Under construction

Trying to give the blog a facelift and took a link from someone else's really cute page for free backgrounds...but does anyone know how to get the header picture sized down just a bit?? I'm a little dumb at this still.

Well, ok that picture fits better; what do my people think?

Learning.

So the name of my blog is "Learn to be Still" (it's an Eagles song title); in the sense that I know I am blessed beyond measure, and I have this beautiful family, and I need to appreciate it all here and now. I am learning loads of other things I didn't know I was failing at, because we are supposed to learn from our trials and such, right? So, let me ask you this...when this is over will I have it perfected yet?

Probably not, but I can keep trying.

My mother's illness has been a HUGE trial-for all of us. She was readmitted to the hospital after being home only two days because she had reactions to the way her medication was put into her PICC line. She was very ill Saturday morning and the nursing service couldn't get what we needed in time. Back to the ER we went. Her doctor was on-call and when he saw her as sick as she was again-he decided she could stay a few more days so that they could really take care of her there. We now know that her antibiotic needs to be diluted (a lot) for her to be able to tolerate it. So she is home once more; and is now functioning a bit better with the extra IV fluids she is getting. At least we have made it through two administrations without incident. Can I please have an "Hallelujah!!"?

I wanted to make a list of all the other things I'm learning. I thought I could keep rolling it through my head and that it might make this lesson easier for me to learn.

1. Patience
2. Patience and Love
3. Patience and Love and Sacrifice
4. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation for good health
5. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation for family, friends, and neighbors that offer and help
6. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service
7. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion
8. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope
9. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity
10. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude
11. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude and Empathy
12. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude and Empathy and the importance of Prayer
13. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude and Empathy and the importance of Prayer and wait...did I say Patience?

Seriously I could go on; but I look over the list and think YES, I WANT to be a person with these qualities, I NEED to be this person I'm being challenged to become.

The Savior has these qualities. He is the only one that knows exactly how I feel. He is the only other person that knows exactly how my mom feels. I started the post kinda joking that this has been pretty overwhelming and that I have a lot on my hands and our family is struggling a little. But, the spirit is telling me that I really can grow from this and I can gain a stronger testimony of all the above mentioned if I take this opportunity to. I am blessed to be close enough to take care of my mom. I am blessed to have an understanding husband and great kids. We will get through this because truly I am blessed, blessed, blessed. I have a Heaven lying at my feet, just like the song says.

She's home.

(This was last month when she met her first great-grandson Kyle. She was looking pretty good. Not so much right now.)

I just sent a mass email to the fam...but if you wanted to see it here: the good news is that my mom is home and I am taking care of her IV antibiotics every 12 hours into a PICC line. She was diagnosed with a strep strain that causes pneumonia and meningitis. She was deathly ill with the fever, sepsis, and low blood pressure Sunday night...but I don't know if she would ever recover from pneumonia-she's just too weak. I think we got her to the hospital and treated in time that the pneumonia won't set in. I pray that every day will be a bit better for her. I want her to get her health and strength back quick; she's much more fun when she's not like this. This just absolutely bites!!

Camille-you were right about the intuition we can have. For our kids, and our own moms! Husbands too; Dee wouldn't listen to me about keeping his boot on like the doc said (he thought that if it wasn't hurting him he was ok) until I pointed out the fact that if he trips or looses his balance he's going to do a lot more damage because that bone isn't strong enough to protect another trauma. I know I know what I'm talking about. I'm smart like that.

Getting everyone back on track here. Wish me luck! And thank you, thank you, thank you for the prayers and encouragement!!! This is a hard time for me emotionally-I have been away from Dee and the kids a lot and I miss them; and the house is a disaster. No disrepect to Texas...but I think Ike hit my kitchen.

prayers for my mom

My dad and I brought my mom to the hospital tonight and they are running every test you could possible do to a person...still not finding the source of the infection. She's being admitted to the ICU for sepsis and hypotension (very very low blood pressure). We are waiting to see her now and I found a computer to hack into just to get my thoughts out of my head. I just knew she needed to be seen when I went to her house to check on her. She only just got a fever yesterday and no other signs of pain or illness to gauge where this is coming from. I am so thankful for that quiet, and small, prompting that said-"she's not going to be ok through the night at home". I will update as I can, who knows how long we will be here. But please, prayers would be appreciated. Thank you for your love and support as always!

