Nelsons Happily Ever After

Steve's work

2011-09-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Steve is absolutely loving being a dentist. And I'm loving being married to someone who only works 4 days a week and loves his job. Steve worked in this dentist mobile for the past 2 days in the parking lot of the local schools. We went to go visit him.

We frequently go visit Steve's work at lunch time. We get into all sorts of things and have fun playing "dentist" in the chair.

Kiera recently started preschool (just a co-op we created with a few friends. She is loving it and so am I.

Kiera and Lydia have been working on earning bikes for a while now and finally earned them this week. Kiera had to read 40 level 2 books, and Lydia had to endure 5 minutes of reading lessons 30 times (stickers for each time). Kiera earned hers just 2 days before Lydia. Lydia did about 5 reading lessons in 2 days once she saw Kiera on her bike. They are loving the bikes. I frequently find them in the garage doing circles around the car. And I'm happy as can be that they are doing something besides playing with princesses.

Life is good in Macomb Illinois.

Google +

2011-08-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

I've sortof dropped off of the blog and facebook world. If you want to know what's going on with us, you can find me on google+. It is a blog and facebook combined... oh and throw email in too. With even more cool features. I'm a huge fan.
If you want an invite to google+ just let me know. Until then, enjoy your facebooking and blogging.

Family pictures!

2011-07-09T10:29:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine took family pictures for us before we left California. She did a great job eh?

I was hoping for oranges on the trees, but they picked them just a little while before we took pictures. Oh, well, the orange groves are still pretty.

Home sweet home

2011-07-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the grand tour of our new residence. This is our living room/kitchen. I'm not especially fond of the fact that anybody who comes to the door can see my messy kitchen, but oh well.

New flooring and granite counter tops in the kitchen. The teal wallpaper at the top doesn't really go, but oh well. Kitchen window still needs some work.

View from kitchen. We have just about every color of wood that there is in our kitchen and living room. Once again, oh well.

view from the front door. New carpet.

Included in this picture is the digital piano that Steve got for a graduation present. Kiera can already play twinkle twinkle.

New sink toilet and granite countertops in our puke green bathroom

Kiera and Lydia's room. Someday we'll buy a bed for Kiera...

Playroom downstairs. and a an attached small dark bedroom. New carpet to come later.

Master bedroom. Love our new fans in every bedroom

the stairs down to the playroom. Considering painting the panneling to lighten it up.

Forgot to take a picutre of the front of the house. Our landlord recently pulled up our sidewalk and pulled out a huge row of bushes so we've got some gravel for a path to our door and we've got big holes where bushes were. Oh, and we have ZERO trees (like our last house). All of the other houses on our street have HUGE trees. I'm so jelous!

Overall, a very good house and a great place to live. Steve did a great job finding it.

Independence day traditions

2011-07-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

I've said it before: I'm big into holiday traditions. So here are some of our Independence day traditions:

#1 Flag raising ceremony. Good reminder about why we celebrate.

Of course we must wear our patriotic attire.
#2 Breakfast at the church. (doesn't ever ward have a breakfast?)

This year came with outdoor activities. I was glad I caught this cute moment on camera.

Home made root beer. Ok, our's wasn't that good (Lydia loved it), but it was FUN to make it

White-chocolate dipped frozen banana (with Heath and sprinkles). Fun to make and eat.

BBQ hottie

Burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob. Our little All-American meal

Not pictured: Sparklers, and the city fireworks. Both a hit. Oh, and new this year: chasing fireflies.

Best July 4th in a long time. What a great day.

Hurry up and wait

2011-06-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

We now officially have a home. Trouble is, it's not ready yet. There are lots of changes being made and problems being fixed before we can move in but we've been promised we can move in by next monday.
Me and the girls game out to be with Steve. If he has to pay for a hotel room anyway we might as well be together.
Kiera and especially Lydia have been very insecure about all of this. Lydia frequently says "I want to go to Lydia's room!". When we went camping while in Utah we walked into my parents' trailer and she said "This is Illinois!!" We pulled up infront of a museum today and she said "is THIS our new house?" She is terribly confused about what is happening and is very clingy. She has also been sucking her thumb a bit and asking for sippy cups (which we were done with 6 months ago). Kiera displays her frustration by screaming.
But it is not all doom and gloom around here. Since we had to be in a hotel anyway, we decided to go somewhere fun. So we've been in St. Louis for the past 5 days. We've been to the Zoo, children's museum, boating, and swimming almost every day.
But we can't wait to get into our house!!!

Homelessness

2011-06-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Just a little update on our new adventure in life. Steve Starts working as a dentist in Illinois next week. We've had housing lined up there for about 3 months. We had found a house (with much difficulty) and we were set to move in this week. We had utilities set up in our name (with deposits), plane tickets for me and the girls to go out after Steve and his brother Kyle had unpacked a bit for us. We had bought and sold furniture/appliances according to our needs in that house, etc.. But the day before our moving truck came our future landlord called and informed us that after she had moved to her new location, she discovered that the internet was too slow. So she was no longer willing to rent the house to us because she wanted to move back in.
This would not be a huge problem somewhere else (just the $1000+ lost money of various sources). But in middle-of-nowhere Illinois it is a big problem to try to find decent housing. We've been working on it for a week from a distance with no success. Our stuff arrives there on the 13th and steve is leaving tomorrow to seek housing for us (so much for Moab plans). It is very possible that he won't find anything available for a while in which case we girls will stay here in Utah until he does. Far from ideal, but we'll manage. A bump in the road on the road of life.

Steve is Graduated!

2011-05-30T09:44:00.001-07:00

May 29, 2011 Steve's Graduation

Steve's important and MORE important awards

2011-05-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today I attended an awards ceremony for Steve's dental school class. There were quite a few awards given out for all sorts of different achievements (academics, skills, service, etc.). Steve got an award from the California Maxiofacial Surgery something-or-other which included $250 which is always good. Basically, that translates to the fact that he is great at pulling teeth.
But as I sat through the long and boring ceremony and listened to the awards for hundreds of hours of this or that or perfect GPAs I thought to myself that Steve did something far greater with his time than all of his classmates: He was present as a husband and father in our home. He didn't spend every waking hour studying or trying to make a more impressive resume. He ate dinner with us every night, was there for bedtime prayers, stories, and singing. He doesn't get something to hang on his wall, $, cheering from classmates, or to shake hands with someone important for this; but I want to recognize him now for it.
Steve, we three Nelson girls appreciate the fact that you've been part of our lives for the past 4 years of dental school. Thanks for prioritizing us over excelling to the max. You are still an absolutely WONDERFUL dentist. This is your Husband/Daddy dentist of the year award.

Some of our final weeks.

2011-05-27T14:14:00.000-07:00

Steve has had no class for the past 2 weeks of school (since he finished his clinic work early). So we've been trying to intermingle fun with packing. We went to see some gardens. My girls LOVE flowers.

Toilet paper projects of what my girls want to be when they grow up: a dentist and a nurse. (note boxes in the background)

Just cute girls.

At 1 of like 7 graduation meals we've attended thus far.

On the day we took family pictures. Good thing it comes off.

Going to Steve's school to say goodbye to everyone.

The beach! Kiera loved the water so much. She danced in and sang to the waves for a full 40 minutes. She is now the princess of the sea.

Toddler Love

2011-05-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

Meet Caius-- Lydia's one true love. Lydia talks about him all of the time and how they are going to get married (in the temple with a white dress) and live happily ever after. Of course, this is all more real and wonderful when she is not actually with the boy. Her face in the first 2 picture is usually her first reaction to seeing him. She follows him around and gets right in his face grinning like that. But if you look carefully in photo 1 you'll see that he is pushing her away. Next comes her crying and tattle-telling on him. She likes him much more from a distance.

Ok, this kiss was prompted. But it is still cute.

Who knows, maybe it will work out in 18 years...

Dental Experiences

2011-05-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

Today Steve had the biggest test of his life: passing the dental test of his wife under the drill. I was nervous, but Steve actually did a good job drilling my superficial cavity. No pain. Oh, and I have to say that he did a FABULOUS job at cleaning my teeth. No, seriously-- I've never come away from a dental chair with noticeably different looking teeth. He is awesome.

Trying not to be nervous about him drilling holes in my face.

Lovely view I know. Steve's perspective.

My perspective

My sister-in-law Erika who is finishing dental hygeine school this month came by to say hi. She's all smiles in the picture but just minutes there after she also fell victim to Steve's drill after a spontaneous decision to take out her wisdom teeth since Steve's next patient didn't show up. Now THAT is bravery!

Steve had to go back to the school to pick something up so he took the girls with him. Lydia always has to take her backpack to school.

Exploring Steve's chair

This is a count-down chain K&L made of how many more days until dental school graduation. Almost there!!!

up and down and up and down...

Counting my blessings

2011-05-04T21:38:00.000-07:00

"Tinkle Concert"

2011-05-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about Lydia is that when she decides that it is time to go potty she drops her pants where ever she is at and waddles penguin-style to the bathroom. I laugh every time.
Yesterday Lydia came into the bathroom while I was in there
"Mommy I need to tinkle!"
"ok Lydia go for it"
"mommy, you sit down right there [on the side of the bathtub]and watch the concert. This is a tinkle concert. You are the audience. Mommy when I all done, you clap ok?"
(laughing) "ok Lydia".............
"Ta- dah!!!!"
clapping "good job Lydia. What a wonderful concert!"

