Jingle Bell Rock

This year at the Anderson Christmas party, each family did a little skit. Luckily, Jake and Carson like to perform, so they took center stage. Grace and I played the jingle bells.

*As a side note, Grace's hairclip was falling out, so I put it in my hair and forgot it was there. Festive, yes....fashionable for a 30something, not really. :)

1

HE'S FIVE!!! SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!

Carson was SO excited to turn five this year!! As a matter of fact, he's STILL excited about being five. He asks every day about this or that "that I used to do when I was four". Anyway, we had a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with the preschool that day, so it was kind of like a built in party. We celebrated with his family gifts in the morning before Jake went to work, then went to the Pumpkin Patch with his preschool friends and then had a few friends over for cake and ice cream in the early evening...easy and FUN!

I made this banner to hang above the kitchen

Carson saw the letters before I had them attached and sewn together and he said "Mom, where's the 'C'? How will everyone know it's MY birthday if it doesn't say 'Happy Birthday Carson'? And how will they know I am FIVE?"

So he woke up to this:

He was very specific in wanting a "black cake with a yellow circle and then blue". I'm pretty sure he meant he wanted a black tier, a yellow tier, and a blue tier, but no way was I going to make a 3 tier cake because that's what he 'designed' on the toys r us website! So I improvised and came up with this.




Happy Birthday to an amazing, AMAZING boy!!!

I'll have to post about the Pumpkin Patch on another day...it's time for bed!

Is October Really OVER???

I cannot believe how busy we are these days! We have had so much fun stuff going on over the past few months and I haven't written about ANY of it! Part of my problem is that I get started writing and then get interrupted and never go back (you should see how many 'drafts' I have with 3 lines written). I don't think I'm a very good writer, so if I don't post it right away and have to go back and finish, chances are, I'll re-read it and think "duh that's dumb" and start a new post and never finish....it's a horrible cycle!!

Anyway, I'll just post some short version stories...


Carson and Grace working on some art




Carson's finished product (a tree and some clouds)

His Own Battlefield

Ok, I know this is a heavy topic and not fun at all, but it's World Suicide Prevention Day today. And since this subject is a big part of my family and my life, I will post. There was an "event" on facebook to share thoughts and memorials. I ran across this:

His Own Battlefield

"Our friend died on his own battlefield. He was killed in action fighting a civil war. He fought against adversaries that were as real to him as his casket is real to us. They were powerful adversaries. They took toll of his energies and endurance. They exhausted the last vestiges of his courage and his strength. At last these adversaries overwhelmed him. And it appeared that he had lost the war. But did he? I see a host of victories that he has won!

"For one thing - he has won our admiration - because even if he lost the war, we give him credit for his bravery on the battlefield. And we give him credit for the courage and pride and hope that he used as his weapons as long as he could. We shall remember not his death, but his daily victories gained through his kindnesses and thoughtfulness, through his love for his family and friends...for all things beautiful, lovely, and honorable. We shall remember not his last day of defeat, but we shall remember the many days that he was victorious over overwhelming odds. We shall remember not the years we thought he had left, but the intensity with which he lived the years that he had. Only God knows what this child of His suffered in the silent skirmishes that took place in his soul. But our consolation is that God does know, and understands."

The Reverend Wes Stephens, at a funeral for a victim of suicide

Many of these are thoughts I have had about my little brother, Shawn. He was a strong man, who had so much to live for. He was funny and had a beautiful smile. He danced like no one was watching - even though he knew we all were! I cannot imagine the kind of pain he was in. I know he fought a good fight. I love him and think of him every day.

Adventures in Sacrament Meeting

I'm the first to admit, Jake and I are far from perfect parents. We love our children, we play with our children, we teach our children. And I think we're doing a descent job, but are far from perfect.

Yesterday, we all went to church. I thought I should write down a few of the funny/cute things that happened during Sacrament Meeting:

- Just before they passed the sacrament, Carson whispers, "Is this snack time?" I tried to ignore and brush him off, but he kept saying it...louder and louder. I said, "No Carson, it's not snack time, it's a time to think about Jesus." That seemed to satisfy him and he kept quiet. Well, today, we were getting in the car to go to Sue's and Carson says, "Mom, why do we think about Jesus during snack time at church? At school, we just have snacks for fun" :)

- Also during the sacrament, Grace starts saying, "I'm poopin. I'm Poopin! Mom, I'm POOPIN!!!!!" So I took her out (screaming) to go potty.

