Jeremiah's Job...

It has come to my attention that some of you are unaware that Jeremiah has a new job. He quit Euclid the end of May and started for Okland Construction a few days later. :) He is a Journeyman Carpenter there. The pay and benefits are better at Okland and he gets LOTS of hours there, so that really helps us out financially right now. Oh, and he's paid weekly, so that has been WONDERFUL! Euclid is still a great company and he misses most of the people there but it was time to move on... Wanna see what he's been doing? :)

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

AND here is the website for the hotel that the above news story is talking about...

http://www.stregisdeercrest.com/

We're excited about his new job and I'm sorry I haven't told you about it sooner. :) LOVES!

(People who are mailed this, go to www.mandyandmiah.blogspot.com to see the video! THANKS!)

Tanion's TBall Pictures...

Today we got an envelope in the mail with Tanion's TBall Certificate of Participation, TBall Medal (which says Baseball) and his pictures (which I SWEAR I ordered more than I received). He was totally excited. :) He kept wearing his medal around the house saying that he got it because he "won" baseball. :) SO CUTE! Anyway, here are his pictures...



And a special thanks to his Coach, Brian Marks. He did awesome with the kids. And the Dome Family who made sure he got to a couple of games when I wasn't able to go with him. :)

DOME HOME: I do still have all the pictures from TBall with Alex and some with Archer and Daniel. I will put them on a disk soon. Sorry! :)

Dads...

I'm think I'm great at telling my friends and my own personal little family that I love them. All the time. Or how much they mean to me. Or how much I appreciate them in my life and the influence they have been on me. And it's not hard... But I have been sitting here for probably 15 minutes trying to think of "the right thing" to say to the DADS in my life... Blank. I'm nervous for some reason... WHY?!?!?!?!?! I guess that maybe I need to do it more often to become "good at it"... Well, here I go...

MY DAD, SHERRILL

holding Tanion at Keen's wedding...

at my baptism (21 years ago!)

I probably wasn't the BEST kid growing up, but I like to think I did pretty good. And I can't take all the credit. And neither can Mom. :) I know that you worked hard to support our family. And I know that you love us all. I can honestly say that I don't know "which one is the favorite" and that is awesome. I feel that I was treated pretty fairly and that I probably turned on you a few too many times. But I love you. I hope you know that. You have always been there to show love to us and I am grateful for that. I love how you interact with my wild kids. I think being a Grandpa has been your proudest accomplishment and I'm glad I could help you out with that. :)

My Father-In-Law, Twitch

holding Tanion at his blessing...

Thank you so much for raising a great son. I know that it is because of your example that I have such a great husband and father to my own kids. Thank you for loving our little family and for being patient with our kids. Thanks for feeding us on so many Sundays! Thank you for teaching my husband that it's important to work hard and treat people with respect - especially his wife! Thanks for being a good "dad" to my handsome little nephew... I know I speak for my whole family when I say that we love you and are thankful to have you in our lives. :)

My Kids Dad (& My Hubby),
Jeremiah

I love you. When we started dating, we weren't "supposed" to be together forever, but look at us now! :) Married for ALMOST 10 years, together for over 11 and 1/2. Three great kids who LOVE their dad because he's the best! I know how hard you work to do things for our little family and I can't express to you how much I appreciate that. I asked our kids what their favorite thing about their dad was and here is what they said:

DARTANION: "he plays with me and he lets me play Star Wars Lego and he helps me cuz he's really good at playing it and then we eat stuff"
ARCHER: "he builds me lots of tracks and buys me trains and can I have Rosie and ....." he started rambling about what trains he didn't have and still wants... Typical Archer...
ROBYN: I'm sure if Robyn was able to, she would say that she loves having a dad who has such great hair and can teach her awesome hairstyles when she is older. :) J/K!

I love that you play with our kids. And how you show patience with them when they want to learn how to do whatever it is that you are doing - from cooking to building! I've always told you that I think you are a fun dad and you set a great example for our kids. I'm glad I am married to such a great dad. :)

AND TO ALL THE OTHER
DAD'S IN MY LIFE...

Thank you...

...for all that you have done for me or my family. Whether you are really my BFF's Dad (love you, Sherm!) or one of my Grandpas (love you ALL!!!) or one of our loved ones who has passed on or just an amazing guy who has influenced me / us in another way -

I LOVE YOU!

