Mallard Madness

Surgery....:)

2011-06-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

Life has been a little crazy the last few months. Jar has been busy with work and his Primerica. He sells life insurance and RRSP's...that kind of stuff. That has him working when he's not working, so he seems to be always working. It's good, but it's getting old real fast :) The girls are getting huge. Mackinley just turned 5!
We had a Pinkalicious birthday party for her. It was pretty cute. EVERYTHING was pink. I made the cupcakes to look like the ones that were in the book. I'm not really a cake/cupcake fan. I'd take a chocolate brownie over cake any day. These ones though were soooooo good! Seriously, I ate a lot of them and I was a little sad when the last 2 got eaten by my little monsters. Maybe I should make some more on this yucky rainy day!
Mackinley starts kindergarten this September! I am so not ready for this to happen. Mentally, emotionally, or just plain ready. She's grown up so fast and I do not like it! They do full days out here. She'll go every Monday and Wednesday and then every other Thursday. It will be good and I know she will love it. Macey on the other hand is going to go bananas without her here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to sign her up for multiple different things just to keep her happy. It will be nice to have her all to myself though :)
I probably won't be blogging much in the near future either. I am having surgery in a month and I will be at my parents' house for a couple of weeks after. I'm so lucky to have them close enough and so willing to help us. That has been a huge factor in my decision to have this surgery. I am getting my right leg lengthened. If you think this sounds horrible, it probably will be. I'm going to try and stay positive and think it's not going to be as bad as I think it's going to be. Why am I having this done? Well, when I was 12 I broke my femur in a dirt bike accident and the growth plate stopped growing. I still had some growing to do, so I had surgery the following year to make my left leg stop growing as well. I have worn a lift in my right shoe ever since. I have bad knees now and I have scoliosis. My hips are sore and my sciatic acts up. A lot has to do with the fact that we were in a car accident 5 1/2 years ago and I sprained my SI joint. I was pregnant at the time as well, so the further along I got in the pregnancy the worse my pain. So between the leg difference, the injury, and being pregnant, I had the perfect pain trifecta! I have bad days and good days, but I am always in some form of discomfort. Mostly my hips, back, and neck. Not necessarily painful, but just uncomfortable because something is out and I can't crack it. It is getting worse though. I've spent a lot of time the last few months in bed just because my hips hurt so bad. I can get around fine, but it was worth looking into the surgery. A girl I know had the same surgery done about 4 weeks ago. That's what got me going with the whole idea. I didn't even know this surgery existed until I heard she was having it done. I asked her about it and who she was seeing and once I had the info I contacted my doctor to get a referral in. My doctor was away, but I had the choice to see the resident if I wanted. I had been waiting for this surgery for 18 years. I didn't want to wait any longer :) I booked with the resident and I'm sooooo glad I did! The wait time just to get in to see Dr. Buckley is about 6 months. That's just to see him. I don't know how long it takes after that to get surgery. I kind of skipped all of that. I was looking at around a year though to get in and have surgery and be better again. I heard about this surgery at Easter time, I have surgery July 8th and it will be 2-3 months to heal. So a grand total of 5 months from start to finish!
When the receptionist called me to set my first appointment up, she said they had a surgery date open on July 8th and if I could come up on June 6th to see him I could have that day if he thought I could use the surgery. I instantly said yes. I couldn't pass on such a great opportunity. It is scary though. I haven't had a lot of time to completely think about it. I have thought about it, but I was expecting a lot more time.I keep thinking if I would have waited to see my regular doctor the receptionist wouldn't have had my referral that day and I wouldn't have gotten in so fast.
Anyways, June 6th was yesterday. I took my xrays up with me and I met with 2 surgeons and 2 med students. I read up on my doctor and all I read was he was mean, abrasive, made people cry, so on and so on. He was supposed to be a brilliant orthopedic surgeon though. I was okay with this. I LOVED him. He was funny, to the point, concerned.....I knew he wouldn't mess around and I knew he wouldn't do something he wasn't comfortable with. He said normally he would turn me away. The leg length discrepancy was not quite large enough for them to normally operate. Mine is just under 1.5 cm and he said they like it to be at least 1.5 cm difference. But, because I was having such problems and I was determined to have it done he let me. What can I say, I'm really good at being persuasive :) He was concerned that normally someone with my problem wouldn't see much of a difference because their problems wouldn't be so bad. He didn't know if it was necessary to put me through the pain and the risk and have nothing change. I get that. I'm not going into this light heartedly. It will suck. There are risks. There could be complications. My leg could hurt for a long time after....it might not help the pain.....I could lose a leg......my life.......it could work and I could be pain free.
It's only been the last 5 years that it has gotten worse. I am 30. What am I going to be like in another 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? I am young and have a lot of life left in me. I want to enjoy it. I want to be able to run a marathon. I would like to be able to just walk around for the day with out my hip locking up or my back hurting so bad it takes a good 15 minutes to relax after I lay down because the pain is so bad. It is worth it to me.
I let him know how I feel ^ and I also told him that him telling me he won't do it is going to be harder for me to deal with than to actually have the surgery. I also told him that if I don't have it July 8th......he did try to get me to think about for a couple of months and then come back in.....that I most likely won't ever have it done. It was just too perfect this way. He consented, filled out my papers, and told me I owe him a bottle of wine :) He totally made my week, month, year!
So, I have a month until surgery. A month to get prepared. I have 17 days from the day of my surgery until I will be at home with girls all by myself. We are really good at taking it easy, so that is what we will do. I will be getting freezer meals ready, cleaning, and laundering so that I don't have to worry about it. Jar is good at helping out as well, so we will be good. I'm just thankful it worked out that we could stay at my mom's and have my sisters around to help watch the girls during the day. If this surgery wasn't in the summer and I had to do it at home by myself I don't know if I would be so gung ho about it. And if the surgery doesn't help with the pain like I'm hoping, at least my jeans won't wear out on the right side anymore :)

My giveaway!

2011-03-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I might as well blog about this, since I'm trying to get everybody else to! If you don't know, I have been selling vinyl out of my home as a hobby for the last 4 years. I bought it for me to play with and selling it was just a bonus! I recently got into making hand stamped jewelry. I've seen it around and I bought some simple stamps to make some cute necklaces with some friends just before Christmas. It was so much fun! I didn't have the tools to make them look professional, but they were cute none the less.
The last couple of weeks I had some orders for the discs to go onto some FHE boards that I had made. They are magnetic and I made my magnets out my hand stamped discs and added some beads and charms to make the board uber cute! I think that's what the ball rolling and I debated on buying this HUGE starter kit. It was not cheap! It was not an easy decision! Jaron is still on strike. He is still working, but we can still feel the pinch. I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. I don't like doing things that are only half done or 'good enough'. So, it seemed necessary. I still need a few more things to get going the way that I would like, but soon I will be a stamping fiend!
I am having so much fun with it! I love being creative and being crafty. There is such a sense in accomplishment when you are done and you see what you have made. I seriously can't believe that I have made some really cute necklaces. There is a problem that comes with this though. Now that I am making my own necklaces pretty much from scrap, I seem to think that I need more designer stamps and more types of charms and beads and tools and metal and......well, you get the idea. I seriously have no patience when it comes to waiting to buy things that I think I need and that I know I will be buying eventually. I REALLY wish the strike would end!!!!!
Anyways, I will get to the point of this post now. Since I am starting a new adventure in the world of crafting I thought I would have a giveaway. The rules are simple. Go like my page on Facebook. It is called CreaTiffany's. Not CreaTiffany's Custom Vinyl......that is the old page. It will be removed once I have enough people liking my new page. So, go to the new page and like it. If you post in your facebook status about my giveaway you get one entry. If you blog about my contest you get another entry. If you buy over $15 dollars in vinyl you get another entry. If you buy a hand stamped item you get another entry. I will be making the draw on the 25th of this month. I figured I would leave enough time for people to decide what vinyl or jewelry they would like if they want some for the contest. The prize is for $40 worth of vinyl and a hand stamped necklace!
So, what are you waiting for?
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CreaTiffanys/186902458013698

