Dwight Yoakam

This morning Heather, Mom and I went to a class at String Beads. We had a great time and even learned a few new techniques for beading. We made Sun-Catchers in our class. I think they are totally cute (huhum, unlike some people). The gal that owns the bead store actual process the glass pieces herself (way ambitious)!

Brad had a long night at work and then help a friend out with some electrical work later in the morning. So he is trying to catch a few Z's on the couch right now while I blog, so I am trying not to type too loud. (But those who work with me know I am the worlds Loudest typist!)

I found a great deal on Dwight Yoakam concert tickets on ksl. So Brad and I are going up to Deer Valley for a twangy-good-time tonight!! I love Dwight Yoakam. Yes, most of his music sounds the same, but hey if it ain't broke why fix it?!?!? And who can resist those tight fittin' jeans :)

Tomorrow Brad and I are off to Logan Canyon for a night at the Alaskan Inn. Our 2 year Anniversary is on Monday!! We are hoping to take a nice hike, visit the Monastery, and soak in a big jetted tub! Myles will be bunking at Heather and Joe's while we are away. (Huge thanks to them for watching Myles!!)

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~Elmer Davis

Pyloric Stenosis

Ok, not much new is going on so I am going to take a chance to Journal about past events. This story is old news for most of you, so bear with me. But heck, it was over 13 years ago so hopefully this wont bore you too much! :)

When Myles was born he was the perfect little baby boy, except for one thing.. Projectile Vomiting! He was a great eater, but he just couldn't keep much in his stomach for very long. After a couple of weeks of this we took him to a doctor and then to more then one ER. They said he was fine and just had a touchy stomach.
Finally while at the ER Myles threw up in front of the doctor. You should have seen the doctors face! He was like "What the hell was that?" and we were like "That is what we have been trying to explain to you!" So the doc finely takes us seriously and decides to transfer us to CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County).
Once we get to CHOC they diagnose Myles with Pyloric Stenosis (which incidentally my Dad had and we had told the previous doctors that). They decide they have to do surgery but that Myles is too dehydrated to go into surgery as his veins had started to collapse. So it takes over an hour to get an IV into a viable vein (they end up putting the IV into his scalp) and then we had to wait for him to stabilize. Finally they are able to do the surgery and everything goes well. They were able to do the surgery laparoscopically, so Myles only has 3 very tiny scars (whereas my Dad has a full abdominal scar from his surgery). Myles was still a spitter after he was fed, but nothing like before.
Pyloric Stenosis is where the Pyloric muscle that pumps the food from your stomach into your intestines is just too darn strong. So instead of a smooth pumping of the food, your stomach gets a giant contraction and sends the food back out the way it came in. This makes it so no nutrients makes it into the system, so you are ultimately starving. So they just went in with lasers and zapped the Pyloric muscle to weaken it enough to function properly. This is most commonly manifested in boys, but girls are the carrier of the disorder. So if I had anymore boys they have a high chance of having the same thing and my girls would carry the gene. So see, it is a good thing that we are just having Dogs from now on :)

"Through tears and trials, through fears and sorrows, through the heartache and loneliness of losing loved ones, there is assurance that life is everlasting. Our Lord and Savior is the living witness that such is so." -- Pres. Thomas S. Monson

No Toys!!

Poor little Grace and Jane are so deprived of toys that they have resigned themselves to play with this cooler!! So very sad!

Gracie is looking awesome and her cuts and bruises are healing up great!!! Now if we can just keep her from getting anymore war wounds! But Myles has made it this far with few scars, so there is hope!!
Myles is now a First-Class Scout. In the picture he is pinning on my pin that the Mother gets whenever their son advances in rank. He is clipping right along in Scouting. Now if I could just get on the ball and sew on all of his Merit Badges then we would be sittin' pretty!!

"When a cow laughs, does milk come out her nose?" ~Author Unknown

On the Go

We had our Ward Olympic Party this past Saturday. It was an absolute blast. We had activities such as the Three-Legged Race, Hoola Hoop contest, Walking on your hands, Wheel barrel race, Equestrian (with stick Ponies), etc etc... Becky and I didn't take the Gold in the Three-legged race, but we did stomp on each others feet enough to feel like we had run a marathon :)

The Fano's dressed to the Nine's for the occasion, the entire family looked ready for a 1970's sporting event! You can see Mason sporting his Fro while posing with Myles and Porter.

Here are the one's brave enough to race while only able to walk on their hands. Myles did pretty good, but Bishop Lee whooped everyone with his hand-walking skills!!!

Becky and Derick kicked woo-tang in the Wheel barrel race!

