Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

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Just A Quick Note

Published by Becca on October 24, 2009 in General. 0 Comments

A little warning that I now have the blog back up and running and will very soon be posting many pictures and possibly stories from our recent trip to Russia. Wait with antici……………………………………………………………pation.

Do I Have Anything To Sell You?

Published by Becca on August 24, 2009 in General. 3 Comments

I’m having one of those panic moments where I feel like I need to seel all of our belongings in order to cover our cost of living standard. I just got home from officially signing all the kids up for dance again this year and getting their dance attire ordered etc. Now I feel like I need to start selling my plasma or something to pay for my addiction to creating opportunities for my kids (preferably ones which also yield cute photo opportunities for me). Yikes! I mean, I really do like the studio that we are at and I thoroughly appreciate that they give discounts for boys and little little kids, but I still get heart palpitations writing out my check to cover it all.

Back to School Baby!

Published by Becca on August 19, 2009 in General. 1 Comment

Well, the Summer literally drove by, sometimes at 75 miles per hour! But today we begin working on our new routine for this school year. I, for one, will be glad to get back into a more stable and productive routine! Of course it’ll take a while because there are still a few weeks before all activities are in full swing, but today the three oldest kids are back to school…as for the “baby,” well, I don’t think any of them qualify as babies anymore. (motherly sigh)
It is still hard for me to accept just how much they’ve all grown–even just over the Summer! And now here it is, the first day of a new schoolyear and my first baby, Jacob, is starting 5th grade! It’s his last year at school in our backyard! His last year of real childhood before full-on adolescence! His last year at the same school with both his other siblings before his senior year of high school! Of course Elise is not far behind him. She broke her glasses AGAIN this Summer so she is having to start the year off without. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get them replaced. The boys, on the other hand, are having to start the new schoolyear without all the extra hair they’ve been mopping around with all Summer. To their dismay of course, Mom won the argument over whether or not to cut the “Disney hair” before classes started so last night the clippers came out! Jacob asked for his now standard soccer season fauxhawk, but while I was working on that, Josh took the clippers to poor Cameron who, while still adorable, may have to wear a hat just to keep his head warm! In case you notice the scrape on his forehead, that is not a result of Josh cutting his hair, he did that on the bottom of the pool last Saturday. Our school system is starting something new this year–instead of having early dissmissal once a month, they are doing a late start every Wednesday, starting today. Of course the kids were up, showered, fed and ready to go by the regular time and it was near impossible to get them to just hang around the extra hour! I tried to stall them as much as possible with pictures but they kept advancing to the school.

Back From Vacation?

Published by Becca on August 15, 2009 in General. 4 Comments

Well, technically, we are back at home, but for whatever reason (actually, there are many) I am just having a difficult time getting back on top of things. Still, I thought I’d just post a few pictures of the highlights of our little road trip so you can all see what we’ve been up to this month.

And I’m too tired to mess with getting them all in the right order right now or do much explaination, but I hope you enjoy!

My Baby is 4!!!

Published by Becca on July 1, 2009 in General. 5 Comments

Happy birthday my Elena! The years are just flying by! I just try to keep up and make them memorable. To quote the book by Robert Munsch, “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for always, as long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”

My Wonderful Wife

Published by Josh on June 19, 2009 in General. 3 Comments

I have been blessed by our creator with a wonderful loving and understanding Prudent Wife. (Proverbs 16:21 and Proverbs 19:14).

The Aluminum Anniversary

Published by Becca on June 14, 2009 in General. 3 Comments

So we’ve been celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this week. Tuesday and Wednesday Josh was in Kansas for work again and so Wednesday I took the kids down to Wayland to visit my grandparents and pick up the cake that Josh had ordered to surprise me for our anniversary.

