Sensitive Subject...

So, sensitive subject alert here, but I just have to blog this one.
Our family likes stand up comedy. It is nearly impossible to find a comedian that is family appropriate. As far as that goes, a comedian that is appropriate for any of us. - Going on the principle that anything not appropriate for the kids is probably not too great for us(parents) either. Anyway, there is a Christian comedian that we sometimes watch together. A more recent viewing of this particular jokester had a reference to a particular scripture in Psalms that referred to a disease in the loins...
So, today on the way home from church my 11 year old mentioned that and said she had actually looked up the scripture and, sure enough, that was what it said. (I personally had had no doubts, Psalms has some pretty unusual stuff...) I then told her that it was really unbecoming for a young lady to be talking and/or joking about that particular subject. Then came the question. "Why" Answer-"Well, today the connotation would be that someone probably has an STD. You know what that is don't you?" the 12 year old brother-"A sexually transmitted disease." Me-"Yes, you know how someone gets an STD don't you?" The obvious answer came, and then I asked something like, "And when is it okay to have sex?" Don't ask me why those words passed through my lips. I was either inspired, or I just was NOT THINKING AT ALL. But to my HORROR, my 11 year old, who has had 'the talk' more than once, answered very sweetly and matter-of-factly,

"When we're 16."

I am driving...and I still turn to look at her directly in the eyes. She must have seen something in my face that told her to change her answer, so she said

"18"

Another look from me and then I said, how about when you are married, and it's something a person should only share with their spouse.

"Oh, yeah, that's what I meant. Although, 16 is pretty young to get married."

Funny and Horrifying at the same time.

I realize that our children are extremely sheltered, but we are pretty open with them about the 'private' subjects. I know she wasn't really thinking when she answered my question. But, just to be safe, we have decided to push back how old she has to be before she dates(it was going to be at 16) by several years!!!!!! Maybe even a decade.
Thanks for checking the blog. :D

Arachnicide?

Last week, sitting in my bedroom, I hear Jensen's voice just outside my door. Speaking to no one in particular but with the excitement of a Christmas morning, she practically squeals, "I just caught my very first spider!"....then a long pause and the same voice, just much more matter of factly. "I had to kill it to catch it, but I caught it."
She had caught it under a jar, she thought she suffocated it because it curled up and stopped moving. As she was putting it outside it sprang to life, startling her and almost REALLY losing it's life then. I think we're about 50/50 here on sparing/killing those eight legged critters. Not very good odds if you're a spider eh? :D

Popcorn Popping, Blossoms Bursting?....It's Autumn isn't it?

Kaylyn, our 22 month old daughter has, just in the past few weeks, fallen in love with a song. "Popcorn Popping"
It's a fun little children's song and the words go something like this;

I looked out the window and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.
Spring has brought me such a nice surprise,
Popcorn popping right before my eyes.
I could take an armful and make a treat.
A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn't really so, but it seemed to be,
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

