Pinewood Derby

I am not sure what is up with Darin's face here. Oh well!

Dylan is the one in the middle, waiting for his car to race.

Ok, why oh why did they have my 2 boys race against each other?! They are 22 months apart and get competitive at times. Darin is putting his car on the track and Dylan is looking away.

Darin is the far left just waiting his turn. The lighting was not too good in the building so sorry about the fuzzy pics. Plus I do not photoshop well! Lessons anyone?

Our Awesome cubmaster. He puts lots of time and effort into this. He is also a DJ and just a fun person to be around. Love the hair:)

Dylan waiting againg for his car to race. He looks worried!

Dylan's car is in the middle.

Just a general shot of the setup. Pinewood Derby is fun although I must say I think Rich had more fun putting the cars together. The boys helped a little but the rest was Rich. I am happy my boys tied for 6th place. That meant no fights at home about whose car was better and that means a happy mom. They had a great time and it is also nice as we have 3 nonmember boys who are part of the pack. Great time for missionary efforts and also fun for the new boys as they all attend elementary school together. This is Darin's last race as he advances up to 11 year old scouts in April. Rich will only have to make one car for the next 2 years until Colton becomes 8. I think the best part is the boys do not remember down the road who won. Brandon has all his cars and honestly cannot tell you whether he won or not (well besides the first year he came in dead last but was happy as he got 24 packs of gum as a consolation prize). Next big thing for cub scouts is the Blue and Gold Banquet. Our stake did things a little backwards and had the pinewoood derby first. Whew, a whole year until the next one - yipee!!!

Learning to Think Before I Email

Crazy week at work. I work nights for a hospice and do the triage out of my house. I usually have a pretty steady week and am able to get some sleep most nights. For some reason, Friday thru Sunday was just crazy. The phone rang nonstop all throughout the day and the night with patient problems. My LPN and I were driving all over metro Phoenix to see these patients. Each night we would get home and say to each other "tonight will be a good night." Thinking these thoughts did not work!!! Neither one of us have slept for 3 days in a row.

My boss had made some comment Saturday night that just made me mad!! Usually I would not get upset or if I did, I would not stay upset (I know my Dad is laughing right now). Due to lack of sleep (or I am going to blame it on that) I kept getting madder and madder until I finally emailed him a nasty note at 3:30 am. He also was the administrator on call so needless to say, my email woke him up!!

I did get called into his office today for a mandatory meeting. Whoops!! I apologized and thankfully he forgave me. Moral of story, next time I will just write the email but not push send!! Then I can get my anger out but not have to get called in and worry about losing my job:)

Pink Fish Food

What is it about pink fish food that makes my children want to just dump it in the fish tank? If I was computer savy enough I would link back to my post where my daughter did this and we had a mass guppy suicide:(

This time it was my 10 year old, Darin, the owner of our gazillion guppies who accidentally dumped in half the can at 6 am. So guess what I did at 6 am? You are right! Ignored it. Just kidding:) I vacuumed it out, had Darin catch all the guppies (and we just had newborns 3 days ago, dang those are hard to catch!). I am proud to say that not one single guppy was harmed in the cleaning of the fish tank.

From now on, I think I will just buy the dull colored flakes. What do you think?

Flu Season

We seem to be one of those families that is prone to the flu around here. I am not posting pictures as it is not a fun sight!! Camryn started it all off and now everyone has it, including me. Rich is the only one who has not caught it but he takes Zinc everyday. Once I can actually keep something down I am going to take Zinc. He does not get sick that easily and something must be working!! Why is it every kid who is sick has to sleep in bed with us? I guess it is because they need Mommy time and I want to provide that for them. The funniest story is Brandon screaming at the top of his lungs at 2 am that he had to throw up!! I thought as they got older this would subside but it just goes to show you they still need their mommies. Heck, I want my mommy right now!!! At least Brandon was in the bathroom screaming he had to throw up. I was that lovely child who would go into my mom and dad's room, go to my mom's side of the bed, announce I had to throw up and then promptly throw up all over my mom!!! My poor mom having to deal with a sick child and clean herself up as well as the bed and me. Thank goodness my mom still loves me and hopefully has forgiven me for the numerous times I did this too her:) Camryn was good for only being 4. She made it to the bathroom and then I took my friend, Kasandra's advice and kept a big bowl in my room. It worked wonders!! Camryn would tell me she had to throw up, I would hold her hair back and the big bowl was right by. My kids were painfully honest with me today as they snuggled into bed with me. There first comment was "Gee mom, you stink!" Sure made my day and I did manage to make it into the shower. Sometimes I think kids are too painfully honest!!!

