Finally made it to the skate park!

Howie's been begging to go for a while. We wanted to go on Wednesday - went there just about an hour after it closed down - and planned to go back in the evening when it opened back up...but instead (see post below) Brynn decided to chop herself up.

So it was postponed until yesterday. (Yep, I'm a day behind - it's my life's story) Howie loves to play on his skateboard and he's got all the gear, but he's never had an opportunity to play at a skate park! So we went! And - yep, still had the camera! Kali took these pictures.

And yes, he spent a lot of time on his hiney and laying down - but still couldn't get enough - after almost 2 hours - it shut down for the afternoon (apparently it gets too hot?) and we planned to go back that night. But no. We didn't.

So that's the plan tonight - this time Kali's going to bring her roller blades. She's been practicing on the driveway all day yesterday and today!

You slice em, we dice em

(warning - graphic pictures, if you get queasy, stop before you get to the pictures - story above the pictures in case you want to read, but not look!)

We went to the skate board park this morning for Howie to find that it was closed, they have some funky open hours...7am-10am and then again 6pm to 10pm, don't understand the reasoning behind it, but we got there at 11...and I wasn't going to wait around until 6 for it to re-open...but I brought the camera. So I let the kids play at the little water park there for an hour or so.

We went home, we ate lunch.

I fed Coby real quick, I took a shower (I had to do a few loads of laundry to get my laundry caught up so I could do some laundry for a friend who has been in the hospital - 5 kids - and no mother to launder for them - it gets messy) So my friend dropped off a few loads for me to wash - I started a roast in the crock pot - fed Coby and jumped in the shower.

Got out of the shower, got dressed, and heard dishes breaking - and then Brynn screaming.

Normally I would not run in to see what the problem was, mostly I like for the kids anxiety to build up for breaking something they know they'd get in trouble for. But this was a more urgent scream. So I ran in to see what was the matter.

Brynn was crying, she fell while she was helping Kali unload the dishwasher - she was handing the dishes over to Kali who was standing by the cupboards putting them away. But they were having fun doing this. Brynn would unload a plate and "drive" it (like it was a steering wheel) over to Kali. Well, she bumped into the open dishwasher and tripped dropping the plate and then fell on top of the plate that she dropped.

I saw that she was bleeding when I picked her up and pried her arm away from her body and tried to take a quick peek at the cut that I could see - the part below the elbow.

It looked pretty bad, but nothing I couldn't butterfly closed...so I called for Rossi to bring me some butterfly closures from his first aid kit. Then I saw the rest of her cut and decided that it was beyond superglue and butterfly closures!

I took her to urgent care - down the street.

Nope, they took one look and freaked out - told me to go to the hospital - it looked like she nicked her artery. SO off we jetted to the Phoenix Childrens Hospital.

We went straight back & they looked at it (pictures 1 & 2 below;long shot & close up), put some local numbing stuff on it (refer to picture 3 below) took an x-ray (to make sure she didn't have any glass in it) and brought her to the sutcher room. So there we sat, waiting for the local numbing stuff to take effect, Coby's at home, getting hungry - it's been a few hours - and crying - along with all the other kids in the ER crying - and my milk started to come in (yes, it did, and I don't wear nursing pads) so I ran around frantic before I realized I was in a hospital and I could take care of the slow leak (insert gauze pads here HAAAAA!)

So here we sit in the sutcher room....this is where they decided, and in fact, attempted to anesthetize her (so she'd sleep peacefully while they stitched her up) - to no avail (anyone who knows my sweet baby and why I call her the "Grave Digger" would know why any form of opiates or even anesthesia is not effective on her, her dad gave her a blessing when she was just born that said something about how she will always be alert and awake - and that includes no naps and no drugs, I'm guessing?) (Oh, and the whole time, though, they're sure she nicked an artery because they couldn't get the bleeding to stop - apparently blood loss doesn't knock her out, either - she filled up a diaper with the blood coming from her arm - we used it to apply direct pressure & soak up the blood - and their gauze & other wrappings...)

So the next picture is her laughing while they were irrigating the wound...it apparently tickled her.

The next one is while they were stitching her up (yes, at this point, she's pretty doped up with meds that were supposed to knock her out...she's WIDE awake and talking like a drunk monkey). If you look toward the bottom of the picture, you'll see an extra "hole" and then directly to the right of that picture, you'll see an extra piece of skin - that piece of skin plugs up that hole...yah - yank it over to the right place, would ya, doc?

