My First Day of Pre Scool (Tuesday 13th)

So today was Jacobs first day of pre-school and I wanted him to look adorable. I think the mission was accomplished though. He was so excited to go to pre- school that he had a hard time sleeping Monday night. I got him up and he hopped right in the shower. He said that big boys must wash for pre-school so they don’t stink and lathered on the shampoo. I laughed and asked what he wanted for breakfast and he said nothing, I want room for the snacks at school. I was sad that he did not feel afraid to leave me but excited and I told him that I was sad to see my little man growing up so fast. (Rick and I did not want to send him until next year so we passed the start deadline and also because we want him home with us, but he was just so ready! He begged and begged and finally we decided that it was cruel at this point to deny the little guy friends and fun while mommy is so sick and tired all of the time.) So, I was sitting there quietly helping him dry off and then he became aware that I was sad and was very sensitive. He took my face in his hands and said, "Don’t worry mommy, I will just only grow up a little bit. , Just enough to go to pre-school. I will still need you for everything." Oh, my heart melted and I just could not help but love this little guy. He has always been such sensitive little boy about others feelings. Well, we got to school 10 minutes early to meet Mrs. Michelle (his teacher) and check the place out. Jacob wanted to wear his Spider man backpack to carry home his homework so we wore that and went in to the class first. Jacob looked around and said, "Yep, I like it." (He thinks it looks like the class from his favorite show Caillou). Jacob then saw the teacher and went up to shake her hand, on his own, and started playing with the toys. Other children started coming in and he was introduced to them by Mrs. Michelle one by one. He said hi to everyone and started playing with them. Another little boy Jacob was there and Jake said, "Hey, that is my name too. Ha, we can be buddies. Come on; let’s go build a train together." I knew from that moment he would be fine. I filled out the paper work and asked my questions while he played. It was finally time for me to go and the teachers were amazed when I told Jacob good bye. I called to him and said that I was leaving and he came over kissed me, hugged me and asked what time I would be back. I told him and he said okay. He skipped off and said. “Have a good day momma!” Ha, so much for needing mommy! I am glad that he did not cry though. It was hard enough to let him go for even a few hours. He has never done day care or Pre School before so I was worried about him getting scared, but no, all he needed was kids and some learning. I am glad that he felt secure. It makes me feel like he is more secure too. All in all, I would say that pre-school is a success. The teacher said he is doing great and that he had friends. They were thrilled to have an extrovert in the class as most of the kids seemed shy. Jacob has never been shy, but for a few random times, so I am sure they will want him to pipe down at some point, but I am glad that he is welcomed. He said that it was the best day of his life when I picked him up so I am confident that we made the right choice. I love this little man! I just cant wait to find out what we are having and meet him/her in June! I hope they are sweet, loving, sensitive, smart and even a bit Wylie like their big brother. It is a great mix and always keeps mommy on her toes!

The War On Poop At Home (May Be TMI)

Well, so goes another day of potty training! I tell you, if I knew it was this hard I would have send my mother flowers long ago! Jacob is going on over a year of potty training. Part of the problem was that we let him go until 3 and then it took 3 months to get Jake to pee on the toilet. Last March was his first time and a poo poo on the potty followed in May. Then... nothing for months. He kept up the pee and did great when we kept him naked, but as soon as that diaper went on, he would just go in it. The poopie thing was tougher. He would not go even when naked with no other options. He just opted to sweat it out and hold it. Concerned about nap times and long rides I diapered him and then he would just go in the diaper. I realized about October of 08 that we were going to have to go cold turkey with the diapers but with me sick and miserable, it went on the back burner. We continued in undies until nap and bed time at which time we did diapers. He followed his usual routine of waiting until covered and doing his business then until about 1 month ago. Rick and I decided to stop buying diapers and stick him in undies all of the time. I bought a moisture proof barrier for his bed and carried around extra clothes but much to our surprise he is doing fantastic. He has a few set backs on occasion, but he sure has done great. We are going on over a week of waking up dry and getting better at recognizing when he will go #2. Today was a hoot though. I put him on the potty at least 3 times for 20 minutes a piece and he kept saying, I don't need to go yet. So, I trusted him and stripped him of his panties to make sure I did not get a surprise. Lo and behold, about 3pm Jacob started dancing around needing to go so I sent him up by himself and we had success! Thank Heavens! I am ready for him to be done. I gag every time I have to change his pants and I want him done. He gets to start pre-school (checking it out for the first time) tomorrow and he feels like a big boy. HE is such a smart boy, I have no doubt he could have done this all by 2, but I think the sequence of things, though long, has really worked for him. Such a stubborn child! (much like mommy and daddy) I guess he he just wants to do things his own way. Cant fault him on that. My motto is "You're not the boss of me". Tell me I was not destined to have a child that thinks for himself.

