Milestones & Miracles

What an incredible day for my children!

Miss May

Today was Miss May's first day of Kindergarten. Due to another appointment, I was unable to take her to school. But I dropped her off at a friends home, (one of her classmates). First day of school! Cute curly hair and an adorable outfit. What more could a girl ask for???? How about losing her first tooth!
YA!!!!! Miss May lost her first tooth tonight.

That's right!Miss May lost her first tooth tonight! My baby girl is growing up way to fast. When I was kid the going rate for a tooth was a quarter. Hotstuff and I figure with inflation, her one tooth is gonna cost us $5!

* She had her princess crown on the brave.

Bubba Jones

Today was his annual visit with his neurologist. Bubba Jones has cortical dysplasia; the left side of his brain did not develop properly. So, the two of us made our way up to Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, to see Dr. Colin Van Orman. Yesterday, when I was telling him that we were going to the doctors he told me that he did not want to go and that he was mad. I asked why he was mad and he told me: " because I want to stay with my girlfriend!"

When we arrived at the hospital, Bubba Jones began to cry. He was scared about going in. The last time we went to PCMC, he went for an MRI and had to be sedated, intravenously. Without a doubt he doesn't have the fondest memories of PCMC. Before we got out of the van, the two of us said a prayer to help him have peace. Afterwards, he had no problems!

Dr. Van Orman was running on schedule and we were called back to his office. The prognosis: Dr. Van Orman said he is doing better than he ever imagined that he would! Once he turns 5 he will no longer be high risk for seizures! What a huge relief!!!!! Our next appointment will not be until he is 5 or 6.

This little boy is an incredible testimony of the power of Miracles.

*Bubba Jones throwing a penny into the water at PCMC

When in Portland...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Portland

Portland,Oregon the city of Roses, Rip City, Bridgetown; the greenest city in the United States and the 2nd greenest in the world. Home to Mount St. Helens. Incorporated in 1851, Portland got its name in a coin toss. Seriously!! Asa Lovejoy and Francis W. Pettygrove, the founding fathers wanted to name their town after their beloved hometown. Lovejoy was from Boston, Massachusetts and Pettygrove was from Portland, Maine. Pettygrove won and I had the opportunity to visit the beautiful city of Portland for a couple of hours. I flew into Portland for a vacation and after I got done at the airport I was to meet my brother for lunch in downtown Portland at Sushi Land. *yummmmy sushi!

I received directions to where I needed to go and found myself in the wrong end of town.

I have been to Portland maybe twice in my entire life.... a couple of school trips that constituted the bus driver driving into Portland, I got off the bus and got right back on. But in getting lost I learned a few things that everyone should know:

*Roses from the Portland Oregon LDS Temple

1. Get a map! Even though your directions may be simple, you will still need to see it visually to understand. I-405 wraps itself around the city and you might think as I did that you are on the wrong road but due to the lack of signage saying: Honey, 3 more miles until you reach the Morrison Bridge! I did not even drive far enough to get to my exit. Get a map and use it!

2. Traffic: I found myself doing 55 miles an hour on the interstate!!!! I called Hotstuff screaming because I had to drive so slowly. Here in Utah, 55 is not an acceptable speed limit. 75 is the acceptable speed limit!!!!!! Whatever you do: do not go through a yellow light. To Oregonians, yellow means stop. To Utahns, it means haul your ass before you get stopped at the red light! Oh, and sometimes you can't make a right on red! Oops!

3. Know your Simpson's and your Alphabet:

Matt Groening, the creator of the Simpson's, is from Portland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Groening)
Many of the characters from the Simpson's, are named after streets in Portland. I had the pleasure of driving on Burnside (Mr. Burns) and crossing Flanders Street(Ned Flanders- hey diddleyho neighborino!). Numbers run east to west and names run alphabetically north to south.

4. Parks and Bridges: Portland is famous for it's parks. There is a park that runs almost the entire length of the city and in fact the worlds smallest park resides in the middle of a street. There are also 12 bridges in Portland crossing over the Willamette River.

