The little things

There are those little moments throughout the day that make me smile.

I'm not fond of the way my back hurts because of two little toddlers that insist on sneaking in at night to sleep with mommy and daddy. But I do love how they fight over who gets to sleep next to me. And I love that I am woken up by my head being placed in a headlock and Harrison whispering, "hug, kiss mamma."

I love listening to toddler conversation that goes something like this:

"Gotta hold my hand Har. Lets walk Har. Gotta watch for cars and be careful Har."

After lunch prayer, I love how William has to say, "Amen Mamma, Amen Harry, Amen Belle." And of-course at dinner, "amen daddy." And I love that William knows how to ask for blessing and that Harrison is learning and bows his head.

It's those little moments throughout the day that make everything so perfect. My heart melts with how sweet these little guys are.

Oh the mess

So I had a bright idea for a project today...colorful cookies. We had fun making them with the boys cookie cutters but it was a bit messy to clean up. The boys really had fun cutting the shapes out and placing them on the cookie pans (with no help from mamma). They actually did a very good job.

The finished project (of the ones that actually turned out to look like the cookie cutter :))

Lets Play

I really feel like I haven't spent any time with the boys lately. So today after the gym, we went and had a picnic lunch and played at a new park. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

Dolphins

After being down and out since last Wednesday night with a horrible migraine, I was feeling ok by Sunday. I still felt a bit sluggish after all the shots but we took a nice drive to Santa Barbara and spent some time at the beach. It was a lot colder in Santa Barbara than it was at home. It was nice because there were tons of dolphins swimming close to shore. You can see some of them on this video but I did a horrible job at zooming in. Hope you enjoy! I love that we live somewhere where we get to witness the beauty of nature like this without seeking it out.

Sleepy eater

Rainy days

It's raining outside today. Hopefully that means those ugly rattlesnakes are hiding. We had a busy morning planned. William had Karate and I had to go to the doctor to get my holter (heart monitor) off. The offices were close to each other but we had 1.5 hours in between appointments that I figured I would take the boys to ChuckECheese in the middle. Well William knew I had to go to the doctor and that changed his whole attitude at karate. He is three years old and he associates the doctor with me leaving him. I know he is afraid that I am going to be gone like when I was in the hospital. So he had a hard time at karate. He didn't throw a temper tantrum but he did hold on to me for dear life and was sobbing that he didn't want to go to karate or even ChuckECheese.

He unwillingly went into karate and afterwards was happy about it. The instructor "wanted to offer" me "parenting advice." Now usually I am open to advice or suggestions but then there are times where I would like to punch someone in the mouth for their thoughts :) She said, "you shouldn't give him a choice. Make him understand you are the one making the decisions." I had to explain to her that he was upset thinking I was going to leave him since he knew I had a doctor's appointment. He was scared. He typically doesn't break down like this. And like I said, he broke down, he wasn't throwing a temper tantrum. Then she went on to disagree with me and said, "oh no, this is how 3 year olds act. They want to be decision makers. This is about him making the decision, not about your doctor's appt." Well that is where non-parents make me mad. How does she know what he is thinking? Yes I agree 3 year olds want to be decision makers but he is also scared I am going to leave him. And everyone parents differently. I think back to the parenting class we went to a few months ago and they made the same point (children like to make decisions). Give them choices (as we do) but make sure one of the choices is one that you want and then they think they made that decision. In this case, William did not want karate, ChuckECheese, to go with me to the doctor, or anything for that matter. He just wanted to hold onto me. She just kept going on about how I had to be stern and tell him what he was going to do. I just love when adults without children offer parenting advice.

The afternoon did get better. We had fun at ChuckECheese.

Now we are home and I am going to try to get these little guys to take a nap. I know I am stretching it but oh, it would be so nice if they did :)

Weekend update with the Archers

Yesterday we took the boys to The Blues Festival. I was really curious to go because it was held at HummingBird Nest Ranch. It is only a few blocks from our house and it is a ranch used for several filmings, most notably, The Biggest Loser ranch. It is absolutely beautiful. I didn't take many pictures though. It was a really good time but there is something very wrong with eating kettle corn and fried twinkies where people go to lose lots of weight. We were just glad we didn't have to weigh in :)

The boys had a great time playing in the jump houses.

Friday the boys and I did a lot of yard work. I am so thankful we didn't run into any snakes. I figured I would see a few lizards but I didn't imagine it was snakes I should be on the lookout for. We enjoyed some ice cream. Even Belle had some doggy ice cream.

