It's all over... I'm hooked!!!

So several family members have been telling me about how great the Twilight books are and how I have to read them. I kept putting them off. I didn't want to be one of "those people" who obsessed about them (because I secretly feared that I would too!). I didn't even want to go watch the movie with all of the girls of Chris's family during Thanksgiving. I stayed home instead.

Then I saw a preview of the movie later at my house. I was intrigued. I reserved a copy of the first book at the library. Just a few days after that I started reading it. I finished it in ONE DAY!!! I knew I was in for it then! I wanted to read the next three books right away but the library was all checked out of them! "What do I do?!?!" After a few emails and a few phone calls, I tracked down someone in town that had the books. I started reading the second one that night and two days later, I had finished the entire series. Four books in four days!!! My poor husband! I started the books as soon as we put the kids to sleep and stayed up until I finished it (usually around 3:30am!). He was ignored for those four nights. He was a good sport about it though. He knows me well. He knew that the faster I finished it, the sooner I could turn my attention back to him and our regular life. How pathetic! :)

But I really did love those books! I'm hooked! I even went online to look up when Twilight was going to be released on DVD and found a partial book that Stephenie Meyer started but most likely won't finish. It's the first Twilight book, but from Edward's perspective! It's called Midnight Sun. I read it too! :) You can find it here: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/pdf/midnightsun_partialdraft3.pdf . It adds a really interesting twist on the story - knowing what he was thinking. I loved it! I wish she would finish it! Along with re-write the other books but from his perspective too! I know that's just wishful thinking... obsessed, pathetic, adolescent wishful thinking! I guess I'm still just a love-sick teenage girl at heart! Maybe somethings never change.... :)

But here is me in my reading spot. Chris felt inclined to take a picture. He entitled it "a lazy Sunday afternoon".

Can you see what I see?

Nate rarely sleeps in the same place two nights in a row. He has a bunk bed, so each night, he chooses if he wants to sleep in the top bunk, the bottom bunk, or the floor. (Yes, he's our son. Chris and I occasionally do this too!)

The other night, Chris went into Nate's room to check on him before we went to bed. He came out laughing and told me to go in there. "See if you can find him" is what he told me. It took some looking...



There he is! He was under his bed sleeping! Funny boy!

Jenny: The Babysitter

As of a few weeks ago, I became a babysitter! I watch Decker Hanson: Sammie & Devan Hanson's son and Sheri & Zane Bock's grandson.

I never thought of myself as someone who enjoyed babysitting, but he has changed all that! He is the best little boy! He smiles and plays all day long. He has the funniest little personality. He and Jordy are buddies. Here's a picture of them playing together (I couldn't take the picture fast enough). They would each lay down on a blanket head to head and have "pillow talk". It was adorable!

We have a puppy!

If you've already gotten our Christmas card, then this is old news. But after talking with my mom last night and her not knowing, I figured I had better post this!

We got a puppy! Chris loves dogs and has been trying to convince me to get one for a few years now. I am totally content never having pets. Ever. But marriage is a compromise and I don't have a good enough excuse to say no indefinitely to him, so we got a dog! He's a yellow lab puppy named Major. He's really good. He's still a "puppy" but a very mellow one. He'll be a good addition to our family!

He likes to lay up against something. His first two days with us, he would sit with Chris like this.

Ad for Oxyclean

Here's my advertisement for Oxyclean! (In order to see the "before" picture to this, read the following post about Nate's trip to the ER.)

This morning I decided I'd try to wash Nate's shirt. I sprayed his shirt with the Oxyclean spray pre-wash. I let is soak only about 2-3 minutes - just enough time to throw the rest of the load in the washer. I washed it with Tide and a little of the powder Oxyclean. It came completely out!!! If you look REALLY hard you can see a tiny discoloration on the white, but you have to really look for it!

Oxyclean is the best cleaner ever! Now if only his scar will be as "clean"...