- After the bread was passed, Carson said, "Mom, are they going to give us water now? Can I take two? I'm pretty thirsty."

- Jake's back started really hurting him and we had decided to go home. I told Carson that we were leaving and he started crying "But YOU said I was gonna get to go to a different class and we were going to stay this time!!!!!"...so we stayed.

Like I said, FAR from perfect.....but really, who isn't.....right?

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Grace turned three on Monday. I cannot believe she is three years old! She is not a baby OR toddler...she is a preschooler!

Since Jake will be out of town this week, we celebrated her birthday all weekend. Saturday, we went to her friend, Lauryn Perkins (they were born on the same day) birthday party. I worried that there might be some drama since Grace knew it was HER birthday too...but, she handled it beautifully! She watched Lauryn open presents with an excited little smirk on her face...too cute!

Sunday we had her birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's house. She wore her "#3" shirt and party hat that I made for her :) and she loved all the attention! Grace requested a pink cake. Nothing fancy, just pink. I had other plans, but decided to stick with her request and made a plain, pink cake (with strawberries in the middle).

Here is Grace's third year interview:

Favorite TV Show: Einsteins, Baby Einsteins
Favorite Movie: Tinkerbell (we just rented it yesterday. Her actual favorite, the one she requests almost daily, is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs)
Favorite Candy: Pink
Favorite Color: Pink
Favorite Letter: B S (weird, but that’s what she said)
Best Friends: Dad, Carson, Aunt Sue, Gracie (She probably just forgot to mention Mom)
Favorite Place to Go: Jumpin Jacks…we should go to Jumpin Jacks (chanting over and over)

Favorite Game: Bad Guys
Favorite Food: Chicken Nuggets
Favorite Drink: Apple Juice
Favorite Number: B (ok, we need to work on that)

Favorite Song: Stop This Train (John Mayer), Gary Go (not a song, but a group...funny how her favorites align with what Jake is currently listening to ;)

She loves to sing, tell knock knock jokes, tease her brother and chase him with her 'tickies' (her fingers walking like a spider). She gave her binky to the binky fairy, is fully potty trained and loves to play with her Littlest Pet Shops and "babies".

Like her brother, Grace loves to dance - we dance a lot in this house and the kids have the best moves! She also loves to play in the "cool" (pool). She asks to "go to a hotel to swim in the cool" on a regular basis. She loves Princess and the Frog, Team Umizumi, Dora and Little Einsteins. She can count to 10 in Spanish.

She loves to have her nails painted and when she gets her hair done, she asks if she "looks like a princess". To which the answer is ALWAYS "YES, Grace, you DO look like a beautiful princess".

She is my girl. I love her...

The Crappiest Fourth Of July EVER!

WARNING: This is a long one!!

July 4th landed on Sunday this year, which, in Utah means the celebrations mainly take place on Saturday the 3rd. We had plans to go to James and Lisa's for fireworks and fun, but those plans were quickly changed...

"Mom, I've swallowed something REALLY BAD. It's REALLY BAD!!"

Crap! Carson and I were in his room trying to take a nap...well, I was trying to nap, HE was playing with some little alkaline batteries. Three little alkaline batteries - the kind found in hearing aids and little light up toothbrushes. Now we have only one of those batteries. The other two are somewhere in his body.

Jake and I both tried to get him to gag them up (which you are not supposed to do, but we panicked). I called the InstaCare and they told me to bring him in. They need to know where the batteries are. So after some frantic words (it's no secret that we don't do well under pressure!), Jake took the third battery and Carson down to the clinic.

Jake called about 20 minutes later saying we needed to go to the ER, but the ER in Riverton didn't have the equipment they needed to pull out the batteries with a scope. So Grace and I hopped in the car and met Carson and Jake at the Riverton Hospital to drive downtown together. Jake said the nurse at the InstaCare almost wanted to send him by ambulance, but she trusted that we'd go directly to Primary Children's Hospital. And we did.

