THE MOVIE MISHAP

Today I took Stevie and her friend to the movies. It was quite the adventure. We wanted to see "Coraline", it's a movie based on a children's book. As we sat there watching the previews...I couldn't help but think how dark and violent they were. Most were R rated too. I thought that odd and wrong that they would play those before a PG movie. Then the movie started. The opening scene had a masked man coming out of some darkened woods with the date "Friday 13, 1980" located in the bottom right hand corner. As soon as I saw that I grabbed both the girls hands and told them to RUN. (we were in the very front) I'm not sure what scared them more...the opening scene or me telling them to get out quick. The movie theatre started the WRONG movie. They were playing "Friday the 13th". I couldn't believe it. A theatre full of small children and they play THAT movie? It was somewhat disturbing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVIE

Top 10 list for my 10 year old baby girl...

10. She SMILES constantly, I love this about her.

One of her nicknames is "permagrin".

9. She's a great athlete

8. Stevie is a fabulous nurse.

She loves to take care of her little brother.

7. She is very smart.

she excels in math and reading.

6. She is my most creative.

She loves knitting, drawing, doing crafts, etc.

5. She has a gift musically.

She plays the piano, trombone and clarinet.

(she is self taught on the clarinet)

4. She studies the scriptures diligently.

3. She wants a PUG and UGGS for her birthday.

(donations accepted. :))

2. Her favorite food is: grapefruit

1. She is a JOY to be around!!!

♥♥♥♥♥

I LOVE YOU STEVIE,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

WHOA...IS FOR SNOW!

WHOA...as in SLOW DOWN!

This is our back door.

The snow is 6 feet deep in some areas.

This is our driveway.

We've received almost 3 more feet since Wednesday.

Can't keep up with it.

This is the LOVELY view from my front window.
Someone send spring...QUICK!

BEN'S HAIRCUT

GOODBYE LOVELY LOCKS....

HELLO BEAUTIFULLY

WRINKLED SCALP

THE FINISHED PRODUCT.

PERFECT! ♥

LESSON LEARNED

Sometimes a little humility is a good thing.

The past three weeks my family has been really sick.

We've had the awful flu.

It leaves you with a terrible cough for weeks.

Everyone has had some form or another of it.

Everyone except for me.

My husband is on his third

respiratory illness this winter.

I keep telling him he needs to eat healthier,

exercise more,

wash his hands often,

and stop drinking soda, etc.

"THAT'S why I'M not sick"

I tell him.

"I NEVER get sick."

I explain, as I'm snuggling with sick children.

(on an hourly basis)

"I NEVER get sick"

(as they're drinking out of my cup, sneezing and coughing on me)

Reminds me of the time when I was in 3rd grade.

My twin brother and I walked home from school

EVERYDAY.

There were usually a few other kids

that took the walk with us.

One day we happened to pass some poison ivy.

One of the kids pointed it out to me.

I had heard about it,

but never experienced it.

He told me that if you touched it,

you would GET it.

I told him that was probably so...

but it wouldn't happen to me

and that I would prove it.

I marched right over to the plant...

and rubbed it ALL over me.

YUP!

I sure did.

All over my face,

my arms,

my legs...

EVERYWHERE.

I think his jaw dropped to the ground

and his eyes looked like they were gonna pop out of his head.

I looked at him after I was done.

"Told you so"

I said as I strutted the rest of the way home.

The next morning?
I woke up unrecognizable.

My face and body were COVERED!

I was humbled.

The next 7 days I endured

the serious consequences of my actions.

I even had to be on steroids from the doctor.

(it was THAT bad)

I learned my lesson.

Today I've learned my lesson again.

I'm sick...really sick.

I have the flu.

Didn't think I would get it.

But I did.

Guess I'm not immune after all.

FROM COUCH TO COURT

This poor girl was hit...

and hit HARD!
She was on the couch for 5 days straight.

Diagnosed with Bronchitis, double ear infections,

sinus infection and strep throat.

She missed the last week of her basketball season.

She was SO sad.

Saturday was their last game.

It was the GILFORD tournament.

She really wanted to go.

I told her to dress in uniform.

When we arrived...

I was informed that the Athletic Director had a message.

Kayla could NOT dress and sit with the team,

because she wasn't at school the day before.

WHAT?

She hasn't missed a practice OR game this whole season.

She happens to get SICKER than SICK

and she can't DRESS in uniform

or SIT with her team?
This is Middle School Basketball for crying out loud!

I was NOT happy.

He'll be hearing from me.

We compromised by having her do the books.

She atleast got to sit next to her team.

GOOD GRIEF!

Gilford Girls went undefeated this season,
and they WON their tournament - barely.
Kayla and another key player were both unable to play.
(due to illness)
She was definitely missed on the court.
Kayla is top right next to her coach, Heidi.

