Automobile Graveyard Hike, Costume Dance, Neglected, Grape Juice, Johnny Appleseed, Awkward Experience

Things have been going great this week.  I am still working, but the flu clinics are winding down just in time for me to start up my Clinical Instructor work.  We had our semi annual start up meeting as CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) instructors last week and shifts start up in a few more weeks.  It keeps me busy and gives our family money for Christmas and vacations so it's a good thing--haha!  

This past Sunday was interesting for our family.  Daniel got to pass the sacrament the first time.  He was so nervous.  They gave him an easy section to do so it was good experience for him--thank goodness!  Matthew also got to bless the sacrament, too.  He gets so excited, but can still be reverent which is good.  Josh got to kind help prepare the sacrament beforehand until he started having a sneezing fit and had to come sit down before sacrament meeting instead.  I hate allergy season!!  It was awesome to see my boys being able to help out!  It was also the primary program for sacrament meeting.  I love that Sunday every year.  The kids are so cute and fun to watch.  Sarah and Noah nailed their parts.  As for singing, Noah lost interest about half way through the program, but what can you do?!  Later on that day Sarah got to give a talk in primary and did great too.  It was a busy day for our family!

I LOVE fall.  I love how it is cooler and I can wear hoodies.  I love the crisp mornings and the beautiful fall leaves.  We decided to revisit our automobile graveyard hike we attempted back during the summer where we didn't make it very far.  It was a lot better with cooler temperatures.  The fall color was winding down as the leaves are starting to fall off the trees, but there was enough color to be beautiful.  Daniel had a friend over who decided to come along on our hike with us.  I guess the more the merrier, right?!  Here you can see how pretty the colors were:

 Along the trail there are supposed to be four wrecked cars you can see.  We almost missed the wrecked cars since they were a bit off the trail and hidden behind some foliage.  Luckily, Daniel is 100% boy and was throwing rocks as he walked along the trail when one hit a metal object.  Checking out what made the metal clink when the rock hit we found one wrecked car.  I have no idea how it ended up out in the middle of no where, but there it was.  We scrambled down the hill to check it out.  There are no roads by this car so I have no idea how it ended up there, but it was interesting to look at.

 It was starting to get a bit late so we decided to start heading back to the parking lot.  Here's the view on the way back to our car:

 On the way back we found another wrecked car we got to check out.  Here's the kids hiking up the side of the small waterfall to see it:

 Again I have no idea how it ended up there since there are no roads around, but it was interesting to check it out.

 Although the kids wanted to climb inside the car I didn't let them since I didn't want anyone to get Tetanus.  I guess I was the stick in the mud mom, but better safe than sorry, right?!

 On the way to the wrecked cars and back to our car we had to cross a small stream.  Luckily, there were rocks you could jump across so you didn't have to get wet.  Here's Noah taking his turn crossing the stream:

Unfortunately, on the way back to the car Daniel's friend slipped off one of the rocks and got himself pretty wet.  DOH! Good thing we were heading back to our car to go home because I am sure that made for a chilly walk.

Here's Matthew walking back to our car along the trail:

 It was really pretty up there.  It was up Farmington Canyon.  We still hit the beautiful foliage, but I am sure it was in its prime about a week before we went hiking.  However, there was still plenty of pretty leaves to see.

 On the way down there was a small cave everyone checked out.  For some reason all my kids left before I got my camera out so I only got a picture of Landon, Daniel's friend.

 We ended up hiking about 3 miles so it was a good hike.  It was awesome that it was so close (25 minutes away from our house), a pretty easy hike and had such great views.  There's supposed to be two more crashed cars along the trail that I would like to go back and find sometime.  Maybe in the spring...

We had to get back home since there was a stake dance that night Josh really wanted to go to.  You could dress up for the dance so Josh decided to go as Napoleon Dynamite:

Aaron and I dropped him off and hoped for the best seeing as neither Aaron or I really cared for stake dances when we were that age.  This is an argument for the nature vs. nurture--he obviously didn't pick up on his love of dances from being nurtured by Aaron and me--haha!  He seemed to have enjoyed himself.  He even came in 2nd place in the costume contest they had.  Wahoo!

