Starfish, Crabs and More Fun Sea Creatures

Lily's class went on a field trip today to Larabee State Park. We had a great time. The weather was overcast, not warm or cold. When I went on this field trip with Nate's class, it poured down rain the whole time, and we were soaked. We still got wet stomping through tide pools, but at least it wasn't cold. We found a million starfish, and crabs of all sizes. There were multiple times when kids would pick up a big crab, thinking it was dead. When the crab moved, or tried to pinch them, they would drop it and scream.

Lily's not smiling in the picture, because she's giving the "quick take the picture because I don't like holding sea creatures" look.

This is my favorite of the kid's field trips, and I'm kinda sad that I won't get to go again. They really are growing up too fast!!

Need a Fundraiser?

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Things to remember before the next surgery...

I'm writing this post to myself. I will have surgery on my right ear this summer, and I need to remember some of these important things.

• Stock up on yogurt and gummy bears. They will be the only things that taste good for the first 3 days post op.
  
• Hide the big blue ball. Otherwise, the kids will bounce on it right in front of you, sending your head spinning.
• Don't plan on driving for at least 10 days. Shop for groceries accordingly.
  
• If you sleep on your good ear, you will NOT hear the alarm, phone, kids, hubby.......this can be good and bad!
  
• Go over the rules with the kids about NOT opening the door for anyone that shows up at the door.
  
• Don't try to bake until you have regained hearing. Otherwise you will burn the cookies because you can't hear the timer go off!
• Sometimes the ringing is in your ear, sometimes it's the phone. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
  
• Don't take the applesauce the nurse offers you post op. You WILL puke it up immediately.
• Ask for more anti-nausea meds before leaving the surgery center. Otherwise the ride home will not be fun.
• Schedule surgery in the early morning. Fasting sucks!
• Shave your legs before surgery. Don't expect to do so again for at least a week.
  
• Don't try to watch TV with closed captioning. The words go by to fast and they make you dizzy.
  
• Try not to be too bossy to the hubby......and just don't go into the kitchen. It's just better to not know!
  

Can you hear me now?

So I am 8 days post op. I'm feeling much better, besides being tired and dizzy. I still can't hear from the ear that had surgery, and my other ear is at 50%. I got a phone call from my Grandpa the other night and the first words out of his mouth were, "Can you hear me now?". No, Grandpa, I can't hear you now. I'm getting very impatient, only because I don't like to sit and wait. I would rather be up and around doing everything, and right now I can't. I don't trust myself to drive yet, because of the dizziness.

Dan has been a good sport since surgery. When he puts the drops in my ears, he gets out his headlamp flashlight to see better. I give him a thumbs up when I can hear what he said to me. He cooked and took care of the kids the whole first week, letting me rest as much as I could. Most of the first week, food didn't smell, taste, or sound good. Dan would bring me a plate of food, then stand there and wait for me to spit it out, or refuse it from just the smell.

My family has been great. A big thank you to Katie, who brought dinner one night. Also thanks to my Mother in Law who "babysat" me last Saturday when Dan brought the kids to a church BBQ. My Mom and sister keep checking in and making sure I'm taking it easy.

So thank you everyone for the prayers. I'm still praying that my hearing will be fully restored. I was told that it takes about 10 days to fully hear again, so I just need patience for a few more days!

Thank you for the prayers!

Praise the Lord, and thank you everyone for praying for Grant. He was diagnosed with a serious soft tissue infection, and if antibiotics didn't work, they were going to have to do surgery to remove the infection. After just two days of antibiotics, Grant improved remarkably, and was discharged last night. He's home now, and able to walk around. He will still be on strong aniboitics, but at least he is home with family.

So while Grant was down at Children's Hospital, I went in for surgery on my ear. To be specific, a left stapedectomy. Surgery went well, and the doctor was happy with how things went. I was very dizzy and nauseous Wed night, and had a rough ride home. I am still very dizzy and not getting around yet. I am super tired, and am not eating much either. My right ear is feeling sympathetic to the left, and is plugged up. So now I really can't hear a thing. Dan put the closed captioning on the TV for me, but reading it just made me dizzy. Even looking at the computer right now has me spinning. It will take about 10 days for me to be able to hear clearly. I'm ready to get my family cards to hold up to me, because I can't hear them talking to me! I'm hoping that this all passes soon, or I may not be so excited to get the other ear done in a couple months!

