Me Myself and I

1. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO?
I was 16 and a sophomore at Taylorsville High. I was involved in the sophomore pep squad and a class officer. Besides that I was constantly running around after school to dance, singing, plays or whatever. Some memorable moments were my first kiss after a Halloween party and I was dressed up like an evil pile of leaves. Poor guy tried to kiss me when I had these vampire fangs in my mouth, so i took them out and saliva went everywhere. For Some reason he still kissed me.
Then there was my first love. Obviously that one didn't work out. I lived, learned and realized it just wasn't meant to be. I sort of wasted two plus years in that relationship and sadly didn't give other relationships the "all" they deserved because of it. But I now realize it all served its purpose. Honestly, Matt probably wouldn't have had anything to do with me in high school. We totally wearn't each others type, (I like to think it is because he was a hot headed jock, but truth is I was to nerdy for him). So I know we met, when we did, for that very reason. We are total opposites in many ways but Matt has always made me want to be a better person. I feel truly blessed to have him as my One TRUE LOVE! I don't think anyone could put up with my crap as well as he. He is wonderful!

2. FIVE THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST TODAY:
As Always...LAUNDRY, Cleaning, Take Tate to get birthday gift for friend, work on church lesson, and do sketches for dance recital scenery stuff.....and much much more...


3. FIVE PLACES THAT I HAVE VISITED:
*Japan- in 6th grade, *England- 2000, *Mexico- Jr. Year and on a couple of different cruises I went on, *Washington D.C (I LOVE D.C.)- few times here and there, and another favorite is *New York- Matt and I did a road trip a couple years ago and it was so fun. New York was one of the many stops. We did some church tours and of course went to the city.


4. THREE BAD HABITS:
*I Love junk food (please help I need some self control!)
*I have always bit my nails and I am a reality junky. It drives Matt nuts!
*I am really good at procrastinating. I always get things done, but find plenty of more enjoyable things to do until the last minute hits.

5. FIVE JOBS I'VE HAD:
*Worked for my parents- I sold marionettes, dolls, and all sorts of crazy stuff.
*Souper Salad waitress- Me and my bro spent some quality time working there together.
*Hometown Buffet- Job Most Hated, but friends there were awesome.
*Teachers Assistant at West Kearns Elementary- Most favorite job ever. I loved the kids!
*Painted a mural at Library- This took many hours and I finished it right at my 8 month mark being pregnant with Tate. Then they had me come back and of course I was pregnant with Addie but I wasn't as far along and the staffle was much more sturdy this time.



6. FIVE THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME:
I am pretty much an opened book, but here are some things I can things I can think of or enjoy.
*My mom ran over my foot with her her car and luckily I was in my goth stage wearing combat boots, which pretty much saved my foot.
*I Had my appendix removed when Tate was a few months old.
*I love music and I love to sing.
*I love art and hope that I can continue to do murals when my kids get older or I can figure out how to balance time as a mom with something on the side.
*OK most of my friends from before High School know this, but I was a little weird growing up and enjoyed pretending I was a super rat named "Rattar" and I had my own unique style of fashion. Sometimes my mom would bribe me with money not to wear the clothes or jewelery I chose to wear.

After a LONG CRAZY flight, we made it to Texas...

