Cowboy Hyatt

You may have seen the post with the video of Hyatt roping things and saying he wished he could be a cowboy...

Well, while Tilly was home sick on Tuesday, playing ballerina, Hyatt was secretly rubbing his hands together and cackling with a plan. Okay, not really, but he should have been, because Tuesday was the first day of horseback riding lessons, and Tilly was too sick to go.

Hyatt took her place, of course.

He's only 2 1/2 and pretty small on a horse, but he's been DYING to ride since this summer when he finally overcame his fear of horses, and what better way to ride than to nab someone else's lesson. I set up lessons for Talea since I thought they'd tell me Hyatt was too small, but Olivia let Hyatt ride instead and he learned quite a bit...and loved every second of it.

I wished so bad I could go, but I stayed home with the girls since Tilly was sick, and Hyatt and Hyrum had a cow"boy" evening to themselves. Hyrum knows what he's talking about with horses way better than I do. I told Hyrum to take lots of pictures, but since it was pretty dark, only the ones he took right next to him turned out.



She even put little stirrups over the horn for him.




If you ever get down on your hands and knees for ANY reason in our house (looking under the bed, getting down to play with Kiersa, getting ready for prayers, etc), you're immediately mounted by two kids (or Hyatt at least) before you've even been down for 2 seconds, then your sides are kicked and you'll hear "Giddeup! Yee haw! Yee haw!" as your back is bounced on. Funny, but usually a bit painful and annoying when you're not expecting it..little stinkers.

Ballerina girl

I found that I didn't publish this post on Tuesday, so I'm posting it today rather than back dating it, so it doesn't get lost. I know Nana will want to see it.

Guess who is milking the sick card?


I let her lay in my bed to watch movies since her "tummy hurts" today, and look at what she got into! A sack of ballerina clothes I bought a while ago and was saving for if I could find her lessons (she picked the black over pink). Apparently she's feeling well enough to sneak into it and get all dressed up!

Hot Air

What happened to gas prices???

Gas got down to $1.51 at Safeway and 4 days later it jumped up to $1.79. Is that happening anywhere else? I hear Utah is still going down. I'm pretty bummed. The cheapest I can find in Myrtle Point/Coquille is $1.76 now, when only days ago it was $1.56.

20-28 cents in a matter of days!?

I know the west coast is the most expensive, but come on. It seemed like while we were driving semi the east coast always had the cheapest gas, with the prices slowly increasing as you headed west. Hmmm. Sometimes it was even 50 cents cheaper on the east versus west coast. Is it that hard to sail through the Panama Canal with oil? I don't know how the prices work, but it's not fair!!!

I still don't have to pump my own gas though. Ha Ha!!! Oregon rules!

Banjo the woodpile cat

I grew up watching a cartoon movie called "Banjo The Woodpile Cat."


It was a cute movie about a kitten that lived in Payson, UT. He was always getting in trouble with his dad because of his sisters, so he decided to hitch a ride on a truck to Salt Lake City so he could have a funner life as a city cat.

Funny things is, this same movie plot just played out for us here at the office.

My cat had kittens back at the end of July, and out of the 6, there were 2 left as of a few weeks ago: Jack and Banjo the devil cat. We decided to bring those two to the office to live so they could ward off any mice that want to intrude. They're outdoor cats, but they kept hanging out by the front door and even pooped by the door once, so we would shoo them to the back anytime we saw them out front.

Yesterday, after painstakingly collecting stool samples from all three of my kids (that's a whole different nightmare involving cups, baggies, and an unearthly stench that I'm sure no one wants to read about), we headed to the doctor to see if we could get to the "bottom" of their symptoms and have their poo examined for bacterial infections. Good thing I have a blog so I could refer to it for writing down the days they'd been sick and their symptoms so I had info handy for the doctor.

Before we left, the cats were snooping around the truck and Hyrum had to chase them away.

On our way to the doctor's office, we had to make a stop at a job site. While I was waiting in the car with the kids, I could hear meowing from somewhere. I wondered if Hyrum had accidentally trapped one of the kittens in the back, so I got out, opened the tailgate, lifted the backflip cover, and peered inside. No kitten to be found. Hmmm. I checked where the kids were sitting, under the bench, by their feet. No kitten. I figured it must be the customer's cat I was hearing.

We then drove on to the doctor's. I had to pay a stinking copay on all three kids, so I'm out $150 in copays this month, then we spent ages waiting, and finally had all the kids checked out thoroughly. The doctor still holds firm to thinking they have a viral infection and that Kiersa just has it so bad since she's so young, but she did decide to have a stool sample checked for giardia or other bacterial infections. Here's the lame part. She couldn't even use any of the samples I'd collected that day since they were too old by the time they could be tested. AAARRRRGGG! How lame that I went through all that "crap" for nothing!

Luckily, Kiersa, who currently doesn't go more than 2 hours without diarrhea, offered us a fresh sample while we were there, so they took that off to be tested and decided that the rest of the kids didn't need to be tested because whatever Kiersa has is probably what the other kids have. Now it's just a waiting game to see what the results are.