Lets see, the next one is of her when her daddy finally got to the ER, she was glad to see him - even though they gave her a portable DVD player and put her very favorite movie in - he held her hand and she was glad to see him.

And - oh I've lost track of what order I have them now, there's a close-up of the stitches - you don't have to count them, there's 16 there - and a picture with her daddy holding her hand, and then her favorite one - a picture of her licking (like a dog would) her hard earned popsicle.

Also I wanted to let you know that I didn't run back in the house to grab the camera while my daughter lay screaming and bleeding to death in the back seat of the car, I had it in the car from before so I could take pictures of Howie at the skate-board park - and left it there in the car, so I could take pictures of him at the skateboard park when we go back at 6 - which we didn't end up doing, since I was in the hospital with my babycakes.

(by the way - these first three pictures were taken by Rossi - her brother - who held her on the way to the hospital - I wouldn't let my baby lay there screaming while I snap pictures!)


Our first good look at her gash.


obviously the close up of the gash.


screaming while they put the numbing agent on it (look at that broken hearted face! Ross took a good picture, there!)


Irrigating the wound, it tickled.


Here's the part if you look toward the bottom of that picture (above) you will see a little extra hole to the left, and then to the right of the gash, you can see the piece of skin that belongs in that hole. Cool, huh?


All done "la la, daddy, why do you have six eyes?"


16 stitches


All done, just waiting for the flick to end.


The hard earned and well deserved gratuitous popsicle.

Busy weekend

When it rains it pours! And it rained! It fell hard for a solid - what? 4-5 minutes? Which happened to be the 4-5 minutes we arrived at Rossi's 8th grade promotion (yes, our fine school system has found new ways to celebrate mediocrity) I guess I can't complain --- with statistics the way they are in Arizona, this will be the only "graduation" type event 50% of these children will ever see. Which is probably why the majority of 8th graders really go overboard with their formal dresses & such.

So here are some pictures of the blessed occasion...also - it should be noted that I had to go from the car to the gymnasium under a torrential downpour of rain - which is why my hair looks like THAT!




Also Ross & I went to Maggiano's for dinner tonight on the invitation of our friends - who were celebrating their 9th wedding anniversary. We really had a lot of fun! The food was great - a little spendy for the ravioli's not being laced with gold or anything - and the service was - well, probably provided by those who only saw one "graduation" - or maybe two if you counted the Kindergarten gradutation.

As I was saying - we went with our friends, Mike - and his wife, Larri...and another couple, Nate & Mandy! Mandy made the reservations on line and mentioned that it was Mike & Larri's anniversary. The names were spelled wrong, so apparently as we were being seated - with a special print-out menu which included on the bottom "Happy Anniversary Mike & Larry" (spelled wrong!) The faculty at Maggiano's were trying to figure out of the three men who were there, which two were Mike & Larry, we were all sitting couples on a round table, but Ross & Nate were sitting next to each other so they just assumed it was THEM celebrating an anniversary of sorts. We had a nice little laugh about it - and thought we explained to the high school drop out of a server who the happy couple was.

Nate, Mandy, Larri & Mike left quickly at the end of the meal to catch the latest Indiana Jones flick (which we saw just prior to the 8th grade promotion and torential downpour) so we stayed behind to make sure all the ice cream and cheese cake was consumed. I couldn't finish the cheesecake, so our HS dropout boxed it up and brought it back to Ross and told him that he could share it with Mike later tonight...or tomorrow...uh? She still thought (even though the other two couples had gone - and Ross and I were left with the baby) that Nate & Ross were actually "Larry and Mike" celebrating some kind of anniversary.

Yes, we got a kick out of that...I must have been the surrogate mother and gifted them this cute little child for their anniversary? Who ever knows what goes through the heads of little girls who only make it to their 8th grade promotional ceremony?
(insert pictures here - LARRI - e-mail them to me! can't wait to see them!)

Also earlier today the kids went to do baptisms at the temple! This was Kiersten's first time! She really enjoyed it! I'm thrilled! It seems like she's finally starting to make friends in this ward. It's been difficult for her!

Okay - that's the weekend! I was supposed to go hot tubbing with another girlfriend tonight - but I forgot about it - and well, it was a toss up - pricey food and having my husband mistaken for a gay anniversary couple - or - hanging out in a hot tub wearing my only fitting swim suit which happens to be maternity? Yah - hmmm, Guess I'll go eat so I can fit into that maternity swim suit again?

