Mr Mom

I have a great dad who helped me a lot over the years, as well as a great father in law who has followed suit. I could dedicate a whole post to each of them alone, but right now I think I need to do this one to my husband. You see my husband is currently Mr Mom. He has been cooking dinner, doing laundry, cleaning, bathing kids, helping with home work, and the many transportation needs for our 3 children, while I work, and of course I still help out when I can. This past week with Trev being sick, Brie had a birthday party to go to, as well as Ali had 2 to go to in one day and my husband because the earlier part of the week he was home with Trev didn't get to go out and get new pants for the temple (apparently he's gained weight since marrying me....) He had been running around getting things to go to the temple on Friday with his brother. He never once complained, simply apologized one night for being too tired to stay up much later after I got off of work. To top off this incredible week, I have not been feeling well, and I could simply not keep my eyes open this morning- Fathers day of all days. He helped arrange to get our oldest to church, and let me sleep until noon, and then told me we were going to take me to the doctor. All on Fathers day. So I have a sinus infection, and have a hard time staying awake, and he hasn't complained once. He even offered to help cook dinner at his family get together today. So here is the biggest thank you and "You are awesome Babe!" to my husband today, Love you lots!

What it takes to potty train and other updates

What it takes to potty train? Quite frankly I don't have the slightest clue. My oldest I worked with for a few months before she turned 3 and she was potty trained, not much of any accidents after. My son potty trained himself before the age of 2 because he just decided one day he didn't want to be in diapers any more. He has had a few accidents along the way, but I kid you not his bladder must be the size of a pea. When we went 4 wheeling with my father in law, we were gone for about 4 hours at most, and low and behold he watered the bushes at least 6 times while we were there. My youngest will be turning 4 in late September and have tried to see if she was ready to potty train since shortly before she turned 3. She is a fun child don't get me wrong, she just has her own time schedule and no one is going to mess it up. What finally got her to use the potty? The image on the right. This specific one to be exact. It had to be Dora Mermaid Princess that has the little electric spinning head tooth brush. They have regular ones, non electronic, Dora snow princess, and many many more. So yes we own this tooth brush now. Along with a Barbie and Pirates electronic spinning head tooth brushes for the other two kids.

And just for the record, we had Trev into the ER on Sunday night. (I seriously wonder if they are going to start remembering his name if he continues to have problems...) He had been having a hard time breathing all day, and have been giving him his breathing treatments (the extra ones) in hopes that it would help and he could feel good again. So at about 9pm Sunday night I checked on him again, and he was running a fever and was still a bit wheezy and he couldn't have another treatment for another 2 hours... So I called our nurse line with the insurance. Given the situation that I could describe best, and my son telling me that his chest hurt, she advised us that we had to call 911, simply for the fact that he could be getting a lot worse really quick and he had to be checked out. We didn't have a peak flow meter, or an oximeter. (for those of you non asthma aware people the peak flow meter helps tell how much air they are getting in and out, the oximeter tells how oxygenated there blood is) With out knowing those details she said he would probably have to be transported. So the EMT's came and checked him out, he was doing well enough for us to transport him, but said that he definitely did need to be seen tonight! So we head to the ER, and despite the 4 other people in the waiting room when we got there, I filled out the form and almost as soon as they read it they had us back in a room. Oh great! My first thought is that he some how has gotten the swine flu. Or H1n1 to be PC. (no he doesn't have it!) I have to give them credit for being so good with him. Despite having to swab his throat and sticking another swab up his nose to test for the flu, they did all they could to make him comfortable. The ended up doing a chest X-Ray and then did a treatment and he was feeling better by midnight and let us take him home and gave us a prescription for steroids to help with the asthma issues. So I wake up the next morning to him throwing up. Which to be honest does not surprise me. When he has had a hard time breathing he vomits to the point of retching his poor little body. This continued for the morning and then subsided. Then my husband calls me at work to let me know that the ER called us and said to have him come back in. Oh GREAT!!! They took a second look at the X-rays and they couldn't see a definite line around his heart, because it was blurry, which for those of you in the medical field probably know by now, my son has pneumonia. So my husband was sent home with an anti-nausea medication and antibiotic. This morning my son woke up and actually ate a piece of toast, with no vomiting, and has been slightly bouncing off the walls, and then rests for a long period of time. He is so going to school tomorrow! So we are on the mend. We celebrated Matt's birthday last night, we went laser tagging and to my delight for my only 2nd time playing I did not come out of it with a bloody nose! But that's another story for another day.

