Not a good day for me

So I was cleaning up the house this morning and I went in Jordan and Jocee's room, walked in about a step, scooped down to pick something up really quick, then turned around as I stood up quickly, thinking the doorway was there, and SMACK!!! I hit the corner of the crown molding around the doorway. It hurt so bad. I thought for sure I knocked a tooth out or broke my nose because I hit so hard. I put my hand on my face and saw blood. So I ran to get a napkin with ice and went to the bathroom to see the damage. I had a small gash above my lip and to the left. I wasn't sure if it needed stitches or not, but I did NOT want to go to urgent care and find out. So I kept ice on it for a long time to numb the pain. I started feeling like I was going to pass out, so I laid on the couch and Jocee came over and said, "Ohhh Mom, you got an ouchy? Well, who's gonna be your mom and take care of you because you have an ouchy?" Then she paused, gently put her hand under my chin, and said "Well, I guess I'll just be your mom and take care of you." She was sweet. So concerned for me. After looking it over in the mirror, I realized that it needed to be closed so it could heal. And I did not want a huge scar on my face. So I called and told Chad what happened but told him not to come home. I would call his mom to see if she could bring me some steri-strips to keep it together. Anyways, my sister-in-law came to my rescue and helped put the strips on for me. Well seeing as how I had to eat because I was feeling weak, it made the wound start to bleed again, so I had to painfully take them off and put on new ones myself. My mother-in-law called later to see how I was doing and insisted that I should go to urgent care and get stitches so I don't get a bad scar. She ended up calling the wife of an urgent care doctor that's in their stake and he said he'd take a look at it for me for free if I wanted to go in. So I went (I REALLY DID NOT WANT TO GET STITCHES!) and my sister went with me for support. He was really nice and easy to talk to. I told him what a baby I was and how I didn't want to take the strips off. So he looked at it and said "Wow! Whoever put the strips on did a great job! Who did it for you?" I was like, "Umm, I did!" He was quite impressed with my skills. :) Then he said I could either keep them on for 4 days and not get them wet or dirty while the skin heals or I could take off the strips so he could see how deep the cut was and either stitch it up or glue it up. I agreed to let him see the cut if he let ME take off the strips slowly and carefully. He agreed. So anyways, he ended up "Dermabond-ing" me back together. It burned SO bad for quite some time. He was shocked that it was still burning me for so long. I think because part of the cut may have gone all the way through and so it was just going deeper down the cut. I have a fat top lip, a cut inside my mouth which makes it hard to eat, and purple glue stuck on my face. And of course, no camera to document it all. My sister did take a few pictures with her phone, but I don't have them yet. When I do, I'll post them. So that was my crappy day. I had a pounding headache most of the day too! Did I mention I also have a cold coming on too? Chad's at the store right now buying cold medicine for me. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Happy Birthday Chad!

For Chad's birthday I surprised him with tickets to a hockey game. For those of you who don't know, Chad LOVES hockey--he's from Canada and grew up playing it. His sister's husband called me and said he had tickets to the game and couldn't go and said I could have them to take Chad. (Thank you Chris!) We were just planning on going to dinner and a movie (with our gift card from Christmas) so we already had a babysitter lined up. I was supposed to pick her up at 4:30pm--but at 4:28pm she called and said she couldn't come. I was so mad! We had planned this with her like 2 weeks in advance! So we were trying to figure out who we could call and get to come over like, RIGHT NOW, so we could go. Chad was just like, "Well, we just won't go." I, on the other hand, wasn't going to miss the hockey game. So we called a couple of girls in the ward but just got answering machines. So, my sister said she could come for a couple of hours because she had plans if we could just find someone to come from 7 till we got home. So THANKFULLY, my good friend Cami came to the rescue, without hesitation! What a nice friend! When we came home around 11pm, she said the kids were great and they had a great time. She said they all went to bed on time with no whining or anything. She was surprised at how easy they were to get to go to bed. I'm so glad!! I told her that we would babysit her kids so that she and her hubby could go out on a date too.
We had a lot of fun at the game. The stadium was really nice. I knew where we were going so I had like 5 shirts on with a hoodie so I wouldn't freeze. Chad, of course, was wearing a short-sleeve shirt and sandals! Crazy Canadian. The game went into overtime, then to a shoot-out. It was really exciting. The Coyotes lost in the shoot-out.

