The last few weeks

I am not doing so great at keeping this thing up. I will briefly write about what has been going on here the last few weeks. Like everyone else, the holiday season is just a busy time here. I did get to do some fun things.

12/10-I met with some friends for lunch. They are friends from my old (maybe former is operative word here) doctor's office. We had a nice time laughing and visiting. I am still really sad about my doctor leaving, but I am happy that I will still get to see the others from time to time.

12/19-The last day of school for this year. We had our kindergarten Christmas program. My little part (aside from practicing every day) was to model the sign language for Silent Night for them. They did great and were so cute. After school let out that day, the kids and I went to Tempe and stayed at my parents' house. I took the kids to look at Christmas lights at the temple and to Bahama Bucks (yum!!!) afterwards.

It was nice to see my parents, but we were all very worried because my dad was notified that his entire department was being eliminated at his job. After working for them for 40 years, it came as quite a shock. He was not planning on retiring for at least four more years, but the company has been laying people off right and left. They gave him until Dec. 31st, but then they extended it until the end of January. This economy is horrible.

12/20-The kids and I went to the zoo with my friend and her kids. I had never taken the kids to the zoo and hadn't been there myself since I was in kindergarten. It was perfect weather and we all had a nice time.

12/21-I met most of my family (except for my sister's family) for dinner in Miami and to exchange gifts. We had a nice time enjoying one another's company and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins. It was nice to get together. I also got to see my aunt and uncles and visit with them a little bit.

12/24-25-Christmas Eve & Christmas Day!!! Need I say more? It is a tradition of ours to drive around Christmas Eve night and look at Christmas lights. Sometimes this tires the kids out and they go to bed more easily. That wasn't the case this year, but we still enjoyed looking at the lights. We always read the Christmas story from the New Testament in Luke 2:1-14 and then the kids hang their stockings and go to bed. Erica stays up with me and we watch, "It's a Wonderful Life". I love that movie, plus it is about two hours long; enough time for the other kids to fall asleep. When the movie is over, we turn out the lights and go to bed so Santa can come. On Christmas morning, now that the youngest child is five, the kids have to wait until it is starting to get light outside to wake me up. At about 7:30-8:00, I lined the kids up on the stairs (youngest to oldest) and then they got to go in the living room to see what Santa had brought. With six kids, by the time we are all done, it looks like a tornado has struck the living room. The kids had a nice Christmas. I made eggs with ham, cheese, and mushrooms for breakfast. They played with toys for a while and then we went to my younger brother's house in Joseph City for my nephew's birthday. Kevin is a Christmas baby and he turned seven this year. We all had a nice time at their house.

12/29-My older brother and his family were coming home from his mother-in-law's house and took us to dinner. My 15 year old nephew, Michael, stayed with us. He and Tyler enjoy getting to spend time together. It is nice to have him with us for a while.

12/30-I went to lunch with some of my other friends. We stayed at the restaurant for about 2 & 1/2 hours just visiting. I really enjoyed it. It seems like we all get so busy with our everyday lives, that we often do not get to spend as much time with our friends. I was happy to get to do that.

12/31-(Today) I am going over to my friend's house for New Year's Eve soon. Single people usually do not get invited to parties, dinners, etc...because most people invite couples. My friend also falls into the single category so we are going to just get together, watch movies, and play board games. The kids are coming along too. It will be a quiet celebration, but that is okay. As far as I'm concerned, the best way to celebrate is to spend time with people you care about.

Mom's birthday-December 7, 2008

Since I wrote about Jared's birthday, I thought I should mention my mom's birthday as well. I actually did not get to see my mom on her birthday, but I understand that she had a nice time. I will not mentoin her age since this is the internet, but I have to say that she looks quite young for her age. Anyway, happy birthday, Mom! I love you!

Jared's 10th birthday-December 2, 2008

Since I am writing this almost two weeks AFTER Jared's birthday, I thought I should specify the actual date of his birthday.

For Jared's birthday, he had a party of sorts in my classroom. He had four friends come to my classroom right after school. They had red velvet cupcakes, watched Clone Wars, opened presents, and ate $5 pizzas. He had a great time with his friends.

