It's Official--the stress has gotten to me!

Well, I went to the doctor yesterday because I have had this pain in my stomach for about a month now and he tells me that I probably have an ulcer. He ran some tests and hopefully we'll find out for sure by the end of the week. I flattered myself all these months thinking that I was doing so well at handling all the stress. I guess I was, other than getting a hole in my stomach! :) Maybe it's not the stress, maybe it's just getting old. Actually, they now know that ulcers aren't caused by stress or spicy foods like they used to believe. But they say stress and spicy foods can make them worse. That explains why this pain started within an hour of eating some really spicy food at a Mexican restaurant. I can think of much worse problems, so I'll be grateful if an ulcer is all that it is.

Well, it's brag time. An interesting fact came to light when we were speaking with our oldest daughter on Sunday. The subject of her recent band concert came up again. We were surprised to see that she was in the "first chair" position during the band concert and we noticed that she stood when her band conductor entered, and the rest of the band followed. So after the concert we asked her if she was the first chair clarinet. She said no, they don't do chairs in 8th grade band. During their 3rd song, a boy playing the clarinet had moved to sit next to her and so we asked her why he only sat next to her during that song. She said it was because he was playing 1st part for that song only. What we didn't realize until our conversation on Sunday was that our daughter was the only clarinet playing first part for all the other songs. As she reports in her disgusted teenager tone, "Everyone else was too chicken to play the high notes. I was the only one that could play them." So that was the reason that she was in the 1st chair--she was the only one that could play first part. Ironic since she will probably get a C+ in band this quarter since her teacher didn't get her (being a new student) set up on the computer so she could complete some required computer assignments until a little over a week before the term was over. Then when the computer seemed to be malfunctioning, he didn't have the time to help her with it. We've tried to get this all straightened out but we're not sure we succeeded. We'll see what happens when the grades come out. No matter what her grade turns out to be, we are proud of her for continuing to progress on the clarinet.

Egg Blowing

This is Daughter #2 with a blown egg that she decorated at school. The teacher sent home a note requesting that each child bring in two blown eggs and included instructions on how to do it. Good thing, because I have never attempted such a thing before. Since they were needed the day following the band concert, it was a busy evening and we didn't get to the egg-blowing project until about 9:45 p.m. My daughter and I followed the instructions exactly and were practically blowing our brains out to no avail. We were getting miniscule amounts of egg guts out of the egg. You needed a magnifying glass to see that we were getting anything out at all. I was strangely reminded of childbirth as I was blowing and trying not to hyperventilate, only childbirth was easier and much more rewarding. We decided the holes in the eggs needed to be bigger than the teacher's instructions indicated. So we attempted to enlarge the holes. This resulted in two broken eggs. I was ready to call it quits at that point. My daughter told me the teacher said, "You better have a very good reason for not bringing in two eggs." Does "My mom is craft impaired." count as a very good reason? Thankfully, my husband with his superior skills and lung power came to the rescue. He managed to punch larger holes into the next two eggs without breaking them and had them blown out in about 30 seconds each. I hope no other teachers of my children request blown eggs in the future. I was not enchanted with the process. It would have been just as easy to glue all those pieces of construction paper on a regular boiled egg, in my humble opinion.

Here are some more photos of our beautiful neice and cousin. Isn't it cute that Mom and Dad dressed her up for her first St. Patrick's Day? She's Irish from her Dad's side. She has pneumonia right now so we are praying that she will feel better soon.

I thought I’d post some photos of the kids during their Easter activities. But first, here is some information for your Gee Whiz collection. Except for those of you over 95 years old, and those of you who have an exceptionally long life-span, you have just celebrated the earliest Easter of your entire life. For those of you that are wondering how they decide when Easter is this is it: the first Sunday following the first full moon following the vernal spring equinox. Now you know! This evidently means that Easter can fall anywhere from March 22nd to April 25th. The last time that Easter fell on the earliest possible day (March 22nd) was in 1818. The next time it falls on that day is 2285. So that day is out for most of us. The next day, March 23rd, last saw Easter in 1913. So unless you are over 95, you missed it. The next time Easter falls on March 23rd is 2160. I’m not planning on being alive for that one. So this year, 2008, was the only shot for virtually all of us to celebrate Easter on March 23rd. If your birthday falls during the dates of March 22nd to April 25th, and you are wondering if Easter will ever be on your birthday during your lifetime, there are websites out there with the dates for Easter from clear back in the 1st century to eons into the future so you can find out if you have a chance. I checked for my oldest daughter (who hasn’t had Easter on her birthday yet) and discovered that she will celebrate Easter on her 25th, 36th, 47th, and 58th birthdays. That’s pretty often considering that some dates don’t see Easter for 100’s of years at a time. Now that you’ve dozed off, here are some photos:

Nicknames

You may have noticed that I am avoiding using names on my blog. I'n trying to protect my kids' privacy. Only my family and a few close friends have this blog address, so I probably don't need to worry about it. However, my sister, who has a blog, has given all of her kids nicknames and I thought that would be a good idea. Unfortunately, I am not too great at nicknames, so I am stuck. So I'm asking for your help out there. Send me some ideas for nicknames. I thought maybe each person's nickname should start with the same letter as their actual name does. What do you think?

Daughter #1 (almost 14) J
Daughter #2 (almost 11) M
Son #1 (7) J
Son #2 (3) A
Husband N
Me (probably not necessary since I go by "I") A

I have thought maybe Daughter #1 could be Jumble and Son #2 could be Atom but I am stumped on everyone else. I'm expecting so many good ideas from all of you that I'll have trouble choosing just one for each of us! So don't let me down.

It's Officially Spring!!

So today it is officially spring. We transplanted Arizonans are pretty excited about that. Not that we are deluded into thinking it won't be cold here again in Utah. The last few days have been feeling much more pleasant but we know that winter could easily rear its ugly head again. Snow is certainly not out of the question here in April. We expect to have a few more cold and miserable days (if not weeks) before spring gets a good hold on the land. Last night on the news we saw that it was 84 degrees yesterday in Arizona. Even though it was only in the 50's here yesterday, we still smiled. We know that it is entirely possible that Arizonans will experience their first day of this year in the 90's before the week is out. For sure the 90's are less than a month away. We know we won't see the 90's here until June--maybe late May--and that it probably won't get much hotter than that at all--all summer long. Aaaah! The good days are ahead for us and we are more than ready for them.

Band Concert

Last night daughter #1 had her first band concert here in Utah. She plays the clarinet. We were interested to hear her band play, not just because she was playing, but because she has been telling us how awful her band sounds. She hasn't enjoyed playing with students who started playing just last year--in seventh grade--since she started playing in fifth grade in Arizona. She refuses to practice since she says there is no need for her to practice the level of music they are playing. She's probably right about that. Instead, she has filled in her required practice records by learning to play her younger sister's flute. We figured that was a fair compromise. (Our poor daughter #2--in fifth grade--has no band here to play in. We need to find her a teacher so she can take lessons until seventh grade.) Anyway, we thought the band sounded pretty good. We went with low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. But not too surprised, considering the information source--an emotional teenager. We forgot to take our camera, though, so I can't post a photo. Too bad--despite our daughter's opinion, we are proud of her and think she is doing a great job and would have liked to have a photo and video record of her performance last evening.

Why 4:00 a.m.?

