New Year's Ramblings

As the last moments of 2008 wind down, I have been thinking a little bit about all that has happened this past year. Not too much thinking, just a little. In the few moments of boredom tonight. Mostly I've thought that this past year has gone by way too quickly. Surely 2008 just began and hasn't come to a close. Surely. Granted, there were things that seemed to take forever and I looked forward to ending (namely the elections), but for the most part, it went by quickly.

The biggest thing for us this year has been Dylan's birth and subsequent surgery. Can't say that I'm sad that part went by quickly. I'm quite glad that part is behind us. We're very glad that we have him. To tell the truth, this is the main thing I think of when I think of the past year. We've had other things, both good and bad, but this is the thing that stands out the most. (The other things include a wedding, family moving away, family moving near, passing of an uncle and a neighbor, and the birth of a new niece. I could probably list more, but I won't.)

I can't even begin to know what this coming year will bring, but I hope that it will be a year full of good things for everyone.

And just because I want to make this post a little more interesting, here are a couple of pictures. The first is Jimmy eating an Oreo from our snacks for New Year's.

The girls were having fun blowing the horn things much sooner than was time. They have since ruined the horns, so if any are still awake come midnight, they won't have them to blow. Maybe that's a good thing.
I look at this one of Dylan and think, "Look, Ma! I'm getting hair!"

Sara's Wedding stuff

Yes, we had a busy few days. Why do you ask?

Anyway, the day after Christmas we decided to drive up to Logan and spend the night in a hotel since Russ' little sister, Sara, was getting married in the Logan temple the next morning. We decided that it would be a whole lot easier to get the kids ready in time to be there if we were already up there than having to drive up there that morning. The roads were icy and snow covered, but travelling wasn't actually all that bad. I had driven on worse, so it wasn't a big deal. Except for when the old man driver in the lane next to me decided he had to be in my lane and came over into my lane and didn't even seem to notice me nor the honk of my car. I was luckily paying enough attention that I managed to slow down enough that he didn't hit me. Just annoyed me when he went back into the other lane about 30 seconds later. Ah, well.

I think the kids were most excited that the hotel had a heated indoor pool. They had a blast at the hotel. We got a room that had 2 queen sized beds plus a pull out sofa bed. The three girls slept in the sofa bed, as you can see in the first picture.
Jimmy talked Russ into sleeping in one of the queen beds with him. Which meant I had a whole lot of room in my bed. Which was nice. Doesn't mean I slept any better than I usually do though. Dylan still woke up once and Russ snored loudly enough that I was surprised he didn't wake up the kids.
Sara and Andrew's ceremony was really nice. Afterward, we went to the Blue Bird diner for the wedding luncheon. It was good. But it was also snowing lightly in Logan, which meant it was snowing harder through the canyon. Which they ended up closing, so we had to drive the longer way back home. Not that I'm complaining or anything. The longer way had roads that were clearer. At least until we got to the freeway. Then it was back to icy roads for a bit. Luckily, everyone made it back down in time for the reception. Which was also nice. Jimmy and Emma were supposed to help clean up the tables. Jimmy did a pretty good job, for the most part. Emma didn't want to do it and so didn't really. Ah, well.

Here's a picture of Sara and Andrew as they were about to cut the cake.
I'm just throwing this picture in. I had taken a picture of Russ holding Dylan just before but he wasn't smiling and wasn't happy with how the picture looked. So he gave this cheesy smile instead. Yeah, I'm really not sure which one is better. :)

Christmas

As usual, Santa ended up bringing a little bit more than he needed to for Christmas. The kids had a blast though. They didn't get as much this year as they had in other years (but who did?), but you wouldn't know it by the total destruction they left in the wake of their opening presents. Jimmy had Emma and Molly up around 7, but took them in the basement to watch tv until others were awake. Finally around 8, Emma couldn't stand it anymore and woke up Lyssa. They all seemed very happy with the things they got.

