MERRY CHRISTMAS

I hope you all had just as good of a Christmas as I had. The only thing that could have made it better is a little snow, which we did get on the day after Christmas. Oh well, I guess we can't have everything.
I hope you all have a Happy New Year as well.

its been a while

Hello out there, it has been a while...

Work is quit interesting some parts of the day and others well lets leave it at that. Everyday I talk to old people, all day long. Some of them yell at me, most of them are pleasant. Sometimes I just have to smile. Almost everyday I hear at least once how nice I am and how nice it has been to talk to me. Those calls are really good for my ego. Expecially after a call where all I get is yelling cuz they are mad and think they have to take it out on me. I was really scared to work in a call center but I think I will make it for a bit anyway.
Both of the girls are doing great. They both love school and are straight A students. Keelee is playing the flute and really enjoys it. She is first chair in her class and she practices hard. Karley plays the clarinet and loves it as well. They are excitted to get to the point where they can play songs together. Keelee also really enjoys math, science and history. Sometimes I wonder where I got her from, but I sure am glad I got her. At Karleys school they have the kids set academic goals at the first of the year, if they meet those goals they give them a "Top Cat Pin". Karley is well on her way for her 6th pin this year.

my first call

Well, today, I did my first call at work!! It was a pretty easy one. An old lady just needed to get a couple drugs refilled. I was actually with a seasoned employee and she did all the computer work and I did all the talking. I can deal with that. Then my second call went ok as well, untill I hung up and the lady that was with me said, "Oh you should have done this and this and this..."
Oops I said. I hope you do not get dinged in your quality for that. She said no the call took to long to get a quality call. It was a good experience. Now on Tuesday, I get to do it all by myself. I think I just might make it.

Thinking of Gail.

I am sitting here sewing on my quilt top, listening to Karley play on the computer. I realize she is listening to the song they play at weddings when the bride marches down the isle. Then I think to myself, why are you playing that song? You will not be getting married for a very long time. Then my mind does this back flash to when I was in High School. I had an assignment in my family preparedness (or something like that) to plan my wedding. Well. Gail came to visit while I was working on it. I was looking at wedding dresses, and brides maid dresses, and little girl dresses for her little girls. I asked her about them, and she went off on me. She told me I was too young to be getting married, what was I thinking etc. So, you know me, She opened a door that I just had to go through. Then she says what does your mother think of this. So she went and asked my mom if I was getting married? My mom responded with, she is planning her wedding. Go Mom!! Then Gail lays it on mom, saying the same stuff to me. I was surprized at her reaction, but it did us something to laugh at. We laughed at that for years. Love ya Gail

so far so good

Well, I made it a week and a half. I am learning alot about medicare. We are also learning how to be nice to old people on the phones. Another week and half in a class room setting and then we will be thrown onto the phones, suppose to know everything there is to know. I think I am getting most of it. I do have a good teacher.
Keelee loves 7th grade. She came home on Monday and had a lot of stories to tell. She is one of five 7th graders in her algabra class. She says there are 8th and 9th graders in there as well. She says the 9th grade boys are weird, loud and obnoxtious. She also has 8th and 9th graders in her spanish class. She says the 9th graders in that class are not as bad. She figures it is becouse they want to be there. She is a pretty smart kid. She loves it though. She loves flute and is frustrated becouse there are kids in her class who did not attend summer band and are behind so they are like starting over. She is not happy about that. I guess today, she was teaching one of the girls how to play the flute, the teacher asked the girl who her teacher was and when she told him it was Keelee, he told her she had a very good teacher. He thinks she has a natural omiture. She loves playing her flute.

first day of work

Well, today was my first day of work!!!!! Yeah. I will be training for 4 weeks then I will be turned loose to help old people. I work for ACS. ACS is a big company that contracts out stuff. Like part of the building is for Census workers, part is for verison, part is for welfare and the part that I work for is Humana. We take calls from Medicare patients who need perscriptions or who have questions about currant scripts etc. I think I will like it. The dress code is what ever fits you. As long as it is not to big or too small, I can wear it. Nice, I can wear levi's or shorts, etc.
The bad part is that I will be away from Keelee all day, and when I get home she thinks she has to talk to me until it is time for bed. Bed time is going to be 6pm I think. I get home at 5pm. She is NOT very happy about that.
Funny story. Mike and Marilyn stopped by tonight after work for a minute, Keelee thought she had to tell them her 6th grade history in about 30 min. It was non-stop talk the whole time. She did have to do a costume change about 4 times, man, I did not know she could change clothes so fast. I did however know she could talk so fast and so long. We finally had to ask her to go get something from down stairs so our ears could rest for a min. It was pretty funny. Marilyn kept looking at me like, is she always like this? And what do you do when you get both Keelee and Karley together? I had to laugh.

