Home Update

Well, we are going to sign our papers this afternoon and we found out yesterday that our buyers signed their papers over the weekend. So right now it looks like everything will come together before Saturday. We just have to wait for everything to fund and record.

When we arrived here on Monday, my parents had some sobering news for us that made us even more grateful that we were able to get here safely. A couple one street over in their ward (currently also our ward) had sold their house and are moving back east. The family that bought their house is moving here from Missouri. The father of the family was already here and the mother was coming from Missouri with their three little boys (ages 1-5) the end of last week. On the way, they were in a car accident and the mother was killed. We found out yesterday that the father is going ahead with buying the house and moving in. The priesthood brethren are all going over this Friday to help them move in, and the funeral for the mother will be here on Saturday. I guess both of their families are here in Utah. So our ward will be busy serving this weekend--they are providing the meal after the funeral and we are also all donating items to fill this family's pantry and fridge. This really hit home for us, since we were so concerned about staying safe on the drive up. Our worst nightmare came true for this family. Our hearts go out to them, our prayers are with them, and we feel we can't do enough to help them.

My Dad got Nile's nasty cold, unfortunately, and has been pretty miserable all weekend. But thankfully, he is starting to feel better now. Jumble got a light case of it and Atom got it too. As always happens with Atom when he gets a cold, he got croupy. Monday night he woke up wheezing and barking (cough) and Niles actually heard him first. I turned on the shower and sat in the steamy bathroom with him until it eased up. Then he spent the rest of the night in our bed with the humidifier on. He is extremely congested but doesn't act like he feels too sick during the day. Last night he made it through the night without any wheezing and barking so hopefully he is on the mend.

More Surgeries

We were so happy to hear that Lauren is back home again, recovered from her surgery. Last time her Nana had surgery with her, this time it was her Grandad. He had hip replacement surgery and was recovering well, the last we heard. So we are glad about that. Last week, before we left for Arizona, I took my Dad and Mom to Sandy where they each had cataract surgery on their right eyes. That went well and my Mom, especially, is noticing a huge improvement in her eyesight. They are going back in June for the left eyes. I am happy for them to be able to see better. I discovered something about our Honda Odyssey in the process of taking them. It was raining pretty hard the entire time they were in surgery. After two hours of sitting out in a hard rain, I discovered that the moon roof leaks! The driver's seat was wet when we went to drive home. Seven years of owning this mini-van, and that has never happened before. Maybe because we've been in Arizona where it just doesn't rain much--and the few times it has, my van must have been in the garage. Anyway, I thought it was funny.

Packing Up and Driving

We waited almost a year to see the "sold" on our sign!
At times it seemed like this day would never come! I forgot to take photos of the 15-20 wonderful high priests and their sons who showed up at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to load our truck...
Which turned into TWO trucks before we were finished--the biggest truck they have--26 footer--was not big enough for all our stuff! Yuck--that meant both Niles and I had to drive a truck each the entire 650 miles or so to Utah. I was just a little nervous about the prospect. Thankfully, we were extremely blessed and everything went really well. I normally cannot drive more than 2 hours without feeling extremely drowsy but thanks to a blessing from Niles, I had no trouble with drowsiness for the entire 12 hours of driving. Niles was coming down with a bad cold as we left for Arizona, so he got a blessing and was able to feel well enough to function the whole time and I didn't catch it from him. Complete divine intervention on both counts. The most painful thing about the trip was filling up the gas tanks--choke!

