I suppose I should have posted this like LAST WEEK, but my laptop's been missing. Heck, I still can't find it, but now that I found the charger cord, I can at least use Kelly's old laptop.
Jasmine was baptized on November 1st, one day after Halloween. Kelly's parents, allong with his two youngest siblings, drove all day Friday so they could be here on Saturday for the baptism. It went really well, and Jasmine knew exactly what to expect. She had practiced with Kelly a few times, and knew that she was supposed to "bend her knees" when she was immersed in the water. I put her hair in a twisty-French-braid-thingy so that it would be easy to mangage before/after the baptism (it's really quite long, and I wanted to make sure it would behave and not stick out of the water). She was beaming with excitement and happiness, anxious to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (small story about this in a minute) After the baptism, we presented her with her own set of scriptures. She also got a "Sacrament Meeting quiet bag" from another family in the ward, filled with little activities to do during Sacrament Meeting.
Later that evening, we left Kelly's little brother and sitster (ages 10 and 12) here with Jasmine, Tyler and Kaitlyn while us four adults went out to eat. It was also my first time seeing the inside of Kelly's work. (I never saw it before because he claimed that it was "nothing exciting" .... and after seeing it, I'd have to agree with him). It's hard to believe that his brother and sister are old enough to babysit (together). I remember when they were babies! Kaitlyn napped most of the time, and all of the kids behaved and had fun. It was nice to get out without them, and they had the bonus of extra-special babysitters.
They stayed with us until early Monday morning. Jasmine had a tough time when they left, since she knows it's going to be a while before we see them again. Sometimes, living far away from family is really difficult. I am really grateful that they made the effort to drive out here for Jasmine's baptism.
And here's the small story I was referring to earlier.... When Jasmine came home today, she immediately apologized for getting in trouble at school. Calmly, I asked her what happened. She had received a "yellow light" today for talking during reading. Every day, students receive either a green light (for good behavior), a yellow light (meaning they were warned after talking, misbehaving, etc...) or a red light (for repeat offenses.... accompanied by the ultimate punishment, a TRACKER). Occasionally, for exceptional behavior, a gold star will be given. All year, Jasmine has gotten green lights on EVERY day except for two, in which she received gold stars. Needless to say, she was heart-broken when she was given the yellow light... her perfect record had been tarnished. The reading class was actually out in the hall, and Jasmine was talking with another little girl when she shouldn't have. She and the other girl were told to go back into the classroom and move their name clips from green to yellow lights. When they walked into the classroom, the other girl wanted Jasmine to lie and walk back out with her without moving her name clip (hoping the teacher would forget about it) so they would just get green lights. Jasmine INSISTED on moving her name clip, even though it wasn't something she was happy about. Even though she got in trouble (and it was really just a warning), I am so proud of Jasmine for being honest. After telling her how proud I was, she told me that the Holy Ghost helped her make the right choice. What a sweetheart!
I wrote the following entry on August 28th, but never posted it. I think (my not posting it) may have been due to my embarrassment of how little I know. I am, by no means, a political genius, or ANYWHERE near there.
I find Obama's background very admirable... being raised in a working class family without a lot of luxuries. His mother, and granpdarents, instilled in him the values of honesty, hard work, and getting an education (there were many others as well). Listening to the speeches the past few nights helped me see him as the human being he is, and as the president he can become.
One big theme that I saw/heard throughout everyone's speeches is that Obama is for change, while with McCane things would stay the same. Our economy right now isn't doing too hot.
I don't think it's any secret right now that the healthcare insurance industry is in trouble. I really like what Obama said in his speech tonight about how he plans on lowering healthcare premiums-- or, for those who don't have any insurance, to make it affordable. I am happy with my insurance, which the kids and I have been on for almost three years now. However, I was rather upset a few months ago when I learned that my policy premiums were going to jump $60/month, effective immediately. This would be an almost $100/month increase from two years before. Yuck. That extra $60 a month may not be cause for me to drop my insurance (though I'll still feel the pain from its pinch), but for many people it probably would be. As expensive as it is, though, it's only about half of what it would cost if we were to be insured through Kelly's employer with a comparable plan. I can see how going without Unfortunately, going without is a huge gamble that many lose.