rumor has it

k, I just talked to John, who went to the kidney specialist with mom. He said that mom's kidney's are bad, but he thinks it is due to too much water loss. Her weight is 144 lbs. He will talk to her primary Dr. to see if he will cut back her water pills. Her kidneys are over working to take off the excess water. He thinks that with a little weight gain she will become stronger and less shaky as well. With that in mind, he thinks her kidneys will get better!

mom is doing good

I went to visit with mom today and she is doing really good. She stayed home alone while dad went to the temple for a few hours. She did good. She even felt good enough to go shoe shopping. It was fun.
Dad is like a teenager again with his car. The Hospice nurse said that last time she was there he was all excitted and had to tell her he got his car back. I laughed.

I have a JOB

It is official. I have a JOB (just over broke). I will be working for ACS. It's an outsource company. I will be working for Humana, doing mail order pharmacy. It should prove to be interesting, I have never worked a job on phones before. I will let you know how it goes.

vacation

We went on vacation and I am just getting to bloggin, sorry. Here is the crew that all went, (plus keelee, the photographer). We had a great time. We went to Gleneden beach, Or. It is beautiful, but cold. The temp didn't get any higher than 65 f. That part was great, however, the wind coming off the coast was a little chilly. We actually wore sweaters most of the time.
We arrive Sunday night and Monday morning I broke my camera so sorry, I do not have many pic's. We did go for a drive on Monday and stopped at Boiler Bay. While we were there we watched a whale for about an hour! It was great. We would see the spout and then he would some up out of the water. One time we saw most of him. Other times we just saw his back. It was really fun.
We also went to the sea lion caves and watched sea lions for a while. It is fun to sit and just watch the ocean break against the waves. We sat and watched that for hours at a time as well.
We also saw some tide pools. That was fun. We had to hike all over the lava rock to get to the pools, then se saw all kinds of cool stuff. I wish I had a pic of them. It is amaizing that some of the stuff that looks like rock is really a living thing.
We flew kites on the beach and played in the waves. We went and saw 4 light houses. It was cool to see them. We hiked to the top of one. It wass 90 feet straight up in a cirlce. and it got smaller as we got to the top. It was fun.
We went to the Tillomook Cheese factory and saw how they make cheese. It was a week packed with fun and adventure. If I could do it again, I might spend more time at the condo and on the beach. But I am glad we saw all that we did.

I drove over the new bridge

whats new

Well, mom and dad are hanging in there. Dad has been in a lot of pain due to his 3 broken ribs he aquired during his fall. The pacemaker went in really good and all looks good there. Mom is doing fine. She is tired and triing to adjust to all the liquid they got off of her last weekend, (about 30 lbs), I wish I could loose 30lbs that easy. It has been difficult for her to get her blood levels back in sinc since then, but I think she is well on her way. Thanks to you all for your prayers and thoughts.

update on mom and dad

Ok, Mom got out of Hospital today. She is with me. Dad is schedueled to have a pacemaker put in tomorrow at 9:30 am. Hope he will go home on Wednesday. Rumor has it he will not be able to drive for 2 weeks. I will find out more on that tomorrow. He did break 3 ribs in his fall, and he has some heart damage as well. Also, he is working on congestive heart failure. I beleive they have it pretty much under control though.

