because I am just that cool....

I walked into a wall. That is the whole story. I took 1/2 a step too far to the left and smashed up half of my foot.

The x-rays didn't show any obvious breaks, but if I am still in pain after 2 weeks it is more likley than not that I broke something. The doctor told me to come back to get x-rayed again, I asked her what they would do if it had been broken and she said "well, there is nothing we really can do." I laughed and "well why would I come back then?" She didn't really have a good answer. :)

I just have a whole lot of soft tissue damage in my foot and have to wear the stupid shoe thing, which I am calling "stinky boot", for 10 days (this happened a week ago, so I am down to 5 days now).

It is just another case of how well my ballerina like grecefullness serves me oh-so-well!

Love this woman!

This is my best aunt-friend ever! She came to visit and I got to see her bunches, but it is still never enough. I miss her and can't wait for the next visit :)

Love you Gretty!

a personal note from yours truly

Maybe personal note isn't quite the appropriate term, but oh well get over it. As a matter of fact, that is the best title for this. This is an announcement to anybody who is expecting anything more from me than a return phone call (several days late), a favor (unless you give me substantial notice), an email responded to with more than 1-2 lines and anybody who expects to get hold of me at a moments notice by stopping by the house or is waiting for me to religiously update this blog. My message to you is: let go of that dream!

I failed to make this public information before these circumstances went into effect. Oh well, better late than never. If you would like to complain, feel free to leave me a voice message and I will address your concerns in about 5 weeks time. If you are offended by this, I don't care :) I still love you, but I don't care.

See, this is the deal: I am in school full time now. That is very do-able, except that I was careless enough to pair human anatomy( the hardest course in the state, nonetheless) with not 1, but 2 other classes. Because of this scheduling stupidity that is fully my fault, unless your name is Taylie, Lucas, or Jacob please expect to be neglected until the 3rd week in August. This class now basically constitutes an almost full time job between lecture time, lab time, and study hall (homework for other classes is still TBD). The only "free"time I have is on Saturday and that is spent making sure that my family will have clean clothes to wear for the next week and that they can find them when they need them, other than that, Jacob is picking up almost all other responsibilities (and hasn't complained once, btw!). Any other time that my nose doesn't have to be buried in a book or when I am elbows deep in a cadaver, I spend with the kids doing whatever they want to do. This leaves time for almost nothing else, and I am fine with that. You may not be, but I am and that is all that matters.

If you need me, texting or email is your best bet because my phone is as attached to me as if it is another limb of my body because that is my lifeline to my family now. I get email and texts all day long on my phone. Feel free to attempt to contact me that way. You will get the quickest response time, I promise.

I am sure that not many of you will be offended by this because I have a totally awesome family (immediate and in-laws) and my friends are pretty great too. There are always those few that will be bugged, and I don't care. I don't have time to care. I still love you, but I am sure you will get over it. :)

Until I re-surface again after the weeks to come.

Love,

Malisa

....really, again?!

You know those punch cards that some businesses give out that reward you if you buy 9 of something you get the 10th one free and other such deals??? I think that the E.R. should begin to offer those to us, because at the rate Luke is going I am pretty sure that I would hit the jackpot eventually. Whether it be a free cast or x-ray somewhere down the line or maybe after the 10th suture I get 1/2 off, it would eventually add up to significant savings.

We had to make yet another trip to the emergency room with Lucas. Right before we walked out the door to go to a BBQ and swimming, Luke thought it would be SO funny to drop all of his dead weight when Jacob picked him up. Well, Jacob didn't have a good grip and Luke fell backwards and smashed the back of his head on my cedar chest. *sigh* It started giving me flashbacks: weekend/holiday, no after hours, no medical personnel available by phone, and so on and so on.

