a little prick on the knee?

So - when I tell you to look at that little spot on my knee you probably think... "no big deal so you got pricked by a pin or something", right? (And I'm sure you think, "Dang, you need a tan" - but that is not what I am dwelling on right now.)

Well it is so much more than that. It is actually the entry point where the blunt end of a needle (with thread in it) entered my knee. (Did you pull back your gag reflex yet?)

Here's the story: I was crouched down pulling a blanket out of our closet. The blanket didnt give like I was expecting it to, so I fell forward and my knees went to the ground. When my left knee hit the ground I heard a really weird, odd, disturbing crunching sound. When I looked down at my knee I saw the needle protruding from it. "Okay, dont panic. Just pull it out" I told myself.

I pulled and tugged and it was totally stuck. I couldnt get a good grip on it and it was in far enough that I couldnt move because it had pinned my knee in place.

So I called for Chad (thank goodness he was home!) When he got there I said (very calmly I might add) "Go get some plyers and pull this needle out of my knee."

He ran to the garage and returned with some needle-nosed plyers and said"Okay, I'm going to do this really fast"

To which I replied "Just do it"

When it came out it became apparent that it was more than an inch in my knee. The crunching noise that I heard was most likely cartalidge or bone. I am too stubborn to go to the doctor to have it looked at. The wound just looks to sissy. This all happened Tuesday night. It really hurt yesterday, but today I woke up and it felt fine. I'm just going to watch it and if anything else happens then I will consult with my physician. I promise.

Anyway, I hope that this prepares you to go eat a lovely dinner!

Oh, after it came out Chad took it to the bathroom to further investigate it. When he was looking at it the needle broke - most likely from the stress put on it. I'm so lucky that it didnt break off in my knee!

While we were gone

We had a lot happing at our humble abode. Our ceilings were finally completed (minus the painting) and we couldn't be happier. Well, we could be happier if the process wouldnt have left a layer of dust on everything that we own. Seriously, every crack, shelf, table is covered in dust. My mom was nice enough today to come over and help me wipe down the walls. yes folks every wall has to be cleaned to. But really, it is nice to have the work completed. We finally feel like we are close to having our house done. I started to think about it today, and I honestly dont know what we will do when our house is "complete". We will be bored, but it will be a good bored :)





these pictures of the finished product may not look like much to most people, but they look like heaven to us. We've been staring at holes in our ceilings for too long.

I would like to give a huge shout out of thanks to all the men that came over to help Chad move all of our furniture. It really means a lot.

I would also like to give a huge thank you to my sweet husband for all of his hard work.

All alone

This man was not meant to be alone. It has been 9 days without Emily and the kids, and I am feeling it. at first I thought that I would be so happy to not have anyone dictating my time. Turns out, I don't really want to do anything else. Last night after dinner I was geared up for the bedtime routine and found myself wandering around the kitchen of my friends' house.

To make matters worse, my own house is in a major state of destruction. Everything moved out of it or into the playroom. Dirty, dusty, depressing state over there.

The silver lining is that my family returns to me tomorrow night. The house will be done (barely) and I will have to get crackin' on cleaning and moving things back in so the kids will have a place to sleep. (not to mention a place to welcome Emily home).

10 days is too long. I can't wait to no longer be a man alone.

A Weekend getaway

Well, I'm off for the weekend with the kids. Just me, my mom and two children in the car for ten hours until the treck finishes in Sacramento - more specifically - "Aunt Sissy's house". Caitlyn couldnt be more excited to see her cousins and play, but when she realized that she was going to miss school elephant tears began to roll down her face. She said with tears streaming " but how am I going to learn?". It was a sincere, heart - felt concern of hers that she was going to be behind the curve when she returned on Wednesday of next week. I explained to her that I would make assignments for her while we were away and that we could have lessons with her cousins. This soothed her for the time being. When I took her to school this morning she explained that she was going to say goodbye to all of her friends because she will miss them so much "I'll even miss Brendan" she said. And so my perspective goes back and remembers the time when time seemed to crawl. I remember sitting for hours (or what seemed like it) on our kitchen floor watching the clock and waiting for a friend's birthday party to start that afternoon. Little things to a child make such a huge impact.

