NUTCRACKER

Life goes on, even with an sick kid at home. We had tickets for our family to go to the Nutcracker this year. This is something I remember doing as a little girl and something that our family has done the last several years. This year we had a kink in our plan, Nicholas. That meant that Joey and Nikko stayed home, believe it or not Nikko seemed a little sad to miss it. Since Nikko couldn't go we got to invite Aunt Erin and Cousin Afton. I was a little worried about Afton staying awake or getting bored, boy was I wrong. We were on the 4th row so right up front and I think she loved it, she is a little princess after all.
We have friends that are in it so it is fun to go and watch them & sit with their families. Sophie and Ellie practically stole the show. Sophie was a party girl in the first part and was on stage for a good 15 minutes. I couldn't tell you what happened because my eyes were glued on her. She was so fun to see and could really show her personality. Ellie was one of the soldiers, actually the main soldier and was the one who got to shoot the mouse. When either of them were on stage we all got so excited. Can't wait to go again next year, hopefully with Nicholas and Joey.

BAD CHRISTMAS CARD

Like I have said before I love everything about Christmas from putting the decoration up to the Christmas music to sending and receiving Christmas Cards. This year has been a bit of a struggle getting our cards done with Nicholas being sick. When we finally got him outside to take a picture we had to keep telling try to look like you don't have a headache. We finally got a picture that worked. Next we had to design and print the cards- Joey's end. Then the girls and I cut the cards. Next Joey worked on merging our address list- for some reason this year it wouldn't work- I may have heard calm Joey throwing things in his office. He stayed up until about two in the morning getting them done. Finally, stamp and mail. Wait!! Yes, Wait!! If you look at the picture you will see the envelope addressed, stamped and ready to go with the Christmas card underneath it. If you look closely you will see that the card is quite a bit larger than the envelope. Awesome, please don't move so we can use those envelopes next year, they do have the forever stamps on them. If you are lucky we may still get this years cards out. Merry Christmas!!

NEW BRAIN PLEASE

I keep telling Nicholas that this is getting old and he should be done with this headache. He is not very good at obeying his mother. We are beyond two weeks with this headache now. Nikko went to Primary Children's Hospital on Friday for an MRI/MRV still trying to figure out what is wrong. The results did not show any reason why he should still be having a headache. The nurse said he was very good at holding still unlike most other kids. I think since I have had over 50 and prepared him he had an advantage. He liked the movie that he got to watch on the glasses and has now decided to ask for the glasses from Santa.

Nicholas seems sometimes to be doing better and then an hour later he is asleep or moaning or both. Every night I pray that the next day will be better - we are still hoping.

This morning we started the 48 hour sedation. This was recommended by the neurologist at Primarys. He is sedated heavily on drugs that knock him out, he wakes up about every 6 hours where he is given the drugs again. This as Nicholas called it it hibernation. He was willing to try anything as has been feeling like junk for the last several weeks including the stomach pains he had right before the headaches came on. PLEASE let the sedation work!!

GET BETTER!!

Nicholas is still pretending to be sick. Okay, not really but I wish he were because he has now missed 9 days of school during the last three weeks. He had really bad stomach cramps about two weeks ago and that lasted around one week. This week he has been home with a terrible headache. No one in either of our families has a history of migraines so they don't think it is that. He went in for a cat scan today and it came back normal. The Dr. has prescribed him a strong headache medicine and is hoping it will run it's course. I am just hoping it will run it's course faster than it has so far. Not only is Nicholas sick of being at home, he had a 4.0 first quarter and as of right now has four F's. Not his usual style but is hard to keep up when you are not in school and feel to yucky to do any make-up work at home. I am just hoping he starts feeling better soon!!

