The Family

Here's a quick update on my family:

Kris is on track break for 3 1/2 weeks and loves being home. I'm having lots of family come to visit while I'm on vacation so that will keep me busy.
Paul is a happy guy since he drew a deer tag this year. He hasn't drawn one for the past two years which means he'll be gone hunting a lot this year. We celebrated our 17 year wedding anniversary. Crazy!


Tanner has been playing the electric guitar for about a month and really enjoys it. He can actually play us a song! He finished his sophomore year of high school and has been trying to find a job, but no luck so far. We've also been trying to get a learner's permit, yet I don't think he realizes that he must STUDY the handbook!



Madison is finishing up 5Th grade and is looking forward to middle school. She's been in many dance competitions this year and had her dance recital at the end of June. She went to Sea Camp in San Diego last month and had such a great time.




Camryn started gymnastics at the YMCA and seems to be enjoying it. Poor thing towers over all of the other kiddos. She finished pre-school this year and will start kindergarten in the fall. She will be going to my school which I'm really excited about.




Jaxon is 2 1/2 now and is attempting to be potty trained, but it's not going so good. He freaks out when he has to wear underwear so I bought the pull-ups but what's the point of those if he can still wet in them. He loves to swim and looks forward to it everyday.



Anna is glad to be off for three weeks. Her brother passed away a couple of weeks ago and I drove her to Flagstaff, AZ for the funeral. She joined the YMCA and is taking a arthritis swim class three days a week. She loves it! (Can you tell her picture is "the do not take my picture photo?")


I can't believe we are already 6 months into 2009. Before you know it Christmas will be here again!

17 Years and Counting....

WOW! It's amazing to think that Paul and I have been married for 17 years, yet I have known him for 20. Time flies for sure. I can honestly look back on our many years together and realize that I love my husband more now than I did so many years ago. Don't get me wrong...I always loved my hubby, but I think once you get older you realize what you have and cherish it more. We've come along way together and I could get all mushy, yet Paul doesn't read this blog so it doesn't matter what I say. I found some old photos to highlight our life together and thought I would make a list (seems everyone is doing that) of 17 things that Paul and I like or don't like.

1. We love to travel. Selfish as it seems we already have an itinerary planned of where we travel to once our last kid is raised. Planning trips to our latest destinations is something we always do together.

2. We both despise onions and peas. Therefore, our kids don't eat these foods.

3. Disneyland is the one place we always plan to go to. We're there when it opens and stay until closes. Every ride has to be rode on at least once or it wasn't a good day at the park. We've gone every year since we've been married twice or more. You can do the math!

4. Our kids can stress us out, yet spending time together as a family is one of our favorite things to do. Each month we let a child pick an activity that they would like the whole family to do no matter what the expense. We've been lucky and the activities planned have been reasonable.

5. We can spend money like it's water.

6. We love our kids and agree that we made some pretty good looking kiddos.

7. Looking for a new restaurant to try is something we do at least once a month and enjoy immensely.

8. We are hard core carnivores!

9. Dealing with death and funerals make us extremely sad and depressed.

10. Watching a scary movie in bed is one of our favorite pastimes.

11. We enjoy watching the travel channel...with Andrew Zimmerman being our favorite.

12. We enjoy grocery shopping together. Every Saturday you can catch Paul and I at the grocery store.

13. We dislike any type of bug.

14. Our pizza always has ham, mushrooms, and pork sausage on it. Yum!

15. We both are very hesitant to try new foods.

16. We love pedicures!

17. Finally...(this post was really hard)... eating breakfast for dinner is one of our favorite meals.

Cave Lake

Yes, Paul finally talked me into going camping. I only relented because I've been putting it off forever, but I knew my kids would enjoy going. Seriously, I'm not a camper. The whole woods and fishing thing just isn't my idea of fun, but I braved it and was ready to go. Aunt Pam and Uncle Ray were going with us so we were taking two vehicles. Paul, Jaxon, Ray, and Tanner in one car. Pam, me, Camryn, and Maddie in another.
We left on a Friday evening headed toward Cave Lake which is on the outskirts of Ely, Nevada. It's about a 4-5 hour drive from Vegas. Our plan was to make it to the campsite in the evening and set up camp, but our plans didn't quite turn out that way. Jaxon hadn't been feeling well (remember I had the flu, then Camryn got it, and then Anna had her turn). We were a half hour from Vegas when Paul pulled over because Jaxon was puking in his truck. Nice! Paul cleaned him up the best he could and we got back on our way. We kept on going until we realized that the highway was closed due to an accident so we had to turn around and go another way.
Now, I'm thinking maybe this is a sign and we should just go home because then Madison starts complaining about her stomach hurting so we stop again to take restroom breaks. While stopped Paul informed me that he left Jaxon's shoes on the side of the road while he was cleaning up the puke so now I'm searching the hick town store looking for a pair of shoes since I only packed one pair. I finally found some fluorescent green Crocs that fit him perfect.