2011 so far

2011-02-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

Well this year has proven to be interesting! A lot of change happening this year! Most of it good, but right now there is definitely a lot of stress that comes with it. The mine that Jar works for is on strike right now. They went on strike just over a week ago. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. He does have work until the strike is over, so that is good. He is working at a sawmill in Elko. He stays out there, so we don't see him from Monday morning until Saturday morning. Not ideal, but at least he has a job and it is only temporary.
Another change is Jar has started to work Primerica. He's taking his course and writing his exams in Calgary this weekend. He will be doing life insurance, RRSP's, and other financial planning. Hopefully it all goes well for him this weekend!
Those are the things that are stressing us out right now. Jobs and money......who would have thought? At least we are being taken care of and I am grateful for a hard working hubby! I'm also grateful for the connections that we have. We would be pretty hard up right now without them! So, I guess I can sacrifice a little bit and try really hard not to complain, because I know there are other families out there that aren't so lucky.
On to better news......I'm going to be an Auntie!!! Finally! My brother Bo and his wife Kimm are having a baby boy this summer! Jar and I have been the only ones married on both sides of our family up until last year. My brother and his sister both got married last year. Actually, my brother got engaged the night Jar's sister got married. I think that's how it went anyways. Pretty exciting stuff! Our kids have been the only grand kids as well. They are spoiled to the nines, but it will be so good for them to have cousins!
I know so many people that are pregnant or just had a baby. It's crazy! I definitely would love to have another little baby around, but then I start to think about my awful labors and it goes away real quick! I think I'm just going to leave the baby making to everyone else. I will definitely have a lot of babies around in the near future to love.
I think there is only one more bit of 'news' left. I got a new calling in church last week. One that I am feeling very inadequate for......Relief Society teacher. I have never taught a single thing in church ever. Nothing. I also tend to have panic attacks and hyperventilate in certain situations, so hopefully teaching Relief Society is not one of them. I definitely have mixed emotions about it. I am excited.....to learn and grow, but at the price of failing miserably? Not so excited about that. No, I don't think I will fail miserably, but it's there lurking in the back of my head. I'll let you know how that goes. I teach this Sunday. Maybe I should be preparing my lesson instead of blogging.....hmmmmmm.
Well, that's our life for this year so far in a nutshell!

My child is my greatest teacher

2010-12-17T16:57:00.001-08:00

I am a terrible, horrible blogger. I try to stay away from blogs because I end up going to one to another to another and finding new blogs to follow. It's fun and I love it, but before I know it the afternoon is gone, or the evening, or both. I figure if I just don't look at all, I won't get sucked in!
This is definitely blog worthy though. I think so. It is one of those days that I don't want to forget the details or how I felt. Hmmmmm.......where to begin?

Mackinley loves to drink milk. She would drink it all day. So would her dad. When we are eating, he pulls out the glasses and gives me water, Macey water or juice, and Mackinley and him get milk. I have to buy 2-3 gallons of milk a week. I'm sure there's people out there that have me beat, but the milk is only going to 2 people. And one of them is 4. I think it's a lot of milk.

So one day Mackinley starts to complain about having stomach pains. It kept happening more and more frequently. I tried to keep a mental note of what she was eating, drinking, doing those days. Nothing really seemed to really stand out. After about 6 months of this I took her in and they told me that it was normal. She was probably just stressed from getting trouble about something is what they told me. I was a little irritated, but that was my answer. A couple of months later I took her in for something else and I asked them about it again. They ran some blood tests to check for Celiac's and some other things. She came back negative for the Celiac's, but they told me she has low iron levels. Welcome to the club little one! It's not a fun one to be in, but there are worse. I'm gonna blame my mom for that one. ;) So that didn't really give me any answers either. It started to get worse. She was complaining more and she started getting diarrhea with it. I knew there was something more going on.

I noticed that after she drank a glass of milk she would complain about a stomach ache. I took her off milk and told she wasn't allowed to drink it anymore. This seemed to help out a lot. She would still get tummy aches sometimes.....like after eating Kraft dinner. I felt so bad for her. Kids seem to be so much more littler when they are sick and not feeling well. She would come up to me and say "Mommy, I had a bad poo." It always made me laugh, but I tried to keep it stifled. My heart was hurting, don't worry. I'm not a horrible mother.
This week I went visiting teaching and dropped the girls off at a friends. When we got home later she had cramps again and more diarrhea. I asked her if she had drank milk that day. "No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Well, what did you have to drink?"
"Just eggnog."

I booked an appointment the very next day. At this appointment we got a resident. He was pretty good, but I wasn't too impressed when he told me that a lactose test isn't really necessary. He told me that as long as withholding milk was working than that she be good enough. Obviously he didn't know that milk was such a huge thing for her. It's not even that she likes it so much. It was a thing she had with her dad. It was something that bonded them. They don't have a lot, so I wasn't about to so easily give up on this one. I wanted to make sure that she for sure wasn't allergic to milk or was lactose intolerant. What if she's not and I take it away from her? I didn't really think it was very fair to her. So we booked the test.

She had the test today. I had mentally prepped her for it. She knew she was getting a needle. I didn't want to just show up and surprise her with it. She had to be fasting for it, so I figured she was going to be miserable because she was hungry. She was completely the opposite! We went in and they took her blood. She was a little apprehensive, but she didn't fight me or cry. I have a tube of Lidomax, so that helped as well. It was my 'magic cream'. She then had to drink a HUGE amount of.....something. She drank over 3 full glasses of the stuff. The lady was so impressed with her she gave her 5 stickers. Then we had to wait for an hour and take her blood again. Mackinley was a little bit more nervous this time and I had to hold her a lot tighter. She still didn't cry or fight, but you knew she wasn't liking it. They gave her 10 more stickers. After another half hour she had her last needle. She didn't cry or fight again and she went in knowing that this was the last one. She sat good and was much more relaxed. The lab tech had brought out 2 stuffed bears for her to pick out of. A pink one and a brown one. She told her to decide which one she would like while she was poking her. She of course picked the pink one, but they ended up giving her both! They were really great with her!

This is were my lesson comes in. The lady also gave her some papers with the last 10 stickers so she could put them on and have something to do while we waited. Mackinley went straight to work making cards. One for me, Macey, Jar, and then herself. She is always making me things and drawing pictures for me, but this really touched me. It was all I could do to sit there and watch her and not start crying in the middle of the waiting room for no apparent reason. I was so amazed that a 4 year old could do that. They were her stickers that she got for getting a needle. She was scared, that was her reward for being good and she made cards for everybody else first. So simple, yet so powerful. Why is it that kids are so amazing? She didn't even think anything of it either. She didn't have any ulterior motives. She was making us cards to make us happy because she loved us. She was serving us. I was definitely a very proud mom.

Only a little bit more to the story, I promise. I took her out for lunch where ever she wanted. She of course picked McDonald's. Jaron took Macey out hunting while we were out and he met us at Walmart. He dropped Macey off and headed into Lethbridge. After we were done shopping we went into the car and Macey saw Mackinley's new bears. Mackinley told Macey she could have the brown one. Again, she was so giving of herself. The brown one instantly got named Chocolate by Macey. Then she kept biting it and laughing, "It's chocolate!"
Mackinley named hers Tongue-y, because tongues are pink.

How I love my kids! I'm glad that we can have moments like these. I'm grateful for the example she has given me of service and love. Especially at this time of year. So, Mr. Resident Doctor, whether you deem that test to be necessary or not, I'm glad we did it. Without it I would never have gotten to have that experience with Mackinley. What a great kid I was given!

Love you Mackie!

2010-11-07T15:10:00.001-08:00

I haven't blogged for awhile, but this is definitely worth it!!!! I think I will die if I win, and I will die if I don't win......so it was nice knowing ya!
A girl I know from Magrath is doing a photography giveaway. It is one of a kind. It's for mom's. You get your makeup and hair done and then a photo shoot afterwards! I better freaking win.
Check her stuff out. She is great! She is the one who did our family photos on this blog. Check her out at www.mandybakerblog.com.
Wish me luck!

