Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Remembering Aunt LaNore

Neoma LaNore Crapo Harris, 1931-2008

Michael's aunt LaNore Harris died yesterday of cancer. She had cancer about a year ago and took some experimental drug. The drugs worked and she was cancer free for awhile, but it recently came back, this time in her lungs. Last week they let her go home, because that was where she wanted to die, there wasn't anymore they could do for her. I only met aunt LaNore a handful of times but she was a wonderful person. We stayed at her house, pitched a tent in the yard, the summer of 2007 for a family reunion. I'm glad that I had a chance to get to know a little about her.

What next??

Okay, so I told you about the herniated discs in my back. Well no sooner had we gotten used to the idea of paying out the nose for it that I took Aaron to the eye Dr. and found out that he has a pretty serious problem called muscle inefficiency in his eyes. That means that the muscles aren't working together. When you or I look at our finger moving towards our nose, our eyes track that and come in together. Aaron's eye's don't come together. When he is watching something swinging in front of his eyes he doesn't follow that in a smooth motion, his eyes don't follow and then they jump to catch up.

So this muscle inefficiency is going to require about 18 weeks of once-a-week therapy in the office and lots of homework. Not to mention the cost. Yikes! We can get a discount by making one payment of the whole thing, but even that is a huge chunk of change. And who has that much money just laying around? Normal people make payments.

As if his eye's aren't enough, when I took him in for his dental cleaning the dentist told me that we should start thinking about braces for him. I knew he was going to need them, his mouth is just too small for all of his adult teeth they are already crowded in there and he doesn't even have all his adult teeth yet. I'm just not ready for that yet.(Annie is going to have the same problem with her small mouth).

Can anything else come up? The new year isn't even here and we've already spent all and then some of Michael's cafeteria fund.

It seems like we have plans made and something comes up. We need to get my bedroom redone so we can move back in there, but the money keeps going other places. There's never enough to go around. I remember a thing I heard once. There's more month at the end of the money, or something like that. More month at the end of the money, then money at the end of the month.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Herniated Discs

So I found out why I'm experiencing this wonderful pain. I have three, yes 3, herniated discs in my neck. How did that happen? Anyway I'm going to the chiropractor everyday, I'm going to be going a whole lot for the next year to get this healed. I am currently being stretched everyday to get the discs back into place in my neck. It sure makes my shoulders hurt. But I guess it's always been no pain no gain, right? So because I've been avoiding the chiropractor for the last 5+ years I now get to see him a whole lot this next year. Great! But I guess I'd rather do this then have surgery, yikes, no thanks.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thanksgiving & Shopping

Thanksgiving was spent with Michael's family this year. We rotate Christmas and Thanksgiving between the two families. We had Thanksgiving dinner at his grandmother Liz's in Vernal. It was a rather small event this year. Most of Michael's family was there, one Uncle with family, and one cousin with husband and child for a total of 25. So it was really a small gathering compared to past years when there has been 50 or more.

After dinner most everyone helped split and stack wood for grandma. They were going to hang Christmas lights but it got to cold.

I stopped at the store on the way home to get pull-ups and Benadryl, and found a really good deal on winter coats for the girls and Ethan. They were 50% off, I wasn't going to get them but then realized that it was a one day sale. I was going to get myself a new coat too, but even at 50% off one for me was just too much. I never come out of the store with just what I went in for, there's always something else. I went in for pull-ups and Benadryl and came out having spent $180+ for pull-ups, Benadryl, socks for 3 girls, & 4 coats.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Seen Twilight?

Michael took me to see Twilight last night. I was really excited to see this great movie that everyone has been talking about, and hey it was based on this really awesome book I had read so I was really excited to see it. Boy, what a let down. It was okay, but I think it was a much better movie in my head when I was reading the book. Of course they couldn't do Edward or his family justice, the worst one was Dr. Cullen, could they have caked his face on anymore? And there was so much more of the book that wasn't in the movie. Also, a lot of the stuff, if you hadn't read the book you would have been clueless about things. I was sitting there in the theatre explaining things to my husband because it just wasn't clear in the movie. I should know better then to see a movie based on a GREAT book I have read because it never measures up. The Chronicles of Narnia was the same way, movies just don't do great books justice.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Avoiding the chiropractor, Not anymore

So I haven't been to a chiropractor in 5+ years, and there is a reason for that, I don't like to hear that snap, crackle, pop. I hate it even more when I feel it. So anyway on Monday I was feeling really awful, bad enough that I wanted to cry, so I gave in and made an appointment. Now Michael gets to say, next time don't wait so long.