So after a not so fun New Years Eve, we got to get packed for our Disney Cruise (we had only 1 1/2 days to be exact). When we arrived to the airport, the kids were surprised to learn that their cousin jaylee and her family was also joining us. I think they may have even been more excited about this than the cruise itself. Normally I wouldn't give all the details of a flight as it can tend to be rather boring, but not this flight. We got on the flight and once we were all seated, there was a bit of a stall. We got seated and right away the girl behind us starts cussing a storm. Then she proceeds to tell the person next to her how she hates kids (great, do you realize you our sort of surrounded by them and THEIR PARENTS right now?). She was probably in her early 20's and extremely immature. Finally the plane took off and I was hoping the girl would shut up all ready, but she didn't and I was seriously trying to keep my mouth shut. Addie was in her own world and luckily wasn't paying attention and Matt and Tate were across from us so they didn't get the earful. Basically the cussing, complaining and children hating comments went on the entire flight, ugh. As the flight got further along my adorable little niece along with another baby started to get a little cranky. Because we sat on the plane so long, before it took off and got such a late start, it was starting to get really late for the little ones. From there a crying fest began. Before long you started getting some nasty comments from other passengers regarding the crying. Now, as a mother, I know there is only so much you can do for a crying infant. I felt bad for the parents and the poor kids not being able to figure out how to rest in such a strange moving device (plane). Can crying get annoying and/or frustrating? Yes, but when you know you are going to be sharing a plane with other people, your bound to get a baby, fussy toddler or more. That's a risk you are taking. Also you have to understand, that babies aren't purposely trying to ruin your flight, they don't know any better. At one point the crying stopped, then some irritated man started doing some LOUD fake cry. Im assuming it was to just get his frustration out. Well that was stupid because then he woke or startled the kids who were crying and it started again. Finally the plane landed and of course you get the smart remarks about how they can't wait to get off the plane, from several people not just the annoying girl behind me. Suddenly the intercom came on to inform us that there was an issue with the gate and we would have to wait... First the girl behind me starts to complain even more than this grown man starts yelling. He was yelling extremely loud saying how parents need to get their kids to shut up and he needs to get off this plane now, etc, etc. He was starting to go crazy. Then the girl stared join in as well as others. I seriously felt like we were on a plane of children haters even though our kids were quiet the whole time, it made me nervous. The plane then informed us of a further delay and we ended up having to sit on the plane for about an 1 1/2 hours. During this time, crazy man called the airlines and started threatening to blow up the plane if they didn't let him off and went on and on and on. And lets not forget about annoying girl behind me. I had it and turned around and said, " It's not like the babies can help it. But your acting worse than them....". I didn't get crazy man to shut up, but I got annoying girl to. then she also sudden changed her tone to point out how crazy the guys was and how he needs to get over it, yadda yadda yadda. At one point a female passenger who was sitting by the crazy guy, got up and walked to the front of the plane and said she could sit next to this guys anymore. The plane finally pulled into the gate, but then informed we had to all had to stay seated while they dealt with a situation. Of course we knew what the situation was, the crazy man threatening to blow the plane up. So now we had to wait for airline security to take this man off the plane. But it doesn't end there. Now a 2nd crazy man starts yelling at the flight attendants and saying how he is scared for his life and how they are holding him on the plane against his will and they are like kidnapping him and better let him off. So the babies were still crying but watching these grown men act this way was so much more ridiculous. I seriously wanted to hold my children close to protect them from all the crazies. Finally, security showed up. by then Crazy #1 shut his mouth and pretended to sleep. They took him off the plane and finally we could all get off as well. Seriously, Maybe this guy had an awful flight, but because of him we had to stay on 45 min. more. I couldn't believe how many people were still irritated more with the babies than this grown man, but whatever. We made it to Texas, phew! Since the plane was super late, our shuttle from the hotel was no longer running so we had to find a cab. We got one, but of course we got the driver who payed no attention as to where we were going or his way around his own city, but we made it. The next day we would get on The disney Cruise ship.

New Years Eve... Not so great

Kids were super excited to spend New years up at the cabin since we haven't been able to enjoy it for a couple of years while we lived out of state. It is great being up there in the winter because there is a super fun sledding hill in the back of the cabin and great snowmobiling. It is also very beautiful and relaxing.

On New Years Eve morning we decided we were going to go snowmobiling as a Family. We didn't get to far and had issues with one of the snowmobiles so turned back. The kids then decided they wanted to sled so they joined their cousins sledding down the hill. The kids started getting tired walking up the big hill so the guys grabbed the snowmobiles to pick them up and bring them back to the top. Since one of the snowmobiles wasn't working, we decided to use a four wheeler. We do this all the time since the hill is so long. Matt pulled the 4 wheeler of to the side once he got up from the bottom of the hill, at that moment Addie started heading down but somehow managed to get off trail and headed right for the back of the four wheeler. I heard her screaming as I was standing near the bottom of the hill. Matt then grabbed her and I heard him say, "We got to go NOW"! I knew then it wasn't good. I started running up the hill and saw Addie's face covered with blood. I then saw the gash on her forehead. It was long and opened to where you could see her skull.

This wasn't the first incident Addie has been in. In-fact she had been to the Emergency Room twice before this. Once for a concussion and skull fracture and another time when she got hit above the eye with a golf club. Both these times were scary and with the Golf club incident, there was a good amount of blood and lots of stitches, but this was far worse. Both previous times were hard for me to keep my composure. I didn't want to scare Addie but I wasn't sure I could hold pressure on her head without losing it. Luckily my sister in law was a nurse and could handle this stuff much better than me. I begged her to come with us as we drove down to the hospital from the cabin. She did so and it really helped me to be able to stay calmer around Addie.

