September 2016

We knew this month would be a tough one,  we thought we were adequately prepared for it.

Boy some of us were wrong. 

School schedule is in full swing. 

We have planned and re-planned

and adjusted and re-adjusted our system like 40 times

and it still isn't perfection, but we are SO close.

The term "it takes a village"

is so true in our life. 

I DO NOT know how we could pull this mess off with just the two of us.

We couldn't.....

We just could not be anywhere near successful without the help of everyone in the family.

There are simply too many of us going in too many different directions.  We have 5 kids in school/preschool at 4 different schools at 5 different times.  The mental planning is

overwhelming, the physical execution of it is a work of art. 

And it's almost a well oiled machine here a month later, but it's taken us a month.

Ryker is LOVING his preschool at Sandra's.

Raleigh does his hair

and Ryker gets so mad if Raleigh makes "church hair" on school days.

He wakes right up.  Gives us NO trouble.

Puts his own clothes on and waits for me in the car.

And it's no wonder he loves it there...

after school time and story time they go on great adventures

 They learn about tractors

 They go to the Children's Museum

 They learn about child care

and taking care of babies

Sandra is SO into these kids and loves them like they are her own.

Ryker loves her.

Sandra is a wonderful part of our village.



My mom and dad pick KK up from school 3 days a week.
She gets to go over to their house for a couple of hours on those days.
I am so excited about it because she and Kori read together and
work on her homework.   Kori is very patient and smart.
It's a good thing for both of them.

Nana has her color
and help her bake cookies.
She sometimes gets to go to physical therapy with Kori.
And to Costco.
She LOVES the days that Papa and Nana pick her up.
Papa, Nana and Kori are a fabulous part of our village.

Raleigh is in charge of all school projects.

He needs to experience the thrill and excitement of them.

Who am I to step in and deny him the opportunity to

showcase his creativity?

That would be rude of me.
Besides, I put in my time from 1999- 2014.

So, consequently this week he meticulously glued 500 sequins to a 

paper boot and made this WANTED poster.

It is the greatest blessing in my life to have a husband who
wants to help, wants to be hands on, wants to be involved.  

So Cute!!

Raleigh is a gigantic part of our village.

Fridays are school pride days.

Walt feels sad that he doesn't have a Redhawks shirt. 

Then there was a Holy War

And we woke up early and put on our colors.

I HATE my shirt that I spent $20 lousy dollars on.

It's big in some areas and small in others and feels all wrong and makes me in a bad mood.
It makes me feel bitter toward my alma mater that not one person can come up with a
cute shirt displaying our lame logo and our 1980s color scheme.  

 Also what made me in a bad mood was our stupid cable company

that blocked out the channel that the game was being aired on.

It only lasted for 20 minutes because they probably received one million calls of hate

(one of them was from Raleigh)

and so all of the sudden it came back on

 Mom and Dad totally stood us up and went to watch the game with 

The Pendletons

And when they found out that our cable was out, Sherrie invited us over to join their party...

but Mom got all nervous and secretly started sending us panicked texts like she was afraid we were

all really going to show up over there and eat all of their food and wreck their fun.

Kami started messing with her...... sending her texts pretending like there were "23" of us and we were piled in a car waiting at the Stone Cliff Guard shack for them to let us in.  

 We were gracious losers

But, we will be discussing "Targeting" in FHE

and the negative effects that happen in our lives when we get greedy

and try to get TWO of something when one would have been enough.

 Me in my stupid misshapen $20 shirt

 Then, this was the way I spent the next 56 hours of my month.

I am 99% positive I have Chiari Malformation.
An MRI would confirm it.  But, I have at least 107 other things I would
rather spend $1500 on than an MRI.
So, I am content, for now with my self diagnosis.

Chiari is HIGHLY hereditary and Kami has it and I have all the symptoms...

including, but not limited to VERTIGO.

I get it quite often and can usually knock it out with my medications.

But, not this time.

I had to miss two days of work, which is SO NOT like me.

And I literally hated myself every time I slightly moved any part of my body.

I am lucky to have a husband who knows how to cook and clean.
He vacuumed and got the kids ready for school.
He performed all of my tasks.

He went to the store for me at midnight to get ginger ale.

And then again at 5:00 am to get me crackers.

He also came up with the brilliant idea for me to try Dramamine.

Which didn't stop the spins, but did stop the nausea, so I could sit up

and walk to the bathroom by myself.

 Morgan and Parker went on their very last date for two years.

They dressed up and then went to Cappelettis
and then sat up by Dixie Rock and made plans for their future.

 This was Morgan getting ready for Parker's Farewell

What a good/bad....  happy/sad day this was.

I bawled almost uncontrollably through the entire Sacrament Meeting.

I don't know what my problem was.  Unless it was one of two things.

1.  I am so emotionally connected to Morgan that I was feeling all of her pain

OR

2.  I was imagining that my own son was leaving.  

Either way, I was an embarrassing mess. 

He's just been such a big part of all of our lives for over a year

and we have grown quite close to him. 

I am sure his family was thinking

"Who are you?  Get a grip."

And clean up your face, you have mascara everywhere.

 This was so hard to watch.

Like gutwrenching

He sat in a chair kinda by himself and sort of seemed dazed

 This is Morgan and Cami, Parker's sister.

Morgan loves her

 Raleigh...wondering why I am so emotional

and trying not to make fun of me....

 Why can't you just embrace that I feel things?  Deeply....

AND THEN...... THE BOY LEFT.......

