I guess I have Face-Book to thank for being able to get back in touch with a lot of my High School friends. In one way, it seams like only yesterday that we were roaming the halls of good 'ole P.G. High, and yet here we are. Almost 13 years later. Wow, time has sure flown by!!! I was trying to come up with my most memorable memories of High School & this is what I've come up with so far....
- Playing softball & basketball!!! :):):)
- Practicing every day after school. (Always dreaded doing ladders for Basketball)
- Always being late for my first class of the day. (Okay not all the time, just 90% of the time. My teacher's loved me :).
- Having Brigham Church & Ben Ringer sing "Jo Jo she was a showgirl...", every time they saw me.
- Remembering how much I hated Geometry.
- Wondering why I waited a year, to take Spanish 2. Most of the class was fluent, and i was like what the crap did they just say. Not a smart move!
- Wandering the halls during lunch, etc, talking to everyone. (I never wanted to be part of a click. I never cared if somebody was popular or not, it never mattered to me.)
- Going to Brother Taylor's seminary class. One of my all-time favorite teachers!!!
- Driving my Home Ec. (sewing) teacher up the wall with all the questions I asked her. Hey I'd never sewn before!
- Always putting off my homework 'til the last minute. Sometimes staying up all night to write a paper. (One time after doing just that, I didn't save the document & ended up erasing the entire paper. I was so upset!)
- When I had a locker by the lunchroom (sophomore?), there was smoke coming out of a locker across from mine & when the Asst. Principal opened it, it turned out to be a smoking joint someone forgot to put completely out.
- Always hated walking to my art class out in the Art building, cause I always had to walk by the cowboys, which swore like no tomorrow! I had nothing against them personally, I just felt like I should wear earplugs every time I walked by them.
- Going to one dance the entire 4 years of High School.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hair Cutting Adventure w/ the Boys :)....
Last night I finally caved in & gave my boys a hair cut! When they start looking like little homeless children (although cute ones) :), I knew it was time. Way overdue in fact!!!!
Now since I have never had any formal training, I try not to psyche myself out every time my 'not so great skills' are called upon. With my husband, I've come to realize that no matter how bad I can mess up, it can always be worse. :):):) Ha ha ha & he knows it. :) I once forgot to put the plastic guard on the clippers & not even paying attention to what I was doing took a huge chunk of hair out of the back of his head, all the way to the scalp :). The 'oh crap' didn't do it justice! I felt so bad! Needless to say, he had a very, very short hair cut, & there was a definite line down the back of his neck! :) And yes Nathan I am still sorry you got so much razzing from the guys @ work!
He has only himself to blame :) Before Nathan, I have never....& I mean never...cut anyone's hair before. My dad once tried to get me to cut his while he was in the Nat'l Guard, when my mom was out of town. But I was so afraid to screw up what little hair he had left :):), that I totally chickened out. I had the scissors & comb in my hands, and I just couldn't do it! Poor guy had to cut his own hair. Sorry dad! So after I married Nathan and he wanted me to cut his hair, I told him NO WAY. But he kept begging me & telling me it doesn't matter, it's only hair, it grows back....So see! It is his fault! :) I will give him credit though...he did a good job of teaching me, but that still doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it. More so now, but still...
So back to cutting my boys hair. Before last night, I have only had Jayden's hair cut once by a girl in a salon (cost the same as my hair cut), & twice by me. The 1st time I cut his was only to cut off the curls in the back of his hair...to which Nathan has still not forgiven me for. :) I'm sorry honey, it did look cute, but it made him look like a girl. And then last year, I buzzed both the boys hair completely off for the summer. Those are the only times I have done anything to their hair.
Let's just say, this time, I am seriously shocked I didn't cut myself or the boys; or worse yet, lose a finger. That & that neither of them ended up with a bald head! Mission accomplished :):) Whoo Hoo!!! Jayden was actually really good, except for the fact the clippers make him extremely gigglish. He was constantly doing the shoulder shrug, anytime they remotely came near him. Tyler on the other hand was a whole new ball game! I don't know if anyone has ever cut an 18 month old's hair before? But let's just say, they should invent a restraining device for just such a case! I finally had to resort to buckling him in Jayden's booster seat, just to stop him from climbing out of the chair. Not only that, but every time he heard the buzzing noise from the clippers, he would immediately duck his head & cover it with both hands, like he was being attacked by bees! So for fear of injury, the clippers were out! Now to actually cut his hair!
I was able to get his mind off of what I was 'attempting to do', for only a short while, by bribing him with toys. But he moved his head so much, it was hit and miss trying to cut actual hair. Mikayla was able to distract him a couple of times also, but I finally had to just gently pin his head against my stomach & block his hands with the same arm I was using to hold his hair with, & hope to heck I didn't go deaf from the piercing screaming in my ear. I seriously should have video taped it. It was a sight to behold! I still can't believe I actually did it! One traumatized baby & basket-case mother later.....Mission Accomplished!!!!! Oh yeh!
Forking out money to have someone else do it next time, sounds so much more appealing now!
Now since I have never had any formal training, I try not to psyche myself out every time my 'not so great skills' are called upon. With my husband, I've come to realize that no matter how bad I can mess up, it can always be worse. :):):) Ha ha ha & he knows it. :) I once forgot to put the plastic guard on the clippers & not even paying attention to what I was doing took a huge chunk of hair out of the back of his head, all the way to the scalp :). The 'oh crap' didn't do it justice! I felt so bad! Needless to say, he had a very, very short hair cut, & there was a definite line down the back of his neck! :) And yes Nathan I am still sorry you got so much razzing from the guys @ work!
He has only himself to blame :) Before Nathan, I have never....& I mean never...cut anyone's hair before. My dad once tried to get me to cut his while he was in the Nat'l Guard, when my mom was out of town. But I was so afraid to screw up what little hair he had left :):), that I totally chickened out. I had the scissors & comb in my hands, and I just couldn't do it! Poor guy had to cut his own hair. Sorry dad! So after I married Nathan and he wanted me to cut his hair, I told him NO WAY. But he kept begging me & telling me it doesn't matter, it's only hair, it grows back....So see! It is his fault! :) I will give him credit though...he did a good job of teaching me, but that still doesn't mean I'm comfortable with it. More so now, but still...
So back to cutting my boys hair. Before last night, I have only had Jayden's hair cut once by a girl in a salon (cost the same as my hair cut), & twice by me. The 1st time I cut his was only to cut off the curls in the back of his hair...to which Nathan has still not forgiven me for. :) I'm sorry honey, it did look cute, but it made him look like a girl. And then last year, I buzzed both the boys hair completely off for the summer. Those are the only times I have done anything to their hair.
Let's just say, this time, I am seriously shocked I didn't cut myself or the boys; or worse yet, lose a finger. That & that neither of them ended up with a bald head! Mission accomplished :):) Whoo Hoo!!! Jayden was actually really good, except for the fact the clippers make him extremely gigglish. He was constantly doing the shoulder shrug, anytime they remotely came near him. Tyler on the other hand was a whole new ball game! I don't know if anyone has ever cut an 18 month old's hair before? But let's just say, they should invent a restraining device for just such a case! I finally had to resort to buckling him in Jayden's booster seat, just to stop him from climbing out of the chair. Not only that, but every time he heard the buzzing noise from the clippers, he would immediately duck his head & cover it with both hands, like he was being attacked by bees! So for fear of injury, the clippers were out! Now to actually cut his hair!
I was able to get his mind off of what I was 'attempting to do', for only a short while, by bribing him with toys. But he moved his head so much, it was hit and miss trying to cut actual hair. Mikayla was able to distract him a couple of times also, but I finally had to just gently pin his head against my stomach & block his hands with the same arm I was using to hold his hair with, & hope to heck I didn't go deaf from the piercing screaming in my ear. I seriously should have video taped it. It was a sight to behold! I still can't believe I actually did it! One traumatized baby & basket-case mother later.....Mission Accomplished!!!!! Oh yeh!
Forking out money to have someone else do it next time, sounds so much more appealing now!
Worst Cartoons....
The other day I was cooking lunch for my kids in the Kitchen, when SpongeBob Square Pants came on. Now I know it's a popular kids show, but I honestly can't stand it. I refuse to let my kids watch it! I watched one episode with them once, and that was it! It taught them nothing but be mean to each other. That got me thinking about other kids shows I can't stand, some of which are inappropriate for children. I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but here goes anyway:
1 - Of course, SpongeBob Square Pants: Have you ever seen this show? After only watching it for a couple of minutes, my kids started calling each other names & Jayden started thinking that hitting was okay.
2 - Power Rangers: Yeh! They don't want our kids to be violent, and yet they have, or had, like 2 different versions of this.
3 - Teletubbies - Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My mother in law thought this show was great, because it taught my nephew-in-law to wave. Hello! Have you seen this show? That's about the only thing you can understand!!!!
4 - Boobah (I think that's what it's called). Holy crap if I ever watch that show again, it's too soon. It's like teletubbies, but with a creepy oompa loompa vibe!
5 - CatDog - I'm not a cat person, but still they treat the cat-half like crap.
6 - Ren & Stimpy - Awful! Awful! Awful! Wasn't there a mean rat or mouse or something, that was always seriously injuring one of them?
7 - Caillou: Every episode I have ever seen of this show, he does nothing but whine!!! Ugh! And what's worse, he always gets what he wants.
8 - Mr. Rogers: I'm sorry Mr. Rogers! But that was torture.
9 - Pee Wee's Playhouse: Scary!
10 - Yo Gabba Gabba: CREEPY!!!
11 - Doodlebops: Extremely annoying, especially the 2 guys. The girl has a really good singing voice & some of their songs are catchy, but that's about it.
12 - SouthPark - Now I know this isn't a kid show, but it's a cartoon none-the-less. I can honestly say that I'm guilty of watching this show on several occasions, my husband likes it, and there have been some really funny parts. But holy crap, they kill that poor kid (Kenny?) in every episode & they are extremely mean & crude. Which, Yes, I do know it's for adults, but still...
That's all I can think of right now, but feel free to add to my list............
1 - Of course, SpongeBob Square Pants: Have you ever seen this show? After only watching it for a couple of minutes, my kids started calling each other names & Jayden started thinking that hitting was okay.
2 - Power Rangers: Yeh! They don't want our kids to be violent, and yet they have, or had, like 2 different versions of this.
3 - Teletubbies - Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My mother in law thought this show was great, because it taught my nephew-in-law to wave. Hello! Have you seen this show? That's about the only thing you can understand!!!!
4 - Boobah (I think that's what it's called). Holy crap if I ever watch that show again, it's too soon. It's like teletubbies, but with a creepy oompa loompa vibe!
5 - CatDog - I'm not a cat person, but still they treat the cat-half like crap.
6 - Ren & Stimpy - Awful! Awful! Awful! Wasn't there a mean rat or mouse or something, that was always seriously injuring one of them?
7 - Caillou: Every episode I have ever seen of this show, he does nothing but whine!!! Ugh! And what's worse, he always gets what he wants.
8 - Mr. Rogers: I'm sorry Mr. Rogers! But that was torture.
9 - Pee Wee's Playhouse: Scary!
10 - Yo Gabba Gabba: CREEPY!!!
11 - Doodlebops: Extremely annoying, especially the 2 guys. The girl has a really good singing voice & some of their songs are catchy, but that's about it.
12 - SouthPark - Now I know this isn't a kid show, but it's a cartoon none-the-less. I can honestly say that I'm guilty of watching this show on several occasions, my husband likes it, and there have been some really funny parts. But holy crap, they kill that poor kid (Kenny?) in every episode & they are extremely mean & crude. Which, Yes, I do know it's for adults, but still...
That's all I can think of right now, but feel free to add to my list............
Monday, February 23, 2009
"Jraffes Do Outside"
This is Jayden jibber-jabbering while mom is trying to fix him lunch today:). Jayden I love our daily conversations :):):)......
J: Mom I don't like jraffes in duh house. They do outside. Jraffes do outside. I like tigers, but they do outside too. I like to ride tigers outside. And I like to ride elephants outside. And I ride Zebras outside. I like to ride giraffes outside too.
M: Why do the giraffes & the other animals need to go outside?
J: 'tause dey tan 'stroy a house. 'Tause dey big. Dey jump up and 'stroy a house.'
M: Oh, now I see. :):)
----
(sees mom re-heating pizza in the microwave)
J: Mom tan dey put cereal on a pizza?
M: You want cereal on a pizza? :) (2 of his favorite foods, by the way)
J: Yeh... I wish I had cereal on a pizza.
M: How come?
J: 'tause I like cereal !
---
J: Mom do you wish this was a dun like dad's? (pointing to a car shade on the table in front of him, which he uses as his gun).
M: No
J: I wish it was a dun like dad's......That'd be a trazy dun.
M: Jayden, you are a little too young to have a real gun. Guns are dangerous.
J: No dey not.
M: Yes, they are Jayden!
J: No dey not. Dad's 'sposed to det the bad duys with duh duns.
M: No he's not. That's not dad's job. That's a job for a policeman. The police catch the bad guys & take them to the police station.
J: No dey not. It's dad's job. Dad shoots the bad duys.
M: Jayden, what you see on t.v. isn't real, bud. We don't go around shooting bad guys.
J: (a very determined) Yes, we do.
(((Oh boy, I've got my work cut out for me this time!)))
And for those people who thing television is not to blame for our children thinking like this, you're on crack!!!
Just a side note: I honestly wish they would stop putting adult cartoons on regular t.v. channels. My kids think every cartoon is a kids cartoon. I have to constantly monitor what they're watching. (Worst cartoons: The Simpson's & Family Guy, among others.)
J: Mom I don't like jraffes in duh house. They do outside. Jraffes do outside. I like tigers, but they do outside too. I like to ride tigers outside. And I like to ride elephants outside. And I ride Zebras outside. I like to ride giraffes outside too. M: Why do the giraffes & the other animals need to go outside?
J: 'tause dey tan 'stroy a house. 'Tause dey big. Dey jump up and 'stroy a house.'
M: Oh, now I see. :):)
----
(sees mom re-heating pizza in the microwave)
J: Mom tan dey put cereal on a pizza?
M: You want cereal on a pizza? :) (2 of his favorite foods, by the way)
J: Yeh... I wish I had cereal on a pizza.
M: How come?
J: 'tause I like cereal !
---
J: Mom do you wish this was a dun like dad's? (pointing to a car shade on the table in front of him, which he uses as his gun).M: No
J: I wish it was a dun like dad's......That'd be a trazy dun.
M: Jayden, you are a little too young to have a real gun. Guns are dangerous.
J: No dey not.
M: Yes, they are Jayden!
J: No dey not. Dad's 'sposed to det the bad duys with duh duns.
M: No he's not. That's not dad's job. That's a job for a policeman. The police catch the bad guys & take them to the police station.
J: No dey not. It's dad's job. Dad shoots the bad duys.
M: Jayden, what you see on t.v. isn't real, bud. We don't go around shooting bad guys.
J: (a very determined) Yes, we do.
(((Oh boy, I've got my work cut out for me this time!)))
And for those people who thing television is not to blame for our children thinking like this, you're on crack!!!
Just a side note: I honestly wish they would stop putting adult cartoons on regular t.v. channels. My kids think every cartoon is a kids cartoon. I have to constantly monitor what they're watching. (Worst cartoons: The Simpson's & Family Guy, among others.)
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Vegas Vacation, Part II
It was a good thing we didn't take Morgan with us. On the drive to the hotel, my stomach started feeling out of wack. Something just didn't feel right. It started to hurt worse, the closer we got to the hotel. I don't know what happened. I was feeling great earlier in the day, and then all the sudden I felt like crap. I just felt so nauseated. (I could've sworn it was the pizza, but no one else got sick from it)
We dropped Nathan off at the main entrance to the hotel, so he wouldn't be late, and I drove up to the parking garage to meet Rochelle. By then, I literally felt like I was going to hurl. I felt awful. I got out of the van to meet Roch, and had to lean over just to get the feeling to pass. Thank goodness she was there, or I don't know how I would've gotten me and the kids up to the hotel. We were able to get most of the little stuff, but we left the big stuff for Nathan to carry up later.
As soon as we got up to the hotel room, I laid down for a minute, and then it hit me full force. I had to run to the bathroom and throw up. Lovely I know, but I pretty much spent the next couple of days worshipping the toilet gods. I just laid on the bathroom floor shaky and weak. I couldn't eat anything, and could barely drink anything. It sucked. I don't know if it was food poisoning or not, since my only symptoms were a very upset stomach, and throwing up. Normally with food poisoning, you get other symptoms as well, if you know what I mean. Plus no one else got sick, and we all ate the same thing. So I still don't know what caused it. It was crazy!
I especially felt bad for the kids. They wanted to immediately go out and see everything I talked about on the way there. But I felt so bad, I could barely move. I spent most of the night on the bathroom floor. Thank goodness I had the piece of mind to bring up the portable dvd player & movies to the room. It came in very handy! The poor kids spent the rest of the night watching movies, on the little dvd player, until Nathan got out of the convention. It drove them crazy to be couped up!
We did have an awesome view of the Sirens pirate show; however, from our window. We were literally right above it on the 19th floor. The fireworks went right up past our window. The only crappy thing? The show was every hour on the hour, starting from 6 until 11 p.m. So if you wanted to go to bed earlier, you'd have cannon's blasting, and music blaring & fireworks exploding right outside your window....so bring earplugs! Plus every time the fireworks went off Tyler would cry & freak out. He didn't like it at all. What a crappy night!
Finally, late Wednesday afternoon, after spending all morning in the bathroom, I sucked it up, and took the kids out to see some sites. For being so couped up, they behaved really well. Thank goodness I had a stroller that Rochelle had given me the day before, to put Tyler in. There's no way I could have carried him.
I took them to the Mirage to see the huge fish tank and then we went to the Secret Garden to see the dolphins & the wild cats. It was awesome! I love dolphins! If you have kids especially, I recommend going to see it. I think we were there for like 3 hours. We did the rounds, the kids chased each other, then when the kids were tired we started back to the hotel.
