Posion Control

I had to call them last week. In the midst of medicating Emma with Motrin I ran upstairs to change linens and came back down to Landon trying to medicate himself with the same syringe. And from the bottle that I left open. (I KNOW. Bad mom.) I thought he drank a 1/4 of the bottle or so. I called our "family doctor" who said, "LACEY! What were you doing!" I heard "liver damage" and "heart failure" and "coma" (okay, I'm exagerating a bit about his reaction) and then he told me to call Posion Control right away. I did. They were so nice. And promised me they weren't going to call the police. Or CPS. Or report me to the news. She told me he'd have a tummy ache and needed fluids. She offered me a magnet. And she even called me back to tell me she ran some figures wrong, that he would still be fine, and that she wanted our "family doctor" to be advised. For sure I said ;)

ps- I did panic. I did start to cry a bit. I did ask Tanner why he stood and watched him. And we did have a family meeting on the dangers of medicine.

Santa 2008

Yes, he's under there, Santa that is. And I really think we look like rag-a-muffins. It was a solo mom event at the Ward Christmas Party.

A baby changes everything.

It's been pukey over here. I know that's gross. I found myself falling into bed last night, having stripped a bed for the 3rd time in a day, and thought, "Please. Let there be no more." I can manage being the all-night beverage station. (And it's not even for the baby, who is no longer nursing.) Just let the sickness pass.

I was trying to finish up teacher gifts and fold laundry. I had to help a friend with invitations and I have had huge hopes to have a family Polar Express Party. (It would have been fun). We heard that we did not get our Allergy Specialty spot in San Antonio. It's okay, life just seems to continuaully throw us along the route of what's eternally next around that bend. To say the least, I have been a little discouraged. I won't even mention what the Air Force did to our much anticipated bonus.

My fridge has never been so empty. I need to get to the store. I was asked to re-pray at a relief society function for forgetting to bless the brownie bites, it made me feel akward, and then I made a lousy soup last week. For dinner guests. I guess we all need a little humbling sometimes.

But, as I was finishing up late last night, there was a Faith Hill holiday musical special on. I had not even known it was going to air. She sang this song "A baby changes everything." (#1 on my music roll.) I cannot imagine how Mary felt carrying the Christchild. I know my babies have changed everything in my world. Her baby changed everything for all mankind. I know He knows what we are each feeling. I know He sees what we need. I know He loves us. I paused for a moment and just felt gratitude. Gratitude that my husband can bless our children to feel better. And even more gratitude. For Mary's baby. The Wonderful, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Counselor, The Prince of Peace.

My late thanks

I meant to mention some things I am grateful for.

1. First, but not really first on my list, Amy Grant. I mean, come on, I love her Christmas music. I remember my mom used to play her tape when we were little. I believe that was probably what sparked my love for worship music. (I still love #4 on my playlist, and I know, you can push pause, it won't hurt my feelings too badly.)

2. Flannel sheets. I needed a set. I sneaked them on the bed becuase I heard from a sister that they are "sweaty and awful". I thought my husband would say the same thing. But he likes them too, even though he feels a "bit" hotter at night. I love them as much as I hoped I would. Whatever sista.

3. I'm feeling love for Major Stevenson. (I think a little brown-nosing can't hurt). She is in charge of our placement for the next 3 years. I hope for our first choice. She makes the decision. I'm grateful for your service Major Stevenson. She asked what we thought about Alaska. Well, not that west, I said. Respectfully of course.

4. The above leads me to ....that even though the doctor probably won't get the specialty Allergy spot in San Antonio this fall (it's a rank thing) he still has employment. And he'll be a board certified internist in 5 months. He has worked so hard and finds jobs all over the place and wants us to be happy. I never thought I could have gotten such a thing as him.

5. That somehow, even though I really failed this past Monday, and surely can not claim "Mom of the Year"- my kids forgot about my misses the next day. They forgive me so easily. That baby Jacks of mine can't take his eyes off me as I run around the house. He loves me a lot.
(The others have those moments for me. But mostly they love there dad more.)

