One of Those Days

I put this right up with my Nov 11, 2010 Pancake story.

- - - - -

The boys wanted waffles for breakfast. Ok, no problem. We should have enough time. 

Stirred up batter, got everyone to table, realized we're out of syrup. Quick, make syrup! Got water boiling, went to add sugar; uh-oh, not enough sugar in the bin. Quick! Refill from the bulk bag. Whew, enough in the bag for syrup, but not enough to fill the bin. Mental note: buy more sugar. Start adding sugar to boiling water; uh-oh, pan's too small. Quick! Pour into bigger pan. Uh-oh, I spilled sugar water on the stovetop. Mental note: clean up later. Time to add maple extract. Uh-oh, ran out. Pull a new one out of pantry. Uh-oh, I spilled that too, but at least it was over the pan. We'll have extra maple-y syrup. Stir syrup, drop whisk on counter, make another sticky mess. Oops, burned that batch of waffles. Phooey. Okay boys, let's pray. David pours milk for everyone. Uh-oh, out of milk. Run to garage fridge for more. Go to wipe up spilled syrup on stovetop; uh-oh, forgot to turn off burner. Close call! Go to make David's lunch. Uh-oh, the last of the peanut butter just went on the waffles. Open a new one. Reach for applesauce cup; you guessed it! Out of those too. Back out to garage for more. David goes to pack his lunch. Uh-oh! Left his lunch box at school. Gonna brown bag it. Uh-oh! He forgot to do his math homework. Will have to do in car. Uh-oh! He forgot to do his spelling. And it takes a long time. And he left it at school. And he has a test today, first thing. Sorry, kid. You're gonna have to chalk that one up to experience of learning the hard way. And you're tardy. Because of syrup. My bad.

So as I'm driving home from the school, Nathan called and said, "I've been thinking about you for the last hour, wondering how your morning was going..." and I burst out laughing.

Simplify

Hello friends,

As those of you who follow me may have noticed, I'm not doing so hot on keeping up with the blogosphere.  Sorry.  After a long period of guilty hemming and hawing, I decided I'm just going to leave it.  Simplify.  I'm doing much better keeping people updated on Facebook.  Come find me there!  www.facebook.com/natalie.t.nash

So long, farewell, aufwiedersehen, adieu!  Happy Blogging.

(I feel better already)

Summer 2011

Oh my! So much to catch up on.  We've had a very busy summer and have put a lot of miles on our van!


We said goodbye to Knightdale on June 16.  When we loaded everyone into the van we said a prayer to start our journey.  David offered it, and said, "Thank Thee for all the fun we had at this house," which sent Nathan and I into tears.  It was good house with good memories.  We miss it, but look forward to the new opportunities out here.  Thus began our long trek West.  At least we weren't pulling a handcart.


We were traveling a few days ahead of my parents, who were driving our truck out, so we stopped for a couple days at their Utah house, which happens to be next door to my sister, to recoup and let them catch up.  It was a nice break after 4 days of driving to be able to stretch, do playgrounds, cousins, and laundry.  It was also fortunate timing since while we were there we realized Isaac had an ear infection.  I was glad to be able to visit my sister's pediatrician and get him started on antibiotics.  (I have officially dubbed him "My Utah Doctor" since we seem to often get ear infections on Utah trips.)  


We pulled into Los Banos, CA on June 23, right on schedule.  Our first impressions of the town are that it's not much to look at, but the people are very friendly and welcoming.  Our landlord wasn't quite ready for us, however, so we did a quick drive-by to see the house and then immediately headed for Lowe's and Home Depot to purchase laundry machines and a refrigerator.  My folks arrived with the truck the next day, and we spent the next four days unpacking, unpacking, and unpacking.  We got pretty much everything unpacked except decorative stuff, since I didn't have any shelves to put things on (miss my Knightdale built-in cabinetry!  *sniff, sniff*)  Then on June 29 we loaded up the van again and I headed back to Utah with my folks and the boys.


First on the Utah agenda was my Grandma June's 95th birthday party/reunion on July 2.  Sometimes I really think she's immortal, ya know?  All I can say is she is a good testament to healthy diet and regular exercise.  


On July 5 my parents and I took the boys up to ride TRAX from Sandy to Temple Square.  Daniel, you see, loves all things that go, and has been asking me when we are going to ride an airplane (since Christmas), a train (since March), and a boat (not sure when that cropped up).  We figured the light rail was as convenient and economical option as we would find to check "Ride a Train" off his bucket list.  D1 and D2 both loved it.  This was also Nathan's and my 10-year wedding anniversary.  My how time flies!  Too bad we couldn't spend it together.