So this is a quick run-down of what we did--We flew out Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. and arrived in Phoenix at 9:30 a.m. local time. It was raining so we saw hardly anything but clouds on our way in--but we did fly right over Chase Field and the roof was open, which was cool (that's where the Diamondbacks play.) The weather was rainy and extremely cool the whole weekend. It was really strange--not at all the typical weather for Arizona for this time of year. However, the cooler temperatures were very nice for loading the truck and such. After we landed, we took the shuttle to the rental car facility and Niles handled the picking up of the rental car, while I had an ink pen explode all over my hand and worked out a problem with the home owner's insurance company on the cell phone (they somehow had the wrong address for our new house.) Then we drove straight to the Title company in Scottsdale to sign papers. While there, we discovered that our house was not closing that day, as planned. The buyer's loan papers are not ready yet and they are not even scheduled to come in and sign. Groan! Then we went to our house, where our realtor had lunch waiting for us and then we started packing and disassembling furniture. Niles is the greatest! He packed 5 boxes to my one. He is so efficient and I just plug along at a snail's pace. Sometime in there, we went and picked up the moving van. By midnight, we were almost done and ran out of boxes and tape so we quit and went to bed. We started loading at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday--I ran to the store for a few more boxes and some tape--and were mostly done by 9:30, except we had to go get another truck and then a few of the faithful men from the morning went with Niles to load the new truck up at our storage unit. I started the final cleaning at the house. My vacuum and my mop both decided it was a good time to break (I didn't think so!) so I had to call in some friends to borrow theirs--and they not only let me borrow them--they came over and did the vacuuming and mopping themselves. So we were completely done by about 5:00 that evening and went to our hotel for a shower. Later, a friend met me at the rental car place so I could return the rental car and get back to the hotel. We are SO grateful for all the help! (Also to my family in Utah who took care of our kids while we were gone.) We attended our ward's sacrament meeting on Sunday. We were quite a sight--pulling into the parking lot in a Penske truck--but in our Sunday clothes! It turned out to be an interesting day to be there--our bishop has served for 5 years now and the entire bishopric was released and a new bishop and counselors called to replace them. Then we said good-bye to many well-wishers, went to our house to change our clothes and pick up the other van--then we hit the road. It was about 1:15 when we started and for the next 7 hours this was the view:

Niles had the same view as this minus the Penske truck. I drove behind him the whole way. I drove the "baby"--it was only a 16 footer. We stopped in Kanab for the night. Our hotel was a brand-new Holiday Inn Express and it was a fun combination of luxury and "Western:"

Notice the "cow print" throw pillows. The chairs were upholstered with the same fabric
Granite counter tops, boots and steers on the wallpaper, and cow horn lights! Cute! Unfortunately, the restaurant we ate at wasn't on the same level with the hotel. We cannot recommend it. Don't eat at Tina's--it's across the street from the hotel. Monday we started out around 10:15 and arrived in Lehi at about 3:30. It rained off and on all day on Monday. We even saw some snow coming down as we drove through the mountain pass on highway 20. It's hard to believe it is almost June--the weather feels more like March. We were so happy to arrive safe and sound. This morning we learned that the papers we were supposed to sign here this afternoon have been delayed until tomorrow. Nate has work obligations all day tomorrow--including the evening--so we don't know when he can sign tomorrow--he may not be able to until Thursday. We have the trucks rented until Saturday so we are crossing our fingers that things come together on both closings so that we have a place to unload our stuff by Saturday. It's all out of our hands at this point--we have to sit and wait and see what happens!

Band Concert

All photos of Jumble for the foreseeable future will probably be this solemn, unsmiling expression since she has decided she doesn't ever want her photo taken and will NOT cooperate! Jumble was very happy to be done with her last band concert of the year. It was a band extravaganza and the theme was "At the Movies." It started with the 20th Century Fox Theme being played by all the bands combined. Jumble's band played music from Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Mission Impossible, and Aladdin. The combined bands played some pieces from Harry Potter at the end. We enjoyed the concert, even if Jumble didn't.

