Blake

Well I am back at work after over a 3 month maternity leave. I planned on taking the entire month of February off before he was born, but he had other plans. I went into the hospital for my weekly NST on February 10. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was way too high! So off to L & D Triage I went, again!! I was starting to be a regular customer in there lately with Blake not cooperating during the NSTs. I was there for several hours and after several tests and blood work, there was no reason for the high blood pressure. So I was sent home with a bottle that I had to pee into for 24 hours and then head back to L & D Triage for more monitoring and testing. Weird part was being told to keep it cold, like in the fridge. Not happening! I do not care what you tell me, I am not storing a bottle of pee in the fridge. My kids might drink it, especially since the bottle said my name on it! They might think it was special juice for me and drink some. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!! I had Activity Days that night and Richard was making the dessert for the Etiquette dinner for YM and YW. I was suppose to be on bed rest, but my girls needed me!! I was told I was a trooper, but I was just fullfilling my calling. Plus I stayed seated the entire time. Well at about 11:45, i felt like I had peed just a little, so I rushed to the bathroom to check. At first I though my water broke, but nothing else came out, so I collected it and poured it in the bottle. The bottle was in a cooler in my bahroom with a ton of ice to keep it cold. I got up and was walking back to the bed, when I felt a gush of water and was standing in a small puddle of water. I got Richard to wake up and we headed to the hospital. Because I ate a Super Sonic Cheeseburger at 9 pm, I had to wait until after 5 am to get my c section. We tried to get them to wait for my doctor to get in, but after an initial yes, we were told that after 7 there was no space for me to have my c section. Operating rooms were booked to capacity. So needless to say, Blake was born at 6:26 am on February 11th!! I stayed until Friday February 13th morning. That evening was my baby shower, so all my guests got to meet Mr. Blake before anyone else!! he was 6 pounds 8 ounces and 19.5 inches long! He is sweet and calm and very very cute and chubby! He is a great addition to our family. Riley loves him and calls him hers. Sariah is always wanting to kiss him and hold him.

Home and away

Why is it whenever Christopher goes and does something with the scouts or at church, we hear how wonderful he is, how respectful and how helpful he is, but the minute he gets home, we get Christopher "The Jerk"? The brother that threatens to hit his sisters, even the babies, he back mouths constantly, throws a fit when you ask him to do his chores or even help you with something. Richard asked him to help him build the new chicken coop and he threw a fit and said no. Ever since he started 7th grade he has become a Grade A Jerk! He steals, lies, backmouths, show disrespect, and bullies everyone. Even me! At least he tries to bully me. He was in charge of feeding the animals at the beginning of the school year, but we had to give that job to ReAnna. He would not feed them for days or give them water. But when you ask him about it, he would sware he did it. I just do not what to do with him. There are days I want to beat the crap out of him and other days I want to pack his bags and send him to live in the desert with the coyotes. When he is with the scouts, he does what they tell him, and behaves. Two things we cannot get him to do at home. Richard tells him that he is not honoring his priesthood when he acts like he does to his family. He just does not seem to care. He stole a watch from Walmart and thought nothing of it by bragging to his sisters that he did it. Then he completely panicked when we told him that he had to see the Bishop about this. Since then, not much has changed. He still cheats and lies and steals(from me now), is completely disrespectful and rude. Basically just a real Jerk! I really wish I could record how he acts at home and then show it to his YM leaders and see what he thinks of that. Maybe then he will stop being such a jerk. Richard keeps threatening to put him on online school, but never follows through. I sent Christopher downstairs Sunday night to finish his chore of the table and kitchen counter and he was down there for what seemed like forever and did NOTHING!! I told Richard that we should not tell them we are going to pay them for their chores this week and just do it. THe chores not done, they do not get paid for. Boy will he be getting a rude awakening. He barely can complete one chore. Same goes for Amberlin and Kaitlyn. Hopefully this way we can get them to do their chores! Any suggestions on what to do about Christopher or maybe a really mean person I can send him to to straighten him out, like a former drill sergeant?

