11 years & 4 kids later

Eleven years ago, on a cold December day, much like the one today, I married my best friend.


Pictures at the Logan Temple

After a panicked morning of realizing that we left our marriage license in Salt Lake (we moved into our apartment the day before), having to do an emergency breakthrough on the phone line because Brandon's younger brother was on the internet all morning (love ya' Jason!), rushing to the courthouse, all the while praying that the right department was open so that we could buy another marriage certificate (I didn't even get to really do my hair that morning. How sad is that?), and then being late to the temple (my mom joked that she thought we had run away and just eloped), we were finally married at 11:22 in the morning.

It was the best thing I've ever done. We've had our ups and downs, lots of fun times (one of Brandon's friends gave us Nerf guns for our wedding gift, and one night, we went out on a "spy"mission around our apartment complex. Looking back, I'm very grateful nobody called the cops on us!), financial struggles (the first couple of years of our marriage, his paycheck was a grand total of $1300 a month. Beginning salaries for teachers is the pits), five residences, and four kids. He's still my best friend, and I love him more than ever. Definitely a lot more than when we first got married.

I love you, Brandon!

Happy Anniversary, babe!


One of those fun times - M.I. anyone?

11 years & 4 kids later

A little violin concert

So, back in September, we got a note from the school informing the parents that orchestra was starting up, and any kids that were 4th grade and up were invited to participate. Scott wanted to do the violin, so we signed him up.

During the last week of school before Christmas vacation, I had four concerts to go to for three kids - two singing concerts (actually, three - one for each child in school - but two of them were on the same day, back to back) and two orchestra concerts. Every afternoon and evening was booked! BUSY!

Scott has been practicing hard for their Christmas concert, with his favorite song being "Carol of the Bells." He's even got that one memorized. So, they had a school concert, and a concert later that same evening at the high school. Scott was beaming, and I admit, I cried a bit. I'm so proud of my little Scottie bug. He's done such a good job and is really enjoying learning how to play the violin.

Way to go, Bug!


"Jolly Old St. Nicholas"


Scott & Mom before his evening performance


In playing position - isn't he handsome?

And, does anybody dress up for concerts anymore? I made my boys put on nice clothes for Scott's performance at the high school and they had a fit. I told them that at concerts, you're supposed to get dressed up, and that in some parts of the world, people go all out - evening gowns, dress gloves - the works.

When we got to the concert, most everyone there was in jeans, t-shirts (some of those weren't even nice jeans or shirts) - a couple of people even had shorts and sandals on (it's freezing outside). Seriously, do people not understand concert etiquette anymore? Even if it is a child's concert. Gah.



"Carol of the Bells"

Jr. Grizz Basketball

This winter, we decided to sign Braden up for Jr. Grizz basketball. (It's basically the same program as Jr. Jazz, but it's offered through the high school - thus, it's Jr. Grizz.) The kids were grouped by grade, and each of the teams had 6 games and they played each other twice. B's team only won two games out of the six (after watching the coaches at their games, I don't think their coaches were that good at teaching bball skills), but B had a ball.

At his last game, we saw a sign up for Jr. Jazz basketball, which, ironically, is cheaper than Jr. Grizz was. And, they play more games. So, we signed him up. His games will start after the New Year. We're all looking forward to it - especially B.






One of the games they actually won. It was the last game of the season - good to end on a win!


B's team and his two coaches


What the boys did during B's games - let's walk!

All I want for Christmas . . .

Santa came to visit the kids at our ward Christmas party. Sadly, though, he didn't ask any of the kids what they wanted for Christmas. He just asked them if they had been good that year, gave them a candy cane, and sent them on their way. My boys were a bit disappointed that they weren't able to give them their list of wants.


Checkin' him out - are you for real?




"Merry Christmas, Gavin"


"Aren't you going to ask me what I want?"


Starting out pretty good . . .


. . . okay, I'm done . . .


. . . get me away from this guy!"

Wow

Wow! Thank you all for your comments about my weight loss and the struggles of those few years. I honestly didn't realize it would be inspirational to anybody. I really do have good friends. :) Thank you all again!

From this . . . to this . . .

I've hesitated to even post this because it's unflattering to me, and to be honest, somewhat embarrassing. But, I've decided I need to so that I can keep track of my accomplishments, and so that when I'm feeling down or not pretty, I can come back and check out this post and remember these good feelings.

I don't mean this to be a down, depressing post as I post about my struggles over the past few years (because even with all of the stresses and struggles, I've still been VERY blessed), or a bragging post as I talk about the weight loss, but rather a happy post.

So, here goes.

