either Orr

2011-01-24T21:36:00.001-08:00

Well, crap! It's almost the end of January 2011 and I haven't caught up my Blog yet!

I have decided, as part of my New Years Resolutions, (which is unfortunately quite long) to post AT LEAST once a month for 2011. I hope its one resolution I can keep.

One of these years, I'm going to be smart and make resolutions I KNOW I can keep!
Like...
1. I will put on at least 10 pounds this year.
3. I will overindulge in food and drink as much Diet Pepsi as I want. (see #1)
2. I will watch all my favorite TV shows
4. I will lay around eating Bon Bon's while watching all my favorite TV shows. (what the heck is a Bon Bon anyway?)
5. I will let my house get so messed up, it could be a candidate for 'Hoarders'
....Well, you get the idea! I would continue on, but I would be afraid of being committed for even thinking some of these degenerate thoughts! I know some of you are cringing at a few of these, but I promise I won't do any of those (except maybe #1 & #2. At least I have succeeded in the past few years! hahaha)
Anyway, we will see how it goes. Those of you following (if I have any followers left), I hope you will see a lot more of me, or at least my Blog! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-11-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

I am going to attempt to catch up on my blog in the next week, which may be harder than I like due to my 5 children, which brings me to my first post.

At my doctor's appointment 4 weeks before I was due (this was October 2009), I had been dilated to a 2 1/2. Dallas had been joking the rest of the month that he should drive out to work every day just in case I went into labor on my own. We both laughed at that since I had never gone into labor on my own with my other pregnancies. I was scheduled to be induced on November 13, so my husband and I were sitting around on Monday the 9th talking about the baby coming. He again joked how he should drive to work and we started talking about my water breaking. We got into a discussion on how gross it would be to have my water break while walking around, and how I was glad that was one thing I had never experienced... should have known better!!! I didn't even knock on wood or rub a lucky rabbits foot, or anything! Most of Tuesday (the 10th) went as usual, me trying desperately to get things done (like washing baby clothes & getting the baby's room ready) while fighting to keep my 2 yr old out of EVERYTHING!!! My other boys get home from school between 3:15 and 3:45. Tracen had a Veterans Day program at school the next day but had no information about what he was supposed to wear or anything, so I called his school. I managed to get a hold of the teacher, and we ended up talking for a good 25 minutes. Apparently Tracen hadn't brought home any information on parent/teacher conferences, and we had missed it. So we went over his grades (he got mostly A's and B's, plus a C in math) and talked about his behavior. As soon as I heard we missed the parent/teacher conference, I started making faces at Tracen and hissing things at him like, 'You are in SO much trouble!'. I thought he had hid the information on purpose so I wouldn't find out he had bad grades. Then she told me his grades and since they were good, figured it was an accident. Unfortunately, I had made him cry before I stopped and felt bad. His teacher and I also talked about his ADD and the medication he was on (I had called the doctors office earlier that day and spoke with his nurse about his medication, which didn't seem to be working, and she told me the doctor wanted me to hold off changing any medication until after Thanksgiving), and she (the teacher) said Tracen couldn't concentrate hardly at all in class (which is why we put him on the meds in the first place) and if I needed her to, she would talk to the doctor about it. After I hung up with her, I immediately called the clinic and left a voice message for them to call me back. You may wonder what this has to do with me having the baby, but I wanted you to understand the drama that was going on at the time. It was around 4:20 when I left the message, and I started to talk to Tracen about the call with his teacher, and apologizing for making him feel bad. During our conversation, something very strange happened. The closest I can come to describe it is, it felt like a bubble popping, then I peed myself... only, the pee didn't stop, it just sort of continued to trickle.

I will pause here for dramatic affect...

for you to come to the right conclusion...

your almost there...

Right!

So, here I am standing in the hallway, having stopped in mid sentence, with Tracen looking at me funny, when I finally come to the only conclusion that makes sense, even though it didn't make sense, because it had never happened before! I look at Tracen and say, 'I think something is happening with the baby!' I grab my cell phone and call Dallas and say the words I had never said before (not outside a hospital or even without a doctor's help), 'Dallas, I think my water just broke!'
There is silence at the other end for a minute, then he says, 'You're kidding, right?' To which I reply, 'No, what do I do?' And then told him what happened. He tells me to call the doctor, but before I do that, I called my sister, Teri, since she was going to be in the delivery room with us. So I call the clinic and tell them I need to speak to my doctor because my water just broke. When he got on the phone the first thing he said was, 'This is a new experience for you isn't it?' He also told me to get to the hospital as soon as possible and I told him Dallas wouldn't be home until almost 6:00. He said if I could, call someone to drive me there. Well, by now it's almost 5:00, I know Dallas and my sister are on their way, or will be soon, I don't want to call someone to watch my kids and call someone else to drive me, nor do I want to go to the hospital without my husband. Plus, I needed to shower anyway, so I go ask the older boys to watch Kyler, but I can't find Tracen. I finally find him in the bathroom, and he had been crying. I asked him what was wrong and he mumbled a few things, but the jist of it was he thought something was wrong with the baby (and he might have caused it because of the call with his teacher)! So I reassured him, explaining that nothing was wrong, the baby just wanted to come on his own! I finally convinced him everything was okay and that he wasn't at fault and I jumped in the shower, and by the time I was ready, Dallas and Teri had gotten to the house. Dallas jumped in the shower real quick, which was good, since it gave me time to pack my bag for the hospital since I hadn't done it yet! I threw the most essential items in my bag, grabbed my coat and waited for Dallas to be ready. For those of you concerned about what was to happen with my boys, and you know you were (in the sense of 'what poor unsuspecting fool was going to watch them'), my mom had originally planned to take time off work to watch them, but only Thursday & Friday because she had a work deadline on Wednesday. Thankfully my nephew, Connor, was able to come up to watch them until 9:00pm, then my mother-in-law was able to watch them overnight and get them off to school the next morning. All I can say is thank heavens for family!! Anyway, where did I leave off...oh yes, I was standing in the dining room with my sister waiting for Dallas. After a minute or two, I wondered what was keeping him. Now, I hadn't had any contractions at this point, but I did want to get to the hospital before the 'crowning moment', if you know what I mean. So on the one hand I wanted to be in the car already, but I wasn't standing there tapping my foot, looking at my watch, or anything. Which brings me to why Dallas hadn't come out of the bedroom (he's going to kill me for this story... I love you dear!). My sister yells, 'What are you doing? Let's go already!'. Dallas walks out the bedroom doorway and looks sheepishly at us and says, 'I couldn't decide which watch to wear!'
I have to add another side story here, about a year or two ago, my father-in-law started watching ShopNBC (I personally think it was a slow TV day with no car racing, golf or sports on, haha) and started buying nice watches for everyone in the family. Somehow, Dallas caught that same (fever, slow TV day...???) thing and now has a small collection of nice watches... and on occasion can't decide which one to wear, or ends up changing it after he gets one on!
So that has been a bit of a joke, Dallas was willing to assist in a home birth just so he could wear the right watch! Needless to say we made it to the hospital in plenty of time! I did have two contractions on the way there, and then I did panic a bit, especially since, going with my luck, we hit EVERY light red! I get into my hospital bed (and the love-erly hospital gown) and was checked and was STILL dilated at a 2 1/2, almost a three, although I suspect the nurse just told me that so I wouldn't throw my bedpan at her! (okay, so I didn't have a bedpan, but I thought it sounded better then throwing a hospital pen at her!!) I then settled down to play the waiting game! After a little while, not as long as I would like to admit, I asked (begged) for, and got my epidural.

