We're back and the blog is now way behind

We are back home and my oh my, does it feels good to be home!

But oh how I love being with Family for the Holidays. The food, the fun, the games, the laughing, the memories made. I love it all, from the fighting and sleep deprived nights to the silly goofy times, it all makes the Holidays what they are to me, time spent with Family.

We had a good two weeks at my folks home. C's Parents even got to come spend a couple of days with us, it was so good to see them and the kids loved being able to visit BOTH sets of G-parents.

Two weeks of living out of suitcases isn't ideal for a family of four but it was well worth it! Next year we'll be a family of 5 and I think we'll just stick around here so I'm glad we squeezed in one more Christmas out West with the Family.

We had a LONG day yesterday flying back home. UGH is the only word to describe how that day went. I'm not complaining but there is just no way I can say "It is so fun spending 14 hours in one day flying from airport to airport getting on air plane after air plane with two kids." It was fine, nothing major happened just a couple of small delays and for that I am thankful, but spending a whole day trying to keep your spirits up and your kids happy and not hate each other in the end is exhausting to say the least. Thank heaven my kids are fairly good on airplanes! They are getting older and so they are much easier to contain on a small confined airplane or several airplanes in our case! The disadvantage of flying from one small air port to another.... you HAVE to have at least one layover and in our case two.

To end on a positive note.....We survived it yay! And we are happy to be home......for now :) I'm sure missing our family will kick in soon enough and my spoiled kids will realize being spoiled here with only Mom and Dad around just doesn't happen.

Thank You Thank You Mom and Dad for "making" us come out for Christmas, we loved it and we are so thankful to you for all you do for our little Family.

He just doesn't get it

So I don't want to leave the blog with that last depressing post, so I will tell you a funny story about my J boy (again, it's always about him these days, I know).

He's not quite getting this whole "baby in my tummy" thing. Some times I think he understands where the baby is growing and other times, not so much.

We got those magazines/booklets they give you at the Doctors office that show those really amazing detailed pictures of the process and growth of the fetus in the womb. You know the ones I'm talking about right? My kids both love looking at each stage. E asks "where is our baby at?" and I'll show her the picture of the week in which our baby is at. It's cute how interested in it she is, and she gets it. Although, now, she's asking "How does the baby get in the tummy?" Uh I'll tell ya that when you're older! She'll say "Is it like a trick?" Yeah, it's a trick you can know some day, and only use when you're married.

Well J boy does not put it together that the baby is in MY tummy and not just in the book.

One day he was carrying around the little booklet looking at each phase and picture saying "This is what the baby looks like!"
So I asked him "Yes, buddy but where is the baby?" He points to the book and says "In the bubble." By that, he means the Yolk sack. In each picture it shows the baby inside the sack and to him it's "the bubble"

So I tell him "Yes, it is in its bubble but that is just a picture. There is a bubble and baby that is in my tummy, that is why my tummy is getting bigger."

I then explain to him that the bubble is in the tummy and it helps protect the baby while it grows in MY tummy (with emphasis on "in my tummy" in hopes of him getting it). I then tell him that he was once a tiny baby just like that one, in my tummy and that he had a bubble too, to help protect him until he was ready to come out and be with us.

I say to him "You were in a bubble in my tummy a long time ago too, and then when you were ready to come out the bubble popped and out you came." I thought maybe he'd like to know that he was once like the baby too.

Apparently that was not a good thing to say. He bursts into tears, real tears, and is crying and saying "NO! I want my bubble, don't pop my bubble, I want my bubble!" then he says "Don't pop the baby's bubble, don't pop it!"

I had a hard time not laughing, I really was trying to take him seriously but I could not help but chuckle and smile at his response to his "bubble being popped". So of course he gets mad at me for laughing at him. I try to explain that he was ready to come out and didn't need his bubble any more but he still was upset about it.

What a funny kid.

His poor bubble got popped and he wants it back!

Being honest with you and myself

I'm just gonna spill my guts out right now, OK. Hope you don't mind but some times blogging is like therapy. This may be a little depressing, sorry.


This is the weirdest pregnancy for me by far. I'm not enjoying it at ALL, though I am trying to be excited about it for my kids' sake. Yes, it is even more weird than the last one that wasn't really real.

I am not a "freak-out-over-every-little-thing" kind of person. I usually have common sense and try to use it when needed. I don't like drama all that much and avoid making it happen in my life. I believe it was because of what happened with my last pregnancy, that this pregnancy I have become that person I don't want to be. I'm not really that person "out loud". I don't vocalize my fears and overreactions. I try not to show even my husband (except for one time so far) that I'm being this way because like I said, I don't like drama. I can't help but get these freaked out thoughts in my head. I hate it. I hate being that paranoid person, because usually I'm not.

I'm going to say something and hopefully no one takes it the wrong way, but I'm just being honest with you and myself.......

I do NOT love being pregnant, ever. I don't necessarily hate it, I just have a hard time enjoying it completely. I feel guilty for feeling this way because I see and hear other Mothers-to-be say how much they love being pregnant. Well I just don't love it. I love certain things about my pregnancies, one being the miracle that it is that there is life growing inside me and what it brings to my life, a beautiful child. I love to feel the movement of the baby inside me but I don't love the whole process of it all. You might be saying "well you must get really sick, so of course you won't love it." Well no, I don't get really sick. I get a little sick at the beginning for the first ten weeks and then it's gone. I don't have terrible complications with my pregnancies, well besides J boy being 5 weeks early but that was just a weird fluke thing, so what do I have to complain about right? Nothing! I just can't find that "OH I love this so much!" feeling that some women get with each pregnancy. Maybe it's because I gain like 55lbs with each one! OK I didn't gain that much with J boy but I truly did with E and I came close with J. But really that doesn't bug me all that much because I can always lose the weight. Maybe it's because I hate my maternity clothes. I hate all maternity clothes. For some reason I put them on and instantly I feel ugly and fat. I think other women look so good pregnant and their maternity clothes look so cute on them but when I look at myself in my "fat clothes" I just don't love it. Maybe I just hate all the yuck that comes with pregnancy....ya know heartburn, constipation, cramps, stretchmarks, you know....the works! But no one really loves that either, I guess.

So what is my reason for not LOVING being pregnant?!

Why do I not love or even like being a pregnant Mamma? It's a mystery. Please tell me some of you feel the same way. Please tell me that I'm not the only one, that this is normal.

Going on with my thoughts on this pregnancy being a weird one for me....

It's weird because I can't find myself happy at all, at this point, for this child I will soon have. I guess I don't want to get too attached to the baby "just-in-case". Just in case something goes wrong and I miss carry again. I know I'm way past the risky point in the pregnancy and my Doctor says everything looks good, but there is still that 5% that I could be in. So in a way I guess I'm protecting myself by not letting myself believe it's real. Since I'm already the type of pregnant person that doesn't enjoy being pregnant then to add this fear on top of that, well I feel really bad about this but I can't stop it. I can't stop myself from being this weird person that I am right now, that I'm normally not. I hate it. I hate when I feel crampy (which is totally normal in all pregnancies and I KNOW this) and then I start to get freaked out and get panicky. I hate it when I start to get excited about having another child, another baby to hold, and then my weird self tells me not to and pushes those good thoughts out. I hate it when people congratulate me and I try to show that I'm happy too and I feel like I have to fake it. I mean I like it when people say congratulations, I think it is very nice of them but I hate that I can't respond better, ya know? Am I making any sense?

