Cotton, The Fertility Dog

We had been threatening it for months.  Cotton had become a grumpy, incontinent old man who wore diapers and nipped at little kids.  We had gone to the vet to see what could be done and they couldn't find anything really wrong with him.  He still loved walks, treats, snuggling and barking at anything that moved in front of our house.  But last Thursday he hurt something (we still don't know what) while the boys walked him and it just got worse as the day went on. By that evening, he couldn't hardly move and yelped when we tried to move him.  It was so hard to see him in so much pain.  Aaron and I looked at each other and knew it was time.  We talked to Lucas and JB, prayed as a family and made a vet appointment for the next morning.  Again, we'd talked about it, joked about it, threatened it for months, but when it came right down to it, losing Cotton was absolutely heartbreaking. 

I felt like this was a "daddy job" and Aaron thought this was a "mommy job" and neither of us wanted the job, so we went together.  And it was heartbreaking.  Neither of us had ever done anything like that before and it was awful but peaceful.

My sister and her family adopted Cotton as a puppy for their 5 year old since they hadn't been able to have more kids.   Right after they got him, she got pregnant with their 2nd son.  When they had their 3rd, she was ready for a break and I wanted a dog for Lucas.  3 months after we got Cotton, I got pregnant with Jonah after 8 years of trying.  Thus the name, Cotton The Fertility Dog, stuck and he's been part of the family for almost 12 years.  

We'll take his ashes to be buried at his most favorite place on the earth, the Gunson (Mark's family) property up at Camp Sherman near Sisters, where he has gone camping for Mark's family reunion every year.  And we'll have a sweet, little memorial for our sweet little puppy.  May he rest in peace.

Family Update May 2015

This last month has been busy and wonderful.  Lots of endings but great beginnings.

Jonah is officially a first grader and was truly sad kindergarten was ending.  He had a great year, a great teacher and especially a great teacher's assistant!  He finished his first year in a dual language program and it has been the perfect fit for him.  He has an ear for languages just like his dad and got the highest score in his class on his verbal assessment.  It's fun to see him succeed and love to hear him speak Spanish.  His math and reading have taken off as well.  Aaron teases him that he is NOT allowed to read because he is NOT old enough.  So every time Jonah reads a street sign, book, some word somewhere Aaron gives him a hard time, spurning Jonah on to read more and more.  It's been a fun game for him.  He loves to prove us wrong.  He has a summer filled with sport camps, learning to ride his two wheeler, lots of cousins and swimming at the pool.  Should be fabulous!

Here's little of the kid's groove during his Kindergarten Olympics.

Lucas finished his freshman year in high school, folks.  Yep, he is old. His last few weeks were filled with finals, presentations, band concerts and playing in a parade.  (Thank you Mark for sleeping on the parade route so we would have such perfect seats!  You get MVP of the whole parade.  I know it meant a lot to Lucas that you guys were there!) It's so fun to see him love something and be a part of such a great activity.  He'll be playing to two bands next year, plus pep band and marching band. He's so excited!  He'll be getting his drivers permit (hopefully) this week, so traffic beware.  He has a long way to go before I'll let him on busier roads than our neighborhood, but he'll be a good driver in the end. He is cautious and smart.  He has a packed summer filled with EFY in Tacoma with his cousin and best friend, Trek, 50 miler for scouts, plus hopefully working on his eagle project.  Add family visits, a trip to the coast, a week in Arizona and a road trip to the Redwoods, and summer will fly by for him!

Uncle Mark holding JB up to see Lucas' band coming.  I only have videos after that and the blog isn't letting me upload them

Our sign for Lucas on the parade route that there was no way he could see because he was marching in the middle of the band.  But here's proof!

