Busy, Busy, Busy

I don't think that there is a particularly busy season in the world of software development,  but it feels like I am in one now.  The main product that I am responsible has a 6 month release cycle, and we are completing a major release right now.  It will be out for beta testing within the next few weeks.  This means that I am daily reviewing bugs found by our QA team and determining if they must be fixed prior to the release, or if they can wait for future releases. It takes a mixture of experience, judgement, and luck.  It also means that I have a whole team in SLC waiting for me to answer my emails.  I am making a lot of friends this week (sarcasm!)

On top of the new release we also just completed our User's Conference.  It was in Tuscon AZ this year.  I was responsible for 6 or 7 breakout sessions and I also got to give the main presentation at one of the general sessions.  It was a live demo of our new release.  This is always a bit scary since everything could go wrong quickly.  Nothing did and it was an amazing conference.  I enjoyed the warm weather and the sun.  Oh the blessed sun!!!!

This week I am in Denver participating in Leadership Transformation training.  It is nice to be the one listening rather than teaching this, but also challenging keeping up with everything going on back in the office.  I really do love my job.  I work with amazing people and get to do some pretty cool things.  The hardest part is being away from my family.  I am preparing for another conference in Austin in a few weeks, and then I hope to hold of on travel for a bit.  There is another trip to Europe coming up in September which might be too hard to pass up if the opportunity arises...

Tyler did awesome with the kids last week.  Our friend Donna was amazing and watched the two little boys for us.  This week, they are starting a new daycare.  Sam had a bad first day and poor Tyler had to drop him off today anyway.  He was sad, but they worked things out.  I am also missing Jack's first pinewood derby.  Tyler is going to take pictures and I am sure that Jack will call with a play by play description of his night. 

Some of the other things going on...Tyler is moving to a different (SOOO nice) office space, phone will be installed Thursday and he has to be out of his old office by the end of the month.  Jack and Sam are playing soccer.  I will have to take some pictures and post about it - not to give it all away, but Sam is just as funny as I expected.  Jack is getting ready for his first piano recital, and he is taking an after school drama class.  He got picked for a pretty big part and we are excited to see how it turns out.  Our pediatrician is referring Sam to Shriner's to get his legs checked out, but I have no idea when that will be.  Logan continues to wreak havoc with toothpaste, diaper cream, markers, food, and anything else that he can get into.  He also started climbing out of his crib which is really messing with our schedule and my sanity.

As busy as we are, I am sure grateful for my life.  I am a lucky lady!

He makes me laugh!

Sam:  Mom, can I have my lunch now, I am starving!
Me:  Sure, what do you want.
Sam:  A peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Me:  That will be 4 kisses.  One for the bread, one for the peanut butter, one for the jelly, and one for the other bread.
Sam:  (wrinkles his nose) I'll just have a jelly sandwich.
Me:  That will be 3 kisses.
Sam:  Do I have to do it now, sigh?
Me:  Yep!
Sam:  OK.

Then he gets his famous little eye twinkle, puckers up and gives me three big ones!

And the Oscar goes to...

Samuel David Wirick, for his convincing performance of, "I think my foot got broken."  Last night, right before we were supposed to go to a friend's house to celebrate a cute boy's 2 year old birthday, Sam running at full speed, tripped on a rug and crashed to the floor.  He screamed and cried and told me he hurt his foot.  It was a pretty loud bang when he fell, so I loved him and babied him for a bit.  I let him leave without putting shoes on and carried him around that night.  There is not mark, it is not swollen (a tiny bit, but seriously?!?).  He can bend it, wiggle his toes, and it seems tender only when I press on the top of his foot.  I knew with every ounce of my being that this was a huge overreaction on his part.

Fast forward to 12 am.  Sam is screaming in the hallway.  His foot hurts.  I got him calmed down, and back to bed.  This happened every two hours for the rest of the night.  This added some doubt to my conviction of his total wellness.  Sam refused to walk all day long, and would not bear weight on his foot.  I finally decided to call the doctor.  They set us an appointment for tomorrow.  They said that with foot injuries, you can never be sure.  I told Tyler and we tried to work out an arrangement for the car. (By the way, the prism has died and cannot be brought to life without an engine replacement.  -So not what we need right now!)  Looking at my schedule, I could rearrange 3 meetings to open up an hour to take him in, but Tyler has to be in court and will need to have a vehicle to drive him there.  There is no way we can make it work, so I just decided to take him to the instant care tonight.

