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.

First Day of School!

This year I made a goal to enjoy the my summer with the kids and not wish the whole time that they were back in school. I feel like I did a pretty good job but I will admit I was not sad to see this day come. Things are just so crazy in the summer and it is so hard to keep things structured for so many different aged kids and without structure they get bored and cranky. Anyway, today was the first day of school. It was Brock's first day of middle school which made me very nervous. I didn't like middle school and have heard horror stories from another mom who took her kids out of school because he was being bullied. Anyway, I am still a bit overprotective and it doesn't help that my oldest is more book smart than social smart. Well he just got home and said that middle school is awesome so one day down a lot to go. This year is also a first for Liam, he is now in first grade and goes to school all day. In his case I am more worried for his teacher than for him but she seems like a very patient woman so here's hoping. Gwen and Maddie are also very excited to go back to school though at back to school night last night Maddie only said one word to her teacher so I guess her shyness didn't disappear over the summer. And Gwen is the leader of the pack, a big fifth grader who loves school and gets along with just about everybody. My one child that I am not worried about right now which probably means that she will give me the most gray hairs as a teenager which she is quickly approaching. Overall I think it will be a good year and it sure was nice and quiet in my house today with only the two little girls.

Oh the Blogs I Could Blog

Oh the blogs I could blog if I just had the time
I could add awesome pictures, I could make my words rhyme

I could tell of our trip to Saint George for Spring Break
I could tell of my son's request to buy him a snake

do you want to know the home improvements I've lately made?
how about my fitness goals and how much I last weighted?

Oh the blogs I could blog if I just had the time
I could add awesome pictures, I could make my words rhyme

If I just had the time I would tell all of you
about soccer and swimming lessons to name just a few

of the many fun things that keep us so busy
if I told you them all you would start to get dizzy

Oh the blogs I could blog if I just had the time
I could add awesome pictures I could make my words rhyme

I love the Spring weather but not all the work
the yardwork is something I wish I could shirk

We've planted 10 trees and chopped down 3 more
my allergies are awful and my back is so sore

Oh the blogs I could blog if I just had the time
I could add awesome pictures I could make my words rhyme

But alas there is so much to do that indeed
I don't have time to write, I don't even have time to read.

Before Pictures

I usually don't put up "before:" pictures until I had "after" pictures to go with them but I am having a hard time getting motivated to get my latest project done. So here are some before pictures of our playroom.

First off you will have to try to ignore the 5 year old who did his very best to get into every pictures I took, as cute as he is the pictures are supposed to be of the playroom, not him.


I kind of cheated in that I left the playroom messy for the picture and didn't fold up the treadmill. When I do those things the room looks a lot better but I figured this way the end result will look even better right?
So the problems with the playroom are: I hate hate hate the rag-roll painted walls, the room is way too crowded, the exercise stuff block the toys and it is hard to watch tv while exercising or sitting on the couch.
My plan is to paint the room, rearrange the furniture and install a wall-mounted tv that we got from Aaron's grandpa for Christmas. It is going to look fabulous if I ever get up the go to get it done.

5 weeks

I have now been exercising regularly (4-5 days per week) and eating healthy for 5 weeks. Now, since it seems like every friend or relative I have has run some kind of half marathon/marathon/triathlon etc. I know that this will not impress any of you but it happens to be a record for me. I hate to exercise. I like to play sports like volleyball and I like to go on walks and such but frequent and strenuous exercise is not my cup of hot chocolate (which I have not indulged in for the said 5 weeks). I also happen to like baked goods and fried food a lot more than I should. Anyway, here are the results of my amazingly long heath stretch:

Weight lost: 5 lbs.

Inches lost: 1

endurance improved: I can now run 3.5 miles without stopping instead of .5 miles. Again, small step for others, large step for me. I happen to hate running and have trained more for the quick (the baby has a steak knife) type sprints.

Healthy recipes found (tasty ones): 6

Recipes (or the foods made from them) I would not feed to my enemies found: 3

Improvement in energy: none

improvment of attitude: none

So some stats are ok, others not so great. I would be happy if the last two listed stats were better but oh well. Now that I have broken my record for longest health kick I think I will go eat some icecream and catch up on all the tv and projects that I haven't had time for (just kidding, I am still plugging along but I can't promise how long before I crash).