Wow I'm lucky.

Utah/Illinois trip

2011-04-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

We spent 2 1/2 weeks in Utah this month for medical purposes. It was great to be able to see my family while we were at it : )

The most significant event was my brother Brett and his wife Katie having their first baby. Lindy is so sweet.

I didn't post any pictures of Katie (although she did all of the work) because I don't think if it was me I would want pictures of me post-delivery posted on someone's blog with out first getting my approval on the picture.

We had a few days of break from our medical-necessities in Utah so Steve and I took advantage of the free babyisitting and went to Macomb IL to find our future housing. The options were grim, but just hours before we left to come home on our 3rd day there we found this place. We talked the owner into renting instead of selling.

Then it was back to Utah to hang with the fam some more. I would like to pay tribute to my parents for not only being wonderful grandparents, but for going extremely out of their way to make their backyard the most grandchild friendly place on the planet. Even though the weather was cold, we loved being in their backyard

They've got cars (fun for riding down the hill in!)

They put up a new rope swing while we were there

My day built a 2 story playhouse that has a playhouse on the bottom and a boys dream-fort on the top (complete with electricity, pulley baskets, telescopes, mailboxes, pipes for communicating, a slide, curtains.. complete furnishings...etc..) Endless fun!

And of course the trampoline. Lydia is becoming 1 with nature wearing nothing but her "un-nu-nu"

More of the fun swing-- you can hang from it too!

Thanks Gramps and Grandma for being so fun! It definitely makes us want to come and visit again soon!

First experiences on the new swing. Note the differences between Kiera and Lydia. That is their personalities and life in 1 video

Just a cute video of Lydia blowing bubbles in milk.

Dentist in the Making?

2011-04-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I took Cambrie to my dental lab and had her practice "prepping" teeth for crowns and fillings. I prepped a tooth and then she would practice on the same or an adjacent tooth.

Needless to say, I think she's a great nurse and does extremely well in that profession.

Cleo the goldfish

2011-03-23T13:24:00.000-07:00

*ahem* So after a year and a half, Kiera finished her 'reading lessons book' AKA Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons . She probably could have finished a lot faster if her mom had not been such a slacker. So as a reward for her reading skills we promised her a goldfish. We went to Petsmart and bought two 29 cent goldfishes. Steve asked the girl as she was scooping them out for us (in a serious tone)"do you have a manual or anything on how to take care of them?" she looked at him like he was crazy (because he is). She went and printed of a sheet of paper on goldfish care. From this sheet we learn that goldfish can live for 10 years. That's funny. Ours lasted 3 days! Maybe it is because we put him in a huge water-jug instead of a goldfish bowl. The instructions sheet also said "this pamphlet is not a replacement for proper veterinary care". Oh, so that is our problem! Kiera and Lydia love feeding their fishes Cleo and Nemo and hug the tanks. they handled it ok when fish #1 died this morning.
My favorite was when we were driving home Kiera is yelling at steve "daddy- drive softly! Fishes don't like to splash!" And then she says "when we get home lets make little boats to float on top with one for food and one for water". Later at home she was playing mom to the fish-- "you guys need to be nice! No fighting!"

Decision Made

2011-03-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

So we've officially decided that we are moving to the the midwest--Macomb Illinois! We were choosing between there an Redding California. The decision was a very tough one. It was weighing lots of things that were important to us versus the thing that was MOST important to us.

Am I nervous? Yes. I'm sad that I'll be so far away from family (and airports).

But, if we could enjoy living in Mesquite NV (and we did), then we will find the joy of living in Macomb. And as someone put it so wisely in sunday school 3 weeks ago "The Lord doesn't really care where you live; he cares about how you live then you get there."

We recently got a puzzle that is a map of the USA so Kiera and Lydia have been learning their states. I asked Kiera if she wanted to live in Illinois or northern California. She said "I don't want either!.....I want to live in Pennsylvania where they make chocolate!"

Lastly, www.bestplaces.net is a great place to compare climates, crime, schools, etc. of different cities side by side.

Just day to day life

2011-02-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

This is Lydia's little nest. It is under our desk. She has a stash of stuff she keeps under there. Toys, blankets, and I found food back there too. I removed it when I found it and later she came to me and said "mommy! somebody took my snacks!"

If you can't tell, they are playing Pocahontas

We frequently make play-dough cookies using cookie cutters.

My girls love playing with the blocks they got for Christmas from Grandpa Groneman. These are the same one's I played with as a child. Kiera can build towers taller than she is. Lots of fun.

We don't really have a yard, but we have plenty of concrete to play with scooters on. My we recently got Lydia's used for free. It is spider-man black and missing a handle, but she loves it. I guess it is only a matter of time until she figures out that Kiera's princess one is better. Until then, we are having a blast and they are both quite good.

Playing babies. Always a favorite. I can't tell you how many times they have given birth to their babies.

And now, the funny things they do and say:

1. Kiera was frustrated with some toy she was playing with. She said "that make me have NUTS!" I realized she was trying to copy the expression I probably use too much "that drives me nuts!"

2. Lydia has decided she is a kitty-cat. Thus, she must give kitty kisses. Which means I frequently end up kissing her tongue. Yuck! No more kitty kisses!

3. Lydia said today "I want to take off my clothes so everyone can see my button like Jasmine!" We had our first modesty chat.

4. Lydia thinks M&M's are called "emmy M's" after her cousin Emmy.

White Coat and Valentines Day

2011-02-15T13:59:00.000-08:00

Valentines Day was fun at our house this year. I tried to initiate some fun traditions.

Pink Milk and green heart waffles. A big hit.

Lydia was particularly excited about the new "Tangled" toys I got them. They are soooo into Tangled right now... can quote the movie although they've only seen it once.

Made cookies. Gave myself a second degree burn doing so. Not the brightest cookie in the dozen!

Just playing dollies. Later on Valentines day Steve an I babysat 10 kids while their parents went out. We tried to make it as party-like as possible. It was crazy, but now I have enough babysitting co-op tickets to last me forever! I love our babysitting co-op!

This past friday Steve got his White Coat. That white coat represents many years of hard work both in dental school and prior to dental school. I'm so proud of him. His is just a few months from being a dentist!

Today Kiera asked me: "when daddy is all done with school and he goes to work, will he still come home at night time an be my daddy?" I assured her that he would. I'm so excited for that day!!!

Cuteness (and a crank in the neck)

2011-02-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks, I'm too lazy to flip my pictures. But they are darn cute nevertheless!

Our Little Ballerinas

2011-01-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

Cambrie found this clip on YouTube of this girl dancing on stage. Our daughters ate it up and in 2 days we shot this video and did some editing so you could see what they were dancing to. We thought it was pretty funny to watch them.

Beach on a January evening

2011-01-15T20:25:00.000-08:00

January 11

Who would have known that you could enjoy an evening at the beach in January? I've been to the beach in July when the water has been so cold that I couldn't get in past my knees. No such thing today. We went on a Yacht ride in the morning and then spontaneously decided to stop by the beach. The water was plenty warm and we wished we had brought swimming suits! We had a blast.

Makeup artist

2011-01-04T23:06:00.000-08:00

We recently learned that Lydia is a make-up artist. Yes, this finger paint makeup was applied completely independently. I'm sure the model to the right had a professional do hers.

Christmas at the Nelsons

2010-12-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

Highlights of Christmas:

1. Christmas Eve: we acted out the Nativity story about 6 times. Then, Kiera insisted on wearing her Mary attire to the resturant where we went to celebrate Steve's birthday. We got some chuckles. She also took a nap with her Mary attire on.

2. Kiera and Lydia were SOOO excited for santa.....until bedtime on Christmas eve. Then they were scared to death of the idea of a fat bearded man coming in our house during the night.

3. Lydia ran into a piano and hit her head really hard. I was holding her immediately afterwards and she had what looked to me like a siezure that lasted for about 5-7 seconds. But a good source informed me that she probably just passed out. Either way it scared me to death.

Kiera's 4 year picture

2010-12-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks Sears for the free photo.

Melt my heart

2010-12-09T20:51:00.000-08:00

There are only 2 nights a week that I'm home from work and get to participate in the little lady night time routine. On those nights I have like to have prayers, "cuddle time" and sing to my girls. Tonight I put Lydia to bed before Kiera. Kiera announced that SHE wanted to put Lydia to bed all by herself. So, I left the room and Kiera climbed in bed to have cuddle time with Lydia (of course I'm listening at the door). Kiera asked Lydia "did you have I nice day?" "what fun things did we do today?" Then she sang Lydia a primary song, gave her a kiss, tucked her in, and told her "if you open the door I'm going to take you blanket away. I love you. Goodnight" and she came out. So sweet.

Enjoy the snow, and then go home.

2010-12-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

Until this year, Kiera has always been scared to death of the snow. But this year we had a blast in it while in Utah. What fun! Sledding, snow angels, snowmen, and my favorite was Kiera and Lydia laying on their bellies eating the snow.

Fun to play in it and then fun to go home to So Cal to 75 degree weather!

Thanksgiving traditions

2010-12-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

Turkey Piniata

Pumpkin Pie!!