The end of 2006 was incredibly hard for me. Brandon was working full time, and doing school full time, and we were having a hard time dealing with everything. Then, we got kicked out of our apartment for having too many kids and not enough room, and the apartment manager somehow forgot to mention this when she offered us a three bedroom apartment a week prior to our eviction notice. We had three weeks to find a new place to live. We fought it, but in the end decided that if we were going to be treated like that, we really didn't want to live there anyway.

Then, we got word that my cousin had passed away. He was just 7 months younger than me, and he drowned. A very accomplished scuba diver, and he drowned. That's always been a fear of mine. The thought of me or Brandon drowning or one of my kids drowning just terrifies me.

While Brandon was at work, and Scott was at school, I would load up the other two kids and run around Salt Lake literally trying to find a home. Every day for a couple of weeks. I was INCREDIBLY stressed out. It was right during the holidays, so I couldn't really even decorate for Christmas, which is my favorite time of year. This year, it was not a happy Christmas for me. I was mad at our manager, and had a "why me?" attitude.

To cope with all of this, I ate. Well, we all have to eat. I overate. A lot. Once we moved, I had to meet a whole bunch of new people in our ward - a ward that was very affluent. A lot of the people in the ward had huge houses, three car garages, boats, four wheelers, and RV's parked outside in the driveway. I felt small, insignificant, poor, and very lonely. So, I ate. Well, overate. And cried. A lot.

Then, I had to deal with some childhood issues that came up again. Again, very stressful, plus Brandon was still working and doing school full time. So, I snacked. By now, you probably get the picture. I gained weight. A lot of weight. I was not happy with myself. I felt heavy, dumpy, and not pretty. When I wasn't pregnant, this is the heaviest weight I was at:



And this is what I looked like:







Then, eight months later, we found out Brandon got a job up in Logan as a counselor. He moved up with his parents for two weeks because the school year had already started for the counselors. Which left me alone with three small children, and only seeing my husband on the weekend. My sister and I packed up our house and made arrangements to move. Brandon looked for a place for us to live while he was up there. During that time, my Grandma passed away. We headed home for her funeral, then straight up to Logan to look at apartments.

We found one that was not in the best condition, but it had the most room out of any that we had looked at. And, after praying, we felt sure we were supposed to live here. We took it, and moved in. The manager proved to be a nightmare. After us asking him several times if we needed to sign a one-year lease and him not responding, we dropped it. After five months and several problems (one of which was the furnace putting out carbon monoxide), we decided to move. To buy a house. We were now sure that the feeling we'd had of moving into this place was inspired. We were able to move because we didn't have a binding contract. Every other place we had looked at required at least a year contract.

So, we bought a house and moved. And tried for 18 months to get pregnant. Again, very stressful, and upsetting, and hard emotionally. I kept over-eating. But, then I got pregnant with Connor. Had a good pregnancy with him. I noticed that he would spit up A LOT when I would eat chocolate. And he'd get a tummy ache, so I quit eating chocolate. I was back down to my pre-pregnancy weight within just a couple of months.

Then, he developed an allergy to milk. I quit eating all dairy, and literally the pounds just melted away. I started going to Zumba twice a week. And, the pounds kept dropping. Once they started coming off, it was so fun to weigh myself and see the "new" weight I was at each week.

I started to feel better about myself. When I had to go buy new pants because my pants were literally sliding right off my body, I was ecstatic! I was able to buy a new wardrobe, which is always fun. I'm sure that dropping the chocolate and all dairy was the main factor in losing all of this weight. I just pray that when I'm done nursing and start eating dairy and some chocolate again, that I can maintain my weight.

Currently, this is the weight I'm at:



If you do the math, that's 41 1/2 pounds that I have dropped since almost a year ago.

And, this is what I have looked like over the past few months as I have lost weight:




These pants I have on are a size 8 - and they're just a little too big for me!


Wednesday night at Scott's orchestra concert

I feel so good about myself. And Brandon's proud of me, too. It feels good to not be overweight. I'm not the most fit person, but by doing Zumba and working out on other days, I feel pretty healthy. I feel good. I feel pretty. And that, to me, after the past few years, feels pretty incredible!

Wanna see something cute?

Check out the curl! Isn't it so cute? I love it.

Round 2 - here we go

So, at Thanksgiving time, the dr. told us that Connor's right ear was definitely infected, and his left ear was getting that way.

Today, after signs that he had another infection, we took him in. The NP told us that the left ear was really infected, and the right ear was really, really bad. She doesn't think it ever cleared up from Thanksgiving and has just gotten worse.

