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! :)