2 Years Later

I wrote this little post in June with the intent of publishing on July 19th and haven't blogged since...love the art of catching up!

Two years have gone by since the passing of my brother-in-law, Kenny. Just writing those words still brings tears to my eyes. He is so very missed. I found a list I had made in my journal a few months after the accident about some lessons learned from this experience. Most of them have stuck with me, some of them I'm still working on and the rest of them are just funny:

1. How to milk a dog. Yes a dog. Just before the accident, my sister's dog had babies. The dog also had mastitis and couldn't nurse-hence, needed to be milked. The day of the funeral, this was one of my jobs. Fully prepared in a new dress and high heels-I milked a dog with my bare hands.

2. Cuss words and how to use them correctly. Well, I guess I already knew this one, but my kids didn't. We spent so much time around family members and frequent cuss words, that Keira became the master of them. Just over 2 years old and she was cussin' like a trucker (she has since forgotten-I think.)

3. The sincerity of a child's prayer. For months after Kenny's passing, Tommy would pray for him to come back to life. "Please make Kenny alive again, so that nobody is sad anymore." He is familiar with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and figured it should work the same for Kenny. He would also say "mom, don't look at that picture of Kenny-it will just make you sad again".

4. How fragile life is and how permanent death is. It's one of those things you think you know, but don't understand until you experience the death of a close loved one. Most trials in life seem to run their course, come to an end and become a memory. Death is so permanent and painful and all too often sudden and unexpected. Someone told us that it typically takes 7 years to feel like you have "healed" from the loss of a loved one. When it's been a few days, 7 years seems like an eternity. 2 years later and it doesn't seem so raw anymore, it is still sad, but you can feel your heart starting to heal.

5. Cook large meals. Serving as the compassionate service leader at the time of the accident, my first inclincation was to feed people! My own sweet ward even brought my sister a few meals and took care of the desserts for the funeral. I learned to cook big meals for several families and now have quite a few great crock-pot recipes we enjoy on a regular basis.

6. The healing power of humor. Man, we shared some of our greatest laughs as a family at Kenny's viewing and in the weeks following. He was so funny and so generous. We enjoyed talking about all of his best jokes and funniest memories and made several of our own at that time that we are still laughing about.

7. Retail therapy. As long as you're not breaking the bank, shopping is great therapy. And not even necessarily for yourself. I helped my sis shop for something to wear to the funeral and ended up buying a ton of clothes for her to try on at home. My sister-in-law, Tami and I later had a fashion show and laughed until we almost cried as she tried on clothes that were too big, too small, too long, backwards, upside-down and finally just right.

8. Sleep off the drama. It's really never enough just to have a trial, it's usually accompanied by drama. I learned that I handle it best when I ignore it and go to bed. After a couple of days to think about it, I'm much more calm and don't usually care anymore. No more drama.

9. The pain of judging and gossip. I watched people I loved being judged unfairly and how hurtful it was to them. I vowed never to knowingly cause someone hurt like that. While preparing a talk for Kenny's funeral, I came across this quote- “Let us not dare to add to the burden of another the pain of our judgment.”

10. To serve. Humor and service were equally powerful healing tools for me. I also didn't know what else to do. I'm not much of a crawl in bed and cry about it person. I need to be doing something. I spent a lot of time at my sisters helping with whatever I could. I enjoyed her company and we shared some great memories while accomplishing lots of stuff.

Her Royal Highness

Tom took Keira to the King's Grand Ball at the Princess Festival tonight for princesses and their daddies. The entire festival was held as a fundraising event to benefit Kenyans, attended by the ambassador to Kenya himself. He even sat at the same table as Tom and Keira!

We spent all week talking about it, preparing for it, using it as a bribe to not fight with her brother and finally today-getting ready! She kept asking me which princess she was going to be at the ball. I kept telling her "You will be Princess Keira." Once she saw herself in the mirror, she didn't want to be anyone else.

