Ben Turns 4

Earlier this month Ben turned 4 years old. Can you believe it???? Where has that time gone? We opted for a low key celebration after our California adventure. Just cake and ice cream at home with Grandma and Dex. He also called his friend Darin in Oregon and had a nice little chat (as much as a 4 year old can). We gave Ben a new bike helmet and we are now working on learning to ride a big boy bike. The other kids were racing at this point so we are a little behind with Ben but he is getting there. Ben has mixed feeling about turning 4. He says he wants to stay 3 because when you get big you have to do more chores and get in trouble. I thought that was hilarious, he has life figured out already.

Nana's House

Our trip to Nana's house this year started off with Sam informing me that this no longer was family vacation because Ronny was no longer with us. I laughed and agreed with him and then told him he could call his Dad and let him know of his disappointment. We arrived late Wednesday night just in time for the kids to scurry around the house for about an hour and then head to bed.
Trips to Nana's house always include: A trip to the shoestore (this time of year we look for Salt Water Sandals, a staple for our summers.).
Playing in the Mud: (its always better when she lets us take our pants off!) Sam asked Papa for a shovel. Papa asked him why he needed one, Sam looked back and said, "for digging Papa!" Why else would you need a shovel?

And of course, a trip to the Book Store:

We threw in a few more things like a baby shower for Aunt Deborah, a mission farewell for cousin Emily (we all got to sing in sacrament meeting, it was awesome!), and fire building and dutch oven cooking with Papa. Joseph and Papa also made a checker board and checkers out in the shop. (This was their "project" for this trip.) Papa also gave Joseph his first checker lesson. Good Times!

Guest of the Day

So our final day of Disney fun started with taking Dad to the airport to fly back to work. We dropped him off, headed back to the hotel to pack up and get something to eat, then headed back for our final day of adventure. As we pulled up to the parking attendant to pay our toll another gentlemen stepped in front and told us we had been picked as the "Guest of the Day" and asked us to follow his little white SUV. He also told me that we would not be charged for parking that day (sweet!). We followed his little white car directly out of the parking garage and out where the trams are parked. He stopped and moved the cones out of the very first parking space next to where the trams pick up and motioned for us to pull in. He then came up to our car and placed a special flyer on the dash and a yellow ribbon under the wipers. He then shook my hand and told us we were randomly selected to be the "Guest of the Day", asked us where we were from so he could put it in his records, and told us if we wanted to leave and come back we would once again be escorted out to "our spot", and then told us to have a magical day. (We did!)

I then got the kids out and started herding them towards the trams when another gentlemen stepped forward and told us he would be driving us in. He escorted us to his van and drove us straight to the entrance. The kids were very confused and kept asking what was happening. We entered the park and headed to the favorite ride of each child.

Sam wanted to try to get picked for the Jedi training so we headed over to fantasy land and waited for the next show. Just as they were setting up rain drops started to fall so they canceled the show but brought the characters out so the kids could take pictures with them. They loved it and we wouldn't have gotten such great pictures had that not happened. We headed out to another ride and came back for the next show. This time the show went on and both Sam and Joseph were picked to participate. Afterward Joseph told me it was too bad Dad went home because, "today is all about the magic!" as he put it.We went on a few more rides, had lunch, then decided we needed to head to Nana's house soon. On the way out I had the kids silhouettes done which came out great. That women is amazing! (If you go, step into her shop on main street and just watch her do someone.) She is talented!







We left in the afternoon to avoid LA traffic and headed to Turlock for the next portion of our CA trip. We had a great few days at the Disney Resort and look forward to another adventure sometime in the future. We'll have to save up though. This trip we managed to go 3 days for the price of one, I don't know if we'll ever top that. We'll have to see what next year's advertising special will be.

California Adventure

Tuesday marked our trip to CA Adventure. I had taken Charley once before but she was too young to remember anything. We started our day with the Soarin' over California ride (name?) I really liked all the aviation history and pictures that are there for you to look at while waiting in line. I was able to tell the kids stories about my grandfather and his job working with those early airline companies.

Our kids favorite ride was the new Toy Story Mania ride/game. Ronny and I loved the California Screamin' roller-coaster. The only child who wanted to ride that was Sam and he was too short. He cried when he couldn't ride on it. Ronny took Sam on the Tower of Terror to make up for it while the rest of the kids and I headed over to the Bug's Life kiddy rides. We also went to the 3-D show they have, I DO NOT recommend this. It gave my kids nightmares. Ronny took everyone but Joseph on the Ferris wheel while Joseph and I happily stayed on the ground and waved. Ronny admits that for a little while he was sick for a few minutes, Ferris wheels are not my favorite.

