Crazy Heat!

"why do sane, rational, educated people choose to live in the desert? On purpose?!" I remember very clearly asking myself this question in the hotter months while I was walking to my car accross the ASU campus. I don't think I ever came up with a clear answer. But here I am, still in the desert. On purpose.

I have been having a hard time with the heat lately. True I have lived in AZ since I was seven, but I don't think you ever really get used to it.

This is not my first summer pregnancy. It is my third. I usually like being pregnant in the summer. I think it keeps me from getting so huge, because I can't cover up with layers. And one of my favorite sayings, (you've heard me say it if you know me in real life), is "tan fat looks better then white fat". This is very true. I like being tan when I would otherwise look like a beached whale on the delivery table. I like being tan in my babies' first pictures.

But lately I have been sweating from the moment I wake up. And it will only get worse. Right now we are still using our evap cooler, so by evening I am covering up with a blanket. This is probably our last weekend for that. Like I said, it will only get worse.

I think it has to do with size. Right now, at 22 weeks, I weigh as much as I did when I gave birth to Brenley. Which was the biggest I had ever ever been. Who knows how much more I will gain in the next 18 weeks.

I know what you are thinking. "How can you be gaining so much weight when you are still throwing up?" Wendell says I only throw up the stuff that is good for me, and the peanut butter and chocolate stays right where it is. I am afraid he is right;)Add that to almost no activity, and there you go.

So Rachael e mailed me this list, and I thought it was mostly appropriate. She got a kick out of the part about driving with oven mitts, because she has noticed that I can't really touch my stearing wheel with out a napkin, or a rag or something. I thought you might all enjoy it. A lot of you can relate;)

You Know You're From Arizona If...
40 Crazy things you only see in the southwestern desert...

1. You buy salsa by the gallon.

2. Your Christmas decorations include a half a yard of sand and l00 paper bags.

3. You think a red light is merely a suggestion.

4. All of your out-of-state friends start to visit after October but clear out come the end of April.

5. You think someone driving wearing oven mitts is clever.

6. Most of the restaurants in town have the first name "El" or "Los".

7. You think 60 tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful yard.

8. You've signed so many petitions to recall governors that you can't remember the name of the incumbent.

9. You notice your car overheating before you drive it.

10. Your house is made of stucco and has a red clay tile roof.

11. You can say "Hohokam" and people don't think you're laughing funny.

12. You no longer associate bridges (or rivers) with water.

13. You see more irrigation water on the street than there is in the Salt River.

14. You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink.

15. You can say 115 degrees without fainting.

16. Every other vehicle is a 4x4.

17. You can be in the snow, then drive for an hour and it will be over 100 degrees.

18. Vehicles with open windows have the right-of-way in the summer.

19. People break out coats when temperature drops below 70 degrees.

20. You discover, in July, it only takes two fingers to drive your car.

21. The pool can be warmer than you are.

22. You can make sun tea instantly.

23. You run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so you can use your fireplace.

24. Most homes have more firearms than people.

25. Kids will ask, "What's a mosquito?"

26. People who have black cars or black upholstery in their car are automatically assumed to be from out-of-state or nuts.

27. You notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.

28. The AC is on your list of best friends.

29. Monday Night Football starts at 7:00 instead of 6:00.

30. You realize that Valley Fever isn't a disco dance.

31. You can finish a Big Gulp in 10 minutes and go back for seconds.

32. The water from the cold water tap is the same temperature as the hot one.

33. You can (correctly) pronounce the words: "Saguaro", "Ocotillo", "Tempe", "Gila Bend", "San Xavier", "Canyon de Chelly", "Mogollon Rim", "Cholla", and "Ajo".

34. It's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation, and not one person is walking on the streets.

35. You experience third degree burns if you touch any metal part of your car.

36. You know better than to get into a car with leather seats if you're wearing shorts.

37. Announcements for Fourth of July events never end with "in case of rain......"

38. When someone asks how far you live from a location, it's always in terms of minutes, not miles.

39. Everyone's smiling and talking about the great weather on rainy days.

40. You have to explain to out-of-staters why there is no daylight savings time.

Jimmy concert last night!

(Me, Jim (lead singer of JEW), Joy, and Michelle after a concert)

Here's something you may not know about me: I dig a good concert every now and then. The Killers, Jimmy Eat World, The Format(currently split up, but a girl can hope, right?) These are my favorites. When these guys come around once or twice a year, I go.