It was the hardest epidural I ever got! The actual shot wasn't too bad, pretty much the same as the others I have gotten, but the guy comes in and has me sit up, then tells me I need to move because I was in the crack of the bed. I moved and then he said, 'You're still in the crack' to which I DESPERATELY wanted to reply, 'Can't help it! My crack follows me wherever I go!'. Then he was trying to get me to relax and drop my shoulders, to the point he is PUSHING my shoulders down saying, 'Relax, relax!' All the while I'm thinking, 'Easy for you to say, you're not on the business end of this needle!', and out of the corner of my eye, I can see my sister and husband's head bobbing in quiet laughter! He finally got me relaxed enough to get it all set up and then it really was a waiting game. I SLOWLY dilated, and around 1:30 am, we all (Teri, Dallas and I) decided to try to get some rest. We shut the light off and I rolled onto my side so I could see the machine that was monitoring my contractions. I had just dozed off when I felt this uncomfortable pressure. I looked at the monitor, but it didn't show much activity, so I ignored it. About 30 seconds or so later, I felt it again, only worse. Looked at the monitor and, again, not much activity. I had just closed my eyes when I felt it for the third time and it was MUCH stronger, so I (tried) to roll over to push the call button, and apparently I must have flailed more than I thought because Teri & Dal both asked me if I was ok.
The nurse comes in to check me and says, 'Oh! Looks like he's ready! Better call the doctor!'
As the first nurse goes to call the doctor, another nurse comes in and starts prepping my room for the delivery.
When the first nurse comes back, she takes a quick peek at how the baby is doing and turns to me and says, "I'm going to need you to push now."
I look around the room thinking, 'Wow, I swear she just left to call the doctor. I know he has a fast car, but he's here already?' The more I look, the more I realize, unless he snuck in and is hiding in the bathroom, he's not here.
Again, the nurse says, "I'm going to need you to push now."

I look at her and open my mouth to say something, but I was raised 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'...okay, we all know that is a lie, but realize I am fairly drugged at the time and extremely tired, to boot! What I want to say is, 'No, no! There will be NO pushing until I see a doctor! And not just any doctor, MY doctor. So sorry, find someone else to do your pushing!'
She must have sensed some of that on my face (or I may have said it out loud, not sure, as I said...drugged), because she looked at me and said, 'Honey, if you don't push and relieve some of the pressure, it could harm the baby. The doctor will be here in plenty of time for the birth, this push is just to relieve pressure.'
Maybe thats not exactly what she said, again, I revert back to the fact I was drugged. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that sort of drugging, have asked for that sort of drugging on occasion in my home (to no avail!), just explaining my fogginess. (wish I had a good excuse for the daily fogginess I live with, but will chalk that up to being a mother of 5 boys!) So I reluctantly pushed and immediately felt less pressure, then she tells me to relax. We do this a couple of times, and each time she tells me to push I look around for the doctor, who was still absent. Finally, the doctor showed up and within a short time (a couple of good pushes) out comes our newest family member, born November 11, 2009 at 2:27am, weighing 8lbs 2oz and 21" long, Zackary Kay Orr.
I post this, realizing it has been exactly one year since his birth! Happy 1st Birthday Zack!

2009-10-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I have had a toddler, five years to be exact! Sometimes, I get caught up in what I am doing and forget that silence, while nice with the older ones (for the most part), is rarely good, and often dangerous (or at least worth 20-30 minutes of clean up when found!) with a 2-yr old! This morning was one of those times. As I was cleaning my kitchen (yes, I occasionally do that), I didn't realize I was enjoying the silence when here comes Kyler out of his room. I look at his arms in stunned silence.

Then the silence breaks and I yell, 'Kyler! No, no!' So, he runs into his room and I follow him, but before I get in, he pulls on a set of Mr. Potato head glasses.

Of course, it worked, I laughed then snapped some pictures.

Thank heavens they were dry erase markers and no wall or child or toy was harmed!!!

On a side note, as I was posting this blog, this is what happened:

Sigh, it's good he's cute!