Nate's trip to the Emergency Room

Well, it's finally happened. Nate had his first trip to the emergency room last night! We were over at Chris's sister's house for dinner. The kids were downstairs playing in the theater room and the adults and the babies were upstairs getting dinner ready and visiting. I heard Nate scream from downstairs.

(Now we had spent the last four days surrounded by family for Thanksgiving. He had no naps during that time and went to bed very late each night. He was tired! So it wasn't the first time I had heard him scream. Usually it was because he had his feelings hurt or he was mad about something.)

So I waiting a second to see if he would stop. When it didn't I gingerly headed downstairs to see what was going on. One of my nieces was running and met me halfway down the stairs and said, "Nate's bleeding from his head!" That got my attention! I hurried to Nate and looked him over. He looked fine! Then another niece pointed out the back of his head. He had a gash on it that was dripping blood. I tried not to show the panic in my voice or face and told Nate he was ok. I lead him upstairs (keep in mind that he was screaming this whole time). I told Chris, again not trying to give away my panic, "I need you!" He grabbed Nate and took him to the bathroom. His old wound care training kicked in! He cleaned him up a bit and assessed the damage. The cut was a couple inches long and deep. "He'll need stitches." So we left Jordyn (and dinner) with Chris's family and drove to the emergency room.

It was a bigger cut than we thought. He ended up needing 7 staples! It took a "Nate taco" (aka Nate burrito-wrapped in a blanket so his arms would stay put), a male and female nurse slamming his face in the bed, Chris, and the doctor to hold him down. I stayed by his head and TRIED to calm him down. He doesn't like doctors or dentists anyways and usually throws a fit whenever he sees one. This time he REALLY had a conniption! We survived it. And he's fine now. He spent the day running around and wrestling Jordyn - no matter how many times I told him to sit still and settle down!

After getting back to Chris's sister's house that night, we got the story of what happened. Nate was playing on a love sac (big bean bag chair) and lost his balance and fell backwards onto the corner of the coffee table. It must have been quite a fall! Here's a picture of his shirt. It had dried and faded a lot by the time I got around to take it (about 5 hours after it happened).
Here's the best picture I could take of his staples. What a tough boy! After the doctor put the first two in, the staple gun broke and the staples were so loose that he had to pull them out and start all over. It was at that point that Chris (who had been watching the whole time) started to feel warm and a little dizzy. It makes a big difference when it's your own son!
And even though it was Sunday, he got a toy at the store for being so brave during all of it. He chose a conductor's baton like Leo from Little Einstein's.

GREAT Primary ideas!!!

I have just been introduced to the ABSOLUTE BEST Primary music ideas EVER!!! If you are involved in Primary in any way, give your chorister this site and she will love you for it!!! It is a Yahoo! group called "primusic". You create a profile for yourself and join (ask me if you need more help than that - I had to contact customer service because I could not figure out how to do it!) It's a place where fellow LDS primary music leaders can ask each other questions and share ideas and answers. It has THE BEST ideas! Things like "musical measels", "singo", "repeat street", "battleship", etc. A lot of the time, the people giving the ideas will also post the visual aids that you need for it so you can just print it out! It is fabulous! Pass the word!

Pictures of Jordyn

This girl LOVES grapes! She likes raisins too if there aren't any grapes around.
This is Jordy playing in a rainstorm we had a few weeks ago. She ruined her cutest pair of shoes playing in the puddles because I wasn't thinking and left them on her. Oops!
Ha ha ha! If only this pictures had sound, you'd all be able to hear her ear-piercing screech. This is from when we were carving pumpkins. She was not happy that I put her in her chair.
Another of my pretty girl. Notice the hair cut. I cut her hair a few months ago because I was getting tired of her not being able to see. But I messed up when I did it and cut the bangs WAY too short! So I tapered her hair around her face to make it tolerable. Chris hated it with a passion! But now that it's growing out, I don't think it's too bad! It would be weird to see her without bangs now!

Halloween Pictures

Yep, that's right. There are only two. Jordyn was a dinosaur and actually liked the costume! She wouldn't hold still long enough to take a good picture, though. And Nate was a "Star War" (that's what he called himself). Thanks to Deb for making that for him last year! He loved it!

