Poor Gunnar (poor Adrienne!)

 The biggest news of this week is bad news-- or maybe not news at all since it's been posted on Instagram already.  Gunnar somehow fell while skiing, probably because of the powdery ski conditions.  AJ carried him down the mountain and they went home and iced his injury.  The bruising and swelling went down, so they were hopeful it was just a sprain.  Surprisingly, Gunnar slept all night.  When he woke up complaining (and not willing to put any weight on his leg at all), AJ and Adrienne took him into the hospital to make sure.  He has quite a bad break in his Tibia.  The really bad news--he can't put weight on his leg for 8 weeks.  I was told 8 weeks in a wheel chair, but I did see a picture of him with crutches, so I'm not sure how that'll all work.  I'm sure it will be a difficult 8 weeks for Adrienne.  We'll have to help her pull through it. (Adrienne said he tried the crutches in the hospital and it was too painful.  He may be able to use them in a few weeks).

Also newsworthy:  Finn started walking today!

 Today is Andy's birthday.  Happy Birthday Andy.  I just got home from Texas last night.  I have a few more pictures of Max and the baby. This is a link to Maverick's newborn pictures.  They turned out really cute. newborn pictures

As you can see, the weather was quite nice for most of my trip.  It was a little hard to come home to snowy and cold conditions.

I should have mentioned last week that Maverick was born on Jieun's birthday, making 5 January birthdays in our family.

One fun thing that happened in Texas was that Elise and I got to go and visit Jenny Norton.  I couldn't convince my Jennie to come with us--"I don't even know her."  Jennie, Jenny said that you are Facebook friends, Instagram friends, cousins and you share the same name.  Yous should have come with us.
We had a nice visit, and William and Max played super well together.  It was fun to see her.

It was great to get home to Roy, though hard to leave Max and Maverick (and their parents).

Tonight we have Nick and Dan and their families here.  Jieun made Bbimbop (a delicious Korean dish with rice, vegetables, beef and egg).  Then we had some Asian pears and apples for pre-dessert.  Root beer floats for real dessert :)  Adrienne had previous plans with the Green's, and Crista has to go to her own ward so it doesn't leave her time to come for Sunday dinner very  often.  We always miss those who can't be with us.

Welcoming Maverick Roy Jackson

This has been a fun week for a grandma.  Jennie and I flew to Texas to help Elise when she had her new baby.  We arrived on Tuesday evening.  Andy picked us up from the airport on his way home from school.  Of course, we hit traffic, so it was a little bit of a long ride home, but it was fine because we had good company.
Texas has been a little on the cold side for Texas, and we had one day that really felt cold with a biting wind, but compared to Utah, it's been pretty nice.  Today and one other day the temperature was near 70, which is really nice.  Max and I have been able to make several trips to the park.  Jennie usually comes, too.

On Thursday morning Jennie and I took Max to the library story time while Elise went to the hospital to welcome Maverick Roy Jackson into the world. Max loved the story time and we had fun watching him participate.  He obviously knew the routine really well.

Early that afternoon, Maverick was born.  He weighed 8 1/2 lbs and was at least 20 1/2 inches long. We're not sure they measured him quite right and suspect he might be a bit longer.  So far he has been an angelic baby.  We've all enjoyed holding and loving him.  Especially Max.

I haven't been home at all, and I don't have any pictures, but I've heard that Roy's had a good week with all of our other kids.  Crista spent the weekend at our home (because Matt's out of town at a marketing convention) and a lot of the family went up to Snow Basin to ski on Saturday.  Caitlyn went too, but her foot has been bothering her and so she stayed in the lodge and helped with Finn and Ruby.  Everyone in Utah (except Matt) got together Saturday night for pizza and games.  We love to be around our family.

