I don't get too much traffic over here so I've been focusing on my knitting blog over at xanga that gets more visitors.  Feel free to stop over!

http://www.xanga.com/laurk

Things have been busy around here.  The children have swimming lessons and soccer that takes up a LOT of the day!  Today was especially busy and hard.

We spent a good portion of the day at the ER again today.  *J* had a seizure this morning and would not come out of it.  Thankfully he did come out of it shortly after we arrived at the ER so they didn't need to use valium to bring him out.  But they had already started the iv part and they wanted to leave that in.  And he got very very agitated with that.  He would wake up all disoriented and yelling at someone for not letting him ride next, and various other things I'm assuming he was dreaming about.  The Dr we got was wonderful and didn't make me feel ridiculous for falling apart once we got there.  Needless to say we are starting him on medicene tomorrow.  BUT our ped came up and while talking to her I had mentioned him coughing (and all his seizures have started with coughing) and that I had given him a xopenex (similar to albuterol) treatment and she asked if he had a treatment around the time of his other seizures, and he had!  But of course since I didn't ever think of it as a connection I can't be 100% if it was before or after each seizure.  She didn't think it could be causing his seizures but it lower his threshold enough to have breakthrough seizures.  After checking it out online- it specifically said to not use or else use with caution in people with seizures!!  And it's not studied in children under 6 AND he was given the adult dose!!!  Thankfully we didn't give it to him often, but I'm still so mad to think that it could be bringing on his seizures.  And I'm mad at myself for not checking into xopenex more before I gave it to him!  And normally his seizures are brief- under 5 minutes, but I had used the nebulizer at around 3am since he was coughing so much- and this seizure was the longest and the worst he ever had.  May be a coincidence but it just seems too odd.  Our ped is supposed to talk to the neurologist about the connection , but in the meantime I'm certainly not u sing xopenex anymore.

is something I don't utilize enough with my children.  We are going out tonight to watch the fireworks and it'll be an extremely late night- so I made all three boys lay down (in seperate rooms, or else it wouldn't be quiet!) while I laid *N* down for her nap.  And now 3/4 of my children are sleeping!!!  I don't know the last time this happened.  And I'm so very glad and hopefully all the children will enjoy the evening more since they shouldn't be overtired.  My eight year old won't fall asleep of course- he hasn't taken a nap at all since he was 14 months.  And I should be using this time for *my* own neglected quiet time as well instead of poking around on the computer.

Today is our 11th anniversary.  And as my husband tells me every year "more good than bad- lets take it another year"  What a goofball.  Anyhow we don't do presents anymore, but we generally do cards and 80% of the time I get flowers so all is good.  I found the perfect card this year- our family has been on those musical hallmark cards kick for the past year and I found one that played "Sweet Home Alabama" our song, but not our wedding song- that was Elvis and believe it or not they didn't have a single musical card with "can't help falling in love" out of there 200 cards!!  And Matt printed me up three pages on the importance of the number 11.  It was quite sweet and so him.  So many obscure facts about the number 11.  And a nice list of sports people who have/had the number 11. (he must've had a harder time with that one- finding people I've actually heard of before!)  The day is gorgeous and "delightful" as accuweather put it.  My mom is coming over later to watch the kids and we actually get to go out on a date!  I think they last time we went out alone was our last anniversary!  That's ok though. 

Here's a picture from 11 years ago today.  There were no wonderful pictures of Matt and I, but lots of great ones with my daddy and grandparents- which I so appreciate.  There's been plenty of wonderful pictures of Matt and I since, so I guess I'd rather have great pictures with my parents and grandparents- two of which have now passed on.

Being the novice blogger that I am I somehow moved my side page to the bottem and I could not figure out how to move it back up.  So I had to reset the template and I figured since I'd be losing all my changes anyhow I may as well test out other templates.  Very few of them worked for what I had already posted- the blog area was VERY narrow and my posts were covered up by the side panel.  This farm one seems to work well and although it's a bit (ok a LOT) more subdued than I normally like I figured with our chickens and pigs it's fitting!  I'm not sure if my counter thingy is working but it never had very much to count so I guess it doesn't matter anyhow!

I can't believe I haven't posted pictures of the dress I knit (yes, knit if you can believe it!) for little sister.  It's the biggest thing I've ever completed and has inspired me to start a tank for myself.  It's a cute little watermelon dress knit out of lion brand cottonease (50%cotton 50% acrylic) so it's cool for summer and doesn't shrink in the wash.  Someone sent me a link to an adorable watermelon hat I want to make after I get finished (or bored) with my tank.  Isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?

