Still Vacationing

Today I realized that this is probably the longest I have been on vacation in my life. Well, if you can call it a vacation with six kids! No, they really haven't been that bad. We'll return to Utah in a week, spend a week there, and then spend a week traveling to Washington, DC. Eating home cooked meals is a treat now. It use to be that eating out was a treat, but we've been doing that a lot lately and will continue to do so for some time until we find a permanent home, perhaps in Maryland or maybe in Virginia. I have a new set of pots pans waiting to be opened when we find a home. Todd doesn't know this, but I bought some at Costco when he left. At first I was going to open up the box and use them, and then I thought, why unpack when you're going to have to repack them anyways. So, they just got added to the growing pile of boxes that was in the garage.

Last Thursday I drove over five hundred miles from Alamogordo to San Antonio to visit Todd. It was such a great trip! It was so much fun to see Todd and spend the weekend with him. The drive there wasn't so bad, just long. The speed limit is 80 most of the way. I always pictured Texas as flat, but the road to San Antonio wasn't so. It's not mountainous, by any means, but there are hills, plateaus, and valleys. Outside of El Paso, it's not much to see, but as you travel deeper into Texas, the landscape changes and it becomes greener. More humidity too. I've also got to admit that I have developed a bad habit while driving--I drink Dr. Pepper. It helps me not feel so sleepy and it wards off that dull headache you get when you've been traveling for a long time in a car with six kids, with at least one child screaming at any given moment. I'll have to say that Seth was probably one of the best during the drive. He doesn't mind being in his car seat which is a huge blessing. Kate, Emily, and Dane each took turns sitting in the seat next to him to help care for him. They would feed him bottles or entertain him for short periods of time. I bought a small TV for the van so the children can watch DVD's as we travel. How did we as children ever survive road trips? We never had a television in the car to watch! We did play a few road games, the ABC game and another game we call the Car game. Starting with the oldest in the family, you watch for oncoming cars and the first one that you pass is "your car". For some reason having a diesel pass when it's your turn is a very good thing. The kids always had to start with dad, even though he wasn't with us, because they didn't want to leave him out. And of course Seth had to be included too. It took us roughly ten hours to get to San Antonio. On the way there we made minimal stops. We didn't want to waste a minute of the time we had with Todd. We arrived at Lackland AFB around 6:30 on Thursday evening. Being in the military we are priviledged to stay on base if there is space available in their luxurious hotel suites. Todd is training at Fort Sam, but there was no space available there, so we stayed at Lackland. We went to a mexican restaurant for dinner. During dinner Karsten sees a fly land on our table, so he takes off his shoe and proceeds to try and smash it!

On Friday, Todd had to turn in some equipment and had his graduation ceremony. Since Todd really isn't a huge fan of graduation ceremonies, he told us not to worry about coming and so we just spent time shopping and driving around base to see if there were any open swimming pools. Not! Gonna get some getting use to living out side of Utah. When Todd got back on Friday we took the kids down to the River Walk and took a boat ride tour. Afterwards we ate dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe. The kids thought it was so fun, and that's all that really matters. In my opinion, the restaurant was nice, nothing fabulous. It was all decked out like a rainforest and we were priveleged to sit next to the gorillas who would hoop and hollar every half hour. Overall it really was a lot of fun. I have a few pictures that I'll post sometime when I can download them onto my own computer.

Saturday was the big day! We took the kids to Sea World. It was a very fun and very exciting day. Todd, Kate, and Alex went on every rollar coaster. Emily and Dane went on as many as their heighth would allow. Alex also went on every water slide as well. I held the baby, which I was perfectly fine with. I did go on one ride with the kids and was priveleged to be the one who went under the water fall! At least I wasn't hot anymore! Sea World to me is an amusement/water park with some aquatic animal shows sprinkled in. Nothing like I imagined, but not disappointing by any means. We saw three shows: the sea lions, the dolphins and baluga whales, and of course the orcas, or more commonly known as the killer whales, which, if you ask Emily, will remind you that a killer whale is not a whale at all, it is a dolphin, otherwise called an orca. It was amazing to watch the dolphins jump out of the water. Or watch an orca climb up on the deck. I could have watched them again! We did a lot of walking, and by evening we were exhausted. The kids had had enough and were very grumpy!

Saturday was also Todd's birthday. When we got home from Sea World we were suppose to surprise Todd with his present, but Dane and Karsten had already given it away the night before, I think. Can't keep a secret for nothin'. So, it wasn't too surprising, but still fun. We sang Happy Birthday to him and let him open his gift wrapped in an AAFES bag (wal-mart bag) and decided the cupcakes we had bought could wait until morning since we were all so tired.

