Documents links fixed

Ok, so I figured out what was wrong. All the documents should be accessible now. Sorry!

Preparedness documents

Here are the handouts I had available at our Preparedness enrichment night. I got all this information either from books I have, or from internet research. None of it is original to me, except for the 72-hour food suggestions list. I didn't site my sources on the documents, is that bad? Thank you internet, and books, for all your information!!!

3 month food supply list

Essential Documents List

72-hour kit food list

72-hour kit (non-food items)

Emergency car kit

First Aid Kit

FEMA Disaster Supply Kit

Internet Resources

Storing Water

Where to Store Your Food

Back to college

Wow, this week I have felt like I was back in college.
Monday night I was up until 5:00 AM (well, Tuesday morning).
Tuesday night I was up until 12:30 AM (well, Wednesday morning).
Wednesday night I was up until 4:00 AM (well, Thursday morning).
13 1/2 hours of sleep divided between 4 days is NOT enough for me anymore!!
Last night I got home at about 10:00, and I literally could not get out of the van by myself. I called Ben from the garage, and he came down and carried me from the car into our bedroom.
I'm telling you, I am too old to do that anymore!!!
My first enrichment activity since being called to be enrichment counselor was last night. We did a preparedness theme, and as I was getting everything ready, I decided I needed to put my money where my mouth was, and actually do some of the things we were going to be teaching about. I've been getting several things done over the past few weeks, but this week I really wanted to finish a few more things before our activity on Thursday.
I learned that shopping for and putting together 72 hour kits for 5 people takes a VERY long time. That is not an easy FHE activity. I'm really happy to have them done, and they are really good kits, but, boy, did they take a long time!
I learned that assembling 50 coupon books (20 grocery trips to your 3-month food supply!), including cutesy little ribbons (they were for Relief Society, so they had to be at least a little cutesy) also takes a very long time. Several hours of printing and trimming and stapling and hole-punching and ribbon-tying. And that is not even counting the many, many hours of researching and compiling the list and creating and formatting and reformatting the coupons. (I thought I was way ahead of the game when I had all of that stuff done last week, and all I had to do this week was put the books together).
I learned that putting together an essential documents binder (a list of about 20 documents that you'll want to have all together if you have to evacuate your house), also takes a very long time when you haven't filed any papers for more than a year. Yeah.
I learned that pretty much every task I had assigned myself for this week took literally 5 times longer than I estimated it would. It didn't help that the tireder I got, the longer things tood.
But I also learned how amazing 10 hours of sleep after a week like this can feel. Thank goodness for little boys who let me sleep in this morning.
I was really happy with the activity last night, sleep-deprivation notwithstanding. And now I'm going to go to bed!

We loved Harry Potter (no spoilers)

Ben and I took the boys to see the new Harry Potter movie yesterday afternoon. I thought by going to an afternoon showing the theater might not be so crowded. WRONG! It was very nearly sold out and we ended up sitting in the 2nd row, practically looking straight up at the screen. It was worth it, though.
I was very curious how the makers would make that extremely long and involved book into a coherent but not obscenely-long movie that still retained the important elements to make the last movie make sense.
Well, mission accomplished! Of course there were some changes. My boys asked me why they couldn't make it exactly like the book and I told them that unless you wanted to sit through a 25 hour movie, they had to change some things! LOL Not that I would have minded a 25 hour long movie, I just don't think I could watch it all at one sitting. :-)
I haven't read any of the reviews of the movie, and I don't care to. I actually hate reading or hearing negative reviews, by anyone, because it absolutely spoils the movie for me. I can't see anything except the negative things I read about.
I remember being disappointed when after the first 2 movies, the original Dumbledore died and they had to cast a new Dumbledore. But I thought Dumbledore was absolutely amazing in this movie, and I can't imagine anyone else being equal to the part. And I think Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are better actors with each film.
My favorite, favorite scene was in the cave. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it so that's all I will say.
I also loved Lavender Brown, she was such a crack-up.
I know it was a great movie, because it kept me in my seat when I had to use the restroom sooooo bad. I was willing to risk embarrassing myself! (Happily, thanks to a very providently placed restroom right outside the door of the theater, all was well). AND, Mosey watched the whole movie (on my lap, which did not help the having-to-use-the-restroom thing) without asking me, "When is the movie going to be over?" Which he does during almost all movies, even ones he ends up really liking.
Anyway, I loved it, and now I want to spring for the $15 tickets to see it at the IMAX theater! But only if I remember to use the restroom right before the movie starts. :-)

P.S. If any of you did not love the movie like I did, please keep your opinion to yourself. Hey, it's my blog and I get to make the rules!! :-)

This and that

Here is some miscellany about what we've been doing recently.


