ER

Today was a mostly nice day.  Most days are mostly nice I suppose.  This morning Haylee had a dental check up and cleaning.  

She had an awesome dental assistant to polish her teeth.  She thought I did "ok" but she didn't like me flossing her teeth at all and reported my mean flossing to Dr.Heath who said "hey, that's her job!" Haylee got braces 4-5 months ago. Right before she got them she needed her last two baby teeth pulled.  Those guys were STUCK!   At her last dental appt she had a panoramic X-ray done and it showed her adult k-9 teeth pointing inward toward her middle top teeth.  I took another pano today to see if we had made any progress 

This one is from six months ago 

And this one from today:

Sadly they haven't moved at all.  She had about an 80% chance of needing oral surgery on the one on the left because it overlapped #9 so badly.  The right side may come down yet but I would say her chance of needing oral surgery went up to about 95% today's. I like to think positively but ya gotta keep it real. The rest of her visit was uneventful although she was not an easy patient. ;) again KIR. 

None of this tooth news has to do with my post title which is ER.  Just wanted to document Sierra's issues for myself.  She is on her way to the ER -again- this is her 6th trip in less than four weeks.  She has kidney stones.  Those are all the reasons for the ER visits.  She throws up from the pain and after two or three times puking in a hour she goes in, they give her morphine and she goes home.  It is a process she should not have to repeat six times but sadly is how things have gone.  On the upside tonight she was throwing up because of knee pain.  That's not the upside lol. The upside is that hopefully they can put her knee back in place while she is there for her kidney stone pain which started after all the throwing up. Super fun.  Her poor body is just breaking down.  Not sure what to do.  Not sure when we wave the white flag.  Well I actually do know that.  We have been waving it for a few weeks.  This is hard. 

One year later.....

A whole year has passed since that last post.  So many emotions then.  We still miss Maryland.  A piece of our hearts will always be there.  We don't even miss the area that much, just our friends and best neighbors.  One year.  365 days since I blogged.  I don't know if I can cover a year in one post but I would like to record my feelings on the happenings of the last year.  March was hard, Joe was my only friend besides sweet Amy who probably thought I was a little whiney and kind of a downer at the beginning of our friendship.  Lol.  Thankfully she hung in there!  :) I was looking for jobs and not finding anything.  Joe was concerned about my sad-ish state and encouraged me to get out of the house and meet some people.  I felt like I had tried at church but hadn't gotten very far.  So I decided to volunteer at the only place I knew of which was the thrift shop on base. That decision changed my whole last year!  :) I met new friends and had something meaningful to fill my time. Mostly I met new friends.  What a blessing!  I became a co-chair (think assistant manager but without the pay) ha ha!  I am on the thrift shop board and also sit on the spouses club board to represent the thrift shop from time to time.  These 4-5 women that I work with at the shop have become some of my dearest friends here.  I am so thankful for them!!!  In April I was called to be the ward camp director and was then given a stake assignment to be the head YCL counselor at camp.  SO FUN!!!  Loved all the ladies and girls I got to know through that time of serving the Lord.  July brought a new job!  I landed my dream job as a newborn photographer with a company called Mom365.  It was a dream!  Photography and tiny babies?!?  The best!  One drawback I had to work every other weekend at least Saturday and  Some Sunday's though I never had to miss church it wasn't my fave.  After not working for 14 years it was hard to get over not having my weekends full of family time. Got called to work in nursery at church wasn't thrilled but was happy to serve where the Lord asked me to, ended up loving it.  Those littles are so dang cute! 

  August we traveled back to Maryland to pick HD up from his mission!!!!  So fun to see our friends and to get to hug my sweet boy!  He was as awesome as ever and it was so near to hear his stories and to have him speak fluent Portuguese for us.  I am sure he felt a bit like a circus act when he first came home.  :p. 

He and I at the airport

Our family back together! 

Same sense of humor came back from the jungle.  :)