Wii Got One!

Because apparently I'm obsessing too much over vampires & the like, Wii, well, really, Mii decided to get a Wii! I went to play at a friend's house last Friday - and Oh.My.Gosh!! My arms were jell-o! Wii played Olympics - did some swimming, running, you know - active things - and guess what? It was SO much fun! When Wii decided to NOT get one of these units - it was because Wii didn't want another mindless video game!

Ross got back from his 24 hour drive with his brother from Omaha, moving here, and I dragged him to Costco - where they had approximately 8 units of the original 52 that they put out an hour an a half before!

I bought it! I used my grocery skimming money that I was saving up for Ross' birthday present...and got it for Mii!!

I also bought Guitar Hero! Yep, I have a new addiction!

First, I knocked out Jason, that was kind of fun, cause he thinks he's tougher than Mii. Punched the socks right off of him! We both had jell-o arms! Once I proved that, I had to move on to perfect the Guitar Hero - which I played for a few hours yesterday and mastered the Easy! YAH!

Having fun! I can't believe Wii didn't get this sooner!

Random (Twilight) thoughts...

You know how you do your best thinking in the shower. Well, there I was pumicing my heels and my mind went crazy with things...

* Twilight - I really don't like being obsessed with it, but I think I like it so much because in HS, my best friend was a werewolf

I found out last night that our RSP is a closet Twilight fan, too. She was embarrassed to admit it and invited me over to watch chick flicks tonight. Dude, I'm not a chick-flicker.

No, I'm all for action flicks that don't involve a bunch of girls crying and gossipping (this is why I had only boy friends in HS, refer to my werewolf comment)

Tonight, I'm going to play Wii Olympics with a non-Twilighter...I'll go over later to the RSP's house for Twilight speculating - after the chick flicks are OVAH...she & I are the only ones in the ward who will/has read the book series. At least no one else is admitting to this trashy indulgence of the soon to be quint-ogy (a 5-pack trilogy) -

* Am I the only one who thinks it would be cool to stick my husband in one of those restaurant freezers and have him come out & brush against my jaw line with his icy marble hand? QUICK lemme cuddle you!

* He'll never openly admit it, but I made him take the book w/ him to Omaha so he can read it on the ride back...I need someone to speculate with - and I need him to take notes on how Edward looks at Bella with a crooked smile through his long eyelashes. It also wouldn't be bad if he could read my mind.

Other random thoughts:

* I feel like Coby's trying to tell me something:

I sometimes feel like I need a tiny little nipple number 5.

* Why doesn't the teacher just call and cancel class instead of getting a substitute, it's just as effective...give us the option if we want our kids to bounce off the walls at school or do the dishes & mop the floor at home...why do I always have to mop? I think "substitute teacher day" should be "Kali mops the kitchen and entry" day.

* Why do they even have a last week of school? It's such an ineffective week - they should make the last week of school, the week before the last week - so that the kids can get stuff done, and then on FRIDAY, they should tell everyone "surprise, no school next week" and that way they don't have a week of slacking.

It was a MasterCard kind of a day...

Well, it started out fairly simple. Ross was supposed to go to Omaha yesterday to help his brother w/ the moving truck - they're coming HERE to take temporary residence in our old home.

I think part of me is a little miffed that he's taken off a lot of time from work to do things for/with everyone else, and hasn't spent a lot of time with me...so he took the last few days off work - to run errands before he leaves for Omaha tomorrow.

I don't know why I'm so intimidated to go places with TWO children...I mean - it's ONLY two, right? But they're SOOO young, I haven't had two young children for over 8 years - so I sort of need to find my way back into that groove!

Anywhoooo - we ran a few errands today...and yesterday.

Yesterday poor Coby got her immunizations...or "shocks" as Brynn calls them. She was sad most of the day...we stopped by Frys electronics to get some fun little gadgets - I needed to get a new ipod case - my arm band has been falling apart - it was actually VERY poorly made, they've since updated their style & is much better...but the I decided I wanted to get one that goes around the neck instead of arm...the cord won't bounce all over the place when I run - so we went to about a hundred stores, none of which have a neck thingy - so I got a carry case that has a belt clip on it - and I'll just clip that to my shirt at the neck - no ear phone cords bouncing all over the place!