Matt drove, I sat in the passenger seat and my sister in law held pressure on Addies head in the back seat. Luckily I had some left over tissue paper from a gift, in the back of the car, because my sister in law ran out of paper towels.

The bleeding slowed down a ton by the time we arrived to the small hospital. That was comforting. However because of the location and severity of the cut we knew we had better get a plastic surgeon to stitch her up and I was very worried about another concussion. It was funny (not really) because we would tell every person/nurse we talked to that we knew we wanted a plastic surgeon. They would at first tell us that it really might be fine without one, but as soon as they saw it all would agree with us.

Once we checked her in we learned they were not able to locate a plastic surgeon and we would have to drive to Primary Children's which was about an hour drive from where we were. While the doctors checked her out, I drove my sister in law back to the cabin, grabbed Addie's favorite blanket and other necessities and headed back. When I got back they had checked Addie out and she didn't seem to have a concussion and they gave her the ok to head to Primary's so they bandaged her up and we hoped in the car to head there. Addie was awesome all the way there. She played games on dads Ipad the whole way.

Once at primary children's we had about a 40 min. wait until we could get in a room. Once we got in the room we had a similar experience where the nurses would try to tell us how good the people on the floor were at stitching and we may want to consider them, then they would look at the cut and change there mind. In fact we had at least two people (one a doctor) saying they wouldn't feel comfortable sewing this bad of a cut up. From there they went on a 3 plus hour search for a surgeon. Being New Years, the surgeon was busy and not many were available. Finally we located one and the began to prep her.

During the 4 hour waiting period, Addie was calm and doing great. however, by the time the doctor had arrived she was feeling pretty worn out and was ready to go home. When the nurse came in to put the IV in her arm she freaked. They had to use a second person to get her to hold still. She was so mad at them she started yelling all sorts of things to them. Things like, they couldn't do this because it was her bed time and she needed to go to bed "NOW" and they better stop. The best was when she looked at them and said, "You are bad doctors"! I felt so bad for her.

They finally got the medicine in her to sort of knock her out and finally she went calm again. The doctor had to do 3-4 layers of stitches. The cut (or gash) was 2 inches long. But it was finally all sewn up.

Addie started waking up from her drugged state and moving her arms all around the air. Matt and I went over to her and she continually puckered her lips to get kisses from us. She then started pointing to Matts face and counting. Sh said Matt had four eyes. Somehow I still had two, but matt had four.

After she started waking up and stopped throwing up she feel asleep and we were able to to head back to the cabin. Oh yes, she wanted to still go up to the cabin. Plus we had left Tate there during the whole fiasco.

We got back at 11:00. Matt and I were exhausted. It had been a 7 1/2 ordeal of emotions. Addie slept the whole drive back, but then woke up right when we pulled in. Of course she didn't want to miss the New Year celebration and woke up right away. Everyone was watching a movie so we joined them and counted down to midnight with them.

This will defiantly be a New Years to always remember. I was so proud of my little girl though and how tough she stayed. She was amazing. She even let us take pictures, but I wouldn't show her the graphic ones until later. She finally begged me enough after midnight and all the boys were checking them out, so I showed her and she was fin with everything. I can tell she is proud of herself too. Hopefully his will be are last visit to the Emergency room.

Christmas

It's been a long time since I have posted anything. As usual, sooo much has gone on. We are now back in Utah,which has been bitter sweet. The kids have loved being back and loved seeing their cousins and grandparents more. They have also met many kids their age in our neighborhood. They love having so many kids their age so close by. I am so glad they are loving it being back. Nothing makes a mom happier than when her kids are happy themselves.

Although there is so much to catch up on I figured I should probably just add the most recent events that took place knowing I may never catch up to it if I don't. So here we go...

This was are first Christmas back and in our new home. It was a rather small Christmas being that the kids main gift was a Disney Cruse the first of the year. Of course I wanted Santa to present this gift the best way possible so we worked together and gave it everything we got.

The kids found a package labeled "Open Last" and of course, opened it last. There was an envelope with a fun poem informing us how we had to get into costume to find all the clues leading to our final gift. Each of us opened up our own package to find our own pirate costumes. We put them on and searched the house for several clues and gathered many puzzle pieces along the way.

