Fall Break - Part 2

After spending 3 days at the Disney parks we headed to Laguna Beach where my brother and his family live.  We spent a few hours at the quiet beach across the street from their house (lucky ducks!) and enjoyed exploring the tide pools.  Then Darin, my sister-in-law, served us a fabulous dinner (she is an amazing hostess!) and we enjoyed a fun evening of visiting.

Then we headed further south to San Diego where we spent the rest of the week with my sister (another amazing hostess!) and her family.  Thanks Lizzie!  Unfortunately, Jay had to go back to work, so he flew home.  We missed him, but had a good time in SD.  We enjoyed Seaport Village....

the USS Midway tour.....

the Mormon Battalion Visitor Center.....

and Coronado Island.  We walked around the Hotel Del and I ran into one of my very dearest friends!  What are the chances???  We also rented bikes and rode around the island.  I have always wanted to do that, and it was a fun way to spend my birthday.  Yes, I celebrated my birthday there, and Liz made me a delicious cake.

It was a great trip but we were glad to return to our home that we love, and be with our husband/dad who we love!

Fall Break - Part 1

At the Lego Store, Downtown Disney

 We take our family to Disneyland during Fall Break every other year, and this year was a "Disneyland Year." 

 One of our favorite things to do at Disneyland is ride "Splash Mountain" and make weird faces for the camera.... we usually decide on a "theme" and we all pose in an appropriate way.  We get tired of seeing the same expression of wide-eyed-wide-smiled surprise in every photo so this time we all tried to look the opposite... bored and expressionless.  Jay is even pretending to be asleep!

 Every time we ride the Winnie-the-Pooh ride we have the kids pose at this spot... it's fun (and kind of sad) to see how they have grown!

 After all these years, this was our first ride on the Mark Twain River Boat!

We love the rides at Disneyland, of course, but some of our favorite things are the non-rides.  The shows at the Golden Horseshoe are really fun, especially Billy Hill and the Hillbillies (music/comedy).  Very entertaining.


We have always loved "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln" on Main Street.  It has been completely renovated recently and it's quite impressive.  However, we were a little disappointed because he no longer recites the Gettysburg Address!  But it's still really cool, and very patriotic.

Captain EO was re-released as a tribute to Michael Jackson after his death.  Jay and I laughed our heads off remembering seeing it for the first time, but our kids had never seen it before, of course.  They thought it was pretty cheesy, which is totally is.  Totally.  The music is pretty catchy though.

Muppet Vision 3-D at California Adventure is very fun, and it always takes us by surprise even though we have seen it many times.  We are a Muppet-loving family.

The Aladdin show at California Adventure is awesome, but the close-up-and-personal interactive story-telling show at Aladdin's Oasis was really fun too, especially if you got selected from the audience to participate (which Collin did one year).  Unfortunately, they stopped doing the show, which is a bummer; it was very funny and entertaining.  It's still there, tucked between the Tiki Room (another of our favorites) and the Jungle Cruise (fun for some good laughs) but I think now they just use it for photo ops with Jasmine and Aladdin.

When Mary was younger we loved the princess storytelling, but that was also when it was in the toy shop, and it was very intimate... and really, really funny.  It's a lot different now.  Oh well.

We love Disneyland!

Oh, and if you are looking for a quiet place to have an affordable dinner at Disney (quite a feat!), duck into the Grand Californian and head for "White Water Snacks" by the pool.... you can buy pre-made salads and sandwiches, but we always order off the menu and they cook it to order and bring it you!  :)

William joins our family temporarily

We babysat my sister's little boy for several days while she and her husband took a trip for their anniversary.  He really took to Jay immediately.  My sister and I look alike so it's easy for him to adjust to me as mom for a few days, but it cracks me up how quickly he accepted his new home and family without a fuss.  He is such a cute boy and a lot of fun.  We enjoyed having him. 

Follow the Steeple

My book club is doing something different this month... writing! Actually, we are reading too... books about writing... and then writing stories from our own life.   Here is one from my childhood.


