As our World turns

This last weekend was conference weekend. We had nothing going on Saturday other than sitting around watching conference. I pulled out my beading stuff and enjoyed listening to the talks. 

The boys went to Priesthood session and Ashley and I hung out that night. The next day the kids joined us for conference and were told to take notes. We always have a conference trivia game the Family Night after Conference so I ended up with lots of notes. 

So the reader's digest version of my notes and a couple of my of my favorite quotes from conference....

• Of the women who lived through the war and asked how she kept her testimony. “I didn’t keep my testimony, my testimony kept me.” 
• Let us do the right thing, at the right time, without delay.
• Satan can not have control over us only what control we give him. 
• Do we think that we are appearing busy by endlessly checking and sending social messages. Be their master, instead of letting them master us! 
• Discouraged? “It’s better to look up” In all times and especially in hard times look up and focus on God.  
• We can be witnesses of God in all times and in all places live your life in a way to show your testimony.
• "Don't look up and see how far you have to go, just look down at how far you’ve come, enjoy the view and then turn around and start back up the mountain again one step at a time."
•   Our eternal destiny does not happen by chance but by choice.
• Pray and Do! Like medicine take as directed to improve your life.

•  We may never have to die for Christ but are we living for him?

The next day was our trivia game on our conference talks. We would roll a big fuzzy dice to see how many points the question would be worth and when they got to 10 points they could pick something out of a little box of prizes if they waited until 20 points they could get something out of the big box of prizes. 

Jacob miserably failed last conference, not only did he not take notes it seemed like he hadn't paid attention at all and basically couldn't answer any of the questions. 

So I think he learned his lesson and took lots of notes .... on my Ipod. I have to say he had word for word answers on some of his questions and he did really well at the trivia game and won two things from the big box....I think he rose the bar for the other two kids for next time. 

And in other news in Jacob's world...

He is pretty much getting straight A's ....

He has started brushing Maddie every day...(not for very long or very thoroughly but Maddie and him like it)

When he's done with his stuff for the day he spends almost every day playing Toon Town with Jacob Rosser...they started playing it in the summer together. They will sit on the phone with each other on speaker phone just playing the game and talking to each other. It's hilarious to watch and keeps them both occupied...but I end up with a bunch of messages afterwards from all the people that can't get a call through.

Also Jacob is the best piano practicer in the house right now...he is good about doing it first thing after they are done with their after school break....(probably because it means it will allow him to put off his homework longer)   

*these are only a fraction of our piano books color coded to know which child has to practice which song

In Ashley's World this Week...

Ashley had activity day this week and got to paint her nails by herself...she came home with blue and green fingernails and silver and blue toenails. 

Ashley had a birthday party for a friend at a skating rink. They were all impressed with her skating skills I guess she was even brave enough to show them how to skate backwards. 

Ashley is my helper at all of Maddie's dog training classes. 

Ashley's braces are working. Her teeth still don't touch in the front but they officially now come together enough that for the first time in her life...

she can eat an apple whole!

Ashley got to come shopping with me a couple of times, she begged and got a couple of pre-halloween stuff for a dollar each....here is some trick gum that snaps a fake bug on you when you pull it out...nice...

And some skeleton goo....Hey what's it doing on the couch!

And in Taylor's World...

We got some answers on his leg....well kind of sort of...a little bit...with some more waiting.

He is still in pain and after 3 weeks he still needs crutches. (He tried to go yesterday without them and by the end of the day of limping on it he was in a lot of pain)

We did find out that the injury that nobody could figure out last year during track season was actually a stress fracture in his hip!  

This is the injury that the first sports clinic girl told me "he's not in as much pain as he thinks he is", the other sports clinic people said he had tight muscles, the doctor that finally ordered the xray for it only checked the bottom part of his legs, and the orthopedic dr we were sent to said "he has tight hamstrings, stretch them 200 times a day and he'll be fine"....wrong....all of them were wrong.  

Stress fracture of the hip found out months after the fact as they were trying to check whats wrong with him now....so now we're thinking that this might be the same thing on the other side though this has been a lot worse.

His current injury didn't show up on an initial x-ray...which is typical so we were referred to a different orthopedic doctor....(more time out of school)

This orthopedic doctor ordered an MRI to get it checked out and said "no running on it"  Yeah....pretty much that's a given since he can't WALK on it. 

