Chef Larissa

Jason has been on a liquid diet since his stay in the hospital starting on June 9. He is on a PICC line for IV nutrition. So, he eats a lot of popsicles, jello and soup. I think Larissa prepares his meals for him more than I do. She has become a master at straining cream of chicken or mushroom soup. Needless, to say after so many weeks on this diet it is getting very old for Jason. The other day Larissa was asking him what he wanted for lunch and he told her that he wanted her to get on her bike and go to Del Taco and get him a Chicken Burrito. With a sweet smile Larissa looks at him and says, "Well, I would but I don't think it would taste very good after I put it in the blender for you". This is why Larissa is our sunshine girl!

Car Shoes

Sometimes, I buy things for my kids and I just know they are going to love them. On occasion that love becomes an obsession. A few months ago, Joel fell in love with some Lightning McQueen shoes that belonged to his cousin Jayden. He would put them on any chance he got and was very upset when we made him take them off. One day in the store I found some that were a little big for him but the last pair the store had. I immediately purchased them thinking he would be so excited and it didn't matter if they were a size or two too big. I was right. He absolutely adores his "car shoes". Anytime we are getting ready to go somewhere he can be heard yelling for his car shoes (if they are not already on his feet). We will take them off to put his pajamas on and they will be on his feet again even if he is wearing blanket sleepers (I guess this is where the size too big comes in handy). Sometimes, I will put him to bed without them on but somehow he will magically have them on when I go to get him up in the morning. He is still in the crib so I am not sure how that works. The worst has been that twice now we have put his church shoes on him to go to church and when we all get in the car he has those bright red car shoes on with his Sunday clothes! The best, or is it the worst $10 I ever spent? It is great to have wonderful children that make me smile everyday.

Don't Worry Be Happy!

Jason was still in the hospital on Father's Day so we couldn't do our traditional breakfast in bed. He couldn't even eat anything! He had requested some pictures of the kids to put in the room so I thought I would get those there for Father's Day. In fact, I found a great deal on a digital picture frame. The only problem was that I have not had a good picture taken of J.R. since he was 3 and Joel since we had his blessing pictures taken. I have felt terrible but we haven't really had the money to do professional pictures like I always have for most of my kids and I kept having things come up on the days they were doing school pictures so I didn't get them over there either.

The plan was to take the kids to the hospital to see their dad with balloons, the picture frame, a book and homemade cards. But, I had to get pictures of Joel and J.R. first. So, I grabbed my camera and took them to my parent's backyard. J.R. was easy. Within a few shots in each pose I knew we had gotten decent shots.

Joel on the other hand was another story! I took so many shots of him and was not sure what I was getting. One minute, he would give me a completely cheesy grin, the next minute he wouldn't even look at me, he would not stay in place part of the time, he was teasing me part of the time, he even started to cry a couple of times. I left hoping that I had at least gotten one shot that would work for Jason's picture frame. But, when I looked at the pictures I just had to laugh. I had captured Joel's personality on film! Many of the faces he was pulling are the faces he pulls daily. He can change emotions quickly and he makes us laugh everyday. I loaded these pictures into a slide show in the order they were taken and yes he can go from crying in one shot and smiling in the next! I think I got some decent pictures what do you think?

As for a quick update on Jason, he is home now after being in the hospital for 14 days! He has a PICC line for nutrition and antibiotics and we have a home health nurse coming to our house. He had a doctors appointment yesterday and everything looks great. He will have a CAT scan of his pancreas on Monday and a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. If all goes well he will have surgery to take his gall bladder out on Wednesday. They will keep him overnight to see if he can tolerate solid foods yet and if he can they will take the PICC line out and we can move on with our lives. I'm so happy to have him home!

Prayers and Rainbows

My Jason could use some prayers this week. Tuesday evening he was suddenly very ill. He left work only to find himself throwing up for about three hours straight before we took him to the emergency room. There they found that he has pancreantitis. Which means his pancreas is inflammed and it is caused by his gall bladder. Apparently a gallstone has blocked a duct in the pancreas. They need to do surgery but can't do it until his infection goes down. Sadly, while his infection has gone down his white blood cell count is going up and there is fluid around his lungs. He can't eat or drink until the pancreas is doing better either so he has had nothing since Tuesday. He is in alot of pain and would love a drink of water. Please pray that he can get through this quickly.

Yesterday, When I was heading back to the hospital I saw the most beautiful rainbows. There was a bright full rainbow with another lighter full arch right above it. It seemed like both ends were touching the ground not too far away. I took a picture on my phone but it doesn't do it justce. I love the feeling of hope and promise I feel when I see a rainbow. This one was so beautiful it gave me hope that today would be a better day for Jason.

Have I Seen His Hand In My Life?