On July 8-9 my immediate family convened at Heber Valley Girls Camp for our family reunion.  This was my boys' first camping experience.  From the perspective of a parent-traveling-single with three little ones, I was very grateful it was cabin camping.  The highlight for David was the brownie hike and a giant swing activity, where they harness you to a swing and pull you on a line halfway up a tree, then let you go.  David volunteered to go first, having no clue what he was signing up for, and went as high as possible.  He had a good show of bravado for his cousins when he got off and encouraged them all to try it, but he secretly told me later that he thought it was scary at first.  Daniel had a turn too and although he didn't go all the way to the top, he wasn't far from it.  It Freaked. Him. Out.  All he could say for at least 30 minutes in the aftermath was "That was scary!  That was scary!"  I took a turn all the way up too, and while it was fun, I agree with Daniel that it was scary!  I can hardly believe my boys did it.  The highlight for Daniel? Playing in the gravel in front of our cabin.  Boys...  Isaac enjoyed lots of attention from his aunts, uncles, and cousins.  My brother-in-law Mark dubbed him "Kumquat" because of his fuzzy hair.  Love it!


On July 12 my parents took Daniel back up to Salt Lake City for the day (David opted not to go).  They went to Hogle Zoo, where there was a Zoorassic Park special display.  Apparently some of the animatronic dinosaurs spit water at spectators.  Daniel wasn't expecting it and had another Freak Out experience when one squirted him.  Dad said he gave them very wide berth after that.  But he had lots of fun otherwise and was a good little companion to my parents.  They also took him to the Bingham Copper Mine to see the great big trucks.   He came home just glowing!


July 14 we said farewell to my family and headed back up to Salt Lake to get Nathan from the airport and meet up with the Nashes.  On the way up, David finally lost his first tooth!  July 15 we gathered at the Bountiful Temple for Nathan's youngest sister's wedding.  It was lovely, and I think Bethany gave Kate Middleton a run for her money as far as gorgeous brides go.  We also had a great treat to introduce both Isaac and David to their namesakes, Grandpa Nash and his brother D.A.


We drove back to California the next day.  The boys and I were only around for a week before taking off again, this time for Washington, and this time we got to FLY.  Check that off Daniel's bucket list!  Up there we got lots of play time with Mom Nash, and even squeezed in a visit with my brother Sean and a bonus visit with an old friend of mine from BYU.  Nathan drove up a week later to join us for the Merrill Family Reunion at Port Townsend, WA.  We rode a ferry to get there.  Check the boat off Daniel's bucket list!  Sweet! (David's asking for a hot air balloon next...)  This trip to Washington reinforced our desire to get back up to the Seattle area.  We're hoping to make that happen within 3 years, maybe as soon as 1 or 2. Anyway...


We got home from Washington on August 7.  I had just a couple days to pull together a much-wished for birthday party for Daniel.  Normally I wouldn't have attempted it, but since David had a party last year and got invited to lots of classmates' parties over the school year, Daniel really wanted to have one.  So.  I arranged a transportation-themed party (no-brainer, right?) at a nearby playground and invited his entire Sunbeam class--all 3 of them--for lack of knowing anyone else to invite.  It didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped, but it went well enough considering I planned everything over the internet from far away.  Daniel was thrilled (albeit bummed his K'dale friends Tanner and Ben weren't there), and I think it really helped him get used to his classmates so he'd be willing to actually go to Sunbeams in our new ward.  


OH YES--and I finally got Daniel potty trained!!  Wahoo!  The Monday after we got home from Washington I took him to choose his big-boy underpants and then took away pull-ups cold turkey (okay, he still wears them at night).  The funny thing is, we only had three "accidents," and one on his birthday, which I understand from all the party excitement, and it was done.  Makes me wonder why I waited so long.  I guess I figured it would be a long, exhausting, stressful process.  Anyway, glad that's taken care of.


The next week school started.  David has been excited for this all summer, but as I walked him into his new school, he whispered to me that he was scared.  Poor lad looked so miserable as I left him in his classroom.  He seems to have adjusted well, however, and every day talks about new kids he's met.


Just this past week Daniel started preschool.  He too seemed anxious in spite of all his anticipatory excitement, but he was beaming when I came to pick him up.  Of course he was; they had toy airplanes there!  This preschool is a parent co-op, so I get to go assist the teacher twice a month.  I've also volunteered to be the preschool's treasurer.  Sounds like mostly I'll be courier between the school, the accountant, and the bank, but I'm glad for an opportunity to get involved and meet people.


Speaking of involvement (I'm almost through, I promise), we have been extended callings in our new ward!  It's a tiny ward so lots of people have multiple callings.  I have been called as the Relief Society Secretary, and also as a RS Instructor.  Nathan has been called as the Ward Pianist (he is the ONLY person in the ward who plays the piano!).  He's been extended a second calling as well but hasn't been sustained yet, so I'll have to keep that under my hat for a little while longer.


So that's our crazy summer.  See pics and videos at http://tinyurl.com/43xp3p7.


We love you all!


The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, Daniel, Isaac

So Much to Say, So Much to Do!

We blessed Isaac on April 16 and enjoyed having Nathan's parents, my parents, and my sister Minda's family in town to share that occasion with us.  Things got really interesting within a couple hours after the blessing when tornadoes touched down in Raleigh.  Fortunately they didn't affect our house at all.  I was really worried about where I would stuff 14 people away from windows if necessary.

The next day we had two showings for our house (more relief that the tornadoes didn't damage us) and one of them put in an offer, which we accepted.  It was more heartbreaking than exciting, really.  The sad reality is that with the declined market, our mortgage is under water, and there was no way to come out ahead.  Our realtor advised us that the final offer wasn't too far from probable appraisal value.  Maybe there were buyers out there who'd offer another thousand or two, but a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.  Agreeing to sell at such a low price really hurt.  I actually started crying after I called back to convey our acceptance.  Dear sweet David asked what was wrong, and when I told him we didn't get as much money for our house as we needed, he snuggled up closer and said, "Mom, you can have my money."  I love that boy!  Of course, we're not going to take his savings.  We'll get by, but I sure appreciated his willingness to share.

Shortly thereafter we were inundated with the parade of people coming to inspect, appraise, give repair estimates, etc.  Most of them showed up the week Nathan was on a business trip to Dallas.  We played chicken with our buyers over the repair agreement.  They were being absolutely ridiculous in their demands, but we stood firm on our end despite their threats to walk away, and they finally backed down at the last minute.  More relief.

Next we needed to find housing in California.  Nathan went out there last week for business and took a couple days to find a place to rent. Plans to buy a house in Los Banos got obliterated the moment we agreed to the offer.  No more cash for a down payment.  We planned to rent an apartment there for a little bit anyway to get to know the area, test the commute, etc, but we were surprised to find out that there are only low-income housing apartments in Los Banos.  Nathan did not want to rent a house for a variety of reasons, so we scrambled to find potential apartments closer in to San Jose.  It was a long, frustrating couple of days to look at endless apartments that were too small for our family and too expensive for our budget.  Nathan was feeling pretty low about how this decision to move to California would impact the entire family.  We decided to see what kind of houses we could rent, and revisited the Los Banos idea.  I found a beautiful home advertised on Craigslist, bigger (and cheaper! yeah!) than our current home, in the neighborhood we are interested in eventually buying in.  Nathan drove out that evening to meet the owner, got on an airplane home the next day, and after a week of waiting out the application process, we finally got confirmation that they wanted to rent to us.  One more "whew!" for this tale.  So glad to finally have a forwarding address! (Not going to post on the blog--email me if you want it)

So the plan now is to pull out of here early on June 16.  We will rent a huge Penske truck and are sharing some space with my parents, who are in the process of moving from SC to UT.  They will be driving the truck out and we'll drive our van separately.  We'll meet at their Utah house to unload their things and then drive the truck out to California.  When it's all said and done, we expect to arrive there around June 23.

Meanwhile D1 and D2 had a small round of colds which means David is coughing again.  Ugh.  We're waiting to see a pulmonologist in California rather than interrupt any ongoing treatment from this end.  He is immensely proud of his very first loose tooth and hopes to lose it before we move.  I also enrolled him in swimming lessons and he's making great strides there.  My hope is that he'll be an independent (enough) swimmer by the time we're done so I can actually go to the pool by myself with 3 kids.

Daniel is ever the happy-go-lucky, distracted little soul.  I'm frequently amazed how different he is from David!  He likes to spend his days in his little imaginary world, emerging occasionally to ask for something or wrap himself around me and tell me how much he loves me.  He's also tuned into Isaac now and loves to give him hugs and kisses, and tells all the world about his baby brother.

