Thursday, April 29, 2010

Fish, Fish, Fish and Penguins!



We had a little family trip to the Aquarium the other day. We had so much fun!! We met some friends of ours there....and just enjoyed spending time looking at fish, sharks, and the cool little penguins! Peyton LOVED it! He especially enjoyed the sharks, jelly fish and manta rays! Josh and Caile had just as much fun, they just aren't as animated about it!! Preston actually thought some of the fish were pretty fun! He was trying to grab them through the glass. It was so funny to watch him not understand that he can't reach through the clear glass! It was our second trip for the summer....and it was just as fun as the first time! I'm glad we have such a cool place so close to us!

My friend Becky and her family met us at the aquarium! This is her husband and two adorable kiddos....

Becky and little Casey! I love this picture of them!!

Becky stole my baby from me part of the time....I was just helping her get her baby fix!

Preston is trying to grab the fish through the glass....just can't understand why he can't pick them up!

Cool fish!

The jellies....one of Peyton's favorites!!

Peyton petting the Manta rays....they put there wings up the side of the wall so you can get them easier! It was sooo cool!

And finally the penguins!! This was the best picture I could get unfortunately. They were so cute!!


Wreckage

Car accidents. I've always been afraid of them....but hadn't had one since I was like 20. My very first accident was horrible. I was riding in a car with a friend. I was sleeping and she was driving. We were probably a mile from her house when we wrecked. She fell asleep and veered off the road. She popped her eyes open, tried to get the car under control, but obviously didn't. The next thing I know, we went off the side of the road, hit a fence and started flipping. I remember something hitting my head, then everything was just black. I couldn't hear anything, but I could feel myself flipping around even though I couldn't feel pain. Finally, after what seemed like a few minutes, we stopped moving. The whole accident was probably 20 seconds, but it was in slow motion for me. The next think I know, I heard my friend saying my name. It took a second for me to be able to respond to her. We crawled out of the vehicle....on the side that the door would open on and searched to find our way back to the road. It was late, or I guess early in the morning, pitch black on a road with no lights. We'd wrecked into a field and I had no idea where we were because I'd been sleeping just before we crashed. We found a barb wire fence that we had to climb over to get to the road. Just after we found the road, a man came to investigate the noise he heard, and called the police for us. We were fine, miraculously. We had some serious bumps and bruises, I could count 5 large bumps on my head, my hand was cut and bleeding, and I had some nasty bruises the size of grapefruits on each of my thighs (likely from the air bag). Of course some severe whiplash that took a while to heal as well. But for the most part, both of us were fine. See, I was never a big seat belt person. I knew that they could save your life in an accident, but I was young and invincible....never thought I could die. My friend was the same way....neither of us wore our seat belts on the way to our friends house that evening. On the way home, it was late, and I was soooo tired. I decided to put my seat belt on so that I could lean my head against it, sort of like a pillow. When my friend saw me put mine on, she put hers on and said, "I guess I'll wear mine too." I keep thinking there must have been some divine intervention there. If we weren't wearing our seat belts, we would have been thrown from the vehicle, and likely be dead. The cop that showed up to the scene said that we hit the fence head on, causing us to flip, end over end 3 times. The car was incredible to look at....and even more incredible that we walked away from it. My hair was stuck in "oh shit" handle above the door, that section of the car was crunched down.....so I knew what hit my head on one of our first flips.



Recently, my children and I were driving on Main Street in Lehi. We came to an abrupt stop at a light when the person in front of me slammed on their breaks. We were able to stop fine, though quickly....then the sound that gives me nightmares happened. The squeal of tires. I could hear it, but couldn't see where it was coming from. I had that "OH NO" feeling just before the back of my van was slammed into. Immediately my kids were crying. My poor baby screamed louder than I've ever heard him scream. I could see Caile out of the corner of my eye. She had that freaked out look on her face. I immediately pulled my car to the side of the road, and could see the truck behind me follow me over. I looked back to make sure Peyton was okay. He was crying. He was the closest to the back, so he got most of the impact. He said that he heard his neck pop. But he felt OK. A poor 19 year old kid gets out of his truck to see if we're OK. I've got 3 kids in the back crying and I tell him to call for help. Of course, then it's my turn to panic a little. We were all OK, but had some whiplash. I just don't think there can be a car accident without a little pain, and being scared to death! This was not my worst car accident, but this one had my kids involved! I am a little bit scared to drive. I'm scared every time I have to stop quickly that someone is going to slam into the back of me. I am just thankful that again, everyone was OK. Even though we have a ruined van, my family is OK. We are truly blessed.

