Feels Good

I finally, finally found a swimsuit I really like. Here's a picture. It fits well, minimizing certain areas, but my favorite feature is that it maximizes other areas (the bust). I actually feel like I'm sort of well endowed with this top. Feels good! I got it from Shade and the bonus was that it was an on sale for 25% off.

Another thing that feels good. Since there was no school today, Madison and I were able to play paper dolls while Bailee took her nap. We played with Barbie paper dolls and they have some pretty fun clothes. Madison said she loves playing with me. I love playing with her too.

Also, today Madison had a friend over to play. I told her friend that there was a cup of water on the counter for her, if she needed a drink. She said okay and a minute later told Madison, "You have a nice mom." I overheard it as I was leaving the room and it made me smile. I was a little bit surprised she said that because I had just gotten after Madison for jumping on her bed and I was slightly frustrated with Bailee for turning off the computer while I was right in the middle of something. I guess I'm not too mean.

Do I even remember how?

I haven't blogged in forever. I got bored with it, but I came back. So, not too much has been happening lately except keeping my sanity being a 3/4 single mom and us being sick for the past three weeks. We're just passing it around and I'm afraid Madison has a new cold that she is going to share with us. I'm so glad spring is around the corner, I'm sure that will help. Well, I know this was a lame, boring blog. Next time will be better, but I'm just getting back into it, ya know. Maybe next time I'll have pics too.

Sayonara 2008, don't let the door hit you on your way out!

Ah yes, good old 2008, I'm really not too sorry to see you go. Well, actually I am, time flies by way too fast, I'll be old before I know it and I'm sure I'll cherish every memory. We had lots of good times in 2008, but we dealt with some tuff stuff too. Here's a monthly recap of 2008 for the Redford family. The computer is not working too well, I'll have to finish later...

January 2008

We started off 2008 with a BRAIN, oops I mean BANG! I had my first MRI on New Years Eve. I was pretty much freaking out, I thought I had Multiple Sclerosis, but a few days later we got the MRI results back and learned I had Chiari Type 1 Malformation. So, I spent the next few months going to doctors, getting MRI's and learning about my diagnosis. It was going to be a long road ahead.

February 2008

Jeff sold his long time friend, Mustang. (When you read this Jeff, please try not to get tears on the keyboard.) Sorry Buddy :(

March 2008

Bailee's 1st Jazz Game.

Madison's 1st Loose Tooth

April 2008

We celebrated Madison's 6th Birthday, and went to Kangaroo Zoo for the first time.

Jefferson graduated from UVU. Nice Job, Hot Stuff!

May 2008

Our last family pictures at the park before my surgery scheduled in May. After celebrating Madison's birthday and Jeff's graduation, now I felt ready for the big surgery day.

My brain decompression surgery went excellent. Here is a lovely picture of my scar and stylish hair-do. I didn't want to have to subject anyone to seeing the other pictures of my head with the staples still intact. It was a huge relief to get this surgery over with. We were very blessed. I still struggle with equilibrium problems, but I'm glad I had the surgery and hopefully with time my brain will heal more.

June 2008

Bailee learned to crawl.

July 2008

Bailee turned 1 year.

August 2008

Madison started 1st grade.

Gingerbread Houses

Last week we got together with some friends of ours. We decorated gingerbread houses and had pizza, bread sticks and a tossed green salad for dinner (one of my favorite dinners). I also made Moose Balls for dessert, they are quite nummy and easy.

Here's a picture of Thomas and Inndia posing with their almost complete house, I'm so busily working away I can't even look up.

Here are the finished products. Ours is on the left. It was kind a fun because our kits were slightly different from each others, they had gingerbread people and we had lots of trees.

"Jolly" Old St. Nick

Here the girls are sitting on Santa's lap. I was wondering how Bailee would react but she did really well, she didn't even cry. She just looked at me like, "Why are you setting me on this strange man's lap and laughing?"

