Worry and Paranoia

OK, so not only am I a worrier but I can get extremely paranoid about things. I'm not OCD or anything, but it may come to that!

Health wise, the last couple of weeks haven't been so good in this house. Let me give you short version: It started with Haley having a fever for three days, then it turned into a cold. Then Morgan came down with a fever for about three days, and hers also turned into a cold. They both currently still have it. Then Jeff and I came down with a cold a few days ago. Then today, Haley comes down with another fever!!!! Ahhhh! What's going on?!

So anyway, having sick children at the same time as this Swine Flu pandemic...yeah, not a good combo! Plus, to add to my paranoia I saw an Oprah show about the flesh eating bacteria, MRSA!! I should have turned the TV off as soon as I saw the subject matter, I KNEW it was going to freak me out! It talked about this women who was chopping celery and cut her finger. The MRSA bacteria entered through that cut and basically started eating away at her and she ultimately had to have her whole arm amputated and a her right breast had to be removed. Yeah...do you see why it freaked me out?!

It makes me never want to leave my home! OK, that may be extreme...but seriously, it's a pretty scary world out there!

The Worry Wart of the Family

Yeah, that would be me.

Several years ago (OK, five and a half years ago), Ryan and I drove up here from Long Beach to look for a house to buy. We stayed with my great grandmother. She was about 96 years old at the time and she lived in her own home, by herself...yeah, pretty amazing. Anyway, Ryan and I would be gone pretty much all day with a realtor looking at houses, but we were home by dinner. Well, on the last day of our visit we went a lot later than usual and didn't get back until around 8:30 or so (maybe later, I don't really remember). We didn't have cell phones at the time so we never called her to let her know when we would get back...BIG MISTAKE! Knowing what I know now, we should have found a phone and called her. Just to give you a heads up...never, ever, let your 96 year old great grandmother wonder where you are! We didn't hear the end of it when we walked in the door that night, she just kept saying, "I only worry because I love you so much." Seriously...she must have said that about a 100 times that night.

Anyway, my point is, worrying must run in my family because I do a lot of it!! Every night when I lay down at night I basically worry. Worry mostly about my kids. I worry about Haley and when she starts Kindergarten. Will she do OK? Will she make friends easily? Will she do OK academically? And then there's Morgan...will she be grumpy forever?! Will she always be crying more then she smiles? Will my girls ever get along for longer then 5 minutes? I can go on and on about the things I worry about!

Really, I guess I started worrying the day I brought them home from the hospital. I would lay there at night and worry about whether or not she was still breathing. So, I suppose I might as well accept the fact that worrying is just what I do...it's who I am. I just wish it wouldn't interfere with my sleep!!

I gotta say...

...it sure felt good to hold a newborn again! Except this time, I get to hand him off to his mom when I'm finished cuddling with him. No night time feedings, spit ups, blow out poops, lugging an infant carrier around, sleep deprivation, or sore breasts for me! Well, not yet anyway.
It sure brought back a lot of memories.

The proud parents!

Little Jett

My sister-in-law, Carrie, went into labor yesterday morning (actually her contractions started the night before) and after a very long day little Jett finally arrived via C-Section in the late evening.

Jett picked a perfect day to enter this world...Ryan had off giving me freedom to spend the entire day in the hospital. I feel so privileged to be a part of their special day! It was an amazing experience!! When Carrie finally made it to 10, she pushed like a champ! But after about 2 hours of pushing little Jett just wasn't coming out...hence the C-Section. But he's here, he's healthy, and he's just the cutest little thing!

I will never forget the look on my brother's face after he saw his son for the first time...pure joy! A look only a father has...he was just so proud! He didn't have to say a thing...I just knew!

Crazy doggy hormones

I had a pretty rough night last night. My dogs are driving me crazy! A few days ago I moved Belle into the dog run at night with Etta. I figured she's old enough (almost 12 weeks) and they've been getting along pretty well, so why not? Well, Etta started her first heat cycle a week or so ago and now things are not working out so well anymore. She is constantly bugging Belle, she chases her around and smacks at her. Then one day last week after watching them for a while I saw Etta start to hump Belle! Say what?! I know...who knew that a female dog would do that to another female!! Basically Etta has become a very horny dog (the vet's words, not mine!). This NEVER happened with Cassiday, although I guess we never had another dog around for her to hump...but her personality never changed when she was in heat. So anyway, Etta has other weird behaviors too, she's a little more anxious or nervous lately and she even peed in the house!! So anyway, last night I could not sleep! I could hear Etta and Belle wrestling and fighting in the dog run outside...I knew Etta was probably trying to hump Belle and Belle isn't going to put up with that! So finally around 1:00 in the morning I brought Belle in the house to sleep in a crate (after she's been violated for a couple of hours outside I'm sure she was relieved). Bottom line...I'm going to spay Etta. The idea was to breed her, but with her knee problem that's not really an option anymore. Now, what's going to happen when Belle goes into heat?! Great...I'm not looking forward to that!