I am happy to be having another child, and I'm not at the same time and I don't know how that is possible but it is how I feel with this pregnancy. I can't find myself getting excited but I am trying to. I do love, however, my kids' response to the whole "baby is coming" idea. I love that they talk about it all the time, it makes me forget about being weird. I love that J boy tries so hard to understand what it all is, he's so confused and it's pretty funny some times. I love it when my hubby rubs my already bulging belly with love, it makes my heart skip a beat. I love that my good friend and neighbor is excited, REALLY excited for me because it makes up for me not being like that. I love that my Mom (and family but mostly my Mom) is SO excited and wants to shop for me and the baby and I love that, it helps too. I'm working at getting more excited for another baby but it's a slow process with this one and I can't help but feel guilty about it. I don't ever want to tell this child "I couldn't be excited for you" because I am, but I am not, and how do you explain that to your kid. I guess I'll just have to lie. I bet once I get HUGE (cause I do get huge) I'll be excited to get the baby out which will hopefully get me excited to meet it.

Am I an awful person? Because I'm feeling like one. Maybe when I find out what we're having I'll be more excited, who knows what will do it for me but I hope it happens sooner rather than later.

Okay I'm done, I've said enough I think.

Flash Back Friday #2 Dating while at College, good times.

I didn't know what to share for my flashback Friday. I was having a really hard time trying to think of some thing to share that would be some what interesting.

I guess I could share my appendix story, but maybe you are sick of hearing about hospital visits, besides it will never compare in awesomeness, as was C's appendix story was pretty awesome.

After much delay in trying to think of a fun flashback this is all I got....This memory will only be fun for those who once attended good 'ol Ricks college or Adrienne, my roommate who was there with me, or Ricky Martin j/k :)

Freshman year of College, Fall '99

My very first roommate and I hit it off from the start. Adrienne showed up at our apartment for the first time wearing pretty much the same out fit I was wearing, shoes and all, and we had a very similar hair cut. We looked at each other and knew at that moment we'd be friends. We ended up sharing a room and the rest is history. Today she is still one of my best friends who I love keeping in touch with. I can't wait to live closer to her so we can visit each other often. She is the reason I was so attracted to Canadians in the first place. She was a cute Canadian girl with a lot of personality and she was just so fun to be around. She used to tell me all the time "You're gonna marry a Canadian some day." I think she was brainwashing me because after that whenever I'd meet a guy at school that was from Canada I had this immediate attraction to them, so C had that going for him from the beginning. All he had to do next was show me his bum and he was set, I was sold :) (read my first flashback if you are confused about that last comment)

Anyway....
The fun memories I have with her are many but there is one I remember in particular.
She ended up dating a guy, Ryan was his name. They hooked it up during one of these two semesters while at Ricks. I liked the guy, I guess. He was fun to hang out with and pretty cute and he seemed to treat her ok.

For those of you who have never been to Ricks College, it is like a Glorified High School at its best. It was so fun though! There were dances all the time, which we'd go to all the time in hopes of meeting cute guys.....high school I tell ya, but it was a fun time! Then they had formal Dances and of course Formal "girls choice" dances because the guys are too lame to ask the girls out so this gave us the opportunity to do the asking.

Adrienne wanted to go to one of the Girls Choice dances with her boyfriend and she wanted me to double with her and go with one of his good friends. I was okay with asking him to go with me because we had hung out in a few group settings together and I thought he was cute, best of all he was a Premie.

Ahhh, ha ha ha, that just made me laugh out loud! The funny terms us Mormons come up with, we have our own little language and it just made me laugh right now. I have not used the word "premie" in so long. A Premie is what guys were called before going on their Momrmon Missions, it stands for "Pre-missionary". Premies were awesome because you did not feel pressure to get married. If you dated a RM (Return Missionary) your odds of getting married at 18 went WAY up, like 90%. I liked the Premies, they were a safe choice for me, I wasn't about to get married at 18 :)

So he was cute, he looked like Ricky Martin but younger and cuter, and he was a premie so I was cool with asking him out.

To be honest with you I have no idea how we asked the guys to go to the Girls choice dance with us. I'm sure it was in a cheesy Mormon creative way but for the life of me, I cannot remember how we did it, but we did. We asked them to go to the dance, "MORP" in some cute way and we waited for their response. Mormons are weird, aren't we, but we sure like to have some good clean fun, right?

Going on....


So it was in the wee hours of the morning when I am suddenly awaken by a guy in my room pulling on my arm to get me out of bed. I was a little freaked out. I looked over next to me and Adrienne was being pulled out of her bed by another guy. He blind folded her and walked her out the door. I couldn't tell who these guys were at first and I was a little freaked out. The guy holding my arm began to pull me out of bed and tried blind fold me. I didn't know who it was until he said something, like "Don't be scared, just come with me." I recognized the voice it was Brandon the guy I asked to the dance.

I'm relieved that it's not some weirdo in my room but at this point I realize I was in a small tank top with no bra on and little athletic shorts, that was it. This is Rexburg Idaho here in the fall, it's cold out at night and I did not want to go with him half naked for more than one reason. Before I'm all the way out of bed I say loudly "Wait! let me get some clothes on first."

The look on his face is forever in my memory, it was priceless. Immediately he turns away and walks out my door. I later realized he thought I was completely naked under my blankets. C'mon really? Girls are not like that, guys may like to sleep in the nude but not us ladies. Either way he was not about to see some girl he hardly knew naked. So out the door he went as fast as he could.

I put on some pants and t-shirt and went to the living room where I saw Adrienne Blind folded in a guys sweatshirt. Ryan was holding her hand and they were waiting for me. Brandon gave me a sweatshirt and blindfolded me and we headed out the door. They piled us in the back of their car and we began driving around what seemed like forever.

They drove us around for a quite while and before coming to a stop I had figured we must have gone out of town by now, since Rexburg really is not that big of a town. Finally I feel the car pull off a narrow road and come to a stop. We stumbled around as they helped us out of the car still blind folded. It was a pretty chilly night and I was glad I decided to change into some pants. I remember being lowered down onto the cold ground next to Adrienne with blankets thrown over us. I felt sand go between my toes (I had only flip flops on) and I knew where we were, the infamous St. Anthony Idaho Sand Dunes. These Dunes are pretty awesome and we had been to them several times already during our Freshman year. There were always groups of people going out there to have bonfires and to just hang out in hopes of finding a cute member of the opposite sex to flirt with. HIGH SCHOOL, I tell ya, gotta love it!

We waited....and waited....We could hear them doing something and I could smell gasoline. After much rustling around and mumbling coming from the guys direction we were finally told we could take off our blind folds. Before I did, I could feel the heat on my face and knew there was a fire. We took off our blind folds and in the sand stretched out on a large space of sand, probably a good 15 yards, in front of us were very large letters Y-E-S all squiggled across the sand in flames.

Awwwww ((sigh)) so cute! OK it was a little cheesy for me but I was 18 and thought it was pretty fun and creative of them. I was impressed by the effort they went to respond in a manly yet creative way.

