Castor oil, Labor and Baby Bear...

(a brand new Baby Bear)

In case you haven't notice, this weeks posts have been all about Bear.

This is because he turned 5 this last week.

5!

Its hard to believe that it has been 5 years since I gave birth to my oldest child.

And yet I remember it all like it was yesterday.....

I was four days overdue. I was miserable. I was certain that my baby would never be born. There was one part of me that was completely hysterical with thoughts of being pregnant forever and another more sane part of me that kept telling me that the baby had to come out eventually. The day before his birth, I insisted to several people that there was no way I was going into labor anytime soon and then I went to school with my husband.
I wasn't taking any classes, but insisted on tagging along with him instead of being left home by myself. Phil told me that while he was in class I should try to walk around the entire college campus before he finished with his class. So I walked for what felt like forever and then found a couch, that had a TV nearby, I played cards and waited and was having no contractions. In fact I had hardly had any "practice contractions" aka "Braxton Hicks contractions" the whole day. Which was unusual, I ususally had at least a couple every hour.
Finally Phil's class ended and we drove home. Our apartment was nearly an hour away from where the school was, and being hugely pregnant and tired it was the worst drive ever, but I had volunteered to go so......
We got ourselves some Cafe Rio salads, brought them home, and sat on our couch to eat dinner and watch some Law and Order and some ER, or maybe it was Tru calling. Anyway as I was finishing up my dinner I decided to take some castor oil in the hopes of getting my labor started. I didn't really think the castor oil would work, in fact I highly doubted it. Then, upon trying just a drop on my tongue, I didn't think it would even be tolerable to take. Castor oil is disgusting!!! Its thick and oozy and has a very strong taste that my husband (yes he tried a drop of it too) describes as nutty. I read the instructions which said to mix the castor oil with juice. So I mixed it with my orange soda and made ready to drink it.
I stalled for as long as I could crying to my husband that I did NOT want to drink it, but somehow he managed to talk me into it. So I put the cup to my mouth and started to gulp it down. I had barely managed to get a gulp of it down before I started to gag on it. Okay I was gagging before I even started to drink the stuff, it was that vile. Nothing could have made castor oil tolerable to take. Even as I sit here remembering it I feel my throat closing off and wanting to gag.
After spewing the castor oil/soda mixture and trying my best to keep down the rest of my dinner, I didn't feel well. My stomach felt sick. It felt like a bout of the runs. So I spent an hour in the bathroom while Phil sat comfortably in the living room watching the end of the show. He finally came to make sure I was alive. There I was moaning and groaning in the bathroom certain that I had the worst case of the stomach flu.
Phil was slightly more coherent than I was and decided the stomach cramps I was suffering were probably contractions. He started to time them. They were two-three minutes apart which to me meant they never stopped and so they were surely not labor pains. I had read all of the books I new all of the information. Every single book I read said, if you only think its labor its probably not because when its real labor you will KNOW. I didn't KNOW. So I was very skeptical and kept insisting that I had the stomach flu and that it would pass.
Well midnight came and went and I was still in the bathroom. Phil decided it was time to call the midwife. I didn't want to but he insisted. So I talked with her for a minute and insisted that I wasn't sure it was labor which she reassured me it probably was and that I should head to the hospital when I was ready. I still didn't think I was in labor and was positive that if we went to the hospital they would send us right back home laughing at us. I had heard way to many stories like this.
Phil was all set and ready to go, he got our bags in the car, he was dressed and ready, he was just waiting for me to say, okay lets go. Finally around 2 or 3 in the morning I was all fine lets go. I was still sure they would send us home, but whatever.
We got to the hospital and were welcomed right in. The nurses said they'd been waiting for us, which surprised me. They brought me to a room and basically undressed me and put me in a hospital gown, all the while I was a little bit in shock. Like whoa your supposed to take one look at me and say, go home you're not in labor. Instead they checked me, my cervix that is, and told me I was dilated to six centimeters!
If you are unfamiliar with childbirth know this, you only need to be dilated to ten to push your baby out. So I was at a six, I was completely and totally shocked, I had no time to prepare myself for this, up until that moment I was certain I was not in labor and was now faced with the fact that in just 4 centimeters I would be pushing my baby out! And with my contractions still coming every two/three minutes that would be very soon. I kept calm with Phil holding my hand and helping me through each contraction and soon my Midwife arrived.
One great thing about a Midwife is they are there for a significant amount of time during your labor where as a doctor will only show up when the nurses call and say that you are pushing and the baby is close to being born. Sometimes they don't make it until the very last second to catch your baby.
Anyway an hour and a half after I got to the hospital I was at a ten and was being told to push, I wanted too, they didn't have to tell me twice. It happened however, that my baby was posterior facing. This means that a baby is not in the position that they will best slide out of your vagina. It means that it is going to be really hard to push the baby out. It took me two hours, in many cases it taks a lot longer. My Midwife told me a few times that there were drugs they could give me to help, she all but insisted on using forceps to get my baby out. But she didn't, she later told me that she didn't think I would be able to push my baby out. Me being a first timer, and not knowing exactly what I was doing and all. But she let me keep trying, and finally after much trial I was able to push that baby out! The Midwife was impressed that I was able to do it, and assured me that I would never have that hard of a labor again. Not only was she impressed with me she was very impressed at the way my husband handled himself and was able to stay calm and collected through the whole thing.
So my baby was born.
A sweet innocent little boy with teeny tiny skinny little arms and legs.
I didn't ever want to go through pregnancy and childbirth again, but I knew that it had all been worth it.
And eventually I did do it again, and it wasn't anywhere near as hard. At least not in the same way. ;D