6. I am grateful that I don't have to eat hot dogs everyday. We participated in "The Great American Hot Dog Challenge" recently. We had to taste test 20 hot dogs and figure out which was the best. I personally buy Ballpark. By taste test number 10 I tapped out. I have no idea which hot dog won. I'll keep buying Ballpark. I think we should try this challenge with popcorn, or ice cream, maybe pizza?- just never again hot dogs. Never. I also think everybody needs some friends that scheme crazy stuff up like this.

7. It seems everyday I stop and look around and think in awe that I have 4 kids and I can't believe I am here- in this moment. Like, how DID this happen? I know HOW. But, where has my life gone? I've been so blessed. I'm healthy. I have common sense. I have a husband that honors me. I have comforts and safety in my home. I have the gospel and prayer and faith. I have hope for better. I have good friends that are generous to me. I have sisters and family that love me deep. I have purpose in my calling as a mother.

Sister Melissa had her baby.

And she lived through it. (love you Melissa). She has my mom and grandma with her there now and I am jealous. And Elly IS really sweet.

Family Pictures 2008

I'm not getting to Christmas cards this year. Probably. And I didn't send out baby birth announcements for Jackson either. For sure did not happen. But we attempted to document our time here in Kentucky with a family picture. For odd reasons our photographer and I became at odds over "copyright" issues and prices. But then she wanted the pictures for her portfolio. So we came to an agreement. This was my favorite. Too bad not every one's showing there face. I tell myself that the likelihood of us getting a perfect candid face forward picture will probably not be for years. I probably have way too much criteria.

How I know it's Christmas Time:

My mom gave me this a few years back. I lost it. I asked her for it again. She said, "I never gave you a recipe like that. " But, she did. I luckily found it in my recipe collection- and it's perfect for this time of year.

Martha's* Hot Fudge Sauce

2/3 cup half and half
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all (in microwave safe bowl). Microwave for 4 minutes on medium. Stir half way through. Stir again. Eat it with a spoon. Or on Peppermint Ice Cream.

*from Martha Stewart my mom said. But then again, she can't remember she ever had this recipe. So maybe it's not Martha's after all.

It was T for Turkey

Brooklyn

Our house had a bout of strep/strep-like symptoms last week for 2 of my kids. But I was ready for the "T" day and so hosted this past week in place. I rounded up a helper (thank you dear friend!)- she was seriously abused. Turkey Blessing Mix for the snack and Turkey hats and Pizza for lunch. I kept the mom's over for soup. Don't you love good moms and good mom talk?

Speaking of mom talk. I know us moms wish we could add more moms/kids into the mix. But 7 toddlers plus the sibblings of the host adds up to a lot of "organized" chaos. I know I can speak for all of us moms and say there is no intention of exclusion. Really.

By the afternoon, and after the last friends left, I turned on a show. Landon asked me for pumpkin bread, I handed it to him, picked something up, turned around and found him sound asleep. Not a bite gone- the sweetest part of the day captured with my camera. :)

Precious Cargo

I spent the weekend in Nashville to attend Time Out For Women. For some reason they let me drive (and book the somewhat ghetto hotel- sorry ladies, but it had the continental).) I kept telling myself since I had a carful of 7 mammas, I needed to be extra extra careful- our prayers of safekeeping were heard. I mean, who could ever replace a mother?

Perhaps a father?

Close second I'd say. And I believe they all did just fine.

27 children were left. Twenty-Seven. There were no meals to cut up or diapers to change, no mid-night call-outs from children. No dress-up changes, or cereal messes. Just good moms that I grew to know better and the bonds of sisterhood in the gospel strengthed evermore.

As for sisterhood. It's a real thing. It lets you cry at "worship-like" music, (you go Hilary Weeks, and my local favorite 104.3 FM), be chatty cathy's til the wee hours of the morning on shared queens, weep a tear in Baja Fresh, and really hug that long-ago-college roomate. It says it's okay to pump for the baby back home and laugh at the 10 arby sandwhiches (who eats 2 each?). It forgives the 30 minute turn off the wrong road (I blame Tom-Tom GPS, Melissa ;) ). It makes you remember that before the mom calling and wife name, a girl you were first.

