It's been a trying day.......

OK so - I know it can always get worse, but sometimes it's hard to see things on the positive side of life! This weekend started yesterday with Kris going out of town. We have a friend of the family that lives in the Pocono mountais in Pennsylvania and John (the friend) is investigating some business ventures, and since Kris enjoys that stuff, he decided to take a break and go out there to help him and to hang out and relax a bit. So here I was alone with 2 kids, which I didn't mind too much because Kris works alot anyway and I knew he needed some time away from everything to just go and chill. I was worried about him going out there with the weather, but you can't tell him anything - once he makes up his mind to do something, he does it, so I let him go without much complaint.

Well today when I was at the store with my dad (we do grocery shopping together most saturdays) I got a call from Kris (this was at about 2 pm) saying that he was going to the emergency room because he was having horrible pain in his abdomen. Great. I was really really worried and just kinda sat around anxious waiting for some news. Thankfully John was calling me with updates when he could. I am so greatful that John is taking such good care of him when I cannot! They took him back for a cat scan and found that he had a blockage in his small intestine which has probably been there for a while and all the food or whatever he ate after the blockage got there has just been backing up behind it. Thus his abdomen was really kinda blowing up like a balloon - no wonder he was in pain! They drugged him up - which he greatly appreciated and had to put a tube up his nose into his stomach/intestines to remove all the pressure behind the blockage. They are hoping with the pressure removed that the blockage itself will move which will resolve the issue. If not, then, well, let's just hope it moves. Otherwise surgery may be necessary. Ugh.

I am just dying because I can't be there with him. I have to wait and see what is going on. Even if I could to fly out there, the airports are closed because they have been slammed with snow. And there's no way I can drive with savanna by myself and I can't leave her here since I am nursing her. Well, I could, but I'd rather keep her with me because with the whole nursing thing, it's hard to be away from her when she's this young. Especially since I don't know how long I would be gone.

AND to top it all off, Joey's been pretty snotty and conjested today, but I just chalked it up to a 3 year old's normal cold. Well tonight before he went to bed just for kicks I took his temperature and it was 101*. Poor kid. I gave him tylenol and he went straight to sleep, but he just woke up about half an hour ago and threw up. Now he is sleeping again, but I'm not sure if he will sleep or if he will wake up more sick. I'm just so tired - emotionally tired that is. I'm worried beyond belief about Kris, I'm worried about Joey, I'm worried about what I will do with Joey if I do go out to PA, I'm worried how Savanna will handle the trip, I'm worried about even if Kris does get out of the hospital, how will he get home with the feet of snow they got out there? I'm just worried about everything.

I think I will list the things that I am thankful for so maybe I will smile a bit. I am thankful that I have so much family close to help me with the kids. I am thankful that Kris isn't any more sick than he is - it could be so much more serious. I am thankful that John is taking such great care of my husband - I'm sure that's the last thing he wanted to do with his weekend, but he is treating him like he is family, which I am endebted to him for. I am grateful for our church - I know it is same wherever we go. I was able to get online, find the bishop of the area that the hospital is in, call him and ask him to get priesthood together to give Kris a blessing. They should be able to get out there in the morning - unfortunately the roads are terrible out there right now. Anyway, just please keep Kris in your prayers and pray he will make it home safe and SOON! I'm not good at the single parent thing.

This is a picture of Kris with the tube and stuff that John took on his phone and sent to me. :( poor guy! He is never going out of town without me again!

New Blog Title

Whoever can figure out why I named my blog 'The Oval and the Squares' gets a prize!!! Let the guessing begin!

Donate Today!!

Today I went to the Blood Give-In at the Alladin Shrine Temple put on by NBC 4 and WNCI.

I just wanted to put a little post in here and say if you are eligable to donate blood, DO IT! If you are afraid of needles or are squeemish around blood, GET OVER IT and donate!

The red cross is in desperate need of blood - and as the picture says above, Live and Let Live - Donate Some Blood!! It's not hard, it goes quickly, and they give you yummy food afterward! (I got Raising Cane's chicken and Panera tonight!)

I'm also considering donating breast milk to the Milk Bank of Ohio to help premature and sick infants! Interesting, no?

Christmas 2008

Well, I know I haven't posted in forever, and I apologize to the few of you that actually look at my blog, but here I am with my belated Christmas post. Christmas went GREAT but was very exhausting. First off, it was so exciting this year, because this is the first year that Joey really understood the concept of Christmas and Santa and Christ's birthday and why we get gifts and so on. He was STOKED in the morning to find that Santa had eaten his cookies and drank his milk - he was even happy to finish the half of cookie that 'Santa' had left:


Next, he was very excited to find that Santa had left presents under the tree - here are some pictures of him opening them:

This one is Joey 'helping' Savanna open her presents!

