Being Thankful

I am Thankful For:

My Husband-
for putting up with me and still loving me as I gradually get more and more crazy, or as I gradually let him see how insane I actually am.
For being such a good Dad (and Playmate) to our kids.
For working so hard going to school and working full time to take care of our family.
For being so selfless and a good example to me and our children.

Maesyn-
For being so fun and cute.
For her great smiles, snuggles and nose kisses.
For having her own taste in what is "nerdy" and cute
For her excitement about Art Class
For her excitement about learning new things
For her loving her brother
For reminding us of the things God wants us to do (like washing our hands after going to the bathroom-she told me that this morning)

Jake-
For being full of Loves and Kisses in the morning.
For loving his sister
For being so crazy and fun to watch
For helping clean up the toys and sweep the floor
For saying "daday" (Daddy)

I'm also thankful for my parents and Nate's parents for helping us out whenever we need it at the drop of a hat - even if it is a lame reason.
For our home that keeps us safe, warm and dry (and that we can afford the payments- even though it is small and we totally need a yard- so many people are in a bad place with their homes right now)
For our jobs.
For our bodies.
For our Church and our Ward Family.
For the Temple and the blessings that come from it.
The list goes on and on, but I need to get ready for church.

The Broken Arm.

Maesyn probably had the Most eventful weekend of all of us.
On Friday night she had her very first sleep over at her Cousin's house. They had a blast but in the morning she fell off of a very tall kitchen chair and hurt her arm.
Our kids usually bounce back from falls so when I got the call from my Aunt that she had hurt her arm I finished getting dressed and casually went to check on her. Sure enough she was really hurt. My aunt was holding her like a little baby and her arm was in a sling with a bag of frozen beans on it. They directed me to their favorite urgent care (sling? favorite urgent care?- their girls are accident prone). The whole time Maes insisted on being carried and held.
She got x-rayed and sure enough she had a little fracture. Every move hurt her.
Nate has broken his arm 31/2 times (one time he broke it while it was in the cast healing so he only counts that as a half time) so he was able to empathize with her more than I could.
We headed back to Grandma Anderson's house so that she could rest and watch Disney Chanel and get pampered with Panda Express for lunch (no arguments here).
Now we just wait until Monday when we can make an appointment with the bone doctor. The Urgent Care Doctor said that one of the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeons has a Monday Fracture day where they see all the kids that broke their arms over the weekend.
So although I have never broken a bone in my body, some kids do... mine just happened to do it when she was only 4.
At this moment she is yelling at Nate while he tries his best to bathe her and give her advice on how to bathe with your arm wrapped up.
Thank you Nate!!!
I'm so glad you are home to help me out with this
(especially sense Jake's morning poop was "poop soup.")

Jakie and his injuries

Jakie has a high threshold for pain. I once found him with a burn blister on his finger and had no idea where he got it. Another time I saw him burn himself on a hot pizza pan and only say "ouch"- that one blistered up too. One night while reaching down to pick Jakie up I scratched his chin with my finger nail. No reaction- but it bled a lot and I gave him a cloth to put on it. Then his sister clawed his face(with in a few days) and I never heard a peep- I just saw the marks and asked Maesyn about it. Apparently he had been annoying her- so a claw to the face was totally justified in her head. When asked about his beat up face Jake would only point to his chin and say "Mommy"... Thanks.
So one evening this weekend when we were trying to get a jacket on Jakie,Nate tripped him (on accident)and he banged his head on the corner of the door in his bedroom. It must have hurt REALLY BAD, because he actually cried. He got a huge egg too. When asked about his head he just pointed to his chin and said "Mommy"