♥HAPPY LOVE DAY♥

Happy Love Day

to YOU and YOU and YOU!

♥

THE REST OF THE STORY...

Violets are Blue

and Roses are Red...

The oil was empty

and now Ruby is dead.

*

*

*

Ok...that's not all true.

Thankfully

(unbeknownst to me)

Ruby has a special feature.

When the oil is almost out,

the car shuts down...

and doesn't allow you to restart it.

(thankfully)

This saves the car from seizing.

I was VERY lucky.

I had NO idea the oil was so low.

Guess I'll be more diligent in the future.

There was a blessing in all of this...

apparently my front brakes were GONE.

Oh, and the front tires needed replacing.

Her work is all done.

Now she's as good as before.

We'll pick her up tomorrow.

I'll give her a nice little pat

and tell her what a good car she's been.

*

*

*

To answer some of the questions about yesterday, I called my friend Lisa to come rescue us. She brought us a gas can because initially I thought we were out of gas - the gage is broken. When I couldn't 'turn it over' we threw the hazards on and I jumped in Lisa's car. She's a smart lady because she brought me a bunch of popsicles from home so that I didn't have to get them. I called our car guy who retrieved it and had it fixed by 10am the next morning. Now that's service! Kayla is still sick. She's going on her 5th day of a high fever. I'm taking her to the doctor's in the morning. As of tonight I have Ben on oxygen - that's VERY unusual for him. He has been breathing fast since I got home from Kaleb's game tonight and so when I hooked him up at bedtime his sats were 81% - normal is 98-100%. His alarms were going crazy. I hooked him up to as much oxygen as possible here in the home and he's hanging at 93%. Things are not looking good for him at this point. We'll see how the night goes. Could use your prayers, this virus in our home is a NASTY one, I'm worried about Ben's little lungs...

SICK

I still have illness in my home...

have I mentioned this yet?
Kaleb was home with the flu

(respiratory kind)

for 5 days before crawling back to life.

He has taken a nap everyday since.

Kayla dropped on Tuesday.

She's still horizontal,

fighting the battle.

She spiked a fever again tonight

and asked for some more popsicles.

(our meager supply ran out)

I jumped in Ruby

(our red van)

at her request,

(the non-handicap one)

poor DS has a flat tire.

I invited Stevie to join me.

As we were driving along,

merrily, merrily...

the "check engine" light started

FLASHING!

(that's never a good sign)

I nudged Stevie to look at it.

We both shrugged our shoulders,

and went back to singing

Taylor Swift songs.

About 30 seconds later...

the car starts to heave with a little ho.

I told Stevie to HANG ON TIGHT

as we were in for a ride.

That ride lasted about 3 more seconds,

and then Ruby gave up.

I think she caught the flu.

MAX

This is MAX.

He's often confused.

Doesn't always know what his role is.

He thinks that he is exempt from the rules.

I'll find him on furniture - he's been told before.

He'll just look at me like he has no idea

that I've told him 100 times before to get off the couch!

He's naughty like that.

Sometimes I'll hear him on the piano.
He mostly likes to do this when no one is around.
I'll be in the basement doing laundry and I'll hear the piano.
The first time it happened it freaked me out.
I thought I had a ghost in my house.
Now I just smile when I hear the piano going...
because I know it's just Max,
serenading me again.

I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DO IT....

...is OFTEN what people say to me.

"Look at him"...I say back
as I kiss his cheeks a million times.
"How can I NOT do it?"

"AND" I add...
"I wouldn't have it
any other way."

TEXTING...

To text or not to text...

THAT is the question.

I struggle with this.

I can see the pros to texting,

but I see more cons.

I have avoided this world for a long time.

I'm sure I could still avoid it but as of two months ago,

I joined the world of texting.

I still have mixed feelings about it.

I would rather make a phone call.

It's faster and more personal.

I like to text when my husband can't talk at work.

It's fun to send him personal messages.

Sometimes it's convienient when I don't want to talk.

But I'm not so sure that's a good thing either.

I have been hearing lots of statistics lately

and lots of personal stories.

I have a friend who's 13 year old daughter sent

36,000 text messages in 12 days.

Is that even phsically possible?

My jaw was on the floor.

When I am at my children's school, I watch how they interact.

They all have cell phones, but they aren't talking, they're texting.

And WHO are they texting? Each other. That's how they converse.

It's mind boggling.

Did you know that last year was the FIRST year that

more text messages were sent than phone calls made?

Did you know that as of June 2008,

over 75 Billion text messages

are sent every month

compared to just 18 Billion in December 2006.

That number has grown by 250% each year for the last two years.

Did you know over 60% of kids are texting during family dinner?

NOT IN MY HOUSE!

My kids don't even own cell phones and aren't allowed to text.

