Progress

Good things:

I am safely ensconced in Kamiah, and the drive was the least stressful 16 hour drive I’ve ever been on- thanks to my wonderful father-in-law who flew to California to drive me up here.

My midwife says I’m doing great, and as of tomorrow I have 6 weeks left.

Teddy seems to be healing quickly!

My sister and two adorable nieces are here for a week :).

Taxes are done, and we now have $0 in credit card debt (…student loans are another story, but it’s definite progress).

My husband sweetly took the time to redo the budget with me, even though it took several hours and a lot of repetition on his part so that I could understand it.  (There really are many different ways to think about money.)

I have been sleeping much better.

The boys and I love it here!

Have a great day :)

Arson

     Okay, not quite.  Every little boy I’ve ever met (and many not-so-little) has a fascination with fire.  Mine are no exception.  

     We found a desk lamp at an estate sale today.  We’ve been promising Demetri a desk lamp for quite some time, so that he can work at the desk under his bunk bed.  …It was a halogen lamp.  I have two floor lamps that use halogen bulbs.  I was aware that they get hot, and we’d never had a real problem with them getting too hot or tipping over, etc.  (I actually found a second desk lamp I loved and bought it for my guest room- which also happened to use a halogen bulb.)  Demetri was so excited!

     This evening as I walked past the children’s door I saw a faint glow.  Figuring the two little boys had turned the light on again (Demetri was still up reading in a different room) I went in to turn it off.  It wasn’t the light on the ceiling, it was the lamp.  Additionally, there was a strong smell in the room, and ashes on the floor.  Olie had put a piece of paper up to the lamp to try and catch it on fire.  It worked.  Goodbye new desk lamps.

     I don’t read much news, although I do research products occasionally.  Anyway, I’ve never heard much about halogen lights.  Several hours later, after the hoopla over Olie’s venture into the world of arson (is unintentional arson possible?) died down, and the talks, lectures and mandates had officially ended, I looked up everything I could find on halogen bulbs.  SO not a fan! 

     We are counting our blessings and actually very glad to have had this experience.  Now we know, and nobody got hurt.  There are much harder ways to learn lessons.  (Still- it was a bit scary, and it’s the kind of thing that causes me to wander through the house looking for other possible safety hazards.)

If It’s Not Broken Don’t Fix It…If It Is, Well, Thank Goodness For ER’s And Insurance

Shawn and the kids went to the park.  I stayed home and made dinner and pita bread. It wasn’t a huge deal when one of them was crying when they all came home.  Injuries while at the park are rather common among our boys, or while riding bikes or scooters, while cleaning their rooms, or pulling weeds in the garden.  They’d been going down the slide one last time before coming home- Teddy on Shawn’s lap, supposedly a safer way for a toddler to go down a tall slide.  Shawn isn’t sure what happened.  When they got to the end Teddy just started crying and saying his leg hurt.  I didn’t think much of it, but Teddy was so very sad that Shawn put a cartoon on for him.  The crying immediately stopped, and he was happily engrossed in letter shapes bouncing across the screen.  It wasn’t until everyone gathered around the dinner table that I thought something may be wrong.  He got down from the couch and immediately fell down as he tried to put weight on his leg, and of course started crying again.  We put another cartoon on as the other boys ate and we looked up Urgent Care hours and insurance procedures.  I was going to stay home and clean up and put the kids to bed but I ended up going, mostly for moral support and because Shawn thinks I’m good company. 

 

Halfway through the paperwork at Urgent Care, Shawn asked me if I’d seen the sign at the receptionist’s desk.  Sign?  What sign?  I was too busy writing up Teddy’s life history, which was taking far too long for the short two years he’s been on this earth.  “It says the person who does X-rays isn’t in today.”  Hmm, maybe we should come back in the morning?  Just then one of the children bumped Teddy’s leg, and the previously cheerful, normal-looking little boy was sent back into hysterics.  We asked for directions to the ER.

