Our Second Home–or the ER

I guess it’s just having a boy, but we have been in the ER/Urgent Care/doctor’s office way too many times in the past five years. I am sure this is only a premonition of what is to come.

Russ was on one of his trips, and Michelle and Dan (who have been living with us) had gone up to visit Michelle’s parents in Midway. It was a Friday night and I was sitting on the couch reading while the kids were playing before bedtime. They were already in pajamas, and I was letting them run off their energy.

They were putting pieces of paper into the box fan in their bedroom and then coming to show me/tell me how hilarious it was.

Children in a state of hilarity + running back and forth between bedroom and living room = disaster/ER trip waiting to happen.

It was about 9:00pm on Friday night when Vincente came running full speed out of his room and tripped. On the carpet. And caught himself on the couch. With his forehead.

As soon as he hit, I jumped up. I knew it was going to be bad. He didn’t pass out or anything, just grabbed his forehead and started screaming. I pulled his hand away to assess the damage, and as soon as I saw the gash I knew we would be making a visit to urgent care. I picked up that poor little guy and headed to the kitchen for some rags to stop the bleeding. I’m not sure why I wasn’t more freaked out. Probably because this isn’t the first time he’s done this.

I was a little flustered, trying to call my friend to see if she could watch Joseline, but when she didn’t pick up and I realized how long it would take me to find another phone number, I decided to walk across the street and knock on my neighbor’s door. Doc was running around outside, and Joseline was standing barefoot in our driveway as I knocked on the neighbor’s door. Chaos.

still under the effects of the sedative

It was perfect timing because my other neighbor who also happens to be the nursery leader (i.e., Joseline’s best friend from Church) walked past neighbor #1’s house as I was at the door explaining what happened. Neighbor #2 took Joseline for me, and Neighbor #1 drove us to the hospital.

Three hours, four stitches, and one dose of conscious sedation medication (that was hilarious), and he was as good as new. And we were all very ready to go to bed.

Vince kept saying “What’s this little light?” or
pulling the oxygen tube out of his nose and saying “What’s in my nose?”
every minute. He was sooo out of it. And it was adorable.

I am so grateful to my neighbors for being so totally awesome.

And grateful for good health insurance – we never have to pay anything from these ER/doctors visits. A huge blessing, since my children seem to be walking disasters.

A Garden Party

Our Relief Society had a garden party on Tuesday evening, and I bought this hat to wear. And I rode my bike. It was awesome. I love my hat, and I love my bike.

Wednesday was probably the worst day ever. My iPhone’s home button died, and if you know anything about iPhones, you know that the home button is the most significant button on the entire phone. So I got that fixed, but lost the sim card tray, so I had to go back out and buy one. I didn’t get anything done because of the stupid phone (because then I had to set it up, restore, etc etc etc).

It’s back to normal now, though, so hopefully I will be, too!

Park Day

It’s kind of weird being a mom in the ward I grew up in.

Thankfully, Wednesday was playgroup for the Relief Society, so I took the kids. We’ve been going stir crazy in the house. What, with me moping around all day … every day (not to mention the heat). But I just had to get them out yesterday.

So we went to Lake Willestein park in Maumelle. It’s about a mile or so away from my parents house – we could have walked, except it is entirely too hot to walk anywhere in Arkansas. Not sure how I did it as a kid. More carefree back then, I guess.

  Joseline was looking particularly adorable yesterday (if I do say so myself). Any she loved those graham crackers! She was also walking a lot more. I think she’s started to realize that walking is much more fixe than crawling (fixe – cool in Portuguese, pronounced like “fish” but with more of a long e sound than a short i sound).

Vince had a great time with a lot of new playmates. See the flush in his cheeks? I think he rarely got flushed in Monterey. It seems like every time we move here, we get flushed. Even if we’re just getting in the car! I can’t believe how hot it is. This weekend is supposed to be a little cooler, thankfully. Highs in the upper 80s. How’s that for “cool”?

(but don’t you love how green it is! And all the tall trees! Arkansas puts Monterey to shame – as far as green-ness. Although the beach sure beats the pool. Hmm… now that I think of it, the pool water is warmer than the ocean in Monterey, so maybe the pool still beats the beach. At least the beach in Monterey)

Ladies Night Out, and Boys Night In

So I was running late Friday night and forgot a million and one things going to the Ladies' Night Out party (butter for my rolls, the actual address of the place, and my camera!) so no pictures. 

But I did get some fun pictures of the party that was still happening when we got back home. Russ did a great job getting Vince fed and put down to bed, and then the boys were having a blast jamming on rock band when we got home. 

Here's the proof:

Look at those faces - nothing but happiness right there! These guys are such goofballs.

The star singer of the evening

Amazing Omar and his rad guitar - look at that face - don't mess with this guitarist. He means business

Dan the man and his mad drummer skillz - is he smiling because he enjoys the drums so much, or because he thinks it hilarious that he's missing every other note?

