Sarah's Got Curves!!

So, once upon a time in a land far, far away(or possibly just the porch) one of my friends noticed that my back felt really screwed up! like there was a big lump there! WOW!! So after joking about how it could be a tumor, Siamese twin, alien, etc. I had Mom and Dad look at it later. (Mom says she thought it was a tumor too. Wow. thanks for the support, I can feel the love BURNING. well actually looking at it, quite a couple people thought that. huh....) When we went in for some shots at the doctor we asked her about it. She thought that it was scoliosis but said to go see a specialist. (grr this is getting more complicated than my teenage mind wants to handle) so, we go to a specialist a month later at Primary Childrens Hospital. They took X-rays and such and Dr. Smith concluded that it was indeed Scoliosis. The weird thing is, I dont stand weird or my hips or shoulders aren't uneven. (joy...) I have 2 curves in my back the top one is 23 degrees and the lower one is 47 degrees. In the shape of a backwards "S" the only 3 options for scoliosis are: watch it, brace it, or surgery. Watching it is for very small curves and bracing it is for smallish curves and if you are still growing. But, my growth plate got lazy and decided it wanted to stop. So, screw that plan. Which leaves us with option 3! surgery!! yay!!! (honestly i wasn't that surprised I was sorta expecting it) so surgery is planned for June 28th, I'll be in the hospital for about a week then recovering at home(which means confined to the couch in the family room) for a month. then physical restrictions for 6 months. I have been doing a ton of reading about it and im actually looking forward to it! as crazy as that seems! Yes, i give you all permission to hold that against me in June and July. And to answer a few often asked questions:
does it hurt?
nope. It tends not to hurt much in kids and teens. it will start to hurt when i sit or stand for a long time, or walk up a big hill or something like that.
how did you get it??
dont know, sorry! i have idiopathic scoliosis which means they don't know the cause. this particular type of scoliosis is pretty common in teens, particularly girls.(5% of teenage girls and 2% of boys)
what are they gonna do??
Im hoping that they will use the more recent surgery and have only a few 1 inch incisions were they will put in a camera and fuse the curved bones together(not all the way!) and support it with rods and screws)

i'll answer any more questions you have! but this is getting pretty long so i'll stop now....

Katie and Holly's Birthday Party

We had a fun birthday party for Katie and Holly the other night! I forgot to take a picture of the cake- and the best pictures somehow disappeared and I don't know how that happened! Still a fun party though!

Christmas in the making

Dolly putting up with us :) even Levi puts up with us somehow...










decorating the tree!!

Dolly ;)

We finally did it! We got a dog! Mom and Dad have been talking dogs for a while so yesterday, we hopped into the car, drove down to the Humane Society, and fell in love with Dolly. It was like at love at first sight for us I swear. :) She is a Dachshund LH mix(well thats what the paper says anyways) and is 6 years old. She is pretty small but the sweetest little thing. We all love her and are super excited!(well Levi is still getting used to the idea but hopefully we'll get over that stage soon! Now for some pics!! more pics soon to come....

baby simulator!!!

Can you see the pissed-off look in my eye from Mom waking me up from a NAP to FORCE me to take this picture?!?! gah! well that's how it seemed like at the time anyways....

hey! Sarah here!
so of course, me being me i thought an over-the-weekend baby simulator would be FUN and a "good experience" Yeah...
The crying and cooing noises still haunt me even though it's been a few weeks since i had it. Well it's not like it was all THAT bad...just it kinda sucked by the last day. So after much debating her official name was Jabuka. it means "apple" in Serbian. But I kinda forgot and called her Abby. (sorry!!) She turned on at 3:00 on Friday at the Alta football game at the U. Yes, i am possibly insane but i don't care. She stayed with her Auntie Dominique for the first bit then I got her again. It screamed a couple times during the game and i only got a few dirty looks from people, and only one 10 year old asked what the crap i was doing with a doll so I see that as a success! YAY!! The bus ride home was interesting a we got a couple of pissed off kids but that is expected. But actually this one guy really liked the reaction he was getting from all the girls when he held the doll once so he constantly was yelling "pass back the baby!!" it was pretty hilarious.
For the rest of the weekend she tended to be nocturnal and liked to wake up about 7 times a night and sleep all day. Typical baby huh? And luckily she didn't cry or anything at church!! Well i gained back sleep over the next 2 days and so it's all good in the end...

p.s. i probably will NOT do that again. Once was pretty darn good for me!

