Update

So, I took Lee to the hospital on Saturday night and I waited until 2 am to even see a doctor. The doctor put some special medication on Lee's burn and wrapped his hand up so that it wouldn't get infected. The entire upper half of Lee's left hand is completely covered in 2nd degree burns and they also go down his thumb and pinkie. Luckily his palm isn't very burned, so that is good. However, we do have to go back to the hospital to see a physio therapist on Monday because they are worried that when the burns heal that the scars may cover his knuckles and limit the amount of movement in his left hand.
So, for now his hand is completely bandaged up and it looks like a white baseball bat. He can't use his left hand at all because of that and it is really frustrating for Lee because he is a lefty! He is a tough kid though and is happy as pie most of the time.
So, until tomorrow, we won't know anything. We can just sit here and keep our fingers crossed!

Ouch!

One thing I love about my baby Lee is that he has the chubbiest hands. They are HUGE and sooooo cute and chubby. That was why I felt terrible yesterday when he completely scalded the entire top of his hand! It was completely my fault and the poor baby was in such pain that it broke my heart!
Last night, for dinner, I made beef dip sandwiches. I had put the "au jus" on the table and was pulling the sandwiches out of the oven when I heard Lee scream! Now, Lee NEVER screams about anything!! So, I looked up and saw all of the other kids sitting at the table looking at Lee while he was screaming his head off. It took me only a second to realize that he had grabbed a bowl of hot "au jus" and it had burned him. I still had a hot pan in my hands because it HAD to come out of the oven or else we would have nothing to eat, so I started yelling (okay and maybe swearing a bit. . . sorry Grandma!) at the kids to help their brother instead of just staring at him.
Once I got the pan out of the oven I ran over, grabbed Lee and immediately started to run his hand under water. Poor baby! He now has a couple of blisters on the top of his hand, but we have been keeping his hand all wrapped up with polysporin on it.
Lee had a rough evening last night (can you blame him???) but when he woke up this morning he was completely fine. I think that the pain must be gone, but the blisters are still there. So now it will just be a constant battle to keep the gauze on his hands! He is not thrilled about that at all!!
Poor baby!

Its all about the party

Am I a bad mom for not whisking my children away for a fun-filled Spring Break at some distant location? I didn't think so, until I started talking to the kids about what their friends were doing for Spring Break. It seems to me that everyone goes away on vacation. And really, why wouldn't they? As I sit at my computer and look out the window I see that my yard, house and even the mountains are covered in snow. Who wouldn't want to escape to a warmer destination (I mean, I AM going to Florida for my birthday!!!)?
It does make me feel guilty though because I do have so many children, I just can't afford to take them on tons of vacations. I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I only had two of them. Would I spend more time with them individually? Would I take them on more trips? Would they have more stuff? I believe that I would honestly have to answer no to all of those questions. I don't believe that my children are lacking in any area because there are 5 of them. Otto and I have been very fortunate to be able to sacrifice some things in order to be able to give our children the things that they need and some of the things that they even want.
That being said, this spring break has really made me think about things. We aren't going somewhere for a vacation, however we have been having fun. You see, if you know anything about me, you know that I like to plan events. I LOVE to plan things, specially parties or get togethers. So, because we are not going anywhere for Spring Break and I have a big convention coming up next weekend that I have been working my butt off to get ready for, I told the kids that on Friday we could have a party.
I did this a couple of years ago for Spring Break when we didn't go anywhere also, and it works wonders. Here's how it works. Before Spring Break starts we make invitations (by hand of course) and each child gets to invite 3 children. They hand those invitations out to their friends during the last week of school before Spring Break and that starts to get them excited for their party. If you did the math you would think that my house would be full of kids (I have 4 kids old enough to invite friends and that would equal 12 friends plus my kids for a total of 16 kids at my house for a party). However, because it is Spring Break most of the friends can't make it and so as of this morning we are having a total (including my own kids) of 9 children at this party. (Not bad hey?)
Then, on the first day of Spring Break we have a family meeting to discuss what the theme of our party will be (this year it is a Party Animal theme) and what activities we are going to do at it (play Doggie, Doggie where's your bone, make an animal picture frame and take pictures to put in the frames, make animal sugar cookies to decorate, have a pinata, play pin the tail on the donkey). And then everyday during Spring Break we spend the afternoon doing things to get ready for the party. (Go get groceries, buy candies and prizes etc) However, if the kids want a party at the house they also have to help make sure that the house is clean.
So, you see, this Spring Break party becomes the perfect bribe during Spring Break. It works for everything from getting the house clean, to making sure the kids aren't fighting, to having 5 children be on their best behaviour when we are running errands.
So, we may not be going somewhere for Spring Break this year, but this Spring Break has been all about the Party!