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

I always LOVE the day after Thanksgiving because that means it is Christmas!! Most people can't wait for Black Friday to shop, I have most of my shopping done so I can't wait for the day after because that means it is officially the holiday season. The Christmas music is turned on, the cinnamon candles burns and the Christmas decorations come out. Decorating for Christmas at our house is a major event- the main floor of our house is transformed. Did I mention that I LOVE Christmas. We have been collection Christmas decorations for as long as I can remember. When I was younger I would get Nutcrackers when I would travel to Germany to see my Aunt Linda and have kept up that tradition when we travel there & Joey has added to the tradition by giving the family a new Nutcracker every year on December 1st. We also have collected nativity scenes and add a different one every year to the collection. We also have several snow globes, Santas and little Christmas trees made out of different things like metal and cloth that we like to put out. All of our coffee table books are put away and the Christmas books are pulled out and read by all of us. All of the pictures on the walls come down and Christmas pictures go up. It is a two day even the decorations take a day and then decorating the tree is the second day. In the middle of the decorating we always have time to stop for a nice warm cup of Hot Chocolate with marshmallows that Addie is a pro at making. I can't wait every year for the holiday season and am always sad when they are over. Like I said "It's the most wonderful time of the year."

OUR 1st THANKSGIVING

We had our first Thanksgiving at home this year. We do every other year with my parents and siblings & up until a few years ago had dinner with the Linebaughs, my mom's side of the family on the opposite year. This year since it was the odd year we decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. I prepared as much as I could before Thursday so it would be easier. I premade 3 pies, sweet potatoe casserole, gravy & salad dressing as well as toasted the nuts for the salad. This was supposed to make Thanksgiving easier. There is still so much you can't do in advance like rolls, corn, mashed potatoes and the turkey. Everyone was in charge of different parts of dinner- divide and conquer. Addie preset the table and made name plates for everyone. I premade a menu that sat at each persons place setting. On Thanksgiving day everyone had jobs as well. Joey was in charge of the turkey. Luckily Martha Stewart was on the Today Show showing how to make a moist turkey so we followed her step by step. I made the stuffing & mashed potatoes. Addie made Orange Rolls that melted in your mouth- ask Nicholas how much he liked them or how many he ate. Nicholas was in charge of corn and the drink, which was a cranberry spritzer. Maia made the cranberry salad & had also premade a 4th pie - Tollhouse- delicious. The turkey turned out perfect & moist- I think the four (yes four) cubes of butter that Joey basted on the turkey every 30 minutes helped with that. The dinner ended up being delicious and nice to be home where we could enjoy laying around on the couch watching movies and the traditional Thanksgiving Cowboys Game. I was just "Thankful" that our turkey worked & Macy - the puppy- was happy to eat all the scraps of the floor.

NEW YORK CITY

We had more fun in New York City. We saw a few more shows The Adams Family, Billy Elliott and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show that stars the Rockettes. I secretly have always wanted to see the Rockettes so that was great. We wandered around Central Park and walked up and down 5th Avenue. We ate at lots of restaurants including our favorite Mexican restaurant, Dos Caminos, where we get the best Guacamole. We also meet our friend Cate who moved back to NYC from SLC. We meet Cate at a fun restaurant in the Chelsea area called 202 for brunch and then did a walk along The Highline Trail, a fun walking trail along an old railroad track.

ADAMS FAMILY

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

BILLY ELLIOTT

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I LOVE MUSEUMS & BROADWAY

I came in to NYC to meet Joey on the redeye flight- yes that means I am a little tired. Joey had meetings so I went out by myself for the day after I tried & failed at sleeping. I love the Museum of Modern Art so I walked down there from our hotel. Like usual I get so excited to see what the next painting is going to be I have to try & control myself & not run from room to room. They have so many great paintings from Van Gogh to Monet to Warhall. I love it!! I also got a delicious lunch, blue cheese tart with salad, in the restaurant looking over the sculpture garden. After several hours with a huge smile on my face Joey called and was done without his meetings so I headed back to the hotel.

For the evening we had dinner reservations & tickets to a show with Nat- one of Joey's employees. The restaurant we went to was Cuban and was good but the show was awesome. Getting to the show we couldn't get a cab- rush hour- so we had a guy pull us in his rickshaw. If you think taxi drivers are crazy try this at rush hour- I don't know how we lived!! The driver was pulling in-between cars- getting honked at- then he caught the mirror of a parked van. Yes, it did jerk us to a stop - we had to backup and get uncaught- of course it was on my side & the owner of the van was sitting in it. We did make it to the show and loved it. Sean Hayes played the main part with Kristin Chenoweth and then Molly Shannon was In a couple unforgettable scenes. The play was great but with the few parts with Molly Shannon it was very funny .