Going to a movie. This was Kiera and Lydia's 2nd movie theater experience but on the first sucessful experience.

Fun with Grandma Bev

Turkey Bowl

kiera's birthday

2010-12-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

Better late than never posts: Kiera turned 4 November 22nd. We had a little friend party for her combined with her little friend Baily who was turning 3. She enjoyed it. I love how magical birthdays are for 4 year olds.

Silver Lining on a grey cloud

2010-11-28T20:28:00.000-08:00

Friday morning I had a mild cold and was informed by my employer that I wouldn't be able to work for the entire weekend. This news was very discouraging for me since we need the work to keep up with our finances. But within 2 minutes of getting that news, I got the news that my grandma who is in Utah was doing very poorly and would most likely die soon. Split second decision: I'm going to Utah today. I couldn't have taken it off work, so having a cold was a huge blessing.
My grandma passed away 24 hours after I arrived in Utah. I was able to see her, express my love and say goodbye. Another huge tender mercy was the timing of her death. Many of her grandchildren who lived far away and she hadn't seen in years were able to come and say goodbye because of the fact that they were already around for thanksgiving.
My grandma was a wonderful person. She was a model of service and love. She taught 1st grade for over 20 years. We sat and counted the people who came to visit her the day I arrived: 44. I loved her and will miss her.
I'm so grateful for the chance I had to say goodbye and be with family during this time. I know that she is in a better place with those who have died before her and I'm very grateful for that peace.

Dancing in the street

2010-11-18T15:01:00.000-08:00

Kiera is my child who refuses to go sing on the stand with the rest of the primary. She is scared of everything, but for some reason dancing in front of hundreds of people who are waiting for the Disneyland Christmas Parade isn't intimidating at all. They had quite an audience with people taking pictures and everything.

Halloween pictures

2010-11-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

I missed out on the Saturday night Halloween activities since I was working. But Steve took the girls to the ward truck-or-treat. Kiera was a nice big sister and carefully taught Lydia how to do it. Pictured above you can see what was supposed to be their Halloween costumes, but apparently the last minutes before they left for the party they decided to change outfits (a frequent occurrence in our household--we usually go through at least 4 outfits a day per girl). Oh well. They definitely looked like daddy dressed them at the party, but they had fun!!

Groneman Halloween Party

2010-10-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

The Groneman Halloween Party was a hit. Lots of fun food, games costumes. I love Halloween.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year I'm not so fond of living in southern California. Autumn is my favorite season and we have no autumn here. So, I very much enjoy going to a pumpkin patch to try to get that great autumn feeling. Tons of fun!

Interesting smells

2010-09-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have some pear smelling perfume that sometimes I let Kiera wear. Today she came in to find me and said "mommy- I smell like a pear!" I told her that she was not allowed to use mommy's perfume without asking.

Later she asked me "mommy can I smell like a pear?" I said yes and went to grab my perfume. she picked up our spray gel before I noticed what she was doing and drenched herself with spray-gel. Hey, at least it wasn't my perfume. Although it does make her rather sticky.

Oregon

2010-09-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I realized we didn't take many pictures while we were up there. Particularly because we loaned our good camera away for a while. Too bad, it is a BEAUTIFUL place. Kiera said,"they have lots of Christmas trees here! They have lots of clouds here!" I guess we don't see many clouds where we live through the smog.

The purpose of our trip was so Steve could interview for Dental jobs. He had 2 interviews, which was exciting. It is nice to know that the end is near and the reward is coming. What a great place!

Romance for a 3 year old

2010-09-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I'm a mother-in-law. Kiera informed me this week that she and Elmo got married. Elmo gave her a red plastic ring and they are married. She told me "so mom you have to be nice to my husband because I love him". Great.

Overheard today from the room where Kiera was playing: "You have to be patient. It's not your turn, I'll marry you in a minute. I have to marry all of these princesses first"

Kiera knows were married in the temple but I'm pretty sure getting for her just means you dress up and walk somewhere together (down the aisle, across the room, etc.) Anyway, she's got marriage on the mind right now so all you parents with 4 year old boys, watch out.

Dr.'s office woes

2010-09-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

When I took Kiera and Lydia in for their well-child checks today they were both moderately sick already. They had temps of 99 and 100.

After waiting in the doctors office for 90 minutes I was going crazy. I'd pulled out every game/song and trick to entertain 2 sick girls. We were pretending the floor was a river with an alligator in it when the nurse finally came in to give the shots.

Woe is Kiera: Finger prick and 1 shot.
Woe is Lydia: Finger prick and 4 shots
Woe is Kiera: Vomiting in the garbage can while Lydia is getting her shots
Woe is me: Running back and forth between screaming Lydia and vomiting Kiera.

After it was done Kiera was very noticeably white as a ghost. We sat in the waiting room for 10 minutes trying to get some color back in her face before we walked out to the car.

Luckily I had asked for a bag just in case. Good thing too because Kiera vomited again on the car ride home (luckily she got it mostly in the bag). All the while Lydia is wailing "hurt! Owies! Leg! Hurt!"

Poor little ladies and poor me.

Lydia turns 2 and Utah trip

2010-09-05T17:10:00.001-07:00

Although the goals of our Utah trip were not fulfilled, we had quite an enjoyable time in Utah. My girls always love to see "Jamps and Jadma" and "pway in the Pwayhouse" and "jump on the jumpoline". We missed Steve severely but it was fun to visit family.

Lydia turned 2 while we were in Utah. I paid for her ticket for the way back but I wish I wouldn't have since not even once out of our 4 flights did they ask to see her birth certificate. When I inquired they said "she looks like she isn't anywhere near 2". Her paid-for seat was left empty since she was asleep in my arms. GRRRRRR
I threw Lydia's birthday cake together in 5 minutes. We had trifle and put a portion of a cake on top with a princess toys and some frosting flowers made in 1989 and there you have it: birthday cake that pleases a princess and is yet tasty to eat.

Traditions Book

2010-08-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

So I'm officially done doing normal scrapbooking. I'm moving to the 100% digital way of preserving memories. But I have lots of random scrapbooking supply leftovers. I figured out the perfect thing to do with it all.

I've started a "Nelson Family Traditions" Book. I printed off lots of pictures of things we do regularly (or annually) as a family and I'm slapping glue on the back of them and putting them in collage-type-fashion in a book in designated areas. I've divided the book into sections and leaving room to add to it every year. I'm using up the few stickers that I have, but I'm not doing ANYTHING elaborate. Basically it is just a collage of each tradition. It only took me like 2 hours total to make and the girls already LOVE it. Some of our traditions:

1. Easter (painting eggs, rolling eggs, egg hunts)
2. Christmas (pinatas, seeing the lights)
3. Halloween (pumpkin carving, making sugar cookies, trick-or-treating)
4. Summer (Popsicles outside, swimming)
5. Autumn leave traditions
6. winter snow traditions
7. Rite Aide ice cream tradition
8. Girls waiting outside for daddy to come home on his bike and going for bike rides
9. General Conference scones breakfast
10. Birthday traditions
11. Thanksgiving dinner
12. Independence day BBQ, fireworks, parades
13. Camping (in the back yard and for real)
14. Movie night (with popcorn and lots of bedding on the floor)

The girls love looking at the book and always want to know which tradition we are going to be doing next. I'm looking forward to the book having 18 years+ of collages or our traditions.

Opinion: LDS moms CAN'T do it all

2010-08-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

I think we as LDS mothers of young children have a problem of trying to out-do each other. We try to pretend that our lives a beautiful and clean all of the time. We've all done it: when someone is coming over for a play day we clean our house perfectly and pretend like our houses are always in perfect order.

The truth of the matter is, there are only so many hours in a day. If you are choosing to do some things with your time it means you are making cuts elsewhere. You can't exercise for an hour, make 100% homemade food, do 30 minutes of scripture study, write in your journal, spend an hour of 1 on 1 time with each child...etc.

Yes, I can have people over for dinner and have my hair done, my make-up on, my house perfectly clean, and a delicious home-cooked meal, but just think about where I had to make cuts: most likely to my quality time with my children since that is where it doesn't show publicly as much.

This week I was talking to a friend who has a teenager, a special needs daughter, a newly adopted daughter, a toddler, and a newborn. She told me of the troubles of trying to take care of such a huge arrange of psychological needs. I have a deep respect for this friend since she is very well educated and could have done anything with her life. At this point and in this stage however, she tells me that she doesn't bother with her hair or makeup except for on Sundays. The house is a mess most of the time, but she just has higher priorities. That fact that she prioritizes her children over other things shows strongly in her family.

Does that mean that I think we should never do our hair or make-up again? No, but maybe focusing less on how we and our homes appear to others and more on our relationships with our family and children would make us better people.
There will be a time in my life when I can have a clutter-free house. But now is not that time.

Goldilocks and the 2 bears

2010-08-14T12:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Lydia is 2! I still find myself calling her "baby". When Kiera was 2 I already had Lydia so I didn't consider Kiera a baby at all. But I guess we women like to cling to the idea of having a "baby".
Lydia would NOT cooperate for these pictures without holding these 2 bears. Ok-- fine with me! At least she smiled!

Sunscreen

2010-08-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

In high school I would lay out in the sun and take a nap. I never burned and it was so relaxing in the sunshine. I also enjoyed the tan I got. People told me that I would regret it someday. They were right. I do. I now faithfully wear sunscreen everyday (on my face) and sometimes put it one more than once. I also wear big ugly hats. I guess those old people were right. I'm no longer worried about my tan....I'm worried about aging!