We'll have a great time, but we'll miss Chad. He has been out of town since Sunday afternoon and we are definitely feelin' it. We are leaving tomorrow to help ease the pain of the construction that will be going on at our house over the weekend. The construction will leave our house pretty much unliveable and therefore, impossible to have kids in. So, visiting family seems like a good option. Chad is coming home tomorrow to move all of our funiture out of the house to help with the work on the ceilings - so if anyone has a husband to spare on a Friday night... send them to our house because he'll be working into the wee hours of the morning to ge the place ready.

So - until next week... signin' off!

Antics

Where have we been? What has been doing on? Well, let me catch you up on the antics of Caitlyn and Nathan...

Caitlyn has been her usual diva self. Her new passion - infomercials. I can believe how many commercials they gear towards the parents by making the children crave it. The ad agencies are very cunning when it comes to Disney Channel and Nick Jr.

So a couple of weeks ago Caitlyn was watching her new favorite - "Kewlopolis" (Channel 5 - Saturday mornings) because it has Horseland and Strawberry Shortcake. Anyway, in the middle of these shows a huge informercial played about "The Biggest Little Bag Ever". Caitlyn was totally convinced - and will still make the argument for- that we definitely need this. Because in her words (quoted by the commercial) "it can hold up to three full-sized water bottles". Believe me if I could rely the passion in her voice about this feat I would.

She is also convinced that the Aqua Grow is a necessity for life. We were walking through Walmart when all of a sudden Caitlyn exclaimed "Theres the Aqua Globe. We need that. You just put it into the soil and it waters your plants for you!"

So congratulations marketing agents. It appears that when Caitlyn was born so was a sucker for your marketing ploys.

Heaven help us on the day she gets hold of a credit card.

Nathan's little imagination has been growing and growing. On this day, he was a astronaut. You have no idea how much it gives me joy to see him dressing up and enjoying it. It was almost time for his bus when I took this picture. I tried to remove his astronaut vest to which he replied softly "no" while putting his had over it. It was really adorable. If he hadnt removed it a couple of minutes later I would have been glad to let him wear it to school. You're only a kid once, right?

On Saturday we went to Bartlett Lake with Chad's family. It ended up being us and Mike and Janna, and we had a great time. Well, almost all of us...

This pretty much sums up what Nathan did most of the time. It was a little overwhelming for him. If he was up on deck he looked like this, but he spent most of his time down in the cabin enjoying his little cave of space. He came up and had fun when we were docked for lunch - which leads us to believe that it may be the motor that scared him.

He also had to go the the bathroom pretty bad. How do you explain to a child - especially Nathan - that in this situation it is okay to go in the water, but it's not okay at home or anywhere else. Yeah, didnt work. So we took him to the marina and he was a lot happier after that.

Caitlyn had such a great time. She couldn't wait until it was her turn to get back out on the water. She rode the tube and the Hot Dog for quite awile. Everyone managed to get me out on the Hot Dog with Caitlyn and Chad with the promise that I would be pulled back in so I could get directly on to the boat. Chad says it a irrational fear - I say it is purely sanitary.

A birthday surprise

Afew of my girlfriends surprised me for my birthday with a night out. Where else does a group of girls who like sweets go? Cheesecake Factory, right. We had a blast, and we had the waitress laughing with the topics of conversation that we were covering. Why are girls so open? The rest of the night was filled with laughs, eye openers and more laughs. For those who were there - good times.

Thanks girls! It was such a fun time - and definitely something that should be done more often then just for a birthday. Lanae and I discussed this... our husbands actually like it when we go out, because we come home in a good mood and ready to jump/be pushed back into motherhood. Having a fun night with friends = relaxation/rejuvination.

Seriously - one of the biggest desserts ever. Amber was definitely eating with her eyes more that her stomach when she ordered that one

Like riding a bike

Going back to school has not be a huge adjustment at our house. Caitlyn was excited. She practically left me in the dust to get to her class, and that is saying alot considering that she is on crutches right now.