FUNNY

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I love the MOMA in NYC

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

MISSING SCHOOL AGAIN??

Nikko has been home from school for three days now with some sort of stomach thing. I figured after three days it was time to go to the doctor and see if we can get help. He isn't throwing up or having any other stomach issues - you know what I mean. He is eating at meals and isn't sleeping all day so I am not sure what is wrong except that his stomach hurts. We went to see his Dr who really couldn't give us any solid answers. He did suggest that we go have lab work done because it could be his pancreas or some other odd thing or maybe just a pulled muscle in his stomach or maybe even just really bad heartburn. Nicholas has never had blood drawn so it was an experience for him. The "just was a pinch" part was okay, just after the pinch was not. When I asked him if he was okay he said "I feel really dizzy." At that point he was rushed to the room next door so he could lay down and not faint. After a few minutes, okay maybe about 10, he felt like he was able to get up and head home. Now we wait to see if his is going to live...

JUST A LITTLE PINCH

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

DIZZY

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1 OF 17

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

PARTY ANIMALS

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WE REALLY "FELT" IT THIS WEEKEND

We had the annual Bradley Girls Trip this weekend in St. George at Grandpa's condo. It was AWESOME. We ate, laughed, shopped, laughed, CRAFTED and then laughed some more. I flew down Friday morning because I had book group on Thursday night. Once I got there Barb, Lisa and their girls picked me up we went to the condo where Jill Dorrough was and waited for Judy, Stacy and Jenn to come over. From there the party started.

We started shopping at Taipan where I got a new nativity scene and a couple new angels for Christmas. YEAH!! Then we all meet back at the condo and started the craft- a Happy Birthday Felt banner. This turned into a felt banner marathon, I kid you not. We all have so many creative juices that this turned into a felt banner weekend. Many hands make light work- right? We went from Happy Birthday, to BOO, to Give Thanks and on and on and on through every holiday and of course adding the names of our children and then our favorite person of all- our husbands. I ended up with 17 banners, yes I did just go count them. I love when we were starting a new banner and we would ask "Who's in?" and then you would see 9 hands pop up in the air & the assembly line would start again. The best part was the talking and laughing that went along with making them.

We also had the outing to the craft store to get ribbon for the felt signs. All ten of us there to divide and conquer. Maybe it works better if we are all on the same aisle looking at buttons and ribbons together. Also it is better if all of us are standing in the check out line together, we don't want to loose each other. The only problem checking out was we didn't realize that we had to have the ribbon cut & priced. We had people running back and forth trying to get cuts & prices on the ribbon while the the cashier was ringing up what we had. I just watched as people in the line behind us gradually moved to the next line over.

We had great food all weekend thanks to Jill who loves to cook. She made dinner both nights, delicious blueberry struesel cake, brownies & cookies. Barb made her traditional pumpkin waffles, I was worried about them but were delicious, her families tradition on Thanksgiving morning. There was a pile of treats that everyone brought down that were always available. Needless to say we did not go hungry. I only had to drive down to get a diet coke once each day or bribe someone to get one for me.

We played some new games that I am excited play with the kids and also had a favorites gift exchange. With this exchange you get 3 things that are your favorite that are under $5 and then we draw names and exchange them with everyone else. I got three things of Bubble Bath for my favorite thing and them ended up getting a ouch-less brush from Stacy, a hand knit hat from Jill and a star napkin holder and napkins from Lisa with a cool pan scrapper that I can't wait to use.

There was one rule I think we need to consider changing for the weekend. We all have to go to bed at the same time- these Bradley Girls party all night long. I can barely keep my eyes open to type this trying from fatigue. The amazing thing is when you are crafting until two in the morning you really don't even realize that it is that late until two days later when you are dragging!!

I "felt" I had a great weekend and wish I were still there in the sunny St George weather not looking outside at the snow storm swirling around my house. Can't wait for next year.

