FUNERALS

Yesterday, my friends and I set out, extremely early, for the Twin Falls area of Idaho. Hazelton to be exact. Our friend, Cherri, is from there and her father passed away on Father's day from complications of prostate cancer and bladder cancer. He has had a terrible go of it and this was a blessing for he and his family.
I was very impressed by the entire funeral, the services, Old glory flying in the breeze, the mature, former soldiers and the 21 gun salute (they were right on que), Taps (the bugler what incredible), and finally I have to say that this sight truly brought tears to my eyes nd a warm fuzzy feeling to my heart. What a tribute to a soldier who has passed on to the other side. I don't know if there is an official name for the rifle, boots and helmut stuck into the ground, but if there a soldierr out there who has served and passes away, I think this should be at every service. Talk about a reverence for patriotism.

Mr. Christopherson and his twin brother served together in the same unit (I believe) in the Pacific Theater in Okinawa. They were SeaBee's and quite honestly I don't hear much about the SeaBee's anymore. Rest in peace and comfort and know that your heroism, service and patriotism will not be forgotten by some.
Robin Boyd, Gaylene Bauer, Cherri Christopherson Woodland, Joyce Anderson and Coralie Monson

TOOTH FAIRY and TEETH

I have to say that life isn't dull around our house. Especially with some doosies that Austin (5) comes up with.
Sunday night he lost his second tooth in as many weeks. And with the loss of that tooth, he has given me a few things to laugh about and be very angry about.
Now for those of you who have seen the "Tooth Fairy" movie with Dwayne Johnson, you will understand this, if you haven't, like me, then it was pretty funny.

The real TOOTH FAIRY came to our house the other night/morning and Austin had said he was bound and determined to stay awake and catch her. I asked him why he thought it was a "HER" and his response was--"It just is. So I will stay awake and I will catch her."

Monday morning rolls around and down he comes into our room, thrilled to death that the tooth fairy had left him $3.00 (the going rate when I was a kid was $.25--what's with that?).
Austin: "Nana, look how much money the Tooth Fairy left me."
Me: "Wow, that's a lot, did you catch the toothfairy?"
Austin: "Yes, and she was about this big (showing that she was about an inch tall with his thumb and forefinger)."
Me: "Wow, that is very little. How do you know it was a girl?"
Austin: "Because boy's DO NOT wear tutu's."
Me: "Why do you think she is so little?
Austin: "Because she uses shrinking toothpaste."

At this point I am thinking to myself that this kid has an incredibly vivid imagination. Shrinking toothpaste, boys don't wear tutu's...etc.
I am thrown by his knowledge of the tooth fairy and think I have to text my mom, sister and his mother at least about his five year old knowledge. I get a text back from Kassie--he got that from the "Tooth Fairy" movie--the tooth fairy uses shrinking toothpaste to get "small". Phew, I am a little more relieved that he didn't come up with it on his own, however, I did think it was kind of cute.

LATER THAT DAY.
Ashlynne and Austin are fighting and one of the things that I continually tell them, and they continually ignore is that they have to keep their hands to themselves and not touch the other person. They are 4 and 5 and don't know how to keep their hands to themselves.
Ashlynne was doing something to pester Austin, so he reached right up and pinched her pretty hard on the sternum~enough to leave a small bruise. Arrghhh!!
I confronted him with this and his response was: "Well, Ashlynne bit me!"
Me: "Ashlynne bit you, let me see."
Austin: "Here, see my arm!"
Sure enough, there was a nice big bite on his arm, just above the wrist, with fresh saliva and everything--down to the two teeth missing from the bottom row of teeth marks. That little beast had bitten himself and blamed Ashlynne for it, all because he didn't want to get in trouble for having pinched her.
So Urrrrr! Some days, I know, are going to like this more and more until they grow out of this phase!

