Thursday, August 10, 2006



The W,W,W,W,&W Part 2

Ok I am going to attempt this again, but I really do not want to because I am still REALLY mad about loosing my post.

So where did I leave off? Oh yes I am standing at the airport with 9 pieces of luggage and the world's cutest baby with 0 minutes to make it to my plane. Londyn gave her one of her big eyed cheesy smiles, and we were in. The melted the heart of the lady at the ticket counter, and she told me she could rush me through. Even better yet I was way over on my allowable luggage and should have had to pay $40 a suit case that I was over but she did not have time to do all that so she just counted it as baby supplies and I did not have to pay for any of it. Note to self, arrive late at airport with world's cutest baby more often. So she gets all our luggage ticketed and asks one of the employee's to take me through the fast lane of the security check point we run to the plane and make it just as they were beginning to board. Now lets recap a minute here. I have spent the last 3 hours running. I have run through the big mall, run through Ikea in record speed, and now ran through the airport to catch my plane. It is 11pm at night and I am Wiped with a capital W. So I get on the plane bring out my IPod and try and relax for my two hour flight. I love when I get on the plane with a baby and everyone rolls their eyes and prays I am not sitting by them, and then Londyn is the perfect little angle she always is and makes everyone eat their words. Unneeded segway there but it just makes my day. So as the plane is nearing our destination I try and pack all my stuff in my carry on bag with one world's cutest baby on my lap. Since I was not in first class, this was a mission in itself. So as I was packing I hear something hit the floor, but tell my self I will wait until we deboard to check what it is. So now it is some time after 1am and we finally get to Winnipeg. I waited until everyone got off the plane before I got my stuff together so I would not hold everyone up but in all the hustle and bustle I forgot to check what hit the floor. So anyway my dad and his wife are there to pick me up and by the time we make it back to their house it is close to 2am. We were planning on waking up early the next morning to go shopping in Grand Forks, ND. So we chatted for a bit and I headed to bed for some much needed beauty sleep. I got a wonderful 5 hours in when I woke to the hustle and bustle of people getting ready upstairs. I contimplate rolling over and going back to sleep but then I remembered our day of shopping that was ahead and I leaped out of bed. I pulled the price tag off my new Baby Gap diaper bag and began packing some things for the day. I then hopped in the shower and got ready to go. Once we were about to step out the door I decided I should go grab my IPod for the 2 hour drive. I went into my carry on bag to get it and it was MISSING!!!! Oh CRAP! So I call the airline to see if I had left it o the plane and someone turned it in. They had not found anything but they said to call back in a few days b/c everything needs to be put into the system and they may not have gotten to it yet. So there was still a little bit of hope that I would find it. Like I said I was the last one off the plane so the only people that could have found it would have been staff. So I begin making excuses in my head how I am going to break it to Ben that I lost the $400 IPod that he bought me specifically for this trip, that I really did not even need, and that I have only owned for two weeks. Nothing was sounding good so I tried to stop thinking about it and focus on better things. Like shopping. Nothing like some good shopping to take your mind off things. So we get to Grad Forks and our first stop is my long lost love....Target. It has been 3 years since we have last layed eyes on each other, and don't think I have not been dreaming about it every night. I have one word to sum this up SHOE SALE! OK that's two but who's counting. In fact lets say it again. SHOE SALE! Ahh music to my ears! So I hit the mother load and bought 13 pairs of shoes. 5 for myself and the rest for the kids. An hour later my parents wanted to break for lunch so we went to a near by restaurant. They were discussing where else they wanted to stop and I said "well first we have to go back to Target." My dad say "back to Target we already did that" I say "Hello I only did the shoe section. There are many more things I need to see and do there yet!" So like the spoiled princess I am we went back to Target and I got jewelry, a bunch of back to school clothes for the kids, the cutest little dresses for Londyn, some new cloth napkins to match my kitchen, another suitcase to fill up with more shopping, and a few other things that I cannot even remember anymore. We hit a few more stores and added a few more bags of purchases, ended the day with a trip to Cold Stone creamery and headed back to Canada. On the two hour ride back I started to think about my lost IPod again. Oh great hear comes the guilt. Now I have to tell Ben I lost the $400 IPod. I spent another $400 shopping today, and the $350 I spent already. Guilt is creeping in. Got to escape it....Look at new shoes! Look at new shoes! Oh phew much better guilt gone. Or at least covered up for now. So we get home and I was cleaning out the diaper bag when there in the bottom of the bag was my sweet shiny new IPod!! What the????? I must have packed it when I got up from my 5 hours of sleep and did not even realize it or remember. Thank God! Kiss the IPod kiss the IPod. Now that I don't have to tell Ben I lost it I may have some room for some more shopping!