Our Beautiful Madeleine

Madeleine Eve Redman is our third child. In fact she is a third child of a third child (me) of a third child (my mom). Does that mean anything? When Maddie was born I had a 2 year old a 1 year old and a newborn so sadly my memories of the time were of incredible stress. However, if I were to do it again I would space them just as I did. Maddie and her sister Gwen are best friends and have a great time together so hopefully that makes up any lack of attention.





Maddie has always been a sweet and happy little girl. When I read back over my journal entries from when she was a baby (there are a couple) I was always commenting about what a cheerful little one she was.Maddie is a very girly girl and has always loved singing, dancing, princesses, dress up, and all those other estrogen associated activities (though I have had a son or two who likes these things as well). She was a cute chubby toddler though she is skinny as anything now.
I mentioned earlier that Maddie and Gwen are the best of friends. I love how well they play together and how kind they are to each other. I hope that Mia and Evie are as good of friends as they are.

You wouldn't think it to look at this picture but Maddie is incredibly, sometimes painfully shy. Her shyness started as a toddler and I remember her sunbeam teacher asking me if she could speak. This was around March so she had been in the class for over 2 months at this time. We worried about her in school because she absolutely will not talk to people she doesn't know well and if she is upset she won't even talk to me and Aaron. She has had a couple rough times in school when she got upset or lost and wouldn't talk to anyone to get help but she has had some good, understanding teachers and she has made it through. Last year when she was in 2nd grade, about half way through the school year the teacher asked her a question during class and she answered the question. A boy in the class yelled "Maddie can talk!" and the whole class cheered for her. The mom of another child told me later that her son came home and the first thing he told his mom was that Maddie could talk.

On the other hand Maddie doesn't seem to have much stage fright at all. Her teachers have told me how surprised they are when they give her a part in a class play or reader's theatre and she will get up there and perform without a problem. She will also sing and dance for others, go figure.

As the picture shows, Maddie definitely has her saucy side as well, at least when she is at home. She was a rockstar (she called herself a cheetah girl because her skirt was cheetah print and she had heard the phrase from friends talking about the real (but not nearly as awesome) cheetah girls). She looks way too old in this picture and it gives me a queezy, I am soon to begin the teenage children years, feeling in my stomach.

Maddie turned 8 on January 21st and on January 30 she was baptized by her dad. This was my third baptism as a Mom and I will just say that it was just as special as the first. The spirit was so strong and I was so happy that Maddie was my daughter and that she was making the choice to be baptized. It was a truly wonderful day. I think the hardest part for Maddie was being the center of attention. We were worried about her Bishop's interview because we knew chances were she wouldn't talk to him but we asked him about it and he said a nod was just fine (thank goodness because that is all she gave him). She did a great job and looked beautiful in her baptism dress.
Happy Birthday Maddie! You are my favorite 8 year old in the world and I love you.

Mia

Ok, it's time to admit that I am terrible at blogging. I really enjoy reading other people's posts but never take the time for my own. Mia turned 3 on Nov. 2 and I was determined to do a post on her on her birthday week but here we are three weeks later. Better late than never. Now on to my favorite 3 year old, Amelia Anne Redman!

20 fun facts about Mia

1. Mia loves sign language, she has watched a lot of signing time videos and knows somewhere between 300 and 500 signs. I don't know exactly how many because she knows way more than me.

2. Mia loves the word "fabulous" and uses it all the time. Usually in reference to her looks. The other day I finished her hair and she said, "I want to go show Dad how fabulous I look".

3. Mia loves to sing. It is a shame she wasn't in the primary program because she knew all the songs they sang.

4. Mia may have had a scary bathroom experience lately that I don't know about. She is potty trained and has graduated from the potty chair to the big toilet but yesterday morning she came out of the bathroom saying, "I use the potty chair. The big potty is too dangerous." No idea why she feels that way. I tried to ask questions but she just kept repeating that phrase. Hmmm.

