An Update of This Week

My Blog was uncharacteristically quiet this week, but don't worry I had a great reason.

A few actually.

1. Scout and I (mostly me) have been on our deathbeds. Ok, this is an overstatement, but man we had a killer cold. I even totally lost my sense of smell and taste for 2 whole days and I mean totally (I hope all of you reading this never finds out how utterly lame that is) I swear we have been sick so much lately. Years later, I shall look at 2008 as "year of a 1000 colds". I am convinced that it is Orem. Orem is the root of all evil. I think my body has no immunity to Orem germs (Scout included). Before now, Scout and I would get one, maybe 2 colds a year. Rob is sailing, so my theory is that he grew up here and can handle Orem bugs. He thinks I am crazy, but it makes so much sense! He (up in SL) would be the sickest when we would get colds, etc. Now, he barley gets a sniffle from us. Anyway, just think about it. It's a good theory. So- Scout and I have had a terrible chest cold and I have had the energy of a doped up kitten.

2. In the midst of this, I had a cake gig that was supposed to be easy squeezy, but the family got all creative last Saturday, giving me a week to learn how to make flowers from fondant. Something I had never attempted before. It was a birthday cake for a open house for a woman who turned 100 that day. Her name is Iris and so they thought Irises would be perfect all over the cake. I said ok, (what else could I do? It's her name, by golly) then scrambled to find a mold of an iris so I could make them. There is not one in all of Salt Lake or Utah, so I decided to use real Irises and accompany them with some flowers I made. It went well, flowers are fun to do and I am glad I now know how to make them. I did pansys, chrysanthemums, and lilys of the valley (all while wheezing my last breath). Here it is:

(The picture is a little crooked, NOT the cake)

It's not exactly "my taste" but hey, you got to go with the client eh? They were pleased, so that is what matters. Here is my thing, if you are a hundred years old and your name is Iris, wouldn't you be sick of Irises by then? I swear the dining room was crazy with them. That is just my thought. I think I would be like ANYTHING BUT IRISES PLEASE!!!!!!

A Breakthrough for me

So, I finally took a big step. I called my dr for an exam on why getting Scout a sibling to boss around is proving so elusive.
*BIG SIGH*
I have come up with a lot of excuses these past 8 months or so on why I haven't been more proactive, but if I am to be honest, when it comes right down to it, I think I am simply terrified to hear bad news.
It is hard to get over walking into your drs office expecting to see your 19 week old twins on the sonogram and instead, pretty much hearing the worst news you could hear and then some. This is especially hard to get over when you are a borderline hypochondriac *pointing a finger at myself*, so it's been more or less terrifying to go back there thinking more bad news could be lurking.
I suppose I shall give the nutshell version if there is anyone reading this that doesn't know the story:
I had a molar pregnancy about a year and a half ago. If you read that link, you will have read, "in extremely rare cases, an apparent twin pregnancy is found to be one complete mole and one normal, healthy placenta and fetus" yeah, that was lucky lucky me. You may also have read that it can lead to cancer of the mother. The stats for cancer developing with a complete molar with twin is around 70%. I had to go have blood tests every week for months to screen for this cancer, and this time I really did get lucky and blew all my doctors away (and I in Boston that is "the lead researcher of molar pregancies" - he was told of my case because of my rapid improvement that defied the odds) -my hcg level at the time of "termination" was over 1.5 million, if you've ever been pregnant, that is 8 times the hormone dose at it's highest level-. So my rapid hormone decrease was nothing short of miraculous (basically, my doctors pretty much figured the cancer had invaded all over my body). I am pretty proud of myself, as I have cruised the internet looking through stories of women with molars and out of hundreds, only found one woman with a level higher then mine, and even only 3 other women with a complete with twin (all of those women got cancer). The good news is that this type of cancer is almost 100% curable with chemo. Boy, I thought I cruised through that experience with flying colors. But now, it is a year and a half later and I am proving myself to now be infertile. There is no support out there that says that this condition messes with your fertility, so I don't know what's going on. I had no trouble prior to this incident, so can only blame it on the molar pregnancy. I had huge cysts on my ovaries because of the large hormone doses, but none of the drs I saw were concerned, as they go away when the levels go down. My secret fear is that those things broke my ovaries. Rationally, the problem is a hormone thing, and I didn't regulate properly after the havoc and a simple pill will do it. Irrationally, oh many things swim around my head.
So basically, I just wanted to say that I fell very proud of myself that I finally called the dr and got an appointment (June 19th). Let's face it, I'm not getting any younger and either is Scout, and I want her to have a few brothers and sisters. If my body is now figuratively running away screaming from another pregnancy, I guess, we need to start looking into the adoption route. Rob and I have always liked the idea of having a racially diverse family, maybe that is what we were meant to do. Who knows. I have one thing to be grateful for, and that is Scout. She is our sunshine, and I can't tell you how grateful I am to have had her through all this. There is nothing that can beat having a little one to hold when you have lost some little ones.

