Online Party

Hi Everyone! I'm hosting an online Tupperware party and you're all invited! Here's a link to the invitation. Let me know if you have any questions!

I'm Blue

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Blue

You're blue — the most soothing shade of the spectrum. The color of a clear summer sky or a deep, reflective ocean, blue has traditionally symbolized trust, solitude, and loyalty. Most likely a thoughtful person who values spending some time on your own, you'd rather connect deeply with a few people than have a bunch of slight acquaintances. Luckily, making close friends isn't that hard, since people are naturally attracted to you — they're soothed by your calming presence. Cool and collected, you rarely overreact. Instead, you think things through before coming to a decision. That level-headed, thoughtful approach to life is patently blue — and patently you!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

Paper Dolls

My aunt Isabel gave this cute die cut paper doll to Leonora. Here are some pictures of her playing with it. Thanks Isabel!

Hospital pictures part 2

Leonora getting unloaded from the life flight plane.

Still sick at the hospital in SLC.

Feeling a little better.

A Smile! Always a good sign!

Happy to be back home!

Pictures of Leonora Hospital visit

Here are some pictures! This first one was taken sometime in January before she got sick.

Poor Baby! At home Sunday, February 3rd, the day she went into the hospital.

In the hospital in St George. Very sick little girl.

Leonora's first plane ride. The life-flight trip to Salt Lake.

The plane and Leonora being unloaded.

Mixed emotions

Today was Renee's due date. I'm glad that Leonora is home and doing better, but I can't help remembering that I would have had another baby to "bring home" if things had been different. It's occured to me that the last three weeks would have been more difficult if I had been pregnant or had a newborn, but it's not much consolation. It's nice to have William and Leonora back home with us, but I don't feel like our family is all together. It's been a hard day for me.

Home again

Leonora was discharged yesterday afternoon, and we spent the rest of the day traveling. Today William came home. It's nice to have him back. Leonora still has to get 2 antibiotics 5 times a day-3 times through an IV and twice by mouth, and once a week a nurse comes to draw blood to make sure everything is going well. She lost about 5 pounds during her two weeks in the hospital. She looks a lot thiner to Aaron and I, and she's a lot less stable on her feet. It feels like she's gone back about 9 months as far as mobility goes. It's hard to see her struggle to walk, but at least she's home and happy again.

Still here

I thought that you'd like to know how things are going. Leonora is doing better. They took the tube out of her chest yesterday afternoon and it looks like things are going fine there. She is doing so much better, but still can't go home until her fever is gone for at least 24 hours. She also needs to eat and drink better, but I think she'll do those things better when she's out of the hospital.
The stay here has been very tiring. I feel really ready to go home. And now that I'm not as worried about Leonora getting through this, I'm realizing how much I miss William. Thankfully, he's been having fun with his aunts and uncle at grandma's house, and seems to be doing fine. This has been such a long drawn out proccess. I'm just exhasted in every way possible. I just want her to get better so we can all go home and get back to normal-whatever that is!

quick update

Leonora is still at Primary Children's. She has to go 24 hours without fever, eat, and get her chest tube (that's draining the fluid) out before we can talk about going home. They are considering surgery to remove the infected part of her lung if her fever doesn't go down.
On the upside, she is feeling better. She's sitting up more and playing some. That is encouraging. She seems more like herself.

Still sick

Well, things have not been going well. I'm in Salt Lake. Leonora was Life flighted to the hospital here. She just was not getting better. She has some fluid in her chest but outside her lung. The antibiotics and her own antibodies couldn't get to it, so they put a tube through her ribs to drain the fluid out. It will take a few days for the fluid to drain and then they'll keep her for another day or two to make sure everything is going well. Hopefully the fluid will continue to drain. If not, they'll have to do surgery. She has not really been looking better. She's also having problems digesting the stuff they've been feeding her through a tube. Poor baby has so many tubes and wires attached to her! She's so miserable! I really hope she'll turn around soon. I'd be grateful for anyone's prayers.

Sick, sick, sick

We've all been sick with the flu. Guess this would have been the year to get a flu shot. Most of us are starting to feel better, but Leonora has just gotten worse. She was not doing well at all yesterday, so I called the Doctor. He met us at his office to check her out and sent us straight to the hospital. They did x-rays and found that she has a pretty bad case of pnemonia on top of the flu. The doctor said to expect her to stay at the hospital for 2-3 days.

Take the Quiz here!

