"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life;
to put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived." ~Henry David Thoreau

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Hailey's Preschool Graduation

Well, Mrs. Kari did it again! She pulled of another AMAZING preschool year. Hailey had a fantastic time three days a week in her class. I can't believe she is old enough to be in preschool! Luckily she gets another year with this incredible teacher. We feel very blessed to have Kari in our lives. She told me I need to keep having babies so she can continue to be a part of our family by teaching our kids. We love her!

The program was the cutest one yet. The theme was "Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night" and they opened with a parody of the same Black Eyed Peas song. Unbelievably cute! We ended the night with a stop at Baskin 'n Robins for a yummy treat. We are so proud of our Hailey Bailey and we love her to pieces!!

















Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Confession

Can I tell you a little secret? I am ready for a change. As much as I love certain things about living where we do, I am ready for a new adventure. Maybe it's my nomadic nature coming through. I'm not sure why I've been feeling antsy for so long, but the feeling is not going away. Cody has a good job and he works for an AMAZING company. I wouldn't want him to have to change companies, but the good news is that his caompany has plants in several parts of the country...and in Europe. I don't want to move to Europe (okay, I would totally go to Europe if it wasn't permanant and if it weren't so far away from family. Cephalon has a big manufacturing plant right outside of Paris. PARIS! And they have an office in Ireland and Spain and The Netherlands and Germany...) but if he were to get transfered to a different part of the country I would be excited. Is that terrible of me? Whew, it feels good to openly admit that. I'm sure it won't ever happen, but I have been fantasizing about it lately. Okay, confession over and I feel good. I don't think anyone reads this blog anymore so it's not like I'll offend anyone by saying this. I'm merely sending it out to the void.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Test

Testing to see if the comments are turned back on.

Motherly Randomness

Right now it is 1:23 a.m. and I am wide awake. But it's odd considering I have barely slept in two days. Devin suddenly began running a high fever in the wee hours of Friday morning. It was about 104 degrees. I barely slept that night. He ran fever all day on Friday and despite my efforts to keep it down with medicine, by 9:00 Friday night his fever was 105 degrees. So to the ER we went. The poor guy underwent all kinds of "viloations" to his body. He ended up with an IV in his head and his veins sucked right through a ton of fluid. They were very worried because his heart BPM was almost 200. They were on the fence about letting me take him home. They said they would admit him if I wanted them too. But getting sleep in a hospital is nearly impossible, even for a baby. Devin was a very tired boy so I opted to go home.

But I couldn't leave without very strict instructions of how to care for him and what to watch for. It is scary when the doc is telling you how to handle a siezure. We finally got home and to bed some time around 3:30. But still he didn't sleep well and I sure as heck didn't either. But today has been better for him and he has been drinking quite a bit, so that is really good.

Oh, turns out he has Coxsakie virus. It is a really nasty thing that can cause hand foot mouth disease. Yuck. Yes, we are now THAT family.

So he is sleeping somewhat restlessly in the playpen which resides in our walk in closet. I should be getting to bed, but my mind is fully alert. How can I function on so little sleep? Tomorrow is Father's Day and I have to be at church to take care of Primary stuff. But the kids have to stay home because they all likely have the virus incubating in them. What a fun week we are in for. So poor Cody has to spend Father's Day at home with all four kids while Mom runs off to church. I feel so rotten about that. He can't even wear his traditional tie that the kids made him. Hailey worked so hard to decorate it.

I am alone with my thoughts and I realize I am so unhappy with how I am mothering my children lately. Nothing I can really single out, more of a bunch of little things that I wish to change. They are growing up so fast and I am not cherishing this time with them, not enough anyway. I don't want to have regrets when they are grown and living far away from me. I want to look back on these years and say "I did a good job. I am happy with the memories and years I spent raising them."

But the way I am doing things, I fear that I will have many regrets. I guess I am just writing this to "verbalize" how I want to change. I NEED to change. I need to be okay when the house is not perfect or when Hailey accidentally ruins her hairdo because of doing cartwheels. I need to be okay when Lauren smears jelly all over her clean shirt only seconds before we are supposed to walk out the door to an appointment. I need to be okay when Ethan wines and begs to watch "just one more show". He's a good kid. Don't get so upset and call him a lazy wad. He just wants to relax and veg a little.

I need to remember that I have exceptional kids. They are each so unique and smart and funny and caring and interesting and witty and creative and compassionate and talented and above all....they are each mine. This is my one and only shot to get things right. I need to be better for them. I want them to look back on these years with only happy memories. I need to yell less and breathe more. I need to sweat the small things not so much.

I should try to get some sleep. Early church tomorrow and lots to do. The best part about tomorrow is I get another chance to do things right. Tomorrow, I will be better.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Bike Adventure Picnic

One evening while Dad was still in Denver, we packed a picnic dinner and went for an "adeventure". We live in a fairly boring place and I have to be pretty creative to find fun things to do. Ethan and Hailey hopped on their bikes and we went on the walking trail that runs through our neighborhood. We rarely use that trail so the kids thought it was pretty cool. We walked/rode for about 1.5 miles and then we ended up at the playground to eat. We called Dad while we were there and he really missed us and missed the fun. We'll have to take him on a bike adventure sometime soon!




Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Denver Getaway

On May 21 Cody had to fly to Denver for a conference/work trip. He has to travel about every other month, but it is usually out east. However, this time he was going to Denver and since it is so close to where we live, airfare was reasonable for me to tag along. Cody's parents came in to stay with the older three kids for the weekend. Devin of course tagged along, and he proved to be the perfect traveler! This was his first airplane ride, and depsite an unknown ear infection, he was amazingly good.

Cody works for a great company and they always put him up in nice places when he travels. And he gets all the perks that go along with working for a great company. We stayed in the Marriott, right in the heart of downtown. In fact, it was called the "City Center Marriott". It seemed that the whole city revolved around this gorgeous sky scraper hotel. I had never stayed in a place that fancy and at first it seemed a little intimidating, but I soon fell in love with being treated so nicely by the classy people dressed in classy suits. We had the most beautiful view from our room, overlooking the city and all it's splendor. However, one of the down sides to staying in luxery is that your are expected to tip EVERYONE who helps you do ANYTHING. That was kind of annoying.

After getting setteled in our hotel, we hit the streets in search of a place to eat. I love going to new places with Cody because he always insist that we do it like the locals do. "We can eat at Chilis anytime where we live. Let's find a place that is only found in Denver." We found this awesome Irish pub to eat at. We got there right at happy hour and they had live Irish music and everything. Wow, those people can drink! We had some great food and it was nice just getting to talk. We never do that anymore.

I had a hard time with Devin on our first night there, so I slept in pretty late on Saturday. Cody had to be at his conference early that morning but Devin and I lazied around until it was time to meet Dad for lunch. Aaaahhh, luxery! It's amazing how the fancy soaps and lotions magically re-appeared every time we came back to the room after being away for a period of time.

Denver is a very pedestrian friendly city, so we walked everywhere (even though we had a nice rental car equipped with GPS). I quickly fell madly in love with the city. I loved walking everywhere! We met Cody at Bubba Gump's for lunch. I'd never eaten at one of those restaurants before, only been inside the gift shop in Long Beach CA. It really is a neat place, so I highly recommend eating there if you ever get the chance. I had the most AMAZING cajun chicken sandwich with avacado, swiss cheese, and bacon. Seriously, I am still talking about how good it was! On the way out I just had to pick up a copy of "Forrest Gump". It's one of my all time favorite movies and I can't believe we don't have it in our collection.

After taking Devin back for a nap in the hotel, we met up again to explore the city when Cody's conference was done. We decided to head out in search of the aquarium because we'd heard good things about it. Well the map we looked at was very decieving and we ended up walking MIILES to find it. Devin fell asleep in the stroller and even thought the walk was very long, we didn't mind. We got lost in great conversation and again, such a cool city to walk through. By the time we got to the aquarium, it was dinner time to we decided to eat in their VERY nice restaurant. So cool, completely surrounded by fish tanks. And we had a fabulous "shark cake" which was just a molten chocolate cake of sorts, but really great.

When we finally left the restaurant, we decided it was so late and would not be worth the $50 to go see the fish. Instead, we started walking back toward downtown. What a beautiful evening! It was dark and I loved seeing the city all lit up woth night life. Cody suggested we take a street that we hadn't walked on yet. Again, he's cool to visit new places with. We stopped and listened to street performers and gave a dollar or two away. During the trip we got a real kick out of people assuming Devin was out only child. It's uncanny how few children we saw out there. And babies were a real novlety, so we got a lot of comments from friendly passer-bys. Sometimes Cody and I would clue them in that he was in fact our fourth child, but sometimes we would just share a funny glance with each other.

The next morning we slept in very late. Since it was Sunday, Cody didn't have any work things going on. How I miss sleeping in with him! By the time we finally got up and at 'em it was lunch time. Yes, it was Sunday, but it's hard to keep the Sabbath Day holy when you are traveling and have to pay for meals. We ventured out again and found a quaint but fancy French cafe. They had a complementary pastery bar that was oh so good! Our waitress and I clicked right away because we imediately realized we were both from HOUSTON!! We both squealed with delight. And Cody sat there and mocked us. She signed our receipt in a cute way, and yes, she got a good tip.

That afternoon before heading to the airport, we went to the Denver Museum of Science and History. Very cool place. But the main reason we wanted to go was to see the Body Worlds exhibit. It had been in Salt Lake a year or so before, but we never made it out there to see it. It was expensive, but well worth the money. I could not believe that all the bodies and body parts were from REAL people. I was a little disappointed by the irreverence that some people showed. As I looked at each body, I tried to imagine who they were and what they were like when they were alive. And I developed and evern greater appreciation for the magnificant machines that our bodies are. And I gained even more admiration for the Ultimate Creator.

Then it was off to the airport and time to say goodbye. Thanks to the ridiculous way that the Denver airport is laid out, Devin and I had to race to make our flight. But we made it and it was nice to be back at home with my three other babies. It was such a great trip! Again, I can't express how much I love Denver. I really feel in love with the city. It was so full of culture and life and I loved seeing all kinds of people. If Cody ever got a good job opportunity up there, I'd definitely consider a move to the Mile High City!