Goin's On

We had kind of an interesting day yesterday.  Jeremy went to work like normal and I got the three middle kiddos off to school.  Then I was running around and texting Jeremy like normal, and I dropped my phone out in the driveway.  It landed face down, and while the screen did not crack, it now has a bunch of beautiful colorful lines and black stripes.  It doesn't respond to touch, so I can't answer calls or text or even get in to tell my phone to trust my computer so I can get my pictures off.  Good thing I took pictures off 2 weeks ago and posted a few favorites since then onto Facebook!  Anyway, I've got to take it in to Verizon and have them send it away to be fixed.  Right now it's sitting in my dresser, but I can faintly hear my alarm going off.  It's a nice song.  It's Mindy Gledhill singing Golden Slumbers.  It's been going since 6:00, and it's now 8:47.  I can't shut down the phone, and I can't stop the alarm, so I suppose it'll keep going until it runs out of battery.  So just FYI, if you need to get me, call Jeremy's phone.  He has a phone at work, so he told me I could use his until mine is fixed.

I tell ya, it's been a bad year for me with electronics.  There was that hoo hah with my computer, which I'm still trying to recover from.  (At least I learned.  I've now been backing up my work at least once a week.) And then that tablet with a keyboard that I got for Christmas (We found a good deal at Black Friday and got one for me, one for Jeremy, and one for Hyrum.) - one day a month or two ago I had it on the arm of the couch, and as I stood up I leaned on it, and it cracked all the way from one side to the other.  It now doesn't respond.  We'll get it fixed eventually.  I did have one piece of good luck, though, with electronics this year.  The Galaxy tablet Dad gave me was not charging.  (That's not the good news.  Bear with me.)  I've actually had quite a bit of trouble with charging it over the last 8 months or so.  I even got a whole new charger and it still got progressively worse.  After a while it just wouldn't charge anymore.  Finally, I decided to give it one last try, and I ordered a new cord from Amazon.  It came slow boat from China, so it took a few weeks to get here, but when it did get here it worked!  So I have a working tablet after all.  Eventually, I'll get the other one fixed, and that'll be nice! The kiddos like to steal the Galaxy, so it's not always available when I want it.  Gee, I'm spoiled!  Oh, and the new cord is 6 feet long.  I didn't really need it to be that long.  That's just the size I ended up ordering.  It's been so handy, though!  All cords should be that long!

Anyway, so after that mess with the phone I got my 3 little ones ready and went to meet Jeremy in Globe.   He took me to see the work that's been done on the house.  It's been painted and the walls are spotless white.  Tile has been laid in the hall and the bathroom, and it looks nice!  They were fixing the siding where it's peeled off, and they added trim around the hole Jeremy cut in the kitchen wall.  They've done all sorts of things.  I'm really happy with it!  And after they finish with our house they're scheduled to start working on the house across the street.  Hooray!  You remember that old broken down house where people came whistling for drugs in the middle of the night, right?  Yeah!  Somebody bought it and they're going to fix it.  I'm so glad!  

After that we stopped by the Verizon store.  We didn't drop my phone off, but I kind of wish we had.  We had a couple hare-brained schemes about my phone, but in the end we're just going to get it fixed, I guess.  I need to go find the Verizon store here and send it off.

Then we had a little bit of time, so we went to see Grandma for a few minutes and feed Henry.  It was a nice little visit.

And then we headed down to the valley.  Jeremy had a dentist appointment and I had a doctor checkup.  I think that was the last appointment he'll have with that dentist unless someday he wants him to help him get a tooth where he got that one pulled right after his mission.  His mouth has healed up well around those titanium screws, so now all that remains is a few more months until he can get his new teeth.  That will be so nice!  I've been thankful that we've had the money and insurance to get all that done!  It's scary to remember that if he hadn't had those ones on the bottom fixed it could have killed him!  Thank heavens for the marvels of modern dentistry!

