Stoic

Allison's Hospital Story

Not only were we on time, we were 20 minutes early to Children's Hospital, St. Paul. We didn't need to be there until 6 AM, but arrived at 5:40. Before the employees were even there. Grrr. Allison was all kinds of hyper and excited and I wanted to sleep on the couch.



They supplied Allison with her own hospital jammies and socks/slippers. Notice the big grins.
They let the kids choose a flavor of Lip Smacker lip gloss to paint the inside of the mask they use for the anesthesia. By the way, these really are Lip Smackers. They help cover the smell. Allison was set on Watermelon for days ahead, but at the last minute heard they had
Dr. Pepper, so chose that instead.

After Surgery:Everything went great in the surgery, which is awesome, except Allison had a horrid reaction to the anesthesia and/or the pain medication Loertab (sp). She was SUPER nauseated all day, didn't want to eat anything, drink anything, somber, definitely no smiles or joking around, and vomiting.
Children's Hospital has Bingo on Friday's only and she was able to "participate", although it was just about two hours after surgery. There was no excitement. She had me playing for her, until the end, when she was up to doing one card. She did win one Bingo. If you're wondering how this is done, well here ya go: they broadcast an employee on their hospital channel. It's pretty cute. We had to call in as soon as we got Bingo.
Even though Allison was super D duper sick, she wanted to go upstairs to choose her prize.
After the wheelchair arrived we went up to the third floor and she got to choose from an impressive array of prizes. She chose a Gabriella barbie from High School Musical 3. Just to let you know how yucky she felt all day, she never asked to open the box or even look at it until the next day.

Justin was able to stop in for about half an hour. This smile was one of the rare ones I'd seen since surgery.

Justin and Allison played a heated game of Checkers; she creamed him. I'd played her earlier and she beat me too. ;)

The nurses kept commenting on what a brave girl Allison was. One nurse told me that she'd heard about her and how "stoic" she was. I'm proud of my little girl. She's awesome.

There was a minute of silliness. She wanted to play with the Play Doh, but only had one hand available because of the IV. I made a lamb, but she thought it was so funny, she started giggling, I'm sure out of pure craziness and hysterics. It was great to see her laugh, even if for just a minute. Looking at the picture, it really was a bad lamb. Yikes!

Sleep was hard to come by. At least for me. I opted to sleep in the bed with her, instead of the purple vinyl recliner, so was kicked at, snored at, and heard lots of moaning all night. The poor little thing. My heart was breaking for her. I wish I could have taken away her pain. She was only taking regular Tylenol by the evening because of the nausea, so I don't think it was keeping her pain at bay much. 

Her heart monitor kept coming unplugged so the nurse would have to come plug it back in.
The morning brought a new Allison. She had an appetite and was even smiling! The nurse was so excited (and me)! We got home at 11 AM. That was one of the longest 24 hours of my life. (Well it was actually 29 ish hours). It felt like the never ending day.

Justin put this up in the shower this morning, and I didn't notice it until tonight when I gave Allison and Ammon a bath. He's such a goof.
Allison has strep throat again. It's her fourth occurance this fall. I'm so glad she is getting her tonsils out. I took her to Target today to get antibiotics and let her choose some different types of ice cream in preparation.

This is a picture of Ammon at Allison's baptism. He loves his blankie/buddy (binkie). He has completely worn out his corner several times. I have to sew holes in it about once a week. He likes to rub the corner on his nose or cheek. If he's in a lovey dovey mood, he'll rub it on your cheek or nose.

That is why I love what happened today:

Ammon and I went to Sam's club after playgroup to buy chicken and cheese. I saw a quarter on the ground and gave it to Ammon. I told him "it's called a quarter." He said, "corner?" then started rubbing the quarter on his nose laughing.

Random Pictures

The treat for this soccer game was .....Dilly Bars! The kids were ecstatic! I love this face.

Isaac at a soccer game.

Allison had a sleepover with her friend, Grace this past weekend. She came home looking like this. There was a carnival at her elementary school. Allison LOVED having her hair done and looked like a different kid. It took awhile to get the pink and glitter out, but I think she'd do it again in a heartbeat.

We had preschool today and focused on the letter "F". Reagan, Ammon, and Ben were great little students. We colored a frog, made "F"s out of popsicle sticks, made grocery lists by cutting up ads, and watched a few You tube cartoons.
The only mishap was when I found a bag of marshmallows dumped on the ground. Ammon and Ben said they were monsters and were giggling and hiding under the blankies.