I turned 40 this last month and it's been fabulous!  For whatever reason, 35 was harder for me.  Like I was a true adult by 35 and I didn't feel ready?  I don't know.  Anyway, Aaron planned a wonderful day.  My parents came into town to help celebrate so the girls went and got their nails done then out to lunch. That night Aaron threw a perfect party.  It was catered by our favorite Indian restaurant and my cousins, my aunt and uncle and friends plus of course my parents plus Genet and Mark and family came to celebrate with pakoras and chicken mahkani.  We ended the night with chocolate cake and a slide show my sister put together.  I couldn't have asked for a better night!  Thank you everyone!

My job in Jonah's class is officially over and that makes me sad.  It's been a true blessing in my life and something I didn't even know I needed.  I decided I really need to up my Spanish game so I'm setting a goal to study this summer.  Not sure what that's going to look like yet, but it's in the works.   I'm going to reapply for something in the fall, as a teacher's assistant again or maybe as a Title 1 teacher.  I want to keep it part time so we'll see if I can find a good fit.  There's a lot I can do at the school as I figure out if I want to go back to school to get a masters.  I'm still not sure.  It feels so daunting to me!

Aaron is awesome as always.  He's been traveling a bit to New York City, San Francisco and of course Seattle but work is going well.  Aaron landed the company a few projects with Facebook and their company is growing every month.  He's going the first part of the High adventure 50 miler and he's more than ready.  He runs regularly and is in good shape (though he doesn't think so).  He's been gathering emergency preparedness supplies these few months and I'm sure we're ready for the zombie apocalypse. He enjoys reading, by himself and to the boys, and loved having a few minutes to nap and read out at the property this weekend.

Summer activities are well underway.  We just got back from camping at my brother-in-law's family property near Sisters. We celebrated Aaron's birthday and enjoyed a few gorgeous days. (Thank you Friesses!  We sure love you guys!)  We have a Williams family reunion tentatively planned in July and then I'm taking the boys to AZ in August to help out and see our newest niece who is making an appearance in a few weeks.   I told them they gotta stop having their babies in July!  And they agreed.  4 girls is enough. :)  We're also taking the boys to see the Redwoods in northern California to be able to check that off my bucket list.

We sure love our family and appreciate the sharing of "facts" no matter how difficult.  We can only then know how to help and pray for each other.  And we do sure pray!  There is power in faithful prayer, letting the Lord know the desires of our hearts.  And may you each feel His love and strength as you go through these trials of mortality. 

Freaking out a bit.

I always said when Jonah wanted to cut his hair short I'd let him.  

Well, he asked tonight.  

He really wanted to it.  

And I was in a mood and actually agreed.  

I now have very mixed feelings and there's not a thing I can do about it.

  

His cheeks grew 3 sizes!

 

He LOVES it and that's all that really matters.

In retrospect, I really should have gone to a professional for this monumental hair cut and maybe I'd like it better. Or maybe it would throw me either way.  

His signature shaggy hair is gone and it most likely never be the same again.  Sigh.

I'm not sure if I like this growing up stuff.

Bound for Berthoud

Between family reunions and EFY down in Utah, we decided to take a little jaunt east-erly.

(A friend suggested posting a few pictures so anyone who wanted to can see the pictures of the Adams new stomping ground! I know they have lots of Portland friends.)

Jody and I met when we were called to work in Cub Scouts together 3 years ago. 

Aah, the sweet memories.

 We became fast friends, both being new to the area, and our friendship was sealed when we found our HUSBANDS finishing each others sentences.  Eerie, really.

They sadly moved away this spring to new job, new schools, new house and new life.  :(

We decided since we were "so close" in Utah we might as well take a few days to go for a visit.

We had a very troubled start with our car's air conditioning conking out a few days earlier.  With no one being able to fix it in time, we decided to rent a car, making the space a little cramped for Lucas, Jonah and our nephew Jackson.

Also, Jonah tends to get a little car sick any time we travel over two hours. Have I mentioned that?  Or if we are driving Provo Canyon with all the twists and curves. (One early morning driving from Heber to Provo to see the hot balloon take offs, Jonah leaned over and puked all over his cousin Bennett.  Missed himself entirely but dunked his oh-so-patient cousin.)

