Thursday, September 30, 2010

I must be dying!

I went to the doctor this past Monday convinced that I have cancer. My back pain has been so severe and it's spreading up into my neck and down to my hip, so of course I jumped to conclusions. Good news... no cancer. But I have a bladder infection, a severe vitamin D deficiency, possible sleep apnea, degenerative disc disease, facet disease, arthritis, a possible gall bladder problem, and I've shrunk 2 inches since high school. And I still have one more blood test and an MRI that I'm sure will both show additional problems. So there's no cancer, but I'm probably dying anyway. :0)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Parenting Breakthrough

Thanks Andrea for introducing me to "The Parenting Breakthrough" by Merrilee Boyack. I'm not completely done reading it, but it makes so much sense!

Brian and I often find ourselves complaining about all the irresponsible teenagers and young adults that don't know how to work, take care of themselves, save money, make responsible decisions, etc., but we never had a plan in place to make sure our kids don't turn out that way. I'm just glad we got this book before it was too late!

The subtitle of the book is "A real-life plan to teach your kids to work, save money, and be truly independant." There are a lot of things in the book I don't agree with, but the basic ideas are priceless. We have a plan for everything in our lives, but when it comes to our kids, we just try to keep them alive. In the process, they don't grow up, they just get bigger. When are they ever going to learn about finances if we don't teach them? How will they ever do their own laundry if we don't show them how? How will they ever move out and cook/clean/manage for themselves if we never trained them to? It makes so much sense! I suggest everyone read this book. The author is LDS, so she also has tips on how to keep your kids active in church and encourage missions and temple marriages. It's great!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Brian's gone again...

I've had a horrible day. Brian is down in Fillmore again and Dallin and Alyssa are intent on driving me completely bonkers. Brian doesn't get back until Thursday evening, and I'm afraid he's going to come back to a crazy wife, dirty and hungry children, and the messiest house he's ever seen. I need to get some motivation going here. I haven't posted forever, so I thought this was a good start. Hopefully I'll feel like I accomplished something afterward and it will give me the encouragement I need to get going on something else.

The summer has passed by so quickly that I can't believe Dallin starts school on Monday. I'm not ready. He's going to another school and he has to take the bus. He just turned six on Saturday and my paranoid mother brain is telling me that he's too young to ride the bus. He's too young to stay away from me all day every day and make it on the bus to get home. He's too young to open his applesauce, zip his jacket, make new friends, buy a lunch, find the bathroom, etc. I know it's irrational, but I think every mom must go through these feelings to an extent when their oldest goes to school. I am excited for him to start at this new school though. It's for kids that are advanced readers. Because the kids are advanced, they can focus on other things that other schools don't, like music, art, and drama. I'm really thrilled he was accepted. I just need to get past all my fears about him going.

Alyssa doesn't start preschool until September 8, so we'll have some time together for a few weeks. I wish she was going to kindergarten. She's so ready. At least she enjoys preschool, more for the social aspect than anything. I'm glad she hasn't decided to be bored with it yet. We are thinking about getting her into dance again because that's all she does at home. She keeps asking to put her dance leotard on that's two sizes too small and just prances around the house. He favorite song to dance to is "Roxanne" from Moulin Rouge. She gets all dramatic and waves a scarf around and everything. It's pretty entertaining.

Emily is perfect. She is my best baby by far. I can't look at her without feeling this overwhelming love for her and gratitude that she is so good, because my other kids have started acting up to the extreme and I don't know how I could handle a fussy baby on top of everything they are dishing out. She is 3 1/2 months old now and has been sleeping through the night for over a month. She hardly cries, she eats right on schedule, sleeps all the time, smiles all the time for no apparent reason (my kids say she's smiling at the angels), and is just generally enjoyable in every way. We feel so blessed and can look back and realize what a blessing it was that we had to wait so long for her to join our family.

I feel so blessed to have children. Brian and I were talking about how common it is these days for people to not be able to have children and we've had our own troubles with that, so I am just so grateful that in the end I have 3 beautiful children to love. They were worth everything it took to get them here.

Brian's time in Fillmore is technically tapering off, but this week they asked him to come for 3 days instead of 1 or 2 that he's been doing for the past month. It's really hard to have him gone so long. It's gets me in such a slump at home. It's hard to function when I know I'll have no reinforcements coming home in the evening.

