Um, Some Wedding Highlights?

Haha! So it's practically June and I'm just now doing this post about some highlights in my brother-in-law's February wedding. Better late than never? Yes, I think so.

I'm glad I worried over what my boys would wear, for they made it onto the photographer's blog! (Well, the photographer is their aunt.) Their handsomeness is now captured forever:

The whole picture blog post on the wedding can be seen HERE. Check it out, and see all the amazing work Marcie does.

Their wedding was in Rexburg, ID and a month later they had an Open House in Boise, ID. At this Open House Matt and Caitlin sang a song. A lovely song. A beautiful song! Take a listen...

They are amazing, no? If this video doesn't work, click HERE to see.

Poem of the Month

Good Timber
Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out on the open plain
And always got it's share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man that never had to toil,
To gian and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share,
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow in ease;
The srtonger the wind, the stronger the trees;
The further the sky, the further the length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whos broken branches show their scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

.................

Okay, so reason number 1 why I love this poem: it's the first poem that I memorized. Around age 11 or 12, I think. Heard it in a Sunday school lesson and fell in love! Reason number 2: It's about trees. Reason number 3: It's inspiring! And reason number 4: It's about trees!! I love the forest--it's the Cherokee blood in me.

I didn't do a poem for the month of April. Sorry y'all. I had moved and all of my poetry books were packed away. (One of my favoirte things to look at in thrift stores are old literature books. I'm starting to get a nice collection.) From now till September I'll be relying on my brain for some poems to share.

.............

In April Matt and I celebrated our 6th year of marriage. For a while now I've been feeling like we have gone through too much in such a sort amount of time. Iraq deployment, both full time in college, 3 babies, heart surgeries, more college, more military--all of this under the poverty line. I've wondered how we can handle all of it. Not really questioning our relationship, but just wondering how we can make it through each day in one piece.

After a few embarrasing break downs, and lots of prayer, I've come to realize that our life is our life. The past is the past. The future is the future. And most important, the now is the now. What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger. In fact, without these trial we wouldn't be who we are today. Our trials make our lives better--nay, our relationship better. (An "aha" moment, right there.)

Love you, Matt Studly. Can't wait to see what your abs look like at the end of the summer!
And happy 6th anniversary to us, may we have an infinity more!

In Flight

Me and the three boys flew. We did. AND IT WASN'T TOO BAD! There were times which I thought it was going to get hard, really hard. But it never got to that point. Ears? Not bad. Naps? Eli and Titus were able to take them. Fighting? Hardly none. Compassion from others on board? Yes, I never felt judged. During our two hour layover we sat and watched the planes come in and out. The boys loved it! All in all, a good trip.

*Confession: I cried when we left Idaho. The reality of leaving Matt, and the place I have called home for the last 6.5 years, hit me hard when it was time to board. I love Matt, and I am going to miss him. A LOT! And there are some great things about Idaho that I will truly miss this summer.

We are now in Bama. Enjoying all the lovely green. I feel totally encompassd by it... It's soothing to the soul.

Isaac is going nuts with everything around, and everything to do. I feel like he is running around every minute of the day. I wonder when he is going to crash.

Eli and Titus love being here, but they have moments when the changes are a little too much.

We've been doing a lot the last few days, when things settle down and my parents's Wi-Fi is up and running, I'll post pictures. (Outdoor fun, family fun, Madison's graduation, etc.)

Us:

May the force be with us as me and the boys depart for Alabama tomorrow, and leave Matt behind for 2.5 months.

Flying Monkey-Boys

We give our children wings to fly.

An Eli Heart Update

It's been a while since we've had one of these, huh? Well, it's been a while since we've been to the cardiologist. And guess what? That has changed!

Eli has had two cardiologist appointments within the last two weeks.

Here's the deal:

he weighs 30 pounds, and is 33 inches tall. He is "a square," as one nurse put it.

AND...

