Shoes

We all do embarrassing things now and then. I'm not sure if it was the frazzeledness of yesterday morning, running around trying to get everyone ready to walk out the door, or my absentmindedness (not paying attention to what I was doing) or the dreaded "Baby brain" that seemed to disappear with pregnancy and I am still waiting for the return.

Whether it was one or all of these reasons, I was utterly embarrassed.

Yesterday morning, while walking to my office from the parking lot I glance down and let out a little scream! I am wearing two different shoes!

One black, one snakeskin brown.

I'm already running a few minutes late and have a ton of work sitting on my desk that I know I don't have time to go home. Luckily they are both somewhat dark (the picture doesn't show as much difference as they really are.)

I get to my desk and hide my feet under my desk, thankful that I don't have any scheduled meetings!

Kisses and Blankies

A few weeks ago I was pretty upset on my way home from work. I picked up the boys and drove home. On the way home, I broke down and just started crying. I hear a little voice coming from the back seat:
"You sad Mommy?"
"Yes Brendan, Mommy is sad."
"Aw! I sorry mommy, I kiss you get home."
"Thank you Brendan"
"Blankie make you feel better."

A smile breaks through my tears. He is such a sweet boy, I am lucky to have such a wonderful, caring son.

When we got home, Brendan ran to the back room while I tried to pull myself together. Suddenly I hear Brendan struggling and crying "it's stuck!" I find him in my room trying to pull my comforter off my bed. "Blankie's stuck!"

I fall to the ground and wrap the little guy in my arms. Because to a toddler, kisses and blankies make everything better.

Circumstances

Sometimes things happen and we cannot understand why. Other times, circumstances in your life are a direct result of certain actions. Although we can’t explain everything that happens, it is life and we learn from every experience.

Whenever there is a break in my blogging it is typically a direct result of the time in our life. And I know when I am gone, many of you wonder what is going on, for some of you, this is the only way you keep up on what is happening in our life! I didn’t post this right away mainly because I like to figure things out before I post it for the world to see. I also wasn’t quite sure what to write.

Scott lost his job. It was a major shock to us both. So many emotions, so many thoughts, a lot of prayers. It happened a few weeks ago, April 29th. We are upset, but we both believe that God is in control and there are other opportunities out there for us.

I am without words today. Whenever I think about writing this blog post, I have so many thoughts. I could say this. Should I say that? How detailed do I go? The truth is, this is just a small piece of this road we are traveling. It may seem like a huge roadblock, but as the weeks go on, we begin to see it more as a detour in life. We are not stuck, waiting for this blockage to be moved by someone else, we are continuing to travel on, just in a different direction than we originally planned.

Scott has taken this opportunity to go back to school and get his teaching credential. He is also focusing more of his attention on teaching in higher education. Although this is a difficult time to find a job, and History Professors are in no means in a high demand.

We are actively waiting to see what will come of this situation.

I will try to keep you updated more on our life, and what opportunities are presented to us. Until then, please keep us in your prayers. It is too tempting to become discouraged, disheartened, or doubt. That is not what we are called to do, and we just have to trust that there is a plan for our lives.

Birthday

I was really able to think about my life and getting older after my birthday party this year. I have the best Best Friend ever (I'll have to write more on her later), but Tawni has a wonderful husband and a good friend to me. When Rob found out that Scott was going to be away on my birthday, he felt terrible. So he decided to throw me a birthday party. Through no fault of his own...no one came.

However, it will be a birthday I wont soon forget because I felt truly loved and appreciated. No politics, no acting put together, or worrying about my children being disruptive, no games-we-all-play-at-parties, no stress.

It was just me, my children, my two friends and their children.

Rob made dinner; just for me. We had steak with a homemade steak sauce, twice baked potatoes, and asparagus with a Benedict sauce. I got to spend time with my best friend, have great conversation, and just enjoy being me.

Our boys played (and fought) with their toys. We had Cookies and Creme Ice Cream Cake. And I was presented with a small packet of letters from friends. I loved them all...especially Shanda's (who lives on the other-side-of-the-world). It made me cry at the memories (I might retype it so you call can see how much we have been though together) and remember that this is what has made my life what it is. Building friendships and memories with friends that are like-minded, supportive and share a common faith with me.

I put the boys to bed and spent time with adults (something that can only really happen after 8:00 at night). As I was driving home that night at midnight with my two sleeping kids in the back seat, praying for the safety of my husband in another country, I had to stop and really thank God for how blessed I am with my friends and my family. Who cares that I am now 28? So what if I "feel" old.

This is my life, and the older I get, the more I learn about myself. I don't want to go back to the days of staying up until 4:00 am every night, or wondering if Mr. Cool is into me or not, or studying all night for the final just to sleep through my alarm the next morning. I am happy being in my late twenties, happy knowing that my husband loves me, happy that I have found a job that I love and am good at, happy with my children, and happy with the best friend (and her husband) anyone can find.

