Update

Greetings~

I'm still hoping to get into a routine this fall....it's not quite come together like I hoped. I thought things would be fairly straightforward with the 3 older kids all at Mt. Hood this year. However looking at their schedules, you'd seriously think they were trying to avoid each other :o) In short, carpooling just isn't very practical.

Anne is settling in well to the college routine and much prefers it to high school. The kids have lots of friends attending there too, so we continue to be so thankful for the CYT community that God has blessed us with; in particular the great friendships our kids have formed over the years.

Jamie has really been hitting the books, taking microbiology as well as a difficult A & P class. And then there are the other classes too. The reality of her moving to Arizona after Christmasis setting in...I bought the airline tickets for January....Jamie and I plan to fly to Phoenix and have a few days, getting things together for her to move into her dorm on Sunday the 8th. My mom is planning to fly down that day and she and I will have a few days of vacation together before flying home the 11th. Hopefully we can steal Jamie away from campus one evening for dinner or dessert before we leave. Mom and I may drive out to the Grand Canyon, just because it seems a shame to be that close and not see it. We also have friends in Phoenix and hope to see them.

David and Emily got their wedding invites ordered yesterday and we are having a gathering this afternoon to address them. I have cinnamon rolls rising as I write. They are getting excited as we approach the 2 month mark until the wedding. Emily's mom has quite a challenge with making Emily's dress as well as 5 dresses for the bridesmaids and jr. bridesmaid. She is also costume chair for CYT, so is in charge of the costumes for Oliver that opens late October. Their fall hasn't quite gone how they planned either. Work has been really slow for Bill (he's self employed and does flooring, tile work, etc.) as the economy has of course really impacted people doing home renovations etc. Emily's sister Amanda had her appendix rupture several weeks ago, resulting in an extended hospital stay (catastrophic insurance only). It's good their family has a close walk of dependency on the Lord and they are very relaxed about things, so you never feel like they are in a frenzy. I'm sure the wedding will come together and everyone will have a dress to wear :o)

Krissy is doing well other than a few random acts of property destruction (don't get me started) Over all, she has been in a good phase for some time, but lest we get too comfortable, she'll impulsively do something that scares me to death. The last thing was suddenly darting to the blender, sticking her hand inside and hitting the button. I plan to write a letter to Cuisinart to thank them for their design, that by God's grace saved her fingers. Larry got me this really nice blender last Christmas. I honestly thought it was a little nicer one than I needed, but didn't say so. It sits on the counter; the girls use it more than I do to make smoothies, etc. I have wondered over the last year, why they make you first hit the on button (nothing happens) and then you hit the puree, stir, liquify. etc. options which actually makes it take off. I've never seen another blender that requires 2 different steps to do the job. But that feature is what kept the blades from activating. We now have it unplugged all the time, except for the moments of use.

Which brings me to Benjamin....we would appreciate your prayers for him. He has been quite sick this last week. We've been to hospitals 3 times and the MD's office twice. We still aren't sure what's going on. In short he's better than he was last Monday and Tuesday when he was unable to stand up straight and was guarding his tummy a lot. Even when asleep, if you touched his belly. he jump and was obviously in a lot of pain. We saw the doctor on Monday. had xrays and left puzzled. By Tuesday night, I was getting very worried and Jamie and I spent the night with him in the ER. They felt it wasn't surgical, but didn't really know what was up. Besides how he was acting, the most impressive thing was a white count of close to 20,000 (normal is 5-10,000; his usually is around 4000). There was definite evidence in the cell differential that it was a bacterial infection, but the doctor just didn't know for sure. We opted to come home with the IV in, instead of being admitted. We thought he was turning the corner some later Wed, but by Friday, it just seemed like something was still really wrong. His urine was very dark, an unusual symptom. Back to the pediatrician's office, then to the hospital for xrays again. The doctor on call talked to Larry yesterday and said the xray showed an enlarged liver. This is his 3rd set of abdominal xrays this week, but the first time this was mentioned. So now I'm thinking "does he have hepatitis??" or what is going on? I hope to talk with our own pediatrician today and see what we should do...I'd think checking on his liver function thru blood tests would be helpful...thankfully he's not jaundiced, so that's got to be good. But he's never had liver problems, and we'd really rather not go there. Thanks for praying for him and for wisdom for us and his MD's as we try and figure him out and care for him.

I better get to these cinnamon rolls....

It seems like we're finally having the summer weather we've been waiting for. We've had a few warm days and it looks like a number more are in the forecast. But, it's back to school for Benjamin (Tues) and Krissy (Wed) this week.It's been a really good summer for many reasons. Krissy had an excellent experience at ACAP. They had several children with biting issues, and that was hard on the staff. It also became apparent that Krissy was one of the easier ones...welcome news for us. She really seemed to enjoy the variety of activities and we were blessed by Missy (who was hired by ACAP and also works for us) coming by in the mornings for any last minute getting ready...then took her to ACAP for the day, and brought her back home.
Benjamin, as I mentioned last post, has had a happy summer. I can't believe our 'baby' is going to middle school. This will be a new FLS (Functional Living Skills) classroom after K-5 at the same school, so I'll be going in to spend part of the day Tuesday with him. I need to teach the staff about his care and how he communicates. I've heard good things about his new teacher and the OTA for the classroom is a friend of ours from church, so we're optomistic about this change....though I would have been most happy leaving him with Merrie, his teacher we really love and appreciate from his previous classroom.
Krissy had a very fun birthday...we did go to the hotel in Sandy. She got one swim time in before Larry showed up with pizza. Then she and some of the kids went again and that was lots of fun. But she was so hyper about it being her birthday the next day, we realized we probably were not going to have the best night...so we began reviewing possible options. In the end, Anne went to spend the night with Emily, Larry & David decided they would enjoy staying at the hotel and watching a movie (Safeway was right next door, to rent one) and so Jamie, Ben, Krissy and I came home to sleep. It was a good decision :o) Krissy was happy because Jamie spent the night in her room with her. Ben and I were happy getting a good night sleep. Krissy and I headed back up Friday morning to enjoy breakfast with the guys. Missy picked Krissy up at noon from the hotel while I came home to decorate the cake and Anne worked on decorating the house for party time at 4 pm. She was so happy with how things went and got a number of things she had been hoping for.

Larry and I enjoyed a further celebration of our anniversary (early August) today by going on a small sailboat ride on the Willamette River. This was one of those Groupon deals from several months ago that caught my eye. It really was nice. Just 6 people (incl. us) plus the skipper. We boarded at the marina right at Newport Bay, and we had a wonderful lunch when we got back. It was a beautiful day to be on the water and we had a nice time...visiting is often hard at home with so much activity. We are feeling some twinges of sadness anticipating the next few months of not just one leaving the nest, but two. No, Jamie isn't getting married....but she has applied to go to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix in January. She's flying down next week to look over the school and talk further with them. She has several good friends there and they have a strong nursing program. She hopes to be accepted into the program next fall and thought it would be good to finish the pre-requisites and be an existing student when she applies for it. She thinks most of the pre-req's she's taken the last 2 years at Mt Hood will transfer and she'll continue working on those this fall term. We know if she goes in January, she'll likely be back for the summer (who wants to be in Phoenix in the summer?) but we'll sure miss her. David and Emily will be close by, thankfully. We enjoy seeing Emily often since she's here helping with Benjamin frequently. She's done such a great job with him. I think that will probably continue after they are married. David has stepped up in being much more involved with the 2 younger kids and they enjoy the time he spends with them.

Mom is doing well....she's had lots of 'grandma fixes' the last couple weeks. Jacob & Amy and kids were here from Boston. We got together with them a couple times....then their flight home was canceled due to the hurricane, so with an extra week here Amy and Emily (my other niece) planned a family get together last Wed evening, so there was a houseful. Emily and mom went berry picking Friday, so mom shared a wonderful blackberry cobbler with Larry and I this evening.

Anne is gearing up for the early college program that has her at MHCC this fall. She's very motivated about her classes and I think this will be a good fit for her. Lots of good friends are there and for the most part she's happy with her classes/schedule. Like Jamie, since she's entering this program as a Jr.. she will likely graduate from high school 'on time' at 18, with 2 years of college under her belt. She's very ready to get the algebra over and done with....which I can relate to VERY easily. She is going to be doing childcare for the Women's Bible Study at Good Shepherd on Wed am's this year....I decided since I'm taking her out and picking her up, I should just sign up and stay. We'll be studying Ephesians and Colossians. Larry and I plan to be in the same home group as last year on Wed. evenings as well.
Larry is continuing hard work in the front yard, digging the massive roots out from the tree he removed. Our niece's husband is coming tomorrow to talk about putting sod down in the next few weeks. We didn't want to kill the existing grass (spray) until our blueberry crop was over...but I think we're ready now. Pictures? maybe, sometime....but we have new plants and trees we'll need to put in as well, so that may not be until spring.
Bye bye for now~

Hello...here it is nearly September and such a long time since I last posted.