Follow the Steeple

"Just follow the steeple." said Aaron.  "It will lead us home."

I believed him.  He said it with complete confidence, and I had known him my entire life... all five long years at the time... so I had no reason to doubt him.  Besides, he was a boy, and since I had an older brother and was used to letting him tell me what to do, it seemed that Aaron was the obvious leader over me and my best friend, Liselle, who was also Aaron's cousin.  Liselle and I simply trusted Aaron in our 5-year-old way.

The three of us lived on the same street in Mesa, within a few houses of each other, and attended morning kindergarten at a nearby elementary school.  Our mothers were friends, so carpooling was natural.  On this particular day, someone was late picking us up after school (we didn't keep track, so I have no idea whose turn it was... we simply trusted them too).  We were tired of waiting what seemed like an eternity, though it was likely only a few minutes longer than our normal wait.

I don't remember who had the brilliant idea of walking home, but it seemed like a good plan to our grumbling tummies.  It wasn't far; certainly it was within walking distance.  And the weather was nice (always an important consideration in the Arizona desert), but it would require crossing a busy major street in mid-day traffic, though that didn't seem to concern any of us much.

What did concern us was that we didn't know the way home.  Since we were used to traveling to and from school in a car, and our young minds had not yet developed much sense of direction, we were rather stumped at first.  We seemed to know the general direction, but not how to navigate the streets around the buildings between the school and our homes.

At this point, Liselle and I gave up.  Waiting seemed preferable to getting lost.  But Aaron was undaunted.  "Just follow the steeple," he said.  That perked us up.  Liselle and I didn't even question this; we knew he was right.  The church, whose tall steeple towered above the houses and trees, stood at the end of our quiet suburban street, and we walked there to attend services every Sunday.  We knew exactly where it was!  We could see it from the school!  And because we trusted Aaron, we knew the steeple would lead us home.

And somehow it did.  I guess Aaron deserves some credit too, for he was able to keep two gasping 5-year-old girls pressing forward on what turned out to be a much longer walk than any of us anticipated.  Taking a route that I now know to be very much "the long way home," we arrived at the church, exhausted and hungry (it was now well past lunch time), and found our jilted chauffeur driving around frantically to find us.  Down came the car window and we heard an anxious voice exclaim, "You walked home?!  How did you know the way?"

We three triumphant hikers simply smiled and replied in unison, "We just followed the steeple."

Music Classes

Music has been a huge part of my life since I was a little girl.  I have been singing and performing since I was 6 years old.  These days it's mostly just in church and at family functions, but I still love it. 

I even majored in music in college.... well, for a while.  I had a scholarship for Musical Dance Theatre, and it was a blast.  (Later I decided to "get real" and changed my major to the extremely practical "English," because there's so much you can do with that... or so I believed.)

A few years ago I started teaching music classes in my home, for preschoolers.  I really enjoyed it but had to let it go for a while (for a number of reasons).  I decided I'm ready to start again, and it's time to spread the word!

If you are interested and live in the East Valley, the Fall 2011 Semester starts on September 6th.  Go here for more information.

The Whole Wide World

I couldn't resist making my own map after my sister-in-law posted hers.



visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Actually, there are probably a few that I forgot because I visited them when I was so young that I don't remember.  So, I will just have to go again someday.

As for countries, here is how it looks for me:


visited 13 states (5.77%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Of course, this map is deceiving because it appears as if I have traveled to every US State (obviously, I have not), and extensively through Canada (have not).  And it's so small you can't tell which European countries I have visited (UK, Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland).  

I have a ways to go.

Prone Time

While recovering from my illness, I have had quite a bit of "prone time," and therefore, time to read.  You can find out what I read, and some of my thoughts, over at my other blog.... Alice Reviews Media.



