11 June 2023

This week was full of commitments.  On Monday Helen went to join Arlo in staying with their dad for a couple of weeks and the rest of us went about our day.  I picked up my grocery order for the zone conference lunch tomorrow.  Our presidency hosts the luncheon for the missionary zone conference a couple of times a year and I was organizing the lunch this time. In the afternoon we delivered eggs and then dropped the ice cream machine off at the Tucson Stake Center since Phil wasn't going to be able to help me with it tomorrow.  We thought it would be a fun treat for the missionaries.  He also helped me prep some of the food which I was grateful for.  We are doing a Café Rio menu and he's my go-to for making the pico!

Tuesday I got my work all in order and finished my morning meetings and then drove over to the Stake Center to get everything set up for the luncheon.  I ran into a problem in the morning when I went to make the several pounds of rice that I intended to make, my large rice pot where I usually do it all at once, had a hole in the bottom.  Ugh!  I had several pots going at once trying to get the rice cooked before we left.  When I got there and went to set up the ice cream machine I did something wrong and it started leaking mix onto the floor, a lot of it.  The Elders rolled it outside for me and stopped the leak, but man we had  a mess on our hands.  Otherwise the luncheon went well, we had the ice cream for dessert, a mock Café Rio salad/burrito menu, and I brought the soda syrups for a fun soda bar too.  We fed about sixty missionaries and mission leaders.  I'm so grateful for the wonderful women I get to work with in my calling.  Here's a video of the missionaries singing for us before having their lunch. 

Wednesday was super busy too.  I had a lot of left over dishes from the zone conference and I'm grateful that Phil was able to help with those when he got home because I had a webinar to host at work.  It was really well attended too, which was nice.  In the afternoon we drove to Tucson for Arlo's follow up appointment.  Two weeks ago Arlo participated in a full neuropsychological evaluation in response to some of our concerns about his academic performance and social behavior.  The doctor was great and explained everything to us.  She evaluated him for a very wide range of things including autism.  What she found from a neurocognitive perspective is that Arlo has weakness in his attention regulation and aspects of executive functioning, particularly impulse control, thus frontal lobe dysfunction.  He has clinically significant symptoms of ADHD (99% percentile) which we knew.  It seems that the medication we've been using from the pediatrician is just not working effectively at all to relieve his symptoms.  The pediatrician had told me that she had worked with the medications available to her and that we probably needed to consult a psychiatrist to explore more medication options.  This was verified by the psychological evaluation.  The executive function portion explains a lot of Arlo's melt downs and sensitivity to being embarrassed or annoyed.  He has big reactions often when they're not warranted or socially acceptable.  She explained it to us as his amygdala in the center of his brain will produce an emotion to a stimulus, for instance we ask him to do chores and the emotion produced is annoyance or anger, that raw emotion is then passed to the frontal lobe where the brain is supposed to process it, make sense of it, and tailor the response based on a lot of different input.  For instance the feeling of annoyance at having to do chores should make its way to the frontal lobe where the brain processes the feeling and decides that if I have a melt down over this mom and dad will be mad and the chores will be harder, my siblings will be annoyed, someone might see me have a melt down and I'll be embarrassed and the brain takes all these into consideration and should decide to mute the intensity of the feeling.  This would result in a "normal" response: sigh or roll your eyes, but just get it over and do your chores.  Arlo's brain skips the reasoning step and the raw emotion comes out.  And its a struggle for all of us.  The frontal lobe dysfunction also affects his fine motor skills which account for extreme difficulty in tying his shoes, buttoning shirts, writing, etc.  All things I've criticized him for: "You are almost twelve years old, why can't you tie your own shoes!?" Yeah, a lot of this portion of the appointment brought about feelings of guilt and shame in me as his mother.

