Eight is Great!

Blake officially turns eight years old tonight at 11:46 pm. If he'd held in just a little longer he would have been the New Year baby in Lodi, CA...but we chose a tax break over an article in the paper. He asked us today if he could stay up all night until he's eight and without missing a beat, Chad said, "Sure, as long as you do it in your bed." and in our typical tag team parenting style I added, "With your eyes closed!". I wonder how long until he's asleep?

He was retelling us a joke tonight that he heard on the Fathers and Sons campout earlier this year in TX. Here it is in close to the exact wording:

"So Peter, James and John are in a boat and one of them decides to go back and get something out of the car [uh, huh...he said the car]. He gets out of the boat and walks across the water. Then another one decides he needs something so he gets out and walks across the water. Then the third guy gets out and 'KER POOSH' [that was exact] he sinks to the bottom of the lake. The second apostle turns to the first and says, 'Should we tell him about the stepping stones?'"

It may be a little irreverent, but to hear the mirth in his voice when he tells it you just can't help but chuckle.

Happy Birthday Buddy! I am looking forward to watching your father baptize you on Saturday, and all of the wonderful blessings that will come from that experience.

Our Story: Part 2

I think I have kept you in suspense long enough...and now that Christmas has officially ended I can justify sitting on my keester and typing a little bit!



Where was I?



Ah, yes. The airport.


Karen and I called home when we got to the airport to let our parents know that our flight had been delayed because there was a really nasty storm a-brewin in Dallas, TX...which was where our connecting flight was. Must have been pretty bad because they weren't letting anyone fly in from anywhere. When we called home our parents told us something that would change the course of events from there on out. My dad had finally received a transfer from his company, CNA Insurance to Nashville, TN of all places.


There had been rumors for several months that a transfer was looming on the horizon, but Nashville was a little out of the blue. If I am remembering correctly we all thought it might be Florida in the end. To tell you the truth, when the rumors first started I was waiting to see if I had gotten into BYU, so I wasn't all that concerned that I might have to move anyway; at least not with the family. As it turned out, my application to BYU got there a little too late thanks to our wonderful pals in the Post Office, so at the time we found out it was naturally assumed I would be making the pilgrimage to the deep South as well.


Karen took the news pretty hard. She was still in high school and loved dancing with Troupe, so she was having to leave a lot behind. I, on the other hand had just graduated, had no solid plans for the future, and had just come through quite a stressful year so I was ready to move on to something new.


We were invited to go with a group to get dinner at TGIFridays in the airport, and I jumped at the chance to spend some more time with Chad, er, the Troupees. Karen stayed behind with the rest of the group, but my friend Jenny T. and I had a great time. When we got back to the group I found out, to my embarassment, that people had been switching their tickets around so that Chad and I could sit next to each other. I became Derek McGhie for the flight into TX, and someone else for the one into San Francisco. Aside from the embarassment of having everyone around me play Yentil...I was a little glad because it took some of the pressure off of me. I was never a very forward person, so if people hadn't switched their tickets I would have just followed the rules and stayed in my assigned spots.


Chad and I got to know each other a little better, I learned that he aspired to be an engineer and was a closet Country music fan. He talked a lot. Mostly about himself, which I know now was just a sign that he was really nervous. I was content to listen and put in my sarcastic comments here and there, and I think I may have taken him up on his offer of a shoulder to rest my head on (what a smooth operator he was!). It makes me smile now to think of all this and look back at how incredibly naive I was! It would be great if I could get him to do a post of what he was thinking but I don't know if he can remember back that far!


We finally reached our destination and greeted my dad in the airport. I remember Chad's dad, Von, came up to my dad and talked to him for a while...singing my praises or something. My dad was a little overwhelmed and had no idea what was going on! Funny enough, Chad and I both got lost in the shuffle and never really said goodbye to one another in the airport. I figured I wouldn't be seeing or hearing from him again since he was quite a bit older and seemed to have a life of his own, but for the next few days I talked a lot about him and blushed whenever anyone quessed that I might have a bit of a crush.


We got home Saturday night, the 17th of June. I returned to work on Monday at the rescue equipment warehouse where I worked for Jenny T.'s parents. It was a great job, plenty of time to talk to Jenny as we cleaned the warehouse, pulled rope or other merchandise to fill orders, or did inventory.


I returned home from work on Tuesday, the 20th of June and did the usual...a lot of nothing. After dinner the phone rang. I don't think I was the one to answer it, for some reason I think it was Karen. I was called to the phone and after saying hello my heart did that skip-a-beat-poundy thing when I heard, "So, what are you wearing?" I have to laugh here because this is a line I have heard SO many times since then...I guess you gotta use what works, huh? Chad and I had a brief but exciting (at least for me) conversation about possibly meeting up with some mutual friends the next evening to go to dinner and a movie.

The next night my sister, Jennifer, and her husband came over to help my mom give Chad the look when he came to pick me up because my dad was out of town and really isn't all that intimidating anyway. It ended up being just the two of us for some reason, but we had a really good time eating at Thai Basil in Elk Grove, CA and then seeing some weird animated movie that I can't remember the name of for the life of me. In hindsight I probably should have been a little more wary of Chad considering the fact that he is almost seven years older than me and showed up in a beat up looking navy blue van with a license plate that said "My grandkids are cuter than your grandkids", but again I need to reiterate that I was a little on the desperate side at the time. My mom seemed ok with me going out with him because she had also dated guys that were quite a bit older than her.

That night Chad asked me if I would like to go with him to his cousin's wedding that Friday night and since I really hadn't had much of a social life for the better part of a year and the fact that I was pretty enamoured with him I readily agreed.

Friday night he drove up to pick me up and we headed down to Galt (about fifteen minutes away from Elk Grove) to the wedding reception where I met the rest of the family. It seemed a little strange at the time that his Grandma Evans and his Grandparents McGhie all insisted that I just call them 'Grandma' or 'Grandpa'...they made me feel so welcome and like a part of the family even from the beginning. At one point, and I don't remember exactly how he phrased it, Chad told me to get him some punch. I say told because judging by the fact that I told him to get it himself he must not have said please or something!

The next night we arranged to go to a driving range and hit some golf balls and then to a Young Adult dance up in Folsom. The events that unfolded at the driving range are almost a post unto themselves...and since I feel you starting to nod off I will once again just have to leave you hanging.

Sorry folks...TO BE CONTINUED.

Christmas Cheer

I haven't had much time to post lately, but I came across this today and had to share it with the world. I have been feeling a little Un-Christmasy today and it really just gave me the pick up I needed to get me back in gear. I just hope my little bro isn't too upset that I have shared his snappy moves with the public. I might just have to get him a better gift...maybe some dancing shoes?

Our Story

I came to the realization this morning that I have never written down the story of how Chad and I met. I know my boys will want to read it someday and share it with their families. It is not your usual 'girl goes to a dance at the Wilkie at BYU, falls in love with RM and is married two months later' typical Mormon story. No, I like to think that ours is a little special. There is not much in my life to set me apart from other people, but I hold this story close to my heart because, not only does it do just that, but it is something that belongs to just us. I have come to rely on this blog as a journal of my life, so it is only fitting that I write about it here.

