My sister's kids

My older sister's kids came over last night and hung out with us while she and her husband went out for dinner to celebrate their anniversary. I was cleaning off my counter this morning and came across this paper that Emma, my 10 yr old niece, wrote. I thought it was hilarious so I wanted to share it. I will write it exactly like she wrote it so you have the full effect:

The Daily News
Reporter: Emma R. Johnson

(on the left margin she drew a picture of a smiley face that is supposed to be Cody. He's saying, "Hey, ladies.") Cody is 12 and my only older cusion. He gets his humor from his halarious father. He has sunburns everywhere!! "Who's your favorit cusion?" reporter Emma askes. "Myself" he simply replys (See, Humor!!) "Who's your favorit brother?" Emma askes. "They both are some thimes. "he answered.

(This left margin has a picture that is supposed to be Abby, her sister saying, "hi.") Abby is my 8-year-old sister. She has a hamster named 'Rhino.' I don't know were her humor is from. "Who's your favorit cusion? "Emma askes lovley Abby. "Everyone" Abby said. "Who's your favorit sibling?" "You" Humor and sence. I like this girl!




I love how she isn't sure where Abby's humor comes from. It's either because she doesn't think her parents are funny or she is not sure who is the funniest. And that only leaves me to assume that she thinks her Uncle Jabon is funnier than her Aunt Tara. Ah, well. Sometimes the youth can be easily fooled. :P

Her son Matt is 6. For dessert I gave them the choice of a brownie I made or a frosted cookie Shelly bought and brought over. Matt chose to have a cookie. All the kids were enjoying their desserts but I hadn't noticed that Matt had only taken a few small bites from his cookie. Finally, he tells me that his cookie does not taste good. He said, "I thought cookies were supposed to taste good! This cookie tastes like dry dirt!!" After I quit laughing, I let him throw away his cookie and gave him a brownie.

Kids are funny. I get the pleasure of being around my funny kids but also my sister's funny kids. It makes life sweeter. :)

Oh, my kids!

I love my kids. Here are some fun facts about them from the last few days:

Cody went to his first dance. Since he is 12, he goes to Mutual every Wednesday night where he usually just hangs out with the other boys his age and does projects or works on Scouts stuff or whatever they do. This last Wednesday, his leaders surprised them all with a combined activity with the girls from church. They went to a local school where a disco ball was hung, learned some dances, and then had the dance. I am so glad that he absolutely hated it! Is that horrible of me to think that? If so, oh well. I'm not ready for him to start liking girls! He said the worst part was holding the girl's hand and the best part was when it was time to go. There is a girl in our church who has a crush on him. She kept asking him to dance, but he kept turning her down. Good boy, Cody.

Brett is turning 6 on Valentine's Day. 6!! It seems so long ago and yet not that long since he was born. Since its his first year in school, he really wants to bring cupcakes into class. He was so worried about the color of the frosting and the cupcake liners. He wanted each boy or girl to have the correct gender-related cupcake (pink or purple frosting with princess liners for the girls, blue or green frosting with the airplane liners for the boys). I brought up the question of how many girls are in his class. He thought 5. I think not. So I asked Brett since it was his birthday, why don't we just make Brett cupcakes? He liked that idea. So we are making red frosting cupcakes in the airplane liners with a candy heart on top. That should make everybody happy, especially since red is a color that boys can like too, he tells me. We are having his birthday party tomorrow. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins will be over. I am making an Oreo cake and we will have lots of food (pizza as our main course). Monday, Jabon and I are going to take him to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

Ashton is turning into such a kidder! Almost to the point of frustration. Especially when I am trying to change his diaper or get him dressed and he keeps turning away from me and laughing. His favorite song is "We Will Rock You" by Queen. The CD is in the truck, so every time we are in the truck its: "Mom, We Will, We Will!" That's all the words he knows. It's really cute hearing him sing along to it. He will listen to it over and over again. Thank goodness the grocery store is not that far away so I can handle it! He is coming along in his talking. Jabon said he held a whole conversation with the check-out lady at a store they went to, completely surprising him.

Get out the scissors

I cut the boys hair. Always have, always will. In fact, I have been cutting Jabon's hair since our 2nd or 3rd month of marriage. He likes to get a haircut every 2-3 weeks and we just could not afford that.

