Happy Camping!?!

Says who?

It was an interesting and exhausting 24 hours. I don't mind camping, I actually enjoy it. But, I blame myself (and Ben) for the night we had. We took the two kids, yep you read that right, we took Tatum (3 1/2) and Lincoln (18 months ) camping. In. a. tent. Yes, we are crazy. Tatum was a dream camper, she loved the novelty of everything. She loved the tent, her princess sleeping bag, the camp fire, cooking over the camp fire, s'mores. She loved it all. I knew we would have a hard time with Lincoln. He seemed to love camping too, but it was the sleeping part he was not so fond of. I tried to lay down with him at 8:30pm, an hour past his normal bedtime, that didn't work. So we took the kids for a drive. Tatum fell asleep in 3 minutes flat, Lincoln it took about an hour of us driving around, but alas he was asleep. We even transferred them both successfully to the tent floor. Tatum slept until 7:00 am the next morning.

Lincoln slept until 1:00 am.
He woke up so thrilled to see us all laying there and decided our air mattress was a trampoline. We tried everything, he thought it was all a game and seemed to really be enjoying himself. Ben took the insomniac for another drive at about 2 am, it didn't work. It was another couple of hours before he was asleep. Ben and I were both so tired it was nauseating. What were thinking? An 18 month old camping? We were asking for it.

We had planned to spend the next day at the campground's water park but we were so exhausted we lasted only about an hour and a half.

I'm so glad when daddy comes home...

"I'm so glad when daddy comes home,
Glad as I can be,
clap my hands and shout for joy
and climb up on his knee.
Put my arms around his neck,
hug him tight like this.
Pat his cheeks and give him WHAT?
A GREAT BIG KISS! (Smack)"
-LDS Children's Songbook

I can't wait until 5:15 pm. Neither can the kids. Sure I enjoy the kids and the days that I spend with them, but isn't that time when daddy comes home the magic hour. I love that Ben is so excited to see us and greet us, I love that Ben loves coming home and I love that Tatum watches the clock and anticipates the sound of his truck coming up the street. I love that I chose the 'right one!' I love the husband he is and I especially love the father he is. Happy Father's Day Bennie! Superglue

As soon as the kids hear the pinpad on the door they go running.
This is the same scene everyday.

Running.

Hugging.

Questioning.
Tatum, " Daddy I missed you today. Daddy is your truck here? Daddy are you home?"

Lincoln is quick to follow, Tatum is just always first to the scene.



Homemade gifts from your kids, what could be better!?!

Mother's Day

I cried a lot this past Mother's Day. I cried because I have a mother that is so amazing. She has been an incredible support and help during this time of trial and uncertainty. I am so grateful m y children have her when I am unavailable.

I cried because I had not seen my kids in a week.

I cried because Tatum was so excited to see me.
I cried because Lincoln wasn't. He wouldn't even come to me.

I cried because my husband is the best.

I cried because I only had a half hour with them.

I cry now because I am astonished at the love and support I received and continue to receive from all my family members. I am grateful to be home and have answers, I am grateful that we can look forward.

Cherry Festival

A couple weeks ago we went to the Cherry Festival. We started off with the parade, which Lincoln loved and then ended up at the Fair.

Tatum was thrilled she got to ride these rides all by herself.

Pa trying to win the kids a prize, he got beat by a girl!

Tatum loved everything about the fair. Really, this is pure joy on her face!

Lincoln loved the food.

GoGo made Tatum this cute dress the night before for the fair.

It took a few handfuls of cotton candy for them both to realize that they liked it. Lincoln like to eat it but not touch it!

Graduation 2009

In addition to Ben graduating from his Master's Program (which is official, we received the diploma in the mail) we have since had a few more exciting graduations in the family.

Both Todd and Tyler graduated from UVU

Go Wolverines

The kids were awesome on the 9 hour drive, really they were. We made a few stops on the way; Vegas, Cedar City and then onto Provo. I. love. portable. dvd. players.

Another very important graduation: Tatum's of course. She isn't moving onto kindergarten, she still has two more years of preschool, but we got to celebrate anyway. And, it was so cute!

