A matter of perspective

Life has been crazy busy.
Too crazy.
It seems like every time I catch up I have another crisis hit me from my blind spot. So, between writing papers with my third grader (did I ever do that in third grade?), getting the refrigerator and air conditioner repaired and a bout with the flu (me this time, way fun) I was feeling like I was not meant to be caught up on sleep, or laundry, or shopping, etc... So I had this feeling on Thursday that there was a birthday coming up. So I went to the calendar and-It was Reed's birthday on Friday. I would love to say at this point that I pulled my act together and did something wonderful for Reed's birthday, but alas that is not the case. He packed up to go to the Aaronic Priesthood commemorative campout (aka Father's and Son's) and I had nothing for him. We made a cake after he was gone. He arrived back home on Sat. and I left to take the girls shopping. He got to eat his cake at 9pm on Sat night. I didn't think we would see him on Sunday until after lunch so we had a fend for yourselves, which Reed walked into the middle of and ended up executing. So that is it. One birthday with no cards, no gifts and no nice dinner.
How messed up is that?
On Sunday afternoon I received an e-mail that Celia (sister of Allie who I work with) had succumbed to luekemia. She had been diagnosed 9 days before.
So today I took time to read with my 5 year old, swim with my kids, and now I am going to appologize again to my husband for dropping the ball on his birthday, because every day counts.
(I have also promised myself I will never complain again about a family photo, you just never know if you will get the chance again)

Gift for Grandma Mary

I have spent a major chunk of time the past week gathering and assembling a scrapbook for my Grandma Mary Mix's 90th birthday. It has been a labor of love. I finally put it in the mail today for my sister Tiffany to add the final touches. I have taken pictures of all the pages and if all goes well they will load and be visible on a slideshow here. We will see. This project has stretched my computer skills, which needed to happen. For all those who contributed, Thank you, and I hope you are as pleased with the outcome as I am.

Sunbeams

Today, in the spirit of conservation, I hung out all of my laundry to dry in the sun (what is a pool fence for anyway if not to just white-trash it up). One of the items I washed was Heidi's special blanket. As soon as she saw it, she wanted it. She grabbed it and when she realized it was wet she asked me to put it in the dryer. I told her the sun was going to dry it. She was skeptical. I finally convinced her to just give it a try. When I asked her how long she thought it might take for the sun to dry her blanket she said 8 minutes. So we went inside and set a timer. By the time it went off she of course had forgotten all about the blanket. When I reminded her what the timer was for she ran out and got her blanket and you know what? it was dry.

Tonight at FHE Tanner started to cry during the opening song when he realized we were not going to sing Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam. He was slightly consoled when he was told he got to choose the closing song. Six minutes later when we hit the closing song (we keep it short for everyone's sanity) he was so excited to jump up and down and be a Sunbeam. We got the kids in bed and Reed was laying by Tanner (a bad habit we need to break). Reed fell asleep before Tanner did (not uncommon) so Tanner was left to put himself to sleep. I happened to be walking by (returning the last of the sun dried sheets to the beds) and heard him singing to himself Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. I sat outside his room and was impressed with how well he knew the words. He kept getting louder, and I started to think I was going to have to intervene, and then it just stopped. He sang himself to sleep. Too cute.

On Saturday evening Zoe lost her second tooth. Reed recorded this.
Zoe in her prayer "Please bless that the tooth fairy will bring me 1000 dollars."
After her prayer "I said that because last time she did not bring me a 1000 dollars."
Zoe is my child with a keen interest in and understanding of money. Dear TF failed to make an appearance on Sat. night.
Reed "Do you think it would be possible for the tooth fairy to come during church?"
Zoe "No, because then people who are not members of the church would see him."
This morning when she was checking what she had received she counted out the quarters and seemed very unhappy. When questioned Zoe said it was because she didn't get 1000 dollars.
I guess it was Zoe's turn to be little black raincloud (she hates it when I call her that).

Ooops, he did it again

I arrived home from work on Wed. night and was greeted by Tanner laying on the couch. Reed said he just woke up, so that was why he was laying on the couch. His face was scuffed up, apparently he did a face plant in the sand at the park with the babysitter (he was doing superman on the swing and lost his balance) and because of the way he was laying I asked what happened to his arm. He had found Heidi's "fancy Nancy" stamp and put it all over his arm, which was the explanation, but I should have done more follow up on that one. So I set into making dinner, get it all done, the girls sit down and Reed asks Tanner if he wants to come and eat. He won't move. I look at him and realize that his right arm has not left the spot where he was gripping his left arm since I looked at him 35 min earlier. I instantly knew that there was a problem. Tanner has dislocated his left elbow on two previous occasions. We tried to quiz the girls on events of the day to try and decide when this happened. We call the babysitter, who only said that he was sleeping in a funny position for his nap. Turns out the girls were cleaning their room and Tanner was messing it up. Zoe was trying to get him out and pulled him by the arm. This must have been just before Tanner went down for a nap. So I pick up Tanner and his blanket and we head to the urgent care. After waiting for an hour and a half the doctor walks in, says, "you have done it again", pops it back in and we are out the door. The good news is that the ligaments are getting tighter and he will grow out of this soon. Hopefully.

