Harvest Hustle Fun Run!

Today my sister, Susan and I ran a 5k race in Rockford, Washington. It's about 16 miles southeast of Spokane with a population of490 people. I actually heard about it on the Spokane news so we really didn't know how many people to expect. So when we pulled up to where the race was going to start, we were a little surprised to see about 10-15 people! When the race started there was probably a total of 25 people. In our minds, we kept comparing it to the Laurel, MT race we did on the 4th of July. And we had to laugh because I don't think we expected a race to be any smaller than the one in Laurel! Susan and I ran together and got the same time: 28:49. We took 4th and 5th place for overall women. And probably 8th and 9th for the overall race.
Some funny comparisons I thought of between the Laurel race and the Rockford race:

Laurel: population 6,255
Rockford: population 489

Laurel: about 100 racers
Rockford: about 25 racers

Laurel: orange cones and flags marking the starting line and finish line
Rockford: the race officiator said," The starting line is over there (pointing)... where the dark pavement meets the light pavement."

Laurel: cups of water at the turnaround / water and oranges at the end of the race
Rockford: no water, no food ..... anywhere

Laurel: large time clock at the finish line
Rockford: lady at the finish line, holding a stop watch and smoking a cigarette

Laurel: Plaques and ribbons for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, for about 6 diff. age groups
Rockford: Ribbons for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place in overall men and women's groups (we just barely missed getting ribbons for overall women! Darn it!). "Prizes" (misc. items in a box to choose from) for age groups 5-10, 10-18, and 19+. We couldn't believe that out of 25 people, we walked away with no award! Boo hoo.

Laurel: Nice people and a fun run with family.
Rockford: Nice people and a fun run with Susan.... oh, and an old guy running in cut off jean shorts (think daisy dukes).


All jokes aside... it was a very fun run! Considering the size of the town, they did a good job! The course was very pretty and I enjoyed the scenery. And we didn't have to run up any hills either! Everyone there was very nice and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I think I'm starting to like the small town races because you actually feel like you have a chance of doing well. Next race... the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day!

Happy Anniversary!

Aren't we such a cute couple? Yesterday was our 5th Anniversary! We went out to a restaurant that serves Mediterranean food and then got dessert at Dairy Queen. It was very tasty!
The past five years have been so great! Sometimes I wonder how I got such a great husband who is so kind, smart, good looking, and funny (with many other wonderful qualities too). Tom and I often talk about how incredibly compatible we are and how well we get along. We are different in many ways, and yet we have SO many things in common.... most things we didn't even figure out until after we were married! We've really had five perfect years together and I can't wait to add many many more years to our happy marriage! I love you Tom!

Highlights of the week.

Monday was Jordyn's first day of school! She goes Mon.- Thurs. for two and a half hours. She goes to a great school and I'm so glad they have this program for Jordyn. She is riding the bus to school on Monday and Wednesdays (I watch my neice, Katherine, those days and didn't want to cart two 6 month old babies with me to Jordyn's school!). On Monday, Jordyn was supposed to ride the bus, but there was a big mix-up and the transportation dept. didn't read the info. saying that Jordyn was in a wheelchair... so, the bus came and she couldn't get on! Oh well, Tom was still home and I was able to take her. On Wednesday she finally got to ride the bus for the first time! It was so cute, I just had to laugh the whole time. While she was riding the ramp up onto the bus she had the biggest smile on her face... it was hilarious. And sadly, I didn't have the camera that day! I was so worried all week about Jordyn being good at school and she did awesome! I think her teachers were pleasantly surprised. They are very honest about how the kids behave, etc, and they said Jordyn did SO good this week! I was so relieved and I am keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to stay happy and do well at school!


Here is a picture of Jordyn and Evan goofing around. Jordyn always has to have her feet on everything. If you are sitting near her, she will always put her feet on you. So many times, Evan is Jordyn's foot rest. He really doesn't seem to mind it at all!

Evan got to eat rice cereal, for the first time, this week! It looks pretty tasty doesn't it?

