Memorial Day

We had such a fun Memorial Day. We had some friends over for a BBQ, ate good food, played some games, and enjoyed each others' company. Later we went to a big parking lot with a Go Cart that one of Paul's friends gave him (thanks Dave!!!) and everyone, including me road around and had a great time. It was a lot of fun. I know pretty sad that riding around in a parking lot is great fun for us, but what can I say we don't get out much. I was just thrilled that it actually moved with me on it. I was a little nervous that I would sit on it and it wouldn't move, but fortunately it did and I enjoyed it. Paul tried to get a picture of me, but I threatened him and he being smart didn't take any shots. That brings me to my next thought, I am going to Weight Watchers tomorrow evening, enough said.

Zoo Field Trip

On Thursday Tyler's class went on a field trip to the zoo. I was with another mom and we were in charge of a group of 6 boys. We had a lot of fun.

Ryan is holding a lion's tooth, that our tour guide showed to the boys.

Tyler is petting a "baby kangaroo", I think it was actually called something else but it looked like a baby kangaroo to me.

Of course Ryan went on the field trip also!

This is Tyler with his best friend Joseph.

We fed the giraffes, then had a sack lunch and called it a day!

Crazy Times

This is a crazy time of year for us. The kids have field trips, parties, and Alyssa had a 5th Grade Continuation.

Her teacher had asked if someone could help him put together a slide show for all of the 5th graders. I happen to have some experience in making DVDs so I said I would help him. Well before I knew what hit me I was doing the whole thing! There were over 300 pictures and each teacher had picked songs to play during their classes pictures. I worked so hard on it. I had to scan pictures, crop pictures, brighten pictures and make title pages with class pictures and shorten songs, splice together beginnings and endings. I also had to have transitions between each picture and I ended it with a group picture of the whole 5th grade (a great aerial shot that was in the year book). I must say that I was so proud of it today as all the parents, teachers, and kids watched. Parents were crying and kids were cheering. Alyssa's teacher was so grateful and couldn't stop thanking me. I was so happy the rest of the day, what a great feeling!

Now I just need to focus on summer and get ready with some fun activities for the kids. I have decided that each weekday we will have an activity. Mondays will be cooking class, we will just make something fun together. Tuesdays will be Library day and all about reading. Wednesdays will be something physical, like a hike or bike ride. Thursdays will be science, I have a great book with experiments we can do at home. Fridays will be art, we can do a lot with this. I think it will work out great and give the kids something to look forward to each day.

Happy Mother's Day

I love you mom. You are not only a great mother, but you are my best friend. Thank you for your wonderful example of love, service, forgiveness, and fun. You are a great Grandma too!

I Can't be Trusted

Alyssa asked me to give her a haircut today. I said okay and thought we could give her a cute bob. Well I tried to get it even and made a huge mess of her beautiful long curly hair. Why I thought I could cut her hair, I don't know. So we had to take her to a stylist and get it fixed, all on Sunday night (she was not about to go to school like that). I feel terrible and promised her that I would never cut her hair again! I am a crazy person at times and think that I can do things that I obviously can't, like dye my own hair and cut Alyssa's hair (darn this determined, positive self concept)! This picture was awhile after the haircut, she had been crying earlier.

All of this happened on Mother's Day, she had written me a song on the piano but said she didn't feel like singing and playing it for me (who can blame her).

Happy 13th Anniversary - We got married May 5, 1995

I've put together a little history for you (thanks to Kim for the idea).

I grew up in Cheyenne, WY and Paul grew up in Geneva, OH.

We met in the Canary Islands of Spain. The exact island was called Fuerteventura, a beautiful island with white sand beaches. This would've been pretty romantic if we weren't missionaries for our church at the time. We served on Fuerteventura with our companions (another Sister and another Elder and a Senior Couple) so there was not any sparks during this time. After a month I was transferred to another island, Gran Canaria, and Paul stayed on Fuerteventura. Paul's two years were then up and he went home, I still had 8 months left. Paul's family moved out to Orem, UT. When I got home in May of 1994 I went back to BYU for my Junior year and we just did some things together as friends, we hiked to the Y, saw movies, ate out, we were good friends. On my birthday in October, Paul asked me if we could be more than friends. I was very excited and flattered. I said "YES", and on December 7, 1994 we got engaged, while riding in a horse drawn carriage around Temple Square. We planned the wedding for May, so that I would be done with school. We got married on May 5, 1995. Now 13 years later we have 4 beautiful children and I'm very happy with the choices we've made.

5th Grade Talent Show

Friday was the Fifth Grade Talent Show at school. Alyssa played the piano. She did a great job! She played "Heigh- Ho" from the movie "Snow White". She amazes me on the piano!

There were some other interesting acts. A few electric guitar pieces (Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne songs), a drum solo, hula dancing, singing, juggling, acting, and rapping. It lasted about 1 1/2 hrs. and was very entertaining.

As always there is that one act that you just want to laugh and laugh through, but the person is totally serious. I remember when I was 16 years old and I was in a pageant (Miss National Teenager) and there was this one girl that dressed up like a cat and did a weird act to the song "We are Siamese", she just walked around the stage on all fours and purred and rubbed up against the curtains on the side of the stage. It was truly bizarre.

Mother of the Year!

Brayden has been acting kind of weird at school. They called me on Monday and said that he was trembling and breathing shallow. I went to pick him up and he was sweaty and pale. When we got home he was better and playing with his brothers.

They then called me again on Wednesday, same symptoms. This time he was in Science and the teacher was so worried about him that she had someone from the office come and get him. I went and picked him up again. The rest of the day he was pretty shaky and lethargic. I called the Pediatrician and made an appointment for Thursday morning.

Thursday morning we went to the Dr.'s office. They ran a ton of tests (x-rays, took 2 vials of blood). The Dr. also listened to his lungs and said that he was wheezing pretty bad. They checked his oxygen and it was at 91 (they like it to be 91 or higher). The Dr. said to come back in a week and we would go over the results of all the tests. We then went out to lunch (I felt so bad for Brayden having to go through all that testing, he has never had to get blood taken before, he was so brave and calm during it all so I felt he deserved a little reward, not to mention we had been at the Dr.'s office for 3 hours). After lunch I took him back to school.

He had been at school for an hour when they called to tell me he was trembling and breathing shallow again. I went and picked him up and called the pediatrician, as I was driving to his office. We got there and they checked his blood sugar levels, it was normal. They checked his oxygen level, it was at 89. They had him blow into a peak flow meter, for his age they like it to be 214 and he was only 120.

The final diagnosis was that it is his asthma. The problem is that he is not that symptomatic, no coughing. The Dr. said that his oxygen level is hovering around 90 and that it drops every now and then to 89 causing his body to freak out and start trembling and breathing shallow. His body will then release endorphins and all is well, our bodies are truly amazing.

Anyway the Dr. said his x-rays showed that his lungs are pretty scarred up and that the airways are very constricted. Brayden is now on a steroid, breathing treatments with the nebulizer 4 times a day, hooked up to an oxygen machine at night, and a long term medicine to help his airways to open up.

I felt like Mother of Year finding out that my poor son could hardly breathe and I didn't even know it.