Speaking of Josh he had a check up with the allergist to have his allergy shot serum remixed.  When they measured him he was definitely over 6'3" now.  The poor nurse really couldn't reach over his head with the measuring thing so Josh had to measure himself.  He is a tall guy, but that comes in handy when all the good candy is on the top shelf at the store as you can see:

Despite being no more Cross Country meets until December Josh is still keeping up with his running schedule the coach has given out.  He was excited about today, though.  The team met together to do a 7 mile run out on Antelope Island and then have a BBQ afterward.  Josh came home with BBQ sauce on his face, but said all six hamburgers he ate were pretty delicious.  Holy cow I have no idea where that kid puts all his food!!  The coach assigned the kids to run 15 miles this weekend so he got seven done today and only has 8 more to do the rest of the weekend.  I am glad he enjoys running.

Josh had a youth council activity this past week which was meet the candidates night.  There are a few city council and a mayor position up for election in a few weeks.  To get to know the candidates they had the youth council come up with questions to ask them.  Josh's question he got to ask the mayor candidates was something like with the growing number population of our city will there be enough parks and how will they guarantee that?

The other day we got pumpkin doorbell ditched.  Someone (we later found out it was one of Daniel's friends) left a pumpkin decorated with the U of U logo painted on it on our porch as they rang the doorbell and ran away.  Daniel wanted to smash it when he saw it--haha!

 I have been working quite a bit lately.  I have been picking up extra shifts in addition to my regularly scheduled ones so I have really been gone quite a bit.  My kids, my husband, my dog and my house have really been neglected.  Ugh!  I feel guilty being gone so much, but it is okay because it is temporary.  Since I have been gone quite a bit, when I am home, as soon as I sit down Sophie immediately jumps in my lap and curls up.  She misses me.

 She also thinks that when I am sitting down I should only be paying attention to her as well.  I tried to blog last week and as soon as she saw me pull out the computer she started clawing and nipping at my hands because I should be petting her at all times instead of typing.

What a crazy and spoiled dog!!

Last Friday we had scheduled our Activity Day Girls' activity.  Unfortunately, I had to work so my partner was able to get a few other moms to help out.  They went on the pumpkin hayride at J&J Nursery.  Sarah really had fun. Here's the girls on the hayride:

 Here's everyone and their pumpkins:

 I was sad I had to miss the activity. Luckily, that was the only Friday afternoon that I will work.  It looked like they had a fun time.

We finally got Daniel's soccer pictures in the mail today.  They took the pictures almost at the end of the season so they didn't get them back in time to pass out during a game.  I was glad they were able to mail them to us.  Here's Daniel and his team with his awesome coach (Aaron):

 A couple in our ward boundaries had a bunch of extra grapes they weren't going to use and asked if anyone would want them.  Heck yes!!  I was at work so I sent Aaron over to pick some up.  I was excited to bust out my old steam juicer that I haven't used in years this morning to make grape juice.

 We ended up getting 11 quarts of grape juice from the grapes.  I had never steam juiced green grapes before so I was a little nervous about how they would turn out, but they're pretty good.  You don't even need to add any sugar to the juice.  I think its interesting how each bottle is a different color.  Kind of crazy, but it still all tastes pretty good so we will take it.

Daniel started a merit badge class yesterday.  His teacher is from New York and is quite blunt with quite a strong New York accent.  I guess he was pretty intimidating to all the kids.  Daniel said that after the first couple questions no one dared answer any more because if they didn't do and answer exactly what they were supposed to the teacher would get upset at them.  Daniel was pretty glad when the class was over.  Too bad he has quite a few more classes to attend until he earns the merit badge.  

Aaron went to pick Josh up from school the other day and saw Josh's student of the month picture in the shelves by the office and texted a picture to me.  Wahoo, Josh!

Daniel has been working along with the other student council members on putting together the Food Drive at school.  The student council meets during recess and lunchtime to work stuff out.  Here's the email we got about it a few days ago:

Hopefully I will remember to send some cans of food in with Daniel--last year I forgot.  I blame my crazy forgetful mom brain!!

Noah LOVES apples and at school they learned about Johnny Appleseed.  Ever since then Noah has been eating apples and saving the seeds.  When he is done with the apple he will take the seeds and plant them in random areas around the yard.

 He then will get some water and go around and water them every day.  I have no idea where he has planted all of them--to be honest I don't think he does either--haha!

What a crazy kid!