VEGAS

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS- NEVER MIND WE HAVE KIDS

We went down to Las Vegas for the Great Pumpkin Tennis Tournament over Halloween weekend. I drove down with the kids and Joey flew in from a meeting In CA. The first couple of days we had so many tennis matches I thought I was going to eat, sleep and dream tennis. In one day we had 8 matches at 4 different tennis clubs. Addison & Nikko both won there first rounds- this was a total surprise especially for Addie. I told Addie don't worry about winning down here- these kid are all older than you and better and this is to give you experience for down the road. Needless to say she won quite easily with two aces. Once Nikko got to his match it is even more impressive he won. I gave Joey the wrong address for his sight, I read the instruction sheet wrong and gave him one to another club. Once he got there they sent him to the correct sight- which was wrong. This then happened again. By the time the got to the right sight he was 27 minutes late & 3 minutes short of a deault. Nikko got a 3 game penalty and Joey was upset by the entire situation. Only a little- he throws his cell phone all the time, right? I was on the phone crying at the time had her victory! CRAP!! I guess we should have Nikko arrive late more often because he was on fire and beet the kid quite easily as well!

Between cabs, cars, waiting, shoving our kids in friends cars and even riding with strangers we made it to all the rest of the tennis matches. Okay, not really a stranger, but I meet Addies opponents Mom during their match and she was heading near Nikkos next match where Joey already was so she dropped me and Addie off- very nice.

We were down there for Halloween weekend so I called Favorite Aunt Barb to see what there was to do and she invited us to her ward Trunk-Or-Treat. It was great, we went and had a chili dinner and then the kids got candy. We ended up bring a bunch of tennis families with us so all of those kids felt like they had a Halloween even though they weren't home trick or treating. We closed the place down. There was no one left but our tennis families and those kids just run around and have a great time together.

After we were finished with the tennis we stayed for a few more days since we had the hotel room and just enjoyed. We spent a morning at the outlet mall. We spent a day wandering the strip. We got brunch where we went last time with Emily, our nanny that moved to Vegas. Nikko has been talking about this place since last spring because of the amount & variety of food offered. Maia has been talking about it as well because last time she had a tennis match after we went so she couldn't really enjoy- she only got to eat pasta. Addie has been talking about her unlimited trips to the ice cream bar. Addie seemed to find the ice cream bar again no problem.

My favorite thing we did was go to the Lion King. I loved it. It was amazing to see all the ways the turned people into animals and the way there bodies moved to move like the animals. Of course Nikko feel asleep and Joey said it was painful but Joey said Wicked was painful and actually feel asleep there.

FONDUE PLATE

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Matt's Stupid Gourmet Chef Thing

Okay, so maybe we didn't know all of the rules or expectations but I thought we did a pretty good job. We were told that the requirements were that the day before the cook-off at 5:00 we would be told what the key ingredient from Matt's garden would be and then we had 24 hours to come up with recipes using that ingredient. We would be judged on taste, appearance and the use of other local ingredients & involvement of entire team.

The secret ingredient was revealed- peppers. Joey and I came up with a great idea, fondue. We would do a cheese and a chocolate fondue. Sticking to the stupid rules we went to Pirate O's, a local store that is expensive as hell, and bought all of our ingredients totaling over $100. In the end that didn't matter to the stupid judges, we should of gone to Costco.

The entire family, Team Sepy, helped make the fondue. Addison chopped peppers and then started making the chocolate fondue. She got chocolate on her fingers and then licked it off and realized that her fingers had been chopping the peppers and her mouth was on fire. We gave her bread and tried to calm her mouth down. I then got something in my eye and rubbed it only to realize that I had been chopping peppers as well. Holy @#&*$#! My eyes were on fire. Maia then read online that you should pour milk into your eye to help the pain. Joey got the milk out and I realized that I wasn't going to just pour it over my face. I got a medicine syringe out and put milk in it and pushed it into my eye. After about four shots of it I started to feel better. I hate peppers.