Today we are celebrating our sixteen anniversary. Imagine that there is a photo of us on our wedding day above. It just wasn't possible to include that in our current state of limbo. In some ways it seems hardly possible that it has already been sixteen years, in other ways, it feels like we have always been together. So what are we doing to celebrate? Signing house loan papers, I'm going to enrichment night, and hopefully we are getting our stake temple recommend interviews. We did go out to eat at Tucano's with my parents on Saturday. And this Friday we are going on a trip to Arizona for 4 days. This will be our first time since Jumble was born fourteen years ago to have even one night alone without at least one of our children with us. It's going to be so romantic packing, loading, and cleaning our brains off! And to add to that--there's the 10-hour drive in a sleek moving van back to Utah! :) The good news is, anything is romantic when we can do it together. I can honestly say that the last sixteen years have exceeded my high expectations of marriage. I am happier than I could have imagined and even more in love with my husband than I was then. I feel blessed that I got lucky and married a man who is even more wonderful than I realized then. The last sixteen years have not been easy, but that's just because life isn't easy. I am extremely grateful to have someone to share all the easy and hard times with that makes me blissfully happy. My husband is one of my choicest blessings that I do not take for granted.

Hiking to the "Y"

Today we did something that I have somehow never managed to do, even though I lived in Utah from age 10 to into my 20's, and attended and graduated from BYU--we hiked to the "Y." Do we ever feel a sense of accomplishment! We is me, Niles, Minnie and Jet. Jumble stayed home with Atom, which turned out to be a good thing because this was not a hike for the faint-hearted and Atom probably would have wanted to be carried at some point. I don't think we would have made it carrying him. This is the view of the "Y" from the parking lot where the hike begins. That's Niles heading up the trail.
This is the view of the "Y" from marker #10. Almost there! The whole hike is a steep walk up. It's amazing how much harder the uphill grade makes it. It is only a little over a mile to the "Y" but it took us about an hour because it is so steep--you have to stop and rest frequently. The last little stretch was even more steep than the rest of it--killer! You probably would give up then if you couldn't see how close you were to your goal. That, and the 7-months-pregnant women (yes, we saw more than one), senior citizens, and toddlers you would see coming back down the trail. You would feel like a total wimp when they obviously made it!!
This is Minnie on the last few feet--the only level ground on the whole 1.1 mile trail, so don't be fooled.
Here you can see the parking lot we started at way below behind Minnie. 1,000 feet ascended in just a little over a mile.
Niles and Minnie with the white "Y" behind them.

If you look really closely, you can see Jet on the top left-hand corner of the right-hand side of the "Y" He's that little dot crawling around. He is the only one of us that had the desire to expend the extra energy to climb to the top of the actual "Y" itself once we got up there. I had more than a few nervous moments about him starting a free-fall roll down the steep incline.
This is the view of BYU campus, Provo, and Utah Lake from up on the "Y"
Minnie expresses her happiness at being at the "Y" by making her own "Y." I made it!
The accomplished hikers pose in front of the "Y" (It looks way too long and skinny up here. How did those ambitious folks who built it in the first place tell how it was going to look from way down on the valley floor? It's not like you can easily trot up and down to see how it's shaping up. Who ever thought of this crazy idea in the first place? I would have thought it was impossible to construct such a thing on such a steep slope--they had to clear all the brush off first, too. Ugh!) This is the gate to the trail where you start and finish. This is us at the finish. The trip down took about half the time as going up. Much nicer, other than the feeling that your toes are going to ram through the front of your sneakers.
Back down on the valley floor, this is the "Y" as we normally see it (and the drive-thru of Wendy's where we rewarded ourselves with frosty's.)
Jet enjoys his frosty. He has to sit in a booster again because Utah just passed a law that you have to be 8 years old or 57" tall to ride in a car without one. Jet is currently 7 years old and 47" Something tells me he won't grow 10 inches in the next year!
Minnie with her frosty. She looks a little pink, even though we didn't forget the sunscreen. The necklace was a gift from her cousin who recently visited Hawaii. Our goal is to do hikes all summer, then go back and hike the "Y" again in the fall, to see how much easier it is when you are in better shape.

