Brace Face!

The day before school Emma went from this:

To this.

She was sore, but happy. Her philosophy was the sooner they are on, the sooner they are off!

Our trip to almost see U2

It is an item on Ted's "bucket list, " so...
Tickets purchased more than six months in advance - check.
Hotel reservations made - check.
Flights booked - check.
Arrangements for kids to be watched while we are gone - check.
Activities planned - check.
Weeks of anticipation and growing excitement (not only for the concert, but also to get away with some good friends and enjoy Seattle!) - check!

Bono falling and needing back surgery and canceling the entire North America tour - What!!!!

Oh well. We decided to go anyway, and it was SO FUN! We had a great time. We rode the ferry, went to the pier, went to a Mariners game, ate at some awesome restaurants, and did some shopping. And the best part? - knowing that we will be going next summer again - this time to see U2!

Mariners game - you can also see that they are halfway through the process of closing the overhead canopy of the field due to rain - pretty amazing.

(Obviously the guys weren't into shopping as much as Gayla and I were, but they made some use of the couches at Restoration Hardware. )

Wrappin' Up Summer

What else did we do all summer? We had our trip to Brianhead. We went to Island Park. We went swimming a lot. We took bike rides. We went to the Natatorium. The boys went camping. However, one of the kids' favorite activies during the summer is going to Snowbird to ride the slide, do the zip line, do rock climbing, and do these trampoline bounce things - I have no idea what they are really called.

They also like to float the Boise River.

I hate this. Every year I dread it like the plague.

I haven't had the best luck floating rivers, and it scares me to death that my kids want to do this - which is crazy, I know. Because, let's face it, the Boise River isn't exactly known as a "whitewater" river. However, I still hate it. Seriously. But they love it so I knew I had to let the kids go. I seriously talked to Ted for about 35 minutes about how nervous I get about this. (Keep in mind, they go every year, but I still freak out.)

Here they are coming to the pull-out point. I see this picture and laugh thinking about how this river represents the "jaws of death" in my mind, but it looks pretty peaceful here. Oh well - they had fun, and I didn't have to go, so it worked out just fine. Until next year when we have this discussion all over again.

Thanks, Troy, for going with Ted (and making it so I didn't have to go!!).

Back to school --WOOHOO!!!!

I can't believe she is in eighth grade. But she is ready. No more is she the lowly seventh grader wandering the halls. Nope - she is familiar with the school, ready to tackle her classes, and eager to wear makeup. (I still haven't conceded to anything more than mascara, but that doesn't stop her from asking.) Man, they grow up fast.

Lincoln and Sam are thrilled about school starting later, it means there is less of a rush this year to get out to the door to the bus. Instead of being to the bus stop by 7:53, they get to stay home until 8:20. In kid world that is awesome -more time to sleep in and dawdle. In mom world that means that there should be no reason that their rooms aren't cleaned and chores done before school. However, it seems that mom world only exists in my mind.

Sam showing me that he is in second grade - no he isn't giving me the "peace" sign.

Lincoln is going into fifth grade. He is excited but nervous, mostly because Emma has been telling him how much homework he will have this year.

Tessa here meeting with her preschool teacher, Mrs. Patricia. Tessa is so excited - her school starts one week after the other kids go back to school.

What does a finger tell you?

It is amazing what a finger can tell you. There is the thumbs- up, the thumbs-down. You can point, scold, type, speak, and yes, you can even curse with just one finger (or at least I've been told this -:) . It is amazing. However, a few weeks ago Sam's finger told us some new and crazy things. They told us he wasn't getting as much oxygen as he is supposed to be getting. Let me back up and start from the beginning.

Sam has had on again, off again struggles with hearing for as long as I can remember. He will get ear infections on a regular basis, but tubes didn't seem to be the answer. It began as frustrating but quickly turned a corner and became heartbreaking as Sam would scream in frustration, "I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Keep in mind that he wasn't being sassy when he said this, he was genuinely frustrated when he would turn his head to hear, we would say something, and he realized he just couldn't figure out what was being said. We ran through this cycle many times a year - and they lasted for quite some time. However, every hearing test came back within normal limits - barely, but within normal limits enough that hearing aides weren't the answer either.

We felt like we were chasing our tails and getting nowhere.

As an added bonus, earlier this year Sam began having trouble catching his breath. He would come into our room in the middle of the night and tell us he couldn't get enough air. He would be taking deep breaths to try and catch his breath. We saw the doctor with such frequency that I was certain they were going to designate a parking stall just for us. The entire staff knows us by name, sight, and I'm just sure we are going to be invited to the Christmas party. :)

Anyhoo....we saw the doctor, but still had no answers. Was it asthma? No. Was it allergies? Didn't seem to be. Was he allergic to his bedding? Nope. Were his lungs working? Yep. Were we frustrated? Yes. I even began to wonder if Sam was just doing the weird breathing thing out of habit. (By the way, this happened during the day, too. He would breathe normally about three or four times and then compensate with a huge intake of breath. He got so adept at this that he speaks through it, prays through it, and we generally ignore it now). I began to feel like I was making a mountain out of a mole hill, but then other parents were noticing too. The school nurse was noticing it. It felt oddly reassuring to know that it wasn't just good old mom and dad worrying about him.

