The one with the Fake First day

Today is one of those days where you just feel like it's Monday . . . . the story would probably be funnier if it was indeed actually a Monday, however it is Tuesday, and it really shouldn't be that insane!

Yesterday at work I got the message about Pax's appointment with the ENT to discuss untying his tongue. (Did I mention that before? The oral therapist has determined that Paxton's tongue is tied - who knew that was a real thing - and he needs it clipped.) Sad part - I hadn't put two and two together that I had scheduled this appointment on Parker's first day of school. Momentary craziness while I try to find someway I can be in two places at once, then call the ENT's office who was nice enough to chnage it. THANK YOU DR. BECK!

I get up this morning at a terrible time. I think it was 7, but it's at the point where it's like I don't know if I have enough time to hop in the shower, and get ready BEFORE I take Parker to his first day of school, or if I should just wait and try and make myself look mildly presentable and shower after. Well I take the plunge, of course, and shower. Get out and barely have time to dry my hair before I realize it's getting super late (why does time always move so much faster when you don't want it to?) and I need to get Parker up, fed, dressed, and ready for his first day of school.

Let the tornado begin. Get him up, fed, dressed, Paxton has a stinky diaper, then preslie has a stinky diaper - I could go into all the details of the crazy morning, but instead I'll just say this . . . . it ended in my sprinting across a lawn with Parker in tow, dodging sprinklers to get to the pre-school door because since no one is out front I assume we must be sooo late (even though we were two minutes early), talking on the phone to the oral therapist's office because guess what I missed rescheduling that appointment for Pax and we missed it, and slipping down a few stairs with my hair pulled in a clippy and NO make up on (GASP!) just in time to land in the pre-school room with his teacher who is vacuuming away because . . . . . school doesn't start until THURSDAY!!!!!

Seriously, bad Mom moment. What a terrible person I am to not even know when his first day is. Can I just say how ecstatic I am that I have a re-do of Parker's first day of school?!?!?! Complete with a good picture and maybe even a buttoned shirt!!

The One with the Pirates

You know how I figure out what I still have to write about? I head over to my Picasa account and check out all the pictures that I haven't uploaded. MAN! Clearly we have had a lot going on this summer.

First things first - I want to get Parker's birthday on here. I am so beyond amazed that I now have a five year old. I'm starting to sound so old. No longer are Eric and I the "young one's" in the ward. I look around on Sundays and think "Man, those people have so many kids!" And then I look at the pew we're in and realize that we either have the exact same amount or just one less.

But back to Parker. He is FIVE! I can't believe it. It's insane. Five years ago I went to the hospital to get induced on July 31st at 5am. After what can really only be named a gruesome labor (seriously, you should have Eric tell you about it sometime, his animations and voice make it sound almost as fun as it really was) that lasted 32 hours and almost a thousand stitches from a natural delivery, we had a little 7lb 10oz boy with two black eyes (a side effect of being yanked out with forceps).

Man his cholic sure made me want to shove him back inside me belly for about a year. But he has become the greatest little man, and best big brother we could have ever wanted. It just goes to show you that sometimes God knows what you need better than you do yourself.

This year Parker wanted a Pirate party . . . . . again. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't kind of relieved that I didnt' have to go out and find decorations and party stuff for something else - we already had so much left over from his pirate party last year. Maybe I'll even convince Preslie to have a "pink" pirate party and we can just keep this cycle going. I already told Eric that we would have to do Paxton's party a "hobo" party because we won't have any money left by then! lol.

This was also the first year Parker got to invite friends. He invited three of his friends from church - funny when we asked him who he wanted to invite he was very insistent on these friends, and knew who he wanted there right off. I am SO grateful to live in a neighborhood where Parker can have such awesome friends and good examples around him so often. It is GREAT!

So Pirate party it was, in the middle of a block of school. Right after we got back from a quick trip to Utah. And one party that took FOREVER to get ready for. Sadly, no one really ever eats ALL of the treats you put out that day, but I had a hard time even narrowing down what treats to make to the ones that we did! I don't think I could have narrowed it down any farther.

On his actual birthday Parker decided he wanted to go to a restaurant with a slide. Eric and I were trying to convince him to do something a little more high class. . . . . like Red Robin or Fudruckers, but he was pretty adament about the slide. In hindsight it makes sense, they care more about the fun than the food. And it actually ended up bein great because we ran into a bunch of people from our ward there and he and Preslie had a blast playing for a bit.

