5 Generations

This weekend, I had the pleasure of being with 5 generations!

Norma Smith (my great-grandma) holding Charlotte Naomi (my daughter), Linda Smith (my grandma), Charlotte Lynn (my mommy), and Charlotte Marie (me).

More Summer Pool Time Fun

We have a little kiddy pool that we like to get out on hot days when we don't go to the water park.  Lots of fun!

that's my cute little munchkin!

playing with daddy

 mid-fall

Summer Time; Pool Time!

so, this is from last month...

We bought a Pass of All Passes this summer, and the Munchkin and I have been making great use of it!  We've gone to Seven Peaks Water Park 3 times this week!  Munchkin LOVES the water!  As soon as she gets in, she throws her arms forward and her feet back, and she starts to kick and move her arms.

Plus, the water park is about 2 miles away and walking there and back gets me a decent workout.  I'm less than 3 lbs away from my first major weight loss goal, and going to the water park is going to help me reach that goal before the end of the month!

since this is from last month... I'm glad to announce that I have since surpassed my first major weight loss goal-- to be under 200 lbs.   :-)

Father's Day!

ok, so Father's Day was over a week ago... but I still wanted to share what our little family did to celebrate!

Naomi and I each got Brad a card--

And some See's candy and chocolate covered cinnamon bears-- Brad will testify that "boys like getting chocolate on their special days, too!"

And I made (yes, made) Brad a tie-- with Penguins on it!

Part of Brad's chocolate was an Awesome Bar (peanut brittle dipped in chocolate) from See's that Naomi seems to think is hers.

Happy Father's Day, Brad!

My Hubby Spoils Me Too Much!

Yesterday, Brad let me go shopping for some new clothes, which, for the record, I've really been NEEDING since most of mine were falling off and the only thing I felt I could wear were his gym shorts and some on my older t-shirts.  I could literally take off my jeans without unbuttoning them!  It was a bitter-sweet realization that i've lost enough weight and inches to need new clothes :-) , but that I looked ridiculous in my current clothes :-( .  I was having to wear yoga pants under my regular pants so they wouldn't fall down...

It started off FANTASTIC!  Mod Bod was having a parking lot sale-- the ad online said $25 for whatever I can fit in a bag.  I got to the sale 30 minutes early and find out that it's actually $15/bag!  My "allowance" was 1 bag, but since it was only $5 more to get DOUBLE, I got 2 bags!  The first I filled with cute swim suits-- 3 beautiful tankini tops and 4 bottoms, and a lace cami.  The second bag, I filled with a 6 Tee-shirts and a 1 piece bathing suit.  I LOVE my new swim suits!  I would venture to say that they are my favorite swim suits I have ever owned.  And it's awesome to have more than one because the munchkin and I go to the pool so much already! The best part-- I calcuated my savings after I got home.  I spent $30 on what would have cost over $340 retail! Seriously, I saved 91% on that shopping trip! And I love every piece I bought.

We had a yard sale that afternoon, and got rid of a bunch of stuff and made a decent amount of money.  We needed to go food shopping, but Brad said we needed to get non-food stuff first because it was so hot outside.  I've been putting off getting new clothes because I wanted to meet my next weight loss goal first... but since my clothes are falling off, we decided that getting new clothes 2 lbs early was ok.  We got some cute new flip flops (not because my feet have shrunk with my weight, but because I've worn a hole in the heel of my current ones), and stopped to just try on shorts and pants at a few stores.  True to form, nothing fit my ridiculous body-- small waist and huge hips and thighs.  I either couldn't get them over my thighs, or they fit in the thighs and I was swimming in the waist, particularly with a huge gape in the back of my waist that I affectionately call a duck tail butt.

Eventually, we find the one and only store that has ever carried pants to accommodate my excessive "junk in the trunk." Luckily, they were having a sale, too!  And I had an awesome coupon that would save us up to 30% if we calculated right.  I ended up getting 2 pairs of capris (had to get some with a drawstring built into the waist, otherwise I'd have a seriously case of duck tail butt), 2 pairs of straight leg jeans and 1 pair of boot cut jeans in a size (get this!) 14!!!  I have no recollection of EVER wearing a size 14 in my life.  Saving report: We saved a little over 40%.

It was a great day for shopping. Seriously, all purchases combined-- we saved 67%.

