Memorial Day

We had a great weekend. Look on the gallery to see pictures. On Saturday we went to take advantage of the Memorial Day sales and bought our very first grill. I think it will get a lot of use this summer because our first use was a big success. We had our friends down the street over for a BBQ and swim party yesterday. They also had family visiting, so there were 9 kids running around. I guess that is except for Sabrina. She spent a lot of time in the swing or bouncy or in someone’s arms. It was the perfect day for it and we all had a great time together!

Read More

American Idol

I thought it was interesting that Taylor Hicks won American Idol last night. It seems that the winners of that show have all been regular type people. The reason this fascinates me is that the winners on this show never seem to correlate with the way pop stars are promoted in the media. It seems that they are usually promoted as being sexy and beautiful. From the way Americans have voted on the show, particularly for guys like Taylor and Clay, it seems that what they really want in a musician is talent, not all of the hype. Although I usually agree with Simon’s comments regarding talent, I think it is surprising how far off he is when it comes to image. I think it’s actually refreshing to know that most Americans value real talent and don’t buy into the idea of beauty and sex appeal equaling success. What do you think?

Read More

A Typical Day

It’s 10:10pm and Rob is still not home from work. Seems like a good time to post. Hunter asks me almost every day after school, “What did you do while I was at school today?” I think it’s cute that after I ask him about his day, he asks me about mine. So today my answer was: “I got on the computer, then talked to Daddy on the phone, put Hannah down for a nap, held Sabrina while she slept and I read a little, went to pick up Emma, went to the grocery store, talked to Aunt Erica, and then you came home.” After that it was homework and ballet, dinner, helper jobs and bedtime. After getting the kids to sleep, including Emma coming out and telling me she had a headache and was thirsty, (I think she really just wanted a peak of American Idol) I worked as fast as I could at unpacking all of our office things that are shoved in the corner of our bedroom. Today was a pretty typical day for us.

At ballet I played Uno with Hunter four times while we waited. He won three of the four games and told me it was because he is the “Uno Champion.” Emma has a recital next Saturday, and the girls are all so excited. Hannah loves to watch through the window and since it is a ballet/tap class Emma brings both sets of shoes in her little pink backpack. It has become a ritual for Hannah to wear whichever pair Emma isn’t. She especially loves to run around in the tap shoes. They are so big on her that I wrap the shoelaces around her ankles to keep them on, but she thinks it is the greatest thing ever!

On the way home from ballet Hunter and Emma were arguing and I pulled over to the side of the road to wait for them to stop. I was expecting someone to say, “Why are you stopping?” But they were so busy arguing they didn’t notice. It wasn’t until a couple minutes later that I asked if they had noticed we were stopped. They said no and I told them I would wait until they were finished arguing to go home. Unfortunately my plan didn’t work and that only started them asking me to intervene and solve the problem. I solved it the way I thought best – nobody touches the thing you’re fighting over, just leave it where it is. Then I drove away bugged that my calm approach didn’t seem to do any good. Then I hear from the back seat, “Mom you’re being mean.” Well, I do my best.

Rob’s home now, so maybe I’ll have him read my post to catch up on the day!

Read More

Just when I think life will slow down…

I know many people have heard all about my woes, but I feel like this is a good place to document the pace of my life since I’m no good at journal keeping. The last few months have been difficult ones for me. Beginning in January I was on bedrest and found out I had what the doctor called a “benign tumor” in my kidney. We also learned that the home we were renting was going up for sale. The owners offered to sell it to us, but after weeks of working with mortgage brokers we discovered we couldn’t afford it. The thought of that was quite depressing because Rob has worked so hard to get an education so that we could make good money and live comfortably. And now that he has this “nice job” he was hardly ever home, usually working 12-14 hour days and coming home after the kids had long since been asleep and sometimes I was too. Although I usually tried to stay up, I would fall asleep on the couch. The irony is that now that we have a great paying job, there are our student loans to pay off which are like a mortgage payment all on their own. So, the dream of home ownership had to be set aside for awhile.

One month before my due date Sabrina was still a footling breech and I went to the hospital for the doctor to try a cephalic version. He and the nurse gave it two tries at greasing up my belly and trying to push her to turn head down. She was comfortable where she was and wouldn’t budge. So we scheduled a c-section for two weeks later. Then came the high point on this roller coaster. The birth of Sabrina! She is so beautiful and has become such a part of the family already. I especially enjoyed the first week of her life here because I could rest in the hospital and focus on her. I guess that’s one benefit of a cesarean- a longer hospital stay before getting back into real life.

Throughout bedrest and delivery, my mom made two trips down and stayed with us for over a month. I think it was six weeks all together. Mickey stayed for two weeks to help too, so when it was time for the moms to go home I was really nervous about being on my own with four kids. Especially with Rob still working long hours.
When Sabrina was about six weeks old I noticed that a house on our street that had been up for sale was now without a real estate sign and wondered if it might be available to rent. The home was bought to flip and then the market leveled out and the owners put way too much into fixing it up and couldn’t sell at a price to break even. I left a note on the front door asking them to call me if they wanted to rent it out, and they did. We decided that moving down the street was a good alternative for us because we could stay in the same school and ward, have more time to save up to buy, and still be flexible if we decide to change jobs or something. We actually are living in a great place now that is practically new and has a pool. That has been a blessing in all of this.

Just over two weeks ago I had surgery to remove what turned out to be a large kidney stone, not a tumor. The recovery was longer than expected, and I was getting really annoyed that I couldn’t seem to get back my normal body. It has been a year beginning with the strep I had last May, the pregnancy, delivery and kidney stone. This week looks like it will be low key and that life will be returning to a normal pace soon.

One thing that all this has taught me is the beauty of a non-eventful life. I always thought that my life was a bit boring, and now realize that there is nothing wrong with that! I have really appreciated my moms and their willingness to come and be moms to my kids while I couldn’t do it. I have been so lucky to have women from church and neighbors bringing us meals and checking in on me constantly to offer play dates and school pick up help. These are women that I barely knew having only lived here a few months when all of the medical issues began. I have decided that life doesn’t ever really slow down and that taking things one day at a time may be the best way to keep your sanity. So, there are lessons to be learned from every situation. I just hope that I can catch on a little sooner next time, so the lessons won’t need to be so dramatic.

Read More

Say hello to my brand new blog!

Hi! Rob got me all set up on this blog to keep me busy and out of trouble! I’m still learning how to use this newfangled computer stuff, so hopefully it will get even better with time. In case you’re wondering where the name for our blog came from, “Bizzert” is what we call dessert in our family. Hunter coined the phrase when he was first learning to talk and we have used it ever since.

Read More