Dear Family and Friends,

Last week as I sat in sacrament meeting holding Robyn she patted my belly and told me I had a baby inside. When I told her that nope no baby was in there, she grew quite insistent that yes there was a baby in there because it was so round and big! When I informed her grimacing that that was just fat she told me that she didn't like fat bellies that I should get a flat belly just like her. This conversation was not said in a gentle whisper either. I had no problem getting up early Monday morning to exercise!!

Tuesday as I went to the temple I realized that our recommends would expire at the end of the month so I quickly set up appointments for Jeremy and me that very evening. Jeremy turned off the little bit of the bowl game that he got to see and was all dressed up for the occasion when the 1st counselor showed me with a sympathetic smile that Jun is not the same Jan and that we still had 5 more months. The mind is such a sad thing to loose! Last month I went up to Primary's with Taylor and Robyn only to look over my shoulder and realize that Taylor's wheelchair was missing. So I spent the morning carrying Taylor all over the hospital with Robyn "helping". Then I got back to the car and put something in the trunk only to realize that the wheelchair was there the whole time, just with the head rest folded down. My brainless moments seems to happen more often lately and I just have to shake my head.

Monday morning I was feeling so good about life as I got up early enough to exercise, start waffles cooking to help get kids out of bed for their first day back to school. Taylor, Robyn and I were leaving early for a doctor's appointment up in SLC and I thought I was right on track. Then I went into the garage to find out that Rocky had had severe digestive issues all over his crate which despite his efforts also covered his entire backside. So I spent my morning with bleach and a shower head cleaning off the dog and his crate. Then a quick shower with LOTS of soap for me and we were off for the doctor. Not the best way to start a morning.

Met with Taylor's neurosurgeon. His next surgery for his VNS will be in April and this time because we aren't doing anything else at the same time it should be an in and out procedure. Taylor got his seasonal flu shot at the same time. It seems to have kicked his seizures up a bit. So Tuesday Robyn and I got to rush over to his school and try out his new med, Versed. It was wonderful. It goes up his nose which is easier BY FAR than a suppository. And it knocked him out for only 30 seconds and then he was back to being alert and happy. Didn't have any seizures for 24 hours after that which was wonderful. Taylor has never had the best circulation in his feet and he has developed 2 small sores on his feet that will not heal. So he has been enjoying a week without daffos which means he tries to ice skate across the floor rather than walk.

Allison has a friend over Tuesday for a cooking play date. They had a few recipes they had created at school they wanted to try out. Her friend Jenny must have a patient mom as Jenny came equipped with a bag full of ingredients in little plastic baggies. As they reached into the pantry for aprons I heard a shriek. Allison thought someone had left a little stuffed animal in an apron pocket until it jumped at her. So we had a mouse hunt full of running around and shrieking for an hour. Quite fun to watch I am sure. But we finally caught him up inside Spencer's snow pants (twice as he escaped the first time) and walked him down to our nearby field.

The upside to this is that I cleaned out our pantry and scrubbed everything down to get rid of all the mouse droppings and to see what he had gotten into. He seemed to have lived off of a bag of corn. Since everything was already out and scrubbed down with paint peeling and stains everywhere I decided to just paint it. I had to take a picture to remind myself later that at one point our pantry was clean and organized!


Allison tried out her first dance class this week. Spencer babysat for half an hour for me Monday so I could watch her at gymnastics. She has really gotten good as I watch her do handstands on the high balance beams and flips etc. So I hope she doesn't quit it altogether. But I said she could try adding one dance class to see if she could handle doing two classes a week. She loved it. This next week she tries out a ballet class that Meredith teaches and then we have to decide what she will do. She was channeling a younger Christina this week when after I went grocery shopping she asked if I bought the two most important things - plain bagels and ramen.




This week Spencer had his first basketball practice and Saturday, his first game. Only I went so Spencer wouldn't stress about everyone watching him and looking at the side lines more than the game. But he did awesome. He has no clue about what he is doing but he is eager and trying to figure it out. I am just glad to see him active. Thursday he kept complaining about how he thought he broke his ribs because his abs were so sore from doing a weave drill. I resolved to get him out doing more! Yesterday he and Allison spent the afternoon doing their pogo stick outside. It was great. They were outside (a big bonus for me and my sanity), they were playing together and they were getting exercise. When their legs got sore they ran inside to get ice packs to rub on their legs so they could continue through the burn. It was great.

Robyn and I ran lots of errands this week and started cleaning house. I finally painted over most of our wall patches so it doesn't look like a construction zone anymore. We had to go to the paint store for some touch up paint and found Spencer's BYU paint for his room. Our next big project. I am still trying to crochet late at night while watching TV. My scarf looks quite sad and is a very wavy pattern unintentionally. I just hope that when I finish it that I will have figured out how to do it right. I am doing the chain and the single stitch OK but the double stitch doesn't look too pretty.

Jeremy had a bit of a tough week at work. So pretty stressed for awhile about what would happen. But now he just is doing what he can and waiting to see what the fall out will be. They are such a good group of guys that I think that will make a difference.

Last night thanks to some gift cards Jeremy received for a photo job we went out to this cool Mexican restaurant. I had this mole made of chocolate, bananas, pumpkin seeds and all this other unlikely stuff that was really good. The restaurant was in an older part of SLC on the other side of the tracks, literally. It was quite packed with people who must have heard about it on the news the last few weeks. To top it off we got a piece of cheesecake at the Cheesecake factory to take home with us. So much for my new year's resolutions! Guess they got a night off. And we learned something about Abercombie and Finch. Before Christmas Jeremy ran up there before a photo gig to get a perfume I wanted. He went into the Abercombie store and they said it was discontinued. So last night we went next door into the Abercombie and Finch store and there it was. Who knew that was two different stores! Jeremy was just shaking his head as he had made the trip when short on time and had sprinted over there in the snow to get it for my stocking.

I am sitting in my PJs still after making pancakes for everyone. It has become a tradition that Sunday morning there will be something good for breakfast. I am teaching Robyn's sunbeam class again this week. Last week we had a few sobbers but the worst was Robyn who threw a major tantrum at the beginning because she wanted to be in the other class! What a stinker. I did think though that sunbeam teachers should never have to teach on fast Sunday - the physical reserves are just not there at 3 in the afternoon!

Love to you all, Heather