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My Super-Sick Adventure

Here is what has been going on with me lately.  If you aren't interested in "The Whole Story", you can skip to the "abridged version" at the end.  :)

THE WHOLE STORY
A couple of weeks ago I was having symptoms of a UTI over the weekend.  On Monday morning I called the doctor and they got me in that day.  I was given Bactrim (standard anti-biotic for UTI's) to treat the infection and told to come back at the end of the week to follow up. 

By Thursday I had finished the Bactrim but instead of feeling better I was feeling worse.... I still had all the symptoms plus severe "flank pain."  I thought it might be a kidney stone. 

On Friday I returned to the doctor and she said, "Since the anti-biotic didn't help, I think it might be a kidney stone.  We need more tests."  So they sent me out for blood work (cultures, which take a few days) and a CT scan to check for more kidney stones, etc.  She said a kidney stone can cause a blockage leading to a kidney infection.  This worried me.  This was Friday afternoon and I was feeling a bit better, thinking I had probably passed a kidney stone and was on the "up and up."  (Kidney stones can cause the same symptoms as a UTI, plus pain.)

I felt pretty good on Saturday but by evening I had a high fever/violent shivering, severe head ache, nausea and low back pain, which continued all day Sunday.  In my mind I was thinking, "I must have a kidney infection.  I have to go back to the doctor on Monday morning."

On Monday morning I realized it was a holiday (Memorial Day) and the doctor's office was closed, so I asked Jay to take me to Urgent Care.  The doctor there diagnosed a kidney infection and I was immediately put on IV anti-biotics.  Over an hour later I still had a high fever and had not responded as they expected me to.  The doctor came back in and said, "You are really sick and we have done all we are equipped to do.  We are sending you to the hospital.  Right now.  In an ambulance."  I was a little freaked out, but mostly just so sick that I didn't care what they did to me... I just wanted to get better.  Fast! 

I arrived in the ER and heard the paramedic say to the admitting nurse, "They are worried about Sepsis."  I know that term and that freaked me out even more.  I spent the next couple of hours in the ER getting poked and prodded, and was given a nice dose of Valium and Morphine that made me feel pretty darn good for a little while. 

I spent the rest of the week at Banner Gateway Medical Center (great hospital) where they pumped me full of fluids (I was quite dehydrated) until I was so swollen I couldn't make a fist, several different kind of IV anti-biotics (and lactobacillus to combat those), phosphates (?) and magnesium to get my levels back to normal, morphine and percocet for the headaches, Zofran for the nausea, and Tylenol for the high fevers.  They did several more CT scans, drew blood several times a day (from my pathetic/difficult veins) and became frustrated when my fevers did not abate and my white blood cell count didn't go back to normal.  And worried when a CT scan showed on a spot on my kidney that looked like an absess that would need to be drained by inserting a giant needle into my side!  Ouch!  Thank goodness further tests showed it was JUST a spot of infection.  Whew!

They called in the infectious disease specialist (what a character!  Dr. House anyone?) who asked a million seemingly random questions about my health, history, and life-style, plus examined, poked and prodded.  I was officially diagnosed with Pyelonephritis (kidney infection), pre-sepsis, anemia, and.... pneumonia.  Yes, pneumonia, which apparently was a result of some of the extra IV fluids entering my lungs.  They altered my medicines to target the pneumonia as well and called it good.  (I kept telling all the doctors and nurses that I was having trouble breathing and I was wheezing.  They said thing like, "Well, I listened to your lungs and they are clear.  It's probably just post-nasal drip/stress/anxiety, etc."  Yeah, right.) 

I finally got to go home on Saturday with my arms looking like they belonged to a heroine addict, 10 more days worth of oral anti-biotics (levaquin), and zofran for the continued nausea, and they told me to stay hydrated and expect to feel like garbage for a couple more weeks.  Great.  Thank goodness I'm feeling much better today... I even drove to the doctor!  The nausea and light-headedness are gone, as are the headaches, and....unfortunately, I got my appetite back.  Darn. 

