Things That Must Go...

Ben Lomonds Administration......The Ogden City School Board....and lastly, Ogden City Schools Superintendent.  (I don't have the time to explain each, and don't think I could be kind while doing it so just trust me)

Politics on Facebook must go.  I don't think you are getting anything but wasted time when you waste your day mindlessly re-posting things you see on FB.  Most don't check the facts before re-posting either which drives me absolutely insane.  If you are truly THAT passionate about Obama being impeached, our gun laws and who should be on welfare......do something about it.  Don't just re-post on Facebook, but petition your state, run for office, set forth to change laws.  You aren't going to change my view or opinion without a good conversation and without putting anyone down.  I know my opinion and I also know that I won't change yours by posting on a social media site.  Not only that, but my opinion won't change anything without action. 

Parents who leave babies home sleeping while picking kids up from school must go.  It has GOT to be abusive.  I have looked it up and in Utah there is no age to leave a child home alone.  The child must be 8 to be left in a car unattended, but there is no age restriction on the home.  To me, that means a child less than 8 should not be left unattended at home as well.  How often to we chat longer than we think?  How many people get in fender benders going to/from school?  What are the odds something could happen to your home or your child while you are away?  To me, the odds might be small but TOTALLY not worth it.  I understand you want your child to nap and that they will be a terror if they get woken up.  I do, I get it.  I just know that as a parent I would never, EVER forgive myself if something happened and I could have stopped it in some way.  A cranky kid is worth having.....so wake them up and take them with you when you leave the house. 

Apple flavored skittles must go.  I don't understand why every so often Skittles decides to change the green from Lime to Apple.  It throws off my whole groove.  It's not that I don't like the apple taste, but I am used to green being lime and I'd appreciate if it stayed that way.  I like to know what I am getting into when I eat my skittles.  If it were to stay apple that would be fine too, but Skittles needs to pick a flavor and stick to it.


Those are a few of my opinions for the day.  Just know that today I was quite opinionated and spared you by not posting EVERY one.  Ha!

Pictures!

I had my neighbor Ali take a few pictures of the girls so I could update the pictures on my wall and so I could submit some for Shelbys pageant.  Shelby is 5 and is such a funny kid.  She is just like her daddy in the sense that she LOVES to learn and always tries her best when doing school work or homework. We have now gotten her to where she will eat 3 bites of meat, but the only meat she likes to eat is ham.  She's becoming less picky about her food, but more picky about her clothes.  Just recently she decided she would only wear sandals, flip flops or Toms because socks make her feet sweaty.  She has become very girly and enjoys being fancy.  She loves jewelry and dresses and the color pink.  She still enjoys super heroes, bugs and getting dirty but shes much more girly. She always loves to snuggle her mommy which just melts my heart.  I sure do love her to pieces! Here's Shelby!

 Kadence is 6 1/2 and is still my happy, tiny girl.  Shes a full head smaller than everyone on her soccer team....and those on the other team.  She may be small, but she has a huge personality.  She saw a girl at 711 from the opposing team and went out of her way to tell her that she did good.  She loves to give compliments.  Shes helpful and very forgetful.  She is smart but doesn't really apply herself, just like her momma!  She loves to sing and dance.  She knows how to snap, whistle, tie her shoe and go cross eyed.  She's spunky and so funny.  She is my amazing eater and the most common phrase at dinner is "Can I have more?"  She thinks its funny that she eats so much.  She is a great kid and I'm so proud of her.  I love her to death and couldn't imagine my life without Kadence!  Here's Kadence!

Shelbys First Homework Poster

Shelby is in the 4 year old class in preschool which means it was time for her to make her poster for their self-esteem unit.  I was so proud of her, she did a great job. 

The part that is most funny is that both Kadence and Shelby put their favorite treat as Ice Cream.  I'm glad that we have these cute little memories of both girls.

Health Update

Here is a condensed version of my thyroid journey first:

• Found out I was severely hyperthyroid, had lots of tests and then killed my thyroid with iodine radiation.
• Went even more hyperthyroid as my thyroid died. (I didn't even have much further I could go)
• Adjusted and changed my meds and went hypothyroid as expected.
• Had an appointment in which we thought I was fine and I was hypothyroid. We thought it might have been because I had missed a pill that week so we didn't adjust my meds and kept my appointment at 6 months.