Another day with the Mallard's

2010-08-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

We decided yesterday to go for a trip through Logan's Pass and got eat at our favorite restaurant in Kalispell....HuHot! Of course we (I) had to some Ross shopping and check out the new 24 hr Walmart in Kalispell. 24 hr Walmart bring me great happiness. I don't know what it is, but when we're in the states and are by a Walmart that is 24 hr I won't go during the day. Well, I do, but I will go for sure in the middle of the night. Just because I can. And it's awesome. It's a good thing this Walmart was open all night because we would be driving home right now instead of actually being home. I'll get to that later.
So we leave and get to the pass. We bought the annual pass because if we spent $25 we had a pass for a week which actually was only the day because we won't be going back this week. If we spent $10 more we had a pass until the end of August next year. Ummmmm, it only made sense to buy the annual. We got to the pass and it was beautiful! As always. It was fun to drive through with the girls and see them all excited to see the water coming off the rocks and the cliffs and all the flowers. I really hope they love it there as much as I do one day. It was a little slow going because of some construction, but other than that it was great! I hung my feet and my arm out the window, we had the music going and everyone was singing. Fun times!
We go to Kalispell and went straight to Ross. It was grand. Then we hit HuHot's. I can't tell you how awesome it is to eat there. I will never eat at Mongolian Grill again. Ever. Unless someone else is paying. I had a $36 bowl at Mongolian once and ate the whole thing. Coincidentally, our entire bill last night for 2 adults and 2 kids was $36, tip included. And I ate more. For those of you who don't know what HuHot or Mongolian Grill is, first, you need to get out more. Second, they are restaurants where you go up with a bowl and pick out your raw meat and fresh veggies and then you put sauce on it. You take it to the cooks and the fry it up for you on a big huge grill. At Mongolian Grill they weigh your bowl and that's how much you pay for your meal. You can go up more than once, but you get your second bowl measured too. If you don't get meat they will charge you less. Just in case you want to save a few bucks! They don't grill it in front of you, they grill it and your waitress brings it out to you. At HuHot's you do the same thing.....you go get your meat and veggies and sauces and you take it to the grill and you get to watch them cook it for you. The cooks toss their.....I don't know what they are called....let's call them metal cooking things. So they toos their metal cooking things around in the air while they are cooking and it is pretty impressive. If you give them a tip you get to ring the gong. The girls love doing this! They give you your plate and you go sit and eat. It is a beautiful dining experience. Until the 3rd helping and it's time to go to the bathroom. I was in the bathroom yesterday and while I was in there making some more room, I thought that restaurant must have more pooh go through it than any other restaurant. There's your thought of the day!
After stuffing ourselves we went to Walmart. It was grand! It is brand new and did I mention it is open 24 hrs? I took my time. I wanted to see everything! We looked around and got a few things. Now that I think about it, I didn't look at the shoes. How could I not look at the shoes?!?!?!? I'm a little upset right now. Even Jar says that's sad. I think he's being sarcastic. By the time we're done it's getting late and the girls are getting tired and cranky, so Jar took them out to the car while I took everything through the till. I'm always surprised to see how many people shop so late at night. I finally got through and went to the car. Mackinley said something about her little puppy that she put in her purse and my stomach felt sick. While we looked at the toys we saw these little tiny stuffies that were $2.50. They were cute little things so I told the girls if they were good I would get them one. I took them out of the cart later because Macey didn't seem that interested in them and I thought I had them all out. Lo and behold she had one that she had put in her purse and when Jar took them to the car, the little puppy went with them. So my kid stole a toy. I'll be honest, the thought did cross my mind to just forget about it, not a big deal. But, I knew I couldn't do that, so I grabbed it, put it in the box, grabbed Mackinley and off we went back into Walmart. She was crying because I got mad at her for stealing, so when I took her in to take it back the ladies already knew what was going on. They were really great. The one lady knelt down on the ground and I told Mackinley to give it back. She just stood there and cried. I knew she wasn't going to say sorry like I told her she needed to. I had to hold her arm so she could give it back. I don't know if it was because I was embarassed or I felt so bad for her, or both, but I started to to choked up. I apologized for her and the lady said thank you and we left. How awful. I know Mackinley didn't really know what stealing was, but hopefully she does now. At least enough to not do that again.
We got gas and headed home. So we thought. We were 10 minutes from the border and all of the sudden we see police lights flashing. Oh great. Just what we need. Jaron wasn't driving ridiculously fast, but the night speeds are different and he didn't take that into account. The cop clocked him at 78 mph. So he asks for our license and registration...the routine. I had our insurance papers in my purse because I kept forgetting to take it to the car. I figured if I had in my wallet then if I needed it I would know where it was. I went to get it out of my purse and I couldn't find it. The cop said he'd go and when he came back he would look at our other papers. We gave him our registration, but I told him the insurance was in my wallet and it's missing. He let me go and look in the trunk and it wasn't there either. He let us go with a warning. I think he felt bad for us. I don't think he believed us, but he felt bad for us. So we turned around to drive the hour that we had already driven. I got our states phone out to try and phone Walmart to see if they had it. As I was trying to figure it out Jar slammed on the brakes. I knew something bad was happening even before I looked up. Stupid deer. There were 2 crossing the road. We knew the first one wouldn't be the issue it was the 2nd one. It's always the 2nd one. I was prepared to hit it and at the last instant Jar was able to swerve and just miss it. We kept driving. I couldn't get a hold of Walmart so we had to stew for an hour.
We got there and they had it. Yay! It happened to be one of the ladies that I had just dealt with when I took Mackinley in. How embarrassing. She told me "When we looked at your license and saw Alberta we were hoping you wouldn't get too far. And then I saw picture and thought 'I remember you." Great. That's what every mother of a thieving child wants to hear.
So we were back on the road. It was after 1:30 in the morning. When we got to Eureka we saw the same cop driving through town. He saw us and you could tell he recognized us. Hopefully he believed us now for sure! We got back in with no hassle and then made it home safely. There were a couple more deer and elk on the road, but none as close as the one we almost hit.
When we got home we put the girls to bed and Jar set up a mattress on our deck on top of the garage. The stars were amazing. We laid there and talked about our crazy, yet great day. It was 5 in the morning. The sun was starting to come up. We went in to bed and nobody woke up until after 10. It was good.

My baby's turning 2!!!

