My life is a 3-ring circus

So, even though we are busy with school, Dave's interviews for work, my odd jobs and the daily chores that come with being a family, we still manage to find cheap fun! Since the elephants walked in front of us on the street the other day we felt inspired to get tickets to go and see the circus in person. We found nose-bleed seats for cheap, but figured being up that high wouldn't really matter, the animals are huge, we will still be able to see them! Hailey lasted for about the first 2 hours (yes, it was long!) and then she got restless, we were about to throw in the towel and go when they brought out the elephants, she loved it! Watching the elephants gave me more of a respect for how big they are! The trainers had them lay down, and the logistics of them getting down and back up, moving THAT much weight was amazing!(that is how I feel getting out of bed in the morning sometime) At the end of the show the baby elephant waved a flag in his trunk and Hailey thought it was just for her. She waved bye to him and blew him kisses, too cute!! On the way home she thought it was a real treat to ride on Papa's shoulders and touch the signs in the parking garage. I love the little things that are so exciting to her, seeing the world through the eyes of child makes life fresh and exciting.

Where a kid can be a kid!

Our friends, the Orchards, came down from Idaho. We realized that between the 2 of us we had 5 kids, we needed to go somewhere where the kids could run free and that was a more relaxed environment. We chose Chuck e cheese. The kids loved it and we had a great time catching up on all that has happened in the past year since we have seen each other.

Hailey loved the monster truck ride, but Knezie and Porter hated it! I love tis pic with Kenzie screaming in the background! Too fun!

The infamous finger

These are the morning after. In this first one she is telling me "owie." All day she has made me kiss it better. I am sure it still aches!

Here is the duck they gave her at the hospital.

"Mommy, my fin'dger is gone!"--Hailey

Dave and Hailey watching the elephants walk down the street!

Well the day started off fun and then ended on a not so high note...this morning Erica Allen called and asked if we wanted to meet them at Wheeler Farm, so I quickly got the kids ready to go, this whole process only took an hour and 15 mins and we were on the road! (why it takes so long I will never know, the time goes too quickly when you are trying to leave!) we got there and as soon as Deon (her 2 year old) saw us, she came running to greet us. (It makes me miss living in PG so badly!) The girls just picked up right where they left off and had a blast just being back together! They had brought bread to feed the ducks and lets just say these ducks are not stupid, they know what food is and they understand the pecking order of things, if you are in the front closest to the source of food, you get more. It was nerve racking, this cute experience of feeding the ducks bread, freaked both of the girls out! They were clinginng to our legs and we were sorrounded by ducks that were honking at us, it was loud. We got a nice tip from a passerby telling us the pond is fenced and it keeps the ducks at bay.The girls loved being free to roam, we walked all over and in circles around the farm. It was great to catch up with Erica and just meander around following the girls.

At McDonalds both Erica and I needed to nurse our babies, so the girls played close by. They combined their strength and pushed open the door to the mens bathroom and quickly slipped in! I go in to retrieve them and put Hailey in time out, since I told her not to go in there, when she tells me that she is poopy. I try to sit her down for time out,but her diaper is so full she cannot sit! I am still trying to nurse and get her to listen! Then as we are leaving , I am carrying Preston in the car seat, the diaper bag and Hailey's drink from her happy meal. Deon runs and Hailey bolts after her. Hailey heads straight for State Street, a busy 7 lane road that is 40MPH. At first I am calling her in a normal, but stern tone, but then it turns frantic as I have to set down Preston and sprint after her, she thought it was just a funny game! We went and got Dave from school and get stopped becasue the Circus is in town and the elephants are walking down the road right in front of us. Dave got Hailey out and took her over for a closer look, she loved it. It's not everyday you see elephants tail to trunk sauntering down the middle of town! We now have tickets to the Circus tomorrow.

