The Showman

Jack had a very busy week. Who am I kidding- we ALL had a very busy week. But Jack was the only one who had to dress up and perform a couple times. One, was his "walking report card" where instead of meeting with the teacher to privately discuss your child, you come to the school PRIME TIME and watch your kids perform the things they've been learning. Josh couldn't attend because he was working, but I made every effort to enjoy the whole production. There were lots of songs from my past, like "God Bless America" and the "Chicken Dance" plus many more I'd never heard before. The children sat down with their parents and completed a packet full of phonics, math, reading and graphing. Luckily Jack flew threw his packet with no problem. We also got to see the stories each of our children authored. Very interesting stuff- complete with illustration. Then they sang a million songs and we called it quits.

(True Story)

(The Illustration, complete with pregnant:me)

(The Pledge of Allegiance)

(Your Are My Sunshine)

(Some learning/exercise dance that reminded me of Chicken Fat)

(The grasshopper and the Ants theatrical performance)

(Jack, workin' it with McKenzi during the Chicken Dance)

(Sign Language never gets old.)

On St. Patrick's Day, we were invited to have Jack perform in the Fashion Show at the new Macy's in City Creek. He had to wear some serious stuff- all Ralph Lauren'ed up, and he was great about it. A couple other Wish kids were there, cute Amelia who had a kidney transplant, and cute Jonah who has sickle cell (he was also on Extreme Makeover.) Jack was not shy at all- and worked his stuff on the catwalk. It was really fun and he enjoyed it. Plus, anything to help Make-A-Wish.

Jack can't make a normal face.

Poser.

Oh, this happened.

Every year, my Dad takes my sister and I on a business trip with him. It may sound strange, being that I'm 30 and my sister is a few years older, but the fact is, I have the best Dad in the world and it doesn't matter. No matter where we go, we can just revert back to our days of adolescence and my dad takes the wheel. The trips are quick and well planned. We always squeeze a lot of good stuff in. This trip was special for a few reasons. 1. It was to HAWAII 2. It was earlier in the year than usual, and 3. I lived on Oahu, so it was going to be fun to revisit with family.

Day one: Travel

We stopped in Seattle then had a LONG, TURBULENT flight to Hawaii. We landed around 9 or 10 and headed straight to our hotel in Waikiki and slept.

Day two: The North Shore

We had breakfast at Eggs'n'Things, which I went to ten years ago and his has since burnt down, and been rebuilt. Then, we drove to the Dole Pineapple Plantation for some pretty atmosphere and delicious Dole Whip. Then through Haleiwa, Kahuku, Laie, Kaneohe and finally back to Honolulu. It was awesome to see where I lived in Kahuku. More, surreal than I imagined. Lots of things were the same, some had changed and I really struggled to grasp the fact that I lived there for a short while- and voluntarily LEFT.

That night we had dinner at the Yard House in the center of action on Waikiki.

Day three: The Bike Ride

After Dad read his paper and finished up the business portion of the trip, we rented bikes and rode them down the beach of Waikiki and up around Diamond Head crater. There were a few unexpected hills..

On our way back down we discovered the soon-to-be favorite market, Diamond Head Market and Grill. It had lots of fun things to eat from scones, to cheesecakes to taro chips. That night we had dinner at Duke's, one of my favorite seafood grills, then saw Mission Impossible in the loudest theater ever built. I actually had to wear my ear buds in my ears to prevent damage to my ear drums.

Day four: Pearl Harbor

We ate breakfast at the new found Grill- and planned to return again for dessert.

I'm ashamed to say I had never been to Pearl Harbor. But in the time I lived on the island I only went to Honolulu 3 times. So this was a treat. It was well constructed and very informative. We watched the film then took the boat out to the USS Arizona, that lies just below the surface of the water where the memorial hovers over. The ship is still leaking visible oil... from the 500,000 gallon tank fueling the Arizona. The reality of what happened there really settled in. After Pearl Harbor we went back to Diamond Head to see the monument the huge crater. I started up the trail to the top of the crater with my reluctant family members. We were all wearing flip flops. Laura stayed behind and my dad I kept going. There's something about starting a hike and needing to finish it. We ascended 400ft up a windy switchback that scaled the inside lip of the crater and after a HUGE flight of stairs, we finally got to the top to see an amazing view of Waikiki. Good decision, I thought.

