scuba diving

The boys headed out for a little scuba adventure (and consequently, Josh's hyperventilation attack) off the coast of Cartagena. They made 2 dives, one though a sunken ship, and it only cost $70! Josh said the water was crystal clear.

Dan the Man

Cartagena, Colombia

Josh spent last week in Cartagena, Colombia visiting our friends. He didn't bring me a crocodile, but I did get an emerald out of the deal, my compensation for not being able to go. Woohoo!

He made a quick stop over in Bogota where he was able to visit his aunt & uncle, Tom & Colleen C. (Tom is the MTC President in Bogota), but he forgot to get a picture!

Josh, Em, & DanDan & Em's NeighborhoodLDS Church Catholic Church

HELP!!!

"I want my mommy!" Just kidding. Baby Travis was just ready for his nap while his mommy & daddy are on a, ahem, "date", and I couldn't resist getting a crying picture. Now he is sound asleep in my arms. What a sweetie!

only in Rexburg

...does a conversation go something like this:

"Mom! It's hot as summer out here!" Jake shouts as he strips down to his t-shirt.

It is breezy and 45 degrees outside, but the snow is gone & strangely enough, I am starting to sweat too. So we all tie our jackets around our waists, because we definitely wouldn't want to get overheated, and continue our walk/scooter ride. After all, who would want to waste such a beautiful day?

Quote of the Day

"Mom, you really are fun. I thought it was just Dad that was fun."
-Jake, age 8

a few firsts

Here are a few of our "firsts" that happened during this past week:

* Lander eats a marble
* Dixie finds -- & is forced to retrieve -- the marble
* Jake reads his first no-picture novel, 340 pages!

* Josh hyperventilates -- and no it wasn't because of Dixie

* Dixie is introduced to Da Pineapple Grill's "Eleena's Speciality", a tantalizing sushi roll that is literally good enough to kill over

* Josh, sadly, watches an iguana killing

* Jake gives an oral book report -- on Tigers

* Lander & Jake get a paying job, filling bird feeders for Grams

seriously troubled

HELP!

Something is seriously wrong with me. (Ha, ha, don't think I didn't hear those comments from my beloved siblings). But I am serious! I close my eyes & all I can think about is getting away--somewhere like the Cook Islands, or St. John, or ...where ever, some place that I can get away from the crowds & enjoy another culture. As long as it is somewhere warm. With turquoise water. Were I can put my toes in the sand....sigh...Oh, great. There I go again.

So, I started looking back at old pictures. Daydreaming, because with today's economy I don't dare do anything else. But I can't snap out of it.

Atata Island, Tonga, 2006: Kaley F., Dixie, Kristi B.

I have a lot to be grateful for & really don't want any reminders. But I still wish I could just lay my head back & shout "Calgon take me away!"

...and the snow flies again

I just took this picture from my upstairs office window. It doesn't do the weather justice. Snow flakes are flying everywhere. Imagine the trees in the background swaying dangerously, and the wind is actually shaking my house! I was getting so excited because our grass has begun to emerge from hiding thanks to two 40 degree days & a little rainstorm. I had planned on going for a walk today to celebrate the warm weather...oh, never mind.

miracles DO happen!

Jake & Lander found a caterpillar last September & put it in this jar. A few days later it made a web-like cocoon, where it has stayed ever since, sitting on my counter because the boys were sure it would make a butterfly. I was sure that it was dead. This morning Lander noticed a hole in the cocoon & we found that our little moth wasn't dead after all. Crazy!

Trevor

Our first babysitter when we moved here was a 13 year old boy named Trevor. I had never, & still have never, met his equal; cute enough to make the girls faint away, hard working, athletic, and just solid goodness to the core.

My boys loved him. They watched him pass the sacrament & tried to imitate him. They begged us to go on dates so he could come babysit.

I loved him to come babysit because he somehow managed to play hours of games with the kids while leaving my house so much cleaner than I ever left it.

(October 2005: Lander, Tayla, Tori, Trevor, Jake)

Trevor grew up and his sister, Tayla, took his place as the "favorite" babysitter, so we didn't cross paths as often, but we still watched from the sidelines as he continued to grow into an even more amazing young man.

Yesterday, he slid off the icy road, hitting a telephone pole, effectively ending this life in a few short seconds. Trevor was only 18.

It seems silly that I am so upset about someone that I haven't really associated much with in the past few years, but I just can't crying since I stopped in to visit the family. I know he is in a better place. I have great faith about The Plan, but it is just so sad to watch his family suffer. This is the second tragic death of a child that his parents have had to endure, and it breaks my heart to think of what they must be going through right now.

my fAvoRIte worker

Josh has been busy in the garage lately, trying to get his tools & our space more organized. Love it. Can't wait 'till it's done! Here is his workbench that he built a few days ago:

yoo hoo??