My Valentine Baby

What could be a better Valentine's day gift than a newborn baby? Dylan Austin Rhoton was born 02/14/2000. Both Rich and I wanted a millenium baby as we thought we would never forget his age!!

Dylan was blessed to come into a family of 2 older brothers. I had a miscarriage right before him and even at 11 weeks, the doctor could tell something was wrong with the baby and that the baby would not live after birth. Heavenly Father let me know that it was ok (even though having a miscarriage was devastating and even though Darin was only 6 months old at the time) that I would get pregnant again soon and that this sweet spirit wanted a body that would live longer than a few minutes after birth. He has been fiesty ever since.

I was so excited to go to the ultrasound. Rich and I had bets on whether it would be a boy or girl. After already having 2 boys, I of course said girl! The deal was that whoever was right got to name the baby. As soon as we found out it was a boy, Rich immediately said his name was Dylan. I chose the spelling since Rich can't spell anyway (love ya honey!).

I bled early on but thank goodness that was resolved quickly. At 30 weeks, I started to go into labor. This was the first baby I was put on bedrest with and given that yucky, but necessary, drug terbutaline. I stayed on bedrest until 36 weeks. He was born 3 weeks early on Valentine's Day 2000 at 2:14 pm. Had another wonderful epidural with him and the birth went great. He was the first baby I was able to push out by myself (whole other story). He stayed with me the first night, but by the second day was in the NICU for ABO incompatibility, which turned him jaundiced. This was the first baby to have this. He had to stay for 3 nights in the NICU under the bilirubin lights. I am so thankful for modern medicine as if he did not have this treatment, he would be mentally challenged.

He was a joy to have in our home and the older 2 boys loved him. Darin had no jealousy issues and in fact, I had to buy him a baby doll as he wanted to nurse his baby too - how cute!! He did get ear infections early on and frequently, but by the time he was 2 they stopped being so severe. He still gets them from time to time, but has never had tubes.

He gave us a scare at 9 months old as he had a black tarry stool diaper. That means bleeding internally higher up in the GI tract. I took the diaper and the child to his Dr. that day and it tested positive for blood. I was one worried mom! He had xrays, blood work, stool samples and nuclear medicine studies. None of them turned up conclusive as to why he was bleeding. At night sometimes, he would just curl up into pain and I would just hold him and rock him. He also had plenty of priesthood blessings. One day, he pooped out a shiny metal ball bearing. It was the cleanest one you have ever seen! To this day, he has never had any GI problems again. I am just amazed that it never showed up on all the tests he had.

He has always been my loving child to me. I get constant hugs, kisses and I love you's every day. He tries his best at school and overcame not being able to read in kindergarten to being one of the top readers in his class in 3 grade. He loves to play baseball, video games, jump on the trampoline and play with his best friend since 4, Nick Nussbaum. Those 2 crack me up as they call themselves dog cousins as we have matching maltese dogs that are brothers.

Dylan loves to eat and thinks he has to eat every 2 hours. He had my dad convinced he was going to be a health inspector (because he could eat for free!!) until my dad told him that does not alway mean eating the best food. He has since decided to be a food critic and he is already trying it out at home, despite my pleas to have him stop! He told Rich and I one day he was going to own a restaurant and that is would be fancy. I told him "good, then your mom and dad can eat for free." That little turkey said "Oh no, but you can have a 10% discount." I about fell out of my chair!! The Grandparents get a 20% discount as they are senior citizens. What a generous boy!

It was a beautiful day to watch him be baptized by his dad last year and being given the gift of the Holy Ghost. There are times when I can see this power working in his life and it makes a mom proud:) We are blessed to have him in our family and I love seeing him grow and make good decisions thus far.

Happy Birthday and Valentine's Day Dylan Austin Rhoton! We love you:)

Camryn's 4th Birthday

Dylan's 9th Birthday

B@by Sh@q

Brandon is #5 playing defense in this picture. This is just the second game of the season.

Spending some down time on the bench with coach.

