Finished at Last

So, I quit my job with Western Pathology a couple of months ago. It just got to be too much to juggle for me. Since then, I have been working to finish a few things that I just couldn't get to while I was working.

For example, I cut out a nightgown for Naomi and a pair of pajamas for Gavin in the fall of 2008, but never got around to finishing them. I finished them up a couple of weeks ago and thank goodness they still fit.

Also, Brendon and I (mostly Brendon) have been working on terracing and building retaining walls in our back yard. This project has also been recently completed, and I can't resist posting a picture of all the hard work.

Canning, Costco and Train Blankey

I've noticed in many of the blogs that I follow that people have posted pictures of the canning they have been doing. I thought I should get in on the action.

Thanks Costco!

Today Gavin was talking to Train Blankey in the type of sing-song voice typically used for infants or pets. He was saying "You're such a good blankey. I love you."

Officially a Teenager

Benjamin turned 13 a couple of months ago, but in my mind he is only just now officially a teenager. This is because last night we were toilet-papered for the first time by Benjamin's friends. It isn't a very good job, Naomi figures they only used 3 rolls based on the centers she found.

Brendon says he would be really embarassed to do such a poor toilet-papering job. I just find the whole thing very amusing. (Maybe more so since Benjamin gets to clean up the whole mess.) I'll post a couple of pictures of the job for your enjoyment.

Gavin & The Potty

This morning, Gavin asked me for some new play-doh. I have some unopened containers up in my pantry and he wanted one of them. I told him he could have one if he would go potty on the toilet.

We went into the bathroom, and he tried to go, but couldn't. About an hour later, he yelled very excitedly that he had poop in his potty and could he have some play-doh now. I have to admit I am a little skeptical about things with my children, so I did a little inspecting.

It turns out, he had a bowel movement in his underwear, then dumped it into his potty. I explained that this didn't count, and that he had to actually go potty in the potty. Gavin was disappointed. He really thought that it would count.

Last Day of School Dilemma

Every year at this time I have the same dilemma. Today is the last day of school for my children. Soon they will be coming home with backpacks full of all the crap they have had in their locker and or desk for the past year. They will include lots of work they have completed and want me to look at and adore. They will also have broken crayons, mostly used erasers, pencils only an inch or so long, nearly filled in notebooks etc. And all of this stuff they will want to save in the name of playing "school".

I really want to throw it all away, but since they will be home during the day, I can't throw it away without them noticing. Plus also, this is really a lot of stuff just to go missing all at once. How to get rid of it all???

Broken Foot and Broken Heart

On Sunday, Gavin injured his foot coming down the spiral slide. He was riding on Naomi's lap, and we're not really sure what happened. I do know that he was crying really hard, and then spent Sunday evening sitting on the couch watching "Gavin shows".

Yesterday he was pretty much back to his normal (really, really busy) self, but he wasn't walking. He just crawled around the house to get to where he wanted to go up and down the stairs and everywhere. Then when he wanted to stand he would pull himself up and stand on one foot. I would watch him try to put his foot down and as soon as it touched the ground it obviously hurt because he would pull it right back up again.

By yesterday evening I had decided that something must be really wrong with that foot because he wasn't using it. So, I took him in to the doctor and had some x-rays taken. It turns out that he has a tiny, tiny fracture on one of his bones. It isn't big enough to bother casting (I'm sure a cast would really annoy him), so we're just going to let it heal up on its own. The doctor thought he should be bearing weight on it by Friday and that it should be totally healed in about 3 weeks. Little kids have amazing bodies that heal really quickly.

In case anyone was concerned, this hasn't slowed Gavin down one bit. He manages to be naughty even if he can't walk. Yesterday, he got into the garage and spun around (on his bottom) in all the dirty gravel that the SUV has tracked in all winter. He was a dusty mess just in time to go grocery shopping.

...and about that broken heart. I had to wait a few weeks to tell this story. Benjamin has given me permission to share, but it's been a while and not quite a painful as when it first happened.

Benjamin knew a girl that he had had a crush on for months. Some time back, he had a friend approach her and ask if she would "go" with him. The girl said she wasn't interested in Benjamin, but that she would "go" with his friend. For Benjamin, it was a really bad day at school.

