Changed Summer

Well my summer has just been changed.
Jared was playing on the trampoline last night with one of my Beehives (this was about 9:00 pm). She was doing ring around the rosies with him and when they went to fall down at the end she said Jared kind of fell on his leg and she heard a pop. I was busy with the youth activity at the time and Paul had his back to them while he was watching Kamryn, so neither one of us saw what happened. Jared was crying and Paul brought him to me. He had a couple scratches on his right shin and we couldn't really see what else was wrong. Jared cried for a long time and wouldn't put any weight on his right foot. I gave him some Motrin and he feel asleep for a few minutes. When he woke up he was much happier and seemed more himself. He tried a couple of times to get off the couch and play but as soon as his foot touched the floor he climbed back up on my lap.
I may be a bad mom but there was no way I was going to the ER at 10:00 pm. He wasn't hysterical and he didn't seem to be in much pain. So I thought it was better to get some sleep and see how he was doing in the morning. He went to bed just like normal and slept through the night.
When he woke up he was happy (for a minute) and sitting up in bed. He wouldn't stand up like normal when I went to get him out of bed. I picked him up and took him in the living room. He kind of felt apart at that point and wouldn't get off my lap. I knew right then that I was taking him to be X-rayed. I just had to decide where to go. After calling the pediatrician, instacare and the closest hospital, I decided it was best to go to the ER at the hospital. Luckily they weren't too busy (so we were only there for about 3 hours). The worst part of the whole experience was trying to get Jared's blood pressure taken. He hated that and wouldn't hold still so the nurses could get a good reading. He did pretty well through the whole xray process. He was really good waiting forever in our little room - ate his candy and cheetos from the vending machine. Played with the TV, changing the channels as fast he could with the remote over and over, pushing the nurse call button only twice. Finally the doctor came back with the report from the radiologist and he has a spiral fracture on his right tibia (shin bone). They put a splint on and wrapped his leg up to his mid thigh with ace bandages. He fell asleep soon after that and slept the rest of the time that we had to wait at the hospital.
He came home and spent some time watching The Lion King and Curious George on PBS before going down for a nap. He cried a little at first when I put him in bed but then went right to sleep and has been asleep for 2 1/2 hrs. He gets a cast on on Monday so it's going to be one LONG weekend. And an even longer summer. Wish us luck.

Kid games

Our activity for mutual tonight was a combined activity with the boys and girls. We had a BBQ over here at our house - out back. We knew we could have basketball - but that would mainly be a boy thing. We borrowed my friend's volleyball set up but I knew there were some kids that wouldn't want to play. So I went to FamilyFun.com and looked up outdoor games. I found a few that sounded fun and not too little kiddish. The kids looked at me strange when I made them all line up and count off for the games but I think they all ended up having fun. We played:
*"Icebreaker" game
*Catch the Dog
*Steal the Bacon
*Red Rover
The kids ended up having a great time with the games and didn't want to quit. We ended the evening with some volleyball games. It was a great activity and didn't cost us too much (just the food for the BBQ).

I've been tagged

NSTRUCTIONS: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like so:

College

Random Thoughts

Melz World

Superpaige’s Pad

Double Trouble

Next, select five people to tag:

Ashley
Michelle
Susan
Cynthia
Julianne

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Let’s see. 10 years ago I had two kids and was pregnant with the 3rd. We lived in Tucson, AZ and had no A/C. We stayed at the pool so long, Justin and Brooke would beg me to go home.

What were you doing 1 year ago?
One year ago we were enjoying Father’s day! We had a super fun Shingleton family party where we played baseball. We were planning a trip back East to visit Paul's brother and his family and I was getting ready to go to girl's camp.

Five Snacks You Enjoy:
Cottage cheese with Ruffles Cheddar and Sour Cream to dip into the cottage cheese
Chocolate, esp Milky Way Midnight
Green Apples - sliced with the skin off
Veggies and Dip
Toast

Five Songs That You Know All The Lyrics To:
I don't know all the words to any song but can sing along for most of the words to a lot of songs.

