The Mantel

I didn't take any great before pics of this room.  It is going to look so different once all the changes are complete.  Here is another step in the proocess.  Changing the mantel from this honey oak color to white.  Love me some white mantels.

We didn't sand all the color off, just all the shine.  I guess that worked out okay because it's pretty much done now.  We still have a few spots to touch up but we are going to do it after the flooring is in since it's where the carpet hits the mantel.

This was our attempt to use a spray gun.  It worked okay once Jon got the correct consistency but we will have to do some light touch-ups from the blobby spots.  But for a picture's sake, it looks pretty darn good doesn't it?

 I'll get a picture of the whole room once the flooring is in.  And I just might even take it during the day so we don't have yucky flash.

 And because I'm excited about our garden this year, here is the beginnings of it.  The kids helped me plant these so there are a few that have spots that have no seeds and a few that have five or six.  Oops.  They still seem to be okay.

Activities We've Been Up To

Jon has been building me cool things like this....

 There are only pictures of the boys because that is all we have printed at the moment.  We'll probably switch it up every now and then.  Can you tell which is Brigham and which is Benson?

 The kids have been doing lots of playing.  We played with the butterflies quite a bit until they were at the end of their days.  We let them go on a slightly warmer day and hoped they could enjoy their last few hours in the great outdoors.  One of them did lay some eggs, which we kept, but they didn't end up hatching.  Sad.

 We tried one of the sensory activities on pinterest.  I think it was called cloud dough.  It was pretty messy and the kids weren't that entertained.  Not a big hit for us.

 It has been so cold.  I know, Utah is colder.  But I am not a cold-weather fan.  Plus it's just cold, we don't usually get enough snow to go play in.  But one day, we did have enough to actually go out and stomp around and make a snowman.  Vanessa was stoked.  She was out outside before I had the boys even close to ready.

 We are definitely lacking in our cold weather apparel.  We tried our best to improvise but in the end, Brig was still cold and not happy about it.

 Vanessa helped me build a snowman.

 We threw a scarf and face on before Brig had a full meltdown.  We went inside and cuddled in some blankets to warm back up.

 We busted out some playdough recently, which we haven't done in quite a while.  The picture below says it all.  I have no idea how much play dough Brigham actually ingested.

 

 And this was just random toy activities but Brig just makes me laugh so hard in this pic I had to add it.  Check out his little man boobs and that belly!  Haha!

HB 109

Utah House of Representatives are currently in session.  And they have a bill in their hands that is so important to me and my family.  It's hard, and frustrating, to watch from a thousand miles away while a bunch of politians and lobbyists decide whether or not your husband's profession can practice in Utah.  There isn't a whole lot we can do.  Since we don't live in Utah, we can't write "our" representative.  We don't have one.  So basically, I am asking anyone and everyone who is willing to take a second to ask their reps to support HB 109. 
House Bill 109 would allow Anesthesiologist Assistants (AAs) to be licensed and practice in Utah.  This does not mean that any hospital or anesthesiologist or anyone for that matter, has to HIRE AAs.  It simply allows for the option.  I am almost flabbergasted that this is even a hard bill to pass.  But sure enough, it is.  In fact, this is the fourth year that HB 109 has been proposed for Utah law.  So, you might wonder, why hasn't it passed?  The answer is simple.  Nurse anesthetists.  As a group, they have large lobbying power and put lots of money into political activism.  They are a tough group to recon with.  AAs are essentially job competition for CRNAs.  And that my friends is where the political battle begins.  And because I would never ask you to blindly support a bill, here are the facts regarding AAs.

The duties of AAs are identical to those of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA’s), despite different educational backgrounds.  In providing assistance to a supervising anesthesiologist, AA’s are trained to:

-          Assist the supervising anesthesiologist in developing and implementing an anesthesia care plan for a patient;

-          Obtain a comprehensive patient history, perform relevant elements of a physical exam, and present the history to the supervising anesthesiologist;

-          Pretest and calibrate anesthesia delivery systems and obtain and interpret information from the systems and monitors;

-          Assist the supervising anesthesiologist with the implementation of monitoring techniques;

-          Establish basic and advanced airway interventions, including intubation of the trachea and performing ventilatory support;

-          Administer intermittent vasoactive drugs and start and adjust vasoactive infusions;

-          Administer anesthetic drugs, adjuvant drugs, and accessory drugs;

-          Perform epidural anesthetic procedures, spinal anesthetic procedures, and other regional anesthetic techniques under the direction of the supervising anesthesiologist;

-          Administer blood, blood products, and supportive fluids;

-          Provide assistance to a cardiopulmonary resuscitation team in response to life-threatening situations

Opponents of this bill argue:

- They have no prior healthcare experience

Although AA's are not required to have previous healthcare experience before acceptance to an accredited AA program, the majority of AA students do have healthcare experience nonetheless. Anesthesia technicians, phlebotomists and even nurses are common applicants to AA school.  Physicians are also not required to have previous healthcare experience prior to medical school, yet during their training they gain the experience needed to become our healthcare professionals.  Similarly, AA’s gain sufficient healthcare experience during their training to be effective and safe anesthesia providers.  AA programs vary from 24-27 months with a minimum of 2,500 clinical hours.

