thursday tidbits

• My husband has been home sleeping all day long and puking in between his sleep. I checked on him when I got home tonight and he's still in his work clothes, even though he never made it to work. He is never sick, so hopefully this passes quickly.
• I had lunch with my boss today and went over my evaluation. We had lots of laughs and a good time, not to mention Qdoba has awesome food.
• I went to my friends Pampered Chef party tonight, which was also fun. I love to get out of the house and do stuff like that, but it happens so rarely.
• Jayden told me he was tired tonight and wanted to go to bed. That made for easy bedtime!
• I washed coats and snow pants tonight and Devin's coat has stayed the dirty color it was before I washed it. The sleeves are worse.
• Jayden finally went back to preschool today after a very long winter break. He did great! And I was surprised to see his old teacher there after school today. She was so nice!

crazy trees

Each week when I am driving in the Oldham area I come across these trees that remind me of a tree graveyard if that's even possible. A bunch of dead trees with no leaves and no branches to speak of poking through the snow. In a few months, these same trees will be basking in the water of the currently frozen lake.

And this tree is just a crazy tree! It's reaching for the road as if it's trying to grab the cars as they pass by. I catch myself thinking sometimes that I hope nobody drives off the road and hits that because it's so low!

the dog

The dog puked on my bed this morning.
The dog was told not to sleep on my bed last night.
The dog didn't listen.

The dog puked on my bed this morning at 5:35am.
I could not clean it up.
I could not look at it.
My husband is working.

The dog puked on my bed this morning and now I'm short on sleep.
All because I can't clean up puke. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!!

oh dryer

This is what we do on Saturday nights, at least last night anyhow. And it's been needing to be done for a long time. Our dryer has been taking roughly 3-4 hours to dry a load of clothes. Mike has been wanting to clean it out, but finding the time was the challenge.

It was a mess. He took it all apart and there was lint everywhere. In certain places it was inches thick and covered everything.
Once we found the heating element, we found black lint. I had already vacuumed it up before I took a picture of it, but this is what the inside looked like, or what was left that didn't initially suck up. I'm actually surprised (and relieved) that we didn't have a fire from this dryer.

I'm also thankful my husband is so handy with everything, can fix anything, and enjoys doing these projects.

After this picture I went upstairs and didn't come back down until he hollered. What I saw was a huge pile of lint, yet I couldn't figure out where it came from because I had already vacuumed everything. He said that is what he pulled out of the vent hose. One piece was about 5 inches by 6 inches thick, wet, and definitely a big cause why our dryer wasn't working.

Now, our first load, was dry within 45 minutes!

dentist

We all headed to Sioux Falls yesterday bright in early, in the freezing rain. We passed two cars that were in the ditch. One still had dealer tags, and the other a long trailer behind it.

Our kids, yes all six, had dentist appointments yesterday morning. I wasn't sure how Jayden would do since he has not been pleased with the dentist in the past. He's never had his teeth cleaned and has only been able to get a lap to lap exam. I figured that's how this appointment would go too.

He was quite hesitant to go back, he said no a few times, he tried to turn and walk away, but after he got back through the first doors, I didn't see him again until he was done. Yes, done. As in, he got his teeth cleaned and even got x-rays! I'm so proud of him. I'm sure that was tough on him and scary for him, but he did great. So did the other kids, but they always do.

I bribed Jayden. I told him he could pick out a toy at the store if he went back and did what the dentist said. Best news of the day, none of our kids have cavities! The dentist was wondering when we were going to get Shawndra's teeth pulled for braces. I didn't realize there was time frame on when it had to be done. It always comes down to financial reasons why we are waiting. The monthly payment for braces is quite spendy and frankly, not something we can afford. Hopefully in time that will change.

We went to the store and Jayden looked and looked, but couldn't decide what he wanted. It ended up being overwhelming for him and he threw a tantrum, so we left. I did pick up a toy for his birthday next month.

6 days later

6 days later and the swelling is finally going down, but his eye is getting blacker and blacker. I'm wondering how far the bruise will go. Can you see the long yellowish bruise going down his cheek?

He's also still having bad teeth and jaw pains. I think he'll be heading to the doctor tomorrow. He reaches in his mouth and pushes and pulls and that doesn't hurt, but the rest of his mouth hurts, so we're thinking it's nerves. Maybe it will go away when this is healed.

tonight's tidbits

My 6 year old daughter went to school wearing a very cute pink princess outfit that is the length of capris....even though she has been told that is a spring or summer outfit. Yes, I went to work early, but Mike was here, except he didn't notice.

I had an amazing Pampered Chef party last night, which is closing tomorrow. Still taking orders if anyone wants to get anything. It can be shipped directly to you!

I'm still plugging away at all my pictures. I'm officially done with all my 2010 pictures and am currently working on 2009.

I was in my jammies within 5 minutes of coming home today. I love my jammies.