As we were checking in at the front desk, I see Sandy, my dad's wife, walking down the hall. Her eight year old granddaughter was hit by a car that afternoon. Wow. I'm so glad Carson only swallowed a couple of batteries! She's ok, but broke her leg in two places and has some other injuries, but nothing life threatening. She was just baptized that morning. Poor thing.

So Grace, Jake and I get settled in while Carson gets checked out. This was at about 4:30...if we hurry, maybe we can still make it to set off some fireworks.

We were seen by a doctor, a few nurses and then finally a surgeon (very young, very green). He says we will probably do a live xray (I forget what it's called) and if the batteries haven't dropped to the lower intestine, they'll insert a scope down his throat and remove them. Once they drop to the lower intestine, it's best to just let nature run it's course and poop them out. The surgery that would be required at that point, would be too unnecessarily invasive. The acids in the esophagus and stomach could corrode the seal on the batteries, causing the batteries to leak and possibly burn his intestines. YIKES! But once in the lower intestine, he 'should' be out of any danger.

Now it's 7...no way will we make it to James and Lisa's. Maybe we can still see some fireworks on the way home.

We were told we just needed to wait until the "Greenie" asks his "boss" what procedure he wants to do. Then a few minutes later the nurse comes in and is ready to take Carson upstairs. FAST! GREAT! There was some minor confusion as to whether or not we signed a consent form - we said we did, the nurse said we did not. When we got upstairs and met Dr Black (the "boss" surgeon), he said, "this is a pretty short surgery, about 30 minutes or so. You can wait in the waiting room and see him when he wakes up. Then, if all goes well, you can take him home in 2 or 3 days"..........silence...........Jake - "Whoa, wait, no one said anything about surgery. I don't think we are quite there. I mean, if it comes to that - but no, no one said anything about surgery. I don't think I understand..." Then he proceeded to tell the surgeon what he understood to be the next steps - you know a little xray and maybe a scope. Dr Black says, "No, I can't do this surgery with a scope, it's a small incision for the appendectomy." THEY BROUGHT UP THE WRONG PATIENT!!! (hence the questioned consent form).

Whew! We all had a little laugh of relief and Dr Black confirmed that the batteries will be removed with a scope and Carson's appendix will be left as is. :)

So we went back downstairs to wait some more. They had already set up the room for the appendectomy and could not squeeze us in...dang.

We waited and waited and waited. Poor Grace was such a trooper! We thought about calling someone to take her, but then since we were not sure how long we'd be (or quick we'd be) we figured we'd just stick together.

Finally, the anesthesiologist came down to get him ready for his iv. Wait...why does he need an iv for an xray??? After ANOTHER miscommunication with "Greenie" and ANOTHER 40+ minutes of waiting, we were told they would do the scope first and the xray only if they could not find the batteries. I don't understand why, but by this point I don't really care why. They have so many different doctors and nurses checking in and giving their version of what is going to happen...we were utterly confused.

Around 9:45 they finally took Carson upstairs again. The docs were calling him the "Energizer Bunny", so we knew they had the right patient this time! Carson picked out the cotton candy flavored mask and was whisked away. Jake had taken Grace for a ride in the car to see if they could see any fireworks (which they did get to see a few small bursts) so I went to the waiting room. About 10 minutes or so later, Dr Black came in and told me the batteries have 'moved on' and that we'd have to keep an eye out for them in his poop. Great. He said to wait about 10-15 minutes for Carson to wake up and then I could wait with him to be released. They like to keep them for about an hour after waking up to make sure there were no complications with the anesthesia. Jake and Grace made it back to the waiting room just a few minutes before the nurse called for me at about 11:00. I thought they forgot about us, but they said that Carson was just so sleepy that he wouldn't wake up. Hello...it's ELEVEN O'CLOCK!!!

Grace got to get on the bed and ride along with Carson. It was cute. The nurse said Carson was "so stinkin cute"...I happen to agree :) We passed room 101 and he said "Isn't it funny that one hundred and one is just 1 0 1? That is so funny"...No Carson, YOU are so funny!!

