Merry Christmas

We went caroling as a family last night to a few homes. We sang "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" and "Jingle Bells". The kids did great and even sang along. Then we went to my parent's home and opened gifts with them. The kids kept following Jotty around and if he disappeared from view they would walk in a line calling for him. There was some bad weather last night and we got home just before the worst got here.

Our Christmas started at 2 am when Ben woke me up because he couldn't sleep due to serious pain he was having. We gave him some pain meds and realized a trip to the ER was unavoidable because he needed antibiotics. Ben's a very funny on pain meds so I drove him while his Mom slept on our couch. I kept myself entertained by reading friends blogs. This post gave us a great laugh. We got home right when the kids woke up at 6:45.

They were so excited!! They loved their stockings and instantly dumped them and started on the chocolate. We read from Luke 2 and talked about what we're really celebrating today. We followed up with Charlie Brown's Christmas and then opened presents. Our favorite moments: Carlise calling her Barbie - Darbie, Wesley dumping his stocking & getting 3 pieces of chocolate in his mouth with lightning speed, Josie's instant love of her Raggedy Ann doll.

Now, to just get some sleep.

My sister

Stacy took this picture of my sister Anna during our Family Reunion this summer. She said it was her favorite even though you can't see half of the kids faces and I agree with her. I love the by chance symbolism of her sitting in the center and you can see in this picture that she is the center of her home. So sweet!

Thanksgiving

This has been a rough week for us. And it has made us even more grateful for our blessings. We are thankful for our eternal family, Ben's job, our good health, and never ending entertainment & joy in the form of our 3 toddlers. Of course there's lots more, but come on it's 2 am. =]

bilateral papilledema update

My vision has gotten so much better. The day I was admitted my vision was 20/60. My two week check-up it was 20/35 and last week it was 20/25. It's still a little hard for me to see letters and numbers clearly because it's so off from my previous 20/13. Dr. Fortin has been taking pictures of my eye each visit and it is resolved except for a small hemorrhage in my left eye (a result from my optic nerve being stretched) and that it should take care of itself.

I fired my neurologist. Waste of my time and money. My physician has agreed to monitor my case.

When I visited my physician last week I expressed my concerns regarding my 500 mg/twice a day dosage of Diamox. While on the higher dosage I had these horrible tingles in my hands and feet all the time. He cut my dosage in half and in 6 months we'll begin weaning me off the Diamox to see if my condition truly was brought on by the steroid and antibiotic I was taking. While this last lumbar puncture was the least risky one I've had and provided almost immediate relief, we hope we don't have to do it again anytime soon.

Ever since I was discharged, it has felt like my Celexa hasn't been working. And I can't be a good mommy if I don't have my mental health. I can handle pain and illness until it prevents me from being a good mommy to these precious little ones entrusted to my care. So far, so good on the lower dosage.

Zoey

When Ben & I started dating I was working at a vet clinic. It was one of my favorite jobs because I got to work in the kennel with all the animals and didn't have to adopt any. However, one day before closing some kids brought in a kitten they found in the woods and I ended up taking it home for my Mom, since her cats were seriously old. The kitten had other plans and attached herself to Ben and would come running everyday when he came to see me. Accepting this was his cat, he gave her the name of Zoey. She even moved into the apartment with Ben before I did. She always preferred Ben over me and if we were sitting together she would only sit on the opposite side of him, never between us. Once we bought the wrong cat food and she informed us by dumping over the bowl. We didn't want to waste the new bag, so we mixed it in with the correct food. That sassy cat dumped the bowl over and picked the correct pieces out of the food. She definitely helped prepare us for some of the frustrations of parenting.She was a very gentle cat and never hissed or growled even to dogs or other cats. Once she reached adulthood she quickly became known as Fat Cat and would respond to Fatty as well. When Carlise was born she weighed 10 lbs. 4 oz. and Zoey still outweighed her. In fact, Carlise was 3 months old before she outweighed Fat Cat. Zoey enjoyed being around all the children especially if she could tease them. All 3 children started crawling because Zoey would sit just out of reach and when they moved close enough to grab a fistful of fur, she moved again just out of reach. She would play this game for 30 minutes and keep the baby crawling. But she also lovingly endured much abuse from the curious babies.Over the last year, we saw her health decline and slowly lose her Fatty status. She stopped socializing and couldn't jump up on our bed. The day after I was discharged from the hospital this last time I set up a vet appointment. Ben took her and we were informed she was severely jaundiced and was dying. We don't believe in making animals money pits and declined blood tests/treatment since no treatment would return her to her former self. She was 7 years old, disoriented at times, would still purr if I petted her, and wasn't crying in pain. We decided to make her as comfortable as we would and let nature take its course. On September 13th she passed away in a stupid hot pink pet bed that she always refused to be in. Even in her disoriented state, she would almost bolt out of it. But it ended up being her choice for her final moments.
Even though she was a pet, she was still an important member of our family and it's kind of hard to lose someone that you've had longer than your marriage. Sometimes Ben & I will call for her or think she is by our feet before we remember.