Lydia must be worried about aging too because she sure used a lot of it yesterday. On herself, the chair, the carpet, the wall.....

Angel Lullaby

2010-07-30T15:18:00.000-07:00

I used to love My Turn On Earth as a little girl. I always thought I would sing the Angel Lullaby song to my kids someday. I've sang little snippets of it to them in the past and thought about looking up the lyrics, but I never did until now. I found them on some random chic from Utah's blog. So, I thought I'd do anybody else who may be looking for them a favor. I've been singing this to my girls for 3 days now and I've had it requested at least 20 times because they LOVE IT.

You came from a land where all is light
to a world half day and a world half night.
To guide you by day, you have my love,
To guard you by night, your friends above.
(Chorus)
So sleep, sleep, till the darkness ends,
guarded by your angel friends.
So sleep, sleep, till the darkness ends,
guarded by your angel friends.

There's one stands softly by your bed
and another sits close with a hand on your head.
There's one at the window watching for the dawn,
and one waits to wake you when the night is gone.

Marshmellow Roast

2010-07-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

10 Kids under age 6

9 people riding in the back of a truck to a park

8 adults to keep up with the 10 kids

7 Marshmellows eaten by Lydia (even more by Kiera)

6 Tin Foil dinners

5 Horses nearby that occasionally ran by to the kids' delight

4 squirt guns from the 99 cent store that were tons o' fun

3 Roasting sticks (very shared)

2 Rides in the back of a truck to a really fun park nearby

1 match to make a great campfire.

Missionary FHE

2010-07-18T15:47:00.001-07:00

I'm trying to get a little more creative in my Family Home Evenings since we've been sort of dull for a while. So, being that we recently had 2 sister missionaries from our family go out, we decided to pretend to be missionaries. It *sort of* worked. I think we'll do it again in a month or so in order to get all of the concepts across.

Sister Karly Nelson Temple Square Mission

Sister Breanna Groneman Atlanta Georgia Mission

Mothering Goals

2010-07-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Someone this week gave me a compliment on being a good mom. It got me thinking about how all is not how it appears to others.

I'll admit that I do some mothering things well: I'm good with nap schedules, balenced meals, spending scheduled time playing with and teaching my children academic things. We do family prayer most of the time and I read them scripture stories every time I give them a morning snack (which is only about 3 out of 7 days or so--I could do better there).

But today I was thinking about the home in which I am employed as an RN for a medically-needy baby. The caregiver of my little patient does not do any of those things that I listed above that I "do well", however, she does 2 things well that I realize that I fail at:
1. She makes my little patient giggle every day.
2. She spends non-scheduled non-productive just-plain-old-quality-1-on-1 time with my little patient every day.

I realize this about myself: I'm way too type-A personality. I have to have a list of goals and every minute of my day must fit into meeting those goals. So I spend my scheduled 10 minutes of play with Kiera (trying to squeeze in academic moments)and then move on to the laundry or the dishes. I know, it is ridiculous. I'm hoping that by admitting this fault I'll be more aware and try to relax a bit and just enjoy my darling little girls.

I have great childhood memories of saturday mornings in my parents bed with my siblings. Not doing anything productive: just spending time together. Also, I would lay on my mom's lap on the couch and my mom would stroke my hair and we would talk. Productive? Not officially. Only productive for relationship-building.

Goals: 1. Spend non-scheduled non-productive time with my girls (and Steve) every day.
2. Do something to make them giggle every day.

I realize that the track I'm going on right now I'm more like a personal-trainer than a mother. Time to change.

Family pictures

2010-07-06T13:06:00.001-07:00

My 2 princesses

All the girl cousins

Steve and his siblings/parents
The entire Nelson family
Look at all of those cousins!!
Lydia trying not to cooperate
The best we could do...I'll give it a 5/10...could be worse. I guess it will just get harder as we add more kiddos to the mix.

Lydia in a nutshell

2010-07-05T20:11:00.001-07:00

Lydia refuses to wear anything but big dresses that spin out really far. Yes, she wears them for pajamas too. The throws the biggest tantrum you've ever seen if anyone tries to take it off of her. Her 3 dresses that meet her specifications are already getting lots of rips and stains. Oh well.

Lydia thinks she doesn't need to nap anymore. She'll sit in her bed for 2 hours without sleeping. Kiera will have finished her nap before Lydia even goes to sleep. What's up with that!!???

Lydia went "stinkies" in the potty the other day. I was sure it was a fluke. Today she told me she wanted to go potty so I pulled out her little potty. She sat on it about 10 seconds and announced "all done!" and stood up. I thought 'yep, she's all done playing potty time' But no, she actually went! No, I don't expect it to be this easy from here on on, but it is encouraging!

My Hottie and My Yittle Yadies

2010-06-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Spunky: Lydia

2010-06-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

Groneman Family Races

2010-06-15T20:54:00.001-07:00

The first annual Groneman Family Races were held this past weekend while visiting my family in Utah.

They consisted of all sorts of ways of racing across my sister's lawn: running backwards, skipping, partner runs, etc..

Tons of fun was to be had by both old and young alike. Even my little developmentally delayed nephew loved it (pictured to the left winning the race with Brett). What a great family activity.

just pictures

2010-06-09T14:52:00.001-07:00

Pictures of life

2010-06-05T20:35:00.001-07:00

We've got the stomach flu around here. Because of the nature of my job, I can't go to work if even 1 of my kids is sick because of the risk to my little patient. So, I'm automatically off work for at least a week. This is of course nice to spend more time with my family and get things done, but I'm also very frustrated because we really needed that money. I had Kiera and Lydia sharing sippy cups today in hopes that Lydia will get it sooner than later because I figure she is doomed to get it anyway. It might as well be sooner so that I don't miss more work and we don't give it to my family when we go and visit them in utah in the next little while. I felt so terrible trying to get her sick on purpose though!

Lydia was obviously bored. She is also trying to tell me I need things on this bookshelf. I packed up all of our books for long-term storage since we are moving again in a year. I don't really want to unpack them just so that my shelf doesn't look empty. Oh, and that box next to it is the LAST box to unpack. It has been sitting there for over a week. You'd think I'd just do it....

Lydia loves being "a tudie" lately (naked). Kiera likes to follow whatever Lydia does. The other night they were painting in the nude....I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Indian war paint?

Notice how when Lydia doesn't want to eat something she lines it up neatly on the table. She also enjoys finger painting.

Slacker

2010-05-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have not exercised one bit in the past month.

I could probably count on 1 hand the amount of times I've used the blow-dryer in the past month. Sundays only.

Something about being a full time mom, full time nurse, moving to a new place, and going through 3 potential surrogates this month......

Hopefully things will be calming down soon and I'll re-introduce myself to my running shoes and the bathroom mirror. (Oh, and in case you are wondering why I have time to blog but not do my hair-- this blog posting was composed at work).

Where can a bunny find a home?

2010-05-21T20:50:00.001-07:00

Eating chocolate icecream on the front porch.

the joy of popping popcorn to eat in a tent.

Camping in a tent in the backyard. We want to make it an annual family tradition. But we don't have a backyard in our new place so we had to squeeze it into our schedule during the middle of our move. It seemed crazy, but the girls LOVED it.

Here are tons of pictures for you family to make up for my lack of blogging for you family fans out there.

These last 3 weeks have been completely crazy for us. I admit it-- we were in way over hour heads. It is mostly overwith now and I'm glad! Glad to be moved to our new place.

Overall, I really like our new place. the kitchen is a little cramped but it has way more storage so I like it for that reason. I miss my yard, but we have some dude who is mowing our lawn (I don't think he is supposed to, but we're not going to complain if someone else is paying the bill!). I miss my attached garage, and my dishwasher, but I LOVE having 4 less rooms in my place to clean up!

Offering help

2010-05-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while I was at work Steve was taking loads of our stuff to our new house in a borrowed SUV. To complicate things a bit he had both of our kiddlets with him at the time. The new place is on a pretty busy road. Imagine him trying to haul stuff into the house and the girls running outside the open door of the house trying to be helpful (carrying 1 bottle of shampoo at a time). Steve was trying to work and corral 2 toddlers away from the road at the same time. One of our new neighbors came out and talked to him for a few minutes. In parting he said "Well, let me know if you need any help" and went inside. Steve could see him watching TV through the window.

I hope I have never done that. I'm making it my new goal to not ever do that.

About a 10 of my friends here in Loma Linda have had babies lately. Timing could not be worse for me since I'm working full-time, planning a surrogacy (which is VERY time consuming), and currently moving. I would love to be able to help them out but I can't really right now. But once this busy spell in my life is over I intend on getting back to my regular way of being there for my friends when they need help.....and not just offering help "if you need anything" and then walking away.

Why we need the illegals

2010-05-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

May 1st was the wrong day to have a yard sale. All of the illegals were off protesting and not doing their normal yard-sale shopping. But despite the protests happening in my state, I still got to utilize my spanish-speaking stills as some Mexicans parked in front of my house at 6:30 AM and watched us bring out stuff to put on the lawn. We sold about $100 worth of stuff an hour before the official sale even started. That is the way it is here in So Cal. But as the morning got later there was a lack of our spanish-speaking-only clientel. Wrong day for a yard sale.

