Kidney Update

So, Pete had surgery Tuesday morning. When they went to get his stone, it went back up into his kidney.

*sigh*

The anesthesia made him really sick, and kind of made him trip out, I think. I visited him early in the afternoon, and he was just staring at the wall, all hunched over. Me: Pete, how are you doing? Pete: I feel weird. Me: Are you nauseous? Are you in pain? Pete: I feel weird. Me: Can I help you out somehow? Pete: I feel weird.

Quite the productive conversation.

Later he felt better. And now he knows to never do drugs.

Pete will probably feel like crap again today, because he had to go in and get his kidney blasted with sound waves to break up the stone this morning.

When the nurse, named "Loopy" (no joke) was checking Pete in, she asked if we had a living will. I said, "No, but I know what to do if something goes wrong," and made the slit-your-neck motion. Loopy said, "I told my husband he wasn't allowed to die, that I'd keep him around somehow." I'm all, "Like stuff his dead body?" Loopy: I had four little kids. I needed help. Me: "Kids, if you don't behave, you'll have to go sit on Dead Dad."

I really hope this is the last of it. Going to the hospital over and over is getting a little old.

Oh, and if anyone has any money they don't need, feel free to send it my way. Because dang.

Just Can't Get Enough!

A couple of Sundays ago, this happened:

How, you may ask? Pete sat down. Yep. Just plain old sat on Ivy's bed, and the frame broke. Just add it to the list, my dear. Here's a closer look:

We "fixed" it. It's very white trash, but we turned the bed around so you can't tell. (We drilled long boards along the frame on both sides. I should submit it to the website There, I Fixed It.)

That day at church I was joking with a couple of friends about "what's going to break next? a kid's arm?"

...

...I shouldn't have done that.

Because then our cute little Tuna decided to up and croak. This is all I have left of it now:

It was about time, I guess. It should have probably lasted only about 6 years, and it lasted 12 years. My stomach started getting all churny at the thought of having a car payment again. Ugh.

But.

Look at Tuna's replacement!

I think this car was especially meant for us. It's a Chevy Cobalt, it has five million buttons in it (including seat warmers-how cool is that?), we got it at a great price at a great rate... I'm still trying to think of a name for it. But our minivan doesn't have a name, so maybe it will be nameless for a while.

In the non-broken side of my life, my parents decided to be all awesome (like they always are) and got me some new trees for my backyard!

I can't wait until they're all big and pretty and giving us lots of shade.

This one has lost a lot of leaves, though, in the insanity we Idahoans call "wind". (If I could, I would seriously dome my whole backyard. Like a big greenhouse or something. Stinking wind. Which blew all five copies of my Sunday paper all over my neighbor's backyard yesterday. Sheesh.)

So, back to the whole "what's going to go wrong next?" You know, besides car wrecks, and sickness, and broken air conditioners, and cameras, and other car deaths, and beds. That's right! The fun hasn't stopped there!

Pete is back in the the hospital today, with his 6th kidney stone. (No matter what/how much he drinks, he will always produce stones. He's just lucky that way.) You can read about his last experience here and here. Pete went in last Thursday, and the doc told Pete to take some drugs and he should pass it on his own. Things seemed fine, until last night, when his pain came back with a vengeance. After a few very frustrating hours at the hospital, and a 2 a.m. call to our urologist, Pete got admitted to the hospital in the wee hours, and he'll be getting surgery tomorrow.

Today I had this song running through my head. (I can't POSSIBLY imagine why. *sigh*)

(P.S. Young Dave Gahan looks like Shia LaBeouf. And 80s dancing is really funny.)

"Ketchup"

When I was little, my mom told us that her brother and dad were...hiking? skiing?...doing some sort of activity, and my grandpa would look back at my uncle, and say, "Catch up, Kurt! Catch up!" To which my uncle replied, "Mustard, Dad, mustard!" I don't know if that story is even true, but I thought it was funny when I was young.

Anyway, I've been tired of feeling all behind on, oh, my LIFE, so I thought I'd highlight some of the things that have been going on in the last little bit.

A few days after Jake's birthday, we went down to Salt Lake to see Lion King, and on to Spanish Fork to see Pete's fam.

The car ride down was uneventful...


