Moving On

It's official. My parents are moving. (only about 4 blocks North... but still...)


It's going to be weird to drive by the house I grew up in, just a few blocks from where I live now, and know that someone else is raising their family where I was raised. huh.

I have some mixed feelings about the sell of this house. I am happy my parents are getting a new house. But the old house just feels like home. You know??

Every challenge I have faced in my life has always led me home. After every heart break I cried into my pink flowered comforter. The countless hours of primping in the big purple bathroom. The nights of sneaking out the basement door to meet.... um, well, lets just say "friends" Watching my brothers play basketball in the backyard, and having them "let me" get the ball for them when it went out of bounds. :)

Learning everything I know about cooking in that kitchen. All my education/ homework at that kitchen table. My first kiss on that front porch... You get the drift. It's bittersweet.

Whenever times have gotten tough, I just drive to my parents house and sit on the couch, like being inside that house will protect me. Because nothing bad ever happens and I am always safe inside that house. I know it's really the family inside the house that makes it a home, but do you every really forget where you were raised? It's like your first love; you know you have to move on, it wasn't that great. But somewhere in the back of your mind you will always idealize/miss it.

So, that is my ramblings on this major milestone for my parents. I, on the other hand, have moved 6 times in the last 6 years. And now that place I feel most at home is curled up in Mark's (big, muscly, yummy) arms.

This post was rather sappy for me. Sorry.

Vacation

There is nothing more fun than a get-away! Especially with the girls.

As much as we talk, you would think there was nothing new I could learn about my friends. Well, I was wrong!
Here is just one of the MANY fun facts I learned about my gals while on vacation...

Cresta: Will NOT cry. It is impossible. Not in "My sisters keeper" not even "The notebook" ??? We tried.
Mary Ann: Hates to shop!?!? (she was a REALLY good sport.)
Caroline: Has a pet Ferret!
We discovered there is sooooo many ways to make jokes about a ferret!

Here are some fun facts I learned about myself...

If left uninterrupted, I will sleep past noon.
I knew I would miss my kids, but I didn't realize I would miss Mark so much.
Mark totally handled the kids for 3 whole days, without complaint!
4 girls can clean a condo REALLY fast!
Even girls our age, can have a blast riding bumper cars.
My friends are the craziest, silliest, and coolest ever!!

Overwhelmed!

Not to complain or anything, but this week has been A LITTLE overwhelming!
Whew! Ryker gets thrush! Ugh! How this happens I do not know, but I love the little cutie so I feel pretty bad and call the Dr. on Sunday for some Nystatin.
Then I get infected (becuase I'm nursing) and hello T.M.I. - I have some pretty sore, bleeding, boobies!

Then Sunday night/ Monday morning I wake up to a VERY hot house.... The AC broke! Great, just great!

The house actually got close to 90 degree's before It was fixed, so Monday the kids and I spent the day between grandma's houses and driving around in the air conditioned car for hours to stay cool!

Today, Ryker is doing great! This kid is a champion baby, I mean really! After his NICU stay he really doesn't complain about anything, and just goes with the flow... His mouth is healed/ healing; we're pretty happy.

OK, so now it's story time...

Of course, today of all days I sleep in! My friend Brooke calls to ask me what kind of smoothie I want for breakfast at 6:45 (because, that's just the kind of friends I have!!) And I'm thinking 6:45.... 6:45.... breakfast??? Oh crap!! I need to be to work at 7:00! It's a good thing I don't have to think about breakfast, because I have to leave... like NOW!
Craziness ensues and I arrive at work looking very much like an overwhelmed mother of 2 boys!

Nurses report: My patient was 8 cm dilated at 6:00 AM... Crap! If I check her, she will be complete (10 cm).... hmmmmm.... So I don't check her and I jump in the shower! Come on, she has an epidural, and REALLY, I stink.