Mikayla really wanted to see the Volcano 'erupt', but it didn't start for another hour. They were getting it ready for the show, so we were able to see a little smoke & lights, but that's about it. The kids weren't about to wait that long, so we continued on our way. By the time we got back to Treasure Island, everyone was waiting out front by the Pirate ships, waiting to watch the Siren's show. We waited for a couple of minutes, but just decided to head back up to the hotel room, since Nathan was already done with his conference. Plus Mikayla & Jayden were so bored & Tyler was already out for the count, & I was exhausted from all the walking & weak from not being able to eat anything. The sucky part is? As soon as we got up to the hotel room, the show started!....Go figure. Oh well, we still had an awesome view of the show. The fireworks went right up past our window. The kids loved it. Me, on the other hand, just laid down.
We were supposed to go to Jamie's house (Nathan's sister) in Henderson, that night for dinner. By that time I was not feeling good again. I had definitely overdone it. Needless to say I opted out & Nathan took the kids & went on ahead, so I could get some rest.
Soon after they left, I get a phone call from Roch, saying that she was coming back down to the strip with the girls, to go to Victoria Secret (in the Pellazo @ the Venetian, where Rochelle works). Still not feeling well, but wanting to see the girls one last time before we had to go home, I agreed to meet them in the parking garage.
Not the best idea! My mind wasn't working straight and I ended up on the wrong floor, & it took me a minute to realize this. So they were wondering what was taking me. Then when we got to Victoria Secret, I went straight for the lotions & starting smelling them to find the scents I wanted. Even worse idea! The smells just made my stomach churn & gave me a headache, and I spent the rest of the time, sitting on the edge of one of their displays, while the other girls shopped. I felt so bad!!! I didn't want to rush them, since they drove all the way down, but I seriously just needed to go back to the hotel & lay down.
Roch wanted to take me somewhere to eat, but I figured I could just find something to eat at the hotel (preferably soup). So she drove me back to the hotel, I said goodbye to the girls, and went back to the hotel room.
About a half hour later, my stomach had finally settled back down & I felt ravenous! I was STARVING! Nathan warned me that I would be. He was definitely right. I found the menu & called room service to order their chicken noodle soup & caesar's salad w/ honey mustard dressing.
About 15-20 minutes later my food arrived. I went to pay for my meal w/ my debit card & the waiter informed me it was cash only!!! You are freakin' kidding me. Supposedly my husband was supposed to set up some type of account when he first checked into the hotel, if he wanted to use room service. I was at a loss for words. I was like what am I supposed to do? My husband's gone, my food's here, the waiter is waiting to be paid. Finally he said just this once he could do it, but in the future, my husband needed to set up that account. Whew!!!!! Situation averted!
So I gave him my debit card, the whole time thinking, what if he never comes back with it, since there's no record of me being able to use one to begin with, and sat down to eat, worrying about my dumb debit card. The second I finished my salad, which I devoured by the way, Nathan & the kids came back. He said 'I told you didn't I.' Yes he did. So I finished my soup & crackers & yes, the waiter did come back w/ my credit card. Another whew!!!!
The next morning we packed up the van, Nathan checked out & we stopped at McDonald's to grab a bite to eat. I was hoping to wake up to a complete recovery, but my stomach still wasn't back to normal. Plus, I hadn't slept well, since my little Jayden kept kicking me in the side. So we grabbed some food & were on our way. The smell of the food just made me nauseated, so I just drank water for breakfast. We drove until we hit Cedar City. By then, I felt well enough to eat, & we pulled over to fill up on gas & get some groceries @ Wal-Mart. The only thing that sounded remotely good to me was grapes. So purple seedless grapes it was.
I ended up driving the rest of the way home, since Nathan had to work on payroll. It took me the rest of that day and the next to finally get completely over the bug that was ailing me. No one else got sick. Thank goodness! Wow what an end to a wonderful vacation!!!!!
We dropped Nathan off at the main entrance to the hotel, so he wouldn't be late, and I drove up to the parking garage to meet Rochelle. By then, I literally felt like I was going to hurl. I felt awful. I got out of the van to meet Roch, and had to lean over just to get the feeling to pass. Thank goodness she was there, or I don't know how I would've gotten me and the kids up to the hotel. We were able to get most of the little stuff, but we left the big stuff for Nathan to carry up later.
As soon as we got up to the hotel room, I laid down for a minute, and then it hit me full force. I had to run to the bathroom and throw up. Lovely I know, but I pretty much spent the next couple of days worshipping the toilet gods. I just laid on the bathroom floor shaky and weak. I couldn't eat anything, and could barely drink anything. It sucked. I don't know if it was food poisoning or not, since my only symptoms were a very upset stomach, and throwing up. Normally with food poisoning, you get other symptoms as well, if you know what I mean. Plus no one else got sick, and we all ate the same thing. So I still don't know what caused it. It was crazy!
I especially felt bad for the kids. They wanted to immediately go out and see everything I talked about on the way there. But I felt so bad, I could barely move. I spent most of the night on the bathroom floor. Thank goodness I had the piece of mind to bring up the portable dvd player & movies to the room. It came in very handy! The poor kids spent the rest of the night watching movies, on the little dvd player, until Nathan got out of the convention. It drove them crazy to be couped up!
We did have an awesome view of the Sirens pirate show; however, from our window. We were literally right above it on the 19th floor. The fireworks went right up past our window. The only crappy thing? The show was every hour on the hour, starting from 6 until 11 p.m. So if you wanted to go to bed earlier, you'd have cannon's blasting, and music blaring & fireworks exploding right outside your window....so bring earplugs! Plus every time the fireworks went off Tyler would cry & freak out. He didn't like it at all. What a crappy night!
Finally, late Wednesday afternoon, after spending all morning in the bathroom, I sucked it up, and took the kids out to see some sites. For being so couped up, they behaved really well. Thank goodness I had a stroller that Rochelle had given me the day before, to put Tyler in. There's no way I could have carried him.
I took them to the Mirage to see the huge fish tank and then we went to the Secret Garden to see the dolphins & the wild cats. It was awesome! I love dolphins! If you have kids especially, I recommend going to see it. I think we were there for like 3 hours. We did the rounds, the kids chased each other, then when the kids were tired we started back to the hotel.
Mikayla really wanted to see the Volcano 'erupt', but it didn't start for another hour. They were getting it ready for the show, so we were able to see a little smoke & lights, but that's about it. The kids weren't about to wait that long, so we continued on our way. By the time we got back to Treasure Island, everyone was waiting out front by the Pirate ships, waiting to watch the Siren's show. We waited for a couple of minutes, but just decided to head back up to the hotel room, since Nathan was already done with his conference. Plus Mikayla & Jayden were so bored & Tyler was already out for the count, & I was exhausted from all the walking & weak from not being able to eat anything. The sucky part is? As soon as we got up to the hotel room, the show started!....Go figure. Oh well, we still had an awesome view of the show. The fireworks went right up past our window. The kids loved it. Me, on the other hand, just laid down.
We were supposed to go to Jamie's house (Nathan's sister) in Henderson, that night for dinner. By that time I was not feeling good again. I had definitely overdone it. Needless to say I opted out & Nathan took the kids & went on ahead, so I could get some rest.
Soon after they left, I get a phone call from Roch, saying that she was coming back down to the strip with the girls, to go to Victoria Secret (in the Pellazo @ the Venetian, where Rochelle works). Still not feeling well, but wanting to see the girls one last time before we had to go home, I agreed to meet them in the parking garage.
Not the best idea! My mind wasn't working straight and I ended up on the wrong floor, & it took me a minute to realize this. So they were wondering what was taking me. Then when we got to Victoria Secret, I went straight for the lotions & starting smelling them to find the scents I wanted. Even worse idea! The smells just made my stomach churn & gave me a headache, and I spent the rest of the time, sitting on the edge of one of their displays, while the other girls shopped. I felt so bad!!! I didn't want to rush them, since they drove all the way down, but I seriously just needed to go back to the hotel & lay down.
Roch wanted to take me somewhere to eat, but I figured I could just find something to eat at the hotel (preferably soup). So she drove me back to the hotel, I said goodbye to the girls, and went back to the hotel room.
About a half hour later, my stomach had finally settled back down & I felt ravenous! I was STARVING! Nathan warned me that I would be. He was definitely right. I found the menu & called room service to order their chicken noodle soup & caesar's salad w/ honey mustard dressing.
About 15-20 minutes later my food arrived. I went to pay for my meal w/ my debit card & the waiter informed me it was cash only!!! You are freakin' kidding me. Supposedly my husband was supposed to set up some type of account when he first checked into the hotel, if he wanted to use room service. I was at a loss for words. I was like what am I supposed to do? My husband's gone, my food's here, the waiter is waiting to be paid. Finally he said just this once he could do it, but in the future, my husband needed to set up that account. Whew!!!!! Situation averted!
So I gave him my debit card, the whole time thinking, what if he never comes back with it, since there's no record of me being able to use one to begin with, and sat down to eat, worrying about my dumb debit card. The second I finished my salad, which I devoured by the way, Nathan & the kids came back. He said 'I told you didn't I.' Yes he did. So I finished my soup & crackers & yes, the waiter did come back w/ my credit card. Another whew!!!!
The next morning we packed up the van, Nathan checked out & we stopped at McDonald's to grab a bite to eat. I was hoping to wake up to a complete recovery, but my stomach still wasn't back to normal. Plus, I hadn't slept well, since my little Jayden kept kicking me in the side. So we grabbed some food & were on our way. The smell of the food just made me nauseated, so I just drank water for breakfast. We drove until we hit Cedar City. By then, I felt well enough to eat, & we pulled over to fill up on gas & get some groceries @ Wal-Mart. The only thing that sounded remotely good to me was grapes. So purple seedless grapes it was.
I ended up driving the rest of the way home, since Nathan had to work on payroll. It took me the rest of that day and the next to finally get completely over the bug that was ailing me. No one else got sick. Thank goodness! Wow what an end to a wonderful vacation!!!!!
If I Knew Then, What I Know Now................
If I knew then, what I know now, what would I have told myself to prepare for the future?......
1. Things don't stay the same.
2. They always tell you about the 'happily ever after', & yet they don't tell you what happens after the 'happily ever after.'
3. Do more things, stop being such a wuss.
4. Study harder, stop slacking off.
5. Keep exercising, especially when pregnant & after having kids!! Even if you're exhausted & worn out & think you can't do it, find something that you can do & DO IT. Because once you stop it is soooooooo hard to get going again.
6. Don't lose myself, while taking care of the kids & the house.
7. Have regular date nights with my hubby. Make it a priority.
8. Go on more family vacations.
9. Stop being so afraid of trying new things.
10. Instead of just enjoying watching other people dance, take lessons & learn to dance myself.
11. Don't quit piano lessons, you'll regret it later on.
12. Stop being so uptight about trying to have a clean house. It doesn't help!
13. Cherish the moments I have with my kids while they're little. They grow up way too fast, and pretty soon they don't want to hang out with mom anymore. (hopefully that's not the case, though)
14. Take more pictures of Mikayla when she was little. I have hours upon hours of home video, but hardly any pictures until she was almost 3.
15. Stop beating yourself up all the time.
16. No matter what! Believe in yourself.
17. Be confident. Not cocky, but self assured.
18. Visit my grandparents more, before I no longer can.
19. Take swimming lessons.
20. Travel more, see new places. Discover what else is out there in the world. Spread my wings.
21. Get more sleep!
22. Take better care of self.
23. Get a degree in something before you start a family, so you'll have something to fall back on when you're kids are in school.
24. Listen more to your parents, they went through a lot of the same things you went through. They could have saved you a lot of heartache.
25. Help my mom more.
26. Learn how to cook from my mom. You'll kick yourself later for not doing so. When I first got married my husband informed me that dinner out of a box wasn't gonna cut it! :)
27. Be nicer to younger siblings, growing up.
28. Keep in better touch with all your friends after you're married, you'll regret it if you don't.
29. Don't ever lose faith in people. (Even when you become de-sensitized while working at customer service @ Wal-Mart.) Most people are generally good, it's just those select few that aren't. Not everyone is trying to con you!
30. Take photography classes.
31. Keep playing sports.
I'll add more as I think of them. ........................
1. Things don't stay the same.
2. They always tell you about the 'happily ever after', & yet they don't tell you what happens after the 'happily ever after.'
3. Do more things, stop being such a wuss.
4. Study harder, stop slacking off.
5. Keep exercising, especially when pregnant & after having kids!! Even if you're exhausted & worn out & think you can't do it, find something that you can do & DO IT. Because once you stop it is soooooooo hard to get going again.
6. Don't lose myself, while taking care of the kids & the house.
7. Have regular date nights with my hubby. Make it a priority.
8. Go on more family vacations.
9. Stop being so afraid of trying new things.
10. Instead of just enjoying watching other people dance, take lessons & learn to dance myself.
11. Don't quit piano lessons, you'll regret it later on.
12. Stop being so uptight about trying to have a clean house. It doesn't help!
13. Cherish the moments I have with my kids while they're little. They grow up way too fast, and pretty soon they don't want to hang out with mom anymore. (hopefully that's not the case, though)
14. Take more pictures of Mikayla when she was little. I have hours upon hours of home video, but hardly any pictures until she was almost 3.
15. Stop beating yourself up all the time.
16. No matter what! Believe in yourself.
17. Be confident. Not cocky, but self assured.
18. Visit my grandparents more, before I no longer can.
19. Take swimming lessons.
20. Travel more, see new places. Discover what else is out there in the world. Spread my wings.
21. Get more sleep!
22. Take better care of self.
23. Get a degree in something before you start a family, so you'll have something to fall back on when you're kids are in school.
24. Listen more to your parents, they went through a lot of the same things you went through. They could have saved you a lot of heartache.
25. Help my mom more.
26. Learn how to cook from my mom. You'll kick yourself later for not doing so. When I first got married my husband informed me that dinner out of a box wasn't gonna cut it! :)
27. Be nicer to younger siblings, growing up.
28. Keep in better touch with all your friends after you're married, you'll regret it if you don't.
29. Don't ever lose faith in people. (Even when you become de-sensitized while working at customer service @ Wal-Mart.) Most people are generally good, it's just those select few that aren't. Not everyone is trying to con you!
30. Take photography classes.
31. Keep playing sports.
I'll add more as I think of them. ........................
Friday, February 20, 2009
Vegas Vacation, Part I
Jan. 8 -13th we went to Vegas for my husband's work convention. My sister, Rochelle, lives in Vegas & it was so nice to be able to spend some time with her & her family. (I miss you guys so much!!!) It went by way too fast, though, like it always does. Thanks for always making us feel so loved & welcomed!!!
Jayden had fun following Josh around & tackling him. And the girls had a blast playing Rock Band. Mikayla was lead singer, and Morgan played the drums. I even got to play the guitar with them for a little bit. (I had only played once before at this years New Year's Eve party at Alex's house...a guy my husband works with). It was a blast! It's very addicting. It really does make you want to play the guitar. It makes it seam so easy.. But my husband, was quick to point out, it's nothing like playing an actual guitar. Oh well, it was still fun!!
The girls played for hours on end. They were actually pretty good. They wanted to get 'money' so they could add outfits & accessories to their players. They definitely rocked it! This was only Mikayla's 2nd time playing. She played a little bit at the New Year's Party I mentioned. So she kind of knew what she was doing. It just took her a little bit to get used to it again. She took it so serious! She had this intense look on her face the whole time, as you can tell from the pictures below. She got very into character :).
---
Nathan, me, Roch & Darrin went out for Sushi on Saturday. We went to a place called Sumo's (I think that's what it's called), in Henderson. It is the best sushi place ever!!! They have what's called the 'W07' & the 'Apple #1' that are to die for. Oh... so good!! :d. You have to have Sunny make it though. He's the best sushi chef they have there. He has a huge following. People are always requesting him. He knows my sister & brother-in-law very well. They go there every week when he's there. He moved out of state for a couple of months, but he's back now & better than ever. Yay!!! Anyway he was there, and he definitely hooked us up. He went above and beyond with our food. I have never eaten so much sushi. It was so good. I even ate the raw ones...never done that before. They were actually pretty dang good. There was a tuna one, though, I wasn't a big fan of, but my husband loved it.
Afterwords, we went and played some pool, and then watched a really cool local band, the Yellow Brick Road, play at the Alliante Station. They were awesome! Darrin & Roch have seen them many times, and said how good they were. They imitate all of the great rock bands, and they sound just like them. It was so much fun! Rochelle was even able to drag me out on the dance floor, which is a huge feat. I felt like a total dork, but it was a lot of fun. At least I know I wasn't the worst dancer (okay at least I think I wasn't :).
There was this lady who was just a wee bit intoxicated, (wow how do I explain her dancing? ....ummmm.....unique :). On the first couple of songs, she was the only one out on the dance floor. She was front & center, right below the band. Boy did she put on quite a show. She was probably in her mid 40-50's, and she wore this shirt that barely covered her belly. Now I know I don't have a six pack or anything, so I can't say a whole lot, but normally when your belly is spewing over the waistband of your pants, you would think someone would try to cover up. This poor lady kept raising her hands when she would dance. She kept like shuffling forward and backwards like 50 times and she'd raise her hands over her head. It was kind of funny, but I still felt really bad for her. A couple of times, the lead singer, couldn't help but smile at her antics. He looked at his guitar player a couple of times and gave him this look like is this lady for real. He gave her a shout out though, he seamed like a really cool guy.
That was the first time in a long time, that me & Nathan have been on an actual date without kids. And to go out with Rochelle & Darrin was even more incredible!!! It was an absolute blast, and a much needed reprieve. Thanks Roch & Darrin for such a fun night! We definitely need to do that again!!!
