Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy

Continuation of Utah - May

This was the night that we bought our car.  We were so tired and this was about 8 that night.  We ate at the Myan and the girls really liked the divers, but the food wasn't the best.  It was one of those things where once was good enough.  But, at least we were all together, which is not usually the case, since Ray doesn't travel with us on our adventures.

I think this was how we all felt by the end of the evening.  We did have fun, we were just so ready for bed.

Life as we know it.....

Enough time has passed now that I feel like I can tell about our most recent medical issue.  About 3 weeks ago on a Friday, I talked to Ray a few times throughout the day.  I thought he didn't sound like he felt very well, but he will usually tell me if he is under the weather.  Well, the last time I talked to him I decided to ask him what was wrong.  He told me that he didn't feel very good at all, his head hurt, and so did his neck and throat.  He was on his way home, so I told him to just try and get home and we would dope him up and put him to bed when he got home.  He called me when he got close to St. Anthony, which was where he was supposed to unload, and didn't sound any better at all.  He was trying to get one of the other guys to unload his truck for him, but none of them would because he has a BRAND NEW truck and they were too nervous to drive it.  The next call I got was from Kinlee saying that dad was home and he was mowing the lawn, but didn't look good and that he had just asked her what her name was. 

I am going to go off track here for just a minute.  A little over a year ago Ray starting asking questions about people he saw in pictures that he should have know, like who are they or what is their name.  It started getting a little freaky when he didn't know the neices and nephews names.  He blood pressure was on the rise and the doctor here hooked us up with a cardiologist in Idaho Falls thinking that maybe that was the cause of the memory loss.  So, Ray has been seeing a doctor in Idaho Falls for his high blood pressure so they can hopefully figure out what is going on.  But, he has always remembered our names and others he sees regularly.  So, when he asked Kinlee what her name was, she was a little alarmed, but we weren't frantic yet.

Back to the story......The next phone call I got was from Jerika.  Side note.....Jerika is in charge of mosing the lawns and her dad really doesn't let her get out of it very often.  That being said, when she called me she said that dad wouldn't let her mow the lawn that he was doing it and she just needed to go hang out with her friends or something (red flag).  I told her to go out there and give him the phone.  She handed him the phone and I told him that she needed to do her job and not him.  He started to argue with me and so I told him to chill out, he told me that his head hurt really bad and I told him to shower and I would meet them in town at the doctor's office.  After that I got another phone call from Kinlee and she was crying, he didn't remember Jerika's name either.  I told her that I had told dad to come into town and I would meet them, Jerika got on the phone at that point and told me that dad said she was supposed to drive him somewhere, but he couldn't remember where.  At this point, with two sobbing children I jumped in my car and headed home.  When I got home, they were all crying in the living room, Ray included.  He could remember anything, it was so scary.

I loaded them all up in the car and went to the emergency room and he asked SEVERAL times on the way there where we were going.  When we got there they checked him in and did the basics and he had a 102.5 fever and he said his head hurt so bad.  The amazing thing was that his blood pressure was lower than I had seen it in years.  I thought that maybe that was what was happening was something with his blood pressure, so that ruled that out. 

Luckily mom headed out from her house as soon as we left the house so she was there a few minutes after we were to sit with the girls, who were beside themselves, poor kids.  The doctor gave Ray some pain meds and then started asking several questions.  Most of which I had to answer, but when the doctor asked him if he had been around misquitos lately he remembered that, because he had been in a swarm (I guess you would call it that) in Canada the week before and they were the size of flies.  The doctor ordered some pain medication and then we headed down to the CAT scan, where Ray kept asking the techs every two seconds where we were going.  Oh and that was after he asked me what my name was and kept calling Kinlee that little girl.  When they got him in the CAT scan he asked me if he had a son and what his name was.  The CAT scan ladies kept yelling at him through the speaker not to talk, he must not be a good minder even when he is delirious.  After that they took what seemed like a gallon of blood out of him to run some other tests and then we just had to wait. 