And we're horrible parents because we still haven't told the children! Don't you either!!

only twice a year

This only happens twice a year for us, so it's a different sort of Sunday.

We're watching church at home today over the internet. Are you?

You can watch it here www.lds.org or over at BYU tv (and if you have satellite, you are super lucky)

What Matters Most

Lost a Job... but not really!!!

Miracles truly do happen everyday. July 23rd, 2009 I received word from the management at the company that I work for that as of October 23rd, 2009 my position would be eliminated. Anyone that has been faced with this type of trial knows the weight that was immediately placed on my shoulders to find replacement employment to provide for my family. I started to beat the streets attempting to find suitable work. I sent resumes to probably 25 different businesses and organizations. After a month I started to get calls back and started negotiations. Two job offers then came before me. The first job offer was with a company that is very stable and the work was in the engineering field, which is what I want to eventually wind up doing. The second was with a much smaller home-grown company and was very similar to the job that I have now. I went back and forth between the two comparing salary and benefits. After praying about both jobs together a definite answer could not be found concerning which job was best for our family. As we were about to accept a job without really KNOWING if it was right, we had visitors at my office. The area sales manager who is my boss' boss and the southern division HR rep came to lay-off my current manager. In the meetings and conversations that were held concerning my manager, the topic of my employment came up. I was asked, "Have you made a decision yet about your future employment?" I replied "No why?" Well, there may be an opportunity to keep your position here and not go thru the layoff. Well to make this long story short, today I accepted to stay with my current employer. And in answer to our prayers, the answer was pretty much "DUH!", all the logic is telling you to stay where you are. We took it as a miracle and blessing that we were once again being looked after and blessed by the our loving Heavenly Father. I have been down and depressed for the past two months facing this trial, trying to make the best of it. Now a huge sigh of relief is being felt in our home. Tonight we celebrated with our favorite Subway sandwiches and spent time with our little munchkins. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

Family Reunion pics

I finally uploaded the pictures from the camera so I can post. During the reunion we had fun hanging out at the Parker home. They had some crafts which Carlise really got into. Here she is making a necklace all my herself. She did great!
Josie really wanted to go outside and play with the big kids.

the what happened?

So last Friday my vision started going a little funny looking. And it still is, so please forgive any typos The very center of my focal point was swirly and later Friday I started getting a killer migraine. By Saturday morning my focal point was now blurry & swirly and the migrain was from hell , and my neck was killing me. Nothing would shake the migraine, my vision was progressively getting worse, and my head felt too heavy for my neck. And I had no apetite because I was fighting nausea from the migraines. I love phenegrane. It basically just knocked me out so I didn't feel so bad and I slept alot.

Ben had been taking care of the kids for the whole weekend by himself. He was off on Friday, but had to work until 2 on Monday.Monday morning while Leighann watched the kids for me (and read phone numbers for me) I made 3 appts. 1st to an opthamologist Dr. Roten for my eyes 12:45, Chiropractor at 2:15 for my neck, and my internist Dr. Connor at 4pm for the migraines. Aubrey came over to watch the kids while i went to my first appt. and i insisted the kids take their nap (they didn't the day before & were horrid for Ben) and drove myself to my eye appt. That was Stupid when I easily could've put her kids's carseat in the van and had her drive me. So they do a little looking at my eyes and he noted myh left eye was dilating a little funny and off center (what?! my vision has always been excellent. 20/13 to be exact) I ask him what time it is and make mention I have another appt. I need to get to When he informs me that I need to skip my next appt. and got tratight to an eye specialist because he thinks I hae psuedo tumors and my optic nervs are swollen. I agreed to go of course, but I had to wait for them to call Ben so he could drive me. So Dr. Roten called and got e an immediate appt. with Dr. Fortin at Eye Center South. He looks in my eyes and immidediately says yup, they're swollen, psuedo tumors, here's a note for your doctor. You must make your appt. and I strongly suggest he consider doing a \n MRI. Called Dr. Connor's office and they siad come on in early and put me in the hospital.

