Helaman's First

Helaman is such a funny boy, and I love him dearly.  The other day, well actually a few months ago.(we will pretend that it has not been months since I have written a blog.)  We went to a thrift store.  I have become a thrift store junky!!!  Anyway, the kids have been earning money to spend on what they want.  It drives me crazy to see what they come home with, but I digress.  Anyway, after we made our rounds Helaman comes up to me and shows me what he found.  He found an old green extension cord.  He was so excited about it.  I tried to tell him no and that we didn't need it, but he finally talked me into it, after all it was his money.  After he bought it he came to show me again.  His eyes were sparkly and he says. "Mom look, my first extension cord! Now Grandpa can't get mad at me."  Then he precedes to hug the extension cord.  It was so cute and sooo funny.  Previous to this cord Grandpa would go down stairs to his shop only to find cords strung all over the room with random things plugged in.

Helaman with his first cord.

Helaman using his cord plugging other cords.
He is in complete bliss.

He has actually been obsessed with cords since he was a baby.  I remember him crawling to the wall and he would sit there next to the cord lifting it up and down.

Lily the Bilingual Girl

When I went to college I was surprised at how much I was judged for being Hispanic but not being able to speak Spanish.  I took several classes in High School and even more in college but learning a  language was hard for me.  I was never Hispanic enough because I didn't speak Spanish.

I didn't want my children to grow up with the same struggle and insecurities I did.  I wanted them to embrace the language and feel comfortable using it.

Cariña started school in 1st grade in a Spanish bilingual school.  The opportunity was exciting for me.

One thing I learned as I have been trying to teach my children Spanish is how hard and frustrating it is for them.  I found my daughter very defensive and  REFUSED to speak Spanish.  She didn't want to be different and trying to understand something that was so foreign to her put her in refusal mode.

I tried any Spanish opportunity, activity, or game that I could get my hands on and it was a fight.  I felt like I was going around in circles in a boxing ring.  Cariña and I both had our fists up ready to fight!

As a mother I have ample amounts of time to think.  Doing dishes, picking up, vacuuming, or so many other chores allows me time to think. I come up with some pretty good ideas, if I do say so myself.  I could solve all the world problems if leaders would just consult me. But they don't!  Anyway I did come up with an activity that I thought would work to learn Spanish.  I just didn't have enough faith in myself to make it a reality!

Mothers are designed to help their children reach their potentials.  Well that is exactly what my mother did.  She told me to do it.  I said, I can't.  She said, Why not?  I said, I don't know how to draw!  She said, I can and I will send you some sketches.  Once she did I had no excuse not to try.  So I did.  I improved the sketches and then colored them.  I did all the computer work, which is much harder and takes so much more time then expected but in the end I got all the art work done.

One of the first sketches

In-laws are designed to fill in all the gaps where your own families lack.  That is what mine did.  They own a sign shop, A Banner Company.  I went to them to find all my printing options that I needed to know.  They had the knowledge of all the material I could print on and the ability to print them.  Just as I couldn't have done it with out my mother's sketches, I couldn't have done it without my in-laws helping with the printing!

I tried to get my dolls done before we moved but having a baby and moving didn't allow my to finish the product.  So March 2014 I entered a craft show to try and sell them.  I was forced to finish the dolls by then and I did.  But after that things got a little bit tough.  I tried to get a web page, but found that it was more difficult than I could manage.  Then life got more difficult and the dolls stayed in hiding.

Finally I decided that I had to get them out.  So my goal was to get them on Etsy on cyber Monday 2015!  I did it.  But this online selling is way harder that I expected.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/255912023/lily-the-bilingual-girl-language?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=bilingual%20dolls&ref=sr_gallery_1

I have had some really good experiences, like an article that was printed in the local paper!  I did make a sell from that article.  I have had a couple of teachers REALLY like them and tell me that they would be willing to help advertise for me.

I am on the front page, no not the article but it tells you what is in the newspaper.

It is a third of the page.

You can read it if you would like.

Another thing that really let me know that the activity set can work was when taking pictures for  Etsy. I went to a friends house.  Her children were there and her eldest boy (9 yrs old), asked what we were doing as we were laying out the dolls on the table.  I told him that I wanted to take pictures of my dolls.  His response was, Yuck I hate dolls.  He then sat down, without being asked, and played with the dolls for about 40 minutes before I finally had to send away all the children.