Becky, Myles and Shakierra were brave enough to enter into the Pie Eating Contest. But can it really be a Pie Eating Contest when no-one started a food fight?!?!?!?


After the Ward Olympics we headed to SL to help Rebecca move. We got our workout in for suresies! I never want to see stairs again. But the kids and Brad were troopers and worked their tails off despite the sweltering heat.

Saturday evening we joined the Pulham's for a BBQ for Derick's B-day!! It was way yummy food and fun to hang out with friends, the perfect end to a long summer day!


"A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor's." ~Richard Whately

A Visual Reminder

Even though our anniversary isn't for a couple more weeks, Brad gave me my gift tonight. He bought it today and was too excited about it to keep it hidden until 9/1. We have been looking for a while now for the right picture to hang in the landing. I found a picture I loved a while back, but trying to reason that we could buy it later when we had the $, we didn't buy it. Brad found the very same picture and in an even better frame. So we now have this beautiful picture hanging on our upstairs landing. Come on over and take a look see for yourself!!

"He lives, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind, whose Atonement came as an act of grace for the entire world. . . . He has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. He has brought meaning to our mortal existence. He has given us the gift of eternal life. . . . God be thanked for the gift of His Son, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the Prince of Life and Peace, the Holy One." -- Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley

Back to School

Myles is back into the full swing of things at school. He is in 8th grade this year. He is taking Wind Symphony, US History, Science, Percussion, Algebra, PE, T.A., and English. We have a dental appointment tomorrow morning so I was telling him he would miss the first hour of school and he was totally bummed. He said "Man that is History, that is my best class!" he totally gets that from his Grandpa Albert :)

Brad has been working hard to pick up more window washing business lately. He has been handing out lots of fliers in new neighborhoods as well has having listings on KSL and Craigslist. He even had his company name and telephone number put on three windows of his car.

BTW- I am eating a granola bar out of my desk. Apparently it has been there a while, it expired in Nov2005. So if I am dead tomorrow you will all know it was the dang granola bar that did me in!!

"Mother Nature is providential. She gives us twelve years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers." ~William Galvin

Torrey Pictures

Myles boulder jumping. The girls didn't dare try this.

Myles, Rob and Erma Dennis and Rob hamming it up!

The Lizard catching squad! Dusty, Myles and Shakierra

Daddy-o You notice the look of pain on Stewy's face! No fun being on the bottom.

Mom and Tawny

The kid's jumping into the pool.

"Camping: nature's way of promoting the motel industry." ~Dave Barry

Torrey, Utah

We had our annual Family Reunion in Torrey, Utah this past weekend. Everyone else went up on Wednesday 8/13, and we went the following day. It turned out to be a good thing that we were home an extra night.

(There are pictures to go along with this narrative, but they wont upload right now for some reason. So pictures to come ASAP)

While at camp about45 minutes Gracie was bitten in the face by a dog. Joe and Heather rushed her to the closest medical clinic and were told to get Gracie to a Plastic Surgeon ASAP. So they high tailed it back to SLC to take her to Primary Children's Hospital. We met up with them at a gas station just off the freeway and took Janie. We were also able to bring a friend (huge thanks to Joe Robinson!!) to help give Gracie a blessing before heading to the hospital. I took Janie home and got her to bed (the poor thing just kept looking at me with this look like "why have I been driving ALL day if I was just coming back home?!?") Joe, Heather and Grace waited in the ER for 4 hours before seeing the surgeon. But they finally got to her and did beautiful work stitching up her wounds. She ended up having to be put completely under and got 12 stitches!!!!! She shouldn't have any permanent scaring, whew! She has had swelling and a little infection, but is doing fabulous considering. We visited with them Sunday evening and Gracie was her spunky darling self :)

We took Dusty and Michelle (my nephew and niece) with us to the reunion. I knew the kids would have more fun if all their cousins were there. Overall the kids did really well. We had the normal bickering, but nothing too dramatic. Myles and Dusty shared a bed and one morning it did turn into a pillow fight / wrestling match. (Myles was antagonizing the hell out of Dusty, so when Dusty fought back and gave him a whooping we were all tickled to watch and laugh!!)

We took a 4 mile hike on Friday to the Golden Throne (by we, I mean Myles, Shakierra, Dusty, Michelle, Sierra and myself). It was a nice steady hike. The kids brought their nets and bug holders and spent most of the hike trying to capture lizards. They captured two really pretty lizards. We did take our new cold-blooded friends back to camp to show to the little kids and then let them loose (so any tree-huggers out there, no worries, no harm done).

