So Jory mentioned the other day (ok, a couple of months ago) that I have been so neglectful of this blog/journal, that we are still missing our newest family member.  Remy Jory Kimball was born 11.2.11 (not 11.1.11, much to Jory's dads dismay)...  He is fabulous!  We all try to see "who he looks like"... I think he looks like... Remy... I was just downloading all of my videos over the last 8 years, sometimes Eli was his twin, other times Jonah.  He just has the little Kimball boy look.  We love him!  Jonah is (almost always) the most helpful and best big brother ever!!  Eli tries to carry him around... that is a little scary to watch... and Remy already has a best friend picked out in Jax... no matter what Jax does, tries to nudge him around on the floor like dogs, say "REMY!" as loud as he can multiple times right in his face, whatever, Remy smiles and squiggles with glee.  It is so fun to watch our last little one and enjoy him every minute.  I don't even mind waking up the multiple times at night because I know it won't last forever!  He is still trying to roll over but is sitting fairly well by himself (sometimes gets off balance and flies backwards.. he doesn't like this one bit, but he isn't doing as much of the slow mushing forward that he used to do.. that looked painful!).  And no teeth coming through as of yet... he likes his cereal and stage 2 food, though!!

So, to update us... biggest news, the Heber house was sold a few weeks ago... so besides a small restitution we will slowly pay off and some possible tax consequences, we are done.. I think the best things that we could hope for are happening.  We short sold it, not foreclosed, so that is good...

We are so blessed that Jory's practice is doing quite well.  He is the Elder's Quorum president which is keeping him busy and up some nights.  He is helping to coach Eli's soccer team practice and gets to as many games for the three boys as he can.  Right now, wrangling the lawn, his biggest nemesis, is his greatest project.

I have started spending some time on myself, I've joined a gym that gives me 2 1/2 hours of kid care a day and I try to take full advantage!! It's the only time I get a shower without other little boys yelling at me from the other side of the door!  I love it and have been seeing a huge improvement in my running in just the past 6 weeks or so... I also have been doing a boot camp with my good friend and neighbor, Aimee.  It is killer, but it is so good.  Again I have seen a huge improvement in my stamina.. Thanks, Aimee! 

Jonah is doing soccer and has started piano lessons.  He had "federation" where he played 2 pieces  from memory and was judged on them... and he got a superior!!  He actually had to do it twice because his first pieces weren't quite at his level, so he had new pieces to learn and got another superior!!  Way to go!  He was so cool and well prepared,  we are proud of him!  He is going to a tutor after school for math in in one month his teacher has been extremely proud of his improvement, and he likes the improved confidence he's felt with his math as well.  He has had some big projects and performances and has risen to the occasion each time.

Eli is doing soccer and is in a "Finding Nemo" play.  The play will be held on May 23 at his school.  He seems confident about his part as "Nigel the Pelican" so we are excited to see it since he has been working on it since January.  He is doing well at soccer and enjoys his team.  He is a voracious reader and is one of the best spellers in his class!!  He has "kaleidoscope" and "maneuver" on this weeks list...WOW! With his reading he does accelerated reading at school where they read a book and take a test and he has gotten 200% so far.. AWESOME!  He is so inquisitive about everything... he really makes me think.  One funny thing he did... after his baptism, when he was being confirmed, the bishop (Bishop Mark Dixon) asked him if he knew what a "saint" is... Eli said "I know it's a football team..."  Silly Eli.

Jax is, you guessed it, doing soccer as well.  He is so fun to watch, and usually gets a goal or two (at least) each game, and a couple of assists, too! He is doing well at Newcastle preschool and is trying to read like his big brothers.  He loves to take his turn "reading" scriptures with us in the morning.  It is great!  He is so laid back and a friend to everyone.  We love his little freckles and big brown eyes!!

So that is us for now... we are just here, considering updating some things now that the Heber house is mostly out of the way.  We are healthy and happy, what more could we want!!

Thanks for hanging in with us!

Funny Kids...

The other day Jax was putting on his soccer clothes and he said "Wow! Mom! My soccer coach is gonna say he LOVES my socks!!!"  Who knew how exciting soccer socks could be!!

Later that night I was watching tv and a girl called her mom "mom".  Jax said... "that's just like you, she has your name 'mom'.  I bet her last name is Kathy just like you!!" 