2009-10-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

When I went to my doctor appointment last week, my doctor informed me that since the H1N1 flu (swine flu) is going strong in our area, and since it hits pregnant women very hard (as of last Thursday there were 5 pregnant women in the ICU of the Idaho Falls Hospital), that I shouldn't go out to public places, i.e., HOUSE ARREST! So, I be a good girl and do my best to stay away from lots of people, make my kids wash their hands twice as much and use LOTS of hand sanitizer. So, Monday, around noon, my oldest son calls me and says the school wants me to come pick him up because he started coughing when he got to school and just sort of got worse. I ask him questions on the way home like, does he feel sore, does he feel warm, etc., all the flu like symptoms I could think of. All he says is he coughs and has a little headache. Well, every winter, for the past 2 or 3 years, he gets a cold with a nasty cough that lasts for a month or sometimes two, so I thought maybe that was what it was. We get home and I decide to take his temperature, which was 103.2 degrees! Then he says, 'I couldn't even bend over to tie my shoe I hurt too bad.'...mmm...doesn't that fall under the 'sore' category!!! So I banish him downstairs and wash my hands for about 30 minutes then call my mom to take him to the doctor. They were there for about 2 hours when my mom calls and say he is positive for Influenza A, but since the swine flu is the strain that is going around and it is so expensive to test for it, they would treat him like he had it. So, the irony is, I am under house arrest so I don't get swine flu, AND IT'S IN MY HOUSE!!! We have taken some pretty good precautions though, he pretty much stays downstairs, we have masks and gloves and lysol and disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer that we use A LOT! He seems to be doing pretty well, but then again, the poor thing isn't able to go to school and is locked up with the Wii! I hope he will be able to cope!

2009-10-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday was quite a day. It was the one year (anniversary?, birthday?, ?) since we lost my sweet baby Justin. I had a weird day with many mixed emotions. On the one hand I couldn't believe it has been a whole year since it happened, some memories being so vivid it was like it happened that morning. On the other hand a whole lot has happened in that year and some memories I had to struggle to recall. I also feel a little guilty for being pregnant, like maybe I should have waited.

My family sent me flowers, and they were supposed to come yesterday, but were accidentally delivered on Monday, and I thought how sweet my family was for that, but was surprised I didn't cry. I was really touched, but thought, 'maybe I can handle this one with no tears'

Then today, I get another bundle of flowers and the lady said, 'My boss wanted me to tell you these were ordered on Saturday.' Most people would think how odd, but I knew right away they were from my husband. Those of you who don't know my husband wouldn't understand, he's not big on sending flowers, but whenever I get flowers from my family for my birthday, he always jokes that the florist must have forgot to deliver the ones from him. So, I'm thinking, 'How sweet he sent me flowers!' There were lots of purple and some pink, some lilies and lots of carnations, which are my favorite flower. (although I found out later he had to call my sister to see which flower I liked best! You think, after fifteen years of marriage...) Then I read the card... he wrote it as though it was Justin who was saying it and it said the sweetest things, and it had a little stuffed bear tied to it, I bawled for half an hour!

2009-07-07T08:32:00.000-07:00

I'm extremely embarrassed that it has been so many months since my last post, but this summer has been crazy!!! It also doesn't help that my little one, Kyler, really keeps me going! He is a busy, busy boy!

First, I ought to finally announce that I am pregnant, and we are very excited! I am due on November 17, although I will probably be induced on the 13, since my body doesn't go into labor on its own! And before all the gender questions come pouring in, yes, my luck has held and its another boy!!! We had an ultra-sound on July 13, and before we walked into the clinic I told Dallas, 'I know it's a boy. I'm so sure of it, I will bet you $100.00 (that I didn't have)!' And sure enough, there is no question, it is a boy!

The last month of school went pretty fast, and all three boys got pretty good report cards (yeah!), and I feel like we have been gone or busy A LOT of the month of June! We have 5 birthdays in June, so that keeps us a little busy. The first weekend (5-7) we went down to Bountiful, Utah to visit my sister and have a BBQ. The weekend of the 12-14 we worked on our lawn and flower beds and had a BBQ with Dallas' family for his and his mom's B-Day. The next weekend was Fathers Day and we worked more on our yard. That next week my sister came up from Utah so I was in Poky a lot and we worked on some stuff in my moms house, and that weekend (26-28) we went back to Utah for Taylorsville days where they have a rides & booths & food & fireworks. Dallas' Aunt Barbara has invited us to go down to that for a couple of years now, it's a lot of fun.

