The Park, A Razor Blade & A Tetanus Shot...

What do these 3 things have in common? Hmmm.... Well, they pretty much sum up my day a couple of weeks ago.

I had just taken a cake to the church for a funeral. As I was driving home, I thought, "I think I'll go take the girls to the park. It's nice and sunny outside. Hey, let's even go get Chloee's friend, Trevor and have him come with us."

We are at the park for about 5 minutes, no joke, when I run back to the car to get something. On my way back, something flips up from the grass and goes right underneath my big toe, between my flip flop. I felt something cut me. I kept walking, then saw the blood gushing out of my toe, turned around and it was a RAZOR BLADE. Yes, a razor blade in the park! I packed the kids up, try to stop the bleeding and head home.

My mom made a good point about the fact that I was overdue for a tetanus shot. I called the doc, he said I definitely needed to come in and get one. My arm hurt for days. That's just my kind of luck, we go to the park for some good old vitamin D and I have to get a shot! Figures.

Josh's New Job

Josh started a new job back on the first of April. No, it wasn't due to the economy and/or the government. It was a choice we made. I meant to write about it back when it all happened but his appendix thing happened. He accepted the job that Friday and Saturday, BOOM, he was in the hospital getting his appendix out. I couldn't really write that we were even looking because many of the wives of the guys he worked with read my blog.

There were a lot of reasons this choice was made and there was a lot of fasting and praying that went along with it. He now works in South Salt Lake, yes he commutes, it's about an hour, depending on traffic. Even though he does have a commute, he's so much happier where he is now. I can just see it on his face when he comes home and it's just in his whole countenance. He loves his job and it's been a long time since he's been able to say that.

The company does many different things but the one that he is working on right now is with John Deere. His previous job he did aerospace for the government. He is glad to be out of the government end of it and to be learning something new. He wants to be well-versed.

"Welcome to Holland"

By Emily Perl Kingsley, 1987. All rights reserved.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

***This is an exceptional writing. My mom went to a conference and one of the speakers talked about this woman. This not only pertains to you if you have a child with a disability but to every part or our lives that didn't or won't go the way we planned. We plan our entire lives to go to Italy and we think that is exactly how it will be but alas, it is not our choice where the plane lands.

Everyone that you come in contact with is struggling with something you may never know about. Let's face it, sometimes it seems like everyone else's plane has landed in Italy and we are the only ones in Holland. That is not true. Sometimes we feel like we are the only ones who are experiencing pain, suffering and trials. The only way to know that we are not the only ones experiencing something difficult is if all of us wore signs around our necks that said what our struggle or trial is that we are trying to endure. Surely, that is not how it happens. I think we'd all be a lot nicer to one another if we could read from everyone's sign and know what they are battling.

Let us not forget that we can be a little nicer and that we can serve others. You may never know the impact you have on someone's life. You may never know why you were brought in contact with that person, but surely The Lord knows and that is why we need to listen to the promptings of the spirit. That someone may have an impact on you and change your life when all along you thought you were doing something for them.***

The Uses Of Adversity

I just finished this book, The Uses of Adversity by Carlfred Broderick. It is Amy's book, she let me borrow it. It is a small, short book which makes for an easy read. Sometimes we feel so overwhelmed with a big book. We start the book and then think that we'll never have enough time to finish it and then we don't. It was bout 60 pages with big print. It was an amazing book and I got a lot out of it in just those few short pages. This is definitely a book I'd recommend. On the back of his book is a quote.

"The gospel of Jesus Christ is not insurance against pain. It is resource in event of pain."
-Carlfred Broderick

Mother's Day

I spent all day Saturday down in American Fork. I was doing some pictures for a wedding and then some of a new little baby. Let's just say that me and the girls did not get home until midnight.

When I came home, Josh told me that is was "Mother's Day" seeing as how it was past midnight and this was sitting on my nightstand. He's such a sweetie!

Because I am so unobservant, he had to point out to me that he had a present sitting on my dresser. It was one of those signs I love to put up all over the house.

This morning Josh made the most amazing breakfast! I LOVE the bacon, egg and cheese biscuit from McDonald's. I know, really fattening but I love them. He made the biscuits, yes from scratch and everything. The bacon was that really thick, yummy sliced bacon and he even got what he calls, "the fake cheese" just like McDonald's does. You know, the Velveeta singles.