I saw this on Tearese's blog (who got it from Heidi's blog). I love Jane Austin! I got her complete works a few months ago. It took me awhile, but I finished Sense and Sensability and started on Pride and Predjudice. Anyway, I don't know if this is totally acurate, but it was fun anyway!

William's Artwork and zyx's

I found William writing on his magna doodle thing today and was impressed with his penmenship. So I took a picture. He said it was XYZ and that it said "Dinosaur." Obviously he hasn't quite gotten spelling perfected. He wrote it backwards, and I'm not sure if I should be concerned about that or not. In any case, I thought the letters looked pretty good!

After having that picture taken, he wanted pictures of all his doodles for the next hour or so. He drew a picture of Superman...

Batman(notice the bat ears on top)...

and I think this is the Flash.

Even though Superman is probably the best likeness, Flash is my personal favorite! He's a naturally artistic kid. I hope he keeps it up for a long time.

What do you think?

I got my hair cut today. I meant to take a "before" picture but forgot. Anyway, here's the finished product!

I've been meaning to post the last few days, but things have been busy. So, I'm posting now to tell you that Leonora went potty on her potty chair! I set her on it first thing in the morning, and she went! Yay! She didn't go any other time of day, but she went first thing in the morning three days in a row. She probably would have gone this morning if I hadn't been a bit lazy. We're on a later schedule for church now, so we tend to lay around a bit on Sunday mornings. Anyway, I'm hoping that she's on her way to potty training! Maybe I'll get a break from diapers!

Since Ailene Asked...

Here are some of the Tupperware products I love and can't imagine my kitchen without.
FridgeSmarts

These may not look like much, but they keep vegetables fresh for an absurdly long time. I have carrot sticks and cut celery in one in my fridge. They've been in there since the begining of December and they still crunch. I also especially love them for lettuce and other leafy things. The large one fits about 3 Romaine hearts. Anyone who finds lettuce turned to slime in the "crisper" drawer should invest in these-they will save you money!
The little vents on the end are how it works. Different veggies need different airflow. They produce gases as they sit, and if they aren't ventilated properly, they begin to break down. The vents keep the gases from building up and slow the break-down process. Each fridge smart (except the smallest) comes with a chart printed on the side to tell you how much ventilation your specific fruit or veggie needs.

Modular Mates (40% off this month!)

These are wonderful for organizing you pantry or cupboards! They all fit together in a "modular" system to save wasted space. The set in the picture is actually 50% off this month. All the others are 40%.

Rock 'n' Serve (25% off through Feb.)

These are frezer safe and microwave safe. They are great for leftovers or freezing food ahead of time. You can cook lasagne in the microwave in the large deep. I use them when I have more meat than I need. I just cook it all and store the leftover in the freezer. When I need it, it's already cooked.
You can check the prices on the Tuperware site. Let me know if you want anything!

Tupperware anyone?

So, I've been "selling" Tupperware (yes, just like your mom had-but prettier) since just before Leonora was born. Back in September, I finally got up the guts to ask someone in the ward to do a party for me, and since then have come to the realization that there are people in my ward who will actually pay money for a good product! Amazing! Anyway, I had a party yesterday. I'm still waiting for the hostess to get back to me about her order and a couple others who didn't make it to the party. I've decided that this is a good neighborhood to do parties in. This is my third here since October and I will have made about $700 so far. Which brings me to another thought... I might actually have to file taxes this year. Blah.

PS If you'd like any Tupperware, go to the Tupperware site and email what you want to me. That link on my side bar isn't working.

This Video is for You, Leonora

Swimming

In an effort to be more consistant with my blog, I'm going to post today. I don't like to post on days like today. But since I am lousy at journaling, and this is pretty much my only form of record keeping, I think I should give an acurate picture of my life, not just the pretty days. So... here goes.
Today is one of those days that I just don't want to do anything. I've been feeling really overwhelmed and just down lately. There's no one particular event that has caused me to feel this way now, it's just a build up of things. I keep thinking I'll have a relief from some of the stress, but it never seems to happen. So today, I feel like I've had enough. I just don't want to do anything... unfortunately, I have too much to do. I can't lay around in bed. Of course, laying around in bed probably wouldn't help anyway. Too bad I don't have a fairy godmother to come bibbity-bobbity-boo everything into perfection.
But then again, if everything was magically done for me, would it make me happy?
...
No, but I'd be able to stay in bed!

Yay for pants!

Yesterday, I went to Target and used a gift card we got for Christmas to get some pants. Some for me, some for Aaron, and some for Leonora. Here's Leonora modeling hers. The shirt is new too. $2.48 on clearance! :0