Carving Pumpkins

Last night, after the ward Halloween Party, we carved pumpkins with Jared and Michelle. Jeff and I grew the two pumpkins we carved. Be afraid little pumpkin, be very afraid!

Diggin' the guts out.
Michelle having a great time!

Jared trying to get Mario's face positioned right.

My "Boo" pumpkin, Jeff's "Bat" pumpkin, and Michelle's "Count Dracula" pumpkin. Jared wasn't quite done with his, so I'm afraid there is not picture of his "Mario" pumpkin.

Another Halloween Party

Friday night a Police Officer and a Monkey accompanied us to our Ward Halloween Party.

Jeff's parents and three nieces also came with us. As well as the three McCombs girls.
The whole gang (plus a firefighter). Hannah, Mason, Cooper, Ashley, Megan, Allen, Isabella, Savannah, and Mailee.

Girls Night Out

Thursday night I was able to go out with some friends without the kids in tow! Shelley is in town visiting family, so the four of us took advantage of that opportunity to go out. The four of us at Azteca. Ah aren't we so cute?
Kimberlee and Heather
Me and Shelley

Preschool Party

Thursday morning Mason had a Halloween party at his preschool. He had lots of fun playing the games, making different Halloween treats and then eating them.

Playing Halloween Bingo. Mason was the first to get five M&M's in a row for a BINGO!
Pin the heart on the mummy.

Making a ghost out of a sucker

Putting eyes and a mouth on his ghost.Cooper even got to make a ghost.Sharing his snack with Cooper.
Standing in front of his "brag board"

With his preschool class.

The Pope and Nancy Pelosi

I just got this email from a friend, I found it funny. Just thought you all could use a good laugh.

The Pope and Nancy Pelosi

The Pope and Nancy Pelosi are on stage in front of a huge crowd.

The Pope leans towards Mrs. Pelosi and said, "Do you know that with one little wave of my hand I can make every person in this crowd go wild with joy? This joy will not be a momentary display, like that of your followers, but go deep into their hearts and for the rest of their lives whenever they speak of this day they will rejoice!"

Pelosi replied, "I seriously doubt that; with one little wave of your hand? Show me."

So the Pope slapped her.

Big boy bed

Saturday night, while Jeff and I were at the Halloween Party, my Dad watched our boys. Cooper told his Papa that he wanted to sleep in the big boy bed, so my Dad let him and he stayed in bed all night, without falling out. Last night he wanted to sleep in it again, so we let him. He did fall out once and by the time I went in to check on him, he was already climbing back into bed. He did come in our room in the middle of the night and wouldn't go back, and stay in bed, so he spent the rest of the night in the crib.

Halloween Party

Jeff and I went to a Halloween Party on Saturday night. Someone in my sister's ward had these costumes and let us borrow them.
We are debating whether or not to dress up for our ward Halloween party. Thing 1's outfit was....um....a bit reveling...and both outfits give you a nice saggy butt.

At the party with a few of the ladies from our ward.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

Tuesday (just after the sleep-less night we had) Mason went to the pumpkin patch with his preschool. They got to take a tractor ride through the orchard, learn about the many different apples (over 100 varieties), and got to pick an apple. Then they had a demonstration of how apple cider is made, and were able to try some fresh apple cider. Next they got to have a discussion about the different things you can make with apples. Last they got to pick a pumpkin to take home.On the tractor

Zachary and Mason with the apples they picked.
My cute little man!
Mason with the pumpkin he picked.

