Boys LOVE Video Games!!!

Since I have been sick, I have been spending my evenings after work just resting. Early on in my illness, Mitchell decided to buy a Play Station since he was grounded from everything else in the house. Both boys purchased games to play and have been playing it for hours everyday. I haven't made rules or put time limits on it yet because I'm just too tired to fight this one at this time. I know, bad mom, I need to be stricter but.... The boys are getting along pretty well as they play day in and day out on the few games that they have. I would be bored silly if I had to play these games. Mitchell will even get up at 4AM to play the video games before he has to go to early morning seminary!!! Talk about obsessive. I am hoping the video game obsession will die out on its own before I really have to call a family meeting and put restrictions on it!

Very Sick...

Well, it's been a rough week at the Ward house. I ended getting sick last weekend. I had a really bad sore throat last Friday. It got worse on Saturday and so I went to the Urgent Care to see if it was strep throat. After three hours of waiting, I found out it wasn't strep throat and they sent me on my way with cough syrup. The cough syrup did nothing for the incredible pain I was in. I could barely swallow and taking 4 Advils at a time didn't take the edge off the pain.

Since I wasn't contagious with strep, I went to Brent's house and we went out shopping/pricing things for the wedding. Later that evening, when the pain wouldn't subside, Brent and one of his neighbors gave me a blessing. I was hoping for an instant healing. I had never been in pain so long with no relief. I couldn't believe that any drug I took had no effect on the pain. Once I got home late Saturday night I set up bed in the living room so I wouldn't have to lay down. I started gagging again and decided that I'd had enough of this mystery illness.

I called my friend Christy at midnight. She lives a few streets from me. She came over and drove me to the hospital emergency room. Thankfully, the ER staff believed that I really was in severe pain and started an IV with stuff in it to reduce the swelling in my throat so I could swallow. I also had my first experience with Percocet. Hmmm...it was the FIRST thing that actually worked on my pain. I was so grateful to be able to drink water and to not be in excruciating pain.

When you get to know Christy, you will find out that she can make friends everywhere she goes. Despite being in the ER from about 12 am until 4:30am, once the pain was reduced, we had a great visit. I found out that I don't have the flu bug but that I have Mononucleosis (Mono). I don't know how I acquired it since Brent has plenty of energy and no signs of the illness. Thankfully, neither one of my boys show any signs of the illness either. The prognosis is that for the next week, I will still have the sore throat, coughing and a headache. Then for the next 4 to 5 weeks I will be tired. Its a good thing I don't have a lot going on so I can get plenty of rest :)

So I have taken some time off work this week to try to recuperate. My fantastic ward has brought in the most incredible meals. I tried telling Christy that we could fend for ourselves with food but she insisted. I am amazed at the amazing cooking that the folks in my ward can do! We are so spoiled this week!

This is contagious so here are the rules you need to follow to not catch this. The next time you see me, please don't try to use my fork or drink out of my cup. And I believe that this only applies to Brent, no slobbery kisses!

Arrow of Light

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Congratulations Grant! He earned his Arrow of Light Award. This is the highest award you can get as a Cub Scout. It is also the only award/patch that transfers from your Cub Scout uniform to your Boy Scout uniform.

There was a special Blue and Gold Banquet last night which included fabulous Aisan food. Mitchell tried to eat more than anyone there...he may have succeeded! After the meal, there were skits by each of the dens. The evening concluded with a special ceremony to award the Arrow of Light. Although the actual award is a patch to wear on his uniform, he also received a real arrow, mounted to a piece of wood, and his name was engraved on it. Grant thought that this gift was very cool and hung it up as soon as we got home.

Congratulations Grant on your success, we all expect you to work toward your Eagle Scout now! If you work really hard, you may even get your Eagle Scout before Mitchell!

Grant's 11th Birthday!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Today Grant turned 11 years old. Hard to imagine that the baby of my little family is 11! To celebrate this occasion, Grant invited several of his closest friends over for a birthday/slumber party. It's great that Grant is old enough to not need structured party games and events. The boys just hung out, chased each other around the cul-de-sac with Nerf guns, took turns punching on the punching bag, ate tons of junk food and watched movies. Although it took a LONG time to quiet them down at night to go to sleep, they did finally nod off around 12:30am.