The state of our economy is another big ugly thing.
Right now, I am trying to watch the 2nd presidential debate. "Trying" is the operative word. It's hard to watch and focus on the things being said when the kids are screaming and beating each other up. I do know that I like what Obama has said about health insurance, (lowering premiums and eliminating "pre-existing conditions" limitations to make sure EVERYONE can be insured ) and I don't like what McCain wants to do (tax employers' insurance coverage for the first time ever). There's more I want to say, but I need to un-muddle my mind and get a chance to watch this entire debate (UNINTERRUPTED) before I do. For now, I'm being pulled on by a very upset toddler who is intent on pushing the reset button on my laptop... I think it's time to go fix dinner.
Yeah, really random stuff, I tell ya. First off, it is Kelly's birthday today. He's a whoppin' 32 years old. Happy birthday, sweetie! I love you, and I am very grateful for all you do for the family. I am very happy to be married to you, and I can't believe we've been married for over 9 years already. Time sure flies by when you're having fun!
Unfortunately, today had to be the day that Kelly took the Grand Prix in to get it serviced, only to find out that it would need nearly $2,000 worth of work done before too long. Brakes are out, power steering is out, some dumb belt needs replaced, etc..... This comes after we already spent close to $2,000 on it back in June. We won't be fixing it. At this point, it's just not worth it. Oh, and the transmission is giving us problems as well. That would be another $3,000 to fix down the road in the not-too-distant future. So, it looks like we'll be getting Kelly a bike, since buying another car right now is not really feasable. Ugh. I hate car problems. And had we known three months ago that we would be in this position, we may not have bothered to dump money into the car then... we could have used our stimulus check for something much more, um, fun. Double ugh. I REALLY hate car problems.
And last on my random list mentioned in the title.... Tyler is FINALLY potty training. We still have 2-4 accidents a day, but at least he's now willing to go pee pee in the potty. Whenever he has an accident, he'll take off his underwear, rinse them off in the sink, and dump them in a special garbage can reserved especially for pee-soaked clothes. I'm happy he can do that, but it will be so much better once he realizes that it would be much easier to not have accidents in the first place. And the poop? Well, we won't even talk about that one yet. Let's just say that there's a special Thomas and Friends lego set that he REALLY wants, and we will gladly fork out the $50 for it once he is fully and completely potty trained.
Well, it's either that or he's just plain silly. Or both. I'll let you decide.
Until recently, Kelly and I didn't have a dresser in our bedroom. Instead, we've been using some wire shelving in our walk-in closet as a place to store all of our clothing. This was a big pain since clothes were spilling out and piled everywhere. Finally, after some thorough hunting on the ever-lovely Craigslist, I was able to acquire a dresser for the nice sum total of $30. It's nothing fancy, but it's big enough for almost all of my clothes. While sorting through my clothes to put into the dresser, I immediately formed a "keep" pile and a "toss" pile. I found many articles of clothing that I wouldn't be caught DEAD in outside the house. They were either waaay to small, or, um, lacked a certain finesse. Like this lovely number, for instance:
Oh, it still fits me (and then some), and it's even kinda comfortable. But WHY on EARTH would I wear this shirt out in public, for all to see? I was gifted this beautimous item during my last employment (a Sprint PCS call center) while I was about 8 months pregnant with Tyler. I think I wore it to work a few times, but only because other people were also wearing their beautiful read Sprint shirts. I mean, it's okay to look like a dork while everyone else does, too. ANYway, as I sorted through my clothing, deciding what to keep and what to toss, I immediately chucked this shirt in the "toss" pile.
A few days later, Kelly was curious to see all the clothing I deemed as "unwearable". Some items he agreed with, some he did not. This shirt was an item he did not agree with me getting rid of. (Why?? I still don't know) So I struck a deal with him, thinking I was in the free and clear. I told him that if he would wear this shirt to work the next day, I would keep it. Easy as pie, right?? Well I thought so until I saw him putting it on the next morning. Sure enough, he wore it to work. Not only THAT, but he also went into a few stores that day as well. He got all sorts of comments from his co-workers, such as "that's a REALLY nice shirt" or "what's with the shirt?" (to which he only replied that he was earning brownie points). A lady at Winco even laughed after reading it.
