Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Special Agent Graham

I intercepted this communication from Good and his master in command, Make Mommy Cry Squadron, today. Here is the conversation.
MMCS: Special Agent Graham, we have a mission for you.

Graham: Copy that. How will we be making Mommy cry today?

MMCS: Method of choice- large kitchen mess when she is checking her email.

Graham: Excellent, I am ready for my orders.

MMCS:Your weapons will be the two new boxes of spaghetti noodles she bought on Saturday and the bottle of syrup on the counter. Empty the Lazy-Susan also.

Graham: How will I reach the syrup?

MMCS: Move the bench from the table and grab it. Do you have the weapons in sight?

Graham: Copy that

MMCS: Is Mommy in the room still?

Graham: Yes, sir. I am waiting now . . .wait for it . . . she has gone downstairs!

MMCS: GO! GO! GO! Get the syrup everywhere! Poor it on the bench and floor in at least three large puddles. Get some in your hair! HURRY! 5 minutes and counting! Now dump the noodles all over the floor. Yes, both boxes!! Empty that cupboard! GO! GO!

Graham: I hear something!

MMCS: Cease cry-inducing! She is coming back!

Graham: What should I do?

MMCS: Cute smile! NOW! Say 'Mommy' or something

Graham: Mommy- uh oh.

Mommy: I refuse to cry about this mess today- you are getting in the bath.

MMCS: Mission failed. Wait for laundry time. We will strike again and be triumphant.

Graham: I am in the bath now- I could do some damage here . . .

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Summer=time moves faster!

I love how individual days feel like they can last for weeks on their own and then months are over before you can remember to date your checks right. Such is life, right? So, here is a recap of our summer so far. I ran in the Rexburg half-marathon in June and did half an hour better than my time last year. I will not be recommending that course to anyone- seriously uphill for at least 9 miles. I hated it! I have heard that Pocatello and Logan have nice courses that I am planning on trying in the future. We had a few trips here and there and then came the Fourth. Independence Day is pretty big at our house, especially since we join most of Todd's extended family for water baseball and a picnic. By the way, I totally caught a fly ball and my team definitely won, (there is a chance that no one was really keeping score). Here is a little July 4th video. For those of you who have seen any of our family swimming pictures, you will recognize the Brynn-stands-alone-and-pouts pose. Ah, my sweet child. August is our big family-reunion month, so get ready for my feelings on camping! And family-tee hee.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Tooth #30


A little while ago I went in for my 6 month dental appointment. Of course, I had a filling that the dentist suggested we repair. The filling was not causing any problems but, there was a small crack developing and it would need to be replaced soon. I agreed to come back in the next week. As I was leaving I was thinking 'I guess it is better to get it taken care of before it really starts hurting . . .'


Here is the part where I will let you in on a little known fact about me. I hyperventilate when I am nervous. Not super-nervous, just the normal kind. I don't know what the deal is. I am suppose to be some fearless swash-buckling red-head- not the case. At all. Needles make me hold my breath and lose color in my face. Flying over water makes me cry. (ask Todd about our honeymoon to Oahu)Walking over bridges makes me feel dizzy. This should surprise most people as I was totally hard-core growing up. Somehow age has made me a total wimp.

Back to the tooth. I go in for my appointment and am doing an excellent job of not thinking about the procedure about to take place. The dental hygienist calls me back and then informs me that my doctor would be by to get my mouth numb. Heart pounding. The needle. My mouth. My mouth and a needle in it. Oh man- I am tensing up. Why had I agreed to this again? My tooth probably wouldn't become a problem for at least 2 months. Stupid. My doctor scoots up to me on his doctor swivel chair thing and gives me some line about topical. Everyone knows that topical doesn't do a good job numbing, but, I suck on the swab covered in the nasty stuff anyway. I am such a good listener. Then he pulls out the needle. My stomach squeezes itself into tiny knot and I can feel it hiding away from the pending doom. What, if it hides then I won't be so nervous? My eyes are not hiding- and I can see that silvery weapon of freak-out headed for my mouth. I look away.


