TA DAAA........ My Dream Couches

After purchasing our first home, I had images of grandeur about what I was going to do with the house. Big Screen T.V., leather couches, art work, remodeling, blah, blah blah. Then the first mortgage came, we needed another vehicle, car problems, medical bills, and basically the reality that all those fun things weren't going to happen for a loooooooong time set in. humph. So the living room sat empty for a couple years. Our house was the happening house for anyone under the age of 5. There was just so much room to do anything they wanted, like a white canvas and nobody cared what happened.

Then one day Uncle Quin came up with an offer I wanted to resist but couldn't. He was purchasing his dream couches and was wondering if I wanted his old ones. I didn't want to say "No" for several reasons: 1. I didn't want to hurt his feelings; 2. I knew the history of these old couches; 3. I didn't have couches; and 4. Old couches are better than no couches. So I said "sure."

After a year of having these wonderful pieces of furniture, they look exactly the same. These are the only items I own that have ever, ever, ever been able to withstand 3 very active, rambunctious, dirty, stinky, happy, little boys. Things have happened to these couches I don't ever want to repeat and you would never be able to tell. And I don't worry one bit about it. If I had my fancy, new, expensive couches I would be freaking out every time the boys came around because I know they haven't bathed in days and their nails haven't been clipped in weeks, and someone's wearing a very full and droopy diaper that needs immediate attention but won't be getting any for another couple hours. (Nah, I'm exaggerating. My kids aren't that neglected .)

So it turns out that my dream couches really aren't the ones I was imagining three years ago but the ones grandma and grandpa Ericson bought 50 plus years ago and reupholstered to this cool, 60s fabric that has withstood the test of time and my boys.

Breakfast

It wouldn't be breakfast by the boys if:

1. They didn't use Superman paper cups
2. If you didn't bite into a few egg shells
3. If you didn't catch a cold afterward
4. If it wasn't 10:45 a.m.
5. If L didn't have more than his fair share
6. If I didn't have to force K to eat it.
7. If A didn't even attempt to take a bite
8. If it didn't take longer to clean up the mess than it was to make it
9. I weren't crazy enough to give them free reign
10. They didn't enjoy every minute of it

Blogging Should Come With A Warning

On Monday and Tuesday I spent a lot of time getting the following blog together http://ragnarrelaypwc.blogspot.com/ . It's just scraps of our race for PWC people to look at. Meanwhile the boys emptied out the toy box and went outside for some fun on their own terms. I found 2/3 of my boys butt naked, dangerously filling the tub up with hose water. I got lucky with this shot. It's just one of those things you don't want your kids doing without supervision.

Last year we went swimming about 5 times before we got crypo. 4 out of the 5 times I found L drowning; so I bought him that blue suit he's wearing in this picture. Like he needs it here, he cracks me up. We took him to his well check up. He is 90th percentile for height and weight, typical for Chris' side of the family. At least 1/3 of my kids still has a chance at being tall, that's if he can make it to adulthood.

Myomed Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back 2008

Go to ragnarrelaypwc.blogspot.com for fun tidbits about the race and our team members

This past weekend Chris and I had the opportunity to be a part of a 12 man relay team. We raced from Logan to Park City covering 180 miles in 30 hours. This year just under 600 teams participated in the relay. PricewaterhouseCoopers sponsored us and the team consisted of Chris' colleagues and myself.

The actual race began a handful of years ago when a PWC employee was taking an entrepreneur class at BYU. He designed the race as part of a class project and after implementing it successfully, quit PWC and began doing this instead. There are several races throughout the nation and is becoming more and more popular.

Each one of us had three legs ranging from 3.1 to 8.5 miles each and differing in difficulty. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. I didn't get more than a few hours of sleep in a 48 hour period but didn't feel it until I came home and crashed. We all ran the entire thing except for a couple of us that walked short snippets but really hardly anything. We all pushed ourselves to the max. What made it challenging was the high altitude, the heat, and the hills.

It was one of those experiences that we will be talking about for a long time and the funnest and hardest race I've participated in thus far.

Toesies

There are so many quirky things about my kids and spouse that I just love. For example A's second toes overlap his big toes. You can sort of tell in the picture above. He calls them toesies.

