SUPER DUPER saturday

What a relief to be back to normal brain capacity again (I was going to insert a joke here, but that would just be rude to myself :) 

Super Saturday is over and it is a happy day! With my calling I am the enrichment counselor in the Relief Society. I decided instead of crafts we did an emergency preparedness day. It was a JOB...seriously there was about $4,000 worth of stuff purchased (we had to pick up cans and huge loads from emergency essentials) along with 2 canners and about 152 72 hour kits that were assembled (which I personally bought all the food for). We also made about 2,500 copies for binders that we assembled for every house in our ward boundaries along with producing an evacuation plan and communication line of command for everyone. We also had the red cross, f.e.m.a. and Questar gas come and do classes...and Cafe Rio for lunch! Anyway, I definately need a break! Needless to say I am EXHAUSTED!

I'm glad it's over, and I guess it's back to normal life! Oh yeah. Not really because the holidays are coming!!

Blog? What blog!

Ok, so I have to fully admit that I forgot about my blog and have neglected it sorely. When you start getting e-mails saying "Are you OK? I haven't seen a blog post in like forever!" you know that A) you have friends and B) that you are a slacker! 

So, an update on life. Just busy. I am putting on a huge Emergency Preparedness day in my ward. Thankfully it will be over Saturday. It is taking a lot of my time. And I can't really put my finger on anything else. Just busy! 

Also, G-man broke my camera so I won't have pictures for a while. Bummer!

N-A-P S-T-A-L-K-I-N-G

Yesterday I found myself SOOOO tired! I just started waking up really early to go jogging (think 6:10 am...anyone who knows me well knows I am not a morning person) I couldn't keep my eyes open. And OF COURSE Ikey didn't want to take a nap! Of all days for the love of Pete,

PLEASE go to sleep. It was a perfect time. G-man was on a preschool field trip.
So, I started stalking him. I will call it NAP STALKING. Dictionary definition of stalking: To follow or observe a person persistently, especially out of obsession or derangement.

That about sums it up. Let's define this, parents. Any Mom knows that sometimes you need this precious time to a) go to the bathroom b) brush your teeth c) eat any food that isn't luke warm.

Back to my story. Ikey fell down and started crying....oh poor baby! That must mean you're tired. Nope. He started rubbing his eyes. I got all excited..."Ikey needs a night night", "You're tired huh buddy?"...no again. Just something in his eye. Then I really start getting desperate. I pulled out the big guns and put chocolate in his sippy cup which is a real treat. I layed him in the crib and he is quiet for about 5 minutes. Awwww yes. I layed down and put my favorite blanket on. I'm just asleep and all a sudden I hear giggling and then a lot of quiet and then the dreaded words....ut oh mess mess. Ut oh is right. That means trouble. I go in and Ikey successfully screwed off the top of the sippy cup (in case you're wondering, he's advanced) and had painted the walls with chocolate milk. Yummy! It's over. Forget the nap.

Ikey finally did take a nap. He fell asleep on the way to Princess's soccer game. perfect. 10 minutes later we are there. Late and rushing. I get him out the car seat and he wakes up and boy was he C-R-A-N-K-Y!

Sometimes kids make you deranged. I am definitely part of that club.

My sweet G-man...

Oh how I love this kid! 5 years old today and I still can't get enough.

G-man is such a complex little boy yet he really isn't and is so happy to just be here. He is quick to hug, lives hard, and brings a special spirit to our home. He is the epitome of Ben and I mixed together...calm and inquisitive like Dad; curious and emotional like me. G-mans most overwhelming characteristic is his contentment with life. He just observes and loves being. He is the kindest old soul that I know.



I still remember the day he was born. I was so nervous because I already felt inadequate being a mother, and quite frankly didn't know how I could love another child as much as I loved my Princess. I woke that morning and had a doctor appointment. I was dialated to a 4-5 cm already. I was feeling crampy and just not comfortable. I went to my appointment and said that they thought if I took a brisk walk it would get things started. (brisk walk?? When you have an almost 10 pound baby pressing on your bladder and he's already half way out?? :0 LOL. So we walked Ben's parents neighborhood and sure enough those contractions started coming. I went to the hospital and I was 6 and feeling ok. Ben was starving so I told him to go get a burger and come back quick. He did that and then came back and turned on the TV. In his defense, I really was weathering the contractions just fine. All of a sudden I wanted the epidural!! The anesthesiologist was taking FOREVER (in my mind). He finally came and started the epidural. OUCH! I need to push the baby out NOW! He got it in, but I really don't think it did much (which was traumatic for me because I was so afraid of the pain).