I was going to get a babysitter for the yard sale. But my girls were having so much fun that I let them stay and play. The picture below are them eating their cereal in their PJ's. They were so darn cute I had to take a picture.

Lastly, these are 2 of about 8 china dolls that I've owned as long as I can remember. Growing up I was never allowed to play with them. And I've never allowed my girls to play with them. I was going to donate them (we're getting rid of lots of stuff) but then I got a better idea. My girls were so excited when I pulled them off of the shelf in their room and let them play with them. Yes, they will be ruined shortly, but those dolls have never been so loved or used.

Moving sale

2010-04-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

The Nelson family is going to be moving shortly. We are relocating so we can save a little $ on rent. We are going from a 4 bed 2 bath house to a 2 bed/1 bath house. For those who are in our area, we are moving 2 houses down from where Ali and Scott used to live. In order to fit into this new place we are having to get rid of a TON of stuff. Some of it is stuff we probably should have got rid of before, and some of it I hate to part with, but it is worth it for the saving in rent. We'll be having a yard sale on saturday. This is the pile in our garage of stuff to sell/get rid of. Also for sale: Sit N' Stand stoller, china hutch, fridge, 2 cribs, 1 toddler bed, end tables, coffee table, patio furniture, outdoor plastic chairs, piano.....

....DIET(?)!!!!

2010-04-17T22:14:00.000-07:00

I think the last "diet" I was on was back in 9th grade or so. It was about that time that I discoverd that if I just exercised regularly (running) I could pretty much eat what I wanted. The great part is that when I exercise I don't even really crave much junk food.

With my new recent schedule I've chosen to almost eliminate exercise from my life (which is SOOO not me, but it has fallen down the priority list). That fact, and the fact that I'm working late nights and eating late trying to stay awake is making me gain weight. I'm discovering that you can't eat like a runner when you are not a runner! who would have known!?

So, out of necessity I'm going on my first "diet" in years. I don't know how we'll I'll do with it, but I'll try...

ps I love blogging while at work!

Roatan, Honduras Mission Trip

2010-04-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

for those that have 5 minutes to see the Honduras Mission trip, here it goes:

Late Easter

2010-04-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has never had the joy of rolling Easter eggs down a large hill at Easter time is missing out. I grew up doing it every year and it was very much looked forward to. All sorts of fun can be had on a hill and both young and old can be involved. We'd have races to see who could roll their egg the furthest without it breaking. Then we'd roll ourselves down the hill, or have races to see who could run down the fastest (which can be difficult since you may fall if going too fast). We had our First Annual Nelson Easter-Egg Roll yesterday and it was a huge success.

Reading at age 3

2010-04-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

My sister Christa recommended this book to me. She used it to teach her son to read at age 3. I was worried it would be complicated, difficult to teach (and to learn) and that Kiera would hate it. Not so. Kiera is 3 and 5 months and she is reading stories such as "a little man sat in the sand. That man is sad. Will the sun go down?" We are only half way through the book. We have a 7-10 minute "reading lesson" almost every day since the book recommends keeping the lessons brief and fun at this age. It has been easy all of the way along. There are no difficult steps at all. Oh, and you can start a child doing it who doesn't even know their letter sounds. (The book only introduces 1 letter at a time-- we are currently only using about half of the letters in our lessons). As a reward after our lesson each day we have "Happy Kiera special time" and I give her my full 100% focused attention on any game she wants to play. Anyway, I recommend the book.

Full Time

2010-03-31T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I changed my employment status to full time. I'm going to be working mostly evenings and weekends (when Steve is home) and anticipate only needing a babysitter about 3 hours/week.
I am determined that my children will not feel get the short end of the stick from this new full time job status. With 40 hours less in my week I'll have to re-arrage the way I do things. There are so many things that a person does-- both necessary things and things for their own entertainment. I think that sometimes it would be easy for a person in my situation to make cuts from quality time with their kids. Not me. So, be it known that I plan on making the following cut from my life so as NOT to have to make cuts from quality time with my children:

1. Less time social networking. Limiting myself to only saturday mornings.
2. Goodbye baking. Baked breads are not a necessity right now
3. Cleaning while my girls are awake (I'll have to do it after they are asleep).
4. Exercising regularly : (
5. Volunteering for service things.
6. Time spent with friends and family.
7. Goodbye personal time.

We plan on this being a bit of a stretch on our family. But the fact that Steve gets done at noon 3 days a week will make it easer. Oh, and the way I see it-- my working 40 hours a weeks is going to be a TON easier on my family than my being pregnant 168 hours a week. Hopefully, I'll have 2 cute bundles of joy in about a year to show for it : )

Daddy's home

2010-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

My little girls got there daddy back after a little more than a week. He was missed terribly. Lydia spent a lot of time searching the houses for her daddy. The funny thing is: the #1 place she would go to look for him was our bed. Probably because that is where she normally finds him in the morning : )
I feel bad for all of the women out there who have to deal with husbands who are gone a LOT more than mine is. Hats off to you. I don't know how you do it.

New Easter Tradition

2010-03-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of tradiations. Thanks to my sister-in-law Erika I think we have a new one. She came over and we made fun little easter egg cake-pops and decorataed them. She got the idea from WWW.BAKERELLA.COM (we must give credit where credit is due). The pops are really cute (as pictured above) and she has all sorts of fun ideas for every holiday (I'm going to do the turkeys at thanksgiving). They are surprisingly easy to make too. The girls loved them.

Triathalon

2010-03-23T12:40:00.001-07:00

This blog is to brag about Steve's triathlon he did on Saturday. He's now done a few of them (3?). He did it with his brother Drew and Sister-in-law Erika. I'm impressed-- I couldn't do it. I'll stick with running thanks. I would surely drown while trying to doggie-paddle 30 feet. But I do a "triathlon" every morning: My morning run, swimming through a sink full of dishes, and then a never-ending chase up and down the halls trying to get a diaper back on Lydia.

Punishment for doing the right thing.

2010-03-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

When I started my new job I discovered a lot of very important rules that were being broken by both the family that I was assigned to, and the other nurses working for that family. I debated on whether or not I should inform my supervisor. I had been informed that one of these rules (which another nurse was breaking) was grounds for being immediately fired. So, after much debate I decided to inform my supervisor.
At the time I informed her, we discussed the fact that I still needed to have a good relationship with the family that I was working for-- so my supervisor said she would take care of the problem without letting anybody know that I had informed her of the situation.
Today I got a phone call from my employer. My patient's mom doesn't want me to come back again ever (just 3 days ago she told me that I was her and her son's favorite nurse). The person who called me acknowledged that is was because she found out that I had turned her and the other nurses in.
So where does that leave me? Without a job. They are working on finding me another patient, but the hours would be during the day instead of at night so I'd need to get a babysitter and I'd be away from my girls, and I'll also have less hours. Meanwhile, the nurses who broke the rules still has their jobs.
If you can't tell, I'm a little frustrated.

Easy Egg-free Eggnog

2010-03-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

I love eggnog. Too bad you can only get it during the holidays. I learned to make homemade eggnog this past holiday season. It was good but it was a PAIN to make.
So, I came up with his recipe that it easy, egg-free, much lower in fat, and tastes great too (although not exactly like eggnog it is still very good)

Cambrie's Eggnog:
8 cups milk (I use have vitamin D milk and half reconstituted powdered milk--you can't tell!)
1 3-oz vanilla pudding mix (instant)
1/2 cup sugar
2 t vanilla
1/2 t nutmeg
Rum extract to taste
Sprinkle of cinnamon

Mix pudding and 1 cup milk in blender. Then add all other ingredients and mix.

Zoo pictures

2010-03-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went with some friends and got in free to the San Diego Zoo. We definitely had fun with our friends (and umbrellas) but I'm not sure my girls appriciated the animals at all. They were far more excited about the stairs and the leaves than they were about elephants or tigers.
Oh, I love sleeping children on the way home : )

Goodbye Disneyland

2010-03-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

My season pass to Disneyland expires next week and Steve's is the week afterwards. Both of our season passes were gifts (from 2 different people) and we've had a blast. But honestly, I'm sort of glad that we're done-- it takes a lot of work to get 2 little ladies and all of their stuff to and from Disneyland once every 2 weeks! I think I've also been on teacups one to many times. Kiera's pass doesn't end until november so maybe we'll just drop her off at the gate.....

This is Kiera's rediculous hair-do, which was my attempt to get her tall enough for Soarin' Over California. Too bad the disneyland worker pushed her hair down. I was sorely disappointed-- I really wanted her to go on it! She wore huge shoes and huge ugly hair at disneyland and it did us no good!

Refocusing Grief

2010-02-26T12:59:00.001-08:00

First of all, I would like to mention the difference between saddness and depression since there is a huge misconseption about them:

1. Depression: Caused from chemical reasons (neurotrasmitter or hormonal issues, side effect of medications). Depression can NOT be resolved with any amount of positive-attitude or will-power. Depression does not corespond with unfortunate events or situations. It can only be fixed by correcting the chemical problem. (I've only experienced this once in my life: 9 days of my first pregnancy, which my psychologist determined to be caused by a bad drug combination reaction. It was HORRIBLE!)