Jennie and I went to church with Max today.  Andy had a talk prepared in case there was time left after their two speakers were done.  Lucky for us there was, because he gave a really great talk.  He spoke on obedience to the commandments and told us a story of when he was a candidate to be a Green Beret.  The Star course, a land navigation course, was a test all the candidates had to participate in. It was 35-40 kilometers of very rough and thick terrain (Andy said it made Jurassic Park look good).  There were a multitude of rules they were not to break.  Of course, it was inevitable that some would be broken--the idea was not to get caught. There were three opportunities to pass the course.  Andy said that one candidate, when it got dark, took a light (not allowed), put it above his head and just started running. Andy thought it was pretty gutsy, so he stayed a ways behind and kind of watched him. One of the "lane walkers" (police), called out to the runner and asked for his roster number.  The guy asked, "you don't know it?"  The lane walker said, "No."  The candidate said, "then forget it" and took off running.  Later he got caught walking along a road (they weren't supposed to get any closer than 10 feet from a road).  The lane walker sited him and said, "Don't think for one minute I didn't know who you were when you had that light."  Apparently the numbers were put on each candidate's back with strip tape that showed up loud and clear with the night vision glasses the lane walkers had.  Andy's point was that you might think you are getting away with your choices, but someone knows what you're doing and at some point you have to account for your actions.  This particular candidate was thrown off the course and asked not to come back.  He never became a Green Beret.  Those three opportunities to pass the course are important, though.  Most of the guys, if they didn't make it through with enough points could try again, and then again.  Sometimes, even if they never passed the course, they could still become a Green Beret if they'd shown perseverance and a good attitude and integrity, etc.  Andy likened this to repentance.  Heavenly Father wants to give us more chances.  He wants us to try again and again.

It's apparent as I write these letters that we have been blessed extensively in our family.  I am so thankful for all of you.

Just a few days under the weather.

I'm sad to say I missed out on the first half of this week due to a cold that hit me hard.  I missed skating, teaching my water aerobics class, and even book club.  I also forgot a mammogram appointment because I was too out of it to worry about my schedule. Thankfully, however, a cold is temporary.  By Thursday, though I still sounded terrible, I felt well enough to join my sisters for a lunch celebrating Christine's birthday as well as my own (a few weeks early).  Thanks, Nan and Christine for a great lunch and the nice birthday gifts.

Roy is still going down at least once each week to take care of grandma and grandpa.  They have been moved into a care center in Spanish Fork. They seem pretty happily settled there, though of course, they don't think it's permanent.  We had cause to worry a little more about grandpa when we heard he forgot the password to his computer.  We're pretty sure he uses it almost everyday.

When I finally felt well enough, I spent some time in the sewing room getting my quilt to this point:

(Don't study this too closely).  This has been the most challenging thing I've made to date.  I still have borders to put on it--including a border with 36 more of the heart pattern on the right (that one is 4 patterns put together).  I've embroidered approximately three of them. After finally finishing the main part of the quilt top, I was able to clean my sewing room to quite a level of respectability.  I'm not sure I've enjoyed this project as much as some of the other things I've made--lots of hours, lots of picking out mistakes, and lots of frustration.  Hopefully I'll be proud of it when it's done.

The highlight of my week was church today.  I had to miss last week and I always feel a void when I can't be there.  I was able to attend Sunday school which is kind of rare.  Even though Suzanne Richards and I share the primary pianist calling and technically should get to Sunday School every other week, it never seems to work out like that. The lesson was on the tree of life and the teacher shared a dream she had when her oldest child (now 14) was about 18 months old.  She was feeling down because her husband traveled the world for work, having lots of missionary opportunities, etc. and she felt a little stuck in her role as mommy.  In her dream, she saw a huge building.  People were dressed in business attire coming in and out of the building.  Everyone was so busy doing important things.  She was going from room to room trying to figure out what important thing she should be doing, when she heard a cry.  The cry became more insistent, so she quit looking for what she'd been looking for and went in search for the child.  She finally opened a door to a bathroom, and there on the floor was her baby, crying for his mother.  She picked him up to comfort him, and realized that this was a job no one else would do.  No one else even cared.  She was the only one who could do this job.  She said that this was a very meaningful dream for her and the only dream she has ever written down.   I thought this was worth sharing because of all of you who are in the role of raising young children need a pat on the back for all you do.  You need to realize that you are doing the most important thing you could possibly be doing right now in your lives--especially you moms.
After playing for primary I was able to go to the last 15 minutes of Relief Society--also a rare treat. The lesson was on "The Peace of the Spirit."  Janeal Mcomie shared an experience that she'd had this week.  She said she was shopping at Walmart and because of what she was looking for, she'd ended up having to pass a lot of departments she wasn't planning on shopping in.  As she passed the jewelry counter she stopped to look and see if there was any clearance of interest.  She asked the clerk if she could try on a bracelet that was in the case.  The clerk acted put out to have to get it out for her, but she did it and Janeal tried it on.  After she tried it on, she said, "it's pretty, but I'm not going to buy it today."  The store clerk (an older woman), let out a verbal sigh that let Janeal know she wasn't pleased.  Janeal said that her initial reaction was "I can't believe how rude this woman in being."  The spirit, however, helped her to act otherwise.  She took hold of the woman's hand and said, "Are you all right?"  The woman immediately burst into tears and said that no, she wasn't.  She had pneumonia for the 2nd time this year and was having a really hard time fighting it.  Janeal shared with her some things she knew about healing and what she'd done for similar illnesses.  She then left and finished her shopping, picking up the items the woman would need to treat herself.  After she'd paid for everything, she had the clerk call the woman to the front.  She gave her the items and the woman again burst into tears.  I'm sharing this story because I really wondered if I could be so in tune to the spirit that I could squash my displeasure at being treated rudely in that situation.
What was really wonderful in church today was the peace that I felt just being there--sitting in the meetings, listening to the lessons and to the things being shared,and hearing the primary songs being sung.  We are so blessed to have the opportunity to feel the spirit so often.

