Dear Santa

Lance helps the kids write their Santa letters every year and I love it!

More fun In San Francisco

We would get home late every night and wake up late every morning, Saturday morning was the same, we didn't leave our room until 930a, we walked 20 minutes to a hole in the wall for breakfast which was worth walking to and waiting in line 30 minutes for, too bad I can't remember the name of the restaurant. By the time we got out it was lunch time, yea we are just going to skip that. We walked to Chinatown, very slowly, we weren't walking as fast as we were yesterday, that took us most of the afternoon going in and out of stores, by the time we got done some were too pooped to go anymore so we watched a movie to rest our feet. After the movie we got into the car and drove to the Golden gate bridge (by this time it was dark and we thought the bridge might be lit up). We got to the bridge and it was dark, but if you look across the lake the bay bridge was lit up, we drive over the bridge and end up in Saulsalito, we planned on eating dinner there but the place we wanted was closed down, so we pick another one unfortunatly it was back in town, so we take a 20 minute drive and find the place we don't stop because every building around the restaurant was night clubs and XXX stores. So we get the heck out of dodge and decide to go to rainforest cafe. It is 10pm when we get into the restaurant what a late dinner. After we head back to the car and back to the hotel, gotta wake up bright and early to go home. What a fun weekend I had with the girls, we did what we want when we want, and enjoyed each others company, can't wait to do it again!

Girls having fun

Friday morning we left our hotel room and had a late breakfast. Nothing like getting up when you want to and being on your own schedule. Found a cafe on the side, it wasn't too bad but we could have found better. We then set out to walk to pier 39 and Fishermans Warf. It was a 2 1/2 mile walk, mind you up the steep hill and then down Here we are trudging along Take a look at the steps Just the view from where we came We made it to Pier 39 and immediatly looked for tours, we found a 2 hour tour on a double decker bus, it took us to the Golden Gate park, the painted ladies houses, Golden Gate Bridge, and many more in between. Waiting paitently for the bus to go. we got on 45 minutes before it left to get the very front seats. We passed by the City offices, Wohoo! Can't go to San Francisco without visiting the Golden Gate Bridge! Right after we got on a cruise boat and took a tour on water, went by the bridge again, and got a close look at Alcatraz. Alyson wanted to go to a restaurant that had fish in its menu, so we ended up at Joe Crabs Shack, we asked to sit by a window for the view, and thankfully got it. we got our dinner, and had to wait sometime (it was a busy night), but we didn't mind it. We were entertained by a guy on the street playfully scaring people, it was so much fun to watch.

It was late and dark and we weren't about to walk back to our hotel so we rode the cable car, had to experience that.

All good things have to come to an end. Can't wait for what tomorrow will bring.

Grils trip in process

Wednesday night Alyson, Jennifer, Shannon and I left for a short girls trip, to San Francisco! We packed our bags, kissed our kids, said good luck to our husbands (and smiled and evil smile while we said it), hopped into the car and started our fun drive. We ended up in Bakersfield for the night. Woke up the next morning and took off for Oakland. We stopped at the Oakland Temple, did a session, visited the visitors center, and enjoyed the scenery. The view from the Temple is to die for, You can go up to the roof of the Temple and look at San Francisco.




After, we drove to our Ghetto motel, even though the internet said hotel (pictures to come, we got there in the dark). We unpacked and walked on foot to Union Square, which was a 10 minute walk. We walked down mission street and turned onto 6th street to get to union square, WRONG IDEA! scarey scarey, we were the only blondes and we should have been wearing black. we walked that street as fast as we could on edge everytime we went past someone. We got to Union Square in one piece and did a little shopping, hey a girl has to shop! We then got a bite to eat at the cheesecake factory. By the time we got out it was 10 o'clock we started on our journey back to the motel, we got stopped by a man who wanted to help us so he told us not to go right because thats where all the drugs are, and he said don't go down 6th street because that is where the prostitutes and and clubs are, he told us to go this certain way, and then asked for a handout, we thankfully gave him some money, and quickly went on our way. That man was funny and nice he was the type you could have an hour conversation with. We made it safely not without a few other people asking for handouts and saying hey hot stuff. We get into our room and all night long heard sirens, Wow, we chose the wrong place to stay.