Maybe one day, I can surprise him with a ride on the zamboni! That would be awesome!


His mom got him this guitar game that you plug into the tv. He loves playing it! He's known for his air-guitar skills so his mom thought this would be a good gift---she was right!










Monday was MLK Jr day, Chad's actual birthday, and his boss gave him the day off! Lucky duck. So we went to Fountain Hills to this park where there's this huge water fountain and lots grassy area and parks for the kids to play. It was so pretty. The kids thought it was cool too.








Callie chillin' in her carseat with the blanket to shade her from the sun.












He's been wanting an MP3 player for a long time so I finally got him one. He was so excited. Now all he wants to do is download music onto it! I can't get him off the computer!










Here we are playing on the playground. They loved this airplane thing. They were all 3 on it forever! I kept asking them if they wanted to go on the slide or anything else and they all shouted NO!!

Peek-a-boo Katelyn!!
They finally got off the plane and went to play "restaurant." They took "orders" then brought out the "food." They were so cute and playing so well together. It was a nice outing.
Here's Katee complaining to the workers, "Hey! This isn't what I ordered!!!" LOL!

Here they are on this tortoise just before we left the park. We had to leave because I had to go to work. I felt so bad that I had to work on his birthday but I couldn't find anyone to cover my shift for me. Oh well, at least we got to spend the day together-- then I could go earn some money. Chad said that later that night, Jordan said sweetly, "Dad, I had so much fun at the park with our family today."

Thanks Chad & Trent!

Friday night, Trent (and family) was kind enough to come over and help Chad put in the new dishwasher!! Chad also decided that it was time that we get a new garbage disposal (we've been with a broken one for almost a year!) and put that in too. They said it wouldn't take long at all but they ended up being here for about 2 hours. But that was partly because the Suns game was on so they were a little pre-occupied for part of that time. But the kids had fun playing and Erika and I had fun visiting. I just felt bad because they were planning on going to get Chinese food and enjoying their Friday night alone together. Hopefully they still had a good time when they got home and put the kiddos to bed. I'm so thrilled to finally be able to put food down the drain and not dump it in the garbage anymore and stink up the house! I haven't had enough dirty dishes to run the dishwasher yet but probably by tomorrow I will. Hopefully it works great too! THANKS GUYS!!!!!!!!!

Ty, are you out there?