Our car had $5000 of damage to the back end. Thank goodness for seat belts and insurance!! I'll post some pictures if I can get them off of my husbands phone.....

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sleep Paralysis


The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781) is thought to be one of the classic depictions of sleep paralysis perceived as a demonic visitation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_Paralysis



Sleep Paralysis. So, I never knew of this phenomena. I'm pretty sure I could have gone a life time without ever experiencing this. Sleep Paralysis is actually where the original term "nightmare" comes from. Let me tell you, this "nightmare" is unlike any nightmare I'd ever experienced in my life! It was like the most horrifying and terrorizing thing I could have imagined for myself! The weird thing is, sleep paralysis is pretty common, with as much as 30% of the population experiencing this at least once in their lifetime. Some people have these nightmares often, others only experience this once. I pray that this will be my one and only experience.

So let me just break down what exactly happened to me. I decided to sleep downstairs in the family room. I had been sick, and the baby was fussy. Sometimes it's just easier to sleep where the baby swing is...if you know what I mean. I fell asleep on my back in the reclining chair. The white noise sound was going on the baby swing when I went to sleep. I woke up to a sound that I thought was a child saying "Mom". I opened my eyes, looked around the room...even though it was dark, I didn't see anyone. So I closed my eyes and was trying to go back to sleep. I heard a couple other random weird noises...house noises....that shouldn't have made me jumpy, but for some reason they did. I just had this creepy feeling inside of me. Somehow I was almost able to get back to sleep when I heard the white noise on the baby swing cut out for a second, then it shut off. I freaked out a little, but there are always logical explanations for these things, right? The sounds on the swing are still not working today. I don't know what happened to it, it must have given out. So, starting off, I was jumpy, freaked out, and my mind was probably working up some crazy stuff, before I even went back to sleep. Even with all the creepiness, I was able to get back to a light sleep. It felt like every few minutes or so, I was opening my eyes to a weird sound, or a strange feeling. After waking a few times, I woke to find myself unable to move. It was strange but only lasted a second, then my hands and feet started tingling and I could move again. We've all had occasions where we wake up with an arm or a leg asleep. I really thought I must have been laying weird, and put my whole body to sleep. So, I adjusted in the chair, and went back to sleep quickly. It seemed like just a few minutes later that I woke up again, paralyzed. I couldn't move and was waiting for the tingling feeling to start again. Instead, I stayed paralyzed. I suddenly got a very uneasy feeling, like something bad was going to happen. Honestly, it felt like an evil spirit or entity was coming to get me. Suddenly I had a ton of pressure on me. The only way I can describe the pressure is that it felt like an evil being laying on me, like something wanted to hurt me. The pressure was so great that I could feel my back pushing into the couch, past the cushion, into the frame. I want to say it was like something was trying to take over my body. Scary! I looked up with only my eyes...because that was all I could move, and saw a being of some sort. It was something that I'd describe as a ghost....white, floating, no real body, but the face of an old man. There was also something else that I didn't get a good look at because I was scared to death and closed my eyes. I tried to scream for my husband but couldn't. No words would come out of my mouth. At that same moment, I had what they call an "out of body experience." I seemed to float above myself, and could see myself trying to scream, then went back to my body. Just as suddenly as the nightmare started, it stopped. The whole thing lasted maybe a minute or two. When it stopped, every bad feeling was gone, and I could move my body. I was freaking out, as you can imagine. Then I started to wonder if I dreamed it all. I thought it may have just been an extremely realistic nightmare. I also thought maybe I was going completely insane or that I was actually being possessed by some evil entity. All I really knew was that it scared the crap out of me! I stayed awake most of the rest of the night, and told some of the story to my husband this morning. Of course I didn't tell him the whole story....I didn't want him to think I was crazy! He just said, "Wow, sounds like you had a nightmare." I wanted to say..."You have no idea!" The whole day, I was spooked. Convinced that I was insane, I decided to do some research on nightmares and being paralyzed. That search turned up a lot of information...way more than I expected! I found many sites with explanations for what happened to me, and also some stories of what other people had experienced. Some of the stories could have been my story, verbatim. I was stunned that so many people had experienced this, yet I'd never heard of it! Even though there is an explanation of sleep paralysis, I'd be lying to say that I'm not still scared. There are people who still believe that something "evil" is to blame for the "nightmare." All I can say is that I won't sleep with all of the lights out, I refuse to sleep downstairs anymore, being home alone scares me, I constantly feel like something is behind me, and I will not to sleep on my back ever again(the most vulnerable position for sleep paralysis)! I have a feeling, this is going to haunt me for a while. I told my husband the rest of the story later, after I figured out that I wasn't crazy. The funny thing is, he's had it happen to him. Well, he had the paralyzed part...without all the hallucinations to go with it. So, he didn't think I was crazy at all either! I'm glad to have my wonderful, understanding husband!