Computer games. After taking a break from Civilization and other computer games for a few months, the boys have started up again. It's just too hot to spend much time outside.


Brigham is the next to fall victim to the stomach bug. Here he is, laying on the couch today, as white as a sheet. He's feeling a tiny bit better tonight. Of the three boys, he is the least capable of making it to the bathroom before his stomach rebels... Poor guy. Luckily the virus only seems to last 24 hours for the boys.


It has been HOT. I know I keep saying that, but seriously, it is SO HOT here. A few days ago the boys decided to see if covering themselves with mud would help with the heat. I'm not sure it did, but it did keep them occupied for quite a while!

Trip Day 17-18. The end.

Sunday was our last full day of vacation. We checked out of our hotel and then drove to Rosalynde's church at 12:30. Miles was blessed in Sacrament meeting, and then Elena was baptized right after church, during an incredible downpour outside. I got to hold Miles, everyone told me how much Rosalynde and I look alike, and the baptism was wonderful. Elena and Jack sang "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus," and were so adorable. I wish I could get my boys to sing together like that!
Afterwards we went to Rosalynde's house for dinner and conversation. My dad was there as well as Rosalynde's in-laws and her brother-and-sister-in-law and their little boy.
Much too soon, we had to hit the road. I made all the cousins sit down for one look-see-we-were-all-there picture.

Left to right: Mara (3), Mosey (5), Elena (8) with Miles (3 months) on her lap, Jack (5-almost-6), Brigham (7-almost-8), and Joseph (7-almost-8).

And Ben snapped one of Rosalynde and me.


We drove out of St. Louis as the sun was beginning to go down, and marveled at the beautiful rolling hills and countryside of that part of Missouri. I really think I could live there, as long as Rosalynde was still there!
We intended to stop for the night once we got to Oklahoma, but we kept driving for a while longer, debating whether to just drive through the night. We decided not to push it, but didn't want to spend much money on a motel room we'd only stay in for a few hours.
The boys had all fallen asleep in the car, still in their Sunday clothes.



Finally, we stopped in this little town, and pulled up to the only motel in sight. Ben woke up the manager and paid 20-something dollars in cash, including a bunch of change, which I'm sure the guy loved.
Let's just say the motel room was... not 5-stars. I wouldn't even rate it as a 1-star.
It reeked so strongly of cigarette smoke, that even though I was so tired my eyes felt like they were about to bleed, I could not sleep. Finally I told Ben I couldn't handle it, and went out to the van and slept (very comfortably) on the back seat.
As soon as it got light, we got up and went on our way.
I had to document the motel room, but seriously, the pictures do not come close to showing how icky it was.
The bathroom had a bathroom mat on the floor that looked like it had not been washed... ever. So gross!!


The room featured 2 non-working TV's, a full sized refrigerator AND a dorm-sized refrigerator.


Beautiful paneling and seating, and plush, luxurious carpet. At least, it was back in 1969. I forbade the boys from walking on the carpet in their bare feet.


The gorgeous view from the front door.


Ahhh, the lovely Colonial Motel. We won't be seeing you again soon.


How spoiled rotten am I? There are plenty of places in this world where that motel room would be considered luxurious.

The rest of the ride home was just fine, although definitely a denouement from the rest of the trip. We'd been gone almost 3 weeks, but I really could have kept going for at least another 3 weeks. I was not at all anxious to get back home.