And my doctor visit went good too.  Things are going good.  And I've lost about 20 lbs. since before Henry was born.  Hooray!  I still have some work to do to get back down to where I should be, but progress!  Wahoo!  And it's always nice to see Dr. Joe.  He gave the boys cookies too. :)

We got In-n-Out on the way home.  Yum!  And the house was still standing. ;) I'm glad to be home today.

Tom has a YouTube channel where he talks as he shows how to play games he's been working on.  I'm not really interested, but Hyrum sure is. :) That's his kind of thing.  I do like hearing Tom's voice as Hyrum watches, though.

Henry turned 4 months old!  Here are some pictures.

He's getting stronger and has been trying to sit up.  He's also pretty good at grabbing things now.  Good thing I wear my hair up. ;) He can grab toys.  Once they're out of his field of vision, though, he forgets he's holding them.  And the poor little fella has been sick. :( Last week Bubby was coughing with a fever and runny nose, and now this little fella is doing the same, minus the fever, thank goodness!  It's so sad to hear my little guy cough. :( He's growing and doing great otherwise, though.  We got to see his cousin Jesse yesterday (Joe's boy), and Henry is a little shorter than him but seems to be about the same weight.

Speaking of Joe, I think I told you they moved back to Globe, right?  They were living with Jeremy's parents, which Jeremy's dad was not happy about, but now they have moved into a little house on 4th Street. (That's the street that is so steep it'd give you nightmares!  Ha ha! Just kidding.  But it is really steep.) Joe got a job at the mine, and BreAnna has gone back to school.  She's going to the alternative school.  It sounds like a great place.  She's able to work at her own pace and may be able to graduate at the same time as her class that she was with at Globe High School.

And also speaking of school, did I mention that Aaron and Kenzie were thinking of adopting BreAnna's little brother?  He lived with them for a few months until they just could not handle him anymore.  It's sad.  He has no respect for anyone or anything.  We were all hoping that Aaron and Kenzie could help him, but after a while it was pretty apparent that he would not be helped.  He was lying and stealing and being a jerk.  So he's back in Globe.  I'm not sure how he'll ever get through school because he gets kicked out.  I guess we'll see.  I'm glad for Aaron and Kenzie, though.

Man, it's been such a mess!  After Joe and BreAnna got kicked out of our house they went to live in the basement of the house that Aaron and Kenzie were renting, and things really went sour.  BreAnna is so immature.  It's just sad.  When Aaron and Kenzie were getting ready to move to their new house Joe and BreAnna told them they were going to move back to Globe and live with Mom and Dad for a while.  They said they'd already discussed it with them.  Well, it turns out they hadn't discussed it with them.  So on Henry's blessing day during dinner the subject was brought up in conversation, and that led to Aaron and Dad going out to have a discussion in the car while Mom and Kenzie had a quiet discussion on the couch.  That was super awkward!  And when BreAnna found out that Aaron and Kenzie had discussed it with Mom and Dad she got super mad and texted Mom that Aaron and Kenzie won't let them make their own decisions and are just awful, which everyone who has a brain knows is just a complete lie.  And so she then avoided them like the plague, staying down in the basement 24/7 and hiding under the covers whenever anybody had to go down there.  

Oh, the drama!  I hate it.  I think she's upset with us too because we kicked her out.  What else could we do?  I don't regret doing it even a little.  She is just too young to be in her situation, and she's introducing teenage girl drama wherever she can.  It's lame.  So now we don't get to see Joe ever.  I just don't know how this could ever be fixed, especially when they are given a free ride so often and not left to figure things out on their own. Man! 

Moving on.

