My Sweet Boy

Noah has big news: a loose tooth. He has been waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting to have a loose tooth ever since he started kindergarten and saw other kids losing teeth. He noticed it was loose on Saturday, and by Sunday morning he wanted it pulled out with pliers (his friend Robbie's preferred method). We explained that it has to be much looser first, or it would hurt. So he will wiggle and wait.

A funny conversation we had on Saturday.

Background: The kids have been playing with a silver "rope" type chain necklace they found in my room, it was actually a gag gift. Noah put it on Saturday just before leaving for the aforementioned birthday party.

Me: Take that necklace off, you're not wearing it to the party.

Noah: Awww, I like it mom.

Me: It makes you look like a gangster.

Noah: I am a gangster.

Me (trying not to laugh): Do you know what a gangster is?

Noah: Someone who plays jokes on people.

Me: No, that's a jokester.

Noah: Then what's a gangster?

Me: A person who does bad things, even kills people sometimes. (That was the best I could come up with).

Noah: Oh, okay. (Takes off necklace).

Now I just hope that he doesn't see someone with a necklace like that and call them a gangster. It's so hard sometimes to teach your kids about the bad things in the world without giving them too much information.

Remember These?

Kendall was hanging out on the couch watching TV this morning and I told her that she needed to turn off the TV and play with toys for awhile. She didn't like that idea and said that she wanted to watch TV all day. I told her I'd give her a little while and then she was going to turn it off. About 5 minutes later she came to me and said, "Mommy, I will play with a toy. But I want to play with YOU." I need to be reminded to play with her sometimes, I get so busy doing things and she can be good at entertaining herself. So then she said she wanted a game, so I let her pick something out of our ridiculously full game closet. I almost forgot that we even had a Lite-Brite, it must have been about 5 years since we've used it. It was one of my favorite toys as a kid. We had a lot of fun making this hot air balloon, even though she lost interest about halfway through and wanted me to finish it. We will definitely be playing with this more often. Noah will love it, and Hannah will probably even still play with it.

Here's another fun fact about Kendall: she has an unusually good sense of direction. It started out that she always wanted to go a certain way when we were leaving the house or coming home, and she would get really upset with me if I went a different way. The she started really recognizing the way to familiar places, even if she didn't know where we were going ("This is the way to Target!"). On Saturday, we were taking Noah to a birthday party and while we were standing in the house she asked, "Which way is Jakob's house?" I pointed east. We got in the car, wound our way out of the neighborhood and were then going east for about a mile. I had to turn south for a little bit before going east again, and when I turned, she said, "Mom, you said the party was that way (pointing east)." How could she remember that from inside the house, after all those different turns? It might have been a fluke, but she does stuff like that all the time. At least it could come in handy if we ever get lost!

I love my sweet Kendall! She's definitely the "baby" of the family. Everyone adores her and she almost always gets what she wants. Our biggest challenge with her right now is that she will not stay out of the pantry. We even have one of those locks that flips over at the top of the door, and she climbs right up on the counter and opens it. She has no fear and doesn't care how many times she gets in trouble. So we found a different lock that you can put a padlock through, and we're probably going to buy it. It's pathetic, but we have a padlock that we put on the refrigerator too!

Arg! Can't get spaces in between my paragraphs again!

Spelling Bee Update

So on March 29th, Hannah competed in the AZ State Spelling Bee at ASU. Because of the crazy month we've had, I hardly had any time to help her study, so I was not getting my hopes up too much for her. Of course, she surprised me and won 5th place with hardly any studying! The top five winners all received trophies, and she also won a savings bond and an Amazon.com gift card. I'll update later with the words she spelled, I don't have it in front of me. I know that the word she missed was tatami, she spelled it tatimi. She says she knew the correct spelling and even in her mind thought she spelled it correctly. We're so happy that she's done so well in the spelling bees this year. Great job Hannah! (The photo is right before the spelling bee, do you think she was nervous?)

I promise that my next posts will be about Noah and Kendall. Poor things, they've been very neglected on this blog!

By the way, Hannah was mentioned in the Surprise Today, a local newspaper, and also online in this article:
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstory-clickthru/232029.php

The spelling bee will air on PBS locally on Sunday, April 13th at 5 pm and also on Wednesday, April 16th at 11 pm. Check it out!