Potty Training & Upping the Gross Factor

For the past several months I have been trying to potty train Gavin. I have purchased some toys I know he loves and every couple of weeks, I take a day, and I put him in underwear. Then I put him on his potty every hour or two hoping that he will go, so I can reward him with one of the toys. Usually I give him an m&m for sitting on the potty when I ask him to.

I have purchased underwear with the Disney characters he loves. He really likes wearing them, but he still hasn't gone to the bathroom on the potty. Not even once.

So a couple of days ago, I am giving Gavin a bath. He stands up in the water and says, I am going to pee in the bathtub. Then he does.

The little stinker knows what it feels like to need to use the bathroom. He just won't do it on the potty. Arghhh!

...And then there's Gabby. She is technically potty trained, but most days she leaves at least one pair of peed in underpants in the laundry room for me to clean up. Yesterday, though, she took it to new level of gross. She left me a pair absolutely full of peed-in-sand. I'm not even sure how she was able to get so much sand in her underpants. What a mess to clean up! Needless to say, she is grounded from the sandbox today.

Gabby's Birthday (and mine too)

Gabby and I celebrated our birthday(s) a little over a week ago. I have noticed that since I have had Gabrielle, my birthday gets a little lost in the shuffle. I really haven't minded, and this year, I was just plain glad it was her birthday. I don't think that turning older is fun any more.

Brendon always remembers my Birthday and buys me presents. (This year he gave me a new stereo for my SUV and a gift certificate to a day spa.) But because it is Gabrielle's bithday, she chooses where we go to dinner and the kind of Birthday cake we have.

For my birthday this year, I went into work for about 7 hours to catch up from vacation. While I was gone, Brendon had the new stereo installed in the SUV. He also purchased some Mrs. Powell's cinnamon rolls for breakfast-I had one for lunch. I helped Gabrielle bake and decorate her birthday cake. Then we went to the Golden Corral buffet for dinner-Gabrielle's choice. After dinner Gabrielle opened her birthday presents and Grandpa David came over for some cake and ice-cream and/or cinnamon rolls.

I think Gabrielle had a really fun day and I did too...except for the getting older part.

Disneyland

This past week we took a family vacation to Disneyland. This was the first time our children have ever been, and it had been more that 20 years since either Brendon or I had visited. We had a fantastic time.

I asked the kids what their favorite rides were. They can go on and on and on about the rides, so I'm just posting a abbreviated version of what they liked. Gavin loved the Bug's life rides in the California Adventure Park, the Carousel, and the Teacups. Gabrielle enjoyed the roller coaster in Toon Town (She made a huge fuss standing in line about how it looked too scary). She also liked Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and the Teacups. Naomi hated the tower of terror and needed "something happy" afterwards, so she went to talk to "Crush" from Finding Nemo. She says that her favorite ride at the park was Thunder Mountain, and the Matterhorn. Benjamin enjoyed the Tower of Terror and the California Screamin' rollercoaster.

On Sunday, we attended Sacrament Meeting at one of the wards in Anaheim. We were fortunate to find an english speaking ward. Thanks to us, Nick and Laurel weren't so fortunate. Afterwards we took the kids to Huntington Beach for a couple of hours. It was a cold day, but they got into the water anyway.

Kay came with us. She was pleasant company and great to keep the kids that were too worn out to return to the park at the hotel. We had lots of fun meeting up with Laurel and Nick and riding the rides and going to the beach with them. On our way back we were even able to meet Candice for lunch at the In-N-Out Burger in Las Vegas. All in all a fabulous vacation.

Lizzy's Shots and Marker in the Carpet

Since I have been working early mornings, I come home exhausted and try to doze for a couple of hours on the couch while Gabby and Gavin watch Nick Jr. (I'm aware that this might not be the most effective parenting strategy, but I'm too tired to care.) Usually I set an alarm to wake me up in time to get Gabrielle off to kindergarten. Most of the time the kids have been pretty good, however, they did take the opportunity this week to get into a little mischief.

As I have previously mentioned, I watch a couple of children on Tuesdays. The little girl always takes a nap when she comes, so I have the pack-n-play set up just for her to nap in the exercise room. It's nice and quiet down there and she is a great little napper. This past Tuesday when she came over she had injured her finger just before arriving, so I didn't put her right down for a nap. I sat and rocked her for a few minutes, and she fell right to sleep.(Where do people get these kind of children?????)