Now, we are caught up! I had my 6 month appointment yesterday and my usual blood work.  Shelby comes with me to all my appointments because I don't know what else I would do with her and she does great! It also gives them something to smile about since they generally deal with older people.  The Dr and her talked and talked.....and talked.  She did most of the talking and I wasn't sure if she was going to stop.  She eventually did at which point he told me we would do my blood work and just schedule for a year from now.  He said that if we needed to adjust any meds we would do it without the appointment by adjusting and just running labs instead of a full office visit.  Thats great with me since I have a $60 copay! Well we got the labs back today and I am now Hyperthyroid (the opposite of the last apt) again.  This really puzzles me since I forgot to take my pill Saturday and Sunday and had the blood drawn on Tuesday morning.  They decided to have me take a full pill 6 days and a half pill on Sunday.  I will then go back in 8 weeks to get my blood checked and we will go from there.   I am getting impatient and a little frustrated because I just don't seem to have the energy I should and I was expecting this to take less time.  Hopefully I will be in the normal range in 8 weeks and from there I will just have to maintain.

The plus side is that I don't feel nearly as terrible as I did months ago.  I was able to keep up with all the activities while my dad was visiting and months ago I struggled to do anything.  I am getting closer, just am not quite there yet. 

Grandma and Grandpa Gerry

A little over a month ago we were surprised by an announcement that Grandma and Grandpa Gerry would be coming to visit.  (My dad and step mom) They live in Massachusetts and haven't been out to Utah for 8 years.  We were lucky enough to meet them in Las Vegas 2 years ago so they have met most of the grand kids.  My girls were so excited! The first day we went to the Criddles for breakfast, Dinosaur Park, the parkway for a picnic and then to our house for a BBQ.  It was a busy day, but a lot of fun.  The best part was that EVERYONE made it to some or all of the days events.  That is a tough thing to do. Here are some pictures from the Dinosaur Park

 

 Saturday we went to half of Kadences soccer game and then met everyone to head to Baby Animal Days in Logan.  We knew it would be wet and cold, but decided to go anyways.  The kids did great and we all had a lot of fun.  We then decided to go to the Pizzeria in Ogden for lunch.  We spent the rest of the evening at the pool at grandma and grandpas hotel.  My girls are really getting used to the water and more daring and confident.  We taught them to float on their backs in a life jacket, Kadence put her head under water repeatedly and Shelby jumped off the edge.  I'm hoping we can teach them how to float on their backs without a life jacket soon.  Everyone else headed to Amandas, but we were spent and David didn't bring pants to change into.  Here are pictures from Baby Animal Days 

Sunday we went to Rachels for the day.  We got there around lunchtime and just let the kids play while we all visited.  We had dutch oven for dinner and we all had a great day.  We got a picture of grandma and grandpa with all the nieces and nephews that live in Utah and our family before they were off to Salt Lake.



 

For as many kids as there were, we had 3 solid days with minimal meltdowns and tantrums.  The kids all got along really well and we really soaked up the time as a family.  Jonathan and Aaron have the most difficult schedules of everyone and they were even able to be there all 3 days which is almost unheard of.  We're hoping that we'll get to see more of grandma and grandpa soon. 

 

Grandma and Grandpa Gerry flew home on Monday which is the day that the Boston Marathon had a bombing.  It was nerve wracking for us.  We knew that they were safe, but almost all of our family lives in Massachusetts.  My uncle Charlie and his daughter Michele were only about 50-100feet away from one of the bombings and were luckily safe.  I'm so grateful that my family was safe, but it breaks my heart to know that others were less fortunate.  My prayers go out to those who lost loved ones or were injured, I hope you are able to find peace and comfort!

10 YEARS!

I can NOT believe that David and I have been together for 10 years! On April 8th, 2003 we went on our first date and the rest has been history.  I immediately knew he was the person I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. He's not perfect, but he is absolutely perfect for me.  This prom picture is the closest picture I have to the beginning of our relationship.  I think at this point we had been dating for a month and a week. 

