Occupational Hazards of being a Domestic Engineer

I just thought you'd like a fall picture....

Monday night, I was trying to get Jared ready for bed. I sat down on the floor ready to put his pajamas on him...and just as I was turning my head he threw his head into my face. I instantly started to cry because my nose hurt so bad!!! Jared, not knowing what he had done wrong, tried to hug and console me. It really was so nice of him but my face hurt so bad, and continued hurting through out the next day. I decided to get a facial CT, and it turns out that my nose is not broken. It was swollen for a few days and the impact broke a lot of blood vessels in my eyes (very red blood shot eyes). Sneezing and blowing my nose has been so painful, I can't even imagine what it would be like if I had broken my nose. Things are getting back to normal now, almost a week later....but now I have a sinus infection..uughh!

Jared's fingers are healing nicely. The pinky finger he had stitches in has a lot of skin pealing off of it, but as a whole looks a lot better then when it did when we first took the stitches out. His pointer finger did loose the nail, but it looks like the nail bed is still alright, so hopefully a new nail will come soon.

We did parent teacher conferences yesterday. Taylor of course is doing well in school, loves music and recess, and wants to do as much homework as she can. So mom, ends up making homework for her to do to keep her happy. (I don't think that will last too much longer!)

Dylan....struggles struggles and struggles some more. As a whole, he really is doing very well. I get comments all the time on how good his speech has become. Which is true, he can talk. His sentence structure still leaves a lot to be desired, but most of the time, we can understand what he is trying to say. He is doing very well with reading and are surprised sometimes how well he does. Comprehension of what he reads has a very long way to go. Math is good also. He is getting the concept of addition and is trying really hard with the subtraction. Placement words like first, second, third or last, we still have some work to do there as well as descriptive words like most or fewest. Of course, behavior is our constant battle. His teacher said that they are trying the positive approach. They are getting away from phrases like "Don't throw rocks" for fear that all he'll hear is "throw rocks". So they now say, "Rocks stay on the ground." (Oh Dylan!!!)

He also has some 'quarky' things going on still, so we are trying to arrange for a 24 hour EEG down at Primary Children's in SLC, just to cover all of our bases in ruling out seizure activity. (You know in our spare time with our spare money, LOL!!!)

There is a definite brisk feeling in the air...Fall is pretty much here. Time to wash the windows and cut back some trees. The case lot sales are here and we need to put some bikes away. We never got to the garden this year, but we should still do something with it to get it ready for activity in the spring. I can never keep up with how fast the days pass away. When someone walks into work in labor and is due in October, I think "Wow, they are really early" when in reality, they really are term. So goes the story of my life. I don't think I ever keep up very well. I live by the "Fake it till you make it" philosophy and I hope that some day.....there will be more of the 'make it' part and less of the 'fake it' part.

Dream Big

Friday night, Jeff and I went out on a date to see Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. We had a great time. They were extremely talented, comical and just plain amazing. We really hope to catch one of their shows again. Jeff's favorite song was "Dream Big." They also played some of their new stuff and a silly sing-a-long called "Corndog." (Also a big hit with Jeff!!!) They played Dylan's favorite, which is "Banjo Boy" and for their encore they played a 15 minute incredible show of talent of "The devil went down to Georgia." It was just really fantastic.

Taylor came up with a conjunction a couple of weeks ago that I just cannot get over. We will be talking as we are in a disagreement, and she will stop and say, "No I amn't" which granted can sound really bad but it is just so funny!! Her mouth just gets going so fast that it takes A LOT of concerted effort for her to slow down and say "NO....I....am....not...."So instead she just says "No I amn't."

Saturday evening is one of the best evenings we have had as a family for a long time. We didn't go do anything special, we didn't spend any money, there were no fights, no yelling, nothing significant other than it was a very nice evening. I was out in the yard picking up things, like hoses, sprinklers, putting away bikes not usually used, and other misc. things. Jeff came and helped me and we moved the treadmill to where it needed to go. We just started talking and before too long, Jeff had gotten the four wheeler out and had started to give the kids a ride one at a time. Then he gave me a ride. Of course to top it off, he had to pull some wheelie's before he put it away. I'm not sure what made it so great, put it was momentous for us and wanted to journal a good time.

Good times seem hard to come by sometimes. Like before yesterday, I could not tell you the last time Jeff had come to church with me. But yesterday he did, and then he came with me to my parents for Sunday dinner. (Again, no fighting or tension, it was so nice!!!) Not just one miracle, but two. You may think I'm over exaggerating things, but that is truly how I feel. A couple of good days in a row. I hate to say anything for fear of jinxing myself, but I need to journal good things too, to remember that they do happen.

Remembering...

