POO IN MY SHOE!

Okay, so I had to blog about this...the other day my husband went to play basketball with some men from church. Just so you know, it's been a long time - maybe 6 months or so - since they have been playing so this was Steve's first time in awhile. He was telling me that as he was changing out of his sneakers into his basketball shoes, he tried to get one of his feet into the shoe but couldn't, something was inside. He wanted me to guess what it was??? I had no clue. Apparantely some mice have been seeking refuge in his basketball sneaker and built a nice little nest inside. As everyone knows, when you have mice - you have lots of little droppings. Therefore, he had "poo in his shoe". The surprise of all surprises was that along with the nest and droppings, there was a dead mouse. Could you even imagine? Slipping your foot into the shoe and finding all of those treasures? He told me that he was ready to call it quits before he even got a chance to play - but he sucked it up and played anyway. (after dumping the contents first of course) Kudos to my husband for coming away semi-unscathed because I'm not sure I would have survived that too well.

CRAZY DAY

Did I mention in my previous post that some days can be crazy? Well today was one of those days. I woke up at 6am like I usually do, got Kayla up to feed and put the dogs out - and while she was doing that she happened to mention that it was snowing out. Upon informing me about the snow she asked if there happened to be a delay. I ran up to the computer to check and sure enough there was a delay. I sent her back to bed and continued to make the cinnamon rolls that I had let rise overnight. Before I continue I need to tell you that every Christmas I make cinnamon rolls for all the doctors and nurses that take care of Ben including all the ones in the PICU. This year (as you all know) I was in the PICU with Ben until the day before Christmas so I didn't get it done. Everyone looks forward to my cinnamon rolls and so I didn't want to let them down. I have already finished about half (as the list seems to grow each year) and wanted to get some more done today since we were making another trip up to Dartmouth for some appointments. So I made the cinnamon rolls and showered, was about to get Ben dressed when I got a phone call from a friend of mine. I answered the phone only to hear her say, "Happy snow day!". I quickly corrected her by saying, "you mean happy school delay". Because the snow was coming down pretty fast and furious they changed the delay to no school. Great. Don't get me wrong, I love snow days - but only when I get to stay home. I fed the kids breakfast, left a list of chores for the girls to do and packed my boys (and the cinnamon rolls) and headed up to Dartmouth. The usual 1 hour 20 minute drive took me about 2 hours because of the snow. I almost thought about turning back when I saw a tractor trailor tipped on it's side halfway down an embankment, (pretty scary site) but we forged on ahead and reached our destination. I was hoping that maybe because of the weather the parking garage would be empty - NOT!! The parking garage that they have has 10 levels. Guess what level we had to park on? Level 10 - the roof. The picture you see above of Ben is on the roof of that garage. The snow pile behind him was easily 12 feet high. That is the snow that was cleared from the 10th level parking lot. We ventured inside to our appointments, delivered our rolls to the different doctors and visited a friend whose baby is in the Intensive Care Nursery. We were finished with our day around 2pm and headed for home. We arrived at the house around 4pm and got to work on the driveway because Steve wasn't home yet. We finished just in time for dinner and scriptures before heading out the door to mutual. Whew!

A perfectly good snow day and I wasn't home for it.

BLESSED

Today my son's physical therapist was over working on Ben. Her name is Denise and we love her to death. Some of my family members have met her and think she is pretty swell too. I love having Denise come twice a week because we have such great conversations about life, family, religion, politics and many other topics. (of course she is all hands on Ben while we are chatting...) So during our conversation today, she asked me a profound question. One that made me think and ponder. The question was this..."If you could describe your life in one word, what would that word be? I thought long and hard about it. After much pondering I decided that the way I would describe my life is "Blessed". I can honestly say that I feel like my life is blessed in so many ways. Don't get me wrong, there are moments and days where life feels out of control but for the most part I am happy and feel such a balance. Here are the reasons that I feel my life is blessed:

I am a daughter of God who loves me and I love him. I have great parents (and inlaws too) that gave me such a wonderful childhood. I have a close relationship with my brothers and sisters and even though I don't see them as much as I would like, they mean the world to me. I married a fantastic and funloving husband who does so much for me and also allows me to be who I am. We have 4 amazing children that seem to be headed in the right direction. Most importantly, I have the gospel in my life that opens up avenues I never would have traveled had it not been for my parents and their decision to join the church many years ago. On a smaller scale, we have a house to call our own and we have two cars to get us where we need to be. For the most part we don't want for things, my husband has a terrific job that he loves so much. We have an awesome ward that feels like our family away from family. They look over us and take care of us when things are hard. We have developed concrete friends out in the community that we deeply love.

I could go on and on but I think you see the point. I now ask you (the reader) if you could describe your life in one word, what would it be? Please leave your answer in the comment section. It will be fun to see what everyone comes up with.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICH

"Brothers gotta HUG"

Happy Birthday Rich!!! Because I didn't make it down to your little surprise party last night I wanted to atleast let you know I was thinking of you today. I finished your "edible" birthday present this afternoon and will be mailing it out in the morning. Hopefully you'll receive it in a couple of days. I imagine that you had a great day with all ten of your children and your sweet wife. I hope that you were atleast made to endure the "spanking machine". (smile) We love you Rich! From all of us here at the Orton home...

White Elephant Party 2006
The REAL DEAL

Kelly and Rich at Jenny's for Easter dinner 2006
Isabelle and Moriah with their Dad after the egg hunt 2006

The Blues Brothers make an appearance at the Hutchins' Family Reunion 2oo6
Hutchins' Family skit 2006

MUAY THAI

Taking a quick breather during class...

