The past Month

So a whole month has past as I haven't posted anything. Let me explain why......

 My mom has been in the hospital.

She had been sick since mid January with what she thought was just back pain or sciatica. She had been to mulitple doctors and they just wanted to give her pain medication and wait it out. She continued to get worse and worse until she colapsed and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance because her blood sugar levels were through the roof!

Finally, they figured out that she has in infection in her blood and that the pain was being caused by abcesses that had developed around her spinal cord. Also a large blood clot had formed in her leg because the abcess had blocked the flow of blood in that leg.  How they let her go three weeks in pain without testing her blood and such for infection is beyond me. My Dad had taken her to the ER twice and several different doctors and they always wanted to treat the symptom and never really tried to figure out what was the cause. So finally after weeks of pain she was finally able to get some relief and answers. We know what was making her sick but now the treatment is long and the healing is hard and currently things are still a bit scary and unknown.

She was at the local hospital which was nice because lots of her friends were able to stop in and see her while she could do nothing but lay in bed. They didn't want to have her up and about because of the blood clot in her leg.

 My Aunt and and cousins even flew out from Arizona to see her.

After a week in her local hospital they felt like they had done all they could do to help her and needed the expertise of a specialist so she was sent to San Francisco to see a hemotologist who could hopefully help her get the clot disolved and the infection under control. She didn't love her stay there. My Dad didn't either. My sister Julie spent a week at my house while my parents were in San Francisco.

When we went to SF to see my mom Julie quickly found a comforable chair and crashed out. Yes inevery picture of her she is wearing this same Orange SF Giants shirt. It is one of her favorites and everytime it came through the wash she put it on. It did get washed a few times while she stayed with us.

My mom was happy to see us since while in SF she only had my Dad to visit with.

Although we all tried to Facetime with her as much as we could. Here is my Uncle via Facetime all the way from Singapore where he was staying at the time. (The life of a pilot)

 This is what my kids did when they got to SF to see Grandma. They quickly grabbed her ipad and Kindle and played games.

 Our visit to San Francisco wasn't a long one. We didn't want to get caught in Friday afternoon traffic but at least we got to visit with Mom before she went in that afternoon for a procedure to disolve the clot in her leg.

A few days later and about 5 days after being sent to SF she was sent back to her local hospital since the specialist felt like he had done everything he could do and knew she would be happier at her local hospital where friends and family could more easily visit.

 She has been back in her home hospital for almost another full week and there is some progress. She is now able to get up out of bed and walk around, eat real food and while sitting there with her one afternoon I did the crossword puzzle with her. It is so nice to have her not foggy brained anymore. She had been on so many medications that she was mentally a bit whacked out and would say strange things but she is off all pain meds now and mostly needs to just continue to heal from the infection.

Just for the record and to keep things real.... just know that this isn't for a faint of heart.

 She has some black toes. The Blood clot was blocking circulation so some of her toes have turned black.  The nurse had just applied some iodine to her toes when I took these photos so the yellowish color is the iodine but the black is all dead tisue. When my niece went to visit a few days ago and saw her Grandma's black toes she fainted.  The doctors haven't done much to address this issue yet. But we are sure some of these toes are going to have to be amputated.

 So the last three weeks, with Grandma in the hospital having treatments and procedures galore and with one sister who lives out in North Carolina (Who just has her baby. Mom was supposed to go out to be there after the birth ) and another sister in So. California and lots of family out in AZ we have spent a lot of time chatting on the phone and texting eachother with updates.  I really gave my cell phone a work out the past few weeks while I passed on information I gathered from visits to see Mom and conversations with my Dad.

So for now my mom is still in the hospital and still very sick. The infection hasn't caused problems in her heart or lungs yet but it still is playing havoic on her system. She is in good spirits, loves to have visitors and talk on the phone. I really hope she will soon be able to head to her own home again. But the nurses have been so good to her and take great care of her. Continued prayers on her behalf are always appreciated.

More Architecture - Lego Style

I put this Lego Architecture book on hold at the library and when the boys saw it on the shelf they were so excited. They poured over the pages and dreamed of all the great sets that they want.

Then last night Henry brought me this lovely creation. He didn't have any directions. He just had the pictures in the book and what ever pieces he could find in our Lego bin. It isn't the off white or tan color that the actual lego set comes in but I thinkhe did a very nice job on his Empire State Building. 

Here are some other buildings Ian made out of bricks we already have. 

I don't know if we will ever buy one of these Archtecture sets. I keep telling the boys they have way more legos than they need.  The state of the floor in their room is enough to tell me they have too many! Yet they always seem to want yet another set. For now I am happy the boys are being creative with the legos they already have.

Henry is dreaming of the Trevie fountain

That is the set he thinks is the best and is now on the top of his wish list.  I may have really stepped in it by getting that Lego Architecture book. My boys have only found yet another lego theme that they can't live without.

Iggy Peck

Henry is taking an online art class and this week's assignment was to draw or create something that illustrates some of the elements and principles of art:  line, shape, color, ballance, pattern etc.  I had also picked up a fun book at the library that I decided was the perfect jumping off point for his assignment.

