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I decide

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-08-02T00:24:14-06:00

I’ve been out of sorts for months now. I haven’t been dealing as well as I have in the past with the lessons life is throwing at me. Today I changed my mind. I decide how I feel, I decide how I think, I decide how I deal and tonight I decide I can handle it. I will learn and I will grow and I will be stronger. Simple, straight forward, that’s it. What will you decide?

Jasmine Update

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-07-14T21:00:46-06:00

Just a quick update on my munchkin. The surgery went really well. Her doctors are concerned about her spine starting to get too stiff which will prevent them from extended the rods as much as necessary, but they’re keeping a close eye on her and are hopeful she’ll have another 2-3 years (this number fluctuates greatly depending on the doctor and the visit, it’s been as high as 5 as low as 1) before her final fusion. She handled the whole procedure really well, a lot better then in the past. She still doesn’t like the pulse oximeter (little red light) taped to her finger but tolerates it eventually. They extended the rods a total of 1/4 an inch. She slept most of the day in the hospital, only waking long enough to get some food and fluids in her. Luckily since she did handle it so well, and met her requirements to go home they sent us home tonight! She’s doing great, has been sleeping since we got home but that’s to be expected. Thanks to everyone for all your love and support!

Waaaaaaaay tooooooooo loooooong

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-07-13T13:15:16-06:00

Ok so I know it’s been a really long time since I’ve blogged anything, I doubt anyone even bothers to check my blog since it’s been so long! But to those one or two people who may still check in on us here goes.

Looks like the last time I did anything was just after Jasmine’s birthday so we’ll start there, funny thing is I have to grab my calendar and go through May to remember what we did! About May we decided to sell our house so we’ve been having a lot of people come through. We’ve had 2 offers both fell through. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

On that same front we have moved to a new house in the Avenues downtown. It’s a gorgeous house that a couple my sister used to nanny for own. I am absolutely ecstatic to be back downtown. I love the area, I love the life and the people. Jas and Nyah are now sharing a room which they seem to really enjoy. It has been hard trying to fit the two girls and all their toys into one room, but we’re getting there.

Jasmine was initiated into Bethel 13 of the International Order of Jobs Daughters in May. Personally I am really excited for her to have joined this group. For those who don’t know Jobies (for short) is a youth group for girls that is associated with the Masons or Shriners. They do a lot of service projects, like feeding the homeless, raising money for the Hearing Impaired Kids Endowment fund and gathering donations for Shriners Hospitals. The girls range in age from 10 to 20 and are all instant friends. I was in this group when I was younger and it provides a lot of good things for young girls, all of which I think will benefit Jasmine as she grows up. Nyah is already looking forward to when she turns 10 and can also join.

In June Jasmine got out of school and left to go to Colorado with her grandpa James to visit her Aunt Kami and cousins. She spent about 10 days there and had an excellent time.

The next weekend was Grand Rally for Jobies, which is all of the jobies from all over Utah getting together and having competitions in Skit, Choir, Drill, arts and crafts and tons of other fun activities. This year it was held at the Marriott in Provo. Bethel 13 took first place in drill, which the girls had a alot of fun with.

Unfortunately the next week we had a very tough decision to make, but decided it was time to have Lefty put down. He was in massive amounts of pain, and 10 years was a long good life for him. Before Lefty I never really loved any dogs. But he was the greatest dog I ever knew. Brandon made an amazing video that I still haven’t been able to make it all the way through because I start crying too hard. If you’d like to see it grab a box of tissues and visit www.branitt.com

Then we started moving and now here we are in July, all moved into the new house, and Jas is in surgery as I type this. Another extention of her growth rods. She has been handling it amazingly well. The doctors said if all goes well they might let her go home tonight, I hope I hope I hope! The girl in the bed next to her snores like a bear in hibernation, and I fear sleeping here tonight.

Nyah is doing well also. She loves sharing a room with her sisters and copies everything Jasmine and Hannah do. Sometimes this is funny other times it’s a little nerve racking. In the past month she’s eaten grass because she wanted to be a camel. Eaten mud to clean off the pencil she stuck in it. And eaten both Lefty and Bella’s dog food, she says it tastes great and would happily eat it for dinner every night. She continues to amaze me with the concepts she understands and ideas she comes up with. I hope to have her in a full time preschool program this fall, which I think would be really good for her. Our newest game is she has to spell a word to get us to stop tickling her. The first word was STOP. She can also do dad, mom, Nyah and cat. We’ve been working on dog which for some reason she’s having a hard time remembering.

All typed out, this doesn’t seem like a lot but living it it has been slightly over whelming, but we’re living through it and surviving. When it comes down to it life is good and I’m grateful to have such a wonderful little family.

Jasmine's Next Surgery Countdown

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-06-02T13:35:52-06:00

Jasmine's 10!

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-04-27T16:27:45-06:00

Well offically Jasmine turned 10 yesterday! My munchkin is growing up so fast! Although as I was putting clothes away this morning I realized Nyah is only one clothing size down from Jas, (Nyah’s in 5’s and Jasmine is barely into 7’s) made me wonder how long it’ll be before they’re wearing the same size. . . anyways I digress.