La Pizza!! Che Bravo

Hello everyone! So I know you are wondering why I have a picture of a pizza here. Well, I am finally back from the dead and finally feeling well so I have been up and around. I wanted to posted this picture to show my awesome handy work. For years I have been craving a real pizza Margarita and every time we go out for gourmet pizza I try one and leave sad. I never really get the flavor that I was looking for in the sauce and then I am sad. I miss Italy so much and really miss the pizza! So, now armed with a true craving for it and super heightened senses I decided to surprise Rick and give it a go. I rolled out the dough by hand, chopped everything up, picked the basil, and best of all, I hand made the sauce. All I can say is yum! I tried about 4 sauce mixtures and found a great combo that felt like Italia! I used part real vine ripened tomatoes that were super ripe and stewed tomatoes that were canned. I am convinced that the mixture was right on. Too fresh was too much and too much canned was bland. It worked and I was ecstatic. Wish you were all here! There was plenty left over. Remind me when we see each other again and I will make it for you sometime. Avete un invitazione per la ciena a' casa mia! (You are invited for dinner at my house) . P.S. the peperoni was for Rick. He just cant leave amazing alone! Ha Ha.

Guilty Concience

So I woke up this morning thinking that Rick was still here at 8:30am and figured that he just had a late day. The light was on downstairs and I thought I heard someone in the kitchen so I dozed again and slept for about 3 more minutes before I remembered that Rick woke me up to drive him to work this morning way earlier. I told him to take the van (lots to do at home so I figured I would do that and not go anywhere today) so that I could sleep in. He was fully dressed so I realized that he would not be here still. Then I thought that he was a booger for not turning off the lights before leaving (I hate paying for lights that we don't enjoy). The thought occurred to me that Jacob could be downstairs so I sprang up and crawled to the end of our bed where I could look out of our room into Jacobs and saw him laying on his bed. A burglar was too far fetched so I decided to lay back down for a minute before getting up. Well, Jacob must have heard me stirring because I heard him run around his room for a second and then come running in to tell me how much he loved me and snuggle. Well, he comes in to love me and snuggle every morning before we go down stairs so I thought nothing of it. It was not until I suggested that we go downstairs and get breakfast that his little poker face broke down. He said, "no, no lets lay here and play." I told him that I was really hungry and that I wanted to go get breakfast and started getting up. That is when he sprang from the bed and said, "I love you mommy, don't go into my room." No break in the comments at all, just fast and forceful. Well, I figured out that something was off and started for his room. I started grilling him and he denied that anything was wrong and tried to bar me from entering into his room. I being bigger and taller just pushed him aside and then told him that not telling mommy when something was wrong was naughty and that if I found something before he told me about it that he would be in big trouble. Well, he taught about it for a second and then gave me a clue. He said I did something that is not that bad but it is not behind the door. Strait to the door I went and peaked around to find a bag of the gummy snacks that I told him he could not have last night.

Be fore I could even say a word he pulled me down to his level, looked me in the eye and said, "I know, I was naughty. When will I learn to listen to mommy? I know better and I cant have any for the rest of the day because I was sneaky and I don't get any now. He looked at me hopefully as if to cue me to deny that fact and I said, "yep, that is right! You were naughty, you need to learn to listen to mommy and you cant have any for the rest of the day. IF you ever do that again we will never buy any again, ever!" He said, "okay, you are right mommy, and I am sorry." Boy, I sure wish that every punishment went that way. Normally time out would have ensued but he confessed, apologized and took his consequence well. Cant argue with that. I used to find him in corners with boxes of stuff that he had eaten and dealt with him feeling sick all day, so we are definitely growing up. Gotta love it.

To Rick For Our Anniversary (late) Really 27th of Dec.

