Vote for Justin (again)

Remember last year when I posted a few times about voting for our friend, Justin, on Unlock Xbox so he could have his game made and win a contest. Well, his game was made and it is now in the final weeks of the contest. They announce the winner on Dec. 28th. His game is awesome. I haven't played it, but I have seen it. I have watched Matt and some others play it and it is really cool. 

Also, Justin wants to become a game designer, so this would be an awesome launching point for his career. Please help him out.

You can vote on Xbox live. We don't have an Xbox, so this is how I am doing my best to help him get the votes he needs. Please help them out. Good luck, Justin!

Question

Which bear is best?  Just kidding. I can't pass up a good Office quote.


Seriously though, have any of you had people from Russia and the Middle East viewing your blogs. I made my blog so that you shouldn't be able to find it on search engines, but apparently that doesn't apply to the Asian continent. I don't want to make my blog private because it seems kind of like a hassle, especially for my tech-unsavy family members can view it if they like, but that is kind of creepy. It almost makes me wish that Google didn't have the Stats tab where you can see where people are viewing your blog. Maybe I am just freaking out. What do you think?

And now for October





So October was a big month. The most exciting thing that happened was that I finally decided it was time to potty train Beckett whether he liked it or not and it is done. I am calling it official. He made it through church last Sunday in his underwear without an accident, so I am calling it. We are still having a problem with poop, but that will come with time (I hope). How it happened was this - one day I was at the grocery store all by myself and I saw all this Halloween candy. I was looking at and thought that they would make great potty treats, so I bought a few bags and went home. The next day, I told the kids that if they sat on the potty for 2 whole minutes (with a timer going) they could have a potty treat. Anabelle was all over that idea. She already loved to sit on the potty, so the treats made it all the more sweeter (literally). Beckett was much more willing to sit on the potty, but he wasn't too thrilled with the rule that he had to do it sans diaper, but he got over it real fast when he saw the Nerds packages. I did that for about 4 or 5 days, with zero accidental pees or poops in the potty.  I was about to give up on my plan, when I talked with my counselor about it, and she told me that really it was me that had to be "potty trained". She said it is really the parents getting so tired of changing diaprers that they finally buckle down and get serious about potty training. I thought about what she had said and it made sense, but I was still a little affraid of the accidents that I knew would follow after I made that decision.

As it turned out, a few days after that conversation with my counselor, we were about to be completely out of diapers for Beckett and I was on the fence about going to buy more. Matt basically replied, "Nope. Let's just do this." With hesitation coming from me, we went forward and just put him in underwear after we changed his last diaper. Beckett wasn't too thrilled, but he got used it, probably because they were Thomas underwear. Matt gave him lots of juice and then promtly left to do something at a friends house (what a guy), taking Anabelle with him (thank goodness). Beckett was playing on the computer (big surprise) with a towel underneith him (I believe in being prepared for these kinds of things) and of course, he started peeing. He kind of freaked out and quickly stopped. I put him in the bath to clean him up. Of course, he thought this meant that he was free to pee as much as he liked. He did have enough smarts to try to get his feet out of the water as he did this. Oi! Naturally I promptly took him out of the tub and put him in clean underwear and sent him back to the computer with a fresh towel under him. Not too long after that he started to pee again. This time I got wise. I immediately took him to the potty and set him on there. He was okay with it, until he accidentally started peeing again, and this time he had no control of stopping it. He didn't know what he was doing and it kind of got on his foot, which really freaked him out. This experience really didn't seem encouraging to me because he seemed really upset about the whole experience. We told him we would go get a toy for peeing in the potty. After he picked out his new toy (a dinosaur train, his new favorite show) he started to see that this might actually be an okay thing to do.

We did the sticker thing for him to earn his next toy, a motorized Thomas. Unfortunately after he got his toy, he stopped going potty. That is mostly my fault because I put him in Pullups instead of underwear. So on Monday I hit the potty training hard and he has been doing ever since, with of course an accident or two. Now I need to start thinking about when I am going to potty train Anabelle. I think I will wait till next year. Give myself a little break before I start the whole process all over again.

Beckett modeling his new underwear

Now on to the rest of the month.  We had a sleepover with some cousins. My sister-in-law Marcey and her girls came over for a visit one Friday afternoon and they ended up staying the night. We had a blast. I think we should have people sleepover more often.

L-R: Julia, Jessica, Beckett, Anabelle, Josie

 My sister and I were making a red velvet cake one day and Anabelle wanted to like the bowl (she is just like her mother).  