So since Jasmine was with bio-dad yesterday we clebrated her birthday Saturday. We woke up and I fixed french toast, per Jasmine’s request. Then she opened her presents, she did get her beloved Nintendo DSi. For those of you who don’t know origanlly I was going to just get her the DS, but while researching I found out about the DSi which does everything the DS does plus plays your music, has a camera and connects to the interenet. At first I thought I wanted to get it for her just because it was a cooler techie gadget, but Brandon pointed out that her iPod is no longer working . . . voila! Instant good reason to get it for her! But this and a few accessories were the only things she got from us, thank goodness for grandparents and aunts who each got her a game. She also did get a new outfit because every girl needs a new outfit for her birthday! Jasmine was a really good big sister and let Nyah help her open presents.

After opening presents we got ready, took Nyah to Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cindy (thanks for watching her!) then went to see American Fork Idol at the Desert Star. Grandma Paula Grandpa Rick, Aunt Erin, Sicily and Hannah all joined us for the show. Thanks for coming with us! BTW I got Jasmine’s hairdo from the blog http://babesinhairland.blogspot.com/

After the show we went to Mike and Cindy’s for some pie, then came home with the intention of having Hannah sleep over. Unfortunately Jasmine’s stomach had other ideas and she got a little sick. So she went to bed and eventually I got Hannah home (she didn’t want to sleep over anymore, who could blame her?) Happy Birthdayy my munchkin! I know it didn’t end well but the rest of the day was fun!

Quick note

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-04-27T16:21:00-06:00

Just a quick idea for those of you who don’t know about it. A while ago Brandon introduced me to Google reader, this allows you to enter all the blogs you normally read and will let you know when they have a new post. YOu can read it all right from your google page. It saves a ton of time because you don’t have to go to each blog to see if there is a new post. YOu just log into your reader and poof! There’s all the new posts on all the blogs you read. Kind nice for those of us who don’t post often but like to know people still sometimes read, now you won’t have to check back so much. Anyways here’s the link
https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount

set up a google account(you can use your yahoo or whatever else to open a google one) and keep up with all those lazy bloggers who only post once a month if that . . .

Caution! Accident Zone!

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-03-28T17:16:20-06:00

I think our house is cursed! We seem to have a string of accidents where people get pretty seriously injured here. My bunko friend Brenda runs into our glass front door and breaks her nose, Brandon falls and bashes his head into the counter ending up with a bunch of staples in his head. Just last weekend Sicily tripped on our sidewalk and bashed her knee up pretty well, has to get an MRI to see if she has a torn meniscus or ACL. Then today the girls were playing in their toy room, I was in the garage trying to fix the flat tires on Jasmine’s bike so we could go for a walk. Nyah opens the door screaming and crying I ask her whats wrong and look up to see blood all over her face, hands and shirt. I carry her into the kitchen trying to get her to calm down and tell me what happened so I can figure out where the blood is coming from. Finally amid a lot of crying I get that she fell on her face. I look at her lip which looks like she bit it but not a lot of blood is coming from there. So I get her mouth open and lift her upper lip to see a gash in her upper gums that is about 1/2 inch long. I call Sicily who calls her mom (an RN) who says she doesn’t think from the desrciption that she’d need stitches, whew! Finally after a dose of motrin and tylenol, and a gogurt Nyah calms down and I get her cleaned up. Then of course we had to go get slurpees to help with the swelling . . . and to make a very sad little girl happy. After all this I finally get the full story. They were playing in the toy room Nyah had her backpack leash on and Jasmine was holding on to it and let go so Nyah flew forward and slammed her face into the base of the little entertainment center cutting her gums and biting her lip pretty hard too. Poor girl! Sicily has very kindly offered to get some caution tape for our house but I think I’m going to start requiring everyone to wear full football gear, pads helmets and all while you’re at our house.

Repeat

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-03-25T10:31:09-06:00

Ya ya I know it’s been forever . . . but not a lot to blog about. Still not a lot to blog about. Jas is still doing ok. A few days before the appointment referred to in my last post Dr D’Astous’ assistant called and asked if Jas was having problems and if she wasn’t Dr D didn’t see a reason for her to come in so we cancelled that appointment. However since then Jasmine continues to say her back hurts almost every day, at first I was again thinking she was just playing too hard but since one of her hooks had slipped off last time I decided to make another appointment with the doctor to make sure that’s not the issue, so now she’s going back in on April 15. Hopefully it is that she is just playing too hard. Other then that she’s doing good. As always she’s one of the top in her class but she just can’t seem to keep her desk clean. So her teacher writes a note in her planner every day if Jasmine has kept her desk clean and she gets more computer time for that. This is kind of helping, about 75% of the time she keeps it clean. Hopefully it’ll just get to be habit so that this isn’t an on going problem. Jasmine’s birthday is coming up and for her birthday party we are going to the Desert Star to see American Fork Idol. If you’d like to join us let me know and I’ll get you the date and time we’ll be going. Adult tickets are around $11 and kids are about $9, then you can buy food too if you want. (we’ll be going to a matinee show) She’ll be turning 10 this year! Totally blows me away! She is also is asking for a Nintendo DS for her birthday (thank goodness for ebay where I can get one for close to half of what you’d pay in the store!) but the games run anywhere from $13 on up if anyone is looking for presents for her. Nyah as always is Nyah. Cute, sweet and smart most of the time but if she doesn’t like something or if it’s not working the way she wants watch out! She just might blow up! She’s recognizing about half a dozen sight words right now, and is very into having books read to her. She also loves to draw and anything to do with mermaids, drawing mermaids is even better. I have a vast collection of drawings of me as a mermaid. As me for I continue to clean house, make cables, and take care of kids. It’s a lot of repetative action. I have signed up to run the SLC 5k on April 18th, and been training for that also. I found a running stoller on craigslist for $20 and once it warms up a bit will have Jas ride her bike to school and run along with her. Mapmyrun.com says it’s almost a mile and a half to her school from our house so round trip it will be pretty close to running a 5k (3.1 miles appx) I guess that’s about it for now. Hope all is well with everyone else out in blogging land!