After the pain medication started working he seemed to little more cohearant, which made us feel much better.  The one thing the doctor was really worried about was meningitis, but the only way to know if he had that was a spinal tap, which would just make the headache worse.  Anyway, all the other test result came back, no tumors or brain bleeds, and nothing else that looked out of the ordinary.  Then the doctor informed us that he was pretty sure it was West Nile Virus, but they would have the tests results back for several days.  He said that since Ray was feeling better and starting to remember things better (the kids and my parents both came into his room and he knew all their names) he didn't want to do a spinal tap.  They monitored him for a little while longer and then at 6 our neighbor, SUPER LORI (she's awesome) who works at the ER came in and he knew who she was, which was a good sign also.  The Dr. agreed to let Ray go home and rest, but if anything took a turn for the worse we were to go back to the ER.  I took him home and he slept pretty sound that night and then the next morning the doctor called to check on him (nice, right?).  He had made it through the night without incident, so that pretty much ruled out meningitis.  And he lived to tell about it all, well, what he remembers of it anyway.  He did call the hospital to get his results last week, and he kind of got the run around so we haven't tried back.  We are just going with the West Nile diagnosis, which by the way you should go online and read the symptoms, it is pretty freaky.  The bad thing is that there is no treatment for it because it is a virus so, he just has to get lots of sleep and stay up on his pain meds. 

He is feeling MUCH better and remembering things better than he seemed to before.  I guess this is just another learning experience in the life and times of the Young family.  We are just so thankful that it wasn't anything worse and we know that this too shall pass. 
(Note: I didn't proof this, so don't judge me if there are errors.)

Silly people!!

I just noticed that my last 3 blogs have something to do with the word last. So, I made sure this one didn't.
Well, our Honda took a turn for the worst. He started smelling really sweet and upon further examination, Ray realized that there was antifreeze going into the engine block. So, Ray decided that I need a reliable car, since he isn't home a lot. He searched and searched and searched some more to find a good car that was in our price range. He finally found one, so we made a quick trip to Utah to pick it up. These are actually pictures from the hotel room and not of the car. It was quite a trip and the girls were so patient, even though we spent way too much time at the car dealership. I will post a few other pictures of the rest of the trip later and maybe a picture of the car. I am not really even sure I have taken one yet.

I don't know what is worse.......my double chin or......

Seeing up my nose. Anyway, Ray took this pictures, so I am blaming them on him.
We were there long enough to swim at our hotel, and Ashlin even came to hang out with us for a little while. One of these days she is going to be very sad because there aren't very many pictures of her because she doesn't like her picture taken. We also went to lunch with Shelby and his family and I guess dinner too Ray decided that he can wait a very long time before he travels with us EVER. Us girls are just used to doing things without him that it was hard for us and him to remember that we have to make decisions together. In other words, I actually have to consult with another adult instead of making all of the deicisions myself. It was weird.
All Kinlee ever wants to do is swim when we go anywhere, so she was happy. She was even more happy that there really wasn't much time at all to go shopping this trip.

Last dance recital???

Here are Kinlee's costumes from the dances she did this year. She had so much fun and loves it, but I would rather she take piano lessons. However, she did a really good job this year. It is funny because she is so much taller than all the girls in her class. They are all in the same grade, but she is definately the tallest. Isn't it funny how a little premie baby can grow up to be taller than most of the other kids her age.

She loved this dance, the hit woofle balls into the audience, and our granny actually got hit in the head with one. But, that is how we roll, if someone is going to get hit it is going to be someone in our family. There was another group that had water guns and oh yes, we got wet too. Poor Granny, I don't know if she will come to another dance recital anyway.

Her hat says Ray. She was a construction worker. The theme of the recital was "Our Town" and it had dances about places we have in Rexburg. Her dance teacher is so clever. She always dances at the end of the recital and she is pretty amazing and she's a grandma too. The one thing I really like about her is that she "loves" all the girls and I think that is one of the reasons Kinlee doesn't want to quit is because she LOVES Miss Melanie.

In action. For the life of me I can't remember what this dance was and what thing in the town it represented. But, she did a really good job. When Ray doesn't go with me it is really hard to take pictures and video at the same time. I had mom do the pictures and she did a pretty good job.

Jerika, of course, helped back stage, but I didn't get a very good picture of her when they came out on the stage.

Jerika's last Sugar City choir concert

I am really hoping that in this picture they haven't started yet.

I think they all look pretty excited here, although Mr. Cherrington looks baffled. Maybe this was after he cried, because he is going to miss Jerika next year. At least I am pretty sure that is why he got teary eyed, even though he didn't say that in his little speech.

At this point I am wondering if I actually took any pictures of them singing. It was a stressful night and I was just glad I made it to the concert. Thank goodness for my leaders in Young Women who took over Senior Graduation night at mutual.