We have answers.

Isn't it funny how, sometimes, we pray for answers and then we get them but don't really like the answers that we were given...not sure if it's valid to ask for a second opinion...

Tricia had an appointment with her Allergist today in which they went over some test results from her last visit. We got a definitive answer to our prayers: Tricia has a severe allergic reaction to...cow's milk and all products containing it.

This made some immediate sense as Tricia has always sensed that milk was a bit unsettling to her so she has never really had an appetite for it. Our next question was: if Tricia is allergic to milk, then why does she happen to have a huge, life-threatening reaction between the same small window of the last 5 months (25th to the 6th of each month)? Apparently, Tricia's body has some sort of tolerance level for milk product...up to a certain point. Under her current diet, it generally takes her 4 to 5 weeks to consume enough milk product before her body then has a severe allergic reaction from it.

So it came as no real surprise then to think back to the most severe reaction that she has had--which was this most recent one that led to her hospital stay. The diabetes doctors had her on a very regimented diet and the controlled carbs that they had her consume at every single meal in the hospital was...you guessed it...milk! 1.5 days of milk at each meal and she almost dies from it!

We will continue to be cautious for the next little bit as there are definitely some trace elements of milk product in Tricia's system and the Allergist will continue to conduct a few more tests. This will be a severe change in diet and lifestyle which we are trying to view as a blessing.

The timing of all of this is what is so unbelievable to me...I think many of you remember that Tricia was approved to get an insulin pump to help normalize her diabetes. She started the learning curve for the pump this week (which we are very excited about!). This will allow her to have a less diabetic-like diet. They say that timing is everything...consider this: Can you even imagine having to live off of a strict diabetic diet and, at the same time, not be able to eat milk products! Really, if this were the case, you could basically eat meat and grass. We feel blessed with the timing of all of this as the pump will help Tricia to have a normal diet (minus milk products) now.

Tricia and I wanted to thank all of you for your prayers, thoughts and words of hope and comfort...this has helped to give us hope and confidence. We truly feel like the Big Man has held our hand through this entire ordeal from the move to California to present time. We don't believe that we would have made the tremendous advancements that have been made recently under any other circumstance. Again, thank you.

Bennie
"Sometimes people need to learn to work together and cooperate. This is called sharing. They teach it to kids."--Dwight Schrute

Initially, we were going to try to keep some of this information to ourselves, however, now we feel like it would be best to let everyone know what is going on...

Tricia is about 6 or 7 weeks pregnant. We usually like to wait until closer to the 2nd trimester to announce it but we share it now so that there is a better understanding of our scenario. Apparently, they don't like pregnant women to be on the type of insulin that Tricia is using so they told Tricia to come check into the hospital on Tuesday and stay overnight so that they could monitor the switch. Precautionary mostly. On Wednesday morning they indicated that she would need to stay until Sunday for additional monitoring because the insulin levels weren't balancing her blood/sugar as quickly as they were hoping. Wednesday afternoon, Tricia went into another anaphalaxic shock but this time it was less than 10 minutes from the first itch to being transported to the Intensive Care Unit. They wanted to establish an intravenous bloodline so that she could receive fluids more quickly to her heart if she has another situation...this is a very painful process for Tricia. Three Dr.'s tried to establish this bloodline for over an hour and couldn't. Shortly after, Tricia began experiencing some very painful cramping so they have her on morphine. She has since passed several bowel movements that are 100% blood. So now we are dealing with multiple symptoms and multiple problems from Diabetes, pregnancy, bloody bowel-movements and severe reactions to something along the way. We are quite nervous about losing the pregnancy because of the location and severity of her cramping but Tricia remains our main concern.

This whole thing is even more difficult due to the precautionary measure the hospital is taking due to the H1N1 virus as childrenn under the age of 18 are not allowed inside the hospital. This means that Tricia hasn't seen the kids since Tuesday morning. The kids don't understand why mommy can't come home and dad is gone most of the time. We feel very blessed in so many ways: Tricia's parents are here to help and I work immediately next to the hospital.

We appreciate your prayers very much.

thanks



Bennie