Busy, busy

This week I got a little busier than I expected. I had signed up to be a room mom for Drew's and Natalie's classrooms. I didn't know how many other people signed up, so I thought I might be a co-room parent with someone. Then I got a call from Drew's teacher about a week ago. She asked me to coordinate and manage the schedule for all the parent volunteers. I was surprised because I've never heard of a parent doing that. I am still in the process of getting it together because I have so many other things going on. We also had a meeting with the parents who wanted to volunteer. Almost every child's mother was there. This classroom shouldn't ever be lacking for help!
This week I also organized the math games for Natalie's teacher. I wish I would've taken pictures so I could refer back to it for organizing my stuff! I got clear plastic scrapbook storage boxes that hold 12" x 12" paper. Her teacher had copied and laminated each theme onto different colored papers. Then I put the papers into the boxes based on the color. I went through all of the games to find out what supplies were needed. I made a list organized by box of necessary supplies. Then I made color coordinated labels using my Cricut and cardstock. I laminated those and turned them into stickers with my Xyron machine, and stuck them on the top center of each box. Then I used my label maker, and made labels for her to put under the latch of each box so it would be visible from the shelf. Her mom used the master list and put a supply list into each box. When a group of kids uses a box, they will look at the list and go over to her supplies and get what is needed. I can't wait for Natalie to be able to use these.
Also, a quick happy things for Natalie. For some reason when they do STAR tests at the beginning of each year (a test to determine each child's reading level), she tests really low. The kids are only allowed to check out books in their reading level so she was coming home with books that she could read in kindergarten. She'd been reading chapter books to me over the summer, so I knew she could read better than the level she tested at. Her teacher noticed this too, had her retake the test, and her score was bumped up 6 points! She's having a much easier time finding books that are interesting to her.
And, I have to give credit where credit is due. Drew had Miss Judi for preschool for two years. She is known at the school for sending students extremely well prepared for kindergarten. Drew has been reading for over a year because the way she teaches really helps the kids pick up on sounds, sound combinations, etc. I was talking to Drew's teacher on Thursday, and she said that Drew is in the highest level reading group in her class. I was so excited! He's been a reluctant reader recently. I'm happy to read to him, but I also wanted to make sure he was understanding everything and that he could still read. It's been like pulling teeth to get him to cooperate. But she said they're reading in groups for 15 minutes each day so at least he's reading to someone! I know a lot of credit goes to Miss Judi for her great work with her students.
Another thing keeping me busy is our activities committee's next activity. We're hosting a Daddy Daughter Dance in 3 weeks. We're trying to make it a night to remember. To help with this I hosted a craft night at my house on Thursday. Shanna and I worked on the take-home gifts for the girls. We're making cardstock dresses with tissue made to look like a tutu, glitter on the front and ribbon at the top of the "tutu". We had help from Kim, Mandy, Michelle and Jenn. (Thank you!) We finished about half of the project. Next we'll get busy working on adding the ribbon, and then we'll start on the new hair bows to go on the little dresses. We still need to work on the invitations. We need to get busy! I will post pictures when I'm done.
When we're done with that we're going to turn right around and host an activity for the adults. It's going to be based on the Olympics. I don't have all of the information memorized yet, but the games sound really fun, and I've heard from several people that it's been a favorite ward activity. I'll post more details after we're done with the dance. We're coordinating our Christmas activity with 2 other wards so we can combine our budgets, time and money on the decorations. We're doing a Polar Express themed activity. We're still trying to hash out the details, but we realize we need to do it soon because once you get to October everyone's schedule is suddenly fuller. We need to get the work done now! If you have suppliers for large jingle bells in large quantities for a low amount please pass along that information. We're going to need to order a few hundred for the 3 wards.
I'm also trying to reorganize my office. Hopefully that will happen soon. I keep starting, and then something happens so I can't finish. I'm hoping that I'll find the time to finish tomorrow. I've scheduled my day being home for the most part so maybe it will happen. I'd better get to bed. More soon!

Can I cry a little now?

As per my Facebook post I met with my GI doctor today. After reviewing the test results he said that there are some definite issues. However, he feels strongly that having hernia repair surgery would be detrimental to my health. He said that although I have a hiatal hernia the worse problem is with the esophagus itself. He said a medical term that I don't remember, but said in layman's terms I have a sleepy esophagus. He said that instead of working as the food works its way down it only works a small portion of the time. This is causing the food to back up and causes the pain. There's really nothing that can be done to treat that. With all the advances of modern medicine there's not a pill or a medical treatment that has been developed to treat it. He said that the only thing I can really do is go on a soft food diet. This means that eating is not going to be fun or enjoyable any more.
When I met with my doctor and dietitian to start losing the weight they gave me foods that I should eat to lose weight... lean meats, green veggies, some fruit, cut out most starches and sugars most of the time and that sort of thing. They both strongly encouraged me to eat fish. I told them that while I truly appreciate that fish is good for you I do not like fish. I've tried it several times over the years, and almost always when they have a sample at Costco I try it. It's just totally disgusting to me in flavor, smell and texture, so that left chicken and turkey as suitable lean meats. However, both turkey and chicken are not on this new diet unless they're ground up. Turkey I can handle, but I don't think I've ever even seen ground chicken. My GI doctor said that I am also supposed to start taking a drink of water every single time I take a bite. This is exactly opposite of what the dietitian told me to do. She said that I shouldn't drink for 20-30 minutes so that the food would stay in my stomach longer so that I would feel full longer... thereby not being hungry as often. That was working for me. Now the GI doctor is telling me to do the exact opposite. He said that if my body was working properly that this would be a good idea. However, if I want to be able to swallow and get the food to go down I have to start drinking with my meals again. He assured me that if I drink water that I won't make the food pass too quickly. If I have drinks with bubbles (soda- and if I drank, then alcohol with bubbles) will make the food pass through more quickly.
I truly hope he's right. My weight has been stuck at about the same weight for a while and I've been getting discouraged. I truly hope that making these changes will help. I can't stop eating, and I don't want to regain the weight I've already lost. I hope that I'll be able to incorporate these changes in my life, and that I'll be able to eat and drink again without having my food get stuck. It's painful and scary. If this works I'll be thrilled, and hopefully, thinner.
Anyway, I had a couple of dreams this week that the doctor who performed the test and said that I'd have to have the surgery was wrong. And I dreamed that my GI doctor would say about what he said. I'll admit to being somewhat discouraged by this even though I suspected he would say this. C'est la vie.