Before I carry on, I have to expand on Friday the 12th, because a lot happened that day alone. Kyler has had double ear infections 8 out of the past 12 months, some times for the whole month, so we finally got an appointment to put tubes in his ears that morning. Everything went well, the whole thing only took about 13 minutes and we were out and on our way very early (we had to get there at 6 am, the procedure was at 7 am, and we were gone by 7:45am). They told us it was a simple procedure and he would feel better when he was done than before he went under, but I was still worried. My sister, Teri, had my other 3 boys and since neither Dallas or I got much sleep the night before (even after I finally went to bed after 1:00 am, I still couldn't sleep), we decided to just head home. At home, he acted great. He played and ran around like nothing happened. I was feeling much less worried about side effects when he fell asleep around 11:00, so I started straightening up a few things around the house. Shortly before noon I laid down on the couch to get some sleep and Kyler woke up screaming! I felt so bad, apparently laying on his ears irritated them and stupid mom hadn't thought to give him any Tylenol! It took me an hour to get him back to sleep after giving him the medicine. Once he did fall asleep, I got some much needed rest. Later on, after we all woke up, I decided to take Kyler outside to play. The day or two before (one of the days it actually didn't rain) Dallas had mowed so we had pulled all the hoses off the lawn. One of my brilliant children decided it would be a good idea to put one on the back step right outside our door. As I walked out, stepping over the hose, helping my 20 month old walk down the steps, I thought, 'I ought to move this hose before someone tri...' That was as far as I got, as I was the one who tri... over the stupid thing! In trying to save Kyler (as in, not crushing him with my gigantour feet or body!), I bent and twisted my right foot and ankle to the point that the TOP of my foot was scraped up and I could barely step on my foot my ankle hurt so bad! For all those concerned, no child was hurt (including the wee one inside me) when the rampaging Rhino fell down the stairs! (and luckily, no one saw it either!!!) Later on that night, we planned to go to Pocatello to pick up the other three boys. I got the van loaded with our various diaper bags and purses and such and took Kyler outside to load him. He is one of those kids who doesn't walk anywhere, he takes off running. He saw our sliding van door was open so he, of course, takes off running toward it. Right before he got to the van, he tripped and hit his head on the sliding door. I head right over to him and hug him thinking, 'He is going to have one heck of a goose egg on his head!' As I'm trying to calm him down, I see this funny maroon-ish spot on the concrete and think, 'That almost looks like a spot of blood, how funny...' Then I look down at Kyler and see the blood POURING out of the gash in his forehead! I scream, 'DALLAS HE'S BLEEDING BAD!!!" So Dallas takes him out of my arms and into the house and with a cold wash cloth manage to get the bleeding down enough so we can get to the clinic for what I assume will be stitches. We get to the clinic and wait, for what feels like forever, but really wasn't too long. They take us to one of the 'special' rooms in the back (trauma room or suture room, or something like that), and we did have to wait there for a bit. (As we waited for the doctor, I was thinking back on the day and remembered thinking earlier, 'Now that he has the tubes in his ears, we probably won't be into the clinic for awhile, hopefully just for check-ups!' How ironic, huh!) When the nurse finally came in, she had this syringe in her hand and I thought, 'No, not a shot to numb it!', but then realized there was no needle in it. She informed us it was full of a numbing solution and she would squeeze some of it on the wound so the doctor could suture it. Dallas picks Kyler up, (because heavens knows, I'm a complete basket-case!) then proceeds to squirt the solution all over Kylers head, in his eye, and on Dallas! She sort of laughs and says, 'Oh! It was a little thinner than I thought!' I'm thinking, 'Why the he#* are you laughing? Let me squirt some of that into YOUR eye and see who's laughing!' She helps Dallas wipe it up and she gets it ONTO his head this time and says we have to wait for it to take affect then left. After another long wait, the doctor comes in and says she wants to try a butterfly bandage instead of stitches, which I'm not so sure about, but she said he would have a scar either way, so Dallas says fine, do the bandage. We finally leave for poky, MANY hours later than we planned, picked up the boys and headed home. Just about the time we hit Blackfoot I remember thinking I was glad the day was over and couldn't wait to get to bed. That was definitely a bad thought, since on our way into town Dallas hit some white animal (cat or rabbit or ??) that ran across the road! don't sic PETA on us, it was very dark and there was no way to avoid it!) I can definitely say that was one of my top 10 worst days!!!

This was the picture my husband took with his phone while we were waiting for the doctor.

(no, he has had no drugs at this point!!!)

And July has just been a day trip here and a day trip there, work picnics to go to, etc. We had hoped to do some camping, but dallas got a new job at the INL at the end of June (I will save that story for another post) and they had him working a lot of overtime, so free weekends were scarce! On the days I was home, I tried to clean and get laundry done! At any rate, I feel like the first two months of summer just flew by! (It didn't help that it rained the whole month of June!)

This post was long enough, so I will save the month of August for another day! (And what a month it was!!!) Hopefully it won't take me so long to post next time, maybe just a few days!!!

2009-04-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know it has been awhile since I have posted, and since I have recently started a Facebook, I decided it was time to update!
So, it's been a long time since I have been in a show, the last one was two years ago, and before that it was about 13 years! So I call up to see when the tryouts are and the director says, ' we already had tryouts, but just come the night we rehearse and you can be part of the chorus.'
I was pretty excited about that (except I spent $20 to buy a new songbook for my tryout!). After two rehearsals, some people didn't show up, including a couple of little boys who were supposed to be in the play. I talked to the director and said I had a couple of little boys who would LOVE to be in a play and that is how me and my sons, Tracen (9) and Jacob (8) got to be in the Nuart theaters production of Cinderella!

here is the poster

Me and my 2 boys in the opening scene

Jacob holding Cinderellas train
Me & Tracen in the ending scene

It has been a lot of fun being in a show with two of my boys ( and exhausting as well!)

eitherOrr

2009-03-11T07:43:00.001-07:00

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2009-02-22T23:26:00.000-08:00

My husband reminded me that I forgot to add one story to my last blog. We are sitting down to dinner, eating mini pigs-in-a-blanket and this is how the conversation goes:
Colby asks, 'I wonder what hot dogs are made out of?'
Jacob, being the smart child he is, says, 'I know what they are made from.'
Only, he says it sort of funny, like he doesn't want to say what it is.
I know what I joke they are made from (lips & bum-holes) but have never shared that with my children.
So I ask, ' What do you think they are made of?'
After a short hesitation, he says, ' Cow weenies.'
Followed by my husband and I falling off our chairs and rolling around with laughter for about 10 minutes before we could correct him!

2009-02-10T12:18:00.000-08:00

I love my children. I will say it again and again, I love my children. I'm pretty sure I love them unconditionally, too. At least, they haven't done anything (yet) to change that. ; )
HOWEVER, there are times I don't really like things they do (or say)! Children have any uncanny ability to get to the core of your insecurities, or to embarrass you in a public place that makes you wish the ground would open up and swallow you! ANYONE who has EVER dealt with children knows EXACTLY what I am talking about!
Example #1:
Let's take Tracen, for example. He is in 4th grade, so I think the days of my mere presence embarrassing him are still a few years away. I had to run to his school the other day to bring something to him and interrupted a story time in the library. He came over to me and hissed, 'how embarrassing!', took what I brought for him and sat back down. All I'm thinking is that faze of his life came earlier than expected, but it was still expected, so no big! So I go about my day, head over to help in the kindergarten, went to town, the bank, several other public appearances. That was on Thursday, and on Monday, we were in Pocatello and I was telling my sister how he was embarrassed by me coming to school and he interrupts saying, 'I wasn't embarrassed that you were there, it looked like you just got put of the shower and hadn't done anything with your hair!' I JUST got through telling my sister how one day last week, I had shampooed my hair and it looked sort of cute and curly so I put some gel in it to hold it. Apparently, it didn't look cute, but like I had just got out of the shower and did NOTHING with my hair! Then, because I acted so shocked, he tried to make it better by saying, 'I mean it was just all sticking out all over the place!' He demonstrated this by placing his hands like rooster tails around his head! Yes, there are days when being a mother is a thankless job!