This park closed at 6 and we were done. There really isn't a lot to do there yet. We ended the day by doing our Disney shopping in the Downtown Disney stores. The kids had been saving their pennies and soon found out that they didn't go as far as they had hoped so Ronny and I pitched in to help them out.

We headed over to Mimi's Cafe for dinner and had the best waitress ever. The restaurant was very busy but this waitress made it feel like we were here only patrons. While finishing up she brought out boxes with their specialty bread and brand new chocolate milks for the kids in travel cups and boxed up their little pudding desserts with plastic silverware to eat back at the hotel. She made the day complete and while walking out we all gave her a big hug and told her thanks. (We gave here a huge tip as she was amazing!)

Disney Mania Day One

Our Disney adventure started early Monday morning waiting in line in the parking garage after we realized the park didn't open until 10:00 and us getting there at 9:30 thinking we were running late.

We hit the park running and made our way over to Pirates of the Carribean and then to Splash Mountain. Joseph quickly decided he was not liking the roller coasters, Sam loving them, and Ben and Charley just along for the ride. Watching and listening to Sam and Ben's reactions to everything were so funny and priceless. While walking off Star Tours Ben looked at me with a worried face and asked, "Mom, how are we going to make it back to Earth, aren't we still on Endor?" Then as we were getting on Space Mountain Ben asked again, "Are we going to blast off?" The first day we made Joseph go on all the roller coasters much to his dismay. He complained and hid his face all day, Sam on the other hand couldn't get enough and wanted to go back for more. Ben even had his hands raised on Thunder Mountain while Joseph cried, "HOLD ON TO ME DAD!" Joseph enjoyed rides like Buzz Lightyear Blasters, Star Tours, the Submarine, and the Teacups. We have so many great pictures that I'll have to do a slide show at the end of all the posts.

For the first time ever at Disneyland I did not see anyone I knew. We did however meet people from Oregon and fellow C track families from the Jordan School District. We had a great time and ended the night at Denny's with hot chocolate and a brownie sundae across the street from our hotel. Ben was out before we even got to Denny's and the rest of the kids were asleep within seconds of hitting their pillows dreaming about the next days adventures.

California Dreamin

As the snow began to fall we headed South to warmer weather. We started our visit with my Aunt and Uncle in St. George a day early as a winter storm headed in. The kids could not get enough of their dog and loved the time there. Ronny and I had a good visit with my relatives (so sad to have missed Skyle though). Charley however had a hard time with the cat and was happy to get some much needed allergy medicine (I forgot about the cat, oops!). The next morning we stopped over at my Grandmother's house for a few minutes. I say few because that's all the boys could handle, they were ready for the sun down South!

We made it to Anaheim and checked into our hotel Saturday afternoon and headed over to Irvine to visit some good friends from college. It was even warm enough for a swim so the the kids took a dip in the pool with their friends. (I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of our time there.) The next day we headed to church with them and I for the first time had to answer the question, "Where are you visiting from" as Utah. I don't know why that was so hard for me. Go figure. After church we headed just down the road to visit Uncle James, Aunt Anjanette, and baby Jackson. We had fun at the park and a yummy dinner! So much fun and some much needed R&R especially with the Disney mania starting the next day! Had we had one more day we would have visited my great cousins in LA. We will have to catch them next time!

Service Opportunities

Many of you have asked about our card making experience and how to get in on the action. So here's what I have learned:

The card making opportunity that we did is now closed. I checked it last week. They only had slots for 100 families and they went fast. My suggestion for you is to go to Disney.com and click on the Give a Day Get a Day link. Register you family and put in your zipcode or a zipcode near you. We were limited on what we could do as we had a 6 year old helping and we wanted to do something quickly as our plans were to go this last week. You have to be flexible and as soon as you find something that works for you don't wait to jump on it as they always fill fast and you can always cancel if it turns out you can't make it. After completing the service it can take up to 2 weeks to get your vouchers through email so keep that in mind.

Good luck and have fun!

Give a Day, Get a Day

With the kids on a year round school schedule and with all the new changes at Ronny's office, trying to plan a family vacation this summer quickly became difficult. After checking all the calendars and deciding what conferences Ronny should attend we decided to take a few short trips as a family this year. Once that was decided, Ronny and I began throwing out ideas on what to do. We had talked a few times about taking the kids back to Disneyland now that Ben is old enough to ride on things so we decided that was going to be our first adventure.

