Stress, it's a killer

Last week was a stressful week.  It started as all weeks do; the kids constantly crying, fighting, or whining about various things.  There's usually at least one of Franklin irrational, emotional episodes every Sunday.  Then Stephen asks on Sunday night, "What are you going to do from Tuesday to Wednesday while I'm out of town?"  That's right.  I forgot he had a seminar for work.  So I say, "Going to my moms." 

As much as I love to get out of town, especially to go to Sierra Vista and see my family, it wasn't exactly helpful for my stress.  We left town hours later than I had wanted to, the kids fought way more than usual in the car and I didn't sleep well the night before so I'm fighting my eye lids.  I tell the kids that we're going to stop for potty and ice cream.  Lisette has been crying a lot at the words potty, pee pee and so forth lately, but I keep reminding her about the ice cream.  Of course Franklin is upset that he can't go in the boys potty because he's a boy and can't go in the girls. 

We get past that fit, but then while in line to buy our ice cream Lisette decides, like she does multiple times everyday, to hit Franklin in the head.  A very nice man immediately had something to say to them that was reprimanding, but very kind and said in a somewhat humorous way to me.  If nothing else, what he said stopped Franklin from going into one of his emotional fits.  To make a long (and not very fun) story short, after receiving less sleep than the night before due to Lisette, who also woke up Franklin a few times, I decided it really wasn't such a great idea to leave home.  I did have an enjoyable lunch with my sister Heidi, her two kids with my kids all at Grandma April's classroom before starting my trek back home.  I beat Stephen home by a few hours but it wasn't all that horrible of a wait.

Of course this story is leading up to my next blog.  I don't like long blogs.  They are sometimes hard to sit through and sometimes information gets lost.  I normally don't like to talk about my stress and though I don't want to fool anyone into thinking my life is perfect, or horrify them with the bad things that go on, this is leading somewhere...

A Family of Four

So we are still grasping the reality that we are parents of 2 kids; two wonderful children. I will say that Franklin has been putting on the dramatics very heavily lately (terrible two's), and Lisette has proven to be a very easy, wonderful baby (just as Franklin was). Franklin’s episodes have everything to do with him not getting everything his way. He sure was spoiled with Grandma Reed here!

We loved having my mom here, especially Franklin. He wanted to do everything she did, be where she was, sleep next to her, eat what she ate; I think you’re getting the idea. He has been adding more words to his vocabulary, and has been utterly fascinated with his sister. He’s been very good with her, and wants to help, even if it’s not needed. We’re very happy that there haven’t been any accidents, and so far no one has been hurt (I should say no one has been hurt with the new addition, I’ll explain my injury later).

Lisette was kept in the Special Care Nursery for 48 hours. Luckily my insurance allowed me to stay that long as well so I could stay in the hospital with her. I was blown away by how great the whole experience was. When we arrived at the hospital, at 1:30 a.m. May 27th, we were nervous we were going to be sent back home. Luckily the staff was very busy that time, so by the time they were going to discharge me, they did one more check, and discovered I had dilated more. When the anesthesiologist came in I jokingly asked if he was going to be my best friend, and he was. After my experience with this epidural I realize that my epidural with Franklin was nothing, a joke! It might as well have been natural child birth.

Back to my story . . . A few hours later they gave me pitosin to speed it up a little (had the same thing with Franklin). Then at 11:20 I could start pushing, and she was here at 11:23 a.m. With Franklin I had to push for 2 hours. I couldn’t believe how easy it was with Lisette! It was amazing! The nurses were great, and my doctor was wonderful; that surprised me as well.

My mom arrived the night we got to take Lisette home. We had intended for her to be able to sleep in Franklin’s room. There were a few nights, and mornings, that Franklin would get out of his bed and crawl into bed with my mom. With her help we were able to sleep more at night, and I was able to take naps during the day; huge help!! Last Sunday I woke up feeling very weak, and feverish. We took me over to the ER and I was diagnosed with a Uterine Infection. Not cool, and I still don’t understand how I keep getting infections!

All last week we had Art City Days; or you could say Springville’s founders’ days/week. We didn’t participate in everything we had originally planned, but we did watch the Hot Air Balloon fest, and went to the carnival Saturday afternoon. Franklin’s first ride was cut very short; he started bawling when it began, only because he was on the ride by himself. Then he got on the carousel with Stephen, but was still too nervous from his previous experience to fully enjoy himself. Stephen and I used the rest of the tickets (didn’t get too many because the rain was threatening to fall) to ride The Zipper. It was fun until we were getting off, and I hit my elbow on the latch. Looked down after we had walked away and noticed I split my skin open in a nice, deep gash. Yeah, still hurts, can’t bend my elbow all the way, and very happy for the invention of liquid bandaides.

Now my mom is back in Arizona, and we are sad she has gone, but very grateful for her help, and the time she spent with us. Don’t forget to look at the new slide show in my previous post for what we’ve been up to over the last 17 days. Yes, Lisette is 17 days old today, June 14th, and has already gained a pound since she was born, and an inch. She’s the size of the average new born, and my original due date is still a week and a half away. And just as a side note, this Thursday Stephen and I will have been married for 5 years!

A Blog at last!

So finally I've sat down at the computer with the full intent to start and complete a blog about the Springville Quinns. I should have enough time now that Franklin is happily taking his afternoon nap. Now lets begin. . .

Stephen, Franklin, Osgood and myself moved up to Springville, Ut on October 6th. Springville was not our destination when we left Arizona on the 4th of October, it was Provo. I know that it's all the same to some of you, but we had an apartment all lined up for us to call home. Alas, when we arrived to the complex at 5:50 p.m. on October 5th, it wasn't going to be our home. Because the office was to close in just moments, they quickly walked us through the apartment.

It had a stench, like the toilet had backed up. We were told that they were working on the smell, but not to worry about it further. Osgood couldn't be shut in his carrier anymore, and Franklin was sick of being in his car seat for the past 2 days. It was raining outside, so I stayed in the empty, smelly apartment while Stephen moved the vehicles. I took off my shoes to happily walk around our new place bare foot. I was disgusted.

To shorten this part of the story there had indeed been a sewage pipe leak, and every room had soaked carpet. We got our deposit back the very next day, and were frantically in search for another place. The moment we saw this basement apartment we are currently in we fell in love.

That very night Stephen moved in every last bit of our belongings in from our rental truck that needed to be returned the following morning. Our new landlady held Franklin so I could help Stephen. It took us a few hours to unload, and it was very cold because the rain from the day before had turned into snow that night.

Everything seemed too good to be true. Unfortunately the very next day we were introduced to our landlady's roommate; Toni. Our first impression of her has been complete accurate. For those of you who don't know this part of the story you're just going to have to ask us. There is too much to be said.

The problem has been removed, and once again things do seem too good to be true. We still see Toni occassionally which is why we hope in May to move to another home. We will definitely keep you posted on that.