How Sweet It Is . . .

Sometimes my Jenni can just be the sweetest ever!! We told Jenni and Joe-Joe about recycling, and how if you collect cans you can get some money for them. Jenni decided she wanted to do it, so we started collecting cans. Joe-Joe helped some, but didn't really get why we were keeping garbage! We finally collected a few garbage bags worth, and Steve took it to the recycling center and got $3.19 (woo hoo!!) In the car later that night, I told Jenni we got the money for the cans, and said that she could have $2 and Joe-Joe $1 because she did more work. Jenni thought about it for a minute and said "You know, I have another dollar at home that I got from the tooth fairy, so I should give Joe-Joe one of these dollars, so then we both can have $2." I couldn't believe it! It was SO sweet!

And then just today Jenni brought home a 'stocking' her teacher gave to her filled with a few pieces of candy. She took them out and had them in front of her. Joe Joe saw them and asked where she got it. She told him from school and he asked if he could have one. Without hesitation Jenni reached down and grabbed the candy cane (not one of the little dinky ones- a normal big one) and gave it to Joe- without complaining or anything! She is so sweet! She really shows us the true meaning of Christmas!!

Where would I be without my cute family??? I don't even want to know!! :)

~chelle

"The Best Dinner Ever!"

Joe-joe is so funny! Last night we went up to The Hale in SLC to see A Christmas Carol, and we were running late, so we got a $3 pizza from 5buck pizza. (It's sweet, a medium pizza for 2.99 on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 4 and 8 pm) we ate the pizza in the car on the way up, and about halfway to Steve's sisters house (Joe-joe is too young to go to the play, so he was having a pajama party with Whitney) Joe-joe was eating his pizza and he said "Momma, this is the BEST dinner EVER!" I thought to myself, it's kinda sad that my son thinks a cheap pizza (that made all of us sick btw) is the best dinner ever. hmmm. What does that say about my mothering???

I still haven't seen New Moon. Still. Being poor isn't super fun sometimes. I got a blessing a little while ago that said our financial troubles would come to an end soon, but to be very weary of overspending. Steve and I have been SO careful not to spend where it's not necessary (for example, going to 5buck {or as I like to call it 5yuck} for pizza instead of little caesars, saving $2). (And I know what you're thinking - "why not forget the pizza and eat something at home" but we just simply ran out of time, and that was the cheapest alternative) We weren't way overspending before, but still, we've found that we can cut back. I'm surprised how hard it can be though. Like I said- being poor isn't super fun sometimes.

We're getting ready to move our stuff out so Adam and Stace can move in. We hope to be out in our own place in a couple of months at the most. I am so grateful to my parents though for being so generous with their home. What a blessing it is to have parents like mine!

ALAS! I've got to go be a mom now. Have a wonderful day all! :)

ok, thats all.

chelle

Christmas!!

Oh how I love this time of year! It truly is my favorite time of year. I love the music, and the family time, and the tree and the lights . . . I could go on and on, but I won't.

Things here are still pretty much the same. Jenni is still LOVING school. She is doing so well! We got her first report card and she had almost all 4's! (For some reason, they don't do the A B C D grading scale because they didn't like telling kids that they failed. So now they do 4 3 2 1. I'm not sure it's really any different, but oh well!) There were like 31 categories, and she got 27 4's and the rest were 3's. I thought that was pretty cool! She is reading SO WELL! She had to give a talk in primary last week, and I had forgotten about it until Sacrament meeting just before, so I quickly wrote one, and she kinda read through it a little, but didn't have a chance to practice it. Then She told me she didn't want any help. I was little nervous, but I didn't need to be. She did SO well! She only needed a little help with 'Mosiah'. (Although, her talk was about Service, and every time she was supposed to say service, she ended up saying servants. Oh well! They got the idea!)

Joe-joe is getting more and more excited for Christmas. The first time it snowed he ran around the house saying "It's Christmas Holiday! It's Christmas Holiday! It's Christmas Holiday!!" (It was on a Sunday morning, and I hadn't slept much the night before, so I was trying to sleep a little more, and it didn't really help.) He has also started singing Christmas songs. My favorite one he sings is "We wish you were Merry Christmas, we wish you were Merry Christmas . . ." He's so cute!

