We Should Have Gone To Cheeburger Cheeburger

James and I have been having an ongoing debate about hamburgers. He does not seem to think it matters where you purchase a hamburger. His point of view is that a hamburger is a hamburger, and you might as well purchase it from McDonalds for a few dollars instead of going to a "good" restaurant, and spending more money. My point of view is that there is a difference and the hamburgers at places like Fuddruckers or Cheeburger Cheeburger make a much better tasting hamburger.

I need to add a little background information here. James and I only agree on a handful of restaurants. Olive Garden, Baja Fresh & Hunan Manor are basically the only ones we can go to with each other, where both of us are happy. Which is fine, but sometimes it is nice for a little variety.

A few weeks ago, we were in a shopping center, and there was a new place that just opened. It is a Chinese Buffet. I have very fond memories of Chinese Buffet's from Arizona. So I commented that we should try it sometime. So, last weekend we decided to try this new place. We talked Jake and Cami into coming along with us. They were going to go to Cheeburger Cheeburger, but decided to come with us. (They know the whole debate about hamburger story, and totally side with me!) We get to this new place, and you pay first. James steps up to pay, and it is $15 per person. It was a little surprising because I am used to ultra inexpensive buffet's. Then James says to me, "we should have gone to Cheeburger Cheeburger." I busted out laughing.

The restaurant was okay, but we will not be adding it to our short list of places we want to go back to.

Denial

So I have not blogged lately because so much of my thoughts have been centered around the impeding move a my very good friend. My emotions are very close to the surface over this. It is easier for me to think it is not happening soon, but as I was writing on my weekly schedule that I do every couple of weeks, I added "drive the Turpin family to the airport." That is two weeks from today! It is going to be very sad times at my house when they leave. Tears are already being shed of this on more than one occasion.

Last Saturday was a particularly hard day. It was our ward talent show that we have every year. As I was watching Jake and Cami rehearse on the stage for their act, it hit me that this was the last activity that we would be doing together. We serve on the activities committee together, and have had lots of fun times. I started to realize that the very dynamic of our ward will change. They have been the instigators of lots of very fun times.

There have been lots of fun times and good memories centered around their "red" room. It has been the location of lots of fun tv watching and visiting times. Then there were the trips to Rita's (which Cami introduced me to), book club fun, movie going, giant journaling and SYTYCD concerts. Not to mention that is was Cami that got me into the blogging world to begin with. I will never forget the fantastic Harry Potter fun.

I can hardly write about Jefferson, Ethan and Jane. I am going to miss Ethan's hugs everyday at school, and hearing his little voice call me Ms. Jann. It has been so fun to have Jeffy and Ethan over for fun video playing times, and seeing Janey's cute little smile has brighten my day many times.

I have to stop now as tears roll down my face. I needed to write this before they leave, as I do not believe I will be able to do it after they are gone. Thank you Jake and Cami for being such great friends and touching my life. You will all be greatly missed.

I am so excited for you in this new adventure. It has been so fun to listen to you speculate over your new home, and possibilities. I have no doubt that it is going to be just what your family needs, and that you will be very happy. I can't wait to visit.

Here is the video of Cami & Jake in the talent show. I know Cami did not want this published, but I think they did a great job, and it was very fun to watch.

Oh For Pete's Sake!

I have no idea where this expression comes from, but it seems to fit the situation we are in at the moment. On Thursday, Nicolaas walked in from school, took one look and me and burst into tears. When I asked him what was wrong, he said his ear hurt. I called his doctor, but they did not have any more appointments for the day. I could tell this was not going to last until the next day, so I called Nighttime Pediatrics. They got him in at 8:00 pm, and sure enough he has an ear infection. He is now on an antibiotic.

You all know about Nathan and his ear infection. Well the doctor put him on amoxacilin. On Friday night he started itching like crazy. I started to take a closer look, and he was broken out in a rash all through his hair, on his face and neck, back, chest and arms. He was miserable. I have never seen anything like this rash either, because it would flair up somewhere, then a few minutes later it would be gone and would flair up somewhere else. He is allergic to penicillin. He is now on a new antibiotic, after a 6 hour battle with the doctor on call at the pediatricians. She did not want to give him a new antibiotic. He had only been on an antibiotic for four days, and she wanted him to go off for the weekend and see how he did. Then she wanted him to come back into the office on Monday for a recheck. I tried to be calm and explain to her that I was not comfortable with leaving him without medicine, because it had been a bad ear infection, and he has already missed 5 days of school. I had to ask myself why wouldn't she just call something in? We knew for sure he had an infection. My only conclusion is that she does not get paid any money for calling in a prescription, and she wanted another office visit. This may be a dim view of people, but I just seem to see a whole lot of greed in the world lately.

Now for the third episode of this whole drama. Last night, I was not feeling so well. When I woke up this morning, it was to the worst ear pain ever. That's right, I am pretty sure I have an ear infection. I have not had one for years. Man are they painful! James is taking me to Nighttime Pediatrics today, so hopefully I will have some relief soon. So I will miss yet another Sunday of church, which is just getting ridiculous.

