The long awaited update!

Life has been on the fast track since August.  August was soccer practices, bad news medically, the start of school, more practices and soccer games.  Sept was full of soccer and October was more soccer mixed with my month to host Brynna's preschool.  November was trips and talks of career changes and more trips for that.  Then the start of the holidays.  So here I sit, alone in a hotel room (Ben had a conference in Costa Mesa and my mother in law kindly agreed to watch my kids so I could come along) finally able to take a breath and update the world on our lives.

So, soccer.  The boys continued to practice soccer with their dad as the coach.  Ethan's birthday was the same days as their first soccer game (a very eventful day).  They played 8 games total.  The crushed a couple of teams, got crushed a couple of times, and the rest were really close.  They had lots of fun most days, though they both decided that soccer is hard.  Benjamin had a hard time staying interested in the games or at practice so he would start chasing bugs.  Ethan tried really had but would get frustrated with his lack of coordination.  And Ben tried had at remembering that they were all just 5/6 year olds.  Hahaha it was an interesting experience, one that I am glad is over.



Ethan's birthday was the most interesting day of all.  They had their first soccer game.  Then we went home and decided to take the kids to see Ice Age 4 before we did presents and cake.  As the boys were changing, little Ben tried to climb up his closet to get something from the shelf but fell and sliced his back open on a piece of metal that was connected to his closet door.  It was bad.  I would post pics but you would probably puke.  I know I had the urge when I saw it.  I called his pediatrician and explained the cut and asked if it needed stitches.  She said that it probably did so to head to the ER.  Great.  Happy Birthday Ethan.  I took him to the ER but after about 20 mins, I got a phone call from his pediatrician.  She said that she called the ER and found out the wait was going to be 4 hours so she would just go into her office (it was a Saturday) and just take care of him there.  What a saint!!!  She ended up just using skin glue and butterfly bandages to close it and told me to keep him out of school for a whole week!  The cut was on his lower back, right above his booty, where the skin is really thin and stretchy so he wasn't allowed to sit for a week so that it would stay closed.  Well, it didn't work.  It broke open at least one other time so now he has a nasty scar.  I probably should have just stayed in the ER and got it stitched.  But we got out of the Dr's early enough to still go to the movies.  (Ethan picked going to the movies then and opening presents the next day over skipping the movies.  Crazy kid!)

Ethan enjoyed opening his presents.  He got some clothes, a new game for his leapster, a new book for his tag (about the body and blood and skin and such hahaha not planned), more sand toys, and a cool dry erase board with dry erase crayons (i think they are just grease crayons) so he can practice writing more.  He loved all his gifts!  Then we had cake and laughed at little Ben who had to stand the whole time. :)

In August, I was also diagnosed with Lupus.  It was nice to finally have a diagnosis after over a year of problems that just kept getting worse and 4 different Drs.  The Dr here in Porterville was a dork, the Dermatologist refused to do anymore testing (i was sent to her to get more tests done), swearing it was all eczema and ignoring all the other stuff.  So I switched primary Drs to one in Visalia and started all the testing all over again.  He sent me to a Rheumatologist who diagnosed me and sent me to a Cardiologist who checked out my heart.  Good news is that my heart is fine, just fast, and the Lupus is mild.  They have put me on medicine and are now just trying to get the right type at the right dose.  I can't really go in the sun anymore (UVs cause flare ups) and I am really tired a lot but I am hoping it all gets better and I can go back to my life.

In September, the gas company came out to blow insulation into our attic.  While they were up there, one of the guys fell through the celling.  They were worried that I would be mad but I actually just laughed.  They destroyed my least favorite light so I was thankful.  They paid for a new (and more modern) light and re-drywalled and painted.  Oh, and they gave me a $75 gift card.  I guess they were worried I was going to sue or something.

A few of the moms at my church who all have toddlers decided to do a preschool for the little kids 1 day a week.  We all took a month and mine was October.  It was lots of fun doing little Halloween projects with them.  I taught them numbers, with the help of Count Dracula of course, read books, and taught them the 5 little pumpkins song.  I also got to go to the pumpkin patch and do a Halloween party with them!  Brynna loves hanging out with her friends (which includes her future husband)!  I had lots of pics of all the different things I did, but my phone died in October and I lost all of the pics on my phone (I hadn't backed it up since August) so I now only have a few of the 1st and last week.

I also got to go with the each of the boys' class to the pumpkin patch.  I had more than enough of that place to last me the rest of my life!

Halloween was tons of fun.  We went to a truck or treat at the church the night before halloween.  I was a witch, Brynna was repunzel from Tangled, Ethan was a pirate, and Ben was a ninja.  Big Ben was a bum and refused to dress up!  On halloween we trick or treated through our neighborhood then went to a friends house for donuts and milk.  Then we went home to pack frantically for our trip.

Ben had to go up to Sacramento for 2 more days.  Our nephew was being baptized that weekend in Utah so we decided to go with him and then just continuing on to Utah.  It was tons of fun.  We went to the science museum in Sacramento.  The boys got a paper with a bunch of questions about the different exhibits that they had to fill out.  The museum had a bone exhibit there so most of the things were about skeletons.  I was sad that there wasn't more space stuff for them.  I think Ethan would have really loved that.

In Utah we got to ride Caleb and Ashley's horses.  Brynna got up under a horse and was knocked over and almost stepped on.  It was really scary, but before she could realize how much danger she had been in, Uncle Caleb took her on a horse ride so she wouldn't decided she was afraid of the horses.  It worked but we kept her away from the horses after that.  I even rode the horses for awhile in a field across from their house.  I have decided that galloping is better than trotting but that I am too short for the stirrups that they had.  I should have used the kids stirrups.  I thought I was going to fall off the horse.  I also decided that I may never ride a horse again because I was sore for a week! ;)

Around this time, Ben's brother Matt called him up and asked if Ben wanted to change professions.  I thought he was joking but I guess he was serious.  Ben was really interested so he went out to Arizona to meet Matt's boss and hash out details.  Which means that we are moving to Arizona this summer where Ben can work full time as an engineer.  No more summers off (not that we have EVER had a nice relaxing summer) and hot hot hot Arizona.  I am sooooo excited.  (sarcasm if you didn't catch that).  It is a great opportunity though.  Ben and Matt will work together and kind of be their own bosses.  He is really really excited.

For Thanksgiving we just stayed at home and relaxed.  After all the craziness of the months before, it was nice to just sit down and spend time together as a family.  I did go out and do some black friday shopping to add some spice to my weekend.  ;)

And blogger is not letting me add pics so go to my facebook to see them