And she sobbed uncontrollably for 2 whole hours on her bedroom floor
And I sat on her bed and took pictures of her falling apart. 

Aaannnnnnddd... then she hyperventilated and had to breathe into a bag.
I made Allie, Peyton and KK sign a contract that they
wouldn't wait for missionaries...  because I can't go
through this again.

One of my favorite things is school dress up days.

They are so awesome. 

For parents with complicated families/lives.

Making everything even more complicated. 

Which I appreciate.

Here's how it goes...

Thursday night (the night before the dress up day)

10:00 pm.

Laying in bed.

3/4 of the way asleep.

Me: Oh shoot, it's Cowboy Day Tomorrow

Raleigh: What? Tomorrow?

Me: Yes.  Oh well.  I'm a loser.  We'll do it next year.

Raleigh: Can't we get some outfits together?

They need to participate

Me: Ummmm...  the problem is, we are not cowboys

and so cowboy attire is not readily accessible at this juncture/time of night.

Raleigh:  (new to this school parent thing)

I hope they won't be the only kids not dressed up or they will

feel bad.

Me:  (Temporarily out of my mind) 

 I suppose I could run over to Walmart and see if they have

some cheap shirts that they will NEVER wear again 

(because we are not cowboys)

Raleigh: If you want to..............................................

I am sure it will make them happy

Me-- driving to Walmart in the middle of the night

Don't worry I am wide awake now.

I purchase shirts for the children

For the dress up day... in the middle of the night.

 And.............  there were only 20 kids in the whole school dressed up

This is why I love elementary school and all of its extracurricular activities

designed to either make parents feel like complete losers

(because they chose not to participate)

OR

bitter and exhausted

(because they did)

It's a lose-lose

BLAH........................................

Here is Morgan

Mocking me for dressing my kids like cowboys

(and rocking this "waiting for a missionary" thing)

Because there were no tears today or yesterday.

This is an actual smile

And she FINALLY heard from Parker.
The first email came in at 5:00 am.  And they were able to
talk back and forth 9 times.  He pledged his love.  And she came
bursting into our bathroom saying
"I am literally the happiest girl in the whole world"
and she and Raleigh danced around the bathroom.

I also have to say that Morgan is a huge part of our Village.

Allie is taking her role as a sponsored member of the Sol Kendamas "flow team" very seriously.
She receives the newest models in the mail from her sponsors.  She then has to post
videos of her landing the newest tricks with them on her accounts.
She has 1500 followers now and she just took 4th place in the most recent competition and the
top three winners were grown men in their late 20s.
She is REALLY good.   She just designed her own Kendama and it will be released for sale
in October at the Minnesota Show.   I will post pictures of it when it is released.

Morgan and Quincey drove her up to Pine Valley

so she can post in different locations with different scenery.
They had a nice Saturday afternoon laying in a hammock,
listening to the birds
IG: dama.als  (check her out)

PS...  Allie is a very dependable and willing part of our village.
I can ALWAYS count on her to be where I need her to be.



The little girls have been waiting all month for their dentist appointments

(haha)

Peyton had to have 2 teeth pulled.

Her top tooth is lose, but she wouldn't let him pull it out because she wants it to fall 

out by itself, since she missed out on losing her two bottom teeth. 

The roots on those bottom teeth were still completely in tact and they NEVER would

have fallen out on their own.

She was so brave.

 KK had three cavities and one of them was a root canal.

As the dentist began, he said that he would probably only be able to fill one of them

because kids just don't tolerate the dentist well, especially with such an intense procedure.  He told me that with root canals on children, they usually have to put them under, but he would start and see how she did.  I couldn't watch them work on her.

So I went in and sat with Peyton.  I went back about 20 minutes later and they were 

taking the gas off of her nose.   And the dentist says "what is with this kid?   Not only did

she tolerate all three cavities, she didn't flinch, she didn't whimper, her face never changed, her

breathing never changed.  She just laid there like she was resting."

I said "this is going to sound like I am a crazy person, but she is magical"  

and he said,  "that's not crazy..... she is.

She is something else.  I have never had a patient like her before."

 When we were leaving, he shook my hand and said

"you have fabulous kids, it was a pleasure to work on them."

 Numb and happy it's over......

And then......

We woke up the next morning to this.

KK bit the heck out of her numb lip and this happened.

Of course, she felt no pain, but she looked terrible.

We couldn't send her to school looking like this.

So I called Papa and Nana and they were happy to take her.

I braided her hair and put a cute, comfortable outfit on her

and I told her she was so pretty.   She spent the day eating 

applesauce and yogurt and reading books with Kori.

The next day, we got her all ready for school, but her lip was still all swollen and nasty and although she felt perfectly fine and wasn't in any pain, we had to send her to Papa and Nana's again because she thought that the kids would tease her.  And we couldn't stand the thought of that.

She went to Physical Therapy with Kori and saw Starr, her "favorite girl at Kori's Gym".  "I love Starr,"  she said  "she has the most beautiful, sparkly name."

Morgan drove up to Northern Utah and got into the Utah game by copying Lauren's ticket and those dumb Utes didn't even catch on.

She also spent Saturday night with Parker's brothers
They are a skinny bunch

And finally.....  Technically, Conference/Marathon weekend is the first week in October
but, it's my very favorite weekend of the year and so I just had to add it in...

 We opted not to eat the sick scones at the marathon and
went to Kneaders instead and we ate outside in the
morning sun and perfect 75 degree weather.

And that wraps up September.
I liked September because we were successful in getting through some hard stuff and
some challenges.  And also because we are a happy family