Cards!

It's Wednesday, which means I'm exhausted and fried and the house is a mess and Mark is working till 8:00 or 9:00 pm while I chauffeur the kids around and try to deal with homework, dinner and baths by myself. Not my favorite day.  So here's a short post.

I made some cards a couple of weeks ago. I needed some for upcoming babies, birthdays and other occasions. I made 22 in one morning. (Yay for a huge paper and sticker stash in my garage!)

 I made the guitar card for my mom's birthday. (She sings and plays a guitar just like this.)

 I've already used four of these baby boy cards...FOUR. And the others are lined up to be sent!

It was nice to add to my card stash. I like the personal touch they add to gifts.

Well, time to get Luke dressed for the third time today and go pick up Madelyn from gymnastics!
 Three more months till summer break.....three more months till summer break......three more months till summer break......

Mark update, and what's up with these Yoders

Mark decided that he was tired of being a four-eyes and so got fitted for contacts last week. Since he has astigmatism, he has to have a special kind that are weighted on the bottom. He has had a tough time getting used to them. Sometimes his vision goes in and out of focus as the contacts move around in his eyes, and he's had headaches and dry eyes. Sounds fun....

 Madelyn is not at all  happy about this. Not only is she freaked out by the mere thought of someone putting something on their eyeball, she has had several crying spells because now she's the "only one" in the family wearing glasses.

Mark spent a good chunk of the weekend practicing putting his contacts in and taking them out. Putting them in isn't difficult, but he has a really hard time taking them out. He'd been trying for 15 minutes (at least) the first night, and I finally had to come and take them out for him. And if you've never grabbed someone's bare eyeballs with your fingers, then you don't know the meaning of true love, because it was disgusting.

The problems are thus: Mark has a thick brow, small, squinty Asian eyes and fingers "like Vienna sausages". (His words, not mine!!) He can't fit his fingers into his eyes, basically. Finally, he asked an Asian nurse at the hospital how she gets hers out, and she told him to push them down rather than to the side and then grab them, and I guess that helped because now it only takes him five minutes to take them out. And now he can wear sunglasses again!

 Just had to zoom in on that shocked reaction -- priceless. (She had been licking brownie batter out of my mixing bowl...)

Anyway, at work the other day, he had three different patients tell him that he was a hot topic of discussion on facebook. I guess a mother had gotten on a local forum and asked which pediatric provider they would recommend. I copied some of their responses:

• Jenifer All are good but Mark is my favorite. Really down to earth, easy to talk to and will tell you what's up.

  
  
• Angie I Agree they are all great, Mark is my favorite
  

  
  
• Vanesa  Dr Mark Yoder

  
  
• Crystal I take my kids to Mark Yoder. He is great and listens to you
  
  
• Sieta  Mark yoder for sure. He is amazing!
  
  
• Justina Mark for sure!!!:)
  
  
• Chris  Also for Mark, nice guy. He came an volunteered for the SUU ROTC too.
  
  
• Danielle  I love Dr. Mark Yoder also
  
  
• Andriana  Mark! He is so easy to talk to and gives you all the advice you need. I always feel like sometimes i ask stupid common sense questions but he is always there to tell you whats up and doesn't make you feel dumb when you ask anything. I love him! I have heard good about the others there as well.
  
  
• Alex  mark!
  
  
• April Mark Yoder is the best he is so good with my boys and so caring 
  
  
• Skylor love mark he is amazing and has helped us so much with the long road with our daughters health problems he is so caring he is the only doc i know that will call and make sure she is doing ok and if we need anything or have any questions
  
  
• April  Mark yoder for sure, but all are great! However with mark, I can't say enough good things about him. Genuine, knowledgeable, really cares and listens. Not one of those ,"god complex" type doctors. He's does his job because he sincerely wants to help others. Also super down to earth, understanding and funny. Trust him more than anyone else
  
  
• Vanesa There you have it Mark is AMAZING
  
  
• Laura  Wow thanks girls! I appreciate you guys taking the time to help us out. Is Mark yoder a P.A??