On Saturday Myles insisted on a kids Olympics. The kids got together and planned the events and competed throughout most of the day. They even had an Awards Ceremony where candy bars were the medals :) They competed in the following; Swimming 2-lap and 4-lap race, Running 50M and 400 M, the Long Jump, Tennis (sorta), and string ball. After all of this and the kids were still fighting going to bed at 10pm!! Sheesh, to be young again :)

We had a great time visiting, cooking, doing crafts... We already have our cabin booked for next years reunion. We really missed having Brad, the Alexanders, and the Gentrys there this year.

Everyone that was there this year:
Jolley, April and Shakierra
Schumacher, Myles
Gentry, Dusty and Michelle
Gentry, Albert and Lisa (Dad and Mom)
Kline, Dennis
Hill, Tawny
Kline, Rob and Sri and McKenna and Sierra and Eli and Micah
Conner, Rikki
Christensen, Steve and Nan
Christensen, Ryan and Val and Stewy and Hayden
Christensen ??, Marni and Josh and Riley and Marky

"The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born." ~Pearl S. Buck

Sneek Peak

We are home safe from our family re-union in Torrey, Utah. Details will come tomorrow, poor Brad has missed us!!


Micah sporting his racing goggles :)

Myles, Dusty, Sierra, and Shakierra on our hike of Golden Throne in Capital Reef.

Myles competing (and winning) the long jump competition at the Family Olympics.

April and Myles on our hike.

Word Out!

Phelps

How about that Michael Phelps!!! That dude is amazing. He just keeps kicking butt and taking names, if you know what I mean ;) 10 Olympic medals is nothin' to shake a stick at!

I remember when I swam in High School (Go Lakewood Lancers!!), I usually had to compete in the Back Stroke due to the fact that I can not dive to save my life. Not to say that the back stroke didn't have it's obstacles. One time I was warming up in the shallow pool before a meet. So I grab the side and dive backwards in to start my dolphin kick and whamoo and I swear I cracked my tail bone! I was bleeding from my tail bone and it felt like someone had hit me with a bat. Then there are the lane lines to contend with.... I can remember more then one occasion where I am sure I broke my pinkie toe by kicking the lane line so hard. I swam because it was something I could do in-spite of my lack of coordination, but I just have a knack for injuring myself :)

Of course my brother Rob did out-do me in the injury department. He actually cut off his pinkie toe when he ejected off the wall and his toe was sliced by a broken light. Makes my bleeding tail bone sound kinda wimpy, thanks Rob!!!

Dennis and Rob played water-polo as well as swimming. I still love to watch water-polo. Myles is mesmerized when he watches it that they tread water the entire game. While watching it Sunday Myles asked "Are you sure not even the goalie has something to stand on?" He doesn't quite get it :)

So what sport did each of you play in High School?

"If one synchronized swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too?" ~Steven Wright

Humorous Workouts

Brad and I just finished working out. Every 0nce in a while, just to mix things up, I will lead us through an impromptu workout with my aerobic CD going in the background. Brad thinks during these types of workout sessions that it is his duty to distract me and make me laugh in hopes that if he does it enough I will cut the session short. It has yet to work, but he gets and E for effort :) Tonight's tactic was aerobic strip-tease. Every move I instructed him to do turned into some way to lift his shirt. Ok, maybe you had to be there to really see the humor in this, but it was pretty darn funny!!

Earlier this evening we took the kids to get their new school supplies. What happened to the days of Peachy folders! I swear the two of them could open an office with the amount of supplies they scored tonight.

"If you ain't got no money take your broke ass home." -- Fergie (compliments of Myles)

Shopping Hangover

I took Myles school shopping (multiple times) this weekend. Man that kid is spoiled!! But he is all set for school to start on the 18th. I was pretty impressed with his taste in clothes, back-pack, shoes, etc... He picks out stuff that is hip and in style without looking like a hoodlum (thank goodness). Some of the stores we went into were down right scary, the kids working there look like a freakish science experiment gone wrong!

We have enjoyed watching the Olympics so far. The summer games are much more interesting to me then the winter games. While bringing laundry upstairs Brad decided that "Laundry Hefting" should be added to the Olympics. He is sure that he could medal in that! I can hear the commentators now "Interesting choice, he is going to use the Rubber-Maid basket for this round."

I have a new appreciation for Sherbet!! I am the world's biggest ice cream fan (and that is an understatement). But in an effort to keep the calories down Brad convinced me to try sherbet. We got Raspberry Sherbet and it is delectable!!

Well I am going to go join Brad on the couch to watch swimming.

'The fewer rules a coach has, the fewer rules there are for players to break." ~John Madden

Boys will be Boys

I have a house full of rowdy teenage boys!! Poor Shakierra keeps just rolling her eyes at them. It is definitely time for school to start again, they need some structure in their lives! Becky brought over a pan of rice crispy treats and they disappeared in 3 seconds flat. So here are the boys running on a sugar high.

