The Joy of Hospitals

Brittany and Levi packed their things to head home. Levi wasn't feeling well and was a little anxious to get home. When he only ate a small breakfast I knew something wasn't right. I joked about how nice our ER is as they loaded their things.

They were almost to Cheyenne when Brit called and asked me to help her find the hospital there. Levi's pain had gotten worse and he was now throwing up. Because of his prior experience, he knew the pain was his appendix. 

The ER doctor was confused as to why there had been no surgery before when Levi's appendix ruptured just over a year ago. (We all had wondered the same.) There was just enough of the appendix left that it had become infected again. They instantly prepped him for surgery.

I am so thankful that they were still close enough for us to help them. And I am SO thankful for good friends who were willing to take Morgan and Zane for the afternoon so Scott and I could make a quick trip to Cheyenne. We got there just as they were bringing Levi out of surgery.

I'm also thankful for good missionaries. We had a young man serving in our ward here who was transferred to Cheyenne a few weeks ago. We tracked him down and him and his companion were able to come help give Levi a blessing. 

A quick trip to Nebraska has turned into an extended stay in Wyoming. We are all praying for a speedy recovery so they can return home. Hopefully we are done with hospital visits for a while.

The JOY of Family

We are SO thankful Brittany and Levi were able to come spend the weekend with us! They got here late Saturday night and were able to go to church with us on Sunday. 

 Brit helped me figure out the timer on my camera.

 The girls had fun eating Starbursts and baking cookies.

 Lots of hugs and snuggles!

 And lots of fun!

 My MOST favorite people!

 We even had time for a little coon hunt.

(The raccoon herd needs thinning!)

 We let the boys do the dirty work. (Actually, they told us we were too loud and made us stay back on the road.)

 We watched through the binoculars. 

 We took pictures.

 And we enjoyed the beautiful sunset over the pond.

 The mighty hunters were successful! (We won't talk about the rabbits or the ground squirrels.)

 And then the kids took turns shooting.

Zane needed a little help holding the gun with only one arm. He bragged to Brit that he hit the fence post and she missed. 

It is always so wonderful to be together as a family!

The courage to try!

Sometimes, the Lord asks us to do things that we think are hard. Maybe we even complain a little. Maybe we stomp our feet and insist it is too hard. Maybe it takes us a little while to get up the courage to trust that the Lord does know what's best. 

Zane has not let his broken RIGHT arm slow him down. Sunday morning he was up at 7am getting himself dressed. He needed help with the buttons on his shirt but he did the rest by himself. He fed himself with his left hand. He even brushed his teeth with his left hand.

Being the mom, I kept asking if I could help him. "Let me do that for you," I would say. But he insisted that he could do it. If he needed help he would ask.

In Relief Society we talked about receiving inspiration and revelation from the Lord. That's when I began to think about the example that Zane has been for me. He just accepts what ever comes and does what he can do. If he needs help he asks but he has the courage to try to do it himself.

I want to be more like that. When the Lord gives me a trial, I want to have the courage to try and then ask for the help I need. When inspiration comes I want to have the courage to just do it!

Spiderman Doesn't Fly

The kids had played outside all day on Saturday. They were so excited about the new horse trailer! It was time to start dinner so I had them come in and clean up and take a break. Zane put on his Spiderman costume while I turned on a movie for them. 

Dinner was almost done when I heard Zane crying. Morgan said she didn't know what happened because she was laying on her back and Zane was jumping over her and then he started crying. Zane said he jumped and caught himself on the couch and his wrist popped.

There was no sign of injury but I gave him an ice pack and told him to SIT STILL. I finished dinner and was putting it on the table as Scott walked in the door. He called the kids to the table and Zane wouldn't move. He was now laying on the couch. When I tried to get him to sit up he started crying again. I took the ice pack off and saw there was now a bulge on the side of his arm, just above his wrist. I new instantly it was broken.

Scott came over and looked at Zane's arm. He agreed with me. While I got another ice pack and grabbed my purse and keys, Scott got the costume off of Zane and his shorts back on. By the time we got Zane into the car he was shivering uncontrollably and about to pass out.

I quickly drove to the hospital where we sat and waited for the on-call doctor and x-ray tech to get there. (Holiday weekends are not the best time to go to the ER.) The nurse gave Zane a double dose of Motrin and we snuggled on the hospital bed while we waited.

