I am calling out to the universe for my long lost room mate from college. Jennifer Parker Dalton went to Brigham Young University around 1997-2000. She lived at Branbury appartments with me from 1998-99. I have lost contact with her since we both got married and I am really sad about it. She was an amazing friend and I want to find her!! She is originally from Yorbalinda California and her husbands name is Justin Dalton. I think that she is still in California but I have no idea.
If anyone knows her and knows how to get in touch with her leave a comment or email me! Maybe she will even see this! Who knows! In finding her I hope I also find our other room mates Janae and I am also looking for Emily Day Jeppeson.
Calling out to the universe for Jen Parker Dalton!!!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
When Your Body Turns On You
So crazy things have happened with my health in the last few years. I didn't realize how much I took for granted until things started to shut down. It started with extreme fatigue but that seemed semi-normal to me since I have little children and I work a lot. I thought this is just how you feel when you get a little older and have strain on your body from children. Other moms can agree I am sure!
But then I started having inexplicable weight gain and really bad headaches every time I woke up. My mom was helping me watch my girls while I worked and she told me that she wouldn't help me unless I went in to see the doctor. I guess other people could see how different things were with me and that something was really wrong.
So I went in to see an internist and see if we could figure things out. (If anyone needs a good doctor that will spend a lot of time talking with you let me know...great guy!)
So after I saw him and discussed my symptoms he ordered a bunch of tests and I found out that I have sleep apnea, 9 cysts on my thyroid causing me to have no thyroid function at all and that my tonsils were huge and needed to come out as well. Wow! Who knew that there was actually and explanation for all my problems!
So I found that out a few months ago and now I have surgery scheduled to have my tonsils out and adenoids. Hopefully that helps me with the breathing at night too. I mean I would love to sleep with a C-Pap machine every night and look like an old man or an alien.....but I am not sure how sexy that is to my husband!
The thyroid problem has turned out to be quite another problem. Before this I didn't know that you could live without a thyroid but apparently you can....you just have to be on hormone replacement for the rest of your life!!! If I were 70 then I might feel better about this but at 29 it is kind of hard for me. I guess I should be grateful that there is medicine out there that can help me and that it is not too expensive. After talking a lot with the doctor and deciding that they couldn't remove the cysts and get any thyroid function back at all then we might just remove the thyroid. Then he told me about another option where you can just drink radioactive iodine and kill your thyroid so that it doesn't turn toxic on your body! Hmmm Does that really sound safe to anyone else? At first it really freaked me out but the more I have talked to him and the more I have read about it I think it might be the better option. But then I will just have a dead thyroid in my body. That is a little weird to me but I don't want it to cause me any more problems either.
Matt thinks that I need to just start all over and get a super bionic body or become half machine or something like that. With two foot surgeries to do as well that involve huge recovery time.....I tend to agree with him!
The doctor told me that I need to get this all fixed before I can have any more children or it will really shut me down more than it already has. I am grateful that they can fix this but it is hard for me that I have a lot to do before I can have more children!
Pregnancy is also a time when your body turns on you! I am watching my poor sister right now being so nauseous and it brings back horrible memories. Sophie was worth every second of it but I remember when the nausea was so bad that I couldn't even keep down water! All the being hooked up to an IV 4 times a week just so that I could keep from getting severely dehydrated and the doctor finally putting me on the same nausea pill that they give Chemo patients so that I could get through.....all while trying to teach and not throw up in front of the kids and take care of my one and a half year old! Maybe I can just focus on that for awhile until we can add more little people to our family!
I am grateful for all that I have. I just needed to vent a little about all of my upcoming surgeries/toxic drinks that I get to go through.
It sure is nice when your body works the way that it is supposed to. And how much we take it for granted until it turns on you! I know that there are many out there who are suffering with things much worse than me and to those I wish you the best and may we all not take our health for granted!
Friday, June 20, 2008
Sophie's Birthday!
My baby is 3! How did that happen! She is so grown up all of the sudden! She explains herself so well all the time and stands up to her big sister when Elleigh is trying to get her to do stuff she doesn't want to. She asked me if she could have her birthday party at Chuck E Cheese much to my chagrin. I usually do home parties when they are this little but I am just working to much right now and so I am happy to leave all the planning and clean up to someone else. But Chuck E Cheese?! Oh well that's what she wanted. I have to admit, when we got to the Orem one, it was much cleaner than I remembered and they didn't even have any broken toys like at the Sandy one. It was so nice and clean and air conditioned!! She had so much fun and you could tell that she felt important when they announced her name over the intercom because it was her birthday! She asked me if they had said Sophie and I said yes and she squealed! It was really cute! We had a lot of family and friends come and it turned out to be a lot of fun!
