Relish

(To join Ketchup and Mustard)

Okay, let's see if I can finish up July in one epic post!

I loved all the yard in bloom.  The colors and richness were delightful.

Kate's Birthday

 For Kate's Birthday Activity she invited two friends.  We went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2 in the movie theater, then went out for ice cream.  It was a whole lot of fun on a hot July afternoon.

For her birthday Kate got a new bike.  She actually "got it" a couple of months ago so it would be useful all summer, so she opened a couple of little gifts on her actual birthday.  She chose clam chowder for dinner.

 This is actually from the ice cream parlor (thus the blue colored lips).  Sabrina had a bug bite on the bridge of her nose and was trying very hard to see it.  Yes, I laughed.  I still giggle at these pictures.

Lizzie's Pneumonia

 We happened to have Michael's sisters come over for a visit one evening.  Lizzie went from doing okay (remember that long fever she'd had?) to just crashing while they were here.  One of them happens to be a pediatric nurse and just happened to have her stethoscope and a sat monitor in her car!  Lizzie was seeming really borderline -- maybe okay, maybe not.  We finally took her in to the after-hours and ended up in peds at the hospital.  Lizzie's oxygen sats kept dropping just low enough to make you worry, but not quite low enough to REALLY worry.  They put in an IV, which was a real job as Lizzie is VERY afraid of needles.  They gave her a dose of IV antibiotics, did chest x-rays, took blood for labs, and let her go home for the night.  She ended up in hospital jammies anyway because she threw up after the IV was placed.  Awesome.

 The next day she was still really borderline but we finally just took her back in.  She sounded worse than she had before and just wasn't improving.  So we went and were admitted at the hospital.  She only required one night and a few more rounds of IV antibiotics to kick it and get onto the path to health.  It was a while before it was all gone, of course, but it did turn around then.  She got to play lots of nintendo while in the hospital.  They brought in an extra bed so I could sleep in it that night with Lizzie.  The other girls were happy to come visit the next afternoon.  Another x-ray showed that her lungs were starting to clear, so that was good news.

 Daddy stayed with Lizzie the next day for a while until they let her come home.  We were so happy to be home in our own beds!  The hospital, while not ideal, was a good thing.  The nurses were wonderful (helps that we'd brought our own for the check-in night since Janice works with them all there!), the doctors were great, the food was decent, and the room was HUGE.  They even gave her a blanket she got to bring home and keep.

Fun with Cousins

 While Lizzie was busy in the hospital my sisters family came to town for a few days.  We don't get to see them often so we were sad to miss out on some of the time they were here.  While Michael was with Lizzie in the hospital I got to take the other girls to play with their cousins.

 The cousins even got to come see out house.  The sun was beautiful and I played with a few pictures (cause that's how I roll, ya know).  The teenagers were less intrigued by the Barbies and bitty bikes, but they took down that dead tree in our side yard in no time.  Those boys were FAST!  My brother in law helped them not remove any human limbs and they had the whole thing tidied up with the wood in logs stacked for fires.  It was incredible!

 The kids of many ages put on a stellar play complete with costumes, side effects, and a director (grandma).  They did a version of Cinderella.  Sabrina was the Cinderella-in-rags and when Cinderella zings into her fancy clothes they just swapped actresses!  Cousin Naomi (similar in age to Sabrina) was the Cinderella-in-finery.  It was very funny.  I did get a video of it, but you can barely hear a word of dialogue.  When I have the time (ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!!) I'll go through and subtitle it.  It's really worth it.

 Temple Square

 We went for a day at Temple Square in Salt Lake.  We got to ride all the way to the top of the Church Office Building where there's a spectacular view.  We even got to eat in the special employees only cafeteria in the basement (since we were there with one of Michael's sisters who is, in fact, an employee there).  We even ran into Grandpa and Grandma Southern there and walked around a bit.

Cousin Birthday Party

Happy First Birthday!  Celebrating another cousin's birthday.  This coming January the 50th cousin is due.  Well, that counts our three girls.  So technically our girls "only" have 47 cousins as of this coming January.  There is no shortage of insta-friends!  This was a brilliant birthday party where we played all of the birthday boy's favorite things: water, sprinklers, squirt bottles, etc.  A fabulous time was had by all.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Oh, I wish I'd made a big deal out of it!  Happy Birthday to my sweetheart.  It was kinda lame with everything else going on.  Sorry.  I love you anyway!  

