A Bear and his Boy

 

 

 

 When Giddy was diagnosed with Wilms Kidney Cancer we were relocated to a small room lined with shelves on one wall, a desk and chair at the end of the thin room and two chairs on either side of a small round end table with a fake plant on it. We sat in the chairs and had time to unthinkingly look at the offering of comfort items a child would be given on diagnosis. When the doctor handed our all boy one year old a sagging stuffed teddy bear, it was not what either of us would have chosen for him, as cute as it was. It sat in the hospital crib with him that time while we did tests and waited for Surgery and healed from surgery, mostly undisturbed.

 I'm not really sure when it happened but at some point he began cuddling with it at night. 

Giddy had pretty good communication and speech by the fall of 2012 (to the point where I understood him better than his sister who was 2 years older, and we put her in speech) so one Sunday afternoon after a nap he and I were cuddling in my bed and chatting the way you do with an 18month old. I introduced him to Surgery Monkey and asked him what his bear was named. To this point we were just calling him Bear. I asked him a few times when he started saying "Dap" every time I asked and I'd repeat it back to him and he'd agree, "ya, ya, Dap." So Dap was named.
 
About six months later it occurred to me he probably was saying "stop" instead of naming his bear, all the same it stuck. At bed time or nap time he'd wander the house singing Da-ap while looking for him. Or we'd forget and put him to bed without Dap and he'd ask "Where's Dap?"

Recently he has been calling him Dappy. He will croon "Dappy" and snuggle him when he finds him. Sometimes he will find acceptable substitutes, if it is brown and looks like a bear he will cuddle it (when Dap isn't around) they are usually small Beany Babies. Dap goes lots of places with us though, he's even been on a plane and the oldest City in the United States.

Dap is loved at nap time and bed time and often any time in between.

He goes on Renal Doctor visits, and regular ones.

One Sunday he brought him to church and took him to nursery with him. We were all loaded in the van and had driven halfway home at the end of services when I hear Giddy say, "Where's Dappy, at church?"

"We don't have Dap?!" I ask.

He puts his hands up. "Dap at church."

So we turned the van around to get Dappy.Thankfully they didn't lock the toy cupboards like they normally do and we were able to get Dap who had been packed away with all the other toys. That would have been a looooong Dap-less week. 

We have been grateful for Dap and the comfort he brings to this little boy. He is part of a charity that supplies a new stuffed animal to children in emergency situations called Allie's Friends Foundation. Dap is part of the family now. :)

Friends

We all have friends... or at least like to think we do.
Typically our best friend if we are married is our spouse (it should be).
Gary is definitely mine.
However, this post isn't about him this time.

Before we bought our house and moved we lived in a sweet duplex in Orem. About 6 months before we moved I met Cyndi who lived down the street from me. (Thanks Visiting Teaching)
I could go on and on about her virtues but suffice it to say, since you likely don't know her, that she is like a sister to me (which is funny, I guess, coming from someone who has 4 sisters already). Or I could just say she's my best girl friend "locally." The best part about being friends with her? Our husbands and kids all like each other too, how rare is that? It's great.

Lately, with all the doc appointments for the pregnancy it's just an understood that the kids and I go hang out with her all that day. She and I have both been pregnant the last two times together. We both had boys and now girls... Her little one is over two months old and I have yet to have my girl still. The last few visits we have worked on making a dress for her sweet little one to be blessed in. She sews a lot and is very talented, but had not made clothing. That's usually all I do with sewing, not that I'm super at it, but decent enough that I have made my own patterns and we got talking about making a blessing dress and so I drew up a pattern and we went on a little trip to the fabric store. This last visit we completed the dress. So it's not your traditional dress, being all white, since it is light pink and sage green. Ah but we had a good time and since I am dumb, I didn't know how much material to buy, so we over bought and had enough to make my friend a matching shirt. I think that's a bonus. We cut out all the pieces last time I was there so we'll see how far she gets by next Wednesday, now that she's got one completed garment under her belt and six kids to distract her.
So here's a picture. Joy with me.