When we finally saw the ENT which took FOREVER because they are booked out so far, I was certain that I knew what we would find - nothing. First was the hearing test - and of course it came back within normal limits - low normal, but normal. Then came the doctor's evaluation. Yep, lungs are clear - no problems getting air in and out of the lungs. But then he saw his tonsils and was amazed at how large they are. Sam has never had strep, never had a problem with sore throats, and aside from hearing issues is a very healthy kid. However, the doctor decided to do an oxygen saturation test to see how he was breathing at night.

Sam was hooked up with one finger to a little monitor that would record his oxygen levels through the night. For it to be considered a significant problem his oxygen saturation level would need to drop 4% or more. As it turns out his oxygen saturation level began at 99% which is excellent. During the night it dropped to 89%. The doctor assured me that it didn't do this with enough frequency to alarm me - he was still getting oxygen, but he did merit further intervention. In addition, if his adenoids are at all comparable in size to his tonsils then they need to be removed as well. As it turns out, his adenoids being so large (if, in fact they are - we can't see them so we don't know for sure, but it is likely) is likely impacting his hearing. The ENT informed us that if they are proportionate in size to his tonsils then they are likely compressing his eustachian tubes affecting his hearing and also affecting the draining of his ears which then in turn leads to ear infections which leads to increased hearing difficulty, etc., etc.

So what do we do? A tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Of course I am nervous about having any of my children have surgery of any sort, but this is by all accounts a VERY simple surgery. In fact, it is SO simple and routine that we find ourselves wondering why we didn't come to this result faster. And we have every reason to hope that this will solve his breathing problems, and we are crossing our fingers that his hearing issues are resolved as well. I cannot tell you how exciting this is - for everyone, although Sam's excitement stems less from the fact that we have a probable solution to the problem. Rather, his excitement is due to the fact that he gets lots of ice cream and smoothies after his surgery - and I don't blame him.
So, that's what Sam's finger told us. It told us why he was struggling to breathe, particularly at night, and it inadvertenly may have lead us to the solution to his hearing issues. It's amazing what one finger can tell you - and man am I grateful.

Lyle Pearson 200

Ted and four friends trained like crazy for the Lyle Pearson 200 - a race from Boise to Sun Valley. We all planned with happy anticipation a short vacation in Sun Valley after the race! Did I mention it has been raining like crazy here? Well, it has. As a result the race started out as normal, but when they had gotten about 2/3 of the way to Sun Valley they were detoured back to Boise. As it turns out Mother Nature isn't through working her wonders around here. A mud slide had covered the highway and nothing was getting through - not that way anyway.

Are they disappointed? A little. Did they have fun? Tons. Did they do great? Fantastic! Will they do it again next year? You bet. Will we start praying for dry weather a little sooner? No question.

Now, as much as I would like to think that I am not a paranoid person, I do think things happen in threes. As a result I have already asked that Ted take a weed whacker to the shrubs on the bluff behind our house, at least directly behind our fence line. As a matter of fact we have been encouraged to do this. After all, fire season is just around the corner, and with all of the rain lately (did I mention I'm sick of rain??), Mother Nature has made some soon-to-be-nice-kindling on the bluff behind us. I'm sure everything will be fine, but then again I didn't think Boise had tornadoes, so we're not taking any chances. :)

Summer comes in with a bang - literally!

School got out at about 1:15 on Friday - which means summer has begun. And it began with a bang! It has been raining like crazy for the last several weeks (we are a little sick of the rain, can you tell??) Then the winds picked up to where it was blowing REALLY hard. However, it wasn't until I drove out of my circle that I realized what had been going on in our subdivision.

At about 3:30 a funnel cloud formed and came through our subdivision ripping trees from the ground, tearing shingles from rooftops, ripping pergolas away from houses, crushing fences, and contorting trampolines. However, despite the trees being destroyed, there was relatively minimal damage, and luckily nobody was hurt. This is in no way a small miracle because early release is not a usual thing, and the usual thing is for kids to be dropped off of the bus at about 3:30 right where this happened.

I guess this summer looks to be anything but boring, eh???

Tessa and Sam are enjoying the new climbing apparatus.

Surprise Way - you can see it has been twisted right off.

A view of Emma's school.

Yeah - that's why the flights were delayed...

Another view from Emma's school.

Happy Summer!