... Eli will probably be getting his (hopefully) last surgery at the end of the summer. The Fontan Procedure, to be more precise. We will come back from Alabama August 6th, have a cardio cath done on August 8th in Boise, and then the following week or two have the surgery down at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

There is a possibility that after they do the cardio cath, look at the heart thoroughly and repair possible leaks, that we will not be doing the surgery. There are two schools of thought on doing the Fontan Procedure. Some doctors believe it needs to be done as soon as the child is two, others believe that it can wait till as long as 4 years old. Our doctor and surgeon are more on board with waiting till the child looks like he/she needs it done (up till 4 years old).

Because Eli shows signs of cyanosis (turning blue/gray color), is pretty sweaty and beginning to breathe hard during play, they think he is ready. Also his mitral valve is leaky. (The valve between the left atrium and ventricle, the pink blood side.) Doing the surgery would greatly take the stress off of this valve--for it is dealing with twice the amount of blood than typical mitral valves.

And incase you don't remember what Eli has, I'll tell you! Tricuspid Atresia. His right valve did not form, instead a wall of tissue. So he has no right ventricle, and pretty much just has two chambers. The two atriums are connected, and all the blood goes down into the left ventricle. His blood is mixed. After this last surgery the blood will no longer be mixed, the heart will only be pumping pink blood, and all the blue blood is routed to the pulmonary artery which goes to the lungs. Crazy, eh? (Creating valves and ventricles is still God's thing. We humans can only reroute!)

We keep a blog about Eli's heart adventures at www.elihasheart.blogspot.com

................

Recap of today:

Eli wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything 8 hours before his sedated heart echo (ultrasound of the heart). Yes, Eli was crabby. He was very disappointed in my bag, there were no treats, no drinks, not even old crushed bags of Goldfish. (I emptied my bag out before we left, and there were like 3 bags of old crushed Goldfish.)

They didn't put him all the way under, which meant no IV! HOORAY! (IVs, oh how we hate thee!) Instead they gave him a nasty medicine which caused him to come drowsy, relaxed, and unable to form coherent thoughts. I held him the whole time while they did the heart echo, took blood pressure, and blood saturation levels. They got a good thirty minutes of this before he started to started to wiggle. We needed another 10 minutes to get all the looks at the heart that they needed. These last ten me and Matt were holding arms, and nurses were blowing bubbles and showing movies off of their smart phones.

Eli was pretty wobbly and cranky after he fully came to. This 2 year old was a handful till naptime. Wanted food, didn't want food. Wanted drinks, didn't want drinks. Wanted to walk, didn't want to walk.

At this moment (after naptime) he is enjoying a movie, juice, and Goldfish!

To Great Friends

I grew up never really feeling like I had a best friend. When I lived in the woods K thru 3rd grade, I had Jonathan 10 minutes down the road. He was great, and we loved building in the woods, but I knew I wasn't his "go to gal." When we went urban in 4th grade and moved to the town of 3500 people, I felt a bit out of place. I did acquire 2 awesome guy buddies, but again, I wasn't the glue that kept our gang of 3 together. This continued into middle school and high school: with great pals (boys AND girls), knowing they were my best friends, but I wasn't theirs. Nobodies' fault, really. I had insecurities and fears which really kept me for making great connections.

Since leaving Bama and coming west, I have made some great friends. For the most part I didn't have family around, I completly relied on them for support during good and the bad times. These friends are as good as it gets! I so appreciate their friendship.

I'll be leaving for Bama in two weeks, and I'll be staying there for about 3 months (just me and my boys). I'll be apart from some awesome people, which has gotten me thinking about what their friendship really means to me.

