Cambree has all sorts of obsessions. Most of them center around pushing things. She goes crazy if she can't push her stroller... you know instead of actually sitting in it. If we are out and she see's some random persons stroller... she will run up to it and try to push it!! Yeah .. awkward! We were walking around Audley House in Cambridge and this poor old lady was stopped and she had a walker... Keri and I both froze as Cambree made her way over to it!!! The horror that would have been... but for some reason she stopped and walked away!! *Shew*She is also obsessed with pushing shopping carts... once again she won't sit in the cart like normal.. she will insist on pushing it with you. I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating it is when you go into a store for something little and try to hurry and Cambree is crying because she wants to get a cart to push. Another obsession is laundry baskets. Yes you heard it here first folks. My daughter has an obsession with pushing laundry baskets around. We have to hide the laundry baskets to prevent a Cambree melt down. She will literally push the laundry basket all over the house. Which brings me to my picture... I dared to take a laundry basket out of hiding and pile up all our dirty clothes and take it to the washing machine. I had no sooner emptied the basket and left the laundry room when I heard a familiar noise.... Cambree had snuck into the laundry after me and was pushing the basket out into the living room. She would stop as she pushed and grab her Cabbage Patch Kid doll and put it in the basket... then she grabbed her Care Bear... and finally she plopped in it to watch tv. Who does that?! Yes... I think my daughter might just be crazy ;)
Cambree is 17 months going on 13 and Keri and I decided that being in the military... Cambree needed a sibling close in her age that can be her best friend and play mate. Well it didn't take long to find out that I was expecting.... We were actually on our way to Birmingham when I told Keri I thought I was pregnant. I had been exhausted. When I say exhausted I mean I literally had zero energy. I was taking naps during the day which I never do and man was I hungry. I had other things happening that I had happen when I was pregnant with Cambree so I knew before I even missed my period or took a test that I was pregnant.We got home from Birmingham and I picked up a test and there is was.... pregnant! I was relieved (because it explained my exhaustion and appetite!) and sooo happy! With Cambree we were caught off guard and were completely surprised when I found out I was pregnant. To be honest I cried for at least a week because I didn't feel ready and had other major things going on in my life.. but this time.... I was overjoyed!! I was overjoyed and then I started getting my morning sickness and it came back ALL to familiar how hard pregnancy and how sick you get. Even when I feel miserable I am so incredibly happy and excited for the new addition to our little family! Now Cambree doesn't have to be alone and all the moving around we will be doing in the military Cambree will always have a friend by her side. I couldn't have made it growing up in the military myself without my sisters and brother. I'm excited for the start of our new journey!!
Sadly my time in Utah is coming to a close. I left England November 28th and I'll finally be back May 20th. When we left Cambree was 10 months old and not crawling or walking... by the time we get back she'll be 16 months who practically runs everywhere. The sad part about returning to England is my dear friend Allison and her family moved to Florida while I was gone. I will definitely miss her, Drew, and Rossssss. We had the best times together and I'm definitely gonna be sad without her. My favorite memory of her is walking down Cambridge and seeing a Pub called the Snug.... her with her double wide stroller and asking... do you think we will fit in there? I'm like... well.... it's called the Snug so probably not... we ventured in anyway ... me with cambree in her stroller and her with ross and drew in the double wide and by some miracle we fit. Drew was 4 weeks old when I first met him, now he has grown so much! He's a lil guy now...
Well a lot has happened since we left. I got a call about something tragic that happened to one of our friends in England. Without going into it, it left me very devastated and crying for days. Life is truly precious and we need to make sure we let our family know how much we love them daily. We also had another incident happened that left us realizing not everyone who says they are your friend truly are. I also found out that a few people who were friends before ended up being amazing friends while we were gone and made sure stuff we needed taken care of were done. It's rare to find true friends. I have so many true friends in Utah and it will be so sad to say goodbye to them once again. I have had the best time at lunches with Jerrilynn and Kristi. I've had the best times with Steph going tanning, getting our rock stars and slurpees, our 3 times at the gym together and just hanging out at each others houses. I had the best times with Aubs and her kids. I love all of you guys.
