Introducing.......Wolverine!

Yes folks. If we went through the airport security, we'd beep. If his hand went through an x-ray machine, they would yell, IT'S WOLVERINE. And then he would fly from the airport rafters and claw his way through airport security and save the day!!!!! No, wait. That's Ben day dreaming while on percoset ;) ♥ ya honey. Back to reality. Ben's hand looks like wolverine. They inserted metal pins through (did I mention THROUGH? Yes folks...that's right THROUGH)his bones in the hand.

Want a lookie? Owie.

My sweet mama took the kids overnight so we could rise bright and early for surgery on Tuesday. When the surgery was over, Ben was in a lot of pain. They finally got that under control and after 2 hrs in surgery with a 2 hour recovery we got home. He started feeling better about day 2 or 3 post surgery and then, boy howdy we was in a lot of pain!Day 4 and 5 were brutal. They warned us, but there were a few nights that I felt for the poor guy. Glad to be on this side of the surgery. He's a trooper.

I know you're wondering about the kids fared this week. Let's sum it up with a direct quote while driving carpool today. "Mom, everyone I know in the whole wide world had a funner spring break than us!" :( We tried. Actually, it was nice to not be going to and fro. We had lots of fun playing with neighbor friends, snuck in a trip to trafalga and the library. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

We also hosted an early Easter party with my family and that was really fun!! I mowed our huge back yard on Saturday in preparation of the festivities...and let me tell you. Wow. It was hard! If you haven't seen my backyard it has a huge hill that surrounds it and the mowing on the hill made me feel like a whimp! Another moment where I am grateful for my husband who does these chores with no complaint. I WILL be in better shape by the end of the season with that mowing. That's the good news. Ben kept apologizing for not being able to help. Honey, back off. My butt needs a good workout :)

James my littlest (and a newlywed!) brother was the bunny this year! Silly Bunny!! So fun

This is our kidlets, plus our nephews Z and B. They had such a fun time. We let the three youngest get a head start. After that the olders made out very well with their loot.

Everyone there, minus the picture takers. McCall (other newlywed half) and me

My sweet Ikey has been wearing this costume all week. It's Princesses costume from when she was 2. I love my Ikey. He is a big rolling, Tasmanian ball of sunshine!

And.... the close up with the freckles. Cute as a bunny :)

We're back to school and back on schedule. I'm thankful to all the people that helped us by giving us food, watched kids, and the overall good thoughts. It means a lot.

Broken

April at our house started with a bang...er a CRACK. Really April 1st started at 6 am for my sweet husband. He goes to play basketball at our stake center 3 times a week. This Friday morning, he came into the house at about 7:30 am. I was pouring the malt o meal and this is the conversation that ensues.

Ben: "Honey, I think it's broken"

Me: "What's broken. (blank stare) Broken?? (I look down.) You're hand??? Why do you think that???" (imagine my voice raising in pitch with each of these statements)

Ben: He doesn't say anything, he just lets go of his hand it is gruesomely hanging at a very odd angle. An angle that the palm of the hand should never be hanging like

Me: I about puke and start flipping my hands, EW EW EW!!! Then I start running around and rummaging though the fridge...we need ice? Broccoli? Sit down! Holy crap! You're hand is going to fall off. KIDS!!!!!! Get ready for school, FAST!

All these thoughts happen in a very short amount of time.

Ben: So calmly suggests that he just drive himself to the ER. I tell him, no way. At this point, he is getting himself a drink and then starts looking like he's going to faint. All the blood drained from his face.

Rachel: I tell him that if he faints, I can not catch him...SIT DOWN!

I proceeded to call my darling neighbor that is 39 weeks pregnant (why I thought to call her? Because she's awesome, but I'm not an awesome friend for bugging her at 7:30 in the morning while 39 weeks pregnant. I woke her up. She came and got the older kids off to school and took care of the youngers.

We drove to the Instacare (I guess I wasn't too frazzled and remembered that the Instacare is much cheaper than the ER).

We got X-rays and sure enough 3 bones in the hand are broken and off their rockers.
They splinted that puppy up (good, I don't want to look at it!) Did I mention that the palm of the hand should NEVER look like that?? We were on our way.

Next step was waiting for the swelling to go down. Today we went to a hand specialist and sure enough, he needs surgery. The bones were broken diagonally and they are all in the wrong place.

