Well Christmas has come and gone and I hope all had a great time.

We enjoyed spending time as a family then going to see our families - Mark has 2 brothers from out of state that came in so it was fun to see them. Then we went to my family and had lunch with them and was able to see my Aunt and some of my cousins.

It has been nice to have a 4 days off from work - Saturday we went to have family pictures taken with Mark's family - there were 44 of us!! I do have to say the place we went actually did a good job getting us placed and out of there without too many meltdowns. After that I was able to go with my sister and see some friends that I have not seen for about 5 or so years. So I have to say this weekend was a good one.

I hope you all have a great New Year!!!!

MTJJ

December

So far this month has been a good one, I have started working from home and it is WONDERFUL!!!!! We have been greatly blessed by this and I am truly thankful.

Justin turned 6!!!! Man they grow up fast. We had just the grandparent (and of course aunt Sheri) over for pizza, cake and ice cream. We had a great time.

Over the Holidays my family has some traditions that I love to do every year. Wego and see the lights at Temple Square the day after Thanksgiving. This year there were soooo many people there and I forgot my camera DUH so no pictures. Then The Festival of Trees and that is always fun to go to. I have learned over the years just to look at the trees and enjoy them and not read the stories, that way I do not come out of there crying. Another tradition we do is go to Ogden to El Matador for dinner and see the lights in the city center but this year with the storm coming and it being cold we decided to go to the El Matador in Bountiful for dinner and not go and see the lights. If you have never been to El Matador I highly suggest it - it has the BEST mexican food.

I hope we can all remember the true meaning of this time of season. I am truly grateful for all that we have been given this year and am grateful for the birth of our Savior. I hope you all have a safe and great Christmas.

MTJJ

Quick Post

Hello All,

Have a great Thanksgiving!!!

I just wanted to let you know that I have started working in home as of yesterday. It will be nice to have a long weekend. Starting next week I will be going into the office only 1 day a week
YEAH!!!! I hope all is well with you and will post again soon.

Sorry about not having the video on - I think I just figured it out so I will see if this works, it is just over a minute long so you don't have to watch the entire thing.

MTJJ

Thanksgiving and WDW

Hello All,



Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!! I hope you have a great Holiday this week.



Well we just got back from WDW and we had a GREAT time!!!! I will try and make this short. We were there for my mom's b-day this time instead of Justin's and we went to the Rain Tree Forest Restaurant and had lunch and they bring out a Volcano (there is a picture of my mom with the it) it has 3 or 4 huge brownies, ice cream and whipping cream - YUMMY!!! On Sunday we were in Epcot and going to go on Soarin and I thought Jarod was behind me with my sister and dad - well Jarod went past me to go with my mom and I did not see him so when I turned around Jarod was not there so needless to say I started to freak out cause I could not find him and my sister kept saying he is with mom so I rushed through the crowd to get up to my mom and there he was - I thought I had lost my child in Epcot it is only a small place to lose him (LOL - HUGE!!!) so after my heart starting beating normal we were able to enjoy the rest of the day. It was supposed to be warm but when we got there they had a cold front come so it was a little chilly but I did not care cause I was in WDW. This is the first time I was able to go there where we did not have to wait forever for the rides - the longest we waited was about 20-25 min and that was on Soarin, Test Track and the new Toy Story ride other than that we basically walked right on everything. Most of the time it took us longer to walk to the loading dock than we did to wait for the ride - NICE!!!! On Wednesday we were in Magic Kingdom and my dad was talking to one of the workers and they said that on that day there were only 15,000 people when normally at that time of year the average is between 40,000 - 45,000 people so you can tell from that there were hardly any crowds - even walking around there was no one around. I am going to put on a little video of Justin on The Runaway Train (Big Thunder Mountain) you may not see much cause I was riding in front of him and did not get a good picture but you have to hear his little scream - it is sooooo cute!!!! The boys loved all the fast rides just like I do so it is nice to know in the future I will have riding buddies. But we did have one exciting thing happen when we were there that has never happened before - we decided to ride the train from Main Street in the Magic Kingdom well they were taking forever to get going and we over heard one of the workers talking and they said something happened then just after that we saw the paramedics come down the row with a stretcher and we all had to get off the train. I do not know what happened it was interesting but scary for that poor family. Man I would hate to get all the way there and then have something like that happen to one of us. I know you are probably bored by now so if you want to hear more about my trip come and talk to me.