I do not make Jared a birthday cake because he has this very extreme dislike for icing. This caused problems when he did not want icing on his cake and everybody else did. Thus the cupcake solution. The kids get to frost their own cupcakes.

After the party, I gave the four boys rides home. I was a little surprised to discover that third graders do not always know how to get to their home from the school. We did a lot of driving around trying to find one house. I had an address, but it was not an address I was familiar with. When I asked what (landmark) his house was near, he had no clue. It was very interesting. After lots of driving around, we finally got all of the kids home.

When we arrived home, Jared got to talk to both of his grandparents on the phone. It was nice for him to get to visit with them. All in all, Jared had a great day.

Almost December!

Wow! This year has flown by. I guess it's true what they say about time going more quickly as you get older.

Thanksgiving was nice. I enjoyed spending time with my family.

I have three weeks of school left before Christmas break. They are going to be busy ones. I need to make sure my class is ready for our Christmas program.

I recently found out that my doctor is leaving her practice. I am really upset about this because she is wonderful and she is my friend. I tentatively have a new doctor, but I am already unimpressed. Her first available appointment isn't for two months AND she does not leave any appointments open for acute illnesses. So if you get sick, too bad, so sad. You have to go to the walk-in clinic, I guess. It's a little weird. I thought that part of being a doctor was treating your patients when they are ill.

I am the new Webelos leader for cub scouts. I guess when you have five boys, you are bound to be doing scouting things at some point. Jared turns ten on Tuesday and will be a Webelos scout. Hmmmm....this might be a good time to have a good doctor with all of the carving and knife handling.

This weekend I took the kids to see Twilight. I was afraid I would not like it since the book is always better, but we really enjoyed it. After reading all of the books, it seemed like a long time to have to wait until the movie came out. They are working on the second one now. I will have to find out when it will be released. Maybe by the time it comes out, I can afford another trip to the theater with the six kids.

Well, I guess it's time to stop and finish dinner. I really should have this done before 8:30 at night. I guess that's one of the hazards of being a night person.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The tenor of my last entry here was not very pleasant, so I thought today would be a good day to write one with a better attitude.

I love Thanksgiving! It's not just all of the eating (although, I do love that). It is because I get to spend time with a lot of my extended family. Today the kids and I are driving to Miami to see my family. I am so blessed to have the family I have. My parents are wonderful and supportive. They have always put the rest of their family first. For that matter, they put other people's needs in general before their own. It has always been that way. My brothers, sister, and their families are also wonderful. They are all kind, thoughtful, and fun to be around. I love to spend time with each of them. I often hear about families that do not get along with one another or do not speak to each other. I feel so bad for them because they sure are missing out on some of the greatest joys in life. Some people are not able to get along with their in-laws. Mine are all amazing. I love them as though they are my natural siblings. (Actually, I also always got along with Eric's family as well. I miss his parents and his sister & her family. I still love them, too.) I will also get to see my Aunt Kay, Uncle Kent, their son Kasey, and his daughter today as well. I am excited about that, too. I love them and do not get to see them enough. I really wish I could see all of my extended family. I have not seen some of them for years and I miss them. Perhaps I should arrange some kind of family reunion so we could all get together.

Aside from my family, I am also thankful that I am so rich. I realize that I make a small enough amount money that my kids qualify for free lunches at school, but I am still rich when compared with so many other people in the world. My kids get free lunch at school. They do not have to worry about going to bed with an empty stomach. There are children starving every day all over the world. They have a home. It is not what most people would consider large enough for a family of our size, but they sleep in a warm place each night and have shelter from the elements. We have clothing that fits and keeps us warm. We have clean water in our home. A huge amount of people in the world do not have that We live in America; the best country in the world...recession or no recession. Our government may not be perfect, but it is way better than circumstances in many, many other countries. I can't even imagine having to live in a third world country or a country in which being female is a bad thing. We have freedom here; many people do not. I also have amazing friends. I am not sure how I have been so blessed to have them in my life, but they are wonderful and I love them all.

