The Englishers

Flood!

2011-04-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

After living in Utah for ten years Living in Ohio has been such a great experience. Especially to experience a Spring. It rains all the time! I can't believe it. I now know why people buy rain boots. We have had some crazy weather. On April 19th I was taking a nap. Jake was playing with Warren. I woke up to a doorbell and hearing a mans voice saying, "The water is an inch away from your back door." That sure woke me up fast! Jake and I immediately wanted to get photos of this. And we were praying that the water didnt' rise anymore! We really didn't want to deal with flood damage! Ugh, what a nightmare that would have been.

Between the two houses

The backyard. Toys were starting to float away!!

It looks like a water park!

This water was the length of five houses

Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink!

Our street was a pond too!

Wish I had a canoe!

Good thing it is a Jeep

I just couldn't help myself. I had to see how deep it was. It got right blow my knees. It was so freezing too.

He had the nerve to wear shorts. It was ice water!

Duckville

2011-04-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

As a stay at home mom I am often asked, "What do you do all day?" This question never ceases to amaze me. I thought I would let you in on one of the many things I do. I play with my son. First of all you want to make sure you stay in your pajamas all day. This makes play time way more fun. Also, because it is cold and rainy, have big blankets to wrap up in. (this also makes for a great game of monster) You will also need to have a child that is at the moment addicted to rubber ducks. Blocks, lots and lots of blocks. Having other building material that you have found at goodwill will also work. Lincoln logs are fantastic too!

You will them make a house and a yard and many other creative things.

Such as a pond with these linky block things. That is the teenage duck with the baby girl ducks taking a bath in the pond. Boys and girls do not take baths together so the boy ducks get to do other fun things.

The twin Pablo ducks are taking a break from playing on the teeter totter and slide. They are sitting at the table.

The purple mommy duck and yellow daddy duck are working in the garden. I think Warren planted bananas, broccoli, rutabagas, edemamas, blueberries, apples and lemons. Very tasty.

These are the pirate Phoebe, Kimball and Warren ducks. (a gift from Bella!) There job is to guard the house and not let any bad guys in. That is how you make a duckville. Then after you have spent hours playing you need to take photos of you cutie.

He is so stinkin' cute!

He never fails to amaze me on how creative he is.

Can I tell you how much I love my job? I don't think I would give this up for all the money of the world!

Men at Work

2011-04-12T18:29:00.000-07:00

Jake and Shail get along really well. Phoebe and I were so happy to find them out in "the shop" working on planing a board. Phoebe, we sure are lucky, aren't we?

Rescuing Phoebe

2011-04-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

My sister Phoebe is going to be 25 this year. (she's my baby sister) My sister finally got her drivers permit! This is huge! She is not a big fan of driving, but with the support of her boyfriend of Shail she has bought a car and is driving! She is doing amazing!! I am so proud of her. She and Shail came out this weekend to visit. It has been far to long, so I was so excited! I was driving Jake nuts with "is she here yet" comments. Phoebe let me know they were going to stop by the outlet mall before coming to our house. After a while I got a phone call from Phoebe saying she left the headlights on and needed me to come and jump her car. Believe it or not I was thrilled to! It was about a half our away but I felt great to know that I was in a position to be able to run out and help my sister. Thanks for that great memory Phoebe! Keep on driving!

Publishing party

2011-04-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

At the kids school they really big on publishing books. The kids have been working on writing different books and then to reward to them they have a publishing party. Kimball's class invited the families to come. Warren and I were to able to make it. Kimball was so happy to read his book about a "function machine". He was the only one in the class with such an original book!

Warren was so happy to be able to visit his brother at school. Kimball is such a sweetheart, that he included Warren in with all of his friends. I love these boys!!

Go Fish!

2011-03-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

Meet the cutest angel fish to ever walk the planet. The second grade did a musical last week. Phoebe was chosen to be the angel fish. This part has plenty of lines to memorize. Phoebe was up for the task! This was the part Phoebe was talking about for weeks. This is the part she prayed to get. Finally on day she came bursting through the door to tell me she had made the part. As a mom I wanted to jump up and down with her. I was praying she would get the part too. I just hate to see any of my kids disappointed.

I was able to make her a quick costume. I had the pattern on hand and the fabric was cheap with my coupon. She felt like a million bucks and you could tell. She worked so hard on memorizing her line. She practised everyday. She even taught her brothers all the lines, songs and dance movements. As you can tell from the picture below Kimball and Warren could have been right up there with her.

This photo just cracks me up. We had people behind us giggling too.

The musical was very darling. It was all about differences but still getting along. All kids need to learn this lesson.

The music had a rap song, a country line dancing song and a few others. I am so thankful that my kids are in a great school and get to have fun opportunities like this.

(In this photo is an angel fish, a clown fish and a tiger shark. Pretty cute, huh? )

Daddy's Shadow

2011-03-29T18:44:00.000-07:00

Not only does Warren look like a mini Jake, Warren adores everything Jake does. He LOVES to follow him around and "helping" do whatever project Jake is up to. Last week was Jake's spring break. We also had good weather. Jake was able to work on some of his work bench project. Warren happily gathered all of his tools and joined his dad outside.

Jake gave him some wood blocks to work on. He was thrilled. He felt like daddy.

I can't get enough of those two!

A future wood worker in the making!

Bookshelf

2011-03-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Phoebe has been wanting a big bookshelf. She has a couple hundred books in her room. Jake is more then happy to make her one. He was able to get a great deal on Black Walnut. He and Phoebe took a long time finding the right bookshelf pattern.

Jake has been teaching people all about wood working, and math. It has helped her with her math skills too.

I love that she is working in her nightgown. Too cute. With Jake in school it is going to be a slow project but it is something they love doing together.

Bugs, bugs, bugs!

2011-03-29T16:49:00.000-07:00

March 3rd was the 1st grade music program at the kids school. They really have an amazing school and music program. The 1st grade did a musical about bugs. They had lots of different bugs, fireflies, army ants, butterflies, and the best, spiders! I only say the best is because that is what Kimball was. He was so excited! I was able to find a black shirt and pants at goodwill for a couple of bucks and whipped up this costume. He loved it so much!

Kimball did not have any speaking parts but he was the post passionate singer. He was so involved with all the songs and dance movement.

This is only half the singers! I couldn't fit them all in on the camera. Do you see the one wearing the sombrero? That is the cockroach. He was one of my favorites. So was the maggot.

Look at my cutie! I love him.

Valentines

2011-02-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a fantastic Valentines Day. We celebrated by getting the flu. Or as Kimball dubbed it, The Love Bug. It was not very loving! Kimball, Warren, Phoebe and I all got hit with it. Thankfully I had the kids Valentines done. I found this really cute idea on one of the blogs I read. I though it was perfect. I used my cricut to cut out the hearts. I bought Hershey Nuggets and wrapped them with cute paper. I then had the kids put there thumb prints on all of them. I liked drawing the cute little faces on them.

Warren even made some. He is getting really tired of not having class parties, like his brother and sister does. So we made him a couple to give to his friends next door. He even wrote his name on each one! How cute is that.

I am having such a hard time with him growing up. I want him as my baby forever!! Well... I wouldn't mind if he would FINALLY get potty trained. He sure is taking his dear sweet time on that.

I made a totally of 35.

A few days before we all got sick (meaning the weekend before Valentines) We made a whole bunch of treats to pass out to friends. It was a lot of fun. We melted chocolate and dipped regular and strawberry flavored marshmallows in them. We topped them with candy hearts.

I found these darling mini cup cake papers that had "sweet" written on the bottom. The were the perfect size for marshmallows.

Don't the look cute? I really can't stand marshmallows, but the kids loved them. The strawberry ones were there favorite.

We also dipped Oreo's in the chocolate and then covered them with different sprinkles.

And of course we had Sugar cookies. Kimball was sick at the point so Jake, Phoebe, Warren and I did this part. I think you all can see the three red frosted cookies with the piles of purple sprinkles. Those were Warren's works of art. Lick marks included.

We then loaded them up on plates ( don't worry, we didn't give out Warrens licked ones) and passed them out to friends. It was a lot of fun. I hope to start this as a tradition for Valentines day. We have one other Valentines tradition that we missed this year. On Valentines Eve Jake and I will make home made Valentines for each other and the kids. We have to sit in the same room and NOT look at what the other is doing till they are all done. I was way to sick with fever and chills to do this. We hope to do it this weekend. Jake did bring me roses with a little card. That really made me feel better. I though you all would like to read what he wrote me. He is so an engineer! To all of my other engineer wives out there, please enjoy! Happy Valentines Day!
Sariah,
My brain in dead,
The test is through
I'm glad this test is over,
Because I can't wait to see you.
I LOVE YOU,
Jake.

Didn't I marry the best man ever????

Amazing new store!

2011-02-14T12:11:00.000-08:00

I wanted to let you all know about this amazing new store on Etsy. It is my sisters store.

Isn't she beautiful? Isn't her baby beautiful? I love them both. My sister is a huge inspiration in my life. She is one of my closets, dearest, friends. She has worked really hard on her new business, which is making adorable baby items. But, she does more then just baby sewing! She sews things for BOATS! That is right, boats! Everything from sails to seat covers. She and her husband and daughter actually live on a sail boat. Wow. I can barely handle three kids in a house and she has a baby and a business on a boat. Amazing. I have attached the link below so you can all go check out her wonderful products. I am so proud of you Charlotte!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/redcharlotte?ga_search_query=redcharlotte&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

Something

2011-02-10T14:26:00.001-08:00

Something is coming. It is photos, it is words, it is crafty. I just don't have time right now to post it. I have to feed three hungery monsters dinner. But something is coming.
~Sariah

Thanksgiving!

2010-12-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

Crazy Aunt Phoebe

My sister contacted me a in October and let me know that she wanted to do a Thanksgiving with Jake and I and the kids. She wanted to bring her boyfriend from India too. I thought it was a great idea, but two things stood in the way, We were going to Jake's family for Thanksgiving and Phoebe was going to be in Egypt. So, or plan? To do Thanksgiving early! I am so thankful we did too, because it was so much fun!

Crazy Aunt Phoebe and Shail

Shail jumped right in with all the preparations. He really liked the idea that we cook most of the day, eat through out the day and then stuff ourselves with a big meal. Yep, that my dear Shail, is Thanksgiving. Plus all the fun times in between the stirring, chopping and baking.

Making the pie. The MOST important part of the meal!

We made so much food and ate so much food but it was great. Shail even made us some Indian food to enjoy. It was way too spicy for my taste, but that is okay, everyone else liked it. We invited our neighbors to join us. More the merrier! It was the perfect addition and they to top if off, Jake's friend, Fransisco (who is from Colombia) was able to make it! How blessed are we?!

This is the best we could do, but still couldn't get everyone in the picture

The weather was so beautiful, that we were able to set up a few tables and feast outside. I've never had a Thanksgiving outside and have always wanted to. It was great!

There are still people not pictured!

I was so glad I got to celebrate with my sister, neighbors and friends. It was a great early Thanksgiving!
As for the actual Thanksgiving day we had a wonderful time with Jake's family in Illinois. I don't think anyone took pictures, which is really odd. Hmmmm.
I have posted a whole bunch more photos from this weekend on Facebook!

Love Letters

2010-11-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

Let me just start out this post with how wonderful my mom is. My mom is fantastic! She is a wonderful and a fantastic grandmother. Her life is all about her grand kids. ( Her kids too, but I really think she would take the grand kids over us kids any day!) One of the many things that my mom is so wonderful about is sending cards in the mail. It doesn't matter what holiday there is a card for each one of my kids in the mail box. She does this for all seven of her grand kids, even the babies. She doesn't send it all in one envelop, but one for each kid. On days when I know the cards arrive in the mailbox this is what it looks like.

The kids usually run like a bat out of Hades to the mail box. Laughing the whole way, just imagine what kind of card will be waiting for them.

Then there is usually a small fight over who gets to actually pull the cards out of the box. Then comes my favorite part,

There faces...

It is pure joy.

It is utter happiness.

It is sheer bliss.

As you can tell my mom really loves to do this. She covers them in stickers and writes long love messages on the inside. You can tell that she really tries hard to pick out a special card for each one of them. The kids will them play with these cards, sleep with these cards and take them everywhere. I eventually have to steal them so I can put them in there book of remembrance.

Thanks mom for sending all the love letters!

You are the best.

The Costumes

2010-11-16T21:06:00.000-08:00

For the past few months my life has been consumed by making costumes. Every other year I go a little batty on our families Halloween costumes, this year it was Alice in Wonderland. Making these costumes was a journey! One of the added bonuses this year was that my niece, Autumn got to join us!

Autumn

I made Autumns costume first. I had to make sure it fit her and she had to have it in time so she could use it in her own neck of the woods. (Autumn lives about six hours away from us.) One of the hardest parts was that I had to use a pattern that was three sizes too large for her and then guess from my children's size if I was making it the right size for a five year old. Luck was on my side and it worked. She was the most darling red queen I could ever hope for! It was so much fun to be able to watch at the Halloween party and the trick or treating we did. She is so full of life and excitement! (Autumns response to all the make up on her face was: "I look like Mulan!")

Warren as the white rabbit.

