It's time to start working out again!

Hello everyone. It feels like I am slowly losing touch with what is happening to everyone as I am sure that others feel the same way about me. It has been quite a while since I have blogged an update on my family.

First of all, I just want to tell everyone that familyworkout has been updated and improved! It still has its little glitches but I hope to have them worked out before too long. It is better, however, than it was in the past. It's quite a fine site I might say :). I would like everyone to begin to log their workouts again on this site. I know that Mom, Jen, John, and Shantell have been working out, but only a few have been logging their exercise time. This site is a powerful too to see progress and regression over different periods of our life. The address for the workoutzone is http://workoutzone.net . You can also access it the usual way from the andersenranch website. It would be good for our health if we would exercise a little more and track our progress :).

Things have been good for Shantell and me. Our life has slowed considerably since the move and improvements to the house were complete. Things are getting busier, however, now that I'm full swing into a new semester at school. I am hoping to finish my prerequisite classes by August and start the Utah State MBA program in September. I have enjoyed doing these courses simultaneously with John. It makes it a lot more fun. It does feel like school will never end, though!

Oh, and for a funny story to tell. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night laughing or (very seldom :) ) crying. I tell Shantell every time that it happens and she thinks it's pretty funny. Well, last night I did it again. I woke myself up laughing.
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A few minutes later, however, I heard Shantell laughing in her sleep :). I told her about it in the morning, but she doesn't believe me yet :).

Long Night in Pocatello

Last night Nicole and I broke up.

Long Night

Aliece has been doing much better today - she has still been cranky, but she has been awake, eating, going to the bathroom, and playing. It was good to see her greet me when I came home from work this evening.

While we were eating dinner, however, Amber and I both noticed that Aliece's lips were very dark - nearly black. Amber pressed on her hands and arms and observed that the color was a little slow getting back.

Amber decided to call a nurse and see what she thought. There was no question in the nurses response, but that we were to bring her into the after-hours care center.

I stayed home with the rest of the crew while Amber hauled Aliece off to the hospital. After three hours, a pneumonia scare, and some x-rays, they decided that Aliece is just fine. I guess they were worried that sometimes when a child get's ill their body is weakened and they can catch pneumonia easily. According to the x-rays though, she didn't have pneumonia. They assume that it is just that Aliece's body is still not up to par as a healthy child, but she should get there in a day or two.

Amber says that Aliece did really well at the hospital. They got back home just after 10pm.

Snow Angel

Alayna must have loved her little stint outside playing in the snow on Friday. Yesterday I stayed home from Church to watch Aliece since she was still sick. Alayna stayed home with me out of convenience.

I was doing something in the kitchen - probably making a sandwich, and Alayna kept coming over to me holding this stocking cap up to me and grunting. I would put it on her and then she would walk over to the patio doors and try to put the snow boots on. She never got them on, but soon she was back over to me with a large polar fleece type shirt. She did the same grunting noises and so I put the shirt over her head so that it fit around her neck and on her shoulders. After that she went to the patio doors and stood there for many minutes grunting and trying to open the patio doors. There was no doubt that little girl wanted to go outside and play in the snow. She was pretty bummed when I did not go over there to help her get out in the white stuff.

What is this stuff?

Yesterday morning we got our first real snowfall of the year. It was the first (and possibly only) time this winter that I had to shovel the sidewalk. It was really wet and heavy snow too.

After the kids got home and I got done with work, we headed outside to play in the white stuff. By then the snow had crystalized and we couldn't get the snow to pack at all for snowmen, but we had a great time doing snow ball fights instead.

Alayna made it out for the first time in a snow suit to play in the snow. She wasn't too adventurous in it as she mostly stayed in one place and watched us all play. After a while she decided that it looked good so she stuck her face in the snow - man she quickly repented of that!!

Aliece, sadly, was unable to come out and play with us. On Wednesday, Amber caught her filling up the toothbrush holder in the kids' bathroom and drinking the water out of it. She got on her case and told her that it would make her sick. A few hours later she was sick. We don't know if it really was from that, but we tell her that it was so that she doesn't do it again.