2. Sadness: Caused by unfortunate situations or events. Can be corrected with a positive attitude.

There have been a few people who have commented to me lately on the fact that I seem to be doing fine after my recent traumatic event. I think yesterday (when another friend made the same comment) I figured out why I seem to be doing so well: I have refocused all of my saddness and frustration and used that energy towards my huge/impossible goal of aquiring money for surrogacy. To be honest, I think I'm a little TOO focused on my new goal and I'm becoming a little over-the-top obessive about it (I lay awake at night trying to think of ways I can make money that doesn't involve neglecting my children).

Yesterday when I figured all of this out I told my friend my theory and she commented that she has a brother who is a psychologist and that is what he tells his patients to do to get out of deep depression: create a new goal and work hard towards it.
It sure seems to be working well for me. I'd rather be obsessive about my impossible goal than be watering my pillow every night and moaping around.

I was thinking about all of this while running this morning and it made me remember a nurse I once worked with. In a matter of 3 years she had 2 very traumatic events occur. First, her sister never came home from school one day. They never found her and never had any leads. Secondly, a year into her marriage she was cooking dinner in the kitchen with her husband when he droppped dead. She was an ICU nurse so she knew exactly what to do to help, but nothing worked and she lost her husband. After the second traumatic event us coworkers started noticing that this nurse was working a lot of extra shifts. Also, she became extremely fit. She was refocusing all of her grief and putting it into her job and into exercise. 2 years later she met someone else and apparently she wasn't grieving as much because she toned down her working and exercise.
I'd say that it wasn't unhealthy for this nurse friend of mine to do this. It is better than over-eating and laying in bed crying all day or losing her job by not going to work. Yes, it was a little over-the-top for a while (she was worknig 7 days a week!) but it got her through it.

So, the take-home message of this blog is: If you find yourself in a very difficult, sad situation (not be be confused with depression), find yourself a goal and work hard towards it. It will get you through until happier times come.

Proud parents... obviously

2010-02-20T23:41:00.000-08:00

Having done two music videos by now for Kiera by the time she completed the stage of life that Lydia's currently in, we felt the tradition to carry it on for Lydia would only be appropriate. It's real fun, anyone can make these on their own computer. I'll warn you the video is 7:24 long;

however if you have the time, grab some popcorn and enjoy looking back at Lydia's best moments up to now of her short-legged life that were caught on camera.

*Double click on the video screen to see it in the larger format

Glorified RN babysitter

2010-02-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

I've landed myself what I consider to be a totally sweet job. I am a registered nurse but I have not worked in 4 years since I've been either pregnant and therefore disabled, or caring for my young'ins. It took my a little while to find this job because I wasn't willing to work if it meant being away from my girls much as they are still my first priority.

I've now "worked" 2 days of my new job. I am a private nurse for 9 year-old boy who is fed through both an IV and a feeding tube. I manage these tubes (something that I'm expert at since I've had both done on myself recently) and give a few medicines and that is it. For the rest of the day I'm a glorified babysitter. I read him books, play Monopoly, chat with his mom, etc. Totally easy job. Oh, and it is flexible. I tell them which days and hours I work. It doesn't get better than this!

Earthquakes a plenty

2010-02-17T13:48:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday we had 3 earthquakes. We've had 2 so far today. I hear that that these milder (3-5) earthquakes can be pre-shocks for a bigger one. Well that is motivation to get my water storage! I recently had complete water storage, but the big 5 gallon containers of spring water i bought from the grocery story leaked everywhere in my daughters closet and make everything mildew. I just barely finished cleaning up the mess this week. Time to get more water. Otherwise, I feel pretty prepared.

Favorite Olympian-- check her out!

2010-02-11T20:44:00.000-08:00

Noelle Pikus-Pace was my best friend in 5th grade. I haven't had much association with her since then (besides facebook), but I'm super excited she is going to be in the Olympic this year and not only that she is expected to win gold. I think it is ironic that this is 1 of only 2 pictures I have of the 2 of us together : )

Check out her sad/amazing story below (the intro on Utah is sortof obnoxious, but the rest of it is good).

Wants now vs. Want the most

2010-02-07T16:25:00.000-08:00

This has become the new theme of my life lately: Don't let what you want now get in the way of what you want the most.

That said, we've been pinching pennies lately and plan on doing so for a while. Here are some ways I've found to cut some expenses:

#1: Food storage. We are using it and it is saving us $. Last week I decided to do an experiment and I made powdered-milk chocolate milk and gave it too my family without telling them what it was. All 3 of them drank it without hesitation. In fact, Lydia (18 months) thus far has NEVER drank any milk product in a sippy cup (she spits it out if she discovers milk in a sippy). But she drank the powdered milk just fine and even objected when I took it away! I think we are going to try drinking half regular milk and half powdered milk and see how it goes. Without the chocolate it isn't as drinkable though.
I've also been cooking a lot with my powdered milk, eggs and butter. This is EASY and you really can't taste a difference in baked goods.
Dry beans is also a recent discovery. Cheap, nutritious, not hard to cook if you have a pressure cooker.

#2: My new beautician: Steve. I wanted to eliminate the $18 I had to spend on hair cuts every 6 weeks since it is a non-mandatory expense. I've been cutting Kiera's hair for a while so I decided to teach Steve (on Kiera) how to cut hair.

I'd say he did a fairly good job for a first timer. Yes, it has room for improvement, but it was FREE and I think he'll do better next time.

It is amazing how many ways you can find to cut expenses if you try and it is also amazing to see how much you really didn't need those things you are missing out on in the first place.

Sick days

2010-02-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

For the past few days my girls have been sick (Kiera worse than Lydia). We've done a ton of watching TV (something I don't normally promote). Even when Lydia was feeling better she enjoyed being by her big sister while she watched TV. I guess she just missed her since she wasn't playing because normally Lydia is way too busy to watch TV. Cute.

2 nights ago Kiera had a temperature of 104.5 and I was patting her down with a wet cloth. She just kept crying/moaning "mommy". It was, of course, very difficult to so difficult to see the little girl I love so much in such a sick state. They I started thinking about all of the orphans in Haiti who are probably sick and who don't have their mommy and who don't understand what is going on. And then I started thinking about all the little people who were buried in the rubble and I had to stop myself because it was too terrible to think about.

I just have to say that I'm grateful for modern medicine, grateful to live in the USA, and grateful for my family's safety. We really are fortunate and blessed.

Nelson fun

2010-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Last night Steve and I sat down and wrote out a list of fun and free things to do in the next few months (for both us as a couple, and for the whole fam). I was surprised how many things we came up with. Today we started our fun with a picnic. 65 degrees isn't too bad. As you can see, we attracted quite a crowd -- but it was ok because the girls enjoyed the attention.
Excited to be eating a special picnic in a special spot : )

Lot of fun at the park. We played soccer with the red ball-- rule were that adults couldn't touch it so I picked up lydia and swung her legs at the ball to help her kick it.

Kiera has a new best friend ever since I was sick: Elmo. He comes everywhere with us. Oh, and she informed me this week that Elmo needs clothes. So now Elmo wears Lydia's red shirt. Kiera has even been teaching Elmo to read (which is nice since it helps her to remember what she has learned).

The girls LOVE to wear these slips/tu-tu. They would wear it all day long every day if I would let them.

Family favorite: Playing "tinkerbell". Steve helps the girls to fly around the house. they love it.

The sun is coming out

2010-01-24T15:24:00.000-08:00

It has been raining for the past week. The weather seemed to match my mood at times.

Yesterday the sun came out for the first time. Beautiful. I must say that I have been overwhelmed by the amount of love and support I've felt. You really do find out who your friends are while going through hard times. From many friends I've felt nothing but a sincere desire to help and to try and lift my burdens. I don't need much physical help, but all of the love is very much appriciated.

Some reasons I'm glad I'm well and able to particpate in family life again:

Lydia's first experience with Root Beer (steve's favorite). She's a fan.

Dipping fries in icecream, and dipping icecream in ketchup. Yum.

Thus it Ends

2010-01-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

We wouldn't normally blog this but we're at a point emotionally that we'd rather blog it now so we don't have to tell people individually over and over again.

Loma Linda Medical Center has a policy to terminate a pregnancy only when the mother's life is threatened. We had to follow through with that policy due to Cambrie's physical condition, which was getting worse and worse by the hour. We're probably more pro-life than most people but we feel in these circumstances the decision had to be made.

Just like post labor and delivery for our two kids, Cambrie is recovering quickly and will be OK. I think now we'll be looking into others options if we were to have any more kids by means of surrogacy or adoption.

Thank you to everyone that has expressed or given their support. It's extremely comforting to experience the overwhelming love friends and family have poured into our family and for that we're so grateful for you!

Warning: survival mode only

2010-01-07T13:00:00.000-08:00

It is good to be home again. I'm so grateful that I was able to get the help that I needed so quickly this time. Loma Linda hospital is WONDERFUL.