Other times they don't say things against me personally, but can still be embarrassing! Actually, to be truthful, they are pretty funny and I laughed right after, not 6 months down the road when you forget how embarrassing it really was!
Example #2:
We are at a Chinese restaurant, one we go to quite frequently in Pocatello. It was me & my 4 boys; my mom; my sister Teri; my brother Bill, his wife and 3 kids; and my sister Miki and her 3 kids. Everyone was leaving, and the cleaning crew from the restaurant was (im)patiently waiting in the wings to clean up after us. Colby, my 6 year old comes running up to me and says, 'These people speak Spanish! I heard them!' Now, the child is NOT quiet by normal standards, and when excited is very loud so I have NO DOUBT every person in the room heard him! That is a crawl-under-the-table-and-never-come-out moment, especially because I was laughing too hard to correct him! I'm sure there were some 'Spanish' speaking Chinese who were offended that day!
Example #3:
I had invited some family over for dinner, you may insert whatever joke here you want, but I do cook! I feel the need to add before I go on, that my son, Jacob, frequently tells me if he has to eat what I cook he will throw up. He tells me this often because he is an EXTREMELY picky eater. I will also add that the times he has ACTUALLY thrown up can be counted on one hand! As we were finishing up the meal, one family member, who's identity will remain nameless to protect the innocent, suddenly says, 'I think I'm going to throw up!' And proceeds to run to the bathroom to do just that. My bathroom is fairly close to our dining room, so we could all hear what was going on. Suddenly Jacob pipes up, 'Ah, oh! She didn't like it!' I laughed so hard it actually drowned out the sound from the bathroom! I will also add that it happened because the food was so good this person ate too much, not because it was bad!

Some things kids say, when they don't mean to be funny, are the funnies of them all! Which brings us to example #4:
Colby is standing in the dining room, suddenly lifts up his shirt, touches a mole or skin tag or pimple or whatever it was, on his side and says, 'What is this? A piece of my boob!?!'
It's been weeks, and we are STILL laughing at that on!

2009-01-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since I have posted! Now I get to play catch-up, AGAIN! (I swear, my procrastination will be the death of me!!!)

I guess I will start with Christmas. Christmas Eve we went to Dallas' parents to watch some old home movies, and I mean old! They were on those old reels, I think they are called 8 mm or something. It was pretty cool! My mom sayed with us on Christmas Eve this year, and my sister, Teri, was supposed to come up Christmas day, but the weather was so bad, she wasn't able to travel, which of course the kids were upset about!

These are the Christmas Eve jammies

These were the best two picture I got, the other 3 are Hilarious!

What a bunch of goofballs!

either Orr

2008-12-23T17:32:00.001-08:00

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either Orr

2008-12-23T17:21:00.001-08:00

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All Kyler, all the time

2008-11-19T21:33:00.000-08:00

I have forgotten what it is like to have a toddler! Re-learning has NOT been fun! Here are a few of our MIS-adventures.

This was quite a duel with a roll of toilet paper.

Take that! And that!

Toilet paper looses!

We left the piece of cake alone with Kyler for just a minute!

CAKE LOOSES!

This gate was SUPPOSED to keep him out of the front room, but he figured out how to pull it down!

He's also quite the climber! Mt. Everest, here we come!

I wanna play!

If I close my eyes, you can't see me!

I had a bag of apples on the ground and Kyler decided he needed one!

And now he is walking (running) so I have put on my running shoes and am DESPERATELY to keep up! Let me tell you, it was hard when Tracen was a baby, and it's definitely no easier since I have gained a few years (not to mention pounds!)

BLOW, NOT SNIFF

2008-11-11T21:24:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I forgot to add this story to my gaggle of posts! I may have been trying to block it out! So Monday after the funeral (Oct. 27) around 4:3o p.m., Colby comes up to me and says that Jacob shoved something up his nose...I pause here cause that's what I did when he told me. So many things were going through my mind I didn't know what to say!

'what did he shove up there?'; 'why did you let him so close to your nose?'; 'if it would have been me, I would have fought and screamed bloody murder to NOT let him close to my nose, why didn't you?'; and 'WHAT WERE YOU BOTH THINKING?' Definitely top the list!