Let's see, what else? Oh me & the kids went to Olive Garden Monday night w/ Roch & the fam. Nathan was at his sisters house. Plus he's not a huge Olive Garden fan. I, on the other hand, love it. As much as I love it though, we had the absolute worst service ever. It took us about 10 minutes just to get our waitress to come and take our drinks. The waitress was HORRIBLE!!! She made it sound like she was tag-teaming with this other waiter. But she took our orders and did nothing with it. The other waiter, poor guy, was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. We had to constantly flag other waiters down just to get a refill on our drinks and breadsticks, etc. When she would come back, she'd check on us, to see how we're doing and then we wouldn't see her again for a long time.
It took us even longer to get our check. . Thank goodness we brought 2 vehicles. Darrin took most of the kids home with him, while my sister & I & my 2 boys, tried to get the check. It took about 10-15 minutes longer just for that to happen. My sister had to finally flag another passing waitress down and tell her to 'please either get us our check or the manager.' Within a minute, the manager was at our table. I have never seen so many waiters & waitresses trying to help us then. Needless to say it was not a pleasant dining experience. The Manager was nice & gave us a $50.00 gift certificate, but dinner was still a bust. I was dissapointed.
Tuesday, Nathan went golfing with a bunch of guys from his work, etc. Then came over early to Roch's to hang out and pick us up to take us back to the hotel. Nathan had checked into the hotel on Sunday night. We were supposed to stay with him, but I wanted to spend more time with Roch & the fam, so me & the kids stayed until Tuesday. Thank goodness Rochelle was able to get Monday off, so we could spend more time with her. We were even able to see my baby brother Marc & his baby :) a couple of times also, which was nice. He has a 6 month old German Shephard. Gorgeous dog. It's name used to be 'Bear' but he changed it's name (I can't remember the new name, though).
We took all of the younger kids to this awesome park just off of I-95 & the 215, right behind Target. They had a blast!!!! (Okay, everyone but Tyler that is, poor guy was exhausted so we left him at the house with my niece Tyra. Me & Roch would always take the kids here when we lived in Vegas.) Man that Morgan is a climber. She zoomed right up this climbing wall like 50 times, while my kids struggled to get up once. Nathan raced her once, and she still beat him. I always tease her she's part monkey.
Their next adventure? These huge multi-colored slides. When they first opened the park, the kids would literally go flying out of the middle one, because they gained so much speed. You could stand 5 feet away and catch your kid. It was crazy! They had to close it several times, because I think kids got hurt on it. They've since fixed the problem, but it's still the kids favorite slide.
It's funny, cause I'm taking pictures of the kids running around, climbing, sliding, swinging, chasing each other & every time I zoom in on Nathan...he's playing on his new I-Phone. Even when he's pushing Jayden on the swing, his attention's on his new phone. Towards the end though, he finally put it away and started playing with the kids. The kids loved it, of course.
Right before we left, Nathan took the kids over to the swings one last time. We told the kids beforehand that we would go & get some pizza after they were done playing in the park. Then when it was time to go, Nathan yells "last one to the van, doesn't get pizza." Which, of course, the kids jump up & start running, as if shot from a cannon.:) Nathan picks up Jayden and starts running with him, which leaves Morgan & Mikayla to race it out to the finish line.
Well Mikayla, seeing that Morgan's going to win, all the sudden stops & starts to pout. I'm trailing behind taking pictures, so I of course see this whole thing happen. At first, not understanding why Mikayla was so upset. So while I'm crossing the bridge, I see Morgan come running back, trying to push Mikayla along, then I hear her loudly say, 'you're not the last one, your mom is, come on Mikayla, come on. She's the one who won't get pizza.' Instead of reassuring her, Mikayla, plants her feet in the ground & pouts even more. Finally, Morgan just gave up & sprinted to the van (when I walked up to where they were)leaving Mikayla in the dust. Mikayla's look says it all. As sad as she looked, it was so hard to keep a straight face, after witnessing the whole thing take place. "Mikayla get in the van. Like Dad's not going to feed you."....What a climatic ending :):)
Well, after we wore them out, we all went to Sam's Club to get some pizzas for dinner. I don't know what it is with Sam's Club pizzas? But they never look like they're completely cooked. They're never crispy, has anyone else noticed this? I swear they used to be a lot better. Maybe it's just me. The kids downed them though. They didn't mind. We took the leftovers home to Tyler and the older 2 kids.
Afterwards, we went back to the house to pack up our things, and get ready to head to the hotel, since Nathan had to get back to the convention. It was so sad!! Morgan wanted to go with us so bad. She wanted to stay with us at the hotel. Her & Mikayla had so much fun playing together, especially the Rock Band, that she didn't want her to go. Mikayla was sad too, when she found out Morgan wasn't coming with us. Poor Morgan, was bawling when we left. I felt so bad.
Well, just as we were about to leave, we realized that Jayden had no car seat. I had forgotten to get it out of Rochelle's car the night before, and she was at work. I quickly called her and told her the dilemma, and she agreed to stay later and wait for us, and meet us in the Treasure Island parking garage, where we were staying. So we put Jayden in Mikayla's booster seat, which she wasn't happy about. Jayden wasn't happy, because he didn't have his own car seat. But after telling them about all the fun things on the strip we could go and see, they quickly got over it. Thank goodness!
To be continued................
Jayden had fun following Josh around & tackling him. And the girls had a blast playing Rock Band. Mikayla was lead singer, and Morgan played the drums. I even got to play the guitar with them for a little bit. (I had only played once before at this years New Year's Eve party at Alex's house...a guy my husband works with). It was a blast! It's very addicting. It really does make you want to play the guitar. It makes it seam so easy.. But my husband, was quick to point out, it's nothing like playing an actual guitar. Oh well, it was still fun!!
The girls played for hours on end. They were actually pretty good. They wanted to get 'money' so they could add outfits & accessories to their players. They definitely rocked it! This was only Mikayla's 2nd time playing. She played a little bit at the New Year's Party I mentioned. So she kind of knew what she was doing. It just took her a little bit to get used to it again. She took it so serious! She had this intense look on her face the whole time, as you can tell from the pictures below. She got very into character :).
---
Nathan, me, Roch & Darrin went out for Sushi on Saturday. We went to a place called Sumo's (I think that's what it's called), in Henderson. It is the best sushi place ever!!! They have what's called the 'W07' & the 'Apple #1' that are to die for. Oh... so good!! :d. You have to have Sunny make it though. He's the best sushi chef they have there. He has a huge following. People are always requesting him. He knows my sister & brother-in-law very well. They go there every week when he's there. He moved out of state for a couple of months, but he's back now & better than ever. Yay!!! Anyway he was there, and he definitely hooked us up. He went above and beyond with our food. I have never eaten so much sushi. It was so good. I even ate the raw ones...never done that before. They were actually pretty dang good. There was a tuna one, though, I wasn't a big fan of, but my husband loved it.
Afterwords, we went and played some pool, and then watched a really cool local band, the Yellow Brick Road, play at the Alliante Station. They were awesome! Darrin & Roch have seen them many times, and said how good they were. They imitate all of the great rock bands, and they sound just like them. It was so much fun! Rochelle was even able to drag me out on the dance floor, which is a huge feat. I felt like a total dork, but it was a lot of fun. At least I know I wasn't the worst dancer (okay at least I think I wasn't :).
There was this lady who was just a wee bit intoxicated, (wow how do I explain her dancing? ....ummmm.....unique :). On the first couple of songs, she was the only one out on the dance floor. She was front & center, right below the band. Boy did she put on quite a show. She was probably in her mid 40-50's, and she wore this shirt that barely covered her belly. Now I know I don't have a six pack or anything, so I can't say a whole lot, but normally when your belly is spewing over the waistband of your pants, you would think someone would try to cover up. This poor lady kept raising her hands when she would dance. She kept like shuffling forward and backwards like 50 times and she'd raise her hands over her head. It was kind of funny, but I still felt really bad for her. A couple of times, the lead singer, couldn't help but smile at her antics. He looked at his guitar player a couple of times and gave him this look like is this lady for real. He gave her a shout out though, he seamed like a really cool guy.
That was the first time in a long time, that me & Nathan have been on an actual date without kids. And to go out with Rochelle & Darrin was even more incredible!!! It was an absolute blast, and a much needed reprieve. Thanks Roch & Darrin for such a fun night! We definitely need to do that again!!!
Let's see, what else? Oh me & the kids went to Olive Garden Monday night w/ Roch & the fam. Nathan was at his sisters house. Plus he's not a huge Olive Garden fan. I, on the other hand, love it. As much as I love it though, we had the absolute worst service ever. It took us about 10 minutes just to get our waitress to come and take our drinks. The waitress was HORRIBLE!!! She made it sound like she was tag-teaming with this other waiter. But she took our orders and did nothing with it. The other waiter, poor guy, was running around like a chicken with his head cut off. We had to constantly flag other waiters down just to get a refill on our drinks and breadsticks, etc. When she would come back, she'd check on us, to see how we're doing and then we wouldn't see her again for a long time.
It took us even longer to get our check. . Thank goodness we brought 2 vehicles. Darrin took most of the kids home with him, while my sister & I & my 2 boys, tried to get the check. It took about 10-15 minutes longer just for that to happen. My sister had to finally flag another passing waitress down and tell her to 'please either get us our check or the manager.' Within a minute, the manager was at our table. I have never seen so many waiters & waitresses trying to help us then. Needless to say it was not a pleasant dining experience. The Manager was nice & gave us a $50.00 gift certificate, but dinner was still a bust. I was dissapointed.
Tuesday, Nathan went golfing with a bunch of guys from his work, etc. Then came over early to Roch's to hang out and pick us up to take us back to the hotel. Nathan had checked into the hotel on Sunday night. We were supposed to stay with him, but I wanted to spend more time with Roch & the fam, so me & the kids stayed until Tuesday. Thank goodness Rochelle was able to get Monday off, so we could spend more time with her. We were even able to see my baby brother Marc & his baby :) a couple of times also, which was nice. He has a 6 month old German Shephard. Gorgeous dog. It's name used to be 'Bear' but he changed it's name (I can't remember the new name, though).
We took all of the younger kids to this awesome park just off of I-95 & the 215, right behind Target. They had a blast!!!! (Okay, everyone but Tyler that is, poor guy was exhausted so we left him at the house with my niece Tyra. Me & Roch would always take the kids here when we lived in Vegas.) Man that Morgan is a climber. She zoomed right up this climbing wall like 50 times, while my kids struggled to get up once. Nathan raced her once, and she still beat him. I always tease her she's part monkey.
Their next adventure? These huge multi-colored slides. When they first opened the park, the kids would literally go flying out of the middle one, because they gained so much speed. You could stand 5 feet away and catch your kid. It was crazy! They had to close it several times, because I think kids got hurt on it. They've since fixed the problem, but it's still the kids favorite slide.
It's funny, cause I'm taking pictures of the kids running around, climbing, sliding, swinging, chasing each other & every time I zoom in on Nathan...he's playing on his new I-Phone. Even when he's pushing Jayden on the swing, his attention's on his new phone. Towards the end though, he finally put it away and started playing with the kids. The kids loved it, of course.
Right before we left, Nathan took the kids over to the swings one last time. We told the kids beforehand that we would go & get some pizza after they were done playing in the park. Then when it was time to go, Nathan yells "last one to the van, doesn't get pizza." Which, of course, the kids jump up & start running, as if shot from a cannon.:) Nathan picks up Jayden and starts running with him, which leaves Morgan & Mikayla to race it out to the finish line.
Well Mikayla, seeing that Morgan's going to win, all the sudden stops & starts to pout. I'm trailing behind taking pictures, so I of course see this whole thing happen. At first, not understanding why Mikayla was so upset. So while I'm crossing the bridge, I see Morgan come running back, trying to push Mikayla along, then I hear her loudly say, 'you're not the last one, your mom is, come on Mikayla, come on. She's the one who won't get pizza.' Instead of reassuring her, Mikayla, plants her feet in the ground & pouts even more. Finally, Morgan just gave up & sprinted to the van (when I walked up to where they were)leaving Mikayla in the dust. Mikayla's look says it all. As sad as she looked, it was so hard to keep a straight face, after witnessing the whole thing take place. "Mikayla get in the van. Like Dad's not going to feed you."....What a climatic ending :):)
Well, after we wore them out, we all went to Sam's Club to get some pizzas for dinner. I don't know what it is with Sam's Club pizzas? But they never look like they're completely cooked. They're never crispy, has anyone else noticed this? I swear they used to be a lot better. Maybe it's just me. The kids downed them though. They didn't mind. We took the leftovers home to Tyler and the older 2 kids.
Afterwards, we went back to the house to pack up our things, and get ready to head to the hotel, since Nathan had to get back to the convention. It was so sad!! Morgan wanted to go with us so bad. She wanted to stay with us at the hotel. Her & Mikayla had so much fun playing together, especially the Rock Band, that she didn't want her to go. Mikayla was sad too, when she found out Morgan wasn't coming with us. Poor Morgan, was bawling when we left. I felt so bad.
Well, just as we were about to leave, we realized that Jayden had no car seat. I had forgotten to get it out of Rochelle's car the night before, and she was at work. I quickly called her and told her the dilemma, and she agreed to stay later and wait for us, and meet us in the Treasure Island parking garage, where we were staying. So we put Jayden in Mikayla's booster seat, which she wasn't happy about. Jayden wasn't happy, because he didn't have his own car seat. But after telling them about all the fun things on the strip we could go and see, they quickly got over it. Thank goodness!
To be continued................
Friday, February 13, 2009
"Boo boos"
While I was changing Tyler, after he leaked through (before we left to get the tire fixed). Jayden noticed some little bumps on Tyler's legs. (Every once in awhile, he'll get these bumps all over his legs. I think it's allergies, but I haven't been able to narrow it down to anything specific. The doctor said not to worry about it, unless it doesn't go away.) Anyway he kept pointing at them, and saying owe, with this sympathetic look on his face.
Mom: I know Jayden, he has some boo boos on his legs, doesn't he.
Jayden: Yeh, mom. He has boobies on his legs :)
Of course, I couldn't help laugh.
Mom: 'Jayden you are so dang cute, you know that.'
Jayden: (giggling, not really knowing what mom was laughing about) I know.
Mom: I know Jayden, he has some boo boos on his legs, doesn't he.
Jayden: Yeh, mom. He has boobies on his legs :)
Of course, I couldn't help laugh.
Mom: 'Jayden you are so dang cute, you know that.'
Jayden: (giggling, not really knowing what mom was laughing about) I know.
Flat Tire .... Ugh!
Two nights ago, after dropping off my hubby at the airport, we had to do a Wal-Mart run to get the last minute Valentines day treats for my daughters class & teacher. By the time we got home, it was way past my kids bedtime. So after pulling into my driveway, I started to hurriedly rushing and grabing things that needed to go in the house, so I could get everyone inside & to bed. Especially since Mikayla had school the next morning. My daughter was the first to get out and run to the front door, so she could open it with the key. Next thing I hear, is...
Mikayla: Mom, do you hear that.
Mom: No. Hear what.
Mikayla: No. I hear something listen.
Mom: I don't hear anything.
Mikayla: Really mom. Come here. It's coming from the van. I can hear it. It sounds like air.
Mom: (walking around to the other side of the car)Oh you're kidding me.
Oh yes! Yeh me! My tire was going flat! It happened, right as I was literally pulling into my driveway. What timing! Right after I had just dropped Nathan off @ the airport. So as quickly as I could, I carried my kids & groceries into the house, then went back out to see if I could figure out what I'd run over.
I immediately found where the air was coming from. You couldn't miss it. The distinct hissing noise & the cool rushing breeze were easy to locate. Why did it have to happen right then? Not only, was my husband gone, but my father-in-law had just left town that same day. Plus, it was so late, I couldn't take it anywhere to be fixed & Mikayla had school the next morning. Lovely!
The culprit, was one of those really long thick wood staples. At first it looked like a nail, but the two ends were just smashed together. Now normally, I would've left it in, but since I was extremely tired & not thinking straight, I grabbed it & pulled it out. Yes. I know. Genius idea! What can I say? Lo & behold the air started coming out faster. I quickly ran inside to get a flashlight, to see if I could find the hole again & somehow wedge it back in. Yes I know, the genius ideas just kept a coming. After about 5-10 minutes of fruitless searching, I finally found the freakin' hole. I was even able to plug it back up. I plugged it so good I could barely hear any air escaping at all. Woo Hoo! :) Which either was a very good move or a very stupid move. Either way, it slowed it way down.
So, of course, this morning I wake up to a *shocker alert*.... a flat tire. I quickly called to get a ride for Mikayla but to no avail. I couldn't get ahold of anyone. Thank goodness my next door neighbor, Julie, was just coming out of her house to get her vanned warmed up to take her own little daughter to school. I quickly asked if Mikayla could catch a ride with them, since of course, my back tire was flat. 'We're probably going to be late, I didn't realize the van was covered in ice. But yeh that's okay.' 'Thank you, thank you.' I asked her if she had a snow scraper, which she said she did, then I went inside.
At that time, only Jayden was awake, so I grabbed my 'mother of all snow scrapers' that Nathan had bought me specifically for my own van & hurried over to help her finish scraping hers. Good thing too! She had this teeny tiny little hand scraper, and she couldn't even reach the middle of her windshield. She was just starting to plug in this other little hand-held ice scraper, that supposedly heats up & helps you scrape the ice off faster. But even that one, would've taken awhile. Anyway with the both of us scraping, it took no time flat, and they were able to get off to school a lot faster. One problem down, one more to go....
After returning back to my house, I opened my garage door, to find my husband's air compressor. Well I found the air compressor & the hose, but I couldn't find the attachments. He has this system where you slide this metal thing over and you can easily & quickly change out the attachment heads. It's pretty cool. I don't know? Maybe all compressors have that? Anyway, I couldn't find the tire attachment. I texted (is that even a word?) my husband, not knowing if he was at his convention yet or not, when I saw it right in front of me on his table saw. HELLO! Open your eyes Jodi.
