Emergency Room

Most of you have heard about our fun adventure a week and a half ago, but I still need to get it recorded. Lark had come home from work pretty late, so the girls were fairly wound up. They were supposed to be getting ready for bed, but when they get like that I find it better to just go in my room and shut the door -- and let Lark deal with their noise! I guess Lark had done the same thing, though, because she was locked up in her room when Chloe decided to go get her pajamas on. The girls had moved my ottoman over by the stairs so they could do burpees after getting pj's on, and Chloe was trying to jump over the ottoman to get into her room. She didn't make it and fell on her wrist (bending it backward), and somehow smacked her feet on the stairs. They got a little bruised up. I wasn't sure if she had broken anything, but when her arm started swelling up really fast, and then she started running a fever we thought we better take her in. It was almost 8:30, so we took her to urgent care. They x-rayed her and confirmed it was broke, and then sent us over to the ER to get it set.

That was mostly just sitting around, waiting for all the experts to come in and give their opinions. One physician thought they might be able to do a hematoma block, which is a local anesthesia and would avoid having to put her to sleep, but when the orthopedic surgeon came he realized she had bent the wrist the less common direction so it probably wouldn't work on her. Finally at midnight she got an IV, they knocked her out, and took about 2 seconds to reset it. Then she got all bandaged up. We made it home a little after 2 AM.

The doctors were all very funny. They may not teach them much about nutrition in med school, but they apparently have some comedy classes. They teased Chloe about all the secrets they were going to get out of her while she was under the medication, but unbeknownst to them she was just typical Chloe (when she's not being shy). All the crazy things she said were 100% her.

Before she medicated, she was just hooked up to a machine monitoring her vitals. I made a comment to Brandon about maybe having to take the next day off work, if he wasn't able to get any sleep that night. Then I just made the observation that it would be his first day he'd taken off. Chloe looked confused, so he explained "the first day -- at his new job." The thought of Brandon having a new job was enough to send her into cardiac arrest (well, not quite), but her heart rate spiked from 80 to 120 in just a couple seconds. We had to calm her down and let her know he doesn't have a new job, it's the same one he's had for a couple months.

The doctor who had teased her about asking questions about boys while she was medicated, came back in to check on her after she was waking up. He said to her, "So, Chloe, who's this John guy you were talking about? Is he a boy at your school?" He obviously didn't know she is homeschooled. Chloe didn't skip a beat though, she just replied, "John Green?" If you aren't familiar with him, he's the guy who makes the Crash Course videos on YouTube that we use occasionally for history.

She was sent home with a temporary cast on, and told to be very careful and come back in a week. If the bone had moved at all they were going to have to do surgery and put pins in it. Scary! But when we went back on Thursday, they x-rayed it again and found that it had not moved. The doctor confessed that he was really surprised about that. He hadn't expected it to stay put. But then he said he didn't want to mess with it if it was doing OK on its own, so we have to go back again this week to see about getting it casted.

All Clean

I recently added "activity days" to my list of callings -- we plan activities for 8-11 year old girls twice a month. The first activity of the month we all meet together, but the second one we break off into two groups. I get to do the younger girls, which is good because a few of those older girls were LOUD. I am also the girls camp assistant leader for this year, and the leader is also one of the other activity day leaders. I hope she doesn't get sick of me. We are trying to do some "beach" theme, to go along with the yearly theme of "Embarking in the service of God" -- and we're not getting condos (drats!), so if you have any ideas of beachy things we can do pass them along!

Charity Lighten is our stake young women's president, and she runs a website with lots of good recipes. She was doing a giveaway on instagram one day for a 3-day juice cleanse, which I happened to win. I wanted to do it right at the start of the new year, but the owners of the place were opening up a new store, and I kind of got lost in the shuffle. But I finally got my prize:

For three days I drank those 18 bottles of juice -- and nothing else. It was awesome! I think I could do that everyday. The best part was just knowing that I didn't put a single bad thing in my body. It's been a little bit of a challenge, but doing the cleanse has helped me to avoid sugar and cheese (my biggest downfall) since.