There are corresponding hand and body movements and we sing it every week in the nursery at church. We also sing it at home, and have done so with all the children when they were little. Along with 'Old McDonald', 'Wheels on the Bus', 'Patty Cake', 'Five Green Speckled Frogs' etc.
For the past week or so Kaylyn will call each of us by name. Whoever happens to be nearest to her usually. "Way Wes" (Weston), "Nyay Nyay" (Jameson), "May May" (Megan), "Mo Mor" (Morgan), or "Det Det" (Jensen), (We have no idea how she came up with some of those pronunciations.) Also, 'mommy' or 'daddy, and she will say with resolution or sometimes questioningly, "Cop Cop" opening and closing her fists like two little 'jazz hands' (the movements for the popcorn popping). This is her way of asking whomever she is addressing to sing the 'Popcorn song' with her. Just this morning she actually said "Pop Pop", she is making some improvement on enunciation! :D
I am blogging about this(more to help us remember than anything), not so much because of Kaylyn and the 'toddler things' that make her so adorable to us, but to put down how impressed I am with the other children.
Kaylyn will often want that same song done as many as a dozen times in a row. Barney, or Mr Rogers I am not! I love children and doing things with them, but repetition gnaws at any thread of sanity I may have left. I still sing the song, I think 8 times in a row is my best with her, before I move on to at least another song. I have also added exaggerated movements, sniffing at the 'smells so sweet', pausing and bugging my eyes at 'spring has brought me such a nice surprise'. To the point that the song surely bears little resemblance to the one with the same title in the song book at church. :)
Kaylyn is just SO enthusiastic and loves that song so much right now! Every one of her siblings has 'performed' for Kaylyn every time she has requested that song. I am not kidding. Every time. Even when I have been the driver in the car, thinking, 'if I turn the radio on, pull over to ..., put in a book on tape, throw a toy at her(reading this through I had to edit this to say a toy for her to play with, not to knock her out!), etc, maybe she will get distracted and move on to something new. But Kaylyn's siblings adore her and have the patience I no longer have, or never had in the first place.
Bless their ever loving hearts! :D

Kaylyn tells 'Doctor Dad' she thinks she is sick.

Thomas sent this photo to me a few mornings ago. I had taken Jameson to his early morning seminary class and Thomas was at home getting the others ready for school.

We have had a virus in our house since last Saturday, beginning with Jensen and Megan having sore throats and fevers that day. The virus has been moving through every one of the children this week. Megan and Jen missed 3 and 4 days of school due to the fever. Anyway, there has been much temperature checking and pampering of those who 'do not feel good' in our house this week. Kaylyn, 22 months old will not to be left out of anything that goes on. Being a through and through younger sibling she laid her little body in Mom and Dad's bed and put the thermometer in her mouth in true imitation of so many of her siblings. She was telling her 'Daddy' that she was sick...

She did end up getting sick(maybe from sticking that germ infested thermometer in her mouth-who knows!), but is doing better now.

Jensen and Those Pesky Head Bumps

So today I took Megan to see her oncologist for a scheduled appointment. Megan continues to do great! I took Jensen as well and just asked the doctor if he thought the 'bumps' on her head are something I should be concerned about. Should I have her seen again or to stop stressing over them. He proceeded to give her a full physical exam and ask me questions.


"No they have not always been there."


"No she is not running fevers, or having problems with bruising, or headaches etc."


Of course he then, in giving her the exam, discovered her shin bones with their numerous bruises and mentioned them...Jensen is a busy rambunctious girl and has those normal shin bone bruises associated with her level of activity. She doesn't have any bruises that don't want to heal.

He checked her lymph nodes, her spleen, liver, etc. and seemed to find, or not find, pretty much what I had or had not found. He then told me that they were probably benign lumps but that he was going to contact Jensen's regular pediatrician and share with him some things about the examination today. He did have a name for them but I can't remember off the top of my head. He wanted to get an x-ray. He also told me to call him if there were any changes; fever, more/bigger bumps, bruising etc.
He said to Jensen to try not to think about her bumps. Our six year old then responded with obvious exaggeration and sighing; (For those of you who know Jen this will make perfect sense.) "It's hard not to think about the bumps when my mom feels them every day-ay!" Holding back his laughing the best he could the doctor then told her, "Well you just try not to think about them and I will talk with your mom!" So much for my telling her to let me do the talking to the doctor! That whole 'children sitting quietly' idea would be incomprehensible to our Jensen!


So, we will see the oncologist again in two months. Our pediatrician may see her again between now and then. I am supposed to check the bumps on Jensen's head when I wash her hair.


The doctor talked to me about our insurance. (He wanted to make sure that adding her to his clinic(She has never been seen there before.) is something that would be covered by the insurance and he had her name added to their records.


All in all I feel much better. I feel better because the bumps were given at least a potential name with that wonderful 'harmless' word attached to it. I feel better because I know the doctor gave Jensen a thorough exam. He is a thorough doctor.

