Happy Haunting!

So my Halloween was not as exciting as it could have been. I've had a cold coming on for a few days and apparently it reached its peak (hopefully) today. I was not feeling well at all nad had taken a few doses of cold medicine with no relief. I ended up sleeping for several hours today (12+) and was still tired and weak. I finally got up and visited with grandma and grandpa for awhile. I helped them get all the treats ready for Halloween and get the lights turned on etc. Then I chilled for an hour or so in the recliner chair, to tired to do much else.

Finally the cousins came to visit. Scott and Nicole brought the 4 kids and they looked great! Marren, Mason and Cameron were Star Wars characters. I would name which characters they were but I don't know too much about Star Wars so I don't really know. One of them was a Padowan (I think), one was Anikan (I think) and I don't remember the other. They looked awesome though! And cute, adorable little Courtney was a chicka-dee. She didn't like her hat too much but she looked awesome. And she even had cute little ruffles on the bum of her costume. She is way too cute and can melt your heart in no time at all!

Sami and Meriam also spent quite a bit of time at our house today and when Amirah was all dressed up they brought her over to visit and get her treats. Yesterday she was a pirate and today she was a Morrocan baby. It helps that she is Arabic and her mom is from Morroco, so she totally fit the part! :) She looked beautiful. She is another little one that can melt your heart in minutes. I really do have the cutest little cousins ever! Meriam was going to be a road (wearing all black with yellow lines taped up her and cars glued to her) but she didn't come over for her picture. Rickey and Mari stopped by dressed as doctors (I think...they were wearing scrubs) and visited for a few. All in all it was a pretty fun day...despite the fact that I slept for most of it.

I was surprised that we didn't have very many trick-or-treaters. I can understand when the neighborhood does trunk-or-treating that not as many kids come around, but we didn't do anything like that and still kids were sparse. Besides the cousins I would say we maybe had 10 groups of kids stop by...tops. I was counting how many times the doorbell rang or knocks came at the door. Grandpa was in the living room near the door reading and waiting for kids to come for candy and grandma and I were in the family room watching the World Series. Grandma then went into her bedroom and I fell asleep on the couch. (Yep, after that many hours of sleep I still was tired enough to take a nap.) Due to my nap though, I lost count. Grandpa said later that there were hardley any, so I would say my guess of about 10 is pretty accurate! :)

Ok, the moment you've all been waiting for...me to stop talking!!! :) Here are the pictures I got of the cousins. I think they're so cute and loved hanging out with them tonight for a few minutes. Hope you enjoy!
Nicole is trying to make the little chicka-dee smile...with little success...

Amirah is tasting a piece of candy. Her mom doesn't let her eat sweets hardly ever, so she was enjoying it today! :)

Here is Marren with grandma in the background. She (unlike the boys) kept her "mask" on all night. It was probably easier for her since it didn't cover her face. I love their cute little costumes.

Mason (with his mask off) smiling for the camera. He usually HATES pictures taken of him, so I was lucky to get a picture of him...ESPECIALLY with him smiling! :)

Amirah is kind of shy and was unsure about all of the people around when she first came over. It didn't take long though for her to warm up. I think candy can do that to a kid!

A close up. I was trying to get her hair to show up but it didn't work very well. She has the super curliest hair ever and it's darling. Tonight she had 2 cute little buns on the top of her head and then tons of curls in the back. It fit her costume perfectly!

Cute little Courtney chicka-dee with her hat on. She was not a fan of it...hence the fact there is no smile on her face. I think she's darling anyways, smile or not! :)

Cameron thought it was funny that Sami was wearing Mason's mask, so they took a picture together. I told Cameron his face looked different and he said "Don't worry Kayla, it's just a mask. My face is underneath. It's hiding for Halloween. It still likes you though!" He then lifted his mask and said "See? It's still here. It's just me!" How could you not love these cute little kids?

Here is the best picture I could get of the ruffles on Courtney's bum. Too cute, right? And that's Scott in the picture with her. He's my dads youngest brother and the dad of all these cuties. I love his family!!

Here is Sami wearing Mason's mask. Sami said he didn't want to dress up for Halloween, but he had a good time playing with the kids. I have the best cousins ever!

I hope you all had an awesome Halloween. HAPPY HAUNTING!!! ;D

Trick-or-Treat

***FOREWARNING***There are no pictures in this post because, once again, I forgot my camera today. And it might be a long post. I'll put titles on each paragraph so you can know the topic in case you want to skip any!