Warren's was the second costume I made. This one was fun and easy. Warren is at home with me all day so I was able to work on this one at really convenient times. He LOVED helping me and being able to try on the costume. We even worked out a system were he would push the foot pedal and I would direct the sewing of the fabric. He really loved it when he found a bag of poly-fil in my craft room! His imagination went nuts. That stuff became his best friend. Not only did Warren look darling in this costume, he owned it. He lived and breathed his part. He would walk past people and casually say, "white rabbit hear!" Or he would stop random strangers and tell them that he was the white rabbit. I just can't get enough of him in the costume!

Kimball as the Cheshire Cat

Kimball was a trooper this Halloween. He wanted to be every character in Alice in Wonderland, including the piano that is in the scene were Alice falls down the rabbit hole. But after I told him that he got to have a huge smile painted on his face and that he was the only one with the smile for the part he was in love. He sure loved having a tail. He made the best Cheshire cat I could ever want.

Phoebe as the white queen

Once I started Phoebes costume I knew I was getting to the harder ones. Phoebe really wanted to be the white queen over being Alice. I asked her why and she told me that she is a lot like the White Queen in that she does not like to hurt animals. Wow. This girl blows my mind everyday. She also told me that she wanted to wear a princess dress. So a princess dress she gets! It wasn't too difficult but I had to battle with HUGE sleeves and slippery fabric. I really had a special experience making Phoebes costume. Because Phoebe is so tall and skinny you have to alter her pattern. She has the waist of a four year old and the height of an almost size 10 child! As I was making the costume it because apparent that the neck line was incredibly too low and at this point there was no starting over. I was a little upset and stress. Okay, I was a lot upset and a lot stressed. But I was able to clear my head enough and say a little prayer for help. Once I did, my stress melted away and I felt the presence of my great grandmother, aka Granny in the room. Granny was such an amazing women,  she is whole other blog post, but know that I want to be like her! Granny could sewing anything you could imagine too. Once I prayed, I felt Granny in the room with me and the idea of how to fix the problem was mapped out in my head. Almost like a mental you tube tutorial. I had the extra sheer-ish fabric and I was able to make the costume how it looks now. By time time I was done I was moved to tears. It was a special experience that I will treasure forever.

By the time I was left to the last two costumes I was just days before our first party. I had to get started. Jake's costume terrified me. I had never sewn a suit coat. It took my a few weeks to find the right kind of fabric and a lot of searching at good will for a vest. Would would think it would be hard to find a suit vest? I sure didn't. But apparently it is very hard to find one. I actually found on at Good Will in the ladies department. I cut the back in half and added about eight inches of fabric down the middle and then it fit! Yippee, and no one could tell!    Basically I spent 24 hours with out sleep to finish Jake and I's costumes. The jacket wasn't as hard as I though it would be but I don't think I will be sewing another one anytime soon. I am glad to say that I have sewn one. It about killed my machine too. (Don't worry, my macine hung on till the very last costume, then bit the dust. Again, another blog post coming really soon!) Jake looked so amazing. I found a tutorial on You Tube to do his make up and it just came together like a dream!

Jake as the Mad Hatter

Now to my costume. I am not a huge fan of dressing up in costumes. Two years ago I got stuck being Glenda the Good Witch. A huge puffy dress. Ugh. But I took one for the team. When I first started the Alice idea with the family I though Phoebe would be Alice, Autumn would be the Red Queen and I would get out of it! Wrong. Phoebe through that not hurting animals thing at me. We couldn't NOT have a Alice, so I was stuck. By the time I got to my costume It was about two o'clock the morning on the day of the 1st Halloween party. I was grumpy, tired and cold, but I pushed through telling myself it was for the family! I woke the family up that morning wearing my Alice outfit. They all thought is was funny.

Me, as Alice. Again a costume with puffy sleeves.

If you think I was done having special experience with this Halloween you are wrong. The first Halloween party on the day I had, had no sleep. It was a trunk or treat. I immediately claimed the honor of sitting in the trunk of my van passing out candy while Jake took the kids around to all the cars. That is what he really wanted to do anyways. I have to say I was sitting in the trunk, cold and sleepy and feeling a bit sorry for myself, when I hear a squeal. I looked up to see a very special little girl with her mother. This young girl was glowing with happiness and showing her mother Alice, me. This special angel really thought I was Alice. She tired to give me a huge but I was sitting down. I hopped up fast then I ever thought I could knelt to her level and started talking to her as if I was Alice. She couldn't say much but I knew she was thrilled to meet Alice. Little did she know how thrilled I was to meet her! Her mother asked if she could get a picture of us together. I felt a little like I worked at Disneyland as a princess. I agree and we got a picture of me hugging her. I cried a little as she moved on to the next car. She really touched my heart. I didn't mind the puffy sleeved costume anymore. In fact, I happy to be wearing it. Not only did I bring joy and happiness to my immediate family, my sister, my niece but this little girl. I felt like Scrooge after his night with the Spirits. I was happy to be out in my costume and making people smile.

It was a really special Halloween.

PS I also made my little sister a costume. She wanted to be a white rabbit. I still laugh when I see her in the costume.

Warren was thrilled to have a partner in crime.

PPS

We found the best looking Captain Jack Sparrow ever! Totally impressed! Get this, he even wanted a picture with us! What a complement!

I think I really do have a good excuse!

2010-11-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

I really have wanted to blog about life for the past few months but life has been all too crazy to do much of anything but get through the day. After the kids started school I started to work on Halloween costumes and deal with some crazy headaches. I will post about the headaches later as well as the Halloween costumes. What really has been on my mind is Warren had his tonsils out on Nov. 1st. I really wasn't that worried, Warren was going to be the last one in the family to have them taken out. I had mine taken out when I was ten. Kimball was two, Phoebe was five, Jake was just this past June, and I was very excited to have Warren join the ranks. The kid was stuffed up, had sleep apnea and was tired all the time. When his ENT looked at the tonsils for the first time he turned to me and said, "Those suckers are huge! They need to come out right away!" Well we waited till after Halloween so he could enjoy that holiday with his family. We needed our white rabbit! So Early Monday morning we headed to the hospital. Warren is quite happy about this. I really don't think he understood what was going to happen.

Pre surgery

Pre Surgery

As you can tell from the photos above he was the center of attention. The nurses just adored him. He is such a little flirt. I let the doctors take him from me and as he was going through the O.R. doors he said, "I'll be brave mommy." I have to say I cried a little. You think it would get easier doing this as much as I have. Nope. Not at all. I think I cried a little with every one of them. Even Jake. Everything went great in surgery with Warren. The doctor came out and talked to me and told me that he was waking up in recovery and that I would be called back soon. It was just a few minutes later that I was able to go back to recovery and see my little baby. I knew right a away something was different. He was naked (besides his pull up) there was blood on the sheet and he was coughing. Who coughs after having throat surgery? The nurse told me right away that the blood was from him ripping out his I.V. when he was waking up. Apparently he really had a hard time because he had scratches on his face and they had really bandaged his foot tight to keep him from ripping out the new I.V. Also, the doctors had a really hard time finding the right spot for the I.V. It was three pokes in one hand, four in the other, then they found the spot in the foot. He ripped that one out and now had a new on in the other foot. Warren couldn't stop coughing. He was spitting up bloody mucus stuff. Again, none of my other kids, or Jake did that. Warren started really struggling for breath and started to choke and cough and choke and cough. The nurse attending him started to suck out his air way and sit him up. Warren started fighting back and somehow ended up on his back and that really choked him up. His stats started to drop. His lips started to turn blue. He was so pale. I started to panic. Four doctors RAN to Warren's bedside and another nurse came just to take care of me! I think I almost passed out I was so scared. The doctors put Warren on a breathing treatment, gave him O2 and continued to suction him out. After about 20 minutes Warren was finally able to breath normally. The doctors sent the nurse away and they each took turns sitting by Warren and monitoring him for the next three hours. Warren went to sleep. The poor baby was so beyond worn out from the ordeal that he slept for the entire three hours that he was being observed. Other doctors would come and check on him too. As scary as it was, I was very thankful for those doctors and the concern they had for my little boy. And that nurse that kept comforting me when all I could do was stare at my baby getting jerked around by doctors who were trying to open up his airways. That is what happened. Warren's airway swelled too much. They don't know what caused it, they think just aggravation from the tube they used, but they are not sure. I am not letting that boy have surgery anytime soon!

This is my poor baby after all the trauma he went through. It still makes me want to cry.

After about five hours in the hospital Warren really woke up, sat up, and started to devour Popsicles and watch Sesame Street. After one very long day we were cleared to go home. We were both very happy.

Post surgery and really ready to go home

You couldn't tell all that he had been through from this face!

I love this little boy so much and am so thankful he is happy and healthy!

It is hard to believe that those last three pictures are the same day as the previous one! We were thrilled to be home and I though that we would have a smooth recovery. Boy was I wrong. The first two days went fine. But on the third day he got a fever and stopped eating or drinking and even threw up. That mom alarm in me went off. We went to the emergency room. Waiting about four hours just to see a doctor and then they started to check him out. To our relief everything with the surgery was fine. But after the x-ray, they found out that Warrens large intestines were completely full of poop! That kid was so backed up he couldn't eat or drink because there was no room. The codeine they gave him as pain killer was the culprit. We had to take him off codein and gave him regular Tylenol and started doing suppositories and mirlax. We tried that for two days and he still hadn't pooped. He was starting to get dehydrated and lost about two pounds. We had to take him back to the ER and they had to do an enema on the guy! Hadn't he been through enough? It took a while but that worked. I can only imagine the relief he felt! We were able to get the rest of it cleared out at home. It has now been two weeks and Warren is FINALLY better. He still has a bit of a sore throat but he is eating around the clock. One night he woke up and asked for a hot dog in a hot dog bun. I told him no way am I doing that at three in the morning, but he can have a banana and yogurt. The next night he woke up asking for Mac and cheese and fish sticks. Again, I told him no, but that he could have some more bananas and yogurt. He didn't wake me up the third night.

Now that my baby is on the mends and the Halloween costumes are packed up I am trying to get things back in order and start focusing on Thanksgiving.

More post to come. Can anyone tell me how to change the blog template. Blogger apparently made some changes in my absences and did not consult me. I want to put a cute fall back ground but I can't find how to do it. Thanks!

First day of school and then some

2010-08-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

For some reason I really don't understand what has happened to Blogger. It seems totally different to me. Have I really been gone that long? Maybe I have got "up-packing" maddness. I hear it is pretty serious! Anyways. I thought I would start with blogging about the kids starting school. It started last Tuesday the 17th. My little kiddos are getting so big! Phoebe started second grade, Kimball is in 1st grade and Warren is stuck at home with me for one more year! Warren really misses his brother and sister while they are at school. Phoebe and Kimball are loving school. They attend a fantastic elementary that is just around the corner. They walk everyday. It has been nice with Jake still not in school that he has been able to walk with them. He has really enjoyed doing that with them. Warren is more then happy to walk with them. He usually gets to stop at the playground on the way home. The one thing that is strange about this school is the time. Maybe I am just use to Hill Field, but this school starts at 8 am and gets out at 2:10 pm! They got out of school at 3:30 in Utah. It just seems so early! But I am learning to adjust. I like that they have more playtime with Warren before bedtime.
We are still settling in our new house. I love our house! It is beautiful and HUGE! I really thought it wouldn't be this big, but it is! What a great surprise. He have FANTASTIC neighbors and have had a few get together already. We totally feel welcome at church too. I have been able to almost unpack most of the house. I still have my craft room to do. That is always the last thing to get done. Jake and I's room is still filled with boxes. We were waiting for some furniture to arrive. (It arrived this afternoon and Jake has been busy stain the wood) I also have little things to do like the coat closet or the cleaning supplies. They are all out just not organized. My little sister, Phoebe is coming and is going to help get some of these little projects done. I am really excited to spend sometime with her. She has been in Brazil all summer and now that we are in Ohio she is only about two hours away!! You better believe we are going to be spending more time together!! I am hoping to get more photos posted on a more regular bases.
I am been in a bit of a funk sense the move. I think I might have had another relapse of mono. The fatigue is pretty bad. And, to kick my while I am down I have noticed that my eye site is getting worse! So I need to go in an get a new glasses prescription. I fee old. I thought I was suppose to fall apart AFTER I turn 30. I still have two years! What the heck is going on? Oh well, life goes on!

Bear with me!

2010-08-23T19:12:00.001-07:00

I am trying to figure out why my templates have changed and it is not very easy to figure out. I will get it thought, have faith!

Ohio or BUST!

2010-08-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

Our Internet gets turned off today. The moving truck comes tomorrow. Wow, how time flies!! I can't believe this leg of our journey is here!! What great things are going to come of it. We'll be on the road for a while so it might be a two weeks before we are back on line. Thank you to all the wonderful comments and ideas. I have been working on some projects that I am very excited about! I can't wait to show you, once they are all unpacked!!

I need your help!

2010-07-10T14:39:00.001-07:00

I need all of y'alls help. I really want to buy an embroidery machine. I really nice one. A dream one. So I need to start my own little savings account. The machine I want in about $8,000 dollars. ( I went to the store today and found out it is on sale this week! Oh the the temptation!) I really don't want to effect the family budget with it so I am toying with the idea of starting to sell some of my crafts. What I want to know from you guys is WHAT you guys think I should make and sell. I am not saying that you will have to buy them, I am just wanting to know what caught your eye. Does that make any sense? I Hope so. I added a picture of my machine so you can see it, in all of it's glory! *drools*

This is the link to learn all the cool things it does!! HERE
Thanks for your input! It will help.