I am going to try to keep all of this in mind as we go into the holiday season. That seems to be a bit of a stressful time for a lot of people so I am in good company with that one. I really am blessed and live a great life. I'm glad that Thanksgiving comes along this time of year. It helps me to take a little time to focus on how many great things I have going for me in my life. I hope everyone out there has a great Thanksgiving today and is able to remember the things they are thankful for.

The Angry, Ex-husband, Vent Post

This post is mainly so I can vent. It is not a happy, cheerful post so you may want to skip over this one if you are looking for warm fuzzies.

I have recently (within the last 6 months) discovered that my ex-husband opened up credit cards in my name, maxxed them out, and then quit making payments on them. I found out about one back in April or May when they called and wanted me to pay "my" bill. I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. After a couple of months, my ex FINALLY took responsibility and started making minimum payments on it. It is still in my name (I did close the account) and my credit rating is lower than I thought was humanly possible.

Well, a couple of months ago, I got a call from a collection agency wanting me to pay for my credit card. I assured them that the payments were being taken automatically out of my ex's checking account every month. That was when I found out that there was ANOTHER credit card that he did the same thing with. He is not taking care of this one and we (the collection agency and I) have been going back and forth about this for a while. I told them to look at the signatures and they will see that NONE of them are mine. They don't really care. He opened the accounts when we were married (without my knowledge) and put me as the primary card holder. That makes me responsible. They told me that the only way I could get out of it is to file fraud charges against him and that he will serve time in prison for a felony. I actually already knew that from dealing with the other credit card company that he defaulted on.

I am so mad I just want to hit him! He does not seem concerned at all. I guess he doesn't need to be concerned. After all, HE isn't the one who will be sued and have to pay the credit cards off, attorney's fees for the company, and court costs. I don't know why he can't just get a loan from the bank for the $6000 for the two cards, pay them off, and then pay the loan off. It seems like a loan would have a lower interest rate. I suggested this, but he does not want to do that either.

I do not want to file fraud charges against him. In spite of everything he has done to me and the kids, he is still their father. I don't want to send their dad to prison, but I certainly do not think it is right for me to have to pay off debts that I did not incur. As it is, I am supposed to receive over $1000 a month for child support and I signed an agreement stating that I would take only $400 so he would not be financially decimated. Then he does this! $400 does not really cover that much considering that it is supposed to support six children. He does not pay for insurance for them. He doesn't pay for any of their medical expenses (even though he is supposed to pay half). He does not help pay for dental or anything (two of them have braces). He will not chip in for presents from Santa (although he does buy them a gift from himself). That really irritates me because my little kids will ask why daddy buys them a present, but I don't. Maybe because I am scraping every penny I have to try and make sure that they get something from Santa. I can't say that, though. Ugh!!! It is so frustrating!

He is leaving for China for an extended stay (1-2 months) on November 10th. I'm not quite clear on how he can afford another trip to China this year when he is not able to meet his current financial obligations.

Okay, there is my vent. I really don't know that it did much good. I still do not have any answers. The few people I have talked to about this say I should file fraud charges. If it only affected him, I probably would. I just don't want to do that to the kids. They love their dad regardless and they would just be angry with me if he went to prison.

October 26, 2008

Wow! How is it that more than a month has gone by since the last time I wrote?!!! I admire the people who are able to post on these more often.

So....the last month in our family:

Erica turned 16 on September 28th. I got together with a couple of her friends and we planned a little surprise party for her. Their job was to get her out of the house while I set things up. She had no idea that we were planning it. She was very surprised and happy.

On October 9th, I went down to the valley for a little surgery at the Mayo Hospital in Phoenix the following day. That was our fall break. We didn't have school on Friday the 10th or Monday the 13th. The surgery was on the 10th and I was released on the 11th (which happened to be my 38th birthday).

I spent my birthday at my parents' house in Tempe. It was great! I had an actual birthday with a cake. I need to mention that this was no ordinary cake, either. It was Godiva chocolate cheesecake. YUM!!!

I stayed through Sunday night, but came home after that. The kids had dentist and orthodontist appointments the next day. The two older kids had to have their braces tightened and then three kids needed fillings. Alex also got to go to Wal Mart and pick out a bike for his birthday. That was pretty much how we spent the day on the 13th.

