More Odds and Ends (Februaryish)

So Andy's current assignment with his job is to train those who would like to become seminary teachers in our area.  He teaches intro classes and based on what he sees in those classes, chooses a handful of student teachers each year.  After usually a year of student teaching, he, along with his boss from the central office, make decisions on who could be offered a full time position teaching seminary.

Then, based on their recommendations and the number of positions available that year, some are hired...and some are not.  It's a long, competitive and often brutal process, and usually, one that Andy doesn't necessarily love because it involves telling so many people hard truths, breaking hearts and shattering dreams.  He's very good at teaching the gospel and teaching others how to teach the gospel though and I'm proud of him.

Each semester (just finished my 6th) I take his daytime intro class at the institute and I enjoy getting to know many of his candidates for student teaching.  Each time he tells me I should do the practicum experience that goes along with the class but I always roll my eyes and tell him 'no way' because it's too scary for me.  The practicums involve a 2 day and a 5 day experience.

With the 2 day you go and observe a class and then teach that class the next day.  Same with the 5 day, observe the first day and then teach the next four days.

Toward the end of last year though, I was planning some goals for myself and the thought came that I should do this and stretch myself.  I really didn't want to but I decided that I would.

In February I did my 2 day...

This is me, scared to pieces to go into the classroom...

It was hard.  The students were quiet and I didn't feel like it went very well.

Then in March, I went to a different class and did my 5 day.

This class was much more willing to participate and the students were supportive of me and even though I was still super nervous, I felt a bit more comfortable and excited to teach.

Andy came and observed me on my 3rd day (just like he would any other of his students).

He was super hesitant to give feedback but I pried some things out of him :)

It was a good experience and I'm really glad I did it!

It took a whole lot of time, effort and worry but it pulled me out of my comfort zone and was worth it.  I hope in the long run, it has made me a better person.

And I'm just so glad it's over!...it's been haunting me for months now that I was going to have to do this :)

The Utah North Area was invited to sing at the S&I broadcast in February.

That's always a fun experience to sing in the tabernacle with a bunch of friends :)

Over the last few months I've been doing a bunch of flowers with my friend Laura again!

It's always a joy to work with flowers...seriously...they are so much fun!

These are some of my favorites of the ones I've done...

(Mostly boutonnieres and corsages for dances)

We've missed our little Humphrey around here.  But we were given an opportunity recently to babysit a friend's hedgehog!

We were all pretty excited about it and we enjoyed having a critter in the house again...

Josh had his Pops orchestra concert.

They always make this one pretty fun with different visuals and effects...

They play music from popular movies...

And it's hard to tell, but in this one they performed with black lights and glow sticks...

Abby came and helped support him this time!

We also stocked up on fundraiser chocolate to help pay for the upcoming tour to Disneyland!

Medical Moments

In January I got a call from Ben's teacher saying he had fallen off the bus and that I should probably come and take him to the doctor.

When I arrived they were finishing cleaning him up and he had calmed down.  They said he had been crying pretty hard...apparently they had all been crying after it happened :)

They said that he had been unbuckled prematurely, had slipped past the aide and bus driver, tried to go down the stairs himself and fell face first on the concrete.

This picture is before he saw the doctor.

The doctor checked him out and said he looked okay and if I was worried about a broken nose after the swelling had gone down to bring him back in.

A few days later...

He scabbed up pretty quickly and looked really good within a week (however, the spots where the scrapes were the worst still get red at random times...it's kind of weird)

A concerned grandmother ;) felt like his nose looked crooked so I took him in and they doctor said he felt like it was still just soft tissue swelling.

Since then his teacher says she feels like it looks crooked too.

He seems to be breathing fine so even if it was broken it seems to be purely a cosmetic issue and I figure he has and will continue to wrack up a few of those over the years with accidents/injuries.

He's still pretty cute to me :)

A couple of weeks later we had an experience with Josh...

I have recorded this in depth elsewhere so I won't go into a whole lot of detail here but there were all kinds of miracles and blessings that occurred alongside Josh's traumatic experience...

In short, Josh was eating lunch and got some food stuck in his throat.