Brett is having a contest with his cousin Matt on who has the shortest hair. I don't think Matt knows that, though. I told Brett I could get his hair really short so I practically buzzed it. It reminds me of the haircuts my youngest brother, Peter, used to get. My sisters and I would chase him throughout the house to rub his head and say, "Peach fuzz! Peach fuzz!" We loved it but he hated it. Brett's hair is that short and it feels like peach fuzz. He rubbed his head when I was done and tells me: "Mom, you rock." Apparently I am the best at cutting his hair. His hair is so short now that we found 3 freckles. He is excited to show his classmates tomorrow, but only during recess so they don't get in trouble, he assures me.

So, here is a pic of the 3 boys after their cuts. My camera gives a yellow hue when I take indoor pictures, so sorry about that. Aren't they just the cutest kids?

And so it begins...

The next semester of college has officially started. I have logged on to my online business class and done a little bit of that and I go to the school tomorrow night for the first class of geography. I am actually hoping to get a lot out of that class. I am fascinated with all the cool things the earth can do.

Jabon went to his first class tonight and said he worked all day on his math class (which, unbeknown to him until today, actually started Saturday. Whoops.).

We hope this semester goes smoother than others we've had. Now, as long as I don't get too stressed with the idea of possibly being too stressed this semester. I am my own worst enemy.

Copper Mine

Jabon and I are the proud new owners of a copper mine. It's wonderful! Our copper comes already in the form of a penny, so it is ready to use. As long as we don't mind digging in Ashton's poopy diaper for it, we are quite possibly set for life.

What a surprise it was for me to be changing his stinky diaper, only to find a treasure inside! :)

Bet you are all jealous and want one just like it.

Last week of 'freedom'

The next college semester starts back up next week. I am really NOT looking forward to it. I'll be taking two classes. My geography class will be on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 5:45 to 8:45 and then I will take a business management class online. This is my last semester to go if I want to stop at an Associates degree. I am not sure if I will be okay with that or if I want to go for the Bachelors. I am just so sick of school!!

I am exhausted just thinking of the next 5 months! Yuck! 7 credits in school, 40 hours of work a week, church responsibilities, 3 children + 1 dad to care for, dinners to make, house to clean, laundry to wash, groceries to buy, etc. I'm glad my husband helps out and that Cody and Brett are big enough to do some things as well.

Jabon is also taking two classes this semester. He'll do one on Tuesday nights and one online.

Since we have such a busy Springtime to prepare for, Jabon and I are making sure we spend time with each other before the chaos erupts. We're gonna go out on a date next week. That might not sound like a lot, but it is. Trust me!

Hopefully, your next few months will be more enjoyable than mine. Don't be surprised if you don't hear from me much during that time.

This week Jabon is up in Oregon for a work trip. It's also the first week of Christmas break. I wasn't quite sure what to do with my boys, so I called up my parents and asked them if they didn't mind some company for a few days. It's nice that they only live 2 1/2 hrs away now and spending a few days with Grandma and Grandpa is a possibility.

My parents live about 40 miles north of the Mexican border. With about 20 miles to go, we passed through the border checkpoint but didn't have to stop. Cody asked me what the checkpoint was for, so I explained how if you are coming up from Mexico the border patrol wants to make sure you are not carrying back up illegal items like drugs or smuggling people. He chuckled and pointed out how we didn't have to stop going down toward Mexico so we (the U.S.) must not care what might be smuggled IN to Mexico!

So all my boys are gone this week. Jabon gets home Thursday and Friday morning I will drive down to Ajo and spend the day at my parents house. The boys and I will return that evening.

What shall I do with my lonely evenings?

Monday night: Tonight. I went shopping. Now I am just watching a movie and staring at the presents that need to be wrapped.

Tuesday night: I am getting my hair done and then going to see a movie. My sister will join me for that. We should have fun!

Wednesday night: Going to my niece's birthday party.

Somewhere in all that I want to get done a few things that are not so fun:

• Cleaning my bathroom
• Putting away the younger boys clothes
• Picking up their room

I miss all my boys and will be so happy to have us all together again in a few days!

Another Thing...