Now they have to figure out why I'm anemic, I have to follow up with a urologist, and probably have a colonoscopy.  I feel like I have aged 10 years in 2 weeks. 

A word of advice.... DON'T GET SICK! 

FUNNY MOMENTS
During the ambulance ride, the paramedic asked, "Are you normally fair skinned?"  I replied (through my chattering teeth), "Yes, why?"  He replied, "Well, you are really pale and I just wanted to make sure that is normal for you or if there is something else going on."  I almost laughed.  Yes, I am fair-skinned, but I think I was probably extra pale considering what was going on in my body.

Dr. Oommen, the infectious disease specialist, after doing a preliminary evaluation left the room to check out my test results/charts.  A few minutes later he opened the door and poked his head and said, "Do you have any hobbies?"  I almost laughed out loud.  Was he making conversation?  I was surprised and confused and couldn't think of anything, though I know I have hobbies, so I didn't respond immediately.  He must have noticed I was confused, so she said, "You know, like hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, mountain climbing...."  Then I did laugh.  "Uh, no," I said.  "Nothing like that." 

"Do you do anything outdoors?" 
I said, "Well, I jog." 
"Have you ever had valley fever?"
"Not that I know of."
"Have you had a cold?"
"No, not lately."
"Has anyone in your household been sick recently?"
"No."
"Have you been in a wind storm?"
(By this time the curiosity was about to kill me.) "No, why?"
"Oh, well, you have pneumonia." 
(This is how you break it to me?)  "Huh?"
"Apparently it's just because of all the extra fluids... some got in your lungs."
"So, now what?"
"Oh, I'm just changing one of your anti-biotics to one that will target pneumonia too." 
"Pneumonia!  I've been wheezing and no one would believe me!"
"Well, I believe you.  See you tomorrow."  And he shut the door. 


ABRIDGED VERSION
- I got a UTI and was given Bactrim for it (pretty standard for a UTI).
- The infection happened to be resistant to Bactrim.
- The UTI turned into a kidney infection.
- I spent 6 days in the hospital, got pneumonia on top of the infection, and almost got sepsis.
- I'm home now and mostly recovered.  I think.
- Being sick sucks.

Random stuff from May

The kids had their last day of school.  It was a crazy few weeks.  I helped put together 3 quilts for some ladies who retired after being at the school for many years, and my amazing cousin made these gorgeous cakes in their honor!

Among other things, they had 50's Day at school.  These are the costumes we threw together at the last minute (Collin thought he was too "mature" to dress up). 

Jay helped Jack build a bike from old parts, like he did for Collin a few months ago....

Jay and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary with an amazing dinner at Ruth's Chris....

Jay made this wonderful shed to protect our bikes....

 

My mom rescued 2 abandoned baby birds from a tree in her yard.  They didn't have any feathers at first, but they grew fast.  My parents went out of town for several days and recruited us to "bird sit."  It was a lot of work, feeding them by hand constantly throughout the day (bits of wet whole wheat bread), but it was quite an adventure for the kids.

They have since flown off to join the rest of the birds in the neighborhood.  Whew!

 Oh, and in April my kids enjoyed a fun day at the zoo with their cousins.

 Petting the sting rays was definitely one of the highlights.

So, that's May (and some of April) in a nutshell.

Collin's 12th Birthday

Collin had some friends over to celebrate his 12th birthday.  (I can't believe he is so "old."  It's scary.)  I made pizza and they ate a bunch of other junk too, and, of course, cake and ice cream.  They also played basketball and tag, watched a movie outside in the backyard, and played frisbee with a pizza that I accidentally forgot about on the grill.  It was black, and they thought it was hilarious.  That's 12-year-old boys for you.  This was a few days before his birthday.

On his actual birthday, both sets of grandparents dropped by with money (the most exciting gift at this age), and my parents also brought a candy gram.

 

But the following Sunday was the best of all.... Jay ordained Collin a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood.  Both his grandfathers also participated.  He is named after both of these great men.  Collin is such a good boy and we are very proud of him.