The weather was just about perfect--not too hot for us and the breeze felt good. It's finally decided that it's O.K. to be in the 80's--as of yesterday! I wish we had stalled in the 70's for a few days instead of skipping from the 50-60's straight to the 80's, but I'm not going to complain. Yesterday I was driving around thinking how great it was to be warm for the first time in almost 5 months. The windows were down in the car and it felt great! Then I looked around and realized that everyone around me had their windows up and their A/C on. Two days ago they were all driving around with their windows down while I had my windows rolled up and the heater on! Maybe by this time next year I will be in synch with the rest of the locals. It really is a strange adjustment for us. My kids have two weeks of school left and they were still wearing jackets to school earlier this week! :)

Random Information

I took this shot in my parent's backyard this morning. Isn't it peaceful? This is one of the many things I'll miss about this place when we move to our own house. (Although the view from our new house's backyard is quite pleasant--the lake and mountains in the distance--it doesn't include farm animals.) Lehi is a fun mix of city and rural--and actually we could do without some of the city part--like the non-stop traffic on Main Street.

Speaking of moving, we were able to get all the inspection stuff done for the house we are trying to buy and are now comfortable that there are no huge lurking problems with it. The appraisal is being ordered today and the appraisal on our Arizona house came in at least at value. So we seem to be all set. We have booked our tickets, a rental car, and moving van for the weekend of May 23rd to go down to Arizona and pack and load. We will probably drive back to Utah halfway on Sunday afternoon (the 25th) and the rest of the way on Monday (the 26th--Memorial Day.) Our Utah house is currently scheduled to close on May 29th with us getting the keys on June 2nd. But if our Arizona house can close earlier than the 29th, they will try to move the closing in Utah up as well. Then we won't have to load and unload twice and put all our stuff in storage for a few days, which would be ideal, but may not be possible to avoid. Hopefully everything will continue to a successful close on both houses soon, no matter what the exact dates actually turn out to be.

I had an enjoyable Mother's Day. My husband treated me even more like a queen than usual and also spoiled me with a dozen red roses. My kids treated me even more like their mother than usual. Oh well, you can't expect perfection! :) The primary did a cute card for all the mothers with photos of our kids. I thought that was cool. And of course the Primary did the traditional singing in Sacrament Meeting. My boys ended up directly behind the pulpit so I couldn't see them, except for the top of Son #1's head, when he stood on tiptoe. Too bad. Daughter #2 gave me some sweet coupons for different acts of service and some chocolate. It was fun to be able to give our greetings to both of our mothers in person this year. It's been many years since that has happened.

After dragging herself to school not feeling well for 3 days, I took Daughter #2 to the doctor on Wednesday after checking her out early that day. The doctor said one of her tonsils was twice as big as the other and put her on amoxicillan. She started to feel better within a day but is still not quite totally recovered. Daughter #2 also lost one of her contacts on Friday. She thought she had it in her eye, but when she got on the bus for school, she noticed things didn't look quite right and discovered the contact wasn't in her eye after all. We never could find it, but the eye doctor gave her another sample one for free. Hopefully that doesn't happen often!

Our sweet little Lauren is back at Primary Children's Hospital. Her feeding tube somehow caused a perforation in her intestine so she had to have emergency surgery late Saturday night to early Sunday morning. She will be in the hospital 2-4 weeks. Not a great Mother's Day present for her Mom (or her Dad). She seems to be doing as well as can be expected. She is such a strong little girl and we pray that she will recover quickly so she can return home soon.

Nicknames Decided

Someday I'll probably make this blog password protected. But for now, I am at least not referring to my immediate family members by name. Awhile back, I asked for nickname suggestions and got a resounding zero responses. So I've had to muddle through on my own and come up with some. To keep it less confusing for all of us, everyone's nickname starts with their first initial. So from now on, I will be referring to my family as follows:

Me--(rare case it may be necessary) Author
Husband--Niles (think Frazier)
Daughter #1 (currently 14)--Jumble
Daughter #2 (currently 11)--Minnie
Son #1 (currently 7)--Jet
Son #2 (currently 3 1/2)--Atom (or Atom bomb when appropriate--just kidding!)