I'm not quite sure how I felt at the time about having a guy come in my room in the middle of the night and pull me out of bed while I was half naked, but it makes for a fun memory of my first year at Ricks College.

Sometimes I tell people I went on a date with Ricky Martin, cause he kinda looks like him.

Then End!

More Randomness. I want to write these things down

I witnessed the kids first pillow fight with each other the other night. That was fun! The intensity in their faces as I encouraged them to whack each other (in the faces none-the-les), was priceless. For some reason they looked as though they really wanted to hurt each other but I'm sure they were just having fun! It was cute and there were very few tears, which surprised me.

The other day I ate Cheerio's for breakfast and then was talking to my daughter who politely told me my breath was stinky. I told her I agreed with her saying "Yeah my breath smells like Cheerio's huh?" her response....."No it smells like the potty!" NICE! Guess I need to clean the Potty first off and second, I need to remember not to forget to brush my teeth after eating Cheerio's before going out in public. Thankfully I ate these before I had brushed my teeth so the problem could be quickly solved.

FYI Cheerio breath= toilet breath.

My cute and silly boy and I did a secret hand shake this morning. He was laughing so hard like I was the funniest coolest Mom ever, I loved it! Soak'n it up while it lasts because soon I will not be so cool in their eyes.

My Son colored a cute Christmas ornament picture and showed it to me all proud saying "Look Mommy what I did." I said to him "Oh buddy that is so pretty!" In a serious face he says "No, cool Mom, it's cool." Sooorrry! I thought not matter who colored it, ornaments were always pretty but noooo if he colored it, it is cool!

The Man of the house finished his finals and did great! I love that feeling but not as much as he does, I'm sure. One more Semester down just three more to go! Now for Christmas Break with lots of Daddy time.

I Sent C to pick up E from school. She waits in the "car rider line" and every day she sees my van pull up she smiles and waves frantically at me. It is so cute every time. Well I knew with Daddy being the one to pick her up she'd be out of control with excitement. I asked Him if they had to check his ID since he usually doesn't pick her up he said "No cause she was waving and yelling 'that's my Daddy, that's my Daddy!' They believed her." I wished I could have seen her face. She loves her Daddy.

E was talking with her Daddy about all kinds of things tonight. It was so cute, it melts my heart to hear them love their Dad so much. I heard her say some thing like "You just know everything huh Dad?" Don't all daughters think that about their Dads? I did and still do :)

hhmmm last bit of news to document....

We're going "home" for the Holidays. To my Folks place. I'm glad, I love family during the Holidays. Well I love Family all the time but it's more special during the Holidays.

Oh one more.....I have a great reason this season not to worry about gaining those Holiday pounds. "I'm eating for two!" will be a phrase I will use often in the next few weeks as the yummy food will be all around.

Yes it's true! We are excited to be having another little Harker join us in May.

Flashback Friday (a little late)

So my friend said we needed to take on a challenge and have this flashback Friday thing on our blogs every week in December or as long as we can do it. I told her I'd give it a shot but I, of course forgot.

The rules were that it had to be a memory of our own from before we were married and had kids, since our blogs right now are mostly about our lives with our husbands and children. She said it might be nice to go back in time before we had them.

So here is my first flashback. I think I'll start with this story of C and me just before we were engaged and move backwards in time with each flashback, does that make sense?

I love this story we have together and the memories it brings to me when we were dating and how hard it makes me laugh every time. here goes.....

Warning: This may be long, I don't know how to make this story shorter, stick with me here it's a good one!

C and I attended BYU-I together. Actually when I first met him I was taking classes but the next year that we dated I came back to Rexburg but just worked full time. We lived right across the street from each other and we were in the same student ward and yes we met the year prior because we were in the same FHE "family", classic!

When we both came back to Rexburg after the summer spent at our parents houses we didn't know if we'd even see each other again, be in the same ward again etc. I was hoping he would be coming back to school there and I was hoping he'd still be in the same apartments because I like the cute Canadian and thought it would be nice if we hooked up when we came back. Later I found out he liked me too and was hoping the same thing. So when we ended up living in the same housing as the year before we pretty much hooked up right away. We never said the official "we're dating" but when we both came back we started hanging out every day and we just knew we were dating. I loved that about us, there was no awkwardness, we both just knew it was right.

About two months of us dating we had a bonding moment and this is when I knew we'd be married one day.....

In October (I believe, but C will correct me if I am wrong) I was planning to attend the Temple for our ward Temple trip. I would be doing just baptisms since I was not yet endowed. I asked C if he was going too but that Friday night he was not feeling well and said he'd probably just sleep in. I was excited to go because I think in the back of my mind I wanted a peaceful place to pray and contemplate this new relationship I had and try and find out if it was what I was hoping it was. It sounds silly now because we had only been dating for a couple of months but I felt strongly I needed to find out if I should persue him more in the "let's take this seriously" kind of way or if it was just another one of my "this is just for fun" relationships. It felt so different with him from the beginning and it kind of scared me but made me excited at the same time. Looking back I felt so mature and "old" at the time and ready to get married, HA! I laugh now at my "feeling so mature", I was so young (22) but I know I was ready.

Going on with the story...
I got up Saturday morning and began to get ready for the temple trip out to the Idaho Falls Temple. I kept getting this nagging feeling not to go. I disregarded it several times because why would the spirit be telling me not to go to the Temple, it was a righteous thing to be doing so I ignored it. As it got closer to leave I could not stop this awful feeling. So I told my roommates to go with out me. I called C to see if he was awake and feeling any better. He sounded awful on the phone as he told me how he was up all night throwing up and had terrible pain in his stomach. I went right over to his apartment which was empty except for him because all his roommates went to the Temple too.

I immediately thought it was food poisoning since we ate the same thing for dinner that night and I felt kind of sick the night before too, but in the morning I felt better. So I ran to the store to buy him some Gatorade to rehydrate him and Activated Black Charcoal (which you can tack in a pill form to help the body absorb or rid itself of the food poisoning or something, all I know is it helps).

After an hour or so of trying to take care of him, he was not feeling any better. Still throwing up, still pain in his stomach. I started getting scared, he looked like he was dying. OK I'm exaggerating a little but he looked terrible and was only getting worse.

Then it was like I knew, I knew what it was. It was that AAHHHH(that was supposed to be the Angelic sounding Aaaahhh) moment of revelation.

Some thing said "Take him to the Hospital it's his appendix." I told him what I thought/knew it was. Being a regular Man and a bit prideful, he was hesitant to let me take him to the ER but then he gave in and let me drive him to good 'ol Madison Memorial Hospital.

The reason I knew this was what it was, was because just a couple years back in '99 my freshman year in College my roommates had to rush me to Madison Memorial for the very same thing, my appendix. For some reason I didn't think of it at first because I was so sure it was food poisoning. At that time of revelation, I knew exactly why I was not supposed to go to the Temple. C was very sick and all his roommates left him without even thinking anything of it. There was no way he could have driven himself to the hospital. So I was to be the one to sacrifice my temple trip to "save him". I was so relieved to know I wasn't crazy and that the spirit did in fact prompt me not to go to the Temple.

