Self Defense

Johnny and I went to a self defense class tonight. Nicolas' karate studio holds them for free for the parents of kids that attend the karate studio. They're every Thursday night and run for several weeks in a row. We learn different self defense moves every week, including self defense against someone with a weapon (knives especially). It was great to learn how to defend myself, and they show you many different techniques. What was best about it was I got to practice against my husband. :)

Motherhood makes it all worth it

Yesterday was a better day for puking. Nicolas even insisted on going to school (even though i planned not to take him and slept until 8:15). He got up and got dressed and told me to take him to school. So he go there around 8:45 (and finishes at 10:30). I made an appointment for Max to see his pediatrician. I could see a different doctor in the morning, or his usual doctor at 4pm. I didn't want to wait that long, but didn't want to see anyone else. So we took the 4pm appointment and got there early.

Max still had a fever, retractions, bad cough, and slightly runny nose. He actually let the ped listen to his chest. I was amazed. She heard fine crackles. :( She ordered a chest x-ray, antibiotics, a follow up appointment, continue the care I have been doing at home... and prepare for a possible hospital admission to treat his pneumonia. She said pneumonia has been common in her practice this winter and some kids just don't respond to the oral antibiotics. And some kids are getting a strep pneumonia. UGH. I don't have time for a hospital admission.

We didn't have time for the x-ray yesterday, so we went today. But after the doctor's appointment we came back home to get Nicolas ready for Karate (he's a BLUE belt now!!). He has sparring this week, so he got to kick some butt. :) After karate we all got in the car and were going to go to McDonalds for dinner so he could play at the indoor play area... then the coughing started. And he proceeded to puke. All over himself and his booster seat. So more freaking laundry... and I had to clean my car seat (luckily it's leather... but it still smelled like puke) and clean his booster seat (which is not leather). And we decided to eat dinner at home. :)

So, I took Max for his x-ray this morning. I got the call from the ped this afternoon about the results. Mild left sided pneumonia. Follow up CXR in 1-2 weeks and if he gets worse, call. But for now, no hospital admission! Woo Hoo! The antibiotics seem to have kicked in fast. He hasn't had a high fever all day, and Ihaven't given any cough medicine. He's still under the weather, but he is definitely in a bit of better spirits than yesterday and Sunday.

And of course, when I gave him his dose of antibiotic before bed time... he puked.

Ahhh... motherhood. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

But it isn't laundry day today!

You're right... in our house, I don't do laundry on Sundays. I do it during the week. So, why then, did I do 5 laods of laundry today?

Because of the puke. I have cleaned more puke today than in my lifetime I am sure. My bed sheets, my clothes, Max's clothes, my clothes again, Max's clothes again, my clothes again, towels, my clothes again, Nicolas' clothes, bathroom rugs... geez.

The puke hasn't stopped.

And it's not even a stomach bug. It's just colds and coughing. Coughing so bad that it makes little boys throw up. And they say under 2 you can't give cough medicine. I called Max's ped this morning and spoke to the nurse. She took a history (and I made sure she knew I was an RN) and she gave me supportive treatments to do (while in the background she could hear Max coughing and throwing up) and she said that because he's under 2 she couldn't suggest cough medicine. I finally asked her "hypothetically" if he were over 2, what would she suggest. She reluctantly tells me what he can have (knowing I am an RN and Max turns 2 in 2 weeks). So Johnny went to the store and we medicated both boys. No more puking (until tonight when Nicolas threw up his whole dinner from coughing, so another load of laundry is going).

I am so over puke.

Cold enough for ya?

As most you know, I am from Canada. When I lived in Canada (for the first 28 yrs of my life), I could not even imagine how warm it might be in other parts of the world when we were freezing our asses off in the dead of winter. How could it be -40 out and someone within a few hours flight of me was wearing shorts? I couldn't picture it.

Well... look at me now. I am in th eopposite situation. It's in the 80's here and I cannot picture how cold it is for a lot of you reading this. I mean I hear you all the time tell me how cold it is (hi mom and dad!), but I just don't remember that kind of cold. Poor me, huh?

Well... I wanted to share with you a picture of my kids playing yesterday sans winter parkas, mitts, hats, scarves, and boots.

They're actually not even wearing any clothes.

I am so mean.

