Sunday, April 24, 2011

Our Life

Our life has been crazy lately. I wanted to give a quick update so I don't forgot what is going on.

Anthony got a new job last summer. He likes his job but it has been quite the learning curve. He is beginning to feel more confident and not so anxious, which is good. I am grateful that he has a job and is willing to work so hard for our family - especially in these hard economic times. Anthony is still serving as the Elders Quorum President. He loves his calling, he is good with people, so it works out well.

I am still working part-time at discover. I work with the Activity Day Girls at church - which I love. I have been struggling with my hypoglycemia - mainly passing out. It was been a real struggle, first figuring out what was wrong with me - I had to wear a heart monitor for 3 weeks, have all kinds of tests and blood work done, etc. Anthony and the two older kids have learned how to monitor my blood sugar and get me juice when it goes to low - it usually ends up around 26 or 27. Still trying to learn how to eat to avoid this.

Zach is a junior. I can't believe that he will be 17 years old next week. He attends Paradigm High School which is a Charter School. It has has about 500 students in 9th - 12th grade. This is a much better setting for Zach as he struggles in big crowds. He is a part of the Salt Lake Explorer Program which are youth 14-19 years old that work with a police detective once a week - on Tuesday nights. The class is 6-8 pm. They learn all about police work, traffic control, the K-9 Unit, the DEA, etc. Zach loves it - he gets to wear a uniform, which he absolutely just loves. Zach wants to be a police officer so we make the drive to downtown Salt Lake each week for him to attend his meeting. Zach was able to do Traffic Control at the April General Conference for the Saturday session. He worked right in front of the Conference Center. He also did traffic control for the Salt Lake Marathon last week. Police work is his passion, so we try to encourage him in this endeavor.

Zach gave us a scare a couple of weeks ago. He yelled in a terrified voice at 6 am, "Mom, I can't move." What he meant was that he couldn't move his neck. He had torticollis, which is where is chin was resting on his shoulder, his neck bent over to the side. It was scary but with daily appointments for a week at the Chiropractor where adjustments and therapy were performed, he is back to normal.

Kassi is 15 years old and a freshman. Kassi had an unfortunate situation at school where a boy continually inappropriately slapped her on the butt. She asked him several times to stop but he just did it more. She told a teacher who advised her to report it to the office. The school suspended the boy. This caused all kinds of backlash for Kassi at school, on FB and even our home was toliet papered. It was so hard to watch her go through this. She would call from school crying asking me to pick her up. It is a shame that she did the right thing and then she was verbally tormented for it. It really shook her to the core and affected her self-esteem. Thank goodness things have calmed down.

Kassi tried out for the Dance Company at Copper Hills. She has only had one dance class for about a year when she was younger. She did her best and got 4 call back but didn't make the team. I was so proud of her for giving it her best. She was competing against girls that have been dancing since they were three years old. She took the news well and said she was glad that at least she tried.

Kaeden is in 3rd grade and is 9 years old. Kaeden really gave us a scare these last 3 months. I have taken him to the Dr. six times. He had strep throat, bronchitis, gastritis and then a terrible, hacking cough. I was really starting to think something was really wrong with him. He missed 3 weeks of school. The cough just would not go away. Finally, the Dr. suggested we give him Zurtec. Within 48 hours his cough was gone. I am so grateful that he is back to himself.

Kaeden loves legos. He loves building them and displaying them. He is so cute about it. He loves to go surf the internet to look for legos or go to the store and look at legos. He is out lego maniac.

Blake will be 8 years old next month. He is in 2nd grade at Carmen B. Pingree School for Children With Autism. He has been doing real well. He shocked me a couple months ago by typing the alphabet out on the lab top. I had no idea he knew his alphabet. He did it three times! I looked at him and said, "We don't give you enough credit for what you know, do we?" He just grinned at me. He has been signing mom and dad. It just melts my heart every time I seem him do that. Blake is doing so much better with eating. He has a lot of sensory issues - he won't eat any fruits or vegetables. He will eat orange ice cubes. He loves when I juice the oranges. It is all texture issues. His new love, which shocked me is hummus. That is pretty nutritional.