Obviously I survived the trip to Uganda, although honestly it was considerably more challenging than last year. We camped out in the bush, the remote village where we were nearly mobbed last year. The medical team was a very small part of this outreach, which was primarily an evangelistic crusade that a number of Ugandan pastors and evangelists participated in. Many people responded to the gospel and work is now in progress for a discipleship program for the new believers. There was about 70 of us camping out on a rocky hillside (if you even need to know,those little self inflating air mats that they sell for camping are pretty worthless when you have grapefruit-size rocks under your bedding. However the torrential rain blowing thru the netting on my bug hut was a fairly good distraction. After several nights of discomfort I managed to move some of the bigger rocks out from under me and a tarp was made more secure for the 3 of us that were sleeping outside without a tent. All in all we were really glad we went....it was wonderful to be part of the very first baptism service in that village before we left

We had one extra day in Uganda at the end of our trip and enjoyed a beautiful day visiting the source of the River Nile over near Jinja. We put our feet in the water, had a nice boat ride with some sightings of unusual birds and just a fun day of relaxing together. Long trip home with about 7 hrs of layover in Holland, but we hopped on the train and went down to the canals and looked around a bit. My sister Mindy had made welcome home signs for the team and was there with her 2 youngest kids, my mom plus Larry and Anne to meet me. It was fun!

David, Emily and Jamie had been rehearsing all summer for "Joseph" and 2 days after my return, they moved into the theater and started dress week. Anne was very involved too as she was on backstage crew, doing props,etc. It was an outstanding show...I think I saw it 6 times and could have enjoyed it a 3rd weekend if they'd done that. The girls then worked another week of CYT day camps (they've both had work this summer) before their teen camp this week down at the coast. They are at a camp in Cloverdale and their showcase is tomorrow at 1pm. Mom and I drove down to Lincoln City today just to enjoy an overnight here before heading over to the camp for program. It's chillier than I expected, probably in the 60's, but sunny.

In other Julian family news, we just enjoyed time with my niece and her husband and 4 children who were visiting Portland from Boston. We hadn't seen then for a couple years and so it was wonderful to enjoy one of mom's great breakfasts the other morning and to meet their youngest daughter, Sophia for the first time. Kristin is doing well...really enjoyed the Autistic Children's Activity Program this summer. I heard several times that she was one of the 'best kids there', so we're encouraged that she's doing well participating and keeping a check on her impulsivity and emotions. She's EAGERLY anticipating her 14th birthday next Friday. I made a local hotel reservation so she's excited about it all. She'll be in the same classroom with the same teacher this year, so not much adjustment hopefully in returning to the school routine. Ben is going to middle school, which seems so funny. He's so little. He's had a VERY happy summer. Emily has worked with him alot and he is just one happy little guy. Lots of just smiling and cracking up for very little reason. We have fun together :o) Wedding plans are picking up now that Joseph is over and David is done with his summer intensive spanish classes. All 3 of our older kids as well as Emily and her sister Amanda will be at Mt Hood CC this fall, so they'll enjoy that.

Larry is doing well. He's been working hard in the yard as trees needed to come out in prep for the new lawn going in hopefully soon. I learned that I love to powerwash the other day when Larry rented one. I spent about 5 hrs. working on the driveway mostly. Lots of moss, but it was SO rewarding. I told mom I'd do hers :o)

I've put a picture up of Larry & I yesterday down on the Willamette. We went with friends on their boat all the way from Fairview on the Columbia River down to Newport Bay Restaurant on the Willamette where we had dinner. Such a beautiful day and so much fun to enjoy it with friends.

The sunset photo is this evening, just awhile ago here in Lincoln City.

Take care and catch us up on YOU when you are able! Warmly, Janelle

Janelle Update

I hear all is well on the homefront. Our last night in Kampala before heading north on an early morning MAF flight...
If you are interested in team updates... www.karamojatimes.blogspot.com
It's a church blog that will have occasional updates either from one of the team or Rakel from Global Outreach.
Thanks for your prayers for us and Krissy and all at home!
Love Janelle

this and that....