It's hard to believe the summer is almost over. I had so many plans, the biggest of which was going to be a hymn arrangement for our ward choir. I haven't even started it. I was sure that was going to be my big thing these past few months. It's amazing how time can get away from you so easily. Oh well. Andrea always picks the greatest music for us, so maybe next year I'll come up with my masterpiece.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Emily Rose Mecham

I just finished typing a narrative of my birth story... it was a few paragraphs long. Then it suddenly disappeared. I don't have the energy to type it again tonight. My eyes are closing as I speak. This computer is cruel! Doesn't it know that I'm the mother of a newborn and have very limited time to post an update to my blog?

Here's the summary... we had an ultrasound on April 30 that told us Emily was HUGE. We decided she had to come out that weekend. We tried all the home remedies and by 10:00 that night, I was in labor. We headed to the hospital at midnight and after a very uneventful boring day of very steady but weak contractions, Emily came at 8:02 p.m. after 2 hours of pushing. She wasn't as big as we thought, but plenty big for 3 weeks early. She was 8 lbs. 1 oz. She is a wonderful baby. Babies are such miracles. I could stare at her for hours.

Good night!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Weather

Brian and I have started to compare the weather report from the evening with the one the next morning. It's funny how much they differ. I don't think the meteorologists should try to predict anything other than the next 2 hours because it always changes!

Two weeks ago, we went on vacation for spring break. The weather report leading up to that week was saying how great the weather would be... we all know what really happened that week. We woke up to 6 inches of snow in Fillmore.

Meteorologists can't be trusted!

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Early Easter


Since Easter occurs on Conference weekend this year, we decided to celebrate Easter early. I would be in heaven if these kids always acted as good as they look.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Good News!

Good news! Brian passed another of his architecture tests. I'm so happy for him (and for us)!

They make these tests so hard and they are so expensive that it just seems like he'll never get through, but it's starting to feel like he might survive the process after all. He has passed 9 tests and has 3 more to go now. He has one scheduled in April, one in May, and one in June, so hopefully, fingers crossed, he'll hear good news back from all of them and be licensed by July!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

It's been so long....AGAIN!

So I haven't written in a while… is anyone surprised. I was doing pretty good there, but then let it slip after Christmas. Where has the time gone? This entry is going to be all over the place… so much to say and no time to organize my thoughts.

Julie was driving Alyssa somewhere yesterday and the car in front of them wasn't moving, I guess when the light turned green or something. Alyssa blurted out, "Are you going to park there, lady?" Julie and I have never said that before. I don't know where she got it, but she sure says funny things sometimes.

Dallin is doing so well in school that his teacher has sent him home with harder homework to keep his mind challenged… except the new homework isn't a challenge! It is harder, but as Dallin was describing it to Brian during our internet chat last night, Brian said that it sounded too hard. Dallin shook his head and said, "No, it's way easy." I don't know what we are going to do with him. He is so smart and is learning so much every day. Is he going to be the next Doogie Houser and graduate at 13?

We bought a new car seat/stroller system, a new play-yard/bassinet, a new diaper bag, and a diaper champ recently during a big sale at Babies-R-Us. Last week, we felt the urge to open it all and assemble it. Now we've got all this baby stuff out with nowhere to put it. I don't want it in the garage getting all dirty and dusty. I guess we should have thought of that before we opened it, but we were so anxious. It did help the whole thing to sink in a little. It's been so long since we've had a baby in the house, that the whole idea has seemed a little abstract to us

I'm feeling very pregnant and still have 3 more months to go. I should not complain, but was I wrong to think that being 30 pounds lighter this pregnancy than with my other two would make things easier? As a society, we are constantly told to lose weight and that it will fix everything that's wrong with us. If that's the case, then why am I so miserable? Don't get me wrong. I very much enjoyed the weight loss before I got pregnant, but I thought this pregnancy would be easier. I guess I was wrong.

My job is winding down. My bosses are looking to interview a few people in the next week or so. I can't wait. I feel so worn down and I really need to be home with my kids. They have started asking for my sister over me… that's just not cool. Brian says that now I know how he feels when the kids always want me. But this is different. They are cutting us BOTH out of their lives! Would they even notice if we didn't come home? (Of course they would. I'm just feeling sorry for myself.)

Despite our few trials, there's really nothing to complain about. We have seen so many tragedies over the last little while to know that we are truly lucky. We love each other, we have healthy children, Brian has steady work, we are ok financially, and we have tons of family support. I'm so grateful for all the things that are going right in our life. They far outweigh the bad parts, and it's my goal to focus on that and enjoy the blessings that are coming our way.