Two Years Ago....

Here I am (right in the middle) almost exactly two years ago, on an amazing girl's trip with my mom and sisters. We stayed in a beach house in Lincoln City, Oregon. This picture was taken while we were on a whale watching tour.

We had such a great visit. Looking at this makes me wonder why we don't do this more often. Looking at this makes me wonder why we aren't doing this right now......

Yesterday....

Yesterday I went to a baby shower. I was gone from home for 2 1/2 hours. I felt like I needed to hurry home. When I arrived home I asked Riley, "What did you do while I was gone?" She answered in this surprising way, "You were gone?"




I should have stopped for a pedicure while I was out....

Pool Pals....

Since the end of dance last week, we no longer have a certain schedule we have to follow. It is amazing. This is the first summer for so many years that we have not had at least a swimming lesson schedule. I thought about putting Riley into lessons, to improve her swimming. Then, I thought about the actual possibility of not having any activities we had to get to each day. At first, it seemed too good to be true. Now, I am just glad we decided to let Riley dog paddle it this year!

In a few short weeks we will return to school, piano lessons and dance classes...at least. I have quite a bit that I have to do in this few weeks, but I won't have to navigate by any set schedule.

So Riley has had friends over every day this week. Yesterday, she had four pals over. We had fun!



I took a few pictures while I played life guard for this group.



Emilee's job was to keep this Little Cutie busy. It won't be long before he swims as well as everyone else, but he is not there yet. He liked dunking that basketball!


And then, Little Cutie's big sister showed us there was more than one use for the basketball hoop.



Little Cutie wanted to show Emilee that there was more than one use for a pool noodle as well.

You can see that his other sweet sister in the background was most happy by the waterfall. She had toys back there, and kept busy doing her own thing.





Don't you love that smile?



This smile is even better. Cutie's big brother came over to cool me off with the squirt gun. When he looked at me like that I exclaimed, "You are a nut!" He answered, "I am not a nut. I am just really happy right now."





Well, of course Little Cutie could not be left out of that act. They kept me nice and cool...

Recital Week

It is the week of the dance recital.


The girls have been rehearsing like crazy.





When we went and bought extra bobby pins, fake eyelashes, water bottles, lip gloss and some activity books (for the waiting time) Riley wondered about the extra item in the cart....Excedrin.








Someday she will understand.

Sleestak Attack!

When Marshall, Will and Holly were on their routine expedition, they met more than the greatest earthquake ever known. They met....the Sleestaks. They were an enemy to the human intruders on Land of the Lost. They were outfitted perfectly for a kid like me who wanted to say, "Those are just guys in costumes. They are so fake." They moved very slowly, and were not particularly scary. Like if they had more sophisticated moves and costumes, I might have suspected that there was some reality to the story! If you aren't right about my age, you probably didn't even know about Sleestaks when you were a kid...unless you watched the "remake" in the 1990's.



It is a mere coincidence to this post, that there is a new Land of the Lost movie out right now. I haven't seen it, and I am not actually planning on it. Sleestaks just come to my mind from time to time, since they were present in my formative years.



In fact, I call Jeff a Sleestak, when he wears his big black goggles out to the pool. What do you think?


Just the other night, we ended up inventing a great new game in the pool. We were swimming on Monday night, and Riley was doing an extended amount of splashing. Just when I thought I was going to have to enroll her in some sort of Splasher Protection Program (she was really annoying Emilee)I decided to say that the next person who splashed anyone would not get to have any strawberry pie. Riley had been pondering that strawberry pie, made by Kaitie, for hours. She was really looking forward to it. The splashing stopped for awhile. But really...no splashing? In a pool? It is not possible. It wasn't long before Riley and Emilee were splashing again.

I told them the only way they could earn their strawberry pie back, was to attack the Sleestak. At that point, I got out of the pool, and watched the show. Sleestak Attack was on, and it was hilarious. The girls splashed, poked, and bugged him, and he played his part as the harmless enemy pretty well. I liked watching that show better than the original series. I hope this "Sleestak" will come to mind for Emilee and Riley all their lives from time to time...after all, he is present in their formative years...;)

Post from the Past....

One of the many things I have been working on lately, is my pictures. I have tons of them. I have been trying to get them more organized. The main project right now is to get pictures of Ryan together, so I can have a disk made of milestones and highlights in his life.

This is a hard project. Some pictures are so meaningful to me, but wouldn't look like much to others. I realize there is not going to be a one-size-fits-all disk. The one I am doing now, will be nice, but then I need to do one for myself. Of course, I like certain pictures because of memories and feelings that come back to me.