  
  
• Mandy  Yes Mark is a P.A. and he is awesome!
  

  
  
• Cami  Love Yoder, Have seen Dowse once and Darlene once and they were very thorough but I always ask for Yoder for sure.

  
  
• Danielle  I don't think mark is a PA. I thought he was an actual Dr. Imight be wrong though

  
  
• Cami Pretty sure he is just a PA still, but he can take his own patients and everything still.

  
  
• Tricia  We like everyone there. I've never had any negative experiences with any of the 3. Mark is a PA and he is the one we schedule with most of the time because my sons really like him. Good luck.

  
  
• Ashley  Dowse is great, but always seems a little rushed.
  Mark yoder is still a PA I think, but he is absolutely wonderful and I always feel like he has time to talk and give advice when needed.
  
  

  So my husband is awesome. There were about 15 "Likes" on the comments as well. I just had to include the ones with the confusion on if he was a doctor or a PA. I love how some of them said "he's still a PA", as if he was going to be a doctor but stopped halfway through medical school. That's not how it works, people. Haha.
  
  

  Also...
  
  

  Yesterday during church, it was ward conference and they were saying what everyone's callings were, and so our full names got read aloud. So of course we had at least three or four people coming up afterwards asking what sort of bizzaro name "Mark Toy Yoder" was. Well, "Toy" is an Americanized version of  "Choy", which was Mark's Chinese grandfather's last name. He immigrated to San Francisco from China when he was 15 and that's when the name was changed. So Mark's dad was born Frank Toy, but then he was orphaned at 11 (I am probably butchering this story) and eventually adopted by Yoders.
  
  

  So I was telling someone yesterday that "Yoder" is Pennsylvania Dutch, and it got me wondering what the heck that even meant. So I Wikipedia-d it and it turns out it's not Dutch at all. People called it Dutch because it was actually "Deutsch", a.k.a. German. "Yoder" is derived from "Theodorus" who was a Swiss-German saint. ((1) Sanctus Theodorus; (2) Sanctus Tjordorus; (3) Sankt Tjoder; (4) Sant Tjoder; (5) Sant Joder; (6) Saint Yoder.) In Switzerland and Germany, the name is "Joder" and the Americanized version is "Yoder". 
  
  

  So "Yoder" is Swiss-German, just like my maiden name "Murset". Well, my mind is blown.
  
  

  A large population of Swiss-German immigrants ended up in Pennsylvania, and have stayed put. So the name Yoder is very common out there, especially among the Amish and Mennonites. Mystery solved!
  

Baby projects

Here's some baby projects I've made this past month. I have about a dozen friends/family members who are churning out babies at an unbelievable rate. Also, I just have a very large fabric stash that I need to do something with. I'm thinking of selling the extras, if I can ever get enough for an inventory.

*note* The picture above includes blankets made previously. Just wanted to show you the beginnings of what may become a new etsy store someday.

First of all, does this happen to you when you buy a yard of fabric?? (All fabric was from Jo-Ann's, btw.)

 

Ugh!! Sometimes it is so bad I end up having to cut off 8-10 inches of fabric to get it squared up! I almost think I need to start buying 1 1/4 yards at a time so at least I can end up with one yard of straight fabric. Sheesh.

Flannel/cotton

Flannel/cotton

Cotton/minky

 

Flannel/minky

 

Cotton/ultraplush

  

Flannel/ultraplush

 Cotton/ultraplush

Minky and ultraplush are new territory for me. They come in weird yardage, they are slippery, they stretch, they shed fibers, they are sort of a nightmare to work with.

I am slowly of getting the hang of things--I learned that you need to use about 2,000 pins, a walking foot and to sew plush side down. (Which seems counter-intuitive to me.)

 

But this still happens. (The top bunches up, which infuriates me.) So I need more practice. Those pregnant friends of mine will be receiving these imperfect ones because hopefully they will just be thrilled that someone sewed something for them!

