Church Chat

Robert and I have been members of the Oceanside 4th ward for just under two months now. It's a very diverse ward with people from all walks of life, including military families as we are really close to Camp Pendleton military base. The kids have really been enjoying the primary...except for Claire who isn't too fond on the idea of being left in Nursery. Anyway, in our church, the members are asked to help serve in the ward where needed. Robert and I have been asked to serve in the following callings:
Robert -
2nd Counselor in the Stake Sunday School Presidency
KaDee -
2nd Counselor in the Primary Presidency
We're excited to start serving again. I have been the Primary President in my last two wards so I am looking forward to letting someone else be in charge this time. :) Robert is looking forward to seeing what his responsibilities will be.

Sock Hop Picture

We went to a family Sock Hop at the elementary school tonight. I thought this was a cute picture of the kids. We had a fun night of dancing, rootbeer floats, popcorn, hotdogs, and a great band.

Student of the Month

Linda was awarded Student of the Month today! Linda's class does a class presentation each month to show the parents what they have learned the past month and then they present the student of the month. Linda got to do a part of the presentation on her own. She did great telling us about Abraham Lincoln. They also sang songs and repeated poems. It happened to be on Robert's day off, so he was able to come. Linda has been so excited about this. She picked out her outfit and has been talking about being chosen for student of the month for weeks.
Her teacher said that Linda is a good citizen, a good friend to others, and that she has learned so much since moving in to her class.

Diagnosis: Juvenile Arthritis

Long story short, Jane has had a lot of pain in her knees since November. They hurt a lot in the mornings to the point where she is limping, and occasionally she would wake up in the night crying because her knees hurt so badly. She has been sick off and on since November as well which had me concerned that this may be more than just growing pains. A lot of Dr.'s told me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Jane's knees and that she probably just fell down and injured it. It has been so frustrating tyring to get these Dr.'s to listen to me and not to have them act like I'm just a mother that is overreacting. A while back a Dr. at an Urgent Care mentioned arthritis and that got me thinking. My mom's friend has arthritis and I thought it was funny that Jane's symptoms were similar to hers in some ways. So, I looked all over the Internet and all roads led to Juvenile Arthritis.

Robert found a Children's Rheumatory Specialist in a nearby town. Without a referral, we made an appointment. Sure enough, Jane has been diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. It's also called Juvenile Rheumatiod Arthritis. When the Dr. told me I just wanted to burst in to tears. I felt terrible for Jane and nervous for what this would mean for her. There was also a sense of relief having someone validate my concerns and to be willing to help Jane feel better. The Dr. referred me to Arthritis.org which has tons of great information.

Anyway, she will be on a medication called Naposyn twice a day to reduce the swelling and joint pain. She has to go to an eye specialist to get some testing done. Apparently, there is some eye condition that usually goes hand in hand with juvenile arthritis that can't be detected with a regular eye exam. Another interesting little fact about juvenile arthritis is that when it comes this young, it shows up a lot in blond haired, blue eyed girls.
Jane got some blood work done today just so he can make sure there isn't something he is missing. She was a brave girl. It really hurt her.

Anyway, most children eventually outgrow this type of arthritis, but it could be years, or could be something she will have long term. Right now she has arthritis in both of her knees. He said it is possible that it could spread to other joints.

That's the basics I guess. I'm still trying to take in all the info I got today. As I look back, it was a blessing in disguise that Jane kept getting sick because I may have not been as quick to act on the knee pain if the two hadn't come together. Luckily, we caught this early and we can take care of our sweet Jane.

Bruce reading to Jane last night. He put her right to sleep. Guess it wasn't an exciting book.

Do I Dare Open It?

Our new tv came today. I have to admit that I'm having some anxiety about opening it. I just keep telling myself that there's no way the same thing could happen twice.

The tv is up now, and no signs of any uninvited guests. :)

New TV + Roaches = Stress

On our cross-country move, our tv somehow lost it's color. It would only play in green and purple. So, we decided to buy another one. We went with a flat screen that we purchased at Walmart. No stress in that, right? WRONG!! Everything seemed normal. We sat the boxed tv in front of our fireplace for the night. In the morning, I saw a little bug near our stairs. I thought it was odd because I hadn't seen any bugs in the house since we moved in. Anyway, I opened the tv box, put the base of the tv on, and put it up on the edge of the kitchen counter that is between the family room and the kitchen. (We were getting a tv stand the next day.) That same day, I could've sworn I saw a tiny cockroach run across my kitchen counter. I killed it and went and bought bug spray that very afternoon. I was just hoping it was just a random sighting and that it wasn't from the house. So, nothing else unusual happens that day.
About 1am I hear Linda upstairs coughing. I decide to get up and get some cough medicine for her from the kitchen. I flip on the light to find about 20 little cockroaches scurrying around the kitchen counter that the tv is on. PANIC! My mom is here visiting and I yell for her(Robert is not coherent at 1am). We were quite the scene. Neither of us have our contacts in and we're trying to smash these little roaches as fast as we can with whatever we can find...all the while getting the bug spray and going to town on the kitchen counter & surrounding walls.
Now, you have to know that my worst nightmare is a house full of cockroaches. Once you have them, they are extremely hard to get rid of. So, I am completely stressed out about how I'm ever going to live in peace constantly worrying about roaches.

Long story short, after a lot of thought and investigation, we figure out that the tv we just bought is full of roaches!!! We set it in the garage to see if we were right. No more roach sightings on the counter, and there were little roaches around the tv in the garage. Disgusting. I surrounded the tv in the garage with bug spray and roach traps just in case. Robert took the tv back which was an ordeal in itself. I can now live in peace in my home. However, I am having it professionally sprayed next week to ensure that any of those nasty things that may have escaped in to the house are dead.

What an ordeal. I would've never thought in 100years that that could happen!

Aunt Laura's Wedding

Grandpa and Linda dancing.
Linda, Jane, and their cousin, Hailey, dancing at the reception.

The kids are dressed and ready for the reception. Obviously, Laura's colors were red and black. Cute kids!

Laura(Robert's sister) & Zane with Grandma and Grandpa Thompson

Claire and Bruce enjoying their wedding favors. The kids did a lot of work helping me make the wedding favors and had to stare at boxes of Hershey's chocolate for weeks without being able to touch. Finally, they could endulge.

Bruce's Instrument of choice

Bruce has been asking me for a long time if he could play guitar. I hadn't really thought of putting my kids in guitar and didn't know where to look for teachers for it. Bruce's school is very big on music and I got a letter in his backpack saying that they offered guitar lessons at school! So, here is Bruce with his guitar. He goes once a week after school. He has already learned a few cords and is enjoying it.