So last night we returned Pork Chop to the breeder. Turns out Erik is really allergic to dogs. Everyday he got worse and worse and then finally on saturday he put is face into Pork Chop's fur and about a minute later his eyes were almost swollen shut and he had hives all over his face. He cried for a long time rubbing his face until the benedryl kicked in. The girls are actually doing all right with it. Olivia had a good cry when Sean left with him. I think after seeing Erik they understand. I felt sad last night about it but now I feel relieved. He was a nice little dog. I guess we are just not meant to have pets. Can I just say that I am really happy it is March. January and February didn't even seem too painful.
So last week I went to a naturopathic doctor because of all my weird swelling and pain and general fatigue, not to mention weight gain and hot flashes. It was very interestings. The did some tests on 2 different days. Bottom line my body is not absorbing any of the major proteins, only one of my hormone centers is really working and my metabolism is shot. So now I am on a special diet, no dairy, eggs, gluten or soy. I half to cook all vegetables and fruit. No exercise for a while and a bunch of supplements. I'll let you know how it goes. Over the weekend we all had colds so not much fun there. The bright spot was on Sommer's birthday of course. We went out for lunch with her girls and my girls. Then we had a combined birthday party with Claire at Mimi and Papa's house. Sommer actually slept over at a friends house as well. I can't believe how fast Somemr is growing up. I may be a little biased but she is turning out to be a wonderful girl. We are very proud of her.

Pork Chop

 

Here is our new little Yorkie. He just went to the groomers today and is much improved. The breeder named him Pork Chop and we tried to change it but everyone keeps calling him Pork Chop or Porky. He is 2. 5 years old and a very nice little dog but he is not very well house trained. Hopefully that will quickly improve.

Ok so we bought the Yorkie and now I'm freaking out. Part of me is saying, I don't really want to do this!! It's the great unknown. I hope it all works out. My children and so excited. He's 2.5 years old so we are past the puppy stuff at least. I'll keep you posted and post some pictures. We pick him up tomorrow at noon. I think we are going to name him Harley. So yesterday I took Olivia to talk to this lady who is a therapist. The lady was just talking to her to get a feel about what Olivia was all about. She pulled out this book about angels and Olivia said here I'll read it to you. So Olivia starts "reading" the book and telling the story about how Jesus was born. The she says when Jesus was a baby he got his "weiner" cut off, (pause looking at the lady), "you know his weiner". The lady says yes and she is trying not to crack up. Then Liv says my brother didn't get his cut off he still has one. All I can say is that we watched The Navity Story, the movie, at Christmas and there is a scene where the baby John the Baptist is getting circumsized. You never know what is going to come out of that child's mouth. Random jump.... Wednesday night I finished entering all my year end stuff, you know how fun that is Melin, and THEN I LOST IT ALL!!!! Total freak out, one year of money in and out and payroll. Well technically Sean helped me lose it but in his defense he fixed it the next morning. I didn't sleep too well that night however. It appears to be ok now. The accountants have it so we'll see.
Well I need to go get dressed and buy doggie stuff.

So we went to Montana for the long weekend and as always it was fun to be there. There is such a peaceful feeling there by the water. We walked from our beach across the frozen lake to an island that is in the middle of the lake. It was really cool. The kids played outside in the yard nonstop. Sommer's friend Amy came down with us. I finally got my hair down. Wow it was in bad root shape. I've been getting that urge to go brunette again lately. So it turns out that I don't have arthritis, at least the kind that you can tell in an xray. Which is great however my hand is still swollen and sore. They took an xray of my hand to see if they could see anything. I haven't heard any results yet. We are thinking of getting a Yorkie. Sommer's home got to run

