Halloween memories

This is one of my favorite pictures. I believe it was taken October 1983 and I was four at the time-same age as Mayah is now. In this photo my brother, Perry is dressed up as Charlie Brown and my other brother, Paul, is Sylvester the Cat. This particular Halloween I dressed up as Lucy from Charlie Brown--obviously, I am not wearing the costume in this picture. But yeah, I totally loved my plastic Lucy costume. I love how excited and happy I am in this picture.

Halloween is a fun and magical time for children and as a child I definitely was not an exception. Halloween is the one time of year when I was willing to walk or run for miles and miles in freezing cold weather--without complaining--just for a giant sack of candy. My absolute favorite part of Halloween was dumping out my sack of loot at the end of the night, comparing my pile to others around, taking inventory and trading with siblings or friends. I always tried to get more candy then my brothers but I never succeeded. Perry and Paul were just better at trick-or-treating then I was--It didn't matter if I ran from house to house all night long, they still always got more candy then I did.

Those were the days! :)


Side note: Who else misses the days when Halloween costumes were simple and inexpensive and/or even homemade? I went shopping the other day and I was horrified to see the current price of Halloween costumes. Perhaps I am cheap but I can't justify spending $14.00 on just cat ears and a tail--especially when they are cheaply made.

My goldie locks has chicken pox

As I was getting the girls ready for church this morning, I discovered a few suspicious spots on Malia. I freaked out immediately because I know for a fact they weren't there yesterday evening. I hoped that a bug had gotten to her last night but my suspicions were confirmed after closer examination of Malia's spots--she definitely has chicken pox!!!

It turns out that I exposed Malia to the chicken pox because I had shingles. I thought that if she was going to get chicken pox they would have shown themselves at least a week ago. I didn't know that it takes 12-14 days for the chicken pox virus to incubate before showing up on the skin. I feel so stupid because I would have known how long chicken pox takes to incubate had I done all the research ahead of time.

Luckily, I haven't taken Malia to church for 2 weeks--Conference Sunday and the week before that because I thought Mayah had pink eye (turned out that she didn't have pink eye, she just had something in her eye) and I still had shingles--and of course I didn't take her to church today. Anyway, Malia hasn't really been in direct contact with other kids over the past two weeks. The handful of kids that she has been around were all old enough to have been vaccinated against chicken pox--I think.

I am sure everyone is asking why on earth I didn't finish vaccinating Malia. I am asking myself the same question.

The last set of vaccinations Malia received was when she was 9 months old. Soon after that, Mayah was diagnosed with autism. While I have never felt that Mayah's autism was caused by vaccinations, I personally know a lot of parents who swear that their children were neurotypical until they received a certain vaccination. Hearing these stories really scared me and I decided to wait on vaccinating Malia further. I fully intended on getting her vaccinations done by the time she was old enough to attend public school but I just wanted to spread them out a little. Unfortunately, my plan backfired and now my child has chicken pox.

Moral of the story: vaccinate your children.

Side note: As of mid-September, Mayah is fully vaccinated--so no worries there.

Seasons change

It is finally cooling down here in Michigan. As of yesterday (Wednesday, October 10), we are finally getting the weather one would expect for this time of year. There were days last week that we were getting 89 degree weather. YIKES!!!

Since the weather has finally changed, I have been putting the girls summer clothing away. I couldn't help but get a little teary eyed when I realized that most of the stuff won't fit them ever again. I wish my kids would age a little slower so I can enjoy this precious time a little longer. I swear it doesn't seem that long ago that they were both babies. They have changed so much in such a short time.

Thinking about my girls and how quickly they have grown got me thinking about how quickly time passes. I also started thinking about how life unexpectedly changes. Looking back at the past 7 years made me realize that most of what has happened in my married life was not exactly planned by Duane or myself.

Seven years ago Duane and I were newly wed, super happy, inseparable and disgustingly in-love with each other. Both of us were happily employed and living in Colorado at the time. Duane and I had all sorts of plans for our future.

Five years ago, Duane and I had just moved from New Mexico (after living there one year) to Utah so Duane could attend BYU to get his MBA, I was 4 months pregnant with Mayah, I was only working 20 hours a week, Duane wasn't allowed to work (per BYU's request) and we were really struggling financially. Duane and I decided that graduate school was the best option as no one was hiring just one year after 9/11. We had no idea what we would do after Duane graduated.

Exactly three years ago, we had just moved to Michigan 3 months previously, Duane was working for Ford and was called to be the Elders Quorum President in our ward and I was 2 weeks pregnant with Malia and didn't even suspect as we weren't trying to have another baby at that time. Mayah was finally old enough to attend nursery at church but she kept me on my toes the rest of the week.