Lamps

2010-06-22T14:09:00.001-07:00

I've discovered that I really like giving lamps makeovers. It is a lot of fun to see something that is pretty ugly turn into a work of art! I have already done an embroidered lamp shade so I thought I would try with paint. The love birds lamps and shades I got at Big Lots. The lamps were a blue and red. The Shades had some ugly baby blue gingham ribbon around the edges. I panted the lamps black, removed the ribbon and painted two love birds on it. I then added buttons for the birds eyes. Most of you know that I can not draw to save my life so I cut out the birds with my cricut and then traced them and painted over them. I then found Jake's word burning kit and carved our initials into the base, sorta like you would do for a tree. Then on the back side of the lamp I carved out anniversary date. I think they turned out darling! Jake likes them too. I do want to ruffle some black ribbon and add that around the edges but I just ran out of time before the move. That is one project that will have to wait till we get to Ohio.
The second lamp I did I found at savors. It was a ugly tan color and quite beat up. I am really a fan of black lamps so again I painted it black. I think I might go a little crazy and find a metallic paint of silver or pewter for my next project. After I painted it black I thought it looked too clean so I took my mouse sander and started to distress it. I loved it. The ugly tan that just peeked through was perfect! I then found a great lamp shade at Big Lots (they really do have great deals there!) I used the opposite end of a paint brush to make the dots and then used my handy dandy glue gun to glue the flowers. I found the flowers at the Making Memories Warehouse sale. They were so cheep! I love the sparkle at the center of the flower! I have to say I miss having my lamps. I think I just plane miss having a house. I know it is only about another five weeks! I can do this!! Enjoy the lamps!

Fathers Day.. A wee early

2010-06-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Because Warren's birthday was this weekend also we decided to celebrate Father's Day a week earlier. It also happened that it was the weekend he had his surgery. It think it worked out great. Phoebe got Jake a great book on how to make American Girl Doll furniture. They sat together and looked at every project and talked about which one they would make when we get to Ohio. It was so darling. He even knew that the doll on the front of the book was Samantha. She was pleasantly shocked that her dad would know such things!
Kimball got his dad Super Mario Brother's for the Wii. Jake was thrilled to get it. He promised Kimball to teach him how to play. He has held true to that promise too. Playing the Wii was a great distraction for Jake while he was recovering. The kids loved to watch him play. They would sit for an hour and a half intently watching Jake play. It was so funny to watch. He would play with all the kids too. He and Kimball actually beat the game in less then one week. Like father, like son!
Warren got his daddy "driving wii" or in normal terms, Mario Kart. We also were able to get three extra wheels so the kids could drive. They all love to drive with Jake. Playing the wii is no fun, with out him.
It was very nice fathers day. I love Jake so much and he is a great father. He loves his children so very much! Thank you for being a wonderful father! I love you!

Jakes surgery

2010-06-18T19:19:00.000-07:00

For some reason Blogger is acting a little funny, but I wanted to get these photos posted. This is all about Jake's surgery. Last Friday Jake got surgery that has needed to be done sense he was a kid. He had his tonsils removed, his uvula cut off and a new one made out of his soft pallet, the rest of his soft pallet was tightened up, he had polyps removed from his nose, his left nostril was completely blocked and he was getting no air in it, and he had his deviated septum fixed. Whoa. That is a lot. He has been such an amazing person through all of it. I really thought it would have knocked him out, but get this, it has been seven days sense the surgery and he is completely off pain killer! (Has been sense day four!) He is talking, going out and doing things, and eating pretty normal food. The doctor was actually shocked at how well he is doing! That's my man! Two nights ago was the first time in our marriage that he did not snore!! He is feeling more rested then ever before. What a blessing. This surgery is so worth it to people with sleep apnea, and breathing problems. Jake's uvula was extremely long, and his tonsils were extremely huge. The doc said that was part of the snoring problem. When they removed the tonsils, it was covered with rotting food. YEWWW! How gross is that. He has one more week of leave left and is starting to go stir crazy. He has already beating Super Mario Brothers Wii. What on earth am I going to do with him? I guess I can figure something out. I am just so happy with how well he is doing!

As promised!

2010-06-16T17:56:00.001-07:00

In May the kids sang in a church primary talent show. They were so excited and did so well! I just love how Warren is trying so hard to be as tall as his brother and sister.

I just can't get enough of these kids!!

What cuties! Here is a link to the song they sang...

Internet!

2010-06-14T12:24:00.000-07:00

Oh wonderful Internet! I have missed you so much! I can start living again. I am out of the dark ages!!

I will update!

2010-05-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't updated in a long time. I have so much to post and share! But for now I don't have the time. We are moving and very fast. Like in the next two weeks. Once I am done with all this frantic packing and having a two month vacation at my mothers house, I will have all the time in the world to blog all about our life and how we have been so blessed!

Spring!

2010-04-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful spring weather! We are. (Thanks mom for taking such a great photo of my babies!)

What to do?

2010-04-14T16:20:00.001-07:00

When you have two swings and three siblings? That is easy, put the little one on someones lap!
I love these kiddos! How cute to go outside and find this! I hope they are always like this!

Dear Andy and Terica,

2010-03-22T17:00:00.001-07:00

Do you remember this? Do you remember about seven or eight years ago when Jake and I were moving out of our studio apartment and into the basement apartment? Do you remember how you hooked us up with all kinds of furniture? I do. I was sooooo thankful for all that you did for us. Well out of all of that furniture this is the last piece standing. Well I don't know if I could call it standing. The only reason it is standing is the two bookshelves on either side. It has made it through FIVE moves with use. One drawer is completely gone. The other is held together with duct tape. The doors don't work like should. But it has served us very well. Tonight this thing goes to the curb. I don't even know if it will hold its shape that far. It may just be a pile of dead wood. We'll see. I just wanted to thank you for this piece of furniture. It helped a lot. I hope it goes to a very special place in the after life. Love, Sariah

Killer Bunnies

2010-03-22T16:57:00.000-07:00

I find this photo of Jake very attractive. There he is laying on the floor with our babies playing Killer Bunnies. The kids LOVE to play this game with there dad. It is one of there favorite things to do with him. He loves to play with them too. He even lets them win! For those of you that know Jake know that he loves to win. Over the years he has softened up and lets the kids win. I love you so much Jake! Thanks for playing with the kids so I could get a break!!

It has happened!!

2010-03-22T08:45:00.001-07:00

I am happy to announce that IT has finally happened. Kimball is potty trained!!!!!!! I still get so excited to say that. With the love from his helpers at school and his worn out parents he has finally gotten the potty training thing down! We are so proud of him. It has been such a long battle and struggle. He will still have the occasional accident but it is few and far between. I love you Lou Buddy!!!

Vinyl fun

2010-03-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

Now that I have the larger cricut I have been able to do more with vinyl. It has been so much fun. I was able to find a cut file of an autobot and ordered some special car vinyl. My mom and I both wanted our cars to be autobots.

Moms Car Up close of my van

My car, pretty cool, huh? Now you will always be able to tell me van.

I have also been able to play around with wall art. I really like it. I didn't want to do too much in this house as to the fact that we are leaving in a few months. I love how Phoebes turned out. If you can 't read it well it says, "Daughter of a King"

I wanted this one a little more centered but it was my first one. It is hanging in the boys room. I wanted a race car kind of saying that goes along with a church theme, like Phoebe had daughter of a a King. It goes a long with Princesses and it is personal to her. So I ended up picking Endure to the End, for the boys. It not only talks about finishing the race, (they have a Cars themed room) But it also goes for life. They should always endure to the end. I doubt they understand all the meaning now, but hopefully one day they will.

I really like playing with vinyl. I have a couple more projects lined up. One is end of the year teacher gifts and the other is a business sign to go on a car window. I was also able to get some chalkboard vinyl!! I can't wait to do something with that. It might not happen till we are at the new house. I would hate to do something darling for only four months. So I will save that till Ohio.

camera case

2010-03-02T12:54:00.001-08:00

For Christmas, Santa brought my mom, my sister and myself a new camera! I love it! The only problem was that it didn't come with a case. I was able to make my sisters one before Christmas. It was really darling, pink, with cherries. I wish I had taken a picture of it. But below are mine and my mothers.

I have to say, I like my fabric much better then my moms and she thinks my in ugly. Oh well, that is the beauty of making your own. She picked out her fabric. By the way Mom, I think yours is boring!

But I love you anyways!

Date Night

2010-03-02T12:43:00.001-08:00

Jake and I had a fun date night last night. We built a Lego set from my childhood. I received this set in 1993 and my mom has kept it all this time. I was able to find the instruction manual online. It took a bit to dig through all seven of my mom's kids Lego's but be found all but three pieces and the sails. The pirates were a little sad that they don't have sails. I told them my sister understood there pain.

I think we might have to do this again sometime, but with a different set!

Dolls for Haiti

2010-02-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

Last month when the earthquake hit Haiti I got addicted to watching the coverage. After a time I became heartbroken. Heartbroken for the children. Their stories made me cry. I wanted to go and hug each one of them. I wanted to adopt them all. I knew neither was possible so I thought about what helped me when I was a little girl, get through tough times. It came pretty quick, a doll. I love dolls. They make me happy. So I gathered up enough supplies to be able to make 16 rag dolls. I enjoyed sitting and hand stitching each of their faces, and braiding their hair. I imagined little girls getting to cuddle and cry with their new dolls. It took me about a month to do, but I did it. I have officially finished all sixteen dolls. I am a little sad to seem them leave, but not too sad, I know they are on there way to well deserved homes. God Speed little dollies!

Babies on the brain!

2010-02-11T22:48:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about babies. My brother and sister in law just welcomed in there second child Petra June on the 8th. Petra is something else! Let me tell you! She was born at 31 weeks. Her mother was so amazing through it all. Petra was born crying and healthy! She weighed in at 3 pounds 1 ounce and 16 inches long. So far she is still doing great, what a strong girl. I look forward to holding her one day. She is tiny, wrinkly and beautiful. I love you Petra!

My older sister, Charlotte, and her husband, Eric, are expecting their first baby this summer. I am so excited for Charlotte, she has waited so long for this. I feel like I can get my baby cravings out on her! LOL. We are still waiting to find out the sex of the baby, I have to say it is driving me a little batty. I have all these baby ideas I want to make for her but I need to know what colors to pick. I need to be patient, we will find out in the next few weeks. I have been able to make a few things for her and the baby. I have posted them below. Love you Charlotte! Glad you are feeling "better".

I love this stamp from Stamping Bella. I have to confess, I have ordered a few more from her that go along with the whole expecting a baby. I can't wait for them to arrive in the mail.

Did I mention that my sister and husband live on a sail boat? Yes, they really do, and they like it! I guess this baby is going to be stuck with a lot of pirate/nautical things. But that is okay, because my kids call Eric, Uncle Pirate.

A ladies man

2010-02-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

Kimball had to go to the doctor. He has some bug and a cough that has lasted for a month. Well, it was the story that Jake told me afterwards that had me in stitches!

Once they got checked in and the tech was about to leave Kimball pipped up and said, " You look good." She asked Jake, "What did he say?" Jake repeated that Kimball she looked good. She smiled and said, "you do too." She then left the room. Jake then asked if he liked that she was wearing green, he said "Yeah and she is skinny too."

Later when she came back in to do a strep test on Kimball he started to cry and said, "She choked me."

You know he is only five and he is checking out women! Oh boy are we in for it!

Transfixed on Transformers

2010-02-08T16:52:00.000-08:00

This is Warren. He is three and a half and he has a problem...

He is addicted to Transformers. I'm not talking about he really likes them, I am talking about eats, sleep, and even dreams transformers. I have to blame my mom for this one, it is 100% her fault! It all started when she let the kids watch the edited version of Transformers. He was hooked the first time. He wanted to watch it every day, multiple times a day. For Christmas my mom bought him every transformer she could get her hands on. He then started to become his favorite transformer of the day. Someday he would be and Autobot and save everything he could. Other days he would be a decepticon and beat up every one and thing he could get his hands on. Then for two weeks or more my mom and I searched the Internet to find Transformers 2 edited. It was a lot tougher then I thought, but we found a site that required us to buy 10 edited movies in one order. Ouch! We did get it. Crazy right? He then wanted to watch both in a day. I was starting to loose my mind. But I could probably win any quote game from both of those movies. I was finally able to get him to do other things then want to watch the movies but it usually was reading about transformers, playing transformers or playing trains with transformers. We had to feed his transformers, tuck in his transformers into bed each night and let them in our family prayer circle. Wow, does this kid think about anything else? I took the kids to a book fair at school. Go figure, my son would be able to find the ONE book in the entire room about transformers. It was the Cartoon Network version. That made me start thinking, if there is a book that has all of the characters then there must be a cartoon. So I did a little research and found out that there are three seasons on DVD! I was thrilled. The next day Warren and I went to the store and was able to buy seasons 1 and 2. I really didn't want him to sit and veg in front of the TV for the next six months, so I got this really great idea. I really want Warren to get serious about potty training, so I told him that if he wanted to watch a cartoon, then he had to pee in the potty. I had no clue how well that plan would go! He is now on the first episode from season two! It isn't a battle to get him to go, he actually goes in willingly! How great. I guess I can deal with this addiction if he gets potty trained!

