What's Going on With Us

Things have been going rather well lately. Most notably, Derrick has been offered a job to consider applying for. He tells me that it's not the only job that he's looking at, but it is the only one he's been excited enough about to talk to me about. The job, he tells me, would provide a sizable raise in pay, though he's not quite sure how much his boss means by "sizable". However if we are to take this job, it has to be enough for us to be able to afford a new mini-van, a house big enough for the 7 of us, and to still be able to pay for the property that we are on now, as neither one of us really want to lose it or give it up. Also it would require us to move to Maryland. We were originally told Washington (state), so I got my hopes up about being only a few hours drive from where Katie and Walt will eventually end up. All I can do is say "Well, STINK!" about that one.

Daniel continues to do well in school. It's the fourth week in a row that he's brought home a 90 or higher grade on his spelling tests and math worksheets (dabs a tissue at tears of pride).His behavior has also recently improved. I think it is because we are rigidly enforcing the rule where nothing fun is done after school until the family room, and bed rooms are cleaned up, followed by homework. This is used along with at least one and a half hours mandatory outside play time on non-rainy days. Plus, he seems to thrive on being entrusted with new responsibilities. i shift him between feeding the dog and helping me with the dishes. He love it.

Jacob is doing very well also. He just got done with a growth spurt, so now all his pant waist bands are too big when just last month they fit perfectly. Good thing I got all his pants a little long. I can always get him a belt. In school, he is wowing his teachers (and his mom) with his artistic side. They are giving him these worksheets that are to help them learn problem solving and logic. It one of those coloring sheets that has half of a picture drawn on one side of a grid and the kid is supposed to draw the other half. He did so well that his teacher wrote me a note telling me that she was impressed with how well he does in artistic areas.(brag, brag, puff up, puff up).

Layla's being a snot. She seems determined to break every rule she possibly can every day. From stealing, to fighting, to not eating the food she begged for, to drawing on the walls, to waking her little brothers from naps, to lying, and everything in between, i am at my wits end with her. The worst part is that I know exactly what is causing all this. I am still trying to figure out how to handle taking care of Micah, the household chores(which, let's face it,I have never had a good handle on), and giving all my kids the attention they need. So, I fear that Layla is getting the short end of the stick being the middle child and only girl. I have been trying to correct this , but it's not easy to do, and a lot of times she makes it even harder by getting sent to time out over and over again. Still, I will try. I pray every time that given time and the patience that Heavenly Father is helping me to acquire, she'll come around.

Jaiden is , well, Jaiden. Sometimes he follows Layla's example, sometimes it's Daniel and Jake's. Sometimes he just does his own weird little thing. All I know is that he can be extremely entertaining or extremely frustrating. He has been showing off a bit in his new found vocabulary words. The newest words are "Night-night", "Bye", "Danno"(Daniel), and that good old toddler classic "NO!"

Micah is 2months old now, and he is already purposefully smiling. All the time. He is a marvelously happy baby most of the time. I don't think it will be very long at all before he starts to laugh. He sounds like he's trying to figure that one out every now and again. Oh, yeah, he's already rolling over. He has done both back-to-front and front-to-back with the latter being the most often. Crazy, huh?

As for me, I just underwent surgery on the 20th, and bade farewell to my child bearing days. I was pretty scared before hand, this being my first surgery and all.Thank you, mom and dad for keeping me in your prayers that day. It helped knowing that you were. Thank you to my sisters for doing the same, for the same reason. I wasn't quite as scared walking into that pr-op room. Thank you Derrick, for the blessing that you gave me just before they started my I.V. It calmed and comforted me more than you know. Everything went fine. The pre-op anesthesiologist shot something into my I.V. that made me all loopy (that was pretty fun)and then they took me to the operating room. they had just gotten my arms out to my sides, and the little rubber breathing mask on my face, telling me to take deep breaths (I only remember taking 3), when, suddenly, I was waking up asking the nurse in post-op " Is it over?" and not hearing her answer "yup" before I fell asleep again. I slept off and on for the rest of the day. I couldn't seem to go more than 20 minutes without falling asleep. My doctor told me that I would feel like I was kicked in the gut for a few days. I didn't feel that way until today. Now I been kicked in the gut before, and hard,too ( Tony the black belt), and this still isn't as bad as that! So, all in all, not a bad price to pay to have the reassurance for me and my entire family that my sanity will stay intact that much longer1 You guys know what I mean :} !

