A new address

We have a new address for our blog. From now on all the going-ons of our life can be found by clicking here or by going to www.ajarofpickles.blogspot.com.

Assistance Please

Now that I have my super fun new iTouch toy, I would like to download some music onto it. The problem is that over the years I have allowed myself to become rather clueless on the topic of music. I know what I like when I hear it, I just never know who the song is by. So when I went to iTunes to pick out some songs I found myself faced with so many choices and feeling a bit overwhelmed. Here's where you come in. If you were to choose a song to add to your collection what would it be? What songs would you choose. Seriously, I need some inspiration.

All for me

For my birthday, my dear friend Trish (and her husband) made me this adorable and incredibly delicious homemade little birthday cake. Seriously, how cute is it? Yes, a two tiered personal sized chocolate cake all for me. And you know what? I ate every last bite. It was delicious! Muchas Gracias Trish and Eldon. This one is definitely a keeper.

Inspiration

Dillon: Do you know what inspires me? Fireworks. But do you know what really inspires me? The ocean. There are just so many mysteries about the ocean that we don't understand.

Kelsey: Do you know what inspires me? Nature.

Out they came

A week ago, my sweet little KK had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She has been needing this done for quite some time and we finally gathered up the strength to go ahead with the procedure.

Here she is in the surgery center, waiting to be called back to be prepped for her surgery. She is all nervous smiles at this point.

Here she looking cute in her gown.

Here she is getting all of her vitals checked by the nurse.

Before they took her back for the surgery, the got her nice and drugged up. They loaded her up with Tylenol and then gave her a sedative to calm her nerves and make her feel nice and relaxed. Let me just say that that stuff worked. One minute she was making nice little conversation with us and the next her eyes are glazed over, her head is bobbing around and her speech became totally slurred. It really was so cute. She kept trying to tell us things, but her mouth couldn't form the words. She also kept saying that everything was blurry and spinney and she would try to reach out to touch things that were obviously not touchable. She would not make a good drunk. It was extra humorous when the anaesthesiologist came in to talk to her. He was telling her step by step what was going to happen and she could barely keep her head up and her eyes open. Here is a picture of her as the drugs started to take affect.


When they wheeled her back, Doug and I went back to the waiting room and I could not stop myself from crying. I just felt so sad and scared for my little girl and I just wanted to be with her. Fortunately she didn't see me crying and I was able to pull myself together in no time. It was really crazy how quickly the procedure is done. I feel like we just got settled in the waiting room when we were called back to talk to the doctor. Seriously, it was maybe 20 minutes. I have to say that is a pretty sweet gig for that ENT surgeon. He told us that everything went well and that she was doing great. I was reminded once again that this was the right decision because he said that her tonsils were enormous and basically blocking her throat and that her adenoids were blocking 50% of her nasal passage. It's a wonder the girl could breathe at all.

When it was time, we went back to where she was recovering and she just looked so small and precious. She was awake and just kept saying that she wanted to go home so she drank her water, took her little walk around to make sure that she wasn't going to get sick and then we were out of there. When we got home I was looking forward to a nice long nap. However, Kelsey had other ideas. I then spent the next three hours bringing her popsicle after ice cream after slushy. Little did I know that this was going to be about all she would eat for the next 6 days. It turns out that Kelsey is my daughter after all and is a horrible patient. After the second day she refused to take her Lortab and would only take Tylenol and drink water. Then she refused to take her Tylenol and so she kept getting sick and couldn't keep her water down. So, we had to move to a pleasant suppository system of Tylenol. So, for the past 5 days she has been living on water (with me in a constant state of nagging and begging) and suppositories. It has been an absolutely exhausting week for she and I, however, here we are a week later and her scabs have or are falling off and her spirits are up a bit and she even ate some fruit today and drank lots of juice. This is huge and we are all so happy. We may just make it through this after all. Now, I look forward to the color coming back into her face and her eyes becoming bright once again.

