Lunch with Great Grandma

Today Kaylen and I went to visit my grandma at the hospital. She went to the doctor at the beginning of the week. Her main problem/concern was that her toe was hurting her, so badly that she was losing sleep at night. The doctor discovered that Grandma's heart rate was very high. So, she was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday. They've been trying to get her heart rate lower, and her blood pressure higher. They've done all kinds of tests on her. This morning she had a CT scan. She looks great and has been very patient with it all. I can't imagine, though, first leaving my house behind, and then being admitted to the hospital, not knowing when I'd get released.

Lots of different specialists and doctors have met and worked with her. I'm very appreciative for them and their knowledge. She seems to be in wonderful hands. It's actually weird, because her heart doctor is the same doctor, who less than a year ago did a quadruple bypass surgery on my dad. The whole heart thing worries and concerns me. My grandma's father died of a heart attack at age 55. My dad had a heart attack last November. And now, to find out that my grandma's heart is having problems. The doctor said that her heart is functioning at 35%. I can't imagine how she's doing so well.

Grandma's lunch was delivered while we were there, and she wanted to share with Kaylen. She insisted that Kaylen join her. My grandma has never liked yogurt, and the nutritionist wants her to eat yogurt with every meal. My grandma was eager to have Kaylen help to dispose of some of the yogurt. She wanted to Kaylen to eat it all so she wouldn't have to, but we wouldn't let her. Once my grandma's heart rate gets stable and low enough, she'll be able to go back "home" to my parents' house.

Flashback:

It was very deja vu, parking at the heart hospital, walking through the lobby, to the elevators, and walking down the hall to my grandma's room. It seems like I had just been doing that with my dad. My dad had heart pains on Thanksgiving and the day after, so he drove himself to the fire station (he works with the fire department) and had the men there check him out. They said that he needed to go to the hospital, and wanted to call an ambulance. My mom took him, and he was later transferred to a heart hospital, where he underwent tests trying to determine what the problem was. It turned out that he had 3 (4 they found once the started the surgery) blocked arteries and that he would need to have open-heart surgery. It was a difficult time for me to see my dad go through all that. The hardest part was seeing him just after surgery in the ICU. But, as a result, I have a healthier dad and a much stronger testimony of fasting and prayer.

Logan's First Lost Tooth

A couple of months ago while flossing Logan's teeth, I noticed his middle, bottom tooth was crooked. I felt it and it wasn't firmly in place. I started to worry - why would his tooth be wiggly? Is it because he sucks on his fingers still? Did he get bumped at school? It finally dawned on me that it's time for his baby tooth to come out! For some reason,I had forgotten about baby teeth falling out.

We have gradually wiggled it, but that didn't get us too far. Last week I noticed that his permanent tooth beneath the wiggly one was coming in. I've had to pay too much money for the dentist to pull out Lindsey's teeth when they've been in a similar situations. So, I decided I was going to pull it out. I've tried for the last few days, but I've been too worried about hurting Logan, so I didn't take it too seriously and was gentle.

Last night while flossing, his loose tooth was perpendicular to his gums. Spencer ate his first two baby teeth when they fell out because he wouldn't let me touch or pull them out. I decided Logan didn't need any enamel in his diet, so after numbing the tooth area with a popsicle, I pulled the tooth out. I think I was more excited than Logan. That was the first tooth of my kids' that I've pulled out. Logan ate the rest of his (gross) bloody popsicle and made some phone calls to Dad and Grandma.

The tooth fairy visited and left him $5 along with a note that he could keep his tooth because she was running out of storage space. Logan was so excited in the morning.

September Family Birthday Celebration

This month, my side of the family had our birthday/activity get-together at my our house. We didn't really do too much. We visited with each other. The kids played the Wii, ran around, played downstairs, and traded Pokemon cards.

The kids also had an impromptu Dino Dig. I went to check on them in the backyard, and heard one of them say, "I think it's a Pterodactyl." They were so creative in their play. They insisted they found dinosaur bones.

Kaylen is the only September birthday cousin, so she once again got to celebrate her birthday by opening some fun presents. Thanks, everyone!

Ding-Dong

Tonight Lindsey is having a friend sleep over. They came up with the idea to "ding dong ditch" some people in our neighborhood. They dressed all in black. They found some candy canes leftover from Christmas (that are still good until 2010) to leave on the doorsteps. They also located some high-tech binoculars to aid them in their adventures. Spencer and Logan even joined in and changed their clothes too. I was an accomplice to their mischievous activities, and drove the get-away car. It was silly, but it was fun.