Immediately after I filled the tire back up, my husband called. Talked to him for a minute, told him my plan, & went inside to feed & change the boys, so we could head to Wal-Mart to get it fixed. Figured it would be the cheapest. At this point, my poor baby had soaked through his jammies. So I had to clean him up, change & dress him, feed him & Jayden, had Jayaden go to the potty, got some laundry going, & we were off.
The whole time I was driving, I just kept thinking 'please don't let me tire go flat. Please don't let my tire go flat.' That & hoping they were slow, so my van wouldn't go flat in the actual waiting line. So, I pull up, there's about 5-6 in line. Oh crap! I got out, couldn't see anyone, and started to unbuckle my babies, when the guy comes walking out. I explained my circumstances, told him what had happened, and showed him where it was. Which was kind of hard, since it was blocked by the pavement. You could see the actual staple sticking out, but he wanted me to pull forward, so he could get a better look at where it was on the actual tire. So of course, I obliged. Thinking that everything was okay now. I had made it to the actual store. Me & the boys could do some shopping (while he fixes my tire), & I'll be on my way. Yeh, not quite.....
"I'm sorry mam, that tire's unrepairable."
'Excuse me, what? You are kidding me?"
"No mam. According to Wal-Mart policy, since it happened in this area (showing me on the tire), we are not allowed to even touch it."
'My tires going flat as we speak, and you're telling me you can't fix it? You're kidding me, what am I supposed to do.'
"Well you could either buy a new tire, or take it to another tire store to see if they'll fix it for ya. You got Discount Tire Store, or Big'O close by."
So after getting instructions on how to find Big'O, I held my breath, & hoped we would even make it there in time, before the tire was completely flat. Thank goodness it was only a couple minutes away. I quickly pulled into the parking lot (preceded by a glare from a lady walking her dog, since I didn't yield right of way to them. Bad I know!), unbuckled by boys, and ran in the store to find help as quick as I could. They probably thought I crazy! I explained the situation, told them my tire was going flat even as I spoke & could someone look at it before the air was completely gone & we couldn't move it. You could hear it hissing, every time the door was opened.
I handed him my keys, he wrote down my information on a piece of paper & they immediately pulled my van into the shop to take a look at the tire. Thinking everything was finally going to be okay, I took the boys in the breakroom, so I could just relax. I put a kids show on for them to watch, and they played with the few toys they had in there. (Tyler actually spent more time playing with the brochures & papers, & ripping off the pages of a notepad meant for a drawing they were having for a high def t.v. Yeh I bet, they loved us.)
Well a couple minutes later, the tire guy walks back and informs me, that they too are unable to fix the tire. With the location of the puncture (barely on the sidewall) it was unrepairable. Nobody would touch it. Ugh! Not again. I asked what my options were. They informed me I could either buy a new tire. Preferably 2 to keep the van properly balanced. Total price tag for both = $237. Or, they could put the spare tire on for me. Not knowing what to do, I informed them I needed to get ahold of my hubby first, since he was out of town, & just to put the spare on for now. I preceded to text my hubby and ask him what he wanted me to do. His reply? Check the price of Sams & Discount Tire first. Finally a direction!
So with our pint-sized donut in place, we preceded to the Discount Tire Store. We should have started there to begin with. When I first pulled up, I texted Nathan again, to ask him what he wanted me to do. (Our whole communication was through texting. He was right in the middle of hid convention & couldn't leave to make a phone call) He told me to get ahold of is dad & figuring it out with him. But unable to get ahold of Vic, I went back to asking the hubby. I stood in the entryway for like 5 minutes, just standing there texting. They were probably wondering what the heck I was doing, but they just waited patiently behind their little counter.
BJ, the guy who helped me, was way more helpful, way more informative, way more knowledgeable than the Big'O guys. Plus, he was just an all-around nice guy. After explaining my circumstances, he told me what I pretty much already knew. Still unrepairable. But then he went on to explain why they couldn't, & showed me on one of their display tires why that was. It was refreshing! It was nice to not be treated like 'an ignorant female.' Much appreciated!!.
I asked him the pricing. He showed me my options, recommended a certain tire (which also happened to be the cheapest) & proceeded to explain why. He knew his stuff. I told him what the men at Big'O told me, and he informed me: they were either not up to date on their information or they were ignorant. Like I said, I should've gone there first.
Anyway after texting back and forth with Nathan for another 10 minutes, Nathan finally just told me to make a decision. So I did! 2 new tires it was.
Now for the waiting game. Since I spent so much time texting back & forth with Nathan, more & more people had come into the store to be helped & so me & the boys, of course, had to wait for their vehicles to be finished first. Which my boys, definitely didn't mind. They were having a blast terrorizing the store. They were checking out the tires, chasing each other while screaming @ the top of their lungs, ripping the paper sales tags off of the display tires & the posters on the windows, while I was trying to talk to BJ. As soon as I'd get them out of one thing, they'd move on to something else.
That was only the half of it. While I was giving him my information to buy the tires, Jayden took my house keys out of my coat pocket to play with & almost lost it. Then when a gentleman opened the door to leave, Jayden bolted out the door & pretended to run away giggling....(not funny!). Then they both discovered the drinking fountain, where Jayden proceeded to drench his entire shirt with water. I could literally wring the water out of his shirt. I had to just take it off & use his jacket as a shirt instead(zipped up of course). Tyler was only slightly wet at this point. But he started to giggle and run towards the front door & lost his balance, and fell down hitting his cheek (just barely below his eye) on the door frame, before I could catch him. He now sports a small thin scab there. Thank goodness it wasn't any higher, or I can't imagine what would've happened! Holy crap!!! I was almost a basket case. It was just one thing after another. If they're this bad at 1 & 3, I can't imagine them when they're older. All I can say is gray hair & ulcers people!
Then one of my long lost friends, Carri Rasmussen called. (We, along with her sister, Roshell, & our other friend Eliza & hopefully my little sister are going to get together on Monday to hang out & catch up. It's been over 8 years since we've all been together. She was just letting me know what was going on. So, while I was chatting with her, Jayden had moved a chair under the window so he could watch them work on the van, & was standing on the arms of the chair on his tippy toes. Dangerous to say the least. Thank goodness it was a heavy chair or it would've tipped over on him. I immediately ran over & took him off. Two seconds later, he had moved it back & proceeded to do it again...and again. The little stinker did it 3 times in a row. Finally, he realized he could walk over to the connecting door leading out to the garage area, & get a much better view. He was enthralled to say the least. He kept excitedly telling me everything they were doing on our van. It was cute, plus it kept him entertained.
So while all of this was going on, Tyler went back to playing with the drinking fountain & got water all over the floor & was tracking it everywhere. I was shocked he didn't have more on him. To say it was bad, would be an understatement. I'm surprised they didn't just kick us out right then & there. Probably the only reason they didn't, was that my van was hoisted up in the air being worked on. I had to run to the men's room to grab a huge wad of paper towels, since the womens' were completely out, & clean up the mess. It was everywhere. I felt so embarrassed.
All I can say is, thank goodness Mikayla wasn't there! The boys were bad enough, but adding her to the mix would've been 10 x's worse! I could just imagine her whining & griping about how long it was taking, and asking when we could leave over & over & over. (And yes, I do know this from experience.) My friend, Keri Benson (her daughter & my daughter are in the same class at school), was awesome and picked Mikayla up from school since it was early out day. She took her to her house & watched her for me while I was dealing with the whole tire fiasco. You're a lifesaver Keri, thank you!!!!!!
So once I finally finished cleaning up the water mess; the guy who put my actual tires on, handed me my work order & receipt & said they were just finishing putting the spare tire back in its place. It would only be a couple of minutes. Yipeeeee!!!! I was so happy. It was past Tyler's nap time & he was exhausted at this point. He was getting upset at everything. He wanted to be held, then put down, held, then put down. He almost didn't know what to do with himself. He just wanted to lay down in his own bed.
We ran one more errand, picked up Mikayla from Keri's house, & thankfully headed home. Tyler was completely out at this point & was easy to lay down. The poor thing barely moved a muscle, he was so tired. The 2 older kids went to the Bybee's, our neighbor, to see their "club". Emmee & Ryleigh came to get the kids, just as we were pulling into the driveway. Whew! I was finally able to get a reprieve. I ended up just cleaning house, but still it was a reprieve nonetheless. I was just happy the tire was fixed, and I didn't have to worry about my boys destroying private property. :)! What a day!
Mikayla: Mom, do you hear that.
Mom: No. Hear what.
Mikayla: No. I hear something listen.
Mom: I don't hear anything.
Mikayla: Really mom. Come here. It's coming from the van. I can hear it. It sounds like air.
Mom: (walking around to the other side of the car)Oh you're kidding me.
Oh yes! Yeh me! My tire was going flat! It happened, right as I was literally pulling into my driveway. What timing! Right after I had just dropped Nathan off @ the airport. So as quickly as I could, I carried my kids & groceries into the house, then went back out to see if I could figure out what I'd run over.
I immediately found where the air was coming from. You couldn't miss it. The distinct hissing noise & the cool rushing breeze were easy to locate. Why did it have to happen right then? Not only, was my husband gone, but my father-in-law had just left town that same day. Plus, it was so late, I couldn't take it anywhere to be fixed & Mikayla had school the next morning. Lovely!
The culprit, was one of those really long thick wood staples. At first it looked like a nail, but the two ends were just smashed together. Now normally, I would've left it in, but since I was extremely tired & not thinking straight, I grabbed it & pulled it out. Yes. I know. Genius idea! What can I say? Lo & behold the air started coming out faster. I quickly ran inside to get a flashlight, to see if I could find the hole again & somehow wedge it back in. Yes I know, the genius ideas just kept a coming. After about 5-10 minutes of fruitless searching, I finally found the freakin' hole. I was even able to plug it back up. I plugged it so good I could barely hear any air escaping at all. Woo Hoo! :) Which either was a very good move or a very stupid move. Either way, it slowed it way down.
So, of course, this morning I wake up to a *shocker alert*.... a flat tire. I quickly called to get a ride for Mikayla but to no avail. I couldn't get ahold of anyone. Thank goodness my next door neighbor, Julie, was just coming out of her house to get her vanned warmed up to take her own little daughter to school. I quickly asked if Mikayla could catch a ride with them, since of course, my back tire was flat. 'We're probably going to be late, I didn't realize the van was covered in ice. But yeh that's okay.' 'Thank you, thank you.' I asked her if she had a snow scraper, which she said she did, then I went inside.
At that time, only Jayden was awake, so I grabbed my 'mother of all snow scrapers' that Nathan had bought me specifically for my own van & hurried over to help her finish scraping hers. Good thing too! She had this teeny tiny little hand scraper, and she couldn't even reach the middle of her windshield. She was just starting to plug in this other little hand-held ice scraper, that supposedly heats up & helps you scrape the ice off faster. But even that one, would've taken awhile. Anyway with the both of us scraping, it took no time flat, and they were able to get off to school a lot faster. One problem down, one more to go....
After returning back to my house, I opened my garage door, to find my husband's air compressor. Well I found the air compressor & the hose, but I couldn't find the attachments. He has this system where you slide this metal thing over and you can easily & quickly change out the attachment heads. It's pretty cool. I don't know? Maybe all compressors have that? Anyway, I couldn't find the tire attachment. I texted (is that even a word?) my husband, not knowing if he was at his convention yet or not, when I saw it right in front of me on his table saw. HELLO! Open your eyes Jodi.
Immediately after I filled the tire back up, my husband called. Talked to him for a minute, told him my plan, & went inside to feed & change the boys, so we could head to Wal-Mart to get it fixed. Figured it would be the cheapest. At this point, my poor baby had soaked through his jammies. So I had to clean him up, change & dress him, feed him & Jayden, had Jayaden go to the potty, got some laundry going, & we were off.
The whole time I was driving, I just kept thinking 'please don't let me tire go flat. Please don't let my tire go flat.' That & hoping they were slow, so my van wouldn't go flat in the actual waiting line. So, I pull up, there's about 5-6 in line. Oh crap! I got out, couldn't see anyone, and started to unbuckle my babies, when the guy comes walking out. I explained my circumstances, told him what had happened, and showed him where it was. Which was kind of hard, since it was blocked by the pavement. You could see the actual staple sticking out, but he wanted me to pull forward, so he could get a better look at where it was on the actual tire. So of course, I obliged. Thinking that everything was okay now. I had made it to the actual store. Me & the boys could do some shopping (while he fixes my tire), & I'll be on my way. Yeh, not quite.....
"I'm sorry mam, that tire's unrepairable."
'Excuse me, what? You are kidding me?"
"No mam. According to Wal-Mart policy, since it happened in this area (showing me on the tire), we are not allowed to even touch it."
'My tires going flat as we speak, and you're telling me you can't fix it? You're kidding me, what am I supposed to do.'
"Well you could either buy a new tire, or take it to another tire store to see if they'll fix it for ya. You got Discount Tire Store, or Big'O close by."
So after getting instructions on how to find Big'O, I held my breath, & hoped we would even make it there in time, before the tire was completely flat. Thank goodness it was only a couple minutes away. I quickly pulled into the parking lot (preceded by a glare from a lady walking her dog, since I didn't yield right of way to them. Bad I know!), unbuckled by boys, and ran in the store to find help as quick as I could. They probably thought I crazy! I explained the situation, told them my tire was going flat even as I spoke & could someone look at it before the air was completely gone & we couldn't move it. You could hear it hissing, every time the door was opened.
I handed him my keys, he wrote down my information on a piece of paper & they immediately pulled my van into the shop to take a look at the tire. Thinking everything was finally going to be okay, I took the boys in the breakroom, so I could just relax. I put a kids show on for them to watch, and they played with the few toys they had in there. (Tyler actually spent more time playing with the brochures & papers, & ripping off the pages of a notepad meant for a drawing they were having for a high def t.v. Yeh I bet, they loved us.)
Well a couple minutes later, the tire guy walks back and informs me, that they too are unable to fix the tire. With the location of the puncture (barely on the sidewall) it was unrepairable. Nobody would touch it. Ugh! Not again. I asked what my options were. They informed me I could either buy a new tire. Preferably 2 to keep the van properly balanced. Total price tag for both = $237. Or, they could put the spare tire on for me. Not knowing what to do, I informed them I needed to get ahold of my hubby first, since he was out of town, & just to put the spare on for now. I preceded to text my hubby and ask him what he wanted me to do. His reply? Check the price of Sams & Discount Tire first. Finally a direction!
So with our pint-sized donut in place, we preceded to the Discount Tire Store. We should have started there to begin with. When I first pulled up, I texted Nathan again, to ask him what he wanted me to do. (Our whole communication was through texting. He was right in the middle of hid convention & couldn't leave to make a phone call) He told me to get ahold of is dad & figuring it out with him. But unable to get ahold of Vic, I went back to asking the hubby. I stood in the entryway for like 5 minutes, just standing there texting. They were probably wondering what the heck I was doing, but they just waited patiently behind their little counter.
BJ, the guy who helped me, was way more helpful, way more informative, way more knowledgeable than the Big'O guys. Plus, he was just an all-around nice guy. After explaining my circumstances, he told me what I pretty much already knew. Still unrepairable. But then he went on to explain why they couldn't, & showed me on one of their display tires why that was. It was refreshing! It was nice to not be treated like 'an ignorant female.' Much appreciated!!.
I asked him the pricing. He showed me my options, recommended a certain tire (which also happened to be the cheapest) & proceeded to explain why. He knew his stuff. I told him what the men at Big'O told me, and he informed me: they were either not up to date on their information or they were ignorant. Like I said, I should've gone there first.
Anyway after texting back and forth with Nathan for another 10 minutes, Nathan finally just told me to make a decision. So I did! 2 new tires it was.
Now for the waiting game. Since I spent so much time texting back & forth with Nathan, more & more people had come into the store to be helped & so me & the boys, of course, had to wait for their vehicles to be finished first. Which my boys, definitely didn't mind. They were having a blast terrorizing the store. They were checking out the tires, chasing each other while screaming @ the top of their lungs, ripping the paper sales tags off of the display tires & the posters on the windows, while I was trying to talk to BJ. As soon as I'd get them out of one thing, they'd move on to something else.
That was only the half of it. While I was giving him my information to buy the tires, Jayden took my house keys out of my coat pocket to play with & almost lost it. Then when a gentleman opened the door to leave, Jayden bolted out the door & pretended to run away giggling....(not funny!). Then they both discovered the drinking fountain, where Jayden proceeded to drench his entire shirt with water. I could literally wring the water out of his shirt. I had to just take it off & use his jacket as a shirt instead(zipped up of course). Tyler was only slightly wet at this point. But he started to giggle and run towards the front door & lost his balance, and fell down hitting his cheek (just barely below his eye) on the door frame, before I could catch him. He now sports a small thin scab there. Thank goodness it wasn't any higher, or I can't imagine what would've happened! Holy crap!!! I was almost a basket case. It was just one thing after another. If they're this bad at 1 & 3, I can't imagine them when they're older. All I can say is gray hair & ulcers people!
Then one of my long lost friends, Carri Rasmussen called. (We, along with her sister, Roshell, & our other friend Eliza & hopefully my little sister are going to get together on Monday to hang out & catch up. It's been over 8 years since we've all been together. She was just letting me know what was going on. So, while I was chatting with her, Jayden had moved a chair under the window so he could watch them work on the van, & was standing on the arms of the chair on his tippy toes. Dangerous to say the least. Thank goodness it was a heavy chair or it would've tipped over on him. I immediately ran over & took him off. Two seconds later, he had moved it back & proceeded to do it again...and again. The little stinker did it 3 times in a row. Finally, he realized he could walk over to the connecting door leading out to the garage area, & get a much better view. He was enthralled to say the least. He kept excitedly telling me everything they were doing on our van. It was cute, plus it kept him entertained.