Oh, Teeth

The past month has been full of teeth happenings. Before Tommy lost his first tooth, he had a filling fall out between two molars and needed a replacement. The dentist decided to do "mini-root canals" and two silver caps instead (um, still not convinced this was absolutely necessary). Tommy now has a grill. Seriously. I was nervous and he was QUITE unsure for a few days. But, we're getting used to it, just have to be careful when taking pictures- MAN do those babies reflect the light! Christian also spent about 6 months teething- then finally sprouted his first tooth, on the top, where we hadn't even been looking. Then another on top (Bug's Bunny style) and then finally the two on bottom. All in a matter of about 3 weeks. If you were to combine these two rascals, they'd look something like this...

So Many Faces, So Much Joy

9 months and 10 days old and never a day without a smile. Thanks for the joy you bring to us little buddy. Love you. All 25 pounds of you.

Week of Firsts

This week has been a week of big firsts for the kids:

Tommy had had a loose tooth for about a week and on Monday he decided it was finally loose enough to pull. We waited for daddy to come home from work, fully planning to do the "tie a string to your tooth, then to a door handle and slam the door" trick. But, when daddy came home and reached down to feel just how loose the tooth was, it fell out in his hand. Viola! Easy peazie. He was hoping the Tooth Fairy would leave him a Nintendo DS or a real live sword, but didn't seem too disappointed with his couple of bucks. Keira D started Spanish School AND had her first dance class on Tuesday. Both she and Tommy were very anxious to start going to school together and he promised to keep a close eye on her and help her out with the Spanish. The teachers aren't allowed to speak any English and Keira's Spanish skills aren't as spiffy as Tommy's. She's also been wearing ballerina clothes and practicing her spin moves everyday since seeing the "Barbie as the Swan Princess" movie a few months ago. We found a great studio that has an inexpensive summer starter program for 3 year olds. She feels like such a big girl!

Ahh, and little C- As much as I don't want to admit it, he's crawling. Well, he is still mixing crawling with scooting, but he's finally getting it down and loves this freedom he now has to get anywhere and grab onto anything.

The Value of Sleep

$2.75-The amount of money left by the Tooth Fairy for Tommy's 1st lost tooth. He was so excited about the whole deal, he woke himself up at 1:30 a.m. to see what he'd gotten. He then woke the Tooth Fairy to show her what she'd left.

$.50- The approximate price of the formula I used in Lil' C's bottle at 3:30 a.m., after trying to rock him back to sleep without a bottle for an hour-to no avail. He has another ear infection and is miserable. Drinking helps clear the congestion and warm milk knocks him right out.

$17-The combined cost of Keira's favorite bear and blanket that she decided she could no longer sleep without around 4:47 a.m., just after getting C back to sleep and crawling into bed.

Milk Packs-Apparently, an exclusive IV League term used to describe "the amount of $ investors put forth at a certain point in a real estate transaction", as explained to me by my husband in his sleep upon my return to bed at 4:58 a.m.. He was very frustrated with me for not knowing what Milk Packs are and for the fact that he was explaining them to me in his sleep. Milk Packs do not exist outside of his head.

$3,000- Roughly the cost of the concrete pad that is AGAIN under construction next to my bedroom window at 6 a.m.

A good night's sleep- PRICELESS.

On a Roll and Out of Control

I keep telling myself I need to catch-up and up-date the blog! Every week it ends up on my to-do list and every week the task is even more overwhelming. Yesterday I decided that since the weather will be bad for the next week, kids are sick again and we'll be stuck inside, I should take advantage and finally catch up! Some of the posts are from way back when-and I've tried to keep them in chronological order, which makes them look as though they aren't new posts. The most recent stuff is just under this post, but here are links to some of the older newish stuff:

Crab Fest
NY
Philly
She Can Ski!
One Big Check!
Chuckle
Disneyland
Keira turns 3

I Love to See the Temple!