On Facebook there is a game going around where you post a black and white picture of your every day life with no people or explanations over 7 days.  The other day I posted my work station at a flu clinic.  This is what my desk, location, area looks like while I am at work:

This week I got to drive out to Morgan for a clinic.  I was excited because I thought the drive would be pretty with fall leaves.  I was wrong.  All the leaves had fallen and it looked pretty much like winter minus the snow.  It is so crazy how fast things can change!  I did have quite an interesting experience at work the other day.  We were doing a clinic inside a pediatrician's office.  They had us come in to do flu shots so they wouldn't tie up their other staff with doing them.  Towards the end of the clinic I had a family come in with 5 children.  One child was absolutely terrified of getting the shot.  After the mom and the kid's siblings had gotten the shot it was time for him to get it.  The mom was insistent that he get it so she held him down and I also had to get another nurse to help the mom hold him down while I gave him the shot.  I felt horrible, but what can you do?! After all that it was time for the dad to get his shot.  He shooed his kids out of the room so it ended up just being me, his wife and him in the room when he straight up told his wife that he was absolutely not getting the shot.  The couple then proceeded to argue about it for five minutes with me just being about 5 feet away from them.  It was so awkward.  They kept asking me what my opinion was, but then would cut me off when I tried to say anything.  It was completely awkward. I couldn't leave the room because they were blocking the door during their argument so I had to just sit there and stare at the wall until the husband shooed the wife out of the room and finally let me give him his shot.  The whole time I was giving him his shot he went off about his wife and how '%&@*$' stubborn she was and blah, blah, blah.  I was never so glad to see that family leave.  I can't convey how awkward that whole thing was.  I guess it keeps things interesting, right?!

Seizure, Student of the Month, Ordination, Field Trip, Conference, Volleyball, Cross Country, Birthday

Time seems to be getting away from me.  A LOT has happened these past two weeks.  Daniel had a birthday.  We checked him out of school and took him out for lunch.  It was a fun lunch date.  Daniel chose to go to Wendy's so that's where we went.  We didn't have a whole lot of time because Daniel had stuff going on at school he didn't want to miss so he went right back to school after lunch.

Daniel chose to have a birthday party this year with friends.  I have to say it was nice that everyone was excited for pizza, cake and a movie.  Parties seem to get easier the older the kids get--wahoo!  Here's his cake:

Here's the party kids:

If you can survive a party with a bunch of boys you can survive anything, right?!  Just kidding they weren't too bad, but it was nice to have a quiet house again after the party was over--haha!  Between all the boys and my own family we went through eight pizzas!!

The next day we went to Pizza Pie for lunch to celebrate his actual birthday and invited G&G T to come along with us.

Daniel loved opening his presents:

That evening was Priesthood General session of Conference that Daniel got to attend for the first time.  Here's the cute boy in his suit:

Here's the 4 old enough Mancil boys going to Priesthood session:

They invited Grandpa T to come along with them, too:

Of course they made sure they stopped for ice cream afterward.  I think that was Daniel's favorite part.

While Aaron was on his mission he said they had some ginger beer that was pretty strong.  It is NOT alcoholic.  It is something like ginger ale, but with a lot stronger ginger flavor.  Aaron has tried to explain the taste to me, but it is hard to explain tastes without actually tasting something.  However, when we were picking up groceries Aaron came across this Ginger Beer at the store so he had us pick some up so me and the kids could try it.

I have to say it had a pretty strong ginger flavor.  I didn't like it, but the kids liked it which surprised me.  It was fun to try out.

I have been working A TON lately so I was glad I was able to squeeze in a batch of home made peach jam before the peach season officially ended.  We love our peach jam!!

Our area was doing a volleyball season this fall.  Sarah said she wanted to try it out so we signed her up.  It has been interesting seeing her learn something new.  There is a definite learning curve, but she seems to be enjoying herself even if she doesn't hit the ball every time...  Here she is in the blue shorts learning how to play:

Still learning:

I know I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again --I HATE calls from the school.  So you know when I got a call from the school two weeks ago I was sorely tempted not to answer it, but curiosity won out and I answered.  It was the Jr. High telling me that Josh had been selected as Student of the Month.  Wahoo!  I was really glad I answered that call from the school--haha!  His Band teacher nominated him.  To celebrate the nominees they all got to have an early morning breakfast with their parents and the faculty in the library.  I was so excited.  That call made my day!!  His name even got put on the marquee outside the school.

Wahoo!!

At the early morning breakfast they had a sign showing all the students of the month for October.  There were 3 in General Studies and 6 in Fine Arts.  Out of a school that has over 1200+ students I think that is pretty remarkable!!