Isaac is such a good baby!  I feel truly blessed.  He is so sweet and content, all smiles and snuggles.  He likes to do leg presses and looks immensely proud of himself when we help him stand in our laps.  He was slightly tongue-tied so I got that clipped a few weeks ago.  He now loves to stick his tongue out (MomT, he reminds me of Lizzie).  He's got his hands in his mouth almost as much as David; I guess some teeth are working their way in.  Isaac is also a very long baby.  He's only 3 months and I just started putting him in 6-9 month clothes.

Somehow in the thick of kids and moving I'm trying to get caught up on my digital scrapbooking. I think I started digi-scrapping in 2004 and managed to be pretty thorough until Jan 2008.  In this recent push I've gathered wayward photos from our earliest years and got all those pages done, plus filled in some gaps along the way.  I compiled the pages from 2001-2006 into a book at Blurb.com and was delighted to get that delivered this week.  I'm glad to be caught up on the earliest years and now need to get cracking on the recent years.   It's been fun to revisit this hobby that's been on the wayside for so long.

I think that wraps us up for now.  Love to you all--
natals

Tracheomalacia

I know, right?  Tracheomalacia is a word that makes you want to say "gesundheit," and you wouldn't be too far off.  This word of the day is brought to you by the doctor at Carolina Allergy & Asthma, and it is his diagnosis for David's chronic cough.  He's pretty confident that's the case, but went ahead and tested David for asthma and allergies just so we could rule those out, and David tested negative on both counts.  The doc advised me to Google tracheomalacia, and that there wasn't any "bad information" on it.  Okay...?  So I did, and came up with a variety of medical sites, but I think this one describes it best, in spite of all the medical terminology.  The other sites I looked at all made it sound scary, but the doc didn't seem overly concerned.

The short explanation, if I understand it correctly, is that the trachea has bands of cartilage around it to keep it rigid and prevent it from collapsing.  David's are softened, however, so whenever he gets a cough associated with a virus, such as a cold, his trachea flaps and he gets a loud, bronchial, brassy cough that hangs on for weeks and weeks after the offending virus has fled, and then just stops spontaneously.  The cough is not contagious and the condition is something he should grow out of.  

They x-rayed his chest to see if his aorta is leaning against his trachea to contribute to the collapsing.  David is excited to tell his classmates that he got an X-Ray since they always learn that word when studying the letter X.  The doc will review those images and open a dialogue with David's pediatrician to come up with a treatment plan.  That's all I've got for now, but at least I feel better that I wasn't blowing smoke as I got frustrated over the years with the pediatricians giving me a wide variety of guess-planations and ineffective treatments for what sounded to me like, and now I'm sure has been, the same cough.

House Feedback!

We got feedback from our showing on Sunday.  Hooray!  I won't inundate y'all with details from every showing, but I'm excited for my first:  

"Great home - well staged and immaculate. Client loved everything but the yard and the price is more than he wants to pay, but it is still on his list. Thank you for the cookies."

Picky, picky, picky.  That is a bummer about showing it this time of year.  Our Zoysia grass looks pretty thin in the back and pathetically yellow all around over the winter.  It will green up and fill out soon.  I guess another down side that I'd kind of wondered about is it looks especially bare in the back since we rake up all our pine straw beds back there each spring to encourage the grass to extend its boundaries.  We'd toyed with the idea of planting grass all the way to the fence but have never gotten around to it.  How bad would it be to just lay fresh ground cover and see what he says?  At least he liked the house and cookies.  Who wouldn't love cookies?  Our agent responded asking if the buyer would place an offer if we seeded or did lawn treatment.  Here's hoping we're at the top of his short list and he feels generous.

We also got a new garbage disposal installed yesterday.  It purrs so nicely!  Much better than the cacophony the old one made before it went projectile on us.

On a completely different note, Isaac has started smiling and it just made my day to have him beaming at me first thing this morning.

Just Keep Swimming...

Four years ago we moved cross country, bought a house, had a baby, and potty trained. All within 4 months. We knew it was crazy and laughed about whether it was possible for us to make our lives any harder. Somehow, in spite of that experience, we're doing it again, albeit in a slightly different order.  I'm trying to laugh through this time too, but I must admit it's harder this go-round.  

#1: Wrinkles
As you know, Isaac was born on February 9. Fortunately, he is a very good baby and a marathon sleeper, for which I am immensely thankful, as it generally allows me to work on all the other chaos in our lives at the moment. The boys have received him well and are very attentive to his needs. David loves to hold him. Daniel complains that Isaac is too heavy to hold, but he likes to look at him, plug the binky in, and occasionally pat his head.

By the way, we're blessing him on Saturday April 16.

