Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Nate and Hazel! They have been married 3 years now. Wow that has gone fast. They were able to go out to dinner while g-pa watched Savannah (I was at work). Such a cute couple!

Happy Birthday....me!

So ya, whether I want to admit it or not, today is my b-day. I'm 31, again. Ha, ha. No really I'm 42, and I can't hardly believe. Some days I feel older, but mostly I feel younger. I never really had a hard time getting older, until I was close to 40. And for some reason I have kind of had a hard time with it. Not a really hard time, just a little. It probably has something to do with the spare tire that I carry around my middle that has gone from a "ten speed" tire to more like a "mountain bike" tire, and the wrinkles that keep gathering around my eyes and the darn grey hair. And then I get to keep company with beautiful young girls like my girls, and Hazel and Natalee. Hmm, makes you feel old. jk But thank heavens for a wonderful daughter-in-law who has the knowledge and the patience to help me cover the grey. And exercise will help the tire, if only I could be more consistant with it. But really, it's not as bad as I make it sound.

I had a good day, even though I had to work. Everyone wondered why I didn't take it off. Well, in my case if I don't work I don't get paid. So off to work I went. Several people at work had cards for me and my awesome manager, who I absolutely love gave me a fun little plaque that said friend on it. Ambrea and Keanna brought balloons into work for me and said I had to have them attached to my cart for the rest of the night. You know, so everyone would know it is my b-day. My sister left me a cute message, I talked to my mom and Ambrea gave me a new cartridge for my Cricut. I am so excited to use it now.

I share my July B-day with several other people. There is my sweet friend Julie who is so cute and such an awesome mom, and my darling and very talented sister-in-law Kari, our cute little neice Bailey, who is such a doll, my best friend growing up, Shelley, who I haven't heard from in forever (she is horrible about writing j/k) and my cousin and best friend Gaylene. (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. Forgive me if so.) Must be a great month for a Birthday.

Happy (belated) Pioneer Day!

Ya, ya. I know I am slow posting this. It still has to do with the whole not having a cord for the camera yet. We are working on that though.

Anyway, during the month of July we have two Family Nights that we have every year. One is about America and how blessed we are to live here. And the other is about the pioneers. I have so much respect for the pioneers and what they went through. How thankful I am to them for their courage, strength and faith. I just love the 1800's and love to read anything about that era.

So (sob) I had to work on the 24th. No, really, it was ok. I had the 4th off, so hey. So after I got off work we had a very yummy bar-b-que with Nate, Hazel and Savannah and Randy, Natalee and Camden. Then after we ate and it got dark we went to the fireworks. Randy and Natalee took Camden home after dinner to get him ready for bed. But the rest of us went to watch the fireworks that the city was putting on. I absolutely love fireworks. As we were driving through the big crowd and then trying to find a spot on the grass Ray just kept wondering if it was worth it. I think it is. :)

This is Camden just being his usual cute self. Ashton, Keanna and Savannah waiting for the fireworks to start.

Oooh, aaahh!!

Ashton and Savannah cuddled up to Ray because some of the fireworks were very loud. Love those ones.

Bike Ridin'

For about a month or so Ray has been riding a bike to work. He is up to three days a week now. He rides it to not only save money on gas but for exercise also. He has stuck with it, even on the ...hot! hot! hot!... days. He rides past Summit Fitness and sometimes there will be tennis balls in the gutter and he will stop and pick them up for our lab Brinckley. We brought one home for her one day and she loved it. We have a little kiddie pool on the porch for her to keep cool and she even took the ball in the water with her. So Ray started stopping and picking them up.
Well, we didn't want her to have them all at once so he puts them up on a shelf in the garage. One day Brinckley was in the garage and I was trying to get her to go out but she wouldn't. She ran over to the shelf where the tennis balls are and jumped up to show me she knew where they were. Guess she's smarter than we give her credit for. So not only are we saving gas and Ray is getting exercise, we are gathering toys for Brinckley.

Oxygen!

