I sat down on Saturday and made myself a new blanket using the material from Hawaii. Kent and Justin helped me set it up on the frame so I could tie it. All done, and now the kids are asking me to make each of them a new blanket.
Front of the blanket.
Back of the blanket.Today was the big day for Natalie. Monday was the prep day for her procedures… not a good day here. The first medication we tried made her vomit, so we called the doctor’s office and he told us to try another one. That didn’t go over well either because “it tastes so nasty.” We resorted to a third medication after that, and by the time we were done she was very unhappy with the entire experience… especially me.
We had to arrive at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. I am definitely not a morning person, and neither is Natalie. However, the nurses were great, and kept her totally at ease. She even got to go to the nurses’ gift room and select a stuffed animal. Her doctor had a very calming presence so that helped tremendously. He’s very friendly and laughed at her jokes so that made Natalie really happy. When she went back I grabbed breakfast from the cafeteria. When I was done I went back to the waiting room, and her doctor came out 10 minutes later and gave me the rundown of her procedures. (Everything went well, no complications.) He was able to eliminate two possible diagnoses, and he will call me in a few days with the biopsy results. Then we will discuss changes in her treatment plan.
Natalie after she was done. Her lip was all bloody on the left side from some of the instruments.
Yesterday while Natalie and I were at the hospital Kent called me. One of his co-workers never showed up to a customer appointment on Monday, and he wouldn't answer his phone. The customer got worried, tracked him down and called the office to let them know what was going on. It turns out that on Sunday evening Kent's co-worker had been booked into jail on several charges including attempted murder. (Read the story here.) Kent said everyone in the office was totally shocked, and it was totally inconsistent with the man that they knew. Kent has gone to several appointments with him, and said that he is one of the nicest guys he has ever met... or so he thought! I feel really bad for his family. I can't even imagine how hard this must be for them. And I'm so glad that the victim is going to recover. I pray that both families will get the resolution they need.
Put this under things that make you go, "Hmm."
Clay Aiken is gay. This is just such a surprise. Who knew?
(Um, I think that would be anyone who has ever seen or heard him.)
I thought it was hilarious when I saw this online yesterday. Someone felt that this "announcement" was newsworthy. I think everyone already knew this so it really wasn't news, was it? Aren't there more important things to report? Seriously!
This kid! In the last month he has done several things that make me question whether or not he has a death wish.
1. Just before we left for Hawaii he stuffed a BB in his nose and had to get it removed.
2. Right after Hawaii he jumped from the third or fourth stair and face planted on the tile at the bottom of the stairs... resulting in a HUGE goose egg on the left side of his forehead.
3. On Tuesday he and Justin jumped on the trampoline together and landed at the same time. This caused Drew to fly into the air, landing on the trampoline with his arm extended to help brace himself for the impact. In doing so he hurt his elbow. Our neighbor, who is a paramedic, checked it out (because after hearing him cry for 4 hours I thought maybe it was something more serious and was on my way to the ER). The paramedic gave him the all clear. All night long Drew cried and cried and cried, and his arm was bent close to his body the whole time. I know this because after he woke up screaming at 1 a.m. I went to to his room and brought him to sleep in ours so I could keep an eye on him.
The next morning I let Drew and Kent sleep in while I dropped the kids off at school then went to the gym. When I got back from the gym he was still holding his arm funny and couldn't extend it. When he tried lifting it up he couldn't go far before crying out in pain. I decided to take him to the doctor. After talking to his pediatrician they recommended that we go to urgent care who has an x-ray machine and could take care of him much more quickly. We were the only people there so he got seen right away. The doctor thought that maybe he broke his arm near the elbow so Drew got x-rays done. The doctor said that he didn't see a break but it appeared that he dislocated his elbow.
This is when I think, "Oh crap. It's going to be like getting immunizations. I'm going to have to hold him down, trying not to get hit or kicked in the process, and it's going to hurt like ____."
It took three tries to get the elbow to go back into place. Drew was screaming, kicking and hitting the whole time. The doctor left after each try to give Drew a chance to calm down. Each time he left Drew was crying and crying. When he would calm down he said, "Mom, I not like dat man. Him's hurts me. I want you tell him go 'way." About that time the doctor would return and Drew gave him the look of death. When the doctor would work on his arm he would try desperately to get him away, then beg me to make him stop (talk about feeling guilty), then he would bury his face in my chest when the doctor left his room and cry for several minutes because it hurt so bad. After the elbow finally went back into place the doctor gave him AND me a gift certificate for a free ice cream at Chick-Fil-A. Which is where we went for lunch immediately after we finished.