Trick or Treat

Hello All,

Well Halloween is over and we all had a great time. It was nice to have the day off and spend time with the kids and not have to worry about getting back to work after the parade was over. For the parade Jarod was a Jujitsu fighter and Justin was Spider man (thanks to a friend letting us borrow the costume). That afternoon we got the outside set up (strobe light, fog machine, lights etc) so Mark could scare the older kids - he is not allowed to scare the young ones. We believe since it was a Friday night there must have been some junior high and high school parties cause we did not have very many kids to scare. This year since it was so nice outside I stayed out there with Mark to scare the kids and I have to say it was pretty fun. For trick or treating the kids both decided they wanted to be vampires (that's o.k. since that is an easy costume to put together), Mark was a skeleton pirate (I braided his beard and put beads in it), and I do not know what I was - I used Mark's Scream costume from last year and just painted my face. We had a great time. I am kinda glad it is over cause that means me and the boys leave for Florida here soon YEAH!!!!! I hope all had a great Halloween and Happy Holidays!!!!

MTJJ

Well soccer is over and they both had a great time. So things should slow down a little bit. With Halloween just a couple of weeks away I have told the boys that they need to decide on what they want to be for Halloween by this Friday so we can get their costumes together. I will post pictures of Halloween as soon as I can - we are going to braid Mark's beard again this year cause he is going to be a skeleton pirate. I am taking the day off work so I can get everyone ready. As you can tell we like Halloween around here. Not much to say right now and with the Holidays coming up I will post as much as I can.

Sorry it took so long for an update on Mark. It turned out to be another site infection, they put him on an antibiotic and the infection has cleared up but in the process the medication did not react well with his insulin so Mark the past week has been battling his sugar levels. He is doing well.

The boys are doing great in school and all their extra activities. Jarod has earned his first strips in Jiujitsu. Our friend who is teaching them says Jarod has natural instincts. He had him in a new hold he was teaching them (he had not told them how to get out of it) and Jarod was able to get out of it. I guess the moral of the story is not to mess with Jarod. LOL

Justin - oh Justin what can I say he is just being himself. Mark took them to the dentist on Monday and his 6 yr molars are coming in and he has been eating alot lately (not like him) so we thought maybe he is going through a growth spurt well yes he is cause I tried on their winter clothes about 3 weeks ago and now some of his pants that fit him are now floods.

My babies are growing up way too fast for me.

MTJJ

On Saturday night my parents and my sister had the kids for a sleep over. On Sunday morning Mark did not feel well enough to go to Church so I went by myself, I actually got to hear a talk!! When I came home we changed Mark's bandage on his line and it was sore and swollen so he paged the nurse and she said she would talk to the Dr. and let us know what they wanted us to do. When she called back she said we needed to go to the E.R. well as most of you know this is nothing new to us. The nurse told me she would call the charge nurse and give orders of what needed to be done. When we got there and got registered and into a room (IMC - HUGE we were in room 72) we were surprised that the E.R. now has T.V.'s in the rooms so that made it a little bit easier. After asking about 4 people to try and find the orders and 3 hrs later they could not get in touch with the nurse or Mark's Dr. so they let us go saying it was just an infection. I paged the nurse and when she called back and told her the story needless to say she was ticked. When we got home the nurse called back and said she called the Hospital (gave them a piece of her mind) and we needed to go back and get some cultures taken and when Mark got there to immediately take him back and take the cultures and not to re-admit him or charge us for the visit. When Mark got there they did exactly what they should have done the first time. Mark stopped and got the prescription - $42.00 bucks!!! after ins. So now we can add IMC E.R. to our list of E.R. we have visited. It seemed like a long day but we are doing well. We have not heard back on the results of the cultures but will keep you posted so check this blog or Marks in the next week for an update. Thanks for all your love, support and prayers in Mark's behalf. It really helps to keep you going. I know this was not a big deal but it always freaks me out a little cause you never now when this will be the big one that will end bad. I just thank the Lord everyday we do have even if it is in the E.R. LOL.

MTJJ

Lagoon

I just can't believe that we are just about into October - how the time goes by.



On Saturday September 13th we went to Lagoon for my Company work party. We did not ride any of the rides this year cause even with the discount it was still way more than I wanted to spend for Lagoon so we just did all the free stuff that they offered. They had a kids corner and the kids loved it!!! They were able to get their face painted, tattoos, make visors and a frisbee. Hey don't forget the free FOOD. I told the kids if we do the free stuff at Lagoon then that means more money for Florida WDW!!!! We are getting excited for that we are at about a month and a half away.

