Birthday Resolution

I hate New Year's resolutions, but this year I broke my
resolution to make a birthday resolution.

As you know, my birthday was yesterday and I was
lying in bed the night before thinking that I truly have
to start gettingsome sort of excercise (I truly despise
excercise!!). And a thought came to mind that with all of
my extra or spare time (implied sarcasm here), how can
I do this?

And the thought was "You Can Walk, can't you" ?(and I
can do that much easier these days thanks to a new right
knee) for at least 20 minutes a day and you can do it any
time of the day. And you'll feel better for doing it.

So, yesterday I started to walk and today I did it again.
It's great in the cold weather. It is nice and brisk and
crispy clean outside. I once heard somebody say if you
can do something for 21 days straight it becomes a habit.
So here's to a new walking habit.

Not to mention life got a little more enjoyable with the
MP3 player Keith gave me for my birthday. So that will
help a little bit more with the push to do it. Thanks honey
for the great gift.

Not only did I get the MP3, but I got a portable DVD
player for the car ( I think this may have been more for
him than me!), and my family gave me a digital
camera/recorder. It was a very electronic year. Now I
just have to figure out how all of these work. Wish Me Luck!

Guess What Santa left Me?

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Our house was a crazy mess. I asked everyone not to

come at the same time so there would be more room.

They could come and eat, sort of open-house style,

open their presents and then leave; leaving room for the

next bunch of people to show up and do the same thing.

Somehow, someone talked to someone else, and so on,

and so on, and every-one showed up at the same time;

plus we had one wheelchair and two car-seats taking up

room and a living room that looked like Santa's workshop

with all the gifts.

I counted twenty people and a large dog at one time and

SURPRISE, two people showed up that we didn't know

were coming. All in all it went rather well, considering the

lack of space (but I stayed out of the way and took up

shelter in the kitchen). So, quite literally, I had everyone

and their dog at my house on Christmas Day. I told my

sister that we were having Thanksgiving and Christmas

at her house next year.

Oh, and I got a NEW COMPUTER from Santa Claus, so we

can now download pictures for this boring blog. HOW

EXCITING. Now I will have to learn how to do something

new! I guess it will keep my mind young (ha!ha!ha!).

FYI-I need Blogging First Aid

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I don't know why, but everytime something goes wrong
on this blog, I always get another post of "Hartford Hotel."
For the life of me, I can't figure out why it does this.
I'm truly a beginner at this and need a lot of help from
the more experienced bloggers. KoriAnn, Where You?
Sorry about this, and again MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

I'm hoping that all who read this blog have the
MERRIEST OF CHRISTMASES
and a prosperous and
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Let us all remember the reason that Christmas
is celebrated, and the events that took place
2008 years ago in Bethlehem.
President Thomas s. Monson has said, "Times
change; years speed by; but Christmas continues
sacred. In this marvelous dispensation of the ful-
ness of times, our opportunities to give of our-
selves are indeed limitless, but they are also perish-
able. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind
words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are
deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved. "
Remember in this holiday season and throughout the
year to come that there would be no
CHRISTMAS without CHRIST, our Savior.

Andrew Russell Rodriguez

At 1:00 this morning, I was just drifting off to sleep when
my final soar into Sandman Heaven (yeah, right!) was
interupted by my mother yelling downstairs that Kassie
was in labor and I needed to head for the hospital.
As most of you know, I am Kassie's psuedo-mother and
if you know her really well, you know she is a total WIMP
when it comes to needles and pain. Oh mercy--what was
she thinking when she found out she was pregnant for the
third time in 4 1/2 years.

Of course my thought was that it was another false alarm.
(she had been in L&D twice for pre-term labor).
Especially when her doctor told her that nothing was
happening. Man, was she ever mad. She was tired of being
pregnant. she went home and did everything she could
think of to bring on the labor.

At 10:30 pm (Dec 18th) she woke up herboyfriend and said
get the kids, I'm in labor.

We got to the hospital and she was dilated to 7cm. There's no
going back now Kassie. She asked the nurse as she was walking
to her room when she could have her EPIDURAL--I Want it
as soon as I can get it!
Kassie hates needles mostly because she is not an easy stick.
With Austin they tried 7 times to get in her I.V. At her visits for
her preterm labor epidodes, it was at least that many.
This nurse was good--only THREE!
they let her rest through the early morning, in part, because I
truthfully think the doctor on call didn't want to make the trip in.

