Trouble Sleeping

You all have known for a long time that I have trouble sleeping and after my surgery I ended up on oxygen that I just barely got rid of the end of December. I traded it in for a CPAP to see if I could get better sleep with air blowing in my face all night long.

I don't think it's working.

I have tried 3 different masks over the last month. Each one seems to have problems and finally, yesterday, I turned in my machine to see why the humidifier wasn't working. It turns out they didn't know either, so they gave me a new machine.

Baby Doll took this selfie while watching me sleep...

With my sweetie gone, I'm starting to realize just how much I count on sleeping in rather than getting kids off to school. I think the Dog Walker noticed too, because he has taken that task upon himself even though he doesn't get off work until 11:00 pm.

Basically, my kids are amazing! They have just stepped in and taken over when needed. The only thing I can't manage to get them to do is sort their laundry...

Just Keep Swimming...

Tadpole had a little trouble breathing on Sunday, so they put him in the NICU to watch him a little closer. (He is doing much better now.) We had planned to visit them for FHE, but after talking with Princess, we made an alternate plan. I knew it had to be something good since the kids were going to be so disappointed to miss seeing their new little nephew.

So we went swimming today at our dear neighbors' pool. We had a great time! Teach and Twizlet joined us as did a friend of Sport's. Twizlet was a bit nervous at first, but it wasn't too long before she was splashing and playing with everyone else. Baby Doll was determined to reach the rope and swing on it and once she realized she could do that by climbing up on the tube, there was no stopping her.

Even when we were all finished and the rope broke on the pool cover, our friend was kind and gracious and refused to let us pay anything toward the repair. In fact, he told the kids all they could do was come back and swim again!

Love you, Paul and Lori.

Please Welcome Tadpole!

I got a text from Princess this morning that she was at the hospital and planning to have a baby. We were so excited for her! About 10:30, her water broke and by the time we got out of church, we were on pins and needles. I fed the kids lunch and then texted Drama Queen to see when she might be able to get here so we could go down to visit.

We finally got away just after 3:00 with a scheduled arrival for 4:00. The Frog's parents were still in the waiting room when we arrived, so we went upstairs to visit with Batman and Cat Woman for a few minutes. Supergirl is growing! She is over 3 lbs now.

Cute Tadpole

At 3:25, our cute little Tadpole entered this world at 8 lbs and 20 inches long. He has a bunch of hair and he looks just like his daddy.

Beautiful mama

Motherhood looks good on Princess.

Cat Lover's Shower

Today was the first of two bridal showers for my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Cat Lover. Bossy, Teach, Twizlet, Baby Doll and I were the only ones from the groom's side of the family to attend. All of the sisters were invited, but some had work and other things going on.


We started off with lunch and then moved on to games. I was fortunate enough to win one which is sort of funny since it was a "Who knows the bride the best?" game. Teach and Bossy and I all got 8 out of 15 answers right, so the three of us received 1st prize.

They played another pricing game and I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that Teach and I won that game as well, along with another girl. It was all good though and no one seemed to mind. Then it was time for gifts. It was so fun to watch her open them. She was so gracious and cute about everything.

While she was opening gifts, her sister was making her a "hat" out of all the bows and ribbons. I have never seen anyone do that at a shower before, but she really seemed to enjoy it and posed with everyone afterward for pictures.

We are doing another shower for her in two weeks. Drama Queen made the invitations and I've had them on my desk for a week. I guess I'd better get them passed out or no one is going to come!

Just the Way I Like It

I added two new girls to my Girl Scout troop this week. I'm always nervous about changing the dynamic of my group since we already have so much fun together, but these two seemed to fit right in during our troop meeting today.

Drama Queen got off work a little early so she could be in charge since you all know cooking is not really my thing. She helped the girls finish up the New Cuisines badge and the Snacks badge and of course she couldn't make it easy! The girls made Victorian sponge cake, Japanese street crepes, Disneyland lemonade, and fruit flowers.

It was amazing to watch her get 10 girls all working together and creating something yummy. She is a fabulous teacher! Prima Donna was also right in the thick of things and between the two of them, I didn't have to do much of anything.

