April Days

I love the month of April. It's that time of year for me that I usually get the most energy. First, comes spring break, which means that my sister is coming to visit with my niece and nephew. My niece is conveniently 13 ( almost 14 as she would say) which means that I have immediately aquired a built in baby sitter, as my sister would say! Not that I need one, but let's face it moms, when you can get a break or a few hours of fun out with your sister, it is so worth it!! Long story short, I love my sister and rarely get to see her. We usually see each other twice a year...three times in a "good" year. I also love seeing my niece and nephew every year to only be shocked when I see how much they have grown, since the last time that I have seen them. There both growing into such awesome little people, and I am so proud of them both! I love you so much!

So tonight, I was sitting here thinking, I miss them. I miss them all the time, but I always miss them the most, when they have just been to my house recently. I didn't grow up with my sister, as we have different dad's, and my sister grew up with her dad, but now that we are older we have become best friends. I can tell her anything and she loves me unconditionally, not to mention, she can make me laugh harder than anyone I know. That's always a good time! We are 12 years apart, and I really didn't even know her until I had Jayden. It was when I became a mom, that we really could relate to one another I think. It's also funny how much we are alike. Growing up in separate families, clear across Washington and twelve years apart. We really are though, and I am glad that I can say that! In short, I miss them, love them and can't wait to go visit them at their house next time. They live on a farm out in the country, and it is absolutely beautiful. It's so peaceful and relaxing that it makes it a nice escape from reality. I love you Christina, Rylan and Nakisha. We will come and visit soon I promise!!! 

Another few exciting things that happened this month were Easter and I turned 26!! Yes, that's right I had a birfday!! You know, I really didn't like turning past 25. It really made me realize that our time here is short and goes by so fast. Although, I still have youth in my favor, it feels like, as if last week I was turning 18 and that is a scary feeling. 

Shane took me to the Tagaris Winery on my birthday and it was absolutely wonderful. He is so wonderful at surprising me and always has the best gifts. He is so secret about it which I hate during the process, but I love as soon as I find out!! I love that about him. It feels good to be spoiled and it really feels good when it's the man that you love with all of you heart. It just makes me realize why I fell in love with him in the first place. PRESENTS! ha ha JUST KIDDING HONEY!! NO, it's the fact, that he takes the time to surprise me and sweep me off my feet time and time again. He always puts so much thought and effort behind everything for me and it really just feels amazing. The fact that he knows how to do that, since he grew up not celebrating birthdays is amazing. It just goes to show that if you love someone, you are completely willing to go out of your way for them. Thank you so much for the wonderful birthday baby!! I love you! 

Easter was great too, and we had a glow in the dark easter egg hunt with the kids this year. Easter is one of those holidays that their dad and I alternate each year. So they were with him on Easter morning. It was pretty depressing and made me sad, but I got over it as soon as they got home, and I saw the look on their faces, when they realized that the Easter bunny had come to our house while they were gone!! Those darn Easter bunnies ; )!! Anyways, we hid a bunch of glow in the dark eggs around the house, turned out the lights, handed the kids each a flashlight and let the race begin!! The winner got to go pick out a king size candy bar and the looser had to let the winner pick theirs out. So it was a win-win situation : ) Jayden, being the oldest, figured out all the good hiding spots way before his sister, but with a little help from daddy, Faith came in at a close second! GO FAIFER!

So, hopefully that gives you an idea of where we are at. I started a new quarter at school, and Jayden started a new season in hockey, so we have been busy bees! Faith is looking forward to ending preschool, because that means she gets to go to Kindergarten, and Shane is working his butt off like always. He always says, "Hey, I can't complain, the business just keeps rolling in."

I need to surprise him with a vacation though, because sometimes I think he works too hard! : )

Pure Naughtiness

Well, my little Faifer has done it again. She managed to hack her little way into my computer and made a video of herself. It's pretty hysterical actually. Keep in mind when you are watching this video that she gets her strangeness from Shane..HA! So... she is obviously feeling a lot better since her surgery and I am soooooo glad! Phewwww.... glad that's finally over and done with. Talk about scary...