His academic skills were also evaluated and he showed areas of superior ability, but it was discovered that he has dyslexia and dysgraphia which are highly related to the other difficulties previously mentioned.  I guess 50% of students with ADHD also have a learning disability; at least 20% have dyslexia and 30-40% have dysgraphia.  I had no idea, but it makes so much sense.  He's brilliant in math and science, his abstract verbal reasoning, visual spatial abilities, and visual memory were in the superior range and his processing was atypically fast, but his spelling was in the 1% and his writing was labored, slow, and full of spelling and grammatical errors not to mentioned flipped letters and extreme pressure on his pencil.  She said that some of his behaviors, like the straw twirling, and self isolating overlap with behaviors you see in autistic children, but he does not have an autism spectrum disorder.  I was relieved to know that we could get him some relief with changes to his ADHD medication along with reading and writing tutoring and occupational therapy.  She also said we needed to work with the school to get him an IEP and 504 plan.  

So lots of things to do, but also I feel very positive about it all.  I have information now.  I can adjust my parenting strategies as I continue to research the best methods for helping Arlo.  We can get him the medication he needs, the tutoring and the therapy that will help him to be the best version of himself and reach his full potential.  I am full of hope for Arlo's future.  That being said, this is all new territory.

In the evening I had a presidency meeting and Phil took Jude over to Uncle Kirby and Aunt Brook's house.  We're going on vacation to southern California later this month and they're going to watch Jude for us...because I can imagine trying to take Jude to Disneyland at his age.  They wanted to do a trial run, have him spend the night and make sure he understood that we'd come back for him.  They all had dinner and Jude loved playing in the pool. When it came time for Phil to leave I hear he didn't put up too much of a fight. I think he did well and was happy to see Felicity Thursday morning when she came to get him.  Yay!

Phil worked over time on Thursday and in the evening I  helped teach a Stake training for Temple and Family History Leaders.  Phil worked on Friday and it was my working Friday so I didn't get things done until much later in the afternoon.  I did our grocery shopping and our neighbor's grocery shopping with Felicity's help and then she also helped me prepare a meal for a family in our ward.  I appreciated all of Felicity's help this week as she was the only big kid home.

Saturday morning my presidency went to the temple together and enjoyed our time there.  We had lunch when we were done and it was a nice way to wrap up a stressful week full of "have to" items.  I spent the rest of the day trying to catch up on laundry and chores and I may have also taken a nap since Jude is so fond of being up at 5:30AM these days.  In the evening we went to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate Phil's 45th birthday.  We are so lucky to have such an incredible human in our lives and hope he has at least 45 more birthdays!  Phil had to work on Sunday and Felicity and Jude and I enjoyed an obligation-free Sabbath.  I'm hoping next week will be far less hectic.  I don't have as many things on my calendar so I anticipate that its going to be a little more calm...wish me luck!

04 June 2023

The first week of summer was a little stressful for this mama.  We had hoped to make it to the lake to go finishing on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday since everyone was together at home, but we had so much that needed to get done that it just didn't happen.  We did make sure that we were done early enough that we could enjoy some down time together too.

One of the things that made the week challenging was the fact that Jude has discovered that he can climb out of his crib.  We lowered the mattress and it didn't help.  So he gets up with the sun, between 5 and 5:30AM.  Ugh!  Its at that time that he heads straight for our room, busts through the door climbs into the bed.  The next phrase is typically "where's the remote?".  I will say that he still goes to bed at night without incident.  At nap time he may get out once, but if you put him back in the crib he'll typically stay.  I also appreciate that he looks for us first thing in the morning instead of any number of nefarious things. His bedroom doesn't have locks on the doors, we may have to address that at some point.

Arlo started summer school on Tuesday and the girls headed to Girl's Camp with the other young women from our ward.  I heard they had a great time.  They went horseback riding and canoeing and enjoyed their time.  Felicity sent Phil a text when she spotted some deer on their drive up to the White Mountains and again when AZGF was stocking the lake while the girls were canoeing.  Felicity did have a little bit of a rough time.  She and her good friend are on the outs (teenage girls are complicated) and there aren't any other juniors in her young women's class so she felt isolated.  Its hard to be a mama and sit back and watch them navigate difficult situations, but its part of life.  I know she's not always been kind and forgiving and may have made others feel isolated; I guess we teach them to do right and counsel them when it goes awry and love them as they figure it out.  I have love for all the girls that my girls get to be acquainted with through their young women's classes and the leaders that guide them too.  All that aside, they had a great time with lots of opportunities to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ.  Despite it being challenging, Felicity said it was one of the most fun young women's camp she's been to, which is good, because it was her last as she'll be a graduate next summer!

