The Vacation: First flights.

So I have been avoiding this post because it will be long but I guess I have decided to divide it up into just pure memories and moments. So Grant experienced his first plane ride. I was nervous because when I was 3 I was on my first plane ride and the pressure got to my ear really bad and I was screaming the entire flight of pain. So I was really hoping this wouldn't happen to Grant. I was prepared with every snack possible, juice, and toys. So by the way, I was planning on Grant sitting on my lap because I didn't pay for a ticket for him. Luckily for me though on both flights they had room for Grant and me carrying his carseat, stroller, and diaper bag paid off....to the gates and off both flights might I add. It was physically gruelling to say the least. There were a couple really nice sympathetic people though who were willing to help me and carry things at times.
Anyway, Grant was a champ. He didn't display any discomfort other than not wanting to be in the carseat. Boy was he in for it! He was in his carseat a lot of the trip: to the airport, on the flights, to folsom, to and from where ever we were, up to Redding, up to Medford, OR, up to Portland, down to medford, and the 15 hours it took to get to Orem again.
Some highlights of the beginning were that he did really well during the flights. He was cheery. We got photos in the pilot's seat. we got free pretzels.

Language Burst

So first of all, I haven't blogged because I was on vacation and I am still kind of vacationing because my family is still here. I will blog about the trip when my family leaves. However, Grant has had such language development in the last 2 weeks. It has been insane. He has said his first sentence: "Eat snack." This isn't supposed to happen until age 2 so I'm pretty proud of that. Also Grant says "Mom" instead of mama.  He says "shba" for shoe. "Wewah" for weed wacker, "uh oh", "hi", "bye", "wee", "yay", "pea", "cheese", "Chee" for cheek, and the list keeps rolling because everyday he will surprise us with so many new words just from copying us. Its so much fun to hear his little voice saying somewhat logical things. I am a proud mama!

For Sake of Memories.

Independence Day was a whirlwind of a day. We woke up. Then we started cooking. We invited a friend over for a celebration meal and didn't realize he wouldn't be able to come for dinner so instead we were having lunch with him. I cooked so fast and was multi-tasking on everything! Perry was helping in the fashion of watching Grant the whole time. Then we went to the store, got a couple little fireworks, came home, finished up lunch and had our friend over. The meal was yummy. We had teriyaki chicken grilled, pasta salad, which I think I might just go have some right now, and grilled corn. The guest said he had never had better corn. I was thrilled of course. Then we had our traditional stars and stripes angel food cake thing with blueberries and strawberries. Yum. Then when we were done eating our other friend and his cousin came over to pick something up and we invited them to eat also. Then when they left Grant was up from his nap. Perry washed all the delayed dishes from the whole week of sickness and achiness and finally we were able to relax. We did FHE and lit Fireworks. Grant threw a couple of the popping ones and then really didn't like them anymore. We only had about 10 things to light and Grant was very upset by the end. Good thing we didn't go to any show. He would not have stood the noises and fire. I had fun though. We put him down and just enjoyed a relaxing evening. I cuddled with my hubby and finally got a tinge  of "I'll miss you" for going on my long trip soon. I'm really excited. These next couple of week will have at the end many videos and pictures with my family. See ya then!

Compounded.

So life likes to throw all kinds of curve balls. Especially this week. So remember my last post....well yeah I am yet again reminded of my blessings when I don't have ailments. I said on Facebook that I would rather have back pain than the flu. Well guess what? My thoughts were against me on this one. I have the flu. And my back aches. And usually it aches more when I'm not up and moving. Just as long as I don't twist and what not. But I barely feel it when I'm walking around. That means that sitting all day trying not to feel nauseous kind of sucks on my back.

So I got the flu. Probably because my immune system was lowered from having a lot of junk yesterday, plus Grant sputtering puke into my mouth, as well as the fact that my body just can't handle red cow's meat. So I woke at 5:30am puking my guts out. Went to bed. Woke an hour later and puked my guts out all morning until about noon. I puked bile in 3 sessions. Sorry this is kind of gross. So I read that once you have stopped puking for 1 hour you can take 1 tbsp sips of water every 5 minutes. Boy did I look forward to that. I was getting dehydrated for sure and the water tasted so good. I think water always tastes better after you are sick. So the first thing I'm going to do when I'm well again is to chug a lot of water and have a spinach berry smoothie. MM! Anyway, the rest of the philosophy goes, if you haven't puked for 4 hours into the sipping thing you can double the amount sipped every hour every five minutes. I decided to not wait for the 8 hours of water drinking to start solids. I also read that you should wait until your tummy growls before trying to eat because that means your tummy will digest the food and not just let it sit into a lump. All I have eaten since 11 last night is half a piece of toast. Slowly. My awesome visiting teachers brought dinner over that I can't even eat yet.

