COULD HAVE BEEN BAD

I drive a stick shift car. I am very good about putting it in first gear, and putting on the emergency brake when I park.

One night as I rushed to the store and back. I pulled into the garage, which is getting fairly overcrowded. I pulled too far in and bonked a few things. So I put the car in reverse and back up slightly. I got out of the car and looked at the stuff I bonked. The car was a little further back than I thought that I reversed. Oh well my hands were full so I proceeded to walk inside and I would return to shut the garage door. I did happen to take one last glance before I turned the corner and noticed that the car was sticking out of the garage a little. I must have really overcompensated after I bonked that stuff. It wasnt until I returned to the garage that the car was even further out.

After I reversed I forgot to take it out of reverse and did not put on the parking brake. The car was rolling backward and if I did not catch it soon it would have been down the hill and into the neighbors condo.

Needless to say I was so embarrassed that it took a few hours to confess it to Shane.

GLASSES

I spend most of my days at home with fuzzy vision because my kids LOVE to get my glasses. As soon as I put them on, they go straight for them. They get smugded, scratched, and stretched out. I am planning on getting contacts, or teaching them not to touch, but until then I got them some sunglasses at Childrens Place. They are adorable. They wear them well, and put their index fingers up bilaterally for a "cool dude".

"SAND"BOX

The kids love to play outside. I love for them to play outside their a few reasons why we dont do it.

There is a steep downward slope directly outside our back door. The brothers just fall down it constantly.

Our backyard is also the neighborhoods favorite place to let their dogs roam. And they do not pick up after themselves. Which leads to another funny story. It drives Shane insane that dog poop is all over our grass so...he made a nice pile and swore that if he found out who it was...he would leave it on their doorstep. Well. Brenna found it first. We did not notice that she found it until we went to get her out of the car and she had wiped her poopy dog feet all over the back of the drivers side seat.

There are stairs leading to the neighbors house right around the corner and the brothers cannot get enough of them. They are not trustworthy on the stairs yet. Also the landing and stairs are concrete and I know if they fell there would be blood and lots of it.

So...I got a "sand"box on craigslist. I did not want to fill it with sand because of cats, and the mess that it would make. So it is full of pea sized gravel and it has a lid. They LOVE it. On sunny days, they spend all day outside.

Brenna plays good in it but Landon is constantly throwing the rocks out, and Jackson tries to eat them.

Also there have been more and more cats coming around. It does have a lid, thank goodness.

SICKIES

All babies got the flu last week. We had a movie-thon for 4-5 days straight. We survived it but it was a struggle.

I had 2 babies that only wanted to be held by their mama. They DID NOT want to share me. Most of the time they just sat in my lap trying to push the other one off. I could not get anything done while holding them. We just sat and rocked...and sat and rocked.

Brenna was the hilarious one. She is old enough to know how to MILK it. She would either be lying in front of the movie with all of her favorite things - sippy of water, blankie, doll, and mamas pillow. If she was not watching a movie than she was on mamas bed. She would not come out for something. We would just randomly hear. "Shane!...water!", "Twissa...candy bar (granola bar)"

A few days after getting better and we are still trying to get her out of the demanding, entitled, get-whatever-I-want attitude.

GERM FREAK

To say the LEAST. Having 3 babies I am a GERM FREAK whenever one gets sick, so that not only I, but all the others do not get sick at the same time. "It can not be that bad!?", is what I hear you saying in your mind. Well Let me paint you a picture and then you judge for yourself.

Last week Landon started showing signs of the FLU - YIKES!!! I did not want three kids with the flu so...

Landon got 2-3 baths per day. Mainly because he had snot everywhere and intermittent vomit. Also somewhere in my childhood I learned that taking a bath when you are sick makes everything better. A practice that I use on a daily basis but ramp up to extreme when I am sick.

When I held Landon I wore a robe. He would rub his nose or cough into it. Then if Jackson or Brenna needed something I would remove the robe, wash my hands and take care of them.

I wash my hands after touching ANY child, or surface. I do not touch my face or ears.

I do 2 loads of wash a day.

I keep all spoons and sippies, bottles labeled and designated to the child.

I sterlize/boil all things touched, at least twice per day.

