Keeping in touch

This is a quilt I just finished last week. It was a late (maybe early?) Christmas present. I'm glad to finally finish it. And she really liked it which made all the work worth it. I'm ready to sew my 24 quilt blocks from last year into a quilt top and then get it on my gigantic quilting frame I got for Christmas. I just have to get the fabric for the sashing and backing. Another trip into Idaho Falls. ~great~

I've been exercising pretty regularly for the past month. It's finally paying off. The pounds are slowly decreasing. I've now got a new low since the time I was pregnant with Daniel. I am going to do this! It may kill me. I'll let you know when I finally weigh less than Chad. I don't know if I've EVER weighed less than him. (Well, maybe at birth because then he was almost 4 months old.) I'm looking forward to getting rid of clothes that don't fit because now they really don't fit!

We've been sick around here with one thing after another. I'm still trying to figure out why Leah and Nathan had fevers today. Nathan didn't seem bothered by it, but Leah used it to her full benefit. I'm relieved to report that she's back to her perky and cute self. I get to look forward to her usual screaming and crying throughout the night. She had me out of bed 4 times before 12:40 AM one night last week. Half of the time, she didn't even know what she wanted...just wanted to torture me and get in trouble, obviously.

Rebekah is still holding back on talking. She can say "more" (or close to it) and does regularly. She puts both hands on her chest when you ask, "Where's Rebekah?" I think I finally got her to know who to point to when I ask, "Where's Mommy?" Maybe I need to make a bigger impression on her! The funny thing is that when she hears you start asking something with "where's", she automatically puts both hands on her head because she thinks you're going to ask her where her hair is. Silly girl.

Daniel is doing well in school. I recently talked with his teacher and she said he's very conscientious about doing his work. REALLY? How do we get that kid to come home and clean his room? He still doesn't love to read his homework (neither do I, if it means anything). Do they make a chair that will tie down everything but a boy's eyes and mouth? He just can't sit still and I'm getting jostled around. It's been paying off though. He's becoming a good little reader. He has a regular chore at home now; he sweeps the floor after dinner. He gets paid for it, too, which we use to teach him about tithing, saving money and spending money.

Nathan turns FIVE this Friday. I admit that I'm worried about his future. I wish I could guarantee that he'll have a strong belief in himself and will be confident because he's going to be small and will likely be a target for a bunch of idiot bullies. He's a smart kid. You should see him put a puzzle together. Most people at church have never heard him talk. He is slow (even for a Collett) to warm up. He looked very uncomfortable in Primary on Sunday when he was up there (with 3 others) to have a b-day song sung to him. He can wear the same pair of socks for days. A funny thing is that if one does come off for some reason, he's fine to leave the other one on. A couple of weeks ago, he had one sock on and one sock off for a couple of days.

I've got a bunch of projects that I want to accomplish, including fumigating my house to get rid of the germs we're obviously breeding. But to be honest, I'd rather have someone come and chat for a while and just kill time. How's that for productivity?

December Quilt Blocks

You probably think I gave up on the quilt group the last month of the project, didn't you! Not so. The group was postponed during the busy month of December and since I was plenty busy myself, I only just completed them. We have our final meeting tomorrow night, coinciding with the first meeting of this year's quilting group. I am addicted!

These are the blocks. The first block is called Old Timey Square. I shrunk the original block to repeat it 4 times in my own block. This is the Beginner's Block.

This block was originally the beginner's block but I didn't like the advanced pattern (I think it is ugly), so I made this one the Advanced Block. It doesn't really have a name. Just applique. Both blocks have applique, actually.

I have framed each of my 24 blocks from the past year in coordinating fabrics and trimmed them all to the same size (15 1/2"). Now they are ready to be sewn together into a quilt top. Chad gave me a huge, luxurious quilting frame for Christmas, so I should be able to quilt it in style. I will post a picture of the final result. Check back in the fall!

Click here to refresh your memory on the previous blocks. And here (scroll way down). And here. And here (about half way down).

