Jena's Look at Christmas 2009

Jena took some pictures of Christmas morning:

We had Christmas upstairs this year in our family room.

Hard to tell but they had matching pjs from Mrs. Claus this year.

Jessica, Scott and Tosha got scuba diving lessons for Christmas.  Jessica is practicing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

...Tosha is practicing her flipping action.

Here is Scott, being silly with his stocking.

Jena modeling Scott's pjs.  For those of you who knew us when Scott was 3, he loved his "army clothes" and wore them as often as possible  I(which is very often when you have a maid who likes you and washes them almost every night! When I saw these, I had to get them for Scott.

Ben was around, but Jena didn't get any pictures of him. We will see if Jessica or Tosha did and post them later. Jena did take a picture of Gary and I in the morning....but she doesn't know how to post the pictures without my help....and well, there are some advantages to being the "admin."

They're still cute after all these years!!!!

(perhaps not as cute as grandkids, but we can wait for that.)

Merry Christmas..a day late

Merry Christmas to our family and friends who read our blog (and yes, I am working on those Christmas cards).  (For those of you who don't know to review back, this is the third post of today so you might want to go down and work backwards)

We had a very nice Christmas season with time with our kids,extended family, and friends.  We had parties, went to see the Christmas Carol at the Hale Theater, and enjoyed family time and games.

I am happy to report that Jessica, Scott, and Tosha got scuba diving lessons for Christmas which means that I will have some dive partners to go diving with.  We will have to wait for awhile...our vacation plans are already being set for 2010--Moab trip and then Family Woodbadge Camp as I have been asked to attend and become Woodbadge certified.

Jena got an I-Pod Nano for Christmas which I heard her tell a peer tutor that she wanted a green one for Christmas over the phone.  I was unsure about it but she also mentioned it to Gary while they were looking at ads on a Sunday so we decided to go with it.  She rarely expresses something that she wants except for chips and yoyo string.  We also got a I-Home so that she can use it in her room with speakers which I think will be the usual way she uses it.  She is thrilled and excited to be choosing music to put on it.  Jena pays attention at school to the kids talking so I think she picked up that I-Pods were good gifts for teenagers.  I think she will like it.

Ben is very hard to shop for because of his illness.  One of the symtoms he has is the inability to make decisions.  When he makes even simple decisions, his thoughts will circle back and start saying that it was the wrong decision--ie, if he picked a blue shirt, his thoughts will starting repeating "The blue one is bad.  You should of picked the red one." over and over.  He is aware enough to be able to say, "That is not me saying that, but my illness." but it is a tricky thing to manage.  He takes little pleasure in things as well.  We had finally decided to let him get two rats.  Of the small animals, they can be the most interactive and loyal.  I chose a cage, hoping that it might make things a bit easier, but he couldn't quite deal with the green/blue base so Gary and he are returning it for another one.  Animals can be a stress reliever and he has always liked animals so I hope it will be a useful gift once we get it sorted out.  He still needs to pick the rats as well. 

Despite his uncertainty about the cage, his face lit up when he read the message about the rats.  Most of the day, he was happier than he has been.  Scott commented how nice it was to see Ben happy for awhile.  Ben had a hard night until he got to sleep, but it was nice to see him smile for awhile....and that is what Christmas is for...to make people smile.

Merry Christmas, one and all!

What crazy BYU fans will do?

It seemed like a great idea at the time---take my dad and Karla along with Gary, fly SOUTH to Las Vegas, go to the bowl game, and fly home the next day.  Like my dad said, "I can see it better from the comfort of my living room, but every BYU fan should go to a bowl game once in their lives." 

It actually was a good plan and things went well.  The flight was packed, but we found room in the overhead for our carryons.  The hotel was fine although a bit close to the airport (like you could hear planes taking off during the night...not as much of a problem in our room because the heater was loud enough to block the noise from the airplanes.)  We had a late lunch before the game at an IHOP with outstanding sirlion tips and a fabulous waitress with personality plus.  In fact, she was so good that we decided to head back there after the game for a light supper in hopes of getting the same waitress.  We got a different one who told us that she was an amazing waitress and that the day shifts were pale in comparsion to her.  To prove it, she started us off with hot choc served in their normal soup mugs (double normal size) with a mound of whipped cream.  Then she had sprinkled red and green Christmas sprinkles over the whole thing including the plates and on top of that she had dusted it all with choco powder.  It was a work of art!  She proved to be awesome as well.  In fact, they are probably two of the best waitresses that I have ever been served by.