2010-08-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Macey turns 2 next week. She is growing up WAY too fast. Which means Mackinley grows up WAY too fast. It's kinda sad. She really is fun right now though. She copies everything Mackinley and I say. She calls her sister Mackie. I think that's one of my favorite things. She really loves her sister and when they play nice, it is so cute.
Macey is one of the most thoughtful and caring little ones I know. She can also throw a nasty tantrum. She's quite evenly balanced in the naughty and nice department. She is a great Mommy's helper. She loves to help with anything...the cleaning, cooking, Mommy's make up.....you name it. If I'm doing it, she wants in.
She started off as the most relaxed baby I ever met. She has always been a cuddler. I absolutely LOVE this about her. The first few months of her life I wouldn't put her down unless absolutely necessary. I love holding my babies and she loved to be held. She didn't like baby food. I tried for a couple of months to get her to eat it, but she just wouldn't. I ended up giving her whatever we ate just in small pieces because she didn't like it pureed. She started walking at 9 months. She developed into a monster shortly after this. Once she could walk around she became independent and my personal nightmare. Looking back it couldn't have been that bad because I can't remember specifics, or maybe it was that bad and I am so traumatized by it all I've blocked it from my mind. She was my birth control for a long time anyways.
It took a year for me to get pregnant with her. And after I was pregnant I didn't want to say anything about it until the first trimester was done. I had just found out that I had a blood clotting disorder that increases my chances of miscarriage and I have a hormone disorder called PCOS which doesn't really help either. We were moving a few weeks after that, so we kept it quiet until after we moved. I didn't want sympathy help. Yes I'm stubborn. Once we were moved we finally told people. I was 16 weeks pregnant.
I was always told each pregnancy feels different. I found they were exactly the same. I was tired, nauseous, had aversion to smells in the first part, but I never threw up in the first trimester. The second my sciatic would start to act up, I could eat and eat and eat, and I felt really good. The third trimester was long and uncomfortable and painful. Not only did the pregnancy feel the same the babies felt the same. They were both stretchers and they were in the exact same position. I truly felt like the same baby. They both would push their little feet under my rib cage on the right side. Macey did flip to the left once for about a day and it was so bizarre to feel her kicking somewhere else. I didn't really like it.
Macey was born on the 25th of August 2008. She was born at 7:37 in the morning. It was Monday morning. I took castor oil right after church hoping to have her that evening. Nothing worked so I went to bed thinking that I'd just have to wait. I wanted her to come sooner than later because after everything that happened with Mackinley I couldn't be induced and I didn't want to have another C-section if I didn't have to. I woke up around 12:30 with contractions. I laid there trying to switch positions in bed to see if that would stop them, but they kept coming. I called my mom to see what I should do. While we were talking my water broke. She was coming down to stay with Mackinley so we got off the phone so she could get down here and I called my friend Alita to come and stay with Mackinley until my mom could get down here. By the time we got to the hospital it was 2:00. I was indeed in labor! I had to have a nurse with me at all times to watch for any stress signals just in case I needed a c-section. I was able to get an epidural which was sooooo great! They told me around 5:30 to start pushing. I was in active labor for 2 hrs! It was awful. My doctor kept trying to get me to try pushing in different positions......lay on your side, try pulling yourself up with the bar, try turning around.....all I want to do is lie on my back! Leave me alone! I wasn't excited this time to be going through labor. I was nervous and apprehensive and scared. As I was pushing Jaron sat at the head of the bed talking to the doctor about hunting. Seriously. Hunting. Good thing I had such great nurses to help me out. She finally came after 2 long hours. She was perfect. She looked like Mackinley. I didn't bond with her the same way I did with Mackinley. It wasn't instant and I thought there was something wrong with me. We went home the next day and I thought I would be able to relax and get to know the newest member of the family. I was wrong.
The next evening Jaron was on the computer and I turned on the TV. America's Got Talent just started. As I was watching I noticed that I couldn't see the left side of people's face. Their left, my right. We have a projector so I thought maybe it had something to do with that. I looked over at Jar and his face was gone as well. I tried to stay calm. I went upstairs and looked in the mirror. I couldn't see my face either. I went and sat upstairs and I started to develop a scintillating scotoma. It was a gold ring that I could see and anything in my field of vision that was near it was swirling. It was weird. I tried to see if it was a side effect of the blood thinners I was just put on, but I couldn't read the paper. That's when I told Jar he needs to take me to the ER.
We got there and they saw me pretty quickly. I told them what was happening and they said they needed to make a few calls. It's a small ER. You hear everything that is going on. I could hear them talking about me and I heard "STARS". I started to get worried. He came in and I already knew what he was going to say. They wanted to make sure I wasn't having a stroke and they needed to fly me up to Calgary. I called Jar because he took Mackinley to go get A&W just down the road. He was on his way back and he dropped their food and booked it back to the hospital. I called my mom so she could meet us in Calgary to pick up Mackinley. We ended up having to go by ambulance because STARS was busy or something. I was okay with that. As soon as I got there they started doing tests. The CAT scan showed a blockage in an artery in my brain that was already breaking up. This meant stroke. I still had to have an MRI the next morning to see if there was damage. I had a bunch of heart tests. One was called a bubble test. They injected bubbles into my heart and it was supposed to show if there were leaky valves. It was kinda cool.
I was put in the trauma wing for the first night and part of the next day. Then they moved me to the stroke floor. I had the worst nurse in history. She gave me too much blood thinners. My levels were WAY too high. I can't remember exactly what they were, but I know there was investigation done about it afterwards. They weren't very helpful and I got put in basically a closet. There was a bed and just enough room to fit the pump. I wasn't allowed to nurse for about 36hrs because they injected me with dye for the CAT scan and MRI. It was so tiny. And boring. It was good for me though because that is when I got to start bonding a bit with Macey. We were holed up together in the tiniest of rooms and couldn't leave. We got released on the Saturday and we went up to Lacombe and got Mackinley. We drove home after that and I stayed on blood thinners for 2 months. My stomach looked pretty gross with all the bruises from sticking myself that many times.
So, that's Macey's story. Different than Mackinley's by a long shot. Both scary. People ask if we're going to have more. I am a little hesitant. Can ya blame me?
It was all worth it though. Life just wouldn't be the same without Macey. She is a special little girl that I love to pieces!

WARNING: May be a little lame. Don't say I didn't warn you.

2010-08-07T10:03:00.000-07:00

I am the worst blogger ever!!! I always intend to update my blog, but I always get distracted reading all the DIY blogs I follow. By the time I'm done I've wasted all my time and don't get a post in. Anyone else follow dozens of those blogs? It seems like I am always adding new ones too. It makes me feel crafty just reading them!
So we have had a CRAZY summer so far. This is the first week that we have been at home. It's been so nice knowing that I don't have to pack up again for a long time. We've been gone to Cold Lake, Edmonton, Cranbrook, Magrath, Calgary, Lacombe.....I think that's it. It's been fun to see family and friends. The girls have really loved going to Nana's house so much. We got home on Monday and the first thing Macey said when we got home was "Nana's house".
I've been quite busy with my vinyl business lately. I was busy when we lived in Cranbrook, but Lundbreck doesn't seem to be booming for some reason. Can't imagine why.....It's been sooooo nice to get some craftiness out of my system. I need to start decorating my home though. I'm always making for someone else. I got to make a huge vinyl floor mat with my brother last month. My brother got married and they wanted a dance floor monogram. Easy peasy......not. They wanted it to be as big as possible. It was a 9 ft circle. It turned out great, but it was horrible to make. Everything went well, it was just so long. Good thing I didn't have to do it by myself.
My brother got married last month. Just in case you didn't catch that from the last paragraph. It was a beautiful wedding! He married Kimm and she is pretty great! They compliment each other quite nicely. Jaron's sister got married a couple of months ago so now I get to have hopes for cousins for my girls. Maybe that will relieve the pressure for me to have more kids. I doubt it, but here's hoping!
The last little while Macey has slowly started turning from terror to fun. She is quite the kid. The girls play together. Do you understand the full meaning of the last sentence. My girls PLAY together. They still fight, but there are moments. Moments that are so.....nice. Their new thing right now is hide-n-seek. I absolutely love watching them play. It gives me hope. Mackinley is also changing. Hers is not quite so great. She's turning into a child. With the attitude of a teenager. She's not bad, she just thinks that she knows everything. I thought was supposed to start later on. She's quite funny to watch still. She LOVES to dance and sing. Yesterday I was getting ready to go out with some friends and this is how our conversation went......
Mackinley: Can I get ready?
Me: No. Just Mommy is getting ready. I'm going out with some friends.
Mackinley: What friends?
Even my 4 year old knows I have no social life! Not really, but the way it came out, it sounded just like that. I really do have friends, it's just hard for us to do stuff with Jar being gone so much with shift work and living out in the boonies doesn't help either. One more year and Mackinley will be kindergarten and hopefully we'll meet more people close to our house that we can be friends with. It's not far to drive to our Pincher friends, but it just makes it harder to do stuff sometimes.
This has been a random post. Once again. I really need to blog more so I can organize my thoughts better. I hate posting one post for months worth of stuff. I apologize for my boring, random ramblings. I have also learned today that I shouldn't blog when I am starving! I just need to eat but if I don't finish this now it will get sent to drafts and never get finished!!!! I guess I'll end with that and hopefully I'll get my butt in gear and post something before Christmas.
I do need to share Macey's lovely birthing story. She turns 2 in 2 weeks. I will definitely post that on or around her birthday.

Annoying comments I can't read are not welcome!

2010-07-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

I have a blog to keep people updated. I have it public so I don't have to deal with sending out invitations all the time and people can just read it if they want to. Now I am dealing with people commenting on my blog that is in chinese. I can't read it and if you click on them it leads you straight to a page of half naked girls. I do not have a blog so that I can be subjected to porn, or anyone else for that matter that happens to read my blog.
I have changed my settings so that comments are moderated so that I can delete them. I find it rude and annoying that someone would do this. Does anybody else have this problem?

Love ya Mackinley!!