The next day we had a family gathering at my favorite cousin's house. For any other cousins that are reading this you are all a close second. I love you, kiss kiss! So anyway my fav cousin introduced me to a new but not so new drink. The Long Island Icetea. I have had them before but do not really like them however hers was awesome, and I could not get enough of this ice cool drink on that hot summer day. I was so great to see all my family again. It was also very heart breaking though. Growing up those family gatherings were my fondest memories. Playing with all my cousins was always such a blast. We now have all grown up and had kids and now all our kids are playing together at the family gatherings. Well everyone except my kids that live 3000 miles away. In HAWAII Ha ha suckers! Just kidding. In all seriousness I really do wish we could be closer to family and I hate that my kids are missing out on that.
The rest of the trip I spent visiting as much people as possible. I spent several days with my best friend. They were the ones that came to visit last October and smashed our van and broke our son. Love ya guys! Anyway they have been married for a year now and are pregnant with their first baby. Congratulations! I also got to see their house for the first time. They had done some awesome renovations and it looks amazing. Also our other friend who is a teacher in Hong Kong was out visiting at the same time so I got to see her and her husband and little girl. She is also expecting and they are just a few weeks apart. So I finally get done having babies and now they are starting. I was always the one pregnant or breastfeeding, and now it was there turn. At least this time I did not have to be the DD.
I also had lunch with a fellow blogger from WWJblog. I had never actually met anyone that I knew from online so that was fun, and we had some great conversation. I also got together with an old roommate that I had not seen in 5 years and we had dinner and a hot tub and caught up on old times.
My other best friend who lives in North Dakota drove up to see me and we left our kids with our parents and had an awesome girls night, full of food, dessert, giggles, and a movie. Not just a movie, but one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time. Me You And Depree. Hysterical!
The last night I went out with my dad and his wife to one of my favorite restaurants and had a great meal and a great time visiting. It was a very fun but very busy trip and I was getting anxious to get home. This was the longest I have ever been away from the kids and I could not wait to get back and see them.
It was so great to see them there waiting for me with a lei when I got off the plane. With dad in charge none of them looked like they had seen a brush in a few days and no ones outfit matched, but I claimed them with open arms anyway. I have to admit Ben did a pretty good job. Not Alyssa good but all the kids were still alive and the house was still standing and moderately clean. I noticed Addison scratching her head allot on the way home. I asked her about it and she said it has been itching for awhile. I told her she probably had a rash from not washing the sand out good enough and I would wash it with some head and shoulders when I got home. So we did that and then all the kids gathered around my suitcase to receive all there gifts from Canada. Then after a long long day we all hit the hay. The next day Ben had to go back to work so it was just me and the kids. However the car died on the way to work and he ended up being 3 hours late. He called and told me the car would run as long as he did not have to drive in traffic. Oh well thats good news. So after work we met up and decided that instead of investing money in another unreliable used car we should just go ahead and buy a new mini van. The mini van we are driving now we had had for 5 years and the air conditioning was going on it. It would cost us $2000 to fix it, and we do not want to put that much money into a van that we do not plan on taking with us when we leave here. So we went to the Honda dealership to check out the new vans. 2 hours later we were filling out paperwork for our brand new 2006 Honda Odyssey! We knew that was the van we wanted and have been researching it online. We were not planning on buying it for another year but under the circumstances decided to go ahead. It is silver with grey leather interior, seat warmers (not needed in Hawaii but cool anyway), automatic doors, a moon roof, flip down tv and dvd player, and all the other bells and wistles. It is like a space ship on wheels. Check it out at www.honda.com It is the Honda Odysee XL. I waited in the old van with the kids while Ben filled out all the papers. While we were sitting there I noticed Addison was still scratching her head. I had her come over for a closer look, and there under the light of the car interior I discovered the root of her problem. She had company. Unwanted, uninvited company, with creepy crawly legs that layed eggs in her hair. You guessed it, welcome home we got lice! I have no idea where it came from but I have never been more grossed out. My head is itching just thinking about it. So we finally left the dealership at 10pm in my new van. Addison and her new residents were not aloud to ride in the new van, so they rode home in the old one and I dropped by the drug store to get some treatment for our new guests. I bought the shampoo, and the spray and any and every other known lice product that will assist me in getting rid of these little pests. I then spent the next 5 hours going through the girls hair. It turned out Addison decided to share her new friends with her sister. Everyone else in the house was safe, but I still made Ben check my hair every five minutes because every time I thought of it my head would feel like it was crawling. So by the time I treated there hair, picked through every last strand on both their heads, put their bedding in the hot wash, sprayed and vacuumed their mattresses, loaded all their dolls, and stuffed animals into a large garbage bag and put them to bed it was 3:30 am. Keeping in mind I was still in the Canadian time zone and it was actually 8:30am. I fell into bed and had a welcomed 7 hours of sleep. I continued to go through the hair strand by strand for the next 3 days. I think I can tell you the number of hairs on their head.
The next day we had to move on to bigger and better things. School supply shopping. I loaded up the kids to Walmart with all of their lists. We got most everything we needed and of course when we were checking out Camryn had to pipe up and say "Hi my names Camryn we have bugs in our hair" "Shut Up" I spit under my breath, saying a quick prayer that the clerk missed that one. We got outside and I gave them the lecture that the bugs were gone and we did not need to talk about them any more. I got home and continued to fumigate the house. I boiled anything they ever touched and vacuumed and shampooed all the rugs. I was going to conquer these suckers if it was the last thing I did. I am happy to announce they never made a come back and the good side won!

