Perseverance

(For the life of me I can't get this rotated properly.)

This is what Mrs. Lee, Olivia's kindergarten teacher,wrote to me regarding Olivia receiving the citizenship award for the month of January.

she has been selected as one of the students of the month for perseverance (for obvious reasons). She is a great inspiration to me, even if no one else knows about her battles. She handles every hurdle with such grace and control. I really admire her, so when it came time to select for perseverance it was a no- brainer. :)

Great job babe! We are so proud of you.

Annie, Annie, Annie

Upon agreeing to get a dog Bill and I had a pretty good understanding of it's just a dog. If anything big (as in $$$) was required we would probably just let her go. Yeah, we had NO clue.

Bill is Mr. tough guy and still tries to pretend that, "she's just a dog", but behind all that "muscle" is a lot of heart. To bring in the new year and new determination to exercise regularly Bill and Annie have been running together every morning. It's funny to see what a big effect it's had on Annie. When Bill leaves for work in the morning she lays by the front door and whines for a little while, and when he gets home she cannot get enough of him. They love to wrestle together and Bill is the only thing that can get her to bark. They really go at it. He'll do body slams and "punch" her and flip her around. She really gets goin'. It'll be interesting to see when her muscle more fully develops what she'll be able to give back.

Saturday night, Janurary 9th, this routine wrestling match was underway when Bill did his customary body slam on Annie and we heard a "crack"! Instantly Annie was yelping and wouldn't put any weight on her right fore leg. I quickly called the vet as Bill was yelling, "I broke her leg!", Livi was bawling and Aaron was trying to "see". By the time we were able to get through to the on call doctor she seemed fine. We took it easy for the rest of the night(see pic above). Bill was real upset at the thought that he may have broken her leg and we decided that perhaps we should look in to pet insurance after all.

Well, Bill left Sunday morning for a quick trip to L.A. and Annie was sad. She wasn't eating much and her energy level wasn't quite the same. Bill came home on Tuesday and while they started their running back up Annie's appetite just wasn't quite right. We feared that she had swallowed something that just wasn't coming out this time. (So far she had given us back 8 socks "forwards" and 2 socks "backwards".) Friday morning she threw up while whining at our bedroom door and then threw up breakfast... not easy to clean shag carpet! (Yeah, gross.) That was it, she was going to the vet. Something wasn't right. (I had flash backs to the penny stuck in Livi's throat for 5 days when she had just turned one.) Pet insurance hadn't come soon enough.

The vet took some x-rays and couldn't exactly tell what was in her stomach but could definitely something was in there. (Bill was curious as to whether or not it showed a broken leg. It didn't.) We decided to do the surgery. (We could've done a barium scan but that would've been an additional $600. So we opted to put that cost towards the surgery, throw in the spay and be done with it.)

One small fistful of "debris" (aka: rocks, sticks, and mystery white foamy substance), a check for more than our mortgage payment and 3 days later we have... a big puppy (38 lbs to be exact) attached to a "collar of shame".

While Annie was in the hospital many prayers went heavenwards from our sad hearts. Tears trickled down my cheeks at the overall "experience", Olivia bawled and Aaron did his hysterical fake cry. I had to calm Olivia down and explain that I wasn't scared that Annie would die, I was just sad that she had to be away from us, and I was sad at how much money it was costing to have Annie taken care of. I explained to the kids that we would just have to be more careful how we spend our money over the next couple of months until we can get back what the surgery cost. Olivia said, "Like maybe not have so many birthday presents?" I said, "Yeah. Maybe Annie could be one of your presents this year." Livi smiled really big. She liked the idea. She turned to Aaron, who was sitting next to her at the island eating lunch and said, "Aaron do you want Annie or lots of presents for your birthday?" Aaron, without missing a beat, responded with a full mouth of sandwich, "I don't want Annie. I want lots of presents. Annie bites me!" I was so caught off guard I almost lost my own mouthful and Olivia started to cry even harder. (I can't help but laugh at it now as I'm writing this. Oh Aaron.)

We all visited with Annie on Saturday. Admittedly she was happiest to see Bill. I got teary eyed... again and promised to come see her Sunday before church. (Seriously, what is this dog doing to me? It is just a DOG!)Sunday, I got to the hospital in good time as she was just coming back from her morning walk. (I.V. and all.) She looked really good. Everything was set for her to come home on Monday. When we picked her up from the vet's it was almost comical the amount of emphasis the doctor put on "NO ROUGH HOUSING!" (They obviously remembered the broken leg call.)

While Annie was gone there was a definite tranquility in our home. That, coupled with the lack of flying fur, made for an enjoyable weekend. But Bill agreed, that it just felt like something was missing.