The kids and I got to Wayland just in time for lunch with my mom and aunt Jan and cousin Byron. Shortly after lunch aunt Jane and cousin Jesse arrived also! We had a nice visit and then left Elena to begin her week of “Grandma Camp” while I went on after the cake and then home. On the way home we stopped in Coralville and the kids and I had dinner with Kate Wheeler to celebrate her new job. Thursday, our actual anniversary, local family came over for dinner, cake, and Singstar!

It was a great day, unfortunately just before bed Josh dropped the cake trying to get it back into the refrigerator, so he felt really badly about that. Friday, Josh had quarterly meetings all day at work and in the evening his youngest brother Steven came to watch the older kids so that Josh and I could attend the company awards dinner at which Josh was presented not only his 5 year award (even though he has now been with the company for 6 full years) but also an award for training and development that his peers nominated him for. After the dinner and awards ceremony, Josh introduced everyone to the joys of Singstar. He gave a good show and even got his boss to sing a few rounds! Around the time the majority of the crowd had dissipated and the Singstar was really taking off our evening took an unexpected turn. Josh, who has a bad habit of pulling the tabs off of his pop cans and then putting them inside the can, took a big gulp of his diet Mt Dew Code Red and ended up with a pop top in his throat! It apparently lodged near his gag reflex and he dashed off to the bathroom to vomit. of course everyone else was still playing and had no idea what had happened and he would periodically return to sing for his turn and then dissappear again. After about a half an hour of vomitting, and singing his team to victory, the party came to an end and Josh finally ‘fessed up about what was going on. I called Steven to make sure he could stay with the kids and I drove Josh down to the hospital in Des Moines. Just after taking this picture the ER doctor arrived and said “Well, this should be fun! …For me anyway.” Then he took Josh off to be x-rayed. Unfortunately the x-rays didn’t show anything and so Josh and I waited some more in our room with the door open and very thin walls while the ER doctor asked around if anyone had a can of pop so he could try to x-ray just the tab to see just how it might look in an x-ray–apparently they really don’t show up! So, for the next step in our adventure, a friendly nurse came in to give Josh a gown and an IV. Of course we didn’t know why. The poor woman tried to put the IV in the top of his hand to avoid taping up any seriously hairy part of his body, but the tubing just wouldn’t go in so she had to move up to his elbow at which point she exclaimed “Oh my! You are a bleeder!” Apparently she had no trouble getting in there, but Josh’s blood had just gushed out down his arm, all over the floor and on her shoe. Then we found out that an ears, nose, and throat specialist had been called to come in and take a look at Josh. Of course by now it was almost 2 in the morning. So we waited some more, Josh in his little gown, and me cramped into a small corner on a very uncomfortable chair between Josh’s hospital bed and a large open cabinet of supplies. While we waited we were regaled with tales from the neighboring rooms about an older woman with blood in her stool and very little control and a poor girl who was just sobbing over an especially bothersome UTI, and then of course the doctors and nurses who were still occasionally talking about the guy with the pop tab stuck in his throat! We were definately the novelty act that night. Anyway, when the other doctor arrived we gave ANOTHER medical history which he wrote down on a paper towel and we finally learned what their next plan of action was. Josh was to be rolled into surgery where they would put him to sleep under general anesthetic and then given an air tube so he could breathe while the doctor scoped his esophagus. The nurses in surgery all wore funny shower caps and they gave Josh one too. So, about 2:45 am Josh was taken into surgery and I was sent with a bag full of his clothes and his wedding ring on my pinky down a long hallway to a waiting room called the USS Recovery! The room was covered in sea features. There was an acquarium on one wall and the other walls all had pictures of fish or naked babies underwater like the Nirvana album cover. The lamp looked like a lighthouse, but all the lights were off and I was alone and I was exhausted so I tried to find a way to lie down. I tried the floor but it was incredibly hard and I had no pillow so I kept looking. There was a large wooden “ship” in the corner of the room that had a bench along the backside for children to play on so I considered that, but was afraid that the doctors would not be able to find me when Josh was done if I fell asleep back there. I tried several awkward positions on a loveseat that might have been 3 feet long and seemed like my best bet, but they all proved impossibly uncomfortable and so after a long while I decided to go find a bathroom. On my walk I found a little pillow so after using the bathroom I took the decorative pillow and headed back toward the fishy room. Back in the waiting room I stood just looking at the loveseat trying to problem solve when I noticed out one of the windows in the room that there was a wing-back chair in the lobby just outside the waiting room so I thought perhaps that might be more comfortable. When I got to the chair I found that right next to the chair but just around a corner so I’d not seen it before was in fact a full-length couch! So, about 3:20 am I finally laid down to rest and just as I closed my eyes a huge door that I’d not noticed RIGHT next to me opened loudly and the doctor came out and said that Josh was finished and fine and still just waking up and that the nurse would come and get me in just a few moments. He did NOT however find the pop tab! So about ten minutes later I went back and helped Josh get dressed and we still had no real answers and now of course his throat REALLY hurt from all the tubes they had shoved down it, but they seemed satisfied that he was in no more danger and just sent us home. By the time we got home it was alomst 4:30 am and poor Steven who I assume was trying to be a cool uncle had been up basically the whole time too because Jacob was still up! BUt we have a new house rule and I suggest you all consider the same “No removing the tabs off pop cans!” You never know where they’ll end up! We still don’t know where it is!