We proceed to go to Luke's house, with strict rules that we had to be ready for judging at 6:30. Where was Matt? Not there at 6:30. We also then realized that this was big time! Many of the people who had done this before had presentation plates with each of their different items to display- like a 5 star restaurant. CRAP! How do you display fondue? Ours tasted really good but how do you display it on a presentation plate where the judges would taste it 30 minutes later. We tried but by the time the cheese and chocolate sauces sat on bread & cookies for 30 minutes their presentation as well as their taste, I'm sure, was not as great as it tasted coming out of the fondue pots hot. Not to mention while we are waiting for judging for 30-40 minutes the fondues were burning and then getting cold waiting for people to actually be able to eat then.

We were robbed!! Ours was really good but we didn't know we were competing against- people who literally spent the entire day preparing gourmet dishes and had presentation plates with fresh flowers on them to help sell the item. If they had actually tasted our delicious cheese & chocolate fondue from the pot with our beautiful arrangement of breads, cookies, fruit, pretzels, marshmallows we would have won.

The cheese sauce was all gone by the time we left. We did have some chocolate fondue left that we put in the fridge to try later. Let me remind you that over time things maybe get more flavorful, especially peppers. Hard to believe that is was to spicy for me to eat the next day- I thought that was impossible.

RUNFORBUN

I am a little delayed but I figure better late than never. Two weekends ago was the RUNFORBUN event. It turned out to be a huge success. The event started with a fancy dinner up at Rice Eccles Stadium. We bought seats for all of our kids so our entire family went. One of the ways they had set up to raise money was to have lots of things to raffle. That means that I had Joey hit up all of his clients to see if they would donate goods and he was able to collect lots of things including a bike, ski passes 3 bows, a couple sets of Jazz tickets some fancy bike wheels - you get the idea. The best part about the raffle was the kids- Joey told them they could keep bidding on the one item they wanted by outbidding anyone else by $5. They loved running around all night checking their bidding sheets. Needless to say we ended up with quite a hall - feeling good about it because it was all for a good cause. Maia & Addie got a basket full of hip clothes and Nicholas got a basket with ski passes, and 2 sets of Skull Candy headsets. We also got a bow, a bike, ski passes and a few other candle baskets. That was the fun part, fitting it in the car with the kids was the next battle, thanks to Kevin Parry we got the bike home on his car.

The dinner was done very beautifully. Each table had pictures of Bunny and a theme, for example a BOOK CLUB table with a sign and then a note from someone who know about that part of Bunny's life. The Book Club table has a note on it written by Gina James a member of Bunny's book group. After dinner there was music by Peter Brienholt, who didn't even know Bunny but who heard about her and wanted to help make this event successful so he donated his time and any $ raised from selling his CD's that evening.

The next morning was the actual RUNFORBUN. We got up early and drove the RV down to Draper Park at 6:00AM. All of the kids were able to sleep, eat and watch TV in the RV while we set up the event. Megan was in charge of the run so we wanted to help her however we could. I was assigned to pass out the volunteer t-shirt as well as setting up the table that Kalli, Taci & I were doing in honor of Bunny. Joey went out with Seth on the course and put out mile signs and helped with all of the "manly" stuff like moving big coolers full of water. Maia just did whatever Megan asked.

The event started with all of the little kids doing a bike race around the Draper Park. The older-little kids were pros at this, the little ones were the ones that were fun to watch. I am shocked they made it around the park with as many of them were falling over & missing the sidewalk for the grass. They are so cute you couldn't help smile. The best part for the kids was at the finish there were cheerleaders passing out suckers for the kids.

The run started at 9:00 and there were a ton of people there to participate. They ran out of t-shirt at 500 and they estimate that around 900 people came to support Bunny. All of our kids went out and did the run, Joey and I stayed and helped get things ready at the start-finish line and started cleaning up the registration area. It was awesome to see people from every area of our lives there to support. All of the girls from Drive Marketing showed up in fun striped socks, Bunny ears and Bunny tails. There were three different cheerleading squads along the train cheering the runners on as well as a giant Bunny. It was great to see Luke finish pushing the stroller. It was also inspirational seeing Matt walk the whole way with his Prosthetic that he had only had for a week.

