Apartment hunting

For starters this is not an announcement that we are moving... Ryan has some good looking prospects but no official job offers on the table YET.

Still I like to look at what's available in the areas he is interviewing [cough** San Luis Obispo** cough] (something I've been reassured is semi normal.)

I find myself at times overwhelmed by the factors which we will need to take into consideration when deciding where to live...

-price

-proximity to work

-laundry options

-square footage

-storage

-how modern it looks inside

-floor plan

-neighborhood

-what appliances are included

-bedrooms

-amenities

-utilities included

and more!

So my question is what are your priorities and how have you decided on a place if you've ever had to move to a city you've never been to?

We've pretty much decided that if the time comes we are going to stick with a cheaper 2 br place in a cheaper neighboring city until we've made a nice dent in paying off student loans.

Today I like this one -click to view- but that could change by tomorrow ;)

Oh so discouraging!

Warning: Whining!

So I'll start by acknowledging the good before rambling about the bad. If your child is going to born with a birth defect their are much worse options than congenital cataracts. The fact is, Kevin has one good eye and not having one eye work is not life threatening or anything of the sort. Also I am so glad we had insurance to cover his 2 surgeries and that Primary Children's also did approve us for some financial assistance on what insurance didn't cover. Also I know lots of children rack up way more medical expenses than Kevin has even though it feels like he has cost us so much.

Kevin's 90 days post op appointments (included in the cost of the surgery) are now over which means we get to pay for all his appts. Ryan is still applying and interviewing for jobs regularly but as of yet there are still no official job offers on the table which means no insurance and not nearly enough cash to make up the difference.

Kevin has tried several different kinds of lens' but they all cost a lot of money and get lost all the time. I have reached my breaking point and can not bring myself to order a new one to replace the latest one which was last seen on Tuesday. He is very mobile now so it could be anywhere including down the shower drain or toilet.

When the lens' are not lost and are in his eye they spend 80% of their time hiding in the top of his eye doing him absolutely NO GOOD. It is nearly impossible to get them down and he hates it when you try... makes you feel so awful.

To top it off I'm supposed to not only magically get the lens' to stay in his eye and in place but also patch his good eye to force him to use the bad one for a couple hours a day... Let me just tell you that this is MUCH easier said than done.

When he has a patch on he freaks out. Literally does not stop screaming until he forces himself to sleep as a defense against having to try. Also he is pretty strong and smart now so he is very skilled at getting off all kinds of said patches. It feels so pointless to spend time holding and attempting to console him while forcing him not to rip the patch off if he is just going to close his eyes 15 minutes later anyway.

Everyone asks why not make him wear goggles so the lens can't get lost and the doctor who does the lens fitting said that he would just take it off the same way he takes off patches.

People ask why not glasses... For one he wouldn't leave them on either but more importantly I don't think they would do the trick because they wouldn't be strong enough.

Dr. Larson told me after Kevin's failed IOL implant that he could possibly stitch a lens to the inside of Kevin's eye. I'm at the point where I am ready for this option but then we are back to the money issue. No money and no insurance would make for a very interesting surgical situation.

I feel so trapped. I used to be positive about the whole thing but as he's getting older and things are getting harder I just get so discouraged. I feel like so much pressure is just weighing on my shoulders to make this work but I have no idea how. Kevin and his doctors are depending on me to get him to see and I feel like I've failed.

My Kids

Called me biased but I think my kids are pretty dang cute... hahaha. Ok so in reality in most of these videos they look totally white trash but they still make me laugh!

One of Kaylee's latest hobbies is trying to make Kevin laugh. It's so cute.

She also likes to get him his bottle or pacifier and tell him "I know it's all right sweetie" and things of that nature. She likes to share her food with him and whether or not I approve he LOVES IT!

Kevin is real crawling now and no longer scoots all over on his stomach!

He says mama all the time but I'm not sure he's saying it in reference to me yet.