Happy 28th Birthday to me!

(still dreading 30, but I still have a couple years...)

28

This year I turned 28. I'm not really one to focus on age, especially not myself. It seemed silly that I always forgot how old I was when I was only 22, but somehow 6 years later, it is much more convenient. I love celebrating birthdays, just not ages. So when my birthday grew near I was thinking about how old I was, thinking I was turning 27. Except I know my lovely sister is having her 30th this year, which would make me 2 years younger. Dang, how can I be that old already?

I feel old.

Sometimes I still feel like I am fresh out of college, still a newlywed, starting out on this journey. But in reality, I have been married for almost 6 years now, at the same job for just as long and on my second promotion. We are happy with our little family and out two beautiful children. This is where we are, this is life, I am no longer "Just Starting Out"...maybe I need to change my blog?

I watch my student workers, still in college, being trained for a full time job after graduation. With late nights, Denny's study breaks, first dates, final exams...I know that! I was there! Not long ago. And yet, I feel so removed, I'm not one of them. We go to bed at 9:30, Denny's is for breakfast now, and we are lucky if we get one date night a month. I'm their boss, married with two kids.

I feel so old.

Please don't get me wrong, I am happy with my life. I love my life. But 28 is hard. I'm now in my late 20's. We have traded in our life of late night movies, spontaneous weekends, cheap Hyundai's traveling all over southern California, parties & clubs, fake nails, and Saturdays at the mall for early morning feedings, a house with a mortgage, minivans, kid birthday parties, Costco memberships, playgrounds, and full-time jobs.

I am old.

And yet...I love my life.

Sunny Days

I know I have been absent for a little bit. For those of you that didn’t know, Scott was gone for 11 days on a Mission Trip to Belize. My hands were a little full and blogging was not on my top list of priorities. So much was going on, I’m not sure where to even start!

Scott left for his trip late Thursday (March 31st) night, but we didn’t see him after he left for work at 6:30 in the morning. Shortly after Scott left for work, I got a call from Marion saying she was sick and couldn’t watch the boys. This was the first time in the 2 ½ years we have been with her that she called me unable to watch the boys. I called around for childcare and luckily my sister agreed to watch the boys for a few hours while I went into to work to wrap things up on my desk. I did what I could in the morning and went home early to relieve my sis. I visited with Bekah for a bit and then the boys and I spent the afternoon and evening with Tawni and her boys.

Marion called again Thursday night saying she was still sick, I took the day off to be at home with my boys. My sister ended up needing to go to work for the morning, so I got to watch my beautiful niece for half the day on Friday. After the morning nap, my mom called me asking how things were going. She mentioned that usually watching an extra kid for her was a reminder she didn’t want more kids, and asked me if I was ready for number 3? I told her that it was a piece of cake and that I was supermom! Three is no problem, not much different than two, not that I am planning number three… At one point I was able to get all three kids down for a nap and have time to take a nice shower and watch (most of) an episode of Biggest Loser! We spent a lot of time outdoors on Friday, and most of the weekend actually. We hit potty-training pretty hard since the weather was warm enough to not wear pants :-) Both Caleb and Lily enjoyed the sunshine on a blanket, and Brendan ran all over soaking up the sun. Later that afternoon Tawni and her boys came over and we let the big boys play in the water while the sun was out.

Saturday I drug the boys around on a few errands, on our way home I picked up McDonalds to bring home. I told Brendan we were going to eat lunch outside for a picnic. He thought this was the best idea ever and since then has asked several time for “lunch outside”.

I realized that I am not a good housewife.
I spent 3 ½ days home with my kids and didn’t clean at all.
We colored outside,
walked to the park,
had a picnic in our backyard,
built castles with blocks,
played on a slip-and-slide,
cuddled on the couch for the 257th viewing of Monsters Inc,
and just enjoyed each other.

It was on Sunday night I looked around at the
blocks on the floor,
crayons on the kitchen table
and dinner dishes still in the sink.
I decided right then that
I.didn’t.care.

I’m not a stay-at-home mom, and if at the end of the day (or week) this is how my house looks, I’m okay with that. Because at least I enjoyed the time I had with my boys.

(P.S. I’m sorry for the way some of the pictures turned out, my camera is dying and I’m not very happy with it. It is time for a new one. Psst, Scott, that was a hint! Luckily Tawni took a few good pictures for me to use)

Not Again...

Last night I was home with the boys waiting for Scott to get home from work.
I was getting the boys ready for our bed-time routine with bath-time and everything else, nothing out of the ordinary.

In throwing away a pretty stinky diaper,
I realized our trash cans were still at the street and decided to bring them in.
Brendan (being the ever curious toddler who wants to be in the middle of everything mommy does) began to follow me outside and I instructed him to stay in the house.

But as I go to bring the cans in,
Brendan is standing in the doorway with the door open and with Caleb,
also trying to follow me, and now screaming/crying.
I can just see it now,
Brendan runs off,
the heavy garage door slams on Caleb.