Well, as you probably read, my 6th anniversary was a mess. I was so sick that we could not do anything and I was barely coherent because of the pain meds that they had me on. I tell you, if Rick loves me the way I was on our anniversary this year, then I am confident that he truly loves me no matter what!! Just to back that up, here is a little idea of the mess that I was: Not showered in 2 days because the water hurt my ears, hair a horrible mess, sick, hacking, tissues everywhere, groaning and on Vikidin. If you are not a long time friend that has ever seen me in the maybe 5 times in my life that I take meds that are stronger than Tylenol you will not understand, but if you have seen me you will understand. I am a LOON on meds. I laugh, say weird things, apparently I call out like a Yeti and hold a care bare monkey of Jakes like my child (says Rick). Basically, I loose all sanity! Yep, just what I wanted to do to make him so happy he chose me 6 years ago. To top it all off I am pregnant and getting big and well, if he loves me despite it all, I guess it is just one more reason that I got luckier than I ever knew on Dec 27th 2002 when he said I will!

If that is not enough to show my utter gratitude to the lord for a man like Rick, here are 6more things that I would share about and with Rick for our 6th Anniversary:

1. No matter what, Rick makes me laugh! - We fell in love, married, and then realized that we are both totally different and the same at the same time. Maybe it is that we are the same temperament, same ideals and same bull headed types, but our approaches are different. We just work though. We argue on occasion, we disagree (at first) a lot, we drive each other nuts sometimes, but I cant stay sufficiently mad at him for long. As long as we engage in the argument it can go on and on, but once one of us leaves the room, it is only minutes before someone comes running to make amends. He comes in and pokes his head around the corner and says something funny and I know that if I look at him, it is over. There just is not room for any anger when I look at him because I adore him. I truly think he is the funniest, cutest person that I know. Close second would be our little one Jakie.
*Rick has even texted me from downstairs before to see if the coast is clear to come and check on me. He was particularly bad that time and a poke around the corner might have been a poke in the eye for him. It was cute though!

2. The man has true character: -I have never in my life ever met any man like him before. I know that other people exist like him like my mom and good people that do good things for no reason, but he was the first handsome man that I ever knew that was truly that way. No wonder I fell fast and hard for him! I have always been amazed at his sense of family, sense of right and wrong, his desire to be better, and his utter devotion to God and me. In these things I have never been disappointed in him. I remember when we were dating that he would tell me not to come over on Saturday mornings until about 11am. He had a list of chores that he did for his family and community. I figured he did a few things at the threat of his parents anger, but no, he volunteered. Not just him but his whole family! Cam is just like him in this and I always admire it. Anyway, he would go over and mow his grandma's lawn, mow the neighbors lawn, or help with other things they needed, he would then help in is family yard and run any errands that needed doing. He was the first to agree to do whatever he was asked. Yeah, he whines sometimes, but not like I would have! I was thoroughly impressed then, but I had no idea that I had not even scratched the surface of his service. He goes so far above and beyond in his callings at church, he helps anyone he can and certainly helps me. I have to whip him into shape sometimes, but he is so much better than me in so many areas and I feel complete gratitude for his example on so many occasions.

3. He is an amazing father: - I knew when we dated/were engaged that he loved kids, and after we were married I saw even more evidence of that but I never knew the depth of reverence that he holds for Heavenly fathers "little ones". He melts at the sight of a child and especially a baby. He really would hold them all and call them all little ones all of the time. I watched him with others kids before we had Jake and knew that he would adore his children and love them completely. Well, I was right but I never knew how much more he could love our own child. Jacob is such a sweet little spirit and keeps us on our toes. I watch him as he interacts with Jacob and I see that no time with his son is ever a wasted moment. Sure he looses his temper on occasion and Jacob drives us both nuts sometimes, but he is our most precious gift and Rick makes sure that Jake knows it daily. I admire his openness with his feelings for Jake, I am amazed at his desire to give him more love each day and I take lesson at the time he spend with Jake even when I know that he is exhausted and ready for a break. I know that he will be doubly so when our next little one joins our family in June.

4. He was irresistible to me: - When I think of what I could have ended up after a 2-3 week courting period and a 2 month engagement before our wedding, I know that I got lucky! Same goes for him, I could have been a psycho!!! Shame on us for our carelessness. What were our parents thinking!! I am surprised that no one stormed the temple and demanded that we not be fools. We never even got a stern talking too to make sure we were not nuts. Well, I guess that both sides knew us and realized that #1 we are insanely strong willed, #2 we were truly in love, #3 that we were both RM's with the training to tap into the spirit. Well, that said, if Jacob ever does that to me, I am going to freak out!!