Arlo said that summer school was fun.  He has eight days of extra school, it was a strong suggestion from his teacher because his ELA grades were so poor.  I'm glad they're making it fun for him.  Phil went out with the missionaries Tuesday afternoon to do some teaching, frustratingly just as I was starting a meeting.  Oh well!

Phil was working Wednesday-Saturday evening.  He worked his normal 24 hour shifts Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and overtime Thursday and Saturday.  And of course, as is what always seems to happen when something more than 100lb dies on the ranch he was not home when our hog Bubba died on Wednesday.  Arlo came in to tell me after he went to feed.  Of course he couldn't have died under his shade close to the gate to his pen.  Oh no, he went peacefully laying in the middle of his mud wallow as far from the gate as possible.  I used the tractor to dig a hole in the corral, but I hit rock not too far down and couldn't dig it any deeper. I reasoned it was probably going to be ok.  It was near impossible to get a rope around him, I had to climb down into the mud, but I couldn't get it around him because he was so heavy.  I did manage to get a rope around his shoulders, but then the strap I used wasn't long enough to reach through the gate so I could pull him through with the tractor.  He weighed 300+ pounds so it wasn't like I could just drag him myself.  I used the tractor to lift the fence of the pen and pull him out far enough to get the strap around his hock and then lift him with the tractor to get him to the hole...which was NOT big enough.  Arlo was actually a great help, he held the flashlight, moved the tractor when I needed him too, and stood on the end of the board I used with a fulcrum point to lift the pig up enough to get the rope around him.  I was frustrated the hole wasn't big or deep enough and I really couldn't dig a new hole since it was now dark dark.  Phil only worked overtime until 4ish on Thursday so he and Jude dug a new and adequate sized hole when he got home and Bubba is now in our growing farm cemetery.  

Speaking of the farm, we had a turkey chick hatch this week and it just so happened that Tractor Supply had chicks 75% off which is funny because it works a little backwards compared to than other feed stores.  They were 75% off because they were getting old...you pay more for older birds at most places because the risk of them dying decreases significantly.  Anyway, I may have gotten eight chicken chicks for $1.25 each and now I've got "chickies" (Jude's favorite word) in a brooder in my bathroom again.  Its good for the little turkey to have friends.

On Friday Jude and I drove to St. David to pick up my Farm, Sweet Farm quilt from the quilter.  It surpassed my expectations.  Oh my heavens it is beautiful.  The amount of work that she put into my quilt honors the amount of work that I put into my quilt.  I need to add some buttons that I left off for ease of quilting and bind it and add the label; when I do, I'll add full photos, but here's a sneak peak.

We stopped for a hamburger and a frosty in Benson before we headed back home.  Jude was actually very good even though he had to be in the truck for so long.  When I got home I picked up Arlo from school and the boys and I went grocery shopping.  Arlo pushed a buggy for the neighbors and I pushed our buggy and we shopped for two households in about an hour.    I was able to get some more Christmas gifts completed Friday evening, check out this cute casserole dish-sized hot pad made from cute vintage(looking) scraps.  I love them.  

Saturday morning it was our turn to clean the church building together with a couple of our favorite families.  Arlo was a somewhat helpful, what he lacked in good cleaning help he made up for in keeping his little brother from escaping outside while I was cleaning.  When we got home Arlo went to spend a couple of weeks with his dad for the summer so it was just my buddy Jude and me until the girls got home from camp in the late afternoon.  I spent the whole rest of the day trying to get the house clean.  ITS SO HARD!  I also made dinner for the missionaries who were coming over later in the evening.  We had a surprise drop in from a friend's daughter visiting Tucson from Snowflake as she is preparing to move down here to go to college in the fall.  We invited Katie to stay for dinner which was super convenient since I was already making a big meal for the elders.  Phil got home a little after six and the missionaries came a little after seven.  We had a very nice visit.  