I thought I would just take her down and put her in the pack-n-play, but it turned out that I couldn't. Unbeknownst to me, Gabby and Gavin had collected all the blankets and pillows they could find, and filled the pack-n-play up entirely. I'm sure it was a fun game, but I had to set sleeping Chloe down (she woke up) and empty the pack-n-play. It was really full, so it took a few minutes and I was annoyed.

Today while I was napping, Gavin colored in the carpet with marker. It is supposed to be washable, so hopefully I can get it out with the carpet shampooer. (It seems the carpet shampooer will be mentioned regularly in my blogs doesn't it.)

Yesterday I took Lizzy to see the vet. I really liked him--he's a young guy, but he reminded me of Grandpa Woodbury. You could really see he likes animals and Lizzy was very calm around him. Lizzy is in good health. She was given all of her shots and some pills to prevent parasites.

The animal hospital I take her to offers kenneling, so she is going to stay there while we are in Disneyland. She needs to have her teeth cleaned, (I would never have guessed this was necessary) and I will have them take care of that while she is staying there.

Gavin went with me to take Lizzy to the vet. He did pretty good, behavior wise, but was really ready to go after about 30 minutes and kept opening the door and trying to escape.

The Tank of the Toilet Holds a Lot of Water

Disclaimer: If you are a total germ-a-phobe (like Stacy) you might want to not read this post.

Yesterday as I was preparing dinner, my children overflowed the toilet. A child had stopped it up earlier in the day, and I was aware that it wasn't flushing properly. I had tried to plunger it, to no effect, so I lifted the seat up and then yelled like a maniac anytime a child tried to enter the bathroom.

I'm pretty sure Gabrielle must have forgotten about how I freaked out when she tried to use it right after school. (I pounded on the door yelling at the top of my lungs.) I think she used it, and then Gavin, seeing that the bowl only filled to the brim with water instead of flushing down, flushed it again. Guys, there was a flood of water. It filled my bathroom, laundry room, the bathroom closet and the floor in front of the door to the garage. I was sooooo mad.

Of course I had two children standing in the middle of the flood that now desperately needed a bath. I won't give you the disgusting details, but I bathed two children, sent everyone to time out (Yeah, I know half of them hadn't done anything.) and spent the next hour mopping up water with towels, disinfecting the floors, running laundry and shampooing the carpet.

I was so mad I couldn't even speak to Brendon when he came home. I just called to tell him not to come into the house through the garage. He could tell I was upset and offered to help, but when I am that angry, I just want to be left alone to deal with it. Dinner sat in the oven for longer than it should have, and was a bit dry last night.

Work, Flute, and Disneyland

It has been hard to find time to post since I've been working, but I think I am into a good routine now. I am really enjoying my job. It's fun to have someplace to go and get things done that stay done. Since I am getting up so early (3:00 am) I have been going to bed at 9:00 pm, so don't call me past then. I won't answer. (Brendon probably will so you can chat with him.) Brendon has been getting the children off to school in the mornings and feeding the little kids breakfast. He does a good job. My older children have been really good about following any notes I leave for them regarding things such as laundry and dishes. Things seem to be going pretty good.

I am still volunteering in Gabrielle's class on Wednesdays, and on Tuesdays I watch a couple of children for my friend who also helps out in the school. This last week I purchased a flute from ebay. I am making arrangements for Naomi to take some private flute lessons. I am also hoping to find a piano teacher for Gabrielle. Benjamin still really loves playing trumpet. He has a concert next week.

In February, we are planning to take our family to visit Disneyland. Lately I've been realizing how old my kids are getting, and how few years we have left to take them fun places. I have always put off a trip to someplace like Disneyland because I didn't want to take a baby. I would feel guilty about this, but when we told our children about the trip, Benjamin said he didn't want to go. He hates driving, and is afraid riding rides will make him nauseous. We pointed out all the stuff there is to do in Disneyland, and I think we finally have him talked into it. Naomi and Gabby are thrilled to go, and Gavin doesn't really understand what we are planning.

We are hoping to schedule our trip during the time that Laurel and Nick's family will be there vacationing. Hopefully we can spend at least one day together at the park. We are planning to bring Kay with us when we go.