Change

"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown." I am about to go back to school. I am a little worried about how to juggle a full time job, 5 kids and school all at the same time, but when I think about the benefits of going back to school, I see the necessity. I have just enrolled at the University of Phoenix and classes start on May 10. I am seeking a Bachelors degree in Business Management. I am excited and nervous at the same time. Most people are drawn to UoP for the online classes, I however, will be attending the Campus classes because I feel that I will have less distraction in a classroom environment. I am especially worried about taking math classes again, I wasn't good at math during high school, hopefully the fact that I am anxious and willing to learn now will change the outcome. My new job has changed my work experiences significantly. I am enjoying it but it is so different. I am not moving wafers much anymore so that is weird in and of itself. I am trying to get to know my employees better and I try really hard to be a good supervisor. I have gotten some good feedback on how I can do better and I try to implement the advice I receive. Sometimes I feel like some people complain just to complain and I try hard not to waste too much energy on that. I have implemented some pretty drastic changes and a lot of people are very resistant to it. I have said to my employees "I cannot make 50 people happy but apparently I am really good at ticking 50 people off." In trying to do better I have found several quotes to be particularly helpful and read them often: "I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition." ~ Martha Washington "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." ~Herm Albright "Oh, my friend, it's not what they take away from you that counts. It's what you do with what you have left." ~Hubert Humphrey I find myself looking up motivational and inspirational quotes more and more often. I write them down on post it notes and attach them to the overhead shelf at my desk. I have been lucky enough to take several different classes at work including Time Management, Productive Meetings and Crucial Conversations. I look forward to reading Crucial Confrontations and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I love learning new things, especially when I can implement the skills I have learned and see them working. Enough about work changes, on the home front.... Babies Change too quickly! Monty is now 5 months old and looks so different already. She is so beautiful and I love her so much. She does the cutest things and I just want to squish her. When Monty gets tired she shakes her head back and forth very quickly until she finally finds a comfortable position, usually 10-12 shakes later. She squeaks and squeals and screams nonsensical noises and I do my best to repeat them back to her. Monty tried baby food for the first time last week, she had sweet potatoes and she loved them. She did so good, I have never had a baby take baby food so easily the first time it was offered to them. Monty is so happy and almost never cries. She demands food constantly and has the double chin and rolls to prove it. All of my kids are growing up so quickly, it seems to be happening even more quickly since I started working. I miss them all so much. Ryan experienced her first New Beginnings a couple of weeks ago and will be joining the Young Women's group in about 3 weeks. I have to admit I am terrified of sending her off to girls camp and youth conference. When I look at Ry I still see my little baby attached to oxygen tubes and monitors and I worry so much about her. The only thing that scares her about camp is bears. Uncle Colton is leaving for a mission in June or July. We don't know where he is going yet but my kids are going to miss him like crazy. So much change.... I have to remind myself that each day is change, nothing is ever exactly as it was the day before. And how boring would this life be it everything remained constant always? Anyway, that is all.

Not quite 6 months

Well I am getting better, it hasn't been another 6 months since my last post.

The story of Monty:

At 10:00 AM on Monday November 14,2011 Raymond and I arrived at Labor and Delivery at Inter mountain Medical Center to start my induction. I had to be induced due to having been diagnosed with Group B Strep and requiring 4 hours of IV antibiotics prior to delivery, so we figured we may as well schedule our induction for our due date which just happened to be Ray's birthday (actually not a coincidence, this took very careful and precise timing on our part, boy are we good!!) I had never been induced before but did not expect it would be very different than regular natural onset labor, boy was I wrong.

At 10:30 am they started my antibiotics as well as the pitocin drip and informed me they would be back in at 2:30 PM to break my water. 2:30 comes and goes and they finally come in at 3:00 and decide I should have my epidural now ( I have to have an epidural due to my previous c-section, darn c-sections anyway!) because the anesthesiologist has a free minute and will be very busy the rest of the day and that it would be better to have that done before they break my water anyway, so I say ok. I get my epidural, never a fun event, and then the resident doc comes in to break my water and check my cervix which is at a 3. After about 10 minutes of fiddling around with her crochet hook she determines that my water is broken tells me that delivery will be fast now and leaves. I continue to lay in my hospital bed with very mild contractions about every 3 minutes. In the meantime I had Kimi bring my little Ryan up to hospital to witness the birth of her new baby sister.

So 5:30 PM rolls around and still nothing, my nurse comes in and says that she doesn't think that my water is actually broken and calls the resident in to try again. The resident comes back in, checks my cervix again, which is still at a 3, and then with her crochet hook, fiddles around some more, and voila, my waters break and start gushing out of me, she pushes on my tummy a bit to help it drain out and then tells me that delivery will be quick now. Meanwhile Mom and Dad come to the hospital, as we had expected the baby would be out by 5:00, so they come in and visit with Kimi, Ryan, Ray and I while we wait for the contractions to pick up. A short bit later Anngee arrives and we all sit and visit while we wait.

