I don't know why he swallowed the marble, perhaps he'll die.

But I sincerely doubt it and yes, I'm laughing about it now, why wait? The kids are so I'm joining in. 

I was cleaning up lunch and turn around to Z with a traumatized look on his face. What's the matter?

He starts to cry, "I swallowed a marble."

"What? A marble? Why? Really? Where is it?"

"I swallowed it, it's gone."

"Where was it?"

"On the floor."

"And it jumped into your mouth?"

"No. Well it slipped."

"How did you swallow a marble?"

"It slipped into my mouth."

"Why was it in your mouth? Just tell me the truth."

"It wasn't."

"Huh? What happened?" 

"I fell on the floor and it slipped into my mouth, it hit here (roof of his mouth) and then went in."

"Do you feel it now?"

"No."

"Well I guess you are going to poop a marble."

From the bathroom we hear a squeaky toy squeak. Giddy is washing his hands. 

"What was that?"-o

"The marble burping." -z 

And now it's a big joke about sucking the marble out of him.  Nev is singing about swallowing a marble. He and Olea are running around. He burps and says, my marble just burped. 

I pick up my iPod to journal the anomaly and he says, " Mom please don't call the doctors! Look I'm fine!"

Nev is doing a stand up comedy routine about swallowing a marble.

Real life. You can't make this stuff up. 

El Galeon and Andrea

We came up to St. Augustine with Gary for work so we could go to El Galeon together. It was too late last night after travel and work to go on it so we looked at it on the bridge and watched the drawbridge go up and down in front of us. 

We saw dolphins in the intercostal and ate dinner, watched a magic show walked the shops, a confection store, etc. I picked up some macaroons, a new favorite. 

This morning we checked out of the hotel after the power flickered a little and went to get tickets for El Galeon, but they weren't doing tours today because of the tropical storm. Gary and I were so disappointed. But here's the good news: the ship is docked til the 23rd. Still bummed but at least we'll have another opportunity, potentially. So we tailed along as Gary visited clients. Yay for a portable DVD player and a creative mom making Simon says style silent faces etc while Gary was on the phone. Gary decided to visit clients further north and hope for potential weather improvement to see El Galeon on the way home. 

We rode a car ferry, and got out of the van in the poring rain to let the kids enjoy the ferry to the fullest. :) Our change for the ferry was 4 water logged bills. 

We stopped to see a container barge while Gary booked a hotel. We discovered that Gary was missing his AAA card and we spent some time searching for it. He was bemoaning the fact that Giddy had probably lost it while playing with his wallet a few days ago. I called for a new card, punched the hotel in the GPS and we were merrily on our way again. 

We were driving along a costal road and I commented, "Instead of going home you are taking us storm chasing following the tropical storm Andrea north." He said, "it is on the other side of the state," "ya, but it's got to cross the state sometime, and there's the arms..."

We continue driving and see debris scattered and garbage cans upturned and things generally out of order. People are out inspecting stuff. Further along shingles ruffled and missing and then a deck in pieces smashed up against a palm tree etc.  We pull over and ask someone and they said it was a tornado that passed through just about ten to fifteen minutes ago. Our hotel is just up the road so we continue on and then I notice power lines down across the road and Gary stops because the road is blocked by police, we ask a volunteer for the best route around the downed power lines and turn around. 

As we take the detour I realize the time we spent looking for Gary's AAA card potentially was just enough time to save us from diving through that tornado. Call it coincidence if you want, but I'm calling it one of the Lord's Tender mercies. 

As we come on the east stretch toward the hotel you can tell the tornado ripped down that street, limbs and branches down. Awesome. It's still windy seems to be calming but we're bunked out in a costal hotel on San Fernandina Beach. 

Life is such an adventure. I'll Add some pictures later.

-Coretta

Merry Christmas!

Sleigh ride Florida style

Gary asked me the other night if I missed the snow.
Nope.
But there are some things that are classic Christmas, that just aren't possible the same way in a tropical climate. So we are changing up traditions and trying new things and loving it.

We already went to St. Augustine and rode the Holly Jolly Trolly so what do do Christmas Eve?

