Controversial Topic

I have been thinking a lot lately about California's Proposition 8 due to the Cal Supreme Court upholding marriage between a man and a woman. Lots of celebrities have been voicing their opinions on TV about this. I am not one to really get political on my blog. I write this blog really as a journal and record for my girls to be able to come back to later. I wish I would have had something like this from MY mom to come back and read. I decided that I want to let me girls know how I feel about this so they can hear MY opinion and not some celebrity or some religious advocate's idea on the subject. I am warning you, I am an equal opportunity offender and I am sure I am going to offend most of my friends no matter which position you hold. Feel free to stop reading now. Also, I really would appreciate if you didn't try to argue your side with me on the comments section. (You can comment all you want, just don't try to argue your position please.) I already know my position. Ella and Audrey, I want you to know that God loves everyone single person on earth. He has given us free agency which is the greatest gifts he could possibly give us. Our church believes that marriage is between a man and a woman. I completely agree with this. Now, we have family members and friends that may have parnters that are their same sex. Although it is not something our church advocates, that in no way means that we do not love them. That is where free agency comes in. We can love the sinner without loving the sin. I love our family and friends that are gay. I can love their partners as well. I can see why they feel there is an injustice that they can't marry. My problem lies not necessarily with a marriage between two partners, but the other complications that open up from that. If partners were to be allowed to marry, then what would happen if they wanted to marry in a church that didn't agree with same sex marriage. This would open a whole ground for litigation against not only our own church but so many other churches as well. It would also make for a difficult matter with temples. (For more information on our temples and how we believe, click HERE) I think if Prop 8 had failed or been overturned then it leaves too many unanswered problems for churches like ours that are against same sex marriage. It leaves no protection for our beliefs. This isn't a personal attack on any one group or person. Remember Ella and Audrey that we need to love everyone whether they have our same beliefs or not and that we can respect those beliefs without agreeing with them. It may seem hard at times and many adults have not been able to grasp that, but I hope I can instill the tools so that you can.

Tiny Tubes - Time # Two

We were back at the hospital again this morning getting another round of tubes for Audrey. This is her second set. Actually only for her left ear. The doctor wanted us to have them redone before all our flights this summer. Audrey had a super rough night last night. She still wakes up at night and I give her a bottle so that we can at least get a little sleep. She coudn't have food after midnight, only clear juice like apple juice and water until 4 am and NOTHING after 4. Of course she woke up at 2:30. She wanted nothing to do with juice. She ended up in bed with me and I sent Tom to the spare room. She was really restless with no bottle for comfort. At 4:10 she squirmed off Tom's side of the bed. Ofcourse we were both upset but at this point I couldn't give her ANYTHING. She was just as frustrated about the abuse she felt she was getting as she did about falling off the bed. After 30 minutes of trying everything to comfort her, Tom took her downstairs and rocked her to sleep. (She never lets me rock her so I didn't even think of it as an option....brownie points for Daddy.) 6:15 am came way too early for everyone. Ella went to the sitter and we were off. They give the kids a mixture of Tylonol and something they refer to as "goofy juice". I am sure it is some kind of valium. Audrey was HILARIOUS, but describing it doesn't do it justice. She kept putting her tongue out like it belonged to someone else. And Wheels on the Bus and Peek A Boo have a whole new outlook for me now after the Goofy Juice. Our ENT brings the kids toys. (Ella still sleeps with her stuffed Lion from the ENT) This time Dr. Stan let Audrey choose and as soon as he said Barbie, she was all over it. This is her very first Barbie and she took it back to surgery with her.

About 10 minutes after taking her, the doctor was bringing us back in to let us know it went well, tube is in and they checked her adnoids and they are pretty small so that wasn't the cause. Audrey didn't come out of the anethesia so well. She was down right freaking out. The nurses said it was like trying to hold an octopus still. She was screaming , fighting, wailing, hitting....not pretty. We even took her outside and that calmed her for a little bit. Once we got in the car it all started again though. She cried the entire 20 min drive home. She finally fell asleep right outside our neighborhood entrance. I was able to put her down and she slept for over 4 hours. I took a nap too. We are all still trying to recover from an early morning and exhausting day. But hopefully no more health issues at least for a little while!!

Beach, Family, and Memorial Day

The weekend before Memorial Day we went to Myrtle Beach. Tom had a dental conference he needed to work and my seminar got cancelled, so we packed up the kids and went with him. Bike Week always happens at the same time as our conference and you could see the recession has taken a toll because there were not that many Bikes this year and the hotel was not jammed with people. In fact we were able to upgrade our room for the same price to a two room suite. It was about 1400 sq feet with two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, dining room, living room, walk in closets and a laundry room. It was so nice! Plus we ate most our meals in the hotel room. We learned the girls really don't like the beach. Ella loves the "idea" of the beach and seeing the Ocean, but neither of the girls like walking on the sand. I think they don't like how unsteady it is under their feet. Ella did better on the packed sand by the Ocean. Audrey wouldn't even try again at that point. We ended up spending most of our time at the hotel pool. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, it was like a kids water park heaven with all sorts of water slides and water toys. I kept the girls all lathered in sunscreened and forgot to put it on myself and got pretty burned. It has turned into a semi-tan. Well, tan for me, I am still pasty white compared to the rest of the world.