It will probably be quite a while until I'm able to come back to Utah for a visit! Among the stuff I'm going to miss will be:
*My family and Sissy!
*My best friends!
*Target, Layton Hills Mall, The Training Table, Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Wendy's, Paradise Tanning in Kaysville, Layton Nails, Phazes Hair Salon, Kohls...
*My orthopedic surgery who will be seeing me for future knee surgeries
*My podiatrist who has given me weekly injections in my feet for neuroma's
*Texting everyone. In England I'll have a british phone and won't be able to text.
*Being able to watch the upcoming BYU football season on tv
I'm going to miss everyone! Utah will always be home for Cambree and I and I can't wait til I'm able to visit again!
Cambree and I had just come back from a fabulous lunch with my good friends Jerrilynn and Kristi.... Cambree had charmed their with her irristable smile.. she has the kinda smile that lights up the room. She gets this gleam in her eye and I swear no one can resist smiling back... so we walk into the house and straight out to the backyard. Cambree had walked possibly five steps out into the grass when she started absolutely screaming and she was down on her two palms... my first thought was that she had been stung by a bee...
So I carried her inside the house and thats when I saw that nasty little bee... it was waltzing around on her shirt. Naturally I start yelling at my mom to swat it off because lets face it, I'm terrified of bee's... so my mom swats it off and i stomp the crap out of that little guy. Cambree was still crying, and my mom was like freaking out as we stripped her down to see if she had been stung. That was when we saw three little welts on her legs! She had gotten stung THREE times!! I felt so awful!! And I was amazed that she could have been stung multiple times in such a short time!
Well we made a baking soda paste to put on her and gave her a tinsy bit of benadryl and she did just fine luckily. I was so sad though... of all the luck.. we are outside 5 seconds and she gets stung! Seriously I hate hate hate bees, hornets, wasps, yellow jackets! UGH!!!!
First I thought the mother of all evil were bee's.... seriously I did. They frightened me the MOST in the world. More than sharks and lions and zebra's. What? Zebra's have that innocent quality about them that just screams Danger! Beware! I'm evil underneath these stripes! Well after living in England where you get at LEAST 100 bee's flying in your non-existent-screen windows (yeah... British houses don't come with any screens in any of their windows because they swear they don't have fly's in England... um yeah and I'm Miss America....my crown is upstairs) I've learned that bee's aren't really the enemy. In fact they are pretty easy to kill although the buzzing sound still makes my heart leap as it buzzes the tower aka my ear.
Anyway.... I found the real mother of all evil and it wasn't even an animal.. it was a thing. A thing called a Cortizone Shot!!!!!! I had my first cortizone shot after I had surgery on my thumb. That needle was sooooo long I was convinced it would poke through the whole thumb and come out the other end. It hurt like a mother ... well lets just say it hurt. Bad. My next encounter was for my feet.. you know plantar fasciatis and neuroma's in both feet are a titch painful (I know.... could I whine anymore?) The doctor gave me shots in both feet in the same visit of cortizone.Let's just pause there... If you haven't had a cortizone shot, well count your lucky stars because you are truly lucky my friend... They are truly the worst pain ever thought up by man (well besides braces ... I mean really.... putting wire on teeth and tightening it up every few weeks.. going home so sore you can't even eat a marshmallow) ANYWAY its the type of pain that starts off slowly... they insert the longest needle known to man and at first you think, man this is easy...why was i so scared and then... the real pain sets in as they push fluid through the needle into a tiny joint area on your body and I swear the pain gets worse and worse until you feel like you absolutely can't take it anymore and you're about to abort the mission and it feels like an eternity has passed and just before you are sure to pass out in pain the doctor gets done. Luckily that time I had Kelly to hold my hand and lets just say I'm surprised I didn't break her hand right off.
