Slacker...I know

So I really have no good excuses for not blogging in...a really long time. Would it make sense to say that technology really hasn't held much interest for me as of late? We're on a break. Besides the obvious two little people I spend all my time with that keep me really busy, I've also been working to finish reading the Old Testament by the end of the summer. I'm in Isaiah right now, so I think I'll reach my goal. It's just that it's not exactly quick, light reading. It takes up a lot of time, and I usually don't feel up to much else afterwards. It can be exhausting. So, now that the world is aware of my excuses, I'll attempt to update you on our going-ons. We've had birthdays, Holidays, ER visits, and just plain old fun.

Working backwards, today is Mr. N's birthday! We're the same age now. We're the same age 6 months out of the year...although it always feels that we're not the same age longer than we are. I'm not sure why that is. The girls and I called Mr. N about 30 minutes ago and sang Happy Birthday to him. It was so cute! They all sang. I may have to do it again so I can get it on video. Yesterday we had his party. We made the same cake we make every year for him...a death by chocolate cake for sure! So amazing. We also made Cafe Rio knock off burritos that were fantastic. A million thanks to Tara for that recipe!



As a gift I made Mr. N a...thing (I don't even know what to call it)...to hold his paint brushes. I may have to make some modifications on it, but he was really surprised and pleased. It's fun to get him something he actually likes.




Easter was a lot of fun. The girls had a lot of fun finding the eggs we hid and seeing what was in their Easter baskets. On a side note, we're not sure how we're going to handle things like the Easter Bunny and Santa yet. Honestly we didn't really mention them in when those holidays came up. The girls saw Santa in movies and we would tell them that it was Santa, but we tried to emphasize more of the Birth and Death of Christ. We don't want to tell our kids the reality of Santa and the Easter Bunny because we want them to have fun and use their imagination, but we probably just won't make a huge deal about it. I don't want our kids thinking all year, "Oh I shouldn't do that because Santa is watching..." Shouldn't the bigger concern be that Jesus is watching? Making right choices because it is the right thing to do and what God wants us to do versus making right choices because of presents they will receive. But we do want them to believe in those things because it's fun. We haven't figured out those minor details. I think, our plan of action though will be to just not make a big deal about those things in our house and put more emphasis on the real reason for the holiday.



As for ER visits, this little cutie is the reason we were at the ER on Tuesday. It was my fault too. I had to drop something off at someones house, and since it was close I decided that we would walk there instead of driving. I didn't strap the girls into the stroller because they hate the seat belts and I didn't feel like fighting them. My mistake, I know. We were almost to our destination when L sat up on one knee and turned around to say something to me. Normally when this happens I tell them to sit back down and face the front. Before that could happen the front wheel of the stroller hit a pot-hole and L flew out of the stroller backwards and smacked the back of her head on the pavement. Honestly I didn't think much of it. This child is always getting hurt one way or another. I walked around and picked her up and held her as she started to cry. It was one of those long cries where they don't take a breath in. I blew in her face a few times to get her to take a breath, but she wouldn't. Finally she took a short breath in and then her eyes rolled in the back of her head, she made this gurgling sound, and she passed out. It really freaked me out. I had forgotten my cell phone so I flagged down a passing SUV. By divine intervention the driver was a nurse. L started coming back around after 15-20 seconds. I could see her eye balls rolling around in her head, like she was trying to find her way out of the dark, but couldn't. She came back, but I was really alarmed because it almost looked like her eyes were very subtly looking in different directions. They weren't right. The nurse ran out and took L and put her down to examine her. L was screaming. Her pupils were pin points and the nurse said I should probably take her to the ER. We were about a mile away from home, so she offered to drive us home. Now, I very strongly disapprove of mothers who drive their children around any distance without car seats because you never know what could happen and it's not worth the risk...but given the emergency situation and the distance we were from home (I had no phone, no ID, nothing), we took the ride. They were my angels. Mr. N was in NYC, so when I got home I called him and quickly told him the situation and asked him to come home. L was not herself. She was almost panicked in her pain, and she wouldn't look at me, make eye contact, or interact in any way other than to cling to me. If I put her down she freaked out. What worried me the most was the lack of response I was getting from her. Normally, no matter what happens to her I can get her to talk about it. I called our former Bishop who happened to live close by. It was in the afternoon, so really he had no reason to be home, but I felt like he would be so I called. He was. They had a pipe break in their house and he had to come home to fix it. He and his wife rushed over and he gave L a blessing. His wife went with me to the hospital, though I wasn't sure I would need the company. I ended up being grateful for it because on the drive over I couldn't get L to stay awake. She had just woken up from a long nap not even an hour earlier and had no reason to be tired. We switched places driving half way there and I sat next to her. Even then it was hard to keep her awake. She wasn't crying, and she still wouldn't look at me or talk to me. She just stared out the window. Finally I got a very tiny laugh out of her when I tickled her. From that point on it was almost as if you could see her brain restarting...or rewiring or whatever. I was telling her that we were going to see a doctor that would look at the owie on her head. She finally looked at me and said, "doctor?" It was such a sigh of relief to have her look at me and speak to me again. I could just see her little brain trying to come back. She didn't say much else on the drive. Then in the ER she said a couple more words. In the second waiting room they had us wait in there was a fish tank. She stared at it for a while and then started talking about the fish. Slowly she was talking more and more. She started interacting with others, besides just me. She was becoming more herself. After we'd been there an hour or so she was a lot more herself. After 2 hours when Mr. N arrived, she was back to normal, but still fussy. She was our L. She was trying to break the door down with the rolling chair in our room and was trying to get into everything. We hadn't had the CAT scan by then, but by that point I was fairly sure it would come back clean. It did. On the drive home I asked Mr. N if it was hard sitting on the train knowing I was taking L to the ER. His response was so hilarious. He said at first he thought I was probably over reacting to the situation (I am an over reactor, I know). Then he said he worried that he should probably be more worried about the situation. Then he said he just went to sleep. L is fine now. She's more clingy when she gets hurt of upset, but normal. I really believe that the priesthood blessing she received enabled her brain to reconnect and function normally. I can't really describe it...but she wasn't right before. After it was like watching her brain come to life again.



And here are some random fun pictures of the girls. Above Mr. N is making cinnamon rolls with the girls. They were so sweet. They really adore their Daddy!



I love the upper right picture L had been licking the batter out of the bowl we'd made brownies in. She ended up with the bowl on her head as she licked the inside. I love the bottom right picture too.

Phew...talk about fitting a month's worth of posts into one.