D-day is next Tuesday April 12th.

I have to give credit where credit it due. I do not have a whimpy husband, nor is he looking for sympathy. There are no bells being rung for service...no laying in bed. That same evening, he took me to dinner with all my good buddies and their husbands.

Amber and Mike, Rachel and Ben (we were playing musical chairs, that's why he's not sitting by me at the moment :), Sonia and Ben, LJ and Becky (she was taking the picture and graciously shared; catch ya next time), Kim and Koby. These are the nicest friends!


The next day after the accident was my birthday. He refused to take loratab that morning so he could drive around town, buy me flowers and presents. Since then, he has made the kids sandwiches one handed, swept the floor, worked full time (although slower :), and this morning gave Mase and Ikey a bath one handed! Seriously, he's super man.

The biggest bummer with this whole thing is we had to cancel going to San Diego for Spring Break. And I don't think I can be as fun as San Diego. Hopefully we all survive!! :)

P.S. I had a really nice birthday! The older I get, the more I appreciate all the wonderful people who surround and love me.


For your viewing pleasure. The X-rays don't give the grossness factor justice. Look at the bottom of the hand, by the wrist. 3 bones (pinky, ring and middle) in the palm of the hand are completely broken and are slipped forward.

What we've been up to

You know? I'm just not good at updating this blog. Not sure why, because I love reading everyone else's blogs *shrugs* Oh well!

February was a great month!

Ben is working hard at his job. He really loves his company and is finding a lot of satisfaction, although he says he doesn't have enough time in the day to finish everything he needs to every day. Still working with the Young men in our ward.

Me? Well, you know. The usual. Life is just busy. Sometimes I'm not as patient as I should be. There's hardly ever a day that I feel like I've done anything great, but I do do a lot of things well.

Princess loves her 4th grade class. She's getting to be so grown up! We are breeching into some tweeny behavior. I'm remembering how I acted at this age and really? All I wanted was to be understood and appreciated. So Ben and I have been focusing and accepting that she is changing.

G-man is taking the 1st grade by storm. He is infectious and has lots and lots of friends. He can't seem to keep his room clean, but overall he's a good boy! He can't wait until we can set up the trampoline for the year. The boy needs to get his energy out!

Both Princess and G-man just finished Jr. Jazz basketball. They enjoyed the experience. Ben helped with both of the teams and by the end of the season, they told him that they wanted to do it again.

Ikey is currently sick with RSV right now. Generally he's my sassy little guy that has an opinion about everything. But he's been wanting more and more loves and snuggles and that makes a Momma happy :)Also, I'm his teacher in the Sunbeam class. He loves having me in there with him.

Mase is 18 months old! He's been going to nursery for 2 weeks now and has only shed a few tears along the way. Him and Ikey are becoming great pals. Mase is finally old enough to engage with Ikey. This is good news for this mama who needs a few breaks here and there.

Overall life is good. It's true that if you don't write down what you're doing, when you're doing it...you forget. That should be the reason that I update regularly.

OUCH!

I joined a gym. I hurt. Really bad. The big muscle-y man hurt me today. He made me keep going when it was BURNING! Tomorrow I fully expect to rock the 'grandma walking with the cane' look.

Pass the Advil.

January BLUES?

No Way!! I seriously love January! The holidays are over. The tree (clutter) is put away. The kids are back on schedule and everyone is a little happier. I love routine! It IS sooooo cold outside. I don' mind it much, although I don't feel as connected to my neighbors.

The kids started Jr. Jazz bball yesterday. They both had their games at the same time, (although at the same place, so not too bad) so between the going back and forth I didn't take any pictures. But let me tell you, I had a revelation while there. It's the first game so there's always a lot of "What the heck are we doing?" going around. All the Mom's in the audience do a little "How cute!" when their uncoordinated child "bounces" the ball down the court or attempts to make a basket in the wrong hoop. The fathers? Well, let's just say they aren't saying "How cute!" They really are cringing. Why? Pride. It's like this. If I let my children go to church and he has breakfast cereal all over his face and their hair is sticking up all over the place, I feel I have neglected my motherly duty. If you're a father and your child is that child that is being "so cute" on the court, a feeling of fatherly duty takes over. Ben has a little work and agreed to be an assistant coach after the game. Fatherly duty :)

After the game we bundled the kids up and headed to Grandma Suzy and Opa's house. They generously watched the kidlets for a couple hours so Ben and I could go on a date. We went to Tepanyaki and it was SO good. Speaking of a good time, Friday night we invited a couple from our ward over for dessert and games and they are such a fun couple! I love getting to know people one on one. We have a lot in common and the kids played well together! Win-win.