Anyone there could feel that it was a great event and a huge honor to Bunny. The original number I heard that was raised was around $50,000. That money will go towards the Draper trails adding to them in a area that will be names in honor of Bunny. The event was a great success because there were so many people willing to donate there time to organize and participate in the event, for those people we are very grateful.

WYATT NELSON BRADLEY

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

MORE TROPHIES

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TROPHIES

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

MORE TENNIS

This week was pretty quiet at our house. I mean that literally, Maia was at a science camp with her school so there was not nearly as much commotion going on. On top of here being gone we had more tennis, shocked? Nicholas and Addie both played this week so we were at the tournament every night after school. This tournament was at least at Ivory Ridge so they had the home court advantage. They both made it through to Saturday but both lost in the final match, at least they got trophies, that is what it is really all about isn't it?

Addie started Volleyball with her school and loved it. She has been walking around the house with a soccer ball or beach ball pretending that it is volleyball so she can practice- also wearing her new knee pads of course.

Macy meet the porcupine last week so this week when we had a fox sleeping in our backyard I kept Macy inside. I enjoyed watching the fox only wishing the kids were home to see it as it relaxed back by the play land for several hours.

We actually were home this weekend so we, meaning Joey, got the garage cleaned and worked in the yard dividing lots of day lilies. The kids are always happy to have time to chill and not worry about going anywhere. Of course they ended up going everywhere with their friends from haunted houses to sleepovers. Always nice to be home and get a little break and feel like a normal family.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

DAMN GARAGE

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

104°

We had a hot weekend in St. Goerge for the Duel in the Desert Tennis Tournament. I picked the kids up Thursday after school and we headed down south for the weekend. We made great time and got down there in time to eat dinner and then head over to Erin's parent's condo to unpack for the weekend.

We got to the condo and the girls were inside checking it out while I was going to back the car into the empty garage so we could unpack. I was backing in when all of a sudden I heard a huge BAM. I couldn't figure out what I had hit since the garage was empty. I then saw the luggage box on top of the box go flying off the top and land in the driveway. Apparently it is a very low garage and I couldn't go in with the box on the top. It wouldn't be a problem now that the box was off. Not only was the box off the mirror on the side of my car was off (still hanging to the wires) and there was a dent in the front hood of my car where the box hit on the way down. The best part was getting to call Joey and tell him what I had done. He was very understanding, it is hard not to be when I am near tears.

We make lots of attempts to tape the mirror up rather than have it bouncing around. It works a little but eventually falls down and has to be redone. Joey drove up from Las Vegas from a conference on Friday night so he was able to help us. On Sunday morning Joey decides that he is going to do a really good job with the tape and the mirror. He does such a good job when he goes to open the door he realizes that it is taped shut. We then decide to tape with the door open and wrap the tape around to the inside knowing that we won't be able to use the window. Once he can get into the car we decide that we should get some drinks on the way to the tennis matches- McDonalds is right across the street. Supper easy and fast with a drive-thru window. We pull up ready to order and realize that the window won't roll down, at that point Joey just pulled away and put a piece of tape over the window controls. I needed some humor in my life- I was laughing so hard that I had tears rolling down my check.

From there everything went up. We had lots of great tennis matches. Maia, Nicholas and Addison were all playing singles and Nicholas & Addie were playing in doubles. We watched tennis- ate pasta- watched more tennis- ate more pasta- watched more tennis. It was fun to be down there with all of their friends. It didn't matter what tennis courts you were at there were always people around we know that the kids love to run around with. All the kids played great in the tournament but Addie was able to have the best results and placed 4th place overall in the tournament which had players from about five different states.

The kids did get coupons to the Pasta House for playing in the tournament so we went there for pasta but apparently ate upstairs at the Pizza House so didn't get to use them. The waitress didn't even notice the difference on the coupons but the cashier did. They have the same logo and same building and everything, we thought we were being so good to use the coupons. Needless to say we went back the next day and went downstairs for the Pasta House.