Apparently a medication I was taking caused an over porduction of cerebral fluid, it wasn't draining fast enough and created lots of pressure making my Optic nerves swell, migraine headaches, and the back of my neck/head sore & tender. The lumbar puncture was almkost immediate relief! now I have to let my eyes heal and hopefully they will get back to normal. Dor. Fortin took pictures of my eyes and I'll see him again in 2 weeks so he can compare and see how they're doing. And in 4 weeks I'll have anothe rlumbar puncture to see how the pressure is.

Update: Kira

Kira is doing very well.

This is what the doctor is telling us right now...The CT scan came back normal, so no growth of any kind. The lumbar puncture went well. 4 tubes were drained from her spine, relieving the pressure behind her eyes. They did a MRI this morning to confirm the CT scan to double check that nothing is wrong. A neurologist will be coming by sometime today to check her out as well. Dr. Connor thinks that the cause of the accumalated fluid is from a medication that was prescribed to her for a sinus infection. She is on IV fluids for dehydration and we have switched pain medication from morphine to darvacet. That has made a huge change. Her headaches are all but gone and the nausea has subsided so that she can keep food down. He is prescribing a dieuretic to keep any further fluid from accumalating. That should keep this from happening again. Tomorrow they are going to get her up and moving. If all goes well she may get to go home tomorrow if not it will be Friday morning.

Thank you for all your help and prayers through this trying time in our family. It really means a lot to us right now to know that we have lots of support around us.

Peas pay

I'm very frustrated right now. We've finally gotten all the bills for Wesley's peas incident. We got the full charge from the ER despite the fact they only made a phone call. Wait, the triage nurse also took his temperature and pulse. But I'm waiting to hear back from the accounting department about what other medical supplies were "used" or does the disposable thermometer cover really cost $28.75? And the ER doctor gets to bill us separately. I'm seriously NOT paying him for just making a phone call. Total for us to wait 2 hours and be told they don't do that in the ER: $79.94

As for the actual removal of the peas- only $145.80. I have no problem paying for those services because they actually provided them!

fresh prince

Wesley: Thank you, Mommy. You're the best! You know that?

where did we go?

I've had the sickies, then we had our first family reunion with most of my siblings (we missed you Roy & Sofia!) and I'm still sick.

I hate being sick and I've been at the doctor's office too much lately. I'm finally starting to feel better after a steroid shot and some antibiotics. I'll post about the reunion and all the fun we had with our loved ones later. But my Mom did a great job of posting the highlights. so go check out her blog.

Welcome Lilllian

Congratulations to Stormy & Rockey on the birth of their little princess. She's already getting quality Nana time as you can see. =]

not to mention

I was reading over at The Big Piece of Cake. And thought I'd post this to give Kate some competition.

So last Tuesday Wesley decided to stuff his peas up is nose instead of eating them. He complained of his nose hurting and Ben managed to pull 9 of them out with tweezers. But after looking with a flashlight and consulting with 2 nurses we decided to take him to the ER to remove the ones we couldn't reach. After 1 1/2 hours of waiting, we get called back to be informed that they don't do that in the ER, they'll have to refer us to an ENT doctor. 30 minutes later we get discharged with an 8am appt. with an ENT doctor for surgery. Apparently one had swollen up to the size of a butterbean and they had to push the fragments through his sinus cavity to get them all out the other side. I'll tell you how expensive those peas were after we get the bill. So despite what we wanted to teach our children about manners & picking noses, our new mantra is: Only fingers in our nose!

among other things

I've been sick this week, so if you call & it sounds like a man other then Ben answers- keep talking, it's just me. Coughing is wreaking havoc on my vocal cords right now.

I've felt like the world's worst mother this week. I normally refuse to get in a pool with all 3 kids by myself just due to safety concerns. But I braved it (with my insta babysitter neice Leighann) and went to an in-laws pool for swim day on Wednesday. Carlise ended up getting a 2nd degree sunburn. I did use sunscreen, but forgot to re-apply after drying her off for a snack & more swimming. I think it looks worse simply because she has porcelain white skin. I'm very grateful for Silvadene cream (Thank you Mom!!!!). But I still hate that it happened & due to my stupidity. Poor kid.

Oh, and I finally posted something on my private blog.

Falling Into a Vat of Chocolate

22-year-old factory worker died Wednesday after he fell into a vat of boiling chocolate at a manufacturing plant in New Jersey, police said.

The Camden County prosecutor's office identified the victim as Vincent Smith II. He was a temporary worker at the Cocoa Services Inc. plant.

Smith had been in the melting pot for about 10 minutes by the time rescue crews arrived, MyFOXPhilly.com reported.

Prosecutor's spokesman Jason Laughlin says a co-worker tried to shut off the machine and two others tried to pull Smith out of the 8-foot-deep vat. He was hit and fatally injured by the agitator that mixes the chocolate.

