Dinosaur Museum

The last month at preschool, the kids have been studying about dinosaurs. Today marked the finale, as children and their families heading into the dinosaur museum in Price. There was a small, live alligator there also, along with a turtle and some gold fish. That was the highlight for Luke. Here's some pictures of us from this morning.

This was my favorite shot of the day. I loved the lighting. Don't know what kind of dinosaur this was though. Sorry.

Kisses from Luke

Luke loves to give me kisses. He's been pretty sick the last couple of days with a bad cold, his nose gushing a constant stream of fluid (in case you wanted to know). He was still willing and wanting to give me all kinds of kisses yesterday though.

We had a busy Sunday, as always. Jared had to speak yet again in another ward in the stake at 9:00, then came home to be with the two sick babies, while I took Koria and Kimball to church. I taught Gospel Doctrine, followed by substitute teaching their class as their teacher was sick. She called me up on Saturday and sounded absolutely miserable. I was supposed to help Koria give her talk for Primary that we'd prepared the night before, but a counselor in the presidency came in as I started to teach Gospel Doctrine to let me know that the times of the Primary childrens' sharing time had changed and that Koria needed help right then. Uh .... well? I tried to verbally explain to her what Koria was going to say and handed her the scriptures that we had marked. I don't know how things went, but whatever. By the way, it's much easier (or at least it was yesterday) to teach a large group of adults than it is to teach an enclosed classroom of four and five-year-olds. Here's a shout out to all you PRIMARY TEACHERS! You have much respect from the Keni.

After all the parents picked up their children, we headed home. Jared headed out to some church meetings upon our arrival. When he got back home, I took off for visiting teaching. By the time that was done, Luke and Layne were in bed and Kimball and Koria were finishing up some books with Jared. Kimball decided for the second night in a row that he didn't want to go to sleep until a couple hours after his bedtime. I spent about an hour laying by him before he zonked out.

After a couple phone calls, Jared and I attempted to watch a t.v. show, only to have me fall asleep in the middle of it.

And that, folks, is a typical Sunday for the Black family.

"He Annointed Eyes Blind"

This is the print titled, "He Annointed Eyes Blind" by Walter Rane that Jared gave to me for Christmas this year. He said that he searched for hours to try and find a meaningful picture for me. Last year, he gave me another print for Christmas by the same artist, titled, "The Desires of My Heart," a picture of Joseph Smith kneeling in the grove. He won on both accounts. This picture, below, is of the Savior healing a man who is blind, and if you notice, the man is kneeling, clasping his hands together. Jared said that when he saw this painting, he felt that this was the one, that it has a special significance for our family. Layne happens to hold her hands in the same positioning, which helps her gain balance. When I opened it up, I was truly touched by the Spirit and became emotional. I didn't even have to ask Jared his reasoning behind this particular piece of artwork.

Because of it's unique sizing, it needs to be custom framed. We noticed that an art supply store is running a special right now on their custom framing, so we headed up to Provo to get it going. Two weeks from now, we should have it all completed.

Thanks, Jared. You always put such thought into the things you do for me and our whole family. And thanks be to our Savior, who can heal us in all ways. I know that He continues to heal my blindness and weaknesses as well.

Cupcakes on Friday Night

By the time Friday night rolled around in our household, I was ready for a break. When Jared returned from legislative meetings in SLC, we ate dinner and then I headed in to Price, ALONE, to do a bit of grocery shopping. Right before I left, we decided to give the kids all a cupcake that Jared had picked up earlier in the day. Since I wasn't here for the cleanup, I loved it. Jared said that it took quite a while to clean up the younger too, especially Layne. After all, she didn't really have a chance to enjoy one on her first birthday, so Friday night made up for it!

Old Gas Tank

Yesterday before I picked up the kids from preschool, Luke and Layne and I took a short drive and ran across this awesome old gas pump. I played around with photoshop (check out the differences in the first three shots) and included a few of my other favorites as well.

I loved the triadic color scheme: The yellow, red, and blue. It just popped against the desert background.

Really?

As a gift to myself yesterday afternoon, I left Luke and Layne in their cribs after they took their nap (which only lasted 30 minutes ...) because they weren't complaining. I used the time to type up that massively long post from Tuesday's events. When I finished, I walked into their room to find that the Pooh monster attacked again. I am sparing no one this time. Here's some of the fun that I got to clean up yesterday afternoon. And really, how could you be mad at that little face? I couldn't bring myself to be upset at Luke, not when the poor kid's sucking his dirty thumb. Ahhhh, so goes life.

Spoon Feeding Siblings

Kimb and Kor asked if they could feed the babies their cereal this morning. I thought, "Sweet. Let's make this a daily habit." I think it's hilarious that Kimball opens his mouth while feeding Luke, just like Jared does. Look at the picture above. They did a pretty good job too. Luke was a bit messier than usual, as was Layne, but it's all good.