Do I look like an incapable mom? I'm just wondering, because "The Santa's" seem to think so. For example this year Santa (above) asked me what Bailee would like for Christmas. I said she'd probably like a Little People Princess Castle (which is what we got for her). So, he asks me if she'll put the pieces in her mouth. I told him she probably would, and he asks me if they are small pieces that she'll choke on. Uh...No, duh Santa I'm not going to give her something that she'll choke on. Good heavens, I hope I know better than that. (I didn't really say that last part to Santa).

Now, this next story about our visit with a different Santa, tops that one. This happened a few years ago, Madison was 2 1/2 I think. It was quite cold that day, and the heater in our car took a while to warm up. By the time we arrived at the University Mall we were finally starting to get warm. So, we went in the mall and got to see Santa right away (shocking I know). Madison sat on his lap and he commented that her hands were cold. We'd had her bundled in a blanket in her stroller, but her hands were still chilly. So, he's holding on to her hands and says it again, "Her hands are cold." So I said, "She takes after her mother." My hands are often on the chilly side, which I don't think is too uncommon for a woman. So, he says, "What, No Blood?" Excuse me Santa, should you even be saying the word blood. I thought that was a little bizarre. I'm sure her hands were cool, but holy cow we'd just come in from the freezing cold, that tends to happen in the winter, unless you've been sitting in a toasty hot car with layers of winter gear on. I refer to him (only to Jeff) as Butt head Santa. He's not at the University Mall anymore, darn. At least now we have a mini van that gets warm very quickly, but us Redford girls still might have chilly fingers. As the saying goes, "Cold hands=Warm heart".

O' Christmas Tree

Jeff and Madison putting ornaments on the tree. What good little elves. I sure appreciated their help. I love our pre-lit tree, it sure is a time saver. You might notice there aren't many ornaments near the bottom of the tree. We figured if was safer that way, from big girl Bailee.

Trying...

and trying to get the star on top of the tree.

Finally, success. I realized this year that the star is quite small for our tree. You can hardly even see it in this picture. Maybe I'll get a new one during an after Christmas sale.

Hallelujah

Hallelujah, I'm back.... pretty much. (It sure is hard to think and type up a post with Suze Orman yakking in the background) You probably didn't know I was gone, but I was, with the stomach flu. It started Thanksgiving morning. I wasn't feeling the best on Wednesday, I didn't have much of an appetite that day, but I didn't think too much of it, little did I know what was lurking around the corner. So, no Thanksgiving dinner for me, I had Saltines crackers instead. Jeff and the girls went over to my parents house while I stayed home, layed on the couch and watched two Little House on the Prairie Christmas shows on dvd, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and part of The Incredibles. I wish I could have been with my family, but hopefully there will be more Thanksgivings to come. Poor Jeff started coming down with it Friday, but we're both doing better today. We still don't have much of an appetite, I told him this is what it feels like to be pregnant, with the queasiness.

I feel bad because we were supposed to help my sister move, but we couldn't even do that. This next week will be catch-up week on all the stuff I couldn't do the past few days. Actually it's not too much, I'd just really like to get the bathrooms cleaned and Christmas decorations put up. Our neighborhood has been totally on the ball this year getting their Christmas decorations up. (Come on Jeff, we gotta keep up with the Jones'). We did get our Christmas tree put up today, it was quite easy since it's pre-lit. Madison wanted to get out all of the decorations but I didn't have the strength for it. I hope the tree can survive Bailee this year.

Back to Instacare we go...

