Hail to the English

My youngest was playing with some toy pirates and a toy chest the other day.I listened in and heard this: "Ah-ha" This was the pirate finding the chest. Then the pirate opens the chest and says, "yeah, Chocolate, yum, yum,yum!" with his head diving into the chest and his body swinging around and around as he gobbles it all up! I am so glad I am teaching my children what is really important in life- Good Chocolate. My favorite is Cadbury! The English don't have much to brag about when it comes to food- I've been there, I know! But man they hit it on the head with Cadbury. I have lived in Europe most of my life and tried all kinds of yummy chocolate- Swiss, German, etc. but nothing is better than Cadbury. So here's to England- may you always swim in a sea of yumminess!

SPT

This weeks challenge was to show what we would do if we had a 25th hour in each day and sleep was not a factor. Obviously, they had to include that statement or else everyone would have had a picture of themselves sleeping. I love a nice 45 minute nap! But, since sleep isn't a factor, I thought of all the things I should do with a 25th hour- read my scriptures, read the ensign, play games with my kids, do a better preschool with Joseph, etc. But to be absolutely truthful I would really like to take a bath and read- as long as money wasn't too much of a factor either

Or get yet another hobby. Do you see why my husband says I have too many hobbies- and this picture doesn't include blogging, learning to cut my boys hair, or baking (which I really enjoy- especially candy making!). I am a dabbler. I am not good at anything, because I have a curious mind and want to learn it all. That is one of the main reasons I am an ED nurse. I first thought I would like to be an OB nurse, but after I did a rotation in the ED, I was hooked. I figured in about 5 years I would get tired of the same old thing- help mom breath, catch a baby once in a while, clean him up, take his vitals, put a footprint on a paper, clean up mom. Yep, got it! But in the ED there is something new to learn and see every single day. It is really hard to get good at when you only work 5-6 days a month like I do, but it is never boring! I really like to learn and experience new stuff. One of these days I may get good at something, but I doubt it, there's too many things out there to dabble in!

Tales from the Nurses Station

The other day when I was at work the doctor I was talking with asked me a couple of times which medicine I wanted to give a certain patient. Once it was "do you want to give phenergan or reglan." I promplty said, "whichever." For another patient I asked him how he wanted me to mix the GI cocktail he had order. He said, "what do you want to put in it, donnatal or benytl?" I told him that I didn't care. One of the other doctors that was sitting there, stopped me as I went to get the medicine and said, "And Deb, next time I want you to care!" I said, "but I really don't. Whatever you want to order, I will give it." They thought this was great and were thinking up all kinds of anythings they could order. Of course there is one thing I do care about- No digital disimpactions of stool for me- I don't get paid enough for that! And yes, I have told them that!

President Hinckley Dies at 97

For all of you that don't know, President Hinckley died last night around 7 pm. We got the call around 10 pm from a friend in the ward who has a brother that worked for the Prophet. It was quite a shock, just because he seemed like the kind of person that would live forever. He most impressed me with his quiet love for everyone. He didn't seem to need any attention. He didn't need to argue with anyone. He stated things simply and to the point and didn't apologize. I remember seeing him on a program with other religious leaders. Of course the Evangelical one went right after him and tried to stir him up. He didn't take offense and just kept saying wonderful loving and true statements and it finally brought them all around. They stopped trying to get at each other. It made me very proud to have him as our prophet.

I am glad he is reunited with his wife. That is another thing that impressed me so much- the way in which he treated her and loved her so much. There was a love and gentleness in that relationship that is worth emulating!

He is the only prophet my children have known. It will be hard for them to change. It is so cute to hear them say that the prophet is Prezdent Gor B. Hinckley!

How will you remember President Hinckley?