Nathan's first day is today. I just put him on the bus. The bus. It was such a tramatic experience for me last year, but I have adjusted and this year it was a smooth transition. Nathan went on like nothing was out of the summer ordinary. He put on his backpack and hit the road, but not before I could get a few choice pictures. You could tell he was thinking "Eh, whats the big deal. A bus."

Caitlyn on her way to her first day of school yesterday

I got to go into her classroom because she cant carry her backpack right now. I know, your thinking, put it on her back, but I'm telling you with the weight of her lunchbox (she should definitely not go hungry with the amount of food I supply her) it throws off her balance. Anyway, I snuck a picture of her in the classroom. I'm pretty sure its frowned upon at school because of all of the other kids.

Nathan couldnt stop posing for pictures. He just kept saying "Cheese" - he was ready for his close up. Acutally, I just know that he likes the flash on the camera. He laughs everytime.

Whatever works, right?

Chaging of the cast

I never knew they did this, but apparently if you brake you foot/leg/arm good enough, you get a new cast two weeks into your recovery. Caitlyn will need to be in a cast for at least another two weeks for her foot to completely heal. So off to the doctor we went. We were sad to see our original signatures leave, but a new fresh clean cast was definitely in order.

She wasnt nervous at all when the brought out the saw

I was really proud of how brave she was during the process. Now when we get the other taken off it should be a peice of cake.

You can see that her foot is still brusied around the area. She still has a bruise on the bottom of her foot - but I didnt get a picture of it. They showed me the xrays -and it is definitely still broken, but looking better.

Latest Addition

My (Chad's) sister and brother in law just had their twins this morning. They are absolutely perfect. Here is Lauren (left) and Calvin. Almost makes me want another, almost.

San Diego

We had so much fun this past week in San Diego. We took the kids to the beach, Sea World, and the San Diego Temple. We enjoyed beautiful weather, company of family we havent seen in awhile and a much needed break. This is just a few pictures, but you get the idea.

This is all I can do with my pile of laundry staring me in the face.

SAN DIEGO TEMPLE:

Okay, so I think that this is an awesome shot that I took. I've gotten mixed reactions
. I'm glad that I got a shot of Chad with the kids, but it was so bright outside that this is the best we could come up with. Unfortunately, we didnt get a family shot. There were some weddings going on, and everybody around the grounds were kind of preoccupied.

SEA WORLD:

The very first thing we saw in Sea World was the dolphins. There were so many people there, but the kids we able to get a glimpse of them.

This was taken right after lunch. I cant believe I am still smiling after what we paid to eat. Seriously, highway robbery.

This was one of Nathan's favorite parts of Sea World. The aquariums. He could have stayed in there all day.

THE BEACH:

Nathan was apprehensive about the water. At first he ran right in, but when he discovered that the sand disappears beneath your feet as the waves go out, and that it put him on unstable ground, he wasn't so keen on the idea. For the rest of the day he would run up to the waves and as soon as they got ankle - high he would run out.

I am not much of an ocean water kind of person. Really, if you know me very well then you know I dont really like any kind of water that I cant see through - this includes lakes. So my time was taken from this view. I completely enjoy the ambiance, the sand, and laying out. We all had a great time.

How did Caitlyn go to the beach you ask? Thanks to the cast cover I found on the internet! It pretty much vaccum seals around the cast and it is completely waterproof. Pretty cool hu? It was the best invention of the trip because Caitlyn didnt miss out on any of the fun.

Ben and Sarah happened to be in California at the same time. We met up with them for the day at the beach. For lunch we went to "Ruby's". It is a restaurant that is built on the end of pier. It was fun to eat on the second level of the restaurant and look out into the ocean. We were lucky enough to see a group of dolphins swimming a mile of shore.

Nathan is offically in love with pools. Not with swimming, just the pool. He hates venturing off of the steps, but he could stay in there all day. From the moment we woke up he wanted to be swimming in my aunt/uncles pool.