a day with special friends...

Today for church our ward, well, youth and who ever wanted to go went to "Randolph." Randolph is a State funded home for adults with special needs. The wards throughout AZ take turns going and having church with the special friends. Each person was in charge of a special friend. Some of these friends could walk but not talk. Some where in wheelchairs totally dependent on others. Then we had others who could walk and talk but have a mind of 6 years old or less.

Our family went and it was a great experience. My special friend was "Gloria." She couldn't talk but she was able to walk and boy did she love to walk. We walked all over the room we stayed in. She had beautiful brown eyes and loved to hum.

Cody and Preston's special friend was "Maggie." Boy was she fun for the boys. She started out in a wheelchair and then she transferred herself to the chair. The boys sat next too her. She loved making noise. Perfect person for my boys. She loved to snap her fingers, clap her hands and scream. If she would make a noise then the boys would copy her. The more they copied her the more she loved it. The thing I really loved about Maggie was she had my boys under control. Preston would get up and move chairs, she wouldn't let him. She would push him back into his seat. If Cody was too close she would move him to another chair. Maggie was in total control! I asked if she could come to church with us for now on.

Ashlee enjoyed her special friend. She was more talkative and active then others. Ashlee's friend loved being with the girls. She felt she was like one of the "in crowd."

Another friend would love to come up to you and poke you in your side and would say boo. If you would act all scared she would give you a big smile. She loved scaring people. I tend to do that to my kids too ;o). This same friend loved to spank Craig's butt and then would run laughing.

We took Jessie too. At first I thought we shouldn't take her because maybe it was not appropriate. Craig convinced me other wise and I am glad we did. Some of our special friends loved her and she them. One was very concerned about Jessie's well being and would let others know she may need some assistance. For example. We give Jessie a plastic bag to play with (best and cheapest toy we could buy for her) Jessie loves the feel of plastic. The special friend would take the bag away, but then Jessie would grab it right back. It was really cute. We also ran into one of Jessie's teachers she had throughout the years. Jessie hasn't seen this lady for about 3 years. When Jessie saw her she knew who she was right away and gave her a big hug.

The sad thing is the state wants to close this place down. I have a new mission to help those keep this place running. It's one of the best and cleanest in AZ for our new special friends. I hate to think of it, but we may need to put Jessie into one of these homes. We will keep her in our home as long was we can, but when Craig and I are 60 years old and she is 44 how am I going to lift her? I guess I will live one day at a time...

Over all we had a wonderful and spiritual day!

haunted mansion 4 sale...

Buy This Haunted Mansion

By Preston Cuillard

Have you ever heard of a spooky haunted mansion to buy? I will give you five good reasons why you should buy this magnificent mansion.

1. It has more room for your children and extra space in the house.

2. It is not expensive it is only ten dollars.

3. You don't have to do all that clumsy work because you get a free butler. but do not make him crazy, because he might kill you.

4. In the backyard it is a nice place to relax but do not go by the graveyard because you do not want to awake them.

5. Last there is a game room for the family. It has a basketball hoop, pool table with hockey and soccer plus a plasma screen TV. Oops I almost forgot the basement has a mad scientist, but he is nice. So buy this house now!

Go to http://www.hairymansion.com/ Call 480 spooky This mansion can be found at Blood Street & you Cannot Escape Ave.

This is one of Preston's project he had to do for Halloween. I had no idea he was working on this. He always amazes me with the stories he can come up with.

Note: website may not be a real website...something Preston made up...

jitterbug...

I was watching TV with the kids today and a commercial came on. This is the commercial we saw...

If you have seen this commercial then you know this cell phone is for elderly people. The buttons are bigger for them to read. Well, my lovely 9 year old (Preston) said, "hey mom we should get you that phone." Now I know my birthday is coming up and I am getting older, but I don't think I am old enough for this cell phone. I am thinking you need to be over 65 years old or at least unable to read the small print. I haven't reached that disability yet.

I am grateful he hasn't asked what it was like to live without electricity.

Oh children....what do you do with them...I guess love them.

gas relief...and it's not ex-lax...

I had to get some gas in my van...I was Excitted to see this.....

I got more Excitted when I saw this...

The vans tank was pretty close to empty. This is the first time in a long time that I haven't had to pay over $60 for a full tank of gas.

That means an extra $30 for something else. I think maybe getting my toes done!?

my lil shadow...

Here he is....Maximus (Max)...this lil guy will follow me everywhere. I can't even get up to use the rest room without him close behind. Not sure why he loves me so, but he does. He's my lil buddy.

It was great to have Craig home for a little while. A total of 32 hours. That is how long I will see of him until Thanksgiving day. He just got back from California and now he's off to Florida.

There are times I hate his job. This is one of those times with Craig gone for over a week and a half. I have to look at the glass half full on these accounts. The half full... is he has a job.

I am grateful he works so hard for our family and he does this without complaining.

I Love you Craig! Be safe! Thanks for all you do!

I miss you already!!!

my lesson for today...

"The day is fast hastening on when the restoration of all things shall be fulfulled.... Then shall come to pass that the lion shall lie down with the lamb,"

was on "The Second Coming and the Millennium." It's so fitting to be giving this lesson after what we went through the last week with the election. I usually don't get into politics because I feel they are all crooks. I do vote, don't get me wrong. I try to vote for the one who will be less evil and that's really hard to tell coming from a politicians mouth.

There was one ballot that I was more concerned about then really who was going to be President. That was prop 102 and 8. I wanted the YES's to have it. I was more relieved when they both passed. Then was saddened when they passed, only because our fellow brothers and sisters had to be ridiculed for what we strongly believe in. That's marriage should be between man and women! I was saddened when the protester tried to enter our Holy Temple. I was saddened they had to close the temple. By closing the temple the temple workers couldn't be there doing what they love and that's serving our Savior.