I forgot to mention a really cool trip I got to take in October. Jabon is a wonderful photographer and he had planned a weekend excursion to Sedona, AZ to take fall pictures. Thankfully, he invited me to come! His brother, Brighton, flew in from North Dakota (where he was on a job assignment) and a guy from Jabon's work joined us. We went on a hike to West Fork and took some pictures. Below are a few that I took.


I made delicious foil dinners for us and we roasted Starbursts. Don't knock it until you try it. And you must try it! We ran across a few critters during the weekend up there. We had a few skunks visit our campground at night and hang out with us around the campfire, we walked the trail with a goat and almost crushed a tarantula scurrying over the rocky path.

It was a lot of fun and I, as the only girl, was glad to be included in this trip!

Late September to November 2010

There have been many great happenings at the Eagar household in the last few months. I hope I remember each of them as I rack my brain of the past.

The Doubling of the Priesthood
In mid-September Jabon received the Melchizedek Priesthood. In October, Cody received the Aaronic Priesthood. It is great watching my son pass the Sacrament each Sunday. A week or so ago Jabon helped bless the sacrament and Cody passed it. It's so cool to have them hold something so sacred together!

The Birthdays
We've had many b-days. I turned 30, Cody turned 12, Ashton turned 2 and Jabon turned 31. It's scary when your oldest is almost a teenager! I am hoping the horrors I gave my parents when I became a teenager are not going to happen with Cody! And, they probably won't. He's a good boy and wants to do good. I hope that doesn't change.

The Polar Express
One of the many perks we get with Jabon working at Intel are raffle tickets. This year, he won tickets to take the family on the Polar Express. We drove up to Williams, AZ just south of the Grand Canyon to meet the train. It was AWESOME!! The train crew wore the white chef outfits like on the movie, Christmas music was playing, there were Christmas lights and decorations galore. We boarded the 100 yr old train and took off for our '3722-mile trip' to the 'North Pole'. While traveling, we got cookies and hot chocolate and listened to the story of Polar Express. After an hour on the train, we came to a stop at the North Pole and waved at Santa through the windows. When it was time to return to the depot, we rode past where Santa had been standing , but wait! He's no longer there! Where has Santa gone??? He climbed aboard and sat and talked to each child on the train, giving each one a sleigh bell of their own. It was such a fun night and I am so glad Jabon's work does things like this and we got the opportunity to go.

The New Job
I know, I know. Another new job for Tara. But this one I am sure I'll keep for a long time to come! I am now working at a periodontics office and am their Treatment Coordinator. I have my own office (yay!) and am getting the hours I need. My last job was more part time and it was just not cutting it when it came time to pay the bills. This new job gets me 38-40 hrs a week, the doctors are stable, and everyone is actually nice! I am really enjoying being here.

The Sealing
November 23, 2010 will forever be a day of rejoicing for my heart, and not just because it's my dad's birthday. :) On this day, our family was in St. George, UT. My best friend and I were sealed as a couple for all eternity. No longer will our bonds of marriage be dissolved at death. Our 3 wonderful sons were also sealed to us, transforming our earthly family into an eternal family.

We were so happy to have as many members of our family (and some friends) spend this special occasion with us.

The 5K
In August, my sister Shelly introduced me to the C25K program. It's a training program for getting from your couch (the 'C') to (the #2) a 5k run. It's a great program I would advise anyone to use if they want to start running in preparation for a race or just to get in shape. You are supposed to run 3 times a day for 9 weeks and each week you move onto the next week in the training, which means longer runs. I haven't been able to do it consistently like that--sometimes only running once every week and a half. But I have vastly improved as a runner and actually ENJOY it!! For the last 4 years a neighborhood close to ours has hosted the 'Turkey Waddle'. It's a 5k run/walk where all the proceeds go to someone in need. This year the program chose a young girl named Breanna Pena. She is in our ward and was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia this summer. I wanted to test my new running abilities and as soon as I learned the run was benefiting Breanna, I signed up for it. I was pleasantly surprised to see my sister Shelly the morning of the run, as she decided she wanted to help benefit Breanna as well. As sisters, we took off and ran side-by-side. 34 minutes and 44 seconds later, we crossed the finish line together! I was super impressed with myself, as the longest time I had run yet was only 25 minutes and Shelly and I didn't stop or slow down once. In fact, as we got closer we increased our speed and then had an all-out race to the finish line. It was so much fun!