Zane's favorite part of the hospital visit was the wheelchair ride to the x-ray room. The break, fortunately, was just above the wrist so he only needed a short cast. Unfortunately, we are still paying for his last ER visit. Just add it to my bill! Nurse Caswell was right, the broken collar bone at age 1 was only the beginning of our hospital visits.

We decided that Spiderman needs web to fly.

An Educational Journey

I've been planning our summer school adventures for a few months now. I have LISTS of things I want to do with the kids to keep them learning all summer long. The first lessons I've learned are you have to be flexible with the schedule and I, yes me, have to have patience. 

 I've got workbooks and a binder for each of the kids. My thought is at the end of the summer they will each have a portfolio of all the things we did over the summer. Maybe they will think it's super cool and want to do it again next summer. Maybe.

I've created a weekly planner to organize my lists of things to do. I created a daily worksheet to give Morgan some basic practice on the things she needs to work on most: time, money, calendar, and math facts. I also threw in a little writing corner where she will write about one thing she is thankful for each day. And I've printed off some worksheets from the internet. (Yay for Pinterest!)

Ready, set, go!

The kids have been SO anxious to start. The last day of school was Tuesday. I thought we would take the rest of the week off and hit it hard on Monday. Now, we have Brit and Levi coming to visit and we are going to spend a week in Utah. First lesson learned - be flexible with the schedule.

We sat down today to work on our first project and a page from their workbooks. Zane was struggling with writing a nine so I was going to hold his hand and help him. Suddenly he acted like he didn't know how to hold a pencil. We struggled. I got frustrated. Jokingly, in my frustration, I told him I was going to kick him out of my school if he didn't follow directions. I know. Not the best thing to say. Even in joking. It took several minutes of crying and apologizing for us to be friends again. He finally forgave me and I promised never to kick him out of school. (Man I need to learn to play nice!) Second lesson learned - be patient.

This is going to be a challenge but hopefully it will be fun too, for us all. 

We are off on an educational journey!

Oh the places you'll go!

These last few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for Zane and I. Last week we were driving in to town for story time at the library and Zane reminded me it was the last one because the summer reading program would be starting. Then I realized it was his last one ever because he would be at school in the fall. 

After I made that announcement he got real quiet. I looked back and saw tears in his eyes and he softly said he was really going to miss seeing Miss Nightingale. Then we both cried. Miss Nightingale got an extra big hug that day.

Monday was Zane's last day of preschool. After being with this group of kids for two years they've become very good friends. I hope at least one of them is in his kindergarten class with him. 

Today is our last mommy & me day since it's Morgan's last day of school. Zane is okay with that because he loves having her home. Something about, she is more fun to play cars with. Humm...

But along with all the "lasts" there are lots of "firsts" coming. I'm excited to see my little boy take on new challenges, even though it's hard sometimes to let him go. He has a whole new adventure ahead of him!

One of Zane's firsts is playing T-ball. (He is SO glad he's on the same team as his friend Max.) He's having fun and tries so hard to do exactly what the coaches tell him. The coaches spend most of the practice telling the boys to stop digging in the dirt. I think Zane is the only one who has not been digging holes when he should be catching balls. (I guess that's the advantage of not having lawn. Dirt is nothing new to him.)

 He actually throws really good!

And all our balloon ball games in the living room have paid off. He just hasn't figured out what to do when he hits the ball. "Run, Zane! Run like your pants are on fire!"

The beginning of new adventures!

"KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS! ... Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So...get on your way!" ~ Dr. Suess

Buried Treasure

A friend gave me some squash plants. I'm still trying to decide what to do with my garden spot. It's a perfect little spot but we live with rabbits and snakes and mice and racoons and all manor of wildlife. I decided the only way to make it work would be to surround the picket fence with chicken wire to keep most of the critters out. Then we would need to cover it with chicken wire to keep the hail from destroying it. But how much time and money do I want to put into this garden spot?

I planted the squash in the flower bed. Someday we'll have a garden again. Probably not this summer.

Zane helped me dig out weeds and water the plants. I started washing off the steps that lead down to the driveway and noticed the cement went farther than I thought. Then I discovered a brick.

 We dug about 8 inches of dirt and found a cute little path leading from the driveway to the steps. We had to use the hose to loosen the hard, wind-blown dirt which made a bit of a muddy mess. Zane decided it was a swim trunk job. I hoped the sun would dry our sink hole before the bus brought Morgan home.

Zane thought we were digging for buried treasure and wanted to keep digging.

Creating JOY

 I found some time this month to be crafty.