Today, however, we trekked toward Mesa. We went to the cannery to see what kind of food storage stuff we could get - mostly I just wanted the wheat - I can't seem to find that anywhere - everything else is more expensive at the cannery than what I could get at costco - so I just got the wheat - oh - and hot cocoa mix and some powdered milk...anyway - That was an exciting little stop. They shut the cannery down between 11:30-12:30 for their lunch break - so we left & hung out in Mesa for an hour until it opened back up - so I could see if I could get some salsa, too...(Spent $167 on the dry side alone! Dang that powdered milk is expensive for as terrible as it tastes, but I'm sure the 2 gallons we go through a day - we wouldn't be able to live w/out milk - even if it DID taste yucky.)

That was when it all crashed down on me.

Trying to kill time. 35 miles from home. Thought we'd stop by the distribution center, Ross needed some G's. Picked him up some - he likes them tight - so he gets them a good 10 inches smaller than his pant size...I know - TMI...

We drove on...Ross found a scuba shop he wanted to see if they had any sales...he's turned into sort of a scuba freak. Anyway - I thought I'd take the opportunity to feed Coby while he was in the store.

So I did. Pulled her out of the car seat and started to feed her. She was being so cute. Little smile & squeaky giggles. Then a grunt. And an explosion to follow. YES, I was kind of excited, of course, I'm well prepared, any seasoned mother would have extra diapers, wipies and a change of clothes for the baby in the well-stocked diaper bag...and I am seasoned...in so many ways, really.

It had been almost 3 days since she - uh - had a pressure release - I was starting to get a little concerned. So I left her on my lap for a few extra seconds to make sure she was finished...you know the mess babies are capable of making if they're trying to shoot rapid-fire missiles from their hiney WHILE being changed. So I waited.

Watching the side of her diaper -- watching it fill, but pleased as punch that it hadn't breached the elastic barrier.

Ross came out of the store...he sat in the car for a second while we watched her giggle & coo. And listened to the harmonic sounds of grunts and machine gun fires coming from her pants.

Sweet husband of mine offered to change her. What a dear, right? Yep. So I handed her over to him.

That's when I saw it. A puddle. Trying hard to allow the fibers of the mustard yellow baby poo to be absorbed into my pants. No, the fibers hadn't breached the elastic, instead they went right up the back of her diaper and spewed forth onto my lap.

Indeed - we still had to go to the wet pack side of the cannery - and to the Arizona Mills mall to the scratch & dent store to get a chest freezer. (We gave our last freezer away - it was too big, and my home is too small - I know - listen to me complain about a small home when it's almost twice as big as what I came from - it's just laid out much differently)

Anyway - it would waste gas to go all the way home, change clothes and them come back to Mesa to get what I need - plus, we'd be fighting with rush hour if we did that.

So we didn't.

We went next door to Savers.

Mesa is - well, at least the part of town the cannery is - is an OLD town. It's kind of trashy - I've never been attracted to that part - the whole 10 square miles surrounding the temple. Trashy. Old...dirty - just - not clean...ya know?

So - I went to savers. I just wanted a quick pair of pants. Wow what a selection. not that I'd take money to do a "I was surprised what I found in Savers" commercial, but yah - I got me a few pants to try on.

Went to the little changing station in the front of the store. The door didn't have a lock on it - but it closed, and anyone could see if there were legs in the booth or not...so I flung a pair of jeans over the top of the door so people would see that was an occupied booth.

But I didn't take my shoes off - that floor was SICK.

So I stood struggling to change my pants and put another pair on...called Ross (who was sitting in the car w/ the girls) to have him bring me his G's - cause- well, the ones I got - were also saturated with mustard stains...right through my pants. Yep.

So he brought me some G's threw them over the door and went back out to the car. (Good thing we had him a fresh pair or 5 from the distribution center - right there in the car!)

I put the G's on - being oh, so careful to not get my shoes on the clothing and careful not to touch the walls - (who the heck knew what had been streaked down the sides?! EWE!) Got those up - and - don't know what the general consensus is on wearing man G bottoms, but they're WEIRD. They sort of - are - hip huggers. And baggy in the front - and have those seams in the back over each cheek. not comfortable. But kind of looked almost cute! LOL!

And then I grabbed the first pair of pants to try on - over my shoes again - and - well, I tripped - and fell against the door - which flung open - because it had no lock on it - and opened OUT instead of IN like most changing rooms. So there I lie - in my Man G bottoms and on the filty - old - dirty - aged floor...EWE - with at least a dozen eyes staring at me.