( See his pile of transformers he is sleeping with? That isn't all of them either!)

A letter

2010-02-02T16:59:00.001-08:00

Dear Housing,
I hate you.
Love Sariah

Potty Party!!

2010-01-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

I have the best news ever!! Are you ready for this? My son, Kimball, has finally pooped in the potty for the first time ever! Isn't is grand? We have been working with him for years, but due to his sensory issues it has been very hard! For the past few days I have noticed that on his own he has gone in the bathroom and sat on the potty to try. I knew we were getting close and today it finally happened! We were all playing Lego's in the living room when I noticed he was no were near by. I immediately though that he had gone and hid because he had pooped in his underwear but he called from the bathroom, "Mom, the poops got in the toilet!" I leaped up screaming! I was so ecstatic! We all danced around the house and then I loaded the kids in the car and we went to go buy the much wanted new Backyardigians DVD and some cookies. I then let them have a picnic dinner in the living room while watching the new movie. He has been able to call his dad, his Bella, and his teacher. Also two of his aunts. What a great day. I know that we still may have a few accidents but I know this is it! This is the end of pull ups and messed underwear! It is finally happening! Hurray for Kimball!

Phoebe's seizure

2010-01-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

So many of you have heard that on Friday my little Phoebe had a seizure. It was pretty scary and what drives me nuts is that they (the doctors) don't know why it happened. Here is how it went: Jake was up because he had the day off. I was going to sleep in! Jake was feeding the kids oatmeal and was standing next to Phoebe and Warren at the table. All the sudden Phoebe just falls off the chair right at his feet. She landed on her face. She then seized and was on her back. The then proceeded to shake. Her eyes did not roll back in her head, but they glassed over. Jake started to call out her name, at first he was confused, thinking she was being silly, but quickly realized that something was wrong. He stayed amazingly calm. He runs into our room and says, "I think Phoebe just had a seizure" Upon hearing that I jump out of bed and find my little girl on the floor, white as a ghost. I have NEVER seen someone so pale in all my life. Her lips were white. She started to cry and was really confused. Jake picked her up and carried her to our bed. She was saying things like "I feel shaky all over" or "my legs feel funny" "I feel sick to my stomach" " my back hurts" I immediately started getting her jacket on her while Jake got his shoes on. From the time I got out bed till this point it had maybe been two minutes. It all happened so fast. Jake took Phoebe straight to the ER and I got Kimball and Warren dropped off at a friends house. Thank goodness for wonderful friends who can help at the drop of a hat! I was able to meet Jake at the ER just in time for Phoebe to get a CT Scan. She also had X-rays to make sure nothing was injured when she fell, and lots and lots of blood work. Everything came back normal. The doctor said that this could be a one time thing or it could be the start of something. We now just have to wait and see. If she has another one we need to call our pediatrician and document it. If it happens a third time then we have to start getting concerned and have more detailed testing done. I felt like I left the ER with more questions then answers. She recovered just fine and is back to her happy little self. Here is to no more of those lovely seizures!!

Some of the things I have been up too

2010-01-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

I love to post photos of the crafts I am working on but around Christmas I have to hold off, because most of the crafts turn to gifts. But I can post some now! The first one is a quilt I made my sister, Rose. I made a quilt for my sister Phoebe for graduation and now it was Rose's turn. I know she loves pink. I goal is to one day make on for each one of my siblings. So rush me though. It is a lot of work... and money

Okay this one is a long story but Jake knows how I always wanted an American Girl doll as a girl. This past year American Girl retired my dream doll. I was devastated. Jake went on EBay and bought me one as a surprise! She needed some work but I was thrilled to do it. I first fixed her sticky eyes. The I need to attack her hair. I learned how to re wig her.

I have to say the doll looks scary bawled. It freaked Phoebe out and she made me promise not to do it to her two dolls. She cracks me up!

This is what my Kirsten doll looks like with her new wig. I think it looks like the real deal. I love my husband so much. Santa brought me her original outfit too. So now twenty years later I have my doll. She stays on display in Phoebes room, but I love her. Thanks Jake!

This is a pretty funny picture of Warren, but I made Phoebe, Kimball, Warren and Autumn all matching pajamas for Christmas.

I think I have more craft photos some where between the dead computer and this new one. I will keep looking.

Jakes birthday

2010-01-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

Jake turned 31 this past year! We had a small family party. I love this picture of Jake.

I wish the photos would turn but I love the crazy faces that the kids are making. Jake doesn't like birthday cake so I make him pudding. I don't like the stuff, but he gets it every year on his birthday.

This photo makes my heart melt. He is the greatest dad. The kids bought him "There is Another Monster at the end of this Book." They love when he reads it to him!

Happy Birthday honey!

Grow with me!

2010-01-06T18:44:00.001-08:00

Every Christmas we do our family measuring wall. It isn't a wall really. Just a board. I don't get to live in a house long enough to have a real wall so this will do. I love begin able to see how my kids have grown. I try to get every extended family member on the board. It is fun.

(cousin Autumn getting on the board for the second time)

My bean pole of a daughter. This girl is growing like a weed! She is almost as tall as her Aunt Phoebe!

Warren is my smallest, I think he got my short gene. Poor guy. But we will see.

Kimball is starting to sprout too! He is taller then Phoebe was at that age. I think there is only a two inch difference.

Jake...

2010-01-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

Not only is he good looking......

He's really handy with tools! Jake has started to do discover he is really good with power tools. We was able to make these saw hores in two days. He has a couple of friends that help him when he gets questions. I think he looks sexy! I love you Jake! Keep up the good work!

My Nativity

2009-12-30T13:16:00.001-08:00

For the past few years I have been collecting the Willow Tree Nativity Set. Every year I would buy a new peice to it. This year I was able to complete my set! A store was going out of business and actually had all the peice on sale! I love my Nativity. I think it is one of the most reverent sets out there. Above the Willow Tree set is a flannel board Nativity that was giving to my family when I was a kid. It has been up in our house every year sense then. I love Nativity sets. I have four more in my house. I guess I will have to get photos of all of them next year.

My Gift

2009-12-30T13:04:00.001-08:00

Jake bought me a gift. A big gift. He went to great lenghts to hide it. He saved money, gave cash to my mom so she could buy it and hide it at her house. Then they hide it really well under the tree. I had a hope of what it was.

It was! It was a big Cricut! I started to cry I was so happy!!

Tears of happiness!

Isn't it wonderful?

I have the most wonderful husband on the planet!!

A wonderful time with family

2009-12-30T12:50:00.001-08:00

My sister left this morning. I was sad. I had so much fun with them. I've missed them so much. We had a great time. We really didn't do anything much, just spend time together. It was the best. My neice, Autumn, came too. My daughter Phoebe was in hog heaven with her cousin. Those two are alll girl! They played all the time together. My Phoebe told me it was like having a sister. Christmas Day was wonderful. We spend a lot of time opening presents and laughing. Here is are some of the highlights of the day.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T19:01:00.001-08:00

We had a great Christmas here in the English household. I am still spending time with sisters, mom and niece. I will post more when I am not having a blast and being really immature...LOL. You have to love your younger sisters.

Keep on Keepin' on!

2009-12-20T22:28:00.000-08:00

Today has been a pretty hard day. The difficulty breathing is back and I have a new symptom. You know how after you have a baby you have some serious swelling in your bum area? Well I have that for some reason. It hurts something fierce too! I am still pretty drugged, but I am trying to have a good attitude. I was able to do some sewing today. It was pretty nice. I was able to teach Phoebe about how to read pattern and cut it out. I was able to make all four of the kids pj's for Christmas eve and made four doll sized ones, for all our dolls. It felt good to create something. My mom was up again this weekend and was a huge help. I really couldn't do it with out Jake and Mom. Jake and I sat down and wrote a list of questions and concerns. Tonight as I was laying on the couch, drugged and crying I told Jake that no matter what something has to be done on Tuesday, when we go tot he doctor. I will not accept a bottle of pain pills and a "lets wait and see" It is just too bad. I am very thankful that I have my sisters coming for Christmas. I know they will be a big help. Here is to making it till Tuesday!

Being Sick

2009-12-19T01:06:00.000-08:00

I thought I would give some explanation as to why I have not posted in so long.( and also because it has taken up so much of my time!) At the beginning of November the family all got the swine flu. It has hard and not fun, but we all made it through great. Except me. It seemed to hit me really hard and longer then anyone else in the family. I just thought it had to do with me having to take care of everyone, but it I noticed all the flu like symptoms where gone and now I had pain in my left upper side. Right by my stomach and spleen and under my rib cage. The pain was bad. To make some VERY long weeks short, I ended up in the ER three times, was told I had a blood clot in my lungs, to be told right a way it was a misdiagnoses, have had x-rays and CT scans to last a life time and more blood drawn then any normal person should have, the doctors have finally found some kind of answer. I have an enlarged sleep and to cysts on my kidneys. The right kidney has a 5 ml cyst on it and the left side (the side with all the pain) as a 15 ml cyst on it. Between the enlarged spleen and the cyst I am having some pressure put on some of my organs. I can have pain from my lower back to up in my shoulder. Including really bad difficulty breathing I don't think I have ever been is so much pain. Sadly I have had to start living off pain killers. I hate how they make me feel! I feel like a slave to them. I am watching myself (as is Jake) very carefully to monitor how much and how often I take the. I really, really don't want to get dependent on them. I have not been able to drive during all of this. It is really depressing. So, you ask, what the heck are they going to do for you? Well, I really don't know. I was giving the results today and am going to meet with the doctor again on Tuesday for more tests. They need to check and see if the cysts are infected and why spleen is enlarged. (which could be from and infected cyst) It has been a very trying time for me. I am short on patients because of the pain and lack of being able to sleep. I am so drugged I am not able to craft or do much of anything. I wasn't able to make neighbor gifts, teacher gifts or co-worker gifts and there will be no Christmas card this year. The only reason my house is decorated and presents wrapped is because of Jake and mom. They have been such a huge help! Jake is playing both parent rolls right now. He is doing such a great job but I am looking forward to being able to do all of my job! I love being a wife and mother. My mom has come up every weekend through all of this. My two younger sisters and niece are coming on Wednesday and Jake has the entire week after Christmas off. I am in good hands. I think that is a pretty good over view of how my life as gone for the past six or seven weeks. I am trying very hard to keep a positive attitude and find things I can do without causing too much pain. I am very much looking forward to Christmas and spending some time with my family. I will post soon, as soon as I know more information at to what the heck they are going to do with me. Merry Christmas!

2009-12-13T01:35:00.001-08:00

New posts comings soon. We have a new computer and need to get things set up. I have lots of fun stuff to share.

A Wonderful Day!

2009-11-11T23:07:00.000-08:00

A lot of things are going around the Internet right now, about writing about what you are thankful for. I don't think I could do it everyday, like most of the emails and facebook posts say to do, but I did want to write about how thankful I am for today.
Yes, today was a very special National Holiday, honoring our services members, but it was a family day for us.
Phoebe and Kimball have had half days all week due to Parent Teacher Conferences. Jake was able to have today off. All morning he and Warren were able to spend some special time together. They played games and goofed off together, they ate lunch together. Warren adores his dad. I am so thankful those two got that time together.
About a half hour before school let out Jake was able to go into Kimball's class and read the class his favorite book. "The Monster At The End Of This Book". Jake does the perfect Grover voice and the kids went nuts over it. They begged him to read it a second time, which he did. Kimball was in heaven. Jake will often read that book to the kids at home, but for Kimball, to have his dad read it to all of his friends, life couldn't get better. I am so thankful that Jake had the day off to be able to read that to Kimball's class.
When we all were home we had lots of fun. Phoebe and I sat together and did all of her My Little Pony's hair. The boys played GeoTrax. We even had a family Wii tournament. I kicked every one's but when it comes to duck hunt, Phoebe kicks butt at the matching faces in the crowd game, Kimball kicks some serious butt at Boxing, Warren.. well he just kicks butt at holding the Wii mote. To him he is a winner just holding the thing! ( I really don't need to mention that Jake kicks butt at all the other games. ) Then we all worked on some puzzle games in a book Phoebe has. We did word searches, tick-tack-toe, and so many other games. I am so thankful for being able to lay on the floor with my kids and play games.
We didn't have an official dinner. We snacked most of the day. We were all having too much fun to stop and do something grown up, like cook dinner. We did all sit together and enjoy hot chocolate and toast. It was a perfect bedtime snack for this day. I am so thankful for my Cocoa Motion!
Before we could put the kids to bed we realized we forgot to play or favorite family game, Killer Bunnies, so we let the kids stay up later then normal and played the game. It was so funny to see the kids get so excited to give Daddy's bunny the Ebola Virus, or to put Phoebe's through the meat grinder! (If you haven't played the game, don't worry, it is just a card.....) No one got mad for loosing or having a bunny die. We were all laughing so much. The kids love that Daddy doesn't always win this game. I am so thankful for my family!!
After the kids were in bed Jake and I got to spend a quite evening at home. We talked and watched TV. I did a little sewing and he played a computer game. I love that we love to do things together, but that we can do two separate things, but still enjoy each others company. He is so great. I am so thankful for my wonderful husband! He is the best!