I Should Have Stayed In Bed Today

Let me start off by saying that this little girl was the highlight of the day on Tuesday, and the title aptly applies to the events of January 25, 2011.

I had not taken the time the night before to get everything set for Layne and my trip to SLC for several doctors' appointments, so I was a bit paranoid to begin with. I slept from about 12:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m., then started getting everything set for the trip by 5:30 a.m. That is, I THOUGHT that I had everything set.

We left the house around 6:30, on our way up Spanish Fork Canyon. Layne still has a hard time holding a sippy cup on her own, so as I was trying to help her drink while I drove, she became frustrated and started screaming. For safety reasons, I finally decided to just let her figure things out on her own, then popped in my headphones to listen to some music in the hopes that I would drowned out the crying. Ten minutes past the only gas station in the canyon, I noticed that my out of low fuel sign had come on. I thought to myself, "If I turn around, I'll miss the first appointment at Primary Children's and have to reschedule." I reasoned that I could make it to Spanish Fork with what was left in the tank before I'd run out, thus getting to the appointment on time.

I almost did too. If you are familiar with the canyon at all, you know that just before you reach it's mouth where Spanish Fork lies, you come across several windmills used to produce energy. About two turns in the road short of the windmill, I felt the cruise control shut off and the car start to gradually shut down. I was blessed to make it to a safe place at the side of the road, then called Jared in the hopes his aunt and uncle in Spanish Fork could be reached. No such luck as they are in California this week, but within a couple of minutes, a Utah County Sheriff's vehicle pulled up behind me. Upon my explanation, the saint of a man gladly offered to drive to the gas station about seven miles ahead and buy a small gas tank with a couple gallons of gas. Before you go thinking, "Kendra's an idiot," keep in mind I already told myself that, AND keep in mind that that morning, Layne had started to show signs of RSV, the illness that hospitalized her for 9 days last January. I was pretty worried about her health plus the three other apointments at her various specialists that day, and the last thing that went through my head was to stop and fill up before leaving for Salt Lake.

I couldn't thank the officer more, and he followed me to the gas station to make sure that I was okay before smiling and waving me on my way, which we did ... half an hour behind schedule, but still alright since I'd left early to begin with.

We hit a snowstorm in south Provo, coupled with miles of I-15 traffic due to construction. By the time I reached I-215, it was already time for Layne's first appointment, and when we came to Foothill Blv., traffic had come to a standstill. Accidents where happening everywhere because of the thick, wet snow. We reached Primary Children's and made it to the ENT department for our first appointment to find that every other person had been caught in the snowstorm too. They sent us up to audiology where Layne's tubes where seen as functioning. She failed another four hearing tests, and her hearing loss on the left side has been labeled as moderate to severe, the right side labeled as moderate. Nothing new. That's when they announced that Layne would not be fitted for hearing aided there, but in some outpatient facility, with a cost of around $3,000 that insurance will not cover. Awesome.

Back to the ENT department, where I waited for about an hour for the doctor to tell me the same thing. He noticed her sickness, to which I asked if she could be swabbed to see if it was RSV due to her history and my concerns. He agreed, sent the nurses in, and they had me hold Layne down while they shoved a giant Q-tip up her nostrils.

When we left the building, we found six inches of wet snow atop our car and the roads, with more falling. Layne's next appointment was in Murray at her pediatric opthamologist for her vision concerns. As we were driving down the hill just west of the U of U campus, all the snow from the top of the car slid forward, immobilizing the windshield wipers. As I tried to get the snow cleared, driving down the icy hill, my windshield wiping fluid decided to go off. Perfect time for them to still work. The liquid iced over, and since I couldn't clear it with the wipers, I did my best to see out the side window. Good thing everyone was traveling about 5 miles an hour. The two side mirrors were covered with snow at this point too, so I unrolled the window and cleared off what I could with my hand. Prayer works ... at least desperate prayer, because just as I was reaching the no-visibility point, the wipers broke free of their snow-prison, and cleared the view. Layne chose to sleep through this for about ten minutes, which she decided would be a sufficient nap for the day. (I just sighed)

By the time I was about to reach Rocky Mountain Eye Care for Layne's next appointment, Primary Children's called and informed me that they had used the wrong swab for the RSV culture and that I could either come back to redue the test, or go to a different facility.

Really?

I didn't say it to her on the phone, but in my mind I'm thinking, "Yeah, I'd love to pay another copay and go to yet another hospital today. Thanks for the opportunity. Kimball's appointment for ear infection yesterday plus Layne's three today just aren't enough."

Yeah, I wasn't too impressed.