It's Been Awhile

Wow, apparently I'm not a very faithful blogger . . . although I'll say that we've had just a few things going on lately and blogging has not been at the top of the list!

First, an update on my dad. He's home now and doing much better. I'll try to summarize: he had some complications after the bypass surgery where the wiring that holds the ribs and sternum back together completely ripped apart, thus shredding the bone and causing the sternum to be completely destroyed. So he had to have another surgery to fix that, but he hadn't been off blood thinners long enough, so they started the surgery and then had to close him back up because the risk of bleeding was too great. At that point we were told that his condition was life threatening and that he had to be kept sedated and intibated until it was safe to do the surgery again, which ended up being 4 days later. We were called to the hospital at one point and told that he was critical and unstable and we were given the impression that he might not make it. I had to get my kids ready and take them to school without letting on that I may be going to the hospital to say goodbye to my dad. I was trying to prepare myself for the worst, but things stabilized and thankfully we didn't have to face that. They were able to do the third surgery on March 29th and it was successful. So now he's home and recovering and getting back to his usual self, minus a sternum. We're so grateful for everyone who did things for our family during this stressful time. We are so blessed.

Call Me . . .

if you want the latest on my dad. I don't feel like posting all the details, but I'll just say that he's back in the hospital, had another surgery yesterday, and will have to have another surgery in the coming days. On the bright side of things, I now feel as familiar with the hospital as I did when I was 13 and volunteered there for the summer.

Spelling bee on Saturday :)

Can someone please tell me . . .

why formatting is such a pain in Blogger? To get spaces between paragraphs, sometimes I have to hit enter a few times and even then it doesn't put a space in. And I cannot change the size of the font on that last line. It is driving me bonkers. Those of you who know me well know that I am an absolute perfectionist when it comes to that kind of thing. Suggestions are appreciated!!!

When It Rains . . .

it really pours around here! So, I'll try to keep this brief and then move on to less depressing topics. Since my last post, I got really, really sick. I thought it was allergies at first, but then I ended up with 104 degree fever, coughing, sore throat, sinus infection . . . the list goes on and on. I decided to go to the doctor on Tuesday, and found out that I have an ear infection in both ears! I don't even know how the heck that happened, especially since my ears weren't even bothering me. So I've been in bed pretty much since Saturday night. I couldn't do anything fun with my kids on their Spring Break, and even though I've been up and around a little the past two days, I still don't feel back to my normal self yet. It's been awhile since I was that sick. Now I just have a lingering cough, which is still painful and annoying, but so much better than being in bed! I'm so grateful to be feeling better, though. My sweet husband stayed home from work on Monday just to help take care of me and the kids, and my dear friend Tonya helped me out so much by watching my kids twice and even bringing me groceries. She's a saint!

I haven't been able to see my dad or help out over there at all since he's been home from the hospital, and he now has an infection in his incision. We are hoping that antibiotics will treat it because if not they will have to do more surgery. Yuck. We don't want that. I'm still staying away until I'm confident that I'm better.

Also, my grandma (my mom's mom) is most likely having heart surgery next week to replace her aortic valve. She's in Kentucky, so it will be hard to be so far away and not get to see her before the surgery. Love you, Grandma!

In better news,

my handsome little brother is killing the ball and having a phenomenal senior season. I'm hoping to catch more of his games in the next few weeks. I've never known a kid who loves to play ball as much as he does. Doesn't my cousin take great photos? Here's her website: http://flickr.com/photos/paperdollimages


And for all those still wondering about Coupon Sense, visit www.couponsense.com. I can tell you more about it, but it's absolutely amazing and I can't believe I've been missing out all this time. Seriously, why didn't one of you tell me about it before? I consider it my new part-time job--getting free stuff. I love it, because it satisfies my shopping addiction and gives me great deals at the same time. The grand total for all that stuff: about $17. (Think of it this way: the razor and vitamins together would have cost $17 full price). I got a lot of it free or even MADE MONEY, and that was just my first week. I have been able to get so much more free stuff since then. I don't think I'll ever pay for shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, or soap again. Let me know if you are interested, I can have a little party and have my instructor come and tell you all about it. (And no, Mel, I haven't taken any more pictures of my groceries. I was tempted to take a picture of the 14 boxes of cereal I got for $4, but I resisted.)

Okay, that was long. Thanks for reading to the end.