The Stephens invited us to go out to dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe with them, and then go see Woods Cross High perform "Mary Poppins." It was such a fun night, and the girls got to spend it with their friends. But the best part is they are also vegetarians, but Kellie is lucky enough to have a disdain for cheese. She's not vegan, just never liked cheese. She fits in the same category as my brothers who don't like chocolate. So, we go to this pizza place and I always have to put in a special order for a veggie pizza, then it dawned on me that Kellie would have to order one without cheese. So I asked her if that's what she got, thinking I might be able to snag a piece. Her husband actually had the last piece, but he was generous to let me have it. And I am so thankful he did, because it was delicious! And now I knew I could possibly give up cheese. This was the Saturday right before I started my cleanse. So, during my cleanse I was able to think about all the things I could still have, but just leave the cheese off. And that's what I have done. I've had a grilled cheese sandwich - with no cheese, and I found a vegan lasagna recipe that wasn't too bad. I still don't want to give up my eggplant lasagna, but we'll see if I can't tweak that one as well.

On the last day of my cleanse we got to take Sophie to an Oakcrest Camp Kickoff. It's a special girls camp for 7th graders only. Chloe chose not to go last year, but Sophie is much more social and really excited about it. We went and got her signed up for it, and our YW stake president just happened to be there, so I went and told her how great the cleanse was going. She suggested to me that I save the bottles (which I had), and then just copy the ingredients list to make my own at home. I thought that was smart, so I still have those 18 bottles laying around. I may have to make this a regular thing.

I had signed Sophie and I up to go see "Swan Lake" at the Capitol Theater, but I did a terrible job of planning. I kept ending up on streets that were one-way when I needed to turn the other way. It took me way longer to get there than I had planned, so we missed it. I felt bad, but Sophie seemed OK about it. But then when we got home she let Brandon know how upset she was. Then a few days later someone had tickets to "The Crucible" at Pioneer Theater -- just happened to be 3 of them -- so I took both girls to go see that. I planned way ahead, and even though parking at the U is a giant pain, we were still able to get there in plenty of time. And that play was soooo good. I loved the play when we read it in my 11th grade english class, but this was much more real. If I had to choose between "The Crucible" and "Swan Lake" I'm so glad I got to see "The Crucible!"

We squoze in another trip to Salt Lake to go to RootsTech. Last year just Chloe and I went, but this year Sophie accompanied us. They obviously don't love family history as much as I do, but when they put Studio C and David Archuleta on the program my girls are happy to come long. We didn't get to meet Studio C or David, because they cut the line off before we got there, so the only picture I got was outside the Salt Palace.

Lark moved in with us for a while. I guess California isn't as awesome as we are, so she came running back to us. The girls are in heaven having her stay with us while she looks for a place of her own. I think it will be hard for them when she moves out, but at least she'll live closer to us than she ever has before.

Last Saturday we got the privilege of cleaning the church again. It was a rare Saturday when we didn't have much to do, so Brandon decided we should have another family party. Chloe actually was in charge this time, but she wanted to do something not in line with our expectations for a family party, so she wasn't that excited. She still came up with an activity, but I did the treat.

Today was free day at the zoo. I thought we would venture out. We've been so spoiled with our weather this winter, and even though today was over 50° it wasn't that nice out. We didn't stay a real long time, but we got to see some elephants, lions, sea lions, a couple monkeys, polar bear, grizzly bears, a maybe a few others.

Indiana

Evan turned 8, which was a great excuse for us to take a road trip. We had planned to drive, but then Dallas found us a great deal on plane tickets. I was trying to coordinate with my dad before I booked them, but then at the last minute Chloe asked if we could drive. Sophie was all for driving, because even though she hates being in the car, and even though it was a great deal, driving was still cheaper -- and Sophie is about the cheapest person I know (and there are a lot of cheap people in my family!) I was all up for a road trip, I don't mind driving, and it would give us a little more to do.

So, we hit the road. We took three days getting there, stopping in Cheyenne the first night. We got to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa, and play with the cousins. We didn't do much of anything but drive and stop for gas and food on the second day. Chloe saw a pioneer museum she wanted to check out, but we decided to do it on the way home so we could get to the hotel with plenty of time to swim and relax. It was perfect -- I soaked in the hottub while the girls swam. The third day was our longest drive, but we still made a couple extra stops to make the trip worthwhile.

First we stopped to see the Walter Cronkite Memorial at Missouri Western State University. The girls are freezing outside in this photo, but inside there was a very nice display. Sophie asked me if someone would make a memorial like that for her when she died. I told her if she did something awesome, to which she replied, "I already am awesome!" No shortage of self-esteem there.

Our next stop wasn't much farther down the road, in Marceline, Missouri we saw a sign to visit Walt Disney's birthplace. We tried to go visit it, but the signs out on the highway failed to inform us that they are only open from April to October. We still bothered to get out of the car to take a photo.