Micah's Grand Entrance

Well, to say the least it has been a memorable experience to have a baby this time around. I have joined the ranks of a club of women that, personally, I didn't really want to join.

Around 3:00 am on February 18, I woke up because I was feeling cold. My thermostat resets it's self to 62 degrees every night at midnight, so i wasn't surprised. I got up to ask Derrick to go turn up the heat ( Derrick was struggling with a bout of insomnia that night, so yes he was still up).I was going back to bed when I had the first contraction. I am used to having contractions at night, it's really common for me, so I didn't think much of it. They continued to come and quickly got to be hurting me so much that I had to get up and walk around. That didn't help. I had Derrick keep track of how far apart they were coming for a few minutes while I kept track of how long they were lasting. We found the guide book that my Doctor's office gave me when We realized that they were only 3 or 4 minutes apart. It said to call the doctor if it lasted for about an hour. they had, so I called. the on call doctor told me to" come on in. We'll check you out, and see what's going on."

That was at 4:04 am. we immediately called Penny to come stay with the kids. I was sitting on the couch trying to breath without screaming, just waiting for her to get here. I suddenly felt a really strong contraction with a lot of pressure. I knew that I had better go back to the bedroom. I told Derrick to go get some towels. He told me that his first thought was " It's gonna get messy!" I laid back on the bed and got ready. I was trying not to push, arching my back and every thing, but it didn't help. My water broke and he started to crown any way so i just stared to push. All I could hear from Derrick was "Oh! Oh, OH, Oh!" It was only two pushes and Micah DeShay Donner was born, looking all slimy and blue tinted with his daddy holding him with a panic stricken look on his face. I told Derrick to hold him head down while I stuck my finger in his mouth to make sure the plug had come out of his mouth. It had, and he did not like me doing this. He had a faint little cry that built up to a decent one. I got Derrick to grab a shoelace and tie off the cord in one spot with the top of the lace and another with the bottom of the lace. then I told him where my sewing scissors were and he cut the cord. We wrapped him up in a towel and a big flannel sheet and I held him very close to me as Derrick covered me up and called an ambulance.

Penny got there round about now and it was a good thing, too. Jaiden still has had his crib in our room, and needless to say, had woken up during all this and gotten an eye full. he needed someone to reassure him, and Bomba was just in the right position to do so. Note : It was only about4:10 when I went back to the room, and 4:15 when Penny got here. Yes, it went that fast. Shortly there after the EMS got here and took Micah and I to the hospital. We were checked out, told we were fine, and admitted. Micah was 7 lbs. 7oz., and 20 inches long.

Derrick finally got to sleep a little bit.

My Stupid Random Whining

I want a stay at home job. I want my kids to stop destroying everything they see. I want Layla to stop having 5 major crying episodes a day. I want to not be pregnant any more. I want to not have to deal with diapers and poop and pee anymore. I want Daniel to stop screaming in the house just for the heck of it. I want Jacob to learn the even though no one saw you do whatever it is you did wrong, it is still wrong. I want Jaiden to stop biting. I want to not understand how mom felt when she used to say " Well one of you did it, because NotMe doesn't live here!" I want my van to be working again. I want to not have to heat water on the stove any more. I want to have electricity in my bathroom again. I want to use my shower again. I want to have greenhouse for my garden so I can grow stuff year round. I wanna be a good gardener. i want my kids to remember to clean up after themselves BEFORE I am screaming about it, like maybe one of the first 5,6,or7 times I tell them to clean up. I want my floors to be fixed. I want my walls to be repainted and repaired as needed. I want to have a big chocolate cake filled with fudge. I want a big bag of of 500 dollar bills, I'm talking huge! I want a great big juicy steak that I get all to my self and all the chinese food I like that I can eat. I want to have a mute button for anything I don't want to hear. I want to sleep until I WANT to get up. But since I know that I am not getting any of this any time soon, I'll just shut up now!


So..................... How has every one else been?