5. Mia loves shoes. Shoes are fabulous.

6. Mia doesn't like to be called things she isn't. If I call her a turkey, peanut, donut, munchkin, etc. she tells me she isn't a ... she is a toddler. The other day I said "Come here babes" and she said "Mom, I am one babe, not two." so I guess she is ok with being a babe.

7. Mia is a girly girl and loves princesses. She has recently gotten into barbie dolls and loves to brush her Repunzel barbie's hair.


8. Mia changes her clothes way to much. I had to take out her drawers and hide them in a closet to keep her from changing her clothes 12+ times a day. She now has her clothes back but the changing has increased enough that I might have to hide them again.

9. Mia is a great sister.

10. Mia likes to spell things. She knows how to spell her name but a lot of words are spelled l m n o p.

11. Mia doesn't like to take naps, though if she can take a book with her I can sometimes convince her to lay down.

12. Mia loves to draw. She draws on herself, on walls, on the coffee table, on her sister, etc.

13. Mia eats my gum if she finds it.

14. Mia loves her baby doll and plays with it every day. Her doll's name is "water baby".

15. Mia loves watching PBS

16. Mia asks me to do her hair but then pulls it out a couple hours later.

17. Mia has a great imagination.

18. Mia wishes she could go to school like her older brothers and sisters.

19. Mia loves having joint birthday parties with her daddy. Their birthdays are only 2 days apart.

20. Mia is a wonderful, lovable, sweet, beautiful, smart, funny, wise, loving, crazy and adorable little girl. We love you Mia.

I have my costume for Halloween, in fact it's already on.

This is actually a 10 year old picture but I didn't want to take a picture of what I actually look like right now because it might send readers into a panic, worried for my sanity. Last night was one of those nights that serve as excellent birth control. Unfortunately it is too late for that for me. I had been up with the kids a lot the night before and had taken a nap with the two youngest in the afteroon. Well of course this gave me insomnia so I didn't fall asleep till 1:00. Then the fun started. At 2:30 Mia woke up coughing and crying so I went in and comforted her and gave her more tylenol. Then at 4 Liam came up and told me that Brock's foot had fallen asleep. I thought it was morning and he was looking for an excuse to wake me up so I said "sorry, I hope it feels better" and went back to sleep. Then a couple minutes I woke back of and realized that it was still night and I should check on Brock. He was downstairs in their room crying because he had woken up with a horrible headache (I think he got my migraine gene) and couldn't get back to sleep. Don't ask me how Liam translated that to his foot falling asleep. So I took care of him and went back to bed. Sometime between 4:30 and 5 Evie threw up. Even more fun she was in our bed. She had been crying off and on in her bed and I was too tired to deal with it any other way than by putting her in bed with us so I woke up to wretching right next to my face. After we got things cleaned up she didn't want to go back to sleep and a half an hour later, when I got up to take care of a crying Mia again, she followed me around talking and chatting as if it was mid morning. I took her back to bed and was tired enough I have no idea how long it took her to fall back asleep.

Needless to say, I am a zombie right now. I need a super hero like this:
to come save me.

Why I don't like reporters.

Just kidding, I do like reporters, I just don't like when they are reporting on me. Something I didn't take into consideration when I decided to run for city council was the possibility of being interviewed. I am really self conscious when it comes to that kind of thing and always feel like an idiot afterward. So I have been interviewed twice now (well kind of). The first was a girl from USU who came to the house, taped the interview and took a picture for their "Hard News Cafe". I was nervous, especially when the tape recorder came on, and even though I had thought about what I wanted to say before, it didn't seem to come out right. I read her story and it wasn't what I would have wanted highlighted but it wasn't all that bad.

The second interview was a guy from the Herald Journal who contacted me by email asking for a statement (with my professional background and reasons for running) and picture. I seriously considered ignoring the email but decided that wouldn't be fair/responsible so I wrote a short statement and sent a picture. The reporter then called me and told me he felt my statement was too short and the guys running for mayor had much larger statements than me and the other woman running for city council. I informed him that it was probably because we were running unopposed while the men were running against each other. He conceded my point and left my statement as it was. Anyway, I am totally running on but the profiles were in the paper yesterday and he made me look like a total idiot. This was my statement: I graduated in 1999 with a BA in English and have been running a rapidly growing organization (the Redman family) ever since. My family moved to Millville in 2007 and plan on staying for years to come. I am running for City Council because I want to do my part to make sure Millville remains a great place to live.