My family members have all requested that you DO NOT start calling them by these nicknames. They are to be used on this blog ONLY. Please honor their request or they will never forgive me. (Plus, if they start going by these names, that kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?)

Birthday Three Times Over

One of the great things about being in Utah for my kids--they get to celebrate their birthdays three times! Once with us, once with the extended Crane family, and once with the extended Pew family. Daughter #2 got more gifts and cake on Friday with the Pews, and on Sunday with the Cranes. Life is rough.

Clean Boys

The boys were looking so cute in the bathtub, I got them to agree to a photo. One of my favorites things, clean kids just out of the bathtub--in their pajamas and ready for bed!

Lupus Walk

Saturday, May 10th was the Lupus Foundation Utah Chapter's Walk for Lupus. My sister and I attended. It was an easy walk that anyone can do--so everyone join us next year! You can still donate if you want to (no pressure--we understand financial hardship) by going to my sister's website here

You can go to my fundraising website, if you prefer, by clicking on the place on my side bar, but most of the goal we set for our team is on my sister's website and our team goal hasn't been met yet but my personal goal has.

Here are some facts about lupus that we received on Saturday, for those of you who are asking, "What IS lupus?"

• Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that causes inflammation of various parts of the body, especially the skin, joints, blood and kidneys. The immune system normally protects the body against viruses, bacteria,and other foreign materials. In an autoimmune disease like lupus, the immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign substances and its own cells and tissues. The immune system then makes antibodies directed against "self."
• Lupus in NOT infectious, rare or cancerous.
• Approximately 1.5 million Americans and 5 million people worldwide have a form of lupus.
• Although the cause of lupus is unknown, scientists suspect that individuals are genetically predisposed to lupus, and we know that environmental factors such as infections, antibiotics, ultraviolet light, extreme stress and certain drugs play a critical role in triggering lupus.
• Ninety percent of the people with lupus are women. Lupus is more prevalent in African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asians.
• Only 10% of people with lupus will have a close relative (parent or sibling) who already has or may develop lupus. Only about 5% of the children born to women with lupus will develop the illness.
• Lupus can be difficult to diagnose as the symptoms come and go and mimic many other illnesses. Some symptoms of lupus can be transient joint and muscle pain, fatigue, a rash caused by or made worse by sunlight, low grade fevers, hair loss, pleurisy, appetite loss, sores in the nose or mouth, or painful senitivity of the fingers and/or toes to the cold.
• Although lupus ranges from mild to life-threatening, and thousands of Americans die from complications of lupus each year, the majority of cases can be controlled with proper treatment.
• While medical science has not yet developed a method for curing lupus, research brings new findings and increased hope each year.
• The Lupus Foundation of America has a nationwide network of chapters and support groups providing support for patient services, education, awareness and research in the local areas.
• The Lupus Foundation of America is the nation's leading nonprofit voluntary health organization solely dedicated to finding the causes and cure for lupus. Our mission is to improve the diagnosis and treatment of lupus, support individuals and families affected by the disease, increase awareness of lupus among health professionals and the public, and find the causes and cure.

It is encouraging that the treatments available for lupus patients today are better than the options available to my aunt. We met a man who has been in a wheelchair, unable to walk, who can now walk because of recent advances in medical treatments. Although only ten percent of lupus patients are male, there was a whole family at the walk with t-shirts in memory of their father/brother/son/uncle who passed away just last year. We met another lady whose daughter has lupus and lost a baby at 7 months along because of it. She (the mother) has a related disorder--fibromialga (sp?)--so they are some of the unlucky ones that have more than one family member impacted by autoimmune disorders.

We have already experienced a great loss in our own life because of this disease. We hope that by supporting the Lupus Foundation, we can honor our Aunt Karen and prevent others from experiencing a similar loss.