mom and dad

For those of you who do not know, Mom went into the hospital today with difficult breathing and a UTI. She is on anti-biotics and they have done a culture to find out exactally what the bug is. After Dad got her checked in, he was sitting on a stool next to her bed and fell off the stool. He hit his head and stopped breathing. His heart did not stop. They bagged him, got him breathing and with the head injury they took him in for a CT. They found no bleeding. They were keeping him for a couple hours for observation and he started to complain about chest pain.
They did an xray and decided to admit him as well. They want to get a better xray tomorrow as well as an MRI. Thank you Scott and Russ and Carl and wifes for being there to take care of them. We will keep you posted. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

messed up

Ok so I think my blog is messed up. I have no idea what I have done with it. I do have a blog that will not post. And the one that I just posted, well, it would not let me tell my story.
Here is my story, maybe it will let me post this.
We had to go to the Library today. We had a couple books on request that had come in. The girls decided they wanted to ride out bike there. After much thinking, I decided that it would be ok. We did have a couple busy roads to travel, so I had to figure out how would be the best way to get there. I finally figured it out. Oh yeah, It is about 3 miles to the library and there was a big black cloud hanging around. We decided to go anyway. And we took pics to prove that we actully made it. While we were there we put a couple more books on request that should arive tomorrow. The girls had such a good time today, that they think they want to ride bikes there again tomorrow. We will see what tomorrow brings. We also rode home past Wendy's mom's house and did some yard work while we were there. Karley was not very happy about the yard work, but she survived.

bike ride

finally

I finally am taking a minute or three to post. My girls have been telling me for days that it is about time I post again. Here is a picture of my face painting artest. Keelee painted their faces, and she did quit a good job! She loves stuff like that. My girls love to perform! They made up a program with signing and poetry reading and performed them for us last week. They changed costumes in between each number, and they even introduced each other. I don't know if you can see but their mike's are hair brushes and the stand is a swiffer sweeper. It was pretty funny.

They are both doing all their end of school programs. This week they both had one on the same day, so Wendy went to see Karley's, and I went to see Keelee's.

They have never had program's on the same day's before. I think they are both looking forward to summer.

mom's looking good

well as good as can be expected. I went up yesturday and got back late. She was breathing better and looks as good as she usually does. Her spirits are good and she is not in any pain.
I talked to her tonight and she was tired. She is still in hospital, they were having her walk today. She showered and that felt good and counted as one of her walks. They are hoping to go home tomorrow. We will see what the Dr. says.

update on mom

I just talked to mom's nurse and she told me that they got about 4 liters of fluid off her today and are expecting to get a little more off still. Although not a lot. The nurse just left her with tv and the lights off so I did not talk with her but ther nurse said she is not in pain and is feeling somewhat better. Thanks Niel for stopping in and doing the physical check in on her.

mom's back in hospital

Just a quick note that mom is back in the hospital. She went in during the night. Dad say's she has fluid on the lungs and around the heart. They have a cathater in and are getting quit a bit of fluid off. Dad thinks she will be a couple or three days and then be home again. What a soilder she is says Keelee.

new bridge

i don't know if you can see very good with this picture, but this is Dad's bridge. The cement is broken under it and they need a new one. This one was made in 1970, well I'm told the top part was. This week they started to build a new one. It is just north of the old one. They had to pump the water out into the middle of the canal to get the footing in and poured then they let the water take over. The cement is about a foot under the water. Look who I cought checking it out.

I really need a job!

I have so much time on my hands that I am becoming domesticated! I was reminded that I have a dehydrator. I had a few stawberries and apples that were on there way out so I pulled out my dehydrator and driied them. They turned out so good I went and got some more to dry. Then, I remembered that I have some thin cut beef in the freezer, so I might as well try my hand with some jerky. I found a reciepe for granola. It turned out pretty good. I will have to keep you posted on the jerky!

Save your soda can tabs

A few months ago Wendy's nephew told us to save our soda can tabs and take them to the U and it gives someone 5 minutes on a dialysis machine. Well, we have been saving them and today I thought it was time I made sure I was not wasting my time.

This is the real story:

If you save your soda can tabs (or any other can tab), and take them into the Primary Childrens Hospital they recycle them and use the money to help families who do not have money for there services!!! I guess I will continue to save and donate.

Walk

Today I made Karley go for a walk with me. After I picked her up from school we took the long way home. She was reading me a story out of her book and was not paying attention to where I was going. Finally she looked up and said, "wow, this is a differant way home", then she went back to her book. A little while later she looked up again and said, "this looks like the way to the zoo". Then when we got to the zoo she said, "Trishy, why are we at the zoo?" I told her that I took Keelee yesteday so I was going to take her today. It was a bit cooler today, and some of the animals were not out but it still was fun.