For example, here is a picture and blog post from more than five years ago. In January 2004, I was constantly aware of the fact that Ryan would soon graduate from high school and move on in his life. It was hard for me in many ways...but also such a blessing to have a good son. Back then, I wished I knew how to hold back time. Now I know that watching him do good things with his life is awesome from both near and far away.



January 16, 2004





Big Brother


One day, when 17 year old Ryan came home from school, I handed him his baby sister. I rarely do that. Well, Ryan rarely just comes home from school. He is generally on his way somewhere else....work, a guitar lesson, or to the home of a friend. However on this day he was home and I said, "Please take care of Riley for just a few minutes. She's driving me crazy." I love this little girl, but she is into everything. Sometimes I can almost chart the events of her day by going from room to room in the house, and taking note of the specific destruction.

Ryan decided to take her outside. I looked outside a few minutes later, and this is what I saw. I got my camera and snapped this picture, which I love. My first baby, and my last baby were connecting...having a moment, a "conversation." I loved seeing him so caring and relaxed. She had her eyes full of big brother and it was sweet.

Riley is lucky to live in a family where she has so many people to look out for her. There is enough space between the ages that no one is mean to her. The kids think enough of her to actually be nice to each other too...okay, not all the time.

I truthfully tell them that she is watching and copying everything they do. That is often enough to soften an emerging bad mood. My big kids are learning more about love than they otherwise would. I think what they feel for her will only be surpassed when they have their own families and their own children later in life.

On the day all of my girls received their flu shots (a lot of good it was...but that is a different story) my girls all wished they could take Riley's shot for her. That is the kind of thing that makes my long years of raising children worthwhile.

It won't be long until Ryan is looking at different horizons than I am. I think I will frame this little picture and send it along with him. He will know that those little eyes are still watching him wherever he is.





Ryan has certainly seen many different horizons since then! Many more are certainly in his future.

(I only wish one thing, that Riley's presence still inspired that amazing sweetness that it used to when she was a baby. The current phase we are going through is just a bit different than that.)

The Magic "Send" Button

I can't stand to delete my text messages, without reviewing them. I know it would be much more efficient to empty the whole box at the same time, but I like the little review. Sometimes I even save the fun ones for awhile, so I can have that memory more than once. I have recently gone through and deleted my messages, from my kids and a few other people. The messages from my kids seem to have a theme.....

My kids have found texting to be a very convenient way to let me know what it is I am supposed to be doing for them. They send me pictures of things they want, and need. They send me reminders, and shopping lists. They seem to think "send" is a magic button!

As you might well imagine, I have been quite the chauffeur over the years. How nice it is for them now, to be able to give exact instructions on when and where to bring the car around. The plot thickens when they also state amounts of cash that they hope are waiting for them in the passenger seat when they get in ;)

Riley can't wait until she has a cell phone, because she sees all this phone stuff as very exciting. She has a pink sparkly imitation that she sends and receives messages on...in her imagination. Also playing in her imagination is the notion that she will get her cell phone when she is ten. She informed me of that this morning. She said that Ally got hers when she was sixteen, Kaitie got hers when she was fourteen, and Emilee got hers when she was twelve. Riley sees a pattern she likes, and at six, has already started that count down. I can't imagine she will really have one by then, but stranger things have happened than that.

Like everything else in this world, there is potential for things to go wrong with cell phone use. But like most everything else, I choose to look on the bright side and appreciate it for how it benefits me. I receive a lot more than requests from that little screen. I also get important information like this:


Last night I dreamed that Dad got a mohawk!

A Little More Catch Up....

I had a few things to do that week that Kaitie was recovering from her surgery. On Wednesday, I had to stop in for a minute and have a visit with the oral surgeon. Yay. Remember when I wrote awhile back that I had to go to the dentist? Well, I left there with nice clean teeth, and a referral. I had a spot in my mouth that was driving me crazy...a little bump that wasn't a canker, that I kept biting. My dentist told me I would need to have it removed. So now I do have one place I would rather be less than the dentist...the oral surgeon. That particular visit, was so brief. He looked at it, and told me to schedule an appointment to have it taken out. I had hoped we could just get it over with that day. Oh well...

Once I did have my appointment a few days later it wasn't a huge deal. It only took a few minutes to get that annoying thing lasered out, once I was settled in. Settled in is kind of a funny word for it. I don't know the word to use for that stiff, white knuckle type of sitting. You hate it, but you don't really want to leave because you will be glad to have it done. My mind is drawing a blank for just the right word.