Update on my medical testing

On July 2, I had bribed the kids to clean the whole house. I told them that if they cleaned the house and picked weeds I'd take them to lunch. We needed to get it all clean so we could have the bug guy come spray, and then get the carpets cleaned after that. They decided that they wanted to go to Denny's so after they were done off we went. Kent had come home from work early, and we offered to wait for him to get there. He couldn't go because he had too much work so it was just me and the kids. They ordered a variety of things, some breakfast and some lunch. I ordered breakfast, thinking it would be easy to swallow. I'd been having a lot of issues since May of 2009 with my swallowing. And during the past few months it had gotten worse. It wasn't happening at every meal so I wasn't sure why it would happen at different times of day and not consistently with the same foods. It was frustrating, and I'd almost had to go to the ER a few times because of food getting stuck.

That morning I'd had a difficult time eating breakfast so I thought eggs and toast would go down just fine. Unfortunately I was wrong. After eating only 4 bites of my food (2 bites of scrambled eggs, 1 bite of sausage and 1 bite of bacon) the food got stuck. I went to the bathroom and tried to cough or throw up so I could breathe easy again. However, this didn't work. I was struggling to breathe and talk, and was in quite a bit of pain. After about 15 minutes in the bathroom, I was sweating so bad, and starting to shake because I was really under quite a bit of stress from not being able to get the food to dislodge. The boys sent Natalie in, and she said I didn't look good. And then she looked again and asked if I was going to go to the hospital. So, I managed to pay (probably freaked the cashier out a bit because I could hardly speak or breathe), and drove myself the 2 miles to the nearest ER, throwing up a tiny bit at a time the entire time. Justin called Kent while I was driving to fill him in on the situation. He was very brave, but I could tell he was very worried. I really didn't want the kids to have to go with me, but at that point taking them home was not an option. I needed help as soon as possible. Kent came to get them, and I waited to be admitted. I got back pretty quickly, but they didn't give me anything to help right away. I had to try to talk to the doctor, who got me a room in the back. This was the worst episode by far of any of the episodes. I was pretty miserable until they gave some muscle relaxers, anti-anxiety medication, and morphine. When all that failed to get rid of the food, and I was probably starting my third hour of retching, they called a GI specialist who ordered a cup of ginger ale. That helped to dislodge whatever it was. The GI doctor had me go upstairs where I got a scope down the throat to see what was left there and then he took 2 biopsies. After all that I had a sore throat for about 3 days. I was discharged with the vague diagnosis of having dysphagia, a condition that causes the esophagus to not work properly... Makes eating and drinking extremely difficult. (The test results were normal for this test.)

Before all this happened, I had gone to an ENT to see if he could help me figure out what was going on. It seemed to start in the throat area so I figured he'd be the best place to start. He ordered a neck CT and a swallow study with barium. So on July 8 I did my best to not complain or get sick as the tech jabbed my arm with the needle trying to start the IV in my left arm (aka- the bad arm) for my neck CT. I've had at least 20-30 IVs in my life, so I directed her to the 2 veins that work the best for IV's, but she "didn't like those ones." (Oy vey!) This was her first day also, so when she was trying to get those bad veins she was moving the needle all around. I really thought I was going to be sick. The "best" (according to her and her trainer) vein rolled so the trainer suggested she take it out and try to start an IV in the other arm... which worked! (And it was in the vein that I suggested initially...) It hurt so bad! It felt like she jabbed me with a nail in that arm. Fortunately the barium swallow study was without incident, so I was thrilled about that. Both of those tests came back with normal results... no issues at all. (Test results normal again.)

I met with the doctor who had done the biopsies. He said everything so far was coming back normal so he wasn't sure what course of action to take because "he couldn't treat normal." He ordered another test to measure the pressure in the esophagus, and said we'd go from there.

Then, on Thursday (Aug. 12) I had to go in for an esophageal manometry. I can honestly say that was one of the most horrible tests I've ever had. For the test they had to numb from the back of my nose down to the back of my throat with lidocaine using a long Q-Tip. Then they stuck a tube up my nose and down to the back of my throat, where they kept it until I stopped gagging. (Easier said than done. It took about 5 minutes so my throat took a beating from the tube.) After that they advanced the tube until it was in the top of my stomach. They took some baseline measurements, and then had me take a sip of water 10 times. The tube had sensors on it that measured the pressure from the top to the bottom. Fortunately this yielded results. The worst possibility of the 5 they were testing for has been ruled out, thank goodness. I'll meet with the doctor next Friday to discuss options, but I'll probably have to have surgery in the next few weeks. They are fairly certain that I have a hiatal hernia. The doctor who performed the test also hinted at some other issues related to it, but he said he wants the other doctor to review the test and decide the course of treatment. Friday cannot get here soon enough.
I am looking forward to being able to eat and drink again without worrying about gagging. It's so bad sometimes that it can take me more than 1 hour to drink a protein shake. And when it acts up I can only eat 3-4 bites before I start gagging again. I'm hoping that this will lead to further weight loss, but so far the scale isn't budging. My primary care physician thinks that my body is in fat storing mode because of the issues, and while I'm glad to know that I would really like to lose weight since my caloric intake has dropped significantly most days! It'll happen. I know it! Any and all prayers are appreciated. I am so glad that they finally found something to explain everything! It's a huge relief, and is something that can be corrected.