We spent two and a half weeks with the kids and enjoyed every minute before they were both back off to college.  Darn successful people anyway.  Lame.  Haylee also started 8th grade and joined a million activities.  Ok only like 4 but it seems like a lot. September was just school as normal busy volunteering and working.  Fun high school football games and loving small town life!  At the end of September Haylee and I were in sacrament meeting and imagine my surprise when they are reorganizing the stake YW presidency and they read my name over the pulpit asking the ward to sustain me as the 2nd counselor in the stake YW!  I almost fell over.  They had motioned for me to stand and I did and I tried to stay composed and not freak out.  When I sat down Haylee said "you didn't even tell me!" I told her "news flash they didn't tell me either!"  She thought it was hysterical and could not stop her shoulders from shaking with silent laughter.  I was just shaking!  Lol.  I had no idea what to do.  Do I tell someone? Do I need to tell them now that I had no idea? Did they read the wrong name? A hundred thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to focus on the sacrament. During the sacrament the stake high counselor and one of the stake presidency members realized their mistake so they got up and explained to the congregation that I had not been formally extended the calling and then asked me if I could meet with them after sacrament meeting. That's when I realized they did mean to read my name and that they sustained me all across the stake that day!  It was a lesson in attending your meetings people can you imagine if I hadn't gone to church that day? No one would have known that I didn't know!  It was a unique experience for sure.  :). In October my friend Amy asked if I would like to come work for her and her hubby (out stake president and dentist) they needed a dental assistant that could fill in for sick people and when someone took maternity leave.  I said yes and then a few days later said no.  I felt I couldn't give my all to that job while working at the hospital and I wasn't ready to give up my baby job (it didn't really occur to me that I could).  In November Haylee made the winter guard team (flag spinning) and I realized if I was working on a Saturday I would miss her whole competition!  I am not a mom who misses things.  The dental office gig would be super part time and at most a Monday -Thursday 8-5 job.  Also, it was a "real" grown-up job!  They would train me and pay for me to get certified plus cover all of our dental costs not paid for by insurance!  Deal!  I have been working there since December and I LOVE IT!  Who knew I would love teeth? Crazy but it is such a great fit for me.  I love the work and the patients and my boss is pretty awesome too.  ;) 

December both kids came home for two weeks and my dad came to visit.  Joe's sisters were both at the farm Christmas Eve so we spent the day there.  We had a blast.  It was so great to have everyone here.  January was dental office work and guard competition for Haylee along with her landing the role of Juliets nurse in the school production of Romeo and Juliet.  She is really excelling here and I love the things she is involved in. Look at the young women in our ward!! 

There are so dang many!  It is awesome! Our ward is huge and definitely feels like our family now.  Joe's closest friend just happens to the the stake president (yes also my boss) which is an awesome thing.  We love the Heath's and are so thankful they befriended us when we moved here!  (I tried to get their middle kiddo hooked up with HD but that smart girl decided to serve a mission!) :) February is going well.  I went home for my moms retirement.  She flew for Delta for 45 years!!!!  Amazing.  She loved her job and it was hard for her to leave but it was time.  She felt peaceful about her decision and it was wonderful to celebrate with her.  

Getting her queen robe, crown, flowers and scepter.  Rick even rented a red carpet and a limo!!  

Mom with her sisters

So much fun!  Sierra has had a rough February but I won't go into that in this post. To sum that up 5 trips to the ER in 3 weeks with kidney stones, partially dislocated jaw, and a hard scary fall on some ice.  It has been TOUGH.  Through it all though we have both seen the tender mercies of the Lord and we are so thankful!!!  

I was able to be at one ER visit with her. Poor girl. This kid spends a lot of time at the docs.

Today Haylee competed in the Science Olympiad regional tournament.  She competed in three events.  Picture This -didn't place, Mission Possible -she had to build a Ruth Goldberg? Machine. She placed 4th and will compete in state and her third event was Reach for the Stars and she took FIRST! -she will compete at state in that event too!  We were so proud of her!!!!  She loves science Olympiad and works really hard.  

Ok friends you are caught up.  We'll sort of, this is the best it's going to get!  :) maybe I'll keep up on this now and maybe I won't.  My hope is I will.  I need to document things better.  Hugs to you all! 

Two quick happy pics to end: 

D and sis while I was in Utah last weekend. 

5172 B Sijan Court

Oy, moving. I do not recommend it.  Emotional. Exhausting. Exciting (kind of) - One of the last nights in our Andrews house I spent several minutes on the porch reminiscing about the 10 years we had spent there. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I thought of all the wonderful memories we had at that home. So many wonderful people had come into our lives during our time in Maryland. People who will forever be considered our family. Just a few memories I thought of:

*bringing Daisy home

*the days spent recovering after Joe's face was broken. 

*Haylee's carnival birthday party.

*both HD and Sierra's graduation parties.

*sitting in the yard chatting almost every single night of summer with the best neighbors.

*that time Joe and Matt recorded their own version of Bruno Mars "Bilionaire" 

*when HD tossed his scriptures down the hall and put a big hole in the wall at the end of the hallway. 

*Bob and Joe hauling a pinball machine up the stairs and back down.

*Bob and Joe hauling an elliptical machine up and back down and then doing it again since the one that went up the first time was broken. 

*giving Sierra her 16th birthday present (tickets to see Wicked) best birthday  gift reaction ever! 

*when HD sort of choked on a sunflower seed while we were playing a game with grandma Chelle and her laughing so hard  she couldn't breathe which made us all laugh so hard. 

