End of an Era

Branden graduated (promoted?) from 6th grade on Wednesday. It was your typical 6th grade graduation...parents lining up at 6:30 in the morning to get a "good" seat...6th graders walking in one at a time...awards being given out for various accomplishments. Branden received a presidential academic award for having a 3.5 GPA or higher from 3rd-6th grade and receiving advanced scores on his star testing. About twenty 6th graders received that award, but Branden thinks it's cool that Obama signed it. Someone had prepared a video of all the students morphing from their kindergarten school picture to their 6th grade school picture. It was nice to see that Branden grew into his kindergarten ears.

Since Kelsie and Trevor were done with their finals, they went to support their little brother at graduation. Trevor had made a sign that said "I 'heart' Brande(o)n" in honor of his brother and the other Brandon's that were his friends. Trevor made sure to yell and hold up his sign whenever Branden's name was mentioned. It was pretty funny.

After graduation I realized that that was my last elementary school event. I have had kids at that school for 10 years. It's weird to think that I wont be driving there every day next year...but yet I'm not sad. Since I've already had kids at the junior high and high school I'm ready for it. And besides, Branden can walk to school next year so I wont have to drive. Now, that's something to look forward to.

After the graduation we rushed home, changed our clothes and hit the beach! The sun came out and the weather was beautiful. I'm SOOOOO glad it's summer!

Trevor's 15!

It's not really Trevor's birthday, his birthday was last month. He had a really crummy birthday so I didn't get around to blogging about it. First of all, he had procrastinated a HUGE English paper that he had to spend ALL weekend finishing up. Secondly, his birthday was on a Sunday. Sometimes that's a bummer because we always let the kids choose a restaurant for their birthday dinner, so since his birthday was on a Sunday we had to postpone that. Not only was his birthday on a Sunday, but since our Stake conference was the first Sunday in May, they switched Fast Sunday to April 26th which, of course, is Trevor's birthday. For Trevor, fasting on his birthday was not his favorite thing to do. We tried to make it up to him by fixing his favorite things for dinner on Sunday, so dinner consisted of pancakes AND waffles. On Monday we were planning on going out to eat for his birthday, but Monday was the Swine Flu and Stitches day (see next post). He still wanted to go out to eat after the Urgent Care visit so we went to Red Robin with chin swollen and stitched up, but Kelsie was too sick to go.

Being a middle child and loving attention, Trevor missed a birthday blog about him, so I'm making it up to him now. Here are 15 things I love about Trevor.

1. He loves me. He is not embarrassed of giving me a huge hug whenever he sees me...even when he's with his friends. When he's on the basketball or volleyball court he'll make a heart shape with his hands and point to me. Gotta love it!
2. He loves his curly hair--and so do I!
3. His room is the cleanest of all my children.
4. He likes nice long baths.
5. He can make me laugh. He's really funny.
6. He likes to be unique. He taught himself to ride a unicycle...and juggle...and do magic tricks.
7. He is incredibly athletic. Whatever sport he plays he has such natural athletic ability that it's really fun to watch.
9. He LOVES attention. Sometimes it's annoying, but the things he does to get attention are often pretty funny.
10. He truly thinks outside of the box. He is extremely creative in his thinking.
11. He doesn't succumb to peer pressure. He really doesn't care what anyone else thinks probably because he doesn't mind being different.
12. Not only does he want to have fun, but he likes to make sure that everyone around him is having fun!
13. He is almost always in an good mood.
14. He's pretty musical. He never wanted piano lessons when he was younger, but he's taught himself to play the guitar and even some songs on the piano.
15. He talks/sings in his sleep....it's always good for a laugh!

