New Ward

Last Sunday was the first time we met as a newly rearranged ward. I've got to back up a little bit. About three weeks ago our stake leaders held a meeting in which they reorganized our stake. They dissolved two of the nine wards and rearranged the remaining wards so that everybody experienced changes. Our ward happened to be chopped into four pieces with each piece going into a neighboring ward. Our bishopric was dissolved and we all got released from our callings with one fell swoop. It was a bit of a shock, but we knew it was needed. As long as we've been in this ward/stake we have noticed that there aren't enough active members to fulfill all the responsibilities of a full ward. I have had as many as three callings at one time. So I really appreciated the inspiration that prompted the change. Of course it is hard not having the convenience of seeing all my friends every Sunday, but I'm not using it as an excuse to never contact them again! The ward we combined with consists of mostly well-established families with older or high school age children. Whereas our neighborhood is mostly young families, so it will create a healthier blend.

So far I am calling-free, as is Adam. But we don't think that will last long. I'm sure they'll come up with something. Though I'm holding out for sacrament meeting greeter! Everybody seems really nice and it's reassuring that people are pretty much the same the world over. We all are trying to do the best we can with what we have. Testimonies sound pretty much the same in the new Springbrook Ward as they did in the old Country Lane Ward.

To prepare the kids for meeting new friends in their classes, we had them practice introducing themselves to others. "Hi, I'm Mo-wa. What's yor name?" etc, etc. After church Adam asked Sabrina to name one new friend she met at church. Her response? "My teacher, but I can't me-member her name." Technically, that was a correct response, but not what we expected.

One thing I'm looking forward to in my new ward? Not having to negotiate Brayden's lunch hunger-pangs around playing the organ in sacrament meeting. The stake music chair happens to be the ward organist! And he's thumping good too!!

Moira's Surgery

One of the waiting rooms at Primary Children's. There are murals EVERYWHERE. Even the ceiling tiles are painted so children on gurneys have something to look at.


Moira had her surgery yesterday and it went better than expected. We had plenty of time to get where we needed to be and lots of toys in the various waiting rooms. Brayden even found toys to play with that kept him busy. Moira knew she was there for surgery and informed everyone that her finger needed to be fixed. The nurses were sure to educate Moira on what was happening next so she would be comfortable.

Moira got to wear yellow scrubs for her surgery. We had talked with Moira about wearing a mask to help her breath. She was so excited about the mask that I think she may have forgotten what it was for. She had her choice of flavors: chocolate, raspberry, root beer, grape, cherry.... When the anesthesiologist listed off the flavors Wendy and I realized it was lunch time and we were hungry. A couple minutes later, Moira was walking down a hallway with the anesthesiologist talking about flavors and we were shut outside the doors. That was a very sad feeling of hopelessness. It gave us a taste of what the first day of school must be like for a parent. Moira had no fears about what was to happen next. She did great. The doctor came out in about half an hour and said everything went well. A few minutes later we got to visit her in the waiting room. By the time I got all of our gear rounded up Moira had already downed two full cups of apple juice. Considering that was all she had eaten in 18 hours it was no surprise to me.

Everyone at the hospital thought Moira was the most darling patient they had ever seen. I take that with a grain of salt because this is coming from workers at Primary Children's Hospital. I am sure they tell at least one parent a day how great their child is. At any rate, that place was wonderful. I have seen ant hills with less workers than what we saw there. We were personally greeted by no less than a dozen employees in the short 4 hours we were there. Not to mention the droves of other personnel there to assist them.

We were told that the digestive system is one of the last parts of the body to wake up from general anesthesia. Knowing that Moira has a 3-year-old's timing for potty breaks we kept asking her if she had to use the bathroom. She repeated again and again that she did not. Wouldn't you know it, we were in the car for 5 minutes and she hollered from the back seat that she HAD TO GO!! We pulled off at some tire place in downtown Salt Lake City (no woman's favorite bathroom spot) and Wendy ran Moira into the loo. Beyond that there were no incidents, although, we do think we saw a street walker and a guy that had just relieved himself against a wall. Not what we would have expected in SLC.

Today, Moira's thumb still looks like it is bent, but we think that might be that she is still cautious with it. The bandage comes off on Saturday and her stitches should dissolve after a couple weeks.

Moira's thumb & Brayden's fall

Tomorrow Moira is going to Primary Children's Medical Center in SLC to have her thumb fixed. She is very excited! She has a congenital trigger thumb. In English it means she has a burr or bump on the tendon that keeps getting stuck making it difficult and painful for her to extend her thumb fully. As a result she won't use her right hand for anything--coloring, eating, opening doors, etc. She has learned to compensate slightly but it's obvious that she's not left-handed. The procedure should be fairly quick and simple. I hope to not spend the whole day in the hospital!