Although I feel a lot better than before, I still am mildly nauseated. I have a feeding tube that runs 24/7 and I have a PICC line (and IV) so I can hydrated myself with a bag of fluids every night. so my 2 problems now are:
1. I'm WEAK. (Laying in a hospital bed starving probably contributed)
2. I'm hypersalivating. This is something I do every pregnancy for a month or 2. The trouble is that I can't swallow it or I vomit, and if I spit much of it out I get very dehydrated (I'm dependent on only 1 bag of IV fluids to hydrate me per day) so I am left with trying to hold large amounts of saliva in my mouth (I know-- gross!). This makes communication very difficult especially with my little ladies who don't understand my sign language. It is frustrating, but this too will pass. Anyway, if somebody out there wants to communicate with me, do me a favor and email instead of calling : )

My mom is here helping out until I get stronger and more able to manage life. My little girls seem to be handling everything ok since Steve was home for most of the time I was in the hospital (good planning on our part). I am on "survival mode only" though. You won't be seeing any cute hairdos on my girls any time soon, if you come to my house you are likely to find a disaster area. Anything that I can let slide...I will. One day at a time.

She's Home!

2010-01-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

...feeding tube and all:)

One More Day

2010-01-04T22:27:00.001-08:00

Hopefully Cambrie will come home tomorrow (Tuesday). I'll spare the details of all her complications and just say that though there are several setbacks in her condition, this pregnancy is being handled much more efficiently that the previous two

"Nother Update

2010-01-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

I'm sure when I'm walking down the hallway to visit Cambrie that all the nurses glare at me and think, "So that's the inconsiderate husband who wanted more kids and who put his wife through this living he..." Actually, this pregnancy couldn't have been planned any better. Knowing the circumstances of Cambrie's health condition during pregnancy, the Loma Linda doctors are the ONLY doctors that we've found that are willing to render the appropriate treatment. Who knows if we'll have any more since we'll be moving in 2 years to a place with less access to medical care compared to LLU--who knows?

Cambrie's tentative discharge date from the hospital is this upcoming Monday. For those that are still reading on and interested, she had to first start off with about a 1/2 cup of nutrients a day until she was stabilized. She's finally reached that threshold yesterday where she gets enough nutrients to limit her vomiting to a minimum (still constantly nauseous but it's tolerable--relatively speaking), but at least the feeding tube is helping her out tremendously! She's doing fairly well and so long as the feeding tube doesn't have any complications she'll continue to be doing well enough.

Her mom's coming down to help with the kids starting next week; even still, Cambrie will be pretty weak to play or interact much with our kidlets. For those living near us, if you have time so your kids could interact/play with ours it would be the biggest help to our family.

For those interested, here's some photos of our Christmas break

Cambrie Update

2009-12-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

Cambrie got her feeding tube in yesterday afternoon. It should take about 2 days or so for her to go from vomiting uncontrollably to having a semi-normal pregnancy (fingers crossed...and arms folded). The major warning that the GI doctor gave her was to not throw up for the rest of the day post-op or there would be serious complications. Well, when she came to after the surgery, that's all she was doing. Try throwing up without being able to use your stomach muscles and having open abdominal wounds--not fun. Anyway, sparing all the gruesome details, just know it was a long night. Hopefully this hurdle for her won't take as long as Lydia's and Kiera's complications.

It's a good thing they're worth it!

2009-12-27T21:45:00.000-08:00

Cambrie update:
Here we go again! Right on schedule almost to a tea. Cambrie's logged a time table how her previous 2 pregancies went and this one is nearly similar to the day.

For the past 2 days it's gotten worse where even a sip of water will make her vomit--say nothing about food. The doctors told her to come in since her ketones are dangerously high

She's currently staying the night at the hospital getting juiced up on IVs (D5LR). Her 1st 2 pregnancies they spent a lot of time experimenting on different drugs to stop her uncontrollable vomiting and then resorted to TPN or a feeding tube. As of right now, they're just going to cut to the chase and will most likely give her the feeding tube--perhaps that will get her nausea more controlled faster.

I'll keep you updated

No preschool for us....

2009-12-21T11:35:00.001-08:00

In the past 6 months or so we've been debating on the subject of preschool. Virtually ALL of Kiera's little friends are in preschool (or will be soon). Neither Steve nor myself nor any of our siblings attended preschool and we all turned out great (at least I think so).

I was going to participate in a preschool co-op type thing but it ended up falling through. I looked at some of the expensive preschools around but I couldn't justify them:

1. Kiera is doing fine academically (she can read simple sentences).

2. I feel like she is doing fine socially.

So because of mainly financial reasons I had decided not to put Kiera in preschool. However, I recently became absolutely sure of my decision of not doing preschool EVER for any of my kids. Why? Because of a book I recently read. "Hold On to Your Kids". This is more of a philosophy book than a parenting book and it comes with my highest of highest recommendation. This book has ABSOLUTELY changed the way I look at life an parenting (unlike the other 10 parenting books that I've read that have nothing more than good tips).

Ever heard of kids who feel like the worst punishment is to have their parents be disappointed in them? This book explains how that is possible....along with lots of other stuff.

Thank you so much Lindy for recommending this book to me. It really has changed me. I'm just so glad I read it so early in my parenting life.

December Happenings

2009-12-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

December is a lovely month. I did succeed in waiting until the day after thanksgiving to put up our Christmas decorations although it was difficult. The girls absolutely love the decorations and the lights. Kiera is particularly fond of the Cinderella ornament and Lydia likes the "Nack" ornament (snack) which is a little white box ornament that I frequently fill with fishy crackers.
We have a family tradition of dancing together as a family to a Shedaisy Christmas song with all the lights turned off except Christmas lights. They both shriek with excitement when we turn on the music. Kiera understands the concept of Santa and it is nice to have leverage of santa only giving presents to good girls. This is such a fun a magical time of year. I love it.

For those of you who have not heard yet: we are expecting baby #3! We are very excited and just a little nervous. Kiera told me several times the 2 weeks proceeding us finding out that we were pregnant, "mommy-- there is a baby in your tummy!" Amazing how children can be so intuitive. According to Kiera this baby is a girl.....but Steve is really hoping for a boy.
We are as prepared as we possibly could be for this pregnancy so here goes nothing!

A Child's Prayer

2009-12-11T00:28:00.000-08:00

With all the turmoil happening in the world, we asked Kiera to offer a special bedtime prayer...this is what we got (click on the link to view it better:)

Darn cute pictures and hillarious story

2009-12-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry for those of you who already read this on fb, but I had to but it on my blog too since it is so funny: On Thursday we were at Disneyland and I had to take Keira to use the potty. As we went in the stall and I shut the stall door Kiera said "Please keep your arms and legs inside of the ride at all times". I laughed out loud and so did the person in the stall next to me. No, she has never said that before. The potty at Disneyland is a pretty crazy ride.

A need for higher altitude

2009-11-29T14:06:00.000-08:00

Lydia cracks me up. That little lady is S-P-U-N-K-Y and quite the opposite of her older sister who is timid about everything new. This week we went to a mcdonalds playplace and Lydia climbed right up inside. Kiera has NEVER gone inside one because she's too chicken. But, watching Lydia's example she went a few feet into it before getting nervous and coming back out to observe Lydia from a safe distance. the same thing happened with bubble bath: Kiera was too chicken until Lydia demonstrated that it was ok.

For the past 2 weeks when I can't find my girls I'll frequently find them in the garage in the car climing around. I still haven't been able to catch it on "film" (we don't have film anymore!) but Lydia frequently will stand on the bottom of the steering wheel and hold on to the top of it and rock back and forth. It is soooo cute because she is about the same size as the wheel.
I'm frequently finding Lydia on table tops and other random places where she is not supposed to be. She knows how to get a stool and take it to where she wants to climb up. So, I can't even leave knives on the kitchen counter top. No injuries...yet.

Powerful video

2009-11-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

Anyone who felt ungrateful has now been humbled.

Kiera's birthday and visit from Gronemans

2009-11-23T12:04:00.000-08:00

2 Cute ladies with Erica

My brother Chad and his wife Erica came to visit us this weekend. We had lots of fun doing local things like visiting the park and feeding ducks. Their little Emmy is about Lydias age so it was fun to see them interact.

We took Chad and Erica to our local VA hospital duck ponds to feed ducks. But my girls also enjoy playing on the stairs (jumping down them with daddy)

I used to bring old stale bread to feed ducks, but now I bring perfectly good bread...because it also feeds little ladies (although neither of my girls will eat plain bread UNLESS it is duck food).

Kiera's 3rd Birthday!

Here is a picture of Steve and I blowing out Kiera's candles since she REFUSED to do so. I think the anticipation and pressure of it all got to the poor little lady

But after everyone (Grandma and Grandpa, Drew and Erika, Chad and Erica) went to the other room she decided to be happy after all and eat one of the frosting flowers from her cake (yuck!)

This picture was taken the day before her birthday. She wanted to sit on the countertop all day and look at her cake and tell me about how she was going to blow on the candles. She was so excited! Oh well!

Entertaining children (long blog)

2009-11-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

I have to put a preface on this blog: I am writing this mostly for my own benefit. I realize that there are people out there who are WAY better or more knowledgeable at this stuff than me. I'm only recently figuring it out so I'm solidifying it in my own mind by blogging it.

Background: Trying to play with my children has been, up until recently, very difficult for me. It just seemed like our toys were boring..I was bored of them and so were my girls. They had mastered things like shape sorters and puzzles, and I couldn't stand having the princesses go to the ball and dance more than 10 times a day; although if you ask Kiera what she wants to do that is exactly what she'll say.