Just the way I like it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today was my real and actual 53rd birthday... well, not really now, but about an hour ago it was. I woke up to breakfast in bed made by Prima Donna. Did I tell you she is now living with Bossy and Gamer? She decided to take a break from school and she is currently looking for work. She could probably get a job as a short order cook.

Dog Walker took the kids to school, so I could sleep in a little although he did bring me Twizlet. She and I snoozed together for a while, but then I let her have the bed and I moved to the couch. When we finally got ourselves downstairs, it was nearly noon.

After Crafty got home from school she made me a yummy tortilla treat and later she took me to Jamba Juice for a smoothie. Then Drama Queen showed up with a drink and a sugar cookie from Fizz! She also did the shopping for me and made a delicious dinner complete with carrot cake for dessert.

Are you sensing a trend here?

I think my kids must know that I like food... Dog Walker even bought me a bag of my favorite black licorice.

It's a good thing I played basketball tonight although not all that well.

Last of all, my sweetie sent me some beautiful flowers. Who could ask for a better birthday?

Autism is Not Always My Friend

So the Dog Walker likes to buy interesting things. Like one time he bought a punch dispenser that holds about 2 gallons of punch. Occasionally he remembers that it lives in his closet and he brings it out for dinner. I find it sort of annoying because it is hard to clean and it generally hangs around for a while because the kids don't really drink that much at a single meal.

Last night was one of those nights. Drama Queen has been over all week after work helping me out since my sweetie is out of town. She was grilling burgers, so Dog Walker decided to make punch. I, of course, was oblivious.

Dinner came and went and we still had a bunch of punch left over when it was time to turn out the lights for bed. I thought it would be fine to just leave it in the dispenser and let the kids drink it after school. The Dog Walker had a different idea.

I came downstairs this morning to find a misty haze covering most of the kitchen and family room. At first I thought maybe I had just forgotten to wash my glasses, and I headed for the kitchen sink. That's when I discovered that the humidifier had been filled with the leftover sugary punch from dinner last night!

After cleaning it out, I went in search of Dog Walker to explain that this was NOT the best idea, but then I found him fast asleep on the couch with Twizlet cuddled up to his chest and I remembered just how much I love this crazy autistic guy of mine.

Anybody know how to get punch residue off all my furniture and walls?

Internet Out?

My internet service went down about 6:30 last night. Bossy and her family were over here for dinner, so she spent half an hour on the phone troubleshooting the problem with our provider. Finally they agreed to send a repairman out today to get things up and running.

He arrived about 2:00 as promised, and Dog Walker took him to the basement to to try to solve the issue. Within 5 minutes, I heard the TV blaring loudly in the living room. Apparently someone had unplugged the server although the kids swear they had nothing to do with it.

So about 4:00 I sat down to write to you and check my email, but apparently, I still couldn't get on the internet even though cable was working on my TV. After a quick text to Bossy, she stopped by after work to look at the problem.

Apparently, the technician forgot to switch the internet back on after he plugged it in.

I guess I'm not quite so embarrassed anymore.

Spirit of Elijah

I'm sorry I didn't post for you last night. After a long day starting with getting my sweetie out the door to the airport, then taking the kids to church, I came home and took a 3-hour nap. We had some of the kids over for dinner and when I finally sat down at the computer to write something up for you, I decided to check my email first.

Family Search had sent me a name.

Now I'm not big on doing my family history this way because Grandpa and my sister are always working on putting together our family tree, so I generally work on writing my own history rather than researching the past. But for some reason, I pulled things up and decided to look.

Three hours later, I had found 22 new relatives in 2 different lines of my mom's family. It was easy with the hint from Family Search and actually kind of fun! I reserved their names for temple work and while I was super excited, I also signed up to be an usher for the Jordan River Temple Open House in April. I even signed up Crafty and Scout to be dancers in the cultural celebration.

Life continues to get busier and busier. At least I got a nap.