SPT Challenge

I am cheating, just a little for this SPT challenge. I am using a picture from 2006 Christmas. I am going out of town and have family here, so it's a little hard to get a photo session in. These are my 4 children. Aren't they cuter than cute? I got the name of our website from them. Every time we blessed one of them in church, my husband would get up afterwards and tell the congregation how glad he was to have "another little monkey to jump on the bed" with him. My husband is sometimes a big kid himself and loves to jump on the bed and wrestle with the kids. This is something I love about him. He usually knows when it is time to be serious, though he's not always so fast on the uptake when it comes to joking around with women. You always know if he likes you or not, though. If he will joke around with you and try to play with you, he likes you. If he's only serious with you, he thinks your a woman to stay away from! I digress!
When my 4th child was born I went insane, apparently, because I made around 45 of these announcements by hand. I had to cut out 4 little monkeys for each card. I got the idea from my husband always saying he was happy for another little monkey to jump on the bed with him. I told him that and he didn't remember that he said it, so it must have been pure inspiration each time.
My children are high energy. We have this philosophy that all those good little children will become the lazy teenagers that you just can't get off the couch, but our high energy children will be the go-getters! We'll let you know how that goes!
Anyway, our website is official a whole lot of monkey business, because of these 4 beautiful little monkey children of ours and do they keep us busy with all their monkey business!

I'm a Domestic Diva... or maybe not!

The one thing Emma asked for her birthday, which I was willing to get, was a new blanket. She has had a silky blanket since she was a baby and apparently at 11, she still needs one. I decided to make one, special, because after all, I am a domestic deva. (I have even been told this by friends a couple of times, lately.) So I went to the fabric store and bought the best fabric for snuggly blankets. One side is silky, silky and the other is super soft and warm. Unfortunatley, those two fabrics don't sew so easily together. They slipped and slid and curled and looked terrible. After unpicking, pinning to death and then unpicking again, I remembered that I read on the internet about taping this kind of material with masking tape and then stitching over the masking tape and then tearing the tape off afterwards. So that's what I did and it worked, except the whole taking the tape off thing.I tried really hard and then I decided to do some fancy stitching over the top of it to disquise the fact that I couldn't see where I was sewing with the tape on and leave the tape taking off thing for later. Unfortunately, the tape is now securely in place under that fancy stitching. I tried another blankie- a travel size that I was just going to sew straight together and then flip right side in. I thought this would be easier, but even with the tape it curled and twisted and refused to sew straight. I know there are so much better domestic diva's out there than me, so what do you do for this kind of material to make it work? I thought the serger, which I bought myself for my birthday might just do the trick, but I can't have it yet, because it's not quite my birthday.

The other problem with the blanket making, was that it took all day, the day I was suppose to be cleaning for my mother-in-law's visit. Of course this was probably uncousious procrastination. So instead, I cleaned like crazy all day today. Now there is an advantage to procrastination super fast cleaning. All those closets that you look into and think, I can't have her see that- there is just no time to clean those, so move on! I did clean the fridge though. I love a clean fridge. There was a lot of stuff that had to be thrown out, there. My husband is amazed by my ability to grow mold. I have grown mold on chocolate and killed a cactus. I am the epitomy of the domestic diva. Whose the lady with the green thumb? That's me.........Oh, sorry, I was just cleaning out my fridge, again.

Now don't get me wrong. I have a clean house. I have a super clean husband, who will get up from the couch and go across the room to pick up a speck on the carpet. And clutter drives me crazy. I also clean my fridge out about once a month. I am just a little dyslexic about it!

So more domestic diva-ism today. I brought Emma some cupcakes to class today and made these cute little flags on my computer.

My final Domestic diva-ism picture for the day. This is breakfast. I don't believe in cereal. It has no nutritional value. Unfortunately, I haven't moved beyond whole wheat pancakes, waffles, french toast or eggs. I try oatmeal every once in awhile, but my kids hate it. So any suggestions to increase my diva nature would be appreciated!

SPT Challenge

The idea I got out of the challenge was what do I spent the most time on or focus on the most during the day. I thought about it for awhile, but due to the events of this week, it came to me pretty easily. Can you tell what it is?.....
It is one of my son's bellies. Yep, one of the main focuses of any mom, I think, must be what comes in and what goes out of that belly- Your's, your husband's, your children's. Are they getting enough, are they getting too much, is it healthy, when is the last time they had a bowel movement. This is actually a frequent question for us, because we have a holder. He will go sometimes 2 weeks without going. Of course he is just trying to hold it in, because it gets in his drawers and you can tell. Ok, too gross! I can't believe it, but my husband will call when he is out of country and we spent half the time talking about poop. We have tried regular bathroom times, mineral oil and fiber in the juice, enema's, suppositories. It is a constant challenge.

