Why is it always when you're sick?

I have the flu. Yes, it's true. And it sucks. I don't know where I got it from, but I can tell you this: I am going to "kill" whoever gave it to me. Seriously, I haven't had the flu since I was pregnant with Marshy 3 years ago, but I forgot how awful it is.

Of course, it seems that when you're sick is when the child decides to act up and not obey. And of course, Mike is camping and SCUBA diving (he left before I got sick). Rude. He won't be home until late tonight.

Marshy I think isn't feeling too well either, because he has been just happy to sit and watch movies most of the day. Of course, he acts like he is really REALLY tired so I would take him up to bed and he would run amok and mess everything up. He is still doing it as I type. Naughty boy. I can't tell you how many times I have stuck a half-awake child back into his bed. It just seems like he is hell-bent on destroying the house because he knows I'm sick and I can't do anything about it. Any suggestions?

Irritated

Our landlord has watered the lawn 5 times in the past 24 hours. That's just a little excessive, doncha think?

Thursday night at 11, when Mike went to bed and I watched SYTYCD, the sprinklers were on.

Friday morning at 6, when Marshall woke up, the sprinklers were on.

Friday afternoon at 2, when we came home to help Mike pack for his trip, the sprinklers were on.

Friday evening at 6, when Marsh and I left to get dinner, the sprinklers were on.

Now, Saturday morning at 5, when I am blogging because I haven't been to sleep yet because I have too much energy, the sprinklers are on.

Will someone please tell this guy that the dandelions don't need that much water! I hear that our neighbors in the back building get flooded because of all the water. I also tend to think it is a total waste of water to water the lawn in the middle of the day when it is 80+ degrees outside.


AAAHHHHH!!! They make the most irritating noise! I can hear them loud and clear, even with the windows closed.

Oh yeah, and will someone shut up those birds in that tree outside, too?!

One Project a Month Challenge

I totally thought I wouldn't get anything else done this month for myself, but looky here:
March's block for the Tisket a Tasket BOM.

A cute Christmas wallhanging that I bought the kit for and started last November and then never finished because I hated stitching the ornament hooks. Well, too bad! I finished that suckah up and now I can quilt it all cute like when I get a chance. :) Plus, I now have at least ONE cute Christmas decoration to put up in our house this December.

Waiting for Dad

Mike went down to Sand Hollow Friday night to go diving with the Stingray Dive Club, a local group of divers who get together the 3rd weekend of every month and go SCUBA diving. Marshy decided he was going to wait for Daddy on the steps until he got home. This was the result:
"SHH! Seepin!"

"Na-night!"

He is so cute! I had to call Mike to tell him how funny Marsh was being, and Marsh got to talk on the phone to his dad for the first time. He was totally confused. Mike would say "HI!" And Marsh would look around the room for him. It made me laugh!

Okay, so this isn't the best picture, but I was so excited that I actually finished this (mostly) that I wanted to share!

About a week or so ago I had this fabulous idea (or at least I think it's fabulous!) to make wallhangings for each month of the year. I drew out all my designs and picked the colors I wanted to use. I was so excited! February's wallhanging ended up being one of the easiest, so I decided to do it first. I picked my fabrics out of my stash and got to work.

I know I've said in the past that it's been hard for me to sew at home because I don't have a table, but I have finally figured something out. YAY! I put my sewing machine on my piano bench and sit in a low folding chair and sew that way in my kitchen, leaving my table open for cutting and such.

I ended up cutting my fabric out wrong, oops, so this is a little squattier than I had wanted it to be originally. It technically should have another 2-2 1/2 inches at the top, but oh well! Also, along the bottom is going to be a 6 inch strip with "FEBRUARY" appliqued onto it. Still working out the font and lettering size for that, so that is why this isn't totally finished yet.

However, I am so excited that it turned out close to how I wanted! I can't wait to finish some of the other months now!! :) I will definitely post more pictures when I get them done.

(repost from Designs by Laura Jo blog)

Missing You

"Families....to infinity and beyond" is written on the back, along with his family member's names.

Still missing you so much!

Lola posted this song a few months back on her blog. It's so good, and happens to be where the quote on the headstone is from.

MAY- One Project a Month Challenge

Okay, so I didn't totally slack off in April on this one project a month challenge. I PROMISE! I did manage to get my little brother's t-shirt quilt finished and quilted (still needs binding) and get the binding attached and half-way finished on Marshy's Froggin' Saur bankdie.