The depths of despair

I'd been having a bad day anyway.
Its one of those days where depression sits in my doorway wanting to come in.
Uninvited.
It sneaks upon me when I least expect it and camps out for the day, sometimes two or three days.
I still manage to function. I tend to my kids and do the cooking and cleaning rather than stay in bed all day. It would be so easy to just lay in my bed in misery, but there is just too much work to be done. So I carry on regardless of doom and gloom.
To help distract me from that depression, I spent two maybe three hours updating and rearranging the list of blogs that I read.Nothing like a big project to distract me.
I have a list of over a hundred blogs.
I originized, added blogs, subtracted abandoned blogs.
It took a lot of time.
A lot of whining from my kids, and a whole lot of resolve to do it. Then when I was finished and happy with it, I decided to change the URL of my personal private blog (where I keep my list of blogs) to something easier to remember, and in doing so
I lost everything.
Every blog name, blog address, gone.
That was the end of my rope.
I am currently free falling into the depths of despair.
Its ok though,
Bear and Lyon have informed me that they don't like me because I took away their hockey sticks. They are also hungry for lunch, and Sissy is hungry and getting tired. There is laundry to do, and dishes to wash, and beds to make.
It won't take long for me to be lost in service for others instead of the depths of despair.

And Bear says...

This came out of nowhere:

"Sorry you have to do so much work. Why don't you just have Dad help you?"

Bear is a sandwich artist

Cheese and pepperoni sandwich

He made it all by himself

He even sliced the pieces of cheese.

Then he shared half of it with Lyon.

What a good big brother he is.

:D

And Lyon says...

I told the boys to, shhhhhhh.

Lyon yells back:

"ITS NOT QUIET TIME IN MA HOUSE!"

Writing with Bear

I have been teaching Bear to write (for a while now actually). One day he decides he wants to write, so he gets out some paper and a marker and gets to writing letters in random orders and asking me what they spell. Usually when he does this they don't spell anything, but every now and then I find he has managed to spell something.
Anyway after a while, on this particular day, he got bored with guessing and told me that he was going to write something specific and that he wanted me to come and watch. So I put down what I was working on and went and sat at his project table with him. He looks at me with a smile and says,
" I want to write Phillip"
So I got ready to help him and he says to me with excitement,
"I know how to spell it, D-A-D, right!"
I really hated to break his heart, but explained to him that D-A-D does not spell Phillip. I then had him sound it out and he realized he had spelled dad. He still thought that was pretty cool. So he ended up writing both.
:D

(You can see that he wrote x-ray on the page before)

And Bear says...

While sitting at the breakfast table, Bear, out of nowhere yells:

"STOP THAT PICKLE!!!!"

Bear keeps things interesting that's for sure

K, Bear just totally cracks me up. The things he comes up with are, well, there are no words. Let me tell you what went on at my house in the early morning hours.

