Tis the season...

...For pulling out our 'Charlie Brown' christmas tree we got the first year we were married--the $15 special that stands no taller than myself plus a good 6 inches has paid for itself many a time, and while it is stingy with the branches, with the many ornaments gifted to us from a loving Grandma Hancock & Messel we have been able to bring life to that little tree and make it a beautiful addition to our holiday decorating.  I have to admit it is not my favorite to actually add the ornaments to the tree, but my loving mister is a Christmas geek and he pulls the boxes out as soon as he can after the Thanksgiving meal has concluded and deftly places the sparkling goodness in ways I could not.
...For 'finally' listening to Christmas music--I CANNOT until after Thanksgiving.  I have my favorites and like a meal at Tucanos, where it is not complete until I get the turkey-wrapped bacon, top sirloin & grilled pineapple, it is not officially Christmas for me until I hear "Sleigh Ride"(look up Sleigh Ride, by Leroy Anderson on iTunes)--love, love, love this song.  It does throw me back to high school band concerts, but I crave it, tapping my foot along to the beat.
...For setting up the nativity and decorating the shelves around our little casa--unlike the tree, I get to do the shelves.  When we moved into our little house full of built-ins, some original, some not, there was a particular nook by the front door that begged to be home to my creche.  I simply had to convince the handyman in our couplet to rip out the 70's nod to decor--they ripped out nicely and Jesus, Mary & Joseph have a fine place to stand and be admired.
...For basking in the glow of my children's faces as they emanate pure joy and innocence.  We believe in Santa and I am gleaning a small speck of the magic my own mom provided with this most favorite of holidays.  It lives in the traditions those sweet boys asleep right now have come to expect and hopefully will remember for years and years.
...For getting excited about the food, mmmmmm, food, from Breakfast casserole on Christmas morning to fudge, chocolate-layer dessert, hot chocolate, Shirley's rolls, to Chicken Cordon-Bleu or Chimichangas (yes, I know those sound funny next to each other, but they rotated for Christmas Eve dinner).  My mouth is watering and my waistline is growing thinking about it.  ;)
...For realizing that time does indeed go by much faster than it did when I was 'little', seriously where has the year gone?!  It used to take forever for Christmas to get here and now I will blink and it will be here and gone...So in the meantime I am going to try to enjoy every single second of it, even if I am at work, or tired, or wondering how we are going to make everything work.  Tis the season for soooo much...

I actually finished a project!

So back in the middle of October I started a project with our family pictures (an idea gleaned from one of our student ward bishops--they had all of their family pictures through the years lined-up.)  Props to the local DI and a can of spray paint all of our cute portraits were framed..well, I am proud to say I actually followed through and at 9:30 last night coerced Scott into helping me get the pictures hung on the wall. I got to bed at midnight, a few hours past my original notion of a bedtime...But it was totally worth it! 

Check out our FAMILY ROOM:

a little bonus, completely unrelated to above post...

Scott trying to grow some facial hair--can you see it?  The only way I will let him kiss me is with super fish lips, his "hairs" are prickly and I am NOT a fan...  ;)

All Hallow's Eve

Halloween this year rocked it--I didn't have to work the night before or the night of, and we got to be totally lazy, no school for this non-holiday!  We started out by getting ready for the Wolf Den Halloween party...we made our own individual pizzas, played "In a Pickle", watched Disney's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow", played "eat a doughnut off a string" and then sent them home with a treat bag.

Later we finally carved our pumpkins, there was a little bit of a breakdown as Jorden didn't like how his pumpkin was turning out and Garrett thought it was more fun to dig in the sandbox then in a messy pumpkin, but the end-results were great!  We had dinner, got dressed in costumes, took pics and then left Scott, the garden gnome, to hand-out candy as I took the boys to scour the neighborhood for more candy, fortunately the weather was perfect, no coats under our costumes.  The boys were troopers and we made a pretty good haul.  Poor Garrett got tired by the end and I had to carry him home, but they had a blast, we ended it with a little Face Time with Grandma & Grandpa Messel,  stories, then bedtime...now to think of the next holiday, mercy, where has this year gone?!  

Provo Halloween Half Marathon

Yesterday was my 4th half marathon this year!...our long weekend started Friday by going down to Provo and having a Halloween get-together with my fam complete with a 'barfing' pumpkin and fun games, picking-up my race packet (despite all the chaos reported on the PHHM Facebook page, I did get my packet and a shirt that fit me), and getting to bed with wariness about the alarm clock in my parent's guest room.  Saturday morning started with Scott rolling over, looking at the clock and  yelling at me that it was 6:00 o'clock--I was supposed to get up at 5 so I would be ready to go meet my friends who were parking their car at the finish and drive us all back to the mall where the buses were picking-up runners to take them to the start.  Well my friends hitched a ride and I was able to meet them in line for the 45+ minute wait in butt-clenching cold temperatures, the buses came we wrestled our way on and then got up to the start to wait another hour and a half until the start.  The race started and with a handy app on my phone I hit 'start'--unfortunately the iPod music function was not working on the app and I, again, ran to the beat of runners shoes hitting the pavement.  It was a consistent downhill course and I thought for sure my toe nails were toast.  I had to pause twice, once to tie my shoes and the second to stretch my screaming calve muscles, but I claimed a new PR--2:08:35!!!  

