Motherhood Meme October 12, 2007

| October 13, 2007

 

I was tagged today by hairyshoefairy. Thanks,  Pumpkin!  Fun!

How long have you been a Mom?
28 years and a little bit more

2. How many children call you Mommy/Mom/Mama?:
Four who actually use the term “Mom”, plus one in-law kid (NYDD) who, after almost 5 years of marriage to HSF, still doesn’t know what to call me so he goes with Grandma.

3. Girl? Boy? or both?
boy (28), girl (25), boy (22), girl (15), who, BTW, is already being asked by numerous boys when she will be 16…oh dear.

4. Did you know what you were having?:
Not on the first three.  Ultrasound in the 70’s and 80’s was limited to diagnostic imaging and wasn’t done routinely.  Teeny came along enough later that we got to have an ultrasound with her, but only because I was so dang old (36).  We could tell she was a girl and it was fun to know ahead of time.

5. How old were you when you became a Mom?
22, 25, 29, 36

6. How long were you in labor?
13 hours the first time, 6 hours the second time, and 5 hours on the 3rd and 4th times

Apparently question #7 is missing. ?????

8. What was your least favorite thing about labor?
Every time it was the back labor that bugged me the most.  I had an epidural block with each delivery, and shouted Hallelujiah about that.  The freakiest thing was that with Teeny, the epidural didn’t work on one particular nerve bundle, so every contraction sent pain into my right pelvis and leg, but everything else was numb.  Go figure.  It was none fun and very strange.

9. Do you want more kids?:

NO!  But thanks for asking…  More grandbabies would be good though…(eventually)

10. Do you plan on having more soon?:
As I’m almost 51 years old and had a hysterectomy a few months ago, probably not.  And BTW, to any one who happens to read this, menopause is not a terrible thing!  Hip Hooray for middle age!

11. Does daddy change diapers?

Not currently, but he did way back when.  Happily, diaper changing isn’t occuring in our lives right now, but I imagine it will again someday.  Although they will probably be diapers of a different size and sort…hmmmm…Depends, anyone?

12. How many times have you been peed on?:
Too many.

13. Barfed on?:
Again, too  many.  Our oldet boy, Jazz, was born with a heart defect and barfing is part of the territory with that, so for the first few months he barfed every time he ate.  Not just plain old urping up, but projectile barfing.  The memories kind of make me shudder.

14. Is your child named after anyone?
Jazz’s first name is after his dad, and his middle name is after my dad.  HSF’s first name is after  a favorite babysitter from my childhood, and her middle name is after my mom.  Fuffy’s  first name is just one we both liked, and his middle name is after  Piano Man’s dad and my brother.  Teeny’s first name is after my grandma and her middle name is after me.  That was long, wasn’t it?

15. How did you come up with their name(s)?
See above

16. When your child(ren) gets in trouble, who is the bad guy?
Nobody gets in too much trouble anymore.  Did I mention I like being middle aged?  Piano Man and I were pretty equal about good cop/bad cop.

17. And who is the good guy?
See above.  I guess you could ask our kids.  They would probably remember better, but if they say I was the bad guy, they are wrong, Wrong, WRONG!!!

18. What is the longest you have been away from your child(ren)?
We were apart from Jeff for 2 years and I didn’t like it.  HSF and NYDD have lived away from us for over two years, but we get to see them every now and then and that makes it easier, but I’m still somewhat cranky about it.  We’ve been away from Jazz and Teeny for about 2 1/2 weeks I think.

19. Kids bedtime routine?
When the kids were young we usually tried to read a story or two and sing a couple of songs before bedtime.  My repertoire of lullabies was limited to 3 or 4 that were somewhat gruesome and frightful and could have been based on “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”.  Mostly I sang Primary songs.  Teeny loved to have me sing “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” to her night after night, all 7 verses.  I knew she was just trying to buy more time, but I love that song, so I didn’t mind.  I think I sang to her at bedtime until she was about 11 or 12.  Now I don’t know what their bedtime routines are, because I’m old and tired and I go to bed before everyone else!