I wake-up to the sound of little feet pitter pattering back and forth in the living room and kitchen. I know its Bear so I let him be and close my eyes, not quite sleeping, not quite awake. I start to get curious as to what he is up to, and Sissy is starting to fuss. So I get up and get dressed. I quietly peek out of my room and into the kitchen where Bear is working very intently on something. I look a little closer and see that he has clipped a small green piece of paper into an odd shape and is now writing something on it with a crayon.

It reminds me of the card he helped Phil make for me on valentines day.

(This is the card they made me for valentines day)

As he sits there writing intently I am also reminded of little Ralphi on "The Christmas Story" when he is decoding the secret code in his bathroom [to help little orphin Annie] Bear works on it intently licking his lips. I wish I could have taken a picture or better yet gotten video but darn it I couldn't get to my camera.

Anyway he finishes writing and I can tell he is going to be heading my way so I creep back to my bed, lay down and close my eyes. Bear comes in ever so quietly and places the carefully created paper on one of my arms, then sneaks back out. I crack my eyes open and see he has written his name on the odd shaped paper.

(this is what he made me)

I smile and then hear Sissy again, not crying but laughing and jabbering so I know Bear has gone into her room and is entertaining her. I can hear Bear laughing a mischievious laugh and so I go to investigate. Before I can even make it to Sissy's door Bear comes running out yelling,

"Mom, come see this!"

I go in and Bear says,

"Look Sissy got out of her bed all by herself!"

There is Sissy sitting on the floor in the middle of her room. I know she didn't get out of her bed by herself, I know a little Bear has helped her. (in case you don't frequent my blog often you should note that Sissy is only 9mnths old and in no way capable of climbing out of her bed)

At this point Bear is laughing hysterically finding the whole thing very entertaining. I smile and say,

"Wow Sissy!"

And smile. I think its pretty funny myself, but I take mental note to not let Bear get Sissy out of her bed again.

After he has laughed himself out he asks me if I got the paper he put by me in my bed.

I say I have and that it was awesome. He tells me that it is cut out as a tree. A spring tree. Which then launches him into a monologue about the popcorn tree seed that he planted and how its not going to grow because Dad took away the bucket he used to water it with. I tell him it will be fine as it has been raining a lot lately. He gets excited and launches into another monologue about how we can't cut down the popcorn tree and how we'll be able to go and pick popcorn when we want to watch a movie.

(where Bear planted his popcorn tree seed)

He makes me laugh over and over.

Oh to be four again...

:D

And Lyon says...

"Mom, I'm not Bear."

What's in a name....Baby names

Baby names

Baby names

BABY NAMES!!!!!

My oldests sons name is Bear.

You got a problem with that.

If you do, I don't care. ;D

This is the story of how we came to name our child:

When I was very first and newly pregnant my husband and I made a decision about names. He would name the boys and I would name the girls. We both had to agree on the name though. We decided to make our pregnancy "fun" by not finding out the baby's gender. There are very few real surprises so why miss out on this one...... So that left us looking for either a girl name or a boy name. Phil insisted that our children's names could not be unisex names. We talked it over made lists, did searches on the internet as most people in this situation do, and we made a few choices.

The names we finally settled tentatively on, and told people about, were....

Marcus for a boy

and

Emma for a girl

I had hardly heard either name and thought both unique.

Little did I know, Emma was one of the more popular names, and as for Marcus I don't know.

We had our decision made, but we still discussed other names here and there.

Phil had a thing about names. He really wanted our boys to have "subtley funny" names like his.

{He wasn't concerned about our girls having names like this because their last name would eventually change, when they get married}

My husbands name is Phillip Graves as in fill-up-graves like as in a graveyard, you know tombstones and all that.... (I find it funny that I always have to explain this) He wanted to name a boy, Berry. Berry! Alright nothing wrong with that name, but to me it sounds and looks like a girls name, like Straw BERRY shortcake. That is what came to my mind. What came to Phil's was, fill-up and bury graves. This was hilarious to him, but morbid and girly to me. I refused to name any son of mine Berry. So we would go back and forth with these sorts of names. Dug, Dig, Stone..... One day we are driving in the car having yet another discussion on names and out of nowhere Phil says to me,

"What about just Bear?"