So, my sister Kar couldn't go, because she went into labor on the 10th! I mentioned that it was raining a bunch on Jake's birthday. When Karlenn came to get her son after the party, she stepped outside on our wet steps, and slipped and fell on her butt. I felt so bad, at first. But then when I found out she went into labor the next day, I was like, hey, go me! Because my sister was absolutely miserable, and I thought maybe her falling down my stairs started her into labor. And since her baby was done cooking, then labor was a good thing.

My dad, at first, thought he wouldn't be able to go, either, because he was in the hospital on Monday morning (same day as Jake's birthday), with some sort of pancreatic pain. They didn't know what was going on. It was kind of creepy to me to see my dad in the hospital-he's NEVER sick. He'll get a cold, like, once every 5 years. So to go from that to hospital was quite the shock. Turns out, though, that his pain went away, and everything is fine. So he got released Thursday morning, and Thursday night we were in SLC.

It was a little weird to have two family members in the hospital at the same time for two totally unrelated events.

Anyway, my sister Lex and her boyfriend, me and Pete, and my parents all ended up going. We ate at-where else?-Benihana for dinner. YUM! Here's me and my gorgeous sister:

Seriously, she could be a part-time model.

My awesome brother-in-law ended up watching our kids (we owe you one, Fatboy!) during dinner and the show, so for 6+ hours. He even watched some Garfield movie with my kids. What a good sport.

Lion King was AMAZING!!! I totally started crying during the opening scene. I forget how powerful live shows can be. The costumes were incredible. My favorite singer was the lady that played Rafiki, the old monkey. She could do the clicking tongue African language (not sure what it's called-I'm really cultured in that way). I liked the special effects they had, too. Like during the scene of the wildebeest stampede-they started a scroll showing them far away, then moved some people in closer with small wildebeest heads, then some people in closer with bigger heads, then people came in with really big wildebeest heads. It looked so cool. They also had a few more songs added; they were so moving.

Pete and I posed outside after the show the way some of the lion people posed:


And here we all are (me, Pete, Dad, Mom, Lex, Chris):

Thanks, Mom and Dad! It was such a great show!

We stayed in SLC that night, then headed down to Pete's parents' house. We played down there the rest of the weekend. And because I suck, I have no pictures. We watched movies, had a barbecue, slept a ton (except for Ivy, who slept like crap the whole time), and relaxed a lot.

In other "ketchup" news, Brock lost his first tooth!


He didn't even cry. (Jakob screamed and cried with every single tooth, except one.) Now he's wondering when his new tooth is going to come in. I told him drinking milk would help his teeth be strong. I think he's expecting to wake up to a full-grown tooth, though. He looks so grown up!

Well, I still have more to catch up on, but that's all I have time to write about right now. More ketchup later.

7, 8-9-10

This year was Jakob's 7th birthday. I can't believe it!

Here's my lazy man's "cake":


Every other year, the kids can have a friend party. Jake invited over a few neighborhood boys, and his brothers, and we had a swimming party. Well, I should say, we attempted to have a swimming party. It decided to rain on and off -mostly on- the whole time. When they weren't outside, they were eating pizza, opening gifts and playing with them, and eating cupcakes. (Little boys can really pack it away!)

When it wasn't raining, the kids had a blast with the slip and slide and the Waterpillar and the spray guns. I told them all to make awesome poses for me. Here's Cardon:

...and Jake:

...and Jaden:

...and Austin.

The kids moved the Waterpillar under the trampoline. Here's Dylan:

Jakob kept saying "Mother Nature hates us!"-because of the rain. At one point I made all the boys eat their cupcakes outside, but then it started raining really hard, so they came back in.

Ivy was the only girl. She had a BLAST! When all the boys were freezing, and wrapped in towels inside, she was still running around outside, playing in the water.

After the friend party, Jake opened the rest of his gifts. We made him close his eyes when we brought out his new bike.


He got a lot of Bakugan toys. This is his new awesome face that he makes when I say "smile for me".

We ate at IHOP for dinner, which was very yummy. Good pick, Jakob!