Kelly is now officially MY certified customer satisfaction specialist. Needless to say, I still have the shirt. 
... of the four-legged variety. I've been REALLY wanting a dog for the longest time, but no matter how much I want one, I just can't bring myself to plunk down the $400 for a pet depotit. So, I moved to the next animal on my wish list... a bunny. A kind lady had to sadly give him up due to allergies. His name is Bilbo, and he's an American fuzzy lop. His original name was Meatball, but that just didn't sit well with Kelly, so we renamed him. In the past, we've had a chinchilla named Smeagol and a guinea pig named Gandalph, and currently we have a frog (which Kelly caught in the back yard) named Gollum. Do you notice an underlying theme? He's a very frienedly little guy who likes to be snuggled. I finally found the blasted camera cord, so here is a picture of our cute little bunny. And yes, that is a "Lord of the Rings" blanket behind Bilbo. How fitting, though not intentional.
I'll be leaving with the kids to go pick up Kelly from work in about two hours. From there, we'll head on out. I am so excited to see everyone. It's been two years since we've been back, meaning that Katie Mae has never been to Idaho (except for when she was growing in my tummy
). It will be fun to see how much everything has changed. We'll be doing lots of driving, so the kids had better behave! I am really grateful we got that DVD player for the minivan. That should help. I still have tons of stuff to do before we leave, but I thought I'd better make one more appearance on the blogger radar before leaving.
Last Wednesday, we bit the bullet and finally bought a minivan. We had been talking about it for years, and SERIOUSLY considering it for the past few weeks. Being a one car family has been tough, especially as the kids have gotten older and don't always want to be stuck at home. I also have them signed up for swimming lessons when school is out. That would have been a big ol' pain in the rear to take Kelly to work every morning in order to have the car. Plus, with gas at already over 4 bucks a gallon 
, taking Kelly to work whenever I need the car is kind of crazy. What kind did we get? We ended up with a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. Yes, that is correct... 2008. It had a whole whoppin 26 miles on it when Kelly drove it off the lot. (Rebates and holiday weekend specials are GREAT) It may not be souped up with extra features, but it's just what we need, right down to the stain-resistant seats. Oh, and it has the Stow-n-Go seating on the 2nd and 3rd rows, something that I HAD to have.
I am a clutz. I'll be the first to admit it. Well, maybe Kelly will, but that's beside the point. My "lack of grace" comes and goes, and it came full force on Sunday evening. UGH.
Our church starts at 1:30. We decided to start a project beforehand since we didn't get to it the day before. The prtoject: modify the kids' bunkbed to make it safer, sturdier, and take up less room. It was currently stacked in the "L" shape, with the top bunk set on leg suspensions that Kelly had built out of 2x4's. We got rid of those, and cut the 2x4's down to smaller extensions that we could use while stacking the bunkbeds one on top of the other, the way bunkbeds are "supposed" to be stacked. This made the top bunk lower, easier to get on, and just all around better. (Without the extensions, there's not enough room to sit up on the bottom bunk with the extra thick mattresses.) Well, later on that day, after church and after our hometeachers had come and gone, I brought down all the extra wood that was clogging up the upstairs hallway. Here's where my mistake started. First of all, instead of taking them all out to the garage right then like I should have, I just leaned them against the wall. When I finally DID take them out to the garage, I somehow missed the bigest beam.
Later on, as I was coming down the stairs, I noticed it, and thought to myself "I need to get that out to the garage now." I took the last step down, and the next thing I know, I was on the floor and in a LOT of pain. Aparently, when I took that last step, I turned my right ankle, spraining it. Naturally, this made me fall to the floor rather quickly. I have sprained my ankles so many times. I have weak ankles. Usually it's painful, but not that big of a deal. This time, however, my face made contact with that very 2x4 that I hadn't yet taken out to the garage. Okay, it didn't just "make contact" with it, it SMASHED into it. I was conscious through the whole thing, but seeing stars. There was lots of blood. I've never had a bloody nose bleed that bad. Kelly kept asking if I wanted to go to the ER, but I wanted to wait it out.
