Day 4

This is not what I'm suppose to be doing. I would be in deep do-do if Steve saw this!!

This is what I'm suppose to be doing......boring.

Still hangin' in.

I took these pictures of Nathan making his 2 dimensional snowman. It's only about a foot thick but I thought it was pretty cool.

Since taking them though the poor snowman tipped over.

Last night was a bad night for my foot. It hurt so bad and the meds took a while to kick in. But by 2:30 or 3am they started working and I got some sleep. So you can guess what I did all this morning........slept.

Now....I'm on some mental meds of m&m's and diet coke. Life is better now :)

Black is in

This will be my new fashion statement for the next 6 weeks. Maybe I could decorate it so it has a little more personality. Today was a lot better day and here's why......

1. I didn't throw up
2. I got a shower. Easier said than done!!!
3. The lortab is working and so my foot isn't hurting as much... but I live in a fog.
4. Jaron is making dinner
5. Nathan is doing some laundry
6. I got some Ben&Jerry's chocolate ice cream from Michelle (RS Pres.) Thank you so much!!!

Now that I'm feeling a little better I want to go and do stuff. But when I do someone is yelling, "Mom (or Lori) sit down!"
I can tell the next 4 days are going to be rough for my family.

A bad morning

At 1 this morning I woke up to horrible pain in my foot. All numbness was gone so I took some pain meds. About a hour later it was slowly easing up so I fell back to sleep. At 6:30am I was running....more like hobbling as fast as I could to the bathroom cuz I was sick!! I don't know if it was the anesthesia or the pain meds. but nothing was going to stay in my stomach. I couldn't keep anything down. I finally called the dr. and he called in some anti nausea and different pain meds. I had to wait another hour for the pharmacy to open and for Steve to get them. So by noon I was done throwing up. At least that is what I'm planning. So far so good :)
I was off of pain meds for several hours during all of this and omg........my foot was throbbing. So glad to be back on them. Steve was (still is) a trooper putting up with all of this. I know one day we'll look back at this and laugh......maybe. No pictures today :)

Big Foot

Before reading this.....just know that there are some drugs in my system so if it sounds a little off or bizarre, it's the drugs talking.....not me :) Steve and I had to be at the hospital at 6am for my surgery at 7. I'd have to say that is early!!! I couldn't eat or drink after midnight and being there at 6 I really wasn't awake enough to get hungry. Did all the tests, weight, height, heart, blood pressure and pregnancy.......guess what? I'm not pregnant....Ha ha. The anesthesiologist put me under but it was really light so I kept waking up during it. I think they said before I went out how they were going to put a tourniquet or something around my leg during surgery so I remember waking up to see if my leg was still attached to me by wiggling my toes or moving my foot a little. I'm sure the dr. didn't like that but then I would go out again. I'm not sure how many times I did this.
The surgery was only two hours. I had a bone shortened, a joint fixed and some bone spurs removed.
For the next six weeks I will be wearing a lovely black boot but for one week I'm suppose to stay off of it. I think I did pretty good today not driving anybody nuts but this is day one. I like to move around and keep busy and I believe my family will suffer with me being stuck to the couch for the next 6 days.

Grandboys

Yesterday the guys made snowmen but while they were busy Maddox was doing some snow exploring. He discovered it's cold and it tastes good. Steve took tons of pics. of Maddox scooting around to get more snow.

Yum!!!!!

He loves being outside in it and wasn't happy when he had to go in.

I love this picture of Timothy and Kingston. I can't believe how fast Kingston is growing and how much he is changing. He is such a cutie......so is T :)

Men making snowmen

Since Emily and I made snowmen (snow-woman) the guys wanted their turn today. They are a lot more morbid than Emily and I are.

They wanted to make them in the front yard instead of the back. Emily wanted to help cuz she knew exactly how it was to be done.

There was lots of heavy lifting of the snowballs and some of them fell apart.

Ok.......Jaron's has a shovel in it's head.

Christopher and Nathan put a saw in theirs......see what I mean?

We all had fun and Steve, Lesa and I had fun watching them.

Tomorrow I will blog on all the fun pictures we took of Maddox.

Lori and Emily Make a Snowman (and Snow Woman)

A beautiful snow as settled over the valley and Lori and Emily decided to make a snow man. I couldn't resist blogging (mostly because Lori was being too picky about the pictures and I thought these needed to be shared!)

















First Making a Snowman is hard work:

















And it takes getting down into the snow.

















Sometimes you are just not sure which direction your creative energies should take.

















So you pray for guidance

















And things go better and move forward.

















And when it's done it is often surprising how well it turns out (and how realistic!).

















And if you readers don't like it?

Friends

What would we do without friends. Since before Christmas, my little group of friends have been wanting to get together and have lunch. With Christmas and everything going on it got pushed back to today. We went to Kneaders.....found a booth and stayed there for 3 hours talking. Time flew. When we left the restaurant it was just about empty.

I have awesome friends and don't know what I would do without them. Thanks guys!!!

Returning Home

Jaron is my third son to come home from a mission. And he was a great missionary out there as well as Timothy and Christopher were too. With all three of them leaving and coming back I have learned a lot about missions and mission presidents.......some good and some not so good.

It's made me think a lot about Nathan leaving and what he will be going through. What kind of mission president will he have. I'm not too worried cuz a friend of mine, daughter, knows him personally and says he's great......so I feel a little better.