We came home from the beach in time to pick up Tom's brother Scott and his wife Simone from the airport. They spent a week with us and I didn't even get a single picture!! We just hung out and really enjoyed having them here. We got a sitter a couple of times and went to see a movie once and bowling another time. I miss having family so close, especially since I feel like for both me and Tom that our families are our best friends and favorite people to hang out with. I really love all my in-laws and we are really close with them all. On my side we are friends with extended family as well. It was sad seeing Scott and Simone go home, but I will be seeing some of my family and Tom's parents in Vegas in a couple weeks when I go out for a conference and then we will be in UT for most of July.

It rained most of Memorial Day weekend so a lot of our plans for yard work and such got put on hold. We had the Burtons over for dinner that night. My girls think the world of the Burton kids. Ella doesn't need toys, she just follows them around and does everything they do. I walked in and found them all on the couch like this.

Audrey is really starting to talk more in fragmented sentences. Some of her favorites are "Open Dis" and "Daddy Coming Home?" "Mommy Coming Home?" She asks the last two all the time. Whether we are home with her or not.

Scariest Day Ever!

Yesterday was the scariest day ever for me. Let me back up. Audrey was sick on Friday. We were up all Thursday night and all Friday night. By Saturday she seemed fine, back to getting into everything. She has seemed more whiny lately, but she is also getting 4 teeth in right now. Sunday they were both terrors at church......Happy Mother's Day to Me! We ended up leaving early because they were so cranky. Yesterday Ella woke up telling me her tummy didn't feel good. Audrey woke up with the worst diarrhea I have ever seen. Audrey was so cranky she actually went down for a nap at 10:30am. When she woke up at 1pm she had thrown up in her bed and soon after we had another diarrhea diaper. I got the girls some Pedialyte and Ella some lunch. Lisa was here cleaning our house. (No we are not snobs, but we do have someone who comes in and helps with our deep cleaning like bathrooms and floors every few weeks and we just love her like family) Ella was watching tv downstairs while I came upstairs to finish cleaning up toys so Lisa could vacuum. Audrey crawled into my lap and wasn't there very long before she went limp, her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she started having a seizure. I screamed for Lisa (which must have been pretty loud because she was vacuuming). She called 911. Audrey's seizure lasted about 3 minutes. The entire time I was praying for Heavenly Father to protect her and that she would come out of this healthy and that he would take care of her. When she stopped shaking, her eyes were glazed over and she was pretty unresponsive. After a minute she fell asleep. I couldn't help but worry that she would have brain damage. The paramedics got here and we spent the next several hours in the hospital doing tests. Lisa kept Ella until Tom got home and then our wonderful neighbor Carrie took her until we were back from the hospital. (Rhena was really hoping they would have a sleep over. Sorry Rhena!) Audrey started becoming cranky at the paramedics which made me believe she wasn't brain damaged. At the hospital she started saying words again like "Daddy and Gabba". After a CAT Scan, blood tests and urine tests, Audrey was worn out and fell right asleep. They finally determined there was nothing wrong with her but dehydration and they think that may have triggered the seizure. When Audrey woke up her IV was pretty much done and she was completely re-juvinated. It was like they put speed in the IV. She was all over the place. anytime someone in scrubs came in she would say "Done, Bye Bye". I think she was ready to head out.

We will have to watch her closely this week but our pediatrician said that it is more common that we realize for kids to have a one time seizure and never have them again. Thank you all for your prayers and phone calls. We have such wonderful family and friends. We really are so thankful for each of you and especially that Audrey is going to be alright.

Sleeping after all her tests.

PS. No I didn't have the presence of mind to bring my camera. This is taken from my new mother's day gift. A blackberry curve....in pink.