January's Over

Well my blogging lately has been a little pathetic to say the least. January has come and gone and it really hasn't been the most fun month. Kerri has been here for the last week and we have been following her itinerary. Cade got here last night for the the weekend. Their visit has definitely been the highlight. It's fun to see little Luke. He is a rabble rouser. Today Grace is getting baptized so that is going to be a nice experience. Today is also Nathan's birthday. Happy Birthday Nathan!! Olivia is at a birthday party this morning, a teddy bear breakfast. I am teaching in YW tomorrow so I should probably be finishing my lesson. Oh ya, I got a new calling. I am now the second counsellor in Young Women. I will have 18 beenhives this year. WOW! I've done this calling before so I basically know what I'm doing. It should be fun. Sommer will be a beehive next year so it will be fun to be her leader.
For most of the month I have not felt good. I have had this weird arthritis type thing and been very tired. The doctors did a bunch of blood tests and I will get the results this week. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing but an annoying virus or something. Sean's Mom had a tonsil removed this past week and is doing well except for the pain.
The kids are doing well. Olivia had surgery the first week of January. It was an exploratory thing to see if they could find out why she has had so many bladder infections. Well they got in there and found that she has had urine reflux all this time just like Erik had. The doctor was surprised that it didn't show up on any of the tests she had done. We were very relieved to have an explanation for all the infections and are hopeful that they are now over. She was amazingly brave throughout the whole experience. Although at the end she yelled at the nurse and said she was never coming back here.
Well that's all my brain can think of right now. I'll try to be a bit better blogger in February.

Christmas Pictures

Happy New Year!

Well my blog is once again in serious need of an update. The holidays are over and we are back to the regular routine. We went down to our lake house in Kalispell on December 23 and returned on January 4. It was a much needed and much enjoyed break from regular life. It was absolutely beautiful there, a winter wonderland. To say there was a lot of snow is an underexaggeration. There was tons of snow and it just kept snowing and snowing. We got up early on the 23rd so we arrived in Kalispell at about 1 pm. After we unpacked the extremely packed to the ceiling van the kids and Sean headed to ice skate on the lake and I went to forage for food at Costco. Sean's cousin plowed our driveway out and made our own ice skating rink on the lake for us. The ice was so smooth and nice. The kids loved it. The first day there were on it for 2 hours, Erik included. He had his double blade tie on skates. That night we decorated our Christmas tree. The next day I cooked and wrapped and got ready for Christmas eve celebrations. Sean went and bought a gun for his Christmas present. Christmas eve we had yummy food, read the nativity and opened presents with Sean's parents and his aunt Rosemary. We had a great time together. Santa came the next morning and the kids did not get coal. One of the big presents was Guitar Hero World tour with the band kit. We are all now expert rockers, especially Sommer. She is definitly left brained. Then we went to Sean's cousin's house for Christmas dinner and had a nice time with the Montana family. The next few days were spent skating, shopping, snowboarding (just Sean). Then the ice got melty on top and was no good no more. Oh well, the snow kept coming and that created new activities like sledding and snow forts. I kept shopping. The deals down there were amazing. I bought lots of cheap Christmas decorations for next time. Well time passed all to quickly and it was time to come home. We were a little worried about getting home with all the snow. The friday before we left we woke up to 2.5 more feet, yes I said feet. We got both our cars stuck in our driveway that day and one of them was the 4 wheel drive. Sean's cousin came with his quad and dug us out. Well a good time was had by all and we look forward to going again. It is our little peace of heaven. We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

It's Been a While

Well it's been a while since I blogged so I figured I better get to it. Life has been pretty much the same over the past month. We did have cousin Judy come to town and that was really fun. However our annual Banff weekend did not work out thanks to the weather. Oh well, we'll try again next year. The girls still went to dinner and a movie and some shopping the next day. The weather here has been mental and it's not supposed to get much better. We are all getting really excited for Christmas holidays. The girls only have 2 more days of school. Sean is working Monday the 22 but he is no longer working the 23 so we can leave for the lake house a little earlier. He is wiped and burned out with work. He has been super busy in December with patients trying to get in before their insurance benefits run out. He is counting the days as we all are. Hopefully the roads won't be too mental with all this snow. The lake is freezing though so that's a bonus to the cold. I am almost ready as far as Christmas goes. Sean had a major oops the other night. We were talking to the kids about why we celebrate Christmas. Sean asked Olivia, "Liv why do we celebrated Christmas"? She said, "Santa, and presents". Sean said "No, who's birthday do we celebrate at Christmas time?" Liv said, "Santa's". Sean said "No Santa's not real, someone who's real". At that moment Sean froze and Liv's face contorted into horrified shock. Liv then yelled, "Santa's not real!" Sommer was sitting there listening very intently and Sean put his head down trying not to laugh. Fortunately Mom saved the day and said, " No that's not what Daddy means, He means what's the real reason we celebrate Christmas, what's really important." The girls calmed down and all was well. It was a close call. This Sunday Liv is giving a talk in Primary, that is always entertaining. Erik hates Santa. He doesn't want to talk about him or look at him. Hopefully Santa will still bring him a present. This friday night we have our work Christmas dinner. We are taking everyone to Chili's. Hopefully they don't think we are cheap.

