What is a "Ricky"?

What is a Ricky? Well, Randy and I have a terrible habit of calling each other names (don't let him fool you... he calls me names just as much as I call him names). Quite a few years ago, we started calling each other "Ricky", because Ricky Retardo was just too long. Everyone has a Ricky in their lives.... Ricky moments are like, when you walk out of the house and out of habit, you shut the door behind you not realizing that your significant other is right there, that's when they would yell, "hey Ricky!!! You don't think it was my turn to come out?". Some other word for Ricky would be, idiot, moron, dumb "a", ect... but for some reason our name went from Ricky Retardo to just Ricky. Well, this wasn't too much of a problem until we were planning a trip with my Albrecht family several years ago and one of my favorite uncles was coming with us... that's right, my Uncle Ricky. I love him so much. But he also... is a Ricky. We had to modify our words that week to not make him feel bad that we were using his name as a derogatory term. It wasn't easy. Anyhow, if you have been with us for more than a couple of hours, surely one of us has called the other a Ricky, and now you know why!!! Here is the latest Ricky picture of Randy. He had just taken our Christmas tree out... notice the head lamp that looks like a jock strap, the boots untied... pants tucked in, one glove and the cheesy smile.... THAT'S A RICKY!!! Unfortunately, I have a lot of Rickys in my life. I live with 4 of them, I am one, anyone I have ever lived with was one, anyone I am related to is one, there are a lot that drive on Bluff Street at the same time I do, all of my friends are Ricky's at some point in life, pretty much... EVERYONE is a Ricky, be on the look out!!!

The 6th time I got "stoned"

So, the day after Christmas Randy and I were laying in bed talking about the plans for the day... I always go shopping the day after, I love it, but then what? Play in the snow? Take the kids to the "dizzy" park? Madagascar 2? What should we do? We hadn't decided yet, so we were just going to see where the day took us. When I got up to go to the bathroom, all my plans went out the door, a feeling that I know all too well...... A KIDNEY STONE!!! That's right, I was going to give birth instead of play that day. I was so mad. I decided to try to shop, so I took do pyridium (dialates the urinary tract to make the stone pass "easier") and headed out to Target. I got as far as the gas station and decided to go back home. On the way home, I noticed that our friend, Paul was in front of me, so I texted him to go to my house for a blessing. Thank goodness he was there in no time, Randy and Paul gave me a Priesthood blessing and I was off to the doctor's office to get pain pills. This would be my 6th kidney stone since April 2004. At least I know the tricks.... pyridium, percocet, and more water than a camel would drink. Unfortunately, I have to take enough percocet that I can't function as a mom. I'm lucky that Randy was there. I was pretty much delirious the whole day. Thank goodness for Heather bringing dinner, I was thinking the kids would be happy with popcorn, she's so considerate. So, 19 short hours later, I gave birth to a stone that I named, "Little Big Juan" (sounds like One). This one was one of the easier ones I have had, no hospital and not a lot of throwing up, so it wasn't a bad labor. Next time, I'm going right to labor and delivery and asking for an epidural!!! When I was in Heaven and filled out the questionaire, the one that asked if I wanted to get stoned, I thought it sounded like fun and marked YES... that'll teach me.

Christmas fun 2008!!!

This year, Christmas was a lot of fun... as always. Our traditions are... the Sunday before Christmas is our Clyde family party & Christmas Eve is always my family party. Christmas morning we always eat white powder donuts after we unwrap our gifts and see what Santa brought. Here are some of our favorite gifts this year...

Cambelle loves the "wobe" she got and all the Reece's peanut butter cups.



Tyler got 138 Pokemon cards... he's a happy boy!!!
And Maddison loves the i-dog she got from Great Grandma Albrecht.
Randy got a special gift this year. He saw these scriptures on his mission (100 years ago) and fell in love with them. They are compact scriptures, but they are separate. You can get a compact quad anywhere, but he wants the compact triple combo and Bible separate. They stopped making them when he was on his mission and we haven't been able to find them anywhere... until a couple weeks ago. I called his mom and told her to get right down to the distribution center and get them, who knows when they'll stop making them again. Randy had no idea he was getting them until he opened them on Christmas morning. Needless to say, he was VERY HAPPY!!!

I think my favorite gift this year is from my best friend, Anna. My b-day is in November, she told me my gift was a b-day/Christmas gift. I was fine with that. When I opened this denim quilt with a big "H" in the middle and hot pink backing, I couldn't control my tears. I know how much time and love she spent on this. I will treasure it for years to come!!!

