Grandma Great

Somehow, a long time ago, my kids started calling their great grandmothers "Grandma Great" no matter which one it was.  We only have two still living, Great Grandma Swensen (97) and Great Grandma Bishop(95), but I think my kids are pretty lucky to have any still living and to have been able to meet them and visit them.  (Although we are really horrible at visiting.... no excuses.  We are just pathetic.)  I don't remember any of my great grandparents.  I think there was only one still living when I was born, but I could be wrong.  So I hope my kids realize how cool it is to know their great grandparents.

{Great Grandma Swensen}

{Great Grandma Bishop}

Cassidy Gets a New Kidney

Cassidy (my niece) got a new kidney from her daddy August 17th!  Amazing.  Love knows no bounds! We all are thrilled for her to feel better.  She suffers from a genetic mitochondrial disease and has been so brave through it all.  We love you, Cass, and all you Shumways.

 

All ready with their wrist bands the night before the big day.

The kidney courier.  What a stressful job.  Don't trip.  Yikes!  So exciting though.

First time seeing each other after the transplant.

Food!  Cassidy can now eat any food she wants.  Happy day!

Happiest girl alive.  Cass is so resilient.  She doesn't let much get her down.  She is someone I look up to and I'm so happy for her.

Karma

Nate believes in karma.  Or at least a version of My Name Is Earl's karma.  (Which hopefully gives you the idea that it's all just a joke around here, but nonetheless karma is mentioned at least weekly.)  Nate's take:  If things at work (or anywhere) go well and seem "easy" or go super smoothly he knows soon a job will be a beast and vice versa.

Don't let the unlucky number fool you - it has good karma .

On the other hand Buddhism affirms both reincarnation and karma .

This is based on the "law of karma " the cycling back of energy to its source.

The best thing about karma games is the replay value.

Your editor will love you, and it will be good scholarly karma .

There are many additional reasons for one to adopt a karma -free diet.

 Nate had a bag malfunction!  Sheesh.  Was Godzilla running the baggage claim?!

Southwest Airlines gave him a replacement bag to get him through the trip.  Stylin'.

Then their car rental got upgraded to a Camaro.  Karma.  See how it works?  ;)

Buttoning Up August

Hello there.  Still here.  Still alive.  Planning on playing catch up.  Should be fun and time consuming.... the laundry didn't need to be done... nor the dishes.  Let's get started!

Love finding extra kids in the crib with the baby.... as long as he was ALREADY awake!

Maggie's head fits through the gate slats, but not her behind.  For some reason it makes me think of the Toy Story line when Buzz Lightyear says, "Who's behind?" and Slinky says, "Mine."

I treated all my sisters and my mom (we missed Carly, my brother's wife, who wasn't feeling well) to a home cooked dinner.  It was my birthday present to all of them.  It was yummy if I do say so myself. :)  Love them to pieces!

I planted just enough corn for one harvest.  It was good!  Haley, our corn lover, was in heaven.

Austin finally decided sitting in his little chair thing was an okay thing to do.  He hated it at first.

Nope.  He couldn't get any cuter!

Found the three oldest kids in the same bed one morning.  I wonder if Tye got kicked all night.  Or possibly, heaven forbid, he had a foot in his mouth.  Yuck!  Glad they love each other... the majority of the time. ;)

Found this on my phone.  Someone was spying on us....

Last sleep out before school starts.  Star gazing.  Fun conversations.  Love it!

Summer thunderstorms and rainbows afterward.  Some of my favorite things.

 



My neighbor text me and asked if I have been watching the hummingbird that comes to my Butterfly Bush everyday.  I had no idea.  I went out to watch and sure enough he (or she) came and I snapped a couple pictures with my phone.  I will definitely pay more attention.  Can't believe I missed it all summer.  I love hummingbirds.  My Grandma Swensen always had hummingbird feeders in her back windows and they were so fun to watch.  Pretty amazing little creatures.

 



Austin is typically a really good baby, but some days around dinner time he decides to get pretty fussy.  So when Nate's not around to help the bouncer fills in.  I can bounce with my foot and eat with my hands.

