Petpalooza

In an effort to raise money for "our" (OPT, John and our family) medical dog, John manned a booth at Petpalooza with a friend Erlene who makes and sells cute & fun accessories for dogs, and Lisa who oversees Dogs for Cures and her son Liam with his diabetic dog.

The kids and I went to support John, see all the dogs, and to have a little fun.

Which we did...

A little Face Painting

Yes and even Tate sat surprisingly still to get a lil paw print on his face.

Pony Rides

Tate loves Horses-books, toys, and well real horses from a distance! He was hesitant at first but after he saw all the ponies and sat on a few different ones he found one he wanted to ride on.

The bouncy houses are always a big hit!

Then there were the dogs-which we mostly looked at from a distance. Risso was at the booth next to John's and although I'm actually very scared of Rottweiler's this one was gently, sweet and hard not to love. Her owner Bill assured us she loved women and children and when she rolled over for her belly to be rubbed I fell for her.

We ended with the park-where McKenna practiced her Monkey bar skills and Tyler and Tate happily flew down the slide.

John didn't move much, but he did go for a stroll with us.

And then it was over...We hope we get our dog soon!

McKenna

It was a great McKenna day!

It started out with an IEP meeting with her teacher Mrs Mickelson, speech teacher Mrs Daugherty and the Learning Specialist Ms Billie Jo Bandi. I love all these women for all their patience and hard work with my child as well as sooo many others. I appreciate the love they show her and the confidence they have in her, and I LOVE that they rejoice in how far she's come in the last year and rejoice with every mile mark in her learning she reaches.

A brief overview is that McKenna is doing really well. With her testing she did 39 letters correct per minute with 100% accuracy, which was an improvement from last fall when she did 24 letters with 92.3% accuracy. She knows all her site words, sounds out a lot of her words while reading, and after hearing all this I have to admit that I was surprised when they told me that her strength was in Math and numbers. I've always struggled with her in that area, or else she was just pushing me to bring out the M&M's for adding and subtracting. She is NOT a dumb girl. She plays with lots of kids at school, always helps out and stays on task, and never throws a fit. My jaw dropped when I heard this, but I'm thankful she saves those for our house. One day I hope they stop. :) Everyone loves her, all the teachers know her, and I'm very proud o her for all she's conquered within herself.

Tonight as we were chatting and she was laying in bed she got really excited and told me that she did the Monkey Bars today. From start to finish and how she's spent a lot of time practicing and she did it, all the way. Then she told me she jumped down and waited in line to do them again, "and it wasn't hard to wait." That's a big thing for her because it's always hard to wait, and I agree. Then she talked about some bars that are too big and are only for the 3rd graders. She was so excited and cute and I loved that she was opening up and talking about school and how proud she was for accomplishing something she wanted to be able to do.

Way to go McKenna! Keep up the good work!

We Love you and We're so Proud of you!

John

Another surgery...or two has come and gone for John in a fashion that is soooo John. Meaning when John realized he had a meniscus tear in his right knee that needed to be "cleaned up" before he could run anymore he decided to take full advantage of the situation. He also needed his finger-ring finger on his left hand fixed up a little so that he could have a little more flexibility in it. Well with the cost of healthcare why not have it all done at one. Two Surgeries- and although you have to pay for 2 doctors, he only had to pay for one hospital room, nursing staff, and anesthesiologist. That's right-he's a thinker this one!

Dr. Huang did a great Job on his knee and reported, "a degenerative tear across the back part of the inside knee," and he had to remove 30% of the meniscus and then gave us a few pictures.

Dr. Barthel also did a great job-she was able to release the lateral ligaments and the volar plate to regain about 30 degrees of extension-meaning he'll be able to straighten his finger more. I took my own picture of his finger when he took the dressing off for therapy. I was ok until he was having a hard time with the therapy and his face started to lose color and then my stomach began to churn.

Once again this is not for the weak stomach.

John couldn't have picked a better week to be off work, sun is forcasted to shine all week. Luckily he has Tyler who has spent a lot of quality time with him. She been keeping him company, bringing him ice, and making him beautiful pictures. She loves taking care of him, but made it clear when I mentioned that we needed to be his nurses that she didn't want to play "Nursie".

Mother's day surprise part 2

The day after Mother's Day was not my best Mother's...day. My kids were not acting out anymore than normal-but for some reason my temper and patience was a lot thinner. Funny enough I remember the same thing happening last year.

Well Tuesday morning was a new and determinedly a better day. There was bound to be a hulde or two-and when I came out of the shower I found that Tate had gotten a hold of my Mother's day flower and dumped it on my freshly washed rug. It must have been a test-but I was determined to be a little more patient and so we quickly cleaned it up and replanted it and moved on-leaving the bad memory of Monday behind us.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I LOVE Mother's Day! I love being able to have a day to spend reflecting on all the wonderful women in my life both past & present as well as pondering the future. Especially reflecting on the two wonderful Mother's I have, and my fabulous 85-yr old Grandma Odessa, sisters, aunts, friends...and their example.

I love waking to my kids bidding my a Happy Mother's Day and all the well wishes that come from friends family and to passers by in the hallway at church. I love having the Elders Quorum take over primary for a day so we as primary leaders can attend Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society. This really is better than Christmas to me!

This year I was beyond pleasantly surprised by the 2 large boxes I found waiting for me in the kitchen. The Bosch KitchenAid Plus. 800 Watts of Sheer Power that can make up to 9 dozen cookies or 12-14 lbs of dough at a time. For me it was a dream come true!

Put to good use-Lion House Rolls, Honey Butter & Mashed Potatoes

John's wondering why he didn't do this sooner-buy me a toy-to which I would love to go ahead and make my own Mother's Day Meal.

I'm sure Tate is saying, "I want You for my Mom"-excuse the messy dinner plate remains

So hard to choose a picture...why can't everyone just look at the camera together?

Tulip Festival 2011

There's a primary song that's going through my head-except that I really don't remember the words but in my head it goes like this: "Tulips, Tulips all around, in the sky and on the ground." Ok so they weren't in the sky but they were all around and they were gorgeous as was the weather. We really couldn't have asked for a better day.

The night before Grandma's sister, Aunt Katherine and her husband Uncle Gary drove up to go with us. We ended up taking 2 cars, but I think it worked out so the sisters could spend some quality time together.

Kids couldn't wait to get out in the fields. It was pretty dry except for a few mud puddles around the edges. We had to rope Tate in a few times but he did pretty well at not grabbing the flowers. I only caught one he'd ripped out of the ground carrying it around like a trophy.

Grandma, John & Tate, Mom & Tyler, Aunt Cathy & McKenna

We stopped for lunch in our favorite spot in La Connor

We had a great time with Grandma Payne, Aunt Kathy & Uncle Gary!

We then headed home to get a couple of birthday cakes made for a party and the adults stayed to see a little more of the beautiful fields in Mt Vernon!

Just for Documentary purposes-and because I was so excited and flattered to have been asked to make the cakes for my friend Ady's husbands 40th Birthday Party. It didn't necessarily go as smoothly as I hoped but the outcome was pretty and I had many report that they were Yummy!

I made 2 cakes: Nie Nie's Mud Cake from Cheeky Kitchen...

...and a Salty Sweet Cake