Halloween and More

We had a big snow storm last week. On Wednesday it snowed about a foot here in Loveland. It was awesome. The kids had a couple days off of school for Parent Teacher Onferences and had lots of fun playing in the snow. We even went sledding on Friday. The temperatures have gone back up and it has been really nice this week. All of the snow has melted and for the first time in several years, we had great weather for Halloween. Usually it snows or rains and is very cold for Halloween. This year, I guess the snow just came a bit early.

Here are some pics of the kids from Halloween.

My Blue Man Group

Little Red Riding Hood

Pics of Kaylee coming soon.

The kids had a great time Trick-or-Treating. They got way more candy than we need. I am trying to spread it out so they don't rot their teeth out of their mouths. They only get a couple of pieces a day and they are handling that pretty well.

We woke up on Halloween to a mess in the front of our house. One of Kaylee's friends got us good!! Silly string, crepe paper streamers, toilet paper, paper shreds, confetti, post it notes, and so much more. Someone was very busy and I have no idea how we never heard them. I will say that I was very grateful the two boys came and washed off the residue from the silly string from my front door.

The boys all started wrestling last week. It is so fun to watch them. Kyle is doing great. He is such a little scrapper. This week, he was paired up with a little boy his size who was really mean. They were practicing take downs and Kyle did his take down and every time Kyle took him down, the other boy cried. Yet when it was the other boy's turn, he took Kyle down and beat the crap out of him (illegally) by punching him in the face, kicking him in the crotch, and jumping on him. Kyle was really good and did not retaliate, that made me proud. Jake is learning how it all works and because he is so strong he is often the last one left in the circle when they play a game called push out. They all try to push everyone else out of the circle. He's a tough guy. Ryan is doing well also. He is learning the moves and is doing quite well with his take downs too. I will have to get some pictures of them wrestling to post later.

The girls are staying really busy too. Tiffany just started a new session of Volleyball. SHe is excited to keep up her schools and work hard to prepare for next season. Kaylee is still doing physical therapy on her finger. It is healing nicely and hopefully soon she will have full range of motion again.

The kids brought home their report cards last week and it was so wonderful to see their grades. 4 of the kids get letter grades (Kyle doesn't in Kindergarten) and on those 4 report cards, it was all A's and only 3 B's. I was amazed and so proud of all their hard work. Kyle's marks were very good too and he is doing great in kindergarten.

Mike moved into his new apartment in Oklahoma this week. It is weird to think of the fact that my husband has a separate residence in another state. But it will be so nice for him to not have to stay in hotels all the time anymore. He will be working there for about a year so it makes sense for him to set up a more permanent residence, even if it is temporary. We sure miss him when he is away, but have settled into our own routine and we are managing okay without him. He makes it home every Friday and heads back to work on Monday mornings. He is hoping that it will be a Monday thru Thursday thing in Oklahome soon so he can have 3 days home with us.

As for me, I stay busy enough with the kids, house, homework, etc., etc., but I have opened up a new card shop online. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out here. I am doing custom photo cards. You choose from any of my card styles, send me your photos, pick your font and sentiment and I create your card for you. Then I send you the jpeg file and you take it to get printed. Here is a sample of one of my favorites.

Also for any Twilight fans, only 15 more days until New Moon. Yippee!! I can't wait. I am heading to see the movie with a bunch of my girlfriends. We are all getting special shirts for the occasion. Speaking of shirts, I have some new shirts in my t-shirt shop, you can check out my t-shirt shop here. There are some great Twilight and New Moon shirts for your movie night!

Well, I think that is about all for now.

Well, Kaylee had her surgery and all went well. While she was home recovering, Tiffany was sick for 3 days. It turns out she probably had H1N1, which Kaylee then got also. Tiffany missed 3 days of school and between Kaylee's finger and H1N1, she missed 8 days of school. She did sneak back in to school on the Wednesday and Friday after her surgery. Wednesday proved to be too much too soon and she spent all of Thursday in bed, but felt well enough to go back on Friday. Then on Sunday she spiked a fever and missed another 4 days of school thanks to the Flu which copletely kicked her butt (probably because she was just recovering from her surgery). Thankfully Kaylee and Tiffany were the only ones that got the flu and everyone else has managed to stay healthy. Both girls are doing well and this H1N1 wasn't really all the media has hyped it up to be. Thank Goodness!!!

I have once again been dealing with some of my own medical issues. Sometimes I wonder what is going on with me, I am too young to have had so many health issies (my doctor even told me that this week). I have had right lower quadrant abdominal pain for a full week now. It started last Sunday night and was so bad I laid in the fetal postition and cried for a few hours until I finally fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning the pain wasn't near so bad. I have continued to have pain off and on all week so I went to the doctor on Friday. She sent me for an ultrasound and while they don't think it is anything serious, I will be going to see the GYN (yippee) soon to discuss my options. Have I mentioned that I hate going to the doctor? In addition I have to go in tomorrow to have a bunch of labs. They will be checking my kidneys, liver, thyroid, blood counts etc. to figure out what else might be going on. yay me!

Today was the kids' primary program in church. Once a year the primary kids ages 3-11 and their teachers do a program in our sacrament meeting. Each of the children is given a part to say and they sing the songs thay have been learning in primary each sunday throughout the year. The theme this year was My Eternal Family. The kids did a great job and it made me so proud when my little ones stood up at the podium and said their parts. Even Kyle said his little part without any help. It was a great meeting. I always enjoy watching the children sing.

I also had a chance today to teach relief society. I haven't done that for such a long time. I was so nervous, but the lesson went quite well. I am always grateful for class participation and we had lots of it today. The lesson was also on families and the eternal nature of our family relationships. I cried, of course when we talked about parents. But I guess that is okay. I still don't really have a calling in church yet. It's weird because it has been over 2 months since I was released from the young women program. I don't think I have gone this long without a calling since I was 18 years old. Well, I guess technically I do have a calling as the YW assistant volleyball coach, but we only have a couple more games left. I am anxious to see what the Lord has in store for me next.

Everyone is doing well. I will be working this week on cleaning the basement and organizing a bit more around the house as well as finishing up the kids' halloween costumes. I am so excited about the costumes we are doing for the boys. It is going to be so much fun. I will post pictures next week. We have the ward Halloween party this weekend. It will be a blast.

Well, I suppose that is all for now.