 

Just look how soft!

 

How thick and cozy! Perfect for those babies who have been born into this wretched winter weather!!

This elephant blanket and diaper clutch I made went to my friend Michelle and her adorable newborn, Christian. 

Speaking of diaper clutches...

Here's my latest batch. I tried to do a bunch in boy fabric.

 

So, I couldn't find my pattern, so I printed off a new one from the blog (from this post), but I guess the dimensions weren't right when it printed because those two came out way smaller. Also, the scrap of gray fabric I was using was really small and I juuuusst squeezed two out of it. But they still fit a travel sized wipes case and diaper, so I guess they'll work fine.

Okay, I lied about all the fabric being from Jo-Ann's. The orange/brown diamond pattern and the green/white raindrop were both fat quarters from Walmart.

Now that I've made so many of them, I sort of have a system worked out so they're not quite so annoying to sew.

 

Then my friend Krystal (who is about to pop with her 3rd boy) came over and wanted to know if I could help her make a couple of fitted sheets for her bassinet mattress.

I've never made sheets before, but sure.....

  

I went onto my favorite sewing/crafty website Made, because you can always trust Dana's sewing genius. Sure enough, she has a great, simple tutorial for sewing fitted crib sheets.

But...

 

This was about 1/4 the size of a standard sized crib mattress. I have no idea if bassinet mattresses come in standard sizes--Krystal had been searching for sheets for months but could never find any. (The one she has is vintage, from when her husband was a baby.) 

 

 So I just had to wing it. She'd brought an old flat sheet for the material and I just had to cut enough to fit around the mattress, box off the corners and sew an elastic casing.

 

I am really sort of amazed that they turned out so well. That does not usually happen when I do things for the first time.

Valentine's Day

I suppose I'd better post about this before it's too far past. Valentine's Day is the one bright spot in February for me. I love the hearts and red and pink everywhere, and the chocolate. Like every other holiday, this one seems to center around the kids now (although I've never considered V-Day as strictly for romantic couples).

I made sure to buy myself a pound of Hot Lips (showcased by Madelyn, above) for the week leading up to it. It's really a bonus that I'm the only one that likes them. Madelyn has started to like them, but mostly I had them to myself. I was pleased to see that there are now bunny shaped cinnamon candies at the store. Somewhat weird, yes. But delicious.

 Madelyn was so excited to wake up to chocolates and toys and we also had goodies sent from Grandma Carolyn!

She (Madelyn) had made a bunch of handmade valentines, including these:

 This was for her friend Aidan, who moved to Iowa a year ago. She has been missing him a lot lately.

 She made these for her Primary teachers the Christians, a husband and wife who, strangely enough, really loved being in charge of those crazy 7-8 year olds but had a new stake calling to fulfill and had to be released. Madelyn was very upset and made sure to send them these. 

In the left hand corner, you can see she wrote "in God we trust ♥". Ha! Isn't that the cutest thing?! (Mark had recently been talking to her about coins...)

Luke wasted no time trashing the house that I'd stayed up late cleaning. He was particularly excited about the conversation hearts, because they have letters and words on them! Better to be enjoyed when scattered on the floor!

Valentine's Day parties at elementary are always the best. Everyone gives everyone a valentine, and nobody is left out. Pretty much the best day of the year.

Mark was sick and not feeling well and also had to go to a 7:30am meeting at the hospital, even though it was his day off. We got a babysitter for that night, but unfortunately couldn't go on a date. He had to give a guest lecture at SUU for their "Intro to the PA Profession" class on pediatrics. Since he was going to be gone anyway, I decided to go to Pilates. We got home late and Madelyn watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown before going to bed an hour and a half late.

So that was pretty much it. I'm just grateful to have such a loving family and a universally approved excuse to eat candy.

Madelyn update

I've been meaning to do this for weeks (as her birthday was almost two months ago)...I am still way behind on my blogging.

