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.