September has come and gone...

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post? I am getting so bad at this. I can't believe that September is already over!!!

So, what have we been up to around here? The kids are doing great in school. Everyone has been working hard and they all seem to be getting really good grades.

Kaylee and Tiffany have been playing Volleyball. Both girls made the varsity teams for their grades and both girls have played very well.

Tiffany plays setter and she has learned so much. She had never played an official game of volleyball before, but you would never know it watching her. She plays well and she plays hard. Her team took the city by storm and won the 6th grade championships last week. Here are a couple of pics of her.

Tiff has a great serve and often goes on a run of unreturned serves they call that an ACE!!!

Tiffany has also surprised us with her grades this year. She has always been a good student, she has always had B's with an A or 2 thrown in, but right now she is pulling straight A's and most of her averages are over 100% thanks to her enthusiasm for doing extra credit. I am so proud of how hard she is working this year. I knew she had it in her, she just had to figure it out for herself. Go Tiff!! She and I had the chance last week to go with her volleyball team to CSU to watch a college volleyball team play. It was so much fun and amazing to watch. Now she knows how hard she is going to have to work if she wants to play on that level.

Kaylee plays "Outside Hitter" on the 8th grade team and has improved her skills so much over the last year. She is very aggressive and plays really well. Here are a couple of pics of Kaylee playing.

She has an awesome serve!!

She saved this one, she got under it and got it up just enough for someone else to hit it.
Her team will be playing in the Conference Championships this Saturday, however she will be watching from the bench after a season ending injury to her pinky finger led to surgery and two screws this week. It was a freak thing that happened, as she was catching a ball off a serve in practice, it popped up and caught her finger just right and broke it bad!!! Here is the x-ray.
She is so disappointed to miss the last few games of the season, but we are hoping that all goes well in her healing and she is able to get back on the court soon to get ready for next year. She too is pulling straight A's and is working hard. Though now she is a bit stressed from missing 4 days of school thanks to her injury. She has some work to make up, but I know she will pull it off. I have been able to help her by scribing for her with some of her work. (Did I mention she injured her right hand and she is right handed?) She will do fine and be caught back up in no time. She is enjoying time with friends this year and has been attending football games for the high school with them and hanging out whenever possible.

Ryan decided to run for Student Council Historian. He had to come up with a campaign, make posters, and give a speech. He chose a concept of Harry Potter for his campaign and used the idea to make posters that said "Harry says vote for Ryan" and used different characters from the books. Then in his speech he acted like he was Harry Potter recommending Ryan for the job. It was good. He was elected out of 7 who were running for that position. He is following in his sisters' footsteps. Both girls were also Historian in 4th grade and both went on to be elected President in 5th grade. Go Ryan I am so proud of you. Mom and dad were unable to watch him give his speech since dad was out of town for work and mom was at surgery with Kaylee, but Grandma went and got a picture for us. She said he was very confident and did a great job on his speech. Here is a picture of him giving his speech for the elections. He also received an award today for good work in his daily language exercises. He is a great student and doing really well in 4th grade so far. He has been reading the Fablehaven book series by Brandon Mull and is really enjoying that.

Jake is active as ever and is a bottomless pit to boot. He is always hungry and can never get enough until it comes to meal time when he is suddenly not hungry for what I have cooked, oh how frustrating!! I have squashed the snacks (he hates that) but we have stopped buying chips and other things that he likes to sneek. He is doing well in school and I am so proud of him for working so hard. He has been reading some Henry and Mudge books and is wanting to start reading Harry Potter too. Go Jake!!

Kyle has come alive and I am so happy with our decision to put him in all day kindergarten. Before, he wouldn't write anything for me, he wouldn't practice his letters, write his name or anything. I knew he could, but he wouldn't practice for me. Now he comes home everyday to do his (self-imposed) "homework." Last week he had Mike help him make a book to practice his letters and he does a couple of pages each day. He has also made his own numbers book now too so he can practice his numbers as well. He is thriving in school and I am so excited to see his improvements. Here is a picture he drew of our family.

As for me, I have been busy with the girls' volleyball games, homework, housework, volunteering with school projects, digital scrapbooking, and cooking. I recently learned how to make bread thanks to my mother in law. I then filled in for her to teach a class about it at our enrichment meeting. I have since been making a couple of loaves of bread each week. The kids love the homemade wheat bread and it has been kind of fun. I also had a cook day with my friends a couple weeks ago and enjoyed that as well. I especially love having all the meals in the freezer. I have been working out on a regular basis and I must say I am glad to have a workout space in the basement. I have been combining cardio (on the treadmill) with weights to give myself a pretty well rounded workout. Though I haven't noticed a difference on the scale yet, I am noticing that I am toning up a bit. Hooray!!! Overall, I am doing really well.

Mike is back to traveling agin. We enjoyed having home for almost a month. He is arranging for an apartment in Lawton, Oklahoma where he will be living Monday through Friday every week starting in November. It's hard on all of us to have him away so much, but we are managing and we are so grateful that he has such a great job. The benefits alone have been a huge help this year with 2 surgeries again for the second year in a row. Everyone loves the weekends around our house. We spend our time together as a family, Mike and I have date night and we just treasure the little time together.

Well, I think that about catches us up on what is going on around here, so that is all for now.

Back To School

Well it is official, I finally have the house to myself. All the kids are in school now ALL DAY. It has been a crazy week so far. Tiffany started 6th grade on Monday, Kaylee started 8th grade on Tuesday, and the boys all started today. (Ryan 4th, Jake 2nd, Kyle Kindergarten) It is a little sad in some ways to realize that all the kids are in school all day. I can't believe how fast life is going lately.

Everyone keeps asking me what I am going to do with all the time I am going to have to myself now and I really don't know the answer to that question. I think I will spend some time getting the house reorganized. We have lived here almost 2 years now and though I organized things pretty well when we moved in, some of that has been lost. So my first order of business will to be to reorganize and clean the house. It is my hope that if I can redefine the proper place for everything to be put away the kids will do that and the house will be easier to keep clean. I can hope right? Once I get that project done, I will think about what comes next.