Tomatoes

I made and canned tomato juice today! I am excited about it because:

1. I have never canned anything on my own before. I did it without calling my mom or sister.

2. I used and didn't waste the 23 lbs. of tomatoes I bought (couldn't afford to miss the fabulous price).

3. I used a strainer that my grandparents would use to make tomato juice.

4. I heard all the lids "pop" when they sealed.

5. I figured out how to reset my cooktop after it shut off because it was too hot.

6. We now have 9 more items to add to our food storage.

Friday Art

Aluminum foil + glue + yarn + paint markers =

50 minutes of quiet, non-fighting kids!!!

Earlier in the week I bought an art book at Sam's Club. After piano lessons today, there was an extra hour before Eric and I went out. I flipped through the book and found a craft to make. We made designs with the glue on a piece of alumium foil and then placed yarn on top of the glue. After it dried slightly, we began to paint the gaps to create a work of art. The kids seemed to really enjoy doing something different. An interesting observation I made, was that as long as I was sitting at the table, interested and involved in their work, they enjoyed it. When I got up to clean up, they instantly were done (Logan was bored, he said). It was nice to do a different activity that the kids enjoyed and that kept them happy and non-fighting. I'll have to try it again sometime. The book has already been worth the purchase.

September 11 - Healing Field

Today I took the kids to the Healing Field. This was at a local park, where 3000 flags were displayed. Each flag represented a person who died as result of the terror attacks. Attached to each flag was a card with a person's name, photo, and information about them. I don't personally know anyone who was killed from the attack, so this helped to bring things into perspective. I asked the kids what they thought, and they told me that there were a ton of flags.

Some memories I have of September 11, 2001

Eric woke me up that morning with turning on the tv, showing me what was happening. It was very hard to believe that people would be so incredibly evil and do such a thing. The tv remained on at our house for the days that followed. I was hesitant to send Lindsey to school. Eric and I went out to lunch that day and watched the tv there at the restaurant. It was saddening to see the death count rise. The Scouts in our ward put up flags in the neighborhood. The flags stayed up for at least a week, and I would bring ours in each evening. Flags around the city were at half mast for at least a month. I remember going to a church satellite broadcast (I think it was on a day that was declared a national day of prayer). I was worried about further attacks, wondering if the terrorists would poison our produce at the grocery store.

It was a sad and scary time. It has, however, made me more grateful to be an American and has helped me recognize and enjoy my everyday freedoms and blessings.

Miscellaneous Kaylen Happenings

Kaylen is always doing something silly or mischievous. I thought I'd blog about some of them.

Yesterday, at church Kaylen was working on a sticker book. This was an ancient book where you tear out the stickers and lick them, then stick them in the book. She licked the stickers so long that they weren't sticky anymore.

During sacrament meeting, she said, "Mom don't bite me" about 5 times. I have never bitten her, but for some reason she thought I was going to bite her. She then started talking about a little girl who bit her in nursery about 2 months ago. I think she combined me and her nursery memory.

Kaylen put on a pair of shoes for church. She wore them for 30 minutes before church. When we got to church, she then decided that one of the shoes hurt her feet. She ended up going to nursery with one shoe.

Kaylen started dance today. I don't know of anything she did during dance, but she sure is cute in her leotard. I've had to put it, her ballet shoes, and her tap shoes up high so she won't continuously wear them. She wore her leotard for 3 days after we bought it. She was very excited about it and going to dance with Abbie.

Kaylen ran around the house with her arms spread out, declaring, "I'm Super Woman!"

She has also been practicing the Olympics. She will stand with her head on the ground and do a half-somersault. Apparently she is diving. Today she got a pillow and said that the pillow was her diving board.

She cracks me up. These things have only happened in the last day. I could start a whole blog about the cute life of Kaylen.

Grandma B.

Two weeks ago my grandma woke up one morning and couldn't get out of bed. She used her medic-alert necklace and they were able to contact her brother, who came and helped her get out of bed. She then spent the next 4 days in the hospital. Nothing too serious was wrong. She was dehydrated, but mainly it's just the aging process. It was decided that she shouldn't be left alone. My parents spent the next few days cleaning out a room, making a place for Grandma.

This past weekend, my parents drove to Utah to pick up my Grandma to move her down here. My grandma has lived alone for 9 years, and has taken care of herself. Now she's not able to do it alone anymore. My grandma's things were packed up (at least what would fit in a minivan). It's hard to think of her 80+ years of life being condensed into so little. At my parents' house, I went into her room and took pictures of the things that were important enough for her to bring. One thing I didn't take a picture of was a chair she brought. It is a chair my grandpa would sit in every evening, eventually falling asleep in. Since then, it has become her chair.

