Organized Chaos

Our Fourth of July

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:41:00 +0000

We had a great time yesterday. Karri and I got the kidlets up bright and early for the parade after staying up until almost one finishing our flip flops.

Here are some pics from the parade. Karri and lil:

James and I:
Baby James:

Karri and I:

Makailynn:

James:

Kaimen and Alexis:

Then we went down to mom and dads. the kids played with silly string.

Then we got out the slip n slide and bbq.

James opened his present:

Then we did fireworks and hung out:

A great day!

An Update

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:08:00 +0000

For those of you that do not know, my darling Tim suffered a massive stroke on Saturday in California. He has been transported to ICU at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, CA. I am here in Cali staying in Alameda with a very sweet caring couple. I am being very well taken care of. I plan to fly home on Friday and spend the weekend with my kids and then come back. I love them and miss them very much. I am hoping to update here, since it is becoming more and more difficult as Tim spends more time alert to be both with him and constantly on the phone keeping everyone in the loop. Text messages are always good since I can return them when I can.

As for Tim, since the original diagnosis of he wasn't going to make it through the night, he has come a very long way. He is semi alert but still very sleepy. They have removed the breathing tube and he is no longer on life support. He has been able to voice the words I love you and want water. He continues to try to speak many more. He is paralyzed on the right side of his body, but I am confident that with faith and Tim's strong determination that that will come back. He is signing a few words, as he does know fluent sign language. We are meeting with the speech pathologist again today to redo his swallow test so that hopefully he will be able to start learning to eat again and we can remove his feeding tube. We will also meet with the physical therapist today and he will receive a neuro psyche eval to give us a baseline to be able to base his progress off of. The only thing keeping him in ICU right now is his blood pressure. He is on maximum doses of meds and they cannot keep it under control without them and they are all IV form. As soon as we can control the BP we will be able to look at moving him to a regular room. Then we will focus on the long road to recovery that we have ahead of us. We are looking at 10-12 months of rehab to get him to a functioning place again.

I love all of you and so does Tim. We are very thankful for all of the blessings and amazing people that we have in our lives. If someone could please copy this to the places I frequent (AW, TM) I would much appreciate it. Again, thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Much Love,
Angie

Alexis' baptism

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to come to Alexis' baptism and confirmation last weekend and to her bday party. Here are a few pics for those who missed it.

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 04:02:00 +0000

It got awful quiet downstairs this afternoon...

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Alexis and I were upstairs doing this weeks baking and the two boys were downstairs playing. It got really quiet for a bit, so we went downstairs to check and this is what we found:

Super Bowl Sunday

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:35:00 +0000

What a great day. Callie and I and the kids spent the morning making our own Super Bowl cake. Since the favorite team was split, we made the cake half and half. It is football shaped. We had a ton of fun making and decorating it. We went down to Mom and Dad's and met Jon and jess and their kids down there. We watched the game, ate tons of food, and just enjoyed each other's company.

Karri's Birthday

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:26:00 +0000

My best friend Karri turned 21 last week and we all celebrated by going bowling. I took the kids and we all had a blast. Callie and Derek also spent the weekend out here with me to help me with the kids, since I had to work both jobs last weeek. They were both the biggest help ever!

Alexis showing off her fan she won:

Callie and Alexis:

Karri with a tuckered out baby James:

Me and My crew:

James eating a french fry:

Ptate:

Derek and James:

More tummy time pics

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:13:00 +0000

I am a little late getting them posted, these are from last week.

Ami and Daniel

Beth and William

Becca, James, Beth, and William

Becca and James

Me and James

It's getting closer...

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 22:27:00 +0000

We are 15 ish weeks away from last spring frost here. That means only three more weeks until I need to start a few thing indoors. I semi-finalized our planting list today. So far it includes:

broccoli
cabbage
cauliflower
head lettuce
parsley
collards
peppers
tomatoes
spinach
radishes
leaf lettuce
peas
cucumbers
summer squash
carrots
pole beans
sweet potatoes
corn
cantaloupe
maybe a few other melons
strawberries
and possibly potatoes and onions
also a variety of other herbs will go in a box on the deck.

We have chosen to go with the square foot gardening method after much deliberation. http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ We feel like it is going to work best for us. This week I will be ordering seeds, and mapping out our boxes. I am thinking 5 boxes. I found the coolest garden planner. It is downloadable and printable. Check it out here:http://www.littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2009/01/free-download-2009-spring-garden.html

Look for pics of seedlings for broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, and parsley in a few weeks :)

Batbaby

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:57:00 +0000

The kids decided to be silly and put Payton's batman cape on baby James

Here he is "flying"

RFL Kickoff

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:53:00 +0000

Most of you know, I am the event chair again this year for the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life. It is held June 26th and June 27th at West Jordan Veterans Memorial Park. For more info www.relayforlife.org/westjordanut

Here are pics from our kickoff. It was held at Classic Skating and everyone had a blast. We had over fifty people and 7 teams attend!