Rainy day with out power

We had the fun opportunity to have the power go out this afternoon. Meaning we couldn't watch movies, play electronic games of any sort, and because it was pouring rain outside that left us inside without power. My kids kept asking what we were going to do with out power. My kids found that they could make shadow puppets with a flash light in the dark. They were having so much fun they even started to dance (yes with out music) using the "spot light". I'm not quite sure where they got the idea but the dancing proceeded with every one and the flash light became a strobe light. Then they got a little too wound up and heads were bumped together.
So then my husband decided to teach our oldest two how to play chess. Matt and I are big game players and have quite an assortment of games. When we were first married we played a lot of Othello when it was just us. We finally decided we needed more than just one game we could play by our selves, so here comes the chess story. The first and only time we have ever played chess, in the middle of the game something he did completely pissed me off. Come to think of it I may have been a little on the bad end of the month at the time, and we had one of our biggest arguments in the beginning of our marriage. My husband when he tells people about us playing chess he says "there were lawyers on the phone". So when he suggested teaching Ali and Trev how to play chess, I was kind of surprised. My sons strategy was what pieces can I take off the board of my sisters. My daughters was simply to learn what each piece did and the goal of the game. Maybe that is reminiscent of how we played.... I don't know. My daughter won. No lawyers were called, but my husband and I did not play chess!

"You are so funny!"

Have I ever mentioned the Cheesy Child I have. Meaning the wild Monkey, the the youngest and best birth control I've ever had? My youngest in other words. This is how my day usually starts. 6:00 am or 6:15 am "MOM! MOM!!! I want to get up!!!" my Brie starts screaming to wake me up to come and get her from her bed. Mind you her bedroom is right next to ours and she is fully capable to get herself up and walk into my room to wake me up. This morning was a little different. 6:30 "...mom...can I get up?"- my son whispering to me!!!! So I get up and move myself to the living room turn on cartoons and start to fall asleep thinking any minute Brie is going to be screaming for me to come get her out of her bed. 7:39!!! It is almost a world record for her! The only exclusion is the one night she was sick and woke up very sick the next morning at about 8:30. But that is not really the funny thing she did today. She has been a little more on the temperamental side lately...or always not sure which yet. Anyways she has been kind of mean to Ali lately and took Alis hat tonight and threw it away from her and walked off. So my husband and I let her know that she needed to shape up and apologize. She did. She has this tendency to say "DON'T look at me!" after she is put back in line. I simply told her that I was her mother and I have every right to look at her when I needed to tonight and she just looked the other way and pouted. So my husband was sitting next to her and was looking at her shoes and just checked to see how much room she had left to grow in them. "Dad, I'm just wiggling my toes! See I'm not wiggling anything else!" she says. Matt tells her that he is just checking to see how her shoes are fitting and then she responds "Oh, you are funny Dad!" I think she got it wrong...she is the funny one!

My sweet Parramore

I am starting to realize that this whole thing is becoming more and more like a journal that is visible to anyone and is some what censored. I'll take that for what it is, and at least be able to say that I am trying. If it means that I feel better about keeping some sort of personal history, it is better than nothing. Having said that I'll continue with the complete randomness that is this blog.
So....what my dear sweet husband got me for mothers day. First of all, knowing that we were going out of town, and realizing that I hadn't been wearing my wedding ring for fear of loosing any other diamond on it (see previous blog for details), had bought me reasonably priced dainty attractive ring before we left. He said he had another gift for me. My husband is horrible at keeping gifts a secret. From day one... Let me start by saying that after we went out to look at rings when we were dating, he dropped me off after me telling him which ones I would really like. He came back and said that he couldn't afford one, and then right there in my living room, after my mother had left the room, got down on one knee and proposed to me. Christmas are similar stories. He asks me every year if I want to know what he's getting me, and my answer always is, "I will wait!". So through out the whole trip in Nevada, he would randomly ask me if I wanted to know what my mothers day gift was. I kept telling him on threats of kicking out of said car, room, locations not to tell me till mothers day. He would laugh and bring it up again later. Apparently he is far more attentive than I give him credit for. I had noticed about a month ago that Paramore was coming to concert with No Doubt in May. Seeing the date I thought it was the day his sister was going to be induced for her 3rd baby. So I joked with him, that is was too bad, or I might try to win tickets to the concert off the radio station. Okay, so if you can't tell, I like Paramore, in fact he tried to find any of their CDs for me for Christmas, but every place he went was sold out. I have been living on my Twilight soundtrack he could find instead. So like a good husband he told me on Mothers day that he had gotten us tickets to their concert.
So now the panic sets in. I wonder how to go to a concert like this?!? I'm not that young and hip, I just like the music and think it would be cool to see them. In situations like these the shyness returns to the surface and I want to go into shut down. Given how sweet my husband has been, I don't think I can do that. So I will keep pushing off the thought and keep pushing through all the way till the day after the concert. I love my Paramour(meaning my husband not the band), and the thoughtfulness can't be passed up.