This Week's Ella-isms

I am one of the Faith In God Girls leader. For those of you that aren't familiar with our church, or this calling, I help plan and supervise a bi-weekly activity for 8-11 year old girls. We were doing a service activity tonight of planting flowers at the church as well as disinfecting and cleaning all the nursery toys. Tom had a late appointment so I had the girls with me. The girls took late naps today so we had to rush to pick up the flowers and I stopped at Arby's to get the girls dinner. They LOVE Arby's. Ella asks for it for every meal. It is on the healthier end of fast food so if we do have to have drive-thru food, it is usually Arby's for the girls, just the sandwhich no fries. Ella can literally eat a full regular roast beef by herself. They had their pick 5 going on right now. I needed a drink, so it was cheaper to get 4 Jr. Roast beef and drink (2 jr for ella, one for Audrey and one for me) then one Jr., a regular and drink. Anyway, it was a small drink (12 oz) and it was in a short cup. Ella saw it and said "Mom, that drink is too small for you. I's need it. It's not too small for me." It was Pepsi. There was no way she was getting it, but it sure made me laugh. The way her mind reasons makes her a good candidate for a lawyer.I tend to forget she is just 2. On the way to the church we stopped to pick up a new car seat because Tom's car still has Audrey's rear facing infant seat and it was time to upgrade. We got a pink seat and Ella kept bringing it up over and over again. "I love the new pink seat mom" repeated 30 times or so. I finally told her "Ella, you make me tired". She replied, "I's don't make you tired. I's make you laugh." Well, she definitely was accurate this time.

Hola Amigos!

I know you have all been waiting to hear if we have the Swine Flu. Nope. Even if we had, nothing could have dampened our trip to Mexico. We had such a great time just sleeping in and laying by the pool. That was literally every day for us. We stayed at Marquis Los Cabos which is an all inclusive resort between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose Los Cabos. There was suppose to be another large company retreat there the same time as us and they cancelled shortly before the trip so our group pretty much had the resort to ourselves. It was about 50 of Henry Schein's top selling employees and their companions, so about 100 total people. The ocean next to the resort has a strong under current, so we couldn't swim there which was fine because we stayed in the pool most of the time. (Plus they don't bring drinks and food for you out in the ocean and they do in the pool....guacamole+Coke= heaven.) The second day we were there Tom and I took a taxi into Cabo San Lucas. Everyone was warning us about the people who beg, or try to sell you a timeshare. One lady in our group even had a guy try to sell her drugs. We didn't have anyone ask us for money. We must look poor or something but it made the experience so wonderful. We did walk out to the marina and a few people asked us if we wanted to take a boat tour out to the Arch. You could see it from the marina, but for $10 a person we figured we would go out and get some pictures. It was just us and the captain, so he was super accomodating trying to get us close and good shots. He was so nice and explained where the locals go, showed us all these cool rock formations and pointed out what we should see. We were out on the water for about an hour and it was definitely worth the $10. I bought the girls really cute Mexican style embroidered dresses at the Marina shops. They were much cheaper then the ROXY one I got in the US as a Swimsuit cover and just as cute. Then we ate at Hard Rock. The rest of the time we stayed at the resort. They had 3 different restaurants or room service and pool side service. One night Tom and I went to the French restaurant. They serviced us a 5 course meal that was delicious (except for the duck, in my opinion, Tom liked it). The best part of the trip was just unwinding and getting our batteries recharged. Everyone has been asking about the Swine flu and we were there while the outbreak was going on, but got there right as it was starting. We weren't reading the paper or watching much TV to realize anything was going on until we heard about it the day we were leaving. I don't know if it had affected the area we were in much up to that point, but we didn't catch it. We are past the incubation period, so if we get the Swine flu it will be from some one locally.

Make a Smilebox photobook

We came back to a sick grandma. Tom's mom wasn't feeling well when we got home. The night before they were suppose to go home she was doing really bad so we sent her to the ER. She had a sinus infection and was treated so at least she started feeling better quickly and made it home okay. Tom and I have been busy this week trying to catch up and put out business fires that happened while we were gone. I have been working early morning to late night several times this week and ended up needing to work on Saturday as well. Because of that we have been trying to make up for it with spending after work time doing fun things with the girls. Plus, they have been extra clingy this week after having left them. It has been really warm here, in the mid-80's, so we have taken them over to the Birkdale Fountains a couple of times. Friday we took them over to play for a bit, then they had live music playing. We dressed the girls and let them go over to listen. They were having a ball! There was an area in the middle where all the kids were dancing. Audrey got out there and started going in circles and getting dizzy and taking out kids every few minutes as she fell. Then she would get right back up and start over again. It was so funny. I am surprised she could even get up again after going in circles that long. She became the entertainment for most the parents.

We have also been trying to spend more time outdoors with the great weather. I want my kids to get out and play rather then just stay inside and watch TV all day. Plus Daisy needs the excercise. These are shots from our backyard.

Today I finally took pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses. Tom's mom was able to get the "burned" type stain out of Ella's easter dress. (See here for explaination) I also took a picture of the house from the direction I usually come home. A lot of our plants are starting to flower and the pansies we planted back in November are still looking beautiful, and it just makes me happy to come home. Our day lillies will start to come out soon too and I just can't wait. I thought I would share the view that makes me so happy to come home.