Deciding to be the muti-tasking mommy,
I pick Caleb up and carry him
since I really only need one hand to bring in empty trash cans.
Brendan (of course) follows.

As I tell him (yell at him?) once more to get back in the house,
I go to open the door…
Brendan has locked us out.

I ever-so-calmly walk to the front door.
Locked.
I had of course locked the deadbolt
since I was home alone with the boys.

Locked out.
Again.
This is the 3rd time in a month…
you would think I would learn!

No keys.
No phone.
Nothing.
Just me and the boys.

Oh, and did I mention Brendan is naked?
Butt Naked.
Nothing on but little white socks.
(It was bath time remember?)

I remind myself that at least Caleb is in my arms
and not locked inside the house.
I look around, Scott should be home fairly soon.

Nicely placed in our garage is the rocking chair,
removed from Caleb’s room when the in-laws came to visit.
So I have a seat.
Now what to do with Brendan’s bare-bum so our neighbors don’t think I’m a terrible mother.
For some reason (not quite sure why)
there are a pair of 2T shorts lying on the ground.
At least his private areas are covered and our garage is now a G rating again.

So we sit.
And wait.
Brendan finds a baseball and practices his overhand pitching,
just in time for baseball season.
Daddy would be so proud.

Scott pulls up about 15 minutes later with the most confused look on his face.
“Why are you just sitting outside on a rocking chair while our son runs around without a shirt on?”
Because I thought,
"Hey!
It’s a Tuesday night,
I have nothing better to do.
Let’s just sit outside until Daddy gets home.
It should be fun!"

At least I haddn’t started the bath water yet…

Sickness Part 2

Did that last post feel like it just ended? It did to me, probably because I just got tired of typing and I figured you were tired of reading, but really my story didn’t end there.

After spending the night (awake most of the night) in the hospital with Caleb I could tell he was starting to feel better. He only threw up on my once but was eating more consistently. The doctor came by the next morning to check on Caleb’s progress and let us know that as long as he continued to eat/drink for the morning, and his diapers were normal, he would release him at lunch time (lunch time translates to 3:00 in my mind). Sure enough we were released from the hospital about 3:00-3:30 on Thursday afternoon.

As we were leaving the hospital, one pediatric nurse looked at me and said “You look familiar. Have you been here before with another boy?” I replied that we had been here in May of last year with Brendan’s hernia surgery. This is one place I do not really want to be recognized at!

When we got home all was quiet. Caleb went right down for a nap in his room, and being that I had been away from home for almost a full week from my conference and then the hospital stay, all I wanted was to shower in my own shower. So I took a nice long, hot shower hoping to relax the tensed muscles from stress and sleep in a hospital. As I got out nice and relaxed, I realized I had a voicemail on my cell phone. It was Marion (Day Care Provider), Brendan was sick, he had thrown up all over her house. Great, just great.

Luckily, my MIL had gotten the message from Scott and by the time I got out of the shower, they were already on their way to go pick Brendan up.

I didn’t go to work again on Friday, I stayed home with two sick kiddos.

Caleb was starting to feel better, but Brendan pretty much stayed on the couch all day.

All he ingested was Gatorade for 3 days. He would ask for food like crackers, cheerios, or a banana, but the poor thing would just sit there holding it, not taking a bite.

By Sunday we figured that both boys were on the mend but it was probably safer to just stay home from church. I had a really bad sore throat and Scott stomach was off. So we let Brendan crawl in bed Sunday morning and decided to just take it easy. Brendan actually laid there which was highly unusual. Suddenly, we figured out why he was so quiet as he threw up in our bed and all over us. Guess we are up for the day! So Sunday was a day of laundry, sick kids, and as much rest as possible.

By Monday, we were all on our way to recovery. I am happy to say that we are all just about back to normal! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during this sickness, we are all much better!

Estree Lauder taste on a Covergirl Budget

This is nothing more than my thoughts written down “on paper”

Today as I was doing my make-up my mind began to wonder. As we get older, live through different struggles and times in our lives, we are shaped, molded and blessed, with each experience.

I am a snob. A make-up snob that is. I was introduced to make-up at about 13, and I was started off with “the good stuff” – Estee Lauder. I have never known another kind of blush, eye shadow and rarely use another mascara. I have my “signature” scent of Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise. My make-up habit has come from a long line of expensive make-up wearers, from my great-grandmother, my Mimi, my mother, sister, aunt and cousin.

But with two babies in childcare there comes a time to make economic decisions. Huggies or Luvs? Store-bought or homemade baby food? Eating out or eating in? Fast food or sack lunch? Starbucks or Keurig or Folgers? Estee Lauder or Covergirl?

