New Treadmill

My treadmill is dying. Over the past several weeks it has been stopping during my walk earlier and earlier. Also the belt doesn't want to work so I have to keep it moving with my feet. It has given me a GREAT workout and by the time it has been stopping (around 30 minutes), I am sweating up a storm and my legs are sore. We bought our treadmill used from a friend of mine 9 years ago for $75. It has been great, but hasn't been used a ton either. I prefer walking outside, but I have used it a ton this last several months. Deilen HATES to go walking. I have tried to get him to ride in the stroller, ride his bike, or run. But he just sits and complains. However, if we were home he would be running around the whole time and never complains. He never complains if we ride our bikes to the park or to Eric's house. But if I mention we are going on a walk, he freaks out. But I only have to deal with that for the next couple of months and then he can stay home with Kaymin while I go and then he will be in kindergarten. With the weather being cold I have tried to walk on my treadmill. I get bored watching TV or even listening to my iPod. So one day I decided to read. I LOVE it! I have been reading a ton of books because of it. I actually look forward to it. Since my work schedule has changed, I am not able to walk now on Tuesday and Wednesday. So I know I needed another treadmill, because it is just a matter of time before mine quits all together. So on Saturday we went to Discount Fitness where they sell fitness equipment for 50-80% off. I found a treadmill that I have been researching and walked out with a brand new one. I LOVE it. It is all fancy and computerized. It has programmed workouts and even places where I can put one in. It has a fan, cushioned running deck, 2.5 commercial horsepower motor, incline, and my favorite part....a book shelf. I am in heaven. I don't know why I waited so long. I love this thing.

Ruth

This past Friday, Jen, my sister, began bleeding again. They rushed to Labor and Delivery and ran a bunch of tests on her. They determined that they needed her baby, Ruth to come. They started her on the PIT around noon she was going to try to have her vaginally. She was born at 11:18pm and weighed 3 pounds 11 ounces. She came out blue and they tried to work on her (CPR), but she wasn't responding. They pronounced her dead after 10 minutes and my brother in law, Andy, went to give her a blessing. Just another testimony of the miracle of priesthood blessings. After the blessing she began responding. When my sister's water broke at 20 weeks they told her that they is the critical time of the development of the brain and the lungs. Ruth's lungs kept collapsing. She has had to be put on life support and definitely showed signs of lung and heart problems. Normally a 30 week old baby, that is what she is, has a 95% chance of survival. Ruth, however, has a little over 50%. By Sunday was doing so well that they decreased the amount of oxygen they were giving her. Yesterday she was doing so well, that they even took her off of the ventilator. The doctor and nurses keep telling my sister that she is a miracle baby. But because she is doing so well, they call this the "honeymoon" phase. Everything is too good to be true. Then once the honeymoon phase is over and we all have to face reality, so will Ruth. Apparently after this phase they tend to take a big fall. So Jen and Andy are still trying to prepare for the worst, but hopefully that day will not come. Ruth will need to be in the hospital for at least another 9 weeks. Jen was thrilled to come home after being in the hospital for 7 weeks. I just can't even imagine.

The Beginnings of Mischevious Acts

Okay, so shortly after I wrote about my cute little missionary, I received a phone call from the Layton City Police Department. Appartently my little missionary and her friend, Madison that she took to Activity Days, and the neighbor boy, Sam, have been prank calling a Medical Service Company for the past week. That is not a phone call that I had ever expected to get. But what do you expect with caller ID these days? The cop said that they knew it was kids and they would say some intelligible things or hang up, so pretty innocent. However, I was NOT happy. I remember doing it as a kid, but I never called a business and I didn't do with caller ID either. I think I was more upset that Kaymin lied to me. I would see her sneak the phone back and I always asked her who she had called. The answer was always Taylor. I had no reason to doubt her, but told her right before the cop called that she needed to ask to use the phone before taking it. Blake took Kaymin over to Madison's house to talk to her and her dad. Kaymin is grounded for a week...no phone and no friends. However, it drives me crazy when kids are grounded. I really want her to remember how bad she hated being grounded. So instead I gave her the option of getting off of being grounded earlier if she would do some chores for me for the next 3 1/2 days. She went for it and now she will be doing some work around here and will hopefully remember not to do it again. But, she will still be grounded from the phone for a long, long time. I am really glad that it happened and even with the cop. It has scared her to death and I think it will be something she will remember for a long time to come. The sad part is....I know this is just the beginning.

Kaymin the Missionary

Kaymin is friends with one of the backyard neighbor girls, Madison. Madison is not a member of our church and she has asked Madison several times if she would like to go to church with us or Activity Days. Well, today she decided to call Madison's dad, unbeknownst to me, to see if she could go to Activity Days today. Her dad actually said "yes" and the girls were thrilled. I wish I were that brave to invite my nonmember friends to different activities. I wonder why it is when we get older we have more apprehension. I am so proud of my little missionary. Who knows...maybe this will start something. I sure love her!

Human Waste

So for the past several years my friends have told me about human waste fertilizer, otherwise known as "biosolids" from the sewer treatment plant. It is suppose to be amazing to put in your gardens, lawns, and flower beds. So finally this year I decided...What the heck? Normally I use cow manure and Blake said to me one day, that poop is poop. Who cares where it comes from? At least from the sewer treatment plant you know it has been tested. So I decided to go and get a load. It looks like top soil and smells like chemicals and was very easy to unload. The guys at the sewer plant give you an information sheet that gives you the specifics. It has to pass a series of tests in order for the EPA (I think that is what they told me) to allow distribution. You put it on an inch or less thick to prevent the plants from burning. I thought one truck load would be plenty, however, I have a ton of flower beds so I had to go back for a second load. Luckily it is free. Deilen was the best helper and helped my shovel both truckloads. I sure wish I would have taken a picture. He never stopped. He kept going telling me we needed to get it done. He definitely has my personality. Yes, Deilen and I shoveled and hauled two truckloads of human waste while Blake was at work. Blake is one lucky one in my opinion. I guess I will let you know how well it works and if it was all what it was hyped up to be. The guy at the plant did tell me to be careful not to get it on my lawn or I will be mowing it at least twice a week. And, I was not the only one there getting it either. Apparently it is quite the popular stuff...who would have guessed?

Shelby

Today I babysat my 5 month old niece for 10 hours while my BIL and SIL worked. Normally Tori, Blake's sister watches her, but she is out of town. It was really fun to watch her and I quite excited to snuggle to her. But what I was most excited about was giving her back. I love that my baby is almost 2. It is amazing after not having a baby for a while to realize just how much work they are. Gerrit is pretty independent and prefers it that way anyway. He won't even sit in his high chair anymore. So we did away with that too. Now we just need to get rid of his crib, but we have tried that twice now and it won't work. He is a nightmare unless we can "cage" him in his crib. Otherwise he sits and climbs up and down the bunk beds and bothers Deilen and screams at the top of his lungs. Finally at midnight we put him in his crib and he goes right to sleep. Maybe one day? But I got my baby snuggling fix in today and then handed her back to her parents. She sure is a cute little thing though.

Jessica's Visit

On Friday, my friend from high school, Jessica, was in town and came for a visit. How fun it was to see her and to catch up. However, this time she now has a 13-year old who would rather participate in the grown-up conversations rather than play outside with the younger kids. We couldn't lay everything on the table and we couldn't spell things either. You know when you spell words you don't want your kids to understand? So we talked the best we could given our situation and had a wonderful time.