Christmas 2010

I hope that everyone out there had a great weekend and a fabulous Christmas. We sure did.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Grover side of Paul's family. Cousin Jane and her husband Greg always host dinner for everyone. It's so nice to see everyone and to see how much all the kids have grown over the year.

We stayed the night at Mom and Dad's house Christmas Eve so that we wouldn't have to drive all the way back the next morning. Mom and Erin made a great breakfast and then we opened presents. We didn't go as overboard as we have in the past but everyone still got lots of good stuff. Will most of all. We tried to space them out a bit so that he would get a chance to play with everything.

Will got a cool doctors set from Erin. It has interchangeable X-Rays, an IV line, and a doctors bag full of equipment. He took the time to sit down and check Paul's heartbeat, his temperature, and his ears.

The next item was a remote control car from Grandma and Grandpa Noble. It was built for little kids, so all it has is 4 buttons; one that makes it go forward, one that makes it back up, one the makes the horn beep, and one that revs the engine. He loved that! He drove it around for hours, menacing the poor dogs. I tried to get some pictures but he was moving around so much that they came out blurry.

The last big thing was an artist easel from Grandma and Grandpa Noble. One side has a chalk board and the other side has a white marker board. There is also a roll of paper through the middle so that he can color with crayons. He loved the marker board because he could draw as much as he wanted and then erase it and start over.

Later in the morning we brought out his finger paints and taped some paper up so that he could paint. He likes this because it's messy.

In the afternoon Nina and Paul's brothers came over for dinner. Mom and Erin made a fabulous turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We were so stuffed that we could barely move.

Once everything got settled again we got William ready for bed in another set of Christmas PJ's. I think he got about 6 different sets this year. The fun part is now he can wear them until Spring!

Paul had to work yesterday so William and I spent the day back at Mom and Dad's. William played with Grandpa while us girls went shopping. (Yes, we are just about that crazy.)

In the evening we went to Nina's for Sunday dinner. She made her traditional Christmas Prime Rib dinner with all the fixin's. After we ate we opened packages with the brothers. Nina gave everyone ZuZu Pets. For those of you who don't know, ZuZu Pets are little electronic hamsters. Each of us got one pet and a piece of their habitat. So, we spent about an hour setting up a huge hamster run in Nina's front room and sending the little guys scurrying through it. By the time that we left last night it looked like toys had taken over the front room!

After all of the excitement of the weekend it is hard to come back to work and focus. Mostly I keep thinking about all of the toys and gifts that are piled up in my living room waiting to find a home somewhere in the house.

Oh well... Hopefully the cats aren't having too much fun playing doctor.

Snowmen and Christmas Trees

We spent time playing at Grandma and Grandpa's over the weekend. Grandpa helped Will make his first snowman in the yard. Will kept putting big handfuls of snow on the front to give him a big belly.

On Saturday we went to the annual Festival of Trees. As usual they had a ton of stuff to look at. Most of it was pretty standard Christmas fair. I have posted some pictures of some of the more unique displays.

This one was called "That 70's Christmas". There was a big sculpture made out of bike tire rims with flowers and lights. The tree itself was covered in peace signs and more flowers.

This one was all done in dinosaurs (my favorite). I couldn't get a wide enough shot to get everything that was laid out around the tree. There was a small army of plastic dinosaurs on the floor around the tree. I would totally have bought this tree, no matter how much it cost, but it was already sold.

This one was called "A Rockin' Christmas". It was all done in old albums.

Besides the trees they always have great gingerbread displays. The biggest one this year was a candy carnival. It was so big that I had a hard time getting a good picture of it.

This was Noah's Ark.

This was a train station.

This one was a cool idea. It was done as a suitcase that had opened up to show a village inside. They even had painted all of these little travel stickers on the outside of the trunk.

On Sunday we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's and Will helped Grandpa organize and put up Christmas lights. Mostly he was in charge of turning them on and off when Grandpa told him to, but it was a help. We had a great weekend overall.

I am starting to feel a bit better everyday. We had another ultrasound on Friday. The baby is doing fine and growing well. We are scheduled for our big ultrasound on January 7th. That's when we will find out what we are having. I will make sure and post it for everyone.