Turkey Trot 2008

Here are the Before and After pictures from this year's turkey trot.
The tradition usually follows a rotation of Turkey Trot and Ward Turkey bowl, but after last years disappointment we opted to run the Turkey Trot again. (Hooray for me!!!) You see, Nate always thought he'd be able to just get up and run a 10K- (so did I) but 3 miles into last years run he found out that was not true...so he was bound to run the whole thing this year. He did not have much time to fit training in (although he wanted to) so it was still hard... but we finished WITHOUT WALKING. (ok- we took a little break at a water station to talk to our friend, John Chrisman, but started running again after our pregnant friend passed us up. Nate's main goal was to finish - and mine was to do it in under an hour. We usually have the kids with us and that slows us down. I start in the back thinking that people don't want my double jogger in the way- but while I am by no means fast, i'm a bit faster than people in the back, so navigating that beast around women talking about Oprah is a chore that slows me down, and then the kids have their needs- so setting a time goal was always frivilous before. There was a forecast of rain, so we left the kids with my parents (maesyn was very very sad). We did get a PR, and finished just 2 min shy of my goal. I am very proud of Nate for finishing without having much time to train and I am very thankful for all the years that he ran slower than he was able so that he could stay with me during runs and races. It hurt my knees to slow down for this 10K and he ran slow for a full marathon for me. Thank you Nate...I love you!!!
(It was cold and windy before we started, but I quickly shed my longsleeve when I warmed up... but then it got cold and rainy when we headed for the car- so I edited the photo so that you cannot see how cold it really was)
(oh, and by posting pictures of myself in running clothes I can see how not cool i look. I need new running shorts for sure-gotta look cool in my old man shoes)

Photo Journal of our Thanksgiving weekend

Explanation posts to come.
By the way, we did have a great turkey dinner with all the fixins' but I was too busy baking and eating to take pictures.

it's the hap happiest time of the year

Yes, we have already visited Santa this year... before Thanksgiving. But this picture is from last year...as is the picture of Maes by a Christmas tree.
Although I've wanted to decorate early, I have resisted getting out the decor. (Besides, I have been very busy shopping the great grocery sales to stock up my food storage, and looking for the last piece of my Christmas Party outfit that I began January 1st with a skirt purchased at 75% off at Dillards- you see this year we have two work parties-one with Doctors.).
It all started when I busted out the little radios for the kids to listen to during a run and found Christmas music.
Before Thanksgiving!
Maesyn thought it was Hysterical that there was a song about a kid that saw his mom kiss Santa. She stopped me to tell me about it!!! Funny.
I set up a Pandora radio station for Christmas music, and we have had the radio perma set on Christmas music in the car.
Maesyn plans on singing a rocked out version of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" at our ward Christmas Party.
Christmas lists are written, including a Barbie head requested by Maes, and doggies for Jake. (He also has a birthday at the beginning of December).
Homemade gifts are in the process of being hand built and fired.
And I currently have some cinnamon rolls in the oven filling our house with that holiday scent (it is after midnight).
We have a pot of cinnamon, allspice and cloves simmering on the stove top.
I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner and Maes is looking forward to her "Feast" at school tomorrow (that is why i'm baking so late- she is bringing a dozen rolls). She has been talking about it all month.
Then.... on Friday morning we will get up super early (possibly camp out Thursday night) to do the traditional Black Friday shopping!!!
We don't really need any big items...just new home phones...but we will shop for my parents that are watching our kids.
We need to keep the tradition alive.
It is so fun now to also scope out the toy sections of the adds. We will see if that barbie head is on sale any where and then let Santa know... sometimes he has us pick up stuff for him (he is a busy guy).
Last year Maesyn and I even ran into him doing some shopping at K-mart. (I'm tired - I may have mentioned that before).
It is a busy time of year... the kids and I wore shorts today... but I totally love it!!!!

car insurance

so. we decided to file a claim on the car. after all, it has probably been over a year since we've had major car trauma...and I don't know how long it has been since it has been our fault. when nate looked at the car with his brother in law they noticed a lot more damage, like 3 big dents. we have a low deductible so i went ahead and filed the claim. while it is in the shop i'll also get a new estimate on that bumper and see if we can afford to do that now as well. i'm happy that nate won't have a super ghetto car when this one becomes his.. well, we will have to see if it survives to ever become his car. like i said before. people like to hit us.