I'd love to know what your thoughts are on this subject.

Do you text?

Do your kids text?

Talk to me...or text me. ;)

FINDING JOY

Picture by Steve Orton. Logan, UT

Do you take time to discover each day how beautiful your life can be? How long has it been since you watched the sun set? The departing rays kissing the clouds, trees, hills, and lowlands good night, sometimes tranquilly, sometimes with exuberant bursts of color and form. What of the wonder of a cloudless night when the Lord unveils the marvels of His heavens—the twinkling stars, the moonlight rays—to ignite our imagination with His greatness and glory? How captivating to watch a seed planted in fertile soil germinate, gather strength, and send forth a tiny, seemingly insignificant sprout. Patiently it begins to grow and develop its own character led by the genetic code the Lord has provided to guide its development. With care it surely will become what it is destined to be: a lily, crowned with grace and beauty; a fragrant spearmint plant; a peach; an avocado; or a beautiful blossom with unique delicacy, hue, and fragrance. When last did you observe a tiny rosebud form? Each day it develops new and impressive character, more promise of beauty until it becomes a majestic rose. You are one of the noblest of God’s creations. His intent is that your life be gloriously beautiful regardless of your circumstances. As you are grateful and obedient, you can become all that God intends you to be.

~Richard G. Scott

WHAT GOES UP...

...MUST COME DOWN!Remember the story I was telling you about?

The one where my ceiling was crying?

And how my husband was up on the roof

instead of at work?

Well, this is how much he got done,

before he FELL off the roof...

...and landed HERE, on top of our bush.
This picture doesn't do it justice.
When big men fall...they fall HARD!
(good thing it wasn't too far up)
He got the wind knocked out of him,
and his back tweaked a little,
but no complaints today.
(thankfully)

STEVIE MAREE

And thou shalt in thy daughter see,

This picture, once, resembled thee.

~Ambrose Phillips

MY CEILING IS CRYING...

...and so am I.

UGH!

I was in my bed last night when Steve came home.

We talked for a minute,

he left to go eat some dinner.

I was JUST falling asleep when I heard Steve yell:
"Oh NO! We've got a BIG problem!"

I sat bolt upright out of a hazy fog and said, "What?"

Nothing....

(me again) "What? What problem?"
Nothing...

Finally he yells up to me that our ceiling is leaking.

This happened last year.

We thought we took enough measures from having it happen...

again.

Guess we were wrong.

Water is like that.

It finds a way.

Now my house is torn apart

and my husband is up on the roof instead of at work.

Ben's PT and school special ed. teacher were here this morning.

"Please excuse the dripping that may land on your head."

"Sorry about the pots of water spread all over the floor."

"You can stretch Ben over there in that corner

where the floor isn't wet."

They were really good and understanding.

UGH!
(Did I already say that?)

Please excuse me while I go and change the water...

HIS TEETH...

There are some things about having a disabled child that are out of your control. Lot's of things actually, but some that really tug at your heart strings. One of the things that Ben does is bite his cheek. I'm sure everyone has done this now and again, I know I have. It hurts...a LOT. Ben was doing this often enough that we ended up taking some of his back teeth out. It helped for a little while...but more have grown in. The oral surgeon at Dartmouth performed his surgery about 2 years ago. Recently I called him back because I wanted to talk to him again about what we could do to help Ben. Basically he had his nurse call me and tell me that "there is nothing more that I can do for your son." HUH? What is THAT supposed to mean? Last night was the final straw. I was holding Ben on my chest and out of the blue he started crying. Stevie and I were rubbing his head, trying to figure out what was wrong. I had this impression to look in his mouth and that's when I saw it. His back teeth were clamped down on his cheek - he couldn't let go. No matter HOW painful it is, he won't let go...it's a reflex. When something gets between his teeth whether it's a toothbrush, a finger or his own cheek, his jaw clamps down. We spent nearly a whole minute trying to get him to stop biting. Broke my heart. We finally got him to unclench and I moved his cheek out of the way. I put a call into his PCP to see what we can do about this. In the meantime, I'm praying that his cheek heals quickly because right now it's purple and swollen.

MAY I INTRODUCE...

Ben's nurse...Stevie.
She's learning how to listen to his lungs. She described them as 'scratchy'.

Carrying Big Ben up to his tub.
Can't resist a smooch on the way up.
Stevie is always eager to help her brother. This girl can do it all. She suctions, caths, gives medication, makes up his feedings and can set them for the right rate and dose, keeps his mouth sparkly clean and his lips covered in chapstick. I keep telling her she'll be a great nurse someday.

TENDER MERCIES

"Tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord’s timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge them."

"The Lord’s tender mercies are very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

"The simpleness, the sweetness, and the constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

*****

Elder David A. Bednar

(you can read more of his TALK here)