In honor of our overseas visitor today... ...how the heck are ya?

Tooth Fairy in Fiji?

I thought I should probably elaborate a bit about the Tooth Fairy in Fiji thing.


Several years ago, after I had just returned from a trip to Fiji, Jake & Lander were looking at my photos. They found a picture of a Hindu temple & asked me if that was the Tooth Fairy's home.


My answer was instantaneous. "Of course it's her home!"


How could I resist?


Ever since, Fiji has been her home, and each of the boys' friends have been educated about that fact. So, just in case you haven't seen it, here is a picture of the Tooth Fairy's home:

8 in 8

Jake lost his 8th tooth last night.

I started thinking about how he has lost his teeth. It has been an adventure with each one!

He had the I'm too afraid to pull it out, until it got so loose that it fell into the toilet by accident tooth. Then, of course, he had the "Let me feel how loose your tooth is," before dad quickly pulled it out tooth. He had the "Hey, look what's in my apple!" tooth. Then he had the tooth that was so loose he couldn't eat breakfast because he wanted it to fall out at school tooth, but then he lost it later that day at his friends house, only to find it weeks later. And last night he ran into my room with the it's midnight and I decided to wiggle my tooth until it fell out surprise tooth.

The nice part about it all is that the Tooth Fairy has been very understanding. She has flown from Fiji each time he lost a tooth to leave him a gold dollar. She even accepted a few notes in lieu of the tooth when the tooth couldn't be found.

Thank you Tooth Fairy!

We Miss YOU!

Little Tillamook, we MISS you! When are you coming to visit us?

(Jake, Sydney, Lander, Baby Travis, Jenna in background)

a Valentines to remember

Sorry. No photos. But, I had to mention our memorable Valentine's day in Driggs with Grams. Things just kept going awry. I am not sure what was with that day!

First we found Gram's flowers, a gift from Shauna, frozen on the front porch.

Then, Gram's accidentally pushed the "Clean" cycle on her oven instead of "Bake". Our yummy dinner that she had slaved over was cooked at more than 500 degrees for an hour before we noticed the strange smell.

And, oh, the smell! The house was filled with that oven cleaning smell. Even yummier!

And last, but not least, we found out that Brad got married, but didn't tell any of his kids!

What a bizarre day!

he DID it!

Lander was very worried because he hadn't figured out how to tie his shoes (in other words, he refused to practice). He was convinced that he was going to have to repeat kindergarten. But, yesterday while I helped in his class, he just decided to try & passed off his last kindergarten requirement. Good job buddy!

silly girl

My niece, Jenna, is such a silly little thing. Whether it was waking me up at the crack of dawn, spouting out cute sentences, or coming up with new clothing creations, she kept us really entertained during her visit a week ago.

Here is Jenna (with her big sister, Sydney, restraining her so that she would stay still for the picture) wearing her newest "belt":

Gramps' Funeral

It is no secret to those that know me well that I hate funerals. I am such a sap that they make me cry, and I don't like to cry in front of others. I was dreading Gramps' funeral; the march into the church with everyone watching, the endless condolences from concerned friends, the black clothes, and let's not even talk about the viewing. But now that it is behind us, I can honestly say it was a good experience.

All of the J-boys were able to make it to Idaho to pay their final respects. It was wonderful to have the family around. Josh gave a tearfully wonderful tribute for Gramps--I am so proud of him! We were able to laugh over old stories, and cry with each other. It has been one of the best-hard experiences of our lives. Everything just seemed to go right. We even had clear roads and no wind, hard to believe in January.

We forgot our camera (of course), so I stole these pictures from Shelly & Beth until I can get a chance to download the ones we took on Grams & Gramps' camera. Thanks girls!

the J-boys standing in order, youngest to oldest with Grams & Shauna: Todd, Mark, Kyle, Eric, Jarrod, Josh

And just look at this view. This is the view from Grams & Gramps' house & also from the cemetery were Gramps was buried & where someday, hopefully a long time from now, Josh & I will also be buried. I hope it looks the same on resurrection morning!

To the Rescue...one more time...

Once again, Alan & Heather came to the rescue. When it became evident that we would be at the hospital much longer than planned, they took the babysitter home & entertained our boys. I pirated the following pictures from their blog. Some of the photos were too hilarious not to share!

.

Here Alan is teaching Jake how to play Red Alert on the computer, apparently, he did really good!

Alan & Heather always do silly things with the boys. They are so good to them! Here are some $1 costumes that they found at the DI this week. Lander's is tiny, meant for an 18-month old.

They watched Star Wars and Lander decided that he was a Jedi. Here is his famous Jedi pose (pretend he is holding a light saber).
Jedi ATTACK! ...and the Jedi dies. I guess the bad guys won.

Alan & Heather have been sooo good to us. I don't know what we would do without you guys. Thanks for all you do. We REALLY appreciate it!!!!!