Parker got clothes for school, some new shoes, a night light thing thats made from a pillow pet, but most of all he got a leap pad and some games. He is OBSESSED with Eric's iPad and my Kindle Fire, so we figured this was a good way for him to play educational games and keep his sticky fingers off our "big phones". We're such totally awesome parents to not want him to touch our stuff, I know.

Can't get this picture turned around for some reason. But Parker was pretty excited when he woke up that morning to a special letter just from Daddy. Eric is uh-mazing in this department. He is always leaving me little notes around the house . . . . me I'm a terrible wife and send him the occasional text message.

Pax didn't care so much about the festivities. He much prefers slapping the wood floor in the kitchen all the time.

The day of his actual party this is about what the table set up looked like. I had all these great ideas (seriously check out the pinterest board) but time just wasn't in my favor that day. It was sad. So we had pirate cakes (cupcakes), sugar cookies in boats, dabloons, and skulls, gold dabloon cookies, scallywags (rice krispie sheets with pirate faces, cannonballs (cakeballs and peanut butter balls), rum (rootbeer floats), and a few other treats that I can't remember. For dinner we went super basic and did hot dogs and polish dogs for a mini BBQ. Keep it simple folks! That's what I had to keep reminding myself with. I kept wanting to do these huge extravegant things for the party, and guess what? The kids DO NOT care!

The invitation said to wear your pirate finest, and to my surprise - they totally DID! It was awesome. Preslie loved the eye patch but could hardly ever keep it on.

Carson and Daniel, two of Parker's friends. After we all ate they went and played outside on the mini jump house and tramp.

Then it was present time.

And each kid had to walk the plank to get a chance to hit the pinata. A pinata isn't so pirate-ish, but Parker saw something on Caillou (probably) about pinatas and has been wanting one ever since, so we did it.

I totally set these papers up to look like Preslie broke the pinata . . . in truth, she didn't. I just thought the picture was super cute. WORD OF THE WISE: DO NOT fill your pinata stuffed full. I thought the kids woudl love it if there was all kinds of candy and toys and yada yada, but guess what the didnt' like? The fact that the dang thing was so full you couldn't even break it. So learn from my mistake peeps.

The kids finally got to dig through everything when Mr. Smee there (Eric) threw the pinata on the ground. Everyone swung HARD at the thing about five times before we resorted to just throwing it agianst the ground (about seven times).

All in all it was super fun. We had a blast with Parker's first birthday party involving friends. And being around family made it just as fun!

The One With the Soup and Hunger

True to form - the second we stop running, at least one of us gets sick. And I don't mean just a little cold, but hey we can still function . . . I mean flat on your back, hugging the porcelin, can't hear a thing, can't work, can't even move S I C K.

It's lame really, that it takes me getting so sick to make life slow down. It's sad that the first time I have had a chance to write a blogpost in almost a month comes because I have been confined to my room, sprawling out on pillows, using an entire case of toilet paper for the sniffles, with an entire pharmacy on my night stand, and because I have already watched the entire series of Prison Break. Prison Break is my go to show, I watch it every time I get sick and can't go anywhere. Every time meaning twice. But I think one of my first blog posts revolved around me being laid up in bed with strep watching Prison Break. De ja vu???

So now, now that I have a little extra time where I'm not "allowed" to get up and clean the house, nor do I really want to, now comes the time when I unload a plethora of information.

We drove down to Utah on my birthday and were greeted by a fabulous salmon dinner complete with my favorite peach ice cream made by Eric's dad. The blessing and baptism were fantastic. The following weekend we did Parker's 5th birthday party. That whole week was really spent preparing for that party - I tell you these parties are ridiculous!!! But I'd really like to dedicate an entire post to this party he had, so I'll skip most of it for now.

This last Wednesday during my normal cleaning of the day, I started feeling sick. Follow that up with starting to puke - can you even start to puke? Follow that up with several rounds of actual puking, and I am full on sick, confined to the couch by the time Eric gets home from work. I'm no wuss, I work straight through most sicknesses, so when something comes on that's bad enough to stop me in my tracks, it's usually a few days before I can get up and rolling again.

Thursday, my hubs was UH-MAZING and took the day off to stay at home with me and take care of the kiddos. Wanna know what else this super hunk did? Made me home made chicken noodle soup. YUM! Truth be told, I couldn't taste any of it. My current disease has symptoms of the flu (violent throwing up) mixed with the usual chills, fever, burning skin, hot/cold flashes, dizziness, black outs, sinus infection, ears completely plugged,and such a sore throat I can barely speak. So I couldn't taste any part of it, but it sure felt good, and it was even better to look up from my bed and see him walking in with a big bowl of it. He's such a good guy.