Also my goal of baking our own wheat bread 100% is going great! I found an awesome recipe for sandwich bread on my good friend, Heidi's blog. It is so good! The adjustment is going well :)

Oh and the best? We have 9 am church and I LOVE it! I had a 3 hour nap this afternoon! Ben didn't wake me up. I don't remember the last time that that happened. Happy Sunday everyone!

P.S. To combat the January blues, all you have to do is be around this super duper cute couple! My littlest baby brother is getting married! The last of the bunch. They are so fun! This is a picture from New Year's...only a few more months until W-day

New public blog!

This new blog address is blissfilledinsanity.blogspot.com! Thanks for bearing with me!

2010 Shake down and 2011 goals

2010! Come and gone and it was a bit of a roller coaster. We had a couple job changes which is no fun. It was painful during that time especially for Ben. Totally worth it in the end because he found his perfect niche. He's a small company kind of guy. The big corporate red tape drives him crazy. When a company is small-ish, they are more fast moving, moldable, compact and everything you do is more impactful. He found just that and is doing an amazing job. We are so grateful to Heavenly Father for his guidance and that the trial helped us to become more humble and reliant upon the Lord.

The kids are getting older! It's amazing the growth that they've all gone through this year (in size and spirit :)

We went to Disney World and that was tons of fun. My kids had never been to DW and they just loved it. It was great to spend that time with some of my family.

Generally I feel that this past year has been amazing! I'm excited to see what the coming months will bring for us.

Here are the 2010 goals that I set in place for myself

** Maintain a house of order
Not sure how well I did this. There were ups and downs :) That usually coincide when the kids are out of school. But generally did OK at this, and will roll this over to the new year.

** Connect with everyone in my house daily
My kids are getting older which means that they need more one on one with me. I love that we can have long conversations with each other and also I hope they feel they can talk to me about anything.

** Daily scripture reading
Didn't do perfect, but better! As a family we finally figured out a schedule that worked for us to read. I can't take credit for doing this goal well because Ben is an amazing spiritual leader in our home. But I can bask in his accomplishment because it's helped our family immensely.

** Two dates a month with my sweetie
Yes! Most of the time we got out generally every other week. Those golden moments where we are not having to worry about kids and completely focus on each other has strengthened our relationship. When parents are strong it helps to handle the chaos that our kids bring.

** Exercise for a healthier me
Still a work in progress for me. I had a groove going and then Ben's work schedule kind of changed this a bit. We need to reevaluate this :)

** Find a new passion
Not sure how to quantify this. It's an overall being more passionate about everything.




So without further ado, here are my new 2011 goals!

** Couple 1 on 1: We started this yesterday and will do this every Sunday afternoon. We talk about things we should stop doing, things we should start doing and things to continue. Also talk about our accomplishments and failures. Also calendar items for the week and give each other assignments to accomplish the goals. I think this will really help Ben and I to be on the same page.

** Daily scripture and prayer: So important and will be working on doing this personally this year.

** Serve more: Serve everyone more. Be more in tune with the spirit so I can be in the right place at the right time. I have such wonderful family and friends. I really am blessed!

** Maintain a house of order: Is this ever not a goal? Specifically I need to keep up on the laundry if I'm being specific. The household chore that is never done, you know what I mean?

** Keep dating Ben and go to the temple once a month: Yesterday we talked about this extensively. It will be scheduled with a permanent golden stamp because if it's not, the month slips away. It's just too easy let this one slide. I'm excited to go more.

** Monthly dates with Princess and G-man: I have a friend that made me think. She said that her kids were getting older and before long they won't think it's cool to hang out with Mom and Dad. I agree! And so I need a closer bond with them before they get too old :(

** Exercise for a healthier me: Will be figuring this out soon. It's so cold outside!! How do you do the exercise outside when it's icy and COLD?