Family Star of the Day!

Today the award is going to someone so adorable, I just want to squish their cheeks!

*~*~*~*drum roll*~*~*~*

Justin!!!  He had to go to the dermatologist today to have a couple moles checked out.  Mainly the ones he tried to PICK off and caused some scarring.  Plus he had something on his chest that looked like, well, uh, he will kill me for posting this here, but it looked like a third nipple!  But it was just a skin toned mole - nothing to worry about..... except we are going to tease him. :)

The dermatologist looked at the area on his neck where he picked off a mole - that area was fine.  It was the one on his right forearm/wrist area.  The doctor gave us the option of getting it lopped off right then and have it run under some tests, or waiting until the scabbing healed and then having the doctor take a look at it again.  I didn't need to think twice:  it was mole lopping time.  Justin was NOT happy with me; he gave me the dirtiest look when I told the doctor just to cut it off.

However, Justin was brave, they put the needle in his wrist area to numb it, and he watched the ENTIRE time.  I had to close my eyes!  (Yes, I am a wuss!)  Then he watched as the lopped off the mole.  He was cracking me up, as he watched intently, he said, "It looks like it should hurt but it doesn't."

For being brave and getting a small chunk of skin removed (and for being so cool about it and watching the whole thing) today's award goes to Justin.  You rock, Justin!! Love you!!

Busy Bee

I cannot believe that I am finally tired!  After the day I had today, it is about time the back of my eyelids get some special care.

I woke up at 4 something in the morning to use the bathroom (yes, the joys of getting old) and realized Bill was wide awake.  He was awoken around 3 AM and couldn't go back to sleep, poor guy.  Unlike him, I fell right back to sleep.  I think he finally passed back out at 5 AM just to have the alarm go off at 8 AM.  He jumped out of bed, got ready, and left to go to Vegas.  He was going to get the boys at the airport.  Every summer the boys spend their summers in Maryland at their mom's house.  Bill missed the boys immensely and couldn't wait to see them.

I tried to sleep in.  I got to about 9 AM and that was all my body would sleep.  I got up, ate some breakfast, checked my email, then went outside to do some yard work.  If any of you have seen my yard this summer, it was in some serious need of tending.  I mowed the lawn and remembered why I used to wear gloves when I mowed; the several blisters now remind me.  Then I did some weed-whacking.  I LOVE using a weed whacker.  Something about it is so cathartic for me.  It could be the sense of destruction or the simple fact of the power to chop down the darn things I can't pull out of the ground.

After a couple hours in the hot sun, I came inside and ate lunch.  I still had not thought to put on sunblock.  After another hour of yard work (and visiting with a lady in my ward)  I was ready to clean up.  I was afraid to shower because I knew I was going to the gym and would stink myself up anyway.  So I just changed my clothes and ate a small bowl of cereal while waiting for the Schwans guy to come so I could place an order.

While I waited, I played on the computer for awhile, did the dishes and picked up the house (and worked on some laundry).  After the Schwans guy left, I went to the gym and had a killer workout!  I love seeing my improvements in fitness!  Now I just wish the fat on my body decided to leave.

After a sweat busting workout, I came home and the boys were there!! I can't believe that Justin is almost as tall as me!  He is about 5'1 1/2" and before I know it, he will be towering over me.  Nate got taller too, but he outgrew my height last year.  I gave them both big hugs.

I showered, then headed back out the door to get dinner.  I know how much the boys love Domino's pizza, so that was on our menu.  I am happy to have the boys back.  The house feels full and complete - less food in the house but that is to be expected with two teenage boys!  I forgot how much milk we go through when the kids are all together.  We go through about 6-7 gallons a week.  I am half tempted to buy each person their own gallon, have the mark their name on it and then they can do what they wish with their own milk - and when it is gone, it's gone.  Of course, I do NOT like going without milk so it is a good thing I am only one who really likes skim milk.  Granted, I love all milk in its fatty variations.

Small Act of Chivalry

A small act of chivalry has restored my faith for future generations.

I was at the store on Tuesday morning with Justin. We just left the InstaCare with a prescription for Justin since we found out he had Strep. The pharmacy said they would take about 15-20 minutes. So we wandered Wal-Mart without a shopping cart. I was just planning on buying him some Danimals Yogurt and a small container of ice cream he could have just for himself. As we meandered back to the dairy aisle, I remembered that I needed a few other things as well so after he picked out which flavors of Danimals he wanted, we grabbed the few things I remembered and a few things that were impulse purchase. Did you know that bacon is an impulse purchase? Well, for me it is because 'bacon is good for me.'