That night we ate at Tiki's... a seafood bar and grill located on Waikiki beach.

Day five:

We left our hotel at 6:45am and traveled to LA, where we had a four hour layover... I don't remember much... except the football game that everyone assembled to watch. We touched down in Salt Lake around 10pm. LONG day. But so worth it.

I'm so lucky to have a dad that not only enjoys spending time with me, but enjoys traveling with me enough to treat me to wonderful, memorable trips. He said Hawaii would be hard to top, but honestly, it doesn't matter where we go. These trips are always fantastic.

These are just pictures from my phone. The REAL pictures from my camera are here on flickr.

"Best, Birthday, EVER!"

(Birthday Boy)
What a great day. Jack woke up happy, excited for his birthday party that wasn't ALL THE WAY till 4 o'clock. We got some things done... spent most of the day together, having lunch at Chick-Fil-A and letting Jack play a bit. Then when 4 o'clock FINALLY rolled around we headed to Menchie's for his birthday party. He invited 5 friends: two from school, two life-long friends, and one from church. First, the kids got to color their very own Menchie's T-shirt, then get up to 10 oz of frozen yogurt. (No one exceeded 7 oz, and none of them finished.) Then after yogurt Jack opened his presents. He scored some building blocks, new Mario jammies, some Julius slippers and a Menchie Doll of his very own.. Then the kids got to go in the back of the shop and see where the yogurt is made, and have a tour. That turned out to be more interesting to them than I had expected. Then- as the grand finale, Menchie himself made an appearance. Jack was ECSTATIC. He run up and gave him a hug then the kids had a great time chasing Menchie around the shop. This was one of the greatest ideas ever. All the kids had a blast, the yogurt is mega-good, and who can complain about chasing a giant Menchie around. Jack had a terrific birthday. I'm SO glad he is here and amazed at where he is. Jack's last surgery was when he was three years old- which means in April, he will have lived as long with his surgeries completed as he had without-- so weird.

I love you with ALL of my heart, Jack. Happy 6th Birthday.

Picture-fest:

(The party scene)

(Coloring T-Shirts)

(A Willing Participant)

(Getting creative)

(Endless options..)

(Healthy Choices..)

(Wishing)

(Post-sugar intake)

(Almost getting locked in the deep freeze.)

(Josh chasing innocent children.)

(The crazies.)

(Gettin crazier.)

(Losing control.)

(Jack's hero.)

(Group hug!)

"What if my brain doesn't know it's my Birthday tomorrow?"

Last night I told Jack he needed to go to sleep so he could have "lots of Birthday fun tomorrow." He was worried about bad dreams and said

"What if the Zombies come to eat my brains when I'm asleep?"

and I told him,

"Zombies don't come when it's almost your birthday. It's a rule."

Then he said

"What if I have bad dreams about Zombies?"

and I told him,

"You have fun Birthday dreams the night before your birthday, EVERYONE does."

and he said,

"What if my brain doesn't know it's my birthday tomorrow?"

I think you're brain is the one telling YOU it's your birthday tomorrow....

Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy.

Thanksgiving: We Thank Thee Oh God for Amoxicillin.

This was my third Thanksgiving away from home. The first was in Maui. No complaints, really, just that I missed my mom's stuffing and of course my family. But looking over the beach at a November sunset in Paradise was not too bad. The second was in Arizona at my sister-in-law's. It was nice to be with family, have other kids with Jack to play with and not have to cook anything, but Jack ended up with a BAD and persistent stomach bug that all the kids caught and we ended up at an Urgent Care late in the night, with a little boy whose oxygen was at 73. They almost life flighted us to the hospital.

This year my parents invited us to their new place in San Diego. I had been looking forward to it for months. There's nothing like getting out of the inversion and skipping over to California. Our first stop was to drop Dad's car off in the long term parking lot so when they returned they'd have a way home from the airport. So while loading our luggage onto the shuttle, Jack tripped on the stairs in the back of the bus and fell flat on his face, thus getting a bloody nose. These are a real concern with him, being that he is on aspirin and doesn't clot very well. Luckily... he did and we made it to the terminal blood-free. We checked in and made our way through security. As is my history with TSA, they stopped my bags due to bottles of liquid that were 3.7oz not the TSA requirement of 3.4oz. I wasn't about to take a loss on my ProActiv, so I went BACK to check my bag and had to go through security all over again. The second time I was lucky enough to be full body scanned.

