Breaking and Entering.

Connor was working with Grandpa a few weeks ago and they went up to Warm Springs to clean a building. When they got there the doors were all locked even though Grandpa had made arrangements for the doors to be unlocked before they got there.  So Grandpa had Connor climb through a window that had been left unlocked so he could let them in.  Of course the alarm went off and Connor about flipped!  He was convinced that they were going to jail!  Usually if an alarm goes off in a building the alarm company calls the business and asks for code to turn it off remotely or if no one answers they send the police.  Grandpa answered the phone and told them what had happened and everything was fine but Connor was just sure that they coming to haul them away for breaking and entering!

Connor Special Olympics

Connor got to go with the SpEd class and participate in the county wide Special Olympics track and field day in Las Vegas on May 3.  A few of the regular Ed  kids participate with the SpEd kids to show cooperation and have fun together every year.   He didn't want us to come see him so we don't have any pictures.  He practiced a few days after school at the track.  He competed in the discus and shot putt and a few races.  He did win one his heats and he was proud of that.  Connor said that there were a bunch of missionaries who were there volunteering.  He of course went and chatted a few up. There was one from North Carolina that he chatted with and told him about his brother going there on a mission.  Connor always finds ways to talk to people.

Good Grades and A1C's

Connor had a great report card this time.  The kid won't stand still long enough for me to get a picture of him.  He had 6 A's, 1 B and 1 C.  That really is outstanding for him.

Don took Connor and Cayden to the diabetes doctor today.  Connor's A1C was 7.7 and Cayden's was 7.8.  Considering that they ate like crap at the fair all weekend and it was hard to calculate carbs that was actually pretty darn good.

A Little Peek at How Connor Serves Others

On Fast Sunday in March one of the older ladies that Connor takes care of got up and bore her testimony. She told of her week and how she had  a really bad day.  She said that she was in a lot of pain and was really frustrated.  She has a sunflower thing in her front yard that spins when the wind blows and she said that when she is having a bad day she likes to sit and watch it spin and it helps her feel better.  That day in particular she was feeling poorly and was watching her sunflower spin when a big gust of  wind blew it right over.  She was very distressed and hobbled out to try and fix it.  Just a minute later she heard the sound of an engine and then the voice of a nice young man who said, "Sister Whipple, do you need some help?"  Connor fixed her decoration and talked to her for a few minutes and went on his merry way.  Unbeknownst to him, he had brightened her day and helped an older lady feel loved and understood by the Lord.  She didn't say his name over the pulpit but he knew it was him and he was so proud of himself!  Ssitting on that bench he was just beaming!  He leaned over to grandma and said "that was me!".  He then asked his grandma if he should go up and bare his testimony and tell everyone that it was him.  Grandma of course told him no that he shouldn't do that and after the meeting he got lots of compliments from lots of people because they knew that it was him that helped Sister Whipple!  He is always on the look out for ways to help people. He takes his work very seriously and wants to help any one he can.  He cleared up some ground at Brother Jones' house so they could get his garden ready.  Brother Jones is almost 90, mostly deaf and blind and not really all that well.  His daughter lives with him and takes care of him and his son, Tracy who is extremely mentally and physically disabled.  I saw the daughter, Melanie, when we were getting our recommends signed at the Stake Center.  She told me how they just love Connor and they were so glad and grateful that he came to help them get the garden ready.  This is the same Brother Jones that Connor went and sang Christmas Carols to over the holidays.

What Connor Does to Keep Busy

Since school has been out Connor has...
Cleaned a house to get Osiris and her family ready to move in to it. Grandpa and Connor home teach Osiris and her family.
Painted and fixed some of that house for Osiris.
Cleaned the carpets at Osiris house.
Cleaned the house that Teri Waite's family is moving into.
Gone to McGill
Rode the train in McGill on Father's Day with grandpa.
Went to a basketball clinic in Ely where there were some Jazz players.
Got an autograph from a Jazz player.
Gone shot gun shooting with Gene.
Ate breakfast at McDonald's with Gene.
Been to Dr. Flynn the diabetes doctor.
Been to Dr. Gorman for a meds visit.
Gone swimming at Leatham's.
Gone swimming at Aunt Dena's 4-5 times.
Gone swimming at the Logandale pool 2-3 times.
Been to the reservoir with friends.
Gone on Rhino rides.
Mowed Rockenbach's lawn.
Worked with grandpa cleaning buildings.
All of that in just the 2 weeks since school has been out.  This kid has to stay busy busy busy!

