Back in the Saddle Again

Our News Director Sheryl Worsley and me

So after my hand accident in December I swore off community service for quite some time. (see earlier blog). But today I did something much safer than operating power tools...answering phones for our KSL/Primary Children's Medical Center Radiothon. It's my 7th year volunteering, I've done it every year since I've worked at KSL. Just for a couple hours, but I am always so humbled being there. Not just from the stories of such strong families facing the adversity of their children's health problems but at the generosity of such wonderful people in this state that gladly give of their money to support children's healthcare at the hospital. I even took a pledge for $10,000 from a man that asked to remain anonymous! It is a tremendous amount of work for a lot of my coworkers but over $490,000 was raised!

Everyone hard at work

Boo!

I've been trying to figure out who Jane reminds me of and tonight it hit me. BOO! From Monster's Inc!

Ummm......yeah. I feel a new nickname coming on!

The Mystery of the Missing Valentine

Brandon and I (even though Easton is pictured) made little handmade Valentine cards this weekend. Last night we made chocolate dipped oreo suckers and decorated them. I was looking for a particular card the other day (all are slightly different) and couldn't find it anywhere! I looked and looked. I figured I accidentally threw it away or something. I thought I was going nuts. Last night I jokingly asked Easton if he needed one of the cards for a cute girl in school. He said "no way" and looked away. A while later, wondering again where the heck this card disappeared to, it hit me. I turned to him and asked again if he needed one of the cards for a 'special valentine'. He said "no" but I stared at him with a smile and he wouldn't make eye contact. "YOU STEALER!" I said, and he quickly blushed, jumped up and ran downstairs laughing. I'm not crazy after all. I don't have any clue who this mystery girl is, but she better like the card!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope your day was filled with red construction paper and lots of macaroni!

Or better yet with hearts, chocolate, and chocolate hearts!

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the Rat! According to a note that a Feng Shui master sent to me, "Rat years bring new beginnings and fresh starts. This is the time to begin projects, lay foundations, announce new plans, launch new products, forge new links, get married, buy a house or start a family. This is not the time for complacency. The clever Rat is constantly on the go, with his eye on the big prize. Opportunities abound for quick, smart and ambitious people. Wisely laid plans in the year of the Rat will bring future successes."

Those of you who know me well, know what I've got up my sleeve. And it looks like it's the year for it, doesn't it!

Aside from that, just reading that gets me excited. It gives me extra confidence and motivation that this year has great promise! I hope each and every one of you have a prosperous new year!

How fast they grow!

Easton, camping last summer at Greys River Jane, last year!

My mom sent me these awesome pics of the kids out of the blue - love them!

Our Prophet, our leader, a Man of God.

I have been struggling all week with what to write about the passing of President Hinckley.

I would take hours for me to describe what he has meant to me and our family. FM100 has said it best for me this week, and I wanted to share it with anyone who would like to hear it. Right now it's on our homepage, once you get there click the .mp3 file and listen. www.fm100.com

Guilty Pleasures

Those of you that know me well know that I am an incredibly task-oriented person and leave myself with very little relaxing time, if any. I haven't watched a movie in what seems like years and I never really go out with friends or anything like that. Honestly though, I really do take pleasure in the everyday 'chores'...cooking, cleaning, organizing, gardening, folding darling girls clothes, you know what I mean. You've gotta do it, you may as well enjoy it! If I could be a stay-at-home mom I would be, and I would revel in every moment. I digress, back to my point. Although I don't have much playtime, I do have a few very small guilty pleasures that I treat myself with (ok, the occasional episode of Girls Next Door), but I have found a new and favorite guilty pleasure that has become a small obsession. Something I think about as I'm trying to finish up the dinner dishes as fast as I can (one-handed, still can't get my right hand wet!), something I think about as I sit in stressful meetings at work (yes, went back on Tuesday), and something I look forward to just having a few short minutes to indulge in as soon as I can sneak away and do it. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel young again (I'm still young but you know what I mean). I forget about all the stresses in life when I am with it, and it really brings out the inner rock-star in me. Yes, you guessed it, I am talking about GUITAR HERO III!

Santa Claus searched far and wide to find an elf that could make one in time to bring to the Francis boys. I am so glad he did. They have enjoyed it tremendously but their mother has fallen in love! If you have never played it, you won't understand but if you have, I have to brag that I am now on level 'HARD' and can 4-5 star every song on Medium. Metallica's 'ONE' in is in particular my favorite.

Seriously though, I stay on task and limit 'non-productive' time I can have, I really only play 1-2 songs (if that) a day at the most BUT what a great way to de-stress and forget about the world! If you don't have one, I highly recommend it. Speaking of, I think Weezer's 'My Name is Jonas' is calling me.......(hey wait, that's my maiden name!)

In Another's Eyes

My parents bought Easton a Digital Camera for Christmas! We uploaded his pictures over the weekend and I was just cracking up looking at them. I'm looking at pictures of things only a 13-year old would think of taking pictures of. There are pictures of burned hot dogs, quesadillas he made himself for lunch, his Wii box, Jane's shoes, just random things! A lot of the pictures however, turned out pretty cute and showed different sides of the person's personality. Such as:

Brandon making some sort of 'rock on' sign...