Once on the plane, Jack was telling me it hurt when he swallowed. I was trying to pretend like it didn't hurt when I swallowed too. By the time the plane was descending, Jack was in agony and crying hysterically as the pressure built in his ears. We finally made it into Long Beach, and he kept telling us his ear wouldn't pop. We rented our car, and headed our way to San Diego. Being from Utah, we didn't know that the 805 was going to be a DISASTER when we got there. Traffic was at a stand still, the sun was setting. Jack was moaning and groaning in the back seat, I assumed he was tired and hungry. Out of nowhere, he threw up twice. We squeezed through traffic and got off near La Jolla to stop at a CVS. We changed Jack, cleaned him up and got him some Saltine's.

We finally arrived to the condo and probably looked like hell. Jack, however had gained a new found energy and was thrilled to be there and see everyone. It took us a little while, but we eventually settled in.

The next day we explored the new territory. Josh had a meeting in Irvine and Laura and I went shopping. I continued to ignore the itch in my throat, and assumed that since Jack's ear had finally popped, that he was fine. Thanksgiving Day was wonderful. Very relaxing, delicious food, good company, and a trip to visit the beach. That night Jack (who slept in the closet of our bedroom) kept complaining about his ears. So friday morning I figure we should nip this in the bud, and go to an Urgent Care. How great it would be, if I could just go to a pharmacy, say "My son has a double ear infection, can I get 400mg of Amoxicillin at 7.5ml twice daily?" But no, we had to go somewhere where they are sketched out at treating a kid with a congenital heart defect anyway- and we usually have to talk them into NOT sending us to a hospital. Luckily I called the University of Utah pharmacy, asked them specifically what Jack takes for these infections, and suggested them to the Dr. He OK'd them, saw Jack's ears and gave us a prescription. Sigh.

(Jack, being a zombie.)

Sadly, everyone else left that day. And I REALLY started feeling sick. In fact I don't remember a lot of the day from the point when we got Jack's prescription.

Saturday, our little family went to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. It was a beautiful day and Jack was thrilled to be there. He particularly liked touching the sea cucumbers. Then we got a pizza and took it to a park on a beach and let Jack. A family on the beach were building a HUGE sand castle and it was really neat to watch them put it together. We headed back home for some MORE turkey and stuffing.

On sunday it was really nice weather and we went to Mission Beach. Jack is blissful on the beach. He could stay there for forever. He loves the sand. This was the first beach he ever stepped on, so it was fun to see him have such a great time. We ate lunch on the boardwalk and got an ice cream cone. It was a wonderful day.

We woke up at 5:00am on Monday, after all, Jack had school. So we drove to the airport- it was much more pleasant this time, and we came prepared with our Afrin for the cabin pressure issues, worked like a charm. Then home again, home again, just in time to take Jack to school.

Happy Thanksgiving....

Free at last

So a few weeks ago I started this project, and sometimes,when starting new things I get a bit compulsive about them, and want to work on them night and day till they are finished. However, this time around, I had big barricades such as "no sewing machine" or "not enough fabric" that kept breaking my groove.

My dear sister let me borrow her sewing machine, so once I got rolling- there was no stopping me.

I got all 80 squares cut, sandwiched, then pinned in only a couple of days. Then my squares sat for a couple weeks.

Once the sewing machine made its appearance, and the bobbin and I made an agreement to not have any trouble, I began sewing X's onto the sandwiches and finished all 80 in only a couple of hours. Yay.

Then, the trouble. How to sew over those corners, with 12 layers of fabric.... well, you try- then you break 4 needles and ask for help. I was told to us a "denim needle" and this thing stormed through those corners like a jack-hammer. It was great. I got the whole thing compiled and sewn in another 2 days. Then tried to get a flattering picture of it. It was hard. But the thing is a good sized quilt, Jack loves it, Josh loves it, Lucy loves it.... it has already become a treasure. I'm sure glad I was brave enough to do it...

I'm also glad it's over. Because now my mind isn't shackled to this project.