Quick follow up on Brayden standing. Monday morning Adam and I were awoken by the sound of a loud "thump" followed by Brayden screaming. Adam went and picked him up off his bedroom floor where he had apparently launched himself after standing up in his crib. Since all of our kids have done this we weren't terribly concerned. But we did lower the crib that morning since Brayden can obviously stand on his own now. They grow up so fast!

Standing for the first time

Brayden started his army crawl on 4 September 2008 and on 27 September 2008 he stood up in his crib for the first time. We were fortunate enough to be taking a video of him crawling when he stood for the first time.

Today, we went outside for just about a minute to find Sabrina and when we had returned we found Brayden half-way down the stairs clinging on for dear life. That little boy has gone from bump on a log to fully mobile in about a month. He is adding to his "battle scars" daily.

We finding out that we need to baby proof our house more with Brayden than we ever had to with his sisters. The other day we found him munching on the leaves of a house plant. Not that he was hungry, it was just there so he started munching. This might be an example of what is meant when they say, "Boys will be boys."

Brayden

Brayden has broken his first tooth. Yeah! (or not, depending on which perspective you take). I'm still a yeah since it hasn't occurred to him to use me as a human teething ring. It is just barely through on the bottom front. I love this age because all their pictures look so cute/goofy. He has no idea the delights that await him with functioning teeth. Corn on the cob, a juicy steak, chocolate bars, etc. Wow, I'm making myself hungry!

This last weekend we bought a second booster seat for Moira and moved Brayden into her seat--a convertible carseat. He is now sandwiched in between his two sisters facing the back window. He loves it currently but give him 10 years and he will cringe at the mere thought of such a seating arrangement. Good thing those teeth are sheathed, huh!

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for me. . .

Speaking of canning, Sunday evening after dinner the girls wanted to go for a walk over to a friends house so we pulled out the double stroller and set off. On our way we passed by a home with a peach tree out front just loaded with peaches. Some had already fallen to the ground and had been mowed over. When we arrived at our friends I asked her about the neighbor's tree and she came with me to ask if I could have them. He readily offered them to whoever would take them and so we cleaned the tree off, only leaving the small and bird eaten ones. Once the kids were in bed we set to work bottling them. After two days of working on peaches we had 35 quarts! So excited about it I could barely sleep. I had wanted to do more peaches but couldn't afford the price to can them myself. However, free is always affordable! It is such a testimony builder to see that when we are committed to following the commandments the way is opened up for us to accomplish them. We are contributing to our food storage in earnest now. But even more important than that is that Adam and I are being good stewards of the abundance we've been blessed with. It always bugged me to see some of the stuff in our garden go to waste, but now I can say that we are preserving as much as possible.

Monday, just as I finished cleaning up my kitchen from the peaches, my neighbor called and offered a sackful of peppers to use to do salsa. Wow more food! I already have the tomatoes and onions in my garden, now I just need to add garlic, cilantro, and jalapenos. I love this time of year! Food everywhere. I do love food. If only there was a way to hurry up the tomato ripening process, but no. Fortunately, the weather is optimal for ripening, a blissful 84 degrees. Perfect.

I also need to harvest all my basil and make pesto sauce. Mom said that you can freeze pesto. Great! Now I can have pesto all winter long.

Green Beans, Peaches, Tomatoes, and Rhubarb

It has been a busy past couple weeks as we have been trying to cram as much fresh produce into canning bottles as we have time for. Today we processed a few jars of green beans (4 pints), stewed tomatoes (5 pints), spaghetti sauce (12 pints), and rhubarb (17 quarts); all from our own garden. We didn't set out to do so much today. We got started and thought, "While we are doing this, let's see if we can do that." And the result was a warm house, hungry kids, and two worn out 30-somethings.

A couple weeks ago a neighbor friend of ours called up and said, "My peaches are falling off the tree. Come get as many as you want." We loaded up the kids, as many grocery bags as we had, a box or two and headed over to glean. We took every last peach off of her tree. They had not been thinned this year because of various reasons and as such the fruit looked more like large apricots than peaches. We didn't mind, the last price we saw for fresh peaches was $21/half bushel. Talk about your price increases! Four years ago you could get the same peaches for $8/half bushel.

We brought home about the peaches and set right to work on canning the first batch. After it was all done we ended up with about 20 pints of yummy peaches. Now, you might be thinking, "I can go buy these things for less effort than what it takes to can them myself." You are probably right. However, there is a sense of pride in knowing you have accomplished something most won't even attempt anymore, no matter how small the deed.

Adam