And the finished project. This is the front area of our house. The right side still needs some work so it isn't in the picture:)

Today was a typical Sunday. Church and then we went to the mall to ride the train and play in the play area. I love family days!

I thought lizards were bad...

Ok we have to be very careful now. Yesterday Scott went to mow the lawn and found this!!! Yes it is a diamond back RATTLESNAKE!!!! I really hate reptiles but snakes are my all time fear. Hate and fear are not strong enough words for how I feel about them. Scott thought he had killed him and his head slipped between those rocks. He wanted to leave it for a few hours to make sure. He came in after mowing the grass and told me the snake was still alive "yawning at him." I went outside to look for myself and broke it to Scott that the snake is NOT yawning! It was warning him. I ran up to get our firefighter neighbor for help. I assumed he had to deal with this stuff a lot. And I wasn't wrong. He found two rattlesnakes in his yard the day before. He was happy to help. I'm glad he helped because after he got here, the snake started rattling. That noise had me scared. If he weren't here, I would have made Scott come inside. The noise was loud and scary. Ugh. I still hate the thought. The snake is done for - no head :)

This morning before church, our neighbor directly across the street came over to warn us that they found two more snakes. And now when we just got home, the neighbor that helped us kill the snake last night stopped us to tell us they saw a 3 foot snake in our front yard while we were gone. It was just a gopher snake so they took it up the hill to release it.

Now we have had two lizards in our house since we moved here and I thought that was bad. This is MUCH WORSE! I am deathly afraid of snakes and I guess that is good since these snakes are deadly! It just scares me because we are always playing outside and this is our yard. We did yard work all day on Friday. I am just so thankful that Scott saw that snake and not the boys. I just know there are going to be more...

"Alright" by William

SeaWorld Weekend

The weekend was nice but very busy, not to mention fun. We had our good friends, The Boes, over to the house on Friday night. We had a nice dinner and conversation. Saturday morning, we made a spur of the moment decision to head to San Diego to see SeaWorld again. Sometimes I feel like a kid because I love these parks just as much, if not more, than the kids. These animals just amaze me.

I have been having some heart rate issues. Friday night it reached 160 which woke me up. I don't remember having a nightmare or anything. Saturday morning I was ok so we figured it was ok to be out. At SeaWorld I could feel it racing several times so we were sure to let me sit down and rest at those times. Sometimes I feel this disorder is running our lives. I know Scott doesn't mind having to sit and rest but it's aggravating at times. My cardiologist appointment on Friday was ok. I explained to him that I was having major anxiety attacks since Tuesday. He told me I can take Xanax to help calm down and that I am not going to have a heart attack (yes, I did ask). This disorder just needs to be heavily monitored and I am the one in control. I have probably had 10 EKGs in the last month, not to mention all the other tests. If at any time I feel I cannot control my heart rate, even by administering additional medication, I can go straight into his office or meet him at the Emergency Room. It is just frustrating. I am on more medication and it seems more out of control. It is really high every morning and sporadically throughout the day. On a bright note and this is very bright to me. I am now allowed to exercise!!! If you know me well, this is a very big deal to me. It has driven me nuts that something I did almost every day I couldn't for a month. There are stipulations though. I still cannot exert myself. I know it will be different anyway since I get tired right now just walking around. I have to wear a heart monitor the entire time. I cannot let my heart rate exceed 150. As soon as it does, I have to stop. Now we shall see. I haven't worked out for a while but when I did, my heart rate was conditioned to the 130s. Who knows what will happen now though. I am just excited at the thought. Hopefully I don't get my hopes up and I can condition my heart back. I know it will be a lot of patience required. And again, if you know me well, I don't have much patience.


The Shamu show changed dramatically since the last time we were there. Since we were there last, SeaWorld Orlando had that whale kill one of the instructors. Now nobody is allowed in the water. That was the most amazing thing last time seeing their interaction and the tricks they would do together. It was still very entertaining though. The Shamu show was all Harry could talk about all day. Every exhibit we saw, he kept complaining to "go see whales." And when we did, the kid had a permanent smile on his face.

This clip is funny because the whales are purposely splashing the audience. The one below was the "Believe" show.

Yesterday was church, work and then shopping. It was a nice family weekend.