Thanksgiving and Snow

Well, we had a nice Thanksgiving, considering that Will barely ate anything and I am limited by morning sickness still. Paul helped make up for the two of us. ;-)

Nina cooked a fabulous dinner spread, as usual. Someone asked me why I don't take over the cooking duties so that Nina could have a break, but I told them that when you have a cooking master like Nina you don't mess with it. I assume that one day I will have a house big enough to hold everyone and at that point I can start taking some of the holidays on myself. But, until then I am more than happy to just help with the cleanup.

We had quite a snow storm come through last week. We ended up with about a foot of snow of the ground at our house. It was just starting to melt off a bit when another storm showed up yesterday. It snowed all day long and all last night. We now have over a foot on the ground at our house.

Driving in to work this morning was fun...

The only good part about the snow is that the roofers managed to get our new roof done before all the storms started. So, at least I am not worried that it will all melt into my attic.

Now we just need it to clear up long enough for the siding guys to come in and do their stuff.

Snow Already

Man, what happened to fall. It seems like about the time that I notice the color changing in the leaves it turns instantly cold and snow starts falling.

This morning I woke up to a front yard that looked like a bag of powdered sugar had been up ended on it.

I'm not sure that I am ready for this. This is going to delay so many things that I need done. Mainly the repair to our roof and siding.

At this rate we won't have it all done until after Christmas!

Halloween

We had a lot of fun this Halloween, despite the fact that I still feel crappy.

We took Will to a local pumpkin farm to choose a carving pumpkin. I managed to get one picture and then my camera ran out of power.

William was pumpkin crazed!


Paul helped us carve the pumpkins. Will helped by coloring.

David, Kathy, and Adam were all down visiting over the weekend. Erin took Adam out on Saturday with a big group of friends. Adam dressed as a CareBear.

Paul and Grandma Rhonda took Will trick-or-treating while I stayed behind to hand out candy.

They managed to go down one block before the rain started failing too hard to continue on. Will still ended up with a full bag of candy.

I've been trying my best to ration the candy so that he doesn't become sick.

Questions without answers...

I have been asking myself a lot of questions lately that seem to have no real answers.

The top one on the list is why does being pregnant make you so sick.

So far I have come up with a lot of sort-of answers, but nothing that seems like a finalized one. The best that I can do so far is that it is natures way of protecting a growing fetus from anything dangerous that you might eat. Of course, most of us don't run around eating raw shell fish and soft French goat cheese on a daily basis.

At this point I would be happy if plain old water didn't make me sick.

Another question that I was pondering is why hasn't western medicine come up with a better way of treating morning sickness. Right now the medicine of choice is an anti-histamine, which makes you very sleepy. As anyone who has been pregnant will tell you, being pregnant already makes you tired. This extra sedation does not help when trying to keep up with a house full of laundry and a 2 year old.

So, after much thinking I have decided that no answer is really enough for these questions. And if you come to my house in the next few weeks do not be surprised if you find dirty clothes every where, nothing to eat but soda crackers, and me asleep on the couch.

News

Well, I have news for everyone.

If you haven't already heard I am pregnant again. I am officially 6 weeks along and the projected due date is June 5th.

Now, for all of you hyperventilating into a paper bag right now, I have discussed everything with my doctor and she feels like this time we can take steps to prevent some of the problems that I had last time. So, just relax and try not to worry.

So far everything is going well. I am sick as a dog right now which is considered a sign of good growth. However, I have decided that this will be the last time that I do this, because of the sickness.

Yard Sales and Costumes

We finally had our yard sale this last weekend. Mom and Dad brought some of their junk so we had lots to sell. Even though it was so late in the season we had quite a few people come by.

Will was a big helper. He helped grandma put signs on the larger items.

Later in the day mom showed him how to blow dandelion seeds. (Thanks Grandma... I'm sending you the weeding bill.)

Overall we had a great turnout and made a bit of money.

We've also been making trips to all of the local thrift stores in preparation for Halloween. Since William will only wear a costume once and then grow out of it I didn't want to spend a ton of money this year.

So far we have found a few contenders.

This one is a black cat. It's a little too short for him, but he likes it.

This one is a dinosaur/dragon. He keeps saying that he wants to be a dragon this year.

This one is my favorite thus far. It's a chicken!

Here's some video of him in the chicken costume.

I think maybe he can be the dinosaur/dragon at daycare and the chicken for Trick or Treat, since the chicken is a warmer costume.

Fairs and Fires

On Saturday we went to the Utah State Fair. We spent 4 hours walking around looking at the animals, home goods, and art exhibits.