 We made some goody bags for teacher
appreciation week.

I stitched a little reminder of
President Ucthdorf's talk.
Do you remember the 5 things we're not
supposed to forget?

"It is my prayer and blessing that you will never 
forget that you are truly precious daughters 
in God’s kingdom."

 And I made a little sign for our Relief Society table. It's exciting to see the shift in the focus of visiting teaching. It's also a little bit of a challenge to change the way we look at it. Visiting teaching is so much more than just checking in once a month.

Creating things with my hands always brings JOY.

Anyone want to come to a party?

Zane announced that he needed a large piece of paper, like the kind I use to build fires. I knew that meant he wanted a chunk off my roll of newsprint. I laid the piece of paper on the table and asked if it was big enough. He said it would do and hurried off for the bucket of markers.

I went back to what I was doing and listened as he talked to himself:

Hummm... I wonder how to draw a shirt. 

If I could make it look like a t-shirt that would work.

Maybe someone could help me do that part.

Finally, I asked if he would like some help. He said, "That would be great!" He asked me to draw a t-shirt as big as the paper. Then he handed me a pencil so I could erase my mistakes. "When you get it right then you can trace it with a marker."

Then he asked me to draw a spider web in each corner. Strange. He took my marker and made two spots on the shirt. I still had no idea what he was doing.

After cutting out the spider webs he asked for tape and a spot on the wall. We hung up his poster and that's when he asked, "Does anyone want to come to a party?"

 Zane made a pin-the-web-on-the-shirt party game!

The JOY of Soccer

Morgan loves soccer! Her favorite position is still defense. Watching her go after the ball reminds me of watching our dog go after a wayward calf. Her eyes are locked on to the ball and she kicks with such determination, and doesn't stop, until the ball is safely away from the goal. She blocked many potential goals this season!

 Warming up.

 A quick drink before the game begins.

 Go get it!

Her team worked a lot on passing. Sometimes they were busy passing and would forget to kick it in the goal. They had a great season and won most of their games. More importantly, they all had fun!

Joy in Motherhood

I had BIG plans for Mother's Day. Then the flu bug hit us and we spent the weekend enjoying quality family time sharing ONE bathroom. Not exactly what I had in mind. 

I took care of Morgan on Saturday and then she took care of me on Sunday. When Scott came home from work he assured me that I didn't need to play sick, he was going to cook and clean for me any way. I wish I was only pretending. UGH!

I did make a couple cards and even mailed one to my mom in time for her to get it by Mother's Day.

Scott brought home some daisies and chocolates on Saturday and the kids shared some homemade treats with me. I felt well enough by evening to talk to my mom and to Brittany.

It really was a peaceful, quiet day. I decided God allows us to be sick sometimes so we can take a break from all the busy-ness of life and just slow down enough to enjoy a moment.

We are led by an inspired prophet of God who has called upon the women of the Church to “stand strong and immovable for that which is correct and proper under the plan of the Lord.”  He has asked us to “begin in [our] own homes”  to teach children the ways of truth. ~ Julie B. Beck

Lost & Found

We made a quick trip to Walmart before preschool. I needed to get a few things for Morgan's teacher appreciation gift. At the end of the candy aisle, Zane started begging for a 10lb (okay maybe not, but it was BIG) bag of assorted candy. He even promised to share them with Morgan. My answer was still no.  I told him I had one more thing on my list and then we would pay. "Come this way," I said and turned to walk down the aisle.

Part way down, I turned to see if Zane was following. He was gone. I went back and look both directions. I looked on the nearby aisles. How could he just disappear in 15 seconds? After a few minutes, that felt like hours, retracing our steps I still could not find him.

I went to customer service and asked if she could help me find my son. She asked for his name and then announced it over the intercom. I looked at her puzzled and said, "He's five. He won't know what that means, if he even heard it." I tried to be nice but I think it came out kinda mean.

I stood there for a few seconds and watched some grungy looking truck drivers coming and going. Then panic started to set in. We were so close to the front door when he vanished. Someone could have taken him. Now it had been 8 minutes since I last saw him. I couldn't just stand there and hope he heard his name.

I started searching again. I looked under clothes racks and was about to start screaming his name. I saw another associate and asked for help again. This time she asked what he was wearing and called a Code Adam. THANK YOU!

It only took about 30 seconds and another associate had found him. I almost burst into tears when  she brought him to me with his tear stained cheeks. I hugged him tight! I thanked the ladies for their help and we went to pay.