St Patricks Day

Happy St Patricks Day! We aren't Irish at all but thought we'd have fun with clover cookies. They looked fabulous but tasted like manure thanks to an accidental doubling of baking soda. Although it broke my heart, we threw them away.

She Bangs

After not having BANGS since 1990, I took the plunge. Angie cut it and was very sweet doing it in stages so I could adjust and not freak out. My family says it's a good change, I am still getting used to it but kind of really like it. I needed to hide my wrinkly, sun damaged forehead and deny my age a little longer. I'm not even old (unless you consider 38 old)...dang this desert sun!

The Parable of the Cactus

Just wanted to share a little experience from Saturday with everyone because it is a really good lesson for us to remember, and it was learned the hard way.

Saturday was spring cleaning day at the Nethercott household. We had everything torn up, wet, outside, and we worked all day. It was cool but sunny so the little kids were outside most of the day in the sunshine somewhere in the yard as all this was happening. My mother in law who lives about 3 houses down from us saw our mess and came down to see if Sadie wanted to come play at her house so we wouldn't have to worry about her getting into trouble and finish up sooner. She had good intentions, however, she is fairly elderly (almost 90) but since Sadie is at a pretty easy stage we sent her down to their house just til we got things put back together. Unfortunately, about 15 minutes later my father in law called to say that Sadie had a little problem and was crying so she needed to come home to mom. Uh oh... my biggest fear is that she has gotten into medications and thought they were mints or something. It turns out the problem was "just" a cactus.

When my mother in law walked her down to her house she put Sadie in their yard and said to her "Sadie, you stay here and I am going to go next door for just a second to water my neighbors plant". Then she went over and watered the plant, turned around and there was Sadie, in the neighbors yard with her and covered with cactus spikes, crying of course. The neighbor had cactus plants in pots, pretty pots, and Sadie decided not to listen to grandma and stay where she was supposed to. I'm sure she didn't see any danger in ignoring grandma and heading over there to check out those interesting plants. The cactus looked soft and fuzzy but when she touched it thousands of little hair-like spikes stuck into her hand. She wiped her hands on her belly to get them off and they stuck into her belly as well. Poor girl.

After hours of tweezing, trying to get them out of her skin with tape, and soaking her in the bathtub, we got her calmed down. Then the lesson in all of this occurred to me. When we aren't obedient because WE may not see the harm in doing what we want, we learn the hard way. I think that sometimes we all think we know better than someone older and wiser who loves us, but often times we learn that there is harm where we thought there was none. And let me add that those spikes were painful, I got some in my hands just from pulling them out of her. Even after they are out, you still feel them. I think that is also how repentance works, the damage we did gets undone, but we still feel the pain for a long time after. This way maybe next time we are told or commanded not to do something, we will remember the pain from the time we disobeyed.

A Little Inspiration

I like to doodle (above picture) to calm myself down. I have been so worried lately. Just stressing out really bad about bills, money, and all the other burdens that are on my shoulders right now (too many to mention and don't we all have a list that is way too long). On top of it all, I won't even get into the sad state of the world. It's been really wearing me down and I have been kind of a nervous wreck, and frankly, I have been very scared. As I was doing laundry today I had a bible verse come to me out of the blue (John 14:27) and it touched me and helped calm me down. Let me assure you that things like this don't happen to me every day, and I'm certainly not a scriptural scholar (though I'd like to be), but since it did hit me out of the blue with a great deal of power, I believe it came as an answer to prayer.

It was just what I needed and maybe it is something that one of you needs to hear so I thought I would post it. It was just a sweet reminder where true peace comes from (not from the world but from the creator of this beautiful world). I am so grateful for this little inspiration that came into my heart today and has brought me back some sense of comfort...

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Sunday Hike

A sunday hike to the river on a beautiful spring day.

Historic St George Temple

Friday was a fun little outing to the St George Temple with all the children from primary (we had 18 show, which is actually a good turnout for our little group). It was crazy with that many in the visitors center but we split into 2 groups and it worked nicely. We toured the display called "Gods plan for the family" and it was really nice. After both groups went through we had cookies on the patio and took pictures of the kids. This was a picture I took of my 2 girls right before the others arrived. It was great to have my heart filled after such a hard week.

SPRING FEVER

I AM AWARE THAT IT IS ONLY FEBRUARY, BUT WHAT THE HECK... LET THEM GET WET, WE ALL HAVE THE "FEVER" ANYWAY, SPRING FEVER THAT IS.