5. You must pay for parking!!!!: I found a good parking spot just outside the restaurant where we ate. I saw the signs for time allowed for parking. Mine was 90 minutes. I saw a small kiosk a few feet away from my car but had no idea what it was for. After I had already been in the restaurant for about an hour, my brother and I left. While my brother smoked his cigarette, I stood by my car and talked to him.
"Did you pay for parking?" he asks.
"Did I need to pay for parking?" I asked in return, naive to the need to pay for parking. My brother laughs at me.
"Come with me," he tells me. We walk down to the kiosk and he pays $.80 for a half hour with his debit card so that I can park for a few more minutes. Come to find out that if you do not pay for parking or if your ticket runs out it is a $40 ticket!

So there you have it! Honey's guide to Portland! OH! and FYI- the ghetto is on the northeast side of town.

A little something to make you laugh!

Requiem for a Gym... Part 3

The heat has reached triple digits here in the good ol' state of Utah! I am so ready to move to Alaska. But tonight, I came home and changed out of my work clothes and into my gym clothes. I didn't bother to put my shirt on (due to the heat) but I did have my sport bra on. I made dinner and settled my family before I headed off to the gym to lose the now 20 pounds I want to lose. While at dinner Bubba Jones turns to me and says:
"You go gym?"
"Yes, I am going to the gym."
"You take your belly?" he asks.
"Yes, I take my belly," I replied trying not to laugh or be offended. Then my dear sweet Hotstuff pipes up and says:
"Your supposed to leave it there."
(OUCH!!!!!)
"I am trying to leave it there! It just won't stay there!" I yelled.

Called to Serve

My dear sweet baby sister has been called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the California Arcadia (spanish speaking) mission. Which is located in East Los Angeles. (AHHHHHH!!!!!) She will be gone for 18 months (sniff sniff)!!!! She recieved her letter on Wednesday July 16th and did not open it until July 19th! Due to the large number of people she would have to tell; she called everyone over to Aunt Cindy and Uncle Paul's house to open her letter with all her friends and family. She had 35 people there!!!!!!!!!

Brittney opening her letter- me in front with two cell phones on speaker, one for my brother and the other family in Washington.

Brittney and her letter!

Me!

Bubba Jones, Miss May and Brittney

For more information go to: www.lds.org

One and ONLY

WANTED: ONE CAR KEY

When Hotstuff and I bought our G6, it only came with 1 key. The cost of a new key was $50! This is a special kind of key that has a computer chip in it that has to be programmed to the car. We had just bought a new car and did not have the extra cash for a new key. So we said we would come back later and get a new key made. It's not like we could go to Wal-mart and get a key made for $5, this is an extra special key and the cost was a bit much. It's seemed we never thought about getting an extra made because of the cost.

Sunday was the last time we saw our key. Hotstuff went to the car and rolled up the windows and got stuff from the trunk. That was the last they were ever seen. We have torn the house apart and cleaned it in search of the keys. We are going on day 4 with no key to drive the car. We still have the keys to our van and have been driving Moby (it's a big white van- hence the name.) But alas, Naked Harry (our car) sits in the suns and bakes begging to be driven.

The only solution, other than finding the key, is to have the car towed in to a dealership and have the key made and programmed to the car at the dealership.

Prayers have been said, house torn apart and cleaned, the most unlikely of places looked and still nothing. Time is running out and we are in need of a key.

REWARD: $1 Million dollars and an ice cream

Tax dollars hard at work

(Note: This post is regarding Michael Jackson and his funeral service)

Michael Jackson was laid to rest yesterday. While walking through the ICU and many other parts of the hospital where I work, ALL televisions were turned to CNN to watch coverage of the funeral. By the end of the day, I was glad to be home. I wanted to sit and veg for a minute in front of the good ol' boob tube but when I turned it on I was bombarded with nothing but Micheal Jackson.
I was disgusted at all the media attention towards him and his funeral. I was repulsed at the way they were treating and viewing his children. But none of this bothered more than the fact that Jackson's funeral cost the tax payers of California $4 MILLION!!!!!!!
Yes! you read that right $4 Million that could have gone to fund education, programs to help those in need and other programs that needed the extra funding. Instead, their tax dollars paid for something else. This, is tax dollars hard at work.