William really liked the animals, especially the chickens and other poultry. I held him up so that he could see some baby chicks that they had in one of the cages.

One of our favorite things at the fair is the giant butter sculpture. We didn't realize it before (mostly because we weren't paying attention) that Paul's cousin Matt is one of the sculptors who make these butter creations each year. The only reason that we know now is because we caught it on a local news story one morning.

Here is this years 700+ pound sculpture of two cows and a goat eating ice cream.

These cows are as big as a full grown man!

This was the information card that they had out next to the sculpture. It has a picture of Matt and the other sculpture who worked on the display.

On Sunday Will and I spent the day at Grandma and Grandpa Noble's house. They had been out of town for over a week touring the west coast. Grandma and I took Will to play at the park for a bit but it was really hot and windy so we cut that a bit short.

Late in the afternoon we noticed that the foothills west of their house seemed to be on fire. As the day went on the cloud of smoke kept getting bigger and bigger. After dark you could see that the entire mountain was ablaze. It was starting to get really low and looked as if it was going to start overtaking the town of Herriman, which is just on the other side of the highway from Mom and Dad's house. We stood out on the back porch and watched the flames spread from hill to hill. The fire was so big that we could actually see the flames without using binoculars.

When the news came on we learned that the fire had been sparked by a machine gun training exercise at a nearby military firing range. Since the wind was blowing so hard (up to 50 miles per hour at times) they were unable to put it out and it had spread off of the training grounds and into the nearby scrub brush.

I didn't have a good angle to get pictures with my camera so I've posted some of the shots from the local news website.

This was the view from across the valley just before sunset.


This one must have been taken from somewhere just west of Mom and Dad's house because this is pretty much what we saw.

These are some of the local residents who were evacuated from their homes.

The news reports this morning said that in all more than 1200 homes were evacuated and at least 4 large homes have burned. They still do not have even a percentage of it contained, but at least the winds have died down this morning.

The only good thing is that no one has been injured thus far.

Like I need a hole in my head.

This morning I had my CT scan at the ear, nose, and throat doctor's.

The first thing that happened when I got there was a very nice assistant took me back to an exam room and proceeded to spray a combination of Afrin and Lidocaine up my nose. For the next 10 minutes I was told to sit there and wait while the entire front half of my head went numb. The only good thing was that the Afrin opened my breathing passages more than they have been for the last 3 years.

It's weird to all of a sudden be able to breathe again.

Anyway, after that I was escorted to the CT scanner, where I had to sit perfectly still with my head strapped a chair. That was probably the longest 40 seconds of my life.

Then there was more waiting while the doctor read the scans.

He finally came in to show me what my head looks like from the inside out.

(For all of you waiting with baited breath, yes, I do have a brain in there.)

He showed me the images of my nasal passages and even my untrained eyes could tell that my septum is severely deviated. Turns out that I also have a bone spur getting in the way.

So, the doctor recommends that I have surgery to straighten things out and remove the spur.

The only problem is that I used up all of my paid time off to go to all of the doctors appointments. It will be at least 2 months before I have enough built back up again to take time off for surgery. Not to mention that I will need to have some time off saved for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Sigh...

At least now I know why I've been having problems.

As I was sitting in my chair working on a crochet project tonight I was looking at the hook and thinking about the ancient Egyptians. When they would mummify someone in ancient Egypt they would use a small hook to extract the person's brain through their nose. I started to think that if I got a small enough crochet hook and wiggled it around up there I might be able to fix it myself.

Either that or might end up giving myself a full frontal lobotomy.

Maybe I will let the professionals handle this one.

When good cats go bad...

We officially own the worlds dumbest cat.

His name is Doofey.

Last week I left a crochet project out on the kitchen table. When Paul got home he found Doofey attempting to eat my project.

That stupid cat had managed to swallow more than 6 feet of cotton yarn!

Paul pulled most of it back out (YUCK!!) but Doofey has been sick ever since.

On Sunday I finally broke down and took Doofey into the emergency vets office. They did x-rays and gave him medicine to make him feel better. However, they were unsure of whether there was more yarn left in his system. They wanted to keep him for observation and more x-rays, at a possible cost of $700-$1000.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love my cat... but that is a stupid amount of money to spend on him.

I told the doctor that I would take him home and monitor him there. I also promised to take him in to our regular vet on Monday morning so that he could have another x-ray to see if anything had changed.