Phil was back to work on Sunday so it was just the girls and Jude and I at church.  What a LONG week.  Maybe next week will be better?  Probably not, I have a ton going on.   

  

 

28 May 2023

 You may recall that in April we got a referral from the pediatrician to have Arlo evaluated by a pediatric psychologist.  We had such a hard time finding someone.  The school psychologist made a suggestion and even though Frye Psychological Services doesn't take insurance, they did have an opening for Arlo in late May for a full evaluation.  Phil had to work, so my mom watched Jude and Arlo got to skip school for his meeting with Dr. Frye.  Arlo has some struggles that I just don't understand as a parent and what was driving my decision to see if we can find more answers was my concern that he was really going to start struggling academically in middle school.  In the first hour he worked with the technician and the doctor and I did an interview on my observations and concerns.  When we were done, Arlo continued his evaluation with her.  We broke for lunch at noon and he and I went to Subway.  He said it was a lot of fun and he was enjoying it so far. I brought him back after an hour-long lunch and they kept him until about four.  I got two books read and worked on my applique quilt in the waiting room.  When all was said and done Arlo thought it was a lot of fun and not at all what he had expected.  We'll meet back with her in a couple weeks to go over the results and figure out a path forward.

Jude enjoyed his afternoon with Nana.  He played hard all day and fell asleep before we even got out of Nana's neighborhood.

This week was a winding down week.  The girls had the last of their finals and enjoyed half days on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  When the dust cleared Helen finished strong with straight A's.  I am so proud of her hard work, her cumulative GPA for her freshman year puts her in the top 10% of her class.  Felicity managed to eek out a B in chemistry and we were elated since it was teetering between a B and a C.  She had straight A's in everything else and considering she had three AP classes this semester her semester GPA was excellent and she is finishing her Junior year in the top 15% of her class.  I am incredibly proud of her too.  Grades aren't everything, but I'm glad its an area where they are succeeding, especially considering everything else they're involved in. 

The girls had their last day of school on Thursday and on Friday I went to Copper Ridge for Arlo's 5th grade promotion.  They had a nice little ceremony and had cake for the kids afterward.  Arlo is excited to move on to middle school in the fall.  

In the afternoon the kids watched Jude for me and I went and had my hair done.  It was a nice relaxing end to a very full week.

Helen and Arlo went to visit their dad for the weekend and Felicity was hanging out with friends so Phil took Jude to the park and out to lunch so that I could get some cleaning done on Saturday morning.  Cleaning house with Jude around is kind of like eating Oreos while brushing your teeth.  They enjoyed time together and I enjoyed time alone!  In the afternoon I took our neighbors grocery shopping and we ran some errands.  

Sunday I was visiting in our Stake's Spanish ward which was nice; the women there are always so kind and welcoming and then in the afternoon we picked up the kids in Tucson and enjoyed the rest of our Sunday evening.  Summer break, here we come!

21 May 2023

My Monday was busy.  My Monday is usually busy.  We delivered eggs and I dropped off my quilts.  I finished up what Phil has dubbed my "Legacy Quilt".  I even designed a Maltese cross to be the corner block.  I'm really proud of how it turned out.  Again since its a gift I don't want to give too much away.  I also dropped off my woodland baby quilt and three "cheater" quilts.  I'm excited to see how they come back.

When Jude and I picked up Arlo from the bus stop I decided to take the boys into town so that they could get haircuts and I could get Jude some big-boy undies and new tennis shoes.  Well about half way to Sahuarita, I turn around to see that an unusually quiet Jude had taken his afternoon snack, a banana, and had smooshed it all over himself and his chair.  It was in his hair, his ears, dangling from his eyelashes and all over the car seat.  I was so stinking mad, he makes normal things so much more difficult.  Since we were more than 1/2 way there I continued on thinking I could use a baby wipe to clean him up.  I couldn't.   The picture does not do the mess justice.  I took Arlo to the Great Clips and parked where I could see the truck from inside and got Arlo set up and Jude and I waited in the truck for Arlo to finish before heading home for a bath.  Felicity had a date in the evening so it was just the youngest kids and me.