Okay, don't get my wrong, I'm so grateful to have a house to live in. We lived in an apartment for a couple years and it was NOT fun. BUT, since our house was built in the dark ages, it has its problems. Yes, Chad can fix some things, but he doesn't have the skills needed to help this ancient house. We have plumbing issues in the master bath...the shower is not draining. I put Drano down it, but that didn't work. Then we got this stuff at Home Depot that says "Guaranteed to Work" and we've actually used a few times and has worked before, but this time, nothing. Then the other day, I noticed there is an awful smell in the kitchen like in the cabinets next to the dishwasher. I ran the dishwasher thinking that was the smell, but it still smells so bad. I fear that when people come over, they think my house stinks so bad. I've put AirWick things all over the kitchen area to cover it up but I can still smell it. I'm not sure if the mouse that I previously posted about, died (I put out poison all in the cabinets where I heard him) and that's what stinks or if the cabinets are rotting. We desperately need new cabinets. They are just hideous and have holes in the backs of them, which is why we get rodents and roaches. I don't know how much new basic cabinets are and how much it costs to get them installed.
We were also given brand new counter tops from Chad's cousins, but they aren't cut to fit our kitchen so they will have to be measured and cut but we the guy we asked to help us has never called us back or come over so they have been sitting on our back patio for like 4 months, just taking up space and gathering much dirt and cobwebs. They also gave us brand new carpet but we haven't been able to put that in either. They also gave us a new dishwasher, but that is STILL sitting in the garage at his parent's house.
Then there's the A/C & Heating issue. Hardly any (if any) air blows out of the vents in the kids' bedrooms. I've tried closing some of the other vents and that didn't help. I had the air ducts cleaned last year to see if that would help the air flow, but it didn't. I know what you're thinking..."Why can't Chad fix it?He does Air Conditioning for a living!) I've asked him so many times and he says he can't fix it. Something about it needing to be balanced and he can't do it. I don't know. All I know is that the kids are freezing during the winter and sweating in the summer, even though the we run the heater and the a/c. I'm sure my single pane windows don't help that situation either. Or that none of the doors are completely sealed when they close. I suppose I could get one of those things that you attach to the bottom of the doors to keep the air and bugs out. Where do I get those anyways?
The electricity in our house needs to be updated too. When I use the blowdrier for longer than 10 minutes, it blows the fuse and the power in the bathroom and hall go out. And at Christmas time when Chad puts up all his lights and decorations, the power in the house goes out too. Oh, and we have a huge dead tree in the back yard that has power lines running through its branches. I've gotten quotes to get this thing taken out, and one guy a few years ago quoted me $1500 and we didn't have that kind of money so we didn't have him do it. Then when we got our tax return the next year, I called him back to get another quote for the same tree and he wanted TWICE the amount he quoted me a year ago!! When I showed him his previous quote, he was like "Well, uh...with gas prices up this year, I have to charge more....blah blah blah..." Anyways, on with the backyard...it's just not kid-friendly. We sorta have grass, have lots of dirt, and an old fence that's falling apart. Every so often some neighborhood dog comes and knocks out a couple of fence boards and so Rocky gets out. So since we've been out of work for like 2 months, we've not had the money to fix the entire fence, so we just do a little section at a time. I'd really like a block fence so as to help drown out at least some of the noise from the neighbor's loud parties, not to mention keeping strange dogs out of our yard. I wish I had a nice, green back yard with a play area for the kids, with a swing set for them to climb on and swing on and be kids. Instead of now, they go outside and either get into trouble by going into the nasty, doorless shed or get filthy dirty from playing in the dirt. Oh, and I'd like to get rid of the sick shed and get a nice looking one to use to store stuff in since we don't have a garage.
I think I forgot to mention my "beautiful" pink tiled hall bath. The walls in it are so rotted that you can push on the tile and it goes in. A tile next to the faucet has come off and you can see how rotted the underlying surface is. Who knows what else is behind it. I'd like to get a quote on how much it would cost to take it all out and put in new surround walls but I'm scared they are going to rip it all out and then tell me that they encountered mold or something horrific and that's going to cost lots more than they had quoted.
So if Ty Pennington happens to stumble on my blog, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come knock on my door!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Erica (Belated, I know)

(The pictures have been scanned in and blown up so the resolution isn't the best.)
January 5th (yes, 10 days ago. I'm a bad friend.), was my best friend, Erica's birthday! I didn't forget it, I promise. But in honor of her birthday, I thought I'd take a walk down memory lane...
We met in 6th grade, Mrs. Lallier's class. This is a picture we took in one of those booths at the fair. We loved going to the fair. It was like the ONLY thing to do in El Centro for fun. Look how young we are!





Our freshman year of High School, we were on the basketball team. I don't know how I managed to talk her into doing it, because she didn't have a sporty bone in her body! She was on the freshman team and I was on varsity, which didn't work out too well because we couldn't even be together for practice or games! Oh well. It forced us to make new friends with our teammates.





This was a dance we went to our freshman year. The theme was "Blast from the Past". I don't think we had dates (too young to date), but we still had fun anyways. We were HOT in our little skimpy dresses!! Ha ha ha!! :)








We eventually graduated in 1999!!! Woohoo!! High School was so much fun. Lots of drama, but lots of fun too!













She came to visit us after Jocee was born. Here she is posing with Jordan. He had fun when she was here. He was really into the Wiggles, so he was showing her all the dances for each song. It was so cute.











She just had her first baby, Julia, in October of last year. She just posted today that she already rolled over! Way to go Julia!!

Callie's Buddy

Aren't these guys adorable!!!?? This is my friend Erika's little guy, Brendan, who is 6 weeks older than Callie.



Yes, they are at church. We were in Primary and Callie just didn't want to sit and be quiet, so we went to the back, where she found her buddy to play with.







She leaned over and planted a big wet one on him!!!











Then he reached over and touched her mouth, "My, what soft lips you have!"









Then he gave a huge smile!

The first 3 days of work was....