So this morning we were trying to get Jonah to take his Dramamine as we drove out of town.  Didn't go so well.  He gagged on the medicine and threw up.  That just seemed to prime the pump. By the time we made it to Heber (normally 20 minutes through the canyon), it had taken us an hour and the poor kid had thrown up 4 times.  We almost gave up and just went back home.

But a stroll around Walmart and a dose of Dramamine later, he was good to go.

The lovely images of side-of-the-road upchucking.

So, a few hours behind schedule and one speeding ticket later (not mine :), we finally pulled into Berthoud, Colorado and the corn fields where our friends had moved.  It lays north of Denver, south of Loveland.

Below is a picture of the road toward their neighborhood.  You can see a small collection of houses wa-ay off in the distance, directly in the center of the picture.  That is the Adam's new subdivision!

 I didn't get any pictures of their home, but it is a beautiful brand new place that fits their family comfortably. 

But I did get the view from their back deck.

I couldn't get over how peaceful it felt and how beautiful it was.  This is definitely big sky country!

Did I mention they get around 300 days of sun each year??   (I just don't know if I'll ever become a real Northwest girl and love our 300 days of grey rain.)

They go out the back, hunting gophers and snakes with their air rifle enjoying the space and room to roam. Jody said the only drawback is that they are 10 minutes from anything: church, stores, schools, anything.  But I thought it would be well worth the drive to enjoy that view.

Our first day we took all the kids to the lake.  It was perfect weather and the kids had a blast.

The kids took turns burying each other.

Jonah thought it was the best thing ever!

Racing out to the buoys.

Saturday we went downtown to the Denver Aquarium where the sharks and mermaids were plentiful. Plus one random tiger.

We miss these cute girls!  They showed me their box of sticker earrings and we wore our "Girl Club" earrings all weekend, we read books and they showed me where they put everything in their new room.

 

Here's my one picture of the boys, and not even all the boys!  I did a very poor job documenting our trip.  I know Jody took more pictures but I didn't get very many.

We got to go to their new ward and everyone was so friendly.  It's small and I'm sure appreciate such a large, wonderful family!

We left in time to get Lucas and his cousin Jack to EFY in Provo. 

Driving north out of town.

Good friends and a great visit.  They are missed!  But I guess it's nice to know they love their new stomping grounds. I guess.

We got Dramamine into JB before the drive this time and it kicked it pretty fast.

Luckily not one upchuck all the back to Utah.

Life & Times #8

We just got back from a month long visit to Utah.  I'll post about family reunions, EFY, and a quick jaunt down to Colorado later.  But we had a few car sickness adventures that reminded me one particular incident I will never forget...

Almost every summer growing up we would drive from Chicago to Utah to visit my grandparents.  I have the best memories of picking raspberries in their backyard for morning cereal, Grandpa J making fresh squeezed orange juice, walking around BYU campus, Grandma Jackson reading us "Keeko," the matching animal towels and wash cloths, dancing to the Peter Pan and Bambi soundtrack on their record player.  I could go on and on.  They were wonderful trips!

We drove these trips.  All 24 hours of it.  And my mom was the master car trip planner.  She always had fun snacks we didn't have at other times, small surprises like Mad Libs or Pez when we hit the half way mark and her famous Herman the Worm stories.   This worm always tagged along on our summer trips and had adventure after adventure with the Jackson clan.  Ask her next time you see her to do her Herman voice.  You'll love it!!

We had a station wagon for the first years and my mom made foam pads so one adult could fully lay out and sleep while the other drove until they switched. They liked to drive all night but I got car sick every single year when I woke up in the morning. The worst.


This trip I was 15 or 16 and we had moved on to a mini van.  We were in the middle of Nowhere, USA.  Plains of Nebraska or corn fields of Iowa.  Can't remember.

We had gotten back in the car after lunch with my sister Genet and I in the back seat of the mini van.  We had gone maybe 20 minutes and we got to laughing about something.  I have no idea what it was about but we got the giggles and couldn't stop.  One of those times that just got funnier the more you laughed.