This is him eating said ice cream. He was still careful with his arm (notice it's still down and close to his body) because it was really sore. He couldn't bear to have anyone touch it until Friday. Now he seems totally fine. I just asked him if he's going to do anything else to get hurt. He says no, but he said that after incidents 1 and 2. I guess he's just more of a daredevil than the other 3 kids... I hope he doesn't do anything too serious! I don't know how much more of his "bravery" I can stand!
Today Justin was ordained to the Aaronic priesthood. He had his interview with the bishop last Sunday so we were all set for the ordination today. My mom, dad and step-mom, Kent's dad, mom and step-dad and my brother Allan were all able to come to the church to participate in this special day with him. He was presented to the ward this morning in sacrament meeting and he was a little surprised that he was called to the stand. Brother Hawks asked him how a deacon was like a boy scout. Justin looked completely freaked out, and then Bro. Hawks told him that they both always had to be prepared.
(left to right) Don, Ann, Justin, Maryann, Allan, Trevor, Susan, Natalie, Kent, Drew, Julie, Lenny and Duane
The birthday boy himself... the picture of cool.
Natalie's face is back to normal in time for Justin's birthday. She only has a few bite marks to remind us that it even happened. She really was happy it was Justin's birthday, but she isn't a morning person!
I took her to see our favorite doctor to check her face out. He didn't think it was anything more than allergic reaction, and to continue giving her Benadryl. At least I was doing the right thing! He said he didn't see any pink eye so I was able to send her to school on Tuesday. I'll take another picture tomorrow and post it. She looked much better today. I think she'll look even better in the morning. Yea! We still have a TON of mosquitoes everywhere after all of the rain from the HUGE monsoon storms. I kill several every day. They really seem to like me and Natalie. The boys all have mosquito bites too, but they are just little dots. Here's Drew on Friday. This bump shows up better in picture than it does looking at him. You can almost see a bruise in the picture. He still insists that he stairs rolled over him, and he didn't slip. At least he doesn't have headaches!
Lately Drew jumps from the second or third stair to prove how tough he is. I keep warning him that one of these times he's going to fall and get hurt, but he tells me he's "not gonna get hurt." Tonight his luck changed because while I was at a baby shower slipped and fell. I got home a few minutes later, and Kent was lying down with him. I took a look at the goose egg that had already formed over his left eye, and put an ice pack on it. He told me that the stairs rolled over him. I don't know how that's possible, but that's his story and he's sticking to it! I'm hoping that the swelling will go down by morning. He just came downstairs and said he has a headache so I'm going to stay up with him to make sure that he's okay. So far he's acting normal, but I want to make sure. Better safe than sorry, right? My poor baby!
Hi everyone,
Kent's sister, Becka, is in training for a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Her goal is to raise $4000, but her minimum donation is $3200. She only has 1 more month and is at $700, so whatever you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. Here is her web page where you can track her progress and make a donation. Thank you! http://pages.teamintraining.org/los/nikesf08/rmontgomery
Becka, Natalie and Maryann in August 2007
Welcome to my Team In Training home page.
I'm training to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!
Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.
Kent put Natalie to bed last night. While he was in her room, another mosquito landed on her face, and Kent killed it. I don't think he got to it quickly enough, though, because she came to me at about midnight, and could hardly open her left eye. This morning it's even worse. It looks like she's gone 12 rounds with a prize fighter. I think I'm going to take her to urgent care this morning to make sure it's not going to swell completely shut. Yikes!
Then if that wasn't bad enough the boys came down this morning and took one look at her and their eyes almost bugged out of their heads. Trevor came up to me and whispered, "Mom, Natalie is freaking me out. She's so scary. What happened to her?" I'm proud of him for whispering this time because he usually just says whatever, whenever and to whomever is around. This can lead to some very uncomfortable situations.
This picture is last night shortly after midnight. Yowsa! She looks like an alien!
The second is from this morning after 2 doses of Benadryl, and after I applied calamine lotion and 2 cold compresses. Ouch!
