Mary is home and doing fine

I am glad to report that even though we spent the whole day at the hospital, they finally let Mary come home tonight. She did great. She even ate a big bowl of macaroni and cheese when she got home. She will be sleeping in between Jared and I tonight (yeah, I'm one of those paranoid wackos) I won't get any sleep anyway. I need to be right there in case she has any problems or pain in the night. Thank you for all your prayers in her behalf. I know that our Heavenly Father is so merciful. I put Mary's name on the temple prayer roll when I went last Saturday morning. I know there were people gathered around those alters praying for her, and I am so thankful the Lord heard those prayers.
Her voice is a little different. She hasn't said too much (of course) but what I heard coming out of her mouth was so sweet and angelic. She is such a delicate and beautiful little angel girl.

Mary is getting a tonsillectomy

Today is the big day. Mary will be getting her tonsils out this morning. Pray for her! She has been going around showing everyone her huge tonsils the past few weeks, even at school. LOL She's so cute. I had fun this week painting Mary's room and Tommy's room. I got some really cute little painted wooden cutouts from Michael's to go on the walls (thanks for the idea Weezie). I registered for my first classes on Monday! I am taking Biology and Biology lab. I am so excited. I checked out a bunch of biology books from the library to get a head start. School starts on August 24th.
Tommy's teacher wrote me a note that said he was a shy, reluctant child. He was significantly paced slower than his classmates. He knows his ABC's and can count to at least 18, but he won't tell the teacher when he needs help, he just sits there waiting for her to come to him. He needs a lot of one on one.
So now I am wondering what to do with him. He'll be 5 next week. He is so young. He wants to go to school really bad, but I don't feel like he is ready yet.
I have to go get Mary ready to go to the hospital now. I'm going to give her a shower, dry her hair, put on smelly lotion, and paint her nails.
I'll blog more later!

Weekend update

We had to put our cat to sleep this weekend because he had a stroke on Friday, and he was not improving. I'm glad he was not very friendly with the kids because they will not miss him as much. They haven't even asked how he is doing. I feel like it's sad to keep an animal alive when they will not have a quality of life. He had vertigo and kept getting scared and falling down because he was so dizzy. I couldn't keep him around like that. It was too sad. The vet said he had some brain damage that would probably never go away.
Other things: Mary lost another bottom tooth. Isaac got glasses, and he looks so cute. I'll have to post a picture as soon as I get a new camera. Tommy is enjoying school, but on Thursday he told his teacher he wanted to call me because he missed me. She told him the day was almost over, and he was ok. She told me she would be writing a note to me this next week to tell me more of how he has been doing, and I hope that will give me an idea of how ready he will be for kindergarten.
Sam learned how to climb up on top of the counters, so he is getting into EVERYTHING this week. Rusty is now drinking regular milk, which is exciting. He really loves it. That formula was getting expensive.
Jr. had his space derby last Wednesday at scouts. He had a lot of fun making his rocket to look like a pencil. It was cute. A fun time was had by all.
I'm almost over my cold, so yeah for me!
I got together with Sue yesterday to have a barbeque here at my house. Then we put a new faucet in my master bathroom. Then we decided to try out NAIR on our legs. It took off about half the hair on each of us, so we were not impressed. Next time we may have to leave it on longer. We had fun anyway.
We decided not to sell our house just yet because it was just too much stress on us right now to try to get it ready for sale. I was not having such a good feeling about it, so I know we are supposed to stay here a bit longer. We are still going to clean up/fix up. I'm getting so excited for school this fall. Just watching Susie doing her homework has got me really excited.
Hope everyone is doing great.

things happening around here:

Well, Here's the scoop folks.
My washer broke down last week, and I just got a new one today. Jared stayed home from work and installed it for me, then monitored it so that every time it stopped, he put in a new load of wash. He also vacuumed the whole house and swept the kitchen for me! I love that man.

A fever/sickness is going through my family. It started with me last week, and now it's gone through Sam, Rusty, and Tommy. Guess who's next? Jared. He couldn't help kissing me when he got home from VA on Friday, so I bet he will be getting it next. It's an awful bug too. It attacks your throat. I thought I was almost over it yesterday, but my voice was a bit raspy which made me sound exactly like Chris Daughtry. So after singing a few of his songs (it was fun), I'm back to having a scratchy throat today, and I no longer sound like Chris Daughtry, which really stinks, because that was fun while it lasted, and totally worth it, I would do it again in a heartbeat. j/k
Other news...Mary lost another bottom tooth and got 2 dollars from the tooth fairy last night.
We are going to try to sell our house because it is so expensive to live here, high utility bills, and endless repairs.
I register next week for my first classes! I'm totally stoked about it.
I'd better get to bed. It's 1am here. I just couldn't settle down my mind. Good lookin' out folks. May the schwartz be with you...

