The Wizard

Craig scored some tickets to a baseball fundraiser last night.  He took Jake and Isaac.  They got to meet The Wizard, Ozzie Smith.  He is in the Hall of Fame as a St. Louis Cardinal shortstop.  He used to run out of the dugout and do a front flip on the way to his infield position. 

Isaac and Jake were nice enough to get four baesballs signed so they could share with Sam and Evan.  Sam had two baseball practices tonight and he's getting ready for a tournament, so he didn't go.

Caroline finally, finally decided on what to wear to the dance.  Just in time too, the dance is in four days.  She had a choice between a long black dress and a short purple one.  She chose the purple, which made me really happy.  I'll post pictures soon.

Bad Sign

Today I was lucky enough to take Sam shopping for a new suit.  After watching the deacons pass the sacrament on Sunday, Craig decided Sam need a suit.  I've been resisting because he's on the verge of a growth spurt.  But Sam has been struggling a little bit with life, so I decided he needed a pick-me-up.  He told Reed, our friend who owns the Mr. Mac in Bountiful, that he wanted black with pinstripes.  I encouraged Sam when we got there to try on a few different styles.  Sam surprised us both when he chose a charcoal suit with a window pane pattern.  He looks amazing.  I'll post a picture when it's altered.

Isaac was struggling with his breathing again tonight.  After a breathing treatment at home without much improvement, we called his allergist/asthma-ist.  She gave us a few ideas to try.  Sadly, she also gave us her home and cell phone numbers.  I think this is a bad sign.  Isaac may have to start steroids again if he doesn't improve in the next few days.  I asked Dr. Broadbent what the max number of times a year Isaac should be on steroids.  She said 1-2 times.  Isaac has been on steroids five times since October.  Like I said, a bad sign.

Super Super Bowl

The Super Bowl was awesome this year.  It had drama.  A drive to win at the end of the game.  I didn't love the teams playing--Patriots & Giants--but enjoyed the game.  We had a grilled cheese bar with lots of meats and cheeses, chips and dip and root beer floats.  Becky & Max, Doug & Linda, and a few of Jake's friends joined us.  The Giants put together an 80-yard drive with under four minutes in the game to score the go-ahead touchdown.  Eli Manning was the MVP.

Now we have a mess to clean up.

Evan wrote during the Super Bowl so we got to give him some updates.  He sounds amazing.  He is happy in Fuji and can see the mountain from his window.  As senior companion, he has big plans for getting the work going.  We're proud of him.

Raising Isaac

Craig and I started our Saturday with a temple session at the Bountiful temple.  A great place to be.  Lots of other people thought so too.  I was glad afterwards when Sam and Jake got home from their scout "campout" (inside someone's cabin) and the four kids I have left at home were all under one roof for a bit.  We busied ourselves running errands and doing chores to be ready for the big Super Bowl tomorrow. 

Craig and I had a fabulous dinner of Thai food with our friends, the Beckers, and our friend, Cindy.  We love to have Cindy along wherever we go.  Great conversation and lots of laughs.

We came home to find Isaac struggling.  His chest hurts, his throat hurts and he's coughing a lot.  It's hard to raise Isaac.  Not because we don't love him.  We love him a ton.  But so many times I can't decide whether or not he needs to go to the emergency room.  I have to rely on how I "feel", which means I'm trying to let the Holy Ghost tell me whether he needs to go to the hospital.  I really try to "listen" and then react to how I feel.  Tonight he had two breathing treatments and only felt marginally better.  He's oxygenating pretty well even with a wheeze, so we decided to wait and see if he gets worse.  Hopefully I'm doing the right thing.

Bad Judgment

Jake and his friends attended the 4A state drill competition today in Provo.  Unfortunately, Jake tried to go around a school bus in the high school parking lot on his way out. When a small truck goes up against a bus, the bus always wins.

Bountiful took state again for the fouth time in a row.  They are always glad to have support.  In fact, they have asked Jake to represent them in the Mr. Brave contest as Mr. Drill because he is so supportive.

Caroline went to see Dr. Broadbent to get to the bottom of her recent allergic reaction.  We might never know what caused her reaction.  Her skin testing went well and she's been cleared to restart her allergy shots.  While we were at the doctor, Isaac texted me a picture of his eye and asked if Dr. Broadbent could diagnose him and prescribe something:

Obviously, he has pink eye.  Since he was contagious an couldn't hang out with a friend tonight and Craig had to work late, Isaac and I went to a movie, Red Tails.  We quite enjoyed it.

New Carpet

Happily, our new carpet went in today.  It's almost not worth getting new carpet when you realize you have to move all that funiture.  We only had to do two rooms, but the console in the family room is really, really heavy.  Both the family room and Caroline's room look great.  I'm pretty good at that color picking stuff. 

Went to a movie with Cindy today.  We love afteroon movies.  We decided to stop and get a Coke to smuggle into the movie in our purse.  Cindy went ahead to buy popcorn while I got the tickets.  When I came around the corner to refreshments, Cindy's purse was all laid out on the counter and everything was soaking wet from her spilled Coke.  I, of couse, started laughing really hard.  In fact, I was laughing so hard, Cindy volunteered to the worker that I too had a Coke in my purse.  She tattled on me, but the worker didn't really care. 

Sam and Isaac hitched a ride to Provo tonight with Sam's friend.  BYU played Gonzaga in basketball, a big game with NCAA tournament ramifications.  The downside:  The game was on ESPN an didn't start until 9:00 p.m.  It was a late night, but the boys enjoyed a win and said it was one of their favorite games.

Cannery

This morning Red Sox tickets went on sale.  We are trying to get tickets to the game against the Yankees celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park.  We wanna be there when Fenway turns 100.  Some of us will be cheering for the Red Sox--probably most of the group since Evan won't be there to even out the cheering.  The rest of us will be cheering for the Yankees.  Sam will be the lone person who won't care too much.  I suspect he'll cheer for the Yankees.  We're excited that Uncle Ryan will be going with us, even if he is a Red Sox fan.  Luckily, we got right in on the ticket sale and got bleacher seats for two games. 

After the internet ticket sale, I buzzed up to Ogden to help at the cannery.  Let's be honest, I was only helping so that I would be allowed to buy some product at the end.  Today they were making (and selling) beef stew.  It was medium fun, but nice to come home with a box of stew for our food storage.

Tonight we had basketball games again.