Alex's 11th birthday was on the 14th. I wasn't feeling very well. It was probably a result of too much activity shortly after the surgery. A nice thing was that I did not need to fix dinner. Alex wanted Taco Bell for his birthday dinner and Erica made his birthday cake when she got home from school that day. He had a nice birthday. He got some tools that he thought were great and proceeded to use them to take things apart.

That was about two weeks ago. I have just been doing normal things since then, but they are things that keep me busy. Alex did have another appointment with the pediatric cardiologist this past Tuesday and things looked pretty good. He said that he thought Alex's chest pain might be a result of pleurisy and instructed us on how to treat that.

Today was the kids' primary program at church. The four younger kids all had parts and they all did a great job! We had practiced during the week and they said each part perfectly.

This week we will be busy with Halloween activities. Our school has a family reading night that is open to the public on Thursday night (Spooktacular Reading Night). I need to come up with something fun to do for that before then. I promised Zachary that we would make homemade ice cream sometime soon and that he could help me so I am thinking that would be good for family home evening tomorrow. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, Tyler has counseling on Wednesday, Erica and Tyler have mutual Wednesday night, Thursday is the reading night thing, and Friday (of course) is Halloween. The kids are excited for this week. Sometime in there we will have to carve their pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch last week.

My brother and his family moved about an hour away from our house. I'm thinking that maybe I'll see if they want to bring their kids to go trick or treating with mine on Friday. I'm so excited that they live close by now! Maybe we can go visit on Saturday if they cant come on Friday.

Well, I'm signing off for who knows how long. Maybe it will be Thanksgiving the next time I write. Who knows? For those of you who read this, I hope things are going well in your lives.

We're all still alive

I have some serious commitment issues with this blog of mine. It's just that I rarely get on the computer these days and on the occasions when I do, it is usually to update my other blog about pancreatitis.

Yesterday and today I am home from work due to strep throat. I can go back tomorrow when I'm not contagious any more. Alex was the first one to get strep throat this time so he has been home as well. Last year, the ENT mentioned that if he got strep again he would need his tonsils out. I think she meant that if he got it again the same year.

Anyway, YEAH strep! Not that I enjoy feeling kind of bad, but I am catching up a little on here at least. Who knows when I will write again? For now I will try to briefly catch you up on the last several weeks in my family.

Everyone is back in school. Zachary started kindergarten this year. Woo-hoo! People ask if I am sad that my baby has started school and I look at them as if they are insane. Maybe they fail to make the connection that I am not a stay at home mom who spends every waking moment with my children. The truth of the matter is I actually see him MORE now that he’s in school since he attends the school I teach at. I also do not have to pay daycare anymore. That is nice as well. So, I have Jared, Nathan, and Zachary at my school this year.

I decided that since I don’t have to drop anyone off at day care anymore, we should walk to school as often as possible for exercise and to save money on gas. After a week or so of doing this, Alex informed me that his chest hurt when he walked. Alex is not one to complain so I set up an appointment with our doctor. She did an EKG (why do they call it that? Electrocardiogram SHOULD be ECG) and it was abnormal. Next was a visit to Flagstaff to see the pediatric cardiologist. He did an ultrasound and there were no abnormalities in the structure of his heart. There COULD be an arrhythmia but we have to keep a record of episodes of chest pain first. My father and older brother both have arrhythmias. They can be treated with medications, so it’s all good.

Jared received a letter because they want to test him for the gifted program at school. I’m pretty sure he’s not gifted, but they can test. It will help his self esteem if nothing else.

Tyler is a freshman this year. He spends a good part of his time trying to drive me insane. It works a lot of the time, too. He is getting braces this week on Thursday. It was supposed to be on October 13th, but they moved the day up. Now he and Erica will both be “metallica” as I like to refer to them.

Erica is a junior. She will turn 16 this Sunday (9/28). I’m still not sure how that happened so fast. She finally got around to getting her driver’s permit yesterday and I had her drive (much to my terror) a little bit yesterday. She actually is not that bad, but she did almost run into another driver while changing lanes. I informed her of the need to turn and look before changing lanes as opposed to just using the mirrors. I also talked to her about blind spots when driving a van and to use EXTREME caution when backing up. It’s better to drive like an old lady then to plow some unsuspecting person over.