Earlier today we were at the Walmart Market - the 3 stooges and I, and we were leaving and some rude person had ditched their cart right behind our car.  I was annoyed, Eli suggested we ram the car of whoever did it, and I just said, no, we just be sure we aren't that rude to someone else.  As we were having this conversation, Jonah went to work pulling multiple carts from around the lot and putting them in the cart corral, he was murmuring about the people who ditched their carts - "Who put that one there" "Why did someone leave a cart here" etc.  I showed him how to put two carts together to kill two birds, and he thought that was cool.  He got in the car and apologized for taking so long.  So sweet considering he was doing a job someone was getting paid for but not doing.  As we pulled out of the parking lot he said.  "Hmm.  Lazy people, coffee drinkers....the world wasn't made for people like that."  That makes me go "Hmm".

Just a few minutes ago Eli was asking how the baby could be due next Friday when he and Jonah are off school - kind of annoyed that that would ruin his plans or something I guess.  I said "That's cool!  Now you can come and watch!"  He said "No thanks, I don't want to see your organ".  Now I must explain this and clarify.  He hears the story often how I had to have an emergency c-section when he was born and Jory's embellishments lead the children to believe that all of my organs were out on the table when they got Eli out.  After he said he didn't want to see my organ and we had a good laugh, he said "Do you know which organ, Mom?" I said "No".  He said "Your heart".  Oh my.....

Okay... Maybe more than 2-3 months...

Hello... I am sure no one is looking at my blog by now. I have gone a full pregnancy without even blogging about it once (another thing Jory gives me a hard time about). But I'd like to look back at the last nine months before our fourth son arrives and remind myself how lucky I am. I have had a very non-eventful pregnancy. That is usually how it goes for me. I have the trauma initially of whether or not the pregnancy is viable, or an ectopic pregnancy (I'm sure I've mentioned I've had 3 of those, the last one a year ago July taking my right fallopian tube), but once it has gotten to the right place (uterus), I usually am good. I have the nausea and I also have an icky aftertaste that makes things like chocolate not taste so good (which I am sure is most of the reason that I have only gained 1 pound my whole pregnancy), but I'll take that over so many other things that can be annoying or more traumatic during pregnancy. So I got the crib set up, with Jory's help, today, and am working on washing and putting away the clothes. I need to pack a hospital bag but other than that we are doing A-OK. Melinda Kunkel (our Primary President) has demanded that I wait until after the 16th at 2:15 - after our annual Primary Program. I hope that all works out - 11 more days, I think I'm good.

Jax is so funny about this baby. He initially named him Jack-Jack - not confusing at all, is it? He's not a big Incredibles fan, so I'm not sure he expects serious super powers out of his baby brother. He is getting very excited though. He then wanted to name him Scamper, which is from this ancient VHS movie the boys always watch at my parents house in North Carolina. Maybe this could be a nick name some day. Eli seems pretty indifferent, not talking much about the baby, and Jonah is ready for it to move in with him so he can change diapers and babysit him. We'll see how it really works out. He says "I've held Keira and Maylie, I'm like a parent!". Uh - sure thing, son.

We also have had a short-sale offer on the Heber house that we just found out last week the bank is accepting, so other then a little bit more money and a huge knock to our credit (I still can't get myself to look at my score), we will hopefully close on the house before or right after I deliver around the 28th. This will truly be an answer to our prayers. Bring it all on at once!! Not to mention all of the Halloween festivities I have to be ready for - and all three finishing up soccer seasons (the rain-out today puts me to the 26th for Eli's last game, and November 2 for Jax's.. that should be interesting.

Hope I've covered most things here..thanks for looking me up!!

The other day Jax said he would have milk to drink "It will make me strong because it has bones in it!".. He he he..

February already!

Wow, how time flies. We are so having fun - our best news to date is - 2 of my 3 children can tie their shoes!!!! I am vowing to work earlier on this with Jax!! 7 is too old not to be able to tie freakin' shoes!

Jax has been running a fever the last day or so - but I can't complain because this is the first sickness we've had since - well - since last winter - KNOCK ON SERIOUS WOOD!! The other boys are doing great (especially because they can tie their own shoes now)!!!