The kids all have dentist appointments on Monday in Sioux Falls. And then we meet Jayden's teacher that afternoon.

Hoping for no snow this weekend so I can see my husband. Speaking of him, the lower part of his eye is blacker than black and larger, but the swelling is coming down so that is good!

aftermath of getting hit in the face

My loving husband

after getting hit in the face
with a handy man jack.
Could have been so much worse.

hit in the face

My husband never goes to the doctor, which I've heard is very typical for a man. If they are hurt they grin and bear it, or glue it together, or duct tape it, or something. And if you even get to the point where they admit they are hurt, then you know it's serious. That happened to me tonight.

My husband called and told me when he got back to the shop he was going to the hospital because he was hit in the face with a handy man jack. Instant panic hit me, but I think I kept it under control. He rattled off that he had to do other stuff before he could go, but I'm sure that was adrenaline speaking, or just being the boss speaking.

I quickly picked up the kids and had Shawndra watch them while I went back to town to pick him up and take him to the hospital. My first view of him was his cheek was very swollen, his nose was crooked and bleeding, and he had a welt on his cheek. He told me his cheek, teeth and nose hurt. He looked tough.

As I drove him to the hospital he told me that he had the weight of the plow up on the jack and he was pushing down on the handle, when his wet gloves slipped off, and the handle smacked him in the face. One inch higher and he could have lost his eye. One inch lower and he could have lost his teeth.

The doctor's and nurses in the ER joked about how hard his wife had hit him and how he should learn to duck when I'm swinging. He got quite the kick out of that.

They did an x-ray to see if the bone below his eye was broke. Not only was it clear of a break, but there were no fractures! Praise God! He will be very swollen and black and blue for several weeks. His teeth feel loose to him and his nose is sore and still bleeding off and on. His cheek is looking like there is a large golf ball under his cheek, along with the swelling you typically see from one who has had their wisdom teeth pulled. He's sore. But considering what happened, things could have turned out much worse.

Frozen peas, Motrin and Heath Klondike bars have been the highlights of his evening. And as I type this, his eye is already turning colors.

motivation

Where's my motivation? Has anyone seen it? I swear it was here at one time or another, but has gone missing. If any of ya'll see my motivation, would you let me know because I could really put it to use! Thanks!

cutest little mouse

I was at a Christmas gathering and one of the goodie trays had the cutest little mouse on it. It was edible, except I couldn't eat mine because it was so darn cute!

Don't you think so?

stress and confidentiality

Stress. What can I say about it. I would like to say a lot of stress comes from my home life and raising 6 kids, but not all of it does. Many days, my stress comes from my job. And what I find even more difficult is my job relies heavily on confidentiality, so the one avenue I have, blogging, is something I can't do to relieve the stress.

I would like to use my blog as a place to write about all my problems and concerns and things that scare me, but the one big thing that's happening right now is something I cannot tell you about because it is confidential.

The next two months are going to be very trying for me and very difficult in my job. Relationships could be jeopardized. I ask you to think of me, maybe say a prayer, and hope this doesn't get worse before it gets better.

my resolution

I've been giving the whole resolution thing a lot of thought and I couldn't decide what I really wanted my resolution to be this year. I have the typical resolution to lose weight and as optimistic as I would like to be, I have had this resolution every year I think and have never really succeeded. But, it's still a resolution.

The one I am most excited about is maybe silly to some of you, but is something that is very doable. In fact, I have been very busy trying to catch up from the errors of this mistake from years past. Drum roll please.....

This year (and every year) from here on out, I will stay on top of developing pictures that I take and placing them into photo albums so my children can look at them. Let me back up.

I used to be really good at taking pictures and getting them developed. The first 6 months of Jayden's life fill a photo album. And that's where I stopped. Seriously. He is going to be 4 next month. That means I have 3 1/2 years of pictures to sort through and get developed and placed into albums. Today I made good on part of this. I actually got through 6 months of pictures and ordered them online. They'll be here in 3 days! And I got through another 2 months and they are now online and ready to be ordered. Plus, I bought 2 photo albums at Wal-Mart today.

Another resolution I have is much more serious and requires me to be more honest and vulnerable. I plan to admit my faults, learn to apologize, and put my frustrations into words. Simply put. Enough said. Now the hard part....actually working on it.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to my fellow friends, family, and other blog readers. We came banging into the new year with a blizzard, which is typical for this area on New Year's Eve. My family stayed home and played games. Mike has been busy with work. In fact, last night he got called into work at 12am to plow the interstate for the ambulance to get to Sioux Falls. Except it took longer than expected, so he ended up staying at work until 6:30pm tonight. His work day today was 18 hours and that was after 2 hours of sleep. Plus he had worked 3am-7pm right before that. How he stayed awake is beyond me. As I type this now, he is sound asleep in bed, right where I put him. :)