These seem trivial, even as I write this post I think “is it really worth writing about?” But sacrifices come in all shapes and sizes. One of my most recent changes was my purchasing of make-up. I thought about it this morning as I opened my brand new daily moisturizing crème that my grandmother got me for Christmas. It felt so smooth compared to the “Clean & Clear” I had been using, so refreshing. I felt spoiled that I was able to use the expensive moisturizer, I reminded myself to use sparingly to make it last, “Once this is gone, It’s back to the lotion from your teenage years.”

This is not really about make-up though. It is about making cuts in every area. My family was money-conscious as I grew up. I never had the “cool” shoes, we wore Payless. Soda was a treat. My mom made her own bread, jelly, pickles, even yogurt at one time. She would even make “lunchables” for us kids and pack them in Tupperware. I was taught how to live tight. However, years of two incomes and no kids quickly makes you forget how one can live in such a way.

I am thankful for the opportunities Scott and I have for our family. We are blessed with a house for our family of four, a great day care, two good jobs and a little extra at the end of the month. We are happy and together, isn’t that what really matters? Making little sacrifices here and there are worth it in the end. While I will mourn the loss of my expensive habits, I will delight in the knowing that God is still providing for all our needs (and still a little extra!)

So I will enjoy my Estee Lauder crème while it lasts and remember that every cut made to our once “extravagant” lifestyle is all worth it for our two boys and our strong family.

October Beginnings

October 1st!
I have been looking forward to October for a while. I am not sure exactly why, but it just feels like a new beginning. Perhaps it is due to the stress at work at the beginning of the school year that I feel “If I can just make it through September…” Either way, I feel refreshed and excited! It is a fresh start!
Here are the reasons I am ready for October:

1. As stated before, October is just less stressful at work after we get through the push of September. There are fewer deadlines, for October.
2. Along with that, I have two weeks off from work this month. 2 more weeks of “Family Bonding” that I desperately need.
3. My MIL comes to visit this month, although she is mostly coming to see my SIL, it will be nice for her to spend some time with my boys. Unfortunately, we do not get to see her as often as we like, so anytime we can is much appreciated.
4. October brings my new nephew! My SIL is due October 12th. Talk about new beginnings!
5. And speaking of more family bonging, this month I am taking my boys to Sacramento along with my sister and new niece. We will get to spend a week with my parents, see my grandparents and both my brothers! As well as catch up with a couple friends that I do not see too often.
6. On our trip to Sacramento, we will take Brendan back to the train museum and hopefully get to ride the train. He has really been on this train kick lately!
7. A friend of mine just received 2 precious children for adoption this week. I am so excited for her and her family. What a fresh start for her and these children! We are also having an adoption shower for her this month; I know she defiantly needs it!
8. October brings the start of Christmas shopping for our family! Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to shop, especially for presents for others!
9. Scott turns another year older this month, which means a cause for celebration, and for 6 more months he is older than I am!
10. Brendan will *finally* get his 2 year picture taken this month, as long as we can keep him, bump and bruise and black-eye free for at least one weekend to have pictures taken…
11. And speaking of pictures, I want/hope to have a family portrait of us taken this month to be ready before the holidays are upon us. Anyone want to volunteer to snap a few photos of our family? Could be fun…(or a lot of work to get two kids halfway decent…)
12. My sister and I are throwing my best friend a baby shower this month, we love throwing parties, and I love my best friend! Exciting new beginnings…
13. This month our church will finally (hopefully) be able to move into our new building. An actual church building for the first time.
14. October brings “Fall” (Southern California style) with pumpkin patches, the outdoors, caramel apples, new Disneyland decorations, and experiencing new things that go along with the season with a toddler.
15. And OF COURSE October brings Halloween! While I was never a huge fan of the holiday, I get to dress the boys up cute, and Scott just loves Halloween! Especially when he gets to take his son out trick-or-treating.

What an exciting month! God is defiantly blessing us and those close to us. We are going to be busy but have oh so much fun! Wont you join us as we experience this journey? What a month!

This week was a little stressful for me. For one, it was the first week of school, which always creates a lot of work (and stress) for me as we try to wrap up the previous semester and start a new one, all while students, staff and faculty breathing down your neck for something they need "Right NOW!". **sigh**

Beyond the stress at work, Scott was sick all weekend and into the week, which meant that I was trying extremely hard not to get sick (not a good time to miss work) and keep my boys healthy and away from dad as much as possible. This also meant a lot more work for me of dealing with the boys myself as well as trying to be sympathetic to a sick (and whiny) husband.

Meanwhile, my house is in disarray and I have limited energy to do anything about it.

Like I said, stressful week for me. I called my best friend on my way home from work one day to complain to her (she always has a great listening ear). "I just want to be home alone, without the boys, just by myself for just a few hours."

And then it dawned on me, I am never alone. The closest I get to being "alone" is when Scott works late or is out with friends and both boys are asleep. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, LOVE having two young boys...but sometimes I just desire for it to be me...