Dylan here is wearing an outfit he got for Christmas. The rest of the pictures are the kids with what I think was their favorite present. Jimmy was thrilled with his Nintendo DS. Really the only thing he asked for.

Later that day, we drove down to my parents. We had already given them their gifts and vice versa because of the big storm predicted for that day, but it wasn't coming in as early as they had said (at least not for our end...the very South end of the valley woke up to a foot of snow...us, none at all), so we decided to drive down and try to beat the storm. Which we did with no problem since the storm didn't really come until a few hours after we got back home. We had previously had a Christmas party with them and two of my sisters and their families. Unfortunately, that was during the time that I couldn't find my camera. Had fun with it though. Kids made little tie die t-shirts (with fabric markers). Anyway, I hope everyone had as enjoyable of a holiday as we had.

Christmas Eve Party

Every year we have a Christmas party with Russ' family on Christmas Eve. This year we opted to have it at a church just because the group is getting a little bigger and we would fit easier. When we got to the church, I realized that I had forgotten to bring our camera. That I had spent hours looking for before finally finding. Not to let those hours go wasted, I ran back home and grabbed the camera. So we were able to take a few pictures. And I'm posting some of them. Lucky you.

In this first one, Jimmy appears to be doing his best Michael Jackson impression (not that he actually knows who Michael Jackson is....). Okay, he was really just hamming it up for the camera and showing one of the gloves that he was given. His cousin, Sadie, is sitting next to him.
We have a program every year as part of the party, each family group taking some part of it. Dylan was swinging away happily in his swing while this was going on (part of the time sleeping). I looked back to check on him at one point and noticed his cousin Josh helping out nicely by giving him a bottle. It was cute.
Sara and her new husband Andrew played O Holy Night for us. (Anyway, I think that's what they played...I was gone for most of their part...taking Lys to the bathroom for one of the several times she had to go that night.)
Michelle read a Christmas story for the kids. I snapped this picture when most of them were actually paying attention. Okay, half of them.
Mike had us do progressive limericks and then read them for their part of the program. Some turned out amazingly well. Lovely pose here, doncha think?
Okay, I do have other pictures I could post, but I won't. Mostly because it was going slow and wasn't pulling up the thing to post more. So this is it. All in all it was a fun night.

Stupidog!

Sometimes I wonder why we have dogs. Today is one of those days. We had a nice morning going to the temple with Sara only to get back to my parent's house (who were tending the kids) to have a message there from a policeman calling to say they picked up our dog (they went off her rabies tag to find her owners and the vet still has my parent's address and phone number for her). I called him back and he told that she had been under the freeway when they caught her. I was amazed. Any time the dog has gotten out, she's gone down the street and back and that's it. The freeway is a lot further than she's ever wandered. He said he didn't know how I was going to get a hold of Animal Control then decided to find out for me. He told me the Animal Control officer was going to call me right then. So he called and I gave him our address then loaded up the kids and we headed home to meet him.

We had good timing, at least. We had just pulled in the driveway when he pulled up to the house. He was very nice, at least. He told me that she had actually gotten on the freeway. Went up the off-ramp then circled around to the on-ramp and came down that. They caught her near a Winger's restaurant. I thought she would sleep the rest of the day. She was limping a little and looked tired. But she has gotten up a couple of times since getting back home. Guess I need to find something stronger to tie the gate shut. Or not let her in the back yard when we lock her out of the house and just lock her in the garage. Ah, well. Guess it could have been worse.

Jimmy and the talent show

A quick update. It pays to bribe children to find things for you. I told the kids I would give a dollar to whoever could find the camera. Less than a minute later, the camera was found. Yay!

Anyway, today was the school talent show. Jimmy was very excited about it and that Russ took off so he could see him. When Jimmy came in and sat in his chair to wait for his turn, he told me he was so nervous he was shaking. Didn't really look nervous though. Here's a picture of Jimmy sitting in line.