20. Are your toes painted?
Yes, but the paint is chippy.  They need to be redone, but oh well.

21. Last movie you saw in the theater?
Hairspray, which I thought was hilarious.  Watching stiff old what’s-his-name (Tracy’s dad) singing and dancing was a riot.  Oh yeah, Christopher Walken.  So funny.

22. Last time you had a date?
A week ago.  We go out almost every weekend with friends in the neighborhood.  Last week we went to dinner at Iggy’s, then went and relaxed in their hot tub.  Nice.

23. One thing you will not give up just because you are a mom?
It’s been so long I can’t remember.  I know I kept sewing and crafting and cooking (for fun) when my kids were young, so I guess I’d say those things.

24. One thing you did give up now that you’re a mom?
It seems like I recall thinking that I had given up my own identity for a number of years.  I was somebody’s mom or somebody’s wife and sometimes I couldn’t remember who I was or what I enjoyed doing.  I also gave up sleeping late in the mornings once my kids got into school, and now I’ve become a morning person!  Yuck!

25. Best Mom you know?
My mom was a great mom, and I plan to tell her that when I see her again.  She died 18 years ago.   I know I told her when she was alive, but I’m sure I didn’t tell her often enough.  I hope she knows.  Another great mom is my daughter, HSF.  She is darling with Peanut and I love seeing her being a mom.  It’s very rewarding to see your kids love doing the same things you love, like parenting.  I get to be a kindergarten teacher, so I see many really good moms every day.   Hooray for the moms of the world!

I’m not tagging anyone, because HSF already tagged all the moms I know.

Conference Weekend October 7, 2007

I LOVE conference weekend! Everything about it just gives me a new lease on life. The weather here was perfect conference weather. It was cold and rainy/snowy yesterday, then cleared up today for chilliness and clear skies and amazing scenery! I’m hoping to get a couple of pictures posted, but I’ll have to see if I can get one of my kids to do it for me.

I loved all the speakers, but the talk that really “spoke” to me was President Eyering’s talk about gratitude. I’m going to start a gratitude journal. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but that talk gave me some extra incentive. I loved it.

For many years I have considered conference weekend to be my weekend off. Since I’m “required” to sit around and watch TV for 8 hours, I find things to do that I don’t normally get done. Not housework, mind you. Fun stuff. Yesterday I finished a wall quilt I’m sending to HSF, then made another one for Halloween. I used my new walking foot for the first time and it worked great for the straight machine quilting. So fun! I also got a skirt for myself cut out, but not put together yet. Maybe this week.

Many years ago, my girls and I established the tradition of going to the Bluebird, which is an old, old soda fountain, for ice cream while the men in the family go to Priesthood Session, so Teeny and I did that last night. We were sad HSF and Peanut weren’t there. Maybe next year!

Today was baking/cooking/creating fun food day. Here’s a picture of today’s disaster. It’s a recipe I cut out of the newspaper a few days ago. It’s called Raspberry-Orange Braid, and it was very yummy. It just looks…well…odd. You know, I’m 50 years old and I’ve been baking and cooking for a very long time, so you’d think I’d know better, but oh well. The recipe called for 7 cups of flour, and it made a huge pile of dough, but it said to make it all into one braid and put it on one cookie sheet, so I did, even though my brain was screaming, “Stop! This cannot possibly work!” Turns out my old brain was right. It couldn’t possibly work. So after I cleaned the oven and tossed a few inches of dough into the garbage, it was OK. When I copied the recipe onto notebook paper, I cut all the ingredients in half and made a note to make it into 2 braids or 2 dozen rolls. Should work better.

Fuffy made hot apple/cranberry spiced cider, which was very good, but a little too cranberry-ish. Still very yummy and warm, though.