Sadly,

A big part of the reason Michael's birthday was so lame: I managed to pull a humdinger of an infection in my foot.  Dumb foot.  All those circled areas got swollen, red, and awful looking.  I was given a shot of one antibiotic and put on two others orally.  When it continued to spread I was also put on a buff anti-fungal.  Apparently the combination of the meds made my anxiety soar, so I had it checked it out yet again and it was declared starting to improve.  Phew!  We were SO close to having to do IV antibiotics for me too!  Thankfully we avoided that.  The infection finally cleared.  I think I've had two sinus infections since then.  So bring on the antibiotics!  My foot is 98% better.  It keeps getting a bit red and irritated, but hasnt' been swelling any more, so we're calling it good and done.  I hate getting in the way of a good party!

Thus we come to the end of July.  It was a busy month!  In fact, you should be grateful I fit everything in so concisely.  Trust me, I could have stretched this out a lot more.  I have over 900 pictures from this month alone!  Stay tuned for August. ;)

First Day of School 2011-2012

Today was the first day of school for Kate and Lizzie.  Sabrina doesn't start until next week.  The girls were up every 5 minutes ALL night!  It was worse than Christmas Eve!  

First, last night:  I let Kate and Lizzie each take a tub in our big tub with jets and everything.  As soon as they were well wrinkled, they chose a bottle (well, two) of nail polish and I did their finger and toe nails.  They got a good hair brushing and headed to bed (theoretically.)

This morning I woke up to the alarm, climbed carefully out of bed (Sabrina came in to sleep on the floor next to my side of the bed, apparently) and went to wake the girls.  Kate was curled up on her bed but Lizzie was... nowhere!  I checked the floor in her room, all around our bed, even under the rumpled sheets at the end of my bed.  No lizzie!  I walked out to the kitchen and found her like this:

She woke up early (no idea *how* early), got dressed, made her own lunch, set her backpack by the stairs, then lay down in the chair and fell asleep.

We had chocolate chip pancakes, then walked together to the bus stop.  I was grateful to not feel like the creepy mamarazzi -- there were at least half a dozen other parents with stalker lenses on their cameras at the bus stop.

Sabrina and I had a relaxed day, ran a few errands, and I soothed a lot of sad feelings because she doesn't start school until next week.  We got the usual flowers for the first day of school and went to the bus stop to watch for the bus to bring our girls back.  It was about 100 degrees outside and Sabrina's bare feet were burning.  So she sat in my shadow, literally, to keep cooler.

We all walked home (with a friend too) and are settling in to our after-school routine.  By the way: dry erase markers are great for making signs on the front of a stainless steel fridge :)

The whole thing went much smoother than last year.  Thank heavens!

Happy New School Year everyone!!!

Mustard

(A Companion Post to "Ketchup")

More catching up:
Lizzie's 7th Birthday!  What a cheerful girl she is.  She got special pads and a new helmet for her crazy bike riding (and skating, once I found her some great roller skates at the thrift store).  Then, of course, she got a jewelry box and plush puppy with carrier also from us at her friend party.  She actually ASKED for frozen Salisbury steaks and frozen corn for her special birthday dinner.  Good thing, since I was kinda sick on her birthday and our A/C hasn't worked well at all this summer.  I wasn't up to fancy cooking so frozen Salisbury steaks was just about perfect for everyone.

Around this same time we discovered a barn swallow that liked to hang out on the loop of the cord for the ice melter thingies above the walkway.  First he (we called him a "he", but I don't technically know) hung out for a day or so, then started building a fancy little mud nest.  Kate and I sat on the bottom stair inside with the door open and took lots of pictures.   You can kinda see how close he let us come.  See Sabrina standing right below him?  Wow.  "He" never finished the nest, but we still see him every now and then.  I assume it's where he hangs out when he's in the "dog house".  Fun to watch!

This was during one of the worst stretches of heat inside the house.  Those pictures are taken at the same time as proof.  At 8:44 pm it was 90 degrees in the house.  It was next to impossible to sleep.  We spent a fair amount of time outside because at least there was a cool breeze in the evening.  So we'd start up a fire (burned up the branches left from chopping the dead tree up) and sit outside to watch a movie.