I dedicate this to my great friends:

• Here's to great friends who listen to my woes at mid-night in a deserted parking lot.
• Here's to great friends who wear my clothes without my knowledge, but always return them laundered and freshly clean.
• Here's to great friends who sing silly songs on balconies with me.
• Here's to great friends who come over daily to watch the Oprah show with me.
• Here's to great friends that bake fresh bread, and share a whole loaf.
• Here's to great friends that send phone texts during the week to see if I'm okay.
• Here's to great friends that take my child on errands (while being 7 months pregnant themselves) so I can get some rest.
• Here's to great friends that take my child during the night so that I can recover from my illness and go to the hospital for an IV.
• Here's to great friends that shop the night away with me.
• Here's to great friends that show me new places, people, things.
• Here's to great friends that lead by example in the art of motherhood.
• Here's to great friends who never judge my disheveled appearance.
• Here's to great friends that let me look through their old bag of clothes, so that I may have some "new" clothes.
• Here's to great friends who cry with me while morning over my child's illness.
• Here's to great friends that open up their front door to my children, and love them as their own.
• Here's to great friends who gossip with me, and shyly enjoy it.
• Here's to great friends that push me run, and share their secrets of success.
• Here's to great friends who compliment my outfit that I fretted over for hours.
• Here's to great friends who feed me and my family dinner.
• Here's to great friends who show the true meaning of Christ's love, by always having a wonderful home environment.
• Here's to great friends who hold one of my children, while I run after the other.
• Here's to great friends who over look my inabilities to cook, clean, and spell--but accept my efforts in all three.
• Here's to great friends that will talk to me for hours at a time, never pushing for me more than I'm willing to give.
• Here's to great friends that open their door to me when I knock at 10 o'clock at night and in tears.
• Here's to great friends that let me peel their back after an amazing sunburn.
• Here's to great friends that meet me at parks almost weekly, so that we may talk and our kids can play.

To my great friends, I love you. I am so grateful for you in my life. You guy are my best friends! (Which gaining best friends in my 20s has been awesome!) Being apart is hard, but I hope that as we continue to make our lives our own, we can stay close.

And if we get stationed in Hawaii, you must come and stay with us!

Cutie Tootie Titus

Last night I uploaded pictures from our camera, and what did I notice? Almost all of the 170+ pictures (all taken within the last 3 weeks, mind you) were Titus themed.

Mmm... mmm... mmm! He is scrumptious! Enjoy all his little looks, for he has some awesome ones. His favorite of last is an "O" face. You'll know it when you see it!

Ahh, 11 months old. What a wonderful time!

An Eye Burn?

Yup. An eye burn. To be more precise, a "too much sun in the eye" burn.

Boise has had some BEA-UTIFUL days, the last two days. I have tried to take as much advantage as possible. Result? Take a look:

Unsure what you are looking at? The sclera (white part of eye) is very inflamed, soft, and yellow.

To be sure, I freaked out! At this moment while taking the pictures I was ready to run to the ER. I had many thought, ranging from "I'M GOING TO LOSE MY EYE!" and "I HAVE EYE LEPROSY!" to "I THINK I'M HAVING A STROKE!"

But after researching a bit, and resting and NOT touching my eye for an hour, it mostly returned to normal.

Lesson learned, wear eye protection at all times.

Isaac's Day

This morning Isaac decides that it is going to his imaginary friends' birthday. What a great idea! His friends, Monsters Inc., turns 9. Wow, they are getting so big.

Isaac has had these guys around for at least a year, and they are his "go to" pals. If he says he is not ready to eat, then I say "No you need to eat," Isaac replies, "I didn't say that, Monster Inc. said that." So after all the flack they have gotten from Isaac (all the blame on mischief that has happened in the house) I'm on board to celebrate their big birthday! (I gotta get these guys to like me.)

We decide on rainbow cupcakes, brownies, and balloons. And of course presents! Isaac has a long, long list (including an underwater volcano toy) but we decide on getting them a small potato gun. Isaac colors a brown paper bag, and wraps the present in it. We make some brownies--don't have the resources for rainbow cupcakes--and he then asks for all the balloons to blown up. We (I!) blow up all the balloons, but for some reason we do it outside.