Happy Summer....It's sure beautiful out there isn't it? Summer seems to have arrived, right on schedule, at least here in Oregon. I'm sitting here in the recliner with a fleece jacket on, but it's more due to the air conditioning in the house and the ice packs on my leg.

With just 2 weeks until our team leaves for Uganda, I would appreciate your prayers for my knee. My mom's dog dashed into our yard last Wednesday morning and I was afraid she would get one of our kitties.....so I made a rather noble effort to scare her back to mom's yard. I just didn't have time to think thru the flimsy sandals + early morning wet grass and it didn't work out very well for me. I went down with my left knee sort of under and behind me and felt something snap inside (I did this in front of a group of the girls' friends and some of them heard it pop). It really was quite painful, and I just had to lay in the wet grass for awhile until I could move with help inside. I was able to get into the doctor a little later that morning; he wrapped it and told me to stay off of it and ice it. By the next day it was much more swollen so they ordered an MRI for early Friday. He called Saturday am and said the MRI showed quite a bit of injury, but while there was possibly a partially torn ligament, I didn't need surgery. This was a relief as obviously that probably would have canceled the trip for me. As it is, we're not sure how the recovery will go. I saw the Dr. this afternoon and he said to still ice it (it's pretty swollen) and I have to be completely non-weight bearing, on crutches. He'll re-assess it on Wednesday. It's just very difficult to do very much when you've got 2 crutches in your hands all the time.

I have done some things (like working on Uganda projects at the church today and making 5 batches of strawberry freezer jam yesterday) that even though I wasn't putting much weight on that foot, probably didn't help the swelling, as I was upright for a number of hours. I'm going to try and be very compliant as I really do need this to get quite a bit better. I can't quite imagine how I could possibly use a pit latrine in my present state...although I don't really want the whole church to try and imagine this, so I'll keep my public prayer requests more general! Thanks for your prayers.

Since this is Krissy's blog, I should talk about her and the wonderful first day she had at ACAP. They did a community outing to a park and she was perfect, according to the staff. That's music to this mama's ears :o) We like reports like this!

Jamie and Anne are both working for CYT this week at a kids camp. They like it alot! Oh, I thought I'd include a couple of Jamie's recent 'senior pictures'. I wasn't with her, but from the 100+ pictures the photographer took, it looked like she had a fun time!

Hope you are well! Janelle

PS: ...and a recent favorite of Anne too

Here he is....Charlie the (bride price) cow, happily getting fat out in the field at the Wrights!

Jamie's Graduation Day~June 12

And a visit today with Jamie's new puppy, now almost 6 weeks old. She (no name yet) will be about 9 weeks old when she comes 'home' July 10th

And to think I slept thru all of this....Anne apparently felt that Jamie needed to welcome her birthday in style around midnight last night

I'm hoping the neighbor monitor, Mr. Johnson was as asleep as I was....He may wonder about our family...I'm thinking a hose and the evening gown?? I guess if you want to dance in the rain, you can make it happen!

How to choose from a pile of puppies?

I can hardly believe our first baby girl is 18 years old today! Jamie has been such a joy and we're excited to see where God leads her in the coming years. She is finishing her 2nd year of Mt Hood Community College and officially graduating from high school June 12th.

We had lots of fun today as Jamie got to pick out her new puppy. Nana, she and I went to our friends home where the Mama dog Bailey (pictured here) was looking very content with her 8 pups. Parents are both purebred, but Bailey is quite blonde and the most petite Golden Retriever's I've seen. Jamie chose one of the little girls but hasn't decided on a name yet. She can bring her home July 10th. Krissy is sitting at the table with Jamie now trying to coax the name out of her :o) She is suggesting Lisa at the moment. Ok, Blogger has a mind of it's own and apparently has decided that you only need to see the mama dog right now....it won't let me post a 2nd photo for anything. SO....until my next blog (hopefully immediately after posting this!)

Love's redeeming work is done....Hallelujah!Hope this will be a wonderful Easter weekend for you and your family. Here is Gresham, we're being treated to a beautiful, (almost) warm, sunny day. Larry is sleeping thru it, but the rest of us are enjoying it!I was going thru Krissy's bag today where she has a huge stockpile of pictures and other things she's printed on the computer. I was amused to find a sheet of paper in the mix where she typed out "we are people helping people...showing that with just a little love and a little understanding...if we take the time to care, every moment that we share will be guaranteed to have A HAPPY ENDING". Not sure who she might have borrowed that from...Probably a well known song and I'm so NOT 'in the know'....

