yogurt, sickness, and blessings

A few noteworthy things have happen in our household in the last week.  First of all, Travis, Austin and Joseph camped out in the parking lot of the Earthfruits Yogurt restaurant last Friday night, to earn free yogurt for a year.  They were having a grand opening and offering  free yogurt to the first 100 customers.  They had a great time camping out, and ended up earning 2 free yogurts for a year (52 coupons for free yogurt) and Austin got a $20 gift certificate.  My wonderful husband did it for me, since he knows how much I love yogurt, and since we can't really afford it, he camped out and got it for me for free.  Unfortunately, the timing wasn't so great, since Friday I got really sick, really fast.  I couldn't sit up or stand up without intense pressure and pain in my head, neck, and upper back, and I couldn't keep any food down.  By Saturday morning, after talking with my OBGYN and another nurse, they determined I needed to get to the ER.  Travis and the older kids were still camping, and I couldn't get a hold of him because his battery on his cell phone always dies.  I finally got my Visiting Teaching companion to watch my two youngest children, and take me to get Travis and to the ER.  After running some tests, the Dr. ruled out Meningitis and a few other things, and told me I probably just hurt my neck, and sent me home with a muscle relaxant prescription.  I got a hold of my cousin Eric who is a wonderful chiropractor and he came over Saturday night and adjusted my neck.  The next day some of the pain in my neck and back subsided but the rest was still overwhelming.  My cousin told me, it was probably nutrition related, and so I got an appointment for Tuesday morning with a naturopath/nutritionist  that has been recommend to me by my aunt, who has had lots of success with her.  Travis drove me to the appointment, and the Dr. was able to perform all her tests while I laid on he floor.  Her and another Dr. were able to determine that I have parasites, and I'm allergic to soy, the wireless signals cell phones and wireless Internet sends out, vitamin B6, and the growth hormone my body is producing to help the baby grow.  Anyway she was able to give me some drops under my tongue to ease some of the pain, and by the end of the appointment I was able to sit up for a short amount of time.  After paying the bill, which was over $400 we came home.  I was worried about the money because we're living off our savings, and have everything budgeted out for the next two years.  But when we got home their was a check from the GI bill for $500 that I wasn't expecting, so we are blessed.  The Lord works in mysterious ways, sometimes even through a government check.  Anyway, I've gradually gotten better, and I'm at the point where I can sit or stand for 5-10 minutes until I have to lay down again.  Travis has been wonderful taking care of a lot of my household duties, and getting the kids to and from school.  Although Travis has been getting a bit behind in his school wok, so I'm hoping to get back to healthy status very soon.  But I know the Lord is watching out for us and blessing us.

singing videos of kids

There is a website scriptures4kids.org where the kids can upload videos of themselves singing about Jesus, and Austin had done it awhile ago, and her video is on the website, and the other kids wanted to make videos too, so here they are.  I'm having trouble sending their videos to the website, so I decided to put them on the blog instead. 

Samuel's Scooter Accident

Samuel and his "owwies"

