tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy . . .

i took ethan to the doctor a few weeks ago for his "back to school check-up", where he managed to entertain the doctor and nurses. for some reason he really turns it on at the doctor's office. he has them laughing every time and last time dr. wilcox asked if ethan would come in once a week to "lighten the load". i thought most kids dread the dr.'s office. not ethan. he is in his element.

so when dr. wilcox did the check-up, he noticed that ethan's tonsils are unusually large. which i knew that i could never actually see down his throat because they were (yes, were) so large. dr. wilcox then asked me if ethan snores. which he does, and very loud. we can hear it in our room with both doors closed. but i then told dr. wilcox that the only time it really wakes us up is when he stops breathing and wakes himself up by gasping for air. yes, i really have been entrusted with four children!

dr. wilcox recommended us to see dr. denys. so a week later we were in dr. denys office. where we learned that because of ethan's overly large tonsils and adnoids, he has sleep apnia. because of this sleep apnia he hasn't been getting any REM sleep. apparently, when he falls asleep and gets into REM, his tonsils relax and close together, where it makes it hard, if not impossible, for him to breath. then he wakes himself up to breath and starts the whole thing all over again. so two weeks later we are in the hospital to remove ethan's tonsils and adnoids.

so early thursday morning (august 27), we checked ethan into the same day surgery at the american fork hospital. ethan was so excited to have kyle and i all to himself. he didn't have to share us with his brothers or sister, and he had our undivided attention. he was in heaven. we dressed him in his hospital gown, put on his surgery socks and then a dr. and nurse came in and gave us some information and asked us some questions, then they gave him his cool surgery hat. he chose the green one with footballs. they treated him so good and took such good care of him. a nurse that works with little kids came in and gave him "buddy", a surgery doll. he was able to color buddy's hair and face and then he got to put the oxygen mask on buddy and they were able to show ethan on buddy what they were going to do to him.

then while we waited for his turn, he got to play with some toys, one of his favorites was a view finder. i forgot how cool those are.

he was so brave and almost excited. until it came time for them to wheel him back. as soon as they showed up in the room, he asked me if he could put his clothes back on. and then as they were wheeling him away, he turned and looked at me and said "mom". it broke my heart.

true to their word, he was back in our arms in 45 minutes. we never heard from the doctor, so we hope all went well with his surgery. as they were wheeling him to our room, he was turning himself around to see us waiting. he looked even tinier in this big hospital bed. his only complaint at the hospital was that he wanted to get the i.v. out and he wanted it out now. once he finished his slushy, they took out his i.v. and we were back home by 11 am.

since then has been a little more exciting. i don't know if it is the tylenol with codine that he is taking or the fact that he has been eating a lot of popsicles, pudding, otter pops, jell-o and he is on a sugar high, but either way . . . he is crazy. they told us to keep him from running and jumping, and to try to get him to rest for the first three days and especially on the first day. he was climbing on the shelf in the family room and jumping onto the couches, running around the cul-de-sac, standing on the edge of the bathtub and jumping off then sliding down into the water, and he was trying to eat any- and everything. needless to say, thursday was crazy, i was so stressed and ready for him to go to bed.

he hasn't been sleeping very well since then, just tossing and turning and whining and moaning, and his mornings are pretty miserable. but really the rest of the days aren't too bad. he is getting his appetite back and he is back to tormenting davis. i'm hoping that by tomorrow he is doing well enough to go to his first day of school.

busses don't go in cul-de-sacs . . .

so, it's in the news and it is all the talk in our neighborhood. but i thought i would share it with all of you. crazy, scary, surreal - i don't know the right word for it, but holy cow!

so, ethan and our cute little neighbor, calvin, were playing at our house. they decided they wanted to play outside or go to calvin's house. they made it to the big tree between jenn's house (neighbor to the west of us) and our house when i called them back to our house. we got inside, and the boys were running around and i heard a loud noise and thought it was the garbage truck, so i turned to look. i noticed that it was a big yellow school bus. so i told they kids "hey look there's a school bus in the cul-de-sac." all the kids went running to the window and reagan says (so innocently) "it didn't stop". which is when i ran to the window and saw the back half of a big yellow school bus between my house and jenn's house.

