Alright! I've been looking forward to this post for a while! The hard part is going to be deciding which pictures to post since I have way too many.
Hyrum started taking piano lessons through ISU from a friend of mine in February. I felt a little bad that we didn't get him started right at the beginning of the semester, but we had other things on our minds. Since he hadn't been playing as long as the other students, I was surprised when his teacher asked me if he could play in the recital at the end of April. We asked Hyrum if he would like to perform, and he excitedly said yes. As it turns out, he loves performing.
He prepared one of the earliest and easiest songs he learned since we were afraid that he would stop and start over if he messed up. He tends to be a perfectionist, and won't just pick up where he made the mistake and carry on.
Because he was the most beginning of all the beginner students in the recital, he went first. I couldn't keep myself from smiling as Dr. Bond announced Hyrum and he took the stage. He played well and didn't make any mistakes. He even turned to look the audience to make sure they were listening as he played. He wasn't even the slightest bit nervous! He smiled at the applause as he took his bow. I don't know where he gets his courage from . I hate performing!
I wanted to get pictures of Hyrum at the piano after the recital, so I took him back on stage and asked him to play something. Instead of playing one quick song, he played through all the songs he had learned so far. He had every song memorized. I don't know why it surprised me--this is Hyrum, after all! He played for almost a half hour. I halfheartedly asked him to hurry up or told him that he should play just one more, but the truth was, I was enjoying how much he loved playing on the stage. Plus, I was getting tons of great pictures! And speaking of pictures...
Hyrum and his teacher, Stephanie.
Our family.
A more accurate representation of our family.
Since Hyrum went first, Stephanie was able to give him some last minute instruction on the stage.
This one is a little dark, but I love Hyrum's half smile.
This is how most of the photo session went. I'd get a serious picture of him playing...
Then he'd notice I was taking pictures, and give me a goofy grin.
Serious
Smiley
Such a big instrument for such a little boy.
There are plenty more pictures on my Facebook profile that I didn't include in this post. They're all good, so I suggest you go take a look!
Hyrum enjoyed his recital so much that he signed up for talent show try outs at school a couple of weeks later. He came home after his try out upset that he had messed up and wouldn't get to play in the show. I guess he's as hard on himself as I am on myself because I got a call from his teacher a few days later telling me that he was going to play. I hope he continues to enjoy the piano throughout his life.
January brought a new semester of school. We also got rid of our black cat Buyo because of behavior issues. We were sad to get rid of Buyo, and Diaho mourned the loss of his best friend for weeks. Eventually, we got a new tortoise shell cat, Kagome. Kagome was a rescue who had been hanging around a house where several large, aggressive dogs lived. She was still a kitten, but was getting older and was scheduled to be put down later that week if nobody adopted her. She looked so much like my mom's sweet cat Goldie that she instantly stole my heart. She turned out to be a wonderful cat! She was petite, dainty, well behaved, and affectionate but also playful and feisty! She had a few eccentricities such as chasing bottle caps and licking Mike's hair, but they only made her more endearing. Even Diaho was happy to have her in our home. She was the perfect fit in our family. Sadly, I don't have many pictures of videos of Kagome. She was only with our family for a short time before she passed away in May from unknown causes.
My step-dad Sherwin has a wood shop out in his shed. Every now and then, he tinkers with things such as the sunflower lawn decoration he made for my mom one year. His latest project has been making what he has called "tone boxes" for his and Mom's grandkids. He makes them out of different types of hard wood, so no two look the same. The one he gave to Hyrum and Emily is made of cedar and walnut and looks as beautiful as it sounds. He wrote a short message on the underside and signed it for them. Both kids love playing it, and Emily enjoys making up songs to sing as she plays. I'm sure the kids will always treasure it, and there just might be a fight about who gets to have it when they're grown.
The end of December and beginning of January brought my 31st birthday and weddings. Two of Mike's nieces got married within a week of each other. Their mother must have been going crazy trying to plan and organize! We weren't able to attend Caryssa's wedding due to weather conditions, but we made it to Ashley's on January 7th.
Brock and Ashley were married in the Salt Lake temple. Mike and I were excited to attend the ceremony since we haven't been back to the SLC temple since our own wedding. Unfortunately, Mike's recommend was expired, and mine was left at home. We tried to make some quick phone calls to my bishop and stake president to verify my recommend so that at least I could attend, but the process took too long. Instead, we waited with the kids in the designated waiting room until the family came out for pictures.
We had a nice visit with Mike's family, including two of his brothers who live far enough away that we only see them every couple of years. Both newlywed couples looked happy and completely oblivious to the world outside their own--just the way newlyweds should look!
There was a beautiful reception that night in Wyoming. Everyone danced. I got video of nearly everyone, although a few people managed to dodge the camera. My kids had a blast dancing, particularly Hyrum. I have no idea where he learned to "dance" like that, but he had me laughing so hard that I didn't have time to worry about whether or not he was putting holes in his suit. Although I love the scenes of Hyrum dancing, I have to say that my favorite parts of this video are Mike and my brothers-in-law dancing with their daughters. Too sweet! <3
This post is dedicated to Sandi who threatened to remove me from her blog list if I didn't post an update soon.
Since yesterday (when I started working on this blog) was July 25th, I figured this would be a good time to write about Christmas! I have been trying to be more positive on my blog, so I won't go into the details of why last Christmas was so difficult for our family. Honestly, it isn't even necessary because last Christmas, we were reminded that people are amazing. They are kind and generous and mindful of others. All throughout the month of December, friends and neighbors anonymously left food and gifts for the kids at our doorstep. We were so grateful.
Mike and I weren't able to afford any presents for Christmas, so we relied on family activities to make the holidays memorable for the kids. We spent one weekend decorating our house. Thanks to our mischievous kittens, Buyo (the black one) and Diaho (the orange one), the tree was never decorated. The tree was a hand-me-down from my aunt Judy and has been getting progressively more ragged every year. Thanks to our wonderfully thoughtful kittens, we will probably be getting a new one next year. Someone should invent a kitten proof tree. They'd make millions.
Another weekend was spent making gingerbread houses from two kits which were left on our doorstep. One kit was a traditional ginger bread house while the other was made of Rice Krispies. Both kits were so stale that we couldn't eat them, but we had fun decorating and making a mess!
The Rice Krispy Treat house turned into a large amorphous blob, so we ripped it up and turned it into snow men... kind of. The weird looking one on the far left was Emily's.
On December 20th, we were driving around Pocatello looking for something Christmas-y to do. I think we were contemplating heading to Idaho Falls when I got a phone call.
"This is Alex Guerrero calling on behalf of the Ryan Clady Foundation."
Now, in the back of my mind, I knew who Alex Guerrero and Ryan Clady were, but I couldn't think of any possible reason why they'd be calling. As a result, all that came out of my mouth was a skeptical, "Uh-huh...?"
"Would your family be interested in going to the Las Vegas Bowl?"
"Very much..." I remembered hearing that Ryan Clady had asked for names of Boise State fans who might be having a rough year and would appreciate a trip to the bowl game, but a family had already been chosen.
"Well, we'd like to invite you at our expense."
"...Seriously? Um... yeah... I mean... yeah! That's amazing!!"
Our conversation continued while Mike remained oblivious in the seat next to me. Apparently, after seeing how well things had worked out with the first family they selected, Chris Carr decided to fund a second family's trip and asked for the list of names. Our family was on the list. Alex told me that Mike was selected because they were impressed by a congratulatory note Mike had sent to the winning family. Alex asked how many were in our family, what our kids' ages were, and what size shirts they wore. Then he told me that, if we were going to go, we needed to be in Boise by 5:00 am the next morning.
Yikes! I handed Mike the phone so he could work out the details. I don't think he believed me when I told him who was on the phone. It was fun to watch him go through the same disbelief I had just minutes before. He turned the car around, and we headed home to pack. We debated whether we should leave then and ask our friends and family in Boise if any of them could put us up for the night, but we decided it was too short of a notice, and opted to sleep early and leave at 1:00 am. Wrong decision. We couldn't sleep.
We arrived in Boise early and had to wait for about an hour and a half in the cold car for the charter bus to show up. When it finally came, the bus was as cold as our car! We tried to sleep in the bus, but it just didn't happen. The drive was long and terrifying as we drove through some horrible snow storms with white-out conditions. Luckily, Alex had all sort of fun activities to help pass the time. We had raffles and trivia contests. Mike and I had brought DVDs for the kids which the bus driver let us play on the bus's system. Thankfully, the other passengers didn't mind watching Cars and Toy Story. We had brought snacks, coloring books, and video games as a preemptive measure to keep the kids entertained on the long drive, but they surprised us by being incredibly well behaved. The other passengers kept commenting on how they were worried when they saw such young kids board the bus, but were impressed by how well behaved they were. Emily would always answer them by saying, "Nobody wants to hear me cry, so let's all have fun!" Despite the long drive and lack of sleep, nothing seemed to upset the kids except when Emily misunderstood and thought that we were going to Lost Vegas. She insisted that she didn't want to be lost, she wanted to watch Boise State.
We arrived in Vegas that evening. The rest of the passengers took a shuttle from the hotel to the strip, but we didn't have any money for the taxi ride back. Instead, we stayed in the hotel, ordered a pizza, and took hot baths to warm up from the cold bus ride. We were all too exhausted to do anything else anyhow!
The next morning, we hit the strip. We figured there must still be plenty to do without spending money. What we didn't take into account was the amount of walking and the amount of rain. Our hotel was "just off the strip," but we didn't realize how far off the strip it really was! The kids and Mike had their fun at my expense as they watched my hair get curlier and curlier from the rain. I don't look good with curly hair. It only got worse as the rain stopped and my hair dried into a nice gravity-defying frizz. However, we were much more concerned about our shoes and pants. It wasn't until after we got back to the hotel that we found out that Vegas was under a flash flood warning. All we knew was that the water was often ankle deep and we were soaked through from all the walking. Still, we were enjoying ourselves too much to care.
When we got back from the strip, we all changed into dry clothes. Mike and I used my hair dryer and the hotel's hair dryer to try to dry out our shoes. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort. By game time, it was raining again, and it only took seconds of being outside before we were soaked. We headed to the stadium early and went to all the free tailgate activities we could find. We didn't have ponchos, and vendors were selling them for as much as $20 a piece. That's a bit too much for a garbage bag with arm holes, if you ask me! We finally found someone who offered to sell us a two pack for $5, and give them to the kids. Later, we saw a kid pull off his poncho and throw it on the ground because it had a hole in it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I snatched it up and put it on right then and there.
The game was the coldest I've ever attended, but it was totally worth it! Hyrum kept telling the Ute fans behind us, "Boise State wins by far." He wasn't trying to taunt them, but I don't think they appreciated it much, and they changed seats before the fourth quarter. An older couple in front of us kept fawning over Hyrum and Emily, and the kids ate it up. Best of all, Hyrum was right, and Boise "won by far."
After the game, we went down to the field and managed to get pictures with Joe Southwick the backup quarterback. Hyrum begged for the chance to meet a real football player, but he was stunned into silence when he saw just how tall he really was. Also, although we didn't get any pictures with the real Doug Martin, we did get a picture with the Muscle Hamster. Back at the hotel, we dried off and piled our beds high with warm blankets.
The next morning, we boarded the bus to Boise, then drove to Pocatello. We arrived home at 1:30 am Christmas Eve, and promptly fell asleep. When we woke up, it was to another surprise. Someone had given our family money to buy Christmas presents! Mike and I dumped our kids off with my parents and went shopping. We all met up at my Grandma Sears's house that evening for presents with the extended family. That night, we gave both kids new pajamas. Hyrum's had Mario, Luigi, and Bowser on them, and Emily's had zebra pants and a zebra applique on the shirt and came with a stuffed zebra. Hyrum ran around pretending to be Mario, collecting coins and jumping on blocks. Emily was in heaven pretending to be a zebra. I think that in her mind, zebras are as close to perfection as anything on this earth. The next morning we opened presents and enjoyed a nice Christmas at my mom's house. I promise you we had a good time even though I don't have pictures or videos. I didn't have time to recharge my camera after Vegas. Oops!
Monday the 6th was Emily's 4th birthday. We weren't able to go anywhere, but we did get a cake and open presents at home. The cake was... an adventure. Mike had bought a tube of frosting to write on Hyrum's cake, but we didn't have a writing tip to put on it, so we never used it. Thinking that I had learned from his mistake, I found a section of writing tubes in the cake decorating section. No tips needed! What I didn't notice was that the set of tubes I picked up were for tinting batter and frosting, not for writing. Really, it's not my fault! I blame the stocker who grouped it in with the other icing tubes and the package designer who decided to put writing tips on the tubes. Anyhow, the box I picked had orange and green which, according to the box, should have matched the cake I picked out. I used the orange tube and tried to write Emily's name. The gel came out uneven, goopy, and red. Mike tried to fix it by tracing over the lettering with the green tube. It came out uneven, goopy, and black.
And it used to be such a cute cake too! Rats.
Since the writing was just concentrated food coloring in gel form, it dyed our mouths green.
Hyrum picked out several toys to give Emily, and finally settled on a stuffed Hello Kitty wearing a black cat costume. Emily thought it was a bat. Mike and I gave her a new pair of mittens and a Strawberry Shortcake play set. She got a Strawberry Shortcake doll last Easter, and it had a cardboard cutout of her pink polka dot cat as a decoration in the box. Emily loved it so much that she kept it and played with it, but she often said she wanted a real cat figurine. Mike and I found a sale on a cute set which included the cat. She was very excited about it.
Because of my mom's knee surgery, Emily got birthday presents from her grandma the same day that Hyrum got his. She got two pairs of "sparkly" pants and a very cute tambourine. She's very proud of her tambourine playing skills, telling everyone that she knows how to hold and play it. She calls it, "my instrument," and even pointed out another tambourine player in the symphony. She's constantly trying to get Hyrum to play a concert with her on the new recorder he got from my mom.
Here's Emily's birthday video. Credit goes to my mom for recommending that I use this song. Sadly, because of the song, youtube is posting ads on my video. Just click the x to close the ad so you can read the subtitles.
The day after Emily's birthday, Mike took her to the hospital for an imaging appointment. She has been getting frequent bladder infections for a few years, the most recent one lasting about a month and a half despite trying 3 different types of antibiotics.
Before the doctor came in to discuss the results of the imaging with us, Emily told the nurse that she needed to talk to the doctor about her hiccups. Both the nurse and doctor were great, and played along.
Nurse: "When do you usually get hiccups?"
Emily: "Every time I go to daycare."
Nurse: "Ok, I'll make sure to tell the doctor when he comes in."
Nurse: veryseriouslyto the doctor "Emily is concerned about the hiccups she gets whenevershe goes to daycare."
Emily: "Yes, and Cruz teases me because of my hiccups. Cruz is my boy at daycare."
Doctor: "Boys like to tease you at daycare?"
Emily: "Yes, they're very noisy."
Doctor: "Boys are bad news. Don't you agree, Dad?"
Mike: "Yes. Boys are very bad!"
Doctor: "You stay away from those boys and tell them to be quiet, and your hiccups will goaway."
The x-rays showed a level 4 (highest level) reflux from the bladder up to the kidneys. Normally, it's a one way path from the kidneys to the bladder, but on her, the fluids were not only leaking back up from the bladder, but completely filling the left kidney. As her doctor put it, "a bladder infection is not the end of the world, but a kidney infection is." He asked us to schedule an appointment with the urologist ASAP to discuss surgery. He said that there might be an option for a new injection which has had some success in other patients. We're meeting with the urological surgeon on Wednesday to get his opinion. In the mean time, she's on suppressive antibiotics to keep her from getting a kidney infection. I don't like the idea of my little girl in surgery, but I hate how she's so sick all the time, and surgery is certainly better than kidney failure.
Thursday, we met with Hyrum's teachers about updating his IEP. We've been frustrated with the lack of communication from his school. They didn't even have a parent/teacher conference at the end of the trimester! They finally got around to getting him in the appropriate classes when his IEP expired and he was up for reevaluation. After lots of testing and paperwork, they arrived at the same diagnosis as the psychologist -- PDD-NOS. They told us that he is a bit of a dilemma for them because he is miles ahead of his class academically. They said that he is ridiculously smart and talented. No matter how often his teachers tell me that, I still love to hear it! The problem is, he no longer qualifies for an IEP based on developmental delay or academic difficulties, but he really does still need special help. Luckily, they were able to qualify him based on a lack of problem solving language skills and social behavior. Basically what that means is that he is unable to communicate his frustration and work out problems when things don't go his way, and he cries a lot in class. They decided to continue giving him speech therapy and add behavioral counseling with social skills groups. A lot of my doubts and fears about the attention he's been getting in school were alleviated in our meeting, but I still wish his teachers communicated with us better.
