2-27-11 One Year

A year ago today Jacob made the best decision of his life and married me and my two boys :). I won’t dispute the fact that I made a decision equal in greatness when I married him. Time goes by quickly, and yet it feels like it’s always been this way. I’ve already forgotten what it was like when I didn’t know him.  We have had a wonderful year together, becoming our own little family and building a life together. I’m grateful that he takes the time each day to verbally express his love and appreciation for me. He never ceases to make me feel beautiful and amazing and better than all the rest. If you heard the things he said to me, you’d think I were some kind of goddess, and the important thing is that I know he really means it. Happy anniversary, my love. Can’t wait to keep you forever.

This was a very busy week. WPPI (a photography convention) was this week, and it just further solidified my decision to shoot film after listening to some of my favorite and amazingly talented film photographers speak at the convention. That was Monday-Wednesday. I also had YW New Beginnings this week and a camp meeting and an essay and quiz due for school. But I managed to get everything done that I needed to. Miraculously.

Jacob and I haven’t had the chance to celebrate our anniversary yet, but I did wake up to flowers on the kitchen table, and he just surprised me upstairs with the sweetest card and some bubbly (Martinellis). I’m sure we’ll go out this week. It’s much less hectic this week.  Here’s a couple pictures from today.  Easton couldn’t get a sharp picture of us :).

In our jammies, and I’m looking kind of shabby but such is life.

2-20-11 Sickness, Again

Thursday night Teags woke up with a fever and crying about frogs being in his bed. The next morning he seemed fine, and I just figured he’d had bad dreams. But all Friday he kept complaining that his legs hurt, and he was really wobbly and kept falling. He ended up being really feverish again, and it just got worse Saturday, throwing up and just feeling really warm.  But Saturday night he went to bed fine and then woke up in the middle of the night covered in throw up and with a fever of 104. He pretty much remained at 104 the whole night even though I gave him tylenol. So this morning I took him to the doctor (two hour wait with a sick two year old is not fun) and his temp there was 104.5. They tested him for the flu and strep but both were negative, so they sent me to get his lab work done to figure out what he has. Poor guy hated having his blood drawn. And he’s supposed to go back and get it done again Tuesday, but I’ll only take him again if he’s not better. The doctor called tonight and said that whatever he has looks viral, but he didn’t get all the results back so he’ll let me know what’s going on tomorrow.  Jacob and Brother DeMarco gave him a blessing today before we went to do his lab work, so of course that is an added comfort. He’s much better tonight and actually ate and played a bit, but I’m hoping we don’t have a repeat of last night. He was so hot!

So no church today even though I had prepared a really good lesson. Spent the entire day at the doctor’s and getting lab work done. I hate sickness when it effects my children.

I’m working on getting my camera fixed. I should pick it up tomorrow, and then Jacob is getting a new point and shoot, so there shouldn’t be too many more pictureless posts. Just wanted to update, though. I hope this is a good night for these boys! I’ve got WPPI this week, and I really don’t want to miss any of it!

2-14-11 Valentine’s Day

Since I got my blog book back and decided how much I love it, I have a renewed desire to be really good about blogging our family moments and my personal thoughts this year. I’m not one for writing in a journal, but I find blogging to be very relaxing. I like putting my thoughts down into words - it’s quite therapeutic. I’ve also stumbled upon other blogs where people share personal trials, feelings about those trials, and spiritual insights they have throughout those trials, and I always feel grateful when people are open and honest about their lives and the fact that none of us are free of trials and all of us are subject to mortality. That is why I like to use my blog to document not just our events but the spiritual and emotional happenings in our daily lives, the things that shape us into the people we are and will become.

Today is Valentine’s Day, but Jacob and I don’t need a silly day to tell us to love each other. Every day is Valentine’s Day around here. All of that really translates into “We spent the entire day with a 5 year old and 2 year old and had no time for romance.” But we had a really good day today. Jacob had the day off, and Easton and I had a doctor’s appointment this morning with a kinesiologist to try to get to the bottom of why he’s so prone to getting croup all the time.  Hopefully the stuff we found out today will help. I also found out I’m hypoglycemic which explains that nausea and dizzy out-of-it feeling I get if I skip meals or go to long without eating. My thyroid is out of whack as well.