Happy Early Birthday to Me

We woke up this morning to around 10 inches of snow. Crafty was pretty nervous about driving to work at 7:00 am, but she did just fine. It snowed on and off throughout the day and the kids were so excited to go sledding and have snowball fights. Me... not so much.

My sweetie leaves for Boston in the morning, so we had all the kids over tonight to celebrate my birthday a few days early. We ordered Papa John's (sadly, the Jazz didn't win last night, so it cost us way more than we normally pay for pizza) and I ran to Sam's Club and bought a cake and Klondike bars.

Princess and The Frog made that scary drive in a snowstorm and I must say, she looked pretty miserable. They are only 2 weeks now from the due date of their little Tadpole. I love having the babies around, they do such funny things! Twizlet just couldn't get enough of the whipped cream frosting on my cake; she licked her plate clean.

The Lord is in Charge

Bossy called me tonight. She really wanted to go to Provo to see her granddaughter, but I had a basketball game with Sport that we couldn't miss since I am the coach. So we picked Bossy up and took her with us to the game. By the time we got outside, it was snowing pretty heavily, but we decided to go anyway since Batman and Cat Woman were expecting us.

 Bossy drove, so it really wasn't that big of a deal. Sport loves babies, so he didn't really mind going with us, especially when he got the opportunity to touch her tiny cuteness. Bossy also got her turn to put her hand inside and feel the softness of her sweet granddaughter's skin. I wasn't going to miss my turn either! We stood there and visited for about half an hour.

We left just before 10:00 pm and headed for the lobby. It took us a minute to get down the elevator and back through security. For a minute, we thought about asking the guard if he could check for my brother-in-law's name, but since it was late, we decided not too. Besides, he was not supposed to be in the hospital very long and he had already been admitted the same day Supergirl was born.

I guess the Lord knew we needed an update, because we were about 100 feet from the exit when my sister-in-law came through the front door. She clearly needed a friendly face and someone to talk to. We found some seats in the waiting area and visited for nearly an hour. Apparently my brother-in-law had been in the ICU for the last 6 days and they nearly lost him once, but he is almost stable enough to go home now. It was certainly an ordeal for her and one she shouldn't have had to go through alone.

I don't believe in chance... a minute quicker for us or a minute later and we would have missed her. The Lord is in charge and He made sure we had the opportunity to share our love and support with her.

Longer Skewers Were Fantastic

Do you remember a couple of months ago when we did the review on Cave Tools skewers for kebabs? My only problem with them was that we didn't have enough for everyone, so when they offered me a chance to do a review on their longer skewers, I was pretty excited! Not only would they hold more, but they also come in a set of 10. That would feed all of us living at home.

 Drama Queen offered to come over tonight to work on wedding invitations and help me cook dinner, so I immediately ran to the store and bought the things I needed. As I was walking through the produce department, the fresh pineapple caught my eye. Fruit kebabs hadn't been on my list, but they were now! I grabbed a bag of gala apples and I was set.

I knew Drama Queen would be willing to help put the kebabs together and she even coated the apples and the pineapple in cinnamon before my sweetie put everything on the grill.

It wasn't long before we were gathered around the table to feast. The kebabs were beautiful; evenly cooked, and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into some of those mushrooms. I had no idea that my new favorite would be the cooked apples. I don't really like apple pie, so this was a nice surprise.

The extra space on these longer skewers kept the kids from thinking they needed more when we were finished. My only caution is to be careful with these because they are really hot just coming off the grill. My sweetie touched the edge of one when it slipped and he got a nice little blister on his palm.

You could easily purchase these fantastic skewers from Amazon, but I recommend going directly to the Cave Tools site. They have some awesome products and if you put in the code, SKEWER15, they will give you 15% off. I'm sure your sweetie would love to have a set in time for Valentine's Day. Make sure you save a couple of them to fill with apples and fruit.

***We received a set of skewers for our open and honest review.***

9,000,000 Things First

Dog Walker has been going through his old scrapbooks and about every other pic exclaims, "Do you think this one will work for the wedding video?" He is driving me crazy!