This week we are dealing with vomiting-yeah! I hate it when it is actually a bug and not just food poisoning, because then it goes from one kid to the other. Sunday night was Joseph, Monday night was Max, today it is Sam. It would be so nice to have it all done at once, so that Mom could get some sleep. Sam is a trooper, though. Last time they had that spinach thing where people were dying- we got that. It was awful. I would find him just curled up on the bathroom floor- not trying to bother anyone. I was too sick, to move him, so I was really thankful for him. Today, he decided to try and go to school, but threw up on the bus. My phone isn't working (that's a story!) and so he told them that I was probably trying to buy a new phone and then told them he felt OK and went back to school. I finally got the message and went to pick him up. It took him awhile to get to the office. He told me that was because he stopped at the bathroom to puke, so that he wouldn't have to puke in the car. He is such a stud and so considerate. Ever done the Heartman Color code? He is definitely a blue! Probably a blue/white mix. What a kid!
Anyway, everyone cross your fingers that Emma and I don't get it. We both have special events coming up and don't want to ruin them!

Tales from the Nurses Station

I am an ED nurse (Emergency Department, for all you non-medical types). I have been for almost 7 years, off and on and always less than part-time. This is because I am a Mom first and foremost. I swing it both ways- I am a stay-at-home mom. Oh, sure I work and get a little mental stimulation. This way of working makes it very hard to get any good at being an ED nurse, but at least I still get some good stories!

Story #1: I had a lady, who was complaining of stomach pain. So the first thing I do is go to listen to her stomach. I plop my stethescope down on to her abdomen and listen. I hear nothing at all. Now if you have ever listened to a stomach, you will know there is almost always something going on in there. It also feels a little funny. The lady is in a light gown, nothing else and I should have made her pull it up for me to listen, but I had opted to just put the stethescope down on the gown and listen through it. After hearing nothing, though, I decided I better have her lift it up and listen directly over her stomach. When she lifted it, I realized what the problem was. This woman had the biggest bazoombas I have ever seen (that is a technical term)! Not only were they big, but they were pendulous, like nothing you've ever seen. I had put my stethescope on those things, instead of her stomach, because they hung all the way passed her belly button!

Story #2 I had a little boy about 3 or 4 come in that had bitten through both the top and bottom of his tongue. It was still hanging on, but barely. The doctor decided to stitch the top side up, so we pillowcased his arms behind him and wrapped him up like a burrito with a sheet and began to work on him. Now, no matter what we had done, if he hadn't cooperated we wouldn't have been able to sew that tongue. Luckily, he was a really good little boy. His mother ran off and cried in the corner, but she had brought with her an aunt or friend of some sort who translated for her. She stayed with us the whole time and kept telling the little boy to stick out his tongue, since the only words I know in spanish are delor (sp?) which means pain. So I kept saying "no delor", which wasn't entirely true. But we really needed someone there to keep him sticking out his tongue. After each swing of the needle, he would bring his tongue back into his mouth and start yelling "hey, hey!" She would then tell him to stick his tongue back out so that the doctor could wind the stitching and secure it. Then she would have to tell him again to stick it out, so the doctor could cut the threads and then again when we started a new stitch. My job was to sit on him and keep his head in position, without getting in the way. Ah, working on my flexibility already! After we were done, the aunt sat down and the doctor was trying to tell her what a fantastic job she had done. He stops and says, "are you OK, ma'am. You look a little pale." I look up and her face is the color of the wall. The doctor and I both stand up and watch as she faints dead away! She came to pretty fast, and proceeds to puke! I forget that some people aren't as thrilled to see disfigured body parts as we are. When we have a good one, we always tell all the other nurses to go in and have a look.

Story #3 Joseph was up all night throwing up. Oh, alright, that's not a very good story, but it shows that even at home, I am the nurse- just like all you other stay-at-home Moms!

And that's the end of this weeks installment of Tales from the Nurses Station!

The Excel spreadsheet from My Nightmares

My husband came up with a wonderful idea. Let's count our calories together and see if we can loose a couple of pounds. When my husband puts his mind to something- watch out! Enter the Excel spreadsheet- A perfectly harmless thing if you are using it to keep track of your budget, but it transforms drastically in an engineers hands on a mission to loose some weight. Now I have a boss that demands I put my calories in it all day long. It adds these up, substracts my workout calories and then calculates how many pounds I will loose by the end of the week if I don't eat another thing. I watch as that number drops from 5 pounds to a mere 1.55 pounds today- that is, if I don't eat another single thing for the rest of the week. Oops, I forgot about those 2 oreo cookies I just ate. Oh well, I guess I'm going down again!