Nate the Photographer

Nate is becoming quite the little photographer. If I ever leave my camera down where he can get it, I'll find like one or two HUNDRED (no, I'm not joking!) pictures on it that he has taken. Here are some of my favorites.

My handsome hubby

A self-portrait of sorts
It's such a funny picture of her - I love it!
Pretty good for a close up
Another funny one of Jordyn

Pumpkin Patch

We started a new tradition this Halloween. We drive out to the Country Mercantile and partake of their harvest festival. We did it this year and it was so fun! They had a hay bail pyramid that Chris and Nate climbed. They had some animals to pet. Jordyn LOVED that! She kept laughing her goofy laugh and throwing mulch at them. Nate liked to pet them.
And they had a hay bail maze for little kids to go through. Nate and Chris raced through it too fast for me to get a picture. Jordyn liked it for a while.








Here's me trying to be a photographer with my camera. They had a couple tractors to play on. I like my little 'Farmer Nate'. It was a fun day!

I survived Black Friday Shopping!

Yes, I'm one of "those people" who shop on Black Friday - or "Blitz" as I came to know it from working at Walmart for those many years. I can't pass up a great deal! For example, I have been eyeing a Kitchenaid stand mixer for several years now but could never bring myself to spend the $200 it costs. When I saw in the Walmart ad that they were $130, I had to get it! That's the cheapest I've seen it EVER! So I decided that I'd get up around 5:30 and be there at about 6 and they should hopefully have some left.

(Remember now, I worked at Walmart for 3 years prior to this. I know how the system works and that when they have great deals like this, they run out FAST! Back to the story...)

I woke up this morning and it was still dark. I thought it was maybe 5. I looked at the clock. 1:30!!! I was wide awake. What was I to do? I watched a couple TV shows and tried to go back to sleep at 3. Then I woke up again at the real 5 o'clock and decided I'd head out. I got to Walmart and parked a mile away. I hiked inside and got the "map" from the greeter. I speedwalked, dodging in and out of those crazy people who grabbed carts (tip: you waste time by getting a cart. You can walk five times faster without one!). I arrived at the designated spot for my mixer - not there. I asked a worker and a fellow customer told me there were some in a different place. I walked in the direction she pointed and it led me to electronics. I couldn't see anything so I asked another associate. She took me back to where I originally was and asked a different worker. They told me that all the mixers were sold out - that they were all gone in about 2 minutes.

I was bummed. I turned around and saw a girl with the very mixer I wanted. She was holding it and looking around. (Remember, I've been through this for 3 years. I have seen hundreds of customers grabbing huge amounts of one item, buying some for friends or family, getting some for gifts, or just getting caught up in the moment. And I've seen most of those customers bring back atleast one of those items because they changed their mind or grabbed one too many.) So I see this girl and I ask her, "Are you taking that?" She said back to me, "You want it?" I said yes and took it. Victory once again! (something similar to this happened last year too.)

Then to even sweeten the deal, it was a higher end one than was even advertised! (You see, I knew that for Walmart to be able to have the killer price of $130, there had to be a catch. After some research, I learned that this mixer for $130 had only one mixing blade where as the $200 one had three different attachments to choose from. And with each attachment costing around $20 each, that's how they saved the bulk of the original cost.) So the mixer I had in my hand was a $200 one with all three attachments included.

Now I knew as I walked up to the check-out stand that Walmart had two choices: they could price match the mixer I had with the one advertised since it was the closest item in stock to it - I've seen that done several times. Or choice number two: they could say that since it was a higher model, they could refuse to sell it for $70 off and make me pay the original price - I've seen this a lot too! So I had a speech prepared about price matching and not having enough in stock, etc. I was pretty sure I could talk my way into the discount (so sad, but true! I've seen library books returned; I've watched someone pay for and take a DVD player in their car and then come back the next day and say that they left it at the store and was given store credit for it; I've watched thiefs receive store credit for items they've stolen; And I know they keep a few of each item on Blitz in the back just in case somebody throws a big stink about running out. I know the system!) But all that was unneccesary because they price matched (as soon as I could show her that ad that said $130) and I got an even better mixer than I set out for. What a deal!