Then after dinner Dave and I go into the U of U Alumni center for a pre-interview reception for KPMG. There is so much hubbub associated with all of this MBA job interview stuff! We left the kids home with my parents and about an hour into this reception Dave's phone rings while we are talking to Grady (one of the associates at KPMG and also my cousins hubby), he sees the number is my mom and hands me the phone. She tells me that she is taking Hailey into the hospital to get stitches! I ask her is she is for real, she tells me that she wouldn't joke about something like this! As I am asking which hospital and edging towards the door, Dave picks up on the conversation and we start racing to the car. My parents call while we are on the way and tell me that she cannot be treated unless we are there to sign for her. My heart is racing and I am thinking; "why do I ever leave the house?" I get the rest of the story as we are driving to the hospital. Apparently the dog got into the garbage after dinner and pulled a tuna can out and left it in the hall, Hailey picked it up and the lid sliced her pinky finger really deep. (I can hear her screaming on over the phone and Preston has joined in the chorus, he didn't want to be left out) As soon as we pull up, I jump out and rush in, telling myself to breath and not go into hysterics, everything is okay, if there is anyone I would want her to be with when she is hurt it would be Grandma and Papa. She is sitting at a small table with games, and Grandma is holding her hand in double thick washcloths, there is blood on her shirt, pants and saturating the cloths that are on her finger. I quickly give them my signature and get her to the back. The staff was wonderful. In order to get her laceration washed off they put a small rubber duck in the bottom of a basin filled with warm water and bubbles and hold it under the water so she cannot see it, then the nurse asks her to find the ducky. She loved the game and it took her mind off her owie. They tell me it will need 4 stitches and explain the procedure to me. I am not sure if I am really ready for this, but I sit in my assigned chair and talk to Hailey about our day, the ducks, elephants, the circus we are going to tomorrow, anything I can think of! They wrap her tightly in a sheet, Dave held her body down, the nurse takes her hurt hand, and the doctor is prepared to suture her finger.My job is to hold her head and sing to her. The nurse sticks her with a numbing medication and I know it has to hurt, she opens her mouth wide with pain, her eyes brimming over with tears and yet no sound comes out! I am trying to hold back tears myself, but sing "I love to see the Temple" instead! She cried the whole time, but still held her little hand out for stitches. I tried to comfort her, but to no avail, she had big alligator tears rolling down the sides of her face! After is was all over they wrapped it in a pink gauze and that is when she told me;"My finger is gone, the lady wrapped it." Oh the joys of parenting, it could have been so much worse, just a few stitches was all! I am glad it is bed time, after cleaning up her, the floors, the car and the emotional roller coaster of it all I am beat! Good Night!!

Fall Harvest

I love this time of year. The weather gets cooler and yet it is not the darkness of winter . And the best part is the bountiful harvest that happens. All the neighbors are swapping produce and everything is so fresh. We have a family garden that we planted in the spring and now everything is ready from it. 2 weeks ago we canned green beans and then this past weekend we did corn. It is a starchy, sticky mess, but oh so worth it. Hailey helped a lot more than I expected, she really stuck with it. She washed the ears and then pulled them out of the sink and put them on a pan. I thought she would bail on us, but she was there the whole time. I recorded her, but she was too busy eating the corn. Up to that point she wouldn't touch it, especially when we picked it and husked it, she hated the silk strings and said the ears were too bumpy. As soon as I stopped recording she spit her mouthful out into my hand! (She is too young to appreciate a good thing when she has it!) We got 47 freezer bags, so we can have corn about once a week for a year. It is so yummy, I am looking forward to having it in the winter. And I am so grateful for Dave really pitching in and getting this done, he is a natural canner even though this is his first year doing it!

5 whole months

Where is the time going? I might say that it is those sleepless nights that make it all a blur, but Preston is such a good sleeper at night, I cannot blame it on that! He is such a delight to have in our family, it seems like he has just always been here, and yet at times I kind of forget that I have 2 kids now. He is so happy and loves to be tickled. His sister loves him and is always asking where he is when he is out of the room. Preston is so active in his non-mobile way. I am terrified to think that one day in the not too distant future he will be mobile and I know he is going to be all over and into everything! In the mean time I enjoy everyday with him and try to take a moment while he is sleeping to thank the Lord for such a beautiful, perfect little boy!

It was love at first bite.

Preston is quite an observant boy. He knows what food is and when he sits on our laps while we are eating he just watches the bite go in and gets antsy and anxious thinking that maybe he could get some too. We gave in and at 5 months and 3 days he got his first cereal. He loved it! He even tried to eat the bowl. A couple of times his excited flapping arms caught the spoon and sent the food flying. He would open his mouth in eager anticipation awaiting eat morsel of his runny rice cereal. I didn't think that he would finish the whole bowl, but he polished every last bit of it! By about half way through he was getting that he had to suck it in and not tongue thrust. Dave and I were discussing that it is a weird concept to think that you have to be taught to eat food. It is something we do everyday without thinking now. But for Preston it is one of those milestones I know they have to hit, but it makes it all the more real that he is growing older.

Congrats John and Kate

Jessica Pearce, Dave, Michelle. Katie Chipman

John and Kate

Our friends from High School got married, well I guess will get married in the morning. Tonight was their reception. (Kate affectionately called it the "pre-ception".) It was the best high school reunion, it was all our friends that we hung out with getting back together, it was so fun! They had a live Jazz band playing and Hailey loved dancing to the music, when they would stop playing she would say; "play an-other one!" Please forgive my video-ogpraphy. I forgot about the whole turning thing...so turn your head 90 degrees to the left! I love the Jazz music, and the squeaks from Hailey's squeaker shoes. I was so grateful she wore them tonight, dang she is fast! She figured out how to turn the spigot on the punch and got it all down the front of her, it was a sticky mess. Thank heavens Gramdma and Papa took both of the kids home and gave them a bath. It was nice to just hang out and be US! It is always fun to go to a wedding and to remember why it is that we got married. Just to see John and Kate so happy and that glow in their eyes, you know what I am talking about. It just rekindles in me my newlywed love for Dave. Congrats to John and Kate, we are so happy for you! It is always a fun excuse to get dressed up and have a party with old friends. It was such a nice reception, just a bit cool...fall is coming!