L and K are in soccer camp every morning this week. It's great. It gets us out of the house and the boys are running around until they're red in the face. They come home, crash, play, and then sleep well through the night. Today, I dropped them off and went shopping. I got carried away and was 10 minutes late.

K's soccer team started practicing 1 1/2 hours every week to get ready for the season. I'm so impressed with his coach. The coach happens to be K's good friend's dad. They went to preschool and kindergarten together. The dad happens to be Blue Knight's (competitive soccer club) president. He played in college, coached high school, and all his kids competitive teams. I had no idea until we got an email telling us about try-outs. I was so confused and am still trying to figure out how everything works. K made the team. I just feel lucky and am happy to have my kid in such good hands.

Lowly Enough for #53

This past weekend we went camping and fishing. It's nice to have outings like this. Good memories. Chris got off work early Friday so we could get up to the canyons "early." By the second canyon and all campsites were full, images of camping in the backyard came to be. However, the lady up Big Cottonwood hesitantly told us about site #53. She said "I hate to offer this one, it's so bad." But, we must have been lowly enough for her to pull it out of her pocket. HA. It's not so bad to look pathetic sometimes. After checking it out and realizing we didn't have a choice, we took it. She even used her own "Golden Age" card so we could get 50% off. It wasn't bad at all. Most people had campers and RVs there and #53 wouldn't of worked. However, we were just us in a car camping out in a tent and it was just right for our needs. Not picky at all. Everyone around us was kind enough to give us our privacy since we were being hovered by RVs. It was great........And then night came. Annoying generators. Freezing Cold kids. Rock Hard ground. Sleepless night. Gotta love it.

Happy Father's Day

Golf lessons this summer, crepes for dinner, and his family for Father's Day=A happy daddy

Teeth

Well, K recently lost his third tooth. The first one was a couple years ago. A molar. He had a bad cavity on it and so it was filled. Soon after, it got infected. We ended up in the E.R. at PrimaryChildren's because that side of his face was completely swollen. Because the bone between the brain and the eye is paper thin, the doctors (he saw 3) were worried about this infection moving up. It was progressing quickly. So treatments went from having oral antibiotics, to upping the strenghth of the antibiotics, to putting it through an I.V. and finally removing the nasty tooth altogether. Which by the way, was thrown out. Yucky.

His second tooth, a bottom front, was loose for a while. He was so excited since he was one of the last kids in his class to lose a tooth. He asked if he could hold on to it for a year before giving it to the tooth fairy. Ok, whatever. So there we are at dinner eating pizza, when K looks up and gasps. "I swallowed my tooth! Baaaaaaaaaaaaah." Meaning he started bawling. He was so sad but luckily I had told him of my similar experience earlier that week so we laughed about it later. He wrote a letter to the tooth fairy explaining what happened and was so excited to find the note gone the next day along with some money.

His third tooth, he worked it out because he didn't want to accidentally swallow it. However, after handling it for so many days, he finally lost it in the couch. Although I thought about extracting his second tooth from you know what (but only for a second) I thought more about looking through the couch to find the third. We didn't find it but we did find years and years of nastiness. I made it a spouse project to clean that out because it needed manly strength and manly tools, and stuff like that. yeah.

Any Takers?

O.K. so I've been looking at taking photography lessons for a while now and it's looking like this will be the year. If any one wants to join me let me know.

I'll start off with some free ones to get me to use my little camera properly and to help me figure out my adobephoto shop program. And also to help me pick out a nice, big fancy camera. This online shop does free lessons in Salt Lake while I'm sure advertising the stuff they sell. I kind of have an idea of what I want already but I'm sure having the professionals on hand will help answer questions I should have but don't. Click on FreeClasses. Check it out and let me know if you want to come along.

Next, I will be enrolling in college level courses in photography in the Fall. Registration begins in August. Classes are done through the Salt Lake Art Center. The fee is $200 not including some other things. I'm going to start out with the beginning level course and hopefully each semester be able to move along to the next level. Click on SLACclasses. Let me know if you're interested.

