A question I ask myself way too often

Is that normal? You all thought I was going to say something like "is this worth it?" or something else of that nature didn't you? Nope, today I am questioning my normalcy. How often do you do that? Is it normal that I do it quite often? So today's reason for my wonderment is the fact that when the phone rang and I saw that it was our accountant (this year's taxes have finally crushed me into submission) I got jittery and nervous and had to force myself to answer the phone (which is better than yesterday when the heat pump guy called and I let it go to voicemail). So is it normal to get anxiety attacks because of phone calls. The funny thing is that I talk on the phone for way longer than I probably should to friends and family and can chat about almost anything forever (I like to do this while doing chores so that I don't have to think about the fact that I am cleaning yet again) but when it is someone I don't know or a company I have to literally force myself to do it. After talking to my accountant I decided that since I was already in nervous phone call state I should go ahead and call Brock's teacher at school to let him know I didn't receive the forms he was supposed to send me to sign (finally off my to do list). Because once I have survived one phone call it is easier to make more. So my question, is that normal? Anyone else have the same panic attack when they have to talk on the phone to a business or stranger? I have had some problems with amazon.com (not big and they were good about resolving them) and I spent 15 minutes doing their online chat thing rather than calling them and getting it done in 5. Why is the chat different? We are still conversing back and forth, just through typing rather than voice. Why can I be more firm about what I would like to happen when I am typing rather than talking? Sometimes I wish I had majored in Psychology so that I would have the answers to all my "is that normal" questions because I do wonder that quite often, if not for myself then for my children. Is that normal?

Party Pants

Three posts in one day? What is the world coming to? I guess when we see who our new President is we will will know. Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone (me) know that though I fail at motherhood far more often than I will ever admit, every once in a while I pull through. Our family has one boy barbie doll. He is King Dominic/Julian from Princess and the Pauper and he has been missing his pants for a while. I am not sure if they got ripped or lost but they have been gone and I don't enjoy looking at barbie boy bums so I told the girls (the little girls) they had to throw him away. They were heartbroken about losing their only boy barbie and I suggested they ask the older girls to sew him some pants. The older girls have a bag of scrap fabric and they hand sew all sorts of interesting little things. Mia looked at me with her big, innocent (yeah right), trusting eyes and said, "why don't you knit him some, you can make anything." How could I refuse? (princess and the pauper watchers are now congratulating me on that last witty line). I am not a skilled enough knitter to make pants from scratch but I thought I might be able to crochet some so I got out my horn and did some improvising and made the best pair home made boy barbie pants I have ever seen (the only pair too). I was terribly impressed with myself, enough that I took a picture of the new and spectacularly dressed Julian and here it is:
All those years of crocheting have paid off. Now the funny part is that Liam saw the pants and asked me if I could make him a pair of pants he could put on two of his fingers to pretend they were legs (where does that boy get these ideas?). I had taught him to crochet but he wasn't terribly interested so I told him that if he made two squares I would turn them into pants for him. He made the squares, I made the pants and he was doing the can can with his fingers in no time. That is what I love about being a mom. The absolutely absurd but wonderful moments where your son is doing the can can with his home made pants clad fingers.

On the day after Christmas my daughter gave to me:

A stressful day of injury and urgent care.


So I kept telling myself that if I could just get through Christmas I would have week where I could relax for just a bit before getting back into school, activities, and more home improvement projects. My daughter must have heard me talking to myself one of those times and decided to thwart my plans (that is why children are born isn't it (yes I know I shouldn't say things like that)). The morning after Christmas Evie was getting off the bed (jumping off the bed? I wonder) and fell and hurt her arm. She is usually a pretty tough cookie (she has to be considering her crazy nature and inherited clumsiness) so the fact that she was still crying a half hour later and wouldn't let anyone anywhere near her arm clued me in that we had an urgent care visit in our future. I made Aaron take her since he was home and I almost always have to do those type visits and he came home with the expected diagnosis of a broken arm. She broke it right above the elbow which I thought was odd but I guess more common that I knew. Anyway, they splinted and wrapped the arm and I was supposed to go to a pediatric bone guy to get it casted the next day. More bad luck, when we saw the bone guy he said that something had moved (I am not a scientist and cannot say exactly what that something was but I could locate it on the xray if asked) and if she didn't have surgery to move it and then put pins in to keep it there she would not be able to bend her arm more than 90 degrees ( like shaking a hand). If you think about it that means she wouldn't be able to comb her hair, eat food, or pick her nose with that hand so I decided to do the surgery.

