Heather's talent

This ia what Heather did today. As many, if not all of you know, Heather asked for a sewing machine for Christmas. Today, she designed and created her first ourfit for Barbie. This is Barbie as Cinderella, according to Heather. I think she did pretty well!

More of my 15 minutes of fame

So this could add about 15 seconds worth of my 15 minutes of fame. The ASU newspaper did a quick phone interview of me on the new bus route to Queen Creek. This is because I am currently the only student who rides the bus. I wanted to attach a file to the article itself. It came out in todays edition of the newspaper. Fun. Here is it.

http://www.statepress.com/issues/2007/01/26/news/699437

Mercy the Mimic

So my little Mercy has entered the repeating phase--you say something, she'll repeated it back--sometimes continually. This has led to some interesting things coming out of her mouth. My current favorite comes from the previews on the Cinderella tape--there's one for the first Santa Clause. When Santa falls off the roof, the little boy says, "You killed him!"

And then Mercy says, "Ooo kilt im!"

I'm just grateful that (a) you really can't understand her unless you know that's what she's saying; and (b) we don't go too many places for her to embarrass me (although nursery could get interesting...).

She periodically will shout "Sin-RELLA", especially when the step-sisters say it.

Ezra, on the other hand, refers to this movie as "Cinder-gorilla". Which is just too cute for words.

The Tattooed Working Girl

Hello everyone. I thought I would update you on my life now that it is settling down into a form of regularity again. I have completed my substitute orientation and have been a substitute teacher again for the last two weeks. I worked a bit last week and will be working again on Thursday and Friday this week and all next week. At least that is what is scheduled at this point. I wish I could schedule them all ahead of time. One of the things I hate the most about subbing is not knowing until 5:00 in the morning where I would be if I would even be called anywhere.

Yesterday and today I did not work because of my jaw. I have just returned from the dentist this morning with my nearly tattooed cheeks. Let me tell you- I don't know how you, Caren and you, Amy did it. I have two little tiny blue dots next to each ear and I can still feel the needle. Ouch!!! Anyway- I am now waiting again. My dentist is due to have her baby next week. If she hasn't, then I will hear earlier than later what is next. If she has, it will be a few weeks. I still have to wear the mago day and night at least until then. We'll see after. I am now getting the impression their is still lots to do- although much depends on what must happen to keep my jaw where it is and to fix whatever problems I have with my bite!!! YUCK!! Oh well!!! It has been an interesting experience to say the least.

Well, I love you all and am enjoying the 40 degree weather here in Colorado Springs while I can. I had my doors and window open yesterday to air out the house!! It was nice.

LaDale

Re: Re: Bus

ASU has a deal with the bus system. I get to ride the bus for free because they raised the price for parking passes by double this past year. So the paying people of ASU are allowing me to ride the bus for free. By contrast, the fair would be $1.75 each way. If I had to pay the whole fair I might not think it would be worth it since the car I drive gets really good gas mileage, at least by my standard. Have fun. SKT

RE: Bus

Samuel, that's awesome! How nice to be able to have the bus--even if you don't end up using it everyday. Bradley loves the bus because it (a) allows us to have just one car (his bus stop is like twelve steps from our house, not twelve miles) and (b) he can read, study, or work during the trip, unlike when he drives. How much does it cost--can you get a discount because you are a student?

New Bus Route

Today marks an exciting day in the life of Samuel. As of today, the valleys bus services have officially added a new express bus route that goes from Queen Creek to ASU. The limitations include the fact that the bus leaves Queen Creek once in the morning at 6:15 am and leaves ASU once in the evening at 5:15 pm. That is it. You miss it, tough luck. But here is the good and unexpected stuff about todays bus trip.

Caren and I drove yesterday to the bus stop to make sure I knew how to get there. It is less then 12 miles from my home. This is a great improvement over the 42 miles to ASU campus. This morning I woke up with the expectation to get to the bus stop by 6am. Plenty of time to not miss the bus. What I did not expect to find was the welcoming committee. There had to have been 8 - 10 people there just to welcome us riders on this new bus route. They even included danishes and drinks. By the time the bus was ready to leave we had all of 3 passengers. 3!!!! The welcoming people were excited to have the 3 of us there. I'm just hoping they don't cancel the route. The traffic was not as bad as expected because we arrived 15 minutes early even though we left 5 minutes late. I hope the same will be true this evening on the way home. I do evjoy the closeness of this bus.