Justin suggested that since both our arms were full that we get a cart. On our way to get one, he stopped me and proceeded to take the HUGE bag of chocolate chips that I was carrying that was barely hanging on to my fingers. Not saying a word, he just took the chocolate chips and started walking again. I smiled and told him thank you and that was very nice of him.

He is such a cutie pie!! And he has restored my faith in chivalry. :)

Justin Turned 12!

Wow, Justin is 12! He was a good sport and let us throw him a sleepover birthday party AFTER the ward party. He had two cakes.

This one Molly made for the ward party as a birthday cake for Jesus. They forgot to serve it, so she gave it to me to use since the cake I got for Justin was smaller than I anticipated (see below). So I just used the only frosting I had, which happened to be blue, and wrote on it for him. The kids were excited to get "Jesus' cake!"


Here is the tiny ice cream cake. It was cookie dough. Justin LOVED it. He liked both his cakes.


Here is Justin while we are singing "Happy Birthday" to him.


Justin is trying to decide what to wish for....


Justin finally blowing out his candles. He really put thought into his wish.


He got this from a friend. I almost bought it for him; so glad I didn't. It would have been like the birthday when two of his friends gave him the same thing.


The boy that gave this balloon sword to Justin put money in it. His parents do balloon animals and such. Justin debated on whether he should pop the balloon or not.


We got this shirt for Justin. It says, "Life of a gamer" and has all sorts of funny pictures on it.


Justin with Tekken 6 for the PS3.


Justin and two of his friends.



Now for the AFTERMATH!

Nathan sitting among all the blankets littering the living room.


The entrance to the boys' room.


And their room.... Hey look, I think I spy some carpet! Shock!!

Even though the house took a beating, it was worth it. All the boys had fun.

Justin and Bill

Two days before Thanksgiving, Bill got home from work at a decent hour and asked Justin if he wanted to go see "New Moon." Justin was way excited and they went on a Father-Son date. Nathan had no interest in going and I saw it with Bill the day before.

I giggled when Justin came home and Bill told me that Justin looked away when Belle and Edward kiss after she saved him.

Here is Justin at the movie theater in front of one of the displays.


By the way, is it weird that Bill likes the "Twilight" series more than I do? :)

Halloween

Halloween was bittersweet for us this year. The night before, one of our dear friends, Bonnie, was hit by a car as she was walking her dog. All day Saturday, we were worried that we were going to get a call that she died since she was in critical condition. Thankfully, she is still hanging in.

So all day, between cringing every time the phone rang, we tried to do Halloween stuff.

Rebekah carving her pumpkin.


Rebekah cleaned out her pumpkin well - ok, I helped some.


Should I be worried that Justin is smiling with a knife in his hand?? LOL


I love the look of "ew" on his face as he cleans out his pumpkin.


Lily working hard at cleaning out her pumpkin.


She is bringing the guck out through the mouth.


Bill and his pumpkin.


Then it was time for trunk-or-treating.
Bill as an awesome bow hunter.... wearing MY camo suspenders... Yes, everyone, those are mine!


All the kids. Nathan and Justin don't really like to dress up anymore, so thankfully Wal-Mart had these shirts that did the trick. And gone are the days where the girls want to dress up as princesses and girly things. Rebekah is the grim reaper and Lily is a vampire.

After trunk-or-treating, we ran to the store to get milk and a few other necessities. While we were there, I was reminding the kids that the next day was Fast Sunday. Justin argued with me and said, "No it's not." I tried explaining that it was. Finally he protested, "But tomorrow is October 32nd!" I started laughing and told him, "Uhhh, Justin, October has 31 days. No month has 32 days." He looked bewildered and said, "I thought some had 33."

After Wal-Mart we went home and the kids dumped out their candy to sort it.






I asked the kids what their favorite candies:

Nathan - His favorite are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. He mostly got Reese's.
Justin - His favorite are Snickers or Hershey's. He mostly got Tootsie Rolls.
Rebekah - Her favorite is Kit-Kats. She mostly got Pixie Stixs.
Lily - Her favorite are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. She mostly got Reese's.
And surprisingly enough, NO ONE got candy corn this year!!! That was a first!


As usual, we put a big bowl in the middle of the room for the kids to do their candy trading. They could put candy in and then take some out. But they began to trade amongst themselves. That is when it got amusingly interesting. I loved watching their bargaining and trading skills. Things worked out ok and no one got gypped.

Bill and I usually troll the candy bucket for rejected candy that only he and I like. We came across wax lips. The kids weren't too excited because they never played with them before and put them in the reject bucket. So we took them out and had a blast. I think that next year, they will not be so quick to discard their wax lips because they were loving how much fun Bill and I were having.