- They can be admitted to AA school with any degree

Most AA students have received a bachelor's degree in a field of science. Some have received a non-science degree. However, all AA students are required to take pre-medical coursework, including the MCAT and/or GRE, just as medical school students are required to do.  Acceptance to AA school is very competitive; in fact it is comparable to medical school. Physicians are also able to receive bachelor’s degrees in non-science fields prior to medical school, yet they are our healthcare professionals.  The AA profession was designed to implement mid-level anesthesia providers into an anesthesia care team (ACT) that could go directly to medical school if necessary.  It is not uncommon for AA's to continue their education and become physicians.

- They are not able to work independently

The AA profession has been around for just over 40 years, whereas the CRNA profession began in the late 19th century.  In over 150 years, with over 35 times as many CRNA's as AA's, nurse anesthetists have been able to lobby for independent practice for quite some time. They can now work independently in 17 states.  Although AA's are as qualified as CRNA's to administer anesthesia, AA's do not seek independence as they believe it is important to work as a team under the supervision of a qualified anesthesiologist who has received a medical degree.  Being able to work independently is proof of successful lobbying, rather than exceptional ability.

-The AA education is inferior to that of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs)

The AA curriculum is taught by both practicing AA's as well as anesthesiologists at an accredited medical school and includes both didactic and clinical programs. The curriculum is reviewed by the CAAHEP and must pass stringent requirements.  Program lengths can vary from 24-27 months and include a minimum of 2,500 clinical hours.  Clincial rotations include cardiac, pediatric, obstetrics, regional anesthesia, trauma, etc.

AA’s have proven to be safe and efficient mid-level healthcare providers (you can look at the link below to see a study that proves as much).  Our purpose is not to suggest that CRNA's are not qualified to administer anesthesia.  We know and are friends with many CRNA's and they do a fantastic job.  We are expressing our concern that some people are spreading false perceptions (to our lawmakers) of AA's as being unqualified to administer anesthesia and keeping them out of Utah because of job competition.

http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/RR337.pdf

Valentines Day

I had good intentions, I really did.  I was going to make the cute heart pizzas that are all over pinterest. Sit down and make cute valentines with the kids and mail them off to all the family.  As well as make some cute decor.  We did make some hearts and the kids colored them.  But we never sent them.  And we did get a heart punch and punch out a billion hearts from paint swatch chips.  Then glued them on to fishing line to make heart garland.  I didn't take a pic though. 

And I ultra-failed for the hubs.  It was like a super lame, Happy Valentines Day note on the door as he left for work and I slept happily in my bed.  Actually, I think I was awake, wishing my insomniac children would sleep.  Anyway, I did have a legit excuse.  Since we were flu-plagued, doing anything felt overwhelming for me and the kids. 

I did manage to make these cookies since I made them the day before for the missionaries.  Peanut butter cookies with Reese's hearts.  They were bomb-shell.  We also had some with Dove chocolates and those were amazing as well.  Though not hearts, so not valentine cookies.

Jon got me roses and my favorite goodies.  Which I totally didn't need because I eat them like they might jump up and run out of the cupboard.  Jon just must be okay with a "fluffy" wife :)  But I did love every one of the long nibs that were gone in 2.8 seconds, give or take.

The Butterflies

The kids have enjoyed having the butterflies.  Unfortunately, I don't think the butterflies have enjoyed having the kids.  Vanessa and Benson love to stick their hands in the net and let (or force) the butterflies into their hands.  Poor things have suffered some injuries as a result and so far we have had one fatality, and two have escaped.  They have always been caught and returned by Vanessa though. 

This has probably been more educational for me than it has been for the kids.  Haha.  I haven't really looked at a butterfly up close.  Their wings are pretty but their bodies are actually very insect looking.  Surprise! Watching them eat though is pretty fascinating.  This butterfly here is getting sugar water off this flower.  We dip the flower in sugar water because that is what our directions said to do.  Anyway, if you look close, you can barely see their tongue-thing coming out to get the liquid.

 In case you can't tell what you are looking for, here it is up close with arrows that you can't see.  Haha.  Also notice the tortured wings.  Sad.  Amazingly though, I think this is one of the ones that escaped and could still fly!  Albeit awkwardly, but it did fly!

Pretty cool isn't it?  Vanessa calls it their curly tongue.  Haha.

Sleeping Beauties

The flu finally caught up to our house.  Or at least Vanessa and Brigham were sick a couple days.  It was mild compared to what I have heard from other families.  But so far, no one else has gotten sick.  We are praying it stays that way.