Shooting

Last weekend we had some friends down for the afternoon and went target shooting in the hills.
Rob brought his gun that is similar to the ones used in Iraq. It's a pretty cool gun. I got to try it.
Gary doesn't often pick up the camera of his own accord, so this must have been a special sight...
9months pregnant and shooting a serious gun. Laugh, I did.
Oh, but it was fun. It's a very smooth thing, no
kick. I probably sounded like the wicked witch of the west cackling away, Gary got a video but
you can't hear much because of the wind. So here's a picture instead.

Gary's dad is in the background with a six shooter (forgive my gun name ignorance) also a gun I
particularly enjoyed. Gary helps Olea shoot his 22 with Jen, Rob, Eric (can't really see him) and George in the background. And just because I can... I edited out George so you get the full pregnant effect...

Birthdays Birthdays Everyone

This last weekend we celebrated birthdays. None that belonged to our house. But good times.
Olea and I went to breakfast with our friend Michelle for her 40th. We've known Michelle since we first got married. She has been a life constant friend to Olea, who lovingly calls her Shell. We also got to see Angie who watched Olea for a while so I could finish up my degree. She doesn't remember it being a scheduled thing... which I guess is good, because that means it wasn't a huge sacrafice. :)

Sunday we had Aunt Kendra come over for her 20th. Sheesh, she is young. Her hubby Eric had her blind folded the whole drive out here... that is a long time to be blindfolded. At least she didn't seem disappointed when he took the blind fold off. :) Olea's painting for Kendra and Eric. I thought it was super good then she started explaining something about blood on the prince and I was a bit concerned. She painted the wrapping paper (a picture of Jesus she said) but we had to cut it in half to wrap the two presents. So that sounds bad. I made a cake for Kendra, the kind I had been craving the last few weeks, which just happens to be her favorite too. However, I am disappointed in Pillsbury... where was the colored chip frosting? I couldn't find it anywhere to top the funfetti cake. So we had to use their lame sprinkle funfetti substitute. It turned out cute and I personally thought the gummy bears were super yummy on it. Eric was nice enough to blow up a bunch of Olea's balloons (I hate balloons, and blowing them up even more).

Olea was very excited for these events. Her Primary teachers heard about it all through Primary and received multiple invites.

High school tag...

I read Amber's and considered myself tagged since she said, "everyone." I enjoyed the fact that she went to the trouble to post our "friends picture."

Senior Year vs. Now

IN YOUR SENIOR YEAR DID YOU...
1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes
2. Did you marry someone from your high school? NO, thank goodness no
3. Did you car pool to school? does a bus count? I also walked a lot too
4. What kind of car did you have? I don't claim a car. I borrowed my parent's so rarely... and can't remember if it was the Volvo or the Saab or which one of them, the silver, or the tan or the red or the blue... so I don't claim, because it wasn't constant enough to remember.
5. What kind of car do you have now? Mazda Protege and a Mazda MPV (2006)
6. Its Saturday night...where are you now? hanging out with hubby and the kids, playing games with friends while our kids play together
7. It is Saturday night...where were you then? hanging out with then boyfriend probably watching Iron Chef with his fam
8. What kind of job did you have in high school? I worked in a Screen Print and Embroidery Shop I did screen printing and quality control, shipping and receiving
9. What kind of job do you do now? I am a professional Mom. eheheh I play games,
make crafts and treats, cook and clean, teach and build block towers for the kids
to knock down. I also do Graphic Design and Photo Editing.
10. Were you a party animal? No
11. Were you considered a flirt? I doubt it.
12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? nope
13. Were you a nerd? I prefer artist
14. Did you get suspended or expelled? no
15. Can you sing the fight song? don't even know where to begin
16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)? Mrs. Burningham, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Cottle, Mrs. Millecam... come to mind
17. Where did you sit during lunch? lunch room I imagine I can't honestly remember
18. What was your school's full name? Sky View High School
19. When did you graduate? 2001
20. What was your school mascot? Bobcat
21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? no
22. Did you have fun at Prom? whatever
23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? no, don't even know what they are up to...
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion? maybe, my hubby enjoyed his...
25. Do you still talk to people from school? Yes
26. School Colors? blue and white, or gold
27. What celebrities came from your high school? ?

