We Finally Made it!!

I feel like we haven't attended meetings in our ward for forever! Last Sunday we had bad colds, and only attend sacrament meeting. The week before that we stayed home, because we all had the flu. The week before that Ryan and I were in Hayden, and attended church there. But our boys didn't go to church that week and then the two weeks before that we were sick!
So our little guys hadn't been the Primary or Nursery for 6 weeks in a row!
It was a bit of a struggle today. Canton didn't want me to leave him in Primary and was very sad. He clung to me and cried, and as three different sisters (the Sunbeam teacher, the Primary President and one of the counselors) wrestled him away from me I started to cry too.
"He'll be fine, and if he's not, I'll come get you." I was told. But it was upsetting to me to see him so upset about being separated from me.
Tate and Oran on the other hand were both excited to go to their classes. "My primary friends said they missed me," Tate happily announced after primary.

After we got home and I asked about primary Tate was excited to tell me all about it. Sister Evans, the Primary chorister, had an Easter basket filled with grass and plastic eggs containing a slip of paper with the title of a song. Tate got to go up and pick an egg - his egg had "Called to Serve" in it. One of his favorites. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! Tate got to stay in the front and Sister Evans held his arm and helped him lead the music! It was fun to see Tate so happy about his day.
Then I turned to Canton. who was on the verge of tears after hearing Tate relay the day's events. "I raised my hand, but no one picked me!" "She didn't even see me." "I didn't get a turn." "I'm NEVER going to raise my hand EVER again!" He had such a sad face! And needed lots of hugs. What a rough day for Canton,

Well,

I really have nothing to say - but decided to talk about the rest of our trip - (To Cour d'Alene)
We had planned to come home on Sunday after church, but awoke Sunday morning to LOTS of snow. It had rained the night before, and then it snowed. So there was a nice sheet of ice under the 6 or 7 inches of new snow. We tried, without any luck to get our van out or Bill's driveway - and finally had to give up, we'd just slide sideways and down.
We borrowed Heidi's car and drove to the church (about a mile away.) After we got back to the Moorland's house we called Bonnie (who was watching our kids) and told her that we simply would NOT make it home that day.
She sounded disappointed, but there wasn't much we could do about it!

I took this one of Ryan after church in the room we stayed in. This is in the basement! But didn't feel like a basement at all. Tall ceilings, big windows... In the summer you can see the lake out these windows.

Heidi's son Alex and his friend, Aaron, cleared off the driveway and Bill took Ryan on a drive around Hayden Lake Sunday afternoon, while I took a much needed nap.
I hadn't worn my neck brace at all on Saturday, and hadn't been very faithful with the muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatorys. So I was hurting.
We had a very nice dinner - Heidi made an awesome salad, a turkey breast, and pasta with pesto and pine nuts. It was very good.
Then we played a game of Boggle before we called it a night. (I won, by a BIG lot!)


Ryan had gotten his new Tablet PC just before our trip. He was pretty proud of it and showed it off every chance he got (what a nerd!) It has a fancy touch screen and everything! (It really is a pretty cool toy.)


The next morning we woke to a new blanket of snow, but it wasn't as much as had fallen on Sunday. Heidi had gone to the gym shortly before we left so we backed all the way into the garage and made a run for it. We almost didn't make it. But we were on our way (a little later than we had originally planned, but time was on our side. We crossed the date line and gained an hour!)

Before we left in the morning Ryan sat down with Bill and worked on his Google Ad Words campaign. We don't like to do anything business related on Sunday. Bill was disappointed that Ryan wouldn't help him with it then, but I was proud of Ryan for not wavering, and it didn't hurt to do it in the morning.

Here they are "Geekin' Out" infront of their lap tops.

Here's one last shot of Ryan and I before we left the Moorland house. Bill asked, "Do you want a picture of the two of you?" Funny how I didn't even think of that until he asked. So I guess this is the picture that proves that we took the trip together!

Sunday Again

Our kids were still coughing and sniffling this morning so we only went to sacrament meeting. I haven't been to Relief Society in our ward for FOUR weeks now! Next week will be combined with the priesthood and the week after that is general conference!
Oh well, I guess that the wait will make it all the sweeter when I finally make it!
Ryan had to work today and didn't want me taking the kids and 'making the entire ward sick.'