Myles, Porter, Seth and Josh

One week from today and three out of the four of us will be in Torrey at the family reunion. Brad and the dogs are going to stay home and have a raging party. We are looking forward to some great hiking and yummy smores.

"If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers." ~Edgar W. Howe

Just Because

I came home to a beautiful arrangement of Gerber Daisey's. Brad has always been so great about getting me flowers "just because". He knows that Gerber's are one of my favorites (they were the main flower at our wedding). I am a lucky lady to have such a Sweet husband!!


Both kids are now home again (it is about time, the trashes really need to go out and the house needs to be vacuumed!) Seriously, they do tons around the house. They gripe a little bit about their chores, but when allowance is handed out they seem much more chipper :) $5 a week has been the going rate for over 2 years now, I am sure inflation will catch up with us eventually (dang-it-all!)

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." ~Phyllis Diller

Odd Day

Monday is when Brad has a little free time, the rest of the week he is sleeping or working non-stop. So you would think he would deserve a quiet peaceful day, but oh no, not my Brad he is a magnet for odd things! He went to his Dad and Tammy's studio this morning to wash their windows. He noticed his friends truck in the adjoining Harman's parking lot and drove over for a quick hello. While sitting there chatting two cars pull up and get into a huge argument of someone cutting the other one off on the road. Well one thing leads to another and there is pushing a shoving and then threats of a gun. About then Matt, Brad's friend, calls the police. No one was hurt but Brad and Matt did have to give the police statements.

So after that little ordeal Brad heads over and starts washing the outside windows of the studio. Some yahoo is just standing around watching him and then starts talking to him. The guy proceeds to tell his life story from employment, children, that he has Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion as a child.... Then he tells Brad they should get their families together for a BBQ. By now Brad is trying to figure out how to best defend himself with his window washing tools!! (I can see it now.. Brad using his extension pole as a bow staff and busting this guys chops!!! ok, I watch too many movies!)

So Brad's day was generally just odd. The poor guy needed to go to work tonight just to get back to some sort of normalcy :)

"Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought." ~Henri Louis Bergson

Bead Party!

Heather, Mom and I went up to Sugar House to our favorite bead shop yesterday. We spent several hours beading until our fingers could take it no-more. Then we headed over o Pei Wei to replenish our strength before hitting The Rack. (BTW- When riding with Heather, keep all fingers inside at all times!!! She tried to test my reflexes by rolling my index finger into the window. Good thing I have those Cat-Like-Reflexes or I would be minus a digit today!)

Here is darling Heather picking out her beads. You may think this smile is purely due to spending the day with Mom and I, but lets be honest, she was soooo happy to have an afternoon away from Grace & Jane ;)

Here is Mom stringing one of her bracelets. Doesn't she look great!! Tomorrow starts another round of Chemo, so this wont be a fun week. But she is being a trooper!
And here are the Sisters! (Grace and Jane this will be you in 30 years, hahaha) We even postponed starting to read the Stephenie Meyer book, Breaking Dawn, to go on this girls outing. Is that love or what!?!?
Brad and I saw The Dark Knight last night. Wow, totally a must see for the big screen! It lived up to the hype and Brad was even glad that I drug him to see it :)

'To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. " ~Clara Ortega

Finally Friday

This week has seemed extra long and hard to get though (even though I had Monday off). So I was so very happy that today was Friday. I got out of the office about 5 minutes early, I just couldn't work one second longer!!! This evening Brad and I went to the Lehi Legacy Center Pool. We mostly laid out, but did a little swimming (but that was mostly to cool down). We took Subway with us and had a little picnic on our lounge chairs poolside. Who needs a fancy resort with poolside service?!?! After sunning and swimming for about 2 1/2 hours we headed to Wal-Mart for a few essentials. (We ran out of toothpaste and have had to use the kids toothpaste the last few times. Yuck! I don't know how they brush their teeth with those funky flavors. Give me a nice minty toothpaste or don't bother!! Sorry, got off on a tangent there :))

Brad is off to work now. So it is just the dogs and I. Myles went to Duschene with our friends Holly and Trevor. He just called and they are having a rifle shooting contest tomorrow, so he is in hog heaven!! Shakierra is in Yellow Stone with her mom. So I got a quiet night to paint my toe nails. The dogs aren't too happy. I have left them out fearing they will destroy the nail polish. It should be dry enough to let them in soon, but Evie is out there letting me (and the neighbors)know how very upset she is.

"Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they've got nothing to lose." -- Robin Williams