Feet

I got this in an email and thought it was HILARIOUS!! So of course I had to share...

Alright ladies, it's that time of year once again!!! I think we need to be reminded of a few things. So my sisters, PLEASE, raise your big toes and repeat after me below...

The Open Toed Shoe Pledge
As a member of the Cute Girl Sisterhood, I pledge to follow the Rules when wearing sandals and other open-toe shoes:

I promise to always wear sandals that fit. My toes will not hang over and touch the ground, nor will my heels spill over the backs. And the sides and tops of my feet will not pudge out between the straps.

I will go polish-free or vow to keep the polish fresh, intact and chip-free.
I will not cheat and just touch up my big toe.

I will sand down any mounds of skin before they turn hard and yellow.

I will shave the hairs off my big toe.

I won't wear pantyhose even if my misinformed girlfriend, coworker, mother, sister tells me the toe seam really will stay under my toes if I tuck it there.

If a strap breaks, I won't duct-tape, pin, glue or tuck it back! into place hoping it will stay put. I will get my shoe fixed or toss it.

I will not live in corn denial; rather I will lean on my good friend Dr. Scholl's if my feet need him.

I will resist the urge to buy jelly shoes at Payless for the low, low price of $4.99 even if my feet are small enough to fit into the kids' sizes. This is out of concern for my safety, and the safety of others. No one can walk properly when standing in a pool of sweat and I would hate to take someone down with me as I fall and break my ankle.

I will take my toe ring off toward the end of the day if my toes swell and begin to look like Vienna sausages.

I will be brutally honest with my girlfriend/sister/coworker when she asks me if her feet are too ugly to wear sandals. Someone has to tell her that her toes are as long as my fingers and no sandal makes creepy feet look good.

I will promise if I wear flip flops that I will ensure that they actually flip and flop, making the correct noise while walking and I will swear NOT to slide or drag my feet while wearing them.

I will promise to go to my local nail salon at least once per season and have a real pedicure (they are about $20 or $25 and worth EVERY penny).

I will promise to throw away any white/off-white sandals that show signs of wear... nothing is tackier than dirty white sandals.

April

We had a busy month. Here's some cute pics of what went on...



I had a birthday! My last birthday in fact :) I'll be 29 forever, right??



I got a camera from mom and dad and Mark did things around the house for me.











This is the first pic I took with the new camera











This is where Mark took me for dinner











This was some of our yummy food











This was my desert...











This is what was inside!! mmmm....











This is my post Cheesecake Factory happy face :)











Mark bought and installed this pot rack for me.














Mark tiled our garage entry...











Mark also tiled our main entry!! I love it :)











Justin got me this awesome bracelet










I had a birthday party with some friends (thanks girls!!)











We bought yummy Popsicles at Costco! Yummo!!














Ashton loved his pop too :)













Ashton got to come to work with mom and throw candy at her with Maria! Fun!!

















The boys got quality time with Dad


Justin started LACROSSE!!











He's the goalie. He is awesome at being the goalie!










We watched.












He froze :P














The team did great!! :)

Not Leukemia... What?!?!

I got a call from the Bountiful Instacare today, the same one that I took Ashton to on Thursday. I guess they sent his blood to another lab for further analysis. It came back with a platelet count of only 35... no I'm not really sure what that means in the whole scheme of things, but they said that is LOW and BAD and DANGEROUS. They said I was to take him immediately to the ER at Primary Children's... GREAT. So I called my mom and she met me at the daycare. We road up to the hospital together and checked in. The doctor said she wanted to run a whole bunch of tests and just rule things out. Okay...sure... whatever you want. So they poked Ashton (again) and extracted 3 things of blood to test and then they hooked him up with an IV. They came to the conclusion that the rash he's got is really patiki eye. I guess that is when the blood vessels are breaking underneath the skin. After about 3 hours of waiting for all of the tests to come back the doctor finally came in with the news. She said that his platelets are still low, not as low, but low. And his white count is low. The good news is that he doesn't have Leukemia. (At this point I nearly fell over... LEUKEMIA??? Are you SERIOUS???). We have to go back to the hospital in a week to re-check his blood and make sure that with the virus going away that his blood levels come back up. So cross your fingers. We're feeling really blessed right now that it turned out as well as it did. Now if we could just get him healthy, that would be much better!!