Work is going well, its busy but good.  I got a nice little bonus for my efforts too.  We tried the haircut and trip  to Walmart again on Tuesday afternoon and it went much more smoothly, no bananas were involved.  Jude got his haircut and we got him some new shoes and I bought him some big boy undies.  He has been very interested in using the bathroom.  He's always taking his diaper off and sporadically going on the toilet.  I've potty trained enough toddlers to know that he's not ready to be serious about it and knowing how stubborn he is, it will be a nightmare if its not 100% his idea.  That being said if he wants to wear underwear sometimes, I can accommodate that. 

Wednesday I hosted a webinar at work, they're always a little nerve wreaking because I'm on camera in front of 100+ work colleagues and we know who likes to throw tantrums at the most inopportune times.  He had an early nap and didn't interrupt, so it went well.  Felicity tried out for drum major at school this week and I was a little frustrated with her.  Because they were getting a new director it had been previously unclear if the old director was going to hold auditions or wait and let the new director pick his own drum majors.  The school announced the new band director and so he in conjunction with their current teacher held auditions for leadership positions this week.  Felicity claimed that they didn't give them much warning, but I wish she had mentioned to us that they were holding auditions, I could have worked with her a little bit on both her interview skills and her conducting.  Oh well, par for the course, she doesn't want my help for anything!  She felt like it went well so we'll just have to see how it turns out when they make announcements next week.

Phil worked only one overtime shift this tour so it was nice having him home in between shifts.  On Friday I walked around Reid Park with my friend Leona and Arlo had his wax museum activity at school.  They assign them a famous person to learn about and then they dress like them on the wax museum day and parents and fellow students could come around and ask them questions about the person they researched.  Arlo was Mark Zuckerberg, the teacher obviously had mercy on me and picked someone who is known for wearing tees and jeans!  I did add a Facebook logo to one of Arlo's tees so I do get some credit. 

The girls got to go to Cienega's high school graduation on Saturday at Kino Sports Complex to perform in the band, so they were gone most of the day.    I heard graduation went well, its hard to believe that its going to be us next year.  We worked on chores around the house and in the evening I worked on a Christmas project.  Since they're going to be gifts I'll wait to take pictures, but I got to work with glass etching cream and they turned out really well, I'm happy with them and they were super easy.  I'm still trying to do at least one Christmas project a month so that December isn't so overwhelming!  If you were curious about the status on the bees, they didn't stay.  I don't know if we missed the queen or she was injured in the process, but we were disappointed we didn't end up with any freebies.

On Sunday we went to my parent's house after church for dinner and to hang out.  Jude really loves the little plastic pool that my mom got for him.  He and Arlo played in the pool for at least an hour until he got too cold to stay in the water.  We have plans to get our pool at home back up, but I'm skeptical as to whether or not that's actually going to happen.  

14 May 2023

The school year is winding down quickly.  Arlo took a field trip to the middle school on Monday to tour the campus and get a peek at what his next year will look like.  I can't believe he's moving on from elementary school.  Phil was working, but in the evening I left Jude with Helen and I went to see Felicity's spring choir concert.  The show choir did a My Fair Lady medley that was fun.  Felicity really loves it and I love to see her doing something she loves.  The last  number was joint between the advanced choir and the show choir in honor of one of their classmates who was killed in a car accident at the beginning of the year.  It was a beautiful number and tribute.

Our Tuesday was pretty mundane with kids going to church activities in the evening.  Arlo has really enjoyed being in the deacon's quorum,  We were all home on Wednesday evening and so we had our Family Home Evening.  We hired a babysitter and went to see the new Guardian's of the Galaxy movie.  I LOVE to go to the movies, its one of my favorite things.  The movie was fantastic; we laughed, we cried, Phil napped.