I cleaned what blood I could away to realize that it wasn't bleeding that bad for a head wound. No gushing blood or staining clothes this time. I tried my hardest to be brave and not cry while Luke did the same and told myself that I would see how he was after the BBQ. I figured it may clot up because it was bleeding very slow. At my mom's house about an hour later I looked at it and it was still oozing blood, so I went through another inner monologue while I silently panicked about taking him to the hospital vs. letting it go till the end of the BBQ. I compromised and said I would check on it in an hour. An hour later (about 3pm): still bleeding. I freaked out a little more and asked Auntie Meg if she could track down their wonderful doctor friend to ask his advice before I was too tempted to call 911 to haul him away (...not really, but tempting when you see your kid bleeding). She couldn't get hold of him. I told myself another hour.

(This story lasts for several hours of the same thing so I will spare you the details and if you are really curious just re-read the previous paragraph 3 more times and you will be up to speed.)

On the way home, I told Jacob to stop by Instacare so we can get it looked at. I thought it was a good compromise to make with myself, trading the E.R. for Instacare....

Instacare had a 45 minutes wait at best so that was the excuse I needed to run over to the hospital seeing as how I had exhusted all other options.

We went to Orem Community Hospital and there was nobody there! We walked right in, checked in, got right back and we left in about 20 minutes from start to finish. The doctor came in and told me that they usually use staples on head wounds (my eyes literally about popped out of my head, because I didn't think it was THAT bad) but then he confirmed my hunch and said it was not that deep and that the skin didn't "open" but it was more of a divot taken out of his head and it left a big dent. So they busted out the super glue, stuck him back together and called it a day.

Lucas hated it !!! Not that I expected anything less from my screamer of a child, but he was brave. Taylie was diligently bossing the doctor and nurse around telling them "not to hurt her Lukie because he has a bonk on his head and he was sad so they better not hurt him and that his head hurt because he hit it and that his name was Luke and he was little and he was crying when they touched it so they better not touch it....." (her talking went on and on and on and on......) She made sure that they were nice to him and tried to make him feel better and she didn't stop telling them what to do until we left. She even told them that "Lukie wants to leave now, so we are gonna go. thanks so much! bye." She was hilarious.

So all is done and he is almost healed. The glue is still there and will come off eventually but to my relief, the bleeding stopped. :)

Hopefully, this will fill our quota for the year.

Here is a picture of the war wound. It already has the glue on it so that is why it looks funny and you can't see it very well, but you can see about how big it is.

two peas in a pod

These 2 kids are such good buddies. I am not sure if it is this way for all siblings this close together, but Tay and Luke just love doing everything together. They miss each other when the other is gone and Taylie tries to make sure that everyone is nice to her Lukie. Luke is far kinder to Tay than she deserves sometimes. Quite often, when Taylie is in time out due to an infraction against her brother, he will go and sit with her while he hugs her and he usually tries to sneak her out early by telling her that he is "better" and that "iz otay". I just love them, they make being a mom so easy.

These are some of my newest pictures of the gruesome twosome...

(eating ice cream in my room)

(both of them wearing their "say cheese!" face)

(this is how I originally found them in my room. Almost identical postures...eating ice cream)

(Most days, at some point in the afternoon, Taylie will go to her bed to read books and Luke will come and join her and bring a book he wants her to "read" to her. She is always willing to have him come and keep her company.)

(watching morning cartoons together. Luke has recently started asking Taylie to hold him so they can cuddle together.)

Love these 2!

Yep, I finally did it...

Before....

After....
I finally broke down and cut his hair! I miss the little curls that I would run my fingers through every day. I am sad. I got it cut for him, though. He would wake up from a nap or whatever and he was just so sweaty and hot. All of that cute hair was making him SO hot and uncomfortable, so I broke down and cut it. He does look pretty cute though...

"Luke! Where is all your hair!?"

Luke: "I dunno...bye-bye."

He does look quite cute, but I can't wait for those curls to grow back out!

Taylie's first purchase...

Taylie had her first lesson on money. We were at Walmart and she saw a Lightning McQueen umbrella that she absolutly HAD to have (*eye roll*). I told her that I wasn't going to pay for it with my money because she didn't need it. She then told me "I have money in my piggy!" So I told her that she could have the umbrella if she went home and took the money out of her piggy bank and bought it herself. We went home and counted out $6.50 in change took her back and let her pay for her very own umbrella all by herself!