Busy bored but good

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-02-26T19:22:14-07:00

Well I realised it’d been a bit since I blogged and thought I should post something, but really there isn’t anything too interesting going on in our lives right now. It’s a lot of repetative motion. Get up, get ready, take Jas to school, clean house, pick Jas up, cook dinner, give girls baths, put them to bed, get myself to bed after resting for a little bit and then rinse and repeat. Very interesting let me tell you! Somedays I feel like I’m running around in circles. But let’s see what new things are happening?

I have instituted a new reward system for the girls. They earn time to play their computers or the Wii by doing chores. They lose time when they disobey. It’s working pretty well actually. Jasmine is saving her time up till she has 2 hours, she’s at an hour and a half right now. Nyah is more of an earn and use as quickly as possible girl, but at least she’s helping out around the house a lot more lately. Their rooms are staying slightly cleaner, they’re both learning valuable skills and they’re saving me a little bit of sanity!

Jasmine continues to do well. She does have some pain when she plays too hard, but a little motrin helps and she’s back to normal. Next week we have her check up with her back doctor to see how things are going, I have my fingers crossed!

Nyah is . . . well Nyah. She’s doing fine in school although she seems to have a problem with authority. She gets bored and will go off and do what ever she wants to do and gets rather upset when a teacher tells her she needs to do something else. I’m not really sure how to handle this one, but we’re trying to get her to understand she needs to follow the rules and directions even when she doesn’t want to.

As for me I’m doing fine. Really busy for not a lot going on. I’m trying to go through each room and clean and organize it before moving onto the next. So far I’ve done th kitchen, front room, and master bedroom. Next is the garage, laundry room and my office. That’s my exciting life for now. I’ll update next week after we go to Jas’s dr apt.

Jasmine Update

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-16T15:18:21-07:00

Jas continues to do well, as with before she has a hard time sitting for too long in class but luckily her teacher is really understanding and works with her. Every morning before school she still takes her motrin, and if she plays too hard at night she also takes some more before bed. The incisions are starting to itch pretty bad which is hard because they’re still pretty sensitive, so how do you scratch something you can’t touch? As usual she’s in good spirits and is one happy kid for all the crap she goes through.

ugh

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-02-07T17:16:15-07:00

Have you ever really felt the need to get out of your house?I don’t mean you just kind of want to get out. I mean you’ve had a really hard week and you just need to get out and let off some steam and if you don’t you’re pretty sure your entire head will explode and leave quite a mess for someone else to clean up. So here’s the scenerio, technically it’s the girls dads weekend so in normal land they would both be with their dads till Monday morning. Well Eddie has training in Denver all next week so he’s currently making that wonderful drive down I-70. Not really knowing what condition Jasmine was going to be in and since her dad just got a new job, we had planned on her being with me all weekend also. Fine I can deal, I knew this and had prepared myself for it. Well Jasmine’s dad calls and since Jas is doing so good he wants to pick her up after work today. Suddenly I’m down one kid. Now out of the blue I have this incessent need to get out of the house. Of course I want to go do things it’s not appropriate to take your little 4 year old daughter along for. Nothing too crazy I really just want to go play some pool, but most people frown at taking kids into bars. Oh well maybe another night.

Doing good still

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-02-07T09:00:11-07:00

Thursday morning came and we had to run back up to Shriners to get the brace fitting done. This was really quick and easy, they only had to replace the straps on the brace. Then we came home and Jasmine spent the day relaxing on the couch and taking small cat naps, but Jasmine still wasn’t eating much.

Friday morning came and she slept till 9:30, not too big of a suprise but she still didn’t eat much and was complaining her tummy was upset. She also was alternating between being hot and cold which worried me that she was getting a temp. I took her temp and it was normal and looked at the dressing which was still clean and her skin wasn’t red around it. After eating 3 bites of cereal she went back to sleep. About noon I started to get worried that she really hadn’t eaten, was sleeping so much and that she was going between hot and cold so I called her doctor. He told me the signs of infection to watch for but to also take her off the percocet because all of this could also be caused by the drugs. She finally woke up about 1:30 and ate a piece of pizza. I gave her motrin instead of percocet which seemed to help. She said her back wasn’t hurting too bad and started playing webkinz with Nyah. Taking her off the percocet really ehlped she was grazing more then really eating, but at least she was getting food in her tummy. She also didn’t go back to sleep and did’t complain about being too hot or cold or that her tummy hurt anymore. So I think we’re out of the bad part and that she’s well on her way to recovery.

This morning she crawled into bed with me about 6am. Finally I got her to go back to sleep, but about 7:30 Nyah also crawled into bed with us. I wish I was able to take a picture on our queen size bed there was Nyah then me then Bella (with her head on Jasmine’s pillow) then Jasmine. I bet it was really cute! She’s eaten breakfast and is now playing with Nyah in her room and hasn’t even asked for any pain meds. I keep debating on if I should offer it but I figure if she’s hurting she’ll tell me and then I’ll give her some motrin. Really looks like she’s doing good and that she’ll definitely be going back to school on Monday! Now we all just need to keep our fingers crossed that her neck won’t keep rolling at the top and that the hooks will stay in place this time!