Anyway, if anyone would like to read about this crazy stuff, I've posted a link on sleep paralysis (just below the picture). This goes through the definition, what it does, what can cause it, what most people experience, the history of it, and even what some other cultures believe sleep paralysis is. This has been blamed for spirit possessions, witch craft, and even alien abductions! Enjoy!!


8 months



I can't believe how 8 months flew! Preston climbed a whole flight of stairs the other day! It's amazing how he's growing. He pulls himself up on things and walks around tables and down the couches. He has four beautiful teeth that he likes to bite with. He got his 4th tooth shortly after the 3rd one came in. He bit me pretty hard on the back of the leg the other day...I guess he wanted attention! Preston is still a bit fussier than Peyton ever was...granted, he has improved a ton! He still wakes up a couple times during the night. He hates sleeping in his crib and prefers sleeping next to me or in his swing. He is smiley when he is feeling good though, and that makes it all worth it! His big toothy grin is enough to melt any heart. Even a really tired heart! We sure love him lots. I still haven't had professional pictures done of my little fart...I feel sorta bad. I will get him there. SOON!!






Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter

I worked the night before Easter, so I missed the Easter egg coloring...but from what I hear, it was lots of fun! Peyton and Daddy had a blast, and even Jared's parents were able to join in on the fun. Easter day was fun...a small celebration as usual. I helped the Easter bunny set things up in the morning when I got home from work, then went to bed for a while. When everyone was up, I got up to enjoy the cute looks on the kid's faces! It was exciting because it was Preston's first Easter! Josh and Caile spent Easter morning with their *hmm hmm* "real" Mom. So we didn't get to see them until later in the day. I obviously wasn't good at taking pictures after the morning because there aren't any of Josh and Caile...or even Jared's parents on Easter day! Usually I take too many pictures, so that's kind of weird. We had an Easter egg hunt in the morning...then I took a nice long nap!! Jared's parents were visiting from California, so in the evening we made a leg of lamb and a ham. My Mom happened to be coming through as well, so she stayed for a while and had dinner with us! It was really nice to have family around for the holiday!

Easter Eve

Daddy and Peyton coloring some really cool eggs for the Easter Bunny!


This is Preston's idea of coloring eggs! He loves Grandma and Grandpa Egbert's dog, Tucker.


Peyton bugging Grandpa Egbert!


Easter


My cute little fart Preston, on his very first Easter! Spoiled already!!



My little Mama's boy Peyton! He loves his new frog! And no, he's not completely naked...just likes to sleep in his boxers!!



Peyton and his cousins, Isaac and Kaden



Preston and Grandma Peggy