Brad spoils me too much, but I like to think I make it worth it for him, because I really saved him some moolah.  :-) 

A Weekend of Celebrations!

This past Friday, Brad turned the big 2-6!  He's officially more than a quarter of a century old. 

Happy Birthday, Brad!!!

And Sunday was Brad and I's 3rd Anniversary!  It's been a wonderful past 3 years, and Ii'm looking forward to spending the rest of eternity with the love of my life!

Family Pictures!

We have family pictures taken a couple weeks ago.  Here's a couple of our favorites.  And here's a link to our great photographer-- Rachelle Olmos.

Thanks, Rachelle!  We love these.

Everyone Loves Chocolate

Including our munchkin.

Brad surprised me with a package of Dove's  Chocolate with Caramel today for Valentine's Day.  I found it in the car with some twizzlers and a love note on my way to work.  I put them in my purse for later since I had to work and was going to Zumba right after.  When I got home, I'd forgotten they were still in my purse and let Naomi play in the living room while Brad and I cleaned up our Valentine's Day dinner-- yum, steak!  It was quiet in the living room.

Too quiet.

Brad goes  to see what's going on, and finds this cheesy grin...

The Munchkin had found my chocolate, opened the bag, and ate 3 chocolates by the time we found her.  She even took the foil off!  of at least three of them...

Am I a terrible mom, or what?!

Laundry Day Meets Picture Day

I'm pretty sure laundry day is munchkin's favorite day(s) of the week.  She loves to help out!

Sorting the laundry. (Or trying to stand up after helping sort the laundry.)

These are dry.  Let's take 'em out!

Taking a ride in the laundry basket.

Adjust some settings and clean the lint trap...

Putting the clothes in the dryer.

Make sure there's a dryer sheet!

It's ready to go, Mom!

Now it's time to get out and fold the laundry.

I have so much fun with my munchkin!

Anti-Climatic Adventures in Hospitals

so, yesterday, I let you in on the pain I woke up with... but here's the full story.

5am: I was peacefully sleeping on my back, but wanted to roll to my side to cuddle with brad.  the second i start to roll over, my lower right abdomen just kinda explodes with some of the worst pain ever, barring childbirth without an epidural. i'm only semi-conscious, so i think it's a charlie-horse in my abs (since i get these in my calves all the time when i'm asleep), so i curl up and think that if i wait a few seconds it will subside.  but it doesn't.  it doesn't get better or worse, the pain just stays there.  i wait 1 minutes, 2 minutes, 5 minutes... it's not going away.  i'm crying from the pain now, brad is freaking out and asking me a bunch of questions.  he thinks it could be an ulcer and wants me to go to the bathroom to see if that will help.  but i KNOW that whatever is causing my pain has nothing to do with any part of my digestive system as i understand it.  i've had digestion issues before and this isn't like that.  i starting crying for a blessing, so he just places his hands on my head while i'm writhing with pain on the bed and crying and gives me a blessing in the name of Jesus Christ.  it helps me calm down a bit, but the pain doesn't change.  i go to the bathroom-- no change in the pain.  brad looks up what it might be online.  i'm thinking either my muscle wall just ripped apart and my guts are spilling out and the only thing stopping them is my skin, or my ovary just exploded, or i have appendicitis.  at least that's what it feel like to me; i don't know how else to explain the sheer amount of pain i was in.
every single thing brad looks up on the internet says go to the ER asap.  i don't have health insurance and I hate the ER, so i tell him to go back to sleep, and if it still hurts after he gets home from class tomorrow, then we can go to urgent care.  i fitfully try to go back to sleep.  it's hard to breath, my (for lack of a single word to describe my lower right abdomen, i'll just say "my side") side is still in pain feeling like i was stabbed with a knife and it just keeps twisting in my gut.  but eventually i must have fallen asleep because i had some of the craziest dreams ever, and a bunch of them.

8:30am: Brad wakes me up for fmaily prayer before he goes to work.  my side is still in excruciating pain, but i tell him to go to work anyway, and it'll go away.

10am: i wake up to naomi crying.  i get up and take a shower.  it's so painful to move, to stand, to do anything.

10:30am: i get naomi out of bed.  it takes all of my strength to not cry.  i feed her, adn remember that i'm supposed to babysit for a friend at 11 or something around there.  eat breakfast and feed naomi.