The Final Chapter of Fifth Disease...a quasi clinical view

I was hoping that Nathan and Rebekah would be spared the beautiful rash. They weren't. At least now I know we're done. (I don't have any more kids!)

I'm really hoping that Chad and I are immune to this because I don't want arthritic symptoms for a few months! (I haven't checked with Chad, but I'm assuming he feels the same.)

In case any of you would like to see the stages of Fifth Disease (also known as Parvovirus B19), here are some pictures.

Rebekah is just beginning. Her face is a little speckled and rosy. She has a fever. Nathan had one, too. I don't think Leah and Daniel did.

Daniel's face is actually getting better here. It spreads over the cheeks and creeps down under the chin a bit. He may have had a bit on his forehead. I can't recall.

Then it hits the body. Here are Nathan's arms. (Remember, you can click on these pictures to make them bigger.) His legs and bum are similar. (I'm not showing you some of those areas to avoid criminal charges.) It will be on the body for a couple of weeks, slowly fading. Leah complained of itching sometimes. No one ever complained of pain.

And though I'd like to blame their crankiness on something, I'm sure it had nothing to do with this rash.

End of discussion!

We weighed the kids the other morning. No one in this family is putting much strain on the scale (except for one who will remain nameless). Leah is 6 lbs lighter than Nathan. They are 23 months apart. Nathan will be 5 in less than 2 weeks. Nathan is a horrible eater, especially when he's sick. Chad was trying to coax more lunch into Nathan today.

It went like this:

"Nathan, you'd better eat more or Leah is going to get bigger than you."

"I really don't care. I'm older than her."

The Nasties

That's us. We have so many germs around here, I have dubbed us The Nasties. Mostly, we are mucous-filled and coughing our insides out. Leah threw up this morning because of snot and coughing. Yesterday, I found dried vomit in Rebekah's crib at naptime. Apparently, she'd thrown up during the night. Gross! And how horrible to throw up and not have anyone rescue you! And the night before that, Daniel threw up (after calling me from sleep several times and threatening to do it). So for the past three nights, we've been getting some really good sleep.

Nathan's bout with pink eye lasted less than two days. His eyes never got goopy and I finally stopped thinking my eyes were infected. (I had irritated eyes the moment I heard we'd been exposed.) Now he's coughing his guts out with the rest of the family.

I haven't been able to avoid this one. I fear I'm headed for a sinus infection. The base of my skull is aching from all the coughing and when I blow my nose, it feels like my forehead is going to blow right open. My ear is starting to hurt, too. While I'm falling apart, I might as well mention that I think I need to seek out a dentist...may have a cavity or two.

And speaking of not feeling well, our van is looking for a new transmission. I guess its coughing it's guts out, too!

My Friend's solution (sequel to "My Friend's problem")

My Friend has come to a decision on how to handle the tough situation with her mother. She said she's been giving it lots of thought, has prayed about it and gotten some helpful input. So she's not going to cut off communications as first considered. (I guess she never felt completely comfortable with the plan, but was looking for something other than ignoring the situation again.)

What she is going to do is be VERY careful about what she says around her mother. She's going to be on "high alert" in any conversation and bite her tongue if she has any impulses to speak more than necessary. (Do they make good band-aids for tongues?) She will probably limit visits as well. The less time in a dangerous situation, the better.

When negative comments and actions are witnessed by her kids, my friend is going to take some time to discuss it with them. She's hoping to do this in a way that attacks the actions, but not the grandmother.

My friend hopes that this last-ditch effort will save a near-decimated relationship of distrust and hurt. If things don't improve, I think she will resort to the original plan to cut off communication. For her sake, I hope it works. She's been pretty worked up about it. (Talk about holding a grudge!)

Pink Eye!! AGAIN?!?!?

Yes, it's true. We are infected again. I knew it wouldn't last long. This is not one of our favorite infections. (As if we had a favorite.) I'm not entirely sure that we're clear of Fifth Disease and now we're adding pink eye to the fun.