That's all the news from Pocatello for now. I'm planning to put up a video of us decorating our house for Christmas, but that will probably have to wait until after finals week. Until then, I hope you enjoy the pictures and video from Emily's birthday!
November 17th was Hyrum's 7th birthday. I can hardly believe that he'll be baptized in only one year! We had planned to go bowling with my mom and step-dad the following weekend, but a large snow storm changed those plans for us. Instead, we stayed in Pocatello and took the kids to the skating rink. They had a blast! Hyrum goes to the rink with his school about once a month, but I think he usually plays on the playground equipment and arcade. This time, we made him skate. Emily was adorable. Whenever she fell down, she'd just jump back up, smile, and say, "I really need to practice more!" We probably would have never been able to drag them home if the rink hadn't ended their skate session.
Hyrum thought this was a very funny cake. So did a lot of other people who stopped by our table at the rink.
Among Hyrum's presents was a watch from us. He loves it! We also gave him a flashlight which you can see around his neck in the videos. Emily picked out a ball with Buzz Lightyear, a green alien, and glitter floating in it to give him.
Here's a video of the kids skating. The limbo was so cute. There was no rule about staying on your skates as long as you didn't touch the bar. Hyrum came in second by crawling on his belly. He had everyone cracking up. The girl who won stayed on her skates the whole time. She was incredible!
After the skate session is over, they have the kids put on their regular shoes and dance to this song. You can tell the older kids know the routine quite well. I put some clips of his dance in the previous video, but I wanted to post the whole dancing video just because it makes me smile.
Last time I posted the summer and fall update, I completely forgot to post about our trip to Boise State when ESPN's College Game Day was there. I realized my mistake when I was clearing out space on my camera's memory card. So here ya go!
Boise State had just won their first game against Virginia Tech in Washington D.C. and was up against Oregon State at home in Boise. After years of promising to do it, ESPN finally brought their College Game Day show to Boise, and Mike and I were there for it. We had a lot of fun meeting with some of Mike's online friends for a tailgate. We also met a lot of Oregon State fans and plenty of fans from other schools who were in Boise to cheer on the Broncos. One guy--a Michigan fan--had specifically come because it was his birthday, and he asked his wife to take him to see the blue field in lieu of a birthday present. Here are the pictures and videos.
This was the basic set up from where we were sitting. The tier above us was full too. They told us that we had either tied or beaten the record attendance for College Game Day. Not bad for 7:00 am. And that was with half the city attending a marathon that same morning!
The tent had the cameras and desk where the commentators sit, and the screen next to it showed us what was happening on the camera since their backs were to us.
One of my favorite signs (and sign holder) down on the field.
Mark May is a commentator who is well known as being overly critical of Boise State, TCU, Utah, and all other non automatic qualifying teams. He is also well known for not being able to take any criticism. So much so, that they won't allow any anti Mark May signs in the Game Day crowd, no matter how harmless. Our friend Tyler swiped this confiscated sign as we left the stadium and posted it outside of our tailgate tent.
The kids getting ready for the game.
Kids pulling silly faces.
Emily dancing at the tailgate.
This was the color scheme at the game. We were in one of the orange sections. I'm always surprised at how well the color coordination works out.
The view from our seats during the game.
The morning after the game, we took the kids swimming at our hotel pool. It was the first time we were able to get them in the water without screaming. We had a harder time getting them out again when it was time to go home!
Mike and I started school again this fall. It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Well, at least it's fun for me. We're both feeling a bit burnt out now that we've hit midterms. I sure hope we survive!
Hyrum's new school wanted us to get him evaluated by a psychologist so he could be admitted into the speech and occupational therapy programs. We've known for a long time that he is probably on the autistic spectrum, but we had never gotten him a diagnosis since the school districts in Nampa and Shelly had no problem putting him in the correct programs without a diagnosis. We took him to a series of psychological evaluations and interviews. The whole process took a couple of months. When it was finally all over, he was given the diagnosis of PDD-NOS, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder - not otherwise specified. It's often referred to as "atypical autism." In other words, he has a lot of the symptoms of autism and a lot of the symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome, but doesn't have enough of either one to qualify for either diagnosis. For example, kids with autism often have behavioral issues. Hyrum doesn't. He does have speech difficulties consistent with an autism diagnosis. Someone with Asperger's Syndrome usually has normal speech. However, most of his behavior and cognitive development is consistent with an Asperger's diagnosis. What this all means is that Hyrum is on the autistic spectrum, but that they don't have a term or a definition for what he has. He is very high functioning, and is closer to Asperger's Syndrome than to autism. I believe the school was hoping for a specific diagnosis in order to qualify him for in-school speech. I really hope that they won't keep him out of the programs he needs just because he doesn't fit into any of their neat little boxes. The psychologist did recommend that he be put in speech at school, and also recommended he be in occupational therapy although he doesn't qualify for it through any disability. So far, his school has been lousy about working with us. I sure hope they cooperate in this. The doctor provided us with a letter to take to the school requesting that he be put in these programs, so I imagine that ought to be enough for them. There have been a lot of "issues" at this school, but that's another rant for another time.
My mom recently had the first of two knee surgeries. She was stuck at home for a long time, and I'm sure was bored out of her mind! Emily, on the other hand, thought that using a walker was a lot of fun!
While we were visiting my mom, Hyrum finally got brave enough to ask her to pull out a tooth that had been loose for a couple of weeks. He didn't cry or flinch or anything! I was so proud. The next morning, he was so exited to tell us that the Tooth Fairy had come to visit him that night!
Sherwin and I had a good time teasing my mom about her wide open mouth as she demonstrated to Hyrum how to open up.
Toothless Hyrum! (Try to ignore the blood beneath his nose. We didn't wash his face after pulling the tooth.)
This picture has nothing to do with Hyrum getting his tooth pulled. I just think it's hilarious! Hyrum was trying to look and act tough, but that is just not his personality.
About one week after losing his first tooth, Hyrum lost his second one right next to it. Now he has a big gaping hole in his bottom row of teeth. He's quite proud of it!
This video has nothing to do with anything. I thought I'd include it for those of you who didn't catch it on my Facebook page. Just Emily being silly and cute. She's a pro at hide-and-seek!
The next bit of news is sad for us. We returned home from our family reunion in McCall to a very sick cat. DeeDee, as far as we could see, hadn't eaten since we had left, and she had lost her voice. We weren't too concerned at first because she would often get depressed when we'd leave her at home alone for a few days, but she'd always snap out of it. After a week of her not eating or drinking, we took her to the vet. She was given an IV of fluids which gave her a large humped back like a camel. She seemed to do alright for a few days, but still refused to eat or drink. We eventually started forcing water down her throat with a medicine dropper, but we couldn't do much about the food. We tried chicken broth since we could force feed that to her, but she would refuse to swallow and let it run out the sides of her mouth. After another week or so, we took her back to the vet for another IV--enough fluids to literally turn her into a kitty water balloon--and an antibiotic. She seemed to respond a little and perk up after the antibiotic, and she finally started eating again. However, she only ate barely enough to sustain herself, and still wouldn't drink. Over the next couple of weeks, she lost so much weight that she became nothing more than a skeleton. Eventually she got to the point where she couldn't even stand up anymore.
After a lot of crying, Mike and I decided it was time to put her down. We hated watching her die so slowly and painfully before our eyes. After school, we took her to the vet one last time. Emily, luckily, had spent the night at my mom's house, but Hyrum came with us. We tried to explain to him what was going on, but I don't think he really understood until after we came home without her. At the vet, we told him to tell her goodbye, but he refused, saying he didn't want to lose her. Eventually, he did say goodbye. Mike decided to stay with her as she was given the shot, but I just couldn't stand to stay. As I handed her over the the vet, she tried with all the strength she had left to climb up my chest and lay her head on my shoulder. It was hard to pull her away, but I knew I didn't want to watch her die, and I knew I didn't want Hyrum to see it. Out in the lobby, another cat came over to sit with Hyrum. He pet it, and smiled, but then told me, "It's not the same as DeeDee. I want to see DeeDee again." I had to explain that it was too late to see her now.
