Birthdays x2, Metal Mouth, Gilbert’s Disease/High Bilirubin, Track Meets, Prom x2, Yard Work, Soccer, Samples

A lot has happened in the last few weeks.  We had two birthdays--Noah and Josh.  Noah’s birthday was on the 5th and it was a good day.  Aaron got up extra early to make sure Noah got his 11 donuts as a morning surprise.  Everyone got to have donuts for breakfast and thank Noah.  Noah didn’t want to share any more than he had to so he wrote on the box things to the effect of “Do not eat these or else!!”--haha!

Noah wanted to go to Pizza Pie Cafe for his birthday dinner.  We were glad G&G T were able to come along with us, too.

Noah loved getting his Cookie Monster treat from Pizza Pie since it was his birthday.

After dinner Matthew wanted Noah to stop by so he could give him the present he had picked out for him.  We visited with Matthew for a bit, too.  Matthew LOVES visitors!!  

Noah wanted an ice cream cake for his birthday cake.

It was a good day!!  Since Noah is in elementary school still he was able to bring treats to share with his whole class the next day.

Noah came home last week with something around his neck.  He told me that it was a kindness award for helping different people at recess.  Wahoo!

Speaking of Noah he got his palate expander put in and let’s just say he really hates it. 

We have to turn it every night to help widen the roof of his mouth to fit all of his teeth.  His next orthodontic appointment he will have the fun time of getting braces put on as well.  The poor kid’s mouth will be full of metal!!

 

Noah also lost his last bottom jaw baby tooth at school this week.  He has a nice big gap where two permanent teeth are trying to grow in, but they have been slow.

Speaking of Noah, the other day I was having a bit of a rough day.  When it was time to go to bed I found this sweet note on my side of the bed from Noah.  It says, “Thank you for being such a great Mom and a great person.  Without you NOTHING would get done and could never have a better Mom than you.  Enjoy the treats!  Um so I ate the Doritos in the bag I gave you so enjoy the 7 treats instead of 8”.  It was a nice note to get and made me a bit teary.  Glad he got to enjoy some Doritos, on the side, too--haha!

A few weeks ago I got a call from Matthew’s psychiatrist.  Matthew is on a medication that can affect your liver so he has to get his blood drawn every 6 months to check his liver enzymes.  For the past three years straight his bilirubin has been high.  Not alarmingly high, but high nonetheless.  His psychiatrist called me and said she wanted me to follow up with his regular doctor since it has been consistently high for so long.  I made the appointment and got him in last Friday.  His regular doctor ordered more bloodwork to get a more in-depth idea of what exactly was going on.  He thinks it is Gilbert’s Disease which is a mild genetic 

condition in which the liver doesn’t properly process bilirubin.  Thankfully, it is pretty benign.  It only really manifests as yellowish eyes and occasional yellowish skin when they are sick, dehydrated, stressed, etc., but it will go away when those things are fixed.  Daniel also has this and except for the occasional yellow eyes there have been no other issues.  It got diagnosed due to just the high bilirubin levels.  I am not worried about it at all.  However, I wish Sarah’s condition could be explained away like that, but she has more issues going on than just high bilirubin levels.  DOH!! It never can be that easy, right?!

Josh has had a few track meets these past two weeks.  He will usually run the 3200 meter (two miles) and/or the 1600 meter (1 mile) race.  Here’s the 1600 race:

3200 race:

Josh and some friends are getting together and doing their own prom.  Josh asked a friend to go with him.  Here was his ‘Promposal’:

It says, “‘Nes' Make this ‘quick’ say YES to Prom!"

Josh was getting a bit nervous because it took her 3 weeks to answer back, but she finally did.

It says, “Josh Prom would ‘Croc’ with you!"

Josh even wore the Crocs to school the next morning--haha!