Yesterday I took a picture of Natalie right before bed, and she looked totally fine. When she woke up this morning, it looked like she was sprouting a horn between her eyes, and that she had a black eye. Throughout the day I've kept my eye on it, and tonight just before dinner I took her picture. It appears that she has a mosquito bite at the top of her nose, and another one right next to her left eye. I decided to take a picture so I could compare any changes during the night. She says it doesn't hurt or itch, but it's freaking me out.
Here's a picture of her head-on. From this picture it doesn't look too bad so I took another one.
Okay, so see what I mean. Kind of scary, huh?
You know how little kids like to, let's say, explore their worlds? Test their limits? Test your limits? Especially when you're about to leave on a trip? Well, the night before we left for Hawaii Justin had a small carton of air soft pellets... I'll call them BB's. Anyway, his friend left them here a few days prior,so we told J to put them in his backpack so they don't get spilled or added to Natalie and Drew's collection.
I'm trying to pack and get things ready for my mom, and Kent's trying to fix the computer so she can actually use it while we're gone. In the meantime, Natalie and Trevor are upstairs playing and staying out of the way while we clean and pack. Justin is in the kitchen reloading the dishwasher, Kent's in my office, and I'm going between my office and the family room doing laundry. During this time I notice that Drew has taken out the BB's. I told Justin to stop what he's doing and put them away. He "didn't hear" me. I went to the laundry room to get the dry clothes out of the dryer. At this point, Drew is looking a little worried. I ask him if he's done something that he shouldn't have done. He says he hasn't so I go to my office and tell Kent that Drew is looking a little worried and he's got the BB's in front of him. I strongly suspect that there is one up his nose, but he's denying it at this point. I was gone for 20-30 seconds. I am on my way to the laundry room, but then I notice that Drew's jumping up and running to the box of Kleenex. I ask him again if he stuck anything up his nose. He says no, but then he blows his nose and there's blood. Oh great.
I ask him again, and he says no, and when he notices the blood he says, "Mom, I sink somefin's wong wif my nose." I ask, "Is there a BB up your nose, Drew?" He looks like he's about to cry, and says, "Yes. But somebody made me."
Obviously we had to go get it removed before we left. While it was being pulled out Drew was coughing, and I'm trying to decide if this situation is really funny or really gross. As I'm watching the stick thing up his nose I'm thinking gross. Seriously. Yuck. It was nice and bloody, and it fell down and rolled across the floor. Drew still maintains that "Somebody made me" when I ask him why he did it. He also says that he's not going to do that again because it was nasty.
Apparently shortly after we returned home from Hawaii earlier this week Justin totally conned Kent into letting him invite about a million boys to come to our house, and then be driven to a local park for an air soft war. I lost count, but there were at least 8-10 boys that came. They started arriving before 11:00. After everyone arrived Kent piled everyone into my new car (imagine me hyperventilating here because, hello! these are 10-12 year old boys! And it's been raining here! A LOT!! This means mud! I'm a little sick even thinking about it... Oh my gosh.)
Here I am with my "dramatic" eyes. Natalie gave them her stamp of approval. Now, to do something about those braces... November 3 can't be here soon enough!
Miss Innocent herself. I am allowed to post this picture of her. She did silly shots for the other ones, and didn't want anyone else to see them. She was quite upset when I dared suggest it.
Drew didn't mind me sharing a silly shot of him. In fact, he wanted me to share the other one, but I nixed that. He was in a silly mood when I got home so he only wanted silly pictures. And no, I don't know what he's doing here...
Yippee! Kent and I got to go to the Broncos' game last night. It was so cool. My Broncos played the Arizona Cardinals at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. And as if it wasn't good enough to get to see them in person, we killed them! It was awesome!
I sat next to two devoted Cardinals fans. I don't think they liked it when I came walking up in my Broncos t-shirt and cap. LOL! They loved the first half because the Broncos, using their 3rd string QB Hackney, were losing. And the Cards were using 1st or 2nd string (depending on the day) QB Leinart. However, starting late in the 3rd quarter the Broncos rallied and we got our game back on track. I had to smack talk those 2 Cardinal fans a little after listening to them for a majority of the first half. Then me and all of the other Denver Broncos' fans (and we were there in high numbers!!!) had to stand up and cheer as we came back with 3 more TDs to win the game. :-)~
Anyway, it was fun, and my Broncos won!