Jeremy is buying a truck!  It's kind of funny how it happened.  There's a lot that the mine owns that people like to put their vehicles on for sale.  They're not supposed to, though.  So one of Jeremy's jobs is to find those vehicles and get the people to get them off mine property.  So last week there was a trailer there for sale, and when he called the guy, the guy said, "Well, do you want to buy a trailer?"  Jeremy said, "Well, actually, no.  I don't have a truck to haul it with."  The guy said, "Well, do you want to buy a truck too?"  He offered him a pretty good deal on the truck and trailer together.  Jeremy has actually been looking for a truck to buy for some time now and praying for it.  It would be such a blessing!  Anyway, long story short, he's buying this one with the trailer.  Too bad we didn't have it when we moved, huh?  Ha ha!  I'm so glad for him!  He'll still use the little car to commute because you can't beat the gas mileage, but it'll be so nice to have this truck.  Especially with Hyrum about to turn 16 in September!  Wahoo!

I took Hyrum to get his permit on Thursday.  It's so exciting, huh?!  It will change his life!  He didn't pass the test, and he was so sad!  It was all those questions about how many feet, you know?  Poor guy!  He can try again this Thursday.  On the way home we were exclaiming about how that was dumb, that what are you supposed to do - get out a tape measure to make sure you're not parked too close?  So we decided we needed to install a tape measure on the front of our car and it would extend super slow and then we'd look and say, "Nope.  Too close," and start again.  We went on and on with it and we were laughing so hard our sides hurt.  Good times. :)

Michael has a good friend named Elwyn Lash.  She lives just a few houses down the street from us.  She's in his church class and the class next to his at school, and they and some other kids play together at recess.  I like her!  She's nice, helpful sort.  Anyway, I finally got to meet her mom on Sunday.  She has a little 3-month-old boy, so we both ended up in the mother's lounge together.  We had such a nice chat.  I liked that! :) And she offered us a bunch of wood that they have so we can use it in our fireplace in the winter.  She said they're never going to use it and they were talking about just setting a match to it.  Wow!  What a blessing!  She said we could just take it.  So I guess when we have that truck in the next week or so we will. :) 

With part of the money we got from our tax return we were able to get some things for our back yard.  We now have a swing set back there and a porch swing so I can sit and watch the kiddos while they play.  It's so great!  I did most of the work getting them all set up last week.  I have pictures stuck on my phone.  Darn it!  The swing set came with a canopy that was made of tent-like fabric.  It had tent poles to hold it up.  We also didn't get the swing set staked down right away, and then it got all windy again (Why is it always so windy here?!), and it blew over.  The poles on the canopy broke. :( So much for that.  Well, I like the swing set anyway.  It has 2 swings and a trapeze, a slide, and a little trampoline.  And it's staked down now.  And the porch swing is great too.  It's comfy.  The other day after I got the kiddos off to school I took my scriptures and cereal out there and listened to the birds while I read. It was so pleasant!  I've wanted a porch swing for a long time, and there it is! :D

Jeremy heard about some new positions that have come open at the Safford mine.  One is quite similar to what he's doing now but is more of a manager position.  He applied for it immediately.  We haven't heard anything back, but it does take a long time.  We're praying that he can get it!  It would be such a blessing to have him working in town!

The 2 older boys are all excited for college coming up.  They have a scout super activity coming up in June, so we'll enroll them in one class each for the 2nd summer session.  In the fall Hyrum will have a full load and Joshua will do about 6 credits.  I think I already talked about this.  In the summer Hyrum will probably take math and Joshua will probably take oil painting.

Benji will be in middle school next year and he's all excited.  He came home with a paper asking him to put the electives he wants in order from 1-10 depending on how much he wants them.  He wants to do yearbook/leadership and band, so those were #1 and #2.  Usually they can get the first two they pick, but we'll see.  I filled out his paperwork today.  I just need him to sign a few places and we need to pay electives fees and he'll be set to go.  I'll have to find out if they need his shot record and birth certificate or if the Elementary School will just transfer those over.  Michael will be in 5th grade, so he'll be able to do band.  He wants to play the trumpet.  I'm still pulling for somebody to learn trombone.  Come on!  Grandma has one sitting in her closet!  Maybe Jill will.  Anne did all those years ago. :) But I kind of doubt it.  It's not generally considered a very girly instrument, and Jill is very girly.