Thursday was the girl's last day of seminary.  While I doubt they ever showed up to seminary on time they loved it.  Both of their teachers this year were incredible and they ENJOYED going to seminary.  In the late afternoon I was working at my desk and I glanced out the widow to my right.  As a note, my office sits facing north and I have windows to my left (I can see the front door), in front (I can see the shop and where cars pull up), to the left (towards the front of the yard).  Anyway, I glanced out east and noticed a huge swarm of bees fly across the yard and start to land in the mulberry tree.  I made an exasperated sigh and went out back to check on my hives.  I was surprised to find that they weren't my bees swarming, mine were happy in their hive.  I cleaned up a brood box and got it set up and then Phil volunteered to collect the swarm of bees.  We used a little shop vac to suck them up, but it was problematic as the hose was pretty narrow and turns out there's a shield inside the holding take which is meant to direct trash down, but it kinda acted like a windshield on a country road if you can visual my meaning.  Even with the difficulties, we still ended up with 5-6 pounds of live bees so we poured them into the prepared hive and crossed our fingers.  It has motivated me to look for a design for a bee vacuum we can build that is more "live bee" friendly.  Once we got the bees settled Phil left for a quarterly stake missionary coordination meeting.  

Phil worked overtime on Friday morning and I had some running around to do.  In the afternoon Jude and I took my mom to lunch as part of her Mother's Day gift.  We went to Rubio's and had a great time.  Phil came home around four and we dropped the ice cream machine off at a friend's house for their graduation party and helped them with a few things before he had to go.  He picked up a "back half" of overtime, so he went back to the fire station to work overnight.  Felicity had her choir banquet and since Helen was at a birthday party and Phil picked up that overtime shift I couldn't go with her because I wasn't going to take Jude.  Besides, that choir banquet will be a lot more interesting next year when Felicity's a graduating senior. 

As mentioned, Helen had a birthday party to attend for her friend Morgan Friday night.  These girls have been friends since 4th grade and now they're about ready to finish their freshman year.  They go to different high schools, but I'm glad they still get to see each other from time to time.

Phil was scheduled to work on Saturday, so he didn't come home after his overnight OT shift, but we got along just fine.  Felicity helped me with the grocery shopping for our neighbors and we worked the chores, the usual stuff, laundry and cleaning up.  Helen had her drama banquet in the evening, they call it "Oscar Night".  She was a little disappointed she didn't receive an Oscar, but she has years of drama ahead of her.  I'm glad she's found something she enjoys.  I think she'd also like to do choir, but drama is a good fit for her.  I'm so proud of the girls and their willingness to explore their talents.  I wish they'd try some non-fine art options (band, choir, and drama), but I'm glad they're happy.

I may have started another side quilt.  I saw some cute fabric and couldn't help myself!  That and I only have one baby quilt in my stash to give away in a pinch so I really needed to stock that back up!  I thought I could do it in an afternoon...I'm an idiot.  In my role as a project manager at work, I know when the developers tell me something should only take "a couple of hours" its going to take 12...at minimum; yet somehow I never seem to apply that same realism to myself and my projects.  Anyway, I did manage to finish the top of this cute woodsy/adventure panel quilt this week.  I'll show you the whole thing once I get it quilted.

Phil was home for mother's day and we enjoyed a pretty quiet afternoon.  The kids got me some very nice cards and Phil came home with flowers which was nice.  He also bought me an avocado tree.  We are almost done with the tree project we set out to do this spring.  We planted two Vitex (shade trees), another pomegranate, a lemon, grapefruit, lime, orange, an Asian pear (our 3rd), another apple, and two avocados.  I love trees.  We improved the tree wells, fertilized everything and now almost everything has mulch in the wells.  Its all looking good, now I just have to make sure it all gets watered!  We enjoyed the rest of our Mother's Day.  I'm grateful for my mom and all the women in my life who have had influence over the woman I became (or am becoming).

07 May 2023

 Hello May and hello wildland season.  The fire season on the Arizona Strip usually runs from May through early October, with the number of fires peaking in June and July.  Phil is certified to fight wildfires and signed up to go out on wildland assignments this summer.  He got called to go out early Monday morning to a wild fire on Mount Lemon and got some overtime hours.  The fire was extinguished fairly quickly and they were free to come home Monday night.