I'm embarrassed to say that I learned how to play with my children by reading a book. There's a book called Playful parenting: a bold new way to nurture close connections, solve behavior problems, and encourage children's confidence by Lawrence J. Cohen. (by the way I highly recommend it). I'm going to list a few things that I've learned from this book. I feel like what I've learned from this book will create 100x more fun than $100 worth of the latest and greatest toys. This is geared towards the 2-3 year-old child (since that is where Kiera is at) but the book has PLENTY of good info for older children too.

1.The best way to help your child to be confidence is to lose a little dignity yourself. Pretend to not be very good at something and ask them to show you how it is done (put pants on your arms), fall off your chair multiple times and let them laugh at you. For those of you who watch Sesame Street--think Mr. Noodle.

2. Play pretend and let the child be a dominant role and you act out some of the problems they might have (they are the nurse giving the shot and you are crying and begging not to have to get it).

3. When you play the part of the bad guy or monster be a little scary and a lot incompetent (the villain who keeps tripping or who brought a bubble gun instead of a real gun).

4. Give a child a toy that can be used for multiple purposes (like a box). Princesses have a very limited purpose

5. Hours of half-hearted interaction with children are not nearly as good as short spurts of fun play. Set aside 10 minutes twice a day for "special time" and do everything you can to help your child/children laugh and have fun in that 10 minutes. Afterwords they will be much happier and less needy/clingy.

6. WRESTLE with your children (including girls--it builds confidence). By this I mean play games of power and USUALLY let them win. Examples:

*pillow fights-- "I'll bet you can hit my tummy with this pillow before I hit yours!"
*Try to hold your child and have them try to get away, "You'll never get away from me!"
*Have them try to get past you. Boast about how they'll never get by you and then act surprised when they achieve it.
*Give them clues like spread your legs far apart so that they can go under, stoop low so that they can go over you. Act astonished every time. Help them learn how to trick you "look over there-- an elephant!"
*Don't tickle them. They feel out of control and many times don't like it. Instead, just poke them and back off until they stop laughing or you can just threaten to tickle.
*Arm wrestle-- let them use one finger and win.
*after losing a wrestling match, end the game by admitting your loss. “I’m so tired you’ll have to carry me to the couch!” “oh man, I lost! I’m going to sulk all day!”

7. Boys need games of "connection":

*Play "love gun"-- while they are playing war suddenly declare that they shot you with a love gun and now you love them more than anything (and then act that out)
*Use any excuse to be emotionally close, “ouch that must hurt”
*Fall over dead on top of them,
*Hide behind them if there is an enemy nearby,
*Play a game of faithful army buddy who saves his injured friend.

8. Think of what your child is having trouble with (potty training, crying when being dropped off at nursery, fear of bees, etc) and play games related to those problems: pretend dolls have potty training accidents, act out going to nursery--only YOU are being dropped off by your child. Play the game a few times and have your reaction to nursery be different every time but the child comforts you in all situations. (This can also be played with dolls, princess or superheros for that matter)

9. Have your child pretend to be a bee and you be scared to death of being stung. Then YOU be the bee and try to get your child (be an incompetent bee: run in to walls or pretend you forgot your stinger).

And now, some game/fun ideas:

*Make silly rules: no giggling, blinking, etc.. Fuss when a rule is broken.
*For 10 mins let your child make all of the rules and punishments.
*Pretend something they are already eating is yours and pretend to be mad each time they take a bite.
*Sock game- everyone wears socks and has to crawl on the floor and try to get everyone Else's socks off.
*Thumb wars, arm wrestle, leg wrestle
*Play school. Have them teach stuffed animals things you want them to learn: teach the doll about crossing the street.
*When pushing them on the swing pretend that the swing knocks you down or they kick you. "you'd better not do that again!"
*Let your child pretend to put YOU in a time-out.

.....this blog could go on and on, but I'll stop there. The main point: The most fun to be had with your children involves no toys whatsoever. Feel free to add your own 2 cents on the subject.

Fun with Grandma Groneman

2009-11-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

Grandma Groneman (aka mom to me) came to visit from Utah for a week. She came down because my sister Breanna (aka buff) who has been living with us graduated from nursing school and will be moving up to Utah tomorrow. Congrats to Buff for getting your LVN!

Grandma took me N' the ladies to San Diego Zoo. It was a huge hit with my kidlets. Thanks Grandma!

Lastly, we went to Disneyland (of course). It is even more magical than normal at Christmas time (yes it is Christmas time in Disneyland right now).

This picture of Lydia with sleeping beauty was caught right before Lydia tried to stick the cracker down the front of sleeping beauty's dress. You can see the plan in her eyes in the picture.

Flashback Friday

2009-11-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

This is a random flashback, but it is something that has been haunting me lately...so I figured if I blogged it, it might help:

Back in 2006 Steve and I went on a "Mission Trip" with people from his MBA program to Swaziland Africa. We were there for the dedication of a clinic that his school paid for, we had a little 2-day free healthcare clinic, and we also dropped off some stuff at orphanages. The rest of the 2 1/2 weeks we were there it was mostly vacationing in our 5-star hotel and doing tourist stuff.

On the last night that we were there the school paid for a VERY expensive dinner at a fancy hotel. I sat next to a native (but weathy) Swaziland girl who has about my age (on right)
I was doing a report on Swaziland for my Community Health Nursing class I was doing at the time so I siezed the opportunity to ask her about Swaziland. She told me lots of interesting facts about the king, cultural norms, ect.. Then I asked her what the average person's diet is like. She told me that for MOST women and children in swaziland they ate a ground up corn paste for both breakfast and lunch, and then they hoped that the male of the house brought home the money he made from the day so that they could eat something else for dinner...but most of the time male go spend it on food for themselves or alcohol. She told me this very casually like it was very normal. I almost puked up my expensive dinner I was eating.
To think that there were LOTS of people who were within a mile of where I was who were STARVING while I ate my fancy shmancy dinner made me feel like scum. And to make it worse, we left for home the next morning.
I'm not sure why, but this has been haunting me all week.

Our Halloween Pictures

2009-10-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

So far we have a tradition of sticking to a family costume theme every year. Since we now have little girls it looks like we'll be pretty limited in our options. Steve was a King, I was a Queen and of course we had 2 little princesses

Kiera was pretty excited about the trick or treating. Fun to watch.

.

The loot. Too bad Kiera REFUSES to try any candy other than suckers and smarties (that's Kiera for ya)....I guess her poor unfortunate parents will have to dispose of the rest of it for her.

Lydia was fairly oblivious to the entire thing although she does like putting on dresses and spinning around (like Kiera) so she was happy to prance around in her princess dresss. What a little girl!

72 hour kits....FEEL THE GUILT...CHECK YOUR OWN KITS

2009-10-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to a Preparedness Fair that my stake put on. Ever since General Confrence I've been meaning to go through our 72 hour kits and make sure that nothing was expired etc.. (My goal is to do it every October during Saturday General Confrence) It has been on my to-do-list for a month but I decided I'd better do it before I went to the Preparedness Fair.
First, I don't think I quite have enough water for my family of 4 for 72 hours. Secondly, if you notice the boxed water in the middle is deflated since it leaked everywhere and made things moldy. (Good thing I checked my kits!)

Thanks to my parents who gave us lots of good stuff for our kits a while back.
The large yellow object in the picture is a flashlight/radio that can be powered via adaptor, batteries, or by a hand crank. Also, there is a flashlight that you just have to tip back and forth to create power (yeah for not batteries!). I put the latern in the kit but I just now realized that I've never used it (and don't know how) and it is pretty heaving so it is probably not a good choice for a 72 hour kit. The 100 hour candle is good (and waterproof matches).

Other good stuff from my parents: ponchos (although it hardly EVER rains in So Cal). Survival blankets, and pastic shelters.

Also good to have: hygine items and first aid kit. Don't fort get to include any medications that you can't live without.

This was recent addition to our kits: I made copies of all of our important papers (birth certificates, drivers licences, insurance policies) and put them in a little book. That could come in very handy someday. I still need to add Lydia's birth certificate...

Here is where my 72 hour kits FAIL. This is all of the food that was in my kit... as if that would sustain my family for 72 hours! What's worse is most of it expired in 2007! I can't see my kids munching on the emergency rations even if they were hungry. So, I thought I'd add a can of toddler formula (light weight, nutritious and shelf stable) and I'll add crackers, dried baby cereal, and applesauce.

Lastly, I had these in my kit. I don't think us southern californians really need winter hats or mittens. The blanket I guess is a good thing to have (although bulky), There is a real nifty little toilot paper/rubbing alcohol heat source container that once again I don't think is necessary here. Maybe in it's place I should pack LIFE JACKETS since everybody knows that California is going to fall off into the ocean any day now. Lastly, next to the rubbing alcohol there is a random little gaget that I have NO IDEA what it does (anybody know what it is ?) so if I don't figure it out, I'll chuck it.

Missing from my kits: I need to get diapers, WIPES (A SURVIVAL ITEM) and a change of clothes for my kids. Also a bottle would be handy to have.

After going to my preparedness fair I think it would be a good idea to store gasoline too. If there was a huge earthquake it might be very hard to come by. A car could not only get you places, but it can be a way of staying warm, listening to radio, shelter, etc..

Please feel free to point out anything you see I've forgotten in my kits. Good luck with your own!