He is kind of stubborn about sleeping sometimes so he won't go to sleep until he just can't go any longer...

He's hilarious!
I have to admit I was all about sleep training via crying it out the moment Kaylee reached the recommended age. Kevin has been a different story. For one thing I read an article that said us people in the west are the only ones who expect babies to sleep like adults and that their developing brains need to be nourished even at night. While that may be true, I have to admit the real problem is just that he doesn't have his own room to cry in.
He slept in a mini pack n play in our room and sometimes in our bed for most of his life so far and I finally put the pack n play away forever and am making slow progress on getting him to sleep in his crib in Kaylee's room. Last night was one of our best.

This might be sacrilegious to put on the internet but the first time she did this I could barely contain my laughter so I had to record it the next time she did it.


I posted Kaylee singing the ABC's a long time ago. It's still her favorite song and she often sings it and twinkle twinkle one after the other ad nauseam. These days she has added a few other songs to her song list and is always singing. Contrary to what this video shows she can actually carry a tune quite well. She just likes to make up her own melodies to things hence you will only recognize the words this song...

Update from Anonymous

To be fair, anonymous has reached out and apologized and from where I stand the whole thing is in the past.

Dear Annonymous

(I had an anonymous comment on some of my previous blogs and since she was not willing to reveal her identity to me then I am responding in a blog and hoping she for some reason still reads my blogs even though she didn't like what I had to say.)

Dear Anonymous,

I feel like you completely misunderstood me. As I read your comments I kept wondering is it my blog she is commenting on? It's as though you feel like my blog is a personal attack on you and based on what you said, it appears I don't even know you.

I said almost the same thing as you regarding labor options... Know your options and do what is best for you. I'm really happy you enjoyed all your labors and i don't see how my comments diminished that fact in any way.

I have no problem with you deciding that vaccinating is what is best for your children. I'm curious though as to why you think not vaccinating my children is a religious decision? I didn't mention anything about religion. For your information I do actually know how many vaccines the church sends over seas. I've considered this fact in my personal decision not to vaccinate. You asked if I thought the church would do this if vaccines were bad and my answer is yes. They are very well meaning in doing so. The church is full of many wonderful people who want to help others and based on the most popularly held ideas on vaccines the people over the philanthropic branches of the church would think this a great use of their funds.

I know it's hard to watch your children be administered vaccines because I've done it but trust me if watching them cry and dealing with their fussiness was the only reason I didn't like vaccines I'd buck up and deal with it. I like any parent am terrified of my children catching a bad disease and if I believed that simply giving them a vaccine was the solution I would do it in a heart beat. I suppose I wasn't clear enough in my message so let me restate it clearly now: I do not give my children vaccines because I believe them to be unsafe and ineffective in doing what they claim to do.

As for your comments regarding my post on teaching chastity I feel you misunderstood my message. I suppose my word choice in saying that "the church's teachings fall short" is not exactly what I should have put. When I said that what I meant is thatwhat the leaders often teach falls short. I am well aware of the churches stance on the subject because I majored in Home and Family Living at BYU and had to take many marriage courses surrounding the subject. Hence I can clearly see the disconnect between the churches actual stance on the subject and what is in reality often taught. I feel as though maybe you didn't actually read the article I posted a link to because I think that had you read it you would have better understood the message I was trying to convey. Again this is not a personal attack on your teaching. For all I know you could be wonderful at teaching chastity to your young women. The point is that as a whole we still have a large amount of problems with promiscuity even within the church.

I am confused by your comment about people feeling guilt for their sins. I have re read the blog to try and figure out where on earth this came from and I am at a loss. I never once said anything about people not needing to feel guilt for their sins. You are attacking me on a point I never tried to make. Realizing that what you've done is wrong is part of repentance and I never said anything contrary. My only guess is that you are referring to my quote from the article itself but if you would read the quote carefully it says "Some might say" in reference to other people who are looking on the sinner and is not talking about the sinner them self.

