Treading Water

I am so frustrated with the lack of progress being made in DJ's care. He went in today for a dilatation and ended leaving with a smaller esophageal opening then he did two weeks ago. I just feel like we have been treading water for the last ten months and that the doctor is perfectly fine with doing these procedures forever. He keeps talking about possibly doing surgery to remove the diverticulum, but then says he wants to wait to see if they will shrink on there own. It has been ten months and they have only gotten bigger. What more does he want! I want to do whatever we need to do to get DJ better, but I don't want to have to wait until it gets to the point where they have to crack his chest and remove a portion of his esophagus. DJ ended up having three stitches in his nose because of the string, but we have to keep it in because his esophagus keeps closing because food is going into the diverticulum and not down his throat. Not only that , but he had to go in after surgery today and do an esophagram. Just what every four year old wants. Lets come out of anesthesia after having surgery and go down and drink some barium so we can have x-rays done. I know it needed to be done, but it still puts my baby is a room crying and telling everyone that he is scared and just wants to go home. It has just been a really hard day for me, which is probably not helped by the fact that I have been up since one a.m.

Well, I guess that is enough of a rant for now. I have to get dinner figured out and make sure Savannah finishes her homework before soccer practice tonight. Thanks for listening.TTFN.

Birthday Wishes

We have had a fun September. This was the month that Savannah turned eleven, and we did a couple of things to celebrate. We made a day trip down to Panama City for some fun at the beach. We all had a blast, but I am still finding sand in anything that happened to be in the car or our bags while we were there. DJ was pretty content to play tag with the waves, but the girls went pretty far out and made me nervous most of the day. It's that whole being a mother thing and always worrying that something might go wrong. It was a fun day and I am glad we went. On her actual birthday she had a soccer game, so we just did cake and presents afterward and it was all over in about thirty minutes. This year has been such a crazy one that I have sworn off birthday parties until next year. I some time to regain my sanity, and yes, I have been sane at some point in my life, I just don't remember when.

DJ's nose has been cut by his string again, and this is the worst one ever. His whole nose is swollen and looks horrid, and I couldn't get ahold of the doctor for days. Once I did get ahold of him they couldn't get him in until Monday. I am so frustrated at this point that Dallas and I are seriously considering changing surgeons.I will post later this week to let everyone know how it goes. Well, I had better go feed my fam before they start to riot! TTFN!

Life is a funny thing

Okay, so I got onto Blogger this morning to put up pics of Vannah's birthday and give everyone an update. I made the mistake of checking up on my friend Jenni's blog before I wrote anything, and she had the best website link in one of her posts. Needless to say, I have now spent an hour laughing hysterically and my poor family is starving and waiting for lunch! The website is www.mylifeisaverage.com and is worth a look. In the spirit of the site I have my own little anecdote to tell.

Savannah's birthday was Wednesday and I had pulled out all of the gift bags to wrap her presents. The next day I came home from running errands to find the living room completely covered in open gift bags full of DJ's toys. Dj shouted, "Look mom! It's my birthday party!" You gotta love kids!

Rollin',rollin',rollin'

We have made it through another week here at the Jones' house. School is going well, clubs are being attended, soccer practice is hot and humid, life is rolling along. Mackenzie received her flute this week and will actually begin to learn to play it next week. I am hoping it is not as painful to listen to as the violin was last year! Speaking of which, she should be starting her violin lessons in the next week or two also, we are just trying to get our schedules figured out.Savannah has started band and will be playing the drums. Much to her chagrin I will not be purchasing a drum set in the near future. Her practice pad will have to do for now. I mean, there is only so much one mom can take, right!

DJ sailed through his dilatation yesterday and after next weeks treatment we will be able to switch our schedule to just once every two weeks. Hurray! Our hope is that by the beginning of the new year we will know if they have to do more invasive surgery to remove the bulges in his esophagus or if we can just keep doing the dilatations and the bulges will shrink on their own. He has school pictures today, which he is very excited about, but not completely willing to let me clean his face for the occasion. He cried for awhile and squirmed alot, but eventually I was able to make him look like a little boy again and not some sort of dirt monster. What is it with boys and the enjoyment they get out of being filthy?

