Where fourth art thou?

I have been thinking, the Fourth of July is really a celebration of an act of civil disobedience. I am listening to police helicopters flying around my house looking for some hoodlums that were intent on celebrating the holiday with some disobedience of their own. I wish I could say I was up late because I have been watching fireworks shows across America on some over rated cable channel, but no, I just returned from the ER. There was a scorpion in the towel that Zoe wrapped around herself after getting out of the pool at Grandma Chris' house. It got her (and I got it.) I was completely clueless about the effects of a scorpion bite. I didn't over react, I really thought it would be ok, but Zoe was not doing well so we packed up early to go home (you can imagine how happy the other kids were about that). In the car she got worse. I caved and called poison control, and they said they would call the ER for me. How nice. So this is what I have learned. Symptoms that indicate something bad is up:
hypersalivation-which means the victim has got a lot of spit. This is bad because they have some numbness in their tongue and throat and are at risk of choking (they also can't talk very well).
Nausea : This happens because the victims eyes are not focusing and their equilibrium is affected.
Rotary eye movement: Their eyes kind of roll around in their sockets and they can't focus. There is a fancy name for this, but I couldn't pick it off as the nurses and doc's were talking.
muscle twitches: victim shakes a lot and can't relax because the nerves that run the muscles are firing at random. This was more scary to me when I realized that the same phenomenon happening to Zoe's limbs was happening to her heart and throwing off the rhythm.
Things I am grateful for:
Antivenin. I lucked out and went to a hospital where they are running a trial on an antivenin for scorpions. Been using it for years in Mexico, but it is not approved by the FDA. Zoe was better in two hours. The alternative treatment:two days in ICU on sedatives and painkillers. In case you need to know, Chandler Regional and Gilbert Mercy are the places to go for this miracle elixir.
That it was Zoe. This may sound awful. But Zoe got out of the pool with her cousin Mia who is almost 3. If she would have had the towel with the scorpion wrapped around her I have to imagine she would have had a much worse go of it.
Mexican health care. American health care is great, but we don't have a corner on the market.
America. So our Independence Day Holiday was bogus (it usually is in Phoenix, to hot for anything other than swimming and air conditioning), but that doesn't change the fact that we live it a great country with a wonderful heritage of standing up for what is right and helping others do the same. In the words of John Hancock:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and so...fourth.

23 Pslalm

I have been working a lot the past few days. The stress of the extra time at work is hard on my family. It is hard on me, but I have the blessing of working with and for amazing people. We work on a lot of veterans in our office. I had a WWII veteran in the office yesterday that shared this story, and it was so great I wanted write it down so we can all have a reminder of what real sacrifice is and how blessed we are, even in our darkest hours.

I am going to write this in first person because it reads better like that.

"There were 40 men in my platoon. We saw more combat than any other platoon in Europe. We were at the battle of the bulge. We then joined Patton's 3rd infantry division and marched through the middle of Germany, 400 miles, and then met up with the Russians. That was an interesting experience. We didn't trust them, and they didn't trust us. We hit the Germans in the middle and then flanked them on either side. They didn't know what hit them. We lost most of our platoon. There were five of us left and we were in a forested area hiding from the enemy. Out of nowhere came and explosion and shrapnel rained down on us. Four of the men were badly injured. I made my way to a clearing and saw a farmhouse. I ran to the house and removed the door from the hinges and motioned for the people inside to come and help me. There was a young girl (probably about 15, and I was 18), her mother, grandmother and grandfather. We carried the wounded men on the door back to their farmhouse where they tended to them as best they could. Those women sat there and held the hands of those men for three days until they died. The grandfather went out back and cut a piece of pork (there was no refrigeration) and made soup with pork and potatoes. I hadn't eaten in three days and it smelled wonderful. They motioned for me to sit at the head of the table. We were all sitting and I quickly bowed my head to give thanks and was startled when they did the same. They were pouring out their hearts to God. As I watched them pray I was reminded of the 23 Psalm "Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies". God has been good to me, I have no regrets."

My cup runneth over. I run into a lot of people who don't hesitate to share with everyone their love of Jesus Christ and how he has restored their souls. They are a great example to me. The Lord is my Shepherd, I just get busy sometimes and forget that I need to let him lead me, and not the other way around.

Here is a link to the 23 Psalm, in case you need a refresher.
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/ps/23

Happy Birthday Allison!

Today is my sister Allison's birthday. Actually it was yesterday because now it is past midnight. I thought I would write some wit and wisdom. I found and old journal the other day and as I was scanning found a poem that I wrote about Allison on the occasion of her 18th birthday.