Although it felt just a tad silly to be going into the ER with a child who had gotten hurt on the slide and who didn’t seem to be very upset about it at the moment, we figured an X-ray wouldn’t hurt.  So we trooped in, and had a relatively short wait (during which time Shawn tried to convince me that it was dumb to be there and we should just go home) and went to triage.  As I waited in the children’s play area for Shawn and Teddy, I heard screaming and knew a doctor/nurse had appeared to do something horrible to Teddy, like take his temperature or smile at him reassuringly while asking questions.  For some reason that child is absolutely terrified of doctors (or really, any stranger at all, but especially ones who try to touch him, talk to him, or look at him) and usually yells at them to go away and not look at him.  I’m not sure if that’s strange or characteristic of his age group, but my other two weren’t quite so vocal about their mistrust of strangers.  Yeah, Shawn said the temperature and heart beat was a blast. 

They were going to take two sets of X-rays but after one they sent Shawn and Teddy to another room.  Shawn said he should have figured it was because they’d found a break the first time so they didn’t need the second set.  They didn’t even need to strap Teddy down to do the X-rays- although Shawn said that wasn’t exactly pretty either.  It’s nice to have a smart phone with little kid games on it.  It’s still enough of a novelty to carry strong persuasive powers.

By the time the boys and I got tired of waiting and set out to find them, they were in an express room for discharge.  We happened to come in at precisely the right moment; the nurse was trying to lure Teddy’s mouth open for Tylenol with a Popsicle.  He was having none of it, until Olie walked in and said “I want a Popsicle!”  That did it.  He opened his mouth and let me squirt it in so his brothers wouldn't get his treat.  I was only told that he was being discharged, by the way, and did not yet know that his tibia was broken.  I figured it out when the doctor came in to put a splint on…which was not nearly as easy as the getting the Tylenol down him.  We all managed to live through it, and got out in one piece.  Teddy did relatively well, with a lot of cajoling, distracting, some screaming, and a little laughing.  Compared to a few of his mega-tantrums, he was an angel.  So we got ice cream on the way home.

Shawn is sheepishly glad we went to the ER, and considers it a decent reason for getting very little sleep tonight. He figures his teachers will forgive him for sleeping through class tomorrow.  Teddy still hasn’t figured out that he can’t walk for a while, and was continually telling us to get that “thing” (the splint) off of him.  I’m planning on lots of cartoons, games on my phone, books, and other distractions.  I imagine not being able to walk will get old for a two-year-old before lunch tomorrow.  Since I can’t pick him up very well right now (I can get him about as high as the couch) our range of motion and activities are limited. 

I'm grateful that it doesn't appear to be a very bad break (for all I know about these things), that it's our first broken bone, and that we were in a place where it could be addressed quickly.  Hopefully he heals in record time with no complications.

Learning how to get pictures off my phone :)

So, we were stuck on Post one day waiting for Shawn for a couple of hours, and the boys were climbing trees.  I had just gotten my phone and they all wanted pictures of them in the trees.  We managed to get in a pretty decent improv shoot (for me- a nonphotographer). 

 The Pinewood Derby of course :).  He was pretty bummed about not winning any races, but it really helped that everyone got a certificate and a little bag of candy.  He felt better after that, and they really did have fun making the car.

 He steals this hat at every opportunity!

 We went to Dennis the Menace Park this weekend.  It's a great bribe, reward, family time, etc.

Okay, this isn't a great picture, but the point is that Demetri got a new bike for Christmas (he REALLY needed a bigger one) and Olie inherited Demetri's little bike.  He learned how to ride it a couple of days after Christmas :).

It's been a good weekend

Shawn took Teddy to a home teaching meeting this evening, complete with backpack full of coloring, books, and stuffed animals.  Teddy took such a long, late nap that I had no illusions of getting him to bed at his normal bedtime tonight.  He was ecstatic to be the only one to go with Daddy, and it’s good to have a few one-on-one activities.  

Demetri is reading a book to Olie, and helping Olie to read some words to him.  I can’t believe my 4 yr old is sounding out words already!  He’s working on Hop on Pop.  Go phonics :).  He wrote the ABC’s today in sacrament meeting, while quietly singing the song, and is starting to write words like “cat” and “dad.”  Demetri is struggling with writing, but Shawn thinks it will be like reading.  He hated it until he started to get good at it.  Now he can read for a couple of hours a day without getting tired of it.  Here’s hoping.