Random Scoutiness Vol. II

I've got enough for volume II (it doesn't take long).

I was given some really stinky bath gel at a ward party (did I say that?) anyway, Scout found it and when I saw her with it and she took off and I told her not to open it (yeah right). I found her a few minutes later it her hiding place #1 in this compromising position. What did she have to say for herself the minute she saw me?

"I am feeling shy now."

I just had to laugh and be thankful she didn't choose to pour it out on the carpet or couch. The worst part about it was that our house smelled like the devil's flower garden all day. That was a nod to you Matt!!


I took her to Thanksgiving Point this week (ah, the things you can do when you have a car!) We visited the "Farm" and had a lot of fun. We would have had more fun if she hadn't seen the Dinosaur Museum next door and kept talking about going to see the dinosaurs next.

Scout and a chicken

Milking a pretend cow teat (I am so happy I got to use that word, I'm rather fond of it).
.....Meet the Parents, no doubt....

And the coup de grace: the pony ride. Proudly displaying her ticket. She wanted the biggest pony so bad that she waited an extra turn so he would be available.

A very serious rider, she asked me where her cowboy hat was. I really don't think I could buy her a cowboy hat, I think my wallet would explode

Ah, my city girl is back


Mommy's favorite part of the day--- baby goats!!!
Are they the cutest things ever?


I had the car doors open cleaning a little and she climbed into the drivers seat, found some glasses, and belted herself in and told me (she called me baby) to come in and informed me that we were going to the zoo.
Ah, if only Scout was in charge, the things we would do every day.....

She had her "destruct -0- ray * " out in full force today and I gotta tell you, bedtime could not come soon enough. She has a bit of a cough, so is most likely not feeling well, so it's hard to blame her for being a little difficult, but we were pretty much done with her at about 7:30. She did something to make me threaten her with dunglees (which inevitably turns into going to bed as she well knows), so she yelled "no!" and ran to hide in hiding place #3, which happens to be under her bed. We didn't pursue her because, hey- she was out of our hair for a few blessed minutes. A few turned into 5 or so, so I went hunting and found this little scene:

You gotta love the irony.........

Rob's dictionary:

* Destruct -o- ray: What Scout seems to be toting when she is overly excited, loud, zippy, and yes, destructive.

Never Go Against the Family.....

Everybody, this is B-

AKA Bronwyn Starlight

She married my brother Matt last October. We all love her, and Scout thinks the sun rises and sets around her. She is a happy loving soul and wants everyone to be happy. We taught her to play Risk and she hated it because it went against her very grain to fight and create war, she would rather give us all a daisy then attack our imaginary countries and territories. She loves Enchanted, Journey sans the music videos, kids, and rubber duckies. She hates the color purple, raspberries, and Neil Young. Neil Young? EEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR............... *car screeching noise*

We know about the other ones, but this little nugget was something that our dear brother Matt kept under wraps for as long as he could. I can imagine his anxiety every time we were all together, praying that the subject of Neil never comes up. Well, all his effort went down the tubes when I made that blog list of the 15 albums. If you have read the comments, you will have seen what has been going on. My sisters and I are, well, we love him. We love him so much. In the words of my sister Sue, "it tore a little piece of my soul when I read that". B told Matt what she wrote because Matt has told her that they may have to get a divorce if she doesn't get over it, not for him, for his sisters. Anyway, I got a text from Matt a few days later and told me that he is relieved that the cat is finally out of the bag.
World War III didn't happen (to his relief, I'm sure). But he couldn't expect us to take such talk lying down, now could he???

