Life is a cookie

But, Man, we just seem to keep getting sick. It stinketh, let me tell you. Carol threw up twice last night. I threw up last week, and let me tell you, that is rare. I never throw up, even when I'm pregnant. I'm just hoping it skips Ruby. Babies can't dash to the toilet to toss their cookies.

Yesterday I got a bit of a sweet-and-sour treat. A good friend of mine is moving. She's been my gardening buddy. She gives me transplants and advice. Well, she is gone now and the moving trucks came yesterday to get all their stuff. She called me early in the morning and said, "It's your last chance! Come dig up whatever you want!" Woo Hoo! What an invitation! I admit to plant envy. It is hard to repent when I am thus rewarded. I got a lilac, a grapevine, a lupine and a lovely shrub that I can't identify. Oh- and canna lilies. I learned to love those at BYU. I figured that if I left them, they would die in the winter frost, so, really, I was saving them! Forgive me my evil chuckle. mwa hahahahahaha! But I miss my friend. She was my visiting teaching companion. She lived two houses away from me. Carol played with her son. Carol has actually cried that Stanford is moving. She recommends that we move to West Virgina, too. I'm sure my family would support that.

We're pretty busy overall. We have a playdate almost every day of the week, which is nice for Carol and therefore me. However, I still can't figure out when I'm supposed to do housework. I like to schedule things like playdates, errands and cleaning for the morning- when I've got the most energy. Tuesday is Preschool. It is just Carol and one other little boy from the ward. I trade off teaching with the other mom. It's fun to plan activities and art projects. Last week we did letter I for Indian (thanksgiving theme) and made Indian headdresses by cutting fringe into paper feathers. It helps them with their fine motor skills. It was kind of funny, actually, because they had never heard the thanksgiving story so they had no idea what an Indian is and what these feathers had to do with anything, but they still liked wearing the hats. I told Carol the story later when we decorated for Thanksgiving. She LOVES decorating! That's good. I've lost my enthusiasm for it currently, so she helps me get it done.

Vacation Report #4

It's too late tonight to do a real post, but I didn't want you to think I forgot. Here are some pictures to keep you interested (I hope you like them--they are my favorites)

Vacation report #3

Finally, some pictures!

OK, let's see... where did I leave off? Oh, yes--I fixed my uncle's computer. Well, that morning, we woke up and looked around for some food. Since we were unexpected in a bachelor pad, there really wasn't any food to be found, so we told the GPS we wanted some food and it gave us some options. We had it direct us to the nearest Subway. As the girls ate in the car, I drove around to see a few of the things I used to know like my old house and the elementary school (if only school wasn't in--I wanted to see if the swings were as big as I remembered them and Carol wanted to play, anyway). I would really liked to have gone by my old church, but Laurie was in a bit of a hurry to get to Grandpa and Ilene's house and I don't know that we could have seen much besides the outside anyway, so we left.

Grandpa and Ilene don't live in a bachelor pad and on top of that, they were expecting us, so the house was beautiful and clean and there were all kinds of goodies in the kitchen. Laurie got excited to see some of the old toys (esp. the ewok village) and Carol agreed that they were fun to play with--they kept her busy for some. After a bit of visiting, we decided to hit the beach. Neither Ruby nor Carol had ever been and this was actually most of the impetus for our vacation. Ilene helped us figure out how to get there ("Corona Del Mar Beach" is not listed in the GPS, so we had to just put in something very close and take it from there) while Grandpa ran out and got us the materials necessary for s'mores. Grandpa and Ilene also supplied us with some fire wood, beach towels, a boogie board, beach chairs, etc. As anyone who has gone to the beach in CA and stayed until dark knows (and, actually, as my mom had to remind me), it gets cold when the sun goes down, so we were also sure to take long pants and sweatshirts. We were all set! Grandpa was a bit worried that we would hit heavy traffic since we were leaving around 4:00 PM. We really didn't have any at all. This was because I never told the GPS that I'd like to avoid toll roads and the tolls on this road were fairly pricey. It seems that the vast majority of people would rather save $5.00/trip and drive through traffic than pay tolls. I figure the $5.00 was worth it on the way there, but I wish I would have realized that there was an "avoid toll roads" setting in the GPS for the return trip because there wouldn't have been much traffic at 11:00 PM, anyway and it would have been nice to save the other $5.00. Oh, well.

And now, may I present you with "The Beach"...