Mister was glad to see us. Chrissy didn't seem to care. One of our fish died. Everything else was fine.
Actually, we didn't see Mister until the next day. Did I ever tell what Mister did on our trip?
Before we left, I found a pet-sitter to come to our house twice a day to let the dog out and take him for a walk, feed the other animals and water the plants. When she came over to meet Mister, she encouraged us to let him board with her. It would be cheaper than her coming to our house twice a day. We could leave the dog door open for Chrissy to go in and out, and have the pet-sitter come only every other day to check on things.
Ben and I were skeptical because Mister doesn't get along very well with other dogs, and she was boarding 5 other dogs at the time. But she met him and insisted that he would do fine, and told us we could take him to her house for the day just to make sure he would be ok. So we did, and he actually did ok. He got along with the other dogs, and only pulled down her drapes in the front room when she left him shut up in her front room.
That should have been her clue.
We told her that Mister freaks out when he is closed up in a room by himself. He will do anything to get out. (Our good friends took care of him while we were in CA at Christmas a couple of years ago, and had him stay in this goat-house-out-building-thingy at the back of their property. He broke down the door to get out.) He's ok being left in the whole house, but NOT alone in a room.
Well, apparently she forgot this, and after he had been at her house for a little over a week, she shut him up in her laundry room while she left for a couple of hours.
Mister was a very bad dog.
It was also the ONLY day when my phone was off (it had run out of power, and we were driving from Ohio to Illinois, and we didn't have a car charger). When we got to our hotel in Chicago, there were about 15 increasingly-desperate messages from her.
It turns out he freaked out while she was gone, and started scratching at the walls in the laundry room where he was locked up. He actually dug through the sheetrock and was working his way through the sheetrock on the other side of the wall when she got home.
She ended up taking him to a kennel where he stayed (uneventfully) the rest of the time.
He did fine at the kennel, and I felt really bad for the pet-sitter, although we had warned her, and she did have an indication of what he might do when he stayed at her house. We had told her we thought he'd be better off at our house, but she really did insist that he would do just fine at her house.
Anyway, just another tale of our bad, bad dog. For such a quiet, mild-mannered, lazy dog, he is really very BAD!!!
Joseph was SOOOOOO happy to see him again. That was the only reason Joseph wanted to go home. He missed his doggy.
So that was it! The end of our journey.
It was so great and I'm already planning on our road trip next year.

Holding steady

Everything went pretty well yesterday.
I had bloodwork at MD Anderson first, and then we went to Baylor for the EDSS testing. My walking test was first, and I was nervous, but it was easier than last time mostly because Ben was there. I only made it as far as I did last time, which is really frustrating to me. I just can't figure out why it is so much harder there than at home. One problem is that I don't trust the floor. The hall I have to walk down has the shiny vinyl tiles, like at a grocery store, you know? Anyway, they are NOT perfectly flat. You can see all kinds of little bumps when you see the light reflected on them. Not a big deal for anyone else, but for me, any tiny little bump like that can make me catch my toe. Plus, I just don't trust it, so I have to lift my feet up further which takes more energy, which makes the walking more difficult.
I told the doctor how much better I can do at home, and he said that I should video tape myself walking at home, and he'd check to see if video observation would be accepted for the study. I want to send him a tape anyway, just to prove to him that I am not lying!
The rest of the EDSS testing was fine, same as usual. I'm not getting worse.
I talked to Dr. Hutton more about the trial, and whether they've had any other patients start the process. They've had 3 others qualify, but one backed out, another has gone more than a year fighting with the insurance company and is realizing it will mostly likely never be approved, and the third is now in month 6 in appeals with their insurance company. It makes me so sad for them. And so amazed that it happened for me. If Ben hadn't gotten this job which brought us to Austin right when my MS started getting bad, if the Houston program hadn't started accepting patients RIGHT during the 5 month window when I was within the EDSS range the study required, this never would have happened. We owe a lot to Texas Mutual, since they paid for it. They didn't have to, but after UHC denied us, they approved. Pretty miraculous.
After the EDSS testing, I dropped Ben and the boys off at the children's museum and I went back to MD Anderson for my appointment with Dr. Popat. Everything is going fine there. My blood counts are stable. Everything is still a little below "normal" ranges, but not dangerously so, and my counts have held steady for the past few months. Then I went to the Baylor Clinic for MORE blood work (33 vials in all yesterday, over 3 different blood draws), and then back to pick up Ben and the boys before my MRI.
I was dreading the MRI, since the last few I've had have been so unpleasant. But the hospital has a new toy! Special movie-projector goggles made for use with MRI machines. It was so cool! The goggles were like virtual reality goggles, with the movie projected right in front of me. The MRI still wasn't fun, but wow, what a difference watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets can make! What a brilliant invention, and how awesome for the little kids in that hospital who have to go in for MRI's. That has got to be such a traumatic experience for a little child.
We got back home a little after midnight last night, and unfortunately, Joseph spent the whole night throwing up. So he's got the bug now. I hope Brigham will be spared.

