so, so, sincere...

thursday night, chet, tiff, and the kids came over, so that chet could help donnie out in the barn and don could help chet service the brakes on his truck. when they got here, i was mixing up some pecan bars for donnie. kendyl was sitting at the counter watching me (and who know where ryker was, which is pretty scary). as i was dumping the batter into the pan, kendyl asked me if she could have the beater. and of course i gave it to her (with a little extra batter on it). she licked it clean. it was all over her face, as she was trying to get as much as she could off the beater . just as she was getting finished with it, here comes ryker, climbing up to the counter. of course, he then too, wanted the beater, but it was licked clean and he wasn't too impressed with the shiny, empty beater. kendyl, being concerned that her little brother hadn't got any of it, kindly and sincerely said " ryker, do you want to lick my face?".

oh... out of the mouths of babe's!

PFO

have you ever heard of a "PFO'? well... i have heard alot about it in the past 2 months. apparently, because i have a 'PFO', is the reason for my stroke. so... i will tell you a little about it.

"after birth, right to left blood flow is no longer needed. the two dividers of the right and left atria fuse to form a solid wall (septum). the septum is fused in 90% of people by 18 months of age. however, the dividers which form the septum do not fuse in 10% of people leaving a flap or tunnel which may open and close as right heart pressure changes. this opening (flap or tunnel) is the Patent Foramen Ovale or PFO. with a PFO present, blood from the body can bypass the lungs and travel to the left side of the heart. in the normal heart (no PFO), a blood clot from the body would be stopped in the lungs. but if a clot crosses the PFO, it can go to the brain causing a stroke."

these 2 central pin (umbrella) devices (below) are available for PFO closure. the closure device is delivered to the heart through a small catheter or tube. the ICE (echo) catheter is placed in the same vein. these catheters are introduced into the body through a major vein in the groin. within 3-6 months, the normal lining cells of the heart grow over the device, completely covering the artificial materials. the occluder device becomes part of the atrial septum and blood flows normally and clots cannot form or pass through the septum.'

there you go... now you know just as much as i know about it. a neighbor had this procedure done in november of this past year. i talked to him about it at church today. (he's not a very good coach!) i think i'm more nervous now than i was before. (only 10 more days of worry) hopefully everything will go good and i will be able to get rid of the migraines that i have had for years. (which they say are one of the four risk factors which indicate a higher risk for stroke due to PFO.) then maybe my life can get back to normal ~ whatever NORMAL is.

quote for the day

happiness is an attitude. we either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. the amount of work is the same!

valentine party

donnie and i (being the romantic people that we are) have never really planned anything for the big "V" day on any given year, so... this year we (i) had a plan to have a valentine's day party for the grandkids ~ with no dad's or mom's invited (from 5:00 until 9:00 they could have their "own" time together and not have to worry about kids). so the kids came and we made heart shaped pizza on boboli bread. they each got their own boboli and decorated them with sauce, cheese, pepperoni, more cheese, canadian bacon, more cheese, cheese, and more cheese. we baked them, then some ate the cheese off and a few peperoni's, and then were ready for dessert.

(oopps! kamryn's slipped off her plate!)

we made sundaes for desert. mostly they ate the sprinkle toppings off the top and left the rest. (sugar)

then we exchanged all of the valentine's and candy from papa and gramma and their cousins. (more sugar!)

after they were all sugared up...
we went downstairs to play the 'wii', but everyone wanted to play a different game and also wanted their own controls. didn't work out as gramma had planned. so we decided to go in the playroom and play with the blocks. we started to build towers, but everyone wanted to build their own tower and needed all the blocks to do so. didnt' work out quite right.
we went into the family room and started to play games. enie, menie, minie, mo, bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, and duck, duck goose. but all six kids couldn't fit on gramma's lap at the same time, and so that didn't work the greatest either. we finally got them all lined up on the couch to get a picture of them, and you can see how well that went over.

even through all of the little battles we had to deal with (a few little drama mama's! with great big hormones!) we DID have a great time. anytime we can spoil these little angels, it's worth everybit of energy it takes. and hopefully, they'll know that papa and gramma would do anything in the world for them, because we love them sooo, sooo much! memories i hope they will hold on to forever. love ya kids! happy valentine's day!