They were so divine!!!

We also had some of my favorite juice to complete the meal.

Chloee came home with this from Primary. She told me that she made that flower and that we better put it in some water before it dies. They also did this questionnaire about their mothers. It is really cute. The kids fill in the blank on the sentence about their mom. Obviously, the teacher had to write Chloee's seeing as how she can't write words other than her and Halle's names. The questionnaire says this: (Chloee's responses are in the purple)

My Mom's name is Kimberlee.
My Mom is just this tall.
My Mom has black hair.
My Mom's eyes are green.
My Mom is really good at doing dishes.
If I could buy anything for my Mom, I would buy her earrings.
My Mom is funny when she cleans the kitchen.
My Mom always says that I do a good job.
My Mom loves to do dishes.
I know my Mom loves me because my dad and mom tells me they love me.
My Mom's favorite thing to wear is pink.
I love it when my Mom makes soup.
My Mom doesn't like it when I mess her room.
I love my Mom because she is my mom.

I love chicken cordon bleu. It is probably my favorite dish of all time. Well, he makes the best pies, so why not combine the two. He made chicken cordon bleu pot pie. It is to die for!

Josh then gave me some more presents tonight. He knows I'm always looking for "pick me up" books and these 2 look perfect.

Chloee gave me these lists and highlighter. I am an incessant list maker, yes, just like Amy, but not as bad. Chloee is also a list maker and this was the perfect gift from her. I also needed a new highlighter for my scriptures.

Halle gave me this adorable book. She handed it to me and then proceeded to show me the pages, point and I think she really thought she was reading the book.

To sum it up, I was treated like an absolute queen today! I am so grateful for my sweet husband and my 2 little girls who mean everything to me.

I haven't forgotten about the mothers in my life. I'm going to do a post on that tomorrow.

I HATE SpongeBob!!!

You know that good old saying your mother used to always say right after you used the word "hate" in a sentence.

"Hate is a strong word!"

Yes, yes... HATE is a strong word, AND THAT IS WHY I'M USING IT!!!

If you like SpongeBob or let your children watch SpongeBob, please stop reading this post now. The only thing worse than children who like SpongeBob is the RIDICULOUS adults who like it. Honestly, it just goes to show the mentality of those "adults". Really? I mean really? Why do people watch this hideous show. Is it because you just don't feel like you've reached your full potential of stupidity yet and you want to get there real fast? People's IQ scores have got to just plummet when they watch is moronic show.

Every time I see this stupid sponge or hear his stupid voice with his awful grammar, I want to just punch someone. Preferably SpongeBob or its many followers. Just look at his stupid face, he just looks like an idiot, plus he's a freaking sponge.

The person who created this idiotic show, had to have been on CRACK! No joke, no sane person could ever come up with something this stupid. The creator had to have come to work high on so many drugs, extremely drunk and on the verge of dying from alcohol poisoning to come up with SpongeBob. It's amazing it ever made it to television. The only explanation is that the people who watch this show are just as high and drunk as the guy who created it.

Wow, glad I got that off my chest!

Sister / Husband Similarities

There are a lot of similarities between my sisters (myself) and our husbands.

Annie is married to Marcus.

Amy is married to Micheal.

And of course, I'm married to Josh.

1. All of our husbands hate olives.

2. We all married the oldest in their family.

3. All of our husbands are middle named after their dad.

4. We all went from the end of the alphabet with Williams to the beginning with Adams, Alleman and Datwyler.

5. All of our husbands graduated with their bachelors degree from USU.

6. Our husbands are all 3 years older than us.

7. All of our husband love to bike.

8. All of our husbands went on missions out of the country. Marcus to Peru, Josh to Brazil and Micheal to Heaven... ok, so Micheal's is a lot farther than just out of the country, it's like out of this galaxy and far, far away.

* This one is more about our kids but still, it's weird.
9. All of our 2nd children weighed the same at birth. Kennet, Sierra and Halle all weighed 8 lbs 3 oz.

* Ok, so no similarity about this one but weird that they are all different.
10. We all have different sets of kids. Amy has 2 boys, I have 2 girls and Annie has one of each. Well, Annie is about to break that because she is pregnant with her 3rd. Yea!!!! It was actually twins but she lost one. We just found out that she's having a boy!