The kids, including the boy that hates dolls, playing.

The only troubles I have are that I am pretty much an anti-seller, and hate social media.  I don't mean to be outdated, but I am.  Maybe it is because I don't have enough confidence in myself, but I find my self telling people not to buy it. :) OOPS! Probably not the best selling technique.

I know it works.  When I first tested it on Cariña she played and played with it.  I talked to her in Spanish and for the first time she answered in Spanish.  She learned all the clothing words and their definite articles within an hour.  She, all the sudden, liked Spanish.  It took away her insecurities by putting words that she knew and could relate to.  She then felt comfortable enough to use them. I think she felt confidant enough for the first time to try.  It was wonderful.

Cariña making a living room.

It can be used in several different ways.  One, the person can play quietly by themselves and they will learn the words.  It is also great for teachers/parents to establish conversations.  Because of the many options things can be changed and the objects can be talked about easily.  Even adults enjoy playing with it.  I catch myself wanting to move the furniture around. There are only great things about it! (wait am I learning how to sell? :))

Someone making a kitchen.

Speaking of mold!

It is actually interesting that I did the mold experiment with the moldy pieces of bread considering my aversions to mold. 

 

I didn't always have such aversions to mold.  It started the 29th of December.  It actually started mid October, but I didn't know it then. 

 

Let's start in Mid October.  I started getting really sick.  My children also started getting sick.  One of the reasons we moved from TX is to escape allergens in hopes of my asthma getting better.  Our first nine months away were great.  My asthma started getting better and I didn't sneeze much at all.  I couldn't believe how nice it was to feel well.  Then came the change of seasons and everything started coming back into full force.  It started with me.  My sneezing returned but mostly my asthma held me back.  I was so bad that I couldn't walk from the kitchen to the living room without struggling.  After that short walk (15 steps) I would have to sit down and only focus on breathing.  I couldn't talk, look or focus on anything or anyone, just breathing.

 

A lot of people got after me, (because they knew that I didn't like medication) to just take it and I would feel better.  What they didn't know was that I was already on the high dose of inhaled steroids, and a rescues inhaler just to function.  And remember my function was sitting on the couch trying not to move. 

 

I went to the doctors trying to figure out what was wrong and no one could help me.  I was just getting worse and no one knew when or if I would get better. 

 

The asthma was only part of the problem.  I and the kids caught every flu, cold, stomach bug, hand food mouth disease, 5th disease, and everything else.  Cariña was the worst.  She was sick every other week with who know what.  She would get headaches, feel nauseous, and just not feel well.    She would just lay on the couch not wanting to read or watch TV.  I didn't know what to do for my little family and I felt hopeless!

 

I knew we struggled with mold but I had no idea how bad until I looked back.  For our last 6 months we were basically sleeping in a one bedroom.  We had the three oldest in one bedroom, Sam and I in the living room, and Zion in the hallway.  

 

Finally around May things started coming together. (I know I am a little slow).  But I finally realized that our health was connected to the mold.  I mean every time I turned around I was cleaning up massive mold trouble areas.  Interestingly enough, none of my mold clean up ever happened in the bathroom.  Below are just a few of my surprise mold finds.  The worst which is not pictured was black mold covering the entire bottom of my two cedar chests which connected to the wall.  The furniture was about two inches away from the wall and it was solid mold.  I also don't have a picture of the mold that was growing on a futon mattress that Helaman was sleeping on.  I had no idea.  No wonder Helaman was struggling with breathing. I also don't have pictures of our baseboards that would mold after a week after wiping them down with bleach water.  That is on Sam's phone. I also don't have the mold that was both inside and outside my cedar chest.  that is on my video camera.  But from these pictures you can get the idea of the surprise mold I would find at least every other week. 

 

 

Mold growing on the bottom of my desk.

Another angle of the mold growing

The under pad of our table topper.  It just kept coming back!!

Mold growing on my bed pieces. 

 

I could smell the mold when I would sit down on my bed.

Another board.

Pillows sitting in my cedar chest molding away.

I can't tell you how many loads of laundry I had to wash to get my blankets clean of mold. The pillows I just threw away.