Josh’s birthday was on the 8th. Aaron got up early and made sure he had his 18 donuts that morning.  I am still surprised that I now have an ‘adult’.  Anyway, here’s his donuts:

Josh’s birthday was in the middle of the week and it was hard to get everyone together so we decided to celebrate it that weekend instead.  However, on his actual birthday Aaron and I took him out for lunch.  We went to Holy Smokes and it was yummy.  That evening after I got home from work we had his birthday cake:

We did let him open one present that evening, though.  It was some Spanish scriptures:

Spanish scriptures for my Elder Mancil:

Last weekend Noah sweet-talked his way in to a sleepover at G&G T’s house.  He had Sarah go along with him, too.  The night they slept over Aaron and I had a dinner party we were going to.  That left Josh and Daniel home on a Friday night which is a rare occurrence!!  They said they were going to have a 'guys night out'.  However, as Aaron and I were getting ready to leave for our party, they were just sitting on the couches playing on their phones.  I told them to plan something and not just spend the evening playing on their phones.  Josh said, “We are planning something!!  We are texting each other right now talking about it!”  They were in the same room.  I must be getting old because I thought it would be a lot easier to actually TALK to each other rather than text each other if they were in the same room.  Whatever works I guess.  They did end up going out and getting some take out and then watching Star Wars movies together.  

That Sunday we did celebrate Josh’s birthday.  He requested manicotti for his birthday dinner.  We had G&G T over for dinner.  Josh got some luggage for a present.  That’s what happens when you become an adult--presents aren’t as fun anymore--haha!  Matthew also brought his present with him that he picked up and wrapped for Josh.  He was so excited to give his wrapped present to Josh.  

Our flower beds have been needing some serious attention for over the last year or two.  In fact all I wanted for Christmas this year was to redo them.  I got my Christmas wish and we got started on them about a month ago.  All the beds were dug out including the wood chips and replaced with rock.  In addition to redoing the flower beds we also redid the garden and put in raised garden beds.  We built the raised garden beds, but then we had to fill them with dirt.  Aaron had 6 yards of dirt dropped off in front of our house Friday evening.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but that is A LOT of dirt.  It also just kills me to have to PAY for dirt.  I think that is dumb, but what can you do?!  Saturday morning we got up bright and early and started shoveling the dirt into wheelbarrows and moving it to the backyard to put in the garden boxes.  It took a good part of the day, but we got it done.  Josh helped for a bit that morning, but then claimed he had to do homework so he couldn’t help anymore.  The amazing thing is his homework was magically completed by the time we finished.  I was a little suspicious, but Josh truly claimed that is how it worked out.  Josh is a hard worker and is more than willing most the time to help so I let this one slide--haha!  Luckily, Daniel was around to help us.  Sarah and Noah were still at their sleepover at G&G T’s house.  Here’s the big pile ‘o dirt in front of our house:

The picture doesn’t do it justice--there was a lot of dirt!!  We promised a sushi lunch from Golden Ginger to Daniel if he helped which he was more than happy to do for sushi.  It was pretty tasty!!

I am happy to say 90% of all the flower beds and garden are done.  There’s just a few more tasks to complete and it will all be done.  Wahoo!!

Speaking of Daniel he was put in as the Second Assistant in the Priest’s Quorum.  He also was asked to be his seminary class president for this term.  Wahoo!!

Noah’s soccer is in full swing.  He is enjoying playing.  His favorite position still is goalie.  Noah asked Daniel to help him practice before his game last week.  Here they are in the backyard:

Here’s Noah at the game:

Sarah is in a keyboarding class at school.  Sarah did a great job in completing one of her lessons that she won an invisible ink pen.  She came home and somehow talked Noah in to letting her write something on his forehead.  She wrote ‘Dork’, but Noah didn’t know what she wrote until she let him shine the accompanying black light flashlight on it.  Glad they both thought it was funny.

We were having family pictures taken this past weekend.  I ordered a shirt online only to have it unexpectedly get cancelled three days before we were supposed to actually get our pictures done.  DOH!!  At that point there wasn’t time to order anything else so I had to go out shopping to try and find something for me to wear.  I didn’t find exactly what I wanted.  I made due with what I found, but I wanted a scarf to go along with it, however, it is not scarf season anymore so I had to make my own.  Sarah helped me sew it and I think she can sew straighter lines than I can--haha!

Sarah has been doing well in 7th grade and kept her grades up.  She got invited to join the National Junior Honors Society for next year.  Wahoo!  

Last Saturday Josh had a track meet up in Logan.  Aaron somehow got a severe case of food poisoning and was up all the night before upchucking.  I went to the meet by myself.  It was deceivingly sunny so I only brought a sweatshirt.  That was a mistake because it was so cold!!  I was sitting on the bleachers in the sun for about 90 minutes when I realized that I was sitting with the sun beating on me.  Now I sunburn so fast!!  We were going to have family pictures that evening so the last thing I needed was a super sunburned face.  I pulled my hood over my head, put my sunglasses and mask on to try and cover as much my face as I could.