I was apologizing to my friend for exposing her kids to the contagious rash earlier this week. She wasn't too concerned and even let our kids get together Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So then she calls me yesterday, about 2 hours after the kids had been there and says one of her kids has pink eye. Lovely. I'm trying to convince myself that she wasn't taking revenge!

Nathan's eyes are the first to go. I realized that he had it while we were at church. So we at least got a chance to share it with others! I wonder what my chances are that we can keep the entire family from getting the gunk. We aren't exactly the type of people to sit quietly in our own small corners!

My Friend's problem

My Friend has a problem that's got her frustrated and torn. Her mother.

It's a tricky situation since she loves her mother and sees many good things in her. The problem is her mother likes to complain and spread negative comments...a lot. She has got criticism down to a science. Unfortunately, it's a one way street (isn't it usually?). Her mother doesn't take criticism well AT ALL and holds a wicked grudge.

Things that her mother wouldn't say to her face are generously shared with other members of the family. Her mother claims that she doesn't visit overnight because of the family cat, but tells everyone else it's because her daughter "sat her down" and lectured her and the step-dad on 'everything' that was wrong with them. It doesn't matter that it happened over a year ago...there is no going back! The strangest part? My friend only learned this recently, from her sister, but her mother claims they've discussed it.

My friend also complains that her mom spreads bad news like missionary tracts. For example, if my friend and her mother are engaged in a conversation of speaking less than favorably about a sister (that is not good for several reasons!), her mother will tell the sister everything that my friend said, but conveniently leave out the things she said! It doesn't matter if it was said in passing, in frustration or the heat of the moment...it all gets forwarded. (To be honest, my friend should be smarter about all of this. She's told me that her mother did this with her and her siblings when she was a teenager.)

As a mother, myself, it is hard for me to understand how a mother keeps trying to pit her children against each other. I work hard with my kids to keep them saying nice things towards and about each other. I want them to love and respect each other...not try to find fault. I have my own relationships with my sisters and brother that I would like to strengthen. We are trying to be adults instead of still acting like children. It's hard to break tradition.

Anyway, my friend is struggling with a stressful situation with her mother that just doesn't seem to be getting any better. She's frustrated and hurt that her mother keeps on with such behavior, while professing other feelings and motives. (Needless to say, there are deeper issues than just this.) She would like to just cut communications altogether. I think part of it is spite and part of it is helpless frustration. She doesn't want to deny her children a healthy relationship with their grandmother, but that's also the problem...she doesn't want her children to be influenced by negative comments and criticisms (received or witnessed).

So that's my Friend's problem. I don't know what to tell her. I know it frustrates and stresses her a lot. It's not an easy decision...to cut off communication with your mother. I've told her to commit the problem to prayer. I'll pray for her, too.

Seeing lots of white!

For the past few days, I've been thinking of posting a blog to complain about the lack of snow and even ice here in a supposedly snowy part of Idaho. In fact, before we moved here, people would say, "You know it snows a lot there, right?" Yeah. We knew.

So it was kind of strange to visit Grandma in Salt Lake and see TONS more snow there than here. We even came back to brown grass with occasional slushy puddles in the streets. The ice fisherman that were out a couple of weeks ago were now out of business. It had been RAINING last week!

Well, all of that has changed. Here is what we see this morning. I estimate over 8 inches of snow on the picnic table. The high tomorrow is supposed to be in the single digits. We're back!

Chad is out of town today, so I'm glad I don't have any errands that would force me to take all 4 kids out in this stuff! I'm grateful for studded tires if something does come up.

Unfortunately, we don't get good snowman snow here. It blows and drifts a lot. Even with all this snowfall, many roofs are mostly bare. It's still good for making tracks though!

And the white stuff isn't only on the outside. Rebekah is doing a little decorating on the inside. Take a look at her trail of toilet paper. (She emptied it completely.) We must have bought the good stuff, because it didn't break until we started trying to get it back onto the roll. You know you'll be treated cushy on your tushy here!

In case you were wondering, that's Leah in the foreground...looks like she's using a blender, and Rebekah is way in the back there...trying to appear innocent! Jingle is there by the table. He's getting ready to shred as much TP as he can before we take it away.

