Happenings

Henry had a doctor appointment on Tuesday.  He's a whole 2 months old now!  Much to Bubby's dismay, I left both him and Timmy at home with Hyrum and Joshua because I knew Henry would be getting shots and I didn't feel like I could juggle all that.  Henry has sure grown!  He weighed 11 lbs. 7 oz. and was 23 inches long.  Hooray, little fella! :D That doctor says he's growing good, following the curve.  Henry also has an umbilical hernia.  I think everyone from Michael down had one.  Henry's is pretty far out there.  It's like 1/2" tall.  Anyway, the doctor says not to worry, that it will resolve itself, and that wrapping it or pushing it down doesn't really do anything.  Jeremy's been worried about it, but I thought I remembered those things just resolving themselves.  In the meantime it looks kind of weird.  Ha ha!

He also got some shots.  Poor fella!  We both sat and cried for a while when they were done.  He had a fever that night and off and on for the next day, but he seems better now.  Man!  Shots!  I think Jeremy is pretty much opposed to them, but I'm pretty much... uh... not.  It breaks my heart, but I've got to protect my babies.  The only thing is I can't really expect sympathy from Jeremy for my mental anguish at Henry's pain.  Ha ha!  Well, I'm glad it's done and we don't have to do it again for a few months.

Here's something that's random.  Michael had Pinewood Derby a few weeks ago, and the announcer was so fun.  He was cracking jokes and making it just even more fun.  I kept looking up at him thinking, "I know him!  Where do I know him from?  If Jeremy were here I could ask him because surely he'd know!"  Well, a day or two later I realized where I know him from.  He's our doctor. Duh!  Ha ha!  I guess I don't know him a whole lot yet.  He's Dr. Keith at the Gila Valley Clinic.  I've really liked him so far.

Did I talk about the Pinewood Derby before?  I think I forgot.  Well, Michael and Jeremy worked hard on that car.  It ended up that Jeremy stayed home with almost everybody.  I took Michael, Jill, and Henry.  It was good.  They had the track set up in the gym at the stake center, and they had the wards rotate through, so each ward was at a different time.  Our ward partners with 5th ward, though, for some reason.  Anyway, Michael came in 3rd for Webelos.  He came in 3rd for most of the races, but once he came in 2nd.  He was kind of disappointed, but he's happy that he can compete in the district races if we can ever figure out when those are.  He's been begging to do it.  We'll see.

I was supposed to have a doctor appointment on Jeremy's birthday down in the valley.  He took the day off for his birthday, so we thought we'd go have some fun while we were down there too.  Well, we drove to the end of our street and stopped at the gas station, and Jeremy started gassing up the van when we got a call from the doctor's office.  Dr. Joe was sick and wouldn't be in that day.  Ha!  It was supposed to be my 6 week postpartum visit, but we were at like 8 weeks by then.  I didn't reschedule.  I need to get on in there sometime.  I just haven't been in a hurry because this time Jeremy won't have the day off.  I'll have to take myself.  Meh.

Well, that's enough for today.  Here's a picture or two from the Pinewood Derby.

I think you can tell which one Michael is, right?  Dr. Keith is on the stage in the red shirt, and Michael is the second from last scout, so 2nd to the right of Dr. Keith in the picture.

After the races we went to the Relief Society room and had a little awards ceremony while the next ward set up in the gym.  He's Michael with his car. :) He was pretty proud of it.  Last night we had the Blue and Gold Banquet, and they gave all the participants from the Pinewood Derby a stand for their car.  It has the year on it and their name and fastest time.  Cool!

The Blue and Gold Banquet was kind of a circus for me.  Jeremy stayed home with Joshua, who didn't want to go, and Benji, who had a pile of homework.  But it was yummy spaghetti.  And Timmy and Bubby got a billion cupcakes, and a teenager did a magic show. That was fun. :)