I bet you didn't know Anabelle was a vampire



Another big thing that happened in October is Matt turned 30. We celebrating by going on a date to a murder mystery party. It was a disco themed one and it was extremely unpredictable. I was a hussy that slept with a lot of guys and would kill them when I was done with them. I was also a martial arts expert and a member of Chuck's Angels (reference to Charlie's Angels). Matt's name was hilarious - Knight Feva. He was a bar tender and a gigolo. He also turned out to be the bionic man because he had a run-in with a shark. I couldn't believe all of the twists they fit into that storyline. They all gave us some really good laughs. Thanks Shana and Sharice for putting it together. I think Matt really enjoyed his birthday. I am kind of mad I didn't take pictures. Oh well. Maybe we can recreate them and take a picture.

The next morning we went out to breakfast with my parents to the Segolily Cafe in Bountiful. The only way to describe their food is good old home cooked food, done gourmet style. They make all of their food and sauces there. We wanted to have their sweet ricotta cheese spread so that is why we went for breakfast. It is so good. I had their cashew french toast. Unbelievably good. I don't remember what Matt had, but I know he enjoyed it. I highly recommend that place. The place itself is really cool too. It is an old victorian home redone to make it a restaurant. I love it.

One present from my Dad was to come up and help Matt do some handyman stuff around the house on the 30th. I guess this gift was more for me than Matt. Matt's friend Kevin came over also and helped them work on our furnace and ducts. I really appreciated both Kevin and my dad coming and helping out. I know Matt couldn't have done all that work all by himself.

Later that day, I got the kids all ready for Trick-or-Treating that night. My little sister helped with Anabelle's makeup.

Anabelle is a ladybug. That costume was worn by my little sister when she was about the same age. Her nickname was Bug and so the costume was perfect. It was kind of surreal to have Anabelle wear it 15 years after my little sister did and she looks just as cute, maybe more, but don't tell Sara I said that. Here is proof:


Here is Sara in the costume

  Beckett is a Jack-O-Lantern in that picture. Right after that picture was taken, Beckett immediately stripped down to his underwear so I couldn't get a full shot of him. He wouldn't put it back on and then wanted to be a lion. I didn't get a picture of him in that because as soon as we got to my brother's house to go Trick-or-Treating with cousins, he freaked out when one of his cousins came in dressed as a clown, face painted and all. That did it for him. He refused to go out and just stayed downstairs playing with the train set. So just Matt and Anabelle went out. She didn't last long. Matt said she just stood their with her bucket and wouldn't say anything. She would say it when he practiced with her, but I guess she had stage fright when it came time to perform. Also she came back with only like 10 or 12 candies. Beckett promptly took half of it. Oi!

After the kids had been back for a while, they were all downstairs playing. They sounded like they were having tons of fun. Suddenly, Matt came upstairs with Anabelle in his arms and her head was bleeding. She had fallen off of a chair playing with one of those basketball, arcade games. She somehow gashed her head open. Luckily it stopped bleeding quickly, which surprised me, because head wounds are known for bleeding terribly. Once it was all cleaned up, you could see how wide and deep the gash was. Another lucky things was that we were at my brother's house, who is a doctor. He looked at and said it wasn't bad enough to go to the ER, thank goodness. He had some small butterfly bandages (I highly recommend you have a stash at your house) and got it on. Then we iced the goose egg. I couldn't believe how brave Belle was the whole time. She was obviously crying when Matt brought her up, she stopped while we were cleaning it up and that was it. She totally let me put the ice on her wound and didn't fight Matt pushing the wound together to put on the butterfly bandage. (That is how they work by the way. I have never used one and didn't know what they did, but they work to pull the wound back together and leave a minimal scar on deep wounds. You do have to give it some help though by squeezing the skin together and then putting the bandage on. Kind of a cool thing.) She was such a trooper.

Well, I think that about wraps it up for October. I am all caught up now and hopefully stay current on here from now on.

Wow! I am doing really good

So Beckett has been addicted to PBSkids.org lately and the only way to keep him and Anabelle, who is addicted to sesamestreet.org, off the computer is to have it off completely, which means I never am on and I never get to update on here. Sorry.

Well, here is the month of September: It was a crazy month, but let's face it, what month isn't. The first part of the month was spent (and by that I mean mostly the $$ kind of spent) getting ready for the big Jacob Family Reunion. I can't believe I spent as much money as I did. But it wasn't my fault that everybody was having sales on everything I needed so I just bought two so I would have extras for after the reunion (that and I really wanted to buy everyone's affections). Matt's mom came and stayed with us the Saturday before so she could ride with us to the family extravaganza. We were so excited for her to come. We had not seen her for more than a year and a half, due to a little thing called a mission in Australia. The kids soon fell in love her and we had a great time before we had to share her with all the other Jacobs. Beckett kept saying, " I just love you Grandma Jill." We are all doing our best to become her favorite and I think Beckett is well on his way.