Nervous again

Tomorrow evening we'll head out to Houston for my 1 year evaluation.
I am hoping we will all go out together! I don't want to go out there by myself again. But this morning Mosey woke up throwing up, and he was sick all day until about 7:00 tonight. I'm wondering if another boys might wake up throwing up tomorrow. Or if Mosey might still be sick. I caught this stupid bug on Tuesday, and I STILL don't feel good.
Mosey slept almost allll day. I started to get really worried, and sent Joseph upstairs to make sure he was ok. Then I made Ben bring him down so I could check on him myself. But this evening he woke up, seemingly back to his old self, drank some juice, ate a popsicle, had some Life cereal, and then went back to bed. I hope he's over it.
I just don't want to go to Houston. I have my neuro appointments in the morning, my oncology appointments in the afternoon, and an MRI for the evening. None of it will be fun. I'm thinking of taking a sleeping pill before the MRI to try to have it be a little more tolerable.
The plan is for Ben and the boys to come with me to the neurologist, so that Ben can be with me during my walking test. Then he can take the boys somewhere fun while I go to all my other appointments.
I shouldn't be nervous, my walking is actually going really, really great. I've been practicing every other night, and I'm up to 10-12 laps each time. Each lap is about 24 meters, so I feel really good about that. I ought to be able to do WAY better than last time. But nerves have always been my Achilles heel. I've never performed better in anything because of nerves, and it's usually exactly the opposite. When I ran cross country in high school, my practice runs were invariably faster than my races. My nerves just killed me. I remember thinking, "Why can't I just run the race by myself sometime and then submit that time?" Ha, ha. I feel the same way now, though. I just walked 11 laps, so supposedly 264 meters. Can't I just tell Dr. Hutton I can walk that far, and leave it at that? Oh, well.
So I'm trying to think very calming thoughts. That's why we'll leave tomorrow evening and stay the night out there, so I don't have to have the stress of waking up so early and worrying about making it in on time.
After Monday, I can really enjoy the rest of the summer!

Happy 1 year anniversary

For a one-year transplant anniversary present, I got a stomach virus! Yay!
I've been sick for the past 2 days, but I'm finally feeling better today (of course, maybe it's because I haven't dared eat anything for about 48 hours). Boy, does that bring back memories from a year ago.
Ugh!
BUT, thank the heavens my boys did not get sick. And that they are old enough to survive with me laying on the couch all day. I have let them eat whatever they want, do whatever they want. They probably love it when I'm sick!

Trip Day 16: The Magic House

On Saturday we took the boys to The Magic House. This is a children's science museum unlike any I've ever been to. It was so fantastic!
We stayed there until closing time, and the boys would have stayed longer if we could.
Here are some pictures, which will do a better job explaining the museum.

Ben and the boys dancing in front of the "Shadow Wall."



Joseph and Mosey at the interactive grocery store. Joseph sometimes acts like he's really grown up, and it just made me happy to see him jump right into imaginary play, putting on the grocery store employee apron and playing with Mosey.



The bubble room. Tons of bubble activities. Here are Mosey and Joseph blowing on a bubble sheet.


Brigham blowing up a giant bubble dome.


Mosey at the top of a 3 story bean stalk.



The museum has an electrostatic generator that was pretty amazing. My boys didn't have long enough hair to be very dramatic, but I watched a little girl with long hair use this thing, and every strand of her hair stood straight out on end. Amazing!




Brigham spent hours (well, not hours, but a really long time) on this ramp wall dealie where he made ramps go back and forth, and then ran balls down it. Definitely Brigham's cup of tea.


There was also a bubble organ that Brigham loved.


And this Rube Goldberg contraption that he was also fascinated with.



Throughout the museum, there were these "did you know?" signs. This one horrified me. Reason #1 we don't watch TV.



A giant kaleidoscope that projected colored light onto the opposite wall.



But the best part for the kids was this forensics mystery exhibit with clues the children had to find and analyze to figure out whodunnit. My boys got totally into this, putting on the Sherlock Holmes coats and everything. The probably spent 2 hours here, easy. AND there were comfy couches for the parents to just sit and chill. Nice.