So we waited in Carson's recovery room and watched Deadliest Catch (nothing else was on). Carson and Grace both got to lay on the bed and eat root beer slushies. Around 12:30 we were out of there. CARSON was out of there. I carried his limp little sleeping body out to the car and our little family went home.

He had his first "movement" this morning. No batteries. I don't know if I can do this part of motherhood.

Carson has been so cute during this whole thing. He knew he did the wrong thing by putting those batteries in his mouth. He knows not to eat things that are not food. I felt so sorry for him having to admit that he did something wrong. I KNOW he won't be doing it again. He has done everything I've asked him to do today...I just have to follow my request with "it will help you poop" and he's all over it!! He took a nap because "it will help you poop", he ate a big bowl of broccoli because "it'll help you poop", and he did some exercises ....

I love that smart little man more than anything...or as he told Jake the other day...

"I love you more than the earth and the sky and the EVERYTHING...except the family. I love the family the same". He is my family and I love him.

Neverbuddies

I don't have any amazingly entertaining stories to write about tonight, but I'm tired of seeing that ugly scar picture whenever I get on this blog - I use my page to get to everyone else's pages. So here's a short, cute "new word" story from Carson:

Carson: Mom, do you have any "neverbuddies"?
Me: Neverbuddies? I don't know what that is, what is a neverbuddy?
Carson: Well, it's a buddy that you meet, but he never comes to your house and you never go to his house.

I figured out that he is talking about the friends you meet in playplaces and parks that you will probably "never see again" - as so delicately explained by his mother :/

One Year Ago...

A year ago today, I had a partial thyroidectomy to remove a nodule (or goiter if you really want to call it that) on my left thyroid. It turned out to be non-cancerous, but the only way to know for sure was to have it removed. After my surgery, the doctor said that I made the right decision. If I had let it go, it was the type to just keep growing and I could have had a second head by now :)

If you think the picture looks gross, you should have seen it in real life! So ugly...but I decided I'd give it one year before freaking out. It's a good thing I did, because I think it's healed quite nicely.

Hopefully there will be nothing left to do with this thing now. I have to stay on synthroid forever, but only to stop a new nodule from growing, not to regulate the hormone. Yay for happy endings :)

Day 1 :(

Day 366 :)

Finally, the first days of SPRING are here!

I have been thinking about writing on this dumb blog for a while, but haven't felt very creative and have really just been a little lazy and selfish with my alone time lately. Well, tonight, there is nothing on TV, the kids are in bed, the house is clean (er than usual), Jake is downstairs doing something with Photoshop or cameras or research on Photoshop or cameras...so....here I am. I debated writing about the "Boot Camp" class I tried yesterday...tried as in - I only made it through about 15 minutes of "warm ups" before I grabbed my crap and headed for the door!!! (let's just say I'm more suited for "Flip Flop Camp" right now). Instead, I'll just post some pictures of the kids playing in this beautiful Springtime weather we've been enjoying this week.

Thanks again to Lisa and the girls for the super fun picnic at the park! Other than the HUGE meltdown on the way to the car (thank you, Carson), it was a perfect day! On a positive note, it sure was nice not to have the Wii on yesterday ;)

Oh Sweet Poetry

Let me start off by saying, yes, I know I dropped off the face of this blog in the middle of my 25 days of Christmas. I kept planning on finishing it up, but come on...I know myself well enough to know that if I haven't finished it up by Valentines Day, it's probably not going to happen! Better luck next year! Time to move on...

So I pulled out an old box - my "box 'o memories" - tonight looking for pictures to scan and ran across a poem that I wrote in 2002. It was for one of those poetry 'contests' where if you are selected, your poem will be published in "The Sound of Poetry" collection. I thought it sounded kind of scam-ish, so I thought I'd enter and see what happened - just for kicks :)

http://poetry.com/poems/swiss-chocolate/7365333/

Totally lame. It looks like a 3rd grader wrote it! But I got a letter saying "Swiss Chocolate" would be included in the highly acclaimed and internationally distributed three-album collection. "Just imagine, Michelle, how your friends and family will feel when they hear your name...your words...presented as part of this exclusive collection. This album will instantly become a treasured keepsake to all who hear and enjoy it" Too funny!