So, what have we learned from this experience?

1. Kelsey really does have a good dose of me in her (sorry ladybug I am not a hearty girl).

2. You can't force a 6 year old to eat or drink regardless of how much you beg/yell/threaten/plead.

3. Sometimes I have thought to myself that Kelsey could stand to loose a few pounds. Well, she has definitely lost more than a few and I don't like it at all. She doesn't look right. It turns out that she was perfect just the way she was.

4. My boys (especially Tyler) DO NOT like to be cooped up in the house for a week. Although Tyler has been rather entertaining as he has learned to yell and to try to boss everyone around. My personal favorite was when he wanted to play with Dillon and Dillon wasn't cooperating with him and so he looked at him and yelled "Dillon, come here! One, two, three!" I couldn't stop laughing it was so cute. I then told Dillon that he had to listen to Tyler because Tyler said "One, two, three). Dillon was not amused.

5. This mothering stuff is exhausting!

P.S. Thanks to my mom and to Amber for bringing balloons. They made for a very cheerful Balloon Garden and she loved them. And thanks to Katie and Chad for the cheerful sunflowers and movies. They really brightened my little girl's spirits.

Party Weekend

We had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. On Friday afternoon, the kids and I hopped into grandpa's car and headed to the lake for a little boating with some Wahlquist cousins. It was way fun and even though it was a little cold and overcast for my personal water playing pleasure, it didn't stop the kids one bit. As soon as we came to a resting point, the kids all jumped in the water and had to be dragged back in the boat (blue and shivering) when it was time to go.

I forgot to send the camera with Doug, but that night after boating, Doug took Dillon, Kelsey, my cousin Marc and his kids Tanner, Ella, and Sarah to watch the Red, White, and Boom fireworks. Apparently the night wasn't so much about seeing the fireworks as it was about rolling down the grassy hill.

On Saturday we went to grandma and grandpa's house for a Regional family reunion. In attendace, besides my own siblings, were: my cousin Marc, his wife Kenna and their 5 adorable kids, my cousin Annie, her husband Brandon and thier 3 beautiful girls, and my cousin Leigh, her husband Matt and their delicious little baby Henry. I absolutely loved the fact that these cousins of mine would make the drive over to hang out with us for the weekend. It was just a lot of fun and I loved meeting Leigh and Annie's husbands and kids and getting to know all of them again. The day was full of good food, good company and lots of activities for one and all. The only way this weekend could have been better is if everyone from the Garlock family had been able to attend.

My mom owns two blow-up water slides and the kids absolutely love them! Kelsey is a particular die-hard when it comes to the slides and can be found sliding long after everyone is finished. She is truly a water girl. I also love this picture of Morgan and Miles. Morgan is feeling the water, waiting for it to warm up and Miles is following her example. Morgan was a little sad when I told her that it wasn't like a shower and that the water wasn't going to get any warmer.

The trampoline was another favorite activity for the kids and they all did really well, regardless of the nervous hesitance of some of the parents. Not one kid was hurt on this bouncy beast all weekend. I was particularly proud of Tyler. I couldn't pull him off of the tramp the entire day and he learned to sit down quickly when the bouncing got to be too much for his little legs. This picture of Tyler cracks me up because he was trying to show me how he could be a frog.

Second cousins on a hammock. It's all fun and games until Dillon gets his head stuck through the ropes. My kids have really had fun getting to know these Wahlquist cousins. Dillon is particularly happy to have a boy to play with who is close to his age. We will definitely have to make our way down to Cincinnati more often to get these kids together.

The girls (and Tyler) were particularly thoughtful to decorate the front porch with beautiful chalk drawings and my dad handled the threat of chalked footprints through his house rather well.

As the weather started to turn a bit and the sprinkles started to fall, the girls found shelter under the canopy and created the "everyone club" while they ate their snacks. I don't think these girls could have been any cuter and they all got along really well. Here we have Ella, Ruby, Sarah, May, Kelsey, and Morgan. The girls definitely outnumbered the boys this weekend.