Ten years in the making!

2009-11-06T22:13:00.001-08:00

A little over ten years ago I bought a bunch of blue fabric. I just had fell in love with it. I kept it for a few years and sense then I have been slowly working on it. I am happy to say I have finally finished it! I love it. What makes it extra special is that is I was able to use one of my great grandmothers quilts as the batting. The quilt was falling apart! It was basically rags. Granny always wanted us to use the quilts and we have been using that quilt sense I was a kid! I really like how it turned out. I was even able to find a blue fabric on the back that was similar to the the back fabric to Granny's quilt. I picked blue, hers was yellow. I really didn't want to tie they quilt, but because of the size of it I was not able to use my own machine to quilt it. Sigh.... One day I will be able to own a quilting machine! Jake and I tied it together. I was a fun date night. So please enjoy the quilt. If you ever come to visit then you just might get to sleep with it!

, The bed is a queen but the blanket is fit for a double bed. It works though. I wish I could have shown it to Granny!

This shows you an up close of the design. I wanted it to be a pinwheel design but it didn't' turn out quite how I wanted it, but still I am falling more and more in love with it.

This picture shows the back of the quilt. The quilt that I recycled was very similar to the back of this quilt, just yellow. I was able to find a craft store going out of business. I was able to get the fabric for 50% off! Whhooooooooooooo I love finding deals like that! I just might go back on payday and get some more cheep fabric to finish a few other quilt projects... Well see......

Silly Warren

2009-11-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

Here are some random photos of Warren playing with an old mouth guard. What a cutie!

ZOO

2009-11-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

All the way back in September My mom and I took the kids to the Zoo. Jake was gone to Florida, for business. It was a great day to spend Labor Day. The kids loved seeing King Julian and the Foosa! The elephants were cool too. It was a hard work out pushing my mom around in the wheelchair, but it was worth it. I think the thing I will remember the most is I am pushing mom up a hill, trying to keep the kids from running in different directions when the phone rings. It is Jake. I get us to stopping point and answer. It is Jake. Calling me from Disney World! I can laugh now but I wanted to hang up on him at the moment! I sure love that man!

A great find!

2009-10-25T16:04:00.001-07:00

Back on some lonely September day I was browsing the classified trying to find an end table for my living room. I just happened to find this beauty. It is an antique mahogany table. It was love at first sight. The best part of it was it only cost me 10 dollars! The lady didn't want to fix it up and just wanted to get rid if it. I was thrilled to take it off her hands! Isn't it beautiful?

Phoebe is holding it up. I hadn't fixed the leg yet. She is such a trooper. Or maybe she was happy to be out of bed to help her mom. I don't know.

The top is really scratched up. Part of my likes it that way. It gives it more flavor. Part of me wants to totally redo it from top to bottom. I guess it depends on the history behind the table. I am still trying to find out information about it. More to come on that.

Ignore the dust please. I love the detail! The decor, the grain line and the color. It is so pretty. I don't think I took a photo if it but I has metal claw feet. Oh so cute!

Another pretty shot.

Here is another added bonus. It opens up to a card table! The hinges are loose so we don't open it up, but wont that be fun when family comes over?
Soon after I took these photos I fixed the broken leg and found the perfect spot in the living room. It is adorned with my beautiful redone lamp and fall decorations. I will try to get a photo of it up soon.

Adam's Canyon

2009-10-25T15:53:00.001-07:00

On another Saturday in September Jake wanted to take the family on a hike. The one he really wanted to do, my knee couldn't do. We decided to split up, Jake took Kimball and Phoebe to Adam's Canyon and Warren and I got to spend some great quality time together. I loved looking at the photos from their hike. They were lucky enough to run into a friend doing the same hike and they took photos of all of them. I think they turned out great!

Ogden's Horses

2009-10-25T15:36:00.001-07:00

Back in September Mom and I took the kids to Ogden's farmers market. It runs along Historic 25th street. Apparently they have placed about 75 painted horses all up and down the area. We took our time and found the cool horses. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday Morning.

(The John Wayne Horse.. Mom's fav!)

(I don't remember this horses name, the kids just liked it)

Go Air Force!

This one was the prettiest. It has glitter all over it!

BOLT

2009-10-23T18:04:00.001-07:00

The. Halloween. Costumes. Are. Done.
Phoebe as Penny
Kimball as Rino
Warren as Bolt

I tried to make it easier this year then last. Sure I didn't start in August but having to find everything to match was hard enough. Maybe next year I will just buy costumes! *gasp!* Jake is going to be the villian, The green eyed man, mom is going to be Mittens the cat and I get stuck being Penny's mom. Why can't I get a cool person to be? Oh well. Here it to many more post to come!

Lamp Shade revamp

2009-09-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long pause! Between having an allergic reaction to medication that sent me to the ER (and a week recovery) and then having a 33 hour power outage and now I am battling a little head cold, I really haven't wanted to do much of anything. Today I hit my wall. I felt like if I didn't do something for me or creative I might pull some hair out. It took me a while to figure something I could do laying on the couch and not much work. In my last post I showed the lamp that I painted. I really liked it but I thought the lamp shade was too white. Tonight, while Jake listened to the BYU game (go cougars!) I did this!

I stitched a little flower design. I just got a sharp pencil and sketched the design I wanted and then I pulled out my cross stitching stuff, found some buttons and six hours later I had this beauty. I am really in love with it! What do you think?

DIY!

2009-09-15T11:57:00.001-07:00

My sister Charlotte has gotten me into doing DIY (Do it yourself) projects. Reuse and re purpose. I am a bit addicted to it. I think it all started when she came out and re did my craft room. We hit the thrift stores and tried to use up what we had around the house. I now love going to thrift stores and seeing the potential in things. Here is my first real project. I was simple but so satisfing! I saw this lamp. It was for three dollars. I really liked the shape of thel lamp and that was about it. I slapped on some black paint and got a new lamp shade (the lamp shade was on clearance too!) and now I have an new lamp!

Before:

After!
I am thinking about the lamp shade. It is so plane. I think I might embroder some little design around the top and bottom edge. What do you think?

Bedroom Revamp!

2009-09-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Along with moving comes redecorating! I picked Phoebe's! I loved doing it. I am exhausted but it was so much fun! Here are some the photos. We are still waiting for her bed to arrive, so her room still looks a little off, but I love how everything else worked out.
This is her window and kitchen. I love those butterflies on her curtains!
This has been a long work in progress. I cut the princesses out months ago with my Cricut. I knew I wanted to hang them up, I just didn't know how. Moving to this house gave me a clean slate. The pink frame around the five princesses is actually the frame off of a cheep dorm mirror. I took the mirror apart, hung the glass in my room with different hardware and painted the white frame pink. It fit five of the six princesses perfectly! I will so happy to be able to reuse something. Belle is Phoebe's favorite princess so I found a frame at a thrift store for three dollars and painted it purple. I think it will look great framed above her bed.( When it actually arrives!) The small pink frames we already had, they were a natural wood, so I just slapped some paint on them too.
Up close of the Belle frame
Up close of the other five.
I am pretty stoked how this turned out. When my sister came out a few months ago and we decorated my craft room we had a couple of shelves left over. I painted them the same bubble gum pink and bought some L brackets at the hardware store of under a buck each. I painted them purple to help tie in the colors. Phoebe is starting to get quite a collection of American Girl Doll books and items. The three drawer dresser is full of her American Girl doll items. The doll case on the floor I made for her. It was fun, long and hard, but it is so cute. (That will be another post) Back to the shelves. Phoebe didn't like that her brother ( can you guess? Yep, Warren) could get to her books, so the bottom shelf is high enough that she can easily reach them. The top shelf holds her tea set. I got this set at a thrift store for fifteen dollars. She loves it and I think it looks so great on the shelf. So that was my day, painting, and hanging and reliving my childhood! I hope you enjoy it. Now this weekend I get to work on the boys room. I am cooking up so ideas! Photos to come later.

MOLD

2009-08-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

As many of you might have heard, we have moved. We are still in the same area, just a different house. Why have moved? Mold. Lovely, mold. And a lot of it I might add. After three years of complaining about a water damaged wall, they finally came and took care of it. Well as they started ripping, they kept ripping and kept ripping until they had uncovered a 12 section of rotting wall and mold! I was so ticked! They ripped it out with the kids and I in the house and we immediately started getting a burning sore throat. We contacted the housing people and they had the nerve to tell me that it was fine to live in. Ha! Over my dead body. Jake's boss was so mad when he saw what condition of the house. It is nice to have someone on our side! The next day we had keys to a different house. It is the exact same layout as our old one. It made the move a lot easier. We have been blessed to have so many great friends come over and help up move. We had it done in three days. Not bad! Now we just have to finish unpacking everything here! Enjoy the photos!

This is where they started. And they kept going...

After they pulled in moldy insulation out they found that the outside wall was soft. So soft in some areas you could push your finger straight through the wall.

More yucky wall

That is me, being brave. I wiped my hand on a small area and pulled of mold.
It was the entire stinkin wall! 12 feet total. It was on the bottom of the carpet and the two by fours were rotting away!
The smell was horrible! I had a had time breathing

This part is my favorite. These boards were so rotted out that you could use your finger nail and pull hunks of them out. Even I could tell that this was a HUGE project to tackle and I was not planning on living in the house while they did it. That is when I called Jake home from work.

What makes it even better is that they said that sealing it in with a spray paint was going to fix it. Ha! How stupid do I look? They honestly thought that we would want to keep living in that house. Not on your life, buddy! So once we talked to all the right people they said they would hold off on any fixing of the house till we had moved out and then a great job duct taping plastic over the wall. It was such a high quality job that it fell down every day, until they just stopped coming over to tape it back up. Nothing like breathing in all that crap!

Now we are in our new house. All major items are put in the right place. We still have my craft room to do and to hang shelves and photos. Give me a week and I think I will have it together. My goal is to have it done before Jake leaves on a business trip in a couple of weeks. That way I can just play in the evening, once the kids go to bed. We'll see how that really goes!

If you would like our new address, please email me at sariahenglish@gmail.co and I will send it your way! Have a wonderful and healthy day!

First Day of school!

2009-08-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

The has arrived and I am happy to say I did NOT cry! We started school today. Phoebe is on her way to a wonderful first grade year and Kimball got to do his Kindergarten orientation today. It was only for an hour, so he is already home. Warren has been asking were Phoebe is and that he misses her. I am glad this week Kimball is home. It wont be so hard on him.

Phoebe and her friend from last year, Molly. They are in the same class again. Yippie!
This Phoebe at her new desk. She almost started to cry but I quickly pointed out her friends from last year and she started to feel more comfortable.

This is Kimball in the Terrific Turtle line. They got to tour the school holding on to the rope. He did so great! I was so proud of him and how he behaved! What a great boy he is!This is Kimball sitting at the blue table and his teacher, Mrs. Moore.
The whole classroom.

New Couches!!

2009-08-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

I am so thrilled about these couches. If any of you have been to my house in the last year you will know trashed my couches have become. It isn't that we treated them bad, they were just crappy couches. Jake bought our first couches as a college graduation present. I loved them, but we soon found out that they couldn't hold up to life with three kids. Every time I turned around there was another snag or a hole. We tired to patch and stitch whatever we could but it was like putting a band aide on a flesh wound. Then we got a dog. Oh that crazy dog, he tore up out couches! He went to town. I never have wanted to kill a dog so much in all my life! We bought some twin sheets to cover the seats. It was livable, but Jake and I both hated it. Finally, we found a great deal at Ashley Home Furnishings. I love it! It is a sectional but we have split up. It is also microfiber! I love it. I love the new color. It makes me want to redecorate my house. But I will wait.... maybe when get to new house! So please come on over and sit on my new couches!

I really like the couch pillows. The colors are great!
This is wear we had the love seat, now it has the "L" couch. Kimball thinks the chassis is his couch, because it fits him.
The big couch. One of our requirements for a couch is that we have to both be able to lay down on the couch at the same time. This passed. Very snugly!
Big room shot! Look how nice my house looks! Wish it would stay like that all the time!

Teacher gifts

2009-08-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

I made these little buckets for Kimball and Phoebe's teachers. I found a great deal at the local thrift shop and each of the paint buckets were 50 cents! I had all the paper on hand and ended up borrowing my friends Locker Talk Cricut Cartridge. ( love this cartridge so much! I really hope Jake will buy it for me! HINT HINT HINT!) I filled the bucket with chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. I labeled the bucket "Teacher Survival Kit" I would think that much chocolate would get them through the first month of school. LOL. I hope you enjoy them too. I wish I had all that chocolate right now.....

