May, part 2

Just after the end of the school year we went on the most serious vacation we've ever been on as a family to date.  It was 3 days in Cedar City with most of my family at my sister's house.  It's only about a 3 hour drive, but there were several Dairy Queen restaurants along the way, so we indulged on our way home.

Later in the months I'd had a rough day and Daddy took us out to dinner at Cracker Barrel.  Michael got me a chocolate truffle.  I apparently dropped it on my seat in the car, then forgot.  It was pretty bad to get out of the car at the store on the way home and realize how horribly unfortunate the placement was, and even worse: what a waste of a truffle!  Fortunately I noticed the disaster *before* going in to the store.

In the never-ending saga of trying to manage my severe case of fibromyalgia, I was sent to do an overnight full polysomnogram (sleep study).  It was pretty interesting.  Especially when it comes to sleeping in a room with video cameras on you!  It took ages for the techs to get all the sensors on my scalp and my hair gathered so it would be out of the way.  It took ages again to get it all out!  It was a lovely room, but it was also hard to sleep with so many things stuck to me.  The result is that I have pretty mild sleep apnea.  I'm supposed to sleep with a dental appliance that pushes my lower jaw slightly forward to open up the back of my throat.  I can't say I feel like I sleep any better, but I'll take any edge I can get to feel better.

Welcome to 2013. It's halfway over. Good luck with that!

This year had some rough starts.  Once again I went through a series of infections which set off severe myofascial pain that just wouldn't quit.  Several doctors, several medications, several frustrations later and it eventually cleared up.  I had had it at the time, though, so I kept putting off posting anything.  I realize now that I should have kept up anyway.  I've got a load of pictures to catch up!

Over all my health has continued to be a bother.  I finally had to give up volunteering in the girls' classes at school and passed the organization of the Boxtops for Education collecting / sorting / cashing in / etc. on to another parent.  I have been in to see a rheumatologist and am waiting to get in to a neurologist next month.  Despite everything we've tried my pain has continued to worsen.  For now I have to greatly limit my activities and be grateful for what I am able to do.  It's been a hard year.  I am tired of always posting about the next flare, the next doctor, the next diagnosis, the next frustration.  Thus: I dropped off the grid for a while since my life is currently balanced around all of those things.  Pretending it's not a major aspect of our lives, though, it would not represent our lives at all.  So for the sake of reality: life is painful and often frustrating, but the important things are all good.  :)

Now, January, Part 1: Outdoors

This past winter was bitterly cold and very white.  We never got enough snow at one time to result in a day off school, but we also didn't see the curbs or grass for weeks or perhaps months at a time!  It did make January a little more cheerful since it wasn't full of brown and mud and darkness.  The snow was pretty and usually had a fresh layer and reflected what sunlight there was for a little more cheer.  It also kept our local snow sculptor busy!  I missed getting pictures of several of them, but they were fun to see.   The perpetual snow also drove deer down to the valley to forage in people's yards.  Our cherry tree didn't survive the winter (with many days below 0), but we got lots of "natural fertilizer" from the deer.

When the gutters started groaning under the weight of the icicles we decided they had better come down.  They were spectacular!  They also came back almost immediately over the front porch.

Ginger was very fond of hunting the deer.  And a wayward wasp that somehow was alive and in the house!

It was sometimes amusing watching the girls plow through the snow drifts to and from the school bus stop.

Finally, one afternoon we caught a beautiful sunset.  The way the light reflected around the snow and shone back off the snow capped mountains was engaging.  This is the best I could do catching it on camera.

October

 Now that I have a functioning computer AND keyboard -- AT THE SAME TIME!  I'm going to try to play some catch up.  Yes, I'm about 2 months behind.  Tough.

Here are a couple of more unique items I made: the pretzels really did taste as good as they look.  The "spiders" are hot dog chunks (good ones, for the sake of the parentals) with spaghetti noodles poked through them, then boiled until the pasta was done.  Served with alfredo sauce.  It was surprisingly good!  I was prepared to deal with it for the sake of the girls, but I'm not even opposed to doing it again someday.  It was a fun tribute to Halloween one night.

 I don't remember whether I've covered this or not, but Lizzie had her first chance to attend General Conference with Aunt Janice and Aunt Jennifer.  Her cousin T was her conference buddy this time.  She absolutely LOVED it!  These two pictures are screen-grabs from when she was shown on TV during conference!  This was immediately after President Monson announced the change in age for full time missionaries.

