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.

Family Relations

I have been wondering about something. It has to do with extended family and how I refer to them. I have noticed that when I talk about our (my husbands and my) relatives I seem to believe in segregation. For instance, I usually refer to our nieces as "my niece" (of which there is only one) or "my hubby's niece" (of which there are many) instead of just saying our niece. I'm trying to decide why I make this differentiation. When I think of my aunts and uncles, I feel equally related to both of them - the one I am actually related to by blood as well as the one I am related to by marriage. They are both my Aunt and/or Uncle regardless of the official relationship and I consider myself their niece, not her niece or his niece. When I designate "mine" or "his" does it sound like I value one relative over the other? I really don't think I do, but I kind of think it sounds like it. I do think when you just say our _____ that it can sometimes be confusing. Quite a few years ago there was a young man in our ward who had just returned from his mission. One of my nephews was serving in this same mission and my husband struck up a conversation with this RM. He said, "I have a nephew that is in the same mission you just got home from. His name is Elder ______. Did you know him?" This young man looked at my husband and then looked at him again and said, "I knew an Elder ________, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't your nephew." You see this nephew is quite fair and probably the blondest nephew I have, and the elder could see that my hubby was obviously Native American. My husband laughed and said, "Actually he's my wife's nephew" which helped to clear things up and they decided that yes, it was the same person. It's obvious that my husband is more inclusive than I am, but he ended up having to differentiate anyway, so perhaps he should have just done it in the beginning.
So, I am curious. How do you refer to the relatives you have acquired through marriage? Do you lump everyone into the "our" category or do you separate them into "your ____" and "my ______"? Do you think there is a right way or a wrong way to do it or does it really not matter? Does the distance of the relationship make a difference in what you say? Take for instance, do you say my brother and his brother but refer to the nieces, nephews and cousins as our? In some relationships we have the option of using the ending in-law as in brother-in-law or mother-in-law. but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone referring to someone as their nephew-in-law or their cousin-in-law. Is anyone out there an etiquette expert? Is there some official, written guideline that I need to refer to? And what about the wives of my nephews? Are they now my nieces or our nieces or no nieces at all? Sometimes life can get very complicated.

Sometimes I Love the Way Teenagers Think

I am friends on facebook with a teenage girl in our ward. Her status earlier tonight was as follows:

is officially looking into emancipation when i'm 18. the mega (bad word referring to her mother) has officially exceeded her high.

This was one of the comments:

whhhhhhaaaat??? what happened?? can't you get emancipated at 16?

And the teenager's response:

ooh hey i would. but they wouldn't get me a car if i did:/ so i gotta tough it out a little while longer.

I really needed a good laugh tonight and this gave me one. My youngest son gave me an even better laugh, but he has made me vow that no one will ever see the incriminating video I have of him.

Teenagers. You gotta love 'em.

All Done?

Tonight we had a Stake Fireside for the youth and their parents as an introduction to this upcoming year's youth conference theme. The focus is on Family History. When the youth arrived they were given an index card with a name and a date on it. The high councilman who was in charge invited everyone to imagine they were in the temple waiting to do baptisms for the dead. Then some individuals and families all dressed in white entered the chapel and were seated on the stand. They were introduced as individuals who were waiting for their temple work to be completed. The first person came to the podium and introduced himself and told a little about his history and then asked if anyone had his name. No one did and he returned to his seat on the stand. After the next person spoke she asked if someone had her name and someone did and she excitedly left the stage and went and sat by the individual with her card. Next was a son whose work had been done, but was there with his father wanting to see if his name had been found. The father still had to wait. There were several more individuals and several families or parts of families with compelling stories. The last group to speak was a mother, father and 5 children. The mother introduced them and then asked if anyone had her children's names (all but the youngest daughter left the stand). Then the mother asked if anyone had her name and she had been found as well. The father put his arm around the daughter and told her they could wait together, but the daughter told him he needed to ask if anyone had his name. He asked and was called down. It was a very tender, thought provoking moment when the father moved into the audience and the daughter returned to her seat on the stand. This enactment really made me think about the possible fragmented families that are waiting on the other side of the veil for me or someone else to link their family together for eternity. This fireside motivated me to want to increase my family history efforts. Hopefully it inspired the youth as well. I guess time will tell over the next few months as they are involved in a multitude of Family History activities. I think it sounds fun!

I have been blessed with diligent family members who have been involved in faithfully doing our family history for generations. I have often felt that the work has already been done for many of my ancestors, and it very likely has been. This evening I was reminded however of the possibility that someone has been missed. With the increased technology now available I could very easily be the one to find that missing person.

I think this sidebar in an article in the October 2009 Ensign says it well.

All Done?

Some say, "My family history is all done." Others say, "Uncle Fred is doing it all."
That's a bit like saying. "I don't go to Church, but that's okay because Uncle Fred goes for me."
The fact is that we need to be personally engaged in family history so our hearts will be turned to our fathers. Then we will forge that welding link between our ancestors and us that is so important to the Lord.
Think about it. We each have four grandparents and that doubles each generation. In 10 generations we have 512 "grandparents" - not counting the thousands of other family members they bore. In 16 generations, we have nearly 33,000 direct ancestors. Our family history hasn't all been done - I guarantee it.

I'm excited that our youth are being given the opportunity to personally be involved in family history and to experience the joy that comes from turning their hearts to their fathers.

Today I am grateful for

youth leaders who work hard to help my children have positive spiritual experiences.
eternal families.
Primary singing time leaders who come and do music in nursery. The children pay a lot more attention to them than they do to me. These same singing time leaders (a young husband and wife team) sang at the fireside tonight also. They both have gorgeous voices and really brought the spirit with their music.