I graduated from high school in late May of 2000. My Senior year had been a very rough one, and without the help of a few key friends I doubt I would have made it through with the amount of sanity that I did!

A few weeks after graduation my sister, Karen, and I departed with the song/dance team we were a part of (Troupe Cabana) for what was to become our last "working" tour. This year it happened to be a cruise to Grand Caymen and Cozumel. We left on a red eye flight June 11. Our group was so large that year (over sixty people) that we had to split into two different flights. The guys all went on one flight to Florida, the girls on another. I only mention this because it seems important that we weren't all together until we reached our destination.


I can't tell you when I first noticed Chad. He had been dragged along on Tour as part of our tech crew, though if you ask him he was a chaperone. It was a good thing he was there and has such a technical brain because he was instrumental in putting our sound equipment back together after Customs took it apart. We didn't really talk until at least the second day out on the ship. I do remember that my first impression of him was that he was sad. I think that may have been what drew me to him. He was obviously older than the other guys I was around in Troupe. Our joke now is that he had to wait so long to get married because he needed me to be out of diapers! I found out later that he had just started coming back to Church and had given up some "habits" that I would never have been able to look past had he still had them.

On the cruise we had a lot more down time than on other tours. We performed several times on the boat, including doing one of my favorites for that year, "Aquarius" in the cruise's talent show. My friend Jenny and I spent a lot of our free time playing UNO, and Chad seemed to participate in these games more often than not. I was assigned to put show makeup on his brother, Derek, and I had also known their other brother, Skip, for several years and ended up partnering with one or the other of them for at least some lifts. Their parents were on that tour, in fact, the reason Chad was there was mostly because his mother guilted him into coming; telling him that he didn't spend enough time with Derek. Little did he know, she had to fight to get him on that ship because our director (understandably) showed some apprehension at having a 25 year old, single, good looking (if I do say so myself!), guy hanging around a bunch of 16-18 yr old girls!

I doubt that anyone could have seen me as the one to break any rules, not that I did, it is just funny to me that I, who was probably the most proper and obedient gal there would end up falling for the bad boy image that he projected! I don't think it was the image, more like I saw a little bit of the sadness in him that I was feeling myself at the time. When we first met I used to think he looked like Jack Nicholson, he had a very sarcastic and cynical outlook on a lot of things. I am no stranger to a bit of sarcasm myself, so I found him fun to talk to.

One particular day that we were out to sea all day a bunch of us ended up playing UNO in one of the little cafes. The next table over was a group of guys from Troupe and Chad was among them. I confess I was eavesdropping on their conversation and was a little surprised when Chad started to describe what, to him, would be the coolest honeymoon.

His idea was to get married (duh), have the reception and upon leaving head to the beach to camp out. Not only would you be camping on the beach, but all of your friends would be there too! You would travel down the Pacific Coast, camping along the way with your buddies, and when you hit the border of Mexico you and the "little woman" would continue on your way alone, leaving the buddies behind.

I was apalled at what I thought was the dumbest idea I'd ever heard, and even though I wasn't even at their table I turned around and told him just what I thought about his idea. He looked a little surprised at the amount of, well let's just call it "spunk" that I showed, but didn't really even bat an eyelash when I ended my tirade by saying, "Good luck ever finding a girl to go along with THAT one!"

Ok. So would you like to know what we did for our honeymoon? We started out at the beach in San Simeon (in a hotel) and ended up in Pismo on the beach (in a hotel). No, his buddies didn't follow us (at least not that I saw), but the similarities to his original plan are still kind of funny.

Back to the boat...So long story short, people started noticing the amount of time the goodie two shoes was spending with the mysterious tech guy. We noticed that situations were being arranged so that we could spend time together. I started to really look forward to being with him, and would get disappointed when he would go his own way or I would miss him in the crowd.

By the end of the cruise I think word had gotten around. Little did we know that quite a bombshell was waiting for us when we got to the airport and phoned home.

To be continued...

Nine Years Down...

...and an eternity to go!

Chad and I are celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary today. Nine years on the 9th! At this time nine years ago we were nervously getting ready to be sealed together in the Oakland, CA temple. Time has certainly flown by!

So much has happened in these nine years that I could almost write a novel. We have been blessed in so many ways it is hard to count, I mean, I only have ten fingers and ten toes! A post like this would not be complete without a few highlights though, so here you go. In the nine years of our marriage we have:

• moved six times
• gone through 27+ months of pregnancy
• given three very special spirits their bodies
• managed to keep those spirits alive despite their tendency for dangerous stunts
• graduated from college (at least he has...I should get an honorary degree for just supporting him through it!)
• been in the emergency room at least three times, and countless times in Urgent Care
• gone through gallons of antibiotics for ear infections, bronchitis, staph infections, etc.
• been to Florida twice
• been to Hawaii once
• swam in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
• faced certain death on the Ocoee River rafting trip
• laughed together countless times
• cried together a few times
• bought five cars
• yelled at each other (at least once or twice ;) )
• prayed together
• worried together
• loved each other.

That's a pretty long list! I could keep going, but I should probably spare you the gory details.

As far as celebrating, we went to dinner and a movie last Friday night (something that is a very rare occurence). Tonight Chad has tithing settlement until who knows when, so I will patiently wait for him and then maybe we'll break open a bottle of good ole Martinelli sparkling cider, for old time sake.

Chad outdid himself this year as far as gifts go. When we moved to Texas last year we gave our bedroom furniture away because we couldn't fit it in the moving truck (it had seen better days anyway). So for the past year I have been struggling to cram our clothes in plastic storage drawers, which means that most of our clothes just get hung up...kind of hard since we moved into a much smaller house than we are used to and have smaller closets. I think I hit a nerve when I transferred his socks into a plastic comforter bag and so I could use the two drawers they were in to store tupperware lids in the kitchen. I figured a comforter bag was good enough for my socks, so why not his? The next day he came to me and said that he was thinking that for Christmas and our anniversary we should get new dressers. Yippee!

It is a little bittersweet considering that I have to give up two holidays for them and their main purpose is a representation of the amount of work I do around here (namely, folding HIS underwear), but I am still thrilled and will probably give them a nice big hug...when nobody is watching. This is why my advice to any young person getting married is: DON'T get married, have a birthday two days later and Christmas two weeks after that. Men tend to want to lump all three together to save themselves the trouble of coming up with separate gifts...I am not complaining this year though because these are some really nice dressers. Just you wait, that post will be coming and you will be impressed.

For now, I just have to say that I am a very lucky woman. Despite some skepticism by some over whether or not we would remain married, we have made it through many trials and I am sure we can probably weather at least a few more. I can honestly say that I love Chad more today than I did nine years ago and I look forward to spending an eternity with him...even if it means bashing my head against a wall when he frustrates me!

Back to Publicland

So, you may have noticed that we are back from the Land of Private. Turns out there were quite a few people who were unable to figure out how to view us there (which was kind of why we were there to begin with, but I am talking about normal people...not weirdos). So I decided that I would try out being public again. [Shaking finger] But if anything weird happens or I get any "strange" visitors we are turning this car around and going back to Private, you hear me?!

Terrible Twos

Dun, dun, dun.

