Rebecca and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

Well, well, well. Where to start? First off, we had a fun weekend trip to visit our friends the Nations in Ridgecrest, where we used to live. However, when we came home Sunday night, little did we know we brought a stowaway with us -- the stomach flu! The very, absolutely worst stomach flu virus that exists on the face of this earth. Luckily we did not start getting sick until Monday evening. Here's the story, condensed but fairly detailed, if you have a sensitive stomach stop right here because it's pretty bad.

Monday evening, 6:15: Hannah gets out of bed feeling sick, throw up her toenails (and her entire huge dinner) while sitting on the potty "throwing up" out the other end as well. Daddy has run off to the store for Gatorade and saltines, so I have to hold the barf bowl for Hannah, while throwing up into my own barf bowl and getting splashed by Hannah's explosions.

6:30: Hannah gets bedded down on the couch, goes to sleep -- I take a turn on the procelain throne and throws up some more.

6:45-9:45 pm: Hannah occasionally wakes up and throws up, assisted by Daddy, becauseI have been throwing up (out both ends) nonstop this whole time. I think the final count for throwing up alone was 10 times during these three hours. The progression of vomiting was interesting: first came the food, second came the bile (which really burns coming out your nose, by the way), third came the slime that coats your stomach underneath all the bile. I didn't until now know that it was possible to run out of bile. Our friend came over to assist Seth in giving much-needed blessings, which was greatly appreciated.

10:15: Friends come back over to take care of sick Hannah because by this time I am so dehydrated I am headed to the hospital for an IV on doctor's orders. Thankfully we were the ONLY ones in the ER! Amazing. I was almost ready to pass out and my heart rate was 120. My throat was so burned and hoarse I could hardly talk. They plugged me in and pumped me full of Zofran, the nausea drug they give to chemo patients, and then two full bags of fluid, which hydrated me enough to send me home around 3 a.m., even though I was still feeling extremely ill. The doctor was impressed that the virus was strong enough to fight through the chemo drugs.

4 a.m.: We finally arrive home. On the way in, I throw up half the fluid I had just received, right there in the parking lot. People probably thought I was drunk. Both children are now awake and have been throwing up all night long. (These poor friends of ours. I don't know what we would have done without them!)

Tue morning - present: I have been taking Zofran every 8 hours and am afraid to stop!

Wed afternoon: Seth joins in. In the 6 1/2 yearsa we have been married, this is the first time he has ever thrown up. He sounds like a humongous wildcat coughing up a hairball. Scares the kids.

Anyway. We are slowly getting better, we feel better for the most part, but some symptoms have just been lingering and I just hope they go away someday. I don't ever, ever want to go through it again. I seriously wanted to die when I was sick Monday night. I could never have even imagine that life could be so incredibly terrible.

How was YOUR week?

Things I love that start with the letter "L"

This is a fun game my sister passed along that was a good opportunity for me to think hard about things I appreciate and value. Activities like this are good for me to do once in awhile just to remind myself who I am and what blessings I have in my life. It also helps me realize that there's really no reason for me to be as grumpy as I am sometimes. :)

1- Latin Ballroom - Anyone who know me knows I love to dance, and have spent most of my life doing some form of it. In college I fell in love with Latin ballroom, and it was even how I met Seth. Anyway, I am a particuar fan of rumba and cha-cha. But I love other forms of ballroom as well. One of the big reasons we moved from Ridgecrest was because there were no real opportunities for dancing there and I couldn't take it anymore!
As a side note, I have actually been doing Argentine tango since June and I even work for the tango instructor, who is a former international tango champion. It has been such a blessing for me to have this opportunity. We couldn't afford to take dance classes continuously, and now Seth and I get free classes and a few extra bucks a week by taking care of the spreadsheets. I work with great people and my schedule is so flexible. It has been a lot of fun and I'm thankful this opportunity fell right into my lap when I really wanted it!

2- Lawrence Welk - if you don't know who this is, you're missing out. This old-timer's tv show was where I learned to love ballroom dancing. It's the number one reason I wish we got local channels on tv. One of my fondest childhood memories is taking our Saturday night bath and then getting our hair tied in rag curlers and dancing around the living room while we watched Lawrence Welk on tv. Ahhhh. Love it.

