Stinkin' Couch Potatoes!

Today, Taylor and I were driving around on some errands. We happened to drive through a more wealthy part of town and I pointed out how enormous the houses were. We got into a rather entertaining discussion. Here, I'll show you...

Taylor: "Do the mom's have to clean that WHOLE house?"

Me: "Well, a lot of it, but I'm sure the kids help."

Taylor: "Maybe they should just hire a maid."

Me: "That'd be a good idea. I would do that."

Taylor: "Would you hire somebody to do the yard work, too?"

Me: "No, Dad likes to work in the yard. I'm sure he could handle it."

Taylor: "Well apparantly these houses need somebody like dad because their yards look hideous!"

Me: (laughing) "You're right! You'd think people this wealthy would take care of their yards so the outside looks as pretty as the inside."

Taylor: "That's because they are stinkin' couch potatoes and they like sitting around admiring their large screen TV's and watching it ALL day."

Me: laughing HARD

Taylor: "Well, I guess we just sit around and watch TV ALL day too. Except for dad. He's always in the yard."

Out of the mouths of babes, eh?

"The Eye Saga" part 3

Well, things could be worse...

We went to the Dr today and he said the good news is that the blood and debris is being absorbed back into Cameron's body, the pressure on his eye is stable and the swelling is continuing to go down. The bad news is cataracts have started to form, which means surgery. He also told us that his eye will require surgery to re-attach his iris to the pupil.

The long and the short of it is: surgery (several at that) will be required to repair the damage to his eye, he will need to have his eye checked on a regular basis for the rest of his life, he will need to wear corrective lenses just to be able to see and at this point, we don't even know if he will be able to see very well anyway.

I am angry. I am SO angry that some moron out there let their 11 year old child play so foolishly with a BB gun and now MY SON, MY son, who isn't allowed to play with BB guns and wasn't playing with them ANYWAY is going to have to pay for THAT BOY'S STUPID (edit string of profanities) MISTAKE for the rest of his life!! I know that this isn't a huge deal to some. People are going to think I'm a huge whiner, but I am PISSED! Words cannot express the waves of emotion that keep sweeping over me!

Let this be a lesson to everyone who reads this blog 1) Do not, I repeat DO NOT let your children play with BB guns or Airsoft guns! Don't let them play with kids who have them.
2) Don't mess with me when it comes to my children. Restitution WILL be made! Just ask my attorney.

Cameron's eye update...

Today was the first follow-up visit with the Dr regarding Cameron's inury. The Dr said that the swelling of the cornea is decreasing and the cut on the iris is healing as well. The pressure of his eye is stable, no cataracts have formed as of yet, and right now his vision is limited to shapes and shadows. There is still too much blood and debris floating around in his eye, so the Dr has difficulty looking at the back of his eye. For now, things are okay, however the Dr did say not to get our hopes up too high. He said this is an extremely serious injury and we have a long way to go. *sigh* So far, so good I suppose.

Cameron loves the fact he gets to keep missing school. He could actually be out of school all next week as well, according to the Dr. It's really difficult keeping an active 11-yr old down. The Dr has said that the only things Cameron can do are watch television (from a long distance), sleep and eat. Other than that, everyone needs to do things for him. A family of servants...what luck!

Anyway, we have another appt on Friday with the Dr to see how thing are progressing. I'll keep you posted.

Buh-bye!

You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out!!

Where to begin? Yesterday was quite literally the day from hell. I had all SIX of my babysitting kids all day long. Kids were falling off of beds, fighting, getting splinters, running out in front of cars, squeezing the life out of my kittens, losing their shoes, and so on and so on. The chaos was ridiculous, and hopefully my parents (of my babysitting kids) don't have conflicting schedules like that EVER again!! Normally I only have about 3 at a time--I'm not THAT crazy!

Anyway, after all the kids had FINALLY gone home (around 5:30 pm) I sat down on my comfy couch to rest, thinking the day was over and I could lay in my bed to watch some tele with Granty when he got home.