I ran across these old Mormon TV ads today [from the 1970s and 1980s] - they gave me warm fuzzies so I wanted to share!
I remember a few of them.







Have a great day everyone!

*Grumble, Grumble*

I'm so frustrated!!!
This morning I had another appointment with Dr. Finn. I think he's a great man, super awesome, but I don't feel like he spends enough time with me to justify the effort!
My appointment was at 9:30 this morning. I waited until nearly 10:00 before I was called back. I changed and then waited another 15 minutes. I talked to Dr. Finn for maybe a minute before he handed me off to the massage therapist - that took the typical 20 minutes - then there were no open rooms so I sat on one of the stools in the hall and waited.
When one of the exam rooms opened up I went in there and waited. Eventually Dr. Finn showed up acting very flustered (by this time he had a line for four of five patients in the hall) I laid on the table he quickly adjusted two spots in my mid back. I'd told him that my neck was really bothering me. He tried to adjust it but couldn't get the spots to move. He stated that they were simply too swollen. He stood me up and that was that.
I called after him as he dashed out the door saying "my jaw hurts, my hips have been giving me problems, and my hands keep going numb." He stopped long enough to say "Be sure to tell me next time, I'll see you in a week."
I left the office at 11:05 (1 hour and 35 minutes after my appointment time) having spent a total of 5 minutes with the doctor.
I think they over book themselves; appointments every 10 minutes : 9:20, 9:30, 9:40, 9:50 and so on, That's just too much!
Every other chiropractor I've been to schedules ever 30 minutes - making things less rushed, less congested, and you actually get to talk to the doctor!!!

This is my second time having an experience like this. I really do like Dr. Finn, but I'm not sure if I'll go back, I think I deserve more time, more attention and just all around better care!
I feel like I've accomplished nothing more than having wasted my morning.

I MISS DR. COX!!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Tate was excited about St. Patrick's day and wanted to make sure he wore green. He was very upset when I told him he couldn't wear the green shirt he'd picked because it was too small and I could see his tummy! He threw a great big fit! I found him a shirt with green stripes and he cried and told me, "The kids at school don't think stripes are COOOOL!!!" Oh my, if he's already so worried about his clothes and being cool, what's it going to be like when he's older? So I was tired of arguing and said, "I don't feel very well, and don't really want to take you to school, so if you won't pick a different shirt I guess you can just stay home today." He growled at me, shouted "FINE" and marched off to his room. We ended up compromising and he wore BOTH shirts - the small one as an undershirt and the one I picked on top. I was fine with that.He was much happier after school and was excited to tell me all about leprechauns, and their pots of gold. So we watched "Darby O'Gill and the Little People" Tate yelled at me for skipping over the part with the Banshee, "I like the scary parts!!" he said, but I know that it would have given Canton nightmares. I had planned on a dinner of corned beef and cabbage with key lime pie for dessert - but it didn't happen: I'm still not feeling so awesome so Taco soup is as creative as I got (nothing green about that...)

Our Trip: Day two

We arrived at the Moreland home around 6:00pm on Friday - we went to dinner at the Olive Garden and then I went to bed, completely exhausted. But Ryan and Billy stayed up going over the plan for Saturday: their presentation and power point.
We left Hayden at 8am on Saturday March 7. We drove to the Holiday Inn in Spokane, WA to the IDA Leadership and training Conference.
It's always so fun to go to those. I feel like I'm married to rock star or something as everyone scrambles to introduce themselves - "You're Ryan Green's wife!? I'm..." or "It's so nice to see you Care-Anna" (I can tell they've been practicing my name ;)

Ryan in the car on the way to Spokane

The heads of the company are so close! At first I wasn't sure what I thought about being part of such a huggy group, but have now decided that I don't mind. I was being hugged by CEOs, Presidents, Vice Presidents, Financial and Web advisers and of course their wives.
I hadn't seen
most of these people since the event in October, but was excitedly welcomed with open arms.

Caranna Green and Heidi Moreland
Juliet took this picture saying,
"Let's get a picture of the wives
of the two super stars of the company."

They structured the conference differently this time - instead of two 3 hour blocks of lecturing - there were different break out sessions. We were each given a schedule and everyone got to decide which sessions and in which orders they would attend them.