ER visit

Monday night around 6pm Jeff and I noticed that Cooper was having a difficult time breathing. So Jeff gave him a nebulizer treatment. The treatment only seemed to help him for about 15-20 minutes, usually a treatment should help for at least 2-4 hours. So at 8pm Jeff gave Cooper another treatment, which didn't help either and then a third treatment at 10pm, which didn't help either. So at 11:30pm we took Cooper into the ER. We were called back right away, which was WONDERFUL! Cooper's oxygen saturation was 88%. A normal, healthy person's saturation's should be 98-100%. The Dr. was not sure why Cooper was under respiratory distress. Cooper was given another nebulizer treatment, at first the respiratory therapist probably thought we were crazy because Cooper sounded great right after the treatment, but within 15 minutes his oxygen sats were back down and he sounded horrible. After this Cooper was given an oral steroid, which is suppose to relax the muscles in the chest so that they are not contracting and making it harder for the lungs to do their job. Then the Dr. ordered a nose swab, to rule out the flu and RSV and a chest x-ray to see if anything else appeared in his chest that would be causing the breathing difficulties. The steroid is slow acting, so the Dr. kept Cooper in the ER to observe him while we waited on the results of the nose swab and chest x-ray. Well, the nose swab came back negative and the chest x-ray came back normal. So then the Dr. wanted to keep Cooper in the ER for two more hours (it was now 2am), then if Cooper's sats didn't improve (95% or better) he would be admitted to the peds unit to give him more steroids through an IV. At 3am Cooper became really cranky, Jeff became really cranky, and I became really cranky. When the respiratory therapist came in I told her that it was pointless to keep him in the ER for observation. They either needed to admit him so he could sleep in a crib, or send him home because there isn't anything the RT there could do that Jeff, as an RT as well, couldn't do at home. Once I pushed the issue, the Dr. came in and asked Jeff if he felt comfortable taking Cooper home and observing him there, and if he didn't improve or got worse to bring him back in. Of course Jeff was comfortable with that, so at 3:45am we were on our way home, with prescriptions for an oral steroid and nebulizer treatments every two hours.

Cooper went into our Dr. Tuesday morning. Our Dr. thinks Cooper must have been getting a cold, which aggravated his respiratory system, which brought on an asthma attack.

Cooper is doing much better now. He is still a little "raspy" but should be all better within a day or two.

How high can I go?

What can I say? THIS is Cooper. The dare devil. The feisty one. The one who is going to end up with his head cracked open one day.

All because he wanted a toy that was on top of the fridge. Really kid? Couldn't you have just asked me to get it for you? Nope. He's got to get it himself!

I pulled him off the microwave at least 5 times today and I probably pull him off the counter AT LEAST 20 times a day. All because he wants food that is either in the cupboards or on the counter. And we wonder why he's such a chunk.

Tonight he stuck three fingers inside an empty can, the lid was still on the can, but pushed down a bit. So he couldn't get his fingers out. I literally looked away from him for two seconds, but was standing right next to him, and he grabbed the can and stuck his fingers in. I was able to get two of the three fingers out, but the third did not come out without getting a good size cut on it first.

Life

Jeff has been down in Kennewick for work since early last Thursday morning. He is training a new employee the "Respiratory" side of the business. Luckily, DeAnne and Justin (my sister and bro-in-law) live in Kennewick, so Jeff has been able to stay with them instead in a boring old hotel.

I took the boys down to Kennewick on Sunday to spend the day with Jeff, and also to be there for the blessing of DeAnne and Justin's newest, Alaina. I was really worried about driving down by myself. I knew I could physically do it, but I didn't know if I could mentally handle it. What if Cooper SCREAMS the whole time? What if Mason SCREAMS at Cooper the whole time for SCREAMING the whole time? What if the boys want a snack and I can't assist them with that? What if...what if... what if...

As all these what ifs kept bombarding my brain, I would try to come up with a way to deal with the what if. I made sure I was as prepared for the what ifs as I could be.

We made it to Kennewick in one piece, and with ear drums intact. What a relief.

One funny thing, on the way down I asked the boys if they knew where we were going. Cooper shouted, DADDY'S HOUSE! This was his answer every time I asked. I guess he thought Daddy had moved out. Thankfully this is not the case.

We had a great time visiting Jeff and the rest of our family who came down for the blessing.

On the way home, both boys fell asleep, and so I had time to ponder. I came to a few conclusions about life.

1) I realized that I can do WAY more than I thought I could... I have been a "single mommy" for almost a week now and have not lost my mind once. That's a miracle. AND I have not had anxiety about staying alone at night. That is HUGE for me. Before we moved to our new house, I would get so anxious when Jeff was gone at night, it didn't matter if we were living in our apartment or our other house, I always got anxious thinking of all the worst possibilities of things that could happen to me while Jeff was gone, and so I would sit, crying, until either I fell asleep, or Jeff came home. Sad. I know.

2) I also realized that I can do difficult things, like raising our boys, without the help of Jeff. I would never choose to do these things alone, but if I ever had to, I could. Why would I ever choose to do this alone? that's crazy! My mind drifted to wondering how husbands and wives choose to separate, when the marrital issues they have are resolvable. I am not talking here about infidelity, abuse, or other serious issues, but rather "growing apart", or "falling out of love" type issues. Why do couples choose to separate? Why would you choose to raise your kids alone? Why? Why? Why? Yes, having a healthy, stable marriage takes effort, isn't it worth the effort? I would say so.