one of the e-mails i sent to nate today

bike‏

From:	heidi garner (heidileagarner@hotmail.com)
Sent:	Tue 11/18/08 4:12 PM
To:	nate_garner@

once upon a time i put your bike on the car all by myself and packed up the kids and started driving off. i ended up going under the next car cover (either i was going around the speed bump or just turning wide as i was leaving. the bike was on the passenger side of the car and i heard a huge crash. the bike and the rack were ripped off the car. it bumped the side mirror and broke it. there is a missing red piece i think it is the car and i can epoxy it back on but the mirror fell out. it is all cracked up and it won't work with the auto mirror thing. there is a huge gash on the roof and small scratch on the side. some of the other stuff is from the rubber and will rub off. I re assembled the whole thing (i even had to adjust the bar lenght). one of the bike racks might be too damaged to use. (the one with the bike ) it was wobbly when i put the bike up. The rest seems fine. I'm going to take the bike carriers off and then check all of the measurements for the whole rack. And see how damaged the carrier is. If it is very damaged then we need to get a new second carrier. Craigslist.
Also.. i totally don't care about the huge scratch. i just want to be able to put the box on top so we can camp. it would be good to get the mirror fixed. we could check with brother hunt about the part... auch mench.. paint... auch mench. the mirror does in fact work. Ok, i'm going to look all over the car for that red piece and also adjust the rack.

oh, your bike is getting a tune up. there is a huge gash in the back tire- so i'm getting it replaced. Also, your crank set is old, and the part is hard to find. they would need to replace the whole thing if they cannot get the part. If so i told them to just do it. It will be about 90 for that part - it would be the bars for the pedals as well because the bolt is square and they don't do that anymore.. so it will be upgraded. i talked to him about putting money into it.. and we both agreed that even if you find you love road biking more the mountain bike is good for family bike rides and such - it is the suv of bikes... so i don't feel bad about putting money into it. i want you to RIDE IT...

and i don't feel bad about the scratch- except for that it will be your car and i don't want you to have ghetto ness all of the time. maybe when it becomes yours we can get the whole thing painted and replace the bumper and the mirror and have the scratch filled.

love ya
heidi

that was the end of the message

for the record. last time i blue booked the retail value of the car it was about 5k more than what we paid. the lady discounted it because she had a dent in the fender. we never got it fixed... we will when we have the money. the people that gave us a sort of estimate on the fender before we bought the car gave us a way higher(like double) estimate when i took our car in and saw that i was a "stupid" girl.. they did not get any of our money and enver will. i wanted to fix it before we got a mini van and passed it onto nate. he always seems to get the ghetto cars- and this would be his first chance at a nice car. so much for that.
i don't know much about bikes, so i could have said some of the terms wrong.
maesyn said our car looked naked (in a whisper voice) when the rack was off.
we get toyotas because they will last forever- but someone usually totals our cars before they can die. (we had 2 cars totalled in 6 months time) -this is our 5th toyota that we've owned in 6 years of marriage (we both drive toyotas).
i think i sound a little selfish about the car thing... i bet nate hates that we roll in such trashed cars, but i think that the rack makes it look a little hardcore-and maes thinks it makes it look a little less naked.

jake play

tonight i was trying to clean up the play room and living room so that maes and her friend (and hopefully jake) could get their pillows and blankets and lie down for a movie (while i finished the 2000 loads of laundry that i need to do before Sunday).
jake was being very quiet in my room, so i decided to investigate (in case he was doing something he should not).
I found him behind our door, between the baskets of laundry playing.

he had a pair of running socks, a fake fly, a few lizards and my new shirt.

he was having them all interact in some way.
it appeared that my socks were some how having a conversation with the fly. then jake put my (clean) socks up to his mouth (fake bite or fake kiss?). under the new shirt, tags still on (and the tags had a part in his play) were various other fake creatures.
when jake spotted me watching him play he put the shirt back on his head- that is what he was doing when he first took it from me- and then left the room with most of his entourage. fake fly, fake horse, and running socks remained.

Gigantic Food!!!

Tell me.
Is it normal for produce to be this huge?
I mean, is this natural?
Or is it the result of strange Hormones added by the growers?

Should we be excited that we are definitely getting more than one serving of our fruits and veggies when we eat just one of these monsters?

Or should we be worried that they might cause some ill effects that will manifest themselves later in our lives?

Honestly.
The apple is almost the size of Jake's head.
And the carrot is close to 2ft.

November in Arizona

Our weather is getting more bearable and I'm welcoming this wonderful
Arizona Autumn.
It will be in the mid 80's this weekend.