Walk for Lupus

Well, here it is--two days before the Walk for Lupus and I am finally getting my act together and registered to walk. Selling and buying houses has been distracting me. I finally have a link to my fundraising page on the side bar. I'm walking with my sister, in memory of my Aunt Karen. If you want/need a reminder of what this is all about click here.

Seeing the New House

One of the upstairs bedrooms
The other upstairs bedroom (besides the master)
Son #2 in the backyard

Son #1 in one of the basement bedrooms.
Both sons in the other basement bedroom.
The basement family room
The upstairs family room area (off the kitchen).

Son #2 in the kitchen/eating area. The railing you can barely see on the left is the stairs down to the basement.

On Saturday we took the kids to see the house we are trying to buy. Grandpa and Grandma went with us. (Too bad my husband's parents are in England right now so they couldn't come too.) The photos above are from that trip and show some of the rooms that don't have photos on the link from my earlier post.

We took a tape measure so we could start figuring out where furniture would fit. I think we all started to feel a little bit excited about it. It was fun. The kids all liked it and the Grandparents heartily approved as well. (When Grandma saw the big basement family room she said, "We can have all the family gatherings here!") The kids were told to vote for their 1st and 2nd choices for bedrooms. Daughter #1 will only give us one choice--the biggest bedroom in the basement. Daughter #2 likes the bedroom with the pretty window upstairs as her #1 choice. The boys don't care. We'll probably keep the boys together for now and then we can actually have a guest bedroom for a while (but maybe without a bed at first--we'll have to work on that.) The basement also has a storage room and another small room that we can use as a play room. Upstairs has a small living room as well as a small family room area off the kitchen. We don't have enough furniture for this house. There is a nice park two houses down at the end of the street. The backyard has a view of the lake and mountains. As we have watched the home prices plummet in Arizona over the last ten months, and only decrease slightly in Utah over the same ten months, we have worried that we wouldn't be able to afford anything in Utah by the time we finally sold our house. We are feeling extremely blessed with the way things seem to be working out. We never could have imagined we could have ended up in such a nice place.

Our inspection on our Arizona house turned out pretty good. We don't have too many costly repairs to make--it could've been much worse. We are relieved about that. The appraisal in Arizona was done yesterday but we haven't heard the results yet. The inspection on the house here was also done yesterday. We have a few concerns to look into a little more, but we are hopeful we will be able to get things resolved to our satisfaction soon. Our house in Arizona may close as soon as May 20th so we will be down there to pack up the weekend of the 16th if things happen that fast. Otherwise, we will probably be down there the weekend of the 23rd since our house there is supposed to close no later than the 29th. The house here is supposed to close on the 30th and we will get the keys on Monday, June 2nd. So that is the plan, as long as everything goes well.

CAT scan

Last Thursday we got Son #1's ultrasound results back and they showed some kind of blockage might be present in his urinary tract system as well. They wanted him to get a CAT scan to check for any masses. That was set for Friday morning. Crank the stress level up a few notches. The CAT scan itself ended up being more stressful than we anticipated, because they wanted to put a dye in him which required an I.V. That is a pretty big deal when you are 7 years old! But he was very brave, even though he wasn't happy about it. It took several hours to finish the whole thing. Then I took him to McDonalds for breakfast since he had to be fasting for the test. A little bit of food in his system, and a little bit of time in the playland, and he was starting to act like himself again. Then I took him to school. They said we might get the results as early as that afternoon, but they didn't. So we had to wait out the weekend. Then they didn't call yesterday so I called this morning. The receptionist could tell me that the notes said the CAT scan was normal. Whew! That was a relief. She said the notes also said something about setting him up to see a urologist at Primary Children's and that the Dr. assistant will be calling us. They had already mentioned that would probably be the next step if the CAT scan came back clear so we are still concerned but relieved because it could have been worse. We'll see what we find out as we go along.