Anyway, I feel like I did manage to get a lot accomplished...sort of! haha

I started by tackling one of the BOM I've been "doing" this year. This one is the Tisket a Tasket 12 months of baskets. Instead of doing the applique, I decided to try my hand at redwork. Below: May's block.

Below: April's block.

I also finished the applique on this lovely. I have only been working on it for like 2 years! haha. I am hoping to get it quilted soon. Then I can put it away with my holiday decorations for Halloween this year.

The Park

This year I have taken Marshy to the park way more often than we used to go. The result? Marsh has fun, and doesn't drive me crazy in the house, and I am getting a tan! I am now the tannest I have ever been (except for that one summer when we had a family reunion at the beach in Oceanside and I remembered to put on sunblock! haha).

Unfortunately, not all of me is getting tan! I think that I am going to have to start lying out in the yard afternoons so that my white legs don't blind everyone when we go to the pool at Deer Valley next month. YIKES!

(Oh, the picture above is of our friend's little girl being helped down the giant slide at the playground. She is such a cutie!)

Pink boxers

Have you seen this story? What an amazing guy! Imagine, standing there in your tent, or whatever, just chilling with your army buds when you get attacked. I probably would've put pants on, but that is just me. Props to this guy for going out there guns blazing, while wearing pink boxers. Yep. And flip flops. AWESOME!

Mud pie

I bought the new limited edition Dreyer's Mud Pie ice cream.

The picture made it look so yummy.

I went home and opened it up, excited to taste the yumminess.

Didn't know mud pie was coffee ice cream.

YUCK!

I am so disappointed!

The picture made it look like vanilla.

But it was coffee....light....like the light makes a difference.

Stupid ice cream.

Oh yeah!

Ever wonder what happened to the season 2 cast members of Heroes that were killed off? I can tell you where they went: Fox's Glee. Yeah. Claire's mom and Elle's dad are both on it. Weird.

Also, just saw the preview for HP6. Yeah, so excited. Love HP. More than I love Twilight (and I must confess I love it a lot.)

Woah!

I did it. I chopped it off! HOLY COW IT IS SHORT! :) (But I love it)

This is how much hair Angel cut off of my head! What the? How did I let it get so long?! haha

Picnic "Photo Shoot"

Today we had a picnic with some of our good friends, who happen to be our neighbors. It was really fun, I think more for the kids than for us! Although, we did have a lot of fun watching our kids. :)

Marshmallow Salute.

These next few are a series of photos taken of Marshy and Asia hugging. They were so cute all evening!

Asia trying to help Marshy stand up.

The kids holding hands.

I love that Marshy is pulling her along behind him. So cute!

"Oh crap! I broke it!"

Joe pulled some soft branches off the trees, and Mike made the kids leaf hats.

Mike took most all of these pictures. He did such a good job! We took like 200 pictures today, so this is only a small sampling of the cute moments we got of the kids (mostly Marshy and Asia).

Hysterical

I woke up from my afternoon nap (during which Marshy was supposedly asleep as well) to find the house in a state of chaos.

Marsh had only pretended to sleep!

He trashed his room. Ripped his bed apart, threw his toys all over the floor, and dumped out his dirty clothes hamper.

Then he went down into the kitchen. YIKES! He tried to help with the dishes by dumping an entire box of additive into the dishwasher, which was full of clean dishes, and all over the floor. He must have gotten hungry because he pulled two sticks of butter out of the fridge, unwrapped them, and took a few giant bites out of each! He also dumped his dad's heat-shrink plastic all over the kitchen floor.

Then he decided to watch a movie. He turned on the PS3. I didn't realize, until just now, that he had taken out my movie (Pride and Prejudice on blu-ray!) and put Wall-E in, only backwards. He closed the cupboard and couldn't figure the rest out, so came up to get me. He also had gone through some of the HD-DVDs we have and put them in the Wall-E case. What a silly boy!

I was so mad at him when I saw the state of his room and the kitchen, but now seeing how he was really just trying to do what he sees me do everyday, it makes me laugh and is really quite cute! Of course, he did get in a lot of trouble, and he was very sad and upset for a good hour and a half.

Good News

I have 1 more PT appointment, and then I will be done, hopefully. YAY! Not that I haven't enjoyed PT. It's been quite nice. However, it has thrown me off my schedule/routine (or lack thereof) the last few weeks. I go back next Thursday to find out if the exercises they gave me are working. She said today that my shoulder muscles are definitely less-tense than they were last week when I started PT. This is a good sign! I'm feelig a lot better, too. Another good sign! Hooray!! :D

Tired

Some pictures taken over the last week of Marsh-marsh....sleeping, of course! The way we like him best. haha, just kidding.