When the drummer and the singer finally realized that they weren't cut out for their repective jobs - and switched - oh yes, and finally completed a song without failing at all. Heh.

In reality, it was the singer that was causing the most problems before the switch, as can be witnessed in this next video:

Of course, we wives couldn't be left out for too long. Eventually, the addiction that is rock band sucked us in as well, and we rocked it hard -

I really wish I would have taken pictures at Ladies' Night Out. We played musical chairs - it was hilarious. Mostly we just sat around and had fun, like girls do. Without our kids. It was awesome - no one was being interupted by "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" or kids wailing because your kid hit them with a toy or took a toy from them or whatever. There was no need to referee, no booboos to kiss. Much as we all LOVE and cherish doing those things for our kids, it's REALLY nice to have a break and just enjoy the company of your fellow sisters - especially here at the DLI where everything is so high transition and high stress and sometimes you just want to chill. We had a great time. I even learned how to play a new game about killer bunnies. That game was great. Unfortunately, I didn't win, but it was sure fun to play. 

And after all that musical chairs, I still didn't go into labor. Oh well. 

Hopefully I'll be posting news of a new baby soon!

Wishy Washy

First I want the baby to come ASAP, then I want the baby to hold off for a while. Okay, to be honest, this is the first I've wanted the baby to hold off. Our ward is having a fun little ladies' night out this weekend, and I've been meaning to go to RS stuff to meet some of the sisters and get to know people better (I feel like I've been hiding from my ward... mostly because I've felt like I have too much on my plate - first it was moving in, then it was being sick, now it's the fact that I could pop any day now). So anyway, I want Little Sister to wait until next week. My mom is flying in on Monday anyway, so it would be perfect timing! 

Too bad there's no way to really know. 

Well, so don't get all excited, because I'm trying to keep baby INSIDE now... I know, I know, just a few days ago I was doing jumping jacks and riding Russ' motorcycle over large bumps (just kidding... I actually wasn't doing either of those... jumping jacks are too incredibly uncomfortable, and I haven't been on Russ' bike for a few weeks... though that one isn't a bad idea!) 

a super saturday

What a fabulous time. I went to our ward Relief Society super Saturday. It was great to just get away and spend some relaxed time with the sisters in my ward. I love hanging out with them. I've been feeling really horrible lately (missing Russ and everything) so it was nice to get out with a bunch of married sisters - without having husbands around. It's rough, being the only person without a husband.

Anyway, I made some I Spy games - little pouches of beady things and a bunch of random knick-knacks for little kids to find. I made one in a girl pattern and one in a boy pattern, even though they have the same stuff inside. They're actually pretty cool. I was going to make one on my own, so I would know how to make them, but there was so much going on, I ended up just filling two pre-made ones. I'm sure I could figure out the basic design pretty easily. There are a lot of fun little things inside to "spy" - a turtle, a monkey, a fish, a car, a lady bug, a clothes pin, a noodle, a penny, a dime, a rattle, a baby, etc. It's a nice quiet toy for sacrament meeting :)

I also made some magnets for Vincente. I forgot that I was supposed to bring pictures to glue on the magnets if I wanted to, so on my way out the door I grabbed some brightly colored paper and decided I would make Vince his name in magnets. I had two extra magnets, hence the car and the train. After I made the car and train I kind of wished that I had just made little cars, trains, boats, helicopters, etc for him. But having his name will be kind of fun for him, too. Those were really easy to make as well.

As usual, visiting with the sisters was the best part. I discovered there is another military family in our ward. One sister's husband is in the National Guard as well! I think they moved into the ward after Russ left to Basic. Her husband works full time for the Guard, but it was really nice to talk to her. Her husband actually went to BCT at Ft Leonard Wood! Crazy, I know. Anyway, I also talked to the sister of one of the girls in our ward. Her husband is in MI (military intelligence) as well and just got finished learning Chinese at the DLI in California. Heh, I wanted to talk to her a little bit about things, but it ended up that I know as much (if not more) about the military, and being a military wife, than she does. I'm just the kind of person who likes to know everything I possible can about something I'm going to be involved in. When Russ enlisted, I looked EVERYWHERE for information about where we would be living, what Basic would be like, what AIT would be like, what the DLI would be like, etc. So far I haven't been surprised at anything, which is nice. Of course, it's only been basic training, so we'll see how things go at AIT.

Anyway, so it was a great day. Vincente had a blast playing with a bunch of other kids in the nursery room while I had a great time visiting with my friends and enjoyed being crafty and stuff. Lunch was great, too. I made a chicken casserole which actually turned out really well. I think it was probably my second or third time ever making a casserole. Oh, and I went to a bread-making class, during which I got to sample some DELICIOUS bread and get a few new tips on making bread. I still need to learn how to make a good loaf of wheat bread. I'll probably just have to experiment. Christy made some a while back, and it was pretty good, so I'll have to get her recipe and start from there.

Life is good. I still miss Russ. A lot. But as long as I keep myself distracted, I'm okay.