Tag... I'm it!!

List 5 Joys, 5 Fears, 5 obsessions/collections, and 5 surprising facts, and tag 5 people...

I thought this sounded like fun and since I was tagged here it goes:

Joys
1. Vacations
2. Date night with Brian (or any activity for just us)

3. My family

4. seeing my kids learn something new or excel at something

5. Seeing my friends (going to the movies, dinner, the mall whatever!)

Fears

1. Heights!!! (even standing on the second floor in a house and looking over the railing makes me dizzy!) so roller coasters are DEFINITELY OUT!!

2. that something bad will happen to Bri or the kids (death, pain, fear... ANYTHING bad...)

3. Dogs, cats, birds, frogs, gerbils, fish... basically any kind of animal... sorry kids, no pets!!

4. that someone will break into the house. When we were first got married I used to make Bri sleep closest to the door so he could protect me... then I learned how deep he sleeps and figured its going to be up to me... hence the fear!!

5. bugs, dogs, heights, dark, going outside at night... I am afraid of soo many things... my brother jokes that I must be afraid of my own shadow!!

Obsessions/Collections

1. I love to buy things that smell pretty... lotions, soaps, candles, whatever!

2. at the moment HandiLand... I know, I know... but its fun and somehow I got addicted to making my Cat have the cutest clothes in HandiLand... I told Bri that it's kind of like playing Barbies or dress up when you are a kid!

3. Computer - reading blogs, emailing, posting on my blog

4. learning as much as I can about other countries... (I am currently trying to teach myself French) I love anything foreign... languages, food, vacations (locations)

5. ORGANIZATION... everything in our home has to have a place all its own, and I start to freak out if things don't live in their homes... don't ask how we survive with three kids... I am alot better though since the meds!!(calm, serenity)

Surprising Facts- this one is HARD :)

1. that I actually used to be thin and cute! (way a long time ago in another life!)

2. that I am from Mexico... as soon as I tell someone where I am from, they do a double take and say "you don't look Mexican" or "you have absolutely NO accent" it really bugs!

3. that it is painfully difficult for me to make new friends

4. I am teaching myself to eat mushrooms

5. my kids getting sick. I can't deal with throwing up kids! give me a good ole fashioned surgery any day, but the stomach flu?? Gives me a panic attack!

I tag Jan T., Cindy B., Vanessa P., Barbara Jo H. and Jeni E...

Have Fun!!

a crazy day update...

sooo... I survived my crazy day. It was actually not that bad! just ALOT of driving back and forth between schools and home. I felt so bad for Jax... he got dragged from pillar to post, and with a minimum of fuss, too!! I think that I was mostly nervous about going to Kaylas class to read with the first graders. It sounds kind of dumb now... but I really was nervous!! The kids were super cute, though... and I got to meet alot of the kids Kayla spends her days with. One "little" girl I was especially interested to meet is Kaylas arch-enemy Pomai... now it seems kind of funny that my little 6 year old would have an arch enemy... but she DOES. These two girls were in Kindergarten together last year, and did NOT get along. Both she and I were very dismayed to see that they were together again this year, but I started talking to Kayla about giving her another chance and being her friend. Well, I met this kid yesterday... and she is HUGE! she looked like she was at least 8 years old... so much so, that I actually asked her how old she is. She looked at me kind of funny and said 6!! But I can see now why Kayla is so wary of her!! but for all her size and everything (I think she is Polynesian) she is a really nice girl (I thought) so I am still trying to get Kayla to come around and give her another chance... when I picked Kay up, I told her I met Pomai and she seemed nice, Kayla told me "when I walked past her desk today I spit at her!" so it is seeming to me that the problem is on our side!! but all in all it was fun to meet so many of her friends, and I get to go in every Monday and help out... so that should be alot of fun, too... Of course I had both boys with me, and that did NOTHING to make it easier!! Jaden declared that he was going to sit on my lap "the whole time" and he was true to his word for about the first half hour or so. then I finally got him interested in wandering the halls and looking through windows into other classrooms. From there it was easy to get him to push a screaming, fussing Jaxson's stroller up and down the hall to help entertain them both!