I drove down to State Street to hit the one fast-food place that's in the area, Taco Time, and ordered a soft taco and an empanada (I don't recommend the empanada). I pulled up to this same Taco Bell several months earlier, right before Layne was admitted to the hospital for her eye infection. Just as I pulled up, my nose decided to start massively bleeding. After three attempts to order, the attendant explained that I needed to pull up to the window to order as he could not understand me. He found out why ... visually. As I'm holding a blood-soaked napkin up to my nose, he took one look at me, then turned and ran. About a minute later, a latino woman appeared to take my order and offered me a stack on napkins 6 inches high. I was pretty sure that I had left a lasting impression on the employees, but the same man who ran from me five months previously didn't show any signs of terror. Maybe he didn't recognize me without a tissue.

I ate in the car at the parking lot of the eye doctor, while helping Layne with her sippy cup at the same time. Before the appointment, I called Jared and he looked up some instacare facilities for me in the area at which I planned on going to to have the RSV swab redone. The appointment went well. Bless Dr. Peterson. He's such a nice and caring doctor.

We made our way south to the North Orem IHC Instacare Center, where I was instructed that they were NOT a lab, and that I would have to go to a hospital for the test to be completed. The bonus of our stop there was that the receptionist explained that if I just called Primary Children's and had them send the order to the other lab that I should not have to pay another copay.

I know what you're thinking. Can't Kendra speed this story up ... trust me, this is more for my mental health than anything else, and no, I can't. We ended up parking on the third level of the parking terrace at Utah Valley Regional, then walked down, in the blizzard, to the Outpatient Lab, a completely separate building from the hospital itself. There we waited for another 45 minutes to register, only to be told that we then needed to go to the main part of the hospital and register a second time with the main admitting desk.

What? Do I look like a masochist to you?

After we arrived at the admitting desk, the receptionist there told me that they'd call a RT to come and do a suctioning on Layne. Uh, no, we don't know if she has RSV yet. She just needs to be swabbed.

That's when a 78 year-old-woman chose to sit down in the seat right by me and announced that she was older and needed to be helped before us, because she was more in need. And yes, I do know that she was 78 as she made a point of telling all in her hearing range that such was the case. That was one instance where I could have beaten an elderly person.

We waited ... and waited ... and waited some more, until the normally patient and calm demeanor of Kendra snapped. I started pacing behind the admitting desk until one of the five (I counted) ladies manning the two desks finally said, "Oh, are you still waiting for RT to come and suction your daughter?"

My response? "It's a swab. And yes, I'm still waiting."

Some slightly off-her-rocker but very nice RT therapist finally came out and asked me if I was the mother waiting for her child to be suctioned. Whatever. Just do it.

I again had the priviledge of holding Layne down, this time with a tiny tube shoved up her nose, so that it could be suctioned into a tube to be sent away for the RSV test. Apparently, the ENT doctor at Primary's had decided to do a more extensive test than the norm.

I asked if I could wait and get the results then, in order to avoid driving all the way back to Huntington, two hours to the south, in case she needed to be observed or admitted later on the next day. I was thrilled to learn that Utah Valley does not give results to the parents directly, only to the ordering doctor, who's office happened to be closing for the day before the results would be known. I asked if I could sign a release of information form so that I could get them myself. Their response?

"Well .... normally we THINK you could, but the lady who's in charge of that is not in today, so you can't."

Layne was having a good time chewing on the Luke Skywalker figure that I'd packed along for her to play with (her personal favorite) during all of this. Don't ask me how many times it dropped on the floor. I really don't want to know. It kept her somewhat happy.

They promised me that if I just waited there in the front lobby for another hour or so that they'd do their best to get me the results.

So we did. After about fifteen minutes or so, the RT head came out to tell me that the lab informed them that the doctor had ordered such an extensive viral test that it would be a couple of days before the results would be back.

Thanks. I think I'll be able to tell if she needs medicinal care in a couple of days myself.

I didn't say that to him. He was very nice. I was too. I apologized for all the confusion, then told him I hoped that I wouldn't have to see him again anytime soon. He laughed and wished us the best.

We headed back outside in the snow to the third floor of the parking terrace. It has a large opening in the middle of it, making it impossible to walk straight across the parking lot to your car. I found that out the hard way.

After I checked to make sure that there was plenty of gas in the tank for the drive home, we took off ... and didn't look back.

After a icy drive through the canyon to our home, I found all well. Jared and the three other kids were happy to see us. We ate dinner. I vented. We watch a rerun. We ate cheesecake. We went to bed. I just shouldn't have gotten out to begin with.

Hairbows on a Hanger

I don't know what's gotten into me. Maybe it's the fact that Jared just sorted through his closet to get a lot of D.I. donations together. I felt that I needed to do the same. Afterwards, I decided that the drawers in the bathroom needed to be sorted through too, so I created a way for all of the girls' hairbows to be organized. This is what I came up with. I hot glued some ribbon onto a child's hanger, then clipped all of their hair accessories with a clip to the ribbons. It can be hung in Koria's closet now, allowing the cupboard a lot of extra room and it lets her be able to see all of her choices easily. Then we just close the closet door and it's out of sight. Nice. It was about 10:00 p.m. when I came up with this on Monday night. Like I said, don't ask me why.