3- Love - I'm thankful for all kinds of love: the love I have with my husband, with my kids, with my family, with friends and neighbors. I'm also of course thankful for the love our Heavenly Father has for us. He knows us so well and loves us so much, and we can always feel it when we need to. I'm also grateful that at Christmas time, you can feel this love all over, all the time! It's such a miracle to me.

4- Lists - It seems to me that most people like making lists for the satisfaction of crossing things off when they're done. Not me. I don't particularly care about accomplishing things. I love lists for the sake of the lists themselves. I like things organized.

5- Life - Yes, I like living, but the life I mean is the life all around us in the world. We have recently enjoyed watching the Planet Earth series and it's so fascinating and beautiful seeing the variety of life that has been placed on the earth for us to enjoy. I really do appreciate it.

6- Libraries - I love to read and I'm thankful to have libraries (and I'm thankful that those libraries are free!) I'm also thankful for the wonderful resources our libraries are for our children. It's such a great way for them to discover and explore their interests, and it's so fun to experience storytimes and various activities with them.

7- Long Hair - I wish I could grow it. My hair never looks the same for more than one haircut because the texture is so awful I just cannot find a good way to do it. If I could, I would have long, silky hair with loose, soft curls. Maybe in the next life!

8- Lightning - I love to watch lightning storms, as long as I know I'm safe. It kind of puts me in awe of the power of nature, and of course, the Omnipotent power that governs all nature!

9- Little Hands - My favorite thing about babies and my littel children are their tiny, soft, dimpled hands. I think they are so precious. Other super cute hands can be found on bats, lizards, and frogs. They are so stinking cute!

10- Light Touch Massage - I am a tactile person and I LOVE backscratches and massages, and my favorite is the technique of lightly dragging the back of the fingertips on my skin. Nothing makes me feel better faster!

Anyone else need a letter?

Halloween Pictures

I know I am late and lazy. But these are pretty cute. For Halloween we took the kids Trick-or-Treating at Sea World (a couple of times!) and they loved it. I should probably explain the kids' costumes. Joshua says he was a "green henchtable" (vegetable), but then on Halloween when Frenchman-daddy had a mustache, he wanted one too, so that day he looked more like a little elf or something. Hannah's first costume was a "ballerina Indian" (she came up with that on her own) and then she feminized her Tigger costume by wrapping a bow around her ear. They are so cute!

Another Teeny Tiny Favor...

This is for all of you friends out there (and I know there are several....) who have done hypnobirthing before. I took the class before Joshua was born, and ever since then Seth and I have used the Rainbow Relaxation to go to sleep (because I always fell asleep practicing, and I never slept better!)

Anyway, we used the copy recorded by Jessica Porter (the extra one they used to give you; the one that came in the book was Marie Mongan's recording), and my copy got SCRATCHED! And I can't use it any more! And for months we have been substituting with MM's version but I just can't stand it any longer. I hate that one!

So Seth tried to get another copy of the one I like online, and found that they don't make it anymore! And I am soooooo sad.

So...my question is...is there anyone out there who has a copy of the Jessica Porter one that wouldn't mind making a copy for me? PLEASE! I will pay for the shipping...I will send you a candy bar...I will do almost anything! I miss my sleep aid!

THANK YOU!!!!

Teeny Tiny Favor

Hi friends,

My sister Tiff is a finalist for winning a free night's stay at the Anniversary Inn! Just go to http://anniversaryinn.com/blog and scroll down until you find the story called "A blushing bride and a flushing groom"; then leave a brief comment (which counts as a vote). BUT HURRY! Conest ends Nov. 15!

Thanks!

In The Friend

Remember when you were little and thought it would be the coolest thing to be one of the Friends in the News? Well, this isn't quite that cool, but check page 13 of your Friend magazines this month to see a picture of Hannah at her first Primary activity! That's us, the San Diego 6th ward...and that's Hannah, the only girl with buzzed hair, grinning at "the camera" off to the side somewhere. So fun!