Friday I was by myself though. And not just a normal day - 8 to 8. Of course this happened to be the one and final weekend (ever!) Eric was scheduled to work. And seeing as how there will be no more weekend work schedules, no one wanted to switch with Eric. Not that I can blame them really. I spent most of the day between laying on the couch and sprawling out in bed, occasionally getting up here and there to nuke chicken nuggets and open a juice box for the kids. Really I have been a terrible mom the last week with this crap, I can't do anything, and I'm afraid to get too close to them for fear they will catch whatever death disease I have contracted. Somehow, someway though we made it through.

Nights while sick are the WORST! I'm not sure what exactly makes them so much worse than days - I think it's just the realization that you are supposed to be sleeping, and knowing that good nights sleep would do WONDERS for helping you to get better faster, and yet STILL not being able to sleep. Between coughing, not being able to breathe, fever sweats, adn shaking, it has been a few rough nights. Not to mention, Friday night I thought I would get ahead of it all by taking a sleeping pill. NOT A GOOD IDEA! It definitely doesn't keep you asleep, it just makes you feel dead tired when you are awake (pretty much the entire night).

Remember that awesome hubby I told you about? Here's another awesomeness from him. I read the Hunger Games trilogy the weekend of Parker's party. And yes, I mean the weekend - in three days. It was really a bad idea to start any of them. Honestly I thought I could read one book in a week or so and then wait a bit for the next one. But for those of you who have read the series, the second you end one book, you are pretty much obligated to go on to the next one. I liked, maybe slightly loved, the books - enough that I thought, seriously, they made twilight a movie before this one? and I got progressively excited for the movie to come out. So Eric, being awesome and amazing as he is, got up at 1 in the morning to go and get it at WalMart - amidst some sort of weird 500 person Hunger Games Party complete with costumes and crazy people. He's a good one, I tell you. Poor guy hasn't really been getting much more sleep than me.

Saturday I was on my own again with the kids 8-6 while Eric was at work. So I watched the Hunger Games movie. I've always wondered what it would be like to sit through those movies without having read the book beforehand, would it still be as interesting? Would it make as much sense? Cause you know they have to leave out so much. I thought it was good - although I hate that Peeta is shorter that Katniss. It bothers me. At least put steps on the kid or something.

Saturday afternoon - oh it gets better from here. My grandpa got in a four wheeler accident. Where? McCall. Did he have to be lifeflighted? You bet. I tell you, my family keeps them in business. In the past 18 months my uncle, father, and grandfather (all in the same family line) have all been life flighted from McCall. Dangerous place it seems. Good news, it appears my grandfather will make a full recovery. But I drove downtown to see him with the kids, in my not so on top of things mind, and sat in the ER. In retrospect, it wasn't the smartest for a couple of reasons - 1 being that I wasn't feeling well and a family outing only made it worse, 2 it probably wasn't awesome for my sick self to go in a room with a bunch of people who could potentially get sick, although in my defense I have been on antibiotics, and 3 my ears are so plugged up I am entirely deaf in my left ear and have about 50% hearing in my right - clearly I wasn't much company while I was there. My vocabulary mostly consisted of the word "HUH?"

Good times.

I am feeling mostly better. Not to the point that I can get up and do much yet, but about a million times better than I did. Only about a million times more to go to get back up to 75%. I am excited to hopefully get up and better this week. Get back to work, I have activity days this week, get the house cleaned up, get ready for our vacation in three weeks. Get Parker ready for school. There's a lot to do.

So in the meantime I will continue sittin on my couch, chicken noodle soup in hand, with the TV turned up full blast. If anyone drives by and hears it, I am sorry now.

The One with the End in Sight

The end is coming! I can see it, and I can't wait!

Not morbid, people, just an end to the crazy hectic business that has been the Marshall family's life for the past three months. The end is coming, and I can almost taste it, too bad the end also signifies the end of the summer. Is it insane that we have been doing nothing but running since MAY!?!?!?!? Yes, I'd say it is.

Somehow, with a little help from the man upstairs I am sure, we have been making it through, and we even find a little time, or rather MAKE a little time, here and there to do a few random things.

So it's been a million birthday parties, a missionary homecoming, mother's day, father's day, two family reunions and scout camp and what do we have left? A family reunion this weekend in McCall, another reunionish in two weeks in Utah for a baby blessing/baptism, Parker's birthday, my birthday, my brother's birthday, finals, an anniversary . . . . uh ya, I think I got them all in there somewhere.

