What can I say....

...as we all know, yesterday was Mother's Day :) It was a fun day, complete with beautifully colored paper hearts, love notes from two of the sweetest boys ever, crafts from school, and a yummy dinner. My father-in-law gave me a gift card for Wal-Mart (this is Small Town, USA- it's not like there are many choices ;-) ), and I was determined to spend it on me, myself, and I. So I set out to Wal-Mart while I was on break from all my last minute project making and paper writing. I eyed the Twilight director's notebook, but decided to wait a little while to get it. It looked awesome, but I knew that if the purchase was made tonight the last minute projects would be even more neglected than they already are. So I decided to get myself a new toothbrush. And some new floss. And some toothpaste. New shampoo- you know, the "fancy" Suave shampoo. The kind that is supposed to be like the salon stuff but probably isn't as good as the expensive stuff, but it smells really good, so I buy it anyway whenever I can. Yeah, that stuff. And as long as I'm at it- new toothbrushes and shampoo for the kids along with a new tube of mascara to replace old, clumpy, bacteria laden stuff I currently use. Oh, and some new lotion, too. So yeah, even when I'm "splurging", I'm practical. What's the deal with that?

A blast from the past...

Here's a random little picture from Collin's first soccer season. Cameron and Caitlyn were such troopers! They were Collin's biggest fan at all his games. Wow! I can't wait to start them in sports again!

Hey Baby...Talk Nerdy to Me...

Once upon a time, when the Biological Honor Society at our small time university was filled to the brim with really cool people, we voted to have that saying printed on our club t-shirts. This was back before Baylor College of Dentistry, UT-Southwestern, Johns Hopkins, Stanford Medical School, and the med school in Galveston (UTMB? Heck, who knows, who cares, right?) robbed us of all our really cool people. Those of us who remain are all either wait-listed, working on Plan B (or C or D), or like me- studying to be high school science teachers (yippee!).

I was never one of the "cool kids" in high school. When I started back to college after Collin was born, I was that freak lady who insisted on hyphenating her last name. Oh the horrors. When we moved here, my claim to fame was being that lady with three kids who was taking all these lab science classes. How can she get anything done with all those KIDS? And did you know they're all 3 years apart? Not each...all! Like the oldest just turned 3, then less than a month later the youngest was born. Crazy!

Well, folks, I have never been cool. In. my. life. N-E-V-E-R... not in high school, not in college, never ever! And now I am happy to report that I have reached a new level of uncoolness...
istartedreadingharrypotter.
What?! You ask...
IstartedreadingHarryPotter.
huh??
I startedreading HarryPotter... That's right folks... I started reading the Harry Potter books. And that's not even the nerdy part. i like them. That's right...I like them! As in, I started reading them last week and am already about 100 pages into the 5th book.

Let me tell you...it started innocently enough. Collin wants to read the first book. His reading level is 44. Quite honestly, I have no idea, nor do I care to know what that actually means. All I know is he is in an advanced reading class with all the other university-employed/affiliated, non-native C-town kids. The goal for the entire year is to read at a level 16. He was there after the first six weeks. But anyway...he told me he wanted to read the first Harry Potter book, so having previously heard horrible things about the book, I decided to read it first.

And now I am hooked.

So tell me...what's your nerdy little secret?

Caught Red Handed

Yesterday the kids and I were dying Easter eggs. After we were done, I sent the "big kids" outside to have an Easter egg hunt. After they were outside for a little while I went outside to watch them. When I came back inside I found Caleigh COVERED in red food coloring! I wish I had a picture! Apparently one of the kids had left the red food coloring in her reach. She got it all over the wood flooring, had it all over her hands, chest, and legs, and was reaching out to grab me when she saw me. She got a good scrub down, and I was able to get most of it off.

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These past several weeks I have been dealing with a pinched sciatic nerve. The kids knew I was in quite a bit of pain, so one evening they came into my room and told me they were going to give me a manicure and pedicure "to make me feel better". They are so sweet and thoughtful.

