37 going on 77.

I've officially reached the hard part of pregnancy. When people talk about pregnancy and the difficulties associated with it I can always name, hands down, the most challenging part for myself, just trying to breathe.

It happens early on in my pregnancy, which has something to do with capillaries, and blood flow, and hormones. Then I get somewhat of a respite for a couple of months and then it's back with full force. I get so claustrophobic I feel like tearing off all my clothes. Maybe I shouldn't mention this but I've only worn a bra twice in the last couple of weeks. It's way too constricting.

Very hard for me to believe that only a month and a half ago I was wandering about Newport without gasping for air. In the last six weeks I haven't been able to go for a walk at all and I think being so sedintary amplifies the pregnancy related discomforts considerably. All I know is that after I have made a round in the grocery store I actually feel like I'm going to throw up if I don't sit down. I can barely stand long enough to do the dishes. What the heck?

Carting groceries from the car into the house? Hefting laundry baskets up and down stairs? Forget it. I have a hard enough time just moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer. I see people in their eighties that move better than I do.

I can't weed, clean John's room, vacuum the stairs, put new sheets on the bed, or fetch things from the basement. The list goes on and on. I panic when I get left alone with John and his friends because I don't feel like I can adequately supervise them. I write lists for the kids and listen to them gripe. Not that any other moms would know about this but by the time I explain what I want them to do they've forgotten what it was I wanted.
It is exhausting and makes me want to cry.

I guess it's good practice for when the baby comes because I don't know if it will get much better. My doctor says I'm going to need to get in the pool as soon as I get this boot off (which is in a week!) or my recovery after baby is going to be a lot harder. I'm very much hoping that helps.

And all you friendly folks that keep asking me if we are planning on having another baby so little Will won't be lonely? Now really isn't the time to ask.

John and I take a break

Everywhere John and I go people ask us if we were in a car accident.
(Sure glad we weren't!)

This is my attempt at getting a picture of us together this morning.
Note Sarah's in the reflection on the storm door in every shot.

Driving is going surprisingly well. I shove my right foot under the console and have to practically move the seat all the way up to get good access to the pedals, which I don't love, but it works out ok. The best is when I'm doing that and a good Braxton Hicks comes along and I feel like I'm in a vise. Or when the kleenex box is just barely out of reach.

Mother's Day blessings

 Made by Rebecca

 Miniature yellow roses from Peter

 Orange Pansies from Sacrament Meeting

 Tulips from Peter

Looking back on our eventful month it would be totally ungrateful of me if I didn't mention all the blessings we have had from the people around us. Ward members have offered to clean house, do laundry, give rides, go shopping and brought in meals until I told them to stop. They've truly been willing to do whatever I needed, and even if I didn't have them doing all those things it felt good to know I could call on them if I needed to.

I've been so fixated on the fact that in addition to my $5000 deductible which we anticipated meeting this year, we now have an entirely separate $5000 deductible for the rest of the family-- i.e. John's surgery--that I didn't wasn't even thinking about the great health care we have access to in this area. Peter reminded me of what it would have been like had we still been in Tehachapi. We'd have had to go to Bakersfield for the x-ray with a pediatrician, then waited days for an opening with an orthopedic doctor-- in Bakersfield, then probably had to go back to Bakersfield or even LA for the surgery.
Much, much more tramatic.
The care we got here was great, and all no more than 20 minutes from my house.

I'm SO grateful!

John is doing fine. He experienced virtually no pain from the surgery. He's just bored with one arm activities and has therefore amped up his usual bad habits. Yesterday was a very bad day for John-- and so for me too. He spent the first three or four hours after church harassing me for a Mother's Day cookie Nathaniel gave me. That was only the beginning of many things to come. By the end of the day I was in full resent mode and told him I didn't even feel like looking at him right now. One of John's big problems is that he never seems to sense when he has pushed a person too far.

I did think he was adorable in church in the Mother's Day program. When I saw him at home waving around six dollars I was perplexed. "Where did he get that? I thought he only had one dollar."
Peter confessed that he had paid him five bucks to get up and sing in Sacrament Meeting.
I didn't even know what to say to that.

Art City Elementary presents 101 Dalmations

Rebecca won the part of "Pepper" the Dalmatian. 

 I hand sewed every one of those spots on. Rebecca came home from her first dress rehearsal and said,
"Don't worry mom, there was lots of other kids that looked like cows too."

 Rebecca and Brooke, who played a Scottie Dog.

 Another play down! Whew!

My little journalist

Sarah didn't know until she took this class that her mother majored in Journalism. This is one of her articles she has written for the newspaper. She looks so cute in the picture!

The journalism class had the opportunity to interview Dr. Rhodes, the accreditation review team chair, during the accreditation visit.

Attributions: 

Sarah Mitchell, SJHS Staff Writer

Front, left to right: Rachel Dockstader, Cassidy Bowers, Sarah Mitchell, and Betsy Vega.  Back, left to right: Camryn Rouse, Bianca Trujillo, Lexie Pendley, Becca Dickinson, Dr. Rhodes, Luanei Mulipola, and Katie Johnson.

*****************************************

On April 23rd and 24th, an accreditation review team came to Springville Junior High School. They gave SJHS a very good report! According to Mr. Ken Van Ausdal, SJHS principal, they told SJHS that they were impressed with the wide variety of stakeholders involved in the process, the school leadership, and that the report from SJHS to the review team was professional.

Many people don’t even know what accreditation is. Dr. Mary Rhodes, a co-chair on the accreditation team, said, “The accreditation process is when the Utah State Office Education reviews a school, and they decide whether you can earn credits toward high school. The community also looks at the process.” The school itself also has to do things before the accreditation team comes. Ms. Tiffanie Miley, journalism Teacher at SJHS, said, “One of the things we do to prepare for accreditation is to analyze our school to see how we’re doing in a variety of areas.”

