Tag Tuesday Week 4

Have you ...
Have you done any of these? You can do it too. Just copy and paste this to your blog and highlight or Bold the ones that you HAVE done. Ok so i am putting stars by the ones that I have done because the bold won't work!

1. Started your own blog*
2. Slept under the stars*
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii*
5. Watched a meteor shower*
6. Given more than you can afford to charity*
7. Been to Disneyland*
8. Climbed a mountain*
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo*
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch*
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables*
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight*
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill*
24. Built a snow fort*
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset*
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise*
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors*
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt*
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight*
46. Been transported in an ambulance*
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling*
52. Kissed in the rain*
53. Played in the mud*
54. Gone to a drive-in theater*
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business .*
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason*
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check .*
68. Flown in a helicopter*
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy*
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt.*
73. Stood in Times Square*
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job .*
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone.*
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car*
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House .
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox*
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous*
92. Joined a book club*
93. Lost a loved one*
94. Had a baby*
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit*
98. Owned a cell phone*
99. Been stung by a bee*

Memory Monday-Week 4

Because of the wacky weekend my memory is when I got stitches. We had a dog when I was growing up named Fred. He was a black Doberman and I did not like him! That was further evidenced when one afternoon after school he got loose out of his pen and was terrorizing the neighborhood-ok not really but he was a big dog. I went after him to bring him home and when I got to him I grabbed him by his collar and started to walk/drag him home when he turned his head and bit me on the bicep. I screamed, let him go and ran home with a big puncture wound on my arm. My mom took me to Orem to Mark Preston's house because his dad was doctor. I got stitches in my arm in Mark's kitchen. I think that I was about 10. I still have the scar to prove it. This could be one of my many reasons why I do not like animals. In case you are wondering-my dad did not shoot the dog like he should have but he did take him to the vet to get nuetered shortly after the incident. Hah-so there big mean dog!

Scary Stitches Saturday!