By the way, the phrase 'just a pinch' is one of the meanest in human existence. The dentist pulls on my cheek and tells me to expect my just-a-pinch. I think I actually roll my eyes and glare at him. I will skip some details here as most people know what the next part entails. My breathing gets faster and more shallow. I am clawing the arm rests of the chair and trying not to tear up. This is so crappy. Finally, the dentist backs away and says to give it a minute. Then he asks if I am alright. I just shake my head slowly. He assures me I did great and then goes wherever dentist go while they wait for you to numb up. He is back and we are ready to party. I hear him giving the hygienist some overly-explained instruction. It is clear that she is new. Not usually a problem. They do the whole cleaning-off-the-tooth before starting thing and the girls sprays water on my face. Alright- she probably slipped. The drilling begins and I can feel the vibrations all the way up my right ear. I am working on breathing. No need to freak out now, I am numb and we aren't into the jaw pain yet. The dentist asks the girl to clean off my tooth again- more water to the face. Really? I am getting little splashes all over my chin and on my cheeks. I make a face. They don't notice because they are talking about Memorial Day. I guess it is fine to talk about things like holidays, but can you watch where you are pointing the water? Back to drilling. I am really wondering at this point if my face ever gets wiped off or if the hygienist notices what she has done. They share some inside story about his mom. You know the kind where they mention half of the information but don't need to explain the rest because they already know what is being talked about. Good for them, but I am wondering now about the dentist's mother.


More water to the face. Not kidding. Finally we get to the part where they use the little light thing to solidify my new filling. The hygienist clunks the thing down on my tooth and says that she has forgotten how annoying the light is. She forgot? That is like me saying, I have forgotten what May was like. When was the last time she used it? 3 weeks ago? Maybe I am being overly harsh- but after half hour of water-in-the-face I am thinking 'How does a new chick have old memories of anything in the dental world?' I think I might be really sensitive now. Plus the jaw aches have begun. She clunks the light thing down again and I know the end is near.
The whole thing is finally over and I get to wipe all the water off of my face. I still don't think the hygienist has noticed. I get up to leave and think to myself 'Why did I choose to go through pain just to avoid potential pain?' Oh well, I guess tooth number 30 is safe from a broken filling for at least another 5 years.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

April and draMay

April- we had a goodish month (remember that surgery thing?). We enjoyed the fact that Idaho finally let up on the winter scene and broke out the sun! How about a little picture-trail of our fourth month adventures?
We went to SLC in mid-April and enjoyed some time with my family. We spent most of the time walking around and tiring our kids out! Brynn even fell asleep on Todd's shoulders!
Graham knocks out after a full day at the Gateway Mall.


Brynnie smells the beautiful flowers at Gateway- the landscaping there is so well done!!

Todd and I w/BIG SMILES at the Utah State scrimmage game- pretty fun!!



Of course Easter was a fun holiday for us. The girls got new dresses that coordinated (one of my favorite holiday traditions). I think they look ADORABLE! I didn't get a great shot of Graham's outfit- but you kinda get the idea!