Yes, I know I am sexy!!

Bill is hot!! Rawr!

Justin is so cute.

Justin and Bill

Justin and Bill

Bill is trying to "kiss" Justin and Justin is not sure what to think about that.

So I kiss him instead. :-)

Just Justin

Ok, I meant to update the blog with info about the kids.... and I got too busy.

So today is about Justin:

He is trying so hard in school to keep his grades up. And he is doing fantastic at it. He works hard at his homework, even though he doesn't like to do it. He knows if he keeps his grades up, he can play his hour a day of video games.

Plus, he won some sort of art contest at school and brought home his prize of art supplies. He was ecstatic! I remember a couple years ago, he had NO confidence in his drawing abilities. He would complain that he couldn't draw and thought he wasn't drawing well. I told him that he can draw and it can be fun. Well, he started drawing a squirrel he learned how to draw from school and then little comic book type sketches. He loves to draw now and does really well! He is absorbing all the techniques his art teacher is teaching him.

Speaking of him absorbing techniques, he is so cute because he tries to teach me the science he learns in school - like I never knew it, so I just go along as he "teaches" me. Today, Bill was making dinner and he handed Justin the hot frying pan to put in the sink and asked him to rinse it. He went to put cold water on it and I told him not to and to use hot water. He asked why so I told him that when you take something that is really hot and put cold water on it, that it can crack the item. Then he said, "Oh yeah! We just learned about this today in science!" And then went on to tell me about the science experiment. Which warms my heart because I really worry if he is able to focus enough and pay attention at school - and this shows he is!

Justin is going to be 12 in December and that scares me! He will be old enough to pass the sacrament! Yikes! Plus he gets to pick up fast offerings.

Also, Justin is so stinking cute because he is reading "Twilight" that he checked out at his middle school library. I think he wants to read it because he knows how much his mom, Kathy, likes it, which is so sweet of him.

He is starting this new thing where he tries reverse psychology on me and Bill. It is hilarious! For example, he doesn't like X-Files very much and Bill and I have are only in season 2 of the 9 seasons, so we are watching it often. Today we went to put in a movie for FHE and I was thinking of putting in "GI Joe" but he thought I was going to put in X-Files. So when I pulled out "GI Joe" and said that I was thinking of putting that in, he said, "No, put in X-Files!" So the other kids groaned (the disdain for X-Files is not just from Justin) and I said, "Ok!" He looked at me, grinned and went to act like he was going to put in an X-Files DVD. I told him, "Go ahead, I want to watch X-Files." So he kept pretending and finally I said, "Put in GI Joe." He smiled and said, "Ha, I did reverse psychology on you!" I laughed and told him that I was already planning on "GI Joe" and I can tell when he is attempting the reverse psychology on me. It is funny and obvious when he tries. But he is a good sport.

Kids' First Day of School

Here is my Lily Rose. She is 8 and in 3rd grade. Her teacher is Mr. Coonen (same teacher that Justin had when he was in third). She is sporting her new darling denim vest, which is so in style this year. She didn't want her hair done any other way other than straight. Believe it or not, my Lily is in 6X jeans (which were still too big for her) , 7/8 shirt, and size 2 1/2 shoes!
When I asked her what her favorite part of her first day of school was, she said there were lots of things: Introducing herself to the class (and hearing everyone else introduce themselves); learning the class rules (she is the only kid who still LOVES school); the drawing at the end of day where Mr. Coonen drew two names out of the kids who didn't have any warnings that day (which she said he will do every day); and making new friends. I asked her who her best friend is and she said, "Kristen!" Also, Grandma Pearcy is the TA in her class this year! Yay!
Oh, and the first thing out of Lily's mouth when she got home from school was, "That was the BEST day EVER!"


Here is my Bekah Boo. She is 10 and in 5th grade. Her teacher is Mrs. Cecil (same teacher that Nathan had). She is not a jeans-type of girl, but I finally found a great pair that fits her and she loves them! Although, I think I need to invest in an undershirt though...
Rebekah is in size 14/16 shirt, 10 1/2 plus jeans, and the kicker is her shoe size: 8 in womens! Yes, you read that right! Even though the shoes we got her seemed to run small and she is probably in a 7 womens in most other shoes, I am just freaking out! She is going to either be tall or have big feet. She comes to my nose when we stand by each other and I am 5'3".
Her favorite part about the first day of school was, "EVERYTHING!" I asked her to be more specific and she said tha she liked doing "Math Dude" (which I am not sure what that is, but I was glad to hear she liked a math thing - she is struggling in math BIG time). She also loved recess. Her best friend is Shaylyn.