My Jakob has been growing up way too fast. He's a really great helper-he'll always run and get things for me and for Pete, and for his siblings. He's enthralled with Pete's computer game, Starcraft 2, and he's pretty good at it, too. Jakob is a wonderful big brother-he always includes his brothers and sister in the things he's doing. He has a great sense of humor. Jake has a really cute smile. His faith is growing as fast as he is-he says really sincere prayers. (Quick story: he had to give a talk in primary, and was really nervous. He told me later that he said a prayer to make him not nervous, and it helped him a lot.) He reads like the wind, and always says he hates school, but I think deep down he likes it a lot. He's a smart cookie, and so creative. He's great at making paper airplanes. I taught him the two bunny-ear way of tying shoes, but he wanted to learn the "adult" way of tying, and picked it up after two tries. He loves riding his bike, jumping on the trampoline, and making spaceships/forts. Jakob is such a sweet boy, and I love him a ton.

The Big 4

My Troy Boy turned 4 at the beginning of August. Crazy. The day was pretty chill, and the kids still went to swimming lessons. For dinner he wanted to go to McDonald's, of course.

Until his birthday, he insisted that the number 3 was part of his name. Not any more, though. Now he's too cool for "3".
Then we had family members come over for the opening of gifts. He got a Buzz Lightyear, and a Batmobile and a Batcopter, a Mickey Mouse movie...


...and a new bike! He kept trying to ride the other boys' bikes, but he's just a tad too short (stumpy) for them, so we got him a slightly smaller bike that will still fit him next summer. (And then hopefully we can pass it down to Ivy in a few years.)


I did lazy cakes this year (as compared to last year). (Seriously, I feel more busy, but I think I'm just getting lazier. Hmmm.) I was just going to write "Happy birthday" all nice-like, but the icing came out all crazy, and I didn't want to scrape it off. So I just went with it, and tried to make it look like it was on purpose. Not my best work, but I don't think Troy cared all that much.

Although the kids are eyeing it all funny-like...

I love my Troy. He loves to cuddle. He's SUPER ticklish. I love that he always has a messy face. I love how sincere he is. I love that he insists on wearing his Bumblebee shirt over and over. He wants to be involved in everything, and thinks that he can do anything his brothers can do. He's SO excited to start preschool. I love that I can kiss his hurt better. He loves his grandmas, a ton. He's a climber, and a little gymnast in the making. I love his cute little tummy that's disappearing with age. He loves to help me with laundry and dishes and dusting. He's a definite morning person. He still will fall asleep in the afternoon, but even with a nap will go to sleep instantly at night time. I love his cute little Hobbit feet and his huge smile.

I'm so glad he's mine!

Summer FAIL, Complete with Tantrum

I AM SO NOT READY FOR SCHOOL TO START ON MONDAY! AAAAEEEEE!!!!!

I keep hoping that if I DON'T blog about my kids' birthdays, and our car dying, and going to SLC and visiting Pete's fam, that I can somehow prolong summer, and that it's not really coming to an end.

my gorgeous gladiolas

But yesterday it was all chilly outside, and fall was in the air. *sigh*

I love fall, and I love school routine (because then I actually get things done), but my lazy summer has been so nice.

Yet, my summer has FAIL written all over it. I know that's exactly opposite of what I just said. (Lazy, wonderful summer equals summer WIN, right?) But. Ivy potty trained? FAIL. Downstairs family room painted? FAIL. Nasty cold for three weeks? FAIL. Car wreck on the 4th of July weekend, which bummed me out, and so we didn't even buy fireworks? Triple FAIL.

I guess I'm not ready for summer to end because all of these craptastic things happened amidst the awesomeness. Also? I'm not ready to get up early. I've been really trying the last couple of weeks. FAILING that, too. Grrr. Me and the snooze button-we've become tight in the last little bit. Which worries me, because how am I supposed to get my own body, along with another, up and at 'em, and out the door at 7:30?

Please, someone. Invent a Time Pause Button. I could really use it.

Photographic Evidence

Hey, look what I got!


So now I can take a lot more pictures like this:

And like this:

We've been having an awesome, way too short summer. I can't believe school starts in a little over a week! Yikes!

But, it's been fun. The boys did swim lessons. Jakob swam like a spaz, like he always has.

Brock, taking it so seriously. He improved a ton-he would actually put his face in the water by the end of lessons.

And Troy, who always managed to find me up above the swimming pool, and smiled his huge grin at me the whole time.

We took the kids to a drive-in movie, too. Pigging out is the best!

Idaho summer nights can't be beat! We have too few left...