We went and visited her today. The visit didn't last for too long because my kids are way too wild to be around someone who has not had little ones around for long time periods. Grandma looks good. She's walking with a walker now - when I visited in July, she wasn't. I noticed her hair was different. She's been coloring it for years, usually it would end up a light brown color, once I saw it purple (oops). It is now snow white, which is beautiful. As long as I can remember, she would wake up early (5:30 or so) to set her hair in rollers. She has stopped doing it, but she really doesn't need to. She has lovely natural curls.

I'm glad that she's here now and that my kids can build friendships with her. I get to grandma-sit on Wednesday. That will be fun, visiting with Grandma, kid-free.

This is the flag from my Grandpa's coffin

This is a quilt made of my Grandpa's shirts

This is a porcelain doll (my grandma loves them) that Grandma would keep on her bed

Side note: Two summers ago, while visting my grandma, Logan asked me to take him to the bathroom. I asked him why he couldn't go alone. His response was, "No. Me see baby." From the bathoom doorway, he could see into my grandma's room and see this doll sitting on her bed. He would not go anywhere alone where he could see this doll. While he was in the bathroom, I snuck in and took the doll off the bed. I placed it just outside the bathroom, so Logan would see it as he came out of the bathroom. I have never seen a kid walk so close to a wall as he did.

Weekend Fun?

I've been wanting to go camping, so we finally found a day that would work for us and planned on going. On Thursday, Kaylen had a 104 fever. When she woke up on Friday, she was fine. We went grocery shopping and started packing for the trip. We went to lunch with Eric and Purple (Eric's mom). At lunch, Kaylen fell asleep when I held her. When we got home, she started being fussy. She also had a 102 fever. We tried to figure out what Kaylen was up to. We could tell that she wanted to go camping, but just didn't feel like it. I laid her down for her nap, which ended up being 4 hours long. We decided that we wouldn't go camping, and that we would have a family weekend.

We started our "fun" with a scavenger hunt, with the treasure being a trip to Sonic. We also caught up on some scripture reading. We then went out to dinner (sure beats what we would have cooked camping!).

The "family" part of the weekend was non-existent from then on. Lindsey slept over at a friend's house and was gone until about 5:00 pm on Saturday. Spencer went to a friend's house for a couple of hours,and then to a birthday party. Logan had a friend over for about 4 hours. So our family weekend ended up being a time when the kids had great fun with their friends. Eric and I caught up on things around the house - organizing the game cabinets, the laundry room, mopping the floor, and making cinnamon rolls. We're hoping to attempt another camping trip, but now as it's getting cooler, I'm afraid we'll be too cold (we went to Payson last October and froze). We'll see...

What's Cooking at the Museum?

On Kaylen's birthday, I wanted to do something special with her. We went to a "museum for youth." One of their rotating displays is "Table Manners." There was artwork on display, including silverware from different places. There were art activities to participate in. The first activity we did was play at the sushi table. There was a low table that had fake sushi and chopsticks. Kaylen got frustrated with the chopsticks; I actually was able to use them. Maybe I'll have to try them when we go to my fave Japanese restaurant.

There was a child-sized kitchen (one of 3 throughout the museum). Kaylen and I fixed different foods to "munch on." She didn't quite get the (imaginary) lime jello I made.

There's a special play area for kids under 5. Kaylen liked going down the slide in that area. We also played with play-doh. There was a reading area, where Kaylen didn't want to play at all - she knew there were better toys.

Happy Birthday Kaylen!

My baby turned 3 earlier this week. For weeks, she has been saying, "my birthday's coming up." Anytime we'd go shopping, she'd be sure to point out something I could buy her for her birthday.

When I went to Utah, I saw this in Walmart. I searched the stores around me to find one to buy because I had an inch worm when I was younger and wanted Kaylen to have one too.

Kaylen was thrilled with every present. She even loved the clothes. She held up each outfit on her.

Kaylen wanted to eat dinner at the fishie restaurant. I wasn't sure where she meant, but I suggested the Rainforest Cafe because they do have fish. It was a fun restaurant. Kaylen didn't enjoy the thunderstorms they had every 15 minutes because the monkeys in the bushes came alive. Her quote for the night was, "I don't like those monkeys." This was her answer to any question about dinner.

I can't believe Kaylen is 3 years old already.Time passes way too fast. We have enjoyed having Kaylen part of our family. She can be mischievous, but maybe I should describe it as creative. She loves to play with her siblings. She loves her baby dolls. She also loves to dress-up. Rarely does she keep one outfit an entire day. Kaylen is a great little helper. If I ask one of the older kids to get something, Kaylen will take off running and get it. Logan's new job is unloading the dishwasher. Kaylen is quick to help him. Happy birthday my KK.