Waiting for our food

Racing for a Cause

I don't know too many people in my life that has had breast cancer, I knew that wouldn't stop me from paying to race in the save a sister race. Half of everyones entry fee went to st. george's cancer center and there were over 450 people that participated. The last race I ran was a 5k in the beginning of September. I've been running quite a bit these past two months so I decided to test myself and see what I could do. I ran a 10k, my very first.

All the pictures Lance took of me before the race I wasn't smiling I was a little nervous.



Here we go, I am ready!


During the race, it wan't as bad as I thought it would be.

Me crossing the finish line


We dragged our kids out of bed, I'm so greatful to have a husband supportive to watch me run, even though our kids didn't like being woken up, they did have a fun time.

What to do in Mesquite?

Last Saturday I wanted to get out of town, go to Gunlock and cook dinner over a fire and have smores. Well, we ran out of time and Lance suggested lets do it in town, So we got Wade and Jenny's family to jump on board and we drove out past Bunkerville, pulled off the road about 100' or so and made ourselves a little fire, the kids had hotdogs, and the adults made themselves a nice and yummy tin foil dinner. Afterwards the kids had a blast roasting their marshmellows and having smores. What a fun evening, the kids got to hike around and look for useless treasures (broken bottles of glass) :) and the boys got to shoot into the river and pretend they got something.

Here's Lance getting the fire ready, problem was Sydney and Dusty were very excited about the fire and had to constantly remind them they could get hurt, a 1 year old doesn't know the meaning of hurt.


Here are the kids enjoying their food, Cassidy is ready to chow down!


Here comes the future hunters! There were no animals hurt while taking these pictures!



What a fun time to get good and dirty and smell like camp fire. Thanks Wade and Jenny for coming along!

Physical Therapist 1st Appt.

Met my physical therapist last week, Dr. Luke recomfirmed I have no Vestibular Ocular Reflex, VOR. We did a few more test to see how well my other reflex's are working. Then he gave me an exercise that I get to everyday 3 times a day, I put a paper on a wall and write, for example the letter e on it, I focus on that while I turn my head side to side, I slow down until the "e" stops moving side to side, I'm trying to trick my brain back into focusing again, if I keep this up and work hard I could get back my VOR but not 100%, I'm not worried about 100%, I would be satisified with 50% since I have 0%. Glass half full!!!!!

Then and Now

Alright, I have made my weight loss goal and am proud to complete it in a year. Here is a picture of me with dusty.

I gained 50 pounds during every one of my pregnancies, I always lost it, but it was that stubborn extra 20 pounds I gained after I got married that I could never get off. I weighed right before I had Dusty 195. (June 2009)

Here I am with Jace on his first day of School, (August 2009)

May 2010, yea!! I did it. Here is my story, I worked out and worked out, then I stopped losing, along with working out I watched what I ate, then I hit my plateu, 2 or 3 months straight I was at the same weight, well I got frustrated and went on a diet, yes I cheated and took it off the easy way, but I stuck to it, finished it and for a month I have kept it off.(I love this picture never in a million years would I have liked a picture of me standing sideways).

So I weigh 136, I'm loving it but trying to work out the phsycological part, the one that tells me I'm not skinny enough, I have a real body image problem, I always had, back in high school I was so fit but I didn't think it was good enough, I'm really working hard to change but it going to take some time conidering I've been self consience for the past 12 years. Anyways enough of the insight to my past. Now I do have a new goal, Since I was on the diet I had to stop working out (really hard for me), I lost fat but I also lost muscle, so I am going to work out to tone up, can't wait!

A NEW STYLE


I wish I had a picture of me with longer hair, but here is what I looked like before, now.......

This is what I look like now, I love it!!!!

