Guests

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Beauty and the Beast

I love planning get-togethers.  I love having a home full of visitors.  I love hearing my kids play and laugh and pretend all.day.long.  I love spending time with my parents.  I love doing new things together.  And while going to a movie is not new, seeing Beauty and the Beast for the first time was.  I was giddy thinking that my parents would be able to witness the kids' excitement and wonder at the show.  I was excited to see it with Ashlee, since we watched the animated one for the first time in the theater all those years ago.

I loved it!!!  While there were things that I loved more about the animated one (Mrs. Potts, for one) there were things that I loved about the live version more.  I loved that there was back story throughout the live version; I loved that it opened the story up a lot more.  I love that it added more understanding to what really happened to the intimate objects once the last petal fell-- I bawled like a baby (as in snot all over my face that I should have been using a tissue for, but only had a sleeve) because of this new depth, even though I knew what was coming in mere moments.  And while I loved the song Tale As Old As Time in the original, I loved Kill the Beast in the live version best.

It was fun to look down the row at cousins sitting with cousins, with my parents taking the last two seats.  I love that we almost took up the entire row-- there were only three seats left.  Not once did the kids need to get up to leave.  Not once did I worry that they were going to talk or be loud or bother anyone.  I loved hearing their giggles and ooh's and aah's.  I love knowing that we will always have these memories.

Brennon had one complaint: "In the cartoon one, there was only one kiss.  This one had too many kisses."  I think we counted three.  Apparently Disney crossed a line there.  Cutie.

The rest of the day was filled with trampoline, hot tub (or Hot Pool, as Aria called it), games, and shopping.  Caden was even able to take Grandpa on a drive in his Bronco.  He's getting really good at driving stick.  I'm proud of him.  Day 3 of Spring Break-- Magnifique.  Said in a French accent, cause we were Guests at the Palace that very morning.

Family Dunes Day

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Juniper Dunes

We wanted to do something as a family before my parents and Ashlee arrived.  We all decided on The Dunes.  It was the perfect thing to do in the morning.  Randy worked for two hours (after waking early to do so) before we headed out with our picnic basket full of treats.

 Once we pulled off of the freeway, Caden moved into the driver's seat.  This was my view for the next 20 minutes.  Love my men!

 When Randy asked Caden if he'd like to drive up the mountain, I'm fairly certain my heart dropped to my right big toe.  Randy got into the passenger seat and started instructing Caden how to do it.  I think I started holding my breath from that moment until he gunned it to the top.  All the while, my mind was playing out the scenario of needing to blaze them to the hospital if they toppled down.  Caden did amazing, though.  He really is Randy's mini.  All the kids loved their rides.  I loved it because Randy loves it.

 At the top of the hill.  Our Yukon XL looks like a matchbox, with little ants running around beside it.

 Mira LOVED the Dunes!!  She was running, sniffing, and just having the best time roaming.  She would get to the top of a hill and then take.off back to us.  She was running full speed many times.  It was super fun watching her pounce and just be adorable.

 She wore herself out.

 Even though I knew we were at a sandy place, I still asked the kids to try and stay a little clean.  Didn't couldn't happen with this one.  It was borderline obsession with kicking it around, picking it up and throwing it, or just letting the sand run through his fingers.  He was a mess.  After a while, I just stopped talking, turning my face away so I wouldn't get upset.  Our car was a bit dusty after we drove home!

 She is always such a creative girl.  Love this idea!!

After we all had the rides we wanted, the kids and I left Caden and Randy to continue their play.  I came home to get the house ready for guests.  My parents arrived around 2:30, with Ashlee and Russ arriving around 3:30.  We had pizza and played for the rest of the day.  It is always so much fun to have family visit.  We missed you Danielle, Taylor, Payton, Audrey, Drew, Brooke, and Kenyan!  It would have been even funner having a Burrell Reunion!  Day 2 of Spring Break was a success!

Triple Play

Monday, April3, 2017

Triple Play

Hayden, ID

We woke early on Monday morning to make the 2 hour and 45 minute drive to Triple Play, arriving just a few minutes after they opened.  And, of course, we had to stop off for an early "lunch" at Del Taco-- it was a need.  We had heard that the lines tended to be a little longer at Go Karts and Laser Tag, so we took a vote and chose Go Karts very first.  It was a bit breezy, so most of us were wishing we had coats parkas, but we all had a blast!

Brennon asked to ride in my car.  I'm glad that when the B-boy is nervous, he wants to go with me.  This was the last time I felt like smiling.  As soon as they pulled the cord to start our Kart, it vibrated my ears in just the right way that I immediately got a migraine.  This has never happened before, so it was a disappointment knowing that the rest of the day would be tainted because of our very first attraction.