I couldn't get a ticket for the floor, but we had really good seats. Joy, Rebecca, and Michelle were on the floor, and I was in the seats with Melissa, my sister Callie, and her husband Bryce. Really, who wants to see a huge pregnant woman dancing around on the floor? It was probably best to spare the rest of the world the sight of it, and I didn't really want to risk hurling on the floor. But I do get a little rambunctious for the seats sometimes. Callie and Bryce were about to fall asleep next to me, and Melissa wasn't feeling great. So I had to tone it down a little.

every time I go to a concert I think to myself, maybe I am getting a little too old for this. But I always seem to enjoy it anyway. I went to school with the boys in Jimmy Eat World and they are even older then I am. It is not like I am going to a Metalicca concert or some skeezy rap group. These are really tame concerts. No mosh pits;)

They played an awesome set and it was great fun for an old pregnant girl. But next time I will probably be down where the action is!

Brenley's drinking problem

(Bren hangin out in the girls' laundrey sippin away, watchin a vid.)

I have a confession to make. Brenley has a problem hittin' the bottle. Yes, it is a sippy cup habit. She calls it her bottle, even though she hasn't seen an actual bottle since she was 12 months old.

I know you are thinking "big deal", but this kid drinks a lot. We used to mix her juice with half water. Now we do 4/5 water and 1/5 juice, and we still feel like we are buying a ton of juice. She goes through a TON of diapers.

I don't know how we are going to potty train her. She has been wanting to for a couple of months, but I didn't want to deal with it. I kept saying, "I'll train her when I stop hurling." Only I never stopped hurling. And now I am afraid she has lost interest.

I am afraid I will have to lock up the sippy cups. Cold turkey? Probably not, but we will need to set limits. But they make her so happy! And it is so easy to just give her one.

So, I think it is time to wean her off of "the bottle", and get the child potty trained.

Wish me luck!

It's a....girl!

I tallied up the votes and 40% of you were right. To be fair, a lot of the responses I got were"I HOPE you are having a boy" or "I am rooting for a boy" Not exactly, "I think you are having a boy." SO most of you probably suspected I was really having a girl.

That's right. The rest of you Proffitts and Macnabs are going to have to resign yourselves to the fact that the trend may never be broken.

Good things about having another girl:

1. Brenley will probably relate to a girl better, which may make the transition from spoiled baby to big sister a little easier.

2. If she is funny looking, she can still look cute with a nice bow, some bracelets, a cute paci holder, and maybe some earrings.

3. We have a lot of girls in our family, so I am hoping for some real quality hand me downs. ( I didn't buy much or keep much from Bren. I kind of expected her to be my last girl.) We had some pretty well dressed little girls in our family not long ago.

4. Rachael, chief babysitter around here, really wanted a girl.

I had a boy's name picked out, but am at a total loss for girl names. The only two I can think of that I like sound too much like Brenley. Having experienced the problem of having a Rachael and a Mitchell and a Wendell and a Kindyl, I am not doing another similar name. It is confusing enough around here when you yell a name accross the house. Any suggestions? It just has to go well with "Macnab"

Happy Father's Day!

Noble fatherhood gives us a glimpse of the divine attributes of our Father in Heaven~James E Faust


This is still a difficult one for me because my own father is gone. This is my third Father's Day without my dad, and I miss him.

I am grateful for the 29 years I had with my own father.

(I am 7 months pregnant with Bren in this pic, thus the infamous bee stung face.)


And I am grateful for the rest of my life that I get to spend with my sweet husband. He has always taken care of us financially, emotionally, and spiritually. I know it has been hard for him to deal with all of my pregnancies and physical problems that come along with them. And sometimes emotional problems that naturally come with the physical problems. Thanks for being such a trooper! (Hopefully I don't give him a heart attack, and end up raising my 5 children alone. Knock on wood.)




I am also grateful for a supportive Father in Law. He is always willing to help when we need him to. Even if/when that means driving all the way down here from Utah. Usually in the middle of the night.

And I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that loves me and is here for me no matter what.


(I know this is actually a picture with Jesus, but I thought it was so appropriate with the little children. I love this one.)


Happy Father's Day to all of you fathers who are struggling and trying your best!

(In case you are wondering, yes I stole the graphics and the quote from Lauri again. I think she is getting used to it;) I can't help it if she happens to come up with the perfect stuff before I do!)

Boy or Girl?

