Of Good Report

So yesterday I ranted about the expectations for St. Patrick's Day being too high.  And After Estelle had spend hours preparing to catch a leprechaun and lying awake the night before with equal parts excitement and worry about the leprechaun coming she decided when I was putting her and Sarah to bed to announce to the world, ie Sarah, that there were no such things as leprechauns, the Easter Bunny, the tooth fairy...etc., etc., etc. I have actually been expecting to have a conversation about that with her for months, but she always seems to pull herself back into the believing crowd. I am fine with whatever she chooses, I just want to let Sarah discover for herself without the blatant telling from her sister. I quieted her as quickly as I could and told her that we would talk about it later, meaning when Sarah was asleep and we could slip out of the room unnoticed. She has been questioning since long before last Christmas, but she always tells me she believ...

I love a reason to party as much as the next guy...gal...human being. I love holidays like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Independence and Pioneer Days, even Halloween has grown on me thanks to my children. I enjoy the days off school for Labor and Memorial Days, as well as President's Day and Martin Luther King Day, which we celebrated this year by watching his inspiring "I Have a Dream Speech." It was meaningful and we had a meaningful discussion with our children. I usually celebrate the new year quietly at home. Valentine's Day is sometimes a simple hug and "I love you's" to the people I love. This year we happened to go all out and had a formal candle light dinner with complete table settings for the family and I put notes on everyone's door every morning for the week before Valentine's Day. It was great. Will I do it again, absolutely! Will it be an annual tradition, not likely. If it works into our schedule and is something to look forwa...

We have a dog and today she gets her own post. Lucky dog! I would not consider myself an animal person.  Sure horses are majestic, dolphins are lovable, puppies are cute, tigers are mysterious and who wouldn't want to wrap their arms around a panda bear and get a bear hug (assuming of course that the panda wouldn't rather rip your head off).  I never thought I would own a pet. They require time and money. They get sick, need shots and grooming , they need exercise and to be fed and watered and they poo. That is the number one strike against any pet! If someone would invent a pet that didn't poo I'd have ten of them. Well maybe not because you often can't take them on vacation either and it is inconvenient asking someone to look after your pet while you are gone and paying for them to be boarded is out of the question. Children, as any parent knows, change you.  I had five of them including a baby whose diapers I was still cha...

So I took Spencer to the doctor this week to get his Strattera renewed.  He is doing well, the dosage is good, and no, I do not want to take him off of it, thank you for asking. We do, however want to check his blood to see if the thyroid medication is dosed correctly, not because we are thinking it isn't, it just hasn't been checked for two years.  It worked out that he didn't have play practice after school on Tuesday, the day we went to the doctor, so we had a good window of time to take him to get his blood drawn at the American Fork hospital.  Sarah came with us.  Spencer didn't seem nervous about getting this done and I thought maybe, just maybe, he has overcome his fear of needles. When he got called back I asked him if he wanted me to come.  I am used to accompanying my children for medical procedures, but he is 15 now and I was told that I was not allowed to watch him audition for musical theater because it is "unprofessional", so I thought I bet...

A lot has happened since I last wrote and I have a lot of things I want to write about.  I hope I get to them before other things take their places.  The main reasons I haven't been writing has a lot to so with someone being sick pretty much since the first of the year.  We have had strep throat, stomach flu--twice, asthma, high blood sugars (almost made us thankful for the two lows that he had this morning), various flu-like viruses and one night in the hospital. In addition, we have had a broken growth plate in one big toe. I do not get sick very often, but I have been sick three times in the last three months.  Not good when mom is out. Warmer weather, which of course presents a different set of problems for Taylor, can not come fast enough for the rest of us!