Back to my Banjo story...
We left the doctor's office and headed back out to the truck. As we approached it, we saw a black and white kitten (well, it's more like a small cat by now) at the edge of the parking lot, hanging out in the woods, meowing. It was Banjo!!! We couldn't believe it, but it was definitely Banjo, and it made sense since I'd heard the meowing earlier.

So it seems that Banjo got tired of the slow country life in Coquille and wanted to try the exciting life of a city cat in Coos Bay, just like Banjo the Woodpile Cat!! I got a good laugh at the irony.

She stowed away under our truck the whole wet way from Coquille to Coos Bay, stayed under it at the job site, and didn't get down until we were at the doctor's office. We figured we'd let her stay since she seemed to want to be there so bad, and since she's the devil cat who doesn't like to be held or caught, we figured it was useless to attempt to round her up and take her back home.

So good luck, Banjo! May dancing girls befriend you,

and a friendly alley cat to take you under his wing,

just like in the movies.

Interior...someday

There are some HUGE benefits to being married to a kitchen designer. For one, I get smoking deals on cabinets. Our cabinetry throughout the house will cost us roughly $6,000. It will be considered a display with all the tours we always give customers of our kitchens/baths, which gives us 50% off, plus we don't pay the additional mark up we have to charge customers. Our cabinetry would cost a person off the street roughly $18,000.

Another benefit of his skills is that he can also design other rooms of a house. Hyrum can draw up the layout of our house and how we want it to be when it's done. I love it, because I'm VERY visual and can't picture what something will look like unless I see a picture of it.

It's kind of a good thing that our house has taken so long to remodel, because we've changed our minds about 100 times on what we're going to do to it. I would be one of those annoying customers who want to change their plans a million times and end up getting charged a higher markup because of all the time I consumed. Just as he leaves picking baby names up to me and he just says yes or no, I leave all designing up to him and then I just approve or nix what he comes up with. He has serious skills that I trust completely. Here are the latest designs we have for the house.

I'll explain the rooms top to bottom, left to right.

Top floor:
master bedroom
walk-in closet, master lounge area, master bath
laundry room
hallway (with railing around open stairwell)
kids' bath
3 kids bedrooms


Bottom floor:
dining room, kitchen, mudroom, guest bathroom
entry
guest bedroom, stairwell, sitting room
living room

A deck will wrap around the right side of the bottom floor from the living room corner to the mud room door.

Here is my dream kitchen, complete with raised dishwasher (less bending, no babies falling on the racks), pantry cabinets, double oven, gas range in the island, and baking center with a lowered counter and one of those special mixer cabinets.

View from sitting room:

View from dining room:

Ariel view:
The island top doesn't have jaggedy sides. It just looks that way for some reason in this view. The valance over the sink will be solid and will house recessed lights that shine on the sink area.


I have found that with each pregnancy, new pains find their way into my life. I currently have a tight muscle in my right bum cheek (the same one that's acted up off and on over the years) down to my leg that makes it really painful to walk (sort of like when my ankle was giving me grief), so I wobble/limp REALLY bad...worse than a pregnant woman should, and trudging up and down our apartment stairs with bags of groceries, a laundry basket, or babies, makes it extremely difficult, and painful, so I am super duper ANXIOUS for our house to be done since I'll only have a couple of steps to climb to get in the house.

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! Think positive, right?

House exterior today

South wall (Kitchen/dining below and Master bedroom above) now:

South wall 2 months ago:

South wall in the beginning (with storage room still attached):




East wall (front) now:

East wall 2 months ago:

East wall shortly after destruction began:




The front door still isn't installed:

But it looks better than before:

And, surprisingly, better than when it started:




West wall (back...no more suicide door in the upstairs bathroom!) now:

West wall 2 months ago:

West wall in the beginning (an island of trees and bushes made the full view impossible to get):




North wall (living room below and bedrooms above) now:

North wall shortly after destruction began:


We are finally dry rot free!
The crawlspace is dug out!
The foundation is patched!
All the felt is on the exterior!
All the windows are installed!
The floors are leveled (as much as possible)!
The major structural work on the interior is done!

If we can find a loan, we can finish the project. Hopefully John and Jesus (Hyrum's brother-in-laws) will be able to come out and give us a hand on the siding, electrical and sheetrock.

As for now, this is how it will stand.

First snow

On Sunday, some snowflakes were coming down with the rain for a few minutes. I was surprised because it usually doesn't snow until January or February around here. On Monday morning, we awoke to this.
(Note the fact that all of our new windows are installed and the house is completely wrapped in new felt, awaiting trim and siding.)



The first snow of the season! Okay, so it's only a skiff, but it's snow! Not hail! It's supposed to snow tomorrow too.

One thing I love about this area, and most of Oregon, is that you don't have to live in the snow. You can drive a few minutes and be in the mountains to play in the snow, but then go back and live without shoveling walks and digging out your car. No reckless drivers slipping around on snowy roads. Well, only for a few days a year maybe. My kind of weather.

Standing at last!