More Than a Pair of Scissors

So, about 4 times a year I get my hair completely redone! I love it! It makes me feel like a new woman and it helps me get out of the Frumpy Mom stereotype. I was talking to my favorite hairdresser yesterday and we realized that she has been doing my hair since I was about 17. Can you believe it? That was sooooo long ago!
I am lucky, though, because my favorite hairdresser also happens to be my cousin! I think that's also one of the reasons I love going to see her so much. We are both oldest children and have had a lot of responsibility in our lives in taking care of our younger siblings. I look up to her in so many ways. She is the oldest of all of my cousins and so, growing up, I kind of put her on a pedastool. She is only about 2 years older than me and so we have become friends over the years.
Otto had encouraged me to make a "girl's night" out of my hairstyling appointment, so Amber and I took full advantage of that! After she did a fabulous job on my hair (I am now a red head again), we both ditched our kids and hubbies and went out for dinner and then to a movie. It was great! We both drooled over Brad Pitt and had a fun time just hanging out.
I have been so blessed in my life to grow up in the family that I did have. I love that I have so many cousins that I can be close to. It seems as though no matter where my cousins live, they are a part of my life. I try to keep track of them (I have a better time doing that with the older cousins than with the younger ones, but I still try) and I LOVE hanging out with them! There are some inside jokes that live on forever because of my cousins and it is always a party when they are around.
So Amber, thanks for being more than my hairdresser! Thanks for being my friend, my cousin and so much more. I had a blast hanging out with you yesterday and it was fun just hanging out with you like we used to do back in the day.
Oh, and just a little note. . . I do recommend that you become friends with your hairdressers! I think that it makes them do a FABULOUS job on your hair! I am ALWAYS so happy with how my hair looks after visiting my cousin. . . seriously! It's so much fun to have them around!

Unbelievable!

Right now there are some things going on in my life that are UNBELIEVABLE! I thought I might share them.

1. It is UNBELIEVABLE that I have no nieces! NONE! Not even one!!! However, my brother and his wife have helped me out with this one and soon, very soon I will get my first niece! I am sooooo excited and I can hardly wait! UNBELIEVABLE!!

2. It was UNBELIEVABLE that my Caroline and Dustin finally got along yesterday for a few hours. "What were they doing?" you ask? Well they were BOTH peeing in Dustin's clothes drawers! Yep! Not a word of a lie! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

3. It is UNBELIEVABLE that I should have any desire to be around mice. When my parents renovated their basement when I was a teenager I got my own room in the basement. Well, we got mice, and I would often have a mouse run across my foot when I was going to the bathroom. Once I even woke up in the middle of the night because one was crawling on me. Needless to say mice FREAK ME OUT!!! So, it IS UNBELIEVABLE that I should want anything to do with them. But I do! I can't wait to spend my 30th birthday with 2 mice. They are named Mickey and Minnie! Yep, it is UNBELIEVABLE that Otto is going to take me to Disney World for my 30 birthday so that I can celebrate it at the happiest place on earth! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

So those are a few of the UNBELIEVABLE moments in my life! See? Aren't you glad you stopped on by?

Blue Shirt

I believe that everyone needs a blue shirt. Not just any blue shirt, but one like mine. Let me tell you about my blue shirt. It is just a long sleeved T-Shirt. It is light blue and it has a picture of a snowflake on the chest. It probably didn't cost more than $10 and it was the best gift I have ever received. "Why?" you ask? Well, because it was given to me by my kids and hubby. This shirt is probably not something that I would have picked out myself because it is not really my color. It doesn't really match anything that I own, but nothing that I own gives me more smiles than this crazy shirt (okay, maybe the green one that they also got me gets the same amount of smiles).
Over the years I have gotten TONS of handprint gifts, homemade gifts, homemade pottery, and my basement is FULL of artwork by my little artists. This shirt still tops them all! Let me tell you why, because I was thinking about it as I giggled to myself as I was hanging this shirt to dry (its laundry day over here). You see, whenever I wear this shirt I am constantly told by my girls that I am wearing the shirt that they got me. They go around all day making comments about how good the shirt looks and how they were awesome to get it for me. They high five each other when they think I am not looking and they constantly tell Otto that they had gotten me the perfect gift.
I spend the whole day smiling at the spectacle that they make about this shirt. It is hilarious! I love it! I will even wear this shirt out of the house because when they see me outside with it on they go crazy with excitement. They have even gotten Dustin into this and he HATES clothes!
So, your shirt may be green, purple, yellow or orange. It may not even be a shirt at all, but it could be a plant, or a ring or whatever else. I simply hope that everyone is able to receive a "blue shirt" like the one that I have so that you can be constantly reminded that you have people who love you.
Blue Shirts All Around!!!