BABYSITTING
Today was such a fun day! It started off with me and the grandparents babysitting Cameron and Courtney. I LOVE these 2 kids. They are so cute and so funny. Cameron always keeps us entertained. Last time I watched them was for the temple dedication and Courtney cried alot. She wasn't too used to being away from mom and dad, and she wasn't feeling well. Today was much better. She had just woken up from a nap and was so happy! She played and ate and cuddled. She even played with grandpa on the floor. Cameron was cracking me up. We don't have a high chair at our house so I just sat Courtney up in the corner of the couch and fed her there. She also didn't have a bibby since her mom had forgotten to put in the diaper bag. She's 8 months old though and has been eating food for awhile so I wasn't too worried about it. She doesn't ever grab for the spoon or turn her head away or try to crawl or anything like that. So I was sitting on the couch feeding her and Cameron came and stood right next to me. And almost the whole time I was feeding her this is what I was hearing from Cam: "Don't spill on her clothes! Be careful Kayla, don't make a mess. Make sure it all gets in her mouth. Don't get it on her pretty shirt!" It was just so funny because he was so concerned about her cute little outfit. He is very protective of his little sister. He also plays very well with her and tries to make sure she is always happy! I love spending time with them and get to do it alot more often now that I live at my grandparents! :)

CHIROPRACTOR
I left around 2pm and went and picked up Meriam from school and took her to the chiropractor with me. I have never been to a chiropractor before and was kind of nervous about going. My neurologist who I've been seeing for my back thought it might help though, so I scheduled the appointment and found a friend to go with me! :) It wasn't too bad I guess. He did a consultation, an adjustment, some physical therapy and then a massage. Today's visit was $49.99 and he said any previous visits would be $39.99. My insurance doesn't cover him though so if I decide to keep getting seen by a chiropractor then I'll find one who is covered by my insurance. However I'm not sure that I want to go back. I'm not really into chiropractors (no offense to anyone who is...including my mom) and I think it hurt me more than helped. I definitely think I might do a massage though in the future (today was the first one of those I've had too) and I think that might help a little. (Anyways, just thought I'd share this part of my day since I use this as a journal...)

TRICK-OR-TREATING
After the chiropractor Meriam and I went and picked up Amirah from the babysitters home. Lori (Meriam's mom) and Jessie (my sister) work together at Provo Craft in Spanish Fork and they were doing trick-or-treating at their work. When we got to their work we had to put Amirah's costume on her. She was a cute little pirate and so (since we were running late) we dressed her real quick over her clothes in the parking lot! :) We had so much fun!! She learned a little to like the monsters (she still has a fear now and it's worse again thanks to Jessie) and she got tons of treats and entertained so many people with her cute personality. Rabab (Amirah's mom) doesn't like her to have sweet treats, but since it was Halloween we gave her a tootsie roll while we were still at their work. Then on the way home I gave her a pack of fruit snacks and some pretzels that she got while trick-or-treating. She was so tired from all her fun that she fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up when I got her out of the car, carried her past the singing monster, talked to tons of my family while still holding her AND laid her on the couch. She then slept through a ton of talking, playing and even dinner. And since she can't have sweet treats, Meriam and I got to eat her "goods"! :)

DINNER/GAMES
Grandpa made the best taco's for dinner and when we were done eating Meriam and I headed to Pleasant Grove. We went to the fire station and visited my dad since he was on duty and then went to my parents house to play with my mom. Russell and Marie were there for awhile and so we played Clue and visited. Then right as Russ and Marie were leaving, Jessie and Sydnee (our friend) showed up. They ate dinner (since they had both just got home from school) and then we visited and played games and laughed. We really had a good time. My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard.

BEST STORY OF THE NIGHT
We were sitting around the table playing a game. Meriam had wrapped up in a blanket and fell asleep at the table while we were playing. Her and her brothers don't do very well when they get woken up. They are VERY grumpy!! So Jessie tried to wake up Meriam and she got mad. Meriam kind of tried to swat Jessie's drink away and instead of that happening she hit a glass of ice water and knocked it right into my lap. Yep, my lap was full of ice and freezing cold water. Oh and I had set my jacket on the floor next to me and it got covered in the ice water too. Jess was kind enough to lend me a pair of pajama pants so I didn't have to drive home wet and I just hurried to the car so I didn't freeze without a jacket. It was just so funny to top off the night of random and funny! :)

ONE LAST STORY TO TOP IT ALL OFF
Meriam had brought giant pixie sticks to our house and her and Jess decided to have a contest. They wanted to see who could eat the whole thing first. So they got all ready and started the contest. They were doing pretty good, but then Meriam started getting sick. She grabbed a cup that was right in front of her and ended up spitting (throwing) up most of what she had just eaten. Jessie claimed victory even though she didn't finish eating hers either. I don't think that either of them will be downing large amounts of straight colored sugar any time soon! :) We did record the contest on mine and Meriam's phones, but someone (who will remain un-named) said something a little sketchy in the background so I won't post the video. You can just imagine it. It was very funny though! :)

Ok so this is another forever long post, but it's finally over. A huge pat on the back for any of you who actually read this whole "no picture-probably had to be there for any of it to be funny post!" :)

Book List

I copied this from Cindy (she put it on facebook) and then changed it just a little... Hope she doesnt' mind :)

This is an alleged list of top read books. I thought I would mark which ones I have read, haven't read, liked/disliked, etc. So here's the breakdown:
;D means I've read it and loved it
>:( means I don't want to ever read it or I've read it and hated it
**** means I really really want to read it
if it's blank then I haven't read it and I'm kind of indifferent towards it.