We got to Indiana late Wednesday night (the 14th). On Thursday we hung out with Jessica, her mom and sister -- who also came for the occasion, and Daphne while the other kids went to school and Dallas went to work. He came home a little early, though, to take me to Chicago. I've wanted to go there since I was a kid, but then my interest kind of waned as I've discovered I don't like big cities as much as I used to. I still wanted to check it out, and this was a great opportunity. We went to the temple, then had a late dinner before my parents flight came in at 11:00 PM. Dallas had gotten us a hotel so we wouldn't have to drive back to Indiana so late. Meanwhile, the girls got to babysit their cousins so Jessica could go play volleyball.

Saturday was Evan's birthday. We had cornmeal pancakes for breakfast, followed by some gift opening. Later that afternoon, we celebrated by going to a moon exhibit they were having at Purdue. I helped Sophie fill out her quiz sheet, it was a little difficult, so she could get a prize (a pencil and an astronaut charm). Then we got to go bowling! I have lost my skill I once had, but it's still fun. Afterwards we went to dinner at a place called Literatos. It was so delicious, they seriously need to open up a few more. I had a sandwich with eggplant, zucchini and beets! It was to die for. Evan made a very good choice. Then we went home for a Mary Lou's Donut "cake."

Sunday was the BIG day, Evan got baptized! They were going to do it on Saturday, but then decided to make his birthday and baptism two separate celebrations, so Sunday it was. I was asked to play the piano for it. His two grandmas gave the talks. He had a super good turnout. I think he felt loved.

Monday was kind of a lazy day. Jessica babysits some kids, so they were there for a bit, but mostly we just sat around. When it was time for dinner they asked where we wanted to go. Can you guess what I said? I don't have any problem eating at the same place more than once a week, so back to Literatos it was. Come on, it's not like I'll get it again anytime in the foreseeable future. This time I had the fig & pear pizza. And then FHE treat was Red Mango :)

Tuesday we headed to Indianapolis. I've been there a few times in my life, but this is the first time we stopped at the Motor Speedway. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures on this trip, but I definitely took more than I needed to here. Everyone wanted a turn posing in the racecar.

Afterwards we got to go check out their new temple being built. They officially announced the date for the dedication (Aug 23) just the Sunday before, so it's coming along. It will be nice for them to have, and not have to travel to Chicago. Then we had lunch at Panera -- I was able to squeeze in 3 meals there on this trip, so that made up for Albuquerque. I think Dallas likes it there as much as I do. I ordered their new broth bowl, with quinoa, lentils, brown rice, tomatoes, kale and spinach. So much good food all stirred together!

Wednesday morning we left Indiana. My parents flew out later that day, but we had to hit the road early. I was trying to leave plenty of time to stop and do things along the way. There are several family history spots I would have loved to spend some time at, but I didn't have that much time to go dig through libraries, and it was a bit cold to wander through cemeteries so the only stop we made was at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. We spent a little over two hours there, and that was good. There are several more sites to see, but that was not the purpose of this trip, so maybe some other time.

We spent that night in St. Joseph, Missouri so we had an extra long drive to Cheyenne the next day. The Kangs were gracious enough to host us one more time, but I was so dead tired by the time we got there that I don't think I was a very gracious guest. I just wanted some sleep! I did just fine while driving, but once I stopped it really caught up with me (plus we just "gained" another hour crossing into mountain time zone at the Wyoming border) so all I could do was yawn. Then Friday we made it home -- shortly before Brandon did. I was hoping to get everything put away, some shopping done, and have dinner for him, but just putting things away wore me out. Luckily, he didn't eat much while we were gone, so there was still enough food for us to have some dinner.

Brandon started a new job the day we left, so he was able to use all that extra time to spend learning his new stuff. He's enjoying his work (which there is plenty of!), and he's become a new man. No more business casual clothes, no more clean shaven face. We'll see how long that lasts, but for now he is having fun with his new freedoms.

Oh, and if you don't follow Chloe's blog, you should. She has way more fun pictures than I do.

Christmas and New Years: 2015

I like to spend Christmas at home -- and apparently I get my way. My girls asked if we could go to "grandma's" for Christmas, and I said "we always go there." And then I thought about it, and realized that we hadn't been for a really long time. So, we decided we could make the trek this year. There's usually a houseful around the holidays, but everyone went for Thanksgiving this year, so Chloe & Sophie had Grandma to themselves -- just the way they like it. Brandon took the whole week off, so we were spoiled having so much time with him. It was a really nice time.