Sophie has been so fun to have in our family! She is a blessing for sure! She is very patient and calm most of the time. She also has this really endearing sense of humor! Which is funny for a girl that small. But she really is funny. She has great comedic timing! She is also my little cuddle bug (which I love so much!) She assures Matt and I that she is still our little baby and that even when she gets bigger that she will let us carry her around. Love it! I am so blessed to be this little girls mother and I hope that she has any idea how much her dad and I love her!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Modern Conveniences!
Oh how I love my fridge and the ice maker it contains! Last week we found that everything in our fridge was getting progressively warmer and we didn't know why! The lights were still working and it seemed that the fridge was still kicking on but by the end of the day things were still not getting any colder. So we tried everything we knew how to do and nothing improved. Luckily Matt got a little fridge from his dad's work that we could use to store the little stuff in until we could figure out the problem. Matt cleaned the compressor and the fridge was working again......well for a few hours anyway. Finally we decided that it was time to break down and call some help. We got a service technician scheduled but it was going to take them a WEEK to come out!! Have you guys tried to live without a fridge and ice for a week lately?! Oh how attached I am to my wonderful modern appliances that make life a bit easier. They finally came today and the defroster was the problem. So $100 dollars later we now have a working fridge! We should be able to use it again in 24 hours! I am so glad that we were able to fix it easily....but wow, how truly dependent I am on these types of things. Also, my straightner has died on me after being in my luggage on the plane. Oh whoa is me! I love my straightner and I miss it terribly.
Father's Day
So Father's Day has become and interesting holiday for me. Having lost my dad almost four years ago, it makes it a little hard to celebrate. My Grandpa Read has always been a huge presence in my life and when my dad passed away I still had a great father figure in Grandpa. Then he passed away two years ago. I hope that this doesn't turn into a sad post for people. I really just want to share my feelings right now....mostly for my own sake. I miss my dad on this holiday and I also miss my grandpa. I miss the presence of a man who will just fix it for me and tell me that it is all ok. Sometimes I really don't feel strong enough to be the adult and handle all of life's challenges. I am so grateful to have my mom and my in laws and the other people around me that support and love me. I am blessed with a lot of friends and wonderful family. It is still hard to fill the whole that these two men have left behind.
My Grandpa is my hero and I with forever be grateful for him and the mark that he has left on my life. I am glad that I had the relationship that I did with him. I was lucky enough to live 3 houses from him my whole life and there was rarely a day that went by without a visit to or from grandpa. He also had a deep love for all of his family. He wanted us all to be happy and taken care of and he worked very hard to try to help us all out in any way he could. There have been many times in our family's life when we were helped out and grandpa was behind it. He was a very hard worker and he always tried to help out the little man. I can't tell you how many people still tell me that the only reason why they were able to afford an engagement ring or watch for their husband was because my grandpa helped them out through his jewelry store. I hope that I grow up to be like him in this way. He had some roughness to him that was actually very endearing to most people. I still laugh a lot at the stories I hear and remember. He was quite a character for sure! I miss all of these things and many more that are too long to write. Thank you for your life and for the influence it has had on mine grandpa!
Things I miss today:
I miss my dad's humor and the way he could make a ride in the car fun. I miss his love for music and the random phone calls I used to get about a new song or band that he had discovered that I must listen too. He loved how I would get excited with him about things like that. I also miss his huge head sticking out above any crowd. He was 6'7'' and very easy to find in a crowd, especially with his dark hair. I also miss one of my biggest fans. It didn't seem to matter what I did, he was at the performance, usually standing in the back and cheering the loudest. I miss the big hugs he would give and the reassurance it gave me to sleep at night. I miss the ability to call him no matter what time and he would drop everything and run to the rescue. I miss how he would have loved my children and the joy he would have found in them. He would have got a kick out of everything they are doing and would have loved that Elleigh knows who the Beatles are at age 5. He would have loved Sophie's little sense of humor. I just miss my big friendly dad on this holiday and I really hope that he has found peace.
Today I am so grateful for my husband and the wonderful father that he is. He takes care of me and is such a wonderful person for my girls to trust in. I am grateful that I have been given him to share this life with.
I am also grateful for my Heavenly Father. I always have the support and love I need from him and I know that I am not alone.
My Grandpa is my hero and I with forever be grateful for him and the mark that he has left on my life. I am glad that I had the relationship that I did with him. I was lucky enough to live 3 houses from him my whole life and there was rarely a day that went by without a visit to or from grandpa. He also had a deep love for all of his family. He wanted us all to be happy and taken care of and he worked very hard to try to help us all out in any way he could. There have been many times in our family's life when we were helped out and grandpa was behind it. He was a very hard worker and he always tried to help out the little man. I can't tell you how many people still tell me that the only reason why they were able to afford an engagement ring or watch for their husband was because my grandpa helped them out through his jewelry store. I hope that I grow up to be like him in this way. He had some roughness to him that was actually very endearing to most people. I still laugh a lot at the stories I hear and remember. He was quite a character for sure! I miss all of these things and many more that are too long to write. Thank you for your life and for the influence it has had on mine grandpa!
