News on Troy

Yesterday Troy went in for more blood work and an ultrasound. His liver, gall bladder, kidneys and pancreas all look great. Now we wait for the results of the blood work. Hopefully it's even better than the last one. If it is he goes back in a month to see if it's normal. He still has to take pills to help with the nausea but it's a lot better than before. They think he'll live. LOL! They have two theories: 1- He had hepatitis and it's getting better(they can't test for all forms of hepatitis).
2-An overload from all the antibiotics he was on.
Whatever it was doesn't matter that much as long as it's going away. I am so glad he feels better.

On a side note, my sister from Alaska is moving back here and will be staying with my mom until her husband can sell there mobile home and come here. I have mixed feelings about it. The two of us have had a lot of problems. I can deal with her in small doses and her being gone has done wonders for our relationship. I hope it will be okay.

Girls Camp

I just wanted to take some time and blog about the girls camp I helped chaperone. Brianna and I rode to the camp in Franks car and enjoyed the music from the 50's. Well, at least I did. Much to everyone's chagrin I have found a new radio station. When we got to camp we quickly started to unpack but not quick enough for the banana bread Shelbi had made. A bushy tailed grey squirrel climbed into her truck and proceded to have a snack, right through the plastic zip locked bag. We enjoyed the luxeries of cabins with bunks, picnic tables, refrigerators, sinks, showers and most important flushing toilets. What a beautiful area Heber is. We were able to learn about the pioneers who traveled through and settled the area, folklore, as well as flora and local animals. We went boating on a nearby lake. The 3 women, including myself, got a paddle boat. We thought we got the easy one until we started peddling. Talk about a lot of work and not much progress, but we had a great time laughing about it and just being goofy and silly. The men, namely Jared and Frank, were trying undo our rutter in jest. Lucky for them they couldn't do it. You see they were the rescue team for the lake and if they succeeded in dismantling our boat they would have to tow us in. I went to a training meeting to learn how to work a game in the challenge course and it was opened with a prayer and I felt the spirit so strongly that I had to fight back tears. It is amazing how close you feel to God when you are in the mountains around so much beauty and animals. When it came time for the challenge course once again I was strongly hit with the spirit. So much symbolism and truth was revealed on that course. The need to help others on their journey as well as the need to allow others to help you. The best part of it all was Testimony meeting and the chance to be with Brianna and to get to know her in a different type of way and to watch how she interacts with the other girls. I think she will love the Young Womens program. I wish Liz had been able to come up. Work got in the way though. Thank you Shelbi for all your work and dedication to and for the girls. I really appreciate it. All the pictures are hanging up in the church hallway for this little expedition.

Happy Birthday Brianna!

Brianna's birthday blog is late, no fault of my own.  The 2 of us were at girls camp for her birthday July 22nd.  We had a wonderful, spiritual time up there.  We were able to do some bonding.  Brianna and I had a rocky start when she was born.  She was unfortunate to arrive during the time my husband and I were having all our problems and were seriously contemplating divorce.  I think all the stress I was going through transferred to her.  She was born at Cottonwood hospital and weighed an even 7 pounds and was 19 inches long.  I wanted to name her Celestia but lost the argument in the hospital with Troy and his mom.  I was so frustrated I said, "FINE!".  Her name is now Brianna Celeste, at least I got a portion of what I wanted.  Brianna has the distinguished honor of bearing the female version of my brothers name, Brian.  He is the one who blessed her when he returned from his mission.  Brianna spent a lot of time crying in the middle of the night and the only way to get her to stop was to do the Priesthood bounce.  Ugh!!!!!!  Talk about hard on the arms.  As soon as you stopped she would start crying.  I spent hours doing this at night.  One Sunday morning Brianna was crying and I happened to turn on the t.v. to drown her out and I put on the Tabernacle Choirs Music and The Spoken Word.  Miracle of all miracles she instantly quieted.  Talk about music soothing the savage beast!!!  I feel bad that most of my memories of Brianna are more negative.  I spent many nights and days praying that I would like her.  Now she is such a joy in my life, always willing to help and love me.  She has brought me breakfast in bed, made her dad buy me an ice-cream cake for my birthday, and numerous other things.  She reminds me a lot of me when I was her age(12).  I passed the family Christmas Nativity director on to her.  She is the one to get all the cousins together and make costumes and practice for the play.  I wouldn't trust anyone else to do it.  Her creativity amazes me.  She's smart, loves to read, loves to camp, four wheel and hike.  She has a great love of animals and sleeps with both our dogs.  She does a wonderful job of helping watch Vance when I need a break.  I know Brianna had a rocky start but it will be a wonderful journey a long the way.  Thank you Brianna for being you and Happy Birthday!