Independence Day Fun, part 1:
Lizzie was sick on Independence Day.  She had already run a fever for several days and the 4th was on a Monday so it was another day until normal office hours and she didn't seem sick enough to worry about emergency care.  She stayed home with Daddy while I went with the other girls to the Jarbh family brunch.  It was a momentous day: Sabrina can finally climb up into grandma's walnut tree by herself!  The rule is that you can climb in the tree as long as you can get in there without help (no using stools or chairs for a boost).  Sabrina is finally tall enough that her acrobatics can get her onto the branch.  Yay!  My sister, her husband, and their teenage daughter ran a race that morning and were in their racing shirts.  None of them came in last :)  (they all did very well).  Joe broke out the alp horn and he and my brother Pete played it for us.  Then, of course, they had to all measure it so they can make one out of PVC pipe.  This is normal procedure at a family gathering.
We spent a while that afternoon at Daddy's office (where it was air conditioned) and noticed that Sabrina had an infected bug bite.  So we had to mark it and watch.  We dosed it with essential oils and miracle of miracles... it resolved itself.  Phew!

Independence Day, pt. 2:
Top row: The food at the brunch was delicious.  There were such specialties as Quik chocolate milk, tater tot hashbrowns, fruit, pancakes, crepes, whipped cream....  it was good stuff.  Sabrina was trying to pop her box of snaps and discovered it was easier to sprinkle them on the concrete and jump up and down on them to make them pop :).  We made a fun sprinkler toy that was a great way to cool off in the afternoon.
2nd row: Sick Lizzie cuddled up with Daddy watching something on tv.  A view of our pond through flames from another fire in our firebowl in the evening.  The joy of sparklers.  Daddy making the sprinkler toy.
4rd row:  Roasting hot dogs and sparkler "candles" on a festive cake.  My girls in their festive shirts.  Kate.  The rain drops that made us worry about having to run for shelter.  The solution: I put the sprinkler toy to an alternate use.  One tarp flat on the deck above us to keep our heads dry, then another bungee corded over the sprinkler toy to keep the tv dry.  The party continued!
Bottom row: Sabrina and Kate watching tv too.  Watching Treasure Planet in the rain.  Our very own daisies and pink roses -- that combination makes me smile.  Lizzie.  And finally: another view of our beautiful evening.  Independence indeed!

Ketchup

unless you're in the "Catsup" camp.  Really what I mean, though, is "Catch Up" which is entirely different, but boring in terms of blog titles.

I realize I'm desperately behind, so I'll try to throw in a few collages and catch up last month at least (I hope!)

Art City Days:
We love our little city's celebratory week.  First up is the Children's Art Festival.  We brought along two bonus cousins for the fun.  Always a beginning of summer favorite!

The next morning: The one parade the girls and I attend each year.  We drove down to the school and parked there, walked two blocks and sat in the gutter in front of some people who had staked out spots in chairs.  The girls raked in TONS of candy, gave fives to Cosmo the Cougar, our favorite college mascot.  We waved at princesses, clapped for horses and cheered for the pooper scoopers.  We like to sit right by the beginning where the parade doesn't have big gaps or waits, the candy throwers are excited to share the joy, and the marching bands still have their chops.  The parade lasted exactly one hour (the extent of my sitting-in-a-gutter patience) and we were home within 5 minutes.  Summertime bliss!

That night is fireworks time.  We discovered that at the corner of our property we have a PERFECT view of the magic!  They shoot right up and reflect off the top of the greenhouses a block down.  Does it get better than this?  I think not.

In lieu of energy-sucking migraine-inducing blow out birthday parties this year we chose to do a Birthday Activity instead.  Here's Lizzie's fun.  She got to invite two friends and they came with us on a family party.  We went to an inflatable jumping / sliding place and wore the kids out (while Michael and I read books / watched a show on the sidelines).  Then we grabbed ice cream cones at Dairy Queen and drove to our favorite duck pond.  The duck and geese were in fine form.  With a touch of patience the geese would take bits of bread right out of our fingers!  Then we drove back to a park by our old house and sat under trees to eat cupcakes and open presents (where there was no duck poop to avoid on the grass).  We were able to have our neighbors join us there too, which was perfect.  The girls walked the friends home from there and we went home for dinner.  A great time was had by all and nobody had to vacuum before or after!