On Saturday we had the opportunity of touring the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple with our family. It was SOO beautiful and inspiring. The first temple open house I went to was at the Jordan River Temple, when I was 5 years old. I remember putting white slippers on over my shoes. I remember the Celestial room. I remember how quiet and clean it was. Most of all, I remember the peace and serenity I felt while walking through the temple. And now, I was taking my own 5 year old son through a temple open house just a few miles away. South Jordan is the only city in the world to have two temples! I hope he has the same types of memories to reflect upon when he is 30-something. After finishing our temple tour, I asked him how he felt. To which he replied. "I feel happy and really good, that's a pretty temple." Then he asked me, "Mom, did that make your Holy Ghost feel good too?" Smile. "Yes, son- my Holy Ghost feels pretty wonderful."

Little Beckham

Today was Tommy's last soccer game of the season. He was VERY anxious for it to finally arrive-he desperately needed his medal. Even though the league doesn't keep score for the 5 yr old's- the parent's sure seem to! His team was undefeated for both fall and spring sessions, and the last game ended in a tie. We had such fun watching him play and look forward to another great season with our undefeated team!

How Many Concrete Guys Does it Take To...

Break your sprinkler line with the water valve still turned on and flood the side of your house? Spend an hour fixing the line just to re-break it again 5 minutes later with the Bobcat? Not only break, but absolutely shatter the line into 116 pieces, underneath the Bobcat, with the water somehow BACK on and the Bobcat sinking lower and lower into the swamp that now exists on the side of your house? Spend 3 hours getting the Bobcat out of the now 3+ foot deep, swampy hole in the earth? Come within inches of your house while attempting to retrieve the Bobcat with a chain and another truck, giving you a heart attack? Cover your fence and house and windows with mud while performing all of these stunts? Leave an absolute mess for another day, since the swamp will take at least a week to dry up and there's nothing that can be done under these conditions? I counted about 8.

Memorial Wknd

Our Memorial Wknd involved an awful lot of water. It all started Friday with a bath in the new sink downstairs- Someday these pics of Tommy will serve well to blackmail him. My mom gave him a bunch of speedo-type swimsuits from the clearance rack at her dancewear store. For this event, he chose the rainbow colored speedo. Oh dear. And, Keira truly believes she is Ariel.Saturday involved jumping on the tramp in the rain with umbrellas and rain bootsMonday we shopped for and bought a new toy and surprised the kidsTuesday we took it for a test run on the lake! They were so sad when we had to come home. Tom said "You know you've made a good investment for the family when your face hurts from smiling so much at the end of the day."

I shouldn't chuckle, but...

We have a strange habit of saying "Oh, my, this", or "Oh, my, holy that." For example- "Oh, my holy huge booger," or "Oh, my really stinky diaper." It's weird, but we do it around our house.

The other day Tommy said to me in response to something funny that happened, "Oh, My Holy Ghost." This took me off guard and I may have giggled a bit before replying, "Tommy, did you really just say- "Oh, My Holy Ghost?" He thought for a moment before responding- "Technically- I did."

One Big CHECK off the to-do list...

Since finishing our basement two years ago, we've had plans to add a kitchen and some cabinets to the office/craft room. For every gift-giving occasion, I tell Tom-"I really just want the basement DONE. Can I just save up every holiday for a couple of years and finish it?" This Christmas/Valentine's Day/Birthday/ Mother's day- I got my wish (well, usually at the last minute he'd feel guilty and buy me a gift anyway). He agreed to let me buy the stuff if I agreed to figure out how to do the work. We saved a TON of money by buying our cabinets unfinished at Sutherlands and then installing and finishing them ourselves. We still have a bit of touch-up to get done, but it's all now in usable condition and, boy- do we use it! And LOVE it!

Slickrock, Baby!

