A bit of me......and a bit of the two-headed blog monster

okay here it comes......this has been a long time coming that's for sure!!! :)

Let's start off with some background.... I guess I have some weird part of me that will go through obsessions....wait a minute arent we all like this at one point or another?? ;)

I'll have months where all I want to do are puzzles. I'll do every puzzle I own and go buy a few more and do those. Then I get sick of puzzles (I start dreaming about them), and that obsession goes dormant for another 6 months to 2 years......depending on when I get through all the rest.

Then I'll get in a sudoku obsession and all my free time will be on sudoku....til I get sick of it/start dreaming numbers.....

Another one is scrapbooking......

And blogging got it's obsession era too......I even set up two blogs.....wow!! I'm so awesome!! ;)

And yet another is reorganizing everything in the house (currently on that one).

Around September my new obsession became Harry Potter. I never actually read the series. I read books one and two years back but I never kicked it into 'obsession mode'. So it died a slow death. But I'l tell you what kicked me into obsession mode. I saw the most recent movie half blood prince and I HAD TO KNOW THE DETAILS OF SNAPE....good or bad??? So I told Trevor (this was in September) I was going to read the whole series by Christmas. He laughed and said 'yeah right'. I finished the last book about ten days before Christmas!!!! My obsession and questions satisfied. (And I was dreaming about fighting You-Know-Who every night......all this to understand the pshycological workings of Snape....totally worth it!!!
So to sum it up....I get these obsessive hobbies that come and go and cycle through, and when harry potter took over my life, blogging went out the window.

BUTTTTTTTTTTT There are OTHER reasons why blogging went out the window!! (besides the fact i've had sick kids and a very busy calling and lots of other stuff going on..) But we will address some other reason: And here are my explanations and analyzations of the 'two-headed blogging monster' inside of me. (one head likes it and the other head doesn't yet they are attached to the same body..... just an analogy to explain my conflicting feelings)


it really is great to be in the 'loop' of peoples' lives. Some people you lose contact with if you drop the blogging and/or facebook world. But i don't like being 'bound by the cyber world to know what is going on with loved ones... yet this is the world we live in and it is convenient so even with my irritation of this I still really like it ha ha go figure ;)

I realize how many cute little precious details of our lives and what the girls say and do I record really well on the blog.......I do keep a journal however it seems easier to type
all the nitty gritty details, and i haven't computerized my journal yet, so writing it is cumbersome.

Not only is it nice to keep up on others' lives but it is nice to have a convenient way to let people know what is going on in ours.......convenient.....yet at the same time lonely.....do people REALLY care? If they did they would call.......but we're all low on minutes right? lol :)

Vulnerability is another thing. You put all your heart into a blog or statuses on facebook lol and for all you know a crazy person could be stalking you.......even someone you think you know could be turning crazy.......it has happened you know. And yet it is such a fun way to have a voice!!! :)

"Put all your heart into a blog" Some people really do this. They are genuine on their blog, you feel uplifted after reading their blog (even when they are negative on it) cuz you know they aren't perfect either and yet they keep on keeping on. But there are other blogs that only show part of the truth (not like blogs are supposed to reveal all....nor would we want them to) but you know what i mean, the blogs that you feel depressed after reading, the 'look at me i'm so talented and happy and perfect' blogs. The ones that you read and just felt like you wasted preciouus time reading it. Only to feel inadequate in all your endeavors.

And that brings us to the last point I have about blogs.....waste of time. Or is it? Everything has good to it and everything has bad to it. Blogging does have quite a bit of good in it....the problem I have is that I get these 'obsessive hobby' moments and have a hard time not spending too much time on one thing. Moderation in all things, Brianna, come on it can't be that hard!!! And yet it is for ME!! I feel guilty when I spend time on a "pointless, time-wasting blog" when my kids will only be young for a short while (same goes for any other thing that can possibly be deemed as 'wasting time')......when I need sleep so desperately, when I don't have much free time anyway beause of so many demands with family, community, and church........ but wouldn't it count as 'me' time.........but do i want a 'two headed blogging monster' to take up my precious 'me' time..??