So, Kyle was the only one who let me take his picture today. So here are a couple of pictures of our big boy on his first day of school. Here he is in front of the marque at the school. NOtice he is wearing his favorite color shorts (orange). He picked them out at the store and said, "mom you have to buy me these shorts! " I asked, "why?" he said "cuz their my favorite color" It was like duh mom why do you think?
These are some of Kyle's friends from church who are all also starting Kindergarten today.Here he is with his teacher (believe it or not). She is the tiniest little lady but so full of personality. He is going to have a great year!And here he is the first in line ready to go into the school. He was so excited!!! Well, I guess that is all for today. I will have to blog later about the visit I had with my sister last weekend.

Camping and Being released

We had a wonderful week last week. We spent Monday at Water World as a family. It was a great day to be there except for a short period of time in the early afternoon that we had a bit of wind and rain. Thankfully that didn't last long and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day. The water slides were a ton of fun and the kids had a blast riding the slides and playing in the wave pool.

I worked very hard on Tuesday and Wednesday to complete a slide show from girls camp. I attended 2.5 of 4 days at girl's camp this year and had a great time. Our Young Women are so amazing. The slide show included over 200 photos of our girls in their various activities. I loved putting the slide show together and it turned out really good. We had our camp awards night on Wednesday and had a great time reminiscing about camp.


On Thursday, Mike and I packed up the gear, trailer and the family and headed into the mountains for a camping trip. We camped with 6 other families and had a great time. The weather was wonderful and the campground was amazing. We camped at Dowdy Lake and everywhere you looked was a beautiful view. The kids played in the lake, went fishing, hunted for crawdads and just enjoyed being with their friends. For Mike and I it was a pretty relaxing camping trip. Now that the kids have gotten so big, they don't require quite so much attention and we let them run and play all day. On Friday me and all the other moms took a little walk around the lake. It was a simple little walk, but was very beautiful and so peaceful without any of the kids. Thursday night I made the BEST camping desert we have ever had. We made homemade ice cream in bags(which has become a tradition when we camp lately, thank you Mel) and I made dutch oven apple cobbler to go with it. It was sooooo good.


While camping we fished a ton, actually we cast out a ton, we never caught anything. Kyle loved casting out and reeling in his line. We saw so many fish jumping I don't know how we never caught anything, but we had a total blast trying anyway. Sadly, our camping trip came to an end and we headed home. Now the piles of laundry await and things need to be put away and I need to recapture my house. I got a good start on those things yesterday but have quite a bit more to do tomorrow.


Finally the last of my blog for today is to tell about my sadness over being released from my calling in church today. I have been serving in the Young Women's program for over 4 years. I have enjoyed serving in that capacity so much. I have worked with the girls ages 14-18 the whole time. I have sent numerous girls off to college, seen several girls get married, watched them grow and learn and mature in so many ways. I have also grown so very close to so many and have so enjoyed being a part of their lives. I have been confidant to some, a shoulder to cry on to others, given support when they needed it, offered encouragement when necessary, and I hope I have been a friend. I certainly consider them my friends and hope that they will all stay in touch. It is so hard for me to think about not being involved with them in this capacity anymore. It makes me sad and I have literally cried for a good part of the day. I know that the Lord will have some other postition for me to serve in and with time, I will grow to love those I serve there too, but it doesn't make this any easier right now. I love the Young Women's Program and feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to work with so many wonderful young women. I will miss them all so much!!!

Well, that is enough for now.

Late July

July was a busy month. I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Girls Camp with the Young Women in our ward. The theme was Everday Heroes and I learned a bit about the heroes that I work with in our ward. The young women in our ward offered so much service to one another. They worked hard when they had assignments and were commended for it. I was so proud of them. Our girls are amazing!!! I have been enjoying some time with the kids at the pool, though the weather this summer has n ot cooperated as well as I would have liked and we have had tons of rain this year. It has spoiled several of our pool days as well as other plans too. Oh well, there's not much we can do about the waether.

The boys all finished a second session of swimming lessons and all passed their second levels off this summer. Ryan completed level 5, Jake completed level 4 and Kyle completed level 2. Kyle went from being afraid of the water at the beginning of the summer to being a complete fish. He is swimming all over the pool with no floaties. He can dive to the bottom to retrieve his toys and he just loves it. Swimming lessons were well worth the money paid this year.

The boys are all looking forward to school starting next week and will have fun since it will be the three of them at the elementary school all day this year.

Tiffany finished up her season of softball. She had a great season. Her coach suggested that she try out for the Rage softball program here in town, but because of finances and the fact that they often play on SUndays we have decided not to do it. I hope she finds comfort in the fact that I am positive she would have made the team if she would have tried out. Now she is looking ahead to starting middle school and volleyball tryouts that are just over a week away.

Kaylee has had a crazy busy summer. She has done lots of babysitting and mowed the lawn for grandpa & grandma while they were on vacations, as well as our own lawn. So she has been able to make some money this summer. She has also spent a great deal of time with her friends and has enjoyed watching friends baseball games, playing in the river, walking all around town, spending the night at friend's home and so much more. I think she has had a fun summer.

As for Mike, he actually has had a couple of weeks at home. It has been really nice. He will be heading off again this week to Oklahoma for a couple of days. Since he is still in the preconstruction phases of the project, he hasn't had to travel quite as much. But the weekly travel will be starting up again all too soon.

Well, I think that pretty much catches us up to present.

Pics from reunion, almost stitches, turtle, and more

Okay so it's been almost a month and I finally got my pictures from the family reunion uploaded for your viewing pleasure. You can check out my whole album here. I am in the process of collecting pictures taken by other members of the family as well so that I can compile a book about our adventures.

I know I am a major slacker lately on this blog. The summer is so busy. This week we had a youth activity and we took the kids boating. It was a great time. The kids got the chance to go tubing and wake boarding. Kaylee enjoyed wake boarding a lot and can't wait to go again. We ended the night in the ER though. Kyalee cut her knee on the step in the water on the back of the boat. It was a pretty good slice so I took her in. She was so nervous about getting stitches so we said a little prayer that she would be comforted. A few minutes later the doctor came in and said "The good news is, it doesn't look like it will need stitches, I should be able to take care of it with steri strips." Keep in mind this is after the triage nurse had already said it would definitely need stitches. Kaylee was so relieved and grateful. I was relieved that I wasn't going to have to try and hold her down for stitches. I don't think I could have done it, she is as tall as me now. Here are a couple of pics. ( I know, it's gross) So she got a couple of steri strips to put her back together. They covered that with a big bandage and an ace wrap to keep her from bending her knee too far and splitting it back open. Believe it or not that took over 2.5 hours. We sat for over an hour after the doc finished waiting for a bandage and discharge papers. The doc came back in and said "Are you still here? I was finished with you an hour ago, let me see what I can do to get you out of here." Fifteen minutes later we were finally out the door.