I finally get to find out what we are having on Monday morning. WOO HOO! It is getting embarrassing not knowing. I am so big that people assume I found out long long ago, and they just give me this confused look when I don't know yet. In their defense I will be close to 21 weeks and with my other kids I found out at 16 or 17 weeks. I have thought about just messing with them and telling them I am not going to find out with this one;)

I have tried to ask our kids what we are having, and they are not much help. Mitchell's sense of fair play leads him to think that it could ONLY be a boy. A girl is not even possible. 4 girls and 1 boy? SO not fair. He told me if it was a girl we would just have to give her up for adoption. Sometimes I think Wendell agrees;)

Brenley just says whatever you said last. Example: "Brenley, are you going to have a baby sister or a baby brother?" "baby brother." "Brenley, are you going to have a baby brother or baby sister?" "baby sister" See what I mean?

I am pretty sure Rachael and Kindyl just say it will be a boy to humor me.

If we have a boy it will break a major streak in my family, and Wendell's. We all have all of one sex and only one of the other. Example: Jannalee- 6 girls 1 boy. Joy: 4 boys, 1 girl. Both of our families lean decidedly towards girls. So, like I said, the odds are stacked against us having a boy.

Can we do it? Can we break this major trend? What do you think?

I don't really know how to do an actual survey on here, so I am going to do this really really low tech. Leave a comment, and I will tally the votes.I want to hear your opinion. ALL of you;)

edit: Rachael knows how to do a survey and put one on for me. And she figured out my password herself. My 11 year old has surpassed me technologically;)

Kids, they say the cutest things, don't they?

I know you might not have caught the sarcasm in my voice there, so I will explain. Today, after being particularly abused by my children, I said," maybe I should just give it up and get a job." To which one of my lovely children replied, " You can't get a job, mom, you are way too mean." Then another child said, " She would only be mean if she is the boss." Thanks for the vote of confidence, sweets!

gas prices

No, I am not going to complain. Although it does stress me out a little! I just thought I would chronicle the changes we have made in our family to counteract the price change.

1. The poor Durango doesn't get to see the light of day much. It is very sad. Since Wendell's new job includes a company car, I get to drive his crappy little ford focus around town while he is at work. It gets more then twice the gas mileage. And as an added perk, it is quite the status symbol;)

2. I don't run errands anymore. I never just go to the store. I hit wal mart after the gym because it is right next to it. (obviously I don't get to wal mart often;) More examples-
- I did Costco returns today after movie fun because it is only a mile away from the theater, and I couldn't justify a separate trip. Of course, this meant standing in a very long line with a toddler who was already annoyed at having to be quiet for a two hour movie, and three other children. I NEVER go to Costco with kids. Ever. Not since my oldest three were little. It is not worth it. During the school year, my wonderful grandma comes over while the kids are in school and the baby is napping. I have been running errands by myself for years. Costco with kids is right up there with my least favorite things to do. I know most of you do it all the time. Not me.
- We didn't have fresh fruits or vegetables in our house for roughly 3 weeks. This is because the fruit market isn't really on my way to anything.(I have a hard time paying twice as much for them at the supermarket. I have issues, I know). I got my shots last week and swung by the FM on my way home. Shots = every 3 weeks. The day I went last week my family consumed: 1 whole pineapple, 1 whole baby cantaloupe, 1 whole bag of cherries, 1/2 bag of grapes, roughly 10 bananas, 3 nectarines, random carrots, and 1/2 pound broccoli. In 24 hours. Somehow I need to work the fruit market back in once a week. No my kids weren't totally deprived. We still had canned and frozen fruits and vegetables. But apparently it is not the same unless it is fresh.

3. Every time I go somewhere unusual I mentally figure out how much it is costing me in gas. I am getting much better at mental math.

4. We may never see Wendell's family in Utah again;)

5. Camping at the beach is not nearly as cost effective as it used to be. It is almost cheaper to stay in a nice place then it is to tow the tent trailer to the beach. If we find one that will fit my family ( all 50 of us) we may have to change our family vacation. Just kidding fam. That will probably never change no matter how expensive it gets. We don't really do it for the money. We are a family that likes camping. And it is fun to have a family commune for a week. We like a million little cousins running around. We like forgetting whose kids belong to whom. It just takes a little more creativity to budget multiple vacations. Choose a vacation to drop? I don't think so.

Is my budget so tight that all of these changes are absolutely necessary? Probably not. I think this is my way of coping with change and pretending I have control over something that seems a little out of control.

Basically it is helping me to be a better planner. This is probably a skill I needed anyway. So I should be thankful that I am forming new habits and learning to plan ahead. Yeah doubling gas prices!!;)

How about you? Am I the only one making changes?

The Beach House!