Jayden just turned eight, and we celebrated his birthday this weekend with his hockey team in Spokane. They had a tournament and did pretty dang good. We won two and lost two. Not too bad for a bunch of little midgets! : ) I can't believe my baby is eight already. It's a very strange feeling actually, because now I'm thinking man, if eight years can go by this fast...what in the *** am I going to feel like when another eight years goes by even faster...and then he's 16? I don't even want to think about it..lol.. 

Anyways, I hope all is well in everyone's life. Shane and I will be celebrating our 3 year mark tomorrow, and we are still enjoying each other's company, so hopefully that speaks for itself!! 

: ) I lub him.... awwww

Maybe one of these days we'll make it official.... who knows. HA! 

The Longest Day Of My Life

Well, here I am and it's 4:02 in the morning. It has officially been the longest day of my life. Yesterday morning at 10:45 a.m., Faith and I arrived at the Childrens Pediatric Dentistry. She was scheduled to go in for a routine surgery at 11:00 a.m. By the doctors strict orders, she couldn't have any food or water after midnight. So, as you can imagine, telling a five year old, they can't have breakfast or orange juice in the morning; we had a ruff start to our day. 

 Well, as soon as we got there they said that it was going to be an hour later before they could start, because they had a patient (two years old) that had to have root canals done on all of her baby teeth. OMG!! Can you believe that? Two? How the heck does that happen? That's some serious neglect, if you ask me. At two, your teeth are just getting their start. I can't imagine having to have all of them replaced with silver caps? At any rate, my heart went out to that baby girl, so we waited patiently. However 12:45 came on a bit longer than anticipated. Thank god for Shane. He had uploaded the new Madagascar "2" movie onto Faith's iPod just before we left this morning. Well, I guess it would be yesterday morning, if you want to get technical... : ) 

 At any rate, it was quite the wait, and Faith was sooooo hungry and thirsty by this point. 

Then, the receptionist came to tell me, that it was going to be an additional hour and fifteen minutes. At this point normallly, I would have rescheduled, however Faith had an abscess tooth, and it needed to be taken out as soon as possible. Oh yes, I said the word ABSCESS. My poor baby girl had an abscess tooth. 

 This all started three months ago when we took Faith into the dentist for her routine check. She had a few cavities and we were gonna get some fillings done on them ...no big deal right? Ummm... YAH RIGHT! After four attempts at the dentist, (three me and one her father... because apparently, "he could get her to do it") we were completely unsuccessful. Faith was deathly afraid of needles, and we couldn't even make it past that part, let alone get a toofer filled or fixed. So, I made the appointment to go to the pediatric dentist. They are trained much better in dealing with these types of situations, and lets face it folks, it's pretty typical at five to be afraid of needles. So, I was a lot more understanding than my mother would have ever been, to say the least.. : )

 The problem was, that the decay had moved at such a rapid pace, her teeth were not going to be savable. Three teeth to be exact. One had infected the other and caused sort of a chain reaction so to speak. The pediatric dentist said, that because we had been unsuccessful so many times at the regular dentist, the decay moved too quick and one tooth was abscess, and all three were not savable. WHAT? Yah, I felt terrible. However, all the rest of her teeth looked in great shape so we had that going for us.

 So back to the waiting for surgery part! Here I was, 12:45 and had an hour and fifteen minutes to go. It was the longest hour and fifteen minutes....so I thought. Finally, at 1:45, we were called back in for surgery. First, we went into the staging area. This is the part, where the nurse tells Faith to drink some juice, and that she will be back in 30 additional minutes to check on her. WHAT? ANOTHER 30 min? Why the heck didn't they just give it to her, while we were waiting forEVER prior to this point; I will never know. SO... after about 10 min after the "juice," I soon came to realize what my five year old would probably be like, once she made it to her 21st birthday. It was pretty funny, and she was super silly to say the least. I thoroughly enjoyed the part where she continuously shoved her stinky lil foot into her dad's face... HA! She giggled so hard, and she of course, thought it was the funniest thing ever too. The look on his face was priceless. So after 30 min, the nurse came in and took me and Faith (who at this point was completely delirious) to the operating room. There I laid my limp baby girl onto a bed, where she clung to me with the last bit of energy she had left. I whispered in her ear while they put a mask on her face to go to sleep. She was so scared, and all I could do was tell her that mommy is right here sweet heart.

