Joseph's Finger

This last week we headed to Joseph's surgeon's office in Salt Lake for his final visit. Hooray! Joseph had his stitches removed and had his final exam before the doctor declared him healed.

After about a week and a half of sitting around Joseph had enough of the "no physical activity" clause the doctor imposed. I quickly realized that enforcing this rule was useless and had to come up with other "rules" that would at least keep the finger safe in the event of a fall. Such as: "When running, Joseph you may not have anything in your left hand so that if you fall at least you have one hand to stop you before the right hand hits", and "No rock climbing activities", and "when climbing on playground equipment don't use your bad hand to hold on use your left!", and "swimming is out but water guns are alright as long as your splint and ace bandage are on!". Joseph managed to make it through the 6 weeks without having the stitches and skin graphs redone. Truly it was a miracle!

The doctor said his fingernail may take a few years to grow "normally" like his others, although it may be crooked and will probably grow over the top of what is left. It looks as if its already growing but we will have to watch it. Joseph fussed a little while the surgeon was removing the stitches and cutting off scar tissue. This is a good sign as it looks as if his nerves are already coming back. We were worried he wouldn't get the feeling back on the tip but that doesn't look like it will be a problem. The doctor also told him not to do any real rock climbing for at least a year to allow the tissue and nerves to continue to heal completely.

Sponge Bob has officially been retired and now has a place on Joseph's shelves. Hopefully he stays in retirement and never comes out! As soon as we got home from SLC we put our swimsuits on and headed to the pool! We have all been waiting for his stitches to come out. Our goal is to go swimming everyday we can!

Milestone

The day after we returned from Oregon we met with our Realtor at the title company to sign the papers for our first house. We have hoped, worked, saved (had a little help from my sister), and prayed for this day for the last 11+ years. We are sooooo excited and so are our children. The day after signing we received the keys and started planning on where to put things. I took the kids to Home Depot and let them pick out colors for their rooms (with a veto or two). We set the date to move on June 23rd just a week and half away and wanted to get at least the base coat on before we put any furniture in the house. We set to work immediately on taping, prepping, and finally painting. For family night the following Monday we let the kids get their hands dirty (literally) with painting their rooms. That lasted for about 30 minutes until they were done and then we headed to a park just down the road to finish up the night. Here are a few pictures of the kids rooms and the some of the house now that we have a few pictures hung and the front sod is finally finished.

I promise to post pictures as soon as I find where I put my camera!

Sam's "Graduation"

Sam's class at school has been working on an animal unit in science. While we were in OR their class took a trip to the zoo. We knew we would miss this so we went while they were off track in May. At the end of the unit their class had a project to come up with a "mixed" animal and had to come dressed to school like their made up animal and be prepared to tell three things about this animal. Sam chose to be a "dogen". He was half dog and half chicken. His facts were that dogs were mammals, mammals had live births, and chickens were birds. He had a great time.
At the end of the presentation the teacher stood up and said the kids had officially graduated from kindergarten and began presenting the kids with their certificates of advancement. I had no idea that this was happening and was glad I made it there that day! I was also happy to have had my camera in my purse!

The week before this presentation Sam had his yearly special ed testing. At three years old Sam was diagnosed with ADHD. This automatically qualified him for special ed in the public school system. Before we left OR last year he had all his initial testing and IEP completed so we would have it when he started school here. He has made amazing progress in the last 3 years. So much so that when he was tested this time around he did so well that he was officially kicked out of special ed services. His tests also came back showing that he is "gifted" according to this districts standards. Way to go Sam! He is looking forward to starting 1st grade at the end of this month.

Rocky Finish

Saturday Night after all our adventures with graduation and time with friends and family we finally quieted the kids down for the night. Shortly after midnight Charley stumbled over to the foot of our bed and told us she was not feeling well. Then she puked all over the carpet. About an hour later Ben started. By the time dawn broke Ronny and I were feeling terrible also. We had plans to go to church and spend the afternoon with friends. Those all changed as we hunkered down for a long day.

In the mid-morning I gathered the boys up, headed to the store and bought laundry soap and went back over to Camas Commons to wash some things as pretty much everything we had at that point was dirty due to so many clothes changes. While I was gone Ronny contacted the front desk about our situation and they moved us to a new room so that our previous room could be cleaned. By the time I returned I was really not feeling good. Having so many sick in a small hotel room with one bathroom is not ideal!