The talent show started out with the school choir performing a few numbers. I was impressed with the choir. After the choir finished they did the individual performances. There are some talented kids at his school. Several played the piano, one played the harp, one did a magic show. Jimmy did storytelling. Read a story he had written. He did a really good job and had most of the audience laughing at his performance. I sat by a guy I had gone to high school with (played cards every day at lunch with a group of my friends) and after Jimmy finished, he leaned over and asked me who Jimmy has for a drama coach. I laughed and said he does it all himself; that he's very good at the drama.

Russ had the camera and filmed Jimmy's performance. Has a lot of background noise, so it's not the easiest to hear, but here it is:

Where oh where could it be?

I would have something I could post about today. Really. I would have pictures, even. Unfortunately, I can't find my camera. I saw it sitting on my kitchen counter. I decided that was a bad place for it and distinctly remember picking it up. What I did after that, however, I couldn't tell you. Did I go into my bedroom? The living room? Not a clue. I've looked in those places, by the way. No such luck in finding it. I really wanted to find it before now, too. Molly had a Christmas program with her preschool. I wanted to take pictures and maybe a little video. Ah, well.

Her program went well. They acted out a quick nativity scene (Molly was an angel) and then sang a couple of songs. Molly didn't do the actions. She was being shy. She did sing though. The kids then presented their parents with a wrapped gift. The gift was a framed picture of Molly (well, mine was of Molly..the others were of the other kids. Would have been a little strange if everyone got the picture of Molly) dressed up as a wise man with the saying "Wise men still seek him" printed on the picture. On Thursday they are going to a nursing home to put on their program.

Last night we had a Christmas party at my parent's. The kids enjoyed tie-dying t-shirts (as is evident by their wearing the shirts today). The food was good and we all had a good time. Again, no pictures. Ah, well. Hopefully I will find the camera by Friday for when Jimmy is in the school's talent show. Or else you may find another post telling about something without pictures that help to make it more interesting.

Funny video

My sister posted this link on facebook. I thought it was pretty funny so decided to post it here to share. It's a Christmas parody of Twilight. http://www.take180.com/s/ep5l7

Loosing teeth

This past week, Jimmy and Emma each lost a tooth. I actually wasn't going to post about it, but Russ wanted me to tell more about Emma's lost tooth. Just because it was kind of funny.

Emma's tooth has been really, really loose for a long time now. But when it comes to anything that could potentially cause pain or bleeding, she gets very anxious and wouldn't even let us come close to touching her tooth. Anyway, Jimmy lost his tooth one day and the next evening we were gathering for family prayer. Emma was making noise so Russ went to nudge her with his elbow to remind her to be quiet during the prayer. Only she moved just as he went to elbow her. Moved just right so his elbow hit her mouth. And not all that softly. She immediately began to cry, "My tooth!" with distress. His elbow apparently hit just the right spot that her tooth fell out. She ran into the bathroom to get some tissue. She had been distressed right at first, but came back in with a grin and was very happy that her tooth was out. Just seemed kind of funny to be saying yay for an elbow to the mouth.

Yeah, so not the best story in the world, but hey, it's a post.

Russ and his new car

Well, Russ got his new car today. After his died and we borrowed my dad's convertible (and he managed to kill that one too), he decided to take the day off to get a car. He already knew one kind he liked so it didn't take him long to find it. Just took a bit to get all the stuff signed and whatnot. Anyway, here's a picture of him with his car. Taken with my cell phone camera, so it's not a great picture. I moved our camera and can't remember where I put it. Story of my life lately. Ah, well.

Dylan's echo

Dylan had his echo today, as you are probably aware. This time the appointment went longer than the last time. Mostly because of the hour wait in between the echo and talking to the doctor. But that's okay.