It was really good to have Annie back home with us. It's hard that she can't go running with Dad for 10 days, we are definitely feeling her energy level hitting all time highs. It doesn't help that Dad's gone and it definitely does not help that it's been raining all week! A very over energized dog + a very obtrusive elizabethan collar makes for a lot of bruises. Even the once teary eyed Olivia asked,"Could we just let her stay at the hospital 'til she gets the cone off?" We'll make it through. Annie is actually beginning to be quite talented with her cone. She will drop her bone down into it, swing her head in large circles so that the bone is spiraling inside of it and then fling her head up in the air catapulting her bone across the room; where she then proceeds to pick it up and do it all over again. (I will say, it is quite pathetic to see her trying to scratch behind her ears when all she is scratching is the cone.)

1.) Annie trying to get close to Aaron. 2.)Annie didn't think she was close enough so she decides to sit on Aaron. 3.) Aaron surrenders his chair to Annie but not before long Annie is lying on Aaron on the floor. 4.)Aaron is proud that Annie can no longer "get to him".

This sequence of events has happened before, to Olivia. Olivia didn't find refuge in the laundry basket. She ended up sitting on Annie's pillow with her.

Cute kids

Just to catch up on some of the cute/funny things that have been heard/seen around our house as of late.

Olivia set up this surprise tea party for Aaron complete with crackers and "soup"/water, all

by herself. She had me keep Aaron distracted while she worked on getting it ready. We became engrossed in... something, I can't remember what, and then she got upset. We apologized and they had a terrific time.

I get 2 days a week with Aaron where it's just me and him for the 2 1/2 hrs that Olivia is in Kinder. It is so fun to be with just him. When the two of us are together he is almost like a completely different little boy. I need to remind myself that the cleaning/chores can be done later, childhood needs to be done now. There is no "later" for these precious years. Between the two of us playing Rockband, on the "No Fail" mode, or playing with his Batman Cave Aaron has said to me on several occasions, "Mom, do you know how much I love you?"

M: "How much do you love me?"

A: "18 miles" said proudly with a huge grin on his face and then a very intense kiss where he is squeezing my cheeks and pulling my face so hard into his for such a long period of time I wonder how bad the bruising will be. What a little love! My mom was right, the name Aaron is more of a tender name... we couldn't have gotten it more right. And I couldn't be happier.

Olivia is moving right along with school and is starting to be challenged with her sentence length. The other day she had to write a one page story about a sentence of her choice from a list given on the page. (With the size of lines the story ended up being only about 10 sentences long but nevertheless, she wrote a story all by herself. The proof that she did it all by herself came in the proof read. She was writing about it snowing outside, "Annie ran so fast that she was so dizzy that she almost went in the street." I tried to help her hear how funny it sounded that there were 2 "so's" in the same sentence and what could she do to change one of them. She was determined that it didn't sound funny, she did an audible and repeated it for me to hear. (Yes, that is how she talks, I can see why it doesn't sound funny in her mind.) I explained that just like the Book of Mormon is written very nicely and not like how we talk, usually we try to write "more... nice". We decided to try "very" instead of the 2nd "so". She read through the sentence, "Annie ran so fast that she was very dizzy..." "Yeah mom, I think that sounds good. So and very are the same thing." I didn't have anywhere else to go, "Sure honey. That sounds great."

Aaron's bus riding days have all but ceased. He tears up when we even talk about it. He HATES being the last one on the bus. We don't understand what it is but it was getting to the point that when he'd wake up in the morning he'd ask if it's Monday? or Tuesday? or Wednesday? If it was Tuesday he'd hop out of bed and cheerily get ready for school. Monday or Wednesday, "I don't want to go to school." I'd drop him off at school he wouldn't let go of me, it brought me to tears myself. So, I now pick him up on Mondays and Tuesdays and he gets to play his Leapster on the bus coming home on Wednesdays. It's been a bit of a stressor on Olivia. Monday and Wednesday rides/walks home from school was the only alone time the 2 of us ever got for the week. We're working through it though.

A big complaint the kids have lately is, "Olivia gets to go to school everyday!" and "Aaron doesn't even have to go to school everyday!" The grass is always greener... Fortunately this is only really a problem when Livi feels as if her 11+ hours of sleep wasn't quite enough or when she's on her steroids. It's definitely not a good thing that now we have 9am church. "Why do we have to go to church so early?! I already have to wake up so early for school!" I try to patiently explain to Olivia (somehow she is Gretchen's daughter) that her cousins start school at about the time she has to wake up. Too funny. Too early, to already be complaining about waking up for school. Really, is 7:30 really that early? Gretchen?!?!?

9 years ago...

Yesterday was mine and Bill's 9th wedding anniversary. As I explained it to the kids. "Today is special because 9 years ago mom and dad went to the temple to be married forever so that we could have you two here on earth with us." Aaron asked, "So what are we going to do? Where are we going for dinner?" Olivia said, "Ohhhh, and then, let's see... that was January, my birthday is February,... you had me one month later!" Not quite.