"Crazy, crazy"

How do you say good-bye to someone who has impacted your life more than anyone will ever know? That was our dilemma on Saturday as we said our "see you laters" to Gramps and watched him slip away.

In typical Gramps style, he fought it out, surprising everyone with his ability to keep going. He was taken off his medications & the tubes were removed from his throat. We expected him to be with us for an hour, two tops if we were lucky. But instead we got nearly 11 hours. It was a long day. What a gift!

Gramps was alert, although weak, and we were all able to be with him, to talk to him. He kept telling us how much he loved his family, even asking about Jake & Lander in the last moments before unconsciousness overtook him. I will never forget his "Hey, pal", his greeting each time Josh called his name. He made jokes, laughing at one point because he couldn't seem to die. He told us "Crazy, crazy. I can't die. They don't want me yet. Crazy, crazy." as he quietly chuckled. He was so calm & accepting.

He left this life in dignity and grace at 11:11 pm with his family at his side, sad to have him leave us, but grateful to have had the chance to love this great man.

We love you Gramps & miss you tons!

Island Park Sledding

Meet "The Hill": Meet "The Victims":

Meet "The Ride"

Meet "The Casualties":
Who are we kidding? It was FUN!

airborn

Josh & Nate came up with a little game, "see how far you can huck your child".

The culprits: Josh, Nate, Jake, Walker

Jake

Lander

Walker

Don't let Lander fool you. No children were harmed during the filming.

Island Park

We had made arrangements a few months ago to stay in a cabin with Nate, Hilary, Daisy & Walker F. over the Christmas break. Grams encouraged us to go, and we are glad that we did. It was a much needed break from the stresses at home, and it turned out better than we had hoped! Our reservation got messed up, so instead of the old cabin we had reserved, we got to stay in a beautiful new cabin. It was awesome!

our Christmas story

Sometimes we don't recognize how wonderful "normal" can be. To me, if something is normal, it is expected, routine. We all expected a normal Christmas this year; family in town, Dixie working over the holidays, playing with cousins, you know the drill. But, this year our Christmas decided to deviate out of our norm.

It started on Christmas eve. We had a wonderful dinner in Driggs with Grams & Gramps. Other family had come up for the holidays. Jarrod & Shelly, Shauna, & Todd plus our family were all packed into Grams & Gramps' home.

After dinner, Gramps wasn't feeling well, bad enough that we begged him to go to the ER, and after some major begging, he finally consented to go. He was admitted into the tiny Driggs hospital for antibiotics. What a way to spend Christmas Eve! I wish that is where the story ended.

But it doesn't.

We got a call at 3 am Christmas morning. Gramps was being transported by ambulance to our largest hospital, the ambulance bucking snow drifts and braving a white out to get him to a more equipped facility. Grams & everyone staying at her house were hopelessly snowed in.

We were having our fist blizzard.

We scrambled to find a sitter, but who do you get at 3 am on Christmas morning? We called Alan & Heather, but they had recently been playing middle of the night phone pranks on Dustin, so their phone was turned off. Josh decided to go alone.

He drove down the dark highway. Only one set of tracks were visible, those of the ambulance, a few minutes ahead of him. He arrived at the hospital finding Gramps alert, but in pain. No one was quite sure what was going on.

To make a long story a little shorter, lab tests revealed that Gramps was in septic shock, a very dangerous condition, and he was dying. So to save his life, doctors placed a tube down his throat, allowing machines to breathe for Gramps, and pumped his body full of medicines to control the side effects of the shock and kill the germs causing the sepsis.

Josh was able to stay by his side all day as Gramps fought for his life. It was a hard day. I stayed home with the kids, making arrangements, relaying calls, feeling helpless. The kids couldn't understand why I kept crying or why they couldn't just open there presents. I finally told them they could each pick one present to open. And this is what I found:

Wow.

Each & every present with Jake & Lander's name on it had been opened. They were having a marvelous time, and I cried some more!

It didn't feel like Christmas at all.

Luckily, things are starting to smooth out. Against difficult odds, Gramps seems to be healing. We are almost too afraid to hope. None of us want him to suffer, but if he can recover, we aren't ready to see him leave yet either.

So, now we just watch and wait. And remember the good times with the man that Josh looks up to the most. The man who taught Josh how to enjoy work, how to honor his priesthood, how to love his family. So many lessons, so much love.
We love you Gramps aka Peepaw!

full of excuses...nothing new!

Okay, okay. So, I know I am a blogging slacker, but in all fairness, I have been busy! Between digging out our driveway (one of the joys of living in the Arctic, Tiff), working at the hospital waaaay too much & trying to keep up with life, I am swamped. All of my Christmas plans somehow got delayed & now I am enjoying the mad scramble. So stay tuned. I promise that I will get back into the swing of things soon!