The assistant put sunglasses on me. That was to be expected, but then she covered my face down to my nose with a cloth. They covered me up to my mouth too, so basically they were only dealing with my mouth. That is not pleasant. The doctor said I should be glad that I didn't live in any far away country where I would have to wear a burka. Yes I am very glad of that. But, if I had been able to speak, while he worked on my mouth I might have mentioned that I think with a burka, your eyes are not covered!

When he was finished, he stitched the spot, and then took the stitches out. He said that it would heal in a better shape if it was left open. It has been funny having a black hole in my mouth this week, but it is getting better and better. It is a relief having that stupid bump gone.

I feel guilty for how much I wasn't looking forward to the other event coming up during that week. It was a camp out with the church girls. I was in charge of an overnight activity with the girls, to prepare for their summer camp. We didn't have to have an overnight, but I got pressured into it. We needed to do some outdoor cooking, and I had expressed my preference to just do a dinner or breakfast to satisfy the requirement. I thought we had it settled, and then one of the other women brought up the idea to do it overnight....and she did that in front of the girls. I caved, because I didn't want the girls to think I was the BORING adult. I do love all the girls. I just didn't want to make a big production out of this cooking requirement.

We did do the most convenient campout ever. It was in the backyard of an awesome couple who have quite a bit of nice space to play in, and who love this type of activity. They did so much to make this activity work. It is a good thing, because no matter where I looked, I couldn't find my enthusiasm.

One of the adult women who said she would come and set up a tent, wasn't able to come after all. And another of the adult women who said she would come and do a craft wasn't able to come after all. I started whining like a big baby at home. What did Jeff do? Everything he could! He forgot to study up on his psychology, and know that it wasn't a good idea to reward my bad behavior. He let it slip his mind that it isn't right to let someone get what they want when they are being immature about it. Basically, he rode in on a white horse....

Jeff went to the activity before me, and set up a tent. He actually set up my cot, and rolled out my sleeping bag. Are you embarrassed for me? I did go buy all the food and get ready to do the cooking stuff. He hauled it all for me though. I was so grateful. He even let Riley help him set up the tent.

I took this picture with my phone, so it isn't amazing, but you get the idea.

The girls were supposed to cook with two different methods, so I thought we would do sticks at night, and Dutch oven in the morning.


Again, with the phone picture. By this time, I was starting to relax and enjoy myself. Jeff had spoiled me by doing a lot of the work. The girls were enjoying making hot dogs. The past couple of years, when I have done cooking outdoors with the girls, I have tried to think outside the box. We made foil fajita dinners last year that I thought were fantastic. The girls however, weren't as thrilled. They just wanted good old hot dogs and marshmallows. This year, that is exactly what they got.

We were also going to work on a song for a camp performance, and the lap top that was supposed to arrive did not arrive. I wondered if the girls would feel the lack of productiveness in this activity. I think they actually liked it. They played with fire for hours! They went through a huge pile of wood, just breaking it and stacking it. Breaking, stacking, breaking...stacking. The fire was continuously huge. Then one girl made a smoke stick, and soon had cool smoke rings floating above her head. That caught on quickly, and they were fascinated with that for a long time.



The phone doesn't do really well with night pictures, as you can see. But they sat like this making smoke rings with sticks for quite awhile. They are all so cute!!

We didn't go in the tents to try and sleep until 2:00. Even then, sleep was not what really took place. As if anyone thought it would!

In the morning, it was hard to get everyone up. They all helped make the giant cinnamon roll in the Dutch oven. Too bad I didn't snap a picture of that! It turned out well.

Jeff returned with Riley nice and early to get our stuff taken down, and taken home. Me, and my two hours of sleep would have died without him. We had to get going pretty early, because Emilee and Riley had dance pictures all day.

Okay, they didn't really have pictures all day, but it seemed like it. Emilee has three classes, and Riley has one, so I had to go to the dance studio for four different classes. Jeff and I even went to a baptism in between the dance pictures. It was a really nice one...totally worth it!

I wish Emilee would let me post her pictures here. I am strictly forbidden from doing that this time. Sad, but true. Maybe I will be able to get one in when they have the real recital. I wonder what I will have to do for her to make that happen. Here's Riley anyway!