And I was all,

"Bear? Like B-E-A-R?"

It was in that moment I was struck with a feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I knew that should we have a boy Bear would be his name. I just knew.

We didn't tell a soul.

When people asked what names we were thinking about we told them:

Emma/Marcus

Because we still thought of those names, right ;)

The day of our baby's birth finally arrived, we welcomed him into the world bright and early in the morning. When they put my baby in my arms and told me he was a boy I was hardly surprised. I just thought, well duh, of course he's a boy. The midwife who delivered our baby asked us his name. Phil looked at me and said,

"Well she did all the work, its up to her."

I was a little taken aback by this, but after watching me give birth, this was a very smart thing for my husband to say. So I timidly told her that,

"We like Bear."

You could practically see her nose crinkle in disgust as she thought about it and said,

"Bear!..........Alright :/"

Then Phil added,

"He's our Baby Bear :)"

Then the midwife smiled wide and laughing said,

"Oh! Thats cute =D"

That's all it had taken for her to love the name.

This is generally the scenario everytime we tell someone new our son's name.

They say,

"Whats his name?"

We say,

"Bear"

They say,

"Bear! Like grrrr"

We say,

"Yes exactly"

They say,

"Like, B-E-A-R?"

We say,

"Thats right"

They look at Bear, look at us, smile and say, usually with a little laugh,

"Thats cute"

or

"I love that"

or

"Wow, that name really fits him"

I don't always know if they really mean it or not. It really doesn't matter either way. What I do know is that Bear's name fits him perfectly. He is totally a Bear.

And to make things better for Phil, his name is still subtley funny:

Bear N. Graves

bare-graves

barren-graves

you know, bare or barren as in empty

;D

(Bear, grrrrr)

And Bear Says...

Said on our way home from Florida:

"(Uncle) Ben is going to be so happy I'm home from Florida"

Bear likes STEAK!

The Benihana restaurant incident below has a side story that made a dad very proud of his son.

Either on the way there or when we placed our orders Bear had decided on steak for his dinner. He has never asked for it before, or shown nearly as much desire for it as he did that night.

After finishing his kid's portion he asked the waitress when they were going to bring him his refill of steak.

I mean come on they refill your drinks, why not your steak?

At Benihana Bear ate steak!

Bear likes STEAK!

-Phil-

Proud poppa of a steak eating boy!

Benihana restaurant

We went to Benihana restaurant in Florida for dinner the other week.
We brought our kids, after a long day at Disney World. I don't want to say it was a mistake to take our kids but....
It was all well and good when we got there. Lyon had fallen asleep on the way there so I carried him in, Phil carried Fenix in her car seat, and Bear fortunately walked on his own.
Lyon often does fall asleep in the car when we go places in the afternoon evening. I wasn't worried about it, he had gone to the bathroom before we left and he would probably sleep right through dinner and then we would just carry him back out to the car when we were done, right? Wrong!
When we were seated I put him down on the floor under the table so he could sleep somewhat comfortably. We ordered our dinner, Phil got the filet mignon, I got chicken Hibachi rice, sushi rolls, the salad, and onion soup, and Bear got his own kids Hibachi steak with corn. We also got an order of edamame as an appetizer. Fenix loved sucking on the shells. It was all very yummy and as delicious as I thought it would be. The Hibachi cook did an okay job although I have seen much funner and better in Utah at Asuka. Bear loved his food and loved watching the Hibachi cook. We made it half way through the meal without any problems. It was about that time that Lyon started to cry. He was waking up and when he wakes up from naps he is usually very ornery. He started crying so I crouched down next to him to try and comfort him. When that didn't work I picked him up and put him on my lap. He started crying even harder. It was then, with him sitting on my lap, that I realized what the problem was. He had peed in his sleep. And not just a little, I mean a lot. I mean the kid can really pee. He must have an enormous bladder to be able to hold that much fluid. We were both soaked I had no other options other than to leave. So I told Phil to give me the keys to the car and I carried him out to the car.
I of course had no bag with extra clothes in it, of course not because I never do when I need them. I walk around with a bag packed full of anything we might need and we hardly ever do. At least not until we don't have it do we need it. Ugg!
So I stripped Lyon of his pee soaked clothes and put the only thing on him that I could, my jacket, which I had fortunately left in the car.
I was soaking wet having had him on my lap and then carried him, but there was nothing I could do about that. So we sat out in the car, me really wanting to eat the rest of my food and Lyon who wondered repeatedly where Dad and Bear were. Where were they? They were sitting at our table enjoying being sung too (happy birthday because it was almost Bear's birthday) and eating ice cream......