If your kid will not bear weight on their foot, your kid will receive x-rays; even in the doctor cannot find anything wrong with the foot.  If he is charming and flirts with the technician, he will get extra stickers a sucker and be allowed back to the computer to view his x-rays.  I wanted to point out that this was not doing me any favors for future fake injuries, but he was REALLY charming!

The official diagnosis:  Sam has a sore foot.  He needs Tylenol for the pain, and that will be $300 please!  I knew it, but I really didn't want to be the mom who ignored a broken foot and caused her child unneeded pain and suffering.  He still wont walk.  The kid knows how to stay in character.  I might call Disney to see if they need a new star!

What's up at the Wiricks?

This blog thing can get frustrating.  When something happens, I swear to myself I will blog about it.  Then I think that I will wait until I get pictures, and then I realize I haven't blogged about anything that I wanted to blog about.  Working full time plus busy callings, Tyler's business, and 3 naughty boys doesn't help.  Here's what's been going on at the Wiricks!

Tyler is really busy!  He goes to work every day and never ever sluffs his High Council responsibilities. :)

Jack has been taking skiing lessons on Saturdays.  Two weeks ago, he had a good fall that landed him in the ER.  The ski patrol gave him a cardboard box splint which he called the "box of shame".  The doctors in the ER thought that it was great and wrote Box of Shame on his box with marker.  Nothing was broken, but he was pretty bruised.  He got all bandaged up and given a set of crutches to walk on for a week.  I have never seen a more delighted boy.  He loved the attention.  It was scary to watch him as he cannot walk in a straight line minus crutches.  I also notices that he used them to point more than walk, so I told him it was time to give them up.  He was sad, but agreed.  My real reason for retiring the crutches was to save my walls.  Sam and Logan could not go a minute without using them as guns or banging them on the walls.  Good news, Jack is fully recovered.  We spent the weekend making the coolest valentines box ever.  It was a robot - the kids in class told him that if there was a contest, he would win.  He enjoyed valentines day and wrote me this cute poem:

Mom

Smart, honest

caring, amusing, loving

Most hard working

Parent

He also came into my room laughing hysterically as he tried to shove a conversation heart in my mouth.  I made him show me first.  It said, Team Jacob.  He thought it was hysterical.  He also wants to know what the deal is with Justin "Beaver", cuz the girls at school keep talking about him.  Jack is too funny!

Sam is my buddy.  Every day at lunch I look forward to asking him what he wants to eat.  Here are some of his answers: a turkey and cheese sandwich with peanut butter and jelly, a turkey and cheese sandwich with no cheese, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with just peanut butter.  Sam is going to the orthopedic specialist next week to have some tests done.  (Tyler will be taking him by himself!) He will probably be scheduled for an MRI to look at the anatomy of his hips and pelvis.  Results will determine if he needs surgery, physical therapy, orthotics, or all three.  Keep him in your prayers.  I am signing him up for soccer this spring too, and I am hoping he can keep up with the other kids.  Time will tell, I guess.

Logan - does anyone need a 2 year old, because I am exhausted?  He requires constant supervision.  Here is a demonstration of what happens when Tyler and I tried to have a 5 minute talk without keeping our eyes on him.

Isn't he darling!  He also screams MINE at the top of his lungs and dumps his bowl of milk out after breakfast every morning.  He is sweet too.  He stood at the window waving at Jack this morning saying, "bye buddy!"  He has also fallen in love with Woody from Toy Story.  He begs for Woody fruit snacks and carries around a Woody doll.  It is all pretty cute when you can get through the naughty.

I am just trying to keep my head above water.  I had a trip to Utah in January.  I just flew in for the day to attend meetings in SLC.  I have more meetings next week, so Logan and I are flying to Utah on Saturday and spending some extra time with family.  I have more trips coming up:  March/Seattle, April/Tucson, and May/Austin.

What Jack knows about MLK Day

I had Oprah on yesterday afternoon.  In commemoration of MLK day, she was exploring past shows where racism was discussed.  Jack walked in and this was our conversation:

J - "Mom, what exactly is racism?"
M - Some long description which more details than he probably needed.
J - "That is not good! I thought Martin Luther King took care of that a long time ago."