Swine Flu and Stitches

Kelsie came home from school on Friday not feeling very well. By Saturday morning, she had a fever of 102.5 and she pretty much stayed in bed all day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday with a fever, body aches, cough, runny nose, sore throat, etc. I kept hearing all the information on the news about Swine Flu and so I called her doctor to see what I should be watching for since we had been in Mexico a week before she started feeling sick. I didn't really think she had Swine Flu and besides, is Ensenada REALLY Mexico? But, I thought I'd be a responsible parent and check with the doctor after three days.

By the time I got around to calling the doctor at about 3:30 in the afternoon, the doctor said "She has the flu and she was in Mexico??? We're booked this afternoon but you must get her to Urgent Care at once" and she gave me a phone number of the Urgent Care place. I really wasn't too concerned about it really being Swine Flu, because Trevor had a really high fever type flu about three weeks earlier, so I just ignored taking her to Urgent Care. I had too many other things to do and I figured she was more likely to get Swine Flu by going to Urgent Care than she was on our little stop in Ensenada on our cruise.

Then...I get a phone call from Trevor at about 4:30. He split his chin open at volleyball practice and needs stitches. I figured as long as I had to take Trevor to Urgent Care to get stitches, I might as well take Kelsie for Swine Flu. I called the Urgent Care place to see how long of a wait it was, since I had never been there before, and I told them what I was bringing the kids in for. They said to let them know when I got there and they would open the side door for me and get me right into a room.

I was pretty excited about that. I figured this Swine Flu thing might get me faster service. They greeted us with masks and gloves. They whisked us into an unused room and everyone that came in had masks and gloves. Trevor, Kelsie, and I had to put on masks, too. The prompt service ended there, while we had to wait for the doctor. Trevor kept us entertained using the "Magic 8 Ball" application on his Ipod and asking questions like "Is Kelsie going to die from Swine Flu?" He'd shake the Magic 8 Ball and he kept getting answers like "Ask Again Later," and "It's Possible." We were having so much fun I grabbed my cell phone for a picture.
After the doctor came in and asked questions about Kelsie's illness I started to get a little worried. All of her comments of "that fits the symptoms..." and "very interesting..." and "that just adds to the list..." started to stress me out a little. I began to worry that Kelsie really did have Swine Flu and we were going to start our own little pandemic in Simi Valley. The doctor worried about cross-contamination with Trevor's stitches and the Swine Flu girl.

The good news...Kelsie doesn't have swine flu. The bad news...Trevor needed three stitches.
Too much fun for a Monday afternoon.

My Baby is 12!

Branden's birthday was Tuesday, March 31st. He is now a twelve year old. I had forgotten what an important birthday 12 is. There are a lot of 12 year old milestones. Of course, he graduates from primary and becomes a deacon. He gets to go to "big boy" scouts. Movie theaters and sporting events now charge an adult price for him, and yet he's not really even a teenager.

To celebrate Branden's 12th birthday I thought I would list my 12 favorite things about Branden:
1. He has a sweet tooth that's even worse than mine. This is great because I can always count on his vote when it comes to getting dessert.
2. He loves to read. I love this! He has even developed my childhood habit of spending hours in his room reading in order to get out of work. You know, out of sight out of mind. Yesterday he was reading in the living room for a couple of hours and I was so jealous I got a book and sat on the couch by him and started reading. It was great.
3. I love his nose. Check it out sometime. It has a great shape to it.
4. He has a great vocabulary...incomparable to all of us.
5. He is competitve...don't know where he gets that from but at least he's fun to play games with.
6. He has a great sense of humor. He tells very intelligent jokes and makes intelligent comments that are way beyond his years.
7. He doesn't bite his fingernails. A great trait for a 12 year old boy.
8. He is an early riser. I am not. I greatly admire and respect this quality in him.
9. He is very intense. Sometimes this is good, sometimes this is bad. But, if he really wants something he will give 200% and wont stop until he has it.
10. He shares. This is great especially when put with #1 above. He will always share skittles, gum, candy, ice cream etc. when I ask him to AND he doesn't complain very much about it.
11. He is very independent. I am often gone all afternoon running other kids around and I know that he will get all his homework done and anything else he needs to get done without me reminding him.
12. He is tall. Come on, admit it. Everyone wants their son to be tall.
Happy birthday, Branden! I love you!