Gardening

It's finally feeling warm enough to get outside and de-winterize the gardens. I'm having Jacob and Isaac start the Gardening merit badge. It sounds like an easy one, but it involves quite a bit. They helped plant radishes, spinach, beans, peas, and parsley for the veggies, and marigolds and sweet peas for the flower parts. They need to plant three veggies and three flowers from seed, then the same amount from seedlings, then harvest. Plus we chose to do a compost for 90 days (in lieu of a worm factory).
It was fun to watch their enthusiasm for finding bugs. They even found a caterpillar! Jacob thought the grubs were gross and Ammon freaked out when a spider started to crawl in his general direction.
We're gearing up for a yard sale hopefully this Saturday, if I can get it ready in time. Our house is overrun with stuff. I want my house to feel tidy. Even when it's clean, it feels cluttered. Maybe when the kids move out. Most of my friends are super neat freaks so it's intimidating for me to have them over. Plus, how do I get my kids to pick up after themselves? I sure get mad enough that you'd think they would want to, so not to get the wrath of Mom. But nope. I guess I'm using the wrong parenting techniques.
Ah, here comes Ammon. He napped today, so he now gets to be my friend tonight while Justin is in northern Minnesota.

Lasik

One of these days, I'm going to get Lasik eye surgery. If for the only reason to be able to see spiders in the shower. Usually it's a hair or fuzzy, but this time when I was squinting and getting close to it, I realized it was a REAL spider I'd been showering with for the past five minutes. So I had to do the obligatory scream and yell for Justin.

It would also be nice to be able to see what time it is in the middle of the night when Ammon decides to crawl in our bed. Last night it was twice. We rarely get a night's rest without an interruption from one of the kids - usually Ammon. He is very talented at night terrors.
Sometimes he just likes to climb in bed between us. He flaps his blankie on us - he likes to rub the corner on his nose. Then we hear the squishy sound of his "buddy" (binkie) so sleep comes slowly, for me at least. Justin falls asleep through anything. Lucky bugger.

I keep hoping Lasik's will get somewhat cheaper and maybe they'll come up with something not quite as disgusting as cutting your eye open. Hats of to all of you that don't need eye correction.

Fun times with Jen

Justin insisted that we buy a new digital slr camera about 1 1/2 years ago. For the past year and 5 months it's been a point and shoot for the most part. It's been fun, but I knew there was so much more that it could do. I have a friend that is a professional photographer (I'm one of her biggest fans) that offered to take me out and teach me some of the basics. She is so talented!
We went to the state fair grounds. The weather forecast looked great, it was sunny, and everything was going our way.
It did go well, but it was FREEZING!!! Our poor kids opted to sit in the car for lots of the time.

These are some of my favorites:

Ammon and Joyanna

Jennifer

Ammon liked to snuggle with Grandpa. He's showing us his beloved "buddy."

Grandpa Dittmer getting squashed by Allison and Ammon.

Grandma Dittmer is a merit badge counselor for Citizenship in the World. She had Isaac and Jacob enthralled. They got this done in a few hours.

Ammon loves to snuggle with Grandma Dittmer too. This is during the Saturday General Conference session. It was so fun to have Justin's parent's come. They were only able to stay two days, but the kids had a great time. I hope they'll come up more often. *hint hint*

Easter Fun

I wish I knew how to get pictures in order, but here goes...


Justin and I came home from Stake Conference not expecting this delightful treat: the kids found Easter baskets, lined them up, and put their names on them.

My one and only egg I decorated this year.

Made by Justin

Justin getting into his art.

Ammon showing us his blue egg.

Justin didn't know I was taking his picture. He was trying to get Jacob to smile.

We stopped by a local park egg hunt. They had it separated into age groups. ALL of the eggs had jelly beans. Isaac was too old to participate in this egg hunt. He took it quite well.

Ammon loved meeting the Easter Bunny. He kept saying, "I like the Easter Bunny," over and over for about 10 minutes.

Church egg hunt

My kiddos. Ammon, Jacob, Allison, and Isaac.

Isaac's last egg hunt at the church (he's 11 now).

Ammon didn't want to pose for pictures very much. Too many eggs still in sight even though he already had his allowed 12 in his basket.

Allison thought these princess eggs were something special.

Easter at Uncle Grandpa's

Me and my honey.

"Strike a pose"

Dittmer egg hunt
Justin started a tradition where the kids get to choose a color egg to search for, then we hide them in the living room. It helps to keep it even. Also, we count them so we know if there are any still MIA.

We put a "buddy" in one of Ammon's eggs.

Ha Ha. This the one of a kind egg. Allison found it. She was so excited until she read the note inside. It said "Do dishes for one week." Mean Mom and Dad. Of course we won't make her. Wink wink.

"The Screwdriver" by Isaac.
It was an impromptu attempt at the Demolition Derby Elders Quorum activity.
Some of the competition was fierce so he got about 9/10th place.

Isaac coming home from school.

This shows a little bit of Ammon's personality. He was posing for some "cheese."