Wrong.

Cameron came running into the house screaming that he had just been shot in the eye. Alarms in my head start going off and the conversation went like this:

Cam: "I've been shot in the eye and I'm BLIND!"

me: "Shot with what? What are you talking about?"

Cam: "I got shot with a BB gun!"

me: "Who's BB gun?"

Cam :"My friend! Oh mom it hurts so bad!"

Now, first of all, Granty and I DO NOT allow our kids to have BB guns or Airsoft guns for this very reason. Since we don't allow our kids to play with guns, they don't have protective eyeware. Hmmm...big mistake. Second, what IDIOT allows their children to play with guns...other than plastic toy ones. I realize it was an accident, but this will effect my son for the rest of his life!! That's a pretty hefty "accident". A pricy one, too.

After listening to him cry for about an hour, I decided this was serious and I'd better get his eye looked at. Instacare said take him to the ER. The ER said we needed to see an Optometrist asap. We ended up at the Provo Hospital Physicians Clinic. There we were told that Cameron has permanently...permanently...lost some of his vision in his right eye. He was shot right in the iris/pupil and it has caused irreparable damage.

At this point we play the waiting game. He has appts with the Optometrist over the next week to watch for cataracts and to see if his retena stays attached. Blindness hasn't been ruled out, either.

My heart just aches for my little boy. To think he may lose his vision all together, or at least have it seriously impared just makes me cry. My beautiful green-eyed boy now has a distorted eye. His iris is huge and doesn't respond to light, and the green color of his eye is a cloudy yellow. You never think something like this will happen to you, but apparantly it does.

I'll keep you posted.

Oh SnAp!!

Omigosh! I am so excited to brag about my fabulous self, and show you what I made with my very own hands!! *drum roll please* I made hair bows! WOOT!

Now, first of all, I have to give kudos to the blogs that gave me the inspiration to make these bows: Girly Do's and Cute 2 Try Hairdos (both linked on our blog). The ideas I have gotten for doing Taylor's hair has changed my whole outlook! Taylor LOVES looking at the blogs and picking out a new style for me to try. Of course, I always hear, "Oh that one is easy mom. I can do that on my barbie." and then I doink (YES I said DOINK) her on the head with the comb and say, "Knock it off ya know it all" and get to work making her pretty!!

The pictures really don't show how cute the bows are, but I'm quite proud of my wee self. I usually put a ribbon in Taylor's hair every day, so I just grabbed some of the spools (YES, I said SPOOLS) of ribbon I already had and went crazy. I just started twisting and glueing and twirling and viola! I have hair bows!

I know, I know, it may not be a big deal to anyone but me, but I just had to show 'em off!

YAY ME!!

Random Silliness...

What can I say? I'm not quite sure the reason, but we had an extremely silly week. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, "The family that plays together, stays together." How very, very true! The more we laugh, the less we fight and lemme tell ya, the fewer times I have to hear "MOM! Tell so-and-so to stop touching me!" the happier I am. Of course, meds help a LOT! (thank you Dr. Teynor!) So yes, we've had a fun couple of days. Now comes the part that I ramble on...

I was looking at this picture of me and Taylor. It reminded me that when Granty and I got married, there are a bunch of pictures of me and my brother sticking our tongues out just like this. Hmmm...is this a family trait? Perhaps it's just silliness...

Then there's last night. I was trying in earnest to take a picture of Cameron. The little stinker, would NOT cooperate! Feet, pillows, hands...I got plenty of pictures of them, but not his cute face! It became a bit of a war, but eventually I got what I wanted. Ahhh, it's GOOD to be the mom!

I suppose I could say he was just being difficult, or even defiant. Nahhh, I think it was yet another moment of silliness...

Besides, who could resist this sweet face??

