Happy Birthday Bryen! It's hard to believe your 9!!!

Here I am just after my oldest turns 9 yrs old. It is so hard to believe that they are going up so fast. When did he get to be so old? His birthday was interesting. I was hoping it would be a happy day. It started out that day. My youngest was "Pioneer of the Week" and had lunch with daddy. We were hoping to stop by his class at school and surprise him with some fun things for his class. Unfortunately... we were called to the school not 10 min after school started. He had brought a cap gun to school and it was noticed on his bus. We don't buy guns of any kind toy or real. He had gotten it from someone at the bus stop. He was suspended from school for that day. I had a dental appointment to go over the results of my biopsy. He came with while Daddy went to the lunch with Mikey (our youngest). We tried talking to him about why he did what he did. And who gave him the toy gun. But friendship is more important to him than telling on his friend so he lied to us!!! several times. as his parents we caught him in his lies... it was very disheartening. Here we wanted to celebrate his birthday but we couldn't. How could we! He was grounded and now we have to pat him down before he leaves the house and watch him closely before he gets on the bus. I hate feeling like I can't trust my kids. He got one birthday present for his birthday on his birthday. No party, no friends, no fun. Bill's parents came to the house last night for Family Home Evening and to give him his presents. They also didn't give more than 2 so that he wasn't rewarded for bad behavior. We as parents are trying to do what is right and it is so hard. I am grateful that it wasn't a real gun. I am grateful that we were home when we got the call to go to school. I am grateful that we can try to work thru these issues now before they snowball into bigger issues when he gets older.

Saturday was a much better day than Friday. We had a race cleaning the house. It made the job so much funner. We split the house by floor. Bill, Braeden and Mikey had the downstairs - living room, front room and kitchen. (not the messiest.) and Bryen and I tackled the upstairs (4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. (the messiest)... can you guess who won?..... Bryen and I. We worked together well and stayed focus on the task. We decided to work on each room as a team and when one room was done then we would move to the next room. My husband's team took a different approach. He decided he would do the kitchen and the other two boys were to do the other two rooms. The boys had a hard time staying on task and staying focused without constant supervision and encouragement. Bill felt like he was working alone and worked much slower alone than with another person. He was frustrated and flustered where as Bryen and I were happy and encouraging and enthusiastic. We were so excited to see we won the race. Bryen got some Cotton Candy from Walmart as a special treat for helping our team to win. All the boys got a candy bracelet for their efforts. It was interesting to see how important it is sometimes when things are so tough or overwhelming to work as a team or with someone and not alone. I can see many parallels between this situation and the other obsticals in our life. I makes things easier to get thru when we have someone help us thru it instead of trying to do it on our own. I am grateful for that situation. Not only because I got a clean house but because of the wonderful lesson I learned.

Sunday was a family day... we played hooky from church... we have been so busy with our callings and work, both of us pulling a ton of OT that we needed a family day. We went to the Catoctin Animal Refuge Zoo near Thurmont MD. It's expensive... but for a great cause. The boys did a scavenger hunt thru the Zoo for a prize at the end. It helped them really enjoy and learn about the animals there. They have snakes, bears, deer, buffolo, camels, bangel tigers, jaguars, peakocks, kangaroo, turtles, makaws, lemers, black swans and much more. It was so cool to see the animals. Some of them we could pet and feed. The kids liked getting all messy while feeding the animals. The tigers were so close, they are such majestic animals. Bill wanted to stay there all day and just watch the tigers play with one another. But the kids wouldn't have it. :( :) It was a good day. Now we are back to work, and working hard.

I hope you all had a great weekend. Thanks for reading :)

Health History

Well, Here I am 31 yrs old and diagnosed with Hypertension. Did I ever think I was going to have extremely high blood pressure? No, definately not. Thru finding out that I have hypertension, trips to the hospital(ER) and Urgent Care visits, I've called my mom to see if this is hereditary. And was informed that it was. My grandpa Dickson had Hypertension and was on medication and diet to help him keep it under control. My grandma Lancaster (on my dads side) died of a heart attack, possibly related to Hypertension or high blood pressure. She didn't discuss much of her health with us. I find it amazing the things in our family history that affect us. My father is tall, I have a grandmother on my mom's side who was tall. I am also tall. I often wonder how the behaviors of our ancestors affect our lifes as well. What were they like? What issues health wise did they have? Were they generally healthy or did they have any other things such as food allergies, or cancer in their family? I am however, greatful that we live in a day and age where hypertension doesn't have to be life threatening. It can be treated with medication and diet. I know that our geneology is important in more ways then one. I am grateful for what I do know about their lives. It helps me get thru the shock, and realizing that I'm not alone. That joining together gives me strength.