It was such a restful vacation that we played Phase Ten, master addition, on Wednesday morning.  Karla remarked that she didn't think that she had ever played cards in the morning.....a mark of a true vacation!

BYU won the game against Oregon State which was also a requirement if we were going to go to the trouble of attending the game...that is just understood.  Hopefully, Oregon State fans like to go just for the experience of watching a bowl game in person....or they really had a bad trip.

Yes, it was a perfect plan and a good vacation, except for one minor thing.....IT WAS FREEZING AND YES, IT WAS MUCH COLDER THAN IT LOOKED!  Those gusts of 50 mile winds hit us right in our face the entire game...and cold and metal benches...I think that you can deduct the problem with that combination.  But let it be known, that we stayed to the bitter (cold) end to watch the fans rush the field as we were rushing to get out of the wind.

I heard that my dad reported to one of my siblings that he had now seen a bowl game in person--a once in a lifetime event.  I might do it again with Gary (and actually this was our second game since we attended the amazing Cotton Bowl while living in Texas).....but not in LAS VEGAS!

Go, BYU!

Tent pegs and marriage

First, I will probably post a few different post in the next day or two....I could put them all in one, but it makes more sense to do them separently (besides I like thinking of the titles for each post).

To set the stage for this blog post, I need to explain that I work with women who are in their mid- to late twenties, my boss and a volunteer are in their late thirties...and then there is me who has been married longer than most of them have been alive.  It is a fun group and we get along great.  In fact, our new boss James said that we finally figured out what was the major difference between this office and other offices that he has worked out...it was the lack of drama between us and in our lives that we bring to the office.  We all liked that assessment.

Anyway, back to the story, we hosted the office Christmas party for the adoption staff  and their spouses on Dec. 18th.  As part of the games, we had everyone answer the following questions before they joined the group:

1.  I couldn't believe that my spouse gave me _____________________ one Christmas.

2.  For under $100, I want my spouse to give me ______________________ for Christmas this year.

3.  In Christmas 2019, I want my spouse to give me ___________________ for Christmas.

My answers:  1-tent pegs; 2-books; and 3-a trip around the world.  This is important to remember by the end of this post.

After dinner, we passed a basket around and everyone drew out a paper to read and then we would try to guess who it was, along the way, we learned things about each other and had lots of laughs---afterall you might not know that one of your co-workers likes pink sassy high heels or another one got a santa suit from their spouse....funny stuff!

I was near the end of line to read the paper I had drawn, so I did not look at my sheet until more than half-way through the game.  Immediately, I recognized Gary's writing and realized that I got to read his to the group.  #1 on his list---tent pegs.

(Back story:  One Christmas about 12-15 years ago, we both put tent pegs in each other's stockings.  We had discovered that we were missing tent pegs on a summer campout and we both thought we were so clever to think of that at Christmas time.  We like getting weird things for each other's stockings, so we got a big laugh out of the fact that we had given each other the same funny thing.  Now years later, we had both put the same answer---trust me, we both have given each other a variety of weird gifts over the years to choose from.)

As someone began reading mine, Gary realized that we had written the same answer and we both started laughing .....and we had to share the story.  And I pointed out that I had Gary's with the same answer.  Everyone was way impressed.  Look what 32 years together can do....

The impressive one to me was Gary's #3 answer---"a companion ticket".  He said, "I knew you would say a trip.  I just wanted to make sure I get to come along.".  That is really what 32 years of marriage does!

(Final note:  Gary gave me another set of metal tent pegs in my stocking this year.  I think I might frame them in a shadow box.  They are too meaningful to use for camping :))

Bowl Bound!!!!

It looks like we got our four "wished for and anticipated" tickets to the Las Vegas Bowl.  My Dad and Karla will be going with us to Las Vegas.  We will fly out Tuesday morning and return on Wednesday.  Now we just need to arrange for a car and a hotal.  Gary and I will work on that later today.  As my dad said, "You can watch it better from your living room, but everyone should say that they went to a BYU bowl game once in their lives." and then Gary said, "But you have already been to one...the Cotton Bowl in 1996(7)?"  I said that didn't count because we just drove to Dallas from Plano and  stayed in our own house at night.  That was a great game that BYU won late over Kansas State.  We also had great seats from Rick's work.  I think our tickets are in the middle of nowhere with all of the other Cougar fans.....Go Cougars!