Kent and Mary Ann's 15th Wedding Anniversary

We did it! We reached the 15 year anniversary of our wedding, and are still as happy with each other than the day we married... more, actually. We were so young when we got married, me especially. I was still a teenager, so I tell Kent that he robbed the cradle. We are definitely going to encourage our children to wait until they're a bit older to get married. Our plan was to finish school, get "real" jobs and then buy a house. A few years after that we'd start having kids. 2 or 3, probably. Kent really wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom, and I couldn't imagine doing that. That difference of opinion was probably our first real argument.Obviously our plans changed when I got pregnant. I was taking multiple precautions to prevent pregnancy, but that didn't stop Justin from coming along when I was the ripe old age of 20. He's almost 14 (less than 5 weeks now, I think), and every time I look at him I just imagine him in 5 years, getting ready to leave on his mission. Then I think of myself at that age, never once imagining that I'd be one of those "foolish young women" who would get married, much less pregnant, until she was done or nearly done with school.
My pregnancy with Justin was fraught with problems. I developed pre-eclampsia within the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, started spotting at work so had a miscarriage scare, then I started swelling up like a blimp when my blood pressure spiked. And the horrible 24/7 heartburn. At the time my OB told me to chew Tums or Rolaids. Let me tell you Rolaids does NOT spell relief. False advertising! I couldn't sleep if I lay down so I had to sleep in a sitting position for several months. During that pregnancy I first started having severe back pain, that my OB wrote off as pregnancy related. (After Justin was born and the problems only got worse we found out that L4 and L5 were herniated and disintegrating... not pregnancy related.) Then at about 28 weeks I started having preterm labor so I had to stop working and go on bed rest. I seriously thought I would die of boredom. It wasn't like I could even go window shopping unless I wanted to use a wheelchair. Then when I came off bed rest, my BP went up even higher, and I was not feeling well at all. Then my preterm labor stopped, and I ended up having to be induced when I was overdue. My August baby came in September.
Kent went on to finish his school as I adjusted to life as a new mother. I didn't return to work or school because we couldn't afford to have Justin in day care. We eventually got the new house 2 months before Justin turned 1. I had a miscarriage 6 weeks after Justin's 1st birthday. Then Trevor joined our family when Justin was 2 1/2.
When Trevor was 3, and Justin was 5 we moved to our current home. Natalie joined our family 1 year later, and Drew came along 19 months after that. Life has had its ups and downs, but we've always managed to work through our issues with relatively calm heads. Kent's parents were divorcing when we were dating so I never knew them when they were married, and my parents split up when I was pregnant with Drew. Both of those divorces were incredibly difficult for us even though we were adults, and thought that we'd be immune to the emotional roller coaster rides that those things turned out to be. Kent decided when his parents were divorcing that divorce would not be an option for him unless the circumstances were extreme. I empathized and understood that. When my parents divorced, though, I started to gain the insight that he'd probably gained during that time for him. (Add pregnancy hormones to that, and I'm sure it was a great few months for Kent. Sorry, babe!) Having been through that, and not wanting our children to have to go through it either, has really solidified the need for us to be diligent in caring for and loving each other. We want to respect each other, help each other grow and accomplish our goals. We want to be good parents, who listen to their children and help them learn to grow in faith and righteousness. We want to do all the good things our parents did, teach them the lessons our parents taught us and help them reach their full potential. We want that for each other.Okay... that's gotten a bit heavy so... for our anniversary we went to see Salt. (Girls kicking butt is always a good theme for me!) Then we went to dinner at Cantina Laredo. I think that's one of Kent's favorite restaurants. I was going to get fresh made guacamole until I saw that it was $10.For one small bowl of guac! I'm still my father's daughter. I couldn't bring myself to do it, even on our anniversary. Kent got soft tacos. One flour and one corn tortilla with choice of beef fajita meat. He said it was very good.I got Tampico. It was grilled chicken breast topped with sautéed artichoke hearts, mushrooms, spinach, red bell peppers with sour cream-poblano sauce and monterey jack cheese. I can't eat rice due to the swallowing issue so I took it home for the kids. They loved it. And since we didn't get the appetizer we got dessert. It was hot apple pie served on a hot skillet, topped with cinnamon ice cream (sounded disgusting to me, but was delicious with the cinnamon from the pie). They poured a brandy-butter sauce on top of that, and it sizzled and popped for several minutes while we ate. Seriously so good. I'm going to have to try to try to duplicate it for Thanksgiving. (BTW, that dessert was about40% cheaper than the guac. Seriously?! I'm going to have to make some because now I'm stuck on that. Anyone want to come help me eat it?)I ordered Kent a smoker. For Memorial Day we went to our friends' house for dinner. The husband had smoked ribs in his smoker all day. They were so good. They were so tender the meat was falling off the bone with the slightest touch. I think Justin and Trevor ate at least half of them by themselves. That smoker has been discussed at length since that day. I told Kent that's what I'd ordered for him, but then he had ordered one too so I canceled mine. So he says that's his gift from me. I asked for a couple of different things. I'm not sure what I'm getting yet. He gave me beautiful white and red roses when he came home from work. He also brought home a box of See's chocolates. Since I'm still trying to lose weight I suppose I'll share. (Either that or every time I open the box I'll find that my dear, sweet, innocent children have helped themselves to a sample or 2.)