I'm sure many of you have heard of Disney's new ad campaign of give a day of service and get a day at the park. We thought it would be great for the kids to "earn" one of their tickets so I looked into it. With us wanting to go this month and trying to find something we could all do together made matching us to one of their sponsored service events a little difficult. First off we found that Ben was too young to participate so that would change things up too. Then a friend pointed us in the direction of a hospital in Illinois looking for people to create "Get Well" cards for their patients. I quickly signed us up for that and we were "matched" by the website. They asked for people to make 10 cards each or 25 per family. We didn't think 25 was enough to earn tickets for our whole family so we decided to make a few more.

We quickly found out that making cards ourselves was no big deal but helping the kids took a significant amount of time which is why they ask for only 25 per family. In the end Ronny and I made 10 or 11 and the kids each made 5. This gave us a total of 36 which took us about 4 hours. We really had so much fun making these together and the kids did a great job. We loved that the kids earned their tickets by serving others and the teaching moments this brought along the way.

Asthma Woes

Joseph decided Papa was having all the fun at the ER these last couple months so he decided he wanted to go investigate the new hospital that just opened a couple months ago. Well, him deciding wouldn't be accurate, his asthma however decided to flare and make a winter appearance which resulted in the visit to the ER. This new hospital is a Primary Children's addition and is just around the corner from us. We walked in around 10:30 p.m. and was in a room within about 15 minutes. Pretty speedy service I would say, then again a child with respiratory problems usually speeds up the process.

They took his picture at sign-in which is new for us and the triage nurse was great. The doctor was excellent and checked everything, even ordering chest x-rays to make sure pneumonia wasn't setting in. Joseph loved the wheelchair ride and the x-ray tech was lots of fun. They gave him a new steroid that has shown to help both asthma attacks and croup, which is what he was presenting with at the time, as opposed to our usual stand by steroid of prednisone. However, its side effect is hyperactivity and combined with the Albuterol that we gave him before going to the hospital which also causes hyperactivity you can imagine Joseph was buzzing. Normally we can handle this but at 1 am its a little hard when you are trying to calm him down to go to sleep once we got home. The doctor wanted to keep him for a few hours to monitor him but with us just living up the street and it being so late we opted to go home. His O2 stats were good and we've been doing this for some time now that we felt we could handle things at home once the steroid was taken so the doctor gave us the choice.

This is his first trip to the ER this winter which is a marked improvement over last year. I think by this time last year we had at least 3. This is surprising considering how many germs we've picked up this year from school. We credit this to being away from the mold in OR and that he's on two different asthma drugs this year. It would just be nice if his asthma attacks would show themselves during regular office hours during the week and not in the middle of the night and usually on weekends. Doesn't it understand we're trying to live on a budget??????

And the Story Continues....

Last night at dinner I noticed my Dad's hand was bright pink where the finger used to be. I asked him if it hurt. He said it did and that the pink area seemed to be getting bigger. About 10 last night he called me in to look at it again and I noticed an abnormal growth that hadn't been there at dinner time and asked him again if it was hurting. He said it was worse than at dinner. I told him I would be back in 15 minutes to look at it again. I came back later with a marker and circled the growth (now I realize I should have circled the pink area as well). The blister type growth was certainly bigger than before. I told him to call the doctor and went to get my shoes on.

We still hadn't heard from the doctor so we went ahead and went back to the ER. Well the ER was packed! We waited patiently (I can't say that for everyone in there) and were finally called into triage and then we waited again until they had a room open. We came prepared with our books. The triage nurse thought that was hilarious and wished everyone came in on Saturday nights so prepared.

The ER physician could not get a hold of the doctor either (later we found out he was out of town) so he tracked down our doctor's back up and together they decided to put him back on the IV. They had to order that twice as they lost the first batch so we finally made it home about 3:00 a.m. The ER doctor wasn't familiar with the pump procedure so he originally ordered separate IV doses every 4 hours. Thankfully the IV pharmacy called this morning and said they were changing the prescription back to the pump and canceled the nurse who was supposed to come as we already knew what we were doing. He'll see his doctor again on Monday and we'll find out what the next step is. We thought this was over, but apparently this bacteria had other intentions.

Charley's New Adventure

The other day our neighbor called and asked if Charley could come over and watch her kids while she dropped her car off to be serviced. I laughed at first and asked if she was serious. Then I thought about it for a minute and realized I started babysitting at this age. Where has the time gone? I asked Charley if she wanted to go and she ran out the door. An hour later she walked back in with sparkles in her eyes as she proudly showed off her $5 dollar bill. The same neighbor has already called back asking if Charley can babysit again. Apparently her girls had so much fun playing with Charley they can't wait for her to come back. She proudly paid her tithing the next Sunday and already has an idea of what she wants to save her money for. I guess its about time I taught her how to change a diaper and make macaroni and cheese, what else am I missing. All of a sudden I realize there is so much I still need to teach her! I better get started.....

Sledding Frenzy

We finally convinced some friends from Oregon to come visit us this holiday season. (Of course having their relatives here helped some too, but only just a little.....:) Our two families spent many hours together in the rain and cold of Oregon and we all couldn't wait until they got here. Denise had some much needed time with Stacey, Ronny and Jared had their BYU and Phd chats, and the boys had their much needed time with their friends from "home" as they call it.

As soon as they arrived and the hugs were done being dispensed, we immediately pulled out the snow gear and headed outside for some sledding. (Thankfully the park across the street has built-in sledding hills so we didn't have far to go.) We managed to scrape up enough snow clothes for all the kids and adults believe it or not. Their boys were a little timid at first but that didn't last much longer than the first time down the hill. Once we were all frozen we headed inside for some hot chocolate while Stacey and Denise started on dinner. We pulled out the tables and the feasting began. After dinner we all headed downstairs for some Wii challenges. Poor Sam was demolished by Jared in boxing and had a melt down. We convinced their boys to stay the night so the kids could get as much time with them as possible.

As soon as the sun crested the kids wanted back outside for more sledding. I think if you asked my kids what their favorite present for Christmas was, they would hands down say time with the Stenson's! I couldn't agree more.

Hospital Mania

So as you know my father moved in with us in November. The week before Christmas he was back in California packing the last of his stuff and moving it into a storage unit and cleaning out his apartment. While cleaning out a fish tank he scratched his knuckle on the index finger of his right hand. He didn't think much of it and kept on working. About an hour later he noticed that his finger was throbbing and a bright red ring and pustule had formed on his knuckle. After trying to lance it he opted to spread on some neosporin and put on a band aid. Later that night his hand was swollen and the red ring had turned into streaks running up his hand and arm. He called a friend and asked for advice and decided to see the doctor in the morning if it still hurt. He said that was a really long night as he couldn't sleep, the pain was so bad.

The next morning he went to the doctor who cleaned the wound gave him a shot and put him on oral antibiotics and pain killers and sent him on his way. Unfortunately due to gastric bypass surgery the year before the oral antibiotics were not digested into his system so the finger got worse. My sister was to do her temple work later that evening so he got himself in his truck and proceeded to drive to Utah. (Thankfully he made it safely, we found out later he had been taking the painkillers while driving.........:( ). We met him at the temple that night and saw his wrapped finger for the first time. Ouch! We noticed the finger had gone dark and his hand was extremely swollen and red streaks were once again making their way up his hand. Unfortunately we were not able to talk him into going to the ER that night......

The next morning (after more pleading) I finally got him to go to the ER. The doctor there said it looked bad and said he most likely needed surgery so he sent him to a neighboring hospital who accepted his insurance. I met up with him there. The new ER physician was not as proactive as we would have liked and thought the discoloring was from bruising and not gangrene. It took him over two hours to hang IV antibiotics and only after I insisted twice! He finally managed to track down a hand surgeon who was not on call but came in as a favor to see it. He walked in the room and immediately said he was headed to surgery. 20 minutes later Dad was there.

After the surgery the surgeon met me in the waiting room and told me things did not look good but he did his best to save the finger. He said Dad would need to stay for the next few days and then be on IV antibiotics for the next several weeks. This was Friday afternoon. Sunday night he was released and late that night a nurse came over to train me how to take care of things from there. (Unfortunately his insurance did not cover a nurse everyday so we had to learn how to change the IV's and the dressings). Let's just say it was not a pretty site and the smell wasn't good either! The medication had to be changed every 8 hours and one had to be pushed over a 5-8 minute period. I once again felt like I had a newborn in the house with all the late night alarms.

Late Tuesday night I noticed a patch of skin (not much remained) that was again going dark. The nurse was to come the next morning to draw blood and check things out so we decided to wait to see her. She wasn't much help so I called the doctor to see if he could see us early. We were there in about an hour. The doctor removed the remaining skin in his office and drained a few more pustules and checked his blood results. He told us after looking at things he didn't think we were winning the battle with the infection and he would need to go back to surgery. 2 hours later he was back under the knife. Unfortunately the finger was necrotic and had to be removed. We found out the bacteria was a strain of Strep A (strep throat family). This isn't MRSA but it is its own form of flesh eating bacteria. An aggressive one as all this took place within 7 days!

He was discharged the next day which happened to be Christmas Eve. He had planned to fly to MN to be with my sister for the holidays but obviously that had to be changed. With all that was going on and with our own hustle and bustle at home things were nothing short of chaotic! Before picking him up from the hospital Joseph,Charley and I went on the hunt to find things for Papa to make the holiday a little brighter. We managed to find a stocking and holder, and found a puzzle he could do. We also found one of those foam hands with the index finger raised at the craft store. We picked it up and grabbed some makers and decided to have all the family sign and decorate it. It was so cute and Papa loved it. Later that night another nurse came to train us on the new IV medication that we now had to give. This time it came with a pump. One medication is on a 24 hour drip but the other was again on an 8 hour cycle so the late nights persisted for another week. We also had new instructions on how to change the wound. I now have significant supplies to add to our first aid kit with the left overs from the first surgery. His bedroom is looking more like a hospital room with the IV stand and boxes of gauze, ace bandages, and IV flush supplies.

The week after Christmas he was then scheduled for 2 hand therapy sessions a week with blood draws and doctor appointments once a week. He is now continuing the therapy and the doctor visits and is still on the 24 hour pump. We are hoping the stitches come out this week and that the IV treatments finish as well. We will just have to wait and see.

Through all of this Ronny and the kids were real troopers. I was either away at the hospital or taking care of Dad most of that week and Ronny stepped right in at home. Many nights I saw the kids for the first time as they went to bed. Exhaustion finally won out on one of the days and I was an emotional wreck, Ronny again stepped in and took over. This was certainly not in our Christmas plans but we got through it and was grateful Dad could be home with us on Christmas morning. We certainly felt the prayers offered on our behalf and truly appreciate them.

Success

Just after Thanksgiving Ronny and I flew back to Oregon for Ronny's dissertation defense and a short visit with friends. The morning of the defense I dropped Ronny off at the school while I headed over to a friends house and the store to prep the refreshments. The night before one of Ronny's professors emailed out to everyone that all should come to hear him and that his wife makes really good brownies and they should come just for that. (Nice, no pressure or anything!) My friend was great and had everything all ready for me and we chatted while they baked.

Ronny did great and many people attended, (more than we expected). The room quickly filled, I think only 2 seats were left open. One of the guys in his lab presented just before he Ronny did and only 2 people other than his committee came, he was kind enough to bring the coffee service over that wasn't used at his. I completely blanked on that as we don't drink coffee so everyone was happy.

After the presentation the audience was kicked out and his committee has a question and answer session with him. After that is complete Ronny is asked to leave while the committee deliberates and decides whether to pass him or not. Ronny said he was only out of the room for less than a minute. The committee said they passed him in world record time and asked him to sign his name on the completion page. Ronny then asked them for any revisions they had so that he could wrap up everything by the following afternoon. The next day was spent with Ronny frantically completing the few revisions he had (mostly typos and rearranging stuff) amongst meetings his lead professor had set up. At 3:30 I was sent to Kinko's to have the finally copy printed and then raced back. We then hunted everyone down that he needed signatures from and I raced over to the administration building to pay for an archiving fee and submit the final dissertation to the graduate office. I made it there at 4:47 (the office closed at 5). Ronny was in yet another meeting and met me at the bookstore just after 5 as we had dinner plans with friends and had to drive to Portland that night.

Ronny received an email shortly before Christmas that his degree was processed and he was complete as of Dec. 2, 2009. Welcome Dr. Ronald Vance Bjarnason Jr. PhD! It was a long journey but he has finally reached the finish line.

Christmas Blessings

At the beginning of December the kids came home from school so excited and announced they were starting their holiday units and art projects. Joseph and Charley came close and whispered that in their classes this year they got to talk about Christmas and wondered if that was allowed. I laughed out loud and thought how sad is that! I guess we are officially out of the politically correct school system of our past. The next week they announced that Santa had visited the school and Joseph wanted to know if I would play the draddle with him. They also talked about all the decorations that had been hung all over the school. They are still in disbelief that its ok to talk about different holidays here.

Sam's teacher sent around a list asking for parents to come in and tell about their holiday traditions to ensure everyone had a chance to voice their customs and beliefs. I was assigned to the 22nd of the month. Unfortunately due to IV treatment times and nurse and doctor appointments I wasn't able to make it. I asked the teacher if I could send a letter and have Sam act things out and share a few traditions he likes. She agreed and thought it was a great idea.

Sam wanted to share of the Christmas Eve traditions at Nana and Papa's house in particular. That night all the family and many friends are invited over for the festivities. The barn is cleaned out and prepared with hay bale seats and a stage. Every child and adults who have been coerced will be given a part in the nativity and will then search the house for costume material. There is a bin of clothes, however the house is depleted of all bathrobes, towels, sheets, and blankets. The story is read from the Bible and the actors do their stuff. (Its quite the site!). After the nativity is completed we sing songs, tell stories, and play homemade chimes. Then we move back into the house for the sugar blitz!

I made Sam a costume consisting of a hat and shall made out of towels and wrote a short note describing the traditions in CA and the ones we now have at home. I picked up Sam from school that day and asked the teacher how it went. She said it was great and that she may change to have the kids share their traditions next year as she loved Sam's presentation. I asked Sam how it went. He told him a girl at his table laughed at him when he dressed up. I asked him how he felt about that. He said, "Mom, she doesn't know how much fun we have, if she knew she wouldn't laugh, she would want to dress up too." I love it. Of course this made his Nana cry knowing how much he loves being there for the holidays.

With Christmas Eve's arrival and having my Dad released from the hospital that day we had to scramble to complete our preparations for Christmas on a tight schedule. Charley and Joseph tagged along as we scrambled to find a stocking and presents for Grandpa as he would be with us instead of in MN. I told the duo that they couldn't tell the younger ones that Mom was helping Santa out with some of the stocking stuff this year. Joseph looked at me with wonderment and asked me what I meant. I realized I hadn't told him what Grandpa was in the hospital for and what had happened and that we needed to make sure he had a good Christmas. Joseph began to cry and offered his stocking to Grandpa and wanted to know how he could make things better. I think for the first time Joseph got the gist of why we celebrate Christmas.

Holiday Decor

A few of our friends in Oregon requested pictures of our house decorated for Christmas. Here you go! I don't have much and am collecting as we go but I sure enjoyed having a banister to put garland and lights on, it so reminds me of Christmas's of my youth.

New Happenings

In October my Dad called and asked if he could move in while he looked for new employment. He moved in the week before Thanksgiving. The kids were thrilled and love having him here. The adjustment has gone relatively well considering the recent medical problems (this will be its own blog post). I love having him read with the boys while I get dinner on. The kids also love that he helps with their chores sometimes. We're happy he's here and hope he's enjoying his time here as well.

New Posts Coming Soon

Sorry, its been a long month, I promise to have lots of updates by this weekend!

Charley Turns 10!

Our little girl is growing every day. I sure wish she would stop! Charley turned 10 this year in the midst of our swine flu epidemic and she was not feeling well on her birthday. Althouh she recovered quickly she had to wait until everyone else to get better before we could celebrate. She took it all in stride and was happy to be able to celebrate last week with her cousins. Ronny and I decided she was old enough for her first i-pod and so for her birthday she received one filled with Hannah Montana music. She has enjoyed rocking out ever since. We love listening to her sing along to the music while doing the dishes each evening. It sure beats the complaining we used to listen to! We love you Charley!

Vacuum Cake

We have some good friends who live around the way from us who have an adorable little guy who just turned 3. He loves vacuums, maybe loves isn't strong enough, he's a little "0cd" about vacuums. Well for his birthday his parents asked if I would make him a vacuum cake. I had planned to do a 3-D cake but then the kids came down with the flu so we had to do something simpler. Ronny was a trooper and drew me a picture of a vacuum (my art skills are not up to par for what I need) and here is what we came up with. Thankfully he enjoyed the cake and actually let his parents cut it up and serve it.

