Stranded, Car Problems, Flu Shots, Neurology, Working, YWIE, Adulting

It has been a bit of a hectic week that's for sure!  During this last week was our wards Young Women in Excellence.  Being the Personal Progress person that meant I was in charge of planning it.  It was a bit nerve wracking, but working with such awesome people it went great.  I thought it would be fun to do an election theme since this is actually an election year.  We had everyone wear red, white and blue to make it more patriotic.  We also made signs that said 'I Vote For ______' each of the Young Women values.  In the beginning we welcomed all the candidates.  We then watched a movie about our girls on the campaign trail this year which was pictures from all the activities in the past year set to some fun music.  We then heard from 8 of the young women.  Each one had to present a value and why we should vote for that value.  I then got the chance to present the Personal Progress Ribbons to those that had earned them.   We then had talks by the Young Women's president about setting goals to make it to the White House (the temple).  We then heard from the Bishop.  He got to present two Young Womanhood Recognition Awards to two awesome young women and one Honor Bee Award to another Young Woman.  He then spoke to use about the importance of making and setting good goals so we can make it to the temple.  Afterward we had some red, white and blue cake (red velvet cake, with cream cheese frosting with blue sprinkles).  All the leaders dressed in red, white and blue with some extra red, white and blue accessories as you can see:

It ended up being a fun night.  Here's what the gym looked like after we set up:

Here's the front speaker's area:

Here's the dessert and water tables:

Each of the girls were encouraged to bring something they were working on to display.  We have some really talented girls in our ward.  It was amazing to see all the different things the girls have been and are working on.  Here's the project display tables looked like, but this was before all the projects had made it to the church that night:

It was a fun night and I hope that everyone had a spiritually uplifting night as well.

The past two weeks Aaron and I had been in charge of some big projects.  Aaron had the Pinewood Derby and I had Young Women in Excellence.  To celebrate them going off without a hitch we went out to breakfast the next morning.  We split a yummy breakfast burrito along with some Fiiz Drinks.  As you can see we have some looks of relief after a crazy two weeks!!

Among all the craziness during the week we also happened to buy a truck.  It's not a new truck, but it was in pretty good condition for being 22 years old.  We also bought it from a neighbor who has had it in their family since it was new so we knew the history of the truck.  Here's what it looks like:

We figured we were on borrowed time with Aaron's Hyundai since it has a small oil leak, a bigger coolant leak, a totally broken radio, a broken door handle where the only way to get out of the driver's side was to roll down the window and open the door from the outside, broken door locks, non working air conditioning, broken automatic windows, broken console, etc.  Needless to say, Aaron was in heaven driving this truck than in his Hyundai.  We didn't need anything fancy since he only drives 8 miles a day 4-5 days a week so that is one reason why we got an older vehicle.  It was running great, too, that was up until today when I took the truck to run some errands. (We were hoping to start using this truck to put miles on rather than the Suburban since that is the only car that will fit all of us.)  Anyway I was driving over to South Ogden today when the truck started having some issues.  I made it to where I needed to go, but when it was time to come home I started driving down a very busy Highway 89 when the truck died.  Luckily, I was able to coast over to the side of the road.  I tried starting the truck again and I was able to go another 50 feet until it died again.  DOH!!  Thankfully, Aaron was by his office phone--something that never happens!!  He is never at his desk and isn't allowed a cell phone in the building so getting ahold of him during the day is impossible.  I have to email him if I need to talk to him and he doesn't usually get that for awhile after it's sent, either!  Anyway, I called him and was so grateful when he picked up.  I told him I was stranded.  Luckily, he was just taking off for lunch so he was able to come help me.  He came to check out the truck and he got it to drive another 50 feet before it died again.  DOH!!  Looking around there really isn't anything in the area (it was up by the mountain where it is just highway) except a hotel and a car service garage.  Wahoo!!  Aaron called the garage and they would be able to fix it if we could get the truck in their parking lot.  In order to get the truck in their parking lot which was 1/4 mile away we had to say lots of prayers and cross our fingers because we had to cross an extremely busy intersection to get there.  I think we were being watched out for because the truck died in the middle of the intersection, however, we were on a slight incline so we were able to coast into the parking lot.  As we coasted in the garage workers started laughing at us because we stopped right in front of one of the garage bays.  The garage owner said we got it close enough--he had pushers (aka other employees) to get it inside to work on it.  As we got out of the truck I then told them how conveniently located they were--which I was totally joking since they really were by nothing else for at least 5 miles in any direction.  It ended up being the fuel pump which isn't too bad of a fix, but still not the most ideal time to go out especially since we just bought the dang truck not even a week ago.  Oh well, hopefully we will have better luck with it after this fix.  This has been the year of car repairs for us--which stinks!!  Cars are a necessary EVIL--sigh!!  It also doesn't help that we had to get four new tires put on the Suburban, Monday, too.  Ugh!!  Here's my nice new tires:

Funny tires aren't that much fun to buy!  Oh well at least we will be able to have some traction during the winter.  The other tires were pretty bald. Again cars are a necessary EVIL!!  Anyway, after being stranded and having a crazy time getting the truck to a garage, we drowned our sorrows in a Fiiz drink because Fiiz makes everything better, right?!  Also a snuggle from Sophie helps, too :).

Lately things have been so busy that our garden has been a bit neglected.  Daniel was outside playing when he found this monstrosity of a zucchini in the garden.  I think our zucchini crop this year could have ended world hunger because we got so many of them!!  It is so big I don't know what to even do with it....

With me working I have been travelling around the area quite a bit.  Just last week alone I put over 300 miles on the Suburban.  I had clinics up in Logan all the way to South Salt Lake and out to Morgan.  The funnest clinic I had was at a charter school in Clinton where most of our old neighborhood attends.  It was fun to see all the familiar people and give them all shots, too.  I even got to give their mascot (I think it was a Viking) a shot, as well.  I must say that I have been enjoying this job which has been nice.  With all the crazy car repairs we have had it is also nice to have a little bit of extra money to help out!!

In keeping with all the crazy driving we also got drive down to Herriman Saturday morning to watch Daniel's Lacrosse game.  I've been spending lots of time in the car.  With me working I have not been around as much to make sure the kids' homework gets done as well as chores or piano practicing.  Aaron has been around, but he's not as much of a task master (slave driver) as I am.  He likes to be the fun guy.  However, he wasn't the fun guy when he brought all the kids to get their flu shot from me last week, though.  The kids weren't excited to see me at work that afternoon!!  Luckily they let me give them their shots without too much fighting.

Daniel:

Josh:

Aaron with a photobomb credit to Daniel:

Sarah:

Noah:

Afterward Aaron had to take them for some ice cream, right?!

Matthew was at his afterschool program so Aaron brought him in later to get his done.  Matthew was not a fan, but he still let me give it to him:

Anyway as for Aaron taking care of the kids, I am not worried.  The kids are mostly well taken care of and fed so nothing to stress about.  However, if you do happen to stop by my house don't judge too harshly the crazy mess that it is right now!!  I did have parent teacher conferences this week for Daniel, Sarah and Noah and explained a bit of why they haven't been as consistent with homework, but it will be getting better soon.  The flu shot clinic will be winding down in a couple weeks so I can go back to being a task master (aka slave driver) when I am done.  I am sure the kids can't wait--haha!  That is until my other Clinical CNA instructor job starts, but those few weeks we will get lots done :).  As for parent teacher conferences the kids are doing great this year and all seem to like school.  They got some good teachers this year!