11:15am: baby girl shows up for babysitting.  I'm starting to cope with the pain.  it hasn't increased or decreased, but i'm getting used to it, so i don't say anything to friend.  i figure i've lasted so long already, i can last until 4 when my friend will come pick her up.

12noon: brad calls, he's about to go to class, but wants to know if i need help babysitting, how i'm feeling, etc.  i tell him nothing has changed, but to go to class, i can make it for 75 more minutes.

1pm: after 1 hour of trying towatch, entertain, feed, change diapers, and chase two very moblie children... the pain in my side has escalated to "i think i might be dying" proportions.  i call  brad in class and ask him to come home ASAP.

1:15pm: Brad comes home. I try to sit and relax, hoping the pain will subside, but we've decided that i probably need to go to the doctor, so I call my friend and see if there's a way she can get her daughter a little earlier because i need to go to the doctor.  since our car is in the shop, we call some friends and find a ride to ther urgent care center.

2:30ish:  i begin to lose track of time around here.  we get to the BYU urgent care center, and i'm take back to a room pretty quickly.  the dr feels my abs, makes me try to lay down and sit up...i start crying...dr. says that my muscles aren't engaging like they should because even when i try to lift my head while laying down, my abs should feel firm, but mine are soft.  the intense pain in located in one very specific spot in my lower right abdomen-- anywhere else she could feel, but touching that spot was excruciating beyond my standard won'tt go away twisting knife in gut feeling.  she orders a bood test (CBC) and urine test to test for pregnancy, and an ultrasound to test for anything abdormal with my ovary.

4:30ish: i'm told to drink about a 1/2 gallon of water in 15 minutes, and then hold it til 5:20 when the ultra sound tech is supposed to arrive. silly me, i drak it in more like 5 minutes.

5:25: i'm crying in pain.  don't know if it's because i need to pee, my side, or a combination of the two. the ultrasound tech is late and i'm about to further embarrass myself by not only literally crying in the dr's office, but also wetting my pants when the u/s tech lady arrives at 5:30.

5:35pm: apparently, my bladder is too full... i have to let out "just a little bit of urine" because my bladder is so full she can't see my right ovary on the u/s. stopping midstream is one the list of things very hard to do when you really need to pee.

5:40pm: ultrasound shows everything dealing with my ovaries and uterus are normal. this mrans they are sending e to the ER to get a CT scan  to check for something else.  the dr thinks maybe a kidney stone, but it seems unlikely.  or appendicitis, but that also seems unlikely.

6ish: we arrive at the ER and no one is in the waiting room so they take me back right away. they're all assuming appendicitis, but i'm not throwing up, so that seems odd. maybe a kidney stone, but the type and intensity and location of pain doesn't fit for a kidney stone. they start me on an IV and warn me that if it is my appendix, i'll have emergency surgey that night. 

6:15ish: i go back for the CT scan.  i have to have radioactive contrast put in through my IV.  the first time, i guess the IV isn't in right so it leaks all over my hospital gown, and it has to be fixed.  when it finally goes in, it makes me feel all warm inside.  weird.

6:40pm: even weirder-- when the results come back, everything is normal.  pretty much.  i have a double kidney pelvis on my right kidney, and a kidney stone the size or the tip of a ball point pen in my right kidney, but the dr's don't think that has anything to do with what i'm feeling.  my appendix looks happy and healthy.  so they tell me to go home and take some ibuprofen or tylenol and come back in 12 hours for another scan if the pain stays the same or gets worse.

7ish: we leave, go buy 2 six-packs of jello, since i'm on a clear liquids diet until tomorrow, and then pick up munchkin from the babysitters.  in fact, our good friends who were watching naomi agree to come back to our place and help take care of naomi while i just veg on the couch in pain while brad goes to bowling and hockey that night. they were wonderful.

10ish: casey puts naomi to bed and the picketts leave for the night. i try to go to sleep, but naomi wakes up after about 40 minutes.  she's crying a lot and wants to get up.  she knows that i'm here, she can stand up in her crib adn see around the corner into the living room, and i'm on the couch.  i try to get her out of her crib, but my side is still hurting, and now i have an IV in my arm (they didn't take it out before i left because they figured i'd be back in the morning and didn't want to stick me again). i struggle to lift her with just my left arm, and put her on the floor.  she continues cry until brad gets home close to midnight.  he takes over so i can go to bed. i struggle to go to sleep of an hour or more because of the pain.  i continue to be uncomfortable, thought the ibuprofen really helped, through out the night.