A suitcase sitting inside a suitcase in the middle of a bedroom.

The inside of Cariña's dresser. 

Another view of C's drawer that shows all the mold spores inside.

We were planning on moving out at the end of June, but when I had to take all of the kids to the doctor in one week from being sick we had to leave sooner. I couldn't watch Helaman struggle for breath anymore with no answers from doctors.

  It was a hard move.  We had to take all the furniture out of house sit it in the sun to try and kill the mold.  Wipe everything down with bleach water. (That can't be good for my furniture!) Then spray it with mold inhibitor.  I had to  move the entire house within a week, between doctors visits because Sam was still was working.

No this is not a garage sale. This is us having to air out our
stuff before we packed it.   

It should have been a garage sale. Once I got here I couldn't bring myself to use the furniture again.  I am sure that sitting in a storage unit in the blazing sun in a semi dessert killed the mold but I just couldn't get over the fear.  So I got rid of it.  Oh well.

It was a hard move.  I didn't want to leave. I loved the area.  I miss my brother and his family.  I miss the schools.  I miss the ward.  I miss great friends we made there.  You would think I would get use to moving but it only seems to get harder for me.  And we still have more ahead.

An experiment.

Helaman's teacher did an experiment with bread.  She took three slices from cheap bread.  The first one she used gloves and put a slice of bread into a ziplock bag and sealed it.  The second slice of bread she took the bread and sealed it into a ziplock bag, but this time she used ungloved hands.  The third slice she passed the slice of bread around the classroom allowing all the children to touch the bread, just after recess.

The results were the first slice still has no mold.  The second slice became a little moldy, but the third slice became really moldy.  The first signs of mold started between 12-14 days after bagging.

The teacher showed the parents this on parent night.  Of course our first response was gross look at all those kids germs.  But then I started thinking, wait a second, this is fake bread.  Fake bread has so many mold inhibitors what would happen to real bread.  So I took this experiment to the next level.

I made an oatmeal, wheat, honey bread, then I took organic seeded franz bread, then I had some hotdog buns as cheap white bread.  I decided that I wanted to have a couple of different criteria.

The first slice of the three different breads I used gloves and put the slices into a ziplock bag.

The second slices of each bread I dropped on the floor and let them sit on the floor for 5 minutes and then I picked then up with gloved hands and sealed them in ziplock bags.

The third slices of each of the different breads the kids and I handled, but only after we got our hands filthy.  For example the kids went out and caught frogs, sneezed into their hand, wiped their faces, etc  But before we touched our bread we slathered our hands with anti-bacterial gel.

We got our first results today.  We looked at the slices on the fridge and noticed that mold had started to grow on the real bread, only after 8 days. The white bread still nothing.

Fridge with all the slices.

 First row, homemade bread. 

Second row, Franz organic

Third row, cheap white hotdog buns

Floor, homemade bread.

Hand sanitizer, homemade bread

Floor, franz organic bread

back side of hand sanitizer, homemade bread

 Floor, franz bread

Hand sanitizer, franz organic

White scary bread

Still no mold

Gloved, homemade bread

Gloved, franz organic

Results:
~The floor is not that bad, hands are worse.
~The hand sanitizer does nothing if your hands are gross.
~White bread still has no mold.  Just like plastic

X-ray AGAIN?

I am tired of suppling the magazine Highlight with so many hidden pictures, x-ray version.

Can you find the crack?

This emergency room experience was different than then the last other four.  This hospital never ceases to amaze me.   This time the emergency room was packed.  In my past few experiences it was fairly low key.  So when I went this time and I saw all the people I didn't know what to expect.  Would it go fast like in the past, or take forever.  This was the longest visit so far with our trip taking a total of three hours, but with as many kids as there was it was a great time.  

The impressive part, was that the emergency room had run out of rooms and people were just waiting in the waiting room, but the doctors rather than waiting to serve the people in the rooms were coming out into the waiting room to serve people.  They came out and checked us in and looked what needed to be done,  sent him off to x-rays, and when we came back and all the rooms were still busy they casted his arm in the hallway.

This was such a different feel from our last hospital where the staff only served people in the rooms which led to very LONNNNGGGG wait times.  I was just really impressed that the doctors were willing to do what was needed so that all individuals were able to be seen as soon as possible.

