A Very Special Day

All my kids love each other and watch out for each other. I love how close all seven of them are! When we were going around the family, saying what we admired about each other, they all had such wonderful things to say. When we got to Randi-and she got to Trevor-she simply said "he's my big brother-that says it all." Ryanne was baptized this month. That in itself is such a wonderful thing, but she had an added bonus. Her brother baptized her. It's hard to put into words what it's like to see your oldest son baptize his little sister. It still brings a tear to my eye. Ryanne's day was fantastic! She had a beautiful program that she shared with a sweet little guy, whose family we adore. The musical number had 6 of us, joined by 4 McAllister's playing an "orchestral arrangement" of If the Savior Stood Beside Me. Randi did a great job speaking on the Holy Ghost, even quoting some of Gramps' talk he gave at Ben's baptism. Sure do miss that man. She was glowing in both her sweet white baptismal dress and her confirmation dress. There were even a few drops from THE River Jordan in the font that day! Trevor did great with the prayer and it was witnessed by Uncle Bart and Grandpa Jewkes. Wade then confirmed her and gave her a beautiful blessing. Of course lunch afterwards was delicious and visiting with family precious. To top off her special day, we took Grandma and headed to the Brigham City Temple Open House. Not many people can say they were baptized and went through the temple the same day! I'm grateful for the incredible family I am blessed with, and for the knowledge that we will be Together Forever.

Homecoming and Horace

Homecoming. That time of year when you realize that it was 23 years ago that you were playing powderpuff and going to the dance. Man I'm old. Randi followed in my footsteps and was on the Gold Team. Randi played great when she was in, making a huge stop after an interception and quite a few big runs. I loved hearing her name over the loud speaker "Randi-Horace-Jewkes". Yep, Horace. It seems that she has kind of dedicated her senior year to her grandpa. Both her powderpuff shirt and her cross country jacket read "Horace." Now, why would she pick that? you may ask. Well the story is this... Whenever people first hear Randi's name they ask her if it is short for something. She used to explain that no, it's just Randi and that she was named after her Grandpa. The story then evolved to the fact that her Grandpa's name was Randall...well, Horace Randall. Now when people ask if her name is short for something she simply replies "Horace." I love it. I think Gramps would, too.

Of course she looked beautiful for the dance and had the sweetest date. She's happy to be running again, but said that in the back of her mind she knows that there is something different about her heart. We go to Primary Children's next week where hopefully most of her fears will be put to rest after speaking to the cardiologist. My hope is that her senior year will be one filled with great memories, friends, and accomplishments. Love you, Randi!

Interesting

It seems that my kids love to keep it interesting! After her first cross country meet, Randi went down at the finish line and couldn't get up without becoming super dizzy and was having problems breathing for about ten minutes. The next meet, she went down at the finish line again, taking probally 15-20 minutes to get up and going again. At her third meet, which of course was in Murray so we weren't there, she collapsed about half-way through the course. She said she laid on the course for 10-15 minutes before walking herself off. My question...where were the coaches? Where was any medical help? ANYWAY...we took her into the doctor where he said it could be her asthma, but maybe her heart. No running allowed. Really? Randi lives to run. Seriously, she does. We couldn't get her into an echo before friday. A whole week of no running. Our favorite tech, Doug, said results should be back to her doctor by monday, tuesday at the latest. By thursday, we were on the phone asking where the report was. Of course, it was lost. Well, not really lost, but in a certain doctor's basket, not finished and of course it was his day off. Then we're told sorry, but the second cardiologist wouldn't read it because first said doctor had "called" it. Randi had already missed a meet and almost two weeks of training. After many calls and many words, we did get a call back from Doug. He said he knew how frustrated we were and went and got the third cardiologist, who luckily enough had already looked at the echo, consulting with first doctor. He told us what was going on and said he felt that she could run again. Her diagnosis is a bicuspid aortic valve (which is leaking...along with at least one other valve). He said it is a congenital heart defect that occurs in 1 in 10,000 births. Put into Logan's population...five people have it. No wonder they are all fighting over it. It is an "interesting" case, so says doctor #3. Randi was SUPER excited to be able to run friday - two weeks after she went down. Sadly enough, I get a phone call from Doug on friday morning. Apparantly Doc #1 was back at work, saying he had been studying her images for a week and wasn't sure if she had a hole in her heart or not. Could I please bring her in, on our schedule, free of charge for more images. Randi was SUPER not happy when I picked her up right before cross country. Get to the hospital, take more images, call in Doc #1 to look at test real time, debate between the two of them if it was leaking at the corner of the valve or the wall of the heart, lots of blah, blah from Doc #1 covering his behind about taking so long for results, but in the end cleared once again to run. Hallelujuia! Of course, the euphoria didn't last long. Tucker had been complaining of hip pain for a couple of days. He missed a soccer game it hurt so bad. Tucker doesn't miss soccer. We just get Randi squared away, and Tucker comes to me, complaining that he now has a rash on the hip, all the way down to his knee. Once again, a call to Dr. Armstrong after they closed, race the kid down to the office where he lets us in (only 3 people there) and are told that Tucker has shingles. Yes, shingles. Thought that was an old person disease. It it is 95% of the time. Doctor said it was "interesting" that he would get it and how it presented. Poor kid. I've heard it is super painful for a long time. Hopefully since he's young and otherwise healthy, and we started anti-virals early, he won't get too severe of a case. Since things always happen in threes, we're taking bets on who's next. "

Hours drag, but years fly by.

It seems no matter how hard I try to hang on to these moments, time goes by so fast. Some days it seems like we'll never make it to bedtime. So many activities, homework and stuff to do. Days can drag on forever. But then I realize another week has gone by and I have no idea where it went. I love having Trevor around during the day, but that means he is in college. College. How is it that I have a child in college? Then there's Randi. Homecoming week of her senior year. She has turned into the most beautiful, amazing young woman. Ben is a full blown teenager. Yep, he's even got sass. And I'm soon to have 3 kids on our car insurance. Yikes. Charlee amazes me with her beautiful smile and happy attitude, well most of the time. Tucker seems to be well beyond his years in so many ways. Sometimes I need to remind the 18 and 19 year olds that no, Tucker can't "play" past 8 on a school night :) Ryanne is 8. Eight. She is so smart and such a great friend to everyone at school. Now if we could just cut out the "it's not fair" and "I don't like that" -s. Kyall continues to be spoiled rotten by everyone around her. I literally tear up thinking she won't have any memories of life with all her siblings still at home. I try to savor each minute with them. I have truly been blessed with the best kids. Ever.