Happy Birthday Phoebe

2009-08-18T14:02:00.001-07:00

My baby turned six on Sunday. I really can't believe how time has flown. She is such a great daughter. I love her so much. We had another family birthday party. She loved it. As part of our birthday tradition we took her to go pick out her present from Toys R Us. She looked all around and then said she was sad because she wanted some American Girl things. Barnes and Noble was just a store or two down in the strip mall so we walked over there and my little girl picked out the six newest American Girl books, all about Rebbecca. She was thrilled. Jake also got her some American girl trading cards. He is teaching her the art of collecting cards. They had a lot of fun. I can see more of these cards coming in the future! It was fun to see them so involved in something together. To Phoebes much happy surprise, (and to a lot of pre planning on my part,) she had quite a few gifts from American Girl. She got Felicity's riding outfit, the pet vet set (say that three times fast!) and also the pet bed set. Bella got her the American Girl Chrissa book, littlest pet shop stuff and a new blanket for her new twin bed! The bed doesn't come till the first week of September but she loves that it is princess and not Dora. Dora is no longer cool. Glad I am informed of that! Phoebe also wanted a cake like her brothers. I did my best but the frosting was so soft. The kids thought it was great, and that is all that really matters, but I am my own worst critic. It was a great Sunday and Birthday! Happy Birthday my angel! I love you with all my heart!

Cupcake Heaven!

2009-08-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

How many of you read the Nie Nie Dialogues? If you don't, you should! In fact, stop reading this and go here: http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

Are you back? Isn't she one of the most amazing people on the planet. She makes me want to be a better person. Really, she does. When I am having a bad mom day, I think about some of the blogs she has written. It really helps. Lucky for me she lives in Provo, so when she talks about places in her town I know where it is. She started talking about this great cupcake shop. My sister and I both wanted to try it out. Let me tell you The Sweet tooth bakery is the best! WOW! I have never had such great tasting cupcakes. If you go into Provo, go and visit this place!

Fish Tank

2009-08-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

I really haven't been able to get great photos of the fish tank we have, but my sister was able to with her camera. I hope you enjoy them!

Kimball's 5th Birthday!

2009-08-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Who wants an update? I do! I do! I figure that I should probably get Kimball's birthday post done, sense Phoebe's is this coming Sunday! Man, I have been slow at this. Part of the reason is that I am getting all things back to school ready. This year in includes a bit more work. Because Kimball has Sensory Integration Disorder he has to get a 504. It is sorta similar to and IEP, but not. I 504 covers kids that do not have a learning disability, but a disability that could affect there learning. I am really thankful they have something like this. Mrs. Moore, Phoebe's Kindergarten teacher from last years has be the biggest help to Jake and I as we have gone through this process! Thank you Mrs. Moore! We also got the happy news that Kimball will also be in Mrs. Moore's class. That right there helps him on so many levels! We are down to two weeks till school starts. I am busy making teachers gifts, continuing to work with Kimball's potty training. Yes, that is right, my son is 5 and still not potty trained. Going pee in the potty is really starting to take hold. We can usually make it with one accident a day, as long as I remind him. Occasionally he will go in on his own. I am really praying that being around kids his age everyday will jump start him will this. I will keep you informed. Okay, so I was going to post about Kimball's birthday. It was a really great day. My sister Charlotte flew in that day and that evening after church we had a small family party. Kimball requested a "Big Top Cupcake" for his cake. (How many of you have seen that info-mercial? It drives me nuts! Kimball can recite the whole commercial! My friend had the Wilton version if the pan so I was able to use that! He loved it. I had a blast making it. Kimball was in heaven with it. Then he went to cloud nine for the presents. Any of you that know Kimball, know how excited he can get. He was able to go to Toys R Us and pick out a geotrax airplane set. It is really fun, he can connect it with Warren's airport set. He also got some racetrack and cars, and some transformers and a hippied hop. I can't believe this little guy is five. It has been some pretty crazy past five years, but I wouldn't change anything of it. Even with all of his difficulities, this kid is amazing. I love you so much Kimball!

My new craft room!

2009-08-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

I have a whole bunch of photos and blogs to post. I really need to update. I am hoping to do that tomorrow. So much to do, so little time. I really wanted to talk about my craft room. Many of you know how much I love to craft and that after five years of living in small college apartments we moved into our beautiful four bedroom duplex I finally got a craft room! I tried so many different ways to make it work as a craft room and a guest bedroom. It worked for a while. But I found myself crafting more in the kitchen then in my craft room. Then at the beginning of this my friend and her family moved into my craft room. I moved everything into Jake and my bedroom. It made it so hard to craft. Fast forward to last month. My sister Charlotte came out to visit. We made it our project to make my craft room the craft room of my dreams. We worked long and hard and long and hard. It was worth every second! My sister took all the photos, so I am going to link you to her site. She is starting an Etsy shop. She has the incrediable idea about jewelry storage/display. I can't wait till I can get my hands on them! I already know where mine are going to hang! Anyways, she is amazing and so is her site. Go HERE to check it out. I want to hear what you guys think of my craft room! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

From the mouth of babes!

2009-07-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

My kids crack me up. You really never know what is going to come out of there mouths! Case in point, last night, Jake is talking to Phoebe about obeying her parents. He asked her this question.
"If you want to do something and you go ask you mom and she says no and then you come to me and ask and I say yes, what does that mean?"
She looked at him with a very serious face and replied,
"You're fighting"

Jake and I laughed a good while at that.

a toothless reality

2009-07-08T23:03:00.000-07:00

There comes a time in every parents life when that have to face the facts that their children are growing up. Sometimes you can look past it, believe it is not there, but when it comes to this, no, it is a harsh reality you see every time you look into her beautiful smiling face. What am a babbling on about, you ask? Here, let me show you:

This is Phoebe after she has lost her first tooth! After her full faced excitement I tried to get her to smile in a way that we could understand what she is giddy about
There it is, the proof that my children are growing up! It is clear and clear can be! My baby girl, my daugther has lost her first tooth!

Look at her face! She is glowing! She immediately wanted to call her Bella and tell her the good new. I have to say, her telling us her tooth hurt after dinner, and now this. It wasn't what I was expecting. I remember dragging the process out for so long. The truth is wiggly teeth make my stomach squirm. I did convince her that her brave, strong, and loving father would take care of that tooth faster than you can say "My Cat Lightin' " and it was true. He did hid fatherly duties, Phoebe was doing a happy dance with her tooth and I was wiping away tears from my eyes. My little girl is growing up in if I like it or not. I can't keep a brick on her head to keep from growing and now I can't keep the teeth in either! It is a loosing battle. I guess the biggest lesson here, is for me. She is going to grow up and become some incredibly special women. I just hope I can teacher her all I can so that by the time comes for last tooth to fall out, she will be a strong and well adjusted girl.
I hope I can keep up with it. I only want the best for her. I want her to be happy with whatever she wants out of life.
I am going to go and check on my babies, and tuck them in, and kiss there heads. They grow so much in there sleep. Who knows what they will be when they wake.

Warren's 3rd Birthday!

2009-07-01T20:12:00.001-07:00

My little baby turned three! I am really having a hard time with him growing up! I want him to stay my little baby forever! He is getting so big and has such a wonderful personality. He really brings so much joy into our home. I couldn't imagine life without him. His big sister and brother both adore him. He has even started showing an interest in potty training! Yeah for me! I really hope I can get both of these boys done! I am sick of this diaper business!
We had a small family party. Mostly because Jake wants me to start scaling back on huge parties and because I was a bit sick that week. I completly understand why Jake wants me to do small family parties, but man, it is so fun to do big ones! This one was a blast. Warren didn't care there wasn't any friends over. He already had his two best friends there. He loved his Blue's Clues birthday. He talked about it for days. And on a personal note, do you see that beautiful white cake stand? I love it! I covet it, I dream about it.... okay maybed not that bad, but I do love it. My sister bought if for me and it so great and beautiful!

THe wonderful new GeoTrax! He loves this stuff.
His new hippy hop
The three amigos

I think the faces he made while opening his presents are priceless!

You know you are the mother of boys....

2009-06-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

When you son comes to you and says,
"Look Mom! I found horse poop!"

Happy Birthday Banner!

2009-06-23T23:30:00.000-07:00

Look what I have been up to! I have wanted to make one of these sense they started popping up in the net. I think they are so cute! I finally busted out the sewing machine and went to town. It was super easy and fun to make. Warren was the first kid to have it up. It is going to become out traditional Happy Birthday Banner. What is extra special is I made it reversible! On the other side I printed "Congratulations" I guess I should have gotten a photos of that side. I love the colors! I made the pattern myself. I used me Cricut to make the letter pattern. What a great way to mesh to addictions! Sewing and paper crafting!

Early Birthday!

2009-06-23T18:42:00.001-07:00

We had Phoebes birthday two months early this year. This is not somethings I would normally do, but Phoebe's three closest friends are all moving away before her August Birthday. She has been wanting to have an American Girl Tea Party Birthday day sense she got her doll in November. We sat and talked with her and let her know that this would be her party and when her August party came she would only be able to have her family there. She was for it. I had so much fun getting this party ready! The girls got to do two crafts for there dolls. We decorated straw hats with pink ribbon and bows and then made headbands for the dolls with lots of different colored ribbon! It was great. The girls really loved making somethings for there dolls.

Her dad made her a clothes line so she can teach her doll chores. I was even able to find the perfect sized clothes pins!

The girls were served pink lemonade and cookies. What ever they had the dolls had in a smaller size. If the girls has oreo's the dolls had the mini oreos.
Here are the dolls before they got served there food. I was able to find a perfect tea set for the "big" girls at Good Will for 10 dollars and for the dolls, Ikea had one for about the same price!
They loved playing in Phoebes room. Dolls and toys everywhere! It was so darling to listen to them play.
Here are the treats!
The dolls table
Phoebe and her best friend! We sure do miss her!

Kindergarten Graduation

2009-06-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

Phoebe graduated Kindergarten at the beginning of the month. It was so great to see her up there with her class. She was so darling. The above picture is of Phoebe with her best friend. Unfortunatly her dear friend moved a few weeks after school got out. Phoebe was very sad.
This is Phoebe with her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Moore. Phoebe loved having her as a teacher. As you can tell from Warren being in the photo that the boys love her too!
Spotting us, up on the stand!
The slide of Phoebe, she wants to be a vet when she grows up!

I really can't believe that my baby daughter is now a first grader!! Am I old enough for this? Here is to a great first grade year!

A riddle...

2009-06-09T14:22:00.000-07:00

Can anyone tell me what a dress, a boot and an evacuation all have in common?

I can! They all happened last night!

The dress!
I finally got out the pattern from the horrible experience I had with the cheep fabric. I picked a better fabric and started again. I LOVE how it turned out!! It looks great on the doll and is was so fast and easy to sew, when the fabric actually stays together! I think I like how is bells out. Too cute!

The Boot

Lookie, lookie, what I get to wear... again. That is right. You remember that sprain I bogged about along side that stupid purple fabric. Well, it was a REALLY bad sprain. I tried to tough it out for a week, but it ended up I was living off of Motrin and other pain killer and still couldn't get any relief. I started to think it was more. I made an appointment to get x-rays. The good news, it is not broken, but the bad news, I have to wear this baby AND use crutches for the next 4-6 weeks! I really do not get my luck. Did I walk under a ladder as a kid? It is such a blast to take care of three kids while "staying off my foot". Right, staying off my foot! What a joke!

To end of a long day of sewing and boot wearing, Jake and I were relaxing and enjoying of evening to ourselves. The kids went to bed without complaint, it was turning out to be a great night. Then we saw the red and blue lights come speeding down our street. For a while we watched as the fire department ran into our neighbors house. We didn't think much of it at first. We had this happen a few weeks ago at the same house. They said they thought they smelled gas, but nothing turned up. After a bit if watching out the window we started to settle back to Reading and playing the Wii. Not long after a cop comes pounding on our door and tells us we have to evacuate immediately to the top of the street. We had just enough time to grab the kids, shoes and sweaters. The kids were so tired and confused. But we got them walking, along with everyone else on the street to the top of the hill. We were all just standing around trying to figure out what the heck was going on! Come to find out, the house that had the fire fighters there had gas backing up in their pipes and drains. One of those drains was right by the water heater. The pilot light kept lighting the gas on fire! Both houses had small fires in their laundry rooms! All the other houses had to be cleared out so they could find out about the gas leak. After about twenty minutes if standing outside, to our luck, it started to rain! We were given permission to stand under a car port. How humorous that I got to meet some of my neighbors for the first time under conditions like this. We were in all states of dress. Some in scout uniforms, others in leopard print pj's and others in just different clothes you don't normally see your neighbors in. The older kids were loving every minute of it. The adults were trying to figure out what was going on and play our fourth of July BBQ and then there were the mothers with young children that were trying to comfort some very confused, cold and tired kids. Phoebe was crying and shivering. She was terrified that the house was going to burn down, or that we were going to live on the street or who knows what else! Kimball was quite, just trying to stay awake, and Warren was loving being able to see the firefighters. I really don't remember how long, maybe another twenty minutes and they cleared the first four houses on the street. Not our house. But we were then allowed to go into our neighbors houses and wait. The kids clung to me. I just tried to calm them down. It helped a lot when someone turned on cartoons. We wait probably another half our and then were told it was all clear to go home. I quickly got the kids home and made Jake go talk to the fire department and see why this happened and if it could happen again. Kimball walked in the house, and immediately crawled into bed. He was asleep before I could get my shoe off. Warren and Phoebe were a different story! Warren though his nap was over. We had to convince him to go back to sleep, after about and hour he did. Phoebe was still shook up and terrified. She wouldn't leave my side. After trying to battle we just let her sleep on the short couch and I slept with my foot propped up on the long couch. It worked. She finally went to sleep! Today the boys barely remember what happened last night. Phoebe is still very clingy. She freaks out when every I am not in sight. She has to be within in arms reach. I am trying very hard to calm her fears, I hope this doesn't last much longer!
What a night!