Please keep both Grant and I in your prayers. Thanks!

Urgent Prayer Request

Please pray for my 3 year old nephew Grant. He had leg pain the last few days and after two days at the Dr., they sent him to Children's Hospital in Seattle. Right now they are waiting on test results. If the infection is bacterial, he goes into surgery tonight. If it's viral, then they do an MRI in the morning. Please, please pray that God will heal him and that the Dr.'s will find the answers. Thank you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope all of you Moms had a great Mother's Day. Here's the gift to my Step-Mom Marsha. The bottom pictures is all 6 of us kids and families. The top is all four of us kids for my Mom. What a crew!

Beautiful Saturday

We had such a beautiful Saturday! The kids and I went to two local parks today, then came home to play in the yard. I did some yard work, and the kids played in the sprinkler and slip n slide. I forgot how good a sunny day feels!

Lily's Pierced Ears

Lily has to plan and think everything through (I have NO idea where she gets that from). A couple weeks ago she came to me and asked how much it hurt to get your ears pierced. She has to know what she is getting into before she commits to anything. I told her it would pinch and hurt, but then be fine. She thought about it for a day, and came back and said she wanted to get her ears pierced. I was a little surprised, and not sure I was ready for that. But since her birthday was soon, I told her we could do it on her birthday. I figured this would give her time to change her mind. She held true and told everyone she was going to get her ears pierced on her birthday.

So yesterday after school I took her to the mall. She picked out cute pink daisy earrings. I wanted two people available so that they could do both ears at once. The store only had one person working, so I just prayed Lily would not freak out after the first ear!

Lily got a little nervous as she was sitting in the chair waiting for the poke. They had a teddy bear available to squeeze, so she held on tight to that bear. The gal gave a one, two, and pierced on three. Lily said, "Ow", and that was it. She said it hurt, but gave a big smile when we gave her the mirror to see the earring. She held still, and didn't even say a thing after the second ear was done. I am so proud of how brave she was, and how well she took it. We even had strangers that were watching comment on how well Lily did.

She loves her earrings, and knows they have to be cleaned three times a day. She bugged me first thing this morning to clean her ears.

I can't believe how fast she grew up overnight! My baby girl isn't a little anymore!

Lily Turns 7

Lily had a busy birthday weekend. Saturday we celebrated her birthday with the family. Sunday she invited her friends over for a party. Yesterday she brought brownies to class. Three days of birthdays. I let her pick out her pinata and she choose Sponge Bob. I'm not a fan of Sponge Bob, but the idea of them beating him up appealed to me. I was nervous about her party on Sunday, she had invited her whole class, plus a few other friends. We ended up with 14 kids, and they all did great. The all took turns swinging at the pinata, and even stayed back until the whole thing broke (I am always so scared that someone will get hit with the bat!). Lily had a great birthday and knows she's a "lucky ducky" to have three days of birthdays!

Mission Impossible

My Step-Mom called last week and asked for one, and only one thing for Mother's Day. She knew I was the organizer for the family (comes with being the oldest) and set me to the task. The mission was to get a family picture. Now you would think this would be easy, considering we have two fabulous photographers in the family. The first problem is those photographers have to be IN the picture. The second issue is that with my step-brothers, there are 6 of us sibling, and our families. That means wrangling 20 people together for a family picture. Being Dan is out of town, we had figured that we would have to photo shop him in somehow. Then on Sunday Dan called and said he was flying home Monday night, and home for that night only. I quick called all the siblings and by some miracle, got everyone together last night. Dan's flight was delayed, but we still got there before dark. We even got lucky enough to not get rained on! I'm very curious to see how the pictures turned out! I will post them after Mother's Day.....they are a present after all!

Thankful

Today I am thankful that I was able to go on my daughter's field trip. She insisted that someone go with her, and plans were made for my Mom to go with, until my surgery got postponed (my surgeon is stuck in Europe because of the volcanic ash!). First graders are fun, and I love tagging along with her class. I am very blessed that my two jobs allow me the flexibility to do things like field trips. I had to laugh when I noticed that there were three Scentsy consultants on our bus today. But that just goes to show that all three of us were able to have a flexible schedule that allows us to be there for our kids. So when I have a bad day and get frustrated with a volcano in Iceland, I need to remember that I am blessed to have this life and I wouldn't trade this for anything!