I was nervous about the anesthesia because my Mom reacts strongly to anesthesia sometimes but the surgery wasn't too bad other than the fact that it took her a really long time to wake up and then she was really upset for a couple hours. The three weeks after were annoying. The cast was huge and she couldn't get most of her shirts on over it. Her coat had zip on sleeves (thank goodness) so we removed one sleeve. Anyway, I was super excited for her to get the pins out and the cast off last Friday but the excitement wasn't over. Evie had a cold going into the surgery and I think a combination of that and being a redhead (redheads and anesthesia don't mix well) and the genes where what caused her to throw up during the surgery which led to chest xrays and 2 hours of monitoring afterward. Right as we thought she was good to go she suddenly spiked a 103 fever that took a couple hours to control with tylenol and Mydol. She narrowly missed an ambulance ride to a pediatric ER but the fever did go down. The cause of the fever is officially a mystery but I think her body had been through too many shocks that morning and was fighting back the only way it knew how. Anyway, our fun first broken arm experience is almost over (one more doc visit tomorrow) and as long as she doesn't get pneumonia (no sights of it yet, knock on wood) from the throwing up under anesthesia thing I am hoping we are home free.

I'm Back

Well, after a year of no blog posts I figure even the few people who were following my blog have given up so now I am only writing for one person, me. Which means I don't have to worry about being witty, using correct grammar, making cute backgrounds and visually pleasing posts (never did figure that one out), wearing clothes while I write, etc.. Now maybe this blogging thing will be more fun and I will update it more often (or should I say, oftener). Well like it or not I made a resolution to update my blog more often for the sake of those pesky posterity (as if they will ever read it) if nothing else, and since its pretty much the only one I have half a chance at not eventually breaking I figure I had better get started (the resolution was to post at least once a month and try for once a week or so). Did you see how long that last sentence was, I am liking this solo blogging thing already. Anyway, enough with the words, on to the pictures. I figured it was only right that I start with a happy event like Christmas.



We didn't get many Christmas pictures this year, just these two and one of each child holding their favorite gift. It is just too hectic to monitor 6 kids opening presents and I will admit I am a bit ocd about it so anyway, no cute presents of kids ripping into wrapping paper. But we did get these two before Church and even though we had to do it in two pictures since there was no one to take the pictures and I have never had a timer photo turn out well I think we all look rather dashing. Especially Liam, where did he get that smile?


Christmas was a bit too hectic for my taste this year because I was trying to do home improvement projects at the same time and I set myself up for too many late start home made knitting projects. But they all got done and I think they turned out pretty well.



These are the hats I made for Aaron's parents. I just recently got in to knitting with two colors and have made hats with patterns for all of my kids then decided I wanted to do them for parents for Christmas. I really like these snowflake patterns.
My Mom decided she didn't want a hat (if I was sure she would never read this I might say that she enjoys complicating things but since there is a slim chance she will I won't) but wanted a cowl that she could have over hear head plus around her face either loosely or tightly for when she is doing the paper route(yes she still does a paper route and I think she is cool). It gets pretty dang cold some of those mornings so she wanted something to keep her face warm but not be tight. It took way longer than I thought it would and you can't see how it looks on a person but she says it is just want she wanted (and I am sure she would never lie about something like that).

Last, but not least, my masterpiece. I designed a BYU hat for my dad and it just may be the last hat I ever design. I thought most of the trouble would just be making the letters look good but that was the least of my worries. My stubbornness worked in my favor for once and I got it done and think it looks awesome. Now I need to make one for Aaron.

As far as the rest of Christmas goes, it was lovely.

Pity Party!

So a couple months ago our world turned upside down and we are now getting to move to New Jersey this summer. I have wanted to write about it but there is that unwritten rule that all blog posts should be cheerful and light, angry or annoyed, or if you absolutely must be depressing it must at least be witty. Well every time I try to write something that follows the rules I just feel sick, depressed and not the least bit witty. So I have decided to revel in my pitiful sadness and instead of looking on the bright side of things I am going to throw myself a full blown, all out pity party and write about why I am sad to be moving. Then, if all goes according to plan I will have exorcised my negative feelings and I can think and write about all the wonderful blessings that await us in New Jersey. So here goes, get your raincoats on and your violins out.




Reasons I am sad to be moving:

1. I LOVE being close to so much of my family. After years of having only a couple or even no family members at my childrens' special events (blessings, baptisms, birthdays) it has been so wonderful to have so many men around the Priesthood circle that they have to squeeze tight so that everyone can reach the head of my little one. I love being able to see two of my sisters pretty much whenever I want. I love being able to visit my parents when Aaron is gone on a trip and I feel like I am going to lose my mind. I love that my children know their grandparents so well and see them more than once or twice a year where half the time is spent getting comfortable with them again. I love getting to know my nieces and nephews and watching them grow up. I love that there are so many babies to hold since I am done having babies of my own. I love being able to go on sister outings and trips. I think that I would be willing to live just about anywhere to be able to enjoy being near my family like this.




2. I love my neighbors. I have pretty much the most perfect, wonderful neighbors here and since the lady we bought our house from was totally crazy they think that we are pretty great in comparison. My next door neighbor Christy's husband (he was our neighbor too) passed away a couple weeks ago and at the funeral my neighbor and her kids kept saying how grateful they were that she has us there as neighbors to help her out. I felt like a horrible traitor knowing that we were knowing and that she didn't know it. Her husband was diagnosed with cancer at the same time all of our moving stuff happened and there was never a good time to add more to their burden so we didn't tell Christy about the move till today and she started crying and kept on saying how scared she was to get another neighbor like the lady who lived here before and that she just felt sick. I felt pretty sick too.