I ask Jacob to come over and he vehemently denies doing it (of course), Colby denies doing it (of course) and I'm thinking, it must have flown up there of it's own accord! Either that or we have a poltergeist! Who ya gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!
To make a long story short (too late!), after about 45 min., Colby fesses up and tells me he did it and it's from Justin's wreath. Another pause on my part as I was wondering how he got to the wreath. We hung it on the wall above our stairs, and it's a good 16 foot drop from the wreath to the basement!
Come to find out, there are small semi-soft foam ball on the wreath that have fallen off and he thought it was be 'good times' to see if one would fit up his nose. So, I think, an easy solution would be to blow his nose since I can see where it is. I get a tissue and say 'blow real hard', and suddenly SNIFF! Another pause here for the news to sink in that he has just SNIFFED IT UP EVEN FARTHER! I get him to blow this time and the stupid thing won't budge! I try
DESPERATELY not to panic (yeah, right) and text Dallas to let him know what shenanigans his 6 yr old has been up to. It is pretty close to the time he will be home so he says he will take a look when he gets there. After he tried to get it BLOWN out (not sniffed back up), he gets his coat on and says 'to the clinic we go!', as I get to wait at home and bite my nails! Actually, I thought they would be home quickly (minus the waiting time in the waiting room) since I know the urgent care doctors quite well (with 4 boys it's kinda hard to stay out of the place for long!) and thought they would take care of it. Also, luckily, my sister and mom were on there way with dinner for us so I wouldn't be alone for long, either. So I sit and wait...and wait...and wait! The minutes seemed to tick by, turning into hours. I thought, 'surely they haven't had to wait this long to see a doctor?' Finally I text him and asked him what was up and he comes back with, 'we may have to go to Pocatello to the hospital so they can call an ear, nose and throat specialist to get it out!' Another pause here...BECAUSE I HAVE FAINTED TO THE FLOOR!Not really, but not for lack of wanting to! To make a long(er) story short (far too late) it has taken Dallas, 2 doctors (one was our family doctor) and two nurses trying to hold down a 6 yr old to extract a bead from his nose, to no avail! It is as stuck as...I would say 'it was at first', but have to say...it was since HE SNIFFED NOT BLEW! Finally Dallas calls me and tells me they are headed to the pharmacist to get some nasal saline and would be home shortly. He comes home with saline that we have to squirt up his nose while he sniffed (he had that part down!). He had to do it 3 diff. times a half an hour apart. The theory was it would shrink the nostril or bead or something, so he could BLOW it out. If he couldn't blow it out, I would have to take him BACK to the clinic in the morning so they could put an I.V. in his arm to put him out so they could get the bead out...an I.V. ...just to get a BEAD OUT OF HIS NOSE! Leave it to one of my kids to go to the extreme! When they do something, they go ALL out! By the last dose we knew I would be back in the morning. So after we get the other boys off to school, us ready and Kyler dropped at my friend Kim's house, we went back to the clinic. I am fretting (yes, fretting) the whole way thinking, 'If they can't get a bead out of his nose, how are they going to put an I.V. in his arm?' I get to the clinic and let them know we're there and they get us quickly in. In march our family doctor, the other doctor from the night before, and the nurse The nurse brings out an assortment of (torture devices) medical tools and says they want to try one more thing before they schedule the I.V. They begin with a syringe that, if it would have had the needle in it, would have made an elephant faint. They use it to try and suck it out and then to push the air through the other nostril in the hopes it would pop it out. Of course that doesn't work, but don't worry they have many more (torture devices) medical tools to try. So they go on to a small tweezers, nope, still there. Then he pulls out this 10 in. scissor-looking device, but at the end there is a quarter inch alligator clamp. The other doc gets the nose light and nose spreader (that was a fun one!) and they all try again, but Colby keeps flinching and the doctor has to pull it out quickly before he gives him a bloody nose. They decide to use some numbing stuff for his nose, so the doctor squeezes this runny glue-like substance up his nose. He tells Colby it will be cold, but I wasn't prepared for the BLOOD-CURDLING SCREAM that comes out of his mouth! It was worse than when they were trying to pull the stupid thing out! They need to wait for the numbing stuff to work, so everyone else files out and the doctor hands me a cotton swab with more of the numbing stuff on it and tells me to rub more on the inside of his nose...I had seen what happened when that stuff was put up his nose and he wanted ME to put MORE up there! Sounds like fun! After calming down some and about 10 min. Colby finally lets me put more on, then 10 min. after that my doc comes back in and says lets try again. I wait for more people to come in then realize he means just the two of us! We give Colby a little (scare) pep-talk before we try saying, 'They will have to put a needle in your arm to make you go to sleep so we can get it out!' I (try to) hold the nose light and spreaders, while the doctor tries a couple more times which of course don't work! Finally, about 10:40, our doctor goes to get the other doc and two nurses to try ONE MORE TIME before we do the whole I.V. thing. At this time we have an appointment set up for 11:00 and I am getting myself ready to do the whole I.V. thing. Just before they all come back in I give another (scare) pep-talk to Colby. When the other doctor comes in, he brings YET ANOTHER type of tweezers, this one 12 inches, but has a full tweezer-like head on it. Our doc goes on the left with the light and spreaders, two nurses are holding down his shoulders and I LAY on his legs and hold his hands. We do a 1..2..3..and suddenly I hear 'IT'S OUT! IT'S OUT! WE FINALLY GOT IT!' You never saw a room full of such relief! Colby sits up with a big smile on his face and through now drying tears says 'I did it mom!' There was the congratulatory pats on the back all around and we are given the bead to take home as a victory prize!

Here is a picture

As you can see, it is less than half the size of a dime. Talk about a lot of fuss (not to mention 2 doctors, 3 nurses, a frazzles mom & dad, and four plus hours) over such a small thing!

What a nightmare!

Colby B-Day

2008-11-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

We are now back to Colby's Birthday, and my last 'update' post (for now).

He was so excited to turn 6! The night before his birthday my boys slept a my sisters house, and they woke him up with a 'Birthday Donut'! (Thanks Teri for always doing something special for the kids!)

For all my boys, I have done a 6th Birthday friend party and he couldn't wait to be with all his friends. His theme was 'Pirates at Sea' (Tracens was pirates & Jacobs was Spongebob/sea, so I combined them & saved a TON of money on decorations!)

(trying to keep the sword from poking me in the eye!)

(Tracen popped into every picture he could!)

They played musical chairs (for like, an hour!)...

And duck, duck goose!

(Yes, even I played!)

(No, I don't run well!)

I opted to BUY his friend cake

But made his family cake.

It's a race car track

Jacob being jealous of all the 'good' presents Colby was getting!

Justin's Pumpkin

2008-11-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

When we picked out Justins burial plot, we saw a painted pumpkin on one of Dallas' relatives graves (his cousins lost a 9 year old son). Family members signed the back, and we thought it was a real sweet thing to do, so here is the pictures. (Yes, believe it or not, I painted it myself!)

(We Love you Justin!)

Kyler's Pumpkin

2008-11-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

I had to give Kyler his own pumpkin post because he would NOT leave his pumpkins head on!It was so funny!

Mmmmm...what's this?

Anything in there?

There's GOT to be something in here!

I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!

Maybe it's underneath!

Ah! Here it is!

(I snapped the picture right before he put the chunk of raw pumpkin in his mouth!
And promply threw the camera down to grab it from him before he could eat it!)

Halloween Pumpkins

2008-11-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

I also LOVE to carve pumpkins! Here are the ones we did this year

Pumpkins (and kids) go from left to right
(Tracen's, Jacob's, Colby's, Kyler's, and we did one for Justin)

Pumpkins going mad-crazy and attacking the kids!

After the attack!

