Of Good Report

Yesterday not only marked the birth of my brother, but also the anniversary of another significant event in my life. It was as significant as my marriage and the births of my children, but not in such a joyful way. The event has changed me and my family in so many ways, many of them for the better, even though it is something I would not necessarily have chosen. It was something that I could have neither prepared for nor expected.  Five years ago this month Taylor had been acting a little off for two or three weeks. He would come in the house and lie down on the couch when other kids were outside playing. He was not only tired, but lethargic. One night during family home evening he quietly cried on the couch because of abdominal pain. He is not one to be dramatic or winy so I knew something was wrong. I took him to the after hours clinic and they sent us home with instructions to give him an antacid. It didn't really work, but the pain seemed to go away. He ...

39 years ago today, my little brother Kevin was born. He was a chubby, round faced little cutie. I loved playing "baby games" with him like "peak-a-boo" and "so big." When he got a little older, like two, he began wandering around the neighborhood. He would pedal around on his big wheel with our dog and the neighbor's dog following behind him. When we went on the search for him, we usually spotted the dogs first and knew that Kevin was nearby. He did not usually go too far, but I remember searching for him day after day. Once he even went to the school and made it into Kent's first grade class. Kent called my mom and asked if she knew where Kevin was. She thought he had been right by her only moments ago, but he was fast. When she arrived to pick him up he was sitting happily coloring in his own chair just like the big kids.  As he grew older, he and Renee did not get along very will. Even though they were old enough to look after themselves, my ...

And I'm not talking about rocking a baby either! At day's end yesterday I was telling Destry how many times I had been to one school or another yesterday. It began with taking everyone to school except for Taylor before 8:00 a.m. Then I took Taylor to school at 10:30. I drove to Orem for some appointments and made it back to Saratoga Springs in time to pick up the girls from the elementary school and some random kids from the high school at 2:15. Then at 3:00 p.m. I picked up Taylor. at  4:00 I picked up Spencer and some additional random teenagers, fixed an early dinner for Spencer and his friend and had them back to the high school at 5:00. Then at 6:00 I picked up Estelle and her play practice cohorts and drove all of them home. At 8:30 I picked up Spencer and his friend. In case you lost track that was eight  trips to one school or another in one day!  Today I was sharing this with Renee along with the driving schedule for next year. I will have kids in four differe...

The boys went to stay in Panguitch from Wednesday to Sunday for part of their spring break fun. Saturday night I received word via Spencer that Taylor's bg, blood glucose level, was way too high. He put on a new pod and corrected and it began to go down. I received a text just before our Sacrament Meeting started on Sunday that it was at 400 and that grandma was really stressed about it. He was checking the cannula and thought it looked fine. He was out of pods, he took plenty of extra ones to Panguitch, but of course they failed. He was low on insulin, but did have syringes. Since lengthy texting conversations are not my thing, I slipped out of the chapel to call Spencer on the phone. We decided that Destry would leave right then, go to Smith's to get a new prescription of Novalog, some pods from home and meet Leon, Spencer, and Taylor somewhere between Saratoga Springs and Panguitch. I told Taylor to give himself a correction shot and then text me with bg numbers in an hour...

My kids had spring break this week. We toyed with the idea of all of us going to Panguitch for part of the time, but Destry will have to take some time off next week, so grandpa picked up the boys on Wednesday. So the girls and I had some fun yesterday afternoon and all day today. Yesterday afternoon we went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Draper. My awesome mother-in-law, Caludia, bought us a family pass for the years' birthdays. We have really enjoyed it and it expires this month so we decided to go one more time.  Next we drove to IKEA, a favorite hangout of ours. My girls love to play house in the house set ups they have. The try out the beds and other furniture too. We ate dinner in the cafeteria; we usually like doing that on Tuesdays because kids get to eat for free, but we didn't make it until Thursday. It is still a pretty cheap place to eat.  The girls wanted to watch a new version of "Annie" again after we got home. I rented it from RedBox the night ...

My baby turned 8 years old on Friday. I have a lot of mixed emotions about this. Turning 8 and getting baptized is a huge milestone in our lives. I have experienced this with four other children. Each time it is wonderful and faith promoting. I am so pleased that she is ready and eager to get baptized and that now all of my children will be on the path to Eternal Life;however, I feel a little melancholy about this being the last time. Any way, this post is not about me it is about her! As per family tradition, Destry and I take our eight-year-old children on a special date. We go to temple square, walk around the temple grounds, take pictures, go to a nice restaurant, and we usually watch the Joseph Smith video that has been shown in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. They are not currently showing that, but have replaced it with "Meet the Mormons." We saw that when it was in regular movie theaters, so we decided to do something else.  There is a new interactive, fun fam...