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10 Years Ago Today

Published by Becca on June 11, 2009 in General. 5 Comments

I helped create one of the world’s best husbands ever!

Summer So Far

Published by Becca on June 9, 2009 in General. 1 Comment

Last week was our first week of “Summer vacation.” Josh had to be in the Kansas City area most of the week and since the kids were all finished with school we decided to try a mini-trip and accompany Josh down to KC. We spent the majority of our time just hanging around the hotel, eating our complimentary waffles, watching the Discovery Channel, and of course, swimming! After a late night Wednesday, the kids and I slept in and missed our free waffle breakfast. By the time we were all ready for the day it was almost lunchtime so I took the kids to Sonic and let them choose breakfast or lunch or a combination of the two! We took our Sonic to a nearby park and feasted in the great outdoors. Then the kids played for a while. And I convinced them to line up for some nice pictures to send to “Grandma.”

And just as I was helping Cameron out of the tree, the ice cream truck came ’round the corner! I don’t think the kids have ever really seen an ice cream truck, but they sure knew what it was! It’s as though that jingle song is innately known to all to signify the arrival of frozen treats! Even though we had basically just eaten I caved and got a popsicle for the kids to share. They chose the one flavored like Jolly Ranchers.

The lemon flavor was not so popular. It was looking like it might rain and we still had a few hours to kill before Josh would be done working, so I took the kids to a nearby theatre that was playing the new Pixar movie “Up” in 3D. On our way home Friday afternoon I was slammed with cold symptoms that unfortunately knocked me out most of the weekend. Josh and the kids watched “Hotel For Dogs” Saturday night and I was feeling better by Sunday night so Josh and I watched “Bride Wars” and “He’s Just Not That Into You.” Monday morning it was back to reality as Josh left early for work and all the kids were home with me. I took the kids to the library to return the Barbie and Pokemon dvds they’d checked out and help Elise pick out some new Summer reading material. The boys behaved so badly that they lost the priveledge of having friends over but Elise went on a playdate for the afternoon. Josh came home just before Elise was dropped off and I surprised everyone with a fancy dinner out to celebrate our upcoming anniversary with the kids. It was their first experience at a hibachi grill and they weren’t so sure they’d like it. Josh ended up with a lot of extra salads that the kids refused because of the ginger dressing, but the soup was a big hit with Jacob and Elise so they ate Cameron’s and Elena’s. And of course everyone was excited when the show began. Our chef tossed “yummy yummy” pieces of scrambled egg for us to catch in our mouths which the kids thought was hilarious. Jacob caught one on his second try and Cameron’s fell down his shirt! It was a good show, and everyone agreed a very tasty meal! The kids even got to play on the gong and drum before we left.