I rushed him to the ER. We sit at the check-in desk and as he holds a hospital dish while throwing up he gives his information to the girl/nurse at the desk. She asked what we thought was wrong, what his symptoms were etc. So I tell her I think he has appendicitis. She then watches C throw up again.....OK, I'm trying not to be too gross here but it was pink (from the Gatorade) and black from the Charcoal. The nurse looked at me and said something to the effect of "What did he last have?" I told her I thought it was food poisoning at first and that I gave him activated Black Charcoal. She then nodded and complimented me on my knowledge that that would help with food poisoning.

It was a slow Saturday at the Madison Memorial Hospital ER and so he was taken back pretty quickly. I sat in the waiting room as they wheeled him back, knowing they usually only let family members back there. I know this because they would not let my roommates go back with me when I had my emergency visit for the same thing.

About 10 minutes or so later a nurse comes out and says
"Mrs. Harker, would you like to come back and be with your husband?"

So at this point I am not "Mrs. Harker" but in fact I am still Ms. Weathers. I am not his wife not even engaged to the guy but I pause just a moment and contemplate what to say. I wanted to see him and knew if I told her I was not his wife she might not let me go back. So I jump up and say "Yes, thank you." with a little smirk on my face.

At this point I'm laughing in my head thinking "what have I done." I felt like Sandra Bullock in the movie "While You Were Sleeping" It was kind of fun to pretend to be his wife.

I get back there and the male nurse finishes taking his vitals and leaves the room. I quickly say to C "Ummm so, they think we are married, just so you know. They called me Mrs. Harker and asked if I wanted to see you and I just came back here. If they ask don't tell, OK?" We both laughed about it and let them believe whatever they wanted to.

The Dr. came in what seemed like after not waiting too long in the room. I explained what had gone on the past 12 hours or so with C and tell him that I think it's his appendix. He then confirms my theory and says that it is his appendix and they would get him in to emergency surgery as soon as possible. I get C's parents phone # from him so I could call and tell them what was going on with their Son.

The conversation went some thing like this:
me: Hi is this Celia Cory's Mother?
Celia: Yes
me: This is K I am C's girl friend. I'm just calling to let you know he's here in the Hospital. We found out he has appendicitis and he should be going into surgery in the next hour or so. I thought maybe you'd like to know what was going on. I can call you when he gets out and let you know how it all goes.

I don't remember her exact response but she was very nice and grateful to me that I was able to take him to the Hospital and be with him since she could not be there.

About an hour later they tell us they are ready to take him back to surgery. They had already started his IV earlier and gave him medicine to help with pain. He was a little out of it from the meds so I'm not even sure he knew I was still there. As they wheeled his bed down the hall I followed until we came to the restricted area. I held his hand and he looked at me. The last thing I said was "I'm going to go get some lunch and then I'll come back and wait in your room until you are out of surgery." He smiled and then they wheeled him behind the doors. I felt like I should say "I love you" cause that is what you should say when some one goes off to surgery especially if it's a family member and all the nurses thought we were married. We had not yet said those words to each other and I regretted not saying, not only to keep fooling the nurses into thinking we were married but also because I really thought "I love him". awww ((Sigh))

I went and grabbed some lunch "Mill Hallow" to be exact YUM! I love their sandwiches! I went back to where they told me his recovery room would be and I waited for a while. They wheeled him in all out of it still, he was not fully awake from being put under.

Are you still with me? OK good cause here is the best part of this story....

So the huge male nurse comes in to check his IV and meds and what not and take his vitals. I am sitting next to C's bed in a chair. The nurse is on the other side of him asking him to take deep breaths in and out. C would take one and breath out and Oh my goodness did his breath reek! I had to turn away. Then C would start to fall back asleep. The nurse would tell him to wake up and start breathing deep again. I finally stepped to the end of the bed where they had a chair placed facing the foot of his bed, I couldn't take the smell of stale puke breath any more.

The nurse and C go at this for a while, trying to get him to come out of it. C had on only the hospital gown and the bed sheets were no longer across his legs but down at the end of the bed. I think the nurse took them off so he'd wake up. As the nurse is trying to get him to come out of it C keeps lifting his legs, bending his knees exposing himself a little more each time. Remember I am sitting right at the foot of his bed, and remember this nurse thinks I am his wife. I am keeping my eyes up and not looking at the dark spot between his legs, but C keeps exposing himself more and more as he squirmed more and more in his bed and as he lifted his legs higher and higher. He's obviously not doing it on purpose, he was still so out of it. But if I acted all "scared" about it the nurse would wonder what's wrong with me, I was married to the guy, nothing I shouldn't have seen already right? So I sat there at the end of the bed gazing off to the side trying not to look at C's, well ehm, crotch all the while I am and trying to be discrete about it.

We laugh so hard about it now, it's such a good story to retell.

It doesn't end there....

He finally comes out of it more and starts talking to me, noticing I'm there. He was HILARIOUS to say the least as he was coming out of it. The first thing he said to me was "Did you go and get some lunch?" I told him yes that I went to our favorite place for a sandwich. I can't remember all he said or what he was doing that was so funny. I just remember him asking me the same three or four questions over and over. I would smile every time and tell him the same answers. He would ask in this cute little voice like he was so concerned about me, I had not ever seen this side of him before and it was funny to me. Finally he said to me "Have I already asked you these things?" Yes, like three times! It was funny.

I remember him being more with it when the nurse came back in to give him some shot, I don't know what it was for. I remember getting this shot too after I came out of surgery. I'm sitting right next to C and the nurse comes in and tells him he has to have this shot. He tells C to roll to his side and then he immediately flips open C's gown and begins giving him the shot right in his bum. I am sitting right there on the same side as the nurse and have full view of C's rear end! This time I could not act cool. I looked at his little butt, smiled got up and walked to the other side of the room and faced the other way. I think the nurse began to catch on about us but they never said anything.

So yes, I saw my hubby's crotch and butt all before we were even engaged let alone married :)
C always says I must have really been in love with him to continue the relationship after seeing all that! HA, it's true.

I stayed the day with him and ended up falling asleep on the pull out bed that night. So yes, I spent the night with him too, oooOOooo. Don't worry! The nurses came and went every hour through the night or so it seemed so we were supervised the whole time.

It was such a bonding moment for us. Such good times, good memories :)

Me seeing him in pain, racing him off to the ER, then wheeling him off to surgery knowing at that moment that I loved him, then getting a nice crotch shot as he was coming out of it and to top it all off I got to see his cute little bum. What's not tender about all that?

This picture was taken that winter, so not long after all this had happened. Awww so cute! Oh my look at us, we were so young!

The End!

Random thoughts....

I love how my kids can find joy in such simple things. After having my own children I have really come to know what it means to "become as a little child" like we are told to do in the Bible.

Kids are so honest, fun loving, forgiving, humble (most of the time) they love life, find joy in simple things and the list goes on. I love watching my kids be kids and the example they are to me.

I've been focusing our Holiday season on Jesus Christ of course and J boy is really soaking it up. I love his excitement to learn. E remembers from years past what Christmas is all about. She said to me this morning "Mommy I really love getting presents but I know that's not what Christmas is all about." It was so cute. She wanted express how much she loves getting presents but wanted me to know she knows that's not the most important thing. She is so funny.