As soon as we got down we rushed to pick up Macy and make sure she was okay. We realize now she is not the brightest dog when she came back inside after being home and had porcupine quills in her mouth again. Apparently she killed the porcupine the other day and went back to eat it. This time rather than take her to the vet Joey sat on Macy, Nikko held her paws down and Maia held a bone in her mouth so I could pull the quills out of her gums and tongue. There were only a few, unlike the other day, so it wasn't that bad and only took about 30 minutes.

POOR PUPPY

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I KNOW I LOVE DOGS & PORCUPINES...USUALLY!

Joey woke me up early this morning as he was headed out for a flight. After I was partially awake he told me "There is a problem with Macy she ran into a porcupine last night. Sorry gotta catch my flight.". I walked downstairs to see Macy who was sitting outside on the back porch. I couldn't even look at her without crying, the worst part was there was nothing we could do for her. I called our vet and got an emergency number for an animal hospital open all night. When I talked to them they said if they had been all night waiting 2 more hours for or regular vet wouldn't be a huge problem. That is so easy to sat when they don't see the true puppy dog eyes.

Luckily we already had Macy's crate in the car since we are heading out of town this afternoon. The kids and I got ready to head out and loaded Macy into her crate. She jumped right in as usually hoping for some help. In her crate I could see how bad she was shaking and the foam & saliva coming out of her mouth. I coukd also see he quills not only all around her nose & mouth but on her legs.

I was able to drop the kids off at school and take Macy right over to the vet. They tried to make me feel better by telling me is happens all the time and we were lucky it wasn't a rattlesnake. They told me they would put her out and then the Vet would get all e quills out and that she would be awake late this afternoon.

I did get a call about 2 hours later and they told me we were lucky because it looked like Macy had run into a baby porcupine and that the quills were not in that deep. They also said she had them in her gums so would be tender and have a hard time eating and would bleed for several days. The worst part is she will be at the kennel at least they will know how to help her.

LOTS OF ENTERTAINMENT

We were busy all weekend with lots of ways for the kids to entertain us. We started Saturday up at Uncle Jim & Shauna's house in Woodland. It is so beautiful there about 10 minutes on a dirt room where there house sits right along the Provo River. They decided to host a fall family BBQ. We started with lots burgers on the grill and treats that were out all day. The kids couldn't wait to be done with lunch so they could start with the real fun- horses, the water hole, mountain biking & motorcycles. How could you not have fun with all of those choice.

I loves seeing all of the littlest nieces and nephews riding the horses. Sofia is just over two years old now and got on the horse that Uncle Jim was leading around the front of the house. When it was Fia's turn to get off she just said no that she wasn't going to get off. Later after when we came back from the swimming hole with her as soon as she saw the horses she yelled HORSEY. William had all of his cowboy gear on from hat to his boots ready to ride the horse. Clare also had Levis and boots on ready to ride the horse. They are so sweet and little and love riding the horses so much you can't help but feel their joy.

From the horse riding parade we went down to the swimming hole where Joey had some of the "bigger" kids. We got down there and the kids that had forgotten to bring swimming suits (Afton) just improvised in their clothes. The kids were having a blast. There were two canoes and a few float tubes. The swimming hole is not really any bigger that a swimming pool and I am pretty sure no deeper so the kids had no fear and even the littlest ones were taking the canoes out. No reason to worry because if it tipped I am pretty sure they could stand up. The most exciting part was when we saw two snakes!! Pretty scary except that they were so small that you might think they were big worms, still makes for an exciting afternoon. There were a few distinguished guests that joined the traditional Polar Bear Club, I believe the members are Addie, Zoe & Olivia.

While all of the horse riding and swimming was going on there was motorcycles and mountain bikes all over the place. Addie and Nicholas rode there bikes down to the swimming hole while lots of cousins were riding the motorcycles all over the place.

After a relaxing day at Jim & Shauna's, Joey and I meet Club Mange up at Silverfork Lodge for dinner. Once again the colors are changing everywhere so the drive up the canyon, just like up in Woodland, are beautiful and bright with the fall leaves changing. We ate inside because the fall weather also brings cooler nights. It is always so nice to get together with friends that are constant in our lives. You know what you are going to get and can trust them with anything going on in your world. The best part is just once again a nice relaxing evening with enjoyable conversations.