So the daily posts took a vacation the last few days. I will try and get caught up! Smorgasborg Saturday turned into Scary Stitches Saturday thanks to a lovely piece of PVC pipe. Consider this your warning-disturbing content to follow.
Saturday morning we had our friends, the Dorseys from Idaho, come over for breakfast. After partaking of some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes, bacon and cocoa, we sat around and visited and the kids all went outside to play. About 12pm the fun started. The kids had all gone to the fort and came back with a plethora of sticks, pvc pipe and concrete stakes. A few minutes later I heard Connor yelling that Cayden had been hit with a pipe and that he was bleeding. So I go running and see Cayden in the front yard with blood running down his neck onto his shirt. I thought that he had been hit with the pipe itself but actually one of the kids was whacking a pvc pipe on the tree and because it was so brittle it shattered into about 8 or more pieces-one of which flew into Cayden's neck, punctured it and cut it but then fell out. He was crying and I bolted over to him and saw the injury, grabbed his collar and put it up to his neck and applied pressure while hollering for Don and trying to get Cayden into the house. The wound was right below his ear about an inch and I was concerned that there was a major artery involved because of the amount of blood and the fact that it was really dark purple. When we got inside, Don went for the first aid box and got a bunch of gauze and then sat Cayden down on his lap while I panicked. I could not think of who to call other than the ambulance but Serena, my friend said to call Lisa, our neighbor who is a nurse. I had a hard time remembering her phone number and when I did remember, her line was busy. I sent Connor down to her house to get her and then I called our other neighbor Willy who is a cop to come and look at the injury to see if he needed stitches. We figured that he probably did but wanted another opinion. Both Willy and Lisa got there and said that it definitely needed to be looked at. Our Bishop was in the neighborhood and he came in and suggested that we just use Super Glue but Nurse Lisa said that was not such a good idea. The Bishop and Don gave Cayden a blessing and we waited for Don's mom to come over to stay with the other boys. Cody was at a Forensics tournament so he was unavailable for child care services. We took Cayden to the hospital in Mesquite. We were taken back to the room pretty quickly after a nurse came out to the waiting area and looked at the injury and said that yes he needed to be seen. We waited for a little while to see the doctor which was fine because Cayden's neck was only bleeding a little. The doctor suggested an X-ray just to make sure that none of the pipe was left in his neck and to check the surrounding soft tissue for injury. Cayden was acting fine and happy and even smiled for the Xray because the tech told him it was just like a picture. The Xray came back fine but the doctor said that needed a few stitches. That sent Cayden over the edge. While trying to get Cayden to lay down on the bed on his side so that he could get the stitches, Cayden started to freak out. That hole in his neck started gushing like a drinking fountain. The doctor was trying to give him the shots to numb the area so he could clean it and the whole time Cayden is screaming and crying. The doctor is grabbing gauze while I am holding Cayden's hands, Don is holding his feet and the nurse-a lady from our ward by the way-is holding his head. The back of head head was covered in blood and all down his back. Luckily there was a pad under neath Cayden's head that soaked up most of the blood that ran down his back. After the shots started working and the doctor was able to put in the stitches, Cayden calmed down and he stopped bleeding but that seemed like a long time. I had to turn my head into Don's shoulder mostly because of the psychological aspect of seeing my child bleeding to death on the bed. The doctor was very focused and very calm-too calm almost so I asked at one point after it seemed that Cayden had been bleeding for a long time if the doctor was concerned about all that bleeding and he said that he was but that it was ok. He thought that he might send us to see a vascular surgeon but he put the stitches in really deep and after that Cayden stopped bleeding. All of my children combined have not bled that much ever!! When the stitches were almost in and Cayden was calm I said to Julie, our nurse, "Tell me we are ok here" and she said that we were. We opted to toss the shirt Cayden was wearing and I also declined the photo op of that shirt with all that blood on it. I don't need a picture to remind me how much blood there was anyway. It was a bummer though because it was a new shirt that we all had just barely gotten that we were all gonna wear to the Pirate Football State Championship Game that was Saturday evening in Las Vegas. Connor went to the game with Don's parents, Caleb stayed home and sat on his bed because he had some serious 'tude going on when in to the game. I was a little paranoid about him leaving me and Cayden just in case something happened. Most of the valley was in Las Vegas and if Cayden started to bleed out again I don't know what I would do. He was fine but I was pretty anxious. I would have been content to strap him into my bed for the duration of the weekend so that he was still and quiet and in my sight. We did go to church on Sunday but I kept him home from school on Monday. We were getting ready to go to Utah and I would have gotten him out early anyway. We have tried to keep Cayden as still and calm as possible to keep his blood pressure down and avoid the potential for disaster. We even put a moratorium on the teasing and chasing of Cayden for a while. Pretty scary Saturday! Oh and by the way Pirates took State!!

The Culprit-who knows which piece it actually was!

Tag Tuesday Week 3

A: ATTACHED OR SINGLE? Attached
B: BEST FRIEND? Donald Adams
C: CAKE OR PIE? Lemon Meringue Pie
D: DAY OF CHOICE? Friday
E: ESSENTIAL ITEM? Kleenex
F: FAVORITE COLOR? Pink
G: GUMMY BEARS OR WORMS? Worms
H: HOMETOWN? Provo, UT
I: INDULGENCE? Alfredo
J: JANUARY OR JULY? January Cody and Connor were both born here and it always is like you can start over with the new year.
K: KIDS? 4 Boys
L: LIFE ISN'T COMPLETE WITHOUT? Dr. Pepper
M: MARRIAGE DATE? March 19
N: NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS? 1 brother and 3 sisters
O: ORANGES OR APPLES? Oranges
P: PHOBIAS? Spiders, Heights
Q: QUOTES? Satan trembles when he sees even the weakest saint on their knees.
R: REASON TO SMILE? Christmas
S: SEASON OF CHOICE? Spring in Utah-February here in Logandale when my Flowering plum trees get their pretty pink flowers.
T: TAG SEVEN PEEPS!! Mom, Suzanna, Lori, Audrey, Paula, any of my blog stalkers
U: UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME? I hate folding socks.
V: VEGETABLE? corn on the cob
W: WORST HABIT? Not tightening the caps on medicine bottles
X: X-RAY OR ULTRASOUND? ultrasound
Y: YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Currently Peppermint Ice Cream and Milky Way candy bars-not together though
Z: ZODIAC SIGN? Sagittarius

Memory Monday-I seriously could not think of anything to write about yesterday!