We took the kids out on a drive to look at lights one night over the long weekend. They LOVED it (to say the least). Even if they saw just one string of lights on a small house they got so excited yelling out "look more Christmas lights!" We did see a couple of really fun houses, one that was all decked out as the North Pole! The kids LOVED that. I was glad to see lots of Nativity's out in people's lawns too. During our little drive J boy says in the cutest, most excited voice "OH Christmas lights make me soooo happy!" It was so precious! E added in "yeah Christmas is a happy time." They are both so sweet, I love their massive amounts of excitement this time of year, it's contagious.

Every time we pass by a Salvation Army bucket at the stores J boy and E (if she's with me) reminds me to put some "monies" in the buckets. I know they mostly like putting the coins in for fun, it sounds cool and whatnot. But as they are doing it I try to explain what those buckets are for and why we put "monies" in them. I'm grateful for these teachable moments.

The day before Thanksgiving we decided to go out and beat the crowds and get our real Christmas tree. I knew if we waited we might not get a good one for the price we could afford. After Thanksgiving, during that weekend we set it up and decorated, and by 'we' I mean 'I' decorated. The kids enjoyed "helping" for the first two minutes and then I was on my own after that. Oh well! The house looks good and the kids love to stare at the lights on our tree. What fun times we have as a family this time of year.

I love this time of year for so many reasons:

For family (my distant and extended family but also my own little one right here)
For the spirit it brings
For the Beauty all around this time of year brings
For the joy it gives not only my kids but me and my husband too
For opportunities it brings to serve others
For the opportunity to reflect and be more Grateful
For the fun stuff I get to do with my kids like making goodies, making christmas crafts, decorating etc. These opportunities to bond more with my kids are priceless
For the Birth of Christ and for his life he lived for us and for my Faith in him.
For my life and the blessings I enjoy during this time of year, I know some people are not as fortunate.
And yes, even for the the food mmmm


Here are a couple of funny and random videos. I love laughing at my silly kiddos.


He was begging his Daddy to "hit my face again!" what a crazy kid! I think Daddy was enjoying it just as much, any opportunity to hit your kid in the face with a ball should be taken advantage of.
(excuse the mess of toys in the back ground)


J boy was taking forever on the toilet doing his business. I don't quite trust him to be in there by himself since many times when I leave him alone I end up with the whole roll of TP on the floor or in the toilet, not fun! So I had the door open and was trying to entertain him while he "finished up" and I taught him to wink. He's pretty good at it. It's hilarious and yet a little awkward that he is winking at me while he's sitting on the pot.

Here is one for the books

I have to write this one down. I don't know where this boy gets these things from....

J boy and his neighbor buddy (who is not quite 2 years old yet) fight like they were brothers. They have never done permanent damage to each other so that is a good sign. They see each other so much, they beg to go to each others houses daily yet when they are together it is inevitable there will be fights to break up and tears and hurt feelings in the mix.

I heard this story second hand so I'll have a go at it....

At Thanksgiving dinner the boys were "playing" with each other, slightly unsupervised if that is even possible. We were all in the same room, just ignoring the kids as much as possible. Well C and Marty hear Micah (the 2 year old neighbor boy) cry and look in his direction only to see him screaming while J boy is fleeing the scene. Marty comforts her son while running after J boy to see what happened. C heads over to the scene of the crime to punish the naughty boy if needed.

Marty and C ask J boy "what happened to Micah? Did he fall, did you push him, or hit him etc." and J boys response to them was "NO I didn't hit him, I just broke his teeth!" I'm not sure what happened after that, but I can imagine both adults trying not to laugh at that response and punish the kid. NO he did not really break his teeth but I think what he meant was he wanted to break his teeth.

Come on, though, how can you not laugh at that?! Where did he even get that from?

I don't know what we are going to do with these two. Can't we all just get along?!

Santa or No Santa?! Is there a happy medium?

This is going to be a long post, I can feel it. Stick with me though!

I have been pondering and struggling with a particular subject for a couple of weeks now. I have thought about it since E was a baby, but never had to worry so much about it until this year. I am torn. I don't know what to do. I have a smart 5 year old and answering her questions about Santa is getting harder and harder. I never thought that this whole "Santa" thing would be hard on me as a Mom and it hasn't been hard, until now.

In years past E and J boy (who still doesn't get it all) never "Believed" in Santa because they never really got it. I never said to her "Here is what Santa brought you for Christmas." Because honestly she could have cared less who the presents were from, it was hard enough to get her to pause and look at the tag before she ripped open her gifts. So it never was a problem. I never pushed the whole Santa thing on her because she's a kid, she watches tv and sees and hears all the stories about Santa, who he is and what he does and his role at Christmas. It never bothered me because she never asked questions.

My siblings and I "believed" in Santa when we were very young. My parents put out presents under the tree to each child from Santa. We left out Stockings that were filled by Santa. We left cookies and milk on Christmas Eve night for Santa and a carrot or two for his reign deer. It was fun! We loved it. I don't remember my parents saying these words exactly "Yes, Santa is real and he brings you gifts." they may very well have said just that, but I don't remember. I think Santa is just something kids find out about and it's all so magical and fun that they just believe he is real.

I must have found out at a young age that it all was just that, fun and not real at all. I don't remember being so upset when I found out that Santa was not real so it must have been that I found out at a young age and I just don't remember OR it was a totally traumatic experience that I have blocked from my memory, either way I don't remember finding out the truth about Santa.

Long after we stopped believing my Mom and Dad stilled played Santa. Us kids even "played Santa" putting out cookies and milk, checking our stockings from Santa etc. It was still fun even though we knew it was all not real. Our Parents would still threaten us with "Santa doesn't bring gifts to naughty kids." or "Santa doesn't come until you are asleep." all those wonderful threats that Santa can provide for parents were still used in our home long after our belief in him was gone.

My parents were great examples of sharing with us kids the true meaning of Christmas, making sure we knew this holiday and time of year was not just about Santa or getting things but that is was about Christ, his birth, his life, his ultimate gift to man kind. I remember not being able to open any presents until the story was read from the Bible, I hated it when I was younger but it has become a favorite part of my Christmas morning tradition. I have done this with our little family, turning the focus of Christmas off of Santa and reminding my sweet girl who this Holiday and what this Holiday is really all about.

BUT she still is wanting to know all about Santa. Santa is every where, it is sad to see it shoved all over the shelves and see less and less of Christ around during this season. It is hard to shelter her from Santa and I wouldn't do that but she has questions and we, her parents, need to be the ones to answer them.

So here is where I am at right now. I don't want to lie to my kids forcing them or even tricking them to believe in Santa only to have to tell them just a year or two down the road that, in fact he is not real at all. That seems kind of silly to me. I liked having fun as a kid doing all the "Santa" things in our house, but that was never the focus of Christmas in our home, but still a very fun part.

My big girl is 5 years old now and very smart and wants to put things together and has lots of questions. I don't know which direction to take it in.

For example: We are doing our own little Harker Christmas here before heading out to my folks for the actual Christmas Holiday. I asked E what she wanted for Christmas so I can get on top of it and prepare for our little Christmas of gift opening here in a couple of weeks. Well her reply to my question was "Well I'll just tell Santa what I want." I thought carefully how I'd respond to this. Never have I said to her "What are you going to ask Santa for Christmas." or "What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas." this is something she has found out through movies/tv school etc. that Santa brings you a gift. So My response was just this "Well you can tell me what you want for Christmas too." But where does that leave her thought process? Does that lead her to believe he is real by me saying you can tell Santa and Mommy what you want for Christmas? I don't know.