Apolo and Dad

Yes, we live across the street from our church building. The pros are that it makes it really easy to come home and eat something in between meetings. It also means that we don't have to see any yards that are not kept up. The cons are that we have that many less neighbors and we look at that boring building when we look outside. Our far fetched dream is that they build a church somewhere else for whatever reason and we get a nice, quiet park instead. Yeah right.

Results

So last week I went and had my cardio stress test at the hospital after K had his skin prick test for allergies right across the street. They hooked me up to monitors and I got to see my heart. It was so cool. Then they had me run at an incline at 5.5 mile/hr, ouch. The heart murmur is a small one on a minor valve. The cardiologist rated it a 1 on seriousness (the lowest). He said it was eccentric and that basically it is in an unusual place shooting the blood at an unusual angle, so maybe a little bit up on the seriousness. But, other than that everything is in good working order and that the murmur isn't anything to worry about. He even said my blood pressure is really good. And added in that exercise has so many benefits and solves so many health problems. He said that cardiologists of old have admited they have been wrong all along about giving the advice to "take it easy." People with heart issues should of been exercising all along. So there you have it everyone, go work out!

K had his allergy test done with negatives on milk, wheat, soy, and barley. He is allergic to peanuts and eggs which explains his excema. He's been eating those allergens and hasn't dropped dead but does make him have mild excema. He is very allergic to cats and less allergic to dogs but still allergic to them. Yay! Still a fabulous reason to postpone on getting one of those nasty, stinky, creatures that can be so dang cute too! He is also allergic to trees, grass, and weeds. But, a lot of people are.

So far this month we've been to all our well appointment, actually L's is next week. We've been to the allergist, the cardiologist, the dentist, and the dermatologist. Next month our insurance changes. We'll have a deductible now and pay 10% of the bills except for well appointments up to $3000 (after the $1000 deductibles not including copays). All the copays and prescriptions are going up as well. It's still pretty good coverage but we're not use to paying a lick. Spoiled us. While I was registering at the hospital I overheard the lady next to us say to the guy she was helping "you have a deductible that hasn't been met. Would you like to pay the $500 now or later?" That's going to be us!!

Looking for Stuff

Watching Dad Fix Stuff

The Road

Just finished this book. If you're a dad and have a son, you may be able to relate to this story. Loyd raved about it so Chris and I decided to pick it up. If you can handle sad, go for it. Do you want to tell us what you thought Chris?

Kung Fu Panda

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was awesomeness. I laughed and cried.

Who are you?

Every once in a while I get these shots and think.............I know you're my kid but for some reason you don't look yourself today.

3 Days Down 1 To Go (Especially For Chris)

click here for the rest of them

Baby Bottle Warning and Omega 3 Fatty Acids can help hyper kids

Every other month I get a medical news letter from the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Virginia. It seems that every time we go to Virginia I've had to take my kids in for something nasty. So they know me now and send me stuff. The journals have tons of interesting health advice and have a listing of classes to help raise kids. I wish our local hospitals would do the same

One of the topics was titled Baby Bottle Warning. It briefly described which bottles are harmful and what would be a better alternative. Having read that I remembered the countless conversations I've had and heard saying the same things that basically plastics shouldn't be heated or put in the dish washer because of BPA.

But being the lazy person that I can be, I most often stick my baby bottles in the dishwasher and use the microwave to warm milk up in our Avent bottles. Well, shame on me.

After reading more articles about BPA, I started to get nervous about what damage has already been done on my kids. That's the irrational part of me. I also ran out to three different stores to find glass bottles. (I probably should just start weaning my baby off the bottle). I settled on buying them off Amazon.com since the stores don't have them yet. I should of done it a long, long time ago. I'm sad I have to wait for them now.

click on this link.....Walmart will remove baby bottles with BPA

Now that it is fact, more and more stores will be taking these harmful products off the shelf. Lucky for you guys who haven't had babies yet.


On Amazon you get free shipping if you spend $25 on certain products that qualify. So of course, I had to spend the extra little bit, might as well right? So I bought Charlie and the Chocholate Factory for K since he's reading now and of course I had to get something for L too.