On another note, I am getting ready for Girl's Camp next week and very excited to be able to spend a couple of days up at camp with the girls in our ward. It is going to be a fun time. I have been keeping busy with my scrapbook design work and am still selling quite a few shirts a day in my shop. That has been really fun. I am now trying to decide what I should do with my time when all the kids go to school next month. Even Kyle will be going all day as we were able to get him into the all day kindergarten program at our school. He is very excited, and so am I. It has been almost 14 years since I have had the house to myself all day every day. Whatever will I do with my time? Maybe it's time for me to go to school too. I guess we'll see.

The kids are busy as ever. The boys have been doing swim lessons this summer and all three boys passed off their levels in the first session. Kyle has gone from being terrified to get in the pool to being a little fish in a matter of about 2 weeks. Both Jake and Ryan are improving and learning their strokes and having a great time. Aside from lessons, we have been spending a lot of time at the pool and I have been working on my tan. :] The boys also spend a lot of time in the park by our house. They love catching crawfish, snails, small fish and whatever living creatures they can find in the pond. They are learning to put them back into their environment at the end of the day, because they often don't last through the night in captivity. :(

Tiffany is playing softball again this year and it is fun to watch her play. She is trying her hand at pitching this year and is doing an excellent job. She is looking forward to starting at the middle school in August and hopes to play Volleyball in the fall.

Kaylee is a major social butterfly and is rarely home at all. She has been hanging out with her friends and babysitting a lot this summer so she too is staying very busy. She is rarely seen without a volleyball in her hands.

All of the kids are also enjoying the trampoline we bought this summer for our back yard. They have all learned all kinds of tricks and flips and spend lots of time jumping around. I just wish I could jump with them. (but that's another story)

Mike is traveling pretty regularly again. Right now he is going to Nashville as he is preparing for his job in Oklahoma which should start in the fall. We miss him when he is gone, but are enjoying being able to talk to him in the evenings using our new web cams and pack all we can into the weekends when he is home.

We had another 4th of July party this year and had a total blast. I have uploaded the pics from that party to my sharing site here.

Today we found and saved a turtle from certain death. (he was trying to cross the street just down from our house) He has been fun to watch but we plan to release him back to the park tomorrow (after a call to animal services to make sure that is the right thing to do) Here is a picture of the turtle.

Well, I think that is about it for now. It certainly is long enough, don't ya think? Anyway, life is fun, life is crazy, it's busy, but I wouldn't trade a day for anything different. (Except maybe a small vacation without the kids, coming soon :] )

An entire month gone by...

WOW, an entire month gone by with no post to my blog. I am getting really bad at this. I must must must try to do better.

Well, I finally feel as if summer has come. It is the 3rd week of the kids summer vacation and the temps are finally hitting what they should be for summer and the daytime rain seems to be holding off.

We have been busy. Tiff started softball and has had a couple weeks of practice and started games last week. She has pitched in two games and done really well. The boys started swimming lessons yesterday. Both Jake and Ryan are doing awesome. Kyle however is still afraid to get in the water unless he is holding the wall, so it will be interesting to see how he does.

Two weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to once again participate in Relay for Life. It is such an inspiring event. I walked in memory of my mother and in support of friends who have both fought cancer and survived and those who have lost family members to cancer or who may be dealing with it in their lives somehow at present. I had a great time with the ladies on our team and look forward to walking again next year.

This weekend we spent a wonderful four and a half days in Steamboat Springs with the whole Sims gang. (minus Kari and Deron who stayed home to have a baby). We had a great time and did some really fun activities. On Wednesday night, our arrival day, we played a friendly game of family bingo. It was a great way to help everyone to remember all the names and faces which we sometimes confuse since we don't see eachother all that often.
On Thursday we took a walk through old toen Steamboat lookin gin the shops and made a fun stop at Johnny B's for some ice cream and shakes. After lunch we headed to the Old Town Hot Springs and swam in the pools. The water was between 98 and 103 degrees in the various pools so even though the air temp was only about 65 degrees we stayed plenty warm while we were in the water. They had a 3 story water slide and the kids had a blast with that as well. That night we played games and had a really fun time. Susan prepared a game of bluff for the adults that we played after the kids went to bed and it was such a riot. Who knew some of us could lie so well. We also built up our vacabulary by learning the meaning of words like vidiot (a person who watches too much TV), sussarus (the sound of wind blowing through the trees), cadelle (a bug that eats smaller bugs), and I can't remember any of the others, but it was a total blast.
On Friday We took a little hike. It wasn't much since we had so many small children with us, but it was beautiful. After our hike we ate a picnic lunch in the park and then headed to the Alpine Slide. This activity was a huge hit with everyone. That night we had our fmaily pictures taken by Matt, our family photographer and brother in law. He did a great job as far as I could tell from the preview o the pictures we got later. I can't wait to put a new picture of my family up on the wall in my family room. The adults stayed up late and played phase 10 and had a ton of laughs.
Saturday was brunch and horseback riding which was so much fun. The trail ride was beautiful and the kids, even Kyle, loved riding their own horses. We ended the night with a BBQ dinner and gifts for dad for Father's Day.
Sunday we packed up, cleaned up and headed home.
The excitement of the weekend was that Kari's water broke on Saturday and little Isabella Marie was born on Sunday morning weighing 7 pounds and was 19 1/2 inches long. Congrats to Kari and Deron for their new little one.
Well, I think this post is long enough. I will do a picture post later today.

Tiffany in the Talent Show

Tiffany was in the talent show at school today. She sang the song "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift. I think she did a great job. Here is the video.

A terrible experience I hope to never repeat...

Yesterday was a terrible day. Well, not the whole day, but the effects of my experience lasted the whole day, so that is close enough.