You know it's a recession when...

We were getting toilet papered last night...again. It seems as if we're getting toilet papered a couple time a month, but I guess that's what happens when hou have two and half teenagers.

It wasn't too late, only about 11:00 at night. I was in the kitchen (a little late night snack) and I heard Kali start barking. I heard a couple of thumps, some running, and a car screeching away. I immediately thought "Oh, @!#! we're getting toilet papered again."

I flipped on the lights outside and ran out. It wasn't too bad because Kali scared them away soon enough. I know she usually barks at the toilet paperers, but we're usually asleep and don't always here her because she likes to bark on the opposite end of the house.

I was so happy this time I heard her because when I ran out I found so many barely used rolls of toilet paper. I quickly scooped them up hoping that the three second rule applies to toilet paper as well--doesn't it? After all, toilet paper seems to be getting more and more expensive and I now have about 8 barely used rolls that were left in my yard.

Every 15 Minutes

There's a pretty good video of the Every 15 Minutes program that Kelsie was in at her school. You can watch it and see how "real" everything seems to be. Kelsie is one of the "Living Dead," you can see her at the beginning and the end of the video--as well as her cute baby picture and current picture.
Check out http://www.vimeo.com/3606083

Kelsie's Untimely Death

Kelsie died today. We knew it was going to happen...but it's still a strange feeling. She was chosen to participate in the school's Every 15 Minutes program, which is an education "experience" to remind students of the dangerous consequences from drinking alcohol.

In this program a drunk driving accident is staged behind the school with real cars that have been in real accidents. Several students are "victims" who are actually in the car and the Jaws of Life have to get them out, another student is the "drunk driver" and other students represent the Living Dead--others who have been killed in alcohol related accidents.

I didn't really want Kelsie to be one of the victims because then I would either have to go to the morgue and identify her body, or go to the hospital and see her on life support or suffering from other injuries. I don't like hospitals(I don't think I would like a morgue either) and I really didn't want to willingly go through the emotions that accompany such an experience, so we asked the director to have her be one of the "Living Dead." I actually wouldn't have minded if she was the drunk driver--I would have had to go to "court" and watch her trial, but I think I could have removed myself more from that experience than that of being an accident victim.

As it was, two policeman and a chaplain went to Chris's work this morning to tell him that his daughter had been killed in a drunk driving accident. Why did they go to Chris's work? Because they videotape the experience and show it at an assembly tomorrow for the school. We saw the video from last year and all the parents are crying and I didn't want to be on video for an assembly--I'm not a pretty crier-- so Chris volunteered for that part. He said it was very surreal. He knew they were coming. He knew what they were coming for. He had warned the "counter people" so that they could send the officers in, but he said it still felt very real. He felt such a range of emotions; what if it had really happened, knowing that it could possibly happen, and empathy for families that have had to go through this trial.

Meanwhile, Kelsie gets to miss two days of school (no wonder she wanted to do this). She even had to leave her cell phone at home! She was at the accident scene this morning, went to the hospital, went out to lunch, went to the morgue, then she goes and watches the "trial" of the drunk driver. Police officers drive the students everywhere they go. They have dinner tonight with guest speakers, stay the night at the Brandies-Bardin Institute, go out to breakfast in the morning, and then tomorrow there's an assembly where their obituaries are read.

The parents "get" to go to the assembly tomorrow. We also get dinner tonight and attend a luncheon tomorrow...so it's not all bad. It's an interesting experience. When I first learned of this I thought it might benefit someone else more than Kelsie--perhaps someone who may be more inclined to drink and drive. But as I've experienced this, I've realized it's a lesson all of us need to remember. The importance of life. The blessings of family. The importance of faith.