We have officially entered the realm of the terrible twos. I don't quite understand how a child can be the epitomy of sweetness and then they hit that 2nd birthday and some little devil gets control of their personality and they become evil masterminds of chaos and woe. I like to think that most people can relate to this, at least anyone who has ever had one of their own (or shopped at Wal-Mart...or any other store at Christmastime) will know exactly what I am talking about.

While I was pondering how evil Kade has become the past few months and lamenting over how much I miss his sweetness, the thought occurred to me that it is not like this is the first time I have gone through the terrible twos. He is my THIRD terrible twoster for crying out loud. But then my next thought was, "I don't remember the other two being that bad."

I mean, there was the call to Poison Control for Blake when he tried to drink Clorox. And then there was the call to Poison Control for Trevor when he Spidermanned his way up my bathroom vanity and managed to open the "childproof" packaging of my birth control pills and eat one. Yeah. That was a fun phone call. To this day we maintain that it was that unnecessary dose of female hormones that has made Trevor our most emotional son. Oh! Then there was the time they both dumped the dirt out of our indoor potted plant and tried to clean it off the carpet with wet baby wipes. Come to think of it...it may just be that all our kids are evil and bent on making me a nervous wreck. They just happen to pass the torch on to the next one to turn two, fooling me into thinking it is an age thing. This in no way diminishes the theory of the "terrible twos"; it just explains it a little better.

Too bad I will probably never go for a doctorate degree, because this is dissertation type stuff.

Kade's latest antics would fill notebook upon notebook if I chose to document them all. One of his more recent exploits ocurred last night when he got into a brownie that Blake left out on a plate in the kitchen. See, I consider this one a group effort of evil because Blake left the means for Kade to accomplish the end.

Anyway, I leave you with pictures of the dastardly deed because for once I actually had my camera ready and handy.

New Belly Button

I have a new belly button. What was wrong with the old one? You might ask. Well, remember back in October when I kept whining about being sick? Turns out I had a nasty case of bronchitis with a little side of sinus infection. The day I finally dragged myself into the doctor I decided to take advantage of the fact that my mom had Kade for the day and clean out my garage. Big mistake. This is when I first noticed the pain in my belly button region after a particularly intense coughing spell. Yes folks. It is possible to give yourself a hernia by coughing too hard.

Several hundred dollars later, a few nurses, several doctors, a nice supply of Vicodin, some general anesthetic and a very painful incision later (notice I left out the partridge in a pear tree), I am supposed to be a new woman with a new belly button to boot. I am sore though, and I am having a rough time staying down because I have so much to do and I am not one to sit idle for long. I noticed today that there is a little extra abrasion below the incision that almost looks like they dropped an instrument that burned my skin. It hurts and looks like it has the potential for becoming infected, so back to the surgeon I go tomorrow to make sure it is ok...and try to get him to tell me what he did that left that mark.

I can only thank my awesome family for trying to keep me down, and give me rides, and yell at me for lifting anything. Our ward has been awesome as well, bringing in meals three nights and making sure we have what we need.

Sorry, no pictures. I know. I know. But believe me, any befores and afters of my poor tummy would put any scary Halloween posts to shame, and then some. Until later, when hopefully I will have something more entertaining or at least more interesting to say!

Happy 40th!

Just had to give a happy shout out to my all time favorite show when I was a little girl. Sesame Street turns the big 4-0 today (ah, ah, ah...as the Count would say)! I am glad it is still around to entertain and educate my little ones once a day so that I can get a shower or do the dishes. Yes. I do have a habit of using tv as a babysitter sometimes. Don't judge me.

Anyway. Happy 40th to Big Bird and the rest of the gang on the Street!

Bozo the Clown

This is what happens when you are stupid and leave the clippers plugged in when you leave the bathroom on haircut day:

This is what you get when you try to make the best of things:

In hindsight I probably should have left it like this for Halloween, but I was obviously not having a smart night.

He is still handsome, but I really miss being able to faux hawk his hair. Oh well, it's not like he got a tattoo or something, hair grows back.

Tricks and Treats

Halloween is FINALLY over.

A little known fact about me is that I despise Halloween. Not so much the candy or the dressing up, or even the decorations. It is the fact that for about three months ahead of time my kids talk nonstop about what they are going to be, when is the big day, etc, etc. It wouldn't be so bad if they would allow me to use my own creative genius to come up with awesome costumes for them. NO, they pretty much want to be a Star Wars person or some other action hero that, try as they might, with the genes they've been given, they will never really look like.

This year I wanted to dork it up a bit and decided to dress up with them. I decided that if they had to be Star Wars [again], we may as well make it a family affair, and then I am putting a moratorium on S.W. for at least five years. I think it is pretty safe to say that Kade makes the most adorable Yoda ever, so that was a given. Trevor wanted to be Anikan Skywalker, and since he has the most potential to turn to the Dark Side, that was pretty easy too. This picture doesn't really do his costume any justice, but it really represents his two first loves, eating and cucumbers. He was overjoyed that he got pretty much free reign of the party food at Grandma and Grandpa's. You gotta love that even with all the junk food around he still went for the veggies!

Blake wanted to be Luke, and despite the fact that with his red hair and freckles there was pretty much no way on Earth I could make him really look like Luke, his costume was super easy so I went with it.

I remember being Princess Leia for Halloween one year when I was about five, and decided to recreate the look courtesy of an overpriced headband with fake buns over the ears and my temple dress. Last, but certainly not least, Chad went as Obi Wan Kenobi.

We ended up having a great time at the Ward trunk or treat and then out at my parent's house for a small party. The boys were thrilled to see their old fogey parents getting in on the theme and there were a few kiddos at the Church who got a kick out of the whole family dressed up. I may even do it again one of these years.

I know where the boys' excitement comes from, I was happy to see that my folks dressed up as well. Dad was a leprechaun and Mom was a hippy chick. I think they were super cool and love that they were such good sports.

So long Halloween 2009! May the Force be with you!

Going Private

Yes folks, it is time.

I have been thinking about taking the ole blog private for a while now, and have recently heard one too many things about things that can happen online. I have decided to be a little more cautious and this is one of the ways I can do it. Have you heard that people will actually go on a blog and copy off pictures of a child and try to sell them on ebay or craigslist? Yikes! I would try to be more cryptic be giving my kids or husband pet names, but I am lucky enough if I can remember their real name on any given day!

If you would like to continue reading about all of the McGhie mis-adventures please email me your email so I can send you an invitation. Even if you don't really know me and like to "lurk" on occasion, please send me an email...believe me, I need all the pats on the back I can get and appreciate any and all comments (especially the ones that tell me how fabulous I am!). My ego loves a good stroking now and then.

My deadline will be Friday, Oct. 30th.

My email is kristwenty7@gmail.com

The Sh Word

Chad told me that I needed to blog the following event for the sake of posterity, so here goes:

A few weeks ago we were driving in the car on a Saturday and Blake started yelling from the backseat that Trevor had said a bad word. We finally managed to ascertain (that is a funny word!) that Trev had said the "first bad word from Transformers, the sh word"...needless to say, we were shocked and apalled that our five year old would say such a word, but we felt it our duty to punish him and filled the next five minutes with various threats of punishment. We really meant it about the whole punishing thing, but we forgot about it with all the other things we needed to do that day.