On Tuesday we had an appointment after school to go to the temple.  It was Arlo's first time going and he was excited and apprehensive.  We met Phil's friend Mike at the Tucson temple, it was his first time going to do baptisms as well.  We had a lovely experience.  I felt so blessed to be in the temple with my sweet husband and three out of our four children.  Phil and I had worked with Mike a few nights prior to help him set up a Family Search account and to find some family names to take to the temple for baptisms so almost all the names we did were for Mike's family.  When we were done we took some pictures on the grounds and then Phil and the kids and I went to Chili's for dinner. Its been forever since we've gone to dinner all of us together.  We had THE BEST time.  There wasn't any fighting or bickering.  We ate, we enjoyed conversation and spending time with one another.  It was a great evening and I hope a core memory for my kiddos.

While we were at the temple Jude got to hang out at Nana's.  He had a great time playing in the pool, eating Papa's snacks, and being spoiled.  We sure appreciate Nana!

On Wednesday I had a presidency meeting and on Thursday I attended Arlo's 5th grade musical which was cute and then I had another meeting at church.  Just lots of good things going on as we wind down the school year.  The musical had a Disney theme and the kids were all given ears to customize.  I made Arlo a cute pair of Steam Boat Willie mickey ears.

Phil worked over time on Friday and so he wasn't there when Jude smeared himself in Destin.  Again.  He has a real talent for finding things that don't clean up easily.  The girls came home early since it was a half day which was a big help.  In the evening the girls had their band banquet, but I didn't go with them since I didn't want to have to take Jude.  I heard it was fun.  The girls will be getting a new band director in the fall so I think that has some good points and some not so good points. 

Phil worked his regular shift on Saturday and the kids and I did some chores around the ranch and I worked on my new quilt and did some work on my bedroom quilt too.  I guess I just love to have multiple irons in the fire!  Our Sunday was quiet and we are ready for another week!

30 April 2023

Where did April go?  I can't believe the kids just have a few more weeks before summer break.  On Monday Jude had his appointment with the pediatric orthopedist.  He had an exam and x-ray and the doctor confirmed that his leg is legitimately bowed.  He has a 13.5 degree rotation in his left leg and 4 in the right leg.  It was most likely caused by the way Jude sat in the womb; because of my placenta previa Jude was transverse almost the whole latter part of my pregnancy and he had a flat spot on his head (very unusual for a C-section baby) an it probably skewed his bone development too. The doctor said it was probably best to let him continue to grow and recheck it in a couple of years.  He said that sometimes surgery and/or braces do more harm than good.  He did notice, however that Jude also walks on his toes (and sometimes on top of his toes, think like a knuckle-walking ape) and that that behavior could cause problems with his Achilles heal down the road.  Fun fact, Helen has always walked on her toes too.  The doctor gave Jude a lower leg to play with while he talked to Phil, Jude really enjoyed that, he used it like a cane.  The orthopedist also volunteered to take the one remaining stitch in Jude's knee out for him.  He managed to pop the other two.   I didn't go with them as we were double booked and I needed to take our neighbor to the bank.  We're grateful for the opportunity to help our neighbors, its been a once or twice a week thing for almost two years now.  I'm grateful that I have Phil to help fill in the gaps when our schedules are too crazy for one parent to handle.  I'm glad we can divide and conquer.  