2010-05-30T22:05:00.000-07:00

I should be going to bed, but my blog is sorely neglected.
My baby girl turned 4 on Friday!!! How quickly time flies! I love thinking about what I was going through on the day that they were born at what time. Well, with Mackinley anyways. She was born in the afternoon where as Macey was born early in the morning, so I can't really think about it. I didn't know exactly what I was going to blog about, but now I know. I will let you in on my awesome experience of giving birth for the first time.
Jar and I met in Lethbridge at the end of January. He conned me into going on a date with him the beginning of February. We were engaged the beginning of March, married at the end of June, and pregnant the middle of August. Mackinley was born 4 weeks to the day of our one year anniversary. Talk about quick!
I had a great pregnancy. I got queasy around smells (especially Jar's breath), but never threw up. I didn't gain weight until about 5 months along which was nice. It all came at the end in the form of water retention. I was pretty swollen. I felt great. I loved being pregnant. I loved feeling the baby move inside of me. It was such an emotional, spiritual time of my life.
Mackinley was due the 27th of May 2006. I tried the castor oil trick 2 weeks before her due date because the doctor told me I was dilated more than what I should be. It didn't work. Well, it worked as far as cleaning out my insides, but no baby. A couple days later I tried it again....and again. For those of you who have never tried it. Don't. It doesn't taste bad, but the texture is DISGUSTING. It's like drinking oil, and for some reason it is gross. For those of you who will still try it, don't leave your house to go for a brisk walk until after it has left your system! I am speaking from personal experience. You're better off at home!
Anyways, after some castor oil and some walking my water broke. I was so excited! We lived a block down from the hospital, so we got there and sure enough it was broke and I was going into labor! I was giggly and excited, so I wasn't too happy when they told me I should try and sleep. They gave me some morphine and I did sleep. I stopped having contractions all together. The next morning we waited for something to start, but it didn't. It had to be soon because my water had already broken, but they tried breaking it some more to see if that would help. They called in the nurse to give me an IV so I could get an epidural and some oxytocin. The next 3 hours were the worst 3 hrs of my entire pregnancy/labor.
I always get poked and prodded when getting an IV, but this was the worst I've ever had. The nurse came in and tried getting the IV to work, she missed, so she dug around for awhile. She tried again and didn't get it again. The next nurse came in and tried and poked around for a little while. She proceeded to poke me again with the SAME needle. She dug around for awhile. She got a new needle and poked me again. She used the SAME needle and dug around again. They finally brought in another nurse and she poked and prodded and FINALLY got it. I got poked 7 times and it took over an hour. One full hour of being tortured by psycho-never-give-up-nurse. I had tears streaming down my face. I wasn't crying, but they were coming down like when you get hit in the nose and the tears just automatically come. It was awful.
Once the IV was up and running they gave me the oxytocin to help speed up the contractions. It was working. They upped the drip a little to get going even faster and that's when everything started to go wrong. I didn't have an epidural yet, so I was feeling the pain. It wasn't too bad until I had a contraction and it wouldn't stop. It just got stronger and stronger and wouldn't let up. 5 minutes then 10 minutes. That's when all sorts of nurses and doctors where in there. Someone kept shoving nitroglycerin under my tongue. The doctors where checking me and thought that she was breech. Mackinley started to go into stress and they had to take me down for an emergency C-section. There is something unsettling when you can sense that something is really wrong by the way the doctors and nurses are calmly freaking out. Does that make sense? You could feel the tension. It was scary.
They had told Jar that he needed to get dressed so he could come down, but by the time they were rolling me out they told him he couldn't come. They wheeled me down to the elevator. I am still having this one long contraction. It's been 30 minutes. I was laying on my side death-gripping the railings on the bed. No, I was not screaming. I prefer to suffer in silence. :) While in the elevator, we go to the wrong floor. So we have to wait and go to the right floor. We once again go to a wrong floor. We finally got to the right floor and they kept bumping the bed into the doorway of the elevator. They couldn't get the bed out. It was excruciatingly painful.
They finally got me into the operating room and they put me on another bed. They mad me lie flat on my back and tied my hands down. I know this is standard, but when you have been having the strongest contraction for 40 minutes you wouldn't like it either. They finally put me out. But not before I told the doctor to tell Jaron that I didn't want anybody holding her until I got up there. I didn't think it was fair that I had to go through all of that and everybody else gets to enjoy her before I even get to see her. Selfish? Maybe. Do I regret it? No.
When I woke up the first thing I asked was "What did I have?" A girl.
"Is she okay?" Yes.
So after 19 hrs of labor, an hour of torture with needles, a 45 minute long contraction, and an emergency C-section I finally got to see my baby girl! They took me up to my room and an hour after she was born I got to see her perfect little face! She was beautiful. She had a major cone head though. It was the back of her head that stuck out really far. I wasn't too impressed that I had a C-section baby with a massive cone head. It went away though, so it wasn't too bad.
I instantly fell in love with her. It was amazing. She was the best baby. She was a great nursing baby. I didn't know that I would love nursing as much as I did. She was also instantly a momma's girl. I didn't know they preferred someone when they were that little, but she did, and I loved it.
I healed up good after it all and was excited to do it again as soon as we could. We were pregnant with Macey when Mackinley was 18 months old. But that's a different story. Maybe I'll share that horror of a story in a few months when my baby girl turns 2.

Jammy Days

2010-05-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy lately. I'm not one for a busy schedule, but sometimes it just can't be helped. Today was supposed to be another one of those days, but the kids are sick and I don't feel like dragging them around all day. I cancelled our stuff so we can stay home and relax. Hopefully the little ones will start to feel better soon because there is a lot of busyness coming our way again! Busyness that can't be cancelled.
I am a huge fan of jammy days! I like them on days like this, where it's not nice out and nobody is feeling that great. We have baths, get in new jammies, watch TV and cuddle up in our heated blankets. So nice.

Green with anger

2010-04-12T13:35:00.000-07:00

Jar and I have been thinking about becoming foster parents the last few weeks. Mostly me, but Jar seems to be on board. When I approached him about it he didn't even ask why....no questions, no nothing. Just "You should look into it". I was taken aback. I was at least expecting a "why?". Not a "why would you wanna do something like that", but just a simple "why". So I've started to look into it. I think I'm trying to satisfy my baby cravings without having to have a baby....but that's a whole different story.
Anyways, there are a lot of questions that we need answered before we commit to this and hopefully we will know this week. I am hoping for this to be a good experience for my own kids. I asked Mackinley the other day if she thought it was a good idea if Mommy and Daddy should let another little boy or girl come live at our house for awhile. I told her someone kids don't have very good houses and they need a good place to live until they have a better house to stay. She looked at me and said, "I don't like our house." I looked up, confused. "What do you mean, you don't like our house?"
"I don't like our house very much. It's green. I don't like green."
Phew! I was a little worried. It only got worse.
I decided I should try and explain it a little differently. "Some kids don't have very safe houses to stay in, so they need a safe place to stay until their house is safe again."
"Daddy gets mad a lot." Oh dear. This is not going very well at all.
I actually thought it was pretty funny, but I felt like I was already failing the home inspection. Jar wasn't too fond of her statement and he has been extra careful not to get mad at anything. This might sound like Jaron is an angry dad, but he really isn't. He's really great with the kids. We both could be more patient and we have been working on this. It's amazing the difference we can see in just a few days of being more patient with the girls.
Hopefully I will have more news about this whole thing in a month or two. Whether we do it or not, we have already learned and improved our home because of it! Mackinley will think our home is improved when the house is no longer green. hahahaha! I love that kid!