For dinner we had my FAVORITE: Beef Stroganoff. I usually let the beef braise in a large skillet, but I decided to try using my knock-off Le Crueset dutch oven. What a great idea! I accidentally made the meat/onion/broth mixture extra rich because the lid fit the pan really tight, so it just kind of caramelized. Mmm-mmm-mmm! Happy day!

Oh, and speaking of things that are caramelized, maybe I should quit typing and go upstairs and make some microwave caramels…oh, yippee!

The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Week September 1, 2007

I haven’t done anything with my blog lately – not sure why.  But it drives me crazy when my kids who blog don’t post anything for a while, so I guess I’ll try to pay more attention.  After all, I wouldn’t want to bug my kids…

So, I have a son, Jazz, who is almost 28 years old and is mentally handicapped.  I don’t know if that term is politically correct right now, but during his years in public education, that was the term we used.  So I continue to use it.  Hope it doesn’t offend anyone.

Well, anyway, Last Friday (8 days ago) Jazz had a seizure.  This is a regular occurence for him, but he is always OK within a few hours.  But after this seizure he never really got back to “normal”.  He had some times when he seemed fine, but other times when he was just “off”.  On Monday he wanted to play basketball with his Special Olympics team on the TSC patio at Utah State.  He seemed fine, so I took him there.  The game was at noon and the temperature was about 90*.  He got hot and sweaty, but he drank water throughout the game.  Afterwards he came over to me and he was shaky, so we sat in the shade for a while and he drank quite a bit more water.  Then we had lunch and he seemed to cool off and feel better.  He was OK Tuesday and Wednesday morning, but when he came home from work Wednesday he went straight to his room and laid down.   He slept from 3:30 – 6:00, when he woke up long enough to have a little pizza for dinner, then he went back to sleep.  I was having a Relief Society meeting at our house that night, and he came out for about 3 minutes to stand next to me, then he went back to bed.

The next morning he didn’t wake up at his usual time, so I just let him sleep.  I checked on him every half hour, but he just couldn’t wake up.  He would turn over or open his eyes for a minute, but just kept sleeping.  I called his doctor, but he wasn’t in that day so I made an appointment for Friday.

Friday we saw the doctor, who listened to his heart and lungs.  He said his heart sounded wierd, but normal for Jazz (he has a congenital heart defect and has had open-heart surgery 3 times) and his lungs sounded clear, which was a relief because he gets pneumonia easily and occasionally lapses into heart failure.  But when they tried to draw his blood, nothing came out.  They stuck him 4 times and came up dry every time.  The doctor told me Jazz was becoming dehydrated and I should get him to eat and drink a lot and go back in the morning for the blood tests.  We went to lunch, where he ate a normal amount of food and drank a big cup of soda.  Then he went to sleep when we got home.

I woke him up at 7:00 to have dinner and he came out of his bedroom staggering.  He was dragging his right foot and walked like he was drunk.  I asked him to carry the syrup to the table and he immediately dropped it.  He picked it up and dropped it again, picked it up, dropped it, 5 or 6 times.  He sat down in his chair and looked at his pancakes, but acted like he didn’t know what to do.  He kept doing repetitive movements with his right hand, very similar to what he does during a seizure, but he didn’t have his “seizure face” which is a strange and distinctive look he gets during a seizure.  We asked him a few questions, but he just looked at us with blank eyes and couldn’t respond, so we took him to the emergency room.  By the time we got to the hospital he was completely unresponsive – couldn’t walk, talk, squeeze our hands, stick out his tongue, anything.  He just sat on the bed slumped over.  We thought he might be having a stroke.