Last week I made the decision to change my status at work from part time back to full time.  I recently took on a Scrum Master role leading a large team of (mostly) new hires and with that in addition to everything else I've already been doing I was finding that I was spending near full time hours anyway without the benefits of being full time and in order to do the job the way I wanted to, I needed to be working full time.  So, long story short, I'm back to full time, working Monday through Friday nine hours a day with every other Friday off.  Jude continues to be my office buddy, probably the most irritating office buddy I've ever had, but also the cutest.  He has a sixth sense for knowing when I'm in a meeting where its important that he's not in my lap making noise and that is precisely when he does one of two things.  1. Climbs into my lap to protest my lack of attention loudly, or 2. makes messes just out of arms reach knowing I can't get up to stop him.  Tuesday it was the latter.  I was conducting a meeting when I catch out of the corner of my eye a very busy toddler with a chair collecting items on the counter.  Then I hear the air popper come to life.  He got out the popper, the popcorn, and the spray butter and proceeded to make himself a snack.  He dumped most of the popcorn kernels out on the floor and the ones that made it in the popper were way too many; he also neglected to put the lid on.  When I had a second I turned to look at him and he looked back at me with a grin that said "what are you going to do about it?  Nothing, that's right."  I have become adept at learning which members of the team I can ask a question of and buy myself two or three minutes to stop a disaster which is exactly what I did.  "[employee name] what do you think we should do about [insert technical problem I don't really care about]?".  I turned off my camera and mic and jumped up to dump the extra kernels out of the machine and back in the container and got the lid on before the mess got any bigger.  People keep saying he's keeping me young...I feel like he's aging me terribly!  But I love him like crazy.

Arlo had a field trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on Wednesday.  I love to go to the Desert museum and I love even more to give tours, but it wasn't in the cards for me to chaperone, with work and Jude it wasn't feasible.  I was disappointed for them.  It took them so long to get loaded up and drive out there that they only had a about an hour at the museum.  We'll have to go as a family again soon.  While I was having a meeting Wednesday morning I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Jude sitting cross-legged in the family room with the largest bottle of baby powder that Costco sells.  I can do nothing as he slams both hands, which are balled into fists, against the sides of the bottle sending a massive mushroom cloud of baby powder heavenward.  It was bad, until the cloud hit the ceiling fan he was sitting directly under, then it was worse.  The fan sent the plum ALL OVER THE HOUSE.  Everything I own is covered in a fine layer of lilac scented talc.  So how is my transition back to full time work going you ask?

I did start a side-project quilt this week which I'm excited about.  It's a tee-shirt quilt and its a surprise gift so I'll give you a sneak peak, but you'll have to wait until I've gifted it for the big reveal.  I'm excited with how its turning out.

I met two friends in Tucson on Thursday for some much needed adult interactions and good food and on Friday Phil and I did the divide and conquer once more as he headed to a Fathers and Sons camp out and my Mom and I went to the high school to see Helen's play.  They were short one act plays and Helen's was really cute.  It was called "What a Tangled Web We Weave" and was a comedy that found Helen playing a wife and mother emotionally distraught over a missing cat while interacting with others who believed this woman's daughter was dead because of a white lie that spun out of control.  That's a poor synopsis, but it was cute.  Helen was funny and confident, I was proud of her.  Phil's evening didn't go as well as the truck over-heated once he got off the road and headed toward the campsite.  He and Jude had to wait for it to cool down before he could limp it home and ended up missing the campout.  We were, however, fortunate that it was an easy fix: a piece of the undercarriage of the truck which was plastic had sheered off (probably from a rock on our dirt road) and had become lodged in the engine fan keeping it from turning and cooling.  We removed it and the truck was fine again.  Thank goodness!

Phil was home on Saturday since he had taken the day off in anticipation of the campout, so he and Jude enjoyed getting some chores done around the ranch.  Jude LOVES to be outside.  He asks all the time "outside?" wanting us to take him out.  He helped water the chickens and the dogs and in the end decided that he was going to take himself a cowboy bath in the water trough.  Eww!  All I could think about was the layer of slime at the bottom and that I ROUTINELY take dead mice out of that water trough.  *insert retching noise* I am glad we can give our kids this type of life, Jude loves the ranch and the animals and loves to do chores alongside his dad...lets hope that lasts throughout childhood!

On Sunday Phil took the kids to church and I attended the Valencia Ward for their ward conference.  I was able to teach in Relief Society and I think it went fairly well. In the afternoon Felicity got to attend a preview of the temple and mission prep course since she'll be senior next year and will be invited to attend regularly.  Can you believe that?  I can't believe she'll be heading into her last year of high school in the fall.