Ramblings

2010-04-08T09:37:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!!!! Hope you had a great family day weekend!!! Happy St. Patty's day!!! Is that everything? Oh, Happy Easter!!
There, I think I have everything covered since my last post. It has definitely been awhile! I don't even know where to start!
We have been quite busy this year. We started on some minor reno's on the upstairs. We replaced all the doors in the hallway. We have one more to put in and then we can do the trim and be done with it all!
We just got back from our family vacation. We drove down to Vegas and spent 4 nights there, and then went to Salt Lake for conference. It was a long trip and by the end everyone was tired and just wanted to get home. It was a lot of fun though. We got to see 7 of some of our favorite missionaries that we have had since we've been married. It was great to see them! I also got to go on the roller coaster at New York New York, and the Big Shot ride on top of the Stratosphere! Talk about intense. I love rides, especially ones I have never been on. Especially when they are on top of the tallest building in sight and they shoot you up even higher! Can't get much better for an adrenalin rush from a ride.
I am going to start doing my Personal Progress again. A couple of months ago I was visiting teaching and my companion is the YW's president. We were talking and I found out that they had different jewelery than when I did it, and it was silver. I really wanted it and she said that I could do the new program to get them if I wanted. I really wanted to do it, but it kinda got pushed to the back of my mind. Then while at conference they challenged the moms to do it too. It renewed my desire to start it, so my mom and I both bought the books and journals to start. Last night in bed I was reading through it and I am quite excited to get going on it! I am hoping that it will help with the level of happiness in our home. Don't get me wrong, we are quite happy, but there is always room for improvement! Especially when it comes to me....let me explain quick.
I have low hemoglobin levels. I always have, not low enough for a tranfusion, but low enough they tell me to eat differently. Nothing major. I found out last year though that I have extremely low iron saturation levels. Almost non-existent. They prescribed me some iron pills and that should do the trick. I didn't take them though because they are supposed to bung you up. I did start taking a pill though that is an iron pill, but it comes from a different source other than minerals, so it doesn't make you constipated. Awesome! I started taking it, and then for some reason forgot about them and I didn't take them for months. I think last month was the worst month I have had in a long time! I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning I was soooooo tired! All day I would be tired. I could sleep all day and all night and wake up tired, and it's not just a bit tired. It's major tired. It's mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. It's tired like I've never felt before. It was awful. I thought working out would help, but it seemed like it was making it worse. I had surgery a month ago (another story that I probably won't share, it was minor...girl stuff) and so I thought that was why I was so tired, but I was getting worse and worse. I started to take my iron pills again and within a week or two all the tiredness was gone! One morning I woke up at 7 and I didn't have the desire to lay and sleep just a little more. My kids weren't even up yet. I felt great all day! Every day was better and better! I didn't link the two for awhile and now that I know, hopefully I won't have to deal with this again. So, the point of this story.....it was really hard for me that month to be excited or happy or anything fun. It drained me. I could still do it, it was just hard. When you get that tired everything and everyone suffers. I wasn't spiritually tired, but it started to feel like it. When that starts to happen everything else goes out the window! That is why I am so excited to start this program again. I am hoping that with my feeling better it will just help our house feel that much better after the horrid month I'm sure we all had.
On to some more interesting things! Macey is talking! She doesn't say sentences, but she can copy what you say. She tries anyways. I love this stage! She is so stinkin cute! She can throw the worst fits I have ever seen. Now that she can talk a bit better, they have become less frequent, which is nice. She is quite the girl. She loves jewelry and pink clothes. A couple of weeks ago we were getting ready for church and I put a cute brown dress on her with a multicolor flower print all over it. She screamed and screamed and pulled at her dress until I took it off and put on a pink one. Oh dear! Her daddy is kinda sad about this. He thought for sure she was going to be the tom girl. Sorry Jar, she's all girl! Oh, she also HATES to get her hands dirty! She won't go up the stairs to the garage because she gets rocks on her hands. It's pretty cute.
Mackinley will be 4 next month. Where does the time go? She is quite the mommy. She is almost done ballet for the year and I am excited to see their recital. She is also mommy's little helper, mommy's little sidekick, mommy's little everything. Our whole trip went something like this...
Mackinley: Mommy, you sit by me? (We are in a restaurant)
Me: I would love to.
Mackinley (as Jaron is walking towards her): Daddy, you don't sit by me! Mommy is!
She also always wants to cuddle with me all the time. Which is nice until Macey gets jealous and starts to throw a fit. We have discovered that if we want to get Macey to do something that she doesn't want to we just need to get Mackinley to do it. We have a system. It works.
Yesterday we were talking and I can't believe how fast time flies! This month is full for us with wedding stuff (my sister in-law is getting married, Yay!) and next month has a few big events, and then June my youngest brother is graduating and then it's summer. We all know how fast summer goes, so it's practically September already. Boo! Although I'm sure Jaron wants it to be September because that means hunting season. He has bought 4 guns I think since November and is itching to use them. Buying those guns h
as definitely benefited me though. I think my last post was about my first Lululemon purchases. They are not the last either! Every time Jar buys a gun, I get to go to Lulu. Good deal I think!
Enough of my random ramblings. Hopefully I can get these pictures to work. FINALLY!

Could life get any better? I submit that it cannot.

2009-12-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

I'm feeling a little nostalgic today. Maybe it's the fact that Christmas is right around the corner or that I'm feeling very blessed in life right now. Probably a little of both.
This is my all time favorite time of year! I love everything about it....except for the snow....and the cold. Stink! It's cold out there this morning!!! The furnace was turned down and still ran most of the night. It kept me awake, but I guess I wasn't freezing all night. It was nice to wake up to the hoar frost this morning. It is one of my favorite scenes in nature, which reminds me yesterday evening had the best moon. It was big and bright and the sunset had the fog pink at the top slowly turning a dark blue at the horizon. Beautiful!!
I normally am not one to be excited about presents for myself at Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love getting presents, but that's not what I get excited for. This year, I'm pretty excited. It's probably because I know what I'm getting. Maybe if I knew every year I would get more excited about it. I think there is a link between knowing and the level of anticipation. My lululemon gear is sitting in the bag under the tree and it's all I can do to not pull it all out and try them all on. 3 more weeks!
We are having a really good week here at the Mallard's. And for all of you who don't know how it's pronounced, it ma-LARD, not like the duck. I kinda have a beef with that. I told Jaron that I was shallow enough that if I didn't like someone's last name I wouldn't even think of dating them. I thought "Mallard is a good last name", but I didn't think about how it was hard to pronounce for people, let alone how much it would bug me. Could be worse. I could be Mrs. Chevapravatdumrong. And yes, that is a real last name.
So back to our good week. The girls are starting to play better!!! Macey is still a turkey (she is at the moment throwing a major tantrum) but I can see a glimmer of a difference. The glimmer gives me hope! They both really are great girls. Mackinley told Jar that he had winter on him when he came in with snowflakes on him. How cute is that! I love that kid! I am so in love with my little family. Jar is such a good daddy and hubby. My favorite image in my head that I have of the 3 of them together is when Macey was probably about 7 weeks old. Jar was holding her in one arm, had Mackinley on the other side and he was painting Mackinley's fingernails. It was pretty darn cute. We are pretty lucky to have him.
Well, my mudding and taping is calling, well shouting, my name. We are getting more carpet put in next week and I need to get ready! The hallway and the 2 girls rooms are being done, so it's not too bad, but we had to redo the part of the dining room that attaches to the hallway. What a mess! Oh well, in one more week we will be done with reno's until next year. It will be nice to relax and enjoy the time and money we've put it. It does look really good. I for sure will be posting pictures after the girls rooms are done. I finally found my card reader, but I have so much on my card that it will take a long time to get it all off. I tried last week and it said about an hour and a half. I needed it in 10 minutes, so it didn't get done. That will be a goal for next week I guess. Get it prepped for Christmas!!! Did I mention I was stoked for Christmas?

My dad always said life isn't fair

2009-11-13T21:28:00.000-08:00

We went shopping this week so I could buy some new clothes for myself. I don't really need new clothes I guess, but the ones that fit (my skinny clothes...yay!) are at least 2 years old. I didn't wear them last year because Macey was still just a wee babe and I couldn't fit in them, so some of them only have one season of wear. I still would like to buy some more. I didn't find any though.
Jaron doesn't like to go clothes shopping. He is a major pain in my rear end when we go. Not that he won't let me spend the money, it's the fact that he can't stand waiting around. He's constantly asking if I'm done, or he won't look at what I'm showing him and give me an opinion of something. He would make a terrible gay guy. He is pretty patient though when we are shopping for him. We went to wholesale sports first. We were there for a good hour waiting for the paperwork to his new gun to finish. While he is standing ogling guns I have to keep both kids happy in a non kid-friendly store. Boo-urns. But I did it without complaining....about any of it. And just so you know, I am not complaining right now, I am explaining.
So off to the mall we go. Jar was actually pretty good, because he wanted to even out the tally. He spent so much, so I should spend so much so that I didn't count the gun as his christmas present. He's so thoughtful.
I didn't find anything for myself and I was okay with that. Until Mackinley got her ears pierced. She was pretty adamant that she get them done and so I let her. Since it was unplanned she didn't get emla cream put on like I normally would've done, but she's a pretty tough girl.....I thought. The poor thing thought she was going to die I'm sure. I did feel bad for her. She didn't cry too hard for too long. But she whined for the next....well she's still whining. She absolutely loves them though. Anyways, we did this at the end of the shopping trip and I didn't feel like dragging a crying kid through any more stores. But I definitely felt like buying something nice for myself, even if it was a super cute dress from le chateau that was 200 bucks! I resisted and we left. Jaron with a new gun....Mackinley with new earrings.....and me carrying Macey. Oh well, maybe next time.
I did get a pumpkin pie blizzard that day, so that was great. And after the mall I got a donut and hot smoothie from Timmy's, so that was pretty great too.
We got home kinda late and as we drove into the driveway lo and behold a stupid muskrat is running toward my house! The thing was ginormous!! Jar got out to get rid of it, but the thing was stone stupid and ran toward Jar and got booted around. It sat on the woodpile and Jar went to go get something to catch it in. By the time he got back it was gone. Ewwww! It's lurking around somewhere. Hopefully it has left and went back to the water.
Crazy day, but fun. Today we drove out and went shooting the new gun. I have to admit I'm kinda wimpy, and after shooting 8 rounds, my arm is sore....still. I just checked.
We got trim put up today!!!! Hallelujah! It looks amazing. Jar did awesome. We still have more to do and then I promise I will put up pictures. I can promise this because I finally found my card reader. I was getting kinda worried for a bit there, but it turned up.
Now that I have typed this up I have realized I have had a pretty busy week. And it is not finished yet. Monday, tuesday was cleaning and laundering. Wednesday was Christmas baking with my mommy. Thursday was shopping. Today was trim and shooting guns and hanging out with friends. Tomorrow is super saturday...yay! and Sunday.....well, I don't even want to talk about sunday. Sunday's are the worst day of the week. At least Jar is home this sunday. Only 3 and a half more months til nursery. Only.
Off to bed for me! I am excited to lay in bed and watch a movie. A nice way to end the day.