Steve and I are doing good. Things are still pretty much the same. Nothing really to report about us!

Anyway, I've got to get going, but I figured since I made a new background I should probably do a new post to go along with it! Hope everything is going well out there!

Later Cyber-Sisters! Have a wonderful day!! :)

ok, thats all!!

Chelle

Pulled to PEDS

Oh, how I love my job! I have decided that I was meant to work in the health care field! Really, I do believe this is my destiny! ("You are my density, I mean . . . destiny")

Every once in a while, an area or floor of the hospital is short staffed, and so they request a PCT or RN from another floor. On Mom/Baby, each PCT takes turns to get 'pulled' to another floor. Most people don't like to be pulled because you're on a floor you're unfamiliar with, and doing routines you're not accustomed to. Tonight PEDS at AF was short staffed, and it was my turn to be pulled. I wasn't super excited about it, but wasn't dreading it since my cute Sister Janice works there. Honestly, I love it here! I really love taking care of people and helping people through difficult situations! On Mom/Baby it's nice because most people are excited to be there. They are at the hospital for a good reason. Other floors- not so much! I got pulled to TCC a few weeks ago, and I didn't like it AT ALL! TCC stands for Transitional Care Center. Basically, it's where older people go when they don't need constant care like ICU or Med/Surg, but aren't ready to go home. (Sometimes, they'll go to a nursing home like my mom did when she had her hip replacement). That particular night it was full of geriatric patients, and I'm just really not comfortable taking care of old people! But here at PEDS it's totally different. I love it! The kids are so cute! It's hard to see the kids so sick, but it's a really great feeling when you make a child, that you know doesn't feel good, smile. It's so rewarding! Jan has talked about having some mom/baby PCT's orient to the PEDS floor too, and I think it's a great idea. I would love to!

We've got a couple of kids here tonight with the flu. It's so sad! The kids are so miserable! It's amazing how strong kids are though. One little girl in particular- she's six ( and she's here with her 3 year old sister, who's also sick!) she's coughing and throwing up and has a fever and to top it all off, she's got juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. When I first went in tonight, she just looked so miserable. I sat and talked with her for a little while, and we kinda played a little bit. After a few minutes I had her smiling and laughing, and I was just amazed! It really just amazes me how strong these kids are! I haven't seen her or her sister cry at all tonight. And it's been so fun to take care of them.

Really, it's such a blessing that I love my job. I like to think of it as a tender mercy from the Lord. As if He were saying "Chelle, I know you don't want to work, but since you have to at this point in your life, I'm going to make it as enjoyable as possible."

What a blessing!

My immune system is BROKEN!!!

So, basically, my immune system is broken. I get pretty much everything I'm exposed to. This is what my month was like- about a month ago I started feeling really crappy, and after the dr. then the urgent care (who sent me to the ER. surprise, surprise.) They said I had the flu (didn't specify if it was regular or H1N1) so basically I was really sick for about 2 weeks, and I missed a bunch of work. Then, just as I was able to start going back to work, I got a small cough. It wasn't a super big deal, so I didn't worry about it. Then one night, I was at work, and I started having weird cloudy spots on my eyes. Turns out, I had pink eye! So I got sent home from work. Then, just as I was getting over the pink eye (still had the irritating cough mind you) I got super sick. Went back to the dr, and lo and behold I had the flu. Again. My dr said that the CDC is estimating that 95% of the influenza cases are H1N1. So, finally I got better from that, but I still have this stupid cough! So, I can say I've had swine flu twice. The second time was AWFUL!! I was so incredibly sick. I've never been so sick, even through all my heart stuff and everything- I've NEVER been so sick. So yeah- I'm done with that.I really am done with that.

At least none of my family got sick. I was pretty proud of that- I had pink eye, and swine flu, and didn't give it to my hubby or my kids!! My hands got a little dry from all the sanitizer though.

Things are going pretty well here. Steve's job is still the same. We'd really love to get a new one, but that may not happen anytime soon. Jenni is loving school. I had to keep her home a couple of days when I had pink eye, and she was SO sad. Joe joe talks so much lately. He is jenni's shadow when she's home. We're so lucky to have two kids that are so good together.

Well, being so sick this month left my house a disaster area, so I've got to go do some damage control! Have a wonderful day all!