It was my birthday today...

Today I shared my birthday with Father's day...So Happy Birthday to me, and Happy Father's day to my Dear Jared, the Father of my 6 chir'in.
I had a wonderful birthday, with the best part being the two hour nap I took this afternoon, and the date that Jared and I went on last Friday courtesy of Suzy, who babysat for us. Thanks Sugie!
Thank you to all of you who remembered me this year.

Happy Father's day Jared
I love the way you are firm with our kids about the rules
I love how you take the kids out for hours of fun while I clean the house on Saturdays
I love how you grow out your beard so our babies will always have something to hold on to while you give them raspberries.
I love how you provide so well for their needs.
I love how you are a great example to them with your church attendance and gospel knowledge.
Thanks for being here, staying here with me and the kids, accepting your responsibilities like a REAL MAN, being a steady presence in our home
Thanks for getting up every morning without complaint and going out there to slay dragons, so our children can grow up with a loving stay at home Mommie.
Thanks for all you do each day around the house...feeding the baby, getting everyone to bed, keeping all these rascal boys in line, and so much more.
Thank you for loving their Mother, and showing her respect, courtesy, and kindness.
You are loved, appreciated, and adored.
(When he reads this, I know he is going to vomit, because he can't stand when I get mushy-gushy like this, but I can't help it if it's all true!)
I hope everyone has a great day!
Love to all

Hello Ya'll

Guess who got her ears pierced recently??? Mary! The little princess of our family. She was so excited that I said "Yes". I thought she would faint when it happened, but she was so brave and didn't even cry one bit! She picked out some rainbow colored flower earrings. She looks so pretty!Tommy had his first day of "Summer Journey" school (basically, it's like kindergarten) today. He said it was really fun there, that they played legos. That's about all he remembered. His teacher is Mrs. Thelen, but he calls her "Miss Feelin's" which I think is so adorable...

These little cousins are good buddies

Little Russell and Jackson are beginning to be good buddies! They play together a little, as shown here. The sad part is that Rusty likes to bite down on anything that comes into his mouth, and Jackson likes to stick his fingers in Rusty's mouth. He's gotten bit two times now, poor little thing.

Fun in Colorado

We took a family vacation to Colorado to see Jared's Grandma. It was a wonderful trip. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo while we were there. The kids had a blast!

Grma Peggy was very happy to see us. She is 86 years old. She is a wonderful lady. I love her very much. It was worth more than anything to see her and for her to see the kids.
She loved little Russell. Here she is feeding him a spoonful of vanilla ice cream.

Our hotel had a nice pool and hot tub, which we took full advantage of. Unfortunately though, Isaac got an ear infection and Jared Sr. got food poisoning! But aside from that it was great.

So you might wonder what's going on with me right now? I haven't blogged for a long time! It seems like there is just one thing after another for me to keep busy...having my Mom come over for a visit, my trip to Utah, then having Susan and her kids living with me for a month, and then our trip to Colorado. Not to mention that the kids are now out of school so I am in heaven with being able to sit around and take it easy (because what's the use of cleaning, it will be messy again in 5 minutes anyway, so I'm relaxing) LOL

I am getting excited to start school this fall at Columbia College. Before then, I'm hoping to get a bunch of landscaping work done outside, and tear down all the cottage cheese ceilings in my house. That's my goal for the summer. We'll see what happens.

We had some fun recently...

I got to see my sweet sister Sals

My Mom and I went to check out the amish community just North of here, of course we had to buy matching aprons and other goodies.

I got to be with all my sisters and my Dad! This was a great vacation for me!

I've been so out of touch with reality...

I am trying to get back on my feet after a lot has been going on. My Mom is here to visit (hopefully for the whole summer), I went on a trip to see some family for a week, and now my sister Suzy is here to stay with us while looking for an apartment. So with all of this going on, I don't have any time to blog. I am trying to get back to business. I have some good news, which is that I have maintained my weight loss of 8 pounds through all of this! I started my program of working out and diet in February, and have slowly lost 8 lbs, which is staying off, even though I took a little time off from the gym for my trip.


Now you guys know what a goof ball I am...take a look at my big guns LOL...I can bench press 100 lbs. now. Yeah, I'm all that. And yes, I'm flaring my nostrils in this picture, it was just one more muscle I decided to flex. haha