I kept trying to tell her that when it is gone it is gone and you can't get it back. She really didn't care. She is very proud of her umbrella! Now when we go to the store and she wants something I can tell her that she already spent her money and that she will have to save up some more if there is something else she wants. So far, nothing else has really appealled to her like the umbrella so she lets it go. Funny girl!

Luke's 1st trip to the dentist

This year Luke made his first trip to the dentist! We took Taylie for the first time right before she turned 2, but Luke is so much more difficult when it comes to brushing his teeth that I wanted to get him checked out to make sure that he wasn't on the verge of having his teeth rot out of his head.

Taylie has been 3 other times before so she was cool with it and Luke just thought it was fun to press his face on the window in the waiting room.

I told Taylie that she was going to go first so she could show him how is was done. She did pretty good. For some reason she had convinced herself that the dentist was going to hurt her teeth. I think it comes from watching too much TV...she has a really overactive imagination. She still thinks that it is cool that they have a television on the wall.

Every visit they have added in something new. Last time it was brushing her teeth with the cool little brush they have, this time they wanted to add in x-rays. The dental assistant was SO good with her. She told her to open up her mouth so big so she could sing like Ariel (and Taylie is SO loud and has a huge mouth she got right on board with that analogy) She was a bit freaked out when Luke and I had to leave to room, but she did so great and let them take the pictures of her teeth and do the cleaning with a tiny little episode, but I consider it a success!

Luke thought it was the coolest thing ever that I could squirt water into his mouth with the little water gun thing. That kept him entertained for awhile.

All fun must come to an end with Lucas. Once it was his turn, he was not in the mood to have the dentist touch him much less stick his fingers in his mouth. This is the only picture I got because I had to help hold his hands down because he kept shoving the dentist away from his face. All they did was a visual exam, sheesh, they didn't even stick a pokey thing in his mouth! He screamed, but I didn't really expect anything less out of him.

He was very excited to get his own toothbrush. As soon as I opened it for him, he was pretty okay that they whole "ordeal" happened. (and for Luke, it was a huge ordeal!)

The best part: NO CAVITIES all the way around! They have perfect teeth up to this point and I hope it stays that way. If Taylie gives us trouble about brushing her teeth (which is really rare) I tell her that she doesn't want the dentist to hurt her teeth so she needs to brush them! I am so mean, I know, but whatever works!

picture fun (lots of pictures!)

(He takes after his dad, he is attempting to play xbox!)

TONS of Memorial Day Pictures!

For Memorial Day this year we did the usual and went over to Grandma and Pa-ba Schlenker's house for a BBQ and some polar bear swimming!

I think that Pa-ba pulled out the bubbles to try and deter the kiddlets from wanting to swim in the pool because it was SO cold and there was no way I was going to get in. When it is cold it is either Grandpa, or they don't swim! I know, I am so mean!

as hard as he tried, even the fun new sprinkler wouldn't keep them away from the pool for long!

Cute picture with Aunite Becca!

Luke started by sitting on the side of the pool with his feet in the water and for a little bit he was content...

...until he saw Taylie jump into the pool and start having some fun with Grandpa

then he thought...

I WANT TO TOO!!!!!!

Last summer he was such a grouch! He would last maybe 10 minutes and scowled the whole time. This year, he followed Taylie's lead and jumped right into the 70 degree water and loved it!

Do you think he is having fun?!

They kept taking turns jumping off the side to Grandpa, who would catch them and swim with them for awhile. He is such a champ and my kids are so luck to have him for a grandpa. I mean, how many of you would jump into 70 degree water every memorial day just to make a couple of toddlers happy? I wouldn't.

We finally had to force them to get out when they were shivering, and even when we told them it was time to get out, Luke would let his body go limp so Grandpa would have to catch him so he wouldn't fall in the pool. Then he kept saying "1 more! 1 more! 1 more!" and would jump in as soon as his feet hit the ladder. No matter how cold he was, he didn't want to get out!

This summer is going to be much better with a happy boy to swim with!