Last night (Wednesday) was Ashton's first night with oxygen. Well, since he was a baby that is. At first he wasn't so sure about it. He said that he doesn't like the smell of it. We think it is the smell of the canula that he doesn't like. We came to the conclusion that we think it brings back a lot of memories. Memories of the hospital that is. But he is such a good boy and put it on just like he is supposed to. He will wear it just at night until sometime in October. At which time we will have his blood checked again. If his blood count has gone down then we will continue using oxygen at night. If the blood count hasn't gone down then we will have to have the new shunt put in.

Surgery!

Ok, bear with me. This is going to be kind of a long post.

So we left to go up north on Thursday morning. We stopped in Scipio and picked up Keanna. If you remember she has been staying with my parents. She had been there almost 3 weeks. We have missed her a lot. So my parents met us so we could pick up Keanna and they were going to tend our two little dogs while we were gone. After picking up Keanna we were on our way to Lagoon. Thanks KCSG for the tickets.

We had a great time at Lagoon. Sorry no pictures. I didn't feel like lugging the camera around with us everywhere. Ray, Ambrea and Keanna went off together to ride all the "scary" rides. Ashton and I walked around looking at things and going on the more mild rides. You know, things like the merry go round and the train. Keanna insisted that they go on Rattlesnake Rapids, so those three were soaking wet afterwards. But they were nice and cool. We ended up not leaving there till a little after ten. Then we headed to the hotel to try to get some sleep to prepare for the big day.

We stayed at a Marriott hotel and they were wonderful. We were making a bed out of the extra pillows on the floor for Ashton and Ambrea went to the front desk to ask for an extra blanket. They asked her if she needed a blanket or a comforter and she told them what we were doing. So they brough us three of the down filled comforters. Keanna put two of them over the pillows and one on top of Ashton. He had the softest bed in the room.

Then up bright and early the next morning. Poor Ashton was so nervous. He was having a hard time controlling the tears. Because he is not able to eat we make it a rule that no one can. That just wouldn't be fair. Well, Ray and I left before nine to get Ashton there. The girls weren't quite ready. But they made it in time to see him before they took him. They took the hotel shuttle to get to the hospital. The gentleman driving them asked them why they were going to the hospital, so Ambrea explained. He asked her if we had received a basket. She said no (cause we hadn't) and he proceeded to ask her a little about Ashton. Things like his age.

First Ashton was weighed and measured. He now weighs 54.5 lbs. Yea, he has gained some weight. Then they check his ears, take his SATS, etc., etc. He was so nervous. He kept saying he just wanted to go home. In the room we had the anethesiast, the cardiologist with a Fellow, the nurse and a gal who was talking to us about doing a study. The anethesiast is really funny, but Ashton just did not think so at the time. He was just too scared.

Then off to the cath lab. This nurse is Leann. She took care of Ashton as a baby. She remembers him and the girls. She couldn't believe how much they have all grown up. (Notice she has a blanket. It is always freezing in the hospital, and I'm not the only one that thinks so.) There were a lot of tears at this point. This is the first time we have taken any of the others kids with us. They now have a new understanding of what he goes through. They let Ray go in with him while they get him to sleep. This is good!
This is a picture of the cath lab.

Walking into the cath lab.

They took him at 10:30 and were not done until about 2:30. It went well, but they weren't able to accomplish everything we had hoped. The main thing was they couldn't open up the shunt. They were able to coil a big collateral, which is a good thing, and the left artery going to his left lung looked good. After the cath the cardiologist always take us in and shows us on a computer what he did. We talked about what to do now. We are hoping that the coiled collateral might bring his SATS up. And we talked about having oxygen at night. The dr. will call us during the week and see where his SATS are and talk about the oxygen. So all in all, it was good and not so good.

This is in recovery. He did awesome this time. Usually he wakes up very grumpy and grouchy. Not this time. He was quite pleasant and cooperative.

Another picture in recovery. Notice we also have blankets now. :)

This is a picture we took while waiting for Ashton. (This picture is a little deceiving. Everyone looks so happy. Honestly though, it is very stressful.) So as I said before we are being a part of a study. Well, Ray and Ambrea were brave and had their blood drawn to be a part of the study. Keanna and I were chicken. And notice Keanna's cute purple blanket. While we were filling out the papers for the study Keanna was cold and the nurse asked her if she wanted a blanket. This is the cute blanket she got. She is spoiled.

