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!!