Yesterday when Keelee and I were there we looked for the baby giraffe, we could not find her. Today we found a zoo worker and asked her where the baby giraffe is. She told us that she past away! They were triing to ween her and one morning they went in and she was dead. She said that in the wild the first time mothers usually loose their first born so it is kind of natural anyway, but it was a surprize. A sad surprize.

Inspired by Rachael

I was inspired by Rachael and we went to the zoo today!!! I think all of Salt Lake City was inspired by her as well, becouse I think they were all there as well. I did not have traffic for the last 4 miles, but I think I had to walk half a mile (prabably not really) to the gate. The parking lot was all full and it was only noon! We parked at the park east of the zoo and walked. I don't remember the last time I was there with so many people. Keelee and I did get a good walk in though. We sat and watched the monkeys for a bit and the baby elephant. Other than that we mostly just walked. No worries though, we get a family pass for the year so we can go and leave when we want and not feel like we wasted money if we do not stay all day. It was fun.

When we got home I mowed the lawn!!! Then Keelee helped me trim the snowball bush (I hope we did not kill it). We pulled some weeds and furtalized the front lawn and now I am Exhausted. Spring is the best!!

Inspired by

Spring Break

Last two weeks I had Karley home with me for her spring break. She went back to school today and now I have Keelee home this week. It has been a productive couple of weeks. We got walls washed, rooms clean and decluterized. Still have a lot to do though.

Today it was such a nice day we had to get outside. We decided to go for a bike ride. I wore Keelee out. Well, after she recovered, she decided to do Dance Dance Revolution. She wore me out. I guess we both should sleep well tonight.

Easter

We did make it to Elko on Friday night. Just as we arrived the snow hit. It came down fast and big flakes. By morning the snow had gone and the roads were a sheet of ice. We crunched our way over to visit with Marilyn and Mike. And yes, the girls had easter eggs to find. They were hidden in every room including the garage. They were high and low. The girls really had fun finding them. They had to count three or four times to get them all found, I thought they were going to have to take off their shoes to get it right, but they got it. After dinner Marilyn had another project for the kids. Coloring Easter Eggs. We had to go under the house to get the stuff. Between the cold and ice the door was swollen and did not want to open. We finally got in and the girls had a blast coloring eggs.

Marilyn had to roll up her sleeves so she could help color! It really was fun. Thank You Marilyn for helping us make Easter complete.

Keelee and I stayed behind to ride home with Marilyn on Monday. Due to the storm coming in we decided to come home on Sunday instead. I think it was a good decision. My girls helped clean mom and dad's house and we were done in no time. We went and visited with Russ and Sharon for a bit as well. It was a fun day.

Marilyn hung out at my house while she was in SLC this trip! I really had a good time. It was fun hangin with her.

Gray?

The other day Wendy was standing on a stair above me, we were talking and suddenly she said, "We need to color your hair, I see a lot of gray!" I am always up for getting rid of my gray, and we always share a color due to the fact that we both have short hair. We agreed on the color mega blonde or something like that. Yup, the gray is gone!
Keelee has been learning about the Greek Gods in her class. Inste ad of having a big test on the Gods, they did plays instead. Look out New York!!! They all did a fantastic job.

No April foolin

This is my back yard! I don't know if you can see it but there is about 2 inches on the fence. We had some kind of moisture coming down all day yesturday. It was from rain to snow, big flakes to little ones. I'm just glad we did not have to shovel.
Below you will find my very first quilt. Yes, I made the blocks, quilted the quilt by my self and even made the binding to go around it.

Now that you have picked yourself up off the ground from laughing, I must tell ya that I told Keelee that I was going to have it buried with me when I die. She said why? I said becouse it is the only one I am ever going to make and I do not want her and Karley fighting over it when I die. Wendy said that I did not have to worry, the quilt is hers. Keelee tells me in that case, I need to make two more. Maybe we will see how bored I get between now and when I get employed. Which hopefully will be soon. I am waiting back on a couple interviews! I will keep ya posted.

