Zachary........

Took Nclex (state boards) yesterday.

He made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone in case he failed.

He came home feeling very discouraged.

...Convinced he didn't pass, spent all night studying again.

...But Guess what.

he PASSED!

I love projects

So I'm really annoyed that I lost my camera charger again. Could this be another one of Jonah's tricks? Probably, because I can't find it ANYWHERE.
As a result, I'm missing out on so many photo opportunities. So I appolagize for the lack of pictures.

I love makeovers. Don't you? I love beauty makeovers and home makeovers. We are going to try and save Save SAVE and live in our little Duplex until
A) We outgrow it or
B) Zach gets a new job and we MOVE!
We will probably be here for a while, and I can't help but look at all the UGLY features in our place. For example: Our kitchen,

(no, I didn't find my charger. This is just an old pic of when we first moved in.)

It's not THAT bad. But I guess I've been watching too much HGTV because I want to paint these cabinets, add knobs, and rip out that floor!! What a difference it would make!!!! You can't really tell by the pic, but the cabinets are just crap. They have permanent stains on them. It would be such a cheap fix if we painted either a creamy white or black on them and add some knobs. The only problem is:

How do I go about doing it?
I really REALLY don't want to ask the owner,
"Hey! You know those crappy wood cabinets in the house? Well.. is it okay if I paint them and screw some knobs in them?" I think the only words they will hear is PAINT WOOD CABINETS..and they will probably freak!

But if I just DO IT, maybe when we move out, they will say,
"WOW! They really fixed this place up!" Or they will say
"You destroyed our house, you have to replace ALL the cabinets!" Which I really don't want to happen. (even though I don't think it would)

So what should I do? Should I just go for it? Ask the cute old couple? Or just leave it and try not to do so much to a rental?

I'm not doing Anything until we get Jonah better. To make a long story short, It's not Asthma. We saw an awesome specialist, and she found a bunch of strange little things thats wrong with him, but she's not quite sure what it is. So next week we take Jonah up to Primary Childrens for a bronchosypy. If you don't know what that is, it's okay I didn't either. Basically they put Jonah to sleep in the Operating Room, and stick a little camera down his nose and go through his neck and chest to see whats wrong. They also stick a tube in his throat to test how narrow it is. The whole thing makes me sick to my stomach. But at least we're one step closer to getting our little boy better.

Hide and seek

Jonah loves to take random things and hide them in random places.
For example: I couldn't find my phone one day, and as I walked into Jonah's bedroom, I caught him placing my cell phone in his toy barn and closing the barn door!!! If I hadn't seen that, I probably would have been without a phone for a long time. We will be missing something for days and suddenly one day Jonah will walk in the room, holding it!
I find a pot in his toy box, or a stuffed animal in my oven drawer. One time I found an old sippy cup full of milk stuffed way back in a kitchen cabinet. I really do watch him, I just can't seem to catch him when he does stuff like this!
Last night we had friends over to watch The Bachelor, and in the middle of the show, the remote control went missing. We STILL can't find it ANYWHERE! Zach and I have searched high and low.. Including the refrigerator, toy box, garbage can, you name it, we've dug through it! So either our neighbors took it home with them, or Jonah will bring it to me in about a week or two. Until then, our tv is set up to only play movies through the remote. AGH!

Take a deep breath

I'm about to vent.
Are we really awake? We've been up for almost four days straight with maybe an hour of sleep here and there. Jonah's respiratory problems returned Thursday night.
For a little history, Jonah started having a bad cough and a hard time breathing back in October. We've been to the emergency room twice and seen our doctor since then. Every time he gets bad they send us home with an antibiotic for croup, albuterol, and a steroid to open his airway. It's gotten much better, but unfortunately came back.
So after two treatments with the nebulizer on Friday, he wasn't improving at all. Our doctor wasn't in, the instacare wouldn't treat him, so once again back to the E.R.
This time I wasn't going to leave with, "He just has a bug." as an explination. It breaks my heart to see my little boy having such a hard time. Listening to him breathe reminds me of having an asthma attack.
We spent all day friday at the hospital so they could monitor him. They finally sent us home around nine with an apppointment for our pediatrician the following morning. (and orders to admit him if he got really bad again) Their diagnosis this time: Go see a specialist at Primary Children's hospital. (hey! at least they finally admitted they don't know!)
Friday night was long.. and poor Jonah can hardly sleep with his nasty cough.
We saw our doctor yesterday and she finally came out and said it's probably asthma. I'm not going to settle on that until we see a specialist but I've been telling my husband this whole time I think it's asthma. I won't say I told you so.. but it definitely runs in our family.
So our next step is to see a pulmonologist. Until then, a steroid through the nebulizer morning and night, albuterol treatment as needed (around 4 times a day) amoxillin, humidifier, Lots of liquids, and long sleepless nights.
What makes this so exhausting is the fact that Jonah HATES the nebulizar! I don't know how it's supposed to help when he is screaming through the whole treatment. I tear up every time I have to hold his arms down and watch him scream for dear life.