We found out that there is a gene that all cats are born with, but lies dormant in some cats, while it activates in others. It causes the organs to shut down one by one until the cat can no longer function. She was experiencing kidney failure at the time of her death. It was a really difficult day for us. I know Mike's family won't really understand. Mike's the only one who even likes cats, and that's only since he's been married to me. We had DeeDee for 10 years. She was a wedding present to me from Mike, but she was a family cat. I've had a lot of cats, but she was one of the best I've ever had, and we miss her terribly.
Several months ago, a friend of mine pointed out to me that I have made lots of videos of the kids, but none of DeeDee. I started recording short videos of her only a few weeks before she got sick thinking that I would one day piece together a video. After she got sick, I figured it was time to make the movie. It's not quite what I would have liked to do if she had been healthy enough for me to get all the shots I wanted, but I didn't want any videos of her when she was so skinny and weak. I think it does a fairly good job showing her personality, although I wish I could have gotten better shots of her sweet, loving side. I think the song has very cute lyrics, so I included the translation in the subtitles.
Last week, we took the kids to a pet adoption sponsored by the Bannock County Humane Society. Hyrum picked out a black kitten because DeeDee was black. I'm sure if there had been a black and grey tabby at the adoption fair, he would have picked it. Emily picked out a tiny Siamese kitten. I was so proud of her when another family came along specifically wanting a Siamese. Her kitten was the only one there, and we had already signed adoption papers for it. The other family begged her to let them have the kitten. She didn't want to give him up, but eventually decided on her own that it was the right thing to do to let them have him. In its place, she picked out an orange kitten which was friends with the black one Hyrum picked. One of the shelter workers paid part of the adoption fees so that we could afford to get both kittens since the two of them were inseparable. It was pretty cute when we got the kittens. One of the workers at Petco had become quite attached to the black kitten because it looked like his cat. He showed us a picture of his cat on his phone and began to tear up as he told us how grateful he was that we were giving the kitten a good home. He became even more emotional when the shelter workers told him we were adopting his orange friend as well. He kept thanking us over and over.
So far, our kittens don't have any names. They're starting to respond to "Orange Kitten" and "Black Kitten," so I think we need to get them real names ASAP. Any suggestions?
So I haven't written an update since before Mike's Google blog. I do have a legitimate excuse this time though. First, we had finals for winter semester all while looking for a new apartment in Pocatello. Then a few days after the semester ended, I started summer term. Then, once Hyrum got out of school, Mike and the kids moved to Pocatello while I moved in with my mom to finish the summer semester. Well, Thursday was my last day of school, so I finally get to post all the videos and pictures we've taken and haven't had time to post. I'm so glad to have the rest of summer off, and I'm so glad to finally be able to move back in with my family! Be sure to check out my posts on Hyrum's field trip to the zoo and Hyrum's Spring Concert. Nothing much to read, just videos and pictures.
Hyrum's school had a spring concert. Both Hyrum and I are short. I was standing against the back wall of the gym and Hyrum was standing on the front row, so I could barely see him when I zoomed the camera in all the way. Sorry for the shaky camera work. It's especially hard to stabilize it while zoomed in that close. Emily couldn't see him at all, but had fun dancing to the songs.
Not to be outdone by her brother, Emily asked me to video her dancing. She got a little camera shy for a while, but got over it quick enough.
Spring! Finally! The semester is almost over, and Mike and I couldn't be happier about it. In celebration, I'm posting lots of pictures and videos.
First, let's get the updates out of the way. School is going well for me. I was supposedly offered a choral scholarship, but I haven't seen any confirmation on it yet. I wasn't counting on a scholarship, so if I get one, it'll be a nice bonus. Either way, the director of music education says she thinks I'm doctoral material. That's encouraging! She recommends that I get my Bachelors ASAP, then take a few years off to get some teaching experience before getting my Masters and Doctorate in quick succession. She says she thinks I have the natural intuition to be a great educator. Realistically, it might be a long time before I get my Masters, but it's nice to have a clear goal and the support of a teacher I admire a great deal.