On Wednesday, Jordyn also went to the eye doctor here in Spokane. We talked about our appointment in Seattle and he examined Jordyn's eyes again. He thinks we should give glasses a try for a couple months. The doc. thinks Jordyn will eventually get used to them. I'm not too thrilled, but of course I will try them. After two months, if the glasses don't help correct here eyes crossing, they may consider surgery. But, we will see. (no pun intended) I took Jordyn to get fitted for glasses and we got her a pretty cute pair... at least I hope they are cute! She won't get them for a few weeks. We will be sure to post photos. While we were picking out the frames, I couldn't help but laugh at one pair of lenses. They had HUGE lenses and were the thick plastic frames and a bright blue color. Extremely out of style, but much like the ones I used to wear!!! haha I think that is the main reason I am hesitant to get Jordyn glasses... because I look at photos of when I was little and just CRINGE at how dorky I look in my glasses. Mom and Dad... How could you let me go out in public looking like that!?? hahaha

Tonight Tom and I had a date night! We started a baby sitting co-op with some other couples in our ward. We rotate every Friday night and one couple watches ALL of the kids! So, we get 4 Friday nights of babysitting and on the 5th Friday, Tom and I will watch all of the kids. Then the rotation starts over again. Most of the kids are over 3 yrs. old and Evan is the only baby. All together, there are 9 kids! Are we crazy or what!? We just keep thinking that we only have to watch the kids once every 5 weeks, for 3 hours, and in return we get 4 Friday nights out! That's worth it, isn't it? I was worrying about it all week because none of the families know Jordyn very well and I was afraid that they might be scared to watch her. But, I wrote up everything they need to know about her and I think they did really well. Tonight was the first night and the couple that watched all of the kids said that it went better than they thought it would! So we are off to a good start. Tom and I met some friends at the Fair and just walked around and had dessert. It felt very strange to not really have any set plans for the night and to not have any kids! We are hoping the co-op will keep up because we could sure use the break every week! We are already planning fun activities and snacks for when it's our turn to watch the kids. 

Question of the week!

In honor of 9/11, the question of the week is:

Where were you and what were you doing when you found out about the terrorist attacks?

Seattle Trip

Warning: Very long and full of lots of medical mumbo-jumbo.


Well, we made it back from our weekend trip to Seattle. We left Thursday afternoon and stayed the night at a hotel in downtown Bellevue. Friday morning we drove 15 min. to the Children's Hospital (we have to say that we DID NOT like Seattle traffic! Way too many cars!) for Jordyn's opthalmology appointment. We really liked this doctor. He was very interested in Jordyn and seemed extremely smart. Every other doctor we've talked to that knows him also gives him great praise. Anyways, he said Jordyn's eye problems are neurological. (That is what we thought, too.) He actually was not too concerned with her eyes crossing. He said they could be fixed with glasses. However, he said Jordyn would absolutely HATE having glasses on (she hates things touching her face!) and it would be easier to just deal with her eyes crossing, since they only cross every once in a while. He was more concerned about her lack of attention to objects and lack of tracking objects. Her eyes are actually very physically strong/good... except she is a little nearsighted, but not enough to need glasses for it. He was extremely surprised that Jordyn's MRI's have shown nothing. He thought for sure, the cause of her problems would show up on a MRI. He explained her vision issues as cortical visual impairment (the eye itself is normal and she sees things, but the brain does not process the information correctly). So basically, there isn't much we can do about her eyes, but just deal with it! She will continue to see her opthalmologist here in Spokane and we will see if he agrees with what the Seattle opthalmologist said! Oh... the opthalmologist also asked us if she had been tested for Rett Syndrome! We just laughed and said yes and it came back negative. Almost EVERY doctor or therapist we talk to thinks she has Rett Syndrome!