So the groups were smaller and each session was only about 45 minutes. I thought it was a good format and went very well.

Billy and Ryan shared a session - they worked together, talked about different aspects of their assigned topic and played off of each other. I was proud.

Ryan talking to all the people

The only down side of the day was that while we were in Spokane I had left my neck brace in Hayden along with the muscle relaxants I was supposed to take 3 times a day. By the time we got back to Hayden that evening I was hurting a lot - and regretting choices I'd made for vanity's sake.

I'm kind of a nerd, I know. I took this in the bathroom as proof that I was there and kind of cute that day. ;)

I'll be posting more picture from the event on my other blog - when I get around to it.

Our trip, Day One:

We took a trip to Spokane, WA last weekend. We ended up driving for more than 10 hours to get there (because we thought we knew where we were going, but didn't really) We got off I-15 at Idaho Falls when we should have stayed on it until we reached Butte, MT.
So we went through Rexburg, Island Park, and West Yellowstone. I didn't even realize anything was amiss until Ryan announced "We're just coming into Bozeman."
"BOZEMAN!!!? What are we doing in Bozeman? We're supposed to be in Butte!" Was my response. I guess that's what you get for not paying attention. We would have been doing really well if we'd wanted to see Ryan's parents in Powell or my Family in Lovell, but we were trying to get to Coeur d'alene!
We bought a map and eventually found our way to I-15 but it ended up costing us 2 1/2 hours! Silly, Silly.

I wore my neck brace the whole trip - trying to minimize trauma during the long car drive (aren't kids fun?)
I made a snow ball! In March - without any gloves!

I'm workin' the neck brace! It's uncommon BECAUSE it's high fashion (didn't you know!?) Like all that stuff you see on the runway - it's not ugly, it's fashion! :P

Ryan drove the whole way, and I talked the whole way, so he would stay awake!!


Here we are, aren't we cute!?


We stopped in a pull off somewhere between Island Park and West Yellowstone. We wanted to stretch our legs a bit and take a few pictures (the snow really was very pretty)

And that was day one of our trip - Friday March 6, a week ago today.

Tate is growing up!

We are getting ready for kindergarten!

Indian Hills Elementary has a series of "Pre-Kindergarten" Nights. The first one was on February 26. It was the first of three. The hope is that through these nights parents will see what skills their children need to have before entering kindergarten and the children will become familiar with the school and the staff.
There are three different nights. This first one focused on math: numbers, counting, associating the written symbol with the amount it represents, things like that. Tate has understood all of that for quite some time, but still had fun seeing his "new school" meeting "new friends" and doing the math activities.

We still haven't decided if Indian Hills is where we want to send Tate, but time is ticking away and we'd better make a decision soon!

Here are some pictures from the special night:
Tate thought it was neat that it was just the two of us. It's not often that he doesn't have to share Mommy.

For all who may be interested in attending here is the information on the next one:

Pre-Kindergarten Night
Thursday, April 2nd
5:30-6:30pm

For parents and 4/5 year olds in the Indian Hills area who will be attending kindergarten in the fall of 2009.
Please join us for "name" activities and a free book.

For information and to RSVP, please call Indian Hills School @ 232-4086

In case you were wondering...

Yesterday we went to see Dr. Finn and were SO impressed! He was very nice to us and just so personable and happy. PLUS he knew his stuff. He knew what he was talking about and it all made so much more sense than what the doctors have been saying (which is mostly, 'we don't know, but let's try this...')
It was just so refreshing to feel like we were finally getting some answers and going SOMEWHERE with all of this!
He took some X-rays and adjusted a couple of spots. He gave me a doofy looking neck brace to wear. It's hot and itchy. Oran doesn't like it at all and keeps trying to take it off. But we go back on Thursday afternoon to see if my diligence in wearing it has helped.

We are planning to leave here and head to Hayden, ID on Friday morning where we will be staying with our friends Bill and Heidi Moreland.
The conference is in Spokane, WA on Saturday which is only 30 minutes from their house.