I know he is excited to get married, and I'm certainly glad of that, but at this moment, there are about 9,000,000 things that have to happen before we need to get that video made. My box of invitations is still sitting right where I left it when I opened it. We did count out the ones for her family and put them all in a ziploc bag, but Dog Walker keeps forgetting to give them to her.

My sweetie has almost all the paint finished in their downstairs apartment now so he should be able to get the tile in before he leaves town. That means we can accelerate finishing things up except for the kitchen, but it is still so much work!

I find myself staying up late because if I go to bed I just end up lying there because I can't sleep for thinking about stuff. Did I tell you my elementary-aged kids went back on track yesterday? I hadn't realized just how much they have been helping out with Twizlet on the days I watch her until today.

I miss Drama Queen and her helpful hands more than I can ever express.

Today Was Like That

You know those days when you run the entire day and feel like you can't catch your breath? Today was like that.

I had a couple hundred texts just dealing with Girl Scout cookies...

Cookies, anyone?

Honestly, I could barely get my head around things and I'm still feeling pretty overwhelmed. I'm always grateful to remember that brighter and easier days are just around the corner and my efforts today can make my tomorrows that much easier.

But for now, I'm going to sleep without even making a to-do list for tomorrow.

Maybe I will even turn off my phone.

Making an Apartment

I promised you a sneak peak of what we are trying to do for Dog Walker and his soon-to-be bride. Since both of them have special needs, we thought it would be best to help them learn to live on their own a little bit at a time. We are making a small apartment out of a large bedroom for their first home together.

Over the weekend, my sweetie put down all this beautiful tile in the utility room just outside of their door. The nice part about it is that we have just had it sitting in boxes since we moved into the house over 23 years ago. It will match a small patch in their room that will become their tiny kitchen. At first we were thinking just a little microwave and fridge and then you know my sweetie, his projects tend to take on a life of their own.

Now we are putting in a little bit bigger fridge, a sink, and a small stove with a built in microwave. It cost quite a bit more in money and in time, but I think it will be worth it since we are trying to teach them to be independent. They will still have to share a bathroom with those I affectionately call the "bottom dwellers," but it is only about 20 feet down the hall, so they can manage.

Today my sweetie got all the primer on the walls. That was a huge thing because the walls were a deep sea blue and now we want to make them a white or pale yellow. The paint sprayer comes in so handy when we are trying to cover such a large space.

Tomorrow they are coming to measure for carpet. It is nice to think that far ahead, but it probably won't go in until the 3rd week in February or so.

Saturday is a Special Day...

Saturday was a fun and amazing day on so many levels. First off, I got to watch Baby Doll play basketball and she made 2 shots. Then we ran home and got scouts out selling cookies in the neighborhood. At 10:00 we had a game for Scout. Our team hasn't done very well this season and they were so excited to end the game in a tie!

Baby Doll's first jump ball

Then it was off to get the final touches ready for Princess's baby shower. As usual, our wonderful and generous neighbors took such good care of her. I don't think she will have to buy diapers for the first 6 months! Drama Queen kept the party going with her clever shower games. I had to keep dipping into my Tupperware stash for a few more prizes because she loves to make people happy.

Then I ran Curly to his basketball game. After we cleaned up from the shower a bit, my sweetie and I headed out to the hospital to see that sweet new great granddaughter, Supergirl. It was so interesting to watch Cat Woman gently hold her and feed her through a tube that ran directly into her tiny stomach.

 Then it was finally my turn. She was so tiny, she weighed almost nothing it seemed. We could only be with her for a few minutes before we had to leave her with the awesome nurses in the NICU. Cat Woman was supposed to be released from the hospital today, but they will be close by so she can spend lots of time with Supergirl.

So tiny!

Proud mom and dad

My sweetie and I finished out the day by making a quick run to Kohl's and then stopping for dinner at Chili's. He will be heading off on another business trip next week, so I'm glad to spend some time with him now. Tomorrow I will show you some of the awesome things he has been doing to make a little apartment for Dog Walker.