I bought him some Omega 3 oil capsules that are kid friendly. Not only are they half the size of those usual horse pills, they have a hint of lemon flavor. Recently I've been having a hard time getting him to take the liquid form (nasty even I have a hard time swallowing) of the healthy fatty acids. In fact, the last time he just threw it up along with whatever else he had eaten.

The reason why I like my kids to take fish oil or flax seed oil is because for K and A it's good for their dry skin and for L it's good for his hyperactivity. They've found that children with ADHD have a deficiency in Omega 3 fatty acids. These supplements help out with that. Now I don't think L has ADHD because we can sit down and read for an hour and he sits through primary. But, he is very active. He goes and goes and goes and eats then goes and goes and goes and eats some more. After I give him a bit of the oil (in juice or mixed in food), he slows down a bit in a good way.

So now I'm waiting for those too. I guess we can all use them. My cousin takes them to regulate her energy levels and to help our with her depression. Now who couldn't use that!

I CAN'T help myself!

Both Chris and Loyd have advised me to not introduce so many new posts at one time. So that probably means, ya'll feel the same. I just wrote another especially long post on vaccinations down below that I hope you read. I should stop there but, I just can't help myself!!

We went to Wheeler Farm last night for the kick off summer reading program the library has organized. There was a magician, lots of people picnicking, and the usual walk around the farm to see the animals.

As I was leaving the house, I thought I probably should bring along the camera just in case, even though we've been to the farm many, many times. I thought...there's nothing new, most likely won't get any interesting shots.

In fact, I took the worst pictures ever, blurry, too much sun light, on and on. BUT, I am so excited with the editing I did. I MUST share!!

click here to redirect you to my picture website

To Vaccinate or Not To Vaccinate

I am pro vaccination. I did hold off on the MMR with K since he had a severe food allergy to eggs and the MMR is grown on egg culture. Nevertheless, he eventually got it and did fine.

Since there is a lot of stuff on the internet and literature about vaccination and autism, I've always been nervous about my kids being hurt by vaccinations or having a bad reaction. However, both K and L have done fine and are up to date.

However, after A's 4 month shots, he became very irritable, stopped smiling, began to arch his back when nursing, and was fussy to say the least. His trademark of being left in a room and forgotten because of his natural tendency to be content, became no more. The usual box of toys he would play with happily, he would pick up and shake and then scream. The best phrase to describe what happened to him is that he went autistic on me. I remember thinking, wow, my wrists hurt so much trying to nurse him in a weird position. Something's not right.

He was really bad for a week. I was soooooooo sad and stressed out about it. I took him for a really long walk on a sling against my chest. He seemed to calm down. It took a month for him to get back to his normal, happy, self meaning that when I walked into his room to get him from a nap, he would be there ready and smiling.

I did a lot of research, talked to doctors, blah, blah, blah. Since I am a person that relies a lot on my intuition, I have felt strongly that his reaction was due to certain vaccines he received that day. He has yet to get those ones again but has received others such as the chicken pox, Hep A and Hep B.

Had I been too busy or not putting two and two together, I would of passed what was happening to him as a phase. However, A was not a fussy baby at all. In fact, he was the most pleasant little baby I've had so far.

I think so much more research needs to be done. This might be far fetched but I think that a small portion of children aren't able to handle certain vaccines. Instead of it protecting a child, the vaccine inflames the brain and continuing to give them the vaccinations may end up causing permanent brain damage.

As a parent we all want the best for our kids. We want them to have the best chance in life. So for now, I am holding off on certain vaccines for A. It doesn't mean I am against vaccinations. It just means that I understand that each person is an individual with different needs. Some kids don't handle them well and I wish more research was being done to know what type of kids those are and act accordingly.

As a note, both A and K had their well appointments 1 1/2 weeks ago. Poor K had 5 shots and four or five warts burned off, one of which became a bloody blister the size of a penny. We ended up at urgent care because of the pinkness around it and the pink streak going to his wrist. Red flag. The doctor cut it out (nasty BTW) and he's currently on antibiotics. As for getting five shots.....it hurt but he's not autistic. The next day after getting his shots, A got a fever, threw up, became croupy, and was a mess. Go figure!

My advice........Be careful. Be observant. Follow your gut feelings! Make your own decision and stick to it.