If you noticed things seem different - they are. I am changing the look of the blog over the next couple of days. It is something that I've been meaning to do forever.

Fall baseball has been quite something else. Every year Spencer has played baseball in the spring, soccer in the fall, and Tae Kwon Do year round. We stopped TKD after our move (he has his jr. black belt) and Spencer decided he wanted to play baseball year round. In the past he has been one of the better players on his team. We had no idea when we signed up for fall baseball that these kids meant serious business. We went from a team who spent their pre-game time tickling each other to a team who has hour long drills before each game and SUPER intense parents who are living vicariously through their kids. One mom even kicks, screams, and completely loses it if her kid misses a ball. Seriously. Anyway, at the start of the season Spencer was definitely behind. We talked to him about it and he said he didn't care he just wanted to play ball. He has worked very very hard this season and has improved tremendously. Last Saturday he was the first kid to get a second "game ball." If you don't know what that is, at the end of the game the coach picks the kid he thinks deserves the ball. I am so proud of Spencer for perservering and never giving up. It has been a good season.

This past Sunday I was called to be the Young Women's Secretary. It is kind of bittersweet. While I absolutely LOVE being in YW, if I hadn't gotten sick I would be teaching seminary right now. I just stayed for opening exercises this Sunday (the pain has started again - so I had to go home), but it seems like a wonderful bunch of girls. I am excited to get to know them all.

Ella has been sneaking into my bathroom at night and getting into my makeup. We know she is up to no good when the door is locked. Two nights ago, she was in there being very quiet with the door locked. We were expecting a huge mess but when we got in there it was clean except for a few paper cups on the floor. I moved her into bed and talked to her for a few moments. This is how our conversation went:

Me: You can't go into mommy's bathroom and lock the door.
Ella: I got a cup and drank, and drank, and drank.
Me: What did you drink?
Ella: Water.
Me: Oh, did daddy get you water?
Ella: No I got it.
Me: Did you get water from the sink?
Ella: No.
Me: Where did you get the water from?
Ella: The toilet - it has lots of water. I drank, and drank, and drank.

Fun, huh?

So Ella lately (I should say ever since she's been potty trained) on average only goes to the bathroom about twice a day. She stays dry all night but just refuses to use the bathroom during the day unless we physically drag her in there. So today she started crying while she was going to the bathroom saying "it hurts so bad." So I was convinced she had a UTI from holding her urine in. Of course this discovery didn't come until after normal business hours so into germ infested urgent care we had to go. We made a couple of discoveries there:

1. My daughter is amazing at peeing in a cup. She can squat right over that thing and go. It is actually quite tempting just to give her paper cups rather than fight over using the toilet.
2. She does not have a UTI - she has a bathroom control issue. Who Ella?
3. She does, however, have impetigo and swollen lymph nodes. Spencer has been complaining of a sore throat and so have I - so I have got to get him into his pediatrician. I, however, already have 3 more doctor's appts this week so one of them I'm sure can check my throat.

I was just relieved to get out of there with a diagnosis. Lance came with me and he would not have been to happy had I dragged us to urgent care for nothing.

Ella looked so dang cute this morning I had to post this picture. Getting her to smile for the camera is a very rare occurrence, usually her tongue is stuck out. I wanted to take one of Spencer also but he was taking a little bit longer to get ready and we ran out of time. It has been almost 3 months since I have been to chuch. I wanted desperately today to at least take the sacrament, but this week I came down with unexplained fevers. I decided last minute to go to chuch. It made me really sad that even though I was dressed for church when it was time to walk out the door, both kids turned and said "Bye mom." I can't even explain how nice it was to be in church again. I was only able to stay for sacrament meeting but the spirit was so strong and I am so glad I went. It was nice to see friends again and it was so nice to partake of the sacrament. Maybe next week I'll be able to stay longer.

I woke up yesterday morning to the sounds of Lance doing Pilates with the kids in Spencer's bedroom. I heard the DVD start and then I heard two things. Spencer said "Dad, will this help me with my yo-yo or baseball skills?" and right in succession Ella said "Uh-oh I stuck." I loved it. It is so indicative of their two little personalities. Sweet Spencer who outweighs the cost versus benefit of everything and Ella who jumps right in without realizing her limitations. I would have gone in and taken a pic but then they would have known I was awake :)

How cute are the cousins? We are really lucky that Lance's brother and family moved to North Carolina this summer so we can see each other more often. We went to DC to the look at the monuments. The kids had a blast. It was fun to see them getting along so well.