Yep, jumped up like Sister Mary Catherine from SNL - and raised one hand - "Thank you, I'm ALL right!" I exclaimed - as took a bow & tried to close the door to the booth I was in...which didn't close immediately because I had a pair of pants hanging over the top & they kept getting stuck.

So - yah - got the other pair of pants on finally - they didn't fit exactly - but they matched my shirt - and hey they were only $5.99...and much better than the plaid pink & green with a grass stain on the knee - pair that I had also found.

Wore them out to the check stand - stuffing my other poop pants in the diaper bag (which I brought along to hold in front of me while perusing the shopping selection)

The lady at the check stand wanted to know why I was shoving a pair of pants in the diaper bag - and wanted to see them to make sure I wasn't stealing them. So I snapped the tag off the pants I was wearing and told her I switched pants.

She still wanted to see the other ones...which I was hesitant to do, because I also had my G bottoms wrapped in there - so I had to explain to her where I was and what happened.

"Well, where's your baby?"

"In the car"

"That's illegal"

"She's in a car seat, she's fine"

"I'll call the cops"

"why?"

"You can't leave a baby unattended in the car especially not in the Arizona heat."

"But she pooped on me."

{{Lady Gasps}}

I giggled - and told her my husband was with her.

Paid my $6.47 and walked out of the store with my shiny new pair of faux leather pants.

Okay - they weren't faux leather. I made that part up. That would have been funny, though. I imagine they'd be more expensive - like maybe $6.99 - and - well, if I'm going to shop at a second hand store, I'm not going to pay more than $6.47 for a pair of pants.

The wet pack in the cannery was all out of food. The scratch and dent store at the Mills was all out of chest freezers.

I could have just gone home & changed my clothes there. But no. Instead we took Brynn on the carousel ride at the Mills mall -


and then ate a hagen daas. Which - is really over rated - once you've gotten used to the flavor of Blue Bell Ice Cream. I could have bought a whole half gallon of Blue Bell for what I paid for that stupid scoop of mediocre satisfaction.

But I was in town to spend hundreds of dollars on a freezer, why not just indulge a little since I was saving money by not buying the freezer, right?

Warning: Today's post Laced with race...

continue reading at your own risk - but know it's all good clean fun - I was actually friends with a Mexican once, so yah - I like them okay...(oh, PULEASE!! If you know me, you know I'm an equal opportunity offender!)

We finally sprung and got new carpet. We put the house in the paper again - had quite a few responses, but I think enough of the viewers were so thoroughly disgusted by what was left of the carpet in the old house after the "renters" resided there, we opted to replace it. Yah -



SO NOW we liked the type of carpet we had previously, however, we decided to go a little darker. You know - the kind that you could camouflage sooty feet with?

YEESSS indeed, this color is actually called "ground in refried beans" it promises to allow consumers the ability to drop all kinds of refried beans on it as it carefully camouflages the predatorial burrito into it's ever-flowing meadow of brown. You'll notice that it also has flecks of green in it - this is for the peppers that may be in the salsa...which - also if you look close enough - yep, a few red specks, too...yep, it's covered!

Not that I want to challenge the new residents of this humble abode to take up the carpets enticing offer to drop lard-laced and crushed pinto beans onto it, BUT even if you spill a sticky sugar drink on it, the subsequent dirt that gathers on it will blend in nicely!

Jealous?

I do love Mothers Day! Despite the fact, I have to clean up the messes that the kids left after making me 4 separate "breakfast in bed" meals...despite the fact that I have approximatley 76 pieces of paper that says "I love you, mom" that I would feel guilty throwing out (at least in front of them) and have no real "reserved" spot in my "keep this or you'll regret it later" box...and not forgetting my homemade noodle necklace, the bracelet that they made for me that erroniously says "perfect mother" (which incidentally broke open during sacrament meeting, they managed to find a majority of the beads, but were only able to spell out "mother f" - ha - not really but that would have been funny, right?) and another beaded bracelet that was slightly too tight and left little indentations on my wrist - I wore it anyway!

For breakfast in bed, I was treated to a bowl of cheesy grits (I grew up in the south, these actually taste pretty good to me!) a pancake medly with chocolate chip morsels in it that spelled out "I U" two eggs over medium on their own pieces of toast and a glass of orange juice and a glass of chocolate milk. Two extra pieces of toast with strawberry freezer jam on it. It was a HUGE breakfast, and a HUGE mess to clean up in the itty bitty kitchen! But, it was great to have the kids sitting at the foot of my bed asking me to try "their" breakfast. Yep, I dipped some toast in the egg...I had bites of the grits and the "I" and the "U" of the pancakes! Sipped some of the OJ and guzzled down the chocolate milk.

