The past month in a...not so nutshell

WOW! Can we say Hallelujiah..lol or however that is supposed to be spelled. I am sitting here in bed blogging!! Yeah that means we have internet!! Of coarse I couldn't afford to get the computer fixed, so we are borrowing a laptop! No more bugging Andria to use their computer!

This past month has been full of so many bloggable things.

FYI one thing you may not know about me is that I create my own words. Jeff and I have decided I should write a dictionary! For instance: I had a knot in the part of my neck that connects to my shoulder...I said "Honey will you work this knot in my Shneck". Another instance: tonight we were walking into the hospital to visit my sister and I said "I am going to die of coldation". That is just a couple samples of my upcoming dictionary.

Okay lets start with Christmas....

As our kids get older it seems we get less and less excited for Christmas to come around. Some think this is because of the children's belief system weakening...we believe it is because we realize the older they get...the more expensive Christmas becomes! Jeff and I have always had such a minimal budget for Christmas that we prefer to spend what we have on the kids. This year we spent a total of......$1500 on everything!! This included kids, nieces and nephews, siblings and parents. Not one penny was on credit..as we don't have any credit cards!!

Kylie LOVED finding her Hot Pink Ipod in the very top of the tree, Kasey was THRILLED to get his awesome Heely's and Kennadie thought it was pretty NEAT to be the only one to get a pink motorized scooter!! Overall, it was a great Christmas for our family!

New Year's Eve is always fun for us! I say that with some sarcasm...you see it is almost impossible to get babysitters on New Years Eve. So for the second year in a row I enjoyed a little karoake with my sister and the kids!! Jeff had to work all night so he didn't get to join us! By 11:00pm I was soo ready for bed! Yes I was in bed....asleep before midnight!!

Jeff enjoyed his experience of driving during Sundance. He met alot of very neat and some interesting people....or is it the other way around? He has a family that he has become good friends with!! He is their personal driver now! He has really enjoyed this experience!

FYI...I really should be going to bed....but I know I am so behind on this blogging thing!

Ok...so here is the scoop on Kennadie:

If you haven't heard, she has really been struggling with Migraines lately. With her history of seizures her neurologist wanted to be on the safe side and do an MRI. Initially on the MRI they just found an excessive amount of blood flow to her brain...just something to be aware of. The doctor wanted to get a second opinion from another radiologist...so we waited...and waited. That radiologist suggested they compare this MRI to one she had about 4 years ago. In doing so they found that her Brain Stem (or tonsil) is larger than they would have expected. What does all of this mean? Well, it means she will have another MRI in 5 years to compare (unless something provokes them to do one sooner). As, you well know this is very touchy ground for me; as I have Chiari and refuse to accept that my daughter or any of my children for that matter could have it! The good news is that it could just be that the brain stem could be normal and be nothing. In the meantime, for her pain they have put her on Topomax; it seems to be working pretty well for her! She still complains of a headache every couple days, but Leaps and Bounds better than when she would hold her head and rock on the couch because it hurt so bad!

Speaking of the Chiari....I reached my 1 year mark from my second surgery!! January 20th marked the special day. Back in November I decided that I would celebrate the anniversay by cutting my hair to the length of the regrowth from surgery. It was about 8 - 10 inches of hair! It was a very very sad moment for me!! I can't wait to grow it all back!! It looks much healthier and obviously thicker now!!

I have sooo much I want to blog about, but I am watching the clock in the bottom right corner of the screen...and it says I should really go to bed! Have I mentioned...I hate waking up at 4am for work?? Well...I DO! I will continue with more updates tomorrow!!

Hibernating?

Recently, Kasey found a new past time...stopping at the canal on his way home from school! The first day he did this he got in trouble!! Not because he stopped but because he didnt tell anyone he was stopping and then claimed to have "fallen in". Kinda hard to fall in when the road is 8 feet wide!! He said he was taking a shortcut home...(the canal is not on the way home at all). Oh well, we got through it and made a deal that he had to come home first from now on! So, since then he has gone back to the canal a few times. The canal does not have any water in it. The kids jump down in the ravine and look for sink holes of mud. They dig in these little sink holes and pull up CrawDads! They took a bucket with them last week! They filled the bucket with water and loaded it up with approximately 30 crawdads!! They proudly carried there catch home with them!! For the first two days they would check on them and find worms to feed them. Then they lost interest...

A few days later we told Kasey that the crawdads were most likely dead! He refused to believe us....he said "No Mom...they are just hibernating!!" Jeff and I laughed and just let him believe that. After about two more days the water in the bucket was frozen solid!! I said "ok dude their DEAD!!" He said "No Mom...they are just hibernating!!"

So We dumped the bucket over....this is what dropped out...

Hmmm....Hibernating?

Hmmm...Sure don't think so!