The Sun will Come Out, Tomorrow!

Ever since I can remember I have loved the musical Annie. I think that this was partially because my parents loved the musical Annie and thus made me love it. Ever since I can remember I have watched the movie, sung the songs and pretended that some day Daddy Warbucks would come and adopt me. (My dad turned out to be pretty great too!) In our earliest video recordings of my brother, sister and I, I am singing songs from the musical Annie. I sang an Annie song at my Uncle Brant's wedding reception when I was young also. It just seems that the musical has always been a part of my life (I even named one of my daughters Anne).

Last month, the musical Annie came to town and for Christmas my mom got myself, Anne, Abby and her tickets. Then we found out that my sisters would be in town and my mom got them and my sister-in-law tickets also. So, we had a girls night out to go see Annie! What can I say? I LOVED it! Anne loved it and so did Abby! The play was different from the movie, but it was fantastic! We had so much fun humming the songs to ourselves as we watched the actors sing them. I was surprised how many of the jokes Anne understood and laughed at! It was a great time!
So, even though this is a month late in being posted, I want to thank my mom for giving us such a fantastic Christmas present! It was one of my favorite nights! A little girl's dream come true!

A year ago today. . .

It was a year ago today that our family was completed. Everyone who was supposed to come to us had arrived and we had a little miracle in the works. Little did I know when I woke up that morning that by the time I would go to bed I would have one of the biggest scares of my life that would also result in holding my youngest son in my arms.
A year ago today I was hanging out, getting ready for my C-Section that was coming up the following week. I was running errands and I was getting children to and from their various schools. I felt a bit sick and crampy and I really couldn't feel my baby move. A year ago today I was worried about this. It had not even been a year since I had delivered my stillborn and so I was feeling anxious. I could not get the nagging feeling that I needed to get checked out at the hospital out of my head. A year ago today, I followed that prompting, grabbed my camera, picked up my hubby and dropped off Caroline and Dustin at a friend's house.
A year ago today I sat in the triage of the Foothills Hospital watching the baby monitor and hoping and praying that the baby would move and that there would still be a heartbeat. A year ago today my doctor just happened to end surgery as I arrived. A year ago today she decided that because baby wasn't moving and I was already scheduled for a C-section the next week and the O.R. was open and she was there and I was there that she would do a C-Section. A year ago today I went into the operating room, grateful that I had grabbed my camera and excited and nervous that I was about to have my baby.
A year ago today, the operating room went silent. You could hear the hum of the monitors and the beating of my heart, but not a word was said. A year ago today a sudden cry broke the silence and the NICU was called in to help the baby and there was a flurry of activity. A year ago today my baby was whisked off to the NICU as the doctors tried to explain to me what had happened.
A year ago today I found out that I had almost lost my baby. I had had a placental abruption and was bleeding into the amniotic sac so Lee was eating, drinking and breathing blood. There were also numerous knots in the umbilical cord and if we had waited 2 more hours we would have lost another baby.
A year ago today I couldn't stop shaking and crying as I realized how close I had come to losing my baby. A year ago today I realized, for the first time, that Lee had his own special guardian angel. I realized that our little Robin had been helping him and because I had had her not even a year before my Lee was born I was able to notice the lack of movement on Lee's part. A year ago today, the death of one of my babies resulted in the saving of another one.
Over this past year I have thought a lot about that day. My heart still beats so quickly whenever I think about how close I came to losing Lee. It makes me so grateful that my Heavenly Father helped everything to fall into place at just the right moment so that my Lee could be saved.
I still firmly believe that everything that happened a year ago today was for a special purpose and that I have been entrusted with a very special boy. This is a boy who brings so much love and peace into my life. He is the happiest little guy and so calm and sweet.
And to think when I woke up that morning I had no idea how my life would be changed from a year ago today.