Not an allergy

I think I'm relieved that I don't have to figure out what Daniel is allergic to anymore. Instead I'm trying not to feel too itchy. It turns out that we have a case of Fifth Disease. Apparently, we have nothing to worry about, unless any of us are pregnant. No one here is, and I hope no one we were around is. It shouldn't be more than 5-6 weeks of rashes. (Is that all?) Luckily, it's the type of thing that you usually only get once. Here is what Daniel looked like last week. Pretty, isn't it?

Dear Wal-Mart,

I was shopping in your store yesterday afternoon. Thank you for having me and my money.

I know it must be frustrating to have illiterate people coming through your doors. It was for me as I waited, tucked into a corner, with my daughter and cart on the "entrance" side while 3 or 4 shoppers used it for an exit. Maybe it would help them if you wouldn't rely on the signs only posted on the outside of the building. Some people just can't read backwords through tinted glass.

Thank you for the colorful and exciting displays throughout your store. I was so glad that my 16-month-old had a chance to get her stretching exercises in as she tried to grab everything we passed. I am truly grateful for the seatbelt on the cart. I felt particularly relieved that shopper's luck blessed me with one that wasn't broken.

Thank you for slowly slipping away from your once-touted slogan of selling products proudly made in the USA. Now I own a beautifully carved wood bowl from the Philippenes, kitchen towels made in Singapore and baby bottles made in Thailand. My kids are growing up in a culturally diverse home!

I was surprised that you actually wanted me to share my business with another company, but I think that is very kind of you in such a "dog-eat-dog" world. You see, I purposely went to your store with my toddler to buy her first teddy bear (please no judgements on how old she got before this milestone...she is the youngest of 4 and is lucky to have one of her own at all). I searched all over the toy section only to resort to asking an employee. He was so dilligent at his work that I hated to interrupt. He pointed me to a SMALL section of plush toys, all individually boxed and not at all suitable for my daughter's age. He assured me that was all there was. So I was forced to go down the street to that mega toy store, led by a giraffe. They had a whole wall full of loose stuffed animals! You probaby can't afford to use that much space because you need it for your clearance items.

In one last attempt to locate a once popular but no longer easy to find item, I looked for small, simple banks for my kids. (If they save up enough money, they can bring it to your store and buy something!) Maybe they were put away to make room for the 5 aisles of Valentines' Day candy and stuffed gorillas with hearts. (If my husband ever buys me one of those tacky things, I'll kill him!) Maybe you just want me to try that other toy store.

I hope you won't be offended that I don't shop your store as often as I once did. My husband is glad that I don't and he's the one I'm really trying to get along with. I do appreciate the lower prices. I'm sure that I'm still getting good quality items. If anything wears out or breaks too soon, I always blame it on my kids.

Keep up the fanastic work!

Yours Truly,
A Lighter-in-the-wallet Customer

Cousins...we have how many?

Now that we are done with holiday traveling and travailing, I can take a minute to immortalize it all.

On the day after Christmas we left to visit family 4 1/2 hours away. That's 14 cousins in one Big Bang! I'll bet you've never even heard that version of the "theory!" There was so much commotion that I didn't even really see my kids. They just got swallowed up. I think they enjoyed themselves and were adequately worn out by the time we left. They got to go swimming, watch a ton of movies and played with a whole different set of toys.

We also learned that Daniel is allergic to something during the trip. It would be really nice if I knew WHAT it was that turned him bright red on his cheeks and pink-splotchy over the rest of his body (he was affected head to toe...still has some rash left on his wrists and feet). The mostly likely culprit? Cheese. Either an aged cheese or some canned nacho cheese. I'm trying to get the desire to try the foods again and see what happens. Maybe that's a good Spring Break activity so we don't scare the other kids at school.

So we returned from that trip on Saturday (31 Dec) and then took another car trip to visit the other set of cousins 3 hours away, in a different direction this weekend. There are only 8 cousins there. We went for the first cousin baptism in that side of the family. Coincidentally, there were two baptisms of cousins happening where we'd just been. Tis the Season!