*sigh*

At least we caught it early this time. And she gave us a pres. for a decongestant to help him sleep. Hopefully the antibiotics will work this time.

Thanksgiving weekend - part 1

The holiday in review . . . Hmm . . . Where to start? Well, since the boys didn't have school on Wednesday, our original plan was to run some errands that morning, then head out to my sisters that afternoon. Sounds easy enough, right?

On Friday when we went to the dr. for Connor's well-visit check, the dr. said he had some fluid in his ears, but since it was clear, he wasn't worried about it. Well, Tuesday evening, Connor was fussy and grumpy, and shivered all through dinner. I put him in the tub to help him get warm, and then wrapped him up with me while I ate. Pretty soon, he was hot - WAY hot. So, I unwrapped him, took his socks off and put a short sleeve shirt on him.

It wasn't enough. By the time we put the kids to bed, his fever was 103.2 (under the arm) and that's with Motrin in him. We gave him another bath (a lukewarm one) and I started to get scared. Normally when I put feverish kids in a lukewarm bath, they scream because the water feels cold. Connor didn't respond at all. (Did I mention I was really scared by this point? I did? Hmm . . .)

So, I called my sister - who has, more times than one, been our on-call nurse late at night. (Thank you Anne Marie!) She told us to give him some Tylenol (I had to send Brandon running to the store), and make sure he was getting lots of water. No onesie or socks, and a short sleeve shirt to sleep in. The cool water helped bring his fever down some, but by the time Brandon got home from the store 20 minutes later, it had spiked back up to 103+.

Out came the popsicles, and some Nilla Wafers, along with the Tylenol. I was ready to call Brandon's mom and have her come be with the other kids while we ran him to the hospital. But, the combo of the popsicle, the water, and the two medicines worked. He finally fell asleep around 11:30, and slept until about 6:30.

(As a side note here - it was SO funny to watch him eat an otter pop. I pushed part of it up out of the plastic and would stick it in his mouth. His little face would screw up as though he'd had something sour (the flavor was grape), but then he'd come right back for more. It was hilarious!)

He still felt awful, but his fever seemed to be lowering. We decided, though, to wait one more day before traveling to give him some time to get better. In retrospect, we should have just taken him to the dr. that day, but no . . . I guess we wanted to punish ourselves!

Thanksgiving weekend - part 2

We headed out first thing Thanksgiving morning. Connor slept almost the whole way to Tridell - 4 hours! He never does that. We had a smooth trip, and headed straight to the church. The whole family (minus one brother) was there. It was awesome! Unfortunately, while everybody else got lots of pictures of the gathering, I didn't get a single one. Connor was feeling awful, and his fever had spiked again. He & Brandon ended up in the foyer of the church sleeping in a chair while the rest of the family played b-ball after dinner.

That night was MISERABLE. Connor would only sleep for about 30 - 45 minutes at a time, and then would wake up screaming. The only time I could get him to sleep longer than that was while I was holding him. My niece has a papasan chair in her room, but there was no head rest, so I couldn't really sleep. Finally, around 5:30, I went upstairs and slept in my sisters HUGE recliner with him. He finally slept, too, and woke up around 8:30. Still with a bad fever.

We decided to take him to the dr, but my sister's pedi.'s office wasn't open. We tried to find a number for our pedi, but his number isn't listed and his mom's number was changed. (Brandon grew up with this family, so he knew their number, and our dr. told us to call if we had problems. Next time I'm in there, I'm going to insist that he give us a contact number for emergencies. It would have been SO nice to call the dr. and him, knowing the situation, just call in a prescription to the pharmacy. *sigh*)

So, we tried the urgent care, but they didn't answer their phone. So, we tried the urgent care in Vernal, and right as we were packing up to head over, my sister, who was out running errands, called to say that they had stopped by the hopsital to see if the clinic was open. It was. So, she got us signed in, and we headed over.

After getting all signed in, and insurance stuff taken care of, we just had to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. 30 minutes later, they called us back to an exam room. The nurse took care of everything that she needed and said that the dr. would be with us "in a few minutes." Those few minutes went by . . . again . . . and again . . . and again . . .

Finally, the nurse saw me out walking in the hall, and asked (kind of in a surprised voice), "Hasn't the dr. been in to see you yet?" Um, no. I was really irritated at this point. The exam room was boiling - which doesn't feel good to an already feverish baby. I was tired from not getting really any sleep the night before, and Connor was, of course, grumpy.

45 minutes after we were first taken to the exam room, the dr. came in. I just wanted to scream by that point, "It's about time!!!" But, I held my tongue during the 30 second exam - just long enough to listen to him breathe, take a look at his ears, and decide that he did have an ear infection.