FEARLESS FOR A FEW MINUTES

We were invited, last night, to a swim party for my nieces's cousin's son's first birthday party (you got that relationship strait, right?). the party was helad at Murray Park's outdoor Pool and it was a private party, so the entire grounds were taken up by just party people. It was a very nice place and in all of my years I have never been there.
When we got there and situated with floaties, beach ball and food austin and Ashlynne were ready to dive in (pardon the pun). Ashlynne is 4 years old and completely fearless. She just doesn't have a fearful bone in her body. She decided it was time to check out the water slide. Austin on the other hand is all about safety and wants to stay near the ground--just in case he falls. Ben saw Ashlynne head for the slide and decided to catch up with her. I was headed to the pool to catch her when she came out, but alas, I found her clinging to Laurie (KoriAnn's other cousin) for dear life. Apparently when she got to the top, there were people in the way, so she butted in line (Note to self: teach children about butting in line and how rude it is and that they have to wait their turn) She started out going forward, according to Ben, but then by the time her little body got down that slide, it had twisted around and she had no idea where she was going. She freaked out, she wanted her Nana.
It took some time to convince her that if she went with an adult, that she wouldn't get turned around again, so she finally consented and went down with KoriAnn.
Austin on the other hand still wasn't having anything to do with that slide and was perfectly content to stay near the ground level and play with all the cousin's near eye level. He loved the waterfall balls and just hanging out.
This was also Brighton's first swimming experience. It excited him so much, he threw up three times. So off came his swim stuff and on went his PJ's and he was fast asleep in his Aunt Joyces arms.

It was nice of Brooke and her family to invite us and I have to say that I was pleased with the pool, so we may just have to go there again. Fun was had by all and Happy First Birthday Shane!!

NOT REAL CRAZY ABOUT THE POOL

Last year during the summer, Andrew was only 6 months old and really too young to know what the pool was all about. He didn't mind having his feet in the water and splashing away. This year is a bit different. He loves the water, but he is not real crazy about being in the pool. If he had it his way, he would just like being splashed on or run through the sprinklers and play with his BAW (ball). Yep, he's got nothing nice to say about the swimming pool.

SHINGLES

The diagnosis is in---FINALLY--SHINGLES I didn't want to show what the gorrie details looked like of real shingles so I chose a nice roof shingle instead.
Yep--that's been the source of all of the pain I have been in for a little over a year.
I woke up in June last year in severe pain. I thought I had slept crooked. It didn't go away, didn't go away and didn't go away!!!
I tried everything. Ibuprofen, Aspirin, A few Rx Narcotics, Muscle Relaxers, Heating pad (as a matter of fact, I still sleep with it on all the time, you name it, I tried it!!!
Last August (2009) I was teaching a Primary lesson and after I was finished I was in so much pain I drove myself to the emergency room. The fear at that time was the return of my Kidney Cancer. NOTHING--all good!! Yay no cancer.

In September of 2009, I finally gave in and saw my obstetrician--someone I trusted, and if I had to have a hysterectomy, face it, I was 48 years old and ready to get rid of everything. Besides, he was getting ready to serve an LDS Mission as a mission president for three years and if it has to come out--get it done now. NOTHING--as a matter of fact, the tests from that showed some previous problems were getting better. Woo hoo!!

In December and MRI was done. This turned out to show that I have a bulge in one of my discs--thankfully not L4-L5. It is up higher and allows more mobility than if it were those two. I also have an anular tear (what ever that is). But again no problems from that. So NOTHING--again!

This year I have had another CT scan--nothing, but because it was somewhat abdominal, they decided for colonoscopy and upper endoscopy would be in order to rule out Colon Cancer and/or Ulcer! Again, NADA, except a polyp that could turn cancerous--so thanks to my wonderful family history of colon cancer--I am now a candidate for colonoscopy every three years, rather than every 5 or 10!

So, back to the drawing board. I saw the doctor about 3 weeks ago and she said "I think it may be shingles". But, again, no other regular Shingles symptoms. I like to keep them hopping. I have always been a bit ATYPICAL. The only thing I have had for this entire year is the pain, but the pain is where most shingles would occur--one sided, back to front, inside pain. And I had absolutely no rash--go figure.