Baditude

The kids and I were walking to school this morning and they were fighting. Nate finally told Lily to be quiet. Lily in return said, "I don't have to be quiet, I don't like to be quiet. Why should I have to be quiet. Nate you can't tell me what to do, you are not the boss of me. You have a baditude.......". At that point, I told Lily she needed to be quiet. As she was walking away, her mouth was still moving. I really don't know where she gets it from!!

Scentsy World Tour

I had an amazing time this weekend at Scentsy World Tour, Tri-Cities. Here I am with fellow consultant Val and my Director Nicole. Aren't we cute in our matching t-shirts?

Dear Metta

Dear Metta,

You are one spoiled cat. You have the run of Mom and Wayne's house, you come and go as you please and are the center of attention. I am happy to help Mom out and come feed you while she is gone, but you and I need to come to an agreement. I will continue to come feed you, but you may not bring me any more dead creatures. I forgave you the first day when I found a little dead mouse next to your food dish. But the second day, and second mouse was too much. I don't like mice. Strike that, I hate mice. I won't go anywhere near them. See here's the thing. If you leave a dead mouse near your food dish, I won't go anywhere near it, meaning you will not get more food. Get my point kitty? Good. As long as we can have this mutual agreement, we will get along just fine.

Your caretaker,

Holly

Silly Lily

I had an adventure today. I took my kids to town with me and made 9 stops. Yes, 9. I had a big to do list, a Scentsy delivery, and some things to buy. The kids have been fighting, and it was not always fun to haul them in and out of one store after another.

So we got to Costco and they were fighting over who would get the cart. Really, cuz that's such a big deal! Anyways, Lily finally got into the cart, and we pushed her around with her in the basket part. As we walked out of Costco, the nice lady at the door checks our receipt, and Lily says, "I'm not a Costco item". Like we would confuse her with the celery! Silly girl!

So then on the way home the kids were fighting, again, and Lily looks at Nate and says, "You are not my wife!". Seriously? Last time I checked, I was the only wife in this house. What will she come up with next?

Spring Break, On A Budget

We are in the middle of Spring break right now. It's been yucky, rainy weather all week. The kids have gotten creative in their play. Nate built a fort out of blankets, and then slept in it last night. This morning they turned all the lights off and ran around with flashlights (wasn't exactly dark, but it wasn't bright either).
We have a big roll of paper that the kids like to roll out on the floor. They tape it down, color, then use it as a little city for legos and hot wheels.
The kids love to play with boxes, and I get many of them via Scentsy. This morning the kids took empty boxes, cut them into pieces, and made little characters. They also like to take the boxes and sit in them while watching TV. Maybe they think they are sitting in cars like a drive in?

I am hoping for a break in the weather soon, so we can go play at a park, and go for bike rides. Until then, we will have blanket forts and paper cities to keep us busy!

Easter Photos

What a great Easter we had with family!

Happy Easter!

He is Risen!

We went to Easter services at church last night, to skip the big crowds. I laughed because when I walked in the door I told the greeter, "good morning". I'm sure he got that a lot, since when we went to greet the people around us during the service, the man in front of me told me, "good morning". It's hard to break those habits!

So we were trying to get ready to go to church last night, and Lily didn't want to put on her Easter dress. She was trying to convince me that she only was going to wear it one day, and that would be Sunday. She was whining and I finally told her that I would put a note on the door telling the Easter bunny that Lily was being bad, and he should skip our house. She finally put her dress on, then gave me a hug and whispered, "Don't put a note on the door".

Today we will be going to my Aunt Ruthi's house for Easter. There will be yummy food (I'm making rolls!) and then an egg hunt for the kids and a raw egg toss for the "big" kids. We will be praying that the sun stays out and all this nasty weather we have been having will stay away for the day!

New Bikes

Dan has been really getting into bicycling when he is home. Last year he bought an inexpensive road bike, but was having a hard time keeping up with his friend Gordon on their 30-50 mile bike rides. So he ordered a new bike, and was like a little kid on Christmas waiting for the package to arrive. (He was as happy to see the UPS guy as I am when I get Scentsy packages!).
Nate had outgrown his bike and we were lucky that Dan's cousins were getting rid of their old mountain bikes. They offered one to us for Nate, and we didn't pass it up! Nate loves his new bike, and jumps on it when he gets home from school. And it's red, Nate's favorite color!
Now if we can only get Lily to ride without training wheels, we could do longer family bike rides!