Surgery went well. I had to stay over night because I could not stop throwing up. It hurts to throw up when they just put a hole in your belly. My boys brought me flowers when they picked me up. Can you guess which ones Kristian picked out? Crazy as it sounds - I thought they looked wonderful together.

Surgery

Getting rid of those nasty little Gall Stones in the AM - YEA

Cabin pictures are in!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Not sure I like the smilebox format. Does anyone else have a method of slide show pictures that they like better?

Wonderful weekend at the cabin

I needed a get away so bad. It was great. Kristian, Brian, mom and dad and I left Sunday afternoon and headed to the cabin. You all know that this is my FAVORITE place to be. Rose had reserved the cabin for the weekend so we decided to join her for the last day and then stay a few more. There was quite a crowd when we got there, some left and some stayed. Monday we took the mules for a ride. Eli (my cousin) took us on a trail that was not that bad. Last time I listen to him. It really was not that bad but there was no way were going to make it back up. We rode over to the old mansion. I have heard about it for ever but had never been there. After the ride I know why we had never been there. It took about an hour to get there and then we had to go all the way down to the road from there and come back that way. We made a detour and stopped in Albion for dinner on the way back to the cabin. Rachel (Eli's wife) has an amazing camera and took some great shots. Then then next day (after everyone had left) we went down to the lake and hiked around it. Kristian threw enough rocks that the water had to rise a couple inches. We also went over to the Frog Pond, though I don't know why they call it that as there is no water there. When there is some water you can catch tad poles, but when the water dries up then you can catch frogs. I have lots of memories of catching tad poles as a kid. It was fun to go and have my son do the same thing. We brought the frogs home and put them in Grandpa's pond. I have a TON of pictures of this trip so when I get someone to show me how to do it as a slide show I will add them. In the mean time just close you eyes and picture the most peaceful mountain scene you can and you have it. MY FAVORITE place!

Yucky

I really do have some cute pictures of the zoo, I just can't do it right now - I sit here at work (working hard, can you tell?) with a bowl in between me and the computer while I heave and try and not let the customer know. Great fun - I am ready to be out of the 1st trimester - here is to moving on to trimester 2!

Another wall done!

I am totally excited with the progress we have made on the walls - I was sure that once we got moved in we would never get any more painted. I was wrong! YEA These pictures are the front entry room or the home teacher room as it is called at my house.

Find out where the instacare is!

I have a few recommendations for anyone that is or has moved to a new house - find out where the instacare is prior to the need for one. When you have an actual need for one you don't want to take the time for find one and who wants to drive all the back to where you moved from. I would also recommend that you determine what hospital is closest to your new home as well on the chance that you may need to go there instead.

I now know the answer to both of these questions! On day last week I got a pain. It was not a new pain as I had one a few days before and one a couple months ago. The thing is that my mother made me promise that I would go to the doctor if I had this pain again as she is a concerned grandma. After about 5 hours of this pain I decided to heed her advise and drove my self to the clinic as I did not want to drag Brian and Kristian out for what I thought was gas pains. Once I got to the clinic I began to wonder. The doctor there asked a few questions and then said that he was going to make a phone call to the ER to see if they would see me, he then asked if I had a ride to the ER as he did not think that I looked like I should be driving my self. It seems that gas pains can be more than gas pains and you should go to the doctor if they are bad. I spent a bit in the ER to find this out.

So it seems that I have gall stones and they REALLY hurt. The doctors say to eat a low-fat diet and not drink alcohol. The alcohol is easy but the low-fat stuff stinks. And from what I can find, it may not even be the fat that triggers them, and what triggered one today may or may not trigger another one. It seems like we are in for a long 8 months. If anyone has any advise I am all ears!

The dots

I love this wall. My husband is SO creative. He said he wanted to do dots on the wall in the living room, and of course I said 'polka dots? don't you think that is a bit girly and childish?' He then tells me that I have no vision. He had to draw it out so I could see it, and he sold me on it. What do you think?

Kristian's room

We got tons done this weekend! Kristian's room is done and he loves, and I have to say it turned out pretty good. Let me know what you think!

First picture of the new house

This is our bedroom - my favorite room of the house. The carpet is about an inch thick, the walls are chocolate color. Big vaulted ceilings and master bath just off to the left of this picture.

I LOVE IT!

Back tracking

I was looking through my pictures to see what I have neglected to post and I totally missed Kristian's birthday - bad mom

We went to the Dinosaur Museum down at Thanksgiving Point. He is totally into Dinosaurs. We got some great pictures and it was a nice to spend the day just the three of us.

I am back (well almost)

Sorry it has been so long since I have been here. Life got away from me. I am just now thinking that I am getting a hold of it. I will try and recap -