On top of everything, Zach and I are both sick. Right now my two boys are passed out on the couch together while I sit here sucking on a cough drop.I've never been so grateful for health insurance and I'm so grateful that Zach is able to be home right now. Don't worry Jonah! We'll take care of you!
Fweew! Thanks, I got that all off my chest.

blah blah blah

I've been neglecting my poor pathetic blog lately. Why? I have no idea. I have nothing interesting to write about. So this post is basically just to fill in a gap. Enjoy!

*Jonah turned 15 months!

I know it's not a birthday or anything, but it's just a reminder that my baby is getting older and crazier! He is seriously a monkey!! He climbs on the kitchen table, coffee table, top of the couch, dishwasher (when I don't stop him in time). His favorite movie is Curious George, but since Jonah started speaking monkey, we're trying to stay away from George for a while. Jonah doesn't talk yet, but he has plenty of other ways to communicate with us. His favorite way is to drag our hand all around the house! He loves playing in the snow, dancing, vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, you name it. I've trained him well. Jonah really does do these things for fun!If he is every cranky, I ask him if he wants to vacuum with mommy? Jonah is instantly in heaven. So cute!!

* Almost four months later, and I'm still going to Physical Therapy!
Zach's finally doing better, I wish I could say the same for me. Our car accident really took a tole on my back. But after months of my therapist working on my back, and no improvement, I started noticing some pain in my chest. I explained to him how after the accident the E.R. Doctor thought I broke my ribs. So my therapist switched gears and it turns out (so we think) that my back isn't improving because my chest muscles are completely inflamed! Now, three times a week, I want to knock myself out while he basically inflicts more pain on me then I have ever experienced! I would rather be in labor for 48 hours straight than go to therapy for one hour. I just keep telling myself it's worth it. I just hope it's not another FOUR freaking months before it is!!
I'll try to remember to take more pictures so I can actually have something to post.

Hello 2009

Goodbye 2008.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all started out the year great. I'm not going to lie, I'm happy for 2008 to be over. When I try to think about what happened this last year, all that comes to mind are two words: Summer Sales. As much as I enjoyed spending every day with my sister in strange new cities, I'm really excited to finally start feeling settled. Traveling just isn't that same once you have kids.

So 2008 to me, consisted of experiencing summer sales, and Zach's last semester of nursing school. GOOD BYE UVU. Hello UVRMC.
Since my husband has been offered, and gracefully accepted a job here in Provo, I'm starting to feel like this is where we are going to live for quite some time. I better start getting used to the idea. These past few days I've especially been trying to come up with all the great benefits of Living here.
1. Close to Salt Lake
2. Close to Great Shopping, and Park City
3. BYU football games, and all the fun events that go on in a college town
4. it's definitely prettier than Arizona
5. There's a chance that living so close to our family could end up being too close (if you know what I mean)
6. My husband is able to take the sacrament while working on Sunday. Only in Utah.
7. Only in Utah do you get to enjoy hearing uplifting messages on the radio brought to you by the LDS church.
8. What other mall outside of Utah sells Family Home evening activities in their Kiosk? As well as baby gear that read 'future missionary'.
9. My ward consists of my street. That makes visiting teaching and Home teaching easy. EXAMPLE: My visiting teacher lives next store, and she plows my drive way with her four wheeler for service. How awesome is that!?
10. Sunday really feels like a day of rest here.

You know, people rip on Provo for being like a big bubble. Okay, maybe that's me. But if you don't HAVE to live in the real world, then why do it right? The other day we bought a new (old) entertainment center from the D.I.
The furniture wouldn't fit in our car, so my bold husband walked up to an older man sitting in his truck and asked if he would take it home for us. "Sure!" the man said. WOW! Talk about an act of service! It wasn't on his way either.
So Provo is not that bad. I could go on and on about everything that annoys me about living here, but I'd rather just be happy my husband has a great job that he loves and that we get live in Pleasantville. I'm looking forward to all the challenges and experiences this new year brings.

I have a feeling it's going to be great.

Lovely

"All I want is a room somewhere. Far away from the cold night air. With one enormous chair..Oh wouldn't it be lovely!"

If only my husband would ever
go for an office like this.