Jenna's teams

Melissa, Bobbie, and Jessica:

Jon, Jessica, and Breanna skating (she had more fun that it looks lol)

We are also super excited to be welcoming two new little relayers in June :) Jessica is having a girl and Shelly is having a boy! Congrats girls!

More Jr. Jazz pics

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:47:00 +0000

These are from last weeks game. He scored 2 pts and had two assists. He hustled the whole time. I was really proud of him, especially the last half when he started passing. I pulled him aside at half time and told him he was being a ball hog, he said " Isaiah(another kid on his team) called me that too Mom, what does it mean?" lol. So, I told him, and he started passing :)

After scoring:

Him and Isaiah congratulating each other after Payton had an assist to Isaiah:

Payton dribbling:

Clearing stuff out

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:41:00 +0000

I just posted a bunch of stuff FS if anyone is interested. An infant carseat, mostly diapers.

Tie Dye NB Onesies:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5385433&cat=72

Preemie/NB dipes
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5385502&cat=401

Infant Prefolds:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5385549&cat=401

Small Diapers:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5385667&cat=401

Mediums:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5385667&cat=401

Larges:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5385919&cat=401

The car seat:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=5384982&cat=492

I love sleeping babies

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:18:00 +0000

But, love sleeping babies and their daddies even more :)

I'm trying to get this thing updated, and I have some dang cute pics on my camera to share.

Jr. Jazz, bread, and New house Pics

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:58:00 +0000

Payton is playing his second year of Jr. Jazz. He likes it a lot more this year than he did last year. This is the first year he has been able to play in actual games. Last year was just practice. Tim has taken him to all of his games so far. I have only been able to make it to one because of my work schedule. Here are some pics from the game I was able to go to. Payton really appreciates his aunts and uncles, and grandma and other family coming to watch him, so please keep on coming out :)

Oh and here's the bread recipe I promised yesterday.

It is 60 Minute Bread and makes two loaves

2 C Warm Water
2 pckgs yeast
2 tsp salt
4 TBSP Sugar
2 TBSP melted shortening
2 C Flour

Mix together. Divide dough into two parts, knead, and put into greased loaf pans. Let rise 30 min. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 min.

And, here are the pics of the house that I promised.

Tummy Time today

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:40:00 +0000

I hosted this month's Tummy Time for our Mommies group today. Here are some pics. We had a great time. We had five babies there, and the mommies had a great time visiting.

James

Lisa, Blue, and Mason

Nicole and Mason

Other James and half of Becca LOL

Both James'

William

I can't wait to see all of these babies get older together :)

Here we go again...

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:53:00 +0000

I am back to blogging and updating everyone, hopefully daily. After having Tim home for three months, we sadly had to send him back to work on Saturday. He is working in Riverton, California. He starts tomorrow in an oil refinery. He will be home for his first visit on February 13th, then we are shooting to bring him home every other weekend after that. That will make the time go by much faster, and make it easier on all of us.

While he was home, we moved from our tiny three bedroom apartment into a 5 bdrm 3 bthrm home in Overlake. We are finally getting settled and we love it. The only room left to unpack is my office. Yes, I finally have my own office! Woohoo! I will post some pics of the new house later. I am loving having a bigger kitchen. I have been doing a lot more cooking especially baking. I have been making our own bread for the last few weeks and have found a recipe that I love :) I will hopefully post the recipe tonight. We are at my mom's right now, trying to pass the time. I am watching my two nieces for the day. My mom started a blog for our whole family to keep up on each other. For those interested, you can read it here. www.wattersonsworld.blogspot.com

After crocheting for over 20 years, I am finally dedicating myself to learning how to knit. I made a dishrag yesterday for practice, and am working on another today between fussing kids. Will post pics when finished :)

Halloween is coming along with my birthday!

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 03:11:00 +0000

My dad came home from California this weekend, so the kids and I decided to stay at my parents this weekend. First, we decorated here. We put upo all of our lights and decorations. The kids put up all of the window clings, including some in their rooms.

On Saturday, we had a birthday party at my grandmas then the kids went to a Halloween party. The babe and I rested and just hung out. I rented What Happens in Vegas, which I tried to watch several times in the hospital but was too drugged and tired to make it through. Sunday, Mom came to help me with my antibiotic, then we headed to their house. The kids made caramel apples and carved pumpkins.