We had been looking at houses now for about a year and have put a number of offers in. Nothing had seemed to work so we decided that we were just suppose stay where we were. In early April I was called to the Primary Presidency in our ward. I was very excited to serve and had great fun digging my feet in. Though it was short lived, as the first of May we got a call that they had accepted an offer we had made on a house back in February. Yes I did say February. We had to go see the house again as we had forgot what it even looked like. We made a quick decision to say yes. It was a short sale and very DIRTY. I am not sure that DIRTY really covers it, those of you that saw it understand the understatement that is. We closed at the end of May. Now we own 2 houses. Crazy how the bank seems to think that is ok, as they know how much money we make. We had a TON of work to do at the new house before we could move in so we decided that we would list the old house and see if we could sell it quick. Of course we read everywhere online that the best way to show a house was to move everything personal out. We de-cluttered by the box load. We painted the few rooms that were left to paint. We fixed the things that needed to be fixed. This house looks better than it ever has. We showed it 12 times in 2 weeks and got 0 offers. Zilch, nothing, nata. We had 2 houses in our neighborhood that sold within 2 days of being listed but nothing on ours. So our plans changed yet again. We decided that we would be landlords for another year and try again then. In the mean time I was trying to get the new house ready to move into. All of the walls had to be scrubbed before they could be painted. The carpets had to be cleaned, and some torn out. The plan was to tear them all out and get new but when the house did not sell, we had to go to plan B. It took me 3 full weeks to get the walls clean enough to paint. We had to scrap stuff off the ceilings (GROSS). Did I mention the size of the new house? 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, kitchen, living, and entry room. I cleaned FOREVER. Then I had to start painting. I did get lots of help from family, but it still seemed like a never ending project. We got renters to move in the end of July so we had to move out ready or not. I know you are thinking that 2 months should be enough time to get a house ready to move into, but you did not see this house.
Well we are finally in - YEA. It is not quite home yet but it is getting there. I will try and get some pictures posted in the next couple of days. With the change of address came a change of shift for me at work. It just happened to fall on the same weekend and now I work from 11pm to 3am. I can not seem to figure out when I should be sleeping, my body seems to think that it is ALL the time. My poor kid. I am hoping that with this shift I will be able to post more now that I am on my computer in the middle of the night. We will see how that goes.

Sorry for all the rambling - it is good to be back -

I will show you mine if you show me yours!

I have been looking through my pictures and am finding my favorites - you know those pictures that turned out just perfect -well I want to see yours! I will show you mine if you show me yours! Post you 3 favorite all time pictures - they can be of anything. Tell me what you like best about it - the lighting, the subject, the background, whatever - I just want to see them. Post them on your blog and then comment here to let me know and I will check them out. Then I will show you mine!

Preview - I love his eyes. Can you believe I took this my self?

I need your help!

I am doing an activity for RS and need some help. I would like you to tell me the five most unusual things you have in your purse. I need some ideas to use for the program (would rather be cooking). I would love to have unusual stuff but some of the basics would be nice as well as I don't carry a purse and have no idea what women put in them! HELP PLEASE

Family Pictures

We had my dear friend take some family pictures of us for Christmas cards. Here are some of the others that turned out so GREAT - her name is Megan Archibald and when I find her web site I will add it - in the mean time - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! Thanks Megan

Ain't that the truth

So I found this on my cousin's blog and had to share it!

A letter written to a Washington Post Advise columnist.


Dear Carolyn:
My best friend has a child.Her: Exhausted, busy, no time for self, no time for me, etc.Me (no kids): Wow. Sorry. What'd you do today?Her: Park, play group . . .
OK. I've done Internet searches; I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please, no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners. . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them every day. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day, and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail?
I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events), and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy — not a bad thing at all — but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth?
Is this a contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids, and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions.
— Tacoma, Wash.
Dear Tacoma:Relax and enjoy. You're funny.Or you're lying about having friends with kids.Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand — while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom friends are either lying or competing with you — is disingenuous indeed.
So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries and questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming.
It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.
It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.
It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family members and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting the constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.
It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything — language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity, empathy. Everything.
It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy — and then when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, you wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend — a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends or marvel at how much more productively she uses her time.
Either make a sincere effort to understand, or keep your snit to yourself.

-reprinted without permission

I just think keep your snit to yourself!

This is what I do all day long - watch Brian and Kristian play Rock Band!

That and rearrange all of Kristian's stuff animals so that he can find his bed to sleep!

And occasionally clean house (very occasionally), try and keep the drums to a mininan, take my kid to Dinosaur Park, run to the potty when called, wipe his runny nose 40 times and hour (kid hates to have a runny nose), and if I am lucky watch Deigo once or twice with a handsome boy in my lap! Sorry I don't get to my blog often enough.

The Cabin in the snow

Well we finally made it into the cabin. Last year we tried three times and never made it. I were going to leave on Friday and it was too snowy, then Saturday was just as bad. The weather finally cleared on Sunday and we got on our way. We were just about there when we got a phone call from Dax (our friend that was going to take us in in his snow cat) that said that his machine was busted and he would not be able to get us in. Brian, Camille and I decided that we were going to try going in on snow shoes but by the time we figured it all out it was 4 pm and it was too late to try that day. We got up early Monday morning and were on the mountain by 10. (which was good because it took us 4 hours to get in) Kristian got some snow shoes for Christmas and he loved them. Though he walked up and down the parking lot so often while we were getting ready that he wore him self out and fell asleep on the sled which Brian pulled. It is so peaceful up there in the winter. It always seems as though there is no one around for miles, but in the snow it is tenfold. This picture just does not do it justice but it is as good as I got. Kristian did great until the last half hour (which would not have happened if I had not had to go back to get the keys that I forgot). By the time we got into the cabin we were all toast. Kristian has so much fun at the cabin that it is hard not to have fun with him. He and Camille went out and dug a hole in snow so that you could see out the window. Thanks Camille for going with us so Kristian had someone to play with.

Christmas at our house - better late than never

We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you all did as well. Christmas is very busy at our house. First we start with Christmas Eve at Grandmas Gifford's eating Navajo Tacos and opening gifts. Then the big event at our house Christmas morning where Kristian got Drums from Santa (big surprise there) and then Christmas dinner at Grandma Bingham's with even more gifts. BUSY BUSY BUSY Kristian had to set up his drums and play with the blue guys right away. We had to set up a few rules though; no drums before 9 am or after 8 pm just to keep me sane. I got a Willow Tree Nativity from Brian and Kristian. Kristian gave me the Ox and Goat cuz he loves animals. Grandma Bingham got us a Wii - so now we are among the COOL people. We have had great fun with it. Francisco got a Wii and Rock Band 2 and we played that all day on Christmas day (till Brian got blisters). So it seems like that will be our next purchase.