I have a meeting on Friday at the primary school here in Thatcher to discuss options for Timmy going into Kindergarten.  We really, really, really want him to get into Transition Kindergarten at Dan Hinton!  He could definitely do the work they do in a regular kindergarten, but the environment would be so overwhelming to him.  I don't think he'd be able to handle a regular kindergarten class.  There are just too many people in there.  So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping!  We'll see what happens!  He's doing so great at preschool.  He's also learned that my name is "Chrustine" and has been calling me that for the last couple of days.  Ha ha!

Bubby has been so emotional pretty much since he turned 2.  I miss my happy little fella.  Bubby gets so bent out of shape so easily.  We can't go anywhere without screaming about something.  I feel so sad for him that he is so moody.  His mood changes so rapidly sometimes.  I figure once he's potty trained things will get better for him, and they'll get even better as he learns to speak better too.  He's improving with his speech, so hooray for that.  Jeremy offered Hyrum and Joshua $100 to split if they'll get him potty trained, but so far it hasn't happened much.  They need to learn how to help him be excited to go sit on the potty.  Jill can do it.  Ha ha!  But I don't think he's done anything but sit on it.  That's ok.  She's such a cute little mommy to him lately.  She gets him dressed sometimes (because he likes to strip) and then brings him downstairs by the hand, both just so content. :) And it's all on a volunteer basis.  She seems to like taking care of him.  I guess it's just that natural maternal instinct.  It's cute!

And I'm still working on my Badger Family History project.  I've been making corrections and documenting sources as I go.  Slow going, I say!  I feel like I'm trudging through mud or trying to walk in a swimming pool, you know?!  It takes forever!  Thank heavens that at least I can do most of it at home one-handed, huh? ;)

Well, it's been like 2 hours since I started this.  Ha ha!  Probably time to quit.  I did stop and feed and change Henry for a while, so it's not like I've been typing the whole time. ;)

Quick Post about Timmy

Timmy has been writing words lately.  And the other day he read the words "carrots" and "said!"

I found these laying around the other day and it tickled me pink.  I don't think they're to this point at preschool yet.  I think he just figured it out.  Maybe he's been listening as Jill learns to read.

Pizza

Taco

Hot Dog

Of course, the first one makes the most sense, but they're all cute, and I love the fact that he's even trying!

Let's see how long I can type with one hand ;)

When I say Henry is growing like a weed I'm in no way exaggerating.  He has really filled out and is sure cute!  He can laugh now when he's in the mood.  He still smiles a lot.  He loves to be held, especially when it involves him standing on someone's lap and chatting.  He LOVES to stand up.  He's just so great!  It's always so hard to watch the little ones grow, but so fun at the same time! :)

Here's a picture of the cute fella. :) <3

We've been working on getting Joshua ready for college.  We filled out his application and turned in the needed documents.  I took him to get a government-issued ID so he could take his placement tests.  And then he took said placement tests.  He tested into English 101.  I knew he would!  He's awesome at that stuff.  He tested into the lowest math they have I think, though, which is totally ok.  Math has never been his strong suit.  To be honest, though, I hope we can test him again and get him into a higher level.  I don't want him to get burnout before he finally gets to the class that will count for graduation, you know?  Anyway, so this summer he and Hyrum will be taking a class each.  We're just waiting on the scouts to figure out when they're doing their super activity so we can decide which session they'll take at the college.  Joshua wants to take Andra's oil painting class.  I think that would be a perfect one to start with.  Hyrum hasn't decided yet.  Both of them are excited.  They've been looking over the fall schedule and thinking about the classes they want to take.  It's great!