Five Things You Would Do If You Were a Millionaire:
Redo my kitchen and enclose the patio
Take my family on a vacation
Hire a personal trainer who would make me work out every day
Hire a Alice, from the Brady Bunch
Get regular pedicures

Five Bad Habits:
Yelling
Saying negative or critical things when I should just hold my tongue
Not putting things away right away
Starting a project and then moving on to the next project without finishing
Not flossing

Five Things You Like To Do:
scrapbook
read
watch movies
go for walks as a family
eat out with friends

Five Things You Would Never Wear Again:
leggings
clothes that make me look pregnant but aren't maternity clothes
maternity clothes
sweater dress
bow tied in my hair

Five Favorite Toys:
The computer
Portable DVD player - it's great for road trips and soccer games
Cameras - both kinds
Jared & Kamryn's cars that we take them on walks in - best purchase ever!
Toy flip phones bought at Disney store in Orlando airport - has saved us many times.

Your turn now!

Trouble makers

I have two little trouble makers. You know how it is with toddlers - on their own they don't get into too much trouble but together they spell disaster. Well twin toddlers is like having a little friend over 24/7! Every day it is another disaster and sometimes it is the same disaster all over again.
On Monday, I was in the kitchen washing the dishes and Jared & Kamryn were playing on the patio. Soon I couldn't here there cute little voices and went to check on them - they had gone in the front yard and pulled out half of my flowers in the front flower bed. They're just petunias and were only planted about 2 weeks ago so they pulled up the whole root bunch of about half the flowers. I couldn't believe it and how fast they did it was amazing. I started telling them how naughty that was and Jared turned to Kamryn and told her "you naughty." So while I was replanting the flowers they went back to play on the patio. When I was finished with the flowers I went to check on them (my big mistake was letting them go again unsupervised) and found that they had taken cupfuls of the red sand and dumped them all over the living room! I lost it at that point. They both got spakens and had to sit on the steps on the patio and couldn't leave until I finished cleaning up that mess.
And that was just Monday.
Yesterday they did the flower bed AGAIN! I was making dinner and they were watching George on PBS in the living room. Taylor came and got me and said come look. I'm thinking they are doing something cute like watching TV with their arms around each other (this has happened in the past) but I was SO WRONG. I look out the window and they there are again pulling up the flowers. I open the front door and start yelling and they ran away! I'm not kidding about the running away. They took off in the direction of their grandma's. I had to yell to Justin and Brooke to go get them because I was in the middle of cooking dinner. Pure craziness.

Summer

I love summer!! It's my favorite season by far (maybe that is why I liked Phoenix so much, since it is the longest season there by a long shot). I love the laid back pace and I love having my kids around more (the downside of that is feeding them more but we handle it).
I love the sounds of summer - the kids at the pool, the birds, my kids playing nightgames with friends in the neighborhood.
Today was pretty laid back - laundry day but only had to do 4 loads this week. Didn't quite make it to the ironing yet. Taylor and Justin are both doing Blue Chip basketball camp. Brooke had piano lessons - at 12:30. I've been so worried that we would forget so I've made Tues stay at home day. Justin had soccer practice from 2-4 in the afternoon and survived.
We only lost Jared and Kamryn once today. Half of our fence is down in the backyard and they have started to wander out of the yard. I took the kids to the outdoor pool right before school got out so now they know about the pool back there and constantly look longingly at the pool. Guess I need to take them again.
Well, late this afternoon Jared and Kamryn were playing on the basketball court. They have a great time out there together and I enjoy spying on them from the bathroom window. They were playing fine and I had to go change the laundry. Just gone a couple of minutes. I go back to the window and can't see them. So I go out back to look for them and when I get out to the court I can see that they are at the top of the grassy hill behind our house by the tennis courts. How in the world did they get up there so fast? So I walked out farther in the field to see what they were doing and when they saw me they started back down the hill. But at the bottom they got distracted and headed off to the park. I kind of just watched them to see what they would do. Kamryn kept cruising away from me and every time I called her name she looked back at me, smiled and kept on going. So we had an impromptu park visit. We stayed for a few minutes and they took turns in the toddler swing (why can't there be 2 swings like that?) and then I had to convince them to go back home so I could figure out what Justin could make for dinner (it was his turn to cook and he came up with pancakes, great dinner but it worked out).