 After she fell asleep I got up, turned around, and began the longest day of my life. I thought, that I had prepared myself for this point, and it was going to be just fine, but nothing can ever prepare a parent for a machine, that literally is holding your childs life in it's little gray box. As I turned my head to take one last look, as I walked around the corner, I saw the doctor inserting a tube into my daughters throat, followed by an even smaller tube down her nose. At that point, it hit me. What if something happens while she is on the ventilator? Anything is possible, and if any of you know me, as well as I think you do, you know what my luck is like. But, I had to be strong for my baby. And she was not me. She is Faith. Hence her name, she is the strongest little thing I know. 

Then, I was moved to the room that is supposed to be comforting, but is anything but comforting. The room was fine however, I don't think anything could have made me comfortable at this point. As I paced around the room that was the size of my laundry room, I began to say a little prayer. It was like as if, at that very same moment, I could hear her little voice and her arms wrap themselves around me. "It's okay, mommy. Don't be sad."

I don't go to church however, I still am a very spiritual person. I really heard my daughters voice, and to be honest, it was the most comforting voice, that I could have ever heard. 

 Two hours later, the nurse came to get me to go into the recovery room. There she brought me my limp little girl, and laid her into my arms. Poor little Faith; she had blood all over her little mouth, and she was completely shivering from being in that cold operating room. There I sat in a rocking chair, holding my baby until she awoke. She was still as beautiful as she was the day she was born. My perfect little angel. After about 15 min, She started to wake up. She was in so much pain and was very scared. She sat up really quickly and started to cry. She looked at me with her big brown eyes and all I could said was, "It's okay baby, mama is here." She then started to get really mad. This was to be expected from the amount of medicine that she had been under however, it was still really hard as a mom to see. After about five minutes of complete madness, she laid her head on my chest and fell back to sleep. After I was able to leave and get her into the car, she started to really wake up. 

 As I leaned in to buckle her up, She whispered, "Mama, I had a dream about you. You were crying, and I gave you a really big hug, because I didn't want you to be sad. How come you were crying?" I looked at her and couldn't say a word. As I held in my tears, I told her that I was crying tears of joy. "Mommy was so happy that you are okay!" was all I could say.  

In all of her pain and all that she had been through, all she could think about at that very moment was her mama. As I gave her the biggest hug of my life, all I could think of was; There's something to be said for all of us having a little Faith! I needed her just as much as she needed me. It's so hard to see your babies hurting. It's even harder to see your baby lifeless, on an operating table, hooked up to machines with tubes inside and out. It's the times like these that help to make you a better, stronger, parent I suppose.

 So, here I am at 5:52 a.m. now, and I am getting ready to go drive to the cash machine, for a long awaiting arrival from the TOOTH FAIRY!!! : ) Oh man was Faith ever excited when she heard that the dentist had saved her teeth for her, so that she could put them under her pillow. To her that made the whole surgery worth it! What could be better than getting some cold, hard, cash!?

So, with all of that being said, I want to let you all in on a little something, that I live by everyday as a mother. 

Hold your angles, and always know how much they mean to you in this life. Love them and take the best care you possible can. They truly are our angles because they came straight from God.

Well, I have finally made it to the dark side!! The wonderfully joyous world of blogging!! 

I'm new to all of this, so hunker down and bare with me, while I try to figure it all out!! Hope all is well in everyone's lives, and I will post something of importance here really soon. I promise : )

Here are some fun pictures of my beautiful little family!!