News from our place... 

• Jamie got her driver's license about 2 weeks ago. We haven't seen her since. Just kidding, but she is a busy girl and it is nice that she can take herself places now. Krissy is anxiously awaiting her arrival home from Vancouver this afternoon, so that they can go for a ride.
• Change in David and Emily's wedding date...Church wasn't available the 16th, so updated 'save the date' is Sunday, December 18th at 3pm. They met with Alan, our lead pastor who has agreed to marry them. Normally they would be assigned to a 'mentoring couple' at church for a pre-marital study, but Alan graciously said he would like to meet with them himself, since he's close to both our families. I think we're all aware of the wonderful opportunity this is for them. They continue to meet with Joel and Lani, a young Christian couple and have so enjoyed that time together.
• Larry and I plan to fly to Hawaii on Tuesday morning. We are really looking forward to this time together of rest and refreshment. Actually, probably a little more relaxing for me since Larry has a conference from Wed-Sat, but they finish at 1pm each day, so that gives us a lot of the day together still. We have friends who are also going (people Larry has known from the NICU for years). A couple we get together with frequently from church are also there later in the week visiting their married daughter, so we plan to take them to see the big sea turtles on a quiet beach where they are often sunning themselves...then have dinner at 'our place' on Friday. Next day, Larry's mom and David are flying over to meet us so they will arrive just a couple hours before Larry's conference wraps up.  As you can imagine the logistics of covering all of the bases at home 24/7 was challenging, but I think with God seeing to all the details I can't know about,  it hopefully should work.  There is a color chart indicating who is covering who, when every hour of the day, posted on the fridge.  Please pray as the Lord reminds you :o) 
  

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of our big boy in his new shorts. He's hanging out in the backyard today and enjoying that beautiful blue sky!

We did have an unexpected grand time this past week when we went to the church for the family pictorial directory photo shoot.  You just would have to be there, I suppose, but everyone (including the photographer) was in stitches.  I think she managed to get one that we can all live with...barely. 

Blessings to you and yours this Easter!  Love, Janelle & all

Sorry it has once again been so long since I posted. Things have been going well for us. Both Jamie & Anne were excited to get their braces off early in March. Jamie particularly had some very challenging things to overcome with her bite, etc. so the dentist was thrilled with the outcome after 4+ years. In fact Jamie’s mouth will probably be appearing in a prominent dental journal soon. He thought her dramatic results called for publishing :o)

We had a chance to catch our breath over spring break. Both shows the girls were involved in closed just before, so it really felt nice to have a brief reprieve from intense theater and school schedules before it all began again this week.

Our biggest family news is that David and Emily are engaged, planning a December 16th wedding at Good Shepherd. He managed to surprise her with the timing of the proposal and a beautiful dainty heart-shaped diamond ring. He knew exactly what she’d like, so I drove with him across town to the jeweler he wanted to buy from and he explained to them what he was looking for… we were outta there in 15 minutes :o) Because you choose your diamond and setting separately there we needed to return to pick up the finished product the following week. I hung out in the car and managed to get a picture just after he came out. He proposed on Saturday afternoon, March 19th. We already had plans to be at Emily’s family’s home for dinner after church that night, so it ended up being a special time of celebration. We also presented Emily’s dad with a ‘bride price’ gift, a token of sincerity from David and our family….a cow that will be delivered once they finish getting their fences in place. This steer will happily laze about in the pasture thru the spring and summer before he gets butchered in the fall. We knew it would be well received as they had been planning to get one...You can’t just buy a cow for anyone these days :o). As for their plans, they both plan to finish their associate degrees next spring. Emily then plans to work while David transfers to Portland State to pursue his degree in Criminal Justice. He’s not looking at police work, per se, but is interested possibly in investigative work with the FBI or Homeland Security. Emily’s parents have a small farm up in Sandy and several years ago built a big farmhouse. The second level was built with a separate apartment in mind, so while her mom makes her wedding dress this summer, Bill will be finishing the apartment for them. They have generously offered to rent it to them for a very reasonable rate while David finishes school. It will also be a great opportunity for David to learn the ropes of farm work….they have quite a few chickens (they sell eggs), raise pigs (a few months of the year) and grow/can lots of vegetables from their garden. David and Emily have been reading together and are meeting regularly with a wonderful young Christian couple. They also plan to do Financial Peace University at Good Shepherd and participate in pre-marital counseling….so along with a Christian Community Theater production they both hope to be in this summer, they have some busy months ahead of them. We love Emily and her family and have enjoyed getting together often for meals, fun, Face to Face (Bible Read Thru) and visiting. Emily has been working with Benjamin the past few months too and it’s been so nice to have her around….she’s really good with Ben and then we’ve just enjoyed the opportunity for us to get to know each other better with her here daily during the school week. Because she was hired as the choreographer of the CYT Spring show (Tom Sawyer) she’ll have to reduce her time here some for the next couple months, but we’re excited for this opportunity for her too. Anne auditions for that show this afternoon. Jamie chose to be on crew again up in Vancouver this session.  