I'm trying to figure out if Hyrum can get Federal Student Aid this semester.  I'm not sure because they said he has to be 16, and he won't be 16 until September 21.  It would sure be great if he could get student aid!  We have to turn in a high school transcript too, and that's shaping up pretty nicely. :)

I don't think we can go to the Badger campout this summer.  It kind of breaks my heart to think of missing it.  The deal is, though, Jeremy is on call then.  Nobody will trade call for the 4th of July  He's just kind of stuck with it.  So that means me taking 8 children by myself.  I don't feel like I can take care of all the little ones myself, and I don't want to make the bigger ones do it when they could be playing with their cousins like the only time they ever get to see them.  I know that by not going they won't see them "the only time they can," but what can I do?  And Jeremy would be all alone for all those days, coming home to an empty house and probably alone at the office too because it's a holiday time and people always take that off.  I have just been trying not to think about it because it makes me sad to miss it, but I just don't feel like I can do it this time. :(

Michael has Day Camp this Saturday.  He's all excited.  I think it's funny that they do it in April!  In Globe it's in the summer and lasts for 3 days 8:00-2:00.  This will be fun, though!  They have all the scouts separate, so they all meet at a different church.  Michael's Webelos group will meet at the chapel next to the temple and will be there all day - 7:30 until 4:00.

I have a great visiting teaching partner.  Her name is Christine Romney.  I don't remember if it's her husband or brother-in-law who is named Park Romney, but yes, of course, we're related somehow.  She's awesome!  And actually, I was in A Capella with her daughter Emily years and years ago.  Anyway, the first month that we went visiting teaching (February) she brought me a birthday present, a Valentine's Day present, some leftover valentine making stuff from a YSA ward activity that she thought our kiddos would like playing with.  Last month when we were sick for 2 weeks and then had spring break and I fell down on the job she just made cinnamon rolls and took them to our ladies.  Just awesome.  Anyway, so I'm being a good girl now.  I already have an appointment scheduled and I read the lesson.  I'm kind of glad to have someone who will make sure I do it! (In a loving way, of course!)

And speaking of spring break, we sure had a fun one! :) We went to the zoo! Spring break was the week of March 14-18.  On Tuesday, the 15th, Jeremy had a quick checkup with his dentist.  We all went down to the valley with him.  We'd headed out the door early that morning, so I got the little ones dressed and fed the little fella while Jeremy was in there, and then we went right over to the zoo.  We got a year pass.  We haven't had one of those since we lived in the valley and Hyrum and Joshua were just little.  But since Jeremy works for Freeport we get some good discounts at the zoo and other places that Freeport donates to.  And because we had to get one of the bigger plans with all the kiddos we have, we got some nice extras, like we can ride the zoo train for free every time.  We just have to schedule it as soon as we get to the zoo so we can be sure to get in.

Anyway, so we spent 2 or 3 hours at the zoo that day.  We let the kiddos kind of get a feel for what's there so they could know what to look at the next day.  They all had their maps, and that was fun.  We had a double stroller that we rented, so that was nice.  I had a carrier for Henry, but he didn't like it very much, and he wanted to eat quite often.  Still, it wasn't so bad.

We stayed at a hotel that night.  It was in downtown Phoenix, and there weren't many restaurants in that part of town.  We found a hole in the wall restaurant that's like a deli because Timmy wanted a grilled cheese sammich.  Of course, a place like that costs a lot.  And, of course, when the sammiches came out they had white cheese instead of yellow, so Timmy wouldn't eat them.  It turned out OK, though.  We got some chips, and I guess he decided those were OK.  They had some yummy squash soup too.