The full run down

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-02-04T21:36:18-07:00

Monday

I checked Jasmine out of school at 12, we stopped and got McD’s and took it up to Shriners. Once we got there we went up stairs in the playroom to eat, Jasmine was really excited because I let her go downstairs to the cafeteria by herself to get some ketchup. After eating she got an x-ray, then we got settled into her room. Aunt Erin came up and we were hanging out, and I got a call from Brandon. Apparantly his boss decided Brandon needed to be here for Jasmine’s surgery and was flying him home again! Luckily I have the best sister in the whole world and she came back later that night and hung out with Jasmine while I ran to the airport and picked Brandon up. By the time Brandon and I got back to the hospital it was almost 11, so he hung out with us for just a bit and then went home to try and get some sleep. I kept telling Jasmine she needed to go to sleep and her argument was that she’d be sleeping all day during her surgery, kind of hard reasoning to argue with, but we got to sleep finally about 12:30. Through out the evening Jasmine was in really good spirits and was handling it all very well. She even went out with a bunch of other kids and made a ground hog with green poofy balls for the grass, white poofy balls for the clouds, blue feathers for the sky and brown felt cut in the shape of a ground hog with his mouth drawn on and a googly eye.

Also earlier in the evening one of her doctors had looked at the x-ray and noticed that the top hook on one of the rods had detattched from her spine! No wonder the girl had been complaing that her back hurt! Also I had told her doctor that I had noticed her neck was rolling forward a bit at the top of the rods. Due to both of these complications they needed to open the top up again to reattatch the rod and move both of them up one vertebrea. This would hopefully stop her neck from rolling forward anymore.

Tuesday

6:30 came way too fast by my clock, but that’s when they came in to give her a valium before the surgery. It was the usual run down, hang out in the room as they get her ready, put goopy stuff on her hand where the IV will go, no eating or drinking, hang out some more. Brandon got back up there, looking very tired by the way. About 8am they came and wheeled her back into the pre-op room where we waited again for about 10 minutes. Jasmine was really nervous and crying, but doing ok. About 8:20 they rolled her back into surgery saying that due to having to move the top ones too the surgery would be about 3 hours. Brandon and I spent the morning in her room hanging out after getting something to eat. Half way through the surgery a nurse called and said all was going well. Almost exactly 3 hours later they rolled Jasmine back into her room, already grumpy as could be! She immediately ate a popsicle, and within 20 minutes wanted to get up and go to the bathroom.

Don’t know if anyone has ever had surgery, but eating, drinking, walking and going to the bathroom are all very good signs! Infact we had a hard time convincing her she needed to stay laying down! I mostly attribute this to the local anesthetic because once it wore off she was a little less gung ho about getting up and walking. After the popsicle she also ate some jello and then devoured 2 bowls of chicken noodle soup. We had to make her stop eating to, saying we needed to let her tummy settle before she ate anymore. Next we went down and got a new x-ray done. Luckily the girls in x-ray are awesome and always let us check out the x-rays after they take them. They have a new system at Shriners where everything is computerized, so they don’t have to develop them anymore and just pull them up on the computer screen. It’s really nice because they pulled up Mondays x-rays right next to the new ones so we could see the difference. The old hooks at the top pointed out towards her shoulder blades, and the new ones pointed in towards her spine. Dr. D’Astous thought the new placement would hold them better. Also the rolling of her neck seemed slightly improved. Back upstairs to battle Jasmine to stay in bed, keep her IV in, and the pulse oximeter on her toe. Needless to say she was one grumpy girl. I know, I know, who can blame her with everything she’s been through right? But after telling her for the fiftieth time why she has to leave the IV in, can’t get up and walk around, has to have the stupid light on her toe I was getting rather frustrated. Luckily eventually it was time for Brandon and I to go home and get some sleep. (thus the quick post from last night) Jasmine’s dad spent the night in the hospital with her.

Wednesday

4:30 am is WAY to early to be awake! Brandon’s plane was leaving about 6, so this is when we had to leave the house. Took him to the airport, went back home showered and headed back up to the hospital. I was downtown by 6:30 so I stopped at Smith’s and wandered around for a half an hour before going up there. But even at 7 she was still sleeping, so I hung out in the playroom for another half an hour before her dad woke up. First thing he tells me is that her doctor might want to keep her an extra day since she had to get the upper parts of her rods moved. :( I get into the room and she continues to sleep till 9 when her doctor comes in, she wakes up long enough for him to quickly examine her and ask a few questions. Luckily he decided she could go home today! Not that she wouldn’t have been able to deal with staying there another day I just know she’d be a lot more comfortable at home. Anyway the bad news of the morning was if this surgery doesn’t work and the rods continue to dislodge or her neck continues to roll her doctor said we’d have to explore other options, like doing a halo. UGH! FRAK! NOOOOOOOO! Were my basic thoughts on that. For a halo they put screws in the kids head and then traction from their head and they run around in these little walker looking things for 6 weeks, the ENTIRE time we’d have to live at the hospital. Ya, know you know why I had that reaction. But we’re keeping our fingers crossed she won’t have to do that. Back to today, Jasmine fell back asleep and she slept and she slept and she slept. About noon her dad had to get going, and she slept some more. Finally about 12:30 she woke up and decided she was ready to go home. Unfortunately the brace guys hadn’t been up to check her brace and make sure it was still doing what they wanted it to do. Her nurse called down and found out they had decided they were too busy and scheduled her for tomorrow. ugh. Option one stay the night in the hospital again and have the 11am appointment Thursday, option 2 go home come back up for 11am appointment. We went for option 2, duh! So down to the car we went, got her settled into her carseat, had to stop driving to re-adjust her to make her more comfortable 3 times and she was still asleep by the time we got on the freeway! We got home and she went straight into bed and slept till 5pm when I woke her up to give her pain meds, at which point she finally woke up. She wanted to play with her new webkinz. The rest of the evening was uneventful until I told her it was almost time for bed. Of course she insisted she wasn’t tired, to which I insisted I didn’t care she was going to get back on a normal sleep pattern if it killed me! Luckily it didn’t I just told her that’s how she was going to get better faster. So now she sleeps again. We’ll see how long that lasts!