After this awesome crappy day I have decided to really cut back on the sweets and to ban red meat. It always ends terribly and the sugar always makes me get sick easier. I mean geesh. I have been sick 2 times in 2 months of living here. But the cool thing about it is all I crave is more healthy raw fruits and veggies. Fat, sugar, and highly processed foods just don't appeal at the moment. I know it will change but I think this plan is for the better. I will be more likely to get pregnant when I want to .....which is not soon mind you. I will be healthy more often. And when you eat good stuff for your body,  your body craves it more anyway. So in a way I am starting on a clean slate.  No food has been in my system for almost 24 hours. All I have had is water and now when I'm up for it I can start anew with a delicious smoothie.

Granted.

So there are a lot of things in life that I take for granted. I realize these things when they are taken away from me. It sucks. It is a common feeling when I find myself ill. In this case I have something that 83% of people experience at least once in their life time:

A major back injury.

The doctor would call it an Acute Muscle Strain. I read online that a back muscle strain can be the most painful and boy am I feeling it! It all started... and I can only assume since I'm not exactly sure...that it was brought on by a fabulous run with my sister-in-law followed by an intense P90X ab work out. I was stoked.  I love to exercise, especially with friends, and I have always enjoyed the luxury of doing whatever sport I want and never having an injury that lasted. Well after these work outs I felt the normal muscle soreness. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then I asked Perry to massage it because that normally helps right? Wrong. It made it worse. So I decided it wasn't a sore muscle but a minor injury. Then I made the wrong move one day getting up from reading Grant a book and it was horrible stabbing pain in my right, lower to mid back, near the spine, muscle. I rested and it quickly went back to the dull pain ache that it was before. Then I side lied nursing Grant one morning when he woke up unusually early. An hour of that I tried getting up and ...wait for it.... STABBING PAIN again.

Perry had to stay home from work, I was in so much pain. I took medication all day and had a doctor's appointment the next day. He said to rest for the next 2 weeks and ice as needed. Not to lift Grant or other objects that are heavy but if it is a must to lift closest to the body. He emphasized to keep moving and walking. He said he encounters a lot of young mothers with back injuries. What the heck?! I guess we all need to strengthen our back, side, and ab muscles better after having babies.

So Day 2 after last major pain I have encountered major pain twice today and am currently in pain on meds. Again. Ugh! I hate this.

This is now when I start to realize how I have taken for granted the beautiful, working, healthy, body Heavenly Father has given me. I have also taken for granted the ability to exercise! Oh. how. I. miss. it! I wasn't doing that regularly and now I am so motivated to get my body back into working motion. I want to dance! I want to run! I want to do dishes for crying out loud, with out fear of hurting myself yet again! This is getting ridiculously boring sitting here. I am trying to read more. Sew Grant and Perry some more ties. I just can't wait until this has healed.

In the mean time I have some awesome visiting teachers who will be bringing me dinner for the next couple days until Perry will be home for the weekend. Hopefully by next week I will be able to do more cooking and dishes.

To add to the stress of things Grant woke vomiting last night so we had to change his outfit and bedding. Also calm him and put him back to sleep. Then Perry woke vomiting. Today we had two sickies in the house and now we are all hopefully on the mend. Keep us in your prayers please!

Disaster and Dominoes

So disaster has struck the apartment. So we have always smelled a subtle bit of mold and mildew. So we called the owner and asked what she can do about it. She had a mold/flood damage company come to check out the apartment. I knew he wasn't going to find anything because I keep my place spick and span. Yes it may get messy but under the mess is definitely sanitary conditions. Anyway, so I told him my suspicions and he said that we just need an air duct company to come clean out the ducts. So we were pretty happy about that. Then the air duct people came and were checking all the different ducts that needed cleaned. Our neighbor who lives in a studio apartment in the basement is just below and beside us. One day he walked by with laundry and it was wreaking of mildew. We thought... his apartment must be the one with the problem seeping in through our vents.