Afterward, we went to Ted Drewes for famous St. Louis frozen custard, and then to Rosalynde's for a barbecue with her family and in-laws. The sun was setting right behind this tree in her backyard and it was so pretty.


Back at the hotel, the boys decided to make a pile on mommy. You know what? These might be my two favorite pictures of the entire trip.


Only 1 more day to go!

So happy it is 2009!!

We had a fun 4th of July yesterday. I was remembering last year at this time. It was my first full day in the hospital, and my first day of chemotherapy. I am filled with gratitude that I made it through all of that, and that it is OVER. It doesn't seem like a year ago, the time has really flown. It is still hard for me to think very long about my transplant experience. I guess time has blunted the memories a little, but not by much.
Anyway, yesterday instead of sitting in a hospital bed all day, I was able to celebrate this holiday with my family! I made a Walmart run (by myself! always a pleasure) in the morning for last-minute items, and then the boys picked up the house (it wasn't too bad), and helped Ben pick up in the backyard a little, and then we had our friends the Talbots and their 5 kids over for a proper American celebration: Stuffing our faces!! The kids all burned off their calories by running around in the backyard swimming and riding scooters. The adults? Well, let's just say it's a good thing today was Fast Sunday. :-)
Our pool's filter has been malfunctioning for a while, and Ben has been working hard to fix it. I'm so glad he's able to do stuff like that. He's kept it working well enough for the boys to keep swimming every day for the past few weeks. Yesterday was another scorcher, and so the pool was a must. Ben rigged up a homemade filter with hoses pumping water from the bottom of the pool, through some towels, and back in the pool. Very impressive!
We left about 9:00 PM to try to see some fireworks. There was a big display at a park not too far away. There had been a carnival and concert there all afternoon, and as we drove down the road still a couple of miles away from the park, there were cars lining both sides of the street. I started to become doubtful of our chances at getting close enough to see anything. But, sometimes it pays to be very late. As we approached the turnoff to the road the park is on, the fireworks started, and we realized that right where we were was a perfect spot to see them! There was an apartment complex right on the corner, so we pulled in and parked illegally in front of a dumpster (lots of other people had the same idea we had, and there were no parking spaces). Ben opened the sunroof on his car, and the boys got up and sat on the roof of the car and enjoyed the show. It was a pretty good display, although my standards for fireworks shows will forever be too-high because of growing up watching the huge Rose Bowl fireworks show every year. The boys loved it though. Mosey kept saying, "These are the BEST fireworks I have EVER seen!!" The best thing was that as soon as the fireworks were over, Ben started the car up, and we were one of the first ones out of there! No sitting for hours in a traffic jam getting out of the park. (Siblings, do you remember 6 years ago when we went to the Galaxy soccer game and fireworks with Daddy and we were stuck in the parking lot for HOURS (well, it seemed like that) after the show and Daddy was all freaking out and trying to find a shortcut out? That was funny.)
We got home late, and the boys went upstairs and looked out their window for another half hour at the smaller fireworks going off in people's yards. It was a good day.

Here are the results of my attempt to get a cute picture of the 3 boys in front of the 4th of July decorations on our mantel. They thought they were really getting away with something by being totally silly in these pictures. Little do they know that I love this sort of authentic silly picture better than a posed, smiling-by-the-fireplace picture any day! (Not that I never try to get those pictures, it's just that for memory's sake, I want to remember *this* about 4th of July 2009 more than anything else). Yes, I am cheesy and made my boys wear red, white, and blue.




Joseph and his best friend.


Mister knew the best place to hang out. Under the table!


We had a huge spread of food. What did Mosey put on his plate? Strawberries and Doritos. That is all. He knows what he likes!


Brigham loves watermelon. Good thing, because we got a huge one!


Some of the fireworks. Ben thought I was nuts bringing my camera to the fireworks show. He asked me, "Are you really going to be going back to look at all these pictures of fireworks?" I told him it was more about the challenge of capturing fireworks on film (well, digital sensor anyway). It's not easy!

Guess who's swimming?

Mosey is!!
He graduated from his swim camp today, and I'm pretty impressed with him. He can now swim probably 10-15 feet without taking a breath, he can jump in the pool, turn around, swim to the side, and pull himself up, and I'm now feeling much better about him being around pools. It's a little scary knowing that if he fell in the pool, it would be extremely difficult for me to get to him before something very bad happened.