Oh, before I forget (And shame on me for almost forgetting!  I guess I always forget the big stuff, right? ;)), Jeremy had more oral surgery yesterday.  I think you'll remember a few months ago when he had all that surgery, right?  On the bottom he had 2 teeth pulled.  They also had to pull one on top near the front, and then they put a screw in and a prosthetic tooth.  The permanent prosthetic one is being made and will finally be in soon.  Anyway, on the bottom where those two teeth were there was a root canal down there that had failed, and the infection was eating into the bone.  They said at the time that he could have died from it if he hadn't been seen.  That's so scary!  Anyway, they put in some stuff to regrow the bone.  If I remember right it's powdered cadaver bone.  I don't know why that works or how they'd know to try that (Ew!), but, well, now that the bone has regrown he was able to have them drill there and put in screws, and after that heals up he'll get two new prosthetic teeth, and he'll finally be able to chew normally.  Phew!  I can't imagine how it's been for him.  One of his favorite foods is steak.  And he really likes veggies too - on the crunchy side of cooked.  I'm not sure where he's been chewing this food because he can't chew with the not permanent front tooth and was missing some molars on the bottom on the same side if I remember right.  And he already was missing a top molar that was extracted right after his mission.  It was abscessed.  Poor guy!  Right at the end of his mission his face was all swollen.  They gave him massive doses of penicillin, and then he got the tooth taken care of when he got home.  Anyway, someday we'll get a tooth there too, but for now - phew!  I'm glad he'll be able to chew again soon!  He's taking the day off today, and I'm glad.  He needs some rest.

Have to say

I have to say, my favorite breakfast lately is instant oatmeal.  It's quick and easy, which I kind of need because I usually have a little Henry demanding breakfast at the same time, and it's yummy!  I especially like the fruity kind.  I like to make the oatmeal and then take it upstairs to my chair where I feed Henry and possibly fall asleep doing something or other on my tablet.  It's cozy and pleasant. :)

It's been warming up around here.  By the evening it feels a little hot upstairs.  Last night it was up to 77 up there.  We turn on the cooler until it gets to 75, and then by morning it's 68 and it feels like we need the heater again.  I'm happy for the warmer weather and hoping it doesn't get hot too fast.  We're thinking of getting a little play house to put in the backyard.  We also need to figure out how to make it so little ones can't escape from the backyard!  And I've been thinking about the fruit trees we planned to plant back there.  I wonder if we'll get around to it this year.  I just don't know.  And speaking of which, Jeremy's dad had to cut down most of his fruit trees because they died.  I think they got those horrible bugs like the ones that are killing the trees in our backyard in Globe.  Anyway, just recently he got some new trees.  I'm hoping they'll work good!  One of my favorite memories at that house was standing under the plumcot tree and eating plumcot after plumcot right off the tree.  Oh, they were so good!  Alas, he couldn't find one of those this time. Darn!

Just as a passing note, Joe and BreAnna are still living in the basement at the house the Aaron and Kenzie are renting.  Aaron and Kenzie's new house is almost done.  It's really close to that little pond that was near Kimberly's old house in Pima.  I think that Joe and BreAnna will probably not be invited to move into that one.  I'm not sure why they're still there.  It sounds like BreAnna wants to move back to Globe, but that's not where Joe's job is.  Anyway, it's a head scratcher.  I'm so glad for Aaron and Kenzie!  And I really wish Joe and BreAnna would move somewhere far where they can't rely on everybody who's been paying their way so much.  It worries me.  Also, I haven't seen them since Christmas Eve.  Funny that we live so close to each other.  But Joe works all week and then they go spend the weekends in Globe.  Really, as much of a pain in the bum as those weekly family dinners turned out to be, I really miss the weekly visiting.

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but Benji is doing band and really loving it.  They start in 5th grade here, so the band he's in is a year and a half ahead of him.  The band teacher, who I'm pretty darn sure I know from flute tooting in years past, is giving him a short lesson on Mondays and Wednesdays after school.  He's so excited about it!  He's playing drums.  He's been working on snare drum.  On Wednesday they were learning a new song, and Ms. Kei, the teacher, pointed out to Benji that he'd need to learn to do a suspended cymbal at one point, and she didn't have time to teach him yet.  (Look that up if you don't know what I'm talking about. You've heard it before, even if you didn't know what it was called.)  Well, on Friday they had a substitute, and he taught Benji how to do it, and he came home so, so excited!  His voice got a little squeaky telling me how awesome it was and demonstrating it over and over.  It delights me to no end to see him so happy and excited.  He cannot wait to surprise his teacher today. :)