Finally, Doug couldn't take it anymore and he had to pull out the fireworks, or at least what the grocery stores consider fireworks. Sadly (for he and Dillon), he never made it to the actual fireworks store and so poppers, smoke bombs, and sparklers were all they could do.

Ruby spelling her name with her sparkler and Morgan tentatively holding hers before she burnt her finger (just a teensy bit).

Kelsey didn't want to actually hold hers and instead she had me put it into the ground while she and Ruby watched it burn. Here is Mike kindly demonstrating the joys of the spakler and he spells out Morgan's name to a captive audience.

In typical boy fashion, these guys had no qualms with the sparklers. They ran around freely with great joy waving their fire stick around regardless of who was standing nearby. Thankfully no one was hurt due to their exhuberance.

It really was a great weekend with far too little sleep and almost more excitement than my little ones could handle. I just wish we could do this more often.

Birthday Musings

Today is my birthday. I am now 35 years old and I must say that it hurts a little bit to say that out loud. Growing up my mother was very sensitive about her age and we were never allowed to ask how old she was. In fact, I still don't think that I really know her age and at this point it really doesn't matter. But my point in mentioning this fact is that I always refused to be like my mother when it came to my age. I told myself that I would always be proud to be my age and that I would never be afraid to admit how old I was. Well, apparently I have become more like my mother in this respect than I wanted to be. Turning 35 has been a little hard and a bit of a rude awakening for me because I am now the age that, in my head, I have always seen my mother to be. Regardless of how old she becomes, in my mind she will always be about 35 years old. This is probably because a lot of things happened in my life when my mom was about this age and so it is a little freaky to now mirror that age myself. The thing is, I don't feel as old as I am. In my head I am still about 21. Carefree and loving the fun life in college. Invincible and ready to take on the world. However, as I jumped on my parent's trampoline the other day and became completely winded after only a couple of minutes, I realized once again that I am not 21 and that I am not invincible. In fact, my knee clicks every time I go up the stairs and I can't ride a scooter around with the kids. My equilibrium is just way too off. I am just not a kid anymore, I am an adult. I am in fact married and am responsible for three precious little lives and there is no longer anyone following me around and picking up after any messes that I make of my life. For the most part this is really OK, but I have to admit that sometimes I have a hard time with this and sometimes I just don't want to be the adult and I don't want to be in charge. But instead of focusing on these negative aspects I really just need to look forward and realize that my chronological age doesn't need to be a hindrance. I can still be fun, and love life, and take on the world. The difference is that I'm just not as invincible and not as carefree as I used to be, and instead of being on my own, I get to do all of this with a great husband and three little angels and that is a pretty good deal.

By the way, a special shout out to my two new favorite cousins Annie and Leigh whom I haven't seen in about 10 years and who both said that I still look like I am 16. I will now love you forever.

Drum Roll Please

I just got back from Tyler's 3 year check up and for the first time ever. . .he's on the growth chart! That's right folks, my little peanut has been in a growth spurt. It has never happened before and so I am quite excited. So here's the stats: Height 36.5 inches which puts him at 25%!! Weight: 28.5 lbs. which puts him at 15%!! Wahoo! You grow little man.

What Tyler was doing instead of napping

This past weekend we moved Ty to a big boy bed. Aren't the trains on his sheets and quilt adorable? Anyway, so far he has done pretty good at night, but I am thinking that crib confined naps will be implemented for awhile until the newness of it all wears off.

How to stay cool when it's 90 degrees outside and a million percent humidity

You go ice skating. On Friday Doug took the day off of work and took to kids ice skating. They had a blast and were so proud of themselves. Dillon had never been before, but he took off right away and was in the middle of the rink in no time, but Kelsey on the other hand preferred to hang out around the sides.