WOW! Was that confusing enough? Well I want to post it anways despite the confusion. (Again this is more for me to just remember...) Who knows, maybe I'll actually follow through and read some of these.

1 Pride and Prejudice - ****
2 The Lord of the Rings - >:(
3 Jane Eyre -
4 Harry Potter series - >:(
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - ;D
6 The Bible - ;D
7 Wuthering Heights -
8 Nineteen Eighty Four -
9 His Dark Materials -
10 Great Expectations -
11 Little Women - ****
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles -
13 Catch 22 -
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - ****
15 Rebecca -
16 The Hobbit - >:(
17 Birdsong -
18 Catcher in the Rye - ****
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - ****
20 Middlemarch -
21 Gone With The Wind - ****
22 The Great Gatsby - ****
23 Bleak House -
24 War and Peace - ****
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - >:(
26 Brideshead Revisited -
27 Crime and Punishment - ****
28 Grapes of Wrath - ****
29 Alice in Wonderland - >:(
30 The Wind in the Willows - ****
31 Anna Karenina -
32 David Copperfield - >:(
33 Chronicles of Narnia - ;D
34 Emma - ****
35 Persuasion -
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - ;D
37 The Kite Runner - ****
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin -
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - >:(
40 Winnie the Pooh - ;D
41 Animal Farm - ;D
42 The Da Vinci Code -
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - ****
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - ****
45 The Woman in White -
46 Anne of Green Gables - ;D
47 Far From The Madding Crowd -
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - ****
49 Lord of the Flies -
50 Atonement -
51 Life of Pi -
52 Dune -
53 Cold Comfort Farm - ****
54 Sense and Sensibility - ****
55 A Suitable Boy - ****
56 The Shadow of the Wind -
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - ****
58 Brave New World -
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - ****
61 Of Mice and Men - ;D
62 Lolita -
63 The Secret History -
64 The Lovely Bones -
65 Count of Monte Cristo - >:(
66 On The Road -
67 Jude the Obscure -
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - >:(
69 Midnight’s Children - ****
70 Moby Dick - ****
71 Oliver Twist - ****
72 Dracula - >:(
73 The Secret Garden - ****
74 Notes From A Small Island -
75 Ulysses - ****
76 The Inferno - ****
77 Swallows and Amazons -
78 Germinal -
79 Vanity Fair -
80 Possession -
81 A Christmas Carol - ****
82 Cloud Atlas -
83 The Color Purple - ****
84 The Remains of the Day - ****
85 Madame Bovary - >:(
86 A Fine Balance -
87 Charlotte’s Web - ;D
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - ****
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - >:(
90 The Faraway Tree Collection -
91 Heart of Darkness -
92 The Little Prince -
93 The Wasp Factory -
94 Watership Down -
95 A Confederacy of Dunces -
96 A Town Like Alice -
97 The Three Musketeers - >:(
98 Hamlet - ****
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - >:(
100 Les Miserables - ****

Ok, so I just realized I haven't read alot of these. I haven't even heard of alot of these! The ones I have read I love. The ones with frowny faces I've heard of and don't have any interest in reading. There are some books that just don't interest me in the least. I'm sure the ones I left blank are good, but it would be hard for me to just go pick it up and read it. Especially having never heard about it. I like to know someone has read it and can give me a recommendation. The ones with **** though I REALLY want to read! I actually have thought about some of them recently when I've been thinking of something to read (along with my book club books of course...) And I am the kind of person who can read the same book several times and not get bored of it. (My mom can only read a book once and she's done with it.) I'm really glad Cindy sent this to me. It gives me some books to remember to look for and read! :P

Vacation Countdown!!!

My vacation countdown is on and I couldn't be more excited. I've been planning it since about July (no joke) and it's finally almost here. (*Tips for future vacations: I need to learn to not plan them out so far in the future....it makes waiting and anticipating torture! And I have to hear all about how far away it is from my impatient and yet very excited cousin who is waiting for me to show up at his house!) So what are the details of my vacation?!

*Days left until departure: 14
*Destination: Safford Arizona
*Hours it takes to drive to destination: 16 (I'm hoping that is old man driving time and that I can make it a few hours sooner. We'll see... ;P)
*Days I'll spend at destination: 5
*People accompanying me on vacation: Meriam (for sure) Wyatt and Kamila (maybe)
*Things to look forward to on my vacation: shooting (I'm finally going to put my gun to use), visiting family I don't often see, warmth and good weather (as opposed to the cold and snow we've all of the sudden got here), a break from work (for something other than sickness), a chance to get away and think about things (like everyone, I have some big choices to make), bonding time with Fuzz (road-tripping with her is one of my favorite things), and quality time with Gary and Heidi who I only get to see a few times a year at best

I am so, so excited! I have cousins (Gary and Heidi) who live in Safford. We'll be staying with them at their house with them and their 2 super cute kiddos. Gary and Heidi are actually the reason we're going. Gary's mom Zilpha (my grandpa's sister) lives very close to Safford, so we'll get to see and visit them as well. I am so excited Meriam is going with me so I don't have to travel alone (and so I have an extra driver) and I seriously can't wait for the time to come for us to head out. I've had it planned for awhile, but with everything that's been going on in my life lately, I feel like now especially is the perfect time for a little getaway!

