Our Halloween

Most of my family did their own thing for Halloween this year.

The oldest son and the fiancee spent the morning tye dying a t-shirt with Kool-Aid for him to wear trick or treating with her "nieces and nephew" (children of close family friends). I didn't know that you could use Kool-Aid to tye dye. It was kind of cool. I thought the son would record this event for me, but he forgot to take his camera.

The youngest daughter was far away in Idaho and all we heard about her Halloween was that a really scary guy with a chain saw tried to accoust her and her roommates in their apartment, but they laughed and he ran away. Apparently there are no photos of this event either.

The youngest son had a date tonight to the school homecoming dance. It appears to be a lot less stressful to be the boy going to the dance than the girl. He spent most of the day on the couch watching football and movies while I'm sure his date was getting her hair done and worrying about looking beautiful. Sometimes life is just not fair! He did go to the church for awhile to set up for the trunk or treat and helped his friend wash the truck they were taking on their date, so he didn't get to just relax all day.

We did get the son and his date to swing by the trunk or treat at the church so we could see if they both ended up looking nice.


I'd say they looked a little silly, but nice. The son was thrilled that he got to wear a purple shirt and tie. He really was. He loves purple shirts. He also did a good job of choosing a date for the event. Not only is she cute and nice and fun to be around, she also got free tickets to the dance and free pictures (because she is on student council and helped set up). That's a smart boy I've got.

The oldest daughter, the son-in-law, the grandson, the hubby and I spent the evening at the church at the Halloween Trunk or Treat activity. The two wards that meet in our chapel have been doing this activity for about 10 years now. It is fun and a safe way for parents to take their kids trick or treating, but I kind of miss the neighbor activities. Our trunk or treat seems to be discovered by more and more neighborhood families each year and we pass out a lot of candy. Here is the grandson checking out the candy before we packed him and it up to take to the church.



I'm not sure that he was too impressed. I guess I wouldn't be thrilled about just laying in chocolate either. It's much more fun to get to eat it! His other grandma gave him this cute froggie costume. It was a great choice, don't you think?

Here are the hubby (dressed as farmer) and the oldest daughter (dressed as a mother) in our trunk or treat pumpkin patch.


I had a lot more pumpkins to hang up, but who would have guessed that our van has no hanging hooks attached? I had a difficult time finding something to hang our crop from before the hoards of trick or treaters decended upon us. I'll have to start decorating sooner next year now that I've figured out how I could make it work. I thought the frog was a nice pumpkin patch addition. Every pumpkin patch should have a frog. We did have several parents thank us for not having any scary decorations. The van two cars down from us was pretty scary apparently. There was a lot of screaming going on anyway.

The son-in-law is missing from the above photo because he was off making a bottle for the baby. The baby has been having some tummy trouble and seemed a little plugged up so his mom and dad decided to try a different formula. We're happy to say that the formula fixed the problem, but they went through a lot of diapers and ran out of wipes during the evening. Here the grandson is admiring himself after he is once again clean and fresh smelling.


Happy Halloween!
Today I am grateful for

a good friend who helped me (ie. did all the work) make a corsage for the youngest son's date.


chocolate!
my ward family.

One year ago today - Scary Halloween!

Halloween Sweetness

How My Boys Spent Their Fall Break

Last week was my boy's Fall break - one from school, one from work. The new addition to our family kind of put a kink in our plans to go and find some autumn leaves. It wasn't an adventurous week, but they managed to still enjoy themselves -

visiting the baby,




hanging out on the couch watching dvds,


feeding the baby,


sleeping,


baking,


and obviously, not taking out the trash.

The youngest son also went on an overnight camp out with the priests, but I didn't take a picture of that.
Now Fall break is over and it's back to the normal routine. It was fun while it lasted.

Today I am thankful for

the normal routine.
my vacuum cleaner.
a husband and son that cook.

Hootie Hider

A couple of months ago when the oldest daughter and I were on our baby sewing kick we were discussing making a breast feeding cover, more commonly known as a hootie hider. The youngest son thought this name was pretty entertaining and wanted to know what it was and what purpose it served. A few days later he found a burp cloth that we were working on and decided it must be a hootie hider. Here he is modeling it for us. Umm, not quite.

The daughter found a great hootie hider tutorial online and I decided I was smart enough to make one. The girl and I went in search of some material we liked for the project, but didn't really find anything she loved. There was one fabric that she thought might work at the first store we visited. It was cream, green and orange and had birds on it. Of course, we couldn't purchase it without checking out our other choices though and then when we decided we liked it best we didn't want to drive back to the first store. A couple of days later (while the daughter was "lounging" in the hospital) I went and bought the fabric. However, somewhere between the car and the front door of my house it disappeared. I think those birds just up and flew away because I have no idea where it ended up. I searched and searched for it and then after several days I decided the best way to make it reappear was to go buy more fabric. I went back to the store to buy another yard and while I was there I found this really cute retro astronaut baby material. I felt this theme was quite appropriate since the son-in-law grew up wanting to be an astronaut and so I bought it instead.
I held on tightly to the bag all the way from the car until I was in the house and then I quickly sewed it into an adorable hootie hider. The hubby thought it was quite entertaining that I kept walking back and forth from the instructions on the computer to the sewing machine. That was definitely the most challenging part of the project. I did have a little bit of trouble threading the boning into the casing but only because I sewed the casing a little to small. This was a really quick, easy project.
Here is the daughter and the grandson trying it out.
I wish I could say that it worked wonders and that the baby now is completely converted to the idea of nursing, but unfortunately that's not the case. He drank too many bottles in the hospital and knows that he shouldn't have to work that hard to get his meals. He can be pretty stubborn when he doesn't get what he wants as quickly as he wants it.