It's hungry hungry hippos!! :) A classic

Now, the next story is sooooo cute! Since Joey understood that Santa would bring him presents, there has been only one thing that he has been asking for from Santa - a 'walking talking Lightning McQueen' (from the movie cars). I was so excited because I knew that would be a great gift for us to get for him. Well, my parents bought it for him before I got a chance to! So, I explained to him that Santa takes presents everywhere, and he might take his Lightning to another house and we'd have to go see. Well, of course it wasn't under our tree Christmas morning, but he was very happy with what Santa did bring him. He didn't even mention 'walking talking Lightning McQueen' once. I was happy he wasn't disappointed even though he didn't get what he asked for yet. Next, we went to Kris' mom's house for christmas dinner. I don't have any pictures from that unfortunately, but she got him a TAG reading system w/ some books to go with it. Again, he was very happy. And again, he didn't even mention his Lightning! I was hoping he had forgotten about it. Well, then we went to my Sister Julie's house for Christmas dinner. After dinner we opened presents. It was SO cute when he opened the Lightning from Grandma and Grandpa:

He smiled REALLY big and said 'IT WAS HERE!'

How cute is that?? He really had been thinking about it all day and was just waiting to see if it was at any other houses since it wasn't at ours. So cute. He's my little guy! Here are some more pictures of christmas at my sister's house taken by my mom, since I forgot to pack my camera!!

This is Joey and his cousin, Kenny

Jacob, Kenny, and Joey - he LOVES these guys!! He always can't wait to play with them!

My Savanna with her surprise face!

Savanna holding her new VW bus from Aunt Amanda and looking at her new doll from Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Slack

Savanna with mommy looking at her car toy from Aunt Melissa and Uncle Randy

Savanna didn't last long.... she loves sleeping on her Daddy!! :-)
For those who are wondering, Kris' shirt says 'NO, I will not fix your computer' - ha ha - so fitting for him!

My momma opening the gift I got for her - a ticket to Time Out for Women! For those of you who don't know, it's this AWESOME womens conference run by Deseret Book Company, which is affiliated with my church. It's always so fun! My mom, my sister Amanda, and I are all going together in Cincinnati in May! YAY!

This is my papa smurf opening the car we got for him - he collects models of old cars. I got him a 1960 something (cant remember the exact year....) Ford Mustang. I LOVE mustangs and will someday have one when I don't have to squeeze in car seats!

Overall, Christmas was an awesome day. We all had fun and it was relaxed, and both Kris and I got to see our families. We even got to go to Kris' dad's house after we left my sister's house. It is SO nice to have both of our families so close!! We get to share our holidays with them all and don't have to chose where we are going. I don't know what I would do without my family so close to help me with my babies!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

Hey - I don't have time to post much, and I'm sure I'll do a huge christmas post soon, but I had to plug in here Savanna rolled for the first time yesterday! :-) She rolled from her belly to her back and I know she doesn't know what she did or how she did it, but I know this means soon I'll have a little tater bug rolling all over my house. She's such a cutie! And such a happy baby! I've been beyond blessed with the two most perfect kids in the whole wide world!

Bad to the Bone!!

Joey went to get his hair cut this week. I took him along with his Uncle Garrett (Kris' little brother). He always says he wants his hair just like Uncle Garrett's hair. Well the girl who does their hair, Stacey, (a girl I went to high school with) has different colors of hair gel. Needless to say, Joey chose blue. Ha ha ha - and I thought this picture was just priceless. My sister Amanda took it and Joey would NOT smile - every time she told him to smile, he just scoweled more. Soooo here's my adorable cute little 3 year old. Hopefully things like this doesn't happen when he's a teenager, or maybe this is just a shadow of things to come!! He's just bad to the bone!

Fire Lerms and No Sleep

I'm starting to wonder when I will ever get a full night's sleep any more. I'm starting to wonder when my kids... BOTH of them will both sleep through the night and I can sleep and not be awakened by a hungry baby, a crying 3 year old, a snoring husband, a loud dog, or annoying cats. I'm starting to wonder if I will keep my sanity. BUT I know I'll miss all of this when my children are grown and I still won't be able to sleep because I will miss them so much.

An interesting thing about Joey is his obsession with fire alarms. I think it all started about 6 months ago and I was cooking and accidently set off the fire alarm - food's done! Well Joey FREAKED OUT at the fire alarm. Since then, we have tried to explain to him what we do when the fire alarm beeps and how it's just a way to keep us safe and get us out of the house. But he's still obsessed with them. He notices them everywhere we go. He calls them 'fire lerms'. Every store, house, doctors office, or anywhere we go he searches untill he finds the 'fire lerms'. He will then compare them to other ones he's seen. At first he was afraid of the fire alarm in his room and wouldn't walk under it by himself. Thankfully he's over that, but now he's starting a new trend. 2 nights ago he woke up crying and I went in there and he told me he needed me in bed with him. Well I didn't give in and he did go back to sleep and the next morning he told me that he saw the 'flashing fire lerm moving'. Hmmm. Well last night I woke up at 4 in the morning to someone crying. While I layed there trying to hear which kid it was and how insistent it was over my husband snoring, the crying stopped.

Then here comes Joey toddling into our room. *sigh* It starts.

He says 'Mommy - I need to sleep with you. I saw the flashing fire lerm in my room moving again.'

I said 'Joey - fire alarms don't move.'

He says 'But I saw it move!' then climbs up in our bed. So much for sleeping...

I let him in our bed - which will probably make this a repeat performance. Hopefully next time I will be able to persuade him to sleep in his own bed. I'm not against parents letting their children sleep in their bed with them, but I cannot sleep well with a kid in the bed and really don't want to make it habit of letting him in our bed all the time.

Stupid flashing fire lerms and good imaginations! Ugh - I'm tired!