Happy Heart Day (a little late)!!

Hello all you blog people!  This is Daniel.  I’m writing for my Mom tonight, ‘cause she’s kinda embarrassed about forgetting to write about an important day on this blog.

I can’t believe she forgot to write about it!  Shhh….don’t tell her I said so!

It’s OK, though.  I’m not mad or anything.  I just thought it would be fun to tell you all about it myself!

A whole bunch of days ago (OK, mom said it was a YEAR ago…whatever that is!), I got dressed up in this funny shirt thing, and there were lots of strange people coming in and out of a small room to look at me and talk to my mom and dad.  They all said how cute I was and lots of other stuff like that.

Mom and dad seemed kinda’ worried.  But they were giving me lots of snuggles and kisses, so I was A-OK.  We walked down a hall with one of the guys that came in to talk to us, and then they let him hold me.  He was a really nice guy.  I didn’t even cry at all! 

And then I went to sleep and when I woke up things were reeeaallly weird!  There was all this stuff on me and and I was in a weird crib and there were lots of strange noises and lights.  And I got to see my mommy and daddy again.  And they looked so happy!

Mommy said that all those things were helping make me better.  And when I was all better stuff like eating and playing would be so much easier.  After lots of days sleeping in that weird crib, we got to say “Bye” to all those nice people that kept saying how cute I was and go home to my own crib.  And I got to see all my brothers and sisters again, and my Dad too.  Boy, I missed them a lot!!

And now I’m such a big boy!  I can crawl super fast like a spider, and I can even walk around if I have something to hold onto.

You can see that line on my chest where they fixed me up.  My mom likes to call it my zipper.  I don’t know what that is, but I’ll always know that I can do everything I do because those doctor guys put that zipper in my chest.  I like those doctor guys!

Flu Shots and Tomatoes

Yesterday we headed down to the Health Dept. (all 6 of us) to get our flu shots. We learned the hard way last spring - during tax season - that it is not a good thing when everyone in the house has the flu - at the same time! We just never made it in last fall to get the shots, so this year it was a huge priority.

Rachel went first, cried a little, but was more than happy to stop for a sucker.

I went next, then Josh, who was very tough.

Then Emily went, wincing the entire time and squeezing my hand as hard as she could! She stepped away to pick out her sucker, and Jared got his (shot, not a sucker - although he did a great job and deserved one too).

As soon as he was done, Emily said, "Uh oh!" and turned as pale as I've seen her since she passed out with her first tooth!

Can you see where I'm going with this??

Jared, with Caleb in one arm, caught her on the way down to the floor as she passed out!

This girl adds so much excitement to an otherwise boring and hated event!!

The nurse dropped everything and got down with her to help her out - had to even give her a little wiggle to get her eyes open again!

When Emily woke up, she said, "Did I pass out??"

Uh, yeah! So she lay there on the floor while the nurse got her some concentrated Tang to drink.

And Caleb got his shot. I don't even think he realized what was happening as he was happily slobbering on the sucker Jared stuck in his mouth right before the shot!

We all walked out on our own two feet, thankfully!

But I don't know if Emily's going to be so willing to go back next year!

Now, on to tomatoes. This morning I picked 14 gallons!! That's right - 14!! That's twice as much as I picked a couple weeks ago, and that batch yielded 38 pints of crushed tomatoes (which Jared canned all by himself - with kids running around)!! Heaven help us!! Thank goodness Jared found some people at work to come take them from us. I was ready to set them on the driveway with a sign that said, "FREE - PLEASE HELP US!!"

A Guessing Game!!!

I just spent this much money

(that's $$DOLLARS$$ folks)


on ONE item today.



Can anyone guess what I purchased??


A new outfit maybe??


How about first payment on a new vehicle???


Services of a personal physician for a day to get rid of all the ickies going 'round this house??


Maybe a new piece of furniture for our home?


Well, this is what I got

A 30-day supply of medicine that keeps Crohn's disease at bay,

or at least lets me feel good enough to do all the things I'm supposed to do.

I HAVE INSURANCE!!!!!

Does anyone else think this is OUTRAGEOUS???

By the way, if I didn't have insurance, I would have paid this much

$740.62

Sick, Sick, Sick

I really am getting quite tired of the illnesses running around this family (see "Ode to My Mind" 0n Jan 6). It seems like it will never end! Just this month, we've had Emily with her 2nd round of strep, Rachel with her 2nd ear infection in 3 weeks, Caleb with who knows what (a cold on top of a cold probably), me with a sinus infection, and Josh home from school because his throat hurt. And that was all by the 15th of the month!!!

Yesterday, though, was the day of all sick days. Picture this: sitting in Stake Conference, listening as best we can, me beaming with pure joy because Jared is sitting on the bench with us, Rachel busy and noisy as usual, Emily and Josh asking when we will be done every five minutes for the entire last hour. We come to the closing prayer, and all of a sudden, Caleb starts throwing up! And Jared can't find the burper to contain things! And we're having a lovely conversation - "Caleb's throwing up! I can't find the burper!" "Well, isn't it in his carseat with him?" "I thought it was, but I can't find it anywhere!" - right during the middle of the prayer. Thank heavens it wasn't during the opening prayer!!

You might think the fun ends there. Oh, how wonderful that would be. Caleb had one more small episode of throwing up later in the afternoon. But the real fun starts about 5 p.m. I am getting a few last things ready for dinner. I am standing at the sink, Caleb is on the floor right by my feet, and Rachel is standing next to me. All of a sudden, she throws up, and poor Caleb is the very ungrateful and unlucky recipient of its landing!! So Jared whisks Caleb off to the bathtub while I clean up the rug and Rachel, who at this point is looking stunned and slightly pale.

Clean up accomplished. So we sit down to have dinner. Rachel sat in her highchair and sucked on an ice cube while we had our food - sorry Rachel, I'm sure you don't want anything to eat, and I know I don't want you to have anything. We finished up, cleaned up, and I went to take Rachel out of her high chair, when the volcano erupted, AGAIN!!! And this time it splashed all over my foot! As I look at Rachel, I see that face - HERE IT COMES AGAIN!! And I, being the very loving mother that I am, make a quick run for it to avoid getting it all over the rest of me! Jared whisked her off to the tub and I cleaned up the highchair and floor.

Well, to make a long story a bit shorter, we ended the night with Caleb getting yet another bath (his 3rd in 24 hours) and both of them going to bed early! Whew!!

Please, oh please, let this be the end, the grand finale, the final episode of illnesses in this house!!

The Little Things

I recently spent three days in the hospital with Emily while she recovered from a very severe case of pneumonia. She had been sick for 10 days before we finally figured out what was going on. I know we have all gained an extra measure of grattitude for the things in life that seem so little but are really huge when it comes down to it. Little things like:

• Tylenol and Ibuprofen to help a raging fever
• a doctor who really knows what she's doing
• the ability to breathe without difficulty
• the ability to move around on your own
• the comfort of the Holy Ghost
• the power of a priesthood blessing to soothe and comfort a restless child
• all of the modern medical conveniences and knowledge that can allow a child to recover from something that, 100 years ago, probably would have taken her life
• PORTABLE OXYGEN!!!
• antibiotics
• x-rays
• FAMILY!!!

I could probably make a list a mile long, but don't have the time or space. I am always awed at the love and concern shown to us by family, friends, doctors, and most especially Heavenly Father. I know we wouldn't have made it through any of this without each one of them. A gigantic THANK YOU and WE LOVE YOU to each of you!