After the doctor  Jacob and I and the boys went to G-Ma Edgel’s to pick up our lovely Valentine’s basket. From there we ran a few errands and then ended up at the library. We take a weekly trip to the library, which I have really grown to love. The boys have so much fun picking out their books and movies and playing puzzles, and it’s something we get to do every week as a family. I’ve never been big on libraries, but Jacob is a regular visitor and is the reason that we started our weekly family outings there.  After the library we went home and hung out for a couple hours. My Teagan has been such a cutie pie these past two days, being less clingy and dependent on me when we’re home. His new favorite thing is to sing “happy birthday to you” but only that same line over and over. It’s really fantastically adorable. So he’s been a delightful treat these past couple days, and Easton is typically always pleasant.

For dinner we went to this local pizza place where we chowed down on some yummy food and Teagan mostly ate ranch. He’s all about condiments and Easton’s all about food ALL DAY LONG. Every time I blink the kid is telling me he’s starving. From there we went to Costco which the boys love because they get frozen yogurt every time.

That was our day, just a lot of family fun time. I love this little family, and I feel so grateful that my boys are blessed with so many people that love them. They have me and Jacob and Adam and Angelica and then all their grandparents, so they are not lacking in the love department.

Something I’ve been very appreciative of lately is the fact that Adam and I get along quite well, and our spouses are really good and supportive about that.  I feel like my boys will be able to grow up and say that their mom didn’t talk bad about their dad and their dad didn’t talk bad about their mom, and they’ll see that we all just love them and want the best for them. I don’t think many children of divorced parents are fortunate enough that their parents have a civil relationship with each other. But since my children are in this situation through no fault of their own, I certainly want it to be as good as it can be. I don’t want my boys to feel like they have 2 separate lives, one with me and then one when they go to their dad’s. I want the 2 to blend together so that they always feel safe and loved wherever they are that day, so that they don’t have to feel like one life is ok and one life is not, or one set of parents loves them more than the other. I just want them to feel secure with me and Jacob and Adam and Angelica and be able to know that we all get along because we love them.

2-11-11 Sickness, Yet Again

I can’t figure out what the deal is with Easton and his inability to be croup free. He was sick for nearly two weeks, and it was finally gone for about a week until last night when he walked into my room at 1 am unable to breathe yet again. Poor kid, he said, “Why does Jesus want me to be sick AGAIN?!” It’s always Jesus’ fault in Easton’s world. I actually think he has so much faith that Jesus will just fix all things that he’s really just baffled when he figures out Jesus doesn’t work that way.  Anyway, I loaded him into the car at 1am determined to get him to the ER where they would fix him, but he ended up sounding better in the car, and I knew it would be a wasted trip just like every other time I’ve taken him in for croup. So I took him in this morning and they just gave him a steroid that’s supposed to help it. The same one they gave him 2 weeks ago. Apparently it didn’t do him too much good.

After all of the sickness in my house, I felt like I was going a little crazy. I couldn’t leave or go out and take the boys to have any fun, so we were all 3 miserable. We finally went to the park this Monday, and the boys ran around having so much fun.

Teagan’s birthday was last Friday, but he was still kind of sick so we didn’t do much. We had a little get together at my parents’ on Sunday and sang to him and had some cake, but he won’t get a big party for a few more years. He doesn’t care one bit, I promise.  He got some presents from us and his grandparents, but really just not too big of a deal.

This Wednesday I had my photography class which went well, but several people cancelled last minute with  sick kids. I can relate, so it was okay. I had a shoot on Saturday and then one yesterday, and both went pretty well.

I feel like so much has gone on this past week since the boys have been feeling better. We finally moved up in the world and got a flat screen tv. I feel so fancy.

My blog book arrived yesterday, which really makes me sad that I haven’t been able to blog for nearly 2 weeks with 2 sick kids sucking all the energy out of me. But that’s okay, I love what I do when I really sit and think about it because if I’m not really sitting and thinking about it, I can kind of forget  that I love it between the boys’ bickering and Teagan’s incessant whining.  It’s a thankless job sometimes, but someone’s got to do it. I think I complained to my mom a couple weeks ago that Teagan creates problems just for the sake of giving mom something to do because he apparently thinks I have nothing better to do. My ever-so-wise mother said, “Well, honey, you really don’t have anything better to do. Nothing is more important than being a mother.” I have thought about that every day since she said that, and even though I’ve always known that, it reminded me that nothing else that I do in my day is even a fraction as important as being their mom.

It was also my mom’s birthday on the 9th, and I didn’t really get to do anything special for her yet, but I will. They don’t make mothers like mine anymore. I certainly don’t measure up to her unhumanly perfect qualities. I like to think that I learned a few things, though. Maybe I won’t completely screw up my children after all. Thanks, Mom.  :)

Oh, here’s what the book looks like. I love it!