We are planning towards my returning to Uganda this summer for another medical outreach. They asked that a team come again, and so far 3 out the 4 of us that went from the US last year are planning to return. Dr. Will (Florida) and his wife will be coming in May to meet with us and plan for the trip. We ideally would like one more physician on the team, so appreciate your prayers that God will provide in ways that He knows are needed.  

Krissy is doing pretty well. She’s in a calmer place these days and I think rather than get our hopes up that it’s permanent, we need to enjoy it. Her behavior tends to cycle (which is very comforting when things are much more challenging!). She’s happy at her school and plans to attend the Autistic Children’s Activity Program this summer (ACAP).  

I think that about covers the news on our end!

Love, Janelle for the family

Quick updates...

Just wanted to let you know we had a nice uneventful trip home.  Last day at Disneyland was great...she was a little sad to leave which was an appropriate response.  Larry & Emily met us at the airport while Anne looked after Ben at home.  

I had good news on my previously mentioned infection/screw loose in my head (no comments necessary).  I geared up for the procedure on Friday and Larry took me in to the clinic.  I was a little nervous, but the CT had showed only cellulitis and not osteomyelitis like the MD thought. So I thought, this shouldn't be too bad.  He gave me probably 6-8 injections of local anesthetic and I declined the tranquilizer.  So glad I did, because it was very easy...no discomfort at all.  Partly this was because he only removed the outer portion.  Apparently he feels this bone anchored hearing aid is salvageable and so while I don't have a post in my head anymore, he can, in the future just do a small surgery in the office and access the base of what he left there (I will need to warm up to this idea down the road)  For now I'm relieved and happy to have this screw and post gone as it was very uncomfortable and bugged me a lot.  

We're looking forward to being together with some very good friends tonight.  One couple invited us and 2 other couples over for a special valentine dinner...all are people we enjoy a lot, so this will be fun!  Kids are having their own party here at home with pizza, strawberries, salad, ice cream and cookies.  

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful week ahead!

Janelle

...she ain't heavy,she's my sister (and other moments from Disneyland)

Highlights from the last 24 hrs...

My new 'do

Krissy did a great job at the salon today getting a new hairdo.  This cut took alot of sitting still and Lacee said Krissy held still better than some of her adult clients.  She looks so much perkier, and it's just in time for her mini-vacation coming up this weekend.

Hmmmm....what to call today's blog?

As you might suspect, this isn't a good question to raise :o)  But since you're wondering, the two choices that immediately come to mind are

a) Curiosity killed the.....TV

b) "...And I just thought I had a screw loose"

So first, we'll go with option A.  Since our nice big screen TV  is now out in the side yard awaiting transportation to the dump, you'll see the heat pump and possibly some grass reflected in what's left of the screen.  Last Saturday morning, on my watch I was out in the kitchen doing things.  Krissy was her usual 'back and forth' but quite interested in a video in the living room.  We had gotten this big TV in December (a Salvation Army find for $75, which actually made its' demise a little less painful than if we'd recently purchased it new)  I had recently checked on her and in fact, Larry had also just walked by and there was nothing of concern. However my next visual check revealed a hole in the lower left corner and the entire bottom of the screen caved in.  Apparently with the characters being so life-like (life-size) Krissy was quite convinced that they were actually inside the TV and she had impulsively decided to have a look.  I was pretty mad, I'll admit....and layed the guilt trip on pretty thick.  The next morning she got up saying, "Mommy, I'm sorry TV...I forgive you" repeatedly.  Guess she wanted to keep replaying both sides of the culmination of our 'discussion' over ever doing it again.  We thought we should probably not get another one for awhile, although this sort of punishes everyone (including Ben) who enjoys his videos.  We sat tight for a couple days and then 'out of the blue' some friends from CYT who had heard what happened, let me know that they had a large TV they were storing in the garage, as their adult daughter had gotten a smaller one.  She just wanted $50 for it and it's very nice...in fact it seems identical to the one we had except just a few inches smaller, which is fine!  I didn't want to spend much on a replacement, not knowing if her curiosity was now satisfied or not.  She seems to have taken the message to heart...