Every day I see Jaron getting more and more use to life at home. I think it has taken him the longest to adjust but he is getting there......and he's happy. I have been doing a lot thinking about what goes on out there in the field and what they are told. I don't mean to sound negative but as a "mom" I can't help but worry about some of the things I hear. I guess with Nathan leaving that I will just have to have faith that he will be fine and do lots of praying :)

But wait...there's more

I know every one's life is so busy but there are just some days that you just go and go and go. I had kids appointments overlapping and if they didn't end right on time then someone had to wait. My dentist is horrible at going over time. I didn't have to go but Jaron did. I've learned to double the time they say it takes........and I'm usually right. He had a one hour appointment and it took 2 hours. So Nathan was stuck making dinner but he didn't mind since it was Bear Creek soup and all you do is add water.

With all the craziness I did go out to lunch with my friend Lisa. Me and Lisa were band mom's together a couple of years ago. She was president and I'm not sure what I was but I helped. But we went to Kneader and talked (and ate) for 1 1/2 hours. It's so therapeutic and so much cheaper than a therapy session. It was a blast!!

So has anything exciting happened here lately?.......no, not really. Just normal life. So on days like today....I eat brownies!!!

Pierced Ears

Emily took a huge step today......she decided to get her ears pierced. Lesa has also been wanting to get hers done but has been very patient waiting for Emily to decide.

As you can tell by this picture that she is nervous as heck about this decision. She was scared that it would hurt really bad.

She wanted both ears done at the same time. She was squeezing my hands really hard!!!! But she did it and she said that it really didn't hurt that bad.

Maddox was very patient through the whole thing.

Then Lesa got hers done. She wasn't half as nervous as Emily was......I don't think she was nervous at all.

It made it more fun having both of them get their ears pierced at the same time.

On the way home.....from wrestling

Russ, Cristy, Luke and Lacy stopped by this afternoon on their way home from Luke's wrestling tournament.

Ain't they cute???

Nathan made his "FAMOUS" spaghetti for dinner. It was delicious!!!

Then we sat around and told stories of the past and laughed our heads off. There is nothing like a good laugh!!! And there was a lot of it!

Maddox and Jare-bear........I'm so glad he's home :)

When I was 29.

I was 29 when I had Nathan. When he got to be around 5 or 6 months old he was so clingy. I think it's normal for kids to be clingy to their mom and Nathan was no exception. He wanted to be held most of the time so it wasn't unusual for me to vacuum or do the dishes with him in the backpack. Sometimes it was the only way I could get things done.

At 9 months he was up and running so it didn't last long.

Lester

Emily asked the funniest thing last night. She was reading the scriptures and came downstairs and asked Steve.......who is Lester?

Steve's like......Lester? There's no Lester in the scriptures.

Emily said that it says........and the heavens opened and there was Lester.

Steve laughed and said.....no, that's luster.

All of us got a huge laugh out of that one!!!!

I don't think I will be able to ever read that scripture the same way :)

Blogging-Journal-Photo Album

For Christmas, Steve made our (more like my) blog into a book. I told him I thought of the blog kinda like an extended photo-journal. So for Christmas he made a book of the past year of blogging. So now it's expected of him to give this to me every year.

I love looking through it. It has the birth of both of my grandson, Emily's dancing, Steve's trips, Jaron's mission and Nathan's graduation....plus more.

So I'm thinking what I also might do (since this is going to be put into a book for Christmas this year) is put some old pics on of the kids and write the story behind the picture. So get ready kids.....and Steve......some fun pics are going to be put up soon :)

Pictures of the day

These are two pictures of Kingston that I have received lately from Jess. It kinda like a little daily dose of Kingston I get every day since they live in California. He is such a beautiful little guy.
The top pic. is Jess with Kingston with their bird, Bindi.......I think.

Look at those big, beautiful blue eyes!! Thank you so much for the pictures Jess!! Keep them coming :)

Strange

Yesterday was a weird day. I went to the gas station to get gas and my yummy diet coke fountain drink when this middle aged guy approached me. He started asking me questions about my car. So I answered him. There's been a few people who have before to see what kind of gas mileage I get. Then he stared asking me where I was from.....where I worked.....if I wanted to change jobs. etc. etc. By this time he kinda creeping me out so I lie to all of his questions. Then he gets out paper and a pen and wants my name and phone number.

WHAT?

Of course I didn't give it to him. I don't think I have been picked up for over a billion years. I got in the car and drove off and immediately called Steve. One thing that I did find out.......I'm a really, really good liar!!!!

Another weird thing too. I was at Walmart and a kid (mid-twenties. He's still a kid) was going around asking for money for gas. He asked me and of course, I had already been stripped clean of money from the kids. But a few Walmart security guys caught up with him and I got to watch them escort him off of the property. Kinda fun to watch.

Overall.....just a weird day. I caught a bad cold so I hung out the rest of the day on the couch....a safe place to be.

Being 12

Emily is so fun!! For Jaron's homecoming talk she wanted me to put curlers in her hair. She really wants curly hair......and I want straight. Never happy I guess.
Then she went upstairs and painted her nails.



She slept with the curlers in. Her hair does not like to curl but it stayed curled most of the day.

She's all ready to hear Jaron!!

Jaron's homecoming :)

Jaron gave such a awesome talk today. I have to say that I was so, so impressed......it was so good!!! A half hour before sacrament meeting Klint, Mary-jo and their family surprised us by coming down. It is ALWAYS so much fun seeing them. Emily and Kiera are inseparable when they get together. Thatcher and Charly love playing with their older cousins.

After sacrament meeting we all met at our house and ate tons of food. Darrell and Dyann came, so did Steve and Jill Waters, Brett and Kira, and Dena and Trent too.

After we ate, Steve Waters brought his drums and did a drum circle. Then we insisted on Jaron playing the ukulele for us too.

Overall......it was a incredibly fun day. But now I'm exhausted. In 2 1/2 months.......come back.....Nathan's farewell!!!