Like father like son...

True colors of Greg

Updates

Troy's rash has turned the corner.  It is actually looking better after 3 antibiotic shots and about 3000 mg of oral antibiotics.  Yay!!!!!  The high doses though has messed up his appetite and gives him some flu like symptoms.  We were warned about it.

We went to the Ward camp out and had fun.  We had Brianna and her friend watch 5 kids while the 3 sets of parents went to lunch.  I think the conversation we had was better than lunch.  It was a bit pricey.  It rained part of the time but not to bad.  Vance decided to copy the big boys and got into the mud puddle located in the middle of the campsite (check Collette's blog for a picture).  I was okay with it but after we had to clean him up and it smelled like he rolled in cow manure.  Ugh!!!!  Gross!!!!!  Thank heaven kids are washable.  Dad wasn't to happy with it.  We didn't have our camera but we did have the video camera.  On Saturday while everyone was packing up to go our friend Shane came up with his boat and took us boating for a few hours.  It was a blast.  I got sunburned.  Not to badly though.

Vance also learned how to ride a bike without training wheels this week.  I guess it's the summer for all the neighborhood kids to learn that.  Vance saw Tyson riding his bike and decided that he wanted to try.  He was determined to push start it himself and couldn't quite get it.  Sam pushed him off and off he went.  I got a picture on my cell phone but no way to download it.  Sorry!  That was the end of the lesson and he didn't give it a try again for almost a week when Tyson gave Vance his little bike.  In a matter of minutes he was off and riding.  No help needed.  That was the easiest child to teach how to ride a bike since I didn't have to do anything other than sit back and watch.  What a determined child.  I just love him so much.

Troy, Sarah and Vance have gone to Scofield with the Pitts.  I will join them with Jacob late tonight.  This week is EFY and Jake and Liz are there.  On the first day Jake found out that his hair didn't meet the For Strength of Youth standards.  I guess I should have read it before I sent him.  He had to get his hair cut or leave.  Liz called and told me about it saying that they had someone there who could cut hair.  I asked to talk to Jake and he told me he didn't want to cut his hair and I told him it would grow back.  He insisted.  So I told him I wouldn't force him to do it and to come home.  I was pretty mad and frustrated at that point because I knew that the Stake paid for it and they couldn't get their money back.  After a few minutes I thought that maybe I should go pick him up so I text Liz and asked her if he needed a ride.  She text me back saying that Jake had decided to cut his hair.  I am so proud of him! Of course it's not as short as I want it to be but it barely fits into the standard.  Baby steps, right?  I can't wait for long hair to go out of style again.  I didn't like the 70's style the first time around.  Back to the story of going to Scofield, our kids get to ride on a float and throw candy.  So Cool!!

Some may be wondering what happened to Greg during the Ward camp out.  He got caught by the police with his friends at my house drinking alcohol.  He and his friends all received tickets and Troy showed up and had a good talk with all of the boys.  Hopefully this won't happen again.  I think I have updated everything.  Have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend to all.

Spider bite, Shingles, or Fungal infection?

What a full couple of weeks we've had.  Troy did a side job for my sister, putting in a new furnace and a/c unit.  After 2 days in a crawl space under her house Troy found a circular rash on his arm and 2 on his back.  He doesn't remember feeling bit.  He didn't think much of it but after a week it had all grown and joined together into a giant rash.  I won't go into to many details or post pictures, it's pretty gross.  His brother and I finally convinced him to go to the doctor.  Who claims whatever it is, is infected.  He was prescribed high doses of antibiotics.  It seemed to be doing better, sort of.  We had my brothers wedding on Saturday and Troy's rash didn't grow much.  Sunday the rash started to get worse again.  We call the doctor and she's out for the week.  We see a different doctor who prescribed more antibiotics which specializes in the Mercer staph infection.  He has also had a blessing.  Today it has grown even more.  The doctor did take samples on Monday and we should know what it is come Wednesday night.  Unfortunately Troy has been feeling flu like symptoms now and isn't sure if the two are related.  Of course because Troy is sick he has problems at work and can't stay home to rest.  I pray that they find out what is wrong.  Please put Troy into all your prayers for us.  Thank you!