The final clue led us to the basement where we found a pirate ship set up (with a Mickey flag) and on it was 2 more envelopes and a picture of mickey! the first envelope told us to put all the puzzle pieces together and than flip the puzzle over for a surprise. We did so, flipped over the puzzle and it said, "Get Ready For A Disney Cruise"!!! It all sounds fun and great, but the kids had no response. Both just stood there so I had to ask them to repeat what the puzzle revealed. they did so and I asked if they were excited and they said "sure".

I didn't get it. I then told them to open the last envelope which they did and this was a letter from Mickey himself. It told them they had "__ Naps" to get ready and how all of mickey's friends where waiting to see them. Tate's reply was "I guess we're going on a Disney cruise", then he tossed the letter to the ground like he could care less. I then turned to Addie to see her response and she was just playing in the boat not listening. "Addie", I said, "Did you hear hoe many naps we have left tell we go"?

This is when I started catching on to why they hadn't gotten overly excited yet.

"Go Where?", Addie asked. "On a Disney Cruise" I said. Addie then replied with her eyes wide, "FOR REAL"! "Yes, For real, what did you think all of this was for?", I asked. "I thought it was pretend", Addie said. FINALLY she started jumping up and down and both kids got super excited. They thought the whole thing was just a fun game. Sheesh!

My name is Tasha and I'm a Cokeaholic....

When Tate told me he would stop eating candy if I stop drinking diet coke, I realized I might have a bit of a "diet coke" drinking problem... But when Addie said she would stop drinking diet coke if I stop drinking it, I knew my problem was much bigger than I thought.
"My name is Tasha and I am a diet cokeaholic and it has been 10 min. since my last drink...."!

Short Kid Stories that need to be told...

These are old stories I meant to share but haven't...
"Where does chicken come from?" Yesterday my kids had fried chicken on the bone for the first time. Tate asked, "Mom, why do they put the chicken on the bone"? At this point I wasn't sure what to say. "Well" I said, "Chickens have bones just like us". At this point Tate's eyes got really big with concern and he said "You mean this is a REAL chicken?", "Like the ones who walk around and say cluck cluck, cluck?".....
Of course I couldn't lie to the kids and I said yes. To my surprise Tate suddenly got happy again and took a huge bite of his chicken and said, "This is the best chicken ever".


"Addie's Masterpiece" Matt and I (Mostly I, while Matt worked) enjoyed a nice relaxing trip to Curacao this year. My parents were kind enough to take time out of their crazy schedule to come to cali and watch the kids. My mom did several projects with the kids and of course Addie wanted to make sure she had her drawings up for us to see when we got home. It was very cute to see pictures hanging up in the living room on the wall and in her room above her bed. I decided to keep them up for while before taking them down and putting them in her box of memories. 1 to 2 weeks later I decided it would be a good time to take them down. I first went to take of the pictures that were hanging up in the family room. I grabbed the paper and began to carefully remove the picture from the wall it was taped to. But there was a problem... I learned that these pictures were not taped to the wall but glued. When I finished scrapping the paper off the wall with water and a rag I went up to Addie's room hoping that this wasn't the case for the pictures in her room. Of course it was. I called my mom to ask her if she helped Addie hang her pictures up. She told me no and how Addie did it all by herself. That is when my mom too learned of Addie's brilliant idea of using glue. It all works the same to her. Although I was laughing I had to hold back my smile when I explained to her that glue is not meant for hanging up pictures. Now I know to keep an even close eye on my little artist.

Babysitters Worst Nightmare Matt and I came home from a nice date night. As soon as we walked in Addie came running into the room and said "Tate is not being nice to the babysitter". We could hear the sitter telling Tate to go to bed and heard her sort of shriek. Matt ran upstairs to see what was going. The sitter came downstairs looking exhausted and relived that we were finally home. I was so embarrassed that I didn't even ask her what happened, I just immediately apologized for our son and opened the door so we could hurry and get her home. It wasn't until I got home that I learned what was really going on. When Matt went into Tate's room where all the commotion was coming from, he saw Tate hiding under his table with a squirt bottle spraying the sitter in the face as she was trying get him out from underneath. Tate was telling her he was not going to go to bed and just kept spraying her with water. Now I was even more embarrassed. The next day at church I made both the kids write apology petters to the sitter. Poor girl, it was her first time watching our kids and our first time using one of the yw in that ward. I am sure now they all know to be busy the nights we call them.

Much Needed Motivation One day I was telling matt how I didn't feel like running that day but I knew I needed to. Addie then pipes in and says, "ya, mom needs to go running so her butt doesn't get big". Thanks for the reminder Addie!