As for me, things have been pretty much business as usual. The three older boys have scouts every week (at different times, of course) that I have to take them and pick them up from. Then there are counseling and orthodontist appointments. Usually there are some other extra activities as well such as parent teacher conferences or birthday parties. I always have a minimum of 24 parent teacher conferences to attend. (After all, I am the teacher and a parent.) It is interesting trying to accommodate all of the different schedules (parents, my kids’ teachers, etc..) when setting up conferences. It would be so nice if the parents could just make arrangements for their conference. After all, they’re only twice a year. I was a little infuriated when I had some parents who did not bother to show up for their times, but then showed up later when I was supposed to be attending my own children’s conferences and expected me to just drop them.. (Which, of course, I did.) I just had to cancel my appointments and reschedule because their time MUST be much more valuable than my time. Ugh! Anyway, I’m glad those are done. I also had to go take one of those terrible, expensive tests to renew my certification that wastes your entire Saturday. I am a little concerned that I did not pass it since I was finished in a little under two hours. The writing portion was fairly interesting since I wasn’t quite clear on what they wanted me to write about.

I guess I will go rest for a little bit. There are so many things I should be getting done right now, but I am so tired. I guess that my body needs a little down time to heal. Maybe I will take a little power nap and then get some things done. Until next time…

It is now a little before five a.m. and here I am. I have been awake for about an hour and finally decided that I should just get up since I am obviously not going to be able to go back to sleep.

I had a busy day yesterday. The morning was just the usual stuff; get up and get the kids ready and off to school. Then I picked up my good friend and her daughter and we went to work. (She is the one who is having stress right now. Her car broke down last week and her oldest daughter just got married.) Yesterday the students had early release and went home a little before two. At two I had a grade level meeting that was still ongoing when I left a little before three to take Jared to scouts. I came back and went immediately to another meeting for ELL (English Language Learners) teachers. After that, I went back down the hall to the first meeting that was still not quite over. Then I hurried and picked Jared up from scouts, dropped him off at home, and went back to the school. After that, I made some copies of papers for my parents for open house and typed a letter for them which I printed out in English and then Spanish. At 4:30, I took Tyler to his counseling appointment and dropped him off and went back to the school for open house that started at 5:00. After the open house, I went and picked him up, bought a couple of pizzas, and headed back to the school to pick up my friend. (Alex normally has scouts at 6:00, but it was cancelled this week.) Then I went to my Alex's open house at his school and left there a little before 7:00. Next, I dropped the pizzas off at the house for the kids to eat and my friend and I (and three of the boys) went to Heber to pick up her car. It was kind of relaxing to just drive and visit. I don't get to visit with my friends as much as I would like to, so it was a nice chance to get to just unwind and talk. I have always enjoyed driving, but don't do it as often as I used to since the gas prices have gone up so much the past couple of years. We got back into town around 9:30ish. I got the kids off to bed and was actually in bed myself by a little after 11:00.

The exciting news I found out yesterday is that my younger brother, Chris, and his family are moving from Bullhead City to Winslow!! I can't wait! That is only about a 90 minute drive from here. I will get to see them more often. He called and talked to Erica. This is great!

Well, it is a little before six. I better get busy and start getting ready for the day.

July-August 2008; Summer fun!

