The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly...

The Good:
Blaze, Kaia, Shantel, her kids, my mom and I all went to the Town Christmas party on Wednesday night. Thursday we hung out at home until about 3:30 and then went over to my mom's for dinner. It was so good! After dinner we opened presents and came home. Me and Jercie made some reindeer food and put it on the lawn for them. Then we came inside and had some hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows and watched A Christmas Story. While watching the movie the kids opened their Christmas P.J's. Then it was bedtime. So we set out the traditional cheese ball and crackers and a Pepsi for Santa and the kids went to bed. They were asleep by 8:15 so Santa had left our house by 10:30. (He waited a while to make sure they were asleep.) Christmas morning had arrived FINALLY! Jercie woke us up at about 6:30 and I had to wake Blaze up. Of course they got everything they wanted. That sneaky Santa hid Jercie's ipod in the tree and I was so proud of her when she had opened all of her presents and didn't once complain that Santa forgot it. She did find it and loved it. Blaze got a Bat Cave and when he opened it up he said "What the..." it was awesome! I thought Kaia would have been more into it this year but she made me and Jercie open all her presents. Once they were opened she was pretty stoked about them. I made crepes for breakfast and Mike cooked Prime Rib for dinner. I think I like that new tradition.

The Bad:
On Wednesday afternoon Jercie told me her belly hurt. At about 4:30 she started puking. I told her she couldn't go to the town Christmas party. She was so sad and tried so hard not to get sick, unfortunately it didn't work. Luckily she was only sick until about 11:30 that night. After dinner on Christmas Eve Blaze was so cranky and mouthy he didn't get to feed the reindeer. Then while Santa was stuffing stockings I heard a gag and a cough and a cry from Blaze's room. Mike went in to check on him and came and told me to go take care of him. He had started puking. So I got him a puke bucket and he went back to sleep. He was only sick for a couple hours too so by Christmas morning he was better. We went all day Christmas without any puking kids. Then on Saturday I tried to feed Kaia some cereal and she wouldn't eat. She drank some milk. She was kind of cranky and just wanted to be held. I put her down for a second and she started puking. All over the couch the floor and me. Aw the joys of parenting. She was fine by about 4:30. That was the end of the sick...or so I thought.

The Ugly:
On Saturday at around 2:30 Mike called from work and told me he wasn't feeling well. He still had 4 1/2 hours left on his shift but he was going to stick it out. At 4:30 I got a call from Brandon telling me  I need to go pick Mike up. Brandon was going to try to find somebody to bring him to Salina. No such luck on the ride so I had to go all the way up to the mine. When I got to Sigurd I called my dad to find out the exit I needed to take to get there and he told me he would go get Mike because he didn't want me driving the mine road. I started crying because I was stressed out and knew I needed to get Mike down off the hill. But Dad insisted so I turned around and headed home. At 6 I got another call from Brandon asking where my dad was. I told him I had passed him in Richfield at 5:30. Brandon said he was going to start bringing Mike down and he was going to the hospital. My dad got Mike just off the freeway and I met them at the hospital. Mike was in a lot of pain and was really sick to his stomach. They gave him demoral and some zofran. The demoral didn't help his pain so they gave him some more. Nothing. Finally they gave him some deladin and that finally helped him. They did a CT of his abdomen and found a hiatal hernia. The doctor didn't think that was causing the problem though, but didn't offer any other ideas.  So they sent Mike home with some phenegren for the nausea and orders to rest and drink lots of fluid. Mike is pretty sure it was food poisoning from a breakfast burrito he ate at the Flying J. I agree with him. He is feeling a lot better now and vows to never eat truck stop food again!

It's possible...

That I have completely lost it. Remember how I said I was on top of things this year. Well, I spoke too soon. I just barely got my Christmas cards in the mail this morning. I still have a couple gifts left to buy, mostly stocking stuffers though. And I can't remember anything.

Our ward does an angel tree every year. We took three things off the tree and got them. Well, I was wrapping them when I noticed that the little girl's outfit was the wrong size. So yesterday I went to exchange it. I took the kids to my mom's so I wouldn't have to drag them along with me. I got to her house and realized that I had forgot to grab the outfit to take back. I stopped back home and grabbed the outfit. Drove to Richfield, got Kaia out of the truck and went into Walmart. As I walked through the doors I realized I didn't have my return. I didn't want to go all the way back to the truck so I just got the right size and I'll return the other one later. Then I was going to get the stuff for the kids' teacher gifts because Blaze only has school on Tuesday. I forgot to get that as well. I also needed some hair stuff to do my hair. I got it cut you see and I have to do it a certain way or it just looks ridiculous. Forgot that too. I've been wearing Kaia's kufi caps and it actually looks okay.

I did however remember something about Blaze yesterday that made me smile. When he was about 18 months my sister would watch the kids while I was at work. She would have to sing the Spongebob song to get him to take a nap. It's no wonder that kid has the song memorized and has to watch it every day.

911? I'm grounded

So I got Mike a new phone for our anniversary. It got here yesterday so he gave Jercie the old one. First thing he told her was "Do Not call 911." He told her at least twice. Well we were in our room talking and Jercie comes down the hall bawling. Mom I called someone on accident. So I get on the phone and tell her that Jercie had accidentally called. She was like well this is the 3rd time we've gotten a call from this number. So I apologized, explained the situation and apologized again. Jercie was freaked out to say the least. I don't know if other phones work the same way, but if there isn't a sim card in the phone you can still make emergency calls if you push the call button twice. Nobody explained this to Jercie so she didn't understand how she was calling 911. Anyway a little while later Jercie comes in crying again the cops are here. So I answered the door, explained everything to the officer and made Jercie apologize for making him come all the way out to our house for nothing. Mike and I sat her down for a nice talk about choices and consequences. We also told her that she has until Wednesday to prove to us that she deserves Christmas. If she messes up again we're calling Santa and letting him know. She is also grounded to her room. She can read books but can't play with her toys. I know I'm a mean mom, but I have to teach her somehow and nothing else we've tried has worked. Hopefully this will sink in!