That's all for now. Classes are in full swing and so is my research. Until later. SKT

Sleeping

I am a side sleeper or a stomach sleeper but mostly a side, either side it doesn't matter. However I think I sleep on my left side most often.
Keryn, cute pictures. I love them.

Re: QOTW

I am a side sleeper. However, I was a stomach sleeper until I got pregnant. As everyone can probably guess, it is IMPOSSIBLE to sleep on your stomach when pregnant. I can sleep on my back, but usually only with a baby draped all over me, preventing me from turning over and getting really comfortable.

RE: QOTW Sleeping

I sleep on my side, but I'm with Samuel...it's more of a head thing. I can sleep on my back just fine as long as my head is tilted to one side or the other. Depending on how I'm feeling, I can also sleep on my stomach, but that's fairly rare.

Glad these are back! I've missed them!

Re: QOTW

My prefered sleeping position is on my side. Really, it's a head thing. I can sleep on my back but my head is usually tilted to one side or the other. I can not sleep on my stomach unless I am really, really tired and that is how I fall on the bed. Fun stuff. SKT

sleeping

Ah, sleeping. I am a side sleeper also and a stomach sleeper and to tell the truth also a back sleeper- although that is my least favorite position and I only go there when I am having trouble breathing. (You'd think that with all this snow, there wouldn't be any room for allergies- wouldn't you?- Maybe it's stress!?!?!) Anyway, I always start on my side, either one but often end up on my stomach just before I really fall asleep.

QOTW

And we're back!

What is your preferred position of slumber?

I love to sleep on my side, tilted so far as to be almost on my stomach. Either side will do.

Cold

It's nine degrees outside. NINE.

And Ezra wants to go to the park.

Ha.

Update on Tyler...again. =)

Tyler had his nuerology appointment yesterday and I wanted to report to everyone on how it went. We called and told Mom about it yesterday, but I figured everyone would want to know. The really short explanation is, we still don't have a diagnosis. We thought that the MRI he had a couple weeks ago would be enough to clear it up. But it's not, at least not conclusively. Apparently, Tyler still has lesions on his brain, but there aren't any new ones and the biggest one that they were most worried about has actually shrunk in size. Almost everything about his MRI and his spinal tap that they did back in September were atypical, as is the fact that he hasn't had any other symptoms since September. Because of all of that, even though Dr. Vincent still thinks it will turn out to be MS, she's hesitant on making that her final diagnosis. For now, she gave us two options: 1. Be very proactive and start on treatments right away as if it's definitely MS. 2. Wait and keep a close eye on it. We chose the second route, for many reasons, not the least of which is money. So, the plan now is just to wait. We have another appointment with Dr. Vincent in 6 months. If Tyler can make it that long without any symptoms cropping up, then we just go in for the visit so Dr. Vincent can make sure everything is okay. Then we wait another 6 months to get the next MRI. So, basically, unless he has another episode, we won't know anything more for another year. If he does have another episode, well, then we'll know for certain that it is MS. We're just hoping and praying that it doesn't turn out to be MS after all, even though that's still the most likely answer.

Thank you all for your love and support through this. We've definitely been feeling it. Yesterday was good news, not great news, but definitely not bad news. We love you all!

Habits

Isn't it strange how habits work- how easy it is to get into them- how difficult to get out of them???

I lived away from my house for about a month- from the 13th of December until the 13 of January. I loved being at Jenafers. I loved spending a few days in Vegas and I am extremely grateful to that Spanish Fork family for keeping me for weeks and weeks and weeks.

But, I also glad to be home, even if it is taking my body a few days to remember I am home.

I woke up the other night to a sound on the other side of my wall and assumed is was the baby until I woke up the next morning in Colorado Springs. I was taking a decidedly cold shower on Sunday because I couldn't remember to turn my knob the other way for the hot water (obviously- Keryn's shower is the opposite of mine). I keep turning on both switches in my bathroom- thus turning on both the light and the fan because in Keryn's downstairs bathroom I was used to turn on both of her lights. At one point, I looked at my stove and couldn't understand what happened to the tinfoil under the burners until I remembered I never put tinfoil under my burners.

It is strange the kinds of tricks our minds play on us.