Finally at shift change the new nurse comes in and asks how long I have been in my current position, well only all day long, so she has me roll over onto my left side. Boom, all of a sudden I am having crazy strong contractions every couple minutes, they hurt like crazy! after about 45 min of these crazy contractions I decide I have had enough and I would like to have my cervix checked again, the nurse comes in and checks and says that it is time to push. What can I say, this had been the longest day in the history of the world for me so I started to cry, hooray finally I can start to push!!

Mom, Dad and Anngee clear out of the room, Kimi sets up the video camera and positions little Ryan in such a way that she will be able to see her little sister come out but not be completely traumatized by the full on view. Dr. Porter (the greatest Dr. in the whole wide world) comes in and I start pushing, about 3 pushes later at 8:28 PM my beautiful little Monty is out and laid on my belly. Kimi cut the cord (Raymond has issues with blood and has never cut the cord.) and Ryan got scared by Monty's blue complexion, sat down on the couch and asked if the baby was supposed to be that color.

The nurses got Monty all cleaned up with a little help from Ryan while I got stitched up from my level 2 tear. Ryan watched as they put her on the scale to measure her, 8 Lbs 8 Oz. and 21 Inches long. Then they swaddled her up nice and tight and little Ryan got to hold her, it was a very special moment for her. After that Mom and Dad came back in to see their new grand baby.

I had picked out the name Monty at about 14 weeks gestation and knew that was what I wanted her name to be but Ray hated it so we had to pick a cool middle name to go with it. We love the Star Gate tv series, and all of us girls favorite character is name Vala Maldoran, who was at one time possessed by a Goauld symbiote named Qetesh, the Egyptian goddess of fertility. I thought that was a pretty unique name and loved the way it sounded with Monty so we picked that as her middle name. Raymond was never completely sold on the name Monty and tried to get me to change my mind clear up until I was filling out the birth certificate information, then he said that if she was going to be named Monty he got to have 2 middle names. I agreed so that she could have the name I had picked out and Ray finally settled on Calisto as her 2nd middle name. So our little girls full name is Monty Qetesh Calisto Eggertsen but I call her Monty Q for short.

Monty Q is a wonderful baby, she has been so calm and easy going. She has just begun to smile on purpose and every time her little face lights up with a smile my heart melts. I love this little girl and am so grateful that she is a part of our family.

We plan to have Monty blessed on February 4th and our church session starts at 9:00 AM, sorry Mom I thought we went to 1:00 but we don't. I will post another blog when we finalize our plans and include the address to our chapel.

Now here are some pics of my little Monty Q and my ever growing family.

Laziest blogger ever!!

So I am the laziest blogger ever, I know this but I have a hard time finding time to blog and find face book a much easier way to update people with the goings on of life. Then again not everybody uses face book nor do I want to share everything about my life with random people I went to high school with and my blog has a much smaller audience of mostly family and a few friends who I am comfortable sharing my more personal stories with.

Anyway, it looks like the last time I blogged was clear back in March when Ray and I went on vacation to Vegas, that was a really fun trip, well all except for the ride home and our introduction the douchiest (sorry Mom, I still say it is not a bad word!) cops in the whole world. Since then our Kids have had birthdays, finished 4th grade and kindergarten and started 5th and 1st grades and Soren is of course still as adorable as ever. Ray and I learned we are expecting our 5th child, we were actually pretty sure of this before the Vegas trip but waited to announce until 14 weeks. We are having another little girl who we have picked a name for and because the kids know her name some people have learned it, however for the most part we have been able to keep it a secret and now have only 7 1/2 weeks or less until we get to announce it. I will say that her name is somewhat unique but I am in love with it and am excited to meet her.

My little Ryan is doing so well in school this year and I have to say I am grateful for teachers who take the time to really get to know a child and learn what makes them tick. Ryan's fourth grade teacher was absolutely amazing and I know that the time that she spent with Ryan has had a lasting effect that will be with her for the rest of her life. She was the first teacher to ever make Ryan feel like she could complete the same amount of work as her peers and that she is as smart as her peers. Ryan went from a level J to a level T in one year, that doesn't happen without a very dedicated teacher and Ryan and her had a very special bond. This year Ryan is in a different class than Rayden for the first time ever and it seems to be to both of their advantage, Ryan doesn't get compared to him anymore and is able to thrive because he isn't in the same room to outshine her (not that he does it intentionally, things just come to him more easily.) She has a different resource teacher which has been a great help and she gets to be herself instead of Ryan and Rayden, though Ryan typically goes by her middle name "Athena" at school because of the multitude of Ryan's in the class. She is very strong willed and wants to do what she wants to do, we often butt heads because I am what some might call "over-protective" especially when it comes to her, I can't really help it. I don't allow any of my kids to go into their friends houses because you never know what happens behind closed doors and I don't want to risk their innocence. I allow them to play outside at the park at our apartments which is directly outside our apartment and I can watch them from the patio. Ryan gets very angry with me for not allowing her into her friends houses and the other day when she asked me if she could go do something that I felt was too dangerous and I told her " No, I don't want you to get hurt!!" she replied with a very snotty " How can I? you never let me do anything!!" I couldn't help but laugh a little though I told her not to get snappy at me. Ryan is a wonderful, pleasant 11 year old as long as she has been recently fed and I wouldn't change anything about her. She is spirited, feisty, love able and wonderful!!