Evacuation

2009-06-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

There is nothing like having a cop come to your door at ten at night to tell you to evacuate your house immediately. A neighbors house had a gas leak and even caught fire. After about an hour of so of waiting with a near hysterical daughter we got to come home. More of the adventure tomorrow!

Now we're talkin'

2009-06-02T22:08:00.001-07:00

Here is the new dress I made today. I am really in love with it. After having the mess up with the dollar fabric I found my most expensive fabric and made a dress out of it. It is a pattern from alltimefashions.com I love the patterns. Jake bought me all of them for mothers day. This dress is from the 40's. Many of you know I love the WWII era. The dress was just a blast to make. Teaches me to use cheep fabric!

This is "the dress". I really liked the print. It is darling and I am really sad that it don't work out. I also used up all my baby Rick rack on it! Rats, looks like a run to the store tomorrow! You can't really see the screw up on it. I wanted to take a picture of how it was suppose to look. But looking at it, you can see the left side all the strings, it just fell apart. This angle you can see more of what I am talking about. How sad. After I finished the orange dress I found another cute fabric and started cutting out the dress again. I am going to do it in a red plaid print. I hope it turns out. I just have to get more of that rick rack.

Here is another shot of my lovely dress. I don't know why it is sideways. But it is.
I got my camera to work! Yeah!! My ankle is doing much better. For those of you how have been asking, I just twisted it. It was really swollen for a couple of days, but today the swelling is finally going down. So, I am not grumpy, my ankle don't hurt as bad, my camera is working (even though deep down I wish I could have a new one!) and I finished a doll dress today. I even had a mole removed from my back. It is a little annoying to have the stitches, but I am doing great and in good spirits!
Jake and Phoebe have strep throat. Jake had it really bad. The poor guy was really thrown for a loop. His fever got really high and he was sweating bullets. He was ordered to stay home for two days. It is kinda nice to have him here. It has helped me stay off my ankle... a little. I still have to nurse him. Phoebe is devastated to miss a day of her final week of Kindergarten. Tomorrow was bubble day. They were doing everything bubbles and then a fire truck is suppose to come and spray them. What a bummer to miss that. But the doc said she should be find after 24 hours and she wont miss her Kindergarten graduation! Thank goodness!

Sewing Tip

2009-05-31T18:22:00.000-07:00

1. Do not sew when you are in a lot of pain
2. Do not sew when you are grumpy
3. Do not try to sew a doll dress from really cheep Wal Mart dollar fabric.
4. Do not try to take a picture of your mess up and then try to download it, because you will find your camera is BROKE and that just makes you even more grumpy, and being more of a grump makes your swollen ankle hurt more.

I need a pain killer.....

Redwoods!

2009-05-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

My baby sister lived amongst the Redwoods for four years. I have dreamed about going to see the Redwoods. What better way to do it, then to visit, and watch my sister graduate from College! As soon as she was across stage and holding her diploma we were off to see the magnificent Redwoods. IT is going to be hard to put into words HOW beautiful and wonderful it is. If you have not visited this wonder, please, do! We visited a lot of different areas. They are not all in one park. It is spread out along the 101. The kids called this the "Chip n Dale" tree. If you remember those fantastic cartoons of our childhood, there is one were they make a tree a "redwood" to make Donald happy. They were so excited to see it.

This is Jake trying to count all the ring in this hunk of tree. It is over 600 years old! Good luck!

Okay, I know this is not m car, but I have the greatest neighbors ever! We need a car to hold eight people and my van only holds seven. Our neighbors let us switch the van for there SUV! Thank you sooooooo much. It was a little too wide to fit through the tree. That didn't stop us!

This is one of the scariest things I have done in my life. I am IN a redwood tree. Jake, the boy scout that he is, wondered off the path and found this little cave that took us INTO an old half dead tree. You had to drop a few feet, then get on your hands and knees to crawl to the center of the tree, then you could look up and look up the whole way of the tree to see the sky. I was so terrified, but Jake and my sister talked me into it. I am so glad they did! It was a sight to behold. Words can't describe what I saw in there!

This is Jake in the whole. Just to let you know Jake is six foot two. Can you see how BIG the whole is?

This is Jake and his exploring kids climbing a group of trees. I like how mother nature made a natural step latter up the tree. We saw a lot of that.

It really looks like he is jumping off. He isn't really. This was a great set of trees to climb. It too had a great "latter" going up it. It went up about twenty feet. It was so great.

Here I am, being just as crazy. It really gave you a rush!

This is me after climbing the way up. I felt so good doing this. It was a sense of freedom after a long battle with my stupid knee problems! Look at me now! (I did have to take a pain killer that night! lol!)

That is Jake up in the same tree. Can you see how big it is????? These babies were beyond HUGE!!

While you are hiking around you have to look up! That is part of the amazing beauty! I wish these photos really showed the fantastic wonder around us!

Don't you just want to visit? Look at this beauty!

Uhh.. it's a sister thing....

This is all of us at "Big Tree" It is one of the biggest standing Redwoods today. I have a confession, the fence told us to keep away from the tree, but we didn't listen. I just had to touch it! I had to feel it. I had to know it was real! It was exhilarating!

Another view of "Big Tree"
There are hundreds of more photos of us playing in the Redwoods. I am thinking I am going to have to do a slid show to show them all! But I am too tired tonight to figure it out. I will, hopefully, continue posting tomorrow about all the other fun we had!

Horesback Riding

2009-05-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

Here I am on my mighty steed. Actually it was a 30 year old horse. But she was gentle and very kind to me. I am no pro when it comes to riding a horse. The horseback riding was offered with our cabin rentals. We jumped on it! The kids couldn't stop talking about it. I thought it was a lot of fun too! Here are some photos. Enjoy.

(The purple scarf I am wearing is a gift from my sister, all the way from India! Thanks Phoebe!)

This is my yummy cowboy! I always have told Jake he would make a studly cowboy, this only proves my point!
This is a picture from one of the cabins we stayed in. I like the landscape shot.

This is another view of the place. It was so beautiful! At night Elk would come right into our camp sight! Warren called the Elk "baby horses"

This is my baby on a horse. He was smiling so big and did not want to get off! He just looks so tiny on that big horse! I don't know why but I get a little watery eyed looking at it.

He LOVED the horses!

Here is Kimball. I think he enjoyed the idea of riding a horse better then actually doing it. He was bouncing off the walls while waiting for his turn, but when he got on he did he little lap and then was like, "I'm done" and wanted nothing to do with the horses again. This kid makes me chuckle.

Ahhh, my Phoebe. She was so thrilled about going horse back riding. She is in love with the American Girl Doll Felicity. She really wanted to ride a coppered colored horse, just like Felicity's pet horse, Penny. No such luck, but she felt like a real Colonial girl riding that horse. She wanted to keep going.

I love these helmet heads!

Oh boy!

2009-05-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Pigs have flown.
Hell froze over.
The cows came home,
and we bought a Wii!

Did you miss me?

2009-05-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

We went to the school carnival last week. It was a lot of fun for most of us. Warren was NOT happy about it. In fact he was down right terrified of most of the rides. It was kinda' cute. (Now why the heck did it stop underlining everything?!) It was neat, even my mom went down a ride. The kids loved that she did it. They even got to experience cotton candy for the first time. Phoebe and Warren loved it. Kimball felt it and wanted nothing to do with it. How funny!

Mom going down the slide! How many kids can say that there grandma will go down gigantic shark slides with them!
I wish I could have really gotten her face when she was coming down, she was so scared and her eyes were as big as saucers!!
Enjoying the cotton candy
He liked this obstacle course for about five seconds.
This is were he felt the most comfortable.
This is my sisters graduation present. Before she went on her semester at sea I asked her what she wanted as a graduation present. The only condition was it had to be homemade. I was thinking a purse or an apron, but she told me that she has always wanted on of my rag time blankets. I was flattered. I had no clue that she liked them so much! I spent a lot of time (and money!) finding all the right flannel. The printed fabrics are Moda, Woodland Bloom. I loved it as soon as I saw it. I filled the rest of the blankets with solids. I have to say that love how it looks. I was really nervous about all the colors I put into it. But once it was together I fell in love! I really hope she likes it. I can't wait to see her face!
This was my second rag time. I made it for Jake one Christmas. I love that it is all patriotic. I was able to buy this one on a kit so I didn't have to hunt down all the right colors.
This one was the first. I made this in college. I was in a fabric shop one day and saw a quilt similar to this and a sign up sheet. I was love! I signed up right away. My mom had given me a sewing machine as a High School graduation present and I convenced my room mates to drive me all over the valley to fabric shops to find 18 different colors. When I got to the class I was the youngest member there, by about 15 years! The older ladies thought it was so cute that I was so happy to be making a quilt. What they didn't know at the time is had walked about a mile with my sewing machine, fabric and supplies! When they found out one of them offered me a ride home. I used that blanket for everything. When we would go to a move late at night I would wrap myself in the blanket. When I was kicked out the appartment for talking too late on the phone, I was covered up with it the dorm hallway. I am still very attached to it, but I don't use it as a coat anymore. It is way to hard with the kids!

These pillowcases are a gift from my mom for each one of her grandbabies. She got them around Christmas. She filled all of the Christmas presents in them. It was really cute and creative. Well, I took them all and embrodered the kids names on them. I thought it would be more fun and personal. My mom wants to start a tradtion of getting them back before Christmas and then refilling them with presents. I like it! And now they even have built in tags!! It is also a benifit so I can remember what kids has what pillow case!

Kimball loves to write and spell. He does it every chance he can. We go through paper like nobodies business! HE copies books word for word. He write what he wants to say to you, for example, I will often find papers that say, "NO Warren, Do not bug me!" He has recently found dominos. He loves to spell names and words with them. I am so facinated by this kid. I don't think I have ever seen a kid so in love with words!

Okay, that catches me up for now. We are heading to the Redwoods tomorrow. Next week I will have a lot more wonderful picturs to post!

The Reception

2009-04-28T21:30:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the reception. I was too upset to take any with my camera. I took these from my sister in laws facebook. (Thanks Paige!)

Trying to get the family together for photos. Kimball was done with everything by this time. He was starting to sick at this point. He did great through. I am so proud of him. This trip was really hard on him with his sensory issues.

Karl's parents set up a kids table. I thought that was a great. Kimball was often found there coloring away. If he wasn't there he was hiding in the nursery.

I love this photo. This is the older cousins were in love with Cherise. They said she was a princess. I love Phoebes face. It is pure adoration!

This is Jaren, and Warren in the background. While we were getting family photos the boys thought it would be great to act like frogs, jump around say "ribbit" It really was darling. Jaren and Warren are only a month a apart in age and became little buddies over this weekend.

Another family shot. It was a blast, let me tell you!
This is Phoebe with her cousins. She loves them!! Joelle and Phoebe are only a month apart in age, too. There were often found holding hands and playing every game they could.
Okay I am caught up! Enough blogging for one night!

2009-04-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is the cake at the beginning. I was thrilled and happy. I have been planning this cake for months. It was a four teird strawberry cake with a chocolate strawberry filing. It was covered in a cream cheese frosting and then fondant. The below picture is all the ingredients that was need for the cake. I thought it would be fun to show you all!

This is my sister in law Paige. She is wonderful, she volunteered to help me the whole day to do the cake. I had baked them at home and transported eight cakes five hours north. At this point in the day everything was going great! The cakes were coming together great. It wasn't until we started to stack the cakes that all heck broke loose!

This is me, putting it together the first time. It didn't' take long for us to realise that the bottom layer was not holding up to the weight of the cake. I had never run into this. I have always done everything you are suppose to do. I put the dowels in the cake, and had each layer had a wooden board. So we took the cake apart and added more wooden dowels in the cake to give it strength. We put it back to together. Again we had bulging and puckering and sagging. It was horrible. I was about to have a panic attack. We were then given the idea to take the cake apart, again, and cut out parts of the bottom cake and add cups in to hold it up. So we gave it a try. What else could we do?

This is me trying to put on a brave face. I was praying the whole time this would work. I had no clue what else to do. I didn't know how I was going to face Cherise if this didn't work out. How could I let me little sister in law down???? Okay, Paige held me together, I couldn't have done it without her. We put the cups in the bottom layer, recovered in fondant and put it back together. It seemed to work. For a while. This is the cake when I left to get ready for the reception.

At the time it looked great. Like it would work. I was still sick to my stomach. When I reached the reception about an hour and a half later I was shaking. The cake wasn't holding! I was ready to vomit. Now layer two and three were sagging! We had only an hour till the reception started so we tilted the cake stand to help it not fall over and then had to put a plastic lid folded a couple of time under one layer to hold that end up. What the heck was wrong with this cake? I felt so horrible! Cherise was wonderful and said it didn't matter, she thought it looked beautiful. Those words meant a lot to me. I still felt bad. I wanted it to be perfect. The next picture is a view of the room. You can see the cake looking a little lopsided. Oh I am embarrassed to post this, but I think it will be therapeutic to get it off my chest.