Your always there when times are tough
Always kind (but sometimes gruff)
Although I sometimes muff
you're always there 'cause your made of the right stuff

You are still great Allie. Here are some other gems I found
Feb 1983
"Tonight was the etiquette dinner. My escort was Brian Ostler. I had fun but Allison had Brian Ball for an escort and she came home crying."
Feb 1982
"Allison baked peanut butter cookies and I couldn't have any. This diet is really getting to me."
"When I came home I had to do the dishes that Allison and Tiffany didn't do." (you are my sister, I couldn't just put the good stuff, no one would believe it)

Hope you had a great day!

value menu

Today I was at work and Reed was in charge. That meant attempting to accomplish meaningful tasks while entertaining kids and keeping them from injuring themselves and others. After calling no joy on yard work, he packed the kids up to take them to Home Depot to do a project. He had not eaten breakfast because we were out of milk and bread and most other essential food items, so he decided to go through the McDonalds drive through and get himself a $1 breakfast burrito. Molly started to fuss that she was hungry (she had just been retrieved from a sleep over) and after listing off several menu items she decided she wanted a fruit and yogurt parfait. Then everyone wanted one. Reed got to the window to pick up the food and decided that the parfaits would be wasted and make a mess, so he offered to get the kids donuts instead. He then had McDonalds refund the money for the parfaits ($1 each), went across the parking lot of the shopping center to Circle K and got the kids donuts, because they were a value ($.79).

Let me state now for the record that usually when I take the kids to McDonalds I get them hamburgers and parfaits because it is a healthier option than fries and way less messy that apple dippers. Reed always gives me a hard time because he is convinced that they are not healthy, and are surely loaded with extra sugar.

So I listened to this story, and we had the same discussion about the questionable nutrition of the parfaits, and of course the burrito ("it is small,there's not much sausage, it can't be that bad for you"). My response "Next time, please spend the extra $.20 on the parfait."
Knowing that the last word had not been had, I went downstairs and started cutting up fruit for the High Priest Luau this evening(which was awesome for a HP get together) and had to stop and look up the nutritional values of the items in question, for ammunition really. So here it is:
-Reed's breakfast burrito-280 calories, 20 grams of fat
-Parfait-130 calories, 4 grams of fat
-glazed donut- 200 calories, 12 grams of fat (that is for glazed, which is usually the least offensive.)

The take home: life is a zero sum game. The value that will save you pennies now, will cost you later. (There are greater implications to this theory, but I am not an economist and don't want won't bore you with my views on things of this nature)

Jenny's house

Today was the last day of school for my posse. Reed, as a way of congratulating them on all their accomplishments of the past year, offered to take us to dinner at a restaurant of the girls choosing, they just couldn't choose Sweet Tomatoes. The girls pick for dinner-Denny's. So we wait for Reed to finish working, load in the car and say a prayer before we head out. Tanner offers to say the prayer and proceeds to express his excitement and gratitude that we get to go to Jenny's house. At Denny's he kept asking when we were going to go to Jenny's house and when we arrived back home he burst into tears because he didn't get to go to Jenny's house. I tried to explain how Denny's and Jenny's sound the same, but he would not stop crying until I offered an ice cream sandwich as a peace treaty. I suspect he will want to go to Jenny's house again tomorrow, just for the ice cream. As for Reed and I, we have just added Denny's to our list of "we won't go back there again for a long time" restaurants (which is also the fate of Sweet Tomatoes, in case you were wondering).

A matter of perspective

Life has been crazy busy.
Too crazy.
It seems like every time I catch up I have another crisis hit me from my blind spot. So, between writing papers with my third grader (did I ever do that in third grade?), getting the refrigerator and air conditioner repaired and a bout with the flu (me this time, way fun) I was feeling like I was not meant to be caught up on sleep, or laundry, or shopping, etc... So I had this feeling on Thursday that there was a birthday coming up. So I went to the calendar and-It was Reed's birthday on Friday. I would love to say at this point that I pulled my act together and did something wonderful for Reed's birthday, but alas that is not the case. He packed up to go to the Aaronic Priesthood commemorative campout (aka Father's and Son's) and I had nothing for him. We made a cake after he was gone. He arrived back home on Sat. and I left to take the girls shopping. He got to eat his cake at 9pm on Sat night. I didn't think we would see him on Sunday until after lunch so we had a fend for yourselves, which Reed walked into the middle of and ended up executing. So that is it. One birthday with no cards, no gifts and no nice dinner.
How messed up is that?
On Sunday afternoon I received an e-mail that Celia (sister of Allie who I work with) had succumbed to luekemia. She had been diagnosed 9 days before.
So today I took time to read with my 5 year old, swim with my kids, and now I am going to appologize again to my husband for dropping the ball on his birthday, because every day counts.
(I have also promised myself I will never complain again about a family photo, you just never know if you will get the chance again)

Gift for Grandma Mary

I have spent a major chunk of time the past week gathering and assembling a scrapbook for my Grandma Mary Mix's 90th birthday. It has been a labor of love. I finally put it in the mail today for my sister Tiffany to add the final touches. I have taken pictures of all the pages and if all goes well they will load and be visible on a slideshow here. We will see. This project has stretched my computer skills, which needed to happen. For all those who contributed, Thank you, and I hope you are as pleased with the outcome as I am.