Back to Routine

Well my Maternity leave is over. Back to work, back to a schedule, back to routine, back to life. I must admit, it is nice to just have a "break" of sorts once in a while and do what you want, to an extent, but I am happy to be going back to my normal life.

With the return to "life" I am also returning to the blogging world, which I have really missed the past 10 weeks. I have so many thoughts of posts I wanted to do, updates to give, funny stories to share with many more yet to be experienced.

For now, we are all doing well, working back in a routine and starting a new routine at the same time. Caleb is growing like crazy and developing like you wouldn't believe, coo-ing and smiling just to melt your heart. Brendan is in his terrible-twos, yet a wonderful big brother. Just when you think you cant take it any more and you are going to go through the roof...he walks up and gives you a "big hug" and you just cant be mad any more. Scott was going crazy being on vacation and having life so unpredictable, so he is defiantly glad to be home and me back to work. Now he has time to "Schedule" his life away without interruption from me. As for me, I am enjoying my larger family and excited for all the adventures we will have together!

Enjoy the ride!

Updates and a few pics

I know I said I would update you all on the happenings of the Keys’ Family. And then I disappeared. So instead of trying to type out a million posts to get caught up, you get bullet points, unfortunately, the post will still be very long, hold on, and feel free to skim. No, I did not have my baby, I know that being absent could leave some with that impression, but as of now, I am still very much pregnant. With that, we shall begin:

• Easter was a blast, with this being Brendan’s 2nd Easter, he enjoyed his Easter basket and packages from both Grandparents very much. As well as his very first egg hunt. I am going to post pictures although I am VERY late, we had a wonderful Easter at GG Pat & Poppy’s house.

• We had way too much drama with the van purchase. Oh, remember that van I posted pictures of? We do not have it anymore. Instead, we have a white Dodge Grand Caravan. It was a long story with the conditions of our original loan not being accepted as promised, a break recall, and too much time spent at dealerships.
  o After driving the new van for one day, we get a message about the tire being low (brand new tires just put on the car the previous morning). So we took the car back the next weekend to have the bumpers fixed and asked them to make sure to look at the tire as we had to keep filling it with air. We were without the car for 4 days, but when we got it back, the bumpers were nice and fixed.
  o But, the light telling us the tires were low was still on. The tire began to go flat. We took the car back in, this time, we sat at the dealership for 4 hours waiting to replace one tire. We finally got a new tire on our van.
  o We also have a minivan to cart our family around, despite the drama that went into it.

• Brendan had a bad flu a few weeks ago, throwing everything that he ate up. Unfortunately, I did not really realize it was the flu as he never ran a fever. However, after my husband and mother-in-law both came down with the throwing-up flu, I realized my poor kid really was sick. I am so thankful I never caught it, I am not sure what I would have done to be sick on top of everything else!


• While Brendan was throwing-up sick, we realized that something was not quite right as we changed his diaper. After taking him to the doctor it was confirmed, Brendan has a hernia on his genitals. So after a few doctor appointments, we finally have surgery scheduled to have it removed. May 12th. (Just in case you guys didn’t catch that, my due date is May 15th). Luckly, Brendan doens't seem to be in a lot of pain, but I am looking forward to getting this taken care of.

• I turned the big 2-7 on April 9th. Nope, I don’t feel any different. My birthday was spent with my son at the doctor’s office in the morning, but I had a nice breakfast at Mimi’s with my mom & sister. We then started preparing for my baby shower and running a few errands. Scott and I were supposed to have a nice evening together, but he was still sick, so we had dinner out, he went to bed and I went to my sisters.


• My sister threw a wonderful baby shower for my on April 10th. This one does deserve it’s own post to come.

• Work has been absolutely crazy the past couple of weeks. Especially with me missing a couple of days for “bed rest” and then not know from day to day if I will be able to come into work. This week is our busiest, hopefully by next week things will calm down a little more and I can prepare my desk for my absence. A week and a half left before I start Maternity Leave!


• Everything really seems to be going well for right now, there was about 2 weeks where I felt that I could not catch a break, it was seriously one thing after another. But things seem to have calmed down and I feel as though I am starting to feel ready for our new little one…not quite… but almost!

New Ride

I almost forgot to blog about our new family car! Remember back on Valentine's Day weekend when our four-door Hyundai was totaled? After much waiting on AAA and paperwork to be processed, we finally received a check for the value of our vehicle. To my surprise, the check we received was more than I expected to get for our little car. With the check from our insurance and some extra money we have saved up and received from the government (tax refund) we were able to put a down on a nice family car for us to enjoy.

We have been talking about getting a family car since I was pregnant with Brendan, but the timing was never right, or we just did not have the money. God took care of us and was able to take our bad situation of our car accident, and provide a bigger car for us! Of course now we are back to having a car payment for the next 5 years or so, but we really got a great deal, less than what Kelly Blue Book lists as Suggested Retail Value.

