Life is Back to Normal...

Whatever that Means! We have been busy this past month and I have thought about a hundred things I would put on our blog.

Things like:

* Rushing Ginger to the ER after we had only been home from our trip for 36 hours. She pulled our entry table down on top of her foot. No worries, she didn't break her foot but it swelled to twice the size and 4 weeks later you can still see the bruise but it is continually improving.

* Our crazy General Conference weekend that ended up having 4 soccer games scheduled on it. Basically all we did was go to games, eat, watch conference, and sleep.

* Me turning into a complete airhead because Ken was home for two weeks straight! I seriously lost all sense of time and schedule. I forgot way too many things I am responsible for and was completely under prepared for my 4 children

* Helping but not helping the boys with the GT projects. It's totally ridiculous that they are so strict on the GT projects each year. They want the boys to do it all at school so they can make sure it is truly independent, and don't want them to talk to us about it. Except they need a million supplies from home and end up bringing it home to work on. The boys did a great job!
We weren't too happy about the reaction Darin got about his project. Darin was making the point that it was physically impossible for troops to be removed from Iraq by a certain date because of transportation resources (aircraft carriers and ground) and was hypothesizing on what they would do instead. But alot of the parents were repulsed by his project. Which I don't really get, his project was all about miltary transportation facts and doing the math about how many people there are, how many can be moved at a time, etc. It wasn't even about if we should even be in a war or not. Because seriously, the project on the history of jeans was soooooo thought-provoking.

* Going camping with our friends the Mata's over Easter Break. It was beyond crazy before we left but we finally arrived at 9:45 pm at the campground when it closes it's gates at 10pm. The boys had a blast with their friends. Rose got a fever after the first night and Ginger broke out in a weird rash all over her body. Both girls were so grumpy that most of the time I sat in a chair holding both of them and feeling like a 500 lb woman who couldn't move. Oh, and Ken locked the keys in the car and Lola had to come to our rescue. Despite all of this we did have fun on our camping trip. The food was delicious, the bike trails were great, and it was fun hiding the Easter eggs in the woods.

* Spending Easter trying to figure out if Ginger has Chicken Pox and having 3 kids home sick from church. Talk about one of the saddest Sundays to not be with your whole family at church. And I had sharing time to do in Primary, but was completely stressed since I only slept about 3 hours and Ginger and Rose were clinging to me the whole night before.
Ginger kept waking up every 30 minutes or so and crying "Mommy". It was a big debate if I was even going to make it to church but they finally fell to sleep hard at 6 am. I know Heavenly Father was looking out for me because I was so emotionally torn, and Ginger kept sleeping and was happy with Ken until I got home.
Ginger's rash got worse and she had bumps that turned blistery too, Nathan and Rose had fevers of 102 and were sick for another 3 days.

* Filing our taxes on April 15th at 2:00 am. And did I mention Ken was in California that week when I remembered they were due??? Thank goodness for Turbo Tax and electronic signatures. And maybe this isn't significant to anyone else...but I am more of the file before the end of February, keep a detailed budget, and check our tax witholding 4 times a year type of person.

* Being Super Proud of Ken! He has been receiving really great recognition throughout his company for his work. But even better is the stock options he received for his work with the Air Force. And even better then that is that his trip to CA was really great for him and he was able to dive into all of the Engineering work he has been missing. And the very best part is that he finally gets to start on the new project he has been dying and wanting and thinking about doing for the past 10 months!!! I am really happy for him. The $$$ is great, but honestly seeing him so elated about his job is the best feeling ever!

* Getting all three kids well enough that they weren't hurting so much and needing to be held 24/7 only to get deathly sick myself. They still had some fevers but felt good enough to go back to school and play. I on the otherhand was bedridden for the most part of 4 days, except for the fact that Ken was out of town so how much could I really stay in bed???
Thank goodness for my Mom and Dad. My mom brought over groceries to make me chicken soup, but I asked her to make me a different filipino one and she had my dad run to the store to get the groceries for that. Yes, I know I am completely spoiled! But it was an awful sickness and it took me a week and half to get over it and I still feel weak. What's the point of having your parents live down the street if you can't act like a baby sometimes???Seriously, though I do have the sweetest parents. They checked on me alot and I am very thankful for them.