My brother and SIL, and nieces came over for dinner and the activities. While I was there, I also got to order my birthday present from Tim, which I got to pick out. I am so excited, it comes tomorrow morning. I bought myself a camera a few years ago. It was the first thing I had been able to buy that was just for me, since I had become a single mom. During our vacation to Bryce Canyon in July, I dropped my camera coming down Bryce Canyon. So, for my birthday, I am getting this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830120285&nm_mc=OTC-C173T&cm_mmc=OTC-C173T-_-Digital+Cameras-_-Canon+USA++Inc.-_-30120285
No more stupid crappy phone pics! I get real pictures! I cannot wait, I am like a little kid on Christmas Eve.

James fell asleep in his swing during dinner. It was so cute. Here is him just waking up.
And a pic of Grandpa and James:

We all had a great time!

What would an update be

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:08:00 +0000

without a bunch of new baby James pics?

I'm back ;)

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:47:00 +0000

And I swear I am going to get this updated. There is so much to share. I went in for a hysterectomy October 1st and ended up with infection and was there 18 days. Here's the long/short version of what happened.

This a c and p from one of my boards.

At my 6 wk check up after James, I had an abnormal pap. I went in for a culposcopy, the cells were severely abnormal and were advancing fast, since my pap in Nov was normal. My cervical canal was too narrow for them to remove the cells. I was done having children(my tubes were tied). So my dr. and I made the decision to do a hysterectomy abdominally since I had had three c/s's. My hyster was Oct. 1st. I went in, surgery went well, but was lengthy. He removed 3 1/2 in of scar tissue and gave me a bonus 2 1/2 in tummy tuck I was running a very lowgrade fever but did my discharge paperwork fri night, my dr came in sat morning to discharge me and my fever had spiked to 101. They kept me and a barrage of tests started. They did:
EKG
3 CT scans
a TON of blood workblood cultures
HIDA scan
u/s of abdomen
u/s of legs for bloodclots
xrays of my lungs and a bunch I cant remember.

I had my reg dr, an infectious disease dr, and a surgeon seeing me daily. For a week and a half they couldnt figure out was wrong, I was on high dose antibiotics, and they kept me pretty drugged so a lot of t is a blur. Two weeks ago tonight, my fever spiked to 104, and they couldnt get it down. They made the decision to go in vaginally to remove the mesh they had put by my bladder thinking my body was rejecting it. They also wanted to get a look at the small mass that was forming in my pevis that they could see in the last CT scan. They couldnt get it vaginally, so went in with a scope in my belly button and still nothing. They ended up reopening my incision. My poor incision runs hip to hip They took out the mesh, the mass, and put in two drains. I still had the fever, and they switched abx again. It made me deathly ill, so after two days I made them switch my abx back. My fever broke last Saturday and they let me go home. Somewhere about 3/4 of the way thru my stay, I gave up. I had been pumping and dumping every 2 hrs for sweet baby James the whole time, and after the second surgery, it was too much I was physically exhausted, I couldnt do it anymore. I had fought so dang hard to keep nursing him and keep my milk in, but it just was too hard. I could barely get out of bed. So I quit. Now that I am home, I am costantly nursing him, and my milk is slowly coming back. I think we are making huge progress. He went right back to nursing easily, its just a matter of getting my supply back up. If you have any suggestions please throw them at me. I am hoping my Dr. will clear me on Monday to take Reglan, but last week he wanted me to wait becuase of the ten millions meds I was already on. I am now down to two meds. I still have my Picc line in and give myself IV abx every day and give myself a shot of Lovanox every day. But, I am home with my kids. And that is the best. I am getting stronger very day and am doing great.Here's some pics:

The roses the kids bought me:

My pretty arms:

The tooth fairy is going broke

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:47:00 +0000

Payton lost one of his front teeth after over a year since he lost his two bottom teeth. It has been losse for weeks and it finally fell out. Two days later, the other front tooth fell out. So, now he has a big huge gap in the front of his mouth. Alexis also had a molar pulled on the day in between Payton losing his two. Pulled molars pay big bucks from the tooth fairy ;)

These are after losing the first tooth.

Payton showing off his tooth.

New random pictures of the kids

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:43:00 +0000

What would an update be without new pics of my beautiful children? Sweet baby James sleeping in an outfit that Payton wore when he was two lol.

Payton promoting peace ;)

Alexis ignoring her brother.

new baby James pics:

Oh my goodness, I have some major updating to do!

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:15:00 +0000

I have been meaning to get to this for two weeks, but life has been unbelievably crazy around here. So much to tell, some very exciting, some unbelievably sad. But, all extremely important in my little life. I am going to try to go back as far as I can and get you all updated. This may take several posts. Two weeks ago, some of the girls from my downline and I got together to make dreams boards. It was just such an enlightening experience for me to let go a little bit of my goals, and to actually dream. I had small things and big things on there. Material and non material, but all importnast to me inb some small aspect. My sitter brought James to me to nurse and he fell aseep on the shoulder of one of the girls in my downline. He was so comfy. I was able to spend some time with some of the girls and really get to chat with them. It was great. Thanks girls.