 Go to the swamp and hitch an air boat ride. Obviously. ;) Actually, we have some friends who got a gift certificate for an air boat ride for six people. They gifted it to us because they weren't going to use it and knew we would. None of us have ever been on an air boat so we were all pretty excited. It was a cooler day so we bundled up a bit since we'd be against the wind. I was glad to have a use for the hats I knitted the kids. :) Awe look at that ping, ping, ping, ping, ping.

 Olea got to ride the high seat first. Giddy was happy to chill for most of it.

 

 

 Nev was singing into the wind.

 Cranes looking for a place to build a nest.

 The clan of us (driver took the picture)

Zurich wanted to go fast and got his wish. He's watching the dials.

 Pretty Lake Woodruff

 Giddy-Phone before he rejected the earphones.

 Nev was so pleased when she got her turn to sit on the high seat. She sang the whole time and the driver got a kick out of it. He was totally cool with the kids, I always worry because people here just aren't that used to kids, especially four of them at once. He was very accommodating and we had a blast. Gary really is interested in doing a gator hunt or bow fishing via air boat.

 

 

 

 We saw quite a few Gator especially for it being an overcast day but this lil guy was the only one I got a picture of.

As we headed home I said to Gary, "That was a nice sleigh ride; Florida style."

last summer trip, and loosing all my pictures...

If you are here for getting your pictures back after deleting them from your memory card skip to the end. If you are here to see the pictures I recovered and hear about our last summer trip, carry on...

As if the summer wasn't filled with enough travel, we decided to accompany Gary on a business trip before school started. Gary had seen a brochure about a place near Tampa FL that had "live mermaid" shows. This was something we HAD to take in given Nev's abiding love for mermaids.

The morning we were to leave Gary left early for work and I stayed behind to take Nev to speech. The morning began with Zurich throwing up. This did not bode well, but plans had been made so I threw a few hand towels and large Tupperware in the van and we headed off. Long story short: it took us two hours to make it 30 mins or so from home. What could possibly take so long? That sick boy, having to puke, dump said puke, that boy having to use a restroom for various functions. And it never happened on the same trip to the restroom. Loading 4 kids in and out of the van every 5 minutes is exhausting, not to mention they resist very strongly after about the 3rd trip in 15 mins.
It's hot in Florida, by the way.

There was a bit too much excitement when we had stopped and no one wanted to get out and no one but the sick one had to use a restroom, only to get back to the van and decide they did....

However, after that we were able to make it along without too much more issue. Thankfully.

But that day's plans had to be thrown out because there wasn't enough time to do as we planned and go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium that afternoon, because it was no longer afternoon. So we checked into the hotel and Gary got off work and we went to dinner at Frenchy's and then spent the evening on Clearwater beach.


The next day I pulled on my brave britches and took the four kids to WeekiWachee by myself. We went on a boat tour and wandered around the park in search of baby peacocks and their parents, took photo ops and forced the kids to eat something when they were too excited to eat and proclaimed that they weren't hungry. They may legitimately not have been since I kept handing them drinks to keep them hydrated. :)

We took in a reptile show and then the live mermaid show of the Little Mermaid. Nev was mesmerized, I wish I had my camera out when the curtains opened and her face was full of giddy excitement and disbelief. The way they handled it all was pretty dang cool. Totally worth seeing and excellent pricing for the whole park. Afterward they had a photo op with a mermaid and Zurich was too "shy" as he said to join in the picture.
 
After that we changed to go swimming. I really wondered as I struggled to keep the right things dry and get everyone changed why I was even bothering since I was sweating like crazy. But the kids enjoyed it, and that's reason enough.

Again that night we went to the Clearwater beach. I love the little wading area there is there, it makes it so much easier with four kids to all have a good time.