I like to feel needed

As my sisters all know, I am having a hard time with them all living in Edmonton. I will be honest, I just don't like it. I miss them like crazy! I miss seeing them when I randomly pop over to my parent's house. I miss talking to them all the time about their lives. I just miss them. I think that I miss them so much because I am their oldest sister and I have always felt responsible for them.
When we were young and my parents would have us clean up a room, I would divide the room and let them pick which side they wanted to clean. (They always chose the easier side of course) and I would clean the other side. Well, my side would get cleaner faster and so then they would decide to switch sides and I would do it. They thought that they were so sneaky, but I realized that I just wanted it to get done and a little help was better than no help at all.
And then there was my candy jar. I have never been a huge fan of candy. I just don't really like it (good quality chocolate doesn't count as candy, it's a dessert!). And so at Easter time and Halloween and Christmas, whenever I would get candy I would put it into this little rubbermaid container and I called it my candy jar. Then (being the oldest, and slightly lazy) when I would want my sisters and brother to do something for me that they didn't want to do I would bribe them with candy. It pretty much always worked and I usually got whatever I wanted.
And now they are in Edmonton. I have felt really lost actually. It used to be nice to have my brother around because we would hang out quite a bit, but now he has gotten a whole bunch of friends to go and live in his apartment complex and he is having a blast over there.
When I moved houses, I wanted to make sure that I moved closer to my grandparents. I wanted to be able to help them out and, let me be honest here, my Grandma is pretty much my best friend. So I moved to be close to them. . . and they bought a second "Playhouse" in St. George. So, they are pretty much gone for more than half of the year.
And then there are my parents. They are now empty nesters and very busy. They constantly have things going on and I think that they are really enjoying not having to worry about anyone at home. It seems that they are always going places and it is fun to hear about their travels.
So, that just leaves me. I don't know if its because I am the oldest, or if its just my personality, but I need to feel needed. I love to do little things for other people, especially my family, and with everyone being gone I just am not needed. I feel weird. I don't really know what to do. This has actually really started to affect me and I think that I need to make some changes in my life. My babies are getting older and so they don't need me as much. I think that is part of the reason that I got this puppy for Otto. Now I have someone who needs me again.
However, I can't go on buying puppies because we have just run out of room. So, I need to change something, or do something that will shake things up enough that I won't need to feel needed.
I guess I just need to think about it for awhile.

Totally Made My Day

Have you even had one of THOSE days where you just get emotionally drained? One of those days where no matter how much you clean your house it never gets cleaned, or whatever can go wrong does??? Well that has been my day today. I won't bore you with the details but by 5:00 I was completely exhausted and finished!
Because I have such a sweet hubby he took most of the kids with him when he took Abby to cello lessons, and he even made dinner and had the kids do a bunch of cleaning. It helped, but I have still been feeling so emotionally drained. Maybe its because Lee has been so sick, or because he threw up during my piano lessons, or no matter how much I cleaned the house got worse. . . . or one of the many other things that happened today. Whatever it is, I am spent.
And then I got an email.
I had written to a company called Heritage Makers to tell them about the book that I made for my Grandma Lee at Christmas time. It was a book about my Grandpa Lee that is full of memories of my grandpa from myself and my cousins. I gave it to my Grandma at Christmas time and she still calls me up every once in awhile to thank me for making it and she tells me how much she loves it.
I love that book too. That was why I wrote to Heritage Makers. Then, tonight in my email inbox I got an email from Heritage Makers asking for my permission for them to use my story in their advertising.
That made my day. I am pretty excited to see what they use my story for, and they have asked me if I have pictures (so Michelle, if you were smart enough to get some, can you send them my way???). I made this book as a way to remember my Grandpa and have a wonderful book for my children to learn about him and who he was and the life that he lead. If, by using my story on why I created my Grandpa's book, other people can be inspired and use it to preserve their memories then I will have accomplished way more than what I set out to do when I created this book of my Grandpa. I will see if I can post an electronic of the book on this page. . . we'll see. . . I'm not making any promises. . . I'm not that technologically inclined.
Anyways, that made my day. Maybe its Grandpa's spirit coming back to me to brighten my day again. . . I never could stay grumpy for long when that guy was around!
(P.S. I did it!!! What do you think???)