What are you thankful for?

Lately I've felt the need to express more gratitude, so here's a shot at listing some of the many things for which I am grateful (in no particular order):

1.  My parents - they taught me, often without me ever realizing that they were teaching me, not to drink or smoke, to value virtue and integrity, to be a hard worker, and to never settle for less than my best. They raised me in the gospel so I didn't have to struggle with questions of "Is there a God?" and "Why am I here?" -- I knew the answers before I knew to ask the questions. They worked hard so I could play sports, go to Girls Camp, have a dog, go to college, and have my dream wedding. They dote on my children, and make me feel like their favorite (though, deep down, I know we're all their favorites, but I'll never admit that out loud).
2. My husband. I don't have words to really describe this well, but I'll do my best. B1 is an amazing person. He loves me when I'm pregnant, with stretch marks and a Ding Dong in each hand. He loves me when I'm cranky, and loves me when I'm fed up with our kids. He lets me travel to see my parents whenever I want, and doesn't complain when I put my sister's volleyball team ahead of everything else in life. He cleans our house on his day off so I don't have to do it on my day off. I couldn't ask for a better man to spend eternity with.
3. The LDS temples - though I don't go as often as I should, every time I do go I'm reminded of why it's so awesome to be LDS. Everything about our religion just makes sense, and the temple is the cherry on top. It's the only place you can go where you can instantly feel at peace, where you forget you are serving others, and where there are no comparisons about who is pretty, richer, smarter, or anything else. Plus, it's a great way to get answers to prayers that you just can't anywhere else.
4. Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, because everything is right with the world when you're eating a pint of that in bed watching TV. At least, until the spoon scraps the bottom.
5. Dave Ramsey - with his plan, we went from being over $25,000 in debt and us not being able to afford having me stay at home with our kids, to being debt free (except our house), feeling like we got a huge pay raise, and my resignation notice in so that starting in late January 2011, I get to finally be a SAHM mom!
6. My job - 5 1/2 years ago, I was unemployed and desperate. A friend of mine got me an interview at CP, and after some begging and pleading I was offered a job. On my first day, this friend quit. I almost walked out as well, but stayed, and I am so glad I did! I've had the best time at CP that I've had at any job. The people are amazing, and I have learned so much about business, management, and dealing with people. The only thing that could pull me away from CP is my kids.
7. My kids - I know I've had some hard times with my kids (most especially every day from June 2009 to May 2010 with B2--age three sucked!!), but coming home at the end of the day, seeing B2 run up to me while screaming, "MOMMY!" and then giving me a big hug, and watching D's face light up when he sees me just melts my heart. No matter how many things I do wrong, they forgive me and I'm still (as B2 often says) their best friend.
8. Prayer, especially B2's prayers. B2 is now saying his prayers mostly by himself, and I love it! I love listening to him literally telling his Heavenly Father about his day, and I love hearing him spend so much time praying for others. It helps me understand more why we are commanded to become like little children.
9. Extended family. Recently, B1's company announced that they were going to be reducing their airport staff in Salt Lake, as well as a few other airports, and moving those pilots to either Houston or Minneapolis. We were devastated at the idea of being forced to move away from so much family (within about an hour's drive, I have 3 of my 4 siblings, B1's parents, his sister, my grandpa's wife, my grandma, and a large number of B1's and my cousins, aunts, and uncles). Thankfully, we later found out that they decided instead to make the move voluntary, so we will be staying in Salt Lake a little longer. While I appreciated having family so close before this happened, I'm even more grateful now.
10. My sisters, Beez and Rinz. Beez and I have been working together for the last two years, and it's been great to see her all the time. Beez and I didn't really get along too well as kids (I think it was largely our ages, but I was also a nerd while Beez was more outgoing), but we get along great now. It has also been a blast cheering Rinz on at her volleyball games (and trying to be cool by association with all her fun teammates), and hanging out with her whenever we can in the off season. Plus, both Rinz and Beez married awesome husbands, which just makes life that much better. They babysit my kids, and they drive (in their words) "all the way out there" to our house to hang out, which I know can be time consuming. So, basically, they're awesome, and I feel lucky to be their sister.
11. My many nieces' and nephews' birth mothers, who sacrificed so much so that my sisters-in-law can have babies of their own. I hope you understand what an amazing gift you have given not only to them, but to the many extended family members who love them so much too.