Then there's my teenager. *sigh* Why is it that teenagers, (especially teenage BOYS) think that bodily functions/noises are so hysterical? Tim goes to a charter school, and there is no busing, so I get to drive him to and from school EVERY day! Ooooo, lucky me! Anyway, every time he gets into the car he proudly announces, "Guess what mom, I farted". This scenario continues as we drive home. My son, eeking noxious gases, while I groan at his rudeness and roll down the car windows for some fresh air! Geez, I swear the kid is turning into his father! Do I call him a nasty, crappity-smelling, teen, or just sigh and admit...it's just silliness. I'll take the latter.

I love my silly kids. Enough said!

Happy 39th Bithday Granty!

Today is Granty's birthday. Now, as grown-ups, we don't think birthdays are a big deal anymore, but kids don't understand that quite yet. Birthdays are a HUGE deal to them, which makes what happened today really cute! Granty and I were slumbering in our bed, when we were awaken by a loud chorus of "Happy Birthday"! Completely off key, and words mangled, but the message was loud and clear. They love their dad and wanted him to know it.

Taylor hurried off to the kitchen and within a few minutes returned with a special "birthday hat" for her dad. He was even willing to POSE for a picture! Now THAT is an accomplishment!

Of course, following this show of affection, our kids started into the "you're an old man" jokes and Granty started groaning about the fact that next year he'll be 40!! *sigh* Ahhh well...for a nearly 40 year old man, he's pretty cute! I think we'll keep him!

I got tagged...

Generally I don't do this kinda stuff. I have to think WAY too much, and I just don't wanna do that! However, my good friend Meridith tagged me, and since I love her so dang much, I guess I'll do it for her sake!

Okay, here it goes. You are supposed to list 6 quirky things about yourself, and of course when I told Granty that, he laughed and asked if I was gonna have enough room to list all of my quirks. Ha ha, dear, very funny!

Kerri's Quirks (well, 6 of 'em)

1) I hate it when my food touches. Example: If I'm at a buffet style dinner, none of my food can touch. I have to have the salad on a separate plate, if there is gravy of any kind, THAT has to be on a separate plate, if there is any kind of bread, yet again a separate plate. I think you get the idea.

2) I have issues with meat. I really don't like the taste of meat very much, especially if I have prepared it. If I cook something with meat (hamburger, chicken, etc) I generally can't eat it. The only exception is if I BBQ it. I know, weird!

3) The only way I can go to sleep is if there is some kind of noise. My mom calls it "white noise" but there has to be something. The hum of a fan, the dishwasher, the furnace blowing warm air, SOMETHING. Call the noise my security blanket!

4) Okay THIS one drives my husband crazy. I have to have my kitchen pantry organized a certain way. Everything has it's place, and everything MUST be where it belongs. He doesn't bother to help put groceries away anymore because I always rearrange things that he puts away.

5) I don't know if this is necessarily quirky, but when it comes to doing my daughter's hair, it has to be as near perfect as I can get. There are times when I have finished her hair, found a spot that doesn't look right, and I will completely redo it.

6) At Christmas, all of the presents under the tree have to have coordinated wrapping paper. Not only do the presents have to coordinate with each other, but also with the decorations of the tree. One year I decorated the tree with all white and silver decorations, and the presents were the same. Granty said it was too "sterile" and needless to say, I haven't done that again.

Okay, so that's me! Everyone who reads this blog, consider yourself tagged!

Our Anniversary

Yesterday, Granty and I celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss! At 1:30 am he woke me up and said, "Happy Anniversary Honey!" which I thought was awfully sweet. That evening, he surprised me with a dozen long-stemmed roses, which is very unlike him! He always says that he doesn't like spending money on flowers because they end up dying, however he's learned how much they mean to me, and thus, I got some beautiful roses!

No, our marriage isn't perfect. In fact we talked last night about the things that we have been through in the past 15 years. We've struggled through some really tough issues, and yet, we both love each other enough that we've gotten through those times because we are devoted to this marriage and each other.

