Oh, brother!

Oh, brother, I have a lot of past stuff and some new stuff to post about. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents. Actually, I think there are very few 'gents' who read this...

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Oh, man, I am going to learn how to sew *sentence typed with much trepidation*! Ty bought me a very nice, middle-of-the-road, perfect first-time Brother sewing machine for Christmas. I have been wanting a sewing machine for a long time. I have SO many projects in my pretty little head that I want to do with it. I was beyond thrilled when I saw the box! But then I sat down to sew up a slit in one of my skirts - the simplest of projects to start on, I thought - and I came away nearly in tears and totally defeated. I have NO idea what I'm doing! I watched the instructional DVD, I read a lot of the manual. Ugh! My mom tried for years to get me to learn. She's an awesome seamstress and she always tried to get me to sit down and watch when I needed her to do something for me. But I was never interested. "I will never want to know how to sew." Let that be a lesson, Kelly Anne! Listen to your momma. So there it has sat, with the unsewn skirt bunched up next to it, unused and lonely for about three weeks. I know that I need to try again. I got some tips from my mom over the phone and I know what I was doing wrong. My friend, Ann Lacouture, had me all inspired to make my own comforter and curtains for my bedroom. Now I am paralyzed with fear. But don't worry, folks. I have given birth to two babes, I've run triathlons, I've finished a marathon....I will learn how to sew! And Kelly will sit and learn all of the skills I acquire before she leaves my home. Even if I have to hold her down just like in the picture below. :)

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Since Ty would mutter 'Oh Brother' every time he had to take out one of the glued-in bows that I insisted on sticking in my daughter's hair, we have entered the CLIP phase. Goodbye, bows! Okay, it wasn't really because Ty hated it. Let's be honest. That was irrelevant. He knows that had nothing to do with it, but he's grateful all the same. It's because my baby girl's hair is getting long and thick and was starting to fall over her eyes. Plus the other day when I got her up from her nap the bow was upside-down because it was ONLY attached to hair and her hair had gone all crazy. I decided that it was time to move on.

And if you think, after looking at the above pictures, that she's not a fan of this clip business, think again....----------------------------------------------------------

Oh, brother, this little brother is one dapper dude in his new Sunday duds. This outfit brings me great joy. Sure, it's cute enough from the front....

...but the party starts where the elbow pads begin. That HAD to have been what sold Santa on this particular set of duds.------------------------------------------------------------

Oh! Ty's brother, Adam, and his wife Laura came for a short visit the week after Christmas. We love visitors! It was cold, but we wanted to show them some water since it's cool that we live by so many little bodies of water :) so we bundled up and headed out. They were so fun to have around! The kids - Max especially - loved having them here. They are going to make fabulous parents to the little girl they have cookin'! We had them here for New Year's Eve, which was really rockin'. Fondue in our pj's, sparkling cider in plastic wine glasses, and missing the ball drop because we got confused with pausing live TV. Jealous? You should be. It really was a nice night.

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Oh, brother, I disliked our boring laundry room. That was one room that had remained untouched from all of our remodeling and painting before we moved in. I always meant to get to it and Ty has the week off between Christmas and New Years so we tackled some of those "we really need to get to that" kind of projects. We painted our white laundry room in stripes, pictured below. Yes, Janet, you were totally the inspiration behind this. We thank you. We also made-over our master closet, but I didn't get any pictures really of that. Nice, eh?

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So there you have it. Caught up. Stay tuned for some real excitement since we are entering the month of February which, of course, is the birth month of my beautiful baby girl. Plus we're just a really exciting family. :)

Oh, happy day!

Today has been oh, so much better. I finally feel like I really am going to recover. I know it sounds dumb, but in the midst of that pain I really couldn't imagine that someday I was going to have a pain-free mouth and be able to eat normal again. Thanks for letting me vent yesterday - I so needed to do that. The edge is totally off of the pain today. Still on the soft foods and liquids, but I'm able to do foods with a little more substance now. Yesterday just felt like one day too long of feeling miserable and I'd had it. So I vented on the blog, cried through the second half of dinner when I couldn't eat, took a few minutes to recover by myself upstairs, hung with my sympathetic fam, put the kids down and ate almost an entire box of chocolate pudding all by myself while Ty was reffing. Just the ticket.