So no sooner did we get over the whole lice thing when Corben woke up with a fever of 101'F followed by a sore throat, a few days later it moved onto Londyn, and then on Addison's 2nd day of school she got sent home with a fever as well. I kept her home the next day and took her to the Dr. They swabbed her for strep and went ahead and treated her anyway so she could go back to school. They told me if it was positive they would bring the whole family in and give them a shot of penicillin. The next day I called and they told me it was negative but that it could lay dormate for a few days. Sure enough the next day it came back positive and we all went in for shots. The Dr asked if any of us were allergic to anything and I said no except I think I was allergic to needles, and opted for the oral meds. Corben was the ginny pig and went first. The Dr decided to put on a smaller needle so it would go in easier. However penicillin is one of the thickest medications and the fluid was too thick to go through the small needle. So you would think he would take the needle out and get a new one, but no he decides he is going to force it through. Veins were popping out of the dr's head he was pushing so hard. Pieces of the plastic syringe were literally breaking off, all the while this needle is in Corben's leg. So he was not able to walk on it for 4 days. Great just what I need another body to Carry everywhere. I had Corben on one hip and Londyn on the other. Hopefully this constitutes as my work out because I have not stepped on my treadmill in 3 months and don't see us meeting any time in the near future. NO TIME! I do however have time to shove chocolate bars and chips down my throat but that is a whole other blog.

So Camryn had her first day of kindergarten. I cannot believe she is so big already, and I am so old. She loves her teacher, and is very excited to go every day. They have even been doing good at the whole 6:30am wake up thing. Here is a pic of the two girls right before school!