Tom's Mom was here for a writer's convention and a little visit, and offered to watch the kids so we could get away for a night. Tom left the destination up to me and I chose one of my top 3 favorite places on Earth- Moab! It's been YEARS since I've biked the Slick rock trail and Tom has never done it, so we figured-what they hay. We sure felt our age, but we survived the entire trail and had a great couple of days without the kids. Thank you Mama Lew! (And thank you spin classes)

Princess Party

While in Disneyland, Keira and I had lunch with the Princesses for her 3rd birthday. Ariel was her FAVORITE princess and Keira couldn't get enough of her. She was also quite fond of Keira. She came over to our table several times to give Keira little hugs and tell her how sweet and beautiful she was (of course, that made her my favorite princess too). The other princesses were also great, but Keira grew a bit more anxious with the arrival of each one. Snow White absolutely terrified her with a shrilly Snow White voice that she faked pretty well. It was bit of princess overload. However, she TRULY believed theses were the real thing and loved when they sang Happy Birthday to her. She asked Ariel just before we left,"do you have legs under your dress, or are you a fish?" Ariel was kind enough to show us her pretty shoes and legs.

Hello Disneyland!

The last few years we have gotten into the habit of heading to Disneyland to celebrate the March birthdays. This year we were especially motivated because you get in free on your birthday! We made it a quick driving trip with all 3 kids, who traveled surprisingly well. Keira is almost potty-trained and needs to go every 3.2 minutes, which added a good 2 hours onto the trip. On the way home we also ran into a bizarre snow storm and C pooped a LOT, so it was a relief to finally pull into the driveway. However, the trip was great. Tommy is now tall enough to ride about 90% of the rides and loves every single one of them. We are also pros at the "switch pass" deal and use them in combination with our fast passes for every ride. I'm not sure who enjoys it more- us or the kids. I think it's mainly us enjoying the kids enjoying themselves. Love Disneyland.

Boogie Woman

Keira discovered yet another way to turn an ordinary situation into a joke. She has a cold and some sticky boogies and here's what she did last night at dinner to make us all laugh.

Just Happy

Little C. Almost 6 months old. At 5 months he weighed 18 8 and was 27 inches long. He is happy. He loves to eat his hands. He loves his bro and sis. He still lets me rock and cuddle him. Loves grabbing toys. Can't roll, sit or crawl yet (thank heavens) and grunts when he needs something. Mostly he smiles. He's been sick for one solid month. Cold after cold after cold followed by RSV. This is his response to his ailments. I love this little man.

Gingerbread in February

I may have jinxed the weather. Little C and Keira have RSV, so we are basically on home arrest and bored out of our minds. Yesterday we decided to break out the crusty old gingerbread kits from last December and do some decorating. The weather this week has been beautiful-birds singing, grass looking greener, the warmth from the sun coming through the windows... Spring fever type stuff. Then we made a gingerbread house. The temperature began to drop last night and we woke up to snow on the ground and a blizzard. Not so sad to be stuck at home anymore!

Food Storage Genius

My Mother-in-law is a food storage genius. So, when we decided last year to begin our one-year supply, she was our primary source of wisdom. If you need ideas on how to start you own, what you'll need to store, what it will cost and a million other useful food-storage tid-bits, you can check out her blog. She's been "blogging about food storage down in the right corner. Each week, she posts an item we should buy and add to our storage. In 52 weeks, if we follow the list, we should have a balanced, inexpensively-acquired supply of food storage that can be incorporated into our menu planning and therefore, easily-rotated."

She can Ski!!!

Today was Keira's first ski day. She seems tooo tiny to be learning already, but we taught Tommy at this age, so why not her! She was really excited to go and anxious to learn a sport that Tommy can do. We had only done one run on the bunny hill when Tom decided it was time for the big hills. Her first time down with dad, she did great and he made it look easy. So, I attempted to take her down the second time and honestly almost killed her. We got separated from the group, headed down a huge mountain going way to fast and tangled our skis. I knew we were going to crash and somehow steered us off the path and into a huge snowbank where I landed right on top of her, face first. Skis, gloves and hats went flying followed by a brief silence in which I thought she was dead. Yikes. Then came the screams. People stopped to help us out of the snow and I calmed her with some candy. After finally making it the rest of the way down the hill, we were so exhausted that we waited in the car for everyone else. Better luck next season- if she overcomes the trauma of our crash.