Back to the Sunday School lesson just for a moment.  We spent some time discussing holding on to the iron rod.  The teacher compared Lehi's dream to Alma's sermon on planting the seed of faith.  She discussed each type of soil and how it applied to those working their way toward the tree of life.  She told us to each look at ourselves (not all the other people we want to categorize) and to see where we are on that path.  What type of soil are we planted in.  She suggested that the soils can and do change.  Are we hanging on to the iron rod by our fingernails because we are being pulled in every direction? are we tempted to let go? Or are we holding fast and pressing steadily forward as we should?  Let us press forward throughout the coming weeks and months and make sure that we have a firm testimony that cannot be shaken by those in the great and spacious building.  Remember that this takes constant commitment to study and prayer.
We finished up our Sabbath having a nice visit with Nick, Sara and Ori.  At the last minute Toby (Nick's friend) had come for dinner with his wife and kids, too, but they left around 7:30 to get their kids home to bed as they are on Eastern Standard Time.  We missed everyone else--Adrienne and AJ are in Sun Valley skiing; Dan and Jieun had friends to their home for dinner; and everyone else is just a little too far away.
Lastly, only Jieun sent me pictures of kids this week.  I think this is at the Treehouse in Ogden.

She and Dan also sent some throwback pictures that were fun:

And Dan sent a couple of Jieun just to be fair.

Keeping your bodies healthy--and more importantly, your minds

Happy Birthday this coming Tuesday to Caitlyn!

Wednesday night found me at a Relief Society meeting I wasn't quite sure I wanted to attend.  It was a "medical night" where the doctors and nurses in our ward were going to have a question and answer session.  I really went more to "support" the relief society than any interest in the subject matter, but it turned out to be very enjoyable and informative.  First, Dr. Jensen gave a little presentation on how to stay healthy.  Nothing new, but worth repeating. This is an overview of his handout:

1) Exercise 30 minutes or more daily

2) Diet should be highter in protein, lower in carbohydrates and fat

Eat: chicken, fish, lean beef, lower fat milk, fruits, veggies, olive oil.

(I think he's right on this, but sometimes it seems contradictory to the Word of Wisdom)

Reduce: breads, pastas, potatoes, white rice, sweets.

____________ are good in moderation because they make us ____________.

The worst snack food for your health is ____________.  The most healthy snack food is __________.

I had no problem filling in the first 2 blanks--sweets, and happy.  I did it for the group and for some reason they all laughed.  Probably because I said it so quickly and was so right!! The other 2 blanks are chips and yogurt.  He said if you weren't diabetic then the sugar in yogurt was fine and the higher fat yogurts were okay, too.  Of course I'm trying to watch my weight, so I eat plain yogurt and I actually love it (with fruit etc.)

3) Minimize prolonged stress.  It damages your body and worsens your memory.  The ways to deal with stress--exercise and service.

4) Improve your memory 

Word and number puzzles (I showed this to Dad !)

New learning. 

Use visual images to remember names and places.  

5) You must have good control of a) blood pressure.  b) cholesterol and c) blood sugar.

He said to remember HDL is good --H for healthy and LDL is bad --L for Lousy.  