Better

I thought not having to pay 50 for a Prevacid prescription was awesome. But even better... I got it for free today. What with the "Trial card" from Tap Pharmaceuticals and better insurance. I am happy to be heartburn free for 0$.

So my dear friend just had her little baby girl a week ago. I saw my friend the Wed before she delivered (Sat) and gave her a little knitted hat to take her home in. She was like, "I'm not due for 2 or three more weeks." "Still I want to make sure you have it since we're going out of town this weekend." And poof she has the baby. Glad I finished the hat in time.:)We were both pregnant with our boys at the same time as well. Except I delivered 2 months before her... now here she is delivering her sweet Karrynn two months before me. Suddenly these last months seem like I am totally getting ripped off. :) This was her first early baby too. Go figure. I'm excited for the two little ones to meet again. This time it will be her big baby next to my fresh one. Here is Zurich two months older than fresh little McCord. Saturday I decided to make my favorite cookies. (peanut butter) The kids helped. Zurich really likes having his shoes on and will bring them to me after trying unsuccessfully for a while to put them on himself. Zurich just stood against the counter the whole time eating chocolate chips while Olea and I balled the cookies and baked.This week we put hardware on the kitchen cabinets. (ignore the messes we were in the middle of the project...)

Before

After (subtle, but I love it) I took the chance to have Gary finally switch the direction one of the cupboards opened... a year and a half wait for 2 screws!!! Ah but it's done now and it is lovely... and in the mean time he did finish our basement so I'm not REALLY complaining. :)

The past week

We put up the other Christmas tree, the one we will actually use for the festivities. The other is just decoration. And other decorations upstairs, don't tell me I look fat. It's rude. You can tell me I look crappy, Gary isn't exactly a photographer... neither am I particularly photogenic.The kids got to sit on Santa's lap twice in two days. Zurich just liked the candy canes.We got to go visit my sister and her fam for her new baby's blessing. Olea tucked the sword in the sheath... all the way down the leg of her pants. Hilairum to watch her draw out the sword. Zurich also found a sword that was to his liking. This week Olea, Zurich and I visited a friend from High School for her little one's 4th birthday.
Olea didn't let me wash off the "fairy make-up" till this morning... the party was Wednesday.I finished going through the bridals I took for my sister.My parents came to visit and we took in some festive fun at Thanksgiving point. Hot Chocolate, Reindeer, and the drive through lights. I love this pic. Zurich enjoyed driving through the lights.

girls, boys, contests

Yesterday we hung out with some friends for the evening. We always have such a good time and everyone gets along so well. Olea has oodles of girls to hang out with and Zurich has his buddy McCord who is two months younger. Love the American flag waving Olea. We had the two mobile boys corralled in the living room so we could chat without having to run after them. Gary thought this was so funny.Zurich likes to swing. No, he loves it.

I just finished submitting a piece to the International Art Competition for the LDS church. Why do I do that? Why do I ever enter any contests? I'm used to disappointment. I guess part of my need to enter this contest is something a friend's dad said to me once. He was waiting for the day he'd open up the Ensign and see my name on an art credit. This is likely YEARS if not eternities off... but I still feel the need to shoot for it everyonce in a while. I had hoped to make a more recent piece but nothing came and so I entered the one I had originally planned on. I'm not even bothering to cross my fingers to be on the online exhibit. I don't even want to count how many contests I have entered with my photography, poetry, painting, drawing etc. Granted, I have won some awards, some are pretty cool. But more often than not, I'm just not spectacular enough. I can handle that it's a fact of life. But I've been given tallents, and I'm supposed to share those right?