Oh well, the hootie hider still turned out great!

One Week Old

The grandson has been a part of our family for a whole week now.

He is pretty, darn good at making messes in his diaper, but I don't think there is anything stinky about him.

He is the sweetest little boy in the whole world!

Today I am grateful for

a great report card!

a baby to cuddle.

a son who bakes cake for me.

Straight A Student!

We knew he could do it!
The boy got all A's on his report card this quarter.

I did an amazing happy dance.
Too bad no one recorded it for posterity.

Keep up the good work, my son!

Hard Jobs Grandmas Have To Do

The oldest daughter called me this morning and asked if I could visit Deseret Industries and see if they had any newborn or 3 month clothes. Everything they tried to put on the baby was too big for him. Since I have determined to be an amazing grandma, I agreed to this difficult task. Actually, anyone who knows me very well knows I am always looking for an excuse to make a DI run. I LOVE that store!

Then, of course, I had to deliver the cute outfits that I found. The baby was sleeping, but I talked loud enough to wake him up so I could chat with him for a few minutes. Then I cuddled him back to sleep. There's nothing like holding a sweet, sleeping baby.

The pile in the background of this picture are just a few of my thrift store finds. I got a lot of good stuff for less than $20.

Welcome Home Baby!

The grandson has finally received a clean bill of health and got to go home today. We are all excited! Now the real fun can begin. Tonight might be a long night with no nursery visits.

The 5 minute car ride home really tired him out. He ate and then conked out.

I have tried and tried to psych myself up to bind this minky blanket that the daughter and I made. It really intimidated me. Finally yesterday I decided I just had to "bite the bullet" and do it. It turned out OK, if you don't look too close.

Grandma got to pick out the outfit for him to come home in. Apparently he isn't as big as I thought he was. He kept losing his feet in the legs of his pants. He looked pretty cute anyway.

Once he woke up he decided home was a pretty nice place.

Welcome Home Little Boy!

Today I am grateful for

No more hospital visits for awhile.
Relief Society sisters who provide meals for new parents.
A finished project!

One year ago today - Tongue-ectomy

Left Behind

The oldest daughter got to give up her semi-permanent residence at Banner Desert Hospital today and return to her own home and her own bed and her own clothes but without her own baby. It was determined that the grandson had to remain in the hospital nursery for 2 more days to receive intravenous antibiotics since it was never clear what kind of infection the daughter had during delivery. It was very hard for the new parents to leave their little boy behind to be poked and prodded and picked on.



Even though it was difficult, they know the nurses will take good care of him and they will get to visit often.
And, hey! That means two more nights of uninterrupted sleep. They better get them while they can. Uninterrupted sleep will soon be a thing of the past.

Today I am thankful
that the oldest daughter is out of the hospital and on the road to recovery.
for modern medicine that saves mother's and baby's lives and prevents problems as well.
that the hospital is close to the oldest daughter's house.

One year ago today - Signs of the Times

Thoughts on Columbus Day

Today is Columbus Day. It seems to me that Columbus has gotten a bad reputation in the past few years or perhaps it is just that I hang out with more Native Americans now days, who are not big Columbus fans. I will be the first to admit that Columbus didn't treat the natives that he met in his travels very nicely, but I think that Columbus's discovery of the new world was part of a much larger plan. This was an event that had to happen in order for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be restored to the earth.

In the Book of Mormon we can read about this, "And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land." 1 Nephi 13:12

Columbus himself felt that he was led and inspired by God. "Our Lord," said Columbus, "unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea, and gave me fire for the deed. Those who heard of my enterprise called it foolish, mocked me, and laughed. But who can doubt but that the Holy Ghost inspired me?" (Jacob Wasserman, Don Quixote of the Seas, pp. 1920)

I found this paragraph, included on a History of Columbus Day website, to be good musing material. It says, "Christopher Columbus never did accomplish his original goal - to find a western ocean route to Asia. Instead, he achieved something even greater - he ushered in a new era in world history by opening up the Americas to exploration." - The History of Columbus Day

Often when I feel inspired to do something I usually think I know why I have those feelings and what it is that I am going to accomplish as I follow those promptings. It never fails to surprise me, when looking back, that what my Heavenly Father had in mind was something totally different than I had at first imagined. It just goes to show me that my Heavenly Father will use me to accomplish his purposes if I will just listen to the spirit when he speaks to me. He has a plan and it is much better than the one that I usually come up with. Just like Columbus, I might end up doing something that changes the world. You never know.

It's a Boy!

The Grandson has arrived!!!