Every Monday I keep thinking, is this it? Is this the week that can kind of return to some sense of normalcy? Where I can do homework and house cleaning and projects and mix it in with my work and church schedule. And sadly, every week I am disappointed!!!! It is almost here though.

Next on the docket - we are actually going to be in Utah over Parker and my birthdays, which is kind of lame, but it's for a good cause, so we can suck it up . . . . . just this once. Kidding. Parker has decided he wants a pirate birthday party . . . . again. Is it totally lame to do the same thing twice in a row? I feel like it's a cop out to do it this year since he just had one last year. And then again I'm kind of digging this "my interests don't change much" attitude he has apparently adopted. So somehow we will pull this off.

Other good news - Eric and I FINALLY have 99% of the medical bills from Preslie paid off, it is a wonderful feeling, let me tell you. Hospitals are mostly nice to work with, but man it's a load off the whole monthly budget to not be throwing money at them forever. AWESOME.

More good news - Eric and I have our sixth anniversary in September. The other day a Train song came on the radio and I was blabbing to Eric about how they are coming in September and he said, "Who's Train?" I almost had a heart attack, and we had a long discussion that ended something like this, "I know who Train is, obviously . . . . I bought tickets for you already." Oh this hubby of mine is sure good to me. I'm excited for my uh second concert ever. It should be good.

BAD NEWS - before we can surmount the sixth anniversary I must first survive my 25th birthday. Yes I know, get over it, right? But seriously, a quarter of a century old? It's all downhill from here . . . . at least in the age department. I keep forgetting as I stare at my kids and think, "I can't wait until Paxton is 18months old (thus begins my favorite age)" but I forget that for them to get that old, I have to get older too, and then it doesn't STOP once they get that old, they just continue to get old. I already sound like a 40 year-old complaining about this. But man, who ever decided they were going to start lying about their age at 30? I'm thinking I'm gonna lie about my age at 25 . . . .  it might not be so believable when Parker gets to be 10, but for a few more years it should last.

BAD NEWS - truning 25 is hard for me because I have ALWAYS been the "young one". I've always been the person who is way too young, young for my class, young for my grade, young for my job title, young to be married, young to have kids, etc etc etc. The other day in church a new couple sat behind us . . . . and that was it, they were just a COUPLE. No kids. I love my kids, so I'm not saying I'd like to trade them in or anything, at least not most days, but seriously, when did Eric and I become the old married couple with the three kids that go nuts the entire way through church? It seems unfair to me . . . . . aren't I supposed to stay young forever???? I tell you what, it will be a weird day for me when I start being the "old one" in groups.

Quick update on the kiddos:
PARKER - is trying to learn how to ride a bike. Right about now I'm regretting that we bought a house with a hugely slanted driveway right in front of a busier street. I've never felt comfortable just letting him hang out in teh driveway ride a trike. I'm paying for that now since my 4, almost 5 year-old, doesn't know how to ride a bike. He's still strongly obsessed with pirates, he has learned how to spell the name of everyone in the family and writes them down on anything he can find. He says he wants pirate clothes and a balance bike for his birthday, but I'm thinking he would be just dandy happy with a set of markers. He's a helpful big brother for suer.

PRESLIE - is attempting potty training. We went to a GI specialist about a month ago now that told us she has a crick in her intestines that will make it really hard for her to be potty trained. Awesome. We always heard that girls would be so much easier to train than boys, so it makes sense that something has to come along to anihilate that one. But she's working on it. She is on a regimen of Miralax to try and help her intestines and supposedly it will help us get her potty trained easier. So far it has just about tripled the amount of diapers and wipes and loads of laundry we have to get. She has decided to become obsessed with princesses, about time! I actually love it, I want a girly little princess who isn't afraid to play with pirates occasionally. She is sassy, which is cute now, but we're trying to get a hold on it since it will be trouble later.

PAXTON - is almost 7 months old! It is crazy to me. I can't believe how big he is getting. He has been referred to a speech therapist - you know because none of our kids can go without seeing a specialist - because he doesn't like eating anything BUT formula. We're trying to work on it before they call for the appointment, and he is slowly getting better. He has two teeth on the bottom, and I keep thinking his top teeth look like they're going to pop through any day now. He's a tiny little man, for being the biggest at birth he is by far the smallest now. He is only 14 pounds, but he's pretty tall. He has WAY more hair than Parker did at this age, and it's pretty red, especially out in the sun. I guess I should clarify, he's not like flaming pumpkin red, he's just a little strawberry blonde, I think it's adorable and I love his gummy little smiles.