So after all this analyzing.....I have determined to delete both blogs......JK!!!!!!!!! LOL!! total joke!! No I am actually going to keep both blogs because I have been able to record some precious memories and thoughts and feelings that I want to keep recording while my kids are young and I am a young mother. So when someday my girls are older they will have memories to review IN ADDITION to my very down=to=earth personal journal.
There is enough good to blogging that I am going to try and keep it up through all my random obsessive hobbies.......at least one post a month at the least.
One thing I do have to vent.....I AM SICK of SICK KIDS!! That has been one of the draining things I am sick of. Okay, enough of that, we are very blessed and through all our hard times we have been blessed by the sustaining power of the gospel. God always gives us strength even during the times its hard to feel it.
Okay there I got it all out. I've posted a post similar to this before. But guess i needed to rehash it all again ;)

Answers

HA HA that was pretty funny!!

1. Brianna
2. Trevor
3. Trevor
4. Trevor
5. Alivia

No one got them all right but thanks for playing anyhow!!! :D

Guess who

So I have written a few things down here and there that different members of our family have said at any given time during the last few months. We have myself, my husband Trevor, and my 4 year old who do the majority of the talking. Look at the statements and try to decide who said which. If anyone gets them all right I'll mail them a surprise!! :D

1. It looks like either you have eyeshadow on or your eyelids are slowly dying.

2. "Don't, don't, DON'T!!!" [pause] "Thanks for not don't-ing."

3. Your breath smells like high-octane stomach acid! If I lit a match you'd breathe fire!

4. I don't want to feel your foot cuz it feels cold and thick.

5. Soy milk tastes like beef salad.

Since it is late, I am only putting a few.

The Blessing of the Twin Egg

I woke up and wanted an omelet so bad! A FOUR egg omelet, not a three egg omelet. Well, my predicament was that I only had SIX eggs left and needed, and I mean NEEDED to make cookies later on too, and that recipe required THREE eggs.
So I had to settle with a three egg omelet.
To my most PLEASANT surprise, One of the eggs was TWINS!!!! So, I actually DID get a FOUR egg omelet AND my THREE-Egg cookies!!!!!!!!!!

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(even if it is so busy i neglect my blogs ;)

Kids take things literally

So we were in the doc's office yesterday and they had this cute little exercise routine poster for the kids to do while they wait.

My 3 1/2 yr old had me read to her each thing and then she'd do it.

For example, "dance like a monkey for 1 minute while you sing a silly song", or "do 20 jumping jacks. Now do them again only faster."

We came to one that said (and I read it exactly), "Stand on one foot and hop for 1 minute. Now stand on the other foot and hop on it for 1 minute."

She placed one foot on top of the other foot and proceeded to hop whilst "standing on one foot"!!!

ROFL!!!! (Rolling On Floor Laughing) :D

A Couple Shots in the Eye....Behind the EYeBall to be exact...

(Today: one day after)

The day of..... there are more pics if you scroll down....

Pars Planitis

Ever heard of it? I hadn't 5/6 years ago when I was diagnosed with it. (Wow, I'm making it sound really bad ;). The above picture looks like I hate life and I really didn't :D.

It all started when I was newly married and camping with my inlaws. We had those cute "environment-friendly (not)" white styrofoam cups to drink from. I filled mine with water and sat there drinking when suddenly I noticed dirt floating ALL over in my cup!! "Who put dirt in my cup?!" No one fessed up. Finally Trevor looked in it and said "There's no dirt in your cup." WHAT?!?!?!!?

So to the Shopko eye doctor I went.

He dilated my eyes, took one look at them and said, "You need to get yourself to an Optometrist."

I headed to the Optometrist....wow...they were a lot more "eye-ish". Well this doc dilated my eyes and said, "You need to see a Retina Specialist"

A what? I didn't even know Retina Specialists exist.

So in I went.