So he said "you should hear from them in about a week to schedule the MRI"  I'm looking at him and he says "Oh there pretty good at getting MRI's within 3 weeks or so, then schedule an appointment with me a few days afterwards". Seriously?

I didn't say anything but I think he knew I was thinking it would be nice to know whats going on with his leg sooner than A MONTH from now!  He then told me "It's not like he's dying or anything" well thats true "and he's not going to do anything different than he would've otherwise. Don't run on it and keep using crutches."  He had a point but it was still frustrating to know it would be weeks before we got to the next step.

The real issue is why is an otherwise healthy 15 year old getting hip stress fractures?? I talked to the coach and he said he's never had problems with this with his other athletes.  Our pediatrician did bloodwork on him thinking it could be his Vitaman D or Calcium levels, or even a genetic collagen problem, or a mild case of brittle bones disease (that one was disheartening). The bloodwork came back within the normal range...so the question still is...is it another hip fracture??? and if so why does he keep getting them when nobody else does???  

So I guess we should hopefully know the first answer in another month from now...pretty much about the time he should already be healed.

(Ipods loaded with games are invaluable with long doctor's appointments)

Also in Taylor's world in a lighter note...he got lots of friend time this weekend. He hung out with friends, went to KFC and the Homecoming football game and had a hang out night...this is after last weekend of being grounded. 

(We have found out that giving consequences of no friend time until all missing assignments at school are taken care of is a great incentive.)

And in Maddie's World

She was restless last week when it was raining and she couldn't get the exercise she needed.  She was happy today when she got to go on a hike with Magnus again.

When I left her outside to go to the store the rain storm started. I was only gone for an hour but she was sooooo wet and muddy she immediately had to go upstairs and take a bath. 

Here's a preview of her Halloween costume (dollar store wings) She turned around as soon as they were on and started biting them...this might be a 5 minute costume....good thing it was only a dollar.

I've given up trying to save Maddie's puppy blanket from herself. It now has a few large holes in it ...here's her looking like little red riding hood running through the house catching balls with it over her head. 

An in our family World

I was saved from cooking Sunday dinner two weeks in a row!  The Stubbs invited us to dinner  just as I was about to start cooking. Their dinner guests cancelled on them and so they needed someone to come eat their food!  

We were happy to oblige.

This week we were invited to Sunday dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Nelson. 

Jeff was supposed to speak in her ward and when it didn't work out we thought it would be good to get together with them anyways. We had a great dinner and a fun time visiting with them and playing a game! 

Fun times and a great meal. 

We also got to enjoy stake conference this weekend.

We made our picks for the next Amazing Race season this weekend :)

I got the Halloween decorations out (no possums in the box this time) just before I got sick with a horrible body achy, tired, don't want to do anything, cold. 

Today I'm starting to feel a little bit more in the land of the living.

Our Photo Gallery

If our home was a gallery I would frame these pictures on the wall this week and title them...

"Wrinkly Bling"

(Joy joy, the "Bling" shirt I've been waiting for and never got to wear is here! It's been here...not sure how long...unwittingly wadded up in a teenager's backpack! Guess it can wait until next year to be worn.) 

"Salt in the Wound"

Going to a track meet alone to watch your former running partner win 1st place....and your team mates win 2rd and 3rd while you stand in the background on crutches...salt in the wound.

Being able to suck it up and have the ability to celebrate their win with them that night at a pool party and cake...priceless.

(Taylor is trying to have a sense of humor about the whole thing...his new nickname is "Cripple" and he says next year he'll probably show up in a body cast...)

"Scriptures?"

(I used to laugh at those who read scriptures from their electronic devices during class but now though I will never stop bringing my marked up, well-loved scriptures to church my family has discovered the joys of carrying a 2 oz version of them that slips into their pocket. My i-pod counted as scriptures in Jacob's class on Sunday and he even got a candy bar for bringing his "scriptures" because hardly anyone else did!)

"Confiscation"

Children were wanting to read "scriptures" during sacrament meeting when I saw typing I took it away...this is what I found on my to-do list...” 

Give Taylor 100 dollars, 

Let Taylor go out with friends whenever he wants to, 

Give Jacob 29.64 dollars, 

Give your Ipod to Taylor,

 Buy Dr. Pepper,

 Buy more Dr. Pepper…”

Nice try. 