New Season / New Hair

I got really tired of my girls waking up with tangled hair so I took both of the girls to the hair salon last week. No more crying when I brush their hair! Chloe said goodbye to 4 inches of hair and Sadie, very bravely, said goodbye to 7 inches or so. They did great and love their new looks. New Season, new do... I am the next one due to get the makeover and I can't wait! Yippee! Here's to springtime and new clothes as well! Hooray!

A Night in the Emergency Room

Thursday, February 19th was a bad day. Corynn stayed home from school with a stomach ache and I was bummed that the flu had finally hit our family. Around noon she started throwing up and I wanted to keep the other kids away for a while so I took them (Christian, Chloe, and Sadie) to see a movie right after school was out. After the movie I went running and for some reason did the rough 5 miler... little did I know that was stupid because of the night that was ahead of me. After returning from the run, I found her moaning, throwing up, and saying how much pain she was in and holding her side. That's when the red flag went off... not the flu, something more.
I took her to the pediatrician night light clinic about 7 pm who then sent us right over to the emergency room. She was examined by the doctor (who happened to be Dr. Larson, my neighbor) and he thought it might be an appendix attack or even maybe an ovarian cyst. They did a CT scan. The surgeon on call was my other neighbor, Dr Myers. I felt like I had a lot of support because these doctors knew us and were our friends. Turns out it was a cyst, not the appendix.
We waited and waited for the OBgyn on call (who happened to be the doctor that delivered Sadie, another coincidence) and he finally came around 4 am... I was exhausted. He said that I could take her home and give her some pills to try to shrink it but I didn't like that plan. Mothers instinct told me it needed surgery, the pain was too sudden and too intense. Corynn told the doctor that she was too miserable to go home and I said I was too worried about it since it was huge (the size of a golf ball). So we decided to operate. Welcome to womanhood sista!
I was alone in the waiting room at 5:30 am, trying not to cry (not because I was worried, I had faith, but because I get weepy when I'm tired) and mad at myself because I needed to be strong for her. The doctor came out to talk to me at around 7 am and said he was so glad they operated. The cyst had wrapped around itself 2 times cutting of blood supply to an ovary, if he hadn't operated she would have lost the ovary for sure, it would have died. So relieved! We came home at around 9:30 am and slept. She is still sore a couple days later, I think we will try sending her to school tomorrow though.
All is well. No more all nighters in the ER for a long time (or ever again) I hope! This picture (above) was taken of Corynn on the tramp the night before she got sick. We swear she flipped too much and tangled up her tummy!

My Tiny Dancer

Sadie is in love with dance class. She must get it from mom, I fell in love with it in 2nd grade. She lives for it all week and leaves her dance clothes on the rest of the day after she goes to class. She had her studio pictures the other day and was loving it- this was her in the recital tutu, can you see the heaven?! I love it!

Friday the 13th

Today was the Valentines Party at school for Chloe's second grade class that I volunteered to help with. Complications arose as they often do. The day before the party I was called to go pick up Chloe at school because she was sick- she had a 101 degree fever. Then that night I HAD to be at a 4 hour scouting meeting (insane) and came home to a message that the room mom called and is stuck in Salt Lake so I am in charge. I called her back and got the scoop and discovered that not only was she stuck up there, but the teacher Mrs Carlson, was stuck also. There was a road closure due to a bad accident. I knew what we had planned on doing over the phone earlier in the week so I wasn't too upset, just hoping I had some moms show up to help because now 2 of the 4 helping were unable to be there. Must be the fault of it being a friday the 13th!

Chloe woke up this morning still sick, still feverish. It was Dads and Doughnuts today and she went to school loaded up on Tylenol with her dad and I prayed she'd make it there till the party. Now, because I can pull things off when I need to, sometimes I am actually competent, I called my neighbor also with a kid in this class and had her come in to help. Thank you Chris! Sadie was so excited to come and "help" also. (She was an angel!) It all worked out just fine. Two other moms showed up as well and we had tons of food which I wasn't sure we'd have. The kids were very good and the whole thing was pretty calm actually. SO we filled them up with sugary treats and sent them off to lunch and recess. The poor substitute is gonna have some fun afternoon with those monkeys!!

Genetics

I found Sadie sleeping like this the other day. It is an exact, classic position that I find her dad in all the time when he's sleeping. Now imagine it x20 and the "wing span" spreading across the bed- one elbow knocking me in the head. Tony has no idea why I am always pushing his elbows out of my face, someday I WILL be delivered a bloody or broken nose without a doubt. I have been lucky for these 18 years somehow. Just an occasional bonk in the head and I'm pretty tough I guess. Must be genetics... not sure I'm a big fan of this one being passed on but for now it's adorable.