Happy Birthday MAMA!

I have the best parents. If you don't know them, you need too. Seriously they are the best!

Today is my mom's birthday. She is 29. Younger than me even! Amazing huh? For my top ten here are a few of the things I love the most about her.

1. She is the calmest person I know. Even if things are stewing beneath the surface, you would never be able to tell. She is able to project that to others as well and make people comfortable.


2. She looks amazing for having 7 adult children and 18 grandchildren. Mary Kay works!


3. Our family is all very close and we spend a lot of time together. She is the glue that holds us all together and we love to be together. I have heard others (Ryan) say that it is unusual how much time we spend together, but I love it. (and so does he)


4. She genuinely cares about people. She has a way of making you feel like you are the most important person in a room full of people.


5. Her house will always be my home. And it is always clean and beautiful.
6. She has become one of my favorite people in my adult life. I can't say the same for when I was a teenager, but we all know I was dumb.
7. My children absolutely LOVE her and want to be around her. It is great to watch their faces light up, even when we mention Maga.
8. My husband Loves her. The scary Mother-in-law stories do not apply to our world.
9. She loves to make things better. Her attitude is always one of "how can we improve upon what we have?" She is a great example of finding the good in any situation.
10. She is super supportive. Whenever she can, she is in attendance at kids special events. Dance recitals, preschool graduations, etc. She is there, even if Dad can't make it she comes alone.
11. I want to be just like her when I grow up. I have a long way to go, but I am trying and I have a great resource to look to everyday.

I LOVE YOU MOM! You are my favorite person.

The Rest of the Story...

About 3 1/2 years ago Ryan was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. He was put on a pill that he was told to take twice a day. They also said he needed to lose weight and sent him on his way.

We move to Idaho Falls and he finds a new doctor. Same spiel. Lose weight. Keep taking the pills. So he does.

Fast Forward to 2 weeks ago. He is now 100 lbs lighter and still faithfully taking his medication twice a day. Then he catches some stomach flu/virus that is going around. Pretty normal. He seems to catch almost everything that he is exposed to at school. (the nurse said he works in a Petra dish) Only this seemed to make him lots sicker than normal. He woke up in the middle of the night complaining of stomach pains.

I thought I had given him food poisoning.

What? It could happen.

Sparing the details, he came home from school after his first 2 classes on Tuesday because the "smells" were making him nauseous. By about 4 am Wednesday morning I knew there was something seriously wrong with him. I waited until it was obvious people had to be up getting kids ready for school and called our friend the ER doctor. His assessment was that is sounded like a virus and he was having a blood sugar issue. Better bring him in.

So off to the Emergency Room we go. Stopping by to win a car wash from our favorite local radio station on the way. When we arrived, he answered yes to so many questions that he was asked to wear a mask in the waiting room. Awesome.

When they took his blood sugar level, it would not register on the machine. They max out at 600. Normal is 80-120. They gave him an insulin shot and started him on an IV for his dehydration. So we spent the day in the ER trying to make him better. Well he spent the day. I had to leave several times to take care of the children and their back and forth to school and so forth.

After the majority of the day and 4 liters of saline he was cleared to go home but with strict instructions to stop and see his doctor on the way home, where he was given his very own insulin pen to give himself daily shots.

As I spoke to our friend the ER doctor, he impressed upon me the gravity of the situation. Ry's blood sugar was at 640 and he was lucky to not be in a coma right now. Even a few more hours and he would have gone into a diabetic coma for who knows how long.

So now he is on insulin everyday. Possibly for the rest of his life. He can get healthy though and go off of it over time. For now though he is dependent upon it. He may even get to wear a pump.

I know I joke about him trying to die, but it is true. They figure his blood sugar was in the 400 range for a month or two and when he got the virus it was the straw that broke the camels back, so to speak. He is doing well now. He takes his blood sugar every day and it is down below 200.

I took mine one day when he was not around.

I admit I was nervous.

I am fine.

103.

Hey Guess What?

I am still alive and I did survive last week. Just let me get through to the weekend and there will be updates...including details on our trip to the ER when Ryan tried to die.

Yes you did read that right.

Stay tuned!

Crazy Busy Life

I have been neglecting the blog as of late and I apologize. I know it is no excuse, but it is the end of the school year and May seems to be jam packed with those kinds of events. Not to mention putting in our garden, spring cleaning, and just busy mom of 4 kids life. Oh and Clark is now cutting teeth! He got his first one on Thursday and I am pretty sure #2 is not far behind with the attitude he has been pulling these last couple of days.