Diagnosis

I'm not writing this so you'll feel sorry for me, I'm keeping this for reference and to track my progress which won't be much.
Symptoms- I have a number of them and at different times throughout the last 13 or so years it has been different. At one time I would get dizzy spells, example during high school I would be walking with friends and dizziness would hit me. I'd have to stop for a few seconds and let it pass then I would be ok. Also I would get dizzy spells when I was laying down in bed, but I noticed that happening more when I was exhausted. My main concern has been for as long as I can remember. My eyes don't focus on an object fast enough, for instance I will be riding on a 4-wheeler, it gets pretty bumpy, my vision can't focus on that tree up ahead and have it be still, the tree and everything around it moves with the 4-wheeler, up and down my vizion goes with it. I haven't been able to focus, same goes for dirving in a car, and running, when I run everything bounces up and down the way my body goes. It stinks but I've gotten used to it. It was the dizzy spells that scared me the most. A couple of years back they came back with a vengence and more often, I could never perdict when the dizziness would hit, what scared me the most was often I was driving on the freeway going from Mesquite or from St. George, 80 miles an hour and I wold get a dizzy spell somehow I managed to stay safe, those episodes told me it was time to get checked out. I did MRI's CAT scans and the doctor said I was fine, yea ok. but I never went to get a second opinion, chalk that up to my stubborness. A little while later I thought I'd go get my eyes checked, and nope nothing out of the ordinary there. So for the past 4 years year I gave up and dealt with it. Thankfully after having Alexis I stopped having the dizzy spells during the day, but I still had that motion problem.
So 3 weeks ago I took my son to the ear, nose, and throat doctor here in town to get his nose cauterized. I overheard a paitent talking to the receptionist about a hearing and vision balance test, I thought it wouldn't hurt to get one. Yesterday I took the test, I told the doctor all my symptons, we started with a hearing test, I passed with flying colors, then I took a vision test, I passed with flying colors. The next test checked my inner ear, I laid down turned my head to one side while air was blowing in my ear, the doctor said after a few seconds I should start to get dizzy, for me nothing, 30 seconds of nothing, then he checked my other and the same, nothing. Then he tried it with warm air and nothing in both ears. By now he was so giddy with excitement he told me he knows what my problem is he has never seen it in the 7 years he's been working he has only studied it during school. He told me my problem is 1 in a 1000. So here is my diagnosis...
I have Vertigo(which I already knew), and Oscillopsia. My Vestibular ocular reflex is not working which means I have no inner ear function(in both ears). We have three functions to keep us balanced, our inner ear, our vision and our joints, well I have only 2 of the 3 working, I rely solely on my vision and joints to keep me balanced. The doctor said since I have no inner ear I should be walking with a cane or walking along walls. The doctor is really surprised how well my other two balance functions have overcompensated. As he said this I told him I will be getting on my knees and thanking the Lord, he knew I still needed to function what with four kids and all, I'm greatfull to know he is there and helps me when I need him.
Now here is the worse news unfortunatly there is no cure, yipee for me, NOT. I get to start physical therapy soon to teach me how to handle my balance, and in the long run (when I get old and decrepid). So sorry for the sad news, but yes, I am so happy to know what is wrong with me I'm glad to have a name with it and to learn how to make my life a little better. Too bad I won't be able to ride the 4-wheeler on the sand dunes, I guess that's good news for me, Lance won't have to buy me a 4-wheeler and gear, that saved me a couple thousand dollars! Thanks for reading and don't feel sorry for me, I've lived with this for the last 13 years, I can live with it for many more years to come.

Jace is Racing!!!

Jace rode in his first Race here in Mesquite a couple of weeks ago. He raced in two races, as you can see in the picture below he got 3rd place in moto 1 and 1st place in moto 2. So overall he got 2nd place not bad. We were way excited for him. Later that evening he was asking us when his next race was. So we looked it up on the internet, the next race was two weeks later in Delta, Lance and I thought long and hard and decided what the hey, he wants to, lets do it.



Lance and Jace,(Garrett came for moral support) headed up to delta. This time he raced in 4 races, I don't know the details, Lance didn't take a picture of the Standings, but he came home with a medal in one heat and in the second heat he came home with a 1st place overall. Wow it is amazing what he can do, I mean he is 5 years old and is riding on a motorcycle. I am greatful he has found something he loves to do.
Now the slide show below is of Jace during one of his races, well, he crashed and it is pretty funnny to watch. He wasn't hurt, as you can tell he wasted no time getting back on(with Lance's help), to finish the race.

Snow Fun

We are up in parowan enjoying a snowy quick vacation. The kids woke up Friday morning and just had to get outside and play in the snow. Alexis and Brinley couldn't resist eating the snow.