I almost forgot, Ashley went to her first church youth dance last night, but I will post about that later.

Happy Valentines Day!

James always does a great job on Valentines Day. This year he brought home a dozen roses and the biggest box of chocolates I have ever seen. The card he gave me has a heart in a net on the front, and inside it says, you captured my heart. He also gave each one of the kids their very own box of chocolates. He is so thoughtful, and I am grateful every day that I am married to a wonderful man. He is considerate on days like today, but more importantly he is considerate everyday.






I am also posting some pictures of a newly acquired piece of furniture. I think it looks great in my front room, which has always kind of been a little sparse of furniture. Thanks Jake & Cami! I will look at it everyday and think of you.

Pink Eye

Nathan shared his pink eye with me. It is super not fun. I am home from work again, and I will miss the temple tonight with my girls. Amanda is home ill also. I think it is time to get the disinfectant spray out. Even though that is the hardest thing to do when I feel yucky. Hopefully the medicine will kick in soon.

Home & Family

I am basically a home body. I would rather be home than anywhere else. As you can imagine, working has taken me away from this instinct I have. It is probably good that I work, or I would just be home all the time. I am at my happiest when all of my family is home with me. I love being surrounded by my noisy children. I love to listen to their conversations with one another. They usually interact so well with each other. My older girls will play with my boys. It is not unusual to find Amanda playing barbie with Kerrie and Kelsie. Of course they fight with one another, and I don't like that, but for the most part they like each other. There are no major personality conflicts, and I consider myself very lucky to have that. I did not always feel this way about them. There were times when I would have paid any amount of money to have an hour free of my children. Now that they are older, I just enjoy their personalities, and love to listen to their ideas. They get my jokes and wacky sense of humor.

My very favorite family vacation was our trip to a little cabin in West Virginia. We just played games, took nature walks and hung out in the hot tub. There were no amusement parks, or big activities, just us, being together.

I guess I am feeling very blessed to be a part of this family. I grew up with the best examples. My parents were always there for us. I enjoyed talking with my mom and dad, and they would always listen. I am truly grateful for that. I attribute any success I have as a mother to them.

Poor Nathan

In the middle of the night last night, Nathan crawled into bed with me. I started to snuggle with him, and realized he was really warm. I took is temp, and sure enough, he was running a temperature. Then he started crying because his ear hurt. I got him some motrin, and put on sponge bob. He feel asleep, and I called into work. When he woke up this morning, his eyes were all crusted up, and really red. I called the doctor, and took him in. He has an ear infection, and eye infections in both eyes. He is just miserable. He is coughing and sneezing, and his little nose is stuffed and running. We stopped at costco and filled the two prescriptions then headed home.

I called into work and told them I would not be in tomorrow. Hopefully the medicine will kick in, and he will be much better after tomorrow.

"We Had To Make Dumb Butterflies'

This title is a direct quote from one of the boys in my class. It just made me laugh. I guess if you are a 6 year old boy, making butterflies is dumb.

Interesting Day

Yesterday, I was home with both my boys. They were not feeling well. That meant they were without my help at school. Sometimes my friend can cover for me, but not yesterday. So, for about 3 hours of the day, my two special friends did not have help. What was weird about it, is they had a wonderful day. This kind of makes me want to scream, because most days I feel like I am beating my head against the wall working with these two. I have felt like I was not being very effective in helping them, but I did not know what else to do. So, I guess the discovery is that they do better when put in with the other kids in the groups, and expected to do the work like everyone else. I feel much better about it, as it is now the teachers with the actual degrees that are teaching these kids. I am now working in the classroom with all the children. I am pretty excited about this because it is what I was hired to do. I hope it continues to work, and this was not some weird couple of days, and I will have to go back to working primarily with them. It was pretty exciting to see them working with the other children.

On a completely different note, Kerrie got her glasses today. She was pretty excited about them. She picked out a really cute pair. She looks great in them.

The Long Weekend

I am happy to report we survived the weekend without James. It is so hard when he is gone. The worst part is at night. During the day I keep busy and have things to do, but at night that all changes. After the kids settled down to sleep, I just couldn't. I would hear every little noise, and the house seemed to turn creepy. I could only get to sleep with the tv on. I have been running on just a few hours of sleep every night. I know it is silly, but it is just how I am. It is such a comfort to me to have him here, and know that he has checked all the doors to make sure they are locked. The craziest things run through my head too. Like, what if the house catches on fire? It did not help that on the news there was a report of home arson with pictures and all. I turned that channel very quickly. I am glad he is on his way home right now. I am a bit of a wimp.

I know he had a good weekend with his family. He was able to go frisbee golfing with his dad and brothers. He also went to the temple with his mom. They worked on family history, and even found a link that we have been unable to find, so that is exciting. James said his mom went all out cooking for him. He really enjoyed that. She even sent him off today with a meal for his trip home. He packed his CPAP machine in his carry on this time. He did not want to chance that being lost again. He had to take it out at security, and they tested it, whatever that means, but he will have it when he gets home tonight.