G-man was born after 4 pushes and he was so BIG! They took him over to the bassinet and it seemed they were having a hard time getting him going and breathing correctly. He did finally start breathing, but they took him for observation. Ben went with G-man while I got settled into my room. In the mean time tyhe grandparents started coming to see how we were doing. They were all in the room and I kept saying, "Ben, take them to see the baby..." He kept putting it off and talking. Finally, I said Ben, take them out there. He paused and asked everyone to leave. A really awful feeling came over me. I knew something was wrong! He sat down on the bed and said that something was in fact wrong. He had a really bad wracketing sound in his chest. (heart murmur) and his oxygen kept going really low. This was the moment that my perfect magical world shattered. At this point we had no idea the extent of what was wrong. Long story short, we were discharged from the hospital and went straight to Primary Children's where they did tests, sonograms, and echocardiograms. I remember the poignant moment of sitting in the waiting room after having the last test done. The ultrasound tech has said, yes something is wrong, but "wasn't authorized" to tell us any more. Go sit in this waiting room with all these families that have very tired faces and VERY sick children. I just sat there with G-man in my arms and cried and cried. I felt my heart breaking. I would look up into these mothers' faces and see their pity and I knew they could feel my pain. I didn't know how this would affect my newborn babies life. How would we cope? FINALLY they called us back. He did in fact have a congenital heart defect among other things, but it would hopefully get better over time. It was better than we could hope for. It was a wait and see situation. Fast forward 5 years later and G-man is a healthy, happy boy with minimal restriction. We are so blessed!

G-man, we love you buddy, more than these words could portray. More than anything.

A little of this and that...

This week I got my haircut! My cute little cousin (she was in junior high when I was first married, now she's a grown up :O ) She opened up a cute little salon in Saratoga Springs. I got some color in it too. Makes me feel like a new woman!!

Princess's smart idea

My sweet little Princess shared with us her serious thoughts while we were driving home from Ben's parents house last night.

• Princess: "Mom, Dad...I know how to stop the stealers and bad people. What we need is no money. When I am president of the world, there will be no hungry people."
  

• Dad: "How do you plan to do this?
  

• Princess: "Easy, we'll take away money! Who needs money anyway??" If there was no money people wouldn't be tempted to steal it and no one would go without food"
  

• Mom: "So, no money, and all the grocery stores will be full of food and everyone will just share nicely?"
  

• Princess: "We could live like, you know share everything that we have?"
  

WOW Princess. That sounds a lot like the law of consecration. Good thinkin'!

Then G-man pipes in...no vote for me! I'll be the bestest president because I will let everyone have a big vatation every day!!

I'll vote for G-man!!

Rain and Shine....We Survived!

Happy late labor day everyone!

Seriously though...why do people like camping?? Don't get me wrong, it was nice to be out in "nature". Friendly animals, rain off and on the whole day. Pounding rain all night. A dripping wet tent all night where the top of all our stuff including my pillow were soaked. Ah the joys!! :)

All that being said, we really had a great time! We went up Hobble Creek canyon (Springville, Utah; our old stomping ground). The kids LOVED it! We were all good sports (except for my cranky intolerance in the middle of the night) and chalked it up to a good, character building experience. The kids had a great time playing with cousins (Ben's brother Mike and his lovely wife Jenny and 5 kidlets joined in the rain fest). Grandma and Grandpa "S" and Ben's youngest brother Jon and sweet wife Alyson came up for a fire roasted BBQ dinner and peach cobbler that evening. It really was fun...

We had to tether Ikey! He is so active and busy. I was worried about his safety!

Here's some pictures!

On Saturday we went up to Midway Utah for Swiss Days and it was great fun! What a cute little town! They had the cutest booths set up and we enjoyed scones and homemade brautwurst hot dogs (Ben had them, I did NOT :) There is a special spirit in that town. It's amazing to be walking around with General Authorities and their families.

On tap for this week: a couple soccer games, dental appointment, Mutual for Ben and G-man's back to preschool tomorrow, YEAH! He's been bored without Princess to boss him around. :)

Hope everyone else had a great (and less wet than me) Labor day weekend!