Inbetween all these great events Jabon and I still were working and going to school and taking care of our boys. Life is crazy and is not looking like it will slow down anytime soon, but I hope it doesn't take me 2 months again before I can at least blog a little. Maybe a little at a time will be better than a lot at a time? I don't know.

Luck Ran Out

As parents, we want our children to grow up as strong, good, and well-rounded individuals. So, we make sure to take them to church, set up play dates, encourage good friends at school, and sign them up for sports or karate or dance classes. Four years ago after we moved to Arizona, Jabon and I decided to sign Cody up in full contact football at the suggestion of my uncle. My uncle had been coaching my cousin's football team for a year or so (this particular cousin of mine is about a year older than Cody). Cody was 8 at the time. He was excited to play but has always been a little nervous about getting hurt. If you caught what I wrote up above, I said full contact football. That means full pads, helmet and tackle.

Cody has been steadily getting a little more aggressive each year, which is hard for him. Not only is he scared of getting hurt (he was never one to be on the bottom of the pile) but he is just not an aggressive type of person. He doesn't like conflicts or fighting. This attitude, thankfully, has allowed him to escape from injury besides the occasional bruising, sore ankles, and scrapes. Sometimes, not being aggressive enough can get you more hurt, so he was lucky. This year, for whatever reason, he has started to really let his vigor for football come through. Instead of hearing the coaches call out things like: "Eagar, where were you with that one?" or "Eagar, stay on your man!" we were hearing shouts of praise like: "Good block, Eagar!" and "Alright, Eagar!" Cody has been working hard and he loves when he can throw his teammates around and is known as one of the stronger guys.

So, naturally, it came as no surprise to me last night when I went to pick him up for football practice and found him standing on the sidelines with an ice pack on his hand. (I will insert here that normally either Jabon or I stay at his practice to watch but we were both at our church for a talent show). Upon inspecting his left hand, it was very easy to see where he got hurt. His thumb was so swollen that it looked like he shoved a golf ball under his skin in the palm side of his thumb. As I was determining whether or not Cody needed to be taken to the emergency room, I drove us back to the church house. I had taken Ashton with me to get Cody, so I knew whatever I had decided to do I needed to drop Ashton off. There was no way if I was going to pull an all-nighter at the ER that I wanted to drag along my 2 year old.

Cody and I showed up at the ER by 9:00 last night. We got through triage and x-ray in no time at all--30 minutes--and I was hoping that was a good sign. I was wrong. Way wrong. He was officially discharged at 12:30 this morning after waiting for hours to see the doc and have a splint made for his hand. I got to see the x-rays as they were being taken and it was pretty clear to me where the break was. I think x-rays are so cool!

I have to tell you this funny story: Cody and I were led into triage where the nurse took his vitals. Then the doc came in to determine his needs. He walks in the room and says, "Hi, Cody. So, what's going on?" Cody replies, "Oh, not much." I told Cody, "I think he wants you to tell him what happened." This made the doctor laugh and I heard a nurse on the other side of the curtain giggle. So we were teasing Cody by saying that we had just come in to say hi and see how their night was going. It was pretty funny, but you probably had to be there.

So, by the time we left the ER, went to the 24 hour Walgreens and got his pain med rx, and went to Walmart to pick up the half time snacks for his team's game today and got home, it was a little past 2:00 this morning. And of course, Ashton came in my room at 7:30 this morning to wake me up. I love getting almost 5 hours of sleep. It's so stinking refreshing. Do you feel my sarcasm? Hope it doesn't hit you too hard.

We will call the hand specialist Monday morning and schedule a follow up with him for this coming week. We hope all will go well and his bone will heal correctly and quickly. He may be out for the rest of the season, which is a bummer since their first game was last Saturday.

Cody with his splint on.

Here are the other two boys. I had to take a picture of them since a camera was out. They are not shy.

I know you've read a novel here, but I will tell you that Brett is really enjoying kindergarten. He loves to learn. I think his biggest fault is the fact that he doesn't want to do anything wrong so he is too hesitant to try to spell words for fear that it "won't be perfect!" Ashton is progressing with his talking. We can mostly figure out what he wants. He is really good at saying please, though sometimes it sounds like 'peas' and sometimes it sounds like he is letting air out of a balloon: 'psss'.

