Our Family at the Temple

Alden chose to go to the Bountiful Temple in preparation to serve his mission.  It was an amazing experience.  All of our family was able to be there.  It was a fabulous night.

Derek, Alden, Theresa, Shane, Britney, and Chantel = An Eternal Family

Garrett, Kason, Alden, Cody

Alden had several of his friends go with him.  What a great bunch of good looking young men.

My Projects

I can finally reveal the projects that we have been working on for Christmas.  I wanted to make a quilt for each of my children.  It is a fun quilt made of jeans.  I want them to take it with them in their cars.  They can use it for picnics, soccer games, or anything fun.

Thanks to everyone that helped me with this especially my sister Tammy!

Christmas 2010

Here is our Christmas card.

Another Christmas Tradition

We will do almost anything for a chance to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.  Last Year I drove around Salt Lake City in a snow storm looking for a parking spot.  We saw Natalie Cole with the Choir, Orchestra and Dancers.

This year we waited for two hours in the rain for a chance to get a seat in the conference center.  It paid off!  At 9:25 they allowed us in to see David Archeletta with the Choir and Orchestra.  It was beautiful!  It was well worth the effort.

Besides you can't beat the great company of my friend Sandy,  she is the best!

Great Sister Visit and a Baker Christmas

My sister, Tammy, came from Wyoming for some doctor's appointments.  She arrived Tuesday night just in time to miss the big snow storm that hit Wyoming.  She brought her daughter Courtney with her.

It was a fantastic visit.  She went to her appointments in Salt Lake and I went to physical therapy.  Her appointments were successful.  Her thyroid appointment showed everything is normal.  She had an appointment at St Marks with a Neurologist.  She has a herniated disk  She will have surgery on Monday to correct that. 

Thursday we spent the day finishing some of my projects and shopping.  I taught Courtney how to make English Toffee.  It was a fun day!  That evening "the kids" had a game night.  Drew (Courtney's husband) Courtney, Derek, Jessica, Alden and Cody played several games.  It was fun to watch them all interact together.

Shane was in charge of a Stake Blood Drive on Thursday.  He convinced or bribed Alden and his friend to give blood.  It was their first time.  Cody has good veins and was done in about 10 minutes.  Poor Alden has my type of veins.  After finally finding a vein, his blood just dripped.  They did all they could to make it flow faster but he was not going to do it.  It took him and hour.  I am not sure he will ever try it again.

Friday, Tammy, Drew and Courtney left for a wedding, luncheon and then went home to Wyoming.

The boys and I got ready to go to our family party at Grandma Bakers.  
It is one of our family traditions to visit Grandma Baker and celebrate Christmas.  Our entire family was there minus Luke who needed to work in southern Utah.  We opened gifts, ate wonderful food, played fun games and watched BYU win their bowl game.  We had a great time and here are pictures to prove it.

How Much More?

Can this body handle more?  Port A Cath Replacement

Shane and I made our way to the U of U Hospital.  I am going to have my port a cath replaced.   We arrived  at 11 am, we waited 20 minutes to get checked in.  We waited 45 minutes to be taken back to a room.  We waited two hours to be taken to surgery. 
When I met the doctor he asked why I wanted to replace my port.  I explained I needed something that worked. (see last weeks difficult day post)  He agreed to do it, he would put it on the same side but put the catheter into a different vein.

I met the anesthesiologist.  He was a fun guy,  he numbed my arm up really well to get the IV started, I didn't feel a thing until he started the fluids and it stung pretty bad. He slowed the drip and it felt better. I asked him if he was going to put me to sleep and he said "do you want to sleep?"  Without hesitation I said YES!

I didn't sleep, I relaxed and heard everything that went on.  They covered my face, probably so that it stayed clean and I would not try to see what they were doing.  Several times they ask me how I was doing.  I was awake!  I didn't feel anything until they started stitching me up.  I finally said, "I can feel that."  They quickly gave me a more local block. The surgery was fast I think less than 30 minutes.  They took me to a holding area and took an X ray to make sure the placement was good.  Shane met me there and then we went to a recovery room.
I asked them to leave the IV in so that I could go back to radiology a have the CT scan done.  They discharged me, I got dressed and they took me by wheelchair to radiology.  They were able to do the scans and inject the dye.  I am so glad to be finished with that.

Thankfully I do not need to go to Salt Lake for doctors until after the new year.
My body is telling me that it is not happy with all I have done to it.  My neck is stiff and swollen where they have accessed the vein.  The port site is tender.  My right arm is not happy.   I am going to give myself a break and not go to physical therapy tomorrow.  Happy resting and relaxing! 

A Fun Packed Saturday

I got an email from my friend Gwen a few days ago inviting me to brunch at Taggarts and a surprise for Saturday morning.  I quickly jump on the opportunity to spend some time with her and the surprise made me very curious!  Later I realize that I had a Saturday afternoon engagement with Britney and her husband's family (all the girls) to the Nutcracker.  I hadn't overbooked, just tightly booked!

Saturday morning Derek took me to Morgan, I met Gwen at her house and we drove to a home in Morgan where we met Gwen's mother.  The man, Larry, that owns this home, decorates the inside with hundreds of nativities and theme Christmas trees.  Larry's mother passed away several years ago from cancer, he takes a donation for viewing his home and gives the collection to cancer research. 

His home and decorations are incredible.  I was amazed by the hundreds of different nativities that were displayed,  large and small, some hung on the wall. others were puzzles that fit together. 
The kitchen was decorated with Coke memorabilia and Santa.  There were as many as 30 trees decorated in different themes, all flat ornaments, Rudolf, chickens and dogs, to name a few. 
Larry owns the "Chicken Inn"  a nice restaurant in Morgan.  One of the bedrooms was decorated with chickens.  There was even a nativity with chicken angels, and a baby chick coming out of it's shell. 
The bathroom was even decorated,  Frosty the snowman was in the bathtub with snowball to keep him from melting.  This was an experience to remember, my mind is still trying to wrap around the incredible work that has gone into all of these decorations.  Oh I wish I had taken more pictures so I could remember a few more details

Gwen and I had a bowl of chicken and artichoke heart soup with yummy roll while sitting by the fireplace at Taggerts.  I have not eaten at Taggarts before,  it was a marvelous meal.

Gwen drove me back to Ogden to meet Britney. 

We picked up Geni, my sister in law and we headed to the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake.  

It is a Nattress tradition that all the girls see the Nutcracker at Christmas time.  They are so loving and generous to invite me. 

 I am stunned each year by the beautiful scenery.  I am more astounded by the dancing.  I remember taking a ballet class in college.  They make it look so easy. 

We finished off the day with dinner overlooking the lights on temple square. This has been a lovely afternoon and evening.  Thanks you Nattress family!