His last suggestion was to write your history as that was your legacy and it made me think of dad and the wonderful book he has written.  I hope you are all reading it.  My suggestion for the easiest reading is to skip the first chapter and read it later.  Not that it's not interesting, but the rest of the book focuses on my dad's life and that's when it gets more fun.  

Dr. Doug got up and said he didn't have anything formal like Dr. Jensen, but he did give out some interesting information on immunizations, diaper rash, fevers (they are not the enemy and a fever has to be above 107 to cause brain damage.  I asked him about cold medicine for children since I have been dealing with Dan's girls this week and they've had colds.  He said that about 5 years ago there were some deaths involving cold preparations.  Rather than let things go on until they figured out the cause of the deaths, they just outlawed the medicines completely while they did studies on the effectiveness and the safety of them.  I guess the studies are almost completed, but in the meantime...I asked him about Benedryl, as that's what Toby said Sara could give Ori.  He said that it wouldn't do any harm but that it was not a decongestant and probably wouldn't help very much.  I gave it to Yuna last week and I'm pretty sure all it did was make her cranky and tired.

For diaper rash:  clean the bottom, blow dry it from about a foot away, when completely dry coat it with the diaper cream.  The thing to remember is that bag balm or other diaper rash treatments seal up the bottom as is, so if you leave the acids on the bottom, it's not going to do any good to seal it up.  For eczema, he likes Aquaphor followed by Cerave Cream (similar to Cedaphil which he also likes but it's his 2nd favorite).  And this was weird--Antacids such as Maalox work for diaper rash.  Just blot it on the babies bottom. 

Another fact that was interesting--Kids get a virus and they are contagious for 5 to 10 days.  Adults are only contagious for a couple of days.  Also, whooping cough is very dangerous for babies, but not for adults, but they immunize the adults because we are the ones who give it to the babies.  Kids usually give adults flu and other viruses, but they still immunize the adults because it's so much easier that immunizing the kids.  

So--Roy is now forbidden to use my sewing scissors.  He got them out Monday night to cut up some old garments that needed discarding.  He found out they are VERY sharp.  He cut a chunk out of his forefinger and had to go to the emergency room at 10:30 pm.   They couldn't stitch it because it was a chunk, not something they could pull together, but they did give him a shot right in his finger to stop the bleeding.  Let this be a warning to any who are thinking of borrowing MY scissors!

We think Matt had a good birthday this week.  He sent us a picture showing the enjoyment he was having of his new tools and safety goggles.

Caitlyn and I are super excited for Tuesday.  At some point that day, she and I will head to the DMV and get her licence.  She is discovering how much freedom a driver's license can give a person.  I am pretty happy for the freedom her driver's license will give me, as well.

I had a good time with some of my granddaughters this week--even though I finally could not fight off Yuna's cold any more and am home from Church today resting. Ori came over Friday to play with the girls and let Sara have a little rest.  She doesn't usually give us too much attention, so it was nice having her without her parents for a few hours.  When it was time to go home, she said, "No, Grandma's house."  We finally had to have Nick come and get her because we were in a hurry to get to dinner as we had symphony tickets for 7:30.  While I was getting ready for the symphony, she was in my closet with me--cleaning up.  She opened my drawer and put my socks away (wrong drawer, but no problem), she picked up another item of clothing and tried to put it in the drawer (I helped her hang it) then she picked out shoes for me to wear--my bright pink running shoes!  I told her I wanted the black ones, so she chose my pretty Sunday shoes.  I told her no, and pointed to the black ones I wanted and she retrieved them for me--probably with some disappointment at their functionality. We had played puzzles together earlier in the afternoon, before Hyeji, Doyeon, and Yuna joined us, then we played puzzles with everyone for a while longer.  There is still some competition between Yuna and Ori.  I think Ori is learning to stand up for herself and is sometimes even the perpetrator of the crime, so to speak.

Adrienne had me for lunch on Thursday.  I got to play with the boys for a little bit until it was time to pick up Caitlyn.  When I tried to retrieve my key, I could not find it.  I looked all over their house, flummoxed because I knew it had to be by my phone and my coat.  Finally, Adrienne involved the kids in the search.  Without moving from his seat, Gunnar looked at me and said, "It might be in that little cup that you put away."  I had been trying to help Adrienne get their attention to settle them down for a rest, and I'd put away a cup of chalk that had a lid on it.  Guess what, that's exactly where it was!  I made it to the school to pick Caitlyn up and get her to her skating lesson, just in the nick of time!!!

