A welcomed guest

We had an old friend visit today.

Have you met Sunshine?

Oh, how we've missed her.

& oh how we enjoyed her presence in our backyard today.

Have you tried her Vitamin D lately?

It's truly revitalizing.

 We are thrilled to hear that she will be spending the next few days with us.

SATURDAY, she's even gifting us 72 degrees.

72!

Bless her.

We'll miss her on Sunday and the 30 degrees she takes with her, but for now, we are cherishing every moment we have together.

Bored confessions

Lately hasn't been all that exciting... The Bachelor ended last week, my kiddos are sick so we've been pretty home bound, there hasn't been that much excitement to speak of. Okay so we did get a Dyson vacuum a week or two ago which is super exciting in my book - that thing is amazing! Beyond that, we just haven't been all that eventful around here. To me --a good thing! I prefer quiet days at home (okay - "quiet" doesn't quite exist with a 2 and 4 year old but you catch my drift) where I can enjoy my kids over a crazy, built-up, hectic schedule (& running to the ER) so I am in no way complaining. Trust me. But I am in a bit of a blogging schlump. I just can't get into it lately. So disappointing, I know. So, as I should be journaling stories about my oh so cute kids, I am going to instead dare be even more self indulgent & confess a few things you might not know about myself. Things that  really aren't that interesting, but are a big part of who I am.  Great, right?!

Here we go with a few confessions...
Hopefully I still have friends after this post...

1) I have an extreme love for space heaters. I have one on all three floors of my home, and if I'm sitting down (or doing hair and makeup in the bathroom), it is right there beside me, blowing it's warm air of comfort on me. You misunderstand if you believe that it's there only to combat these cold UT winter months, or that my house must simply be freezing. Growing up a teenager with a basement bedroom that bordered on frigid, my need for them did start out that way. But over the years, my space heaters have become an all-weather obsession for me. You see, even during my summers of Arizona living I had it right there blasting it's goodness upon  me.  I have no shame. If you've ever worked with me, you know I even bring one to the office. Really. I can't concentrate on the TV, reading, or playing with my kiddos on the floor until I have my adored SH by my side.  Yes, Chris thinks I'm a total nut but has learned to love me despite my addiction. If my house ever burns down, you won't have to wonder why.
Oddly enough, I hate being hot....

2) I LOVE straws. Almost as much as I love my heaters. I am never without one in my drink if I can help it.

3) I haven't eaten red meat since I was 14. (If you are counting that's 17 years!) Except for once when Chris and I were first married. We were invited  to one of Chris' old mission companion's homes for dinner and beforehand we forgot to politely warn them that I don't eat red meat so as not to offend them.
I had anxiety the whole ride there thinking of the possibility of what might be served.
So of course what did they have?
RED MEAT.  With ONIONS. (One of my other nemesis.) 
The combination makes me shudder. The first part of the evening went fine, they were a very nice couple, and we had fun socializing. But the mystery dish cooking in the oven had me quite nervous. And rightfully so.
Upon entering the kitchen from a quick bathroom trip, I fought back tears of horror as I saw that they they had lumped a whole pile of a ground beef mixture  sandwiched between french bread onto my plate.
And of course, the portion was enormous.
Apparently they forgot that I'm 5'1 and under 100 lbs and therefore probably don't chow down like my husband who is twice my weight and a foot taller.
 Normally in that situation, I would decline the meat and happily just eat a side.
(I would happily starve for a few hours too - trust me.)

But there was no side to be had, and the slop (which I'm sure was delicious slop to those who like that sort of thing) was already on my plate.

So what could  I do but choke it down.

Literally.
Agghh.

Let's just say it was not a good night for me.

I cried on way home.

& I'm sure I brushed & meticulously cleansed my teeth and tongue well into the night once we got back to our apartment. I may have tried to gag myself too but throwing up on demand has never worked for me...

Needless to say, eating at other people's homes can be an anxiety-ridden event for me.
For the record, I never would expect anyone to arrange a menu around my tastes - I prefer just to pick around what is edible to me from what is being served. If that means I'm eating a roll for dinner, no problem. I'll just have a bowl of cereal when I get home, thank you. It's just a little taboo because if people don't know me they can get offended, which I would never want. But it happens.

4) I do eat chicken.  (not fast food "chicken")
However, every little string and piece of fat has to be cut off if I am to ingest without gagging. Dealing with raw meat (aka cutting off all the gunk) is one of my least favorite things to do. I cover my cutting board with multiple layers of protection (plastic bags and wax paper) for the task and basically gag for the entire process. Afterwards every tool used is thoroughly sprayed with Clorox. I do like to cook but the meat part is stressful for me. Let's just say that I'd much rather sit and pluck my leg hairs than deal with that slimy, salmonella-ridden raw stuff...yeck.