Then I asked myself this same question with regards to life. Why do people choose to go through this life alone? without their Savior, Jesus Christ? Life is hard. We all have trials in our lives. Why do people choose to go through those trials without the help and companionship of Christ? Having Jeff gone for a week has been a trial for me. I know that without the help and companionship of Christ, this trial would have been much harder on me. Yes, living the Gospel of Jesus Christ takes effort, but isn't it worth the effort? I would say so.

Can I come too?

Jeff left this morning for the Tri-Cities to train a new employee, he will be gone until next Wednesday night. As he was packing last night, Cooper laid down in the suitcase with his blanket and said it was his bed. I'm thinking he thought he was going with his Daddy. Aren't I cute? Who wouldn't want to take me with them?

Mason Robot

My cute boys

Just a few cute pictures of the boys. Cooper with the one thing he thinks he can't live with out.

Otter pops.

Or Aww pops as he says.

Mason with possibly his favorite thing. Can you spot it? It's his bear he is siting on. I asked him why he was sitting on bear (as that is the bears name, fitting huh?). He said he was keeping bear comfortable. Not exactly my idea of comfortable, but whatever makes you happy kid.

New Camera

Our camera got broken about two months ago, by Mason, who thought he was helping me put the memory card back in the camera, but he put the memory card in wrong, and in doing so, bent the little prongs inside the camera. We have put off buying a new camera because we have hade Julia and Bill staying with us for those two months and so when we needed a camera we just borrowed theres. Well since Julia and Bill moved back into their house today, we went out and bought this new camera.

Fire Station Field Trip

Today Mason's preschool had a field trip to fire station 92. Mason said his favorite part was getting out of the fire. I'm not sure what he was talking about, there was no fire, but that's OK. Here is Mason with his classmates and teacher, Ms. Jolinda.

Kindergarten MADNESS

*sigh* Oh the things we do for our kids! As most of you know Mason just turned four in July, one thing I never thought I would be doing this early in his life was registering him for Kindergarten. Yes, you heard right. No, he is not some genius kid being allowed to go to school a year early. Prairie View Elementary begins Kindergarten registration for the next school year on October 1st at 8:00am. I'm sure you are asking yourself, why does that school begin Kindergarten registration so early? Right.

Well, the area that we live in is booming! There are new houses being built by the day! Just to give you an idea, the block we live on, we were the first to move in last September, since then there have been 7 more families move in, with 5 more houses under construction and all but one of those is sold (but I'm sure it won't be long before that last one is sold as well). Out of all 13 households, all but two are/will be occupied by younger couples either with little kids or hoping to some day start a family. Crazy right? And that's just on ONE block. Now imagine an entire area of the city, with blocks identical to ours, and just one elementary in that area for all those kids. That is what we have.

Prairie View has room for 80 Kindergartners and for the 2009-2010 school year, they had about 110 kids register for Kindergarten. So the other 30 or so kids have to be bussed to other elementary schools in the district and loose any where from 30-60 mins of school every day, due to being on the bus.

One awesome person in our ward (Alicia) told me that in order to get your child into the school you have to be one of the first 80 people in the doors on registration day, kids with older siblings already at the school are not grandfathered in, so it truly is a first come, first serve basis.

So yesterday morning, Alicia and I got up at 3:20am and went down to the school and waited in line. By the time we got there, there were already 25 people in line! We sat in the bitter cold until about 5:30am, when the janitor let us all inside, where we waited until 7:00 when we were given a number. Then we had until 3:30pm to get all our required documents and paperwork filled out and back to the school, if we didn't get it all in that day, we forfeited our spot. By 8:15am all 80 numbers were handed out.

All thee news stations came out to get a piece of the madness. I, proudly, did not get suckered into talking to the news, but there are a few clips of me sitting in line wrapped in my pink blanket. Watch the videos and see if you can spot me.

KHQ coverage

KREM coverage

KXLY coverage

So unless the school begins giving kids with older siblings an automatic buy into the school, I'll be back in front of the school at 3:30am (or earlier) on October 1, 2011 for Cooper.