Playing Catch Up

So the past week is done and I can't believe we are into the middle of November already. The kids had Monday and Tuesday off of school because of Remembrance day. So Sunday night Sommer had 3 girls sleep over and then Monday night we were going to have a joint Lara and Erik birthday party with the family. Well at 2:00 I finally went to bed after all the girls were asleep and then at 4:45 Sommer woke me up because one of the girls was throwing up. Oh joy! Her Mom came and picked her up. So Sommer and I got very little sleep that night. Well because of the exposure to the stomach flu my family no longer wanted to party with us, no birthday party. It was rescheduled to tomorrow night. We have two cakes in the freezer just waiting to be eaten. Fortunately we did not catch the stomach flu, knock on wood. For my birthday Sean had flowers delivered, I went out to lunch with Mom, Melinda and Erin, and then out to dinner and a movie with Sean. I also got many nice phone calls and facebook wishes. We saw the new James Bond movie, let's just say I need a Quantum of Understanding. So this morning we woke up to quite a bit of snow. Sean had to drive to Banff for his high counsil speaking assignment and the roads were not so good. The kids and I slept in and missed sacrament meeting but made it for primary which was good because we had our program practice in the chapel. Our program is finally next week for the love. Mom gave me Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii and so we have been having many a dance party. Oh here's a quantum leap, last weekend we took the kids to High School muscial 3 and when Troy and Gabriella finally kissed Erik said "Wow", too funny. So this week Olivia has a celebration of learning in her classroom which I will go to on Tuesday. The children show their parents all of the things they have been learning. Twilight comes out on Friday but I don't think I will get to it this weekend. We have our Christmas enrichment on Thursday and Saturday a high counsil party at the stake president's house. There have been so many church things the past 2 months. I have been getting invited to so many "parties" also, like Norwex, jewelry, books etc. I'm interested but there just seems to be too much right now. The Christmas season is so busy. Well that's probably enought babble for now. I made the weirdest dinner tonight and made tons of it, who knows why. Sean has the day off tomorrow so we are going to try and do some Christmas shopping. That's all!

Erik and Grandpa locked in a serious game of Mario Kart on the new Wii

Olivia and her Halloween Pirate Booty.

Olivia giving Erin a big thank you hug for the beautiful birthday cake.

Olivia's birthday party.

Olivia and her cake

Olivia went with the Wolffs to the pumpkin give away while I was sick.

Olivia was the only one who wanted to dress up this year.

So my eye ended up being a pretty major scratch. The Dr. described it as a hole. Monday night I was in bad shape and so Sean called a friend in our ward who is an eye Dr. He very kindly offered to meet us at his office. So he numbed it which took the pain away in about 5 seconds and was bliss, put some dye in and looked at it through the machine. Yup big scratch on my cornea which is the clear dome like thing that goes over the colored part of your eye. So he put a contact type thing in my eye as kind of a bandaid. That helped so much. I had no idea how much pain your eye can cause you. Then I went back to see him yesterday but it wasn't healed enough so he put another one in. This morning he was able to take it out for good. My eye still doens't feel entirely back to normal but definitely better. This cold thing is dragging on for all of us. I went to Costco today and it was a nightmare. By the end I was all sweaty. I did find a good birthday present for Liv and got food to feed us and the Freibergs who arrive tomorrow. Now I just have to clean like a maniac, pay the bills and get treat bags etc. I found someone to clean my house for $15/hour. She's coming tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

