Life is a Stage

First, before I get into my post, I HAVE to show you another UP from yesterday:

This is Sister's light saber she created! She is such a kick!
Give her tape and glue and she is one happy creator/builder/artist/sculpter!
And, yes, I did tell her that I need my beaters back eventually...

OK, now onto today:

I went to the doctor today.

That is not my UP.

But, I went to the doctor today to make sure my nasty cold hadn't turned into something else.

I waited for what seemed like hours...

I stared at the patterns on my dress for so long that I started picking out shapes like you do when you stare at the clouds... do you see the Parrot? I might be a little Mary Poppins obsessed...

I think it may have been 45 minutes, when a student came in.

A medical student.

He asked if he could talk with me before the doctor came in so he could practice.

I obliged.

I was sitting there talking about my symptoms and all that stuff and threw in there that I was worried that maybe it was just a cold I haven't been able to kick because of long, late nights rehearsing for a play.

I've had lots of different reactions from people when I mention I am in a play, but today's comment takes the cake.

This student/doctor-in-training opened his eyes wide, slapped his hands on the examination table and exclaimed, "Oh! OK. So that's why you're wearing that make-up. You're in a play, I was wondering!"

... flashback 2 hours before that comment...

Me: "I'm feeling a little better today and I'm being brave and I'm just going to go out with my eyelashes and red lips today... classic look. OK, feeling good, here I go..."

... flash forward to student/doctor-in-training's comment...

All I could say was , "Umm. Ya," because I wasn't quite sure if I should laugh or cry and decided not to embarrass him for being an outspoken idiot so I just moved on as if he was right.

Anyway, I called my sister on the way back home so that we could laugh about it.

Soon after I got home, I made dinner for the family, went and put my real stage make-up on and did my hair for the play. I was nervously excited because tonight was a preview night for all the volunteers and I had special permission for my kids to come see it when the crowd was small (The Scera Shell holds 5000 people... so a crowd of 100 seemed like a better option.)

Just before the show started I was setting one of my props and Brother spotted me from so far away that I was surprised he knew it was me. He kept waving and giving me a "thumbs down" signal, which is his way of teasing me. Lindsey and her sister Kenna had come with the kids and I was just crossing my fingers that they would watch the whole show and not have to leave from over-stimulation at intermission.

Our kids are really sensitive to atmosphere and attitudes and spirits of people they are around.

I have known for quite some time that this cast I am working with is pretty darned phenomenal and seems to carry the feelings that radiate from this cast right up on to the stage.

I know that is one of the many reasons our kids sat through the entire play. They could feel the good feeling that our cast exudes from the stage.

They watched the whole thing.

It didn't end until 10:30 pm.

They even lasted long enough to come get a picture with me afterward.

Yep, that's me on stilts!

So you see that smile on my face? I'm so happy they made it through the whole thing and even enjoyed it! I hope that I'm not in trouble with my director for posting this picture... I might be... but I hope he understands that I was just so happy to have them take a picture with me, that I had to show it off!

Life is a stage! We may not always know what the set looks like or what our lines are in each scene, but it is up to us to make it a show worth smiling about.

I'm doing my best to set up my stage so that I can revel in every scene change, pace each moment and be ready for the big finale!

Because, by dang! I will deserve a finale of epic proportions when I have lived my life to the fullest and ad-libbed where I had to or added flair where it may have been a little slow.

So, I guess if I look like I am wearing stage make-up everyday... whelp... I guess I'm just prepared for my big spotlight!

Just keep smiling until the lights dim.

Day 155 of 365 Days of Up

Garbage Can UP

I feel so bad that I haven't posted for the last few days, and only once in the last 5...

Really, I am amazed at how therapeutic it is to write in my blog every day. Not only to documents my UPs but just what I feel. I'm realizing that blogging is therapy for me.

I have to start with some pictures that Marc sent me from his phone on Monday. I wanted so badly to share them all with you because they were totally and completely my reason for giggling on Monday and were my UP!

Yep. That's Sister. With big old ski goggles on to help her read through her new yearbook... I can't stop smiling. I love this girl! She is such a gem! I just LOVE that Marc captures these kinds of moments! She was unsuspecting at this point.

I can't breathe! She's a hoot!

She finally caught on to him shooting pictures, but was happy to pose for him.