Unfortunately we missed seeing many friends and headed out of town the next day as soon as we felt we could manage it. We made it to Boise that night just in time for Joseph to start his puking. Blahhh! We were happy when we finally made it home!

OSU Graduation

Dr. Ronny's OSU Graduation

Here is a picture of just some of the 2010 graduates. Picture 2 more sections like the ones on the left and you'll get a better idea of how many there were. OSU is one of the few universities who actually hand out the actual diplomas at graduation. Can you imagine the logistical nightmare this might be????

Ronny is at the very top left being hooded by one of his major professors Dr. Tadepalli.

Ronny on the jumbo tron walking across the stage and shaking hands with the Pres. of OSU.

Ronny and his good friend Jared who received his Phd in Physics. Jared and Stacey are some of the great friends we made while in OR. They have 4 boys were match up just about perfectly in ages to our own. We had lots of fun playing cars, trucks, trains, dinosaurs, soccer, and countless other activities with them. Congrats to you Jared and Stacey!

After the university wide graduation we headed back over to where we lived the last few years while in Corvallis. Some amazing friends we have there threw us a big barbecue and invited all our friends so we could catch up and see lots of those who made our time in OR unforgettable. These are two of their boys who we feel are family. Our children spent countless hours together. Thanks Heather and Evertt! We truly made lifelong friends while there and learned so much from their true Christlike examples.

This is at the college of EE-CS graduation. This graduation is put on by the students of the two colleges and something that Ronny has helped put together for the last several years. It was great to be apart of those graduating this time around!

Go Beavers!
The end of a very long day of events! We went to the bookstore earlier so the kids could pick out new OSU gear to wear to dad's graduation. The boys and I had terrible allergies while we were there and felt like we were drinking Benadryl as if it was soda trying to just be able to breathe!

Dr. Ronald Vance Bjarnason Jr. and Dr. Ronald Vance Bjarnason Sr.
I love this picture! We are so grateful to Papa Ron and Nana Stephanie for making the trip and celebrating with Ronny. They have lead by great example the importance of education! All three their boys are now Drs. in their own fields of study.

Ronny and Dr. Tadepalli one of his major professors. The other is Dr. Fern however I don't know what happened to the picture I took of him. Sorry.

Ronny and his good friend Neville. We love Neville, our kids especially! Neville was a rockstar on the side of being a grad student. He even found time to teach Joseph a few guitar lessons. Neville is one of the many friends Ronny made in his lab while at OSU.

We did our best to feed these guys as often as we could and our children came to love them all. Many times we would surprise Dad at this office and completely disrupt any work being done by these guys. They were always so kind to stop what they were doing and play with the kids for a few minutes. We even conned a few of them into babysitting a couple times. We did our best to provide a family setting for them while away from their own homes. Many times they were our extended family during holidays when we were so far from our own. We hope as they travel to conferences and on vacations they will stop in and keep in touch!

Dinner with Nana and Papa

In June we traveled back to Corvallis, OR for Ronny's graduation. Ronny's parents were kind enough to join us in the celebration. We decided to show them a few of the fun things we liked to do while we were there. We started with dinner at the Japenese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar. Ironically our chef spoke Spanish which I think made Ron Sr. feel right at home. The kids loved the "show" and the food except for Ben. He was not too fond of the fire! The waitress would stop and chat every time she walked near us. She was totally floored with our 4 children and how much they all looked alike. Since moving to UT we have forgotten how "odd" a family of six is to some. I can't tell you how many comments we received while living there about our family size. Mostly for the positive which helped shadow those that were not so much. After dinner we walked over to Franchesco's for our favorite gelato. We sure miss that place (Denise especially!).

Our whole trip we laughed as people would circle Joseph and just stare at "Sponge Bob". Every once in a while someone would gather up enough courage and ask what happened to his arm. Joseph would sheepishly tell them he had cut part of his finger off and we would all laugh at the look of horror that would come over their faces. Then we would explain what happened and they would all just shake their heads. Everyone we spoke to wished him well and a few added their names to the growing list scattered all over the sponge.

Hike to Stewart Falls

The first Saturday in June Ronny took the kids minus Joseph hiking with my sister's and their families. J and I stayed home and packed boxes and hung out as he wasn't up for too much activity after his mishap with the blinds. Here are a few pictures of the adventure.

Catch Up

Ok, we took the month of June off from here as our lives were extremely crazy! Now its time to catch up. Be prepared for lots of posts coming in the next couple days!