I've been really down the past week because I have found out that several people we know are either separated or getting divorced. I can't help but feel tremendous heartache for them. It must be so horribly painful to reach the decision not to be married. I don't know how I could let go of the one person my heart beats for. And what about our kids? Ohhh what a horrible mess. I just feel so sad that these people are struggling and wish that there was something I could do to help.

I just want it on record that I dearly love my husband. He has stuck by me through some really, REALLY ugly times and I know that it's because he loves me too. I'm just grateful to have such a good man at my side. I love you Granty!

Yay!! I did it!!

I just had to post a picture of my attempt at a hairdo I found on the COOLEST blog ever! It's a blog called Girly Do's and the styles she has posted are amazing. Some of the hairdo's are harder, but some are quite easy. If you know me well, you know that I love doing Taylor's hair because she is my living Barbie Doll. I have all kinds of new hair ideas now so she will probably be sporting a new "do" just about every day. Lucky for me, she likes having her hair done! I don't know, perhaps I'm biased (of COURSE I am!) but I think Taylor looks absolutely adorable with these messy piggies! Check the site out, it is awesome! http://girlydos.blogspot.com/

Twilight is Evil...EVIL!!

I'll keep this post short. The "Twilight" series of books was mentioned at church a few weeks ago. A preisthood leader told us that the books are evil and borderline pornographic. Ahem... What? My humble opinion is that this individual has NOT read the books and is simply going by what they have heard. Yes, I can see that a book about a vampire may appear evil, however this particular series is NOT. Why didn't he get up and single out the Anne Rice series? And while he's at it, why not blast the classic novel "Dracula" written by Brahm Stoker? Gimmie a break!

Honestly I wasn't really bothered by what he said, however I suppose it did offend me just a wee bit. Now, I'm not a perfect mother, but I certainly would NEVER let my child read something that I didn't feel was appropriate, and my 9 year old daughter has read "Twilight" multiple times. Hmmm...So what does that say about me? That I encourage my children to fill their minds with smut and filth? I don't think so!

I suppose we are all entitled to our own opinions, but I don't like someone else's poor judgement inflicted on me and guilting me into not reading a purely entertaining book. And YES!! I WILL take my daughter to the movie, so stick that in your juice box and suck it!

Omigosh she's so HOT!!

You know, there is something to be said about a man who can make you laugh...and laugh hard! I have probably one of the best husband's in the world, simply because he can make me giggle even on my worst days. He has such an odd sense of humor and I love the fact that he can laugh at things.

Last Halloween, he came to me and told me he wanted to dress as a woman for work. After choking on my freshly poured glass of Diet Pepsi, I asked him why in the wide world of sports would he want to do that? He told me he thought it would be funny, and then the raiding of my wardrobe began.

We assembled what we thought would be an ugly enough ensemble and then looked through all my Halloween costumes for a wig. We found a horrendous long black wig and gave up trying to make it look decent after about 5 minutes of wrestling with the matted mess! Of course we had to snap some photos of my amazingly ugly wife before he went to work that day! Everyone who knows Granty is aware he is camera shy, but on this particular day, he was a hoot!

I can't say enough about my husband--he's just the greatest thing that ever happened to me! I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my days with such an ugly broad! Love you baby!

Adventures in Babysitting

I am a really lucky woman. I am fortunate enough that we are able to provide for ourselves financially with just my husband working, so I stay home with our kids during the day. It's true that my kids are all a little older now, but it's still great that I can be here when they get home from school. I like listening to their stories about who did what at school and, much to their dismay, monitoring the snack intake when they get home!

Grant knows that I'd like to have one more kid, but it just isn't that easy for us. So, I've started babysitting again. Call me crazy, but I love having little people around...the bottles, the toys, the funny little things they say, *sigh* it's just something I was cut out for. Anyway, I have several little ones that I watch and they honestly make my day! I get the best of them however...I get to have fun and then send them home for mom and dad to wrestle with at night! It almost seems unfair, but I'm not complaining!