Laurie braved the cold Pacific first. I'm really a wimp when it comes to cold and I was sort of dreading having to get in the water. I took Ruby first...

Ruby decided she did NOT like the water. I think it was too loud for her. I probably shouldn't have taken her right up to it and stuck her feet in--she didn't start crying until then. At first I thought it was that it was too cold, but that sort of thing wouldn't normally bother her and she would cry if we got too close to the water, even if I was holding her. She was much more content just eating Chex mix and playing in the sand a safe distance from the waves...


Yum.



Laurie and Carol, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind the cold--they went right to the water and sat down in the shallows.


But soon it was my turn, so we swapped. I tested out the boogie board to make sure it wouldn't be too scary for Carol. The waves were small and the beach was smooth, so I decided to let her try. She liked it!


Yeah... I'm white. I know. That's what happens when you sit in front of a computer all day, every day all year long...






But soon Carol started getting cold so she sat in the warm sand with Ruby. Ruby didn't seem to like the idea of not being able to see her legs and feet. She was fine as long as a toe or something was poking up so she could see that they were still there. Oh, Carol and I also went out in the water looking for sea shells. We found a few... but we don't have any pictures of that :) Soon it was starting to get a little dark, so Laurie took Carol to the showers, cleaned the 2 of them off and changed into clothes. It gets dark and cold FAST on the beach--by the time they came back, there was no way I was showering in the cold showers, nor would I make Ruby do it, so we put our clothes on our salty, sandy bodies. It doesn't feel good--I don't recommend it :) Then I trudged through the sand to the car to get our wood and food and stuff. The girls played around in the mean time...




Why adult supervision is required...



Why there was so much sand everywhere... not like it really needs the help; it gets everywhere anyway, but when a 3 year old is laying in it and kicking it around, it makes even more of a mess.


I think this is a great Carol picture.




Mmmm... sandy hot dogs and s'mores. What beach trip would be complete without these things?


Ruby was a big fan of the graham crackers.



Carol was DYING to "play in the play house" on the beach. We figured by this time, nobody should care if we sat up there. I didn't remember how DARK it was on the beach. You could see the stars very well.

Vacation report #2

I'm not going to tell you all about our vacation in 1 post--that would take me too long and you would get bored, so I'm going to do this in 2 or 3 posts; a little at a time.

So were going to leave on Sunday--exactly 1 week after we had originally planned before Carol got sick. We didn't though, because I got the bug and threw up Sat. night. I was swearing we would never plan another vacation ever again! Sun. I was feeling much better and so Monday, we packed up and headed out. Earlier this month, I talked Laurie into "letting me get" a GPS unit. I LOVED it. Most of the drive was a straight shot down I-15, but for those times when I got off the freeway for gas, or when we went to see the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas, or driving from place to place in CA, it came in VERY handy! Folks, if you have a hard time with directions like I do and if you are going to do any driving in a new place, get a GPS--it's totally worth it! As an added benefit, my car's speedometer is a little off, so I was able to use the speed on the GPS to know exactly how fast I was REALLY going. Fabulous. Absolutely fabulous!

And, yes--we went to the Bellagio, but only to see the fountains--which was cool, but Laurie and I decided that we HATE Las Vegas. It would probably not have been so bad if it wasn't for all the construction, but as I understand it, they are always doing construction in Las Vegas. Even if they hadn't been, we still wouldn't have liked it--it's crowded and noisy and stinky... Not recommended. I mean, I understand there are lots of people who for some reason or another LIKE crowds, but we aren't those people. Yuck. OK, maybe you could just go see the fountains and then leave right away... that wouldn't have been so bad. Just take a GPS so you can get in and right back out ;)

So we left UT some time around 3:00 PM. It was pouring as we left. There are lots of people who would say we left at just the right time to avoid all the rain, but once again, Laurie and are aren't those people. We both love the rain and were only mostly kidding when we said that we should stay for a few more hours in UT to enjoy the rain. We still got to enjoy it all the way past Spanish Fork, so I guess we didn't miss too much. After our Las Vegas stop and several other shorter stops to get gas, take a potty break and let the girls walk around a bit, we finally got to Grandpa Wiggins' house at around 3:00 AM. Due to some miscommunication, Grandpa didn't expect us for another 6 hours or so, so the door was locked. Fortunately, his house was fairly close to my grandparents' house and I had a key for that one, so we went there. For those of you who don't know, my Grandpa died a few years back and my Grandma had a stroke fairly recently and is living with her daughters here in UT, so their house would be empty except that their son (my uncle) is living there. He wasn't expecting us. I still don't know if we woke him up or not--he works a lot and we didn't actually see him at all this trip... but the police never showed up that night or anything, so all's well that ends well, right? Anyway it was a convenient detour because I had to fix his computer and did that the next morning. No visit to a relative's house would be complete without fixing a computer. I do it all the time :)

Well that's enough for now. I plan on posting some pictures on the next one. Stay tuned...

