Don't stop now

To all those who kept praying that I would get through Wood Badge, don't stop now. The power of your prayers got me through Wood Badge but now I have the recovery left. I fill fine, just tired.

Wood Badge was amazing. I would highly recommend it to everyone. It is indescribable and I hope I remember it for the rest of my life.

There were lots of comments of the last day of how we knew we were grouped up with certain people for a reason. Then we were told that some people did not go in their assigned groups. I would really like to know who changed.

We had 5 women and 25 guys in the course. It is interesting that all the women were from the Elko area. The vast majority of participants and staff at Wood Badge were LDS. There was a guy in my group who is an engineer for NASA. He was a cool guy and a great asset to our group; especially when it came time to fly rockets. There was a guy there from Alaska. He was involved in a horrible accident at the 2005 Jamboree. He miraculously survived being electrocuted. 4 of his fellow scout leaders were killed. I wish I could have got to know him.

One of the guys in my group, Jim, became my guardian angel. He was so kind to walk slow with me and he even carried my TPN bag for me along with anything else I was carrying. All the guys in my group were good to help me out. I told Lance that they were treating me like I was a pregnant lady.

And a bit of news for my friends. I had my cell phone off at camp. I would occasionally check for messages. I was saving the battery. Fri afternoon I decided to turn my phone on for a bit hoping that Mike would call. It wasn't long until my phone rang. It was my sister. She told me mom was admitted to the hospital to drain fluid  off her lungs. My dad was sitting in the hall on a stool. He passed out, fell off and got a concussion. He was admited to the hospital also.  After tests were completed,  it was discovered that he has been having some heart episodes for some time now. He was transported to Ogden Sat and had a pace maker put in today. Mom is doing better and was released yesterday. Last I heard Dad was doing good and should be released tomorrow. I had no idea that me going to Wood Badge would put both my parents in the hospital.

I got home late Sat night. Mike was supposed to come home Sun night but he showed up Sunday afternoon with a fancy splint on his finger. He had been at the hospital also. Some big thing dropped on his finger and broke it. Anyone else?????? 

And for anyone who is wondering.............................  I am an amazing Antelope. 

I did it!!

Just want to make a quick note that I survived Wood Badge. I got home last night at 11:00. I want to report that I am glad that I did it and I'm more glad that I survived it without incident other that getting very tired.
More details to come after I come out of my coma.

Wood Badge...........Here I Come

Just a couple of quick generalizations on our little boys.

Nathan is a very happy-go-lucky little guy. He likes to giggle and makes us smile. It won't be long and he will figure out how to get to where he wants to be. He has 2 teeth and in case you are wondering, yes, they are sharp.

Mark is putting words together to communicate. He can be very funny. Today just Mark and I went to the store. Mark says, Isaac     troublemaker.     Then he says      Isaac    top     it.  Now I'm wondering if he tries to get Isaac in trouble even if Isaac didn't do anything. The only problem is that Isaac always acts guilty. Another of Mark's favorite things to say is Do    it    self. I'm sure all you folks who have had a 2 yr old or every seen a 2 yr old knows what that means.

Isaac is still sweet Isaac. He is usually a good helper and he is a good story teller. Isaac talked to us a lot while we were riding in the car. We know all kinds of secrets about his mom and dad. And that kid thinks he needs to be eating something every minute that he is awake.

The boys are excited to go see Papa and Grandma Maxwell. They can just pick up on the spoiling where we left off. Grandma, you might need to brush up on your fairy tales and bible stories. The boys' request list keeps expanding and I don't always keep up with the stories that they want.

I am off to wood badge tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure I will have lots of stories to tell when I get home.

Too many helpers???

Lance and Molly each let me know that they did not teach Isaac to say, "Say it louder." I guess he learned it because he has a very quiet voice (sometimes) and they would ask him to say things louder.

We got the moving van mostly loaded. There are still some odds and ends around but we (they) are getting there. I cleaned the oven and Molly has washed down many of the walls. We are all ready to be done with this.

Some folks came this morning to help pack. I had my stuff all together in the boys' room and Molly told them that that was my stuff and it all stayed. Well when I went to unhook, my fanny pack with my pump was nowhere to be found. Oh me! Oh my! I was sure it would be months before I say it again. Lance and Isaac went out in the truck and found it for me. Wheew! I did have one pump so it wasn't a total disaster but it is nice to always have a backup pump. My alcohol prep pads have also come up missing. They will be easy to replace.  