By the time he was pulled out of the tank just after 11 a.m., he was already dead.

The plant is owned by Lyons and Sons.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was called in to investigate, MyFOXPhilly.com reported.

Saw this on Fox News today and it reminded me of a Smothers Brothers skit. So I found a copy of it to share. And this is post #200

ahem

we have an annoucement to make:

We will NOT be moving to Jacksonville, Florida for a job.

YEE-HAW!!!!!!

that is all.

UPDATE: Ben had an opportunity for job security. And we seriously considered it, but after doing a LOT of research & praying about it, we have our decision and will not be moving there. Which we really didn't want to move anyway.

the sickies

We've all been sick around here pretty much since Carlise's Princess Party on the 13th. I'm really tired of EVERYONE being sick, ok so the dog isn't sick. I can even deal with all 3 kids being sick at once or one of us being sick w/ all kids healthy, but this is miserable. Anyway, finally took the kids to the dr today and got them a z-pack because apparently Carlise has a double ear infection, Wesley's left ear is infected & Josie's right ear is infected. So after dropping $75 today just on medical, I better start seeing some improvements around here soon. I need my smiling babies back! They make everything better. =]

post-it notes

Josie is getting bigger everyday. She learned a new word this week: Wal-Mart.

Wesley has finally given up the paci & is interested in using the potty.

Carlise is the ring leader & tries to keep the young ones in check. of course there are good & bad sides to this. They repeat everything she tells them to repeat & tend to play whatever game she wants. And I have found her on occassion trying to through her weight around - literally.

birthday parties

So princess Carlise turned 4 last week and already seems older. How is that?! She informed me that she wanted a princess party & even told me who to invite. And she wants a chocolate cake with pink frosting. As you wish...

Saturday was Twilight party #2. After a quick location change we invaded my MIL's home and stayed for a few hours. It was a surprise birthday party for Lyndsey, but it got turned into a surprise for my birthday, too! It was a great surprise especially since I had to tell Lyndsey about it just to get her to show up. =] We of course didn't accomplish much at the party, but we got a much needed break and had some great laughs. Ben even said we should do these more often. That's good because it's going to take forever to finish this puzzle (it's mostly black).

i'm so happy

I'll make a real post later. I just got my computer back in working order yesterday. YAY!! And I need to get past this meeting at church tonight that I'm doing a lot for.

What's to come? Twilight puzzle party in the works, & Carlise is turning 4!!!!

Gotta See This!

Happy Belated Birthday Jason!

not the baby

i was running my fingers through Josie's hair in the back when she reached her hand back, pulled mine, and told me, "No." It's the first time she's said no, and I think I felt my heart ache a little.

I just have to brag

about my George! She's so creative & a sweet friend to boot. My SIL Stormy is coming to visit next weekend and we're throwing her a baby shower to celebrate her first child. I called George yesterday afternoon & asked if she could come up with something for me. She's getting her troop ready to go out of town for the weekend but felt for sure she's have some time last night to come up with something for me. We agreed on her designing it and assembling one so I'd have a guide. I was going to print, cut, & assemble the rest. Well she called me at 10 this morning to tell me come pick them up, she was done. She not only designed them (for free!) & picked up the supplies, but had also printed, cut, and assembled over half of them. She didn't finish simply because she ran out of pop dots.

I heart you George! Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I promise to always stay in your good graces (sour power anyone?) because I could never pay you what you deserve for all the crafts/projects you produce for me & my whims. =]

star trek

So the new Star Trek movie is coming out this weekend. Ben is very excited to go see it! I was raised in a Star Trek/Star Wars home (hello? we named our dog Yoda) and I'm excited, too. I just hate theatres with big crowds but we'll probably go see it release weekend for Ben's sake. =]

And have you seen that Burger King has brought back the glasses? My Mom had all the Disney movie glasses they sold. So I swung by the BK today at lunchtime and figured I'd buy one with my lunch. But did you know you can get all 4 of the glasses for $6.99? I was thrilled since otherwise you have to pay $1.99 per glass & that's only if you buy a value meal. We're more dollar menu people, not to mention I personally despise BK food. And really the only reason I went was for the Star Trek glass and now I'm done in one transaction and don't have to go back & eat anymore of their food to get the collection. Although now to figure out if I go back and buy a 2nd set. One to use and one to collect? Hmmm

cleaning yet again

I feel like we've been cleaning non stop for a month. Cleaned the new house to move in, cleaned the old house when we moved out, did the yard work at the old house, and lately we've been doing the yard work at this house. We had 3 years worth of leaves that had to be cleaned up. We had to take care of the leaves so we can take care of the fence. Once we get the fence done then I can work on pretty things like flowers. =]