Here is Justy Poo! He is 11 and in 6th grade which means he is in middle school! Yikes! I was really worried about him starting middle school but he seemed to do really well! His Core teacher is Mrs. Weeks.
He is wearing a medium men's shirt, 12H shorts, and size 6 1/2 shoes! Yikes! He is going to be tall! Watch out ladies! :-) In fact, he is getting close to my height! Which is not a big feat, per se, but still crazy for me!
His favorite part of the day was that he was able to rotate to different classes. And for that I am extremely grateful! Like I said, I was was afraid he would get confused about where he should be, but thankfully the school keeps the 6th graders pretty much away from the 7th and 8th graders and they don't switch too many times. It is kind of like a transition from elementary school to middle school. And so far so good!
I asked him who is best friend was and he said he had two: Chris and Roland.




Here is Nutter Butter!! He is almost 14 and in 8th grade! His Adviser teacher is Mr. Dodds, who is awesome. He is wearing his size large men's shirt, size 32 in MENS shorts (yes, that is right, he is in MENS clothes now!! AH! Where did the time go?), and size 9 1/2 shoes! His feet are bigger than mine! Plus he is taller than me! He is going to be one tall person!
He is the one who doesn't really like school, so it was no surprise when I asked him what his favorite part about his first day of school, he said, "Riding the bus." When I asked him why, he said, "Cause it didn't involve learning." The stinker. So I asked him which class was his favorite and he told me that he didn't have one yet. So I asked him how he liked being an office aide and what he did. He got excited and told me that he got to staple and 3-hole punch 140 papers. He loves the fact that helping in the office means no homework.
And his best friend, which is NO surprise, is Layne.

To start out their first day of school properly, the night before we had all the kids get showered and lay out their school clothes, put all their new stuff in their backpacks, and then it was time for Daddy Blessings. We had Nathan go first because he is the oldest and that is how they did things in the Bible. Bill blessed each kid and surprisingly, the kids were quite good during each blessing. More importantly, Bill behaved during the blessings. :-)
The morning of their first day, I woke up early, got out the muffins I made the night before and started frying some bacon. Then I fried an egg for Justin (Nathan does not like eggs). After they were full, they brushed their teeth and played on the computer for about 4 minutes before the bus got here. I reminded Nathan he needed to be nice to his brother and he said, "I know." :-)
When the girls got up, I had some eggs and bacon all ready for them. I woke them up after the boys because the boys' bus comes an hour before the girls' does. Lily was so excited to get up; Rebekah, not so much. She has NEVER been a morning person and it will make it difficult next year when she has to get up for the middle school bus. I brushed their hair and shooed them out the door because I had to be at the school early to sell t-shirts for the PTA.

The day went by so quickly. But I did manage to make some awesome spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. Sided with a nice salad and it was perfect! Then for dessert I made a pudding pie with Oreo crust. It was divine!

I hope the kids have a super, fantastic year!

Justin's New Do

Bill chopping off Justin's mangy hair.

But for fun, Bill took the center strip and made it a Mohawk.

As you can tell from his expression, he is NOT happy about it, even though we told him it was just for fun.

Here is Mr. Cutie Pie, er, I mean.... Mr. Tough Mohawk Man

Life at Full Speed

Wow, when it rains, it pours. In my case it is a storm! Thankfully things seem to have calmed down for right now.... I am going to enjoy the few moments of respite.