I think of it as a tender mercy from the Lord - like penance for working at Walmart for three years. :)

The Human Condom

That's Chris's name for himself. Let me explain.

After having worked at Biosports, Chris has adopted his old boss's motto: "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing." He now knows the importance of having and wearing the right equipment and the right clothing. And now that he works outside all day, he is subject to the elements so he needs that "right clothing" to make it tollerable.

So the other day it was really windy and really cold. He had already bought an under armour cold gear shirt but he wanted to get some pants of the same because his legs were freezing. When he got home that night after work, he took off his clothes to show me his purchase. He was covered in black spandex from his neck to his wrists and down to his ankles. "I'm a human condom!" with a little dance. :) He makes me laugh!

I'm out of wisdom...

Teeth, that is. After 26 years, I finally got my wisdom teeth taken out. All four of them. All were impacted so they had to dig each of them out. The surgery went better than I expected. The recovery was, however, harder than I expected. Between Chris and his parents, they made it possible for me to have two days of no responsibility and no noise! I just slept at Chris's parents house while they traded off watching the kids for me. It was wonderful!

We did have some extra excitement a week after the surgery though. The Sunday after I had them taken out (which was on a Tuesday - election day!), I was watching TV with Chris. It was around 10 at night. All of a sudden, one of the lower sites started bleeding heavily. I put gauze on it and bit down on it and figured that it would stop soon. Time went by and I had to change the gauze about every 20-30 minutes. We eventually went to bed and I once again slept with gauze in my mouth. I woke up about midnight with a mouth full of blood. It wasn't stopping. By this time, I was starting to freak out. I've been known to scare myself, especially when it's night and it's dark. I was starting to have a panic attack. I woke Chris up and told him that it wasn't stopping. He is incoherent at night so he just mumbled something like 'it'll be fine' and 'go to bed'. That wasn't going to cut it. I shook him and said, "Chris! It's not stopping! What should I do!" I think the panic in my voice was starting to show and he actually woke up. His suggestion was to call the ER and ask their opinion on it. I called and they said they couldn't give advice over the phone. Darn HIPAA laws! So I called our insurance's 24 hour nurses help line. By this time it had been bleeding for 3 hours. She told me that I needed to go to the emergency room to stop the bleeding. Oh! That wasn't what I expected! So I drove myself to the emergency room at 2 in the morning. I felt completely out of place there. The other people in the waiting room looked like they obviously needed "emergent" care. I was kinda be-boppin' around. To make a long story shorter, they put a clotting agent on the site (yay! no more stitches!) and sent me home. I finally got to bed at 4 in the morning only to wake up 3 hours later to my two kids plus the one I babysit. Surprisingly enough, that next day wasn't too bad. I made it into my oral surgeon's and the diagnosis: sometimes our bodies have to break tissue down to rebuild it again and apparently mine broke down a blood vessel. It happens. Not often, but it happens. And I did the right thing by going to the ER to get the bleeding to stop. Yay. I did something right.

True Mom Moment

BEWARE: THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART

Chris refs volleyball for those who don't know. And me, being one who can't live without volleyball, drags the kids to as many games as we can stand. This last weekend was regionals and of course I had to go. As I'm sure you have deduced, whenever I go to a game, Chris is either reffing it or line-judging it so he's not around to help corral the kids. So we went to a night of games and had only the intention of staying for one match. That one ended and the kids were ready to leave. VERY ready! But I wanted to stay and watch the next team because they were 1st in districts and I wanted to see them play. So Nate found a friend to play with and I held Jordyn because she ran off one too many times. After a while of this, Nate's friend left and I can only hold Jordyn for so long. They started acting up again. Then Nate discovered someone's leftover popcorn bag from the concessions stand that they abandoned when they left after the previous game. Nate grabs the bag, looks at me, smiles. I shrug my shoulders. They dive in. It wasn't until after we left and I was driving home that I realized that I LET MY KIDS EAT SOME STRANGER'S GARBAGE POPCORN! Yuck! I prayed a little extra hard that night that they wouldn't catch some wierd disease from my neglect. :) What a mom.