In other subjects- I almost got stuck in the snow today. This is my third winter in Colorado and I have never seen this much snow piled up everywhere. Unless you are driving on a major street- you are driving on packed, churned, muddy snow. For the first time since I moved here I thought to myself- Oh dear, I don't like driving in this!!!

But- all in all, I am glad to be home and I miss you all terribly. (I spent some time looking at pictures today and ended up crying!!!)


Love you all,
LaDale

Cute Ross kids

Keryn: The Ancient of Days

Keryn was trying to sugar coat things in that last post. She doesn't want the world to think about the fact that she is 30! And she was apparently too bashful to mention the best gift that she received for her birthday: the can opener I gave her... back.

Keryn update

I am very grateful for so many things and people:

• LaDale--for all the obvious reasons (taking care of my house and my family for a month), and for the less obvious ones (being the most understanding sister a person could have)
• Mema--for taking care of my family, holding my baby, letting my son play "balls" on her computer, and generally being the bestest mother ever
• pain medication, and nurses who listen--Gideon was in so much pain this afternoon after his surgery, and the nurses gave him medicine twice, and it just wasn't doing anything for him. Every few minutes for three hours he would give the most pitiful hoarse cry--it practically broke my heart. After we went to the nurses and told them he was still in pain, they found another type of medication to try and it has worked SO well. He slept, and then he started making the little grunts and moans that he usually makes when it's time to eat. And then he nursed so well.
• all of my family--thank you for being so aware and praying so much for our family. I love you all so much and I am SO grateful that we are a family.

So today has turned out to be a wonderful birthday after all. I have the best gifts in the world.

Gideon update III

Gideon's surgery went well this morning. He is in quite a bit of pain, which is breaking his mother's heart, but everything seems to be going just great. As far as we know we're on track to be released tomorrow...keep us in your prayers!

Gideon update II

Gideon had an appointment with the neurosurgeon today, and, after an exam and a CT scan, we were told he needs to have the shunt surgery. Needless to say this wasn't news we were hoping to here, but it wasn't exactly a surprise, either. It still was a bit of a blow, though.

So tomorrow at 10:30 am Gideon will be in the operating room. We are home tonight, and will make our way up through the frozen snowy roads tomorrow morning to get him admitted by 9:00am. This surgery doesn't (strangely, at least to us) require as long of a hospital stay as his back surgery, so we hope, all things going well, that he will only have to be in the hospital for one night.

Not exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday, but such is life. Gideon is such a joy to have in our home that any sacrifice is worth it. We'll keep you updated!

Gideon update

Gideon is doing well--as well as can be expected, given all his doctors appointments today. He is one tired boy tonight, and so are his mommy and daddy. But he is doing well--although his head does continue to increase in size, which indicates that he will probably be having shunt surgery sooner rather than later (or never). But we aren't in a panic over it, because we know what to look for, and because his skull bones aren't fused together yet (like all babies), the risk of brain damage from the fluid pressure is much lower. So we feel much calmer about everything.

Samuel and Caren, thanks for coming over tonight. We really miss you, and we really love our chocolate fountain! I feel so posh now!

David and Amy and family--our prayers are with you. We love you so much. Get well soon, Amy!

Oh, Amy

Mom just received a phone call from David stating that Amy has been in the hospital since Monday. It is a flare up of many different symptoms that the doctors are still trying to sort out. David promised to let mom know how things work out later today.

Keryn and Brad, on the other hand, took their little one up to Salt Lake to have the neurologist look at his head. We haven't heard back on that front yet, but will let you know.

Daivd and Amy, Keryn and Brad and little Gideon, please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. Get well soon and let us know what we can do for you.

Telima!!!

Telima call home- I mean call mom or Keryn. We have been trying to get a hold of you!!!

Samuel and Caren are coming on Tuesday and we wondered if you would be home in time of dinner with all of us!!!- Let us know!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, my wonderful family! LaDale, I love your verse. You should definately keep the last one, though the second one has definite potential. Jenafer, we just took family pictures and I can't wait to show everyone. You'll all be getting at least a wallet of our little family, if not a wallet of our little Katy girl too. We have way more wallets of the fmaily picture than we do of just Katy, so we'll have to see. Anyway, I love you all and I can't wait to see Mom, LaDale, Keryn, and especially Gideon in just a few days! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!