YAY! I love having things like this to look forward to! :) My family is amazing...both my immediate and extended family. I feel like the luckiest person to have so many family members that I am close to and love, and who love me. I love having family members who are so willing to invite you to their home, to have you stay in their house (inconveniencing them) for several days and to entertain you and make your trip exciting and memorable! (And for all my family who is reading this, I would love to be able to spend time with you and host you at my house whenever and for however long you want! You call me and it's on! And if you ever want a house guest...it doesn't take much to persuade me! ;P)

So my vacation countdown is officially on and I couldn't be more excited! YAY!!!! ;D

Meriam, Jessie and Amirah

Today when I woke up I felt like I wasn't going to make it through the day. I got a total of about 3 hours of sleep last night (I was having back pain) and I was miserable when I woke up. Then I went to work from 0700-1300 (7am-1pm) and was seriously counting down the hours to go home. Besides being yelled at by an officer we ended up being SO busy. Ok, we only had about 5 calls, but for the college that is busy! :) We also had a new officer that was training so I did a little extra work on all the calls. Needless to say, I was ready for the day to be over. I left work planning on coming straight home and taking a nap. I was in pain and I was tired.


I got home and ate lunch and was just chilling in my room when Meriam came over to visit. We started talking and then Sami came in and asked us if we could take care of Amirah. He had been babysitting her all day and was a little tired. It was supposed to be her nap time but she wasn't sleeping. Meriam and I went out and laid her down and "pretended to fall asleep" hoping she would follow suit and do the same...only not pretending. It didn't work. While Meriam and I were "sleeping" Amirah was having a grand old time. She was singing songs to herself and laughing at herself and trying anything in her power to get our attention. We finally gave up on nap time because it got so late that if she fell asleep she wouldn't go to bed at her bedtime. So instead we started to play.


We visited with grandma and grandpa Nielsen and grandpa Abdel. (For those of you who don't know...Abdel was married to my aunt Lori. They have 3 kids--Abderrahim, Sami and Meriam. Abdel also has a daughter Rabab from a previous marriage who moved her several years ago from Morocco to live with. So Rabab is my half cousin. Then Rabab got married and had Amirah with her husband and then they got divorced. We love Abdel, Rabab and Amirah though! And Rabab and Amirah just moved in with Lori and the kids...so we're next door neighbors!) After visiting we sat in the kitchen for snack time--chocolate milk, grapes and ritz crackers. (Being a kid is great, right?!)


After snack time we went next door to Meriam's house to visit the dogs. (Lori and the kids have 4 dogs...Duck (aka:Daisy--the mom) Max (aka:maxi pad--the dad) Samwich (the runt) Skwish (the other kid) and Amirah LOVES them all!) We played with the puppies for awhile and then decided we had better feed Amirah an actual meal instead of just snacks, so we went back next door to my house and made her some ramen noodles. And of course Meriam and I can't see people eat ramen noodles and not have some ourselves, so we made our dinner too! :)

When dinner was over we had to pack up and head out. Jessie goes to hair school and they were having a contest tonight...the student who had the most pre-scheduled clients tonight won a free Chi straightening iron...about a $160 value. So she called last night and we scheduled an appointment. It could be for anything so we opted for a deep condition...it's cheap and quick so she could fit more people in. We also decided (with Rabab's permission) to take Amirah and have her get a bang trim. (FYI...SHE ENDED UP WINNING! SHE HAD 8 APPOINTMENTS AND THE NEXT CLOSEST WAS 2. JESS WORKED HARD TO GET PEOPLE TO COME IN AND I'M GLAD SHE WON! *I also have to say that if any of you live in the Utah County area and ever want a haircut, style, deep condition, scalp treatment, manicure, pedicure, hair color, etc etc you should call her up. It's cheaper than a regular salon because they're students, but she does an AMAZING job! And I'm not only saying that because she's my sister. She really is totally awesome!)



So we packed up and headed down to her school. (We made a quick pit-stop to pick up a diet coke...always a good idea to buy a treat for the person doing your hair! ;P And we took her chocolate too. We're awesome! ;P) We did Amirah's hair first, but she was kind of afraid. We sat her on my lap with the cape around us both and she did awesome. It only took a minute and it was just a bang trim, but it looked so stinking cute! Then Jess wrapped Meriam and I up in our capes and we headed into the wash-room for our condition. The whole thing took about 40 minutes total and it was a nice little field trip. We kept Amirah happy with suckers (I'm good at the bribery thing) and we had a great time!