When we're done at our house, we stop at my parent's house for a bit before we head to Hurricane. When we get to Randy's parent's house, we open presents from each other and then we go to the family room for our presents from mom and dad. When Randy and his brothers and sister were little, their mom got the idea to not put names on the gifts, instead, she puts them into categories. One year it was different shapes, so, thing that are round (Randy), things that are square (Hope), oval (Jamie), and so on. So, on my gifts that year, the tags said... "tiles", and "saltine crackers"...ect. We have to figure out the categories and then which category belongs to who.


This year's categories... 

*things that stink (Amy) example... feet, fish, ect.

*things that glow (Steven) example... flashlight, worm, ect.

*things that tear (Randy) example... notebook pages, the knees in your pants, ect.

*things that peel (Hopie) example... your fingernails, oranges, ect.

*things with a window (Jamie) example... envelopes, your soul, ect.

*things that are sticky (Cory) example... spider web, boogers, ect.

After the Hurricane fun is all over (it takes about 3+ hours), then we head back to my parent's house to play games and chill out. As always, we had a great time. Traditions are always a big part of Christmas, I love our traditions!!! I tried to upload a couple videos, but it was taking too  long, maybe later. I hope everyone had a fun Christmas... now to New Year's Eve... PARTY AT OUR HOUSE!!!!

Happy Birthday

Who's birthday is it anyway? Just remember what this next couple of days is all about. I have the coolest friends and family and I hope you all have a great holiday. Merry Christmas everyone!!!

All I want for Christmas...

The later part of this year has been a little rough for me. One of the negative side effects from all of that is that I have had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year, but one thing I have REALLY enjoyed is all the music. My favorite right now is All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey. I love it because my kids love to dance to it. Whenever they hear it coming on, they run from all corners of the house and we all dance in the big room together. It's been a lot of fun for us. I hope all my friends and family are having a fun holiday season so far!!!!

Our "winter storm"

It's fun to have snow for a minute... that's my theory. I love the look of Snow Canyon with snow on it. It's such a Heaven/Hell thing to me. I always associate Snow Canyon with the 115 degree summers we have here, so to see that white stuff on it is always fascinating to me.
This was yesterday afternoon, taken from the Sugarloaf (Red Hill, DIXIE rock). Pretty, huh?
This is the hill I see when I pull out of my drive way. It always takes my breath away when there is this much snow on it. Snow is fun in St. George because it goes away fast. It's like... a vacation spot for snow. It rushes is, makes a mess and leaves as fast as is came... doesn't that sound like company?

Baby it's cold outside!!!

Here are the kids in their knit hats that my Grandma Albrecht made for the kids last year. We don't usually get to wear them because it's always like 60 degrees here, but this week has been fun for the kids to get to wear them. It's funny to hear all of us "southern Utah natives" talk about the snow. For years, my friend, Angie (who grew up in Logan) has laughed at me for being so... snow retarded. Now I look at "us" and laugh too!!! It really is funny to see how excited everyone gets over 1/4 inch of snow!!!

I had to take a picture of Randy's bike. That is such a contradiction to me that it's funny. I guess it doesn't take much to entertain some!!! Cambelle has been throwing up all afternoon. She just wants to be held. I am so lucky to have the McInnes family as friends. I told Heather that Cambelle wasn't feeling good and an hour later she was here with dinner for my family. What an amazing friend. She was thinking of our family in a very selfless way. She is just as busy as me, but she took the opportunity to serve. What a great example to me. After dinner, that was fabulous by the way, there was a knock at the door. A plate full of yummy treats from some "elves". I feel so lucky. Unworthy, but thankful for all the great people in my life that do so much for me and my family.

The day I thought I was going to die!!!

Last week I was talking to my mom on the phone, looking at our Christmas tree, when I saw one of the branches moving. What I found on that branch was a praying mantis. I called the kids in, we all got excited and then Maddison said, "move everyone, I'll get it!!!". After tackling her to the ground, I informed her that she would NOT be touching a bug in our house. It's bad enough that it's in the house, she doesn't need to go handling it. So, I forgot about the praying mantis UNTIL TODAY!!! I was on the phone with Holly, having a great conversation when I went to put a book in my scripture bag, that was on the couch, right next to the tree. As I leaned down to grab the handles, I saw something on them, and when I was ONE INCH away from it, I realized that is was the praying mantis !!!$#%()#@&%)@(*#$)(@# I screamed and then some vulgarity came out of my mouth. Poor Holly was on the phone and thought someone had just died and I felt like I was having a stroke. HOLY COW!!!! I hate bugs so much, obviously, because I rarely swear, so it must have been bad. Ohhhhh, I finally calmed down enough to tell Holly that I had NOT just cut off my hand and got Randy in there to take the 8" beast out of the house. I am sure it was 8" big, that's how big it looked during "the incident". Anyhow, I'm so glad that my heart is in good working order. Fshewww!!! Escaped that one!!!

