All I have to say is.......

And we may get a little soccer playing in too. We are so excited to be heading to California. I hate taking the kids out of school unless they are super sick, but since we are already going to be in California for a soccer tournament we might as well go to Disneyland. We have our interary planned and we are so excited to get on the road and enjoy the time together. We will miss my mom going with us very much, but we understand she doesn't want to leave Nana. And hopefully Nana can hold on a few more weeks at the LEAST. We wont forget to bring back Mickey Mouse ears to our favorite superhero. And hopefully Kennedee's soccer team does very well and they play in the finals. There are some tough teams so it should be a lot of fun.

So the kids are loving school. I know it has only been a week, but they are loving it. Kennedee gets up between 5-6 depending on if Maddy calls her or Kennedee calls her. Today was a little harder to get up but we have been so busy this week. Kennedee had practice Monday and Wednesday from 7-9. Madi had practice at 5:30-7 on Thursday and she is doing dance on Tuesday. Friday and Sunday are the only days we are free. I am not complaining but by Fridays we all have a hard time getting out of bed. Saturday we have to be at practice by 8 am so we can’t count on that day to sleep in.
Madi has been so grown up now that she goes to school on her own. I drop her off in the morning and she walks home with her friends and Kennedee picks her up after she gets off the bus. I am thinking about changing Madi to a later gator so she gets out of school later. But we will see about that.
Kennedee loves Jr high and going to more than one class. She has 4 a day and they rotate every other day. She loves socializing and meeting new friends. She is trying to wear makeup and she spends a lot more time in front of the mirror.
We are getting so excited to go to California. We will be in Disneyland next Friday. It will just be me and the girls, we will miss our travel partner, Grandma Linda but we understand she needs to stay home with Nana. I am just so excited to go and relax with the kids and watch the soccer games. The teams playing are the top 10 in the nation so the games will be awesome.
We will head up North this weekend to spend time with the family and celebrate Aunt Mame’s birthday. Yay for birthday cake!!

My other baby is growing up too

Madi was pretty nervous to start school. She didn’t like her teacher last year and it was a tough year. Her teacher this year seems very nice. Sunday night I painted Madison’s finger and toe nails and put her hair in ponytails and braids. She wanted to keep the braids in for school. She picked out new ear rings for her first day and tried her outfit on. She was excited but also nervous. She couldn’t get to sleep Sunday night and after almost 2 hours of trying, she came and got in bed with me. She finally fell asleep and when her alarm went off this morning she jumped up. Since Kennedee doesn’t have to go to school today, she wanted her to walk her to school and show her where her portable was. I kept telling Madi I didn’t know anyone in her class and since she didn’t come home from Grandma’s to go to the open house, she had no idea who was in her class. When they got to school this morning they found out her best friend from last year sits right next to her. That made her day. I sure hope this year is an improvement from last year

It's my birthday

I started the weekend out by running around for the kids. Friday Kennedee and I went to meet Madi’s teacher for school. He seems very nice. Then we had to get a birthday present for the party Kennedee was headed to. I dropped her off at 7 in East Sandy and headed home until time to pick her up at 10:30. We got up early Saturday to have Kennedee to practice by 8:00. I watched the teams scrimmage for 2 hours and headed up to Mom’s to hang out. We all went to the movie to see Mamma Mia, (again) we went shopping and went to lunch at El Matador. Those were the things I wanted to do for my birthday. We all went to see Nana and Aunt Mame and then slept over at Mom and Dad’s. They had Stran for the weekend so we got to play with him a lot.
On Sunday we headed home. I got a Build a Bear thing in the mail to get a free animal on my birthday. Madi couldn’t let me pass that up so we stopped at The Gateway. We got an animal and the kids ran through the fountain and headed home. Kennedee made brownies and I made cookies so we could eat the dough. The girls both made me cards and brought me a cupcake made of Chocolate Chip cookie dough with lots of candles in it. They couldn’t find the matches but I pretended to blow them out any way. It was a very nice birthday and I am glad I could spend it with my family.

My baby is growing up

Today Kennedee started her first day of Junior High. She was so excited. She came in my room at 6:30 A.M. and said mom can Maddy come over. I told her to make sure she eats some breakfast. Her response was " I already did at 4:30 a.m." She said Maddy called and woke her up at 4:30 she got up and had breakfast and got ready to go to school. That shows how excited she was. They came over and did the finishing touches and left for the bus at 7:30. I asked her if I could take her picture getting on the bus and she said Heck No!!! :)
Kennedee was mostly worried about opening her locker. But we went to the open house last night and she practiced and was able to open it just fine. We found all her classes and she wasn't scared at all this morning. Just super excited.
Today we will go meet Madison's teacher and she starts school monday morning. Today just the seventh graders went to school and monday just the 8th and 9th. On tuesday they all go.
Kennedee is getting better after her scare the other night. She can't remember most of the evening so when I tell her what happened she gets really freaked out. When I stop and think about it, it scares me to death. It is amazing at how fast your body can take over and how quick you can go down hill. I am so grateful that she is ok. She is scared to run hard at practice and until her chest stops hurting and the concussion goes away she is taking it easy. Her coach is keeping an eye on her and not letting her run hard.
Thank you to all of you who have showed concern and kept us in your prayers.