After all this you may think that the other 2 are safe from catching what Landon had. No. Jackson of course got a hold of Landons bottle and had a fever a few hours later. And Brenna loved to take all toys that Landon was playing with, right out of his snotty hands.

I did save my self though. I ate a RAW clove of garlic everyday, and took an abundance of vitamin D pills as well as sunshine -when available. I also put hydrogen peroxide in my ears for 10 minutes daily. I came out with a mild headache and runny nose.

CHEF TO BE

I used to cook all the time. I love it and lived for trying out new recipes. But I am a chef no more. I usually figure out dinner by digging through the cupboards at the last minute. I blame it on the fact that I am not able to get to the store very often for food. I go only when I NEED milk, and even then have just time enough to run in and out.

I have a new goal. One NEW recipe a week. Lets see if I can pull it off.

SURPRISE DIAGNOSIS

I have been worried about Landon since last Christmas. I have been hounding the MD trying to get a hand on a definate diagnosis for Landons symptoms. The GERD medications were not relieving the symtpoms so the MD wanted to do a study to see if he is just pooling food and not swallowing adequately.

The MD told me that he was going to order a "barium swallow study", but instead ordered a Upper GI and esphogram. Before we realized that the wrong study had been ordered they had allready done a "prep" xray of Landons abdomen.

I figured that since we soon after figured out that it was not ordered, that maybe they would just delete the image that they took. But...I got a call from the MD telling me that on the original image it showed that Landon had a KIDNEY STONE. Rare in children.

So onto the next step of multiple consults with specialists and with the MD to figure out what to do.

The good thing is that Landon does not seem bothered by the stone...yet. Poor baby.

****Update: False diagnosis. No stones after all. An expensive mistake.

FEELING * PREPARED

The * equals...somewhat, getting there, close but yet so far. I feel that we will survive if calamity strikes. I have the "preparedness" bug and have spent a few months and thousands of dollars on getting prepared. I feel that the prophets have been warning use for YEARS and I always intended to...but now I am.

There are a few coworkers at work that are nonmembers but I call them my "doom and gloom" committee. They are reading the signs of the times and are feeling the need to be prepared. They do not even have a prophet to guide them and they are feeling it.

I have to admit that I fear, more than I have faith. My mother-in-law tells me that it is more important to prepare spiritually...which I am severely lacking. My Aunt- who I love more than anyone in the world- told me that she became anxious and feared for the future but then she realized that angels will be there to lift us up if we are faithful. They were both speaking of course about the importance of being prepared at the same time...not strikly realing of faith.

My house has so much food I do not have anywhere to live. Shane is enjoying his handgun. And I am finally beginning to focus on the nontemporal areas in my life.

BRENNAS CAKE

I had a blast making the brothers tractor cakes for their birthday so I decided to make Brenna a fun one. I gave her a choice of 3 cakes and she chose the most elaborate. It took me all day and...is not flawless by any means, but...was fun. The whole time I was making it Brenna sat on the counter and just said, "Wow, mommy" over and over again.

BRENNA IS THREE

She is a sweetheart...but if you tell her she will say, "No I am Brenna" The day she turned three something reclicked and now she is independent again. She wants to do it all herself.

She is sweet and motherly to her brothers except she knows that she is bigger than them and can take what she wants if they have it.

She loves to sleep in her tent in her sleeping bag, blankie, water, and mamas old pillow (which she took). She still ends up in our bed before the night is out.

She gives me kisses on my cheek or tries to hold my hand if she wants my attention when I am on the computer.

She by mid morning she ends up with a dress over the outfit she has on. For her birthday this year we went down the "pink isle" for the first time. We got her a princess dress with all the accessories. She LOVED it. She plays with action figures and plays hard with boys but is very girlie when the time comes.

She loves movies and watches one a day. Except last week when all the kids had the flu. We had a movie-thon for 5 days straight.

She calls daddy "shane" and sometimes mommy "Clarissa"

She does not eat dinner very well. We are working on that.

TOILET PAPER

My twins are FASCINATED with toilet paper. They run for it whenever the bathroom is open. We no longer keep it on the wall roller. We realized quickly that a roll of toilet paper can unravel before we can get to the brothers to stop them. We just keep the roll on the counter...and if we can remember...out of arms reach.