Here we are in our seats, right behind my team! Great seats, Kent!!!
I am getting really excited about the movie! I just read that it's now being released on November 21 instead of December 12. Yea! Anyone else want to go that night?
Fun things about home:
1. Seeing the kids!
2. Spending time together as a family!
3. Sleeping in my own bed.
4. Having a dishwasher.
5. Having a washer and dryer.
6. Being able to get together with friends and family.
Not so fun things about home:
1. No maid to make my bed every morning.
2. No maid to vacuum my carpets.
3. Laundry. Did I mention laundry? I have already done 10 loads, and I still have 2 more. Yikes! I'd take a picture, but I'm embarrassed to let anyone see it.
4. Kids not wanting to do their jobs.
5. Running errands.
We had our last day in Hawaii yesterday. We spent the morning doing some last minute shopping and then packing our bags. Then we dropped the car off then went to the airport. We had to all adjust our checked luggage because they were all too heavy. I had to throw a few things away to make the weight. We ate our lunch, then boarded the plane. The plane was supposed to take off at 3:15, but we didn't pull away from the gate until almost 3:35. Consequently we were late coming in. We landed at 12:10, and because of where we were sitting didn't get off the plane until about 12:30. We got our bags, grabbed a taxi, and finally got home at around 1:15 or 1:30 a.m. We unpacked a bit so that we could get our toothbrushes and toothpaste out of the bags, and got to bed around 2.
This morning the kids were excited to see that we got home. Trevor came up to make sure that we were actually here, and that's when I woke up. My alarm didn't go off so I'm glad he woke me up, and I drove them because I drove them to school. A major thunderstorm hit just before school let out, and by the time I got to the school (1/2 mile away) the storm was so bad that even with my windshield wipers going at top speed I couldn't see past my windshield for a few minutes. The greenbelts were filled with water, and my shoes got soaked when I got out at the front of the school and to find my kiddos.
I had better stop typing. Natalie has decided that she doesn't want to go to bed so we're having issues right now... I guess she doesn't believe that I'm home now! More later...
This morning we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. We had heard great things from our friends and family members so we were really excited to go. We got picked up at 7:30 in front of our hotel by a native Hawaiian man named Jerry. He has 12 children, ranging in age from 8 - 35! Wow, he's busy! On the way up he told us the do's and don'ts of snorkeling there. He told us a lot of stories about the land and other points of interest while we were coming home.
The staff at the preserve made everyone watch a video before they would allow anyone in the water, and they said that there were a lot of moray eels and urchins within the coral so I was afraid to touch anything. They also stressed that if we stepped on the coral we could break it, and if enough people did it then it would contribute to the reef dying... no stress, really!
The fish were few and far between. There was even more coral here than at the City of Refuge, so it was really hard to get out into open water. The waves were a lot bigger, and the current was a lot stronger. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that the waves kept pushing us into the coral- ouch! We tried snorkeling in several different areas, but we just couldn't find many fish. There was a lot of sand near the beach so we couldn't really see much closer to shore either. When we got out of the water we got A LOT of sand in our swimming suits... A lot...
We went to a heiau in Manoa. The definition of heiau is found here: http://www.kaleoaloha.com/heiau.html. We went to one owned by the Cooke family. You can view their website here: http://punahou55.org/Downloads/07Duane%20Choy.pdf
Here is one of the flowers we saw.
Here's a picture of the back of the house and part of the garden.
This is a picture of the actual heiau. No one is allowed to enter it.
After that we picked them up from the store we dropped them off in Waikiki, dropped the car off at the hotel. Then we walked to the International Market Place to go shopping. When we were done shopping we walked back to the hotel, taking the scenic route through Little Saigon. 
Here are pictures from the Polynesian Cultural Center. 
This is from the Long Canoe Pageant. They had several boats with dancers representing several different countries. This is from the Tonga group.
Here's Kent trying his hand at spear throwing. 
I guess it's only fair to get a picture of me doing something a little funny too. This was at the Hawaiian exhibit. They were teaching us how to dance the hula. Notice my new tattoo on my lower right ankle. Don't worry, Mom. It's already gone!
This is from the show at the end of the night. No flash photography was allowed so it was harder to get a clear picture. I thought the fire looked pretty cool even in slow motion.