Tracen

Jacob

Colby

Halloween Costumes

2008-11-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

Oh how I LOVE Halloween! I love to dress up and hope I NEVER get too old to do it!

Thought I would share some pictures

The whole gang

Cute boys!

Little Miss Muffit & her Spider

Kyler as Itsy Bitsy (cutesy) Spider!

No, this isn't the real Harry Potter, it's my oldest son, Tracen! ;-)

'I vant to suck your bloood! Ah-haha!'
(but if you give me candy corn, I will leave you alone!)

Frank N. Stein

This is Sophi, my sisters dog as the Wicked Witch of the East!

Here's Sophie thinking my sister is the Wicked Witch of the West!

Last, but not least, here's Dallas going as the lead guitarist in a band!

(he plays a mean LEG guitar!)

(Love you dear, don't kill me for this one!)

HOPE YOU ALL HAD A FUN AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Last Straw

2008-11-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

So, I had a checkup at my doctors office yesterday. I was sitting in the waiting room (the waiting room is shared with a couple dozen other doctors) thinking how I could tell my doctor how proud I was of myself and how I am handling my grief. Yes, every day something comes up that makes me sad or teary eyed, but not break-down-totally-lose-it crying. You know, stuff like realizing I can put the baby stuff away that I was leaving out, I can get a flu shot now, stuff like that. So, I look to my right and there is a pregnant woman there. No big deal, then I look to the left and there are TWO pregnant women there. I get a little emotional, and decide to look ahead...just as two women walk by with very small babies! So...I am trying so hard not to cry and not to look at ANY ONE when I pick up on a conversation behind me. I didn't hear it all, but the gist was whether or not to name a baby if it hasn't lived outside the womb (and they were taking the no-need-to-name-IT side). I thought, 'ARE YOU KIDDING ME! IT ISN'T BAD ENOUGH WITH THE THREE PREGNANT LADIES, BUT THEN THE BABIES AND NOW THE CONVERSATION!' I felt that was the last straw! It took everything in me not to turn around and shock the heck out of them by telling them what I went through! Needless to say, yesterday definitely ended on a not so good note!

Obama's President

2008-11-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

I'm not one to discuss politics much, but I felt the most informed about the candidates since I started voting (thank you internet!). The only thing I will say about the election is:
I woke up this morning with a feeling of dread,
I couldn't seem to get it out of my head.
I didn't understand exactly what it meant,
Then I remembered, 'Oh yeah, Obama's president!"

Good luck to you and your families in the coming four years! I don't know about you, but I will be doing lots of praying!

Catch up

2008-11-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Now I get to play catch up! A lot happened before Justin and after, and I will probably start from yesterday and work backwards to the middle of October, so bear with me! Any one who knows me, knows that is how I usually do things, backwards!

say ANYTHING

2008-11-02T18:39:00.001-08:00

Well, I felt Justin's funeral section should be up for at least a week before I posted anything new, I felt he deserved that much. I would like to thank every one who left comments, or emailed me about it. You will never know how much it helped to know so many people cared. I know it was hard to know what to say, but I had a friend come over shortly after I came home from the hospital and she said, 'I'm so sorry. How are you. I know that's a stupid question, but I don't know what else to say!' Here is how I feel about that, no one knows what to say, but saying anything whether it be I'm sorry, or I'm thinking about you, or ANYTHING helped us to feel loved and gave us comfort. So, thank you to all those who said ANYTHING and for those who kept us in your prayers!

Justin's Funeral

2008-10-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

We buried my sweet baby Justin's body Saturday. Some people may not understand our need to bury him, considering it was a miscarriage, but I know it was the right thing to do. It was a small, although very sad service.

Here is the program

Front

Inside

Family was invited, but mostly it was for me & Dallas to say goodbye. And the neatest thing happened, instead of saying goodbye, we both said we'll see you when the time is right. It is amazing to me how many blessings this little child has brought to our family. I won't go through a lot of it now, but as sad as it has been I am truly honored to have been able to bring this special little spirit into the world, for however short a time it was.

We asked the boys to pick out a few things to give to their brother.
They were all happy to give Justin something to play with.

Dallas and I picked a few things out as well.

Here are a few pictures of the service

Here's all my boys

Here's all of us

The boys were able to carry the casket all the way to the limo.

They thought that was very special.

Here is the wreath Dallas & I had made for the service.
(It is made of artificial flowers so we were able to keep it)

The boys each put a white rose on the casket.

Later, we went back to arrange the flowers on the grave.

This is the poem that I wrote the day I came home from the hospital. It was also on the back of the program.

OUR ANGEL
By Becky S. Orr

You were born so small and fragile.
A tiny, perfect little doll.
Ten little fingers and ten little toes,
To help make up our beautiful boy.

My arms ache to hold you again.
To feel your tiny hand in mine,
To kiss your sweet, handsome face,
To hold your body close to mine,
To always keep you with me,
And never again let you go.

But the Lord decided
You were too special to Him,
And before I had a chance
To show you to the world,
He called you back
To be in His loving arms.

Born too soon before your time,
You will forever stay in our hearts.
We set out to have a child,
But gave birth to an angel.

In loving memory:
Justin David Orr
Born Silently
October 21, 2008

I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father's love and truly know that everything happens for a reason. I love you all and God bless!

Sad News

2008-10-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is an email my husband sent to a few people and since I am having trouble finding the right words, and his letter is so beautiful, I will just post his letter.

Well unfortunately I waited too long to write and now in this message I have to be the bearer of some sad news.

We lost our newest baby last night. Justin David Orr was born silently into this world at 7:15 p.m. on October 21, 2008. He weighed in at 2.3 ounces and measured 6 and 3/8 inches long. Becky was 5 months along, but the doctors say Justin passed away about 4 weeks ago. His cord had become twisted, and his little heart stopped beating.