I just love my kids!

Random Eagar Tidbits

I have seriously slacked on my blog postings, I know. Considering my life, I don't feel too guilty. Tighten up your seat belts, because I am going to take you through a whirl of Eagar happenings!

Let's start with today. The boys and I went with my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their kids to the Saturday Kids Workshop at Home Depot. They made mini Foosball tables. They are really cute and the boys had a lot of fun! Once we got home, they decided to paint them. I don't have a pic of that, but please enjoy these:


All the kids with their projects (Brett, Cody, Nephew Matt Niece Abby, Niece Emma):


Now let's reverse to 8 months ago. Cody turned 11!! Yay!! It is amazing to think that I have an 11 year old child! When I meet new people and they ask me if I have any kids, then ask their ages it is fun to see them stumped when they hear I have an 11 year old. Makes me feel like I still look relatively young. I'll take that! Anyway, back to Cody. He really liked how I 'creatively' decorated his cake. I thought it was heck-a smart. I drew an 11 on a piece of paper, cut it out, then laid it gently over the icing and sprinkled a ton of sprinkles in it. Simple yet impressive. He will be turning 12 in just 4 short months and he is excited to become a Priesthood holder. He has also found a new interest in horses. See this post if you'd like to read more about that.

Now that my older sister is living just a few houses down from us, it is fun to have our families together and we do it often! Here is a picture of two of the youngest great-grandchildren of my Grandma Pearl (my mom's mom). She lives with my uncle about 15 minutes away. My Ashton is on the left and my niece Millie is on the right. They are exactly 2 months apart, Ashton being the oldest. This picture is a few months old:

Ashton and Millie love to play together. This is picture will take us back to the present time. This was taken in our backyard just a few days ago. Here, Ashton is pulling Millie in our old wagon.


And here is just a random pic of Brett and Ashton in their church outfits. I think they are so handsome!

What Once was a Shaggy Kid

I forgot to take pictures of Ashton's first haircut, but when I was cutting his hair the other night I had Jabon take some pictures. I have always cut all my kids' hair. Cody would not sit still for anything. I would have to enlist the help of people around me in order to hold him still. Brett and Ashton enjoy getting their hair cut and will sit as still as can be.

Except Ashton kept wanting to touch his hair as I was cutting. To fix that issue, I
gave Ashton a comb:

The Power of Prayer

Brett is learning the power of prayer. Earlier today he was helping me fold his clothes. He wanted to fold his socks and was searching for them through the rest of his clothes.

Let me paint a little picture for you first. Imagine a huge pile of clothes on the bed. It looks like laundry hasn't been done for a good month. They all happen to be Brett's, even though I just washed and put away his clothes last week. How could he have such a gigantic pile of clothes for me to wash and put away today? When I asked him that question he simply replied, "Mom, once they touch the floor they are dirty." So I say, "Just because the shirt fell off the hanger and landed on the bottom of your closet does not make them dirty." He quickly corrected me.

So we have an incredibly large pile of his clothes to sort through and he is searching for his socks. He told me that he needs to pray to Jesus so He can help him find his socks. He leaves my room (because I had the t.v. on), says his prayer and comes back in. Meanwhile, I had found some socks and pulled them out into the middle of the bed. He sees them and is really excited his prayer worked, so he sticks his head under Jabon's pillow (to block out the t.v.) and I hear him mumble a prayer of thanks. It was incredibly sweet to see my little guy demonstrate his spirituality like that for such a simple thing like finding socks!

This is not the end of it. No, this keeps repeating. He needs to find a matching sock, says he needs to pray to Jesus, buries his head under the pillow, and says his prayer. He comes out from under the pillow, and like before, I have found more socks and placed them in sight. He gets excited and then says his 'thank you' prayer. This repeated itself probably a dozen times. Finally, I had to tell him that he is technically praying to Heavenly Father through Jesus and he seemed to be able to understand that.

