Happy Birthday Verity

Happy Birthday to my sister in law, Verity. She is married to Kersten's brother, Jason. Their one year anniversary is in November. I have actually known Verity since she was in Jr High. My sister Amy and her were best friends through school. It is fun that I have known her as she has grown up. I even helped her with her hair for prom. What a small world that she is now my sister in law. She is very organized and keeps Jason on task and in line. Which is a feat in itself. She is willing to try new things with Jason, even if they don't sound fun to her. For example, they hike, camp, go to movies and lots of other things. She is very well read and has her degree in English. It is fasinating to hear her talk about books. She is really intelligent and always willing to help people with their homework. It has been really fun to get to know her better as she is a part of our family. I hope she gets wildly spoiled for her birthday and she has a fantastic day.

Happy Birthday Kayleen

Today is my dad's wife Kayleen's birthdays. They will have their 3 year anniversary on Nov 1. She has made my dad so happy. They do everything together. She has had a fasinating life. She was in the army for 20 some years and is a nurse by profession. She makes amazing Chilien Food, which is so fun for all of us. That is where our brother Nik went on his mission. He is in ecstasy when she makes it for us. Kayleen has a very generous spirit. Whenever anyone is sick, she loves to send flowers to cheer them up. She took care of her Uncle and both her parents as they got older. And made many sacrifices to keep them home and comfortable as long as possible. She is always finding small little gifts to brighten her grandchildrens day. She calls them her little angels. Which I totally love. Noah can't wait to go to their house to play on their trampoline, talk to their bird and steal cookies from their cookie jar. We are an overwhelming bunch of kids and she has been very patient with us, She gets all her birthday and Christmas shopping way ahead of time. I think they had this year's Christmas done in January. She is very organized, which I wish I was a bit more of. Have a wonderful, fantastic birthday, I hope that all your dreams come true.

Relief

All is well, Kersten is up and about way more than I thought he would be. It is really fun having him home. He is in a much better mood since his back is not in the same kind of pain as it was.

The doc said to me again "Interesting" which scared me but, turned out really good. None of my levels have gone up, they have just tapered off. So I am cleared again for a bit. Hooray! I am suppose to nap everyday and keep my feet up as much as possible. I was looking at my feet and they look awful.

Sorry my posts are not that exciting. Appreciate all your support and prayers.

Happy Birthday Audrey

My older sister Audrey's birthday is today. She is just two years older than me. Growing up we were very opposites. While I said Barbies, she said Batman. She was so thrilled when Nik was born, for then she finally had someone to play with that would play "fun" stuff. My sister Aub, has the biggest heart of anyone I have ever known. She loves people without reserve. She was the cute girl going to visit all the old ladies in our neighborhood. She also has a talent for befriending and working with people with disabilities. I always thought she would do something with that. She has always been really competative and really good at games. She loves all type of games, board games, hand held and word puzzles. She plays the guitar and I miss watching her sing with it. She lights up when she laughs. When Kersten and I were engaged and in the same singles ward with her, he had to do a spotlight for the newsletter on her. I was interested to see what he would say about my sister and he wrote that she has "silky smooth skin". And this is so true and I am so jealous and always have been of that. She has two beautiful, zany kids, Kara and Christopher. She amazes me with what she can do with them. I love my sister "Baba" a name given to her by Spencer when he was little and has stuck as her aunt name. Hope your birthday is fantastic.

Happy Birthday Lena

Lena is my only brother Nik's wife. He really is a very lucky man to have found her. I am so glad that I can now count her as one of my sisters. She really is perfect for Nik. She understands his funny quirks and motivates him to be better. This is one very talented woman. She is amazing with stain glass and has such a passion for her work. She is really fun with color and diffrent designs. She loves types and fonts. She is a major bargain hunter. She goes to garage sales almost every Saturday and I am amazed by the deals and things she finds. She has a talent for being thrifty, which is something we all need. She is a fantastic conversationalist. I love just talking with her and hanging out. She adds so much spunk and fun to our family. A natural red head in every single way. I love her sense of adventure and her take charge attitude. I have really grown to love her more and more. I hope your birthday is great Lena, Love ya

Willy Wonka Grandparents

This week will be a bit hectic so Grateful Sunday will resume again next week. Kersten and I have learned that we will get to be like the Grandparents in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Both of us in bed at the same time.

Tomorrow my husband Kersten will be having surgery on his back. It is a micro diskectomony. He has two ruptured disks in his back that they will shave away the bulge and clean up scar tissue from his last surgery in 96. It was not suppose to happen until the first week of Oct but they were able to bump it up. This is a huge blessing for he has been in amazing amounts of pain and although the pain is not over. There is now an end in sight. He only has an overnight stay in the hospital, so that is really nice. The surgeon says that it is a 4-6 week recovering until he can go back to work and resume normal life.

Other news is the same day we found out about Kersten's surgery, my baby doc, Dr. Esplin informed me that I am developing preeclampsia. This is kind of like toxemia. Luckily they caught it soon so they were able to give me some medication to help my blood pressure. My doc looked at my ankles and gave me this funny look and said "You know your not far enough along yet to swell like that" I had this same thing with Noah and in the next couple weeks I will have to go on bed rest. I am cleared until Wednesday just on bed watch, so right now I am suppose to be down when I am home but I can still make dinner and take Noah to preschool etc. And now take Kersten to surgery in the morning.

So if possible, we need your prayers to get through life until January when this baby is born. Especially for Noah, his life is going to be totally disrupted and we are going to have to be creative to keep him happy.

Happy Birthday Amy

My baby sister Amy is having a birthday today. Amy is seven years younger than me and weirdly enough I don't remember much about her babyhood. I must have been a bit in my own world. But she did become my little shadow as we grew up. I used to con her into cleaning our room or find clever ways to get her to do my chores. She was the pesky little sister for years but we became really close when she turned about 14. That is when we teased about her coming from another planet and her mother ship had finally come. She is my soul sister and before life got crazy we would hang out all the time. Scrapbooking, shopping, cleaning or just running errands. During her high school rebellion years she was a permanent fixture in our home. She is now a mother of the chubbiest baby, Cute Allie. I am amazed at her as a mother. She recognizes and takes such pleasure from all of Allie's fun little personality quirks. Amy loves to talk and has always had an amazing imagination. Sometimes we would get her talking just to see what tall tales she would come up with. She is an amazing musician. She has the most beautiful high soprano singing voice and she is a master at the violin. I was always a bit jealous of that although I knew that wasn't meant for me. She just discovered a new talent at beauty school. I am really proud of her and I love the way she colored my hair. I hope that Amy has a fantastic birthday and it is everything she dreams it will be. I love you, Bagel Snagel.