P.S. They did, in fact, get no disease.

Dry Cleaning Dilema

Why is it that every piece of dry-clean-only or hand-wash or lay-flat-to-dry clothing that I own is the first to get dirty? I swear, the second I take a clean one of those out of the closet, my kids' noses start to run! What is the physiology behind that?! Is it the scent of extra work that gets it going? Every time I have worn a certain brown sweater, one of them comes up to me and smears their snotty face on my freshly laundered, difficult to wash shirt! What do you do? NOT BUY THOSE SHIRTS!!! If only I'd remember that when I'm at a store...

Jenny & Chris: the runners

Ok, so I have to catch everyone up on our latest activities since I'm so bad with that.

A few months ago (wow! time goes fast!), Chris decided that he wanted to accomplish one of his life goals and run a half marathon. He signed up for the Leavenworth one during Octoberfest 08. He started training. He kept asking me if I wanted to run it with him and of course I did! Doesn't everyone want to say, "I'm running a half marathon"? But then reality hit and I had the thought of 'maybe I should go run a mile and see how that goes before I commit myself to running 13'. SO GLAD I DID!!! I forgot how much I hated running! Or atleast, how much I hated running when I was out of shape! When I started out on that first run, I felt incredible. I thought 'Why doesn't everyone do this?' I was confident. About 20 steps later, I hit the wall. I felt my lungs collapse and my legs turn to stone. I ran (ran is generous - more like painfully staggered) about a quarter mile. When I couldn't "run" another step, I walked, gasping for air and cursing Adam for this fallen state where disintegration reigns and bodies weaken with idleness. After I had composed myself somewhat, I stumbling over my own feet for another quarter mile. And a painful, slow walk home for the last quarter mile was my prize. Ouch! I was depressed by my out-of-shape-ness. I told Chris I had to pass on his half marathon. I consoled myself to looking up events that Chris could run. Since I couldn't do it, I'd find ways to make him hurt! :) I came across a 5k that was 8 weeks from that day. I felt inspired. I modified Chris's training schedule to mold my flacid, weak body to one that could run 3 miles. I could do it in 2 months! I told myself that. I had to, because up to this point in my life the furthest I had ever run was only 1.5 miles... twice... my entire life!.. and that was when I was in good shape! So I took to running 5 days a week anywhere from 1 to 3 miles a day.

Chris's race came and went. He did awesome! I was so proud of him! He made it under 2 hours even with his knee hurting for the last 7 miles! Watching him run it made me want to run one too! That's a good crowd of people to be associated with. I like those athletic, healthy people. That's the scene I want to be in!

Then it came time for my race. I took 76th out of something like a 100 (Wahoo! 25th percentile! I'm amazing!). I ran 3 miles in under 30 minutes (fast as...slow). And I loved it!!! I have not felt a high like I had after I finished my race in I think ever!!! It was the most incredible feeling! I was deliriously happy! You couldn't have smacked the smile off my face! I don't think I had ever had a goal like that before: one that was really physically hard for me, that I had to work so consistently at, and for so long a time (2 months is long for me!). After it was over, the only think I could think was, 'When's the next one so I can feel this again?' I turned into a runner that day....

A runner once spring comes again and the weather warms up. ;)

The Maiden Voyage

My very own blog, take three! I have started a blog two previous times and either didn't like it or didn't do anything with it so I just deleted them. But I think this one's a keeper!!! So welcome to my blog! I have a whole list of things I want to ramble about so whenever I have a chance to jot down some thoughts, I'll do it. I ordered a new USB cable for my camera so soon there will be NEW pictures posted! Yay! And hopefully I'll turn this into a regular habit so I can keep you all better updated on our "goings on". Enjoy!