This is what he wrote (without the bold): Redman graduated in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in English. "Since then I have been running a rapidly growing organization (the Redman Family) ever since."

So he said that I had a degree in English and then in the next sentence made it look like I said "since then...ever since". Now I am not a grammar freak, in fact my grammar is quite lousy at times but I felt like I looked like a total idiot. My only hope is that nobody read the article.

I am probably blowing this way out of proportion but was so nervous and hated the idea of being interviewed in the first place and now I feel my fears are justified. So I will bank on the hope that I won't be interviewed again unless I run for city council again in 4 years and if I do I already have my statement ready: If you like what I have done the past 4 years vote for me again. That's it.

Family pictures, and oh, what a family.

We finally did the family photo shoot that we have been planning to do for over a year. My extended family has started using a photographer named Amber to do pictures for engagements, weddings, babies etc. and I have wanted to get family pictures done for about 18 months now. Last year I was going to do it but didn't get around to it and suddenly it was winter and too cold with babies. So then spring pictures was the plan with pretty spring flowers in the background. Well that didn't happen either. Neither did summer pictures. What can I say, I may have bitten off more that I can chew with that last baby. Anyway, one of the things that kept me from making the appointment was that I wanted coordinating outfits and i was never getting around to getting them so I just decided to make the appointment first and then figure out the appointments. Anyway, long story not quite so long, I made the appointment, I found the outfits (all found in the closet or at DI except for 2 shirts, $3.50 each), and we did the photo shoot. I am really happy with how the pictures turned out which is good since I opted out of school pictures this year. I have a couple group shots here and I have decided to blog about one of my kids each week and post their individual pictures then. I meant to write about each child during their birthdays but it didn't happen so will hopefully make up for it.

Almost a Tragic Headline

Last night was one of those times that you say an extra big thank you prayer. I was out with the youngest two in the jogging stroller and it was getting dark so we were headed in. I saw Mia's trike in the driveway so I walked up the slight hill of the driveway with both the stroller and the trike to where (I thought) it was flat and then put the trike away. I turned around to get the girls out of the stroller and it had started rolling back down the driveway toward the road. I chased after it and caught it and we skidded to a stop right as it was about to roll into the road. Right then there was a loud noise and a woosh as a big truck zoomed past us. It must not have seen us because it didn't even slow down but 2 more feet and we would have all been hit. The kids weren't strapped in because I had only been in the driveway so there is no way it could have ended well if we had been hit. So thank you, thank you, thank you to Heavenly Father and to guardian angels for keeping my babies safe ( by the way, they were facing toward me rather than the road and had absolutely no clue that anything was wrong). We had a family lesson later about turning strollers parallel to the road. I think I have learned my lesson.

If the phrase "pulling my hair out" was literal, I would be bald.

Sunday we had a family talk about respect and appreciation. I have felt very unappreciated and the kids have shown very little respect. Today I saw how much they listened and learned from our discussion. I can't find a library book. I hate it when I can't find library books, it is probably a sick source of pride that I keep track of 50+ library books and am relatively good at getting them back on time and not losing them. I regress. I couldn't find a library book and it was due today. It was one of Mia's books (the title is "what color should I be. Cute but elusive book). I looked for the book for about 1.5 hours but was unable to find the book. When the kids came home I asked the to help me find the book and we all looked for about 5 minutes before the complaints started. Well Brock and Gwen complained, Maddie, Liam and Mia just stopped looking except to pretend for a second when I was reminding them to work. Here is a sprinkling of what I heard from the older two for the next 20 minutes. The complaints were pretty constant the whole time, many repeated over and over.