At one point, he had only two socks left, and neither of them matched. He said his prayer and pulled his head out from under the pillow. He sees that no new socks had arrived to make the matching sets and exclaims, "WHAT! Didn't He hear me?!" I said that of course He did, but He won't make socks magically appear. I had just happened to find socks each time he prayed, so Heavenly Father was helping me help Brett. Thankfully, he was happy with that.

I remember one of Brett's first night time prayers he asked for bananas. Guess what he got the very next day?

Kids are funny, but I think it is so cute to see their faith grow and to watch them experience it.

One Step at a Time

Ashton is starting to take his first independent steps. It has taken him a while to go from not walking, to holding both of my hands, to holding one of my hands, to trying on his own. Yes, I know he is not walking completely by himself yet, but this is such a big step for him (pun intended)!! When my parents were here for Thanksgiving, my mom said I learned to walk with our shopping cart. So, when Brett wanted one for Christmas, I petitioned Santa to provide it secretly hoping Ashton would learn to walk like I did.

Eagar Update

So, it has been at least 6 weeks since my last post. I figure it is about time to write on the happenings of the Eagar household.

Thanksgiving: We had a great Thanksgiving this year! My brother-in-law Brighton made his first trip down to see us since we moved to Arizona. He and Jabon have a lot in common and had a great time together. It was wonderful, since Jabon was able to have the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving off so he got to actually hang out with all our guests. My parents flew in from Montana and my littlest brother Peter and his wife Genica drove down from Utah. We went to many places and did a lot of things! On Black Friday, mom, me, Shelly, and Genica went shopping at Wal-Mart. We didn't go too crazy. We got there at 5am, so we were late. I wasn't getting much for myself but I did help Shelly score BIG TIME on her girls' Christmas gifts. That story I can not expound on since I was more of 'Santa's helper', if you catch my drift. Later that day, we went and walked around a bird preserve in Gilbert and then ended the day going through the Gilbert Museum. Saturday we all headed up to the Phoenix Zoo. With Sunday came church and Peter, Genica, and Brighton all heading back home. Monday, me, Jabon, Brett, Ashton, and my parents went up to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum to the east of Phoenix. It is a really cool place to see a ton of different plants. The main trail is about 1-1/2 miles long. Off this trail were many different areas: tropical, desert, herb garden, etc. We didn't see much of it (since it is so vast) but Jabon and I hope to return at another time and see other areas. Mom and Dad got to hang out until the Thursday after Thanksgiving. It was so great to spend so much time with our family. One of our funnest activities to do together was play Guitar Hero. We were all selfish adults and made the children go to bed before we pulled the game out. One night we had a competition between the guys and the gals. Needless to say, girls won 4 out of 5 times. Yes, we truly do rock. Beatles style.

Kids: Cody had his first band concert last night. He plays trumpet and has really picked up the instrument quite well. He is doing great in school and is enjoying his classes. His football team finished the season in 2nd place. Somehow, they got to go all the way. I say 'somehow' because it wasn't the best year of playing. Brett has been confused lately. My sister Shelly and her family have been living with us since Aug/Sept and Brett is now under the impression that he has two moms. One that goes to work and school and is home only an hour before his bedtime (me) and one who is with him 24 hours of each day, cleaning up his throw up, playing games with him, making his meals (Shelly). Oh, I am sorry! Did I sound a little bit jealous? Guess what, I am. That is okay. I love my sister and am so glad she is here to help us out! I have also seen Brett grow into what I call the 'Second Child Syndrome'. If you have children, see if this fits yours: He is bossy. He likes to tell all the kids, including the ones that are older than him (oh, wait-that is all the kids except for the two babies) what to do and what they just did. It is exasperating! I am the second child, so I can relate. You need to be in control over something, and being bossy accomplishes that. Ashton is getting closer and closer to walking. Yes, my baby is now almost 14 months old. He likes to take each new phase as slowly as he can. He feels no rush to develop. If you want more on that subject, just look in my history for the Lazy Gene post. He will stand up, but only while holding onto someone/thing. He is barely walking along the end of the couch. That is okay by us, though. It is helping extend the baby phase, and I kinda like that!