The reunion was in St. Anthony, Idaho. Matt's brother actually found a place that could house all 50 of us. It was called the Three Peaks Lodge. It was awesome. There was no way anyone could be bored at that place. The 2 slides were awesome and were almost constantly being used by someone. The kids had a blast playing with all the toys and big wheels that they had their. The big boys did too. They kept riding them around the big rumpus room and then skidding it across the floor. Boys will be boys.

A lot of the family went to see Yellowstone and to some beautiful waterfalls that were near by. We weren't one of them. We liked just staying at the lodge playing games. I wish we had gone to the waterfalls, but I have grandparents that live in Idaho Falls, so it would be easy to go see the falls another time. Besides, I had to stay at the lodge to keep baking more cookies for everyone when they got back from their sightseeing.

One of the days of the reunion we attempted to take a family picture of everyone. It turned out pretty good considering the size of the group.

We also had some family olympics. The first event was a race to move an Oreo across you face. They started at the forehead and then move it to their mouth. If they did it, they were rewarded with eating the Oreo and a point for their team, if not, no point and no Oreo. Matt totally did it.

I was not able to participate because I had to watch Anabelle on the playground. Don't pay any attention to Matt's brother standing there. He had his own child to look after, so therefore he could not possibly watch Anabelle. It is a shame. I really wanted to participate in embarrassing myself. :)

There were many different games played, mostly scum and 2s & 10s, and of course it wouldn't be a Jacob gathering without playing a rousing game of Balderdash. That was one of the most silliest versions that I think has ever been played. It was hilarious.

Matt's mom came home with us from the reunion for a day and then caught the train to Colorado to be with Matt's brother. Her train left at 4am on a Sunday. So rather than risk sleeping in and missing the train, we all stayed up (well, I tried) and watched Matt's new favorite show, Rubicon, which was super intriguing. It easily kept us awake until it was time to leave.  I recommend the show if you are looking for something similar to Lost and the Bourne movies.

The next few weeks were pretty boring, honestly. We did get to have some friends that we hadn't seen in a long time visit one afternoon. It was wonderful to visit and catch up with them. Unfortunately, as they were getting into their car, Beckett was running to come inside and he tripped and fell. Usually when kids trip, they scrap up their knees, but Beckett went from his knees, to his chest, to his face and scrapped it off.

It was the worst thing to watch happen. It really went in slow motion. Luckily for Beckett, he is related to Wolverine and his face was almost all better in about a week. He still is a little red around the eye, especially when he cries, but I am so happy that it healed so quickly and well. It was so hideous to look at. Honestly it started to look worse after I took this picture.

Matt got a raise from his work in September also. That made our month.

Um, I can't remember anything else about September.

Great insight

I was lucky enough to steal a moment on the computer yesterday and read this post on my friend's blog. It made me feel better about being a tough mother and gave me some new perspective about the trials I have been through in my life. I hope you all enjoy it and it makes you think like it did me.

More catching up to do

Beckett is a budding photographer

I mostly caught you all up last time on what happened in July. Now for August. Not a whole lot happened during that month except that Beckett had 6 root canals and 2 cavities filled; we put our house up for sale; Matt almost was out of work, but then wasn't; I started counseling; and my sister's dog was diagnosed with cancer and had to have her tail cut off. Wow, I guess that was a pretty packed month.

Yes, Beckett had 6 root canals done plus 2 cavities filled. Zero fun (except for my wonderful Aunt Karen coming to help me out with the whole ordeal. She is always a barrel of fun). At the end of June, Beckett started to complain about one of his molars hurting him. I thought it was just one tooth that need a little bit of drilling and filling. I was so wrong. We went to the dentist in July (yes, it took an entire month to get him into the dentists, this is my only complaint with the office though). First off, Beckett wouldn't sit in the chair. Then the dentist had him sit on my lap, facing me with his legs wrapped around me. Then we leaned him back and had his head resting on the dentist's lap while the dentist tried to look in his mouth as best he could. The report was bad. He told me Beckett would have to have 1 tooth removed and 1 root canal and a couple of cavities filled, but they weren't sure how bad it was until they had him under anesthesia and could get a really good look and some X-rays. Can I just say I felt like the worst mom ever just then. Felt like the biggest failure of a mother.