The Search

Today we went searching for a new couch. I know, we just got our futon a few months ago, but I like to change things around. A lot. And anyway, we decided a futon is no good. We just need a real couch with a good bed, so it's comfy to sit on as well as sleep on (the futon is not either of those things, for an extended period of time). As a side note, the kids have actually been sharing their room again for several months and doing great. They are good sleepers, but when Joshua goes through a "transition", it is major and takes a loooong time to iron out. So once we got him back on track Hannah moved back into their room.

Anyway, we of course began our search at our favorite playground store, IKEA. As you can see in the pictures, the kids made themselves right at home, trying out all the sleeper sofas and couches, anything they could climb into. Unfortunately, Hannah felt so much at home, she took her shoes off to get into bed and didn't put them back on, and the shoes have now been sucked into the black hole of IKEA. We spent awhile down at Lost&Found and Customer Service, but no luck. By this time, it was too late for me to drop the family off at home to go to my massage, so they all came with me, missed their naps, and we continued our sofa-search all afternoon with two tired kids, one of them shoeless. I'd be surprised if her tights don't have holes in them by now. But the kids were troopers. We were proud of them. (By the way, continuing our search was pointless, because we of course liked our IKEA pick best. now we just have to wait for our "extra" paycheck to come in so we can buy it. I love this time of year!)

Mommy, Wow! I'm a Big Girl Now

I am now officially an adult. Last night I filled the car with gas all by myself! No, this is not a joke. I think I have done this maybe twice in my life before now, and someone else was there with me guiding me through it both times. In fact, one of my more humiliating moments in life was going to the gas station, by myself, to fill the car and then leaving again without any gas because I couldn't figure it out and I was too embarrassed to ask for help. (As a result, I almost ran out of gas on the highway on my way home later that day, which was definitely one of the most panicky moments in my life! And yes, this was after I was grown up and married, I am ashamed to admit. I was almost 21 by this time.)

So anyway, be proud of me :) I did it, not because I wanted to, but because I forgot to make Seth do it earlier and I had no choice. But I made it all the way through without even a phone call to Seth, and I was only a little paranoid, looking over my shoulder to make sure no one was watching and could tell I didn't know what I was doing. Which goes to show that we really can do hard things when there's no way out of it!

More Funny Sayings

I know that 90% of my posts are about the things my kids say. But they are so funny I have to share them. Here are some things Hannah said to us this past week:

#1: Mommy, did you know that you are my woman?!

#2: Hannah is required to spend 1 hour each day in Quiet Time, which means she plays by herself in our room. When she is tired she has a really hard time entertaining herself and staying in the room until Quiet Time is over. Yesterday was one of those times, and she finally just came downstairs and sat there. When we requested that she go back in the bedroom, she sat down, put her chin in her hands, and said, "Shucks, I don't want to have quiet time!!!"

#3: Seth was trying to explain to Hannah what a joke is, so he used the most basic example he could think of. So for the last day and a half, she's been going around saying, super-fast, "A-guy-walks-into-a-bar-and-says-OUCH!" We hope she forgets this joke before she goes back to Primary next week (we had stake conference today).

Joshua has his own brand of humor and some unique quirks. He is such a boy. His favorite thing to do lately is to pretend to be a cat. He crawls around, snuggles, meows, and licks everything. However, we prefer him licking his pants or our arms to him licking the carpet, chairs, etc. everywhere we go. The worst is at bedtime, because he licks all over my face and chest while I am singing his songs. But if for some reason he's not doing that, he gets a kick out of pinching his nose and sucking in air, and then letting go to see how long his nostrils can stay stuck together without holding onto them!

You'll notice in the pictures from the last post that Joshua has a favorite round straw hat, which is stinkier and more battered than you can see in the pictures, and he wears it everywhere. All the time!

Joshua is the biggest Mama's boy this planet has ever seen. If Mommy is home, Seth can't do anything for him at all. He will cry and cry if Seth even tries to lift him out of his booster seat or pour him a bowl of cereal. It's ridiculous -- but kind of sweet too :)

He also is so cute with the way he talks. He loves to participate in scripture reading, and it's so funny to see such a tiny little person repeating words like stiffneckedness, visionary man, land of their inheritance, genealogy... you get the idea. He talks really well and has very grown-up sentences, but he still has a few funny words for things, like "helocoaster" instead of "roller coaster".