 So after reading the book aloud to Molly and the boys, I pulled out the drawing paper, pencils, and some rulers to make our own drawing of buildings.

 We started by making a few tall rectangles and then adding in strips of windows or some sort of pattern on each which made it look more like a building.

 Henry of course added a creeper destrying his metropolis.

 Ian worked on this assignment with us too. He added a few helicopters to his.

 Here is my page of buildings.

 It is fun to draw and I don't do enough of it. I am happy to see my kids' art skills improving and see their creativity come out.

While we were down in the kitchen doing our art, Molly was upstairs using my sharpies to draw some ponies.

Sophie was attending one of her online classes while we were having a good time drawing  but later saw our masterpieces and had to give this project a try too.

My kids loved this assignment. They loved the book. Who wouldn't appreciate a well illustrated book with a clever rhyming text. They showed their artwork and had their Dad read the book to them again when he came home from work.

I really don't do enough of these types of "school work". I am sure glad Henry is taking an art class and for the many blogs and such that I read each day that give such great recommendations on fun books to share with my kids.

Bonfire

It is always difficult to get good pictures at night around the campfire. So bare with these very fuzzy shots. 

 Each time we go up to my parents house my boys ask Grandpa if there is a burn pile.
My dad had made it a habit to create or save a large pile of sticks for my boys (one in particular) who love to play with fire.

 Grandpa actually had a BYU basketball game going so he didn't care to head out to the fields to light up the fire so my husband had to be the adult in charge out by the flames.

 Molly quickly wanted to join the boys so I headed out with her and she stayed until there was nothing but ashes.

 This is Henry's favorite part! He loves throwing in old papers and magazines and moving the sticks around.

 We were stripping off coats and enjoying the warmth of the fire.

 Eventually even Sophie came out to join us. She had been off with her cousins to one of their friend's birthday party. She came home in time to play with the fire for a bit too.

 The game must have ended because Grandpa came out to finish off the pile.

Even Hoppy came to check out what was going on out on her turf. 

This is one of those things that we only get to do at Grandpas house. My kids will forever remember doing bonfires out in the fields. I guess it is good all those old trees around my parent's place keep dropping limbs or falling over. There seems to be an endless amount of branches that need burning.

He got the red plate

We had a birthday to celebrate last week. Ian turned 11. He didn't ask for a party. But he did ask for ravioli for dinner. So we came through with that for this birthday boy.

 I even broke out the goblets and put a cloth on the table to make it a little festive.

 Chocolate cake was also requested.

 Our resident fire bug couldn't let an opportunity pass to light up a few matches.

This Minecraft, Mindstorms, computer programming kid had a great birthday. 

I don't go anywhere without my Kindle.

Ove the past two years I have kept a little notebook beside my bed and I write down all the books I read. I am sure I missed a few but not many!

I included books I read aloud to the kids and the Audio books we listen to together in the car or house. These aren't the picture books I read. Maybe one year I will actually write those down. But I would have to keep a notebook with me all the time to do that so I could jot them down as the day goes. I didn't count any book we count for school either. The books I added to my list were the books I read aloud, listen to with the kids for fun reads. Some of these books I read because Sophie was assigned to read them for her school classes and I wanted to read them also so I could help her and discuss them with her.

This post will not include a list of the books. I won't bore anyone with that. Not all of these books are ones I would recommend or are even worth reading. I read a few books for review that I really thought were a waste of time!

 I just wanted to keep track of what I have spent my time reading and and have a record of the titles in case there was a great one that I needed to revisit. I would often star the ones that are great and I needed to read again. Or note the ones that had language or such that I don't want to revisit or can't recommend. I didn't note down the ones that I didn't finish at all. There were several that I was supposed to read and review that I didn't finish so never made my list. I guess I should have noted those.

In my notebook I mark a "K" next to the ones I read on my kindle and an "A" next to the ones I read via Audio. And I also add an R if it is a book I read to review.  I hadn't really counted them up or analyzed this list but thought I would spend a moment to take a look at it now.

In 2013 I read 136.
56 were read on my Kindle, 25 were Audio books and I read 29 for review.

In 2014 I read 140.
95 were read on my Kindle, 23 were Audio books and I read 76 for review.
(13 of the Kindle and Review books were Novellas so quite a bit shorter than a full novel)

I guess you could say I am pretty consistent. No dramatic increase or decrease as far as reading goes. Except I am reading a whole lot more books on my kindle and more of the books I read are books I am reading for review.

I admit that books I read on my kindle are usually not the harder reads. If I read non-fiction it has to be hard back not digital. Digital format is great for novels and such. Which means, if I am reading more and more books on my kindle. Does that mean I am reading less substantial novels or non-fiction books? Perhaps so!

I think this year I am going to start ranking the books in difficulty as well. I know I read a whole lot of easy, mind candy like books. I love historical novels! And I am always happy to indulge in a clean romance to escape from my everyday hustle bustle. But I know I haven't read a whole lot of non-fiction lately.  I guess I read enough of that with the kids as we do school so I don't feel the need to pick it up for my pleasure reads.


So how is that for analysis on my reading habits. Just a few numbers to throw out there as I face a new year and think about what is on my "to be read" pile.