Anyways, we came back the first week of August for the work to be done. He wasn't allowed to eat for 6 hours prior to the procedure. Lucky for me, it was a Tuesday which meant we would go to the library in the middle of those six hours and that would eat up 2 hours of that time (pun intended) and Beckett wouldn't even think of eating during that time. Then I knew we had a half hour drive to my brother's house to drop off Belle, and then another 45 min. drive to the dentists. It was not easy towards the end. He really wanted something to eat and drink, but thank goodness it wasn't too difficult to distract him.

As stated before, my wonderful Aunt came down from Idaho Falls to help me with Beckett's procedure. She is an Oral Surgeon Assistant and knows how handle stuff like that. I also wanted her there to help me handle seeing Beckett unconscious. I was very worried about that. Especially because Matt wouldn't be able to get off work to be with me. I kept imagining him with a mask over his little mouth and nose, seeing the panic on his face, screaming and fighting to get it off until he would finally relax and just go to sleep (it also didn't help that I knew of someone that died while under anesthesia). Luckily for me, that isn't how it went down at all. The anesthesiologist came out and told me they were going to have him sit on my lap while they distracted him, so he could give him a shot, and then they could take him back to work on his mouth. It really wasn't too bad. They did exactly that and I was very impressed. They brought out a treasure box and had Beckett look through it for a prize and while he was looking, the anesthesiologist pinched his arm and very cleverly concealed the shot in his other hand so Beckett couldn't see it. Then he just stuck him and Beckett gave a little cry, but then he quickly started to slow down. I held him and rocked and told him to relax and in like 3 minutes, he was out, totally catatonic with his eyes wide open. I'm not going to lie, it was very creepy. Then they came and took him away.

We were in there for about an hour when they came out and told me how bad his mouth was and what all they needed to do (6 root canals and 2 cavities in case you forgot). Man, did I feel even worse than before. Not that the dentists ever said anything to make me feel that way, I just did it to myself. They were awesome dentists. I highly recommend them. Then I had to sit for another 1/2 hour, guilt-tripping myself, while they finished up. When it was over, they had my aunt and I go into the back where they had a room just for patients to sleep off the anesthesia. Beckett was out cold on a giant love sac with a nice warm blanket on him and his finger hooked up to a monitor. They had a nice couch for us to sit on and Nemo was playing on the TV in the room as well. My first thought was, "Why couldn't we have sat in here the whole time? This would have made the waiting so much easier then on those hard, crappy chairs in the waiting room." Then I thought how sad my little guy looked.

While we were waiting for him to wake up, my aunt noticed his oxygen levels going down, so she started to rub his leg to rouse him enough to take a good, deep breath. Unfortunately it roused him too much and he woke up, totally disoriented and completely confused as to why his mouth felt so funny. He was crying and I couldn't console him. He just wasn't with it enough to understand where he was and that I was holding him and he was okay. We tried to give him an otter pop to make sure his stomach was good, but he refused to eat it. The dentists told us we were good to go after about 10 min. of his screaming. I'm sure it was for the benefit of his other patients that they wanted us to leave. I was hoping he would fall back asleep in the car, but he didn't. He just cried the whole way to my brother's house to pick up Anabelle. On our way home, we stopped at a Smith's and got him some jello squares that he promptly devoured. After that he was good. He was a little cranky, but nothing too out of the ordinary given the situation.

Yes, our house is up for sale officially. We had it listed "For Sale by Owner" for a few months, but the only people that called us were real estate people wanting us to use them as our agent, so we decided it was about time we actually take one of them up on their offer since no one else wanted to look at our home. We have shown the house two times and one of them sounds really interested. Matt is really excited to sell the house and hopefully rent until we can get rid of some of our debt. I want that too, but I really don't want to leave our house. I love our house. I might not love our neighborhood, but I love our house. I know I am going to cry when we sell it and move out. But, this is part of life isn't it?

The whole thing with Matt's job is really complicated. I have already made this post long enough, so I will try to sum it up best I can. When Matt went out to Omaha at the beginning of July for a job interview, he pretty much told his bosses that he was leaving as soon as he found a job out in Nebraska. They had a replacement found for him in two weeks. Matt trained him for about a month and then he would be done by the end of August. I was a little worried, but then two employees, including Matt's replacement quit, so they almost begged Matt to stay through September. So it all worked out, and I was able to breath a sigh of relief. It has continued to work out good in that they gave Matt a raise in September and he is planning to stay until the end of the year, possibly longer, depending on employment situations out in Omaha. So the next year is a little blurry, but that is okay. We have a general idea of what we want to have happen, but it is constantly changing. Don't be surprised if we get on here and tell you something completely different.