#2: Extra Pounds 
Nathan has decided he's done dealing with big-boy diapers and has been trying to potty train Daniel for months now. Really what this means is we have lots of M&Ms in the house.  Unfortunately I'm not good about following through with Daniel during the day because frankly, I'm not ready to focus on that right now, and I don't think Daniel is really ready, either. But we did enjoy two consecutive days of solid business in the potty last week.  And I've enjoyed walking past the M&M bowl.

#3: Hernias 
We're moving to California the first week or so of July. We wanted to wait for David to finish school (June 30), but we also want to get to Cali, drop off our stuff, and then drive back to Utah in time for Nathan's sister's wedding on July 15. We've decided to rent an apartment on the other end for a few months while we get to know the community we're interested in, and test out the 80-minute commute before we're locked into it with a mortgage. Incidentally, David announced to me this morning that there are exactly 100 days until we move (which he decided will be at 4 pm on the last day of school).  Which makes me think that maybe I should start filling the stack of boxes sitting in our garage.

#4: Gray Hair 
Moving cross country means sell the house. Which, I've decided, is one-hundred times more stressful than buying one, especially with active little boys. And the economy stinks, so we're losing what little equity we have and then some to get out of this house.  Our Realtor did not have a particularly aggressive list of things to do to get the house ready (yay!), but it still took me a week and a half to get everything done between kids' demands.  As much as I like this house, at this point I just want out so I don't have to worry so much about spills, dings, and messes that come from kids having fun.  And that's after only being on the market for 3 days.

We had our first showing yesterday.  I wish I could have glowing reports on how that went, or any reports for that matter.  We haven't heard a whisper of feedback, and it's making us crazy.  Or crazier, I guess, is more a appropriate description.

#5: Migraines 
The day before Isaac was born, David started coughing and complained that his throat hurt.  Long story short, he's been on three different antibiotics over the past six weeks and he's still coughing.  We've been to the pediatrician a couple times and the ENT, all without any conclusive diagnoses.  Meanwhile I keep having teachers telling me in carpool that he has a bad cough.  Like I hadn't noticed for the past month?  And the poor Primary children are besides themselves when he has a coughing fit.  I guess he had a particularly bad spell his first Sunday back after Isaac was born.  I'm told you couldn't even hear Sharing Time over his cough, and kids were crying "please make him stop!"  He got to spend 3rd hour in the foyer with Nathan.  I've been told by several moms that their kids came home and prayed for "the boy that coughs." I suspect allergies are the underlying cause of the cough and several other little issues he has.  We're going to a pulmonologist (asthma & allergy specialist) this week to see what we can find out.

Almost as stressful as listening to the cough is trying to deal with the insurance company.  His allergy test is covered, but I can't nail down a dollar amount in advance that we'll be responsible to pay.  I keep getting a run-around.  The pulmonologist says they don't have contracted amounts in their computer, and it can vary each time they submit the same code, so call the insurance company.  Our insurance is through Blue Cross in Washington.  They say the contract price is determined in the State of service, so I need to call the provider (lot of good that did) or the local BCBS office.  The NC office says it's processed through the home office, I need to call Washington.  You'd think I asked them for Permit #838.

Meanwhile I'm still having issues with a fractured tooth that got crowned last fall, I'm supposed to go see a periodontist about another tooth but that will probably wait until California, and oh yeah, Isaac gets to see a pediatric urologist.  Who needs money, anyway?

And because we needed a few things to laugh about:
Our baby swing died.
Our washing machine decided it will only do the spin cycle if Nathan loads it.
Our garbage disposal objected to a few of its parts and literally spit them out at us.
...All in the last three days.

I think I'll go eat some cookie dough.

Meet Isaac

Hello all!

I was scheduled to be induced on Friday the 11th, but when I went in for my checkup yesterday, I was dilated to a 5/6 and the doc said, "Why wait? Let's just break your water and have a baby." Woohoo! So I went straight from my doctor's office and checked myself into Labor &; Delivery at the hospital. I arrived around 11:30; it was around noon by the time I was all settled in my bed, IV, etc and waited around for the attending doc (who happened to be the same one who delivered Daniel) to come in and start my labor by breaking the water sac. He didn't come in until around 2:30 or 3:00 (think Jeopardy theme song), but once he broke my water, things moved pretty quickly... as in, Isaac was born 2.5 hours later. Sooo, announcing:

Brent Isaac Nash
born 2/9/11, 5:30 pm
8 lb 15 oz, 21.5 inches
lots of dark blonde hair
he looks just like his brothers.

He and I are both doing great and expect to be discharged tomorrow morning. Thanks everyone for your well wishes! We're glad to finally have Isaac in arms.