The ER doctor said he was extremely dehydrated, so the nurse came to put in an IV so they could give him fluids.  Now, for those who don’t know, Jazz is normally a sweet, happy, cooperative kid, and he has a pretty high tolerance for pain.  He never flinches when he has blood drawn or anything.   Well, when the nurse tried to put the IV in his hand, he flipped out.  He just went nuts.  He started kicking and fighting and screaming and crying, so the nurse yelled for help.  It took 5 of us to hold him down so they could start the IV and put restraints on him.  His eyes were huge and he looked absolutely terrified.  They finally got the IV going and gave him something to calm him down, but it was pretty unnerving.  They did a CT scan which didn’t show any kind of brain problem, and the blood tests came back normal.  Apparently severe dehydration can cause an “altered mental state”.  The doctor’s best guess is that Jazz probably had heat exhaustion from playing basketball in the hot sun, then picked up a virus of some kind, which led to the other problems.  After 3 liters of IV fluid, we finally left the hospital and got home at 12:30 AM.  When we got home Fuffy and Mr. Music gave him a priesthood blessing, which is always comforting.  He slept a really long time, but when he woke up today he could walk and talk, so we were very relieved.  He’s not back to normal, but I imagine he will be within a few days.  Poor kid.

So here are the lessons learned:  (at least on my part) – 1.  The power of the priesthood is real, and I am so very grateful for a husband and son who honor their priesthood and live worthily.  (I already knew this, but a reminder never hurts).  2.  I’m more grateful than ever that Jazz is naturally a happy, loving boy.  Seeing him behave in the opposite way ( for what seemed an eternity but was actually about 10 minutes) made me realize again what a blessing he is in our family.  We wouldn’t be the same without him.  3.  Having an adrenaline rush makes me tired and weepy.  4.  Even though he’s a grown man (technically) I have to remember to monitor what he eats and drinks so we don’t have this experience again.  5.  Writing is therapeutic and now I feel better.  I better print this and put it in my journal.

To quote The Beatles, oh-bla-dee-oh-bla-dah-life-goes-on-yeah-la-la-la-la-life-goes-on!

My Marriage Meme August 15, 2007

HSF from Organized Chaos tagged me, whatever that may mean.  She tells me I’m just supposed to answer these questions, which, BTW, are kind of fun!  Thanks, kid!  Also BTW, I haven’t written anything about my family yet, so I guess I’ll just use the blog names HSF calls everybody.  I think I’ll refer to my husband as “Piano Man”.

1.  WHERE DID YOU MEET YOUR HUSBAND?  We were lined up by a friend.  I had known this friend in high school, and Piano Man knew her and her husband from his childhood.  My friend’s husband and Piano Man were in a rock band together at the time.  I was 21 and he was 24 when we met.

2.  WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU SAID TO HIM?  I can’t really remember because it was almost 30 years ago!  Time flies!  Probably the first thing I said was “Hello” because I met him when he came to the door the first time.   This is not very interesting, is it?

3.  WHERE WAS YOUR FIRST DATE?  We went to dinner at the home of the friends who had lined us up, then to the Utah State Fair.  The dinner was fun, except my friend was about 4 months pregnant and her button-up-the-front shirt kept popping open, and it took her a while to notice.  Oh my.  We rode the ferris wheel at the fair and he put his arm around me.  Ooh-la-la! Our first kiss was about 3 weeks later.  It was the Saturday of October Conference, and we went on a picnic at the Alpine Loop between sessions.  We walked around the camping area, then sat on a picnic table and he kissed me.  Unfortunately, it was a funny little peck because he didn’t move his lips, so I had to help him a little. 

4.  DID YOU HAVE A SHORT OR LONG COURTSHIP?  Pretty short, I guess.  We were married exactly a year after we met.  Now that I have kids who are marriage-able age, that seems pretty quick!  The fact that we are still best friends, still like each other, and still have a happy, strong marriage makes me think we were pretty darn lucky!

5.  WHERE DID YOU GET ENGAGED?  In the car, sitting in the parking lot under the old Hotel Utah, which is now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  At that time, Hotel Utah had two or three big, beautiful ballrooms where dances were held.  The night we got engaged,  we went with a group of friends to dinner at The Heather, then drove to Hotel Utah to meet up with our friends again at the dance.  We later discussed how it might have been much more romantic for him to ask me either at the restaurant or at the dance, but the ring was burning a hole in his pocket and the car was the only place we were alone that evening.

