When it rains, it is toilet water!!

Let me start by saying I have been having so SERIOUS laptop issues. I haven't been able to post pictures for 2 weeks. I have no idea what is wrong with it and Barrett hasn't been home 3 seconds all week to look at it. I will get to Halloween pictures and then our weekly update. IT IS GOING TO BE LONG FOLKS. Check to make sure your toilet isn't leaking and get ready for a party Labrum style.

So what is up with raining toilet water? Let me tell you :) Barrett was on over night call on Saturday, I only say this because these sort of things seem to happen when he is gone. I had put the kids to bed and went downstairs in our storage room to get some cereal out. I was carefully making my selection when I noticed water was dripping on me. It looked like water from our air conditioner vent. It had been a really warm day on Saturday, so I wondered if it was condensation. I moved the food storage that was getting wet, put a bowl out to catch the water and went upstairs to call Barrett. He was in rounds and didn't call back. I sat on the couch to watch TV and could hear the water dripping. I thought it was strange I could hear the drip all the way upstairs. I was VERY wrong. I did a little investigating and found water was dripping from the toilet upstairs and had soaked the floor to the point it was dripping in the storage room!! I tried to turn the water off to the toilet and the knob broke off in my hand!! That can't be good right? Lucky for me, I was watching our friends little boy and Lance could look at it when they came to get him. I really can't thank Lance and Caetie enough for saving the day! I am not sure what I would have done other than let my house fill with water all night. Lance did fix the toilet and now I just need to figure out how to "dry out" food storage!

Moving on to Halloween...We had so much fun this year! Barrett was post call that day, so he got to come trick or treating with us!

This is by far the funniest Halloween costume I have ever seen! It was an amazing $1 yard sale find! WAHOO! You should have seen Maxwell walk in this. His little chicken bum would wiggle back and forth :)



Morgan is all about horses. She thinks she is a horse most of the time. I also found this costume at a yard sale for $1!! When I saw it, I knew she had to have it! I found it in July and she has worn it just about every day since then. She likes that it makes her look like she is riding a horse!

I love it!!

Now on to our last 2 weeks in review:

Barrett: He has been working 42 billion hours. Really. The 3 seconds a night that we see him, he is tired. I don't blame him, but we will be SO happy when this rotation is over.

Chantel: This has been a really big week for me. I was reading Lynae's blog and found a post that really sums up my week. She borrowed a quote from her friends blog ( did you follow that?) I am going to do the same:


Natalie Say's: "I think, at least for me anyway, that it's so easy to get lost in the everyday things of the world that sometimes it's too easily forgotten that our sacred role as mothers is the most amazing and wonderful thing that we can be devoting our time and attentions to. After all, when all is said and done, what would I most want people to remember or say about me? Certainly not "She really could sew," or "She sure could take great pictures" or "Do you remember that time when she got that sweet deal on that $70 blessing outfit for only $3.50?" (for me it would be the Halloween costumes I got for a $1!!) What I do hope someone will say about me is "She was a great mom." Ultimately that is my biggest goal in life, but it is so easy to become distracted by all the many other things that are out there pulling me in so many directions."

What does that have to do with anything? I have been stressed to the MAX (yes, as in Maxwell) the last month. He has been almost impossible for me to handle. There is SO much whining and crying I want to rip my ears off. I know he is 3 but there are days I can't take it any more. Friday was a particularly bad day. He got up at 5:30 and had been crying at me most of the day. I left him downstairs and went upstairs to pray. I prayed for the strength and most of all help. As soon as I stood up, I knew what I needed to do. I am going to quit my "job". I have been watching Miss Sloane for a year now. We LOVE having her in our home and it was a good way to help pay our bills, but also be here with our kids. I can't allow other distractions to pull me in so many directions.

