at my parents house yet, and had gotten off work at 5pm. Instead, he was home! he vacuumed the bedroom, moved the fridge, changed our mildewy old shower curtain, made the bed, and bought me this statue:
I'm a huge fan of the Willow Tree line, and have started collecting them, and requesting them as gifts for those special moments. For Christmas, matt gave me one, his mother gave me the nativity set, we had one at our wedding, and I bought one when I got Indy. They're just so simple and pretty. I enjoy them.

It was a wonderful 1st mothers day, such a sweet blessing to have a wonderful daughter who was so good all day. She didn't even fuss when she was getting ready for her naps! I got to stay through all the meetings at church and didn't have to walk around the halls! That was fantastic. So to all you mothers out there. You're great. You're doing such wonders for your family, no one can take your place!

Thanksgiving point

2008-04-30T20:28:00.003-07:00

Matt had last saturday off, so we took the time to take Katryn to target to get pictures taken and then went to Thanksgiving point to enjoy the tulip festival before the tulips were all gone. Well, they were mostly gone anyway. I had never been to the gardens there before, and it was stinkin' AWESOME up there. Except for the wind. Oh yeah, and the cold. Yeah, that wasn't so cool, and Katryn hated it. We had to cut our trip short because she was cranky. Of course as soon as we got her in the warm car she was all smiles and happy. I wish we could have seen more of the gardens, but we can only do so much with a baby. We're thinking of getting a pass for next year. For about $150, the 3 of us can get into pretty much anything for free. Except for the movies. But even they're only $5. And by next year, Katryn will be able to enjoy everything so much more. Like the petting zoo, and the dinosaur museum.

And I've just discovered the whole slide-show thing, and I'm really loving it, now I can put lots of pictures and you don't have to scroll through a whole slew of them!

Happy Birthday to Matt!

2008-04-30T13:18:00.002-07:00

We celebrated Matt's birthday this weekend, he turned 24! We had a dinner with his parents and one of his brothers and his kids on sunday. his mom made his favorite cake: Wacky cake. Basically you make the cake in the pan, poke holes in it and pour the wet ingredients into it. It's supposed to be really hands on for the kids. However, since katryn was the only kid around when it was made, we mixed it all up in a bowl. Shh, don't tell Matt, he'll be disappointed!

I found this awesome wii lunchbox at walmart for him. He's a zelda junkie, loves everything about zelda, and I believe has all the games ever made too. He was actually really excited for it too! We don't use the wii very often, since we only have one controller, but it's sure a cool lunchbox.

We also ended up buying a new laptop cord, the fix-it job didn't last very long. so there will be more pictures to come soon!

Woes of Technology

2008-04-10T20:15:00.002-07:00

About 2 weeks ago, I broke my laptop. It was driving me crazy not having it! I would sit with Katryn and Eliot (the laptop) and i could read articles and play around all while entertaining her (or while she was sleeping). I was becoming sooo bored! Finally, we had more or less broken down and decided to buy a new cord. The price of said cord? $50-150. Yeah, that's a lot!

So Matt, being the great husband he is, decided to try to fix it. He cut the plastic/rubber outside of the cord and peered at the wires. I had destroyed it. it wasn't just a small short. These wires were completely severed. I went to go take a picture, because I was honestly impressed by my sheer talent in the destruction, but alas, the batteries were mysteriously missing out of the camera. . .and in the xbox controller.

While I fed Katryn and chatted with my sister and mom today at my mom's house, Matt went to the store to try to find parts to fix it. He got some sort of connector thing-a small plastic tube that has metal in the middle to connect each end, and electrical tape. After messing around with it all for about an hour, he had everything put back together. Not an easy task.

When he had cut open the cord, there was one main wire (inside another plastic/rubber cord) and about 100 tiny, tiny, tiny wires surrounding it. I thought "that's a lot of little wires to try to connect back together". Turns out that you don't really need to do that! We brought it back home and it works great! yay! now I just need to be a little more gentle than I was previously.

I'm still here!

2008-04-03T09:33:00.002-07:00

I like to blog every few days, and I feel like I've been gone for so long! There are really 2 reasons I've been MIA, the first: My parents were watching my oldest sister's kids for a week, while they went to Hawaii (lucky ducks) and so I was spending a LOT of time over there with Indy and Katryn. Indy was the entertainment/tool to wear them out.

The second reason has to do with Eliot, my laptop. Yes, I named it. That way when I go to shut it down, it says "turn off Eliot" instead of "turn off computer". More personal that way :) Anyway, poor Eliot has been a bit beat up since Katryn came. I tend to just push it around on the bed (because that's usually where we spend the day, the fireplace makes the room too hard to leave!) depending on what I need to do. Because of that, the power cord has got a short it in, from the cord being bent too much from me sliding it around. It was really temperamental for a while, need the cord to be just right for it to charge. Well, it eventually got to the point, where it was no longer charging and the computer just died. Poor Eliot. Now we have to get a new power cord.

I loved being able to use the laptop because I could hold Katryn and still use it without a problem. Now we just have Matt's computer (which he just upgraded yesterday, but I can't tell a difference) but he likes to use it when he's home, and I can't really hold Katryn and use his computer. Not yet at least. But as nap times are getting better (translation: she doesn't need me to coax her to back to sleep every 5 minutes) I'll hopefully have more time to catch up on my blog! there's a lot of things I want to write about (I've had this nature vs nurture debate going through my head for a few weeks) but I won't be able to put pictures on, since all the pics are on Eliot. But hopefully we'll get a new cord soon!

my never ending quest

2008-03-15T11:18:00.003-07:00

In my never ending quest to become a domestic goddess I was playing in the Betty Crocker webpage last night while dinner was cooking. I found some cute easter cupcake recipes that I want to try sometime, but probably not this year. maybe though. . .I haven't decided.