These pictures are from the Aunties.  Lizzie was wowed by her visit to The Roof restaurant.  I am so grateful my girls get these opportunities!  I never would have dreamed to be so close to the General Authorities and First Presidency when I was their ages.

On a random change of subject -- We knew Sabrina was in need of some urgent dental work.  She already had her first work done (already posted) and we had appointments scheduled for all the rest.  Then over one weekend she started to complain a lot about pain in some teeth.  Then she developed a nasty fever and when I checked her mouth again there was a bad abscessed pocket on her gums.  We got her in to the dentist the next day and my brave girl had 3 root canals and a filling all in one appointment, all on the left side.  If the swelling had been worse she would likely have ended up in the hospital for IV antibiotics.  Thankfully some oral antibiotics "stat" took care of it.

 Lizzie and Sabrina were both scheduled for a lot of dental work and Kate started to complain about a sore spot in her mouth.  I checked and noticed some molars coming in and said she'd be fine.  By the weekend she was complaining again.  Finally on Saturday morning (of course, no dentist available!) Michael noticed that one side of Kate's face was swollen.  Badly.  I took a look in her mouth again and discovered a HUGE abscess.  Thankfully she didn't have a fever, but she sure had the swelling going on!  We could not get in touch with the dentist so we finally gave up and took her in to the emergency room so she could get started on antibiotics.  Good thing, too!  If she had developed a fever then SHE would have been planted in the hospital on IV antibiotics.  Between Sabrina and Kate we'd have had a much worse couple of weeks.  Thankfully getting in to the dentist on Monday they fixed the bad tooth and the antibiotics did their work.  And no, there is absolutely nothing contagious about abscesses.  They're not even that common!  We're just THAT GOOD.  (Yes, this is despite regular brushing, flossing, and flouride.)  So glad to have teeth more or less settled for now.  Knock on wood.

Finishing Soccer and Continuing Dentistry

Just minutes before Sabrina's last soccer practice she was running on some asphalt and tripped in her cleats.  She managed to tear up her knee pretty badly.  Her last soccer game was the next day, but she had developed a fever so she missed out.  Poor kid!  Thankfully she healed up pretty quickly after that.  

On the day of the last soccer games the girls were waiting for Grandma Jensen to come.  Sabrina got to dress up in her soccer gear even though she didn't get to play.  Over the course of the season Grandma came to one of each of the girls' games.  They loved having an extra audience!

Kate's team this year was called The Skittles.  I was at her last soccer game (with Grandma and Sabrina) while Daddy was at Lizzie's last game.  

 It's too bad the games overlapped, since the rest of us missed an award ceremony after Lizzie's game.  After all the other trophies were distributed the coach called up the two remaining girls: Lizzie and another girl her same height.  He said that they were the two smallest girls in the entire league, but played the hardest and had the most heart and courage in the game.  In the team of wildcats those two were proclaimed the Lionesses!  I'm sure glad we had the opportunity to do soccer this fall!  It was a great experience for all of us.

(Sabrina and I cuddled up at one of the chilly game near the end of the season)

I made one of these trays for each of the girls for watching General Conference.  Muffin tin with little goodies / prizes in each spot, washable glue stick + tissue paper, pictures of each general authority glued on top.  When they noticed a member of the Quorum of the Twelve speaking they could come tell me what he was talking about and then could find his picture on their tray (they were all random) and pull the picture off to reveal their prize!  It worked beautifully.  When one of the First Presidency spoke they could still come tell me what he was speaking about, then they got a gold chocolate coin from me.

While Lizzie was up at the Conference Center for the morning session (!) of conference, I was texted a few pictures of what they were doing.  (I'll have to include pics of here in a separate post). So I sent back a picture of what I was doing.  This is me at orchestra rehearsal early (for me) on a Saturday morning :)

Finally, here are a few pictures of Sabrina and Lizzie at their first major dentist appointments.  They both were pretty zoned out on laughing gas and video entertainment.  I asked Lizzie a question at one point (when we were waiting for the dentist) and she kept talking about the same things over and over in a very loud voice.  They were both fantastic, though!  No complaining or freaking out.  No shrieking or wiggling.  And their half-smiles afterward with half numb faces were very silly.  Thankfully, even after some pretty extensive, and occasionally rather painful, dental work -- they all still like the dentist!  Thank goodness.  Apparently I'm the only scaredy cat in this family when it comes to dental work!