After about 10 minutes outside a slight breeze starts. Isaac freaks, I mean FREAKS out. He is crying, saying "I don't want the balloons to leave!" He hurriedly tires to get all the balloons back in the house, crying hysterically the whole time. A balloon pops in his hands as he is rounding up his heard of balloons, and he basically loses it. His mind is shot. But to make matters worse another slight breeze comes through, picks up a pink balloon, and drops it high in the neighbor's tree. That's it. Isaac is officially gone. There is nothing I can do for him, except place him in his room and let him cry it out. (I actually wish I could have video taped it all. It was very funny! What a mean mom I am, no? His unreasonableness was unmatched, I tell you!)

He settles down, comes down stairs, and we wait for Matt to come for dinner. Chick-Fil-A, hooray! Monsters Inc. deserves the best, right? After dinner we have some brownies, load up the potato gun, and have a lovely evening.

I peak in the room where he recovered his sanity after the balloon episode... TOTALLY DEVASTATION. Cribs flipped over, clothes on the floor, CD player a wreck. Apparently he had some feelings to release. Matt helps him put the room back together--with military precision! Isaac is taught how to fold clothes, put them in the draw, and keep it the draw organized. He puts the beds back in order, makes the beds, and fixes the CD player.

Afterward I bathe the boys. They have fun together, but maybe a little too much fun. Isaac and Eli enjoy pouring water on Titus, over and over and over and over again. Not too much, but just enough to get a "nice" reaction from Titus. (I'm excited for the day when Titus can take his sweet, sweet vengeance... not too much longer, I hope!)

Isaac is second to get out of the tub. Motioning to the towel place on the toilet lid, I tell him to "sit on that." He repeats, saying: "Sit on that!"

I say, "Sit on that!"

He says, "Sit on that!"

We create a nice duet song/mild rap, "Sit-on THAT! Sit-on THAT! Sit-on THAT! Sit-on THAT!" A dance is incorporated, along with had motions. We smile at each other while rapping together. "Sit-on THAT! Sit-on THAT! Sit-on THAT!"

He finishes his evening with Tom and Jerry clips (fast forwarding through the scary witch episode). Bed time is pretty smooth, though he doesn't want me to help him at all with teeth brushing (I try to help with a few strokes to satisfy my inner clean freak). He jumps in bed, says a prayer, then lays back. Titus' cries, along with a Primary Children's Song Book cd, fills the room. And Isaac, and the two little boys drift off into sleep.

Need A Laugh?

Well here are some pictures from my "single college days" that will probably give you one, or maybe two chuckles!

A friend of mine posted these a few days ago onto Facebook. I haven't seen most of these, ever! So here I am, winter/summer 2005, living high life without my fiancee/husband Matt with these beautiful and lovely ladies.

Thanks for taking me in, girls! Obviously I was a little bit crazy:

Hiking in the Tetons, not being able to breath, so I'm having the horse pull me.

HARRY POTTER BOOK PREMIER! I'm Dobby, the house elf.

Ward Party at Porter Park, eating something for a race.

Ward party aftermath. That's watermelon juice all down me, y'all.

I don't think I ever took a normal picture.

An 80s night, trying to learn a dance from Thirteen Going On Thirty

We were beautiful, weren't we?

Loved making smores over the kitchen!

Oh look, a normal pic! (Can yo find me? I have the pale, pale face.)

Outside movie ward party! (Can you see me? I'm all neck and grin.)

Ice blocking!

Holy smokes, I love ice blocking. Had never, ever done this before. Became a hard core love of mine.

Matt was in Iraq during these months, but I really tried to not let that stop me from having fun... looks like I succeeded! I did get blue from time to time--which totally freaked me roommates out--but a visit to my bishop, home teacher, or a professor I looked up to always helped me out. (One of the great things about not having to worry about the whole dating world? I could dress like a bum and totally get away with it! My style motto then: "wear what's clean.")