Issue 67

Another Painful Week

At my 17 week appointment Friday, the Doctor was unable to find the baby's heartbeat. Not worried yet, we went down the hall to the ultrasound room, three youngest kids in tow. The children enjoyed seeing the image of the baby on the screen, but I could tell from the Doctor's silence that something was wrong. He sent the kids to the lobby with a kind nurse, and a second doctor confirmed my worst fears. I had lost the baby.

That first day was full of anger and tears. Saturday morning, we went to the hospital. Because I was so far along, they had to induce labor. I've had 5 c-sections and a natural birth was a new experience for me. The doctor, nurses and staff couldn't have been more wonderful and understanding. Everything went as well as possible and Steve held my hand through it all. The anger has passed, replaced by peace and comfort. My emotions are too close to the surface to write anymore.

Our heartfelt thanks to our family and friends for the kind visits and calls, flowers and gifts, hugs and tears, childcare and hot meals, e-mails and prayers. You can't know how much it meant to feel your love and support during this hard time. Thank you.

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Goals

Whitney was tenacious about achieving her goals this summer. She started a new online Algebra course (that I think is amazing by the way) towards the end of the last school year. The teacher gave her the summer to complete it. The first weeks of summer she did an hour a day. By mid-summer we realized she'd never finish at that pace and started doing 6 to 8 hours a day! The last week of summer, was crunch time and Mom and Whitney sat at the kitchen table together doing Algebra for 50 hours, until she finished her course! Keeping her 4.0 GPA was a huge motivator during the early mornings and late nights. I'm proud of her determination to reach her goal, even though it was tough.

6:oo am Algebra session

Another goal Whitney set for herself was buying a small laptop computer for school. She spent many hours this summer babysitting for her aunt, who is an author. The last week of summer she finally had enough money saved and as soon as she finished her math course we went to the store. She has a novel writing course this year that it will really come in handy for, not to mention all the papers she's likely to write. Way to go Whitney!

The first day of school, Sophomore year.

Scout Camp

Wall Lake

me falling over

Wall Lake

me and Jared, (plural) at one of the twin lakes

The stone chair of supreme awesomeness

A gruelling hike 3 miles up rocky terrain with 25 pounds on our backs, and guards forcing us all the way. Sound like concentration camp? Try scout camp! (Okay, it was actually a lot of fun!) We started the hike around noon and arrived at camp about 4:00 pm. With beautiful scenery along the way, and a stop at Wall Lake, it was a great hike up to Twin Lakes. After setting up camp we all went fishing. (Caught 6 fish between us. They were Delicious!) We then took another hike up to the notch. It had a beautiful view! The next day we saw the stone chair of supreme awesomeness* and went on our way. It was an awesome camp!

*a chair made of stone and surprisingly comfortable!

B-day

This last Wednesday was my fifteenth birthday! Yay! Exciting! We went to the Zoo and I had a neat friend party on Friday. Some of my favorite presents are; a titanium water bottle, a leather journal, a seed-beading kit, and a Bonsai tree! A Bonsai tree is one of those really tiny ones, mine is the kind that is going to live for a couple hundred years so I need a really good name for it. I'm thinking about "Zen" but if you have any suggestions let me know. I am also going to be learning how to drive this year so that's exciting. To all of those who gave me gifts thank you. To those who didn't, well shame on you.:)

Condo

Our BYU investment condo has been on the market for awhile, without much action, (big surprise in this economy!) We decided to give it a make-over this month and spent many hours improving it. Steve (Dad) and Whitney gave it a fresh coat of paint and yesterday we moved everything, ripped out the carpet and old couches and had new carpet laid and brought in new couches. A huge thanks to my brother Quinn who spent the day doing slave labor for us. We couldn't have done it without him!

Know anyone in the market for a dang nice BYU men's condo?

Knights' Summit

the final battle

the victory parade after the final battle

don't I look great?!?

the authentic musicians at the feast

The Knights of Freedom Summit was a great time. We learned about 5 Knightly Virtues at different camps. They were team work, proving yourself in battle, going on a quest, etc. At the end of the 2 days we had a huge battle with all of the adults (who played villains) against the kids. The first day you got a shield and the second day you got a sword. There were different colored camps, brown, green, purple, yellow, red and we were the oranges. We all made up a cheer, and our cheer was "Orange, orange, we are strong. We fight for freedom, we fight the wrong. Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah!" We did a tournament thing with all the knights. Every team had a tournament to find their team champion, and I was the team champion from the oranges. But the kid from the brown team beat me and everyone else so he was the Queen's champion.

Daniel

For the knights summit I volunteered as an elitist (bad guy). you probably think this was easy, march in, yell "ha ha, were the bad guys" and start smacking swords with the kids. Not in the least. I had to wake up at 6:00 each morning, help set up, and be in costume and character before the kids started arriving. I was an elitist (A.K.A. a rich and powerful noble who looks down his nose at every one else) and had to make the kids dislike us while not hurting any boys feelings. This did not succeed however, as all the kids loved us and thought we were cool. It was our role to escalate from quietly resenting the King and Queen , to openly rebelling against them. After a failed attempt to kidnap the Queen, (all in the script) we ran away and joined the gelds (the real bad guys) in the final battle. After surrendering we left and joined the feast afterward. With not much down time, and a lot of heat, it was certainly hard, but a lot of fun!

Steve

Issue 65

Change is coming! Starting next week, I will be posting the Koru every Sunday, instead of Friday. I think the new schedule will help everyone in the family be more involved in writing our family history. So, see you next Sunday!

Baby Update

Thanks so much for the kind inquiries about my health. Yes, there has been a lack of mommy pictures on the blog. I've found that "green" just isn't my color. But, I've hit 2nd trimester and I'm feeling much better. I even got to hear the baby's heartbeat last appointment!

The 24/7 nausea was a huge challenge for me. Everything I did or even thought about during that time I started associating with nausea. Steve bought me a new MP3 player and loaded a book I really wanted to listen to on it. About half way through I had to hide it, it was making me feel so sick. I still can't look at the thing! I was careful not to read books I liked, think about school plans or fun projects, or eat foods I wanted to have in my life later. The hardest part was I was so very bored! Thank goodness I had planning the family festival to keep me going.

I am so grateful I am feeling better in time for the new school year!

This is the Place!

As treasurer of the Non-profit that runs the clubs my children enjoy, I saw the need to raise operating expenses. So I cooked up a fundraiser at This is the Place Heritage park, one night about 3:00am. Six weeks later found us at the park putting on a Family Festival.

Tea Parties with square dancing for the girls.

Vendor Booths

Sword fights and tug of war for the boys.

Pulled pork, roasted corn on the cob and homemade fries for dinner.

A carnival for all. Cousins enjoying the cake walk!

Followed by entertainment. I got to give away the door prizes!

We had about 600 people attend the Family Festival and raised some much needed cash. I'll do about a 100 thing differently next year, now that we've done it once, but I think it was a great success. Huge thanks to my kids who helped at every turn, Becca, my right hand woman that day and Steve who's always my #1 man!

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Paleontology fun!

Sand, water, and dinosaurs - plastic and real. What more could a kid ask for? Thanks Aunt Brooke for taking us to the Dinosaur Museum!

Summer Fun

Grandma and Grandpa G invited us over for lunch and a day of playing in the near by creek with cousins. The best part was Grandpa got in the water with all the grandkids. A perfect summer day - especially when you add Popsicles and doughnuts!

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