On the road to recovery

JT's dad fell ill about 1-1/2 weeks ago. His mom could not wake him up one morning and called 911. They rushed him to the hospital and he spent the day having seizures and totally unresponsive. It was later discovered that he had a broken hip and the seizures and other problems were likely due to a reaction to the pain medications he had started taking for hip pain. He also had some other side effects that were pretty scary and difficult to witness. He had surgery on his hip last Monday and was able to be released to a nursing home on Thursday. We have spent as much time as possible at the hospital this past week, and have had him in our constant prayers. We hope that he can recover quickly and be at home with mom again soon.

When communities rally together...

A wonderful family in our ward lost two beautiful daughters this past week. It was tragic and the entire ward is heartbroken for them. Today was the funeral. I am strengthened by their example and by the Spirit that was felt so strong there. Sometimes it is from difficult circumstances that we gain stronger testimonies. I am so grateful for the Gosple in my life and the knowledge that I have of my Savior.

The entire neighborhood was decorated in yellow and pink ribbons. They were the girls favorite colors. Ribbons were tied to everything, trees, cars, mailboxes, fences. Balloons were everywhere too. At the funeral everyone wore pink and yellow ribbons.

My good friend Tomoko is from Japan and they have a tradition of making 1000 paper cranes for someone who is sick or suffering. She had enough to make 1100 for this one! I have helped her make four of these in the past for members of our ward. It is nice to be able to help her, she is very talented. I have never gotten a picture of her with them before so I made her pose for me this afternoon. Pretty amazing.

We love you Nathan and Brenda.

Sixth Grade Dance

Bri looked beautiful for her school dance. It started out rough, but she ended up having fun with her friends. What a cutie! (Sixth grade boys can be so insensitive!)

Science Fair

At work part of my job is to be in charge of the school Science Fair. It was a lot of stress, and there were a lot of other difficult circumstances going on in my life at the same time adding to the stress. But it is finished and I got a lot of comments that it went well, so...

Half way done

I started painting my bathroom and I have not completed all of the other projects that will finish the look I am going for, but here are some pics of what I have done so far. You cannot get a really good idea of what it looks like, but it is a really buttery cream paint with "white on white" stripes. The entire room was painted in high gloss paint and then I added stripes of an eggshell finish. The last picture shows the stripes somewhat. I will show more pics when the entire room is finished.

This is my "inspiration" piece. JT gave me this for Christmas a year ago.

New family pictures (sort of)

These pictures were taken last fall when we were together for our family reunion. We just got a copy of them from my sister-in-law. I think they turned out pretty good. They were taken in my in-law's yard.

You would think I feed her "miracle grow"!

Wow, she keeps growing and growing! My beautiful baby has turned into a beautiful young woman. This is the day she had to get dressed up to attend a dance performance at the Capital Theater. She didn't appreciate having to wear a dress to school, but she looked so nice I had to snap a photo!

Last week she wanted me to mark her height on our wall. I was shocked to see she has grown 1-1/2 inches since school started in August! She has also grown from a size 7-1/2 shoe to an 8-1/2 or 9! I am ready for summer so she can wear cheap flip-flops and not need more and more shoes!

It has been a pleasure

I was called as our ward Relief Society President in February 2007. It has been almost three years. Last week I was released, and it was not expected. I have spent the week trying to figure out my place now, and it is still difficult for me.

I totally enjoyed being able to serve the sisters in our ward. Even though there were difficult times, it brought me closer to my Savior as I relied on Him. I have enjoyed all of the sisters I have been able to work with and also getting to know everyone in our ward. I think that is what I will miss the most...

I am excited for the new calling I have, I am a ward missionary with JT, it is going to be nice to serve with him again.

Lets play!

We had a fun day with Bri's friend Em during the Christmas Break. The girls spent most of their time playing "plinko" while JT and I played Skee-ball. Fun for all!

I do not like the cone of shame...

When we were in Colorado over Thanksgiving my sweet baby boy started having problems with his eye. We had him at the vet out there and they diagnosed a corneal ulcer, or scratch, on his eye. Gave us some antibiotic eye drops and sent us on our way. They said if it hadn't healed within a week we should have it looked at again. They tried to do a tear test on his eyes but he would not cooperate and they were only able to check his left eye, which was normal. When we got home it was getting worse so we took him to our vet. They were able to do the tear test and he had absolutely no tear production in his right eye. The ulcer had healed but because of the dry eye it had a lot of thick mucus and even problems with the right side of his nose, because there were not tears draining into his nose.

Well, I felt the entire time that he had a clog in his tear duct but the vets would not listen to me. I would always massage above his and below his eye where there are tear ducts. I did some more research and found that there is also a duct on the outside of his eye. When I started massaging there I found a lump that was abnormal and he didn't have one on the left side. Well, within a few minutes of finding the lump and massaging it he began to have the tears return to his eye. Of course I was right...did you have any doubt!?!

So, after a few hundred dollars in vet bills and a myraid of eye drops and gels, over a month of stress, needing two people to get the drops into his eye (one to sit on him and one to administer the drops), and a miserable dog, we were finally able to get him feeling better and now he has no residual problems. He is back to being our happy little dog and we are so glad!