Sunday was set aside for rest, as every Sabbath is meant. Todd gave me some nice jewelry for Mother's day. He's getting really good at this! Using Todd's recently acquired GPS on his phone, we set off in search of an LDS meeting house. Our first destination brought us to a Kingdom Hall for Jehovah's Witnesses. Not quite what we were looking for. Off again we go to another destination which did bring us to an LDS chapel. We quickly rush inside as we were just guessing at meeting times and find that a spanish speaking ward is about half way through their sacrament meeting. So we sit in the parking lot for an hour waiting for the next English sacrament meeting to start. By now I don't know what was going through Alex's mind, but he'd decided he'd had enough and turned into super stubborn man. Todd took the kids into the chapel to find a seat and I spent about a half hour trying to coax Alex out of a hot van and at least into the shade of the trees. I did get him out of the van but no further, so he spent all of sacrament meeting standing next to the van. We decided to skip the rest of the meetings and head back to our room and have lunch. Later that evening we went and met a few of the people Todd has been training with. We then returned back to our room and had lasagne for dinner. It was definately not as good as the ones I make, but we made do. Sadly, it was time for bed seeing as how Todd had to be back at Fort Sam at 5:30 in the morning for PT.
The drive back to Alamogordo took us a little longer, eleven hours, as I decided not to rush back. Just drive and enjoy. It was hard to let Todd go again, perhaps because we've been through a lot these past seven weeks. But we'll be together again in less than two weeks, so really no big deal, right? I hate the thought of deployment, but what do you expect when you join the military? It's just part of life. Hopefully his deployments will be no longer than six months. That is what we've been told anyways, but you never know. Things always change. I'm grateful for the memories we make when we are together! We're planning a mini-vacation as travel across country as well. We plan on seeing Mount Rushmore and stopping in Nauvoo. Just planning on more and more fun!

Enjoying New Mexico

We've almost been on vacation for a whole week! It has been nice to be away from all the stress of selling a home! We had a great time staying at Matt and Denise's house. It was a lot of fun! Now we are at Mom and Dad's. The kids have found where Grandma stashes her toys. Of course, Alex is trying to hoard all the toys for himself. Grandpa has already promised the kids McDonald's for lunch. That is Grandpa's treat every time we see him! It is very hot here in Alamogordo. Well, I suppose compared to the cool temperatures we were having in Utah before we left, eighty degree weather is hot! After being in Utah for so long, you forget there is a different culture outside! What I mean by that is that like the swimming pools aren't open all day for the kids to swim. There isn't a demand to have the pools open during the day. Missing the Legacy Center already! The pool is only opened in the evenings and on the weekends. The kids population is lower I suppose! ;) Anyways, I need to go break up fights over cars and puzzles. Can't wait to go to San Antonio this weekend to see my best half! He's been golfing. :)

We're all packed up and ready to go!

Today was the big day! We moved everything out of the house and into storage! We pretty much had half our stuff in storage to begin with, and so we just had the rest moved today. Some of Todd's family and many of the Elder's in our ward came to help. We had the trailers and trucks packed in a little less than an hour. We thought our storage unit would be plenty big enough to hold our belongings, but the piano and a few other things had to be brought to Bill and Carolyn's to store in their garage. Everything will stay in storage until Todd gets back. We'll then load it into a moving truck and begin the long trek east. I am looking forward to it. I'm just thinking that it will be a fun adventure and relax and enjoy it all. Our home is also under contract! Yeah! I'm not sure what the exact closing date will be, but hope to find that out soon. Tuesday I leave to go visit good old Alamo. I'm going to stay with Matt and Denise until Mom and Dad get back from D.C. It is a long awaited and much needed vacation! I am excited. I think it's been nearly four years since I've been back there. Our wonderful neighbor, Holly, has adopted Moses. I will miss him. I love you, Moses! He kept coming back inside the house after we took him to Holly's. It will take time, but he will get use to being there.

Do you hear what I hear?

Seth finally has hearing aids. We were fitted for these two months ago but our insurance company wanted to do another hearing test, ABR, before they would approve for him to have them. By the way, most insurance companies do not cover hearing aids, so we are feeling blessed that Tricare does. I was hoping the ABR we did last week would show more hearing improvement, but unfortunatley, it did not. It actually showed that his hearing loss was worse than the last ABR we had. In the NICU his hearing loss was defined as Profound. Then we had an ABR in January that showed mild to moderate hearing loss. Last week's ABR showed severe to profound again. I'm not sure why the tests came back the way they did. I was told ABR's are very accurate. Anyways, in the right ear he has moderate-severe hearing loss. In the left ear he has a severe-profound hearing loss. The hearing aids he is wearing now are actually temporary as we had to order new ones that are more geared for such severe hearing loss. The audiologist even said that because his hearing loss is so great he is actually a candidate for cochlear implants. We'll see the future holds for him. The hearing aids are almost just as big as his little ears! He doesn't pull or tug at them either. In fact, during the fitting he was laughing at the audiologist, whereas most babies will throw a fit that you are sticking something in their ear!




Ok, so this is the chart they use to show levels of sound and what people hear. As you can see, normal hearing is the green line, or 20 decibels and lower. Moderate hearing loss is 41 to 55 decibels. Moderately severe is 56 to 70 decibels. Severe is 71 to 89. Profound is 91 to 120 decibels. Basically what this is saying is that without hearing aids, this is what Seth is hearing. They put little pictures on the scale so you can imagine what decibel that sound is. The frequency is the high or low pitch of the sound.