welcome spring...and air conditioning

Several weeks ago Reed announced that the pitchers were reporting for spring training. He said it in a way that I new the statement was loaded, so I asked, "What does that mean?" Reply, "It's gonna get hot."
And so it has. I returned home from work today and the house was really hot. We have been managing to survive with open windows and fans (delightful in the morning). I ran some errands and when I returned and began making dinner I noticed a familiar breeze on my face. Reed had turned on the air conditioner. This may not seem like a big deal, we are in Arizona, but it is what it means. It means that there are no more afternoons of letting the kids ride their bikes in the front yard, because it is too crazy hot. It means the pool is open for the season and all the towels that are now neatly tucked away will soon be littering my house in soggy piles. It means the constant hum of the air conditioner for the next six months, with the attached power bill. It means we probably need to turn our sprinklers back on so we can keep everything green and then have to trim it all in 100 degree temperatures. The air conditioner "on" signals the end of the innocence here at our house. It is when we contemplate the sanity of living in the desert, and wonder where we have put all the sunshades for our cars. From now on trips to the store for ice cream have to be executed with precision as to not destroy the ice cream before it can be safely stored in the freezer.
On the bright side, we get to contemplate visiting everyone we know who lives somewhere else.

I can do hard things

Today at work my first patient was a 17 year old who whined and fretted. I don't get too many of these, but invariably their self talk sounds something like this...I hate shots, just a second, I can't do this, this will hurt, I don't want to do this, are you sure I have to do this, this is too hard. I reassure them that the only bad thing that could happen is if they were to stop breathing, so please take a deep breath, you are going to be alright, just hold still. Just a note, if you want to really injure yourself and upset the dentist try and grab the hand with the needle, bad idea. I know from the shaking hands and sweaty brow when patients are really nervous, I see it all the time, and I always try to be gentle, regardless of how the patient is acting, or overreacting.
This is what really bothered me today, so I am going to share. It was the dialogue. I started to wonder, at what point in this girls life is she going to realize that sometimes you have to endure undesireable situations, and you just have to tell yourself, I can do this. It is hard, it hurts, it is not fun, but it will be over quickly and I can do this.
As a juxtaposition, my last patient of the day was a 4 year old who didn't flinch. He had his fair share of wiggles and curiousity but at no point was there a fret that this was too hard.
Sis. Dalton, who is the young women's general president had a little bio in the church news a while back and it said that she has on her desk a plaque that says "I can do hard things. " It has stuck with me. It is classy, it has backbone, it is all about facing trials head on and and not getting caught up in negative dialogue.
I can do hard things. I also get to do a lot of boring things, like the dishes, but hey, it is all a package deal.

What a week, and it is not over yet...

Monday.
The kids were out of school. They spent the day riding bikes and having fun with the neighbors. Around 3pm while I was doing the dishes I hear screaming coming from the garage and someone yelling, "just open the door!" I went to check out what was going on and as the door opened I was greeted by Tanner, covered with blood. It didn't take long to realize that he was going to need some professional attention. I was able to call a plastic surgeon in our ward and he was able to get him in right away. I left the kids with the neighbors and went and got Tanner stiched up. The laceration went all the way through his cheek so he got 10 stiches, three on the inside of his mouth, two in the deep tissue and five on the outside.
Tuesday.
I had the priveledge of participating in the judiciary process, also known as jury duty. I had taken all kinds of reading material. I arrived and sat down and 10 minutes later I was headed out for jury selection. Fortunately they did not need my services, but it was an interesting 3 hours. Rather than releasing us for the day we were told to get lunch and report back to the jury assembly room at 1pm. By the time I had gone through security and made myself confortable the regular protocol seemed to be changing. They weren't taking anyone out of the assembly room, and then they wouldn't let us go to use the restroom. Slowly people were able to contact people they knew on the outside and we learned that an inmate had escaped. They finally released us around 3:45. I was able to pick up food at Carolina's on the way home, a bright spot in an otherwise crummy day. I arrived home to realize that I had not adequately communicated the girls piano lesson time. They caught the last 20 min. Reed left to go to work when I got home, he had stayed home with Tanner who was in bad shape and hadn't been able to get much done.
Wednesday.
I played musical beds in the night because Heidi and Tanner did not sleep well. Reed stayed home with Tanner again. Tanner still is whiney, drooling everywhere and not eating well. When I arrived home from work at 5:45pm Reed was on the computer trying to meet a deadline and Tanner had just dropped a glass bottle full of Italian soda on the floor. What a mess.
Thursday.
Surprisingly uneventful. I was not able to get out and run any errands because Tanner was just not up to it. We did "clean out the fridge" for dinner. It is ready for a reload.
Friday.
I went to bed too late,(laundry) was up with Tanner and when I went to get in my bed Molly had taken by spot. I struggled with the motivation to get started because I feel crummy (I have been congested the last week also). I finally got the car loaded up to go to the grocery store and it wouldn't start. To be honest I haven't had the energy to deal with it. I am pretty sure it is the starter. This will probably cause a problem because I have to work tommorrow and Monday.
I could use a day of rest, does anyone mind skipping Saturday this week?