October 9, 2009
8:07 PM
8 pounds 14 ounces
21 3/4 inches long
*More info to follow

Baby Update

This picture was taken about 2:30 PM today. As you can see, the oldest daughter is still smiling.Normally that would be a good thing, but it doesn't make her doctor happy. He was hoping she would be in a lot of pain by now.


The plan for the day has been clearly posted, but the baby isn't cooperating.

I especially like the Goal for today line with the word Pain right underneath.


This is the daughter's poor hand after the IV was successfully inserted. The little yellow tag says change on Friday. She says that when the nurse was hooking everything up she told her she really hoped she wouldn't still be using this IV line come Friday. The daughter is really hoping so now too.

Everyone think warm, happy baby thoughts so he'll want to come out, OK?

There are some positive developments. As long as she is laying down her blood pressure has been good. Also, when I was there, the nurse kept telling her that she was having contractions. She couldn't feel them at all and had to take the nurse's word for it, but that is a step in the right direction.

Today I am thankful that

my stove is clean.
the youngest son had an appointment today to talk to someone about doing his Eagle Scout project.
all four of us ate dinner together.

Potty Humor

I woke up early this morning
long before it was light
with a need to visit the bathroom.
When I got back in bed
sleep had escaped me
so I just lay there thinking.
For some reason
a riddle from my childhood came into my mind.

If you're Russian when you go into the bathroom
and you're American when you come out.
What are you while you're in the bathroom?

European, of course.

Then I started really thinking about this.
The Russian makes sense because
I am often in a hurry to get to the restroom.
The European also works,
but the American just doesn't fit.
There must have been something else there
instead of American.
I thought and thought and thought
but I couldn't seem to come up
with a nationality that fit.
It really, really bothered me.

This riddle was the first thing out of my mouth
to my oldest son this morning,
with a blank in the 2nd line.
He filled the blank in with American as well
until I told him that it just didn't work.

He thought for a minute and said,
"when you come out you're Finnish".
I don't know if that is the correct word,
but I like it a lot better than American
so I'm keeping it and moving on to
think about something else now.

I knew there was a reason I keep this son around.
Thanks for helping me out son!

Ready or Not...

Here he comes?

Well, the son-in-law has announced on Facebook that my oldest daughter has been admitted to the hospital under doctor's orders to be induced and get this little boy on his way into the world. I guess that gives me permission to put in my two cents worth. This evening, at her regularly scheduled appointment, her blood pressure was a little bit high. The doctor said it wasn't a problem at the moment, but could become a problem so he would like to speed things up a little bit. 3 hours later she has an IV and some "miracle gel" that will hopefully convince her body that it is ready to deliver a baby. She will be monitored for 12 hours to see if the gel does the trick and then the medical professionals will decided where to go from there.

While the two of them are enjoying the luxury accommodations for the night perhaps they can decide what to name this little guy. I doubt they'll be doing a whole lot of sleeping.

Today I am grateful for

lds.org. It's unbelieveable how easy it is to find past church talks (and a whole bunch of other stuff).
medical professionals.
clean laundry.
a husband who is smarter than me when it comes to computer printers.

Enough Already

This has been a bad year for my youngest son, as far as his teeth go. He got 3 fillings in January, 3 fillings in February and had 2 wisdom teeth extracted in March. He got a dry socket in one of the extractions which caused a lot of pain and a lot of extra dental visits.
A couple of weeks ago he started complaining that his jaw was hurting. This went on for a couple of days and then the pain started radiating down his neck. I decided to start with the dentist to try to figure out what was causing the pain. Our dentist took x-rays and said that something didn't look right and sent him to a specialist. The oral surgeon took more x-rays and said he definitely needed a root canal. Apparently during the wisdom tooth removal the nerve in the tooth in front of one of the wisdom teeth was damaged and the pulp had died and there was now an infection around this tooth. Now root canals are never fun, but at least when I have to endure a root canal I have felt like I deserved it, due to not taking care of my teeth. It was sad for the son to have to have a root canal through no fault of his own.
He actually didn't mind the root canal at all. His surgeon had a pair of movie glasses that he got to wear during the procedure which apparently made it much more enjoyable. The receptionist said the biggest complaint they get is that the root canals don't take long enough because the patients don't get to see the entire movie. The son was smart and chose "Hitch", a movie he had already seen, so he didn't feel bad when they turned it off and told him he could leave. Having to take antibiotics every six hours for 10 days was much more painful for him than the actual surgery.
Today the son went to our regular dentist for his 6 month check up and to get fitted for his new crown. This appointment was much less enjoyable. He could have watched an entire movie - almost twice. It took FOREVER for them to build up the tooth and make a mold of it. I felt like I had become a permanent fixture in the waiting room. One more visit in 3 weeks to get his actual crown seated and then hopefully he is finished with the dentist for 2009. The various receptionists at all the dental offices keep telling us we have the best dental insurance that they have ever seen, but I'm sure he's probably just about used up his $5000 limit for the year.

Today I am thankful for

great dental insurance.
a good book to read while I waited. I still think more waiting rooms should offer puzzles.
a son, and a girlfriend, who cooked dinner.