Kiersa turned 10 months old on Sunday, and she finally stood for a "countable" amount of time all by herself. What's the secret to get her to stand? Put her in front of Talea! If we have her stand in front of Hyrum or I, she leans to us instead of standing. But if you put her in front of Talea, I guess she doesn't want to go to her that bad, so she stands there instead of leaning to her. Pretty good trick, though I don't know how Tilly would feel about it if she knew what was really going on.

Maybe she won't walk too much later than my other kids after all. Hyatt left the crawling behind and started walking the last week of his 9th month. Tilly was 10 months.

Here's Kiersa standing alone for the first time on her 10 month birthday.

Here's Hyatt walking just before he turned 10 months.

Here's Tilly starting to walk at 10 months.


I did discover from Hyrum's mom that Hyrum didn't walk until he was 15 months old because he was adorable and spoiled and everyone carried him everywhere. I don't know how old I was, but it was before a year.

Hyatt started sleeping through the night at 2 months. Tilly was 9 months before we forced her to cry herself back to sleep when she woke up at night. Kiersa has been in her crib in our room all this time, so it's been too hard to get her to sleep through the night. She has 2 teeth now and still gets a bottle in the night if she wakes up, so I've been afraid for her teeth. My brother got horrible bottle-rot on his 4 front teeth from nighttime nursing and had to have them pulled at a very young age, so I'm nervous about nighttime feedings when teeth are present. I finally moved the crib into the living room with the other kids so Kiersa would cry herself back to sleep and not keep us awake doing so, thus not getting a bottle.

It was a great plan.

But of course it's not working yet. Kiersa has diarrhea...still...and is on nasty bad diaper rash #2. If she poops in the night, it has to come off right away or she's in severe pain. So for the last two nights of trying to get her sleep through the night, she's ended up pooping and we've had to get her up anyway. Darn plans. They never seem to go smoothly!

Strike 3

This morning I awoke to the adorable pitter-patter of little feet...

running to the bathroom!

"Oh good! Look at how great Hyatt is at running to the bathroom first thing when he needs to go" was my thought.

I got up to go check on him, but I was surprised to find Talea sitting on the stool by the toilet...

throwing up into the commode. Poor little thing was shaking and her legs were bouncing wildly as she hunched over the seat. I held her head and hair as she finished, then when it was all over, she pondered quizzically, "My vomit is brown. What did I eat that was brown?"

I had to laugh. Tilly, of all people, would ask that. She's so enthralled with how and why everything is the way it is. Just last night she was having me show her on Youtube how kangaroos give birth (which if you've never seen the process, is actually quite fascinating), which led to dolphins and giraffes and cows. This morning, while she was resting with a sippy of ginger ale, she had me google what spider and bee and dragonfly eyes look like so she could see them up close.

I was amazed that she had the foresight to know she was going to throw up and to think to run to the toilet. Most kids her age would just lay there and let'er rip on the bed or the floor (which Hyatt did Saturday night). I guess that all the car sickness she's endured in her life has prepared her for moments like this. She knows what it feels like to be on the verge of explosion.

On a side note, please slap me if I ever tell you I'm going to install carpet in my house.

What is up with the health of my kids?!! I'm seriously baffled as to what's happening and what's causing it all. Is it just a viral infection that's passing Hyrum and I?

To add salt to the wound, I discovered the pipes were frozen this morning and we couldn't flush the toilet or use any faucets. Great!!! Luckily, I had just filled two apple juice containers with water for storage and they were still on the counter, so I rinsed Tilly's mouth with that. So much for showers or anything today. Hyrum is on his own at work today, unshowered.

The saddest thing for Tilly is that today she was supposed to do her preschool thing (which she's been absent from for the past 2 weeks because of vacation and illness in the family) at the library because Santa was going to visit. Then tonight is her first horseback riding lesson. Maybe Hyatt will be taking her place.

I think he secretly cursed her so he could be the one to ride.

Almost done!

I'm 30 weeks along today!

It's always exciting to hit 20 weeks because that means I'm half-way done, but I like hitting 30 weeks even better because that means I'm only 10 weeks or less away from the end. I've delivered at 38 weeks, 39 weeks, and 2 days before 40 weeks. I've never actually hit 40 weeks before, so when I get in the 30s, I feel like I'm about done.

On a related note...

We tried out a new pizza buffet the other day since it seemed so cheap (uh...turns out there was a reason it was so cheap), and while I was there, I was reminded how redneck our area can be. A woman saw that I was pregnant, and apparently she was too (she was on the bigger side and sitting down, so I couldn't tell that she was). She struck up a quick conversation with me as we were heading out the door and it went as follows.

She: How far along are you?

Me: Almost 7 months.

She: Oh!!! Me too!! When are you due?

Me: Feb. 23 (I'm expecting her to tell me she's due Feb. 25 or something.)

She: I'm due April 15!

***What the!!!????****

Me: (trying to supress my bewilderment) Oh!

I exited the building without any more response because I was so dumbfounded as to how she was figuring that 5 months was the same as 7. Did she not realize that April 15 is still 4 months away? She hadn't even hit 5 months yet. Maybe she's going by a 10 month calendar (since 40 weeks makes 10 months if you count 4 weeks as a month), but that still only puts her at just hitting 6 months. Whatever. That was my amusement for the evening. I guess I'm easily amused.