What do you smell?

This is how the car ride went on our way to UVU to drop Jeff off this morning:

Haley: Hmmm, I smell dirt! Morgan what do you smell?

Morgan: (takes a while to think) Poop!

They laugh for quite a while...then the routine starts again.

Haley: What do you smell?

Morgan: POOPY!

Laugh, laugh, laugh!!

They repeat this for the rest of the car ride and at the grocery store. Lovely! I guess that's better then them fighting...right?

By the way...Morgan was not poopy, for those that were wondering.

The mystery of the broken camera.

My camera broke, and I'm not sure how...just another thing to add to the list of the many things that need repaired in this house. When you have kids you might as well save time and take a sledge hammer to anything valuable in the house immediately...because eventually it will get broken! I'm not blaming the broken camera on one of my children...but I wouldn't be surprised if someones little fingers got a hold of it and maybe even dropped it and then put it back nicely where they found it. Just a hunch of course!

Etta got attacked by our neighbor's dog the other day. My neighbor has two boxers which I thought were pretty friendly, but apparently they have thing against cute little puppies! We were walking across the street and one of them came charging over to us and went straight for Etta, pinning in down on the ground biting and scratching her. I screamed and yanked on her leash hard making her go airborn and then I caught her before she fell to the ground again. I know, crazy. She was OK, but I was pretty upset. My neighbor came over to apologize, but the bottom line is those dogs need to be on leashes!! They never bothered me before, but now I'm pretty concerned about them! Poor Etta, it was a very traumatic experience for her!

Visits are never long enough!

Well, my parent's visit is over...they left this morning...so sad. However, we have an addition to our household, my brother, Jeff is now living with us while he goes to UVU. We got him all set up with his classes last week. What a beautiful school that is! I've never really walked around the campus before...I was very impressed! They've designed the school so that everything is connected so if the weather is bad you don't have to go outside to get to another building...very cool! His first day of class is tomorrow, I'm so excited for him! I went with him one day to the campus...with no children! My mom watched the girls for me (thanks mom), so I was feeling very young and hip walking around a college campus! That all came to end when Jeff's counselor thought I was his mother!!!! I felt like smacking that guy! Later, we had to go see another counselor, and the first thing I said when we walked into the office, "Hi, I'm Jeff's SISTER...yeah, we're brother and SISTER!". I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any confusion!

So anyway, we had such a nice visit...I'm bummed they're gone. My mom has endured one round of Chemo so far...it was horrendous for her. I'm so grateful that she was feeling well enough to come out here before she has to undergo another round. She looks amazing! I'm so impressed by her strength!

What do you think?

See my previous post if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Where do I begin?

I'll start with the latest about Cassidy...she gave us yet another scare! Tuesday is when it all started, she had obvious signs of not feeling well, she couldn't drink or eat, if she tried she would just throw it up. But she would still walk around and seemed alert. However, by Tuesday evening she got really bad, just layed in the grass, wouldn't move. Wednesday morning we found her completely "out of it", and laying in some vomit...so sad! So we took her immediately to the Vet. I had to leave her there, which completely broke my heart. They wouldn't know exactly what was wrong unless they did blood work on her, but the vet seemed to think her liver may be in trouble. There is no guarantee of a cure, just managing the problem, and the bills would have added up with the medication she would have needed, not to mention all the blood work she would need. So we thought about it all day while she stayed at the vet and decided that we should put her down. A decision that is extremely painful for me. When we got to the clinic Cassidy had done a complete turn around!! She was walking (because she couldn't earlier), drinking and eating!! No way could I put her down, so we took her home. She seems to be happy, and we're so glad to still have her!

Haley started her first day of Preschool this morning!! My mom and I dropped her off. When we were walking through the parking lot I told her to be sure to say "good morning" to her teacher. As soon as Haley walked through the door she says, "Good morning Mrs. Wind!". Wow, I didn't even think she was listening to me! She had a great time!