So the first 3 days of work went really well for Chad. The job seems to have minimal stress...there's no pressure on him right now. The boss is totally laid back and not demeaning or condescending at all. In fact, he bought him lunch 2 out of the 3 days they worked! He even picked him up 2 days too, so we didn't have to use our gas in the truck. He even paid him today...the amount he promised too!!! He asked Chad how he liked the job so far and Chad told him he loves it and loves working with him. Chad asked him how he was doing as a worker and he told him he had no complaints and said everything was great. It totally shows in Chad's attitude and how happy he has been the past 3 days. Our home has been so different these past 3 days than it has been for the past couple of months. We seem to all be in better moods and just more playful and happy. It's been great. Amazing how a job that makes you happy can change your whole family. I really hope that this is going to be THE job that he has for a long time and is going to be his career. This is what our families fasted for so I truly believe that the Lord fulfilled his promise and directed Chad to call this guy.

Family Update

Today Chad started working again!!! Woohoo!!! It was so nice to have the house back to myself. I mean, I know it's his house too, but I just can't seem to get stuff done while he's here! Today, I actually got my cleaning done and it felt great! Especially knowing that he's out working, earning a living, not wasting time watching sports or whatever. He's now working with a guy who owns his own company and does mostly work on the Church buildings in the east valley. Chad's family know him and say he's a really nice, honest man. For his interview he took him to eat at Joe's BBQ, then today he took him to lunch at Rosa's!! Why don't we stay at home moms get taken out to eat by our bosses? :) Anyways, he said the day went well and they seem to get along pretty good... not like the last grumpy guy he worked with for 4 days (he had to quit, the guy was a jerk!).
Tomorrow Katelyn goes to her first session of speech therapy. I'm assuming that we will basically just be in a room of toys and just talk a lot and try to get her to say things. She does repeat words when she is in the right mood. I feel bad for her because I'm sure she's frustrated that we don't understand her or that she can't say what she wants or needs to us. Hopefully this helps her at least a little bit!
Callie officially started crawling (not scooting) this past Sunday!!! It's the cutest thing to watch this tiny little baby crawl like she knows exactly what she's doing. She's so alert and so smart. She just sits and watches the kids play and just takes it all in. You can just see the wheels turning in her pretty little head. She's still sweet as ever. I finally started trying to feed her baby food. She didn't really like green beans but liked bananas and pears...of course, the sweet stuff!! (She's a girl, what do you expect? It's the Whitcomb in her too! :-) )
Last night, I went to a tax preparation class at a Liberty Mutual with my sister in law. I was considering doing it at nights if it paid more than Mervyn's pays and offered more hours, but after talking with the guy, it pays about the same (actually $.05 less than Mervyn's!) and wouldn't be more hours. Plus it's further from my house. So I'm staying at Mervyn's. It would be more stressful than Mervyn's is anyways. And I would lose my discount!
Jordan brought home a paper for me to fill out notifying them if I had a child who would be entering Kindergarten and I'm so excited for Jocee to go! She's thrilled at the idea of going to school. She keeps asking me who her teacher's going to be. She loves to write, and draw, and learn. Today she wanted me to keep reading her this book about numbers and she was learning the numbers and how to write them and stuff. She just absorbs information like a sponge. She's so smart. She will turn 5 in October so she'll be a young one, but I think she's going to do great. I don't know what I'll do with myself with only 2 kids at home!
Okay so I think that was an update on everything...oh yeah, I forgot.....we have a mouse in our house, in the kitchen to be exact. It's such a disgusting thing to think about. He started out in the hall closet, then he found his way to the kitchen. I heard him gnawing away at some wood this morning next to the dishwasher. So today I put some rat poison all along that wall in the cupboards. Hopefully he will eat enough of it to kill him before he multiplies and replenishes my house! They are SICK!!

I'm a Happy Girl!

Oh, to only be 6 months old again! So happy and care free! Have people hold you, swing you all around, make you laugh, and tell you how cute you are!

And get fed yummy stuff from your aunt and Grandpa! ;)

Callie's first day of 2008

My aunt and uncle from California came to visit on Tuesday so we went to visit with them at my dad's uncle's house in Carefree. They have a huge house on the side of a mountain with a spectacular view (stupid me, didn't take a picture of it!). We enjoyed dinner at their house too. While my dad was holding Callie at the table, he went to take a drink and she grabbed his cup and tried to drink out of it!! It was so funny!!

She wouldn't let go of the cup!!

Then after a little drink of Grandpa's soda (not really) her Aunt Lexee gave her some ice cream (yes, really)!

She loved it! Her bottom teeth are coming in, so the ice cream probably felt really good on her gums. She had a great 1st day of the new year!