Oh well, I guess that is how life goes. Thinking back, I could never have done it any other way! I dated long and hard before Rick and never wanted marriage with any of the other ones. I never even considered it and certainly not at 24. But, I knew on our first date that I was in trouble with Rick. He was everything I wanted and everything I didn't even know I was looking for. We went to see Elder Ballard speak on our first date and at the event center rick put his arm around me (rick, you fast mover you!!) and I swear I felt a shock of electricity. I knew I was in it for good if he wanted me! Then he held my hand on the way out (seriously confident here huh!) and I smiled the whole way home. I never worried about if it would work really, I changed plans to move back to California right away and stayed to see how things would work. I knew they would and I said yes the second he hinted at marriage. I just did not want to loose him. I wonder about my life without him and I am just sure that I could have been fine, but never as happy as I am with him! It has been a wild ride but I would love to do it all again with him any day. Next time I would be smarter though and not make the mistakes I have. Then I could be perfect in his eyes!

5.He is very ambitious: Well, as you can tell from the last comments Rick is quite tenacious! He is very kicked back about things until he knows what he wants. Once he sets his sights on something, it will happen for him. Not in a cocky or smug way at all, it is just that when Rick sets his mind on something, his whole focus shifts to make it happen and people cant help but jump on board and follow what he has set. I have been his only nemesis because we are the same and if I do that, compromise is required, so he does not always get what he wants with me. I try to let him have his way on things though, I get a secret happiness from knowing that he gets to lead and have generally found that he is quite right about a lot of things (I put the smack down when he gets out of control tough). Okay, most things. I think it is because he is so logical and I am quite emotional. Anyone will tell you that logical usually trumps emotional.

Anyway, He is tenacious and can set goals. He sees what he wants and just does it. I remember when we met he was at UVSC after his mission (and a 1.7 GPA during his freshman year at Snow College). Yikes, he had obstacles to overcome, but was doing great at UVSC and planned on going to the U of U for med school. I married him despite his wanting to be a doctor (a doctors life, yuck!) and believed he could do anything. I would have married him no matter what he wanted to be, but I have been impressed and even surprised at his ability to accomplish things in his life. He figured out that a DR. is not what he wanted to be and made administration his goal . I watched as he got into BYU by the skin of his teeth and flourished there in the Public Health Dpt. I never even saw him do homework at home because he went to school 9-5 so that when he came home, it was just us. He blew me away as he applied to graduate schools that were in the top 10 and got in! We were off to Seattle and I watched as he reached the top of his class and got a coveted internship at UW and then was again floored when he got a fantastic Fellowship post grad. I never could have imagined that he would take us that far. I did not ever think he could not do it, I just have always been so surprised and sometimes shocked by the overwhelming reaction to him by his peers and professional leaders. He is as ambitious with them as he is with is and I love and truly respect him ever day for that!

6. He is more than a husband, he is my best friend: There is no one in this world that knows me better than Rick Shumway! For better and certainly at times for worst, he knows me and has always loved me. I can't lie to him (unless it is a surprise) and I never feel worse than when I do not give him 100% of my love. I feel like with him it is all or nothing. We could never work if we were not best friends. I think we both just want and need that too much. He has slowly become my conscience and I see what I want to be when I look at him. We teach each other, I dare say, daily! Sometimes we teach what not to do and other times it is a lesson on what to do to love one another. I think so many wonderful things of Rick but I think that what I always come back to is just a feeling of complete love for him. I love his little faults, I love his dumb sounds that he makes to make me laugh, I love when he thinks that he is fooling me and I am totally on to him, I love when he takes nurse quality care of me when I am sick, I love when he accomplishes something big and fakes humility, I love when he smiles at me and his ears move, I love when he tries to lie to get out of doing something he hates doing (usually shopping), I love it when he holds our son and tells him that daddy loves him, and most of all I love that he chose me! I know that he could have had his pick, but I thank the Lord everyday that he is all mine for more than forever! I get his one for eternity.
Happy anniversary Love. There is so much more I would say but no one else wants to hear about that stuff! I am sorry that I was disgusting and completely incoherent during the whole day on our real anniversary! I will make it up to you by actually getting cute and then buy you a belly full of food that you love! -Happier than I ever could have imagined, Sarah

The Days following Christmas.

