Randy Pausch Dies on July 25

I don't know if any of you have followed the progression of Randy-he is the man that was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and quickly became famous after he gave his college students (which was intended for his three children) the "Last Lecture" His lecture inspired me beyond words and I try to think of his example of Tigger and Eeyore as often as I can. When I heard of his passing it brought tears to my eyes! If you haven't heard the Lecture or read his book-do so! The following link shows part of the lecture and the next tells a little bit about him.

http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/beyond/2008/summer/an-enduring-legacy.shtml

City Pool Fun!! 7/26/2008

We rented out the St George City Pool again, this time for our Employees and Foster Parents. As you can see the kids had a great time! Bailia slept until 9:15 this morning-the latest I think she has EVER slept-she had gone down the hydro tube so many times she was BEAT! Jaden spent his time equally on the hydro tube and doing new tricks off the diving board! Koda spent most of the night out of the pool eating (I think I am still stuffed) but did attempt to go off the diving board four time, just to turn around and get off!!

The Final Craft Day. 7/22/2008

WARNING: This post contains a picture OVERLAOD due to the FINAL Craft day!! You have been warned!

The end has come for craft day as we know it. The kids have all had so much fun coming every week and we have loved having them! Looking back I can't believe how many craft days we have had (how I didn't completely lose my mind is a mystery to me) but everyone always got along so well and everything always went unbelievably smooth! I actually am planning on doing it again next summer. Hopefully by next summer we will have built my dream home and I will actually have more ROOM to do EVERYTHING! When the kids were here for final craft day they all asked if I could do craft day when we had breaks from school or on the weekends! I could not have asked for a better compliment! Thanks again to everyone who participated!

ProAm 2nd place! 7/22/2008

Jdog just got back from golfing in the Pro Am at Bloomington Country Club-he took 2nd place in the tournament, as a team with the Pro he golfed with today, Aaron Demming, and in the overall season of golf! Here he is pictured with Trajen Kidd who took 1st!
I started bawling as soon as he called me to tell me the news-I am SO proud of him! The way he has handled the game, winning and losing, and his desire to become better has inspired me beyond words! I know I sound like a broken record but I am so proud to be his momma-keep up the good work J! Continue to have a heart of gold and work hard and you will always come out a winner!

4wheeling fun! 7/21/2008

I took the little one's out for a ride last night while A and Dog were golfing. We all had a fun time and it felt good to do something out of the normal routine! As I set up the camera to take our picture I saw something blueish peeking out of a hole right next to me-my first thought was SNAKE! Then as I took a closer look I saw this little guy who sat there for 10 seconds waiting for my camera to take his picture-I had set the timer and forgot to take it off-I couldn't believe he sat there! As soon as the camera flashed he went back down in his hole and and wouldn't come out again!

OCD and LOVING it!!

It seems it's the little things in life that bring me the most joy! Most of you know that I have a little OCD issue I am fine with it and so is A so it works! Now OBVIOUSLY I buy way too much food, and I know this is a LAME post BUT I reorganized my pantry today and it isn't as perfect as I would like it to be but it is pretty darn clean and I am LOVING it!! Now if everyone can take a bottle of water from the left side first, working your way through the first row, then the second and so on life will be GRAND!

Crazy Week!

This past week has been a crazy whirlwind and I am SO thankful it is over. I use this blog for a journal so this post is LONG!! It started early Tuesday morning-I have been having pain on my right ovary for MONTHS now and I usually can control it with a couple of IBU800-but the pain kept getting worse. I called my Dr. who wanted to send me in for an ultra sound-my appointment was for Wednesday afternoon. Fine. Then, as the night wore on the pain got worse, then unbearable. I finally fell asleep around 11-11:30 that night but then woke up suddenly around 1:00am with horrible pains-worse than ever. I walked into the kitchen to get a couple of IBU's and started crying it hurt so bad!! Adam came in and said you are going to the ER right now-I said no I can make it-maybe a bath will help-NOPE it didn't!! Off to the ER I went-let me say the ER at the new hospital is AMAZING-this is the second time we have had to use it (we went in when Koda's pneumonia came back a few months ago) and they are wonderful there! The doctors and nurses are super nice and want to help you in anyway that they can! I got right in and they took my blood, hooked me up to an IV started pumping me full of meds, and called the Ultrasound Tech (she lived in Hurricane so they said it could take awhile for her to get here). When she finally got there she wheeled me back to the US room (you could tell she was NOT happy to be there) I said sorry I had to pull you out of bed-she just looked at me!! OH MY!! So anyway I start watching the screen as she is typing "Top of UT side UT Long UT" and so on. I said excuse me does UT stand for uterus? She said yes (like I am an idiot) to which I respond I don't have a uterus! Hello if you would have looked at my chart, or listened to the ER Dr. say she had a hysterectomy in December you would know that! Anyway I had an almost 5cm-about the size of a plum-cysts on my right ovary (which is what we thought it would be, I have always had them-just not SO big and painful) so they pumped me with even more pain meds and sent A to the pharmacy for an armful of other meds! A few loopy days later I felt fine! I go in for another ultrasound in a few weeks to see if the cyst has gone down in size-I am keeping my fingers crossed! On to better news....

