"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?

Entrepreneur

 What is it about kids that makes them want to get out and make money?  Selling lemonade, rocks, paper airplanes, etc.  Max and his best friend wanted to sell otter pops today.  I told them to go out and get orders and find out what color people wanted, then come back and we'd deliver them.

They came up with a price list and after all that hard work only sold one.  A purple one.  3 cents.  But as you can see in the plastic baggy, he got a nickel and got to keep the change...I see a future entrepreneur in the works!

Kids are funny.

We went to see the animated movie UP last night for Jane's birthday.  The movie is incredible on many levels, and extremely entertaining.  But at one point in the movie someone is injured and there is an image of them wiping away a small amount of blood.  Here's what I heard behind me from a child talking to his mom:

Child:  "That's just ketchup right?"

Mom:  "No that blood"

Child:  "I know it's supposed to be blood, but they used ketchup, right?"

So cute.

Someone Turned 6 Today!!!

Jane is SIX today!

We got her a castle which took about an hour to set up, but she is having a blast right now playing "girl in the castle" with her friends.  She has a great imagination and it's hilarious to listen to them (especially when they don't know you're listening). 

"How about you have the king be your husband for a while and then when you're done with him I'll marry him."  

Happy Birthday to the most awesome little princess around!

A Reason to Cheer for Wal-Mart

I haven't posted for quite some time. I've kind of been taken hostage by Facebook (willingly I suppose), but I just read something on "Yahoo" that made me want to pull my hair out and I had to share. I read this article about Green Day vs. Wal-Mart. Here it is:

Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy

AP, May 21, 2009 12:00 pm PDT
Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.
The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.

While Wal-Mart sells CDs from acts known for raunchy content, including Eminem's latest, they offer customers the "clean" version of those CDs, which are edited for content that may be objectionable. But in Armstrong's view, "There's nothing dirty about our record."

"They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there," he said. "We just said no. We've never done it before. You feel like you're in 1953 or something."

"21st Century Breakdown" contains curses and some references considered adult.

Wal-Mart said that it's the company's long-standing policy not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker.

"As with all music, it is up to the artist or label to decide if they want to market different variations of an album to sell, including a version that would remove a PA rating," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien said. "The label and artist in this case have decided not to do so, so we unfortunately can not offer the CD."

But bassist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art."

Not being sold at Wal-Mart didn't stop the band — which kicks off a U.S. tour summer tour in Seattle on July 3 — from landing at the top of the album charts this week. "21st Century Breakdown" sold about 215,000 copies since it's debut on Friday.

The album is the follow-up to their multiplatinum, Grammy-winning CD "American Idiot," and like that album, deals with weighty topics. While "American Idiot" spoke to the frustration over the presidency of George W. Bush and the Iraq War, this CD speaks to the loss of innocence and confusion in today's society.

While Armstrong, Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool are still top-sellers without Wal-Mart, Armstrong said the store's policy is disappointing, considering it has become the dominant seller of CDs with the decline of traditional music stores.

"If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day ... to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won't carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself," he said. "I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It's like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it."
_________________________End of article_____________________

Look, I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart. Yes I shop there because it's convenient, but speaking as someone who lived in Bentonville, Arkansas for a year and had a husband work AT the Wal-Mart headquarters (notice I didn't say he worked FOR them, just at the building) I can tell you that Wal-Mart does not leave a pleasant taste in my mouth for many reasons. This, however....this scenario where they are standing their ground and not putting out a CD with questionable lyrics has me singing Wal-mart's praises.

Wal-Mart is opting not to sell a CD, the "best selling CD in the country", thereby loosing revenue because they are standing firm on their moral ground. I want to applaud, stand up and cheer for them. Thank you Wal-Mart for making (what I believe to be) the right decision.

Green Day? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? I cannot, CANNOT believe the argument that they are posing by giving this statement "I mean, what does that say to a young kid who's trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time?" Um....let's see. Maybe it says: There are powerful people in this industry who won't sell what they think is CRAP! Perhaps it also says: Morals and decency are valued and even if you are not in the majority standing your ground is more important than making a buck. Maybe it also conveys to that young "artist" making his first record that there are influential guardians that stand at the gates of the population and choose not to let what they deem as smuck through to taint the masses.

Honestly Green Day.

Honestly?

You think that Wal-Mart should HAVE to sell your CD? I believe in Freedom Of Speech, but I also believe that Wal-Mart has a wonderfully similar right to refuse their own profits to be made in order to limit what is sold in their OWN store. Wal-Mart is the one limiting themselves, and rightly so. So go ahead Green Day, make your music, sing your "art", just don't expect everyone to jump at the chance to sell it.