In other news, Blaze went looking for Easter Eggs (don't ask because I have no idea) and checked the closet in my bedroom where all of Christmas is stashed. I went looking for him and found him coming out of my room. I asked what he was doing and he told me. I asked where he looked and he told me. I.about.killed.him! I told him he better run. After the red had cleared and I was calm I went in to talk to him. I asked what he saw. Thank goodness he just saw the Operation game we were giving to the kids. I had to apologize and give him a big hug. I felt really bad for yelling.

9 things I love about you

Mike and I have been married for 9 years, together for 9 years 49 days. It's a good thing we've known each other forever. We were talking the other night reminiscing about some of the dumb fights we've gotten into. It wasn't a very long conversation because there were only 2 that really stood out. They both make me laugh now. One was over laundry. We had to use a laundry mat when we first got married and we were dirt poor. We were out of quarters and Mike was ticked that there wasn't any clean laundry. The only thing I really remember about the fight is me standing at the top of the stairs of the apartment complex saying, "Yeah well screw you too!" I have to laugh at how silly we were. The other fight I don't remember but Mike does. I wasn't a very good cook when we first got married. We ate out a lot and Mike cooked most of our meals for the first year. He got home from work one day and I asked what was for dinner. He said I'm having grilled cheese. I asked where mine was and he said the stuff is right here waiting for you to make it. He was so mad at me and wouldn't cook for me after that. Needless to say I was forced into learning how to cook and I have been doing it dang near every night since then. Like I said they were silly, dumb fights. Thankfully we haven't had any huge knock down drag out fights and I hope we never do.

Here are 9 things I love about Mike:
1. Your sense of humor. You make me laugh every single day.
2. Your loyalty. No matter how cranky I am or how mean I get you always stay.
3. Your work ethic. I know that sounds lame, but you are one of the hardest working people I know. And even though it drives me crazy sometimes it's one of you best qualities.
4. Your big heart. Don't worry I won't tell anybody. ;)
5. The way you always speak your mind.
6. The way you play with the kids. One of my favorite things to do is watch you play and listen to the laughter always accompanies it.
7. Your silly songs that you make up on the fly. They crack me up.
8. That you are always there to listen when I've had a bad day.
9. The way to look at me.

Even though he probably won't ever read this I want him to know how much I love him and appreciate him.

Christmas Spirit

So I was reading my daily blogs the other day when I came across this post on a digi-scrapper's blog. Super sad story right? Well later that day I was telling my mom about it and she said, "You know who's son that is right? It's a Stock kid." Holy crap! The Stocks are a couple in our ward. I LOVE them. Especially Cheryl. She was my first visiting teacher after I moved back. She works at the former Albertson's and I see her there all the time and talk to her.

There is a Wells Fargo account set up for the family. He left behind a wife and 3 small children ages 4 years to10 months.Here is the story in the Arizona Republic if you would like to read it. If you can, please donate to this family. Every little bit counts. Thanks so much!

The Entertainer

So tonight was the ward Christmas party. Since Mike and I are on the activity committee we we figured we better go. It was the first year we have ever been to one. It was pretty fun. They had roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, salad and rolls. It was so good. After dinner there was a little program. The primary got to sing some songs so Jercie and Blaze went up on stage. Jercie is fairly shy in front of large crowds so she kept her head down and sang very quietly. Blaze on the other hand was cracking us up. They started off with Once there was a Snowman and during the intro he yelled, "I don't even know this song!" But then sang every word. Then they got to sit at the edge of the stage and Blaze yelled again, "I know how to get down from here!" During the song he was waving at people he didn't even know until he spotted us and we got the 2 handed wave and a thumbs up. Then in between songs he says "Hey can I get down from here now?" After the last song they jumped off the stage and Jercie came right back to the table to sit down. Where do you think Blaze was? Trying to climb back onto the stage. I had to go get him. He is quite the little entertainer. He is constantly making me laugh and I caught a few other people laughing too.

My Boring Life...

So I figure I need to update this. I don't really have a whole lot to update on however. Jercie and Blaze have both had a small case of the coughs and sniffles and now Kaia is coming down with it too. I knew she was getting sick when she actually let ME snuggle her. She usually doesn't like to be held or rocked by me especially. But last night she woke up at about 9:30 and we sat on the couch and snuggled until she fell asleep. I miss those days. Hopefully she gets feeling better soon.

Jercie missed school Monday and Tuesday and Blaze just missed Tuesday. On Monday night Mike reset the breaker in our bedroom so I had to reset my alarm clock. Me being the retard that I am didn't set the a.m/p.m right on the alarm. Needless to say Tuesday morning my alarm didn't go off. I woke up at 8:15 thinking man it feels like I should be awake already. I looked over at the clock and jumped out of bed and went running to get the kids ready for school. I got them all ready, yelled a few times and we were headed out the door when I heard coughing from both of them. I made an executive decision and let them stay home.

Christmas is just around the corner and despite my best intentions I'm still not ready. I will be next week though, I hope. Next year I'm starting earlier. I'm a terrible procrastinator and I plan on fixing that. I am going to do my 12 days of Christmas on the ARK again this year. In case you are wondering what in the devil I'm talking about, ARK stands for Acts of Random Kindness. I do it for my kids for the first 11 days and then on Christmas Eve we will do something for a family in need or one of the neighbors. It's fun and the kids seem to like it. I'm still in need of some ideas so if you have any let me know.

This has been one boring post! Hopefully I will have a better one next time, maybe with some pictures??