The kids got to play more and watch more TV and ride in the car again (Rebekah and Leah are not good in the car at all). So far, no allergic reactions! *WHEW!* We love to visit cousins, but love to be home again and back to "normal."

So it appears that we have 22 cousins (with 4 more siblings yet to have any children). Is that all? I swear it seemed way more than that in the moment!

Reading Homework

When Daniel came home from school yesterday, I was trying to use time efficiently and get his reading homework done right away. Just my luck...the book was 16 pages long. A mere pamphlet for established readers, but equivalent to the Old Testament for a first grader! It took almost 30 minutes to read through it the first time. Ugh.

I don't remember the ugly details of the days I was learning to read. I know Dick and Jane saw Spot run a lot. Now the kids are reading words like admitted, whimpered, hamburger and Barbara (yes, all of those words were in his homework this week). So it's a sneaky form of torture for the reader and the readee (try finding that word in your dictionary).

It's probably really entertaining to watch Daniel when he's doing his homework. I admit that I've surpressed a few giggles myself. My favorite is the time he actually wriggled, twisted, and slid his way into an upside-down-standing-on-his-head position. (I am NOT exaggerating.) At that point I had to stop the insanity and get him upright before I let him continue. Half the time he's sideways and still moving. Is this a boy thing? Do they have seatbelts in first grade? I haven't actually seen any but maybe the teachers only pull them out in extreme emergencies.

How long before he's so still at his desk you wonder if he's even awake (and then discover that he isn't after all)?

Time to find a dentist?

Daniel is six and a half. He still hasn't lost any baby teeth. That's a little tricky since his adult teeth are coming in. It's been over 2 months since I first noticed a sneaky tooth lurking in the background. Now it seems nearly fully erupted and it's twin is making an appearance. He's starting to look like a shark with rows of teeth! There is a dentist in the ward that I've questioned a few times. He said they would probably all take care of themselves. The tongue will push the adult tooth (now teeth) into place after the baby teeth fall out. He said I could push the loose tooth towards his lip to help get it out. Daniel doesn't really like that. (surprise, surprise) So of four teeth that are in the way, two are loose, one more than the other. The dentist did say that as long as the back teeth don't get higher than the front ones, I shouldn't worry too much. Well, I guess it's time to start worrying, or at least find a dentist!

Doom and Gloom?

Our kids have been praying lately that they'll live a long time and not die too soon. Chad and I are trying to think if we've said anything to trigger the trend. Since we couldn't think of anything, we'll have to assume that it's just a kid thing. Anyone out there have a similar thing going on in their family? Leave a comment to share one.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Leah!

I can't believe she's 3 years old! Leah is convinced that she is almost as old as her daddy and mommy now. "I am growing up!"

For her birthday dinner, she chose Wendy's. Who knows why...we rarely eat there. We gave her several options and Fazoli's almost won out ("the breadsticks place"), but she ended up going with fast food.

Nathan and I decorated her cake during nap time. I was going to make one of those cakes with the doll sticking out of the top, but decided to go easy on myself.

Leah put out the first of three candles (the middle one, actually) by draping her hair into the flames and transfering the fire to her head, instead of the candle. She had 3-4 inches of flames climbing up her hair. I reached over and pinched it out before it did too much more than warm up her cheek and shorten a lock of hair. Now the house smells of burnt hair. YUCK!

She was spoiled with clothes, a doll swing and little high chair to hang on the side of the table (for dolls) and a couple random things. Rebekah is very pleased with Leah's doll toys.

I am amazed at how quickly she is growing up. She is turning into a little girl and leaving her toddler days in a thick cloud of dust! She is quick to apologize and loves to sing. If you start reading a book to her, you might not get up until 3 or more books later. Leah loves to "play family" and rarely plays anything by herself. She loves being a sister! She does have a nasty temper and a scream that will make your ears ring (do you think I'm exaggerating?), so we look forward to future years of maturity and self-control.

We love our Leah!