Holy Huge Tonsils Batman!!!

Sorry it took me so long to post about this, our internet wasn't working :(

Ok, so I am squirting water in my son Benjamin's mouth on Mon night with a squirt bottle and all the sudden I noticed his Uvula was gone. (you know that thing that hangs down in the back of your throat?) So I got a tongue depressor and a flashlight, pinned him down on the couch and took a look.

This is Tonsillitis

(I used this drawing because the "Real Pictures" almost made me throw up!!)

This image is what I saw, only bigger!! So anyway, imagine if you would the left tonsil so big, it was totally covering up his uvula. The right one was almost touching it as well, his throat looked like it was closing up. In all fairness, about a month ago I noticed his tonsils were kind of big, but he still had a Uvula and he wasn't acting sick so I didn't think anymore about it until Mon night. Well my hubby freaked when he saw them and was ready to go to the ER right then. We calmed down and thought about it and decided that we would wait until morning, try to get in to see his Doc, then go to ER if we had to. After all He was eating and drinking with no problems.

(This is what healthy tonsils look like)

So after a very sleepless night with Ben in between us kicking and playing, we got up and the Doc saw us at 8:15am. She looked in his mouth and said, "Now I know they look huge but it is very normal for toddlers to have large tonsils. They actually grow smaller as the child gets bigger." She told us to keep an eye on them, if we noticed any white patches, fever, redness or a refusal to eat or drink we should bring him in.

So in other words we freaked out over nothing!!! You'd think after 5 kids I would have come across this problem before and known what to do. But leave it to the last kid to have abnormal things happen to him!!!

So that was my day on Tuesday, and why it was nap day for us :)





Grateful for:
1. My VERY Accommodating Pediatrician.
2. A hubby who offered to stay home and help with the kids for the Dr. appt.
3. That I didn't have to spend the night in the ER, or the next day waiting for my son to get out of surgery.
4. I'm glad it's Thursday, one more day left this week of State testing in school!
5. For my neighbor who is a fellow night owl, and the great gab session last night :)

Tag I'm it, with Photobucket.

After I finally realized what I needed to do, this tag was fun, thanks Melissa.

What is your fist name?


What is your relationship status?

What is your favorite color?What celebrity do you have a crush on?


What are you listening to now?

What is your favorite movie?

Who is your favorite Disney Princess? (I cheated she is not Disney, she 20th century Fox)

Anastasia

What is your favorite beverage? Virgin Strawberry Pina Colada

What is your Dream Vacation?

What is your favorite Dessert?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you love the most?


After finishing this adventure I realized I cheated...I was supposed to take from only the first page of images (most of them I did), but for some I browsed through until I found what I liked. Sorry :(



Grateful for:
1. My neighbor for letting Jake come over to play this morning, Ben and I needed a nap.
2. A GREAT Pediatrician who got Ben in first thing this morning (tell ya about it later)
3. My 13 year old daughter Sam who is responsible enough to get herself out the door today without me.
4.The phone not ringing at all this morning so we could have an uninterrupted nap.
5. The cool breeze today, I don't have to turn on my air :)

Calling all Fondue Lovers!!!!!

I need help!!!

I am having a teacher appreciation dinner for my Primary Teachers, Scout Leaders and Activity Day leaders from church. The theme is "Totally Awesome 80's Fondue Night" I am having a chocolate fountain for the dessert but I need help in the main dish fondue department.

So If you have made fondue or have been to a party where they served really good fondue get me the recipes PLEASE!!! I want to do vegies and meat fondue as well. If you have any ideas pass them my way.

The party is on May 10th so you have time to email them to me or call me with them. Thanks for your help :)



Grateful for:
1. My hubby, he put up with me because I did something to my back and I was useless all weekend.
2. For the "Beach Weather" I was looking like an albino, I needed some color.
3. My forgiving children, I kinda freaked out on them this past Saturday.
4. My washing machine, today is laundry day and there is alot more clothes than normal.
5. Slip-n-slides, my kids will be entertained for hours this afternoon, and my lawn will get watered as well :)

Honda Dealer AGAIN!!!

I told you that I would post about this today so here goes.

Remember my ordeal with the Honda Dealer with the 69 cents in my radio??? Well the day before we left for Utah a couple of weeks ago, my check engine light came on. I thought oh great, just as we are getting ready to leave my car acts up. So I took it in to the dealer and told him the light was on and that he needed to figure out the problem quickly so if we needed to, we could get a rental from them because we were leaving the next morning at 5am.

The guy there was really nice and he remembered me from the radio incident. They were pretty busy and I didn't have an appointment, but he said he would get them right on it.