*falling down the stairs whilst looking behind me admiring my own handiwork of putting Christmas clings on the landing windows. 

*dance parties in the living room. 

*Sierra singing and singing and singing. 

*so much laughter. 

I am so thankful for the ten years we spent there.  That is a rare thing for a military family.

 We will miss you 5172 B Sijan Court.

Meeting the POTUS

Hello! It's me - Tara! After such a long lost time. Last Friday was an epic event in our lives and I must get it down in all the craziness that is life right now...

On January 30th we were able to go to the White House and meet President Barack H. Obama in the OVAL OFFICE!!  For the last ten years Joe has been in the PAG which is part of the White House Military Office.  When it's time for you to depart WHMO you are invited to go to the White House and have a departure photo taken with the president. It was seriously the coolest experience ever. We had to wait outside for a while in the surprise crazy snow fall for about an hour then we got to go inside to a second holding area and wait a bit more. When it was time to go further inside the WH we came to an area that looked familiar, we

Realized we were on the opposite side (than we had previously been on) of a red partition that is put up so the first family can move about the WH without anyone who is on a public tour.  Once when we were visiting we were on the east side of the partition and one of the aides there told us President Bush had passed by just a minute before. This time we were on the west side of the partition -fancy! We waited in a foyer for a while then an aide said "we need to move you guys for a minute" and he shuffled us all into the kitchen hallway and closed the door. There was an event at the WH that day so the kitchen was a busy place. We were lining both sides of a maybe four foot hallway and staff were pushing through is with big bouquets of flowers and trays. We were right by the dummy waiter and elevator. Cool! After 10 minutes or so they came back to get us and ushered us all back to where we were.  I am so curious as why we had to be moved out of sight. I am sure I will never know. After 10 more minutes or so of waiting we were moved out one door and walked outside down the west wing colonnade as pictured below

See the brown desk inside? We walked thru those doors and right past that into a hallway to wait our turn.  In the hallway Joe and I were chatting and I told him I was going to make sure and say "Mr. President" somewhere in our meeting just so I could use that phrase. When would I ever get to say that again?? In the hallway we were in were some family photos blown up and framed very nicely. There were a couple of photos of the President getting off the airplane and one of him on board. The aides and the secret service were very, very nice. When we were about 2 couples away from going inside the aide said "don't be nervous" for the record we weren't nervous at all "the president will make you feel right at home, like he's known you forever. Relax and take it all in.  Then it was our turn to go inside!! We stepped into the Oval Office and stood to the side with a mil aide who would announce is. There was so much to look at!  The rug,

the desk, paintings and statues.  And then there was the president himself! I remember thinking "holy cow that is the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!" The real deal!  how cool is that???  We had about 20 seconds -seemed like 3- to take it in and then we were being announced to the POTUS. It was surreal to see him standing there just like a normal regular guy in front of his desk.  The president smiled and reached to shake Joe's hand. Joe said "Good Afternoon Mr. President." I said "It's nice to meet you Mr. President." The POTUS said "come on let's take a picture" he put me in the middle of him and Joe (they told us where to stand but the pres. Guided me to the spot) as he did he said "you stand in the middle, a rose between two thorns." He put his arm around me and I ended up with my arm around him. Between that and the rose comment (which is oddly not the first time someone has said that to me) I don't even know if I was smiling for the photo!  I didn't suck it in or make sure my sweater was in place or anything!  It happened so fast!  I hope I don't look like an idiot!  Lol before we went inside we were briefed about what was appropriate -don't make any requests of the pres. Don't give him anything, no political statements etc. I had really wanted to tell him about the kids but you literally only have like 40 seconds in there. After the photo the president stepped in front of us and asked "what's next for you guys?"  Joe replied "we are headed to Whiteman Air Force Base, sir" the pres said "that will be great, love the Midwest" or something like that that part is a little fuzzy lol - then he asked "do you have any kids?" In the .0000002 seconds that I had to decide how to respond I decided just saying "Yep!" Was dumb so I said "we have three. Our oldest is 21 and serving a mission in Brazil" the president didn't hear the mission part as soon as he heard 21 he held up his hand/pointed at me and said "wait, wait, wait. You have a son who is 21??!"  Points  at Joe and says "him I believe it but you? No" And shakes his head. Joe said "she ages well sir". Ha ha ha we cracked up about that later. I knew our time was up and I didn't want to not mention the girls so I said "we also have a 19 year old daughter in college at BYUI and a 13 year old daughter at home and she would want us to tell you she says hello." He kindly replied "you tell her I said hello!" Then he said "so she will be making the move with you. How is she doing?" I said "she is excited, though it is hard to leave after

10 years"  he said "I am sure it will be

good" and put his hands on the outside of mine and Joe's arms and said "thank you again for your service."  And we walked out.  Joe said "geeze chatty Kathy!" I was like hey he asked me a question!! Lol we knew some other couples that had their pictures taken that day and when they came out they said "he talked to you guys forever!!" We probably had about 60 seconds as opposed to everyone else's 40.  I can't help it if I am easy to talk to!  Lol it was such a great experience!!!  Can't wait to get the photo back!!!! 