We've been trying to invite one family over a week and branch out to get to know some aquaintances bettter.   We invited another homescholing family with four children almost the same ages as our children.  It was SO much fun!   I never thought I'd say this, but it was so very incredibly beneficial to me to leave our church last year!  We were members and we didn't want to be considered "church hoppers" but it just was not a healthy place for me.  Early on I somehow got the label of boring and lame and for some insane reason felt I had to act that way- the good ole self fufilling prohecy for my education days. You tell a child they are no good and not going to amount to anything, they won't prove you wrong! (generally speaking of course)  So I spent almost five years being miserable and feeling left out.  Labels are very restricting things for people, I sure hope I can remember these feelings and  not unitentionally label others or my children!  But anyhow we began attending a church that met in the evenings and quite a few people I knew from high school attend and I was great fun in high school.  So they simply expected me to still be fun and suddenly I was able to be!  So I've been having great fun getting to know people- lots of it!!  I'm sure it will take me a while to totally be able to move out of my shell, but it's been so refreshing,  To clarify I'm sure no one from our other church would ever say anything negative about me, but it's just the actions- my "friends" would go somewhere and not even ask me "since I wouldn't go anyway"  just a whole bunch of little things that added up to a whole lot of hurt for me.  I can feel myself closing up whenever I spend time with people from the other church.  I hope it time I can truly get over it and enjoy spending time with them, especially since our neighbors attend the other church and I know she has a great heart- I just totally cringe sometimes.  This turned a bit long winded and is pretty personal for me- I'm not one to share too much personal stuff. 

I signed up for a knitting virtual vacation swap.  Matt makes fun of me daily (jokingly of course) but it's been great fun so far!  Right now they have a BINGO game going that is proving quite addicting since you have to find the blog that corresponds with the location- much harder than it sounds!  It's filled but check it out anyhow.  If they do it again definately get in the three ladies heading it up are so incredibly creative.  I've never done a knitting swap like this, I've done a few seed swaps and a few other dishcloth swaps-very few went well but I have high hopes for this one!

http://virtualvacationswap.blogspot.com/

That is what I've been spending my morning computer time on lately! =)

We went on a four day mini vacation to Boston last week, and had a blast (except for one part)  The city of Boston is SO beautiful, I love Quincy market and Faneuil Hall and could spend hours there- not with four kids though!  Here's two pictures from the first evening at Quincy Market, my oldest was brave enough to wear his Yankees hat in Red Sox territory!

I think I was most impressed with the people of Boston.  Never have I been in a city where people were friendlier!!  When we first got there we decided to use to train system and walked to the closest one.  Not being familiar with it at all (when we went 10 years they still used tokens!) we were a bit lost on what passes to get and if we'd need one for the children or not.  So I asked the man working and he was SO helpful- he got us the passes we needed and he even got ones for the older two boys so they could do it themselves.  Then after he got us all set, he chatted with us for about five minutes!  And when we got onto the train it was about 5pm so it was pretty full and there were so many gracious people who gave up their seats for the kids and myself.  I was so impressed!  There were even a few teenagers who let us have their seats.  We don't travel by mass transit very often, but we have been to NYC quite a few times and sadly very, very few people are willing to give up their seats.  So if you live in Boston, be proud of your city!

We went to the Science Museum, which was a lot of fun.  And the kids had a blast on the playground that was right across from the hotel.  And since the hotel was Embassy Suites a cook to order breakfast was included and that was nice to leave for the day with a full stomach.  There were a group of History teachers from Utah staying at the hotel so we would talk to them a bit when we'd see them around.  The left the day before we did and one of the teachers was so nice and she gathered up all their  Go Boston cards (cards that would get you into various sites around Boston for free or reduced prices) and train passes and left them for us at the front desk.  We tried to go on a duck tour but they were all full for the day so we went to the aquarium instead.  It was nice that it was free since it was packed beyond belief!!  But I got some great pictures of the kids reflections while they were looking at the animals.

Vanilla the black pig has arrived at the K household this evening.  We picked her up after baseball.  Matt asked what we should bring to keep the pig in on the way home-I said a towel and just wrap her up.  Thankfully he chose not to listen to me and brought a plastic tote.  The farmer had to chase her down for 2-3 minutes and then grab her by her ankles with her complaining every step of the way.  This pig is NOT cute and small like Wilbur from Charlottes Web.  She’s the size of a small dog.  Her ears are pretty soft and she’s all black so she looks pretty cool- BUT she smells like a pig.  And she’s strong- so I drove home while Matt kept pinning poor vanilla down in the tote with her squealing and grunting the entire way.  I think the poor farmer was almost afraid to sell his piglet to us, and he did take compassion on us and tell us to call if we had any questions.  So we arrive home and Vanilla is still squealing and stinking away and we get her in the pen.  She’s calmer and just lays down in her pen- so we feel falsely that things have ended peacefully.  Matt drives down to the neighbors to get some hay and a trough Andy said we could use.   Matt drives back home and comes storming into the house.  Vanilla had escaped.  It’s after nine by now and pretty dark so he gets his flash flight and storms back out.  Don’t worry- Vanilla was found.  She was down in the neighbors cow pond- in the culvert under the driveway.  Matt got her out and did a little pig wrestling in the other neighbors backyard, but Matt was determined and now Vanilla is back in the pen. And she’ll be the fanciest pig in town since Matt is using wainscoting to block all the gaps in our fancy wooden pen.  We’ll see if he stays contained overnight- Matt’s threatening that if we only get one porkchop out of him, it may be enough.

