Annual Halloween carnival

Last night, I took my 4 youngest to my moms work party, along with her and my nephew, Alex. Matt and Beth met us there with their 2 kids.
Somehow I ended up designated table holder and stuff watcher as everyone else ran wild.
As we were walking out, Destini proudly announced that she was now eating either her 3rd or 4th cotton candy. =-p
We stopped to visit Amy for a few minutes before going home.
This morning, after getting the girls off to school, I was working on the laundry (A never-ending chore). As I went back upstairs, this is what I found:

SLURP!!!

drool...

oops...I dropped one.

Denying access

We went back to having a password to access the computer so that the girls aren't on when they shouldn't be or for the entire day. Today, Ethan asked me what the password was. I assume he was hoping for brownie points from his sisters if he could tell them. I told him a random thing and he asked me how to spell it. I told him it was a secret. He glared at me and said, in disbelief, "But, I'm your son!"

Thanksgiving Point

I took the kids, plus Ashlei's friend, Nicole, to Cornbelly's last night. It was a lot of fun, even though we froze.

Brittany wouldn't get in the picture, so Nicole took her place.

Farmer Ethan (with a piece of candy in his mouth).

Caitlin and Nicole chillin' on the 'cow'ch

One of Ethan's favorite things there (notice all the corn kernals in the sand-they were EVERYWHERE).

I told Destini to go inside and look out the window, so what does she do?

Yep...runs away!

Ethan and Destini

Destini, Caitlin, Ashlei, Ethan (mooooo) and Brittany (what's up with that look?)

Schools...

I asked Ashlei's friend what elementary school the kids near her went to and she said that she didn't know, but her little brother went to '____'. Ethan excitedly said, "Destini goes to '_____' (the same school). I thought it was weird that he would say that she goes there, but not him, so I asked, "Ethan, what school do you go to?" Very matter-of-factly he replied, "I go to kindergarten." :)

A day in the life...

One day a week I don't babysit, so I decided to run some errands. Ethan and I dropped Destini off at school (NW Orem) and then went to the post office (central Orem). The next thing on the agenda was to drop some stuff off at D.I. (N Provo). But, I got a text from my daughter saying she didn't feel well and could I come get her. So, I started driving to NE Orem until I discovered that Caitlin had the phone, not Ashlei. U-turned back toward NW Orem and picked her up and then backtracked through Orem and to D.I.
It was 9:45 when we got there and it must not open until 10:00 because there were people waiting in their cars and by the entrance. (Reminiscent of the 'open, open, open' commercial). It made me wonder if D.I. has 'regulars' who come first thing in the morning to get the latest treasures. Anyway, luckily the donation drop-off was open and we were able to get that done quickly.
After lunch Caitlin decided she would go back to school. I dropped her off and then took Ethan to school and stayed for 'Moms and muffins'.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, which was fine by me.

Yes, I'm insane

I spent the day disassembling and reassembling bunkbeds and moving dressers and such as we moved the kids around into different bedrooms.
Oh, I did go to the chiropractor this morning-did some electro-whatever-it's called and some decompression-hopefully by keeping up with those and doing some exercises (not moving furniture) I can cancel with the neurosurgeon. It's not as if I am in excruciating pain, but combined with everything else...
I'm debating on getting my ear checked (constant ringing for 3 weeks now), but it could just be from the regenerating nerves post-Bells Palsy. It hasn't affected my hearing, but it is very annoying.

The results are in

and maybe I need to just chill over this 5 day weekend rather than do all the cleaning and organizing I had originally planned.
I have a disc protrusion. Could be worse, I guess, but the dr.'s office is scheduling me for a consultation with a neurosurgeon. I'm praying that surgery won't be needed-that scares me to death. Hopefully physiotherapy will do the trick. I cancelled my appt. with the chiro. for this afternoon- rather pointless now.
So, now it's the waiting game again.

Are you claustrophobic?

That is just one of the questions I was asked as I was scheduled for an MRI for tomorrow morning. Hopefully they can determine what is going on and allieve some symptoms. I would love to get rid of my neck pain and the ringing in my ear. The jaw pain is annoying, but I think it stems from the neck pain. The numb, tingly feeling in my mouth and tongue is tolerable, but I'm sure it ties in with something else. Some of my symptoms are TMJ-ish, but I have no headaches (which is nice-I haven't had one since the Bells Palsy and I usually have at least 1-2 a month), but then there's the neck issue that wouldn't resolve with all the different things the chiropractor did. I definitely am not as bad as I was 1-3 months ago, but I'm sick of feeling crappy every day.

Doctors and more doctors

A month ago I went to my dr. because of the pain in my jaw and neck that would not go away. My stress level was low, so it wasn't that. It may or may not have been related to the Bells Palsy. Anyway, he wrote me up some prescriptions, gave me some samples and said that if I wasn't doing better in 5 days or so to come back and they might need to do a brain scan. (Not what I needed to hear after just listening to his phone conversation about a patient with a growing brain tumor needing immediate attention). Well, after 5 days, there was next to no improvement, but I decided to try a chiropractor first to see if that would help. It did, but not completely and I have new symptoms that have developed. So, I go back to my regular dr. on Monday. My chiropractor said that if they don't X-Ray my neck, he will, because he is at a loss. I go back to him on Wednesday. So, this next week will be interesting. I just want to find out what is going on and relieve as much of my symptoms as possible. I have been in some extent of pain every day for 3 months now. Not fun.

Entertainment in the D.R.

From the Michael Jackson impersonation show. I got a good laugh that they had misspelled "the" in the background. "Tha Jackson 5".

He had the moves, but his lip-synching was horrible.

The magician isn't in this picture, but the girl in the middle was beautiful. She had an amazing smile and a sparkle in her eyes. She was the one in the dance video in one of my older posts.

At the stores outside the resort. People got upset when you wouldn't come into their shop or, when you did but didn't buy anything.

A popular mode of transportation (and with only one person this time) and, in the background, a typical home/roadside stand with dried palm tree leaves for a roof.

More D.R. pics.

Descending over the island.

A better look at the sunken ship.

A stretch of beach and some of the available activities.

The sign at the entrance-just past the gun-toting guards.

Where we did a lot of relaxing and socializing.

A portion of the hotel pool.

Dominican Republic school

They loved the balloons Heidi gave them. I'm not so sure the teacher appreciated them.

These girls couldn't give us a good reason why they weren't in school. We guessed that either their parents couldn't afford it or they were needed at home. Too sad, either way.

A little obsessed

One of my daughters has become hooked on "Music and Lyrics". Between On Demand, You Tube and the recordings on her cell phone, I've heard the same 2 songs over and over and over again for the past week or so. I'm starting to wonder if she'll ever tire of it.