My retina specialist gave the "pars planitis" diagnosis. It is simply an autoimmune response in your eyeballs and your eyes make all these antibodies that float all in your eye and can inflame it and blur the vision and even cause blindness cuz they rest on the retina, so you have to keep up on your checkups to try and prevent blindness if at all possible.

Ok. well that was fun. He had me get all sorts of tests to check for all these other diseases that can cause pars planitis, but all were negative. I guess this disease can also happen on its own.

He was debating giving me steroid injections behind my eye and then I got pregnant and we moved to Boise. So I ignored the whole "pars planitis" thing.

We moved back to Utah and I decided maybe I better contact my retina specialist and get a check up since it had been years....3 to be exact. He told me I better come in at least every 6 months because waiting longer could get me blind.

I used to have 20/20 vision but the pars planitis (which was more severe in my left eye) had decreased my vision to 60/20. So doc decided a month ago to give me my first steroid shot.

It was A LOT worse than I could have imagined!!! The two pictures on the bottom of me in the green shirt were after getting the first shot. The rest of the pictures are just from yesterday after getting my 2nd shot. The steroid shot is supposed to help break up the floaters and decrease the bluriness.

Description: the doc lifts up my eyelid and jams a q-tip up as far as he can to get it numb.....then repeats with a new q-tip. (oh and also gives my eyeball numbing drops). Then he holds up my eyelid while I look down as far as I can and he injects a needle up underneath my eyelid and in all the way behind my eyeball! then he says I'll feel some "pressure". Yeah okay, my eyeball felt like it wanted to dislodge!! Well, afterwards, my eye was droopy for a few days and it only felt like I got decked in the eye. (oh yeah and I got a migraine from it)

The first shot totally improved my vision. My left eye went from 60/20 to 25/20!!!! Wow!! I hated that shot but had to get the second one. The second one actually didn't give me the 'gag and throw up sensation' so I think my anxiety was more under control about it. But it sure was worse getting over it round two. My eyelid was bleeding underneath hence the bloodshot look.

Below are the pictures of the first shot about a month ago: (really not too bad....)

very dilated eyes :) but my eye didn't bleed like it did with the second shot shown above.


you can barely even tell...just looks a little droopy.

Clean house, well sorta, and slackened blogger....

Yes, it has been FOREVER since I blogged. With summer comes some extra things I don't get in winter, like walks, pool, park, library summer reading program......and in a month or so soccer.

Well, with all the stuff something had to go. I decided to be one of those moms whose on top of the house thing. I've been really good with getting great wholesome meals prepared, but keeping the house clean and training my girls to help me with it has been a great task for me. (Now I have Alivia emptying the dishwasher and cleaning the living room every day! Woo hoo!! When she's annoyed with me making her clean, she says "Mom, you're my Stepmother cuz you're making me clean!" She likes Cinderella a little too much I'm thinking.)

So my goal was that I would have no computer time (that means no blogging, facebook, emailing, geneology, etc.) until my house was first clean. Well, pretty much that meant NEVER!!! Cuz I clean and I clean and I do laundry and dishes, and more cleaning, and in between it all try to raise my girls and yeah, the computer time never happened except an occassional checking of the email. (oh yeah , and with all of this I've been trying to get to bed at a decent hour).

So I've missed out on a lot, and you all have missed out on a lot. So here's time for maybe some catch up. Uh yeah we'll try. :D

I guess I've learned a few things: I hate cleaning, I hate having limits...like having to sleep..., I hate how dirty the house gets right after cleaning it, I can never have perfection (darn), and above all, I'D MUCH RATHER HAVE HAPPY CHILDREN WHO I READ TO EVERYDAY THAN SPEND ALL AND I MEAN ALL MY EXTRA TIME CLEANING AND DOING DISHES AND DOING LAUNDRY. TO HE** WITH CLEANING!!!!
(dRaMa aDdEd) :P (were you thinking I wanted to cuss, cuz i was actually picturing in my mind the word 'heck'. ;)