Needless to say...he lost the battle. The resting place for these wonderful creatures is somewhere in the landfill!!

Oh the Funny things kids say!

Over the years we have heard some pretty hilarious things come out of our kids mouths. This last week they have just been on a roll. I happened to store a couple in my phone until I had a chance to post again.

So we were driving down Bangerter the other night and out of no where...

Kasey: Mom, I think we are all turning into Mammals!!

Me: (Laughing) As opposed to?

Kasey: Well, aren't we reptiles? It seems lately we are awake at night.

Jeff: Pal We are Mammals!! I think you are thinking of the word Nocturnal!

Too Funny!

So this next one might have even been the next day...but I know it was sometime this week.

Kasey: What is a Sardine?

Kylie: It's a type of fish that lives in a can!!

Jeff and I were laughing hysterically!!! It seems we need to have a lesson of the Animal Kingdom in our household!! I just love my kids!!!

We LOVE Firemen!!!

This story actually proves that we live in such a small world!! Each person that we come in contact with, will at some point play a role in our lives.

Case and point: Some 25 years ago I made friends with a little boy and girl that lived about a block away from us. I won't say by accident, but the circumstances not an everyday occurance. When I was 6 years old there was a neighbor that had gone out of town. That neighbor had asked me to keep an eye on their dog While they were gone. I don't recall the type of dog...only that it was alot bigger than me. Well, the dog managed to get through the fence one day that I went over there. So I chased the dog down the street. The dog went to a duplex about a block away and there was a little girl outside in her front yard. Gabrielle lived across the street from Scott and Leslie. They were brother and sister..Scott was 4 and Leslie was 2. We all played together pretty much everyday..Best of friends!! See, back then playing outside was the Norm! When I was 11 years old my family moved away. I still talked to all of them once in a while until eventually the phone calls and visits ceased. Then when I was 17 years old I really wanted to find Scott and Leslie! So I called every single number in the phone book with their last name...which
is a common one! Eventually I found them and we talked on the phone for a very long time!

Then I tried to find their house...at 17 I sure didn't know my way around the valley. I never did find there house..and again we went without talking. Then when I was 21 I went on the search again!! I found them!! We talked on the phone and we even set Leslie up on a date with Jeff's brother Brad!! I don't recall what we ended up doing on that date...I only remember we were supposed to go to a Baseball game..but it was rained out. Leslie and I talked off and on and when Kasey was maybe a year old we went to visit her whole family!! Leslie and I continued to keep in touch once in a while. After a couple years went by I found her again...this time little Leslie was Married and about to have her first baby!! So we got back in touch and every month for about a year I would go visit her!! Then it was back to our busy lives and we lost touch.....Fast Forward...

Some of you may recall last year when Kennadie had a Grand Mal seizure in her sleep and had to be revived by paramedics....fast forward again....A couple months ago when Kylie broke her arm she was transported by ambulance to the hospital.


Well, a couple weeks ago I found Leslie on Facebook!! YEAH!!! As it turns out Scott is a Paramedic....IN WEST VALLEY!!! So Leslie got me in touch with Scott..SO AWESOME!! Although Scott himself was not one of the paramedics to respond to either of my girls...we thought it was AWESOME that he is part of the department that did!!


As a Thank You for all of their service in the community, we decided to do a service project for them!! We took them dinner last Thursday night!!! The kids had an absolute BLAST!! While we were there Scott let them play Fooz Ball, slide down the fire pole, get in the ambulance and put on The special Fire Clothes!!! Then he had the dispatcher sound the alarm and welcome the kids to the Fire Station!! It was a SPECTACULAR experience!! The kids wrote the firemen special Thank You Notes!! Thank You So Much Scott and all of the West Valley City Fire Department!!!


Enjoy the pictures....


Kylie, britton and Kennadie in the Fire Truck!!


Kasey, Kennadie and Kylie, Dressed for the occasion!





Kennadie, Kylie, Scott and Kasey!

This Experience has proved to me that I need to make a special place in my heart for every person I come in contact with!! That 4 year old boy that I met 25 years ago was part of a team that saved one of my children's lives and comforted another when she was in pain! So amazing to me!!

No more cast!!

So, for some this is old news...Kylie finally got her cast off!! It was a great day for us! Perhaps an even better day for her. She hasn't been able to shower alone for two months! She spent alot of time scrubbing the dead skin from her super hairy arm! Overall, very good day! Her Greek play is on December 16th and she is SO excited for it! Thanks to Grandma Clark she has the best costume of all the kids! She is very proud to be a star in a play! We had a Spectacular Thanksgiving!! I only had to work 6 hours on Thanksgiving...UGH! At least it saved me on my Labor Budget!! I am still in my store...but training for my new position on the side. I spent an entire day in the eastern part of Utah a couple weeks ago. In one day we went to Ephraim, Price, Castledale, Huntington and Mt. Pleasant. It was a very long day..but I surely enjoyed it! I was asked to go to Price next week for two days but I turned it down. I am what some call paranoid! It is a few weeks before Christmas and I am afraid of getting in an accident going through that canyon! I know once I am fully in that position I won't be able to pick and choose my road trips but for now I am going to just avoid the possibility of an accident.