Grant's cake this year was a cherry jello cake. He didn't want a traditional cake this year and ate several pieces of this cake. This might have added to him being extra hyper the rest of the evening. Grant got several great gifts from his party as well as in the mail. He was very excited about EVERYTHING.

Hiking in the Superstition Mountains

Monday, March 10th, the boys, Brent and I, took a trip to the Lost Dutchman State Park located in the Superstition Mountains. The weather was perfect, the wild flowers were in bloom, and the desert was green. Before we started our adventurous hike, we had a picnic lunch. With a starving teenager around, we can't do anything until we eat.
We started our hike going up an easy trail to Green Boulder. At Green Boulder, Grant found plenty of bees to scare him away from climbing this huge rock formation. Since we weren't tired and the boys were still very hyper, we decided to continue our hike down Prospector’s View Trail which connected to Siphon Draw Trail. Siphon Draw is a difficult hike to get to the Basin of the mountain. It is steep and rugged. During this part of the hike, Grant started to lose steam and became very flushed. It was one in the afternoon, and although it is March, it was still pretty warm out. After dousing him with water and hydrating him, we moved onward up the mountain. The sites were breathtaking! The challenge of the terrain eventually got to me as well.
By the time we made it to the Basin, we had hiked several miles. I was tired and only interested in finding some shade to cool off in. Brent, on the other hand, had other things in mind. He kept trying to get me to go further up the mountain. I kept declining and laid on the cool rock wall in the shade. His persistence finally paid off and I consented to be drug further up the steep basin wall with the promise that I would really like the shade up there. I wined the entire time he drug me up the steep wall. I told him that I didn’t see any shade up there, I liked the shade where I was at, the muscles in my legs were burning, and I was tired of hiking. He just kept on dragging me up the mountain until we reached a small patch of shade. The shade wasn’t really that great but at least I didn’t have to hike any more.

Brent had the wiggles and couldn’t sit on the rock ledge on the left of me. He moved to the right of me, but the edge was sharp to sit on. So he sat on the ground a few feet from me and said he had to stretch his legs out. Then he knelt in front of me and pulled out the most beautiful diamond ring ever and asked me to marry him again. I shouted yes and told him I hadn’t married him yet since he had asked me the first time but that I of course would. He finally got me the REAL ring. We had searched and looked at many rings over the last month and it wasn’t until last weekend that I had found the one I loved. And he waited until I had been wining about hiking and my hands were swollen from the heat to propose all over again. Ahhhhh, Brent is great at creating memories!

The Season is OVER!

For the last few months, I have been coaching 7th & 8th grade girls basketball for Ashton Ranch Elementary School. It has been a fun season. I had 12 energetic, competetive girls on the team. Our season was like a rollercoaster ride. We would go up and win some games and then go down and lose in double overtime. To our delight, we won the most critical game of the season that pushed us into the playoffs for the district championship. Out of 18 schools in the district, we were in the top 8.

In our first playoff game, we faced the #2 team of the district that had only one loss on their record. We gave them their second loss! In our second playoff game, the girls were having an off night and shot the basketball like they were a bunch of blonds! We lost that game. So last Thursday night, my team played their final game to go for 3rd place in the district. We were again playing another team that only had one loss on their record. They were tough competetion. The girls were on fire that night and we were up by 9 at half time. But for some strange reason, my girls prefer to have nail biting games and allowed the other team to catch up. With only seconds left in the game, my team was only up by one point. Thankfully, the clock ran out and we ended up winning! We took 3rd place overall for the Dysart School District. This is a first in Ashton Ranch Girls Basketball history. They have never had a team place in the final four. It was a great learning experience for me to coach these girls and I had a lot of fun doing it; however, I'm glad it's over and I can be back home more with my family.

Brent's Birthday!

February 26th, 2008, Brent turned 42! Hard to imagine that he is that old!!! He does remind me that I am close behind him in his dust. That's okay, as long as today I'm not 42. Thank goodness he doesn't look and act that old :)

Mitchell, Grant and I, traveled to Chandler to celebrate Brent's birthday with him. We had dinner at PeiWei's, Brent's favorite Asian food restaurant. To our surprise, Grant actually ate some of the food and really likes Mongolian Beef Barbecue. Mitchell, of course, ate anything and everything we put in front of him. It's no wonder he is approaching 6 feet tall so quickly. After dinner, we had cake & presents at Brent's house. He was able to blow out all of the candles on his cake in one try. You know what this means...ALL of his wishes will come true this year!