So while all of this was going on, Tyler went back to playing with the drinking fountain & got water all over the floor & was tracking it everywhere. I was shocked he didn't have more on him. To say it was bad, would be an understatement. I'm surprised they didn't just kick us out right then & there. Probably the only reason they didn't, was that my van was hoisted up in the air being worked on. I had to run to the men's room to grab a huge wad of paper towels, since the womens' were completely out, & clean up the mess. It was everywhere. I felt so embarrassed.
All I can say is, thank goodness Mikayla wasn't there! The boys were bad enough, but adding her to the mix would've been 10 x's worse! I could just imagine her whining & griping about how long it was taking, and asking when we could leave over & over & over. (And yes, I do know this from experience.) My friend, Keri Benson (her daughter & my daughter are in the same class at school), was awesome and picked Mikayla up from school since it was early out day. She took her to her house & watched her for me while I was dealing with the whole tire fiasco. You're a lifesaver Keri, thank you!!!!!!
So once I finally finished cleaning up the water mess; the guy who put my actual tires on, handed me my work order & receipt & said they were just finishing putting the spare tire back in its place. It would only be a couple of minutes. Yipeeeee!!!! I was so happy. It was past Tyler's nap time & he was exhausted at this point. He was getting upset at everything. He wanted to be held, then put down, held, then put down. He almost didn't know what to do with himself. He just wanted to lay down in his own bed.
We ran one more errand, picked up Mikayla from Keri's house, & thankfully headed home. Tyler was completely out at this point & was easy to lay down. The poor thing barely moved a muscle, he was so tired. The 2 older kids went to the Bybee's, our neighbor, to see their "club". Emmee & Ryleigh came to get the kids, just as we were pulling into the driveway. Whew! I was finally able to get a reprieve. I ended up just cleaning house, but still it was a reprieve nonetheless. I was just happy the tire was fixed, and I didn't have to worry about my boys destroying private property. :)! What a day!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Trip to Store
The other day I was shopping with my kids. Word of advice? Never shop when you're hungry. Money & Hunger = a Lethal combination. I had so much junk food in my cart by the end of that little trip, I think it outnumbered the healthy, 3 to 1. I know, not good.
Anyway I bought some licorice nibs for the kids to share, telling them before hand, that the only way I'll buy it is if they wait until after they eat dinner. Of course, the kids readily agree, knowing moms caving in.
Well, we're about halfway home from Wal-Mart when the distinct aroma of cherry licorice fills my van. My little stinker Mikayla had opened it up and was chowing it down, like it was going out of style. Of course, I immediately demanded that she hand them up to mom... & no, not so I could eat them, I know what you're thinking :), but to confiscate them.
"But I'm starving mom," came the wail from the back seat.
"Mikayla I didn't buy them so you could get full on sugar & candy. I shouldn't have bought them."
"I eat sugarbot." Came the enthusiastic reply from Jayden.
"I know you will." said mom smiling. :)
Anyway I bought some licorice nibs for the kids to share, telling them before hand, that the only way I'll buy it is if they wait until after they eat dinner. Of course, the kids readily agree, knowing moms caving in.
Well, we're about halfway home from Wal-Mart when the distinct aroma of cherry licorice fills my van. My little stinker Mikayla had opened it up and was chowing it down, like it was going out of style. Of course, I immediately demanded that she hand them up to mom... & no, not so I could eat them, I know what you're thinking :), but to confiscate them.
"But I'm starving mom," came the wail from the back seat.
"Mikayla I didn't buy them so you could get full on sugar & candy. I shouldn't have bought them."
"I eat sugarbot." Came the enthusiastic reply from Jayden.
"I know you will." said mom smiling. :)
Things Happen For A Reason
Marriage
After a whirlwind romance (met briefly in December, starting dating in January, engaged by March, married in May), Nathan & I moved to Arkansas (Nathan got a job at Wal-Mart's home office in Bentonville), literally a week after we got married. It was crazy! It all seam to happen so fast. Now, no offense to people who are from there, or currently live there, but it was not for us.
Pros: lightning bugs, beautiful green rolling hills.
Cons: ticks, chiggers, tarantulas, massive dandy long legs all over the hills, water moccasins, cotton mouths, humidity (especially....in those beautiful green rolling hills), & no family.
Needless to say, we lasted about a year and a half. We were actually going to buy this really cool house (it literally had a football field for the backyard), but came to find out there were several leans on the house stemming from the previous owners. Thank goodness it fell through!!!
Moving to Vegas
When I was about 6 1/2 months pregnant we packed up & moved to Vegas. Nathan was able to transfer in as an assistant manager for the Wal-Mart store off of Decatur. All I can say is thank goodness for my sister Rochelle & her husband Darrin & his family! They took pity on us and we stayed at Roch's house the first month (while we looked for a house), then moved into a room in Darrin's parents house while our house was being built (it took a lot longer than expected). Thank you Gloria & Frank! You're total sweethearts!!!
It was funny...at the time they had this huge dog named Koda (it was actually Darrin's dog, but it stayed at his parents house kind of like a guard dog). It was an Akita. Since I didn't know what an Akita was, I really didn't know what to expect. Rochelle kept telling me how big he was, but still it was a shock. The first time we went there, so Rochelle could introduce us to Frank & Gloria, she told me about Koda, and just as we were about to open the front door, she said, 'whatever you do don't stare him in the face, & don't pet his head.' I was like what the crap? what do you mean don't stare him in the face & don't pet his head? Then the door opened.....I hear the deepest freaking bark I have ever heard, coming from the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life. I swear this thing was part bear, it was so big.
When I was younger, I was bitten by my friends little dog, which instilled a slight fear of dogs in me. I'm fine with dogs I know, like our own of course, & my brothers dogs. But any other one, I'm hesitant with until I get to know them. So to say I was scared, was an understatement. I swear, my heart almost stopped. He came right up to me and stared at me, and I just stood there frozen. Afraid to move, afraid to make eye contact.
I made the mistake of looking him in the face, later that evening, and he growled at me with this deep throated growl. Roch said it was because he was getting up there in years, and couldn't see as well as he used to, and that for some reason, he didn't like women as well as men. Great!!!!! That news made me feel so much better, let me tell you!
This isn't an actual picture of Koda, but this is a picture I found online. He looked just like that.
Well as the months went by, I slowly got used to having him around, but he would still make me nervous every time I walked by him. I never looked at him, I hardly ever petted him unless there was someone there with me, and I never, ever touched his head. I'm sorry, but he scared the crap out of me.
Then one day (this was after Mikayal was born), I was sitting on the couch, watching their huge wide screen t.v. while Morgan & Mikayla were taking naps, when Koda walked over & sat down right next to me. At first I was like 'holy crap. What do I do?' But then I tentatively reached out to pet his fur. Well he loved it and scooted a little bit closer. By then I didn't dare stop petting his fur, and he kelpt scooting closer. That dog ended up literally putting his entire weight on my one leg. Needless to say, within minutes, I had no feeling left in that leg. Was I going to move that dog? Heck noooooooooo!!! I just kept right on petting him, not looking him in the face!
I have never seen thicker fur on a dog. Hi hair was so think, and he had all this fine dust in it (from being outside) that it made my fingers feel itchy & funky. But did I stop.....no I did not! Dead leg, & funky fingers be damned, I stayed right where I was. :) I seriously can't remember how Iwas able to escape. I was literally there for like an hour. It took about 1/2 hour for the feeling to return to my leg. I walked around, looking like a gimp until it did. The good thing though? I stopped being afraid of Koda. It was a great turning point :):):). I could leave my room without fearing for my safety. yeh!!!! :)
Miss you Koda!
(he passed away a couple of years ago. I think it was). He was a good dog, although big, a great guard dog.
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Things happen for a reason...
I guess in a way, moving to Vegas was a blessing, not only for us, but also for my sister. At the time, she was working at N.Y.N.Y., and had Morgan in the day care across the street where she could run over on her breaks to see her. Morgan was only 4 1/2 months old at the time. Anyway this new little boy kept biting Morgan on the back. He could walk, and so Morgan had no chance to defend herself. She seriously had like 4 bites marks on her back at one time. And it wasn't like little love marks, they were black and blue and you could see the outline of this kids teeth. It kept happening, every time the boy was put in the same class. No matter how many times, Rochelle complained & told them to separate them, he would somehow end up back in the same room. And Morgan would get bit again. Finally, at her wits end, Rochelle asked me to watch Morgan, which I was happy to do. I know that's a huge reason, why I wasn't scared to be a mom, when I had Mikayla. (That and living with my oldest sister Jen, after she had Matthew. This was after Ricks, before I met Nathan while I was working at Wal-mart. I helped Jen raise Matthew until he was about 2 years old. It almost broke my heart, when me & Nathan moved to Arkansas after we got married. I missed his little voice calling me "JoJo." What a sweet little boy. A sweet big boy now :).
(...Hey that's when we had our first litter of puppies also. I almost forgot about that. It was an oops litter. When we moved from Arkansas, we stayed @ Nathans' brother house in Mojave Valley, AZ and we tied our 4 legged baby up in their backyard because their fence was really low. Nathans' parents were there to celebrate Christmas and to help us move. I think it was Adrian, who was a baby at the time, and he kept waking up in the middle of the night crying, so both me & Nathan put earplugs in. Well lo & behold our poor pooch was taken advantage of by a pack of dogs (she came in heat). It was awful! We didn't hear a thing, because we had the earplugs in. Thank goodness Nathan's dad woke up and rescued her. Anyway...(wow that was kind of a crappy story), hence the 'oops litter'. What's crazy is, our dog is a yellow lab, and 4 of them were born without tails. They were all yellow, looked just like a lab, but those 4 had stubs for tails. They were so adorable. To this day, we still don't know what type of dog was the father. Darrin's brother got one without a tail, and when I see him now, he moves just like a Rottweiler. But somebody told me they're born with tails, so I don't know.)
My daughter was born a week after the puppies were!!!
Anyway, (yes I use this word a lot...what of it :).... , so I watched my little Morgie-Shay right up until I had Mikayla, and then started watching her again (I think) when Mikayla was a week old. Those girls were like 2 little peas in a pod. Still are. The only difference...Mikayla has light hair, and Morgan has dark :O).
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Going Back to Work
I was so sad when I had to go back to work. I think Mikayla was almost 2 at the time. I seriously bawled my eyes out for like a week straight. Not only could I not watch Morgan anymore, but I was leaving my baby at home, and I didn't even get to put her to bed (except on my days off, of course). But it wasn't the same. (We were just going through a rough patch, and needed the extra money.) I think I barely talked to my husband that week. And when I did, I glared at him, when I wasn't crying that is. I know it wasn't his fault, but still, I was not happy! So my husband would go to work in the morning, & then when he got off he would watch Mikayla so I could go to work. It worked out pretty well.
(Nathan, at that time, had left Wal-Mart to buy a fire & water restoration business called UltraSonic Cleaning. That was at the time where women were picketing Wal-Mart because they "weren't getting the same opportunities as the men." Which was a load of crap. I'm sorry, but I worked for Wal-Mart and half my managers were women. So in response, Wal-Mart, instead of actually advancing people who were QUALIFIED, they advanced a whole bunch of women, just because of their sex, so my husband got put on the back-burner time & time again. It wasn't worth it. The hours weren't worth it, what he had to put up with wasn't worth it, and so he moved on.)
It actually wasn't too bad. I worked at Kohl's just a couple blocks away from where we lived. It took me less than 5 minutes to get there. I was able to work off all of my pregnancy weight with all the walking and lifting I did. I worked in the Misses & Women's dept. Putting away the clothing, was my weight-lifting. :) Plus, I met a lot of really cool people. Don't get me wrong, I definitely still missed my girls!. I would've preferred being with them, but it ended up being a really great job. Although it turned out, I probably spent more $ there, than I actually brought home. :)
The Phone Call...
I worked there until I got a call from my dad, telling me that my Nephew, Matthew (the same one I mentioned above) had a traumatic brain injury and that he was going in for emergency surgery in Provo. I think my heart nearly stopped. I was so upset. It was the same feeling I had, when I found out my Grandpa Stevens had passed away (incidently, the same week as the deer accident & my birthday. Not a good birthday!)
I immediately called my boss & explained the circumstances. I packed my bags. And the next morning, left for Utah (with Mikayla & my niece Tyra). I will never forget that time! It was such a rough time for everyone in my family. I won't go into details, they know the events that happened, but needless to say he survived through many, many prayers. God definitely lent a helping hand. Matthew spent his 6th birthday having a life-saving surgery. It's been a long road to recovery, he still deals with after effects from his injury, but he has come leaps & bounds with each passing year. I love that beautiful boy! I love you Matthew!!! Mom & Dad & Lon you have done such a great job!!! He is one loved little....big boy. :)
Ultra-Sonic Cleaning
Needless to say, I never went back to working at Kohl's. (They were so great about the whole situation.) Every time I went in shopping with my sister, Braun (the asst. manager) would beg me to come back. :) He was such a cool guy. Anywho,...(ha ha notice I didn't use anyway....okay I'm a dork)...anywho I ended up going to work with my husband at our "Ultra-Sonic Cleaning" business. One of the guys, who worked for him quit, which left him empty-handed. He definitely, needed the extra help.
Let's just say, that was the dirtiest job I have ever done in my entire life! I still don't know how I did it. Blah!!! We set up the break-room for a little daycare for Mikayla. We brought a bunch of toys, & movies & books, and I would try & keep her entertained & help Roxy (our employee), at the same time. It was rough, to say the least.
As for the actual business,...anyone who has ever had fire or water damage in their home, have probably dealt with some type of service like this. We would clean, any item that had smoke, or water, or mold damage. We pretty much, cleaned anything and everything: electronics (t.v.'s, stereos, game consoles, keyboards, vacuums, etc.), furniture, mattresses, couches, blinds, dolls. You name it. We did a lot of blinds!!! Mainly for businesses, but some residential as well. The blinds pretty much turned into our specialty at the end.
The ultrasonic process itself, was amazing! However, to get to that point, as you can well imagine, was a nasty, filthy process! We had these huge tables on wheels we would lay the items on. We would spray them with this special solution that would kill the mold, and take the smoke smell out, & anything else that wasn't supposed to be there. We would have to scrub them with these big brushes, then lay them in a huge vat filled with extremely hot water & some more special cleaning solution. When you turned the machine on, it would emit these ultrasonic waves through the water. Like I mentioned above, it was a really cool process. The waves would bounce off of the object and get in all the tiny crevices & the rest of the dirt and grime and soot and mold would come off. Then when that process was done, we would put the object(s) in another vat with hot water & rinse the solution off. After that, the drying area. If they still smelled like smoke, we had a special room set up with several ozone machines, that took the rest of the smell away.
It was an amazing process! Disgusting, but amazing. I have never felt filthier in my life, though. My shoes were completely ruined, though. I had to throw them away. I went home everyday, smelling like smoke. The days I didn't go into the shop, I had to call businesses to set up appointments to get their blinds, cleaned. (Can I just say, I hate cold calling like that. If it's my family or friends, that's a whole new ballgame. But to call people I don't know to try & sell them something....HATE IT!!! It brings me back to the days, when I had to sell pizza coupons, or raffle tickets, or whatever for softball. My dad seriously had to go with me, because I hated it so much. Let's just say, he sold way more than I did!
Anyway, thank goodness that didn't last long. It turned out, the previous owner had fixed all the books to make it look like a profitable business. Right before we bought it, he put money from his personal account into the business account to make it look like there was all this extra income coming in each month. Of course, he took the money back, when we took over. Long story short, he took back ownership of the company. We were so glad to be rid of it. As stressful as the situation was, Nathan learned a lot. So in that sense it was good for him. It forced him to have to deal with people, instead of being in the background. It helped him come out of his shell more, not be so quiet.
After that, Nathan went to work for a Land Development company, with a guy in our ward. He happened to be our home teacher. He found out our circumstances, & was so impressed with Nathan, he offered him a job. What a blessing! That's actually how Nathan got his start in the Real Estate Business.
Moving Back to Utah
Soon after that, I found out I was pregnant with my second child. Right before he was born, Nathan informed me he wanted to go back to school @ the 'Y' to get his masters degree. So a month after my son was born (August 6th - same day as my nephew, Matthew's birthday by the way), we packed up and moved to Provo, so Nathan could start the EMBA program.
It was a crazy time!!! Heck the move itself was crazy!
We spent all day trying to finish packing, and cleaning our house. Thank goodness for my mom & my sister Rochelle! It would've never gotten done without them. They were lifesavers! I was trying to take care of my baby and clean & pack. While Nathan was carrying everything out, & packing them in both this huge trailer and truck, that we borrowed from Nathan's friend Trig. (The same friend who helped him get the Land development job.)
Anyway, we had both filled to capacity. (Nathan left his truck in St. George, so he could drive back Trig's truck & trailer.) Because he knew he'd have to drive slow, with such a huge load, he left earlier than me, my mom, and the kids. Plus, he had our 2 dogs with him (a yellow & black lab) in the cab with him. Which is not a fun feat, believe me. He had to tie them up, because our female kept trying to climb in his lab.
Once we finally got the house done, we drove to my sisters to rest & visit a little longer (so I could feed Jayden). About an hour later, I get a phone call from Nathan. One of the back tires of the trailer had gone flat, and he needed me to find a spare tire, and get it to him as quick as I could. He had broken down in that windy canyon between St. George & Mesquite. (There was a spare tire hanging on the wall of the front of the trailer, but in order to get to it, he'd have to empty the entire front part of the trailer, which was stuffed to the gills....Crappy design if you ask me).
So me and my sister grabbed a phone book, jumped in my little Saturn & scrambled to find this tire on a late Saturday afternoon (which was a specialty tire by the way). Every tire store I called, said they didn't carry it, I'd have to special order it. So of course I start panicking, imagining Nathan stranded in the canyon with our 2 hyper dogs, unable to get help. So I start to cry, and of course my sister kept reassuring me (again, thank goodness for Rochelle), and said let's try this last tire store, we couldn't get a hold of on the phone. So, hoping & praying, & holding my breath we walk into this store, and gave the guy the number of the tire I needed. Holding my head in my hands, almost ready for a breakdown, I get a 'yep we have 2 left.' My response, "you're kidding." I tell you, divine intervention is a great thing!!!! I ended up buying both of them just to be on the safe side. Dang that was one expensive little tire. It was like $150 bucks for both or something like that. It was insane, but we had our tires!