7:20 AM. I am stink free, however I have wet hair. Oh really, who cares!!
Patient is complete (10 cm)
I'm going to have to do this delivery with wet hair...
I call the Dr. Dr. says he is 20 mins out, just have the patient wait. YES!!! I'm blow drying my hair baby!!

Come on people!! Labor nurses always end up immortalized in family photo's of their kids birth! Do I really want to be remembered as the STINKY/ UGLY nurse??

I have to add, that I am again working with Cresta, who I believe is getting tired of looking at my ugly hair... and was surprisingly supportive of me taking a shower at work... hmmm.

And yes! The delivery went fine. I may be a crazy, overwhelmed mother, but I am a pretty decent, crazy, overwhelmed nurse.

Do you think this story is over?? Nope, it's not.

I'm going to make an INCREDIBLY long story even longer here, but we go to the Temple open house tonight with the Bachman clan which was quite enjoyable. HOT, but enjoyable. It's been a long day, and really, the only "ME" time I've had all day is a 3 minute uncomfortable shower at a hospital, come on, it can only get better from here right??

I mean, I'm in a dress and heels, I have a full bladder (constantly FYI), I have a 3 year old and a 7 month old, no spouse (working...), the Temple carpet is white (COME ON!!), Ryker has a poopy diaper, Peyton is eating cookies, I really need a bathroom, because the tampon that I shoved in my bra until I could find a bathroom, is going to soon be useless because I'm sweating profusely... (I know, again T.M.I.)

Really, it's only logical that Peyton would jump off the fountain steps and land smack on his head. It was bound to happen. it was just in the stars this morning when I overslept...

Exhibit #1: goosegg the size of Kansas above Peyton's right eye.

I know he doesn't have a head injury though, because he almost immediately: ate another cookie, walked to the car, played with toys and ate pizza, and then talked for a SOLID HOUR STRAIGHT on the drive home! (He is MY son.)

"Please Peyton, Mom has a MASSIVE headache! It's 9:00 PM, just close your eyes!"
Yeah, not a chance!

Here's hoping the kids sleep in tomorrow!

A day in the life of Kimi -part 2 !!

Quite a fun day if I do say so myself!
1st swimming in the backyard-- now when I was little it was: running through the sprinklers- or - a round plastic tub- occasionally you could fine a slide, and THAT was the coolest thing EVER! Nowadays kids are so spoiled, and they don't even know it! Check out this $40 pool from Target!! Although the kids did have more fun in the giant bubble bath with all the toys after swimming, than the actual swimming itself...
Then because Mark wont give me a daughter I played pretend with Hayley. Hair and nails! She even got flowers!
Peyton felt a little left out because he CANNOT have purple flower nails... So we had to paint something! It's a good thing I have a giant closet full of craft crap! Because I found some picture frames and we had a blast painting and decorating them! Hayley couldn't wait for a picture of herself to place in the frame- so she is a "live" photo!

I love this age!! And I love the fact that I didn't have to cram my (yes I had 2 babies, I have love handles...) body into a swimsuit for all to see at a public swimming pool! I also love that Peyton is so exhausted from all the fun, that he WILLINGLY took a nap!

I truly did let them decorate the frames, and only glued on the buttons and stuff where they placed them, and helped them put the letters in the right order of their names, so I think it's a true testament to genetics that Peyton placed his buttons symmetrically on either side of the stickers and painted without getting any on himself- (even though I took his shirt off, just in case.)

A day in the life of Kimi...

So, I wake up miraculously on time today and decide to curl my hair, however, by the time I get to work it is no longer curly, but a messy mess. Now, this may not seem like a big deal, BUT, for how bad I looked, I really could have used the extra 15 mins of sleep.
So the day starts out at a minus 1.

Next, when I get to work the hospital is crazy. The Emergency room is soooo full, that Labor and Delivery/Postpartum is full of odd patients;
like broken legs, and crazy people...
Day=minus 2.