Fast forward to Wedesday night. My nose was still in quite a bit of pain, and I had a headache that wouldn't go away (had it for three days). I finally decided (mainly due to Kelly's insisting) that it would be a good idea to go to the ER. I got there shortly after 9:00, and by 2:30 a.m. I was on my way back home. I got some facial x-rays and a tetanus shot. Oh, fun. And it turns out that I DID fracture my nose, but it's not misaligned, so it'll heal just fine on it's own. Meanwhile, it still hurts. For that, I got a prescription for some Vicodin. I took one last night, and let me just say now that nighttime is the ONLY time that I will be taking that stuff. POTENT!
Right now, Jasmine has a friend over who is in her class at school, as well as in our ward. I really do need to arrange playdates for her more often, because it sounds like she's having a lot of fun. And Katie Mae has a poopy diaper, so I get to go and have lots of fun now, too. (NOT!)
Wow, this is the second time in LESS THAN A WEEK that I have actually posted on my blog. Although I'm not going to go into much detail (I'll let Kelly do that), I am gonna say that Kelly now has a new job, which he will start TOMORROW. One of the best things about it? Well, instead of a honkin' long commute (1 hr 15 min by MAX, 45 min-1 hr by car EACH WAY), he'll now have about a 20 minute commute each way. And he won't even have to get onto the highway or interstate! YAHOO! No more messy Portland traffic commute or slow MAX commute. And if I need the car for a dr. appointment, etc, it's close enough that I can just drive him to work and take the car. I will now have my hubby back, and he will be doing something that makes him HAPPY! (And THAT is THE best thing).
since I've written a blog entry? Holy cow, it has! I have just really been havng a difficult time finding the motivation to blog. Even now, as I sit here in the dark, I'm finding it very, um, not-so-easy to write this blog entry. I don't know why.
Let's see... my parents came to visit us over this past weekend. This was just the second time that they have seen Kaitlyn, but she seemed to warm up to them quite quickly during their visit. It took a little longer for Tyler to get used to them, but he was coming around as well. Jasmine, of course, had no problems since she remembered them from before. We had a fun time. (But I'm glad they were only here for three days--don't ask!) Kelly and I even got my mom to play a few songs on Rockband with us. She sang at the mic while Kelly did drums and me the guitar. We had a few screaming kids to contend with, though, so we couldn't play for too long. Friday evening, we (I recruited their help in the kitchen) made sausage and spinach manacotti for dinner. It was really good, and it had been like a year since we'd had it. We then watched August Rush, a movie that I bought the night before, and I HIGHLY recommend it.
Saturday, we went to the zoo, where the weather was "somewhat" agreeable. It was pretty chilly, and it even drizzled a bit. After we left, it snowed, hailed, and rained some more. Give me a freakin' break! This is OREGON, people, and it's SNOWING at the end of MARCH! That's not supposed to happen. On Sunday, my parents went to church with us. We then had a yummy dinner of pulled pork, collard greens, homemade macaroni and cheese, and corn muffins. Sunday was a day of many FIRSTS for us. For one, we got to church like fifteen minutes early. We also had dinner ready to eat before 5:30, and it was done (and we were starting to clean up) by 6:30. Usually, we're just starting dinner by that time, and it usually ain't nothing fancy. Sunday evening, we actually got my dad to play some 7-UP with us after getting the kids to bed. We didn't stay up too late, though. At 10:00, we pretty much called it quits, and konked out soon after that. My parents got up about 2:30 Monday morning and were out the door by 3:00. We said our goodbyes the night before, and we ddn't even stir when they got up and left. They made it back home by about 8:30 that night. That's a long drive... almost 800 miles. I bet they're glad to be home.
Jasmine had her spring break last week, and Tyler has one more week for his. Speaking of Tyler, his preschool schedule has changed. He will now be going only ONE day a week (on Mondays) since he was doing so well. Now they want to focus on the one area where he needs work, his speech. So he'll be in a smaller class with the speech pathologist as his teacher. It's good to know he's doing well, but sad to know that his improvement is goint to result in less classroom time and less time to interact with his peers. Kind of a double-edged sword.