Strange School Lunch Requests

Jack had a doctor's appointment earlier this week and the doctor was concerned that he had not gained any weight in a year - he has dropped from the 50% to the 20% for his age.  He has only grown taller and skinnier.  She asked us to pump him up a bit with additional calories.  The problem is the kid doesn't stop moving and is not very hungry, so we are going to have to get creative.  He went shopping with Tyler yesterday and picked out some foods.  He also announced earlier this week that he was sick of turkey and cheese sandwiches in his lunch.  I told Tyler to switch it up and make some PB and J's.  Apparently this is not what Jack had in mind.  This morning, Tyler went to work early, so I made his lunch.  I tried to convince him to eat school lunch, "Meatloaf Cupcakes".  He informed me that he didn't think that school lunch meatloaf would be good like Grandma Gloria's.  He asked me to pack whole wheat crackers, A-LOT of smoked salmon, pineapple, and some fruit roll ups.  Where did this kid come from?  That was definitely the strangest lunch I have ever packed.  I am glad he wanted healthy food, but there are no extra calories in what he chose.  Maybe when he comes home I will feed him a stick of butter :)

Christmas Highlights

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Here are some highlights:

Christmas Eve - The kids did not get to bed until after midnight on Christmas Eve because of all the excitement. Christmas Eve with friends, funniest nativity recreation directed by the funniest 10 year old in town. A note to Santa asking him how thick his suit is. Oatmeal spread out all over the front yard for the reindeer. Jack wonders if there are any wild reindeer that fly. Christmas books with Dad, new super hero PJs, Sam spends most of the night grumpy and crying, doesn't understand why he cannot open all of his presents. I am up past 2 am wrapping. Logan runs to the tree every time we get out the camera and poses for a picture just so we will show it to him on the camera display.

Christmas Morning - Kids are amazed at the presents under the tree. Logan opens his first gift (A dinosaur flashlight that roars) and doesn't want anything else. What he does open becomes a stand for his dinosaur. All wishes and dreams come true when the Wirick's join the current decade and finally get a Wii. Kids play with race tracks all morning, and Wii all afternoon. I pack for the trip to Utah. Tyler is sick in bed, tries to help pack between nausea. Kids figure out that the Zhu Zhu pets can ride down the fisher price race track and enjoy that until bed time.

Day after Christmas - 10 hour drive to Utah. We beat the storm out of town and have a great/safe drive. DVD player saves the trip and keeps kids mesmerized. Sam asks if we are in Utah every half hour. Sam confuses the word Montana with September and keeps asking us if we are still in September - every half hour. Sam starts singing, "All I want for Christmas is my Grandma!" No tears or major issues on the trip, and we make it to Utah by dinner time and early enough to meet our new darling Lilly (My sister Karen's new baby).

While in Utah - FHE at Temple Square with cousin Jake. Note to self: 4 little boys at temple square/not such a good idea, it sounds like this, "Jack, Jake, Sam, Logan stop that, get over here, be quiet, your going to get lost, get back here, keep your hands off of each other..." Their favorite part was touching the temple. Cute. Whitney cousins Christmas party, Wirick family party, date with Tyler (love the movie True Grit - a must see), temple with Tyler (thanks grandparents for babysitting), lots of Sonora grill - seriously yummy!, more Christmas presents, visiting with our parents, a horse drawn sleigh ride to see the elk at Hardware Ranch, the storm of the century that really wasn't :), a little bit of work (good thing we have cell phones and laptops), traditional birthday crafts with my nieces Gracie and Rachel, Jack's mandated reading - getting started on Harry Potter, the Ballard cousin (little kids) New Years party at Emily's, spending time with Karen, Tyson, and Lilly, and finally - Lilly's baby blessing. Things I missed - spending more time visiting with my sister's in law and my brothers; everyone was so busy. We didn't see any friends this year.


The drive back - The weather was pretty good until the Monida pass. It was a bit scary for a little while. The kids want to move to Utah and they miss Grandma. The kids were ornery! At one point, Jack demanded that we turn around and go back to a town where he could get something to eat. He could not wait 20 more minutes to the next town, and he didn't want anything from the cooler or bag of snacks. Jack finally finished his reading assignment, and most of his homework. Sam required benedryl for a runny nose - a few hours of peace. Logan napped pretty good on the way home. I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" out loud while Tyler drove. One of our favorite things to do. Picked Charlie up from boarding. We got home by 5 pm, so I helped Jack finish his homework, I got unpacked and put the Christmas decorations away. I am still trying to get caught up with the laundry.

Now we are back to work, school, and church responsibilities. Back to cold cereal and Little Caesar's pizza for dinner when things get to much to handle. Back to reality!