On Saturday, B got a little package in the mail. A small box, with no return address. Inside, was this:

Accompanied by a note:

Yes, it's a severed rubber ducky head. (Scout found the decapitated body later and told me that her rubber ducky got broken and that she thinks a monster did it. I supposed she is right in a way. Out of pure mommy guilt I have bought her 6 new rubber duckies since. She still likes to play with the headless one too.) Sue did the note. Cath isn't innocent in this little ordeal either, she was right along with us through the whole thing.

Oh B, I hope you know what you got into when you married into this family...................................

Happy Anniversary!!

In honor of our 6 year anniversary, I thought I would make a little wedding slide show of ourselves. I love you so much Zing! You are my favorite and love LOVE being married to you!


* you can click the little X in the John Lennon balloon to diminish the size of that -if it doesn't on it's own, it's just there for the song (they didn't have that one avail. in anything but video -oh well. John and Yoko are interesting too.)

Beep! Beep!

I would like to announce the latest addition to the family (late I know, I guess I have been too busy driving around) :It is a 2006 Chevy Malibu and it's red (cranberry, if we want to get technical) and it's shiny. I have never had a car that wasn't 10 years old before it became mine, so this is an exciting thing for me. All it's windows and doors work, it doesn't leak oil (something you can see is a novelty for me, as ghosts of my last car pepper the driveway), it smells good and the interior is clean, it continually tells me the outside temp, the head lights come on automatically, and music continues to play for my enjoyment after I take out the key, until I open my door (a much loved feature already).

It IS an automatic, I was trained on a standard and has been all I have driven with any consistency, so I am a tad dubious about that, and what my left foot is going to do with itself. But it is a V6, so it's hard to keep a grudge for it's shortcomings when I can pass cars with such ease.I photo shopped the license number, so if there are any weirdos reading this, you can't find me

My favorite feature of all about this car is that it is paid for! Isn't that lovely?

Random Scoutiness Vol. I

Treating Nathan and I to quite the boogie (it was his birthday, least she could do)

It's been a few posts since I have written anything about Scout and that isn't because she hasn't done anything cute or weird. An example, I was walking into the kitchen and past the toaster oven and saw this:

She likes to cook while I cook and she uses the toaster oven. She makes Rob and grandpa "burger sandwiches" which consist mainly of a tiny plate with some fresh ground pepper or my egg timer. She throws them in the oven, waits 2 seconds and then takes them out and proudly serves them. Now I didn't actually witness the ba ba and whatever went on, but I think I can piece the story together and I am pretty sure Rob didn't do it. Here is a close up:

Finding this just cracked me up to no end. I LOVE living with a 2 year old.


On this night, she took a fairly large gang to dinner with her and every ducky, monkey, Ernie and Bert had to join us in blessing the food

I got her dressed today and she said she was wearing her "Kyle Jazz game shirt" so, she ran into the kitchen and said she needed a Kyle hat. This is what she came back with. It's an apple slicer and my bamboo wok stirrer.
Kyle, can you shed some light on this???
'Cause I'm stumped.

Daddy bought her a kite last night while I was at work. We took it to the park this morning to try it out, we didn't get it in the air for any real length of time, but it sure was fun running around.


This is the beauty of kids: I have been secretly wanting to fly a kite for years, and haven't, now I can and I'm a good mom by doing it. Score.


Thats all for now.

More to come.........................

Thom's Drunk Again

Latest performance on Conan O'Brien (via London). Recent song from the latest album "In Rainbows".


Have a mentioned what a more beautiful place this world has become since In Rainbows became a part of it?