Look at me go!

Well, I finally did it. Okay, I only did it because Dan almost did it first, but still, I did it. I finally cancelled our Internet. I know, it isn't that exciting to most of you, but I am proud of myself because I had to call and talk to someone. Dan tried doing it yesterday, but they told him to call back or something weird. Anyway, he got me the number I needed to call. Just like I thought they would, they tried to change the price, "But we have a DSL plan for $14.99" "No, can't afford it" "But we have a DSL plan for $12.99" "Look, it is just not going to happen!" I might not have said "Look" but I did say the rest. I'm so proud of me. After that he cancelled it. I couldn't understand him, so I have no idea how long it will actually take to disconnect it, but whatever. At this point I don't really care. It does amaze (although not surprise) me that they can have a $14.99 plan one minute and then a $12.99 plan the next when we were paying $29.99. I know, I know, it sales and they do things like that.
I also got the car fixed today. Again, only because Dan called and got an appointment. Our brakes were squeaking like mad. Seriously, it was so bad that you could hear our car coming. But I took all three kids, dropped the car off, loaded the kids back into the car along with some car guy, unloaded kids and car seats at our apartment and car guy took car back to fix-it-shop. Again, I'm proud of myself. I did wake Dan up at 3 when the car was done and made him take me down to pick it up, but hey...Look at me go.
Enough about me. I think Dan is gradually getting used to the overnight stuff. His body must be adapting because he hasn't thrown-up anymore, I think he can eat, and he is getting to sleep when he gets home...plus he isn't incredibly grumpy when he wakes up. Which is more than I can say for myself. Anyway, last night was apparently really busy. They had two colic's come in (but they were mild cases) and a distotia? Dan has told me this twice, but I don't know if that is what he called it. A horse with a bad pregnancy. Part of the placenta had come away from the wall and the horses water had broke (again, big words that I don't understand) so they had to go in and get the baby out. Apparently it did really well for an hour (Dan says this is typical of baby horses..they get an epinephrine? rush) but then it had a seizure and they had to put it down. Okay, so I'm not sure if any of that makes sense, but I think that is what he told me. The night before another colic came in and Dan got to do the tubey thing that they do to horses. Did you know horses can't throw-up? I had no idea. Weird huh. That must be why they get colic a lot. Anyway, you put a tube down it's esophagus into the stomach and releases whatever is in there that is causing the colic (which by the way is a broad term that means just about anything from stomachache to....other stuff). I asked Dan how he knew he got the tube in the right place and he said that his mouth is on one side of the tube and if you stick it in the trachea (which he did) you can blow and it's in the lungs and nothing happens, but the esophagus will tighten around the tube and you have to wait for the horse to swallow to stick it down in the stomach. Anyway, he got it down in the stomach and his mouth was still on the tube when the gasses came back up. Luckily he had removed his mouth before the stomach contents came up to. Disgusting, I know, but kind of cool, and I think Dan was really proud of himself (as he should be). If you want to know what really happened instead of my extremely dumbed down version, talk to Dan. He isn't on call on weekends, so as long as you call after noon I'm sure he'd love to talk to you!

4th year begins

Alright...so we haven't gotten rid of the internet yet because for the life of me I can't figure it out. There is no button anywhere that says, "If you would like to cancel your internet and pay a ginormous fee this is what you have to do". I haven't quite worked up the courage to call and talk to an actual person...but that is my goal, soon. (I know, a goal that doesn't have set dates and details is just a wish and not a goal, but back off...I'm getting there).
Dan has officially started his fourth year of vet school. His last day of his third year was yesterday. Today he didn't have anywhere to be until noon where he went back to school and was instructed on what is going to take place all night while he is doing clinicals. At least I think that is what is going to happen. I haven't talked to him since I dropped him off at school, and I won't see him until around 8 am tomorrow morning, at which time I will have to figure out a way to keep the kids quite so he can sleep, wake up, eat, and start the process over again. Any ideas? Hopefully the weather will continue to be nice so we can play outside. My friend Melanie has been great about calling and getting me out of the house to take the kids and play. Three weeks...I can do anything for three weeks right? Actually, Dan and his group were going to work out a schedule so it probably won't be so bad. But in the mean time, I welcome phone calls and visits and you know...other stuff that is enjoyable!

Happy Birthday to me!

One last post for the night...I promise. But don't forget to read the other 5 posts under this one. We are cancelling our internet tomorrow (hopefully, I've never done that before and I'm not sure if it will be hard or not) so I'm trying to catch up on my blogs because I know it will be awhile before I get around to doing it again.