So on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I went and had snap, crackle, and pop. It wasn't getting any better, in fact it was getting worse, the pain and numbness was moving down my arm. So he tells me that I need to go have an MRI done because I might have a disc out. Great! So now I feel worse then I did on Monday and I'm going to have another huge bill at the hospital.

Life sucks, and it really sucks getting old and having a body that is falling apart. I really could just lay down and die because of how bad it hurts. Hopefully after this MRI he will be able to make it better. Wasn't that why I went to him in the first place?

Monday, November 17, 2008

Wedding Bells

So any of you that know my sister, Caroline, she is getting married. I don't know the details yet I just know that she is now engaged. His name is David Mangum (I think that's his last name), anyway, they've been dating about a month and he popped the question on Wednesday. She hasn't even shared the good news with me yet, I had to hear this from Julia.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Ammon's 7th Birthday & Erica's 3rd Birthday

I have looked and looked and I can't find pictures for their birthday's. I'm sure that I took them I just don't know what happened to them.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Strep

Yuck, I started feeling yucky on Friday with just a tickle in my throat. It slowly got worse until this morning when I got up I knew I was really sick. It hurt to swollow, my glands were really swollen, I was either too cold or too hot, and my head hurt, really bad. I have had strep throat enough times to know when I have it. So even though I can self-diagnose I can't prescribe medication. So I had to take a trip to the Dr. just for him to tell me that I did have strep and for him to give me two prescriptions, one mouth rinse called Magic Mouth to numb my throat so I can eat and one antibiotic disguised as a horse pill.

I hadn't really thought about it until Michael was talking to his mother about my strep and she asked if I could have gotten it from Ethan. See I took Ethan to the Dr. on Friday because he had had a red bum all last week and it didn't matter what I put on it, it just wasn't getting better. So the Dr. took one look at Ethan, did a rapid strep test to confirm his suspicians and low and behold Ethan had Perianal Streptococcal Dermatitis, something I had never heard about. So I don't know if I could have somehow gotten the strep bacteria from him or not. I suppose anything is possible.

I felt like crap all day, sleeping most of it on the couch encased in blankets, thankfully the girls and Ethan were pretty well behaved. Michael actually was able to leave work early(that doesn't happen very often) and come home and take care of the kids while I slept some more, this time in bed. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Halloween Costumes

We had our ward Fall Festival/Halloween Party last night. The kids got to dress up and go trick-or-treating to members of the ward.


Ethan was just himself for the party, I was so busy with getting the costumes on the other kids that I didn't have time to go get the box of costumes from upstairs that I'm sure has a small costume that will fit him.

Erica is a princess, she looks so cute all dressed up. She was just missing her crown, I forgot to buy one when we went shopping for the costumes on Saturday.


Emily couldn't make up her mind what she wanted to be, first it was supergirl, then a princess, but when she saw this costume at the store she insisted that she be Bat-girl



Annie wanted to be a princess but when she found these butterfly wings she changed her mind. She does make a cute pink butterfly(she even has a butterfly painted on her cheek).


Ammon is the batman from Dark Knight, it's hard to tell what his costume is without the mask, but of course he can't wear it anywhere, he won't even be able to wear it to school for his halloween party there. Maybe I'll have to put some black paint on his face.



Aaron is a wicked wizard, I think that's what he said anyway. He has this thing with wizards, I think for the last four years he's been a wizard.




Saturday, October 25, 2008

Soccer 2008

Aaron and Annie played soccer with the AYSO teams this year.