"Why do I have to look for this book, I didn't check it out"

"Maddie isn't looking as hard as me"

"Why should I have to look in my bedroom, I know it isn't there"

"Mia should have to find the book, it's her fault"

"I am tired of looking"

Why do we always have to do whatever you want us to"

"I already looked why should I look more"

"Why do we have to work all day every day"

And the clincher, this one send me over the edge:

"Mom probably wouldn't have even given us anything if we had found the book. She probably would have just said thank you and not even given us a skittle. She never gives us anything."

I pretty much spend my life doing things for them. I volunteer in 4 different classrooms every week. I have spent more on each of my children for clothes/shoes in the last year than on myself in the last 5. But none of this matters, all they see is me doing what is "owed" to them and not even getting that right most of the time since every night I cook a dinner that at least one of my kids hates and they don't have nearly the toys/games/fun their friends have.

There are wonderful things about motherhood and I find that I appreciate my 6th child so much more and enjoy my role but there are also some major downers and this is one of them.

The honeymoon is over

After 11 years I can finally say I have been on a honeymoon. I joined Aaron for the last two days of his latest conference in Baltimore, went to Ocean City Maryland for 2 days, then went to DC for a day.

Our honeymoon top 10:


10. Eating meals I didn't have to cook

9. Walking around museums with Aaron (without kids!)

8. Going to an amusement park (without kids!)

7. Parasailing

6. Playing in the waves at the beach for hours (without kids!)

5. Not having to worry about my kids while I was doing all of these fun things. Thank you so much Mom for making their week as fun as mine (well almost).

4. Did I mention that I got to play with my husband at the beach for hours without having to worry about kids drowning, getting sand in their eyes, getting kidnapped or lost, annoying other beach goers, etc.?

3. Lazing around the hotel room in Baltimore for 1.5 days while Aaron was at his conference (without kids!)

2. Coming home to my kids. The only time I have left them in the past is to go have the next baby so this was a first for me and though I wasn't nearly as sad to be away from them as I feared I would be (I know, I'm terrible) I was literally bouncing in my seat excited to see them when we got back.

1. Spending 5 days with my sweetheart enjoying each other's company and remembering what it was like long ago when all we thought about was each other.

Thanks for the perfect honeymoon Aaron (I have started planning for our second honeymoon. I want to go to Hawaii this time. It should only take another 11 years to save the money for it.). YBEG

Those with dentist phobias should not read this post!

Those of you with real problems shouldn't read this either since there is way too much whining involved. What can I say, a little self pity goes a long way.

I need to post about Liam, Brock and Evie's birthdays. Instead I will post about poor pitiful me. I will try to make sense through the pain killer haze in my brain.

So yesterday I went in to the dentist for a root canal. It was my second and the first wasn't bad at all so I was trying not to worry. Everything went fine throughout the appointment till near the end. The dentist was putting something into the tooth that smelled strongly of chlorine bleach and then suddenly there was a burning sensation that started in the tooth but then radiated to the rest of my face. It started to burn in my nose and down my throat. I made some grunting sounds to show I was in pain (I try to be brave at the dentist but this went beyond that) and he started to work faster and start sucking stuff out while asking if it burned in my nose and throat. Long story short they put this heavy duty disinfectant in the root of the tooth (I told him it smelled and felt like bleach and he said it is very similar. I don't remember this from my first root canal) and apparently my root went into my sinuses so when they put the stuff in it went into my sinuses as well. The dentist was as close to freaking out as I have seen a dentist and kept saying "this is not good, this is not good". So apparently my sinuses are kind of fried. He put a shot of steroids into my face to help the inflamation, gave me prescriptions for more steroids, antibiotics and painkillers and pretty much told me to stay on the painkillers because I would need them and made an appointment to finish up on Tuesday (he couldn't finish the root canal because of blood coming from my sinuses out my tooth). So why do these things happen to me? I am trying to count my blessings because my family is really pretty darn healthy but come on, I feel like someone shot acid into my face. I'm not sure if there will be any lasting damage and I will admit it feels better today than yesterday though now my tooth hurts a lot as if there is lots of pressure inside. So poor poor me, how tragic how sad. Everyone get out your little violins and play a sad sad song for me.