Marching

It has been almost an entire month since my last post.  Oops.  Life has been busy and sometimes overwhelming, but overall life continues to be happy.

Here is a photo-heavy review of the rest of the month of March, including the explanation of why I was spooling up the Pre-Cambrian period ;)

These are the only two pictures I have of this, but I got to teach a class to all of the 4th grade about paleantology.  I was able to bring in a whole bunch of wonderful casts and even some real dinosaur bones for the kids to see, touch, and learn about.  It was a lot of fun to teach a class again.  The teacher has already asked if I would do it again next year.  I made a timeline of yarn showing each period which I then discussed with the kids.  The pre-cambrian periods is by far the longest.  One inch of yarn equals 1 million years.  It was a great way to see how very long things took to happen.  (It also shows specific creative periods in which water and land divide, plants appear, animals differentiate, etc., though of course I didn't point any of that out in public school ;))

Kate, Lizzie, and Sabrina loved going to school on pajama day.  Before school was "Dads and Donuts".  Michael wasnt' able to go this year, so the girls had to make do with Mom instead.

Grandma's birthday was the 5th of March.  We had a party at the Jager home where we sampled various juices and gum.  My brother has been on a food-free diet (supplemented with iv TPN) but at that point was allowed a glass of juice each day and gum as desired.  My sister-in-law created a super cute tree covered with shamrocks that each person had written on.  A sign said "We're so LUCKY to have you..." (or something to that effect) and each shamrock said some reason we feel lucky to have her as our Mom/MIL/Grandma.  Brek was fascinated by the candle.

A couple of weeks later we pulled off a surprise party for Grandma.  It took all my creativity to keep Mom from driving past her home on our way home from orchestra to Suzette's house for a "ukulele party", but we managed to keep her away.  Several of us played ukulele songs and even performed Liza Jane via Facetime to my sister's family (which includes a daughter named Eliza Jane).  Then the group did a mini-marathon to grandma's house just a few blocks away.  I made all sorts of excuses to drive to her house instead and transported the goodies for lunch.

 Meanwhile, at Grandma's house, a crew of family members (shame they were all busy with various excuses and couldn't join the party ;)) was working on fixing the shed.  It got a new roof and a new floor.  No more climbing over a huge pit just inside the doorway!

We seemed to pull it off and surprise Grandma -- complete with a fancy lunch.  Suzette made a beautiful sandwich cake (which was YUMMY) and others brought simple sandwiches for those with a simple palate, vegis and dip, and faux-Hostess goodies for dessert.  

 I love watching Sabrina do gymnastics to pull herself into Grandma's walnut tree!

The huge tarp which has served as the "wrapping" of the shed for the last couple of years to try fending off the wet was spread out and folded.  The kids did a good job of folding it, complete with rolling on it to flatten it out each time they folded it over again.  Lizzie and Kate did have a hard time figuring out how to roll over one another when the square got so small.

Back at the homestead: I've finished two of the three curtain pairs for the living room windows.  I absolutely love how they have worked out!  I just need to find another flat sheet at WalMart (It has taken 6 months to gather the 5 I've collected so far!) to finish.  Clearly they have inventory issues.

I have also made progress in the master bath.  I finished off the false chandelier, fitting it with tea lights where the once were standard "flame" bulbs.  I also applied metallic gold stencils around the top of the room to replace the dusty grape vines that were hanging there when we moved in.  I still need to get the final curtains for the windows, but the room is finally becoming a reflection of us.

 Pictured here are two reasons I'm not skinny ;)  Homemade "Twinkies" with french vanilla cream filling.  And the elusive raspberry and mint m&ms.  All delicious!  I also made Hostess style cupcakes, complete with cream filling, chocolate ganache, and the signature swirlies on the top.

In the month of March our van was going to require a fair chunk of money -- a couple of repairs followed by inspections and registration.  Ugh.  So we went to just check out the options on trading our van in for something a little newer.  And we left with a new van.  Actually *new*.  It looks very much like the older one, but is really lovely.  We really like having a full warranty and all the great safety and convenience features!