Now I have poured out my life story... I will move on :)

Morgan: We got a phone call on Thursday that she had an accident and needed us to come and change her clothes. This is usually a sign she has a UTI. She holds it so long because she knows it is going to hurt. We got the same phone call on Friday and I just about lost it. I had sent a note saying Morgan probably had a UTI and if they needed me to come and get her to give me a call. It makes me mad there is a HUGE lack of communication between her teacher, the art teacher and her PE teacher. Morgan had her accident both days while she was in art or PE. When I talked to the PE teacher, she said she had a strict no bathroom policy during class. I get that, but she is 5 AND I had told her teacher she may need to go to the bathroom more due to her UTI. When I went down to her class to get her backpack, her teacher told me she totally forget to look in Morgan's folder at the note. Again, my head my explode. I made an appointment to have her looked at on Friday. I had to take Max and Sloane up to the doctors office with us as well. As stated above, Max had cried ALL morning and wouldn't get out of his PJ's. I had not showered or gotten dressed myself. I was SUPER excited to go to my husbands place of employment looking like that :) Sure enough, she did have a UTI. They would like her to be looked at by a nephrologist to figure out why she is getting so many UTI's.

Maxwell: As you know at this point, he is FULL OF IT!! I sometimes wonder if we can't have more kids because I can't handle him!! He is so sweet and cute, but when he wants to be a naughty, he sure is. On the days he goes to Miss Kathy's (Miss Kafee) he is so cute when I pick him up I want to eat him. He sings me all sorts of songs and tells me all about his day. Along with the toilet water drama, Maxwell broke out in a rash all over his body last night. We noticed it a few nights ago, but last night it was red and swollen and he was having a hard time breathing. After the toilet water was cleaned up, I gave him a breathing treatment and some meds and he seems to be doing better today.

Well, there you have it!! That is what we have been doing. As a side note, in hopes of escaping for a bit, we are headed to Utah for Thanksgiving! WAHOO! It will be a nice break and wait for it.....BARRETT get to COME WITH US!! He hasn't been back to Utah with us since we moved! It is going to be good :)

How did this happen?

How is it that every time I turn around it is Sunday again? This has been a VERY long week and maybe a longer weekend. Here is our week in review:

Dad: Ugh. He has changed to working in the PICU. Barrett does not get stressed out a lot, but I thought he was going to pass out he was so nervous to start there. I am usually the one freaking out, so I was not really sure what to do :) He goes into work at 4:30 AM and it makes me tired to think about it.

Mom: We were asked to give our church a deep clean this week. We went in Friday to clean the kitchen and it made me want to vomit. I cleaned things off the oven in there I will never talk about again. I also went back on Saturday for a while. Catie and I got the privilege of going through the lost and found as well. We were making fun of it until we found some of our stuff in there!! Here are a few of my favorite finds in the lost and found:
* a pair of GUYS underwear. Really? Did you forget you took them off at the church?
* Socks from who knows when
* 3 random bags of envelopes.
* A mug and matching dish.

Good times. Saturday we had 2 birthday parties AND trunk or treat. My kids had so much sugar I thought they were going to POP.

Morgan: I hate that this little girl is growing up! If I could freeze her in time, I would. She has a lot of drama in her life, but is SO sweet to make up for it. The other morning she woke up early and asked if we could snuggle. how cute is that? I will have to post some pictures of her in her costume.

Max: What a pill this little dude is. He came with me to clean the church on Friday and was such a good boy. He even rode on his big boy bike because he wanted to show Laycie he could do it. who says the peer pressure isn't good?!? On the way home, he told me that he LOVES Laycie. My master plan is working :) He is a chicken for Halloween and looks so darn cute I want to eat him! The pictures from trunk or treat didn't turn out well so I will have to take some on Halloween.

I know I am behind, but here is my FAVORITE picture maybe of all time.


That is right folks. Chris Griffin in a GOAT picture. Good times, good times. WE MISS YOU GRIFFIN'S!!

The time has come...