Well they hooked my car up to the computer to read the diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong. He said there was an exhaust leak somewhere but couldn't find it. I told him when I went to get gas my gas cap was not all the way tightened could that be the problem? He didn't know and told me the mechanic was checking one more thing.

Well to make a long story short, they didn't find anything wrong and so when I went to check out they charged me $88!!!! I just about climbed over the counter and strangled the guy! I really was angry. He told me the same story about this kind of problem was not covered by my warranty and yadda yadda yadda. I asked them what would happen if I refused to pay? they replied your car stays here.

So yes I paid it. I made sure my son slobbered all over their windows before we left too.

So now we fast forward to yesterday. I get this call from the Honda dealer to participate in a survey rating my last experience with them. So I go through the survey and I couldn't really give them terrible marks because they were polite and very nice to me. But when it came down to rating them on the cost, and the thoroughness of the work that was done...Oh yeah they got a big fat ZERO!!

He asked me to explain why the zero so I did, and then thanked me for my time and hung up. I didn't really think much more about it until I got a call about 2 hours later. It was a supervisor from Honda and he asked about my survey and wanted an explanation.

I told him about what my last 2 experiences were and that I didn't think it was fair, I had purchased the warranty, but it does me no good. He thought about that statement and said, Mrs Heisel, I'm going to refund you the $88 because I want you to know that we value you as a customer, and want you to feel comfortable coming back to us. So the check will be in the mail tomorrow, lets just verify your address...

I was shocked!!! I didn't know what to say except thank you. DCH Honda, you're all right!!!

So the moral of this story: Take time participate in the survey, you never know what manager will look at it and take pity :)




Grateful for:
1. Trash day, my trashcans were getting pretty stinky in the heat.
2. 3 wonderful counselors in my presidency, who make me look REALLY good :)
3. Donuts at my meeting this morning, I didn't have make breakfast for the boys.
4. My crock pot, I'm making chili tonight, yum yum :)
5. Nap time in 20 more min. Ben woke up on the wrong side of the bed today!

Open Mouth, Insert Foot, or in this case Keyboard...

Have you ever said something and then when you think about it a few hours later, you regret ever opening your mouth, or in my case commenting on a blog???

Well that is what I did yesterday, I "Ranted" about politics on a dear friends blog, and now I wish I had never logged on or at least hit the delete button instead of publish!!!!

What I said, was how I was feeling and it was the truth, but I am so not the person to talk politics and voice my opinions to other people. We live in a country where we are free to vote however we feel, and we should not be bullied into voting any other way, nor should we be told we are "wrong" because we have voted a certain way. I take this freedom very seriously because of past experiences I've had with people.

In my defense I guess it was easy for me to get carried away because I was just typing and I was looking at a screen, not a face.

Either way, I apologize profusely!!! You know who you are, and I hope I did not offend any friends or family members who read my comments.



Grateful For...
1. Living in a free country
2. Friends who forgive (I hope), because friendship is important
3. Pink Berry, I REALLY need one.
4. DCH Honda (I'll blog about this tomorrow)
5. I had an incident free morning YEAH!!! Everyone was happy when they left for school.

It's Tuesday, and Sam has her room back!!!

Let me catch you up on all that has been going on around here. My father in-law moved out over the weekend. It was time, he didn't handle the chaos and loudness of my home very well. He was getting pretty snippy with the kids towards the end, and that made me snippy towards him. He has a friend that lives in Washington for 3 months out of the year and his trailer sits empty. So Don is going to move in there until his house is livable again. For those of you who are wondering, his house has a bunch of mold in the walls and ceilings. It pretty much needs to be gutted. I was hesitant to have him go because his cough was back. (He came to live with us because he had borderline Pneumonia) But he is a big boy and can take care of himself. Anyway I was tired of hearing how he needs to, and I quote..."Get me a Woman!!"

So I finally had uninterrupted "me" time this weekend :) YEAH!!!

I attended/showed my clocks last Thursday night at an open house at my neighbors. She was showcasing Stay-at-Home Mom's who had started up at-home businesses. I got some orders for clocks, too bad they were for different colors than what I already have painted!! I also have gotten an order for one that is 36" to go over a mantle. That is huge!!! I'm just glad that I am getting rid of my inventory slowly but surely.



What I'm Grateful For...
1. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, my bathroom door jams and cabinets never looked so good!
2. My hubby working from home this week, I don't have to drag the boys everywhere.
3. The sunshine!!! (my lawn looks great!) need I say more?
4. My Father in-law, my kids had such great time with him.
5. Pancakes, dinner was soooo easy last night, and we had enough for leftovers this morning!! bonus 2 for 1.

Blah, Blah, Blah...

Today is Wednesday, hump day and I don't have much to say.(wow I'm a poet and I didn't know it!) Tax day has come and gone, it's not the weekend yet and I'm bored! Can you tell? I'm babbling.