Lo and behold.......he had a category black sewage flood all over his family/bedroom and his toilet was totally backed up and spewing out. The people were awed and disgusted and had us come take a look. Disgusting. The mold/flood guy came back to look at this man's apartment. He said this sewage crap had been sitting there mildewing and growing microorganisms and E.Coli for at least 3 months. Let me say that again.... 3 MONTHS!

The neighbors who live on the opposite basement corner say they also have a wreaking home and it has been like that for ......6 MONTHs! WHAT?! The only kind of person who could live in sewage is insane. I apologize for the judgement...but really. Is it a judgement? Or a fact?

Ew.

Ew.

Ew.

So that is Disaster.

Dominoes. So since this was found our neighbor is now being evicted for not reporting the flooding that will cost the owner $10, 000+ dollars to repair since it is the category BLACK flooding. She will have to rip out EVERYTHING, due to the deadly micro organism which have been growing and multiplying since 6+ months ago. Can I say ew one more time?

Ew.

So once it is remodeled... our minuscule mold smell will dissipate. Then after that the duct people will come back and still clean the ducts because it has been a while. Since the duct people were helping with the other problem they had down time for some reason. They decided to fix my swamp cooler! They found the line that goes to the cooler that needed connected to allow for a water supply. Yipee! Cool air! It is located on the roof and we have only experience about 3 really hot  kind of warm days. Perfect timing. So the dominoes was if you didn't catch it...

Ew. Nasty. Category Black. Sewage flood.

New tenant and no smell.

New clean air ducts.

Working swamp cooler!

Happy Rachel!

Dominoes!

So it has been a very eventful weekend.


Oh and speaking of the weekend, our friend, his 3 brothers, and father spent the night here. Five boys.  I made them a fantastic, five star, all star, pancake, eggs, orange juice, bacon, sausage, strawberries, and whip cream breakfast and it was definitely to die for. I love this type of meal. It was just the thing to get me through the next 6  2 months for craving that sort of thing. Our deal was: He pays for said ingredients. I cook it....and EAT it! lol. MmmmmMM!

3rd Haircut and Garden Story

So Grant got his third haircut. He looks more like a kids than a baby. I think I prefer his hair long though.

Before (doesn't he look like a character from Dr. Seuss?)

After.

He loves his pockets. Its even more cute when he walks with his hands in his pockets.

And on to the garden story. So we really wanted to garden. And we didn't really have any idea how to get started. We didn't want to till the ground but that seemed like the only answer. Well I researched a little online and this University of Massachusetts guy was talking about no till gardening. I was like... This. is. for. Us! So the idea is to put down 5 sheets of newspaper over the area you would like to garden , and then 3 inches of dirt, soil, or compost mix. Then just plant your seeds. Water it like you are supposed to and eventually the weeds under the newspaper will die and decompose and become great soil for your plants once they need to deep roots.  So far it is working. We will see later in the season for sure.

So here is my pride and joy. All the plants.. or most of them have started to sprout and grow. 

We planted pretty much everything under the sun..no pun intended.  (Corn, strawberries, green beans, pumpkins, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe, basil, thyme, chives, lettuce, spinach, onions, green onions, rosemary, cucumber)

So don't even get me started with the cucumber. So we have had an attack from the snails and slugs from our back yard. ICk! They have attacked mainly our cucumber plants and some of our pumpkin as well. And now that I think of it... I think our watermelon seeds were duds so I need to plant a few more. Anyway.  So here is the damage from one row of cucumber. That one with the tattered leaf is the last one on the row. Our other row of cucumber is thriving with about a forth of it eaten.

We started the battle by going out in the evening and salting all slugs in sight. And then I put a salt perimeter around the garden but that only lasts so long with watering and what not. Well yesterday I found and killed the mother of all slugs. Score! And then a new development this morning... I found 10 snails in the garden, curled up in their shells, and the first one I found had 2, probably cucumber leaves, stuck to the shell. A snack saved for later no doubt. I was appalled, amused, and excited. I collected several. I have no idea why they were still in the garden. It wasn't even very early and the sun was already basically on the garden. So I collected them and put them in a jar. I want to show Perry, but then I will destroy them. I know I sound heartless but when snails and slugs are basically eating your money that you have put into a garden you get kind of POed! Here are a couple pictures of said snails.

Ew.

And ew.

We shall see if it proves effective removing these snails. Or maybe tomorrow I will find even more!