Adventures of the UNINSURED...

It seems like this month, we can't catch a break. One of us is always sick with something. Hacking up something. I guess that means it's my turn...


Robyn's cough has been getting worse. Poor little thing coughs until she throws up. Not fun. I have taken her off of milk while she's "sick" because I just can't clean up any more milk puke. (Sorry - too graphic?) And she has started saying "owey" when she eats, so I know her throat is hurting her. So yesterday I decided - INSURANCE OR NOT, I'M GETTING HER MEDICINE! I called the Heber Clinic to see if they will prescribe her some Amoxicilin because that's what they gave Tanion for his sore throat a few weeks ago. No go. They said I had to bring her in. I told them to make her an appointment and since we would be there, can they take a look at me because I have been coughing a lot too... No problem, there was an appointment in an hour and 1/2 still available.

So I packed a diaper bag, got the kids all in "presentable" clothing and headed to Heber City. We dropped off the boys at Jeremiah's parents house while Robyn and I went to the clinic. We hung out in the lobby for 45+ minutes waiting for our turn and Robyn entertained the other patients by running around and talking. When it was our turn to go into a room, the nurse was SUPER friendly - she's a Hardman Family Friend - and caring and great. She even made Robyn a balloon out of a latex glove. We waited for the doctor for a while and played in the room. At least it was easier for me in there! The doctor came in while Robyn was laying on the floor drinking her bottle so he checked me out first.

He checked my throat. Nothing. Told me how I probably just have a cold and maybe got the flu while I had it (which would explain the fever). Then he decided to listen to my lungs anyway. He listened and "didn't like what he heard" and told me that he thought I might have pneumonia! He would take a few x-rays and see if it showed anything.

Then he looked at Robyn who decided to go all "poltergeist" on the doctor. She screamed and cried and kicked and flailed. She did NOT want to sit on the table. And I guess I am used to Pediatrician's who let me hold my kids on my lap while they check their ears and throat - and my kids letting them! But he didn't want to do it that way. He wanted Robyn to lay on the table and she didn't want to. He managed to take a look in her ears and look at her throat and made the diagnosis of "she probably just has a cold" and left it at that. He didn't listen to her lungs. He probably thought she wouldn't let him. :)

SO, then I went back to get X-Rays with the nurse, who was so nice and sweet and held Robyn while still doing her job and taking the x-rays. We finished up quickly and headed back to our room. About 10 minutes later the doctor came in and said "Yep. You've got pneumonia. But I think we caught it pretty early." He told me how it only looked like a little in my lower left lobe.

He then saw my chart and said - "So you don't have insurance?" And I looked down, ashamed, and started rambling about how I don't for another 3 months and we can't afford COBRA and whatnot.... He just said - "Don't worry. Let me see if I can find some free samples somewhere" and he left the room. I sat there embarrassed until he returned. He came back with a 10-day supply of Avelox and told me to take one a day, probably with a meal and at the same time each day. He gave me the charts and told me to take them to the receptionist and to get better soon. Then he was gone. I sat there for a second and said a little "Thank you" prayer for doctors who understand that sometimes we don't have insurance and they try to help you out with "free" medicine. I'm sure he saved our family a good amount of money by doing that.

I went to the Receptionist expecting her to say something like "It'll be $400 and we'll need that today because you are uninsured." I tend to think the worst is going to happen... But she didn't. She was very nice and said "Oh no! You have pneumonia! You poor thing!" And talked about how us mom's ignore our health but worry about our kid's health... Isn't it the TRUTH! Then she told me the total was around $166 and some change - which was for both me and Robyn. She told me I could pay what I could today and the rest they would bill me for. I paid $90 and told her "Thank You" and I walked to my car (a little less embarrassed...)

And so, for now, I will take my free Avelox and keep giving Robyn water / juice in her bottles mixed with whatever version of kids cough and cold medicine I have on hand. I will bundle my kids up and play a little less at the McDonald's Playland and outside. I will start washing everything all over again to try and stop Archer / Tanion / Jeremiah from getting pneumonia or whatever Robyn has.