It's because he's so cute that he's still alive

Johnny couldn't find his keys last week as he headed out the door to work. He drives a Prius, which has a push button to start... doesn't need an actual key... but you need the remote because that's what the car senses to be able to power up and open the door. So he gives up that morning and takes my remote. That evening we look high and low and no keys. The next day he takes my remote again. The next night he asks Max if he knows where his keys are. Max walks over to the trash can and opens the lid. Hmmmmm. Could it be a fluke? Johnny spends the weekend looking for his keys.. to no avail. A few more times each of us asks Max "where are Daddy's keys?" and he points to the trash can. Hmmmmm....

Trash day is on Wednesday. Thank god! So tonight I pull the trash bin next to Johnny's car and push the start button. If the keys are in the trash bin, the car will start. If the keys are not in the trash bin, the car won't start. Guess what? The car started.

So now I pull out the bags of trash. Luckily there are only 3. One at a time I bring them over to the car. I pinpoint the bag... and naturally it's the heaviest, grossest bag. But at least Johnny has his keys now. :)

It's because of things like this that Max should be using up his nine lives. But it's things like what you'll seein the videos that keep him alive. :)

It's just a haircut for Pete's Sake! Take 2

So, I posted this topic before... and I could probably just use the same pictures because they look exactly the same.. but what the heck? Here we go again.

For a kid who is so active, Max sure is shy. His stranger anxiety is awful... but SO MUCH BETTER than it was from 9-20 months. OMG is was awful. He's actually a little more outgoing now, and waves at people (from afar) and smiles at people who smile at him. He still takes a long time to warm up to people, espcially when we're away from home. But finally people (a select few) can see what a sweet, fun little boy he is.

Well... not if you're a hair dresser. We tried to get his hair cut before Christmas (I think it may have actually been Thanksgiving) at our local budget clips. They were really busy, and when they called his name we approached the front. The hair dresser PICKED UP MAX! It was all over from there. He instantly started screaming and would not calm down. I tried everything. The hairdresser was freaking out and kept saying HE NEEDS TO KEEP STILL!! Yeah right. She told me "I am not going to risk my license.... blah blah blah". Now... no offense to hairdressers... but my professional license saves lives. So I just rolled my eyes. And I told her to find someone else who could cut his hair (she wouldn't even start). So we got another hairdresser who trimmes the circumference of his hair, and she said she couldn't do any more. I tipped her well and we got the hell out of there. So, he hasn't had a good haircut in a LONG time. Probably since that last post I made with the same name as this one.

So, I took Max to Snippets (kid place for hair cuts) and they are GOOD! He screamed. He cried. He begged for me to save him. But she cut his hair. And he looks like a boy again!! Here's the pics - before - during - after. Enjoy. :)

Feel sorry for him?

Can you see the tears running down his face?

All done, but still not happy. I actually felt really bad for him by the end because he truly seemed traumatized. No amount of talking and cuddling and holding his hand (he's a big hand holder for comfort) would work.

But he decided he now wanted that lollipop we tried to bribe him with (that he rejected).

And just to show you that he did recover, and is once again a happy little boy.

You can almost hear him say CHEESE!

Nicolas and his poem

Kindergarten is tough. Nicolas has had to memorize, and recite in front of his class, 3 poems this year. The first one was the pledge of allegiance. The next two were just cute poems. Today Nicolas did poem number 3. I went to his class this AM and watched him do it. He was so much more animated than the other kids!! Who knew kindergartners had stage fright!

I missed the first couple seconds because he started so suddenly without warning. But the rest is there. I hope this video works! :)

The words to the poem are:
A Chubby Little Snowman
A chubby little snowman had a carrot nose
Along came a bunny, and what do you suppose?
That hungry little bunny, looking for his lunch,
ATE that snowman's carrot nose....
Nibble nibble CRUNCH!

California Vacation

I am finally getting around to posting about our trip to Los Angeles after Christmas. We were there from Dec 27-Jan 1st. For those of you that don't know, Emma and I lived there from 1996-2005. Johnny lived there from 12th grade to 2005. We moved to AZ to buy a house because the prices in LA were overpriced (of course, had we bought then, we would have made a small fortune. As they say, hind sight is 20/20). Anyway, Johnny's parents and 2 sisters still live in LA, so we went to visit them.

