In Stitches- No Foolin'

Every April Fool's Day, Russ gets me. I have been a sucker to his pranks for 15 years now. This year I was ready. I was just waiting for the call to come in. Then it did...

Garrett had a school field trip that day to our new ice skating rink here in St. George. I had been teasing him all morning because he was wearing shorts. I told him he was going to be laying on the ice more than skating and that he should consider wearing pants. He of course didn't pay any attention to me, because the boy refuses to wear pants (except to church on Sunday). I sent him off to school with his sack lunch for their picnic after skating, I took Grant and Gracie to school, then I was off to work.

It was about 10:30 in the morning when our phone rang. It was Russ. I was ready...

Russ: Hi Hon. I just got a call from Tonaquint Intermediate School. Garrett fell ice skating and needs a couple of stitches in his chin.
Me: (Not believing a word of this) Um, okay... sure.
Russ: We need to go and get him and take him to the hospital.
Me: Uh-huh. (acting bored by his game)
Russ: I can leave work right now and get him. Would it be better for me to take him to Insta Care or the emergency room?
Me: Uh-huh (still acting somewhat bored, but beginning to wonder).

Finally, I catch on that Russ is not joking. Garrett had really fallen, hit the ice with his chin, and split it open. We decided I should go and get him. I called our pediatrician to see if he could stitch him up. They said the P.A. was available and could get him right in. I picked Garrett up and could see the questioning look in his teacher's eyes- wondering how this parent was going to react. I started to laugh as he approached my car and said, "Of course it would be my child that has the accident". I was trying to let the teacher know we were okay with what had happened and that we weren't going to sue the school. Well, Garrett thought I was making fun of him and got pretty upset. He had been so embarrassed because all of his classmates were gathered around him as the management questioned him about the accident. He was mortified! I got him settled down and to the doctor's office.

The doctor took off the small butterfly bandage that they had put on him at the rink and put some numbing gel on the cut. After the gel had been on for about 15 minutes, Garrett still had quite a bit of feeling in his chin so the P.A. decided to shoot him up with some Lidocain. As he was injecting it into the cut, Garrett's chin split wide open. The P.A. said, "Oh, this is a lot worse than I thought". Garrett ended up with 9 stitches. Two deep stitches that will dissolve and 7 on the outside that he gets out on Tuesday.

As the P.A. finished (I watched the whole thing by the way... pretty cool) he told the nurse to put a bandaid over the stitches. She told Garrett that she only had glitter bandaids or crayon bandaids. Garrett shrugged and said he would take a crayon bandaid. He was very quiet as we finished up. As soon as we walked out of the door of the doctor's office, Garrett's eyes filled up with tears again. He looked at me and said, "SERIOUSLY, A CRAYON BANDAID?"!!! He was already so embarrassed and that just added insult to injury. Being the good mom that I am, I took him downstairs to my office and put a normal bandaid on him, took him to Honolulu Grill for lunch, and didn't make him go back to school. He said it turned out to be a good day.

Fun with the Forrest's

We were so lucky to have our dearest friends come and stay with us last weekend. We have been friends with them since BYU. Kellie and I were pregnant with our first babies at the same time. When Isabel and Garrett were about a year old, Kellie and I would put them in their jogging strollers and she and I would roller blade up Provo Canyon to Vivian Park. We would have a picnic lunch and the kids would throw rocks in the water. When Garrett was 18 months old, Gary had just graduated with his Master's degree and took a job in Colorado. It was a VERY sad time in my life. Fortunately, we have remained in contact and our families get together almost once a year. They are such good people and we consider them some of our very best friends.

I am sad because the only good picture I took was of the twins, Jack and John. I wish I had gotten a picture of their family. Maybe I will steal one off of Kellie's blog and pretend I took it! Anyway, thanks for a good time! We loved having you here and hope to see you in October (if not before) for the Marathon.

Oh NUTS!

Well it has happened. We got our first note sent home from school for bad behavior. I was devastated. Grant and a few of his buddies we using the phrase "son of a nutcracker" as they tried to actually crack each others nuts... if you know what I mean. I was so embarrassed. I sat Grant down and we had a long talk about the seriousness of such behavior. I took away his DS for two weeks and assigned him some extra chores. Then Russ got home from work...

We were back in the bedroom and I told him about the note from Grant's teacher. The man seriously could not stop laughing for 20 minutes. All night long I had to listen to NUTTY phrases from him. I swear, I don't think boys ever grow up!

Say What?

Help!