Our second Must Do was The Mining Company.  We purchased each child a bag of sand with shells or precious gems hidden in them.  They poured their bag into their own pan, dumped it in the water, moved the pan around in the water, and watched their treasures slowly appear.  It was so.much.fun!

 Shelby was the only one that chose the shells, all others chose the precious gems.

By the time that I got back to Shelby after taking all other pictures, she'd already cleaned her shells out of her pan.  She got some good ones.  This is a picture of Caden's pan, but all others looked quite similar.  This was my favorite of all activities.

 Our All-Day ticket purchase gave us each $5.00 worth of tickets at their arcade.  Caden used 8 of his tickets and won TWO games of the Claw Machine (although I only got a picture of him with one).  He gave one to Mira and one to Aria.  This kid is AMAZING at those games!

Only Keilie and Brennon wanted to do the climbing wall.

 Brennon scrambled up the wall, rang the bell, and then scrambled back down.  "Mom, my head hurts when I go up super high!"  I was stunned that he made it to the top, and so fast.  He surprises me, sometimes.  My little Brennon has his moments of his own kind of bravery.

Everyone (but me) did the bumper cars.  I loved that it was glow-in-the-dark.  I took my picture and left the room, because the lights hurt my head more.  But I loved listening to their laughs and surprised exclamations from around the corner. 

We rode the Go Karts (except me) one more time and played a game of Bowling.  If we wouldn't have needed to return home to Mira, we would have stayed longer.  With the All-Day pass, you can do any of the attractions as many times as you'd like- minus the Mining, unless you wanted to buy another bag of sand/treasure.  They also have a water park that is separate, but could easily be added for a fee.  Since we have a pool membership here in town, we decided that that was something that we didn't need to do during this trip.

The last attraction that we did (minus Brennon and me) was a Ropes Course.  Randy took Brennon to check it out while I stood in line to pay, making sure that he'd want to do it.  Brennon took a 3-second look and knew he wouldn't want to do it, so I offered to stay back with him.  When we finally did the Course, I was glad that I hadn't paid for it, since by then I had my migraine.  One day, I will do this Course!  

I got like a million pictures, but I'll only post a few.  It was a three story course.  Randy said it was pretty freaky trying to do some of them without holding on to his harness.  He said that he thought he'd be able to just blow through it without fear, but when it came time to actually go across some of them, he felt his nerves rise up.  When looking at it, I never thought I'd do it without fear, but I would have liked the chance to try it and challenge myself.

 Trying to capture the whole Course.  The Red are the poles that hold it up.  The Blue are the platforms or the actual courses.  The Yellow are the tracks for the tethers.  Even going up the stairs to get to the other levels, you have a yellow track for your tether.  

We made it home, played with our Mira-kins for an hour, and then got in the hot tub as a family (minus Mira *wink, wink*).  It was one of the funnest day trips we've had it a long, long time.  I'm so grateful Randy thought back in November 2016 to take all of this week off.  He's had to work a few hours during the week, but he actually commented that he didn't think of work one time while we were here.  For him, that is a BIG deal.  This was the perfect place to go to kick-start start our Spring Break week!!  

(View on our way home!)

Ropes Course, know this: I'm coming for you one day.

Ears. Again.

While we were in Disney World in December 2014, I said a prayer while standing directly on Brennon's left side.  When the prayer ended, after everyone said their "Amen," with confusion, Brennon said, "Mom, I couldn't hear anything."  We knew there was a pretty severe problem.  When thinking back on it, we realized that he'd been asking for headache medicine multiple times daily for a while.  After much trial and error with different medications that never cleared up the infection, he was scheduled to get ear tubes February 2015.  Brennon had had a few ear infections as an infant, but never had enough of a problem to warrant tubes...until he was six years old.  After the procedure, the surgeon said that the substance in his ears was taffy like, and that it slurped out.  It had been slowly collecting in each ear, and that Brennon probably did have quite a bit of hearing loss because of it.  Things have been going great since.... or so we thought.

A couple of weeks ago, while sitting in Sacrament meeting, we saw something resting in the bottom of Brennon's ear.  It was one of his tubes.  Around Brennon's birthday, he started complaining about headaches.  A few days later he woke with ear pain, so we tried hydrogen peroxide for the pain/infection.  He said it had helped with the pain, so we sent him back to bed and stopped worrying about it.  March 20th, he woke in the early hours of the morning pretty much begging us to help him.  We knew it needed to be addressed by a doctor.  The Express Care doctor confirmed our suspicions-- he had a double ear infection.