Throughout the last 10 years, I have learned so much about David.  He is silly, annoying, nerdy, smart, helpful, compassionate, loving, messy, spiritual, kind, hard working, passionate, he is quite possibly the best daddy in the whole world and so much more.  We have been through a lot of struggles together.  A lot of pain and heartache.  Through these times I realize that nobody in this world could be as patient with me as he is.  He is my rock.  He sees through my tough exterior and sees the girl inside who needs an extra hug. With his reassurance and support I am able to get through anything!  I love him so much and I'm so happy he chose me. He pushes me to be a better person.  He tolerates me when I'm unkind and he loves me when I'm unlovable.  I have never once doubted that I'm meant to be with him forever.  Thank you David for being an amazing husband, an amazing father and just plain ol' amazing!  I love you more than I could ever express!

 

The other day David and I decided to put together a "mix tape" of songs that have meant something to us over the past 10 years.  Some of them may seem strange but they all make sense to David and I. Some make me laugh, others make me immediately cry and others just simply make me happy.  Each one is from a particular time and it took us a lot of thought to weed out which songs HAD to be on the list.  We didn't want a list of good songs from the past 10 years, rather songs that truly meant something. 

 

Here they are in no particular order:

You Got What I Need- Biz Markie

Kelly Cries- Movie Life

Boys of Summer- The Ataris

Fill Me Up- Staind

Hell Song- Sum 41

Float On- Modest Mouse

Best of You- Foo Fighters

Cute Without the E- Taking Back Sunday

Move Along- All American Rejects

Diary of Jane- Breaking Benjamin

Bless the Broken Road- Rascall Flatts

Glamorous- Fergie

How to Save a Life- The Fray

New Day- Will i am

Shake it- Metro Station

Tonights Gonna be a Good Night- Black Eyed Peas

Coming Home- Diddy

Home- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

If I die Young- The Band Perry

Lost in You- Three Days Grace

Save and Sound- Capital Cities

Born This Way- Lady Gaga

Mr Brightside- The Killers

Hate Me- Blue October

Ohio is for Lovers- Hawthorne Heights

You're Not Alone- Home Grown

Nice and Slow- Usher

White Houses- Vanessa Carlton

Swing Life Away- Rise Against

Firework- Katy Perry

Let it Bleed- The Used

Shimmer- Fuel

Wish You Were Here- Incubus

The Naked and Famous- Young Blood

Moths Wings- Passion Pit

Jump Into the Fog- Wombats

Broken- Seether

Conference

I look forward to conference every 6 months.  Not only for the uplifting messages, but for Priesthood Session.  That may sound a little odd.  In fact, I used to dread Priesthood Session.  To me it meant that I was stuck at home with both girls who were most likely tired and almost EVERY time they were unusually naughty.  About a year or so ago I decided to change that.  I want my girls and I to have traditions all our own.  David has been going to Priesthood session with his dad and brothers for as long as he could.  They then go to Dylans for burgers and/or shakes.  I decided that the girls and I would have a girls night.  This year I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, spend it just the three of us or invite others along.  At the last minute I decided to invite Rachel along.  We were heading in to Famous Daves and thats close to Rachel so it worked great.  Rachel brought Kylah along and the girls had a great time.  The best part is that I had coupons! After tip I paid $21.

 

We the went home, singing Disney the whole way, to another surprise...

I let them set up their pop up Princess tent which excited them enough but I also gave them the Little People Princess castle.  They have wanted it since it first came out.  I bought it when I saw it on sale but haven't had a great chance to give it to them.  I know they are too old for it, but I am obsessed with buying the Little People sets.  I'm hoping to save them for my grandkids.  Even though they are too old now for the Little People sets, they had a blast.  We ended the night with a trip to Wal mart to buy two more sets of princesses.  The girls have been saving their money and decided that they wanted to spend it on more princesses. 