6.  WHERE DID YOU GET MARRIED?  In the Salt Lake Temple on September 8, 1978.  We had our wedding breakfast at The Lion House.  Our reception was also at the Lion House.  We just got to stay downtown all day!

7.  HOW DID THE RECEPTION GO?  It was great.  We had the lower floor of the Lion House, with it’s beautiful antique furnishings, draperies, and carpets.  Our colors were maroon and pink.  Piano Man wore a white tuxedo and the shirt had white ruffles.  Remember, this was 1978!  Our refreshments were standard reception food:  cake squares, chicken salad on sandwich puffs, fruit kabobs, and raspberry frappe.  Why can I remember this, but I can’t remember what I said when we met?!?!?

8.  HOW WAS THE HONEYMOON?  So fun.  We stayed the first night at Hotel Utah, just 1/2 block away from the Lion House.  We had a large suite on the 9th floor and it was beautiful.  The next day we drove to Lake Tahoe, then on to San Francisco.  We stayed a couple of nights at Pacifica, in a little motel on the beach.  Then we drove up the coast to the Redwoods, but I can’t remember where we stayed.  When we got back to Utah, we spent one night in The Milkhouse at The Homestead in Heber City.  We might go back there for our anniversary this year.  We’ll see.

This was fun to reminisce.  thanks for tagging me, HSF!  So I know any bloggers who are married?  Hmmm….I guess I’ll remain tagless.

“you go girl” I’m saying to myself August 11, 2007

I love when I have a “productive” week! I feel like I’ve really accomplished a few things these past 3 or 4 days, so I decided to write about them. The first thing was that on Tuesday I went to the Cache County Fair and judged needlework and also the knitted and crocheted items. We went to the fair tonight to see all the arts entries and it was fun. I LOVE the needlework piece that we sent on to the State Fair!

I saw some fabric that screamed “Berkeley Baby”, so I made a dress for Peanut out of it. It was a very simple little pattern, so I decided to make it reversible. Well, I won’t bedoing that again! You have to be too precise, but it worked out OK.

I also made a new tote bag over the past few days. I used a stabilizer called Peltex 71, which is really thick and very stiff, so it makes the bag stand up by itself. Unfortunately, I also used upholstery fabric for both the outside of the bag and the lining, so the stitiching was pretty difficult, the turning-inside-out was worse, and the top-stitching was impossible. I ended up doing the topstitching by hand. If you look really close you can see little spots of blood on the lining near the handle. That’s where the wrong (blunt) end of the needle rammed through my finger…

Today my RS Presidency friends and I gave a brunch for the girls in the YW and Primary Presidencies. My assignment was sour cream orange rolls. They were yummy, so here’s a picture of them. Mmmmm…..

Well, that was all my fun for the week. I had a dandy time. Hope anyone who reads this had a great week too.

Oh, Heavens, now what? August 8, 2007

It looks like I’m an official blogger, thanks to my youngest daughter, Teeny. Not sure how this is done, pretty sure I’m too old for this sort of thing, but oh well.

Let’s see: I guess I should tell why I chose this blog title.  Well, for many years I’ve told my kids they have to be nice to me because “I am the queen”.  I also use this title in my kindergarten class.  During the first week of school we learn about princes and princesses, we make crowns and scepters and wands, etc, I refer to the children as “Princess Sally” or “Prince Bob” or whatever, so that makes me Queen, does it not?!?!  Also, I saw a sign recently which I plan to embroider eventually.  It says:  I know I’m the queen.  My pantyhose say so!  So there you go.

My children encouraged me to start a blog because they think it will be amusing to know what goes on inside my head.  I can assure them, no it won’t.  If you knew what really goes on in my head, you’d have to have me committed, and no one wants that!

What else does one write in a blog?  I guess I’m done for now.  I have to finish cutting out a new dress for my little grandgirl, Peanut, who is a Berkeley Baby.  Sometime soon I’ll write all about my family.  Until then, ta-ta!