Missing my kids

It will be a short post tonight. Seeing that I flew in, white knuckle gripped to the arm rests of the plane early this evening, and work starts at nine, but my day starts at 6am and won't end till way after 9pm tomorrow.
I went to my Grandpas funeral this weekend and it was fun in good way. I miss my Grandpa terribly, but as I saw my many cousins that I have not seen in over a decade, I could see things he left in each and every one of us, whether its my bald cousins head or an expression on one of their faces or a kind word that one said to another. I had fun playing, "What's my name" with many of my cousins. They could all identify me as the youngest girl of my family, and my name started with a K. (which really wouldn't be that hard!) Only a few got it right, and most of those were around my age not older. Given I am the second youngest out of the Norma Grand kids. (My Grandma Carma has 3 kids, who have 6 kids now...) And to my fault, I did confuse my cousin Tom with my cousin Sam. I'm sorry but when they both smile really wide the smile looks the same, and I know their personalities are completely opposite, but both still very good men! After all this I did find out which one of them had been changing the radio station at our house when they came to visit while growing up. (Tom FYI) I saw so many kids from 1 to 16 that I had never seen that are indeed some how related. As I watched all the kids running around and playing, I missed my 3 little kids at home with the other set of grandparents. I even accidentally had something with nuts in it and even though it was one of the few times I can, when I'm not around my son, I could have it. I honestly would have rather given up the delicacy of a nut for having my son with me. So because of work I had to fly home today to work tomorrow, and I'm not an especially good flyer. The last time prior to flying to this I was flying home because I was in a car accident in California, and was still quite dizzy (had about the equilibrium of a drunk with out the fuzzy vision or lack or reality) from the accident when I did fly. So, not because of work, but because I wanted so badly to see my sweet 3 little faces, I held on for the hour flight to see them all sooner. Although I got some killer mother day gifts (post coming..) the best Mothers day gift I got was the 3 little sleeping angels in the other rooms.

Ed Carlson

I have finally had some sleep and have undevoted time (meaning kids are in bed, husbands getting a hair cut and its not completely dark outside yet.).
So to put it simply I will always love all of my grandparents. My Grandpa Carlson that just passed away is my last biological grandparent that was living. (I have to note here that his 1st wife, my biological grandmother passed away before I was born, and he remarried Carma, who will always be my Grandma Carma.) He was in his 90's you might want to check one of my sisters blogs for his exact age. He left so many fun memories. When I was really little, I didn't like his hugs, I felt like he hugged so tight I was going to crumble like a piece of paper your wadding up to throw in a trash can. As I got older his hug didn't lessen, but I understood that he wanted to make sure that we knew he loved us, even if it still did feel like my insides were gushing to my top or bottom from the hug.
The every day memories I have of him are of him reading the newspaper, sneaking me cookies from the cookie jar at his house, him wearing a beigish brown sweater and starting to fall asleep sitting in a recliner, and him eating corn nuts randomly out of his shirt pocket.
My sister Kim complained once that she was so short, and my Grandfather at 6 feet plus letting her know that our grandmother was that tall. I am the same height as Kim, and knowing that, its harder to complain about being short.
I remember him killing the fake spider on the wall at my house growing up that my siblings thought would be a funny joke.
So many good memories to remember him by that although he is gone I know he has left me with a lot. I know he has left all of his family with a lot of good memories to hold on too.
There is so many more stories to tell, but the only people they would mean alot to would be family, and I get to see them this weekend for his funeral.