So in conclusion,
Benihana restaurant with kids is fine as long as your kids are well rested before you go.
Benihana restaurnat with kids can be fun as long as your kids are not ornery.
Benihana restaurant has great food as long as you are not soaked in pee.
And
Benihana restaurant is pretty much like any other hibachi place you can go to, but a lot more expensive.

And Lyon says...

Me:
"Are you ready Lyon?"

Lyon:
"Yes, I ready. But where is Sissy? Oh there Sissy :D. Hi Sissy :D."

To: T From: Bear

asgjkmunbhovli vkpquuvbbjn mnhbvcxstj oijbnmxsatulpmmbhnqvbjtqyogi tgbhyumloip
ccvbcsqhhyjko mbgtyujioklpzaq mgfqqsxdfbopmnbvcxzasdfgqwertyuiop nnbgr

(The above typing is a letter Bear needed to write to his friend that lives next door.

He wrote this while we were in Florida.

This was what was first and foremost on his mind at night after a long day at the disney parks.

I told him to go ahead and type it here, so he did. )

:D

And Bear says...

Bear:

Mom can I get a candy from your room?



Me:

No, don't even think about it!



Bear:

I am still thinking about it....

Awww how sweet...

I was on Lyon's bed pretending to be asleep.

Bear comes in walks quietly to stand beside me, looks at my face, notices that I am "asleep"

He grabs a teddy bear from somewhere on Lyon's bed and snuggles it up next to me.

Then he slowly creeps back out of the room.

:D

Imagination at its best/worst...

I was about to yell at Bear to
"STOP!"
Then I realized that Lyon was having fun.
(he is wearing the "backpack leash" that we used to keep hold of him at the airport)

(its strapped on his back not around neck)
Bear dragged him all the way across the kitchen floor.

How they came up with this and how it was fun

I suppose I will never know.

See what I saw...

This is who greeted me after I took my laundry out of my dryer.

It sure made doing the laundry more interesting.

I like to wash my kids stuffed animals at least once a month.

This one happens to have magnets in his paws.

He's just hanging out, making me smile :D

And Lyon says...

While trying to play catch:

Lyon (after not catching the ball):
"Uhh...I...did...not...catch...it!"

Me:
"That's okay it takes practice."

Lyon:
"Maybe..ma..baseball team...will...help...me."

Me:
Lol! :D

Romance is...

Have you ever looked up the definition for romance in the dictionary?
Well here it is:


Romance- 1. Love story, love affair resembling this. 2. Imaginative story or literature.
3. Romantic situation event or atmosphere. 4. Picturesque exaggeration.

These days I think people have a slightly simpler definition for romance, and I think that Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast sums it up pretty well when he said,

"Oh there are the usual things, flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep..."

That is what tends to come to my mind when I hear the word romance.
And if that is what it really is, well, romance is definately overated.
But just for fun (and because its nearly valentines day) lets look at it a little differently.

I'll give you a few examples of some real romantic situations:

-My husband "taking care" of a spider that I find in our house


-My husband getting the DVD's of the entire X-men, the cartoon series, for me because he knew I wanted them


-My husband leting me stay at Disney's Magic Kingdom with our oldest son while he took the little ones back to our hotel, just because he knew how much fun I would have with Bear.


-My husband warming up my side of the bed for me before I get into bed


-My husband taking me to Las Vegas for a weekend, without our boys, because he knew I was getting overwhelmed with cabin fever.


-My husband having roses sent to me just to surprise me. (And they weren't last minute $5 flowers from wal-mart on his way home from work) He took the time to order them, write a note and then have the roses delivered to me while I was home with our baby.


-The fact that my husband always wears his wedding ring, even when he is doing hard work like gardening or construction work.