Two days later (again in the car, apparently he feels safe saying bad words in the back of the Durango because I can't reach him to slap him in the mouth)...a similar situation occurred while we were on our way to my Mom's house. Chad made the same threats of punishment and this time we were both determined to carry them out. When we walked in the door I asked Mom if she had any jalapenos (specifically, the juice) and got just the answer I was looking for.

We marched Trevor over to the sink and retrieved the bottle of jalapenos. I grabbed a teaspoon of juice and Chad had the honor of putting the juice into Trevor's mouth. He made him hold it in there for a few seconds to make sure that his mouth was nice and spicy, and then "allowed" him to swallow it. Then, to my surprise, Chad told him that since we had forgotten to punish him the first time, he had to do it again. Trevor was not too thrilled with the prospect, but to my surprise he took it like a man without too much complaint, just huge tears in his "puss in boots" eyes.

If you have never seen Trevor upset, you will not understand. But his beautiful green eyes are enormous, and when they are full of tears that have not spilled over yet, it could melt even the hardest of hearts. I actually had to close my eyes to give him that second dose of "bad word medicine".

Fast forward to last week in the car. This time Chad was not with us. Blake started in about how Trevor had said the sh word again, blah blah blah, and so I asked him to clarify which word he was talking about. I gave him a one time pass to say the word so it would be completely clear. He solemnly said, "He said 'shut up', Mom. You know, the first bad word they say on Transformers!"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I had to call Chad and inform him that we had probably warped poor Trevor for life with the jalapeno juice for such a minor infraction as saying shut up. I feel horrible, and yet at the same time I find it mildly amusing!

So there you have it, we are either terrible parents, or really good parents and just a little overzealous in our punishments. I know this story is going to come back to bite us in the hiney. I will tell you one thing though, we learned a valuable lesson and I am positive Trevor did too...I doubt he'll ever say shut up again!

**Please just don't turn us into Child Protective Services after you read this!

Girl's Weekend (Day 2)

Sunday dawned bright and clear with nary a cloud to be seen. There was a light breeze that made wearing a sweater or light jacket necessary, but it was a pleasant and beautiful day. I never realized how beautiful Kentucky is, but as you can see from the pics of the road we drove down to get to Shakertown, it is practically a little slice of Heaven. It was so pretty I made Jennifer stop in the middle of the road (there was not a lot of traffic on those country roads) so I could take pictures. I tried to get Mom to play Chinese fire drill with me, but she declined.

The Shakers were very interesting people. Apparently there are still three of them left in Massachusetts or somewhere. They were Millenialists, meaning, they figured that they were living in the Millenium since Christ had already come. They did not believe in procreation, and I had kind of an "aha" moment when one of the guides explained that they weren't really worried about the need for the human race to continue because they figured they were living in the thousand years of peace and well, they just didn't see the need. Not surprisingly, when the Civil War occured it really put their "peace" theory to the test. Also not surprisingly, conversion to their beliefs seriously began to lag and this led to their decline and near extinction.

They were peaceful people, aside from their rowdy religious celebrations (which is what gave them the nickname of Shaker...part of their rituals involved dancing and shaking the devil away from their soul). They were master craftsmen, their architecture was very modern for the time and beautiful to look at. Very simple and clean lines that appeal to me in a big way. They were all for modern convenience and improving upon the ideas of the past. A lot of people tend to associate them with the Amish, but they differ quite a bit since they tended to embrace modern advances, rather than shun them. We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant that used to be one of the buildings used by the Ministry (male and female Elders). The food that was served was grown right there in a large garden; fresh sauteed squash and zucchini, tomato casserole, etc.

They had various presentations in the old Meeting House throughout the day that we attended. The first lady we went to talked about their worship practices and customs, and the second one talked about their music and did demonstrations of the types of dancing they did as well as some of the songs they sang. These ladies were dressed like Shaker women and were master storytellers, they were so entertaining to listen to and watch! They reminded me of an awesome lady in our Ward who is a storyteller and professor. We took a hayride tour around the village and were very impressed with the wagon driver. He was a local farmer who also tends the grounds at Shakertown and knew so much about the history of the area and the Shakers. The stone fences that stretched through and around the village were built by an Irishman, not the Shakers themselves, although they did assist him. He was paid $1000 for every mile of fence that he put in...not bad money in those days, although can you imagine how long it would have taken to put in a mile of fence when you have to find all those stones?

It was so relaxing to walk through the grounds and tour at our own pace, I would love to go back and stay in one of their guest rooms, kind of like a bed and breakfast. The rooms are in the original buildings and decorated very authentically.

Mom and Jennifer and Miss Ashleigh and I had a great time, I hadn't laughed so hard or so much for a long time! It was nice just to be able to wander around without a rigid schedule or little ones pulling on my leg for attention. It was also nice to just sit and hold little Ashleigh and try to coax her to smile, she is such a cutie! She turned heads wherever we went.

I just have to say a huge "Thank You!" to my dad for the hotel and gas, and for taking my boys to Church and watching them while Chad did his bishopric stuff. Also, to my sister Karen for feeding my guys several times while I was away, quaranteeing they didn't eat McDonalds for every meal. It is awesome to have such great family support...but next time Karen is coming with us, even if we have to hogtie her to the top of Mom's van!

Sorry for the super long post...there is sooo much I had to leave out!

Girl's Weekend (Saturday)

Since I am a "Sicky McSickerton" today and have vowed not to do anything strenuous or taxing to my already fragile voicebox, I am finally taking the time to sit down and blog about the fabulous Girl's Weekend my mom and sister, Jennifer, and I had a few weeks ago.


Jennifer and I graciously allowed our husbands to go white water rafting with the Elder's Quorum in August, and in exchange they allowed us to take advantage of some free hotel nights and free gas, courtesy of our wonderful pops. We left around 8pm Friday night, the 26th of Sept. and headed up to Frankfurt, KY (where our hotel was). We have been itching to get up to Louisville to see the Shaker village for ages, and this was a golden opportunity to go without whiny kids. We did have little Miss Ashleigh with us, but the only time she whined was when she was hungry, the rest of the time she was just a ten pound weight to heft around during our various activities.


Saturday was super rainy and wet, so we decided to save Shakertown for Sunday and knocked around Louisville a little bit.


In the morning we went to the Mary Todd Lincoln House and used free vouchers to get in, courtesy of National Smithsonian Museum Day. It was a pretty good tour, very informational about President and Mrs. Lincoln. After that, we hit up a sale at JCPenney to find me a shirt to replace the white one I spilled Diet Coke on. Jennifer found a couple of shirts and I found a nice teal one for $10, and then I found a great beaded necklace for $10 that I have since been able to wear many times because it matches so many things! I have been on a quest lately to be more "What Not to Wear" and channel my inner Mom-on-the-go look with more accessories and less frump (today is an exception because I feel like I have been hit by a truck and, since it is Pajama Day at school I am just following their theme).


Where was I? Hmmm. Oh yes. Saturday.