The next day we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, home of Winter the Dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale.This was for Olea. It helps that Nev loves dolphins "dolphies" too. It was fun to see all the animals they had, touch sting rays and climb through the turtle extruder.  As well as see areas where the movie was filmed and such. Zurich got a little scratch on his hand from a sting ray and kept saying, "It bit me." They do have some rough areas on them so who knows. I'm awesome and had a band-aid for him. By then Gideon had been neglected for a diaper change after having to deal with the 3 year old having a #2 accident  and forgetting to change him after spending so long in the bathroom with her and getting out to the other kids antsy to go again, and now being clear on the extreme side of where the bathrooms were... He'd been drinking a lot, so by the time I got him changed he'd soaked through all his clothes and the only change left for him was in the van and there was no way I was going to drag all the kids back to the van just yet, so he got to run around in just a diaper for a while. He was SOOO thrilled about this.

Gary met up with us there when he was done with work and he took the kids around some more while I took Giddy back to the van for a snack and change of clothes and then we all rode the trolly to the sister location in town. We picked up the kids' souvenirs there. Nev insisted on carrying her bag as we wandered around. As we were leaving I picked up Nev's bag to put on the stroller for easy loading on the trolly and noticed it was quite heavy... she'd done a little more shopping shoplifting. A figurine of a dolphin in Christmas lights and a ceramic dolphin. I took her directly back in to return the items. She was shy and sad about returning them. I'm just glad I discovered them before we had completely left. Nev kept sticking her head out the trolly window. Like a puppy and I couldn't get her to stop. Silly girl.
 
That night we were too tuckered out to go home and so we booked another night in a hotel and our hotel room was hot when we arrived. We turned on the AC and went to the pool out our patio and the beach there. ( no pictures) The beach was neat, Gary and I saw a dolphin about ten feet away. Olea and a lady on the beach were finding (mesoglea) clear gellyfish. After a while Zurich started whining about the clear little jellyfish in the water, that they were making him itch. We didn't believe him, (he tends to be a bit of a whiner) till we started feeling it so we showered off and went back in the hotel pool. Giddy was such a brave little sucker wanting to jump in again and again with no floaters on. He made me nervous though about wanting to do so in the deep end because I am not confident in catching him there. When we got back in our hotel room the AC was not working. Gary called the front desk. They called the mechanic and by 1:30 in the morning we were moved to a new room with working AC. What a pain. My poor sweaty babies!

Leaving this hotel I had major DeJavu as we were leaving this hotel, sitting on a bench in the entry facing a faux door, that as we were leaving I realized had a hotel key slot and we had already turned in our keys... Oh my gosh, I am so curious!

The first picture I took on the marine aquarium day was preceded by an error on my camera that flashed too fast for me to see what it said before it showed the picture preview. Since I saw a good picture and the kids were antsy to go it wasn't till 40 pictures later that I realized that the first picture had deleted all the pictures from not only the last two days but also the last 3 or so weeks. Awesome. I hadn't bothered to empty the memory card before our trip. Dumb mistake. There are few things, (okay there are probably a lot) that irritate me like loosing data, especially pictures. When I realized the damage I removed the memory card and put a new one in... like I should have done before the trip. I hoped I'd be able to some how recover the pictures I'd lost. Pictures are really important to me and later that night I was able to verbalize why to Gary. When I am doing something with all the kids, it's hard, it's fun, but it's hard. Looking back on pictures helps me see how much my kids enjoyed it, helps me correct my memory and replace it with the happy faces that sometimes I am too hot or stressed to see clearly at the time. It helps me keep doing cool things with my kids, it helps me be brave. :)

So how are there pictures on this post? Oh add a computer and a whole lot of diligent searching and a free program and my corrupted memory card and viola! My pictures are back. I didn't have as much luck with my videos, but I am cutting my losses and moving on with my life. Wanna know?

ZAR zero Assumption recovery http://www.z-a-recovery.com/download.htm was the option I found that did a deep enough scan for the corrupted pictures, and regularly deleted ones. Use the top free option "General-purpose data recovery". It is easy to run and recover them. The only downside is that it couldn't recover my .mov files correctly, (white image and broken sound). The other ones you have to pay for don't have a preview option for videos so there is no way to know if they could recover the videos without paying and I decided I would cut my losses. I got my pictures back!