Finally (for now), what is summer in Utah without water fun!  The girls have played in sprinklers, with squirt guns, water balloons, neighbors' sprinklers, our little pond... yeah, we've done water.  Our favorite creation, though, is the Kid Wash.  Michael made this for the girls to play in and it's been a hit.  We've already planned out changes we'd make to re-do this little toy to make it easier to clean, carry, and store.  Next post you may even see the benefits of this Kid Wash which have nothing to do with proving water and everything to do with avoiding water ;) 

I'll try to get back to the more regular posting.  We were down with air conditioner problems, sickness, then a nasty virus claimed my computers.  Still trying to get completely recovered from that one.  Thus the pictures are slow to access, process, and share.  I'm getting it going though!  Stay tuned :)

Flower Petals

I have several things to catch up on.  But I'm going to start at today. We'll get to birthdays, pneumonia, hospitals and fireworks later.

We went this evening to a beautiful stream by a duck pond.  Each of the girls chose a flower from our yard before we left.

Then we released the flower petals into the stream.  This was in lieu of releasing balloons or something.  We though flower petals were just right to celebrate a beautiful little girl's half-birthday.

This wasn't to celebrate for one of my own daughters.  This was a celebration for one of their cousins.

Cousin Emma J. doesn't get to celebrate it herself.  So we helped.  (Please note: this is not cousin Emma H.)

Emma lived a short, miraculous life.

She touched more lives in her months before and days after her birth than some people will touch in their long lives.  She continues to touch lives now with her strength, persistence, love, and faith.

We have felt her love and presence in our lives, including while Lizzie was sick in the hospital recently.

I am grateful to be Emma's aunt and to have her as part of our family.  We love you, Emma, and think of you often.

We are grateful for the knowledge that your family will be together forever and we will get to know you eventually.

Happy 6 months old!

Love,

Aunt Janelle

Goals, Update 9

1- Sew at least one new item of clothing for me.

2- Make great room (and/or family room) curtains.-- I have also refashioned the funky door "curtain" in the family room into a lovely roman blind.  I can't find the hardware to hang it up, though.
 
3- Go one mile (run/walk) in 12 minutes or less -- *sigh*

4- Clean out and sort jewelry boxes

5- Catch up one year of scrapbooks-- my computers and I are currently fighting.  Stupid virus!!!!!

6- Read the entire Book of Mormon
 
7- Get a new family picture taken
 
8- Clean out my bedroom closet
 
9- Sort my craft type items (including sewing) -- This is a disaster!  Boxes are stacked around the storage room and the girls have gotten into a few of them, spilling their contents everywhere!  Ugh.

10- Make a new temple dress (does not fulfill goal #1) 

11- Be involved in at least one PTA project at the elementary school --  I'm on the list for next year too!


12- Get last year's blog book printed and bound
 
13- Make some nice hair pretties for MY daughters
 
14- Read some classic literature
   
15- Plant something and keep it alive
 
16- Improve dysphonia to be able to sing again with less pain -- Work in progress.

17- Learn two new hymns on the piano --
 
18- Plan and enjoy a family vacation (even if it has to be in Utah County) -- We made a pretty good plan, but after more financial waylays it looks like this will be mainly theoretical this year.
 
19- Back up all digital photos on new DVDs (or other storage device) and store safely  -- I cannot find my external drive all of a sudden!
 
20- Participate in fruit and vegetable co-op when possible and learn new ways to enjoy produce
 
21- Create a 7 generation pedigree chart

22- Finish quilts for the girls' beds --  A little exhausted thinking about this right now.

23- Take a class through the community programs
 
24- Follow FlyLady principles to get/keep the house in a happy state.  -- My house has been beautiful, but we ran into some roadblocks which made me lose my mojo.  I'm currently in search of a new mojo.  

25- Read a book by a church leader
 
26- Spend $1,000 to improve financial outlook (pay off debt faster, put in savings, etc.) 
 
27- Look at the stars more -- They're gorgeous!
 
28- Clean the Sharpie "artwork" off the playroom walls 

29- Update our family's emergency preparedness --  

30- Learn to use the lenses and settings on my camera -- I won a ebook on photography off a blog giveaway.  Learned tons off it!  I now rarely use my automatic settings and almost exclusively use the aperture priority setting.  I'm getting some great photos -- and some incredible failures, lol.

 
31- Return and report progress on my goals -- Yeah, I'm a little late this time.  This month has been a whirlwind of uncertainty and I forgot to set up the auto-post.  Oops.