I couldn't get ahold of Nathan, so we rushed back to my sisters house, where my mom was waiting anxiously with the kids. We loaded everyone up, and just as we were about to drive away. This huge wave of emotion hit me. We were actually moving, and I wouldn't get to see Rochelle & family whenever I wanted, & I big huge tears just started to fall, & wouldn't stop. Rochelle and her kids were in tears. Me & my mom were in tears. We were a site to behold!!!
When I was driving away, I looked in the rear-view mirror one last time, and saw Rochelle's face, and I literally broke down bawling. I cried so hard, I could barely see the road. I had to pull over a minute, just to get my emotion's in check. Drinking & driving is dangerous. But what about crying & driving? :) Just as bad I say. Anyway....we were off.
I think I broke every speed limit in the state of Nevada, to get there, and when we got to where he said he was going to be, he was gone. I even took the exit right out of the canyon and doubled back just to make sure. I couldn't find him anywhere. He wasn't answering his phone, and I just kept wondering how in the world are we going to find him? Was he still in trouble? Did he get help? Where the heck was he? I just kept praying please let him be okay, and let us find him.
Well I got back in the car, and kept driving toward St. George and just after we passed the weighing stations, we took the first exit (with the gas stations, the Wal-Mart & the food services. The one just as you come around the corner, and it has the 2 round-a-bouts.) Well the exact second we entered the round-a-bout just off the exit, Nathan was pulling into the same round-a-bout going the opposite direction. A moment later, & we would've missed him. My prayer was definitely answered!!! Somehow he was able to get the spare tire out, and jack up the trailer enough to change the tire. All by himself I might add. You would think, somebody would've stopped and helped him, but nope. So, on top of that, all of the time we spent hunting for those tires was wasted. We didn't even end up needing them. Well, we needed the one, to replace the ruined one, but that was it. Oh well! You win some, you lose some.
We ended up driving to the friends house where Nathan had left his truck (in NW St. George). He was out of town at the time, but thank goodness he had a big enough area outside his house where we could park the truck & trailer, and the car, and a place to put our dogs. Nathan & I spent the next 3-4 hours literally unpacking a huge portion of the trailer, and re-distributing it into the back of Nathan's truck. Thank goodness my mom was there to watch the kids. I don't know how we could have done it without her help.
I think his Neighbors were so glad by the time we left. Our dogs kept barking, and we had to use the headlights from our car & truck to see what we were doing. By the time we had finished re-packing, and transferring our luggage & kids to the truck, it was almost 10 0 o'clock at night. We hadn't eaten, we were starving, the kids weren't happy, Jayden was hungry and fussy, it was not a fun time, as you can imagine. Luckily, we ended up finding a McDonald's that was still open. It seams like we were one of the last ones there. Nathan had to park across the street, because his load was so big. As much as I hated to (since I was nursing Jayden), I loaded up on Caffeine. I figured it was safer than me falling asleep at the wheel. We still had to drive to our new house, in Provo.
Let me tell you that was one of the longest drive I have ever been on. Nathan was exhausted! I was exhausted! My poor mom was exhausted! We'd already had a long day, and now we had a very, very, very long drive ahead of us. We started out driving on an old highway, since we knew we were going to have to take it slow. Plus, I had to keep pulling over every couple of hours to nurse Jayden. It was insane! All I can say is, thank goodness for walkie-talkies!!! I don't know if you've ever had to caravan on a long road trip before, but I definitely recommend walkie-talkies. Being able to chat back and forth kept us awake & alert!
It took us all night to drive to our new house. We literally arrived in Provo @ 5:30 a.m. I still don't know how I stayed awake. I had to keep opening my eyes wide and blinking over & over, since I was starting to see double. PLus I had to guzzle caffein like it was going out of style. My poor baby. He was so out of wack for the next couple of days. I felt so awful. As much as I hated to do it, it was necessary. My mom, even got in her car after that, & drove home to Pleasant Grove, which was another 30-40 minute drive. I kept expecting to get a phone call that she'd fallen asleep at the wheel.
We spent most of that day unpacking everything out of the truck into the garage, and the trailer stuff into the house. Thank goodness we had Nathan's dad (he drove out from Winnemucca to help us) & his brother & sister-in-law (who lived right there in Provo) to help us, otherwise we could've never got that trailer unpacked.
Then after we had most of the stuff in the house, Nathan informs me, that I needed to drive back down with him to St. George the following day, so I could drive the car back. My response, "you are freakin' kidding me. There is no way." (I was so exhausted. He was so exhausted.) All I can say is, I am so glad his dad was there. He was so nice, and offered to drive down with Nathan to get the car. There is no way I could have done that drive again, so soon. I don't know how Nathan did it. Man what an experience!
Dog Lady
Oh, on top of that. After Nathan & his dad left to go to St. George, I met our new 'psycho' neighbors. We lived in one of those houses with a shared driveway. (There were some just like it in Vegas, and we had always made fun of them, & swore we would never buy a house like that, but lo & behold, we bought one! Only because it was 5 minutes from B.Y.U., and because we knew when we moved out, it would be easy to rent or sale.) But there is a definite reason why a shared driveway is a bad idea..... Let me explain.
The neighbors directly in front of us, were a bunch of single guys going to BYU. They never really bothered us. But the neighbors to the right, and the neighbors diagonal from us, were awful. First of all let me introduce you to the 'dog lady.' It was actually a lady & her husband, but she was the psychotic one. They had no children, only 2 black part-lab mutts, they rescued from the pound. They were her "children." She called them that, not me.
Flag #1 (She loves dogs more than people).
They had no job (it seams the husband was on some type of disability leave for something. He had gotten injured at work.)
Flag #2 (They had all the time in the world, to butt into other peoples business. And she frequently did).
Her windows overlooked our backyard & since we had no fence, and she had nothing better to do, she would constantly spy on our dogs. (I could keep the front door locked & refuse to answer, but the incessant knocking on my back door, while my newborn infant was trying to sleep, was a little too much to handle. This all in the second day we moved in.)
Flag #3 (Not afraid to cross boundaries, and offend & harass new neighbors!!!!!)
We had a huge problem with her from day one....okay, day 2 in this case. The first day, we spent the entire day unpacking, after driving all night to get there. The second day, Nathan & his dad took left early to pick up the Saturn in St. George, leaving me to unpack with my 1 month old son, and 3 year old daughter. Well within about an hour of them driving away, I get a knock on the front door. It's my new neighbor. She informed me that my dogs had gotten tangled up. Because we didn't have a fence, we had 2 long wire rope-like leashes, clipped to the collar of each dog, attached to the deck (obviously to keep them from running away). You know the kind with the wire coils encased in plastic, so it doesn't hurt the dogs.
So I kindly thanked her, thinking she would go back to her house, and closed the door and walked to the back of the house to exit out the back patio door. Well lo & behold, who is waiting there for me, my nosy new neighbor. She said how awful she felt that they were all tied up and that Max (our not so bright dog) kept getting himself tangled in the cord. He kept walking around the pole like 50 times until he couldn't move anymore. (Wasn't the smartest tool in the shed, still isn't.) Plus, he had knocked over the water bucket & she was upset that they wouldn't have any water to drink. (Yeh! Like I was going to let my dogs die of thirst & dehydration.) We had barely moved in for goodness sake!
After fixing the problem: untangling Max, and refilling his water bucket, I said goodbye to my neighbor, & went back inside to continue unpacking. Well not even an hour later, the doorbell rings again. Now, who is it? I looked through the key hole, and who should be there again? None other than my lovely new neighbor. "I'm so sorry, I don't mean to keep bothering you, but your dog is tangled up again", blah, blah, blah, blah.
Time & time again this happened throughout the day. I was trying to take care of my two children (several times I was nursing my son), I was trying to unpack boxes, so we would have food to eat & dishes to eat off of. When miss snoopy would come knocking and dinging my doorbell. It's not like I could hide from her either, we had no blinds on the house yet, so she could see inside our house. It was just one thing after another. "The dogs were tangled, the water was knocked over, they looked so sad, they were barking because they were tied up", etc., etc., etc. I honestly couldn't believe this was happening! I even explained that my husband was only gone for the day, and would address the situation tomorrow.
Then she tried to tell me, my husband was irresponsible for leaving his wife & newborn baby & daughter alone, when my dogs were like that. I was like what the crap are you talking about lady! He's only going to get our car so that we can both have a vehicle instead one of us being stranded, & come right back. This did little, to appease her. But since I knew we were going to be living next door to each other, while my husband was going to school at least, I sucked it up, & kept my mouth shut. 'Uh huh!, Yes. Thank you for your concern, yada yada. '
Finally when it was dark outside, she stopped harassing me, and went back to her house. I called Nathan to see how things were, and told him about the 'dog lady.' He said 'you're kidding me, right?' He couldn't believe it either, and he hadn't even met her yet. He told me not to worry, he would be back tomorrow to deal with her if need be.
Now anyone who has dogs knows, that after a big move, they're going to be a little anxious. The first day & night, they would bark at people that walked by (not in a mean way, but with their tails wagging, like come & play with me). They barked at unfamiliar sounds at night, cause they weren't used to their surroundings yet.
Well... thinking (hoping), that the lady had finally given up, I woke up the next morning, fed my kids, and went back to unpacking. Then the doorbell rings. I open it and who, you may ask, was there? You guessed it. The 'psycho dog lady.' That's what she became known as, from that day on. She literally had a plastic bag in her hand, and asked if she could scoop up my dogs poop, because otherwise they would walk all over it. I stood there stunned for a minute, not knowing how to respond, then mumbled an 'I guess,' just to get rid of her. I called Nathan and told him that she was back and was currently cleaning up our dogs crap. He was like tell her to go away. Which of course, I didn't want to burn bridges, but I was so tempted. So I let her do her thing, thinking it would appease her enough to go away.
Well about a half an hour later she comes knocking on my back patio door, this time. This is what she said to me. "I am so sorry to keep bothering you but this whole situation is making me so upset. I sat up all last night, in tears, listening to your dogs cry, because they were chained up. I know you have your new baby, and little girl to think of & take care of, but please just let me take care of your dogs. This is just awful. They're chained up, they keep getting tangled up, they're crying because they can't run free. They keep knocking over their water. It's just horrible. Please just let me take them. I beg you. I know this wonderful place where I can take them, until your husband can build a fence, where they will give them a bath, and be pampered. Please, I'll pay for it. You won't even have to pay a dime. Please, let me just do this. I beg you." She said a bunch of other stuff also, but I was pretty much seeing red at that point & completely phased it out.
When she was done with her tirade, I was pretty upset. I informed her that 'she knew nothing about us, she knew nothing about our dogs. We had barely moved, I had a newborn infant that was a little more important than giving my dogs a bath, and that we took really good care of our dogs, & she was out of line implying that we didn't. It was a temporary situation, that would be quickly remedied, and that what she was doing was borderline harassment.' I pretty much told her to back off & stop harassing me.
You think that would've given her a clue. But some people have harder heads than others, & an hour later, she knocks on my door one last time. I swear I was ready to call the police. She had 2 leashes in her hand, and begged if she could at least take my dogs for a walk, since I wouldn't let her take them to this dog place she knew. Too upset to argue at that point, I just gave in. I called Nathan extremely upset, almost in tears, wondering when he would be home, hoping he could deal with her and stop her from harassing me. He asked where she was and I said I let her take the dogs for a walk. By then, Nathan was pretty worked up. He couldn't get there fast enough. He was ready to tell her where to go. At that point, I looked out the window & what I saw, almost made me laugh out loud. She had walked to the bottom of the hill by the stop sign, and was struggling to go further. Both dogs were going in opposite directions and tangling her up in the leashes. She couldn't get them to cooperate. It was almost comical.
Well after the brief walk, she brought them back to our yard and chained them back up, and she seriously sat on our grass and held Max's head so she could look inside his mouth & ears. She kept hugging him like he was being abused or something. (It was insane. She was seriously like one brick shy of a load.)
She was doing this, when Nathan & my father-in-law drove up in the truck & Saturn. Nathan was wondering what the crap was going on. He was ready to give it to her. She must have beat a hasty retreat, when she saw them pull up, because when he got to the backyard, she was gone. That was the last time she came to our house, thank goodness!!!! (We put a fence up as soon as we could. Not only to keep our dogs in, but keep her OUT!.)
After that she just called the animal control and made erroneous "anonymous" complaints about us. (yeh right!, like we didn't know where they were coming from). Twice, when we went out of town, she called animal control on us. We would come home & be greeted by a lovely note taped to our front door, informing us to call them. She would tell them that we abandoned our dogs for days without food & water, & that we left the yard covered in dog poop. (We had made arrangements with family members to check on them, and give them food & water, if they got low.) It was just a complete load of crap....no pun intended) :) They had plenty of food, plenty of water, and Nathan had cleaned up the backyard before we left, so there was only the dog poop from the days we were gone. The first time we were annoyed. The second time we were fed up, & informed the animal control that she was harassing us, and not to take her complaints so serious. They were required to have someone come out each time to verify the complaint, and each time she was proven wrong. The guy was really nice. I don't know if he talked to her or what, but we never heard from her again. Thank goodness!! I tried to avoid her @ all costs, from there on out.
Parking Hog
Well after the fiasco with the 'dog lady.' We had another neighbor to deal with. Where we lived, there were 2 houses on each side, separated by this little driveway, and then we each had a parking space. You'd think, since there were 4 houses and 4 parking spots, we would each get a parking space.
Well the neighbor, diagonally across from us, decided that they should get; not only their own parking spot, but ours as well. And would park in my spot everyday. (They had like 2 different families living in the same house.) We asked them nicely if they would refrain, but to no avail. So Nathan wrote a note, asking them to be considerate, since we had young children; to park in their own designated parking space, since we each had one; and to just be respectful of other people. Well the next day, this lady shows up at our door, very upset. 'How dare Nathan leave a note on her car.' She informed us, that because it did not specifically state that in the association guidelines, that we had no right telling her where she could & could not park. That she would continue to park there, & we couldn't do anything about it. She told us never to leave a note on her car again, and stormed off in a huff. What a joyful, sweet lady she was. Needless to say there were countless times I had to pull up in front of the house, park in the actual driveway, drop my kids & groceries off inside the house, then get back in my car to drive around the corner and park behind my house, down off the hill. It was especially fun in the rain!
That was our wonderful welcoming committee when we moved back to Utah. I was shocked. In all the years I've lived in Utah (I grew up in Utah, spent most of my life in Utah), I have never encountered that kind of total disregard for another human being before. It was a complete eye opener. Especially, with them being our neighbors & all. The other neighbors barely said boo also. I couldn't wait to move. The location was the main reason why we stayed there.
Clearfield
That's why when Nathan bought our house in Clearfield (we were originally going to fix it up & flip it), we decided to stay. Tough decision :). Yeh right.
We came up for a weekend with Nathan to work on the house. He was changing out the carpet pad in the front room, and installing cherry wood laminate throughout the main entryway & front hallway & into the kitchen. While I was scrubbing, and cleaning the bathrooms & kitchen, etc.
Well that day, happened to be the yearly ward(LDS) party at the park just a block away from our house. I kid you not, half of the ward stopped by to welcome us and to see if we were moving into the neighborhood. Me & Nathan just stared at each other. We couldn't believe how nice everyone was. It was amazing! We have never had that kind of welcome before, especially with them not knowing whether or not, we were actually moving in or not. Well that right there, sealed the deal for us. We decided to put the Provo house up for sale instead, and move into the Clearfield house.
That was the best decision, we could have made. Our house sold within a month of putting it on the market. Plus we had awesome new neighbors! Mikayla actually had kids to play with. (Her & Jayden had no one to play with at the Provo house. Occasionally they got to play with their cousin Brandon, and their other cousins, but not often.) The first day we moved into our current house, Nathan & my father-in-law, Vic, were building a dog run for the dogs. Our neighbors directly behind us, Ryleigh & Emmie Bybee, came over and asked if the kids could play. Needless to say, Mikayla almost couldn't contain herself, she was so excited! Jayden was barely a year old, so he was excited just because Mikayla was. :).
It's been a great experience ever since. There are so many wonderful kids for Mikayla to play with. She's in 7th heaven. The problem is, every time we mention moving again, though, she gets visibly upset. Which is understandable. I know she's going to take it the hardest. It's just been so rough on Nathan having to drive back and forth to Springville every week. Not only does it waste 2 - 2 1/2 hours out of each day. But it's wearing him out. Even when we moved, he was still going to MBA school, & had to drive back & forth to Provo 3 times a week.
After he graduated, he became a Real Estate agent, and worked his butt off trying to list and sell homes, and find homes for potential buyers, which was rough. (As you can tell from the current economy it just wasn't the best time to be an agent. Still isn't.) But luckily he met a great network of friends through the MBA program, and went to work for one of the guys in his class. (It just all worked out so perfectly. Now he's doing something that he really enjoys, with a great group of guys, and he's actually excited to go to work. It's great! All of the different career paths Nathan has taken, since we've been married, have all led up to this point. Each one adding more and more knowledge in areas that he was lacking.) But once again, he was driving back & forth every weekday. Instead of Provo though, now it's Springville. Every once in awhile he'll either: work from home one day out of the week, or stay overnight at his brothers condo. But usually he drives down every weekday. Most day he'll carpool with Alex (who lives in Kaysville), but not all the time.
Even though I keep teasing Nathan about how many times we've moved, each place has given us such a broader perspective & insight on life, that have helped us grow not only as a couple together, but individually as well. As hard as it was to move to Arkansas, when we first got married, away from all of my family & friends, it was a true blessing in disguise. We needed to start our life out learning to depend & rely on each other, not our families. We needed to grow & bond as a couple, & being on our own forced us to do just that. It made our love stronger!!! As many ups & downs as we've had through the years, we've always been there for each other, and helped each other get through them. It may not have been easy, but it was worth it.