So I left my purse at Target last night, but I didn't notice until lunchtime today when I was heading to the bank to deposit money that was in my purse. Eeeek! It took me half an hour to remember Target was the last place I saw it and I had to have the money deposited by 1. Thankfully Target had my purse but I had to wait until I got there to check for the money. Yes! the money was still there right alongside my plastic fangs (twilight party). Only now it was lunch time traffic, I was in the thick of it, and I only had 15 minutes to get the money deposited. Somehow I made it in 10!! Yay! =]

Post-it Note memories

Mommy: Carlise, can you say "sacrament"?

Carlise: Yeah! "snack-rament"

Mommy: try again, "sac-rament"

Carlise: *sigh* (& an eye roll) "snack-ra-ment"!

-Ok, so maybe we should stop taking the snacks to "snack-rament"?




Mommy: Wesley, are you my baby?

Wesley: No, I a big boy!

Mommy: Do big boys have pacis?

Wesley: Nope

Mommy: So will my big boy give me his paci?

Wesley: Nope

-sigh



Josie started walking yesterday, while the babysitter was here. why? - it's a lot easier (& safer) to try walking when the floor isn't covered in toys. Yeah, I'm one of those moms.

Arrrgh!

My. computer. is. dead.

Moving

Moving Sucks! ya'll know what I'm talking about. and well we discovered this time that it's even worse with little kids.

We are officially moved out of the old house and in our new place. It took a total of 2 weeks to get the new property cleaned out, painted, and ready to move-in and get everything out of the other home. Ben took a few days off work last week and for the most part we've been able to get everything done by ourselves.

Thank yous go out to Momma Pam, Aubrey, & George (& Brian!) for helping us with watching kids & painting. Very appreciated, especially the child care!

We still have to finish painting the trim in the master bedroom, paint the master bath, touch up paint around the house, pressure wash the exterior, mow & weed-eat the lawns, sand & stain the front door, gloss the wood cabinet doors, wax the kitchen floor, & replace the carpet in the entire house.

The biggest thing though is we must find Yoda a new home. Anyone interested in adopting him?

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!

Today is my beloved husband's 32nd birthday! We bought him a 3-burner propane grill - the first one for us! I asked what he wanted for dinner and since he knows I can't cook well and he wanted to spend it at home with our children, he requested simple chicken alfredo. Well, this man works hard for us all week and loves spending every minute he's not at work with all of us, so that simple dish wasn't going to cut it for me. But I'm no cook and called Olive Garden and ordered To Go!

On the menu for us: Braised Beef & Tortelloni, Chianti Braised Short Ribs, Zuppa Toscana Soup, Chicken & Gnocchi Soup, a Jumbo Salad order (that came with 12 bread sticks), 12 more breadsticks (that I didn't know came with the entrees), and fresh-made Alfredo dipping sauce.

And dessert is Cheesecake from the Atlanta Cheesecake Company. Yeah, I splurged on all of it, but we still had some tax money and he deserves it!!

So, we love you and hope we made your birthday wonderful!! =]

How to Break a WoW addiction

This game is having a negative affect with the marriage of way too many couples that we know. So because we do love them and want them to stay together. I figured I'd post it here for all.

How to Break a World of Warcraft Addiction

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The definition of "addiction" is the state of being enslaved by something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming(such as narcotics or gambling), to such an extent that to discontinue the habit or practice can lead to severe trauma. In other words, you love something so much that you have developed a habit of using it or playing it to such an extent that not doing so leaves you feeling cranky or nervous, and you are becoming disinterested in other areas of life.
Some experts believe World of Warcraft can be "addictive". Here's a way to break your WoW "addiction."

Steps

1. Admit you have a problem. This may be hard, but accepting that Warcraft has taken over your life is the initial step into overcoming your addiction.
   
2. Consider the following: Imagine the day that you first bought the game. If you knew everything you do now, would you still have bought it? Now the follow up question: Imagine yourself in two years, still playing WoW, looking back on today when you are making the decision to quit or keep playing. How do you feel about your decision to continue?
   
3. Find out what has caused your addiction. What makes World of Warcraft so appealing to you? Is it the fact that it has different continents that you will never go to? Is it the fighting? Is it your "unique" role as a tank or a mage? Is it the happiness of 'pwning noobs'? Whatever it is, try to minimize this happiness in WoW, and make it a pleasure that you could also get in every day life.
   