Kennedee's scare

So I have said Kennedee hurt her nose. It still hasn't healed and if she gets hit it bleeds and she can't breathe through her nose.
So last night at practice she got bumped in the nose and sat down while it bled. I told her it stopped and she needed to get back to running with the team. I went back to my chair and talking, it started getting dark and I couldn't see where Kennedee was. I got a text from her that said come here fast. So I jogged over to her expecting to see her nose bleeding. I got over to her and she was wheezing so hard she couldn't catch her breath. It was scaring her so bad she was crying and the more she cried the more she couldn't breath. Me, Matt(her coach)and another coach tried for an hour to get her to calm down enough to breath. Matt walked around the field with her and tried to get her to breath. I would get in front of her and would tell her to keep focusing on my eyes and breath like me, she would and her eyes would shut and loose focus. She would calm down and then not be able to breath and start up again. She sounded horrible, I have never seen her do this before. Matt and I were so concerned. He finally walked her to the car and helped her get in and sat and talked to her for a minute. He told me to get her home and make her chew on something and have her take a shower to calm down and call him when we got home.
We started heading home and the closer to home we got the worse her breathing got. I would try and ask her questions and she didn't know who I was, who she was or where we were at. I would call her name and she wouldn't answer. I was very freaked out.
We turned around to go to the emergency room and I called her coach to let him know. He said, call me to let me know what is wrong no matter the time. I think he was as worried as I was. She sounded so horrible and she was shaking, I would touch her to comfort her and she would say ouch that hurts, leave me alone. By the time we got the hospital, Madi carried my purse and I carried Kennedee in. The immediately gave her an oxygen mask with a bag on it to get her breathing under control. It took about 45 minutes more for her to calm down enough to breath ok.
I guess after you start hyperventilating your body and mind stop working together. The harder you try to breath the harder it is. Her body hurt and was tingling. Her body was starting to shut down. That is why she is not coherent. If your body shuts down you could have a seizure and brain damage. She doesn't remember most of the evening. They did a cat scan and the positive thing is no broken nose and no brain damage. She is very lucky. I have never been so scared. The doctor did say she had all the symptoms of a concussion but the cat scan looked good.
Madi was so tired she climbed in the bed with Kennedee and feel asleep and I had to carry her out.
I told Kennedee all about it on the way home and she was pretty scared to. She asked to sleep with me and all night(what was left of it)I would feel her back to make sure she was breathing.
Today she is a little tired and her head is killing her. She has to take it easy for a couple of days. And I do not ever want her to go through that again. I hate feeling so helpless with my kids, what a horrible feeling.

Soccer

The big tournament is over.
Madison's team played 3 games and lost 2. The 3rd game Madi said her team won 18-1, Madi score 7 goals. She also scored a lot in the other 2 games. The other teams just scored more. Madi thought it was pretty fun just to play.
Kennedee's team played 5 games and came in 2nd place. They lost in a shoot out 5-4. What a way to loose a game. Kennedee is starting to learn this new teams way of playing and she is getting in the game more. It is a lot different than what she is used to. I just enjoyed watching both kids play and catching some rays. Kennedee's saturday game lasted almost 2 hours in the middle of the day. I was in heaven.
We are so excited to head to California in 2 weeks to play in the big tournament there.

The battle goes on

Just when you think you have conquered one battle another one pops up. I have had my share of battles this summer and I know they are to make us stronger, but I have joked that if I could go back and choose, I would probably choose less battles than what I have had. I do look at my kids and my life and I am very grateful for all I have.. The one thing we do have is our health. My battles seem nothing compared to those who are struggling with their health.
My heart and prayers go out to all who struggle with health. From my little grandma who was told today that the cancer we thought was going to be gone with the hysterectomy and radiation, has come back harder. It has spread to her blood stream and liver. She has been more sick since being done with radiation. It breaks me heart. At 97 she has been a trooper. To my friend and neighbor who again has to go through the yucky chemo which knocks her out and makes her so sick. Hopefully this time with be the one that works. To my dad who struggles with his heart. He had a massive heart attack last fall and recently got the news his heart is getting worse and he may need a pace maker. He never complains and is so loving and protective to all his family. To my friend and neighbor who is struggling with Diabetes and her husband has finally stopped working because the cancer has taken a hold of his body and he just can't work any more. The phone calls with her break my heart. And to Josh who has the yucky chemo almost done and hopefully he is free of cancer.
I know there are so many more out there who struggle daily with things we can never be aware of.
I was reading the Ensign today and the words that hit me the hardest were. You never know when it will be your last day. Live every day to the fullest and try to make someone smile. I am going to try and do that. And when I think my struggles are to much to bare. I will get on my knees and pray for all these people and others who are struggling more than I am. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Kennedee slept over at her friends Bayleigh's house and her mom cut her hair.
Enough said.

Saturday Fun

With the kids gone, I had an adult day. It started out going to a 9:00 temple session with my mom at the Salt Lake Temple. I had never been there so it was very nice. A great way to start off the day. 9:00 was perfect because when we came out at 11:00 the building was packed.
After the temple session we had a snack at the Joseph Smith Memorial building and then headed North. Jaime, Mom and I all wanted to see Mamma Mia, but I had the time wrong so we bought different tickets. We had some time to kill so I went in and sat in Mamma Mia I ended up staying there. I am almost positive that movie is going to beat out Grease 2 as my all time favorite movie. I love it.
After the movie the family went to Maddox for Mom and Dad's birthday's. Since mine is soon the 3 of us all got some pie. At least they didn't sing to us.
It was a nice day and the only thing that could have made it more perfect was having my kids with us.
Happy Birthday Mom and Dad. Love you lots