1st Horse Show of the Year

Alicyn did a great job. She ended up switching horses the week of the show but she and Jet did just great! We hadn't tried on Ali's cowboy hat since last fall when she was in the last show. We were in trouble, her hat no longer fit her. In order to compete you have to have a hat. Well, Shane ran to Reams for me just before she was to enter the arena and bought a new hat, he went the next size up since she wasn't able to go with him. It was too small too! Great! So for one class she had to wear a pink hat with a red shirt. Yes, I know...it matched so well. We are prepared for the next show, I took her with me and we had her fitted for a new hat so that won't happen again. Ali has just been telling everyone that she must be getting smarter cause her brain grew.

Specer and Emily (cousins) also rode in the horseshow.

Much thanks to Aunt Christy & Shane for all the help that day.

This is also the day that Hilerie helped me look for my wedding ring...which still hasn't been found. I am sure lucky to have the family I have.

Our Gram!

Dave's Grandma (we call her Gram) passed away early this morning. We are sure going to miss her. She is wonderful and was always good to us. Every time we would visit she would pull out the creamies, or some kind of cookie for the kids. We enjoyed visiting with her every chance we got.

She also shared the best recipes with me. I feel like she is my grandma too, even though it is only through marriage.

Last night, I am not sure how or why, maybe she heard Dave and I talking about her earlier in the week, but Ali said to me, "Mom, I think that Grandpa is calling Gram" "I think he is going to come and get her" "I think he really misses her" Ali must be in tune with the spirit, because we got the phone call this morning.

When I woke Ali and told her that Grandpa came and got Gram, she smiled and said, I just knew it. She had a happy feeling about it, even though she will miss her. We are so happy that she is back with him, I am sure it was a grand reunion. Gram missed him so much!

What a blessing to have the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that we will see each other after this life and be together if we live righteously.

On my mission I met many people that would lose loved ones and they would wail and cry for days because they were sure that they were gone forever. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and he has a plan for us to all be together after we leave this earth.

I can just see Gram fussing over Grandpa, or visiting with her parents and other siblings that have gone on before. What a joyous and wonderful thought to have.

We love you Gram! So grateful for your example, love and service to all of us. We miss you already! Until we meet again. ;)

Always Something!

So it was the day of my girls night out party and just as the party is starting and friends are coming over, I hear Zach screaming from the back yard. I went to the back door to see what happened and he was running towards me holding our toy butterfly net. He couldn't even catch his breath. I knelt down beside him, trying to calm him down when blood started ooozing out his mouth between his teeth. OH MAN!

I swept him up and carried him to the sink. I got a cup of water and told him not to swallow it but put some water in his mouth and then spit in the sink. That was the only way I was going to be able to see what was wrong. After a few minutes of that I looked in his mouth and there was a giant hole at the back of his mouth almost the size of a quarter. I asked him what he was doing? The only thing he was able to tell me was that he had the butterfly net in his mouth and something with a ball.

After he calmed down he fell right asleep on the couch. My sister arrived and we called her pediatrician's office, because mine had already closed for the day. I spoke with the nurse there and she took most of my panicking feelings away. She said they can't really do much for a mouth injury. Not only because of where they are located but because there is really good circulation in the mouth, there is always air, and it generally heals pretty good. She said that Zach would be in a lot of pain for about 10 days and to just watch him for infection, fever or bleeding. So I felt better having talked to someone that knew what they were talking about.

Dave went to his mom's house to fix her sprinkler's and some other yard work during my party since he is so very social. ha ha ha! When he got home, Alicyn ran right outside and put the panic in him. Told him that we needed to take Zach to the emergency room, had a big hole in his mouth etc. As the party went on, friends and family looked at it and tried to tell me that it wasn't so bad. Well after everyone left I looked at it again. I am certain I could see his jaw bone. So Dave and I talked about it and we decided to take him to our doctor the next morning for them to look at it.

Our doctor wasn't in the office so we saw one of her partners. Her partner came in and we told her about it. I told her that I knew that we can't do much for mouth injury's but we wanted to have him looked at just to be sure. She looked at me and very snidely said no, if it is bigger than a cheerio, it has to be fixed. She looked in there and then looked at me again..."this is a big deal", "this is bad". Made me shrink to the size of an ant. She said I need to go and call the emergency room at Primary Children's hospital. I will be right back. Dave and I waited, when she came back she told us that we had waited to long and they couldn't do anything, but she would put him on antibiotics and pain medicine. Which I was very grateful for the pain medicine because he wouldn't even sip water without crying that it burned. She also told me to bring him back on Monday so we could see our regular doctor.