Random tidbits to fill you in

2009-11-09T14:30:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since my last post. It seems like nothing much has happened since then, but at the same time I feel as though life has been crazy busy.
Mackinley was sick for a bit and we totally missed out on Halloween this year. At least they are young enough that they didn't notice. I am stuck with my "stash" now that I didn't hand out. Maybe if I bury it deep in the cupboards I won't find them until next year and can save a few bucks. No, I don't want to eat them and I don't want my kids to eat them, or Jaron for that matter. Not that I'm anti-candy, I just hate having it around tempting us all.
Is anyone else excited for Christmas? I am soooo pumped!!!!! It is my all time favorite holiday of the year. I get to decorate next week. Maybe Mackinley will be a better helper this year. Macey definitely won't be.
Sorry I haven't posted any pictures. It seems like the thing to do. I still can't find my card reader for my computer to download them off my camera. I have pictures on my camera since May! It's a little frustrating! I am slowly organizing all the computer stuff since we got the new computer desks set up, but I still can't find the blasted thing. Hopefully soon.
I am continually amazed at how resilient kids are. A couple of days ago Mackinley fell on the elliptical and smashed her mouth up really good. Both her lips were huge! They are looking better. She bit through the bottom lip and it has scabbed up nicely. This is where I would insert a picture of Mackinley's lips.
Today she had an Ikea reusable bag wrapped on her wrists and over her head. She was going downstairs and Macey was heading upstairs. They somehow got entwined and fell down together. Poor Mackinley was freaking out because she couldn't see anything and didn't really know what happened and poor Macey got a goose bump and some rug burns on her face. I'm really not looking forward to the broken bone and stitches part of life, but my kids seem to be following in my klutzy footsteps. Maybe they'll grow out of it.
I am being summoned by the monster in the crib. I guess that is all for now!

Does the craziness ever end?

2009-10-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

We have carpet!!! Hallelujah! It looks so much better down here. It feels like a home now! There is still soooo much to do down here before we're finished, but it is livable. It should mostly be done next week as well as the bathroom down here.
Maybe by then Jar will want to install my new central vac system again by then......they don't get along. So here's a good story.....we have central vac in our house. It is old and nasty. Costco had a new central vac system for sale that came with everything, the pipes, the kitchen add-on, all the plug ins, and a power nozzle. Fully loaded. For super super cheap. I was so excited. Because it's all in already I figured it wouldn't be to hard to substitute everything and it would be a snap. I was wrong. Our old vac was attached to the wall up high in the laundry room, and by high I mean our laundry room has a 12 ft ceiling. So Jar is up there on the ladder trying to get the old one down and the bolts came out and he fell....onto the water heater. The old central vac took a chunk out of the floor and hit the new vac. The new one fell and hit my newly painted wall and took a chunk out of it and then slid down and scratched it all up and landed milimeteres away from Macey's cute little toes. Jar's pants and underwear were ripped and when he turned around I looked and he was bleeding. It turned out it was just scratched a bit with a pretty good bruise. I thought for sure though by the sounds of him he had broken something in his body. Once we knew he was okay we started to laugh about it....well, I started to laugh anyways. That was a few days ago. I am hoping Jar heals mentally before next Friday so I can use the new vacuum on my new carpet.
Pretty funny, but it doesn't end there. This morning we had no hot water. Jar's fat butt landed on the hot water tank's release valve and bent it so it was leaking. It wasn't leaking onto the floor, but into the water tank itself and the pilot light went out. Jar tried to fix it by vacuumming up the water with the shop vac which would be fine....but he had it in dry mode with a bag full of drywall mud. Oh the fun never ends!! We were able to fix it ourselves, so that was a bonus.
And the girls, oh the girls. They've been contributing to the madness with full force! Macey is in the helping stage. She wants to do EVERYTHING that I do. She has always wanted to be with me and for me to hold her, but she wants to right in the mix of things. I painted the bathroom last week and she decided she wanted to help paint. She painted herself pretty good and when I found out I ended up getting paint on my shoes, jeans, and there was something else, I just can't remember. So into the tub she went! The next day I ran into town while Macey slept. Jaron decided to sleep too. When I returned home Mackinley reeked of my perfume. She had half a bottle of it in her hair. That was probably 5 days ago and she has had a bath everyday since then and it still smells of perfume. GAG!
I'm really hoping that one of our projects will go smoothly. None of this stuff that makes me wanna rip my hair out or go sit in the bathroom and cry. I can't even do that anymore. If I shut the bathroom door fully in our room I will get locked in. The handle is broken on it. Good thing we're putting in a new door....soon. Hint hint. Wink wink. Jar.
So that is a little look into our life the last few weeks. Crazy, but my house looks so good! I will put some pictures up when we get the trim put up and the new doors put in. Hopefully soon!

Bring it on!

2009-09-28T19:28:00.001-07:00

So today I entered into a new phase in life. It's the bloating, cramping, gassy, diarrhea phase. Not very pleasant, but ultimately can't be helped. I started my new meds today that I'm supposed to stay on for the rest of my life. Yuck! Hopefully the symptoms don't last forever as well. The bonus side is it's diabetic medication and I don't have diabetes, so bring on the sugar!! That would defeat the purpose of the meds though in heavy doses of glucose.
Why am I on these meds? I have a hormone disorder called PCOS. I don't look like I have it which is nice, but none the less it is there. The meds are supposed to help regulate my testosterone and FSH and LH. Therotically they should help me get pregnant when I am ready to.
So hopefully next year or the year after (depending on my sanity at the time) the discomfort will pay off with a cute little baby.
In other Mallard news, the girls are feeling better (they have been pukey and poopy the last week and a half). Mackinley is loving her ballet and Macey.....well, she is just the cutest thing ever! She is at such a fun stage right now. She loves to point and babble about whatever she is pointing at. I love watching her learn right in front of me. She LOVES books. Her favorite is to sit on my lap and look through her books. She is so grown up! Oh, and she does so much sign language now. Bird, cat, dog, horse, cow, book, dinosaur, more, eat, drink...I'm sure there's more. She can do please now, but not thank you. We are working on that one.
Mackinley thinks she is a mom now. She is quite funny, but I try to not let her be too bossy. She is the best big sister and a sweet daughter. Today at Costco I bought her a big fairy book that you find things in the picture. I tried to hide it from her but the cashiers aren't very stealthy. They handed it to her and she wouldn't take it. She looked at me confused and asked "Is that for me mom?" I told her yes and instantly her face lit up and yelled "Thank you Mom!". She then proceeded to kiss my arm up and down and we walked out of the store. Too cute.
And a reno update......All the drywall is up! Half of it just needs to be sanded once more and will be done and the rest I start tomorrow. Hopefully painting will be done next week!! Yay! So much closer to organization and cleanliness. I am excited.

I guess I'm cheap! (but not easy)

2009-09-22T19:43:00.000-07:00

The girls and I are grocery shopping in Walmart today and this is how our conversation went:
Mackinley pointing to Princess alphagetti's - Mom, can we buy that?
Me - Not today sweetie.
Mackinley - Oh. Then it's not on sale?
How embarrassing! I'm not sure why I was embarrassed really, but I was.
She then proceeded to ask if things were on sale for the rest of our shopping trip. I usually only buy stuff that is on sale. Not fresh produce or bread, stuff like that...but things that have more selection so there is always something on sale. Stuff like cereal, soup, or just the occasional good sale even though I don't really need it. I know most people shop like that, but for some reason the fact that my 3 year old knew what a sale was, was a shocker for me! I guess they really do learn young!