The day started off pretty well. Kyle and I were hanging out at the house. We went for a bike ride around the park and came back home. He asked if he could have some of his birthday cake, so I set him up to the counter with a piece of cake and went in to the office to check email and do some scrapbooking. About 15 minutes later(no more cuz I knew when we returned from our bike ride), I thought "wow he's being really quiet, I better go check on him." I went to the kitchen and he wasn't there. He wasn't in the family room either. I called for him, no answer. So I went out the back door and called for him...nothing. I went out front expecting to find him on his bike in the front yard...nothing. I decided to check the park across the street, so I walked over to where he likes to play...again nothing. I was starting to get a really sick feeling in my stomach. I went to the garage and noticed his bike was there, but his scooter was gone, so I hopped on my bike and headed back over to the park. Maybe he had decided to go a bit farther than he is allowed on his own. I rode through the park checking all the kids favorite spots to play...still nothing. I went home and decided to check the house again more thoroughly. It wouldn't be the first time he thought it was funny to hide from me. I checked under the beds, in the closets, the basement...nothing. By now(it's been about 20 minutes since I started looking), I am getting pretty hysterical. I went back and checked the park one more time, the restrooms, the ditch. He was nowhere to be found. Now my emotions had the better of me and I called my in-laws to come and help. I think my exact word were "I can't find Kyle and I don't know what to do." Within a couple of minutes, David, Bjorg, and Kari were at my house to help. I told them the story and David headed off to the park in one direction, Kari got in the car and started driving the neighborhood, and mom helped me call the police then she went off into the park the other direction. The police told me to stay at the house and wait for an officer, so I sat (well, I paced) on the front porch while every possible scary scenario played through my head. Has he fallen in the pond and drowned? Did he go into the park and someone has picked him up and taken him? Has someone hurt him? Has he been hit by a car somewhere? Will I ever see him again? and How in the world am I ever going to tell Mike I lost our son? 10 minutes pass, 15 minutes pass, 20 minutes pass. Other people in the park are looking for Kyle too. I said a little prayer and asked my Heavenly Father to please help us find Kyle. Finally after about 25 minutes an officer shows up at my house. He said that everyone split in different directions to look for him, but nobody remembered to come to me, so he was there now. He asked me what happened, how long Kyle had been gone (now it's been almost an hour), he asked if he's ever run off before etc. About 4 minutes into our conversation he gets a call on the radio...they found him, at the swim beach. My first thought was how did he get to the swim beach and how and why in the world would he ever cross 29th street. A couple minutes later the officer came back and said "he's with a neighbor...she said she told him to ask you if it was okay to go with her and he came back and said you said it was okay." I had several thoughts hit me all at once...he hadn't crossed the busy street alone, he told a lie in order to go, oh my poor neighbor she must feel terrible, and he's okay!!!! The officer who found him, brought him home in her squad car. I think he was fine until he saw me and then he started to cry. Of course, I looked a mess and I think he understood how scared I was. ME, all I could feel was relief to have him back. After the police officer left, we said a little prayer of thanks and gratitude to have Kyle returned to us safe and sound.

That was by far the worst hour (or a little more than an hour)of my life. After he was home, I held him. I made him lay with me on the couch and I held him. I didn't want to let him out of my arms. It took several hours for my heart rate to return to normal and my eyes to dry out.

Funny thing about this is that Bjorg and Kari had just returned from their walk around the lake. They remembered seeing kids playing at the lake, but hadn't recognized Kyle. He saw and recognized them but chose not to say anything to them. Perhaps he knew he would be in trouble for not talking to me about it, who knows.

The police officers had a talk with Kyle about always making sure to ask or tell mom before he goes anywhere and to never scare me like that again. I also had a talk with him and let him know how much it scared me when I couldn't find him and told him he must ALWAYS tell me before he goes anywhere and he is not allowed to sneak out of the house anymore( I was crying as I told him these things, so I am sure it had a huge impact on him). We also talked about the fact that he told a lie to the neighbor and that was very bad. And while I think he liked the ride in the police car, I don't think he will do anything like this again. At least I hope not. I don't know if my heart could take it.

I was so grateful to be able to call Mike and tell him that the lost was found. I was also very grateful for Bjorg, David, and Kari for coming to my aid. In addition, the Loveland PD was so awesome. They jumped into action and found him very quickly. I feel very blessed that this incident turned out the way it did, but when I think about how I felt yesterday, the emotion is so fresh, that I tear up.

End of an Era

As the school year is starting to close down and amazingly fast as this school year went, I find myslef contemplating the end of an era. We are soon to be finished with our last child in preschool. It is so wild for me to tink about that. We have been at the same preschool for 6 years and 4 of our 5 children have attended there. And I worked for 4 years on the Board of Directors. It will be weird for me to leave there for the last time ever in two weeks.

Along the same lines, I am having a really hard time with the fact that my "Baby" (he gets mad when I call him that) will be turning five years old this week. Where does the time go?

The Influence of Music

I was just wondering why it is that the most terrible songs are the ones that stick with you. Yesterday, I had the unfortunate experience of hearing a song on the radio that I found deceptive, and vulgar. Some of you may have heard it, it is "If You Seek Amy" by Katy Perry. (I don't like her choice of songs anyway, the last one I hated was another that is so catchy I hear people singing it all the time. You may know that too "I Kissed a Girl".) Anyway, I am getting off topic here now, so let me bring this back. Yesterday, early in the morning, I hear this song on the way to take Kaylee to school. She always wants to change the radio to "her" station for the 5 minutes it takes to get to school, whatever. Anyway I had never heard it before and once I got into it, I changed it because I thought it was so terrible, but can you tell me why the minute I spent listening to that song left such an impression on me that I found myself thinking it; the words (yuck) and the tune all day long. And it is a TERRIBLE song.

This experience really made me think about the influence that music has on us and our children. People say they can listen to certain types of music and not be affected by it. I am not judging anyone for their choice of music here, just making a point. I think that music really does influence us more than we realize. Now I am not saying that someone who listens to gangster rap is necessarily going to join a gang or start killing people, but it must soften us to that somewhat. Does it make it seem like those things are okay? How about songs talking about sex, drugs, alcohol. I am sure that we listen to some of these songs without even realizing what they are talking about, but they make it commonplace and acceptable.

My daughters are at the age when they are really getting into music and are less under my influence for choosing what they like. I still have control to some extent as I do not let them buy music that in my mind is unsuitable. But I cannot control what they listen to when they are with their friends or when they listen to the radio. It is my hope though that they will choose not to listen to music that can have a negative impact on them.