Then we had Jadens volcano science project to go and witness... it was very cute. Just a simple baking soda and vinegar demonstration, but the kids were duly impressed. They couldn't keep their little hands out of the mix, though... so by the time I picked him up for the day he reeked of vinegar! I made a short video on my camera, so I hope it works out... the little Hispanic boy sitting to Jadens right is Xavier, and Jadens new very best friend. Jaden won't let me leave school until Xavier gets there... they are really cute together and play monster tag every school day on the playground! Also, just a comment about Jadens very unorthodox preschool teacher. She is a trip!! OK, first off, her hair is half blond and half black... she has tattoos everywhere and she wears 6 inch heels to play on the playground in!! Yesterday she was bending down helping the kids get their jars set up, and I noticed her hot pink thong hanging out and a huge tattoo just above her crack (which was also pretty noticeable!!) She IS a very nice girl, but not really what I think of when I think "preschool teacher!" now I wish more than ever that we lived in Washington,so my sister in law Ashlee could be Jadens teacher!! **sigh** O well, we will survive!

P.S. ...I just watched the video and unfortunately you get a pretty good look at the teachers tat and undies... sorry I had to share EVERYTHING about the day! I didn't notice til just now!! O BOY!

Here is the video of the volcano ...

a crazy day for the crazy crabs...

Sooo... as I sit here at my computer on a very quiet and peaceful Sunday night, I am dreading, absolutely dreading, the coming day. Do you ever get those days when EVERYTHING happens all on the same day? Well, I don't... a normal day for me is get Kayla to the bus at 8:45am... hang out with my boys til noon, make lunch and drive Jaden to preschool, then hang out with Baby Jax til 3:15 when I go and pick up Jaden at preschool. On our way home we stop at the bus stop and grab Kayla... no big deal, right? nice peaceful, restful days... not too much stress (which is SOO what I need!!)

But tomorrow the day looks like this...

Everyone up, fed, washed, brushed, dressed and into the car... (and I mean EVERYONE cause we aren't coming home for a while...usually the boys and I go to the bus in our jammies...)

SO...

8:48 am - drop Kayla off at the bus stop

9:00 am - pick up Brian in Lindon (the reasons are still classified, but once I am given the green light (and a picture!) it WILL be blogged about!! those of you who know... SHHHH!)

10 am - Go to Kaylas school as a volunteer to help the kids read (with Jaden and Jax in tow)

11 am - FINALLY home for lunch for the boys

12:45 pm - take Jaden to preschool

2:00 pm - back to preschool to watch Jadens home made volcano erupt (since when to they have science projects in preschool?! O well...)

2:45 pm - back home to pick up Kayla from the bus (its early out Monday, the kids come home an hour early)

3:30 pm - Back AGAIN to the preschool to pick up Jaden and his volcano

4:00 pm - Homework for BOTH kids (yeah, the preschool teacher gives my 3 year old homework... she is dissapointed that her 3 year olds can't WRITE THEIR NUMBERS!!)

5:00 pm - somehow pull together some dinner because

5:30 pm - Brian is off to work

and you had better believe that ALL the kids will be in bed at 7 pm SHARP, cause I may be about ready to drop by then!!

(here I thought I was going to be saving on gas the rest of this month, not having to go up to Salt Lake every other day... instead I have to run back and forth between schools all day!!)

SHEESH!

some fun websites for us

sooo... I was bouncing around on the Super Nanny website... yes... I admit it. I LOVE the supernanny... I watch religiously... Brian even calls from work to ask what the SuperNanny is talking about today... even our (Mikayla's) therapist told us to get parenting advice from the super nanny!! so I feel somewhat secure in saying that I have a small addiction to her advice and ideas for raising and disciplining kids!! THEN I found her website... hmmm... yeah! there are all kinds of fun links, charts, even discussion groups with other moms. and you can watch clips from the TV show... So if you need a refresher course on the "bed time routine" (a big favorite around here!) just click on, and watch her go at it with a guinea pig family... it's great!!