I am so excited for our new car, after months (possibly years) of asking for a minivan (nagging)for the family, Scott took me to the Honda dealership without a fight. Quite a few hours later, we walked out with a 2007 Honda Odyssey EX. I love the features of the car.

When we went to go purchase a new car I only had 3 request for the car (I’m flexible right?) I told Scott it didn’t have to be a minivan, but there were 3 items I was not willing to compromise on: 1. I wanted sliding side doors that would not close on me as I leaned over a car seat (basically a minivan). 2. I wanted enough trunk space to carry a stroller while all seats were up. 3. I wanted at least 6 seats so that I could go somewhere with my sister or friend and we could take one car that would hold us and our children. Basically, the only car that will meet my criteria would be a minivan. We drove the Mazda5 as a rental for a while, it was like a mini-minivan, but you got either storage or extra seating, I want both at the same time.

So we looked at a couple models, but we really liked the Honda Odyssey and were afraid that if we left to go to other dealerships we would miss out on the excellent price on the 2007 model we found. So we bought it!
If we were to have bought a brand new van, we probably would have bought the standard model, because that is more in our price range. But because it was used, we were able to get the Odyssey EX which comes with extra features that we typically would not have paid for. Like automatic sliding doors that open with a push of a button. Or the nice Baby mirror (“conversation mirror” as Honda calls it) where I can watch Brendan in his Car Seat, a 6-disk CD changer, and other little perks. We are very happy with our purchase. Even Scott has admitted that the sliding doors are nice, the storage in the back is great and the bigger vehicle (8 seats!) really is more practical for our growing family. (Although he probably won’t admit it to you, especially in so many words, he will tell you that he just got the car for me, but I know he love it too!)

Spring Sunshine!

Lately, we have been receiving a fair amount of sunshine in Southern California. Last Thursday morning before I went to the Dentist office for my Root Canal, Brendan and I had the opportunity to play outside, at 9:00 in the morning, the weather was beautiful!

Brendan got a Slide Castle from his Grandparents for Christmas. He loves to climb and play on the castle, mostly, Brendan just loves to be outside. I was able to catch some shots of my big boy playing outside. Scott's afraid that once the new baby comes, Brendan wont get as much attention. I'm afraid of the opposite happening. Just look at that adorable little kid! How could you not pay attention to him?? In reality, I think that it will take some adjustment for our family, but we will have enough love and attention for both of our boys!

After playing outside, w headed in for a nutritious snack before going to daycare for the day. This isn't that big of a deal or really blog-worthy, but he is just turning into such a little man that I had to share, he looks so big holding that banana in his hands, and yet, he is still my baby. I can't believe he ate the entire thing!

Welcome Spring! Thanks for the Sunshine and the opportunity to play and enjoy life!

Dentist, Tears & Unanswered Questions

Tuesday was quite an emotional day for me. My tooth had been bothering me for a couple days; originally, I thought that I just had something stuck in my gums so I tried flossing and brushing but nothing really helped. By Monday after lunch, it had gotten worse. By the time I got home for the evening, it was almost unbearable. I took Tylenol (being pregnant and without much options) but it was not doing anything. Monday night was one of my worst nights for sleep, I woke up almost every hour because of the pain, and it was a constant throbbing pain on my lower right side of my mouth.

Tuesday morning I tried calling the dentist for an appointment. My biggest fear was being 7 months pregnant, I had heard that they do not like to do dental work on pregnant women. I was able to get a dentist appointment at 3:00 in the afternoon. Since I am still without a car, I had to schedule it at a time that I could borrow my sister’s car. By the time I left work for my appointment, the entire right side of my face was in severe pain. It had spread to my jawbone, cheek, top molars, even under my eye and starting to cause a headache. This pain was so bad, I was not sure if I would be able to tolerate it much longer.

At my appointment, they did not want to do an x-ray due to the pregnancy, but the dentist came in to do a visual exam of my mouth, looking at my charts, she reminded me of my last appointment. Back in May, I had a filling completed; during the procedure, she told me it would most likely have to be a root canal at some point. That was exactly what I thought it was going to be. They did not bother with the x-ray but began the referral to a specialist to have an emergency root canal scheduled since I was in so much pain. Only one problem…I am seven months pregnant. I was told they usually prefer to do dental work during the 2nd trimester, and I was well into my 3rd.

My next step was to call my OB and request approval for a root canal to be sent to the specialist approving what medication could be used and everything else involved. The receptionist was for one, not very customer friendly, or supportive of my situation. She made it sound as though it was not likely to get approved since I am 7 months along. By the time I hung up with her, I was in tears. The pain was too much and now I did not even know if I would be able to get it fixed. For those of you that do not know me very well, I actually have a high tolerance for pain, but this pain was just too much for me, all I could do was cry. The dentist office went ahead and scheduled the Emergency Consultation with the specialist pending the approval from my OB for the work to be completed.