We are getting settled into our new ward. Dallas and I have been called as Nursery leaders, so we won't be getting to know a whole lot of the adults any time soon, but we are having fun being able to spend some time together at church. We ran into some people from our ward in Colorado Springs here. The Weavers are in our ward for a little while at least. He has been stationed here for over three years, so should be getting orders and moving his family soon, but it has been nice to get reacquainted with them. Well, I have to go and be a mom again for awhile and take care of business.TTFN

Back to School

All of my babies are in school again. Mackenzie is in the eighth grade,Savannah is in the fifth, and DJ is in Pre-K. They all seem to like their new schools, and the teachers that I have met all seem great. Both of the girls are doing band this year with private violin lessons for Kenzie since they don't have orchestra here. Savannah starts soccer on Monday. The team here is more competive than most of the teams she has been on before. It is also coed, which she hasn't played in a couple of years. We shall see how it all works out.

July Fourth

We celebrated the Fourth of July with our family in Utah. the girls dance in the Centerville parade with my mom's dance studio, then we went to mom's for lunch. Afterwards we headed to Bill and Nena's for dinner and fireworks. The cousins got to play the day away and enjoy eachother one last time before we left for Alabama.

Pictures,pictures, and, oh yeah, pictures!

Well, as most of you know, we moved this summer. We are now located in the wonderful state of Alabama, and we are enjoying it. Our trek here was very eventful since we decided to take the opportunity to make it a vacation. Our first stop was on July 5th at the Arches National park. Dallas decided to kill us all by hiking up a mountain in 100+ degree heat with no shade to view one of the arches. We did lose Mackenzie along the way, but thankfully she was found by a group of college girls, and they had a lovely conversation about Twilight while her family was in panic mode. When we had finally found her again, we headed down to the Grand Canyon where we set up camp for the night. It was beautiful, the night was cool, and we were thoroughly exhausted, so we slept very well. The next morning we walked one of the rim trails at the canyon then loaded up and went on our way. The next stop was the Petrified Forest, and then we stopped in Roswell so the kids could see the aliens. We went through the museum there and then moved on to Carlsbad Caverns. We watched the bats fly out of the cave in the evening and went through the caves the next morning. We went down through the natural entrance and really grew a respect for the people who used to be sent down in a barrel through a pulley system. I don't think I would have ever had done that. We then moved on to Texas, where we stayed a few days with my best friend from high school, Jenni. She had just had surgery so we didn't do too much partying, but the conversation was always good, and the rest was much needed. We did hit up the Dallas zoo while we were there, because DJ wanted to go to his very own zoo.:) After a couple of days we got back in the car and stopped in Burnet for a quick visit with Larry and Angie, then of to Fredericksburg for a couple of nights to visit with Grandma and show the kids where mommy and daddy met and where mommy grew up. They weren't that impressed. Oh well. Then off to San Antonio for a week where we went down to the Riverwalk, visited Shamu at Sea World, and spent a day at Schlitterbahn. Finally, back on the road to our new home here in Alabama. We were put into a house immediately and had our furniture and home goods within a couple of days. The kids are back in school, and DJ is on a regular schedule of weekly dilitations. Life is moving along at its usual break neck speed, and we are for the most part enjoying the ride. We miss all of our friends and family and hope to hear from you and see you soon!

We're Here!

We have arrived in Alabama!!! I really enjoyed our vacation and all of the friends and family we were able to stop and visit with. I have lots of pics and stories, of course, but I will have to spend a whole day to update everything properly. I just wanted to jump on and say that we made it safely, we are in our house and the kids start school in a week! As soon as things calm down a bit I will make sure to do real update. Until then....TTFN!

Yellowstone

This past weekend we made a trip up to Yellowstone and actually camped in a tent the whole time. Now I do not mind camping, but I do mind getting eaten by a bear. We did see a bear just down the river from our campsite, but as far as I know they didn't come closer than that. It was a fun trip, and it was also the first time Dallas had ever been there, so we tried to see everything. We watched Old Faithful erupt, and walked the trails by geysers, hot springs, and paint pots. We saw waterfalls, mud volcanoes, elk, bison, coyote, grizzly bears, black bears, bald eagles, and several chipmunks. We were almost hit by a black bear. We were driving down the road when suddenly this bear comes racing out of the woods right in front of us. If we had been going the other way we would have definitely hit him. For some reason, Dallas wouldn't stop for pictures.:)

Now we are even more excited for our trip/move to Alabama. We plan on camping at the Grand Canyon and also near Carlsbad Caverns. There will be lots to see, and I promise to take tons of pictures. This will be my last post until we get to Alabama. the packers and movers will be here starting on Monday, so I will have no computer. We will miss everyone here in Utah, but we are very excited to visit all of our friends and family in Texas. See you all soon!TTFN

Water Fun

These are a few pictures I took of the kids playing in the fountain at South Ogden Nature Center. We took a picnic lunch with us, and they played for about an hour. By the end of the day Savannah had most of the kids there attacking poor Mackenzie!