Mike is considering another change in his major, but he's unsure right now. He's considering everything from meteorology to business, but he might just stick it out as a nuke engineer. I worry that he's too concerned with getting done quickly and making money than with finding something he's good at and that he enjoys. I worry that if he picks a career based on salary, he'll be miserable at work, and all that time and money spent on his education will mean nothing. As it is, he's doing well as a nuclear engineer. Maybe all he needs is to remember what got him excited about it in the first place. It's easy to forget what you love when you're burnt out.
Hyrum continues to do very well in school. His teachers are impressed with his reading and say he finished the kindergarten curriculum a while ago. They're making up new lessons for him to check his reading comprehension. My mom gave him a 196 page Curious George chapter book for Easter which he can read all the way through with no help. He's also top in math. He loves to quiz us on addition at home. His teachers also say his penmanship is excellent. Looks a little funky to me, so I'll just take their word for it. Hyrum's speech is improving steadily since we started him at the speech and language clinic in Idaho Falls. It looks like he'll be in pretty good shape when he starts first grade this fall.
Emily is like bottled sunshine. She's such a cheerful little girl. It always comes as quite a shock when she her mood suddenly takes a drastic turn to throwing tantrums. I guess that's a typical 3 year old girl thing. For the most part, she loves to sing, dance, make up stories, pretend to be a cat, play dress-up, and all those other things that make her so much fun to be around. She's very smart. Hyrum must be teaching her because I don't know how she already knows all her letters and letter sounds. She can also read common words that she sees often like Emily, Hyrum, Mom, Dad, and cat. Mike and I want to look into the possibility of getting her into a preschool this year.
Alright! Picture time!
Instead of Easter baskets, the kids got trays and bowls of candy. Emily got hair accessories and Strawberry Shortcake dress-up doll. Hyrum got slime and a Frisbee.
Last weekend, we took the kids to Spring Scrimmage at BSU. Before the game, they let the kids play on the field and meet the coach and players. Sadly, we took the scenic route through Arco and Craters of the Moon, so we got there as they were ushering everyone off the field. The kids still got to run out onto the field and play for a short time before a security officer tapped me on the shoulder and told us we had to go. I did manage to get a video and a few pictures. :)
Go Orange! Go Big Blue! Fight! Fight! BSU!
Some of Mike's friends from OBNUG.com (a BSU fan site) saved us seats to watch the game. The kids weren't as interested as they usually are in a real game, but they had fun posing for the camera anyhow.
We decided to take the long way back to Shelley again so we could drive through Craters of the Moon and hopefully hike the lava tunnels and the ice caves. We told the kids that it was created by several volcanoes thousands of years ago. Emily was really excited to see a volcano, and made up a cute story during the long car ride. Sorry, for some reason, the sound quality is low on this video. I plan to edit this video and upload it again. Until then, you may have to turn up your speakers.
When we got there, we learned that the lava tunnels and ice caves don't open for the year until May. We decided to take the kids on a short hike (if you can call it that) to the top of a spatter cone. Emily, who had been so excited, suddenly got scared and made Mike carry her to the top. I'm including lots of pictures for Dave's sake. You'd better be reading this, Dave! Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong about any of these rocks too.
This is the vent in a spatter cone. Spatter cones are like mini volcanoes and are formed after the magma becomes cooler and spatters out of vents in larger chunks. The cones are more jagged than smoother cinder cones.
This is the view of the lava flow from the top of the spatter cone. It's just black lava rock for as far as you can see.
The family (minus me) at the top of the cone. Emily still wouldn't let Mike put her down.
This is a cinder cone. These are formed from the cinders which are expelled when the magma is still very hot. The rocks are fine--about the size of gravel. Cinder cones are formed before spatter cones. There are several of both types at Craters of the Moon. This one looks much more impressive in person than in the picture.
Just a typical view of the lava beds and cinder cones.
And another one.
Lava beds are pretty common in East Idaho. In fact, we drive through one nearly every day on the way to school in Pocatello, so it's a little hard to get excited about seeing more lava rock desert. Still, when you step outside the everyday and realize the amazing forces at work on our planet, it'll take your breath away.
Well, that's all for now. Back to studying for finals!
While we were visiting my mom, Hyrum finally got brave enough to ask her to pull out a tooth that had been loose for a couple of weeks. He didn't cry or flinch or anything! I was so proud. The next morning, he was so exited to tell us that the Tooth Fairy had come to visit him that night!