I then paid the emergency vet $350. (YIKES!!)

Yesterday morning I called our regular vet and told them that Paul would be bringing Doofus in for more x-rays. I also figured it was also a good time to get Butters updated on his shots (since the groomer doesn't like getting rabies from an angry Butters when trying to trim him). The vet said that we could leave Doofey with them for observation and x-rays, and bring Butters in that afternoon for his shots.

So... yesterday afternoon I took in Butters for his shots and to pick up Doofey. The doctor showed me the new x-rays of Doofey. They were still inconclusive as to whether there was more yarn in him. They informed me that the only way to know for sure would be to do an ultrasound, which would cost about $350.

At that point I started to think that maybe I would just help Doofey go into the light by hand...

Anyway, I told the vet "no" because it cost too much and thanked them for their help. I then wrote another check for $300 to the regular vet for everything that they did for both cats. (DOUBLE YIKES!!!)

So, now everyone is back home. We are still on watch with Doofey. I did confirm that there is yarn in his system last night, because I found some in the box. (SUPER EEEEWWWW!!)

All of my yarn is safely stored away in drawers now.

Paul says that if Doofey survives this he's going to kill him.

At this point I might help him with that...

Smiling William

Sometimes even the most simple moment makes a great picture.

This morning we were leaving for daycare when Will requested his new sunglasses... even though the sun wasn't really up yet. It was cold this morning and he already had his jacket and hat on. I thought that the glasses just made him look more like a snowboarder.

So, we had to have a picture.

New Sand and Water Table

We finally got Will's new water and sand table put together this weekend. He spent hours playing with it. He built "sand castles" and watered pretend flowers.

I enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching.

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out. Paul had Saturday off so we got to spend some time with him, which is always nice.

Yesterday we went to Grandma and Grandpa Noble's house to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. Will helped me bake him a cake and ran around yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" all evening.

Head Colds and Car Accidents

I freakin' hate the universe sometimes.

Yesterday I finally got in to see the ear, nose, and throat doctor about my chronic sinus issues and head colds. He gave me a whopping does of antibiotics and wants me to come back in 2 weeks for a head CT scan.

I started taking the meds last night and I was starting to feel better.

However...

This afternoon as I was coming back from making the daily mail run at work I got into a car accident. A guy in a truck made a left hand turn right in front of me while I was doing 40 mph. I noticed him just in time to slam on the breaks, but we collided anyway. The entire passenger side front end of my car is crunched.

Luckily no one was injured.

So, now the van is at the body shop and I am back at work. The adrenaline is slowly working its way out of my system and I am now in desperate need of a nap.

Should you come looking for me this Labor Day weekend I plan to be in my backyard, lying in the shade, with a fruity drink in my hand... and safely away from moving vehicles.

Car Show and Gardens

On Saturday we went to a car show. It was mostly classic cars, but there were some really nice new ones, too. Paul was in heaven.

I was persuaded to go because it was being held at a local botanical gardens. I figured that when Will and I got tired of looking at cars we could wander around looking at flowers and other pretty things.

When you first walk into the gardens you start at the top of a very steep hill. This picture doesn't do it justice, but there is one further down that looks back up the hill that gives you a better idea. Luckily they had a path the wound down a more gently slope so that we could get the stroller down. However, the hike back up was not pleasant.

Most of the flowers were still in bloom. With all of the rain that we have had this year the flowers have gone nuts.

They had the cars spread out across multiple lawns.

There was a little creek running through the center of everything.

This is the shot back up the hill.

William was in the stroller most of the walk because we didn't want him touching the cars.

At one point Will and I went off on a side path to see what else was in the gardens. There was a vine covered pathway that had little wooden doors inside. Through the doors was a little walled in secret garden. I let Will run around in there for a while.

This is the face you get when you have Will say "cheese".

Once we left the secret garden Paul decided to give Will a ride.

William and Paul liked the old dump trucks.

One of the sections of cars were Austin Healey's. Since Rhonda's first car was a 1959 Bug Eyed Sprite we had to have a picture of one.

There were a lot of cars to look at. Paul loved it, but Will and I soon were getting tired.

I found us a bench near the rose garden so that we could sit and relax for a bit.

It was a really nice day. The wind was blowing a bit, but it kept the tempurature down to a reasonable level. We were all exhausted after climbing back up the hill, so afterward we went to Grandma's and just hung out.