Tommy, on the other hand, considers himself Olympic quality. At the bottom of one run with him I said- "Wow buddy! I can't believe you went off that huge (8 inch bump) jump! You are doing so great!" To which he replied- "Ya mom- I really just don't know how I do it all."

The words of little Keira

Tommy and I have been talking about words that end in -ness. Happiness, fullness, achiness, bitterness, sweetness...Apparently Keira has been tapping into our conversations. Yesterday, after flushing the toilet in a public ladies restroom, she asked me "mom-where did my Pee-ness go?" Explain that one to an innocent bystander in the restroom.

Philly

NY may be the place where we began our lives together and started a family, but Philly is the place where we first fell in love. It is my favorite city in the world for that reason and I never pass up an opportunity to visit. After we had Tommy, we discovered the coolest children's museum-The Please Touch Museum. 2 years ago, we took Keira. This year we decided to take all 3, but it was no longer there. We thought for sure it had lost it's funding and moved to somebody's basement. But, much to our surprise, it was quite the opposite. This museum now occupies Memorial Hall, a huge, amazing structure built in the late 1800's, offering over 38,000 square feet of hands-on museum experience-all geared for the chitlins. Amazing. We could have stayed for a week.

This past December, we spent some time back in our beloved NYC. Right after our marriage in 2002, we moved to NY for work and school. It is where we were newlyweds, made our first home together, bought our first furniture at a thrift store, made our first married friends, graduated from college, had a first real job with a real paycheck, had our first challenging church callings, had our first child, rode the subway every single day, had our car towed often for parking in front of our own house, discovered retail shopping therapy, saw lots of Broadway and other phenomenal entertainment, played tour guide to many friends and family members and fell in love all over again.

When in Maryland visiting Tom's family, we try to return to NY to visit friends and reminisce. This was our first time braving the city with all 3 kids. People looked at us like we were looney. For the first time we realized it wasn't a very "larger family" friendly city. No changing tables, (I changed C's messy diaper on the steps of a nasty apt. building), no public restrooms (well, except for times square if they're not out of order and McDonald's if you buy something) and nowhere to go for naps (unless you are okay with central park and hypothermia). Nevertheless, we loved it and had a great time. We looked hilarious trying to brave the streets of NY in the winter, at Christmas time with 3 kids piled onto one teenie stroller.

Hubby Montana

For those of you who know my husband, these images are not shocking. However, grandma almost had a coronary when she saw him in drag. He appeared out of nowhere in the middle of a peaceful Christmas dinner wearing this lovely long blonde wig and singing rock songs into a kids toy microphone. Keira was horrified, Tommy pretended he didn't know his father, Christian didn't see what the big deal was, grandma about fell out of her chair and the rest of us just shook our heads and laughed. Grandma later sent us a thank you letter and wrote "my favorite memory of Christmas was when you came out in that yellow wig and sang to me." Grandma might need to get out more.

Crab Fest '08

Every time we visit MD, the boys must have a crab fest. This whole concept was absolutley foreign to me before I married Tom. I don't even like seafood. They buy a HUGE bushel of crab that come pre-cooked in a box with a bunch of Old Bay seasoning. They tape some trash bags on the table and floor, roll up their sleeves and eat for hours. Literally, hours. The kids love it and it makes the hubby happy, but man- it stinks.