The kids have been in soccer for the last few weeks and they are having fun with it. They have 3 more Saturday games then they will be done, so after that life may not be so hectic for us all. HAHA what am I thinking something else will come up - LIKE THE HOLIDAYS!!!!! The only thing that I am NOT excited about is the snow - I hate to drive in it. The kids have already been telling me what they want to be for Halloween - I should say the last month they have been. As of right now they both want to be Vampire Soccer Players....... we still have a month so that could change again. I will post some pictures of costumes after Halloween. Some of you may know that the last couple of years Mark has really gotten into decorating and dressing up for Halloween so it will be interesting to see what Mark will do this year. Last year he dressed up as the scream character and he did scare some kids and some of the neighborhood. Mark has started his own blog at stuckathomedad@blogspot.com (there is a link on this blog) so he may have already talked about this. Check his out for updates on his health.

I hope all is well with you.

MTJJ

September

Mark is going strong. He has started with the new insulin and it seems to be working out well, he is just trying to work out the bugs. He is starting up his own blog to keep you all updated on his progress, when it is up and going we will let you know the address.

Trisha - I went to LA on August 29th with my sister to the Pepsi Smash concert - WE HAD A BLAST!!!! On Friday we got in LA about 8:00 and a town car was waiting for us to take us to the hotel. After we checked in at the Century Plaza (NICE) we had a dinner with Pepsi. On Saturday we got up and went for a little walk to see Rodeo Drive! It was not as wonderful as I thought, it is in the middle of not the nicest part of town. I did find a purse and Niemen Marcus for only $1,195.00 - should have bought it - YEAH RIGHT!!!! Then we walked back to the Hotel and went to the Mall then walked to see the LA Temple - needless to say we were tired from all walking. That night we meet in the lobby with all the other winners (about 200 of us) and went to the concert. They told us we could not take cameras so I left mine at the Hotel and when we got there everyone else had cameras and were taking pictures (MAD) we were in the pit (standing room only) and we were right in front of the stage and I had no camera to take pictures so I did not get any pictures. Natasha did a great job and loved her performance - on the other hand when Fergie came out they turned up the volume and it was really loud. Her dancers were not the most modest I guess you could say, we stayed for about half then went out into the lobby until it was done. Then that Sunday came home.

Jarod & Justin - They are going back on track on Monday the 8th. They are ready to get back into the swing of things. They are loving Jujitsu and waiting for Soccer to start. Justin went to the eye doctor for the first time and his eyes are just fine - no need for glasses yet. Jarod broke his frames and luckily when we went back to costco the frames were under warranty so they just replaced his frames. Costco now knows Jarod cause we are in there about every other week getting his glasses adjusted. He is a boy!! They are growing like weeds - pants we bought for Jarod in March are already floods on him - it is good for Justin cause it has lots of hand me downs. They are enjoying that last bit of summer trying to get in as much bike riding and scooter riding as they can.

Talk to ya soon!!!

Hello to all,

Welcome to my first blog page!!!!!

August....

Mark
He has his good days and his bad days but overall is doing well. He just went and saw a diabetic specialist and they said that he is type 1 not type 2. He has now been going to the doctors to re-do how he dose his insulin shots.

Trisha
I am still working full time + overtime at Regence BC/BS. I have cut back on my overtime this summer to spend more time with the family and trying to go to the Temple on Friday afternoons. I wish I could be a stay at home mom but that is not what I am supposed to do right now. For those of you who don't know I won a trip to L.A. to see Fergie and Natasha Bedingfield from 97.1 ZHT (radio station) Mark did not want to go so I am taking my sister Sheri with me. I will post pictures when I get back (hopefully with some STARS!!!!! lol hehe).

Jarod & Justin started school and they are doing great and loving it!!!! They will be off track here starting Monday the 18th (they are on C track). Jarod has started piano and a friend of ours is teaching him and she says he is doing great! Jarod is also in scouts and this summer went to scout camp and he had a great time. Both the boys have started Jujitsu (probably spelled it wrong), they are taking it from a friend. They are enjoying it and love to come home and show their new moves on Mark. They will also start fall soccer in September so needless to say we will be very busy. We will keep this up as long as the boys do well in school and are o.k. with it all.

Stay tuned till next time.