So we then went in search of a Celtic store in old town Louisville, and in the meantime ran into all the wonderful traffic and crowds that were hitting the UK verses the University of FL football game. That's right folks, the little English man on Jennifer's GPS didn't know it was a big game day and ran us right through the middle of the UK campus. An hour and a half later, we found the place we were looking for and spent a few minutes before it closed browsing. We were starving, and just happened to be right down the street from a resteraunt I read about in one of the hotel pamphlets, Joe Baloney's. We decided to take a chance and oh how glad we were. It was a great place in an old church building (the bar ironically was placed where the pulpit used to be) with tasty homemade bread sticks and garlic butter.


To round out our nice, relaxing day we ended up at one of our favorite haunts, Target, where we got a new blanket for Miss Ashleigh, who had, in a most unladylike fashion, managed to poop or spit up on all the blankets that Jennifer had brought with her!

Thus ends Saturday, unfortunately no pictures because my wonderful hubster was "fixing" the computer recently by adding a new external hard drive to store things on and removed all of the pics off our computer without a tutorial for me on how to access them. [Fist shaking] Why do men always have the urge to fix things and either a). break them worse...or b). never finish fixing them??? I needs me some medicine...ttfn. ***If anyone can tell me what that stands for they will win a special treat from yours truly!

***Update: I asked Chad how to access the pictures and they are way more accessible than I thought, so apparently he didn't "fix" the computer too bad.

Sushi Anyone?

Last Friday night I was feeling very sorry for myself and in need of a break. Not only was last week Fall Break for the kids, but Chad was out of town from Sunday to late Wednesday night, and then did Home Teaching Thursday night. To top it off, it rained several days last week so we were stuck indoors a lot.

I thought about escaping by myself for a few hours, but then I realized that what I really needed was some time with Chad. I called him at about 5:30pm and he was not even on his way home yet, but I asked if he would stop and pick up sushi on his way home and I'd feed the kids leftovers. He suggested we rent a movie from iTunes also.

So we sat and ate sushi while the boys played the Wii before bedtime and in wanders Kade. He was really intrigued by the chopsticks and wanted to use them to try the sushi. We had plenty so we let him, and he was so cute scewering that raw fish! He tried several pieces and then he begged for some of the ginger that they always put in. To our extreme surprise, he devoured several big pieces of the ginger! We have come to the conclusion that he must not have active taste buds. It sure made for some good laughs after a stressful week!

We need to do "at home date night" more often, it's cheaper and you can wear sweats!

My New Bliss

I have a new guilty pleasure. A hobby, one might call it. I have always been a thrifty sort of gal, reveling in the skirt I got at Target for two dollars, combing the racks of the children's consignment stores till my back and feet were in agony...but this brings thrifty to a whole new level.


I have discovered that there is a world more thrilling than clearance racks, and it is right inside the Sunday paper. My sister has been doing it for a while, but she has made it her mission to include me, to indoctrinate me, if you will. And now I am hooked.


COUPONS!!!


This is how we do it (well, to be honest, Jennifer does most of the work and I willingly let her because her brain is much more like a computer than mine): we buy five Sunday papers Monday morning when they are $0.99 at our local supermarket. We spend a few hours combing through the ads to find coupons that appeal or that our handy couponing blogs tell us to look for. We cut them and sort them into a binder separated into different sections and filled with baseball card holders that hold the coupons. Then we check out the website http://www.southernsavers.com/ and plan our grocery shopping for the week based on the deals that the local supermarkets are running combined with our coupons. It is a little more complicated, but it would take all night to type out.


The key is the fact that when you know what is on sale, and you combine that sale price with a coupon, it sometimes makes things dirt cheap(like bags of Chex Mix for $.16). Yesterday I bought $333.80 worth of groceries for $84.79! This picture doesn't show everything I got because I couldn't fit it all on my table, (and I have a pretty big table!) but you get the idea. I believe I got something like 19 boxes of cereal, 10 bags of Chex Mix, six + lbs of hamburger, six boxes of Hamburger Helper, the list goes on and on.


Tonight Jennifer told me of a deal where, if you have a coupon for $3.00 off a box of Snuggle dryer sheets, and you go to Food Lion where Snuggle dryer sheets are on sale 2 for $6...yes folks, you can get them for FREE. Say what girlfren? Oh yes, and by the time I got there they were all out, and the sale was only for today...I asked for a rain check so I can go back tomorrow or the next day when they have restocked and get my free Snuggles!


My biggest worry in all this was how the clerks would treat me, I have always been more worried than I should be about what people think of me. But I have now realized a few things, (1. this money doesn't come out of their paychecks, the manufacturers reimburse the store for the money on the coupon (2. they are stupid to look down their nose at me when they could easily take advantage of their own sales (3. all of the clerks I have dealt with in the past few days were sooo sweet and even excited to see me get such great deals! I always feel bad though, plunking down a huge wad of coupons, but the key to that is to stay organized and make sure that the coupons that you are using together for one product (like a manufacturers coupon + the store coupon) are bundled together. I plan out what I will get before I go to the store and put each little bundle in their own little baseball card pouch. I tell you what, it is an OCD girl's dream come true! I also try to go at non peak times like early morning and later in the evening so there isn't a line of forty people behind me gnashing their teeth.


My sister told me that her husband and my husband were talking about our new obsession and Chad was quoted as saying, "This is a hobby I can really be supportive of!" Ya ya, he still remembers our Webkinz stint of '08. They were so cute though! You could dress them up and "buy" things to go in their little online houses and make fake money by doing online games and...oops. Right. Coupons.


Well, that's enough out of me for tonight...I still need to find those Snuggle coupons in my newspapers.

# 2 has lost # 1!

At exactly 7:48 this morning Trevor lost his first tooth!

It has been really loose for the past week or so, and we discovered why when we looked in his mouth and saw a brand new adult tooth coming in at an almost 45 degree angle behind it. The poor kid definitely inherited his parents' potential for dental bills! This morning he was complaining that it hurt to bite into his Poptart so I asked if I could take a look at it and see how loose it had gotten. Upon seeing that it was barely hanging on by a thread I asked him if I could try to pull it out with some tissue on my hand. Surprisingly, he agreed and two seconds later it was out. I am proud of my Stripling Warrior for being so brave and I am proud of myself for being such a do-it-myself tooth pulling warrior!

Flashback to Saturday morning:

Chad and Trevor were out running errands and Chad noticed Trevor messing with his loose tooth...not wanting him to accidentally pull it out in the car and get blood everywhere (they must have been in Chad's car) Chad told him that he shouldn't mess with it. Trevor (in typical Trevor fashion) didn't miss a beat with this reply, "Oh thank you. You know, this is just my first one and I don't really know the rules yet." Another Trevorism is born everyday!

There's a What Under Our What?

I have so much to post and so little energy! I will start with a rather amusing incident that ocurred while we were in CA last week for my bro-in-law's nuptials.

My wonderful mo-in-law got us a hotel room for several of the nights of our stay because even a 3000 sq ft. house can't handle five McGhies by birth, parents of said McGhies, spouses of said McGhies, one groom, one bride, one grandma, three dogs, twelve McGhie grandkids, and two awesome out of town guests that pretty much became family anyway. I may have left out the partridge in a pear tree, but you get the idea...