Things I miss today:
I miss my dad's humor and the way he could make a ride in the car fun. I miss his love for music and the random phone calls I used to get about a new song or band that he had discovered that I must listen too. He loved how I would get excited with him about things like that. I also miss his huge head sticking out above any crowd. He was 6'7'' and very easy to find in a crowd, especially with his dark hair. I also miss one of my biggest fans. It didn't seem to matter what I did, he was at the performance, usually standing in the back and cheering the loudest. I miss the big hugs he would give and the reassurance it gave me to sleep at night. I miss the ability to call him no matter what time and he would drop everything and run to the rescue. I miss how he would have loved my children and the joy he would have found in them. He would have got a kick out of everything they are doing and would have loved that Elleigh knows who the Beatles are at age 5. He would have loved Sophie's little sense of humor. I just miss my big friendly dad on this holiday and I really hope that he has found peace.
Today I am so grateful for my husband and the wonderful father that he is. He takes care of me and is such a wonderful person for my girls to trust in. I am grateful that I have been given him to share this life with.
I am also grateful for my Heavenly Father. I always have the support and love I need from him and I know that I am not alone.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Disneyland!
So I have this crazy awesome mother who decided that she needed to get away after she was done with school and so she called us and asked if we wanted to go to Disneyland!! So the girls and I were the only ones out of the kids that could go and so we planned a last minute trip!! With only a few hiccups we were able to plan the trip and get a good hotel right by Disneyland and a flight and everything. The girls could hardly contain their excitement and I must say I was almost as bad. We also planned to go to the princess lunch which is a must if you have little girls!! It was my favorite part of the whole trip. We also rode all of the little kid rides that I haven't been on since I was little. That was a lot of fun!! We also saw the Aladdin show in the California park. It was such a good show! Very well put together and the girls thought it was the best show ever! You also must take the time to see that show if you go. We rode the new Finding Nemo ride. Besides a little claustrophobia it was a lot of fun! The girls also loved the electric parade!! My mom and I were absolutely exhausted after the trip because we got just as excited as the girls about everything if not more! My mom also decided that the girls must see the ocean since they hadn't before so we got a car for a few hours and went to the nearest beach...I think it was Huntington. It was so nice! The beach was really clean and not very crowded! The girls thought it was awesome! They picked up shells and ran in the water and watched the surfers! It was so much fun to watch them see all of these things for the first time! Childhood is a wonderful thing and it is a beautiful thing to witness. I am so grateful to my mom for thinking of this and for taking us! She is amazing and she sure knows how to show her granddaughters a good time! They are still talking about it to everyone. Their little faces are still lighting up about the whole thing! Thanks for the magic mom!
Monday, June 2, 2008
Summer Fun!
We are so excited to have the summer weather finally! I am actually glad that it hasn't jumped from freezing to Hot this year. We have had some nice weather. So Saturday Matt mowed the lawn and was turning on some water and he decided to put it under the tramp and let the girls jump in their swimming suits. They thought it was the funnest thing ever! Elleigh kept yelling that over and over again. "This is the funnest thing ever!" So I had to take pictures of their first real time out in the sun this year!!
Elleigh Graduated from Pre School!
Elleigh's school had a really fun graduation program last Friday! It was a lot of fun and a little emotional! She has been going there since she was three and has become really close with her teachers! I have subbed a lot and got to know them all really well too and so it made it hard to day goodbye. Of course Sophie is excited to start in the fall and be in her own class instead of being drug a long with mom.
Here is Elleigh during the Karate demonstration. They "meditate" before they do each routine so that they can clear there minds....it is hilarious!
Elleigh the big graduate!!
Elleigh and her teacher Miss Honey (yes that is her real first name). She has been so great to Elleigh! Elleigh has learned so much and is really going to miss her!
Elleigh and Miss Jilane. She is the owner and one of Elleigh's teachers.
Elleigh with Miss Caressa her dance and singing teacher for the pre school.
Elleigh with Miss April an assistant teacher. She was lots of fun and played with the kids so cute.
Some of Elleigh's friends from school.
Here is Elleigh during the Karate demonstration. They "meditate" before they do each routine so that they can clear there minds....it is hilarious!
Elleigh the big graduate!!
Elleigh and her teacher Miss Honey (yes that is her real first name). She has been so great to Elleigh! Elleigh has learned so much and is really going to miss her!
Elleigh and Miss Jilane. She is the owner and one of Elleigh's teachers.
Elleigh with Miss Caressa her dance and singing teacher for the pre school.
Elleigh with Miss April an assistant teacher. She was lots of fun and played with the kids so cute.
Some of Elleigh's friends from school.
The Dance Recital!