Madelyn had her 8-year checkup with Dr. Dowse (Mark's boss, who has been her pediatrician since birth) and here are her stats:

Weight: 48 lbs. 10 oz. (16th percentile)
Height: 49.5 inches (36th percentile)

A nurse joked that a lot of kids her age are "square", meaning they weigh one pound for every inch of height. Apparently it is quite common. She wears size 12.5 or 13 shoes and size 7-8 in clothes. I keep having to remind myself that she can't wear 6x anymore. She's not 6..she's not even 7. She's 8 YEARS OLD! Still getting used to that. I can't shop in the little girl's section anymore. I just barely switched out all her 6-7 shirts in her closet. She is so skinny that she could still probably wear that size--her limbs are just too long and gangly. (Just like Mark and I as kids...)

 

While we were there at the doctor, I mentioned that Madelyn had had a violent reaction (vomiting, diarrhea, hives) to eating a lot of peanuts back in November...which prompted him to order a lab test involving a blood draw. *cue horror music*

Madelyn is soooo high strung. At this same checkup, they had to do a finger prick to check her iron levels. She launched into Hysterical Freak Out XIV and screamed and flailed and cried and kicked while I tried to hold her still and Chad the medical assistant, after several minutes, managed to get the blood. (After which, she said, "Oh that wasn't so bad...")

Luke (who didn't get a finger prick, just an extra bandaid), got a flu shot right afterwards in his thigh and protested for exactly 3 seconds, no tears. 

Anyway, we put the test off for a couple of weeks because I was dreading it so much (she didn't even know about it) but finally I had Mark take her to the hospital to get it done. Dr. Dowse prescribed her a small dose of Valium to calm her down. She seemed to be in quite a good mood up until she realized that a nurse was about to stick a needle into her arm, and then freaked out. But overall, it went better than expected.

We got the results back, and she has a mild intolerance to peanuts, not a true allergy, which is good news. I have a few food intolerances, too. It just means she can't eat a huge quantity (she'd eaten a PB&J sandwich and half a can or roasted peanuts when she had the bad reaction) and she'll be fine. Whew!

 

(She likes to hide under my bed, which makes ME claustrophobic just thinking about)

Then I mentioned that she had had three urinary tract infections (UTIs) in six weeks' time. She'd never had problems with them before, and out of the blue on Dec. 2nd she came down with her first one. She was treated with antibiotics for 10 days, felt fine for a week and then the infection came back. And again...and then again.

Well, as of right now, she is on UTI #5....no matter what we do, they just seem to come right back. There is a colony of e.coli that keeps growing in there (e.coli is a common bacteria in the colon). We have taken her to a urologist, she's had an ultrasound, and gotten back on antibiotics and a medicine for her bladder, to help it relax and expand. Her ultrasound showed that her bladder does not void completely, which can cause the residual urine to ferment and grow bacteria. Also, she leaks a lot in her panties, which then breed bacteria. (Sorry to embarrass you, dear...) He thinks her bladder might be spasming, or could be too small for her age.

Anyway, it has been incredibly frustrating and expensive. She's going to be on a low dose antibiotic for the next couple of months, plus her bladder med, plus she has to use bacitracin twice a day and can't take bubble baths anymore. She's already had more than 80 doses of antibiotics, and we're about to do about 80 more. SIGH!

And oh yeah...her eye situation.

 

Back on Dec. 19th (the day after our first big snowstorm), she came home from school and her glasses were gone. She said she'd put them in the side pocket of the backpack, and they apparently fell out somewhere because we have still never found them. I have a suspicion that they're buried in the snow somewhere, but the snow has never fully melted these past two months, so I haven't been able to look. 

Exasperation, much??

So she had to wear her old, beat up pair of glasses for about a month until we could finally get her to the eye doctor. 

As he was examining her, the optometrist said, "Well, you're certainly not a boring patient! LOTS to look at with you!"

Translation: "Your eyes are terrible!"

He was visibly giddy.

I'd noticed that her right eye had started crossing, in addition to her left eye, which has always crossed frequently. It had been happening even when she was wearing her glasses. He said her eyes were not working in sync. She needed new glasses with prisms in them.