We had the girls again on Saturday.  Caitlyn tended in the morning while dad took me to look for my birthday present, then dad took them to lunch at McDonalds which gave me a further rest.  He said he'd wanted to take a selfie with the three girls, but they kept him too busy.  I don't think they ate much, but they had a good time.

Spiritual thought for the week:  There is a short article in January's Ensign entitled "Our Best defense against Pornography."  The writer, a young mother, was in the store with her 9 year-old son and he asked her "Why do they have to put 'that stuff'' in all the store windows?  That 'stuff' he was referring to was immodest pictures displayed in the windows of just about every shop we passed."  The mother said that she hadn't noticed it much before, but after that she began seeing it everywhere.  She then started to worry more and more about how to protect her children when it was so prevalent.  She was studying her scriptures and came across Lehi's dream.  The scripture that stood out to her was in chapter 15.  She says, "Nephi is explaining Lehi's vision of the tree of life to Laman and Lemuel when they ask the meaning of the river of water.  Nephi answers in verse 27, "And I said unto them that the water which my father saw was filthiness and so much was his mind swallowed up in other things that he beheld not the filthiness of the water.  Lehi's mind was so focused on the tree of life and getting his family to it to partake of its fruit!  He didn't even see the filthiness because of this focus."  This was the answer for the young mother.  She decided to redouble her efforts in teaching her children the gospel and to help keep their eyes on the love of God instead of the filthiness in the world.  Roy and I still have Caitlyn at home and honestly, it's harder than ever to sit and read scriptures together.  We didn't always do that well with the rest of you either--but you are all just beginning with your families and the world isn't getting more righteous, so you can keep your children's mind filled with the fruits of the Gospel and the Love of God right now, at the very beginning of their lives.
My other counsel is to use all that is available to you.  Read the Ensign, Search the scriptures, study the conference talks, and use LDS.org, it is full of wonderful stories and resources.

All my love to everyone this week! --Mom

Tending, Skiing, Tending

Every week I think about what title I'm going to use for the blog.  The first thought that always goes through my mind is to title it "Busy Busy Week."  But that's boring, so I try to come up with something else.  Seriously, though, it has been a busy week.  I'm trying hard not to feel exhausted.

So, it's January.  Happy New Years, and Happy Birthday to Glenn and Christine on the 2nd, Orianthi on the 3rd (more on her birthday party later), Matt this week on the 7th, January 12th--Caitlyn (YAY she can drive!!!) and later this month--Jieun and Andy.  It's a big birthday month in our family and there will be one more to add to it when Elise's baby arrives.

This past week was fun with a ski day with the Green family.  We went up to Snow Basin on New Year's Day and used buddy passes to bring the price down a little.  We had such a good time skiing with Ollie and Gunnar.  They're pretty amazing for little guys.  Ollie especially has endurance for the cold and the hard exercise.  Also, they ski about the right speed for their grandma!

At the end of the day, Gunnar suggested it might be fun to go into Grandma and Grandpa's hot tub instead of going home.  Everyone agreed.  Grandma and grandpa kept Finn in out of the cold.  You can see that he loved the trains (almost as much as Gunnar loves them).
They had a quick bath afterwards to rinse the chlorine off and wash their hair so they'd be right ready for bed when they got home.
We had such a good time we're seriously considering season passes next year so we can join them more often.

 

Several of the other days this week I've been helping Jennie out with tending Dan's girls while Jennie goes to work.  The picture below shows their general state of dress when they come to my house.  I've seen their pajamas most days. Yuna is usually dressed, though.  The girls have been sweet and obedient and are pretty easily entertained.  Still, it's a big job as an almost 56 year-old :)

This coming year we get to study the Book of Mormon in Sunday School.  In our class yesterday, the teacher played about 10 minutes of Elder Holland's conference talk from 2009. "Safety for the Soul"  I encourage all of you to either read or listen to it.  It is powerful (as all of Elder Holland's talks are.) Elder Holland's talk on the Book of Mormon
Sunday night we celebrated Ori's birthday.  Nick had invited us and the Pederson's to his home for cake and ice cream, but Roy wanted to try out his new Traeger grill that we all gave him for Christmas.  He was cooking a lot of meat, so he wanted everyone to come over and eat.  We invited the Pedersons, too.  The brisket and chicken was delicious, the grill a success!  Here are some pictures from the evening.