I got me a stethoscope!

Now granted, it may cost me a few thousand dollars, but I got one!!

Brock is in the hospital with a severe asthma attack and the respiratory therapist (RT) today is amazing.  She must have been able to tell that I have a passion for medicine (lots of question asking and terminology flying!) and the next time she came in for a treatment she brought me a stethoscope of my very own to listen to Brock's lungs.  She's my new BFF. (could have bought one on Amazon for $10, but who gives?)

THEN-- the next time she came in, after she did Brock's treatment and made sure he was fine, she offered to take me on a quick tour of the new Pediatric Congenital Heart Unit.  Can I just say WOW?  It took me back 8 1/2 years to when we were patients in the cardiothoracic ICU with Hannah at UCLA just following her heart surgery.  This unit is brand new with 15 beds each in private rooms w/ glass doors.  Each room cost at least 2.5 MILLION $$$.  There's even one room with a separate accordion door for a queen size bed and mini kitchenette for the family of the patient.  That would have been nice, huh Becca?  Anyways, I got to see quite a few teeny tiny babies all hooked up and recovering from heart surgeries and other babies playing in their cribs and tangling up all their cords and wires.  The RT even tried to find Dr. Mendelof, the chief pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon here to introduce me to him.  He was in surgery :(  Maybe tomorrow?  I seriously could have stayed there all day (if I didn't have my own patient to tend to upstairs!)  It is my PASSION.  Really drove home the desire to one day be in that setting helping children and families.  I can't wait.  This RT almost has me talked into the respiratory therapist route and then bridging over to nursing while working as an RT.  It is a much quicker way and gets you into the clinic setting faster- which is what I want... less classroom time, more hospital time.  Makes me pretty excited!

On another note, I was down in the cafeteria getting lunch and ran into an old classmate of mine from Anatomy & Physiology.  We both just had Microbiology and Stats to take and then we were going to apply to the nursing program together.  Well, guess what she was wearing?  SCRUBS.  With a "nursing student" badge. :( :( :(  I can't believe she's already there!  So she saw me in plain clothes and said, "What are you doing here?" I told her about Brock and that I'd much rather be in HER position than mine! (her being a nurse and me being the mom to a sick kid in the hospital-- not my position as mom in general... just to clarify!  My time will come!!!!!!!!  I know it will, ONE DAY!!)  Anyways, kind of ironic that I'd run into her on the same day as my passion for everything medical got TOTALLY recharged.  I can only imagine what shadowing Dr. D in the ER would do to me!

Back to the matter at hand.  The RT should be coming in soon for another treatment.  The Dr. should also be coming soon as well to evaluate and see what we're going to do next.  Hopefully Brock will be feeling better tomorrow and we can head home and have our family together under one roof again soon!  Keep him (and us!) in your prayers.  Thanks!!

Daddy/Daughter dance!

Hannah was miraculously healed from the "pukes" for this dance!

Sillies... I told them to open their eyes!  And they did!

Hannah even got lipgloss and mascara!  Big night!

Have fun guys!!  Love you!

A boy and his dog

Go get him Dayne!

almost there...

Watch out!

GOTCHA!!!

What was that!?!?

Dayne loves Dodger!

Dodger loves Dayne!

Good times!

Biker boyz...

Just Hangin' in the backyard...

This is his MOTORCYCLE face, Harley Papa!

While everyone else is gone but mom & the three little boys...

Lovin' the jacket, nana!  Thanks!  Although he's sweating underneath!

Best buds--

CHEESE!

The Pukes...

We've got two with "the pukes" today and i'm sure that number will multiply today/tomorrow.  Hannah's an old pro.  She's pretty good about getting to the bathroom- although she did ask if she could sleep in my room on the couch so that she didn't get her new bedroom all dirty.  Uh- NO!

Then there's Bauer-- yes, this darling dude:

who has either NEVER thrown up or hasn't in a LONG TIME...

but poor kid was SOOO scared.

When he first threw up, he cried a lot and was so sad.  It woke up Dayne and he was screaming.

He looked at me and said, "Mom, I sorry."

I said, "Sorry for what?"

He said, "Sorry for Dayne."

(soooo cute that he was concerned that he woke Dayne up.)

Then I gave him a bucket- (which we lovingly call our kids when they're barfing- "BUCKET BOYS!")

But he was scared of the bucket.  So I got him a bowl.  He didn't want the bowl.  He told me he wanted a small bowl.  So I went downstairs and got him a small bowl.  When I handed it to him he said,

"Mom- where's the cereal?"  He wanted cereal because, of course if you have a cereal bowl,

you need cereal to go along with it!!  Funny kid!

Let's hope this stops here... PLEASE NOT ANYONE ELSE!!!!!!!!!!