 Sabrina got to try her hand at the wheel (long story short: the car isn't turned on and she was given the full "never touch anything in a car" lecture and I was sitting right next to her.  She just struck these poses and they cracked me up).  I like the one at the top left where it looks like she's reaching the speed of light :P

As per standard operating procedure, I ended up with some funky health thing going on.  Just to keep busy, ya know.  I got a double ear infection which was quite miserable.  I held it off with various home remedies, but it finally surpassed what I could manage that way and I headed to the doctor.  I was prescribed amoxicillin (which I've taken dozens of times).  After the first two doses I was covered with a nasty batch of hives.  I had hives from my scalp all the way to the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet.  Apparently I'm now allergic to amoxicillin!  Rats.  I was switched to a different antibiotic and the ear infection cleared.  The hives took their sweet time calming down.  In fact, it's been a month or so, and I still have them!  I have since then been through a 7 day course of steroids, 2 weeks of hefty antihistamines, as well as my morning dose of antihistamines for allergies and two benadryl every night.  And still if I get a tiny scratch or irritation it turns into huge red welts that last anywhere from 20 minutes to most of a day.  And once the itchiness starts it just doesn't stop.  Ugh.

As I've been working hard to get on top of my fibromyalgia pain, which was taking over all our lives, and the IC pain which was also getting out of control.  Because of all these things straining my body at once I have been on far more pills than I wanted.  That handful of pills shown below?  That was one days batch.  I am off a few of those now, but it varies day to day.  The only thing that won't go away is a strange throat thing.  It is striped with red and yellow, covered with blisters, and not passing food easily.  It's not super painful, but it is strange.  I did a triple round of yeast killing meds as I'd also had thrush, but I don't think it's really any better.  Hopefully it will get tired of being strange.  (I'll spare you the pictures of my throat.  You're welcome.)

Little Sabrina also spent some time with a nasty bug.  She was tired, cranky, then had a crazy fever.  I took these pictures in the middle of the night.  She woke up whimpering and when I touched her face it was burning up.  She sat and played games on Daddy's iPad with him while sitting in front of a fan.  We had dosed her with ibuprofen and were hoping that it would bring her temperature down from the 104* it was at.  In half an hour or so (yes, she looks FAR too chipper for being up for 30 minutes in the middle of the night, scorching hot!) her temperature was a bit lower so we went back to bed.  It took several days, but she finally got better.  As per SOP for Sabrina, she ended up with a nasty asthmatic cough at the end, but her inhaler calmed that down soon enough.

 My younger brother Dan came to town for a few days.  He and his family have been in South Carolina while he attended grad school there.  We're delighted that he is graduating... pretty much any day now!  AND to make it even better, he has a job already, and it is here in Utah!  I cannot wait to see my niece again and meet their little boy too!  While he was here we got to have him over along with another brother and his family.  We had a fire in our fire bowl out back and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  I love being part of such a large family -- such a variety of people and ideas and specialties!

(Sierra was very confused by being left inside while we sat just outside but where she could still see us!)

These are a few random photos of and by Sabrina.  Ginger was very patient to let Sabrina bundle her up in towels!

Finally (finally!) the last day of the month was the first day of General Conference.  Kate had another turn of going with her aunts and one of her cousins to the Saturday Morning session.  She had a wonderful time and was so grateful for a chance to sit so close to the prophet and apostles and other leaders of this worldwide church!  They were sitting on the second row.  Amazing, right?  Lizzie cannot wait for her turn in October, since she will be old enough (8) by then.

I hope to catch up the first two weeks of April very soon.  I love to put together these photos and remember the many blessings and joys in our lives.  Sometimes it is easy to see the pain and suffering and loss in life and miss the joy of a man made of popcorn, a cookie, and candy. 

December Overload

Here we go again.  If my life was to flash before my eyes, I'm sure it would be in photo collages with snippets of text for each one.

First, a few single pictures:

A picture Kate drew after the girls watched The Princess Bride for probably the 4th time in a row.  They're quite fond of it.

This bit of packaging (I don't even remember what it was from) was really too small to fit a cat, but it didn't stop Ginger from trying frequently to make herself fit in it.  It really cant' have been comfy!

Kitties for Christmas!

This is at the nickelcade.  I thought it was an interesting commentary on daddies bringing up the next generation of ladies ;)

And now for photo overload:

I was really sick for a couple of days at the beginning of the month thanks to medication issues.  Sabrina made us a picnic this afternoon so I could eat something.

We treked out to the Shops at the Riverwoods to see the Christmas lights.  It was amazing!  Heaters on the sidewalks, lights everywhere, live music... and even Santa.