I kept pushing her, "I need to know what you want for Christmas." She finally said "Well Santa can just get me what I want." sigh. What do I say? I want her to know that the gifts are not actually from Santa but that Mommy and Daddy buy them and put them under the tree for her, from Santa. See how it gets weird?

I have one of my Best Friends who's family, growing up, never believed in Santa but yet they still did the Santa things, knowing it was all just for fun and pretend. I talked to her on the phone the other day and brought up my dilemma to her, knowing she does not (in her family with her kids now) do the whole believing in Santa thing because that is how it was in her house when she was a child. She gave me good advice but I still am trying to find a happy medium for me and my family. She said (I'm putting it into my words) basically "Kids love to pretend and Christmas will still be magical while "playing" Santa but not actually thinking he is real and is the one that brings them gifts. It was still magical for me and we still left cookies for Santa knowing he was not real. You won't be taking away the Christmas fun by telling her he is pretend."

I liked that. I like it because it is so true. Kids love to pretend, and Santa IS pretend. So I guess I'm just trying to find that happy medium with my kids and where to take our Family Traditions this year which will set up what we may very well do for years to come.

I have an idea of what I think we will do in our Family with the whole Santa thing. I think it could be really good. But I think I'll share it with you when I work it all out in my head and let you know if it works for us.

So my questions to you are:

"How did you do Santa at your house growing up, was it hard on you to find out he was not real?"

"How do you do Santa NOW at your house?" OR if your kids are still too young to even get it "How will you do the whole Santa thing when they start asking questions, like my daughter is?"

Just curious what your thoughts are. Not that you will change my mind on how I feel about the whole subject, it's just interesting to see what others have done or will do with their families.

(told you it was going to be long)

to be continued with what I have or will decide to do.....

Family fun with some nice weather

We had some amazing weather a couple of Saturday's ago and we took advantage of it by going on a really fun hike. There is a fun State Park just an hours drive away that has some beautiful scenery and fun hikes for families. It was packed with people but we didn't care we have wanted to hike around this place for a while now. It wasn't as pretty as it would have been if the leaves were still on the trees but it we still enjoyed ourselves. The kids were so happy to get out side and be in nature. What can I say, they are true Harkers.

Ha! I love this picture of E. I asked her to sit there on the rock so I could take a picture of her and as I am pointing the camera at her saying Eden I'm going to take a picture now, this is how she posed, no joke! I have a future Model on my hands. Oh no, Not that!

Not a poser, but still cute.

She's not always this serious, I promise.

With Daddy. I love J boys face in this. I told him to look happy.

Looking out over the trees and river.

They loved climbing this big rock and sliding down it like a slide.

Ok, if you look really closely in the back ground you'll notice how the trees are going upward, like on a slope. That is as close to mountains as you'll get in our neck of the woods. We have large hills around these parts and they are few and far between. We love mountains and miss them dearly.

it took us through a cool crevice

What a big boy he was, it was not a terribly easy hike for kids and here he is maneuvering over lots of logs keeping up with the big kids.

and here he is climbing one of the few ladders we had to go up. He loved this part and he did so good going up the ladders with little to no help from Daddy.

Taking a rest at the top. We got this sweet family picture too! I love E's face. Both kids thought it was so funny that that camera was taking a picture all by its self.

Yay we finished the hike! Now we get to throw rocks and sticks into the water.

Besides the lady bugs that were eating us alive (yes, lady bugs bite, bet you didn't know that!) it was a fun Saturday together as a family and with BEAUTIFUL weather outside. We really like this park and want to go back when it's all green and pretty to explore it some more.

I'm a good Mother, I know

On the way home from church yesterday our grouchy little boy wanted out of his car seat. He kept whining and complaining saying "I can't, I can't get out! I want to get out!" it was annoying to say the least. I had little patience and tolerance for whining that day I guess, and I didn't want to hear it. The usual "No buddy you can't get out yet, wait until we get home." was not doing the trick this time. He would not stop whining and C and I were annoyed.

Soooo being the good Mother that I am, I thought I'd try the "scare tactic" with this kid to get him to shut up (shhh that is a bad word, I know).

I say to him "J boy if you get out of your seat the police men will come and take you away from us forever."

Is that a lie? Because technically, if we got pulled over and had our kid wandering our huge mini-van while driving 45 + miles an hour they'd question our parenting ability and could take our kids away, right? Ok, it was a white lie because they would not keep them away from us forever.

Well, either way it was a mistake on my part.

I guess with the annoyed or angry tone in my voice my silly boy thought that these "police men" were bad guys and he was not happy about that. Also I don't think he heard me say "IF you get out of your seat" all he heard was there were some "bad" men coming to take him away, so I can see why he'd be so scared. So yes, there were tears, and fear but at least the whining stopped. And Yes, I was laughing at him. He was so scared and it was so sad, but funny and cute in a way.

To make you all feel better about my Mothering skills, I did comfort him and tell him they were not coming to take him away because he was being a good boy and staying in his seat. I also explained that the seat helped protect him if we got in a crash, but he still cried. He was very tired and grouchy.

We got a good laugh out of it and now he won't try and get out of his seat for fear of bad men taking him away from his family. My scare tactic worked, wouldn't ya say?

I know I'm such a good Mother, you don't need to remind me :)

Kids are funny

My kids are funny, well at least I think so. I love the silly things they say that are just so random.

J boy is such a talker these days. Sadly he has attitude! One of his favorite phrases to say is "I'm not talking to you!" ATTITUDE I tell ya! He also makes us laugh with some of the things he says. I can't even remember any one thing in particular but I know he makes me laugh on a daily basis with his random things he says.

E is so "educated" these days saying such intellectual things. It cracks me up. Here is an example of her use of new words....

My Mom sent the kids a Halloween card and stuck inside was a pumpkin magnet. E pulled off the magnet reveling the "sticky" stuff that held it there on the card. E picked up the card and accidentally got her hand stuck on the sticky stuff and this is what she said....

In her cute smart voice she said "OH man that was a sticky violation!"

I laughed out loud! Apparently the card violated her. It was too funny to hear her use that word.

She has said some other silly things....

She was doing a craft one day on her Fall Break and she asked me to get something for her, several times (I was probably ignoring her) she then said "Mom, I AM and artist you know!" Well La-Ti-Da miss Artist.

There are many more things she has said that surprise me but I can't remember them all. I just wanted to record the one's I did remember before I forgot them.

I love this stage my kids are at!

I love my funny kids. It makes the mundane parts of being a stay at home mother a little more exciting and fun.

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween this year was pretty uneventful. We did not do a whole lot this year, and it's my fault. I wasn't feeling the "Halloween Spirit" this year.

We did however, do the basics.....Carve pumpkins, make Halloween snacks, dress the kids up and trick or treat, went to the our Wards chili cook off and pumpkin carving contest and...that's about it. We didn't even go to our Wards Trunk or treat it was too wet and cold for me and the kids didn't care either. Sadly E's school won't let them dress up for their "Fall Party" (can't even call it a Halloween party) so E really only wore her awesome costume once, sad.

