It's A Wonderful Life

Tonight Clayson had Cub Scout Pack Meeting. Each month they discuss the theme for the month and have an activity that applies to the theme. This month's theme is honesty. They had a game where the boys would make paper airplanes and fly them into a grouping of bowls. Each bowl was worth different points. The boys were to keep track of their points on their own as a way to practice being honest. The leader stood up and explained the game. He instructed the boys to make an airplane and line up to start the game. The boys took their pieces of paper and some preceded to ask a parent to make their planes for them. It was great to hear the parents support their children in making their own planes and not doing it for them. I saw this as a way to  practice being honest as the instructions were for the boys to make the planes. Instructions were given and planes began to take shape. A few of the older boys decided to take a short cut and crumpled their paper into balls claiming that was ...

I know, all of you on Facebook have seen so many people pouring ice water on their heads you'll be relieved when it dies down. Me too!! It's taken over news feeds everywhere. I think I will be pondering on a way to create a phenomenon like this for adoption fund raising. I'll give it a year and make it something fresh and new. Any ideas? Well, we were nominated as a family for the ALS ice bucket challenge by the Harmon family. I couldn't just let this be the normal bucket of water on all of our heads. The video would have been 15 minutes long. No one would watch it, not even me. If we are going to suffer than it has to be fun. Hopefully you will get a smile out of this. We did!

We have had an eventful week. Some great things and some challenging but all were good for one reason or another. We reflect on how fragile life is and what a gift we have in it. A few months ago Scott got an MRI to get a better handle on his Cerebral Palsy.  A week or so later we got a call from the doctor informing us that Scott had been misdiagnosed and did not have CP. We were shocked. The doctor had two guesses, Muscular Dystrophy or Dystonia. Neither one was a good thing but if there was a choice Dystonia was better. Our new neurologist is pretty convinced we are dealing with dystonia. Last Tuesday Scott went in for a lumbar puncture to test the Serotonin level in his brain. From my very limited understanding dystonia is caused from low serotonin in the brain. It is a degenerative disease so over time it gets worse. There are several types of dystonia and the purpose of the lumbar puncture was to help discover the type and decide on a course of action. To make...

Yesterday was Costco day. I think our shopping alone keeps at least one employee in a job every month. About a year ago I had a goal to keep the Costco bill under $400 each week. That would include the extras that I may buy, like a pair of pants, movie or anything not a consumable. Over this last year I have noticed our needs increase and so has the Costco bill. I am now very happy to see the receipt total less than $500. This is not because I buy more extras but because my kids are eating so much more. I have cut back on foods that cost more and they are now treats. Food like Mango Salsa, cheeses, Chocolate Chips, real maple syrup, etc. I was very happy to see I was able to get done with my shopping and be at a grand total of $435 including two pair of jeans. Pretty good. When I got home from shopping I was in a hurry to get to Sereen's to take the kids swimming so we quickly put everything away and left. This morning we organized the fruit that sits on the counter. When the jo...

I have talked about a little boy that we were trying to get medical care for. Branson is the name he was given by the Non profit organization, Love Without Boundaries, that was taking care of him while in China. Branson was diagnosed with heterotaxy just like Gideon. Both boys came from the same area of China and were cared for in the same home. Heterotaxy is pretty rare so to have two boys from the same area have it is not common. While helping get help for Branson we fell in love with him. At one point I began to pray that I would be allowed to be Branson's mother. I hurt for him and prayed for his safety and health. I knew his heart was bad and his prognosis was not good but that didn't stop me from loving him. I had an impression that he would not make it home. His heart would give out before that time. Part of me was grateful and part of me was sad to feel this. Doug and I discussed bringing Branson home. We knew it would be hard on the family. Having just lost Gideon...

  This is a long picture post. It should have come in installments but our days were so full that there was no time to blog. Sorry about that. We spent a lot of time site seeing and enjoying the spirit of Nauvoo. This is our fourth time as a family, however, the first time for four of our children. We have never gone to Nauvoo in  July for two reasons. First, we have been afraid of the heat and humidity. The weather proved to be very nice. Second, July is pageant month. We don't like crowds much and as our family has grown we like them even less. This year three of our kids tried out to be in the pageant. Sadly, none of them made it in the core cast so as a consolation we took the family to Nauvoo for our vacation. It was either that or San Diego. I'm still itching to go to San Diego!      We did a 2 mile handcart pull early in the morning. It was supposed to be fairly easy. It actually was until we go to a point in the tra...