Counting My Blessings

The one break I've gotten this week was spending some time with Landon and Emma at the park. Their kind faces and naturally happy dispositions are enough to make me smile no matter how bad my day was. They really help me to remember what's important in life and to always count my blessings. Here are some shots of two of my four blessings...

Stick a Fork in Me....I'm Done!

Livi has been sick since the 8th of this month. I've made light of it...just to help me get through it. Each day I keep thinking, this has to end soon...maybe tomorrow.

However, This morning at 2 a.m, she started throwing up and had a fever over 105. We went to the doctor at noon and she was at 103.7 and this is with Motrin and Tylenol alternating through her system every 4 hours. We still can't break this fever. After going over the last 3 weeks with the doctor, we realized she hasn't eaten solid foods for 20 days. There was an occasional bite here and there, but not enough to gain her strength or build her immune system. He doesn't know what's wrong with her right now. The ulcers in her mouth have healed, the ear infection from last Friday is getting better and she's still on antibiotics so she can't be developing a new bacteria. He said this high of a fever is highly unusual but has to assume it's a new virus.

Anyway, for those of you that are more experienced with illness or have any thoughts on the matter, I am currently accepting advice. Also, please keep Livi in your prayers for the next few days to kick this fever and to get stronger so we can have our rambunctious little girl back. Oh, and maybe a little"holla" for Jeremy and I to find our sanity again to be able to deal with this for a little longer.

Thanks!!

Memorial Day BBQ

We had a great time at the Memorial Day BBQ. Thanks to everyone for the yummy food, good company and serious competition. Kudos to Stacey and Aaron for continuing their reign as Ping-Pong champions. Jeremy wanted to note that had he been there, the results would've been different ;)

Everyone was so much fun, but I do have to single out Owen and Debbie to congratulate them for joining the virtual world of bowling. Oh, and also for letting Gary bowl for me when I was unavailable. Thanks a lot...cheater.

Anyway, I'm glad everyone could make it and it was great seeing you!

e-stalking

Posted by: Mom

I posted a blog yesterday that Jeremy asked me to take down, so if you caught a glimpse of it, you saw that it was pretty funny. Inappropriate, but funny. All of you that read this know me pretty well, and so nothing I say really shocks you. However, I just need to remember that there are more strangers reading this than I care to think about, so I need to be careful of what I say sometimes...but only sometimes; I'm still me ;)

I wrote a post last week about “why I blog” but this incident reminded me of the flip-side, “Why I love other people’s blog”. I always thought that once I got married and had kids, I would see my friends more often because we could have our kids play together and we would have nothing else to do but go to lunch and hang out at parks. Well, after actually having kids, I realized that was a complete fairy-tale and it takes a great deal of planning to even make a phone call. I am really lucky to see the same girls every month at Bunco and another group of friends for girl’s night out a couple times a month. However, there are old friends from my childhood, High School and even long lost family members that I’ve lost touch with over the years. Sure, there’s the occasional phone call or email, but that’s not enough for me to feel in touch with them.

This is why I am so happy that blogging has become main stream. With gas prices as high as they are today, I can no longer afford to do a drive-by for everyone I’m stalking. I’m grateful that you have all made my stalking much easier by bringing your lives into the comfort of my home, at my convenience.

Most of my friends have blogs now and I love seeing pictures and reading about the things they find interesting. I also love reading blogs of people that have no idea that I’m e-stalking them. I’ve recently found out, however, that I’m not the only one who does this. A few of my friends (you know who you are) have come out of the closet and admitted to being e-stalkers themselves. With that said, I think I give a lot of personal information out on my blog, but it’s usually about experiences, feelings and thoughts. I’m always careful not to give too much specific information such as what city we live in, what school my kids go to, when I’m going out of town and so on.

There are negative aspects of reading so many blogs. First, it’s time consuming, so I would recommend using Google Reader. This allows you to subscribe to the blogs you want to read and it notifies you when a new blog is posted, so you don’t have to go through your list each day.

Secondly, keeping up on my friends this way gives me a false sense of intimacy. I feel like I’m up-to-date and know what’s going on with them on a daily basis. So when I finally see them in person, I realize it’s been a year since we’ve actually seen each other. How can that be? I just saw you and your baby at Lagoon yesterday? Oh, wait, that was on the internet.

Mother's Day

Posted by: Mom

I know I'm a little late on this post, but I was still focused on the whole IHOP debacle ;)

Anyhoo, I wanted to post a quick note about my Mother's Day. It was wonderful, as always. The kids woke me up with their homemade gifts. Landon made me a beautiful bracelet and Emma made me a "MOM" key chain with her fingerprints on it. Livi gave me a smile...which is pretty rare these days. It was awesome. We all went out to breakfast and then spent the day together. Then I took the kids to my in-laws for a party. My sweet hubby stayed home with Livi since she was still sick (which is also why she's not in this picture). I'm so lucky to have him and the kids in my life. They rock.