At the breakfast they awarded each student of the month a certificate and read a letter explaining why they were chosen for student of the month.  Here's Josh's certificate:

His letter from his band teacher said, "It was my great pleasure to nominate Joshua Mancil as Academic Student of the Month in Fine Arts.  Being a new teacher here at the school, I haven't always known the ins and outs of how everything works and I especially didn't in those first few days.  Joshua has been very helpful in that area letting me know what they have done in the past and how certain things work.  Sometimes it has been something as simple as turning on my TV for announcements; but it has been a huge help in making me feel more welcome and getting to know the school and its routine.  Joshua is a great young man and musician.  Joshua will go far in life with the skills he has shown so far in both music and in his kind and caring personality.  Congratulations, Tana Jenson"

Here's Josh getting his award and letter read at the breakfast by the principal:

Yay Josh!  Again I was so glad I answered that call from the school--haha!  It was also funny because Matthew's old Learning Center teachers from Jr. High recognized us and came over for a chat after breakfast.  They wanted to see how Matthew was doing in high school.  It was fun to see them again and to know that they still remembered Matthew.

In other happenings Daniel applied and was chosen to be in the Student Council at the elementary school.  He was even chosen for a leadership position, too.  Wahoo!  Daniel was pretty excited about that.  He had his first student council meeting this past week and they are planning on putting together a food drive for the homeless at the school.  Daniel was so excited to bring home his acceptance letter to show me:

In other things, we know that things can't always go smoothly.  Unfortunately two weeks ago around 4 am Saturday morning we were awoken by Daniel running in to our bedroom quite upset.  Josh was having a seizure downstairs.  We ran downstairs and I started timing the seizure while Aaron ran upstairs to find the emergency medication just in case we needed it.  Josh was precariously close to the edge of the bed, but thankfully he didn't fall off.  I tried to move him back toward the middle of the bed, but he is just to big for me to be able to move.  Even if he would have fallen off, his bed is pretty close to the ground so it wouldn't have been too bad.  Daniel and I just sat and watched helplessly.  After what seemed like an eternity the seizure ended.  It ended up only being about 2 and a half minutes from what we saw (it may have been a bit longer since we don't know how long it had been going on before Daniel woke up and then woke us up).  After it stopped Josh was completely non responsive.  He was breathing, but not moving, or waking up to answer any questions.  Unfortunately that is normal for Josh, but I really HATE that part.  By this time Aaron was on the phone with the on call neurologist from Primary Children's Hospital asking what we should do.  Josh was on his last three days of weaning of his medication so we needed to know how to get him back on it safely because he obviously needs to be back on his regular dose of medication.  The on call neurologist just told us to increase his current dose by a tiny bit and to call his regular pediatric neurologist Monday morning.  We held our breath and just hoped nothing happened until we got a hold of his regular neurologist.  However, I must admit that in the past when he has had a seizure while trying to wean off meds the doctor has told me to give him in extra pill right after he wakes all the way up from his seizure so that's what I did anyway.  It took Josh a good 45 minutes to be alert enough to even sit up in bed to take the pill, but we got it in him.  Then after all that chaos everyone tried to go back sleep--which didn't happen for me.  I was pretty much awake after that.  Boo!!  The crazy thing is that Josh didn't even remember a single thing that had happened a few hours earlier when he woke up for the day.  I explained to Josh everything that had happened and the scary thing is Josh had said he had felt a little 'off' for the past few weeks so who knows if he has had a few seizures that no one has caught up until the one we saw.  Scary.  Anyway, I called Primary's first thing Monday morning, but his regular pediatric neurologist was out of town for the week.  The neurologist filling in for her gave us a schedule to get back up to his regular dose of meds which will take a few weeks.  I am keeping my fingers crossed nothing happens in the mean time while we get him back up to where he needs to be.  His regular pediatric neurologist did call us back last week and told us to make an appointment to see her as soon as we could and double checked or medication increase schedule.  Darn it.  Josh was really hoping to be off his seizure medication, but he is just not ready it seems....BOO!!

Josh hasn't let it slow him down, though.  He has had a few meets the last few weeks and has done great.  It is fun to watch the meets because you can move around the area to cheer them on at different stages in the races.  

 Here's Josh right after he finished a 5k with Daniel right next to him in line waiting to turn in the number on his race bib:

I have been working like crazy these past few weeks.  I have been everywhere from Utah County up to Cache County.  Again I am really glad I get paid for mileage!!  Anyway, last week I got the chance to drive up to Logan to work at flu clinic up there.  Sardine Canyon was beautiful!!  All the leaves were all the fall colors and so pretty to see.  I was glad I made it up there before they fell off the trees!

Sarah had her 3rd volleyball class a few days ago.  She is slowly learning how to play and hit the ball...slowly :).