7:30am Wed: I wake up and don't feel anything.  the pain is gone!  we go to the hospital, they take out my IV and tell me that i don't need another scan since i feel better.  we don't know what it was, but am so glad i feel better. i think it's really a miracle, and i'm so glad i didn't need surgery.

here's a happy pic to make you smile after all that drama...

wishing i had health insurance...

so, last night/this morning around 5am... I was just laying in bed on my back, adn decided i wanted to roll over onto my side and cuddle with brad... but my abs didn't like that idea.

the second I tried to roll over to my side, i felt as though I had been stabbed with a knife and it twisted in my gut.  I was writhing in pain in my lower right abdomen.  I kept thinking it would go away, but it wouldn't.  a minute passed, two minutes, five minutes passed, and the pain was just as intense and sharp as when it first happened.  I lied on the bed, crying in pain clutching my side, thinking my guts must be spilling onto the bed.  it HURT.  so freakin' much!  on a pain scale of 1 being a mosquito bite and 10 being labor without an epidural, I gave it an 8-9. 

no matter what position i got into, it was a non-stop intense pain that would not go away.  Brad gave me a blessing right away.  And checked online for things it could possibly be, if it was serious, etc.  We couldn't find anything. That seemed to fit.

I tried going back ot sleep, but it was hard to even breath through the pain.  Eventually I must have, because the next thing I remember is Brad waking me up to say family pray before he went to work this morning.  My side is still hurting, but I guess it's a 6-7 on the scale now as i'm getting used to it.

i can barely pick up naomi.  any movement hurts, but not moving hurts just as much.  i'm not sure what it is, and there's no way to know.  i don't have health insurance now because we don't have the money for-- and that obviously means we don't have the money to go see a dr without insurance.  i'm hoping this is just a pulled ab muscle.  has anyone ever had that before?

Being Munchkin

So... our doctor isn't worried about Naomi's weight at all.  He told us that looking at her, she seems perfect.  That her munchkin-ness is likely a genetic trait and that if we knew our family history, we would likely find a few people who were "petite" while growing up. (Family... is this ringing a bell for anyone?)

Here's the low-down--
jan 8th at WIC office for breastfeeding consult
Weight: 14 lbs. 6 oz.
Height: 26.5 in
Head Cir: 17.5 in.

Jan 17th at 9 month well-baby check-up
Weight: 13 lbs. 15 oz. (0.42%ile)
Height: 27 in. (33rd%ile)
Head Cir: 17 in. (27th%ile)

and on Friday, we're going to the WIC office for a follow-up appt.
Weight: TBD
Height: TBD
Head Cir: TBD

Now, I noticed that some of these measurements are off.  At the WIC appointment, it was later in the day, and Naomi had already eaten twice and had not pooped in a couple days.  today, Her appointment was first thing in the morning, and she had pooped a TON last night.  So that probably explains the weight loss... hopefully. I don't think her head shrunk, they are prolly just off on their measurements. Same goes for height, unless she grew a half inch the past week and a half.

On another note, she's super healthy and active. 

• The doctor mentioned that he could tell that she loved her veggies and ate them well because she has a slight yellow tinge to her skin, but her eyes are perfectly white, meaning she has an abundance of beta-carotene in her system (from veggies), not biliruben or jaundice, which Brad asked about.  
• She's physically healthy, her organs and glands are all the right size and shape and in the right place.  Her eyes and ears work awesome.  

• And she is really active.  She's was trying to crawl and explore the dr.'s office the entire appointment.
• She's socially advanced-- babbles conversationally with varying tones and pitch, imitates speech, and understands simple words and phrases, like, "where's daddy?" and will look or point at Brad, or "Would you like some puffs?" and nods aggressively then looks to the diaper bag where the puffs are usually kept.
• She's pulling herself up to a standing postion.

• She's walking along furniture or with help from mom or dad holding her hands.

• She recognizes familiar faces and shows mild stranger anxiety, but gets over it quickly and becomes friendly if mom and dad seem to know them.
• She picks things up with her thumb and forefinger.

• Beginning to self-feed.

• Can do high-fives and clap.

We sure do love our munchkin!