Friday, October 24, 2008

Tardy, Again

It doesn't seem to matter how early I get the kids up they are continually late for school. This morning I woke them up at 7:00. Annie got dressed and went down and had breakfast. Ammon got half dressed and started playing. Aaron was the last one up and when he finally got up he took forever deciding what to wear. He got his shirt on but since his pants were in the laundryroom he went down to get a pair. I was looking for Aaron's sweater so I had told them to pour their cereal and eat. About 10 minutes later when I come downstairs I find Annie and Ammon eating. And Aaron is playing on my piano, still without pants.

They finally finish breakfast and then start playing around. Annie and Ammon were looking at their book orders and Aaron was looking at his. Ammon still didn't have shoes on. Aaron finally brought me the book orders and wanted to get two things that would cost a total of $30.00.

So at 8:15 when they called dad to talk to him about the book orders, Annie was ready, Ammon needed shoes, and Aaron was actually ready. They spent about 5 minutes arguing with dad about the book orders. When I told them to go get in the van they spent forever getting there, Annie couldn't find her coat(come to find out it was in the van, we still haven't found the backpack since Wednesday) and Aaron was so worried about getting the bookorder to his teacher. As I'm finally getting Annie in the van after we found her coat there, she says that she needs her show and tell item, a dog, for today. So we had to go find that, and of course they were late again.

I don't think they have been on time at all during the last four days. Somehow Michael always seems to get them there on time. And when he gets them up the two younger girls don't get woken up, but of course when I'm doing it the older ones always manage to wake up the two little ones.

Why do they always listen to Michael more than they do to me? Am I really not mean enough to them as Michael says or I am just not authoratative enough? How do I get them to respect and listen to what I am telling them? Somedays I do feel like I'm talking to a wall, but I guess every mother goes through that with her children.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

UEA/Dear Hunt school vacation

My children always seem extra rowdy the days that they spend at home. They had friends over all morning and the only time it was quiet was when they went to their friends house. They also make more messes and don't pick up after themselves when playing with friends. It is so much easier to let them just play then to keep getting after them because they don't listen any way and it becomes a battle of wills. Oh well, this too shall pass.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Birthday's and more

So today was my birthday, when I was a teenager 30+ was old. Now that I am 31 it doesn't feel old, now old is 50+. But I look at those kids who are 18 and 19, now those kids are like babies to me. I don't know where the time has gone. It seems like only yesterday that I was in high school, now here I am with a husband and six kids, a mini van and a mortgage. According to one of my friends you become a grown-up when you have your own house-mortgage, and the mini van. Well in that case I didn't become a grown-up until last year.

Wow, last year at this time we were living with Michael's parents waiting for our loan to go through so we could buy our house. I still can't believe we've been here for one year. We sure haven't accomplished much in that year. The only thing we've done is redo the roof, and that was because we were flooded last winter. When we moved in we had this big list of things that we were going to do, paint the rooms, get a new dishwasher, and stove. Replace the kitchen faucet. Put shelves in the upstairs closet, etc. What have we crossed off that list?? Nothing, a big fat nothing.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Ammon and glue

So life has been crazy around here. But what do ya expect with a name like that? My wonderful darling Ammon, what will I do with you? On Friday, Ammon's teacher called me from school and asked that I come pick him up. He had so nicely smeared glue all over his desk and on himself. This comes after he spent Monday at home, suspended from school(for stabbing a kid in the back with a pencil), yes again. This is now the third time in his 1+ years of schooling. Well when he got home he had glue in his hair, up to his elbows and some on his shirt. He wanted to make plastic. Where does he come up with these ideas? Who could do something like this except my Ammon. Not only did he smear the glue on Friday, but he also colored on the teachers bookshelf, just cause he wanted to.

Why is that the answer for everything, not just Ammon but all my children, is "cause". Cause I wanted to. Why would they want to do some of the things they do? Where did my children learn these things? I really am going crazy.

Emily's 4th Birthday

Can you tell that Emily likes The Little Mermaid?






Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Roofing

So we're going to be redoing our roof this weekend. The master bedroom sprung a leak last winter and now we need to get the new roof on before we have snow again. What a pain. Not only do we have to redo the roof but when we're done with that we have to put my bedroom back together, see, when it leaked there was so much moisture in there that we got mold, so that had to be romoved and now we have to basically rebuild half of the walls and ceiling plus replace the carpet. Since we're using the insurance money to do the roof, the bedroom has to be done just little bits at a time. So I'm sure it's going to be next spring or summer before I'm back into My room and have some privacy.

Hooked on Twilight Series

So I finished the second(New Moon) and third(Eclipse) books in the series and I am now halfway through the fourth(Breaking Dawn) and final book in the Twilight series. Wow! Now I'm wishing that I had read them when my sister-in-law recommended them. But then again...I would have finished the first three and had to wait for the fourth one to be released, so maybe it's better this way. I guess Stephenie was going to write a fifth book called Midnight Sun but someone posted it on the internet and she's so upset about it(which she has a right to be) that she says she's not going to finish it. I think it would have been cool to hear the story from Edwards side. Too bad, some people just can't be trusted.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Twilight

Okay, so I was quite skeptical when my sister-in-law told me that I should read the Twilight series a few months ago. Vampires just didn't interest me. So I had no intention of reading them. Friday night my husband sent me to the library for some books for him and I thought why not I'm here and haven't seen anything good to read lately I might as well at least look at it. So I checked it out and took it home. Well it sat on the counter for two days before I actually opened it and started reading. I was hooked, I couldn't get enough. I just finished it this evening, so I've been reading it every spare moment I got the last two days(which isn't much) and now that I've finished the first one and read the teaser first chapter of the second one in the back of the first one I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Friday, September 5, 2008

Eight-year old

I have this really stubborn eight year old that lately has been driving me crazy. It starts in the morning as soon as I wake him up from bed and it lasts until he's in bed asleep at night. He has been yelling at me all the time, he doesn't even talk to me in a normal voice, it is always yelling. Everything I say to him makes him "Angry". He did this because he was angry or that because he was angry. Last week he threw a glass bowl on the floor and busted it, this week-today actually-it was a window. He picked up the small plastic kiddy slide and threw it at a window. It is a double pane one and it only busted the outer one, so I'm glad that I don't have glass all over in my house but it is all over my porch.

I just don't know what to do with him anymore, he is only eight but he is almost as tall as me, and me being on the extra large size, when he runs away from me I can't chase him. He has no respect for me, none whatsoever. He even yells at me that he hates me. And since he yells it the other kids have started yelling it too.

What's a mother to do???

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

2008-2009 School Year

Aaron is in 3rd grade in Mrs.Hyder/Mrs Goodrich's class. Ammon is in 1st grade in Ms. Rutledge's class. Annie is in Kindergarten in Mrs. Davis's class.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Maestas Family Reunion

For the Maestas reunion this year Lori was in charge of it and it was held somewhere in Lehi.






Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Annie's 5th Birthday

 We celebrated Annie's birthday yesterday.  This girl is for sure a girly girl.






Friday, May 2, 2008

Recital 2008

This was Annie's second recital with the Roosevelt Academy of Arts. She did so well, she had improved so much in just one year, not as much stage fright and she knew her dance moves so much better.





Aaron did tumbling this year.





Ammon also did tumbling, his group was last night.





Saturday, April 12, 2008

Aaron's Baptism

Aaron was baptized today. He was baptized in the Roosevelt Stake Center by his father. The witnesses were his Grandfathers S. LaVon Anderson & Herald Crapo.

(Obviously the date on my camera was wrong.)

He was then confirmed the next day, also by his father, in the Roosevelt 5th ward of the Roosevelt Stake.



Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter Weekend





Grandma had an Easter egg hunt for the kids in her yard.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Kids holding Ethan

As soon as he came home they all wanted to hold him. And he just slept through it.

 Annie
 Emily
 Erica
 Aaron
Ammon

Monday, March 10, 2008

Introducing Ethan Andrew

Ethan was born at 7:55 p.m. He weighed 7lb 3oz and was 18 1/2 inches long. He has lots of brown hair and it looks like he's going to have brown eyes to match his sister Annie.