This one is my favorite because he is so tired but he looks so cute!

And sleeping on Mother's Day. Well, the day before during floral business hours. :)

How you know your doctor is a quack.

Went to the allergist today to get tested for bee sting allergy. It was supposed to take 3 hours. It only took 45 minutes. Here is why:

Dr. A is from Argentina. This was who my assigned allergy "specialist" was. He came in the room, after the nurse took my blood pressure, and asked me why I was there. I explained I was there to be tested for allergy to bee stings.

Dr. A: Have you been stung before?
me: No.
Dr. A: (rolls his eyes and writes in his chart). Are you sure?
me: Yes.
Dr. A: Why do you think you need to be tested?
me: My biological mother is allergic and has to carry medicine with her in case she gets stung.
Dr. A: Did she tell you this?
me: No, I'm adopted.
Dr. A: So someone said this to you.
me: No, it's in my medical history.
Dr. A: I see. (laughs at me) Well just because she was allergic doesn't mean you are.
me: Are you sure?
Dr. A: Allergies aren't hereditary.

This is where I'll stop and point out that my husband is allergic to many of the same things his siblings and parents are allergic to. Also, if you do a google search for "are allergies hereditary" you get lots of medical websites stating that they ARE in fact hereditary! (Sign 1 my doc is a quack) Let's continue:

Dr. A: You don't need to be afraid to get stung. Besides, if we were to test you today, the results would be meaningless. If we took 100 people off the street and tested them for bee allergy, 30 of them would have a severe reaction. But it's meaningless if you haven't been stung and had a reaction already. So don't worry if you get stung. It's perfectly normal to have the area swell. So, if you get stung on the arm, even if your whole arm swells up, this is perfectly normal. It's not a severe reaction unless you get hives all over your body or you can't breathe.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! I'm pretty sure it is not normal for your entire arm to swell up if you get stung by a bee! Also, he's saying that 30% of people could have a severe reaction to bee stings, but that isn't relevant if they haven't been stung already. Is this making sense to anyone else? What if I'm in that 30%? How will we know? Oh, yeah, I have to get stung first. And, if I do have a severe reaction like I stop breathing I really hope there is someone standing next to me ready to call 911 or something!

Continue on:

Dr. A: Next time, rather than make an appointment, just call me if you have any concerns. Don't bother coming in. (stands up and walks out the door. Nice dismissal, huh?)

I spent 45 minutes at Dr. A's office. I paid $20 to have them take my blood pressure (which was 120/70, in case you wanted to know. It was 114/72 last week. I could've told them it was good, but then I would have paid $20 for nothing!)

I'm just a little irritated. Can you tell? Yeah, kinda really mad, and almost positive that Mr. A from Argentina is not a real doctor.

Luckily, Mike's family's doctor, Dr. J, is an allergy specialist and will test you no problem (according to Ringmaster J who had her son tested just to see). Hopefully he takes my insurance!

Very Funny

This is a very funny video. My DH showed it to me. K, so it isn't really a video. More like a clip. But it is HILARIOUS! Apparently when Beyonce sang on the Today Show, someone recorded the board feed, which is her just singing along with the track.

I haven't listened to the whole thing all the way through in one shot, so there may or may not be some language. Best to watch it the first time by yourself, minus the kiddies. Quite funny though! :)

ENJOY!

untitled

This post is untitled because I couldn't think of a title, and because leaving it blank just seemed lazy. So while "untitled" is certainly unoriginal, at least it's a title, right?

That being said, I have a confession to make. I am finding it very difficult to get back into work mode after taking a week off. And also into blogging mode. Maybe it's just because I am in so much pain from physical therapy. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I'm going. My shoulders don't hurt nearly as bad as they used to. But today my PT decided to work on my neck and when she said work on she really meant "murder." I was in so much pain, it was crazy. And I was tired. I took 4 ibuprofen way later than I should have, and they have helped a little but I am dreading falling asleep because I know I will wake up sore.

Good news has come from going to PT, besides the pain going away, and that is that I may (or may not, I won't count my chickens before they're hatched) get a new client out of the whole thing. My PT seemed very interested in what I do for a living, and I left her my info. We'll see if anything comes of it. *fingers crossed*

Also, now that I have a digital camera that is small, I find I don't have the camcorder with me when I need it. Marshy does some of the cutest things, and I always miss them! He sings songs from Kai-Lan, and it is so adorable. I'll have to video them this week and post them on here for you all to see. SUPER CUTE!