All week we'd been holed up in the house and today I felt good enough to go to the library, the mall (even shared a soft pretzel without salt from Pretzel Time with my kids...so soft and yummy!) where I spent my Bath & Body Works gift card from Mickey & Margaret, and then finished off the morning at Costco. I have make-up on and am wearing a shirt that makes me feel cute. I stepped on the scale this morning and it looks like I lost the few pounds that I'd put on since finishing my marathon and being rather stagnant *that's a story for another day*. Thought about how great my husband is and about how he stayed home from work on Tuesday to care for his ailing wife who could barely keep her head up all day from her vicious cold. Played with my kids and realized that they really aren't whiny when I'm feeling good and can play with them and make them laugh. Such a good day. And it's only 2:00 p.m.

Life is better. Sorry about the pity party for one. Thanks for the words of love.

MISERABLE

That's how I feel.  I have no idea why I thought I should get those stinkin' wisdom teeth taken out.  Just leave 'em there if you have the choice, people.  I am in some serious, throbbing pain (more on the left than the right).  I want to cry all of the time.  I take the ibuprofen but feel too out of it to take the stronger stuff while I'm home taking care of the kids.  Plus on Monday and Tuesday I came down with a horrible cold/flu that did nothing but exacerbate the ever-present pain.  Every time I sneezed it felt like the cound was being ripped open again. I thought this would be a walk in the park.  Not so.  I would rather recover from childbirth ten more times than go through this again.  I can't talk/smile/eat normal...which makes mothering a little tricky since I am always talking to and smiling at my kiddos.  I can't help myself.  But by the end of the day I pay for it. My whole head hurts.  I am a total mouth-pain wimp.  I fully admit it.  I am tough in other ways, but not this way.  Complete wimp.  I hate it and I want to eat again and I want to talk without wincing and I want to sit on my couch doing nothing without a throbbing, consuming pain on (mostly) the left side of my face.  

I even went to the doctor today - a day early - for my follow-up visit because I thought, 'Surely this cannot be normal.'  They just smiled nicely and nodded their head with empathy, then squirted a syringe full of stinging mouthwash on the area.  Then the nice doctor (who really is nice) wanted to talk to me about something he saw on my x-ray that could be a tumor/cyst...he's not sure.  He wants to see x-rays from my previous dentists to compare and we'll go from there.  Dude, you're dreaming if you think that you're getting close to my mouth again!  Let that tumor eat away all of my nerve endings - see if I care.  Okay, so I would get it taken care of, but let the record show that I do NOT want any more oral surgery in my lifetime.  Okay, that's enough griping for now.  This wimp is going to lay down and take a nap and enjoy the non-talking time I have left until the kids wake up.  

Funny drunk? I think maybe

Yesterday I had my wisdom teeth removed. I know what you're thinking, 'Isn't that what teenagers do?', 'Aren't you supposed to do that before your mission?' Yes, well, I didn't have dental insurance before my mission and it was going to cost $900.00 to get it done. I had to buy luggage and clothes and other things to get me ready to go; so I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to not make my teeth a problem for me while I was out and I would get them done later. They have bothered me off and on over the years and I was going to get them out at two different times since I've been married. But both times I became pregnant before I could get them out. The first time I found out I was expecting Max just three days before my scheduled appointment to get them yanked. Then I was scheduled for another consultation but had to cancel because I was pregnant with what turned out to be a miscarriage.

Anyway, so I FINALLY got around to it. I am without my wisdom teeth. Don't feel too bad for me since I only have two wisdom teeth, both on the bottom. Some members of my family didn't have any wisdom teeth. I know that you who had four removed at once are much more hard-core, okay?