The breakfast rush came and went and the mad rush to get kids off to school happened without incident this morning and my kitchen is cleaned. Benjamin fell asleep in the chair at lunch so going to the park is out :( Jacob is playing outside while daddy works in the garage :) So here I sit... I don't have enough energy to start a new project, and yet I need to do something even if it's wrong!!

I have about 1 1/2 hours of boredom until I start the afternoon pickup for school and then Ben will wake up when I get back. Then the homework/dinner/finish homework/countdown to bedtime begins, or what I like to call "My 4 hours 0f HELL!!!"

Then I can't wait to sit in the peace and quite and just relax... kind of like what I'm doing now!!



Oh yeah I'm going to start something new with my blog. At the end of each post I'm going to include 5 things I'm grateful for that day. I used to do it in a journal but since I blog almost everyday I thought I would include it here. It kind of brings things into perspective for me. So here goes:

1. I'm grateful for the sunshine because Jake is having a great time outside
2. I'm grateful for bathtubs, my son just came in and he is dirty from head to toe, he may have to be hosed down by the time he's done before he comes into the house:)
3. I'm grateful for good friends who listen to me vent and don't try to fix my problems
4. I'm grateful for Advil Liqui-gel pills, I have a terrible toothache and have an appointment for next week
5. I'm grateful for everyone else's blog because it makes me realize I'm normal, and that I'm not the only one with a crazy life! Thanks

Finally, A Stress Free Life!

Well this is where we stayed Friday night before the Boutique at the Disneyland Hotel on Sat. I stayed there with my sister Lori, my niece Lindsay and my friend Chris. We stayed up until almost 2 in the morning finishing last minute odds and ends on our merchandise. We went to bed and woke up at 5:00 am (yes that's 3 hours of sleep!!) We drove our stuff over to the hotel and started to unpack.

We unloaded our stuff, and by the way I did make it to my goal of having 50 clocks done. I unloaded everyone of my clocks. Good thing my hubby told me to take his dolly cart, because my arms were sore just transferring them from the car to the cart. We got all set up by 7:00 and the event started at 8:00.

Okay to make a long story short, I sold...drum roll please...I sold...the suspense is killing you right?...I sold 4, count them 4 clocks!!!! :( It was a BUST!!!

I did however get ALOT of people who want custom orders. So I guess it wasn't a total bust. Now I get to make even more clocks just custom orders, and try to sell the stock on hand. I did however have a great time and got some good ideas as well. I was told that the #'s were down this year for vendors and customers. They also told me that the Fall boutique is the better of the two to sell at, people are looking for Christmas presents then, and spend more $. ( Why couldn't they have told me that before I painted 50 clocks and stresses as much as I did.)

So I now have 46 clocks that I have to sell. I'm not to worried, but it would have been nice not to have to load back up all the stuff, my back is killing me! By the way, my niece sold 5 tutus and my friend sold 5 sleeping bags. We are still on the fence about returning for the Fall boutique.


Oh yeah, This weekend was my daughter Sam's acting debut. The musical Oliver Twist was performed by her school and she was "Old Sally." We went to the Thursday night performance and she was GREAT!!!! She actually had more than one line and had to do it with a british accent to boot. She remembered all the words and even had to pretend to cry at one point. Look out Hollywood here she comes!! We were so proud of her.

So now my life gets to get back to normal, at least what I call normal. No more clock central at my house, Sam gets to come home on time after school (no more play practices) and I finally get to get some well needed sleep.

I can't believe it is already April, between a funeral, a play and clocks I lost at least 2 months of my life!

Shutting Down...

Have you ever been so stressed out that you shut down???

Well that was my day today. I was painting 6 clocks and every thing I did was wrong! I used the wrong color for shading, my paint pen leaked all over, I splattered paint all over my air hockey table, every step I made something went wrong! I finally just had to shut down for a while.

I went downstairs took a 45 min. nap and started doing the carpool rounds and haven't been back to painting yet. I will get dinner ready, finish homework, get the kids to bed and then start all over again. Hopefully the bad luck streak will have passed and all will go smoothly.

Anyone a night owl tonight? call me I will be up!!!!

Back to Reality!!!!

I am back from my trip and reality has set in...I have to have 50, yes 50 of these babies done by FRIDAY!!!! (I've finished about 18 of them so far)

I am blogging between drying times of the paint. My air hockey table is set up so that I can do 6 at a time. It looks like I might just make it, if I don't have any interruptions from my kids HA HA HA, wishful thinking!!!

I'm warning you now that my blogs will be on the short side for the next few days, hopefully they will still be coherent.