Well today I got my last cortizone shot (I know... do I do this for a hobby you might start to ask yourself) in my left knee. Ahh the dreaded knee's. Just take them out and replace them already. I've already had 8 knee surgeries... but anyway so I'm laying there and the doctor whom shall remain nameless (DR MURRAY, best knee doctor ever) shoots me with some lydocaine first and then starts the shot. The worst shot ever. And after its over I think.... I've survived another one and sorta pat myself on the back. Take Two.... I get home.... hours pass, I'm texting, I'm getting Cambree to sleep, I'm watching Real Housewives of New York and thats when it hits me, the worst part wasn't the shot but the pain that comes long after the shot. I look down to see a swelled up knee (which i'm like.. is that a watermelon or my knee... hmm) and the pain is just intense. It's like was the shot to hurt or help lol. Not to mention I guess I don't plan on sleeping til Friday since I'm not a bit tired and its way after midnight. I'm a mom of an active 14 month old. I'm usually snoring by 9pm.
My friends....in short (yeah I know... too late) ..... if you hear a buzzing in your ear... don't sweat it.... if you see a sharks fin circling in the ocean.... make sure you have absolutely no blood anywhere near you and stay still..... if you run into that runaway zebra don't flinch.....but if you are faced with that long cortizone needle... run my friends don't walk.... because it is truly the mother of ALL evil!!!!!
I remember thinking when I first found out I was pregnant and started feeling sick all the time and just horrible in general that I didn't know if I was going to make it. I honestly didn't see how I was going to be able to handle nine months of this torture. And torture it was. I got handed all the terrible and miserable things pregnant ladies can get handed to include this incredibly itchy rash that covered my whole body and lasted my entire pregnancy. This was the type of rash I'd go to bed with a fork under my pillow because a sharp fork seemed like the only thing strong enough to scrape my skin with to stop the intense itching.
Then I remember having Cambree a month early. Being prepped for my c-section and not having my husband there to hold my hand because not only was he not in Utah, he wasn't even in the same country. He was TDY to Germany. I thought for sure I wasn't going to make it.
Next came the long nights of Cambree being a new born and not sleeping and Keri leaving us because he had to go back to England and me surviving on maybe three hours of sleep total and for SURE I thought to myself, I am NOT going to make this. It's amazing what happens to a person when they are constantly and consistantly deprived of sleep. You can't function. The smallest of things set you off. It's not a fun place to be especially without your husband.
Last comes where I'm at now. Keri is gone to Cyprus and I've been in Utah with Cambree since the beginning of November and the thought that keeps coming to me is I'm not going to make this. Although family helps it is almost a helpless feeling knowing you are solely in charge of a thirteen month old. You have to feed her, bath her, chase her up the stairs for the millionth time, keep her happy, try and get her to bed on a regular schedule all while knowing she is going to keep you up most of the night because she is teething and knowing how early she is going to wake you. Heaven forbid she sleeps past seven am. Day after day I think to myself I'm not going to make this. My energy is zapped. I cannot go up those stairs one more time to drag her back down. If she pushes that power button off on the tv one more time I'm going to lose it. Then incredibly something happens. She says her first word. She gives you that cute smile. A smile that shows off her six gorgeous white teeth. She falls asleep with her head on your shoulder while holding your hand and you think to yourself... maybe I can make it a little while longer.
England or Bust..
The Fabulous Christensens
Cambree has all sorts of obsessions. Most of them center around pushing things. She goes crazy if she can't push her stroller... you know instead of actually sitting in it. If we are out and she see's some random persons stroller... she will run up to it and try to push it!! Yeah .. awkward! We were walking around Audley House in Cambridge and this poor old lady was stopped and she had a walker... Keri and I both froze as Cambree made her way over to it!!! The horror that would have been... but for some reason she stopped and walked away!! *Shew*