He has had this happen before but this time it wasn't going away.  He was able to breathe but couldn't swallow.  A fellow student (I'll forever bless his name because I don't know how long Josh would have continued on alone without him) told administration that someone was choking in the bathroom.  The school nurse, who covers 10 schools in the area and just happened to be there at that time called me and once they finally got a hold of me (another story) I rushed over.  She said he needed to be seen right away for fear of the esophagus tearing.  Since he wasn't 16 yrs old yet none of the local GI guys would see him so she was saying we would probably have to transport him to Ogden or even Salt Lake if they couldn't get a hold of the guy in Ogden...which they weren't able to.

She said whatever we ended up doing she felt like we should just take him to our ER in the meantime.

So I drove him in the crazy snow storm we were having at the time and Andy met us there.

The school nurse informed us right as we were getting ready to go that a local dr. had consented to see Josh and cleared his schedule so he could perform a scope on him.  I was so grateful for that!

They got Josh all registered and hooked up with an IV.  They also gave him some medication and told us what time he was scheduled to go in.  It was another hour or two so Andy and I tried to entertain him as he sat drooling into a bag.

 

Of course the ER dr was a former student of Andy's and an acquaintance of my youngest brother :)

It was 15 minutes past the scheduled time for Josh's scope but they had not taken him in yet, and all of a sudden, Josh proclaims,"It went down!"  I don't know if I have ever seen him more relieved than at that moment.  He was grinning from ear to ear.

They checked with the dr and then went ahead and released us telling us to go in soon for an esophagus dilation.

Happy Day!

Multiple relatives on both sides of the family have this issue and procedure done and so we reassured Josh that everything would be fine.

He went in on Valentine's Day for the procedure.  Dr Garg was very kind and again, I was so thankful that he was willing to take Josh even though he was still a pediatric patient.

Josh was not thrilled to be there but he is such a trooper and does what needs to be done.

All went well and Dr Garg diagnosed him with EOE.  Apparently, from what we've heard since, it's rare for someone so young to have this.

He said he wanted to see him again 4 weeks later to do some more stretching since he couldn't do it all at once.

After both times, Josh was out like a log.  The nurses commented on how out of it he was and how long it took him to come out of the induced sleep.

Bless his heart!

He is on medication and will see an allergist and follow up with dr garg again this month.

After these two experiences happening so closely together I would not have been surprised to get a call from the school telling me Matt had a medical emergency (glad that did not happen:)

4 Months Behind

Wow!  I believe I have never been this far behind on my blog!  The beginning of the year is always a bit slow with just odds and ends here and there and so I usually wait to accumulate a bunch before I post, but this time I have waited too long...a lot of catching up to do and my goal is to get it done this week, so let's see how I do :)

For Christmas, Abby had wanted a NASA hoodie so I ordered the one on the right but it was too small.  Matt liked it though so I didn't return it.  We tried again and I ordered the one on the left.  I can't remember what was wrong with this one but it wasn't up to Abby's standards for some reason so I tried to return it but Amazon gave me a refund and said not to worry about returning it.  Score!  I have taken over that one :)
Anyway, Matt and I had to get a pic of us twinning...
Abby still does not have a NASA hoodie :(

Ben continues to line things up...

I can't remember why I was down on the ground like that but Ben took advantage of my position and used me as his platform :)

This little guy is doing pretty well!

He will turn 10 in a month...I can't believe it!

Over the last several months his seizures have become more random and unpredictable but at the same time there are less of them...

...so there's that.

We are grateful for where he is at this point...and he seems happy...so we are happy :)

Abby had to do a school project in the winter.  She spent 10 hours cooking, prepping meals for the family...

She learned how to make freezer meals and use the Instant Pot!

Abs came to Andy's class with me one day that she had off of school.  Here she is finding his candy hidden in his office...

Because of the change in the church regarding age and priesthood and such, Josh was ordained a priest 6 months sooner than we had anticipated.

He's such a great guy!  We love him :)

This was a cool moon sighting as we were driving out to my parents' for dinner one Sunday evening...

I enjoyed hiking through the Swiss Alps with our new incline trainer!

I bought some yummy looking chocolate that was packaged so prettily...I had a hard time breaking into it...

It was okay, but sadly, it didn't taste as good as it looked.

Matt and his friend Ben did a project for the science fair...

They worked well together and did a great job!

Okay, that's my first little roundup and it gets me through most of January.
More to come...