What The... This story is extremely old, especially since it append last summer when Tate was only 6 years old. We were visiting our family in Utah. We were at my sisters house and everyone was hanging outside. Tate and his cousin were jumping on the trampoline. All the sudden I hear his cousin say "How did you do that?". I sort of ignored this, since that is what I do when I have other kids to entertain my own kids, but then again I hear, "How did you do that, do it again"! This time I asked my nephew what it was that Tate was doing. He then informed me that Tate can do a back flip on the tramp. At first I figured that it was just a front somersault so I was like, "That's cool, I want to see". Tate began to jump really high and then he did it... He did a freakin back flip. I was hesitant to ask him to do it again, afraid he might break his neck or something. But I did and Matt filmed it on his phone. It was crazy! Of course I was wondering where he learned it from. He then told me he learned it last summer at his cousins house when he was being babysat. I thought back to when that was and then remembered that the babysitter told Matt and I that night when we picked Tate up, that Tate had done a backflip on the tramp. Of course we didn't believe it and didn't even ask to see since we were ready to head home. Now I am starting to believe he did do a backflip. Lesson of the day... I got crazy kids and I better keep an eye on them.

Family Game Night Our kids LOVE games. Once of our favorites is the game "Headbands", where you have to guess what picture is on your forehead. Addie is an absolute hoot to play with. Here is one example (actually the reality) of what happens when it's Addie's turn (She is a shark)...

Addie: "Is it an animal?"

Me: "Yes"

Addie: "Does it have 2 legs?"

Me: "No"

Addie: "Does it have three legs?"

Me: "No, Addie there are no animals that have 3 legs."

Addie: "Does it have 4 legs?"

Me: "No"

Addie: "Does it have 5 legs?"

Me: "NO ANIMAL has 5 legs Addie. Lets move on from the legs and I will give you a clue. Your animal DOES NOT have any legs".

Addie: (Her eyes get really big like she finally knows what it is)... "I know.... It's a chicken!"

Me: "Addie, chickens have legs"

Addie: (Pauses and thinks for a minute) "No mom, they don't.... They do?"

Needless to say, this was a very long game, but hilarious.

My basketball Star!!!

Tate recently started basketball. Let me tell you, it as competitive as every other sport is here in cali. I swear all the kids were born holding a basketball or something. Anyways, Tate is fighting to keep up with the rest of them. It has taken home a while, but he is finally getting the hang of it and I am so proud of him. Well, sort of...

The one thing with basketball... well, probably any sport, is you get the really talented kids who aren't good at sharing the ball. This is the case on Tate's team. There are a few boys who are pretty dang good and they know it. I have to admit that I myself am impressed with their skills. However, it does suck to see your own kids trying and not ever being passed the ball. Actually, the worst is when you see your child opened for a pass, standing near the hoop, yelling for his teammate to pass him the ball, then just as the teammate see's who it is that's opened for a pass, (which is your son), they decide to take their chances at making a basket that is literally impossible. Now, I am not saying that their is no reason for these boys to be concerned about giving Tate the ball. He does have a hard time focusing and you can sometimes catch him doing spiderman moves on the court, but he he does have some good basketball skills he can do if given the chance. I understand competitiveness, but come on, the kids are ages 5-7. How do you expect the other kids to get better if they aren't given a chance. Then again, try explaining that to competitive 5-7 year olds.

I think because of this, Tate has learned to become more and more aggressive at getting that ball. He has gotten several rebounds and made some great passes, but regardless of his improvement, the boys still don't pass him the ball. Recently, Tate had practice and I nearly fell off my seat... One of the boys was actually passing the ball to Tate. Now this wasn't just a couple of times, it happened several times. Not only was Tate getting passed the ball but he made some great plays and even got a couple of baskets. I was so proud of him. I thought to myself, "It's about time those other boys realized Tate is a descent player"!


After practice I went up to Tate and the excited mom I was, I told him how proud I was of him and how he played really well. I then continued to tell him that I bet the boys were passing him the ball because he was really focusing and paying attention to the ball.
"That's not it", Tate said.
Then I replied, "Well, How do you know?".
"Well, it was just Brett passing me the ball and when I ran into him at Chucky Cheese the other day, I told him I would give him some of my tickets if he passed me the ball the rest of basketball (season)"!

So maybe the boys didn't realize Tate was a valuable player on their own. Tate knew they needed some persuading. That's my boy! One day he is trying to by a box of popsicles for $100 dollars then the next he is paying off his team to use him more ;0) I love that kid.