-How good he has taken care of me when I was pregnant.

This list could go on and on.
These are little things that let me know that my husband loves me. There is no room for me to doubt it when he tells me and shows me his love all of the time.

That is what I think romance is.
Letting those we love KNOW without a doubt that we love them.

(Me and my Phil, madly in love :)

For more on romance follow this link, then there are a whole bundle of links at the bottom of that post that you can follow for even more on romance ;D

An award!!!???

Somebody gave me an award! Can you believe it? I was pleasantly surprised as I have never gotten one before, and actually didn't know what one was until very recently either. So who do I have to thank for the honor:

***

The Mommyologist

***

I can't remember how I found her blog, but does that really matter? I love her funny stories and hilarious rants. She is a Mommy just like me and thus I can relate and enjoy all the better. :D

Anyway there are rules that go along with getting this award here they are:

1-Put the logo in my post or within my blog.

2-Pass the award onto 12 fellow bloggers.

3-Link the nominees within my post.

4-Let the nominees know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blogs.

5-Share the love and link to the person who gave you the award.

So I went through my list of blogs (I left out the more private family and friend blogs) and decided on these twelve blogs to pass on this Sunshine Award to.

i never grew up

the stroller ballet

SIDAC

my angle of repose

thou shall not whine

a nut in a nutshell

theta mom

bloom

our daze in the desert

operation sippy cup

adventures of a wanna be supah mommy

pics and kicks

I love all of these blogs for the laughs, the seriousness, the crafts, the tips, and everything that makes motherhood what it is :D

Thank you all for writing, and bringing Sunshine into my life.

So long Florida, Hello Utah

Today's flights home to Utah couldn't have gone any better.

Well I suppose if it were a private jet and all that it could have been better.

The boys were so well behaved, they slept for the first half of the first, longer, flight.

Then they ate snacks and did the activities that I had packed for them and didn't fuss at all.

Fenix fussed a bit, but nothing we couldn't handle.

;D

Anyway I am so glad to be home.

***

It was starting to get too wet in Florida, all our wet clothes from being in the rain yesterday wouldn't dry. I hung them up and everything.

I have a new appreciation for the dry climate here in Utah.

I noticed that my skin hates humidity, and so does my hair.

I can hardly stand how awful both have got to looking, but it okay,

because we are back in Utah again.

Home sweet Home

:D

Its good to get away once in a while,

But nothing beats coming home.

I won't be wanting to leave for quite some time.

At least not until June

When I go to visit my sister in Indiana

:D

Now that I am home I will get back to my regular posting

deep sigh of relief for those of you that haven't enjoyed the boring travel posts

Lol!

Rain, rain, rain...

We got rained out today at Magic Kingdom. Our last day in Disney World :(

Someday we will get a better picture of our family in front of that castle.

Look at that bird, we saw several hiding in nooks and windows like that, I was sure they were fake. Phil told me they were definitely real. I didn't believe him until I saw some of them moving.

We had our ponchos (I forgot the umbrella again :(

We were okay and surviving it until Lyon peed his pants.

I didn't have any backups. (of course not, if I had he wouldn't have had an accident)

So I sent Phil to get him some clothes at the closest store.

We ended up with a onsie pajama for him. Phil thought it was really ugly, and it is, but Lyon thinks that it is awesome.

So we got rained out. We went back to the hotel. And I did the only thing I could do.

I took the boys swimming. We had a blast :D

Its all part of the movie magic...

This is what he saw coming at him

This was his reaction,

I don't blame him it seemed real.

On the other hand look at this kids reaction to the same thing.

Maybe he couldn't see as well due to his sunglasses.....

Super Bowl and the Shuttle Launch

(Super Bowl 44)

Of course the team Bear was rooting for (Saints) Won :D

I'll have to tell that story later....

(Space Shuttle Endeavor)

This was so awesome to watch...

A huge fire ball ascending into the heavens.

Wow!

I totally didn't take either of these pictures, both are google images, but it sure would have been cool to watch in real life. As it was we watched both on TV only a few hours from their actual locations. :(

Its okay I did get to see the shuttles fireball from nearly 60 miles away, I could even hear it, it was pretty cool, though I know it would have been a whole lot cooler to see it up close.

