Two trips....one to the hospital, one to the coast.

I know these are weird things to post together, but that is what has been going on in our family.

We had a rough time about a week ago. Tanner came home from a soccer game and said he didn't feel well. He had a fever so I gave him some ibuprofen to get rid of it. The fever went away but he was still not feeling well. He started vomiting and we couldn't get anything to stay down. On Tuesday the fever came back so we had to go to the doctor. After some blood tests, the doctor said that his cells looked a bit suspicious and there was a chance he had a bacterial infection in his blood. That is NOT what a mom wants to hear. The doctor admitted him to the hospital and started him on fluids and IV antibiotics just in case.

He was not a happy boy and I actually had to carry him in. That is so different from his normal personality. That was a huge sign of how sick he was. He did not like getting poked so many times for the blood work. It was especially bad because they broke on of the vials in the lab and had to do another draw about an hour after they had done one. It took about 48 hours for the blood culture to grow but fortunately it was negative. I have to think that the priesthood blessing had something to do with it. He was a whole different kid once the fluids got in his system.

He is feeling much better now and is actually back to his normal self. His soccer coach even commented on how much better he looked. Thankfully it was a short lived experience. For Tanner it wasn't all bad. He got to play video games and since I won't allow them at our house, it was a treat for him. And the nurses gave him presents for being so good when they had to redraw the blood. I doubt he would want to do it again, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

When that finished, I got to spend a week in Scappoose Oregon at a training in advanced incident command systems. I know, it sounds WAY cool. And let me tell you that you will wish you were there :) The first 2 days were rough because of the group I was in but the last 2 days were enjoyable.

I was able to be home for one night and then we packed up and headed out to the Oregon coast for the holiday weekend. Luckily the weather man was wrong. We had great weather and enjoyed the time.

We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and checked out their new exhibit. This picture was taken inside the shark tube. Kind of cool eh?

After it all, it is kind of nice to be back home.

My sweetie boy is growing up....

I found out today that Tanner has grown 4 inches so far this school year. That is just crazy to me. He keeps telling me he is almost as tall as I am and before long he will be right.

I have also seen the outward signs of his growing up emotionally. When we first moved in to our house, Tanner was about 8 months old. I decided to paint something fun on his wall to make his room more interesting.



I like Tigger so his crib bedding had Tigger on it. (We always thought it was cool that Tigger is T-I-double G -er and Tanner is T-A-double n-er.) I decided to try to paint a Tigger on his wall. Much to my surprise, it turned out pretty good even if I do say so myself. I then painted little dashes around the room to make it look like Tigger had bounced around the room. And Tanner's room version 1 was born.

I have to tell you that Tigger will probably always be on his wall. It will be my reminder of my little boy. I just can't bear to paint over it.


Fast forward about 3 years and we have a little boy who loves transportation. Planes, trains, cars, boats, you name it. So, the Tigger bounces were painted over and I painted a mural of a city on his wall.

This took me quite a lot of work and Tanner was so proud of his city and especially the blue Wiggles truck on the road. He was a Wiggles fanatic whether he will admit it now or not.

Unfortunately, now that he is almost 8, the Wiggles truck is definitely not cool anymore. Tanner and I put our heads together and came up with a new plan for the room. He got to use the paint roller to put the first paint on the wall. Wouldn't you know it....he went straight for theWiggles truck. To see a video clip of this you can go to my husband's blog at www.stevebarth.blogspot.com

It didn't take much to come up with the new plan. Tanner's new obsession is Ben 10. Ben is a cartoon character that is able to change in to aliens to fight bad guys. The colors for Ben 10 are black, gray and lime green. Yep, that is the new big boy room. I got out the sewing machine and sewed some curtains. I even designed them myself! And a little bit of extra fabric got the bedspread to match. We also decided to pull out the desk from his loft bed now that he is old enough to have homework all the time.

For the main wall, we painted an Omnitrex (which is what Ben uses to change in to the aliens) surrounded by the silhouettes of 18 of the aliens Ben can change in to. It was a lot of work too. But it is definitely a bigger boy room.

I got all the aliens painted. Some parts were traced from printed out copies of the aliens and some parts just had to be free handed.

I thought my hand was going to fall off by the time I was finished. It was a lot of fine detail work. And I thought it would be easier than the city was! Shows you how much I know.
Here are some thoughts from Tanner himself:

I like how all the aliens look. The one I think looks really cool is Wildvine because it looks like mom worked really hard on him. It is better than the city. I like the Omnitrex in the middle. It was a really good idea. It looks like my mom worked very hard.

Back to mom.


We added in some extra organizational stuff and declared it finished.

No one ever said being a mom would be easy. It is hard to see him growing up so fast. I miss that sweet little boy that used to beg me to wait at the train tracks to wait for the "bing bings" to come down. Funny thing is, I am sure a day will come when I will long for the days when he had a lime green room with an omnitrex on the wall. It is hard to imagine but it will be here before we know it.

That is why I hold on to Tigger. And I am grateful to have a little boy that still loves to cuddle with his mama. There is nothing better.

What is a mother?

Today is mother's day and I got thinking about the concept of "mother". The day does have a different feel now that I have kids of my own, but I have a very different concept of what a mother is. Throughout my life, I have come in contact with so many women who have had a hand in shaping who I am and have played a part in being "my mother."