Barrett's Soccer

Yes, he's our first soccer player.  And not only am I a "soccer mom," (not really) I am THE Soccer TEAM MOM!  You see, my friend Rebecca is the coach and 4 out of 6 kids on the team are from our ward- AND we practice right down the street from my house, so it's a pretty good gig!

Barrett was SOOOO excited for his first practice

Of course, figuring out if the shin guards go OVER or UNDER the socks was fun!  For the record, my "all sport and naturally talented" husband (who has never played or watched soccer) knew that they went under the socks, but I did have to google search it just to verify.  Bill, "You were right, I was wrong, now I'm singing a different song."  See I said it.  But I have seen people wear them over. I'm just sayin'!

Barrett has been waiting for a few weeks to drink his blue gatorades I bought for practices. He was stoked to FINALLY be able to have one!

It's going to be a fun season.  Especially when you've got a "wannabee" fan for a brother:

Just in time...

These packages:

Came today via FED EX just as our tornado sirens started howling!!!

Pretty good timing, I'd say!

The "A" Team

You're lookin' at the newest member of the "A TEAM!!!"

Not this A Team:

But this A Team!

Hunter made the "A" team for football today!  He will be starting Left Defensive End and Center!  WOO HOO!!  Go Hunter!  Proud of you!

Doin' the shuffle!

COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously.  Today I finally  remembered my itouch on my morning jog.  I usually forget it or forget to charge it or something.  But today I remembered it.  I got it all set up- this was going to be a good workout.  It was raining so I put my cell phone in a ziploc bag and stuck it in the left side of my sports bra (ladies, you know what I'm talking about!).  Itouch in a ziploc bag on the right side.  One headphone in ear, other headphone tucked into the strap (that's so I can hear the mountain lion if he's out this morning).  Ready... set...

SHUFFLE.

What?  3 seconds of a song, that's all I get to hear?  I should have turned right back around and gone inside to fix it, but I was on a roll!  (a jog, actually).  I thought I could fix it myself without slowing down.  Now let me preface this with: I know nothing about ipods.  My kids upload my music and sync my player.  I just tell them what to do.  I'm good at that.  So I keep jogging.  "I'll just try and jog real smooth," I thought.  Nope- a little too much bounce in my step today, I guess!  My favorite song comes on... perfect excuse to walk!  NOOO!  Keep jogging Julie!  You can do it! (i'm now about 2/3 jog to 1/3 walk- so I can officially call it my morning shuffle jog because I do more jogging than walking!)  Yeah!  Happy for me! 

Wish I could listen to that song... "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"  Well, I can, but only the first 3 seconds of it!  Then onto "Ironic" then "Mr. Wendall" (don't laugh, I love that song!) then "I Wear my Sunglasses at Night" then "Bad Day" - yes, I am having a bad day, thank you.  Shuffle again, YES!  A winner!  Belinda Carlisle- "Heaven..." Man, I really need a new play list. p.s. I do not have "Don't Worry, Be Happy" on my playlist.  Unfortunately, all the other songs, I am ashamed proud to say I do.

So what do I do the second I walk in the door?  Type into Bing (like that, Mike?): "How do I get my stupid itouch to STOP shuffling?"  and here was the simple answer- "While the song is playing, click on the album cover so you can see where the song is. (a little bar should come up on the top of the screen). to the right of the song place, there are two crossed arrows. if they are highlighted in blue then it is on shuffle. click on the arrow sign and it should turn to gray which will turn off shuffle."

Should have come back in and looked that up before I went for my morning jog/shuffle/walk!!!  Now I know!

Brock's Bday part 2!

Brock is so special, he gets 2 posts! 

Notice his birthday cake... he made it!  And frosted it!  (his choice, not mine!)  Talk about a low maintenance kid!

Make a wish!

August 31 Pack Meeting: Brock's last CUB SCOUT activity EVER...

Doing a skit or a chant (i can't remember which)...

Can you believe I won't have a cub scout again for 3 1/2 more years?!

Brock getting his Webelos badge and his Arrow of Light w/ Cubmaster LeBaron

and then realizing he had to "KTM" for the second time that night!

"KTM" means "Kiss the MOM!"  Because we mom's work really hard to help our boys in scouts!

Brock being presented with his Religious Square Knot by Bishop Taylor and President Dotter

Brock and Lance moving on up to 11 year old scouts with proud moms looking on.

Best Friends, these two boys...

Brock "Crossing Over" the bridge to Boy Scouting... sorry it's so blurry-- the camera got handed off to someone who didn't know how to use it!  Bummer!

His stock of awards for the night- notice the "2010" printed on the Arrow of Light badge (the one w/ the arrows pointing out from the middle).  Because 2010 is the 100th anniversary of scouting, the Arrow of Light has that printed on it.  That's the only one that will have that!  Collector's item-- think he'll notice if I sell it on ebay?  JOKING!!!!!!!!!

Proud of you Brock!

Happy Birthday buddy-- party's over.