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This Saturday (April 18th) marks the 2 year anniversary of my mother-in-law's cancer diagnosis. Time definitely has a way of marching on, doesn't it? After your life has been touched by cancer, it is amazing how many other people you meet who have also traveled that lonely road. What never ceases to amaze me, though, is how God lifts you throughout your trials. You don't realize it at the time, but looking back you can clearly see His hand guiding your decisions and offering protection.

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Yesterday, I cleaned and organized my kitchen. Before you get too impressed, you have to remember that my kitchen only has 2 large cupboards, 2 small ones, and 6 drawers. But it was still pretty messy and gross. Now I just need to get our clothes under control, and hopefully I can keep this crazy house clean.

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We are enjoying our Easter today. We are watching Mary Poppins, cooking play doh, and eating. I think some of us are going to try to make it to church, but if not, we will have a fun day home as a family. I hope everyone has a happy Easter!

And here's a positive post...

As promised in the last post, I am doing another "positive" post.

This weekend was our church wide general conference. I love conference weekend. It is the only weekend when you can ditch church and not have the missionaries sent after you to stalk- I mean "fellowship" you "back into the fold." It is so nice to spend the day relaxing with your children and listening to the speakers give their inspirational messages.

While the kids and I were watching conference, President Monson was speaking, so I asked the kids who he was. Collin replied "Thomas S. Monson" (it was on the screen and he is a reader!). I congratulated him on getting it right, then asked the kids what his job is in our church. Caitlyn piped up and said "to talk into the microphone!!" She's so cute :-)

The kids were really excited to see the information about the new temples, and we kept rewinding the DVR and rewatching the part about the Gila Valley Temple. They were amazed to see that all the temples had "that one gold guy on top! Just like our temple!!" They pick up on the funniest things.

Here's to a new week and new adventures :-)

When it rains it pours!

I can't believe how crazy this past couple of weeks has been! We traveled out to Arizona to see my family for spring break, and while we were there, my hip and back started really bothering me. It got so bad that I could barely walk toward the end of the trip. While we were out, Cameron crashed his bike on the mountain and got pretty rattled. He couldn't remember having a sister named Caleigh or his Kindergarten teacher's name, so I took him in to have him looked at. They did a CT, and it came back negative (yippee!!), so we were instructed to watch him through the night and bring him back if needed. He ended up being just fine, just a bit rattled.

We got back in state and I went to get myself checked out. I had an MRI done and found out that I have three herniated discs in my back- two of which are mild and do not seem to be causing any problems and the third is compressing my sciatic nerve. This compression causes pain from my hip to my toes on my right side, along with numbness and a couple other nice little side effects.... It's real fun! I am one of those people who does not "do" pain meds. But these past couple of weeks, Lortab has been my best friend... I am supposed to go on Thursday to have an injection to help with the pain. I'm pretty nervous about that.

Cameron's ears have been giving him problems, so we will probably end up seeing a specialist about them. He always has ear infections, but he never has a fever or complains about them hurting, so the only way we know that his ears are infected is when they start stinking. Nice, huh?

Caleigh is teething and snotty and grumpy. What a joy.

Collin got a letter sent home from the school saying that he has failed his hearing screening. That one totally came out of left field. So we get to do more testing on that. Last night he crashed a scooter at our friends' house and ended up hitting a tree stump and getting a HUGE black eye. We set out for the ER, and they were really backed up- they were landing a helicopter, there was a whole room full of people waiting, along with a fire truck and an ambulance outside. It was crazy, so we decided to return home and wait it out. We drove back by several hours later, and when I peaked in the doors I recognized some of the same people waiting who were waiting earlier. I wish this town had an urgent care facility or something similar because I hate taking my kids to the ER just because they hurt themselves after regular office hours. Oh the joys of living in a small town.

I guess this means that Caitlyn and John are the only healthy ones in this joint! I'll give them a week! haha... not really. They can stay healthy!

I guess it is just strange that everyone is sick or hurt at the same time because we are generally a pretty healthy and accident-free bunch. I have a feeling this will be one of those months that we will look back on in a couple of years and laugh about. For now, I'm just glad we have good health insurance- and that we have met our yearly deductible ;-)

P.S. I will do a "funner" post later on...just had to gripe a bit right now!