Projects

I recently finished a drawing for some friends. It was a from a picture that my friend had given me when we were looking through her pictures together. I had it stashed away in my purse for the longest time. This year they celebrated their 10th anniversary and I knew it was coming up so I tried to locate the picture that I had cleaned out of my purse and put somewhere safe... it took a while to find. I had good intentions to finish it in time for their anniversary but my surgery got in the way. The pain meds didn't help on my coordination. :) Anyway when I finished it and gave it to them it made her cry... oh ya. But I found out that not only was it her favorite picture but it was also the picture they used for their wedding invitations. It was kinda funny because in the picture the area around his head was really dark so I couldn't tell what his hair was like, he is now bald... so I couldn't go off of that. During a random conversation once I asked her what his hair was like, she said, she hated it, that it was all busy and curly and crazy. So when she saw the drawing she was really excited about the way I drew his hair, "tamed it up a bit."

Other fun projects I am working on: For my freelance graphic design I created a font that looks like the alphabet made of staples. I actually made two different versions, highly stylized and more realistic, as if you'd taken a stapler to paper (which is what I actually did as a reference). I didn't make any special characters because the project I was doing it for only called for the alphabet. I didn't get paid to make the special characters. I did it to match the mailer / web banners I designed. The piece used VDP which is pretty cool but even cooler with the font. I am also working on a font off my handwriting, just for the cool of it.

Tuesday I hauled my sewing machine and fabric boxes out of the garage and made Zurich some pants and shorts. He has grown out of most of them and I figured I could totally make pants. The first pair made Olea and I laugh hysterically. It was super tight around his diaper area and reminiscent of a speedo, after trying them on again they aren't so bad, it's just that his diaper was really full at the time. It was hard to get on though so I totally corrected that for the last three pairs. The pic only includes 3 of the 4 because the other pair was dirty. It looks like sport shorts. You know, the ones with the stripes on the side. And all this was made possible because of my endless stash of "Supplies."

Shoot patoot and music fruit

Gary helps Olea shoot, Olea adores this stuff
and Gary does well to include her.

Me, with two teachers... I have done it before,
and am not bad, just couldn't remember how to get it all ready.

Mike, Cyndi and my mommy

Coretta, Lilly, Mike, Cyndi, and Dani.

Before my surgery we went to the hills with our friends Cyndi and Mike for some bow fun. We even got my lovely mother to try it. She is the only one of us who remembered her camera, which had low batteries, though Cyndi and I got our cameras out to take, we had our minds on children, and thus forgot the cameras. (the children all made it, success!) It was pretty cold and windy so we girls took the kids back early and left the guys to the guns.
We were trying to get Gary and Mike to "Indian shoot" on one leg, but Gary couldn't figure it out under pressure, it was most humorous to me. He makes me laugh too much. Lately with the surgery sites healing laughing rather hurts and I just can't pretend Gary isn't funny.

The other day Gary told me he read something about people getting addicted to Lortab, a pain med I am currently taking. This of course gets my mind going... but last night I couldn't go to sleep (and hadn't taken a Lortab) and so I was like, "Gary I can't got to sleep, am I addicted?"
"No, he wouldn't have perscribed you enough to get addicted."
"Then how to people get addicted?"
"Go to sleep."
but I want to know.

I am listening to Gina's play list at the moment and it is reminding me of getting the MRI. I listened to a Micheal Buble album and it was interesting to concentrate through the noise of the MRI to listen to the music. I think now I will most often remember the MRI when I listen to him. It seems that way with music, I attach quite a memory to the first or at least most memorable time when I heard the song or album. Like Bon Jovi's new song Everyday: Gary and I were at Down East Outlet buying maternity shirts. Rush, Spirit of Radio, sitting in my parent's basement listening to my Dad's records, he liked to collect them and he had Spirit of Radio. Queensryche Hear in the new frontier: the bedroom I shared with my sister while we were in High school, standing next to our bunk bed chatting with her while she looked at the lyric book. Peter's Girl, by a Twin Falls local group called Standards: Gary sang it to me when he proposed outside of the Logan temple on the night of our sibling Gingerbread house party. Ginblossoms 29, when I shared a room with my second oldest sister Derolene, right after she got her new stereo listening to the album with her. Mr.Big, To be with you: curled over a small tape player with Lindi in the middle of our bedroom floor when I was in third grade. Lindi had just bought the tape album and we were totally killed by how "noisy" the music on the rest of the album was. I also believe this was before we replaced the carpet in that room.