Wow! I have been busy! I did have my nephew come and visit for a week. He and Tyler had a nice time and got along with each other most of the time. I took them to Holbrook to see the dinosaurs and the trains and we did a bunch of other stuff as well. When Michael went home, I went to my 20 year high school reunion. It was nice and I was happy to get to see people I hadn't seen for such a long time. I did end up in the hospital there with pancreatitis, but that is another story. After that I went to the Mayo Clinic for an appointment about that very thing. I have surgery scheduled for October 10th...the day before my birthday. Maybe that will turn out to be a great present if it will stop these attacks. I was in the hospital here after that, but my enzyme levels were not high. I still felt horrible, though. A fun thing I did was take my six kids to Big Surf. That was both fun and horrible at the same time. Mostly, it was fun, but the horrible part was that I had to cram myself into a swimsuit in public. That was not a pretty sight. The good thing about that is that you can always find someone who looks worse than you. I saw a lady wearing a bikini with the whole, "I've had a bunch of kids" look going on. I know that look, because I see it every day. However, I do have the presence of mind to not display such a gross sight to the whole world. Ewwww!!! Need I say more? So...yes, I did try to hang around in close proximity to her. Somehow, only Tyler and I got really sunburned. We all used sunblock, too. Tyler's was pretty bad, but I actually had blisters from mine. Nothing like cultivating the ol' skin cancer. I actually felt sick from my sunburn for a couple of days. I took a few pictures and sometime I will have to figure out how to get them on here. They loved all of the water slides, but I think the wave pool was everyone's favorite part. The waves are big enough that you can actually surf on them or just ride them in to the shore. Zachary (my five year old) was a natural at that. He caught every single wave and rode them all the way to the shore. We had a great time.

Update on the last couple of weeks

Wow...have I been busy since the last time I wrote! I can't believe that school starts in less than a month! I believe that the last time I wrote about something I was actually doing was when I was visiting my parents for a week. I enjoyed that visit quite a bit. On the way home, I met my older brother and his family in Miami. I picked up my two nieces, Sarah and Amanda, so they could come and stay with us for a while. We had a nice time visiting. They stayed until the following Saturday, June 28th. I really enjoyed having them here. I am hoping to have their older brother, Michael, come visit in a couple of weeks. I have enjoyed having my siblings children visit. My younger brother has three children as well, but most of his children are too young to visit on their own yet. Kevin is six, so he would probably be okay for a visit. I do not see Chris and his family very often because they live in Bullhead City. For those of you not familiar with Arizona, it is on the western border of the state. Show Low is on the eastern border of the state. I was wanting to go visit this summer, but it may have to wait until some weekend in the fall.

After my nieces left, we came home and I mostly rested. I wasn't feeling very well. In fact, my pancreas had been hurting some during my nieces' visit. It wasn't horrible or anything, but it was hurting more than usual. I was able to patch the holes in the wall. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for that. I am not exactly the most handy person, but I am slowly learning more things. I started painting the living room, but I have not finished it yet. That job is on hiatus at the moment because we are going to try to see if we can get things ready for a yard sale. I was thinking it would be nice if we could have one this Friday or Saturday, but we may have to do it at another time. I almost forgot to mention that my chest freezer somehow got unplugged. Unfortunately, I did not notice it soon enough and my food was ruined and had to be thrown away. It made me sick to have to throw away hundreds of dollars worth of food. On the bright side, I did get the freezer cleaned out.

This week I have been doing a little mystery shopping. I went to a sub shop first and either today or tomorrow I am doing an oil change shop. I kind of like getting free products or services. I just have to fill out a form when I'm done. Not bad.

Today I need to get some sewing done. I have been telling the kids I would make them new blankets for a while now, but haven't done it. I also need to make some new curtains for the dining room and a shirt/dress. I need to go to the store, the post office, pay a bunch of bills, and get some forms filled out for Alex. I also need to remember to send my money for my high school reunion. Yikes!! How can it be twenty years since I was in high school?!!! Okay, I'm off for now. Who knows when I will write again.

Threes
I got this one from my sister. I don't know that anyone actually reads this, but it will be fun to do. I'm supposed to list: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 random surprising facts about myself.

THREE JOYS
1. My children
2. My extended family (including the one in which I was born)
3. My friends

THREE FEARS
1. Okay, I know I'm a dork, but...spiders.
2. losing a child
3. dying alone

THREE GOALS
1. Get my house (the mother of all messes) cleaned
2. lose weight (realistically, that won't be happening due to lack of effort)
3. get some scrapbooking done

THREE CURRENT OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS
1. woot.com I always check it at 10:00 p.m. every night, even though I seldom buy it.
2. half price Sonic drinks (not helping with the previous #2)
3. ebay-I can get everything WAY cheaper on there and I do love a deal.

