A Cat-Torturer's Heaven

Sorry for the bad quality of this photo. Sigh. I'm working on it. This is Sadie holding Fluffbucket. One and a half more weeks until we can give the kittens to the Humane Society, folks. It's getting grosser and grosser. We had to pull up the carpet in the kittens' closet, and we found, to our dismay, that the carpet was glued right to the cement. And the cement under the carpet isn't smooth. It's gloppy and rough. So when one of the kittens has diarrhea on it, guess who gets to kneel on her hands and knees, scrubbing the diarrhea out of the crevices of cement with a scrub brush?

"Me, that's 'ooh." What movie is that from?? :) I'll be really impressed if anyone gets that one.

Anyways, the poop-cleaning that I've been doing has been really special.

We let the kittens out for a few hours a couple of days ago, and I ended up cleaning seven terds off my carpet. So now we hardly let them out anymore. I let them out for a moment to clean out their area once per day, and then I periodically let Xena in to feed them (and I have to remove the little litter box when she's in there so that she doesn't spray it all over the place), and that's it. Or if they have company that wants to play with them (like Dylan's friends or Nat and her fam), I let them out, but that's it. I've had it, kids. I've had it.

I don't think we can afford Fluffbucket, but that's okay. She'll make someone a wonderful little companion. And I'm really okay just cleaning up one cat's s**t. :) Sorry; there's just no other word for it when you abhor it as much as I do. Like I said, I'm a bad Mormon. :)

The Weekly, Three-Hour Wrestling Match

Church is a distressing time for Micah and me. It's basically a three-hour wrestling match. Church is right during his nap, and he really, really struggles. There have been many times in the last few months that he and I have had what Nat calls "Diet Church." And I feel badly about that, but when I'm to the point where Micah is going to experience Shaken Baby Syndrome, it's time to go home and put his butt to bed. Ben and I take turns doing "Diet Church." We really try to push Micah to stay the whole three hours, but when we've had it, we've had it. He goes into nursery in three months, and we're counting down the weeks. Seriously.

Two weeks ago, I brought Micah home after the second hour, because I had HAD it, and I put him in his high chair for him to eat a quick lunch before his nap, and he was sleeping within one minute:

Poor kid. He and I did Diet Church again yesterday. I was up until one in the morning reading, because I'm a dork, and then yesterday morning, I had a huge allergy attack. We're out of Claritin, so I had to whip out the big dog, Benadryl. Which wiped me out even further. So during sacrament, my head kept lolling forward, and my eyes kept rolling back into my head. Somewhere in the periphery of my consciousness, I realized that Micah was being crazy, but Ben was dealing with him, so I blissfully continued in my fluffy, semi-conscious state. Then, when sacrament meeting ended, I shook my head, woke up, saw Micah screaming bloody murder, and went, "I'm done. I can't stay awake, much less deal with him." So we went home. I gave him a quick lunch, threw him into bed, and had a four-hour nap.

I'm a bad Mormon.

He loves him some canteloupe.

I randomly discovered last week that Micah is a huge, huge fan of canteloupe. He basically ate an entire canteloupe over the course of two days. I'm just happy to have found a food that he actually likes, besides bread. :)

I knew they would be beautiful!!!

My cute friend Megan Blethen took pictures of my kids a couple of weeks ago, and they were not terribly cooperative:

That picture is soooooooo them. Dylan off in his own world, Micah screaming his head off, and Sadie on the verge of tears. Welcome to my daily life! Hahahaha!

I really thought she wouldn't have much to work with, but I should have never doubted it. And where we couldn't get any of all three of the kids smiling together, she did some head-moving in photoshop, and voila! A perfect shot. She's a genius!!! Here's the link to all the pics of my kids. Bravo, Megs! Bravo!!!

Ryan and Ash Were Here!

When we lived in San Diego, we hung out with my cousin, Ryan, and his wife, Ashley, a ton. Especially me and Ashley - we made cards together. Actually, I should say that Ashley taught me how to make cards. :) She is a scrapbooking and cardmaking genius.

I've missed them dearly since we moved here. Brandon, Ryan's younger brother, and his family are moving to Germany in a few weeks, and Ryan and Ash came up a couple of weeks ago to spend time with them. It was a super-busy weekend for me, but I did manage to go visit them on a Monday afternoon. And then Micah was being really AWESOME, so we only stayed for an hour. I'm a crappy cousin.

Right as I was getting ready to leave, I realized that I had brought my camera and hadn't taken any pictures. So I took some really quickly. It was kind of retarded of me. Oh well.

Boyd came home early from work:

My camera was freaking out in that light. I don't know why.