   • Take a martial arts class. Kick some real ass. Crit in real life. Many gamers are very interested in the martial arts, but never study it. Take up some sort of martial art that is similar to your character in WoW. For example, if you use a sword in the game, then take up fencing, Kendo, or SCA fighting. Your sword skill goes up much faster in real life.
     
   • Read. Novels have just as much excitement and adventure as WoW, but you can expand other skills -- such as critical thinking and vocabulary -- in addition to those that interactive storytelling and game play will build. Try to equip gear that increases your reading ability (Such as monocles), this will increase your WPS (Words Per Second).
     
   • Play a less time consuming video game with all of the rewarding feelings of WoW.
     
   • Do live action RP (LARP), especially if you were from a RP server.
     
   
   
4. Burn yourself out by finding the ways to cheat at World of Warcraft. Find a private server to play on, with ultra fast leveling/gold. Cheating through the entire game in an hour will get you burnt out very, very quickly. #Make it a joint effort. Believe it or not, many people play World of Warcraft simply because their friends play it, and they find it enjoyable to spend time with them in WoW. If this is the case, then convince your friends to stop playing (with these steps, if needed), or even better, find another game to play. Otherwise, explain to your friends and family what you're doing, and ask them to help you stay on track. When you can't trust yourself to keep away from WoW, you have to trust someone else to stop you.
   
5. Set up parental controls for yourself. Make it so your play-time is limited, and use a complicated password that you are sure to quickly forget. Or, ask a friend or family member to set the parental controls with a password you don't know.
   
6. Schedule other activities with your free time, so you won't have time to play WoW. One of the most effective way is to get a part time job and book every free time you have to work. Hang out with your friends, play basketball, engage in extra curricular activities at school (such as clubs or sport teams) or volunteer. The important thing is that they keep you outside of your home, away from your computer. You can find that there are many things that are just as exciting as playing WoW. Remember, your "guild" online is no substitute for the company of real friends.
   
7. Give away your bags and gold (don't mail them to an alt) and delete your character.
   
8. Sell your account. There are many players and lazy people out there, willing to pay for an existing account. This is a great way to stop playing, because then someone else takes your character, and you won't be able to control it any longer. This is a nice way to quit, but not stop addiction.
   
9. Beat the game. When all else fails, play until you reach the highest level possible. Many players get to the maximum level (at least until Blizzard releases another add-on pack) then look back and realize with disappointment that they've been following what is known by many gamers as the 'role-playing game grind', or the extremely repetitive and ultimately fruitless efforts of gaining gold, levels, and experience. Because when it's all said and done, a dead man's possessions are not important; it's the memories that count. So go out and make your own, now, in the real world.
   
10. Do activities that are productive in the real world but allow you to have the same satisfaction of leveling up like getting fit, learning to cook, succeeding in school courses. Get your artisan cooking level, first aid, and fishing skills up in real life. Maybe you can find something useful to do. Also, try smokes almonds. Next time you wanna play a paladin, try some almonds. Not the sugar free almonds, but normal ones. your a winner!
    

Video

In this video, you will see what it takes to set yourself free of this highly addictive game.

Tips

• Addictions to video games trigger brain activity similar to any other addiction. So don't be surprised if breaking the addiction seems difficult at first.
  
• People play games because they seem to find reality is less interesting, in reality, there are many more constructive things to do. Find ways to make reality more interesting, that will help.
  
• Evaluate yourself to see if you are using your "WoW" addiction to escape problems in your life. If you have problems at work, see about improving your education (to get a better job). If you have family problems, see about improving your relationship with them.
  
• You can also find support online. There are support groups on Yahoo and Google Groups, and the WoW forums can sate your desire to see what you're "missing" as you quit.
  
• Track the amount of time that you spend playing WoW. Associate a dollar value with that time, for example: 6 hrs/day * 7 days = 42 hours. 42 * $7.0 = $294.00 per week. You can see that your time IS money, and even working a job for minimum wage is a better use of your time.
  
• Get a stopwatch and measure how much time you spend waiting in the game (for guild members, flight paths, long walks, etc.) and compare it to the overall time played. You may find that close to half, or even a majority of your time is spent doing effectively nothing.
  
• Calculate how much of your time you spend doing nothing each month against your monthly subscription fee, and see how much money you're throwing away.
  
• If you use a router, block the port WoW uses to connect. This disables your connectivity to the WoW servers. You can also block this port with Windows Firewall or other firewall software, such as ZoneAlarm. You can find this port in Blizzard's knowledge base for WoW
  
• Remember that all of your accolades and achievements in WoW are virtual and do little for you in real life. While your virtual life is blossoming, your personal life could be deteriorating. If so, that is reason enough to stop playing.
  