Jdog had a big match play tournament this past week. He played Wed. moved on, played Thurs. and moved on, then lost on Friday. He, as I have said before, has blown us away with his golfing this year! Being his first year and competing with kids who were a year older then him, he has really held his own! Way to go Big Dog! Good luck tomorrow in your Pro Am!!
Those that know Bailia know what a handful she is. But this past week she has been a HUGE help so I had to THANK her big time (with an American Girl doll) for being such a big helper while I was sick. She cleaned the whole house for me and took care of everything! She has never wanted to play with dolls but when the AG magazine came and she said she REALLY wanted Mia for her birthday (in Sept.) since she looked just like her-I got it for her and gave it to her for a nice THANK YOU for all of your help gift!

Happy 8th Birthday Big Dog!

Having Lunch at The Pizza Factory with a birthday pizza #8 YUM! YUM!

Today my little man turned 8! The years have flown by faster than I could have ever imagined and I want it to STOP! I can remember going to the hospital the night of the 13th like it was yesterday-I could give you a play-by-play of how things went-and yet here I sit wondering how 2,920 days have gone by with just a blink of an eye! I wish I could keep my children innocent FOREVER-lock them up and keep them away from this nasty world-but I know I can't (even though I try-right Pa?) I just hope in the next 8 years Jaden will stay as good, honest, and pure hearted as he is today! I love you Big Dog-I hope your eighth year is your best yet!

Jdog's 8th Birthday Party! 7/11/2008

J's party was a huge hit! The kids (ages 2-48) all had a blast! I couldn't believe that the day I choose to rent the St George City Pool it was 15-20 degrees cooler than the day before! Then as we got out of the pool and pulled everyone off of the hydro tube it started to rain-and if you live here you know how bad it was last night-it came down so hard and SO fast it was crazy! Thank goodness we had a covered area to eat cake and open presents! So after presents and cake the rain STILL had not let up-so we all RAN to the car as fast as we could! Driving home was an adventure in itself-I couldn't see the lines in the road and my wipers were going as fast as they could and I could barley see out of my window! Thankfully we all made it home safely and everyone had a good time! Thanks to all that came Jaden said this was the best birthday ever! (Even though he doesn't turn 8 until Monday) Happy Birthday Big Dog!

Swimming Fun!! 7/10/2008

It has been SO hot here, so when my mom and dad came down and stayed in a hotel we took FULL advantage of the pool! The pool was abandoned so we had it to ourselves the whole time-it was fabulous! We all had a great time cooling down-at least for a little bit!

7/8/2008 Jewelry boxes-Craft Day

Makenna and Jake came over for Craft day on Wednesday. They all decorated jewelry boxes then mixed their own colors into their frosting to frost their sugar jumbo's.

Kate and Josh for Craft Day 7/6/2008

We had Kate and Josh over for Craft Day and we decorated T shirts and Roasted Marshmallows for Sm'ores! YUM! I think they had more fun making the sm'ores than eating them! When they were all done making them each child asked for thing separate! Koda, Sis, and J wanted just the graham crackers, Kate wanted to eat the marshmallows plain, and Josh wanted to eat the candy bars!

4th of July FUN 2008

Last night we did fireworks at our house-the 4th is always SO hectic and every year that I have bought fireworks they seem to go to waste-so we did them a day early! We all enjoyed OOOING and AAWWING at the pretty fireworks!








We had a great time at the Washington Park this morning! Koda and Sis took first place in the races Jdog took fourth! They did the tractor rides, the cake walk, face painting, and had lunch! We had a GREAT time and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be without A here to help! After the park we were SO hot and the water park by our house was deserted so we ran home to change, grabbed Harley and headed over to the park. They ALL had a lot of fun cooling down!

Koda's Summer Cut!! 7/2/2008