today

I wanted to list all the things that I love today...so far:
Greyson slept in for the first time since birth
Michael Jackson was on the radio when I turned it on
The snow is melting
No hysterectomy pains this birthday
lemon blueberry cocoa bean cupcake
hand made gifts from my kids
new books
all american cheeseburger and fries
my kids forgetting to give me the 34 spankings that I deserve this year....

prepared.

I have been working on this for about 1 year now. Each of my kids have their own self made 72 hour kits. They are personalized and ready to go. I cleared out a portion of my pantry to put them so we can run out the back door to the car if needed. Aaron gets the big, heavy one but it does have rollers. I have a blanket and change of clothes for everyone along with all the other essentials. My goal now is to get some type of sanitation kit for when the plumbing goes out. I have been so motivated by a neighbor in our Alpine ward who is phenomenal at Emergency Preparedness. I still get all her emails and learn something new each week. Something I am working on now if getting each child their own wallet with all their information and saving quarters and 1$ bills for their wallets. You don't want to pay 20 dollars for a bottle of water just because no one has any change to give you back. It can be so expensive but I did it a little at a time and finally got there! I found tons of things I needed at the dollar store too.

update

So the "mouse in the house" has been dealt with. However, my voice is hoarse from screaming on Saturday when I spotted a tuff of fur (inside the trap) in the corner of the garage. I begged and begged my nephew Keller to save me from the unavoidable melt down I was about to have and take it away. It makes me want to vomit thinking about it....

I really hear something this time....

I am known for waking Aaron up in the middle of the night clutching his arm, leg or whatever I can find and saying "did you hear that?" A few times in Alpine he has made the rounds in the house to see if anything is amiss and it's always a false alarm. I have handed him the bat I keep under my bed a few times and he just looks at me like I am the biggest weirdo in the world. But the other night, I had every right to shake him awake and make him listen to the sound that was keeping me up. A stupid little mouse has crept its way into the wall of our home that is in our bedroom. There is this horrible scratching noise and it is unbelievably loud. How can something so small make so much noise? Aaron loves to lay there and joke about it, but I do not find it funny at all. I HATE MICE!!!! They make me want to scream and run just like on television. Aaron said last night that the mouse was scratching its epitaph into the wall because the exterminator was there the day before and put bait out. Like I needed one more thing to keep me awake at night...

the sick and weary

I really don't want to complain, but OH MY GOSH!!!!! I am so dumb founded as to why every week some new cruddy nasty bug thinks it's okay to come in this house. I literally have been to the Community Care a total of 8 times in the last 6 weeks. It is actually getting embarrassing. I go in hoping that it isn't the same doctor I have seen the last 4 times, but it is. He just looks at me and says why don't you get a job here too..you are here so much anyway.
Mostly it is so frustrating because I am a very CLEAN person. I wash my hands all the time and keep my house quite spotless. This week Marin got the flu and then gave me some horrible version of it where my head feels like it is going to explode. The only prayer I have is that my sweet Mesa doesn't get any of this. The doctor told me that he has been putting people that have the flu on an antibiotic. He says more and more patients are getting pneumonia as a complication from the flu. So comforting. I am not letting my kids go hardly anywhere to lessen the chance of sickness, as a consequence I am going absolutely batty. Better days to come.

Ready for church

I really don't think he would have minded going to church like this.

Happy New Years.....uggh!

So in a nutshell, I am not starting off this new year on the right foot. Last Friday I had an allergic reaction to an unknown enemy contained in a cocktail of heartburn medications. I have never had heartburn before and wasn't sure what to take. So I woke up in the morning with my tongue the size of an orange and my eyelids swollen. I was getting a little nervous, imagining the worst, that it would creep down into my throat and cut off my air way (not to be dramatic). I walked into the community care and the nurses came running with huge needles full of thick muscle aching steroids. I was ordered to stay for a while to make sure I wasn't going to get any worse. So I limped out of the office silently wishing that I could go home and sleep it off. I did, thanks to a fabulous husband who just let me lay in bed. In the meantime our sweet Mesa had been throwing up for about 4 days and I started to feel desperate to see her beautiful smile again. We bundled up and took the dreaded 8 minute drive to the Emergency Room. Mesa really looked terrible despite my efforts to keep her hydrated. I was so grateful that day for the ER doctor who attended to her. He felt she was in pain and he was right. He ordered for her to have some morphine. He showed me the xray and said knew how I was feeling because he had a son with cerebral palsy who died at the age of 5. Strangely that comforted me for a bit. She fell asleep long enough to get a picture of her abdomen and discovered she had a bowel blockage and it was causing her to throw up. They were sending her upstairs to admit her and resolve it. Things went fine and we left Wednesday morning, both of us crying from exhaustion and happiness to leave that place. Just when I think I am doing great on my own, I get a reminder that there is someone else in charge and that life experiences are essential. I look at my beautiful girl and wonder how long she is meant to be on this earth. When she isn't here, there is a noticeable emptiness. The only thing that would really make her smile is when I mentioned that daddy loved her and wanted her to come home. Sitting here I am quite relieved it's all behind us.