• Realize that you can always go back to playing WOW when you are old or disabled, which is probably in a few decades when WoW will be rotting in video game history. Right now there are better things to do. Ride a motorcycle, run away to Australia, date, have children, things you can do only when you are young. When you are old you can play guilt free. Also, by that time gaming will be a lot better and extension packs will be cheap. Blizzard is not going anywhere.
  
• See a professional psychologist to discuss your addiction. Get help.
  

Warnings

• Your payments continue even after you smash everything. Don't forget to unsubscribe.
  
• If you find yourself opening a new account even after following these steps, you should seek professional counseling for your addiction.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Cope With World of Warcraft Maintenance Day
  
• How to Control a wikiHow Addiction
  
• How to Defeat a MySpace Addiction
  
• How to Overcome an Addiction
  
• How to Solo on Warcraft 3
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Break a World of Warcraft Addiction. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Home Improvements

Papa Joe (Ben's grandpa) came over today to help us install a new stove & rangehood. It took all morning because we had to cut some wood and such, but It's beautiful. I also included pictures of lights we've updated.

And I've added a poll to the side to see what you think about the hallway doors. If it's "other" then please comment & explain. =]

Oh yeah, and the reason for the home improvements? we're selling our home and moving just a few miles away. We'll still be in the same ward at church and near everything, but our budget won't be stretched so tight.

What to do?

I came across an interesting website. It's that of Rachel Cornell - Professional Nagger. If her services weren't so out of my budget I might try it. But then again I'm not sure how that would actually work since despite what I may want to or need to do, the kiddos almost always come first. Josie's currently cutting 4 or 5 teeth (all top) & fighting a nasty cold, Wesley's in the "I'm scared of everything" stage which mean he wants me to hold him if it even looks like I'm available (and sometimes when I'm not), & Carlise wants to hold onto my arm, hand, or finger whenever she wants comfort. So getting stuff done hasn't really been happening.

But I need to be getting projects checked off my lists and they've all taken too long as it is so I can't put them off until the kids get more independent. Any tips?

I Won!

Can you believe I actually won something?

Check it out!

I'm sure I made Miles & Jotty proud. =]

it all worked out

thanks for all the well wishes. I'm not sick anymore and it ended up not being too bad of a day. Since Saturday was originally planned to be a house project day, I had already set up for some help with the kiddos. And my wonderful niece Leighann was willing to still come over and watch the kids while I slept and recuperated. She had to leave only 30 minutes before Ben got home. I'm so grateful how it all worked out.

Ben is out of town with work. Hopefully he'll be done this afternoon & won't have to stay until Sunday. And since he's gone I made a project list for myself. Only Carlise & Wesley woke me up at 5:3o this morning. They didn't like my reasoning of "it's still dark outside so you need to go back to bed." Thankfully we all went back to sleep quickly & easily. However, I woke up 30 minutes later feeling very sick and haven't improved much. Of course this doesn't happen until I have things I need to get done & Ben isn't available to take care of the children.

Happy Valentine's Day!

First off, Happy Anniversary to Ian & Jessica! We love you!!!



and Happy 1st Birthday Josephine! She was very happy when she woke up and seemed to know the day was going to be all about her. We can't believe it's already been a year. This birthday was actually exciting to me (normally I cry over my babies getting older). Ben & I don't celebrate Valentine's day, but we do celebrate our sweetheart, Josie.This is our 1 year old nursing. It's a major milestone for us, a first, and we love it! Another first - I'm not pregnant for the 1st birthday. =]




Here she is opening up presents with Grandma. She loves books!








Aaah, Chocolate!

Big piece of cake

I've been really enjoying another blog. I don't remember exactly how I found it (either from Baby Bunching or from Light Refreshments Served). I laugh alot while reading her posts. Kate is a very witty writer, a talent I am envious of. My Mom is a witty writer & a great communicator, but I just stink at it all, unless it's out of anger. Hmmm, sounds like there's room for improvement there.

Anyway, I love how The Big Piece of Cake makes me laugh because I can identify with a lot of it. For example This is What Crazy Looks Like sounds like a typical conversation between Ben & I during the day. And we both loved Why Good Girls Go Bad. Go read, laugh, & enjoy (watch out for the occasional swear word).

what in the world?

Okay, according to Feedjit we've had 10 people come directly to my entry on USAA. What gives? How are they finding it? and why that specific one??? weird.