However, I still got really sunburned.  DOH!!  Luckily, for me, there is photoshop and lots of makeup to try and make me not look so red....

Anyway,  at the meet while I was waiting for Josh to run there was a pretty exciting and entertaining race that happened.  It was during the girls 4x200 meter relay race.  On the last leg the lead girl had an unexpected opponent--a dog that came out of no where.  It caught up to her at the end and almost tripped her at the finish line.  That race got the most claps out of the crowd--haha! Here’s one picture of the funny race:

I did catch Josh warming up to run the 3200 meter race:

That is 8 times around the track. Here he is running:

Josh also volunteered to run the Steeplechase race at that meet.  I was nervous for him to run that because it involves hurdles.  Josh had never run that race before and I was afraid he might trip, but he did fine.  This Steeplechase was 800 meters which is two laps around the track.  Every 50 meters there is a hurdle.  I was pleasantly surprised that Josh cleared the hurdles without any problems.  Here’s one:

Josh had a Youth Council leader at the meet, too, who was able to get this angle of Josh clearing the hurdle:

Josh’s coach took this picture, too:

Josh’s coach was hesitant to let him try this race out.  He was afraid he would hurt himself as was Aaron and me.  However, it turned out fine.  I think we were all glad Josh didn’t hurt himself and cleared all the hurdles!!

At the college level the Steeplechase race usually has a pool of water that you land in after you clear the hurdle.  They didn’t have that at this race, but they still wanted the water element.  They improvised and set up a garden hose and squirted all the runners as they passed by that point in the race.  Whatever works....haha!

After the meet Josh asked to stop by Gossner Foods in Logan to pick up some cases of shelf stable flavored milk and squeaky cheese.  I was more than willing to stop--haha!

I am still working doing mostly Covid clinics.  There are a few regular immunization clinics sprinkled throughout, but not many.  Last week I did the walk in clinic at the CNS office in Salt Lake.  However, since the Northern Utah Immunization Conference is going on, they didn’t schedule any walk in appointments during two hours at lunch time.  They had lunch catered and we had a ‘working lunch’.  While we ate lunch we listened to part of the virtual immunization conference.  That was pretty cool!

Josh has been applying for scholarships.  He got notified that he won this particular scholarship last week. It is a scholarship for someone who has overcome hard obstacles in their life.  Josh wrote an essay about living with epilepsy and how it has affected his life.  He was pretty excited to receive it!

Daniel had his first track meet two weeks ago. He ran the 800 meter race.  It was really cold during this race.  Here he is as the starting line (he’s the one wearing the black compression pants in the middle of the picture):

He did have a bit of a surprise in the middle of the race.  A kid accidentally tripped in front of him and since they were running so close together Daniel couldn’t avoid running over the top of him.  Unfortunately, Daniel was wearing track spike shoes with sharp metal spikes---OUCH!!  He felt horrible and stopped to help the kid up, but got yelled at by the other runners who were trying to pass them.  Luckily, the kid that tripped got up and still finished the race.  Daniel felt horrible, but glad that he wasn’t injured.  I just teased Daniel about playing dirty (he didn’t play dirty at all) to try and win the race no matter any means--haha!

My family likes to have sample nights and try different foods from different countries.  Since I lived in London for a bit I learned to love their chocolate.  I saw a sample pack of chocolate bars from London and ordered them for us to try.  They were legit because they were shipped in a box labeled Royal Mail which is England’s official postal service.   

We cut up each candy bar in enough pieces for everyone to try a small bit and then talked about how they liked it.

They liked all of them, but the caramel bar seemed to be the favorite.

Daniel had his second track meet a few days ago.  Luckily, Daniel didn’t run over anyone with his metal spike shoes at this race--haha!  He ran the 800 meter race and did great.

Syracuse high is allowing one official school dance this year.  It will be another Prom.  Josh asked a different girl to this dance a few days ago.  Hopefully, he will get an answer back before 3 weeks---haha!  Here’s how he asked her:

He dropped off a Crazy Bread coupon, Crazy Sauce and a pizza:

Josh had another meet this week and it was SO COLD!!  He ran the 1600 meter race and the 3200 meter race.  He ran with a sweatshirt on because it was so cold!

The coach even let him signal with the running gun the last lap of the girls 1600 race.  As soon as Josh got the gun he looked at me and smiled.  I pretended to be really scared since he had the race gun--haha!

Here’s a funny meme from our stash this week--haha!