First Day of School... and Another One Bites the Dust

School started August 21, 2012 for the older kids.  Rachel is in 5th grade, Kaden in 4th and Tye in 2nd.  They were ready.  I was ready.  It will be a good year.  They have good teachers and I know they will do great!

Haley bit the dust... I mean started Kindergarten on August 28th.  It was a week of torture knowing her brothers and sister were at school and she had to wait a week.  It ends up being torture for mom too!  The time finally came, though, and she went with no anxiety.  She told me I didn't need to walk her to her class.  Sniff, sniff.  I did anyway, of course.  The beginning of the real world.  Bittersweet.

 (Eliza is always Haley's little shadow.  She'll be my big helper while the four oldest are at school and she's bored to tears.)

 (You can't tell in the picture above, but there is a little boy holding on to the door jam screaming.  Didn't phase her, though.)

I lucked out and had carpool on the first day.  Here are the cute kiddos I pick up.  It was so fun to see how happy they were after class.   I didnt stage them.  They were told to stick together.  And they did!

Saddest Day Known to Man... er... Mom

I hopped in the shower.  Haley and Eliza were watching a movie.  They wanted to watch it on the computer instead of the t.v. that was 15 feet away.  I let them.  What could possibly go wrong??  When I got out of the shower they were in Austin's room.  He had just woken up from a nap.  Eliza was in the crib with him.  I looked at her and thought something looked weird with her hair.  So I picked her up. GASP!!  What happened??  Her hair.  Her curls.  Gone!  Noooooo!  The scissors were in the drawer right under the computer.  Boy am I stupid.

BEFORE:
Eliza never keeps anything in her hair all day, but these pictures show how long it was getting.  The curls were adorable.  She was starting to look a bit more like a little girl and not just a baby.

AFTER:

Turns out Haley took it upon herself to get rid of those curls.  It was more than I could bear.  I cried when I really discovered the extent of the damage which in turn made Eliza and Haley cry. I gathered some of the hair for the picture. 

Luckily my dear neighbor across the street is a hair stylist and I called her for help.  She gladly let us come over to have her fix it.  It was chopped into so badly.  Some short.  Some long.  Some to the scalp.  She got it evened out as best it could.

Now all we need is time.  Time to grow it all back.  I'm afraid the curls will be no more though.  It makes my heart weep.  This wound will be hard to heal.  I know it's just hair, but I loved it so much.  Saddest day known to mom... thus far. ;)

Haley's 5th Birthday

5th birthdays are such a turning point.  Kids start Kindergarten and join the real world.  Exciting and scary.  At times sad to see them growing up so fast.  Happy to see them grow, learn and show you just how capable they really are.  Haley is no exception.  She is full of energy and spunk.  She is ready to take on the world.... and she will.

All Haley wanted and talked about was a Barbie Jeep.  How do you justify buying something like that for just one child?  Maybe we're cheapskates, but our solution was to have it be Haley's AND Eliza's.  Since Eliza's birthday is 3 days before Christmas it helped ease two burdens.  Haley also had a dentist appointment on her birthday and she with cheer said, "Yay!  I get a new toothbrush for my birthday!"  With an attitude like that, nothing can hold her back from accomplishing great things!

Happy 5th birthday, Haley Bug!

  

Birthday Party...



Austin's Baby Blessing

We planned on blessing Austin August 5th because that seriously was the only week that worked for everyone... everyone important like grandparents. :)  We were thrown for a loop with Rachel's spinal tap causing her such a bad headache.  She couldn't sit up at all without excruciating pain.  She started throwing up anything she tried to eat or drink.  It was bad.  We decided to take her to the E.R. in the early Sunday morning hours.  They got her hydrated and gave her some anti nausea pills.  Simple things, but we were losing the battle at home.  I'm so glad Nate took her in.  She started to bounce back so much better afterward.  We have church at 9:00 and Nate didn't get back with Rachel until after 8:00 a.m..  I wasn't ready at all and we couldn't leave her home.  So we cancelled the blessing.  We reached everyone in time except for Grandpa and Nana Bishop so they came and visited Rachel instead.  Then someone (not sure who) came up with the idea of just doing the blessing at Nate's parents' house later that day since we were planning on having dinner together anyway and Rachel could just lie on the couch.  Nate talked to our bishop and he was fine with it.  We just needed a member of any bishopric to preside and lucky for us Uncle Scott is a bishop and was willing to take charge.