I have really been enjoying our new ward.  Some Sundays I spend most of my time sitting in the mother's lounge, but even that has been fun.  I've made some new friends in there and had a great time visiting.  One of them is Jacklyn Trickey from St. Johns, who is married now and I can't remember her name.  I didn't know her before.  A lot of the people from St. Johns who live around here know my younger siblings but are too young to have known me.  Really, it's fine.  It just makes me feel old!  Ha ha!  Anyway, I love her!  She's great fun to talk to.  And at least Jeremy Hunt is in our ward - he's a year older than me. Ha! ;) I finally made the connection which guy is Jordan Pulsipher last week.  I really should get to know his wife (not that I even really know him - ha! Age gap.).  She seems nice.

Anyway, another cool thing about our ward is Sister Whetten.  I'd forgotten what a cool lady she is.  She is really getting old, but she is still so sharp.  She always contributes something meaningful to the Sunday School lessons.  She is someone I really admire.  And she likes me!  She gives me a big smile and hug every Sunday. :) It makes me feel special.

Little Miracles

I woke up with a big fat headache this morning at 5:30. So now as I sit down to type, which I MUST do TODAY, I've got caffeine in my system, which makes me a little loopy.  For the moment, though, I have two hands with which to type, so I'd better make the best of it!

So you may remember that Henry was keeping me sleeping sitting up in that chair.  Well, last week it all started to change.  I figured he'd start sleeping more as he grew, and I guess I was right!  Last week he started sleeping in his bed for 2-3 hour stretches.  That meant I was sleeping in MY bed for 2-3 hour stretches!  And sometimes he'd sleep for 2-3 hours and then nurse back to sleep and then sleep for another hour or two in his bed!  Well, this morning when I woke up he had been asleep for 5 1/2 hours!!!!  Wahoooooo! :D Yes, I woke with a headache and a sore back and a pain in my arch (As long as we're listing pains we may as well be thorough, right?), but I woke up after sleeping in my bed for 5 1/2 hours!  I'm so happy!

Henry is growing great! He's getting too big for some of his newborn things.  He's finally out of newborn diapers, though the last two packages were really starting to not fit.  Had to wait for size 1s to be in stock. ;) For his first month and a bit, though, we were overlapping the tape on his newborn diapers because he was too skinny. He'll be having his 2 month checkup next week and I'm excited to see numbers for how he's grown.  Last time he was at the bottom of the growth chart, but he was following that curve just fine.  I just had to move up the straps on his car seat.  Crazy!  And he'll stand being in his swing for little stretches of time.  He likes to lay in his car seat, though, so I usually put him in there when he naps in the day time.  I've been able to get the dishes done consistently lately, though I still can't get the laundry folded. Progress feels good. :) The only problem is that when I put him in his car seat Bubby comes and messes with him.  He will often pull him right out of there (!), and almost always wakes him up.  Argh!  He sure loves his baby brother. :)

We had a leak in our water line that goes to the fridge.  It turns out that line was just a plastic one wrapped in electrical tape. (!) We noticed one day that there was water squishing around under the laminate when we walked.  Argh!  We thought it was from Bubby learning to get himself water from the fridge, but when it didn't dry out we discovered the real cause.  We were without cold water in the kitchen for a couple of weeks before Jeremy had time to fix it, and now the laminate is warped right next to the fridge, but the lines has been replaced with a copper tube it should have had in the first place, and things have dried out.  One bummer is that the rotating corner cabinet near the fridge is stuck because the particle board beneath it swelled up.  At least Jeremy got it stuck open instead of closed!

Jill's teacher surely thinks we're super disorganized.  Maybe we are, but that's beside the pint. ;) Jill keeps misplacing things. She dumps out her backpack and then her brothers clean the floor and put things away wherever. We lost the card we sign when she reads at home every night.  We put away a clipboard that still had her homework on it and didn't realize it until days later.  And yesterday her reading book was missing altogether.  We looked everywhere!  It turns out it was probably left on the bus.  She was excited about something in her backpack and took everything out of it on the bus.  She almost left the rest of her stuff too.  I hope she remembered to ask the bus driver on the way to school today!