Family pictures!!!

One of the best things about being a wannabe photographer is taking all my friend's and family's pictures and being creative, one of the worst things is that I never get our family done!!! Well, today my sweet niece, Brittney, came with us to shoot our family pictures. The kids did great and Brittney was a life saver. Here is one of my favorites.

A big THANK YOU!!!

To everyone who has been concerned for Tyler. I talked to the doctor a couple times today and what did I find out? If he is fully immunized (and he is), the risk of him getting whooping cough is really low. Even with his compromised lung, he SHOULD be OK. He also told me that if we ever were worried about him having whooping cough or being exposed to it, we can go to the ER where they can do a nasal secretion test for pertussis. I love that our doctor is so knowledgeable about our son's condition and will answer my calls for advice. We have the best doctor ever!!! When we were leaving Primary Children's, when Tyler was a baby, the staff at PCMC was insisting on us getting a pediatrician, we expressed how happy we are with our doctor, they still strongly suggested a pediatrician. Our doctor is a family doctor and when they called Dr. Chamberlain to give him the discharge info on Tyler, they all came to us and let us know how impressed they were with him. He knew all about Tyler already and was prepared to take the best care of him. If there have ever been times when Tyler needed a specialist, Dr. Chamberlain has sent us to the right ones. I trust him so much. He really has done a lot for our family and we appreciate that. With Tyler, he has re-written medical books by being so healthy, but we can't take that for granted. We must always be on our toes. Thank you for all of your concern. We hear your prayers and appreciate them very much. If you want more info on diaphragmatic hernias and what Tyler has been through, you can click on the pink and blue ribbon to the right.

A worried mom.

I was just reading up on whooping cough. There has been an outbreak in Hurricane and I am really worried about Tyler. We have lots of family over there that we are in regular contact with. Who knows if they have been exposed, thus, exposing Tyler. His left lung, on x-ray looks like a normal sizes lung, the problem is that we have never done a lung function test (because of his age, he'll have to follow specific instructions), so we don't know if that left lung functions as a full lung. I doubt it does. Therefore, if he gets whooping cough, it would mean definite hospitalization for him, possible life support, and.... So, can you see why I am worried about this? Even though we all have our full vaccinations, with his compromised lung, this is reason for us to worry about him. I have a call in to our Doctor to see if there is anything else we can do to prevent him from getting it and to see what the earliest signs are. If you know me, you know I am not a "worrier", this is different. I don't ever want to see my son on life support again. I don't think I could go through that again. Please keep him in your prayers. We also need to pray that those who have whooping cough will do what they're supposed to do and stay home so it stops spreading. Ahhhh.... after almost 7 years, I thought this would all get easier, I was wrong.

This always cracks me up!!!

I have seen this video a hundred times, but it's just a goody!!! I think this guy is really on to something, I look at commercials a little differently now!!!

Randy's cold shower...

You already have the wrong idea. Our water heater has been naughty lately, Randy decided (because of my whining) to see what the problem was. He figured it out... a fried thermostat. When he finally got to that point, it was 9:05pm. Home Depot, Lowe's, Ben Franklin... all closed and they don't sell them at Wal-mart. We wont be able to get the part till tomorrow. No biggie, right? I didn't need a shower, but he did. I told him to go to my parent's house, Gina's, Paul and Heather's, I'm sure the Rindlisbacher's would have let him come over to shower.... NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!! He's taken cold showers before, he'll just hurry. Well, I couldn't resist watching this fun, so I pulled up a seat on the toilet and enjoyed our see-through shower curtain!!! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen!!! Randy dancing around the shower, trying to pretend that the water is not ice cold!!! Oh jeesh, I'm still crying. He kept saying, "my body is red cuz I am rubbing it so fast, it's not because it's freezing cold!!!!". I was dying of laughter!!!! Ohhh.... what a fun way to end the night, Randy taking a cold shower!!! We should do this again tomorrow!!!

The Joy in my life!!!