The other night, I was awakened about 4:00 a.m. by a chirping smoke alarm. Not blaring--as in there is smoke, therefore, a fire, so you better get up RIGHT NOW!--but just the annoying and persistent chirp of the smoke alarm letting you know it needs a new battery. Since there are eight smoke alarms in my parent's house, and they said they all chirp if one needs a battery change, I decided to wait for the parents to be woken up by one of the upstairs alarms to help me figure out what to do. (I don't know where the batteries are in their house--what if the one needing a replacement was the one on the vaulted ceiling that I can't reach and I don't know where their ladder is, etc.) Well, after about four chirps, it stopped and I gratefully went back to sleep. The next morning I told my parents, who agreed with me that it was strange that it had chirped and then stopped. So life went on. Exactly 48 hours later (so, again, at 4:00 a.m.) the smoke alarm started chirping again. This time I got up and went to stand under a smoke detector upstairs to see if they were chirping--they weren't--which explains why my parents didn't wake up two nights ago, and why they weren't waking up this time either. So I went back downstairs to see if all of the ones in the basement were chirping by standing under each one. This all took awhile because the offending alarm would suddenly stop chirping for several minutes at a time. In fact, I went back to bed at one point because it had been so long with no chirping. Of course, about 2 minutes later, the chirping began again. By this time, my mom was awake--not because of the smoke alarm but just because she frequently wakes up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. So she helped me locate a battery, we finally determined which one was chirping, and I changed the battery. Thankfully, it worked--no more chirping. By about 5:15 I was back asleep. So my question is...why does it always have to be at 4:00 a.m.? In Arizona, our smoke alarm also started chirping in the middle of the night. I had to wake my husband up (only I am awoken by small chirping noises--I'm a light sleeper) and send him to get a ladder out of the garage while we tried to determine which alarm needed attention--ours were all chirping together so you couldn't tell which one needed the new battery. We replaced the batteries in about three before the chirping stopped. We decided to do the rest of the detectors in the morning since another of the ones we didn't change would probably need a new battery soon and we didn't want to repeat this middle-of-the-night adventure. The problem was, by the next morning we couldn't remember which ones we had fixed in the middle of the night and which ones we hadn't. So we left it--hoping the next time the chirping would start during the day. No such luck--a few weeks later we were again woken up in the middle of the night by a chirping alarm. I have to wonder if some sick mind at the smoke alarm factory somehow built the things to ensure that batteries always hit the low level in the middle of the night! It seems to be the same way with childbirth. All four of my babies--when they arrived on this planet--either kept me up all night or woke me up in the very early hours of the morning. They still have a tendency to do that.

Fun with Names

I saw this on another person's blog and thought it looked diverting so I'm doing it too. It's a little random for me, since many ask for favorites, and I don't have one favorite on most things so some have several possibilities--but I'll just pick one.

1. Rockstar Name (first pet & current car):Pierre Odyssey
2. Gangsta Name (favorite ice cream flavor & favorite cookie): Dulche de Leche Chocolate Chip
3. Fly Girl Name (first initial, first 4 letters of last name):A-Cran
4. Detective Name (favorite color, favorite animal):Purple Monkey
5. Soap Opera Name (middle name & birthplace):Beth Covina
6. Star Wars Name (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 letters of first name):Cra-Am
7. Superhero Name ("the," 2nd favorite color, favorite drink):The Green Root Beer
8. Nascar Name (grandfathers' first names):Frederick Harvey
9. Witness Protection Program Name (mom & dad's middle names):Ann (Hmm..I'd better not ever need to go into the witness protection program because my dad doesn't have a middle name and my mom's is a little bit of a stretch since she goes by both her first and her middle names put together.)
10. Weather Anchor Name (5th grade teacher & major city beginning with the same letter):Peterson Phoenix or Moore Montgomery (I had two 5th grade teachers since I moved during the year)
11. Bond Girl Name (favorite season, favorite flower):Autumn Daisy
12. Cartoon Name (favorite fruit, article of clothing you are wearing right now + "ie" or "y"):Strawberry Jeansie
13. Hippy Name (what you ate for breakfast, favorite tree):Waffle Willow
14: Rockstar Tour Name ("the"+your favorite hobby, favorite weather element+"tour"):The Info Gathering Sunny Tour

Go ahead, try it out with YOUR name.

Two Secretaries

As of yesterday, my husband and I both have callings in our new ward. My husband has been serving as the High Priest Group Secretary for a few weeks now. I have known about my calling for over two weeks now but was finally sustained yesterday as the secretary for Young Women. In our former ward, my husband was the High Priest Group Secretary for awhile at the same time that I was the secretary for Relief Society. I guess we just look like the secretary types. The last time I was involved in the YW program, I was a young woman myself. A lot has changed since then, so it will be interesting to learn about how things are done these days. I look forward to spending time with my oldest daughter and getting to know the other girls her age in the ward.

Our renter reports that we have had about twelve showings in the last month, even though our realtor had only told us of four. Our renter is going to send copies of the business cards to our realtor so she can contact the realtors who have come through. It will be interesting to hear the feedback from that.