How could those pictures not make a mom smile/laugh/giggle/snort?

Then he sent me these precious moments:

He's such a thoughtful dad to capture moments of his daughter with her little "friend" Pinkie Pie
and a freshly picked dandelion.

In this picture I have to giggle/wince a little because I am not sure if she has just picked a petal from the dandelion or if she just picked her nose and is observing her find... I know... but that's the stage she's in now-a-days...

Also, with Baby having gotten so sick last week, I neglected to post some of the little things that went on so I'll give you a few.

Like the time my mom met me in Spanish Fork after getting Baby's second antibiotic shot. Baby was screaming and cursing me in the car until we pulled into view of Grandma Judy. She immediately started smiling again and the treats grandma had for her weren't bad either.

Baby happily playing with the blocks at the doctors office before the shot...

What really got me laughing though was my mom's outfit... I love my mom and all, but sometimes she gets so busy and painting her furniture she forgets that she has paint all over her and her clothes. She started laughing so, of course, we had to take pictures.

She was trying to look lost... I think it worked

You can't even see all the paint on her, but I'm still laughing

I let her wear my sunglasses to see if they helped her look cooler...

I think it worked...

Last Friday, the morning of the kids' last day of school, Sister was in her room, doing her thing of making her "artwork" and when I walked in I just loved the way the light was hitting so I just had to take a picture.

I don't know how to arrange flowers but I love to try anyway and just make pretty displays for my kitchen table with flowers from our yard. The lavendar, roses, and Queen Anne's lace were all in bloom. The kitchen smelled so good.

I picked those on Monday.

I was feeling really sick that day and thought that being out in the sun for a little bit and bringing some spring inside would help me feel better... it brought up my spirits but not my health.

We had our first dress rehearsal that night and I made it through. Mostly because of all the excitement of seeing everyone's costumes. They look so amazing!

My big UP on Monday was the video I already shared with you. That continues to be my up as I feel like even in my business, and my neglect in being a good leader our Utah Fragile X Association that I, at least, can help by sharing my story.

Yesterday I was so sick that the fact that my kids were good all day and I slept most of it was quite a miracle.

Today, so far, my UP was when my mother and father-in-law came to surprise visit us with our lawn mower repaired and an inspiration to help clean my kitchen when they saw how sick I was when they came. I was even able to hop in the shower while they were with the kids and cleaning.

I just had to get a picture of the girls helping grandma clean out the kitchen garbage cans in the back yard. I loved hearing them through the open window telling grandma things and being so eager to turn the water on for her and take the cans to try in the sun.

It's a good day!

Days 153-154 of 365 Days of Up

The 3-minute Documentary

It is late and I am tired after our first full dress rehearsal of Mary Poppins...

BUT!!!


I have to share this with you! You just have to watch it!

Our friend and neighbor did this documentary to share his talents and to help spread awareness about Fragile X Syndrome.

I want to write so much more about it and the last couple of days, but, I'm tired!

You can watch Coray's video documentary he put together by clicking HERE

Trust me, he really knows how to make a good film! So proud to be the subject of his film that he entered into this competition!

Oh! Make sure you watch the behind the scenes too so you can see more.

And vote!

And share!

Help us get the word out there about It Affects Families: Fragile X

So excited, yet so tired! Must sleep!

Sharing Gifts

We got a sneak peek of the 3-minute documentary we were filmed for on Monday.

I am so impressed at what our friend put together. It's amazing!

I can't share the video, but I hope it's OK that I stole a little clip from it for you to see:

I am just so thankful that someone who has the talent of making films was desirous to share his talent as a service to help spread the word about Fragile X Syndrome.

I'm truly amazed.

I love being surrounded by talented people who are willing to share them freely to benefit and change others' lives.

I just spent the last 5 hours surrounded by the cast of "Mary Poppins."

This cast is spilling over with talent and not just in acting and singing.

I see those who share their love of cooking and baking to feed the cast and brighten their day. I see those how can make everyone smile, give hugs freely, share laughter, inspire, lift up, and teach.

I love that we have all been given talents in all shapes and sizes to help all of us who are in all shapes and sizes.

It's truly amazing and "practically perfect" that we all have a chance to interact and know each other and share our gifts.

Being blessed with talented and giving people in my life is something I am definitely thankful to say is my UP today.