My family has seen many challenging times over the last 5 years. Sometimes it is frustrating. Sometimes I wonder what it is I still need to learn. But, there have been many times that I can look back on situations that have been very difficult and YES, I have definitely seen his hand in my life. I heard this message and began recording some of these experiences but, I don't always do a good job of recording them regularly. I am going to make a renewed effort to do this. I would never go back to those times in my life when things were so much more simple and give up the many things I have learned through seeing his hand in my life. What a blessing it is to have this testimony!

Allie's Solo

We went to a choir concert for the kids this week. It was amazing. I love the sound that Kerilyn the director is able to get out of these kids. I am trying to get more video ready to put up here but, I was very proud of Allie's Solo so I am going to put that up now before the others are ready. She is such a joy to her mother and always makes me smile! You can see J.R. at the end of this video too. He didn't hold still very well but he has big brown puppy dog eyes and that is all he needs at five to be cute!

David Archuleta

Kourtnee has been completely obsessed with David Archuleta since he was on American Idol. I have wondered how much I should encourage this obsession but, when I heard he was coming to Utah for a concert I knew that there were not many things that I could do for her that she would appreciate more than concert tickets. The first hours the tickets went on sale I was at a baptism and when I tried to get them when I came home that day they were sold out. I looked around for tickets on the secondary market and decided they were just too much for our finances this year. A few weeks before the concert I checked again and found some pretty good tickets at the normal price! Needless to say, Kourtnee was thrilled. I took her and her friend Whitney and they had a blast. I am actually surprised I enjoyed the concert as much as I did. I too enjoy David Archuleta's voice but, I was not sure that I would enjoy the many screaming teenage girls. The screaming girls were cute and David put on a fun concert. He had a lot of energy and I was amazed at how much he has grown as a performer. But, the best part of the night for me was looking over at my daughter and seeing how much fun she was having. I knew that I had done something with her that she will remember forever. I hope I can have at least one experience with each of my children like this one with Kourtnee.

Kourtnee and Whitney got together before the concert to make David Archuleta Shirts.

But, they needed a cool concert t-shirt too. Kourtnee wears hers whenever it is clean!

It was fun to watch them sing along with most of the songs!

I don't think I have ever seen Kourtnee Happier!

David didn't disappoint his many fans.

Examples To Follow

I have always felt like when dads or parents for that matter were handed out I won the lottery. What a blessing it is to know that you have parents that will always be there for you. Even better, I had parents that taught me the best values and taught them by example. My parents are both amazing but today I want to talk specifically about my dad. I recently had the opportunity to attend General Conference and watch my Father be sustained as the First Counselor in the Young Men’s General Presidency. It was an amazing experience. We had great tickets to the session. I knew my ticket was good when I handed it to the young man taking tickets at the door of the conference center and he said “Hmm…I’ve never seen a pink ticket before”. I was right down in front and I felt like I was literally sitting at the feet of the prophets and apostles. It was an amazing experience to watch my father the man that I have always looked to as an example take his seat on the stand with the great men of the church. This is the man that always made me feel like a princess. This is the man that took me on daddy daughter dates. This is the man that I always knew I could ask for a blessing at a moment’s notice. As the only daughter among his five sons I was always Daddy’s Little Girl. I was proud of that place and I still am.

I looked down our row after my dad took his seat on the stand. I saw six worthy priesthood holders that I love with all my heart looking up at my father on the stand. They were my five brothers and my husband. I was so grateful that these men in my life have had and will continue to have such a great example to follow.

My dad has two twelve year old grandsons my son Russ and my brother Tony’s son T.J. They were able to go to the Priesthood session in the conference center that evening. Russ came home from the priesthood session so excited. He and T.J. along with my brothers and husband had once again been up front (yes, they had pink tickets for that session too) these two boys were standing up right by the front barricade as the Prophet walked out of the session. They said “Hi President Monson” and he turned and said “Hi, boys”. This is an experience that I know my son will never forget. As he has talked about it in the days and weeks since, I know that through the prophet turning and saying those simple words to them he helped build Russ’s testimony of a living prophet. He has always loved his grandpa and wanted to be like him. But, I’m so grateful that his grandpa’s life put him in a situation where he could hear the prophet’s voice speaking to him.

The following week I was sitting in Sacrament as Russ was passing the sacrament. Caleb sat up straight and said, “There’s Russ!” He watched so carefully everything Russ did and I could see him moving around in his seat to get a better view of his big brother. But, it was the look in his eyes that got me. It was the same look I saw in Russ’s eyes the first day he was passing the sacrament as he watched everything his dad did. It was the same look Russ had in his eyes when he talked to me about what it was like to see his grandpa up on the stand in the conference center and have the prophet speak to him. It was the same look that my brother’s and husband had in their eyes as they looked up at my dad on the stand. How can little Caleb go wrong if he follows the example of these great men of the priesthood in his life as they strive to follow the example of the Savior?