The awesome part was how much fun we had! I spent 5 hours with those 2 girls and we had a blast! Amirah loves me (and I'm not just saying that) and she is so stinking cute and fun to play with. She also says the funnies things. When she was eating her dinner we were all sitting around the table talking. Grandpa was wiping up the table top and wasn't moving our things or anything, just kind of wiping up around us. All of the sudden Amirah yells "Enough!!!" and puts her arms out in front of her like she was fed up with us! :) It was so cute. She also learned to say (thanks to Abderrahim and Meriam) "peace out homes" and they tried to teach her to do the peace sign with her hands. Well apparently it's too hard...so uses her pinkie and ring finger to make a sideways peace sign and she holds her hand up to her head as she says it. It is so funny. She also says "don't say that" alot. They say that to her that when she says a bad word, and so now she tells people that alot! When we got home she made sure to say hi to grandpa's "baby monster" (a skeleton she is terrified of) and "baby duck" (who is one of the dogs and not a baby) and she made sure she talked to and about both of her babies all afternoon. Amirah also wanted to talk on the phone (mostly she likes pushing the buttons) so we called Jessie, Lori and Becky (all separate of course) and she talked to them for a few. She can be a chatterbox when she wants to be. I love her and love that she loves me. She used to be shy (and still is around most people) but she has totally warmed up to me now that we live next to each other because she sees me alot more. She is always standing at the door watching me and calling my name when I pull up. She also spent a whole afternoon telling Meriam how cool I am! I totally have her tricked! :)


I'm just so grateful for cousins and family! I was having a tough day today and didn't want to do anything but sleep, but instead I had an awesome day with Meriam, Amirah and Jessie and I don't regret a second of it! I love that Meriam is my next door neighbor now, because we she so much more of each other. She is so amazing and I can't believe how mature and grown up she is. I can honestly say that Meriam and Jessie are my 2 best friends. I can count on them for anything. Thanks for spending the afternoon with me Fuzz....for laughing at Amirah with me, eating chocolate with me so I didn't feel so bad about eating so much and for helping me forget about my pain for a few! Oh and thanks for not crashing my car...traffic was rough today! ;P Jessie, thanks for penciling us in (;D) and for doing an awesome job. I'm glad we could hang out with you for a few and I hope our treats helped your day!


(These are some older pics of both Meriam and Amirah, but I wanted to include them anyways to show you all how cute these little brown cousins of mine are!) This is probably a year old. Amirah is 2 now and still as cute as ever. I just like her funny face she's making her.

How cute is she?! Even when she's "chill" she's cute!

How precious is she? I have the hardest time saying "No" to this face! She's too cute.

Like aunt, like niece... ;P They are both great at making interesting faces. (She was trying to do the raspberry thing with her mouth without actually raspberry-ing anybody...)
I think Meriam and Amirah learned their funny face technique from Jessie. NOBODY makes funny faces like Jessie.
How cute is my little sis?! She is so freaking amazing. I can't get enough of her!!

(I really hope Jess and Fuzz don't mind me putting their pictures on my blog. It's ok because I said nice things to go along with them, right?!?)

And kudos to any of you who made it through this whole post! I've said this before, but I use this blog as a journal so I like to record everything...even silly things that maybe only mean something to me.

Awesome Blog Fonts!

So I stumbled across a website the other day and I love it. It has instructions for how to change your blog fonts. It changes the font for your post titles and sidebar topics. It has a TON of different font options and they are all so cute. And the instructions seem totally overwhelming, and I almost didn't try it, but they ended up being super simple and I'm glad I did it. It took me about 15 minutes, and now all I have to do is change the color code when I change my background or the html if I decide I want a different font...less than 5 minutes of work each. The first time is the longest, but simple enough and totally worth it. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a cute change to their blog!

My actual post font I changed at a different website. When I look at my blog I can see the cute font I have, but for all of you to see the font you have to have it added to your blog too (I'm pretty sure). It's really cute though and they have a several font options as well. And it's way easier...as easy as adding an html to your layout.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share these tips. I am always looking for cute new ways to update my blog and make it a little cuter, and so I thought I'd share. Feel free to use them and if you have any questions just ask me. I'll help if I can. Have fun making your blogs even a little cuter with fun new fonts! :)

*You should just be able to click on both words "website" and be directed to each individual website I'm talking about, but if it doesn't work let me know and I'll send you the website address!

Autumn Time

Yesterday it was beautiful outside! I was sitting in the family room and I looked outside and it looked like it was snowing leaves. It was amazing and beautiful to watch! I decided I wanted to take some pictures of the fall colors before they are gone. I didn't venture too far...just to the back yard in fact...but I think I got a few good pictures. At least enough to remind me through the winter that life isn't always cold! :)

I also decided to take pictures of a few of our halloween decorations that Cameron helped me and grandpa put up. Evertime he comes over now he says "Remember Kayla when we put up those things?!" because he is so proud of his work! :) He is way too cute and had so much fun helping up decorate! So here are the pictures. I hope you enjoy! (Not the best quality, I know. I hope to someday get a much better camera!)

Funny flu shot moment!