So the end of last week ended in sickness. Me, Sommer and Erik all got some really fun cold. I am still feeling the effects of it today. To top it off Erik scratched my eyeball with his toe nail and now my eye is really bothereing me. How did he do this you ask? Well he kicked me in the eye while I was changing his poopy diaper. No gratitude I swear! The kid should probably be toilet trained but won't have anything to do with a toilet. He won't even try on the cool spiderman underwear I bought him. He just says, no way mom, no way. Yesterday to cheer me up Olivia drew a picture of me, only I am naked. I look like some ethiopian woman, in the chest area that is. I cracked up. Where does she come up with this stuff. I should scan it and put it on my blog.

This Coming Week

So today is saturday and we have been dejunking. We did the mud room and our bedroom closet. It was painful but things now look a thousand times better. Sean took a bunch of bags of stuff over to the salvation army drop off. The kids oddly enough have been getting along all day, not fighting. It has been very peaceful. I still need to figure out what I'm going to do for primary tomorrow and make a bajillion cookies for the Chinese branch. Sean is giving his first high counsil talk tomorrow in the Chinese branch. So he will speak a little and then it will be translated and so on. He is using a cookie analogy in his talk so he wants to bring cookies. I will be alone at church which is a bummer. We are going over to Mom and Dad's for Sunday dinner and that is always nice. This week should be busy like always. Oh, by the way, Olivia is doing the Flat Stanley thing that Grace did a couple of years ago so some of you will be receiving Flat Olivia in the mail. I hope that is ok. Liv has a field trip to the coulee on Monday. Sommer has piano and activity days this week. Sean and I are going to the temple on Friday. Saturday is CPR training at our house in the morning and then Sat night there is a dinner and a fireside about marriage. So yup busy. I am surviving my mollylessness. (nice word eh) BUT my neighbor has a cleaning lady for $20/hour sooo.... I can't believe only 2 weeks left in October!

Pretty rainbow off our back deck.

Erik at the lake house.

These are bear prints on our beach. An actual bear walked across our beach.

We took some family pictures. Well Melinda took them for us. Sean snapped this one while we were waiting to get started.

So today is my first missed Molly Maid day. I have officially cancelled the Mollys and will now have to clean my own house. It is extremely painful but it must be done. I have never actually mopped my floor in the three years I've lived here. My schedule this year is a lot less crazy so I have the time to do it. I think....I hope....
We are leaving to go to Montana today for Thanksgiving. I hope the lake house is not full of spiders. Melinda and Michael are coming with us which will be fun. The problem will be getting them to leave. As usual there is tons to do to get ready to leave. I love packing!
So Erik's latest phrase is "no way" or " no way Mom". He also does ninja poses and kicks and spins, it's classic. The other day when I was walking Olivia home from school she said, do you know what I did for show and tell? I said no, what? and then she started singing the Halleluja chorus, you know Handel, in a low loud voice. Then she said, "I sang that in a boy voice". Where does she come up with this stuff?! Classic

Fall Bike Rides

This is Sommer's favorite tree. She gets a picture here every year.

Underneath the leaves is a little stream. Erik insisted on crossing by himself.

The cool half bike that Liv rides with Sean. It works awesome.

Sitting on the Tuscany Buffalo.

So today we went to the mall to buy hermit crabs. I know weird. Sommer has one in her class and decided she wanted to earn money and get her own. That's a pet I can handle so ok. We are in the pet store all the kids are standing around me looking at the fish. One minute Erik is right there and the next he is gone. I run around the pet store twice, it's not very big, thinking he must of gone around the corner, not there. I go in the Hallmark store to see if he followed my Mom in there, not there. Then I start yelling his name, the pet land person asks if I want them to call security, YES. I'm asking all these people if they've seen a little blonde boy, no, no, no and then yes he went running that way. So I'm yelling Erik and heading that way and there he comes running to me, balling his eyes out and leaps into my arms. I don't think my heart was beating that whole time, which fortunately was only a few minutes. I'm still not over it as you can tell. That is my worst nightmare. Anyway, no hermit crabs were purchased and the mall trip ended shortly after that. Aweful, not good times. I still feel like my heart is not beating right.