This past weekend G&G Mancil came for a visit.  Aaron took them to a BYU football game Friday night.  Saturday he wanted them to see the beautiful fall colors so he drove them up through Sardine Canyon.  Seeing as our car only fit 8 people and I still had errands to run I stayed behind with Matthew.  After running a few errands I took Matthew over to Lagoon for a few hours because he really loves that place.  He really wanted to ride the new Terror Ride so we waited in the ridiculously long line and got to ride it.  They have really changed the ride and it was fun to try it out.  Here we are in line waiting for our turn:

 Daniel got ordained a Deacon at church on Sunday.  We are so excited for him.  We now have a Priest, a Teacher and a Deacon.  That sounds like the beginning of a crazy joke--there was a Priest, a Teacher, and a Deacon...haha!  Matthew even got to participate in the circle to help ordain Daniel.  It was pretty awesome!!

 The proud parents:

 Father and son:

 Or course, we forgot to get pictures right after church.  That meant we had to get our church clothes back on; however, none of us wanted to get our shoes back on so we had to carefully take the pictures to avoid seeing our bare feet--haha!

It was nice to be able to have both sets of grandparents with us to see Daniel get ordained.  I can't believe I have 3 boys in the young men program now!!

When they were asking if people would sustain Daniel in getting the priesthood in sacrament meeting, one of my friends sitting in front of me turned around and kiddingly said, "They are giving 8 years the priesthood now?!"  I laughed because Daniel looked so little standing up on the stand.  I still can't believe he is 12 years old!!

I had a day off of work this week so I was able to be a chaperone on a field trip with the 4th grade (Sarah's Class).  I got the biggest group of kids to watch over again.  Good thing I am used to counting a bunch of fast moving kids from my own home experience--haha!  We first went to tour the landfill to see where our garbage goes after we throw it away and what they do with it.  It was interesting to see the compost piles and see how they can help the green waste break down into mulch you can buy.  Next we went to see the Weber Basin Water Conservatory and treatment center.  We got to see and learn about how they get our drinking water and how they clean it.  Here's the kids learning  about how to plant and water conservation garden:

 Learning about how they clean our water:

 The buses were pretty crowded so the parents had to drive separately and carpool.  A few parts of the tour we had to crowd on the bus to go on the short driving tours of the different places.  Things were so crowded on the bus, Sarah had to sit in my lap in the same row as two other girls.  We were pretty squishy!!  I was glad I was able to go on the field trip, though!

 After lunch we then stopped by the sewage treatment plant.  Gag!!  We got to take a tour of the cleaning facility and then the lab.  It was so stinky!!  It was hard not to gag!  It was interesting, but I don't care to ever take that tour again!!  During the tour they talked about how they had to separate the solids from the liquids and how they clean each of them.  In separating the solids they have a chute the solids slide down.  To show us what it looked like one of the employees got a glove on and grabbed a handful to show the kids.  Ick!!

 I was really glad they saved that tour until after lunch.  I wasn't sad to leave the sewer treatment plant behind!!  It was a fun field trip and I was glad I was able to go with Sarah and the other 6 kids in our group.

Daniel is able to eat more and more cashews.  After this weeks oral immunotherapy appointment he gets to eat 4 cashews every morning and the nice thing is, he actually likes what they taste like!  Since he is eating more cashews we have to provide our own cashews every week.  I think that is a bit dumb, but what can you do?!  Since it is hard to find non cross contaminated nuts (because he is still allergic to pistachios) we have to drive down to Trader Joes in Salt Lake to pick up his cashews upon the allergist's request.  Those cashews from Trader Joes are pricey!!  I am wondering if they have gold dust on them or something--oh well what can you do?!  The bad thing is I left the open bag on the counter and it seems that Aaron and I have no self control when it comes to cashews!  We have gone so long without them that now, it is safe to have them in our house, we almost ate the whole bag this week.  Whoops!  Luckily, I bought a few bags from Trader Joes when I was there so we still have a few bags left.  We just can't eat them like we have been doing--haha!!  Here's Daniel's cashew dose from this week's appointment:

At this week's appointment we were also told we only have 6 more appointments until his graduation if everything goes smoothly!  We are so excited!!  I can't wait to be done and have bags of cashews in my house that everyone can eat as much as they want!!  Having no visits or copays doesn't hurt either!  Wahoo!!  Cashew chicken here we come in 6 more appointments--YAY!!  I think I may have to make a count down paper chain to celebrate!!