And for dessert --- I got THIS:


INDEED! A full-on pedicure! Kiersten and I go out to get these from time to time, mostly during the summer - and since she's gotten them, she's been bitten by the pedicure bug! She likes to go around the house offering pedicures. So yah- I wasn't the ONLY one to get one - her poor daddy, whose also suffering from toe jam (remember? - yah - he's still cry-babying about that - actually He's in the process of losing one of his toes - the other one is nice and black under the nail - ewe, right?!)
And for SECOND desserts - I got a dose of the laughing queen!



We went to church for lunch, well you know- the spiritual feast. Brother Burns - a sealer in the Mesa Temple - taught RS - it truly was a TREAT! - and then for dinner, the brood made me the tastiest tri-tip steak in the world and potatoes and fresh hot rolls and a broccoli salad....what? no dessert?

You know how the youngest child in a family is always the spoiled one. The parents always give them whatever they want...well, sometimes I feel like Heavenly Fathers youngest spirit child. I am SPOILED - I have the best husband and the kids are pretty good, too! I really am quite lucky - and don't deserve most of what I have in my family!

I only wish I would have remembered that I wanted to get a picture of everyone after church - but we were all starving - and had to run in to figure out dinner before we all collapsed on each other! (Church at 12:30 after sleeping in and having a huge breakfast, will leave ANYONE hungry when you get home at 4:00!)

Hope everyone else had a great mother's day - if it wasn't so great - at least I hope you got to spend a few moments appreciating the little gifts from above that turned us into mothers!

haa! Apparently I spoke too soon...

Or someone from the bishopric has my blog address? (see post below) Yah - they caught him before church & told him they just wanted him to be the 2nd counsellor in the YM presidency - and that they were going to call someone else to be the scout master! HAAAAAAA! EEK!

Anyway - he'll still oversee the scouting effort - and if the new scout master is a slacker, then he'll end up doing the job anyway - but it's nice that he's not responsible for the WHOLE thing! I do feel kind of bad about complaining about it - but not bad enough to wish they'd give him the calling back! haa!

New ward; new calling

I shouldn't say NEW calling - but our ward boundaries changed - and we were all released from our callings - who were put in the new ward - YAH!

Of course, I was relieved. My calling was an easy one, Faith in God leader. Although I only was supposed to do it every other week - I really REALLY felt like the weeks flew by - and it felt like every week. I enjoyed the calling, but I am ready for a new one! Something fresh, ya know?

BUT - for Ross - he was the Scout Master - the 2nd counsellor in the YMs. This has been his calling the last 3 wards he was in - he took a brief "break" for about a year and a half when he was EQP, but then went right back to Scout Master. Quite frankly I have a difficult time supporting him in this calling - he goes on a camp-out once a month w/ the boys - takes the Friday off work - which he doesn't take time off work for ME, but he will for the BOY SCOUTS (yah - there's a bitter tone in that voice). Then - of course, he has to have his Wednesday meetings & more time from the family - I don't ever get to see him anyway - and he's such a huge help at home, so it's hard to let him go - but I let him - I don't whine - I bite down & deal with it!

He doesn't like it -- well, for the same reasons - he hates camping -- he hates having to deal with obnoxious boys - who - well, in other wards - have been - RUDE little punks - which - obviously Ross doesn't sit back & take it - he'll dish it right back - but still - most kids that age - are just PUNKS - and they only go to scouts/YM if there's no sporting events, practice, etc - sort of something to do in the off-season. Which is also annoying - cause Ross isn't allowed to have an off season - plus - you need priorities - either do scouting - or do sports - don't serve two masters, right? I don't know - I guess balance.

Anyway - before we moved our boundary into the current ward, our old ward & this ward met together - because the scouts were so few in number - but the scouts in this ward are like do-nothings - the leaders were not motivated - and their sons were their scouts - so - yah - they let Ross plan for everything - and he wouldn't sit back & not do anything - and if he didn't do anything - nothing would get done. He was glad to get approval (in the last ward) to break off from this ward's scouting and go about it alone & let this ward sink or swim in the scouting program.