For me however school is already leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I know it has only been a week but I am this close to pulling Addison out and home schooling again. The first day we went in to meet the teacher and drop off our supplies Addison had noticed some posters up on the wall of the cursive writing alphabet chart. So she tells the teacher that she already knows how to write in cursive. (the A Beka curriculum we used last year introduces cursive writing in Kindergarten so she has been writing fluently for over a year) So the teacher says "oh really we usually don't even introduce it until third grade but I might do a little bit in second." So how boring is that going to be for her to write her ABC's out in cursive writing over and over again. I also know that she is at least a 4th grade reading level, and is going to be way bored in school. I still told myself that this will work out and we will just do some extra work at home. HOWEVER she has come home on 3 seperste occasions telling me that she was told by her teacher to let her neighbor copy her work sheet when they did not know how to do it. I could not believe this could be true and finally confronted her teacher on it. I took a round about approach and said that it was not a big deal but Addison is a stickler for the rules and we have always told her it is not ok to copy so I was just wondering what circumstances you let the children copy so I can tell her that it is ok in certain situations. The teacher acted shocked and said she has never told them to copy. She said she sometimes lets them work together on something and maybe the kids at her table thought that meant copy. So I went out and told Addison that the teacher did not say they could copy but that they could work together so maybe she thought that meant copy. Addison says "no she said we could copy but maybe she meant we could work together" If anyone of you know Addison you know that she is a good communicator. I mean she can replay my phone conversations vebatem (which is usually not a good thing) So I have to believe her when she says this is true. This means that the teacher flat out lied, which of course she would never admit to. So I don't know what to do. Addison loves the social aspects of school, but also wants to learn as much as she did last year. This is her teachers first year to have her own class, and just student taught last year. She just does not seem to love her job. So the good news is they have hired a 5th 2nd grade teacher because the class numbers were getting too high. So I think I am going to call the principal and volunteer Addison to be switched to the new teacher. I have also picked up some third grade curriculum and have been supplementing extra pages for homework. Also I talked to the school about there gifted and talented program and they should be testing in the next couple of weeks. So we will see if all this will make some improvements. I am just going to have to keep praying about it until I find the right answer for our family.

Speaking of prayer I have some major news on the God front. Several months ago I met a girl at out pool. We got to talking about church on the island and how Ben and I have been searching for a couples bible study. Well it turns out they had just recently moved back to the island from California with another couple and both of their husbands are pastors. They are here to start a new church and they had a Wednesday night group that was in our neighborhood and we could bring our kids. All four of them. That is a major thing in of itself. So we have been attending Wednesday nights for several weeks and last Sunday was their kickoff church BBQ. They were going to invite people to the beach, tell them about the church, have a mini sermon, and some fellowship. Well before the BBQ they invited us over to their house for lunch and to show us a presentation they had put together about their core beliefs, missions statements, where they see the church in the next year ext. So we heard the presentation and were totally on board with everything they went over. After the presentation they asked us what we thought and asked us to be on their church planting team! WOW! This is so huge for me. I have always been one to say oh that is great for a scholar or a pastor, or even someone who grew up in the church, but God could never use me to get something done. So I am so excited to see how God CAN use me and grow me. I can see His hand in this so clearly. Everything has just come together so perfectly that it is impossible to deny this is a God thing. We have been to many churches on the island who have said "10 years ago this church started with 5 people in so and so's living room." So it is so neat for us to be a part of this from the ground up. What a testimony it will be to look back ten years from now and see what God has done. To be apart of this is amazing for me and I am excited to see what lies ahead. It is like Ben and I have spent the last 2 years spiritually starving on purpose and now we can jump in with both feet and be fed to overflowing. The church is called Living Waters and you can check out the website at www.LivingWatersHi.com . This week they have found a possible meeting place for Sunday services so you can all be praying for the perfect spot to open up.