Discouraged

I was in the hospital again yesterday for a couple hours. My heart rate has been jumping up since last Thursday. But it was sporadic and would go away. Monday I wasn't having any issues. Yesterday from the moment I woke up I felt my heart racing. I kept monitoring it throughout the day and it stayed around 140 resting. We were busy yesterday with karate and such. Not to mention I was exhausted from the night before. It was probably one of the worst nights in a long time. Harrison and William were both up most of the night. Harry, just because he wasn't tired and William because he was in horrific pain with his stomach. I seriously thought he was having an appendicitis or something (but he is ok now). Anyway, I called my cardiologist and let him know what was happening. He basically chewed me out over the phone. Seriously. He yelled at me so much that he made me cry. I know that he was just concerned for my health and someone has to be. I know I should take better care of myself but at the same time, I have two toddlers. I can't just drop everything I am doing. He told me I had to go to the emergency room immediately because it wasn't healthy to have my heart rate that high while on my medications. The medications I'm on are supposed to keep my heart rate around 60 so you can see his concern.

I guess the one good thing about a heart problem is that you don't have to wait at the hospital. Dr. Soni met us there and we went right back to get an EKG and he gave me 50 miligrams of Metroprolol. Within no time my heart rate was normal again. Soooo now I am back on the Metroprolol, the medicine he took me off before because I was lightheaded all of the time, dizzy and my blood pressure got too low. The other medication I'm on, Midodrine, makes me nauseated periodically throughout the day. So you can understand my discouragement to be going through this all over again with finding the right dosage of the medications to keep everything in line. I'm so frustrated right now. I feel like I am never going to be released to work out again and since when is exercise bad for you?

I'm 30! I'm not supposed to have a heart problem. I'm depressed. I'm frustrated. I'm discouraged. I just want to go back to our normal life from a month ago.

Easter Sunday

Wow, where did the weekend go? I really feel like we didn't have one. Friday night we went to Good Friday services. Our church joined a Catholic church a block away from ours for the service. Scott was asked to speak one of the lessons. What he hadn't realized is that over 400 people would be at the service. Our church usually has around 30 in attendance and maybe 50 on a big holiday. He did really well. We didn't get home till late and then Saturday we spent running errands (trying to find a pharmacy with my heart medication in stock is a nightmare each time)and prepping for church services. Scott was asked to read for Easter Sunday as well and I volunteered to be the Fellowship host. I get a little excited about holidays and get a little bit more than just cookies or a cake. I like to decorate. I brought in nuts, grapes, strawberries, eggs, a vegetable tray, shrimp cocktail, rolls, cheese, crackers and summer sausage, breakfast cake and cupcakes. Although that was nice, the clean up was a lot. Luckily a few people stayed after to help me clean up but then I had to stay after to attend to my treasurer duties. Unfortunately I didn't get home until 3pm. Then we had an egg hunt in our back yard. Scott cooked dinner to give me a break which was very nice.

The boys woke up to a very generous Easter Bunny this year.
Luckily the Easter Bunny's financial contributor didn't break the bank. The boys had left over birthday money that they never used so we were able to use that.

Here is a picture of the boys with Miss Shelby. She is the nursery attendant and they really look forward to spending time with her every Sunday.

Yummy

Don't ask why the boys have jackets on when it was 70 degrees yesterday. They wanted to wear them and you can't tell a toddler no. We all wore purple yesterday. I posted our family picture at the top of our blog. We hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter yesterday.

Toddler Tidbits

• I've noticed that when William and Harrison are having their own conversation to themselves that William has a nickname for Harrison. Example: "What are you doing Harr?" "Come with me Harr." It is so cute he calls him "Harr"
• William keeps surprising me each day at how much he catches onto things. This morning he asked me, "Mommy, what is in Harry's LEFT hand?" He knows his right from his left thanks to Scott always referencing which hand he is using.
• Whenever Harrison is tired and rubs his eyes, he says, "Soap in my eyes." He doesn't understand he is sleepy and always thinks he has soap in his eyes. It always gives me a little chuckle.
• Harrison wakes up EVERY morning and asks, "where's daddy?" I would always explain it is this many days until Daddy will be there in the morning (weekend). Now William comforts him saying, "it's Wednesday Harry. Not till this weekend. How many days mommy?"
• William doesn't know how to tell time yet but he makes me laugh that everything that has happened has happened "yesterday." And whatever time it actually is has to have "thirty" on it as well. Amazingly, it is always "3:30" in our house.
• Harrison is talking so much now and it makes me happy and sad. I'm glad he can communicate so much better. It's like a big milestone realizing there are no babies in the house anymore.