The stay at home kids relishing their brother's company.

The TRUE owner of the skirt (1 Kings 3:16-27)

 This skirt has been the bain of my existence for the past few months.  This is a cheap skirt that was given to Cariña several years ago.  She has loved this skirt ever since.  Well it is a 6x so I thought that is was time to pass along the skirt to a little sister, but Cariña has not been able to let go of this skirt. 


In the meantime Xenia has heard of the promises of getting this skirt.  So every time this skirt is visible to her eyes, she talks about "her" skirt.  There has been so much drama over this skirt, it is driving me crazy.

Then one day I had had it.  Both Xenia and Cariña were screaming and crying over this skirt.  I stormed into Cariña's bedroom determined to end the arguments once and for all.  So I took the skirt from the screaming girls and told them that I was sick of seeing tears and this skirt was going to be cut into rags.  Then I left.

Not thirty seconds later Cariña comes running out of the room, "Mom, please don't cut the skirt into rags, let Xenia have it!"  Then she turned around and leaves crying over the skirt. It was a pitiful sight..  

As soon as C. left I couldn't help but smile because this story reminded me so much of king Solomon judging the two mothers. So this is what I have come up with.

16 Then came there two girls that were sisters, unto the mother , and stood before her.
17 And the one girl said, O my mother, I  and this girl dwell in one room; and I was delivered of a skirt with her in the house.
18 And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered this skirt, that this woman found it also : and we were together there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the room.
19 And this girl's skirt disappeared in the night; because she misplaced it.
20 And she arose at midnight, and took my skirt from my side of the room, while thine brother slept, and laid it in her drawer, and left my drawer empty.
21 And when I rose in the morning to put on my skirt, behold, it was in her drawer, but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, there was no skirt, which I did have.
22 And the other girl said, Nay; but the skirt is mine, and not hers.  And this said, No; but the skirt is mine and not hers. This they spake before the mother.
23 Then said the mother, The one saith, This is my skirt: and the other saith, Nay; but thy skirt is too small, but the skirt fitith  me.
24 And the mother said, Bring me the scissors.  And they brought the scissors before the mother.
25 And the mother said Divide the skirt into rags.
26 Then spake the girl  whose the skirt was unto the mother, for her bowels yearned upon her skirt, and she said, O my mother, give her the skirt, and in no wise cut it. But the other didn't care and  left the room. 
27 Then the mother answered and said, Give her the skirt and in no wise cut it: she is the true owner thereof.

Update:  Then a couple of days later Xenia sees the skirt.  It was not rags yet and she says, "mom just let Cariña have to skirt so now we don't have to cut it into rags."

Honestly I don't understand this skirt. It is so loved that both girls are willing to give it up just so they don't have to see it in rags.  Oh funny girls.

Can you find what doesn't belong?

Can you you see it.  Yes it is that small circle battery that Xenia decided to put into her mouth and swallow.  I was hoping that she learned her lesson when she stuck the shell into her ear, but I guess not.
Please don't tell me that lessons have to be learned in 3s.  I don't want to find anything in her nose next.

Poor Xenia was so scared after she swallowed the battery.  When I asked her if she was scared, she burst into tears saying, "I think I am going do die!"  I asked why did she think that and she said, "because batteries are electricity."  My poor little girl.  As sad as it was to watch how scared she was, I sure hope she learned her lesson.

At about 11:30pm I finally got a call back from the nurse in which I was told to take her up to the emergency room.  So I woke her up and we went to the emergency room.  On the way there she said something that just made my heart melt and made me smile.  She said, "I guess I'm not going to die because it is taking so long."  Whew for both us.

The whole trip, including travel to and back, was only 2 hrs.  Not bad.  Then this morning I got a very unexpected call.  Last night I called the nurse and she said I would get a call back within two hours. Well I never got a call back so I had to call the nurse line again.  Anyway that unexpected call was the doctor, that was suppose to call me back last night, called to apologize for not seeing the page.  I was impressed that he called to apologize and made sure everything was okay.

The only thing I was not happy about was the fact that I have been there so often, I recognized a nurse and a doctor.

I am so glad that this trip wasn't stressful. I expected the outcome to be simple and it was.  I am also so grateful for working bodies.  And at least there was was some very sweet/very funny moments too to enjoy.