KUDOS Wal-Mart!

Guitar Hero

Max is a guitar hero wiz-kid.  He loves the game and subsequently has told us that he wants to take guitar lessons.  I'm all in favor of it, but just can't get my lazy bum to get him enrolled.  That's kind of beside the point of this post which is yet another funny thing that my kids have said lately:

All the songs on Guitar Hero are "hard rock" songs.  And because of that, some of the lyrics are a bit questionable...unfortunately Max can make out some of what they are saying  (example)

He has been singing:  "Chop the Salad Bar Invasion, Talk Dirty to Me"  

Translation:  "Lock the Cellar Door and baby, Talk Dirty to Me"

He's been singing it everywhere and it's hilarious.

Almost as hilarious as the time he started singing "She's my Cherry Pie" in the grocery store (unfortunately he got all those words correct!)

"Gutters"

Jane is playing Wii Bowling with her dad.  Dad gets a gutter-ball.  

Dad says:  "Dang, I got a gutterball".

Jane says:  "I know what Guttters are dad----They're those things that hang down from a cow."

(then what's a gutter-ball?)

Scars and "Wierdees"

So the other day Max got a little too close to me while rough-housing and bumped into me.  Not a big deal, but while recouping from the c-section we just have to be a little careful around mom these days.  

David says:  "Max, you have to be careful around mom's....um...."

Max fills in:  "Her Wierdee"

Both David and I share an amused glance.  Obviously he was not really thinking of the incision, but got the general idea.  We had never heard this term before and so David says:  "That's a good name for it Max; just like we call yours "Kibbles and bits" and Jane's "HooHa."

Now it's your turn.  What are the names you've come up with for the "Parts".

It's been....One Week (since you looked at me)

Griffin has arrived.  One week ago at 8:20am he came into the world covered in tons of crisco looking goop!  He is such a sweet little (or not so little) boy.  He was 9 lbs 5 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. He is eating and sleeping wonderfully (so far).  We're all thrilled that he's safe and sound.

The delivery went fairly routine except for about a minute and a half when my blood pressure dropped very quickly and I felt like I couldn't breathe, but luckily that issue was remedied quickly.  David had given me a blessing the night before and one of the things he said was that I would be "articulate in my ability to tell doctors what was going on with my body."  It was very clear in my mind when I started to feel the sensation that I couldn't breathe on the operating table that I needed to tell the doctors.  It took me a few seconds to focus on what was happening, but then I remembered David's blessing and told the anesthesiologist what I was feeling and he pushed some meds that stopped my blood pressure from dropping.  I'm very grateful for David and the insight he felt as he gave that blessing.  That was a panic that I do not want to feel again anytime soon!

The kids are loving Griffin and Jane has become the best helper (not a surprise there).  She wants to hold him at night and does for a while so we can get Blake to sleep....if only we could get her to change diapers we'd be in business.  Our little family is complete!

Poll

Out of curiosity....and because it's been on my mind quite a bit lately.

If you were sure you didn't want any more kids would you get your tubes tied?  It's so darn permanent, but the thought of getting pregnant again puts FEAR into my soul.

Mirena (an IUD) is another option, but since they are doing a c-section in a few days it's pretty easy to tie the tubes right there while they're staring you in the face.   

So what do you think?

He's got my back.

Max crawled into our bed this morning and snuggled right in.  

I grunted a bit as I "tried" to roll over to say good morning.

Max says:  "Mom, I hope you don't get pregnant again after you have this baby."

I could've (and did) kiss him for saying that in front of David (a.k.a. "The Impregnator").

Drama

The other night while tucking Jane in (she likes me to lay with her for a while), she says:

Jane:  "Mom, why do you and dad sleep in the same bed?"

Me:  "Jane, one day when you're all grown up you'll have a husband that you can snuggle up to and you'll have a bed for just the two of you"

Jane (starting to cry):  "But nobody is ever going to want to marry me!"

Me (trying to stiffle the giggles):  "Jane, trust me, you are going to have a whole bunch of boys lined up wanting to marry you.  Then you get to sit back and pick which one you want!"

Jane (crying louder now):  "But I already picked Sam and he doesn't want me!!!"

Ahh, the drama begins.  Watch out Sam (neighbor boy, who would indeed make a rather fine catch) Janie has her eye on you and you'll never know what hit ya if she finally catches you.