So here are the delayed picture of Elleigh and Sophie's dance recital a few Saturdays ago. Elleigh was in two numbers and Sophie did her dance too. Some of you know that I teach a toddler dance class as well as vocal classes at Center Stage in Orem. It is a lot of fun and I have enjoyed teaching both Elleigh and Sophie when they were two years old. The performances are always the reward because they do the funniest things on stage. I love those little kids!!
I was also very proud of Elleigh this year! She loves to perform and when the time comes she gets soooo excited to get on stage! I am glad that she isn't afraid.
Her pre school did a dance to "Amazing Mazie" from Seusical the Musical. She was front and center the whole time. I thanked her teacher after for having her in the front so much and she told me that she had to because a lot of the other kids follow her and she knows it really well. She also does great facials and is fun to watch!
What a little star!!
The other dance was with Miss Kim's class and it was called "Fuss"
It was about throwing a fit! The choreography was really cute and made me laugh. I cried the first time I watched her do it because she is very precise and performs so cute! Lots of smiles and big eyes! I just couldn't believe how well my little baby did! I really don't know how she got to be so grown up but she sure does a good job up there! I am a huge spaz about these things I know. But I loved it so much growing up and it is fun to see how much she enjoys it too!!
Sophie before she went on stage.
Elleigh in "Amazing Mazie"
Elleigh in "Fuss"
I was also very proud of Elleigh this year! She loves to perform and when the time comes she gets soooo excited to get on stage! I am glad that she isn't afraid.
Her pre school did a dance to "Amazing Mazie" from Seusical the Musical. She was front and center the whole time. I thanked her teacher after for having her in the front so much and she told me that she had to because a lot of the other kids follow her and she knows it really well. She also does great facials and is fun to watch!
What a little star!!
The other dance was with Miss Kim's class and it was called "Fuss"
It was about throwing a fit! The choreography was really cute and made me laugh. I cried the first time I watched her do it because she is very precise and performs so cute! Lots of smiles and big eyes! I just couldn't believe how well my little baby did! I really don't know how she got to be so grown up but she sure does a good job up there! I am a huge spaz about these things I know. But I loved it so much growing up and it is fun to see how much she enjoys it too!!
Sophie before she went on stage.
Elleigh in "Amazing Mazie"
Elleigh in "Fuss"
Performance time for Me!
So I guess it's my turn to perform and have some fun! This Celtic group that I am in is performing at the Highland Games (Scottish Festival) at Thanksgiving Point on June 14th at 2pm. Some of my family is already involved in the festival so I am just letting them know when we are going to be there! If anyone else is bored and wants something fun to do you should all come!! Here is some more info:
SCOTTISH FESTIVAL & HIGHLAND GAMES
When
June 13-14
Friday: 5 pm – 10 pm
Saturday: 9 am – 10 pm
Where
Electric Park
Admission
Friday Night: $7.00 Adults & Children
Saturday: $10.00 Adults & Children
Both days: $16.00 Adults & Children
Saturday Night Concert Only: $5.00 Each
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Summary -
Scot or not, all are welcome at the 34th Annual Utah Scottish Festival & Highland Games, June 13-14, at Thanksgiving Point. Join 12,000 of our closest friends at this increasingly popular event for Scottish dancing and Highland athletics. More than 40 clan tents, 5 fabulous musical groups, ethnic food, vendors, 9 pipe bands, tattos, kid's games, and much more all set amid Utah's own Highlands.
Hear cannon fire signal the Tattoo’s beginning and see an ancient tradition when the Chieftain calls for the clans to gather by torchlight. Fireworks conclude Friday night. Saturday, see athletic events at the U.S. National Highland Athletic Championship. See cultural displays, Highland dance, kilt making, and weaving demonstrations.
SCOTTISH FESTIVAL & HIGHLAND GAMES
When
June 13-14
Friday: 5 pm – 10 pm
Saturday: 9 am – 10 pm
Where
Electric Park
Admission
Friday Night: $7.00 Adults & Children
Saturday: $10.00 Adults & Children
Both days: $16.00 Adults & Children
Saturday Night Concert Only: $5.00 Each
clear
clear
Summary -
Scot or not, all are welcome at the 34th Annual Utah Scottish Festival & Highland Games, June 13-14, at Thanksgiving Point. Join 12,000 of our closest friends at this increasingly popular event for Scottish dancing and Highland athletics. More than 40 clan tents, 5 fabulous musical groups, ethnic food, vendors, 9 pipe bands, tattos, kid's games, and much more all set amid Utah's own Highlands.
Hear cannon fire signal the Tattoo’s beginning and see an ancient tradition when the Chieftain calls for the clans to gather by torchlight. Fireworks conclude Friday night. Saturday, see athletic events at the U.S. National Highland Athletic Championship. See cultural displays, Highland dance, kilt making, and weaving demonstrations.
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