We've had some issues with the Heber house - we are trying to figure out what to do with it, but it is like a bad dream - just when you think it is over, something jumps up and bites you in the bum!

Well, I need to work on some things - keeping my house in order better, purchasing things for my home that I LOVE, not just want to buy now, and the perpetual losing weight. I also seriously need to work on my spirituality. Jory is always mentioning the admonition I've been given to study the scriptures. Now is a great time with that being such a focus in primary.

Hopefully I can get back in less than 3-4 months - put that on the list of things to work on...

peace out...

I AM THANKFUL....

This sure has been a crappy year. Not only for me but for quite a few people that I love dearly. But right now I NEED to write down - for the 1/2 second I have - the things that I am most grateful for - fortunately this list is ALWAYS longer than my trials and tribulations... so, for my sanity right now, here I go:

A FABULOUS, WONDERFUL, AWESOME, PATIENT, and KIND husband - what else can I say - for those of you who know him - therefore love him too - what more is there to say

3 beautiful HEALTHY boys... Jonah for his smile - and that he is at the age where I can joke around with him. Eli for his randomness - in just about every conversation I have with him I end up wondering where the subject turned from a serious conversation to his random thinking pattern (what can I say - I think I know what side of the family he gets THIS from...). And Jax for those big brown eyes - and how he hasn't given up on wanting to play with me. Jory says I take it for granted that he always wants me - but I do love it... I play it down so Jory doesn't get more jealous.

Great Parents... who raised me - let me make so many dumb mistakes and learn from them, to be the person I am today. Maybe I'm a little biased, but I think I turned out okay. And even better yet - they still (at least act) like they want to hang out with me and my family, well, at least my family :)

My Heavenly Father - who allows me to learn, therefore grow, from my mistakes every day. I am anxious to ask him a few questions, and continue to grow while I am here.

I am glad I am here - learning and growing - hoping to be more compassionate, loving and giving - mostly to my own family. To learn when to care, and when to let go. Always knowing all things are in God's hands, and that I am here to try to make a difference to all that I come in contact with. It is up to me what kind of difference I choose to make in other peoples lives. I pray I will always pray that I will chose love and compassion - I am really needing to do that right now...

Thanks for reading my ramblings. I really needed this!

Post North Carolina Editorial

Hello all! I have had such an eventful few months. I wanted to remember as much as I could so here I am. In late May I miscarried - no real problems, my doctor said come back in a couple of months pregnant again. So I went on my merry way to North Carolina for our month on the beach. Jory came out for the first week for the first time. he loved it - although nobody can say much for the humidity. After he left I played lots of golf, beached, pooled, gatored, aquariumed, rested and relaxed. I was spotting some while there, but figured I'd deal with it when we got home. I thought if I was pregnant, it would only be a few weeks. So we were to come home Wednesday night, the 14th of July, but once I got to the Raleigh airport, I realized with the delay I would be stuck in Minnesota. Deciding I'd rather be stuck in Raleigh, my parents, luckily, hadn't left to drive back down to Calabash, so they were able to take me back to my sister's house right outside of Raleigh for one more night. We got out the next morning with no problems (they had even oversold the Dallas to SLC leg, so we were lucky we got a ticket on that flight).

So we got home and I was pretty zonked Friday, but I did take a pregnancy test and it was positive. Saturday I woke up and had some terrible cramping - lasted about 1/2 hour but then went away. We had my SILs baby shower and it went just great, and I was fine until Sunday night. I thought I was going to die. I couldn't move. I was in my bed, Jory and Jonah just staring at me like I was breathing my last breath - which I can't blame them because I said I was dying. My good MIL and FIL came over, just in case we needed to go to the ER, and I called the doctor. He said I needed to have my rhogam shot (I'm rh negative) either way, but I should go to the ER if I am dying, but I was surviving by that point so I decided to tough it out.

The next day I had a dentist appointment and a neighbor was coming to bbsit for me anyways, so I decided to just go straight from the dentist to the doctor because the nurse hadn't called me back. I went in and was able to talk to the dr and nurse. They said have the rhogam blood taken (they need to make the shot from my blood), and have an hcg count taken to see how far long I was. Went back home around 11:30 and was still pretty achey. The nurse called me at about 1 and said I needed to come back for an ultrasound at 3 because my hcg was 3500! That is a huge number! So I went back in, and the tech, after searching all over, found the fetus stuck in my right tube. The thing that really got to me was I could hear the heartbeat. I had really talked myself into this being my last pregnancy, but to have that hard evidence of being pregnant was hard for me.