Little Lou has lost her hearing. I am getting so worried. I took her to the doctor 5 weeks ago because we noticed that she could not hear a thing. She had ear infections and tons of fluid behind her eardrums. Our pediatrician put her on an antibiotic and scheduled us to come back in a month for a follow up. A month later she still couldn't hear. We went to the follow up appointment and the doctor said she still had tons of fluid behind the eardrums. He said to bring her back in 6 weeks if she still couldn't hear. It is getting so frustrating. She misunderstands everything we say to her. For instance, I will say, "Lou, pick up your shoes". She will respond, "I'm not acting like I'm two". I will say, "Go brush your teeth". "No, I don't have mud on my feet". The other part of the problem is that she talks very loud! She screams when telling me a story. I have to keep saying, "I am right here. You do not need to yell at me". Anyway, we are praying she gets over this and that it really is just fluid behind the eardrums. Until then, anyone got any ear plugs for her mommy?

Demolition Derby

Our dear friends, Chris and Carie Homer, recently bought the beauty shop where Carie has worked for years. Carie has been anxiously waiting for spring break here in St. George so she could remodel her shop. Last week Russ called Chris to see if they needed any help. Chris told Russ that if he was serious they could use some help on Satuday. After Garrett's baseball games, I took the kids to the DSC conference championship basketball game and Russ went over to Fanci Hair to help the Homer's (He is such a good guy). After the basketball game, the kids and I stopped by the shop to see how things were going. They were just beginning the process of ripping down the partitions in the shop. I thought my boys had died and gone to heaven. Brad, one of Chris' assistant football coaches, was there helping as well. He would cut the walls in sections and then let Garrett push them over. Grant and Garrett were each given hammers and helped destroy, rip up, and break down various parts of the shop. Russ was on the muscle crew, removing furniture and shelving (which Carie was trying to sell to the church in the shopping plaza). I was on the clean up crew, and Gracie was the shop cheerleader (typical cheerleader... always in the way and cheering at the wrong times). After we got to a stopping point, we all went out to dinner at the Pizza Factory. It was such a fun night. We can't wait to see the finished product! It is going to look fabulous.

Who's your mama?

For the most part, I think I am an okay mom. My life revolves around my kids. I would rather be with my husband and kids than anyone else (my parents and sisters run a tight race with them). I have many faults as a mother. I do not like to be touched. I have very little patience. I am not that great at getting stains out of my kids clothes. I yell a lot in the mornings when we are late. I am not a good cook, and cook the same terrible meals each week because I have very little desire to look for new recipes. I could go on and on!

Garrett has turned 12 and I know the day is coming when he is not going to want me around. He will be entering those teenage years when he will think I know nothing. He will be embarassed if I walk next to him in public. He will ask me to drop him off at school several blocks away so that his friends won't see him with me. I am absolutely dreading these years. It is going to be very hard on me. But right now, he likes me. He is not yet embarassed of me. He doesn't mind if he is seen with me. So I try to take advantage of every second I can spend with him (and Grant and Gracie too, because they are not far behind him).

While we were in Mexico, Garrett missed two days of baseball practice. We got home really late on Monday night. On Tuesday, I took him over to the baseball fields right after school. He didn't have another practice until Wednesday, so we decided to do a little batting practice of our own. There are two fields where the little league games are held. They are popular and it is sometimes hard to practice there. One field was being used, but we were able to use the other. I began pitching to Garrett. I am not that good! Most of the time he is ducking to avoid my pitch nailing him in the head or jumping before it beans him in the feet. It is a great workout for him. We have a bucket of about 50 baseballs, and I MAYBE get 15 good throws across the plate. But, I try. I am there. I threw him about 8 buckets of balls.

As we were there, some of his teammates showed up and a couple of his coaches. The teammates were working with a batting coach, getting quality instruction. And Garrett was on the other field getting pitches thrown at him by his mom. His coaches would watch us occasionally, I am sure shaking their heads at my feeble attempts to coach my son. I was pretty embarassed, but Garrett didn't seem to be. He kept asking for just one more bucket. We batted for close to three hours (Grant and Gracie took turns as well). I could hardly lift my arm by the end. It felt like a wet noodle.

Well, Garrett had a tournament this weekend here in Washington. During their first game they had loaded the bases. Garrett was up with two outs. I get so nervous when this happens. First pitch he swung and missed. Next pitch he cracked the ball over the center fielder's head, to the fence. He got a double and two RBI's. All of the parents kept coming over to me saying, "I heard you were pitching to Garrett this week. I guess it is working". Garrett batted pretty good throughout the tournament. Maybe he will keep me around a little longer. All I know is that I will probably be having shoulder and elbow surgery in a couple of years, but I will have had some quality time with my kids while they still think I am cool to be around.

Life is good today...

There is a country song on the radio that became the theme song for our vacation. These are the words:
I've got my toes in the water
My [bum] in the sand
Not a worry in the world
A cold drink in my hand
Life is good today
Yeah, life is good today.