I no longer have that phrase, "I have no idea what they are." running through my brain. Not to mention that the doctor also did not make me feel foolish for being concerned about the bumps on her head.

Now, on to the next few days and Easter/soccer activities. :D

Today has been a good day.

Fun Looking Easter Recipe

The children are all out of school Thursday and Friday this week. We also have one extra child with us on most of the days the children have no school. I was thinking tonight that I need to come up with a project to do with them. I think we are expecting rain then so we really need a little structure if we are all going to be inside together...
I received an email which included several Easter recipes.

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?categ=87%2C182%2C161&ls=p&nl=RZ-040709-eaters-digest__main-link-url-1

I think I have decided on a version of the following recipe with the 'nests' made big enough to sit little 'peeps' chicks on them. I thought I had an original idea until I saw someone else has already used the peeps in a different nest recipe. Oh well, maybe I will have an original idea tomorrow! ;)

http://www.recipezaar.com/Easter-Nests-with-Jelly-Bean-Eggs-87879

They look fairly easy and I think the children will have fun making them. There are additional recipes with rice crispy treats etc. for the nests. I just liked these because they look a little more like a nest, at least in the photo. I will post later with photos if we actually accomplish this goal. :)

Jensen

So here I am, stressing out about something that is probably nothing. A few weeks ago we found some bumps/lumps on Jensen's head. Jensen, our six year old daughter, who is acting fine for the most part, had a few lumps on her head(around 4 or so). I phoned the clinic and took her in to our pediatrician feeling a little silly for doing so. Initially he thought they were something that had always been there. I assured him that while I am a busy mom, I do wash my child's hair on a regular basis, not to mention that we sometimes snuggle and I rub her back or the back of her head and I know that these lumps are fairly new. Not new enough though, that they are from bumping her head, which was his next thought. (Also wouldn't it be strange for her to have multiple bumps from trauma on her head. I would probably suspect abuse if someones child had numerous bumps on their head from trauma.) So then he decided that he didn't know what they were and he was going to have an x-ray done. We talked a little more and I asked him what the x-ray might show him. He then decided that maybe we would not expose her to radiation now and we would just wait and watch.

That worked for me for about a day.

Since then I have googled bumps, lumps, lesions, cysts, etc. and have found nothing that might explain these things on her head. I also discovered a few more, albeit smaller, ones last night.

-GROAN-

I have also palpated her lymph nodes of which a few are larger than normal. (Which I know is not uncommon in a 6 year old child.) And I have been reassessing her recent personality changes. She has been much more whiny and a little more tired than usual. I am the first to admit that these last things can be chalked up to my overactive imagination. That they could be a manifestation of a 'stage' (to my personal horror, that was always what my mother called it when I was an unreasonable child-not that I was EVER an unreasonable child) she might be going through. That she is a little more tired because she is in the midst of a growing spurt, etc.

I know having had Megan diagnosed with leukemia and subsequently in chemotherapy treatment for 2.5 years is part of what is fueling my paranoia. However, when a doctor tells me "I don't know what it is." I cannot help being frustrated. Knowing would allay my fears. When a trained professional doesn't know, how can that be a good thing? UHG!

So, there it is. My best hope, now that I have this off my chest, is that 2 weeks from now I will feel silly for actually putting this in writing.

Below are some photos of Jensen

Photos of Kaylyn 16 months old.

The title of the blog 'splains the photos.

Not a whole lot to blog about. Getting little sleep zaps my creativity I guess. :D I am hoping to get some photos up soon of the children's soccer games... Thanks for checking in!

March 25, 2009

So, I have had a bit of a reprieve from insomnia, until the last few nights. Here's my whine..."It is so aggravating!"
Today/yesterday really. Thomas had an appointment to: adjust the settings of his cochlear implant, receive and set up a new FM/blue tooth system for his cochlear, and to be evaluated for the need for a cochlear implant in his other ear.