Bill and I recently discussed changing our anniversary celebration to August. We don't have anything happening at that time of year and January 5th is just so close to all the holidays... (I guess if we did that though Olivia would really be confused as to when she was born?!?!) Regardless, neither one of us feel pressured to do anything spectacular, which actually ends up working well for us.

Technically Bill did book a vacation for us on this day... the two of us will be relaxing for a week in Cancun later in the year!!! That's pretty spectacular.

The kids got excited about all the candles I bought for a bubble bath and wanted to know if they could join us. They had their candle lit bath the following evening. I love our kids. They love to be excited. I love that they are first hand witnesses of mine and Bill's love for each other. Life is so good to us!

Holidays with Family

Early Saturday morning, on the 26th, at 4:20am to be exact, we pulled the car out of the garage, crossed our fingers that we had everything, and set out for our 12 hr drive to Redding, CA. Not even 20 minutes into our trip we learn that Annie is really not cut out for the car. She puked all over her blanket. So, on the side of the 95 southbound we remember what we forgot, rags and paper towels. We got it all worked out and the next time she threw up, 2 hours or so later I was prepared and caught it in her bowl. Besides that, the trip was pretty uneventful. The kids did fabulous as always and only stopped to pee twice. We had packed food for breakfast and lunch (even milk in the cooler for breakfast which we later forgot was there and then we had a stinky problem at Dad's, but nevertheless,) and so didn't even have to stop for food and only refueled once. We rolled in to Dad's at 4:22 pm. Nice drivin' babe.
The most eventful part of the day, aside from Annie, was bath time. While I cleaned up dinner, Bill washed the kids and I hear, "Rachel..." I go to the bathroom to be confronted with Bill holding Olivia's tooth in his hand. Apparently he had been washing her face and possibly pushed a little too hard. Oh well. It had been loose for weeks. 2 down... plenty to go.
Sunday we all went to church at Redding 5th ward, all except the Reasbecks. (My dad's ward, the same ward I spent my entire childhood in.) It was good to be there. Bill gave me 1/2 hr of visit time but even if it had been 4 it would never be enough. Then we were off to lunch at Mom and Tiger's. Sam and Nikki and Josh and Cody were there as well as Bryan and DeAnn. It was good food as always, great company and fantastic gifts. Bill made the calendar for his mom this year and did a great job. He only left off Cody's birthday which wouldn't be too bad except that was also the one present that was left at my dad's. Poor Cody didn't get to play with his barking puppy. Good thing he's only 1 and couldn't tell the difference(We ended up dropping it off on his doorstep at 5am on our way back home to Vegas. We got Josh a Razor Scooter, that we know he will master before long. Josh and Aaron each got Leapsters from Grandma and Papa T and Livi got her Nintendo DS. Thankfully DeAnn had received one for Christmas too and was able to help Livi navigate her way through some basic ops. Sam and Nikki gave us an annual family ornament and Mom and Tiger gave us a new stereo, iron, & bike gear for me (one can never have enough). Bill gifted his signature piece, the Whitehouse Christmas tree ornament and we visited for the afternoon. Bryan was lots of fun and brought his Nintendo Wii over for the kids to play with. FUN!
Afterwards it was off to Papa's where everyone was meeting up for dinner and the gift exchange. We got dad a bowling shirt with his name embroidered in it (although because of the script, admittedly it looks more like "Dan" than "Don"). Aaron had Ethan and got him cowboy boots. Emily had Aaron and got him a baseball mitt, baseball and bat! (He loves his "real" bat.)
Livi had Emily and because my idea of making matching dresses for the girls didn't work (the dress turned out gorgeous, it just won't fit for a year or two), she game her a ball popper. Evan had Olivia and got her a hoola hoop, jump rope, and a handball. (Everything she needed.)
It was so much fun to see everyone. For Bill it had been a year since he's seen everyone. We couldn't believe how big the little ones had gotten. We loved Chase's "cheesy grin". You ask him for the "cheesy grin" and he gives it to ya! (He looks so much like Evan when he was little.) And Emmie's eyes, whoa, look out!

Angie, Garrett, Me, Bill, Livi, Matt

The evening was spent rocking out to Band Hero. Angie's boyfriend, Matt, and his son, Daxton, were able to join us too. SO MUCH FUN!

Even Kristi was able to breakaway from Abby (2 weeks old) and get in on the action. Thanks for the assist Bill.