Today was a big day in my Thai Kickboxing class. I tested for my "Green/Brown" belt and so Steve came to video some of it. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show you what we do in our classes. Steve and I take this class three times a week together while the kids are in school. (Steve prefers his Jui Jitsu class over the Thai class so he takes Thai whenever he is not busy with the other one.) It's the best workout EVER! This is a belt class, meaning that you learn different forms and physical requirements before you can advance to the next belt. You start at white and they move down the line in this order.

1. white belt
2. yellow belt
3. orange belt
4. purple belt
5. blue belt
6. blue/green belt
7. green belt
8. green/brown belt
9. brown belt
10. 2nd degree brown belt
11. black belt

From white to orange you have to earn 16 stripes on your belt, purple and above it is 24 stripes. You earn a stripe with each class you attend as long as you can do the physical requirements and learn the forms. As you can see I am really close to obtaining my black belt in Thai Kickboxing. With green/brown I have to be able to do 50 push-ups, know all 8 forms, jump rope for 8 minutes and do 100 sit-ups. It is a great workout and the instructors are excellent. I started a year ago in November so it's been just over a year that I have been taking the class. When I first started I remember I could barely do 15 push-ups. Now I can do 50. It's amazing how fast it happens. In some of these pictures you can see the different belts that I have had - not all are shown. I made a video of the class but unfortuanately the battery to our camera died so we only got through about half. The further the class went along the harder it got so you missed the best parts - ohwell. My sister-n-law Alana has taken the class with me and so she can vouch for the excellent workout that it provides.

This is a "round house kick" or "Thai kick"
Listening to some instruction before a drill.
Warming up before class

SCHOOL VOLUNTEER

Every Tuesday I go to the school to volunteer in Stevie's classroom. The teacher usually has me typing the books that the kids have most recently written. I enjoy going in to help and I know that Stevie really loves it too. As soon as I come in the room Stevie usually takes Ben right over to her table so that he can sit with her while she does her work. While I finish up the kids leave for recess and then come back in for lunch. The teacher allows Stevie to sit with me during her lunch period so that she can spend some time with me. After we eat lunch she usually takes Ben into the "Reading Igloo" where she likes to read to Ben. Sometimes the teacher doesn't have a lot for me to do so I end up visiting with Stevie instead. It has been a lot of fun interacting with her during her school day. I think Ben enjoys it just as much. I'm grateful that the teachers have always been so tolerant of me taking Ben to volunteer with me. Below you can see the different things that we did today. The first picture Stevie is showing Ben her newly published book "My New Puppy Max". I love the illustrations that she did. Stevie loves to kiss her brother. While eating lunch, she was showing me her "yummy" turkey roll-up. Lastly you can see Stevie and Ben in the "Reading Igloo". The two videos are of Stevie feeding Ben a red pepper and Stevie reading to Ben. Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA

Happy Birthday to our Mom and Grandmother. We have been thinking of you on this special day. I wanted you to know that your son has sent you a birthday card (I know...don't be shocked) but our cranky mail lady has been holding our mail hostage until our mailbox is totally cleared from all the snow. The problem with that is the weather has been around 0 degrees and the snow has frozen. We chip away at it every day hoping she'll be kind and deliver it - but so far no luck. Anyway, I would have made you a German Chocolate Cake just for you but I don't think it would have delivered too well. We are sending you hugs and kisses your way. We love you!

STEVE AND BEN

Today was one of those relaxing days - thank goodness because Ben has not had a great week sleep wise. Three of the nights this week Benjamin has not slept and so it has taken a toll on me. My husband was good enough to let me have a nap this morning while he took care of some things. It was very refreshing. I love having a day once in awhile with nothing on the schedule. Steve had the day off and so we spent the day (after my nap of course) getting some things done around the house. This weekend Steve and Kaleb have a campout and so date night will be tonight. We are watching the latest "Pirate" movie with Johnny Depp and eating take out Chinese food. Should be fun. During the day today I took this picture of my boys and wanted to post it because I thought it was so cute. Enjoy!

SCHOOL PROJECTS

So today Kaleb arrived home from school and came running downstairs to find me. He was in a panic because he had a school project that was due tomorrow - WHAT? Talk about pressure. I had a brief talk with Kaleb about how nice it would have been if he could have filled me in on this sooner. Now...I was easy on him because with all his Dartmouth trips lately (including yesterday) he has missed a fair share of school. His teacher called about an hour after he arrived home and told me if we really needed to, we could have until Friday because of his excused absences. By this time we were already 75% done so we forged ahead. The basis of his project was to create a fort that represented the period during the revolutionary war. We actually had a lot of fun making it and were lucky to have all the items needed at home. Kaleb wanted his fort to represent France and so he painted some army men blue. The paint does not come off clothing so that is why he doesn't have a shirt on in one of the pictures. The end result was wonderful and Kaleb is so excited to share his fort with everyone tomorrow.

FHE ACTIVITY

For our Family Home Evening Activity tonight, Kaleb chose indoor football. It was the funniest game ever. Steve was his own team against the kids. I had to video it for posterity sake. I hope you enjoy a little peak into our night home together. For those who are not familiar with what Family Home Evening is...it is a designated night where the whole family is home and spends the evening together. We always have a lesson (taught by Stevie), songs (me), opening and closing prayer (by invitation), treats (Kayla), spotlight (Steve - he did the worm form of breakdancing - it was hilarious), testimony (Steve) and activity (Kaleb). It's a great way to grow closer to one another. Tonights lesson was on service. Stevie had everyone pick a name out of the bag and you had to keep your name secret. For the next week we are supposed to do secret service for that family member. Since I know none of you will tell, I'll reveal to you who I picked - Stevie. I always love when my children get involved in service. It is a great way to forget about yourself and focus on others.