California Trip July 2010

Last week we got to go to California for our family trip.We drove to CA on Thursday. My sister Amy and her kids came to our hotel and went swimming. We had a blast letting the kids play while the adults caught up with each other. On Friday Natalie got to dance with her dance company at Disneyland. After she danced we got to ride the rides in Disneyland and California Adventure. The kids had a blast going from park to park. Natalie, Drew and I were the only ones brave enough to go on the Tower of Terror Ride. Trevor is not such a fan of that ride, and bailed before the ride started. Kent and Justin never even came inside. Trevor redeemed himself a little later when he went on the California Screamer with me two times in a row.
The next day we met up with Amy and her family, and we went to Huntington Beach. Amy's husband, Gavin, was able to join us this time. Kent, Justin and Trevor all tried body surfing. I read and worked on my tan. At the end of the afternoon, we went back to our hotel to clean up then went back to Amy's house. Justin and Trevor got to babysit the kids while the adults went to dinner at Cheesecake Factory. I just need to say that Amy really loves the Navajo Sandwich. Ha ha. Kent forgot that his birthday so I was able to surreptitiously talk to our waitress and have her come with a piece of cheesecake and a group of people to sing happy birthday to him. When we were done eating Amy and I went to Barnes and Noble while the boys got the car. We found a couple of books that had us laughing out loud. Kent and Gavin got a little irritated that we were taking so long to come out to the car, I think.
The next day we met up with Kent's sister, Rebecca, and went to Knott's Berry Farm. Being a HUGE roller coaster and scary ride fan I had a blast there. I finally got to ride the Xellerator. The last time we were there the ride had just opened, and the wait time was over 3 hours. This time I was the only one who would go on it. I went into the regular line because I didn't want to ride in the front car alone. A girl who was waiting in the line for the front car started talking to me, and she ended up ditching her boyfriend to ride with me when she decided that she didn't want to ride in the front car either. Ha ha. Kent surprised me by riding the Silver Bullet (with 6 1/2 turns upside down) twice. He hates roller coasters, but he actually liked this one. BTW, if anyone wants to make a trip to CA for amusement parks I'll be happy to join you!
The following day we went back to HB to the Brandon's house. We let the kids play, Amy and I talked while Kent worked, and then I made the girls headbands with some really cute fabric Amy got. That night we went down by the beach to eat at a restaurant. We were going to go to the pier afterward, but it was so cold (okay, not really, but it was in the high 60's- so our winter weather) that we had to leave.
On the ride home we stopped at the outlet malls in Cabazon and did a little shopping. I'm still doing 6 days' worth of laundry, but we all had a great time, and can't wait to go back!

Quick update

Well, I am getting worse and worse at keeping up with the blog. I used to be so good at it. Then I started getting busier and busier, and expecting a break, I thought I'd start posting again in June. Well, I'm still waiting for that break to come. It seems that whenever I have a little extra time it gets filled up quickly with tasks and errands that got pushed to the wayside while everything else was happening. Since I last posted Natalie turned 7 (will do a separate post with pictures), Kent had his birthday, Trevor and Natalie participated in their dance recital (it will need to be a separate post too), we got to visit with friends from out of town (will post with pictures), got to go to CA to visit family (yet another post), had to go to the ER once (I'll update about this after I meet with yet another specialist) and Kent went to Vegas for work for several days.
Our 15th wedding anniversary is in a week and a half, which seems completely crazy to me. I can't believe it's already been that long. This is kind of a bittersweet day. Sweet because we get to celebrate another year of being happily married, and bitter because it means that Justin's turning a year older just a month and a week after that... meaning he'll be 14 in less than 2 months. Yikes.
I also started physical therapy again for my back. My back was not great, but after my spill at pack meeting I was in as much pain as I was before. Since things didn't get any better after several months I had to decide to take my chances with PT and *hopefully* avoid surgery, or go straight to the neurosurgeon. I decided to roll the dice with PT, and so far things have been steadily progressing for the good. The guy I'm going to now has been recommended by people in my ward who have back problems, and they couldn't say enough good about him. It was truly an answer to my prayers when a good friend of mine texted me in information several minutes after I prayed for someone or something to give me some relief. He started me out relearning to breathe correctly. I've been breathing from my chest only to help protect my back. (You're supposed to use your diaphragm- so your belly expands, not your chest... who knew?) This small change has actually helped a lot. After I had done that he's been working with me to build up my core strength. This is usually not too hard, but some of the stuff makes me want to cuss... a lot. I generally manage to only do it in my head, but I may have mumbled a few things under my breath in frustration and in extreme pain, but I know that sometimes you need to have a little pain before things get better. One such exercise that I particularly despise is the IT-Band rolling. This is done on a hard foam roll. It may not sound like much, but I am almost in tears because of the pain from this STILL, and I've been doing it for weeks. It helps when I do it anyway, but I'm a little bitter about it. I realize that all this may not do enough to help me avoid another back surgery, but if I do have to go in again, I will go in stronger, having already learned some things to help me recover more quickly.
Well, I am the only one awake so I'm going to bed. I was outside for almost 11 hours today in the sweltering heat and humidity and I should go to bed so that I can do the same thing tomorrow!