merry valentine's day!

this is my father-in-law. he turned 85 this past summer.

the very most important thing to him on this earth, is his family. he has always been one to want to have his family around whenever we could get together. over the years, we have had many, many family camping trips, trips to cherry hills and picnics up in the hollow. he even traded in his cowboy boots a couple of summers and went to lake powell with us.even though mom passed away in july and we all miss her sorely, dad wanted to carry on a tradition that they had started a few years ago ~ that is, gathering all of his family together, and treating us all to dinner at 'maddox' in brigham city, for a "merry valentines day" (this is his christmas and valentines treat for all of us). he is a steak and potatoes kind of guy. (he'll even try to order steak and potatoes at mexican and chinese restaurants). so steak and potatoes it was! eighty six of dad's direct descendants (plus grandma's two sister's, ann and bonnie, and two other cute girls that clint and chance, picked up somewhere along the way), came from all over to be together. there were only three family members that couldn't be there and we really missed them.
and... what would a "hunter" family party be without either pictures of a hunt or in this case, the real thing. (this is george's set of horns that he got in sonora mexico this past month).

thanks dad, for always putting your family first and helping all of us realize that families are important ....and that we can be a family forever!
we love you!

flashback friday

so, this morning i was thinking that i hadn't done a flashback for quite a while and then i remembered this ~ our moving trip to utah from arizona.

here goes ~ i got home from y.w. girls camp in arizona, to find that my family had everything packed and ready to move to utah. i loved utah, because that is where all of my cousins and my grandpa and grandma lived, but i really had a hard time thinking that i would be leaving all of my good friends that had really part of "my family" for quite some time. and at 14 yrs old and going to a new school (high school, no less), scared me a bit.

my parents were divorced at the time, but my dad's family was from utah as well, so he went with us, driving the moving truck and pulling our "gosh awful, UGLY, green pontiac station wagon" filled almost to the brim with "stuff". mom followed, driving our little blue volkswagen bug. (we looked like a bunch of "hillbillies" driving down the road) i rode with mom and alan, jeff, and virginia mostly rode with dad in the truck. brent and steve stayed in arizona and came up with friends later in the summer. (this was at a time when air conditioning meant driving 50 miles an hour with your window rolled down). it was HOT during the day, but the thing that sticks out most in my mind, was the night we stayed on the side of the road to get a little sleep. ~ we stopped in the middle of the desert. mom made a bed in the pontiac for the little kids to sleep. dad slept in the front of the moving truck. the LONGEST night of my life! my mom and i, slept in the v.w.. she, in the front seat and me in the back. my mom is short, but not that short and i am 5'8". we had one blanket between us. and you would think being in the desert , it would be HOT, HOT, HOT. but NOT! i remember trying to get enough blanket to get warm, my legs were so cramped, and i was scared to death to open the window to stick my legs out. what if someone was out there lurking in the desert, just waiting to attack? besides, i was already freezing! all night, i watched the stars and all of the shadows of the cactus and sage brush, swaying back and forth. (i swear!), just waiting for the right moment of the "attack" to take place. i figured that dad would be able to defend himself, but what about my little brothers and sister, they were in the car by themselves. and i knew mom and i would both be too scared to even move. it was dark! darker than i could ever remember it being! NEVER, was i so happy to see the light of the sun coming up! (i am usually NOT a morning person, but that morning i was!) never, ever again, did i have to stay in the desert on the side of the road overnight,in a v.w., and i promise... i have never, ever missed it!

is this a hint?

yesterday, isley was blessed and after church, we went down to the senior citizens center for dinner with george and mel's family and friends. afterwards, we brought kamryn, kendyl, and siona home with us. as we were piling into the truck, siona handed me this pamphlet and said "here gramma, this is for you!"

SENIOR? maybe donnie is ready for this, but not me! i would like to think, that i have quite a few years before i have to worry about this.

so to siona, i know that you think i'm really old, but ... thanks, but NO thanks!