The same from their cute cousin Hannah...

Jane Crying!...

A picture of a picture of Brandon...

My personal favorite; a picture of Jane with her diaper on backwards...

Jane signing "eat!"

Pictures of other people taking pictures (cousin Katie!)...


...and of course, the signature camera-holding picture of 'self'.

I'll look forward to more pictures through this budding photographer's eyes!

It was an Egg-cident Mom!

You know the picture your mom has of you, (or you have of your child) proudly sitting on the bathroom floor with a whole toilet paper roll unwound? Or maybe it's sitting on the kitchen floor with 8 new bananas opened and smashed into the floor. (Both of which, Easton did as a toddler!) Well, everyone has those moments with their toddlers, and last night was mine with Jane. I was making lemon bars for Eric (his favorite dessert) and had just pulled out my eggs. I turned to grab a lemon, and.....CRACK! I turn around, and that's what I saw! Yep, Jane had quickly grabbed the 18 carton of Omega-3 Brown Eggs from Oakdell Farms and dumped it on the floor! My first instinct was to quickly start cleaning it up but I knew that although it wasn't funny right that second, it sure would be when she was 16. So, I raced downstairs to grab the camera and thought I'd share! And yes, I was able to salvage 3 of them - just enough for the recipe!

Special Traditions

I know the holidays are over, but I have some friends that thought I should share some of our Christmas traditions on our blog. Hopefully one of these traditions will be something that you can add to your Christmas celebrations!


First of all, 'Ebenezer the Elf' visits our home shortly after Thanksgiving. Ebenezer is very sneaky and we have never been able to catch him or see him in person! He's one of Santa's elves that creates mischief! He checks in on the kids to make sure they're being good for Santa. Ebenezer brings strange candy, writes poems about being good and remembering that Christmas isn't just about Santa and toys. This year he did several funny things. One day he lined the stairs with candy canes, (note picture!) another night he put huge candy canes on the kids beds, one morning Brandon woke up with red vine licorice all over his blankets! And on Christmas Eve was the biggest shocker of all - he moved our Christmas tree from the front room upstairs to by the fireplace downstairs! Then he left this poem under the tree:

It’s Christmas now and I’m shedding a tear
I won’t come around again until after Thanksgiving next year.
You’ve been good kids, in my heart you are dear
I made sure to put that into Santa’s ear.
I’ll be back for more mischief, more tricks and more fun,
But for this year my spying for Santa is done.
Always remember, I’m not far away,
Because the magic of Christmas can be in your hearts to stay!

(yes, I'm brilliant, I know...) I mean, Ebenezer is brilliant!

Another fun tradition is on Christmas Eve, we make 'magic' Reindeer food. It is basically a cellophane bag with oatmeal and silver, red and gold glitter! Reindeer love oatmeal, but you must add the glitter for magic, and so the reindeer can see it through the snow!

Santa Footprints - we're not sure how he does it, but Santa leaves footprints in the house that look like this! Must be powdered sugar or flour, or something! ;)

Scoping for Santa! We keep the wrapping paper tubes, and the kids decorate them on Christmas Eve and they make great telescopes to watch for Santa in the sky!

One final tradition is that instead of candy in our Advent Calendar, we have a scripture a day. Every night, the kids pull out the scripture, look for it in the Bible or Book of Mormon and we read it as a family. They are all centered around Christ and his birth. It really helps them (and us) remember what Christmas is really about...celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

I hope some of these traditions are something new and different that you can do to make your Christmas season even more special! If you have any fun traditions to share, please comment, I would love to hear what they are!!

The 90/10 Rule, Happy 20 and 2008!

I had (another) Dr. appointment this afternoon. Can you say ouch? Without getting too graphic, he had to pull out the surgical scissors and cut some of the old skin and stitches that are separating from the new skin that is slowly forming underneath all the injured areas. This is on my index finger; my middle finger is still too icky to touch. I wanted to be the usual tough girl, but holy cow feeling someone pry sharp metal underneath a huge sore scab and baby sensitive skin and try to separate the two does not feel good! I seriously flinched so hard Eric and the Dr. started to laugh! I started to laugh too and was like, is this REALLY necessary? I mean come ON it will come off on it's own when it's ready, right? Well turns out it really wasn't ready but it was too late so he just cut off part of it. Now on top of everything else I have a chunk of raw skin on my index finger and can see the holes where the stitches were and it's throbbing and stinging so bad I want to scream! Why am I writing all this with my tired left hand? No one wants to read the details of my personal pity party! I just get frustrated after my Dr. appointments - partly because it flares up the pain but also because it makes me face the reality of what happened. BUT...Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% what you do about it. So I'm trying my best to stay positive and do everything extra I can research and think of that speeds healing. I'm even taking these 'magic' herbs (no, not that one, never tried that for the record...) and using a 'magic' cream that supposedly is pretty amazing at how it can help regenerate tissue and stuff...if you know much about herbs you're probably thinking, "I hope it's Dr. Christopher's BF&C...) yes, it is! I'm also still searching for the meaning or message in all of this. If you have any thoughts, by all means let me know. In the meantime, Happy 20-months old to Jane today! She is such a sweet and cute princess and we are so incredibly lucky to have her!