As a side note, the diet I am supposed to try out is extremely restrictive and takes some planning so I am thinking now that I won't really be able to follow it strictly while I am in the process of moving. It will have to wait until I get settled in my own house. In the meantime, I will try to avoid as much of the trouble items as I can. Last week I felt pretty bad all week but this week I have had a few good days in a row so I am hopeful I will have less trouble with pain as our life settles down and I won't have to get my gall bladder out (maybe for years--maybe never.) I am finding that it is an extremely pleasant feeling to have idea of where you are going to be moving to. To have a picture in my mind of us being settled in a specific house is very soothing. For over a year, the picture in our minds of our future physical surroundings has been a big black unknown. We are enjoying the contrast. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes in our lives.

Happy Birthday #11

So Daughter #2 had a good day, despite the unseasonably cold weather. Here are a few photos of her enjoying her birthday presents and cake. She got the High School Musical movies (one from Grandpa and Grandma), Nancy Drew movie, some books, a new outfit for her American Girl doll, a High School Musical doll, Littlest Pet Shop set, and a simple MP3 player. On Saturday she came down with a bad cold and hasn't been feeling too well since then. Unfortunately, this is testing week at school and she is so conscientious that she has been dragging herself to school and then I go check her out early when she is done with the tests for the day. (They only do testing in the morning.) The biggest joy in her life right now is that she went to the eye doctor on Saturday (before she started feeling sick) and she currently has a pair of trial contact lenses. She is doing great with getting them in and out and taking care of them and is thrilled about not having to wear glasses. I would've thought that contacts wouldn't be a good idea until at least age 12, but she has been telling me that about 4 kids in her school class already wear contact lenses and the eye doctor said they have many kids her age that are successful with contacts. She IS very responsible for her age so we figured we'd give it a try.

Today Daughter #2 turns 11. And it is the 1st day of May. And we woke up with snow on the ground! So we had to take a photo of our daughter with her birthday surprise. You can tell it is just a light dusting, it only stuck to the grass, roofs, and cars, and it has melted now, but come on--when does it stop?! One thing is for sure, if we were still in Arizona, this would not be a part of her birthday today! As she said when she saw it, "That's just wrong!" She's being a good sport about it. Happy May Day!

Hope of America

On Tuesday, April 29th, Daughter #2 participated in a program at BYU's Marriott Center called "Hope of America." It is the kick-off event for the annual Freedom Festival in Provo, UT that doesn't end until sometime in July. This is a photo of the choir--made up of about 7,000 5th graders from most of the grade schools in the area. Daughter #2 is wearing a yellow shirt and is in the middle section above the flag. They sang a lot of songs and there were some dance numbers and such. It was a great program, just started late and ended too late--too many people and too much traffic. But she had a great time. She has been practicing songs for months. The last number they had the lights down and all the kids had a flashlight that they did various things with. It looked pretty cool. All of the numbers were done by students except for one group of ladies that did a little drill team number. They said these ladies ranged in age from 50 to 91 years old! At the end, they had the 91-year-old lady do a little solo number complete with kicks that I couldn't do and she ended by doing the splits! And she got up out of the splits easily--on her own without help. We were all amazed.

Medical Update

On Monday I had another test done at the hospital that tested the functioning of my gall bladder. They give you a radioactive isotope through an I.V. and then you lie down under this machine that is monitoring things for 2 boring hours while your gall bladder fills up--then they give you a hormone to make your gall bladder contract and you lie under the machine for another 30 minutes or so while this is going on. No big deal other than the fact that they have your arms strapped to your sides so you hold still and don't interfere with the images they are taking. You would be amazed at how many times your face itches in two hours. You don't notice when you can scratch it. When you can't scratch, it becomes much more noticable! Anyway, the results came back normal. However, about an hour after the test, and for the next two days, I was feeling even more pain than usual. Yesterday I went to a surgeon to discuss the results of the test. He said that often you feel no distress during the test but if you do for a day or so afterwards, it is probably your gall bladder. There are no other tests that they can do to tell for sure if it is my gall bladder. He said that if they take my gall bladder out, there is a 70-80% chance that it will take care of it and I will feel better. They will do it with those odds, as soon as I decide I have had enough of the pain. Well, I'm not there yet. They gave me a strict diet that I can follow to see if it helps so that is my plan for now--try the diet and if it helps, I will have a better idea that it is my gall bladder.