Vacation report #1

To us, a vacation is driving up to temple square and walking around or going down to Thanksgiving Point and visiting the dinosaur museum or perhaps going to the Gateway Children's Discovery museum. Any way you slice it, vacations rarely go more than 3/4 of a day and don't leave a 30 mile radius from our house. We decided to change that, so we did some planning and decided that on Sunday night (the 6th) we would pack the girls into the car and drive down to CA to visit Grandpa Wiggins and go to the beach and Sea World. Mandy was nice enough to invite us over for dinner that night so we didn't have to worry about a mess in the kitchen right before it was time to leave. We took her up on it and had a very tasty curry. 7:30 came around--the designated time to leave. I asked Carol to go sit on the potty. She refused. It's not terribly uncommon for her to refuse to go to the bathroom when it isn't her idea, but this time, it was important that she do it, so I took her in to the bathroom to make sure she at least tried. After she had eaten, she went out and jumped on the trampoline and then told me her tummy hurt. I told her that it usually isn't a good idea to do things like jump or run after eating because you get a cramp. Now, sitting on the potty, she told me again and then all of a sudden I was fully aware that it wasn't just a cramp. Thanks to my cat-like reflexes I was able to jump back in time and escaped with just a bit of what was her dinner getting on my shoe. OK, I'll say it now--I hate puke. It's just about the worst thing. I don't mind blood and I certainly don't like poopy diapers or anything, but there's something about puke that is just beyond disgusting. Anyway, I got Carol turned around and pointing into the toilet for the rest of her bout and even held her hair back for her. It's amazing what being a parent can do for you. Despite the fact that I was standing in a chunky puddle, I wasn't disgusted--I just felt sympathy for my poor little girl. I got her into the bathtub and got her clothes off and showered her off. Then it was time to clean up. That's when the sympathy high started wearing off--this was going to be gross. A roll of paper towels, a few gags, and several squirts of some stinky disinfectant later, the bathroom was sparkling clean again. Since we had packed our car for our vacation, we had plenty of Carol clothes in the car that Laurie was able to get her into. We decided not to head on down to Grandpa's. We called, told him what was up and went home. Carol had several more bouts that night, but she seems fine today. Laurie, on the other hand, isn't feeling so hot. We'll see where this goes...

So maybe we'll go to CA next week. Fortunately, my job is super flexible and it isn't hard to move vacation time around. I just hope Ruby doesn't get it (well, and I hope I don't get it, too)!

This may sound like a real bummer, but I can tell you one thing--I am SO THANKFUL that Carol threw up when she did, and not a few hours into the trip! It was gross enough to clean up off of a tile floor. I'm so glad the car wasn't involved! Seriously, what a blessing. I think that would qualify as a tender mercy of the Lord--being sick is part of Earth life and we all have to go through it, but I honestly feel he spared us from something that could have been so much worse!

There's another blessing in this, too: having Carol get sick kept us here which turned out to be a help/comfort for my parents who just lost their dog today. Poor Maggie had some sort of auto-immune disease or cancer or something. At any rate, she was losing all the platelets in her blood and was starting to bleed internally. Last week, she was perky and very much herself (nobody knew there was anything wrong with her), but within the last 7 days took a steep turn for the worse until today she started bleeding from her nose and looking very uncomfortable. The vet said that her death would probably be very uncomfortable for her (Maggie) and so they decided to have her put to sleep today. My parents (esp. my mom) like to bury our pets in the yard--it makes it feel like they are still near by, I guess. Anyway, my dad hurt his shoulder recently and so digging the grave was a bit difficult but since I was still in town, I was able to go and help. It's a shame that Maggie's time has come, but she was an old dog and everyone has to go sometime.

So there you have it--blessing to help us through our trials. Life is a funny thing sometimes, huh? Anyway, hopefully our next vacation report will be about our positive experiences in CA. Stay tuned...