Bloglines

I wanted to share a fun site I use for blogging & keeping track of the blogs I read. It's called Bloglines.
I subscribe to many blogs that I don't ever have to go check individually; bloglines tells me when someone updates their blog. I love it. You just sign up (free) & add the blogs you want to follow. When someone updates their blog it shows on your bloglines as unread. It doesn't notify you, you just check bloglines site. This doesn't work for private blogs.

I find it much easier to use then GoogleReader b/c it installs a button at the top of your screen you push to add the blog page you are reading to your list. No typing in addresses or looking for the right address b/c it's all there in one place. Click here to sign up or check it out.

Home Again

We had a FANTASTIC time in San Diego!
We got to visit Sea World, the Zoo, go to a Padres game, the beach, Wild Animal Park & ate tons of yummy food. (Especially The Fish Market & Claim Jumper.)

My cute in-laws spoiled us rotten as usual. Thanks so much Dad & Mom Jeppson!
Matt & Jay are actually still there partying WITH the cameras so I'll post pictures at another time. While in S.D. Ridge started taking a few steps here and there. Since arriving home he has taken to walking a little bit more solidly. I say a little bit, but it's enough that I'm cringing at not having my video camera to capture the moments...argh. As a matter of fact he just toddled across the room to Asher! What happened to my baby? I can't believe he's turning 1 year tomorrow!

The Case of the Missing Peanuts a.k.a Chipmunks Continued...

I bought some shelled peanuts at Hy-vee and put them in a bowl on the island. The boys (Matt included) were eating them up pretty quick. Almost too quick. WHERE were all the nuts going?
The next day while getting the kids ready for bed, I noticed this box hiding in Jay's room.



Me: "What's in the box?"
Jay: "Asher did it."
Asher from the bathtub: "No I didn't, Jay did!"

(I'm sure that's why the box is in Jay's room smooshed between Jay's bed & wall...I'm calling it a group effort.)

Me: "Well, what's IN the box?"
Jay: "Nuts."
Me: "The peanuts?! (light bulb flashes on in Jamey's brilliant brain)
Jay: "We are storing nuts for the winter!"
Little voice from bathtub: "I'm Alvin!"
Jay: "No, I'm Alvin!"
Me: "Mmmkay, yeah, let's keep food in the kitchen."

Can't fault the kid for working on his food storage, but we ARE working on not throwing little brother under the bus, and vice versa.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Off to visit my fantastic in-laws in San Diego. A little R&R is what this mama needs.

Can you say sugar rush?

I came downstairs this morning to find this crime scene shaking down.



What are they eating you ask?
Asher dumped a bag of SUGAR on Ridge's high chair tray. They were both eating it as fast as they could. It was such a sticky mess!
I took a deep breath, and thought "take pictures first, then get mad." It could have been a lot worse so I didn't end up getting too mad, probably b/c most of the sugar was on the tray.








Partners in crime


Pure "refined" happiness!

How to kill a fly

A few disclaimers,
1. The boys are in our unfinished bathroom. It's one of those things I kind of started on when we bought the house and then was too tired from painting/stripping wallpaper in the rest of the house to finish it. Thus the ripped off wallpaper border.

2. The stubbornness demonstrated by my children. I honestly don't know WHERE they get it from. It couldn't be from me or Matt... must be one of those recessive gene things.

3. The clip is 3 1/2 minutes. To us adoring parents it doesn't seem that long. We think our cute kids are hilarious. The adventures they come up with on their own is pretty amazing.

Sprinkler System

Let's see... how can we trick Scott (Matt's super nice brother) into coming to Missouri to help put in a sprinkler system?

I know, let's buy a new car (2007 Accord-new to us) in UTAH, and then after having his parents sort through all the details of that for us, we'll ask Scott to drive it out here AND while he's here spend 3 days in Missouri clay installing sprinklers!

Scott's answer "sure, no problem."

We owe a huge thank you to Scott for being so willing to help us out, hopefully he can come back out soon and get that turkey hunting in. Also his sweet wife Kim is amazing for letting him come out and single parenting 3 kids, one being a 4 month old! How did we get so lucky to have such great family members? We owe you guys big time.

Don't be jealous...

Tonight, Matt & I get to go see this,



Never seen it. Heard it's fantastic. REALLY excited!

Bad Day/Bad Burrito?

Alvin & the Chipmunks

At Christmas all the Utah cousins went to see Alvin & the Chipmunks. Our boys liked the movie a lot but loved the music more. So being the dance/music junkie that I am, I downloaded a couple tracks from Itunes for the kids to listen to. They have seen the movie another time and are now obsessed with quoting the movie & singing the songs. We had a family dance at the church on Friday, and we took a CD with "Witchdoctor" on it. I of course forgot my camera but if you want an idea just see my previous post of Asher dancing. Just multiply it by 10. They were hilarious. As a side note, they also love Crazy Frog.

Currently they pretend they ARE the chipmunks. A recent conversation between Jay & Asher:
Jay: "I'm Simon, because he's really smart."
Asher: "I'm Theodore, because he's not really smart."

We had a picnic on the deck where I actually took some pictures and they wore their sunglasses b/c it was so bright. Then they were of course no longer boys but "Rockstar Chipmunks."








Messy licorice face

Ode to the Mother

Preschool Field Trip

Backing up to life before our Copperhead adventure...
Jay had his last Preschool field trip April 21st to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.
(This was where we were when Matt was out trying to get himself taken to the Emergency Room.)
I took all the boys. We toured the farm as well as an old school house, fed baby goats, had a picnic lunch and watched a snake trying to eat a frog. Next week is Jay's Preschool graduation. I can't believe our miracle baby will be going to kindergarten in the fall! As my uncle Vance always told me while I was growing up, "THESE are the good ol' days." How right he is.


Jay in the middle with friends Bella & Cole



What can I say about Asher? The kid just makes me laugh!

E.R. video

This is right when I got to the hospital, about 3 hours after his tag. Notice Matt's dilated eyes-- he was on serious morphine. He did go back to work today for most of the day so that was good. His first follow up Dr.'s appointment is tomorrow. He is currently driving the mini-van since his right arm is useless to drive stick or write, or do anything. The boy's and I are LOVING squishing into the Accord. Matt's brother Scott is arriving on Wednesday from Utah to help put in a sprinkler system. We will see how that goes...poor Scott.

I am SO thankful this last week of my life is done with. I am happy to have my hubby home safe with us where he belongs. Thank you so much for all your prayers, calls, emails and help with kids. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

Timeline of the "incident."

15 minutes (on the way to the hospital)

30 minutes

1 hour

1.5 hours

2 hours

Marked swelling

24 hours Don't know if you can tell but at this point the whole arm (forearm/bicep) is swollen.

48 hours


Despite all the pictures you can't really tell how awful it is. I'll post a video from the E.R. where you can see the difference in Matt's two hands.

Preview to the bite...timeline to follow

Red Milk Snake, followed by 3 of the 5 Copperheads the survey team saw.



Odd triple fang marks-usually there are 2 (approx. 2 hours post bite).