We had a FAST May. It was totally normal until I brilliantly left my purse on the front seat of my unlocked car. Who can guess what happened? It got stolen!!! I had $40 cash and all of my bank cards, pictures of my kids, BOTH of our cells, my checkbooks and my dumb driver's license all taken. And my dang cute Fossil wallet! It happened on a Monday night and I spent Tuesday morning calling and canceling my bank accounts on my friend's cell phone (Thank you Amy!) Honestly, the thing I was most irritated about was the fact that I was being forced into an Idaho driver's license. Yes, I had kept my Washington one this whole time we have been living here. I was pretending that by the time it expired we would be back in Washington. Wrong. A few days later I got a call from JC Penney portrait studio- I had an appointment the next day so that is why I thought they were calling. In fact, Idaho Falls Power guys had found my purse and found my portrait club card and called the studio to report finding my purse! How random! It was in the river and they caught it in the power plant thing on Sunnyside road. Well, I was pumped- no new license. Wrong. Everything except my wallet was still in the purse. The phones (destroyed by the river) and my pictures of my family (all gross and dirty) and even the cash were still there. I had kept my cash in a pocket in the purse instead of in the wallet- I am guessing whatever high/drunk jerk-face that stole it was not brained up enough to search the whole purse.
So, then onto the adventure of getting a new license.
I went into the DMV with Brynn and Graham. I brought everything I thought they would need- my social security card, my birth certificate and my utility bill proving residency. After waiting in that fun fun line I was told that I would need to retake the written test and bring in some sort of photo ID. I guess it was good that I held onto my high school yearbook because that is what I had to use. I went back a few days later to take the test and there was some drama about needing my marriage license. Something about the DMV just heightens my stress levels because I thought I was going to cry when they almost sent me away again. Luckily, I had my WA license number memorized and they verified the name change that way. BUT THEN I had to go to the ATM to pull out cash to pay for the test and new license( BY THE WAY: The DMV does NOT take debit cards), and because of all of the debit card canceling and account drama MY PIN DIDN'T WORK. I had to drive to the bank and get cash out to go back to the DMV to take that stupid test and then I finally was able to get my Idaho state driver's license. Seriously, after that week, the next time someone steals anything of mine I am hunting them down and making them wait on the phone for over three hours and then drive back and forth from the DMV three times and wait in line for a total of 2 hours. So much drama.

We did get to celebrate Brynn's 3rd birthday at the end of the month. Very few of my pictures turned out(new camera time!)- so here are a couple party shots to show you my crowded and fun house!


We love our little Peanut Baby- and THANK YOU everyone who joined us and made the party so much fun!! I hope everyone is just enjoying the heck out of this summer!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Pretend it is the end of March

GUUUGGHHHH! I am going to say that I have some really good excuses for this latest break. I really try to blog once a month- I want to work up to once a week, so I am going to keep trying. I am going to let you in on my reason for delay even though most of my reader know about it all. Check it out- I had some health drama that was starting to get kinda bad. After about 3 weeks of testing and imaging, we finally came to the conclusion that I needed surgery- removing my gallbladder, appendix and right ovary. Want to know the technical terms? Cholecystectomy, appendectomy and oophorectomy. I did not make that last one up! So the procedure took place last week- I am feeling pretty good now, which is such a relief! I have been down with something since January! Todd is pretty glad that things are clearing up, too- kinda got tired of the doctor's visits and the kookiness I bring about on pain killers!! So- I think that counts as a dang good excuse. And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my sweet mother-in-law Diane and my sweet mom Kim. They took care of my kids on the worst of the days last week and were so kind and helpful. Truly one of the nicest things that has happened to me- Love you two way too much!!!

Onto MARCH!!!

March is the best month for a number of reasons. The top is that Todd and I have our anniversary on the 17th. We celebrated by going to Red Robbin for dinner and Applebee's for dessert. Not the most romantic places but, we were really feeling hamburgers and RR french fries. So good. Our waiter at Applebee's was awesome and we found ourselves wishing he had served us at RR! It was nice to go out but, we decided we don't do our anniversaries well enough. We have never gone all out or anything and we are done! From next year on we are going to really celebrate our marriage. I am excited- next year we are planning on doing to SLC half-marathon together and staying in Salt Lake for the weekend. I know, I know- not that exotic, but we will save our African safari and European anniversaries for later years!

Here's to AT LEAST 50 more anniversary dates with my honey!!