Christmas Time

I just don't have that Christmas spirit this year. I need to do something to get that spirit back. Normally I enjoy shopping for the kids, but not this year. I think it is partially because the kids are just being too self centered and not wanting to do anything for anyone but themselves. I can't get them to do any chores or help out around the house. I get huffing and fits thrown whenever you remind them to do their chores or ask them to help cook dinner or help with the babies. It drives me nuts that they can't even put away their clean clothes without a fight. Amberlin prefers to wear dirty clothes all week instead of having to put away clean clothes. Her teacher tells her that she smells and that she needs to stop wearing dirty clothes to school. She says he embarrasses her, but she won't listen to us when we tell her, so maybe he can get her to listen. Christopher will wear the same pants everyday so he does not have to put clothes away. Just plain crazy!! Can't get them to do the dishes, clean up their messes, do their chores, etc. Yet when it comes to Christmas they want EVERYTHING!! One is asking for stuff that is on the "oh H-E-L-L no" list. Christopher asked for a real bow and arrow and a rifle so he can shoot the birds that are noisy in the tree. He tends to not listen to the little voice in his head telling him to stop doing wrong, so I can see one of the chickens or worse, one of his sisters the victim of his stupidity besides bird murderer is not cool to me. Amberlin wants boy toys so she can torture her brother. Kaitlyn wants books, but she will only read a book once. ReAnna wants a laptop, can't get her off her phone or tab now, a laptop would be worse! So this year we got them craft kits. Something that when they run out of supplies they can use their chore allowance (if they ever do their chores) to refill the supplies. Forget the toys, they will be broken in about a month or lost or pieces missing. Craft kits go into the craft room and when their responsibilities are done, they can do their crafts. Not in my craft room though! Have to be on the kitchen table to make sure they are doing the craft properly. Besides this way I can work on my crafts without having them bugging me every 10 seconds asking what they can do. Translation: are you paying attention enough so that we can do things that we know are wrong and get away with it and blame it on "I don't know" and "Not me!" I will find those kids one day. I think that is the main reason I am just not in the spirit this year. Too many kids that won't do for anyone else, but want you to do for them and don't appreciate what you do do for them (haha I got you to say do do!). Selfish people really annoy me! Hopefully after delivering all our goodie bags to our friends will help get me back into the mood for Christmas!! We did watch "It's a Wonderful Life," last night and that helped a little bit.

30 Weeks!

30 Weeks! Holy crap, where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday I was taking the pregnancy test and getting a positive result! Now I am 30 weeks and I only have 9 weeks left. Blake will be here sooner then I realize. These next 9 weeks are going to fly by. It's like this pregnancy just flew by. This one went faster then the last two, I feel. The end of February will be here before I know it! CRAZY!!

Surprise Visitor

Richard's niece came into town last week with her mother for her mother's brother's funeral. He passed away from lung cancer. So I messaged her on Facebook and arranged for her to drop by for a visit. She stopped by yesterday to see Richard and the kids. I was at work, so I missed her, but that is fine. I have never felt like Richard's family really every wants to see me. Which I am not worried about. They have been related longer then we have been married, so it makes sense. She stayed for like 2 hours. They had a lot of fun. I got sent some pictures via text.

What's going on?