We go back in 3-4 weeks for a check up and if all is well she’ll be getting another extension in 5 months. Kinda crappy saying that if all goes well she’ll get more surgery, but more surgery is better then a halo!

So all in all it went well even with a few bumps in the road. Jasmine is in good spirits as usual again, thanks to massive amounts of sleep! I’m doing good, just tired.

Thank you to everyone for your love and support! We appreciate you all!

She's doing good!

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-02-03T21:11:31-07:00

Sorry but this will b quick, I don’t have a lot of time. Jasmine did great, there was one complication but I’ll get into that on a later post. For the quick version now, she’s fine. Only 20 minutes after surgery she wanted to get up and start walking around. She quickly downed a popsicle, jello and two bowls of chicken noodle soup before we said she needed to let her tummy settle before she had more. It looks like she’s in good shape to be coming home tomorrow. Once we get home tomorrow I’ll post the long version and some pictures.

Thank you to everyone for all of your well wishes and support!

Supposed to be sleeping

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-02-02T00:15:40-07:00

It’s past midnight, I have to get up in less then 7 hours to get Jasmine ready for school (yes I’m making her go to school in the morning even though we have to check into the hospital by 130, I’m a mean mom I know!) but I just wanted to give a quick up date on the plan. Like I said, we check in about 1:30, I will be spending Monday night in the hospital with her. Tuesday morning will be the surgery, should be quick, about an hour or so. That night her dad is staying with her. Then Wednesday morning hopefully we will be going home! Ok so I’m not really writing this as an update cuz I know I’ve said all that before, I guess I’m writing this as therapy for myself. Some how repeating the plan and continually chanting “It’s going to be ok” helps . . . in some small way. Guess that’s why I plan and repeat the plan, and keep telling myself over and over “she’ll be fine” it’s the only control I have over this whole shitty situation. Ok going now before I make myself cry. I’ll keep this and facebook updated as much as I can.

Melissa needs

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-28T11:49:04-07:00

Saw this on my friend Whitney’s blog and tried it and also found it VERY amusing . . .

Go to google, type your name and then needs eg Melissa needs and see what pops up!

1. Melissa needs to take a break (yep seriously this was the first result!)
2. Melissa needs to board the blob ship that is hovering overhead. ...
3. Melissa Needs a Miracle
4. Melissa needs lots of guidance
5. Melissa needs hydration after the walk. ..
6. Melissa needs her meds, and I'm sure Mikey won't get them for her. ...
7. Melissa needs to find a new agent
8. Melissa Needs Maintenance Manuals!
9. Melissa needs to get on board with her new body
10. Melissa Needs Help - Catch Me... If You Can

I did the top 10 because I was so amused!

Ahhhh what a wonderful weekend!

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-26T16:34:24-07:00

I arrived Thursday late so we just went back to Brandons apartment and went to bed. Friday morning we woke up got ready and went into his work. I spent the day playing on my computer, which was nice and relaxing. Finally about midnight Brandon got done and we went back and went to sleep again. Saturday morning we went down to Venice beach in the hopes that it wasn’t raining, and we lucked out! We spent the morning walking and looking at shops and stopped and got some lunch. (I can’t believe how expensive food is down there!) Then we went to the Santa Monica Pier.

We walked the pier, looking at vendors and talking. Then (ya!) we went down on the beach and I literally dug my toes into the sand! I hadn’t been to the beach in some 15 odd years so I was really excited by this.

After walking in the sand we went back up to the pier and found this really cute little aquarium that was only $2 to get into and free for kids (it’s under the pier if you ever go) I touched a star fish! They’re really slimy. We also got to see shark eggs which were neat and some other cool little artifacts like a whale vertebrae.

Then we ventured up to the J. Paul Gettty Museum. This was a really cool museum. It’s set on top of one of their “mountains” (more like a hill) We parked under ground then road the tram up to the museum.

The architecture and landscaping fascinated me more then the artwork. It was beautiful! But I’m more into the history of art, and thus also like Chinese and Eygptian art more then anything else. But it was an amazing experience! This was pretty cool, up top the water flowed through the little hole Brandon’s looking down into (I made him look again because I didn’t get my camera out fast enough)

And then flowed out of the little hole in the ceiling on this side.

Then we went back to try and go to dinner at this cool little restaurant on the Santa Monica Pier (seriously fresh fish!) but it was closed (weird for a Saturday night, it was only about 6) So we went to the restaurant on the end of the pier, which was also good! Then off for some sight seeing (did you know the Hollywood sign isn’t in Hollywood and also it’s not lit up at night?) I don’t feel as bad not going to the gym this weekend with all the walking we did on Saturday. Sunday we just had time for breakfast before I had to be to the airport and Brandon had to go back to work. (We lucked out Saturday night that he didn’t have to work) I had a bit of a wait in the airport due to my flight being delayed because of the storm here in SLC, but other then that it was uneventful.