Another reason I love March is St. Patrick's Day. Not being a huge drinker, or drinker at all actually, it is kinda funny that I love this holiday so much! We don't eat Irish food on St. Pat's- yet. I am going to start trying to serve Irish dinners for the day in the future. We do, however, deck out in green and make green cupcakes and frost them with green icing and drink green milk! We invited some friends over for a St. Patty's cupcake party. Aren't they so dang cute?



Of course I also love March because my birthday is at the end of the month. We invited friends over for games and treats. It was a lot of fun- we held a RockBand sudden death tournament. You had three songs to hold your place in the tournament and the two players with the lowest overall scores got kicked out and two new player got to join. The person with the highest overall score got to choose their instrument and the first song. The second place player got to choose instrument and song next. And finally, whoever got stuck on microphone got to pick the last song. Some players stayed in the entire tournament (Todd Flatland!) but overall it was a pretty good system! Here is a little video of the party! Oh, and the next day we went to my parent's house (all the DeArtons were in town) so there are some pics of that, too!



Well- I will post April's month-end update hopefully before the end of May!! Happy Spring!!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Fabulous Freed Family February Fun

You know, growing up, the letter 'F' was one of my least favorite. You never want to get that grade, I never met a single person whose first name started with it that I liked, the very worst words start with it- like frilly and fanatic (c'mon, those are dumb words). Plus, 'F' has no cool tricks like 'C'- that letter can make more than one sound- even in the same word!( e.g. concession). Or 'P'- put that in front of a dinosaur name and you don't even say it, its just there to be like "Yeah, that's right- I just show up and start words- take that 'F'".
But, now, in my enlightened state(it is now an initial of mine and thus a holy letter) I have come to kinda enjoy it- hence, whenever I get the chance I give you, my blog-buddies, sweet titles with lots of 'F's. My challenge- say Fabulous Freed Family February Fun 10 times fast, out loud, right now. I know, right? Disneyland's got nothin on that joyride!
So, onto my actual update for the month!

I know I am a little late on this- but, has anyone else noticed how February just ends? It is only three days shorter than other months but, somehow, seems like it is only a few weeks long. Well, this month has been pretty fun for us especially since we decided to buy Rock Band. We have been playing other people's sets for the longest time and kept debating about the purchase. Finally we just did it. We set it to No Fail mode and the kids love to play with us! Todd is much better than me but, I can get to medium on bass so, I am feeling proud!

Graham plays a drum solo! We had some fun with food faces with the two littles. Graham got some raspberries and Brynn played with chocolate pie! I brought my camera to Todd Flatland's birthday party and then LEFT IT IN THE CAR!! Oh, I am so not a natural blogger!! We had a ton o' fun at the Flatland's and enjoyed the luxuries of movies on a projector. Only $1800, think I'll pick one up after my grocery shopping . . .
This month marked the beginning or race training for me and I am so excited about my early morning running buddy, Heather! We both share a sick dedication to 5 am winter runs- Yes, 30 degrees is like summer at that time! There is a 5/10k on March 21st- anyone interested?

I AM SO PUMPED- Todd BUILT me a laundry room table, with a little help from Bing (THANKS!!). But, he came up with design and put in the labor.
I am so happy for it! And I am very proud of my geek-turned-handyman honey! I have a long list of shelving and bookcase projects that I am now ready to dump on him. I am pretty sure he can hack it!!
Hadley has been wearing her swimsuit EVERY DAY! I keep trying to dress her, but, then she ends up in just the suit anyway! I decided to put her tee and jeans on over the dumb thing just to keep her looking clothed!
Dallis shows off her favorite picture pose- cock your head all the way to one shoulder, give a cheesy smile and pop your hip out- such a ham!