Aaron(3), Logan(5), Daxton(3) and Livi(5)

We even let the kids have a turn, even though it was mostly the adults rockin' the stage. (Bill even tried out his vocals. You go babe!)
Sadly enough the picture taking pretty much stopped after this. We got 1 picture of Grandpa Ellison with the kids when we went down to Red Bluff for the afternoon on Tuesday. Bill got a gun vault, I got more bike stuff :), the kids got clothes, books, bird house kits (built by Grandpa) and an awesome homemade picnic table. (On the roof of the car it made for a loud 9 hours. The last 3 something shifted and we no longer could hear the incessant hum/roar of the wind ripping through the tie-downs.) Helen/Nana was given, for tradition, the Whitehouse ornament and we gave Grandpa a "knife" for his new lathe.

Annie had tons of fun with Dad's labs, Daisy and May. (It has not been easy for her not to have the land to roam here like she did there.

Thursday, New Year's Eve our kids spent the night at the Reasbecks, they got a sitter, the Claycamps got a sitter and all the adults went out for dinner at Guadalajara on Cypress and then back to Dad's for games. I encouraged Dad to have a lady friend that he's been chatting with join us so everyone had a date. Dad and Sue, the Reasbecks, the Claycamps (+ Abby, of course, and Emily, who's been a little clingy since the arrival of li'l sis), us, Angie and Matt, and Adam and Mauni. (Adam's girlfriend Mauni flew in to Redding that day from Salt Lake.) It was a great night and fabulous company. I don't pretend to know what will happen of developing relationships but Bill and I agreed that it was a little strange sitting at the kitchen table playing games, all 14 of us, thinking of the possibility of this one day being our family. I thought a lot about Mom and how she was having/getting to watch this from a different perspective... I could feel her smiling down on us. I know she would be pleased at the choices we all are making, no matter how difficult at times they may be.

Friday, New Year's Day we spent with Bill's dad's family. The Ellison gift exchange was at David and Debbie's this year. It was a lot of fun with fun conversation and a fabulous spaghetti lunch. Sandra was there to help host, along with Jim and Tenley, Dad and Helen, and Justin. Aaron and Olivia loved the attention given, as they were the only kids there. Aaron opened a gift that had been wrapped by Uncle Jim in an inflatable boat box. The expression of sheer joy on his face as he excitedly called to his sister to come see what he had got... quickly diminished as he discovered a plant stand on casters. We told him it was a skateboard. Livi made a beautiful purple bracelet that ended with Aunt Debbie and we also made a Christmas wreath that ended with Uncle David. The kids particularly enjoyed playing cards with Aunt Debbie and a treasure hunt with Aunt Tenley.
Friday night Bill and I, and our kids, along with Adam, Mauni, Matt and Angie all went to Angelo's Pizza. For Bill, Angie, Adam and I it was a bit of a chance to reminisce of the old days. Angelo's is where we always had our after city league sports pizza parties. Bill still hasn't found the pizza parlor here that fits this place in his mind. (I don't think he ever will. He'll always want to go back and play the same arcade games that have been there for over 20 years.) It was great nostalgic fun.

Saturday, Bill took Aaron down to his dad's to pick up the picnic table while I took Olivia to join the rest of the cousins at the movies. We saw "Alvin and the Chipmunks 2". It was a cute movie and Olivia loved it! Afterwards the 4 Ellisons went with Adam and Mauni up a canyon past Keswick Damn to shoot. Garrett and his boys were able to join us as well. We didn't have much time, it was getting dark and we were to meet Dad and Angie for "Monte Carlo" bowling that evening. All the kids got to shoot Bills gun, which they all thought was super cool. Garrett's boys even hung on to his casings. I shot Garrett's rifle that had "no kick". "No kick my ***" I said to Garrett as it blew me backwards. Good thing I was sitting in the bed of his truck. (We shot at bowling pins dad had picked up from the alley after a new shipment came in. Apparently this was Olivia's most favorite part of the whole trip.This is the story she wrote for her progress report assessment of what she did for winter break. At first glance I thought the bullet was heading for a simple human shape but then remembered, the bowling pins!

Bowling that night was fun. Livi and Aaron did really well just watching and later ended up bowling some frames of their own. I won $3, I think, Dad won $25 (?) and Mauni won $5(?). Bill had a chance several times but the pressure of winning a buck or fifty cents was just too great and he'd choke. :) It was a lot of fun. And even more fun/funny to see Dad in his element. He knew everyone there, and they all knew him. It was great.

Sunday morning we were up and out by 3:30am. We had to pick up a leapster kit at the Costco in Bakersfield because Aaron's had simply quit working. Bakersfield was the only store in all of California, Nevada, Utah that had one left. Turns out, it was the batteries... who'd have thought that the "rain bath" Aaron gave it to "clean my leapster" would've wrecked new batteries. I suppose it does make sense. !!!

Once again Bill was a fantastic driver... I try, I really do. I just can't stay awake, even with caffeine. Good thing I have a good man.