Jeremy just got home last night from another work trip.  He had a conference thing down in Phoenix.  He had to do a presentation for it.  It was something to do with land and water I think.  Anyway, he said that that was the nicest hotel he's ever stayed at.  One thing was that they gave him a $10 credit at the mini bar for signing up for the free WiFi. (?) So he got a $6 bottle of orange juice, which he probably could have gotten from a dollar store for a dollar.  Well, it was gratuitous, anyway, right? ;) He left for the thing on Tuesday after work and got home around the usual time last night.  It really was ok.  The only time I really freaked out... well, I take that back.  I freaked out twice.  Once was Wednesday night stuck waiting in the car for the boys to be done with scouts.  Timmy was going nuts because he was stuck in the car, and that was scaring Henry, and Bubby was going crazy because Timmy was.  The other time was looking for Jill's book yesterday.  Other than that I did pretty good keeping it together. :) I do get better/more patient with age.

Anyway, before Jeremy left for the valley he had a dentist appointment where they made a bunch of impressions so they could order a permanent tooth for the one in front.  He's got a temporary one in there right now.  He'll have the permanent one in a few weeks.  And next week he's going down to the valley to that dentist to get anchors put in for the two lower teeth they pulled.  They put stuff in there to help him regrow the bone, and now it's been long enough so they can put anchors in the bone.  After that's had 6 months or so to heal (I think) they'll be able to put some permanent teeth in there.  I'm so glad!  All this work has been expensive, but to me it'll be way worth it to have it all done!

Jeremy heard about a possible opportunity to work here while he was at that conference.  There's a guy who does Jeremy's job out at the mine here in Safford, and he says he'd really like to move back to Globe.  Maybe they can just trade jobs.  I wonder.  Wouldn't that be cool?!  The mine here isn't close enough that he could come home for lunch, but it's a lot closer than Globe! :D I'm not sure who he has to talk to, but maybe we can work that out.  Maybe we'd better be praying for that.  I wonder if he even wants me to spread the word about it yet.  Oh, well.

Bubby needs his Papa to come and work closer.  He is having a really hard time lately.  Everybody keeps leaving him.  His clinginess level is through the roof.  His playmates all go to school, and his favorite pal (Papa) goes to work from before the sun is up until after it sets.  It's gotten to the point where he freaks out if I stand up sometimes.  He freaks out if he hears a door open, and he runs to try to find me, screaming, "Mama!" in a horrified voice.  Heaven forbid I should have to go into my bedroom.  He is usually not allowed in there.  We keep it locked most of the time.  He messes with Papa's stuff, losing some and breaking and/or writing on the rest when he gets in there.  So if I go in and I know both of my hands are going to be busy I have to lock him out, and it's heartbreaking.  Poor fella.  He cries and cries in such a gut-wrenching, despair-filled voice.  It makes me feel so, so bad.  And though Papa is still his favorite, he doesn't really come to him as much anymore.  He has started coming to me at bedtime now.  That makes me sad for Jeremy.  I know Jeremy would rather have feet in his back or a monkey on his head than nobody to snuggle with at all, especially when Bubby's been so stuck on him for so long.  He doesn't even want to cuddle with Hyrum lately nearly as much.  It's sad.  He used to cuddle with Hyrum every day a few times a day.  I wish I knew what to do to help the little guy.  In the meantime I just try to give him as much cuddle time as I can and take him with me when I go anywhere if I possibly can.  I also try to reassure him if I stand up that I'm just going to throw away the diaper or get lunch or whatever.  If I know that I've got to run upstairs, though, I usually just run.  My hope is that time will fix it.  Timmy went through almost the exact same thing, though not as intense, right after we moved, but he's calmed down.  I think school has been a big help for him.  He LOVES it! :) I'm so thankful he can go to that school!

Well, that's about it for now.  Here's a picture of our cute little guy who has learned to smile. :) Yes, he's losing his hair. ;)

Blessing Day

Our little Matthew Henry Burk was blessed Sunday, February 7, 2016 in the Thatcher 2nd Ward, Thatcher Arizona Stake.  

It was such a lovely day!  We had a bunch of visitors too!  My parents and Jeremy's came, along with Susie, Paul and Carrie with little Taylor, Aaron, my Aunt Stacey and Uncle David, and Uncle Gary and Aunt Bettie.  We didn't get to actually see Uncle Gary and Aunt Bettie, but the rest of those guys - man!  It was great!