We arrived Saturday late evening and stayed at his Dad's house. We stopped off at a little museum on the way there... General Patton museum I think. It has a bunch of tanks and army stuff. Nicolas loves tanks. :) The next day everyone came over and we did our gift exchange with the kids and a White Elephant with the adults. I took a TON of pictures. Something like 600 pictures total for the 5 days we were there!!

The next day (Monday) we went to Walmart so I could get some after Christmas clearance sales on Christmas stuff. Then we headed to a park near my MIL's house for a few hours. Everyone was there and the kids had a blast. (Lots of kids... we have 5 nieces and nephews in CA). Plus my very good friend Suzan showed up and I saw here daughter for the first time. :) After the park we went to my SIL Julie's house and had dinner and hung out.

Tuesday we went to Disneyland!! I hadn't been in about 9 or 10 years! How sad! It is so expensive now. It's a shame, because it's so much fun! But the price sure didn't stop the hoards of people that were there. Lines were long, but hey, it's the happiest place on earth. So how can you do anything but smile? Haha!

Wednesday was New Year's Eve. I did laundry, bathed kids, and headed to my MIL and SIL's house (they bought a house together). We had lunch, checked out the new house, and left once Johnny's allergies started acting up (he's highly allergic to dogs, and they have a pug). After that I dropped Johnny at his friend's house and he had a visit with his good friend Steve. I took the kids back to FIL's house and we got ready for our evening. Once Johnny got back, we headed back to SIL Julie's house for a NEw Year's party. Lots of yummy food! I think all the kids stayed up to ring in the New Year too!! Well, little Noah (who is 2 months) fell asleep... but Max, Vince, and Lucy (24, 22, and 20 months respectively) all stayed up, as did Lacie (3.5 yr), Nicolas (5.5 yrs), Chase (10 yrs), and of course Emma. The kids (mine at least) crashed as soon as we got in the car).

Thursday we slept as late as the kids would let us. Then showered and packed. Then headed over to Julie's house again for a couple hours to hang out one last time. Cathy came over too. I really miss hanging out with my SIL's... especially now since there are so many cousins! It's depressing that my kids don't get to hang out with their cousins. One day my work schedule will be more "vacation" friendly. :) We left around 4:30 or so to head back to Phoenix and arrived home at 1:30am.

Everyone seemed to be sick while we were in LA. I felt lousy Friday, and of course had to go to work Friday and Saturday nights. I made it through my weekend and felt better by Monday. Nicolas was actually a little sick before we left, and ended up with Pink Eye on Saturday. He missed his first two days back at school. By Monday, Johnny was sick. And so was Emma. Johnny got Pink Eye as well.... and today is still sick as a dog. He missed 4 days of work last week... and today I took him to the Urgent Care in our town, only to find they don't take our insurance. Grumble grumble. I worked last night, and wasn't in the mood to drive up to town and wait in the ER, so we went back home and I suggested he call his family doctor and talk to the on call doc to get a 'script for his conjuctivitis. He called, but the doc wouldn't call in some meds. More grumbling. So he'll need to make an appointment and go tomorrow. His eyes are still infected... I can't see how his co-workers will be thrilled to see him!

Anyway, that's what's been going on around here. And now, the part you've been waiting for (and for those of you that actually read everything and didn't just skip to this part - Thank you!!!)... the PICTURES!!!

BIL Jimmy with Lacie

Max and Vince (brother to Chase and Lacie - his parents are my BIL and SIL Jimmy and Julie)

Emma and I

Emma holding Noah (his parents are SIL and BIL Cathy and Nathan and he has a big sister Lucy))

SIL Cathy with Noah (she's Johnny's youngest sister)

Noah again

FIL and Max showing off the pears they just picked

Cathy, Nathan, Lucy and Noah

Max and Vince

My friend Suzan and her daughter Sophie

The whole family

Disneyland Pics

Our nephew Chase

Johnny and his Dad

We discovered Max likes dolls and strollers :)

Johnny proudly sporting his Jets poncho :)

Happy New Year!

Until I upload all my pics from my camera to my computer, I can't post about our CA vacation. So in the meantime, here's a MEME.

Because of the New Year, I am looking at what I have done with my LIFE.
Try it!
The game is to leave in bold the things that you HAVE done.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/Disney World
8. Climbed a mountain (not a big one)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Europe
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Driven a Race Car
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Been to a Rodeo
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (Not as a patient though)
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout/Girl Guides Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favourite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Lived with your in-laws