I have been getting some work done. I do want you to know that! I have finished 4 quilts since I have been home from vay-cay (yay for me!) and I started (finally) on one of the BOM's that I unofficially joined back in January. I am doing this one in the redwork. I've never done redwork before, and I think it will turn out so lovely. I have already done May's block, and am halfway done with April's. Yes, I am working backwards. I hope to have all 5 blocks done by the end of the month so I can start on June with everyone else. I will post pictures after they are pressed, because they are a little wrinkly right now.

Wrinkly.....that is a word you don't hear anymore. This is a random thought, but do you remember the book A Wrinkle in Time? One of my faves as a kid. Is it still in print? I would love to read it again .... "It was a dark and stormy night...." I always thought that was awesome.

Anyway, back to reality! Hopefully tomorrow I will get loads done at work, hopefully pain-free. I don't go back to PT until Tuesday. I do, on Monday, meet with an allergist though. I am getting tested for allergies to bees. Anyone done this before? Is it scary? Does it hurt? What do they do? I don't know anything about it really, just that I need it done. My birth-mother was apparently incredibly allergic, so much that she carried what I assume is an epi-pen with her at all times. Kinda makes you wonder if you're allergic...especially if you've never been stung. And especially since you live in a complex where there are more dandelions than grass. And especially since you have a toddler who may/may not be allergic, and you don't want to find out the hard way: a trip in an ambulance to the ER. Because, as we know, those are not fun trips.

Physical Therapy

Yep. Started PT today. Wow. Never been to physical therapy before. The first part was really great. Heat pads. Massage. Yeah. It was nice. Then the pain started. Exercises and stretching. Then ice. Now my muscles are sore :( Hopefully this will help over the next few weeks. That would be great. I guess only time will tell. I go back on Thursday. Can't wait for the first half again. :)

What a weekend!

WOW! What a weekend we've had!

We got back from Vegas Friday night.

Saturday we dropped Marshy off at my parents' house. Mike and I then joined his family at the Texas Roadhouse where we had awful food. Then we walked around the South Towne Mall for a while. Then we went to see Miss Saigon at the Pioneer Theater. Mike's cousin, Natalie, played Ellen. And she was FABULOUS. :D

We picked Marshy up from my parents house and got home about 12:30 AM. About 1:30 AM Marshy woke up screaming. I ran into his room to find him sitting up in his bed drenched in stinky barf. Oh it makes me want to throw up just thinking about how bad it was! Mike hurried and drew a bath and we put Marshy in to get washed off while we worked on de-stenching his room and getting the sheets changed. At about 2 AM we got Marshy back into bed and somewhat settled down.

At 2:30 AM, just as we had started to fall back asleep, Marsh started screaming. I ran in just as he threw up all over his bed, the floor, his pillows, and would have thrown up all over his non-washable stuffed animals had I not thrown them across the room! Poor kid! I was so tired I could barely think, so it took me 10 minutes to get his bath drawn...again... and new sheets up there. Mike got the carpet cleaner ready and I cleaned the carpets while Mike watched baby in the tub. We got Marshy back into his room about 3:30 AM.

He didn't want to sleep in his bed. He wanted his couch. Of course, having barfed all over both of the spare pillows we had, I had to use a couch pillow for him to lay on. We put a little bit of Mike's leftover Baja Blast Mountain Dew in a sippy for him, it was all we had to calm his tummy. I didn't think it would work, but it did! We turned on Toy Story 2 and I laid down on the floor next to Marshy's couch.

Mike went back to bed, and I fell asleep until the movie ended. I swear we watched that movie 3 times before he wanted to go downstairs and watch tv. I turned on Nick and fell asleep on the couch. Before I knew it was 10 AM!

Marshy was sluggish and grumpy all day, and refused to go to bed until 10 PM. UGH! He finally went to sleep. No fever, no barfing, but he is pretty restless tonight. All-in-all so far so good.

Tomorrow I have a Dr appointment, so if he is still sicky I will have her look at him too, but I'm hoping he'll be feeling better.

Other Vegas Randoms

Sleeping in the car.
Apparently it was fake sleeping.

Yeah, definitely fake sleeping.

Still fake sleeping. He did eventually fall asleep. YAY!

Bass Pro Shops: OCC (Orange County Choppers) did this awesome bike for the store! Oh, and we met a guy that worked there that was from our hometown. Totally weird. At first we were kind of like "Yeah, whatever, everyone says that." But then he started saying things about the town, and the people and the wards, etc. so we knew he was really from up here. CRAZY!