And who needs walkers when you have Pergo and cheap stools? Looks like we will have a more mobile Ike coming on up!
All in all we have been enjoying life with our little Freedlings and busy house! Happy March- my favorite month, but I will get to that next time!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Grahm is ONE, Todd is DONE, and we sure had some holiday FUN

Probably one of my worst titles yet- but is it worse than the fact that I have a million things to cover in this overdue post? Hmm- I think the title might be worse by the tiniest bit! As many of you know, Todd finished up his undergraduate degree at BYU-I in December- he now has an official degree in Computer Science. It is nice to have that solidified, although, not much changes here for us. Todd has been programming the entire time he has been going to school- so same profession, same job. But, now we have no fear of him getting fired and having a hard time finding employment. Todd's mom gave us a SWEET snow blower for a graduation gift and a gift card for me to celebrate the end of our student years. Isn't she sweet? Todd received some other thoughtful gifts- thank you Flatlands, DeArtons and Wheelers! We celebrated TOdd's graduation the same night as Graham's first birthday. Ike is finally one! I thought I would tribute his birthday with a recap of the drama of his birth!

As many of you know, the ultrasound tech told us that Graham would be born a girl. Apparently some leg-crossing confused the gender predictions. So, we were ready to welcome our fourth girl due January 12th but really hoping to have the baby before the new year. Insurance stuff, you know. On December 16th is became clear that we needed to go to the hospital that day for labor issues. I had gone into preterm contractions at least 3 times prior, so we figured we would go in and they would stop the labor ahnd then send us home. Well- I was exactly 36 weeks so they did not stop the contractions. However, the baby's heart rate was WAY too high and so the nurse gave me an IV trying to calm the baby down. My contractions had not very regukar, so I still expected to be sent home. The fluids from the IV stabalized the baby's heart beat and helped my contractions become more regular. The decision was made that we WOULD have the baby that day even if it had to be c-section. That meant no food for me! Well, hours went by and I was progressing fine until we got to a point where the baby's heart rate started dropping. This caused the nurse to get nervous and the NICU nurse was saying "She has to deliver soon- that baby is distressing" The nurse started calling for the doctor trying to get someone in so we could deliver and NO ONE came! She actually got to to point of yelling out "Someone needs to get in here NOW!" The NICU nurse stepped out for minute to find the doctor and the nurse stayed by me. Good thing- because the baby was not waiting anymore and the nurse really just had to catch. Then the doctor comes in and starts being rude to nurse. Seriously? That nurse had paged and called for the doctor at least 10 times. Oooh- it made me mad. But, I couldn't really deal with that because the nurse did get in- before getting chewed out unfairly- 'Oh, its a boy!'
My first words to my son were WHAT?!WHAT?!WHAT?! Todd had given me a look just before that- the same look he gives when he is in trouble- and I knew something was up, but not that!! Well, he was rushed away to the NICU and I am laying there in absolute shock, crying and telling the nurse that he wouldn't have any brothers because this was our last baby and I didn't have a name for him and no clothes and the car seat (I know, of all things to freak out about) was PINK! Our story spread quickly and some of the sweetest nurses put together a gift bag of baby boy clothes for us to take him home in. That night my sister and her husband came to see us and we sat around trying to think of a name. My bother-in-law and Todd wanted to name him Icabod so that we could call him Ike. I said no to Icabod, but Ike is a fine nickname. We settled on Marcus because it seemed to be the best choice. I had to go home without the baby because his lungs were not ready and he had developed a little bit of pneumonia. My sister-in-law came to drop off some clothes from her son and was remembering some of the names we had liked. As soon as she said "And I remember you guys liked Graham" I thought- crap, we gave him the wrong name. After she left I went to talk to Todd and asked if he really liked Marcus because I might have a better name. We both agreed that Graham was the best name and I called the hospital to change it. They hadn't sent the birth certificate information in yet, so it was an easy fix! So much drama- but now we have a wonderful healthy little boy and we love having 3 girls and The Boy!



I know I am really late on the holidays- let me just say that we enjoyed spending time with both sides of the family and we had fun celebrating at home. And if any of you are wondering- no, I did not make any New Year's resolutions about posting more often ;)! Have the best beginning of a new year!