One of those days! Again.....

2009-09-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

So you know when you have those days that you're busy and need to get things done and everything just seems to go wrong? I happen to have them a lot. Yesterday was no exception!
We all were up early and ready to go to the calf auction in Fort Macleod. We were there for about an hour. It was fun to watch the girls run around and Macey loved all the calves. Mackinley kept getting a little too close to the fence, but other than that it was stress free. We got home at noon.
This might not seem like a big deal, but in our house it kinda is. I will paraphrase. By noon we were all fed, bathed, dressed, into Macleod (which is 40 minutes away), watched the auction, and home again. That is busy for us. Jaron had to go back to bed because he worked that night. The girls and I hung out and cleaned for a bit and then Mackinley had ballet. So cute!!! She loved it. I couldn't really see very well, but what I did see looked like a lot of fun.
We went home and got supper ready. After supper Jaron went to work and we decided to go outside. I needed to get laundry started (it had been awhile, so long Mackinley ran out of underwear this morning...oooops!) but I thought we should go out and have a bit more fun while it was nice out(who needs underwear?). What's a half hour, right? I have a buggy that hooks up to my bike, so we were going to go on an awesome fun bike ride. Mackinley went in to get some shoes and Macey wanted up on the trampoline. We have a slide that is connected and she likes to go down it. She also likes to run across the trampoline and run into our arms. She likes to run across the tramp and we catch her. Normally Jaron and I are both there to run around, so we have our bases covered. Last night she decided to run across, so I ran around, and last minute she turned and darted in another direction and ran straight off the trampoline. I couldn't get there in time to catch her, but in time to watch her land face first and then her legs came up and her whole body bent backwards over her head. I screamed grabbed her and Mackinley and drove to the hospital.
I dropped off Mackinley at her friends house which right by the hospital and then went and waited and waited and waited to see the doctor. We got to the hospital around 7. At 7:30 they told me the doctor was out for supper and wouldn't be back until 8. I thought I'd waited this long I could wait a little longer. The doctor didn't show up until 8:50. Good thing we were first in line! He took a look at her and said she's probably fine, but if you notice anything weird bring her back in. They said she might have a mild concussion because she wasn't walking normally, but she seems fine today, thank goodness! Just a bump on the forehead and a couple of minor scratches.
So I am doing my laundry today. Which is okay, I was just hoping to get out and enjoy the sunshine! We might try the whole bike ride again tonight minus the trampoline.
I know I'm always going to have busy days and we wills always have those disaster days....I just wish they didn't always tend to line up together! After days like yesterday I am content with the kids I have. It has helped me get over my baby fever real quick like! We'll see how long that lasts!
Actually, probably until this morning when my girls were laughing harder than I have ever heard before. It was the best. Mackinley was laughing at barking spiders and Macey was laughing at her. Definitely a better start to hopefully a better day!

Ballet shoes and Needles.

2009-09-08T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, today was an expensive day!! We had to put down half of the cost for our carpet. Yikes! Then I decided last minute to put Mackinley into ballet. Double yikes!
The only way I justified spending that much money on a 3 year old to go to ballet was that I don't actually have to pay for it. Thanks Teck Coal! She looks so stinkin cute in her gear that we bought. We got home and she immediately put it all on. Then she started to dance around like a ballerina. She is quite the girl! So much of a girl in fact that at lunch today she asked if we were going to go fishing. I said sometime we would. She then said "Oh, good. I need to get a pink fishing rod. With princesses on it." There is such thing. At Walmart.
Macey didn't have a good day though. One word. Immunizations. Yuck! I absolutely hate them! Jaron got to come with me this time. I don't think he's been able to come since Mackinley was a little baby. I only cried a little. It seems to get worse the older they get. I am dreading taking them both for flu shots and then again for swine flu shots. It's torture I tell you! Poor helpless little babies. If only there was another way.
I used to take blood from babies. I used to think I could poke my own kids no problem. I have gotten soft in my motherhood. Just thinking about it makes me ill. I don't know what I would do if I had to go back! Maybe change professions. I hear dentistry has a lot of money in it. :)
So Yippee!!! I get carpet downstairs in about 3 weeks! My life will slowly get back to normal. And by normal I mean clean and organized! I am pumped!!!

Parks and Ice Cream....and Renovations

2009-09-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

So today was a great day! I got to sleep in while Jaron had the girls. This is a normal occurrence, but normally I don't really get to sleep because the girls are crying. I just lay in bed listening to them holler. Which still okay, but today...today there was no crying, none that I could hear. I woke up by myself and not to Mackinley coming into my bed or Macey waking up in her room. I don't mind being woken up by the girls, but wow! It felt great! Then I got up to get ready for the day. I had lost 3 pounds, got showered and ready with no interuptions, made lunch and we were off to Lethbridge.
I love our Lethbridge trips. We do the same things most of the time. Go to the pet store, get some ice cream, get some KFC and eat it at the park. Today we were at the park for awhile but left because it was just way too hot. So we went to the splash park instead. I love being able to hang out and lounge and just have fun with my family. Nowhere to be, nothing to do.
The girls seem to like our trips. Mackinley knows the routine...which stores we go to, what parks, stuff like that. Macey just wants to run loose and destroy anything in her path. Like today at the pet store. Instead of looking at all the cute fluffy animals she was off running and grabbing the stuff off the shelves. Too bad clay bowls are so breakable! The people that stock that store definitely don't have kids!
Tomorrow won't be as fun. Productivity doesn't seem to be "fun" anyways. My floor will be done, and we will be on our way to having the bathroom done. The drywalling will commence soon! I really should take some pictures. We are doing MAJOR renos. Extensive, huge, ginormous renos.
I cannot wait to get this done. It looks really good so far. Jaron has done a really great job. We have had help from my Daddy too!
Jack Bauer is calling my name. I need to get in an episode before I go to sleep!

The Beginning

2009-08-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I caved. I am now officially a blogger. I guess Facebook just wasn't enough. I am always amazed at how much time people spend on the computer blogging and facebooking and twittering and whatever else there is to do. How do these people get anything else done? And by people I mean the super moms that have jobs either at home or away from home. How do you work, cook, clean, launder, take care of kids, go to school, and sleep? I need more energy.....
The summer is winding down, and I gotta say I have mixed emotions about this. I am looking forward to being at home for longer than a week at a time, but I am dreading the inevitable winter. We have been having beautiful weather here the last week. We have also been having a sick family the last week. The two don't mix very well. I did take the girls out to the splash park in the Pass yesterday though. We've been cooped up all week and I just couldn't take it anymore! I was pushing Mackinley and Macey on the swings and Mackinley said "Mom, that tree has orange feathers." I looked around and there were yellow leaves showing up on the trees. It was kinda sad. The sadness was pushed aside though by the humor I found in her statement. I can't get enough of my kids!
My baby girl turned one this past week. I can't believe how fast they grow up! She already thinks she is much older than this though. Believe it or not, when the girls are getting in each other's faces it's usually Macey picking on Mackinley. I think she has the little dog syndrome. They have been at it more than usual this past week, due to everyone being sick and cranky. I have dealt with sickly kids a lot the past few months and frankly I'm sick of it! If it's not one thing it's always another, right? I don't want to think about what happens when you add a third kid into the mix.
I really do love my life right now though. It might be tough, but I really wouldn't want it any other way. My kids are great, super cute, and they absolutely adore me. My husband is amazing. He puts up with a lot in our house being the only guy. He tries his best to make the girls and I happy. He is a hard worker and he absolutely adores me. Right Jar? I live a beautiful part of the world. I have a decent house that is just going to be getting nicer (I really hate renovating). We really aren't lacking in any area of our life. Life is good! I love it!
Maybe this blogging isn't as bad as I thought. It's kinda nice to just sit down and type out my thoughts, clear the head a bit.
I do need to get to bed. The girls went down to bed early tonight. They were both out at about 7:45......45 minutes early!That is some kind of record. I really hope it doesn't mean early to rise though. Although 45 minutes earlier than 10:30 is 9:45 and I think I can wake up by then. I really am spoiled!