Anyway, I was searching through the breakfast recipes because I'd like to make breakfast on at least sunday's since we don't have church until 1pm. so I asked matt what he thought, because he's always kind of a cereal guy.

"babe, if I made breakfast in the mornings, would you eat it?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I'd love to get up earlier in the mornings and make a good breakfast, but if you wouldn't eat it, I don't want to spend the time doing it."

"yeah, I'll eat it"

so we have that problem solved, until I make something, and he eats hardly any. We always have that possibility. So as we're getting Katryn on a better sleep schedule, I'm going to start getting up and making breakfast a few times a week. Probably not everyday, but I'd like the option of something besides cereal. And if I do it while katryn's still sleeping, or while Matt's home and can watch her if she's awake, that would be great!

I did find though, while looking through the breakfast recipes on betty crocker's page that there isn't a large variety of breakfast foods. You have about 5 basics that are just elaborated. Pancakes, waffles, eggs, hashbrowns, cereal. so I could cook breakfast just a few times a week and have all the basics covered!

Another thing I've been working on in my quest is creating placemats for our table. We have a beautiful table. I love it!

This is the picture of it at the willey, before we bought it. It's a counter height table, and instead of the 4 chairs, we have 8. But I hate having junk all over the table. which we usually do. so I thought that if I had a placemat for each seat and my center piece (which happens to be a bowl full of candy currently) then i won't fill it full of junk. so I've been designing placemats that I can make myself, since I haven't been able to find any that I like.

There's a quilting pattern called "log cabin" that's basically a square spiral using different colors of fabric on each side. Instead of a square though, I made it rectangle. I've yet to do more than design a pattern for it though. but I did make it reversible. On one side I'll have bright summer colors, and the other side will be more subdued colors.

Ah, the quest to be a domestic goddess is never ending. . .

what a week!

2008-03-13T13:23:00.004-07:00

this has been a busy week in our house! Well, busy is a relative term in our lives. On sunday we blessed Katryn, and it was wonderful. we had all our family over for a luncheon, and a few close friends, which turned out to be close to 50 people. with just my siblings and their families, it was 20 people! But it was fun, I haven't seen my brother and his wife since Christmas time since they live down in Cedar City. And they hadn't seen Katryn yet, so that was fun. I love just hanging out with my family, it's always entertaining. Especially since there's so many kids running around now! Katryn is the 7th grandchild on my side, and the 4th on Matt's side. So when we get together (and if we include Indy, who is often there) that's a lot of little feet running around.

And after the luncheon at our house, we went to my parents since my mom was receiving her woodbadge beads. That was really cool. All 8 of us were wearing our scout uniforms, which was really cool, but I left my camera home, so I don't have a picture of it.

On monday I got up early and went walking at the mall with my grandma and mom. It was really good, and I enjoyed it a lot! I need to get out more, and it felt good. Although i was really tired when I got home, because of the time change still. Then we had a water leakage problem so Matt's older brother (who installed the sprinklers) dug it up and tried to fix it. When the water was turned on later that evening, turns out it wasn't fixed, so Matt and his brother's were digging the yard up in the evening trying to get it fixed. They bailed water out onto the street (and onto my car!) and our water was off from about 1pm-10pm. Sooo, Katryn didn't get a bath, and I didn't get the dishes or laundry done like I wanted. I've been trying really hard to keep up on the kitchen, since the exterminator came a few weeks ago and we really cleaned up after they sprayed the house.

I think Tuesday has been the only mellow day here. I don't remember anything happening that day actually. Oh wait, Katryn pooped all over me during bath time. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

yesterday was also really busy. I had my 6week postpartum checkup that morning, so we had to get up early to be able to shower, eat, feed katryn and get everything ready before we left. Then we waited an hour in the waiting room. That was ridiculous, since I only talked to the midwife for about 10 minutes. Oh well, that's what happens with doctors. On the bright side, I've lost all my pregnancy weight! woohoo! That was exciting for me :)

The cleaners came on wednesday as well, so Matt took myself, Katryn, and Indy over to my parents house when he went to work so I wouldn't have to try to control Indy in our room with katryn (who would probably want to be fed and held so I couldn't control Indy). It just sounded like too much for me to deal with at the moment. So I spent all afternoon and evening at my parents. I went for a walk around the neighborhood, and when we came back, katryn threw up all over her clothes. Luckily I had a spare onesie in her bag and she missed her pants, so I changed her into that and laid everything in the sun to dry. I changed her diaper and let her lay there to dry out, in hopes to help her diaper rash heal, and she decided to pee all over. later that evening, she exploded out the back of her diaper. Which is really impressive since she had to wear two diapers because of her hips (we meet with the doctor for her two month next week, and hopefully there's nothing wrong with her hips!!).
And then Matt forgot to pick us up and went home without us! He of course realized quickly when he came downstairs and no one was here. Silly boy.

It took Katryn a while to fall asleep last night too, so we didn't get to bed until almost 1am. wow. but she slept until I got up her up at 10:30 (not counting the 5am feeding when she decided she didn't want to sleep anymore and stayed up until after 6am)

it really feels like it should be the end of the week already! But we still have tomorrow and saturday to get through. and on saturday we have a wedding reception that evening, and matt has a bachelor's party for the groom afterwards. The couple is getting married next week, so they're doing the party after the reception. so I get to play single mamma and bathe and put katryn to bed by myself. The go to be alone! lame! Good thing he's one of the last of the boys to get married, so we won't have to do too many of these parties :) I don't like going to bed alone. It reminds me of the holiday season, when matt was working past midnight. I just get so lonely spending all that time by myself.

So that's my week so far, I can only imagine how the rest of it's going to be! and it's currently hailing outside. What's with that?