Austin comforting Samuel after his scooter accident

Travis  was picking the kids up from school on Friday, because I wasn't feeling very  well, and he and Samuel rode a scooter to get them.  Well just as they were getting to the school, the scooter hit a large crack in the sidewalk and Samuel face-planted onto the sidewalk.  Travis scooped him up, and saw his scraped up face and took him into the nurses office in the school, got him some  Tylenol and ice and picked up the kids, and ran Samuel home to me, while the kids kept up with Travis as best they could.  I was in my bed upstairs and heard Samuel's crying before they even got to the house.  I took Samuel in my arms, while Travis explained what happened, after about 10 more minutes Samuel finally calmed down and fell asleep.  We kept ice on his lip, it was quite swollen, and put antibiotic ointment on his scrapes.  He slept in my arms for 1-2 hours and then started waking up, crying about his face hurting.  But thankfully a package had just arrived from Grandma Kirkman for Betsy's birthday and she always puts things in it for all the kids.  Samuel was so excited about the package that he forgot about his face hurting for a little while.  For the rest of the day he was pretty sad, and trouble eating because his lip hurt, but with another dose of Tylenol and cartoons he made it through.  Saturday morning we had a list of chores for all the kids to do, and Samuel worked really hard and got all of his chores done so we took everyone to the farmer's market.  Samuel really wanted some of the produce at the farmer's market, and after looking at his face I couldn't turn him down, so he got most of the stuff he wanted.  He picked out a cantaloupe, and carried it the whole time, he didn't want anyone else touching his cantaloupe.  He ended up eating the whole thing, he loves cantaloupe.  He picked out corn too, but he ended up not being able to eat any until Sunday, because it hurt his lip too much.  Samuel has healed pretty quickly and his owwies are mostly gone now.  Last night Samuel was a little sneak.  In the middle of the night he snuck into my room and took my water that I keep by my night stand, and took it back into his room.  When I woke up at about 4 in the morning and went to grab my water, and was surprised to discover it wasn't there.  I knew I had put my water right there, and looked around to see if it fallen, but I couldn't find it, I woke up Travis and asked him if he knew where it was, and he didn't.  I got up and got another drink from the kitchen, and tried to go back to sleep.  But, of course I couldn't go back to sleep, I couldn't figure out where my water had disappeared too, so I finally got up again to check on the kids and make sure they were okay, and discovered my water cup on the dresser next to Samuel's bed.  I couldn't believe he had snuck into my room and taken my water cup, but I should have known, he is always taking my water cup during the day.  So anyway, I was finally able to go back to sleep.  When Samuel woke up I asked him why he took my water, and he said "cuz, I wanted to" silly boy, oh well, at least I know some physco didn't break into my house just to steal my water cup and make me think I'm losing my mind. 

Betsy's birthday and the 1st day of school

The boys Wrestling

Betsy wearing the dress her Grandma Hardy made for her (it also has a matching purse) 

Betsy's birthday cake that her Uncle Josh and his girlfriend Megan made for her

Samuel wishing he were going to school too

Joseph on the 1st day of School (he is growing up so fast)

Austin and Betsy wearing their capes, and loving Samuel

Betsy and Austin in new school clothes, Betsy wearing her oriental dress we brought her from Florida.

My sweet little Betsy Anne Kirkman turned 6 years old on Monday, and Travis and I had just flown back to Oregon from our 10-year anniversary vacation to Florida and the Bahamas.  We were flying back to Salt Lake City that afternoon, so we had Betsy's party at Grandma and Grandpa Hardy's house.  Betsy wanted to pick Blueberries for her birthday, sWo we went to a Blueberry farm and picked enough blueberries that we brought home a suitcase full of them.  When we got back from picking Blueberries, Betsy opened her presents, and we had cake and ice cream, with her cousins, and they played until it was time to fly home.  I think Betsy enjoyed her family party, and was very happy.  The next morning was the kids first day of school.  The kids were a little grumpy to wake up, because they got to sleep late the night before, but were fine by the time we walked them to school.  They all had a great first day at school, and seem pretty happy with school this whole week. 

Changes in the Kirkman household

Joseph climbing at Hueco Tanks, in El Paso, before we moved

Austin in the beautiful dress her Grandma Hardy made for her

Samuel and the bowl of strawberries we picked from our garden (in texas..I miss our garden)

Austin, Betsy, and I going to the Mother/Daughter dance, at the school before we moved

We didn't have a pool, so Samuel figured out his own way to beat the heat!

Travis and his welcome home cake I made for him

Joseph, Austin, and Sam posing at Heuco Tanks on our outing before we moved

All the kids at Hueco Tanks, they loved climbing..

Just before we moved we took all the beds out to the moving truck, and Samuel decided instead of sleeping on a mattress, that he wanted to sleep on the shelf, he was such a silly boy, but he pulled it off.

Joseph's 9th birthday just before we moved!

Austin building a fort at the children's museum in Albuquerque, on our trip to utah

Betsy making some shade to rest in, while Austin builds her fort

Daddy and Austin having fun, building with blocks and marbles, they made a neat contraption

Samuel doing a sommersault in our new house!

Austin lost one of her front teeth! Isn't she cute!