It is Sunday again. We have been very busy this last week. It is going to be a long post, so take a potty break, get a snack and settle in:

Barrett: This has been a really bad rotation for Barrett. He has been at work for I think 1.2 billion hours. OK, that may be a little off, but it feels like that. He has also got a wicked case of H1N1 and feels like death. I feel bad he is sick and hope he feels better soon. I also hope he changes out of his crabby pants for the next rotation. The next rotation is just as bad, so he may actually be wearing a size bigger in the crappy pants.

Chantel: This has been a wild week. I want to start off by saying thanks to all the people who commented on my last post as well as keeping our family in their thoughts and prayers. I would also like to apologise/thank to the people I call once a day and cry to. My sisters are both very busy and have taken time out to listen to me cry.

My family decided to have a special fast for us this Sunday. It really means a lot to me and Cardon was even sweet enough to pass up fruit snacks for us! I feel Barrett and I have got an answer to what we need to do and feel a great amount of peace. I know this special fast helped more than anyone will know.

Morgan: She is doing well in school (minus the D*R*A*M*A). She comes home everyday with some sort of "she told me she didn't like me!" fit everyday. She had a part in the primary program today and we talked about how this year she was not going to lick the pulpit! YUCK! We were sitting at dinner the other night and Barrett told me when they were coming home from swimming and almost ran off the road. Morgan looked at me and said " Well I wasn't the one driving!" I am glad she cleared that up for me.

My mom also made Morgan's dream come true. We were at Petsmart this week and Morgan wanted to get Pogi the dog snuggie. No, really. I told her no and she told me she would ask Grandma Nancy, because she would buy it for him. She marched home and called Grandma and look what we have.
Best $8.00 spent? Morgan has been thrilled. Pogi, not so much. poor dog!


Maxwell. I am not sure the whining is ever going to stop. There are days by 10:00 AM I can't listen to it any more. He seems to do great while he is at school, but can only whine when he is home. His new things is " I NEVER get(fill in the blank)!! Here are a few of my favorite
* I NEVER GET FOOD!
*I NEVER GET TO PLAY!
* I NEVER GET A TREAT!
* I NEVER GET TO WATCH TV!!

He also had a part in the primary program today and did so cute!!

That is just crap-tastic!

I got up this morning at 5:00 AM when Barrett's alarm went off. It is early for me to up, let alone thinking. I had about an hour before I needed to get up so I sat and thought and went in and out of sleep. After that, it was a mad dash to get the kids up, ready and to my neighbors house. I dropped them off and met Barrett at the fertility clinic.

We went in today for IUI. Yes, they do IUI on Sunday, you can't control when you ovulate! Although it would be nice! When the nurse came in, she said she wanted to talk to about a few things. She told me she had just gotten off the phone with Dr. Nelson and things didn't look good. They were going to do this one last round of IUI and then after that, they would only recommend IVF. I am not really sure what she said after that, I just felt numb. I have known that we have had "fertility problems" but I really never dreamed it would come to this. Barrett had already gone back to work at this point and I couldn't even think straight. The nurse handed me a binder of information and sent me on my way.

I really was naive when we got pregnant with Maxwell. I thought our "problem" was solved and we would be able to have as many kids as we wanted. When I was younger, I wanted 8 kids (this was before I became a mom) When I had Morgan it dropped to 4 and when Max came so fast, I was sure we were done! Now, I feel like we don't really have a choice in the matter.

I know it is hard for people to know what to say in this sort of a situation. I am not looking for anyone to "fix" this problem, this is just a way for me to express what I am feeling. Here are a few things I for sure don't want to hear: (yet hear more than you want to know about!)

* I know so and so that went to Dr. ...and they got pregnant in one month, you should go to that Dr. Believe me when I say we really are with the best of the best in KC. There really isn't a Dr, out there that can't do what our Dr. is doing now.

* Your only 29, I am SURE you will get pregnant. If only it were that easy!