There are plenty of free options out there. A few I tried: 
Wondershare photo recovery: (shallow scan) and costs to recover, will work for pictures regularly deleted, but you can download the program and preview what it will recover for free.
Pandora Recovery: free, a shallow scan, will work for pictures regularly deleted
Recova: free, shallow scan, will work for pictures regularly deleted
Pc Inspector Smart Recovery: free, shallow scan, will work for pictures regularly deleted

I think they all can recover regularly deleted videos too, but not totally sure, since I wasn't going for that since mine were harder to retrieve.

Some look free but once they show you the pictures they want you to pay before you can recover them anywhere from $25- $100 is what I saw (like Wondershare). Nice thing is they do let you preview what can be recovered so you can see if it is worth it or not. Some of them are just as good as the free ones but make you pay. And some do a deeper scan and can recover harder to reach files like the "corrupted" ones I had from the error message. But I was determined not to pay $60 so I kept looking and was glad I did. When my sister's hard drive crashed she was also able to recover some of her photos using ZAR.

Just a few plants to plant...

Today I finally got around to some planting after raking up the leaf "ground cover" I planted some forget-me-not seeds, and a raspberry and two strawberries. I have never planted strawberries before although I did think the wad of roots was pretty big for a strawberry I just went with it and the pace of my helpers (Olea Zurich and Nev). So after the two wads were planted I was cleaning up the packaging thinking, "sheesh, why did that take me so long?" when I looked at the packaging and noticed something, "Wait, TEN plants? TEN?!" I only got two in each bag.

....

Blonde

....

So I dug them up and unraveled the ten separate plants in each of the two wads, and planted them all. Twenty plants. :)

I grew up gardening by legal slave labor (you know, the family garden:) and so this is embarrassing to admit, but funny and I'm so over myself so I'm sharing.

I hope they fruit. That would be sweet.

Also today I ventured to the local farmer's market for the first time. However, with the three youngest I was so glad to have friends with me. They were awesome help. Nev was in an "I'm mad!" mood for a while and kept running off. Thankfully it didn't last too long.

It was a good time and I came home with some delicious fruits and veggies and a plumeria and another flowering plant, I forgot the name of. It was pretty small so it will be a while probably before it flowers. The plumeria is a sentimental replacement from the cutting I destroyed when we moved. As long as I leave it in a draining pot I can't loose right? I hope! I can't wait for it to flower, my other one never did, it grew big and lots of leaves, but that's Utah, this is the sunshine state. They are meant to grow here!

Giddy's Renal Adventures: part 1

In life we want things to be cut and dry and quick easy answers, but we all know it is rarely like that, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: life is a journey, not a destination.

Our youngest son gave our family and many that know him an extra journey of faith the last week of January.

I include his story here, because I want it journal-ed and because there are so many people that were praying for him and thinking about him and their faith, service, and concern has been such a blessing to our family. Much of it comes from notes I took in the moment and so my apologies if tense changes etc are odd. I have to do it in installments or 1) it's too long 2) life is like that 3) otherwise it won't get done at all.


Gideon is a big boy. Always has been. He's a sight to behold with broad shoulders, wispy blond hair and icy blue eyes. He's tall for his age and well filled out. He loves to eat and has 7 teeth and loves to gnaw at things. So a rotund baby belly would be expected and he certainly had it. We hear comments often about what a big healthy boy he is, but the best thing about Gideon is that he is Giddy. His nickname is very fitting as he is a very sweet smiley boy.

About Christmas time I started to wonder about the fact that he had taken to spitting up again. It was in sneaky burps but it smelled like vomit and he hadn't been spitting up for a few months. There were a lot of factors so I discounted it at first because he never seemed bothered, he'd cut a tooth so we'd pin the spit up burps on that and then he was eating more table food, then more vitamin d milk would get the blame, then over eating.

The first week of January I kept him out of a few activities because I couldn't tell if he was sick or what. But since he was happy as ever I would just go around the house cleaning up quarter size or more stinky spit ups.

Sunday the 23rd of Jan I was in another room listening to Gary change Giddy's diaper and commenting on what a big boy and big belly he had. He has commented this very often lately. So I felt the need to investigate a bit when I was getting Giddy ready for bed. With more careful scrutiny, as I tried to secure his diaper I noticed he was fatter on one side than the other. I started poking around his belly. It was soft and bouncy on his left side, on his right it was firm and solid. I tried to sort out the lump and gauged what I could feel to be at least the size of my fist. I got very concerned. I zipped up his jammie's and went downstairs where the family was waiting for FaceTime with grandparents, scripture reading and prayers.