Perhaps someday we will get another chance to see both events in real life.

Its possible...

And Lyon says...

"Me Yiyon, roooaaaarrrrr!"

Space Shuttle Launch

Do you ever watch Curious George, like on PBS?

Well you know Dr. Wisemen and the other scientists that are always recruiting the man with the yellow hat to do space missions? You know how a silly problem will arise and Dr. Wisemen will say,

"Looks like we'll have to scrub the mission,"

Welp that is pretty much what has happened this morning.

NASA has scrubbed the mission due to a cloud blanket above the launch site.

Oh well,

We can always try to come tomorrow morning, which is when the launch has been rescheduled for.

Man I feel disappointed, but I can't help but wonder how the astronauts are feeling. I mean they were all strapped into their seats and everything.

(google image)

And Bear Says...

"Why do bad people not listen to Jesus, weird"

Kennedy Space Center

I was tired, I was very hungry, and I had a terrible headache.

We left around noon to go to the Kennedy Space Center. I told Phil I had a hankering for Taco Bell, So he ought to find one for us to go to. He figured that if we just headed in the direction of the Kennedy Space Center we would run into one.

Well, we didn't. As he pulled into the parking lot I was furiously hungry, the boys kept asking when we were going to eat. Ugg! Let me just tell you now, if you plan to go to Kennedy Space Center for the day, eat before you go. The food there is well lets just say you don't remember it for its tastiness, you remember it for its price.

Anyway, Kennedy Space Center was decently cool. It would have been cooler if it had been free admission, but it wasn't and we paid about $30 for each ticket, and we got three!

The 3D movie was alright, but left me feeling disoriented and it hurt my eyes. And believe me when I say that I am not typically sensitive like that.

Most of what they have going on there is information you can easily get

from the internet for free. It seems the only reason to go is so you can say,

"We went to the Kennedy Space Center."

Although we did get some pretty good pictures if you ask me.

I don't really recommend going, especially with little kids, although I should add that Bear thought certain parts were awesome, but for $30 dollars....

It was a bit of a waste of time and money.

Worst part of the trip for sure.

We have yet to see the shuttle launch. I am really hoping that all will go well with that.

:D

And Lyon says...

We went to a Cuban restaurant for dinner.
They had music playing as many restaurants do.
Lyon upon hearing the music says:
"Mom, where is that music coming from?"
I replied:
"The ceiling,"
Lyon said:
"I don't see it."

Lyon is really turning into quite the chatter box.
On the way home from the restaurant he kept asking,

"Where's my robot"

I had no idea what robot he was talking about, lol.
:D

Disney's Hollywood Studio's

(This is how I started my day. My nose was so so so congested, my eyes were watery and felt swollen. I thought it was hilarious that I couldn't stop tears from rolling down my cheeks, it was like having runny eyes instead of a runny nose, lol!)

Anyway:

We didn't make it to the park until noon today, it was really cloudy, but not raining.

I brought our poncho's just in case, but decided it probably wouldn't rain so I didn't bring our umbrella. I figured we didn't use it much the last time it rained anyway so....

The first thing we did was get a picture in front of the Fantasia Hat.

(There was a High School Musical 3 concert going on in front of it. You can barely see part of it in the picture. Check out Lyon checking out his map, he and Bear are so funny they ask to have their own at each park we go to. :)

After that we took Bear to go on the Star Tours ride, twice. Once with Phil, once with me. He was really hoping he would be able to go on it 5 times like we did Thunder Mountain, lol :D

After that we went to see the Indiana Jones show, remember when they showed part of that on an episode of Full House, don't deny watching that show. :D

(Bear sat mesmerized)

(Lyon was a little scared)

(Sissy only enjoyed the action parts and fussed for the rest)

Any way it was really cool, funny, and fun. Even though Lyon got a little bit nervous he made it through without having to leave.

Ater that we were going to go to the PlayHouse Disney show, but I wanted to stop and watch the block party parade on the way. Phil didn't think we would have enough time to watch it and make it to the PlayHouse Disney show so he went ahead to that while I tried to watch the parade with Sissy. I really wanted to see it. I ended up leaving before it even started to go past me though because so many people had crowded around Sissy and I that she couldn't see. Plus I don't think she was all that interested :(

I made my way over to Phil at the Playhouse Disney entrance and got there just before they went in to the show.