This past week Josh had a neurology appointment.  I had to make the appointment two months in advance because Josh's doctor is hard to get into.  I was bummed to find out I was scheduled to work that morning and since it takes forever to get in to see the neurologist, rescheduling wasn't an option.  Luckily, Aaron was able to fill in, but he was a bit nervous since it's usually me that goes to the medical appointments and keeps track of those things for the kids.  However, he handled it like a champ.  He even had them measure height between Josh and himself.  Aaron is only a 1/4 inch taller than Josh at this point which is CRAZY!!  They had to increase Josh's medication dose to keep up with his crazy growth.  Anyway, the awesome thing is Josh is coming up on his two year seizure free anniversary in April.  If he makes it that long we get to try weaning him off his medication again.  However, before we even attempt that he has to have a clear EEG test.  Aaron scheduled that test in March.  Oh I am so NOT looking forward to that!!  Oh well, this will probably be Josh's last attempt at trying to wean off medications.  If he doesn't tolerate it (aka has a seizure(s)) he will probably be on medication for life.  There are good and bad things about that.  Even if he stays seizure free for at least two years, if we try weaning him off medication and he fails we will have to worry about him not being able to drive which is not what a teenager wants to deal with.  Oh well I am trying not to borrow trouble since we don't even have to worry about it until about March anyway. After their visit Aaron took Josh to breakfast and enjoyed some one on one time with Josh.  He also took him to the driving range to hit a bucket of balls the other afternoon.  The kids are growing up so fast so we are trying to spend more time with them while they still like being around their parents 🙂.

Some of our friends had a haunted basement this past Friday.  They invited us to come check it out.  Sarah and Daniel ran downstairs to check it out.  Noah was a bit more apprehensive.  He would only go if I went with him.

They had all the lights turned off and you had to crawl through a long tunnel made out of cardboard boxes taped together.  I tried taking a picture, but the only way it would show anything is if you turned the flash on which blinded Noah as I took the picture.

As we were getting through the tunnel (yes I had to crawl through it with him) we passed by the fireman whose house we were at.  He was crawling around in the tunnel with his hazmat suit on and a respirator which made him sound like Darth Vader.  Noah didn't get too upset because I was right there with him.  It just made the tunnel more interesting.  When the tunnel opened up there was a witch with a touch and feel box where you got to blindly reach your hands in to feel her ingredients.  Noah stuck his hand in the first hole and the witch grabbed Noah's hand to scare him and it really scared him.  Good thing she had some candy on hand to help him get over his fear.  We went through the rest of the basement and the kids had fun.  Matthew and Josh just stayed upstairs because they had cookies you could eat.  Of course the teenage boys want to be where the food is!!

It was a fun activity for us all.

Daniel had his Lacrosse game in Herriman this last Saturday morning.  He is getting better at figuring out strategy which is good.  It is a fun game to watch.  Daniel is the one in the dark blue jersey in the middle of the picture:

Monday was Columbus Day which meant the kids had to go to school while Aaron got the day off from work.  Gotta love those weird government holidays!  We didn't do anything too fun, though.  We got four new tires put on the suburban since the old ones were pretty bald.  We also went and got the new trucks oil changed, radiator flushed, emissions and inspection done so we could register it.  Even though it wasn't too exciting we at least got to spend the day together.  

We did stop by G&G T's house and she gave the kids their Halloween goodie bags.  She put candy inside a latex glove to make it look like a scary hand.  The kids loved them!

Occasionally I will get a Facebook memory pop up.  Yesterday it was Josh and Matthew's pinewood derby picture.  I paired it up with Sarah and Daniel's pinewood derby picture. The kids do look similar--you can tell they are siblings!!

Anyway after a crazy beginning of the week (being stranded) I thought things would get better.  I guess I thought wrong, I got an email from Daniel's teacher this morning saying that Daniel had somehow gotten dog poop on his jacket.  GROSS!!  Hey after that things should start looking up, right?!  I hope so!  Sometimes 'adulting' is not as fun as I thought it would be back when I was a teenager with hardly any responsibilities.  I think I deserve a sticker or two for that!!

Good thing I love my family!!