Then, when we were driving home I got my first ticket. I'm super bummed! They got me going 31 in a 25, but it happened to be right at a school zone which is 20 mph. It was a total trap! I went back that way (slowly mind you) after I picked Haley up from school and the school zone sign is totally covered by a huge Willow tree, no wonder I didn't see it!! That made me so mad!! But I'm sure I wouldn't win if I tried to fight it, so I'll pay my fees and be more cautious. I'll be driving that route a lot so I better be careful!

Almost time for Preschool!

This morning was Haley's Open House for her Preschool she'll be going to this year. Very exciting...such a big girl now! I had to fill out a little questionaire for Haley, I asked the questions and wrote down her answers. Favorite color: Pink, Favorite Food: Pasta, Things you enjoy doing with the family: camping, going to parks, and bike rides. (I kinda helped her with that one) Favorite Toy: Pooh Bear (That one surprised me, I thought for sure it would have been her ponies) Something Interesting about Her: She loves to bake cookies and make pizza with her Mommy. (OK, I kinda helped her with that one too.) I could have put a lot of interesting things...Such as, she loves her Tigger suit even though it's waaay too small or the fact that it's 100 degrees out...she would wear that everyday if she could...that's "interesting". Or she likes to pretend she's a dog, and will stay in character ALL DAY complete with barking, whining, and panting instead of actually talking. Or I could have put that Haley has claimed she will never poop again, and continues to hold it as long as humanly possible. Another, she loves the smell of Marshmallows and every time we are in a grocery store she finds them. We don't even have to be on that particular isle, she'll still find them, and then she'll proceed to put her nose against each bag to smell them...that's something interesting about her too. But I didn't want to freak the teacher out with all these crazy stories on the first day of school, so I decided to put something "normal" down...she does like to bake with me, I didn't lie. The teacher will get to know Haley's antics soon enough! Her first day of class is this Thursday, I'm pretty anxious for it!

In other news: I'm worried about Cassidy, she's not doing very well today. Seems waay more mellow today. She even went in her doghouse in the daytime, which is pretty much unheard of! She also seems a little out of it. I'm keeping an eye on her.

Love/Hate

Haley and Morgan have always had a love/hate relationship. However, for the last few weeks they've really been throwing the hate at each other. OK, they don't really hate each other...but they haven't been getting along at all!! Unlike my sister-in-law's kids who adore each other, and they are very similar in age as Haley and Morgan. I want that!!!! Morgan loves the way Haley reacts when she steals a toy from her...Haley will scream and yell while Morgan runs and laughs. Or the biggest one, Morgan will walk into the room that Haley is playing in and yell out "NO", and Haley will have the biggest fit. "Mommy!!! Morgan said NO to me!!!". WHO CARES!!! Why Haley is so dramatic I just don't know. I have to keep them separated while they play and even then problems are bound to arise. I think the only time they really play together is outside. They had a really good time acorn hunting yesterday at the park. And sometimes I'll catch Haley "reading" to Morgan. So they do get along occasionally! We'll keep working on it.

We just had a visit from my Uncle Ray over the weekend. Every year he takes a road trip on his motorcycle and usually stops in here for a few days. This year his destination is South Dakota. A lot easier compared to his cross country trip to Maine last year! Salinas, CA to Maine...that's a road trip!! So anyway, it was a really nice visit, we always enjoy having him here.

Tomorrow, my parents and little brother, Jeff are arriving! We're pretty excited for that! Jeff is actually moving in with us while he goes to UVU, so that will be a nice addition to our already "At Full Capacity" household! But, I think it's a really good thing and we're excited to have him here. Of course I've waited until the very last day to try to organize the room he'll be staying in. Currently, it's our office/spare bedroom. But it's also the room for things that don't have a place. "Hmmm, where should this go...ahh, I'll just throw it in the office!!". So you can imagine we have accumulated quite a bit of stuff that now needs a new place. It's not a junky room or anything, I don't want you to have the wrong impression. The closet really is the only thing I need to clean out. So it can be done...I just have to stop procrastinating and do it!