Diabetes in School

Connor and Cayden both started school this past week and it has me a little rattled because of the diabetes.  Connor has been battling this for disease for 5 years now but even though he knows what to do it is still a worry.  The whole week Connor had lots of highs that we were having trouble combatting and Cayden was having lows.  We had multiple calls from both schools from the nurses office where these two spent a lot of time already.  Cayden is not recognizing when he is low and that is a big concern because his classroom is pretty far away from the office.  He was only checking at lunch but both Monday and Tuesday he was quite low so I asked for him to go up at 10:30 and then again around 2:15 just to be safe.  Since the school can't do his shot unless the nurse is there we had a crash course the week before so he could learn to check his blood sugar himself and give himself his own shot with them helping him carb count.  Connor has been waking up incredibly high each morning and it is taking until around 12 to get him back down.  Then he is fine most of the afternoon and evening, going to bed good and then waking up super high again the next day.  I tried to get a hold of his doctor last week to no avail.  So we are just doing what we can.  The nurse from Connor's school always apologizes when she calls but we tell her to please not apologize.  She told Don on Friday at the football game that usually when she had kids over 300 in her office that they would just go home.  But she says that Connor comes in happy and cheerful and always chatty and says that he does not feel bad so he goes back to class.  Last year at the middle school if he was over 300 they would not let him go to class and he would have to stay in the nurses office until he came down.  They must have a little more leeway there at the high school and let the kids make the choice themselves.  Connor is really liking school so far and so he wants to be there.  Hopefully we can get Cayden to start recognizing how he is feeling here soon.  I am glad to have good and competent people at the schools to help take care of my kids when I am not there.

Week in Review 8/21-8/28

Sunday, August 21  We all made it to church I think but I only made it through Sacrament meeting. Cayden was  pretty low and we had to give him a juice before Primary.  Don took me home and then ended  up bringing Cayden home an hour later because he was still feeling low and we did not have another juice at church.  Sundays are usually pretty relaxing but that night Don, Connor and Caleb went to help Grandpa wax the floor at Wally's.  They could not get in there until after 9 when they close and they were there until about midnight.  Lucky for them it was all you could drink soda from the soda machine.

33.4 weeks. Right before church.

Monday, August 22  I can't remember much about Monday other than everyone slept in from the late night working and Caleb had football practice.

Tuesday, August 23  Don, Cayden and I went up to Mesquite to meet with Cayden's teacher for the new school year who just happens to be the husband of one of my very good friends.  We went to Sushi Masa where Don, Serena and Bryan ate tons of sushi and Cayden and I stuck to the teriyaki beef and chicken.  We talked about Cayden's diabetes and his IEP so that his teacher would be all ready for him when school started.  After lunch we went to Walmart for some shopping.  Caleb went to the Mesquite pool and Rec. Center with some friends. Connor had wanted to go the high school Freshman Orientation but we were running a little late and Connor was a little anxious about going anyway.  It ended up working out much better with him not going because most of the teachers were not there and his Special Ed teacher Travis was not there either.  We did not find out about them not being there until the next day so it was just as well we did not rush home to get him up there.  Tuesday evening Caleb had football practice.  About 45 minutes into it we got a call saying that he maybe had broken his hand during a play.  Don went up there and talked to the trainer-actually the highs school teams trainer who happened to be up there-and he had it wrapped and said that it probably needed an X-ray.  When he got home it was pretty swollen and he was in quite a bit of pain.  We decided that we did not need to rush to the ER so I tried to call our valley doc and leave a message that we needed to get in first thing on Wednesday but wouldn't you know it-he was out for the rest of the week.

The splint from the trainer.