Hmm... don't know what else to write about. I'd better call it a night before this turns into one of those annoyingly-long-and-boring entries that goes on and on forever. Let's just hope that it's not another two months before I write again. HA! As if anyone would notice! I bet no one even bothers to check this blog anymore. G'night, everybody. Anybody? Nobody? (Is there an echo in here?)
It is now 4:41 am. I am sooooooooo tired, and I just want to crash. But I'm afraid that as soon as I do, someone will throw up. That's what happened about twenty minutes ago when I laid down next to Tyler... he puked everywhere.
Shortly before midnight, Jasmine woke up asking for some water. I gave her a small cup, thinking all was well. A few minutes later, she called out for me again. This time, when I went into the bedroom, it stunk really bad. Jasmine was complaining of a tummy ache, and I realized that Tyler had thrown up everywhere in his sleep. Seconds later, Jasmine upchucked all over in her bed as well. So, I got them in the tub and started a bunch of laundry. For the next several hours, they cuddled with Daddy, threw up some more, and watched TV while I cleaned up the pukefest of a mess in their bedroom and did laundry. At around 2:30, I went to check on Kaitlyn... and I smelled barf in her room as well. Sure enough, it was all over in her crib. So, I gave her a bath, and got all of her bedding replaced. For the next two hours, I tried to console her and take care of Tyler as well. He finally fell asleep on the beanbag in the office while watching Transformers at about 4:00 or so. Then, after three or four unsuccessful attempts at getting Kaitlyn back to bed, I finally stuck her in her crib with some toys, leaving the hall light on so she could play in her crib until she fell asleep. That's when I went to lie down by Tyler. I made the mistake of scooting him up on the beanbag so he wasn't half-way on the floor. That disturbed his stomach, and-- well, you get the idea.
I really hope and pray that this stomach bug goes away as quickly as it came. (Kaitlyn threw up sometime Monday night, though, so this is probably the same crud). Kelly will be out of town for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, presenting at a code camp in Seattle that he has been planning on for a long time. Kelly had better not get sick, and I had better not get sick. Three kids puking all at once is a nightmare.... we don't need to add sick parents to the mix. So, if you can say a prayer that we'll all quickly get through this, that would be great. And I really need some sleep. I'm falling asleep at the computer as I type.
Have you ever seen a wreckless driver speed through a red light (or do something else that is generally UNSAFE) and say to yourself, "Gee, I wish a cop was around"? I'm sure everyone has probably seen something like that at one time or another. Did you ever think about calling the cops to report it? That would seem to be a good idea, if the driver you're calling about is actually doing something UNSAFE. However, if you're just having a bad day, don't call the cops just because someone did a freakin' lane change in front of you!
Yesterday befoe church, I sent Kelly to the store (yes, he went to the store on a Sunday-- GASP!). Since our church now starts at 1:30, we've found that it's best to have dinner all ready (or at least ready to stick in the oven) as soon as we get home at 4:45-ish. Well, I was going to make some lasagna, and at the last moment, I found that we had no mozzarella cheese. So, I sent Kelly to WinCo to pick some up. When he got home, he voiced his concern about a crazy driver who had most likely called the police on him. On the way home from the store, Kelly had to change lanes, so he flipped on his signal and slowly eased into the other lane, with plenty of room to do so. However, Mrs. Crusty Lady SUV Driver behind him didn't want him to get in front of her, so she sped up. And then, lo and behold, Kelly stopped at the next light because it was red (maybe Mrs. Crusty would have been able to zip trough the light if Kelly hadn't gotten in front of her??). So, after speeding up, she had to stop, and she honked her horn. Then she leaned forward, squinting to get a good look at our lisence plate while making a call on her cell phone (this is why Kelly suspected she called the cops). Sure enough, a police officer showed up at our doorstep about twenty minutes later to investigate the matter. I spoke with him briefly while Kelly was in the shower. I was all shaken up, because I couldn't believe she had actually called in a "wreckless driver". He could tell, and he asked if I was ok. Kelly came down a few minutes later and spoke with the officer, who basically wanted to make sure everyone was "cool" and to keep the peace within the city. Had we not been city residents, the matter would have been dropped alltogether. He actually told me that this kind of call was a pleasant break for him, since he had to make a stop to see some not-so-nice people after he was done talking to us. He gave us his business card, but no citation was issued. He was a nice guy, too. It took me a long time to calm down after he left. That woman driver had actually wasted valuable police resources because she was in a bad mood!