I have to say a big thank you to Denise for giving me a buddy pass making it so I could fly. To Sicily and Shonette for taking me/picking me up from the airport, to my neighbor Stephon for watching the dogs and to Eddie for taking the weekend off to watch Nyah. I appreciate all of you even if you don’t read this!

Happy Dance

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-20T11:31:46-07:00

I’M GOING TO LA! Sorry kind of excited I want to shout it from the roof tops to everyone under the sun!

What would you do?

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-19T14:14:45-07:00

What would you do to spend 48 hours with the man you love whom you haven’t seen in 17 days, and before today didn’t have the prospect of seeing until the middle of March? Last night in talking to Brandon he said it might work for me to come out there for a weekend so I said I’d look into it. Originally I thought I’d try and go out there in 2 weeks, the weekend after Jasmine’s surgery but then Eddie told me that’s the weekend he’ll be in Denver for training, nix that idea. The weekend before I have the girls and will need to be getting ready for Jasmine’s surgery. The weekend after that will be my weekend with the girls again, so it could either be this upcoming weekend or wait till February 21st! I decided to take the challenge and see if I could make this weekend happen. I had heard about Southwest flights being sold for $100 round trip which wasn’t bad, but then I looked up the flights and they weren’t doing the ones to Burbank, nix that idea. Then I remembered my friend works for Delta and said she’d be willing to give me a buddy pass. So I’ve been texting with her and found out I could fly there for a max of $75, pretty good deal. I decided to try and sell a few things on KSL to see if I could come up with the money, and started making phone calls to see if I could get the kids and dogs taken care of for the time I would be out of town. Luckily I have a wonderful group of family and friends 2 of whom agreed to help with the kids. Now i’m just trying to make arrangements for the dogs. So to answer my question, personally I’d bend over backwards, do 2 back hand springs a double flying backwards somersault all while blind folded just to spend 48 hours with my husband. And yes, I’d do it all over again, any day of the week!

Training Begins

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-17T10:07:56-07:00

Day one
I confess I haven’t been to the gym in months. But today is the new begining. I am doing the Salt Lake City 5K in April with my sister and I haven’t even started training yet! I’m feeling a little pressure. I know, a 5K isn’t much but for an ex-smoker who hasn’t been to the gym in at least 4 months it’s pretty much a marathon. So today I am going back to the gym. My goal is to go 4-5 days a week, which I was easily doing last year. Plus Sicily has also started back at the gym which is also good motivation for me, I like to work out with her. Plus I’m hoping with quitting smoking that training for a 5k will help me be good.

Wish me luck, I’m going to need it!

Next Surgery

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-12T11:32:33-07:00

I just realized I hadn’t updated that we got Jasmine’s next surgery date. We will check in to Shriner’s on Monday February 2nd in the afternoon. Her surgery will be Tuesday morning, and then we’ll come home Wednesday afternoon barring any complications. This surgery will be a lot easier and faster then the last one since they are only going in to extend the rods so she can continue to grow. She will have this same type of surgery every 5 months until she is 11 or 12, depending on when her doctor determines that her trunk has finished growing. After she stops growing they will do the final surgery of fusing her spine and put in permenant rods. After that surgery Jasmine should be done with major surgeries and will only really have to deal with braces, headgear and probably more speech therapy.

Luckily Eddie’s sister in law Autumn has agreed to take Nyah for me while Jasmine is in the hospital and Eddie will be driving her out to Tooele and picking her up. I think this will be better for Nyah then bouncing inbetween houses like we’ve done previously.

Easier?

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-07T20:11:16-07:00

So I was told by someone that they didn’t like the set up of my blog, having to click the link to get into to read the newest entry. In their utter laziness (love you C!) they didn’t want to have to do the extra click, so here you go, easier just for you!

Nyah's Fashion Choices

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-07T11:24:18-07:00

For awhile now Nyah has been picking out her own outfits most days, and this was a good one, the greatest part for me was the hat and the posing for pictures. It’s a lot of fun after she gets dressed and she thinks she looks especially cute. She’ll stand in front of my closet mirrors turning different directions and commenting on how cute she looks and what she likes best about her current outfit.

Burrowing Puppy

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-07T11:14:38-07:00

Bella really makes me laugh, sometimes. Sometimes I want too strangle her, especially when she’s chewed up something else she shouldn’t have. But usually images like these are what make me love her. She is hilarious with her toys. She loves to have someone throw them around for her. She is also really cold during the winter but refuses to keep her sweaters on. So instead she burrows under blankets anywhere that she can find them. Recently she also started climbing inside sweatshirts to keep warm. Good thing she’s so dang cute otherwise she probably would have been punted across the room a few times by now.

Piggy back ride

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-07T11:11:27-07:00

Nyah loves piggy back rides and is always trying to get Brandon to give her one. Occasionally he’ll ask when it’s his turn to get one. Over Christmas Nyah obliged.

But the rear view is what made me really laugh.

Yes that is her little booty, yes we have belts for her and no they do not work.

I quit

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-06T18:59:40-07:00

For those who haven’t heard yet, I quit smoking January 1st. I didn’t want to make it too widely known till I felt like I was doing good, and knew in saying it that it’s true. I’m done! It was a lot easier while Brandon was here. Each day has gotten harder, luckily I have friends who are also quitting, so that helps. Also I have one amazingly supportive sister who has come up with motivational surprises for me, so I have those to look forward to. Also the single digit temperatures help in deterring me from wanting to go outside. The thing is I don’t know what to do with myself when I’m bored now. I need a new hobby thats easy to pick up, and put down. Doesn’t require a lot of attention and very little training. It can’t take up a lot of space and needs to be easy to transport. I was thinking of knitting, but I need someone to teach me. Oddly enough I already have a lot of the supplies but haven’t put in a lot of effort. Maybe there is a website that can teach me. Anyway, day 6 almost down and counting.