Mississippi Hot Dog!

Taylor and Alex have always wanted to play instruments. This harmonica was the latest hobby of Taylor's until...Violin, yea! I didn't realize how inexpensive it would be until I looked at KSL and found a 1/4 size violin for Taylor and bought it the next day. I just got Alex's 1/10 size violin today - we ordered it online. It's so tiny! There are actually 2 sizes smaller!

Playing the first rhythm in the Suzuki method is "mississippi hotdog" - that really brings back memories for a lot of us I'm sure.

Such tiny violins! Can you tell I'm excited?

Brian's 20th Birthday!!!

Random August

Taylor's first day of Kindergarten went really well, here we are with a couple of friends before school.

Brian's 20th Birthday party was fun. Carmen made him this Ikea gift card (Brian's new favorite store). I made him a book of photos of him for the first 20 years of his life. Mom and dad got him the much needed computer cord for his laptop and we also all went to Dinner at the Olive Garden on his actual birthday a couple weeks ago. I have to say- he had a pretty good birthday.

Our apples and peaches turned out great this year and we are making jam, applesause, etc.

We also enjoyed a fun trip to Saint Louis and had Grandpa John, Nanna, and Aunt Alicia come visit.

The Pine Tree

The pine tree in the front yard seems to be dying. We noticed what an inordinate amount of dry pine needles. They were not just on the bottom part of the tree, but they extended all the way up to the top most branches. This has caused us much concern because this tree is the focal point of the front yard landscaping.

We have pulled up most all of the ivy and cut down the pretty red flowered bushes that we thought were sucking up all the water. The other day, a friend came over and said that his tree was doing the same thing; and that a nurseryman told him his tree was getting too much water! With those conflicting ideas we decided to consult with our "own" nurseryman. He thought that the tree was developed enough that its root system made it an effective competitor for the water. After asking how much and often we watered it he did not see how it could be getting too much water. I can, and will, consult some gardening books that I have downstairs in my library; and I will also go online and see what other people have written on the subject. There must be tons of written directions and manuals that I can consult.

Before I left the nursery, the man gave me a free bottle of iron supplement. It was a product line that they were no longer going to carry; and he actually gave it to me for nothing! I cannot ever recall getting something from a store for absolutely no cost. It was a generous gift. I might even use it

There is a lesson somewhere in all of this that I think is important. Sometimes we give people too much and they don't grow very well. Sometimes we give way too little and the same thing happens. How can you tell the difference? I really don't know. I suppose if you asked a good number of nurserymen; and all of them gave you the same advice you could probably trust their collective judgment.

But what if you knew the Master Nurseryman; would He know? I would say that He does; and that if we consulted with Him on a regular basis we would learn to understand Him when He was trying to give us His good advice. I have come to know that really wise people usually only give their advice when it is asked for. When advice is "unasked for" it is often not valued. I am coming to understand that better. I think that may be why Heavenly Father sometimes waits for us to ask Him before giving us advice; though Heaven knows He has showered us with tons of written directions and manuals.

Love, Dad

California Roadtrip!

So Tia, Brian, the boys and Me (Corinne) decided last week to take a roadtrip. It was very last minute but it was a lot of fun. It was the first time Brian had been back to Cali since they moved here! We got to: Visit with Mark and Heather and their kids, Oakland Temple, the San Leandro Bay, the San Leandro Marina, Kennedy Park, San Francisco, visit the old house, and surrounding area. We even had a bbq at Lake Chabot. We were totally unprepared. I grabbed 16 hot dogs, and 8 buns for 11 people, some stawberries, and half a bag of chips. I even had to turn the hot dogs with my fingers! We went to San Gregorio beach visited the Jelly Belly Factory and visited with my friends - the Savages. I wish I could have posted all the pictures, but there was just too many! Enjoy!

