Down Time

Christmas is over. Things are slowing down a little. Sam has started his week off tonight. He gets one of those each month because he works 12 hour shifts. I think this is going to be the 'take down the decorations' week. We got a new tree. We have a fake tree that has been around for a few years. It's time for it to retire. We got a fancy new one for $15. After Christmas sales are really good when you want Christmas stuff.

Sam's family has gone away. But the grandparents and Ben are going to be back before the appointment on Tuesday when we tell the Dr. that we want surgery. I like to have people who volunteer to take care of our boys. Sam's mom is crazy about taking care of and being around our boys. She asked me if it really would be okay for them to move close to us. She knows that some people can deal with the family (especially mother-in-laws) close and others can't. I have to admit that I would like to have them close enough to take our kids to school when they move out here. The elementary school bus comes at 6am. And if they have their own house I can tell them to go away if I want to. It's good that she cares enough to ask.

We got 'the sickness' here on Christmas Eve. Poor Scott was throwing up in bed every night and every other time he laid down. Sam started that on Christmas and then his Dad did on the 26th. Wow. Of course there was always alot of stuff coming out the other end. Man, the first time Scott could keep something down he drank it so fast and was so mad at me because I made him pause a little in between each 1/2 glass. That crazy boy needed some real liquid. So we hope he is getting better and wont be sick anymore. We will see.

Did you all hear that James Brown died? The whole town/area here is in mourning. There was a 1/2 hour news session all about that- who will give his eulogy, what clothes he's going to wear at each viewing, how hard it was for the guy who picked the clothes to pick them because of the memories, and they showed the people standing at his statue in Augusta. (He is from here you know.) I don't suppose I have ever thought enough about burying someone to think about the important things like that.

It's time for the weekend. Sam has no work tomorrow and so we can stay up and watch a little late TV and be calm and not get up before 5am.

Yeah!

So we went to the Dr. this morning. It was wonderful. We did sit there for an hour because the MRI guy hadn't read my test yet. But the important thing happened. The Dr. said that he would bet there is no cancer there. He wondered how/why the thing grew there but said it looks okay. There are two options. We can wait and see if it grows or have a small surgery to check it out and probably take it out. He also said it's heavy enough to twist my ovaries and cause "immense pain" so I need to consider that. So we are considering that. Yeah! No cancer!

Sam's brother Mark is here with his daughter Kylie. They are cool. They got here last night and were both in bed before 9pm. I thought it was funny because they came from the Pacific time zone and so it was only 6pm in Washington where they live. Still Mark hadn't slept for a long while and Kylie is almost a teenager. That explains most everything huh.

Slade is still working on our/his goal. Man, this one has got to work at some time. But Wednesday's visitor's dinner experience is the most memorial so far.

Yeah, no cancer!

Dinner Manners

So we had visitors over for dinner tonight. Sam was at work and I was there being the hostess by myself. It was all cool. They are friends and I don't have to impress them or anything. It's a real good thing because Slade decided to be ... somehow. He pooped in his underwear at the beginning of dinner. We left our visitors eating and went to clean him up. Then we came back to eat. He farted in the middle of the dinner conversation. And laughed of course. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. "No" About 10 minutes later he pooped again, all over the place. Those poor friends of ours. I don't think they got the smell. But they didn't get much of our company either because I was too busy cleaning up my child dirty bottom. And there was alot of tension in me. She was all calm about the whole thing. I have to say that I'm glad I don't have to do business dinners or anything like that. I am so not that good at being a hostess. After we finished cleaning up his second mess our friends had cleaned up the table and floor in the kitchen. Man, things were closing quickly. I needed to put the boys in bed and all that. Still, this lady and her husband are moving and I don't know when we will see them again. Anyway. Thank heaven she was here and not other people and she was very patient with me and Slade.

We went to the MRI today. The MRI is not a beautiful thing but it didn't scare me too bad. The worst part of all of the testing is that I'm scared of IVs and I had to have one. They used some stuff to emphasize where the "thing" is. The exact edges and all. Still, I love to get rid of the IV. They scare me.

I should be off to bed. Sam is at work and I should be in bed so I will be ready to take care of the kids so he can sleep without the boys keeping him up tomorrow. Talk later.

Life changes

Life is getting a little more exciting around here. Sam and I went to the Dr. and they found a thing that they say may be a tumor in my abdomen. I think it's crazy because I never felt it or hurt or anything, just had a few cramps. But now they are doing all kinds of tests on me, which is good, to try and find out what it is and find out what to do with it. Crazy huh. What a beautiful thing a body is.

On the other side of life changes, I don't know if Slade is gonna get potty trained before the new year. Oh I hope, I hope. That would be a major life change. Especially for him. We are still working on the whole thing. We go to the potty every hour at this point and he gets so annoyed by the whole thing. I tell him if he would go when he needed to go, I wouldn't make him go every hour. In church one day we were talking about the reasons to repent and one lady said that when you were potty training you had to help the kids understand how good it felt to be dry or they wouldn't want to stay that way. I now associate repentance and potty training, and how overcoming the diaper makes your home happier and thus closer to the Lord. (Yes, I know that's just strange, and it's not really meant spiritually but the comment made sense in the lesson.) Anyway, I hope that life change will come.

Sam's brother is coming in the next week, then his parents and other brother and his sister will all come on Christmas day. How cool is that. I love family and this year has been great. Happy holidays. Okay enough. Pray for me and my tumor please? Thanks much. Later.

Moving on...

It's taken me at least 5 minutes to read through all the stuff they are trying to get us to do to update the program and I just don't want to think right now so it was a dangerous thing trying to get through it. I did read the sentence that said if I changed the system I couldn't go back. Good thing huh. Then I wouldn't know how to work either of them.

What a lovely holiday huh. I really had fun out there in Utah and Las Vegas. Slade has learned to say "Viva Las Vegas!" on the way to Vegas. And he's still saying it. Guess who taught him. It wasn't me. But he sure sounds cool. He loved seeing the castle in Vegas and I loved seeing M&M World. I don't know if there was anything Sam or Scott got really excited about. Oh at the end of the day we ate at a Chinese buffet. There is something Sam and Scott got excited about. We had a great day there.

We enjoyed my family. And I was glad to come home to my sometimes clean house. Ticee did so much work keeping everyone together and fun. And it was cool. Okay so, moving on...

My boys have been coughing lately and so I had to come home with them today after sacrament meeting. There are 18 kids in the nursery and they don't need to get sick with the help of my boys. It's weird how much I enjoy the last few testimonies at church.

We also decorated a Christmas tree and the boys are excited about that. We wrapped presents last night. Thirteen books. And the boys were so excited to find presents under the tree this morning. I think it's way cool. And they are just watching- not opening.

Another growing up excitement. Scott is starting to talk. He just says the basics (mom, dad, baby, Jesus, amen, yes, no, ball, cheese, etc.) but there are more basics every week. And I am just proud of him. Slade is going through major potting training stress/ pressure from his parents. We will see how that goes. Anyway. Next time we will see how happy I am about potty training. Off we go to take off the old pull-up.