Where was I? Oh yes. Hotel. So we spent Thurs. Fri. and Sat. night in a hotel. On Friday night after an exhausting, jam packed, 90 degree + day, Chad and I sort of collapsed on the bed and I was just dosing off when I heard a distinct "Meow!". I felt Chad lift his head a little. "What are you doing?" he was obtuse enough to ask. "Ummm, that wasn't me, that sounded like a cat." (Like I would try to come onto him by meowing...he hates cats!)

We heard the meow again and I lifted my head enough to see a cat tail in the air next to the boy's bed. I think I started to freak out a little then.

"What?!!"

So we got out of bed and turned on the lights and the cat darted under our bed. Chad iron-man lifted the mattress and boxspring and lo and behold, we discovered that the cat had crawled INSIDE our boxspring. Yes. That's right. I said inside. Chad shook it a little and it darted out of the boxspring and...under the boy's bed. Grrr. They were totally oblivious, dead to the world.

Chad then called down to the front desk. "Umm, I am calling to let you know that there is a cat in our room." "Would I be calling if it was my own cat?" (Apparently the guy asked if it was ours, duh.) "Well, can you come and get it or something?" "Ok."

A few minutes later, we had moved the boys to various parts of the room, all three still completely comatose. Trevor and Kade were on the window seat, and Blake was in a blanket cocoon on the floor. The night manager arrived and we proceeded to try to coax it out from behind the overturned bed that the boys had just been sleeping in. The night manager then left to get a box and returned about ten minutes later with a Rubbermaid tote and two guys who spoke even less English than he did.

They succeeded in getting the cat on the move...and it jumped right onto the window seat. I mean, it's back feet skimmed across Trevor's angelic sleeping face! The night manager was then able to grab it by the scruff of the neck and take it out, and we put the beds and boys (still comatose) back and crawled into bed ourselves.

It all turned out fine in the end...but the question on our minds since then is "Why in the heck didn't we notice it until the 2nd night we slept in the room?"

Rafting on the Ocoee River

Chad and I had the awesome opportunity to go whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River this weekend with some friends from our ward, Talia and Dennis Jurinsky and James and Norma Evans. I had heard that it was a thrill of an adventure (Chad has gone twice with a big group of guys from Elders Quorum), but I don't think I was quite prepared for the adventure that we had. Here we are in the before picture.

Notice how we are all bright eyed and innocent looking...

Then we lived through this:

And this:

Aaaaand the after picture:

Our river guide, Nickie, had to join us for this one. It is amazing how quickly you can bond with people during an experience like this.

We ended up eating it pretty big on the first man made class 5 rapid (nicknamed Godzilla). Our raft folded in half, dumping us all on top of each other. I was able to get to shore first, minus one of my shoes and my paddle, followed by Norma. Everyone else ended up having to ride the next class 5 (named Humongous) on their butts. Chad and Dennis went right over some rocks that our guide affectionately called "monkey spankers", that left some gnarly bruises on Chad's hind end, and apparently on Dennis's too. They both lost their wedding rings, Chad tore the tip of his middle finger on his right hand and Dennis gashed both of his knees. Talia sprained her ankle and Nickie got a nasty gash (the only one you can actually see in the after picture) on her right shin. We all came out of it bleeding, but, as Dennis told some other rafters later on, "If you're not bleeding you're not having any fun!"

I don't want to make this too much longer, but I am so thankful that I lived through it all, and I don't know if it is because I hit my head a little too hard on a rock, but I am so ready to do it again next year! Poor Nickie, I bet she will probably run screaming when she sees our names pop onto her schedule!

Blast From the Past

My mom was going through some old pictures the other night while I was there and came across this one:

Wow! That was March 17, 2000. My Senior Ball. My Senior year was a really rough one, for many reasons. This picture brings back so many bittersweet memories! My good buddy Brian (the handsome young devil to my left) was such a good friend to me during that year, he was always a good shoulder to cry on and has remained a good friend through the years, even though I haven't really seen him since Trevor was just a wee babe...about 5 1/2 years ago!

When I first saw this picture again after so long, I was momentarily saddened. Saddened that the dress I wore in it will never fit again after three kids, saddened for the wrinkles that are appearing around my eyes when I smile, and the few gray hairs that I find and have to pluck out every few weeks. Then I realized how good I have it now, my life has been so blessed in the past 9 years, I would NEVER want to go back to the place I was in when this picture was taken.

I may have a few wrinkles and some pounds to lose, but I have a loving husband and three great boys who love their mama. I have a greater understanding of the Gospel and my purpose on Earth, and I am cool with never getting into that dress again...it would be hard to wear it to Playgroup or to drop the kids off at school anyway.

Life is good. Use the Force.

BFFs

I had the privilege of watching my niece, Alyssa, while her brother was having surgery last week. She is easy to have around because she and Kade have become as thick as thieves (and if you don't watch them closely enough they WILL rob you blind!). My sister had the foresight to send along an extra babydoll since there is nothing of the kind in our toybox, except for an old Cabbage Patch doll which my boys completely ignore.

I turned on The Little Mermaid for them and broke out the babies. Kade took the pink one and Alyssa the blue, and they took turns feeding them the bottle. I walked into the room and this is what I found, a happy moment of domestic bliss:

New Memory Card Reader!

Finally got my new memory card reader so I could clean off my camera! I have many updates to do, but I am tired and still recovering from a nasty root canal, so I will leave you with a couple of my favorites:

Summertime to me is all about the popsicles, we usually have several varieties on hand (sugar free of course...my kids don't need any help in the hyper department). In Texas the neighbor kids spent most of their time in our yard after we became known for handing out the frozen delights for free. I love how my boys are learning to share and that I actually thought to grab the camera during a rare poignant moment where they weren't trying to kill each other!

**Note the rainboots on Kade's feet. I picked them up on clearance one day a few weeks ago and now he insists on wearing them wherever he goes. He calls them his "hoo bops".

Locks of Love

I got my hair done today. I haven't had it colored in the three years since we moved to Tennessee (the first time anyway). Today I took the plunge and did highlights to make it harder to see the baby gray hairs that keep popping up like wildflowers on a Texas meadow. ( I am trying an experiment with imagery...stay with me here.)

I was feeling pretty sassy with my new 'do when I got in line to pick the boys up at school. They hopped in the car and I turned around and asked how their day was. The usual exuberant responses, and then I asked if they liked my new hair. "Oh yeah Mom, I like the stripes!" Trevor exclaimed. "Looks good Mom, that would look really good on, like, a teenager!" was Blake's enthusiastic response.

Ummm...what do I take from that? Half of me thinks, "Cool! I could fit in with the skaters down at the park!" and the other half of me is looking back to when I was a geeky teenager (which really wasn't that long ago, but when you are seven, eight years looks like an eternity!) and thinking that I would have felt stupid having stripes in my hair...not to mention could never have afforded to put them there. Good to know that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree as far as the McGhie men and not being able to hand out compliments in a natural way.

**Let's take a little detour to a few years ago. Chad and I had a conversation about how he never gave me compliments, a few weeks later we went on a date to a movie. We got home and he said to me, "You looked nice tonight." I said, "I did?". He said, "Yeah, whatever you were wearing, it looked nice." See what I mean? (Not that I am bitter or anything.)