*You shouldn't be sad, you have 2 kids. I am aware that we have 2 of what we think are the best kids in the world. We love them and wouldn't trade them for anything (OK, maybe Maxwell some days :)) It doesn't matter if you have 2 kids or 22, if you want another, there is going to be a void there.

* You should just relax and it will happen. Sorry Charlie, if all it took was "relaxing" I would do it! My husband has male infertility, it is NOT fixed by relaxing!!

* Have you tried Clomid.? My friend/neighbor/grandma's, uncle's, dog's friend went on Clomid and they got pregnant right away. Why yes we have tried Clomid. Again, our Dr. has really has done all she can short of IVF.

So here I am. Barrett and I have a lot of big decisions to make in the next little while. I want to thank all my family and friends for their love and support. I know the power of prayer is real and I have felt it while trying to find peace in this situation.

Turn that frown upside down...

Yesterday was kind of a blah day for me. We have been thinking/acting/praying/fasting/talking long and hard about our current fertility situation. There are moments that I feel OK with where we are at and then there are moments it is more than I can bear to think about. While having a mild pity party for myself, I got on facebook and found a link. I had heard about this little girl through a friend and stopped and read her story yesterday. It really did snap me out of the funk I was in. If I were in their situation, I would hope people would be willing to help me out. Taylie, has Leukemia, and Kylene (went to high school with her) has found a generous man to help donate money to this family. All you have to do is spread the word, and every person that posts a link about Taylie to their blog or facebook page, the sponsor will donate $2.00 for every post out there. Come on everyone out there, help this family raise money for their sweet little girl. Every dollar will help!

Here's all you have to do:
Link Taylie's website on your blog with any message that you'd like to about inspiring and helping each other. Then make sure to leave a link to Kylene's blog so people know where to go to enter their information, go to Kylene's blog and let her know you have linked Talie's blog to your blog, that way she knows the money pot is growing...remember each link is worth $2.00.

Not only will you be helping a sweet family Kylene will enter you into a drawing for a PRADA purse....Who doesn't love a new PRADA purse??

After this weekend they will count up all the comments on Kylene's blog, and hopefully a BIG check will be written out to the Abbott family!

Hello Sunday

I love Sunday's when Barrett is off. That is not going to happen for 8 more weeks, so I am trying to soak it in right now. I always have a panic attack on Sunday night just thinking about Barrett going back to work on Monday. Here is our week in review.

Dad: Went back to "regular" work this week :( He gets 4 days off this month and 2 of them were this weekend. It was nice to have him home, but it really is the calm before the storm.

Mom: Nothing much to report. We went in for "infertility treatment" last month and it didn't work. We were both very upset, but we feel this is what we are supposed to be doing and are going to continue with our super crappy Dr's office. I had to go in for a follicle ultrasound 2 weeks ago. They have you go in really early before other patience get there. When I walked in my favorite receptionist was sitting there, on her cell phone. When I asked her if I needed to sign in, she looked at me ROLLED her eyes and said "I am ON the PHONE!" Really, you shouldn't pump a person full of drugs that make them super emotional and then have this person be your receptionist. It took all the restraint in my body not to come across the desk at her. After the ultrasound, they have you go back to the waiting room and then see a nurse. I had a question about the HCG shot and went up to ask about it. Here is how this went:

Me: Uh, I have a que...
Receptionist: I don't know, you will have to ask a nurse AND I am texting right now.
Me: I didn't even finish my question.
Receptionist: I know, you can talk to a nurse.

That is right, she was now TEXTING on her cell phone. I am so glad that we are paying these people $1800.00 a time for this amazing service.

So, I feel as if we are back to square one. A little discouraged, but I try to remember it took 6 times with Morgan. Please bless me with the strength to not hurt this receptionist.

To cheer myself up, I made this:

YUM-O I got the recipe from here. She is amazing and I think it is worth weighing as much as a baby elephant to eat it.