Dylan was kind of cute during the echo. They had a tv in the room and it was set to Cartoon Network. Dylan stared at the tv for a little bit then turned so he could stare at the monitor and watched that screen for a little bit. Then he started to grab the cord for the echo tool that was being used. The lady doing the echo tried to get him to grab a different cord because he made it a little hard to move it. But he didn't want the other cord, he wanted the one right in front of him.

When I was finally able to talk to the cardiologist, he said that everything looks about the same. Still has a little bit of a leak, but nothing to worry about. He said that the conduit will eventually need to be replaced (to which I thought, "Well, duh, that's part of having truncus, it eventually needs to be replaced"), but hopefully will be later rather than sooner. He said Dylan looks good. I take him back in 2 months to get another echo just to check again. Kind of funny though. I will go back for Dylan's 6 month checkup and the next echo the same week, kind of like this week. All in all, Dylan is doing pretty well.

Dylan's 4 month appointment

I took Dylan in for his 4 month checkup today (as well as for his second synagis shot). He's doing well. He now weighs an even 14 pounds. He really didn't like the shots and wasn't thrilled when the doctor was examining him. During the exam, Dylan leaned over and grabbed my hand and had a look on his face like, "Help!" But he did give the doctor a nice big smile when it was done. Then came the shots. Ah, well. He's about the 60th percentile for height and around the 30th for weight. I take him tomorrow for his next echo. I'll be sure to post about it after.

Since I had a bit of time after his appointment before I needed to get Molly from preschool, I decided I would make a quick run to Costco. Ended up not happening though. As I was driving there, a guy honked at me (my first thought was, "What did I do?!") and then yelled to me that my tire was quite flat. So I changed directions and headed over to the tire place. Turned out that the tire had a lovely gouge in it and couldn't be fixed so I needed a new tire. Really not something I planned for today. I just wonder why cars decide to talk to each other and have things happen around the same time. Russ' car is dead. It probably could get fixed, but would cost a lot and we've already put a lot into his car this year so think it's time to replace it. Ah, well.

December birthdays

I realized today that I haven't done my monthly birthday post. So here it is. Happy birthday this month to Jared and Alex! Hope you both have a great one!

Happy Thankgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone has a great day (at least better than mine is seeming to go....poor Lys is sick and hurling...just like she was 2 years ago. Really hoping that this year isn't a repeat of then. Had someone sick from Thanksgiving until the middle of January)! Try not to eat too much. :)

Emma's party

Yesterday we had a birthday party for Emma. She invited a few friends from school and we went to McDonald's for her party. Birthday parties at McDonald's are the easiest birthday parties to throw for kids. So I'm a big fan of them. One girl at the party exclaimed that it was the funnest party she's been to. She told me that she kept asking her dad if it was time to go to the party yet, she was so excited. I laughed because I heard that question several times earlier in the day, starting almost from when Emma and Molly got back home after Emma's birthday sleepover with her grandma and grandpa. Russ got to the party after I had ordered the food and was filling up the drinks at the drink machine. Emma had been concerned that he wouldn't make it to her party so she was glad when he got there.Took a quick picture while the kids were all sitting relatively still because they had their food. I tried to get everyone in the picture, but one friend got kind of cut off on the right side.
I laughed at this one because he was leaning back into the window trying to get out of the picture.
I almost think I should send this picture to the cakewrecks blog. Just makes me laugh that they did the writing upside down. And then added a period, which looks somewhat out of place. Emma didn't care though. She loved the cake. It was a white cake with raspberry filling from Dick's Market. Wasn't sure she would like the filling but she loved it. I think she wishes the cake were bigger so she could have more to eat. (Not that she would get more if it were bigger...I tend to sneak pieces and eat the whole thing all by myself.) This was where Dylan was during the party. He's a good baby. He was awake the whole time and just sat in his carseat and looked around happily. And yes, I put him in his red shirt on purpose because of the Utes playing BYU yesterday. Not that anyone really noticed. But I'm very happy that the Utes won!