So here is the story. Christmas was awesome. I loved playing with Jacob and Rick and seeing them enjoy the presents and all that the season have to offer. Well the 25th passed with not much more than the regular pregnancy Yuck that I have everyday. I went to bed that night feeling like I might be starting a cold but was not particularly worried. Then I woke up on the 26th. I was out maybe 8 hours but there was a serious siege under way in that short time. I have never felt so bad so fast. I was hacking, coughing, and miserable from the moment I woke up. A good steam bath and some rest later I was feeling better so I took a nap at lunch time with Jacob and then the misery really started. I fell asleep feeling pretty good, but coughing and woke up 2 hours later with a deafening, stabbing pain in my right ear. It seriously felt like someone was stabbing it so I called down to Rick for help and he of course, did all that he could do to make me comfortable. Tylenol, hot compress, nothing much because of the baby. Those things helped a bit but I think I needed something more like a bottle of whisky (just kidding though I did consider the sort) or NyQuil (my own LDS whisky). Oh, how I miss NyQuil!!! It really is one of the biggest reasons I don't like being pregnant. There are many, but it is up there). I like to take it the second I feel sick and spend the illness in a stupor but no such luck. I thought we needed to to the ER (since it was a weekend) but we held out because of the $75.00 co pay. I knew I needed drops! We called the OB and they put me on an antibiotic just from my description and called in some Vikidin (okay when you are pregnant so I was surprised!). It took the edge off and let me sleep okay on the 26th and helped me get through the 27th during the day (my anniversary! Sad huh, drugged and sick on my day of Love). Anyway, I got to sleep on that night but at about 12am I woke up in such excruciating pain that there is nothing to compare it to. Even labor was less intense because it breaks for a few minutes between contractions. I guess the only thing to describe it is about as close a tooth ache that needs a root canal. I had one once and that was about the most pain I have ever been in. This one was at last as bad as that. I cried and cried, and finally when I started screaming I knew it was the ER for me. We left at 2am and got in to see someone at about 3pm. They prescribed stuff that helped and I finally got home at 5am. Poor Rick & Jake had to sit there while I cried and got treatment in the yucky ER. What a sad Anniversary huh!
Anyway, the Ear drops helped the most and they stopped the horrible shrieking pain in my ear. Turned out that I had a severe sinus, inner ear and outer ear infection. Talk about more that a pregnant lady can take. Well, It has taken me until today to be able to get up and walk around and do more than lay on the couch or bed in pain. To make things even worse, Jacob started coughing a few days ago and it sounded just like mine. I knew it was the same horribly strong infection I had so I set up a DR. Apt for him. We got in and they checked him and guess what: Inner ear infections in both ears and a sinus infection. He barely showed any symptoms. I swear, it takes a tank to knock this kid down. He coughs in the morning and night but aside from that, I would never have known he had ear infections too. Luckily he is on Antibiotics and headed toward health. Right now, we are two sad sacks coughing our brains out and spending the day laying on the couch and sleeping it off (that is if he sits still). Oh well, maybe with the new year we will be feeling better. I sure hope so!

Christmas Cheer!!

Well, nice to get back to the real world today. What day is it?? The 30th. Wow, time flies fast when you are laid up for a week or so. I will explain later, but I wanted to post our fun Christmas pictures and let everyone see our fun day. Jacob had a super fun time watching the tree fill out with family presents that were sent by Mom, Dad, Kate, Cam, my Mom & Dad, and friends, etc. To tell the truth, I got excited too!!! I was so excited to give Rick my present because I knew he would be over the moon for it. I had all but convinced him that there was no way we could afford a Wii and that I had already purchased a fantastic present for him. He was excited even still and was a super sport. I then of course, went out and got him the whole system and surprised him on Christmas morning. He was shocked and it was so fun.

Jacob woke up with such enthusiasm at about 7am and I got to get him coming down the stairs on video. It is too long to run here I think, but you can just imagine if you know Jakie. He gives great reactions. Truly my child in that respect. We set out a race car track from Grandma & Grandpa Hutchins and once he had taken in all the presents he focused in on that and freaked. I loved watching his reaction to every present and laughed when he repeated with more enthusiasm than that last time "oh, this is the best Christmas I ever had". He is such a fun boy. We finished our day with the Elders for a late lunch and took them out for Christmas Chinese food. The place we went was the real deal and it was yummy and fun. Rick was bummed because it was not a buffet, but I guess that just means that he will call ahead next time! Enjoy the picture story below. I tried to get them all but as I look at what I have, I did not even get 1/10th of the presents. Oh well, you get the gist.

Jacob with his awesome present from Trace. He loved it!!

Price Slobe the new Hamster that just happens to be a girl, but Jake does not care.

Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Jacob loved beating the pants off of us. He is pretty good!

Cap guns and cowboy outfit. Cam, you are a genius!! He loved it.

Well, you know what this is, but I had to show my present. I love my little mixer with all of my heart. My presents were thoughtful and needed. Every one of them! Thank you Santa and thank you everyone for your love. Presents are fun but I like the gift of love and friendship the best! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.