Also since I have gotten home I have gotten my self a job. Not really a job job but two days a week I am babysitting for a friend of mine. She is was in bad situation with her former babysitter and my heart went out to her so I offered to help her out after going back and forth a few times in my mind. I just got rid of two of mine and now I am taking on another. But in the end I was helping out a friend and it would be nice to have a little spending money. Maybe my poor husband could stop working so hard. I am happy to report it is going even better then I thought it would and has been the best thing for everyone. Her and Corben had not always gotten along because they are just too close in age but they have been the best of buddies lately and it is so exciting to watch them play togeather now. Since it is only two days a week it still gives me plenty of time to get other things done, and I am just happy that she has somewhere to go where she feels good about. That makes such a difference when you are looking for someone to watch your children. No one is ever good enough really. Actually since she knows all the near death situations my kids have been in I am surprised anyone trusts me with their kids.

Thursday was the day from HE double hockey sticks. That was the day I wrote this blog the first time and after two hours of typing it disappeared. Then I picked up the girls from school and Addison lost her new sweat shirt and lunch box all in one day. Then I went to make a cake for bible studay and my beaters broke. Then I was talking to my mother inlaw on the phone and my cell phone dropped in the toilet while I was reaching for a tissue. Then after my mother in law called me back on the home phone Addison was playing with Londyn in her room and says mommy come quick I think Londyn is sick or something. I run over there and she is gagging and all of a sudden she projectile vomits and out come a smiley face eraser that she has swallowed. Then we went to bible study and Ben had parked our new van in a tight spot next to a pole. Well when Ben opened the aoutmatic doors it scrapped against the pole and took off all the paint. Luckily it buffed out but still it was the perfect end to my perfectly horrible day.

This Friday I went real surfing for the first time. Followed closely by my first surfing injury. It was the weirdest thing. The first time I tried (emphasis on the word TRIED) to get up I twisted my ankle a bit. I shook it off and continued to try and surf for awhile longer. It eventually stopped bothering me and I even caught an awesome wave! Now I know why surfers are in such good shape. That is a work out and a half. I am still trying to decide if the time you spending standing on a wave is worth all the paddling you do. Maybe it is once you get good at it, but for now it is like skiing except you have to walk back up the hill yourself. I was so worn out when we headed back to shore, but was so excited I finally got to try it. When I went home I had a quick 20 minute cat nap before heading to the shower. On my way up the stairs I noticed that my heal kinda hurt. So I looked and there was a bunch of dry blood. I looked a little closer and noticed I had cut myself on some of the coral. Nothing major but now that I noticed it was there I started to favor it and put my weight on my other leg. Well that was the leg I had twisted earlier and I guess the extra weight on that leg made it worse and it started to swell. By the end of the night it had almost doubled in size and I could barely walk on it. I took a T3 and went to bed. It was much better the next day but every muscle in my body was sore and suffering. I guess I am just too old to try new things. I think I will give it another go some day but for now I need to heal my weary bones.

Well I think that is all the drama in the Turner household for now. I will leave you with some cute pics!