Don't They Look Old?

Star Wars Undies

I forgot to mention in the last post that Jared and I were blessed last night to take a trip to the Provo Temple for an endowment session, courtesy of a great lady here in our ward, Debbie Sackett. She stopped Jared in the hallway on Sunday and volunteered to watch the kids for us so that we could make it to the temple. How wonderful was that? The last thing that we heard as we headed out the door was a question from Kimball to Sister Sackett:

"So, Sister Sackett .... how good of a puzzle solver are you?"

Jared and I took off around three, made it to the temple for the 5:00 p.m. session, then ran a few errands (like buying a case of baby wipes), and met up with Jana for dinner at the Olive Garden that night. She had just been to the temple too, so it was great to have a chance to see her for a couple hours. We made it home late Friday night and found all well and some very entertaining stories of the night's events. Kimball introduced Debbie and her husband to "Himalaya" icecream servings, and Koria instructing her on how to best get Luke to sleep, among other things. What a brave woman. She said she'd be more than happy to do it again. Wow. Double amazing. We owe her a great deal of thanks.

When we met up with Jana at a store before dinner, we came across this stunning set of Star Wars underwear for Kimball. When we gave them to him this morning, you would have thought that we gave him the world! It's the little things, isn't it? He's pretty excited that it's a bathnight tonight. Now, which one should he pick to wear first?

Extra Fiber, Tick-Tack-Toe, and Free Babysitters

Friday was packed full of activity. To begin with, Layne has discovered that she enjoys books -- eating them that is. I was doing some house-cleaning on Friday morning when I went into the back to find this book's corner gone, bits of it still lingering in my 17-month-old's mouth. Guess she needs all the fiber she can get. She's started to attack a few other books around the house too. Guess we'll have to monitor where they end up.

Jared and I were greeted by another fun surprise when we woke up. Kimball and Koria had created a three dimensional tick-tack-toe board out of their stuffed animals on Koria's bed and were in the middle of a match by 7:00 a.m. We thought that it was quite clever of them. My favorite part of the picture is not the game board though, it's the fact that Koria's already put on her black dress boots for the day and she's still in her pajamas.

Thursday's Sunset

What do you know, nobody up-chucked and we made it home in time to enjoy a beautiful sunset that same night.

Thursday Afternoon Drive

I had the audacity to confine the kids in the car on Thursday after school so that we could go for a drive in the mountains to the west of our home. After about 20 comments in reference to vomit, I caved in and let them watch a movie. Apparently, they don't like the mountains because "they make them sick. AND they're boring. Who wants to go for a drive in the mountains anyway when all they do is make you sick?" It's a quote, those are not my thoughts. After about the 40th sick-to-the-stomach comment (yes, I counted), we turned around and headed back home. I enjoyed the drive. I brought my I-pod along and popped my headphones in and just enjoyed the scenery. Here are some of the shots that I took that afternoon.

4 Kids in a Tub

Normally, we bathe two kids in one tub, one of the older with one of the younger, but for some reason tonight (let's call it exhaustion), both sets of twins decided that they wanted to take a bath in the same tub. Whatever. Bet you can't say you've ever attempted that one, have you?

Pictures from today and the past

Today's post is brought to you today by my random brain, and the consequent thoughts thereof.

This morning I had to run in to Castle Dale to deposit a check at the bank, so I threw in the camera with the kids, then took a few pictures to post along the way. It's a good thing that old looks great, because I'm surrounded by it here in Eastern Utah. I can appreciate a good old piece of whatever when I see it. Here's a few of my favorite scenes from the morning.

The next two pictures are taken, first, with my zoom lense on max zoom, and next, with my regular lense on max zoom. Depends on what you're looking for I guess, but here's a good way to show the pros and cons to different lenses. Those are the smoke stacks from the power plant outside of Castle Dale.

And this picture is actually from last year in mid-January. It's scary to think how much each of the kids has changed and grow in such a short time span. I wish I could just bottle them up and keep them at this age forever.

Luke's Scowl

Jared likes to make a pretend scowl at the kids when he's teasing them, with his head turned down, hands on hips. Today, while giving Luke "the look" during some of this teasing, Luke decided to immitate Jared and his expressions. This is a series of pictures taken while he was doing just that. It cracked us all up, including Luke. We'd all burst out into laughter, which made the redhead quite proud of himself. By the end of the day, he was doing it spontaneously just to get a laugh out of all of us. We responded in the positive. Hope you enjoy these as much as we do.