Jeff had his first day of training for his new job...just a tour of the airport! Saturday he will tour Park City and then Tuesday he will actually start driving! He will be using a company vehicle for his job...and he gets to bring it home!! Once I start my new position I too will have a company vehicle...Awesome..Yet I will still have my car payment! UGH! He is excited to get back to work full time! He has been an awesome help to me in my store and we will miss his help!! I believe that is about the sum of my update...Take care!!

40 Years!

This last weekend My sisters and I...and our spouses; took our parents out for their 40th Wedding Anniversary. Our Cousin works for Grand America Hotel and we were able to get a sweet deal on a very nice room for them! We all met at Tepanyaki where for the first time in YEARS we enjoyed an awesome dinner together!! It was way cool to sit around the table and talk about our childhood memories and reflect on the awesome relationships we have! Mom and Dad said their room was the size of the upstairs of their house...and was a spectacular view!! They related this whole experience as if they were in a movie titled "Ma and Pa Kettle go to New York". We were all so happy that we could pull off this awesome outing!!

I can honestly say that I have the best family in the WORLD!!! My parents mean the world to me and I could not get through life without them being part of it!! I Love You Mommy and Daddy!! Congrats on 40 years!! Only 40 more to go....hehe.

Mommy and Daddy

Andria and Shane

Mike and Stacy

Me and Jeff

In other news....

Last week Kylie tried out for a part in the school play. She had rehearsed and rehearsed the part...as if she already had it!! She was SO anxious to go back to school on Monday to see if she got it....Naturally...SHE DID!!! She will be playing the part of Cersi in a play about Ancient Greece!! We are so proud of her!!! Also, she has been working very hard to keep her grades up so that she can start dancing again. On Monday when we checked her grades....nothing below a B-!!! Way To Go Kylie!!!! She is making so many awesome improvements!! We Love Her!!!

On a more somber note...

Good Ole' Doc is not doing so good anymore. We had to take him into the vet yesterday because he has been declining very fast. The Vet was very understanding to our desires to keep him around as long as possible. They put him on some pain meds to keep him comfortable as he continues to decline. One thing that we learned was that one sign that a dogs Heart is in failure is if they continually hack. Well, as you all know....that has been a Doc trait since the day we got him. Unfortunately it keeps getting worse. Now each time he hacks...we panic wondering if this is the real thing. We don't have much longer with him and we are coming to terms with that. It sure isn't easy though. I have started reading a book called "Marley and Me". It is about a guy and his dog!! I am hoping that it will help me cope with what is to come.

Jeff will start a new job on December 6th! It will last until after the Sundance Festival, he will be transporting people from the airport to Park City!! He is pretty excited and we are told it is actually pretty good money!! In the meantime he has been an awesome help to me at my store!!

I hope everyone is doing well and Healthy!!!

Happy Days for Kids!!

Despite Kennadie's concern that her birthday would ever come...it Did! She had a great day at school and came rushing in the door SOO excited to open her presents. While patiently waiting for us to wrap her presents, her and Kylie began a little squabble. Shortly after we heard the girls begin to argue with each other we heard a very loud squeal of pain come from Kenna. We hurried to go see what had happened...only to find Kylie out of sight and Kenna's finger black and blue!! Kylie had slammed the door on Kenna's finger and ran! Then the black and blue split open! It was nasty looking! My sister was nice enough to run some first aid supplies over to our house (as the kids had used all the bandaids). We cleaned it up and determined she would be ok without stitches....after all it is just a finger!! After she was doctored up WE were ready for presents and birthday cake. Unfortunately...she wasn't! She frowned through the whole process!

After she was done we made her put on the cutest hat and purse (Jeff picked it out) that we had found at the dollar store. She faked us a smile and this is what we got....

We love our little baby bug! She cheered up after a while and enjoyed the remainder of her birthday! For her birthday she wanted to decorate her own cake...with mommy and no one else! She did an awesome job with it! See the results..

Kasey has been given the thumbs up from the surgeon!! He said that he cannot play any sports or participate is any contact activities until at least the spring!! He looks great and is happy to have that behind him! It will probably take a while for the bruising around his eyes to go away but that we can handle that!!

Today was a special day for Kylie....and me quite frankly!! Her cast was downsized!!! It is now below her elbow! She was ecstatic when the doctor confirmed that they would be downsizing the cast! She can now wrap her arm in plastic and bathe herself!!!!

Happy kids make for Happy parents!!