I did get to go in and help out at E's class Fall Party and that was so fun. The best part about going into her class to help out was how proud she was of me, her Mother. She was showing me off to all her friends, it was awesome and I soaked it up because in not too many years down the road I know she'll be embarrassed of her Mother (all girls go through that stage right?) At the end of the party I even heard a little boy go up to E and say "You're Mom is so fun E!" and her response "I know she is!" It melted my heart.

Sorry for the delay in pictures, I just haven't been feeling like blogging lately. So to my family who have been asking to see Halloween pics (especially E's costume) here ya go.

Carving the pumpkin for the kids, with their "help".....

I know it's a blurry picture but it just shows how excited he was to get messy.
side note: I know there are three very sharp knives lying right next to my boy which makes me look like a bad Mother, but he was supervised by both parents and he was totally oblivious to them, he was having too much fun with the "goo".

The end result.....and J boy kissing it.

The kids painted two small pumpkins and Daddy carved the second large pumpkin and entered it into our ward pumpkin carving contest. (It didn't win, but we thought it was pretty cool) Can you tell who it is?

The moment you've all been waiting for.....The kids dressed up in their costumes.

And here it is... My E girl as Princess Leia (You know from Star Wars)
So those of you who don't know the story....We like Star Wars around here, but I would not say we are HUGE fans, we don't even own the DVD's. E ended up watching one of the original Star Wars movies on TV one evening and loved it. We borrowed the Movies from some friends and she watched most of them, she didn't like the scary parts so we just shipped those, but loved Princess Leia and Yoda. So when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween this year of course it was "Princess Leia!"

(Yes I made her costume, hair and all! It turned out GREAT and was a huge hit. I had some help from a great friend with the boot covers)

My cute Spider Man doing some sort of spidery moves. He loved his mask but trick or treated with it up on his head reveling his face the whole time, silly boy.Princess Leia and Mini Mouse. She is one of E's best friends, who we've known since she was born. They are growing up so fast!Two of E's closet friends in our Ward.....Princess Leia w/ Bumble Bee and Mini Mouse.

I felt like such a Halloween Scrooge around here, I just couldn't get into it this year. Maybe next year I'll be less of a Scrooge. I did however put in lots of time working on E's costume this year, which I have never really done any other Halloween so I hope that counts for some thing, right?!

This is all that matters though....

At the end of the Holiday we had two happy kiddos!

Proud Parents

I'm just going to take time on my blog here to brag about my big E girl and I can do that, because it's my blog :)

We had E's first parent teacher conference and went over her first progress report. How exciting! I love that E is the one to go through all these "firsts" with us, it's so fun.

I have never been such a proud parent as I was when I was sitting there listening to the teacher praise our daughter. She is doing so well in school, in fact she is testing at the level that most kids her age test at, at the end of the school year. I'm so proud of her and how hard she works and it's great to see and know that she loves learning.

I got some what concerned as I remember how some times the top students get bored and then they fall behind or act out and behave badly and since this is still the beginning of the school year there is plenty of time left for her to get bored. I voiced my concerns to the teacher and she comforted me saying that they do pull out the top students and have them go to reading groups with specialists in the school. She told me I should not worry that they will always try and keep her challenged and busy, so that is a good thing!

It was one of those moments as a parent where you think "Yes! My hard work is paying off." Not that I can take credit for her "smartness", I think she was just born with her Father's brains. It just felt good to know that me trying to be a good Mother all these years has done her some good, it was one of those rewarding moments as a parent! I have had my hard days with her, and there have been many where she just frustrates me to no end. Days where her attitude scares me and I think "I sure hope she turns out ok and does not act like this at school." But at the same time I know she is always better for someone else, most kids are like that right? It was just rewarding to know that she has taken what we have taught her and applied it to life beyond the walls of our home.

I don't know if I'm making any sense at all.

What I'm trying to say is that I'm so proud of my E girl at working hard to be a good friend to others while at school and for being a great student.

Every day she comes home with new songs to sing to us. They are so cute and it's funny to listen to her sing them. They are usually songs about how to write a certain letter of the alphabet and the sound that it makes or they are songs about how to spell their "sight words". In this particular song she is singing about how to write a Capitol M and a lowercase m. It's pretty silly.

I told my Mom I'd post a video or two of her singing her new songs, so here ya go Mom.

School picture

E got her school pictures taken a while back and we just got them back yesterday. They turned out ok. Besides her small smile with her tired looking eyes and her Rambo headband they are pretty cute!Her hair was so cute in the morning. She informed me that she wanted to wear her butterfly shirt and her headband to match it. I told her it was fine with me if she made sure that for her pictures her headband was actually on her head and not falling off. Well it's on her head, barely! It looked so cute in the morning when it was up by where her pony tail holder is, oh well, what can ya do?

Don't these people know that if you are doing K-garten pictures you need to do them first thing in the morning?! Then they are bound to come out half way decent. OK I'm being too hard on this picture, it really is cute, in a Rambo sort of way. At least it didn't turn out like this one...

Yes this is me. I wasn't happy ok. I think I was in preschool for this one, this was not my k-garten one. Nice, though isn't it?

Just so you know school pictures are SO pricey these days. I remember when I was in school, getting this same package that we got for E and it was less than half the cost we were charged, crazy! Also now, they charge you for the backgrounds that are actually nice looking. This background was the free one (and it's ugly) the other pretty ones that have more color to them, they charge you an extra $3-$5 for, lame! I wanted to do the green background to bring out her green eyes but it was an extra $5 on top of my already small fortune for the package we chose. I kind of wished I would have paid for the nicer background. Her eyes look brown in this picture which is so weird looking to me because her eyes are actually a really pretty green. Not to say brown eyes aren't pretty, it just looks weird on my green-eyed girl.

Any way I'm glad we paid a small fortune for her first school pictures, even if they aren't perfect.

Yes, Mom and Celia we will be sending some picture your way.

An end to my pain

Many of you know of an incident that happened to me over a year ago that caused me to have lasting TMJ disorder.
Since that "incident" I have had tremendous amounts of pain in my face and jaw. I have seen two Specialist Doctors on TMJ but all they seemed to want to do was put me on drugs and in a night splint and hope that my TMJ would heal itself.

In the end though, I was only dependent on prescription drugs to be in LESS pain in my face and jaw, than with out the drugs. I wasn't healed or even close to it, these treatments were doing nothing for me. I was at my wits end with this pain and suffering and did not know who or where else to go to help me feel better.

A few months back my Mom called and told me that her Dr. (Dentist) that she works for had his Chiropractor come to the office and talk about TMJ disorders and how chiropractics can help. She shared a little of what he said but didn't remember a whole lot, just that "K should try this."

I thought about it for several weeks and decided to start researching Chiropractors in the area that dealt a lot with TMJ patients or had some experience working with TMJ patience. I found several, but none of them were close to us, they were 30 minutes on the other side of town.

I talked to C about my Mom's idea and told him I would give it a try. I told him I had no luck finding a near by Chiropractor that had dealt with TMJ cases. One day C was going out for a ride and took a wrong exit off the highway and saw a Chiropractor office next to an oral surgeons office. So he came home and told me about where it was located (a lot closer than the others) and said I should look into that one.

I looked them up and saw he worked with TMJ patience. I liked that he was located a lot closer to us, and so I decided to go in and check it out.