 

Today we watched conference together and I was amazed.  As Dieter Uchtdorf spoke, Shelby told me "Mom! Thats who we talked about the other night for family night!"  I didn't think they even paid any attention, but apparently they did.  They enjoyed listening and we didn't even have to bribe them one bit.  They just sat and snuggled in to us and listened.  Its great that they are old enough now to watch a session of conference without a problem.  Its even nicer that David and I are actually able to listen ourselves.  I sure do love this family of mine, I am truly blessed!

Very First Spanking...

To give a little background, when David and I got pregnant we discussed if we would spank our children or not.  We decided that we felt that we could discipline just fine without spanking but that some situations might need a spanking so that it was a bigger shock and they wouldn't EVER do that behavior again.  For example, running in the street.  We felt that because it could be very dangerous that to give the punishment a "little more" that we would spank them to get our point across.  Well, years have past and we haven't ever seen that a spanking was necessary even in the situations we had before.  Part of this was because our girls respond so incredibly well to us talking to them.  We get on their level and sternly talk to them and explain why we are upset.  This is usually followed by a time out and we yell in dangerous situations so that they hopefully remember not to do it again.  I also have read many studies during my schooling that say kids actually stop listening once they are hurt so spanking in dangerous situations actually makes them more likely to repeat.  This is because even if you explained why, they don't hear it because they are so caught up on the fact that you spanked them. So, for 6 1/2 years we haven't ever spanked our kids except for when we played. I am not saying that we judge those who do spank, because each parent gets to choose how to discipline their own children.  What works for others doesn't work for us and vise verse.

Now on to the first EVER spanking in the Joy household.  It was last Thursday and it was sweet little Kadence.  More and more often Kadence gets very defiant with me.  She is just simply rude.  We have talked to her about it repeatedly and why it isn't ok.  Thursday I had the girls by myself while David was at track.  Kadence and Shelby went out to play and they broke my number one rule.....leaving a sister outside when you come inside.  Kadence left Shelby out and came in.  They both got grounded from going outside because this was a huge no-no in our house.  They know about many of the things that could happen in just a few short seconds and that is why I make them stay together if they are out without an adult.  Ok, this isn't where the spanking happened.  After that we decided to finish Kadence's homework.  It wasn't going well to say the least so I told her she needed to stop wasting my time and do her work the right way.  She didn't and I sent her to time out.  I left her there maybe 2 minutes before asking her if she was done wasting my time.  She looked me stone cold in the face and said with much attitude "NO."  Ok, my girls seriously don't ever tell me no.  I know that most kids do, but not mine.  I took a deep breath and said, "You know that when you are done wasting my time you can get out of time out, right?"  She nodded and I left.  Another 5 minutes passed and I asked her again if she was done wasting my time to which she had the same response.  I told her she would be going to bed.  I stood her up, swatted her butt and tucked her in.  I then told her that I was done letting her be rude and disrespectful to her mom.  Then I left.  It gave me time to think about if I did it out of anger because to me that is the WRONG reason to spank.  I didn't  If I did it out of anger I would have spanked her days ago or at least the first time because I was plenty angry.  I did it to try to let her know that I was no longer going to accept her behavior.  My fingers didn't even sting.  Time passed and I went and tried to talk to her.  She cried, I cuddled and we moved on.  She was ready to finish her homework and she did a great job.  Then David got home.  I explained what had happened while the girls played.  I even told him that I've spanked her much harder while playing but you would have thought I used an object with the way she cried.  He took her to her room and asked what happened.  She told him "I was mean to mommy." He then asked what I did.  Kadence then told him "She spanked me REALLY hard." David looked her straight in the face and told her "I would have spanked you harder."  David doesn't put up with the girls disrespecting me very well.  He tries to show them that they should respect me and I hope this teaches them to expect respect when they are older.  I don't think Kadence was too traumatized, and oddly it didn't upset me as much as I thought it would.  I hope that this is the only time anyone has to be spanked in our house though because I just don't see it as a great way for us to discipline our girls.  They thrive more on positive reinforcement than they do the negative.  I just figured I would blog our "first" even if it wasn't a glamorous or fun first. 

Easter!

Let me update you in case you haven't read any of the other posts, I was super sick this Easter and I struggled to get the girls the dresses I wanted....but managed to get them!