It was fun to have it be a bit more intimate.  Nate did a great job with the blessing.  I was so happy we were able to still do it.  Austin is such a joy.  He's a good little baby and I feel so honored to be his mother.

I only got a handful of pictures- Austin with his parents, grandparents and randomly Uncle Tony. :)Wish I would have taken a picture of the whole group.  We are blessed with a big, wonderful family.  Thanks everyone for supporting us!

Bear Lake

I love Bear Lake.  For one it is beautiful, but my childhood memories of many fun times at that lake with my immediate family as well as extended keep me wanting to go back for more.

We stayed in a cabin in Garden City July 30-Aug. 2.  The view was amazing!  We ended up going with a family in our ward, the Bergs.  They have kids most of our kids same ages so we thought the more the merrier!

We went to North Beach and let the kids play and boat to their hearts content.  I never stepped foot on the boat the whole time so I have no pictures, but the kids had a blast tubing.

Rachel and Eliza had fun eating chips in the water.  Eliza's chip bag came back to me full of soggy chips.  Yuck.  Rachel doesn't particularly love boating and wasn't feeling very well so she stayed on shore with me, Eliza and Austin.

A nice microburst came through and blew everyone's floaties, rafts, umbrellas, food, children, etc. away!  Luckily we were already cleaning up, but we still got sand blasted.  Poor Eliza was so scared. The wind passed quickly, but the clouds didn't so we headed back to the cabin.

I loved how the storm made the water such a deep color.

As I said before, Rachel wasn't feeling very well.  When we got back to the cabin she was burning up with a fever.  She rested for a while then was in tears saying her neck was so sore and she could hardly move it.   I gave my cousin a call who is a doctor in Montpelier and he suggested she come in for some testing.

She ended up getting a spinal tap to rule out spinal meningitis. Lucky for her all her tests came back okay. I was sad I had to put her through that, but I would hate to have it turn out to be worst case and I did nothing. (My great grandmother and her little boy died of menigitis so it isn't something any of us in the Crane family take lightly).  Rachel was really scared, but she did great. They had to put her completely out to do the procedure. She took forever to wake up. We finally got back to the cabin around 11:00 p.m. or so. Not a fun way to spend a vacation.

The next morning Rachel woke up with a spinal headache, like the ones they warn you of when you get an epidural.  Bummer.  I had one after I delivered Rachel.  Not fun.  So we tried to keep her flat on her back as much as possible and drinking tons.  She had to just lie on a blanket at the lake.

She wanted her picture by the Idaho sign so badly.  She was putting on a happy face, but she was hurting.
 
The rest of us had fun, though.

The next day Rachel still had the headache so we took her in to get a blood patch to hopefully stop it.  While Nate was with Rachel I went to my cousins house to let the kids play.  We had fun chatting and catching up.  I hope we didn't wear out our welcome too much.  We appreciated their hospitality.

We decided to stay one more night in Bennington at my grandma's old house and let Rachel rest and relax without a headache since the blood patch seemed to work.

Sadly, the next morning Rachel woke up with the headache again.  We were so sad.  It was really bad.  Kaden was a great brother and let Rachel lie across his lap the whole 3 1/2 hour drive home.  What a lucky girl to have such a sweet brother.  All in all the vacation was good.  Of course Rachel's fiasco put a damper on things.  It wouldn't be the first vacaction that someone got sick on (remember fall break of 2009, ugh)... nor the last I'm sure.  We want to do it again and we'll hope and pray we all stay healthy for it.  Anyone want to vacation with us?! ;)