I have experienced in my own home the power of music. Sunday mornings can be very hectic for us as we prepare and get ready to go to church by 8:45 am. I have found that on the days I play soft music it has a huge impact. There is less fighting, arguing, and more cooperation. I like to play Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and church hymns, or even piano music (my favorite, Jim Brickman). Sometimes I get wrapped up in getting ready and forget the music trick and those days definitely seem more crazy. I also notice that my kids are more prepared to sit quietly in church when we have played church music rather than watch TV on Sunday mornings.

Music has been proven to have great affects on us. About a year ago I helped to do a Sunday Evening Discussion for the Youth of our church about the impact of Music. We called it "An Experince in Music." We played different clips of all types of music and asked questions throughout about how they were feeling. It really is amazing to see how the feeling in a room completely changes based on the type of music being played. I was amazed that even the youth were able to feel it. (I am working on getting that presentation to self play through all the slides and music clips. When I do, I will get it posted as it may interest some of you)

There are so many types of good music out there. I challenge any of my readers to evaluate the types of music they listen to and the impact that music has or can have on their lives. and to make a change if necessary.

Post Note: So I guess I have the artist listed wrong. It is actually Britney Spears who sings the song, not Katy Perry, so I will just add Britney to the list of artists I don't like.

It is a CRAZY life!!!

This past week has been ridiculously crazy. Our school had our annual Spring Carnival on Friday and it is one of my favorite events to help plan for. Our committee has been working on it since January. The night was a huge success. We sold 800 slices of pizza, who knows how many cans of soda, gave away tons of prizes, and helped the families at our school to have a great family night. All in all it was a great night and totally worth all the many hours of planning and hard work that went into making it possible.

Mike and the boys had the chance to go to the Father and Son camp-out on Friday night with member of our ward. It sounds like they had a great time. They shot guns, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs and chased grasshoppers. What more could any little boy want?

Also this weekend our Young Women held our annual girl's camp fundraiser. This too was a raging success. We pre-sold lasagnas that could be frozen and used later. Our girls sold a total of 101 lasagnas and paid for at least half of our camp costs. Yeah girls!!! So on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I did the shopping. The shopping list included the following: 46 #10 cans of whole tomatoes, 30 pounds of ground beef, 30 pounds of Italian sausage, 30 large onions, 70 pounds of mozzarella cheese, 2 large bottles of chopped garlic, 48 boxes of lasagna noodles, 55 9x9 foil pans, 46 9 x 13 foil pans, 3 large pkgs. of heavy duty foil, and address labels. After my shopping (you should have seen the back of the suburban) I came home and chopped onions, cooked up my portion of the sausage (the other YW leaders helped cook up all the meat ahead of time), then I divided all the ingredients in to batches. We had sisters in the ward that had volunteered to help cook some of the sauce. So then, I took and delivered one recipe worth of ingredients to each of them. They were big batches too, each recipe calls for 3 # 10 cans of tomatoes. On Saturday the Young Women and leaders gathered at the church to assemble our lasagnas. I was amazed by how quickly everything went. We actually assembled 106 (we made a few extra) lasagnas in an hour. Yes, I said ONE hour. Then we cleaned up, did the dishes, divided the lasagnas into delivery routes and were on our way out of the church after just 2 hours. It was a great time and I am so proud of the girls for working so hard.

After the Lasagnas, Mike and I packed the kids in the car and headed to Denver to a BBQ at his coworkers home. It was a farewell party to Mike's boss in the Denver office who is headed off to the Chicago office. It was a nice dinner and was great to visit and get to know some of the people he has been working with.

Looking back to catch up on things since my last post, Kaylee has been running track this season and has had a great season. She actually made the varsity team for the 200 meter and the 800 meter relay. She has improved her style so much this year and her times just keep improving each time. She has her conference meet this next Saturday. I will post about that next week.

Ryan was invited a couple of months ago to participate in a podcast group with his teacher and a couple of other boys in his class at school. It was a district wide competition and several schools participated and the teams were from all levels of schools. So Ryan's team competed against kids their own age as well as teams from high school. They created a podcast about poverty and education. The podcasts were all shown last week and judged for the contest. Unfortunately, Ryan's team did not win, but I am very excited to go to the reception where they will show all the podcasts on May 4th.

Tiffany participated the last few months in a jump rope class after school one day a week. They learned different tricks and had a lot of fun. Last week was their jump rope show. Tiffany and a friend choreographed a really cool performance and it was so fun to watch.

Jake has been really busy and is doing great in school. He is staying busy playing in the park on his bike, roller blades, and catching fish and crawdads int he pond.

Kyle tries to keep up with Jake and do everything the older kids do. He let me cut his hair the other day, but the only way he would let me do it was if I let him wear his goggles. I will have to post a picture later. Kyle has been such a character lately. He comes up with some of the funniest things to say. The other day we were in the car and Kaylee said something about having her own opinion. Mike responded by saying "Opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one and most of them stink" Kyle responds with "Anyone want to smell my opinion?" he is very quick witted and keeps us laughing.

Well, I think I better be running off, this is getting long. If you want to know what else I have been up to lately, check out my scrapbooking blog here, my digital scrapbook store here, or my t-shirt shop here.

Update on the last couple of weeks

Wow, the time flies. Since my last post we have had some fun family events, but let me go back and recap everything chronologically. (warning, this is going to be pretty long as I am documenting the events for the family album in addition to reporting it all to all of you)

*Friday the 13th I was working my butt off to get ready for our trip when someone comes pounding on my front door. "Your yard is on FIRE!!!!" Sure enough someone (probably one of the delinquent high school kids walking by as school had just let out) had lit my 12 foot tall ornamental grass on fire as well as the grass in the yard, and my neighbors yard too. I hurried to hook up the hose and started spraying to extinguish the flames. I could not reach my neighbor's yard though and the fire department arrived quickly and put hers out too. I spent about 3 hours in the yard between that, talking to the fire dept and police, and then cleaning up my yard and cutting down the other ornamentals to avoid further temptation. So much for packing and cleaning. Fortunately, they tell me the fire will actually make the grass grow in greener this year. Here's looking for the silver lining. Here is a picture of the yard.

*On the 14th we headed out at about 8 am for our 12 hour drive to Las Vegas. The ride was long but the kids did pretty well. It was great to get to Vegas and spend some time with my dad and Kay and my 3 brothers, my sister in law, and my 5 nephews. For the most part we just hung out. On Sunday we joined Kevin and his family for cake and ice cream to celebrate my nephew's birthday. It was nice to visit and to see Deb and Tut (Cass' mom and step dad) again.