In the midst of laughing I slipped forward on the car seat and fell down in the small space between the back of the front bench and seat of the back bench. But my knees got pushed up to my chest, so I got stuck folded in half between the two seats with mt knees at my chin..  Really stuck. And we just laughed harder and harder because I couldn't get out.   We thought it was hilarious and couldn't stop laughing.

Well, remember we had just stopped for lunch about 20 minutes earlier.   I had a full stomach. And apparently laughing so hard you could pee your pants and getting stuck in such a squished position does not lend itself well to holding down said lunch.  And so amid the laughter I started to throw up.  All. over. myself.  And yet still I could not stop laughing.  Genet was laughing so hard she could hardly get the words out, "She's throwing up!  She's throwing up!"

My dad pulled to the side of the highway and Genet had to grab some part of me not covered in vomit so she could pull help un-stick me.  It was beyond disgusting yet we still couldn't stop laughing.  I finally made it out of the van and on to the side of the highway, covered in my lunch.

Now these were the olden days where we kept all our luggage in a hard plastic car top that wasn't too easy to get in an out of.  There were locks and matching up slots and steel poles. Not an easy feat on a normal day let alone on the side of the highway.  Plus we were in the middle of nowhere and having just stopped for lunch no one wanted to stop again. So that meant I had no clean clothes to put on.

On the side of the highway,Genet held up a blanket while my sweet mother helped me removed the awful clothes and I got to travel the rest of the afternoon wrapped in a blanket. Not my proudest moment.  But now I got a pretty great laugh from my boys as I told of the time I puked all over myself. And in the long run, that's what really matters.  Others getting a kick out of your humiliation.  :)

Speaking of humiliation, I'll leave you with just one of the pictures we have of Jonah ready to lose his own lunch on the side of the highway.  Poor kid.

Chip off the ol' Block

Jonah had a GREAT time at the Emergency Fair last night.

Yep.  He full-on lays one on her at the end. :)

Life & Times #7

Summers between semesters of college, my sisters and I would come home from BYU to work.  We were blessed with a dad who worked at Motorola and who could help us get jobs with the summer intern program.  I got to work as an admin in International Human Resources for three summers.  It was a small group of 4 women and then me doing whatever copying, filing, typing proposals, etc they needed. It was actually interesting to see how the company planned and compensated those employees they sent to work out of the country or who they invited to come to the States.   I couldn't have asked for a better summer job.

(Sitting here typing, I remember when my sister and I went to get our mandatory drug testing before that first summer.  Easy, right?  Just pee in a cup.  Well, I get pee-fright (it's real thing) and could not for the life of me produce anything.  The lady was NOT patient with me and just said to keep drinking water and to try again.   After an hour or so, the nice lady knew I was hiding something but said I would just have to come in a different time.  Resigned to having to go through this stupid ordeal again, we left.  Only we got about 5 minutes from the building before I had to relieve myself of the gallon of water I had just drunk.  I was in so much pain, we had to stop at a gas station during the 10 minute drive home.)

Anyway, one summer day I decided to run home for lunch and grab something to eat.  Our house was only 10 minutes away but this time I was running a little late, so I ran inside, ate something quickly with my mom and ran out to get back.

Only...my car wasn't in the driveway where I left it.  What??  I was sure I had parked right next to the walkway but there was now NO CAR.  I checked the garage just in case I had somehow parked there without remembering it?  No luck.  It hit me, "Someone stole my car!"

I began to walk around in a daze wondering who in the world would steal my car when I noticed two tire tracks at the end of the driveway.  Two tire tracks that led into the grass and down the lawn.  Two tire tracks that led through the backyard and right out into the pond that lay 50 yards beyond!

Apparently in my haste, I had forgotten to pull the emergency brake and apparently there was JUST BARELY enough of an incline to the driveway that the car rolled by itself to edge of the grass where it picked up momentum and launched itself down the hill and into, yep, the pond.