I know there's so much more. I could start listing each person in my family and extended family, but I'm not sure anyone wants to read that. Plus, wherever I stop, someone will be left out and I don't want to make that person (or people) feel bad. So, this is by no means an exhaustive list, and I'll try to express my gratitude more often.

Dear Glee

Dear Glee,

I never thought I'd say this, but we have to split up. We've had some good times, and I'll look back on those times fondly. But no matter how much I love you, this has to happen. It's not me; it's you. You're no good for me. You've changed. At first, you were this sweet, endearing TV show. But, I guess you've spent too much time hanging out with those other trashy TV shows, and now you're turning in to them. I wish you'd go back to the way you were. If you do, maybe we can hook up again. But until then, we need to go our different ways.

With much fondness and sadness,

Me

You wish you were cool enough...

...to work for my company. Here are pictures taken for our Halloween costume contest.

(Don't get it? Check out the original video here and the remix video here).

 Nachooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I'm glad I didn't try to win the costume contest this year...my attempts at winning would have been shameful compared to this year's competition.

Corneal Abrasian

Last week I had an unfortunate, and rather inconvenient, trip to the ER, and surprisingly I was the patient. I think in my whole life I've been the patient in an ER once, and it was when I fell off my bike and fractured my jaw. At least, I'm pretty sure I went to the ER; I don't really remember the details, just the blood pouring from my jaw and the thought of "OW OW OW OW OW" (I was too young to swear back then...).

So, back to last week's story. It was Monday night, and I was preparing for my company's quarterly retreat. My plan was to put the boys to bed, do some laundry, clean my house, and pack for me and the kids (the kiddos were staying at my in-laws' house). I got D to bed and started picking up his room, when my eye had an unfortunate and sudden interaction with a cardboard box--and not just any cardboard box, but a Costco sized Huggies box, which means it was a heavy duty cardboard box. And not just any part of the box, but the corner of the lid, so it was nice and sharp. The next thing I knew, I was on my knees in absolute pain. My eye was watering so badly that I swore it was bleeding. I couldn't open my eyelid, and felt like I was storing part of the box under my eyelid as a memento. After a minute, the pain hadn't subsided, so I went to my bathroom to see if I could find a piece of cardboard or something in my eye. My eyelid was practically glued shut, and when I tried to force it open the pain was so intense (not to mention my eye was super sensitive to the light) that I gave up trying and just sat on the toilet and cried. Poor B2 -- he came in and tried to help me, but I was trying so hard not to scare him (I was already imaging the phone calls he would make to random people in my phone directory -- "Hi someone-Mommy-hasn't-talked-to-in-weeks-or-years, my mommy is crying on the toilet and can't see anything. Wanna come play?") that I tried not to cry in his presence and asked him to go play in another room. After a few more minutes--or seconds, as this pain was making time seem non-existent--I finally called my mother-in-law to come look at it. She brought over my father-in-law, just in case, and were at my house in a short time. Meanwhile, the OCD part of me figured that if I'm going to go the ER, at least I should change B2's sheets so he can sleep in clean sheets. So, I changed his bed, one eye tightly closed and the pain making me weak.

My mother-in-law came over, and I was finally able to pry open my eye enough for her to see it. When I did that, I realized that my vision was completely blurred--I could barely see straight ahead. It was almost as bad as looking through frosted glass (the stuff in your shower, not the kind when it snows). I finally resolved that I should go to the ER, because I was terrified that I was going to go blind in that eye. And, the worst part about that? I couldn't play sports anymore. Yes, honest to goodness, that was my fear. :) So, my father-in-law and neighbor give me a blessing, my father-in-law stays back to watch the kids, and my mother-in-law drives me to the hospital.