*On Monday, we went to the park, played some baseball(with Steve and Z) and then went to Red Rock Canyon(with Jeff and Z). We had a great time climbing on the rocks and hiking around.

*On Tuesday, we took the kids (Kayden and Jeff came too) to the strip to see some of the traditional things my kids love to see. For some reason they always want to go to Caesar's Palace and go to FAO Schwartz. There is just something about a 3 story toy store with a giant trojan horse in the entrance that gets them all excited. So we spent some time walking around and trying out some toys.

*Did I mention that Mike had to work on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday he spent the day checking on the projects he has going in Vegas and on Tuesday he drove 5 hours each way to go to a meeting in Yuma Arizona. We were so happy that he would be off work the rest of the week though.

*On Wednesday, we hopped in the car bright and early and headed off for Disney Land. We arrived at out hotel about 11:30 am grabbed some lunch and headed off for a day of fun. We had a great day and stayed in the park til 10:00(Mike, Tiff, Ryan, and Kyle) and 11:00 (Kaylee, Jacob and me) We even watched the fireworks which we have never done before. We had a full day and managed to ride a ton of rides. We rode Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Finding Nemo, Autopia, The Disney Railroad, Roger Rabbit, Gadget Go Coaster, Pooh Bear, Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Carribbean, Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn, and Kaylee, Jake and I squeezed in Indiana Jones and Space Mountain in our last hour. The kids went right to sleep as soon as we got back to the hotel. It was great!
*On Thursday, we rose with the sun to make it for the Magical Morning at Disney. This allows early entry to the park (1 hour before it really opens) to some guests. After a wonderful continental breakfast in our hotel, we headed straight to Fantasy Land and rode Snow White, Peter Pan, and Pinocchio all with almost no wait. Then we headed to Space Mountain and Astro Orbitor. Next we decided to go over to California Adventures to catch some rides. We rode Soaring over California, the Golden Zephyr, Mulholland Madness, some rode the Orange Stinger and Kaylee rode the Maliboomer, Then some of us heade to Toy Story Mania, and Mike and Kaylee went to ride California Screamin'. Next we rode the Grizzly River run in turns since Kyle wasn't quite tall enough to ride and then we left the park to go to McDonalds for Lunch. Yes we did all of that before a semi late lunch. After lunch we went back to CA and rode Monster's Inc. and then Mike took the smaller kids to the Bugs Life kiddie area and Kaylee and I rode the Tower of Terror, twice! That ride is awesome!!! When we were done, Kaylee took Mike back to ride the T O T also while I stayed with the kids in Bug Land. While there they rode, the Heimlich Choo choo train, the bumper cars, and Flik's Flyers. Next we took turns riding Indiana Jones in groups since Kyle was also too short for that one. But while we waited we rode the Jungle cruise since the line was so short. This brought us to about 4:00 and we decided to take a break from Disney and go see the ocean. So we headed back to the hotel and got in the car and headed to the beach. We went to HUntington beach and by the time we got there the sun was already going down. But it was fun to walk in the sand and along the pier. We even got to watch some guys surfing. Too Cool!!!

*On Friday, Disney Land opened at 8 am so we headed out after our breakfast. The night before I had asked all the ids what they wanted to ride on Friday and so we made out way through that list. We rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Alice in Wonderland, Storyland Canal Boats, Matterhorn, Finding Nemo, and Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear. Then we went over to California Adventures to watch the Aladdin Show. we followed that with a second trip to Soaring Over California while Kaylee and Mike rode California Screaming and Toy Story Mania. After riding our rides, we did some souvenier shopping and then it was time to say goodbye to Disney Land and head back to Vegas. We left around 3:00. That night we hung out with Jeff, Steve and Z.

*Saturday morning we got up and got ready to go. We headed off to Utah. Along the way we stopped in Provo to visit our Nephew who is at BYU. We had lunch at one of our favorite old hangouts, The Malt Shoppe, and had some of the biggest and best shakes ever. Next we were off to visit our friend Tina and her family. We had a nice visit, the kids played and Mike and I enjoyed the chance to get to know Joey (Tina's fiance) a bit. We are so excited to see their happiness. The kids had a blast. Our next stop was to see Mike's sister Teresa in Salt Lake. we enjoyed a brief visit there to catch up a bit then headed off to Ogden to stay with my grandparents. It was a nice evening and great to see Grandma and Grandpa again. My Aunt Tami and my cousin Monica(and her family) came to visit. Also while we were there we had a brief visit from my cousin Emilee and my other cousin Shandy. It was so good to see all of them again and to catch up a little on our lives.

*Sunday morning we took a more realxed approach and let ourselves sleep in a bit. But at 11:00 we were off on the road for home. It is amazing how quickly a weeklong vacation can pass.

I also want to mention a little bit about how great our family trip was overall. It is so much nicer traveling with kids that are a little bigger. Disney Land was so much more fun this time around because the kids were almost all willing to try everything. Kaylee rode them all. She is a thrill seeker through and through and can go all day and night just like her mother. She loves the biggest of roller coasters and enjoys the smaller rides too. Her favorite ride was California Screaming. Tiffany found that she actually kind of likes roller coasters. She never has before, but this time her favorite rides were Space Mountain and Matterhorn. I was so proud of her for trying some new rides this trip. There were a couple of rides that Ryan didn't ride, but he tried almost everything. I was very proud of him for stepping out of his comfort zone and tring some new things this time too. His favorite ride this trip was Soaring Over California. Jacob loves it all. He couldn't get enough of the big rides. His favorite rides were Matterhorn, Space Mountain, and Indiana Jones. Kyle tried everything. He may not have liked everything, but he tried anything he was big enough to ride. The Snow Monster on Matterhorn scared him, he didn't like Space Mountain because it was dark, and Splash Mountain made him come out of his seat. His favorite rides were Finding Nemo, Alice in Wonderland, and Toy Story Mania.

If you ask Mike, he will tell you that I ran the family ragged trying to get everything in, but if you ask the kids, even though they got tired by the end of the day, they loved that we got to do so much. Have I told you how much I LOVE DisneyLand!! I can't wait to go back.