My family has this Boyd joke. It originated with the game, Balderdash. The word was "hyoid," and we all had to come up with fake definitions for it, and then hope that other people voted for our definition. It's a good game, and I usually kick butt at it, being an English major and all. I can fake the official dictionary language and all that. Anyways, when we got the word "hyoid," Nat (I think), wrote as her definition: "What people say to Boyd when he comes into a room." My mom laughed for like an hour when that "definition" was read. She was laughing so hard that she was crying. So now, whenever any of us sees Boyd, we go, "Hyoid!!!" We told him about it once, but I think he's forgotten, because now, when we say, "Hyoid!" to him, he looks at us quizzically, like, "My name's not Oyd..."

Aunt Marilyn is famously camera-shy:

She was shaking her finger at me, like, "No, no, no...."

Brandon, soon moving to Germany:

Ugh, my camera was having some major problems. This is Smeary Ryan, playing Wii:

It was some kind of Tiger Woods game.

Ashley LOVES babies. Here she is with Micah:

And it's a good thing she loves babies, because she's expecting one this fall! Her fourth boy. She does so well during her pregnancies. Very little nausea. It makes me jealous.

Love you guys! And miss you.

Put Me In, Coach!!

When our ward announced that it would have a softball game, I was thrilled. I haven't played since high school, and throwing and catching a teeny bit when I coached t-ball really made me want to get out there and play softball "for reals." As I was getting ready for the evening, in the back of my mind, I thought, "I wonder if they'll have something for the kids to do. They'll want to play ball..." I toyed briefly with bringing the tee that I still need to return back to the YMCA, but then I thought, "Nah..." I did pack and bring my bases, though. And my glove, of course.



When we got there, almost every single kid had a mitt and was ready and raring to play. I put out my bases before the dinner part of the evening, and while the adults were eating, most of the kids were out there playing around on the diamond. By the time I finished eating, I realized that the adults were setting up on a different diamond, and that there were tons of kids desperately in need of adult supervision. Patty realized this before I did and started a game for the kids. She is so great. If I was her, I would have gone and played with the adults. And part of me really, really wanted to do that. But then I sighed and went over to help her. And I lent my glove to my little man.



And it really turned out to be fun. Because my kids were having fun. Things just kind of change when you have kids. For instance, when we lived in CA and went to Disneyland, we didn't get to do any of the rides we wanted to do (Dylan was too short for the "big rides"), but it was really okay, because it's the kids' turn to have fun now.

I took a brief break from being the appointed catcher/umpire to take a few pics.

Here's Pats, the appointed pitcher:

Dylie batting:

And playing in the field with my huge mitt:

Sadie had no interest in playing. She did have interest in organizing my bucket of balls:

And in "walking" a lady's dog around on its leash (the lady was nice to indulge her in being bossy to the dog):

Ben was donating plasma, so he came a little late. He ate some really, really good fried chicken:

And then came and took over as designated pitcher:

Micah was actually decent that night, as long as he had a ball to play with:

He must have been TIRED.

One day after swimming lessons, Dylan fell asleep while waiting for me to make him a sandwich. Right on his hard chair. It was really funny. He saw that I was posting this today and was totally embarrassed about it. I told him it was cute, not embarrassing. I told him what would really be embarrassing would be if I put up a naked picture of him on here. He got all embarrassed, punched my arm, and ran away. He is so cute. :)

Two More Weeks. Two More Weeks.

Ohhh the kittens are sooo cute:

Buuuuut... We're having some issues with Xena. She has started weaning the kittens, which means that she doesn't eat their poop and pee anymore. We have set up a little litter box next to their little bed, and some of them have even used it, which is great. But Xena wants to use their litter box instead of hers. Which is a problem, because Xena is really bad at burying her stuff. She tries, but ends up kind of spraying litter all over the place. A few months back, before all of this cat pregnancy stuff, we had to get her an enclosed litter box with a cat door on it so we didn't have to sweep up litter all the time. And it has helped a lot.

The kittens are in a large closet in an unfinished room in our basement. We had to kind of put up a barrier so that they wouldn't get out and poop and pee all over the place, and it was working fine. Xena was able to easily jump over the barrier to go in and feed them. The closet has old pink carpet in it, and we have been putting towels on the carpet to kind of protect it. Not like we'll keep the pink carpet, but until we have time and energy to rip out the carpet, we want to protect it. Wellllll, Xena started pooping on the towels, and then "burying" it by folding over the edges of the towel on top of the poop. Ugh. I HATE cleaning up animal defacation. Which is why I've had problems keeping animals in the past. And cat poop is seventy times stinkier than dog poop, I swear. So is cat pee.