As I sat in the car outside the dentist office, tears streaming down my face, I am at a loss of what to do. I guess just go home and wait it out. Just then my best friend calls to ask if I want to go to the mall the evening. How did she know that I needed a distraction? She didn’t. She didn’t even know I was in pain, but God did, and knew that right then I needed a friend. She picked me up, we picked up Brendan from day care and we went to the mall. The distraction was perfect, I wasn’t thinking so much about my tooth, the pain, or the whole ordeal with not knowing if I would even have the procedure this week or not. We were just two girls (with two active toddlers) looking for a dress at the mall.

An hour after I originally spoke with the OB’s office, I still had not heard back. I tried calling again to find out the status. After waiting on hold for a good 5-10 minutes, the receptionist comes back and tells me the work is approved, but an approval letter will not be able to be issued until Thursday morning, and the office does not open until 9:00. She also agrees to call in a prescription for me to take for the pain. Finally, relief is in sight.

So here we are today. I took the day off from work to have the root canal done. My poor husband also has to take time off since I have to have someone drive me there and back. At this point, I don’t know if it will just be a consultation with an x-ray (if approved) or if they will actually do work on my mouth. At least we are headed in the right direction to getting it taken care of. My appointment is this morning, I'm not sure how long it should take, or how long it will take to where I feel back to normal, hopefully not too long! There are still many unknowns, I still haven't seen the approval from my OB, I am praying it come through in time.

It is times like these when I have to just trust that God will take care of us, it will all work out, and in the scheme of things, this will seem so minor compared to everything else in our lives.

Car Trouble

I actually started to post this blog post a few weeks ago. I had started drafting it to come back and finish later. Then, everything changed.

I was going to talk about paying off a car. If you remember, a couple months ago, we made our last payment on our 2004 Hyundai. It reminded me of that bank commercial that talked about how easy it was to make a payment using your phone. As the couple is driving in the car, she makes a payment and says something along the lines of “Our car is now paid off!” Just then, the rearview mirror falls off.

That is how we were feeling, as soon as the car was paid off; we had to start putting money into it to fix little things. Our car needed another oil change, new brakes, and there was a “ticking” noise that had been going off since December that we were not sure what was wrong. Our suspension was it was the alternator. Our car repair shop was going to charge us $85 an hour just to figure out what the noise was, not to fix it. Therefore, we had been putting it off, knowing we needed to get it fixed, but that we really did not want to spend that kind of money right now.

It was a good car, it had driven us around for almost 5 ½ years, and best of all it was paid off.

Unfortunately, on the day before Valentine’s Day, it all changed. Driving home from Temecula on Saturday afternoon, Scott had just filled the car up with gas, $35 later we were driving home on the 215 freeway and were in a car crash. Although it has now been over 3 weeks, it is still hard for me to write. The accident was 100% our fault, no arguing that fact. Traffic slowed down suddenly, Scott and I were talking and he did not see the truck breaking in front of us until it was too late. With construction dividers up right against the freeway line, and only two lanes, we had nowhere to go but straight into the pick-up truck in front of us. I braced myself for the worst (having crashed my own car on the same freeway 5 years earlier) and watched as our little Hyundai crumbled at the force of the impact and the strong bumper of the large truck in front of us.

I know that my husband was not thinking logically after the crash, although in his mind I am sure he was. AS soon as we stopped, he turned to me and started spouting off all the consequences of the crash “Our premiums will go up, we will be down to one car for a while, I am so sorry, I was so stupid, we are going to have to cut back on expenses, start cutting things out…” While he was correct, it was not the time to start listing everything that was going to change because of the accident. I sent him out to deal with the other driver as I tried to calm Brendan down in the backseat and call AAA for towing.

I didn't take any pictures of the car even though my camera was in my purse. Looking back I really should have, but Scott was so upset after the crash, feeling as though he put his entire family at risk, that I didn't want to make him feel bad by taking pictures of what "he did".

One of our biggest fears after the accident was if the baby was okay. I did not feel funny, just a little sore, and the air bags did not go off (which they probably should have but I was worried what the impact of the air bags may have done. Bekah & Kevin picked us up from the tow yard in Menifee to take us home. They kept Brendan and Scott and I went to the ER to get me checked out. The doctor looked me over and said that everything looked good, I would probably be pretty sore the next couple of days and to take Tylenol. They listened to the heartbeat and sent me home.

The next day we spent the morning after church cleaning out our one car. Scott washed and vacuumed it out. We scheduled an oil change for Monday and got the car ready to serve as the “Family car” for a while. Monday morning we had to deal with the insurance company and figure out the logistics. Luckily, Scott had the day off and was able to take me to work and deal with a lot of the insurance business while I was working.

I was very impressed with the way AAA handled the whole situation, from our first phone call minutes after the accident to our follow-up conversation today. They immediately sent us a check for a new car seat, since you are not supposed to use the same car seat after an accident. They paid for us to have a rental car for 2 weeks until the determined the value of the car, but now, unfortunately, we are processing paperwork, and can’t get new car until our check comes to us. We are now back down to 1 car for the two (three) of us. Once again, we are lucky to have our little car. It may be a two door and a little cramped, but it is a good car, that runs and once again, is paid off.