Super Speller

Now that Logan is in first grade, he is beginning to have spelling tests. His first test was last Friday. Logan worked hard studying the week before. He brought home his test - which was perfect! He got 100%!!!

Babysitting

Over the weekend, we babysat Lindsey's class pet, a chinchilla named Lola. She was the cutest little thing. Our whole family enjoyed having her stay with us. The kids must have asked 20 times if we could get a chinchilla. They even did research online to find out how much it would cost. I'd love to have a pet, I just don't want the extra work that comes along with pets. We'll just have to wait for our turn to roll around again.

Week In Review

This past week was an average week. Nothing excitingly fantastic happened with pictures blog-worthy, but I wanted to make a few notes of what I did this past week.

Monday

I went to my pilates class and loved it.

Eric usually plays football on Monday night, but the season ended last week (with his team in 2nd place), so he had a week off. We attempted to have family home evening, but between Spencer's tantrums and my grumpiness, we had little success. As a result, Eric worked with Lindsey on her Faith in God requirements.

Tuesday

Just after dinner time, I went visiting teaching, which was quite a nice change of pace for the day. After VT, I went home to pick up the family to go to Spencer's Cub Scout Pack Meeting. I had to laugh at Eric's attempt to get Kaylen ready - she was in a dress-up skirt, with dinner on her face, and her hair unbrushed. At least he had her change out of her tutu.

At Pack Meeting, Spencer was presented with 3 silver arrow points for his wolf rank (he's now a bear). He also had earned his swimming, football, marbles, archery, and bb belt loops. Most of those had been earned at Day Camp in June.

We had a huge thunderstorm that night, resulting with kids sleeping in my room.

Wednesday

After my Pilates class, I spent too much time at Kohl's. I found some clothes for me and Kaylen. I also bought a carpet cleaner. I spent the afternoon cleaning the ground floor carpet and rugs. Eric and I went out to dinner (our date night).

Thursday

I spent Thursday cleaning the upstairs carpet. I was only going to do the boys' rooms, but got carried away and did the whole floor. In between filling up the cleaning solution, I cleaned out our 2nd freezer. An iceberg grew in the bottom of the freezer where I couldn't get items out because they had become frozen and stuck in the freezer.

We had an awesome thunderstorm this night. I was over at a friend's house, with a group of women. We saw the storm come, but as we went to get in our cars, we started out, then went right back into the house. It was scary outside. The rain was pouring down. Lightning was all around us, flashing like a strobe light. The thunder was constant, sounding like a never-landing jet plane. I have never seen or heard anything like that before. We finally got the nerve up to get to our cars. I made it home, taking 3 times longer that normal. I got home to Eric, totally oblivious to the storm around us (he was playing Guitar Hero). I tried to take pictures of the lightning, but my stupid battery died.

Friday

I took Kaylen to the library. She enjoyed playing with the puppets there. She got frustrated with the computer. Eric and I went shopping for his camping trip. I spent the afternoon cleaning. Eric's mom came to town and is staying with us now.

Eric left for his hiking/camping trip. He tries to do this trip every year. He goes to West Clear Creek, hikes down through the canyon, and back up. There have been complications in the past, all of which were very minor to Eric, but totally scary to me, especially when I have had to call the Forest Service and tell them that my hubby is lost.

The kids and I went to dinner with Eric's mom. I had to take Logan out twice, he was a total brat!

Just before I went to bed, I checked the weather for Eric's camping area. There was a severe thunderstorm warning for the area he was in!

Saturday

Spencer and I made buckeyes today -such a long process! Around lunch time I got a text from Eric. They hadn't been able to go on the hike (appropriately name the "Suicide Hike"). The other guy who went with him, got his truck stuck in the mud and killed his transmission trying to get it unstuck. Eric used his Jeep to pull it out, and they had to tow it back in to town and wait for a friend tow it back home. They spent time 4-wheeling while waiting for the friend. They all had a blast. I was relieved to find out that Eric was safe. In fact, the weather had been perfect.

I cut the boys' hair. Kaylen wanted her hair cut. I don't have any professional training in haircutting, I just pretend I know how to do it and it turns out looking ok. I started to cut Kaylen's hair. I called my mom half-way through, asking her if she knew how to cut hair; I felt like I was in over my head. She didn't know, so I continued. It turned out good, considering I have no experience. I ended up cutting 2.5 inches off her hair.

Sunday

Church.

I spent the afternoon fixing a turkey dinner. We had my parents over, Eric's mom, and a family from the ward. Now we have some great leftovers. We played Settlers of Catan after we ate. Spencer beat all of us!