THREE RANDOM SURPRISING FACTS
1. I do not have television. I have A television, but no cable or satellite.
2. I can walk on stilts and am pretty good at it.
3. When I was little, I wanted to be a trapeze artist in a circus. Now, I sometimes feel like I live in a circus which alternates with times I want to run away to the circus, so it's all good. :)

I'm supposed to tag five people... But I won't tag anyone. If you don't complete this, you will have bad luck for fifteen years. All of your hair will fall out, you will get boils, someone will poison your dog and/or cat, the IRS will demand that you pay back the economic stimulus check, you will rip your pants in public, and AOL IS TRACKING THIS AND WILL DEMAND THAT YOU PAY 15 CENTS EVERY TIME YOU DON'T FORWORD IT. I guess that's all for now, but I will let you know if I think of more.

Yay, insomnia!!!! (Thanks, menopause.)

With a title like that, you might think I am slightly nuts. You will notice, however, that during this little time of sleeplessness I have updated my blog some. So...yay insomnia!!!! This is probably when I will write the most. Since the whole hysterectomy thing, this insomnia business has happened more frequently. I think it is because I am getting "old". Yes, I am aware that 37 is not really old, but my body has decided otherwise since there is no uterus or ovaries and I am now one of those menopausal-type (or is it post-menopausal type?) of people. My body is doing all of those "I don't have a uterus anymore" kinds of things. It is actually kind of an adventure. You never know what surprises await you. There's the whole waking up with your pajamas stuck to your sweat-drenched body and then the bipolar body temperature changes. Then there are the unanswered questions of, "How in the world can I still be getting pimples, when the rest of my skin resembles cracked mud?" -or in my case, extremely white, cracked mud. I can't help but notice that it is 4:00 a.m. now and I am not asleep yet. I guess I better go back to bed and see if sleep comes before the light does. So, until the next time, I'm signing off.

My evil nemesis

So, I do have an evil nemesis called pancreatitis. It has been the bane of my existence for the last four years or so now. The first time I was hospitalized with an acute attack (which wasn't very cute at all), I spent about three weeks in the ICU. Now I seem to be more of a chronic pancreatitis-type of person. Here is my little link with information about this stupid and annoying problem:

http://www.medicinenet.com/pancreatitis/article.htm

It is interesting that most cases are caused by alcoholism (I NEVER drink) and the gall bladder acting like a big jerk-organ (I don't have a gall bladder). The bad thing about the pancreas is that it is one of those non-disposable (necessary for life) organs. Otherwise, I would have had somebody hack it out and pitch it in the trash with my uterus and gall bladder a long time ago.

I guess pancreatitis is not a cool thing to have, what with all of the stuff about complications and all. Mostly it bothers me when it is hurting too darn much. I think that if I die from natural causes someday, that it might have something to do with this junk. I don't really care, though. That's one thing about life...none of us are getting out of it alive. Ha-ha. The trick is to see who can stay in it the longest and have the best time. :)

June 23, 2008

Wow! How can it be that I haven't written in here for so long?!!! This is actually my biggest problem...keeping up with all of the junk I start. Let's not even mention my poor kids' scrapbooks. So I am getting it-that this blogging thing is basically your online journal. While it may not be very exciting for others to read, it will be here for when I'm old and senile and don't remember who I am. I don't even know how to add friends or other links. Yikes! I just don't have time to be learning all of this technological stuff.

Since I last wrote, I have spent some time with my extended family. My niece, Erin, came to Show Low for a week to visit. It was fun having her there and I was very happy that she was able to spend time with us so my children can know their cousins a little better. I brought Erin back to the valley last Monday and have been staying at my parents' house ever since then. The four younger boys are at their dad's house for three weeks and Tyler went to stay with my brother & his family during that time. Later on today I am heading home. I will pick up Tyler and my two other nieces, Sarah and Amanda, in Miami. They are going to stay with us for a few days.

You know, I hear people complaining about their family members and I guess I have always kind of just taken it for granted that my family is so wonderful. My parents, brothers, and sister are amazing. I love my sisters and brother in-law. They are kind, thoughtful, and loving people. My nieces and nephews are without a doubt the best ones there are. (I may be a little biased, but that doesn't mean I'm not correct.) I have enjoyed getting to spend time with my family the last couple of weeks.