Back to the present. Maybe tomorrow will be a hat day. Scratch that. I have to go get a new TN license tomorrow. Great. My stripey teenager hair is going to be immortalized on film and I will get to remember it every time I have to verify my identity for the next ten years, well into my thirties. And I thought the root canal I had Monday afternoon would be the highlight of my week!

Kindergarten Screening

Yesterday was Trevor's Kindergarten screening test. I am pretty sure this is the round of questions where they determine how dumb your kid is so they can make sure they put them with the most understanding and *positive thinking* teacher. Not that I need to worry about Trevor or anything, [tongue in cheek], but it sure does leave a lot of mystery to the experience when they make you stay in the hall and wait while they lead your baby away!

We finally arrived home after a full day of celebrating Blake's "goneness" with a trip to Target (for diapers), lunch at Burger King, Grandma's house, JCPenney (to look for something to wear to yet ANOTHER family wedding on the McGhie side), pick up Blake, and then back to Grandma's house to drop her off and get some maple tree seedlings to plant.

The boy's walked in before me and greeted Chad with their usual rambunctious affection and I spent my time getting my seedlings out to plant before they died. Chad came to the door chuckling and when I asked what was up he said,"Did Trevor have his screening test today?"

I replied in the affirmative. Chad said, "He just came in and told me that he passed his screening test, but he was disapointed because he thought it was a "screaming test", and that he kept waiting for them to ask him to scream, but they never did!"

Shout out to the teachers at Barfield Elementary School...NEVER ask Trevor to scream...as a first hand witness on many, many occasions...he would pass. Just take my word for it.

Settling In

I accomplished something yesterday, and if I don't write it down I might forget about it. Also, if history repeats itself...and you know it does...Chad will pretend it didn't happen, or happened a different way!

The hardest thing to adjust to in this smaller house has been the move from a two car garage to a one car...I mean, where do you put all the junk that you need but don't really need? I have been trying to schedule with the moving company to come and get their empty boxes before I burn them on my parent's burnpile or sell them on Craigslist...but I am afraid they'll charge me if I do that, so I probably won't. I have tried to explain to them that I only have a one car garage and NO room to store my own stuff, let alone theirs, but this has fallen on deaf ears.

Now that Chad is pretty much occupied 24/7 with his new calling, a new job and wrapping up some computer programming for the last company he worked for, I didn't want to complain to him about putting any of our storage stuff up in the attic either. So what did I do? Yes folks. I did part of it myself, the boys were impressed with my almost superhuman strength carrying Rubbermaid totes up the rickety attic ladder while praying that I wouldn't encounter any larger-than-normal spiders or rodents of any kind. I said I did "part" of it, because, even I am not stupid enough to think I could lift the totes that weighed more than twenty (or so) pounds. I called my little brother and offered to feed him lunch if he helped me...and he agreed!!

I like to think he said yes out of love and a sense of duty to his wonderful sister, but in reality it was most likely the promise of free food that did him in. Either way, my garage is clean (except for United Van Lines's boxes...COME AND GET THEM ALREADY!) and my refrigerator is a bit lighter, but I think it was a Saturday well spent. I even went the extra mile and gave David a popcicle. He earned it...of course, he didn't even break a sweat, while I was still soaked from the work I had done three hours earlier! Oh well, now I can get to the freezer out there without banging my knee on something or having to climb a pile of plastic totes.

I am happy to report that I saw neither spiders nor rodents up in the attic...course I probably would have had a heart attack and died or at the very least peed my pants and been too embarassed to come back down, in which case I would not be here to write this blog. You see, it is a win/win for everybody!

Holy Sunday Batman!

We got a call last night from our Bishop asking us to meet with the Stake President today before Sacrament Meeting. All I can say is that it is a good thing he didn't give us more time because there are only a handful of reasons to have to meet with the Stake President, and our temple recommends are already current!

They have called Chad to be the 2nd counselor to Bishop Pennington. I think we are still reeling from the shock of them extending the call, sustaining him, making him a High Priest and setting him apart within about two and a half hours. Since we are so used to our lives turning on a dime we should recover in the next few days. I should say I will recover, Chad has already squared his jaw and gotten to work. By the time he arrived to be set apart he had a handful of tithing envelopes!

I am pleased to have my husband work alongside Bishop Pennington, my family and I have a lot of respect for him. I know that Chad will grow a lot and that this will be a good opportunity for him to learn from a great, yet humble man.

It was kind of an "aha moment" today as to why we were supposed to come back to TN...in fact, as I mentioned in my testimony, it was interesting that the very day we decided to look for a place in Mt. Juliet (45 minutes away), our renter called us to tell us they were moving out of our house with three months left on their lease, so we "magically" had a place to live in Murfreesboro. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for guiding us and that when we weren't really paying attention to his promptings he painted a huge red X on the map of our lives to put us back on His master map.

Maybe things will calm down now a little bit.....hahaha...please?!

Friday Night Restaurant

Forgive me for being lax on the blogging front lately, we just got the internet back up and running yesterday and it has taken me this long just to catch up on reading my emails and nosing around Facebook!

This week has been...wait for it...CR-azy! Not only am I settling into a house that is 1000 square feet smaller than the house in TX, I am babysitting my nephew (aka the cutest redheaded nephew on EARTH...at least on my side of the family) while my mom is kicking up her heals in Florida with my dad, I am also dogsitting their dumb dog and running over to check on their dumb bird once a day to make sure it is still alive (though if it wasn't I don't really think anyone would miss it...LOVE you Dad...just not your bird)! Was that just the longest run-on sentence ever or what? I wish I could make money for run-on sentences, I'd be rolling in the moolah!

But I digress. I didn't really plan on being on here tonight since I have to get my beauty sleep in order to get up at the crack of dawn to welcome little Campbell in (and try to get him to go back to sleep, without waking up my own three boys). However, since I know my readers (all two of you) are salivating for the latest installment of one of my posts, I decided to hook you up. Am I rambling? I am aren't I? Deal with it, I have been talking to toddlers and kids and dumb animals all day and my husband is currently ignoring me while working on his laptop so I need an outlet for all the adult things that are rattling around in my noggin. See? Noggin! Yet another kid word! I need a break...

Back to my original point...Friday Night Restaurant.

Last Friday night we were driving around, looking for a place to eat since I hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping yet and was too tired to do so. After driving by Longhorn and a few other favorites, Chad and I were discussing the fact that since it was a Friday night in Murfreesboro, we'd be lucky to get in anywhere with a wait less than an hour long. From the very back of the car we heard a small Blake-like voice call out, "Not at Waffle House!". This proves two things,
1. He has the hearing of a bat and so when I call his name and he doesn't respond he really is ignoring me. 2. He has never actually been to Waffle House, so everytime Chad and I have made fun of it he was listening then too...which is now scary while I wonder what else we've been talking about in front of him! We eventually went to Jim n Nick's barbeque, where we got right in and enjoyed a scrumptious Tennessee meal. Where have their little cheesy muffins been all my life?