Then Nathan's lunchtime came. I fed him yesterday and he gobbled down a whole container of squash and cried when I stopped feeding him. I asked Lance if he usually eats more. Lance said they hadn't been able to get him to eat more than half of one while we were on our trip. Nathan ate all his applesauce this time and of course he tried to get g-ma to give him more because he was almost to starve to death.

We had some essentials to keep out, I thought it would be good idea to put them in the kitchen cupboard since they were all empty. I couldn't believe it when I opened the cupboard and it was empty. This time Molly saved the day and retrieved our stuff from the moving van. There were paper plates, napkins, plastic utinsels and diapers. What were they thinking packing away diapers.

Tom Tom

We made it to California. The little boys have managed to get a nap in either in their strollers or in the car but grandma hasn't had any naps yet. Yesterday, everytime we got in the car, Mark fell asleep. Today he fell asleep in the stroller and slept through our lunch. Molly took him out of the stroller and laid him on the seat of the booth where we ate and he still didn't wake up. We did give him some left over chicken nuggets when he woke up.

I got a couple of story CDs for the boys to listen to. The 1st day when they were starting to get restless, we put in Cinderella. Pretty soon they were both asleep. (Isaac and Mark have been riding in our car). So now whenever they get fussy or grandpa is tired of listening to them, he plays Cinderella. So far it puts at least one of them to sleep almost every time.

Isaac keeps saying I like you grandma and I like your car. It is so funny listening to Mark and Isaac interact. One quick story. Molly has taught Isaac instead of saying "What"? or "Huh"? to say, "Say it louder." Mark said a bunch of words. I couldn't figure out how they all connected together and what he was trying to say and neither could Isaac. So Isaac says, "Say it louder, Mark". You NEVER have to tell Mark to be louder, he is a pretty loud boy. So here Mark turns up his volume and says exactly the same words. We still didn't know what he was talking about but everyone within half a mile heard it.  

I bought a  Tom Tom to help us on our trip. Each night we program it for the next day's activities. We have made it to our destinations, but we have had a few interesting routes. Last night Lance and Molly programed in Fisherman's Wharf. We had another stop along the way and we were almost to the wharf and Tom Tom wanted to play games with us. The Fisherman's Wharf we wanted was not the one Tom Tom had in mind. We ended out in some industrial area near the bay. I'm not sure that there was even a wharf there. All I have to say is that it was not crowded there so I guess everyone else missed out on Fisherman's Wharf. It was kinda funny. And we got to drive by AT&T baseball field. It would have been cool to watch a game or at least see the field. We now check the map before we rely on Tommy.

Lance and Molly are watching Wicked now. All the other boys are sleeping. I'm not far behind them. We will be in Reno tomorrow and then we will be working hard to get L & M packed up.     

Random thoughts

How is it that dreams work? Sat night I dreamed that I was to meet Mike in the chapel and he had some little boy (I don't know who he was). I couldn't find Mike and couldn't hear the little boy, so I knew they weren't in there. The strange part came Sun AM. I had a really hard time waking up and an even harder time getting ready for church. I didn't have much hurry in me, but was trying to get out in time for church. Mike in his great wisdom offered to go to church and get us a place to sit. I had to tell him about my dream and tell him to not forget to go to church. I sure would like to know how my subconscious knew before hand that Mike would go to church before me.

My back was pretty stiff when I tried to get up this morning. The worst was when I tried to bend over and pick up my TPN backpack. (It was filling those darn walls of water yesterday). Fortunately it felt better after my warm bath this morning and it didn't bother me today.

We had our weekly census meeting this morning. I keep thinking we are about done and my crew leader keeps pulling out more binders. Today I told her that I have to quit so I can get ready for my trips. I had one phone call to make so I met up with her this afternoon and turned my stuff in. She pointed out a BIG boo boo I made on some EQs that I turned in last week. I had said that the house was occupied but there were no people listed. I guess I had listed them on a blank EQ because they were Spanish speaking and I didn't want to mess up the real EQ. Then I forgot to transfer the info to the real EQ. The problem is that I threw away the EQ with the info. All that saved me was that I had written down the rancher's phone number. I was able to call him and get enough info to complete the form. I did remind my Crew Leader that I had already quit so she couldn't fire me.

One last story. I skyped the little boys yesterday and Mark told me what he wanted Grandma to show him when we go on our trip. He repeated the same one word several times for me. I guess I missed Grandma school that day (and a whole lot of other days too, I have lots to learn) anyway Molly finally told me that he was saying shark. The problem is that seeing a shark is not on the agenda his parents have made up. Maybe Mark and grandma will have to go on a little trip of our own. Or I will overwhelm him with lots of other stuff so he doesn't miss the shark. Or better yet, he doesn't know what a shark look like. Hummmmmmmm