We celebrated my birthday on Saturday since the actual day fell on a Sunday. Our friend Lacey and Ron McHargue baby sat for us (thank you, thank you, thank you). Dan let me sleep in and then he took me out to breakfast at the Old European. It was really really good. A little pricey, but I highly recommend it. It was crazy though. I don't know what was going on, but it was incredibly busy.

We spend the next two hours wandering around shopping and spending birthday money. Dan bought me flowers for the porch that I can plant. I'm really excited, and hope the weather cooperates sometime in the near future so my tomatoe plant doesn't freeze. I also got some nice serving dishes. I'm very excited about these, which I find really funny since I don't cook. But, now if I have a nice event like a baby shower or something, I have serving dishes. Wahoo. I would have taken a picture of them, but Dan was being awesome and put them away. They aren't really handy to get out, so I didn't bother. Then we picked up the kids and visited for a bit. It was definitely nap time for them, so down they went. I cut Dans hair while we watched a movie. His hair doesn't look so good. Our clippers broke and I couldn't cut his hair. I only use the clippers on the bottom, but without them I was completely lost. Oh well. Dan then studied for his finals and went to the gym. When the kids woke up I took them over to the Mickelsens so Ira could watch them while Jeniel and I picked up Beth and met Erin Wilmot and Danielle Huston at Cougar Country. This was for Visiting Teaching. Our group isn't that big, but since Jeniel is moving we invited some more people to come along. It was good to get out and spend some time with the girls.

Sunday morning Dan let me sleep in again (isn't he wonderful). Then he made me breakfast in bed. Church was definitely a struggle, but my secretary told me to go to Relief Society today and it was wonderful. I had calmed down by then so the rest of the day went well. I had a great birthday. Thanks for everyones phone calls, e-mails, and birthday wishes.

This was just too cute and I didn't know where to put it. Caden sure loves his daddy and he sure loves to read.

Bisquick

So this is why you should pay attention to your children and not waste time blogging. Or if you are going to waste time (who can blame you) this is why your computer should be in a room where you can watch your children at the same time.

The box of Bisquick was new (only used once) and the culprit looks like Caden, and while he did have loads of fun playing in it (he was covered head to toe) Kember was the one who actually started it. I was checking my e-mail and looking at some friends blogs and I heard the kids playing with something.

"What are you doing Kember"

"Playing"

"Are you having fun"

"Yeah!"

Pause..."Are you making messes?"

Pause..."N...Ya"

I had just barely vacuumed. Right when I came out Jermey knocked on the door to drop off Maeli for the morning. Well, I'm proud to say instead of getting mad, I grabbed my camera instead.

Easter

Easter was rather uneventful with Dan being gone. We did end up going to the Stake Primary Activity, the city Easter Egg hunt, and I got stuff for the kids for Easter, but didn't end up doing baskets this year. I'd love to be able to say it was because I was focusing on the true meaning of Easter and teaching my children about the resurection, but um...I was just lazy. I had fun doing Sharing Time that Sunday though. Here are some pictures of the city Easter Egg Hunt. I was just proud of myself for being able to find it.

It was very very cold and windy and Kember didn't really get the whole pick up the egg and put it in your basket. Which really confused me because she's done it a lot before and loved it. I originally intended for her to run rampid and help Caden in his section, but since she didn't get it, and the other little kids and their parents were...not...hmm...sharing? Caden didn't do it and neither really did Kember.

Oh, and at the Stake Activity I wanted to get a picture of Kember with the Easter Bunny, but she was terrified of it (the costume was a little freaky). In fact, she is still scared of the Easter Bunny. Oops.

This has nothing to do with Easter, but since Dan was gone, we ate dinner on the floor one night. It was rather entertaining and lasted a good 10 minutes.

Spring Break

I was always under the assumption I wrote about Spring Break. Since this blog is counting as my journal I feel duty bound to report some of our activities that joyous occasion known as Spring Break. Keep in mind that that was well over a month ago (beginning of March) and my memory does not serve that long, which is why we take pictures to remind of that yes, something did indeed happen during that time.

Highlights:

-As always a 14 hour drive with two kids! This time we broke up the drive and stayed overnight in Boise. While it was very nice to do this once, I think I'd rather just get to my destination.

-Portable DVD player (thanks mom and dad...great christmas present a couple years ago, and a lifesaver I might add). This works really well unless you forget the car charger. Then you just have a screaming Kember yelling, "Movie! I wanna watch -- (insert cartoon movie name here)." I have discovered that it is much better to not bring it out at all, then to just watch a movie till the player runs out of juice.

-Yeast infection. Yep, because one of my kids always gets one right before we leave to go home. I'm not exaggerating...always!

