The Last Trip of the Season

Michael took Jonathon, Christian, Nathaniel, and Eliza to Six Flags Great Adventure again last Saturday. There were almost no lines at all of the rides so they got to go on a lot of the rides before they had to come back for Christian's soccer game at 2:15. I'm so glad we decided to get season passes. The kids have had so much fun going with Michael. Well worth it since they went 7 or 8 times!

One of the rides they went on was "The Dark Knight." It is an indoor roller coaster that is almost pitch black. This picture was taken at an unexpected fall.


Michael bought this picture because of Jonathon's expression, but I think all of them are funny. Christian said he closed his eyes almost the whole time and this was probably the most animated that Nathaniel got on any of the rides.

Deja Vu?

For the past couple of days Timmy has been sneezing a lot. It's not that that bothers me. It's what comes out of his nose. Then yesterday after church, he started coughing. He woke up in the middle of the night crying and didn't sound too good. Michael went and lied down with him and he was pretty squirmy the rest of the night. This morning when he woke up, he was downright miserable. I made an appointment with the doctor (the first time available was 11:45 a.m.) and by the time we got there he was wheezing and I could tell it was pretty difficult for him to get a good breath without some work.

The doctor asked me if there was any history of bronchiolitis in our family. I told her that Jonathon had had it two days after his first birthday. He was admitted to the hospital for 3 days. He was the smallest child in the pediatric unit when he was admitted. They put an IV in his forearm and then splinted his wrist so that he wouldn't pull the IV out or move his arm too much. He slept in a crib with an oxygen tent and I had to treat him with albuterol using a nebulizer. By the third day, he was up and around and we even got to take him down to the playroom. When we got home, we had to continue with the nebulizer and some antibiotics for a few days. That was almost 12 years ago.


So today when the doctor told me that Timmy had bronchiolitis, I wasn't very happy. She started him on the nebulizer immediately and he was so good! He sat very still the whole 10 minutes that it took. Then he had to take two chewable antibiotics. He took the first one with no problem, but I had to fight to get him to eat the second one. The nurse even had to help. Once I gave him some water, he finished chewing it and swallowed it without any problem.

I'm glad I brought him to the doctor today because she told me if I hadn't, we would be bringing him to the ER tonight. The doctor said that hopefully he won't have to go the hospital if we are careful and diligent about giving him his medicine. So far, he's doing very well. He sits with the mask on and lets the albuterol do its stuff, especially if I put Cars on for him to watch!

This is Timmy watching Cars on my I-Pod while he is treated with the nebulizer

I took Katie to the doctor too because she has also been wheezing a little and has been for the past two weeks. Last night she started to cough and I wanted to be sure she was okay. The doctor listened to her lungs and said that she has only a slight wheeze every so often, but her lungs are clear. She said that breastfeeding is even better than the medicine that Timmy is taking, but also told me to keep an eye on her and to call her if anything changes for the worse.

Sorry to anyone whose child may have come in contact with Katie or Timmy!

NJ Statewide Citizens Rally to Protect Marriage

I took the 3 oldest boys to a rally this afternoon, on the steps of the NJ State Capitol, the topic was preserving traditional marriage. NJ currently legalizes so-called "civil unions", which provide almost all of the rights granted to married couples under New Jersey state law (though no rights under federal law). However, with all of the activity going on around the country (Massachusetts, Connecticut, California), there is growing concern that pro-gay rights activists will continue to push further, until they can redefine marriage completely.

Ultimately, the goal of the rally was to mobilize New Jersey citizens to petition the Legislature to pass a State Constitutional Amendment protecting marriage, which already exists in 27 other states (click here for more info on the status of marriage in other states).

I would estimate that there were about 1,000 people in attendance at the rally.

Anybody who's wondering what's the harm in legalizing same-sex "marriage" or how it might affect your life, here are two examples:

• A religious leader in Sweden who taught from the pulpit that homosexuality was wrong and counter to God's commandments was imprisoned for 30 days for engaging in speech that violated the rights of homosexual people.

• One of the speakers at the rally told of a lesbian first-grade teacher in San Francisco that recently brought her class to witness her "marriage" ceremony. First graders!!

This is only the beginning. We are on a path that feels like it could ultimately pit our basic principles of morality against that of the selfish interests of the overwhelming minority, our religious beliefs against trendy social and governmental ideals of political correctness, diversity and equality. I imagine the founding fathers of our nation are probably rolling over in their graves.

There were many organizations that supported this rally, and their latest initiative was to launch an electronic petition. When you sign the E-Petition, an e-mail will immediately be sent to approximately 35 key elected officials in the NJ State Legislature, including your own three state representatives, two Assemblypersons and your State Senator from your legislative district. It will ask them to give you the right to vote on a State Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. If you're interested in signing this petition, here's the link:

http://www.preservemarriagenj.org

Finally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fully supports legislative and other political efforts that will support preservation of the definition of traditional marriage (click here for the Church's take on this issue).

Even though I described above this effort to re-define marriage as "trendy", it is much more serious than that. There is a very real, concerted, systematic and well-thought plan to undermine and ultimately destroy the long-subscribed to and time-tested consensus that the traditional family (husband, wife, children) is the fundamental and most important unit of a successful society. I believe it to be our sacred responsibility to do everything in our power to stop this attack.

Because...I Wanna See

I tried to get a video of Timmy saying uhcuz (because), but this is what I ended up with:


I Wanna See! from Amanda Maldonado on Vimeo.

At least he said it, just not as clearly when I asked him without the camera rolling.

Apparently, he wants to see himself on the camera, but won't sit still for a picture. His tip off was the camera sound when I turned it on. I'll have to fix that, then I'm going to have to get sneaky. Wish me luck!