I’m packing, and packing, and, hilariously enough, still wrapping Christmas presents as I pack (for people in Idaho), though most of them are wrapped.  The kids keep asking who they're for, and are eager to pass them out.  I’m also reading John Adams (by David McCullough), which I love.  I need to have a notebook with me.  I used to have a notebook specifically for books I was reading but I must have gotten out of the habit somewhere.

Shawn is reading Journey to the Center of the Earth to Demetri.  I’m not sure Demetri gets much of it, but he enjoys the time and insists on it every evening.  He has a 4 day weekend coming up, yay!  Maybe we’ll actually get to finish the running Scrabble game we have going.  And maybe I’ll actually put it away after this round…since we’ve been playing very slow game after game for the last several weeks.  I’ve learned a lot of new words that way. 

Olie’s new famous quotes (this must just be the age): “Mom, why do you follow me everywhere?” (said while we were in the huge Dennis the Menace Park this weekend).  And when I asked him if he wanted his coat zipped up he said, “Yes!  Then people will think I’m a different person!”  Haha, I guess changing shirt colors does that?  

Both of the younger boys have taken to calling Shawn "Dada."  No idea why.

2012

Welcome to the new year!  I managed to average about 4 posts a month last year so I guess I’m not doing all too badly with this blogging thing.  I didn’t put up as many pictures as I’d wanted.  Maybe I’ll get the hang of that this year.  We had a great holiday.  I wrote several blog posts in the last couple of weeks but they all just seemed to seep into my journal.  So we’ll start over with how the last couple of days have been and then the new year. 

Yesterday we (okay, Shawn) made homemade pasta in our electric pasta machine.  It was quick (compared to the days I used to do it by hand!) and tasted gourmet.  I’m thrilled to have it instead of stocking up on the boxed stuff!  Today I de-junked.  I threw away huge amounts of old papers, organized clothes, moved things around, labeled boxes, and I’m fairly satisfied with how much I got done…even if the house looks worse than when I started.  It’s still better, trust me. 

I’m so excited about this year :).  In three weeks I’m leaving for Kamiah- there to stay until this baby is born.  Only 10 weeks to go!  Then I’m coming back here to pack up for Texas- where we’ll be for the summer after Shawn graduates in May.  From there- who knows.  I’m already packing for both Idaho and Texas.  Our stuff will all be in storage over the summer…a too-familiar situation.  It’s nice to be moving on though. 

I used to dislike the idea of New Year’s goals and didn’t make them as an act of rebellion against the norm.  I guess I’ve since decided that anything that encourages people to make and keep goals is a good thing.  And there isn’t necessarily a better time to do it either.

I have my goals all written out for six months.  (For the later part of the year it’s just a little hard to plan because I don’t know where we’ll be!)  Of course, many have to do with timely packing and being ready for all the changes we’ll have this year.  I picked up the Body-For-Life book and I’m looking forward to using the program.  I did it in high school a little with a friend, but have lost the habit.  Unfortunately, losing weight and toning are going to have to be put off for a bit this year.  That’s okay- it’s part of the pregnancy process I guess.  I’m realizing I now have too much stuff!!!  I’m working on downsizing a little, and using up the things we have (mostly referring to homeschool supplies, kits, etc).  I want to read the scriptures every day, a goal that is helped along by having all the resources I need on my phone.  I haven’t used it as a phone much yet, but it comes in handy for reading and shopping/ to do lists :).  I think I’m going to try my hand at an indoor garden this summer.  I’ve looked up a few methods and we’ll see how it goes. 

We have education goals with the kids, and I need to find something to help myself continue to learn as well.  I have a couple of vacation and traveling goals- but all of those kinds of goals have become so tentative that Shawn says I’m not supposed to tell anyone (even the kids usually) that we’re going to go do something or go somewhere anymore.  We just never know if it will materialize.  I have goals to pay off more debt and rearrange finances a bit.  We’re hoping for good things this year.  All in all, I’m rather an optimist this time around.  Unusual for me I assure you.  But life seems to be coming together and our circumstances improving more quickly than I’d thought.