When I wrote the title for this post, the song instantly came into my head. When I was a kid I never knew the sexual inclinations of the song, but then again I though New Kids on the Block's songs were innocent too! LOL!! Well we are now 23 weeks pregnant with little Mr. Blake. He has become one heck of a kicker!! He kicks me all the time and it is comforting to know he is in there and I am not just getting fat! Riley can say Blake and whenever I give her a shower with my, she wants to "wash" Blake. Meaning she wants to wash my tummy. She already likes to "wash" my hair. She says "It's pretty," and that means I can rinse my hair now. She is so funny. I spent alot of time washing her when she was littler and she now mimics me when she takes the soap to wash herself. She tells me too what she is washing. Her armpits, shoulders, tummy, butt, etc. She is very insistent that she makes sure that her feet are clean!!! She is very silly. Christopher and Kaitlyn are performing in the Youth Musical in our stake. It is this weekend! Hard to believe that a month of practices has passed! It went by so fast! I am on vacation the week of Thanksgiving so I hope that week goes by SOOOOO SLOOOOOOWWWWW!!! I want to be able to sleep and get things done! I have pies ot make, pumpkin bread to make, etc. I came up with an awesome project for my Activity Days girls to do this month! One of hte leaders who no longer lives in our ward boundaries has the first lesson of the month, but I will have a back up just in case! Plus I came up with an AWESOME Christmas Reason for the Season project for December!! I can not wait! Plus I still need one fun activity, but I think we will probably do cookies or Ginger bread houses out of graham crackers or something fun! Maybe Christmas cookies doorbell ditching! That is always fun or caroling to certain houses. Still need ot work on that one! Gonna be great! Plus I have all next year to prepare for! Lots to do and lots to get done so the girls can get their Faith in God awards!! I want to focus on getting those done with the soon to be 12 year olds! Pus maybe a special gift for getting their award. Like a bracelet or something like that. Not sure yet. Still tossing around ideas. IT is getting to be that time again where we need to figure out what to get the kids for Christmas. I have no idea what so ever. Any suggestions are appreciated. We tend to try to keep the gift budget low and only get things that they really need and one thing they want. Makes it more about Jesus and not the presents. So what's going on with you?!?!?

When times get tough...

I really enjoyed watching Meet the Mormons this weekend. The part with the Missionary Mom made me cry. So did the Candy Bomber. All in all it was a very informative and moving movie. I am sure that many non members won't go see it because they think we are trying to "recruit" them, but that is so not what this movie is about. It shows you how mormons live in the every day world. It is how Christ and Heavenly Father has blessed their lives for following their plan. How God has a plan for all of us and we need to do our part to follow that plan. I sat next to a very friendly member who kept offering me her popcorn. Plus it was nice to go to a movie have a stranger sit by you and not be bothered by them at all. I hate going to the movies and get that weirdo sitting behind you or next to you. This time I got none of that. Richard and I had free passes to the movies at Edwards, so we went there this past Friday and did date night. Then we walked around River Park for a bit and then walked over to Chevy's! I got me a chili relleno!!! YUMMY! FULL of cheese and no hot pepper. It was wonderful, a craving come true!! It was a pretty great date after several months. We saw alot of the Stake Presidency from the North Stake there. I heard that the Sierra Vista Theater showing went pretty well. It did not make the top 10 or 5, but it still was a terrific movie!! Go see it and take your friends with you!!