I Miss Gas Stations

I really miss gas stations. I first realized I cared so much about them when I moved to NYC. I was either #1 not driving and in no need of gas, #2 buying gas where they pumped it for you-by law or #3, afraid to enter the nasty shacks they call gas stations which surely double as mafia headquarters or illegal drug stores. I missed slurpees, candy, the occasional microwave burrito, etc.. Then I moved back to UT with it's fabulous gas stations, but I now have kids. It is insane to go into a gas station with children. There's no way I can afford the patience, time or money it would take to even attempt it. So, now I find myself paying by credit card at the pump with the kids strapped sanely in their seats and sadly staring at that lovely building, just longing for a slurpee or some of that 10 cent candy on the bottom row. My only solace is being able to fill my SUV for 1.47/gallon! Yippie!

Thanks to all!

Thanks to everyone who particiapted in our boutique! We had lots of vendors, shoppers, laughs, fun and purchases. Thank you all for coming. We should do it again in the spring!

Thanksgiving FHE

Tonight for FHE we drew what we were most thankful for. Here's what the kids came up with:

Bro's Before Shows

Tommy wanted to hold baby C before watching his favorite show the other day. He enjoyed it so much, he decided to write him a little note on a post-it to wear around: YOU ARE NICE

My Beloved ER

I do realize that I may be one of the last 2 people I know on Earth to still watch ER, but I just have to say that it's 15th and final season ROCKS. For 15 years of my life I have been enriched, annoyed, provoked, moved, bored, saddened, influenced and entertained by ER. Believe it or not, it sparked my initial interest in medicine and now I'm an RN. I was saddened at the passing of Michael Crichton, on Nov 4, creator of ER. I LOVED this episode that aired the week of his passing. Many of my favorite characters came back for one of the most amazing episodes in the show's history. So long, old friend, you'll always have a place in my heart.

Must Have's for Christmas Decorating

In the last couple of years, I have come to appreciate the ease and convenience of decorating with picks for the holidays. Before then, I used garlands. They are bulky, hard to position and quite pricey. Picks, on the other hand, are SUPER easy to decorate with and inexpensive. These are my favorite Christmas picks. I picked (no pun intended) them up at Hobby Lobby for $1 each.

Here they are in action

More picks, clearance stacking boxes and letter blocks from Roberts last year, Sam's club bargain bulbs still in their original container and hand-me down trees from mom

Picks and bulbs and other last years clearance sale items
So, get your pick on and Happy Decorating!

Light Keeper Pro

This year when we plugged in the 12 foot beast of a Christmas tree, there were 4 sections of lights completely out. We tried for a good 2 hours to fix the problem (broken bulb? bulb burned out? short in the line? not plugged in?...), to no avail. We gave up and finally turned the un-lit areas toward the corner.

The next day at Lowe's I came across this little gadget and decided to give it a try. I watched the instructional video on the Internet, followed the steps and 13 seconds later all 4 un-lit areas were working perfectly!

Seriously, what a cool product! Here's how it works.

I Always Wanted an Older Brother, Until...

(Here we have Tommy's latest mischief...he believes Keira's face to be his blank canvas for my make-up)

I am the third of 3 girls and have a little brother, but I often wonder what it would be like to have an older brother. My mom's first pregnancy resulted in the loss of a full-term baby boy (how she survived that one, I hope to never know) and I often reminisce about what it would have been like had he survived. I used to imagine that he would have taken me everywhere he went, protected me from bullies at school, played ball with me, beat up my boyfriends and played video games until the wee hours of the morning. I imagine that I would have adored him and we would have been best friends.

Now that I see little Keira with an older brother, I wonder no more. Yes, they do adore one another, yes, they are usually best friends and they would be lost in this world without each other-BUT, he teases, she screams, they argue, I yell, he taunts, she steals, he annoys, she screams louder, she hides, he manipulates, she eggs him on, I threaten, he coaxes and she STILL thinks he's the greatest thing to ever be born on this planet.

Here is one of their recent conversations:

K: "I'm tough"

T: "I'm tougher"

K: "I'm big!"

T: "I'm bigger!"

K: "I'm fast!!"

T: "I'm faster!!" (then they race up the stairs)

T: "I WON!"

