Welcome

~Your Children Will become what You are; So be what You want them to be. - David Bly


~Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.


~"There is always morning where life gives us another opportunity to make things good."

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Zachary's "Car Mountain"


The thing that Zach wants for Christmas the most is "Car Mountain", as he calls it. It is really called, Radiator Springs Mountain Challenge Track Playset. I wasn't going to get it because I got online and all the reviews about it were just awful. There wasn't one good comment. They all said it was junk and doesn't stay put together, not worth the money etc.

Yesterday, Zach said, "mom when is Santa going to bring my car mountain". Dave asked him, "Zach what if Santa doesn't bring it?" He looked at Dave and said with a stern voice. "HE WILL BRING IT." I said, "what if he doesn't Zach", and he said..."then I will be really sad and I will cry, but I know he will bring it." He has asked me about that car mountain every single day since he saw it in the Toys R Us, toy book back in October. The car mountain and a pack of cars. That is all he wants.

I decided I better go get it. I asked the cashier at Toys R Us what the return policy is and they said, just keep your receipt. The cashier also printed 3 receipts for me so I won't lose it. I thought that was nice.

The reason why I am deciding to get it....
My little sister Adrienne wanted a Strawberry Shortcake doll for Christmas one year. My grandma saw one and picked it up for my mom. My mom was looking through the things that she bought, and decided that she had bought enough gifts for us, and that the Strawberry Shortcake doll wasn't needed after all. She gave it back to my grandma so she could return it and get her money back. She didn't set it out for little Ade.

Christmas morning came and we all opened our gifts. Adrienne searched and searched for her doll. She never found it. She cried and cried, ALL day long. The other gifts that she had received didn't matter, all she wanted was that doll. We all tried to get her to play with the other new toys. Well my mom called my grandma and asked her if she still had that doll. Luckily she hadn't taken it back to the store. My grandma brought it out to our house the next day and my mom threw it behind the couch. Then she asked Adrienne to help her clean up a bit and low and behold....look what had been behind the couch the whole time. Santa must have dropped it in putting the gifts out.
SHE WAS THRILLED! Made her Christmas after all.
So even though this "car mountain" is cheap and not worth the money. I can't break my little boy's heart. I can't have a STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE REPEAT.
Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

TAGGED!! What you may not know about me.....

I have been tagged....
This was harder then I thought it was going to be. Here we go.
1. I have substantial hearing loss in my right ear. This is due to ear infections when I was young and the scar tissue build up. I have a hearing aid, which I no longer wear because I have been able to adjust pretty well, and read lips when needed.
2. I can do 7 back flips in a row on my mom and dad's trampoline....well, I haven't tried for at least a year, so maybe I should put something else too. I caught a 700 pound skate while fishing in Ninilchik, Alaska. (A skate looks similar to a sting ray)
3. When I worked at the hospital as a certified nursing assistant I wore a beeper or pager....
  • My work description included:
  • Staffing the hospital each night for the graveyard shift.
  • Helping every department in the hospital when they were short handed.
  • Taking patients to have X-Ray's, CAT Scans, MRI's & Ultrasounds.
  • Making up dinner trays for patients after the kitchen closed for the day.
  • Assisting during a code blue (cardiac arrest or some sort of emergency)
  • Assisting with intrasil's, which is an IV that goes in the forearm to a valve of the heart.
  • Giving newborn babies their first bath :)
  • PUTTING DECEASED PATIENTS IN A BODY BAG AND TRANSPORTING THEM TO THE MORGUE IN THE BASEMENT OF THE HOSPITAL
  • Among other duties...to long to list them all

It was my 21st birthday, I was kind of sad to have to work. I received a call from the emergency room nurse. He told me that he had a person who passed away, and asked if I would come and take the body away. I finished up the task I was working on and proceeded to the emergency room. I had been doing my job for almost 4 years. I had many experiences with bodies, and feeling the person's spirit with me. Sometimes it felt like they were walking by me to see where I was putting their body, things like that. There were occasions that I felt a little creeped out, so I would ask the nurse who took care of that person to come with me. Then I wouldn't be alone etc. While doing this for so long I had many conversations with nurses who talked about bodies moving after the person passed away etc. All very interesting to me. I even started to read about postmortem.

When I arrived at the emergency room the nurse said he would go with me to the morgue. I of course didn't argue that. I was happy to have company. We went down the hall and to the "special elevator" through the operating department. The doors shut on the elevator, we started to go down. I was facing the body with my back to the door. The nurse was at the opposite end of the bed. The body sat straight up & STIFF. I don't know what my face looked like. I didn't scream, or say anything. I think if the nurse with me would have grunted or jumped, then I might have jumped too. I couldn't find any words. After a couple of seconds...I am sure it was seconds. The nurse unzipped the body bag. One of my friends was inside. When we went back up in the elevator and the doors opened, there was a whole crowd gathered around to hear my screams as I couldn't escape this body in the elevator. I think they were disappointed. They were trying to scare me to death...hoping I would make a fool of myself. Needless to say, it was a memorable birthday and I won't forget it. It is so nice to have good friends. I am grateful for mine.