Some New Additions

Jon and I sold much of the bit of furniture we had before we left Florida.  It felt more economical to sell it rather than pay to move it.  So, we are slowly replacing furniture and, ya know, getting the furniture we never had.  Like a media center :)

This desk is in our bedroom.  This is the first pic of our bedroom that I've posted.  I took two pics with different exposures so you can get a feel for the wall color.  I love it.  The previous owners painted this room, but I love their choice.  I'm into the trendy grays right now.

The rest of our bedroom still needs some work. The picture frames you can see in the corner are lined up on the wall for the entire house. We haven't quite figured out where to hang everything yet. Jon is also going to build us a very custom bed. I'm excited about it. It's going to be awesome. The colors are going to be gray, black, and blue. I'm slightly unsure of the tone. I was thinking Tiffany Blue but I think that is too green. I kind of just want to go with a baby blue. 

We also got this media center.  Jon assembled it and put some holes in so we could be cord-less!

It's actually a cabinet that we are using as a media center.  We really wanted something light colored, but it was hard to find that in a media center.  We have new flooring ordered that is dark.  So we wanted to lighten the room up with some light furniture.  I still might do some light distressing on this piece so it isn't so stark white.  We played around with it on the bottom and decided it was subtle enough you might not notice.  But I still kind of like the idea of doing it and it wouldn't take too long.  We'll see what we end up doing.

I like the way it looks and I love being cord-less!  My next project is the mantle and I think Jon is going to build some of the furniture on his list.  I'm really excited about the mantle.  I'm just not a fan of that yellow oak color.

The Boys Room

My inspiration for the color came from this photo on Houzz.  I love the navy with the teal overtones. And I think this dark color works because it is so broken up with the large windows and white trim.  I initially wanted to do some wainscoting. But we decided it wouldn't look as good with our popcorn wall texture in the back.  Not really sure who started this popcorn texture trend in the Midwest but I don't really love it.  So we decided instead to do bead board.  Here are some before/paint prep pics.

 

Then we threw up the top color of paint.

 Then we started on the bead board.  This only took ten times longer than we thought it would.  We are learning this is always true of all home improvement projects.  We also had a helper.  We couldn't get away from the little man.  We would put him in the toy room with the kids and he would be back a few minutes later.  He just loves all the tools I guess.  Talk about not a kid-friendly zone though!

 No worries, no injuries were sustained in taking these pics.  And I did keep Brig out as much as possible.

It took forever (like a couple weeks) but we did finally get the beadboard all up.  The seems were less than perfect.  Like, we thought we were going to have to put more boards up to cover the seems.  But we finally decided we could do some intense work with glue and spackle.  So we on that. 

The pic above is the baseboard on and below is with the final shelf.  Meanwhile we are still spackling....

Years later, we were finally done spackling and sanding and moved on to painting the bead board. 

 And just like that, we were miraculously finished!!!  I couldn't be happier with how it looks.  Now all we need is a little furniture and some decor.  Yay!

 

In a Funk

I hope I am not the only one in a total funk lately. I just seem to be in a really bad mood, a lot. I keep reminding myself that I am going to miss these days and I should relish every minute. But then Brig starts trying to climb up me while pulling my hair while Benson is yelling for a new toy and Vanessa insists she is completely incapable of putting her own clothes on. So, I am trying my darndest to find the good in each day.  Here are a couple moments that make it all worth it.

Benson was watching a movie like this.  He was actually sitting forward like this with both  hands on his chin but by the time I got the camera, he had moved.  It is still darn cute, but was super cute with his chin in both hands.

We are painting the boys room so all the kids are in our room right now.  As if that is anything new.  Benson woke up and hollered for me to get him. When I got up, Brigham started rousing.  Until he rolled over and found Vanessa.  The trade off to not having your own bed is having super cuddly kids :)  Doesn't it make you want to reach in and squeeze them?  It makes it more bearable when one of them is up at 3am screaming their guts out.

Snow and Sadness

This is what Brigham looks like all day if I set him down.  He follows me around with this face and often has food falling out of his mouth too.  So it's all pretty accurate.  Yesterday was especially bad because this little man busted out a fever.  I gave him Tylenol twice but was trying not to give Ibuprofen because the bottle was busted.  Lame!  I wanted to return it so I didn't want to open the seal.  The Tylenol wasn't touching his fever so I had to do the alternating schedule with Ibuprofen and now have a baby food container full of Ibuprofen.  Oddly enough, it wasn't leaking that bad until I opened the seal.  I guess the pressure was holding it in or something.

 But we finally had some snow stick around for a few hours.  This is as much as we got though.  It's no Utah here.

PS, doesn't that tree, the big one, just need to go?  I really want a Japenese Maple there.  This one has some kind of poopy fruit that covers our walk.  It's not even and edible kind! I'm sure it'll end up in the house.  Plus, I don't love the way it looks but it is kind of sad since it's so big.  We'll see what the budget allows come spring.