(this next picture is basically what i saw from my front window. this picture was taken as they were towing the bus back out of the backyards.)

i stepped out on my front step at the same time as jenn and she asked me what the noise was. i told her "there is a bus in your backyard." (side note: i'm laughing as i type this.) so jenn and i both went running to the back yard when she told me to call 911 (another side note: this was my first time ever calling 911.) so i ran back into my house and grabbed the phone - counting children as i did so. then i counted kids again and told isaac to watch the kids. then i went running to the back yard not knowing what to expect. our neighbor, jill, came running with her phone in hand and i noticed lisa, another neighbor, hanging out her window with her phone in hand and sarah, the neighbor who was now staring face to face with the front of the bus, with her phone in hand as well.

jenn checked to make sure there were no kids playing in any of the yards, made sure there were no more kids on the bus, and checked on the bus driver. while i was on with 911, they had me trailing the driver to make sure he was okay . . . he kept getting on and off the bus, walking around the bus, sitting down and standing up, opening and closing his cell phone. 911 asked me to find out if he was okay . . . which i asked him 6-7 times, to which he never answered . . . then 911 told me he was probably in shock and i needed to get him to sit down, which he did, but then stood up again . . . and then they wanted me to find out how old he was, which i asked 6-7 times, and he never answered . . . so i tried asking him if he knew how old he was, and he nodded and finally told me he was 69 (or 68 - now i can't remember).

the emergency vehicles finally got there and i backed away. at this time, most of the neighborhood had showed up and it was crazy for the remainder of the night.

this was a really long version of the 5-10 minute happening. basically a big, yellow bus entered our cul-de-sac, didn't stop or turn and went up jenn's driveway, through her front fence, down her backyard hill, took out her shed in the back corner, where it hid the concrete base and took a hard right, out the back fence, into the braby's backyard, and through the braby's / dimitrech's side fence and stopped about 20 feet from sarah's back deck where she was standing and watching the driver come at her.

crazy . . . we are so grateful that no one was hurt, no homes were damaged, and really the only damage was to three fences, a shed (with lots of stuff) and one little tree got bent. we hope that the driver is okay. all day today, ethan has been telling us the "busses don't go in cul-de-sacs." your right ethan. that is why we have never seen one in our cul-d-esac before and i hope we don't ever see one again!

young women and their activities

serving as the young women's president for the last three years has been a learning and growing and challenging and very blessed opportunity. i am so grateful for all the young women and leaders i as able to work with and serve. i sincerely love each and every one of them and i will miss them. i just got released sunday-not ready to talk about that-yet!!! so we'll talk about what happened before i was released...

beacon trek . . . how cute is that? the mia maids and laurels were able to attend the three day trek with the teachers and priests. some couples from our ward were invited to be ma's and pa's and act as parents to a group of youth for the three days they were on "trek". well, not to leave out the beehives and deacons they came up with the "beacon" trek (yes, named from a mix of beehives and deacons).

kyle and i were asked to be "ma and pa" for a group from our ward. we had such a cute little family. they jumped right in to help, worked really hard, and i think overall had a great experience. our trek was at the "this is the place" park in salt lake. what a peaceful and very neat and beautiful place. our kids were haden dehoyos, nate young, elle hunt, ansleigh mikesell, destiny mchugh and kylee kerby. all so cute and fun - they even called us ma and pa throughout the day. we had caden aston trying to get adopted, he must have thought that ky and i were fun (or he was really good friends with the other kids in our family), but we claimed him as our nephew.

it was a good hike and quite a pull or push. the whole day made me feel grateful and deeply indepted to those pioneers who sacrificed so much for us. i also felt grateful for my family, my home, my shower and my bed. and a little grateful that i was asked to do the 1 day trek and not the 3 day trek!!!

girl's camp. . . slept (froze) in tents, cooked over the open flame (or open flame of the camp stove), canoed in the resevoir, climbed walls, zipped the line, camp crafted, and just visited with and laughed at each other. it was so great! i seriously love, love, love these girls.

these are just some of the fun pics from the week. i don't know what more to say, except that girl's camp is a wonderful experience. girls grow closer together, they work together, barriers come down. girl's camp really is the place of miracles. we saw many this year and like i said i love these girls.