Randomness...

I have been thinking about wishes. I went to bed the other night with a whole list of wishes. I wish I could heal broken bones. I wish I was a bit better at time management. I wish I had dinner on the table every night for my hard workin' hubby. I wish I had the house organized at all times. I wish that those 20 lbs would just melt off. I wish, I wish, I wish...it went on for a while.

Taycie has asked me before if wishes come true-and I was almost stumped. Do I lead her into a false sense of reality by telling her "Oh yes they do!"? So I said, "Wishes and dreams can come true, if we work towards them; it's like setting a goal and achieving it." (Which means if I want any of my wishes to come true I have a lot of work to do.) I felt pretty bad about bursting her "princesses and wishes" fantasy; she took the theory pretty well. But, we are having to have (a lot of) conversations about choices and consequences because her baptism is coming up and she has been occasionally naughty; every so often (UM, every day) she likes to test our boundaries and try to negotiate and manipulate between Dee and I. On the lighter side of things she went to Art class and came home with the following pictures:




This was our conversation about her masterpiece.
"Oh, that looks great honey!" "Thanks" she said. I hesitate...uh, "What is it?" "Scribbles!" "Perfect!! That's exactly what I thought." (The only time in my life I could be right about what she has drawn-you know what I mean?) "And what else is special about these scribbles?" "Well, this first one is the primary colors and the other side is the secondary colors." So I came to the conclusion that the Picasso effect was meant-to-be, and we were all so happy about her creation. She absolutely just loves school, and I'm thankful for that.

Dee is still on the mend. We will get another x-ray tomorrow and see if it has healed in place. He is amazing at school too, he got full points for his last paper! It was more than 20 pages long. I don't think I could do it. Way to go!! We are so proud of him.

I think that's all I wanted to put on the page today. My own little form of therapy.

To Trish...I think I know now.

I think I know what Elder Ballard meant. He meant to say "don't go to facebook". Because I recently had a friend invite me to see her facebook page; thought it was just another blog site. Didn't know I had to JOIN and make my own facebook page. Didn't really intend to either. But now I have one...and everytime I try to "just check my email" there are friend requests I have to respond to, comments I have to make, people I have to catch up with, chats to chat-oh dear where did the time go?? Some of the pictures it shows off to the side are people I might want to catch up with...and some not so much. Can I block them from finding me? I don 't think so, so now I'm just out there! Kinda scary!! At least with the blog I don't think too many people see me. But now I'm connected to everyone else's everyone that has a "friend". Guess I'll stay on until the crazies come out-will Ctrl/Alt/Delete make them go away?

Update on Dee: Purple. And Yellow, lots of yellow, and green. And SWOLLEN. OUCH!







AND Tanner? While I blog? Oh, he's up eating a chocolate pudding...that is now all over his shirt, face, arms and the kitchen. My own fault, I KNOW! And, I'm pretty sure that's what Elder Ballard meant. But we can still squeeze in blogging when he's down for a nap, right?

What Dee did.

Can you spell K-L-U-T-Z? Dee fell -OUT- of a trax train, down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk platform flat on his face Friday. (It's ok to laugh; can you picture it?) We thought it would be hilarious to try and get the footage from UTA...however I don't see them burning it to DVD for me. They probably think we'd try to sue or something. But the seriousness of the injury is a broken ankle. The bone is aligned ok right now and if it doesn't displace he won't need pins put in. So he is trying to keep it up and in a walking boot/cast. Tanner was helping daddy work from home this morning. We will keep you updated on the current color of his foot. How excited are you?!?! He can't put any pressure on it for this week and will continue on crutches and this cast for two more weeks after that. It's his right foot so getting him TO work might be a chore. A few of the guys here in our ward/area travel to Salt Lake so he's going to have to become a professional hitch-hiker until he can drive again. Cookies and fast-healing prayers needed. Thanks!