So now we have put a big door against the opening of the closet and shut the kittens in there so that Xena doesn't go in and do her thing and make me want to vomit from the smell. I have a really, really sensitive nose. It could be a superpower, seriously. I clean her litter box every single day, and I gag the whole time. It's like torture. So to have her pooping all over in that little room that is just feet from my bedroom is more than I can bear. She is still weaning the kittens, so I have to let the kittens out of the little room several times a day for her to feed them - but I won't let her in there. I bring the kittens out and have her feed them wherever.

The kittens have gotten quite mobile, however. They like to climb the stairs and hang out with the family. So there have been some kitten pee and poop incidents which have also been traumatic for me. Sadie stepped in a poop mess in the kitchen today and was freaking OUT. I don't blame her!

So my life is really smelly right now. Which is hard for me. And Ben got some cheap kind of litter recently, and it is the worst-smelling litter ever. It smells like formaldahyde. I can smell it on Xena's fur and it makes me want to vomit.

In two weeks, we get to send the kittens to the Humane Society lady's house. We'll let her know which ones our friends and family members have called "dibs" on. The kittens will get spayed when they're twelve weeks old, and at 13 weeks, our friends and family can go get them from the lady's house (and pay her). I'm still trying to figure out if we can afford to keep one for ourselves. If we keep one, I have settled on my very favorite one, which we have named Fluffbucket:

She has so much fur, and she just loves to cuddle. The never claws at your shirt when you're hoding her. She walks kind of funny. I love it. And she is my little shadow. She follows me all over the house. I'm seriously in love with this kitten. She is a lover.

We named the other fuzzy black one Fuma, which means "smoke" in Portugese. Because her hair is kind of a dark gray color. The Humane Society insisted that we name them, so we're like, um, okay... The one with a striped ribbon around her neck is the current biggest whiner, so we named her Burgandy, like the wine. Get it? Cheese doesn't need to be named. I'm trying to figure out a name for the green-ribboned one. She is very shy, but also very gentle. She really likes Natalie. The one with the white patch on his throat is named Patch. And that's all of them!

It's been so fun to play and cuddle with them, and the kids have been loving it so much, but I'm ready to reclaim my house from the stench. Two more weeks, baby.

Slides:

Rigby Lake

On Patty's official birthday, she asked if I wanted to go to Rigby Lake with her. I, of course, said, "H Yeah!" and brought my mom and sistah with me.

I haven't been to Rigby Lake since, like, maybe 1995. Seriously. The beach stretched so far from the car to the water, and the sand was searingly hot. It was never that fun for me.

But man, oh man, have times changed! They charge $5 per car now, which is kind of a bummer, but the fare has gone a long way. Now, there is lots of grass from the parking lot to the little beach area. The beach area is relatively small, and you can kind of put your blankets on the grass, walk 10 feet on the beach, and then get into the water. There are tons of big play toys for the kids and nice bathrooms. So I'm a fan.

Here are The Patster and Dylan:

She is so good with him. With all of my kids, really. And, by the way, that water was c-c-c-cold!!

Madre:

Micah, generously offering Mom his binkie:

I had to put sunscreen on Micah's scalp, so that day, he was channeling Billy Idol:

The likeness is uncanny:

Lex spent the afternoon studying for the GRE:

Sadie was still hovering at a 99 degree temperature on this day, so we shouldn't have gone, but I was going stir-crazy in the house. And she really seemed to feel pretty good all afternoon:

It was big fun. And my kids were actually decent, which was a nice change! :)

The Pimp Cane

Lex has graduated from crutches to a cane. She's been using my great-grandma's old cane. (I think.) I think it's so funny; had to take a picture of it.

You Give Me Fever...

...In the morning, Fever all through the night...

Sadie had a horrible, horrible fever a couple of weeks ago. It started on a Sunday - 103 degrees. And nothing we did could bring the fever down. We tried zig-zagging between ibuprofen and Tylenol, cold cloths, and even a lukewarm bath. And nothing else seemed to be wrong. She wasn't complaining of stomach pain or ear pain or throat pain or anything. She was just whiney and HOT.

We kept her home from church, and then Dylan and I went alone to Jake's b-day party (see the below entry). We didn't want to give whatever she had to everyone else. And Micah is a butthead, so I left him home with Ben, too.

I had been over at Nat's for only an hour when Ben called me, alarmed - Sadie's temp had jumped to 105. I raced home, dropped off Dylan, grabbed Sadie, and raced to the ER. I just didn't want to mess around with it. I couldn't believe how lucky we were - it was very slow for what I thought a Sunday night would be. We were in and out in only two hours.