Today I got my flu shot! The city had a health fair and as part of it (as they do every year) they offer flu shots. Even though I haven't been feeling well I still got up and went to get my flu shot. Some people don't believe in them, but I swear by them. And I'm kind of OCD about germs...probably because I tend to get sick so often.

I didn't just post becuase I got my flu shot. Not even I am that lame! :) But something funny happened while I was getting my flu shot. They had split up the flu shot rooms by what type of health insurance you have from the city. There weren't too many people in the room I was in. I was sitting on a chair waiting because all 4 nurses were giving shots and there was an officers wife and daughter waiting ahead of me. I was sitting there just chatting with a few of the officers as I waitied and while they got their shots and I couldn't help but laugh. Apparently it was kind of cold outside this morning so several of the officers getting their flu shots were wearing long sleeved uniform shirts. And apparently the sleeve shirts were too tight to roll up high enough for their shots so they had to take thier shirts off. So there they all stood, with their uniform shirts half way off, stripped down to their t-shirts and bullet proff vests, radios hanging, and gun belts lined up on the counter...acting tough while they got their flu shots. It was just a funny sight! :) There were also the occasional cat-calls from coworkers walking past in the hallway and a fair share of "keep your clothes on" comments. It was just a funny thing to see as I waited for my flu shot! :)

Halloween Festivities

So Meriam and I finally did our planned Halloween festivities! She had friends over in the morning and then had to do something for school in the afternoon. When she finally got home she went shopping with grandpa. We needed things for cookies and pumpkins and grandpa didn't want to have to find it himself...he was afraid of getting the wrong stuff. (He's funny...like we would be mad if he got something wrong...) They got home and Meriam and I cleaned off the counter and got to work. We were together doing cookies and pumpkins until 9. We had so much fun! :)

First thing we did was make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I didn't have a recipe in mind and was planning on finding one today online, but didn't have to. Kodi was nice enough to leave a comment on a previous post with a recipe! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! It was awesome and so easy. We used a 13 oz can of pumkin, a box of spice cake mix, and a package of chocoalte chips. I loved that we didn't need eggs or oil or anything. I can totally do this 3 ingredient cooking! (For those of you who want to use this recipe, just mix the 3 ingredients together until everything is incorporated and then bake on an ungreased cookie sheet on 350 for 12-14 minutes.)
This is the cookie dough (which tasted awesome) and our first baking sheet of cookies...pre-oven!
This is what they looked like right out of the oven.

And the end result. The internet picture on my previous post looked better, but they sure do taste good! :)

After the cookies were done we decided to do our pumpkins. Like I previously said, we were going to use metal cookie cutters and a rubber mallet. That didn't work because we couldn't find any metal cookie cutters except some really cheap ones that looked like they would break if we hit them. Instead Meriam found a pattern book/carving kit at the store and bought it. It had 12-15 (I can't remember) patterns and little saws and carving tools. It actually turned out really well. Meriam also chose the pumpkins. I told her I wanted a medium sized one and she wanted a semi-big one. I think she chose pretty good ones!

These are the pumpkins pre-carving and the carving kit. We saved the extra patterns and are very tempted to go back to the store and get more pumpkins to carve. It was very fun!

This is Meriams pumpkin guts. She loves playing with the guts so I took a memorial picture for her! :)

I on the other hand HATE the guts! Cleaning it out is the very worst part for me. And I am super OCD about cleaning it out. This is my cleaned out pumpkin, and it got even cleaner after this!!

Here is a shot of Meriam gutting her pumpkin. She was very intent during the gutting process.

This is Meriams finished pumpkin. It's a monster and looks AWESOME lit up!!

I decided to do the skeleton and I think it turned out pretty good.

It was pretty simple so I finished way before Meriam did. I didn't want to just sit there (she felt bad going so slow...she struggled a little with the pumpkin process...) so I decided to put a second picture on my pumpkin. I didn't want to do it on the back side, because then you could just look right through the pumpkin. So I decided to put it a little to the side. I didn't want to do another picture since there was already one, so I did a ghost with the word "BOO" and I think it turned out pretty good. My pumpkin looks awesome when you turn it so you can kind of see both sides and light it. I loved it.

And these are the finished products. Not too bad, eh? After we were done we took them into grandma's room so she could see them. (It takes alot for her to walk into the kitchen, so we take things to her when we can to save her from having to walk around.) She gave us candles to use and we put them in and lit them. Grandpa then turned off all the lights and we watched them glow for a few minutes. They look awesome and totally festive. They made me so excited to decorate for Halloween and make more stuff. And there is a good chance they will have friends soon...since Meriam and I want to buy more pumkins and carve them too.

Happy Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK TO MY MOM, MARIE AND JESSIE!!