My sister: So, as mentioned before, my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their four kids (Emma, 8, Abby, 7, Matthew, 5, Millie, 1) have been living with us. Josh came down in August and Shelly and the kids came down late September. This has been an adventure for all of us, I think! We have an 1800 sq ft home and own a lot of stuff. A wonderful thing about our tiny home is the fact that there are 5 bedrooms. So we have had one room with it's private bath for Shelly, Josh and Millie, Cody, Brett and Matt shared one room with all the toys, Emma and Abby shared one room that was halfway filled with my junk, and we moved Ashton into the master bedroom with Jabon and I, leaving one room to be used as our office. It is tight quarters and with 7 crazy kids, it was a challenge to keep the peace. I think we did alright. As I am typing this, Shelly and Josh are moving into their rental house. It's a definite mixture of emotions. I love their family so much and will miss seeing them at any time but I am also glad to be able to get our house back to 'normal'. Before Josh moved down, my mother-in-law was staying with us, so we have had someone living here since July. But, we are very glad that we have been able to help Shelly and Josh make their transition to Arizona easier.

My new job: I was offered a Front Office Manager position with a new dental office. This office is located in Gilbert and is about a 30 minute drive into town for me. It opened in March and has had a few people through its doors as manager. However, none of them really knew what they were doing. I started here on November 16th and quickly realized that I have some major organizing that needs to take place. I have been super busy getting the patients accounts fixed, insurance payments in, and the office finances resolved. This economy is hard, but it is even harder if you have people working for you that are idiots and they are in charge of making y0ur business succeed. I have accomplished a lot of things so far, but have much more to do before it is not so shaky. I enjoy the doctor, the assistant, and the hygienist. They are all wonderful people and together I think we can make his office a great place.

My surgery: Since I was probably about 9 yrs old or so, I have had pain in both my knees. Around age 11 I saw a doctor, who thought it was Osgood Schlater's Disease (where the ligaments in your knee pull away from your bones. It happens a lot in young boys because they are too active during their major growth times) and was told it would go away when I quite growing, about 18 yrs old. Well, I am 29 now and still have knee pain. I went into the hospital yesterday for surgery. My doctor thought there might be some damage behind my kneecaps (or so the MRI seemed to say) but when he got in there, everything looked very healthy. There was a little inflammation, which he removed, but no damage. It turns out that the tendon coming down from my kneecap is not positioned right. It should hook to the tibia directly below the kneecap, but mine are attached to the outsides of me tibia. This must be were the pain is coming from. However, the only way to fix it is by breaking my tibias right below the attachment (since it is like this in both knees) and repositioning it. Major surgery, major recoup time. I say, "No, thanks". I do not think I want to try that. I don't know. Maybe I do. Right now I am sitting on the couch, both knees wrapped up propped on pillows. It's a sight. It will be a bigger sight in a few days. I cannot shower until Sunday when I get to remove my wraps. Yay.

If you made it through my post, pat yourself on the back. Since I suck at routinely posting, I have to do incredibly long posts every so often just to catch up. Good job getting through it.

Happy Halloween!

I made pumpkin cookies this morning. After they were cooled, each child got one to decorate. All together we decorated 9 cookies (starting from the top: Abby, Cody, Shelly, Matt, Millie, Ashton, Brett, me, Emma). I should throw in a disclaimer saying that Shelly decorated Millie's and I decorated Ashton's.

Here's the majority of the crew (Ashton was sleeping). They were having fun, but were so ready to eat their creations!

Ashton's First Birthday!!

My little guy Ashton turned ONE on Thursday, the 22nd. We celebrated his birthday on Sunday. My grandma Pearl came over, bringing along with her my cousins Hunter and Hadyn. And of course my sister Shelly, her husband Josh, and their kids Emma, Abby, Matt, and Millie were with us. The kids had a lot of fun together.

I wanted Ashton to have his own birthday cake, so I made some miniature cakes and one big cake. Each of the kids got their own cake. Ashton really enjoyed his!




Left to right: Cody, Hunter, Abby, Ashton, Emma, Matt, Hadyn, Brett

Today Ashton had his 1 year check up. He is 32" long and weighs 21 lbs, 1 oz.

What do you call me?

My house is a zoo this week. Besides the usual for us (full time jobs; school for Cody, Jabon, and I; football practice 2 x week and a game every Saturday; and physical therapy for my knees) we have had guests with us. Jabon's mom has been here since July watching the kids for us and about 2 weeks ago his dad drove down from Colorado to pick her up and spend some time with us. Plus, my brother-in-law has been here since August while he has been working at a local hospital and waiting for his family (my sister Shelly and their 4 kiddos) to move down. They arrived Wednesday night with my dad in-tow. SO we have 14 people in my little 1800 sq ft house.