Sweetest little girl

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-06T07:42:00-07:00

Oh my, I have to say for how often I blog about the difficult things Nyah does, she really does say and do almost as many sweet and cute things. One of my favorite especially right now, she comes and cuddles in bed with me in the morning for a few minutes before she decides it’s time to get up.

This morning we were cuddling as usual and out of the blue she says, “When I grow up and am an adult I’ll come visit you lots mommy.” At first I was thinking she said this because she went and saw her Grandma Lee recently which doesn’t happen very often. But I asked her why she said that and she said “Because you like to have lots of time to talk with adults” Lightbulb goes on! Whenever her and Jasmine ask why they have to go with their dads one of the reasons I give is because I need time to be able to go spend with adults. I’m guessing this is also why she often tells me she wants to be an adult, although sometimes when I ask her why she wants to grow up she says because she wants to be able to drive.

Another very sweet thing Nyah said a few weeks back, we were driving in the car. Nothing special happening. Nothing big going to happen. Out of no where Nyah says “You’re the best mom EVER!” I almost started crying!

On Christmas day we were driving up to Brandon’s parents house and Nyah says (out of no where again) “Daddy I wish you never had to go back to LA” She said things like this several times while Brandon was home for the Xmas break, which just about broke my heart.

While Brandon is down there, most nights we try to either call or text him goodnight. Nyah’s favorite thing to say currently is “I love you with all my hearts” When asked how many hearts she has the number usually varies but is regularly around 20.

Christmas Morning

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-01T21:27:23-07:00

Christmas morning was the usual chaos of paper flying and kids squeeling their delight. As always watching them open their presents was th best part. Thanks to the Gilberts for joining us for presents and breakfast! We then braved the snow on our side of the valley to venture to the Ellsworth’s, only to find that apparantly it only decided to snow on the west side of the valley. Again we ate and then the paper flew as we watched more presents being unwrapped. Thank you to Mike and Cindy for having us up to your houseand for a delicious brunch!

The present from Santa this year was a Wii and then they each got a few smaller toys too.

As Brandon would say we need to buy Nyah some hips to keep those pants up! (belts do not work!)

Christmas Eve with the Gilbert/Haggins/Handley/Kilpatrick/Ellsworth/Valdez

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-01T20:55:14-07:00

This year we spent Christmas Eve with my side of our family over at my Grandma and Grandpa Gilberts. We always have a great time over there and this year did not disappoint. We played Wii (Jasmine the natural was in excellent form as always) We ate all the delicious food and even saved some room for pizza. Then we played SANTA bingo, and even more Wii before the night was rounded out with presents. As usual the girls got their new Christmas jammies. Thank you Norma, Richard and Julie for making this Christmas eve so much fun!

Nyah looks a little too excited about her sprite

Bingo, Nyah was “helping” call out the numbers, at least when she wasn’t dumping the cup on the floor

Jasmine LOVES my moms newest dog SuzyQ

Christmas jammies

Yes Grandpa Richard is asleep

Notice Nyah’s tongue.

Jasmine's School Holiday Performance

esa@strongalone.com — 2009-01-01T20:27:30-07:00

Literally I was here watching this for 5 minutes. Each grade got to perform 3 songs before they were quickly ushered off the stage to make room for the next grade, but I did manage to get a few cute pictures of Jasmine.

Treats galore!

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-16T18:24:56-07:00

I love to cook, I really have a good time doing it. Deserts are fast becoming one of my favorite things to make. Being Christmas time I was reminiscing about my favorite thing my mom used to make, chocolate covered peanutbutter balls. So of course I decied I needed to make all of these for our neighbors just like mom used to do. The recipe is really quite simple and we had most of what we needed so Nyah and I set to work this morning. After the peanut butter balls were in the fridge cooling Nyah wanted to make cookies to, how can I refuse a girl after my own heart? She really is cute with the whole helping thing, at least until she starts sticking her fingers into batter, eating said batter and then going back for more . . . oh well the finer points of cooking will eventually sink in I guess. Here is everything I made today, 50 PeanutChoco Balls and 75 cookies.

It's Begining to Look a Little like Christmas

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-15T09:07:17-07:00

Thanks to Shonette I finally got our Christmas tree up. Unfortunately Bella seems to think it means Christmas has come early for her, she has eaten 6 ornaments so far. Most of them have been plastic luckily, but she did eat part of a glass one I think, so I’m really hoping she’ll be ok. So far no complications, luckily. I sprayed the entire tree with sour apple spray to hopefully keep her from eating any more, but if you come over to our house don’t be suprised if there’s ornament pieces all over the floor!

Nyah's Graham Cracker House

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-15T09:06:22-07:00

Christmas Lights

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-14T19:34:37-07:00

Looking for some inexpensive fun with the kids I corralled Sicily, Hannah and Erin and we ventured downtown to look at the Temple lights. Thinking it was going to feel like 20 below I bundled the kids up with several layers, coats, hats, and gloves. Suprisingly the weather was very plesant!