On a side note. Jake does not like getting dressed as of lately. But I think he will always love shoes.
At least he picked out shoes that belonged to him and not his big sister's Sunday Shoes.

His appreciation of shoes will be a great attribute as a husband. Maybe one day he will make his mother proud and tell his wife: "you can have as many pair of shoes as you want, you're a girl." Just like his Daddy told his Mommy one day at last chance when she chose yet another pair of black maryjanes for herself.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know. I know. This is totally materialistic. We really need to make sure that we make some more Christmas focus on the real meaning of Christmas. I kind of get all caught up in the lights, and food, and carols. I promise that we will do better. I just remembered doing this as a kid. And Maesyn knows that Santa is only bringing her one gift. Now if Mom can hold back.

Lovin' up the kids

Sometimes Maesyn suggest that we all get together for a snuggle.
She and I used to snuggle all of the time when she was so little.
Complete with nose kisses and sighs.
Sometimes I'm afraid that she might think she is getting too big for it- and then she asks me to get into bed for some good snuggles.
She will even make the noises.

And then we ask daddy to come in and see how cute we are
and ask him to take our picture.

"gen...gen"

The last part of the word "again".
Jakie will repeat this over and over until you do it again.
His latest request of "gen.?"

Nose snuggles and ear eating by his mom.

where is the rest of him?

I've been wanting to teach my kids to be more independent ( of course i want to help them and feel needed, but i think i also need to teach them that they are capable of doing things on their own). One of the first graders at work has a little stump arm and he can zip his own jacket. His mom had told his teacher that he can do a lot on his own and not to help him unless he asks.
He can zip his own jacket with only one arm!!!
I decided I would tell Maes about this- after all, if he can do it with one hand she can do it with 2. This morning when she asked me to unzip her jacket i said.
"You know, there is this little boy with only one arm at my school and he can zip his own jacket."
"Well where is the rest of him?"
I should have clarified that he had a whole body and was just missing one arm. She thought that having "only one arm" meant that was all there was to him.
So much for the teaching independence lesson

things my kids do/say

I did not want to forget some of the funnies my kids made within the last week.
Jake:
On Saturday night Nate and I went out on a date. Jake had not pooped all day so I left a diaper for the sitter. When we went to get the kids I picked Jake up and he pointed to his bum. Our friend that was watching him said that he had pooped. I guess Jake wanted me to know that he was still regular.

Maesyn:
This afternoon while running to the park I was able to find some Christmas music on the kids tiny portable radio. I guess Maesyn had never heard "I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause." Because she just started laughing and had to tell me that the song was about a kid that saw his mom kiss Santa. She thought it was so funny!

Maesyn also cut her hair today. She had previously been grounded from scissors after cutting the hair on two of her stuffed animals. When she cut a hole in her pants I said that she would have to be grounded until she was 5. After a few weeks (possibly just days) I gave in to her asking to use them under the pretence that it could have been an accident that she cut her pants. Later during the day I found a curly lock of hair in the living room. I thought that maybe it could have been from the bag of hair that was from her first hair cut. But when I found another lock behind the door in her room I decided that she was grounded from scissors until she turns 5 again. Because her hair is so curly you can hardly notice- but she is going to her aunt Tara's house tomorrow to get it fixed.