but I really didn't like any of her reward charts... so I went looking. For any parent out there who likes to have their kids help out around the house... you should check out this website. It is called HandiLand and you basically make an online chore chart for your kids of things they need to do everyday. The website gives each child a "cat" to name and as they do their chores they are awarded two sets of points... purple points allow them to "shop" in the HandiLand catalog for clothes for your Cat, or you can buy furniture to decorate your "house"... the yellow points are for a more tangible reward... so if they have 50 yellow points saved up, they can choose between eating lunch at Wendy's, watching one hour of TV, going to Chuck E Cheeses etc... the fun thing is that YOU can customize the rewards so it can be things your kids love to do and would be doing anyway... but now they can only do it if they have the points saved up. My kids have really caught on to the saving part. they had to save enough points to go swimming at the Scera pool, so they went without snacks and TV time for a whole day!! I had so much fun with it, that I made myself a Cat and I buy her clothes and furniture too!! and I get points for doing house work etc... and also things like "learn a new word in French today" there are a million chores to choose from, or you can custom create your own...

It is really a lot of fun, and it works good for my kids, because they get to go online and check off what chores they do and go in and shop for the stuff they want!! check it out... it's great. I spend so much time on it, Brian is always asking if I am done hanging out with the 11 year olds!!

It's that time of year AGAIN!!

Yep... the doctors are back!! after enjoying a blissful year of having NO doctors and hospitals, we have a VERY full calendar of them this month... between the doctors, dentist, and the hospital we have 6 appointments in the month of September... don't ask me HOW they all got into the same month... it's the craziest schedule... but we sure enjoy the rest of the year once it is all done!!

Mikayla was in the hospital on Thursday for her yearly MRI. She had to BE THERE at 6:30 am, (CRAZY!) so I went and took the kids and we slept at my brothers house in Centerville the night before. (we all assumed that it would be more convenient that way, because I was planning to leave the boys with her the next day) Unfortunately, their baby cried most of the night because he wanted to be in his crib, and Jax cried the other part of the night because he wanted me to stand up and hold him!! so neither mom got ANY sleep... I finally got Jax to stay asleep by putting him down on the floor... he would NOT get back in that crib! (so my sister-in-law had a big surprise when she went in to get him up... she thought he fell out of the crib!!) As a result, I started off a very stressful day with only about 2 hours of sleep...

As usual, getting the IV placed was fairly traumatic for Kayla. The nurses were great, though and got her IV in on the very first try!! she is getting SO tall, it is hard for me to keep her on my lap anymore!! we had 2 RN's and 2 nurses and me trying to get her IV in and hold her still!! TAG TEAM!! when I went in to the recovery room after her test was finished, the nurse said that she had cried and whimpered through the whole test... poor little darlin'! I was soo tired that as I was sitting next to her bed, I fell asleep and slept the whole time til the nurse came over to help me wake her up!! it was a good thing I got that nap, too... because they ousted us from the recovery room at 9:30 AM and the neurosurgeon doesn't come in to clinic until 11 AM. We had a very miserable time walking up and down the halls of the hospital with Kayla screaming and shouting and choking on crackers... it was delightful! by the time we got in to see the doctor to have her MRI read and get the results, I had been kicked and slapped and spit on and screamed at so much I was about one second away from tears!! but we survived (without the tears and an emotional breakdown from Mom...)

The test results were not as good as we had hoped for... she has a bleed on the left side of her brain (remember all her issues have been on her right side, and we did brain surgery on the right side of her brain last time...) well this bleed on her left has doubled in size since we moved back from Washington (almost 4 years). So, it is not crucial yet... but he said that we WILL have to go in and take it out sooner or later, because it is getting too big again and putting too much pressure on her brain. The good news is, that we are not doing it any time soon... he says that we should come back in another year for another MRI, and we will see what he thinks at that point. Unfortunately, I am now on what I call stroke watch... with the hemorrhage getting so big, I have to watch for stroke-like symptoms (loss of motor control on her right side, loosing speaking abilities and increased seizure activity) Don't get me wrong... we are always watching for these symptoms, (the symptoms mean she has had a major brain hemorrhage, not a stroke, but the symptoms are very similar...) but now it is more likely that she would have them, because the pressure on her brain is increased...

So keep her in your prayers... think good thoughts for her. She is really a very special little angel, and is such a little fighter!! she always just pushes and fights her way through all these obstacles in her life... we love her very much!!! and we love our family and friends very much also for always being there for us to support us and love us through our trials... we have the best family and friends in the world!!!