Your not going to believe this but we had to go back to Instacare last night. Actually, Jeff and Madison were the ones that went. After dinner Madison started complaining that her left ear was hurting. I looked in her ear canal with a flashlight, couldn't see much. We rinsed it out with warm water and vinegar and I gave her two children's Tylenol pills. Nothing was helping, and her squealing was getting more intense. I've heard that blowing smoke in a hurting ear helps it to stop hurting for some reason. Probably some old wives tale, anyhow I thought we could give it a try, but we couldn't find any matches. I'm quite sure we have some in our 72 hour kits, but by this point we'd decided she'd better go see a doctor otherwise she, Jeff and I would be having a miserable night. So, about 8:30 they headed off to Instacare. They were gone for at least 2 hours, it took stinkin' forever. And of course while they were gone I heard some odd loudish noises coming from our backyard. So, I got spooked and was really hoping they'd get home soon. They finally got home about 10:30 or so. Her ear was infected (actually the doctor said it was red and angry) and they rinsed a truck load of earwax out of it too. Okay, not really that much, but there was a fair amount. So, we got her started on the meds and we all went to bed.

She's doing better today, her ear hasn't been hurting and her lip is shrinking although the white cap on it is becoming more conspicuous. Madison did have one more adventure this morning. While I was making her breakfast she managed to get a tiny little fan with foam blades caught in her hair. It was so knotted up I just had to cut the section of hair out. Luckily it wasn't much hair and near the bang area so it blended right in. I'm hoping we have a boring weekend.

Here's a picture of Madison's hair after I cut the knot out. Doesn't look too bad. Ha! just kidding.

So, Carrie what do you do all day, sit around eating Bon Bons?

I wish. No,that would get boring and I'd get chubby. But here's what we've actually been doing the past few days. As expected Jeff is searching for a job, not an enjoyable task. I do have a bit of good new though, we finally got our new computer stand, it was an early Christmas present from my parents. It has aided in Jeff's job searching and I really like having the computer out in the family zone.

Here's a pic of little munchkin with the new desk.

Sunday night we rushed off to Instacare with Bailee who had a temperature of 104.1. She was so hot. She'd had a fever on and off since Saturday afternoon and all she wanted to do was sit on my lap, which is not like her. The doctor couldn't figure what was wrong with her, how comforting. The lymph nodes were enlarged in her groin area so that meant she had some type of virus/infection. So, they took a urine sample after inserting a catheter. Yeah, so I was stressed out and Bailee sure didn't enjoy one bit of it. The doctor said we'd have to just wait and see. Finally, on Tuesday the fever broke and the spots came. She had Roseola, Madison had had it at about the same age, so at least I was a bit familiar with it. Bailee is feeling better now. Phew...

The Rash

Wednesday Jeff and Madison went to the dentist, they both needed to get some work done. Madison got a cavity filled, so they numbed the right side of her mouth. After they finished her filling Madison was sitting there waiting for Jeff to get finished up. Apparently she was hungry or something 'cause she starting gnawing on her numb lip. I don't think she realized how hard she was biting since there was no feeling. Here's a picture of the results. I was afraid we were going to have to go to Instacare again last night, but the dentist called and told us to give her ibuprofen and put ice on it. This is a picture of if from this morning. Sorry if anyone is squeamish. The dark specs on her teeth and mouth are left from her Cookies & Cream Pop Tart, I should have brushed her teeth first.

The Mouth

So, these are a few of the biggies we've been dealing with this week. Life is rarely boring.

Halloween and other stuff

I've been wanting to post for a while now, but it's hard to find the time especially with the computer in Bailee's room. I've been debating whether we should get the new computer desk sooner than later to go in the kitchen. Now probably isn't such a great time to be buying extras since Jeff lost his job this past week. It would help with job searches though. Yep, Jeff lost his job, it's probably for the best, he deserves better, but it's still humbling and scary.

So, life's a little rough right now, but we've been through hard times before, so hopefully we'll survive. I am excited for Christmas. I love it. I've got all of my Christmas shopping done, except for stocking stuffers. I don't really have any ideas for stuffers this year. We were cutting back on gifts this year, and after the job thing happened, it became definite. No big deal, it's just stuff.

Here are pictures from Halloween.

My Pretty Kitty's

Jeff and I were dressed up as dancers from Dancing with the "Scars". We'd taken a few falls and were sporting some fresh wounds.