I was pretty nervous yesterday morning since I've never been under anesthesia before. Okay, really nervous would be more accurate. I've never even had laughing gas. But I put on a brave face and went. It was great! They worked really fast once I got in the chair and within about 5 minutes I was out. I breathed in the stuff through my nose and said, "Whoa" as everything got fuzzy. Next thing I knew the nurse was smiling at me, sitting me up and putting me in a wheelchair. For the ride home and for a while after I got home and Ty settled me into bed, all I remember is laughing/giggling. Everything was funny. Ty had to steady me the whole walk in and I just couldn't stop laughing. I wonder what Max and the babysitter thought when we walked in the door? I remember Ty laughing a lot too.

I just have to mention again how much I love my husband! He's been such a good nurse...filling my ice packs and getting my medicine and making me scrambled eggs, jello, protein drinks. Last night he took the kids out to dinner and was gone for almost two and a half hours so that I could just relax. What a mighty good man I have! Hooray that these things are finally out!

FACT:

I cannot be a good/nice mom and have a throbbing headache at the same time.

I've been getting headaches every afternoon this week. Maybe it's my way of protesting my hubby having to return to work after two weeks off? I don't usually get headaches. Today was the worst of it. Last night I went to see a movie with a friend and didn't get home until just before midnight. OF COURSE that means that Kelly (who for the past several weeks had been sleeping until about 8:30 or 9:00 each morning) woke up at 6:00 a.m. *She was super cute and cuddled and 'talked' to me in my bed like never before. Not much of a cuddler, that one, so I loved it. She had her arm underneath my head and played with my hair. For a while we just lay there, quietly cuddling. Then she started to chat it up. It was oh-so-cute, despite the early hour.* I thought, though, that I could get her to fall back asleep. Alas, Max woke up a little after 7:00 and that meant it was all over. We did have some good talking/cuddling/Max making Kelly laugh time in my bed, though. That was the best part of the day.

It was all downhill after that. My head started pounding early. I don't know why, but it seems that since my pregnancies I am a lot less likely to take a pill. I just massage my head and try to relax to get the pain to go away. That made for a pretty lame mom this morning. My poor kids. Plus Kelly is teething, I think, and so she was extra needy and had some fussiness today which makes Max think that he needs some extra love from the mom as well. On a normal, non-headache day this would have been a little trying, but today it was all I could do to put on a happy face. And I didn't for a good chunk of the morning. I even made a really frustrated groan that scared Kelly pretty bad. I felt horrible. Lots of kisses and hugging to make up for that. Thank goodness they both still take afternoon naps! The evening went much smoother since I finally took a few Tylenol and had a break. My poor kids. Tomorrow will be better. I learned my lesson, pop those pills! :)

You know your kids REALLY ARE great when...

...you get two offers at Church on Sunday for free babysitting. People who are not their blood relation really want to spend quality time with them. And I don't think it was for us to have a break, it was so that they could hang with my kids. So this morning Tyler and I went to the temple, which was a real treat. It's about a 5 1/2 hour deal since the temple is an hour and a half drive. It sounds like they were great! Except I did ask Max afterward if he used his manners and he responded, "Yes." I thought I'd dig a little deeper and said, "So you said 'please' and 'thank you'?" In a very serious, disappointed-in-himself voice he said, "No, I didn't. I didn't, Mom." I have a hard time believing that he didn't use his manners at all because the boy says "Thanks" constantly - "Max, you're such a good big brother", "Here's your lunch", handing him a toy, "You are so handsome, dude!"...all followed by his sweet gratitude, "Oh. Thanks." I told Shawna as we picked up the kids today, "I owe you one", but she quickly said, "No, I owe you one. Thanks for letting me have them over." Kelly also slept in Shawna's arms which was bonus (her kids are ages 11-21). Who doesn't love holding a sleeping baby? Good going, kiddos! Maybe these free babysitting offers will keep coming! I told Max that we missed him while we were gone and he said, "I missed you guys too." I love when he calls me and Tyler "guys". :) Tomorrow night our little ones are going to another friend's home while we treat ourselves to a nice dinner and maybe a movie. I feel very blessed to have such great friends and to have kids who behave well enough that people want to be around them! So it's not just me....