After the crazy day was over, what did Jeff want to do? He wanted to go see Star Trek. I wasn't excited, but how could I say no? He had done everything I needed and then some. Star Trek had been out for a whole week, and he hadn't been able to get there yet. (I told Emilee it was as if Twilight had been out for a week, and everyone but her had seen it.)

Anyway, I thought I might fall asleep during it, because I was so tired, but it was actually a good movie. I'm not the Star Trek fan around here, but I stayed awake and enjoyed it too.

I would normally have just slept in the next morning, but I was substituting in Relief Society. (That means I was teaching a Sunday class for the adult women.) I love teaching, so that in itself was not a problem. I just found the lesson to be a little difficult, and I wanted to make sure and get it right. I had been reading it, and trying to figure out what to do with it all week. I was still trying to fine tune it on Sunday morning. I think it went okay. After I teach a lesson though, I think of everything I SHOULD have said later on....

Well, that is enough of my eyes looking backward now. I have to go forward. I have been trying to plan my summer, and have plenty to do with that. Real camp is coming, there are a couple of other minor trips I want to take, and the big event of course is Ryan and Brittany's wedding. That ought to keep our summer busy enough!

Mother's Day Part II

So, last time I wrote, I left off in the middle of my Mother's Day story. If I don't get too it, it will be Father's Day by the time I write it. Hopefully, Father's Day won't be quite as eventful.

Ally was here for Mother's Day weekend. We didn't quite get to have the visit we wanted to have, but the fact that she was here sure made life easier. Ally dropped me off at the hospital (in my car, she didn't bring hers home) and then returned home to take care of everything there.

I felt so bad to see Kaitie in the ER bed, hooked up to the IV...except that IV was sure making her life better. "They gave me morphine," she said. "Did you say eight?" I asked her. "Yes I did," was her response, and she even laughed. (That is from this Brian Regan routine.) I love a good drug in its right time and place!

Soon, Kaitie was whisked away for her CT scan, and sure enough an angry looking appendix was what they found. We had to wait awhile for the surgeon, but they updated Kaitie's pain medication in the ER whenever she asked them to. She slept a lot, and doesn't even really remember the details that well now. I tried to read, and could not take it in. So I fired up that new phone, and texted up a storm. That kind of reading was perfect....not much concentration required.

Kaitie was taken in for her laproscopic appendectomy between 1:00 and 1:30 pm. That is not bad considering she awoke at 3:00 am, and was in the ER by 6:00 am. Jeff and I sat in the waiting room together, not even really talking. We knew she would be okay, but still, we were anxious to hear it was over. The surgeon came out and talked to us about 2:45 to let us know that everything went as well as it could have. He said she should be eating by the next morning, and home by the next evening. Jeff and I celebrated by eating the granola bars that Emilee had packed for us. We hadn't eaten anything at all before that, but the hungry feeling didn't come through until the surgery was over.

I knew that with laproscopic surgery, that her incisions would be small, but imagined she would still have to have a few stitches or something. When we went to see her in recovery though, the nurse said something about her three band aids. "That's it? Band aids?" I asked. She assured us that was it. Amazing! She wished me a Happy Mother's Day, like every other nurse, doctor and assistant did all day....with a smile and a sympathetic nod.

Before long, Kaitie was in her hospital room in pediatrics. The nurses were tiny compared to Kaitie's 5' 10". When she woke up a bit, I know she didn't love being talked to as if she were a five year old, but she dealt with it. The care she received was good, and that is what really mattered. A friend stopped in to bring her flowers, and that made Kaitie really happy. It is amazing how far some beautiful flowers can go, when they are paired with some sweet thoughtfulness.

Jeff brought the girls to see Kaitie, but only Ally was allowed to go up and see her. I went down into the lobby to be with Emilee and Riley for awhile. I was wearing my pink-I-am-the-parent-of-a-patient-bracelet. That is a powerful bracelet. It let me go where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go there. People were really nice to me. I realized that some people who wear that bracelet are in awful circumstances. We weren't having the best day, but I felt like I could in no way compare with most moms who would be wearing that. The magic of the bracelet did not extend to Emilee and Riley, and they were not happy about that, so I stayed with them longer than I had planned. When Jeff took them home, I stayed to settle in for the night. Kaitie had told me I didn't have to stay. I told her there was no way I was going home, and then she told me she was glad I was staying.

When I finally went back up to Kaitie's room, I found out the nurses had taken her for a walk. That taste of freedom made her determined to leave the hospital as soon as possible. Since she walked so well, they told her she could try to eat. The brought her a tray with broth and jello. Yum. When that went well, she was told she could order off the menu. Room service style ordering in the hospital was new to me. I guess it has been around for awhile, but I didn't know about it. We ordered soup and sandwiches, and Kaitie handled that fine too.