There has been a lot of joy in my life, but the one I am going to talk about today is Joy. I met Joy when I was 15. I dated her son for almost 4 years and got to be really close to her. She was such an influence to me. We got really close. She was never judgemental towards me. She was always loving and kind even when I gave her reason to not be. She loved me like a daughter. She taught me a lot of lessons that I think of EVERY SINGLE DAY of my life. She had a huge influence on how I look at things. Well, after Scott and I broke up, Gina and I stayed best friends. That kept me close to Joy. It was a very special relationship. Well, 5 years ago today, Joy died of breast cancer. She knew she had a lump and ignored it. I wonder what life would be like had she got that lump checked out. Sometimes I get mad because I feel that she died senselessly and then I remember how she changed me. She did more in her short life than some do in a lot more years. Every October, I think of her every day. I have a pink breast cancer ribbon bracelet that I wear with her in mind. But every Dec. 7th, I take Gina to lunch to talk about her mom and how important she was to us in similar and different ways. It's a very special tradition we do. This year, her death anniversary landed on Sunday so we went to lunch yesterday. It was enjoyable. We usually laugh a little and cry a little. Yesterday was no different. I miss Joy so much but I know there's a special angel watching over my family and my best friend. Today is the day I remember and celebrate a great person in my life, Joy McLaws!!! I love you.

This song is pretty cool.

The other day, my head felt like it was going to explode with stress. I was driving and heard this song by Brandy for the first time. It was just what I needed. It's not one that will make me run to the mountain tops to scream about it, mainly because I'm fat and that would just make me really tired... but it is a fun song. I can definitely groove to it!!! See what you think!!!

I love concerts!!!

I just got a text from my cousin Rebecca that lives in Vegas and goes to all the rockin concerts down there. She said Britney Spears is coming in concert there. That would be SO fun. I love going to concerts. I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie, the energy of concerts is THE BEST!!! I've been to a few concerts, usually the ones here or in Cedar, like Sawyer Brown, Diamond Rio, SheDaisy, stuff like that. I love them, they have always been great. I also went to 2 concerts in 2 days in Jan. 1999. New Year's Day, I got last minute tickets to N'Sync (Britney Spears opened for them, it was great) and took my niece, Brittney with me. She was the only one young enough to not laugh at me when I told her I wanted to go. We had a blast. The next night, my Aunt Vicky and Uncle Gus took Randy and I to Shania Twain for part of our Christmas present. That was the BEST concert I have ever been to. Shania was FABULOUS!!! It was a great time!!! I would love to go to a really good one again. Rebecca just went to Justin Timberlake, I would give my right arm to go. That would be such a great concert. Well, I'm left handed anyway!!! It wouldn't be THAT bad!!! Now I need to go find a song to go with this post, it wont be Shania Twain though... I always end up pregnant when I listen to her!?@$# Whatever that means.

Out of Cambelle's mouth

We were on the way home from her dance class yesterday when we saw a Volkswagen van and Cambelle said, "that's a funny truck". I told her that it was called a Volkswagen and she said, "HEY!!! We have a wagon, it's green!!!" I laughed so hard!!! Funny girl!!!

What you don't know....

There is a lot about me that you don't know. I had an awesome friend tell me today that she has a sister a lot like me as far as attitude goes. The way she described it was a, "it's my way or eat shit" kind of attitude. Which is usually how I am just out of survival for some reason. There have been things that have happened in my life that require me to be that way. The thing people don't know about us with "alpha", or "type A", or "red", or whatever you want to call our personality is that we hurt just like everyone else. We cry just as hard as the rest. The difference is that it will take a lot more to hurt me than it will to hurt you and when I get hurt, I won't be able to turn my cheek as quick as you think I should. It's not always fun being this way. I like making people happy. My favorite thing in the world is to make people laugh. When I love, I love with so much passion that it makes the sting that much worse when I get hurt. I like to be with those who build me up. I like to be the one who brings a smile to your face. When I tell you that I love you, I really do and that should never be questioned. I am very loyal. I will be your friend for eternity if you just treat me with respect. Those who have known me a while, know that. I don't ever give up on relationships. Why the rant? Just because. I am having such a hard time with some things lately and I want everyone to understand me and my "type" a little better. You need to know that on the surface, it's all fun and games, but there is a lot more to me. There is a person that has had to deal with abandonment, loss, and a lot of other hard situations. I am no different than you. I have so many friends and family that are so supportive, for that I am grateful. My mind was racing, so I thought blogging about it would help. We're all here to learn from each other and grow. I hope I have helped someone look at the people in their life a little different. I wouldn't change my life for anything. I wouldn't change the people in my life for different ones. I love my family and friends very much. I am truly blessed.