Hannah Stepping on cracks to break her mothers back

Nyah clinging on for dear life

Sicily being just one of the kids, playing on the wall

Just gross

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-09T17:41:08-07:00

Why is it that some kids just KNOW when things are gross? Almost everything is gross to Hannah, always has been. She never liked even finger painting because her hands would get dirty. Not my girls. It seems they have no concept of gross or germs. A few nights ago Nyah finished her milk and went in the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed. I followed mere seconds later to find Nyah pulling her toothbrush out of the toilet water and was about to stick it in her mouth! EWWWWWWW! Ew ew ew ew ew ew gross! Aparantly I had not moved fast enough and she thought she’d start brushing her own teeth but needed to get it wet first. Needless to say I took the toothbrush away before it touched teeth, but Nyah couldn’t understand why. As I was explaining Jasmine came in and asked what happened. I told her Nyah had stuck her toothbrush in the toilet so I had to throw it away, and Jasmine asked why too! Am I doing something wrong here? At 9 years old she doesn’t know that toilets are disgusting germ filled cess pools? Ugh! So I explained all over again, lets just hope I don’t find them eating yellow snow at some point!

Nyah's new skill

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-09T17:36:00-07:00

Nyah has always had an interest in helping me cook. She really is a good helper. Many times I have heard her playing cook, “and now I add a pinch of this and we have to put it in the oven to cook”. Today she made her own little “kitchen”. She moved the garbage can and was using it as her stove (I cleaned everything after she played with it) and was pretending to add all of the ingredients (she says that word quite well for being 4) and made soup (which coincidentally I am also making for dinner)

Nyah catching snow

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-09T17:33:36-07:00

Nyah came out of school on Monday and immediately opened her mouth, stuck out her tounge and tried to catch snow flakes. I couldn’t help but smile and take a picture.

Jasmine's First Crush

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-12-04T09:19:09-07:00

Jasmine has been for lack of a better word, obsessed with Zac Efron for quite awhile now Yesterday I was in the kitchen and I hear Nyah and Jasmine coming up the stairs. Jasmine says “I have a HUGE crush on Zac Efron” I just find it so cute, and so reminiscent of my younger days. It’s so much fun watching her grow up and starting to have crushes on boys. One day in the car Jasmine told me she has a new boyfriend in school. I asked if he knew she was his girlfriend. She said “Well duh! No mom, that would be too embarassing!” I had to supress a laugh and explain that he should really know that, and usually the boy and girl decide together that they’re boyfriend/girlfriend.

Thanksgiving

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-11-28T19:32:47-07:00

What an excellent Thanksgiving! Wednesday night Brandon got home! YAHOOOOOO! Thursday morning found us at Erin’s house helping her get ready for dinner at her house. Then we went to Grandma Vera and Lawana’s for the Ellsworth family dinner. Then back to Erin’s for the Handley Kilpatrick Gilbert Haggin Jacobsen Sweeney Ellsworth dinner. After dinner we started playing Apples to Apples while Brandon and Grandpa Richard took a nap on the couch.

Friday we got both the girls back and spent the day playing and having fun. We started out making a gingerbread house.

We tried to watch a cute movie called Flight of the Navigator, but the girls got bored within minutes of it starting and went to play in the toy room. Luckily I got a few cute pictures of them cuddled on the couch with Brandon first, then Brandon and I finished watching the movie.

After the movie we went up to Brandon’s parents for fun, family, dinner and games. Thank you Kevin for organizing this and to Mike for buying dinner!

In case any family reads this before tomorrow night we are having a cousin party at our house 6pm. Give Brandon or I a call if you’d like directions. You are welcome to bring your kids.

Out with the old and in with the new

esa@strongalone.com — 2008-11-24T09:42:23-07:00

This is it! Ya! I’m really excited about learning how to make this site into what I want it to be. Unfortunately I haven’t had a lot of time to devote to it, but I’m hoping I will soon. For now here are the updates:

Me: It’s been hard with Brandon out of town, but I’m surviving. Luckily I have a lot to keep me busy which makes it a little easier. I’ve had a bit of a cold the past few days but nothing too serious. Earlier this month Brandon and I had decided that it would cost too much for us to fly him home for Thanksgifing and Christmas and that we’d both rather him be here for Christmas so I had resolved myself to the fact that I wouldn’t get to see him until then. But Saturday Brandon called and said his boss had bought him a ticket to come home for Thanksgiving to partially make up for all of the long hours Brandons been working! YAHOOOOO! Most of the weekend the girls will be with their dads so I’m looking forward to a weekend spent relaxing and watching movies with Brandon. Both the girls will be with us Friday so he will get a chance to see them.

Jasmine: Continues to heal just fine. She’s really upset that she can’t do a lot of the things she’d like to do, like participate in gym, but I explained again to her why we had to do the surgery and that it was the best option we had to ensure that she’ll be healthy as she gets older. In school she’s doing well, for awhile she was having a hard time paying attention but I think we’ve nipped that in the bud.

Nyah: is . . . . well Nyah! She loves school and has a great time there. She wants to go everyday, but unfortunately can’t until next year. I’ve volunteered in her class a few times and it’s really fun to watch her interact with all the other little kids her age. She continues to blow me away with how smart she is. Her latest thing is trying to spell words, and asking how to spell everything.

Bella and Lefty: are also doing well, although I think before long I might go crazy with Bella. She’s in all out tantrum mode, I think because I’ve been so busy and haven’t been home as much as she’d like me to be. So she has been chewing up everything she can get her mouth on. I’m also looking for ways to train her to stop barking when I tell her to if anyone has any suggestions!

Well that’s it for now, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and that I get the chance to see you all over the long weekend.