And yes, Time Out For Women is a bit cheesy. But I really did enjoy it- I would gladly go again. Especially to come home to a sweet nursing baby, a bunch of wound up kids, and an almost happy husband (that applogized about taking the stain off my not-so-old kitchen table and confessed that he felt like he had big shoes to fill while teaching gospel doctrine.)

It was a good place to be this past weekend- and equally nice to give all my attention to this video. Because really, sometimes, I need to be reminded that we are all precious- even me. Especially to Him.

ps- I love you mom cargo. All of you.

(Reflections of Christ.)

Tanner

said he thought he had Tuesday, Veteran's Day, off. Ryan had it off and so we assumed it was a holiday. But it wasn't a school holiday. The bus came and went. Ryan said we were duped. (we were).

I love Tanner. But he's had a bad attitude lately. Enough was enough. I put him in a cold shower with his clothes on last night. Ryan and everyone watched. I eventually turned it warm, but reminded him that as much as he doesn't like a cold shower, we, I, don't like listening to his whining and complaining. That he needs to be quick to obey and do things joyfully (like brush his teeth which he wasn't, which was just a series of events that he wasn't happy about doing yesterday.) He felt awful and embarrassed and I loved him better and he got his happy back and was happy this morning and Ryan said I was too harsh and you know what, I think Ryan might need a cold shower too :)

The final visitors

Cincinnatti, Newport Aquarium

Ryan's parents have come and gone now. They met their newest grandchild, number 16, Jackson. We hit the Zoo and Newport Aquarium and climbed a rock wall at Dick's. We took Ryan out for his birthday dinner and played corn hole with the neighbor. The kids took advantage of their grandparents incredible levels of patiences. The next visit will be to help us move, a move somewhat dreaded but hopeful that it will place us nearer to family.

I enjoyed the time to catch up and talk with them. I laughed when they told me they left a car for a week somewhere and when they realized a week later that it was not in the driveway, they thought it was stollen. Oh, the panic! And then the realization that the car had not been stollen, just left. And forgotten. (I think there is a genetic gene for forgetfulness.) We talked about all Ryan's siblings and they asked about mine. We talked about there work with Prop 8 and read the current news and felt sad. We talked about Ryan's brother serving in Brazil. Football was watched and kids were rocked. We had hot chocolate almost everynight and Family Home Evening together on Charity. I watched my father-in-law put air in Ryan's truck tire because it was low and because I know he loves him and wants him to be safe. I watched my mother-in-law read and read and read with Tanner, because he struggles with reading and she loves him. The sweet time spent together we always love.

Being called

About 6 weeks ago Ryan was asked to help give a blessing. He'd been gone most the week. He needed to catch up on sleep. The lawn needed mowed. Tanner was asking if "Daddy was ever going to stop working" and I heard myself ask Ryan when he called to check in "how his other home" was. It was a bad rotation and that's how it goes. But, when I got a call asking if he would help give a blessing, a couple things went through my mind. First, they must have tried others and Ryan must have been on the bottom of the list so they needed him, and secondly, I felt like saying, "Not tonight, I just got him home!" But I didn't. I accepted the invitation on his behalf, because I knew he would have said yes. That's how he is- just like all the other good men I know who understand their sacred duties.

He helped to give a blessing to a young mother of 2. She was not a member. She was sick and struggling. I've thought about her and her acceptance of this faithful gesture of love- her seemingly willingness and ease to accept an offering of a blessing. She was struggling more than I think many understand and took her life 4 weeks later. We were both so sad when we heard. I am grateful that Ryan was able to stand in and assist when his name was called. I am grateful that the gospel teaches us about our purpose and that we are divine and eternal beings of our Father's. I hope that when my name is called to help I may be quicker to help and less to murmur.

Tate or Jacks?

Note to Sanger

Hi Ang-
Don't worry, if you're missing Tater, we have him.
miss you all,
Mom & Dad



(fyi note- my in-laws are here for a few days. They just left there daughter's baby, Tate. He's two months older than Jacks and supposedly his missing twin.)

Spooky Dinner

Tanner has a NO-holiday or party, what-so-ever, school.