Weekend and update

This weekend was very busy. It was General Conference Weekend and Rebecca's 20th birthday!! We watched all of the talks and in between ran some much needed errands! We headed to Costco and almost died when we saw how packed it was!! CRAZY! The cars were parked in part of the Winco parking lot and all the way to Ashlan side of the parking lot! The inside was packed also with tons of people and the check out lines were very long and winded around everywhere. Though I did experience a few people not understanding personal space and nothing I did could get them to back up. Very rude and uncomfortable. On Sunday we had our traditional semi-annual brunch for friends and missionaries. We had more missionaries then normal this year. Unfortunately we forgot to invite Peachwood Ward members in time. We will do better in April. We had biscuits and gravy, pancakes and tang. Everyone loved everything and we did not have too much leftover. Then during the second part of Sunday's Conference, I let Rebecca put acrylic nails on me. She is learning and does OK, but still needs some work. I am going to have her fix them later this week. She is learning though, so I have to give her that much. At 5:30 we celebrated Rebecca's 20th birthday with a dinner of her choice. She chose shrimp bisque, shrimp fettucini alfredo, and huge fried shrimp!! It was great until we learned that Christopher was hiding his shrimp on a ledge in the table. Man he did not like the consequence for that. He got home from the youth musical and Richard had him sit down and finish his dinner. Plus he had him eat one and a half huge shrimp. Sat there with him and watched him eat it. Then confronted him about his recent rash of lies and explained why he was eating the shrimp. I don't think he will be hiding food or lying much after that, hopefully!! He has been our biggest problem lately and it all started when he started 7th grade. He has made some friends that are filling his head with some horrible crap and we are all suffering with those stories at home. He has been told that he does not have to listen to his mother because he is the only other male in the house. He should yell at his sisters and disrespect them, plus he hits them, throws things at them, yells at them, etc. He refuses to do his chores or even help anyone out at all. You ask him to help with something and you get one heck of a fit from him. So Richard and him had it out this weekend and his whole life will be different this week. No playing, no playroom, nothing fun. He will do his chores, homework and sit on the couch and wait for bedtime or to do something to help someone. His lies have just gotten pretty bad, especially when he lies to the missionaries and members of our ward. He has them all fooled that he is a respectful young man, but he actually is not. He is rude, disrespectful, lies all the time, won't help, causes contention in the house, whines, bullies his sisters (even the babies), yells at everyone (even me), etc. I am hoping this treatment this week will work, but somehow I doubt it. His life will have to be a 180 change before he wakes up and realizes he has to change. On a good note, we are having a boy!! Yeah!! Blake Edward will be making an appearance in late February! I cannot wait. Richard is insisting that I have a baby shower for him, but I don't know. I hate to impose or assume that someone will step up. He is pushing Rebecca to do it and get some of my friends to help. Makes me feel uncomfortable, but he is being insistant. My last baby shower was great, but I still felt like I was imposing on people to do it for me. Though I do seriously doubt anyone will make it to the party especially after the last 2 or 3 I have thrown and no one showed up. I mean no one. Unfortunately some never got the invite or had already made plans with their families out of town or with extended family. I don't feel like I have any friends at church lately, so that is one of the reasons I don't want a shower, if I get one. I feel like I am annoying people when I talk to them, so I may just start staying quiet and try to avoid people. Richard says it is because I talk too much and that alienates people and makes people not want to be around me. And no I do not want sympathy or for people to say this is not true. I am just venting and trying to get this horrible feeling off my chest and try to make a change. Maybe being a quiet person that blends in, will help. I worked on some pretty cute bows this weekend for the holidays for Riley and she is pretty excited about them. I need to make up the little baggies for the RS Super Saturday bow class I am teaching. I have some projects in the works to get done for Christmas gifts and I hope to be able to get what I see in my head into reality. Can not wait!!

Insanity Again

Well now I have 4 teenagers in my house for another month and then we will be back down to 3. Sariah is now 1 and I wonder where all the time went. In the last few weeks, she has really started showing her little personality. She started walking at 10 months and now walks a bunch in 11 months, but still insists on crawling or being carried everywhere. She is talking and someone taught her No and she says that one at least a few times during the day. She says Da, Da Da, No, Here, Got it, Got you, Becca, and Nana. Plus she has a blood curdling scream that makes your hair crawl. Richard is currently trying to get his baking business up and running. Clovis Baking Company is the name and hopefully we can get it to the point where he is making at least one cake or batch of cupcakes a week if not more. He loves doing wedding cakes and those are very affordable, so if you know any brides let them know. The baby is growing and we are now 16 weeks. This one does not move as much as Riley and Sariah, but it does move. I think it is a boy, but we will not know for sure until the 30th of this month. I am taking a Child Psychology class and I am learning alot about how the brain works starting from DNA. We just did a pregnancy chapter and now a one to three years. Very interesting stuff.

Honesty

This weekend I was praised by strangers for my honesty and in some ways it puzzled me. I was picking up some powdered sugar for Richard at Walmart. I was in a hurry so I used the Self Service Registers. As I was walking to one of the registers, a man was walking away and left the $60 he asked for hanging out of the machine. I stopped him and pointed out that he left his money. He and the Walmart employee looked at me with amazed looks. I was told Bless you, Wow, and An honest person. What was I suppose to do? The money was not mine, I did not earn it, so it was not a question. It belonged to the man before me and he should have it. So I am wondering, has honesty left? Are there more dishonest people out there these days? When you are dishonest, don't you feel bad? I could not have taken that man's money even if he had said it was not his or did not turn around to get it back. I would have given it to the employee and had them check to see if they could return it to the man's debit card. What would you have done? What do you think about honesty in our society these days?