ERIC - just survived a round of lay-offs at work. It's weird to be in the position where you are supposed to HOPE that someone else loses their job instead of you. At this point, we are glad he dodged that bullet and that it appears the company sees what an asset he is. He has lost about 20 pounds - men hold weight so weird, I never would have looked at him and thought he had 20 pounds to lose - doing cross fit every day at lunch with a buddy. He and Brian now want to open up their own gym - me I need more stability in my life than that one. He is about a quarter of the way through is last year of his masters program, I'm sure one of these days we will be ecstatic that he chose such a prestigious program, but right now it is just LONG.

ME - I'm just working and plugging away at our hectic schedules. I'm about two months away from finishing my first degree, but I'm thinking I'll dive right in to the next one. Currently I have a 4.0, but I get nervous at the beginning of every block of classes, and this block is no different - Pathos of Pathology and Financial Management for health care professionals. I have to write so many papers, although I am starting to become a pro at that one. I love that Eric and I have such similar degrees that I can bounce my papers and ideas off of him and vice versa. I'm still working, done a couple projects around the house, and trying to keep this family somewhat grounded so we don't blow away in all this business.

That's all for now. I'm sure I will have more fun pictures and updates soon. But if you miss me for the next month or so, you know why, our busy summer isn't over yet!

The One With The Family Pictures

So back in May (yes, I know this posting is extremely over due . . . . as in TWO months late) my friend Katie Grant Hardy took some WONDERFUL pictures of our little family. She was asked to take pictures at another friend's wedding in July and said she wanted all the practice she could get beforehand. Well clearly, as you all will see below, she needs no further practice. She took amazing pictures!!! I couldn't be happier with them, except for the fact that this is only a few months after having Pax which means I was not all the way back into tip top shape yet. . . . . but really that isn't her fault at all. SOO if you are having family pictures and you want someone amazing to do them, and you aren't wanting to spend a fortune, head on over to katiehardyphotography.blogspot.com.

I HIGHLY recommend her! :)

The One that Spans a Few Busy Weeks

This post is strictly for my memory purposes, nothing too exciting for readers to see! :)

Wednesday May 30: Return from Portland, driving . . . . did I mention sometime in Portland I threw out my back . . . . this did not make the 7 hour car ride fun.
Thursday May 31: back at work for both of us
Friday June 1: Work
Saturday June 2: Birthday Party
Sunday June 3: My mother's birthday party

Thursday June 7: Mat came through on his way to Utah for work and stayed with us for a few days, we went to dinner for his Birthday (again) and hung out all day Friday after work as well.
Saturday June 9: Drove three hours to a BLUSTERY WINDY reunion in American Falls for the Reynolds side of my family. The 500 and 700' water slides, skeet shooting, candy canon, and waterfall would hvae been much more fun if it wasn't 43 degrees and windy so we could enjoy them. We drove home that night.
Wednesday June 13: Activity Days / Scouts
I can't remember exactly what we ended up doing that weekend, but I seem to remember a family party of some kind, I just can't remember what it was for.
Sunday June 17: Father's day - Eric got an iPad! We had family dinner with my mom's side
Monday June 18: Father's day dinner with my Dad's side
Tuesday June 19: Eric worked late to get Thursday off for the concert, my mom watched the kids so I could have uninterrupted time to work on my hardest finals yet.
Wednesday 20: Scouts
Thursday 21: Tommy Emmanuel concert with Eric's brother's Mat and Jeff, it was a needed break for us from kids! We all ate at Shige's Sushi which was amazing, and had a great time listening to this guy rock a guitar.
Friday 22: Work, get ready for reunion, leave and drive to Carpender reuinion.

The One With the Portland Zoo

On the Tuesday before we drove home (the 29th) we went and visited the Portland Zoo. We've been a few times in the past. . . . . let me just say it puts the Boise Zoo to SHAME! Seriously, our little zoo here is pretty sad after you go to bigger ones. The kids had a blast seeing all the animals and it was even NICE and NOT raining . . . . I know, in Portland, whooda thunk?

We saw GIANT BABIES! Who although may not have been big enough to walk were definitely too large to be carried around in a sling.

We saw black bears box.

The kids measured up to a bald eagle.

Uncle Mat tried measuring up to a polar bear.

On a side note ladies, this boy is single!

And we are looking for a hottie for him, if you know of one, CONTACT ME! :)

The girl must be prepared to deal with medical school as Mat plans to be an eye surgeon.

Preslie and Parker petted the goats.

And Mom and Pres measured up to a big stuffed bear!