I left the party a little early because I had plans to go for a kind of girl's day out and see the movie Twilight. I liked the movie. Thought it was a little cheesy, but I still liked it.

Happy Birthday Emma!

Today is Emma's birthday. Not saying she's excited that it's her birthday or anything, but the first thing she said to me this morning was, "I'm the birthday girl!" I thought I would post a couple of pictures of her from when she was a baby and one I took today. Kind of hard to picture her as a tiny baby now. But she sure was a cute one!

Emma was 6 months old in this picture.

Picture of Emma today. Yes, she wore the crown and necklace to church. Ah, well.

Parent Teacher Conferences (aka SEP)

I had parent teacher conferences for Jimmy and Emma today. They went pretty well. Except for being 15 minutes late to Emma's because of chatting too long with Jimmy's teacher. But that's okay. There wasn't anyone right after Emma, so it wasn't a problem. I just hate being late like that.

Anyway, if it weren't for chatting about Dylan and the other kids, Jimmy's would have taken all of about 5 minutes. The conversation would have pretty much been, "He's doing well and he's a good student." "Okay, thanks." But no. Sometimes I get chatty. Today happened to be one of those times. I know. Hard to picture me chatty with people I barely know. I almost ended that sentence at "chatty" but then thought that wouldn't necessarily be true. I can be quite chatty with people I know well. Anyway, Jimmy is doing well and doesn't really have much to improve. Could improve a little in math, but he's doing okay in that. He has a report due next week on a history subject of his choice. He's picked the Civil War, but should probably narrow it down a bit. Or just give the general history of it. Like who was president at the time, etc. I keep wondering if it's cheating if I just tell him all of the information rather than letting him look it up. :)

Then it was time for Emma's. I almost dread going for Emma because I know how the conversation is going to go for her. "She has a hard time finishing work. Doesn't stay on task. Very quiet." I was a little surprised though. It didn't go exactly as I pictured. Mostly talked about how she is improving at finishing her work and staying on task. Still is very quiet. The goals her teacher made to work on is summed up as trying to get her to talk in class. I couldn't help but laugh at that one. How many times do you sit with a teacher and try to come up with ways to get a student to talk more? Usually they want to get them to not talk as much. Her teacher did say that today she had some pictures up on the board and Emma finally raised her hand and gave the correct answer because no one else did. She was the only one who knew the right answer. She is very smart, just doesn't talk to show it. Her teacher said that at the very start of the year she was worried about Emma. Wasn't sure she knew the things they were supposed to. But as she's gotten to know her, she's not worried at all. Knows she's very smart and knows the answer. Just chooses not to answer. I told her teacher that Jimmy would often answer for Emma because she's so quiet and I would tell him not to (speaking from experience of being the one who wanted everyone else to answer for her). She laughed and said that her whole class knows that Emma is quiet and so tries to answer for her. She tells them to let Emma answer the question, and when she does, it's always right.

The reading specialist sent home a note wanting me to stop by and talk about Emma. Essentially the same discussion. In both cases, Emma talked more than they had ever really heard her before.

That was pretty much the extent of parent teacher conferences. At least this time Molly and Lys didn't run around the rooms. They managed to entertain themselves rather nicely.

Flu shots

I took Jimmy, Emma and Molly to get their flu shots today. I didn't tell them about it until they were getting in the car after school. I had to chuckle at them. Molly didn't seem bothered at all. Emma kept asking me what shots feel like and kept saying it felt like she was getting one then. Jimmy kept going on about poison being shot into his body and generally complaining about it. I asked him if he would rather get a shot or get the flu and give it to Dylan and make Dylan go back to the hospital. He said he'd get the shot.