"Sudden Death Salad"

Jeff was nice enough to help me cut lots of vegetables for this salad for the next day's baby shower....including jalapeno peppers...he learned....

while cutting jalapeno peppers wear gloves,

cutting peppers without gloves can result in hands with chemical burns on them,

hands with jalapeno oil that are burning will burn any other body parts you touch,

careful what you touch because even showers don't seem to get it off,

submerging your hand in milk only helps while your hand is in milk,

jalapeno burns can make for a long night...

* (no other people were burned in the making or eating of this salad)

"Best Auction Prize I ever Won"

Last year when we were bidding on service opportunities to help fund girls camp for the young women in our ward I bid and won a cake made by one of the young women.  Almost a year later I redeemed my coupon and asked Nicki Bell in our ward to make a cake for the baby shower I was helping with. She did an awesome, impressive, fantastic job! (Now I'm feeling guilty because I think I underpaid what this was worth) Moral of the story "Never underestimate your young women!"

"Brave Woman"

Monica is a sweetheart with 4 beautiful daughters now soon to be added with 2 sons and another daughter. She handles the aches, pains, nervousness, and hunger that comes along with carrying 3 babies with beauty and grace. We were happy to celebrate with her.

"Triple the Babies, Triple the Fun, Triple the Diaper changes when the day is done"

Monica got lots of diapers donated a the diaper drawing..she'll be set for a bit at least. She also got lots of cute clothes.

"Little White Lie"

     Ashley took some pictures of our travels into her school for their “journeys” bulletin board. She was mad about one of the pictures that I put in the stack. 

"MOM why did you put this picture in there! I don't like what I am wearing and I am doing a stupid pose!"

 So I asked her what she did with it. She said she turned it around and hid it. Then when she got to the bottom of the stack and kids asked her what the last one was in her bag she said “Oh it’s just a piece of paper. My mom put it in there to keep the pictures apart” Sure enough she got out of the classroom without showing it to anyone. 

"Paid Volunteer"

Jacob mumbled and grumbled for 3 days about having to go to their Deseret Industries volunteer assignment. Donuts from dad and being able to buy the whole season of Survivor All Stars for $2.00 made him a happy camper...now every afternoon I hear the sounds of Survivor wafting down the stairs. 

"ILLEGAL CONTRABAND!!!"

I got Taylor to school about 10 minutes late after taking him to the Sports Clinic on Monday and when I went to sign him in at the office they barred him from the campus. 

I guess it's illegal to have CRUTCHES on campus. He has to have a doctor's note signed and dated saying he has to use crutches and listing how long he is going to use them. It didn't matter that he wasn't going to use the stairs, it didn't matter that he had been on campus a week already with them. She said it wasn't her fault that the teachers hadn't narked on him like they were supposed to...

No Note....No School, so off to home we went.

One of us was bugged....one of us was happy.

After 2 1/2 hours of phone calls back and forth to the doctors office and the school we finally had approval to come on campus again. 

Good grief.

"Mini-Mi with her own illegal contraband"

Once it was discovered that a pair of short crutches were in the storage shed left over from Jeff's surgery...someone else "hurt her leg" 

(After a day or two she gave up on them when she realized they weren't as fun as they looked ;)

"Dog Heaven"

We were invited to go on a hike with the Elsworths to Sycamore Canyon. We walked the trails with the dogs off the leash so they could chase squirrels and rabbits, jump on rocks and enjoy the outdoors not being confined by fences. I have to admit I was worried about her running off, being bitten by snakes and other stuff but she did really well and if she ever got too far she always came right back as soon as I called. 

"Aftermath of Dog Heaven"

We sure tired them out. Magnus is now Maddie's best friend and when the Elsworth's clap and call for Magnus...Maddie comes running. 

"Never too Old for Bubbles"

At least on Sunday afternoons, when you can't watch TV, and your bored...your sisters bubbles start not looking too bad...

"Frustration"

No more answers on his leg....I drove to the school yesterday to bring him ibuprofen because it was hurting. He had just had an incident where his crutch slipped and he put full weight on his leg and he was in excruciating pain I ended up bringing him home so he could ice it. He said he had never been in that much pain before. 

After icing it he said it receded to the "normal pain"

Another trip to the sports clinic with copies of the x-ray report in tow, they said it's been 10 days and he's not any better "You need to be referred to an orthopedic doctor"  He needs an MRI.