At 7:30 a.m. they stripped her membranes and after 4 hard
pushes, she deliver ANDREW RUSSELL RODRIGUEZ at 9:15
a.m., he weighed in at a monstrous 6.4 lbs (Ashlynne was 3.12),
was 18.5 inches long, and his APGARS were nearly perfect, 8 & 9.
He came 3 1/2 weeks early, but he is doing great and seems to be
a very content baby.
The proud big brother and sister can't wait to see him.


Just to add a little fuel to our on-going fire, a few days ago Kassie
went and bought a cute little, 10 week old, cocker paniel, golden
retriever mix. They named her Sophie. she is absolutely adorable,
and follows me everywhere I go.
If it is any indication of how Ashlynne treats this little snowball
puppy, then Andrew had better watch out for his big sister.

(Sorry no pictures yet, I couldn't get it to copy to the blog!)

One of my SOAPBOXES

I detest people and am completely aggravated by people
who think they know how to drive in the snow and they
haven't the foggiest idea that riding on your back bumper
and nearly in your back seat, driving far toooooo fast for
the road conditions, or people who have the coveted
4-wheel drive (for those interested in knowing, 4-wheel
drive doesn't help in the least when the conditions are icy!!!)
who believe they own the roads ; shouldn't be driving (this
includes my own sister); or better yet not in UTAH AT ALL!
I was out driving in the horrible storm and all of this and
more was happening on my way to West Jordan.
Between the I-80 connector to I-15 SB there were two "donuts"
that I personally saw--because they were driving too fast
for the conditions. One, a small car; the other a Chevy Blazer.
The Chevy Blazer guy spun (is spun a word? It sounds funny)
out 2 1/2 times, ended up going Northbound and the driver
kept his cigarette in his mouth!!! It would have served him
right if it had landed in his lap. Lucky for us we were in the far
right lane stopped,because of another accident, and he was
in the far left lane.
The entire trip to West Jordan took me 50 minutes in blizzard
-like conditions and it is generally a 20 min. drive. I had two
screaming toddlers in the back seat, fighting with each other
and I'm trying to keep VERY VERY calm; driving 35-40 mph
and keeping my distance from anyone who looks crazed enough
to be out in this weather. Chalk this one up to stupidity!

Okay, that's enough for this particular SOAPBOX.

PEACE AND QUIET, What is that?

I never thought there would be a time, well at least
for awhile anyway, that I wouldn't know what to do
with a little Peace and Quiet. Austin and Ashlynne
are always here, always loud and into everything.
When the phone woke me up at 11:00 a.m. (yes, I slept
in), Wow, was I surprised at the time. The kids weren't
here so no one woke me up at 7:30.
Now don't get me wrong, there is plenty to do around here,
it's just getting up the gumption, energy, and DESIRE
to get to it and get it done.
I didn't even hop in the shower until 1:30. Then mom and
I looked at each other and thought out loud "now what
do we do, the kids generally keep us occupied with some
thing or another?" An answer came quickly and quite
painlessly--Let's go Christmas Shopping! So of we went.
Peace and Quiet was interrupted this evening by Austin
being dropped off at 7:00 Ashlynne is with my niece,
KoriAnn, in Ogden; so mom and dad could go on a date.
Well it was nice while it lasted.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

I love SNOW! It's so clean and fresh and white. It's BEAUTIFUL!
I was born in December in a snowbank, so this is my favorite season,
not to mention the fact that I can generally breathe better when
there isn't all the pollen about in the air.
I HATE the heat. If it's over 70-75 degrees then I'm absolutely
miserable.
So Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!! The more the better.
And also it's the only time of the year my yard looks absolutely
wonderful. You can't see any of the problems associated with
the lack of yard work.

What's That SMELL?

For a few weeks I keep telling Keith that
I can smell Cat! I'm not too particularly
fond of cats but I will put up with them.

We have a very deep window well in our base-
ment bedroom, so I thought that a neighbor
cat had taken care of business down there.

Then I started to smell it everywhere. The
basement,the living room, the old kitchen.
Keith and my mom thought I was nuts. Then my
sister who is undergoing chemo therapy and
is sensitive to smells said she could smell
it too. Finally I was vindicated.