My side note here is that the appointment took two hours and I forgot to bring a stroller for Kaylyn. Kaylyn, has become a busy explorer. It was a long two hours...

Anyway, Thomas was able to get the FM system for his cochlear and he is so happy about it. The FM system works with blue tooth compatibility with his cell phone. so that when he answers his phone, he can now hear whoever calls directly in his cochlea. The device can also connect wirelessly to an mp3 player and any electronic device with an ear jack(I think that's what they are called.) He also has 2 different microphones, with different ranges, that he can use in groups, or in a meeting at work that should help improve how much he is able to hear during a group discussion. This is all very exciting for him.
Because Thomas speaks so well, even I forget often just how much he misses. Without the FM system today, he scored 0% when he was tested on how much he could hear with background noise. When tested with the FM system, he scored 73%. For a person with normal hearing, that's not so great. That is a person missing over a quarter of a conversation. For Thomas, that number is HUGE!
It's so fun to see something make him so tickled and happy. Right now, he is kinda like a kid in a candy store. :D Try calling him sometime! He might just hear you!

Silly Sleepy Girls!

The boys went to a birthday party sleepover last weekend and the girls were going to sleep out in the living room. Here Dad catches Jensen and Morgan almost asleep.

But not quite!

Morgan as Lady Liberty in Her School's Freedom Play

Morgan was the Statue of Liberty in her school's 'Freedom Play' last week. She took her part pretty seriously! We were impressed with how long she could hold that torch up. She held it up through two songs and more! What a trooper!

February 21-22

A photo of Weston when we celebrated his birthday.

Here is a photo documenting that mom/Michele is in trouble. Leaving the headlights on is a bad habit. It was so cold and Thomas had to bundle up to go out and jump start the van. That happened two days in a row! :D

A New Percussionist in the Family?

It looks like we might have another percussionist in the family!
On February 10, Kaylyn found the drumsticks and began trying to play the snare drum.

Her dad gave her a boost onto a stool so she could more easily play.

Here she has just been taken away from the drums and placed into her 'play yard'...

Someone had pity on her and gave her back the drumsticks. "OH HAPPY DAY!"

February 6, Continued

Jessica and Jane.

Jane's son Jordan backed up their car to load up some firewood. The ground was so wet from our recent rainy and melting snow weather that the car got stuck and we had to pull it out with the pickup. (Do you know how many years it took my husband to teach me to say 'pickup' instead of truck? In Idaho pickup trucks are called pickups, at least according to Thomas. I always called them trucks. I don't think I am the only one that does/did that! :D)
Jordan is a good sport and gave a smile for posterity!

Thomas. He's hard to miss with that hat. I call it his 'Man From Snowy River' hat. He was so happy when he finally got that hat and it really does help keep his cochlear implant dry. (Does anyone see rain in these photos? Me neither! :D ) It looks like Thomas is not the only one who likes that hat! :D

February 6, Target Shooting @ Papa's House.

On February 6, Aunt Jessica and Uncle Mark came down to do some target and clay pigeon shooting. Here is Jensen bird watching. She was also using her binoculars to try to see the clay pigeons. Below, a photo showing the 'wide open spaces' Papa has at his place.

Uncle Mark gives up a grin for the photo!

Jensen looking in the tree for some birds...No birds? Maybe because shotguns and rifles are 'booming' just a few yards away!

Above, Papa taking a shot. We love these closeup photos of Weston. I think we should be very afraid that he closes his eyes when shooting! Below, Morgan in her Papa's big flannel shirt. It's a good thing he has a good heart. I would have sent her in to get her own coat! Below, Thomas in a classic photo. I think he is going to blow this up and prominently display it when the girls begin dating!


Megan throwing clay pigeons.

Jameson and Megan get their turns too.

Just Another Day in Paradise!