This is where I found it.

My mom and I called my dad who came home from work and called a tow truck.  My parents handled it all very calmly and didn't make me feel too stupid. :)

I had to get back to work so I didn't see the rescue but my parents told me when the tow truck driver pulled up, he said this wasn't the first time he pulled a car out of this pond!  We found out later that earlier that year he had towed out our stake president's car!  His family lived down the road from us and kept a canoe under our deck to use on the water. We were out of town but he had come over to check on the canoe and parked right at the top of our driveway, and before he knew what was happening, his car was coasting down toward the water. Our neighbor saw it happening and called out to his wife, but she didn't believe him because he was hung over from the night before. :)

Anyway when it was all said and done, I was beyond lucky!  The damage could have been much worse.  When the car rolled it actually swerved to miss the gazebo and swerved AGAIN to miss the dock at the edge of the pond!  Plus it hadn't rained in a few weeks so the water was super low.  The car ran into 10 inches of mud instead of the 3-4 feet of water that is usually there.  Our stake president had major water damage and a foot of water/mud to clean out of the inside.  This time the tow truck pulled it out of the pond, hosed it off and drove it back up to the driveway.  There was no damage at all!  Like I said, I was beyond lucky!

My not-to-scale, very rudimentary, very awful depiction of the events.

My dad had sent the Pond Picture to me last year saying it was one of his favorite stories.   I'm so glad.  It could have been a very expensive event for me!  Luckily, luck was on my side.

My sweetie turned 40!

1. He's the perfect guy to have at parties.
2. He is super frugal when it comes to himself.
3. But also is the most generous person I know when it comes to other people.
4. His crazy perfectly compliments my crazy so he knows how to support and encourage me.
5. He has big hands that make mine disappear when he holds them.
6. He is usually the first one to apologize after an argument, no matter who's fault is is.
7. He's patient & supportive with all my crazy projects even when he doesn't see the vision.
8. He is righteous man who follows Christ and serves diligently in every calling he has ever had.
9. He is a gifted teacher and knows how to draw out a good discussion.
10. He can talk in almost every accent from around the world.

11. He is not one who waits for an invitation to serve. He sees a need & gets to work.
12. He can do "Magic String" with his face.
13.  He served a righteous mission in Buenos Aires. 
14. He takes the boys swimming every week even when I just sit on the sidelines. (Cold water phobia. It's a real thing.)
15. He has read to Lucas every night since he was a baby.  Still does.
16. He took over putting Jonah to bed so they could start reading together every night.
17. He has a cute crooked smile.
18. He came from a wonderful family who I love dearly.
19. He rocks at Trivial Pursuit and is a Scrabble king.

20. He is one fabulous kisser.
21. He is always telling me I'm gorgeous and makes me feel beautiful, no matter what condition I'm in.
22. He plays board games with our family even though he doesn't like them all that much.
23. He has some pretty awesome dance moves.
24. He irons.
25. He has a mind for movie quotes and he's passed on that talent to both our two boys.
26. He picked my mother up and twirled her over his shoulder the first weekend he met her, thus adding a whole new dynamic to our family.
27. He was my rock throughout all our years of infertility treatments.
28. He likes to flirt with older ladies.
29. He's a mama's boy and still calls to talk to her regularly.

30. He works tirelessly to support our family, even at times when he has hated his job.
31. He's a talker of feelings and all things relationship.
32. He's always there to do the heavy lifting in my home projects.
33. He is the mighty wrestler of our boys.
34. He leads our family in scripture study, FHE, prayers & service.
35. He takes me to the temple on our dates and works hard to live his covenants
36. He is aware of his weaknesses and faults and makes goals to help overcome them.
37. He makes some mean scrambled eggs.

38. He is my greatest supporter and cheerleader, always encouraging me. My best friend.
39. He has unwavering testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ, His gospel and His church.
40. He is wonderful father who is teaching our boys how to work hard, to serve the Lord and how to be men.

 Love this old man of mine.