The blessing was a nice one, of course.  The thing that stuck out to me was one reason why he's named Matthew.  I don't know if I've pointed it out before, but Jeremy and I both don't really like that name, though it has kind of grown on us a bit.  We just knew that it was supposed to be his name.  I remember when Hyrum was born and we named him John Hyrum.  We knew that that was how it was supposed to be but that we were supposed to call him Hyrum.  That was kind of crazy to me because as I grew up Hyrum was a middle name.  It didn't seem like it could be a first name!  But it works.  It does mix things up a bit, but if you think about it, how many guys come home from their missions and decide they want to be called something different anyway?!  (That's my argument for nicknames, by the way.  I love nicknames!  I've always liked naming and renaming.  I agree with that tribe that changes their given names as they grow and change.  Except I wouldn't change my own name for anything.  That's kind of messed up, isn't it?) So why not just call him by his middle name from the start? ;) Well, now we have a Matthew Henry who we call Henry.  Anyway, of course, we give our children their names for a reason, and, of course, Matthew is someone we would want little Henry to emulate,  In the blessing Jeremy said that one reason why he's named after Matthew is because Matthew had a personal relationship with the Savior and because he wrote that record.  Our hope is that our little Matthew Henry will have a personal relationship with our Savior as well.

And you bet your boots I sewed that tux - cummerbund and all. (I still wish it was spelled cumberbund.) And you bet your boots it has tails! ;) I've wanted to make a baby tux with tails for years, and I finally did!  I found the pattern on Etsy.  It wasn't as hard as I expected.  It just had a billion pieces.

Some of these pictures, including this one, I stole from my Mama.  I love this one! One thing I love best about newborns is their dark eyes.  Stunningly beautiful!

I wish we had a picture of Henry with his Papa - who blessed him!  But I'm happy to have this one. :)

It has been quite interesting being back in this ward with a new baby.  It's the ward we blessed Hyrum in as new parents.  In a lot of ways it feels like our lives have come around full circle, like we've completed a cycle.   Aaron ass if that means we're going to move back to Globe 2 more times. To that I say, "Ha!" And, "No!" :)

We're so thankful for our sweet Henry.  He's the Henriest Henry I ever knew. :)

Sweet boy

Stuff

Ok, first of all, I love this little conversation from Wreck-it Ralph:

Step aside, sir. Random security check.
Random, my behind.  You always stop me.
I'm just a surge protector doing my job, sir.  Name?
Lara Croft.
Name?
Wreck-it Ralph!
And where're you coming from?
Uh... Pac Man!
Did you bring any fruit with ya?
Nope, nope, no fruit. *Hides cherries behind back*
OK, then.  Where're you headed?
Fix-it Felix, Jr.
Anything to declare?
I hate you.
I get that a lot.  Proceed.

It makes me laugh every time.  Lara Croft.  Ha ha!

Also, there's some truth to what Zangief says on that movie.  He points out that he is a bad guy, but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy.  What he means is that he is just doing what he was made to do.  He's still a good guy even though in his game his job is to be the bad guy.  After all, if he doesn't do his job, who would do it?  Who would crush people's heads like sparrows' eggs between their thighs if Zangief didn't?  Just like Zangief, we all have something we were made to do, even if it makes us unpopular.  If we don't do it, who will?

I've also been thinking about video games lately.  I go through cycles where I'll play a little every day for a while and then I won't play for a few weeks.  I've realized, though, that I may just always do that, and I'm ok with that.  I think the biggest reason why I keep going back even though my guildies don't really play anymore is that I'm good enough at it.  I've always liked video games, and though I've never been a stellar player by  any stretch of the imagination, I'm good enough.  With Rift and World of Warcraft there are so many options for game play.  My favorite by far is questing.  I can pick up a pile of quests and knock 'em out and complete them all perfectly.  And I can help with zone event quests.  Though I don't have great enough armor to take on tons of baddies (and I don't have the best character build for whacking super hard either because I'm not willing to pay real money for it), Im good enough, and I can indeed do some good and be of some help.  All that good enough really means something to me.  It feels good.