It's so fun to be a Mom. It's harder than I ever imagined, but so much more rewarding than any success I've ever had. Here is a little poem I found that sums it up quite nicely:

Before I was a Mom I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby. I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous. I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom - I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on. I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts. I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests. Or give shots. I never looked into teary eyes and cried. I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin. I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want to put him down. I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn't stop the hurt. I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much. I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom - I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body. I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby. I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child. I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom - I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay. I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom. I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

The Replacement Mommy

Posted by: Mom

This is going to require some participation from you all, because I'm not sure how I feel about this...I just thought it was odd and wondered what other people thought. Here goes:

Last night, Jeremy offered to wake up with the kids in the morning so I could sleep in. I slept in the guest room so I didn't hear them wake up...Yes, I already know Jeremy's a Saint, but that's not what I wanted to discuss.

Around 9:00, I find my way out of bed and everyone's gone. A few minutes later, the garage opens and the house is once again filled with noise angelic voices. Jeremy told me they went to IHOP and that Livi was a little unbearable, but with her still fighting her whole hand-foot thing, it wasn't surprising. That's all he said about the outing and noted that he was happy that I got some rest.

A few hours later, in passing, he mentioned the following:

Jeremy: "oh, at breakfast, Livi's nose was running so much that the waitress came by with a napkin and wiped it."

Me: "what? the waitress wiped my daughter's nose?"

Jeremy: "yea"

Me: "did you ask her to wipe her nose"

Jeremy: "no, it was just running".

Me: "you didn't find that odd?"

Jeremy: "not really, she also tried to pick her up, but that didn't go over too well with Livi, she kind of freaked out."

Me: "did she ask if she could pick up your baby?"

Jeremy: "no, why?"

Me: "you really don't find that odd?"

Jeremy: "well, Livi was still in her jammies, and she probably figured I was a single dad with the kids for the weekend. she was just trying to help". (note: Jeremy doesn't wear a wedding ring).

Me: "so she litterally just walked by, took out a napkin and wiped your kid's nose, and then tried to pick her up, and you didn't say anything?"

Jeremy: "what was I supposed to say...it didn't bother me, does it bother you?"

Me: "yea, it does"

Jeremy: "why?"

Me: "um...I don't know, I guess...it just does"

So, what do you think?

Move Over David Archuleta

Posted by: Mom

This was Landon's school program yesterday. I'm so proud of my little American Idol. I hope our city has already started making a new street sign for "Landon Lane".

Note: Sorry about the shaky video, I had Livi in one hand and the camera in the other.
I was basically just playing 'keep away'.

Hand, Foot and Mouth

Posted by: Mom

Not to be mistaken for my chronic disease, "Foot In Mouth", we have been battling "Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease" with our little Livi for about a week now. It's been nothing but fever, vomit, poopies, crying, holding, and no sleep. If I wasn't holding her, she was hanging on to my leg constantly. I'm absolutely exhausted.

While trying not to A) Cry or B) Throw my head through a wall, I decided to try and remain positive. So as I was changing her sheets for the seventh time in one day, I started thinking of all the things I'm grateful for. First and foremost, we are so blessed to have healthy children. I can' t complain when I only have to deal with this for a week, when there are parents that live this every day with chronically ill children. For that, I am grateful.

Well, that was all I could come up with before she puked on me again. At that moment, I started to think of how grateful I was for some other things that were helping me on this journey:

A Big Day for Utah

Posted by: Mom

So I'm watching the 5:00 news and see that Governor Huntsman has announced that today is Utah's official "David Archuleta Day". Then, the city of Murray decided to name a street after him... "Archuleta Ave". Surely, this young man I see on the news must have cured cancer or donated a significant amount of money to the Huntsman Institute. There must certainly be a new development coming soon as to how he helped the Utah homeless and fed all the needy children.

Nope. He sang a song on a reality show.

You know, I'm feeling a little slided... I was the 1999 karaoke champion. Yea, that's right.

Guess what I got? $100 bucks. Yup, no street name or anything.

Child Abuse or Innovative Containment?

Why I Blog

I've had people ask me why I blog. How do you find the time? Are you really that bored? Don't you think it's just trendy?

I had to think about it... I didn't just start it one day because I was bored or because everyone was doing it. After a little research, I was reminded how this all got started.

On Mother's Day 2002, Jeremy told me he needed to finish my present because it was "hand-made". He finally surprised me with a family website. Try to remember back to 2002...there weren't very many people creating family websites, so it was a little unusual. But I liked the idea of having pictures of my new baby boy to show off to people who didn't see him every day. I also enjoyed learning website development using HTML, since there wasn't anything like blogger or free templates back then. Here was our very first family blog:

www.palmerfam.com

Then in 2005, it evolved to this:

www.palmer-kids.com

That is why I blog. I have a digital scrapbook of my family since inception, and all of you, our friends and family (and internet stalkers, you know who you are) have been able to watch our kids grow as if you've been here every step of the way. Some of you that lived nearby eight years ago are now hundreds of miles away, yet you still have a way to share our little moments.

So the question is...why don't you blog?