I finally got my two dozen prefolds in the mail that I ordered quite awhile ago. I got them prepped and thw two older kids and I took on the job of dying them pretty colors. I was in charge of orange, Alexis did black, and Payton did blue. James slept in his swing nearby LOL. Here is our finished poroduct in bad light. I swear I am getting a new cam for my birthday, and my pics will get better. Im so mad I broke mine in Bryce Canyon. . When we were done, we all took off our gloves, and poor little Lex's hands were dark black. . We scrubbed and soaked for hours. I finally had to mix a little bleach and water to get them decent enough to go to school. We had a blast dying them though ;)

I got all of my banana bread done. My mom, and Jessica and I spent all day last Wednesday making 60 meals, (30 for my family and 30 for Jessica's) It took us about 12 hours burt was very rewarding when we finished. Heres what 60 meals look like crammed into a freezer LOL. Jon (my brother) and i are going to get my new deep freeze tomorrow. I am so excited to get it. Oh, I also froze 15 bags of corn last week as well. I never made it to peaches or tomoatoes but worse things have happened. So many other things have happened the last two weeks, but they all deserve their own posts, so I'll keep blogging away.

Preparation and Procrastinatron

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:22:00 +0000

Knowing a month in advance of my upcoming hysterectomy allows me a few weeks to prepare for the time I will be down. The baby and I are flying to Reno for three days in two weeks for Summit for the ACS Relay for Life training. Four days after we get back, we leave for Chicago to go see Tim! Wahoo! Two days after I get home, I go in for surgery. Six weeks after y surgery is my wedding. So, until I leave for Reno, I will be busy getting everything ready for my down time. There are a few things I want to accomplish before then.

1. Make 200 mini loaves of banana bread. I finally figured out the recipe and the right amt today. Here is the finished bread.
I made 80 mini loaves today, 120 to go :)

2. Pump approx. 150 oz or about 30-5oz bottles of breastmilk to have for James when I am under anesthia and on drugs. This has been difficult since this is in addition to the amount that I am nursing him. I am averaging about 2-4oz bottle a days. I have 20 oz. so far.

3. Make 30 freezer meals, so my family doesn't starve while I am down. I am preparing to do this, selecting my recipes. I want to have my complete menu and shopping list ready when I leave for Reno. I will be shopping the morning after I get back from Chicago and spend the next day cooking all 30 meals.

4. Can peaches and tomatoes and freeze corn and green peppers. This is at the minimum. I would like to do at least these four things this year, and then branch out to more veggies/fruits next year.

5. Do as much wedding stuff as I can. I went shopping for my flowers last week with Melissa. I really wanted her to do my flowers and since she is moving to Atlanta, we decided to do silk instead of fresh. She finished them up today and brought them over. Sorry for the crappy pics, my camera broke. My bouquet:

Nat's bouquet:

Throw bouquet:

Alexis' corsage is on the left. It is a wristlet. The one on the right is what my mom's, and both my grandma's look like.

Boutonierre(sp?): Tims, the middle is what ric's, my dad's, my grandpa's, and Payton's all look like. The tiny one on the right is for little James.

So, now that I have made myself look all prepared, let me show you my procrastination today. On Thursday, Payton's teacher sent a note home stating that Payton is going to be the start of the week next week and to send some items to hang on the wall for several different categories. I remembered this at about 5:30 pm today. So, here are a few of what I put together.

My Family:
My Favorite Place:

My Favorite Book:

My Favorite Toy:

And since our day would not be complete without a picture of James, here is one Payton took.

How freaking cute is he? And so begins the banana bread

wjrelay@gmail.com (Angie) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 05:33:00 +0000

The pictures of James keep getting better and better because apparently I have nothing better to do than to take a ton of pics of him. This is my second favorite pic ever, next to the eyebrow one.
James is just starting to play with toys, so big brother gave him his giraffe to play with while I was getting him settled for bed tonight. He LOVED it, wouldn't let go of it.

So, for our wedding I am making 200 mini loaves of banana bread for our wedding favors. My goal is to finish them in the next two weeks before I leave for Reno, and I am freezing them asI make them. I am using Tim's mother's recipe for banana bread which I got from his sister. I made my first batch tonight and they actually turned out really well. I am 10 down, 190 to go LOL. I was going to use the mini loave pans but decided to do the mini bundt pans. I am going to put a poem and our wedding info on little scrolls and put them in the center, then wrap them in tulle with a ribbon in our wedding colors. Here is a mini from the first batch.