The kids!
Anarosa, Alana, Jacob, Taylor, Alex

Crazy car rides!

San Gregorio Beach

San Gregorio Beach, we were so unprepared but we had fun!

Pier 39

"Grey Havens" - bay in San Leandro, we also saw the old house and neighborhood.

Kennedy Park!

"Wow, this really doesn't taste as good as I remember!"
They have the same square pink popcorn!

Hat store on Pier 39

Saying goodbye! We squeezed a lot into this trip!!! I don't have pictures posted of it all but we did almost everything everyone wanted to do and got to spend a good amount of time with Heather and Mark's family! Good Times!

Tia's Summer Fun

K, well, after a week and a half of seeing me do nothing but laze about the house watching crime shows, stay up until three AM on the internet, and waking up after noon the next day Mom had had enough. Having gone to bed at 4:30 AM the previous night, Mom roused me at 9:30 AM the next morning with the news that Corinne and I were going on our graduation trip-- in about 15 minutes. >_< After a Japanese lunch, we went shopping for clothes, and lo and behold! My awesome cat hoodie! ^.^

Other than sleeping and going on the Internet, I've mostly been hanging out with friends. We've gone shopping, to the movies, and to get a new haircut (a nerve wracking experiance in itself. Every few seconds I'd hear a snip and an "Oops! I'm sorry!" O_O)

I also went to see Transformers in the drive-in, this last week and let me tell you-- the drive in is awesome! Not only do you get to chill out and bring your own food, but you can turn off the sound during the previews! Only downfall was, at the end of the movie, the people in the car next to us had a dead battery (these were also the idiots who not only had their lights on the entire time, but halfway through the movie accidentally turned on their hazards and couldn't figure out how to turn them off). However, my friend's mom was rather charitable, something similar having happened to her once in Iowa, so she spent an hour finding someone with jumper cables and trying to jump their car's battery. It was totally nice of her....

Anyway, that's about it... so...

Mom's Summer Fun

Mom is having fun blogging and planning the 4th of July party (which is her life). She is also enjoying reading a book called "That Hideous Strength" but can only read about one hour at a time, when housework is done and all are otherwise occupied. Tia has brought down Karen's old T.V. and has set up "Sonic" on Sega Dreamcast for Mom to play. Mom can pass (barely) level one without a heart attack. Mom enjoys cooking Thursday and Saturdays and does dishes and throwing weekend parties.

Dad's Summer Fun

Dad makes a loaf of 100% of whole wheat bread everyday, using food storage items. We all love his bread. He is now working on Tabouli: cracked wheat, cucumber, tomatoes, parsely, and olive oil. This was served Tuesday night ("Too much pepper," Dad said). Dad also cooks Monday, Wednesday, and Thurday and does dishes too. He also enjoys Josh Groban, which Corinne and Kelly gave him. He is having fun with his H.A.M radio and has technician's license for it. He is the ward's communication's specialist. He reports in once a week except in times of emergencies. During the same rain deluge that ruined our camping, a mudslide occured in our neighboring town of Draper. Richard's assistant back home got on the H.A.M radio and offered our ward's cleanup services if needed. Richard is also Sunday School president and holds monthly meetings in our home. He can also teach a good lesson with virutally no notice, as we have a couple of teachers who have the habit of going on vacations without telling anyone. The once a month 7 AM council meeting has made a comeback this year. He also meets after church once a month with the Bishop to discuss Sunday School and emergency preparedness needs.

Sarah's Utah Friends Farewell for the Summer

Sarah's friends in Utah threw her a farewell water balloon fight. 1,000 water balloons were bought for the occasion. The friends throwing the farewell were Dominique, Ashley, Erin, Chris, Sarah, and Katie. It started in the front yard and then moved all around the house (outside!). Ashley and Sarah snuck in the house, fillled up a huge balloon, and then Sarah climbed on the garden shed to ambush the boys when they came by. The boys retaliated with getting the backyard garden hose and spraying her up on the shed. When the fight ended Ashley had brought Creamies for a treat, and they talked and laughed for several hours. See you in the fall, Sarah!