We checked into the hotel before lunch, and when we did the guy said our room wasn't ready yet.  That was like 2:30.  I thought that was fine because we had to get lunch anyway.  He also asked how many kids we had, and when I told him he told me, "Make sure to tell your kids to keep it clean, ok?  Trash can, trash can, trash can."  I said, "Oh, yes," and then it dawned on me that he was totally judging us.  We may trash our own house, but we don't trash hotel rooms! ;) It kind of plagued me the whole stay.  The rooms looked pretty great when we left.  However when we showed up to our rooms at like 4:00 they still weren't ready.  We didn't have anything else to do, so we sat in the car and waited for like a half hour.  Good thing we had snackies.  Our DVD player has died because Bubby kicked it too much, so there's really nothing else to do in the car.  We got in the rooms eventually, though, and they were actually pretty nice, and the rooms had doors joining them.  That was great!  We all went for a swim.  The water was icy cold, so I just sat on the side with my feet getting numb in the water while I held Henry.  Everyone else got in.  Then the little ones decided they were too cold, so I took them up to our rooms for a warm bath while the other ones swam, and I ordered pizza from Domino's.  It was nice to not have to go out and get it.  We never have food delivered, but this once we did, and, though it cost an arm and a leg, it was great!  We may do it again sometime, but probably not more than once a year.  Ha ha!  And because I ordered the pizza online I got a discount, and there was a little status bar that told me how the pizza was coming along.  That was fun. :)

We put some peanut butter cups in the fridge because they were melty, and I think Bubby ate most of them.

Whoever Joshua was sleeping with was too wiggly, so he decided to sleep on the floor!

We ran out of bed space, so we made a little bed out of 2 chairs pushed together for Bubby.  It didn't last more than an hour or 2 before he climbed in with us, but that was OK.  And I just put Henry to bed in his car seat.  He slept great!  He didn't wake up until like 7:00.

We had the complimentary breakfast at the hotel.  I like that!  We never stay at a hotel that doesn't have breakfast anymore.  It's kind of an adventure to the kiddos, going down to breakfast and making those waffles in the fancy waffle iron.  Usually, I take the older ones down to breakfast and then bring food up to Jeremy and the little ones in our room, but this time there was a sign saying to not take food out of the breakfast room, so we didn't.  Bummer!  But everyone got food, and off we went to the zoo again!

Because we had a membership we could have gotten in an hour early, but we were too slow getting out the door.  We went right over to the zoo train kiosk.  Jeremy waited in line there while I sat and fed Henry again and the older kiddos chased the younger ones.  We had a few minutes to wait after Jeremy got the tickets, so I finished feeding Henry and we looked at the giraffes for a while.  I don't know if you know it, but Jeremy well knows that the giraffes are my favorite!  It kind of cracks me up to run because it looks like they're covering ground so fast while moving in slow motion.  They're just all kinds of funny and I love them.  It didn't hurt my feelings to stick around and watch them. ;)

The zoo train was great.  I liked that we did that first thing because then we knew what we wanted to go back and see, and because we had such an awesome driver talking to us all on the speakers along the way we knew all about the animals as we went to see them closer up later.  I think my favorite thing about the train was that I was sitting next to Timmy, and he had his map.  Every time I'd say, "Timmy, look!  It's the ____!" he'd say, "Oh!  The ___!" and whip out his map and find it on there.  It was funny because I don't know if he saw many of the actual animals.  He may have just seen their pictures on the map.  But it was so cute, and he had a great time, and that's what counts. :)

Here's a gem.  Check out Jill. ;)

Joshua's been really annoyed with me for taking his picture lately. ;) He tries to dodge every time I try to take a picture of him.

After the train we went on the Arizona trail.  It was kind of cool.  There were lots and lots of snakes.  We hung out over by the prairie dogs and buzzards for a bit, and one of the buzzards swooped down and almost hit Hyrum with its wing!  That was funny!  I wish I'd known to have the camera rolling for that!

Bald eagles

At this point the kiddos were getting grumpy because it was kind of hot and they were tired and we hadn't been to the pedal boats yet.  

Here's Jill in a tree over by the baboons.  I should have gotten a picture of Timmy by the baboons.  That was his favorite part I think.  He thought those pink bums were so, so funny. :)

Over near the orangutan there was some sort of animal that lives in a tree.  I can't remember which one.  But it has this tree that you can climb in and see how it would feel to live there.  We have pictures of Hyrum and Joshua looking out of this very tree when they were little, so we all took turns getting our pictures taken in the hole. :) Here's Michael.  Speaking of the orangutans, there was a new baby one.  So cute!  And they redid the exhibit.  A lot of things have changed since the last time we went to that zoo!  The last time I remember going was with Benji's kindergarten class when Jill was a baby!  It's kind of fun to see what's changed and have the older kids remember how things used to be.