So with the dogs and Morgan constantly waking up (she has a terrible cold now) sleep was minimal.

It's about time!

Just when I'm about to pack up and move back to CA the sun comes out and temps move into the 70's...finally! I never thought I'd see you Spring!! I missed you so much!! We were even able to get in a family bike ride up the Canyon yesterday! Unfortunately, Morgan has had a temperature the last couple of days. I guess it's what Haley had last week. Strange...they often get these random fevers every now and then. Kids are so hard to figure out!


The girls enjoying the sunshine. Notice the dress Haley is wearing...she hasn't worn anything but that dress for the last week and half! I've tired to put in the wash, but she has dug it out of the hamper every time. She LOVES that dress! The funny thing is it was nothing special, just an old hand-me-down she got last year.

The girls making cookies on our snow day last week. I let them do EVERYTHING themselves this time in making them. Shhhh, don't tell my brothers! They are very particular about the food they eat, they think that if the girls make it, then it's bound to have either spit or boogers in it (or both). But don't worry, I supervised.

I thought they came out pretty good!

Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Is this some kind of sick joke?!!! No, this is not a picture that I took from my January album...this is TODAY...yes, TODAY! I can't believe I woke up to this! Oh, the misery!

I don't think I need to go on...I'm pretty sure the public knows just how I feel about snow at this point. I won't bore you with my ranting. Just know that I'm suffering!

Easter Pictures

The weekend started out bad, bad, bad. Saturday was not a good day for me...and unfortunately my brother witnessed my outburst, which I'm not thrilled about. Those moments of weakness shouldn't be seen by anyone! The girls were pretty much fighting non stop. I kid you not...when I'm playing with them they're fine, but as soon as I leave the room they are screaming at one another. They can't even play for five minutes without it turning into a fight! So bottom line, I finally lost my patience and stormed into their room and took out every single toy they have. EVERYTHING went, except for their books...those they can keep. Of course they went ballistic! I think Haley was most upset about the loss of Una (her most precious toy on Earth). I had them stay on their beds for a while, and I sobbed in my room trying to organize all their toys that I just threw on my floor. Poor Jeff and to see his big sister become unraveled. He came into my room and was like "Uh, do you want to go out for a while, I'll watch the girls...maybe you need a break." How sweet is that! Or maybe he was just terrified and wanted this crazy lady out of the house! In any case, I ended up taking him up on his offer later in the day. But at that point all I needed was a good cry!

To earn back their toys I set the timer for 15 minutes...if they could play (they didn't even have to play together) without yelling and screaming at each other until the timer went off they could have one toy back. They managed to do it once. Haley got Una back and Morgan got her stuffed pony (also named Una) back. They still don't have any toys in their room and to be honest, I don't think they even care anymore! They haven't asked for a single thing! I think this whole thing is harder on me...I can't stand having the kids toys in my room! It's kinda hard to "get in the mood" (if you know what I mean) with Pooh Bear sitting on my nightstand! NOT COOL! My room looks like a Toy R Us store!! Anyway, hopefully they won't be in there much longer.

Now that I've gone a huge tangent about how dreadful my children can be...now enjoy some pictures of their cuter and sweeter moments.

Easter Sunday Haley and Morgan finding their Easter baskets.

Awwwww....how sweet. I should look at this picture often...it brings me hope!

Off to church! (Late as usual)

Decorating Easter eggs. While they were decorating they dropped a couple and we realized that some weren't quite hard boiled...oops, that's what I get for trying to multitask! Oh well.

Morgan showing off her artwork.

The hunt begins!

We ended the day with a yummy ham dinner (I was very glad to get that 30 pound ham out of my freezer). Now we will be eating ham for...hmmm...about the next 6 months!

I needed Easter Sunday...a day to recover from my horrible, terrible, no good, very bad Saturday.

Grandparents Spring Visit

Visits with my folks are never long enough!! This week just flew by! They arrived Monday evening and left this morning...boo hoo. But as always we had a great time!