Something had to be done.

Invitations were "mailed"

Flying bats and webs and dry ice

Cats and body parts jars and pumpkin treat bags


Witches hats and dance-with-the-broomstick game

Stirring the witches cauldron

Dinner Menu:
Frog Legs Soup (broccoli cheese, of course)
Skeleton Bones (breadsticks shaped like bones)
Decomposed salad (garden salad)
Eggs and Noses (grapes and cut strawberries)
Orange Witch Brew (Sunkist soda)
Brains and Slop (cupcakes and Chocolate Chip Orange Sherbet)

I love my witches

Landon's missing. He was probably in the candy jars.

Today

I know I was fired. For sure. Actually, maybe I should have never been hired. I think my application should have been tagged: under-qualified.

That said- I'm tired. Just mom worn out. Ryan mentioned that a colleague asked him to stay longer and let him sleep for 3 hours before he worked through the night on his shift. Ryan says he told him, "Buddy. I have to get home. My wife and kids have not seen me." So charming that he thought of me. Sometimes it's hard to remember the last time I had 3 hours of really good sleep. I know, I'm sounding like a wimp. I'll spare the details of my slumberless children. As for today, Ryan won't be home til tomorrow. (He's on Q4, meaning every 4th night he stays over at the hospital. He comes home tomorrow and then needs to sleep to recover and so for me it feels like every 3rd day I have him around in the evening. And, yes, I know I'm a wimp and people have it worse.)

Today I dragged myself around errands and life and my carpenter came to fix the trim on my floor. He came at "nap time" and I was too busy to get them off to beds. I tended a friend of Emma's until 5 pm, and then onto dinner, and then I sat down to nurse the baby and I fell asleep. With a house full of children. This is where I should be fired. I KNOW.

And while I was sleeping, the containers that had been left out from the work being done in the pantry were Landon's heaven- he went to town on them. 5lbs of flour, 24 ounces of yellow cornmeal and half a container of brown sugar. Everywhere. A light mist of dust. Everywhere.

I awoke to Emma whispering, "Mommy. Landon's dirty."

I didn't even get mad. I just sighed. I knew I should have been better and more careful. And yes I cried a tear. (Okay, a few tears.) It was such a mess. And my vacuum stopped suctioning today. I had to use the shop vac. It took me almost 2 hours to clean up the dust from seemingly every surface on the first floor.

And since I am confessing, I also thought I lost Tanner. He went to play outside and went too far. I knocked on doors and finally found him. But I was shaking. And he felt bad. And then I was mad.

And all the while I was cleaning up, after I found Tanner, I kept thinking, "It should be illegal to have 3 kids in 3 years." (Okay, 3 years and 2 months, but still.) And who thought I was qualified? I sat Jacks in his bumbo (thanks again Sara) to vacuum and when I got back to him, he too was covered in a fine sugary dust from the vacuum exhaust. I kissed his neck and fat cheeks and told him never to get into the flour. He better remember.

Things I love

This commerical- I love her voice.


This Spooky Banner from my "neighba lady". I love her to.

And my funny husband. He had some presentation to give at work today. I found this excerpt at the end of the powerpoint presentation. I can just envision the room full of 40ish doctors and colleagues and his serious presentation then ending like this.

1. Let's not get caught with our pants down.

2. Let's do our homework and join the tea party.

3. So we can all save some lives and be superheros at the end of the day.

All the need to's

I've gone to bed thinking.

-I need to sort through all the totes of kids clothes. Must purge. I will not haul those around anymore.

-My house needs a deep cleaning. I'm always behind. I had a dream a potential buyer didn't like the house because the kitchen cabinets weren't clean.

-Get the fall bulbs planted. Because they bloom in the spring- and I think they will add some curbside appeal.

But instead of dealing with any of the above. It's been Fall Break. And I have been alone on the home front day and night. All-the-long-week.

Monday- to the Zoo

Tuesday- to the Newport Aquarium in Cincinnati. I went in the afternoon, planning on less of a crowd. Don't you know it, but we pulled up right behind the arrival of the Senior Citizens Greyhound bus. Tanner asked,"where did all the grandma's come from?" We waited our turn for the heavily used elevator, we with our double stroller and they with their wheelchairs.

