Moving On

I'm finally getting into the fact that there will be no more new babies in this house for (hopefully) a very long time. As McCall has gotten older, I've slowly been getting rid of all of the baby things we have accumulated over the past 9 years. No longer is there a cradle in our room. No baby swing or basket of baby toys in the family room. No highchair at the dining table. No baby gates, carrier, bouncer or tub. And as of today, no crib! Yep, I sold the last crib today. *sigh* McCall is now in a toddler bed and Tiara has a big girl bed. It's hard to believe that the next baby in this house will be a grandbaby. I crave the time that I will have as the kids start school and I can finally do some of the things I want to do. But at the same time, I'm so sad to never get to have another delivery day (even though every one was complicated) and hold my own little baby for the very first time. I'm sad there are no more tiny things in the laundry and sweet little cries coming from down the hall. But while I will miss having a little baby in the house, I am so done! It's just hitting me today as I clean out all of the remnants of baby days and replace them with big kid stuff. I have thoroughly enjoyed each of my babies and the special spirit they each have. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for each one of our precious children and the opportunity he gave me to be a mother. I am so thankful to Dave for letting me have as many as we did and for listening to the Spirit when I was feeling that "someone's missing", especially when he already had 3 more of his own. I thank every person that just smiled when we announced that we were expecting again, rather than make the comments about having so many kids that others felt they were entitled to make. So here we are, moving on to the next stage of life with both happy and sad emotions. I'm looking forward to it...I think.

New Eyes

For those of you that didn't know (which is most of you) I have new eyes! I can see. I went in yesterday to have LASIK done on my eyes and I can't believe the difference. I've been wanting to to this for a few years, but fear of someone actually cutting my eye and the cost had steered me away. But thanks to my sweet husband who gave me the courage and convinced me that it really was worth the money, I did it. Best thing EVER! I went in to the office yesterday more nervous than I think I've ever been. More than getting married, more than having a baby. I seriously was shaking in my boots! They gave me a valium, but I don't think it did much. I went in and had it done and it was the easiest thing ever. Fast, most pain-free (and I'm a wimp!) and I even got to relax in their massage chair. Dave liked the warm chocolate chip cookies they kept bringing him while he waited. He even watched them do it! Today I went in for my followup appointment and lesse than 24 hours later I can see 20/20! I am so excited I just want to scream! This is so great to wake up and be able to see the alarm clock, the kids and which box of cereal I'm pulling out of the pantry. So any of you that are contemplating, GO DO IT!!!

Dollars

It started. I didn't think I'd have to deal with this until she at least got to kindergarten. What's a mom to do? I have a shopping-addicted daughter. Now this little problem didn't exactly happen by chance. It's not like I never take her shopping. And it's not like I've tried to discourage going to the mall. After all, I'm afflicted with the same illness. But today is Gymbucks day and we have to go. So as I'm getting ready to go, Tiara walks into my bathroom and it goes something like this...

T: Mom, can I borrow some dollars?
Me: Why?
T: Because I don't have any.
Me: Why do you need dollars?
T: So I can buy something.
Me: What do you need to buy?
T: I don't know, but I don't have any dollars, so can I have some of yours?
Me: I don't think so.
T: But we're going shopping!!!

Now what do I do? I wanted a daughter that would enjoy going shopping with me, but I'm not so sure I can afford her now. So off to Gymboree we go, only for me to hear, "Oooh, it's so cute! I need that!" from the mouth of my 3 year old. And when that doesn't work, it's "I think Callie would like that." (Only make sure it's a size 3!)

Little Mommy, Sick Baby

Everyone that knows Tiara knows that she has a tendency to be...well...a little bossy. She thinks that she is the Mommy and that I should listen to her. Not only that, but that she is every bit as much Daddy's wife as I am. Every now and again (daily!) I have to remind her that she is only 3 and that I am really the one in charge. She drives me crazy telling me everything that I don't do or that I do wrong. But sometimes she is just the funniest Mom EVER!!!

Today, as we sat in the car waiting for McCall's prescription to be filled, the conversation went like this...

T: Mom, where are Spencer and Seth?
Me: At school
T: They go to school every day. It's killing me!

I just had to laugh out loud.