YOU SHOULD SEE THE BRUISING!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

NEVER KNOCK ON WOOD

I think it was about 9:00 last night when I wrote on my Blog. I am pretty sure that it was no later that 10:00 when Addison started crying in her sleep. Joey went up to check on her and said she was really hot, sure enough she had a temperature of over 104 degrees. I guess everything comes in threes right? I think we are at four so I think we at our limit. I guess it was nice today having Nicholas and Addison home with me. We watched a couple of movies together, or I slept while they had movies on.

None of us have huge appetites but we have had so many friends bring us food and treats that we are able to have lots of things to choose from when we need food to take with our medicine.

Last night when I went to bed I decided to sleep on the couch in our bedroom and Joey brought everything up that I would need for the night. He brought up water and Fresca both with straws, crackers, throw up bowl (just in case), Motrin and Percocet with the bottles open so I could get to them when it was time. At about 2:00AM I woke up and was ready for my Percocet. At about 4:00 when I was still cursing from the pain I looked and the bottles again and realized than instead of one Percocet I had taken one Motrin. I counted the pills left in the bottle of Percocet to confirm my mistake. After taking the right pill it is amazing how much better I felt. I told Joey it was his fault and he needed to take better care of me. HAHA

I FEEL LIKE A FOOTBALL PLAYER

I have a big huge shoulder pad and feel like I was knocked over today does that qualify? I went in for surgery on my shoulder that has been bugging me now for about 6 months. I think I was a little optimistic thinking this was nothing next to brain surgery but why do I still feel like crying? OUCH!! Okay, I know I didn't have part of my leg amputated like Matt a month ago but I just need one day to feel crappy right. Actually at the hospital they said I would feel miserable for a least 3-4 days up to 3-4 weeks. I am planning on through the weekend because I am to busy next week to feel like crap.

The great news is that the surgery went well and exactly as Dr. Novak expected. I hope that means more tennis soon, I have really missed playing for the last 6 months and can't wait to get back. Doubles anyone??

Now that I am not dizzy, feeling like I am going to throw up and am awake I figured that writing on my Blog and playing Words with friends (no I am not addicted) would help me stay awake so that I will sleep tonight.

On top of me having surgery Nicholas has been home with a stomach bug for two days and has been throwing up. Today the poor little guy was just left home alone while Joey took me to the hospital. I am glad all three kids know how to find the porcelain throne to take care of that sort of business but wish I could of been home with the little trooper. Joey already had the bug earlier this week so I hope it doesn't pass to anyone else.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

OUR BOYS

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TOTALLY AWESOME CALF CRAMPS

This weekend has been great. Friday afternoon Joey, Zach, Brenda & I left Salt Lake for a weekend of bike riding, eating and aching bodies. Okay, maybe my body doesn't ache as much as Zach and Joey's but I got a really bad leg cramp that I am sure is from following them in the car for 3,280hundredths of a mile that they were on there bikes. Saturday morning Brenda and I started in the car in Logan where they started on there bikes and we followed them leap frogging them all the way to Jackson Hole - LOTOJA. They actually were on their bikes for over 10 hours and 206 miles while Brenda and I took lots of pictures, drank diet coke and ate in the car following them.

It has been really hard once we got to Jackson Hole. We basically go from eating to shopping to eating again. This afternoon Zach was feeling a little tired, who knows why, so he and Brenda went to the room to sleep. While they were resting Joey and I took the tram up to the top of the resort at Teton Village. It was amazing you could see the entire valley with Jackson Hole and then on the west side the mountains went forever.

EARLY DAY

One of my favorite days is Wednesday because at St John the Baptist it is early day, that means that I get to have lunch with at least one of my kiddos. Today I dropped Maia and Nicholas off at tennis lessons and got to eat lunch with Addison at the restaurant of her choice - pizza. It is fun just to have that one and one time to see what she is thinking about.

After we get home there is not much I usually watch on TV, but there are about eight weeks a year that I am glued to the TV, this being one of them. I am happy as can be to sit and watch Federer or Nadal play tennis, tonight Federer in the Semi's of the US Open. My idea of a great night with Macy sitting on the couch next to me.