Anyway, they can be cute, even though at the moment I'm listening to them scream at each other...guess it's dinnertime!!!

Bad Blogger!

I know I have been really terrible about blogging this summer. Too bad, because we've actually had a really fun summer!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures of fun things we've done. The first two pictures are the kids in Las Vegas, where we just went to be with my parents and sister+husband. The kdis' favorite thing is the M&M store, followed closely by swimming at the resort my parents stay at. Unfortunately Joshua got sick the day we drove up there, and then I got it (the cough and cold thing), so he was really grumpy and clingy and I didn't get many pictures. That makes twice in a row that we have been quite ill when with my family. Even so, we always have lots of fun with them!

The pictures under that are Seth surfing for the first time -- he at least is finally a real coast-dweller! Our next door neighbor Phil is an expert surfer, so he taught Seth while I watched Kirra and our two kids, which was actually a lot easier to do at the beach than it is at home!

(Of course now that I am trying to blog again I can't get it to work, so the pictures are not where they should be at all. Enjoy anyway.)

Food

I am so in love with the grocery stores here. Most of them carry mostly whole, natural foods; plus, in the last few weeks I have gotten the following foods for the following prices:

watermelon: 10 cents/lb (is there a cents sign on the computer?)
raspberries: 77 cents/package
peaches and grapes: 39 cents/lb
strawberries: 88 cents/lb
green peppers: 3 for $1

One of these stores also has a great bulk section, so I no longer have to make monthly trips to Costco. I can get whole wheat flour for about 89 cents/lb, brown rice for 69 cents/lb, etc. I LOVE it!

Plus, we can always get milk for $1.89 a gallon. And people think San Diego's too expensive! (Okay, so rent's not cheap, but some things are worth paying for!)

Diseased

Yessiree. Picture this...

...all over my body. I think I have six patches just on my neck. I will now share the information from the handout I got from the dermatologist. Info in parentheses is my own addition.

Pityriasis Rosea

The most important thing about this benign skin disease is to understand the following things:

1. There is no common name for it.

2. Cause is unkown. It acts like a virus in some ways but is not contagious as most viruses are. Two cases in the same family are practically never seen. (And I'm the lucky one!)

3. It is more common in the spring and fall, but it is seen the year round.

4. Usually there is a Herald or Mother Patch which looks like a "ringworm". (See above photo.) It heralds the oncoming generalized eruption of small "ringworms" by hours to weeks. The usual distribution is neck to knees. (Not true. I have at least five patches on my calves.) It is rare on the face in adults (let's hope that's true) but relatively common in children.

5. It runs a natural course of 6 weeks (unlikely) to 3 months (more likely). (BTW, the doctor guesses I'm at just under two weeks right now.)

6. It leaes no marks or scars. (Praise be!)

7. It is extremely rare to have it the second time. (I repeat...praise be!)

8. It may or may not itch. (It may. Especially on my legs.)

9. Soap aggravates. Hot water aggravates. (Sweat aggravates. Scratching aggravates. Clothing aggravates.)

10. Sunlight helps. (I'm supposed to expose the spots, unprotected, as long as I can each day wthout getting sunburned. I'm told this gets tricky as the spots dot your "unexposable" areas. But my neck at least will be really wrinkly by the time this clears up!)

So if you see me coming down the street, please do not turn and run away. I know I look scary, but I am not leprous, and you do not need to scrub yourself down with sanitizing wipes if you walk past me. Just be thankful it's me and not you!

Here we are.

I was really enjoying my break from the computer. I hate being on the computer and even though I usually enjoy blogs and seeing my friends' families and where their lives are taking them, I have to admit I really enjoyed almost not touching the computer at all this past month. But we've had so much going on I will have to update with photos later, because it is really late.