Ally and Emma have a Dance Recital on Friday May 15th at 7:00pm at Hillcrest High School if anyone is interested. It is free so you don't even have to pay to watch them. Trust me when I say it is going to be a fun night though. The girls have practiced hard and the older classes are kicking butt in competitions this year. Well worth your time to come and watch.

Here is my TO DO list for this lovely 10-4 Tuesday morning.

1- Purchase end of year gifts for teachers. Both dance and school. Decide what those gifts should be. Any thoughts?

2- Help in Emma's Kindergarten class. I have missed the last 2 weeks and am starting to feel guilty about it.

3- Figure out how to juggle going to preschool graduation and Kindergarten graduation on the same night.

4- Write script for the MC for the dance recital. Who by the way is my hubby! Which means no matter what I write he will probably change it anyway.

5- Make scrap book pages to send to cousin Mandy for my Grandmas gift to present to her at family reunion on Memorial Day. Need to have them mailed yesterday and I have not even started on them.

6- Print pictures on jump drive for Grandmas scrap book pages. (Note to self--drive is in pocket. Don't wash it)

7- Mail Mothers Day Cards from kids to Grandmas. Make Mothers Day cards first. Buy stamps. And envelopes.

8- Meeting for new calling tomorrow. Not official yet so no more details. More on that later!

9- Go to the temple before Sunday. Find a babysitter. Figure out when we might have time to actually do that. Pump a bottle for Clark. Teach him how to take a bottle.

10- Use our free tickets to Star Trek ( I got them for buying groceries! I know!) Find a babysitter. Find a free night. (see #9)

11- (FOR RYAN) The Yearbooks are scheduled to ship tomorrow. That means he will be getting them and distributing them next week! Fun for him but lots of work too. I put this in because it means I will see less of him next week than usual.

This by the way is just THIS WEEK! Don't even get me started on next week. I am not even sure where to begin.

So sorry I am not paying much attention to you. I wish I could. I wish I had a few hours to sit and use the computer. I don't. I miss my lazy winter days.

8 Months Old

Here is the little baby and his birthday. (The pic is right but a few days late on the post!)

He turned 8 months on May 1.

Milestones include but are not limited too:

Blowing raspberries on my arm, especially when he is hungry.

2 bottom teeth that have been teasing us for several weeks now--almost ready to pop through.

Sitting and "falling" forward into a crawling position, getting super frustrated when he cannot move and then fake crying on his tummy until someone flips him over.

Sitting at the table during meal time. Eating lots of new foods and wanting to try everything we

are eating. Mastering that pincer grasp to get a hold of said objects.

Screaming more: both delighted squeals and when he wants attention.

WE LOVE OUR CLARKY. So happy to have him be our caboose!

The door is ajar

Here it is.  Another peak into my "nerd closet."  

Today is official Star Wars day.  

May the 4th be with you.  

And now it's closed again.

Criminal Justice

Hey. This is Ryan. We were getting ready for Lisha's new Relief Society president to drop by yesterday -- you know, the usual: vacuum, tidy up the living room, shut the doors to every other room in the house -- when I glanced over and saw a crime being committed.

The crime:


The weapon:


The perpetrator:


The hardest thing was to control my anger. We do not have the $250 to fix the van. We know it's $250 to fix because our insurance, of course, won't cover it. We've scraped enough up to fix it, but it's gonna take some finagling. All of this was put into rage against Luke, but I put him in his room before I did anything too drastic. He was scared. I went in there and asked the normal Dad things like, "What were you thinking?" and "Why did you do this?" He couldn't answer because of his heaving sobs. Finally, I told him he was grounded from video games and computer for a month. This is probably the most effective thing that will cripple this kid.

Also, he has to pay for as much of the window as possible. Lisha is taking him to the shop tomorrow with his piggy bank (he's saved about $20) and he's telling the repairman what he did and hope he accepts his money. He also has to say he's sorry for making the repairman fix the window. Last thing, the money we would have spent on his birthday presents and Christmas presents will now go toward the window.

As for the money, basically our prayers for help were answered the minute Lisha hung up with the phone with the insurance company. The phone rang almost instantly with someone offering to help. We are truly blessed.

I hope he's learned his lesson. We've certainly learned ours: Chain your kids to the tree in the yard with a leash long enough to form a three-foot diameter.