"This is the end of my life!"

Max started complaining that his stomach was hurting right before dinner. He had no appetite and wanted to go to bed...but he couldn't walk there his pain was so bad. I carried him into bed where he sat crying for 10 minutes before he fell asleep. I went to attend to the other kids when I hear Max waking up by screaming in pain. He was hysterical (not that abnormal for Max), but he was also begging to go to the doctor (VERY abnormal for Max). I tried to find out where the pain was coming from and when I tried to touch his belly he freaked out. He pointed to his belly button as to where the pain was originating from, but then when I tried to lightly touch his stomach it was obvious the pain was predominantly on his right side.

This is when I start to get a little nervous. David was at a football game with his mom, my sister is taking 11 thirteen year old girls to a haunted house, my two neighbors are nowhere to be found. I call my good friend Jenn and she informs me that she is checking out from Target but can be here in 5 minutes. I get all the kids ready while Max is screaming and crying to hurry and take him to the doctor because "life was ending and he was facing his doom" (literally his words).

Jenn comes, and magically takes the kids and reduces my stress 100 fold. We get into the emergency room and they put in an IV (which was hilarious as he was screaming "where am I, where am I" as the needle is put in (I had to shove my face into the mattress from laughing so hard). They take a urine sample and then we go back to the ultrasound room. Max gets a thorough exam of his intestines where the tech points out to me that there is a lot of gas build-up in his abdomen. Yes, gas.

When we got back to the exam room Max starts tooting like a machine. It was extremely impressive. The doctor came in and the "aura" in the air gave him a clear (murky?) indication of what he was dealing with. While his white blood count was elevated, he said the fact that Max was smiling and seemed to be in better spirits was a good sign. We left the hospital with the IV still intact. He told us to monitor him for the next 12 hours and if he doesn't get worse then we can remove the IV. (They think his white blood count was up because he got the flu-mist vaccine on Thursday).

All in all I felt a little silly for taking him in for a gas bubble, but I also felt relieved that I did see the signs, I didn't ignore them....and all signs did point to appendicitis.

"Reporting on their review of the frequency of the most common symptoms of actual appendicitis in children, the researchers concluded that beyond fever, the most telltale signs are 'rebound' tenderness or pain that occurs after pressure is removed abruptly from the lower right part of the abdomen; abdominal pain that starts around the belly button and migrates down and to the right; and an elevated white blood cell count (10,000 or more per microliter), which is a marker of infection in the body." (Taken from Medical News Today website).

I'm so thankful for modern medicine.

And I'm so thankful that all my boy had was gas.

Phew!

He's gotta shop somewhere...

So David's mom was here last weekend (my birthday) and she took the kids with her to go get a little present for me.

Jane was so proud to give me a cute little book on "Mother's" and when I asked her where she got it she said:

"You know, the Jesus book store."

Jesus bookstore = Deseret Book.

Thanks for the gift Jane (and thanks for the equally wonderful book Lynne!)

Puppy Love

So Max has a new girlfriend at school. He came home with her phone number on the 4th or 5th day of school. (Side Note: David thought it was pretty awesome that his son was bringing home girl's numbers so early on and gave Max a congratulatory "high five" for doing so.) Her name is Catherine. So I asked Max what he'd do when Catherine came over if we called her to play at our house. He said that she and Catherine like to play with the bouncy balls that the teacher gave them for turning in their homework.

They are translucent with glitter inside them and Max informed me that "Catherine's ball is purple and she named it Sparkles. Mine is green and I named it Sparky." (How cute is that?)

So Sparkles and Sparky like to play games at recess.

Max told me that they stand under a tree and throw the balls up and try to catch them on the way down. "We have a name for that too. Catherine calls it "Raining Gumballs" and I call it "Wack-a-Leaf."

Ahh, the differences between boys and girls. So cute and so fun to see at this age.

May you never grow up Max.

(and now I'm crying so I'll have to stop typing).

What Would A Crested Butte Girl Do?