-Dan in charge of the snacks for drive. Not my smartest idea. I thought it was a good one so I could take care of other things, but apparently he was really thirsty at the time of shopping, so we got a few snacks and a lot of drinks. We didn't bring sippy cups for the kids and the drinks that were purchased were not kid (under 3) friendly.

-Not running into anyone I knew. This always happens to me when I go home, and I'm never looking my best. So this time, I got ready every time we ventured out and low and behold...no one. Rock on.

-Convincing mom to make dad my favorite salad. She's game, and she does it (for a RS function) and doesn't like the salad at all. Oh well, it's still my favorite.

-The rest of the highlights can be better expressed through pictures. Here they are.

-Free food (well, not really free since you pay to stay at the hotel, but it makes me feel better to think of it as free). Notice, we are "All done!" And yes, I am aware I look stupid in this picture.

-Convincing Caden that the water is fun to play in. He hated it, but was eventually convinced to splash in it waist high.

-Convincing Kember that the pool wasn't too cold to play in and it would be fun to be in there with Daddy (since it was hard to have both Kember and Caden in the hot tub). I might add that I think I'm rather brave posting pictures of me in a swimming suit. Look at my inhibitions fly away. Oh, and Kember learned how to put her swimming suit on all by herself, which is why it's on backwards, but hey, I didn't have to do it.

Fire Truck #1Fire Truck #2Fire Truck #3

The morning we left I convinced Dan to let me take the kids swimming one more time before we checked out. Not such a good idea, but only because of the fire alarm, and the rain, and the fact we had to vacate the premises in our swimming suites. Yes, again I felt rather stupid. It was a false alarm, but three fire trucks showed up. Good job to the local fire department.

-Celebrating my dad's birthday. I'm not sure how old he turned...but it was something like 60, although if you look closely at the candles, there are seven. So he's either really immature, or really really old (or my family just can't count).

-Caden rides a tractor...naked of course, because how else would my children be?

-Caden discovers the joys of the ranch, and sleeps through most of it.

-We have an early Easter picnic and Aussie the dog steals my sandwich. Bad Dog.

-While we were picnicing Kember found a stash of Easter Eggs in the front yard and raids them. So much for the Easter Egg hunt. Poor Caden missed out completely. You snooze you lose.

-We try swimming one more time in Grandma and Grandpa J's hot tub. Caden still doesn't like it and manages to fall into the hot tub, which didn't help at all.

It was good to visit with both families. We had a great time. I even convinced Dan to stay a day longer than was planned, which was probably good considering the weather. We drove straight through on the way back, and it was wonderful to be back in Pullman.

A tribute to the Johnson Livestock Oak Ranch

For Sping Break we went to Utah, and we were lucky enough to go the the Ranch. I took loads of pictures, and I just thought I would like to share the beauty of it with all of you. So, here is my tribute (in pictures) to the Johnson Livestock Oak Ranch.

Now, I'm not entirely sure...but I think this was once a grainery.

This is inside what I think is the grainery. Isn't it funny how the bed is there? I'm not sure how it got there. Maybe the boys were playing house and dragged it in there from somewhere, or maybe the guy who built this place got in trouble with his wife and had to sleep out there...who knows...but wouldn't it be cool to know?

There are all sorts of old old old farm macherinery all around the Ranch. It is really cool to go walking around and find something like this. Kember thought it made a very nice place to sit down.

I didn't get a great picture of it, and definietly not at the right time of year, but this is the orchard at the Ranch. I know for sure they have peach trees, but I'm not sure what else. During the Spring and Summer this is beautiful.

This is an outhouse. It's probably makes you wonder about me, but this is one of my favorite things at the ranch. I think I like it so much because it reminds me of the history that had to go on way before my time. Can you imagine using an outhouse (now, I realize it wasn't all that long ago so no one take offense okay)? It definitely makes me thankful for indoor plumbing.

I just thought this was beautiful. There is a little ditch or something running, well, everywhere, and I guess it was just cold enough to do this. Amazing! No, those are not flowers...that is ice.

This is a little tree house the guys (and when I say guys I mean Dan, his brother and all their guy cousins) built when they were little. Kember didn't enjoy it so much, but I enjoy thinking about Dan when he was little and playing at the Ranch.

Now, this isn't the greatest picture, but if you look closely you can see a pasture on the left, the horse corral on the right and the ranch house in the center. There's a lot of history behind that ranch house. I didn't get a picture of it, but further off to the left (if my directions are correct, and they might not be) is an old old chicken coop. I tell you, it is the coolest thing ever. If you ever get a chance to explore it, I recommend it.

Well, anyway, I wish I would have thought about doing this before we came home. There are a lot of neat things I just don't have pictures of, and each season brings its own beauty to the ranch. These pictures definitely don't do it justice.