Eric and Bonnie (Ryan's brother and his wife) are going to watch our kids. We were hesitant to ask them because they just got two little foster boys (that they are hoping to adopt) they've had them barely a week and we just thought that maybe they were still trying to work out a routine, get settled and adjusted... but we called and Bonnie said "Sure... we'd love to...." and ".. the boys love having other kids to play with..." Ryan told her that we'd bring the younger two and she said 'three was just as easy as two.'
So, we're pretty excited that we got that figured out. Plus we know Bonnie will take good care of them and they've been wanting to meet their new cousins Bill 4, and Austin 5. [So at their house there will be 5 little boys, one 5 yr. old, two 4 yr. olds, a 3 yr. old, and a 2 yr. old - Bonnie is a brave woman!]
We love you guys and THANKS SO MUCH!!

So right now I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get everything done before Friday! KIA has an appointment tomorrow to make sure she's all ready for our trip. I need to buy Tate a new car seat and Ryan needs new shoes (he wore a hole in the bottom and his foot is falling out, not so professional ;)
I also have a months worth of neglected laundry to sort through. [Did you know that if you leave clothes in a laundry basket for 3 weeks they get VERY wrinkled!? - It's true!] Plus I like to leave everything clean when I go on a trip... Lots to do!

I sure hope I feel better tomorrow so I can get it all done!

Just some disconnected thoughts

It has not been such a wonderful day so far.

I actually braved the sickies and went to church today (I stayed home last week) about every 20 minutes or so I'd feel light headed and nauseated so I'd just close my eyes and wait for a minute or two until the feeling passed. I didn't faint, I was afraid I was going to a couple times but I made it!

I had a hard time focusing on what was being said because I wasn't feeling well, but also because of some other things.

Because I've been sick I've spent a lot of time stuck at home, which means far too much time sitting in front of the computer. Yesterday I went on to an insurance forum and made a couple of post about Ryan's company. I really felt like what I was saying was beneficial to those asking the questions.
There was one man that was asking what they should do about car insurance when they had three cars, all fairly new, and had him, his wife and soon to be driving teenage son. I mentioned the CDRP, because I thought it would be an excellent fit for them in their family and in that situation. I was just trying to help. And out of no where this site moderator "Lori" started attacking me!
She was calling me things like dishonest, untrustworthy, a scam artist... Then she did some research (it's not hard to find a name like mine on the internet) and came back this morning with '...you're Ryan Green's wife... Ryan T. Green is a marketing director for this "company" IDA...' and she went on to say I was a horrible person for trying to trick people and steal their money.
She was not only attacking me publicly on the forum, but in Private Messages too - and went and found posts made by Ryan (because she's a site moderator she has access to full names and e-mail addresses) so she started calling him names - tearing him down and the company...
It was just such a mess all started by two little posts I'd made to different threads.

Ryan told me not to let it bother me and that it just one little forum... but it did bother me! I don't like people tearing appart my reputation and questioning my motives - especially someone I've never even met! I've never been able to handle the thought of someone not liking me: even though I continue to tell myself that not everyone likes me and that is ok.

So, if you saw me crying at church...

OTHER THAN THAT - Ryan's conference in coming up. This time the IDA leadership conference will be in Spokane, WA. I did not go in January with Ryan and he would really like me to come along this time. But we have been unsuccessful in our attempts to find someone to watch our kids for three days. It's a lot to ask - even I have a hard time doing it!
So if any of you can... let me know ;)
Ryan gets off work at 4:00 Thursday and doesn't have to be back at work until Tuesday so we had originally thought leave Thursday come back Monday. But in an attempt to make finding help easier we have sweetened the deal to drive all the way Friday - do the conference all day Saturday and then drive straight back on Sunday: quick trip.
We were also thinking that we could probably take Tate. He's pretty good if you give him things to draw with and some snacks, but the younger two. There's just no way that they could make it through 6 hours worth of meetings (even with the hour long lunch break in the middle ;)
We're still looking, and quickly running out of time and options.
So, please, feel free to volenteer ;)

Oh, and a little health update. Since the doctors haven't been able to find anything, we're going to pursue some more "natural" means and see if that helps. I have a chiropractic appointment tomorrow morning with Dr. Finn. So cross your fingers for me.

And that's all I have to say. Have a good Sunday everyone and HAPPY MARCH! Tate insisted I get rid of all the hearts :)