Out of Shape

Man am I out of shape. When we got to Antalope Island we met up with a ranger. He took us out to the buffalo corral and was teaching us about the 4 necesities in life, water, shelter, space, and space. Then he had us get into a circle and then he wanted us to sit so we were sitting on each others laps. Well this is where he went bad. I do not know if any of you have ever done this before and if it is done correctly it is really cool. However, he didn't have us close enough together so that we sat down the other lap was too far away. So I was triing to humor him, and be a good example to the kids by doing what you are asked to do. Well the studant that was behind me was Keelee's best friend Allysa, then Keelee was behind her. Allysa is smaller than Karley and Keelee is yelling at me not to sit down, so I am triing to hover. All this time the man is triing to get everyone else to sit and it just wasn't working. Anywho, my legs are so sore from hovering I can barley walk. And stairs, well they are just horrible!!
The purpose of him having us do this is he then gave us each a number 1-4. All the 1's were shelter, 2's space, 3's food, and 4's water. Then he was going to have all the 1's leave and demonstrate how if we do not have all 4 elements it all falls apart. He had good intentions...

Wendy's bithday, and field trip

Today I was a lucky parent and I was able to go with Keelee on a field trip out to Antalope Island. I like it out there. It is beautiful and they have a white sand beach that is pretty. I have always enjoyed it out there, but today we went out to the ranch. I have never been out there before. It was a lot of fun. The pics are out of order that I wanted but I am still working on putting them on as I assign them but this is what Keelee and her friend Alyssa did on the bus out. They are making friendship balls for some kids in Africa.
The bus ride out was good. The bus driver asked how come the kids were so quiet. They were even more quiet on the way home becouse we wore them out. There is a hill that you can climb and then a bunch of rocks to play on. We stopped there for about an hour. The kids had a blast.

Last week was Wendy's birthday. Karley won the prize for the best presant. She made this flower for her and gave her a 'Tide to Go' stick. It was pretty funny, and this was after we went to dinner and I spilt on me as well as Wendy spilt on herself and a couple other people spilt on themselves as well. Not a good night for eating out.

fun day

Karley is out of school for spring break now until April 7th. Last time she was out on break she told me that I am boring, the only thing I do is read and play on the computer. So, today I told her that we were going to have some fun, and some not so fun. I do not want to be the boring mom! First we made doggy treats, then we did a poop run, (way over due). We went for a walk(with the dogs) and we washed walls and cleaned out drawers. I wonder if I will be called boring after this break.
Keelee is on her way to 7th grade, the top 25% of all the 6th graders in the district in math was invited to take a math test to see where they place for 7th grade math, (7th grade math, Pre-Algabra, or Algebra). If the student got 80% or higher on the test then they can do Algebra. That is where Keelee really wanted to be. Today I found out that she scored 80%, she is so excitted. I am very proud of her. She is also going to do Honors Science and Honors English. She did not get my brains, (that is a good thing). She is way nervous for Jr. High and so am I but she will do good. She also wants to be in the band, either play the flute or the clarinet. And she is taking Spanish, I want to learn that with her. Life is getting excitting!
I even had a job interview yesturday. It was at Salt Lake Regional Hospital. They said it will take a couple weeks before they know who they want to hire so pray for me ok. Thanks

more pictures

These were with the other pictures but when I posted they were not there. So, here is a couple other fun pics.

The Play

Ok, so I do not know how these pics will show up when I post, so you may need to use your imagination as to which is which. Although I seriously doubt it will be hard for any of you.
Keelee's play went really well. It was a lot of fun to watch and the kids all looked like they were having a ton of fun putting it on.


Julie and Norman were able to come and hang out with us. Russ and Sharon were going to as well but they were sick, I hope they get better soon!

Keelee had a solo dance, she did really good. I am very proud of her.

We took a pic of her family, Mayor

Shinn, Mrs. Shinn, Zanita (Keelee) and her sister Gracie.

We also had to take a pic of Keelee and myself.

Actually, I took a ton of pics but these are a few. I also recorded it. So when she becomes famous, I will have her very first performance. It was a lot of fun and all the kids did really good.

1 quilt done

What did I do this week? I finished a quilt, I even made a pillow case to match it. Marcus is going to love it. I will have to tell him that the ties really do go on top.

cool pic

We go to the zoo every once in a while becouse we have a season pass and it is a good walk and we enjoy it. I was taking a picture of the baby giraffe ( pic on the right) when the mother giraffe came over and attempted to eat my phone, (pic on the left). The giraffe had its tounge around my phone, the pic is of it's lower lip as it is attempting to steel my phone. Luckily I had a good grip on it now all that is left is the evidence. (Sorry Marilyn, my spelling is not so good.)

