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.