Half term hum drums

Our half-term for school was the week before last and this half-term was, needless to say, somewhat eventful. I had a midwife appointment on the Monday, which indicated high blood pressure. The midwife was threatening to send me to hospital, but Simon was away and there way just no way that I wanted to spend time in hospital, so I protested...and won! Whilst we were at the midwife appointment, James ran around the room and knocked his eye on a chair...which ended up in us all having to spend an hour in A&E. Not very helpful in lowering blood pressure!

Wednesday, I had to get some bloods taken for my hospital appointment on Friday. The problem is that I spend ages at the surgery and about 5 pokes later, the nurse decided she couldn't get blood from me, so I had to get it done at the hospital anyway. Not an unusual experience for me, as I'm cursed with deep veins!

Friday was my hospital appointment in Bath. I was paranoid that they were going to keep me in hospital for ages, so I prepared for the worst. The good news is that my blood pressure had returned back to normal. I got to see the thyroid specialist, too, who upped my dose of medication. Yipee! I'm feeling more energetic from it already! The bad news is that they think I'm just going to get pre-eclampsia again, so I have to go into Bath every 4 weeks for a scan until I get induced. I also have to see the midwife and get bloods in-between hospital appointments, so I'm just going to be spending my life at hospitals. Apparently, with pre-eclampsia, you have it the first baby and never again, or you have it with every pregnancy. The obstetrician was shocked that all my children were from the same father b/c I didn't have pre-eclampsia with Chloe, my 2nd child. I'm not sure I even convinced her that Simon was, indeed, the father of each of my children! Never mind! I did have another scan, but they still couldn't tell what the sex was, so I'll have to wait until 30 weeks.

Other than that, half-term was relaxing. I loved not doing the school run. You wouldn't think it was such a big deal b/c school is only a 2 minute walk down the road, but I hate how it rules my life! I loved not having to get everyone dressed until 10am! Life is grand!
I was pleasantly surprised to find the children cuddling on the couch while I made dinner. The silence was scaring me b/c that usually means I'm going to have some major clean-up!


James is always filling bags up and wearing his dressing gown. All of my children start out life by closing their eyes when I tell them to smile for the camera. My eyes are small and squint when I smile, and my children interpret the squinting as closing. The children I nannied for in London also started closing their eyes for pictures. I really don't know how to prevent it!

For one night during half-term, the children got to sleep in their tent in the girls room. James was not meant to be part of the equation, but he was so gutted that we had to let him. The children didn't get much sleep that night!

Another snow note...

I found some pics on my friend's facebook profile that reminded me of something else I wanted to share about our snow day. I was REALLY, REALLY ill the first day of the big snow. I don't remember the last time I was so ill. I could hardly move. Anyway, that morning my friend Grace called me and asked if she and another friend, Lauren, could take James and Chloe out to play in the snow. They saved the day for them because there was no way that I was going to be able to do much with them, even inside in the warmth. I was bummed to miss the snow, but I'm so grateful they came and made sure my kids had a fantastic time. I feel so blessed to live where I live and be surrounded by the fantastic friends I have here. Chippenham is the best!

Lauren and Grace

My froggy man

Chloe having fun

The next day, Grace called me again and asked if she could come and play with all the children for the day. She's awesome, and the only reason I got a nap and didn't have to feel guilty about giving my children a rotten day because I was ill! Thanks Grace! xx

Snow

Now that the snow has, finally, melted I decided to post some pics. It was so bad here that Sophia's school and our church was cancelled. It lasted for a couple of weeks, but turned into ice. It was fun skating along the sidewalks!The girls making a snowman.

James in the back garden.

Chloe, posing on the night before the big snow.

James attempting to shovel.

The front of the house.

25 Randoms

I did this on facebook and thought it was so much fun! I believe everyone on here has 25 things about themselves that I would love to hear more about, so please do it! I'm not going to tag anyone, individually, I just want you all to do it! I'll add some more pics later, too, as I have some really great ones to go along with this post, but my scanner is out of order at the moment.

Rules:Once you've been tagged, you have to write a post with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1) I have become completely normal and boring and I could have never envisioned that my life could be so happy, being as completely normal and boring as I truly am!

2) I stalked Simon. I knew I was going to marry him before he even asked me out. I freaked out after he first talked to me b/c he was going home for Easter and I thought he would forget about me. To prevent this from happening, I looked up his parents address on a Greece Mission website and sent him an Easter card. It did the job and I'm glad it didn't scare him!

3) My brothers are pretty strong guys and whenever they would come after me, my only defense mechanism was to moon them. It worked! They wouldn't come near me!

4) When I first came to London I didn't have anywhere to stay, so I booked myself into a youth hostel and stayed in a room with 4 Australian guys and 2 German girls. It's one of the most random things I've ever done b/c I didn't know a thing about London and I didn't know a soul in the whole of England.

5) I hate it when it's cold and wet outside. Can you believe I actually love living in England, though?!

6) My biggest pet peeve is blind, uneducated voting. Is it really so hard for people to take the time to find out about what the candidates really stand for and what they've voted for in the past before making a stupid decision?? I'd rather you just didn't vote if all you're going to do is listen to the rubbish that the candidates throw out at us and not actually look at what they're going to do when they get into office!

