Sim Family

Halloween Finally

2010-11-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

Jada was a kitty. I bought an inexpensive "kitty ear" pack and luckily found this halloween outfit that had been hanging in the back of her closet to go with it the day of!

Kya was a kitty too. Fabulous yeah?

Zoe was Padme from Attack of the Clones

Mia wanted to be Neytiri from Avatar

We had a Halloween Trunk or Treat at the church. And thank goodness because it totally rained. We had carnival games inside and the children got to trick or treat down the halls. It was a big hit!

Chicken Update: Dog Bites, Molting and More

2010-10-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

Dog Bite

About a month ago I happened to go in the backyard right as I hear one of my chickens squawking like crazy. Scanning our yard I see chickens fleeing away from our fence which then brought my attention to one of ours on the OTHER side of the fence where a DOG lives and it's flying frantically across the yard. Then the dog leaps and catches the chicken right in his mouth!!!! I scream and yell at the dog and he lets go and the chicken comes running toward the fence trying to get through. It's Oreo, the mischievous one, what a surprise. She finds a small opening under the fence and gets about half way under before getting stuck. I frantically dig her out and can't believe she is still alive at this point. Our neighbor's yard was covered in feathers. I pulled her through the fence. The bite wound was deep and her flesh was grotesquely torn and she had a limp. I hoped for the best but expected the worst. My daughters and I rushed to the store and got bandages and neosporine. I doused her wound with it and covered it with gauze and then wrapped it around with that stretchy band wrap.

After a few days I couldn't believe she was still alive! But her wound had turned a horrific bright green color. I figured she must be doomed at this point but I'd give her a few more days. After all she was walking and eating and foraging like normal. The other chickens didn't even peck at her like they normally do. They were actually being really nice to her. I think the biggest help was when I poured hydrogen peroxide on the wound. The green went away. It cleaned it out, dried it up, and closed healthily. She grew her feathers in over a few weeks and was back to normal! I cannot believe how resilient chickens are!

So here are my wound tips: 1)clean wound with soapy water 2)use neosporine and gauze bandage and wrap 3)replace bandages twice a day for 2 days 4) day 3 use hydrogen peroxide and let wound air out. I think Oreo's wound turned green because there was too much moisture and the bandage wasn't letting it air out. I am no vet by any means but this worked for our situation and there is no one around that wants to stitch up a chicken.

Broken Leg

A few months before that Oreo broke her leg, who knows how. It healed all on it's own. She limped for a few days, sat for a few days, limped some more and then it was all good. It took a couple weeks to heal. In the mean time I brought her food and water and moved her around the yard to be with the other chickens. Apparently broken legs are somewhat common.

Molting

With our abundance of eggs I felt charitable and have been giving our excess away to friends and family. Well, about a month ago I noticed an increase of feathers...all over the yard everywhere. yeah they are molting. (molting is when birds shed their feathers and grow new ones). And did you know they molt for about 2 months? And did you know chickens don't lay eggs when they molt? Yeah, now I'm out of eggs. When I was out of town my husband threw away our last carton because he left them out on accident. I shoulda told him they'd probably be fine, but I figured we'd get more. Yeah, not so much. I miss my organic eggs soooo much. Store bought ones are such a let down. And I can't bring myself to buy the organic ones because they are 4 bucks. So I guess this is a good lesson for me to keep my stock pile up for the fall. They usually molt every fall, it's warm enough to lose feathers and there is still an abundance of food for them to prepare for the winter.

Brooding

Pigeon is our brooder. Brooding is when a chicken wants to hatch her eggs. She'll sit on her nest all day and may come out once or so a day. It's about a 21 day cycle. Even if you don't have a rooster, they'll brood anyway. She gets all fluffy puffied up and squawks around the yard when she finally emerges from the coop once a day. They can brood about twice a year. They do not lay and become a nest hog. It's rather funny. I usually bring her food and make her get out to drink water. Brooding can be onset by a nest full of eggs or just the season or some are just more inclined to brood.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

2010-08-19T11:43:00.000-07:00

We went to the Thanksgiving Point children's Discovery Garden. I highly recommend this place. They have added so much in the past few years and it is really cool. They have $2 Tuesdays for the month of August so we definitely had to take advantage of the sweet deal. In the front entry of the garden is a giant Noah's Ark fountain area and the kids can go in their swimsuits and cool off in the water. With the deal this month it is super busy so you will get a wristband and time slot on when your kids can play in the water. We arrived at 12:30 and our time slot was 3:40. Bring lots of snacks and water and your camera. We were there about 4-ish hours and didn't even get through all of the gardens!!

There is a wooden xylophone instrument area. Very shaded with lots of benches to sit and rest on.

From what I have read Thanksgiving point has the largest man made waterfalls in the US. There is a long pathway that wraps up and behind the waterfalls revealing many cool water spots.

Faith is knowing...

2010-08-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

...I can return when my life ends on earth. That's a big faith thing. But why do I struggle with the little faith things? Like asking the Lord for something and having faith he will answer. Is it because I am afraid of disappointment? Or I feel like I'm asking too much of the Lord? Or asking for something he doesn't want for me? Or asking for something so inconsequential he won't even dignify it with a response? I guess all of those. So how do you do it? Make that leap in prayer and faith that says, this is something I want or need that I know is right and know the Lord will answer...

Jada's Two

2010-08-10T10:36:00.000-07:00

Happy bday Jada June 25...sorry a little behind.

Mia's Hip Hop Recital

2010-05-15T19:25:00.000-07:00

Here's Mia's hip hop dance for the year, so cute "Air Force One and Vans" mix called "Kixx" I don't know how to upload the video if anyone does let me know otherwise you can see it on my facebook wall, here are some pics! Also she worked sooo hard the last two days practicing I am so proud of her!

Cluck Cluck Cluck more from the Chicken Lady; so I've been dubbed by my family

2010-02-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

Roosting on the garden box Roosting on Joe's ghiaEggs! The larger one had 2 yolks!Twins Basil!

Just some fun pictures I wanted to share. I need to take a picture of the coop!

Here Chick Chick Chick....

2010-02-09T07:03:00.000-08:00

Since Orem City made chicken keeping legal to all...we figured we better get some! We drove all the way down to Monroe because a woman down there had 6 Brahma pullets for sale (they have the feathery feet). We made a fun day out of it and made some stops along the way, first at a Chinese Restaraunt in Payson that was super delish. I know, chinese food in Payson? It was way better than anything in Orem though lol. Then we stopped at this antique store in, well I don't know but it's on the way to my cousins ranch and Joe and I have always wanted to stop there. It's kind of pricey but we found a couple of cool things.

We found an old playskool wagon with blocks for the kids

Joe got some old Linemar steam engine toy from the 1920's made in Japan, it has all the parts and is perfect

I got a spice rack with roosters on the bottles, I thought it approprate for the occasion :)

Here's some of the chickens. They are still a little scruffy from the farm and the travel

The upright one is super fast.

This is Mia's chicken, "Pigeon" we got her for free because her foot was frost bitten so she is a bit gimpy, but easy for the kids to catch. Joe wonders why we had to get a special needs chicken.

This is one of the full grown ones, she's still a bit muddy but pretty hah?

You are probably wondering why we really got chickens. Well first for farm fresh organic eggs, second their poop is great for the garden they eat all the bad bugs and are great lawn aereators (however you spell that) and thirdly because it will be fun for us and the kids (and less maintenance than a dog!)

Mia found the first egg! Medium brown and I ate it today! The yolk was a dark sunny orange color, beautiful! "Eggs from chickens allowed to forage naturally have, on average, seven times more beta carotene (which is what makes pastured egg yolks so orange), three times more vitamin E, two times more omega-3 fatty acids and two-thirds more vitamin A than their factory farm cousins. Pastured eggs also have one-third less cholesterol and one-quarter less saturated fat, on average."

Harry Potter Birthday Party

2010-01-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

For Zoe's 6th Birthday she wanted to have a Harry Potter theme (my kids are obsessed with Harry Potter right now). Usually I encourage them to go to Chuck E Cheese or something so I don't really have to do anything especially the clean up the mess part! But I figured what the heck, let's go all out and it will be fun!

First I did the invitations. I dyed card stock with walnut ink I borrowed from my mother-in law. Actually most of my supplies came from my mother-in law as she has a small craft store in her home.

Then I hung them to dry. I actually did the process twice to get a better color. I wanted it to look like old parchment paper.

I found a Hogwarts crest online and put it into word. I rotated the image on its side so I could print 2 to a page.

Then I flipped it over and printed the invite on the other side. It read:

We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for special mid-term classes in honor of Head Girl Zoe's 6th birthday.

Your class schedule will include orientation and matriculation, potions, care of magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts. There will also be a speial birthday fest featuring treats from Three Broomsticks and Honeyduke's Sweet Shop (Pizza, Cake, and Candy).

Classes will begin at the stroke of 4:30 in the afternoon on Friday, January 22 and conclude at 6:00 in the evening. Please take the Hogwarts Express train (your parent's vehicle)to Hogwarts Academy currently disguised as the Muggle home at (our address).

Please respond by Owl (my email) or Muggle telephone system (my phone number) with a yes or no response. School robes optional. We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts!

Sincerely,

Michelle Sim

Deputy Headmistress of Frolic and Feasts

Hogwarts Academy

Next I made school notebooks for each child. I gathered some Harry Potter Printable Coloring Pages, a word puzzle, and I made a class schedule. I borrowed a binding machine and used a Hogwarts Crest for the cover page.

When each class was completed I was going to put a sticker by each, but I just didn't have enough time at the party, we cruised through everything really quickly.

My husband made the wands. He purchased wooden dowels and took them to his shop and shaped them. They turned out amazing! The darkest one my mother-in law rubbed with regular cooking oil doesn't it look cool?

Zoe had the idea to do a Hegwig the owl cake. And she wanted chocolate (which shows through white so easily I won't tell you how much frosting I went through to cover it up!) I made the cake from scratch and got the recipe from my Betty Crocker recipe book, it is delicious! I used two rounds and then cut a crescent out of one to fit in the other so it would be the head. Then I did a crumb coat. The frosting is vanilla buttercream from scratch.

On my my next layer of frosting I used a paper towel to smooth the entire surface. It worked really well.

I poored coconut on some parchment paper and rolled the sides of the cake in it (works best when frosting is still wet)

I added a beak with some shaved almonds. Then I shaped out where I wanted the wings to be and put coconut there as well.

Ok I know it looks more like a chickie but I didn't want to cut too much off the sides to make it more narrow because I wanted to make sure I had enough cake for the kids! I used mini oreos for the eyes and cut them in half for the claws. I also crushed them to make the black speckles. I also put coconut around the edge of the face and made a forehead peak with it too. Not too shabby for my first cake and it did taste good!

Ok now the actual party. We ended up with 9 kids who came. While we waited for everyone to arrive I had the first Harry Potter movie playing and fun flavored jellie bellies for the kids to try, I didn't want to get the funky flavored ones.

When everyone arrived first we went to Diagon Alley to get their wands

We played a fishing game over the curtain (my husband was already hiding on the other side when they came in-It was kind of dark too so they were freaked out by whatever was giving them their wands, it was awesome). We just got an old tree branch from outside and used some kite string.

I made a poster for each class. We actually didn't really have time for Defense Against the dark arts but the kids ran around a played with their wands while waiting for the others at the fishing game.

Next we had the children sorted into their houses. I had them pick out stickers I made with house crests on them. I didn't do slitherin. I printed the crests off my computer and used my xyron machine to make them stickers.

I used a witch had we had from Halloween and each child came up and reached in and picked a crest out.

For Care of Magical Creatures I had my daughter Mia show the kids her rat and she told them about it and let them hold/pet it. They liked that. We also have firebelly toads and I had my husband get those out to show the kids too.

Next we played pin the wand on the wizard. The kids had a lot of fun. I drew and colored wands on paper enough for each child, cut them out and put a bit of brown tape on each so they were ready to go and the game would run smoothly.

Then we did potions at the dining table. I put a few drops of food coloring in plastic cups before the kids arrived. Then before I passed them out I dropped a few iced cubes in each to cover the color. I gave them each a can of sprite and told them to wave their wand over their cup say the magic words and poor the sprite in. They loved seeing what color they would get. Then my husband added his fun flair and said the yellow was Ogre Toe Jam, the red was Werewolf Blood ect.

Since we were all at the table at this point it was the perfect time to have pizza, open gifts, and do the cake!

Finally I took the kids in to Honeyduke's Sweet shop for candy. I gave them a paper sack that they could fill up one of each item. My husband had it displayed cute with different glass dishes filled with candy and such and I didn't get a picture! The kids loved picking out their stuff for their party bags!

So there you have it. Zoe's Harry Potter birthday. Her favorite part was the gifts of course. The party was an hour and a half so we moved through everything pretty quick there was virtually no down time which was good but we didn't have quite enough time to do everything, and I'm ok with that!

Barbie Fashion Show

2010-01-17T18:03:00.000-08:00

Mia loves designing clothes for her barbies so she was thrilled when I asked her to do a fashion show so I could finally take pictures!

Finally Posting Halloween

2009-12-10T12:17:00.000-08:00

Well Halloween was slightly a dud for us this year. The kids were sick the entire week prior and Joe had the swine flu. But I think they did still have fun they're pretty easy to please. They got to dress up and get free candy! Mia was Hermoine, Zoe a vampire, Kya Mariposa, and Jada a monkey. FYI I pieced together Mia's costume on my own, a tie from D.I, a griffindor patch online, sweater from walmart and I made the pleated skirt all by myself it was fun!

Indian Summer

2009-10-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

A fun summer of gardening and playing outside! Before the first cold we picked all of our bounty of peaches, pears, zucchini, onions and tomatoes. The raspberries, lettuce, watermelon, and cantelope did not make it. Apparently you have to water those. The girls had such a great time harvesting all of the fruits and vegetables and I think they really appreciated what hard work had paid them this season! (It actually wasn't that hard :) ) Well goodbye summer-hello fall and the holidays!

Just for Fun

2009-06-15T06:07:00.001-07:00

Just a few pics I wanted to share from this year

The girls with our neighbor Jalese. She's moved now but what a cutie she was they had a blast together

Dan and Joe playing guitar hero...

The girls...

My nephew Cohen

Dress Up

California-knows how to party

2009-06-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

The minute Mia got out of school on Friday (May 29) we headed to Cali and suprised my parents. We stayed for only a few days but I was glad to to see my parents and my sisters I miss them so much!

We had to go to the beach the first day of course (Saturday) and had a BBQ with some of Tracy's friends. It was totally cold (figures) but that did not deter the kids from having a great time
Zoe loved every minute of it!

Joe making the best sand castle ever!

Always a happy grandbaby when you're with Grandpa! Jada got to play in and eat sand for the first time Poor Mia was beat after the beach-I don't know how she could sleep like that! We went and visited Grandma Green on Sunday afternoon. I miss her so it was really fun to see her!Steph and Mike let us stay at their home Sunday night- San Marcos is so beautiful! We had such a good time. Here's James pushing Jada in the baby stroller aw!

I think this is the first time we'd been by the San Diego Temple since we were married! I wanted to stop but there was no time, so a picture from the freeway will have to do :)!

Sea World!!! Me, Jada and Kya checking out the Sea turtles while Joe Zoe and Mia went on a ride

Tracy and Kya at the star fish pond The girls in front of that one white whale or dolfin or whatever-you can see I pay attention lol

da dm- da dm- da dm- da dm- da dm- da dm- da da da! (get it?)

Zoe was out before we even left the parking lot!

Kya got a penguinJada was very tired too Our last day in Cali- we went to the March airforce base Museum and checked out all the cool old military stuff and took a tour of their plane yard. My favorite, which I did not get a picture of was the SR 71 blackbird that goes Mach 3 which is like 2000 miles an hour or something ridiculous. Our fam in front of this sweet old plane, I have no idea what model it is or anything but I liked the colors :)

Kya loves airplanes she calls them airmanes!

Zoe's Preschool Recital

2009-05-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

Their theme this year was Wizard of Oz so I made a Dorothy costume for Zoe. I did not have a pattern but it turned out great!

Zoe also learned Tae Kwon Do at her Preschool...

The video isn't working though boo!

I love this video-

Zoe says she wants to be a "Super Star Singer" when she grows up :)!

Mia's Hip Hop Recital

2009-05-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

"Hi I'm 7 going on 14"

Here's some pics and video of Mia's year end recital (so cute)

sorry the filming is kinda bad but still worth watching!

"Chain Hang Low"

(FYI Mia starts out in the center and then transitions to the front left)

Fast & Furious

2009-04-03T23:19:00.001-07:00

Totally saw Fast & Furious tonight with my bro and my sister in law. I totally loved it. There was a little Transporter 2 essence of ridiculous stunts (well mostly one in particular but I won't go into detail, you'll know which one when you see it) but easily overlooked as the story line/plot was suprising good! It actually takes place time-line wise before the 3rd movie so they had Han in it a little. You could definately tell they tried to appeal to the Latino crowd, alot of hispanic influence in there. I hope it does well in the box office, if so they will do another one. I know our theater was packed-but there isn't much else to do in Utah besides watching movies and eating. So anyway 2 thumbs up from me for Fast & Furious. Side note too much American Muscle racing and not enough rice.

Twilight...Obsessed Much?

2009-03-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

Yeah I'm obsessed. Twilight is my new 90210 what can I say? I can picture my room as a young teen: my Jason Priestly poster and various 90210 paraphernalia plastering the walls-ooh including the dirty poster of Eric Nies from The Grind standing shirtless in shallow water that came just above is -ehem-. In it's place if I were still a teen: Robert Pattinson and everything Twilight. I would definitely have the Edward pillowcase I saw at Hot Topic, the special edition jewelry box set from Costco, with charm bracelet, movie, and all, as well as some various accessories I've seen kicking around Walmart. Oh if I were a teen. I am seriously considering hanging up the mini poster that came with my book on the back of my bedroom door, I wonder if Joey would notice lol. I know Joe kind of rolls his at my my obsession but I think he secretly is intrigued by the series, c'mon what guy isn't? He has decided that Edward is like the Metro sexual of the Vampire World lol.

Breaking Yawn...er Dawn

2009-03-05T06:04:00.000-08:00

That is the name I give to the 4th installment of the Twilight series. Ok spoiler alert if you have not read the series or the 4th book and you want to keep it suprise don't read this. Ok so uck where do I even begin?

I am going to have to read the first two books again to remember that I do like Twilight. From the evil spawn pregnancy to Edward injecting Bella's heart with his venom and taking her soul-the whole story was such a disappointment.

There were all of these stories that could have been so good and just pooped out. The wedding-lame. Jacob showing up at the reception-disappointing. Ok honeymoon mildly entertaining with the trashing of the furniture and bedding. How about when they figured out Bella was pregnate with Edwards "evil spawn" and the servant woman comes to bring them dinner, there could have been some more interesting stuff there, but there wasn't. I mean for all of the blah blah blahing that the author does she could have embellished there! Maybe? How about when Jacob imprints on Renesmee? That could have been cool except it wasn't. How about the cool house they build for Edward and Bella? Lame. How about when Charlie finds out? Eh not so much. How about the lawyer? Nothing. How about the Volturi fight? 300 pages of build up to-oh-nothing. I will say I did like the beginning when Bella is driving the ginormous Mercedes and her own Cullen's credit card. That's funny I can picture it, that's about all that I liked.

Here's the problem. At the wedding I am waiting for Jacob to burst in the doors, stop the wedding, ask Bella to have puppies with him, she says yes they run off the end. But she still chose freakin Edward. Overprotective, too good for everyone, trying to change Bella with the whole car thing, Edward. Why not silly, obnoxious, honest, friend, lets Bella make her own decisions Jacob?

poor joe

2009-03-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

Joe: (looking in the mirror with shirt off) "Look at my belly! "

Michelle: "I know it's crazy!"

Zoe: "Dad, I think you should put your shirt back on..."

kids...they say the darndest things

2009-02-26T09:48:00.000-08:00

Mom: "Zoe I told you not to stamp all over Mia's picture and you did it anyway! If she comes home and beats you up over it I'm not gonna stop her"
Zoe: "Well I know Karate so..."

Origins Shampoo

2009-02-24T17:17:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love the shampoo my sister Tracy got me for my birthday. It's Origins: Jump Start. It has a wonderful herby, earthy smell that is to die for. I love the way it makes my hair feel so clean and soft without weighing it down at all. It actually gives my hair so much more body and makes it so light, it is so much easier to style and blowdry my hair when I use it. I guarantee you will notice a difference if you try it! I know my sister swears by the rest of their products too as she worked at their store in Vegas and had an opportunity to try them all out!

Farewell Dear Lilo

2009-02-14T07:11:00.001-08:00

Our dog, Lilo passed away last night. It came on so fast and we are truly devastated, we miss her so much. I went to check on her one last time before going to bed and instead of greeting me with bright eyes and a little wag in her tale, she was nothing but lethargic and sad looking. She wouldn't even get up when we called her or coaxed her. We found an Urgent Pet Care and Joe and I carried her on her doggy pillow and placed her in the car. He was gone for about an hour and came home empty handed. The care center did some x-rays and a couple of other little tests but she was basically catatonic by the time Joe had arrived there. All signs were kind of pointing toward anti-freeze consumption. We did not have any in our garage but suspect she may have gotten out of the fence (even though it was secured) and gotten it somewhere. But whatever happened there was nothing we could do for her. Even if they resuscitated her she would be on dialysis and probably be a vegetable. She was smart, loving, silly, obedient, and adored the girls. You always feel like there was more you could have done, I could have played with her more, or been more patient sometimes, or taken her around with me on errands (she loved the minivan). But life comes and goes outside our control, an important lesson to realize that we must do all we can everyday with those we love for we never know when life will go. So goodbye and farewell dear Lilo, 'til we meet again!

Awesome-ist Day Ever

2009-02-02T18:48:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up to find 6 more weeks of winter, a lost purse, a cranky husband with kidney stones, my 2 year old trying to change her own poopy diaper, a disaster of a house, no milk, and quartely sales tax due...can I go to bed now?

Making your own baby food...it's easy and yummy

2009-01-30T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ok so the title kinda sounds like making baby food for yourself, no, it's for your baby!

So it's super easy. Heres what you'll need: Food Processor, Filtered or bottled water, Ice Cube trays and any veggie you want to feed your child (just consult your pediatrician on which one's are ok)

Peel veggie if needed, cook it (I boil mine), stick it in your food processor with some water and chop it til it's nice and baby foodish looking.

Then poor it into ice cube trays, cover with a ziplock bag, and stick it in the freezer! Pop a cube or two out for each meal as needed and microwave to melt. Now some of my friends don't like microwaving anything so for you guys you'll have to melt it over the stove...

So that's it! I love it because it is really easy, super cheap (1 sweet potatoe fills a whole icecube tray and they are what, like 77 cents/lb) , and really healthy for your baby. They will grow to love veggie's more than you can believe!

For a little time you will be amazed at how much money you will save and how happy your baby will be because the taste is unbeatable!

Tip: purchase ice cube trays that are nice and flexi to pop the food cubes out with ease!

Ribbit...

2009-01-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

You know how guy's have that little secret trick they do...when they don't want to do something for you they just do it wrong so you won't ask them to do it again. Like loading the dishwasher and putting the dishes in there sloppy so not many fit and they are all in the wrong place or picking up bread for you at the store and even though you tell them what brand to get they still come home with the wrong one...you know, stuff like that?

Well my husband definately took the cake the other day. I asked if he would like to take Zoe to pick out one toy for her birthday at toys r us cause I thought it would be fun, it was her birthday and all. He gladly said he would. They came home after about an hour...with a TOAD! A live freakin toad with habbitat and all AND you have to feed it CRICKETS, ah! I was already having a horrible day (to chalk up with my horrible week) and I just started crying. I was mortified, and angry, and just frustrated. One more thing that I would have to take care of! And crickets? C'mon!

I said Joe, seriously if you didn't want to do this I would have gladly taken her...he tried to tell me it was all her idea...but I know the truth. He did this so I wouldn't send him again. And it worked.

Zoe's Seizure Update

2009-01-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

ok so the homeopathics and supplements are not going well primarily because I can't remember to give her all of the stuff. She's got drops, sprays, vitamins, oils and I am doing a horrible job at this whole thing. It's so frustrating and it's hard too because half the time Zoe doesn't want the metal detox spray because she can't eat for like 45 minutes and she has to take it on an empty stomache. I have tried all different times of day and even in the night. The best time has been as soon as she gets out of bed in the morning but now she knows she has to wait to eat so she fights me on it every time. With 4 kids I don't have much fight left in me. She also has to take fish oil and arctic cod liver oil. It tastes as good as it sounds, so needless to say she hates it. I've been pretty good about the homeopathic drops though I have forgotten the last few days and yesterday she had about a 15 second seizure and she dropped what she was holding and everything. That's the worst one she has had since this all started in Novemeber. I really need to get it together here.
We were reading about the ketogenic diet. Which has a huge success rate (like 100% who stick with it) and may be a viable option. However since I can't even do her supplement regimine how am I going to change her entire diet. Maybe now writing this and realizing what a lousy job I am doing will renew my commitment to doing a good job at this whole thing.

Kinoki Foot Pads: Part 1

2009-01-02T19:18:00.000-08:00

Have you ever heard of the cleansing detox footpads from Japan? They are "all the rage in Europe" right now. But I thought they sounded pretty nifty (I've never spelled nifty before is that right?). Anyways so apparently your feet are naturally a good source for the body to release toxins through. So these footpads you stick on the bottom of your feet at night and they help draw out and absorb toxins such as heavy metals, metobolic waste, and impurties from your body. On the commercial it shows when you peel them off in the morning they are all these sick colors like black or green {toxins} that have been pulled from your body.

So I'm at Bed Bath and Beyond replacing my butterdish Christmas gift that Kya broke the day after I got it and I see the footpads there! "Woohoo!" I thought "I am totally getting these." Stoked about my new purchase (as well as my replaced butter dish, it's got the cover and everything) I get home and can't wait to try them out. Of course the girls want to try them too. So I get them all set up with footpads it was halarious and send them off to bed. Soon after I put on my footpads and off to bed I went. It was a rough night. After I finally got used to them being on my feet and fell asleep I had a long series of about 4 different nightmares that lasted all night if felt like.

When I woke up in the morning to Mia calling me from my doorway saying her footopads were falling off I said just take them off and she said "I already did" so I'm like why the crap did you wake me up at 6:45 then? I was however relieved to be out of my horrible nightmare sequence which I was convinced at that point was caused by my footpads. I thought well maybe in the course of detox and all the stuff going through my body it was making my brain do weird things...I dunno. Anyway I was quite anxious to see what color my footpads would be. Joe woke up right then and I told him the footpads were causing me to have nightmares. He asked if I'd taken them off yet and I told him I was going to right now.

Long story short (too late) I think the footpads caused nightmares, Joe thinks they are a crock, teabags with double sided sticky tape. Only time will tell.

Christmas Recitals

2008-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Oh Sad Wreath

2008-12-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Oh sad wreath I am sorry this day

So many hopes and dreams all gone away

Wendsth thou from the Christmas tree I picked

Your branches and sprigs to shape and to flip

I tied, I twisted, I turned, and I shaped

But nothing could change the thing I did make

For not enough branches I had to create

All I could do was accept my mistake

Then I thought oh what a great plan!

For I could embellish and make you look grand

With berries and leaves and red ribbon too

Still no hope I could make good for you

Oh sad wreath you hang in the hall

Although mis-shapen and not right at all

I tried oh I tried to make you look nice

A mistake I hope I will never make twice

I starve my children

2008-12-09T08:43:00.001-08:00

Kya cheering for Zoe to open the Tangerines. "Zoe! Zoe! Zoe!"

California

2008-12-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

Here are some pic's we took from our California trip over Thanksgiving. We had a blast and did not want to leave the warm weather! But it's still good to be home.

Making sandcastles at Moonlight Beach near San Marcos

Daddy and the girls....so cute!

Grandpa Green with Jada. She was a little shy of him at first but by the end of the trip she didn't want him to put her down!

Grandma Green and Kya on Small World

Joe and Zoe on the rocket ride, her favorite!

Mia was exhausted by the end of the day!

Tracy was our awesome helper. We couldn't have survived without her! Thanks Tracy!

Jada was the big star at Disneyland. Everyone went ga-ga over her all day! Every where we went people were like oh! cute baby! Even on the tram on the way out of the park a woman standing off in line saw her and pointed saying "ah look!" But the best was when Joe and Scott were in line with her for Peter Pan and everyone thought they were gay!

Going in to Small World...love the zit on my chin? Nice...

Joe, Zoe, Mia, Tracy, and Kya on the teacups. Oh yeah and some random guy posing in the back as well.

I'm disgusting

2008-12-08T15:19:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago after Halloween and when the girls were pretty much finished going crazy on all the candy they got trick or treating, I was laying in the hallway (don't know why) going over bills, making phone calls and eating nerds off the floor {naturally} that one of the kids had spilled and the vacuum had yet to get them all up. I guess I figured I should not let the nerds go to waste, they were perfectly good strawberry nerds. The worst part is I didn't even think twice about it as I was eating them joyfully from the carpet. Oh well. They were still good.

Halleluia and Praise the Lord! Can I get an Amen?!

2008-12-07T11:47:00.000-08:00

Today this woman came up today in sacrament meeting to bare her testimony. She is from Trinidad and is a former baptist. Needless to say she gave a very powerful (loud) testimony which I quite enjoyed and there were a couple of amens from the audience (well just one guy who was an investigator turns out). She testified of the Savior and of Joseph Smith. She told about how she prayed to Heavenly Father to guide her and help her understand the Bible so that she may teach her children. Who came knocking at her door during her prayer, the missionaries. She thanked them for coming by and sent them on their way. Six times this happened, she would pray and the missionaries would come. Finally she realized the answer to her prayers was not what she expected at all. What a wonderful testimony. When she closed the man in the audience totally started clapping really loud and saying amen. Everyone was a little frozen and maybe trying not to giggle a little bit. Instead of moving on as business as usual in the testimony meeting a member of the congragation thought it his responsibility to get up and announce through his testimony that it is not appropriate to clap at church. Ok duh so we all know that. The man who clapped it was his first time (obviously) coming to church and big deal if he clapped he didn't know. And now is probably turned off from coming back. Although African Americans tend to not be as easily offended so maybe it is all fine. I guess the problem is that I am offended and embarrassed. Testimony meeting is a time to share your knowledge of the Savior, the Book of Mormon, and the latter day Prophets. It is not a time to share your health log, war stories, or a time to lecture people on what they should and shouldn't do. And that's all I have to say about that.

Seizures Part 2

2008-11-20T18:25:00.002-08:00

Zoe's MRI is all good!

Seizures

2008-11-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

Ok so about week ago (Nov 5) Joe and I were sitting in bed and Zoe (she's our 4 yr old) came in and started chatting with us about the toys she wanted for Christmas. In mid-sentence she stopped talking and sort of stared off, eyes glazed over. "Zoe, Zoe" we said. She resumed after about 3-4 seconds like nothing happened. Joe and I looked at each other and knew what each other was thinking, "seizure"
So we thought well maybe it was just a wierd space out or something. But then she did it again that night. We called DR. Whiting the next day. He was out of town but they got a hold of him and he ordered an EEG. So we had to wait to hear from the hospital to tell us when they could get her in.

So Thursday and Friday passed we still hadn't heard from the hospital. Meanwhile Zoe had 2 little ones each day. Saturday rolled around. About 8:15am we're in the kitchen Zoe looks at me and makes a strange utter sound and is just stuck where she is standing, she can't respond to me talking to her. Her mouth on the left side starts to sag. I gently grab her and pick her up and lay her down on the family room floor. I send Mia to find the phone. She brings it to me and I call 911. Meanwhile Zoe's eyes and mouth are twitching and she is pretty much frozen in place. it lasted about 25-30 seconds. Then she rolls to her side and makes a snoring sound and was almost in a sleepy state, she acted very lethargic (the women over the phone said that was very common after a seizure) the paramedics arrived in about 2 or 3 minutes.

They checked her out and she was fine. Just shy around all those cute Paramedics! They gave her a cute little bright orange bear. She calls it rainbow bear. They offered to take her to Timpanogas Hospital if I would like. I knew that Timpanogas did not have the resources (EEG machine) to treat her so I told them I would take her to Primary Childrens and they said that would be a good idea.

My good neighbors Kay and Jerry came over right when the Paramedics left. They were very concerned. I told them what had happened and Jerry offered to give Zoe a blessing when Joe got back and I accepted. I told them we'd come get them when he got back. Arline (Joe's mom) also arrived she was planning on coming over that morning anyway. So she would be able to watch Kya and Mia while Joe Zoe Jada and I went to Primary's. BTW Joe was up in Tooele for an endurance race. Luckily I got a hold of him just in time and he rushed right home.

So Joe got home Jerry came over and they gave little Zoe a blessing. We drove up to Primary's where they did a bunch of the standard Dr's tests. They determined from what we described that she was in fact having Absence (petit mal) Seizures. They did an EKG as sometimes variation in Heartbeat can cause children to have seizures. The EKG came back fine and so they ordered the EEG, which we could not get her in until Tuesday morning. So we would just have to go back home and wait.

Seizures themselves do not cause brain damage. So if she had more it would be fine unless they were out of the ordinary from her others.

That night (Saturday) we got all the kids down at a decent hour and Joe went right to bed he was very emotionally drained I think. I decided to sit down in the family room and read the scriptures a bit while it was nice and quiet. My mind was very clear as I was reading and a very strong thought came to my mind that said "Zoe had a flu shot." I thought, "yeah, so". I finished the chapter I was in and then got on google. I put in flu shot and seizures. Boom, brings up a ton of stuff. Mainly about mercury. What does Mercury have to do with anything? Well mercury is in flu shots a most other vaccinations. (The pharmaceutical companies claim it is only trace amounts.) What does mercury do to your body? It's a metal, a toxin, and a lot of times your body does not know what to do with it. It can get all balled up in your brain and make your nervous system all wonky (my girls always use that word I love it). At this point I am feeling kind of positive like maybe we can heal her, get her detoxed or something so she doesn't have to live with epilepsy her whole life.

Joe and I did lots of research over the weekend. We found that epilepsy (her form anyway) is somewhat common in children ages 2-5. They don't know what causes it but they can control it with drugs (how convenient). Most children grow out of it. However Joe and I were not feeling good about drugging her up as the side affects were extreme in some cases. It just wasn't feeling right.

So Monday night rolled around, it was a full moon. We had to keep Zoe awake 2 extra hours and wake her up 2 hours earlier to be sure she would sleep for her EEG. She was so tired that night. We let her go to bed at about 9:30 and Joe and I were quite tired so we went to bed shortly after. AT about 11:30 I wake up to Joe totally falling out of bed. He like flew out of bed I don't even know how. Totally hurt his head and neck on the floor. The thing is he didn't even realize he had done that. I said sweetie you know you are on the floor right? "Oh" he says. So he climbs back in to bed. Then at 1:00am his phone starts ringing, what the heck. So he gets it and its a customer dropping their car off at his shop and she says the shop door is unlocked. Now why she is dropping her car off at 1am and why she would even try to open the door is beyond me nevertheless Joe went down and everything was in its place (thank goodness). So he goes to leave and can't get his truck into gear so he forces it and totally breaks the shifter. Of course he's parked in such a way that he has blocked any other car that he could possibly drive home. But with some fudging he gets it into gear and makes it home. I waited up for him so its like 1:30-ish. At about 2am we wake up to Kya totally puking in her bed. So I get her in the bath get her all cleaned up, new bedding, the whole bit. After I tuck her in and settle back into bed about 30 minutes later...puke. I get Kya into the bath again, change her bed, again, and get her settled down. I struggled a little bit to get to sleep after that. Then 3:45, Jada starts crying, she's hungry. I feed her, get her in to bed, then I go to bed, 45 minutes later it's time to wake Zoe up for her early morning. So I am sitting up with her watching a cartoon and she is so tired poor thing. AT about 6am she starts seizing again I yell for Joe and he comes out. I talked to her through her seizure. It was about 20-30 seconds again. She was very tired after. It was so sad.