Okay it is confirmed, no pictures of them singing. At least I took pictures, right? Once again, MOTHER OF THE YEAR!!

Kinlee's last volleyball game

Wow, volleyball is over. It was quite a commitment, but she had so much fun. She is really a good little player and she has turned into quite the server. She is going to a volleyball camp right now at the high school and loves it. Maybe I will end up with a sporty child after all. Jerika didn't want anything to do with any of it, espcially the running back and forth of soccer.

This is most of the team, I think there might have been at least one missing. They all got medals and were pretty excited about that. I think for her first year she did an amazing job.

SCRAPBOOKING

Once again I will state that I am so behind!! I have been Utah twice since this event. Tiffnie and Tonia were going to meet in Layton for the weekend and scrapbook, so they invited me along. I can't believe how much I got done and boy did we have fun!!
Our hotel had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen, so we sat everything up in the living room and scrapped there. The first night we all went to bed and I fell asleep with my television on (each room had one and so did the living room.) I woke up a little while later and realized it was still on, so I turned it off. Then I heard the tv in the living room going (and I remembered turning it off myself). So, I got up and both Tiff and Tonia were sound asleep, so I looked around the hotel room and found nothing. I was totally freaked out, but I got back in bed and went to sleep. The next day Tonia was watching tv in the living room and Tiff was switching channels in her room and it was changing Tonia's channels too....mystery solved, all the remotes worked on all the tv's.

These were bracket things that you would put around words, so we used them as mustaches, hey we thought it was pretty funny.
(No, we don't get out very much.)

Thanks for taking me with you guys!! Lets do it again very soon!!

Jerika - District Voice

Have I told anyone lately what an angelic voice my Jerika has? I am pretty certain that everyone is tired of hearing that from me, but it is so true. She has had several recitals where mostly parents and grandparents come and listen, but this experience was way out of her comfort zone. She had to sing a song in another language and be judged. She did a fabulous job and I was so proud of her. She doesn't like to sing in front of people and it really makes me crazy, so this is really a step in the right direction.
We were so thankful for her painist, she agreed to play for her last minute.

She was very nervous, but we were in the auditorium and we could hear here, which isn't always the case.

This was the judge talking to her after she sang, giving her some pointers.

More pointers. She didn't make it State, but there are very few that do get to go. But that didn't matter to me, her proud mother at all!! She actually did it and that is what matters.

For those of you who don't know, but do care, Jerika will be tranferring to Madison next year. She is so excited and has so many friends there, so I hope her high school experience is better there than her freshman year at Sugar. I really wanted her to try out for the traveling choir at Sugar, but there are a few girls in the choir that are pretty creepy to Jerika so she didn't want to try out. We found out after we had decided to let her transfer that tryouts to the Madison choir were in a week and so I called the choir teacher and they let her try out. The have the Bel Cantos choir, which is both boys and girls and then the Musettes, which is just girls. She made the Musettes choir and I was so proud of her. She is so happy about it too and hopefully this will help her self esteem and she will feel better about her voice and performing in front of people. Go, Jerika!! Luv ya

Books I've read lately.

What with the stress I have had in my life lately, I have had to escape to book land quite a bit.  My siblings and I got mom a Kindle for Christmas this year and I must say that I have probably enjoyed this present more than her.  The reason being is that I also got a fabulous gift for Christmas from my wonderful husband, which was a Android phone.  With said phone I was able to sign up as my mom and download her Kindle books to my cell phone free of charge.  Well, come to find out there are a lot of free books on the Kindle than can be downloaded and I am taking advantage of that fact. 

This is a rather strange assortment of books, but I've read them all in the last couple of months. I'm not sure if this shows how diverse and well-read I am or if it shows a little bit of instability. 

I am still reading this one, but I am almost done.  I saw that one of my friends was reading it and I decided that since I have never read it I would give it a try.  I must say I am quite enjoying it.

I have to admit Anita is one of my favorite.  I think I have read all of her books, except for the series that deals with cancer (hits way to close to home).  This book is number 4 of a series , and I must say some of her books are a little cheesy, but they usually have a happy ending.  And right now, that is what I want, a happy ending. 

When I was looking through the free books on the Kindle, I saw this book.  I have not seen the movie, watched the play or read the book until this year.  As a result I had no idea at all what all the hype was.  I actually had no interest in watching the movie and have never had a chance to see the play.  I have to admit, I loved the book and now I think it is time to watch the move.  So, if anyone has it, let me know.