My husband is in St. George for the next two days. He has more trips coming up to Moab, UT and Rexburg, ID. We didn't expect him to be traveling so much but are glad he has something to do. It's like reliving an old nightmare when he is gone, though. But we're grateful that it is only for short periods of time now and it is nice for me to have my parents around to keep me company. Happy St. Patrick's Day--especially to my nephew and niece who are celebrating birthdays today as well as to my sister and her husband who are celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary. And of course to all of my husband's family who are Irish.

Surgery Thursday

Our little Lauren had her surgery on Thursday and now we finally have some photos where we can see her beautiful face better. We are so grateful that everything went well.

As it turns out, my mother-in-law was feeling so empathetic for Lauren that she had surgery on Thursday as well--to have her appendix removed! She started feeling pain about 10:15 the night before and was in surgery by 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning. We didn't know anything about it until my father-in-law called that evening. The text message my mother-in-law sent at 5:00 a.m. Thursday morning didn't show up on our phone until Friday. One of the great mysteries of modern technology. We wish her a speedy recovery and hope she still gets to go to Rome on Wednesday, as planned.

Now...


Later... (125 to 200 years later, that is!)




My husband was is Arizona on business all week and he brought me back a present. He brought me back a piece of Arizona--what a sweetie! He has never quite understood my fascination with/emotional attachment to Saguaros but he loves me so he indulges me in it. The above photo is blurry, so if you can't tell what it is--it's a "Grow Your Own Giant Saguaro Cactus" set. I got a real kick out of this. The reason? Well, since I am so attached to Saguaro cacti, I have researched them extensively and I happen to know that it will be 75 years before my saguaro will grow one arm. Those ones in the drawing on the package, sporting at least 3 arms are probably about 125 years old! By the time they have 5 arms, they are over 200 years old. My set comes with a little tiny terra cotta pot. If I can succeed in getting the little thing to grow, it will take 10 years for it to reach 4-6" in height. That's fine with me, because when it gets too big for the pot, and it is time to plant it outdoors, I will have to take it back to Arizona because it will never survive here in Utah. So at least I will get to keep my little cactus for 10 years before I have to give it up. But this brings me to one of my great pet peeves regarding saguaros. Saguaros grow ONLY in the Sonoran desert--it is the only place on earth with the right climate for them. So the only place you can find Saguaros is in Southern Arizona, a little strip of California by the Arizona border, and down into Northwestern Mexico a little ways. I have seen several different children's books teaching kids about the different states in the United States of America that include drawings of Saguaro cacti on the Texas or New Mexico pages. If you are going to teach kids about the characteristics of the various states, get your facts straight!! There are NO saguaro cacti in Texas or New Mexico or any other western state EXCEPT Arizona and a little strip of California. Why am I so bugged by this? The fact that Saguaro cacti are native only to Arizona is one of the reasons I am so attached to them. When I was little and we would drive to Arizona, we knew when we saw the Saguaro cacti, we were almost there. When we saw those magnificent Saguaro cacti dotting the landscape outside the car windows, we knew that Grandpa and Grandma's house was less than an hour away. And when you have been driving across Texas and New Mexico for two days straight, AND you have such wonderful grandparents, that can be pretty exciting! So that is the root of my passion in regards to Saguaros. Then when you learn more about them, you become even more amazed. How can you not be in awe of a plant that you are looking at right now, when you know it was a little seedling at the time the Declaration of Independence was being signed? Pretty exciting stuff. Well, to me anyway.

J's new 'do

Isn't she adorable? This is her new haircut. She is currently in 8th grade. Let me tell you, there are NO adorable photos of me in 8th grade. In fact, when I took the above daughter to a mother/daughter nerd night at the church a few months back, my 8th grade school photo won the nerdiest photo in the contest among all the moms attending. I think some of those other moms cheated! They brought cute photos. Then again, maybe they were all like my daughter, who is already out of her awkward age. I'm not sure how that is possible, when I am still in mine. Not that I'm bitter or anything, I'm happy for her. I wouldn't wish 30 years of awkwardness on anyone. I'm glad she lucked out and didn't get my awkward gene. Speaking of genes, that painting of the sunset over the ocean with palm trees that you see in the background of this photo was painted by my older sister. That artistic gene is one that I managed to miss altogether.