People talk about heaven and what it is supposed to be like. Honestly, when I am with my family, I think I know how it really is.

Today I am back from a trip to Phoenix for some ELL training. While I was there I was able to visit with my parents a little in the evenings. That was nice. I have wonderful parents and I do not often get to see them so I was happy for the chance to visit them. The trip home was quite the adventure. I could feel myself falling asleep just between Superior (a town that I always refer to as "Inferior") and Miami. That is not a good thing since there are still about two hours of travel time to get home after getting to Miami. I decided that I would just keep driving and if I got too tired, I would pull over and sleep in the van. Then I noticed a bad odor. I wasn't sure where it was coming from, but thought that it might be from the car in front of us. I passed that car, but the smell stayed. I decided that I better stop in Miami and boy did I find a nice surprise. One of the little boys (name not mentioned to save future humiliation) had diarrhea after he had fallen asleep and it was EVERYWHERE. I only had napkins in the car to try to clean it up. He had a similar accident just before leaving Mesa and we had already thrown away his underwear as a result of that. So here it was 10:00(ish) at night, diarrhea everywhere, no running water to clean up the mess (literally), two more hours of travel time, and an exhausted mother with six other kids along. (Did I mention that Erica's friend had come along?) I decided that was the end of our travels for the day and we checked into a Motel 6. I had Tyler help me get his brother out of the van without getting poop on anything else. (He held the shoulders and I held the ankles.) The other kids took stuff necessary for sleeping into the room while I stripped him down from the waist down, threw the shorts away (there was no saving them), and hurriedly got him into the shower. After he was cleaned up, we all went to sleep with him nearest the bathroom. We slept in, which was nice, and arrived home in the early afternoon. I took a nap when I got home and I am still actually tired if you can believe that. Alex and Jared missed cub scout day camp, which was this morning, but there is another day of it tomorrow. Erica and Tyler are doing road shows tonight and tomorrow night so I took them to that this evening and will pick them up later on tonight. This weekend I plan to clean and do laundry. I am hoping to maybe pick up my neice on Monday for a short visit. TTFN. (Tigger quote.)

My children are: Erica (15), Tyler (14), Alex (10), Jared (9), Nathan (6), and Zachary (5). Someday when I actually figure out how to put pictures on here, I will have to post some of the kids. Looking at my children's ages, people often comment that they seem to have come in pairs. It wasn't exactly planned that way, but I think it is nice for them to have a sibling close in age to each other. They do not always get along, but I don't know of any siblings who get along all the time. They are good kids and they certainly give meaning to my life. It's funny how they can drive you crazy and yet keep you sane at the same time. I think that may be an oxymoron! More updates on the kids later.

Glory days!!!!! (summer)

So here we go...I enter the world of blogging. It is summer vacation and that means time to relax a little and catch up on just the stay at home mom kind of things. In reality, that was what I always wanted to be...a stay at home mom. That actually happened for the first three months of Erica's life. Since then I have been working full time. I do get a small taste of being a SAHM during the eight weeks of summer vacation and I enjoy the down time-if there is really such a thing when you have six children. Next week, I take the six kids to see the dentist on Monday. That evening I will drive to Phoenix for a three-day workshop. I am going to be the kindergarten ELL teacher at our school next year so I need to do that training. We will come home late Thursday night. On Friday, Alex and Jared have Day Camp for cub scouts. It actually lasts for two days, but it is not an overnight event. Alex has to be there at 6:45 a.m. and then Jared has to be there at 8:00. I will pick them up after it is over. Erica and Tyler will be doing their Road Show at night on those two nights as well. So my Friday and Saturday will involve a lot of driving. On Sunday Erica has to give a talk in church. Then we drive back to Phoenix on Monday because she has an appointment at Phoenix Children's Hospital. That will keep me occupied for the next week. Maybe this blogging will be a good thing. I have a hard time keeping in contact with people for some reason. If I actually keep this thing up, other might know what's going on with my family.