Here is what we wore. It was SO windy that day! 

This is what the Oval Office looked like that day 

It was AMAZING!!!  Hands down coolest thing to ever happen to us!  

Puppy love and happiness

This girl likes to lay my her momma.  It makes me happy. 

It is snowing today that makes everyone happy :) 

We are getting out the tree.  That makes everyone happy too!  :) 

Funny kid

I got to attend young women in excellence this evening at the White Plains 1st Ward.  It was a nice evening and the girls did a great job presenting their personal progress.  It's such a wonderful feeling to sit there and see that they are GETTING IT!  That they have individual worth, that they are a daughter of God, that they can make a difference in the lives of others thru their good works.  All of it.  They are getting it!  So rewarding to hear them speak. 

Ended up getting home the same time Haylee did from mutual which was nice. She had a good time but was disappointed that she didn't get to lead the activity.  It was Origami and she had a book and paper and was ready to go to teach the girls.  She still had a good time.  Tomorrow she turns THIRTEEN!   What the heck? Where has the time gone???  I really have no idea.  Most kids want to get older and can't wait to be a teenager then can't wait to drive, can't wait to turn 18, can't wait to move out.  Haylee on the other hand is feeling quite the opposite. I was pretty surprised when she said "stop calling me the birthday girl!  I don't want to be 13!"  When I asked why she said "that's the official age when boys start hitting on you and I swear if anybody does that I am going to slug them!" When I laughed she said "I'm serious mom. You might have to come to the principals office!"  Lol I was cracking up in the inside.  She is such a feisty girl. She and I have been on our own for 4.5 weeks while Joe has been in Alabama.  We are having fun but at the same time we need some testosterone in the house!  :) hormones are not fun with nothing for balance. Lol only 2.5 weeks to go.  Can't wait!  Fingers crossed Haylee wakes up in the morning happy that she is 13. 

Trek -a few months late

I obviously don't post often enough.  Our stake did trek back in July. I had a cold but didn't feel sick just annoying sick where I was coughing and stuffed up.  Quick summary of things I remember

-no running water.  

-lots of cow poop

-tent sleeping.

-cow poop

-standing in a field (of cow poop) at 1 am trying to light wet fire wood to heat up broth whilst dressed like a pioneer and trying to do so in complete darkness -no moon- best comment as we are standing there waiting for the youth goes to Lana "look at us standing here in this field at 1 am dressed like pioneers. If someone just came upon us what would they think? People often find Mormons peculiar. Right now I find us peculiar too!"  Lol 

-womens pull. Amazing. while observing as the girls were left to pull the carts alone up the steepest most treacherous part of the trail and seeing the anguish and concern on the boys faces as they had to stand by and watch. It made me think that when a husband leaves his wife for wordly things that is exactly what he is doing.  Leaving her to pull the cart alone with the help of their children. The path is steep and difficult.  It is a great struggle to pull that heavy cart. I wanted to tell those boys to remember how they felt watching helplessly as the girls pulled -how badly they wanted to help them I wanted them to remember that is what happens if they ever leave their families.  It should be the mans top priority to keep his family together and pull the cart.  Don't start a journey with someone and fill the cart with innocent children then walk away.  I do not imagine the Lord will look upon that favorably. 

-we had amazing weather.  Coolest trek on record for our stake I am sure. 

-finding the band more search than rescue as usual ;)

-eating at fosters at 9:55 in our pioneer clothes and laughing until we almost fell out of the booth. 

-riding in all kinds of ways in Becky's small truck most notably on Lana's lap. 

And in the back at 2am in the rain with Larry. 

-testimony meeting. So powerful.

-the hoedown!  How fun was the Virginia reel! 

And now pics:

Trekking 

Lana and I 

President Volk getting a ride in style 

We hauled firewood in our skirts across this bridge over and over and over. 

Feeling snazzy in my pioneer bonnet 

Loved this pic from the hoedown 

Lana said she could have ridden like this for days and days. I did not believe her.

Stake YW presidency. I love these ladies so much. They have taught me so many things and are such wonderful examples.  I am so grateful to serve with them at this time and place. 

Lots of bonding occurred with these awesome youth and their trek families.  

An experience I will always remember!!