Wednesday, August 23  I had my doctor appointment Wednesday morning at 10:20 so we loaded up Caleb and Cayden and just took them to Vegas with us so that after my doctor we could find an Urgent Care and get and X-ray for Caleb's hand.  My appointment went good and Caleb and Cayden were able to hear the baby's heartbeat.  I only gained 2 pounds and I was dialated to only a 1.  Not bad for not seeing my doctor for 3 weeks.  He had gone the week before to Hawaii to take his son to school.  After we left his office we found an Urgent Care down the street.  We were there for almost 2 hours.  It took just about 1 hour just to get back to see the doctor and then we had to wait, then do the X-ray , then wait for the results, then wait for them to wrap Caleb's hand.  The good news was that the hand was not broken only badly bruised and swollen-the bad news was that he was not going to be able to play football for atleast 5 days.  When the trainer told us he thought it might be broken he said that once there was a hard cast on it, he could wrap it in some foam and Caleb could play but since it was not broken they only put a splint underneath the hand to stabilize it and then wrapped it in an ace bandage.  There was not enough protection on the top of the hand where it was hurt to protect it so he could not play.  He was pretty bummed because Saturday night was Midnight Madness where all the teams in their league played 20 minutes scrimmages with each other as a precursor to the game schedule.  I took my camera with me to take pictures at the Urgent Care but the battery was dead.  I tried to charge it overnight but it never charged up.  After our doctor visits we went to Wendy's and headed home.  Don took Caleb to football practice and talked to the coaches about his hand.  He did the running and some of the drills that did not involve hitting.   Then Caleb had mutual where they worked on their Emergency Preparedness merit badge.  Also we came home to a clean house because my lovely cleaning girls came while we were in Vegas. 


Thursday, August 24  Caleb had football at 9:30 in the morning because of the Middle School Open House that night.  Don and I took Connor up to the high school to meet with the nurses and go through his schedule so he could see where his classes were and meet his teachers.  We were there for about an hour and half taking a tour and talking to the nurses about his diabetes.  I think this really helped Connor feel more comfortable about being  up at the high school.  Plus he had spent a few days a week during the month of July up there helping his S.E. teacher Travis with the summer school program.  After the high school we took Cayden to his school to meet with the nurses there and talk about his diabetes care for school.  I was pretty discouraged to hear that the only person who could do his shot up at the school during the day was the actual nurse and not the nurse assistant.  The nurse covers 3 schools and is only at Cayden's school on Monday and Tuesday so this definitely presented a problem.  Either Don, me or grandma would have to go up there every day the nurse was not there or Cayden would have to learn to do it himself.  So over the next 3 days we had a crash course in diabetes management for Cayden since we had been doing it all for him.  He did great and learned really quickly to check his blood sugar and give himself a shot in the belly.  We still add up the carbs and decide how much he needs but he draws it up and gives it to himself.  That is quite a relief because it would be increasingly difficult to go up to his school every day  at 12 especially when the baby comes.  It amazes me how we never know how our prayers are going to be answered but they do.  We have been praying for a long time for Cayden to start  being more independent and self-sufficient.  Diabetes is not in anyway what we had in mind but it sure has jumpstarted the independence part.  After we met with the nurses we went to see Cayden's classroom and teacher and then went to lunch at Inside Scoop.  Later that evening Don took Caleb to Mesquite to see Planet of the Apes and get sushi for them and pizza for me and Cayden.

Friday, August 25  Again nothing but football for Caleb although I did want to go to St. George but was too tired because of the busy day we had on Thursday.

Saturday, August26  Connor went to Pioche with Grandma and Grandpa forr Aunt Dawna's 60th birthday party.  Due to the closeness of this baby's arrival the rest of us did not go.  Instead we went to St. George for some last minute school stuff, a tasty lunch at Olive Garden, a hair cut for Cayden, a jaunt into Best Buy for a new camera battery to see if it would work versus buying a whole new camera, and a "last weekend of summer hurrah" at Jumpin' Jacks, a big warehouse place full of all kinds of bouncehouses.  Cayden was not very excited to actually do the jumping-he thought it was going to be a place with trampolines.  It was pretty hot inside the building but Don and Caleb had fun running around and jumping and sliding.  I sat on the couch and read my book and tried everything this side of death threats to get Cayden to go play but he would not do it.  After Jumpin' Jacks we went to Old Navy, Big 5, Target and then to Cold Stone for a treat. 

Cooking With Connor

Connor is taking Home Ec this year.  He had to plan and prepare a dinner with limited help, just supervision. He made Artichoke Chicken with Capers, baked potatoes, apple pumpkin muffins, jello, and fresh cantaloupe.  He did it on a Sunday afternoon and it was delicious.