Morgan: She is DYING waiting for uncle Chris to come!! She keeps asking when she gets to wrestle him. They will be here on Thursday and we all can't wait. Morgan seems to be doing really well with school. Her teacher sent a note home last week saying that Morgan had been a good helper to her. Today in Church we were talking about Lehi and she asked me how old Lehi was. I told her really, really, old and she looked at me and said "like 30?" Yep, like 30 :)

Maxwell: This little muffit is a STINKER!! He got up the other morning at 3:00 AM!! He was up for the morning and asked what I was making for breakfast. Lucky for me, I had gone to bed really early the night before, so it wasn't too big of a deal. You would be AMAZED at what you can get done between 3:00 AM and 7:00 AM. If I had it in me, I should get up at that time every day.

Update for Grandma..

This month is flying by. It is hard to think that it is going to be October soon. I love fall and I am excited for it to cool down a little. Missouri fall is not as great as Utah fall, but when you add humidity to anything, I am not as big of a fan. Here is what the Labrum's have been doing:

Dad: Barrett had this WHOLE past week off!! It was great to have him home and he had a major list of things to do. favorite on my list...HE PAINTED our kitchen! Wahoo! When we moved in, we had flat paint and I really can't stress enough how bad I hate flat paint. It always looks dirty and when you try to clean it, it just wipes the paint away. He did a great job and I love how it turned out. October and November are really bad months at work for him, so we were glad to have him home for a while. We even got to go to the temple together while he was off. Our ward had a temple trip to Nauvoo. The young women had a baptism session, so Barrett and I got to do them together with the youth. It always makes me so proud to go to the temple with him. I got to see him do baptisms and as cheesy at is sounds, I really feel blessed that he is such a good guy. He honors his priesthood and is worthy to go. I love that about him and it makes me love him that much more. On Labor day, we got to go with some friends to Hillsdale lake. We went last year, but Barrett was working. It was SO much fun.


Here is Zie, Barrett, Max and Morgan on the SeaDoo. It was so sweet of the Lamble's to pull them around most of the day!


Mom: Again, I am busy, I am just not sure with what :) They have a consignment sale here in KC called Just Between Friends. I decided it was time to get rid of all my baby clothes and took them to the consignment sale. It may seem like a small thing, but it took me FOREVER!! I washed 9 tubs of clothes, ironed them and put them on hangers! In all, I had 300 items on hangers!! I thought it was going to be painful to go through Maxwell's baby things, but it wasn't too bad. I now have a little more room for food storage! On Friday, we had some Kirksville friends come and visit. It was fun to see and catch up with them. We met when Morgan and Madilee were 8 weeks old!

Morgan: Poor girl, she is battling allergies this week. It has been VERY emotional (shocking I know). You would think we were asking her to drink poison when she takes her medicine. Morgan was in seventh heaven when we were in Nauvoo. Here are a few of my favorite pictures:
We spent almost the WHOLE time by the horses. She went and talked to them and just kept petting them.

This is Charley and Chuck. They were good sports and let Morgan pet them for almost an hour!
Morgan would keep saying "hello sweet Chuck!" She liked to pet his nose.


Maxwell: He loved having his dad home for a week. It was nice for him to have someone other than me to keep him busy. He usually doesn't leave my side, so I got a lot more done. Max loved the lake and I didn't think we were going to be able to get him to leave.

That only lasted for about 30 seconds!

He also got to help his dad with the to do list. He hauled around his tool box and was was happy as a clam. I could hear Maxwell calling to me and I when I went into the closet, this is what I found:
Barrett is sitting up there next to him but is this really the best idea? They went up there to fix the attic fan. Ma told me all about the "fluffy" stuff up there and how they used his hammer to fix the fan.



Well, Barrett is back to work in the morning. Blah. It always makes for a LONG week after he has been home. I have a lot to keep me busy, so maybe I won't notice he isn't here :)