Hmmmm you think

Try telling that to our HMO doctor. 

He has an appointment on Tuesday 

I'll prepare my battle plan

The Roller Coaster of Life

I heard a talk once where the speaker equated life to a train ride. 

I would say life is more like a roller coaster....with an invisible track. 

 Why do highs in life always seem to be followed pretty closely by lows and just when you think things are straightening out you're in for a curve you didn't expect...especially with teenagers in the house...but more on that later. 

Right after my birthday Jeff was preparing for an anticipated fishing trip with work people. It was an overnight boat ride into Mexico to fish for tuna and all sorts of "big ones". He borrowed an assortment of poles, got gear and hats, packed and even made sure to buy some ear plugs in case of snoring. He did research online and was in awe of all the pounds of fish that these boats would pull in on a trip. He prepared me for possibly having hundreds of pounds of fish in the freezer...we talked of inviting people over for a fish fry...and he loaded the car with ice chests to bring them back in. 

Right as he's walking out the door he found out that one of the guys going with them bailed, he offered the spot to Taylor but an hour's notice and a day off school made him pass. So he went with one man down.

The night he had fun hanging out with the guys and putting money in a pot for whoever caught the biggest fish the next morning.

Well the Biggest Catch fantasy was met with reality when only 

one fish was caught

on the whole trip 

and it wasn't by Jeff.

Looked like the guy who won the pot of money had no contest. 

To add insult to injury his camera stopped working at the beginning of the trip 

(these are the only pictures he got)  

The upside was Ashley was very happy that no fish made it home. She hates fish and was lamenting that our house was going to smell like fish when we cooked it. She didn't have to worry. 

I have a good friend who is into eating healthy. She has dropped 10 pounds over the summer and has telling me about these green smoothies that she has incorporated into her diet.  She drinks like 32 ounces for breakfast and all her kids drink like 16 ounces a day. It's full of spinach and fruits, greek yogurt and healthy stuff. I watched her two youngest daughters drink it like it was juice it up.  

Hmmmm...I thought.  I was not too sure about it at first but she had a few of us over to see how to make them and do a few taste tests and I thought it was good enough that I would try it at home. 

So I blended it up and told the kids about it so they could try it. 

They tried it and actually drank some...but only after they added some cool whip  (guess my kids are already ruined from too much sugar).  Taylor took a taste after running but the rest of his ended up down the sink...guess  he's too old to think it's anything like Juice it Up :)

Jeff didn't want anything to do with it.

The rest of was all mine...ALL mine.....

thats a lot of green smoothie

I guess next time I'll have to make a mini version since the rest of the family equates smoothie with the likes of Cold Stone and such.

This last week or so the roller coaster has taken me to one funeral and then curved before I could make it to the other one I've had highs like lunch with a friend and lows like Ashley's $45.00 doctor's appointment that ended up being 2 hours to look in her ears and say "Yep they're fine". I've driven here there and everywhere all over kingdom come to get kids (and their friends) where they need to be...and back again. I've swooped into the 2nd of 3 back to school nights flying into Junior High classes for 10 minutes a pop to get quick impressions of teachers and their expectations and I've had my first sick child of the school year stay home on the day when I was planning to do all my errands.

This night we were at the Stake Center to tie quilts for a humanitarian aid project. 

Ashley came with me because Jacob was at scouts, Taylor was finishing at Cross Country and Jeff was going to bring him later so she would've been alone. 

She got to learn how to quilt that night even though she didn't meet the "12 and up" requirements. I was so proud of her.

She liked it until I flipped over the blanket after about an hour and showed her that all her stitches weren't going through to the other side...then we had to cut them all out and start over again...

just like life huh ;) 

It's funny because the ladies at our quilt were commenting on how the ladies on the quilt next to us got through 3 quilts before we could even get through one. Well they were the white hair veterans and I was the only one who had ever quilted before at our table we were slow going but we at least finished our quilt before the evening was over. 

Saturday we had too many things going on at once so Taylor was sent off on the bus to go to his Cross Country meet in San Diego alone. He didn't really feel like we needed to drive all the way down to see him...they'll be lots of other races he said...

or so he thought....

and so we thought (but more on that later). 