Dress

Keelee came home from school last week and told me she needed a simple ruffley dress for her play. Do you know how many ruffley dresses they sell these days? ONE! So, we ventured to the fabric part of wall mart. We found a pattern for a ruffley dress. Just ONE! and it was short. So, I said how hard could it be to add a couple ruffles. So, what you see below is what she got. I am pretty impressed myself. Keelee loves it.


For those of you who may be interested in attending, no pressure, the place is small and hot but she performes on March 15 and 17 at the school, at 6:30pm call me for directions if you are interested. I will post pics after all is said and done.

more pics

First off, I talked to mom just now and she is doing good. Her leg is still pretty sore and her hopes have been brused but I think she will pull through ok just like always

Ok, the pictures of the girls that I was so excitted to show you have disapeared so this one will have to do for now. It is proof that my girls can and do get along when they want to.

During Christmas break we went to Bear Lake for a week. We took Wendy's mom with us, and a project. Before I tell ya about that project I will tell ya of another one that I did just before Thanksgiving. If you would notice, Keelee and I have the same material for out bottoms. I made all of us matching bottoms so we could all lounge alike while we were there. It was pretty fun. Now, for the project at Bear Lake. Wendy's mom took a bunch of scrap material and she tought me how to make a quilt. I think I did pretty good!

This quilt below is a levi quilt that I am doing for Marcus for his high school graduation. For those of you who do not know who Marcus is, he is the son of Wendy's friend Darrin who lived with us for a while.

I think that is all the news for now.

MOM

Ok, here is the skinny on mom. Mind you, dad said the family needs to know but we do not need to broadcast it, so having said that...

The doc. did an ultra sound on her heart today and found that she has mitral stenosis, and mitral regurgitation. Basically she has hardening of the arteries, calcification throughout her heart. Like Marilyn said her heart is to fragile to do surgery. The doc called it a porciline aorta, the aorta is lined with calcium. The heart is suppose to be soft, plyable, mom's does not have any soft spots. Therefore she is not a canadate for surgury becouse they would have to clamp off her aorta to fix or replace the valve and there is no place to clamp it.

She is as healthy today as she was a couple days ago, we just know more about her heart. The doc says people who had rheumatic fever gets this a lot. She had rheumatic fever twice. Colestoral and diabeties could also play a part in it. People do not die from this, however they do from complications such as heart attack, stroke, pnuemonia etc. She has a lot of pressure in her chest cavity that is causing her to have shortness of breath. They are going to try to releave that with a water pill. The doc will keep an eye on her and see if that will help. Hopefully it will.

As Marilyn said, mom does have a history of defying the odds so...

And like I said, she is not worse off today than she was two days ago, we just know more about her heart.

pics

ok so here you can do the "where's the pepsi"

but the helicopter is Pepsi!

I have a couple good pics of the girls but I cannot find them right now. I will get those though. I think they may be on Karleys camera and she will be here on Fri.

KIDS

My girls think I need to tell y0u about them. Well, I agree. They are both straight A students. Keelee is in 6th grade and tested for AP math for 7th. Keelee is also in Drama and they are performing The Music Man Jr. Keelee is Zaneeta, the mayor's daughter. She is loving it. They perform in March. She is pretty excitted. Karley is in 4th grade and in chior. They performed for all the shoppers in Harmon's one evening. She loves it. And she got to hug a hippo in a ballarina costume, it was like christmas.

MOM

So, I was talking to my dad last night and he told me that my mom is going to Ogden on Tues the 23rd for an Angioplast. So please keep her in your prayers and thoughts. Thanks

What is in the Name?

Ok, for those of you who do not know, the reason I chose Cola Wars is because Wendy is a Coke drinker, and I am a Pepsi drinker. Our kitchen has a Cola wall and shelf. It is like where's waldo only it is where is the Pepsi stuff! I would take a pic and show let you all play but I am not that good with this just yet. Now the Peterseon, Yes, I did spell it correctly. Wendy is Peterson and I am Petersen. It is a standing joke between us.

Hello, I joined tha dark side!

Well, I have enjoyed all your blogs so much, I decided to give it a try for myself. Maybe I can do this. Racheal assured me I can. Now I need to find enough to tell everyone on it.