When I was in Crested Butte, CO sitting in my booth watching all the people walk by one thing kept going through my mind. "Where on earth do these ladies get their bodies?" Seriously! I told David that I would trade bodies with at least 90% of the women walking by. They look like they are all Yoga Models or something. True, I didn't see many of them with children (let alone 4), but clearly they live a lifestyle that is completely foreign to me.

So lately I've been asking myself "What Would A Crested Butte Girl Do" when I'm confronted with an issue with my diet/exercise. First of all, the CB Girl would never consider a day without exercise. She would get up in the morning, eat her egg white and grapefruit and go on a 20 mile hike. Okay, maybe not, but that's what I imagine she does. She certainly makes different choices than I've been making. I've been trying to do better with exercise.

But where I'm really making some huge changes are in my diet.

I've never been one to use the grill. I've been a pansy when it comes to that. But I've decided that I can face my fears and man-up. So one of the things that I've been loving is grilled vegetables. Here are some grilled zucchini and tomatoes with just a hint of olive oil and thrown on the grill. Along for the ride was a chicken burger from Costco that has portabello mushrooms and red peppers mixed in (Heaven!).

Another thing that I'm trying to do is to use fresh ingredients more. I have a basil plant that my father gave me for Mother's Day and recently it exploded with big, beautiful, fragrant leaves. I've never made a pesto sauce, but decided to try. I used just a small amount (maybe 1 Tablespoon) on some protein-enriched whole wheat pasta and sprinkled a bit of feta on at the last minute and let me tell you, I was extremely delighted with that. It was awesome.

And for tonight's dinner I was feeling extremely adventurous after a whole day of watching a Top Chef Masters marathon while Blake lay on me with a fever. I saw these chefs making the most incredibly beautiful meals and I wanted to lick the television set! I didn't even know what 1/2 of the stuff was they were using, but it all looked amazing.

So I got brave. I decided I'd be a top chef in my own kitchen. I wanted to have fish for dinner, but instead of doing it with lemon pepper and a bit of lemon juice like I normally do, I crushed some pine nuts, added a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes, and used 1 tsp. of mayo to keep it together and put that on top of the fish. Oh. My. Goodness. I'm Awesome! It was soo good. I wish I had green beans to go along with it instead of the spinach that I made, but oh well. I guess all chefs have to start somewhere (hee hee).

So while I might not be a Crested Butte, Colorado Girl.....I'm at least a bit closer than the "Detroit, Michigan Mama" that I have been.

Necklace or Exploding Volcano?

Jane took a week long art class a while back with a few friends and brought home a painting that I really liked. It wasn't until we decided to enter it into the American Fork Steel Days art competition that I realized that I had been looking at it upside down. I thought it was a sunset of some sort over a mountain....Jane turned it the "right way" and told me it was actually a necklace.

"Oh, I see it. Cool necklace Jane."

"But Mom, I think I want to turn it upside down and make it an exploding volcano."

Turns out the judges liked the idea of an exploding volcano as well. Jane got 1st place in the primary grades of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades (even though she's not quite in 1st grade yet, she didn't want to be counted as a Kindergartner because she "graduated" from that already). She was awarded $6 and received a certificate. The Blue Ribbon comes home with the artwork on Friday.

Congratulations Jane.

You Rock!

Week at Grandma's

Max and Jane spent a week at Grandma Corbett's this past week. David drove up with the kids, dropped off Max and Jane and came back with Blake. You'd kind of expect that after a week of hanging out with your Grandma you'd be ready to come home. And while the kids were happy to be home, they were already asking when they could go back! David's mom is fantastic with the kids and they LOVE to spend time with her. They went swimming everyday and played tons of games (Grandma's speciality).

Thanks Grandma for having the kids and loving them so much!

AHHHH It's MARIO!!!

As the primary driver of the car I'm always on the lookout for things that might interest the kids on the road. Let's just say that I think I actually scared the kids when I started screaming....."LOOK, LOOK KIDS, LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!!!!! ITS MARIO AND LUIGI!!!"

Yes, we actually turned around, stopped the car, and got out for pictures. I mean really, how often is your child's obsession out dancing in the street?