Our weekend

We had a fabulous weekend...Ryan's best friend from Portland

came to visit him. They haven't seen each other since we moved in August.

You can imagine how excited both of them were.

I used to watch Zack and his three brothers after school.

This was the scene most days in our house...all of the boys armed with

light sabers and Emma right in the middle of it.

We celebrated Max's birthday a little late at Amanda's parents' house.

Mom was so glad to get in a little reading time with Emma.

Happy 31!

Friday was Ryan's spring concert. He went to school in the morning, and Zack, Emmalee and I walked over for the morning performance. It was really nice...songs about rain and spring and sunshine. His teacher let us miss the afternoon performance so Ryan could come home

early to be with Zack and his brothers.

A little one-on-one.

Buddies

~

I love that time has no barriers when it comes to childhood friendships.

~

We also took the kids to the "Y" for swimming, but those pics are on Betty's camera.

A visit to the "spider" park.

Emma decided to sit down and pretend to be sad. She was

doing a pretty good job of it until I asked her what was wrong...then out popped the dimples.

Emma's "don't mess with me" face.

I was playing the catcher, Kaden was the pitcher, Emma was the hitter and

Betty was the "carry-runner" ... the "carry the hitter around the

bases because she's never played this before" person.

This was supposed to be a family picture, but

Em had to be a part of it. I don't think they minded, though.

After our company left for Portland, Ryan and Bob got to work

on their marble creation. They love to build new structures.

It's a good study of engineering for Ryan.

While the boys were building, Emma and I went on a skooter ride.

She wanted to check on the rocks that she planted...they seem to be growing. :)

March crafts

a few of the cards that I made in March

This is my first attempt at making bags and is a very late Christmas gift for

a dear friend in Portland.

I really liked how it turned out and plan to make myself one before

convention. Mom put her order in for one also.

It was one smaller pocket inside the main pocket and four outer pockets.

Emma's first Spring/Summer skirt.

Gotta love the Lazy Day skirt pattern!

This one is a little longer than I would normally make, but she'll

be able to wear it for a while.

I saw this idea on a blog, but I can't find it again to create the link.

This is a late birthday gift for a sweet second-grader in Portland.

She likes to create things...takes after her Mom just a bit.

This is a kit with everything needed to make the card shown in the

upper right hand corner of the photo. The container can be used afterward for storing cards or for any treasures she can fit in it.

This is for her sweet brother, whom Emma misses terribly!

He's four and also enjoys coloring. This is the same concept...just using

a set of "boy" stamps.

It's that time of year again...

the sun makes it's appearance

it warms up

flowers start to bloom

trees start to bud

and Daddy makes an appearance before 5 pm!

~~~~~

Good-bye, Tax Season!

Hello, Daddy!

Our weekend

Our weekend started with a little artwork.

The kids are painting canvases to hang in the family room.

I'll show the final results once they are on the wall.

Emma loved being able to paint whatever color

she wanted, wherever she wanted it.

Ryan had a design in mind.

On Saturday, we had a surprise visit from Uncle Rick.
He and Emma jammed on the keyboard and pink guitar.

It takes a manly-man to play one of these!

The kids tried out their new butterfly nets.

It was such a gorgeous day...so nice to have the warm weather again.

Emma enjoys playing in the sand...I think it makes her think of the Oregon Coast

Waiting, oh-so-patiently, for a butterfly

Our first tulip...gorgeous!

This was the view on Sunday morning...beautiful sunshine.

Emma got to help Nana make the whipped cream for

her delicious lemon cake with fresh strawberries....Yum!

Uncle Max hid the eggs and then sat the kids down

to discuss the rules. I think the first one was...for every egg you pick up,

you have to give me two!

Emma's a bit spoiled...she convinced Ron

to put her shoes on for her.

"This egg is empty! Uncle Max, did you eat it?"

He even hid an egg under Aunt Amanda's high heeled shoe!

Ryan didn't know it, but Max had been stealing eggs from his basket and

putting them into Emma's.

Bob came home from the office long enough

to have lunch and watch the kids hunt for their eggs.

Then, it was back to work!

Those are some pretty big shoes to fill!

~~Update on Jon~~

I'm including one photo...but it's not the disgusting ones.

Promise!

This shows the streaks that had moved up his arm from

the 1/2 inch (if even that big) cut caused by the steak knife.

After spending Wednesday through Monday in the hospital, he came to our house last night

and spent the night here. His lungs appear to be fine now, and he had his appointment for his

hand today. It is progressing as it should. It looks like we'll have

a happy ending to a bizarre and scary situation. The kids

were so happy to be able to play with him again, without any

tubes or machines hooked up to him.

~~~~~

We hope that everyone had a great weekend.

We are looking forward to some wonderful freinds from Portland arriving this

Thursday. It will be so nice to see them again...pics to follow.

~~~

On a side note, I had created a goal of walking 60 miles this month.

However, due to the many trips to the hospital, overnight house guests and lots of drop-in visitors this weekend, I haven't walked since Thursday. I'm decreasing my goal to 40 miles to avoid getting discouraged and not walking at all!

Update on Jon

We just got back from yet another trip to the hospital. They've moved Jon into a regular room and is only using the oxygen when he's sleeping. Things are looking up! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.

A warning...please read

My oldest brother Jon is in the ICU in one of the hospitals here in town. Here's what happened...

He was at a friend's house for dinner on Monday night when he dropped his steak knife. He tried to catch it as it fell; however, it stabbed into the palm of his hand. It wasn't a bad cut. He licked it (gonna have to ask him about that once he's on the mend), cleaned it and bandaged it. He noticed that his hand hurt on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he woke up with a very swollen hand and streaks running all of the way up his arm. He went to the hospital. They discovered that he had a staff infection in his hand from the cut and saliva. They put him under and removed all of the bacteria from his hand. His friend that was there with him was told that he would be out in the recovery room in a hour. After several hours had passed, he still hadn't come out. The doctors finally told her that he was having trouble breathing. What most likely happened is, since they put the breathing tube in while he had food in his stomach, he regurgitated some of that when they pulled out the tube and sucked it into his lung. He's able to breathe on his own, but his body is not absorbing enough oxygen. Therefore, he's on a full oxygen mask. They think that his hand will recover and that the bacteria was taken care of. However, he has to stay in the ICU until his body is absorbing the oxygen as it's supposed to. He has a mass in his lung, and they are not sure what it is. It could possibly turn into pneamonia...but hopefully not. He'll likely be in the ICU for a few more days before being moved into a regular room...assuming everything continues to improve.

~~~

So, three morals:

1. Let the knife fall to the floor and then pick it up

2. Keep saliva away from open woulds (you know how you'll stick your finger

in your mouth after a paper cut or knick on the finger tip?)

3. Jon recommends avoiding full anastesia unless absolutely necessary

~~~

This is such a strange course of events with odds stacked against it every happening to anyone ever again, but we've all been struck by what damage can occur to a body by

getting saliva into an open wound. I thought I'd pass it along to all...