Next, the nursing supervisor over the hospital takes a huge fall and lands on her 9 month pregnant belly... but does she have time to worry about herself?
Um, NO! The E.R. is full!
So, I'm trying to convince her to let me take care of her, because she is now obviously contracting... Hmmmmm...
Day=minus 3.

We keep progressing through the day when I am reading a nursing journal magazine and come upon an ad (see photo #1)
OK... Who was the marketing director for this ad?!?!?
this creepy "Chester the Molester" is asking me to take my pants off?
(It really is an ad for men to have their prostate checked, but thanks to this ad, all men will now die of prostate cancer!)
I laughed my head off... So day=plus 1.

Next, my lunch makes me laugh because obviously it is an oxymoron. (photo # 2)
Day=plus 2.

Here is where it gets good...

The nursing supervisor calls me and asks me a favor, "Kim, will you please go to room 243 (this is a Postpartum room) and take out an IV?"
"Of course!" This is no big deal.

I go down to the room and see someone lying in the bed, Hmmmmm.... are they asleep? They are covered with a sheet. So I pull back the sheet and I am confronted with a VERY LARGE, VERY DEAD, man.
I will spare you some of the details, but lets just say he was very blue, very cold and very dead... Calmly, because really how much worse can this day get?? I walk out of the room and go find my other nurse Cresta. "Cresta?" I ask, "can you come help me in room 243 because there is a dead guy in there and I am really hoping he is supposed to be dead, and I am slightly freaked out..."
Cresta begins to laugh, "there is soooo not a dead guy in room 243!" "Kim you are so funny!"
Oh dear... Day = minus 1000 (and counting)

"No really Cresta, there is a dead guy in there and I am going to need your help."
(Oh, this day...)

Then Mark calls: "Kim," he says. "You have both car seats in your car and I have to take the kids to my mom's before I go to work."
Day= Oh, who's counting!!

(Cresta left work at 3 PM and lovingly dropped the car seats off at my house for Mark. I mean, after all, what is one more favor when she's helped me with the dead guy?)

So, to cap this day off, I get home and my house is messy, and smells remarkably like someone died in the kitchen (pun intended.)
So I get to clean up the house now. (Ok, my house really isn't that trashed, it just makes this post sound funnier...)

But for some odd reason the fact that my front yard is overgrown with weeds is just the straw that breaks my back! And I spend and hour from 9PM to 10PM with a flashlight out in the front yard pulling weeds.

Sammy

So despite the long talk mom and Peyton had about taking care of the fish... only the feeding the fish part, not the MOM HAS TO HELP part stuck! Poor goldfish "Sammy" got half a bottle of fish flakes this morning. As you can see his little bowl is gross!

But mom fixed it! Day 2 and it is still alive despite being carried around in a plastic bag all day yesterday at the carnival, and despite Peyton's efforts to make it obese!

We are definitely NOT getting a dog!

Independence day!

The Centerville Parade- Much more crowded this year than I remember from my childhood. But they still throw candy- so it was all good! At the carnival Peyton won a goldfish at the bean bag toss- the guy in charge let him stand really close...

So now we have a goldfish named "Sammy" ?? So far the fish is still alive, although Peyton was upset it couldn't sleep in his bed with him...

Family BBQ- So much fun! Family and Freedom are what this holiday is all about, and it was great fun with my two boys! Peyton was in love with the fireworks and kept asking
"can we do it again?" "will you light another one?"

Happy Independece Day!!

Now, Just for fun, I've included some totally useless, however, entertaining facts about America!!

On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.

In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.

The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

52% of Americans drink coffee.

27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

A Californian doctor has set the record of eating 17 bananas in two minutes.

Approximately 35 million Americans are linked by blood to one (or more) of the 102 pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

There are five US states with no sales tax. They are: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.

Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work.

It was once illegal to take a bath in the wintertime in Indiana.

Ohio is the birthplace of more Presidents than any other state - eight