5) I LOVE cookies. I love to bake them, eat them, think about them...I would make them daily if it weren't for knowing that I'd gain an instant 5 pounds due to lack of self control. I can pass up cake, pie and ice cream any day, no problem. To me those are wasted calories. (I do like a good apple pie in the Fall or white cake and white frosting on an occasional b-day.) But cookies, they entice me. No nuts or raisins in mine though please.

6) I love mascara. I don't go without it. Ever. (Well, except to bed.) It makes me feel like I can face the world. Literally. I am baffled by women who don't take advantage of this magical, beautifying gift of a tool. Don't they know what it can do for them?
It makes me happy.

7) I don't own an Ipod or MP3 player. In fact, I wouldn't know how to work one if you handed me one. No, I am not a complete idiot or technologically challenged. I've just never had the pocket change to go out and purchase one and it's never been a priority on my Christmas list. One of my goals this year is to enlighten myself to the world of Ipods and Itunes.
A world my husband is well familiar with.
Along with the rest of the world.
Including my parents.
But me?
Forget about it.
So behind the times, I know.
What can I say, I'm a busy mom... a daily shower and mascara are my priorities for myself and beyond those (okay and DVRing the Bachelor and AI make the list too)...let's just say I don't have much interest in spending much time at Best Buy, I run on the treadmill and watch the Today Show while I do it,  and CDs work just fine for me.
 For now. :)

***

Hmmm. I think those might be enough self-confessions for the day. I better stop there before I reveal anything really embarrassing.;)
Like I said, I hope we're still friends... :)

One little monkey = several trips to the ER and the dentist

On Monday afternoon this cute little guy came downstairs with tears in his eyes and a mouth dripping of blood.

"Mom", he whimpered. "I was doing some "exercises" in my room, and....."

....and long story short he knocked his face on the wood frame of his bed that the mattress sits on....

Oh no. Not again. My heart skipped a beat when I opened his mouth & amidst the blood saw a big chunk of his gum hanging vertically down over his big front tooth. After further frantic assessment (and thanking our lucky stars that it wasn't his previously broken eye socket that had been hit as another blow there at this point could result in brain surgery) I ran to get my phone. After consulting with Chris, Parker's pediatrician, and a nearby pediatric dentist, we were off to the ER. Of course, there was a big snow storm coming and Chris had made the rare decision to take my car to work since I thought I wouldn't be needing it the rest of the day. That left me with Chris' 2-door car and an interesting arrangement  of carseats, since their normal chairs were in my car 25 miles away in a pharmacy parking lot. (Why is it that emergencies happen at the most inconvenient times possible? I mean, normally, my car is sitting the garage, armed with car seats and ready to go. But of course not when I needed it most.) Thankfully I managed to stuff Emmie in her baby car seat and luckily we recently got an extra booster seat for Parker to make preschool carpooling easier or I would have been calling neighbors amidst the chaos to borrow a seat.

(This pic is post the stitch and is looking great compared to how it was a few hours earlier. The white/bluish chunk of gum tissue had been hanging vertically down the front of his tooth.)

Off to the ER we went, where they basically tied Parker up in a straight jacket to prohibit movement on his part. He calmly laid there, wrapped up like a "burrito" as they called him (he smiled proudly at the description), while they stitched his gum back up into place. They decided against numbing him and much to the amazement of the male nurse and doctor, he didn't make a single peep the entire process. No whimpers of pain, no flinches, no tears. We explained that he's a bit of a pro when it comes to the hospital scene. He was definitely braver than I would have been!

The next morning the stitch fell out, and we were back at the ER (at their request) to have it looked at again. It was too late to refix it successfully, so he ended up losing that chunk of hanging gum tissue. :(

His tooth didn't seem loose so they didn't think a dentist was necessary, but having worked for a dentist I knew he needed to be seen. (Hello?!) And THANK GOODNESS he was! Besides very traumatized tissue (above what you can see in the pic) the x-ray revealed a FRACTURE in the upper hidden part of the tooth! AGHH! I knew it wasn't going to be good. The hopeful news is that there is no visible separation at this time in the fracture, and sometimes the bone will heal itself back together. Sometimes. If not, an infection will occur and this will indicate that the tooth has to be pulled.  Ugggh. Oh and wait. Not just one tooth - it would be his TWO front teeth! If they pull one tooth, they have to pull the one next to it as to not cause problems for the big teeth that will eventually move in. The doc said that there is about a 40% chance that this will have to happen & we'll know in about a month. I asked when those two teeth normally would fall out and the answer was 7 1/2 to 8 years old. Not to be vain, but my poor cute little guy might have a big gaping hole in his smile for up to FOUR years!? :( I know, I know - it's cosmetic right? But come on, more than that it could cause potential speech problems, self esteem issues, eating issues...the list goes on.

Lively little Parker, jumpin' on the bed
He fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said...
"NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPIN' ON THE BED!".