Warm up. One of his friends, Kyle, is in the backgrown. He used to spend so much time at our house that I used to make sure I had enough extra snack food for him:)

Just after a shot! This team has started off slow but has begun to gel together and trust each other, just as we have to do in life. You may be wondering about the title. My son's friends at school have given him the nickname of B@by Sh@q thanks to how tall he is and how big his feet are. He wears a size 12-13 depending on the shoe and Brandon is only 13!! I sure hope his feet quit growing soon or else I am going to have to take a mortgage on the house to pay for his shoes. For all you blog stalkers out there, feel free to leave a comment:)

Alex

Today is Alex's last day at school. This has been Brandon's friend and good girlfriend friend since the beginning of the school year. They have walked home together, called each other and just had some goofy fun together. Alex leaves for Texas tomorrow. Brandon says he feels both sad and ok. Normal emotions for a 13 year old. It will be interesting to not have her texting her from her friends phone late at night and not calling the house. I really do like her, just feel that 13 was kind of young for an emotional attachment. But as many of my friends have pointed out, this is normal at this age. He is my oldest so he has been the try everything out on child! I am learning from him and hopefully learning how to deal with each successive child, even though each one is different. I am thinking I am going to have to do some fun things with him over the next little while. Oh the joys of youth!! So glad I do not have to relive that part of it again:)

I Will Be The Strong Link

We had our family home evening lesson on being the strong link in the family chain. We asked all the kids to cut out links that were in the February friend. The older 3 at first chose to hide under blankets until we told them no brownies until they participated! That got them out quick.

Dad with all the kids as they were assembling the chain.

Darin being the only one cutting them out for the moment until brownies were mentioned again.

It was a fun family home evening night. Some of the kids do not have shirts on because it was raining here in Arizona, which does not happen often enough. The kids went out and jumped on the trampoline in the rain until they were freezing, came in took a quick shower and then put on part of their pajamas. Hence, the no shirt look.

Here is part of the story we told : When President Gordon B. Hinckley was a young man, he and his family lived on a farm during the summer. He had this experience there. "There was a dead tree I wished to pull. I fastened one end of a chain to the tractor and the other end to a tree. As the tractor began to move, the tree shook a little, and then the chain broke. I looked at that broken link and wondered how it could have given way. I went to the hardware store and bought a repair link. I put it together again, but it was an awkard and ugly conncection. The chain was never, never the same."

Think of yourself as part of a chain - a family chain. President Hinckley said we should never let ourselves be a weak link in our family chain.

We then took out our family mission statement and read it again to the kids. After it was read, there was some finger pointing and giggling, but they still all agreed to stick to the statement. They have been kinder to each other these past 2 weeks. We have now asked them to help with family chores without so much fighting. As we told them, you guys put this in the statement yourself so we need to live up to it! We shall see how this goes as I must say, I hate all the whining and grumbling that goes on when we ask them to do the dishes, vacuum, etc. Hopefully we will see a small change in attitude. That would be enough for now to make me smile:)

Crush

http://


This song by David Archuleta reminds me of what Brandon is going through and what we all went through before getting married. What a sweet song and he is still so dang cute:)

Sigh

If Brandon reads this, I will be toast again!! I blogged previously about a certain young lady calling him and walking home with him from school. He is 13 and a half - I still say too young. Just found out today that she is moving in 2 weeks to Texas with her family. Better job for the parents and better medical care for her little brother that has leukemia.

My question is, what am I going to do about Brandon?! I have a feeling he is going to be very down and sad. He is my emotional boy and has always worn his heart on his sleeve. You can always tell (or I can) what he is feeling by how he looks. He has walked home with her and the same group of friends since the beginning of school. They belong to the SLACKERS club (early morning book group in the library) and the group has also met there. I guess I should be happy that she won't be calling all the time but I do feel sad for Brandon. Dang, we will have to see how this all plays out. The above picture was when he was 7 and we were at Outer Banks, North Carolina - one of the best places to vacation:)

New Moon

I still like to check out Stephenie Myers website. I know New Moon is not coming out until November but it is fun to see her thoughts and feelings about the movie, cast and new director. Here is what she and Chris Weitz wrote about casting Taylor Launter as Jacob again (big sigh of relief from all of us Twilight fans:)

I'm very happy to announce that Taylor Lautner will be playing Jacob Black in New Moon and that he's doing so with the enthusiatic support of Summit Entertainment, the producers, and Stephenie Myer.