This incident served as a "subtle" reminder for us to keep the Sabbath and not go shopping on Sunday. Next time, I'll either be better prepared or make something else for dinner.
Combinatorics. That's what. I still don't know what it means. I only now know that it is a word in the English language. A NERD word. I've read the Wikipedia definition a few times, and it's not helping. So, how did I, a mere housewife, come upon such a word? Deal or No Deal, THAT'S how.
It all started last night when Kelly and I were watching the show on NBC. This show just makes me so freakin' mad sometimes. People can get REALLY stupid when they're greedy. Last night's game was one where they had 5 one million dollar briefcases. The guy had knocked all of the high numbers off the board except for 2 of the million dollar ones. After that, the next highest number was 75,000. The offer on the table was like 160,000 or so, and his girlfriend (the mother of his one month old baby) was PLEADING for him to take the offer. Did he? No. GRR. He the had to open two more cases, and Howie was throwing out some numbers, saying he had a 25% chance of opening a million-dollar briefcase (there were 8 unopened cases). Of course, both cases that he opened were the million dollar ones, and he ended up going home with like 27,000. The thing that got Kelly's ever-churning mind going was the probability that Howie gave... it wasn't entirely accurate. Yeah, he had a 25% chance of opening a million dollars on the first pick, but an even higher probability on the second.
We went through this whole probablity math problem on the whiteboard in our office, and figured that, all in all, he had about a 50% chance of opening at least one million dollar case on that turn, and only about a 4% chance of opening BOTH million dollar cases. Standing back to admire his work on the whiteboard, Kelly exclaimed... "Now that's 'combinatorics'". I was all like "huh?!" -- drawing a blank. I had never heard such a ridiculous word in all my life. Much in the fashion of SNL's "Nick Burns: Your Company's Computer Guy", He looked at me like he couldn't believe I didn't know what that word meant. After laughing, and calling him Computer Guy, he had me "MOVE" so he could explain it to me. He pulled up Wikipedia's definition, and I told him that it might as well be Greek, that I didn't understand. Somewhere in the definition was something about factorials, which took us on a whole different tangent. It was very amusing, but also reminded me how rusty my brain is for not having been in college (or applied any college learning) for the past 8 1/2 years. I took Calculus TWICE (once in high school, once in college), and we learned about factorials both times....but I don't remember anything! (well, except for the little bit we went over last night). Man, I'm glad I have a smart husband who enjoys this stuff. That being so, I'm glad that I am not the breadwinner for the family. We'd then be in a whole heap of trouble. But now I know a new word, even if I can't quite comprehend its meaning. 
I'm awake, and I'm not even tired. Oh, looky- it's now 1:30. Everyone else is asleep. I would go to bed, but I don't know where in the heck I'm going to sleep! You see, my bed is currently crowded with one hubby and two kids. Tyler is pretty sick, and after the rough night we had last night, there was no way I was gonna fight him and make him sleep in his bed.
Tyler's been running a fever for the past few days (it goes down with medication). Last night, it was at 102.something. He took a few long naps yesterday, so he wouldn't go to bed. After finally falling asleep at around 11:30 or so, I moved him into his bed. At around 3:30, he came into my bedroom, screaming. He was inconsolable, and we couldn't get him to go back to sleep. After giving him some medicine, I let him go lie down on the beanbag in the office to watch the last of Transformers. He stayed awake through the whole thing, then started screaming when it ended. He wanted to watch another movie. Kelly was totally awake by this time, so he went in and watched a movie with Tyler. This was at 4:00. I went back to sleep, then Kelly brought Tyler in at 6:00 to go back to bed. Tyler still didn't want to go to sleep, but I cuddled with him and rocked him , finally getting him to sleep. Aside from me feeding Kaitlyn at around 8:00 or so, we all slept until after 10:00. Well, Jasmine woke up earlier, but she was kind enough to let the rest of us sleep.