I got a text from Becky on my way home from work Monday night. She had started bleeding a couple of days before and on Monday it became worse. When I arrived home, I found her sobbing. She said she hadn't felt the baby move in quite some time. We arranged for sitters for the other kids and immediately went to the medical clinic. They did a couple of tests and then called her doctor to come in from home. He searched for a heartbeat for the longest time, as our hearts began to sink. He finally rolled in an ultrasound machine and could find no heartbeat, and the baby's size was 4 weeks behind what it should have been. He scheduled an ultrasound the next day at the hospital so we would have a second opinion, but told us to take that night to prepare for the worst, because he was sure the baby was gone.

We spent that night looking up information on infant deaths in the womb. We have never dealt with this and never prepared for it. As we searched several sites on the internet, a page filled with infant sized coffins appeared, and Becky and I both broke down in tears, knowing what lay ahead of us.

The next day our worst fears were realized, and Becky was admitted to the delivery wing of the hospital to be induced. At 7:15 that night Justin was born. We were able to spend 2 hours alone in the room together with his little body. He fit in the palm of my hand and stretched from my fingertips to my wrist. His body was progressing perfectly, and we spent time holding his little hands, and touching his little feet. We both wished that time would never end, but also knew it was time to say goodbye, and let his body be taken. At the time, we had not known it was a boy as Becky had not had her ultrasound to determine the sex. A million things were going through my mind when I had an impression we needed to give the baby a name at least to help with our closure, and that the name should be Justin. As the nurse was filling out information sheets she asked if we had a name for our lost child. I asked Becky if she had thought about it and she said she felt strongly that we needed to name him Justin. I told her that I too had and impression what the name needed to be. It was a very special moment shared between us at such a bleak time.

Becky is home now and doing as well as can be expected. It has not been an easy day as we had the task of finding a funeral plot, and are scheduled to meet at the mortuary to finalize arrangements and pick a coffin. I do not envy parents who have to bury living children that they have bonded with and grown to love. My heart is broken and I can imagine no worse sorrow. As we found a special quote on the internet I will share. "How do you say goodbye to someone you never had a chance to welcome."

Becky and I set out to have a child, and she gave birth to an Angel.

Love
-dallas

Birthday cake

2008-10-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

I havn't made a home made cake in YEARS! And when I say home made, I mean get a cake mix and frost it myself. I used to make them quite a bit, but the more kids I had the less time I had! With Kyler's Birthday today & Colby's next week (this is his year for both a friend AND a family party), I decided I would make some instead of buying all of them! The train cake is the one the family got to eat. It has lots of yummy candy on it as well as the frosting, so there was plenty of sugar rush going on! The little one was all Kylers! And of course Kyler after eating his cake!

Birthday Boy

2008-10-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

It is a sad day. My baby is 1 year old! I can't believe a whole year has passed since he came to us. All my kids have been a blessing (insert joke here), but Kyler is by far the sweetest & happiest baby I have ever had! I always know when he is sick, cause that is when he gets fussy. Okay, also when he is hungry (which is a lot!). Here are some of his B-Day pictures, since we did cake & ice cream for him yesterday.

My 8

2008-10-06T22:59:00.000-07:00

My 8

8 Favorite TV shows...

1. Heroes

2. CSI (all 3)

3. Survivor

4. Chuck

5. Eli Stone

6. Medium

7. Gary Unmarried

8. Lost

8 Favorite Restaurants...

1. Red Lobster

2. Lei's Mongolian BBQ

3. Tempanyaki Japanese Steak House

4. Rodizio Grill

5. Melina's

6. Taco Bell

7. Taco Johns

8. Texas Roadhouse

8 things that happened yesterday...

1. Tried to quit drinking Diet Pepsi, and lost

2. Emailed a friend who is having a crisis

3. Scrambled eggs for my kids for breakfast

4. Watched a couple old episodes of Heroes

5. Cooked hamburger stew for dinner

6. Planned to go to bed by 10:00 & managed to get there by midnight

7. Told my kids atleast times to do their homework

8. watched Tracen play football

8 things to look forward to...

1. Halloween

2. Thanksgiving

3. Christmas

4. Kyler's 1st Birthday

5. Finding out if the new baby is a boy or a girl

6. Arrival of new baby

7. Making Holiday cookies

8. All the yummy holiday food

8 things I love about Fall...

1. Halloween

2. Thanksgiving

3. Christmas

4. Making Holiday cookies

5. All the yummy holiday food

6. A warm fire

7. Snuggling under the covers

8. The new fall TV shows

8 things on my wish list...

1. New video camera

2. An organized, clean house

3. Laundry room remodeled

4. Kitchen remodeled

5. Tile in my dining room

6. Fun vacation with kids

7. Fun vacation without my kids

8. To eat healthier

8 people I tag...

1. Roxanna

2. Teri K.

3. (no one else I know has a blog!)

4. (no one else I know has a blog!)

5. (no one else I know has a blog!)

6. (no one else I know has a blog!)

7. (no one else I know has a blog!)

8. (no one else I know has a blog!)

spelling

2008-10-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

It has been brought to my attention that my spelling is atroce... atrosh... really bad! I apologize now for any miss-spelled words, 'cause I know I won't get any better!

Family Photos

2008-10-02T10:00:00.000-07:00

We actually went and had professional pictures done. You know, like not from my own camera!We havn't done that since Colby was 1 month old! (he will be 6 yrs old this month!) The main reason we did it is because my side of the family wanted pictures with our whole family, since the last time we did that was when Tracen was a baby! The boys, from right to left are: Tracen (9yrs old), Colby (will be 6 this month), Kyler (will be one this month) and Jacob (7). Of coarse the big guy in the middle is my hubby Dallas and the idiot in the back is me! (man I HATE picture! Could I have one more chin please!) It was really fun though, we had quite a few taken, I will post some on here as soon as I figure out how to do more than one picture!

BLOGGING

2008-09-30T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I am going to try it. BLOGGING! I have thought about doing one for awhile, but I am a big chicken! Besides, what would I put in my Christmas news letter? I have finally decided to get over myself and just do it. You will have to forgive me if, in the beginning, I dont post much. or is it blog much? Anyhoo, this is all so new to me it may take me awhile to figure it out! It wouldn't surprise me to post this and then never be able to post anything else! I guess we will see!