Last day of school 2010

Today was the kids' last day of school. Silly me forgot to take pictures of the teacher gifts for Justin and Trevor's teachers. Oh well. I haven't had enough sleep lately anyway! Trevor's teacher got a gold colored transparent pitcher with fresh lemons in it. She's a big ASU fan because her husband works there so we thought they'd get a lot of use out of it during parties. Trevor wrote her a nice note thanking her for being such a good teacher for the last two years. Justin's homeroom teacher is a huge crafting and scrap booking fanatic like me so I found a bunch of ribbon, a ream of coordinating decorative card stock, a scalloped edge chipboard scrapbook and a brown and blue scrapbook tote bag. Everything in there was on sale so even though there was a lot it didn't end up costing much. I love finding great deals!
Being a room mom for Natalie's class meant that a few of the other moms and I worked together to compile contributions for a large group gift. We ended up collecting $175 from the families. Then I painted a terra cotta pot pink, painted Drew's hands and put hand prints on the pot with the date. One of the other moms cut out tons of cute card stock flowers and put them on wooden skewers. They were delivered to me, and I wrapped the stems with green chenille pipe cleaners. Then I passed it onto the mom who got the gift cards. She put the cards on the flowers and wrapped it up. It looked darling.
Melody, one of the moms made a scrapbook page with all the kids, then went in with a card and had the kids all sign it. She picked up food from McDonald's, and after we passed it out we presented Natalie's teacher with her gift. We made Mrs. Dede cry because she loved it so much. I had Drew with me, and expected him to stay pretty close to me the entire time. What surprised me was that Natalie also chose to sit next to me the entire time. She usually comes and says hi, or gives me a shy and embarrassed smile but she usually will stay with her friends. Today she stayed with me the entire time.
Now that the end of school craziness is over I need to start preparing for Sunday. I stupidly answered the call, knowing it was going to be to speak in church on Sunday. I still don't know why I did that, but I did, and now Kent and I are speaking in church on Sunday. At least it's a holiday weekend so we shouldn't have a ton of people there to witness this. I've tried repeatedly to start looking up the topic, but I just can't get into it. It is a topic with a lot of material to choose from, but I can't focus. Hopefully I'll sleep well tonight and then i can work tomorrow. i sure hope so!

One more thing...

If you haven't been on Facebook recently I just announced that I'm down 30 pounds. I chopped my hair into an A-line bob and touched up the color. From my father I have inherited a bit of gray hair a little earlier than I think is reasonable. (I think 50 is reasonable to expect a bit of gray, don't you?) I am hoping to continue losing more over the next several months. Hopefully our Christmas pictures will have a slimmer version of me!

End of the school year

Wow, it's already arrived... the end of another school year. Things are a little crazier this year than previous years because of last week's surgery. I'm hopeful that it will take care of the issues I've had with my back. I think it might because within an hour of the surgery my back pain was equal to the surgery pain. I guess I won't know for a few weeks if it will help my back too, but not having to deal with the issues that have plagued me for the last 20+ years I'm cautiously optimistic.
Drew is so excited that he's finishing preschool. He's going to miss Miss Judi because she was a great teacher. He has developed a strong love of reading. He tolerates coloring and writing. But if I ask him to take a note for me he gets excited. He has his graduation ceremony on Wednesday morning so we'll get some fun pictures of that.
Natalie bridged from Daisy Scouts to Brownies this afternoon. She is very excited to move up. She's also getting ready for her birthday party. We're doing a 1970's theme so it should be fun. I was really stumped as to what we should do this year. She wanted to invited 26 (!!!) people. I had to put the kibosh on that. We've pared the list down to 20, but since it's going to be in June this time I'm hoping that we'll be closer to 10-12 people. Trying to come up with the wording for the invitation was fun. I googled a bunch of 70's information, and I was laughing so hard. The slang was Hilarious! She is also getting ready for her dance recital in a few weeks. She's got 3 costumes, and loves them all.
Trevor just earned his Webelos badge, his religious knot and his Arrow of Light award last week. Only a few people have earned all of those things so we were very proud of him for doing so much work. He's already started earning Merit Badges for Boy Scouts. He also reached his A.R. goal for this last quarter of school so he gets to participate in a party tomorrow in class.
Justin had one last project due for school that he finished tonight. It was his class called the History of Rock and Roll. I would have been all over that at his age. He had to make a concert poster for the Beatles and Rolling Stones. Lucky! Another thing I like is the school lets the kids choose between being in band and P.E. for the whole year (3 and 2 days respectively) or they can take drama, dance, P.E. and choir for one quarter each. Justin had absolutely no interest in being in band so he took the second option. Last week they had a dance performance at the local high school. He's also getting ready for the week long encampment in a few weeks.
Kent's been busy with work. He found computer discs that are basically classes for Cisco training so he's been working with those nightly. I hardly see him at night so I guess it's good that he has these so he can at least be in the house and not having to travel for those classes. He went on the guys' trip again a few weeks ago. He enjoyed that. You can find those pictures on his Facebook page if you're interested. He's also been taking care of me and the family when I was taking it easy this weekend.
As for me I've been walking nearly every night in my effort to lose weight. I used to walk with Natalie, Justin or Trevor, but it got to be too late for them to go on school nights so Kent went with me. He didn't like leaving for an hour of walking because he needs to finish the classes for work. One of my friends expressed interest so we've been walking several nights. It works out well because Kent gets at least one hour of study time, and the younger kids are in bed. I get socialization and exercise. This week I'm busy working on teacher gifts, reorganizing my house and laundry. It really piled up over the weekend!

They do love each other!

