Mutual

Ashlee was in charge of the planning a mutual activity in March.  She spent many hours and weeks, searching for a project that would be fun.  After she decided on what to do, she got approval from the 2nd counselor in the YW Presidency, only to have her released the following week, so then she had to get approval from the new 2nd counselor. She got approval and a date of March 26th was given to her.  Two days before March 26th, she gets a call saying that her activity will need to be changed to the 10th of April (which she was not happy about), but it was what it was.  On April 8th we get a call saying that the activity will be the 9th instead of the 10th.   The whole thing was just not turning out right.  This was Ashlee's first time planning and directing a mutual activity, she was excited and things were just not going as planned.  And anyone who knows me, knows that I am very organized, on time, and I stick to a pretty strict schedule (Ashlee is very much the same way), and all these bumps in the road were not meshing with our personalities too well.  BUT, the activity went well.  Ashlee did a great job, she came home from school, got her homework done and made Snikerdoodle cookies in less than 2 hours and we were off to the activity.  The girls enjoyed the activity.  This is what the shirts looked like when they finished.

Tie-Dyed Shirts using Sharpies and rubbing alcohol.  They all turned out cute.  But we did discover, that when you wash the shirt, the color fades a lot.  We need to know what to do to prevent the color from fading.

Family Time

Last night John asked if we wanted to go on a picnic.  We decided that once he got his work done and Mikayla's soccer practice was over we would go on a picnic.  After a 2 hour soccer practice, cooler than expected weather, and unable to agree on where to go, we decided to load up our bikes and go for a bike ride at California State University Stanislaus.  Shortly into our bike ride, Mikayla's front tire went flat (but she was a champ and kept on peddling), then we switched bikes, she rode Ashlee's, Ashlee rode mine, and I pushed Mikayla's.  After our bike ride, we went to the park.  We found a park that we did not even know existed.  The kids played for a while and then we went and had a late lunch, early dinner at Red Robbin.

Mikayla's 10th Birthday

Mikayla turned 10 years old today.  It's hard to believe that she is already 10.  Time flies!  Mikayla has made it through a lot over the last ten years and continues to push through and excel in all that she does.
Mondays, are difficult days for John, both at work and with the rabbits and chickens, so we let her choose where she wanted to eat dinner at on Friday night.  Unfortunately, it was late Friday night, so she didn't get to go where she really wanted to go (either Famous Daves or The Cheese Cake Factory, both in the bay area), but she did choose to go to Home Town Buffet. Monday, the day of her birthday was spring break, so she did not have to go to school and she liked that! I let her pick what she wanted to have for dinner, she requested chicken tacos.   Monday night she also had her first soccer practice, she was still on crutches,  so she went and met her coaches, and her team, and watched them practice.  After practice we went to Yogolicious for some frozen yogurt.  On Wednesday, I took Ashlee, Mikayla and my neice Hailee shopping in Livermore and Pleasanton, and took them to lunch at The Cheese Cake Factory (so Mikayla ended up getting 3 meals of her choice, instead of just 1).

Easter 2013

This year we celebrated Easter a day early.  On Saturday, the day before Easter we went to my moms house for dinner, an egg hunt, and a little pre-birthday celebration for Mikayla.  Mikayla's birthday is in 2 days, but since we were all together, we decided it would be easiest to do it at the same time.

Mikayla was still on crutches and wasn't too happy about that.  Not only was she sick of the crutches, but that also meant she was slower at collecting eggs.   To be fair, we made all the kids equally divide the eggs.

Mikayla getting ready to blow out her candles on her cupcakes.

Easter Morning at home.  Checking out what the Easter Bunny left for them.

One thing after another

Life lately has been filled with one thing after another.  It all started in February.  Mikayla went on a field trip and cracked a tooth.  A week later both the girls had their regular dental cleanings and check ups and we found out that Ashlee's teeth, although they appear to be nice and straight, are really not.  She has impacted teeth.  And Mikayla had two more teeth that needed to be extracted before they cracked too.

The following week Ashlee went to the orthodontist for a consult, to see what needs to be done to fix her teeth.  The answer is not pretty.  2 teeth need to be extracted by a dentist, 1 tooth needs to be extracted by a special highly trained oral surgeon, and a full set of braces is needed.  All estimated to total about $7,500.00 (yikes to say the least, and our dental insurance will not cover any of the orthodontic work)!!  The day after Ashlee's orthodontist consultation she ends up with strep throat, two days later Mikayla gets kicked in the foot at school playing soccer, and 6 days after being kicked, she is put on crutches for 3 weeks.  The orthopedist, pediatrician and radiologist cannot tell if her foot is fractured or not.  One x-ray looks like the foot is fractured, other x-rays indicate that it could be a ligament and not a fracture.  So the orthopedist said they are going to treat it like it's broke, but not cast it.  She is on crutches until April 8th, then they will take another x-ray.  If the x-ray is the same they will cast her foot.  The foot is looking better, there is still a knot, but it looks better.  Let's hope it's healing and a cast will not be necessary.  Mikayla is ready to ditch the crutches.  After 24 hours of crutches she was crying and ready to throw them away.