Just another day in monkey town

I usually workout on my own at my house on the treadmill. I used to hate treadmills, but have gotten used to them, because I don't think it is very safe for me to run by myself outside and I don't have a nice double jogging stroller. I usuallly run 5-6 miles as I watch Good Morning America or the Today's show. 2 days a week, I do something else. I have been doing The Firm videos, because they involve weights and I know I need a little weight training. But some friends of mine have got this walking group going. They've invited me several times, and I sometimes feel totally out of it when they are talking and realize it was something they were talking about at walking group. So anyway, I decided to try and walk with them 2 days a week and then maybe do my video later in the day (yeah, right!) I went today and guess what! No one else did. I decided to walk anyway. We walk in a local mall. Walking in the mall consists of stopping to wipe snotty noses, going potty, yet again, stopping to buy a gift for the baby shower tomorrow, stopping to pull the two youngest monkeys apart, stopping to open the water bottle, stopping to close the water bottle, stopping to pick up the bag of pretzles that the baby threw all over the place and a little bit of walking. I think my stop motor is the only thing that gets any working out, during these workouts. I did however get a cute baby gift and a headache. About 1 1/2 times around I noticed that the baby was pulling all my credit cards out of my wallet. That produced another opportunity to use those stopping muscles. I gathered up my wallet and started searching for all the contents. I wasn't sure if I had put one of my credit cards away yet or if it was still in my wallet. It is one we no longer use. I also didn't find my Temple recommend until I got everyone in the car. Not the best feeling in the world. I decided to hurry home and make sure I had taken that one credit card out. But of course "I have to go Potty! mom" "again?!" For some reason, in my hurry, we didn't do things quite right and the fit that had already started while buying the babyshower gift rose to nuclear proportions. I raced as fast as I could (no running in the mall) out to my car with the baby yelling and crying with half his body out of the cart. I got no less than 3 people in that 1/3 of a loop to tell me that my baby was hanging out of the cart. You think? Goodness, do these people think I am blind or just really, really uninterested in my screaming child? Of course by the time I got to the car and unloaded everything and everybody, I noticed that the Leapster was missing. The Leapster was brought to keep them happy and not screaming. Apparently it didn't work! So everyone got loaded back up- this time the baby got strapped down and we ran (no running in the mall) back to try and find the Leapster. I asked at the help desk, I looked in the bathroom, I watched all the way back to the babygift store and then I prayed. I was very blessed that the fit began in the babygift store and that is where the Leapster was deposited.

After running home (Ok driving- within the speed limit set by those in a hurry)and checking that yes, I did have that credit card in a file and not in my purse, I jumped in the shower and then made something super quick to take to a potluck that I happened to be 30 minutes late to. At least we got rid of my full trunk of used clothes there. While there I was asked a couple of times if I was alright, because it looked like I was going to cry. "No this is my I am exhausted face. I worked last night until 2 am and I am working again tonight until 2 am and my two little monkeys have already worn me out for the rest of the day. I'm going home and taking a nap!" after I start the laundry, clean up the mess I call my house and make a cheesecake for the babyshower tomorrow. Just another day in monkey town!

SPT challenge

I found this blog that does a photo challenge every Tuesday. I think the letters stand for She Photographs on Tuesdays. One thing I really need to work on is my photography. I need to take a class, but until I have the time, the best thing to do is experiment with my camera, right? So here is my SPT this week. It is a self portrait that also includes some of my goals. The one word I had come up with was Flexibility. You can read more about that here. But I do have more goals. Some center on health. I did just run a marathon, but that doesn't mean that I am super healthy- especially where it comes to eating chocolate with abandom.

Some are more social. One thing I have found, is that I don't live in the moment very often. I am always worried about what I could or should be doing, where everyone else is and I am not, how I should be looking or what everyone else is thinking instead of enjoying the simple moments. Take for instance this fun day we had. Can you believe it was in the 70's today at the beginning of January? So I took our preschool stuff outside and we did a little lesson and then we played with chalk and hop scotched. I tried really hard to just enjoy it and not think of all the things I could and should be doing and things like that. It was really hard for me and I almost stopped the playing too soon. But I took a deep breath and redirected myself and just tried to enjoy a little hopscotch with my 2 youngest.
I was readjusting the straps on my youngest's carseat to the highest level and I thought. I will be doing this for the last time and I was a little bit sad. I don't want to miss out anymore. I don't want to find the laundry more important than the reading of one more book or the molding of some color of clay I can't even describe. I am a stay-at-home mom, because I choose to be with my children. Won't it be sad if I look back and think- I wasn't really with them?! So I also choose to live in the moment this year!