Unfortunately Haley came down with a fever the last two days...no other symptoms, just fever. Yeah, I knew something was wrong when she laid down on the floor and tried to go to sleep at the furniture store. It did make for nice shopping though!

We bought a new bunk bed for the girls. My parents drove the pickup truck so we were able to haul out (store it...we WILL use it again) the toddler bed and crib to make room for their big girl bed!! Very exciting for them! But I tell ya, taking apart that crib was really sad for me...my babies are growing up...sniff, sniff. Even taking out the rocker from the room...the rocker that I used when I nursed them...oh, so sad. But like I said...I WILL see that furniture again! So it's only temporary, right?

They LOVE their new bed!! It better last a while, that's all I have to say! That thing was the biggest pain to put together! There was a about billion pieces, and trying to work in a very small space was challenging! But with the help of my parents, we managed to get in done.

Ryan is already scheming up a road trip to the LBC in a couple of weeks. There is a race in Dana Point that he wants to do. So maybe we'll be seeing my folks again soon!

I guess it was bound to happen sometime.

Haley was out in the backyard playing this afternoon (it's probably in the low 70's!!!). She got into trouble when she started being a little rough with the puppy, so she had to come inside. This is our conversation (she's crying and screaming):

Haley: Pleeeeeease, mommy!!! I want another chance!!!! I want to go outside!!!!

Me: No, you wait a while and then you can try again.

Haley: Noooooo!!!!! I don't want to wait, NOOOOOOO!!!!

Me: You may wait in here, or if you're going to cry about it, go into your room.

Haley (stomping to her room): Fine!! I HATE YOU!!



GASP...GASP!!!!!

This was the very first time she has EVER said that to me!! Honestly, my heart broke a little. My sweet little girl. Yes, I know she's four, and she doesn't really mean it, but still...kinda hurts. I didn't make a big deal out of it. She morphed back into her normal sweet self and went back outside a little while later. It probably won't be the last time she says it, but I thought I should document the first.

Ski Day!

For Haley and Ryan that is. Morgan and I took advantage of the nice weather and played close by in the snow and cheered Haley on.

It was a spontaneous decision made during breakfast. The resorts final day was Sunday, plus it was half price (not that it mattered for us...story to follow) so why not?! Jeff and Matt were already planning on going too. So we pulled out ALL the snow stuff...ugh...I thought I'd never see that stuff again, and here I was trying to locate gloves, hats, jackets...blah, blah, blah! Plus, most of it doesn't fit them anymore. Poor Haley has to wear rain boots in the snow, we don't have a proper pair of snow boots! And we lost a glove sledding a while back so Morgan doesn't have any to wear. Anyway, we got all we needed and managed to get out the door.

Haley was thrilled! We had to ride the shuttle to the lifts...the girls LOVED that part!

So when we were in the rental place standing in line waiting for skis and boots this random guy approached us and asked if we bought our lift tickets yet. We told him we hadn't and then he handed us two free vouchers!!! Yeah, just because. So after we thanked him like a hundred times Haley and Ryan hit the slopes!

I was actually surprised how well Haley took to skiing! She is usually very apprehensive to new things (she takes after her daddy in that department). But she was really motivated and excited to be doing it!

Ryan trying to teach her the snow plow.

She even tried the tow rope all by herself! Not bad!

The resort closed the bunny hill early so Ryan took her up the first lift. And surprise surprise...no major catastrophes!!

Little Morgie was a trooper during the whole thing! She played in the snow (or mud in some areas) and helped me cheer on Haley.

So yes, I am SICK of the snow!! However, I have to say that it was a great day! And the girls did a spectacular job (for once)!!!

But that's IT!!! No more snow!!! I'm DONE!!

And all is calm...

...not for long, but I'll take it!

My two sweet girls...snuggling...not fighting!

My two sweet dogs...snuggling...not fighting! Ahhhhh...there can be peace in the world!!

In other news, Ryan and I took the girls to see the Go Dog Go show at the Covey Center last night. It's based on the Dr. Seuss book (in case you didn't know) and it was performed by the BYU theater group. The girls loved it!! Haley loved pointing out the different dogs from the book, "That's the POODLE!!!!" (sometimes a little too loudly). And Morgan loved dancing in front of her seat...or in front of other people's seats, how ever you want to look at it. But in case, they both enjoyed it!

After the show the kids got to go meet the characters. Haley was a little shy, but quickly warmed up to them. Of course their favorite was the Poodle...she was soooo glamorous!