Caelan Helps Cub Scouts

This month's cub scout pack meeting included shooting off water bottle rockets, so in our den meeting we let the boys paint the soda bottles that were going to be used. Caelan helped, and this was the result.

Baby Update Update

I went back to the hospital today for another ultrasound and to look at the blood test results. I don't have any cystic fibrosis carrier genes, and it looks like there are no infections. So they think the baby will be just fine. I'll come back in a month just to keep an eye on baby.

Attack Thwarted at My High School

I graduated from Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif., in 1993. This week it made the news:

A 17-year-old, who had attended the school a while but didn't graduate from it, entered the campus Monday morning with a chainsaw, a two-foot-long sword and 10 homemade pipe bombs attached to a tactical vest he was wearing. He exploded two of the pipe bombs in an empty hallway near the library, and the smoke activated a fire alarm. Several teachers and staff and the principal immediately arrived and tackled the teen, holding him until police arrived. The damage appears to be minor, and nobody was hurt. Students were evacuated to neighboring Abbott Middle School. (I didn't go there.) The school looks like it's been remodeled since I was there, at least on the inside.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/08/25/BASE19DFN6.DTL

http://www.ktvu.com/news/20531360/detail.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/26/BA5C19E141.DTL

Married 12 Years

This is our twelfth anniversary. In that time, there are a few things Glenn does that kind of bug me. It's not serious, but maybe you'll laugh at them:

1. I'll leave a room for a minute to get something, and he turns the light off. He'll also put something away that I'm not done with.

2. He microwaves stuff by punching in a large time number, then opens the microwave door when he feels it's done. This means the microwave flashes the remaining time until someone else comes and cancels it.

3. He talks in half sentences. He starts talking and then trails off and then waits for a response. I've learned to fill in the rest of the sentence most of the time, but I can't do it all the time.

4. When we watch a DVD, we have to turn the volume up louder than for regular TV watching to hear it. Glenn will watch a DVD then turn it off with the TV. So when I go to turn on the TV later, it will be blasting really loud.

This Is Self-Inflicted, Honest

Caelan was running on some concrete steps and fell down. He got a bloody nose, which was also scratched up. It's slowly getting better.

Baby Update

The July ultrasound revealed some calcification spots around the bowel. It could be cystic fibrosis, or a perforated bowel, or one of several infections. On the 11th I had a second ultrasound and some blood drawn to test for infections and the CF gene. Glenn has some distant relatives with it, but I don't have any, so that seems unlikely. One of the infections can be treated more easily than the other. A bowel perforation would require surgery upon delivery. It could also be nothing at all. I'm returning for another ultrasound on the 25th and may need an amniocentesis as well then. Meanwhile, the baby is growing right on schedule and kicking hard and often.

Our Lives -- July 2009

School got out July 2. The next school year began July 27, but we're on the track that doesn't start until August 18. Most days I've taken the kids to lunch at the park near the school for a free summer lunch program.

Our Fourth of July wasn't too exciting. We had the kids play with some sparklers around 8 at night. It didn't get dark until 10, so it was still pretty sunny. I ended up getting a 24-hour migraine, so I didn't make it to church the next day. I seem to get sick often on Independence Day.

Jaelyn went to the dentist to get her bottom baby teeth pulled to make room for the new ones coming in. This was how she lost her first tooth. Sara also had a little cavity, her first. My kids aren't very good with tooth brushing. They tend to eat a whole tube of toothpaste in one day and lose toothbrushes like crazy.

On the 9th we all went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. It was very nice, except I lost my keys there, and they never showed up again. The following week Glenn and I did some family sealings at Jordan River.

Frankenstein is definitely pregnant again. She is getting very fat. I thought she had to be done nursing to get her fixed, but at this rate she got pregnant while nursing. I'm not sure what to do with her. She chased off four of the six kittens. We have not seen them since. I guess this is a reaction to her anticipating new kittens. We are left with Albus and Kryten. Albus has turned out to be a pretty good mouser, plus he's adorable and sweet. We've had to defend them every time Frankenstein hisses at them.

The 20th was my 20-week ultrasound. We didn't find out the baby's gender for now. We learned that the baby has a possible disability, so we have to go back for a closer look. I was able to start taking anti-nausea medicine just once a day and still survive. The baby has gotten very active and keeps me up at night. Then Caelan climbs into bed with me in the middle of the night a lot.

The 21st was Deven's birthday. He's now ten -- how did that happen? He had a cake and everything that Caelan later got into. The morning after, Caelan picked off most of the frosting from the top of the cake. I don't think he could have gotten into it without sisters' help. The morning after that, he had eaten much of the top half of the cake. It was no longer recognizable. Fortunately I had already gotten pictures of it.

The last weekend of July my parents came into town. My dad had his birthday here along with our niece Ivy, who shares his birthday. She turned 1. We went to the aquarium with them and also to the temple open house and a ward barbecue.