all worn out

It is only 11 am, yet i feel like i've had a FULL day.
I was up at 5:30 am and was out the door and running by 6:15 (kids and all). I ran with a new girl today and I hope it works out. She just had a baby 8 weeks ago and we did a 5 miler in just 50 minutes (water stops and jogger screen malfunctions included). So if she is doing so well so soon she may get bored of me.
Then we did not shower or eat breakfast, I just packed the kids up (after changing Jakei's morning poop- thanks for getting that out of the way man), grabbed my coupons and met my mom at Walmart.
We were just going to do a coupon exchange, but the kids love their grandma, so we joined her in walmart. The kids got doughnuts and we wandered. So glad I decided to go in.
They had all of their Halloween stuff for 75% off and I stocked up for next year.
Masesyn had asked us when we would be putting up or Halloween decorations several times this year...(her grandma and aunt LOVE Halloween and no one can beat what they have) so i succumbed and pulled out all 5 pieces of decor that I owned and "decorated". I knew that i'd have to pick up a few things after the holiday was over.
I spent just $36 and got 4 medium sized pumpkins with lights, one huge pumpkin with a light, one sort of huge pumpkin without a light. 2 baby costumes various strobes and lights, spider webs, bugs and reptiles, flashlights, various cookies cutters and cake cups, and one Hannah Montana wig. ( i could have missed something).
Then it was off to Frys and their super sale.
I also snagged 2 more Halloween costumes for just a few bucks. (it is these sales that supports Maesyn's need to be more than one thing for Halloween- it also makes it cheap and I have dress ups for the rest of the year).
Even with this awful economy I'm happy that some of the stores are having some great sales.
I had 2 orders. One rang up around $14 and the other around$16. My cart was full and i got a bunch of free stuff. I'm now stocked up on baby wash and toothpaste...the toothpaste was free as well as instant potatoes and evaporated milk... hot chocolate mix was only $.50 and I did not even need a coupon for that!!!
I loved stocking up on food for my family (and holiday decor).
I loved saving money even more.
My kids hated most of the morning.. but they were good sports (mostly) and sang out
Christmas songs very LOUD in the store for every bodies shopping enjoyment.

now I must get back to the regular Friday chores... washing all of the bed sheets.

S-Y-N

"s-y-n get me some chocolate"
or
"s-y-n yes"
lately she has been adding these three letters randomly to her statements.
it is so silly
i just did not want to forget it

Pour some sugar on.....

Sometimes i'm working really hard.
I do things like install shelf supports so that the shelves in my laundry room can hold my food storage.
I use things like power drills and stud finders and step stools.




Then I drop a 5lb bag of sugar on the ground. Thank goodness I had Jake around.
Who else would have spread it all over the floor in the laundry room?
I LOVE MY KIDS!!!

More on Arizona Fall

Remember when I was complaining that Arizona never got the message that it was in fact Fall? And I complained about the hot weather?
Well... today I went to buy produce at the Ranch Market. And unfortunately they had a lot of these
bad boys.
For $.50
So I had to buy 16 lbs of strawberries on this the 4th day of
November
My children don't seem to mind.

Another Wonderful Sunday

We had Stake Conference this week and were done with church by noon and had the rest of the day to our selves.
We started the day with berry and yogurt smoothies blended in a dirty blender. We also munched on left over cinnamon rolls. YUM. After church the kids and dad napped while I got caught up on my class work. Once I was done i got to have some snuggles with my sleepy boyfriend.
We went for a walk at the park of the canals. The canals were dug by the Hohokam Indians hundreds of years ago. The kids had fun running around and watching the silly quail run around.
Jake loved picking up hand fulls of dirt and rocks. Each time he stopped I though he had found a treasure... but it was just another handful of dirt and rocks.

Yard Sale and Lemonade

Maesyn and I held our first official yard sale ever.
She and Jake have a lot of toys and very little space so I told Maesyn she could sell some of her toys to earn money for a new toy. We also had a cinnamon roll and lemonade stand. The location was not ideal, our townhouse is not in public view, but it got a few people out our way and they could see that our house was also for sale.
Maesyn took over the camera and here are some of her pictures:
Raspberry lemonade.
customers
stinky mommy

We made a whopping $20 at our yard sale. We used it to pay our babysitter that evening.
Maesyn made $7.50 and she is excited to pay $.75 in tithing to help build the 3 new temples here in Arizona. She loves the temple and now she is excited to see how tithing works. She also did not mind that she had a load of money left after paying her tithing.

Happy Halloween

We had a great time, although very busy.
First stop: Carnival put on by grandma Garner's ward.
Second Stop: trunk or treat put on by our ward.
Third Stop: trick or treat in Mandi and Clint's neighborhood.
Fourth Stop: a visit to grandma and grandpa Anderson's
Then... I had to make cinnamon rolls for the bake sale/garage sale.

maesyn. in costume #3 for this halloween. woodland fairy.
Popcorn ball!!!
jake at the carnival. it was still to hot to wear the whole costume.

the kids in their full costumes.