After being in opthalmology for almost 3 hours, we went straight to the neurology appointment. She basically told us that we have already tested and done almost everything they would have us do. She did recommended a few more tests though. She said there are three diff. tests for Rett Syndrome and we only did one of them. (Why our Spokane neurologist only did ONE of the tests... we do not know!) So, we will do the other two tests. It is a blood test and will take around two months for the results. The first Rett test we already did, tests for 80% of Rett Syndrome cases, so the chances of getting a positive result from these other two tests is low. But maybe Jordyn falls into that other 20%! The third test we will do is for a syndrome called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome. People who have this syndrome are unable to make enough cholesterol to support normal growth and development. Jordyn has a few of the symptoms, but does not have many of the main symptoms... like poor growth! The neuro. didn't really act like Jordyn had a great chance of having this syndrome, but wanted to test just in case.
The neurologist also told us that our chances of finding a diagnosis for Jordyn are very slim. We kind of already knew that and other doctors have told us the same thing. But she also said that scientists are always coming up with new tests and new syndromes. In 10 years, the medical world will have advanced so much and between now and then, they may come up with something new to test Jordyn for.
So we were pretty happy with the appointments! Now on to something different!

Saturday morning we went to the Seattle Aquarium. The kids really seemed to like it and so did Tom and I! They had some great exhibits. We saw sea otters, harbor seals, sharks, octopus, jelly fish, eels, starfish, and ALL kinds of wierd fish and sea life.
Saturday afternoon we went to the Pike's Place Market. Tom's job is to post about that adventure and post pictures.
So check out his blog http://2bedapartment.blogspot.com/

We were so proud of our kids for behaving so well on the trip! We had to buy Jordyn ice cream because she was so good. They slept well at night and traveled well in the car! And Jordyn did awesome at the doctor's appointment! We were so happy!




(above) One of the many wierd fish we saw. (below) Star fish and tide pool life. You could put your hand in the water and touch/feel everything. Very cool.

 

More Aquarium Photos

Jordyn checking out a sea otter. There were some awesome exhibits for Jordyn because she could sit right in front of the window and the animals would swim right in front of her!

The "sea dome" in the aquarium. The windows surrounded you on all sides and above you. It was full of sharks, eels, many diff. fish and sea life.

A neat school of fish. It was above you and you walked under the glass.

Jordyn with her new friend... a harbor seal. 

We're off to Seattle

We are packing our bags and tomorrow we are leaving for Seattle! If you didn't already know, Jordyn has two doctors appointments on Friday at the Children's Hospital. Friday morning, she will be seeing a pediatric opthamologist. They are trying to decide whether her "crossing eyes" are a muscle problem or neurological problem. Her eye doctor here in Spokane is just baffled by her and wants a second opinion. (So what's new!? I think Jordyn should be on that new show "Medical Mysteries"!) If they decide it is a muscle problem, they could possibly decide to do surgery to correct it. If it is neurological, I don't think there is much they can do. Then, she will be seeing a pediatric neurologist on Friday afternoon. This visit will just be a consultation to see if they might have any suggestions or ideas for us. We aren't getting our hopes up for this appointment. We are guessing that they won't have much more to tell us.... but, who knows!

And once those appointments are over... we just might go and have some fun in Seattle! We will blog and post lots of pictures on Sunday. If we learn anything really great or important at the appointments, we will let everyone know as soon as possible! Wish us luck!

Pig out in the park!

Last night, we went to "Pig Out in the Park" in downtown Spokane. It's an annual event where a whole bunch of food vendors set up booths and sell every kind of food you can think of! This is our 3rd year going and we are always counting down the days until we get to go.
Last year I was pregnant with Evan and had extreme "morning sickness" (or I guess you could call it "all day sickness") and did not get to enjoy Pig Out in the Park. (It was also when my parents were visiting and we told them that I was pregnant!) I can still remember the constant nauseous feeling and not being able to hardly eat anything. So, I have been looking forward to going ALL year!
We went with my friend Jeni, her husband Jeff, and her sister Melissa. To start off, the five of us shared a plate of oriental noodles and a huge basket of cheese fries. Then for my main course I had a Perogie (fried dough ball filled with chicken and cheese) and a slice of garlic cheese bread. For dessert, I had a piece of chocolate covered cheesecake. Everything was so good and I am already craving another piece of cheesecake! All of us left there very full and probably wishing we hadn't eaten so much. Oh well, it was totally worth it.