Then it happened. Mom went into the old
basement portion of our house last week
and said that an area rug she put down there
two weeks ago wasn't dry yet. That was odd,
it was right by the furnace, so it should be
dry. Then she went down a few days ago and
slipped on the rug again, only this time it
was saturated.

The main waterline into our house was leaking
and at a very fast rate. It filled a five
gallon bucket overnight.

My adorable nephew(actually nephew -in-law),
Ben, took time out of his very busy schedule
came and took a look at it. He got a new washer
for the pipes and that was that. It could have
been worse, but then if there isn't a trial at
our house, life isn't worth living. The South
one-third of the basement has to be thoroughly
cleaned up, sanitized and bleached; because
the lovely green mold from the leak has started
to take over.

Who knows how long ago the leak started. Need-
less to say I was blaming a poor defenseless cat
and it was never the cat's fault at all.

Bread, Bread, Everywhere!

I signed up for a Bakery assignment at welfare square
yesterday. I have never (okay maybe a few times) been
soooo, soooo, sore in all my life. I have muscles that
hurt that I didn't know I had.
We went in and worked at slicing, packaging, & tying off
the bread; then loading it in baskets for distribution.
I have never seen so much bread in my lifetime. I asked
the service missionary how many loaves are baked daily?
His answer was "Because it is Christmas we bake around
6000 loaves on Mondays. Every other day is 3-4 thousand
loaves." I do know that a lot of that bread was going to
Utah County.
I've done welfare assignments that aren't so back breaking,
like loading jars on the conveyor belt for honey, tomato
sauce, spaghetti sauce. I've even done dry pack
When I came home, I could barely move, but the worst of it
was the bread dust from the slicers. It was all over.
It definitely is for a worthy cause, so I guess my
complaining has to end here.
I just hope that someone doesn't find little pieces of blue
glove in their loaf of bread.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Tonight, while trying to get Austin to take medicine for a croupy cold, he
gave me one of those not so often heard excuses. The conversation went as
follows:
Nana (that's me): "Austin, I need you to take some medicine to help you
feel better."
Austin: "No, I don't want to!"
Nana: "But, if you take the medicine it will help you stop coughing and
and help your runny nose."
Austin: I said I don't want to!
Nana: "But Austin, if you don't take the medicine how are you going to
feel better?"
Austin: (with his hands braced against the island of the kitchen, gritting
his teeth) "I said I don't want to, besides it's night time and moon makes
me sneeze. I'm not taking the medicine!"
Nana: Laughing, and trying to keep it together. "Well alright then, if that's
the best excuse you could think of, you don't have to take your medicine
until later. "
Austin:" Okay then! I won't."

I have truly heard a lot of excuses from this little guy, but this one was by
far the best so far.

THANKSGIVING DAY

Thanksgiving began at 6:30 a.m. I never stopped cooking and dishing out food until everyone left, and I even prepared a lot of dishes last night. Everyone came dinner here. It was a very FULL house. We figured about 20 people, Grown-ups, children and grown-ups who are still children.
We had dinner early because a lot of people had to go to other family members homes or be to work. I think I acutally prefer it this way and then it leaves the early evening to clean up or in our case---mom and I just pooped out.
Genette, her friend Tiny, Neal, and Ben (KoriAnn's hubby), went down to the resthome and picked up Greg and brought him home for the big feast. He stayed for about two hours and then wanted to get back. He is starting to have a lot of pain and it is much easier on him if he is lying down.
Kassie, RJ, Ashlynne and Austin were all here dressed up and ready for a party. Austin commented that he thought there was a party. He was disappointed. I'm not sure what he thought, but maybe he was thinking presents or games or..who knows with a four year old.
Ashlynne discovered olives on the fingers and told me they were her "witches hands"
Janessa (Greg's grand-daughter) is a big bundle of energy and never sits still for one minute. She has to be playing with Austin and Ashlynne; but then she has to be playing with Trenton and Shaylee too. She wants the best of both worlds, but hasn't figured on how to be in both of them at the same time. Funny, she reminds me alot of Karyn when she was that age.
We were happy to have everyone here and it was amazing--NO FIGHTS!
I was certainly grateful for my family this year and that Keith has found a new job that he truly loves and is close to home now and not traveling 80 miles roundtrip anymore. He is 10 minutes away from home and work is less than 5 miles raoundtrip now.