Sick... again...

I believe I've posted about Bilateral Otitis before... well, it's back and this time it's brought it's friend Infected Throat. Aren't we lucky?? (Can you hear the sarcasm oozing from my tone???)

I got a call at work on Monday from Ashton's day care: "Hi, Marianne. Well, 1st of all, Ashton has a really high fever and 2nd Ashton has a really bad rash. You need to come get him." Sure enough, when I got there he was burning up and did indeed have a rash. **The rash I wasn't so worried about since Ashton's allergic to milk and may or may not have had a taste of ice cream the day prior (shhhh....).** But the fever really had me worried. When Ashton got sick with the metapheumovirus last month, it all started with a high fever. So I took him home and gave him Tylenol and he seemed to be fine... hmmm, maybe he's teething?? I'm not so sure. So Tuesday I brought him to work with me and my mom (LOVE HER!!) came and picked him up for the day. She said he got another fever and gave him some Motrin. By the time I got there after work he was burning up again so I took him to the local instacare. His fever was at 104. YIKES!! Then they hooked him up to the machine that checks his oxygen and blood pressure. His oxygen kept going from 88-95 (which is OK, not great...). I started to freak. Seriously?!?! We were just in the hospital. I don't want to go back!! So then they check his lungs, they sounded good. I started to feel a little bit relieved. They then check his ears, "Oh boy" the doctor says, "This one is pretty badly infected, let's check the other one. Oh man, this one is really bad too." Then the doctor wants to check his throat. "Oh wow little man, look at all that puss growing on your tonsils, no wonder you're not a happy guy." Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself... 2 ear infections?? Again?? This has to be like 10th infections he's had this winter! The doctor says he's concerned about the height of Ashton's fever and wants to do some blood tests. He says he'll send the nurses in. After being held down by myself and another nurse and a 3rd nurse trying to find a vein for about 20 minutes (and poking him all over the place) they finally get what they need. Ashton is now drenched in sweat from trying to escape the needles. A few minutes later the doctor comes back and says that the blood test came back fine (phew!!) but he'll need to be on antibiotics for 10 days to treat his ears and throat. I can deal with that. Much better than going back to the hospital!

Later that night I called my dad (Doctor Dad, MD) and relayed our nights events. He said he's talk to a specialist at the hospital today about Ashton's condition and hopefully they can figure something out... tubes perhaps? I don't know. But something needs to happen. His poor little ears can't take any more of this infection business.

Spring Break and Easter Weekend

Well, Spring break didn't quite turn out like I had planned... a few months ago we thought we'd take a vacation since Justin had a week off of school. You know, something short and sweet and AWESOME like Disneyland!! But then Ashton got sick and spent our "vacation" in the hospital... so we made due with what time we had. I am lucky enough to work with a guy who's wife works at Park City Mountain Resort... his family doesn't ski (CRAZY I KNOW), so she gets all of these free passes just for working there and gives me several each year. So we got to go skiing for free on Friday and Saturday. That resort is my favorite by far. It is HUGE and super nice, but the best part is the Baja Cantina. This is the most AWESOME Mexican restaurant (aside from El Torito... which we don't have here in Utah... sad (**SIGH**)). It is so much fun to be able to ski and then go to a nice sit down restaurant, then go back and ski some more. We also got to ski with my little brother Sam. Sam is an AMAZING skier. He is sponsored and wins all types of awards for the tricks and jumps he can do on his skis. It was really just awe inspiring. It was really exciting for Justin to be able to see his uncle doing what he does best and I'm sure he had so much pride seeing people stop to watch Sam and go "ooohhh ahhhh wowwww"..

Justin and I woke up early on Easter morning to make eggs and pancakes. I did the pancakes and he did the eggs. He was so excited to help. After church we stayed up at my moms and had dinner with my family and grandparents and my aunt Barb and her kids. Justin and Ashton had their egg hunt. Justin was almost beating the door down as soon as he saw all of the candy outside. Ashton was so cute!! As soon as he saw Justin picking up all of the candy he got right into it and started throwing candy in his own bag.

So all in all it was an awesome weekend, not Disneyland... but sometimes family time is even better :)