We had my cousin and her family over for a BBQ yesterday and it was SO good to be with them.  It had been a long time since we've gotten together.  It was so nice to talk to her and she really understood where I was coming from in certain areas.  We recently left our church due to lots and lots of reasons and it's been hard for me.  The church has basically shattered and while it's continuing on and picking up the pieces, much of the original members have left.  Yet the church is continuing to grow and change which is good.  There was talk about home church, but I t hink the fear of having "one leader" has truly stopped anything formal from starting.  There are periodic impromtu worship services or sharing services which are wonderful, but to be honest I missed corporate worship.  So we started attending a new church in the area who meets on Sunday evening.  I've been loving it and feel such a peace- I never realized how great the tension had grown in the other church until I visited.  But Matt's not 100% mainly because the pastor of the "new" church was the overseer of the "old" church and Matt thinks the pastor sees us as abondoners or church jumpers (which I don't feel)  Part of me is afraid to get attached, but this church is filled with WONDERFUL people I'd love to get to know so much better.

My cousin's family recently changed churches as well (totally different churches) but it was nice to talk to someone who knew exactly how it felt, but wasn't intimately aquainted with exactly what had gone on in our church.  So it was a very nice afternoon.

My middle son, who's six now, has always been my sleeper.  He actually napped past the age of one- until he was almost four he napped on a regular basis!  My oldest required/s so little sleep it's amazing.  He stopped napping around the age of one, and just has been full of energy since birth.  But my *A* would go hop into bed when he's tired regardless of who is around.  And he has a knack of just falling asleep where ever he is.  So needless to say we have some great pictures of him sleeping in odd places.  Just yesterday he fell asleep on our SIDEWALK.  We were swimming and the boys have started laying on the sidewalk to get warm since the brick soaks up the heat from the sun.  I was still next to the pool watching *J* and *N* when I realized I hadn't seen *A* in a while.  This is what I found (I did pick him up and carry him to the couch after taking this picture, I didn't leave him there!):

Now we have this one from 2 years ago- swimming must really tire him out:

I have a great one from last summer of him falling asleep eating potato chips (we were at grandma and grandpa's house- we don't normally snack on potato chips) and he fell asleep with a chip midway to his mouth.  But of course I can't find it now and it must be on the old computer.

At the top of the page should be a little video of *N* chasing and catching the chickens.  The quality is poor, but you should get the gist anyhow.  Isn't she adorable?!?  The chickens are doing "flipperdoodles" if you can't quite hear what she's saying. =)

is SO hard sometimes!  I called this morning and  left a message to get *J*'s results.  Now I have to wait until they call and chances are if it's good news they won't call me back.  So whle that's good, my mind always thinks that maybe it just got lost in the shuffle- so I'll call again tomorrow.  What a long day!

is over!!!  And it went pretty well.  He was such a sweetie the whole time-poor guy had to fast and they were late getting him in and he didn't complain once.  The nurses were wonderful and the anestethia team was very good too.  It's a university hospital so it's a teaching hospital so there was the head anesthesiologist, the resident, and the student- and a tech so he was well covered.  And they all took the time to come and talk to us before he went in, even though they had called the night before, so I was quite impressed.  Although the head guy did tell us a story about an oxygen tank that got loose and shot into the MRI tube and killed the patient- not at this hospital, adn he was basically telling us how careful they are but STILL- not a story that needs to be told to a mom with her child about to go into an MRI!!  They used a gas to put him to sleep and we could be t here during that part.  He fought a bit before he went out- but that stuff is QUICK.  And then we had to leave and they did do a breathing tube, and an iv once he was asleep.  They let him sit up and I held him while they put him out which was really nice.  And as soon as it was over the nurse let me go right in with him until he woke up.  He took the full half hour they allot for him to wake up and then I even had to pick him up a bit for him to wake up, but he woke up fine.  They had said that many kids wake up screaming or real agitated so to be prepared for him to be irratable the rest of the day, but he was a bit subdued for an hour and then he was back to normal.  He was so cute when he woke up he looked at me and asked if he could have his poptart now.  He got to pick out a special snack since he had to fast and he picked (disgusting) s'more poptarts.  We g ot to leave as soon as he was fully awake and we started the 2 hour drive home.  The Dr will get the written report in 3 days, but since his neurologist is in the network he can access everything on his computer today- so I'll be calling after lunch, and probably tomorrow and the next day since he's not the best at getting back to us.  But no news is good news with him so that's ok I guess.  This was a short novel, but I'm so glad it's over!

I finished this bag earlier in the week and I'm thrilled with it so I thought I'd post it here as well  since it's been cold and rainy here so not much exciting happened this week- other than our unofficial Survivor party last night, since it ended on Mother's day of all days- we taped it and watched it with friends last night on the day it *should* have been.

and a nice close up: