Fast blog update

There were horrific fires in California. Including three towns of homes being burned down.  It's so sad, but I'm grateful that the temple is still standing.

Our beautiful new Lindon temple got it's windows.  They're so pretty!

My wonderful Great Uncle Duck (Doug) turned 80.  He's such a good man and I loved seeing all his kids and grandkids there.

Jer and Jim went to the Hanzel and Gretel opera in Salt Lake.

Sam was so tired.  Ada and him went to a youth fireside... Ada showed him the whale she'd made and it knocked him out.

Cutie patooties

Progress on my egg painting.

Patient cat with daycare kids.

We got to go to the Payson temple to do baptisms for the dead.  It was so cool because we got there and Sam exclaims, "I can do the baptizing now!" And so we arranged for him to baptize Evelyn and I... then Jer baptized Ada.

Tiredness is contagious.

We got to drive up to Ogden to celebrate Aubrey's graduation with McKay and fam.  Look at these great people.

New favorite cousin picture.

Seth gave a talk.  He's been giving a lot of talks lately.  I'm always grateful that he says yes.  I love watching him in Primary.  This last Sunday he was asked to sing a solo in sacrament meeting.  He said, "No, but I'll sing in a group."  So we invited his Primary class to sing with him.  The 4 that said yes sang the first verse of Joseph Smith's First Prayer.  His wonderful clear voice... 

Evelyn gave her first talk in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday too. When she was asked, she burst into tears.  By Saturday she was okay with the idea and Jer and I took turns walking her through writing her talk.  Then on Sunday she asked me to sit by her on the stand.  I did, she shook until she started her talk... then she wasn't nervous anymore.  She gave testimony of straightforward doctrine and then told me that she'd like to give a talk again.  She had started an outline in one computer file and then started a second with her actual talk.  To differentiate the two files, she wrote ACTUAL TALK across the top of the one.  She forgot to delete that part before printing it and joked with me for a good few minutes about having to have the ACTUAL TALK.  

I took pictures of Christian for his baptism.  It was so cold, so we set up our photo backdrop and did them really quick.  He's on the spectrum so taking pictures is not easy.  He let me take some if I let him take pictures of the dinosaurs after. 

He kept saying how much he liked Seth's lego dinosaurs, so I got him a lego triceratops.  

Crazy cats.... Vinn was hugging Syl's tail.

Jer had an ER visit over the weekend.  We were headed to an endowment session and he got dinner stuck in his throat.  Last time we had to go to the ER for this was about 13 years ago.... then about 15 years before that he had to...   So maybe we'll prebook a visit in another 15 years.  He's going in on Wednesday to get his throat stretched.  

I played the piano at Christian's baptism.  In true Ecuadorian fashion, I wasn't asked ahead of time.  I showed up and they said, "Hey you're on the program... and will you play Gethsemane for Isaiah to sing a special musical number too?"

Sam drove in the snow for the first time.  It just so happened to be with Robyn.  That helped Sam feel more secure knowing that she had his back.

I met baby Annie for the first time.  I was going to babysit from 5-9... ended up being from 12-8 and included two baths... one from a child throwing up all over and the other from a child peeing all over.  Whelp... that's the way it goes.  It was nice to meet Annie.

I did the taxes for the daycare.... now gotta do our personal ones.

Our Stake put together a temple activity over the weekend.  It was really neat.

Seth in the temple mirrors.

Making rice krispies temples.

Ada made the Provo temple and included an angel Moroni on top.

Evelyn got to go to the space center for Rose's birthday party.  They had fun.

For Primary, I gathered different Book of Mormons in different languages.  We talked about the different languages and how all of them was the same message of Jesus Christ.  Dale Yancey brought his Māori copy that his grandfather used as a missionary in New Zealand... I told him that it's possible that he had met my Great Grandpa and Great Great Grandparents who were members of the church there at the same time.  It was a neat lesson.

Again cuddling with the tail of her sister.

 

cyst

Monday morning, I ended up in the ER for the first time since I was 21. Ironically both were for cysts. The first was from a cyst that had formed after I broke my tailbone sledding.  This current one I've had for years.... sometimes it would be close to the surface, sometimes it would go down to where I couldn't feel it.  Saturday it was bugging me. Apparently, it burst and became an abscess and infected the skin around the area.   Sunday it was painful and at 5 am Monday morning it was excruciating. I was going to drive myself to the ER and text Jer so that he could be in charge of getting kids off in the morning.  I got dressed and then laid on the couch so that I could get there just after the hospital shift change.  It's easier to explain everything once instead of twice.  Jer woke up and saw me waiting.  He wanted to drive me, so off we went leaving a phone in the girls room so that we could call them when it was time to get up.  We got there, ran into Janelle who had just happened to pick up a shift that morning...no wait... got into a room... no wait.... talked to the nurses and the PA on duty... no wait... he left to get some lidocaine.... gave me a shot of lidocaine and just that pressure was enough that it burst open and shot across the room.  All the medical staff ooooed and awwwwed, then he cleaned it out and packed it before the lidocaine had taken effect.  We were in and out in about an hour and a half. I was really sore Monday, less sore Tuesday, and today I'm feeling pretty good. Hopefully it will be better soon. It might come back because they just drained it instead of removing it.... hopefully it won't be like today again.

All the other stuff

Ada's finished Biology project.

Since babies faces aren't all clear... this was meal time the other day.  They're all teething so they all like to be pretty close.

Jer had his first ever trip in an ambulance. Wed, Jer got hurt somehow.  He did a run, went sledding, and did some work in our bathroom putting the cabinets in place.  Between everything, he tore several muscles in his thigh.  The pain is in three places which then radiates down to his knee and up his hips and back.  We were trying to have him rest it.  My marvelous parents took him to the instacare on Thursday because I had daycare. They gave him meds for aggravated nerves.  Friday was okay, Saturday not so okay.  Saturday night, we watched a movie to keep it low key and still spend time with the kids.  About midnight we got the kids to bed and about 12:30 I tried to get Jer up and into bed.  He couldn't stand or sit.  We ended up laying him on the floor and propping him up as best we could.  By 1 am it had gotten worse, and Jer was shaking like he had Parkinson's. Jer asked me to call 911, so I did. I got Ada up to watch for the ambulance and got back down to Jer.  Ada said that they parked in our neighbor's driveway and knocked on their door.  Ada had to go outside and wave them over to us. 5 giant men came down, gave Jer an IV, took his vitals, got him on the stretcher and into the ambulance.  I conferenced with Ada, packed a bag and followed. They did x-rays to make sure nothing was broken and tested some stuff for his nerves.  They diagnosed with him torn muscles in his thigh.  They put him on a muscle relaxer and pain meds and sent us home at 6 am.  We stopped at the pharmacy for some lidocaine patches, grabbed breakfast and I basically dragged Jer into the house.  Sunday our sacrament program was based around the choir song we've been working on for the last two months... So I slept for 3 hours and the kids and I went to church for Sacrament.... then we came home and crashed.  

Sam was practicing the flute and Ada walked by and turned on the treadmill on her way by.  She said she was getting him ready for marching band. He just finished practicing and Jer kept joking that any time he made a mistake we would turn up the treadmill.

 

Hysterectomy time

Last Wednesday was the day.  My hysterectomy was scheduled for the 16th but got postponed until the 21st.  It was frustrating to have to reschedule everything from my recovery time to someone else to play the piano for the Christmas program, kid scheduled doctor appointments, and even how many weeks Janine was doing daycare in a row so I could recover. We got it all squared away though and went in 6am to get me taken care of.  

I've been chronically anemic for years.  The first time they tested for it and confirmed was while I was pregnant with Ada about 16 years ago.  They finally figured out that I probably had Adenomyosis.  My sweet Uncle Marty, who is a retired OBGYN, took a look at my ultrasound and doctor's notes and explained everything and told me my options.  Basically, it was like I had two linings on my uterus, so I bled a lot.  After my surgery they told Jer that I had a few fibroids too.  Once I'd woken up and taken a walk around the floor the doctor popped his head in and I asked about the fibroids.  He said I had lots of small ones.... then he showed me the shape of a tennis ball with his hand.  Those also cause bleeding and neither of the two conditions can be diagnosed with an ultrasound.... so I'm glad I had the hysterectomy done.  I've been recovering well.  The worst part is the pressure on all your organs of the gas that they pump into your abdominal cavity so that they can do it laparoscopically. Because I was fasting, the nurses had a hard job to find my veins too.  I had 3 nurses trying to get them.... I have 10 places they stuck me.  I've never had that problem before so that was new.

Because we were having a quiet and daycare free Christmas, Jer borrowed his Dad's big train.  Seth LOVES it.  They put it up, Seth cleans the tracks and the kids all build tunnels and fun things for the train to go through.

 

Sam's scope

Sam was certainly less scared going into his second scope.  It's official... He has EoE.  I don't know why the specialists don't know if EoE gets better if you do allergy shots, but we're going to try it.  They said that his is the worst case they've ever seen and they're the pediatric specialists.  They managed to stretch his throat a little, not as much as they'd hoped, but Sam says it is easier to eat.  He has to go in fasting.  They had put him very first so that he wouldn't have to fast during the day, but I got him up to get ready and he forgot and had a bite of a cookie that was sitting on the table.  He swallowed, panicked and came to talk to me.  I couldn't find the phone number anywhere, so I just took Seth to my Mom's house (thank you marvelous woman) and took Sam down to the Hospital.  They did push him back 6 hours, so I was so glad that my Mom had Seth.  He was being snarky with each of the nurses and I eventually told him to knock it off.  He was nicer to all of them after that.  After he woke up from the anesthesia and they were bringing him back into the room where I was waiting, he heard the doctor talking to someone down the hall and in his half awake state started yelling, "Hi Dr,____!"  until the doctor answered, "Hi Sam!"  His oxygen monitor kept slipping and the monitor would start beeping.  He kept telling me that I had to come turn it off and I kept telling to keep breathing. He was fixated on the IV coming out too.  The minute he was brought into the room he was asking the nurse to take it out.  She told him that it would be about 30 minutes, so he looked at the clock at said, "It's 2:18.... so it will be at...." 

The day after, he was back at school, but I told him to stick to soft and cold foods.  I choose to get him a slushy and surprise him at lunch.  We got there and he hated the flavor, so Ada drank it instead.  Seth and I sat there long enough to have lunch with Ada, Sam and Evelyn before Seth started his classes.  That was fun.