(In Santa's house during his break)

(Inside Blickenstaff's -- a crazy cool toy store)

 (Back to see Santa)

 (Then we discovered Provo Beach Resort!  We checked it all out then played a few arcade games.)

We did our best to get a picture of our nursery kids from this last year and I made them a photo card to stick in their scrapbooks too.  These kids are so fun!

One night the moon was just beautiful!  I wanted to try to get a good picture of it, but by the time I found my tripod it was still pretty, but not as spectacular.  Oh well.  It was fun to mess with the settings on my camera anyway.  Then I brought the setup inside to photograph the tree.  Sierra and Ginger were most curious about the tripod and kept attacking it.

This wooden box had sunflowers in it during the summer, then I swapped them out for poinsettias.  Then someone put the sunflowers back in the box too O.o  Then Sierra climbed in the check it out!

I finally got a couple of pictures of our fish.  See that tetra on the left?  Its body actually IS that crooked.  No idea why.  We've had him for quite a while and he seems healthy enough -- just wonky.  On the right you can see our new algae eater named Goldie II (the original Goldie was too happy and outgrew being friendly with the tetras so we took her back to the fish store and bought the smaller one.)  Bottom right is the black fin shark guy.  We named him Tim.  Sadly he only lasted a couple of hyperactive weeks.  Poor Tim.

On our way to Salt Lake to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert the clouds were blanketed most uniquely across these mountains.  I don't know if it really gets across in the pictures, but I tried.

Michael and I loved the concert!  This was the day before our 11th anniversary and it made a great date.  We planned to go to dinner before-hand, but due to construction and such there was no option but a severely understaffed McDonalds.  It took 30 minutes to get our food which we then had to bolt down as quickly as possible.  Bummer.  We made up for it later with good food the next day :)

I just like these moments with my girls.  Lizzie had fallen and lightly skinned her knee.  Kate was doing such a good job taking care of her I just stepped back and let them be.  Kate supported her all the way upstairs where she washed the knee and applied a drop of lavender oiil.

One Friday night the girls got to have a sleepover at Grandma's house.  In the morning they even made gingerbread cookies decorated with candy.  See?  Our whole family in gingerbread :)

During this Christmas vacation we went as a family on a unique sort of activity -- we hung out at the Nickelcade :)  It was great fun!  It was a fun variety from the usual activities.

Earlier this month (sorry, these get a bit out of order apparently) we stopped by DI (thrift store) mostly just for the heck of it.  We happened across a really nice looking bike for me and a great one for Kate for $22 all together!  Mine is really a couple of inches too small for me, but it works fine for now.  I've had fun bicycling with the girls around the neighborhood!  Oh, and do you like Lizzie's orange streak?  It's just one of those clip in hair things, not dye ;)

My family gathered together the Sunday before Christmas, as usual.  My brother and his family shared a family history project they'd put together for us from papers they'd been given by a relative.  It's a fabulous set of stories, artwork, and life work!  Then we sang a few Christmas carols (some with ukulele accompaniment) and ate lots of tasty goodies.

We made it to our drive-through trip to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork.  The girls love the (very local) radio station that plays non-stop Christmas music for you to listen to while driving through.  As usual, a great way to get into the Christmas mood.

Since we missed Christmas Day at the Southern home they came by and visited us just afterward to give us our presents and share what they wanted us to remember this year.  The girls were delighted with new blankets and fun toys.  We got some more family preparedness things which will be of good use to us!

Last tidbits: I finally was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a couple of months ago.  This is, in large part, why things kinda fell apart again.  Finding out the whys and hows for some of the ways my body freaks out has been useful.  Even better has been the fact that there are now medications available for this condition.  After getting over the initial side effects of the medications I've found that they take care of probably 80% of the pain and complications due to fibromyalgia.  Never before had I experienced such overwhelming pain.  I've had severe pain, I've had widespread pain.  But having both at once is utterly stupefying.  Now that it is managed the flares come in fits and starts and are not as unbearable.  I have also found some ways to manage the pain (heat, essential oils, rest, baths, lots of sleep, etc.) that have really helped.  So in the end: it's good news.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve.  I think I managed to catch up the pictures and brief moments from our lives this year.  It has been a wonderful year.  Full of trials but overwhelmed with blessings and miracles.  Overall 2011 was a great one for us.  We look forward to continuing to grow together as a family through 2012.