He prescribed some amoxicillin for him, and we took it downstairs to the pharmacy. The pharmacist there was a piece of work. She ended every sentence with "hon."

"Is he allergic to any medicines, hon?"

I responded that he was allergic to dairy. (Now, in my defense, I know that dairy is NOT a medicine, but sometimes it is used in medicines, is it not? Because of that, I wanted to make sure this medicine would be safe for him.)

She responded, "Not food or drink, hon. Medicine. Is he allergic to any medicines, hon?"

"Grr," I'm thinking. "No, not that we're aware of."

"Okay, hon. Now, I need your phone number, hon."

"Like one you can reach us at right now, or our home number?"

"Just a phone number, hon."

*sigh* I just wanted to scream at her, "I'm not your hon. I'm HIS hon" - pointing to Brandon who was standing next to me trying not to roll his eyes at her. But, again, I held my tongue, gave her our cell phone number, and my sisters just in case, and we headed home.

It became a fight to give him his medicine for the next week, but we did, and we kept up on the Tylenol and Motrin, too. He slept a little better that night. Hallelujah!

Thanksgiving weekend - part 3

Friday morning, we all got dressed in our snow clothes and headed up the mountain for some Christmas tree hunting.


The Goodrich Family Tree Hunt


The Goodrich Crew


Huh? You talkin' to me?


We decided to leave Connor in the car
He doesn't take a binky anymore, but this day, Brandon tried, and he took it. I don't know if it helped his ear feel better or what, but he was content and happy for a while.

The boys and I went wandering around the mountain, but couldn't find anything we liked. My brother (who had gone up for his tree on Wednesday) came to help me look. We finally found our tree. He cut it down for me, then he and his wife lugged it all the way back to the road - with a few stops on the way. It was HEAVY!


And, we're off!

I ran ahead to have Brandon come help, but when I got back to the car, he wasn't there. Apparently, he had told me to get a head start on looking while he stayed with Connor for a bit, and then he'd come help cut it down and carry it back. But, I didn't hear that, so had no idea where he was.


I get ear infections really easily, - which then inevitably leads to strep throat - so I always bundle my head up nice and toasty!

No wonder I didn't hear Brandon! :)


A picture of the river that Brandon took during his wandering to find me

My brother and sister-in-law managed to lug the tree to the road, where my dad had backed his truck up. We got it loaded, then a bunch of us piled into the back to drive back to where the rest of the group was waiting. Kent, one of my brothers, hung onto the back of the truck and got dragged down the snowy road. I was holding his two daughters, and they thought it was hilarious that dad was being dragged down the road. :)


Piling into Grandpa's truck


Me and one of my nieces - Adi


Cute Gavin - seriously, isn't he adorable?


My sweetheart of a niece, Brooklyn

By then, it was time to go home. Everyone had their tree tagged and up in the trucks, but we were stuck. (It isn't a true Christmas tree hunt for our family unless someone gets stuck and we have to dig them out.) Between some brothers pushing, and a tow rope hooked between us and my brother's Dodge, we were able to get us turned around and driving back down the mountain.


Kent getting us hooked up to the truck


Look at that snow fly!


One more pull and I think we're good!

We headed to my moms for some dinner, and opening presents for all the cousins. Sadly, we had to rush through the afternoon because of the monster storm that was coming through. We were planning on staying through Sunday, but decided to leave Saturday afternoon to beat the storm.


My kids (plus one nephew) after the tree hunt

Connor cried part of the way home, and the boys were very disappointed that we had to leave. Made for not a very fun trip home. I admit that I sulked and was a bit snappy to Brandon. But, he was patient with me (as he always is), and after seeing the storm on Sunday, and the non-stop snow that fell that day, we're very glad we came home early - especially with the tires on our van. Not good tires for snow.

Sunday, after choir practice, we put up the tree. Unfortunately, some of the lights we had weren't working, so Monday, I headed to the store to get some new lights and some shatterproof ornaments. We decorated it that night for FHE.


Three cute boys and a Christmas tree

Each year, I try and get all of the boys new ornaments, and this year we thought it would be fun to let them make their own. So, I got some stuff to make sand creations. The boys loved it! I think maybe next year I'll let them paint some ornaments. :)


Gavin filling his ornament up


'Da boys working on their ornaments


Serious business, here


Scott with his finished work


Braden concentrating - don't spill!

Thus ended a very long, somewhat frustrating weekend. But, being with family, eating some GOOD food, and well, being with family . . . It was great! :)