The weekend went alright, thank heaven for codeine! Sunday Zach told me what he was doing when it happened. Our butterfly net was hollow plastic. He was blowing things out of it with his mouth and tripped over a ball. The force of his fall was of course in his mouth.

We saw our doctor on Monday. I told her the story and how I had called my sister's doc, they said just watch him...then decided to have him looked at and that doc said we did the wrong thing and he should have gone to the ER etc. Our doctor looked in his mouth and she told us that we did everything right. If we could have seen her on Friday night when it happened she wouldn't have done anything to the wound itself. She said that we just need to watch him and keep giving him the antibiotic. WHEW! How is that for story? Both Dave and I felt like better parents after seeing her and having her look at Zach.

By the way, Zach still has a hole in his mouth, but it is healing very nicely. A few things still bother him when he eats but for the most part...all better! Our butterfly net...in the trash!

No More Junk Food

Zachary has been saying the funniest things lately. I just need to write them down so I don't forget what he has been saying.

My mom was with me in the car and we were on our way to the Walk for Autism for our cute friend Riley. Zach said to my mom... "Grandma, I can't eat anymore junk food" "No more for me". My mom replied, okay Zach, I will make sure I only give you healthy food. He thought for a 1/2 a second and said, "Well Grandma, I think I can have ONE TREAT". Not entirely ready to give up all junk. Then when we did get to the walk for autism...he wanted 2 of everything they had. Ice Cream, Chocolate Milk, Candy you name it...he wanted it. Cracks me up, I reminded him of no more junk food that he just talked about. He just smiled.

He has been so worried about who is going to marry him the last few weeks. Almost in tears because of it. I told him that he has a long time to find a nice girl and he seemed to be okay after that. A few days later he said that he just wanted to marry Ali. I explained to him that he can't because she is his sister. He said but I love her, and started to cry. I hope that the friendship and love that Ali and Zach have for each other will always be there like it is now.

Yesterday he had a follow up doctor's appointment to check how is mouth is healing after his pretty bad mouth injury that happened right when my girls night out party was starting last Friday. On the way home we needed to stop at Target for one thing. I told him to look for my wedding ring on the ground as we walked in the store. On our way out he squatted down behind each car we passed to look under it for my ring. He said, nope mom not under that one each time. Then told me, I am sad we can't find your ring, and gave me a big hug.

He had to buy Miss Lisa these metal bracelets while we were at Kohl's. I am sure she will be just thrilled to wear them as they are so beautiful (think of a four year old's thoughts of what is beautiful). He wouldn't take no for an answer. Who knows maybe one day she will wear them to church! HA!

Today he said that Carlin is a tale taddler instead of a Tattle teller.

There is one more funny thing, I can't think of it right this minute, so I will have to correct this post when I think of it.

Sentimental Value is Worth More Than Any Amount of Money

Well I have had a very sad weekend and have cried far too much. Well maybe according to Dave as he has tried to console me. I lost my wedding ring this weekend, today is the first day I have been able to talk about it without crying. Ali had a horseshow on Saturday and in the early morning I had to wash her horse. Well my ring was bothering me as it would get caught in the horses mane, so I stuffed it in my levi's pocket and forgot about it for most of the day. Changed my clothes in the bedroom of my sister's horse trailer, folded my pants and put them on the bed. I took a change of clothes because I usually get all muddy and dirty in getting ready. When the horse show was over, I just grabbed all the clothes and stuffed them in the trunk of my car.

West Jordan has an awesome park and I had told the kids they could play there after the horseshow. While my kids played at the park I had the panic attack of looking down and not seeing my ring on my finger. Feeling around in my pockets realized that I had changed my clothes. Proceeded to get in the trunk to get my other pants and I felt a ring - pulled out my CTR ring. No wedding ring to be found. My heart just sank!

I asked my sister if she would watch my kids so I could run back over to the arena and look for it. She said, no I need to come with you to look. So my brother in law watched my kids while my sister and I went back and crawled around on our hands and knees in the gravel and dirt. What a great sister I have. We looked for at least 40 minutes.

Why couldn't it have been the $20 CTR ring that my husband didn't give me, hasn't been part of my life for 10 years...can be replaced so easily and has no sentimental value? I hope that there is some lesson that is to be learned from this that I can't see right now.

Dave went with his two friends at work this morning to the horse arena with metal detectors. He called me and told me that he doesnt' think it is there. They had three metal detectors and looked everywhere we were parked and in the path of where I would have carried my clothes.

Ali just knows we will find it. I am happy to have her to help cheer me up. She is such a little blessing!

For now I am just going to be sad, and pray that it turns up somewhere that I don't expect.