We get to the ER and get admitted almost immediately. Why, you ask? Because we missed the urgent care closings by about 10 minutes. Go figure--this can't be a CHEAP stupid mistake, it has to be an EXPENSIVE stupid mistake. Anyway, at the ER, they give me some numbing drops (joy of joys), I finally start to relax (my pulse at the intake was 117 beats per minute, nearly double my resting rate. My mother-in-law made sure to point out that at least I was burning some extra calories), and after what seems like forever the doctor (and his med student shadow) come in. He puts the magnifying machine up to my eye and starts to tell me that he'll add these drops that will make my injury able to be seen when he said, "Well, actually, I can see it right here--I don't even need the drops!" He adds them anyway to show the full extent of the damage, and here's approximately what it looked like:

(The bright green is the injury; and yes, I wish I had gotten a picture of my actual injury--it was probably slightly smaller than this, and more circular)

He confidently announces that I have a corneal abrasion, meaning that I scratched off part of my cornea against that stupid box. For those who don't remember 9th grade biology:

The cornea is the outer part of the area that protects the pupil, which is actually a hole. So, basically, it keeps stuff out of your eye hole, and I had scratched off a good chunk of mine--approximately the diameter of a small pea. So, they give me some antibiotics and generic LorTab (thank goodness!), tell me I'll be good in 36-48 hours, and send me on my way, a few hundred dollars poorer and still in absolutely misery (the numbing drops wore off much faster than the LorTab kicked in).

To make an already-too-long story just a bit shorter, I was in terrible pain the next day. It felt like I had a piece of glass under my eyelid, and every time my eyelid twitched or my eyeball moved (which happens WAY more than you think...), it sent a sharp pain to my eye. By Wednesday morning, the sharp pains were gone, and was replaced with a dull pain like I had been poked in the eye really hard. Oh, wait, I had... On Wednesday, I was also able to keep my eye open for brief (but lengthening) amounts of time. By Thursday, the pain was completely gone and I could keep my eye open all the time; however, the vision in that eye was still blurry. I went to a check up with an eye doctor on Friday, and he said that it will take about 2-3 weeks for my vision to completely return. But, every day I notice improvements, and only really have difficulty with reading small print.

That's the story of my expensive stupidity. So, lesson learned: look before you bend down to pick up wipes off the floor, because you just might rip out half of your eye.

Funny Things B2 Says

On September 7, we were on our way to the pediatrician's office for D's 15-month check up. I told B2 where we were going. When we started driving, B2 said, "Hurry quick! We have to go to the doctor!" I asked why, and he said, "We have to, before D grows up!"

On September 23, we were at my little sister's volleyball game. My parents were tree, plus my other sister Beez. My dad was in the hall talking to coach after the match when B2 came up and said, "Hey Grandpa, wanna go talk to my girls?" (referring to me, Beez, Rinz, and my mom).

On October 3 we were at my in-laws to watch Conference. Whenever we leave, B2 likes to roll down the window an say bye. This time, he said, "Hey Grandma, we'll come over next time, and we'll have fruit snacks and cheese sandwich, or maybe Mac and Cheese, and I'll bring Baby over." He had that outing all planned out!

Tales from preschool

The following stories come from Brian's preschool teacher, Miss A. The rest are in her words:
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After they are done drawing in their journal  I tell them to come over and we write their story.  B2's always goes on and on.  Like today, he started off by saying he drew a "block with blue"  Then he said, "I was scared.  My mom scared me by the car.  I yelled and my dad came out and ask what was wrong. I said Mom scared me.  We were by the car."
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The other day we were talking about being important and that we had a family who loved us and we are important in our family.  I ask who was in their family.  I got to B2 and asked him.  He said, Mom, Dad and B2. I said, "What about D?"  B2 responded that D lives in his crib, not his house.

One random pic

This was the sunrise in front of our condo the other day. Pretty awesome, huh?