So for Seth, in the right ear, at 500 HZ he measures at 90 decibels (profound in the low tones). At 1000 HZ, 85 decibels (severe in the mid tones), At 4000 HZ, 65 decibels (moderately severe in the high tones). Basically saying that he hears higher tones in his right ear better than any other tone. I knew he loved mommy's voice and wasn't smiling for nothing!

In the left ear, at 500 HZ, 75 decibels (severe in the low tones). At 1000 HZ, 90 decibels (profound in the mid tones). At 4000 HZ, 75 decibels (severe in the high tones). So, for the left ear he hears high and low pitch sounds rather than the mid tones. So basically he can say he can't hear you unless you talk to him in a really deep voice, or a really high squeaky voice!


So, anyways, I hope this doesn't bore you too much, but I find it interesting and thought I'd share. Now you know the truth of the matter. Oh, and the bone conduction test suggests that the hearing loss is sensorineural, meaning it's coming from the cochlea and not the mid ear, which means it's permanent. I think I'm going to go into something pediatric when I grow up. Or neonatal. I'm just getting to familiar with all this stuff.

She was a Great Grandma T!

Grandma Thayne died today at 2:25 in the afternoon. Tomorrow would have been her 86th birthday. Grandma T was a great friend. Because we lived outside of Utah for half of our married life, my memories of Grandma T really don't begin until we moved up here to Utah in the summer of 2003. Dane was just six months old at the time. We weren't going anywhere in life living in Colorado, so we decided then was as good as time as any to move to Utah. The hope was to be able to get better work and have Todd go to school. We came up, decided to build a house, and needed a place to stay until it was built. Grandma T graciously let us stay with her. At first I wasn't sure how it was going to all work out, with us having four little ones and all. But my concerns were soon dispelled as Grandma and I grew to be close friends. I enjoyed being around Grandma and hearing all the stories she had to tell. Because of Grandma, I was able to figure out who belonged to who in the family and learned things about her and her family that I might not otherwise have heard. I remember walking into her computer room and just sitting down to talk. I enjoyed cooking for her and I remember her commenting to me when we were getting ready to move into our new home that she had been spoiled all summer because she never had to cook. I remeber going over to the clubhouse on the first Monday of each night for their FHE dinners. It was so easy to be around Grandma. There is one thing I remember Grandma teaching me that she never knew about. I was watching Grandma fill out her tithing slip one day and she was telling me all the things she donates to. I was thinking in my mind, Grandma, you have so little, you don't need to donate to all that, the Lord will understand. And then I realized how foolish I was. Grandma had so little, and yet she gave so much. I could see how the Lord would bless her because she gave all she had. I will always remember her example. She taught me how to make toasted cheese and tomato sandwhiches. I will always remember her when I eat them and the memories of living at her condo in American Fork. As Grandma started to loose strength and had to be moved to an assisted living home, I remember wishing how I could help her out more. But having five young children at home didn't allow me to do as I'd hoped. She had so many family members and friends that helped to take care of her. I found comfort in that. I love Grandma T so much. I look forward to seeing her again when I leave this frail existence. I also look forward to meeting Grandpa T. Grandma gave me the opportunity to get to know him a little with the memories she shared. Grandma introduced me to a love that I wouldn't have learned otherwise, that is to care for the elderly. Had I not had the opportunity to live with her and help take care of her at times, I would not have discovered this. Thank you, Grandma T, for the memories and the love. You are the greatest Grandma T! I know you are happy and in a wonderful place where we shall someday meet!

My mouth has something foreign in it.

Today I went to the dentist to get a cavity filled. I actually have had this cavity for a year. I got it when I was pregnant with Seth. Everything was so different with that pregnancy and discovering a cavity was no surprise. So, after putting it off forever, I made the appointment to get it filled. Of course I was a little nervous that it would turn out to be really bad because I had waited so long. Needless to say it still was a surface cavity. I am crazy, that's all I have to say. I was fine until my mouth started to go numb. And then I had to put my head between my legs because that crazy thing called anxiety decides to make it's appearance and it makes me feel a little light headed. Luckily it never got real bad because I have been learning how to keep it under control. After a few minutes I was able to sit back and enjoy the drilling. I've never had a cavity before so I didn't know what to expect. All I have to say is having a cavity filled is a piece of cake compared to having a tooth pulled! I've had several teeth pulled by the dentist including my sole wisdom tooth. Why is it as we get older is it harder to handle all this stuff? I remember as a kid having teeth pulled was kind of exciting in a way! Maybe it's a combination of hormones and too much experience with traumatic experiences that cause us to succumb to anxiety. Argh! Not gonna miss that one when I'm resurrected.

Crazy Hair Day!

Last week the kids had crazy hair day at school. We had fun making their hair wild! And yes, Kate's hair is sticking straight up! We used lots of hairspray to get it that way, and the blow dryer. It lasted for most of the day until she had to go out for lunch recess and the wind was blowing really hard. She got many stares from other kids. Dane wants to wear his hair like this everyday. We had fun.