Gary was at the computer lining up bills for the week. I said, "I think something is wrong with Giddy. His belly is really hard on the right side." Gary of course, thought he was fine, (I can't blame him, if i had just allocated all out money to necessary expenses I would think he didn't need to see a doc at the beginning of the deductible year too) he's just a big boy. He's probably just constipated. I said I wanted to take him to the pediatrician. "It's not supposed to be hard. It's not squishy like on his side. It's a whole handful. That's huge! Besides constipation usually happens in the descending colon."

So the poor boy was given a suppository. He pooped. There was still a hard lump. Poor Gary was upset because as he said, "You are usually right and this is really bad timing. We were getting on a plane next Tuesday. They are non refundable flights. That's a LOT of money. I hate it when you are right about stuff like this."

I got into the first apt I could with the first doctor I could Monday. The appointment happened to be at 2:10 and I was watching a friend's daughter. While Waiting for 2 pm to circle around we melted down crayons pieces and made some cards with the thin layer of melted wax. (I have blurred out our friend's beautiful face because I don't have permission to show her.)

Then lunch and loading up. The kids were good at the doctor's I did try to find someone to drop off at least Zurich with but no one answered. So I took the four of them. "Ju-la" (as Nev calls her) helped by pushing the stroller. I'm glad I had our friend with us that day because having someone else to care for actually helped keep me calm and focused on normalcy.

I do think it was one of the shortest doctor visits I have ever had. I explained my reason for bringing him in. The doc felt it and said, we need to do a CT scan. She left to schedule it and sent in Giddy's doctor who felt it and concurred and tried to console me when I said, "It's a tumor huh?" And then thinking about Gary's comments before, bad timing and we can't afford a ct scan. One ct scan is the tip of the iceberg folks, and I knew that. You could tell by the doctors, this was serious.

The scan was set up for the next day first thing in the morning. I arranged for someone to watch the kids. I had asked Gary's help in sheeting Zurich's bed and then wondered what was taking so long for him to join us for scriptures. He was laying on Zurich's bed breaking his heart. "I have always coped by accepting the worst case scenario but I can't this time. I can't accept not having Giddy."

Early the next morning Gary and I headed with our Giddy to the children's hospital an hour away. We were scheduled for 8am and were there at 7:39 but didn't have the actual CT till 10 am.


He was given the dye and drank it (easily since he had been fasting and not eaten anything yet) and then we waited 45 minutes for it to move to where it needed to be. We both went back while they hooked up an IV. To try and calm him down they turned on some colored lights.


Gary stayed with them while they did the actual scan. Then back in the waiting room while they read the ct. He came out with all his bug bites looking like blood blisters. We were not supposed to leave until our referring doctor called us but when it was time instead of talking to her at the desk in the waiting room they invited us back to the room where they keep the toys and snuggles for bad news. It was bad news.

When the phone rang I let Gary talk to the pediatrician. He asked pertinent questions I wouldn't have had the mind to.

Diagnosis: Wilms Tumor, Kidney Cancer.

They said the C word about my baby. My mind resisted, my heart resisted, my prayers began.

When Gary got off the phone and confirmed pieces I had overheard I cuddled my sweet baby and broke my heart. "My baby, my baby" we went through periods of disbelief and devastation, numbness and worry. Chances were good he would live but he'd be in the hospital probably have to have chemo etc. Thinking of all the possible implications was too much and that's where numbness would rescue us for a few moments. I threw out, maybe it wasn't cancer at all: maybe it was just a freaky tumor like my two separate tumor sites had been.

"Why not me? Why my baby?" Gary asked
"Because he's strong."

I remember assuring Gary at one point, that this wasn't some punishment from God, but just part of our mortal existence. Just something that is part of it. And it was specifically part of Giddy's, something that he had the strength to deal with.