Meanwhile, I took Son #1 to the doctor on Monday for some problems he has been having. They ended up doing an x-ray of his stomach and abdomen and tell me that it looks like he has some kind of blockage in his intestine--what?! We were a little shocked by this. He hasn't ever complained of stomach pain. They sent him for an ultrasound of his kidneys and bladder on Tuesday and said when they get the results of that back, they will call so we can figure out what to do next. So we are fairly anxious about that but are hoping it won't turn into anything too complicated. It seems that we will be reaching our medical deductibles this year. Ugh!

Old House, New House?

On April 21st we got word that an offer was forthcoming on our house in Arizona (first photo above)--FINALLY! We didn't see the offer until the next day, and it took a few days of negotiating but we now have a signed contract. It was kind of a depressing result, but we already knew it would be in this market. The closing is set for on or before May 29th--as early as May 20th if they can get all the paperwork done. A few days later we made an offer on a house here in Utah (second photo above). It's taken a week to negotiate this one, but we finally have a signed contract as of last night. There are still a lot of things that could keep this one from going through, so we'll see if this is where we end up or not. We aren't investing in emotional attachments yet. If you go to http://www.utahrealestate.com/781432 you can see some photos of the inside, too. At any rate, we are thrilled to be moving on with our life, even if we can't help but be sad to leave a big piece of our life behind in Arizona.

Happy Birthday #14

So, our oldest daughter turned 14 a little over a week ago. It doesn't seem possible. The Young Woman Organization in this ward hangs a flag on the birthday girl's door for the day. I think this is a great idea. It isn't expensive--buy one flag and use it for every girl for at least a year, if not longer--and it really does make them feel special. They hung a small treat on the doorknob, too. It works especially well in these Utah wards when your entire ward is only a few blocks. Lots of people see the flag as they drive by and remember to tell the young woman happy birthday the next time they see her. We had a family party for Family Home Evening that night. Daughter #1 got a music CD (which she promptly uploaded on her MP3 player), some books, an earring organizer, some earrings, and a new copy of the scriptures. We had ice cream cake for dessert. I think she had a nice day. Last Friday she got another cake, a balloon bouquet, and more earrings from her Nana and Grandad. This party was in conjunction with her Aunt Rachael's graduation party (MBA-BYU Congratulations, Rachael!) but I forgot to take our camera, so no photos. I hate it when I do that.

Spring Break

It was Spring Break here the week of April 14-18th. The first day was beautiful. But I was busy finishing up our Arizona tax return. I had the Federal and Utah returns done and the refund had arrived weeks before, but the Arizona one was complicated and my computer program couldn't handle it, so it sat for awhile--waiting for me to get around to filling it out, attaching proper forms, etc. On April 14th, it finally made it to the top of the priority list. If I had known that the next three days were going to be cold--even some snow--I would have moved the tax preparation day to April 15th and done something outdoors with my kids on the 14th. But I didn't anticipate that. Tuesday-Thursday were cold but the middle two kids were saved by being invited to a sleep-over at their cousins. (Thanks!) Friday it finally cooperated and got warm again so we headed to the zoo with our cousins. My husband got off work early and met us there so we had an enjoyable time seeing the animals. Memberships here are barely more than it costs us for one visit to the zoo and the line to buy a memberships was much shorter than the line to buy tickets for just one day, so we now have a Hogel Zoo membership and can go back for the next year for free. The Hogel Zoo is about 1/4 of the size of the Phoenix Zoo, we discovered. But it is still a nice zoo so I'm sure we'll go back quite a few times this summer and fall. I don't think you'll be finding us there next winter, but who knows. As you can tell from the last photo, we succeeded in wearing out son #2 before we were through that day.