 

When I was little I remember my mom hiding our Easter baskets all over the house.  We told the girls and they were kind of expecting it so we hid their baskets.  Shelbys was in our shoe/coat closet...

 The rest of Shelby's gifts were in front of the fireplace...

 Kadence's basket was in our bedroom closet...

 And here's the rest of hers...

 There were a few tears of frustration from Kadence so I'm not sure that we will do this again.  It was fun to see where they thought to look though!  Here the girls are checking out their baskets.  The highlights were the movies, Wreck it Ralph and Peter Pan.  (Shelby LOVES Peter Pan) The Easter bunny also left them Little Golden Books of Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, Wreck it Ralph, and Cinderella.  They loved their clothes and PJ's.  Unfortunately the shoes that the Easter bunny bought were a little too big so we have to go to Salt Lake to exchange them.

 Since I was sick and actually felt like death, I chose not to go to church and infect the whole Primary.  I instead got the girls ready and sent them with David to watch Barb and Grandma Joy talk.  I planned to do their hair down, but simply didn't have the energy to.

I love the girls dresses, they loved their dresses and David said so many people commented on them.  So the effort wasn't wasted that's for sure. 

 After church the Joy family came over to eat an Easter lunch.  It was fun to see everyone, but I was struggling to "pretend" I felt ok.  I seriously sounded terrible and David is pretty convinced I had pneumonia based on my wheeze.  It didn't matter to me though because I was already on an antibiotic.  I enjoyed watching the movies with the girls and just having a relaxing sort of evening.  I sure do love them!  I wanted  picture of us regardless of how I felt.

 It was a great Easter weekend and we were so happy to be able to do so many fun things with family and friends.  We wrapped up Spring Break by taking Kadence to the dr for an ADHD evaluation.....shocker.....she has been diagnosed with ADHD.  We didn't give the dr much opportunity to speak about medicating her because David and I both feel she doesn't need it as of now.  Not that we are against medicating her, we just don't feel its needed yet.  We will continue to watch her and make sure we get her started on medication as soon as we see she needs it.  We got home and told the girls: "You know how we tell you not to touch under chairs and tables because people stick gum there? Well, today we are going to go clean all the gum off.  Somebody has to do it and today is our turn." The girls agreed without a single dispute to which we told them....APRIL FOOLS!  We had a good laugh at them and Kadence was trying to act disappointed.  Ha! We then went to Pizza Factory and Fatcats with Jeffy.  The pizza was gross in my opinion, but it was alright.  Then bowling was amazing!  Kadence got a strike, I broke 100 which never happens, Shelby danced the WHOLE time it was her turn and we had a great evening as a family.

Fun Day

The Saturday before Easter is always the Joy family Easter egg hunt.  I woke up feeling terrible and hadn't slept much the night before due to my cough.  I also still couldn't hear out of my ear.  We figured out a way to get me to the dr without interrupting our plans....JEFFY to the rescue!  Jeff came and watched the girls for us so that we could both be where we needed to be. Turns out I have a cold. I also have an ear infection and most likely a sinus infection so I was sent home on an antibiotic.  No time to pity myself though, we were off to an egg hunt! The girls had a blast and I forgot my camera like I do every year.  Kadence's highlight was getting an egg that looked like a jewel.  Shelby loved sitting on a rock and eating candy.  I asked at one point how much she was going to eat and she said "We'll just have to see."  I had Davids cousin, Amanda, snap a quick picture of Shelby.

After the egg hunt we came home and got ready for a date.  I love date nights!  I love spending time with my girls but I also see the need to spend time away from them.  Had I known when I bought our tickets to Dr Drew and Adam Corolla that it was the night before Easter I wouldn't have bought them.  Luckily Jeffy came to the rescue again and agreed to take the girls home from grandma and grandpas and put them to bed at a decent time.  I didn't want them cranky for the Easter bunny.....but mostly church the next day.  David and I headed to Rodizio Grill with some certificates I bought for cheap.  I LOVE their raspberry limeade... 

 And David loves their meats...