Brady Howell was a rare kid. In high school, he was 'popular' but didn't act it, talented, but didn't flaunt it, and smart, but didn't publish it. He was the student body president. We ran track together. I'll never forget the time, we came back from a track meet to see two wheels of his car leaning up against the school. We laughed so hard at the prank and had a memorable time trying to get it back onto the parking lot. We were in "Our Town". He was the narrator and I had a minor part, but he had a knack for making sure no one felt minor.

I remember when Brady got married, I was working as a DJ at a dance at then Ricks College. He and his new bride, Liz, asked for a special song and the ballroom floor was parted as college kids in jeans and t-shirts made way for him in his tux and her in her gown. I'll never forget that night.

Seven years ago today, Brady wrapped up his mission in life, fulfilling a lifelong dream, serving at the Pentagon. Brady lived a life always to be remembered, a fantastic example of service, the importance of a dream and leaving the lesson of never knowing when your time will come to an end. May all those who mourn today feel peace, comfort, and a happy remembrance of their memories. I miss you Brady.

Just because

Its been awhile since I've been able to vent in my favorite venting method, (involving a drive to IF) and I look at this blog as my number one journaling method. (I'm trying to find a way that perhaps I could have this blog published into a book, and do that every year as my journal.) And so in turn I have not done any other journal for quite some time. I have to work tonight and tomorrow night, then again Tues. Wed. & Thurs. nights so I take this opportunity (while I'm semi-coherent) to blog, catch up and vent as need be.

I love the idea of the blog. You can vent and send out your vibes into cyberspace, hoping that someone will read what you have to say(or not) and there is still a sense of release, yet knowing that you haven't intruded upon anyone else's time or taking away from their life. I can say what I feel like I need to say, to help let go of things and if you read it, great!! Its a really good feeling in knowing that someone cares enough to check in on me. If you don't read it, great!! I feel good in knowing that I haven't wasted your time, or unloaded upon you anything you really didn't want to know in the first place.

Dylan had a rough start to school. He fell asleep in class on the first day, and got into a 'confrontation' in which he got a bloody lip and scratch on the scar above his ear(yes, first day also). He has had homework every day, and we've only had one or two days that he hasn't finished. He is gotten into a better groove with routine. His blood work is back from 4 weeks ago. As a whole everything is good. I won't bore you with the little details, but we are going to try adding a protein that he is deficient in and see if that helps him. No big change with melatonin, maybe we will up it soon.

Taylor has hit school off and running. She seems to like her class and talks of how she plays with cousin Braxton who is not in her class but its good to know that she has someone to play with. She has a really good grasp of the basics and although she says "I can't" she really can. This week she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up and asks Jeff and I what we want to be when we grow up. Taylor, we still don't know.

Jared's fingers are healing nicely. I took him to see the doctor on Wed. because his newly injured finger would not stop bleeding. But of course when we went to see Dr. Prince, it had stopped bleeding. He gave us some vaseline gauze (I love that stuff) so that the bandage would not stick to the wound. Understandably, he doesn't use his left hand so trying to watch him do things with just one hand can be funny. Thank goodness he is right handed, so its not too much of a stretch.

Jeff has seen a bit of increase at work for the last two weeks, thank goodness. He usually has a guys night out with a friend, but they haven't been out for a couple of weeks. I think we are all getting in the routine of new schedules.

I think you are pretty up to date on me. I share a ton of things with you fairly often. I'm still working on my house, the usual chores as well as changing a few things. Paint, window coverings, new things on the wall, that sort of thing. Keeping up with the kids and sensing the need to get some things done as the feeling of fall begins to set in. General Conference will be here within a month (YAHOO!!!) then it really will be fall.

Yeow, baby!!

Jared, Jared, Jared....what are we going to do with you!?!

Yesterday, Labor Day, I began by sleeping as I could because I had worked the night before. But sleeping with my children at home usually presents a problem. But as the day went on (and it was raining) there started to be some cabin fever within our home.

Well.... just after 5PM, we started to discuss what we might do for dinner, but then we were interrupted by Jared screaming. We went to see what the problem might be and he was standing in front of the quad doors in front of our washer and dryer. Well, we thought that he has probably hurt his injured finger from 10 days ago. So mommy picked him up to go rock-a-bye and make it all better. A minute later, I realized that his pinkie finger was bleeding, and not just a trickle, we had a river of blood going down both of our arms. We ran into the bathroom to clean up. Then it became very apparent that he would need stitches. So I wrapped up his finger in a washcloth and quickly went up to the ER. Second time within 10 days. X-Rays (yes this time, this one is broken,) 5 stitches and an hour later, we walked out of the ER to see if we could find a open pharmacy on Labor Day. We needed to start antibiotics to make sure an infection wouldn't get down into his broken pinkie bone. No luck on an open pharmacy yesterday, but we have succeeded today.

No luck for breaking Jared's tough spell yet, but hopefully soon!!!