Oh the previous weird comment I received on my USAA post was a disgruntled customer telling me her very detailed and quite extensive story but posted as Anonymous and signed "Ms.Brown". Our blog isn't included in search engines, so i just ignored it & chalked it up to boredom.

busy, busy, busy

sorry about the lack of posting, but we've been busy with our house. I don't know how Courtney managed to blog at all while renovating their whole house. These are just projects to spruce up the place. They've been on our plate for awhile, but now that Josie is almost a year old we finally feel like we have the energy to do more.

Our latest observations of our babies:

Josie gets excited when it's time for bed and has a little party in her crib for a few minutes before passing out. She will be whining and just pitiful, but the moment she realizes we're getting her ready for bed, she's one excited camper.

Wesley LOVES his sisters. Loves to annoy them that is. That boy will watch them to figure out how to aggravate them and make them scream and then he sits back and smiles. Punk!

Carlise is VERY observant of behavior. Not just ours, but every single person she sees. And then she likes to repeat and imitate. So, fellow shopper at Wal-Mart, please don't be alarmed if you see me making a mad dash down a row with a heavy cart full of children to get away from your swearing. I'm holding off on that behavior for as long as I can, thank you very much. She has plenty of attitude for now.

um, yeah

Do you ever get really weird comments from complete strangers on your blog? I got my first on my USAA post. Thank goodness for comment moderation.

USAA

Pardon, but I just have to gush with appreciation for a moment. I just love USAA. Especially for their customer service. I don't do a lot with them, in fact, we've only been banking with them for 1 year. But they are the nicest people ever. I've never had a rude person. Or someone who was irritated, impatient, or even snippy with me. Very happy just to answer any question you have (no matter how stupid it is & I have a lot of those), and assist you in any way they can. To sum it up - In the words of Thurl Ravenscroft, "They're Grrrrreeeat!"

Clarification via The Simple Dollar

Thanks to Trent from The Simple Dollar for putting out all the fires:

On January 8, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a clarification of the law (emphasis added):

"The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.

The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties."

What does this mean?

Used children’s clothing will still be available at Goodwill and other places. These stores can continue to sell the clothing even without lead and phthalate testing. This would also apply to people who resell used children’s clothes on eBay and so on.

However, items that do not meet the new standards for lead and phthalate content are still banned. Even though you can re-sell used children’s items without testing, that does not mean that you can legally sell items with too much lead and phthalate content. If you’re selling them, you may be fined.

What’s the solution? Simply avoid reselling items that may have high lead or phthalate content. Most clothes should be fine, but you may want to be careful about reselling toys. The CPSC offers a bit of guidance in that press release:

"While CPSC expects every company to comply fully with the new laws resellers should pay special attention to certain product categories. Among these are recalled children’s products, particularly cribs and play yards; children’s products that may contain lead, such as children’s jewelry and painted wooden or metal toys; flimsily made toys that are easily breakable into small parts; toys that lack the required age warnings; and dolls and stuffed toys that have buttons, eyes, noses or other small parts that are not securely fastened and could present a choking hazard for young children."

And a happy new year

Well belated merry Christmas to everyone! If you didn't get our Christmas letter with an updated picture of us, that's because they didn't make it into the mail (Yet!). We hope everyone had a wonderful celebration!! Ben's been home on vacation with us the 19th and doesn't go back until Monday, which has been very nice!

Our Christmas was nice and very low-key. We went to my folks on Christmas Eve since Dad's schedule was horrible for Christmas Day. We had a lovely time in our home on Christmas morning and ended the day with Ben's family. The day after the women in my family went to our annual Olive Garden lunch. It was simply delicious! (and paid for with a gift card we received from Jason & Shell). =]

Ben's maternal grandmother, Granny Barrett, has been living here since the end of summer, but her health has gotten worse. She got accepted to a rehabilitation center to help her walk again. We went and visited her there the day after Christmas and gave her a gift. The kids loved giving her hugs. She especially loved kissing Josie. Wesley even gave Granny a kiss and told her, "I love you, Granny. Granny, I love you." Unfortunately though she passed away (but peacefully) on Tuesday. We are grateful for the opportunity we had to get to know her and the love we shared. I'm especially grateful that all of the Huttos helped her feel like part of a family.

We're having a memorial for her on Saturday, even though it'll just be Hutto family. Uncle Todd is having a hard time letting go of Granny, so we're hoping this will help him.

I'm not having a great start in the new year, though. We are currently waiting in the E.R. I would've gone to my doctor, but I forgot it's a holiday today! So everyone was closed except for the E.R. After speaking to the doctor on call we ended up here because of his recommendation. So we're still waiting. Thank goodness for a laptop and wireless internet to keep us entertained. We even watched a Star Trek movie to help pass the time. I just hope I can be treated SOON and get home. Not to mention, I'm starving! =]