Trevor started things off on Saturday when Kent took the 3 youngest kids swimming at our neighbor's house. The kids threw swim toys to the bottom of the pool and Trevor was in charge of retrieving them. After he was done his ears were hurting so he took it easy for the rest of the day. On Sunday night he was complaining about his ears and a headache so we told him to go to bed. On Monday he was feeling worse so he stayed home from school. He had a terrible headache, with sensitivity to light and sound. His whole body hurt and he started running a low grade fever. I tried to keep him hydrated and medicated. By the late afternoon his headache was so bad that I got really worried and was able to get a doctor's appointment. He was tested for strep and mono, which were both negative. The doctor determined that he's got some sort of virus. He's still been home every day, though so it still hasn't run its course. Justin started feeling lousy on Monday night. He's got the same symptoms as Trevor, but with a bad stomachache also.
So the reason I tell you all that is so you know how bad they were both feeling. Trevor has been sleeping a lot, and Justin has been trying to function, but still sleeps a lot. Anyway, last night Trevor went to bed shortly after 7. We finished getting everyone else ready for bed, said prayers, and Drew came back down with his special blanket. His former primary teacher got some soft fleece with pictures of Jesus on it. She cut them about the length and double the width of a scarf and tied it all around the edges. She called it the Comforter to help them remember the Holy Ghost. When Drew brought it down he said, "Mom, Sister Fuller gave this to me. She said that whenever I feel bad to put this around me and remember that Heavenly Father and Jesus love me and will help me feel better. Can I put this on Trevor so he can feel better?" Of course we said yes. He put it on Trevor's sleeping form and when Trevor woke up in the middle of the night wondering how it got there I told him what Drew did for him. How sweet is that?!

Natalie's Performace at the Suns Game

Natalie, Mikyla, Callie and friends before the performance. They were all being silly and giddy.

Natalie's dance group, The Rockstars, and the other performing dance groups from her dance studio got to dance before the Phoenix Suns' game on April 7. They did a mash up of several popular songs, including songs by Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus. They had matching outfits... their tan tights with tan jazz shoes, royal blue leotards with matching booty shorts, earrings, sparkly red and white tutus, sparkly red ribbons in their hair. They all had to have high ponytails with the ponytail curled and stage makeup. (That's Natalie's favorite part.) They danced a few minutes before the game started.

Our whole family ended up going. Originally it was just going to be Kent, Natalie and I, but then Kent thought it would be a great idea to have the whole family come. We went to La Tolteca for dinner, and then we went to the game. It was a lot of fun for everyone except Drew. He really does not like loud noises, and with crowd was pretty loud. The boys had a lot of fun, and want to go to more games in the future.

Natalie still had a smile on her face when I picked her up after her performance.

Fathers and Sons & GNO!

Friday was the ward Fathers and Sons camp out. I pulled the boys out of school early so they could leave early. Unfortunately Kent got stuck on a business call, so they didn't leave for over an hour after they got home. They haven't told me much about it, but I know they got to stop and eat in Payson, Drew freaked out because he left his pillow at home, and Trevor kept waking up screaming. (Have I mentioned his propensity for sleepwalking? This includes episodes of him waking up in the middle of the night crying or screaming. If I approach him to find out what's wrong it wakes him up, and then he's terrified that someone is in his face. It's been going on since at least 2002. He usually doesn't remember anything, but if he's over-tired it happens more frequently.) When they packed up camp on Saturday morning they went with some of the other men and boys to go shoot their air soft guns, rifles and pistols.
Meanwhile, back at the fort, I kept Natalie home from dance because her cough was really bad when she was moving around. We went with Jennifer, Rylie, Kaeli and Avery Savage to dinner at the Olive Garden, then to see The Last Song. We ran into the Lamoreauxs, DeTemples, Yeagers and Jennifer Pickles from the ward. My mom and niece, Melia, also showed up at the same movie. Great minds think alike! Natalie had Rylie spend the night. They were both asleep within 30 minutes of getting home. Then they got up at 6:05. (I didn't get up that early, but they had fun playing the piano, playing Go Fish and watching TV.) A little after 8 we went and got the co-op food, and then they played a while longer until we went with Jenn to get pedicures. Whew! Busy weekend!

Natalie and my nails after our pedicures. She had polka dots and I got zebra strips with purple and white. Natalie's not sure if I can really claim that they're zebra stripes because there is no black, and the stripes were white. Hmm...Natalie and I at the end of the day. We had some normal pictures, but she thought this one was the funniest, and wanted me to post it to the blog.

Progress

It's been 6 1/2 weeks since I started my diet. As of last Tuesday I was already down 22.5 pounds. Yay! I was walking 5-6 nights a week, but since Tuesday the wind has been so bad that I haven't been able to get out. It's caused my asthma to flare up, and Trevor, Natalie and Drew's allergies to act up. We've had lots of coughs and sniffles going around.
I've been diligent in eating better, eating the foods that my dietitian has instructed me to eat, and I'm doing fairly well. I started my third phase last Monday, and this is the one that I was the most worried about. I'm not having the protein shakes anymore, but real food. Argh! Stress. I've been eating either eggs (for the protein) or Cream of Wheat (for the taste). I used to put 1 T. of brown sugar, but now I put on some cinnamon and 1/2 t. of sugar. Sometimes I have a plain piece of toast too. Lunchtime is no longer a sandwich. I usually cook up chicken one night early in the week, and use that for my lunches for the rest of the week. Usually it's half a chicken breast and some fruits or veggies. I've tried to substitute for the chips that my kids eat for something more healthy. I found a solution in the baby food aisle of all places. Gerber makes these cheese crisps that taste better than Cheetos. Best part about it is that I can eat 18 of them and only consume 35 calories. I still totally crave and miss my daily caffeinated beverage, but I have found the Fuze drinks have either 10-20 calories per bottle are good in a pinch. I drink tons of water still, but sometimes I need some flavor. My dietitian pointed out that drinking a ton of water with my dinner was actually not a good idea for me. She said that it's flushing the food out before my brain got the signal that I was full. So she suggested that if I absolutely have to have a drink with dinner that I have only a few sips. Then 30-45 minutes later I can go back to drinking as much water as I want. It has been helping me eat less, which surprised me.
Natalie has reversed her previous decision. She initially said that she wouldn't like me anymore if I got skinny. She has now decided that it's okay if I lose weight, but she doesn't want me to look "disgusting." Wow, what support and love I feel knowing that.