And lastly your comment on having ugly children (which is not what I said I wanted) was completely and totally uncalled for! In the words of Elder Joseph B Wirthlin, "Kindness is the essence of a celestial life. Kindness is how a Christlike person treats others."

I'm sorry if I said things that offended you but I have to say that it is my blog and I didn't ask you to read it. I even said in my post that if you didn't want to read about my minority opinions then you did not have to keep reading.

Consider the golden rule.

Sincerely,

Stacey

Funny Story

So today when I was getting in the shower in an attempt to prevent Kevin from getting into trouble and falling down stairs (since he only knows how to go up them) I stuck him in his high chair with gold fish and cheerios.

When I came downstairs this is what I found...

He had crawled out of the chair across the GAPING HOLE between the table and high chair then all the way down the table and had devoured the entire banana that had been sitting on the table.

Let me just tell you he thought he was HOT STUFF!

Disneyland and California Adventure

We had a little drama with our original Disneyland plans. We were going to buy our tickets from costco and were shocked to find they were gone. Thanks to an over nighted package from one of Ryan's good friends things worked out for the better since it turned out the day we went was a black out day on the costco tickets.

It was a busy day at the park but we planned things well and did a lot of shows since Kaylee isn't a big ride fan anyway. Ryan got to experience a lot of things he never had before since having all those brothers doesn't usually lead to watching parades or Aladin on stage. (I LOVE the Aladin show!)

We waited to see the princesses but Kaylee really wanted to see Cinderella (She's never seen the movie but insists she is her favorite.) So after seeing Tiona, Ariel, and Jasmine we went and watched Story telling with Cinderella


Shortly after that was the "Coronation Ceremony" with Cinderella, Snow White, and Aurora. Somehow of all the kids there Cinderella decided to grab Kaylee by the hand and walk with her. Then she gave her a kiss on the cheek! 2 year olds dream come true.





We went out of our way to make sure we saw Disney Junior live on stage. You have to understand that Disney Junior is Kaylee's life! If it weren't for renting hour long Little Einsteins from the library I probably would not have graduated.

She was MESMERIZED!


We wanted good seats tot the parade so my mom sat and waited with the kids while Ryan and I went on the new Star Tours (which did still make me sick dang it) The standby time was 2 hours! Our fast passes still took a long time.
Since my mom was alone with 2 kids she had a lot of workers come stop and make friends with Kaylee. (I've decided they are trained to just be helpful like that.) Ryan found a balloon and gave it to Kaylee and the black ink on it got all over her so she looks very white trash in this video.


She was cute waving to every character with excitement.

It was a long day but a really fun one. Ryan was so good with Kaylee as usual. It was a great reminder of how lucky I got with him. Having my mom there was a huge help as well. Thanks to both of you!

Las Vegas

On our way to CA we stopped in and stayed with Ryan's grandparents for a few days. Kaylee made lots of friends at the pool and loved being with her great grandparents.



Getting a little sun to try and prepare for Lake Powell later this month.

Six Flags

Lots of pics!

This post is late because I kept forgetting to get pictures from Kristi. I (with a little assistance from Ryan) figured out how to get them off facebook again :)

On Chase and Kristi's anniversary (May 6th) they went to Six Flags and we tagged along. Good times! Me and the kids sat in the back of out Taurus and Chase, Kristi, and Ryan sat up front. It was squishy but that 6th seat comes in handy!
When we first arrived we used a trash can as our photographer to take a picture of us all :)

Ryan had some unexpected work he had to finish up while we were there :-/

We took Kaylee on the log ride knowing she would probably hate all the down hills. SHe did well until the big one at the end...
Before:

After:

We took Kaylee to the kids land and she loved it

There was a room there that was filled with vacuums and guns for soft balls. Chase said it was his favorite place in the park. He's a big kid!

exhausted...

Ryan doesn't like roller coasters... This ride is probably the scariest one I've ever been on and he actually went on it!

Got an official pic in front of the sign on the way out!