I could have done without "psycho dog lady" though....... :)
A Sister's Love
Throughout all of this, my sister Rochelle, or as I like to call her, Roch, was my lifeline!!! We hung out all the time. It was awesome! We'd do our Ross, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Target & Olive Garden runs on the weekend. (Hence Olive Garden is Mikayla's favorite restaurant even to this day :). But it was great!
I would always hang out at their house. We would always do things with Darrin's family also. They are the coolest family, by the way. Everyone would always make you feel so welcome. They still do. They're your typical Italian family. Every get-together was always jam packed with family and friends, and everyone always felt like part of the family.
We'd have the yearly Halloween party at Ty & Nancy's (Darrin's nephew), and Monday night dinners at Frank & Glorias'. Gloria would spend all day cooking & getting ready. I never knew how she did it. She would watch Emerill , cooking on t.v. and take notes on all the recipes she liked and make them. She would have like 20 different dishes. It was incredible. Then most of the family would come over. The house would be packed, but there would always be room for more.
But whenever I needed something, whether it was advice, a shoulder to cry on, a friend, whatever it was, my sister was always there for me. Her & Darrin kept me sane :). Before we moved to Vegas, my main memory of Rochelle is of her acrylic nails at my jugular (sorry & yes I had to bring that up. It's branded in my brain :) But when I moved to Vegas, and really got to know her, I found out what a big-hearted, loving, caring, strong, beautiful person she really is.
Thanks for always picking me up, for listening to my babble, & for always being there for me when I need you. I love you Roch & miss you very much! You're my best friend!!! )))
After a whirlwind romance (met briefly in December, starting dating in January, engaged by March, married in May), Nathan & I moved to Arkansas (Nathan got a job at Wal-Mart's home office in Bentonville), literally a week after we got married. It was crazy! It all seam to happen so fast. Now, no offense to people who are from there, or currently live there, but it was not for us.
Pros: lightning bugs, beautiful green rolling hills.
Cons: ticks, chiggers, tarantulas, massive dandy long legs all over the hills, water moccasins, cotton mouths, humidity (especially....in those beautiful green rolling hills), & no family.
Needless to say, we lasted about a year and a half. We were actually going to buy this really cool house (it literally had a football field for the backyard), but came to find out there were several leans on the house stemming from the previous owners. Thank goodness it fell through!!!
Moving to Vegas
When I was about 6 1/2 months pregnant we packed up & moved to Vegas. Nathan was able to transfer in as an assistant manager for the Wal-Mart store off of Decatur. All I can say is thank goodness for my sister Rochelle & her husband Darrin & his family! They took pity on us and we stayed at Roch's house the first month (while we looked for a house), then moved into a room in Darrin's parents house while our house was being built (it took a lot longer than expected). Thank you Gloria & Frank! You're total sweethearts!!!
It was funny...at the time they had this huge dog named Koda (it was actually Darrin's dog, but it stayed at his parents house kind of like a guard dog). It was an Akita. Since I didn't know what an Akita was, I really didn't know what to expect. Rochelle kept telling me how big he was, but still it was a shock. The first time we went there, so Rochelle could introduce us to Frank & Gloria, she told me about Koda, and just as we were about to open the front door, she said, 'whatever you do don't stare him in the face, & don't pet his head.' I was like what the crap? what do you mean don't stare him in the face & don't pet his head? Then the door opened.....I hear the deepest freaking bark I have ever heard, coming from the biggest dog I have ever seen in my life. I swear this thing was part bear, it was so big.
When I was younger, I was bitten by my friends little dog, which instilled a slight fear of dogs in me. I'm fine with dogs I know, like our own of course, & my brothers dogs. But any other one, I'm hesitant with until I get to know them. So to say I was scared, was an understatement. I swear, my heart almost stopped. He came right up to me and stared at me, and I just stood there frozen. Afraid to move, afraid to make eye contact.
I made the mistake of looking him in the face, later that evening, and he growled at me with this deep throated growl. Roch said it was because he was getting up there in years, and couldn't see as well as he used to, and that for some reason, he didn't like women as well as men. Great!!!!! That news made me feel so much better, let me tell you!
This isn't an actual picture of Koda, but this is a picture I found online. He looked just like that.
Well as the months went by, I slowly got used to having him around, but he would still make me nervous every time I walked by him. I never looked at him, I hardly ever petted him unless there was someone there with me, and I never, ever touched his head. I'm sorry, but he scared the crap out of me.
Then one day (this was after Mikayal was born), I was sitting on the couch, watching their huge wide screen t.v. while Morgan & Mikayla were taking naps, when Koda walked over & sat down right next to me. At first I was like 'holy crap. What do I do?' But then I tentatively reached out to pet his fur. Well he loved it and scooted a little bit closer. By then I didn't dare stop petting his fur, and he kelpt scooting closer. That dog ended up literally putting his entire weight on my one leg. Needless to say, within minutes, I had no feeling left in that leg. Was I going to move that dog? Heck noooooooooo!!! I just kept right on petting him, not looking him in the face!
I have never seen thicker fur on a dog. Hi hair was so think, and he had all this fine dust in it (from being outside) that it made my fingers feel itchy & funky. But did I stop.....no I did not! Dead leg, & funky fingers be damned, I stayed right where I was. :) I seriously can't remember how Iwas able to escape. I was literally there for like an hour. It took about 1/2 hour for the feeling to return to my leg. I walked around, looking like a gimp until it did. The good thing though? I stopped being afraid of Koda. It was a great turning point :):):). I could leave my room without fearing for my safety. yeh!!!! :)
Miss you Koda!
(he passed away a couple of years ago. I think it was). He was a good dog, although big, a great guard dog.
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Things happen for a reason...
I guess in a way, moving to Vegas was a blessing, not only for us, but also for my sister. At the time, she was working at N.Y.N.Y., and had Morgan in the day care across the street where she could run over on her breaks to see her. Morgan was only 4 1/2 months old at the time. Anyway this new little boy kept biting Morgan on the back. He could walk, and so Morgan had no chance to defend herself. She seriously had like 4 bites marks on her back at one time. And it wasn't like little love marks, they were black and blue and you could see the outline of this kids teeth. It kept happening, every time the boy was put in the same class. No matter how many times, Rochelle complained & told them to separate them, he would somehow end up back in the same room. And Morgan would get bit again. Finally, at her wits end, Rochelle asked me to watch Morgan, which I was happy to do. I know that's a huge reason, why I wasn't scared to be a mom, when I had Mikayla. (That and living with my oldest sister Jen, after she had Matthew. This was after Ricks, before I met Nathan while I was working at Wal-mart. I helped Jen raise Matthew until he was about 2 years old. It almost broke my heart, when me & Nathan moved to Arkansas after we got married. I missed his little voice calling me "JoJo." What a sweet little boy. A sweet big boy now :).
(...Hey that's when we had our first litter of puppies also. I almost forgot about that. It was an oops litter. When we moved from Arkansas, we stayed @ Nathans' brother house in Mojave Valley, AZ and we tied our 4 legged baby up in their backyard because their fence was really low. Nathans' parents were there to celebrate Christmas and to help us move. I think it was Adrian, who was a baby at the time, and he kept waking up in the middle of the night crying, so both me & Nathan put earplugs in. Well lo & behold our poor pooch was taken advantage of by a pack of dogs (she came in heat). It was awful! We didn't hear a thing, because we had the earplugs in. Thank goodness Nathan's dad woke up and rescued her. Anyway...(wow that was kind of a crappy story), hence the 'oops litter'. What's crazy is, our dog is a yellow lab, and 4 of them were born without tails. They were all yellow, looked just like a lab, but those 4 had stubs for tails. They were so adorable. To this day, we still don't know what type of dog was the father. Darrin's brother got one without a tail, and when I see him now, he moves just like a Rottweiler. But somebody told me they're born with tails, so I don't know.)
My daughter was born a week after the puppies were!!!
Anyway, (yes I use this word a lot...what of it :).... , so I watched my little Morgie-Shay right up until I had Mikayla, and then started watching her again (I think) when Mikayla was a week old. Those girls were like 2 little peas in a pod. Still are. The only difference...Mikayla has light hair, and Morgan has dark :O).
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Going Back to Work
I was so sad when I had to go back to work. I think Mikayla was almost 2 at the time. I seriously bawled my eyes out for like a week straight. Not only could I not watch Morgan anymore, but I was leaving my baby at home, and I didn't even get to put her to bed (except on my days off, of course). But it wasn't the same. (We were just going through a rough patch, and needed the extra money.) I think I barely talked to my husband that week. And when I did, I glared at him, when I wasn't crying that is. I know it wasn't his fault, but still, I was not happy! So my husband would go to work in the morning, & then when he got off he would watch Mikayla so I could go to work. It worked out pretty well.
(Nathan, at that time, had left Wal-Mart to buy a fire & water restoration business called UltraSonic Cleaning. That was at the time where women were picketing Wal-Mart because they "weren't getting the same opportunities as the men." Which was a load of crap. I'm sorry, but I worked for Wal-Mart and half my managers were women. So in response, Wal-Mart, instead of actually advancing people who were QUALIFIED, they advanced a whole bunch of women, just because of their sex, so my husband got put on the back-burner time & time again. It wasn't worth it. The hours weren't worth it, what he had to put up with wasn't worth it, and so he moved on.)
It actually wasn't too bad. I worked at Kohl's just a couple blocks away from where we lived. It took me less than 5 minutes to get there. I was able to work off all of my pregnancy weight with all the walking and lifting I did. I worked in the Misses & Women's dept. Putting away the clothing, was my weight-lifting. :) Plus, I met a lot of really cool people. Don't get me wrong, I definitely still missed my girls!. I would've preferred being with them, but it ended up being a really great job. Although it turned out, I probably spent more $ there, than I actually brought home. :)
The Phone Call...
I worked there until I got a call from my dad, telling me that my Nephew, Matthew (the same one I mentioned above) had a traumatic brain injury and that he was going in for emergency surgery in Provo. I think my heart nearly stopped. I was so upset. It was the same feeling I had, when I found out my Grandpa Stevens had passed away (incidently, the same week as the deer accident & my birthday. Not a good birthday!)
I immediately called my boss & explained the circumstances. I packed my bags. And the next morning, left for Utah (with Mikayla & my niece Tyra). I will never forget that time! It was such a rough time for everyone in my family. I won't go into details, they know the events that happened, but needless to say he survived through many, many prayers. God definitely lent a helping hand. Matthew spent his 6th birthday having a life-saving surgery. It's been a long road to recovery, he still deals with after effects from his injury, but he has come leaps & bounds with each passing year. I love that beautiful boy! I love you Matthew!!! Mom & Dad & Lon you have done such a great job!!! He is one loved little....big boy. :)
Ultra-Sonic Cleaning
Needless to say, I never went back to working at Kohl's. (They were so great about the whole situation.) Every time I went in shopping with my sister, Braun (the asst. manager) would beg me to come back. :) He was such a cool guy. Anywho,...(ha ha notice I didn't use anyway....okay I'm a dork)...anywho I ended up going to work with my husband at our "Ultra-Sonic Cleaning" business. One of the guys, who worked for him quit, which left him empty-handed. He definitely, needed the extra help.
Let's just say, that was the dirtiest job I have ever done in my entire life! I still don't know how I did it. Blah!!! We set up the break-room for a little daycare for Mikayla. We brought a bunch of toys, & movies & books, and I would try & keep her entertained & help Roxy (our employee), at the same time. It was rough, to say the least.
As for the actual business,...anyone who has ever had fire or water damage in their home, have probably dealt with some type of service like this. We would clean, any item that had smoke, or water, or mold damage. We pretty much, cleaned anything and everything: electronics (t.v.'s, stereos, game consoles, keyboards, vacuums, etc.), furniture, mattresses, couches, blinds, dolls. You name it. We did a lot of blinds!!! Mainly for businesses, but some residential as well. The blinds pretty much turned into our specialty at the end.
The ultrasonic process itself, was amazing! However, to get to that point, as you can well imagine, was a nasty, filthy process! We had these huge tables on wheels we would lay the items on. We would spray them with this special solution that would kill the mold, and take the smoke smell out, & anything else that wasn't supposed to be there. We would have to scrub them with these big brushes, then lay them in a huge vat filled with extremely hot water & some more special cleaning solution. When you turned the machine on, it would emit these ultrasonic waves through the water. Like I mentioned above, it was a really cool process. The waves would bounce off of the object and get in all the tiny crevices & the rest of the dirt and grime and soot and mold would come off. Then when that process was done, we would put the object(s) in another vat with hot water & rinse the solution off. After that, the drying area. If they still smelled like smoke, we had a special room set up with several ozone machines, that took the rest of the smell away.
It was an amazing process! Disgusting, but amazing. I have never felt filthier in my life, though. My shoes were completely ruined, though. I had to throw them away. I went home everyday, smelling like smoke. The days I didn't go into the shop, I had to call businesses to set up appointments to get their blinds, cleaned. (Can I just say, I hate cold calling like that. If it's my family or friends, that's a whole new ballgame. But to call people I don't know to try & sell them something....HATE IT!!! It brings me back to the days, when I had to sell pizza coupons, or raffle tickets, or whatever for softball. My dad seriously had to go with me, because I hated it so much. Let's just say, he sold way more than I did!
Anyway, thank goodness that didn't last long. It turned out, the previous owner had fixed all the books to make it look like a profitable business. Right before we bought it, he put money from his personal account into the business account to make it look like there was all this extra income coming in each month. Of course, he took the money back, when we took over. Long story short, he took back ownership of the company. We were so glad to be rid of it. As stressful as the situation was, Nathan learned a lot. So in that sense it was good for him. It forced him to have to deal with people, instead of being in the background. It helped him come out of his shell more, not be so quiet.
After that, Nathan went to work for a Land Development company, with a guy in our ward. He happened to be our home teacher. He found out our circumstances, & was so impressed with Nathan, he offered him a job. What a blessing! That's actually how Nathan got his start in the Real Estate Business.
Moving Back to Utah
Soon after that, I found out I was pregnant with my second child. Right before he was born, Nathan informed me he wanted to go back to school @ the 'Y' to get his masters degree. So a month after my son was born (August 6th - same day as my nephew, Matthew's birthday by the way), we packed up and moved to Provo, so Nathan could start the EMBA program.
It was a crazy time!!! Heck the move itself was crazy!
We spent all day trying to finish packing, and cleaning our house. Thank goodness for my mom & my sister Rochelle! It would've never gotten done without them. They were lifesavers! I was trying to take care of my baby and clean & pack. While Nathan was carrying everything out, & packing them in both this huge trailer and truck, that we borrowed from Nathan's friend Trig. (The same friend who helped him get the Land development job.)
Anyway, we had both filled to capacity. (Nathan left his truck in St. George, so he could drive back Trig's truck & trailer.) Because he knew he'd have to drive slow, with such a huge load, he left earlier than me, my mom, and the kids. Plus, he had our 2 dogs with him (a yellow & black lab) in the cab with him. Which is not a fun feat, believe me. He had to tie them up, because our female kept trying to climb in his lab.
Once we finally got the house done, we drove to my sisters to rest & visit a little longer (so I could feed Jayden). About an hour later, I get a phone call from Nathan. One of the back tires of the trailer had gone flat, and he needed me to find a spare tire, and get it to him as quick as I could. He had broken down in that windy canyon between St. George & Mesquite. (There was a spare tire hanging on the wall of the front of the trailer, but in order to get to it, he'd have to empty the entire front part of the trailer, which was stuffed to the gills....Crappy design if you ask me).
So me and my sister grabbed a phone book, jumped in my little Saturn & scrambled to find this tire on a late Saturday afternoon (which was a specialty tire by the way). Every tire store I called, said they didn't carry it, I'd have to special order it. So of course I start panicking, imagining Nathan stranded in the canyon with our 2 hyper dogs, unable to get help. So I start to cry, and of course my sister kept reassuring me (again, thank goodness for Rochelle), and said let's try this last tire store, we couldn't get a hold of on the phone. So, hoping & praying, & holding my breath we walk into this store, and gave the guy the number of the tire I needed. Holding my head in my hands, almost ready for a breakdown, I get a 'yep we have 2 left.' My response, "you're kidding." I tell you, divine intervention is a great thing!!!! I ended up buying both of them just to be on the safe side. Dang that was one expensive little tire. It was like $150 bucks for both or something like that. It was insane, but we had our tires!
I couldn't get ahold of Nathan, so we rushed back to my sisters house, where my mom was waiting anxiously with the kids. We loaded everyone up, and just as we were about to drive away. This huge wave of emotion hit me. We were actually moving, and I wouldn't get to see Rochelle & family whenever I wanted, & I big huge tears just started to fall, & wouldn't stop. Rochelle and her kids were in tears. Me & my mom were in tears. We were a site to behold!!!
When I was driving away, I looked in the rear-view mirror one last time, and saw Rochelle's face, and I literally broke down bawling. I cried so hard, I could barely see the road. I had to pull over a minute, just to get my emotion's in check. Drinking & driving is dangerous. But what about crying & driving? :) Just as bad I say. Anyway....we were off.
I think I broke every speed limit in the state of Nevada, to get there, and when we got to where he said he was going to be, he was gone. I even took the exit right out of the canyon and doubled back just to make sure. I couldn't find him anywhere. He wasn't answering his phone, and I just kept wondering how in the world are we going to find him? Was he still in trouble? Did he get help? Where the heck was he? I just kept praying please let him be okay, and let us find him.
