Back to School for Jena

STEPS started back to school two days later than the rest of the school district.  Of course, Facebook was filled with the first day of the year school pictures--so cute!  Anyway, it apparently reminded Jena about that so Thursday night she reminded me not to forget her picture in the morning.  Gary actually took this cute picture of her Friday morning.

She was excited to see her friends and her teachers again.  She will continue to go three days a week through this year as well as she is still serving her mission on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Her schedule starts in full force next week-  School-Monday, Thursday and Friday, Mission on Tuesday and Wednesdays, Institute on Tuesday nights, Wonderwood on Wednesday nights, work Thursday nights, and social activities on most Friday nights.  She will usher on Monday next week but then it will change to Saturdays for the rest of this year because of my internship.  Is that busy enough?  She loves it!

Happy Birthday, Niki--He's Two!!!

Niki's birthday is on August 16th but they celebrated in Okinawa on Saturday, the 20th so that many of their friends could join them.  Tosha and Austen had been planning for weeks, especially Tosha. Here are some pictures she sent of everything before the party started:

Tosha with help from Austen made all of the food--the cake, cake pops, rice krispie treats, swirl cookies, etc.

Even the water bottles have cute curious George labels.

Tosha is one talented lady (even if I might be a bit biased as her mom!).  They invited their friends and families and had an open house style so that everyone could see each other and enjoy time together after a long hot summer.

Cute Niki with his birthday cake---

Here is Niki playing with the LEGO train we gave him for his birthday.  (I had hid presents for Tosha, Austen and Niki at their house when I was there and it has been fun for Tosha to get them out for the birthdays.)

Sorry we had to miss it, cute boy but glad you had a good time.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Hall!

On Sunday evening on August 14, we got together to celebrate Grand Hall's birthday!  She is 81 years old although you would never guess it.

 Christie Nakae, my niece took these pictures of the families which were there:

The Halls-Gary, me, Jena, Chantel and Scarlett
everyone else was working or sick or in Japan...

The Pages (three of Valerie's five boys):
Wyatt, Amanda and Matt, Nathan, Cynthia, Asher, Ryder, and Kamin,
Chris with Natalie and Lisa (Dallin was sick so Jen was home with him)

The Birds:  Jake and Meredith, Mike and Charon holding Taya, Bryan and Chera (Mann) holding Halle,
Melissa and Chris (Manning) holding Crew, Allyah and Milo in front

The Kerrs/McKinneys:  Emily being held by Vonette and Gary, Brianna and Eric holding Hyrum, Adam,
Krystal, Nikki, Christie and Bruce (Nakae), Cody and Hayden.

Thanks to Charon and Mike for organizing and allowing us to gather in your back yard.  It was a fun and beautiful night.  Thanks Christie for these family pictures.  Most of all, Happy Birthday, Mom, and here to many more...............

And the Grandchildren photo post

Scarlett at Grandma Hall's birthday party

Liam at his year photo shoot

Niki enjoying his pool on their deck

Just think--by February these posts will include two more Hall grandchildren!

Baby boy in December    (Jessica and Elessia are leaning towards Zander for his name)

Baby ???? in February    Gender Reveal Party set for THIS Friday if all goes well at the ultrasound

EXCITING TIMES FOR THE HALLS!!!!!

And time marches on.....

Monday we got the awesome news that my stone was gone.  Sometime over the weekend, despite my doctor's bet that it wouldn't pass--it did.  Yay and a tender mercy for me.  All of sudden I had days to do things with and no worries about dealing with the post-operation stuff which was hard last time. My kidney was returning to normal and by the end of the week I am feeling fairly normal again.  I really needed that.

This is what no kidney stones looks like in a snapshot of the CAT scan.

The doctor also commented that "you have a really messed up back, but of course you probably know that." Not exactly-- I know I had a minor curve at the end of my back, but never heard the words "really messed up back".  Why would a doctor say that!!!

Jena and I made a stop on Tuesday and visit with sweet Scarlett which was so fun--but no pictures.

Then Thursday we were able to watch Liam for a few hours before I headed for meetings with UDSF.

Aunt Jena and Liam playing on the floor in his room

We went for a walk and look what was sitting on a fence down the street (They live in Magna, UT). It was one HUGE turkey. He didn't seem concerned about us but we didn't get close.  I didn't want him jumping down outside of his yard and chasing us.

Jena took this picture of Liam and I singing.  He loves to sing and is learning more actions to songs.

I had my first official meeting at The Children's Center.  I am very excited about that opportunity and everything that I will learn and be able to try out while I am there. My internship starts next Thursday with four days of formal training. (Thursday, Friday for interns; Tues Staff Retreat with entire staff, and one more day of internship training).What a great way to start with an agency.

You will be hearing a lot more about the Children's Center through the next nine months.  I actually worked in the Kearns office in the therapeutic pre-school as a teacher back before I went to graduate school the first time.  It is exciting to be back in a new role there.  It is a treatment center for children from birth to age 8 and their families.  They are actively involved in training and research which will allow me some great training opportunities over the next year.  I will normally be there Mondays, Tuesday and Thursday.

We had our first meeting with the support staff and doctor working with Ben at the State Hospital. It lasted about 30 minutes and was okay but it will still take some time to really know and trust them. They just don't provide information unless you ask for it which seems somewhat a problem, but we will see how it goes.  Ben is back to being mostly non verbal again which is difficult for us since we can't see him very often because of the distance and time involved.  It will be nice to see him later today, hopefully.

And I ended the week with a migraine which meant a quiet Saturday at our house and no planned yard work done.  Oh well--I suspect it will be there next week as well.