My son, shown above on his recent 7th birthday, has the same stomach as my husband. A few weeks ago I got a call from the elementary school. I was surprised because my son had just barely arrived at school. It seems that while they were waiting outside to be let into their classroom for the day (a barbaric practice in this climate, I think--but I digress) a female classmate pushed him and he hit his nose on the door. This resulted in a small nosebleed. They assured me that he was fine--the bleeding had stopped, they had cleaned him up, and he was going to go to class--but he wanted to talk to me first. So we had a short conversation, I sympathized and made sure he was going to be alright. I think this will be the end of the story. But no, about 45 minutes later the school calls again. This time they report that my son has thrown up--all over the floor of the office, no less. They said he arrived looking very pale and greenish, saying he didn't feel well but before they could get him to the nurse's office, he hurled his breakfast all over the floor. They told me he looked terrible and I needed to come get him. I wondered aloud if he had swallowed some blood from the nosebleed, causing him to feel queasy, but they said, "No, just breakfast. He is definitely sick!" As I was driving to the school, it occurred to me that maybe the nausea was a result of hitting his head--maybe a concussion? When I got there, the nurse had had the same thought as I was in transit so she had checked his pupils (they were O.K.) and gave me a sheet on signs of a concussion, instructing me to take him to a doctor immediately if he had any other symptoms of concussion. They were right, my son DID look terrible. He was very pale with a slighly greenish sheen. On the way home, I began questioning him about when he started feeling sick. "Did you feel sick at all this morning, before school?" No. "Did you start feeling sick when you had the nosebleed?" No. "Well, when did you start feeling sick?" He says, "I went to class and some of the kids were talking to me about times they got hurt--bleeding and stitches and stuff and it started to make my stomach hurt." He got sick because some kids were talking about getting stitches. Sure enough, within ten minutes of getting home, he was fine! His color returned to normal and he was running around and playing and eating with a normal appetite the rest of the day. He didn't have a concussion or the stomach flu, after all. But after the morning he had, I figured he had earned a day off from school.

Introducing our beautiful neice and cousin, Lauren. This is a photo of her when she was first born. She is about 6 weeks old now. This sweet little girl is constantly in our thoughts and prayers. She has recently been diagnosed with Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS). She is in the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital. We are all very anxious for her to be able to come home soon to be with her family. Here is a more recent photo of her:

We finally got to see her last Friday. This is a photo of her that we took when we visited:

We can't wait to visit her again. We love you, Lauren!

Tagged...I'm Confused!

My sister, Shellie, tagged me. I'm not sure what the blogging protocol is since I'm new at this. But I guess I am supposed to answer these questions and post them on my blog:

1. What is your occupation? 24/7 mom, family bookkeeper and tax preparer
2. What color are your socks? In my former life (Arizona), I never wore socks--bare feet or sandals. Now I am forced to wear slippers or socks at all times. Slippers and socks are both blue.
3. What are you listening to right now? A rare moment of silence. The three oldest are at school and the youngest is asleep. The parents are gone. So, the hum of the computer and the typing on my keyboard.
4. What was the last thing you ate? Waffles and sausage. Man, I wish it was dark chocolate, Shellie!
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes.
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? dark purple or raspberry--because I like those colors.
7. Last person you were on the phone with? (Not counting the solicitor that called a little while a go.) My husband--who is in Arizona this week--I miss him!
8. Do you like the person that sent this to you? Yes! I love her!
9. Favorite Drink?Anything with cranberry in it. I also really like milk.
10. What is your favorite sport to watch? BYU football. (Or gymnastics or figure skating if you count those as sports)
11. Have you ever dyed your hair?Yes, mostly highlights to help the gray blend in.
12.Pets? A beagle named Boomer who is currently farmed out at my in-law's house (bless them!)
13. Favorite Food? Hmmm. Just about everything--Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, seafood. Anything with chocolate in it, ice cream, pie, cheesecake, etc.!
14. Last movie you watched? Can't remember--haven't watched one in a while. I think it was Masterpiece Theater's version of Jane Eyre.
15. Favorite day of the year? Lots of them. I don't have favorites. Too limiting.
16. What do you do to vent anger? Yell if I'm mad enough. Hold it in, stomp around, talk about it later if I can control myself.
17. What was your favorite toy as a child? Again, don't have favorites. I played with dolls and stuffed animals and rode my bike a lot. I liked Legos and playsets with lots of pieces.
18. What is your favorite? Fall or Spring? In my former life (Arizona), definitely fall, because the summer heat was ending and nothing but lovely winter weather to look forward to. Now, I'm sure it will be spring since the freezing winter will be ending and nothing but pleasant summer weather to look forward to.
19. Hugs or kisses...Depends on from who. Both from my husband, hugs from everyone els.
20. What kind of pie? Hmmm-can't pick just one--banana cream (WITHOUT coconut!) and pumpkin
21. Living arrangements? My mom and dad's rambler with a basement. Husband and four kids. The place we are still paying a house payment on is a two-story 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2,045 sf stucco with tile roof abode that has new carpet, flooring, paint, and light fixtures in a great neighborhood in Peoria, AZ. You can walk to the excellent k-8 school or the park. Anybody interested in buying it?! MLS#2934771 :)
22. When was the last time you cried? Hmmm. I can't remember exactly. I've felt like crying a lot lately over a lot of things but I usually manage not to. Probably the last time I actually did was 3 months ago--the day after my husband lost his job, the car wouldn't start, and my roof started leaking.
23. What is on the floor of your closet? Shoes.
24. Who is the friend you've had the longest that you are tagging?The blogger I've known the longest is Shellie, who is my sister so I've known her since I was born, but I guess I can't tag her because she tagged me first. I'm not sure who I'm tagging yet because I'm new at this blogging thing and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to tag anyone.
25. The friend that you have known the shortest amount of time that you are tagging? Don't know yet--see above.
26. Favorite smell? Chocolate. Baking bread. My kids' freshly shampooed heads.
27. What inspires you? Getting to know people and seeing how unique and amazing each person is--the amazing things they think and do. All of the miracles that come from heaven daily.
28. What are you afraid of? The financial devestation that will probably occur the next time we go to the dentist since we haven't been able to go in a year with all the chaos in our lives. That our house will never sell and we will be in limbo forever.
29. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Exactly what my sister said--Not too big on hamburgers, but I’d make sure it had cheese and avocado and bacon.
30. Favorite cat breed? I don't like cats.
31. Number of keys on your key ring? Eleven. I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what they are all for.
32. How many years at your current job? Mom for almost 14 years.
33. Favorite day of the week? Again, no favorites. But Monday is definitely NOT it.
34. How many provinces have you lived in? None. How many countries have you been to? Just one--the United States of America. Pretty pathetic, huh? Don't remind me--it is one of my disappointments in life. I plan to remedy that before I leave the planet. However, if I never get to go to more than one country, I'm VERY glad that one country is the good old U.S.A.

What You Do on your First Day in Utah

They were a comical sight. They could be spotted in the parking lot of the local Ross Dress for Less in Lehi, Utah on the afternoon of Saturday, December 29th 2007. As other shoppers, many clad only in sweatshirts, walked comfortably to and from their cars, a family of six pulled up in a white mini-van. They were also clad only in sweatshirts and light jackets but they looked anything but comfortable. They looked like they were FREEZING! A keen observer would have noticed the Arizona license plate on their vehicle. It explained a lot. Huddled against the brisk chilly breeze, and clumsily dodging piles of slush and patches of ice, they scurried into the store as quickly as they could without slipping on the ice. They proceeded to the heavy winter coats section, and everyone started trying on coats. They only found one that worked so they quickly proceeded to Kohl's. They fared better there--finding four more coats, and an assortment of long-sleeved shirts. Just in time--the snow was beginning to come down as they headed back to the car. The last stop was Wal-Mart--where they found hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, and two combination brush/ice scrapers--one for each car. A few hours and some $350 later, they felt they at least had a chance of survival in their new hostile environment.

The above photos were not taken on our first day in Utah. Some were taken in early January and the ones of our family building a snowman were taken in February.