At the doctor's office, they had Jimmy get his shot first because they figured he would be the best and could show his sisters that it wouldn't be too bad. The nurse giving the shot had to keep telling him not to move. He was a bit nervous. Emma went next. She held still without any problems, but screamed loudly in my ear. Molly didn't even flinch. Made no noise. Didn't even come close to tears like Lys had when she got hers earlier. The nurse said she should have had Molly go first. They were very happy to get their suckers afterward though. Maybe I'll have to take them out for ice cream or something later.

100 Days Old

Yesterday Dylan was 100 days old. (I would have posted this yesterday but kept trying to get a good smiling picture of Dylan and for the most part he wasn't cooperating so I gave up and then forgot to actually post.) There's a Japanese tradition where they take a baby's picture when the baby is 100 days old because they say that is when the baby is the most beautiful (someone can correct me if I'm wrong on it being a Japanese tradition...). I have tried to make sure I take pictures of each of my children when they are 100 days old because of that custom (even though I'm not even remotely Japanese). Anyway, here are a few of the pictures I took. I took a lot in trying to get a good one. He would smile and smile and smile and I would pull out the camera and he would stop smiling. I'd put the camera away and he'd smile again. Ah, well.
This first one was my last attempt. I'm posting it just because I think his expression is silly.
I decided to post this one to show his typical expression for the bulk of the pictures.
This one was Russ' favorite, so I thought I'd throw it in as well.
These last two are really the only two I got of him smiling. My angle was a little funny on the last one, but that's okay.

Report cards

Jimmy and Emma brought home their report cards today. For the most part they were really good. Emma got almost all 4's (equivalent of an A). Jimmy's was generally good but seems to take after his mom in math. He got a 1 in math under the subject of working cooperatively. Apparently he will kind of fight with his friend when they work together on assignments. I think it's a little funny, actually.

Emma was the Star Student of the Week for her class this week. We had to make a poster to be displayed during the week and today I went at the end to tell about her. Ended up telling more about Dylan and Xena. I told them that even though she doesn't say much during school, she does talk a lot at home. Her teacher asked the kids, "Can you believe that? Emma talks a lot at home!" A couple of the boys in her class said they believe it. One boy told me that he has a friend whose mom had a baby born with the heart outside of the body. He also went on and on telling me about another boy's dog. Kids are funny. Several wanted to tell me stories about their dogs or friend's dogs.

Voting and such

I had a busy morning this morning. After getting Jimmy and Emma off to school and Molly to preschool, I took Dylan to the doctor to get his first synagis shot (for those who may not know, synagis is a medication given for those who qualify to help prevent RSV). He started to cry before they gave him the shot. He acted like he knew what they were going to do and he wasn't happy about it at all. I also got Lys the flu shot since she was with me. Forgot to make an appointment to get the others their flu shots. Really should do that.

After the doctor, I decided to vote before stopping at home. I was happy to see that it wasn't really crowded so I could get in and out really quickly. Or so I thought. I gave my name as you are supposed to. That's where the trouble began. In their voter log book, it said that I had voted early. I think I would remember voting early. I know I thought about voting early, just never got around do actually doing it. Besides, the location where I vote on election day is a whole lot closer than where I would have had to go to vote early. So I had to go talk to the election official and say, "Um, it says I voted early and I didn't." So instead of having fun using one of the electronic voting machines, I had to use a provincial ballot and hope they decide that I wasn't lying when I said I didn't vote early and actually count my vote. Granted, I got to feel like I was coloring as I filled in the bubbles on the ballot. Wonder why they had me listed as one of the early voters though....voter fraud, maybe? Ah, well. I think after all that I deserve to drive over to Krispy Kreme for the free voter's donut, don't you?

Tagged x2 (or 3 if you count getting tagged twice for the same thing)

Okay, I've been tagged by both De and Stacey. I'll admit, I totally spaced that I was tagged the first time. But here goes:

8 Things About Me

8 Things I am looking forward to:

*The day the cardiologist tells us we don't have to take Dylan back for another year.
* Getting new carpet
* Taking the kids to go see a movie at the dollar theater
* The day after Christmas
* Christmas Eve
* Weekly lunch day
* Watching the Twilight movie just to see Will as an extra. :)
* The night I get to sleep all night. (If it's not the baby, it's the dog...)