Kids get easily confused. And yes, these two subjects are related. This afternoon Cody, Brett, and I were leaving the house to go to football practice. Brett was saying goodbye to each person individually. When he got to my dad and sister he said, "Goodbye, Aunt Shewy" and did not say anything to my dad. So, my dad asked him, "Brett, if she's Aunt Shelly, what do you call me?" Brett shrugged and, thoroughly confused because of all the family around-including 2 grandpas, said, "Um, Spiderman?" So my dad is Grandpa Spiderman from now on.

The Lazy Gene

Jabon says I have a lazy gene. I love to sleep in and would do it every single morning if I could. Waking up at 9:30 or 10:00 puts me in a great mood for my day. The only problem is that I married a man who believes that the day must begin before the sun comes up. We've had numerous 'discussions' about which is best: me sleeping as late as my body needs and having a grumpy husband because I've just wasted half of the day (and usually the cooler half of our days now that we live in Arizona) OR having a slightly grumpy me, a happier hubby, and time to go out and play.

I am not the only one of my family members with this lazy gene. My brother Jared was pretty lazy when he lived with us, Cody is lazy and would prefer to spend every waking moment sitting on the couch watching t.v. or playing a video game, and Ashton is lazy. I bet your asking yourself how I could deduce that a 10 month old is lazy. Isn't that a little young to be able to categorize him with the lazy gene? Let me explain...

My healthy, strong 10 month old baby boy does not walk. Nor is he crawling. He can't even stand up straight, let alone stand by himself. When we hold him up so he can practice standing, he is bent much in the same fashion as a boomerang.

Ashton is, however, extremely good at rolling. He can find his target spot, roll towards it, twist himself around, and get to where he wants to be. So to him, he is mobile enough.

Knowing this, you can imagine my extreme delight when I got to see him sort-of crawl for the first time this afternoon! It reminded me more of an army crawl, but by golly! He is actually using his legs for a change!!

I recorded him doing this crawl. He is going toward a light saber. Boys will be boys no matter their age! (It's funny I say that regarding a light saber. Just the other day the adults in the house (me, Jabon, Josh, and my mother-in-law Lee Ann) were watching 17 Again and during the light saber fight scene, both Jabon and Josh yelled out that they wanted one so they could play, too. Like I said: no matter their age.)

Yes, Nice Cops Do Exist...

Today I got the pleasure of meeting a very nice cop that works so diligently for our county. He lit up my morning by being nice enough to pull me over. He ever so kindly reminded me that my vehicle's tags had expired. Here's how it went down:

Cop: "Good morning, do you know why I pulled you over?"
Me: "Yes, I do." Oh, crap! I thought.
Cop: "And why is that?"
Me: "My tags are expired." I have no problem getting right to the point.
Cop: "Why haven't you renewed them?"
Me: "I haven't been able to afford it yet." I gave him no excuses, 'cuz he doesn't really care anyway.
Cop: "Did you know you can get a 30 day temporary tag for $15 online?"
Me: "No." Stunned, with my mouth a little wider than normal.
Cop: "Did you know I can give you a $600 ticket for expired tags?"
Me: "No, but I figured it would be a high fine." Why lie? The government wants as much money from you as they can get.Why wouldn't the fine for expired tags cost more than the tags themselves??

At this point he took my license and insurance and went back to his car and partner (who showed up in his own vehicle. I guess a blonde driving a Jetta with expired tags can certainly be threatening, right?) This whole time I'm praying, "Please don't give me a ticket, please don't give me a ticket!"

Thankfully, this wonderful officer gave me a warning and sent me on my way. I promptly got on Arizona's website as soon as I got into work and ordered, paid for, printed, and posted in my rear window the temporary tag. I am NOT getting pulled over for that again!

I believe that was the first time I have been pulled over since I got married. 9 years. Maybe that, along with my honesty and forthrightness, helped me avoid a ticket.

So I give a big shout out to cool cops who give a break to people now and then. Hears to you!