Random Things Joseph Thinks are Funny

Joseph is our comedian. He makes us laugh all the time. One day he came up and said, "Mom, wouldn't it be funny if Max was asleep with a book on his face?" I said "yes, that would be funny." Mostly because it was so funny the way he was saying it. Then he took me by the hand and led me downstairs where Max was on the ground- having fallen asleep in the jeep, I had put him there when we came in. This is what I found. Pretty funny, right? One of the games Joseph likes to play is "try to get a strike." This is what he calls a "Strike":
I think he means a "stripe." The game goes like this: He tries to put his car window down, as I try to put it up and turn off the car, before he can put it down, again. This is hilarious to him and he loves it when he actually gets "a strike." When I get it all the way up and turn off the car before he can get it down, he tells me he still got one- it's just invisible!
This is what I find in my fridge all the time. He loves it when I find it in there. He doesn't tell me when he puts it in, he just waits until I find it in there. It is always "The Encyclopedia of Mormonism." This is obviously a much funnier book than any other that we own. He frequently reads it at bedtime, too. I guess that's where he gets all his material/jokes from!

Word for the Year

The other day I read Natalie's comment about me having to be a great baker and what a lucky family I had and I remember the other day one of my friends telling me that I was the best Homemaker. It is so weird, because growing up I was such a tomboy and didn't have a creative bone in my body. I liked things clean- as far as I can remember I aways have. Mess/clutter makes me irritated after a little while. But as far as cooking or crafting- totally not my thing. I also hated babysitting and was definitely not good at it. I would put them to bed as soon as possible and never played with them. I just watched shows on TV while they did what they wanted- as long as it was safe. I can't believe people paid me to do that. I ate their food, too! Ah, the shame! Anyway, I came across this quote on the Everything Pink blog- I really think it is just something her bishop told her, but it makes so much sense.

"Don't be fooled into thinking your life is not turning out just the way you want it to"

I never thought I would be a wonderful homemaker, but I am trying my best for my family and for my own self improvement. Also, I love traditions and many of the things I bake or do that is fun is for traditions sake.
I also never wanted to be a nurse when I grew up- way too girly of a profession. Now I am an ER nurse and I love it. I think one of my saving graces is that I am so curious about everything and I love to learn something new all the time.
Life may throw you a few curve balls, but don't be fooled that it's not all turning out just the way you want it to. This leads me to my word for the year. I found this on a couple of blogs- don't know who started just using one word to help them through the year, but they don't use any other goals. I will make my yearly goals, still, but I liked the one word concept, too. This year, I think I want to focus on Flexibility. First of all the obvious. I am so unflexible, now. I used to compete in gymnastics- you would never guess now, though. The other is more of a mental flexibility. I am flexible when it comes to last minute things and changing schedules and so forth, but I am not good at thinking outside of the box. When I think something should be one way, it is hard to change that picture. I have started already. I always thought my daughter would go into gymnastics, like I did. She started out really well and was invited to team when she was 6, but she got bored really quick and ended up loving soccer. Just the other day we started my son into gymnastics, because he taught himself to do a back handspring and has almost got a back tuck on his own, too. He does them while we are watching TV. It drives us crazy. My husband finally told me to put him in a class, because he had never seen anyone so intent on jumping and turning and flipping. So now my ideas of a gymnast daughter and a football playing son are completely upside down. Weird how that happens!
Also, I have noticed at the end of this year that I have done some quick judging of people and later found out the whole truth and felt really bad. Part of that mental flexibility will be to give people the benefit of the doubt. I will be as flexible as Sponge Bob- He always has a positive attitude and doesn't take offense easily. He is another thing I didn't like at first. We wouldn't let our kids watch Sponge Bob at all, but after we saw one all the way through, we liked it. He is usually positive and there is almost always a good message at the end.
Obviously my values are not flexible, but there are so many things that can be, including me!