Dentist

Last week while we were on vacation I noticed that every so often when I was chewing my gum I'd get a strong pain in one of my molars. I was worried that I had a cavity. It wasn't constant, not consistent so I kind of blew it off until yesterday. Kent and I are going on a quick vacation next week, and I thought I'd better have the dentist check it out before we go just so I could make sure that it wouldn't cause any problems while I was there. So I called, and they said I could come in whenever I was available. Yay! I got dressed and went in. The tech took an x-ray, then Dr. Mike came in. He had me bite down on some instrument several times, and there was only one spot that bothered me a bit. I thought, "Great. This will be a quick fix since it only hurt in one spot. I'll probably just have a tiny filling and it'll be good." Wrong. I cracked the tooth. How? I'm not sure, but my dentist thinks that it's because I'm clenching my teeth at night because of my back pain. Grr... And to make things even better, I had two cavities on 2 front teeth. What?! Nothing even hurts there!

Dr. Mike is great because I'm a wimp when it comes to dental stuff. I faithfully go in for my cleanings ever 6 months, but if they find anything my heart begins to race and my fight or flee instinct kicks into overdrive. (It's only on the flee at that point...) I found that if I wear my iPod, and turn it up loud, that it almost cancels out the horrible noise of the drill. If only they could find something for the taste and smell of dental things... Anyway, going back to Dr. Mike, he always uses the numbing cream before he gives me shots. And I always take forever to numb up, and usually require extra lidocaine because I won't go numb. The only problem is that once I'm numb I stay numb for HOURS. Yesterday, my lip on the upper right side was numb, all the way up my cheekbone, and the right nostril. I went in at 11:30 for my appointment, and everything was numb until 4:30 yesterday afternoon. Here was my attempt to smile while I was waiting to pick the kids up. It looks like I am showing my teeth. This is better than it looked earlier when I could hardly talk because my lips didn't want to move. Good times, good times...

He caught that?!

We were watching a TV show when a commercial for men and women who had had mini face lifts came on. Drew usually tunes out commercials that aren't about toys or the Perfect Brownie pan. (He really, really wants me to get one.) Anyway, imagine my surprise when he turns to me and says, "Mom, I think that Person X (name changed to protect Drew's innocence) really needs to get one of those. I think they're would look better. And I think that Person Y should get one too." It was so out of the blue that I couldn't help but laugh.

Book Recommendations

In case you are looking for a good read during Spring Break and beyond I have some recommendations. The first one is The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. This is a really interesting book about a 4 year old girl who was put on a ship alone in 1913 and wound up in Australia. She is taken in by the harbor master and his wife. She longs to find out who she really is, and it takes her granddaughter to finally solve the mystery of her how she ended up in Australia without any clues to her past. Another great book is The Guernsey Potato Pie Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. I wasn't sure if I would like this book when I saw that it was written as a series of letters between a group of people, but it is one of my favorite books. I didn't want the story to end. It tells about a group of people and how the war changed their lives. Another one that is good is Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. This is written a la Nicholas Sparks, but it was written by James Patterson. If you want to start a series, The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins is really interesting. So far she has written the first two books, The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. The third and final book will be released this fall. If you're looking for a series that's full of comedy relief then the Joanna Carl Chocoholic series is a fun set of books to read. I also really enjoy The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. She's from the valley, and has written 7 books so far in that series. I'm on book 4. The books are quite long. I think the shortest was 700+ pages, but most are over 1000 pages... in about a 9 point font so they may take a while to read. I read all the time so if you have some recommendations please comment! If you want more suggestions let me know.

What's going on...

Nothing major going on here. But we are keeping busy. I did my allergy testing a few weeks ago. I left my appointment with the serum that I now take. These are in lieu of the allergy shots. I have 8 vials of increasing concentration of what I'm allergic to... which, if you're wondering, is everything they tested me for. I finished my first vial, and am now on the second. My allergies have already markedly improved, even with the windy weather we've had lately.
With the allergy mess all sorted out I started on my diet. I met with 2 different dietitians, and found a plan that should do wonders. In fact, I have already had some success. I started last Tuesday, and have lost 6 pounds as of yesterday. What a great way to start off a diet. If I continue to lose weight and can not feel completely deprived in the process my odds of success are much greater. For breakfast and lunch I have a protein shake that's 225 calories or less. Then for dinner I can have either a Lean Cuisine or Weight Watchers meal, or make chicken or fish (so it's chicken because fish is NASTY!) and have either a green salad (with Salad Spritzers- 5 calories) or 1 cup of minestrone soup. I can also have unlimited green veggies and Sugar Free Jell-O or Sugar Free Popsicles throughout the day. I'm also supposed to drink even more water than usual, and for now, I am not drinking soda. Even Dr. Pepper. This week I am missing chocolate and caffeine. I hate this time of month... I hope it passes quickly.
Julie is over right now. The boys are doing tricks on the trampoline and goofing off for her. They LOVE it when she comes over. Trevor did an especially high jump, and when he landed his shorts fell to his calves. I had to laugh because it reminded me of my sister Michelle. When she was young she was so skinny that her pants fell down to her ankles regularly- in public too. I used to be alternately horrified or laughing about it. Trevor was sufficiently embarrassed so I'm trying really hard to keep a straight face.
Natalie is at a friend's house right now. Apparently she forgot our shopping plans this morning, so when her friend called to play this morning she was pretty ticked off at me for telling her she couldn't play. She was happy afterwards, though. She has set some goals, and I promised her that when she reached those goals I'd take her to get something. Today, since she has stopped sucking her thumb, even when she's asleep, she got her first Zhu Zhu Pet. It's a hamster. Then we also got her Easter dress and a pretty white shrug to go with it. We usually get them at the Little Girls' Dress Party, but I couldn't make it this year so we found one at The Children's Place.
Drew has been sad to not play with many friends this Spring Break. Everyone seems to either be travelling or sick. We're trying to make a trip to the snow happen this weekend so maybe that distraction will be enough for him. They've all been asking to play in the snow so it should be fun.
Well, I think I'm being summoned to come play Sorry! so I'll write more later. Maybe I'll even edit my pictures so I can post some of them...