When the accreditation team came they looked for a lot of different things. According to Dr. Rhodes they look for curriculum, instruction, assessment, the school’s action plans, and Desired Results for Student Learning (DRSL’S). 

In order to prepare for accreditation, the SJHS staff got together and made action plans. According to Ms. Miley, an action plan is a plan for improving our school. Our school has four action plans. Our action plans include a common core implementation and school-wide writing program, a professional learning communities and teaching kids to have higher thinking skills, school culture ownership and community, and meeting student needs by providing mentors.

According to Mr. Van Ausdal, there are many things that our school has to do to prepare for an accreditation visit. Our school had to rewrite our school profile, get together a group to compare school practices, analyze what is going on with the school, and set action plans and goals.

SJHS got the highest score possible from the accreditation team. Dr. Rhodes said, “I like the chance to visit and see other schools. I like talking to the teachers and being able to take ideas from other peoples schools and apply them to our school.” Mr. Van Ausdal was also very impressed with the way our school did.

Dang it. Again.

On Monday I started driving with my left foot. After the kids were home from school I wanted to go to the quilt shop with Sarah and look at some fabric for the baby. It was to be my first trip away from home on my own to do something enjoyable since spring break.

Sarah and I are happily looking at the fabric when her phone rings. It is Peter and he wants to know why I don't have my cell phone on me. I realize I must have left it on the console in the van. Apparently our neighbor is at our house with John, who has fallen in our living room and is crying about his arm. Nathaniel, who is supposed to be in charge, is no where to be found.

We leave the quilt store and come home. I am certain John is being dramatic. After all, he's been wrapping things around his foot since I broke my ankle. Peter agrees. There is no visible swelling or bruising and the arm doesn't look misshapen in any way.

Fast forward to Tuesday. John is still babying the arm. We have mixed feelings. This is just so John. Sometime in the afternoon I come to the conclusion that we may not have a choice, we'll just never know for sure until we get it x-rayed. Besides, since the bee sting I've been meaning to talk with a doctor about an Epipen.

With rolling eyes Peter and I talk to the doctor. He gives us an Epipen prescription and examines the arm while we wait for the x-rays. When he comes back in from looking at the x-rays he looks at me and says, "It's not good news."

See that bone there on top of the two straight long bones that is pushed over to the left? 

It's not supposed to look like that.

Here's the truth. Peter and I have always been somewhat judgmental of these families that are repeatedly dealing with accident-induced aliments. What is wrong with people, we thought? What are they doing? Our kids have never broken a bone or gotten a stitch. I certainly know that freak things happen, and I feel bad for people when they do. I guess I just thought they didn't happen to us. Until I broke my ankle. And just over three weeks later? I have a doctor telling me John has broken his bone into the growth plate and they are setting us up with the orthopedic surgeon.   
John is over the moon with pride.

Here is John yesterday with us getting lunch. We had just been to the orthopedic doctor where we were told he wanted to put in pins first thing in the morning.

And here is John early this morning all ready for surgery. 

This is the emotional moment where they take him away and steer us into the waiting room.

Lots of anxious minutes later here I am with John as he works on waking up in the recovery room.

Wa-la! All better.

Here is one of the photos the doctor brought out to us of the pins and the bone back in place.

He tells us they will pull them out with pliers at an office visit in six weeks. 

Says they "slide right out."Looking forward to that one.

John gets baptized

 John's Baptism Day

May 5th 2012

John's big day went on without a hitch. We were worried about how he was going to do because Thursday night he was stung by a bee on his ear and that whole right side of his face was swollen up all the way down his neck. You can still see it some in these pictures but by this time it was lots better.

Nathaniel bowed out of baptizing him. He said he didn't want to be responsible for John's eternal salvation but we know the whole idea ended up making him nervous. He was baptized with his friend Steven Merrell, who had about 35 family members there! We had three. My Grandpa Johnson, my Aunt Sally, and cousin Allison. It was very nice of them to come and we appreciated it!

They set us up in the chapel, which I didn't expect at all. I think it threw us all off some as it felt much more formal when we were all expecting to be in the Relief Society room or something. I wasn't able to get a picture of Peter and John in their white jumpsuits, which was disappointing, but apparently the stake took one so we'll get a copy of that.

I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and Sarah and I did a piano/flute duet of "Baptism" in the primary book. That was my debut flute playing in this ward. The baptism itself went just fine and John got to be wrapped in a white towel embroidered with his name and baptism date by his primary teacher Sis. Averett. I thought that was very nice and now he has that keepsake.

We went home to dine on taco salad and the kids immediately spotted something different in the yard. A ceramic bust had suddenly appeared in the back garden and my first thought was, oh no, John has swiped something else from the neighbors. But it turned out to be a little joke of my cousin Allison, who is about to graduate with her degree in Art from BYU. It's a sculpture of herself with the countries she has visited on the back of the head. I think it is very well done and love the colors.

 Goes perfectly with my kitchen backsplash doesn't it?

We planted it back in the backyard and I love it:)

Friday I gave up the crutches & scooter. I have a callus on my knee thanks to this thing and I was absolutely just done with the whole thing. I wanted to clean my house and get ready for John's big day so I started walking on it about 3 days earlier than doctor's orders. The whole thing was just getting depressing! Ahhh, freedom.

Happy Birthday Peter!

 Love the expressions!

 Peter and John have been playing with their little remote control helicopters quite a lot and I thought it might be a good idea for Peter to have a bigger one . . .

All the way from Beijing! Now we just have to wait for adapter to our American plug.