Day 149 of 365 Days of Up

Oh, and P.S. Other than Baby throwing up one of her antibiotics she is still getting better. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep her from spitting her meds out...

Walking Alone

My UP today is pretty straight forward: Baby is doing better!

Yay!

Her foot is still blue and purple and swollen, but her fever and lethargy are gone and she is happy instead of irritable. She's been hopping around all day as happy as a bunny and smiling about everything.

I know it was through prayer and a blessing that she is able to heal through this so quickly.

I'm so thankful to my Heavenly Father for watching over us.

In those moments of "hard" I tend to think He looks away for a bit, but I quickly realize each time that He always watches over us. It's not always what we want, but we just have to trust in Him.

I think that is the hardest part is not giving up on God. I think we tend to give up on ourselves and other people so we automatically conclude that God must give up on us.

I'm so thankful He doesn't.

Ever.

Remember this poem:

Footprints in the Sand

One night I had a dream.

I dreamed I was walking along the beach

with the Lord..

Across the sky flashed scenes from my life..

For each scene, I noticed two sets of

footprints in the sand,

one belonging to me, and the other to the Lord..

When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life.

This really bothered me 

and I questioned the Lord about it:

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,

you'd walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most 

troublesome times in my life 

there is only one set of footprints.

I don't understand why 

when I need you most you would leave me." 

The Lord replied:

"My precious child, I love you and would

never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering,

when you see only one set of footprints, it was then

that I carried you."

by Mary Stevenson

I heard this poem so often as a youth I started not liking it. It was so cheesy.

But, I guess I haven't heard it for a while and realized that sometimes even cheesy can be inspiring.

Last night Marc and I sat up in bed talking about our kids and all the sweet things they do. We had to giggle and smile about them.

We love them.

A lot.

One of the questions I was asked for the interview this past Monday was, "If I had to do it all over again, would I?"

I don't know if the answer to that will make the cut for the video, but as I went through these last few days with a really sick Baby and thoughts of possibly spending time in the hospital, I remembered all the time I spent with our kids in the hospitals at various times of their lives. I haven't forgotten the experiences, but I've forgotten the anguish and disparity I know I felt then. I'm realizing, now, that those must have been the times the Lord carried me through so that I could survive it all without falling apart. Now, mind you, I fell to my knees, but I didn't fall apart.

I don't know if all of this makes a whole lot of sense, or even matters to you.

I just had to say it.

I just had to take the time to testify that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us and does not, will not, can not turn his back on us.

Just a flashback at one of the hardest and happiest times of Our Life when Baby was born,
but we had to keep her at the hospital for a while because of breathing issues and jaundice.

We never walk alone.

Day 148 of 365 Days of Up

Fish and Cookies

Brother went to his last day of Junior High today.

Tomorrow is Lagoon Day (Utah's Amusement Park) for the 9th graders and I didn't think it would be a good idea to have him go to that, so he gets to stay home... unless he wakes up in the morning and wants to go. His original teacher is out still from her neck surgery so it's not all that exciting for him to go tomorrow if he can't say goodbye to her before he heads off to high school.

She is an amazing teacher and it is hard to let go. She brought him so far and helped him so much. I really wanted to get a cool gift to give her, but I'm a last minute kind of person. (frown) I should have gotten a gift a long time ago, but I just figured I'd go sometime before school ended.

I just didn't know that Baby was going to be so sick this week.

Ya, she stayed home today too because I couldn't get her to wake up so I took that as a sign that she was still feeling sick and needed her rest.

I got Brother off to school without a hitch because he was so excited about yearbook day.

Even got Sister dressed and excited for her big dance festival at school. I had to tell her that I wouldn't be there because of Baby being sick still. We took pictures so she could see how cute she looked.

I wanted to cry about having to miss her dance. She has been talking about it and singing the song for the last month or so. I had been so excited to see her, but knew that someone would record it for me so I could at least see that. Shortly after she had left for school I got a text from Dr. H letting me know that she wouldn't do the dance and was clinging to his for dear life not wanting dance. I was so sad. I wished that Baby was better so that I could have seen Sister dance if I had been there. I kind of wanted to cry, but to get my mind somewhere else I started my yoga and exercise, talked to my sister on the phone while I did so and even got some vacuuming done.

Then I heard Baby playing in her room so I went to check on her.