Anyway, we are getting kind of worried for her. She is unable to keep anything down, and thus has not been able to drink liquids since Wednesday afternoon. Amber will call the doctor's office today to see at what point we should worry about dehydration. Hopefully she gets better soon enough to play in what remains of our "winter".

Mmmmm, Mmmmmm

On Monday we had a family day with the kids. Amber took Aylee shopping and I took the other kids to run some errands. Then we rented a movie and watched it with the kids. For dinner I cooked up some of that lamb Dad got for us. I barbequed the chops and ohhh...they were good. The kids all seemed to like the new kind of "chicken" (as they call all meat). Thanks Dad and Mom for the meat. It is good stuff!!

This would have never happened with our first child

I had to leave work early today because Aylee had a choir practice that I had agreed to take her to. The plan was that I would arrive at 4:30, pick Aylee up and take her to the practice.

It was all going well. I left work just in time and arrived at the house at 4:29. When I pulled into the drive way I saw Aylee playing with a bunch of friends in the neighbor's front yard. I thought Aylee knew the plan, so I just rolled down my window and told her to get in so that she would get to the practice on time. I kind of hurried her on her way into the van. She hopped in and away we went.

When we got to the church, it was locked and we walked around to find an open door. Finally, we found one on the other side of the church, so I left Aylee there and then returned home.

When I got home, Amber was visiting with Ellen Kosmicki, so I took an opportunity and visited with her also. It was not long after that Ellen had to leave. Amber and I visited about a couple of things and I opened the mail and read over some of the bills and such.

After 20 minutes had gone by, Amber suggested that I go to the Church and wait for it to end so that Aylee wouldn't have to walk home in the dark. I was shutting by bedroom door. I saw Aliece in her room and Johnathan in the living room playing on the computer. As I got my things together to go get Aylee, I asked Amber where Alayna was. Busily working, Amber just stated that Alayna was playing with Aylee. There was a big pause by the both of us after she said that...and then the panic ensued.

"You mean, you didn't see Alayna when you picked up Aylee", spurted out of Amber's mouth. Quickly following, "You mean Alayna was supposed to be with Aylee?!?", were the words out of my both while the two of us rushed out the front door.

We hurried on down the street, looking on both sides of the street and into backyards as we nervously hastened our search. Luckily it was only a few feet from our driveway that we noticed a conglomeration of five, six, and seven year old neighbor kids huddled around a green jogging stroller. I spotted her right away. Alayna was in the jogging stroller with her blanket and baby doll, and all of the neighbor kids were playing with her as if she were their own baby.

When I got there, they all said, "Aylee left Alayna here, so we were taking care of her". I thanked them all profusely and in relief, we both returned home.

I always knew that our parents got more lax with the younger siblings than they had been of us. I guess we are falling slowly into that same pattern.

It always helps to live in a neighborhood with good neighbors....and their seven year old kids!

Wow! All I can say is Wow!

This is what we got in the mail today. This is the back of the envelope. The Letter, it appears has been blessed. It came with a 10x16 paper prayer rug that you are supposed to kneel on. You say a prayer and when what you prayed for comes true, you mail the prayer rug to the original sender. Interesting... As for me, I'll continue my prayers on the carpet.

I do have to admit though, these people are not selling anything. They just want you to use it, mark on a piece of paper what blessings came to you for using it, and send it back (return postage is even paid).

For those of you who hate skiing...

Tonight I went to mutual to be with the youth of the ward for a little while. It was the joint activity, which means all the young men and young women meet together for the activity. Tonight we were making Ginger Bread houses and having contests between them all.

While I was observing the ginger bread houses, I noticed a cast on one of the young men. I asked him how he broke his arm. He told me he got it while skiing earlier this week. Apparantly, it was very foggy, which causes frost to accumulate everywhere - including the chair lifts. He was on the chairlift by himself, sitting on a frostly seat. A blast of wind came up and tipped the chair a bit. Because the chair was so slippery, off he went. He said he fell some 25 or 30 feet to a scary terrain below. He landing first on his feet and then fell to the ground on his stomach. His arm was between the ground and his stomach. The force was such that it broke the arm.

So, for those of us who aren't going skiing in this year, just be glad that you won't be taking that sort of risk. :-)