We get on the road and soon Maddie starts complaining again so we pull over. I end up giving her to Paul to deal with and he gave me puke child Jaxon (who smelled oh so fragrant!) Soon Jaxon starts puking again so Pam has to pull over again so I can clean him up. A half hour later Paul pulls over again because Maddie is now puking. It's now 9:00 PM...we left Vegas at 4:00 PM and we're still not in Ely. We've pulled over who knows how many times and I'm done! Paul made the wonderful decision to stay the night in a hotel so we can do some wash, clean Jaxon's car seat, and have a good night sleep. Oh happy day! Jaxon puked again before the night was over, but it was nice to sleep in a real bed and not be traveling.
The next day we made it to camp, fished all day, made some great meals, laughed when Pam fell down, and just enjoyed ourselves being out in the woods and being together as a family. I slept great and actually had a really good time. The highlight of the trip was definitely the toliets and hot shower that they had at the campsite. No one was sick the rest of the trip and we made it home quick, safe, and sound.








Spending almost two days in the woods with family....somewhat enjoyable.
Dealing with pukey kids just to make my hardworking hubby happy...valuable moments.
Watching Pam trip and fall on her face....hilarious.
Catching a fish, degutting it, and watching the blood ooze down my arm...a rare feat.

Finding Jaxon's shoes on the side of the highway on our way home....PRICELESS!!!

My Mother's Day Fun (Sorry No Pictures)

The month of May wasn't a great month for me. I was a good girl and had my flu shot last October, I take a multi-vitamin daily, and I have really tried (notice I say really try) to exercise at least four times a week. Plus, I cut out soda and only drink water. This probably helps since I haven't had a head cold or anything else in way over a year and I'm surrounded by kids daily, yet May was the month for other fun things.

It started when we took Camryn to Disneyland and on our second day there I got food poisoning from eating at Denny's. Imagine being at the happiest place on earth sicker than a dog! I kept guzzling water and walking until finally poor Paul bought me some liquid Imodium AD since that was all the park really had for sickness. I think I swallowed half the bottle. I felt much better by the afternoon, but how sad to ruin my pleasant thoughts of Disneyland with horrific nauseating ones of me running to the bathroom every 15 minutes. Big thanks to my fam who waited patiently for my many trips to the john.

Then, big weekend for Madison since she's been preparing for a dance competition and it was Mother's Day weekend. My back started feeling achy, yet I associated it with that time of the month until the big pain hit and after three hours of pure torture I finally went to the ER to get some pain medication to help relieve the pain of a kidney stone that was stuck. If you've never had a kidney stone attack, be grateful. I would never wish that trauma on anybody. It is excruciating, mind blowing, and the type of pain where you kinda go into a state of shock. Let me tell you, the feeling of a knife coming out of your hoo-ha is probably the worst thing I've ever had to experience. The pain is so intense it literally makes you vomit and you can't sit because of the pain. Finally, I was given morphine which immediately relieved the pain. So I told the nurse I loved her and she was my new b/f. At that moment she was! I was told that my stone was stuck in my urethrae tube, yet it was almost to my bladder which was a great thing. Yea, right! Plus, it was too small to be surgically removed so I had to wait for it to pass. It must have since I've been pain free since.

During this time Paul had to take Maddie to her dance competition. Now, Paul usually is just a spectator and supporter with her dance so actually trying to get her ready with full makeup, hair, and costume and then getting her to the location was very trying for him. While I'm dying in the hospital he gets to play Super Dad! He did great and Maddie did pretty good.

The Doctor at the ER gave me some pain meds and other stuff to help with the stone and sent me on my way. The next day was Mother's Day. Yea for me! I layed on the couch all day while Paul made all of my favorite foods: salsa and chips, steak and corn, and watermelon with fruit dip. What a great day. Until 2:00 AM when I started puking my guts out and continued to do so until 9:00 AM. Every 15 minutes I was up puking. So everything I loved on Mother's Day I'll never eat again. I went to my family doctor to see what was up and he determined I had an allergic reaction to the morphine,I think he was wrong since throughout the rest of the week four other members of my family had the stomach flu so on top of dealing with kidney stones I get the stomach flu.

So now it's June and finally everyone is well. I'm doing great and actually went and saw a urologist about my frequent kidney stone attacks. I'll be having a bunch of tests done to see why my body keeps forming them, plus making some changes in my diet to not offset any stones since the doc informed that there is a 90% chance that I'll have them again. Why me?