Lo hicimos, we did it!

My committee and I got our first activity of 2010 under our belts. This isn't one I was really stressed about. I think after the last 2 activities this was just what we needed. We had our huge talent show in September. My laptop died the day of the program, and it was a mad dash to get everything completed and set up. (In case you're wondering, I'm not repeating the talent show any time in the near future!) Then after that we had the Christmas program, and Natalie had been in the hospital the week of that, so it was a nice thing to have a smaller activity.
This activity was the Sweetheart Dance. I've been in wards before where they traded with another ward, and served a full meal, followed by dancing. We didn't feel that it was something we wanted to undertake so we just had dancing and desserts on a Friday night for one hour. Drew and I set up 6 round tables and started on the chairs. He wanted to take all of them down because he could flip them over before opening them. It was pretty funny because he was totally showing off. He wanted me to see how strong he was. Shanna came to join us after we started on the chairs. We finished getting those set up, then set up our dessert table and did the decorating.
For decorations we decided our theme would be pink, red and white. We put baby pink and white tablecloths on the tables. For centerpieces I got these cute red tin buckets with heart cutouts. We filled those with glass marbles and red silk roses. Then I got Valentine's Day candy and we threw that around. Since the wrappers were all metallic colors they resembled confetti. We used our 4 tiered serving platters for the desserts, and Shanna's glass urn for the water. We put the round tables in a half moon shape and left the floor in the front of the gym and the floor between the tables open for dancing. Joe and Gaye Zezulka were our dance instructors, and Shanna's husband, Joseph, was our DJ.
Several couples came, and we had a fun time. After visiting awhile, we started out easy with the Casper Slide and the Electric Slide. (I can actually do those 2.) Then we learned to do the fox trot. I did really well when they were teaching us. When we had to dance together I didn't do quite as well. Fortunately the water urn started leaking water all over so I had to go mop it up. (Thank you, Kent, for noticing and/or causing that to happen! I can really do without embarrassing myself in public!)

Sweetheart Dance

We are having our first activity of the year... a sweetheart dance. I'm a bit apprehensive about it. I don't dance, and if my committee hadn't really pushed for this activity I would not have done it. I am excited about the decorations, but I'm getting nervous about the actual activity. The last time they tried doing an activity like this it wasn't well attended because of when they had scheduled it. This year I don't know how many people will actually attend.

Asthma- the downsides and the upsides

Asthma has been ruling my life for the last week and a half. I went for a walk one night. It was a cool night, and lots of people were sitting in their driveways with friends and their fire pits going. It gave a nice ambiance to the night. I realized about 30 minutes after I got home that it had triggered my allergies and asthma. Ugh! I didn't think it would get too bad because I take my controller medications faithfully every morning and every night. Because of the other recent asthma flare-ups my doctor switched one of my controller medications twice, trying to find one that will work for me now. Apparently we still haven't come up with a good alternative because it's flaring up frequently. Last week I was pretty miserable. For anyone who doesn't have asthma or an asthmatic in the family, it's hard to imagine that it takes such a toll on your body. You wake up feeling like you've spent the night running a marathon. And then you get up and start moving, and then you really feel tired!
If I only concentrated on the bad things from my asthma things would seem pretty bleak right now. I have had this stupid cough going for 11 days. I have my nebulizer and medications. It's keeping things controlled to an extent, but it hasn't stopped them yet. I have been forced to stay home unless it's absolutely necessary to go out. This means I get to spend more time with my family. It also means that I am getting a fabulous ab workout every single day. My abs are so sore, so I know I've been working them hard. Since Drew hasn't been able to go out with me running errands as usual he's been playing the Wii more often. He's been singing his own version of Black Eyed Pea's "Boom Boom Pow" as he plays his games. It's hilarious. I really need to record him. (I've put the camera next to my chair so I can catch him in the act next time.)
I've also done a TON of reading. I finished Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Gone, Brava Valentine, and The Maze Runner. I'm starting Drums of Autumn and The Blind Side:The Evolution of a Game. So- lots of reading. I still have a ton of books to read so if this lasts much longer I will finally be totally caught up with all my reading. I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of The Help. It sounds really interesting. I've got my name on 2 waiting lists at the libraries. I'm #383 in the Maricopa County Library system, and #76 for Chandler Public Libraries. I think it'll take a while. I put The Blind Side on hold a week before Thanksgiving and just got it last Thursday.
I read 2 books last month about Maria Von Trapp (her story inspired the movie The Sound of Music.) She was a spiritual and adventurous person. She had a really strong testimony of the Lord. It was a bit difficult to read the book she wrote about her family, but it did go in depth. Apparently she wrote several other books. If you ever think your life is busy you need to read one of her books. I don't know when she found time to sleep! She and her husband had several children together, but because of kidney problems she lost several children.
Well, I think my cough has settled down enough for me to sleep so I'll say ciao for tonight. More soon, I hope!