That last part was an actual quote from the dentist, finger wagging included.
We'll see if it gets through to our little guy.
I can't tell you how many times I have told him not to do his "exercises".
(this entails jumping back and forth from his little foam Pottery Barn chair to his bed, mixed I am sure with some pretty awesome "tricks"...)
I was tempted to ask the ER doc where I could purchase one of those straight jacket things...my little "burrito" did seem to like it... ;)

We'll find out in the next few weeks whether or not we'll be mourning his teeth... meanwhile I am just trying to enjoy his precious, non-hillbilly smile while I can! :)

Lumped again

 February was once again a month of celebrations.

And once again I am lumping them altogether....

How fun for you who happens to be reading this oh-so-exciting blog.

 The month started out with Chris' brother, Dustin's birthday.

It was #28 for him & guess what? 
He's single!

Last I heard anyways.

Find me in the comment section if you know of a super cute friend of a friend you want to set him up with.

I love to set people up. :)

It's a bit of a disorder.

Last person I set up happened to be my sis in law, who happened to marry the guy I lined her up with.

Shabam.

Not to be cocky or anything. ;)

(& not that I usually go around saying words like "Shabam"...seriously. I'm really tired.)

& can I just say thank goodness for disorders that result in love connections?

Next up we got together with my Dad's side of the fam and celebrated my cute Grandma, my Aunt, and my sister-in-law Kylie's birthdays.

If ya know of any super cute Grandpa's ages 85+ to line my Grandma aka Mimi up with, let me know.
Just kiddin'.

We also celebrated Valentines Day at this shindig seeing as it was Feb. 13th. It felt more like Dec. 25 with all the presents filling the room and all the loot my kiddos walked away with. Good times. :)

Thanks Mimi and Grandpa Todd!

 On Valentines Day we took the kiddos bowling for the first time. I was a pretty good bowler once upon a time (in my good old days of high school white trash bowling), but I think that P and E came out with better scores than me that night.

 Above Emmie is celebrating a strike (adorned btw with a cute V-Day necklace Parker made her at school). I'll blame my loss of concentration on my constant efforts of trying to keep my crazy kiddos from being slammed in the noggin' with  neighboring bowling balls. We've had our fair share of head injuries in this last year, thanks. Keeping them out of harms way was a full time job and required constant restraint for the 2 1/2 year old. It was fun & I'm glad we did it, but let's say we won't be joining any family bowling leagues in the near future.

Next up was my FIL Lance's birthday. Yes, that makes birthday #5 for the month, and actually make that #6, as Chris' brother Eric and his wife had baby boy #2 on the 10th. Unfortunately we couldn't do much celebrating with them as they live in Texas, but we are very happy for a new cousin!

Back to Lance's party -- I was loving the exchange between Emmie and her Great-Grandpa Lonczyna. I cherish those types of moments knowing that this cute man (in his 90's)  may not be around for Emmie to remember down the line.

I'm so thankful for cameras so that moments like these can be recorded forever.

As the month continued, we took advantage of our new Thanksgiving Point Season Pass that Chris got our fam for Christmas, and visited the Dinosaur Museum. These two love dinosaurs - even Emmie. She is always prancing around on her tip toes, arms in attack position and growling, "RAAAAAR! I'm a T-Rex."

I'm really glad these things are extinct.

& don't worry, I cut my hair this week.

 In more exciting news, we purchased  a much needed new couch that the kiddos are sitting on in this pic. I really kinda love it.

Just for the heck of it I let Parker practice his camera taking skills after church on Sunday. Blurry is sometimes better and the ruffled hair and bunched up shirt under my cardigan are reminiscent of my crazy once-a-month Sundays that Chris has to work wherein I brave church by myself with my oh-so-reverent kiddos (that was laced with sarcasm.). But nonetheless I am triumphant in this picture as we survived our Sunday. Let's just say a good nap on those days is more than well-deserved.

And... onto the last day of the month! The Bachelor!

(This is the part to sign out on if you aren't a dedicated Monday night fan) 

I was really glad that whiney Ashley left. She definitely shot herself in the foot after not being able to talk about her thoughts on the future even after repeated chances by Brad to redeem herself. For such an educated person she really stinks at communicating! & I was confused at why Brad kept saying that he really wanted it to work with her...seriously? Call me crazy but I think those words might come back to haunt him with whoever he up choosing in the end...

Chantal....so I would have FREAKED if I were her and had to spend the night in a treehouse in the middle of the jungle in South Africa! Are you kidding - lions are not our friends, and they are especially not desirable bunkmates. I can't believe they did that! I hyperventilate at the thought of sleeping in a tent in Utah mountains at Girls Camp. But a South African jungle?! Heh UHH!

 I think it's all about Emily at this point....she is my final prediction. Although I do think the idea of her having a child freaks Brad out and rightfully so.

Who knows.

Maybe he'll walk away again.

I won't hate him for it if he does.

Such drama and seriously such a stupid show that I'm addicted to! But I love it! & I hear that next week's "The Women Tell All" is quite the shocker, especially with Michelle...

Happy March! :)