4. On my mission (Argentina) - I was in a city called Palmyra. It was a rural town. Lots of walking on dirt roads and some neighborhoods were a couple miles away. I had a greenie. I was senior companion and we were in a neighborhood that was poor. We had walked to a members house for lunch. It was maybe a 5 mile walk. After lunch we decided to knock on doors for some of the afternoon. We passed an older man that we always saw in the street. His beard was scruffy, had grey hair. He was carrying a 2x4 that was maybe 2 feet long. As we passed him, I told him good afternoon in Spanish, just trying to be friendly. He yelled at the top of his lungs and swung that 2x4. He whacked me right on top of the head. I never really understood why the cartoons always had stars going around in circles when they bonked their head. WOW, I knew why that day! I really did see stars. I turned to look and make sure my companion was alright. She was, and she was probably 1/2 a mile away. She just took off running and left me there. I didn't think she could run that fast. I had a pretty good headache so we decided to walk to a friend's house, who are members. When we got there, they checked out my head. I had a good sized egg. This family was one of the few who had a car. Eduardo, got in the car and went to the neighborhood to talk to people and find out about this guy that did this to me. Come to find out he was a little crazy. I was glad to find that out. I didn't take it personal. :) Maybe that is why I am a bit wacko now....a good bonk on the head.
5. Growing up I always wanted long hair. All my sisters had long hair, and didn't have any problem with their hair growing. Mine just wouldn't grow. It took me 7-8 years to get my hair to the length that it is now.

6. Quirky things....I had straight, flat hair until I became pregnant with Zach. Now it is wavy. Before I became pregnant with Ali, I hated blue cheese. While pregnant I couldn't stop craving it. I still really like it. I dated a guy for a little while (not seriously) and then he told me that he was gay. It never became serious & we stayed friends. Most of my friends growing up were boys. I was a complete tom boy! I could relate to them better. The girl friends I had were great, but not the same. (Luckily none of them will be reading this.) HA! I went to the state championship competition with my horse while in 4-H. Two examples of my favorite events are: The Flag race...you run your horse as fast as you can on this event...there are two barrels in the arena and they each have a bucket of sand on them. In the far bucket there is a flag on a dowel (usually). You run down around the barrel and grab the flag, run to the second barrel and stick the flag in the sand. If the stick of the flag touches the bucket or flips out you are penalized or disqualified. The one with the fastest time wins. Another of my favorites is the egg race. You hold a raw egg on a spoon and you have to do what ever they announce without dropping your egg. Run, turn, stop, trot etc.

Hopefully there were a few things you didn't know about me and they weren't totally lame. ;)

Monday, November 12, 2007

ARRRRG!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

We had two happy little pirates at our house. We had a blast on Halloween. I always take work off on Halloween to spend with my kids. First we went to Foothills Elementary for the parade. It was so fun to see kids that have been in our primary class over the years. It was also fun to see Ali's and Zach's friends parading around in thier costumes. After the parade Zach and I went to Ali's class Halloween party. We were in charge of a game. All the kids had a great time. Then it was time for Zach to go to school. I went back to school to have lunch with Ali. He had a Halloween party too. After school we went trick or treating at mom's work. The kids got the most candy there! WOW! Then off to Gram's house and Bette & Christina's, then to Aunt Flora and Uncle Sam's house for a bag of goodies and a traditional hot dog. Then off we went to Grandma Jeanne's for a few, and Grandma and Grandpa Colby's house. We were lucky cause Great Grandma & Grandpa Kalawaia were there visiting. WOW>>>so many stops. I was so tired by the time we got home. We missed the neighbor friends starting out so we went out on our own for about a half hour or so. We had a great time and lots of fun being pirates all day!
(If I figure out how to do a slide show this might look better....just don't have time to figure it out.....EVER!)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

We Love Babies!

My sister Adrienne had her baby girl on October 30th. She came really fast, so there was no time for the help of pain blockers! OWIE
Her name is Jolie Grace Yancey and she was 7lbs & 7 1/2 ounces. We are so happy that she is here and healthy. We can't wait to give her some squeezes.
Happy Brother Colby!
Proud Daddy! Congratulations...

Fun with the Witches


We have fun walking around Gardner Village around Halloween to see all the witches. This year it was a little different than in years past. It was fun to see some new witches and kind of sad to not see some of my favorites. This year we went to dinner afterwards at Sizzler and just had a great family night.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins


We had fun carving our pumpkins this year. Zach would only do his if he had a long spoon. He didn't want to touch the "guts". Ali on the other hand was inside her pumpkin up to her shoulders. They had fun deciding what they wanted. Zach said he wanted a scary vampire...I did my best... Ali went with a witch and traced most of it all by herself. Dad stepped in to help when she got tired.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Violin Lessons


Ali has started violin lessons. We went to the violin shop and she now has her own violin. When we got home I went and found my violin that has been stashed away and pulled it out to tune it. Dave looked at me really funny and said, what is that?
I said, my violin. He said, well why did we have to get Ali one if you have one. I just said, look at the size difference. She is so excited still and loves practicing every day. Hopefully one day we will be able to play together. That would be amazing.

Ear Troubles



Zach had to go through surgery again and have tubes put back in his ears. The day of the procedure was traumatic for him, and he just wanted mom at first. The excitement now is that he gets to put ear plugs in to take a shower. Hopefully we won't have to do that again, and hopefully no more ear infections!

COOTIES


The other day Ali asked Zach if she could have a drink of his drink. He replied "No, cause it has my guts all over it!" I had to explain that he meant germs or cooties. Kids say the funniest things sometimes.