And poor little McCall. She's been holding her own all weekend and I seemed to think she was doing better until I watched her breathe this morning. I could see every rib from across the room. So off to the Dr. we went. But, of course, being a Monday in January we were stuck seeing the nurse practitioner. I've not been pleased in the past, but he was my only option besides the ER, so we went to see him. UGGHH!! I don't think he listened to a word I said and he only listened to McCall for maybe 10 seconds before he handed me a prescription for steroids and left. Uh, did it not matter that all her ribs are poking out every time she breathes, or that her sats were 88%? Guess not. All he said was to give her albuterol every 4 hours and call if she got worse. Exactly how much worse should I let her get?, I wondered. Idiot. So now I play nurse because I DON'T want to end up in the ER. Tylenol, albuterol, motrin, steroids, cold air, steamy bathroom, humidifier, up all night because I don't dare leave her alone. Lucky me!

Long night

This is what came to visit us last night.....Cute, huh? Well, not exactly. Ours came in the shape of McCall coughing. All of you moms know exactly what I'm talking about. As I was walking past her room to go get clothes out of the dryer, I heard this little guy in her room. I went in to find her struggling to breathe both in and out. Thus began our givehersomepuffstoseeifthathelpsthengooutsideat1:30inthemorningtositfor20minuteswhenits20degreesoutsideandtrynottofreezemy@$$off night! Not so fun. What amazes me is how she reacted. I'm beginning to think there's either something wrong with her or that our pediatrician is right - that she is incredibly bright and advanced for her age. As I'm getting her out of bed and telling her that I need to put a mask over her face to give her medicine that helps her breathe better, she just lets me. What 2 year old does that? I used to have to hold them down or bind them up to do that at the hospital. And then when It's time to just sit on the front steps in the freezing cold, she just nods her head yes when I tell her what we're doing. No fussing, no crying that its cold or to go back inside. Nope, she just sits there wrapped in the blanket as her nose turns pink. I seriously wonder sometimes why she is so good. I must have done something right to have such an amazing little girl given to me.

Lucky for us, the cold air outside helped a lot and we avoided a visit to the ER. But this morning she woke up with a fever, hoarse voice and still a little cough. Brace for tonight! For the most part, we've avoided bad croup around here. We've had a few episodes with Dalin, and his asthma just compounded the problem. Jackson went to Instacare once and Tiara to the ER once, but the rest of them weren't bad enough to have to go in. And with 8 kids, that's pretty good.

So I sit home and miss going to our ward yet again. So far this year I'm 100% - missing it, that is. I don't plan on keeping it up though. Hopefully, next week will be better...unless she passes it on to someone else.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It's hard to believe that it's 2009. We brought in the New Year at Dave's parents' house with the rest of the Monson gang. It's always fun to see everyone, although this year seemed a bit more chaotic than usual. We were the last to leave (as usual) and barely made it home by midnight. After putting the kids to bed, Dave & I played Guitar Hero. We always start out saying we'll only play a couple songs, but "Just one more" seems to push us into the wee hours of the morning. Last night we finally got to bed a little before 2.

We were awakened bright and early (at 9:30) by my mom calling from Chile. Surprisingly, the kids had slept in and let us do the same. It was good to hear from her. They only have 3 1/2 months left on their mission and are looking forward to being back home with family.

Rather than start off the New Year with a resolution that I'm sure to fail at, I'm just going to try to improve a different part of me each month. This may seem a bit scattered, but I really have a hard time committing to anything for much longer. I probably won't end up with any dramatic results by the end of the year, but hopefully I end the year a little better person than I am now. Who knows, maybe I'll end up with a few good habits.

This year gives us lots to look forward to: some baseball trips with Jackson's team, Disneyland with our 5 kids, Mom & Howard coming home, Davis starting kindergarten (Yippee!), the end of diapers at our house, a trip to Florida with Dave (no kids), and hopefully a better economy.

I hope you all have a great 2009!

Yahoo!....oh, wait

Yahoo!! I was so excited to open up my new Photoshop Elements I got from Santa. I really don't have enough time right now to play with it, but I thought I would anyway because who really cares if my house is clean? The kids don't even seem to realize if it's clean or dirty. Does Dave notice? Beats me. He never says anything regardless of how it looks. Maybe that's a good thing... So I take advantage of the new Guitar Hero living in my house that does such a great job babysitting Dave & the boys and plop the disk into the computer. Uh-oh. Guess Santa didn't pay attention to how much RAM I would need to run it. So as I painfully try to get it to run (chug-chug) I can actually hear it whirring "I think I can". But unlike the story, it can't. So sad me has to wait for another week for the memory upgrade to get here before I can start playing with my new toy. In the meantime, I'm left to choose if I want to clean my house, play legos with the kids, finish my CEUs that are due NOW, work on my grandpas history, or just veg out and watch the snow fall. Is anybody motivated to do any work this week??