Taylor & her hair "escapades"...

A few days ago I was reading my cousin's blog and giggled as I read about her preschooler chopping her hair. I thought to myself, "I am SO glad those days are over! I'm so glad my kids are past the drawing-on-the-wall-and-cutting- everything phase." Ohhhh for the love of pete! I condemned myself, as my following story will show...

I was hanging towels up in my daughter's bathroom and I noticed a rather large clump of long, light brown hair on the floor. I called Taylor into the bathroom and she told me she had no idea how it happened (another crime committed by our "house ghost"). Needless to say, I was a bit distraught when I discovered the huge spot in the back of her head that was now missing a large portion of her beautiful long locks!

Luckily, my friend is a cosmetologist and she was able to fix the damage Taylor had done. Her once long, same-length hair is now cut with chunky layers all over, giving her hair a much more grown up look. I love doing her hair with ribbons and bows, but seeing her now, I'm reminded she is almost 10 and growing up! *sigh* Where does the time go?? Taylor has always been my little buddy...I wonder how much longer that will last!!

Bryce Canyon, Spring Break 2008

Since I'm getting this blog started AFTER the fact, I'll go back a little in history and update all my readers (what...one reader?) on our trip to Bryce last spring. I've lived in Utah practically all my life and I had never been to Bryce Canyon before! It's such a beautiful place, what was my delay? Anyway...

I have awesome parents, and they took our family on a mini-vacation to Bryce Canyon in April, 2008 and it was great! Our oldest son Timothy wasn't able to come, however. He seemed to think it would be more fun to stay home and work with a friend of ours to earn some money. Hmmm, lemme see...work, or free vacation? Ida know, tough choice!!
The weather at Bryce was heavenly! It was cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon, and then cool again at night. I don't think it ever got past 75 degrees. Apparantly it stays like that most of the year and I asked Grant if we could bulid a little house somewhere in the middle of the canyon. I guess it was a silly idea because everyone laughed. Ahh well!


We had a lot of fun however, driving up the canyon and then getting out at various spots to climb and hike the narrow paths. I for one did NOT like that part. The trails were so tiny and I'm not a tiny girl! I was sure that if I took one step too far to the left or to the right I was going to topple to my death right there in front of my children! Okay, so I was being just slightly dramatic, but we were up amazingly high and it did freak me out...just a bit.

All in all we had a great time. I think the pictures of our last day, messing around with the camera kind of illustrates this. We always have a lot of fun together. I'm so glad that my parents live close by and that we enjoy spending time together! My dad is always saying he wants to retire to Kanab so I guess we need to take advantage of the fact they are only 30 minutes away!

(Grant & I looking wayyyyyyyyyyy too sexy for our own good!)

(Too bad we couldn't leave 'em there! Ha ha ha!)

Little Brothers...

I have only one brother and no sisters. Growing up, Wade was one of my best buddies and I often thought of him as my very own living dolly. I was 6 when he was born and I was just so ecstatic to have a new brother! Now flash forward...Wade and his wife had their first baby on August 18, 2008 and she is the prettiest little thing! My mom and I were lucky enough to go and visit Wade and Sarah about a week after Baby Eve was born, and all I wanted to do while we were there was hold, hold, hold her.

There's just something about watching your little brother, hold, kiss and love his baby girl. He even changes diapers! He's just an amazing guy and I'm proud to call him MINE! I love ya Spacely!

Technologically Impaired?

I think that I just may be one of the LAST to jump on the blogging bandwagon. It just has never been something that really appealled to me, but lately...hmm, ida know. I just find myself fascinated with what is happening in people's worlds so I thought, self, the world is being deprived of what's happening in YOUR world, and thus, here I am.

I have no idea how to even set this page up, so I supposed you will all need to bear with me as I try to make things all cute and asthetically pleasing. As of now, it's a black, blank space with very little charisma. I shall see what I can do...