We celebrated Ella's birthday very very late this year. She turned 3 July 30th but we didn't tell her until September 1st. I was just too sick. It turned out great though. Lance's brother and his family were in town and Maddi's actual birthday was on September 1st, so we made it a day for the girls. We started by taking them to Build A Bear.


The girls both made the same adorable bunnies and got matching backpacks to carry the bunnies in. Maddi named her's "Ella." We went to Chuck E Cheese that night for the party. Boy do I hate that place - but the kids sure love it. Here are some pics from that night:



We let the girls sleep together in the same bed one of the nights they were here and it was so funny. We would hear them giggle and talk but the second they heard footsteps coming it would get dead silent and they would pretend to be asleep. Ella is the master at that. It was great having the 2 girls turn 3 together.

One of the best things about moving to the DC area has been being around my cousins again. There was a time we spent almost every day of our lives together when we were kids. Although there were several years of our lives that we weren't in communication, when we met up again it was as if nothing had changed. It is neat to find people who completely understand you and love you for who you are.

It has been fun to watch our kids interact. We catch them playing the same games we used to play and it brings back so many memories. The kids get along really well. Kiya is Ella's second mom even though we see her the least often of the bunch. I am so lucky to have such cool family around me. The last picture is of three of my cousins and I a couple Christmas's ago. I have got to take more pics with me actually in them. Don't we look hot?

Last week was insane. Completely crazy. It was almost as if I was a completely different person. I had a horrible medication reaction and felt all the time like I was jumping out of my skin and I could not stop moving. I literally paced up and down the stairs of my townhouse. I could not calm down. In a moment of sheer desperation, I went to my chronic pain clinic to see if some of the relaxation techniques could help me. It was a disaster. While everyone else was laying on the floor breathing, I was pacing in the back of the room. Anyway, I went down to the pharmacy to wait for my mom. The pharmacy at Kaiser is the main enterance to the hospital. There are constantly people walking back and forth and waiting for prescriptions. I was pacing and crying - I must have looked schizophrenic. In the midst of this, a woman came up to me and said "Are you a believer?" I answered yes. She put one hand on my shoulder and one hand in mine. She said "we are not going to worry about the people around us or anything else, we are going to pray to Jesus." This wonderful soft spoken woman prayed with me for several minutes and then recited some Bible versus that talked about peace. She stayed with me until I was calm, something that none of the meds the doctors had tried had been able to do.

I have been thinking about this all week. Would I have gone up to someone in my situation? Probably not. Will I now? Yes. She taught me a lot last Tuesday morning.

Well I wanted to put a picture up but am too new at this blogging thing to figure out how to put up a pic from the web. So here's a link for anyone curious:

http://www2.oprah.com/index.jhtml

Jenny McCarthy was on Oprah today. Let's just say normally she is far on the bottom of my list of celebs. But she completely blew me away today and I am now one of her #1 fans.

If you missed the show, try and get a copy. Unbelievable. Freaking unbelievable. The topic was autism and she shared how she saved her son from its grasp. Funny, it's exactly what I did with Spencer 6 years ago. It gave me chills to watch it. It was the first time that I've seen on TV where they have openly talked about the gluten free/casein free diet and vaccine connection without scientists completely slamming the idea. She said when are we going to wake up and LISTEN TO THE MOMS. I consider myself very blessed that I was led 6 years ago to this diet and found the information to help save my son from Asperger's grasp. I recorded the show and have watched it twice already today. She was very well spoken and articulated her ideas and concepts much better than I could have. I am just so excited that this message is getting out there.

"There is hope, there is faith, there is recovery."

Off my soapbox for now :)

I don't care how many times he reminds me his age, he's still my baby. Spencer started 4th grade this year and it just seems to be one of those BIG years to me. Maybe it's because that's when I really start to have firm memories of my childhood. He is LOVING school this year. He comes home every day with more and more things to tell me about what he is learning. I haven't seen him this excited in awhile. We have a busy year ahead of us with him. He is currently playing fall baseball, taking viola lessons, and working hard on getting his Bear in cub scouts (he just completed his wolf). I am proud of the young man he is becoming but miss my little boy. The days with this one are just going too fast.

I read this quote the other day from Anna Quindlen and it seemed appropriate for the start of my blog:

"...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

So here's to living in the moment more and appreciating every day for what it is - a miracle.