8 Things on my wish list:

* My car will keep working and not need to be fixed for a long time.
* That I didn't just curse myself with the first one.
* When we get bills paid off that they won't be replaced by others.
* Getting the basement and toys cleaned and organized.
* Russ will mow the lawn. :)
* I knew what to get anyone for Christmas.
* Digging a big hole to put the trampoline in so it's an in-ground tramp.
* Any room in my house would stay clean for longer than 5 minutes.

8 shows I like to watch:

*Psych
*Burn Notice
*Supernatural
*Eli Stone
*Doctor Who (sad that they've stopped making it)
*Heroes
*Chuck
*Reaper

8 things that happened yesterday:

* I went to church with the 4 kids while Russ stayed home with Dylan.
* Russ started the roast for me by following my instructions and didn't add extra stuff to it.
* It rained.
* Jimmy bore his testimony during Sacrament Meeting
* Russ and I pretended to be horses while the girls sat on our backs (killed my knees doing it).
* I remembered to tell Russ about the changes in Young Men and the Elder's Quorum in our ward.
* I learned that I'm not the only one who is horrible with names but had no problem with names on a mission.
* Was a couple of minutes late to church even with the extra hour because of Daylight Savings.

8 people I'm tagging (goes for the following tag, too!):

*Katie
*Challene
*Lisa
*Michelle
*Amy
*For the other three, anyone else who may want to participate. :)

Now for the next Tag I need to do:

Rules: Link to the person who tagged you (Stacey, mentioned above), list 6 quirks of yours, tag 6 others and let them know.

#1- (yes, Stacey, I know you said this but it's one I do, too) I am a bit anal about how the dishwasher is loaded, so tend to be the only one who loads it. Guess Russ gets tired of having me go back and rearrange the dishes in the dishwasher. :)

#2- Same kind of goes for laundry. I'm particular about how I fold things so have to stop myself from refolding things when someone helps me and folds it in a different way. Trying to be better at both of those though.

#3- I tend to try to get other people's opinions on things for me. Like asking them which ring tone I should get for my phone or to name some of my quirks. :)

#4- (Wow, I have to come up with three more? Sheesh.) Back to dishes...if I have bowls that are the same but different colors, I like to pattern them when I put them away. So one of one color, then one of the other, etc. Yes, I'm weird.

#5- I don't like people to watch me as I'm decorating a cake or sketching something. They can look all they want when I'm done, but it bugs me to be watched as I'm doing it.

#6- (I know this is kind of a lame one, but hey, I'll be done with it!) I bat left-handed, but I throw right-handed.

November birthdays

Happy birthay this month to Mike, Susan and Emma! Oh, and Xena too!

Halloween pictures, mostly

I had to laugh while taking the kids trick or treating last night. There is a house on my street that Emma and Molly have LOVED all month. Kept going down to it because it was totally decorated. They saw it last night and were absolutely terrified. Tears and everything. Refused to go close to it. They didn't last long trick or treating. Just didn't want to go by houses they thought would scare them. Lys and Jimmy wanted to keep going, but it started to rain a little. So they didn't get as much candy as they usually get, which isn't a bad thing. This way I don't eat so much. :)

This first picture is of the kids with the pumpkins that were carved. Too bad you can't really see all of the pumpkins. Dylan's costume was obviously a pumpkin, as you can see in this and the next picture.

Emma was a witch. She was very excited to go as a witch. And since they call it "Storybook Day" at the school, she said she could just tell them she was the witch from the Wizard of Oz. I was actually kind of surprised she came up with that one all on her own. Don't know why though.
Molly was Sleeping Beauty.
Lys was a fairy.
Jimmy was the Grim Reaper. He didn't really like the mask because it would make him sweaty.
Really the only picture of any of the pumpkins lit up. I played around in carving this one. Later I thought of things I should have done to make it better, but that's okay. Had fun with it anyway.