My friend was going to watch Kya for me while we took Zoe up but after her night I thought I'd better stay with her and Joe would take Zoe up for her test.
I heard from Joe at about 10:30 he said they were setting up an appointment with the Neurologist immediately. They could get her in at noon. Joe said, "I'm no doctor but there were a lot of spikes on the graph test." So at this point I'm balling...she has a tumor, a growth, something bad. Her appointment was set for noon. Joe's mom offered to come because I wanted to be there with them.
After the Neurologist finished his assessment he concluded that it was most likely just absence seizures but what was different about the eeg was that there were also focal seizures which are in two different seizure families from what I understand. So he wanted to have her get an MRI just for precautionary measure. I was greatly concerned. He like everyone else though said seizures happen to many children in this age group and there is no found cause but with medication they generally come out of it. I asked him what about mercury poisoning. He asked why she would have that. I said she had a flu shot a couple weeks ago. He said well they took mercury out of the vaccines blah blah. Joe said well what about the flu shot? He said well I'm not exactly sure on that...(hmm we thought). We asked if diet could help he said yes. If you don't give her sugar, dairy, etc but it's too hard so lets just give her the medication. (hmm we thought). He went over the different drugs and the side affects were, as we expected, not good. We chose the one that was most mild and went on our way.
The next day (Wednesday) I was able to get her into Life Clinic in Provo, they do Homeopathic Healing. Cindy (she's an RN) who does not take new patients is my visiting teacher's sister in law so she gladly made room for little Zoe. They have this really neat machine that reads your body's energy (an EDS). So you hold a metal bar that is connected to the machine in one hand the other hand she uses a stylus type instrument with a metal tip and she touches different points on your hands and feet, which correlate to different parts inside your body, intestines, bladder, liver, kidneys etc. There is a green bar in the middle of the graph if the line is in there all is balanced, if it goes above there is too much of something going on. (I think she may have had a little seizure while she was in the chair but it is hard to tell as Zoe is also a deep thinker) As she is going along everything is good she found a few little random things like inflamed joints, producing too much insulin. Then she comes to the nervous system, the graph goes up out of control. She checks the fat cells, the graph goes crazy. There is toxicity in her fat cells. She says well her body doesn't know what to do with these toxins we better check to see what metals may be in there. A lot of mercury and traces of aluminum, cadmium, and bismuth. I said she had a flu shot. Cindy said well there ya go. She also found traces of irritation with previous vaccines. She put together a whole supplement package for her. Her homeopathic drops, metal-free spray (which safely detoxes the metal from her body, if you don't detox metal the right way it can cause major problems like depression and fibroids I read that online), fish oil, arctic cod oil, multi vitamins, and acidophiles. I also talked to the Doctor there, though he wasn't much help other than he strongly believes the vaccines are causing the seizures. I said so what you are telling me is that if I do this supplement regimen the seizures should go away when she is detoxed? He seemed to think so.

Ok so this may sound crazy to those who do not believe in homeopathic balancing and method. He said bring her prescription in tomorrow and we will read if her body wants it. Sure enough the machine went nuts when we asked her body if it wanted the meds, we asked how about a different dose, or medication, no, no. I said ask her body if it needs an MRI, no. Ask her body if the metal is causing her seizures, yes. At that point Cindy said well you should be prayerful at this point on what to do. I said I think you are right.
In discussing her situation with Joe we both felt very strongly to go the homeopathic route, get her body detoxed and see what happens. If anything at least we will have gotten her body cleaned out from all that junk in there and she will feel more balanced. Whether the seizure's will stop is another question. But we will just take it as it comes.

So she has been on the cleansing for 3 1/2 days and not a single seizure. She was having them twice a day before and they were getting worse. We are hopeful this will help our little Zoe as we like all parents want our children to have a normal, easy, happy life.

Through all of this I am grateful to have the spirit testify to me as it has helped us make (what we think) are the right decisions for Zoe at this time. My mom told me that mothers have a special intuition with their children and not to ignore it, I think she is right. All the feelings and experiences we have had have pointed us to go down this path. And so far so good. Now whether or not we can prove that the flu shot caused all of this will be quite difficult. As we have seen with autism, the pharmaceutical companies are not looking to admit fault in anything. What we can do if anything is share our experience with others and what has and has not worked for us.

Jada Jane

2008-11-02T19:17:00.000-08:00

Jada rolled over! And then she got scared and bawled her eyes out so I turned her back over. Then she rolled over again...and bawled her eyes out so I turned her back over. After the 3rd time of doing that I thought she might enjoy her swing better :)

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T08:22:00.001-07:00

Our friends the Campbells Halloween Party. We were out til 10:30 on a school night...everyone was cranky.
Joe's Jack the ripper, jada's the ducky, I'm little bo peep apparently, Zoe's Mariposa, Kya's a butterfly fairy, Mia's the Pink Power Ranger

We went to Aunt Tani's for a little Halloween Chili party

It was really fun!

Trick or Treat!

So I got a different costume for Halloween night...it was pretty cool.

Jack the Ripper and Madame Boulette...notice the blood? All the kids

were freaking out about the blood.

Mia's Hip Hop Video and Pumpkin Pic's

2008-10-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treat!

Mia in her hip hop class she takes once a week...the boy next to her, "Ace", flirts with her every week and look they are both power rangers!

Jada's Halloween Bow that Joe's mom made...so cute!

Mia's Hip Hop Class Thriller Dance