The reception decor was beautiful! To make a very long (and painful) story short, it held together alright for the night. We made the couple cut the cake pretty soon and they started to cut it up. I enjoyed hiding in the kitchen and slicing the horrible cake to death. While in the kitchen, holding back tears, a darling old lady came up to me, she said, that she had been making cakes longer than I had been a live. She said that some cakes just don't make it, but that she had never not been able to make one work. She then told me that I did a great job making it work. I wanted to curl up in her arms while she rocked me. IT was the best comfort I could have heard. I will always hate that cake. I will feel bad for a really long time, but I will get over it. It worked, Cherise is married and happy. That is the best part. One good point, people really liked how it tasted! Point for taste!

Oh and the apron I was wearing?
I made it. I wore it the whole time I mixed, baked, decorated, and resurrected the cake. I gave it to Cherise as a present. I think I will make an apron for every major cake I make and then give it to the person I make the cake for. That is if I ever make a cake again!

Trip To Idaho!

2009-04-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

This past month we drove up to Idaho to celebrate with Cherise and Karl for there wedding! It was a fun trip. It had some crazy moments but I am really glad we could go. The first reason was because of family! We were able to hang out with Brian, Paige, and Matt and Sarah. With them came four cousins! Phoebe was so thrilled to have girls to play with. She would spend every minute with Jillise and Joelle. It makes me so sad that we can't be closer! We spent all the time that we could together. We spent time on Karl's family farm. They raise Beefalo. The kids loved to watch them. They actually got to witness a Beefalo give birth! I was getting ready to answer some facts of life questions with Phoebe. When I asked her about it, she said it was funny because the baby fell on its head when it tried to walk and that the mom ate the funny blood stuff that came with the baby. I laughed at that, but that is all she said. Kimball got sick one night of the trip. He throw up the whole night. It was exhausting for him and I. It was the night of the reception. I had been on my knee all night and then up all night catching vomit. The next day I spent most of the day in bed. Even with the puking it was a great trip. The cake was the worst part. That is right, you heard me! I usually love to make cakes, but this one was the cake from hell! That is the next post!

2009-04-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

This year during the egg hunt I got to watch from the window. The kids were so excited! I wish I could have been out there with them! Next year. How sad I didn't even have them dressed nice! What can I say, I was cracked out on pain killer! My friend Christy and her daughter were able to come and join the fun. It was cute, my kids would put eggs in her basket! Happy Easter!

2009-04-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Dying eggs this year was simple. With the knee surgery the whole Easter things was super small. I usually like to do something big and fun. Nope, not even a dinner this year. Even though things were small I couldn't let dying the eggs go un dyed!

Say Hello to my Little Fishy Friends!

2009-04-28T19:32:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny was very busy this year. She/it made the kids stuffed fish. She had a lot of fun making these little guys. It was great to decorate them how every she pleased. She made the pink on for Phoebe, the blue for Kimball and Warren the green one. Warren loves his "whale" He carries in all over the place. We have to cover "whale" up every night and kiss him goodnight too. It really makes me.. I mean the Easter Bunny to see the kids in love with these works of art.

2009-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have been working really hard to get my Personal Progress done. When I was in Young Women as a youth I got my medallion. Now, as a leader, I am working on getting the new one. It has been really fun. This is one of the projects I have done. I spent about twenty hours cross stitching the Young Women's Theme. About a week after I finished it, the Young Women General Presidency added a new value, Virtue. I love that they have added Virtue, I think it is very important. I just had to RE DO the whole stinkin' thing!! I wanted to scream. I set to work again and actually finished in about ten hours. I then went and got it framed. It felt to great to hold in my hands! It is going to get hung in the Young Women's room. Fun!

BALLS!

2009-04-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

These are my darling babies, back in March. Kimball's Occupational Therapist suggested we get a few "supplies" to have at the house. The first on I got was balls! Kimball loves these plastic balls! We filled up my bathtub with them and the kids went to town. It was so great to see them have so much fun. We have used them for lots of different things: counting, patterns, addition, subtractions, we have played that they are cannon balls, snowballs, and bombs. They are a great investment and a pain to pick up!

Knee report

2009-04-10T20:34:00.001-07:00

I thought it might be time to tell you about the surgery and how I am doing. First of all, I feel great! I can’t believe how little pain I am in!! My knee is swollen and sore, but I can get up and walk with crutches. I even made some spaghetti for dinner. It felt great to be doing something! My mom is so wonderful at making sure I am not over doing my self. She is always after me to go sit down or stop doing something. I am very thankful she is here.
The doctor greeted me with great news after my surgery. I did NOT have a torn menisci’s. I had something called a plica band. This is something in my knee that did not get re-absorbed when I was a three or four month of FETUS! With my injury of falling down the stairs and then Kimball jumping on it, it was inflamed. The doctor just had to go in and removed this stuff. He said that it was make a much easier recovery! I liked that part.
How fascinating that something from when I was growing in my mother as come back to haunt me! There is a high chance that I have it in my right knee, but if I don’t sustain any injury it may never bother me. On the other had, if I some crazy little thing I may have to have surgery on that knee. Here is to not having to have surgery! I have had enough in my life.
So, nothing huge or big to report, just some strange tissue inflamed in my knee. My mom looked at me with a smile and said, “I always knew you were a freak!” I love you too mom!
The kids are doing really well with me. At first Warren wanted nothing to do with me. I think he was a little nervous about the huge bandage around my knee. He did however want my crutches. He has run of with them a couple of times. Or, my personal favorite, he tries to pull them out from me. I think he has it in for my other knee!
Kimball is so careful around me. It is so neat to see how gentle he can be, when he tires. When I ever I tell him my knee is hurting he says to everyone to be quite and then he will say a prayer so my knee wont hurt and that it will hurry up and get better “so mommy can jump on the trampoline with me.” He has such a big heart. Phoebe has become my little nurse. She will come up to me and stroke my face and give me kisses. She will tuck me in and get me anything I want. She loves when I ask for her help. She comes running with a huge smile on her face. She is such a wonderful helper.
Mom is amazing with the kids. She has the patience of Job. She bought the kids some Ghost Shrimp to put in the fish tank. They played out side for hours. When they found an earth worm she would help them put it in the fish tank. She has read to them, played games with them and has had barley any sleep. What a great mother I have.
I still miss Jake, but he was able to be with his sister as she got married today. I am so happy for Cherise! I know she has made a good choice picking Karl. I look forward to going to Idaho next week for the open house.
Okay, me and my plica-lis knee are going to take a well needed nap.

Oh my!

2009-04-10T00:53:00.001-07:00

Last night I had the most embarrassing side effect of surgery I have ever had! I just don’t know how to put into words. I blush as I think about it. Children, cover your ears. Last night, I had flatulence. I had flatulence of the knee! Oh, I feel so much better now that I got that off my chest.
As I was getting into bed, last night, had to carefully and slowly prop my knee up on pillows. In the process my knee let out a little “poot”. I stopped and immediately looked around, in case anyone had heard that. I would want to say “excuse me”. Then, I stopped and realized that came from my knee! Did anyone else hear that?! Just to make sure, I did the same movement again and got the same result. Being the 13 year old that I am deep inside, I did it again and I giggled. It was funny. It might have something to do with the pain killer that I was on, but I did it again, and giggled even louder.
This is a new one to write in the books. I don’t think many people can claim the privilege of flatulence of the knee. No, I guess that is only reserved for special people.

Home

2009-04-09T20:29:00.000-07:00

I am home.
I am sore.
I miss my husband.
I am doing well.
More tomorrow.

Insomnia

2009-04-09T01:57:00.001-07:00

Tonight I find myself for the third time having pre-surgery jitters. The first night this happened to me was many years ago. I was about three weeks away from turning 10. It was a few days before Christmas. I was going to have my tonsils and adenoids removed. They were going to use a fancy new “laser” on me. I had never had surgery of any kind and I was down right scared! I don’t know now long I stayed up, but I do know that I fell asleep at some point. My mother woke me up around five in the morning. She was holding a candle and dressed in warm clothes. The power had gone out in the middle of the night. (Uh, not a good thing, we lived in Alaska!) I was exhausted but sprung out of bed. The adrenal was at the highest level I think I had ever felt. I don’t remember much about getting ready to go, expect I had to pee in a bucket. I hate power outages. The people at the clinic were so nice. The nurse that took me way from my mother and little sister had elf shoes on. She kept me comfortable by talking about what I wanted to get for Christmas. Before long I was laying on a table with huge lights. The doctor put a mask over my nose and mouth that smelled of cinnamon. (To this day every time I smell cinnamon I think of that moment) Before I knew it I was wake with a horrible sore throat and my mom and sister were right beside me. My little sister, Phoebe, was almost five years old. She thought is would be a great idea to tickle my feet. She wanted to see me smile. I wanted to kick her face. I vowed that one day I would get her back for that. It did happen, many years later. I was 18 and she was 13. It was a beautiful moment!
I survived that surgery just fine. Fast forward to three years ago, it was again, a few weeks before my birthday. This time I was turning 25 and it wasn’t my tonsils I was loosing, but my uterus. It had taken me weeks to come to this decision. It was a very emotional one. The night before I went to the hospital I couldn’t sleep. I thought of everything. I thought of each one of my pregnancies. I though of the deliveries and of holding my tiny, new babies. I though of the beautiful connection you have with God while you are pregnant. It is something you only feel while you are caring a child. I thought of how I would miss all those things. I felt a huge loss. I had no clue how deep of a loss it would be. I was so upset I threw up most of the night. When I did fall asleep I was clinging to my husband. He was my biggest support. I could not have gotten through it with out him. I knew his head was full of similar thoughts. When I did wake up that morning, that same adrenalin pumped through my body that I felt year’s earlier. On top of thinking all about my life without a uterus, I had to run around and make sure all the last minute details were taken care of.Now we are here, the night before my knee surgery. I know I should be feeling okay; I have had a hysterectomy, what is simple knee surgery to that? But, I find myself not able to sleep. I am thinking about my husband. He is not here tonight. He is away on business. I miss him. I wish he were here so I could cling to him again. My mom is sleeping in the back room. She has her back already and clothes laid out. Smart woman. I am wake with thoughts of what is it going to be like to have my knee a “completely blood free zone” or that they are going to fill my knee with a liter of water. I am thinking of how you feel right after you wake up from the sleeping drug. I hate it. I feel almost like I am going to have a panic attack. I know it is normal. It is due to your mind and body waking up at different times. I don’t look forward that. I never do. I am looking forward to not having this pain all the time. I am looking forward to being able to jump on the trampoline with my kids and go on a walk with my husband. I want to do yard work and go to the gym. When I go to California next month I want to be able to hike and play in the Redwoods with out having to have a knee brace or pain killers. I am trying to think of these things and not the pain that is going to be with me when I wake up. Or that I will have to say in bed for a day or so. Am I just sounding like a baby? I still wish Jake was here. He comes home on Sunday. I am dreaming of him walking in the door and kneeling by my bed and kissing me. I will then be able to sleep the peaceful sleep of having my husband next to me. The clock on the computer is telling me that it is three in the morning. I am going to be up in a couple of hours with that all to familiar adrenalin. Wish me luck!

Code Adam

2009-04-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

When a baby is taken from hospital it is a “code pink” when you loose a child in a store it is called a “code Adam”. I have never actually had to claim I have lost my child. I have never had to have every employee on the look out for a little blonde boy. I have never acted like the frantic mother because she can’t find baby. I have never had those strange looks from people, like, “why can’t she keep her children near by” or “what a horrible mother” I have never had horrible thoughts that I may never see my child again. Until today! Oh, yes, I had that *wonderful* experience! I took the kids to Ikea today. I thought it would be great way to spend the day. I let them sit on all the furniture and touch everything they could get there hands on. It was like a trip to Disneyland, with affordable food. While were in the couch area I was doing my regular kid count. Have Phoebe, check, have Kimball, check, have Warren… wait! Where is Warren? So I calmly look around and call his name. I still can’t find him. I have a bit of panic hit me. So I looked a little more. I still couldn’t find him! Now I started to worry. Warren is not my child that runs away from me. I started to get frantic. I started yelling out his name and telling me that he need to answer, because he is scaring me. An employee came over and asked if I had lost a child. I said yes, and she got her walkie talkie out and called a code Adam. All the employees had to start to look for my blonde haired two year old boy. After a few minutes the told me that they found a little boy! I was so relieved, only to find out it was some other person’s boy! I am about ready to have a heart attack. Finally, after about five minutes of the employees looking for my child, here comes Warren, running around the corner saying, “I looking you mommy, I looking you mommy!” I seriously had thoughts of yelling at him. But, don’t worry I didn’t. I wrapped my arms around him and covered him with kisses! What a relief! I think I aged about ten years while trying to find him. He as happy as could be and didn’t think anything was wrong. Just another fun day at Ikea! I eventually let him out of my arms and put him straight in a basket and seat belted him in. He didn’t want to stay there but after what he put me through, he didn’t get a choice! I am so glad he is safe and home, with me. May this never happen again!