CHEEKS (BECKY -- MY MOM): I love my mom so much. She would do anything for me! She is so funny and loves to be crazy. She is one of the girls and always keep us laughing. She is my role model and I would be lucky to be the kind of mom to my kids that she was to us. I love her so much. Have an awesome birthday!! (October 12)

JEGGIE (JESS -- MY SISTER): I love Jess. She is one of my best friends. I was lucky to live with her and be friends with her. I hope we're always this close. Jessie has the best sense of humor and can make anything fun. She is funny and loveable and exciting and so much fun to be around. Happy Birthday!! (October 16)

MARIE (SIS-IN-LAW): Marie is the cutest girl ever! I have loved having her in our family. It has almost been a year since I met her and I have loved every second of it. She is the perfect fit for Russell and fits right into our family. She is funny and so much fun to hang out with. I hope your birthday is fabulous!! (October 14)

A penny for your thoughts...or mine! :)

So I've been thinking about something alot today. My blog is private, so I feel like I know who reads it and I love you all. I feel comfortable sharing things with all of you that I wouldn't just tell every person I know. I also feel comfortable using my blog as a journal and part of that reason is because I do know who reads it. I feel like I can be honest, and write how I really feel and what I really think. I hope you all know that I trust you enough to share my thoughts, feelings and opinions with you. And becuase I trust you I respect you and want to hear your thoughts, feelings and opinions. Please know this though: Even though I may post sad or negative things sometimes, I am ok. And I'm happy. Everybody has hard times, and even though I don't love those times, I do want them recorded because it's part of my life. I love you all and I will continue to share my honest thoughts and feelings with you for that reason! :) I just hope you know that I'm not trying to be negative or depressing, I'm just recording my life day-by-day for journaling purposes. And I want you all to know that if you post negative things, I understand taht everyone has hard days. We've all been there, and I'll be there for you those days just the same that you've been here for me! That's what friends are for, right? :)

BIG, BIG PLANS!

I have big plans for this weekend! And I am so excited about them all! :) I am still not feeling well so I will be home all weekend. Instead of lay at home and do nothing, I decided to do some fun things. I've already convinced Meriam to do it with me...we're going to spend the whole day together...with Jacob the real live baby doll! :) Here is what we have planned:
#1 CARVING PUMPKINS -- I was at work one day and a lady I work with had Halloween magazines with her. She was nice enough to let me look through them and I got the best idea! It was a pumpkin carving idea for people who aren't very good at the actual carving of pumpkins...aka...ME! :) They said to get your pumpkin, cut the top like you normally would, and then clean out the inside of the pumpkin. After it's clean then their creativness comes in. They said to take metal cookie cutters and pound them into the pumpkin with a rubber mallet. If the pumpkin is thin enough then it cuts all the way through and you have your picture. If your pumpkin is too thick then it cuts most of the way through and you just use a knife and follow the lines to cut the little bit that is left. Creative, huh? That's perfect for me! When I have to just cut a pumpkin shape, it is a sad, sad pumpkin! :)

We are going to decorate on Sunday. (Clearly these aren't my decorations, pumpkins or cookies. Just examples. I will for sure take pictures of mine when they're done though!) We have lights and hanging decorations, wind socks, spider webs, skeleton heads and alot of other stuff. We'll also have pumpkins! :) We are giong to decorate on Sunday though. Gotta spread the fun throughout 2 days so we don't have all the fun at once! (And the kids aren't coming until Sunday.)

And last but not least, we're going to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! I LOVE ppcc cookies. They are seriously my favorite kind of cookies. And Meriam has never had them so she's excited to try them. And we both love making things so it's the perfect treat for us.

I really am excited about fall and Halloween and I'm excited to spend a whole day with Meriam. I think it's going to be so much fun and I'll let you all know how it goes when we're done!

Halloween!

I'm not a big Halloween lover. I never have been. When we were little we didn't really go trick or treating. We would dress up for school, and then after school we would have a "spooky" Halloween dinner that my mom would make. After dinner we would go trick or treating at my grandparents house, and then do something fun like go miniature golfing or something. My mom was never a huge Halloween lover and thus I am not either. Until now. I still wouldn't say I'm a Halloween lover, but I do like it more. Today my grandparents and I pulled out all of our Halloween decorations (theirs and mine). There were quite a few. We are going to decorate this week and I am so excited. We have cute lights and hanging things and spooky things. It's exciting! :) I'll post pictures once we're all decorated. (I think we're going to wait until Sunday and let my cousins help my grandpa.) But yay for fall and yay for Halloween! :)

My new accessories!!

These are my new accessories! :( I could 100% totally and definitely live without these, trust me. Oh, and close your eyes really tight and picture just 1 more of these on my arm. *sigh* Yep, it's been a tough week. So 2 of these came from Emergency Room visits, and the other came from my super exciting trip to the hospital for an MRI. An MRI that has caused some stress. There are some things (illnesses) the doctors are looking for that has caused me stress beyond what I need. I seriously think I need less time to think!

And in case you were all wondering, Yes I am still sick. I am still home, in bed, flat on my back, doing nothing but thinking and going crazy, and feeling awful! I've been trying to read and blog, but haven't done too good at either of them. (And I'm really struggling with the book we're reading for Book Club. For some reason I just can't get into it.) Keep your fingers crossed that we get ahold of the right doctors soon and that they find out what's wrong with me soon and that this whole thing ends...yep, you guessed it...SOON!