Happy Birthday Brooke

My oldest daughter turned 13 today. She was born at 1:42 am a week after her due date. She was born on her uncle's birthday (Susan's husband, Dale) and he predicted when I first told them we were expecting that she would be born that day.
During the middle of the night I woke up at about 3:30 and started thinking about when Brooke was born. I love remembering those great moments of a new little baby coming into the world.
It's been an amazing 13 years with her. She was a bit of a challenge as a baby - she cried whenever we went in the car at night. We finally decided she was afraid of the dark. She cried a lot - I didn't ever really consider her collicky, just a high needs baby. But she was beautiful and we loved her in spite of the crying.
Today she is happy young woman, most of the time. She is friendly but shy at the same time. She is a very good friend - agreeable and gets along with everyone. She is a good student and it's so nice that she very capably takes care of herself and gets her work done.
She is a wonderful pianist and surpassed me a long time ago. I love listening to her play and I NEVER have to talk to her about practicing.
It's been fun to watch her develop her talents in volleyball. She was a great sport to attend all the practices and tournaments and not play a lot but still have great team spirit.
We gave her an outdoor volleyball set for her birthday and we look forward to lots of fun games out in the back this summer.
I love being able to share Brooke's experiences in Young Women. She doesn't seem to mind that I'm there and I try not to get in her way too much or inhibit her. I think mostly she is just embarrased about me being obnoxious and silly.
Brooke is a great big sister to Jared and Kamryn and its great knowing that I can leave them with her and they will be well taken care of. It was cute watching them go in her room this morning and tell her happy birthday - in their own little way.
I love Brooke very much and I happily look forward to the next few teenage years with her.

Great weekend

All 13 of the Young Women that came down to St George with us.
(Our 2 Laurels couldn't come and we missed them).

Having fun in the fountain.

Before going into the St George Temple to do baptisms.

I'm back from what turned out to be a "fantabulous" weekend (new word made up over the weekend - mixture of fantastic and fabulous).
My worries of Justin getting to his tournament were ended when one of the mom's I know from school and previous teams volunteered to get Justin up to Brigham City on Fri and Sat (and also took him to see this movie in between games on Sat).
I really enjoy being with the Young Women. Some people view it as a punishment or death sentence and would never want the calling but I think it is the greatest calling ever and want to do it forever (well at least as long as Brooke is in there and then take a break and go back in when Kamryn is in there).
We had a blast with those girls. We went swimming at the neighborhood pool, went to the St George temple to do baptisms, went boating at Quail Creek Reservoir. The most fun things ended up being very impromptu, not planned things. The first night there we had "spa night" and did each others pedicures and manicures, did massages and hair. Very fun and relaxing and great bonding time.
The second night there we ended up doing our own version of "American Idol." The girls took turns lip synching (mostly songs from musicals) and then other girls took turns being the judges. So funny and man, do we have some talented girls in our group. I fully expect to see at least one of them on the stage.
We also fit in some spiritual time with scripture study and journal writing.
It was just too bad that it was such a short trip. I definitely could have stayed longer.

Off again

I'm leaving in the morning for a YW getaway to St George. It's a quick trip - down Thur morning and we'll be back Sat afternoon. We're packing a lot in that short time - baptisms for the dead, a hiking trip in Zions, boating, swimming, stamping, scriptures, etc. We have 13 girls going and 5 leaders and 2 priesthood going. It's going to be fun but it's been a little stressful getting ready to go. My biggest glitch just happened this evening. Justin has a summer select soccer tournament this weekend in Brigham City and I thought I had a ride all lined up for him to get there on Friday afternoon but that just fell through. Now what am I supposed to do? Beg for a ride for him through our team email. Hopefully someone will be able to get him up there. One more thing to worry about while I'm gone. I love getting away and having a little break but I'm not sure this one's going to be worth it.

Family Party

We usually get together with the Shingleton family on fast Sunday. It is usually at my parents but us kids try to take our turns when we can. So last night we were at my sister's house - outside for a BBQ. It was the most beautiful evening and we had a great time. It was especially fun watching most of the grandkids (the teenagers included) play Duck,Duck, Goose and Red Rover. (I'll add pictures later). A pleasant summer evening spent outside with family is definitely one of my favorite things ever.