So for right now I will just tell you a story called "Only a Mormon Kid..." This is from a conversation with Hannah yesterday.
Hannah: Did you know a mean guy came and tried to kill met last night?
Me: Really? What happened?
H: The mean guy came in and killed me and I was dead!
Me: Wow. Then what?
H: I got resurrected! It was Jesus.
Me: Oh, Jesus resurrected you?
H: Yes, and the Nephites. And I came down from heaven and they blocked their eyes and I was so bright!

(Later, watching Joshua run around in circles in the living room):
H: Samuel's chasing him!
Me: Who's Samuel?
H: The guy on the wall in the scripture picture. He jumped out of the scripture picture and now he's chasing Joshie!

Hannah has quite the imagination. This is the kid who often talks about the giant roly-poly doing the hokey pokey in the living room. ??? Who knows where she gets it? But I'm glad she's got it!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Mine in particular.

I've been kind of lazy about exercising since I got back from my trip to Boise. But Hannah's comment to me this morning whipped me right into shape:

"Mommy, your bum looks like dough!"

Punk. So while the kids ate breakfast, I did Pilates, and when Hannah asked me why I was exercising, I said "So I don't feel like dough!" Halfway through Hannah came to join me (she loves doing Pilates). After a couple of minutes she says, "I don't feel like dough anymore!" Then she came to stand behind me and coach me through the rest of my workout.

Later on she was telling me how she's almost 22 like Aunt Tiffy. "But Aunt Tiffy's almost 23...(sigh)...what rotten luck!"

She also calls an elephant a "pacagerm".

Joshua is mostly just cute. He's too little to be consciously sassy, he's just funny. If you ask him what a farmer says:

"Come here, Mrs. Piggy!"

And all the way home from Boise, on the airplane, he was yelling "I is nosepicker!"

He has also learned to be very demanding. He'll come running into the kitchen and say, "Mommy, give me water right now!" (This is only funny because he is so little and has such a little baby voice that shouldn't be able to construct these major sentences he uses.)

I always thought it was fun that my kids learned to talk so well so early. But now that I have two of them going nonstop -- and saying things like this!-- I can see how it might have been nice to have them quiet a little longer!

3 Weeks in Boise, Part II

So, the main reason we stayed in Boise for as long as we did is because my baby brother, R.J., is going on his mission! In the LDS church, 19-year-old boys are expected to have lived worthily and prepared themselves to serve a Church mission for two years. During those two years, they don't do any work, schooling, visiting with family, or anything else concerning their personal lives. They spend the first part of their mission in the MTC (missionary training center) learning how to teach the gospel full-time, and then they go out into the mission field.

R.J. is the first and only missionary in our family, so it's a pretty exciting time for us! Hannah, Joshua and I were able to be there to hear him speak in Sacrament meeting, and we had a wonderful time visiting with all of the family members who came to support him that day. Because he is serving in Tempe, Arizona we also had a Mexican-themed family party for him.

The kdis had a blast with the pinata!
Hannah loves having another 4-year-old in the family, her cousin Lance.The next time we take this picture, Hannah will be 6 and Joshua will be four! (and Seth will be over 30!)

R.J. (Elder Crandall now, since he was set apart tonight) goes into the MTC this Wednesday. We are sure proud of him but I will sure miss him! I've never not seen someone in my family for two years! We are so thankful we had the opportunity to take this trip. Thanks for all the fun and the good care you still take of me, Mom and Dad! and R.J., it's probably too late for you to see this, but we love you!

3 Weeks in Boise

...the condensed version. After the wedding we drove up to Boise and had a small, surprise-early- 40th Anniversary party for my parents at my brother Aaron's house.

Poor Joshie was tired.
During the first week, the kids took a tumbling class at Aunt Tiffany's gym, which they loved,

and then we had a fun, quick weekend trip to McCall. I didn't get any pictures from that, unfortunately. Then Daddy had to go back home, and Hannah got sick, and then Joshua got sick, and then Hannah got sick again! And I was so tired my brains were curdling, but even so we managed to have a good time during the last two weeks. We played games (which is my number one favorite thing to do with my family), Hannah helped Grandpa Buzz plant the garden...