Just last year, Duane and I were seriously discussing the prospect of not adding to our family ever again. There were several reasons as to why we were discussing that possibility, all of which were valid reasons, most of which I will not go into now. At the time, I was feeling very overwhelmed with the girls. Mayah had recently been diagnosed with high-functioning, mild autism and Malia was a force to be reckoned with--a very stubborn and determined little toddler. Both children demanded a lot of time and attention from both Duane and myself, so we felt like it might be best to keep our family from expanding.

Now Duane is still employed at Ford, I am 15 weeks pregnant with our third child, Mayah is attending a wonderful preschool that has a program for autistic children and Malia is our fun little two year old. We are also very happy with the life we have.

Duane and I had no idea what life had in store when we first got married seven short years ago but our Heavenly Father sure did. It wasn't by chance that we ended up in Michigan. I know that Heavenly Father has guided us down this specific path for a reason. He knew what our family would need to pass through in order to be happy.

I know that Heavenly Father is aware of me and my family. I know that he loves us. I know that he only wants the best for us. I know he will do what he can so we might return to him some day. These thoughts are what keep me from giving up when life throws another surprise our way. These thoughts also keep me from running outside to shake my fist at the sky--and yell--when life takes yet another unexpected turn. ;)

It's raining, it's pouring...

Things have been a bit crazy in our house for the last week.

Earlier in the week I discovered that the "bug bites" on my back are actually shingles. Apparently the pregnancy is not only lowering my immunity but it is also stressing me out enough to bring on the shingles. Luckily I don't have more then a small patch on my back. They already seem to be healing up but they are quite itchy and sort of hurt. For anyone that doesn't know, shingles are a form of chicken pox. Only people who have had chicken pox can get shingles. I cannot give shingles to anyone but while I have shingles, I can give chicken pox to anyone that hasn't had them yet...I think that is weird. Anyway, I am trying to keep from stressing about it because I don't want to get more shingles.

Mayah stayed home from school yesterday and today because she has pinkeye. Now that she is going to two different preschools every day, she is exposed to twice as many germs. I am sad that she has pinkeye because she really loves school. She has been so bored at home. We don't have any cool or fun things to keep her entertained. I hope the infection goes away and doesn't spread to her other eye because I don't want her missing too much school.

If the pinkeye wasn't bad enough, Mayah had to get 4 stitches yesterday after she accidentally sliced her leg open with scissors. I know, I am a bad mother. I shouldn't have let her have the scissors to begin with. This is the first scissor related emergency in our home as I am usually monitoring Mayah when she has scissors--she really likes to cut paper and she is really quite good at it...until now. Anyway, Duane just got home from work so I took my attention from Mayah to talk to Duane for a few minutes. It was during that time that she somehow sliced the skin on her right leg--right next to her knee, on the outside of her leg.

The cut is about one and a half inches long. Although the cut wasn't super deep, it was deep enough that she needed to get stitches. Even though the doctor numbed the area, poor Mayah screamed long and hard while the doctor stitched her up. Duane and the nurse had to hold her down so the doctor could give her the stitches. It was so sad.

As a reward for being so brave, we took Mayah out to eat at Ikea--one of her favorite places to eat. She ate very little and then told us that she was tired. We then took her home and soon after, she was passed out. She slept well last night.

There have been other things that have happened quite recently such as our second car--my car--having issues. As of now, it is not working at all. We believe it has to do with the battery as it is a cheap battery and sort of old. The wires connecting to the battery don't look good either. Duane hasn't been able to do anything about it as he is quite busy at work this week. Hopefully he will be able to get around to it this weekend. I don't like not having a car.

Anyway, despite all the craziness, we are all still alive and kicking. As hectic as things have been this week I know that things could be way worse. I am very grateful for what we have. I am grateful for our wonderful health insurance--without it we would be paying a pretty penny in medical bills as our family has been to the ER twice in the last 2 months and there have been a lot of doctor/urgent care visits made in the last two months as well (both urgent care visits were in the last week). Don't even get me started with the amount of prescriptions that we have had to pick up lately. I am just so grateful that the co-pays for all of the recent medical care is quite reasonable.

I know that we are being blessed through our trials. It is that thought that comforts me the most. :)

The photo at the beginning of this blog is actually a year old--from last September. I accidentally broke our camera this summer. If anyone is keeping track, that is the third camera I have gone through in 4 years. Duane isn't too happy about that. We joke about getting me the new fisher price camera that is made for toddlers. They are made tough so they won't break when dropped. My question is, why don't they make ALL digital cameras tough like that? ;)