Oink Update

Joseph was prescribed Tamiflu and was sick for 5 days. We think with the combination of 2 asthma medications and the Tamiflu he skirted the worst of it. Ben and Charley ran fevers this week and had coughs and sore throats but nothing more than that. Both Charley and Joseph are back at school. Sam on the other hand is another story. He has been sick since Friday night. We just got back from the doctor this morning. They finally did the official H1N1 test and prescribed 3 new drugs for Sam. Looks like things took a bad turn last night and now he is being treated for viral and bacterial infections. His doctor is trying to beat out the pneumonia before it starts. He's now on cortico steroids, zithromax, and albuterol treatments. If things aren't better tomorrow morning we have to go back. What else is there to do other than hospitalize him???? GRRRR.... I wanted that shot!

Oink Oink

Well, if you haven't heard yet, the swine flu has hit our family. After standing in lines, calling doctors offices and health departments, we were unable to get the vaccine for H1N1. This is extremely frustrating especially knowing that we are in the high risk group with asthma. However at the end of the day that frustration doesn't help anyone get any better so we are moving on and focusing on getting healthy and watching the kids really closely.

Joseph was able to get Tamiflu because he has asthma. Finding pharmacies who have it is another story altogether. Unfortunately no one has the children's form so they have to take the adult version and then the pharmacy has to break it down and mix it into a liquid and only compounding pharmacies are able to do that which means those pharmacies are being called on a lot! So its hit and miss who has some in stock. Thankfully after a few phone calls and referals we were able to track some down. (Not to mention its expensive!)

I don't know that its necessarily working. We started it within 30 hours of the first symptoms and he certainly has progressed with symptoms. His coughing is worse and the fever, chills, and body aches are still coming. His asthma is also worse but so far its not to the point of oral steroids, but that can always change at any time.

Sam also has the flu and Ben is heading that direction. Sam is certainly worse than Joseph so maybe the Tamiflu is helping some as Sam is not on it. We are going through Tylenol and Advil like crazy and know we are in this for the long haul.

Last night was tough on Sam and Joseph not being able to participate in Halloween festivities. Charley and Ben went out with Ronny but even they weren't totally into it. We were planning on dinner and fun with our cousins so I think the kids were really bummed not to be with them. Sam was sick with a stomach bug on his birthday earlier this week and Charley's birthday is on Wednesday. I think after everyone is healthy we will have to do something really fun with the kids to make up for all the junk around what normally is a happy time. Or maybe after all the make up work from school is done. Got any ideas on what to do?

We hear many of our friend in OR are getting hit hard as well. Our prayers go out to you and we hope you feel better soon. We love you and miss you very much and the kids ask to go back all the time!

On a happy note, Ronny's dissertation defense is scheduled for Dec. 1. Hooray! That light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter every day!

Welcome to "Froggy"

Nana came to visit us this month. We had a great time with her going school shopping, celebrating Ronny's birthday, and visiting BYU. While at BYU we went bowling and had lunch at the Cougar Eat. After standing in line to get everyone their picks and visiting the bathroom, the fire alarms went off. We waited a few minutes to see if they would go off but we were all kicked out while the fire department figured things out. So we ended up eating outside. The kids were great sports and after we were let back in we headed to the bookstore.

We also visited Costco while Nana was here. (Really, what's a Nana trip without a trip to Costco?) We found great fruit, a few treats, and of course Webkins! Nana treated each child to a new friend. Charley and Joseph immediately showed Nana how to register their new pets online and how she could play with them when she is home. Ben really wasn't so interested in the online stuff but he sure loves his new friend. "Froggy" as he calls him now goes with us everywhere. When I say everywhere I really do mean that! He has to sit at the dinner table, scripture time, everywhere we go he comes along, and of course when Ben goes to sleep. Ben wakes up at night and if he doesn't see Froggy immediately he calls us in to find him. The first night he came home Ben told us he needed a lily pad to sleep on. We gave him a green washcloth and called it good. Nana however went home and made "Froggy" a lily pad. He now sleeps in this next to Ben everynight! He also says prayers with us at night. What a nut!

Sam Turns 6!

Sam turned 6 years old yesterday. I can't believe he is getting so big! He requested a Pokemon cake for his birthday. Mom had to order the pan off Ebay to take care of his request. Thankfully it came in time. With it being an even birthday we had a family party. We are happy to have lots of family around for events like this!

Unfortunately shortly after everyone left Sam came down with a stomach bug. The poor guy threw up every twenty minutes all night long. Not a fun way to spend your birthday! It did however earn him a day off of school to enjoy his new presents.