Happy New Year!

Can you say blackmail? There's no better way to ring in the New Year than a Guitar Hero III party with your family! As we speak there's 5 minutes to go and we're all cracking up because my brother did an encore to 'My Name is Jonas' by Weezer, (his last name IS Jonas, my maiden name..) He'll probably regret this in the morning. Maybe not quite blackmail material though, because it was all his idea. Click the video below, you'll understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahyu3m1ewUo

Pros and Cons and Props

Pros and cons to having my right hand out of commission:

Cons:
-Can't do dishes!
-Can't change Jane's poopy diapers! (easily, anyway)
-Can't give Jane a bath
-Can't DRIVE
-Can't pick up Jane with my strong arm
-Can't do my hair!
-Can't do my makeup! (Easily, that is! Try for me to put on Mascara with your left hand and good luck!)
-It takes forever to get dressed (It's impossible pulling up pants with one hand! And most of my shirts I can't wear because the sleeves are too skinny for my cast!
-Couldn't wrap my Christmas presents!
-Can't type easily and use the mouse! This is taking forever although my 5 left fingers are getting faster.
-Can't open JARS or bottles or anything that requires 2 hands and some strength!

Pros:
-Can't do dishes!
-Can't change Jane's poopy diapers!
Oh, wait - those were supposed to be cons. I guess they're a little of both.

People frequently ask me when they see my cast, "Oh, no, are you left-handed, I hope?" "I am now!" I say. I'm at about 3rd grade level with my handwriting. Pretty impressive how the mind can work things out when it has to. The first 2 weeks I was pretty useless with my left hand and now I've figured ways around certain things. Writing thank-you letters to the wonderful women in the Relief Society that joined together to make meals for us the first week of the accident was a joke - it took me all afternoon and my 7-year old could have done better! Eric offered to write them but it just didn't feel sincere to me to have someone else write my thank-you letters. I could have typed them but that too, felt insincere. (Thanks again and props to Sheila/Richelle, Ruth, Carol, Colleen/Cynthia and Becky!) My great visiting teacher Becky came and painted my good nails and sister-in law Anna brought me dinner and came to do my hair! And of course Audria, who helps me take care of the kids, what would I do without her?
Some days are better than others - I go from being very angry and upset about the situation and the pain, and then others I feel very lucky and blessed that it wasn't any worse. I feel burning, stinging pain in my fingers 24/7 but I keep telling myself to feel grateful for it because it's much better than the alternative of having no fingers or sensation at all! Phew- my fingers are tired!

Patients and Patience

Just what we wanted to do the day after Christmas.....yep! You guessed it- sit in the waiting room at the Dr's Office for 1 1/2 hours! Do you think that's why they call us 'Patients' or is it 'Patience'? Especially when all I'm going to hear is, "Yep, your fingers look like two badly charred pieces of black chicken!" Poor Eric is walking Jane up and down the hall for the 35Th time trying to keep her entertained. He's the one with patience! I hope this long appointment isn't keeping him away from his own patients at his office!

OK, after our hour and a half wait, Dr. Patten said they are healing well but still have a ways to go. Ouch - my fingers always burn and sting worse after the Dr. messes with them. I still did not look at them. Can you say denial? I do know now however that I've been having what's called 'shadow' or 'phantom' pains. The most painful area other than my fingertips is the right side of my middle finger. I did learn today to my shock that the part that is injured most is from the tip to half way down the first knuckle. The most pain I feel though, is below that. The good news is that the part I've been feeling isn't even injured but the bad news is that means the part that is injured at the top is so bad that there is no nerve sensation at all and that creates the phantom pain all around it. He prescribed physical therapy at TOSH - oh boy! More Dr. appointments and even more waiting! He needs to prescribe for me more "Patience!"


As if this appointment wasn't enough for poor Eric to sit through - he also was in the emergency room at the same hospital or 4 hours early this morning with Easton! He's had the flu and he woke us up at 6am with terrible chest pains - scared the heck out of both of us. He was having a hard time breathing and grabbing his heart in cramping pain. We had him drink another glass of water and Eric took him in. I was so nervous for him and wanted to go but the other kids were still asleep. After running every test imaginable on him it turned out to be just what we thought - plasma dehydration and the pains were his intestines and stomach. That's the kind when water won't even help - believe it or not after them giving him IV fluids they said Gatorade is the best thing for him. Eric brought him home just before 10am to turn right back around and go to his office to take care of his own patient at 10am, then to turn back around and bring me here to this appointment! You know it's been a long time waiting when I've typed this whole thing on my phone with my thumbs. 6 hours at hospitals before lunch the day after Christmas...Eric gets the 'patience' award for the day!

Christmas Eve is....

We usually spend Christmas Eve evening at my parents home in Park City. When we left today to head up there, we were in the midst of a complete blizzard! Needless to say, we headed back home and enjoyed an evening making soups, wassail, and christmas goodies. Here's a quick video with some of the fun moments! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJgeuUK_5o4