(It would be interesting here to see why we chose the name we did for Gideon. If I get that typed up and posted I will link it here. )

We cried and looked up Wilms on the Internet. The prognosis is very positive. We waited for the oncologist for more thorough explanation. Gary tried to give him a priesthood blessing but he was too wiggly. I said a prayer and he quieted immediately listening to me and stared up at the lights after the prayer he dropped off to sleep. Gary was able to use the anointing and give him a Priesthood blessing. This of course gave us some comfort and new thoughts.

We called Gary's parents, & my sister, I couldn't get a hold of my parents. There were no pictures taken in this room. As Gary said, "I don't ever want to see that room again." However, I don't think we will be able to get it out of our minds.

The oncologist Sutphin and his resident came in and talked to us while I held sleeping Giddy. Sutphin confirmed the diagnosis Wilms cancer: of the kidney. For sure surgery with a ten day hospital stay after surgery. Pathology will be done at time of surgery. He thinks it is stage one or two cancer, with a very positive prognosis. We were told that they would remove the right kidney as the tumor is involved in the kidney.

We were ready to get the surgery done that day and get things started, but more tests needed to be done to see if it affected anywhere else. They said that he would be admitted that day and that they were already working to clear out a room for him. There are possibilities that it can affect / spread to lungs. Some of the tests will help rule that out.

At least 6 months of chemo after surgery if tumor weighs too much. Too much was anything over 550 grams.

He will have 1 kidney. He should be fine with just one. He won't be able to take certain medications. (Motrin) Be careful with contact sports. Sutphin then mused over Gary being a baseball fan, probably the hat. :) Like Giddy would still be able to swing a bat. 15% chance of re-occurrence. Nope. Gary doesn’t play baseball. (Later we were talking about why this was his guess, and I said, it was probably because baseball players aren’t usually known for their physique. Can you say foot in the mouth?) I asked could it be just a freaky weird tumor like the two I have had and not be cancer. No. But we did then discuss the kinds of tumors I had. (Each time I have had a tumor discovered there was the talk of it being cancer and testing but it was never really a scary reality.) But he thought that Giddy’s was only stage 1 or two which meant a very favorable outcome. We talked about 6 months of chemo and a 90% chance of survival. He’ll live, he’ll be okay. At this point Gary got up and hugged the doctor.

We remained in the bad news room for quite some time waiting for things to be worked out, or maybe just for us to calm down. Then we waited for a room to be admitted to for at least a half hour in the registration office.

When we were brought up to the 4th floor they gave us a tour. It really hit us when we were in the family room and we saw the box of donated hats. That said cancer to Gary and me more tangibly, more track switching.

Giddy's stats were taken and we settled in trying out his robot crib and Giddy sliding around on the floor purposefully in his gown.
When Giddy was admitted he weighed 23.1lbs and was 30 1/2 inches tall.

Circus

Let's call last week the kid's vacation. I mean seriously, they got to stay in a hotel, be in the car for over two hours (demonstrates that it was far away), go to an aquarium, send a vacation postcard,

get a souvenir, ride a trolley, check out a view, go on a tour, eat at restaurants, meet up with a fun person, play at the beach, watch some sunsets, stay up past their bedtime,

go to a circus, eat cotton candy, etc.

At the circus we had pretty good seats.

It was so fun to watch Nev's face as she saw bizarre acts for the first time.

It was a pretty good circus. The ribbon acrobat was neat to Nev and she stopped watching to try her own poses on the floor in front of us. She soaked up the audiences reaction to the performer as her own. As gross as it was we couldn't get her to stop and as floors go it wasn't horrid. It made me laugh though.

Zurich after seeing some grotesque backbends by a young male acrobat dressed like a hobo posing on a coat rack who also did the splits tried to do the splits himself. The baby flexibility has clearly left him. He also told me, "he is a mailman." I don't get the connection.

Aside from the fact that the kids wanted to take in some of the extra activities that were supremely overpriced and the budget had already been spent on concessions it was a good evening. I am really hoping to find some decently priced pony rides for Zurich in the near future.

We stopped off at a grocery store to get some of these on the way home.

Way better than cotton candy.