So, this pain is a neuralgia (nerve related from the shingles) and I will hopefully be getting some relief on Friday after an epidural injection is done. I have also been started on a prescription that is given for seizure therapy, but is also given for nerve pain, such as shingles! Right now is is giving me a headache and I can't sleep.

Now that you have read this boring entry and know all about my pain, I am sorry. I Really am keeping this mostly as a journal for myself. That's the best way for me to remember.

VISIT WITH AN OLD FRIEND

I have been in contact with a friend of mine from Bryner Clinic (a long, long, time ago in another life) through Facebook. She found me a few months ago and we have been in contact since.
Debbie was my first offical room-mate when I was 19 years old. I needed to move out of the house. I worked with her. She said she needed a room mate and here we are some 29-30 years later.
Debbie and Her husband, Paul, were married on my 20th birthday, had two children and and later moved and now live in Eastern Virginia in a small town, that touts a Walmart(and that apparently is a big day in town). They live four hours from Richmond and 2 1/2 hours from Washington D.C.
I used to babysit her two kids for them when they wanted to get out for a breather and she wouldn't let a lot of people watch her kids for her unless she trusted them. Apparently I was trusted.
She sent me an e-mail the other day that she would be in Utah far sooner than she anticipated. Paul's step-mother had died very unexpectedly and they would be here for a few days. And a few days it was. They flew in Saturday and flew home today.

So on Sunday I took a little trip by myself, because that seems to be the story of my life these days, ALONE. I love Cache Valley and I really wish I didn't have the physicalproblems holding me back (weather mostly and asthma--terrible in the winter because of inversions) and I would move there in a heartbeat.
I met She and Paul at his father's in downtown Logan and from there we went to Paul's brother' and had dinner and just sat and talked.
It was good to get away and to talk to someone that was far removed from what has been going on in my life and someone that could it see different perspective, begin far removed from the situation.
After the guys got ready to head to the mortuary, we drove around for a little while and I took her back to their hotel room where she changed and then I dropped her off at the mortuary.

It was great to see her and we are planning a few things for girls get-togethers for a year from now and maybe, just maybe, I will catch a lpane and go visit her for a week or so and spend some much needed quiet time on their little beach ant their home in nowhere Virginia.

Oh, I finally gave in and cut my hair. I really have never liked long hair on me--I perfer it short and it's easy to maintain and it's not as hot! HALLELUJAH!

WIDE AWAKE AT 4:30 A.M.

this is me right now! I can not sleep. I have a full day tomorrow (rather today).
I have read, played on the computer, read some more. Any suggestions?

SUMMER AND GETTING OLDER

Summer at last--the kids can go outside without the threat of getting wet and my flowers popped right up as soon as the sun started to show a little bit more in the past few days. I love African Daisies and here is a picture of some pretty lavender and yellow hybrids that I bought at K-Mart of all places. Lavender and yellow and blue and yellow are my favorite color combinations. So you can probably understand why these appealed to me.


Last week our little Austin (5 1/2), who is not so little anymore, graduated from Pre-School and loved every minute of it and can hardly wait for school to start (in three months), graduated to a larger shoe size than 18 mons.--13's. He is now in big kid shoes and today he lost his first tooth after biting into an apple. Not only did he lose his tooth, but the tooth right next to it is loose as well, and he is thrilled the Tooth Fairy will be making an appearance.
He asked his mom if the Tooth fairy would be able to get in their room without waking all of them and since "I sleep with my hands under the pillow, will he try to move them and wake me up then, I would really like to get a good look at him."
It seems like yesterday that he was cuddling (he was the only child who cuddled)in the rocking chair and here he is with one tooth gone and another on the way out.

IT'S JUNE

It has been a very cold and rainy Spring and yesterday was the unofficial start to summer. I myself am waiting for Summer to begin. Since it has been cold enough to keep the furnace on but only turned way down, I was very surprised this morning when my house got down to below 64 degrees and my furnace kicked on at 8:00 this morning.
What's up with that?