We asked the night nurse what it was going to take to get out of there. She said that Kaitie had to be on antibiotics (IV) throught the night, and show that she could keep down breakfast in the morning. It sounded like we might be able to get home a lot sooner than Monday evening.

The night wasn't so bad. Kaitie had her cell phone and her ipod. (What did kids used to do?) I didn't have to do much for her. The night nurse didn't bug her much, so we actually slept a little. Kaitie had me stationed by the phone ready to order breakfast at 5:55. The earliest you can order is 6:00. Kaitie happily ate her egg and toast the minute it arrived. Then, she changed into her regular clothes, and walked out to the nurses station and announced that she was ready to go.

The nurses looked at her, and laughed. I was afraid that the laugh meant that she was not going to get to leave. That wasn't it at all. Kaitie got what she wanted. The nurse that was just coming to work just had a few quick things to do, like take out her IV, and we were getting into Jeff's truck by 7:30 am. You know, I have heard plenty of unfavorable stories about our hospital here, but I don't have one complaint from this experience. Kaitie received good and prompt care. In the ER, in surgery, in recovery and in pediatrics, it was all as good or better than we expected. We felt very fortunate, and blessed.

Kaitie was plenty sore for the first couple of days. She rested most of the time. She texted me when she needed more medicine. We had a pretty good system....and fortunately I had a fabulous new phone to receive those text messages.

Monday night Jeff, Ally, and Emilee had the Mother's Day dinner ready for me that they were going to make the day before. They also gave me the rest of my gifts. They were too nice to me, for sure.

Kaitie is just about back to normal now.

She is grateful for the flowers, gifts, cards and calls she received!

Mother's Day - Part I

Sometime before Mother's Day, I discussed with Emilee the fact that I had the most "chopped liver" phone in the family. I described to her a possible scenario:

Me: I can see it now. Saturday, my phone just disappears. I look for it, but can't find it. "Oh my," I will say, "My phone has gone missing. Whatever shall I do?" Then Sunday morning for Mother's Day you all will admit that you took it, and traded it for a sweet, purple phone.

Emilee: Don't you want to choose your own phone?

Me: No, this way it will be a "surprise."


Sure enough, the day before Mother's Day, my phone disappeared. I "looked" for it, and couldn't find it anywhere. Saturday night, Jeff, Ally and I went to a birthday party for a friend, and I felt so incomplete without my phone. I have carried a cell phone for twelve years. (No, not the same one. The first one I had would seem like a brick now!) I knew if the girls needed to call from home that they could call Jeff though.

After Jeff, Ally and I returned home from the party it was low key around here. Jeff had been to the Father's and Son's outing the night before, so he was getting tired. Ally had come to spend Mother's Day weekend about the time he left. We had done some extra catching up the night before. When Jeff tried to get everyone in the family room for prayer, Kaitie asked if we could just come into her room and say it. I figured she was extra tired too, so we just went with her request. She had never asked that before.

Kaitie woke up with severe pain at 3:00 or so in the morning. She woke us at 4:45. I thought it was her stomach, and got her some Tums. Jeff went and bought her some Sprite. We should have known that these were not going to help. Kaitie is not a complainer. If her pain was going to be managed that easily, she could have done it herself. She knew she couldn't do it herself. She stated that she needed a blessing, and a doctor. Again, that is unusual coming from Kaitie. More than once we have really struggled to get her to go to the doctor. She doesn't go easily!

Jeff put a call in to someone to come over and help him give her a blessing, and he was here within minutes. That kind of service is so much appreciated. What a good man! Then Jeff took Kaitie to Urgent Care. Kaitie was seen right away, and the doctor there told Jeff that he suspected appendicitis. They were told to go right to the ER. She was seen right away, and told that after some tests they would probably be admitting her, and doing surgery.

When I received that call from Jeff, I told him I would get ready and come over there. Emilee woke up here at home, and wondered why no one was making my breakfast in bed. She was upset about poor Kaitie in the hospital. She was disappointed about all the things that they had planned that were not going to work out. I told them that we would celebrate Mother's Day in a day or two, but that I needed to go to the hospital. Emilee was sad that she wasn't making my breakfast, so she packed my purse with some granola bars. Also, before I left, I was presented one gift that I would be using all day...my awesome new phone.