I am still working on getting my depression under control. I started counseling in August and I love my counselor. She is awesome. I have learned a lot and am forced to take time for myself each week. It is hard for me to ask someone to watch my kids while I go and just do something fun, but I am trying to do it. It does make a big difference when I do manage to steal away. I highly recommend it to any mom that isn't already doing it. I don't recommend going to a store. I spent way too much at Shopko last week. Retail therapy is not the way to go.





 

Finally we come to my sister's dog. My sister's dog's name is Satin. She is a black lab that was born about two months before Matt and I got married, so she is 6 years old. She is such a good dog. She just loves kids (especially mine ;-)) and is so good with them. She lets Anabelle just lay on her all the time. We have always had to tell Belle to be soft with the dog, not the other way around. Anyways, half way through August, my sister discovered a lump on Satin's tail. She took her into the vet and found out she had cancer and that they would have to remove her tail, and there was a good chance she might die. We all love Satin and so it was hard on everybody. She is like one of the family. Luckily it hadn't spread, and they were able to remove all the cancer with her tail. She looked pretty sad with a little nub  coming off her shaved rear-end, but now that her hair has grown in, it looks like those dogs that have their tails cut off on purpose, only a little bit shorter. Beckett and Anabelle were kind of affected by seeing Satin with no tail and stitches. Beckett started pretending he was a dog before it happened, and after he saw her tail, when he was pretending to be a dog, he would turn around and say, "Look. My tail is gone. It got cut off." It was cute and sad at the same time. There is still a chance that more cancer will show up later, but we are hoping that it isn't until she is much older.

That is August and I will work on September soon and get you all caught up to speed.

Now that summer is over...

I am going to try and get all caught up on what we did during the summer (well, since June).

There were lots of Popsicles, of course. It wouldn't be summer without them.

There was lots of fun in the sun. Here is Anabelle and her friend Christa trying to be big girls lounging out on the sun chair.

And you can't sunbathe without getting wet.

Beckett wouldn't get in the sprinkler. Here he is running away from it. What a funny kid. When I am setting up the sprinkler each morning, he has no problem playing with that one, but he would barely come near this one. I had to run through it with him. I guess he just likes to play with his own sprinklers.

In July, we went to a park in Riverdale that has a splash park that is FREE. It was such a hot day and the place was packed as you can see. Doesn't it look like a blast?
What is that? You say you can't see Beckett and Anabelle? Well that is because there were here:

They just stood on the sidelines watching. I couldn't believe it. I have chickens for children. I tried to coax them in, but I couldn't get them to join me. I got Beckett a little wet, but Belle refused to go in. She isn't much for getting splashed to begin with, so I am not surprised by her reaction. I was very surprised by Beckett though. He loves to splash and play in water. Once again, I guess if he isn't in the comfort of his bath or yard, he doesn't like it. What a goober.

Speaking of goobers, look what I found in my fridge one day. If you can't tell what that is, it is a fire engine toothbrush. Where do they get these ideas?

We also played a lot outside. The kids started sneaking outside if I didn't take them out to play that day, so I tried to take them out each day, usually while I did yard work. Win, win!

Anabelle also got her bangs cut. Here is a picture of what she looked like afterwards. They were starting to get in her eyes and she wouldn't leave in a barrette to keep them back. Besides she looks better with something on her forehead than with them all swept to one side.

My mom cut them, and then my little sister tried to make them look cuter, but instead just made them shorter. She looked fine, but I like them better now that they have grown in a little more. 

For whatever reason, Anabelle's fashion sense has really come out. Maybe it was the laundry basket full of clothes that I need to go through that inspired her, because she would go take out clothes from there and just pile them on. This picture above is of her wearing 3 tops. The outside one is a dress, inside out, and backwards. The next layer is a shirt that inside out and backwards as well. The bottom one is the shirt I put her in that morning. After she got her outfit on, she wanted me to put her hair in a ponytail (I was absolutely floored that she wanted me to) and then the finishing touch is what looks like a necklace, but is actually one of those ribbon-headband-thingies. I couldn't get a good picture of the ponytail. It was sticking strait out. No joke. It was awesome.

Here is another one of her creations. Isn't it divine? I think I should send her to fashion school instead of preschool. She could be the Mozart of fashion, kind of like that 13 year old girl that started her own fashion critique blog and is now being invited to fashion week in New York.  Only Anabelle could start now. Do you think they would have fruit snacks at those things?

I still have the month of August to get into, and this post is long enough, so stay tuned for more exciting adventures in the Jacob family.