Wednesday- Costume prep. (Can I call it crap prep?) And finally the doctor was in. We took hot chocolate and sugar cookies over to the Spook Alley off of Zorn in the evening.

Thursday- Back to the Zoo for the Halloween Party, costumes and all.

Friday- Harry Potter movies at home and then to the Art Museum at UofL to the kid area.

I love my kids. My baby is not nursing very well this week- I think I have been on the go too much. I stood on campus today at the Art Museum and watched all the coeds walk around and thought- man those were the days. I could eat by myself and read a book and there was calm, maybe a lot of uncertainty, but calm. Yet, I know I was working then to get to this point today. To be home with my 4 kids. To be married to someone that tells me "you're doing fine." when I feel deflated. They don't seem to care too much about the purging and cleaning and fall bulbs.

Vote Today

Go HERE.

It's this design....................

(she's cute!)

See my post below for more details.

Halloween's Past

Just got to Grenada. 2002

2nd year in Grenada, 2003. Same costume. Throwback for my Grenada friends.


2004
2005

(I immensly disliked sewing these robes.)
2006
2007

Please Help- THE Dancing with the Stars official contest

let me explain. I visit teach a girl, Amy Smith. She lives right around the corner from me.

History first. There were 3 of us dark-haired girls that moved into our ward at the same time and it seems I was always getting mistaken for one of them. Both beauties and a true compliment, Amy Smith and Angela. Someone in the ward even thought their mom was my mom when she visited. We've all been pregnant close together and even in my families desperate times, their husbands have BOTH come to sit with my kids when I needed to go to the hospital while pregnant with Jackson. Good people, and more importantly, good friends. Now, to the point of my need for help.


Amy Smith is talented. She just had her 3rd baby. Her husbands a busy guy. She's far from family and ticks on her own most the time. She has an amazing design sense. Like the real deal. How do I know?

Because the TV show, Dancing With The Stars, had a costume design contest. Amy entered. She mentioned it in a sort of blase way. Like "no big deal". BUT, her costume ensemble was picked as one of the Top 5 in the nation.

In order for her to win the top prize, she has to have her design voted for. Voting starts this Tuesday. Go Here for the home page of the show. As soon as her design is up, I will post a new link. Remember voting starts this Tuesday.

Amy makes me proud. And she's true. I asked her how she managed to design a modest costume and she says she used BYU ballroom dance standards. She's a previous BYU ballroom dancer and graduate, costume designer, and fantastic artist, but she's staying home to tend her babies. She takes care of her home. She loves her husband. And they all come first. Let's vote her first! And, In support of an LDS stay at home mama, please link this post on your blog so she can get as many votes as possible. It's not like she has a design firm to promote her ya know?

(do I sound like a campaign manager or what?)

I'll have an update for the voting site soon.

Why'd she have to go?

I miss her already. And her sweet bear baby, Gavin. (He felt so loose and slouchy. My Jacks is not so.) I tried to hold the tears back the night before she left. I laid in my bed and thought how much I love her. How much she still means to me. How I can laugh at her. How she has been a loyal sister.

We sat and nursed and talked. We shopped. She helped immensly with the crazies and came with bagels and trinkets for all. It would have been really perfect if the other sisters and "ladies" (as Emma calls them) from our family were here too.

We both thought, heaven help the mother of twins. (maybe, for her next pregnancy though?)

Civil War

Our day in pictures... my sister Summer and her baby were here too. Perfect!

It was not over-crowded, under a couple hours drive away, and we learned so much. Like, the soldiers were all issued shoes that were not left or right footed... the soldier broke them in himself. Clothes were issued in a "one size fits all" fashion- pants were tied in the back with string so as not to lose them for the skinny guys.

For the reenactment battle, the "soldier" knew when to "play dead" by the card he recieved- it had an authentic name and brief history about that person, and if they were disabled or killed. We still are not sure who won. Or who we were rooting for. Summer, my sister, said she heard it was a battle that no one won.