 I have been dealing with some sort of throat problem.  I thought it was allergies, when that didn't get better I thought it may be my thyroid.  After a couple weeks of feeling yucky I decided to go to the doctor.  The doctor tried to look down my throat, but he said it's so swollen and red that he cannot see too far down.  He thinks I have what basically amounts to silent GERD.  My stomach does not feel like I have reflux, but apparently the acid is coming up into my throat and damaging my throat.  I am on medication for approximately 6-7 months to see if my throat will be healed and my reflux will be brought under control. But as with all medications, there are side effects.  Funny thing is, since I have started the medication, my throat feels better, but my stomach now burns like crazy.  Go figure it helps one problem and creates another?

The last month has been a long one.  I am hoping for better days ahead.  The kids are so done with school, unfortunately we still have over two months to go.  The homework and projects are just insane.  If we manage to keep our sanity, I think it will be a miracle.  School seems to be a 7 day week anymore.  The kids are always having to do something, in order to complete everything on time and stay on top of things.  Today is their first day of spring break.  Hurray, a break from it all!  At least that's what we were hoping for, but of course, Ashlee had two teachers assign homework over break.  So it looks like even though it is "Spring Break" we will not be getting a "Break" from homework.  Very FRUSTRATING to say the least.

This is Mikayla on her crutches.

This is what happens when you have homework 7 days a week.  Mikayla was suppose to be out in the garage looking for items for her book report and comes in the house with this instead.  I think this may be how we are feeling from all the homework and projects!

YW Personal Progress Project

Ashlee has only been in Young Women's for about a month and she is already off and running!  She is already working on her 10 hour personal progress projects.  Ashlee has so many ideas of things she wants to do, she was overwhelming me.  I had to explain to her, that we have too much going on with school and all right now.  Summer would be a perfect time to work on personal progress projects, and that we need to tackle one project at a time.

The first project she chose to make was personal progress book holders for all the young women at church. Since I do not really know how to sew, and do not have a clue where to start, my mom helped her with this project. I took Ashlee shopping to gather all the supplies and I found the pattern on Pinterest. But, the rest was up to my mom and Ashlee. They turned out great. They are all sooooo cute. It's hard to pick a favorite.

Cracked Tooth

Thursday Mikayla went on a field trip to the state capital.  I was not able to go on the field trip because I had to work.  When I got off work, I went to the school to pick up the girls.  Before I even got to the school, Mikayla called me to tell me that she cracked her tooth on the field trip.  I asked her if it hurt and how she cracked her tooth.  She said it did not hurt and that she was eating a cracker and then she felt something not right.  Later on in the day, she went into the bathroom, looked in a mirror and saw the cracked tooth.  She showed her chaperon and her long term substitute teacher, and they both said "that's bad."  Well that did not help the situation, because then Mikayla felt bad.  She said she was so upset, she just wanted to cry, and she starred out the window on the bus ride all the way home.

Long story short.  I tried to call the dentist Thursday afternoon, but at 4:39pm they were already closed for the day.  So  Friday morning, I called the dentist and told them what had happened.  On the phone, the dentist thought that it was probably a permanent tooth and that she would have to undergo a 2 hour procedure to repair the tooth.

 Luckily when we got to the dentist, they took some x-rays and discovered the problem was not as bad as previously thought.  Apparently, Mikayla's teeth just do not want to fall out.  Her permanent tooth had pushed through her baby tooth and yet the baby tooth never fell out.  So what happened was, the outside of the baby tooth cracked, and the permanent tooth was inside of it.  Some where during the process the bottom half of the tooth fell off, we assume she swallowed it, and then the remaining shell of the baby tooth cracked.  So the dentist had to give her laughing gas (Nitrous Oxide), numb her mouth up and extract the cracked baby tooth off of the permanent tooth.  The good news,  the tooth was not a permanent tooth.  The bad news, she has one other tooth doing the same exact thing, and if it's not out by Wednesday, she will have to have the same thing done again.  I guess her teeth just don't want to leave her!

Mikayla took some pictures of herself after the procedure on the way home to send to John.  Here she is with her numbed up mouth with gauze in it.