Christmas Times

Jordan had so much fun with his "big" cousin, Bryson. They became best buds on Christmas and couldn't wait to play again on New Year's Eve. They were inseperable. Too cute!

I had a tie made for my dad with pictures of all the kids on it. He loved it. He wore it to work the next day and said he got so many compliments on it. He said most people told him how adorable his kids are....which is more a compliment to him that people actually think he has a 6 month old baby! I'm just glad I got him something that I know he likes! You know how hard it is to buy for Moms and Dads! I figured you can't go wrong with adorable pictures of their favorite kids.

On Christmas, we went out to Coolio and enjoyed a yummy dinner, then went to work it off with a fun game of football!

New Year's Eve and Stuff

For new year's eve morning, Callie went to the doctor for her 6 month check up. She only weighs 14lbs 8 oz and is 25 1/2 inches long! She got 3 shots and did great! She's our smallest baby at this age. It's kinda nice!
Then for the night, we went to the Wheatleys (my mom's brother's family who we spent Christmas Eve with) for food and games. My kids had so much fun. They didn't want to go home. They begged to have a sleepover but one of the cousins hadn't been good for the past few days, so the answer was no. But she said next weekend that Jocee and Jordan could go over and spend the night. They are so looking forward to that.
Last week, they stayed at my mom's house for 4 nights. It was so nice to only have the 2 babies. The house was so quiet...no arguing, fighting, screaming, tattling....we could handle going to the store if we needed to without lugging an army in with us.
On Friday night, my sister and I went to be extras in an independent film and made $50 bucks for an hour and a half! It was clear out in the middle of the desert and was freezing cold, but hey, for $50 bucks, I could handle it! Afterwards, we went to eat at Gecko Grill since we only had the 2 girls we thought it'd be a rather uneventful meal. Well, once our food came, we kept offering food to Katee and she kept shaking her head no and she wouldn't eat anything. Well, about 10 minutes later, she puked all over my sister, herself, and the booth. It was so nasty. It smelled so bad and my poor sister had chunks on her and the poor busboy had to come clean it all up. Needless to say, I packed up my half-eaten dinner and we went home. She was sick for the next 2 days, so the big kids got to stay at Grandma's longer because my mom didn't want them to get the bug from Katee.

Christmas Presents

Since both of our parents live near us, this year we had Christmas at our house in the morning, then went to the Gardiners so the
kids could open their presents from her. Katelyn and Jocee got new Cabbage Patch dolls, which they absolutely love!! They take them everywhere we go. Katelyn's doll's name is Leslie (it came with a birth certificate.)















Jocee's doll's name is Micah....I know, I thought that was a boy name too, but that's what it said on the certificate. She wasn't thrilled with that name so I think she calls her another name.
















Jordan got this race track crash thing. We haven't even taken it out of the box yet, because there's too many other toys that he's interested in right now, so I figure why lose all these pieces. Once all the other toys lose their newness, we can open this one and he'll totally love it. He also got this Spiderman watch (on his arm). He's into watches right now....has to have one like Daddy and Uncle Teddy. He also got a Cowboys hat from Daddy that he's very proud of. (Chad got himself a new one, so he retired this one to Jordan.)
















Callie got a Noah's Ark toy that sings songs and the animals' bodies move around and make noise. She loves it! Actually, the other kids have taken a liking to it too! They load up the ark and push it around the house making it sing and make noise. Funny, how you try to get each kid the perfect gift they are going to love, and they end up liking something weird, or not even theirs. Oh well, whatever makes them happy.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, the kids opened up new pajamas! They were so cute. We had my family over and my Mom's brother's family over. They have 5 kids, ranging in age from 18 to 9. The youngest one is a boy and the rest are girls. My kids had a blast with the 2 youngest girls. Callie got carried around and played with the whole night. Katelyn, Jocee and Jordan had fun playing with Shyla and Jaycee. While we were playing games, the kids were kept well entertained the whole time!! It was so nice to have babysitters in the house!!

Just before bedtime, the girls took the kids outside to leave the reindeer hay for Santa's reindeer. They were so excited to leave the magic hay.

Here they are dumping it out on the grass.

Callie with her new best friend! Shyla held her the whole night and loved every minute of it! I don't know who had more fun, Shyla or Callie! She was so good with her.