We went up to Afton on Tuesday, getting there just after they had returned from a full day in Idaho Falls. On Wednesday we went and visited my grandma who is now living in a nursing home there in Star Valley. We took her a gift from Libbie, and spent pretty much the whole time helping her try the different outfits on. Wednesday evening we held a little Christmas Eve program. The girls had prepared some talents to share.

Chloe played "Joy to the World" on the piano.

Sophie brought her harmonica and played two songs: "Silent Night," and "Home on the Range" -- a special song she picked out just for her grandpa. I spontaneously decided to participate, and played a little "Christmas is Coming."

Grandma read a story that had little nativity pieces to go along with it, and then Grandpa read the Christmas story out of Luke.

Pajama tradition continued -- they always get a new pair of pajamas to open on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning we made the kids wait until after breakfast, everyone was dressed, and my dad went and got Grandma to spend Christmas with us, to open presents. But... we did let Chloe open one special gift. She had bought her GoPro camera a month ago, but didn't have quite enough money left over to get any memory for it, so it was kind of useless. Luckily, Aunt Nicole came through, and her parents were smart enough to guess that is what was in that package, so we had her open it first thing that morning. She was all excited, but once she got the memory in she realized the battery was low! Poor girl. She was able to hurry and get it charged before we were ready to open gifts.

Opening gifts -- Chloe is about to open her quilt Grandma made her for her new room. And can you see her pillows she got on the couch? She's gonna have a whole new bed!

Sophie got bears and owls, what more could she ask for? Oh, and lots of books! That's her carved bear that my mom got her in Albuquerque, and the stuffed bear I got for her at the fort in Bluff. She fell in love with him, and I thought I could sneak him as a gift to put a smile on her face. She named him Oliver, for me :)

Chloe with her new bedding, and lots of hair stuff! Plus, showing off her GoPro.

My dad wanted to take us sledding while there, but I think we let him down. The girls just weren't into it, and I hadn't come prepared for that. They were happy to just go out and sled on grandma's "hill" she made.

My parents got a new fridge for Christmas. I got a really bad photo of it -- but I'm including it here because my mom had asked for one. Sorry, this is the best I could do in that tight space!

We got a ton of board games for Christmas, and I believe we played all of them while still in Afton. Good thing we love to play games together.

For New Year's Eve we continued our tradition of going to the EVE celebration on Temple Square. This year we invited the Stephen's, which makes it so fun. We got there a little early because Chloe wanted to have time to take some pictures of the lights before it got dark -- but turns out it was a little too bright to capture the pretty lights. We still had fun walking around for a bit before the night began.

Here we are in the tabernacle, all spread out, to save a seat for when our friends got there. We sang our hearts out at the Broadway show tunes sing-along. It's my favorite event of the whole year. Chloe was actually the very first person to get the microphone, but of course she bombed. She wouldn't sing a thing! Luckily I got a turn, but it was on "If I Were a Rich Man" -- not exactly the best song for me to sing, but at least I tried!

Afterwards we got a semigroup shot.

And then Kellie took one with me in it :)

Then it got dark enough to shoot the pretty lights!

We went over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to participate in the FamilySearch activities they usually have, but they decided to cancel them this year. I'm not sure why, but it was a disappointment :( We weren't ready to go eat dinner because we were still waiting for the Stephen's dad to get off work and join us, so we decided to just go up to the top floor and look out at the awesome view. I could not manage to get an awesome shot of it, but here's something for the record books.

The girls just had fun hanging out with their friends, and Brandon, Kellie and I got to visit.

We spent some time in the South Visitor's Center before going to another Broadway show -- this time it was just the representatives from Hale Centre Theatre performing some songs from the upcoming season. Even though I didn't get to sing along, it was still fun to listen to them and get excited about the plays that are coming!

Then Quentin was able to join us, and we went and ate dinner at the Nauvoo Cafe. But during dinner we could tell Kiera wasn't feeling the best. We are a bunch of indecisive people -- but finally came to a decision that we should just go to their house and play some games. Vocal Point was the closing act for the evening, so that's really all we missed out on. They had canceled the firework show due to poor air quality. At least they were being responsible! So, off to Centerville it was! We had a ton of fun playing Telestrations and eating snacks, and then we turned on the TV to countdown to the new year and made toasts with sparkling white grape juice.

On Thursday we celebrated our new year and last day of having Brandon around (until the next holiday) by going to see "The Tree of Life" in Draper. And then we stopped for Jamba Juice on the way home. It was way too cold for me, so I passed, but I believe we rang in the new year on a very happy note.