Hyrum

Jill

Bubby

Benji (It's funny - he looks a little like Jim Carey to me with that face he's making.  Ha ha!)

Henry

Papa and Henry (We had 3 hats on this trip.  Jeremy started out wearing his straw fedora from Dollar Tree.  It's been surprisingly good and sturdy for $1!  Hyrum wore one of Jeremy's baseball caps the whole time even though it was too small.  And Jill had a pretty flowery one.  The Dollar Tree hat and Jill's hat got passed around and most of us wore at least one of them during our zoo time.  Ha ha! Jeremy's wearing Jill's hat in this picture.

Timmy

Me

Benji, Michael, and Jill riding on the tiger statue.

They have a new tiger exhibit, and the tiger was actually right up against the glass.  I couldn't get a picture, and we barely got to see the tiger at all (same with the orangutans) because there were so many people against the glass!

Benji begged all day to go on the pedal boats.  It ended up being the last thing we went to before heading out.  It was like $8 for a half hour. They let us switch halfway through, so everyone but the two little ones got a turn to ride.  That was fine with me!  Then Benji spent about 10-15 minutes pouting because he didn't get to pedal.  He just rode.  Everyone else had a great time, though. :)

I think I enjoyed the Arizona trail almost more than anything, and that surprised me.  They have a new big squirrel monkey exhibit where you can go in the habitat right with those monkeys.  They're so little and cute and they're right there!  Over by the farm animals there were some big raised garden beds that were actually just for worms.  The dirt was full of them!  We stopped there in the shade to feed Henry and the kiddos dug around to find worms.  Jill loved that!  The worm exhibit was actually something we saw on the first day, but oh well, it's going here. ;)

About lunch time people were getting grumpy, so we got some kettle corn.  I used to hate that stuff until I finally got some good stuff and now I'm converted. ;)  We sat on some benches near the pond and ate it. Yum!  Of course, some of them complained because it was kettle corn and not regular popcorn. ;) Somebody was always complaining!  But we still managed to enjoy ourselves.

You have to go through the gift shop to leave the zoo. We decided to look around for a minute that time, but in the process we lost Timmy.  A store worker noticed us looking and called in security to help us.  Hyrum was panicking and so was Jeremy.  We gathered the rest of our monkeys near the security lady with the walkie-talkie, and Jeremy went to search the parking lot.  A lady found him near where we had parked the first day and was bringing him back to the entrance when Jeremy found him.  Phew!  Jeremy figured that's where he'd gone.

And with that we were off.  We stopped to get something to eat at In-N-Out before leaving the valley, and then we stopped at Grandma Burk's house for dinner.  That meant we weren't that hungry for dinner, but I guess it was nice to not have a car full of starving people on the way. ;) And it was nice to visit for a few minutes.

And that was spring break.  It was an expensive trip, but it was way fun. :) I'm not sure when we'll go again because it's sure warming up there, but it's fun to think that we can go again before too many months pass! :)

Soooo...