B)  About 15 months ago, I opted to have a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) implanted.  This is done by the MD installing a small steel post behind the ear (in the operating room).  After it 'sets' for about 3 months, you snap an external small processor onto it and it conducts sound, increasing hearing.  Well, I found that it wasn't ever comfortable to wear this...it hit my head in a way that felt like I was getting pinched.  When I told the MD about it, his solution was changing it to a longer post, a simple thing done in the office.  So...at the end of this last December I did that.  However a couple weeks later when I attempted to put the processor on, it hurt and it felt like the post wasn't firmly attached.  So back I went and the Dr said that he needed to tighten the screw, that it didn't make sense that it was sore (which didn't really relieve my symptoms at all) but he didn't have the right tool at the office he was at, so I scheduled to go  to the other one the following week.  Unfortunately that was the day of ice, so I didn't go...but finally, two days ago, I finally made it AND he had the right tool to fix me up.  We thought so, anyway.  He started looking at it and it hurt BAD, like clear thru my skull.  He said "I don't like that at all" ("You don't like it?????) He said that the screw wasn't loose at all, but the whole post was loose and he believed I had developed osteomyelitis (explanation...infection in the bone with some of it dying) around it.  He wanted a CT scan right away (which I was able to walk downstairs and do immediately) and started me on antibiotics.  Now the whole thing has to be removed surgically.  Often with osteomyelitis, IV antibiotics are necessary, so we're eager to hear the CT results to know how bad this is.  With airline tickets to Disneyland a week from today, I really don't want to have my head cut open before as it's just something else to deal with.  I'm thinking the antibiotics should settle it down and unless it becomes alot worse, he seemed agreeable to putting it off for a few extra days.  

Which brings me to happy news....we're really excited to head south to hopefully warm weather and fun at Disneyland.  David, Krissy and I plan to fly down Saturday evening.  Jamie had an event that she really wanted to attend on Sat evening, so she'll fly down Sunday morning, arriving about the time we would need a lunch break anyway.  We'll have a car, so we'll pick her up and then return to the park.  Krissy is very excited about this and has her schedule made up for the first day.  I see that we are going back to our hotel (just across from the entrance) for a little down time around dinner, then returning for Space Mountain (mom is NOT going on this) , the fireworks and the water show.  We plan to have 3 pretty full days before our flight home Tuesday evening.   My next blog post will probably be from there.

Otherwise all is well.  Larry is anticipating his unit likely going to all 12 hr shifts, which will be quite a change for us.  David is doing well at Mt. Hood Comm. College and is looking for part-time work as he's wanting to save for 'the future' :o)  Jamie is really busy, but seems to be thriving with it.  She's a full time college student, doing driver's ed, usually helping me with getting Krissy and Ben out the door in the mornings as well as being the stage manager for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang this winter at CYT Vancouver.  Anne and I get a country drive twice a day as she attends Damascus Christian School.  Her efforts were rewarded when she worked hard on her audition song for Annie and got exactly the role she wanted....that of the feistiest orphan, Pepper.  She gets to be very snotty, fight and do some gymnastics as well as singing, dancing and having some lines....all in all, a good fit for her and she's happy with it.  We've had a challenging few months with Krissy, partially attributable to an injection she had at the end of October.  It's a hormone medication that was intended to make her life easier, but not quite how it worked out.   It lasts for 3 months, so we had to ride it out.  This last week has been a noticeable improvement, calmer both at school and home.  Benj is doing well and really enjoying his new after-school buddy, Emily.   It was so cute yesterday as I was watching them play...he put his little hand up to give her a high-5.  His health has been stable.  My week was busy with making 12 dozen cinnamon rolls as a special favor for a large family breakfast tomorrow following their daughter's wedding today. The little photo is one of the last 3 pans ready to go in the oven....I am so done making rolls for awhile and am quite certain after this marathon,  I will be able to "just say no" to any future similar requests!  It was not as easy as it sounds.

Catch us up when you can...we'd love to hear from you too!

Love, Janelle & all