First, there is Vicki who gave birth to me.
She became a mother way too young and wasn't ready for the responsibilities that come with it. We didn't have contact for a lot of years and are just now having contact through mail. But, without her I wouldn't have life, so she is a mom.

Next is my Grandma, Millie.
She has chosen to be my mother in so many ways. She was there when I came home from the hospital and I know she is still there for me today. She gave me a home and taught me how to make my own. She loves me no matter what and she is someone I look up to, she is a mom.

My Aunt Lesli.
She was always there in the stands cheering for me at my high school sporting events. People always thought she was my mom even though we know she is way too young to be my mom. She has been through a lot and has made choices to be in the right places. I admire her determination to do what is right, she is a mom.

My Aunt JoLynn.
She was the "older sister" I wanted to tag along with when I was a little girl. She tolerated me and continued to be there for me as I grew older. Hers was the first car I drove after getting my driver's license. We have been through some tough times together. Lots of laughter and lots of tears. She is a righteous daughter of God and I would trust her to raise Tanner if anything happened to me. She is someone I look up to, she is a mom.

My Mother in law, Ruth Barth.
She is a woman strong in her convictions who did her best to raise a family in righteousness. She taught her son to treat women with respect and how to be a father. She raised a strippling warrior who has become my husband. She gave me an eternal companion, she is a mom.

My Aunt Beverly.
I didn't get to know her until I was in my twenties. She is the sister of my father. It is a lesson in genetics. We are alike even though we didn't know each other. She has chosen to be a mom to 2 young men who are growing up strong in the gospel. Even though we don't always talk, I know she loves me, she is a mom.

Dorothy Rich.
She was a mom of some of my high school friends. She also chose to be a mom to me when I needed one the most. I was able to watch her interaction with her kids and it helped to shape the kind of a mother I wanted to be someday. She was there in good times and bad. She told me when she was disappointed in me, yet I always knew she loved me. She was a blessing from Heavenly Father, she is a mom.

Sandy Toftdahl.
She was assigned to be my visiting teacher in my ward here in Oregon. She was the first visiting teacher I ever had who actually took the time to get to know me and made me feel that she cared. She helped me to learn that asking for help did not mean I was weak or a failure. We have developed a great friendship and she has stepped in to be a Grandma to Tanner on more than one occasion. She is a friend I can lean on, she is a mom.

I realize I can go on and on but I won't. I guess the point is that Mother's Day is an important day for so many reasons. We need to not only recognize the mother that gave us life, but those other mothers around us that have taught us how to live. To all of you wonderful women that I know, thank you. Thank you for helping me to find the right path and for helping me to be the woman I am today. One who proudly states, "I am Tanner's Mom!"

Here it goes

Who knew that I could get so much joy from entering a room and hearing "Hi Tanner's Mom!" It is kind of funny that I worked so hard to create a personal identity and to stand on my own, only to find out that I am happiest as Tanner's mom.  Since so much of my daily schedule revolves around this role, I decided that was the best name for me.  

So, I decided to enter into the world of blogging.  I enjoy reading other people's blogs so much, I doubt mine will even come close, but it is a good way to keep people up to date.   To get started, I am going to pick up on a tag from another blogger and fill in the blanks.  Here goes!  

8 Things I am passionate about:

• My testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ
  
• My family
  
• My role as a mother 
  
• Marist Volleyball
  
• Teaching CPR (The more people I teach, the more people there are to save me if I need it)
  
• Reading good books (Always looking for suggestions if anyone has any)
  
• Giving my son all the opportunities I never had
  
• Reality TV (I love watching the Discovery channels)

8 Past books I have read:

• The Book of Mormon
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter
• Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (A recommendation from a 10 year old.  I am now starting volume 2)
• The Alliance
• The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
• The JP Beaumont series by JA Jance
• Almost everything by Lisa Gardner
• Almost everything by Mary Ellen Edmunds

8 Things I often say:

• For future reference...
• Whatever
• Tanner Luke!!!!
• I have no summer
• You are my bestest sweetie boy (to my son)
• You left the light on again (to my husband)
• I have so many things on my plate it had to be bumped
• I didn't get as much done as I had hoped

8 Things I look for in a friend:

• Trustworthy
• Random
• Someone I can call even when I don't want to (Does that make sense?)
• Honest 
• Willing to tell me things even when it is hard
• Funny
• Someone able to carry on a real conversation
• Someone that is still a friend even if we haven't talked in a while.  

8 Things I want to do before I die:

• Fit back in to my pretty clothes
• Visit a tropical island
• Visit Germany 
• See my kids grow up and have families of their own
• Learn to play the piano better
• Swim with dolphins
• Go scuba diving somewhere warm (Where I don't have to wear a wetsuit!)
• Become fluent in another language. (I have studied German and ASL but I'm not fluent)

8 Things I have learned this past year:

• I don't have to be afraid of a sewing machine
• Good things happen when we listen to the promptings of the spirit
• Sometimes righteous desires are not the ones the Lord had in mind.
• Kids grow up way too fast.  (It wasn't a new thing to learn but I am constantly reminded)
• I can teach Gospel Doctrine
• Girls Camp is an amazing experience
• I love being a classroom mom
• I love my job and I really enjoy doing disaster response training. 

8 People I want to complete the 8 things questions:

• Well, most of the bloggers I know about already did it.  So, pretty much anyone who reads this.  I love reading about what is going on with others.

Well, I have officially completed the first one.  Don't know how faithful I will be but we will see where this new challenge takes me. 

Tanners Mom