(average of 9:49 minute/mile...my phone app said 2:06:29, either way I am so excited!)

Scott, the boys and my mom made just in time to see me round the corner before I crossed the finish line, that made my day!  After the race I took a grueling ice bath then we made a trip to Salt Lake for a belated surprise birthday party for my nephew and then came back to the Valley and went to Tucanos, walked around The Shops at Riverwoods, then finished building a cool Lego set Scott got from my parents for his birthday/early Christmas.  We ended up sleeping over again at Grammies house and having a nice lazy day.  We stole an idea from Pinterest and carved a pumpkin for Vi to sit in and get pictures.  Then we headed for home.  All in all a great weekend!

Scott is 36!!!

Happy Birthday to my honey!!!

Scott's favorite things:

book (or magazine)--Book of Mormon, Car & Driver, Junk Market

T.V. show--Big Bang Theory, Psych, White Collar, Simpsons, The Middle

drink--Dr. Pepper

food--Sushi, Mexican, Sea Food

people--Family

object--Bug, Travelall

color--red

game (or past-time)--Basketball, home improvement projects, working in the yard

mmm, Tucanos

birthday pie

I don't think he cared that he got a
2012 calendar for his birthday,
it was Lego for crying out loud!

Scott's new VW bus in the driveway...

Why can't I sleep?

To quote a favorite holiday book of ours: "Late one night, I was sound asleep, snoring like a motorcycle, cuddled down deep in my crocodile comforter, snug as a clam, when I thought I heard a banging, bam, bam, bam..." {The Skeleton in the Closet, by Alice Schertle}
Well, I am not hearing skeletons banging on my door wanting to come raid my closet, I am between: enjoying the peace of uninterrupted "me" time, taking too late of a nap after church, and a bit of insomnia--what is my problem?!  You would think that the second I have a chance to catch up on sleep I would jump on it, and I often do, but there are times when I relish a little "me" time.  After we got the boys to bed the hubs and I watched an episode of Psych, very funny and with a little pleading look in his eye Scott went up to bed, for sure hoping I would follow him, but I was just not ready to turn in yet.  I proceeded to watch a DVR'd episode of America's Next Top Model--Scott hates that show and so it was a perfect to catch up, then I updated the blog background (hope you like it--we got new pictures at the end of summer and they turned out super cute and I wanted to show them off) and now I am trying my hand at a post with nothing in particular to write about.
I am working on a project that I have wanted to do forever.  I bought several cheap frames from the DI and spray-painted them in black and chalkboard.  I assembled our 8X10 family portraits throughout the years and I am going to hang them in our Family Room--they will be dope with the uber cool 'Family  Room' sign the in-laws scored for us a while back.  I will have to post pictures when it is finished, we need to pick out a few more cheap DI frames and them arrange them for hanging, so check back and see if I finish a project I have started...

Disney Halloween 2011 - Today's 106.5 - Utah's Choice For Lite Rock

http://todays1065.clearcontests.com/front/OpenContest.asp?Action=Login&SurveyID=155174&zx=294
We want to go Disneyland...click on the link and vote for our picture, #9!

This is the one we submitted, wasn't Jorden a cute 'Alvin'?

1...2...3...blast off!!!

Scott could hear Garrett talking, but he couldn't see him, then finally found him in the dryer--he was pretending it was a spaceship and was pushing buttons and making "zoom" sounds.  Oh the things I miss when I am at work, thank heavens for a husband that takes pictures of the funny things at home while I am away for a few hours!

Max's new digs...

I was on my way to the Costco to drop a load of money on foodstuffs and I thought I would multi-task and get some food for the Max at Petco, in the breezeway of the Petco they were advertising this cool doghouse; I was intrigued, Max is currently in a kennel in the big boy's room...but he is often outside on his "tether", I thought the doghouse would be a nice place to lounge in under Wally's shade.  I went in, got the food, looked at the fish and guinea pigs and headed for the checkout lane where they had the most awesome of dog costumes, I called Scott and asked about the doghouse, which was on sale, and the costumes.  He gave his permission (like I needed it, ha ha) and checked-out--p.s. the doghouse was even cheaper than advertised, bonus!  

Well the Max house is all set-up, by Jorden no less--he was very excited to see the new digs for Max and proceeded to put the whole thing together.  

I like it, Garrett liked it, Jorden liked it, Scott liked it, Cam is indifferent and as for Max I think he is confused, time will tell with our four-legged friend.

Cameronism

Cam: Dad I don't think dogs have boogers because they don't have fingers to pick their nose.

Cameronmism

Cam: Dad it's hot as an oven...a microwave oven and we're the popcorn.