Anyway, I don't want a repeat, so I'm not going to so much as touch Tyler right now. He usually stays asleep all night when he's in our bed. And Jasmine really wanted to sleep with Tyler and Daddy on the big bed since it's the last non-school night of winter break. So daddy gave in. Technically, I guess there IS room for me, but I really don't want to crowd Tyler and get him overheated. Now I get to decide whether to sleep on the couch (where I am currently), or on Tyler's bed. Oh, joy. And it's now 1:46 AM.
And I must say that I'm pretty happy about that. I had a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year.... well at least the "spending time, money, and effort" aspect of it, even though we had a little extra $$ to spend, thanks to the Oregon Department of Revenue. I didn't wanna do Christmas shopping (Kelly did 99% of it by him self, and I thank him for it), I didn't wanna participate in the bazillions of gift exchanges we were part of (which I'm now glad we did, and it was really only 2), and I didn't wanna send out the infamous "family letter" and family picture Christmas card (I stayed up until 3:00 am getting them all ready to go... sent out Dec. 20th 
). Costco did have a really super cheap deal on cards, though, so that helped some. Oh, and I wasn't looking forward to standing in line at the post office forEVER with two kids and three large packages. A kind neighbor helped me by watching the kids while I went on my post office run, and I only had to stand in line for 15 minutes. So, all in all, everything that I wasn't looking forward to really did turn out rather well. Most people got their cards before Christmas, I didn't get stuck at the post office, and we didn't even pull out a credit card. Most importantly, the kids were really happy, had lots of fun, and loved their presents. They must have been pretty darn good this year, because Santa gave them exactly what they wanted. A stuffed octopus, a movie, and a (Littlest Petshop) surprise for Jasmine, a train set for Tyler, and a wooden activity table for Kaitlyn. Now that it's over, though, I'm tired. Every night since that night when I stayed up late working on the cards, I haven't been to bed before 1:30. I am now just stinkin' tired, and I welcome the whole anti-clamactic aspect of January.
I was supposed to go to Kelly's Holiday Christmas work party on Friday. I had a babysitter lined up, and I had even gone out and purchased a new outfit for the event. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. Jasmine threw up at school, and I borrowed the neighbor's car to go get her. So, I stayed home and ate junk food while Kelly attended solo. I had all three kids to bed by 8. Jasmine and Tyler were asleep by 7:15, miracle of miracles. Kaitlyn, being the all-of-a-sudden-rebellious 1-year-old stinker that she is, wouldn't go down so easily. ANYway, Jasmine spent the whole weekend recovering, and I thought she was out of the woods on Sunday. So, we went to church. It was the first time in over a month that we made it to Sacrament Meeting. I guess that's what happens when you have 3 kids and church starts at 8:30. Only one more week of that, though, since our time switches to 1:30 at the beginning of the year. After church, we attended the annual progressive dinner/gift exchange down in Albany with all of my Oregon extended family. It was lots of fun, but the kids were pretty darn tired. Jazz and Tyler both fell asleep pretty quickly in the car (going down and back), but little miss Katie Mae stayed awake for the whole drive down, and most of the drive back, shreaking and laughing in the back seat. Little pill.
Monday, I could tell that Jasmine was still pretty sick. All she wanted to do was lie around with a blanket on. She was running a temperature of 103.3, so I called the on-call physician since her ped. office was closed that day. I spoke with a nurse for like 20 minutes, and she even had Jasmine get on the phone for a few minutes. Basically, we were told to give her lots of fluids to drink, keep her cool, give her Tylenol, and bring her in if her temp ever reached 105. Well, it never did, thank goodness. Yesterday, it was about in the 101-ish range, and today, down to 99-100. I'm hoping that she'll be back to herself tomorrow. It's no fun to be sick on Christmas, and I don't want her to be sick for half her winter break. We had to turn down a playdate today because of her fever.
The one thing I really enjoy about Christmas each year, especially as the kids are getting older, is teaching them about the birth of the Savior. Over the past several weeks, Kelly and I have taken many opportunities to share with the kids why we really celebrate Christmas, and how it is better to give than to receive. I hope and pray that, as they get older, that will be something that we will have been able to successfully instill within them.