Since then, Brennon's finished the allotted dose of his medication.  And he still complains about not being able to hear.  And the pain has slowly built to more than he can bear.  We knew that we were most likely dealing with the same thing that happened two years ago.  We went back in to the Express Care last night, happy that the doctor recognized Brennon, getting the expected diagnosis-- double ear infection that has not cleared with the medication they always prescribe for chronic ear infections.  He wrote him a prescription for a higher dose, taken for 10 days instead of 7, and urged us to get an appointment with the ENT.  We told him that before we had come to him on March 20th, we'd tried to get into see his same ENT, but they were booked out all the way to April 26th.  We made that appointment, knowing that we were probably dealing with the same situation as 2015, and went right in to the Express Care.  Because the doctor is within the Kadlec system, he'll be able to see that we have gone twice to Express Care without any relief.  We expect Brennon to need surgery soon after.

I think that I'm going to have Randy take Brennon to the surgery.  Two years ago, when they dressed Brennon in a green scrubs shirt and wheeled him away after telling him to kiss me and say goodbye, it spiraled me into the deepest depression I have ever known.  This all happened just one year after a similar green scrubs shirt was placed on Caden, during the scariest situation imaginable, where they took him back for surgery many times, each time telling him to kiss me and say goodbye.  With all that has happened since February 2015, I think anything could trigger my "flight" response, and I may very well run from that building, like I wanted to two years ago.  Who knows, maybe this time the medication will actually work.  Wouldn't that be wonderful.  I would love to actually be able to say, "I was wrong!"

Door?

The night after we moved into our new home, we had dinner with some friends in the same neighborhood.  They kind of sat us down, warning us about our HOA.  "There are a lot of retired seniors that have nothing better to do than to walk around the neighborhood looking for things that you need to do to make your house nicer."  Knowing that we like to have our home nice, and neat, and updated, I never thought we'd have a problem.

Then, on a Monday morning just days after we moved in, I noticed that we'd accidentally left our green garbage can in front of our fence after mowing the lawn.  Since it was not within the limits for garbage cans to be picked up from the city, I was certain we were going to get a violation reminder that garbage cans need to be kept behind the fence except for a 24-hour period for garbage day.  I expected it for that, but got something else entirely.  Something I never in a million years would have thought I'd get one for.

This is a picture that was taken the day the Sold sign went up in the yard.  I wanted to do a family jumping picture with the sign, but it was taken down before I could do it.  I'm glad I got this view, because I never took a picture of the door without some of the additions we've added.  As you can see, the door is plain and black, with a window.  I am not in love with the black, but I don't know what color I would paint it, so I just kept the black.

Here is the door just a few days after we moved in.  I added the kick plate, got a new wreath,  potted topiary, and Welcome mat.  I was going to update the handle, but the previous owner painted the door around the handle, and didn't do a great job.  If the dead bolt isn't at an askew angle, you can actually see the other color underneath.  So, my door stays black with the deadbolt at a weird angle.  Such is life.

I ordered some vinyl for the front door (with what I consider a classy font) and called it good.  I am in love with my front door.  I feel like I have made it more inviting and welcoming.

But the retired seniors in our neighborhood don't agree.

We got a complaint that we "should have asked them before we installed a new door, or painted it."  We replied that we did not install a new door, and that it is the original color.  Randy got an email reply back that we know was meant to go to the chairman of the board, saying that he was "positive that it was a new door."  Let me just say, I DO NOT like being called a liar.  I read the covenants (even highlighting and underlining things that I knew would pertain to some of the things we wanted to do), and understand that they keep our neighborhood nice, but there was nothing in the packet that said anything about adding decorations.  I know that I can't paint my house, or even my front door, without asking for approval.  I know that I can't move my fence boundaries without asking them.  I know that I can't plant vegetation without asking.  I know that we have covenants that keep our homes nice and the value of our properties high for the age of the neighborhood.  I know!  So when this guy proceeds to say that he is positive that we painted or installed a new door, after we said we hadn't, you better believe that I pulled out that packet again.  I'm surprised the heat from my anger didn't start those pages on fire.  We replied back and forth, word being exchanged that I could not believe were being exchanged 1. After living her for only 3 weeks, and 2. Because I feel that I enhanced the front door and the home-- why should they care?

The guy came back saying that the realtor pictures proved him right-  it did look like a different door after we moved in.  I wanted to write back that it proved that IT IS THE ORIGINAL COLOR/DOOR!!  He said that it proved that we had added the numbers and the kick plate.  I wanted to write that they never addressed those two items, and I never said we'd added them because I didn't think it was a problem.  They are decoration!