And if you think about it, we all have things like that, things that we're good enough at, that make us feel good.  I can get something of the same effect from washing the dishes or cleaning the house, except that cleaning, for me, is quite often accompanied with feelings of inadequacy.  I can never find places for everything.  Or I don't have time to put it all away.  Or I washed the dishes, but the walls and cabinets still need wiped down and the floor needs swept.  Or I did the laundry, but I can't seem to get it folded. There's just always an "or" with cleaning.   Same with being a mom or any of the other hats I wear.   I fail at all of my jobs at some point or other, and then I feel like I'm letting the world down, especially the people who mean the most to me.   So I just do what I can when I can and try to call it enough.  With video games, though, if I mess up and die, it's not the end of the world.  I just respawn and try again, and then when I conquer, it feels great!

I guess my point here isn't to complain about housework or to fish for a "you're doing good enough at the housework."  My point is that we all need something where we can safely try and fail and try again and feel like we're good enough at it.  If you find that thing in your life, be it gardening or organizing or whatever, hold onto it, and use it!  That's not to say it should rule your life and take up all your time.  It feels good to get done the things that need done too, even if you're not the best at doing them.  But there's some value in finding something that makes you feel like you're good enough and running with it.  Everybody needs to feel like they're good enough.

I've been working on Henry's blessing outfit.  At least, I've been trying to!  Little Henry likes to be held most of the time. However, I've discovered that if I put him in his car seat he'll sometimes take a nap!  Forget the baby gear that we got for free (the crib) or for $15 (the swing) that we were all excited to have.  He wants the $60 car seat.  I swore I'd never let him hang out in there because I read a story where a baby died when his head flopped over in a car seat and he suffocated.  So sad!  Well, this seems to be the only way I can put him down, so I guess all I can do is keep him right by me and keep an eye on him.  He really seems happy in there.

As for the outfit - it took lots of preparation to get going on it!  I had to do pleats first thing, and then cut out a billion pieces, plus the lining and iron-on interfacing to go with them.  It seemed super overwhelming, but I finally finished cutting it all out on my birthday.  And yesterday I started sewing it, and I got the whole top together! I'm pretty pleased with that. :) Maybe I can get the thing done today.  That would be great.  I've got some cleaning I want to do on Saturday, and I really try to not be sewing while Jeremy's home.

The kiddos seem to be doing pretty good with school.  I'm so glad.  Jill needs to be working on sight words, but she's doing awesome with her letters and with math. I'm so pleased!  Benji and Michael are doing good too.  Hooray for them!  Benji is very pleased with himself because they weren't sure if he'd do ok in 6th grade and he's doing great. :) Benji is also learning to play snare drum and really likes that.  He's been taking some extra after school tutoring from the band director to catch up.  And Timmy likes school and can sometimes tell me a tiny bit about what he did there.  He gets so excited when his bus comes.

The only downside is getting the three out the door in the morning (They never want to get out of bed!) and then fact that Bubby gets lonely.  Poor fella.  I need to take him to the park more often.  Maybe as it warms up we will.  Our house is so cold!  The insulation and the air ducts are both kind of lousy.  Jeremy got a little heater for the living room because we were running out of wood and couldn't get more at the time.  It helps, but it takes a long time to heat up the yellow room (family room).  Eventually, it helps the kitchen and living room as well.  I'm thankful for that!  Anyway, with it being cold inside and out I tend to want to stay put.

I really like living here in Thatcher.  It's such a better environment for the kids.  It has such a better feeling.  And though we keep finding more things in the house that need fixed, it's a great place to be.  I'm thankful.  I just wish we had a job here in town.  I'm ready for Jeremy to be home more like he was before.  I miss having him come home for lunch.  Bubby is such a Papa's boy.  He's really been struggling with his abandonment issues with everybody leaving all the time.  He freaks out when I go in my bedroom.  I often have to lock him out when I go in there because he goes right for Papa's stuff.  I feel so bad for him, but what can I do? :(

Well, that's enough for now.  I'll post pictures of Henry in his blessing outfit after the big day this Sunday!  I'm so excited! :D And we don't have to wait forever to bless him like with Jill, Timmy, and Bubby.  What a blessing that is!  I feel so thankful!