Cayden came home from school coughing his guts out and proceeded to do that the rest of the night. He is the worst medicine taker ever-literally throwing it up so I had those Triaminic melty strip things that had cough medicine in them. I gave him 2 and waited a good 2 hours for them to start working. It did not completely stop his cough but it settled it down a little. He woke up with croup at 3 and we were up until 4:30. Where is my husband you might wonder-he is in Kansas. Oh it was bound to happen. It is the story of my life Don goes on a trip-kids get sick. Oh hey and guess what-yesterday I washed all my bedding so Cayden could cough and sneeze on them all night! Wasn't that nice? Cayden is home today and he is starting to cough alot again. I am going to try a trick my friend told me about today to see if it works. Vicks on the feet and then thick socks-weird but she swears it works. Thanks Lisa :)! So the memory for today is a time that you were sick as a child.

When I was in 3rd grade I got the chicken pox. It was awful! I remember how my throat just hurt and itched because the sores were way down my throat and how my head just itched and itched! But the worst part about it was when I went back to school. I still had some of the sores and scabs and Rhett Thomas and Devin Rigby called me the Polka Dot Door. The Polka Dot Door was show that used to be on PBS. I hated them for calling me that.

I also remember when I had my tonsils out. I always had ear infections and tonsillitis so I went to the hospital and they took out out my tonsils. Laurel had to have here tonsils out soon after I did and I was so mad because when she came out of the surgery room my parents gave her a big Bugs Bunny stuffed animal. I did not get a Bugs Bunny stuffed animal-I did not get any stuffed animal at all! I was pretty irritated by that. Connor and Cody both have had to have their tonsils out. They both got stuffed animals.

Please forward this to the complaint department!

OK I have my complaint now! I have been trying for over an hour to upload pictures on the previous post but it will not work! When I finally get the pictures to upload I can't publish the post because it keeps giving my some error code. I seriously have tried 7 times to get it to work. I quit! So this is me complaining!!! AAARRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Slacker Saturday-but only for the blog!

I have not posted like I wanted to this week but I have been busy! Today's postings were supposed to be Sucky Saturday-insert complaint here-but I really don't have a good complaint right now. OK I could just put in a random complaint here but if I am going to post it it has to be a really good one so I will save up for next week maybe and then add 2 complaints-if I have any. Then there is Super Service Saturday of which I can't think of anything super spectacular in the service department that I did this week so I will have to do better next week. Then there is the Survival Saturday part-see below about the pomegranates. Recap for the last week-Connor and Don had a camppout last week with Connor's 11 yeard old scout troop that I did not post about but Don only took one picture so that is my excuse. They went out above Carp/Elgin and camped overnight. Connor is always glad when Don goes with him on campouts. I feel quite a sense of relief when Don goes with the kids on things like that. Last Saturday was really busy after they got back from camping. Don and the boys went to the yard of an older couple in the ward and helped pick pomegranates for them. This week we were rewarded for their hard work with a gallon of pomegranate juiice. You will see above my hard work for today as I made 24 bottles of pomegranate jelly. Rewind back to last Saturday-Cody had to sing at the Pomegranate Festival so we went to watch him. I took my regular camera and videoed him singing so I will try and upload a song. Taylor got to sing too because although she is at the middle school they have the same choir teacher. After the Pomegranate Festival we went to a semi-final football game at the high school. I left early with Cayden and came home to sew. Flash forward to this weekend. Last night the grocery store had their annual Holiday Open House. They had entertainment going on through out the night and Cody's Encore group got to sing there too. They did a really good job even though the acoustics in the store are yucky. They sang for about 30 minutes and sang a bunch of songs-new ones that we have not heard him sing a million times. I only had a few minutes left of record time on my camera but I was able to get one song on video. Today was another semi-final football game. I stayed home this time with Cayden and made jars and jars of pomegranate jelly. It is amazing what a gallon of juice will make. I also made a rather tasty cheesball and stroganoff for dinner in between batches. I also sort of watched the BYU game while jellying and had Aerosmith and Guns and Roses for company.