Here are her new glasses, which were $169.00 (*choke*). When she put them on, she said something to the effect of, "I can only see one of everything now!" 

Poor girl had been suffering with double vision for who knows how long! I feel like mother of the year...

 

She is extremely farsighted in her left eye, which is why it crosses like that. She has refractive amblyopia.  It's not the traditional "lazy eye" that needs a patch. That type is actually a neurological problem--her type is caused by her extreme far-sightedness. Her brain "switches off" that eye when she's trying to see things up close without glasses on. It's lucky that she got glasses at age 4 because her vision + brain connection should get stronger over time. If we hadn't caught it, it's likely she would have gone blind in her left eye.

Anyway, so far we have accrued $800 in medical bills for her this year, and it super stinks and I wish we had decent insurance. But at least she's generally healthy overall--I am fully aware that there are families out there who have constant, massive health problems to deal with.

And I just ordered her a plastic pair of glasses with a strap so she can wear them at gymnastics, because I think actually having some sort of clarity and depth perception while there will help her greatly (duh). I should have done that LONG ago. Oh, and they only cost $32, shipped. Zennioptical.com, people. I wasn't sure if I could order glasses with prism lenses online, that's why I didn't just buy them there in the first place. I wish I would have.

 

She is doing well in school--especially in reading. She has started to read  chapter books like crazy. We used to have to set a timer to make sure she read her required 20 minutes a day for homework, but now she stays up late reading, and read for probably an hour or two yesterday on her own, just for fun. She likes Junie B. Jones, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the Geronimo Stilton series. She still also loves Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side comic books. We have hundreds of children's books in our house, with bookcases in every room, and I'm glad to see them being put to use!

She has become quite a prolific artist as well, and draws pictures of what's going on in her life all the time:

 Illustration of her baptism (a couple of weeks before it actually happened). Apparently, I am crying. It encouraged me that she drew this, because she really really really did NOT want to get baptized for a long time.

Have I mentioned that she can be a drama queen? Heaven help me when she hits puberty.

 Treasure map--she had different papers with the sea monsters taped up in her room and led me and Luke on a treasure hunt. Note the compass!

 

Illustration of Harry the Bunny, which is Luke's current favorite show on Netflix.

 She had this taped to her bedroom door for a while. It says, "Do not come in. Only Emma can but do not let Mr. [Luke] in. P.S. I am very very very very sad. From: Madelyn. Look on the back. Sad face with no noes [nose]."

This is the back. A picture of her being sad on her bed.

A "toy dummy" being dropped to three hungry sharks? Well she loves sharks and has a flair for the macabre. She also loves to watch MythBusters, and they do all sorts of crazy stuff to their dummy, Buster....

 She frequently writes me notes and has Luke courier them to me, all folded up. This one says, "To: Mom. Love: Miss. I am done! [with homework] And tell Daddy that he has to come to find me and he has to read to me SpongeBob Superstar book to me." Then it has a happy little picture of "Mr., Dad and Miss" lying on her bed (with her heated rice bag and Lammie) reading together. And she even drew her bedroom door with her towels on a hook, her wicker trash can and laundry basket. I love it.

 When I took her to see her Auntie Megan in The Nutcracker in December, it must have made quite the impression, because she has drawn pictures of "Meg is the Snow Queen" on the back of all her math worksheets ever since then.

 This was a note she sent to me from her room when she couldn't figure out her math homework ("I don't know any") and she was VERY SAD. And there I am, sitting at my sewing machine without a care in the world.

This is one of my favorites. She drew this for her Grandpa Frank, whose birthday was today! It shows her celebrating with Grandpa and Grandma, and the big layer cakes that Grandma is so good at. Frank sent an email saying he loved the card.

Sorry for another long post. I just want my Madelyn to know what a great girl she is. She is usually happy and silly and loving (still rather stubborn and bossy at times) and we love her SO MUCH! ♥