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted, the most important things, are that we worked like crazy ever since Travis got home, and got ready to move. We finally got everything done, and moved June 11th, we drove to Albuquerque, NM and stayed the night there. The next day was my birthday, so we stayed in Albuquerque, and played with the kids, we went to a fun children's museum called Explora, and after lunch, Travis took the kids back there, and let me go to a spa to get a body wrap, it was a very relaxing experience. After that we drove to Cortez, CO and had fun at a water park/recreation center, then we drove the rest of the way to Provo, UT. We stayed in a hotel that night, and the next day we moved into our new house that we're renting for the 2 years we will be here for. That weekend my parents were in town, so we did lots of fun things with them, and had a wonderful time except for the fact that when we went to a trampoline place Travis Sprained his ankle pretty bad. The poor guy was in a lot of pain for a long time, but finally now 6 weeks later it is close to normal again. Travis started the summer term at BYU in the chaplain program on June 21st and has been insanly busy with homework ever since, he only has time to eat, sleep, and shower. Travis is just finishing up the summer term, and we are both very excited for the break in homework. We found out shortly after arriving in Provo that I'm pregnant again. We we're not trying to get pregnant, in fact just before we moved we gave away all of our baby things, including maternity stuff. Despite all that, we are happy to be adding another life to our family. I had my first ulstrasound today since they thought my due date was off, they determined I'm due Febuary 19th. I would like to have a girl this time, but of course the boys want another boy. We've been working on settling into our new area, and getting to know people. It's been difficult since I'm exhausted and don't feel good a lot of the time, but now that I'm entering the 2nd trimester I'm feeling a little bit better, except for some digestion issues. The kids have loved playing in our backyard, full of soft green grass, a playhouse, trees, and several different swings. Last month we went to an outdoor movie at BYU, it was "planet 51" we walked since it's not to far from our house, and brought our blow up queen mattress. About 30 minutes before the movie ended it started pouring down rain, by the time we got home, we were drenched, it was quite the adventure. The thing I'm most excited about, is that my mother-in-law bought Travis and a cruise to the Bahamas, and for our 10 year anniversary we're flying to Portland, dropping off the kids at my parents house, and taking a 10-day trip to florida and the Bahamas, I can't wait!!!

Daddy coming home

We've been very busy since Travis got home from Iraq, but we are very happy to have him home. Sorry, not too many pictures, but I did get a few. Travis' flight was getting in May 4th at 1am in the morning. So I put the kids to bed, and told them I was going to wake them up in time to go pick up Daddy from off his airplane. I tried to get a little sleep, but I was too excited, finally at midnight I woke up the kids and we drove to the airstrip on ft. bliss where his plane was coming in. When we got there, his plane was early and had just landed, so we quickly found a parking spot, and the kids and I rushed in the building, and then out the other side, to watch all the soilders walk from the plane to their part of the building. We couldn't really tell which one was Travis, because they were too far away, but we waved and showed off our sign anyway. Once all the soilders were inside, we had to go back inside and wait for them to be released. They had all sorts of activities for the kids, and lots of free snacks, so they had fun running around in the pajamas, playing and eating. Finally it was time for the soilders to come out, and they had dramatic music, and dry ice going, and all the soilders walked in, in formation and then were quickly released to their families. There were a lot of people to squeeze through to get to Travis, but we managed to get to him, and give him lots of hugs. We managed to get home by 2am, and put everybody back to bed. We let the kids sleep in, and took them late to school the next day. We love having Daddy home!

My little missionary

I knew Betsy's teacher liked her a lot, by the way her face lit up as she talked about her in Parent/Teacher conferences, but I didn't realize how much Betsy had affected her until today. I didn't even realize Betsy had invited her teacher to church, until Betsy came home with this card in her backpack from her teacher. This is what the letter said: "Betsy, Thankyou for inviting me to your church. I'm sorry I won't be able to go. It was so very sweet of you to think of me. I might have made a small difference in your young life, but you have made a big impact on mine. Your quiet ways, and how you stand up for yourself have taught me! Thankyou, Mrs. Rivera" I am so proud of my little girl, and tonight for FHE we had the lesson about setting an example, and I used Betsy as the example, and she was beaming throughout the entire lesson. I love those good moments in life.