Tuesday, August 01, 2006



The Who What When Where and Why

Ok just so everyone will stop bugging me I am going to update my blog. But don't say you didn't ask for it when you have to read the world's longest blog entry. I guess I will start form the beginning.
I left for Canada the evening of July 4th. I ended up having to miss the fire works in order to get to the airport on time which was the whole reason I made my flight leave the night of the fourth in the first place. Of course like any good diva I way over packed, however like any good diva would not, I had no one to carry everything but myself. So picture this..... Here I am with 1 baby, 1 stroller, 1diaper bag, 1 purse, 1 carry on box of fresh Hawaiian pineapple, 1 small suit case,1 back pack camera bag, and 1 car seat, and this was just the stuff I was bringing on the plane with me. Then I had 4 suit cases that were as big as regulation aloud, and as heavy as regulation aloud.(50 lbs each) that I had checked. So on my flight there I had to switch planes FOUR times! SO that means every time I got off the plane I had to carry 1 baby, 1 stroller, 1diaper bag, 1 purse, 1 carry on box of fresh Hawaiian pineapple, 1 small suit case,1 back pack camera bag, and 1 car seat. So I managed a little system, but even at best I was always 2 feet wider then the little 12 inch isle through the plane. SO I tried to push my way through each seat, trying to straddle the car seat with 17 pound baby inside with one arm. Every time I popped through a seat the car seat banged against my leg. By the time I got to Calgary I had huge bruises running all the way up my thigh. Can you believe this whole time not one person offered to help me??? Not even the airline stewardess....Is that not their job?? Anyway I finally made it after 22 hours of straight travel. My brother picked me up from the airport and the very first thing I did was bought a good ole super sized Canadian mixture Slurpee! Ahhh! 40 oz of sweet sugary goodness in a cup! For all you American readers, yes we have Slurpees in the USA (usually at 7-eleven) But they are not the ones they have in Canada. Same cup, same store, way different slurpee. Trust me I know I once drove to every gas station in North Dakota looking for my beloved slurpee, but could never find one. The next purchase was my old time favorite Ketchup chips. I put ketchup one EVERYTHING, so can you imagine my excitement when I could eat it on a chip???!!! Once I got all my cravings out of the way we drove to his house and I got to meet precious little Abby for the first time. Patty ended up having a c-section because little Abby was not so little. At 9 lbs 4 oz she got herself stuck in the birth canal. She was cuter then I could have imagined and it was so great fulfilling my dose of baby fever.


Londyn had lots of fun with her new baby cousin too, and she loved having someone smaller then her around.
We also got to spend a day in Banff, which was great because I have never been there before. I had been to the Colorado Rockies but never the Canadian ones. It was beautiful! My mother has this weird fear of heights and mountains, so we told her we were going somewhere completely different and then when she ended up in the mountains she had no choice but to enjoy the ride or take a very long walk home. In the end she was glad we kidnapped her because we had a great time, got some great pics, and saw some great sites. Here are a few pics from that day.





After 10 days in Alberta It was time for the next leg of my journey. I was flying out the night of the 14th, which also happened to be my birthday! It was the 10th anniversary of my 21st birthday. So Patty and I with two babies in tow headed to spend the day in Calgary before I flew out. Well we ment to spend the day but due to the fact that I am never on time for anything and she is still figuring out how things work with a new baby we finally made it to Calgary a few hours behind schedule. Our first stop was the big mall. We went for lunch at a great restaurant called Joey's Tomato. The food was great and the Martinis were even better. Yes it was only lunch time, and yes we had two infants with us, but it was my birthday. (insert whine)
So after a great lunch and a small buzz we went shopping. Well I should say I went shopping. Patty is not much of a shopper so she hung out and breast fed most of the time and I tried to run through as many stores as I could in one hour. I could have spent a week in that mall but I only had an hour so I covered what I could at marathon speed. The next stop before my departure was the one I had been waiting for....IKEA!!! By the time we made it there ( more breast feeding and dirty diapers ect) I only had again one hour before I had to leave for the airport. Are you hearing this. Large Ikea....One hour. You might think this would be an impossible feat, but when it comes to shopping nothing is impossible. I did it! I covered the whole store, with 15 minutes to spare. I got a new duvet cover for my bed, new curtains for my living room, pot scrubber, 2 alarm clocks for the girls, a french press coffee maker for Ben, a cutting board to match my kitchen, and even picked up stuff for a friend from a list she had given me. Am I good or what. Here is a pic of my new curtains that just totally completed my living room. F-A-B-U-L-U-S-S!!!!


So I get to the airport and I go to check in the women behind the desk tells me I am late. Late no way my plane leaves at 10:15. No mame it leaves at 9:50. I don't think you are going to make it. Well I have company coming for dinner in 10 minutes so that is it for now. Tune into tomorrow to find out more. Does Alyssa make her plane. Will she fit all her new purchases into her suit case. Will there be more shopping to come? Did her shirt match her shoes?