Gosh - this is getting longer-winded - sorry.

Long story short, he just got a calling to be the new Scout master in this ward.

Yep, we're going on 8 years of this crap...and when the dude asked if I would support him in the calling I - dutifully said YES - but I also made it known that he's been doing this for a long time - and I was not a fan of the over-night campouts nor was I a fan of the scouting program in general (that oughta keep me from being called as a wolf or bear leader or something, right? LOL!) Thankfully - he mentioned that they were trying to go in the direction of Duty to God and not emphasise so much the scouting program, but they do both go hand in hand.

Anyway - Ross smiled & told him he'd do it - ugh! Same calling - now 4 wards strong! Sometimes - if only for a second - I wish he wasn't such a "git'r'done" kind of guy. I wish that he'd slack on his camp out trips --- but then again - if he slacked there, he wouldn't really be my husband. I don't deserve him.

I wish he played the piano. He could be the primary pianist and I could have him for over-night campouts - or wednesday night dinner cleanup.

He's a good man, that husband of mine. I don't deserve him!

FINALLY!

A smile! I hate to compare - but I can't help it! Brynn was smiling responsively and GIGGLING at 5 weeks! It's true. So here's Coby at 7 weeks, and I have to coax a smile out of her by touching her cheeks and snapping the picture just at the right moment! But isn't she adorable?!

In other news, I've been selected in a panel of survey people to test out some new toilet paper! Ah the perks of on-line surveys!

Decisions....decisions....

I got special insurance to cover maternity - since we only had major medical - that didn't cover maternity. My major medical has a rider on my kidneys - so anything kidney related it doesn't go toward the deductible nor does it pay for anything.

So I figured since I have this "extra" coverage, I'd go to the kidney doctor and have him take a look-see on how my kidneys are functioning. I know I passed a few stones when I was pregnant. So now I want to know - are they gone? Is that all?

Brought a snap-shot of the KUB (Kidney/Ureter/Bladder) to the doctor...the radiology report said I have more/new stones than I did last time. They're right on the border of being too big to pass. 5mm. There's a few...but there was also one hanging out in my bladder than was 11mm...what? How'd that git there?

Anyway - doctor said since it's not blocking the ureter and backing up the kidney - it's not urgent that I get this blasted. We can wait another 4-6 months and see if they've moved or gotten bigger & go from there.

So my problem is - I have this "kidney" insurance and this is the last month - (unless I want to keep paying my $400 a month - just for me coverage - to wait another 4-6 months to see what the stones are doing.

He scheduled surgery - because he's normally a month out - so I have surgery on May 19th - and I really REALLY don't want to do it. I have to do liquid diet the day before and can't nurse for 24 hours after (Coby will pitch a fit).

So should I cancel the surgery - and stop paying insurance? Just drink a lot and hope I can pass these stones w/ the help of vicodin - or go through with it, and be done with it?

I absolutely HATE being put under general anesthesia. HATE HATE HATE - and the stuff they give me to wake me up out of it - makes me BLOW chunks. Then I'm walking hunched over for the next 3 days - and can't run for the next week. It really puts a cramp in my style.

Conversely - if I don't get the surgery - I'd be in some serious pain (to me, it hurst slightly more than giving birth) for a few hours, and then should be back on track for running & nursing & everything.

SOOOOOOOO - I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm not a masochist, so I'm not looking forward to either choice.

Meanwhile, I have other issues that are causing me this constant headache - and I can't run anyway - cause that just makes the blood flow higher - and will hurt my head more. Is this old age?

Death grip

how cute, right? Coby's been kind of clingy lately - she just likes to be held - and I think she may have a bit of a tummy ache - last night - well, it may have something to do with me forgetting to eat - or getting to busy to eat - but she's been kind of colicky lately - my food? who knows! I had to get dinner started so Rossi held her - he came to me and was a little worried that he might have killed her - looks like she broke her neck and said she must be dead because she had the death grip on his shirt. I tried to peel her away from him, and it just didn't work!

My little pet...

Loves her new house.


Which is probably where these came from? (I debated over and over whether or not to post this - cause it's SOOOOO disgustingly disturbingly gross!) But yes, my sweet baby girl got LICE - thankfully no one else in the family has it - couldn't figure out where she got it, but I combed them out - washed them w/ the pesticide shampoo, combed them out again - and for now, her head looks clean! I will look again in a week to see if any new eggs hatched. LOVERLY, eh?