I Needed a Time Out

This past weekend, I went to Philadelphia for "Time Out for Women." I went last year when it was in Connecticut and had so much fun! I found out I was pregnant a couple of weeks before, but had already committed on going. I really hoped I wouldn't get sick and luckily, I didn't. They had a wonderful group of presenters including Hilary Weeks and Jane Clayson Johnson. It was really inspiring and so much fun to be out with a group of women that I love being around. I was looking forward to going every year.

This was last year's group (L to R: Cecile, Lorri, Lisa, Suzy, Hilary Weeks, Mandy, Jeanean, Linda, Taylor, and Daisy is the dog)

However, this year when I heard it was coming up, I debated going. I wanted to go because I know how wonderful it is, but I also didn't want to go because I would have to take Katie. I was afraid that I would miss a lot of it even though they had feeds into an area where I could nurse her. I had decided that I wouldn't go, then about two weeks before, Whitney sent out an e-mail saying that she was going and was wondering if anyone else was interested in going with her. I figured that if she was going with a nursing baby then maybe I could (even though Katie doesn't sleep as much.) But the thing that really made me decide to go was listening to Hilary Weeks' CD that I had bought at last year's Time Out for Women.

On Saturday, Whitney and Lorri came and picked me up and we drove down to Philly. The company was fabulous! Whitney and Lorri are awesome and I also got to see other terrific women: Janell, Michelle, Kristin, Joan, Mary, Dori, Jeanean, Suzy, Cecile, Miriam, and Rita (who I haven't seen in years!) I love hanging out with these wonderful women and it is so fun to be with hundreds of other women who feel the same love of the gospel that I do.

The presenters were incredible! Emily Watts spoke about not feeling guilty about every little mistake you make as a mother (or things you've done or not done that you see as mistakes) and about being joyful in times of trial. Hilary Weeks has a beautiful voice and always makes me cry through her inspirational songs. I think the things that hit me the most this year were: That I am a child of God and of infinite worth and Heavenly Father loves me no matter what and to try hard, but not beat myself up when I make a mistake, but to repent and try again.

Hilary Weeks this year:
Thank you to Sara for getting me interested in going last year, to Whitney for the e-mail and driving this year, and to Hilary for her inspired music.

Next year, the closest Time Out will be in Richmond, VA. I'm going to start saving now because there is no way I want to miss it.

Time Out was spiritually uplifting and just plain nice to get away, but Janell gave a lesson in Relief Society on Sunday that was the icing on the cake. She talked about the Plan of Salvation a little and the kingdoms that we will go to after Judgment Day. ALL I need to do is be valiant and I'll make it to the Celestial Kingdom, which is my eternal goal. Easier said than done. I think I'll start with today and then tomorrow I'll start all over again.

For example, we have a rule in our home that if you yell, you have to whisper for half an hour. Yesterday, I found myself having to whisper because Jonathon yelled something to me and I yelled back. Oops. At least we weren't yelling because we were mad. I didn't want to discipline him without meting out the same to myself. I should be whispering a whole lot more than I do. All I can say is that I'm grateful I can repent. As I find myself needing to do on a daily basis. Maybe I should put myself in my room when I do anything that is wrong, since that's what I do to the kids. I think I would enjoy it too much and who knows what would happen to the house!

What a Great Day!

Friday was a fantastic day for four reasons:

1. Michael came home from a 4 day trip to Germany and the Netherlands at 2:30 p.m.

2. Michael brought me (and the kids) a bunch of Belgium and Swiss chocolate (there goes my glutes and thighs)

3. I cleaned about 3/4 of my garage (now I have to clean my family room from all the stuff that didn't belong in the garage)

4. I got to go out at night with just Katie for a Primary Training Meeting (very uplifting and going out for anything with just one kid is great)

Two Free Days

The kids got yesterday and today off of school because of Rosh Hashana. We didn't get these days off when I was a kid because I grew up in Arizona where there aren't a lot of Jewish people. It's kind of nice to have the Jewish holidays off.

Whitney and I wanted to take the kids out for breakfast before school started, but with one thing or another, it didn't happen. On Tuesdays, my mom doesn't work, so yesterday seemed like a good day to go out for breakfast so that my mom could come too. We went to the Skylark Diner for breakfast. One of my favorite things to get there is fresh-squeezed orange juice. The kids always get hot chocolate for breakfast no matter where we go. It was interesting to have 10 kids and just 3 adults at one table, to say the least.

After breakfast, we went to Giamarese Farm. They have a pick-your-own pumpkin patch that I wanted to take the kids to. When we got there, we saw that they also had PYO apples and they had already started doing the fall hayrides. We picked apples (I think the kids got about 10 pounds), then went and picked out 8 pumpkins (one for each member of the family.)

Last, we went on the hayride. It was so fun! The farmer (he drove the tractor that pulled the two trailers) told us all the foods that they grow on the farm as we drove past them. He stopped at the horse and brought him closer. Then he stopped again near the piglets and the chicken coop. There were 3 little pigs. One was pink (Pinky), one was black (Inky), and the other was brown with a pink stripe around the middle (Stinky). Then he brought a chicken around the trailers so that we could pet her. She was so soft...

Twice, Timmy found one of these carts and got into it. This time, one of the workers saw him and wasn't too happy to see him in it. At least he was really nice about it.

Today, we brought in the huge GeoTrax train set that we have been storing in the shed. The kids (and I) had a lot of fun setting up the track. It was a challenge to find a few battery-operated engines with their matching remote control. Timmy likes to carry the engines around with him and take them in the car when we go out. We managed to find two out of five.