7) When I was 14, I was in a model search and chosen by the New York modeling agency, NAME. There were 400 potentials at the search and only 20 of them were chosen by 10 different agencies from NY. I know it's hard to believe that it happened to me, but it's true!

8) Tedi Herlihy and I used to go around Page in my convertible and slap tourists on the butt as we drove by them. It was so funny! I love small town fun!

9) I would love to serve a mission with Simon in a place like Africa. I also want to serve a temple mission, but Simon isn't as into it. I love the temple!!!

10) I wish I was more acedemic. I'm not stupid and I can carry on an intelligent conversation. I just worry b/c Simon went to one of the top universities in the UK and I believe he's going to be really disappointed if any of our children are as unacedemic as I was.

11)When I was in college, I used to go skinny dipping with my church friends in high school swimming pools at night. We nearly got caught one time!

12) I wish I had an amazing singing voice. I can carry a tune and I'm not tone deaf, but I would love if my voice was just beautiful!

13) I used to intern for the MTV show, 'Singled Out'. It was the funnest job, ever! I also used to help out doing wardrobe at the 'Tonight Show', occasionally.

14) Here's one that the Page folk probably won't believe, considering the cars I used to drive growing up, but I am completely uninterested in materialism. I don't have a fancy car, my house is pretty normal, and I could care less what label my clothes have. I hate how materialism rules so many lives. Can't we get our priorites straight?

15) In college, my friends used to call my car the 'Pope Mobile' b/c if I was driving they couldn't cuss, drink, or go home with anyone other than me. We had a problem with some girls going home with random guys they met in Hollywood, so that's why the last rule was included. Oddly enough, my friends always wanted to go with me and they would always go on about how much fun they had that their parents would entirely approve of. I didn't go to a church school and none of my roommates were Mormon.

16) One of the reasons I wouldn't want to move to the States right now is b/c my children would lose their English accents. Is that silly or what?

17) I'm an open book, but there are some things that I just think would be too shocking for this note. I'd tell them to you if you asked me, though.

18) Here's a random about Simon. He's really musical, so most people just think he listens to classical music all the time, which isn't far from the truth, but the other type of music he spends most of his time listening to is rave. I always have to laugh at his conflicting musical interests!

19) I used to be employed by a modeling agency in Beverly Hills to scout new talent and to style their photo shoots. It was fun, but put me off the whole world of modeling.

20) We really want to have a house in Page and a house here when Simon retires, but I worry that I won't really want to spend as much time in Page anymore b/c I've made my home here.

21) Simon didn't kiss me for a whole month after we started dating. It was torture!!!

22)Simon and I have never had a fight in all the 9 years that we've known each other. The funny thing is that whenever I have a dream about Simon I'm always really angry at him b/c of the horrible, unreasonable person he is in my dreams.

23) I have hypothyroidism. It's the most common genetic disease in America. I have to take medication for it for the rest of my life and I still am always cold and tired from it. I also have to work harder than anyone I know to lose and keep off weight.

24) I'm 6 feet tall and I've always considered that I was a tall girl, but Simon has 2 cousins, who are girls, and are taller than me and they don't think that I'm tall.

25) I've been blessed to have everything I've ever wanted in life. I've had some pretty lofty goals that I've fulfilled, but my biggest goal was always to get married in the temple and have lots of children. I am just so grateful that all of my dreams have come true. I love life!

National Health...Ha Ha!

For the past 4-5 weeks, someone in our family has been ill, pretty much every day. All three of my children had slapcheeks disease, which I couldn't discover until they came out in the rash, by which time it's too late. I seem to get a bug, just when someone else recovers, just so I don't miss out on being forced to sympathise with all the sick patients in my home! It was all just getting a bit ridiculous!

Anyway, James had a high temperature for 4 days in a row last week and he was just a mess. I couldn't do anything without him getting upset and clinging onto me for dear life, so I resorted to the idea that all I was able to do was sit and watch dvd's all day. I couldn't understand what was wrong with him, though, b/c the only symptom he had was this temperature that just didn't want to take a walk!

On the third day of his temperature, I decided it was time to see the doctor about his temperature, hoping for some advice. The only problem is that over here, my children don't get to see a doctor for the first visit, they get to see the nurse and if they want to see the doctor after that, then you have to make an appointment for the doctor to call you to book an appointment with them. It's such a hassle, that I rarely ever bother to go through with it! So, I booked with the nurse and took James to the surgery, where the nurse saw that he had a high temperature, checked his ears, breathing, etc., and then proceeded to check the internet to diagnose what was wrong with him. Can you believe it?! After a million possibilities showed up on the search engine, she turned to me and said that she didn't know what was wrong with him, as it could be a number of things. Thank you so much for the information!! I could have come up with that conclusion all on my own! She then proceeded to tell me that it was not necessary to go to the doctor and just go home and keep loading him up on the Calpol.

I then mentioned to her that I had seen on the internet that slapcheek can cause complications to pregnant women who have been exposed to it, after which she again turned to her computer and found that what I was saying was right, but as I was over 20 weeks, the computer said that I shouldn't worry about it.

Uh, thanks for the confidence! You put all my worries to rest with your Googling! I can't believe that our tax money is paying for service that seems to be the equivalent of something out of a dodgy back alley!

To all my fellow Americans, you're in for a rude awakening when Obama starts throwing out his National Health policies at you! Most of you I know didn't vote for him, but for those of you who did...thanks a ton!