The verdict? She had a UTI. No joke. For those of you who don't know me very well, UTI is Urinary Tract Infection. I get three or four per year. Just the way my life is. So UTI is part of my daily lexicon. Anyways, back to Sadie, who seems to have inherited my UTI-ness. I could not believe it! Sadie hadn't complained of pain while urinating, and she didn't seem to be going more often than usual. She wasn't grabbing what we call in our house her "front bumb," or anything. I would have never known it.

The ER doc said that the top three reasons for high fevers in children - strep throat, ear infection, and UTIs. I guess it makes sense. Kids never want to take the time to go pee. Or if they do, they hurry through it and probably don't totally empty their bladders.

So we got Sadie some antibiotics that night and started them right away. Her fever still hovered between 100 and 103 clear until Thursday, though - four days later. It was a doozy. She got three days off from swimming lessons, which she was happy about.

She had many, many visitors. Here is one of them, Lex, who brought a nice, cool shaved ice (Barbie flavor - Sadie's favorite). And she and Sadie cuddled with Cheese for awhile:

My kids have such doting aunts. By the way, Lex's friend, Mark, has called dibs on Cheese. Lex calls herself Cheese's godmother. :)

And, parenthetically, our little Lex has returned to Boise State for her fourth year. She left today. She just took her GRE and will be entering Physical Therapy School (I'm crossing my fingers for ISU - just an hour away) next fall. I have such smart sisters. Seriously.

Birthday Mania: Jake

Jake the Snake turned 6 a couple of weeks ago!

His new thing is Transformers, so Nat forayed into the world of fondant to make a Transformers cake:

I'm proud of her. I have not yet found the courage to try fondant.

Jake, like his brother Troy and most other little boys, opened his clothes presents and immediately dumped them on the floor, but the adults celebrated the clothes:

New clothes are always a cause for celebration. That's what I say.

Mom and Dad went straight from their camping trip to Nat and Pete's house, so their rented camper was in the front, and the kids had a LOT of fun playing in it:

I would love to rent a camper myself, someday. I think they're the only way to camp. I'm not much of a camper.

Slides:

Happy Birthday, Jaker!

PP from PP

This is my friend, Patty P. She is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. So Ben and I call her PP from PP.

Her birthday was last week, and she threw herself a little party at the park in our neighborhood. Sooooooo fun. I stole all these pictures from her blog. Her fam came down from Rexburg (that's where they live now), and it was fun to meet them - I've heard so much about them, and they are just as fun as they sounded.

We had fabulous food - burgers from the grill, pasta salad, chips galore... Yum. While the adults ate, the kids played around. My kids are anti-eatites. Dylan brought over his alka-seltzer exploder thingeys and set them off:

Then Ken made me gather everyone together to sing Happy Birthday to Patty and have cupcakes. I guess he knows that I can yell really loudly when I want to, and that I have no problem making a fool of myself in front of people I don't know. So, after yelling, "Hey, everyone! Come on over to sing for Patty! Come on! You can do it! Gather 'round! You know you want to! That's right, get up and come on over! You can sit down again in just a minute!!" we all sang. And Patty blew out the imaginary candle on her cupcake. And we ate. Yum.

Then we played Bocci, an Italian game. (Patty's mom is Italian.) Tons of fun. I'm not good at it, but thanks to the supreme skills of Patty and Janniel, the girls' team won. Patty made up a pretty cool victory dance.

Here's Patty and her hubs, Ken:

Happy Birthday, Pats! Thanks for being my friend!!

Alka-Seltzer to the Rescue!

There was one good thing about the Roaring Youth Jam - the Inkley's stand. They had all of these old plastic camera film-holders that they gave out, along with instructions on how to make a little alka-seltzer exploder gadget thingey. You fill up the plastic cannister halfway with water, put in half a tablet of alka-seltzer, then close it up, set it down upside-down, and wait:

Within about ten seconds, pop! The cannister shoots about thirty feet into the air! Endless hours of fun for six-year-old boys. And for their man-boy dads, too:

Ben was pretending to put the alka-seltzer in his mouth.

Sadie was very concerned about Dylan getting hit in the face. When I took this shot, she was yelling at him to "wun away fwom da bombs!!":

Here is Dyl, setting one down before wunning away, as Sadie counseled:

Dylan has lost one of his little plastic film holders. It will be hard to replace, because we don't use film cameras anymore. And I'm not buying an $8 roll of film just for the holder. I was surprised to see that the Inkley's people had some, because honestly, how many people still use film cameras??

Extreme Bedhead

Sadie's hair looks like this every morning:

She kind of... rocks side to side, violently, in bed to go to sleep. It's really weird. She's always done it. Her crib used to squeak loudly when she did it as a baby. It's hard on the girl's hair:

She's smiling so cute in this pic:

But trust me when I say she's not smiling when I'm brushing out the snarls every day! :)