Sam's Unusual Pet

Sam's lass was given the assignment to build an unusual pet out of stuff around the house. I put Ronny in charge of this as I had just completed two other school projects with the other two. Here is what they came up with. Sam calls him "Toon" and he is a moose with 6 legs and soccer ball eyes. He is made out of things from our recycle bin.

His class invited all the parents in for an "unusual pet show" for the kids to show off there projects. A few of the parents asked if they could take a picture of the moose. I thought that was hilarious! The two of them had lots of fun and the end result was wonderful! I may put Ronny in charge of a few more of these projects in the future.

Greece

Ronny went to the ICAPS conference in Greece in September. He presented a paper on some of his research in Solitaire. His paper was awarded the best student paper award and he has since been asked to expand his research and submit it to the Artificial Intelligence Journal. (This is one of the big dogs in Computer Science). He has since expanded his research for his dissertation for his Phd so that work will be submitted to the journal. This is a really big thing in his field so we are very excited that his work has culminated into such success. He has since turned in his first draft of his dissertation which is another big hurdle, only a few more to go.

He has since started his job here in Utah and is enjoying it. They seem very happy with his work thus far as well. The company has just moved offices so his commute just got a little longer. However its still only about 20 minutes or less so things are good.

Called To Serve

My sister Michelle received her mission call today. We all headed to my mother's house for the great announcement. Michelle has been called to serve in the Malagda, Spain Mission and will report in February to the MTC. Congratulations Michelle!!!

Finally Coming Home

Many of you know about our close friendship with members of the Wilberger family and have heard of the news that Brooke's remains have been found. This is a bitter-sweet moment for us and without a doubt for her family. Countless prayers have been made asking for this day to come and we are thrilled that Brooke is finally coming home. Our thoughts and prayers are with this wonderful family who has truly inspired us. As I am sure the hosts in heaven shouted before us we join in chorus, Welcome home Brooke!

All Grown Up

As you can see by the photo Charley has started to mow the lawn. Can you believe it????? Am I old enough to have a child who mows the lawn? She is growing up way to fast!

When you grow up in a house full of girls you get to learn how to do all the outside chores, so I felt it was one of those things my daughter needed to learn too. Ronny was a great teacher and Charley did a great job! Thank you Jennifer for lending us your mower for the fall!

Joseph is in line as well but first we need to figure out how to take care of that without setting him into an asthma attack. (He's allergic to grass.) The days of yard work have finally begun for us and we are soooo excited!

"The Genius" or so they say....

Yesterday my brother-in-law called with a funny story about Ronny. He, (my bro-in-law), was at a board of directors meeting on Friday with the big dogs from the investment company that has invested in both the company that he works for and the company that Ronny will be working for. There he mentioned to someone that his brother-in-law was getting ready to start work. That guy then says, "Is he that genius coming in from the Northwest?". He laughed and said it was.

Later that day we went to that particular brother-in-law's company party with the family. A guy with whom he works with walked up to the table to be introduced to all of us. He then asks Ronny, "Are you the genius I've heard about?" Apparently he was also at the board of directors meeting. Ronny of course is doing everything he can to play this down but the rest of us are having a good time with it!

Answered Prayers

The last few weeks have been somewhat trying for me. Moving into a new home, leaving long-time friends behind, running the house with our little ones without Dad, and so on. One of those trials has been wondering if we made the right decision with the house we chose to rent and the ward we are attending. I have been praying for many things, but one that I have prayed for recently was to know we are where we need to be and the peace that understanding brings. Many of you also know about the struggles we have had with Sam and attending church, and the many prayers and fasting our family and extended family have prayed in his behalf over the last 3 years. Many times I have been frustrated with the Lord's time frame and wanted more guidance on this particular issue. Once again I am amazed at the Lord's mercy and patience with us, me in-particular.

Yesterday we loaded the kids in the car and headed to my sister's house to watch the BYU-Oklahoma game. Sam quietly called from the back seat and asked if it was Sunday the next day. I immediately cringed and thought here we go again. I answered him that it was and that we had early church and needed to get going early. He immediately called out, "I love church and I love Primary!" I was completely stunned! A tear came to my eyes as I said a quiet prayer of gratitude for the two prayers the Lord had answered yesterday. I know we are where we need to be!

"I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!"

This is the song we are singing today! We are so happy Ronny is coming home today, we have missed him! Ronny has been working in OR for the last month while we have been in UT. We are counting down the hours, T-minus 10 and counting....