Random Ramblings

I don't know that I have anything really eventful to post today, but it is Sunday night and I just wanted to get some thoughts out of my head and on to paper (so to speak.) Dave is looking over the many different carrer choices that he has to decide on going into the MBA program, it is quite the process trying to pick one thing that you will potentially do for the rest of your life, he is going back and forth, will I like this? Will it make enough income to support the family? You know, all that "dad stuff". I wish I could shoulder more of the burden for him, I can act as a sounding board when the kids aren't screaming or needing too much of my attention, but mostly it is up to him. All I really care about is that he is happy and it is a stable company, we already went thorugh the roller coaster ride with an ever changing company...that is for another post!
I am realizing that we are at one of the many precipices in our lives, we have to decide where we are going, I am gripping that everyday is not so normal anymore, we are going to recruiting meetings with some of the big 4 accounting firms, internships for the summer need to be sought for in the next month. I am feeling that we just started this journey called MBA school, and now we are forced to decide NOW what we are going to do.
In the mean time, I am working to supplement our income. This past week I calculated and between my 4 jobs I worked just over 20 hours, no wonder I am so tired and my house is a mess and there are piles of laundry waiting to be folded! I am so grateful for all of my families help, they are good to watch the kids for bits of time so I can work. But this week in house cleaning, a vacuum fell down the stairs as I was vacuuming and hit my back, it hurt, and then the next day I had a double wedding to set up. It was so tiring moving 2 trailers full of wedding decor and setting up, oh my! I really prayed for strength that day! Dave did give me a good back rub.
I am learning to never say the word never, it always comes back to get me. I never wanted to be in Relief Society, it was equated with death, there is no where to go after RS. You start in Primary work your way up and then there is no where but the end, called death. So I NEVER wanted to go, then I get to Ricks College as a Freshman and my first Sunday there they call me to be in the RS Presidency! I asked them if they got me mixed up with another Michelle Brown? Then I am awaiting my mission call, I didn't want to go to North Carolina, I had a roommate that, well, let's just say we were on opposite sides of the spectrum., when we were blasting music and jumping on the couches, my mom wasn't there to tell me otherwise, but here mom was ALWAYS there in spirit! She just got her call there and I didn't want to go there! So where did I get called?!? NC! So last week we get called into the Bishops office, I really never want to be in the nursery, not that I don't love kids, but that is currently my life and I so look forward to church as a break and for adult interaction and spiritually stimulating discussions, well guess where Dave and I got called? THE NURSERY. It was all I could do to hold back tears. I have come to terms with it, I think it is what I have been praying for, just not the way I thought my answer to prayer would have come. It will be a good way to meet parents with kids Hailey's age, possibly make some friends in this neighborhood that are closer to our age.
Today in church we got read in. I knew this was coming today and was preparing for it as soon as we sat down in Sacrament meeting, getting Hailey her snack and making sure Preston was fed, changed and happy.....They have you stand and as we stood Preston started to get fussy,Hailey started screaming; "I'm poopy! I'm poopy!" Oh great, so now we are the poopy Jamison family, we will go down in history as that thanks to my cute little girl (whom we took out and changed, she wasn't poopy.) The member of the Bishopric that read us in didn't realize that we had 2 kids, he only read in Hailey so we are kind of having this conversation from the congregation to the pulpit and my kids are making everyone else appreciate that their kids are all grown!
In the mean time, I am just living life day to day, not praying for a motor to row my boat when I have already been given a perfectly good oar. I have a wonderful hubby and 2 beautiful healthy, happy children, really what more could I want? (Okay, there is one thing, all the new fall clothes are coming out and I am dying for a new outfit, but I think I will use the money to buy groceries for my family instead and just dream about how cute that sweater would look! A girl can dream, right?)

Squish 'n a kiss

Hailey has started this new thing called a "squish and a kiss" it is soo cute, she puts her little hands on both cheeks, squeezes them and then gives you a kiss on the lips. She is so much fun to play with these days, she is getting much more interactive and articulate and will really play with me. Today we went to the neighbors, the Cook's house, they have a huge yard with a basketball court, tramp, park swings, and a tire swing. We put Hailey in the tire and had her hold on, she kept giggling then she told us; "My bum fall down!" meaning that she was slipping. She went to the basketball court and kicked around the balls, laughing and running around. We bounced her around on the tramp, and she laughed and said; "Luk at me Mama, luk at me!" As we were walking home watching the sunset over the lake and hearing Hailey's chatter the whole way home, I am so grateful for my little family. It makes all the stressful times so worth it. I have taken odd jobs to help pay the bills while Dave is in school, it is no where close to being able to pay all of them, but with Dave not working at all, anything is somethng to us! I have started to clean 2 houses, sell recievers on Ebay, and help an old neighbor with her wedding decorating business. It is kind of depressing to think I got a college education and yet I now clean toilets, but I would do anything to be able to stay home with my kids, I didn't quite realize to what length, but hearing Hailey's cute toddler voice and listening to Preston laugh when you say "blah blah blah" is so worth it! So although I am exhasuted from cleaning and setting up weddings, being with the kids is the best thing in the world!!