Monday night, Justin said his stomach hurt. Well the flu has been going around and I just figured it was that. When bedtime came, he said it still hurt. So I gave him some Tums, which did not help. He tried to sleep but was unable - he complained he couldn't get comfy. So when he came into the living room and by the look on his face, I could tell he was in real pain. So I let him sit next to me and we cuddled for a while. The whole time he squirmed and complained his stomach hurt so bad and it felt like something inside was poking him and he began crying, clutching his stomach. That raised a major red flag. I asked him if he wanted to go to the ER. He said he did.
Now Justin is a tough kid - aside from his endearingly sweet, sensitive side - and he doesn't generally cry when he is in pain. This is the kid who broke his ankle at school and finished the school day, came home, and just kind of complained that it hurt. So his crying really had me freaking out that his appendix was going to burst. That and he pointed to where it was hurting: right above his belly button... which is a warning sign of appendicitis.
We get to the ER and they whisked us in fast. While waiting for the Dr to see him, he ran to the bathroom and had some "issues." When he came out, he said he felt fine. At this point, I wasn't sure what to do - he said he finally felt better but I didn't want to take him home just in case.
The Dr came in and examined Justin. He was concerned it might be appendicitis but thought it could be something else. So he ordered some blood work and a urine test and told us that he wanted Justin back in the morning to see how he was feeling and if he was worse, they would prep him for surgery. The nurse came and to draw his blood but told him they were going to place a pick line in him so when he came in the morning, if he needed surgery, they already had the IV thing in him. Justin was NOT happy about this, but let the nurse do it anyway. Plus, the nurse was able to draw blood from the pick line as well. The nurse had a hard time getting blood out of him. With Justin not feeling well and being possibly dehydrated, the veins were not cooperating. He got some blood and took it to get the tests run. While the nurse was gone, I gave Justin some water so he could try to pee soon. He went to the bathroom and came back with the pee in the cup, and said, "Here is the sperm." It took everything I possessed to not laugh! I had to explain to him that it was pee not sperm. He just said, "Whatever..." I think he was embarrassed.
Another nurse came in and said that his blood had congealed (or some other technical term) and they needed more blood. Justin whined but let them. This nurse was super nice yet pure evil - she bruised poor Justin's arms. Justin tried soooo hard for soooo long to not cry but after the third place she tried, he couldn't take it. She was rooting all around in his arm and I almost threw up. I am not good with needles. But I held Justin and stroked his hair and tried to get him to lay still and breath deep while she attempted to get blood out of him. When she got a minscule amount, she said she hoped it was enough and sent it off to the lab. She warned us that if it wasn't enough, someone else would come in and try to get more blood. Justin cried and so I suggested we said say a prayer. So I said a prayer and after what seemed like forever, the nurse came back and said it was enough and the lab will let them know of the results when they get them back. We were SO relieved to find out that Justin did not have get poked more.
The Dr came in and told us the urine test came back fine and his blood work showed that he had a high white blood count, which means his body is fighting something. So he let us go and told us to come back in the morning to have his blood drawn again (Justin groaned) to compare the white blood count. They also reminded Justin that if he did have appendicitis and had to go into surgery, that he needed to be ready and couldn't eat anything and could only drink clear liquids. Justin groaned again - even though it was now midnight, he was starving. Plus drinking would rehydrate him and he would have a better chance at giving blood the next day.
We were both so exhausted and didn't want to go to Walmart to get apple juice, so I stopped at the Maverick and got him some. We have plenty of Gaterade at the house because of Rebekah's intestinal problems (I will get to that later).
After we got home, I tucked Justin in on the couch and put in a movie for him. In the morning, he said he felt much better. We got to the ER and they admitted him, took his temperature, felt his stomach, asked him how he felt, and he said he felt fine. They said that he probably just had a horrid stomach bug but told me to bring him right back in if he starting having pain again or threw up or ran a fever. The nurse removed the pick line from his hand (much to Justin's gratefulness) and gave us instructions on what Justin could eat until his stomach felt better. Then we were free to go.
I told Justin that we were going to Walmart to get him some Jell-o and a game for him. He got so excited! We looked around at Walmart and didn't see the game he wanted so we went to Gamestop and found it: Star Wars the Force Unleashed for his PSP. It was the last one left! He was thrilled! Even though he was fine, I kept him home from school the rest of the day because he had a cruddy night and would probably want a nap - which I don't know if he did because during my nap he was playing his PSP.
I hope that even though he went through needle hell, that he won't be afraid to tell me the next time he doesn't feel well. I reminded him that not every time would be like that.

I will update more about our torrential lives.... But even through our storm, I know that there will be a rainbow at the end.... and if I am lucky, a pot of gold! haha

Justin's Birthday

My mom made a three tier cake with three sides for the birthdays that were close together: Justin, Lily, and Liam. This is Justin's side of the cake. My mom did an AWESOME job!!


Here are the boys playing video games
Justin got two games for his birthday: Pinball for the Wii and Kung Fu Panda for the Xbox.

Justin was insanely excited to get this remote control flying dragonfly.


Justin with the remote

Justin being silly as he blew the candles out.


Since Justin's birthday fell on the weekend that Lily got baptized, he got to have his friends over on a different weekend and got another birthday cake! Technically, 4 mini ice cream cakes that I made.


I loved the fun candles. He was trying to blow each one out separately.


Justin opening another remote controlled toy... this one is an ATV one. He LOVES this one too.


Justin waiting for Bill to open the ATV car. He had 4 friends come over to stay the night -in the picture are just two of them. They stayed up late playing video games and eating junk food - which is exactly what he wanted to do. :-) I can't believe he is now 11! He is growing up so fast and almost as tall as me! He is a special kid and has a heart of gold.
I love you Justin!!!!