I guess that is one more adventure of our being uninsured.
One more lesson about humility.
And one more story about why I prefer Pediatrician's over regular doctors for my kids. :)

Koosharem

We had the Barlow Family Reunion last Friday - Sunday. It was a lot of fun and so great to see everyone. I met my cousin Kolby's baby, Oaklee, for the first time. What a cute little chunk! :) (She is as big as Robyn, but only 9 months old!) It was great to visit with family. It makes me realize how much I miss them and how grateful I am that I am a part of MY family...

Now, I am super ashamed to admit that even though I brought my camera, I took very few pictures... SO SORRY!!! I took it out once... The pictures I took were during my cousin Kammie's little girl Brinley's birthday party... I only took just a handful of pictures... I know, I'm a loser. So sorry... My Aunt Melissa took some pictures and posted a blog about it. You can check it out by clicking here...

The AWESOME girly cake!

The Pretty Birthday Girl!

The kids around the table :)

My boys asleep...

My cousin Reanna feeding the horse she named Fancy

The double rainbow at Grandma Bagley's...

After the reunion, we went to Grandma Bagley's House and stayed for a few nights. I took out the camera a few times there... We love exploring the farm, taking walks, and playing with the animals. This time, we even found an injured butterfly! :)

Robyn loves the kitties!

a farmer's idea of a planter box! :) j/k

Tanion playing at the school playground

Robyn just taking it easy

Archer's "Pet" Butterfly

I also caught this cute moment of Robyn and Archer watching a Thomas the Train video at Grandma Bagley's... Great! It looks like I have 2 Thomas fans!


After spending Friday through Tuesday with our family, the kids were pretty tired... as you can see... :)

view of the backseat on the way home...

And for your viewing pleasure, here is a short video of Robyn riding the horsey at the school playground... :)

*Remember to go to my site to check this out if you are getting this emailed to you!
www.mandyandmiah.blogspot.com

Singing In The Rain

This was so funny to me!

Jeremiah's mom bought tickets to Singing in the Rain at the Hale Theater in Orem for us (well, there were actually 9 in our group!). It was SUPER fun! :) I've never seen Singing in the Rain before, but I have heard of at least 3 of the songs from it.

David Smith

I thought the actors did an amazing job. :) But, of course, they usually do at the Hale Theater! :) The guy who played Cosmo (David Smith) in the play was hilarious. He was Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast when I saw it around this time 2 years ago and I loved him then, too! He really is amazing... I wish they had a clip of HIM singing the song I posted above because I really think that HE did a better job... :)

AND I loved the fashion... AND THE SHOES! Can I tell you how much I wish I could wear shoes like they had in the play? I don't care that they were tap shoes. I would wear them daily! BEAUTIFUL! Man, I wish that the clothing and hairstyles would come back... So much more gorgeous than these days...

And the play reminded me how much I love a guy that can dance and sing. I really want to put DarTanion in dancing classes. I think he should learn to do his breakdancing (that he loves SO much) and take other more traditional classes and he will be the total STUD that I know he is! All the ladies will notice him. :) And my Archer Moe, he's not really the dancing type. You see, Thomas doesn't dance. :) But maybe I could convince him to do it if DarTanion did... :)

Ah... I love what a play can do to me.
Makes me all happy and shiny-like... :)

Thanks again, Sandra!
I had a GREAT time! :)

Riding McQueen

Here are a couple of videos of Archer and Robyn riding in Lightning McQueen...
If this is emailed to you, you have to go to my site to view them...
http://mandyandmiah.blogspot.com/

Missed Fun :)

The middle / end of May brought a lot of fun moments, but it was also pretty hectic. I realized that I missed posting some REALLY cute pictures of the kids, so I'm making up for it now... Enjoy!

Robyn's Pretty
Polka Dot Dress...
playing with the bandaid case in the extra carseat
i LOVE those piggy tails!
her "CHEESE" face
loving the camera


Archer took Robyn for a ride
in Lightning McQueen
(best spent $200 ever!)



DarTanion and TBall!
At home...
Don't you love the cowboy boots?

Posing with Dad
Can you see the missing ball?


Archer the Explorer

Don't you love his fashion?
Swim Shorts and regular Shorts!

He found a "Tato bug" / "Rollie Pollie"


Random Fun...
Archer and his buddy Daniel

Robyn wants to help Dad...
Dad folds his arms when he stands...

"Prayers!"

Miah playing TBall with Tanion

Me covered with sheet rock mud!

So even though we had sickness / runaways and other "fun" things in May, you can see it wasn't all bad! :)