...while Joshua played with the hose,
they read with Grandma,

ate ice cream from the ice cream (wo)man,

and just generally enjoyed themselves.we even had a couple of outings, on to the temple, where they love to see the fountain,

and one to visit my good friend/chiropractor, Afshin. Hannah did great at her first chiro visit (a follow-up to the awful fall she had last year).

And now I feel like this post is getting awfully long so I'm going to save the most important part of the trip for the next post!

The Wedding

Sorry about the long break! We have done a lot over the past few weeks, so it will have to be condensed and broken up. First, we were privileged to be able to attend Seth's brother Ben's wedding in Salt Lake at the end of April. We were so happy to finally meet Allyson, who is a beautiful girl and a wonderful addition to the family. Congratulations, you two!

Hannah LOVED dancing at the wedding reception. She danced with any boy she could get her hands on.

Seth (and kids) with his parents and Grandpa Wright

Megan and me. It was so fun to see her after almost two years!

Joshua laughing at the paper cranes swinging from the ceiling

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Today is Hannah's birthday. I can't believe it has been four years already. She is the joy of our lives. It has been so fun to see her grow up this past year. She is definitely no longer my baby (in the physical sense); Hannah has apparently inherited the rest of my family's height genes and is much taller than most children her age. Sadly, she will likely pass me up in height much sooner than I anticipated! On the happier side, she has grown into such a sweet, funny, and wonderful 4-year-old it's hard to feel too sad about leaving her "babyhood" behind.

Some things to love about Hannah:

1. She likes to make up words. Some of her favorites include metarian, tap-a-doer, and eckerjump. The funniest thing is she remembers these words and uses them over and over as if they actually have a real meaning.

2. She also likes to use big words, such as "meticulous" and "essentially".

3. She says really funny things to me in public, such as "chuuubby little mama!" and "Hi, sweetie pants!" (that one while swatting me on the backside).

4. The way she loves her brother and gushes over him. Sometimes it's as simple as "He's such a cute little baby!" and sometimes funnier, like "Oh, Joshie, you're so righteous!"

5. She is confident and brave. She loves giving talks in Primary and bearing her testimony in sacrament meeting. She loves to pretend to perform whatever art form she's interested in at the time -- dancing, ice skating, you name it.

6. Her femininity! She is quite certain she's a princess and has refused to wear pants for the longest time, because princesses don't wear pants. Luckily, she knows that a princess is kind and obedient, and not bossy. She's also very particular about what feminine role she's taking on at a given time -- sometimes we call her princess, and she says "I'm not a princess, I'm a ballerina!" But my favorite is when she says "I'm not a princess or a ballerina, I'm just a Hannah."

Well, as further proof that "just a Hannah" is a wonderful thing to be, here are pictures from the birthday festivities this weekend.

We went to a tea shoppe yesterday for a real tea party; both children were extremely well-behaved and we were so proud of them. They had fancy hats in the ladies' room so that's what the children are wearing in the pictures (don't laugh too hard at Joshie; they didn't have any boy hats!)

Today some of our wonderful friends and neighbors came over to celebrate with Hannah by eating brownie ice-cream cones and watching her open presents. It meant so much to her to have someone there to celebrate her special day with her.

It was our neighbor Kiera's birthday today as well! So she got a special candle in her cone too.

Happy birthday Hannah! We sure love you!

A Day at the Beach

Recently the kids and I visited the tide pools with our wonderful next-door neighbors. I just wanted to share some of the cute pictures. This was the first time we have been over to the beach since we moved here, and I had to roll my eyes at the kids' reactions. I for one LOVE living by the ocean, and I thought the kids would feel the same way. But it took about ten minutes of trying to convince Hannah that the fish in the ocean were not going to bite her, and Joshua kept saying "Sharks! Sharks! Sharks!" Luckily by the time we had to go, they didn't want to leave, and now Hannah keeps asking to go to the beach (and to go surfing), so I think it's growing on them.

I guess I should have called this post "a few days at the beach." We also went to La Jolla this past weekend to see the seals. Hannah ended up wanting to take a squirrel home (they will eat right out of your hand; they are pretty cute), and Joshua just wanted to climb over the wall and join the seals. He hadn't taken a nap that day and he was so obnoxious we were about to let him!