* Potty Training Rose! She is so close to being completely potty-trained. With Rose I almost feel like an expert who could write a book called "Potty Train your 2 year old in 24 hours" or something. Not like the major failure I felt like with the boys. Really it's taken more the 24 hours it's been 4 weeks. But it seems record fast to me especially since I am so very relaxed about it. It's totally all her.

* Making Pinewood Derby Cars and the Pinewood Derby. Last year when Ken was released from Cub Scouts for like 8 months the boys were disappointed. But Ken said, "Look on the brightside now you will get to have a really awesome Pinewood Derby car this year!" So Darin took 1st prize!
Well, this year Ken is back in Cub Scouts but was out of town the week before, and came home to a seriously sick wife, cars that had gone nowhere, and he was in charge of the Pinewood Derby again. He literally was putting their wheels on 10 minutes before they raced, it was awful. But I think the Pinewood Derby turned out good. In fact I think Ken did a better job without my help. And he made Rose a car when he was out in CA. He made her car look like a dress-up shoe and painted it hot pink. She calls it her "Shoe Car".

* What kind of self-respecting provident living specialist uses the last of her drinking water on flowers??? The guys working on expanding the road cut the water pipe outside of my subdivision. Water flooded the street, it was crazy. The even crazier part is that I was trimming bushes outside and cut off flowers to stick in a vase. I knew we didn't have water in the house, but the reality of that didn't actually hit me until I poured a bottled water into the vase for the flowers I just cut.
Okay, to be fair it wasn't technically my last water but the rest of the bottle water is stockpiled in the back of a closet and I wasn't about to open up those 50 gallon drums so instead I ended up running to the store to get water jugs. And just to illustrate the what in the world was I thinking even more. Ken had just given me a beautiful vase of a dozen roses that very morning so it's not like I really needed fresh flowers decorating the house.

* Thinking about why toddlers are sooooooo adorable and cute! This actually may seem like a superficial thought but it runs through my head ALL-THE-TIME. I have come to the conclusion that their whole body just ooozes cuteness so that way they can live another day of their life!!! So really it is a protection mechanism.
At least with Ginger it is. The girl is just plain GORGEOUS: the hair, the cheeks, those eyes, the eyelashes, the lips, the arms, the feet, every little thing she does is adorable. Except for when it's not! And by not, I mean makes you want to pull your hair out and give up because there is no way you will ever win against a tornado. And even when you catch the "tornado" what are you going to do she is just so dang adorable!

* Planning out the rest of the details for my 30th Birthday Celebration Weekend with my girlfriends I grew up with! I leave Thursday morning and we are going to go to San Francisco for 3 nights. There will be 5 of us going!!! I am so excited we will be going to the Oakland Temple, the beach, to see Wicked, Great America, and just hang out and talk. Oh, and SLEEP!

* Ken found a 5 foot long Bird's nest in our vent! One morning we were outside doing yard work and he walked by the side of our house and saw a bird fly out of the vent cap. He got a ladder and found they had pecked a hole in the plastic and they had twigs packed inside the piping about 5 feet. It drastically reduced how long it took our clothes to dry once he cleaned out the nests. It probably would have been good to know this before I ordered a new washer and dryer set:-)
Then today when a couple was taking away my old washer and dryer and loading it in their car a bird flew out of that metal tubing that connects the dryer to the wall.

* Dealing with my own emotions over the whole concept of change. I have always considered myself to be fairly adventuresome and not very rigid (ok, except for a few things). I like to think that I embrace new opportunities as they happen and have a good time with it. However this past month has thrown me completely!
I've had a hard time dealing with all the changes happening at once: my babies changing, kids growing up, church responsibilities, sickness, schedule changes. It just seems like everything is in flux constantly and I am on this bullet train that is called my life and it is flying by while I barely hang onto it.

*Anyway, I decided I might as well get over it and start loving my life again! I've been cooking more which is a big thing I love and I have missed. It's been one goodie after another German Chocolate Cake, Brownies, Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies when the kids get home from school and nice morning breakfasts! I've also been getting down on the floor and playing with them more. Definately dancing more! I feel so old that I didn't even know what the Cha Cha Slide is, but my kids love it!

I'm actually kind of sad that now that I am feeling more back to my normal self that I am leaving my family this weekend.