A quick shout out once again to Russ for working so hard for our family and earning this fabulous trip for our family. Here he is getting recognized as one of the top 7 service managers in North America who earned this vacation.

Russ' performance in this contest is based on the performance of his employees. He has some great men that work for him. Many of them worked their booties off during this contest, yet only two others from Russ plant earned the trip. Meet John and Tracy...


I am so grateful for these guys who make Russ' job easier (most of the time). Also a shout out to Mike who was 36th in the RSR contest- the top 35 RSR's got to go. We were absolutely heart broken for him. And also to Kurt. This is the first time in like 13 years he didn't earn the vacation, but he finished just behind Mike. Thanks guys! Our family truly appreciates your hard work!



We flew to Puerto Vallarta on Thursday. The kids were very excited for the flights. We flew to Phoenix, had an hour lay over, then flew on to Puerto Vallarta. We flew with one of Russ' co-workers (John) and his wife (Marissa). When we walked off of the plane in Mexico we were engulfed in warm temperatures, slight humidity, and lots of sunshine. I knew I had arrived in heaven. We were all so happy to be on the ground and on our way to the resort. Here we are in the airport.

A tour bus picked us up at the airport and shuttled us to the resort, Paradise Village. We got checked in, given our "all-inclusive" bracelets, and escorted to our condo. We had a small kitchen, two bedrooms with king size beds, two full baths, a huge living area, and a double balcony that over-looked the ocean. It was incredible.
There were basically three restaurants we could eat at. One of the three restaurants hosted a buffet each night with a theme (ie. BBQ, Italian, Neptune (fish), Tropical, etc.). We could eat from the buffet or order from the menu. Each restaurant was located right on the beach with a view of the ocean. The boys ordered rib-eye steaks (we are talking huge-cover the entire plate-steaks) three of the nights. They were in absolute bliss. I was able to have some type of fish everyday... I, too, was in bliss. We had omelets made fresh to order every morning as well as waffles and pancakes, oatmeal, doughnuts, muffins, mexican breakfast casserols, bacon, sausage, yogurt, hashbrowns, salsas and guacomole. They had the greatest fresh fruit juices and all kinds of fresh diced fruit (watermelon, papaya, honeydew, cantaloupe, and pineapple that was to die for). In the afternoon we were served lunch while lying out on the beach or lying by the pool. The staff was so attentive and we felt like royalty. The food was fantastic and I think we each gained about ten pounds.
We also made the mistake of introducing the kids to virgin pina coladas, strawberry daiquiris and our new found favorite- virgin Miami Vices (a mixture of pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris). The kids each drank at least three a day. Gracie's drink of choice was Shirley Temples. Every time we looked at Grant he had some kind of fruity drink in his hand. By the look of some of the pictures of him you would think some of his drinks were alcoholic.

We played in the ocean every morning while the tide was in. Boogie boarding was by far the favorite activity. We had free boogie board rentals each day and we made the most of that. The kids had rashes on their stomaches from the first day of boogie boarding, until their mom taught them to wear their compression shirts. After that you could hardly get them out of the waves. Russ took his two co-workers out on boogie boards the first morning we were there. They were having a hard time catching the hang of it. They kept going out further and further for the bigger waves. Next thing we knew, they were caught and were being pulled out and unable to get in. An Alsco employee from San Diego who is a big surfer helped John in, but poor Tracy had to be rescued on a jet ski. I don't think they liked boogie boarding... we never saw them near the ocean, except to eat, again. Gracie loved playing in the sand and looking for sea shells. I was impressed by her enthusiasm for boogie boarding as well. At first she didn't want to try, but once she did we could hardly get her off of it. I loved to listen to her as she would just giggle the entire ride to shore.

When the tide would go out, we would move to the pool. The pools were amazing. They had huge crocodile water slides, under water caves, perfect temperature water, wading areas, and an enormous hot tub. Little Gracie can finally swim. She has been able to for some time now, but panics very easily. She always insisted on wearing a life jacket, which was great by me because I didn't have to worry about her drowning. However, after spending so much time in the water on this trip, she is very confident and swimming like a fish. She loved the pool and the slides and floating around on her raft, but spent most of her time relaxing in the "hot pool", or jacuzzi.

By our condo they had some caged tigers and parrots. I couldn't believe how close you could get to the animals. The kids thought that was pretty cool. They also liked all of the vegetation around the place, palm trees with coconuts, banana trees, beautiful flowers, etc. They were fascinated by how lush it was. I guess when you grow up in the desert, you would find those things amazing.

It was an amazing vacation. One we will never forget. I don't think the kids thought about school one time. Nor did I think of work. I think this is what heaven will be like.
Thanks Dad! We had the time of our lives. Viva Mexico!!!!