This blogging is a funny thing. On one hand I know that anyone can read it. So, I find myself being guarded sometimes about the things I write. On the other hand my favorite blogs are written by people who seem to be so open about the things they post. It's funny to me because when I talk in person with people I am sure I tell them more than they would ever want to know, yet when I blog, it's mostly about the activities that we do together.
Okay, this self analysis is making me tired...
Today, we went to church. It's a normal weekly event for us, but today was special. It was scout Sunday, so the boys needed to wear their scout shirts to church. (I think it's a once a year thing.)
Today is also Weston's 12th birthday. Happy Birthday Weston! :D At church, it was a special day for him. At 12 the young men in our church advance from the children's classes to 'young men's classes. In our sacrament meeting they are called to the front by the Bishop, their advancement is announced and they are sustained, congratulated etc. The Bishop apparently came to the pew where Weston was sitting before the meeting and asked him if he was prepared to recite an article of faith. (There are 13 Articles of Faith, they are statements about what we as Latter Day Saints believe.) Weston told him he was, not understanding that the bishop meant he would have to do it in front of the congregation. I was not there or I would have explained it to him. The time came when the bishop called Weston up and according to my husband, Weston was caught completely off guard and looked panicked. The Bishop sat down. I guess Weston managed to pull himself together, he stood at the podium. recited the first Article of Faith. (We believe in God the Eternal Father and in his son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost.) He then leaned forward a bit and said with great relief and appreciation to the congregation. "Thank You!" The Congregation erupted in laughter. That's our Weston. He has kept us laughing since before he could walk.
I mentioned that I wasn't at church for that. I did try really hard to get there. Thomas and I have been sick with a virus for over a week. The past few days my throat has been hurting even worse. No fever, just bad sore throat and not wanting to do much. I decided I would go and twist someones arm at the walk in clinic to do a strep swab. Unless we see our regular doctors, we are sometimes not taken seriously when strep is in our family. We do not always run fevers with strep. (Jameson has had scarlet fever twice because we thought he just had a virus. No fever, only symptom a sore throat.) Anyway, the nurse practitioner I saw did both the rapid and culture swabs. The rapid turned positive so she threw away the second swab. I love it when the doctor/practitioner that you see asks you(the patient) what antibiotic you want to take... So funny. "Um... the one that kills strep the fastest!" So, I then went to church, where I avoided talking to people, refused to shake hands, and didn't touch door knobs. If you were at church too and are now upset, I apologize and will just say, Strep is EVERYWHERE. I am just glad I went to the clinic before church instead of after so I was informed and more careful. I would have gone straight home, but Weston was also having the Aaronic Priesthood confirmed upon him. That is something that happens once in a young man's lifetime. I didn't want to miss it and I am so glad I didn't. I know the Lord loves that boy, and I know that even more after today! I also did not go home because the doctor wanted to see Thomas too(even though he was feeling better). So I sent him to the clinic before they would close. I stayed and helped Morgan with her talk in Primary. She gave a talk about Heavenly Father's creations being our blessings. (I bit my tongue, because I don't see a whole lot about strep throat that blesses my life!) :D She did fine and we met Thomas at the clinic after church. The doctor (different one) did not 'swab' him. She took one look at his throat and said. "What antibiotic do you want?" I still think that's funny! His response was pretty much like the one I gave the practitioner I saw....
I love z packs, don't you?! :D
I am now preparing to throw away all toothbrushes, all opened toothpaste tubes, and all used chapsticks, etc. Either we have a strep carrier, we are not getting the strep bug out because of some items like the ones I just mentioned, or we are just prone to contracting strep this year. I am done! Clorox cleanup and Lysol are my best friends!

Sibling Resemblance?

Here is a photo of Morgan. I think she was around the age Kaylyn is now. I came across this photo last night while looking for some pictures for a friend. If it wasn't for the injury beneath her eye and the hair bow(who has time for hair bows these days?), I think she resembles Kaylyn like a twin! The first photo is Morgan and the rest are of Kaylyn.