K: "I lost!!! (SO excited that her losing means he won and is happy)

K: "Tommy, you're my best friend"
T: "KEIRA- no, I'm you're BROTHER, I've told you that a thousand times!"

K: "I love you Tommy"

T: "I love you too Keira."

Ahhhh, the Wisdom of a Child

My three kids and I were traveling home from my mom's the other night and I caught a glimpse of my 5 year old's perspective on a major life issue. I had carried Keira to the car without putting her shoes on because it was late and once we arrived home she was headed straight to bed. Being the 2.5 yr old, shoe obsessed girl that she is, this decision of mine resulted in boisterous hysteria. I tried explaining to her, over her sobs and screams, that I was driving the car and unable to render any help in #1 reaching the shoes in the back of the moving vehicle or #2 putting them on her little feet seated directly behind me. I was having zero success. So, assuming his obvious role as second in command, her older brother says this-

"KEIRA, LISTEN- Mommy is driving the car right now and if she helps you put your shoes on she will crash the car and we will all DIE...(dramatic pause)and when you're dead you don't get to do anything except lay in a BOX...(I begin to chuckle)

"Mom-why are you laughing???- it's TRUE- You just lay there in a box with a bunch of flowers!"

My life as a Rock Star Mom

My life is nothing, if not glamorous. I frequently have Rock Star Mom moments to remind me of this. Today I had one of those moments. It all began around 10:30 this morning as I'm strolling the aisles of Costco with my two youngest. I don't need to check-out until around 11:10ish in order to pick up offspring #1 from school on time. At 10:40 offspring #2 begins to complain that her tummy hurts. (A statement that merits no reaction since she's been telling me this for 2 days and she's been fine) Every 7.89 minutes she makes the same complaint, and every 7.94 minutes I remind her she's fine. 11:10 arrives and we're in the long Costco check-out line, proud to have survived a Costco trip with 2 kids and no incident.

Then it happens- my Rock Star moment- "Mommy -my tummy"...PUKE. I instinctively cup my hands under her little chin, thinking, "she's only had milk, yogurt and half a sandwich and whatever she's now spewing will surely fit in my hands." (More vomit) Running up my sleeves (I'm 5'2"and eye-level with the child and I promise, it actually was running UP my sleeves toward my elbows). On my shirt and sweater. (More vomit) Down the front of my pants. Puddling in my shoes and finally covering a good 4 foot radius below my cart. I think "WOW, I'm pretty sure that was everything she's eaten since she started complaining of a tummy ache 2 days ago."

Frantically I grab the baby wipes and make my best attempt to clean up the 46.8 gallons of vomit that I am now swimming in. Immediately I realize nobody is coming to my rescue and my 5 senses begin to function at maximum capacity. "Mommy- I feel better, did I puke on you?" is all I can hear. 835 eyeballs of other Costco members focused intently upon me is all I can see. Vomit is all I smell. Wet, cold clothing sticking to my body is all I can feel. Panic, confusion and disbelief is what I taste. I begin to somewhat uncontrollably repeat "I'm so sorry" over and over as I'm laughing at the inevitable humor of the situation.

The (incapable of doing anything to help my situation) people surrounding me were thinking one of two things-"Oh, that poor girl. I've been there. It's no fun." OR, "That idiot. What kind of mother brings her sick child to COSTCO in the pouring rain? Someone should call the police."

I doubt many real Rock Stars have ever felt so truly glamorous!

Halloween '08

This year Halloween wasn't just for the kiddies, whose official costumes were a butterfly princess, a blue power ranger and a pea in a pod, but we also got in on the action! Since the in-laws were in town, we bought tickets to the Martin Sexton concert/costume party and my sis-in-law Amanda came up with the fab idea of dressing as characters from the musical Wicked. She painted herself green and dressed like Elphaba (the girl can sing like her too), I was Glenda (wearing a significantly modified old prom dress-yikes), Tom was the Wizard and Adam and Josh were the flying monkeys (AKA, flying turds). Just for kicks, we dressed T and K as the tin man and scarecrow for a complete Wizard of Oz group pic.