The chairman said that it is all resolved, that he never thought that adding a kick plate and house numbers was something that needed to be addressed, and that the issue was filed in the archives.  It's going to take a long time for me to stop thinking that we already have a "black mark" on our record...  for decorating our front door!!  I follow rules.  I make sure that I keep every step in line.  I like it when I can say that I follow things to the letter. Knowing that someone's interpretation of how things should be could cause me to have a notice filed against us in the "archive" makes me upset.  I pride myself on perfect records, thank you very much man that filed the complaint that we found out lives across the street in the purple house! 

We got a notice for making our front entry nice.

Awesome!

Target

We just got the BEST NEWS IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!  Well, almost-- Caden's is not cured, so I guess it comes in as the second best news in the whole wide world.

Caden's tumor tested positive for the specific protein they are looking for for him to be enrolled in the newest immunotherapy study that was opened in January!!!!!!!

The immunotherapy drug will find that protein, "light it up," and the immune system will be able to detect and kill it.  We'll find out more after our appointment with Dr. Hawkins on the 13th.  For now, he's not going to take any more of the chemo pill, and we're going to save our spot for the RFA (radiofrequency ablation) that we have scheduled for 4/21/17.  We expect for them to cancel it though, since the study will probably want a tumor that is connected to the liver, as well as one that is deep inside the liver.  I am over the moon!!!  I didn't think my heart could be any more full after seeing Beauty and the Best this morning.  I was wrong.  My heart is bursting.  I'm pretty sure I can fly right now.  We are completely hopeful that this could be the thing that cures our son!!!!!  So Stay Tuned, we may have another Miracle on our hands.........

Yes

That moment when the three-year-old walks in the door and the 15.75 year old drops everything to do as she bids.  Priceless.

On the way down, Ashlee said that Aria commented out of the blue, "Caden is going to be so glad to see me."  She knows whose finger she's wrapped around.

Caden, do you want to sit by me?
Caden, do you want to play Candy Land?
Caden, do you want to see my swim suit?
Caden, is Moana your favorite movie?

In all questions, his answer is "yes."  And it melts my heart.

April General Conference

We had such a wonderful weekend listening to General Conference.  We usually do candy-type activities, but after seeing a counted cross-stitch thing for Keilie, I wanted the family to have sewing-type activities this time, just to see if we could make some new traditions.  And let me just say, yes, we have found our new tradition!

 It was fun sitting close to Tyson, showing him how to do it.  After a few times showing him, he grabbed it from my hands with an, "I got this!" and never needed my help again, unless it was to end/start the yarn.  He loved it!

 Shelby's was the only one that was a true cross-stitch pattern-- the others were just a Continental stitch, which was by far easier.  Caden said he didn't want to do one, but started helping Brennon (who tried and gave up many different times) and then just kept going.  You can see Brennon below, taking notes after his fifth attempt with sewing.

 Keilie's was a true counted cross-stitch, her first ever.  I found a simple Young Women's Torch, and knew I wanted her to learn this weekend.  She did such an amazing job!!

Hiding his face.  He doesn't want to admit it, but he had a great time sewing.

 Brennon kept himself busy by taking notes, coloring CTR pages, doing LDS Apostles and LDS Temple word search papers, and Bingo.  He tried sewing more than five times, but he just couldn't grasp it, and quickly lost interest.  He was such a good little note taker, though.

And, of course, there was plenty of Mira time.

After the sessions yesterday, we had dinner as a family before Randy and Caden went to the Priesthood session.  They grabbed some ice cream on their way home, quickly changed into more sports appropriate clothing, and headed to the Dunes.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

 We had another great day today listening to the Prophets of our day, and finishing our projects.

 Shelby finished her Cupcake about 30 minutes before the end of conference.  Her first cross-stitch is a two-thumbs-up success!

 Caden finished all of the brown, although he didn't work on it exclusively during all sessions.  Once conference ended, he said he didn't want to work on it any more, (I rolled my eyes when he said he never really wanted to-- "ummm, no one was forcing you to!!") so I finished it.

Keilie finished her Young Women's Torch almost exactly as they were giving the closing prayer.  Like Shelby, her first counted cross-stitch is a two-thumbs-up, mom is SO proud, hope she keeps going success!

I am so proud of my kids for the talents they started this weekend while "learning at the Master's feet." What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same. (D&C 1:38)

*Tyson has just a few more lines to go before he is finished with his.  I'm sure he'll pick it up again soon; I'll post a picture when he finishes.  While I type, Randy is trying to help Brennon work on his.  Poor Brennon, he just isn't picking it up.  If he perseveres, I'll post a very proud picture of his finished project.