Dylan's Cardiologist/echo Appointment

Dylan had a follow-up cardiologist appointment with an echo cardiogram today. Well, the echo wasn't originally scheduled and they called me earlier this week adding on the echo. I wasn't at Primary's as long as I thought I would be, which was nice. Dylan didn't like getting his chest x-ray at all, but was all smiles during the echo. He even didn't really seem to mind the part they said would be the part of it he wouldn't like. Everyone commented on how cute he was in his pumpkin costume. :)

Unfortunately, the echo showed that his conduit (the new vein) is leaking. Dr. Menon said mild to moderate leak. There isn't a need to do anything about it at this point, but they will need to watch it closely. I take him back in a little over a month for another echo to check it again. I was hoping it would be a bit longer before we really had to worry about him again. Ah, well.

Preschool Halloween Parade

Today at Molly's preschool, they got to dress up in their costumes and had a Halloween parade at the end of class. All of the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Molly ended up being the last in the parade because she kept losing her shoes. Maybe she won't be wearing them when they go trick or treating tomorrow. They did the costume parade then lined up and sang a few songs for us. It was cute.

This is Molly as she walked by me, which is why the picture isn't the clearest. My camera couldn't really focus well on the movement because I had it in the wrong setting.
I snapped this one of Molly as she stopped briefly to see how far ahead of her everyone else got.
Molly's preschool class and teacher all dressed up.
Just thought I'd throw in this one of Lys since she begged me to take her picture, too.
Before the kids came out for the parade, the brother of someone in Molly's class stood and watched for them to come out. Lys begged me to take his picture too. I thought it was a kind of cute picture, so I'm throwing that one in here, too.
Here's a short video of one of the songs they sang. It had problems loading it, so I'm hoping it works okay. It paused a bit for me when I tried to watch it and I'm hoping it was just me.

The Things You Discover

Today Jimmy called to have me get him from school because he wasn't feeling well. I wasn't surprised he called. He wasn't feeling well last night and only seemed to want to go to school because medicine was working so he felt okay and I told him he couldn't touch Dylan since he was sick. I got to the school to get him about the time morning kindergarten classes were letting out. On my way out of the school after checking Jimmy out, I stopped to talk briefly with his and Emma's kindergarten teacher. We got talking about Dylan and his congenital heart defect. She mentioned that she had a congenital heart defect. I asked what she had and she said she had a coarctation of the aorta. I told her Dylan had that along with his truncus. She said they didn't find hers until she was 16. She was a runner and had no idea she had a problem until they took her blood pressure and it was quite high. I thought it was very interesting to learn that she had one of the same things as Dylan.

Dylan's Blessing

Yesterday we had Dylan's blessing. Thanks to all who could make it. I think it turned out nice. And especially thanks to Dave and Michelle for letting us have the food afterward at their house. That was really nice of you to offer.

I didn't take many pictures, and I'm not really sure why. I did get a few, though. This first one I took while Dylan was asleep in my arms. Not the easiest task. Should have had someone else take the picture, but that's okay. I wanted to get at least one with him in his blessing outfit. That he was almost too big for. If we had waited any longer to bless him, I'm sure he wouldn't have fit. The hat that came with it didn't fit as it was.

This is a picture of two of my nieces with Dylan. Mariah (the younger one) wanted to hold Dylan so Kady (the older one) helped her. He was just starting to get upset when I took this picture.
This is my aunt Evelyn and my niece Kelly after their small food fight that was somewhat accidentally started but not so accidentally finished. (They hope you weren't too upset with them, Michelle. I told them it was fine since they did clean up the mess.)

Rebecca (yet another niece).

Dave (bro-in-law) and Jimmy