3. I love my city. Millville city is one of the greatest places on earth to live. We love the people, we love the school, we love it all. I am on the City Council here and I have enjoyed it so much. This is the closest thing I have had to a job since I started having kids and it has been great. I am not normally into politics and can't see myself doing anything like this anywhere else.


4. I love my ward. Aaron and I both serve in the primary, him as a teacher, me as the chorister and we love our callings. Our ward is warm and loving and kind and I will admit I really like being able to walk to Church in good weather or drive back home to get something I forgot without much inconvenience.




5. I love my house. We liked our house when we moved in and we have since painted all the rooms, replaced tile, added a garage and a large family room so now our house is pretty much perfect. I just finished painting the kids' rooms the colors they chose and now after only a few months I am painting them tan so that we can sell the house. I didn't like the tile when we moved in and just last week we spent a weekend replacing it with tile that I really like. This is the second time that we have decided to move right after getting the house just the way we wanted it but last least last time it was my choice to move and we made money on the house. This time we will take a hit on the house.

There are more reasons I am sad to move but these are the big ones. Now for a quiz, without reading back, how many times did I use the word Love in this post? Lots of times and I meant every one. I love where I am at and I am sad to move. I am also relatively disgusted with how week and shallow I have found myself to be during this trial. Moving across the country is such a little thing compared to the trials that people all around us are going through yet here I am complaining and crying over a move. Pretty pathetic huh?


Well now I guess it is time to turn my frown upside and smile that frown away (I do singing time in the nursery as well). There are lots of great things about moving to New Jersey and adventures in store for our family. Watch out New Jersey, cause here we come.

Sleeptracking

Today was my first day as an official sleep tracker. For those who wake up cheerfully each morning blissfully unaware of the almpost painful grogginess some of us face each morning regardless of the amount of sleep gotten, just go back to bed. For you normal readers, have you heard of that new watch that is sensitive to movement and is supposed to wake you up in the morning at a time when you are in a light sleep phase rather than dreaming so that you wake up more refreshed and alert? Well I have. I read about this new alarm watch called the sleeptracker a couple of years ago in the reader's digest (yes I do read this magazine cover to cover each month). I was intrigued and considered buying one because I am always almost desperate for a way to make mornings less horrible but decided to wait till it had been around for a while to see what people thought of it. The fact that the watch was way out of my price range may have had something to do with it as well. Anyway, every birthday and Christmas I have debated asking for this watch but have never pulled the trigger. Some people swear the sleeptracker changed their life but others didn't think it made any difference and there were different issues with volume of alarm, size of the watch (earlier models were huge) etc. and it was still so dang expensive. Well the new model seems to have solved most of the problems and happened to be on sale at woot.com so I got it for Christmas this year (I found the deal, put it in the cart, entered credit card/shipping info etc. but Aaron came over and clicked the last confirm button so it counts as his present to me).

Anyway, for some reason I am having a hard time keeping this short and sweet but my sleeptracker arrived and though I left it in the box for a couple days planning to wait to use it till Christmas a couple days ago something happened to change my mind. Those who have known me a long time know that I talk/walk/dance etc. in my sleep. I am glad that we didn't have cell phones with video cameras when I was younger or I might have been the embarrassed subject of a youtube video. Anyway, I have been sleepwalking a lot lately and it is really disturbing my sleep. Sunday night was one of these nights and I woke up out of my bed 4 times. I woke up Monday tired and grumpy wishing there was something I could do about my sleep patterns but I think it is just genetic (I could go on for hours telling stories of a couple siblings nighttime adventures). I have tried to monitor what I do and eat before bed but I cannot come up with any pattern that coincides with my sleepwalking. Enter the sleeptracker.

I used my new sleeptracker to monitor my sleep last night. Of course since I was monitoring it I actually slept soundly for once but even though I don't remember waking up at all I still moved around quite a bit and had less time between movements than normal. Anyway, I am going to monitor my sleep for the next couple weeks along with keeping a journal of eating/exercising/stress before sleep so try to come up with any ideas of how to stay in my bed where I belong at night. Here's hoping.

Romeo and Juliet

This is a conversation I overheard between my daughters Gwen (10) and Maddie (8).

Gwen: I like our song about Romeo and Juliet but I don't think they were very smart.

Maddie: Why not.

Gwen: Well Juliet pretended to be dead and instead of making sure Romeo drank poison and died too and then when Juliet woke up and saw Romeo dead she killed herself too. I think that is just stupid. If that happened to me I wouldn't kill myself, sure I would weep for a couple of days but I wouldn't kill myself about it.

Maddie: Yeah, me to.

I am glad that my girls aren't overly dramatic and have a love of life, I have always felt kind of the same way about Romeo and Juliet, they seemed overly dramatic, immature and selfish throughout the play (yes I know I am a cold and heartless woman). The part I found hilarious is the fact that Gwen used the word weep rather than cry. You can tell she reads a lot because I read the word a lot more than I ever hear it. I think that I am going to start using the word from now on.