Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving is already over, but I finally found a few minutes to post. We had a great turkey day! My parents came up from Billings on Wednesday (they will stay until Sunday morning) and we were so glad to see them. Thursday morning, Susan and I ran the 5 mile Turkey Trot here in Spokane. We thought we might be running in the snow, but the weather was great for running... just cool enough. We think around 700 people showed up for the run. The course was through and around Manito Park, a very popular floral garden. We had a fun time! At the same time, Tom was playing flag football with a bunch of guys from our ward. They have access to an indoor playing field every year. Tom came home with a ton of carpet burns on his knees and legs. But, he acted like it was worth it because he had a lot of fun!

Around noon, we headed over to Susan and Kurt's to eat some appetizers to hold us until the big feast. Then, we ate dinner around 6:00. Everything was so good! We made green jello salad and brought the drink. We had pies from White Box Pies.... apple pear and pecan. The whole day couldn't have been any tastier!

Poor little Jordyn was still sick. She did have a spoonful of mashed potatoes, so I guess that has to count as her Thanksgiving dinner. She is finally keeping down her food. She was extremely grumpy the past two days. I took her to the doc. this morning and they said she has an ear infection. We got her some meds., so we'll see if that helps.

All of the family is having a great time... it's always sad when they have to leave and you go back to your regular routine. I guess we still have Christmas to look forward to!

Feeling under the weather - see post below!

 

Poor little Jordyn.

Jordyn has been having some very bad luck lately. Early last week we took her to get a blood draw so they can finally do the test for Rett Syndrome. It took FIVE phlebotomists to hold her down and get her blood. So sad! Needless to say, they finally got enough blood and Jordyn was extremely angry!
Jordyn has also been really irritable the past month (maybe from being poked by needles so much haha!) so I called her neurologist, at the end of the week, to see if her medication could be the problem (one of the side affects is irritability). They decided they wanted to have her blood taken to check her medication levels! Why, oh why, didn't I call them a few days earlier!? So, I got up early this morning and took her to get her blood taken again. This time, at a different lab, they couldn't EVER get her blood taken. They had two different phlebotomists try and they just could not find a good vein. This always happens when Jordyn gets her blood taken so we are getting used to it. So, Jordyn was really ticked and they couldn't poke her anymore, so we left. We are supposed to go back tomorrow or the next day so someone else can try again, but I am debating wether we should even go through with it. Her irritability seems to be slowly getting better.
THEN, after going to the lab, I took Jordyn to school. About halfway through her school day they called and said she had thrown up everywhere... including on one of the teacher's aides! I rushed over and picked her up from school. I felt so bad for everyone there who had to clean her up... not fun! I apoligized a million times to the lady who had the luxury of being barfed on! Hopefully Jordyn doesn't have the flu. I got Jordyn all cleaned up and she has been sleeping ever since. As you can see in the picture, Jordyn also has a strange rash below her mouth and on her cheek. We think it may be caused by saliva since she tends to have her fingers in her mouth and drools, etc. We keep putting creams on it, but nothing is helping. Poor little girl! She has had a rough time!

Question of the Week - Ode to Rex

(My childhood dog, Rex, eating a snack.)

If you and your dog (or any pet you've had) could understand each other for one minute, what would you say to it? What might it tell you?

Kids Galore!

Friday night was our turn to watch all of the kids in our babysitting co-op! We had all 7 kids (+ our 2) and it went great! They were pretty interested in playing with toys they don't usually have, so that kept them busy. Then we watched a video called "Let's Move". It is 30 min. of all kinds of games, dancing, and "moves" that the kids are supposed to copy. They do "head, shoulders, knees, and toes", lots of jumping (fast, slow, big, little), stretching and counting, and even yoga at the end. The kids REALLY liked it! We even helped Jordyn do it and she was smiling and laughing.
I just love how good the kids are with Jordyn. They like to ask a lot of questions about her, but also like to include her. We were having crackers and one of the girls said,"She didn't get one!" (pointing to Jordyn). I thought it was so cute. The kids (esp. the older girls) all love holding Evan too. One of the girls was having fun taking care of Evan, holding him, getting him toys, giving him a blanket, and even asking me over and over if she could feed him some food!
We are just loving this babysitting deal! And now that last night went so well, with all of the kids, we are even loving it more! (in the photo, we had all of the kids saying "Cheeeeese"!)