I think Chiropractics is great. I always have, but it's not for me or so I would tell myself. OK so I HATE them :) I don't love getting my back popped, at all. In fact I avoid it at all costs. I remember my Dad popping my back when I would feel injured during gymnastics, I never loved it but thought maybe it would help. I HATE getting my neck popped. I don't even like people touching my neck. I only let people I love and trust give me neck massages etc. other wise, NO TOUCHY! So the thought of me going to a chiropractor kind of scared me a little but I was desperate to be out of pain.

With in that week of looking into a chiropractor I had my free consultation and decided to just go for it. We don't have chiropractics covered on our health insurance but decided to pay out of pocket, it was worth it to me, I just wanted to feel better.

After the consultation I went in to review my x-rays and find out just how bad my back was. I knew it was bad. I suffered many years of torture that gymnastics does to your body, I knew it was going to be bad. I found out my neck is straight (it shouldn't be, it should have a 40 degree curve in it) I found out I had a slight case of scoliosis in my mid back and that my hips/lower spine were off balance. Sadly these are all things I knew (except for the neck thing) but did nothing about for years.

It's like people who don't go to the Dentist for years, for me it's the chiropractor. They know they have to go, they know they have pain in their teeth/mouth but they avoid it because they hate the Dentist. When they finally break down and go because they are in so much pain, they find out just how bad it got. Well that is me, with my back. Years of neglect and abuse and that is what you get, my bad back. It is a wonder why I survived two pregnancies with a back like mine.

The Doc and I laid out a treatment plan for me:

3 days a week for 4 weeks
Then 2 days a week for 6 weeks
Then 1 day a week for 6 weeks

This is a long process (6 months) and a lot of visits to the office but it gives the body time to adjust and to heal itself.

I was actually really skeptical if this would even help my jaw at all. To my surprise after just two weeks of going three days a week, my face hurt a LOT less. I started weaning myself off of my meds right away. After less than three weeks I was medication free and pain free! I was healed, I felt better, a lot better. I was surprised to say the least, that this actually worked.

I am so glad my Mom told me about this option and I'm glad I gave it a shot. I feel so much better. I have been going for, coming up on my 5th week and though I feel like I am there a lot I know it is so worth it to me. I cannot tell you how good it feels to be pain free. I have had daily pain in my face for over a year and it feels good to have little to none!

So for those of you skeptics of chiropractics, it may help you, it has helped me SO much. A warning to you though, Chiropractors are weird. They are wonderful but a little weird if I do say so myself. I don't really care though about his weirdness, he is the only person who has helped get me out of pain and weird or not, I am thankful to him for that.

This kid of mine....

This kid of mine in SO NAUGHTY!
He has had quite the attitude lately, and I'm not quite sure what to do with him.

Yesterday he decided it would be totally awesome to get into Mommy's make-up, get out my mascara and smear it all over his body, arms legs, feet, hands (except not the face of course)!

That is not all! Oh no

He then continues to smear it all over a huge section of my carpet!

Where was I, you ask?

Ignoring him, but that's not the point. He knows better! He's THREE! He knew better!

Luckily we had a friend near by willing to lend us her carpet cleaner.
Then after getting the mascara out we realized that, that section of carpet looked SO much cleaner than the rest of our front room carpet so we did the whole thing, and by we I mean C did it.

So yippee for clean carpet!

Now what to do about this naughty boy?!

No I did not take any pictures of him or the carpet, I was too mad at him. I threw him in the tub and couldn't look at him for the next ten to fifteen minutes, while he soaked. He left a nice black oily ring around my tub too by-the-way, which is now sparkling clean, I guess that is one way to get me to clean the tub.

Ooooo that boy!

Forever ingrained in my memory

I was remembering this certain moment that I have locked in my memory, the other day. It's one of those eye openers, where you see the exact personality come out in your child, one of those memories that is ingrained in your head forever. But I thought, what if I do some how forget this, I want to write it down so I won't ever forget.

E is a people person, she always has been. She was never, NEVER a momma's girl. I wished so bad that some day she'd miss me when I went off to work, but no, she was more excited to play with the babysitters kids, every time.
She LOVED complete strangers if they'd give her the time of day. She discovered herself in the mirror at a pretty young age. I would catch her "practicing" her faces in the mirror, she'd do every face from pretty and cute to mad and "feel sorry for me" faces it was pretty funny to watch that girl enjoy looking at herself. At the age of 18 months she was flirting with the bag boy at the local grocery store that she had a crush on, yep that is E for ya!
One trait that she has developed over the years is her sense of humor. Now I think all kids love to be funny, but E takes it to the extreme! She absolutely LOVES to make people laugh but more noticeably by the age of three she loved to make her peers laugh. If she found that she was doing something funny and it made kids laugh, she'd do it a hundred times just so she could get that "laugh" over and over from the kids. She is such a jokester and if she hears a good joke she tries to repeat it over and over so she can remember it and tell it again and make people laugh. She is the Queen of silly faces and goofiness, she is a typical class clown always wanting to make others laugh, always wanting attention on her. SCARY I KNOW!

At three years old I put her in preschool with a friend and neighbor kid. We would carpool and take turns each day/week driving the kids.

One day I showed up early to get her and I sat by her room and watched as they finished up their day. There was a birthday kid and so the snack was cupcakes, store bought of course because they don't trust us Mom's any more to bring in home made, sad I know. So on these store bought cupcakes had that perfectly piped huge amount of frosting on top.

Their routine for snack time was that no one could touch the "snack" until everyone had been served and not until they said a little prayer of grace that was cute and rhymed, then they could dig in.

Well on this cupcake day I watched E get served in the first table. So, she is laughing and talking with her friends trying hard to keep the attention on her. She is making faces at them and doing everything she can to keep her crowed laughing. I am watching her closely to see her next move because I know this girl so well, I knew exactly what she was thinking......

"how can I get this table of kids to really laugh at me?"

I saw her grasp her cupcake with both hands look around the room at the teachers (knowing she is not supposed to touch her food until they are done saying grace) look at the table of kids giving her attention, look down at the frosting topped cupcake and I KNOW she was thinking, "I have to do this, this will kill them with laughter."

She then quickly takes the cupcake and smashes it into her nose making the silliest face she can while doing it, getting frosting all over her nose. And it worked! The kids roared with laughter, other tables joined in too and E could not have been more happy with her self she could not have been more in her place as class clown than she was at that moment. Of course she got "in trouble" by the teachers but it was worth it to her!

I sat out in the hall laughing until I cried almost because, I knew it! I knew what she was thinking. Then the laughing stopped and the worrying set in....

Oh no, is this going to be her school career of being the class clown and not caring if she gets in trouble? Is she going to enjoy being silly more than she will enjoy learning? Will her grades suffer because of her need to be the center of attention? The fears kept coming. It was not as funny any more to me.

Like I said before, I have the memory ingrained in my head forever and it still haunts me. I still get a kick out of it but I still wonder if that was sign of things to come.

(ha ha, this is a perfect example of her silliness)

Well as far as I can tell, she is enjoying learning SO MUCH in kindergarten this year. She has not yet "been in trouble" and seems to have respect for her teachers. She still talks about her friends at school and how they are "silly" which means she does things to make them laugh. But I think so far I have had my fears a little bit eased as I see her doing so good in K-G so far.

So there it is, there is my story of my silly E girl, one that I will now, never forget.