When I walked in she was trying to get me to leave and kept yelling at me, "Don't touch my body!"

I was a bit confused by that until I noticed her foot—it had swollen even more than the previous day and it was now bluish and purple!

That didn't look good.

I took her to the doctor and he took her in between other visits. He told me she has cellulitis... not fun. No wonder she was in so much pain, running a fever and having a tough time walking and standing. She had a bad skin infection. Somehow the mosquito bite had attracted an infection of some kind.

She doesn't do well taking antibiotics and so I asked if the doctor could give her a shot instead.

I felt bad.

I got shots for medicine when I was a kid and it hurt. A lot.

But we had to get antibiotics going sooner rather than later so that we would be able to avoid time at the hospital. I hate the hospital.

I've done that with my kids all too often.

So I figured it was worth trying if it keeps her out of the hospital.

She screamed louder than I have ever heard her scream and it took everything in me not to ball my eyes out and sob just from hearing her in so much pain and knowing that she had such a bad infection.

She wanted a sucker and I didn't have one.

I couldn't take her into the store and I couldn't leave her in the car...

I went to my sister-in-law, Chelsea's, house because she always wants to help and Aaron always has candy stashed at the house.

Apparently Aaron had eaten most of his stash because she could only find frosted animal crackers, Swedish fish and some Minion fruit snacks. Baby loves those things so I thought we had a winner.

I think she was still upset with me so she just kept screaming and throwing the bag at me.

So instead of breaking down into tears I ate the Swedish fish and cookies that were in the bag.

I never knew those to things could be considered comfort food until today.

I cheered up a bit and Baby even decided to have some cookies with me.

We both cheered up.

Cheering up is an UP, right?

I smiled, too, when Sister's teacher sent me this picture of her at her Mickey Mouse reward pizza party:

It was also an UP when Brother brought home his yearbook with signatures and several pictures of him in it documenting a few of his experiences in his last year of Junior High.

Having an UP also included the Young Women Activity I was able go to tonight because I had no Play Rehearsal. We celebrated a new girl coming in and then we played games and had treats. I laughed a lot. It felt good to get all my frustration out through hysterical laughing and quick wit.

Day 147 of 365 Days of Up

Rain, then Sun. Sun, then rain.

Today was on and off with the weather.

It would rain hard then the sun would shine brightly through the parting clouds then it would rain hard again.

That happened all day.

My day went a lot like the weather.

Brother was home because the mainstream ninth graders were doing the whole college tour thing so he didn't have to go.

Sister had a meltdown because she left her rain coat at grandma's and she had to wear finsetics (synthetics) and not cotton or she would get wet... her backpacking guru dad helped her learn that... guess you never now what she is going to obsess over.

Baby, I thought was just tired so I let her sleep in. Turns out she was feeling really sick and was having a bad reaction to a mosquito bite on her foot. It hurt her to walk on it or to bend it.

So sick she could hardly hold her iPod up to watch her shows.

One mosquito bite can be torture to our kids.

I spent a lot of time snuggling with her today to give her some comfort while her fever and her swelling weaned and waned.

I had a tickle fight/wrestling match with Brother while Baby was content for a moment and I even fell asleep watching "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" with him.

Poor Ranger was so bored today with me tending to Baby all day and Brother taking advantage of me not being around enough to tell him to do something other than watch TV.

He did come up and do his dishes though. While he worked and I cleaned we talked a little bit about how he was excited for his yearbook tomorrow.

There was even a a funny/not funny moment when Brother knocked the light fixture off kilter while doing Karaoke to Shania Twain. The other funny part to that was that I fixed it with a glue gun... I think I can fix anything with a glue gun.

I got an email with our official poster for Mary Poppins so I was excited to share it.

I also got to see some clips of Marc and I from our documentary interview yesterday:

Looks really cool huh? I am excited how the picture looks I just hope I wasn't too much of a bumbling idiot that Coray (the filmmaker) can't use anything I said.

Then I had to do laundry and vacuum and all this duties...

But, then I got to take a couple quick photos for a senior and that was fun.

Then Marc came home from work sick.

But Sister was in a good mood because she found out at school that she gets to be part of the pizza party lunch with her principal tomorrow during lunch.

So you can see, my day was rainy and sunny...

Ups and downs, rain and sun.

Day 146 of 365 Days of Up