We hope to get our check from AAA soon so we can start car shopping. We have been pretty lucky so far. I used the rental car for 2 weeks, last week I was able to borrow my sister’s car while she was out of town, and this week, Bekah and I are carpooling to work. God does provide for us.

Really brief update, more to come

Wow, I cannot believe how long it has been since I have posted; so much for my resolution. Do not worry; I will try to catch up as quickly as I can. The truth is, there has been a lot going on that I have wanted to post about, but they are longer posts and I just cannot find the energy to sit down and write them. Do not give up on me I am trying. For now, my family is happy (for the most part) and healthy (for now) and we keep plugging away at our daily lives.

Scott has been busy lately, which means not much time for the gyms after work. To most of you, this is not that big of a deal, but when Scott does not go to the gym, he does not release his stress. Instead, he brings it home with him and in turn, the entire family becomes stressed out.

Brendan is going through “a stage” that I fear once it leaves will only bring another to replace it. For now our “stage” is not using the 52 words we know, but grunting and whining for what he wants “eh, eh, eh!” I cannot handle the constant whining; it really makes me crazy. I am constantly telling him “use your words!” I am not sure if he understands what that means, but I try anyway. His new things is also “Mama, Mama, Mama, Mama” and when I answer, he just continues “Mama, Mama, Mama” Oh Lord, please help me through this stage.

As for me, lately I have been learning more about myself, and digging deeper, as well as expanding my horizons, and just trying to make it to the end of this pregnancy. Every once in a while, I look at Brendan and think, soon, I’m going to have two of them; two boys to love, but two “stages” to go though. I am tired and stressed, but who isn’t? I know that I am not the only one struggling with something right now, and when my focus is in the right place, I will get through it (More on this later).

So, for my brief introduction back into my life, we are all alive and “well”. I will be posting more updates as what we have been experiencing the past couple of weeks.

Day Four....and counting

Today we are on day four of Brendan's sickness. It started Monday afternoon. Marion called me at work at 4:30 saying that Brendan had just gotten a high fever and I needed to come pick him up. Luckily, Brendan was the only one at day care that day, so hopefully we did not spread his germs to too many kids. When I picked him up, his fever was 101.7. I cancelled my plans and stayed home with him Monday night, not realizing I would be spending the next 72 hours (and counting) at home with a sick child wishing for a reason to go out into the world....

I keep trying to think of where he got this from. The doctor says these viruses are "a dime a dozen, almost every kid out there is contagious." I don't think he got it from Day Care. My guess is from a kid at church on Sunday morning. That is the most logical considering he started showing symptoms on Monday. I guess it doesn't really matter. The important thing is that he will be okay, if we could even just get this fever to go away!

This does make my 3rd day off from work, and although you would think I would be enjoying this break from my job, I am not. It is actually just stressing me out more. This is not a good time for my office to be off, and it is not like I am able to go places with Brendan (Disneyland, Aquarium, even the mall) instead, I am stuck here in this house with a very fussy, hot toddler who cannot express what he wants. Although, I am pretty sure even he doesn't really know what he wants.

Yesterday we had a fairly normal temperature for most of the day, I thought we were on the mend and I would be able to head back to work. But last night when Brendan woke up crying at 1:30 am, his temperature had gone back up to 103.2. Here we go again.

This morning at 8:30 it was 101 and I knew it would be another day in the house. We did make it outside the house for about half an hour as I pushed Brendan on the swing on our front porch. If I had more energy, I probably would have taken a walk with the stroller around the neighborhood.

I do feel bad for him. Having a fever for this long must be very uncomfortable. The doctor says there is not much we can do; Tylenol, and wait it out. The fever could last 3-7 days. I try to have patience with him, but the truth is I am going crazy. He doesn't want to eat, but he stands in the kitchen crying. I can't get any work done because he wants to be held all the time. I just wish he could express himself better than just standing there crying.

The good news is that he is currently down for a nap. Which means, I had time to shower, load & run the dishwasher, write this blog post, and now I need to fold a load of laundry before he wakes up. Pray for us! I hope it ends soon!

I'm Back!

Being off of work for two weeks really set me in vacation mode. I took a break from everything it seems! I must admit it was nice, but I figure now that Scott and I are back to work, all relatives have gone home, and Brendan is getting back to his normal routine, perhaps it is time for me to also get back to life. That includes, cleaning house *sigh*, taking down Christmas Decorations (don't judge me), cooking again, and most importantly updating my blog! I know you must all be dying to know how our Christmas was! Okay, so I know my life isn't really that exciting that you are all sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for my posts to come through; but I would like to get the blog up to date. We had a very busy & eventful holiday so I will do my best to get postings up as time permits, I guess you can't stay on vacation forever.