(This is a picture from the internet, but it is what the mountains looked like while we were there)

My trip to Utah was very busy but fun. The girls behaved and the ride up and back, aside from the fact that we were exhausted, went pretty much incident free. It was really cold, and some of the girls were not prepared for 20-30 degree weather. We went and stood in line at 5:30 am in 20 degree weather on Sunday and still did not get into General Conf. We did however, get into a neighboring building so we could at least watch it while we thawed out. The weekend was so packed full of activities for the youth that we were exhausted by the last night and fell into bed hoping for a miracle to keep us drivers awake for the ride home the next day. But all in all we had a fun time with Sam and the rest of the youth. It definitely will be a trip they will remember!

We stayed with my sister Karen, and it was so nice to know that after we dropped off the kids at their host families we had a warm comfortable bed to come back to. Thank you sooooo much Karen and Steve! I just wish we had had more time to spend with you.

Well my paint has dried and I must keep my momentum going!!!

Have a great day!!!!!!!

Clocks, Clocks, Clocks!!!

As if my life wasn't crazy enough, I am going to the CUW (California Utah Womens) boutique next Saturday the 12th at the Disneyland hotel. I was asked to sell my clocks there about 2 months ago. I thought I had plenty of time and wasn't worried but then Bonnie died and I put them on hold and focused on the funeral, and now that decision has come around to bite me in the rear!!!

So far I have 8 large red clocks and 10 "kids" clocks done. I hope to have at least 40-50 done by the boutique. For those of you who have gone to my clock blog site you know what I'm doing. I have done some smaller 18" clocks for kids rooms, laundry rooms etc. that I need to get pictures of for the site.

I just did the cutest Disney clock it's red faced with a black border, and a yellow line between the red and black. The numbers for the clock are mickey heads with the numbers punched out. I went to take a picture of it to post for you all to see, but my camera's batteries were dead. So tomorrow I will post pictures.

Well I'm exhausted and it's 2 am and I have a busy day tomorrow. We are going to Utah early Friday morning and won't be back until Monday night. The youth group at church are going up for our churches General Conference. We get to drive for 12 hours with a van load of 13 year old girls, lucky us!

My Life as a Soundtrack

My friend Heidi did this and it was interesting, so I thought I would give it a try. I don't have a iTunes playlist but I have the play list on this blog so here goes.

Opening Credits- "Kiss Me" Stephen Tin Tin Duffy
Waking Up- "Mirror In the Bathroom" English Beat
First Day of School- "Close to Me" The Cure
Falling in Love- "Strip" Adam Ant
Fight Song- "Can't get you out of my Mind" Kylie Monogue
Breaking Up- "Big Girls Don't Cry" Fergie
Prom- "Goody Two Shoes" Adam Ant
life's Okay- "Here it goes Again" OK Go
Mental Breakdown- "Love Song" Sarah Bareilles
Driving- "Bubbly" Colbie Caillat
Flashback- "Barbie Girl" Aqua
Getting back Together- "Blue" Eiffel 65
Wedding- "Hey Mama" Black Eyed Peas
Birth of a Child- "The Way I Am" Ingrid Michaelson
Final Battle- "Such Great Heights" Unknown
Death Scene- "Together Again" Janet Jackson
Funeral song- "Hey There Delilah" Plain White T's
End Credits- "1 2 3 4" Feist

About half of it makes sense and the other half, well let's just say the movie would not have won an Oscar or a Grammy for best soundtrack.

For those of you who are confused, go to what ever playlist you have whether it's iTunes or some other list and just start at the top and put the first song in for Opening Credits and so on. Don't switch any songs around, go in order.

It makes me think I need to do 1 of 2 things, edit my playlist or switch things around.

My Quiet Time...

I don't know about you but with 5 kids in the house I don't get much time to myself, let alone quiet time. So my quiet time is at night when everyone is asleep. I will stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning because I am enjoying the peace and quiet so much. Of course I regret it the next day when I am walking around like a zombie, but that time alone is precious to me.

Well lately my quiet time has been interrupted by a visitor. Don't get me wrong I love my father-in-law but he goes to sleep, or rather takes a nap around 7 or 8pm, so I keep the kids quiet while they finish their homework and then send them to bed. The house is quiet until he wakes up at about 10 or 11 and wants to eat and watch TV. He is still on my mother-in-laws schedule where she would sleep during the day and be up all night.

So my quiet time now consists of about 1-2 hours of peace and quiet and then when he gets up making conversation with him. He tells me about all the things he wants to do now that his schedule is not tied down with caring for Bonnie. He gives me suggestions on how to handle my children, how my life would be more efficient if I did things a certain way... well you get the picture. I know he thinks he is helping and I hate to sound insensitive but I NEED my quiet time!!!

So I have resorted to writing my blog at 1:00 am and surfing the net upstairs for my quiet time. Anyone know some good sites to visit???