I love, love, love, Lisa Wingate.  She wrote a book entitled Tending Roses that my mom gave all of us girls a few years ago.  It really puts life into perspective and makes you think about what you are doing in your life.  Anyway, this book was a free download also, so I thought what the heck and I loved it.  It was a sappy love story, and yes it did have a happy ending too.

Another sappy love story and yes it was free too.  Young love at its finest, the bad thing is there is a book 2 and 3 and I think that might just be how they suck you in.  You put the first one in the series on there for free and then they charge you for the next two.  The other two books are only $5 each, but that is the only bad thing about having the Kindle in moms name, or maybe it is a good thing.  If I want to download anything that costs money, it automatically charges her card on file for my purchase.  So, I have to let her know and pay her ahead of time before.  But, right now I am reading some other things so book 2 and three of the Bella wedding series will just have to wait. 

So, those of you who know my sister KaReena, know that she is much smarter than I ever hoped of being.  She was valedictorian (which I am not even sure I spelled it right), does that tell you how not smart I am?  KaReena reads books that require much more intelligence than I possess, and this was one that she wanted me to read.  It is a classic also, so it was a free download, even though I had the book here, but was much easier to read on the Kindle.  Needless to say this book was much better than I thought it would be. 

I have decided that after reading some of these classics that they really aren't too bad and I am going to download more in the future.  I think my next adventure will be something by Jane Austin, and you guessed it, I have never watched any of the movies or read any of her books.  I really do need to expand my horizons.

I enjoyed all of them and the best part is that all of them were free, except for the Anita Stansfield book.  I did purchase that one and do have the series if anyone is interested in reading it, and others for that matter. 

Wow, that is a lot of books in the last 5 months, isn't it?  I have taken a few trips this year and I try to read during dance and voice and on my lunch hour now that my hours have been cut, I actually have a full hour lunch.  HAPPY READING!!

Kinlee's School Program - Idaho History

Here are a few pics from Kinlee's Idaho History program at school.  They did it at 2:00 in the after noon so that mostly just parents were there.  It was a cute program, but looking at these pictures I decided what I wouldn't give to be in Kinlee's head for just one day.  Her facial expressions sometimes just push me over the edge.  I have been on the receiving end of some those looks and let me tell you, it is just a little scary.  But, that is just her personality and I guess that is what makes her who she is.

I am pretty sure right here she is a little irritated with someone.  She is really good about doing what she is supposed to at things like this.  Also at her dance recitals and any public thing.  So, when other kids are naughty (in her eyes) or not doing what they are supposed to, she pretty much tries to keep them in line.  Which I am pretty sure doesn't go over very well with her peers.  I think that she has been in charge for so long at our house that she should be the boss everywhere else also.  Just ask Jerika, we try not to upset her too much around here, because it makes life miserable.  If anyone has any suggestions on how we can fix that, I am all ears!!  Or if you would like to keep her for a few weeks during the summer to straighten her out, just let me know.

Lots going on....

Life really has been pretty crazy around here lately and I do have pictures to download and blog about, but every time I sit down to the computer to download pictures, it won't work.  This is only picture I could get downloaded today.  It is a picture of Ray and his Granny on her birthday.  Hopefully I can get this stupid computer to work later and I can download the rest of the pictures from her birthday.

It seems like life the last few months has just gone by so fast!!  We have had a lot going on that I haven't even posted about yet.  Some of those things have pictures that I will try to download today and blog about.  The one thing I didn't take pictures of was my trip to Utah with my parents the first week in March.  It was not a fun trip and that is why I didn't take any pictures.  My cousin's husband in Ephriam died and so we went there for his funeral.  His name is Brent Banta and his death was a huge shock.  He is younger than my parents and they believe he had a heart attack.  My kids just loved Brent (and his family) and because of that they wanted to go to Utah with us.  So, we all left on March 3 to pay our last respects to Brent.  My cousin Ann was such a trooper the whole time, but she is such an amazing woman that I wouldn't have expected anything less from her.  We stayed in Salt Lake for a few days and just hung out with Shelby's family and then came home on Sunday.  It was nice to see family, but the circumstances didn't make for a happy "family reunion".  Ann and her family is constantly in our prayers and we thank Heavenly Father for Brent and for his example in our lives.