I guess that brings me to my point. After studding my lesson these things are to come to pass before our Savior comes again. It's just the beginning and it's only going to get worse. I have to prepare myself and family for these things, spiritually and psychically. If we are prepared and doing what we are taught then we will be at peace. If we hold to the rod we will be protected.

Articles of Faith #10: "We believe...that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; that the earth will be renewed and receive it's paradisaical glory."

I can't wait for the day for our Savior to come again. He is the only true and fair ruler!

(the above picture and quote...my wonderful, spiritual daughter put together so I can hand out to my sisters.)

tagged...

Ok....Jennifer tagged me because I was bored on my last post. Thank you for keeping my post a little bit more interesting...I hope...

If I understood the directions correctly I was to choose the 6th picture from my 6th folder. I didn't even think I had that many but I guess I did. I kind of lucked out on what the picture was. Any other numbers would have been scary to share.

This picture is of me when I was maybe 5 years old. My mom put me into tap dance lessons. This was taken at my first dance recital. That's about all I can remember.

I know not too excitting, but hay that's what my picture ended up being...

I guess I need to tag some people too...here goes...I tag, Heather, Carolina, and Kaye.

what to say...

I am at a loss and a little bored at this moment. I am still at work and watching a patient have this boring test called EECP (Enhanced External Counterpulsation.) This testing is for patients who have had several bypass's and they continue to have angina or chest pain. This testing is the last road for these patients. They have to be on this machine 1 hour a day for 35 consecutive sessions. No breaks in between other than the weekend. We have seen great success with these patients.

We sit in this little room that is extremely hot because the machine generates tons of heat. It's 87 degrees in this room right now. Sure hope I can lose some excess weight. It's like a sauna in here.

I tried to go on my facebook but that's blocked from this computer. My next place to go was my blog. Yep, it's not blocked so I figured why not up date it.

Craig left early this morning for LA. He's lucky to go see his family and to be in CA. I can't wait to go. The kids should be home doing their chores. If not I guess they can't go do anything tonight or this weekend. Cody already got himself grounded. He decided staying up til midnight playing the computer was worth it. That kid will never learn.

Tomorrow I think I might go and get my toes done. That's my reward to myself for putting in so many hours at work. May do something with the kids because they put up with me being at work for a lot of hours. Knowing my older children they would rather be with their friends. Then Preston and I will go rent a movie.

Well, I have to finish up this patient then head for home....I am sooooo glad it's Friday!!!

yep...it's monday...

for some reason Monday's are always crazy, mainly at work, but today was the worst day ever. It first started with our day care provider called in sick. That really wasn't a big deal because Craig was here to get Jessie off the bus. But it went down hill from there. I showed up to work and not even 5 minutes there the computers went down. The new EMR program we got lost my schedule for the day. I couldn't print out my nurses sheets. We could do nothing. I was lucky that someone on Friday printed a schedule so I went to the copy machine and that stupid thing broke. They brought in a man to fix the machine but he couldn't fix it right away. The hard drive on the copy machine was fried. So, no copies for half the day and when you work in a doctors office you need a copy machine.

I had some patients come in for testing follow ups and when I brought them back their tests where not in their charts. I had to hunt someone down to read their tests. I had one patient that wasn't even supposed to be seen by my doctor. They were supposed to see an Electrophysiologist. I figured this out after I spent my time doing an EKG, blood pressure, heart rate and history.

I had another patient that had labs done and no labs in his chart. So I called the lab company for results. When I finally reached someone from the lab he said it would take some extra time because his computers were down.

I had to work through my lunch because of all the delays. So no lunch for me. I can go without one meal too, but it's nice to have a small break. I don't even think I had time for a potty break. Can't remember.

In the afternoon I had a deaf patient come in for an event monitor. The patient will wear this monitor for 21 days to evaluate their heart. I made arrangements for him to come into the office after clinic so I can help him get started with the event monitor. I called the interrupter last week to come help us. As the patient arrived the girls from the front told me..."oh yea Jody, there will not be an interrupter coming." "They couldn't find anyone to come to help us." At this point I was ready for anything else to go wrong. It worked out ok with the deaf patient. I was lucky the friend he was with could read lips and with my little sign we muddled through. All I knew was sorry and thank you.

I wasn't so sure I could drive home safely, but I did. After looking back I guess my day wasn't so bad, but when things don't fall just right you may have a doctor up set at you. Working with doctors is like working with a different breed. They have rules and moods of their own. Their way or no way.

I am already looking forward to the weekend and can't wait for the next holiday so I can have a few days off.

nerd alert...

I usually don't dress up for Halloween but this year I did. On my way home from work the night before I got an idea of what I could be. So I called one of my co-workers/friend if she would dress up with me. Bri was a good sport and followed suite. This is what we ended up looking like... total nerds...

No one else dressed up at work. I am glad Bri went along with me so I didn't feel so alone. Thanks Bri for being a great sport! U da Bomb!

After work we went to our Stake Trunk or Treat. Ashlee stayed for a little while then left with her friends. Preston had a great time. I think he went around to each car at least half a dozen times. Jessie enjoyed being out. She loved the popcorn, but she couldn't figure out what to do with the cotton candy. Cody was off with his friends doing what ever they did. All I know was no one called because he was causing trouble. That's a good sign.

Ashlee was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz... Crue was Toto...

Preston was a Wolf...

Over all we had a great night and now waiting for the next holidays to come. I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner. Time flies all to fast...