I was so happy to spend some tim e with my dad and my brothers. It is always great to see them, but it also makes me miss my mom even more than I already do. By the way thank you to dad and Kay for putting us up for a few days and putting up with us.

I have put a few pictures here in this blog, but if you would like to see more of the pics from our trip just hop on over to my photo site.

Sad Day...

I just wanted to take a second and blog about yesterday. I wanted to do it yesterday, but just couldn't bring myself to. Yesterday marked the 3rd anniversary of my mother's passing. Again I wondered why the date on the calendar has such a dramatic impact on my feelings and emotions. I was near tears most of the day and shed many as well. I was blessed by the chance to have lunch with my Mother-in-Law and am so grateful for her sensitivity to my emotions yesterday. We had a nice visit and a yummy lunch. So Thanks so much Bjorg for that. It was wonderful.

Once again I tried to use yesterday to reflect on all the ownderful memories I have of my mother. She taught me so much and I will forever be grateful to her for that. She gave me many ocasions to laugh in in typical teenage style many reasons to cry or be upset, but she taught me well and raised me well.

I am so grateful for my knowledge and faith that families are forever; that I will one day be reunited with my mother and other loved ones in the glory of my Heavenly Father. it helps so much to provide comfort when I am missing her so much. I am thankful for a Savior who took upon him the sins and pains of this world. And I am grateful to know that he is always with me, that he helps to carry me when I am feeling low or unable to carry myself.

Footprints in the Sand
One night I dreamed I was walking

along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,

other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed

that during the low periods of my life,

when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,that if I followed you,

you would walk with me always.

But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life

there has only been one set of footprints in the sand.

Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied,

“The years when you have seen only one set of footprints,

my child, is when I carried you.”
Mary Stevenson, 1936

This is one of my favorite poems of all time and it is what I think about on those low days. I know that my Savior Jesus Christ has carried me in his arms in some of my most trying times. and I know that it was Jesus who carried my mom through her most difficult days during her 3 year battle against cancer. I also know that she is with Him in heaven and that one day both of them will greet me with a smile, a hug and a "welcome home".

Face+slide=stitchesx10

I dropped the kids off at school this morning and before I even got home I had a phone call from the school asking me to come back because Jake had gotten hurt on the playground. I got to the school and this is what I saw

I said, "I guess that's going to need some stitches." and we were off to urgent care. I dropped Kyle off at preschool and asked his teacher to tell the board that I wouldn't be there for my meeting this morning.

Jake was really worried about needing sticthes so we said a little prayer in the car and that helped him feel a little bit better. We got to urgent care and they took us right in, put some topical numbing medication on the cut and cleaned him up. This is how it looked after cleaning.
Next the doctor gave him several shots into the wound to get it really numb for the stitches. Jake was nervous, but he stayed very still and held both my hands to be brave. Then the doctor checked out his brow bone to make sure there were no breaks. (Yes the cut was that deep) The bone looked good so he started stitching him up. Jake was a bit nervous again, but the doctor did an experiment to show Jake that he wouldn't be able to feel it. He showed him that it didn't hurt by pinching some if the skin around the cut with his tools. Then he did one stitch and asked Jake if he could feel it. Of course he couldn't so the doc went on. Jake helped him count the stitches. He got 10 total, 5 on the inside and 5 on the outside. He was so brave. Here is what he looks like now.

I think most of the scar will probably be hidden in his brow. Poor little guy. He is doing great though and was excited to get a shake after we were all done.

Wow, it's been a while...

It's been a while since my last post, so bare with me, this one may be long.

A couple of weeks ago Mike and I took the kids up to Estes Park to go sledding. Well, I just watched and took pictures, since it was my first real outing since having surgery. We met Pete and the kids up there and we had a blast. MIke rented a couple of tubes and a snowboard. No one in our family has ever been on a snowboard before, so we thought it would be fun to let the kids try it out on the small hills. Here are some pictures from our day.

Going back a bit farther, Ryan participated in his first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He did a great job on his car and came in about 4th place I think. Here are a couple of pics from that night as well.This last week was the Blue and Gold Banquet and Ryan also earned his Wolf Badge and 6 arrowpoints. Go Ryan. Here ia a picture of him pinning me with my wolf pin.
Ryan also had a birthday and his dad made his day by getting him a BB gun.

Enough about Ryan...everyone else is doing great. Kaylee finished out a session of volleyball and played in the YW basketball tournament where our team finally won a game. Tiffany is taking part in a jump rope class at school and enjoys that. She is also preparing for tryouts for a city wide talent show. She will be singing "Love Song" by Taylor Swift. She is rally good, I

hope she makes it into the show. The tryouts are this Saturday. Jake is doing great he is enjoying the warmer weather we have been experiencing and riding his bike. Kyle is loving preschool and enjoys taking walks inthe park or to Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Mike is still traveling 3-4 days a week he is working in Las Vegas, Phoenix, New Mexico and some in Colorado. He stays really busy even on the weekends when he is home, but still manages to find some time for all of us. We are all grateful for his devotion to his job and how hard he works for us.

As for me, my arm is healing from my surgery. I have had a bunch of success on my T-shirt shop and continue to sell an average of about 8 shirts per day. It has been fun to watch this happen. Who knew I could do something like that. In addition, I am very excited about my digital scrapbook design work because it is developing into more than just a hobby as I have been picked up to sell my kits in an online store. I will have more information about that soon.

Well, that should catch us up pretty well for now. Hopefully I will be back again soon.

Our lizard laid an egg..

Some of you know that we adopted two anoles after Ryan's 3rd grade class finished their study of them at school. Well the other day I walked in to look at them and they were mating. Yikes!! Well, yesterday Lizzy laid an egg. It will be interesting to see if it hatches. From what I have read she can lay up to 10 eggs over the next several months. hmmm, anyone want a lizard?

Surgery and my new friend Spongebob

Well, I had my surgery on Friday and it went well. We ended up only needing the lesser of the two possible procedures, so that was good. It turned out there were two areas along the nerve(one above and one below the elbow) that had band like restrictions. The doctor clipped those out and hopefully now things will get better. The procedure lasted a little less than an hour and I was home less than 4 hours after I left. The doctor set me up with a fancy foam block to help with protection and elevation. Here is a lovely picture. The kids have taken to calling my foam block "Spongebob".
I have been pretty sore today and didn't sleep well last night. Hopefully tonight will be better.