(Oh, and just FYI...I did cut these tags off my arm finally. Keeping them on there was a depressing reminder that I'm not feeling well. Today I put my watch and bracelet on! :) Trying to pretend like life is normal! In case you can't tell...I'm tired of being sick! :D)

So what's the diagnosis?

I don't know! I am still having all of the back pain and it's getting worse. I had the MRI the other day and then was supposed to wait for the results. The next afternoon I called the doctors office to ask about the results and the nurse said she was just about to call me. She told me all about the MRI. I listened intently to everything she said. This is what I heard:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah SOMETHING ABOUT 1 OR 2 DISCS HAVING SOMETHING WRONG blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah SOMETING ABOUT A BONE MARROW PROBLEM blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah NEED TO SEE A BACK DOCTOR AS SOON AS POSSIBLE blah blah blah NEED TO GET A BLOOD TEST THAT DAY blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah POSSIBLY NOT MAKING WHITE BLOOD CELLS OR HAVE AN INFECTION.

Informative, right? I seriously had no idea what she was talking about. I got the high points...I think. I did go right over that afternoon and had my blood drawn. I was (and still am) confused about how a Radiologist could tell from an MRI that I wasn't growing white blood cells? I don't know. I also know that the "as soon as possible" back doctor appointment they made isn't until October 13. I guess in doctor-land that is soon, but to me it's not. I am in awful pain and stuck in bed until then. I can't work...which means I can't pay my bills...which means lots of time spent laying in bed stressing out.

Last night I got up to go the bathroom in the middle of the night and I felt like my legs were going to collapse underneath me. They were so weak. The pain I've had in my back has also been getting worse and worse and spreading to my legs. I ended up calling my mom last night at midnight and crying to her on the phone for half an hour. She was so patient to just let me cry to her. I knew she couldn't fix anything. I knew she had to work the next morning. But she let me cry and it helped me feel like I could make it through the night.

Today the pain (as has been par for the course so far) got worse and worse. I called my doctors office several times leaving messages for them to call me back but didn't ever get a phone call. My mom also called and left a few messages and didn't hear anything back. Finally at about 6pm tonight I called the on-call doctor. He called me back and it was my doctor (I had seen his physician assistant) and he was so nice. I love my doctors so much. He said he was going to call his assistant to see what the MRI said (since I wasn't helpful) and also to see what the blood work said. He said the fact that the pain is getting worse and spreading isn't good. He said he'd call me back tonight as soon as heard something. That was 7 1/2 hours ago, and I have not heard anything back. I am in excrutiating pain and know nothing. I know something is wrong, I just have no idea what the something is. I also don't know how to fix whatever it is that's wrong. I am getting frustrated and discouraged. Pain can do that to a person. Tomorrow I am going to start calling my doctor as soon as they open, and I'm not going to quit until I get some answers. All I know is I can't go through another day tomorrow like I went through today...and yesterday. I'll be lucky if I'm able to fall asleep tonight due to the pain, even though I've already taken my steroid, ibuprofen 800, muscle relaxer and pain medicine. *sigh*

(Sorry about another long post without pictures.)

My exciting afternoon...(don't judge)

I have been so bored lately. I have been laying in bed going crazy just watching TV and listening to music and wanting to pull my hair out! (Ok, I don't do the whole "stuck in bed" thing very well.) Today Fuzz (Meriam) came over after school and spent all afternoon/evening with me. She is so sweet. I'm sure she gets bored here too when I'm stuck in bed, but she's a good sport. We played on the internet for awhile, translating messages into other languages for our friends and posting them on facebook. We then decided we were hungry and wanted Cafe Rio. We invited Jessie to come eat with us and then it was a date! After eating and lots of visiting Fuzz and I got waxed. We were both in desperate need of some eyebrow trimming. Fuzz was sitting in the recliner at the end of my bed, and I was laying in bed getting waxed. Jessie put this powder on my eyebrows before waxing them (to help dry up the lotion I think) and it smelled really good. Meriam said she wanted to smell it so Jessie let her. Jess put the container over in front of her nose and was squeezing it a little to "poof" out the smell. Then Jess "poofed" super hard and it went all over Fuzz. It seriously was so funny. We were laughing so hard. And Jess was laughing so hard I was a little nervous to let her put the wax on my face, but she still did good! (Ok, this is how bored I am...this is the most exciting thing that has happened to me in days! I need some serious entertainment!!) And of couse, Jess took pictures on her phone and sent them to Fuzz and I so I thought I'd post them. (I need something to do and posting seemed exciting!)

It really was all over her. I loved it. At least if her hair is greasy this will help, right? (Jessie's tip...I'm not a fan of it, but she swears by putting powder in greasy hair to make it look less greasy.)

And Meriam wanted a close-up of the tear in the powder from laughing so hard. You can't really see the tear, but I still like the picture! :)