Guest Blogger: Getting Ready for Marriage by the Dog Walker

I thought it's been recent ever since I got to Guest Blog for all of you. But my Mom is just tired after coming home from the hospital to help with Cat Woman who just recently had her baby born. I never got to see the baby, but I heard it's preciously cute and tiny. Anyway, I've been asked to talk about the upcoming wedding. Cat Lover and I have been engaged for over four months now and we are looking forward to getting married. We've known each other since the Blind Date that Beauty and the Beast set up for us. Beauty and Cat Lover have been friends since high school, and now they're excited to become sister-in-laws.

At first, however, I wasn't quite sure if Cat Lover and I were ever meant to be as a couple, but once we started knowing that there are a lot of things we have in common, (like we both love watching Studio C) we both had a feeling that we really would be a perfect couple. We did have some hard times, but we managed to work out with them, especially when both the Cat Lover's parents thought only they should help prepare the wedding, when my parents also wanted to help out with plans, since Drama Queen has been loving wedding preps and has been helping out with them for years.

I told Cat Lover and her family that marriages are meant to bring families together to help with one another, not to separate them and have one future spouse's family do all the preparations. Even Cat Lover agreed that we wouldn't have a happy marriage if it was just her family, instead of both hers and mine. So, we still agreed on a lot of things when each of our families took turns with ideas to make it our best wedding day.

Cat Lover and I love each other and want to be with each other for the rest of a life and for eternity. We're getting married in the Salt Lake Temple on March 2, 2018. We're both excited and nervous at the same time. We're hoping and certain that we'll have a happy marriage and be able to bring forth children into this world.

Trying to Keep Everyone Happy

Whew!

It's been quite a week and it's not over yet. Tomorrow is Princess's baby shower and we have been cooking and cleaning and making little party favors. Drama Queen is spending the night so we can be ready for guests tomorrow afternoon.

We also had our cookie training today because Girl Scout cookie sales start tomorrow! Want to know something crazy? They have this new thing called Digital Cookie and we can actually sell to anyone as long as they are willing to pay pretty reasonable shipping costs and it is all handled through a website, so if any of you are looking for cookies, just message me and I can hook you up.

Our darling little Supergirl had her cpap removed and she is actually breathing on her own! It's pretty remarkable for such a tiny one. I'm excited to visit her tomorrow night after the shower is over and maybe even get to hold her. I will try to remember to take some pics for you too although we all know how lousy I am at taking selfies.

My sweetie is also making some amazing progress on our basement project. He got all the tile down in the utility room and it is ready for grout. He also painted the walls and we can soon start moving things back in so we can get the bedroom painted and ready for tile and carpet. He will be out of town for about 3 weeks, so we are trying to get as much as possible done before then. I say we, but really it is mostly him. He works so hard to take care of everything for us. I just chase around trying to keep everyone happy.

So Tired... Just More Pictures

Meet Supergirl!

 

 

Life Changes So Quickly

You ever thought about how quickly life changes? One minute I am concentrating on getting ready for Princess's baby shower on Saturday, stressing the little things (and the big ones), and then life throws me a curve.

Grandma??? I'm only 33...

 You probably remember that Bossy and Gamer's daughter Cat Woman (formerly Fajita) got married last October. What you might not know is that she and Batman were expecting a little girl on March 24th. A couple of days ago, she went into the hospital for some sharp pains in her side. The doctors discovered that the baby's heart rate was dropping and spiking so they decided to keep her for a couple of days.

Cat Woman looks fantastic!

Then yesterday they transferred her to a larger hospital with an amazing NICU just in case. Sure enough, around 1:00 this morning, we got word that they were doing an emergency C section so Bossy and I climbed in the car and raced the 40 minutes or so (I say raced because she was driving...) to be with them.

Such a cutie! Better come up with a blog name quick!

 Cat Woman was still in surgery when we got there, but after a short wait, Batman came in to tell us that she had delivered a tiny baby girl, 2 lbs 9 oz and 14" long. She is doing remarkably well, but will likely be in the hospital for several weeks. Mama and Daddy are rapidly adjusting to the idea of being new parents much quicker than they had planned. We are all so excited for them and I am anxiously waiting my first visit with my new great granddaughter!

Bossy here just sneaking in one more picture.