At the Mirage:

Some weird, not quite a duck, duck.

Marsh was enthralled. He didn't want to leave the "Bird! Bird!"

Wish I could capture the annoyingness with a photo....

Wish I had a picture of the non-working, non-existant modem in our room. Kind of made connecting to the internet a problem. Come to find out the modem was broken, and the ethernet cord-keeper had been stolen! Yeah, nice.

Also wish I had a picture. A picture of the letter left on our night table Tuesday night. Apparently the hotel/casino was planning a 4 hour power outage that night. Not too big a deal, right?

Well, apparently the power outage screwed up the alarm system. At 7 PM on Wednesday (remember, we went to get Ben & Jerry's?) the alarm system went off. Not a big deal right? WRONG. They went off for an hour! Yeah. Just a little annoying. Come to find out, it was just on our floor.

Things we ate...

MONDAY: Lunch - In-N-Out Burger.
Dinner - Cheesecake Factory....Service...not so great, but it could've been worse (keep reading). The server disappeared 30 minutes before we got our check. It took him so long, in fact, that Mike had to take Marshy outside into the Forum Shops at Caesar's to look at the fish in the aquarium to calm him down.

TUESDAY: Breakfast - Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Mmmm.... Yummy.
Lunch - ??? Don't think we ate lunch! :S
Dinner - Carnegie Deli. We ordered the Corned Beef sandwich (seen below) and a slice of plain cheesecake. Mmmm.....the cheesecake was heaven.

WEDNESDAY: Breakfast: Breakfast buffet at the hotel.

Lunch: Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. Mmmm.... Cheeseburger in Paradise-alicious! :)

Dinner: CPK. AWFUL! The didn't have an access ramp so we had to carry Marshy upstairs in the stroller. They don't have a kids menu, so we ordered Marshy a cheesey-bread bruschetta appetizer. The service sucked so bad that we didn't leave a tip. Yeah, it has to be bad for us to not leave a tip. Our server walked past us at least 5 times within a 30 -minute period while we were finished, empty plates, waiting for her to give us our check.

Oh yeah, and Marshy didn't like the cheesey bread. He was content just eating the butter pats. (see below). We try to get him to eat real food. I promise!

Late-night snack: Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Cost us $20 for 2 ice creams. What the? AND! (this is the kicker) they only took cash, so Mike and Marsh went to find an ATM. 3 ATM's, and 4 security guards in the casino later, Mike shows up with a $20 to find out that it's like $20.34 or something like that. I only have $0.04 in change. Yeah. Sucky. They were nice and gave us the $0.30 free. Nice. Thanks a lot. Jerks.

THURSDAY: Breakfast: Buffet at the hotel.

Lunch: Outback Steakhouse. Not as good as we were told it was.

Dinner: Mickey D's. Yep. Kids meals were ordered, all food was cold. BOO to McDonald's! :(


FRIDAY: Breakfast: Jack and the B-fish (box)

Lunch: In-N-Out...Oh yeah, we need one up here.

Dinner: McDonald's.

Coke Store

The Coke Store has this cool green screen and some dude in a polar bear suit that you can get your picture taken at. The first time we saw the bear Marshy kind of liked him. He even said "Bye bear!" when we left. CUTE!

We went back the next day to get our picture taken with Mr. Bear. Marshy did not like it one bit.

He bawled hysterically the whole time. The bear felt really bad, too, and they made him take a break after we were done!

As we were leaving the store, he asked where the bear was! Funny boy.

Swimming! .....finally

We finally made it to the pool! Marshy cried and cried and cried when we got in. He did not want to be in there. After a lot of persuading, and finally pulling him in, he settled down and didn't want to get out of the water!!

He hated being towelled off to go inside. Poor guy. But, despite putting lots of sunblock on him, his ears were still bright red after being outside for only an hour.

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

A boy and his monkey suit.
Looking at the baby dinosaurs.

Pushing the button that makes the dinos "talk". There was a giant T-rex that made noise and it scared Marsh so bad that he ran away crying "HOME HOME! HELP! LOOK OUT!" It was cute.

The hands-on room.

Kind of reminded him of Kota at home.

He liked to pretend that Mr. Dino was gallopping. The little girl in the corner didn't even know the dino was there until Marshy got on!

In the Dome.

Not quite sure what he was doing.

Looking for Nemo.

Still looking at Nemo.

We had a good hours' worth of fun at the museum. It wasn't very big, but it was still a good time.