After trick-or-treating with the kids, we left them snug in bed with the in-laws and headed out for a night on the town. We didn't win the costume contest, but received lots of compliments (and questions) on the get-up and more than one intoxicated person told us we should have won! To top it all off-Martin sang Prince's Purple Rain as his second to last song. Priceless.

Some exciting things are happening with the biz! We are introducing SNUGZ-bigger sizes for bigger kids; our basic WARMSIE sets for babies and toddlers are now offered at a lower price and we have a new line of cozy white base layers-WHITE WARMTH, available in both little and big kid sizes.

Thanks to Melissa, Snugabug is a featured vendor on Go City Kids where you can find coupon codes to save you 25% off your entire order!

Check out our brand new website and don't miss this great new page.

With Halloween just around the corner, these are the perfect solution to keep your little trick-or-treaters nice and toasty without covering up their costumes!

Oh, honey...

We figured out a couple of weeks ago that baby C has "silent" reflux. Basically he has most of the symptoms of regular reflux (fussy, tight, gurgly tummy) but he doesn't spit up or vomit. He gags a lot instead. Thankfully, it is treatable with prescription medication. So, on my way home from the Dr.'s office I dropped off the prescription and asked Tom to pick it up on his way home from work. A few hours later he calls me in a fluster and our conversation goes something like this:

"HONEY- which pharmacy did you take his prescription to?"

"You know, the Walgreens we always go to..."

"well, they don't have it here and have never heard of our baby before"

"Seriously? I was JUST there two hours ago and they said it would be ready in 30 minutes, they must have lost it or something. Those idiots."

"Well, it's NOT here and I've been arguing with the guy for 5 minutes now- What name did you tell them to fill the prescription for?"

"UM, well, that would be the baby's name- Christian" LONG PAUSE

"OH, I was giving them Tommy's name- but they should have been able to find it by Christian's birthdate- YOU must have given them the wrong birthdate"

"I told them it was Sep 3" second long pause

"OH, I was giving them Keira's birthday."

15 minutes later he comes home with the medicine. NOT that I'm any less guilty of sleep deprived moments, I am just so incoherent most of the time that I can't remember them.

Am I really doing this?

So, I registered this interesting blog title a week ago but haven't posted a thing because I am terrified of blogging! Yes, it's true. It scares the dickens right out of me. Why has it taken me so long to finally attempt to overcome my blogging fears and just jump on the bandwagon with the rest of the planet?

1. What title to choose for the name of my blog? Everything I like must surely be taken...hence, lewsclues. I could be sued by Nick Jr. for copyright issues with Blue's Clue's. That'll put me out of business for sure.

2. Will I EVER post anything? And if I do, will it be worth the effort I put into posting it or the time of those who might read it? Does it take a TON of effort? 3 kids, little effort left.

3. Will anyone read it? Do I have to include a playlist and if so will people dig it or hit the mute button (I promise NEVER to include any Janice Kapp or Michael McLean)? Can I still have a cool blog without a babystrology baby floating around in a baby bubble on the side of my page? If only I'd started this 7 weeks ago, I'd have a floating baby bubble.

4. Do I have to refer to my husband as DH or blog as though I never want to strangle him, ever?

5. Can I be a less than perfect mom and admit that my kids aren't always perfect?

6. Will I ever sound like I am seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/ and be made fun of at the dinner table of friends and family?

7. If I really do catch the blogging bug, will I become addicted and spend countless hours blogging when I can hardly accomplish anything noteworthy as it is?

8. Am I cool enough to have a nice long list of blogger peeps down the side of my page? Can I even use the word peeps?

9. Do I make it private or public? Will some psychopath hunt me down and kidnap my DH for ransom because I have a blog?

10. Am I cool enough to say I have a BLOG???

I jumped out of a plane to overcome my fear of heights. As for my fear of blogging- here we go.