Close up of the bandages from the blood draw. And if you notice in the above picture, Ambrea babysat Ashton's horse while he was in surgery. In this picture you will see his name tag that he has on, just like Ashton.

At 6:30 we got to go home. Ashton was so excited. Actually, we went to the hotel. When we got into the room there was a basket and a gift basket waiting for us. In the basket were some fun things for Ashton. In the bag were things that Keanna said were all good for a mom. She took the lotion and body wash though. There was a note from the hotel staff wishing us well. We thought that was very nice of them. Ambrea freshened up and went to a friends sisters reception (did you get that). The rest of us ate and then me, Ashton and Keanna crashed. This was about 8:00 or a little after. Ashton and I woke up at 10:00, did some coloring and some more relaxing. Ambrea got back about 11:30 and after having a snack climbed into bed. In the mean time Keanna had woken up. She watched a little TV then went back to sleep. We did not start waking up until 10:30 the next morning. And to be honest, I really could have slept longer. In fact Keanna did. Oh, and by the way, she slept on Ashton's nice soft bed that night. Ray was awesome and got us a late check out, 2:00. So we took our time getting ready and packing up. We went to Ray's parents to visit and pick up Randy and Natalee's car. Ambrea was driving it back home for them. Then we went to the AT&T store so Ambrea could buy a new phone. She finally got the one she wanted. I think she is pretty happy now. Then we headed to Santaquin to meet Carolyn Q. and her family. Carolyn is the Pres. of IHH. I only know her from email and phone conversations. It was so good to finally meet her and her cute family. She welcomed us in and had some yummy cheeries they had picked for us. We could have talked forever. Her little boy Cole played and played with Ray. For some reason kids are attracted to him, and Nate also. Carolyn is a sweetheart and I look forward to getting to know her better. Thanks Carolyn for letting us barge in for a visit. No pictures this time though. They had spent all day putting in a sprinkler system and were just not prepared for pictures. Next time.

Then our next stop was Scipio again, to pick up the dogs. Dad bought us dinner and we visited for a little bit. It was nice. Then finally on our way home. It was about midnight by the time we got home. So needless to say, we slept in again.

We want to thank everyone for the prayers and concern. We could honestly feel them appreciate you all.

A Day of Fast

As some of you may remember, next Friday is the big day. Ashton will be having his cath on that day. This Sunday our ward is having a ward fast, and we would like to ask anyone who is interested to join us in fasting and prayer for Ashton. Also, we have met a family who just lives around the corner with a little boy Joseph, who is 3, who will also be having a procedure that same week. He will be having open-heart surgery on the 8th and we will be fasting and praying for him also. It has been a lot of fun becoming acquinted with him and his family.

As the day gets closer I find myself getting more nervous, but also anxiously awaiting it. Ashton is very healthy right now and it will be good to get his heart some help. I know he will feel much better when we can get more oxygen into his blood. It's just a bummer of the way we have to accomplish that.

We want to thank you in advance for the many prayers. Everyone of them will help.

Workin' Buddies

About a month ago Ambrea starting working at Michael's with me. Well, we don't usually get to work together because she works an afternoon shift and I work an evening shift. Although, because I go in early on Thursdays we have gotten to work together. She still has her job at Power Sports also. She goes there in the morning, and then on the days she works at Michael's she runs home after Power Sports, eats lunch, then runs to work at Michael's. She has also been helping Natalee with Camden while Randy is up north for training. She has had a lot of fun with him. It is keeping her very busy.

It has been fun working with her and she is doing a great job. I guess they call her "Little Carolyn". Not sure why exactly, but they tell me she is a hard worker and fast learner. I am so proud of her. :) Love that girl so much!

HOT! HOT! HOT!

Ok, so most everyone knows that I love the warm weather. So living here is great for me. But I must say, lately it is just plain HOT here. Our airconditioner ran clear through the whole night. Granted, we usually keep it set at 78, not too cool, but I heard it turning on and off all night long. So, I must say 108, even for me, is a little too warm.