This week has gotten kind of crummier as it's gone along.  On Monday morning I went to get Jill up for school and she had a fever.  I kept her home that day and she laid on the couch looking miserable with a sore throat.  Timmy came down looking miserable and laid next to her.  Jill threw up a bit Monday night and then took a bath and seemed to feel just fine when she was done, so I sent her back to school.  When she got home, though, she laid on the couch looking miserable again, and then she fell asleep until dinner time.  I kept her home yesterday.  Hyrum is sick too.  He's spent a lot of time sleeping.  He was determined to walk to Seminary today even though he's not feeling 100%, and I think he's regretting that.  I'm going to go pick him up after he's done and encourage him to sleep.  And I've been getting whatever it is too.  My throat isn't sore, but it feels funny and is full of guck, and I keep coughing and blowing my nose.  Michael came home from school sick yesterday but is back today.  I'm not sure how sick he really is, but oh well.  Joshua's been trying his darndest (or at least the darndest he knows how to try) to stay well, but it hasn't worked.  Poor guy.  He's gone back to bed.  Jill is back at school today.  Timmy has missed both of his school days so far this week.  So far he has looked the sickest of anyone.  His eyes have been red and he's just kind of been silent.  I hope he can go to school today.  Yesterday his nose was running like a faucet.  He doesn't ever blow it, so he was wiping it like every 30 seconds.  We had toilet paper all over the family room.  I caught him a couple of times wiping his nose on the roll of toilet paper (I'm too cheap to buy Kleenex) because he was in a hurry to wipe it.  Ew!  I just really, really hope that Henry doesn't get it, but I'm worried because I've been coughing a lot, and I hold him a lot.  Benji has stayed well, though, and Jeremy says he already had it.  He thinks he brought it home. I don't know. Something has been going around here.  Lots of people have been sick.

Benji is super excited because tonight is his first band concert.  He's been talking about it all semester and it's finally here.  Yesterday his band practiced at the Middle School where they'll be playing for the concert, and the middle school band watched them play and then cheered for them.  Benji was so proud and so excited to be using the Middle School's instruments. :) This semester has been so good for him! I'm so thankful!  He says the coolest piece they'll be performing tonight is called Entrada.  That's the one where he'll be doing suspended cymbal.  He's been talking about it a lot and is so, so excited.  I am just so happy for him!  I'm excited to go watch.  I think I'll leave the younger kiddos home with one or more of the bigger kiddos so we don't have to chase anyone.  We'll see.

I've been working again on that Badger Family History book.  I've been smarter about it this time around.  I'm still pretty sad that all that work is lost.  I've been doing a lot of work on FamilySearch as I go, too.  I wish I had done that before.  When my computer crashed I lost all the research I'd done because I didn't share a lot of it on FamilySearch, and the Legacy (family history software) file I had had last been backed up like 2 years ago.  Heartbreaking!  So this time I'm being smart and sharing with FamilySearch.  I knew I should have in the first place.  I guess I was being lazy and a little afraid to change what other people put on there.  For shame!  Maybe it's good that I lost it all so I'd be a good girl and share this time.  A lot of what I'm sharing is sources that back up dates and places. It feels good to be contributing.  It's so exciting to be able to fill in blank spots. :)

And speaking of that book, yesterday I was feeling sick and working on the book at the same time, and I came to this lady who had 4 husbands listed.  It made me feel absolutely apathetic.  When there are more than one spouse listed, I have to go make sure they really were married.  Well, I like to make sure about all the marriages, but 4 husbands is four times the work.  And there just really aren't Utah marriage records that I've been able to find before about 1900.  I looked it over, though, and saw that this lady's first husband died, then she married and divorced two other guys before settling on the last one.  I still am not 100% sure she was married to all of them, but I'm probably as sure as I'm going to get.  It's interesting looking at these little bits of stories and wondering what kind of people they must have been.  I always wonder whose idea it was to divorce and why.  I guess I have this silly picture in my head that marriages back then were free from troubles.  That's silly because people have never since the dawn of time been perfect.

And speaking of stories, my favorite thing about having Chrome Cast is that when it's not connected to a device the TV shows all sorts of neat pictures.  There are some from Getty Images and some from US National Parks and some from all sorts of places.  It is so cool.  I LOVE it!  I often just leave the TV on just so I can see the pictures throughout the day.  The pictures make me remember what the girl on Sabrina said - that every time she looks through a camera she feels like she's catching someone in the middle of a story.  It's so true!  Who knows what in those people's lives led the photographer and the photographee (ha ha!) to that very spot in the universe.  What was going on in their lives when that picture was taken.  Very cool to think about. :)

All right.  That's enough for now.  I'ma pick Hyrum up from Seminary and go out shopping.

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. ;)