Like many of the attractions there at Disney World we were not allowed to bring our stroller in to the attraction. So we left both of our strollers outside. The Playhouse Disney show was only about 30 minutes, but in that time it managed to start down pouring rain. Phil had been smart enough to park our double stroller under an overhanging roof of a nearby gift shop. I left Sissy's stroller completely unprotected from the weather with Phil's jacket sitting on top. So when we walked out it was soaked all the way through.

So as the rain poured down we made a quick decision to leave Disney's Hollywood Studio's and head back to the hotel to dry off. There was no way I was going to put Sissy in a soaking wet stroller, fortunately we had brought our baby Bjorn to carry her in. I also put our poncho's on, but we still got soaked as we ran to the bus station.
(Of couse I still took a second to take a photo ;)

It was probably best that things worked out the way they did because we had a lot of laundry we needed to get done and today was really the best day to do it.

That is about the only reason I was more relieved than pissed to have had to leave early today So in short, today we got rained out at Disney's Hollywood Studio's.

Next time I won't leave my stroller parked without cover.

:D

And Bear Says...

This morning in his sleep:

"How many days till we go to Florida?"

a little later:

"Awesome"

That kids really likes to talk in his sleep, he does it all the time.

Lol!

Disney's Epcot Center

(Phil, Rose, Lyon, Bear and Fenix)

It was necessary to get at least one picture in front of the giant "golf ball"

at Disney's Epcot Center.

(Phil, Fenix, Lyon, Bear, and Mickey Mouse)

The boys finally met Mickey Mouse :D

Disney's Epcot Center was definitely the place to do this at. Not only was there a very short line, but it was inside a building and there was a TV playing cartoons to keep the kids preoccupied.

This is Lyon sitting down, in the middle of the line to see Mickey Mouse, so he could watch the cartoons.

They didn't just meet Mickey Mouse, they also met Pluto....

And Minnie...

(look how happy Donald is too be with my boys, and girl)

Donald and,

(Goofy is really, really tall)

Goofy!

(Lyon and Bear inside Bruce the shark's mouth or getting eaten anyway)

I must say I am surprised this didn't totally freak Lyon out.

(Finding Nemo under the Sea with Bear and Lyon, and of course Fenix even though she isn't in this picture, she was asleep okay)

We went to meet Crush the turtle, (why in the world this is located in Disney's Epcot Center I just don't understand) of course Crush noticed my kids first thing and got to talking to Bear. He asked Bear what his name was and was of course interested to hear it. He asked why his name is Bear and Bear said:

"Cause my Mom and Dad named me"

Then crush asked where he lived and Bear said:

"Spanish Fork"

Lol, I am pretty sure Crush wanted to know what state to find out if he was by the ocean or not, but...

Crush also asked Bear where his parents were and at this point I was crouching down low. I didn't want to have the rooms attention on me. But of course it was and I had to talk to Crush on the microphone in front of a room full of people. I really wanted to deny that I was Bear's Mom just to avoid that, but how can I deny being his Mom I mean come on.

So I talked to Crush while Phil held a crying Fenix on his lap behind me. Thankfully he didn't ask me why I named my kids as I did, that would have taken a long time to tell. I can't even remember what he asked me, half of it I couldn't hear because of Fenixs' crying, but to one of his questions I replied:

"Totally"

and Crush claimed that we had had a moment.

It was a really cute show, even better when you are not the one getting talked too.

Lol!

After seeing Crush we had lunch, peanut butter and honey sandwiches :D

That is Lyon's sandwich on the ground, yes I still let him eat it.

After lunch we headed over to the world showcase at Disney's Epcot Center.

It was really cool, if not for the kids it would have been my favorite place at Disney world. I could have spent day's going through all of the little shops at each "country"

Rose & Crown. Had to get a picture with that ;)

(How pretty is that! Its just outside "England" one of the first country's we went through)

This is where my camera ran out of batteries, too bad, I could have gotten a million more. This was only the beginning of the World showcase. At least I think its called the World showcase, I am not sure, but I am too tired to get out of bed to look at the map and make sure.

We had a great day today and there is more where that came from tomorrow.