The characters in Stephenie's books go through extraordinary changes of circumstance and appearance; so it is not surprising that there has been speculation about whether the same actor would portray a character who changes in so many surprising ways throughout the series. But it was my first instinct that Taylor was, is, and should be Jacob, and that the books would be best served by the actor who is emotionally right for the part. I think that fans of Twilight the book and the movie will be surprised by the Jacob Black that Taylor will bring to the screen in New Moon; and I'm looking forward to working with him and the rest of the cast in realizing the film. Very Best, Christ Weitz

From Stephenie: I'd just like to add that I was very much a part of this decision. My first priority was always what was best for New Moon - what was going to give us the best possible movie. I'm truly thrilled that Taylor was the one who proved to the director, to Summit, and to me that he is the best possible Jacob we could have. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he's going to bring to Jacob's character this year. - Steph

"Do you realize?" - The Flaming Lips (B)
"Papercut" - Linkin Park (B)
"Hyper Music" - Muse (B)
"Apocalypse Please" - Muse (B)
"Time Stands Still" - The All-American Rejects (B)
"Empty Room" - Marjorie Fair (B)
"Unwell" - Matchbox Twenty (B)
"Pain" - Jimmy Eat World (B)
"Ride" - The Vines (B)
"Fix You" - Coldplay (J)
"Blueside" - Rooney (B)
"Over My Head (Cable Car)" - The Fray (B)
"Going Under" - Evanescence (B)
"Tautou" - Brand New (B)
"Be My Escape" - Relient K (B)
"Never Let You Down" - Verve Pipe (J)
"Sing For Absolution" - Muse (E)
"Ya Mamma" - Fatboy Slim (Generic action-scene music)
"D.O.A." - Foo Fighters
"Stare" - Marjorie Fair (B)
"Memory" - Sugarcult (B)
"The Truth About Heaven" - Armor For Sleep (B)
"The Scientist" - Coldplay (E)
"Sound of Pulling Heaven Down" - Blue October (E)Alternates:
"Drag" - Placebo (B)

The above are the songs Stephenie has picked so far for the movie. The initials by the songs state who she is thinking of for the song - Edward, Bella and Jacob.

We Need to Chart on Computers Why?!

What a crazy, frustrating day. Now I know why Mondays can just really stink. My hospice company decided to go "live" with computer charting today. That means all paperwork is now on some program called Consolo. It was said to us that this would make our lives easier, faster, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, right!! I had to admit a patient onto hospice services tonight. I can usually complete the whole assessment (which is a stack of paperwork) in about an hour. I am used to where my forms are, what are on them, and what is really necessary. Instead, it took me 3 hours to complete the admission!!! What the heck?!

Each medication had to be found by the slow laptop, downloaded and then the computer had to think if it liked my entry. Patient is only on 20 different medications so it was sloooow. Then the computer decided to save my notes when I was only half way done. So instead of 1 nursing assessment, there are 5 different ones. So when the next nurse logs in I guess they can choose which one looks best, considering some of them are only half way completed as the computer booted me off! To top it off, I was denied access to areas that I am supposed to have access to in order to complete all the paperwork. My boss got numerous phone calls from me and hopefully this will all get straightened out tomorrow.

To top it off, as I was driving out of the nursing home parking lot my car alarm started randomly going off as I was driving it!! Hello, can I really steal a moving minivan with my keys in the ignition and I am going 65 miles an hour? It was quite embarrassing to drive down the side streets, to the freeway and have my car lights flashing and the loudest noise ever coming out of my car. I tried stopping, turning it off, pressing different buttons all to no avail. When I got home, I had my hubby look at it and guess what?! That's right, now it is fine. I am just so thankful I did not get pulled over. I think that would have put me over the edge:)

Ok, now I feel better!

Fast Offerings

Today just touched my soul and my heart. I needed this so badly and so of course I had to blog about it:)

In our church, we fast the first Sunday of the month and also have fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was really there for me today and brought tears to my eyes many times. Camryn kept asking why I was crying and I told her it was my happy tears. This was also the first time my oldest son, Brandon, fasted. Awesome feeling for a mom! One of the silly boys in my primary class said he was fasting that the Cardinals would win the Superbowl - the turkey:) We lost but I guess his intentions were good.

Brandon is the Deacon's Quorum President and one of his duties is to organize collecting the fast offerings from members and teaching the new Deacons how to do it. Ladd just came into Deacons last week so I had the priviledge of driving Brandon and Ladd around their assigned route. Ladd lives 3 doors down from us. Our ward boundaries are very tight and small - Mesa is like a mini Utah with the amount of members we have in a city. It touched my heart to watch these 2 young men that hold the Aaronic priesthood go to the doors of members, have those members invite them in and then come back out with the fast offerings. They reminded me of missionaries as they walked up to the door with suits on and knocked. Brandon is almost 14 and is closer to a mission than I ever realized. Makes me wonder how I am going to send him off for 2 years - I know he needs to go but I am going to miss him so much!

It was a great Sunday and I am thankful for the opportunity I have of being a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.