Rayden is my little artist. He has made some of the most incredible artwork I have ever seen and I have to remind myself that he is only 10 years old when I look at it. He is very talented!! He is also very intelligent and has a mind that reminds me of his Papa. He sometimes says words that are so far above what I would expect a child his age to know that it shocks me. He asks intelligent questions and sometimes I think he already has accumulated more knowledge in his somewhat large head in 10 years than I have in my 31 years. He is a sweetheart for the most part and is definitely my most sensitive child personality wise, though at the same side he seems to have a little bit of an anger management problem. Rayden does very well in school, the only thing his teachers ever say is a problem is that he is very shy and that he has to be told several times to stop lining up his pencils in his tote tray, he is also a bit OCD. Rayden is like me in that he is very cheery in the morning, he jumps out of bed whistling while he walks to the shower, he loves to laugh and tell funny stories. Rayden is also musically inclined and we are hoping to be able to get him into orchestra this year, which would be great because he would learn how to read music and could get really good at playing his guitar, which he strums on now and makes up his own music that actually sounds pretty good but he could get even better. Rayden is my little sweetie pie and I can always count on hug, a funny story or a beautiful piece of art.

Alex is still my Oopa, he is such a big boy. He is much bigger at 6 then Rayden was at 6, he weighs more than Ryan (not a hard thing to do) and wears the same size shoe as Ryan. He still hops everywhere he goes and is my little China-man, it is hard to understand a single word he says because he is a mumbler and he giggles a lot while he talks but it is super cute. He is a total sweetie and doesn't ever retaliate against his bully of a little sister when she chases him around the house, pinching fingers at the ready. He just runs in to Mommy or Papa yelling "Soren's gonna pinch me!" so that we will stop her. He idolizes Rayden and wants to do everything Rayden does. Alexander loves school but has had a problem with one of his classmates who thinks it is funny to pance him in the bathroom and push him on the playground, he has told the teacher and hopefully this little punk knocks it off or he may meet the craziest Mommy on the planet!! Last week while Alex and Rayden were playing outside with their Nerf swords another little boy came over to play with them and hit my poor little oopa right in the face, he came in the house bleeding all over the place and scared the crap right out of me, I ran down the steps asking Rayden which little punk hurt my boy and that I was going to kick their butt, the poor little kid was so scared he ran home before I could find him. Raymond said to me " There I am in the bathroom trying to take care of Oopa when I should have been holding you back from beating up a 4 year old, you gotta calm down" anyway there was a lot of blood and we couldn't tell if it was his nose or his teeth so I rushed him to the instacare which turned out to be a little bit of an over reaction, it was just a bloody nose! Alex is sweet, love able and always ready to play.

Soren is my little monster. She is of course adorable but she is a bit of a bully. She terrorizes her siblings daily, chasing them around the house making them do her bidding, I have never seen a 3 year old exercise so much control over their older siblings. She also has her sweet side and loves to hug everybody. She still has her Papa wrapped around her little finger and can get him to do anything she wants, it is a little pathetic to watch actually, She has him more whooped than I ever have!!! Soren is convinced the babies name is Sarah and still tries to call her the name we have picked with Sarah mixed in in various combinations. We have decided we will have to get her a baby doll when we have the baby that can be her baby and that she can name Sarah. I love how feisty she is but seeing how feisty my girls are has me a little nervous about the little bun I am cooking now. I don't know how well Soren is going to adapt to having to share her Papa with this new baby, hopefully she will do okay. Soren is my adorable little monster butt and I love her to itty bitty little bits and pieces.

Raymond and I are doing pretty good. Ray has started going back to work as a flagger for a temp service, he doesn't really like it but it is work and he will take what he can get. He is hoping to be able to start school part time taking some creative writing classes and start submitting some short stories to science fiction magazines, he is hoping to eventually get a gig writing for SyFy (Dream Job) He can do it if he puts his mind to it and works hard.

Things have been going pretty well at my job, in fact I just got promoted again this past week. I have just accepted a position as the Production Supervisor on 1st shift (My current shift) responsible for about 60 employees & will be starting training in October. I was pretty shocked to get offered the position while 32 weeks pregnant and with barely 3 years experience in the industry but I am very excited for the opportunity and hope to do be able to do a good job.

Well that is just about everything for now, hopefully I will find the time to blog again before another 6 months passes by!!