 If you read the previous post you know of our Easter dress dilemma.  Well, after eating we had 45 minutes until the show started.  I decided to look up the nearest Childrens Place which happened to be 11 minutes away.  Our show was at Kingsburry Hall which was 10 minutes away.  We looked at each other and David just knew that I was going to make him drive me to get the dresses.  I knew exactly what I wanted so I thought it just might work.  We got there, rushed in, found the dresses I wanted...in the right sizes!  We hurried through checkout and rushed back to our car.  We had 15 minutes left to get to our destination, park, get in and get seated.  The biggest problem was that I had to pee.  Ha! We paid for parking so that we were closer and ran in.  I knew I only had 2 minutes before show time but I hurried to the bathroom.  After, we realized that they weren't even seating anybody yet.  After looking at the tickets again we realized the show started a half hour later than I had thought.  Oops.  We made it, we got the dresses I wanted and we had time to people watch.  It was a win-win situation.  Let me be the first to tell you that there is a diverse following of "Love Line".  David and I were so excited!  I love Dr Drew.  I have watched him during all of the "rehab" series on tv.  He is  a great guy and deals a lot with rehabilitation of people.  Since that is something that I am thinking I want to do I just really enjoy watching him.  Adam is just simply hilarious so it a great match.

 We were SO close to the stage and had incredible seats!

I don't think I have laughed so hard in a long time.  It was such a funny night.  A few highlights were the Jack in the Box Enema story, "Teachable moments", and the difference of LA and Utah.  David and I hurried home to be the Easter bunny and get to bed to get some sleep.  At this point I was getting tired of pretending I was feeling ok.  The fact is that I had felt like crap for almost a week and I was starting to lose my patience.

Eggs!

This year Ogden District was SOOOO generous and gave us the Friday before Easter and the Monday after off for Spring Break.  I say this sarcastically because Weber and Davis as well as Logan and Cache District all got an entire Monday through Friday off.  Well we tried to make the most of it! On Friday we went to lunch with Mrs Gambles whom we love dearly.  We then rushed to try to find the girls some new Easter dresses.  I had bought some well in advance and quickly learned that does you no good if you don't try them on until a few days before Easter. OOPS! What I bought didn't fit and we didn't have a ton of time between activities to find new dresses.  We went to Childrens Place because I found skirts I absolutely loved online.  Well, they didn't have the right size and we didn't have time to rush to a new store.  We bought skirts that "would do" if it was all we could find and headed home for an Easter egg hunt.  We have a neighbor who does an annual hunt every year but I decided I shouldn't go be around a bunch of kids since I had a terrible cold.  In fact I was wanting to go to the Dr because I couldn't hear out of one ear but we just didn't have the time.  I decided to ask a friend and her girls over for an egg hunt instead. We just hid a few eggs in the back and then let the girls loose.  I loved watching them as they squealed when finding an egg hidden.  I especially loved watching two year old Addilyn as she learned the art of Easter egg hunting. Here are the girls and their eggs

 Emi and Addi

 We then rushed off to the Ogden River to go fishing with our great friends Josh, Amy and their daughter Hadlee.  It was so fun to watch them.....play everywhere EXCEPT by their fishing poles.  It seems as though all three girls were more interested in climbing and playing with rocks and sticks this trip than fishing.  We'll try again soon and see if that changes.  Right toward the end Shelby started screaming and Kadence came running and said "I accidentally threw sand in her eyes!"  I had David put her in time out until  I could calm Shelby down and get her side of the story.  She had tons of dirt in her eyes, mouth, hair, etc.  I thought for sure Kadence was lying, but nope!  Shelby said she was trying to get a stick out of the ground and it flung dirt in her face.  Kadence was released from the dreaded time out and told her sister sorry and we were on our way.  We had to grab subs on the way home because we forgot to eat dinner and it was 6:30. 

After we ate we invited Jeffy over to dye eggs with us. 

The girls had a very eventful day and seemed to enjoy every minute of it, well except the sand in the face of course.  I love these girls and love how happy they make me!  I was beat by the end of the day because I hadn't been feeling too well, but a mommy does what a mommy has to do to make her kids happy!