I found out this morning as I was packing his lunch for his long Saturday alone that "he doesn't drink Capri Suns". What?? I've been packing them in his lunch for years. What do you do with them? I ask. "Throw them away" Pictures of quarters being tossed in the lunchroom trash went through my mind. Couldn't he at least give them away? This prompted questioning about every lunch item I was putting in the bag...1/2 of it got left on the counter. :(

Then as we were walking out the door to get him to the bus he asked "where are my trainers". I don't know, where are your trainers that I drove out to Redlands for and cost us $100. He had them last night....at practice....next to his bag....

he left them at the school the night before on the grass....

I was hopeful that they would be there this morning

 but no such luck they were long gone, so he wore his old beat up ones that we had to retire last year

Another $100 in the trash :(

Meanwhile while Taylor was in San Diego Jacob was working at the Middle School at his band car wash.  We dropped him off for a shift and then came back to get our cars washed.

Of course the day dawned foggy and cold and the High School was doing a car wash at the same time but that's OK.

When we got there I commented that Jacob looked too dry....hmmm...I know Jacob and this teen would rather be the funny guy then get his hands dirty...or soapy as the case may be.

He said he already dried off.  

"Uh huh" I thought.

He was right, he did some car washing but then he got to stand on the corner and do advertising which dried him off, he even had the teacher confirm this to prove it. (I really believed him)

He had fun and said the morning went fast! 

In the middle of the day Ashley had a birthday party and Jeff and I did errands and made sauce for our ward spaghetti cook off. I always like cooking with Jeff, we've done it more recently then we used to do in the past and its fun to work together.  Just as we were ready to walk out the door we got a text from Taylor that the bus was back from his cross country meet. 

So here's the remains of Taylor's lunch that I packed...don't you love the now rotten banana....included is the ibuprofen I carefully packed and reminded him about because he had shin splints and was complaining about them. On the way home he called and complained about his shins and said he ran slower because of them I asked him about taking his medicine. He said he didn't know where it was (I told him like 3 times it was in his lunch). I told him that he could take his pills right then but when he got home they were all right there in the baggie just like I left them and of course his shins still hurt. 

This last Monday we got to have my aunt and uncle Larry and Renae come over for dinner. They were in town from Las Vegas taking a little mini-vacation. It was fun to see them and we got to hear all about their son who is a Senior and an artist, their other son on a mission and Larry's experiences as a driving instructor. It was nice to visit with them. 

As we were in the middle of dinner it was time to pick up Taylor from Cross Country Practice...

I got there and he couldn't walk.  5 miles into his run he pulled something in the back of his leg. He heard popping noises and couldn't step on his leg without a lot of pain. Coach made him run back to the school and then when got there he couldn't walk afterwards.  Larry and Jeff gave him a blessing but the next morning he woke up in more pain so off to the doctors we went. Luckily Jeff stepped in and did all the school drop offs for me and brought the food I was supposed to bring to the funeral over to Kristen Paiges' to take (good thing because I never made it back until the funeral was over).

After 5 hours of sports clinic, pediatrician, x-rays and such we found out....

nothing.

They pretty much ruled out a stress fracture (though it doesn't really show up on an initial x-ray) and the only thing the pediatrician said "Don't hurt it more, use crutches and come back in 2 weeks" 

Frustrated at his lack of concern I asked what it could be. "I don't know, maybe a torn ligament" as he walked out the door. 

Grrrrrrrr

So a lot of pain literally and figuratively and no answers.

As I was sitting in waiting room after waiting room that day I thought of

deja vu for the 3rd time (just get into a season to be out the rest of it on injury)

I just bought my cross country "bling shirt" where do I wear it now??

I volunteered to sit on the cross country booster club committee....all year guess I'll be going alone

I think it's pretty altruistic of us to help fund the cross country and track programs, pay bus fees and fundraising fees, buy uniforms, shoes and racing flats, gear and paraphernalia and then not participate....such a warm fuzzy feeling that we're helping the economy that way.

Seriously I'm just sad for Taylor. If it's a rollercoaster for me I can only imagine what it feels like for him. He's sitting on the sidelines at todays league meet with the kid who broke his toe and can't run.  Someone opened a door on it and he's out for 6 weeks. They are looking forward to sitting in misery together. 

I told Taylor at least he wasn't out for something as silly as a broken pinky toe. He then said "I would rather be out on something silly rather than something that could be serious"

Good point.

Sorry Taylor