What did you do with your summer break?

One of my classmates pointed out that we have 20 days without homework until our next semester starts.  Here is my Kaysville cohort--missing me (I was taking a bathroom break apparently) and Sylinda (who was out of the room as well).

I said that I was going to clean my house in preparation for the upcoming 9 months of no time to clean.  The other moms booed that idea and said I should give it up entirely until we graduate and have fun instead during the break.

Apparently I chose another option because I am not getting much house cleaning done nor I am having too much fun.

First, the day after our last class, Ben was finally admitted to the State Hospital down in Provo.  We don't know if this is a good thing or not, but it seems like our only option to try to improve the quality of his daily life.  Everything else he (and we) have tried hasn't seemed to stabilize him or prevent his illness from getting worse.  We aren't sure how long he will be there but the average stay is between 6-9 months although it is highly variable.  He is still in the settling in phase.  Unfortunately, because he is a new patient he is restricted to "in the unit" only, so it is still very similar to the hospital.  In the future he will gain access to many more activities and learning experiences as he can take vocational classes, recreational activities including swimming and a gym, and maybe even have a job somewhere at the State Hospital.  It adds a whole new dimension in visiting him as it is about an 1 hour 15 minute trip down there with no traffic.  Hopefully the staff and doctors will be able to figure out some type of medication blends which will help him and allow a bit more quality of life for him. On that first day the staff was great with Ben and with me as we had many questions about everything and what to expect.  This coming Tuesday we will meet with his treatment team for the first time in person (I think that is crazy that it has been two weeks and we have yet to meet anyone and haven't even talked to the doctor assigned to Ben, but I am trying to be patient and work within their system.)  Anyway that was the first day of my "summer break".....

Since the beginning of August I have felt like I was almost getting a bladder infection so I just kept drinking more water.  Then starting last Sunday I felt sick like a stomach bug which included some significant pain. Finally on Tuesday I decided that I should have it checked out so we went to the urgent care clinic at my doctor's office.  I was just assuming that I had a developing bladder infection but no--I have another kidney stone.  I had a CAT scan on Wednesday which confirmed the stone and met with the urologist's office on Friday. The plan right now is that I will have surgery to have it removed on Wednesday because the doctor doesn't think there is any way for it to pass on its own given my experience last time.  I don't want to have surgery because because I was sick for a couple of weeks due to the plastic tubing they had to leave in to allow the tube to heal.  So mostly I have been reclining around with heat, ice and medication.  Even reading is hard due to the medication and pain. At least it was during the Olympics so I watched more Olympics than I ever have before.

So it looks like this week will be spent having and recovering from surgery.  On Friday I have to go to The Children's Center for a meeting to start my internship and then I start there next week.

And how was your summer break?

(Not my best vacation but you don't have to go far on Facebook or the news to see that many MANY other people are struggling with so much more in their own lives--personal tragedies or flooding or fires or whatever.  I might not feel great but I know what is wrong and it will be fixed and I will be fine.  Ben is in a safe place and with caring people and with some new opportunities for help.  Our other kids have jobs and homes and darling kids.  Life is so rich and so good even with a pain in the side.)

A room with a view

a fancy title for this picture....but it isn't often when you get to see a large bird (hawk?) eating a mouse out your kitchen window!

What is even more great about this is that Gary was the one who first saw it.  He came and told me while I was blowing drying my hair that I needed to hurry and come--he didn't say what for but he seemed serious--so I went.  So glad I did---and so glad that I have a husband who knows that I would definitely want to interrupt my hair drying to see it!

As good as National Geographic--right in our backyard.

A productive week in some ways....

What do you do when you wake up at 3:30 a.m. and can't sleep?  That was me last Monday morning. It was a day that I had set aside for homework and sleeping well is an important part of the equation. My eyes don't allow me to read or do computer stuff that early in the morning.  That is a headache waiting to happen.  I tried my usual things--folding laundry, dusting quietly, back to bed, up again...finally I spent an hour cleaning my kitchen cabinets and drawers.  After breakfast and some morning jobs I headed back to bed for a 2 hour nap---then I did homework.  Although I am happy to have my kitchen drawers cleaned, I much prefer a whole night of sleep at once.  It took me a few days to feel normal again and not tired.

I was actually stopped at a stop light when I took this picture.  It was the huge puffy white cloud sitting on the mountain or so it seemed.  The picture doesn't really do it justice.

The cleaning project that was on the to-do list this week was cleaning the garage.  As usual, Gary asked if we were having a garage sale.  Silly man--he was probably hoping I wasn't going to put most of it back into the garage.

 It was a cooler day on Wednesday which made it great for working outside.

 Moving it all back in........

Then Friday we hung the mirror and picture I found for our redone bathroom and were able to get almost every thing else done as well.  Jena likes her new bathroom.....

 ....but we really need to find some towels which match the blues and greens we have in the room.

Here is the new picture we got for the bathroom.  I love the blues and greens in it and I love the flowers.  Apparently I really love flowers because after I hung this one, I started noticing all the flower pictures I have throughout my house--5-8 depending on how you count them.

Irises are really beautiful!

Saturday Jena and I made yellow play dough for our new calling.  Gary and I were released from our Scout callings and called with Jena to teach the Sunbeams.  Today is our first class.

That was our week in addition to the regular stuff of Family History (Gary), mission (Jena), Okinawa birthday fun (Austen and Tosha with Niki), hospital (Ben--doing a bit better), work and play (Scott and Chantel with Scarlett), and work and play (Jessica, Elessia and Liam), homework, school, UDSF (me).