I know it is late, but I finally have pictures! I was a slacker and basically only took my camera to KBF, so I e mailed my sister Rebecca and she sent me some of hers. Yeah!




This is my favorite part of the beach house. There is a huge window in the living room that looks right onto the beach. When it is a little chilly you can just sit up there in the chairs or window seats and read your book and still feel like you are right on the beach. This is a picture of the kids through that window.



The kids decided to build their own little beach house down in the sand. They dug this big pit complete with a bench all the way around, and steps coming down. Then they set up the umbrella over it. As you can see, Rachael and Kinsey like to take their afternoon snack in there.


Christina and Joel Johnson had the beach house right next door, and Brenley was amazed by their little tiny baby Payton. Here I am holding the baby, and Bren is loving on her. ( I love pregnant pictures of me, especially with no make up. I feel like it looks like I have been stung on my face a hundred times by bees;)



It is so fun how the toddlers love to hang with each other any time our families get together. This is Bren and Addie playing before bedtime. (Rachael and Kinsey took the pictures.Lovely)


I love these pics of the boys. Jarem, Tate, and Mitchell are obviously playing chess in their jammies. Jarem is seriously contemplating Tate's next move. It is a very important little tournament...until Addie makes her move!;)




We came, we played, we read books, we swam, we boogie boarded, played games, chased cousins, loved on babies, went out to eat, went shopping, relaxed, recharged, and basically just hung! It was just what the Dr. ordered. One thing that would have made it better? My husband. We all missed Wendell, especially Brenley! When we got home, we started the countdown to our big family beach trip in July!

Parenting style

I took this quiz from Crazymama's website. I thought it was interesting. It is probably more true then I would like to think! The major difference: I DO believe in authority! (especially my own!;) For some reason my kids have a hard time with the concept. Does this quiz mean that this is my fault? Things that make you go hmmm....

http://www.motherstyles.com/quiz.asp



This was my result:

Your type is: istp —The “Give 'Em Their Space” Mother

“My feelings are my own business. Not theirs.
So I honor their privacy too.”


Non-intrusive and respectful of differences, the ISTP mother gives her children the personal space they need to develop as separate, self-sufficient individuals. As children grow and mature, she enjoys observing how each one becomes his or her own person. She seeks to accept and honor each child’s interests, opinions, and choices.
The ISTP mother does not believe in authority or control for its own sake. Instead, she favors a non-directive approach. Yet she has high expectations for each child’s self-discipline as a key to self sufficiency.
To these ends, the ISTP mother wants to “be there” for her children—to meet their basic needs and keep them safe. Her goal is to help her children think for themselves and take responsibility for their own actions.

still sick- advice?

You may remember that when I hit 12 weeks and was still sick as a dog I had a little breakdown. I decided that it would take the whole 16 weeks like some of my other pregnancies. When I hit 16 weeks I said to myself, "I am sure i will feel better tomorrow" and as time went on, " I will probably feel better next week". I have realized that I have been living in denial.

I will be 19 weeks tomorrow and am still travelling with a puke cup in my car. What is worse, I am still using it. I am still paying a fortune for zofran, and mostly only using it in the evening so I don't wake up hurling in the middle of the night.

You would think with all of this sickness I would not be as big as a house. Unfortunately, I am managing to keep down enough food to make me quite large. The fact that my usual workout schedule went down the tubes many months ago is not helping. Sporadic treadmill usage and a little yoga just doesn't do the same thing.

The culprit: probably my one whacked out ovary. My hormones are all unbalanced, and that means sickness. I am still holding out hope. It is easier for me if I tell myself that my body could figure things out and return to normal next week. My cysts could just go away. It's possible, right?

Anyhow, this really isn't just a pity post. I am looking for advice. It will be easier to deal with my sick body if I can just get my head straight. Usually I know the best things to do when you have problems of your own:



1. Service. This always seems to help when I am feeling sorry for myself. But I am having a hard time doing just the minimum for my family right now. Any suggestions?




2. gratitude. I love reading other people blog about their weekly blessings. I have always told myself I can't do that project because I didn't start in January. Maybe I should do it anyway. I also love Ashley's posts about "happiness today" She writes a little list about what has made her happy that day. I love it. I need to incorporate something like that into my life.



3.The temple. I haven't been to the temple since before I found out I was pregnant. I am afraid I won't be able to make it through a whole session. Just thinking about what would happen worries me enough to vomit;) Should I just go anyway and have faith that I can make it through? Or should I try to go about getting those blessings some other way?

Any other suggestions? Does anyone else have a sure fire way to make themselves feel better about things when life seems a little too overwhelming?