*Background--we had gone down to Salt Lake for my 6-month follow-up exam & Tysabri appointment (P.S. my MRI last week showed, "no new lesions in the brain, cervical spinal cord and thoracic spinal cord.  Great news!"...my exam was great and here's to another year of 'clean' scans/check-ups).  After my exam it was time for my infusion so Scott took the boys and went elsewhere, he was on his way back from Trolley when Von ran out of gas...oops!  Scott called his brother, who was kind enough to come bail him out (for the second time...) Von had shut off completely and so my boys sat in the heat waiting for uncle Brent to come and that is where the Cameronism came from.   ;)

a new crazy in my life

The big boys started school yesterday, this comprised of getting Jorden up and ready, then going to the school with him for "Back to School Morning", which equals a whole lot of papers that will go in my blue recycling can.  I felt like a loser because I didn't follow the correct itinerary, since Jorden is in the 4th grade, I was supposed to go into his classroom to meet his teacher (Mr. Johnson) and then go into the big gym for the Principle/PTA schpiel, I did it backwards and ended going into Jorden's classroom just as the other parents were finishing and all the kids were coming back in from recess, *doh*...after that I went home to get Cam ready for his first day of kindergarten, he has afternoon with Mrs. Erickson, we went to his classroom, his teacher gave us her schpiel and then read a story to the kids while we filled out papers--this lasted a half hour then we went home.
The boys' teachers seem very nice and first impressions were favorable.  I had a mini breakdown as I tried to figure out in my head how I was going to manage two children in school and help them both with homework and volunteering.  There were tears shed in the shower as I got ready for work--I got a call asking for help yesterday and after telling them, "yes, I can help." I added to my mini breakdown guilt for working on the boys' first day of school...I failed miserably in the 'sane mom department' today.
Today is a new day though, Jorden got up and got ready, ate breakfast and then woke me up to sign a paper for school.  Love him, he is such a good kid!  Cam doesn't start regular classes until next week so he got to sleep in.  Garrett graced me with a smile and hug this morning, it made my day!

Perhaps I can do this after all...

I was speechless and flattered...

There has been a little bit of stress in the Messel household and I tend to get a little down on myself and believe there is never anything good about myself....Last Wednesday, before I went into work, I got an email from Scott with a link to this video.  I KNOW this is how Scott feels about me, I often disregard his compliments and never believe it when he tells me I am beautiful, but REALLY, I know I mean the world to this man that married me for forever.  And he loves every inch of me...and I LOVE him!

Thanks for enduring my cheese...because this was very cheesy!  :)

The Book of Mormon...

Garrett's owie...

Back in June, Garrett developed a fast-growing lump on his neck (looked like a prematurely forming Adam's Apple) his pediatrician referred us to an ENT (ear, nose & throat) doctor, so off we went to see Dr. Kelly. He ordered a CT scan (Gare needed both Versed and Ketamine to help him hold still for the short scan--p.s. very funny, fast-acting effects) and put him on antibiotics, which incidentally didn't do a thing to resolve the issue. Our follow-up involved making an appointment to schedule surgery @ Primary Children's Medical Center to remove the lump, a.k.a Thyroglossal Duct Cyst and "if" things went well to also remove Garrett's "gills"--his Branchial Tract Remnants. Incidentally, our ENT has never seen these two phenomena's on the same patient, both are congenital, but not related. (I am still wondering if having an emergency appendectomy at 6 weeks pregnant with Garrett wasn't responsible.)

Tuesday, August 9th we spent the morning making sure Garrett only had clear liquids--poor thing wanted Honey Nut Cheerios so bad. At 10:30 we had to withhold all food and liquid--while I was getting ready he managed to raid a practically empty box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I found him with the contraband morsels and proceeded to gag the poor child. We made it to PCMC at noon and checked-in, Garrett was issued some regulation hospital jammies with broken snaps and played with toys until about 2 p.m. when the nice anesthesiologist came to get him, he had had his oral Versed and was laying down in a wagon with his beloved blankie. She wheeled him away and Scott and I went down to the cafe to spend way too much money on food for only 2 people. The surgery lasted about 2 hours, they only had to make one incision and removed the 2 lumps, but could not tackle the "gills"--too much swelling from the first part of the surgery. We got to spend the night in a little, 23-hour observation room. Uncle Brent, Aunt Emily & Baby Oliver came to see us and came bearing gifts for Garrett and dinner for us, Thank You!!! Grammie & Grandpa Sorensen also came to see us and brought a Dr. outfit for Gare's bear. Our dear friend, Evy Smyth also came to visit us, convenient as she works at PCMC.

Our night went okay, I stayed with Gare and Scott went home to sleep, since there was only room for one parent. Garrett woke up once around midnight disoriented, staring at the monitor, it wasn't until I crawled into his bed and told him stories about a little boy that went on an adventure that he finally fell back to sleep. We were woken up by Dr. Kelly at 7 a.m. for follow-up and a dressing change. The goal was to make sure Garrett could drink adequately before they discharged us. It took a bag of Cheetos to encourage the kid. One Cheeto per good swallow of chocolate milk. We left at about 11 and went to pick-up the big boys from Aunt Erin's house and went home.

Our little man has been a trooper and is doing well now, thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers while we sent our little boy to have his throat cut ;)