No Internet is No Fun

This will be short...I promise! Mostly because I am sitting at a computer at the library trying to keep Kade quiet by throwing him raisins while I post. Blake is busy playing on coolmath.com.

Chad unhooked Comcast before he left for TN cause I didn't know how and needed to turn in the boxes, so we have been entertaining ourselves by watching movies and coming to the library every few days to check my email...no Facebook on the loser library computers unfortunately.

The packers are coming Thurs. morning to pack us and the loaders come Fri. morning...then I am headed back to the big TN, not in time for my new niece, but close enough.

I am just praying that the "force will be with us" for the next few days and that I can keep my limited single parent sanity until I am reunited with my husband after two + weeks! I am also SUPER excited to see Trevor (it has been almost five weeks)!

In other news...Happy Birthday to Kade tomorrow! I just don't see dragging myself in here two days in a row, so that will have to do!

Missin' My Trevor

Yes folks, I really do miss Trevor. All the complaining and head-against-the-wall-bashing seems so silly now that my little guy is 900 miles away. My parents offered to keep him for a few weeks for us because we have so much going on right now with the move and Kade's medical tests. We jumped at the chance for a little stress relief, and, knowing that he was in great hands and that we'd be seeing him very soon since we are moving back up there, I came back to Texas with one less child griping at me from the backseat.

Now that things have slowed down a bit, Kade having been discharged and the move on the back burner until TVA gets it's act together and finishes Chad's backround check, I find myself with [gasp] enough free time to feel the loss of #2.

Trevor, on the other hand, is having the time of his life! For the first several days after he left every time I talked to him on the phone he said, "Mom, I'm so happy, I haven't gotten in trouble for [insert #] whole days!" Pangs of guilt then plagued me till I realized that the only reason for this is that he has nobody to pick on or argue with and he gets tons of one on one attention from his grandparents. He is perfectly content to be doted upon and doesn't seem to miss the stress of another move so close to the last stressful move (and getting out of the 14+ hour drives doesn't hurt either!). It sounds like they have even taught him how to say his name correctly so he doesn't enter kindergarten with everyone thinking his name is "Trouble", which is how it used to sound when he said it.

Today I plugged my iTouch into my car to listen to my "Kicky Songs" playlist and Trevor's favorite song came on..."Lollipop" by Mika. I just had to call him and let him listen, and to my extreme delight, he sang along with it in his slightly high little five year old voice. Good times!

Chad is on his way to Nashville as we speak to do a physical for TVA, so he'll be able to spend some good ole quality time with him this weekend, and then he will be heading up there for good next weekend. I will once again be relegated to the purgatory of single-but-not-single parenthood. I know I have said it before, but it is a good thing I keep my sanity in a bottle, and that I can't work my webcam so you don't see me laughing hysterically as I rock myself and suck my thumb!

Someone recently asked me how I am dealing with the chaos that is my life at the moment, and I came to the realization that this is probably one of my major tests in life. I am completely type A, loving to plan my life in advance so that I know what is going to happen for months down the road (I can see you laughing Marie...yuck it up lady!), having to live in limbo waiting for test results and not knowing when life will get back on track and become predictable again. I can't complain though, things have worked out so far and I am sure will continue to do so. One could argue that I should have been prepared for this with three unplanned-for children, all of them boys no less!

As for now, I will continue to stick by the motto I adopted when I found out I was pregnant with Kade, "Life is what happens when you're busy making plans."

Hospital Stay

**I would have posted about this sooner, but it has taken me several days to get the house under control after Chad and Blake lived it up bachelor style while I was gone!

Last Monday morning I got up around six thirty to get ready and finish packing the last of the things we needed to take with us to the hospital. At around eight am we packed into Chad's car (cause it has GPS) and headed to Houston. We got to Memorial Hermann Children's hospital around nine thirty and began the tedious admissions process. Kade was in great spirits, of course he was oblivious to what was going on...that probably helped.

I don't want to bore anyone with useless details, so let's just say that the next few days involved me trying to entertain Kade by taking him to the various Childlife playrooms the hospital had to offer, monitoring what he ate like a food Nazi so I could document it for the fat intake/output study that was the whole reason we were in there, playing my mother's DS cause Blake left mine in his friend's car, riding the escalators up and down (over and over) with Kade because he loved them, collecting said "outputs" from Kade to put in a jug that lived in our bathroom in a container filled with ice...and trying not to throw up as I did it, meeting with GI specialists and a whole team of Endocrinologists to get the lowdown on the plan to find a diagnosis, and watching way too much HGTV.

On Wednesday afternoon I noticed that the hospital was going to do a blood drive the following day and I thought to myself that I should do it, (a) because I had nothing better to do, (b) because, in some small way, I might be able to help some people, and (c) because they were going to serve sundaes and you got a free t-shirt...okay, this last one I didn't find out till I got there, but it was a MAJOR perk for the horrific bruise I have on my arm from giving blood! When the phlebotomist was unhooking the needle she said, "Congratulations, you just saved three lives!" I thought that was pretty cool, and, since I didn't pass out and they gave me free chocolate Blue Bell ice cream, I deem the experience a SUCCESS!

Kade was a real trooper most of the time. By the time we left he had all of the nurses and most of the doctors completely in love with him. He is a charmer by nature, but I think they are so used to seeing little ones in pain and in terrible spirits from the pain that he was a breath of fresh air for them. He was so patient when they came in to take his vitals, it got to the point where he'd see the nurse come in and hold out his little arm for the blood pressure cuff. They ended up having to do two blood draws, the first time he barely cried, the second time he knew what they were going to do so he cried as soon as we laid him down.

We finally got discharged Thursday evening, with strict instructions for the many follow up visits and future tests that need to be done. We still don't have a diagnosis, but we are a little closer. They haven't gotten the results of the fat absorption study back yet, but they did discover thru the blood tests that two of his Thyroid levels are elevated, and they shouldn't both be elevated at the same time unless something is going on with his Pituitary gland. Hence the reason for meeting with the Endo team. We are now waiting for the hospital to schedule an MRI of his Pituitary. They also did a bone age scan of his hand and found that, depending on which bones you look at, his "bone age" is around 6-9 mos and 18 mos. This proves that he is definitely under developed for his age (23 mos)...and made me feel a little more justified in my worries.

Everyone who saw him just couldn't believe that there might be something wrong. Usually with a child who has been labeled "failure to thrive" the child is lethargic and anti-social because they have been seriously neglected. Dr. Shelbourne (the head GI doctor at the hospital) confided to me that they normally won't let kids like that leave the hospital without a diagnosis. In Kade's case he is a happy, social little guy. They could see that he is well loved and that Chad and I are both dilligent in taking care of him (why else would I be willing to "harvest" his poop and save it in a jug for four days?!). I feel like our prayers have really been answered. The hospital stay was not bad, it sometimes even felt like a vacation as I rarely have that much free time at home. The staff at Memorial Hermann is awesome, and they all tried their hardest to make sure our stay was comfortable and pleasant. We are that much closer to the answers we have been praying for, and going back to TN is not going to be a detriment to Kade. We are confident in his pediatrician there and the staff at Vanderbilt that we can pick up at whatever point we leave here. It is so nice to be home...although it won't be home much longer! Stay tuned for moving updates to come...