Well I got back in the car, and kept driving toward St. George and just after we passed the weighing stations, we took the first exit (with the gas stations, the Wal-Mart & the food services. The one just as you come around the corner, and it has the 2 round-a-bouts.) Well the exact second we entered the round-a-bout just off the exit, Nathan was pulling into the same round-a-bout going the opposite direction. A moment later, & we would've missed him. My prayer was definitely answered!!! Somehow he was able to get the spare tire out, and jack up the trailer enough to change the tire. All by himself I might add. You would think, somebody would've stopped and helped him, but nope. So, on top of that, all of the time we spent hunting for those tires was wasted. We didn't even end up needing them. Well, we needed the one, to replace the ruined one, but that was it. Oh well! You win some, you lose some.
We ended up driving to the friends house where Nathan had left his truck (in NW St. George). He was out of town at the time, but thank goodness he had a big enough area outside his house where we could park the truck & trailer, and the car, and a place to put our dogs. Nathan & I spent the next 3-4 hours literally unpacking a huge portion of the trailer, and re-distributing it into the back of Nathan's truck. Thank goodness my mom was there to watch the kids. I don't know how we could have done it without her help.
I think his Neighbors were so glad by the time we left. Our dogs kept barking, and we had to use the headlights from our car & truck to see what we were doing. By the time we had finished re-packing, and transferring our luggage & kids to the truck, it was almost 10 0 o'clock at night. We hadn't eaten, we were starving, the kids weren't happy, Jayden was hungry and fussy, it was not a fun time, as you can imagine. Luckily, we ended up finding a McDonald's that was still open. It seams like we were one of the last ones there. Nathan had to park across the street, because his load was so big. As much as I hated to (since I was nursing Jayden), I loaded up on Caffeine. I figured it was safer than me falling asleep at the wheel. We still had to drive to our new house, in Provo.
Let me tell you that was one of the longest drive I have ever been on. Nathan was exhausted! I was exhausted! My poor mom was exhausted! We'd already had a long day, and now we had a very, very, very long drive ahead of us. We started out driving on an old highway, since we knew we were going to have to take it slow. Plus, I had to keep pulling over every couple of hours to nurse Jayden. It was insane! All I can say is, thank goodness for walkie-talkies!!! I don't know if you've ever had to caravan on a long road trip before, but I definitely recommend walkie-talkies. Being able to chat back and forth kept us awake & alert!
It took us all night to drive to our new house. We literally arrived in Provo @ 5:30 a.m. I still don't know how I stayed awake. I had to keep opening my eyes wide and blinking over & over, since I was starting to see double. PLus I had to guzzle caffein like it was going out of style. My poor baby. He was so out of wack for the next couple of days. I felt so awful. As much as I hated to do it, it was necessary. My mom, even got in her car after that, & drove home to Pleasant Grove, which was another 30-40 minute drive. I kept expecting to get a phone call that she'd fallen asleep at the wheel.
We spent most of that day unpacking everything out of the truck into the garage, and the trailer stuff into the house. Thank goodness we had Nathan's dad (he drove out from Winnemucca to help us) & his brother & sister-in-law (who lived right there in Provo) to help us, otherwise we could've never got that trailer unpacked.
Then after we had most of the stuff in the house, Nathan informs me, that I needed to drive back down with him to St. George the following day, so I could drive the car back. My response, "you are freakin' kidding me. There is no way." (I was so exhausted. He was so exhausted.) All I can say is, I am so glad his dad was there. He was so nice, and offered to drive down with Nathan to get the car. There is no way I could have done that drive again, so soon. I don't know how Nathan did it. Man what an experience!
Dog Lady
Oh, on top of that. After Nathan & his dad left to go to St. George, I met our new 'psycho' neighbors. We lived in one of those houses with a shared driveway. (There were some just like it in Vegas, and we had always made fun of them, & swore we would never buy a house like that, but lo & behold, we bought one! Only because it was 5 minutes from B.Y.U., and because we knew when we moved out, it would be easy to rent or sale.) But there is a definite reason why a shared driveway is a bad idea..... Let me explain.
The neighbors directly in front of us, were a bunch of single guys going to BYU. They never really bothered us. But the neighbors to the right, and the neighbors diagonal from us, were awful. First of all let me introduce you to the 'dog lady.' It was actually a lady & her husband, but she was the psychotic one. They had no children, only 2 black part-lab mutts, they rescued from the pound. They were her "children." She called them that, not me.
Flag #1 (She loves dogs more than people).
They had no job (it seams the husband was on some type of disability leave for something. He had gotten injured at work.)
Flag #2 (They had all the time in the world, to butt into other peoples business. And she frequently did).
Her windows overlooked our backyard & since we had no fence, and she had nothing better to do, she would constantly spy on our dogs. (I could keep the front door locked & refuse to answer, but the incessant knocking on my back door, while my newborn infant was trying to sleep, was a little too much to handle. This all in the second day we moved in.)
Flag #3 (Not afraid to cross boundaries, and offend & harass new neighbors!!!!!)
We had a huge problem with her from day one....okay, day 2 in this case. The first day, we spent the entire day unpacking, after driving all night to get there. The second day, Nathan & his dad took left early to pick up the Saturn in St. George, leaving me to unpack with my 1 month old son, and 3 year old daughter. Well within about an hour of them driving away, I get a knock on the front door. It's my new neighbor. She informed me that my dogs had gotten tangled up. Because we didn't have a fence, we had 2 long wire rope-like leashes, clipped to the collar of each dog, attached to the deck (obviously to keep them from running away). You know the kind with the wire coils encased in plastic, so it doesn't hurt the dogs.
So I kindly thanked her, thinking she would go back to her house, and closed the door and walked to the back of the house to exit out the back patio door. Well lo & behold, who is waiting there for me, my nosy new neighbor. She said how awful she felt that they were all tied up and that Max (our not so bright dog) kept getting himself tangled in the cord. He kept walking around the pole like 50 times until he couldn't move anymore. (Wasn't the smartest tool in the shed, still isn't.) Plus, he had knocked over the water bucket & she was upset that they wouldn't have any water to drink. (Yeh! Like I was going to let my dogs die of thirst & dehydration.) We had barely moved in for goodness sake!
After fixing the problem: untangling Max, and refilling his water bucket, I said goodbye to my neighbor, & went back inside to continue unpacking. Well not even an hour later, the doorbell rings again. Now, who is it? I looked through the key hole, and who should be there again? None other than my lovely new neighbor. "I'm so sorry, I don't mean to keep bothering you, but your dog is tangled up again", blah, blah, blah, blah.
Time & time again this happened throughout the day. I was trying to take care of my two children (several times I was nursing my son), I was trying to unpack boxes, so we would have food to eat & dishes to eat off of. When miss snoopy would come knocking and dinging my doorbell. It's not like I could hide from her either, we had no blinds on the house yet, so she could see inside our house. It was just one thing after another. "The dogs were tangled, the water was knocked over, they looked so sad, they were barking because they were tied up", etc., etc., etc. I honestly couldn't believe this was happening! I even explained that my husband was only gone for the day, and would address the situation tomorrow.
Then she tried to tell me, my husband was irresponsible for leaving his wife & newborn baby & daughter alone, when my dogs were like that. I was like what the crap are you talking about lady! He's only going to get our car so that we can both have a vehicle instead one of us being stranded, & come right back. This did little, to appease her. But since I knew we were going to be living next door to each other, while my husband was going to school at least, I sucked it up, & kept my mouth shut. 'Uh huh!, Yes. Thank you for your concern, yada yada. '
Finally when it was dark outside, she stopped harassing me, and went back to her house. I called Nathan to see how things were, and told him about the 'dog lady.' He said 'you're kidding me, right?' He couldn't believe it either, and he hadn't even met her yet. He told me not to worry, he would be back tomorrow to deal with her if need be.
Now anyone who has dogs knows, that after a big move, they're going to be a little anxious. The first day & night, they would bark at people that walked by (not in a mean way, but with their tails wagging, like come & play with me). They barked at unfamiliar sounds at night, cause they weren't used to their surroundings yet.
Well... thinking (hoping), that the lady had finally given up, I woke up the next morning, fed my kids, and went back to unpacking. Then the doorbell rings. I open it and who, you may ask, was there? You guessed it. The 'psycho dog lady.' That's what she became known as, from that day on. She literally had a plastic bag in her hand, and asked if she could scoop up my dogs poop, because otherwise they would walk all over it. I stood there stunned for a minute, not knowing how to respond, then mumbled an 'I guess,' just to get rid of her. I called Nathan and told him that she was back and was currently cleaning up our dogs crap. He was like tell her to go away. Which of course, I didn't want to burn bridges, but I was so tempted. So I let her do her thing, thinking it would appease her enough to go away.
Well about a half an hour later she comes knocking on my back patio door, this time. This is what she said to me. "I am so sorry to keep bothering you but this whole situation is making me so upset. I sat up all last night, in tears, listening to your dogs cry, because they were chained up. I know you have your new baby, and little girl to think of & take care of, but please just let me take care of your dogs. This is just awful. They're chained up, they keep getting tangled up, they're crying because they can't run free. They keep knocking over their water. It's just horrible. Please just let me take them. I beg you. I know this wonderful place where I can take them, until your husband can build a fence, where they will give them a bath, and be pampered. Please, I'll pay for it. You won't even have to pay a dime. Please, let me just do this. I beg you." She said a bunch of other stuff also, but I was pretty much seeing red at that point & completely phased it out.
When she was done with her tirade, I was pretty upset. I informed her that 'she knew nothing about us, she knew nothing about our dogs. We had barely moved, I had a newborn infant that was a little more important than giving my dogs a bath, and that we took really good care of our dogs, & she was out of line implying that we didn't. It was a temporary situation, that would be quickly remedied, and that what she was doing was borderline harassment.' I pretty much told her to back off & stop harassing me.
You think that would've given her a clue. But some people have harder heads than others, & an hour later, she knocks on my door one last time. I swear I was ready to call the police. She had 2 leashes in her hand, and begged if she could at least take my dogs for a walk, since I wouldn't let her take them to this dog place she knew. Too upset to argue at that point, I just gave in. I called Nathan extremely upset, almost in tears, wondering when he would be home, hoping he could deal with her and stop her from harassing me. He asked where she was and I said I let her take the dogs for a walk. By then, Nathan was pretty worked up. He couldn't get there fast enough. He was ready to tell her where to go. At that point, I looked out the window & what I saw, almost made me laugh out loud. She had walked to the bottom of the hill by the stop sign, and was struggling to go further. Both dogs were going in opposite directions and tangling her up in the leashes. She couldn't get them to cooperate. It was almost comical.
Well after the brief walk, she brought them back to our yard and chained them back up, and she seriously sat on our grass and held Max's head so she could look inside his mouth & ears. She kept hugging him like he was being abused or something. (It was insane. She was seriously like one brick shy of a load.)
She was doing this, when Nathan & my father-in-law drove up in the truck & Saturn. Nathan was wondering what the crap was going on. He was ready to give it to her. She must have beat a hasty retreat, when she saw them pull up, because when he got to the backyard, she was gone. That was the last time she came to our house, thank goodness!!!! (We put a fence up as soon as we could. Not only to keep our dogs in, but keep her OUT!.)
After that she just called the animal control and made erroneous "anonymous" complaints about us. (yeh right!, like we didn't know where they were coming from). Twice, when we went out of town, she called animal control on us. We would come home & be greeted by a lovely note taped to our front door, informing us to call them. She would tell them that we abandoned our dogs for days without food & water, & that we left the yard covered in dog poop. (We had made arrangements with family members to check on them, and give them food & water, if they got low.) It was just a complete load of crap....no pun intended) :) They had plenty of food, plenty of water, and Nathan had cleaned up the backyard before we left, so there was only the dog poop from the days we were gone. The first time we were annoyed. The second time we were fed up, & informed the animal control that she was harassing us, and not to take her complaints so serious. They were required to have someone come out each time to verify the complaint, and each time she was proven wrong. The guy was really nice. I don't know if he talked to her or what, but we never heard from her again. Thank goodness!! I tried to avoid her @ all costs, from there on out.
Parking Hog
Well after the fiasco with the 'dog lady.' We had another neighbor to deal with. Where we lived, there were 2 houses on each side, separated by this little driveway, and then we each had a parking space. You'd think, since there were 4 houses and 4 parking spots, we would each get a parking space.
Well the neighbor, diagonally across from us, decided that they should get; not only their own parking spot, but ours as well. And would park in my spot everyday. (They had like 2 different families living in the same house.) We asked them nicely if they would refrain, but to no avail. So Nathan wrote a note, asking them to be considerate, since we had young children; to park in their own designated parking space, since we each had one; and to just be respectful of other people. Well the next day, this lady shows up at our door, very upset. 'How dare Nathan leave a note on her car.' She informed us, that because it did not specifically state that in the association guidelines, that we had no right telling her where she could & could not park. That she would continue to park there, & we couldn't do anything about it. She told us never to leave a note on her car again, and stormed off in a huff. What a joyful, sweet lady she was. Needless to say there were countless times I had to pull up in front of the house, park in the actual driveway, drop my kids & groceries off inside the house, then get back in my car to drive around the corner and park behind my house, down off the hill. It was especially fun in the rain!
That was our wonderful welcoming committee when we moved back to Utah. I was shocked. In all the years I've lived in Utah (I grew up in Utah, spent most of my life in Utah), I have never encountered that kind of total disregard for another human being before. It was a complete eye opener. Especially, with them being our neighbors & all. The other neighbors barely said boo also. I couldn't wait to move. The location was the main reason why we stayed there.
Clearfield
That's why when Nathan bought our house in Clearfield (we were originally going to fix it up & flip it), we decided to stay. Tough decision :). Yeh right.
We came up for a weekend with Nathan to work on the house. He was changing out the carpet pad in the front room, and installing cherry wood laminate throughout the main entryway & front hallway & into the kitchen. While I was scrubbing, and cleaning the bathrooms & kitchen, etc.
Well that day, happened to be the yearly ward(LDS) party at the park just a block away from our house. I kid you not, half of the ward stopped by to welcome us and to see if we were moving into the neighborhood. Me & Nathan just stared at each other. We couldn't believe how nice everyone was. It was amazing! We have never had that kind of welcome before, especially with them not knowing whether or not, we were actually moving in or not. Well that right there, sealed the deal for us. We decided to put the Provo house up for sale instead, and move into the Clearfield house.
That was the best decision, we could have made. Our house sold within a month of putting it on the market. Plus we had awesome new neighbors! Mikayla actually had kids to play with. (Her & Jayden had no one to play with at the Provo house. Occasionally they got to play with their cousin Brandon, and their other cousins, but not often.) The first day we moved into our current house, Nathan & my father-in-law, Vic, were building a dog run for the dogs. Our neighbors directly behind us, Ryleigh & Emmie Bybee, came over and asked if the kids could play. Needless to say, Mikayla almost couldn't contain herself, she was so excited! Jayden was barely a year old, so he was excited just because Mikayla was. :).
It's been a great experience ever since. There are so many wonderful kids for Mikayla to play with. She's in 7th heaven. The problem is, every time we mention moving again, though, she gets visibly upset. Which is understandable. I know she's going to take it the hardest. It's just been so rough on Nathan having to drive back and forth to Springville every week. Not only does it waste 2 - 2 1/2 hours out of each day. But it's wearing him out. Even when we moved, he was still going to MBA school, & had to drive back & forth to Provo 3 times a week.
After he graduated, he became a Real Estate agent, and worked his butt off trying to list and sell homes, and find homes for potential buyers, which was rough. (As you can tell from the current economy it just wasn't the best time to be an agent. Still isn't.) But luckily he met a great network of friends through the MBA program, and went to work for one of the guys in his class. (It just all worked out so perfectly. Now he's doing something that he really enjoys, with a great group of guys, and he's actually excited to go to work. It's great! All of the different career paths Nathan has taken, since we've been married, have all led up to this point. Each one adding more and more knowledge in areas that he was lacking.) But once again, he was driving back & forth every weekday. Instead of Provo though, now it's Springville. Every once in awhile he'll either: work from home one day out of the week, or stay overnight at his brothers condo. But usually he drives down every weekday. Most day he'll carpool with Alex (who lives in Kaysville), but not all the time.
Even though I keep teasing Nathan about how many times we've moved, each place has given us such a broader perspective & insight on life, that have helped us grow not only as a couple together, but individually as well. As hard as it was to move to Arkansas, when we first got married, away from all of my family & friends, it was a true blessing in disguise. We needed to start our life out learning to depend & rely on each other, not our families. We needed to grow & bond as a couple, & being on our own forced us to do just that. It made our love stronger!!! As many ups & downs as we've had through the years, we've always been there for each other, and helped each other get through them. It may not have been easy, but it was worth it.
I could have done without "psycho dog lady" though....... :)
A Sister's Love
Throughout all of this, my sister Rochelle, or as I like to call her, Roch, was my lifeline!!! We hung out all the time. It was awesome! We'd do our Ross, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, Target & Olive Garden runs on the weekend. (Hence Olive Garden is Mikayla's favorite restaurant even to this day :). But it was great!
I would always hang out at their house. We would always do things with Darrin's family also. They are the coolest family, by the way. Everyone would always make you feel so welcome. They still do. They're your typical Italian family. Every get-together was always jam packed with family and friends, and everyone always felt like part of the family.
We'd have the yearly Halloween party at Ty & Nancy's (Darrin's nephew), and Monday night dinners at Frank & Glorias'. Gloria would spend all day cooking & getting ready. I never knew how she did it. She would watch Emerill , cooking on t.v. and take notes on all the recipes she liked and make them. She would have like 20 different dishes. It was incredible. Then most of the family would come over. The house would be packed, but there would always be room for more.
But whenever I needed something, whether it was advice, a shoulder to cry on, a friend, whatever it was, my sister was always there for me. Her & Darrin kept me sane :). Before we moved to Vegas, my main memory of Rochelle is of her acrylic nails at my jugular (sorry & yes I had to bring that up. It's branded in my brain :) But when I moved to Vegas, and really got to know her, I found out what a big-hearted, loving, caring, strong, beautiful person she really is.
Thanks for always picking me up, for listening to my babble, & for always being there for me when I need you. I love you Roch & miss you very much! You're my best friend!!! )))
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