Because I have had 2 other ectopic pregnancies, I thought, okay, they'll send me right over to the place where people have chemo, that is where they give the methotrexate to dissolve the pregnancy, so I'll cramp a few days and be good. Not so. The doctor said that if they can hear the heartbeat, it is too far along and they need to do surgery because the methotrexate may not work fast enough and I could still rupture. So my MIL kept the kids and Jory got there around 6, just as I was going in. We talked about making it so we would be done - hard to decide in about 3 minutes, even though Jory was done a couple of kids ago (LOL). So the doctor said he would look at everything and if it looked like it would be bad on both sides, he'd take care of it. So Dr. Rigby, my anesthesiologist, nurse Betty, Dr. Stephen Terry (the best) and his partner, Dr. Lloyd (who Jory is probably related to) all scrubbed in to save my life. As it happened, my left side is just fine and still in tact - so more decisions to make. It was kind of relieving, I think being in the hospital for 2 days emotionally thinking of my future and having it be the end of that stage of life for me would have been hard. Not that I'm not done, but I think that will be good to be our decision.

So my MIL and SIL all hopped on board to help with the kids. I have had dinner brought in Thursday through last night (but we went to the in-laws for Sunday dinner). I really took it easy from being home from the hospital on Wednesday to Sunday. Yesterday, I decided while I was already dying, I had the post put in for my implant I needed. It is just because I had the rogue tooth that was causing lots of bacteria to build up because of how it was in my mouth, so I had it pulled about 3 months ago and in 2 weeks will have it done and my front tooth recapped - so Jory can't call me "gray-tooth" any more. Anyways - it killed, so I hung out yesterday afternoon with Jory, then today FINALLY got to some yard-work - I think my neighbors were about to kill me - the grass is looking really good, but our flowers and plants were horrendous!!!

My SIL, Kristi Kimball, had her baby girl, Lila, today - I guess she went in at 10 pm last night and had her about 11:30am. Not too terrible for a first baby, but she said on Sunday she was feeling some movement - even though she was not due for about 2 more weeks or 10 days or so. And my neighbor, Andrea, is having her baby c-section today so I will go to St. Mark's tomorrow to see all of these adorable baby girls!!

That's about my life right now - just trying to take it easy a few more days. One lucky thing is that the day we left for NC, I started one of those additional insurance plans to cover pregnancy - really they are for any hospitalization, but both of them will cover me for the ectopic pregnancy, so that should help out with some of the medical costs. Our insurance will also cover 80%- so we should be okay - helps with some of that emotional stuff.

So I hope to enjoy the last 3 weeks of summer with my boys. Eli has pinkeye - Jax may have it too, so we are all staying close for now. The boys have stuff at Dimple Dell, Jonah sports and both Jonah and Eli are doing a swim/water camp, so that will be fun. We are camping some - and hope to get out and go the next week or two.

Thanks for hanging with me!!

Hello! Yes we are still here! What a crazy school year- with driving the kids up and back - and Eli being half-day kindergarten, it has eaten a good hour plus out of each day. Thank goodness the kids will be going to Sprucewood next year and can walk if I want them to. Jax will have preschool 2 times a week for a couple hours each - so that will be a good break!!

Well, we leave for North Carolina a week from tomorrow - so I've mailed out the kids clothes and am trying to get errands run - but Jax was very sick yesterday - running a fever of 103.8 most of the day. It broke for a little this morning, but he is warm again. So he's sitting around again - and the boys (Jonah and Eli) are just hanging out with Dylan. I would really like to get some things done- but I am getting a ton done here, like blogging for instance.

The Heber house is still there - attempting to short sell it, but we'll see - I really wish the torture would end. Jory's office is turning over big time - Maria is moving and he has 3 new people coming in. It's been a tough month for him. Our callings in church are going well. I need to get working on my part of the Primary Program for October. And work on my SIL baby shower right when we get back from NC.

Anyway, we are here, we are doing great and are so grateful for all of our blessings!!