Migraines and such things....

My brother commented in the summer when he returned some of my Mom's journals that he had read that he was amazed how often Mom was sick, ecpecially with a headache or migraine.  She clearly had migraines which I apparently inherited and passed down to Jessica as well, we think.  She also had lots of sinus headaches which became better over the years as understanding of allergies improved.  Perhaps, she wrote most often as she was recovering from a headache, because she was in her room without children bugging her.

So, for the record, I am recovering from a migraine, just in case some distant great grandaughter may happen upon this record and wondering if I suffered from them or not.  I am doing much better in the past few years since I started taking Lyrica.  It is an off-label use of this medication, but helps me by dramatically reducing the number of migraines and actually how my migraines manifest themselves.  I usually go 5-8 weeks without a migraine and then will have a series of them over a couple of days or weeks.  The first week of December I had one almost every night during the night until I finally went to bed at 4:00 in the afternoon one day and took medication until I felt great the next morning.  This one started yesterday after a morning of Christmas Party (Utah Down syndrome Foundation), bowling  (Special Olympics), and Christmas shopping with Jena.  I decided to try the "rest and medication until it is better" approach.  I woke up about 5:00 a.m. and felt great, but it didn't last.  However, I am feeling much better now (with medication) except for a small headache on my right side.

And that is how it is.....for the record.  My sympathy goes out to all of you who also don't feel the best.  Have a quiet Sabbath.

Journaling and Blogs

Is a blog like a new toy....after awhile the newness wears off, I will will go back to days or months behind posts...or can I really ease into being a journal writing through this new medium which makes me look creative and smart by being about to cut and paste from one site to another.

I have recently reorganized rooms and bookshelves as I have mentioned.  In the process, I set up a bookshelf in "my office/gym/craft room"  (I heard snickers from those of you who know I don't really 'craft'.  However I do apparently collect scrapbook paper and lettering to do scrapbooks and that is the room I keep all that stuff in.  I prefer to think of it as "Family History", sounds much better doesn't it!)  ANYway, getting back to the subject at hand:  I have pulled out my Mom's journals and also the volumes of Giberson Trivia that she made.  So now, I have started looking through her journals.  For those of you would don't know, my mom was a journal writer.  Fairly consisent from 1960 on although there are things before that.  Amazing for someone who had eight children and a busy load in the Church especially since she was musical and creative--(think choirs, roadshows, and plays during the 1960's and 70's in the Church).  Many of her entries were simple things like "we got to of our sisters visiting taught today and still need to do two more.  Richard had two meetings tonight at the Church.  We enjoyed ice cream when he got home."  I love to read those things but I have never in my spotted attempts at journal keeping, even noted things like that.  Certainly not if I did my visiitng teaching or not.  But it is a sweet legacy for her to leave behind.  Quiet service and obedience, that was my mom.  (For the record, I have not done my visiting teaching for December, but I have brought my Christmas gift for them.)

I am not sure that a blog matches that type of private record keeping, but perhaps it is a start.  It does feel like a way to be more personal with family and friends far away.  Perhaps more like a conversation with each other than a general e-mail of the surface details of our lives.  Any thoughts!

Quick Jena Up-date

We had another post-op appointment and the doctor gave Jena some great news.  She can now eat gradually eat more solid food, although she will need to conitue to avoid very crewy or tough food like candy bars and steak which is easy for her since she doesn't like those.  She is excited because he told her she can have CHIPS.  She hasn't try them yet, because it is still a bit of a production to chew and swallow things but she might try chips for her after school snack.

Things were all looking great.  The plan is to return in 2 months and take a cranial x-ray.  If her healing is completed, then they want to do surgery the next week.  So we are tentatively set for Feb. 12th.  She should just be in the hospital 3-4 days and out of school for about 2 weeks again.

And yes, I have slowly begun removing my Thanksgiving stuff and soon our Halls will be decked with folly...(poor pun, I know, but it is Christmas............)